Tuesday June 17, 2025
Is crypto billionaire and opportunist Justin Sun preparing to take the Tron blockchain public through a reverse IPO? His just announced investment in SRM Entertainment suggests more than just a branding move. Sun is building a crypto treasury strategy and could be laying the groundwork for a full-scale public listing and broader market expansion.
◾ Crypto protocol Tron is investing $100 million in SRM Entertainment $SRM to launch a Tron token strategy and rebrand the company as Tron, Inc. (GlobeNewswire)
The Financial Times reports that Tron’s $SRM investment will result in a reverse merger to take the crypto protocol public. (FT)
◾ OpenAI is weighing accusations that Microsoft $MSFT engaged in anticompetitive conduct through its partnership and influence over OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit model. (WSJ)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Italian regulators are probing Chinese AI startup Deep Seek for not warning users about the possibility of hallucinations. (Reuters)
◾ El Salvador acquired 7 more bitcoin over the past week. (Bitcoin.gob.sv)
Financial Notices & Public Company Releases
◾ Strategy $MSTR added 10,100 bitcoin ($1.05 billion) between June 9 – 15. (SECfiling)
◾ Universal Digital $LFG is rolling out a bitcoin treasury strategy and plans to expand into Japan through a non-binding MoU with Tokyo-listed GFA. (Newsfilecorp)
◾ Genius Group $GNS, the VR turned AI edtech group, increased its bitcoin treasury assets to 100 BTC. (GeniusGroup)
◾ France’s Blockchain Group is increasing its ATM capital raise by €7.2 million ($8.3 million). (TheBlockchainGroup)
◾ Trump Media & Technology $DJT filed to launch a mixed bitcoin and ether ETF. (SECfiling)
◾ CoinShares filed to list a spot Solana ETF. (SECfiling)
Restructuring, Hacks, Losses & Legal News
◾ A jury acquitted the New Hampshire man accused of using AI to generate robocalls impersonating former President Biden. (APnews)
◾ Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky forfeited all claims to the company’s bankruptcy assets. (CourtFiling)
◾ The CEO of South Korea’s Haru Invest was acquitted of charges alleging he misled investors and caused $650 million in losses. (TheBlock)
AI Announcements
◾ OpenAI was awarded a 1-year $200 million contract to provide AI models to the Department of Defense. (CNBC)
◾ Alibaba $BAB is launching AI models for Apple’s $AAPL MLX architecture. (Reuters)
◾ Meta $META introduced an AI tool that turns product images into multi-scene video ads. (Bloomberg)
◾ Reddit $RDDT introduced AI-powered advertising features to provide real-time campaign insight on its platform. (Reuters)
◾ The Association for Electronic Music released “AI Principles” aimed at protecting human creativity in the age of synthetic audio. (EDM.com)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ JP Morgan $JPM filed a US trademark covering digital asset payment services for “JPMD.” (USPTO.gov)
◾ Coinbase $COIN is under fire for repeatedly claiming to be a non-political, mission-driven company while choosing to sponsor President Trump’s US Army parade. (Decrypt)
◾ Cointelegraph is teaming up with on-chain analytics firm Nansen to bring real-time blockchain data into its crypto news and trend coverage. (Cointelegraph)