acquisition

According to CoinDesk, Wall Street broker Bernstein pointed out in a recent report that the rapid integration of the market technology stack is increasing the likelihood of a new round of mergers and acquisitions in the field of sports event contracts and financial markets.The report states that in the past eight months, major prediction platforms have been developing towards simultaneously controlling customer distribution and exchange infrastructure. Although Kalshi and Polymarket have core technology stacks, their distribution capabilities are relatively lagging, making them potential acquisition targets.Recent actions include DraftKings acquiring Railbird to launch DKeX, Robinhood collaborating with Susquehanna to create Rothera, and Coinbase acquiring The Clearing Company. Bernstein believes that Robinhood and Coinbase are currently in a relatively advantageous position in the competitive landscape, as both have large consumer user bases and fully owned regulated infrastructures, while Kalshi and Polymarket are viewed as potential acquisition targets due to their lack of large-scale distribution capabilities.

According to CoinDesk, FundBank has been renamed IRACE Digital and has acquired Tenet Bank in the Cayman Islands. This transaction will incorporate digital asset banking operations and fintech-focused clients into IRACE's existing institutional banking business.Former Zodia Custody CEO John Cronin has been appointed as the Global CEO, and IRACE is expanding into the areas of custody, liquidity, and trading infrastructure.

According to Jinshi reports, Rocket Lab's stock price rose 6.7% in pre-market trading after the company announced it would acquire satellite communications company Iridium for $8 billion.

According to the latest disclosure by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Musk has obtained antitrust approval for the acquisition of the optical network startup Mesh Optical Technologies, which means the FTC has completed a rapid antitrust review and will not challenge the transaction on competitive grounds, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for the advancement of the deal. However, it has not yet been disclosed whether the transaction has been signed or completed.Mesh was founded by former SpaceX engineers, and its core product is optical transceivers for AI data centers, which can improve energy efficiency, reduce latency, and enhance reliability compared to traditional network hardware, in order to meet the demand for millions of optical connections brought about by the growth of AI computing clusters. The founding team was involved in the development of the laser communication system for SpaceX's Starlink satellite network and plans to deploy optical communication technology into space in the future, adapting to the inter-satellite laser communication needs of orbital data centers and AI satellite networks. The company completed over $50 million in financing led by Thrive Capital in February of this year.Acquiring Mesh is one of SpaceX's initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of large-scale computing clusters. Currently, SpaceX has listed AI computing power as a core business segment, and its xAI has been operating a total of approximately 1GW computing power with the Colossus and Colossus II training clusters, making it the first company to deploy coherent gigawatt-level AI training clusters; among them, Colossus II will add over 400MW of computing power and introduce over 220,000 GB300 chips. It has signed computing power cooperation agreements with Anthropic, Google, Reflection AI, and others, directly competing with large-scale cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. This year, SpaceX has also reached a Terafab chip manufacturing plan with Tesla and Intel, extending its vertical integration capabilities in chip design and manufacturing.In the past week, SpaceX's stock price ended its upward trend, closing at $153.23 per share, down over 32% from its peak of $225.64 per share.

Polymarket's Vice President of Product Engineering and former Craft co-founder Balint Orosz tweeted that Polymarket has acquired the productivity app Craft Agents, and some team members from Craft will join Polymarket.

According to Jinshi reports, Quantum Cyber has been approved to acquire a portion of the shares of SpaceX (SPCX.O).

The Sui ecosystem lending protocol Suilend officially announced that the DeFi development team Bluewater Labs will acquire Suilend and its ecological products SpringSui and STEAMM (AMM), and will take over its subsequent development and operational work. In addition, Bluefin co-founder Zabi will serve as the new CEO of Suilend.The announcement stated that after the acquisition is completed, Suilend will continue to operate as an independent platform, retaining its own brand, product direction, and underlying infrastructure. During the transition period, the team will adopt a security-first strategy, and users will not need to take any action; all current protocol functions such as deposits, lending, staking, and trading will continue to operate as usual.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded to reports regarding Kraken's parent company Payward's intention to acquire a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that AAVE "cannot be sold at a 70% discount." Previously, CoinDesk reported that Payward was negotiating to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. Based on this valuation, it would only correspond to about 30% of the fully diluted valuation of AAVE tokens, which is significantly lower than the market valuation.Kulechov stated on X that the reports were not accurate. He did not completely deny that Aave Labs might sell some of its held AAVE tokens, but he mentioned that Aave Labs does indeed hold a certain amount of AAVE and that several market participants have discussed purchasing through direct or indirect means or engaging in deeper cooperation around long-term partnerships. Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem. Kulechov stated that Aave currently has an annual revenue of approximately $134 million, with the related revenue flowing to Aave DAO. He had previously proposed a governance plan to redirect Aave Labs, protocol, and product revenues to Aave DAO and token holders.At the time of this rumor, Aave was experiencing some pressure. After the Kelp DAO incident in April, Aave's TVL significantly declined. Although Aave itself was not directly attacked, the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge attackers had used Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.

