Axios Crypto

July 01, 2025
Hello. It might make sense to invest like you're going to live to 100. See our last item today.
Today's newsletter is 1,166 words, a 4-minute read.
1 big thing: Tokenized stocks


Everyone is tokenizing stocks all the sudden, to wild applause.
Why it matters: Coinbase and Robinhood have notched all-time highs in their stock prices in recent days amid announcements about putting equities on blockchains.
Catch up quick: Coinbase has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to tokenize stocks and offer them to customers.
- Yesterday, Robinhood announced it would bring tokenized versions of some 200 U.S. equities to the European market. Tokens will represent equity held by the company.
- Robinhood investors will earn dividends, but they won't have voting rights.
Zoom out: But that's not even close to all the news we have seen along these lines.
- Kraken, a U.S.-based crypto exchange that has most of its client base in Europe, also began rolling out tokenized equities outside the U.S.
Under the hood: Crypto infrastructure firm BitGo, and tokenized equity firm, Dinari, announced a partnership yesterday aimed at making it easier for developers to offer products built from tokenized equities.
What they're saying: "There's growing interest in tokenization because it enables value to move at internet speed – unlocking capital efficiency that's always-on," Raghu Yarlagadda, CEO of FalconX, a prime broker for crypto investors, tells Axios via email.
- To illustrate how tokenization increases the utility of investments, he noted that FalconX accepts BlackRock's tokenized fund, BUIDL, as trading collateral.
The bottom line: The market seems to see the appeal.
2. SpaceX token
One company's even tokenizing equity that's not publicly traded.
- Crowdfunding platform Republic has begun selling reservations for "mirror tokens" — providing equity upside in select unicorn companies. It began last week with SpaceX, and today is launching Anthropic and Epic Games.
Why it matters: This is the latest step in the march toward private market democratization, as retail investors otherwise wouldn't have access to such names.
How it works: Users can reserve exposure to future shares, or fractional shares, as tokens on the Solana blockchain. They only can trade with other wallets approved to interact with the underlying smart contract that governs the token.
- Republic initially is running these sales via regulation crowdfunding, which has a $5 million raise limit and a $5,000 non-accredited investor cap, but hopes to eventually expand to uncapped Reg D. This is what's known as the "testing the waters" phase.
- It also claims to already have the underlying shares. It's worth emphasizing, however, that users are reserving options to receive equity in the future — not actual stock for which the issuers have legal obligations.
Between the lines: "The structure of which we're using is a pre-existing structure which regulators have certainly approved and done at scale already," Andrew Durgee, co-CEO of Republic, tells Axios.
- "The innovation that we've added to it really relates around the tokenization and the ability to create secondary markets."
- That trading is also how it will drive revenue for Republic.
The bottom line: Tokenized stocks move so fast that they reach equities that aren't even trading yet.
3. Supreme Court denies Coinbase user complaint
The Supreme Court denied a motion to review a case challenging the IRS' right to individual taxpayers' trading information held by Coinbase, the country's largest crypto exchange.
Why it matters: In doing so, the court opted not to revisit the limits of privacy in the internet era.
Catch up quick: In 2016, the IRS served the exchange with a John Doe summons, seeking information about customers who made virtual currency transactions between 2013 and 2015.
- In 2020, James Harper, a Coinbase customer, sued the agency and its director over the collection of data, under the fourth and fifth amendments of the constitution.
The latest: The Supreme Court yesterday denied a request to take up the decision to dismiss the case, first made by a U.S. District Court in 2021, and upheld by an appeals court.
Friction point: "The Court should intervene to clarify that the third-party doctrine does not allow the IRS to conduct dragnet searches," Coinbase wrote in an amicus brief supporting the motion challenging the decision.
- The third-party doctrine is a concept from case law that says individuals cannot be protected against warrantless searches for data if the records in question are shared with a third party.
- Such as, using your bank or a fintech app.
💭 Our thought bubble: Don't expect anything to change after this decision. Everyone has been operating as if the IRS would win.
4. Quoted: Digital Currency Bank
"We will align with emerging U.S. regulation for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins, which we believe can enhance the reach and resilience of the U.S. dollar."— Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in an announcement of the stablecoin issuer's application to charter a bank with the OCC, the First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.
5. Catch up quick
🤨 Bitcoin mining company BitMine Immersion Technologies is leveraging long on ether. (BitMine Immersion)
🗳️ Fairshake-backed candidate James Walkinshaw won his Virginia congressional primary. (WaPo)
6. Your portfolio: 10% to 40% crypto
Ric Edelman, the influential financial adviser, author, and crypto advocate, has raised his recommended minimum crypto allocation for conservative investors to 10%, though he believes a 25% allocation is more appropriate for most people.
The big picture: In a new white paper, Edelman, who founded an organization that educates other financial advisers on digital assets, argues that today's investors aren't properly factoring in the fact that they'll likely live 10% to 20% longer than their parents and grandparents.
- That changes how they need to factor in risk, he says.
- "Longevity and our changing demographics (including the reduction in births almost everywhere in the world) is changing everything, and will have profound impacts on society," Edelman tells Axios.
- "Living to 100 means 60 is the new 30," he says.
"Exponential technologies," Edelman argues, are going to continue driving the 21st century, and blockchain technology "and digital assets represent perhaps the best investment opportunity in that theme."
- Those opportunities can enable today's investors to build portfolios that can generate revenue for 50+ years, he says.
Context: Edelman created his education organization, the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, seven years ago. In 2021, he wrote "The Truth About Crypto," though at that time he only advocated for a 1% allocation.
- He co-founded his first advisory firm in 1986, which through a series of mergers has become Edelman Financial Engines. It manages around $270 billion in assets.
Zoom in: By and large, Edelman advocates for bitcoin, but he leaves the specific digital asset investment up to investors and their advisers.
- He notes that there are a number of ways now to get exposure, besides holding it directly, including ETFs, equity proxies, institutional platforms (such as retirement accounts) and risk management strategies that lean on crypto in various ways.
- He calls the "moderate portfolio" 50% stocks, 25% crypto and 25% bonds.
- "This balanced approach recognizes crypto's superior growth potential while maintaining diversification across asset classes," the white paper notes. (It says aggressive investors should go to 40%.)
Between the lines: Does six-figure bitcoin mean today's buyers are too late?
- Edelman notes that institutions are buying bitcoin now faster than the blockchain can print new coins. So he does not think the plateau is here.
This newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Carolyn DiPaolo.
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