According to Nikkei News, SBI Group announced the acquisition of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen (approximately 289 million USD). Through this acquisition, SBI's cryptocurrency custody balance is expected to exceed 1 trillion yen (about 6.2 billion USD), making it the largest cryptocurrency business in Japan. A subsidiary of SBI Holdings will acquire shares of Bitbank from individual shareholders, including the founders, in August, and then Bitbank will acquire shares held by existing shareholders Mixi and Ceres by the end of October. Combining the account data from SBI VC Trade (as of April), the total number of accounts after the merger is approximately 2.92 million, with total managed assets of about 1.1 trillion yen. SBI Holdings disclosed in May that it is negotiating capital business cooperation for the subsidiary status of Bitbank.

The shareholders of Swedish health technology company H100 have approved the share issuance required to complete the acquisition of Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS. The transaction is a stock exchange deal and does not involve cash consideration. After the completion of this acquisition, H100's Bitcoin holdings will increase from 1,051 to approximately 3,500, potentially making it the second largest publicly listed Bitcoin treasury company in Europe, second only to Germany's Bitcoin Group SE. According to the terms announced in March, the owners of Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS will hold about 70% of the shares in the merged company after the transaction is completed, becoming major shareholders.

According to market news, Japanese cryptocurrency automatic profit and loss calculation service provider Pafin will acquire industry backbone company Gtax and plans to complete the service brand integration in October.

According to the official announcement, Sweden's first publicly listed Bitcoin reserve company H100 received shareholder approval for all resolutions at the annual general meeting, including the authorization to issue and acquire consideration shares related to Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS.After the completion of this transaction, H100's Bitcoin reserves will increase from 1,051 to approximately 3,500.

Franklin Templeton announced that it has completed the acquisition of the cryptocurrency asset management company 250 Digital. The deal includes its entire team and all liquidity cryptocurrency strategies previously managed by CoinFund. Franklin Templeton will also invest in related products.The company has simultaneously established a dedicated active digital asset management department, Franklin Crypto, led by Christopher Perkins as the head, with Seth Ginns serving as the Chief Investment Officer, and jointly led with Tony Pecore, a member of the Franklin Templeton Digital Assets investment team. Franklin Crypto will provide actively managed cryptocurrency investment strategies to institutional investors based on Franklin Templeton's existing digital asset research and risk management framework.

According to Axios, cryptocurrency payment company MoonPay announced the acquisition of AI accounting startup Entendre, which focuses on providing intelligent accounting solutions for businesses using stablecoins and other digital assets.MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright stated that after this acquisition, the company will continue to seek more merger and acquisition opportunities to further expand its business landscape.

According to a report by South Korea's "Daily Economic News" on Friday, Hyundai Motor Group plans to acquire SoftBank Group's remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, making the American robotics company a wholly-owned subsidiary.Hyundai Motor is expected to hold a board meeting on June 22 to approve the acquisition. The report cited unnamed industry sources stating that SoftBank has notified Hyundai Motor of its intention to exercise the "put option" agreed upon during the previous sale of Boston Dynamics shares to sell its remaining holdings.

According to The Block, Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries (FWDI) is seeking to integrate the Solana digital asset treasury company through acquisitions. The company plans to acquire SkyAI (SKYA) and Solana Company (HSDT), respectively proposing all-stock merger offers with premiums of about 10% and 20%. Solana Company rejected the initial offer, while SkyAI did not respond. Previously, Forward's acquisition of Solmate was also rejected.Forward's Chief Investment Officer Ryan Navi stated that Forward is offering attractive terms to small SOL DATs, including premiums for existing shareholders and opportunities to increase SOL exposure through a larger platform. He believes that many DATs struggling in the bear market face expensive cash liquidation risks, with investors unable to recover their original assets. "We see an offensive opportunity, and there is room for a win-win situation." Navi pointed out that SKYA's stock price is significantly discounted compared to its net asset value, and its performance has notably lagged behind SOL and its peers after transitioning to AI.

AI infrastructure company IREN, which has transitioned from a Bitcoin mining enterprise, announced the acquisition of Spanish AI data center developer Ingenostrum, S.L., also known as Nostrum Group, officially entering the European market.This transaction adds approximately 490 megawatts of secured, grid-connected power resources to IREN and brings a pipeline of AI data center development located in Spain. The Nostrum team consists of over 50 employees, covering development, engineering, construction, and operations. IREN stated that Europe is one of the largest and fastest-growing AI infrastructure markets globally, and Spain, with its abundant renewable energy and strong fiber optic connections, is an important gateway to the European market.This acquisition is also the latest move by IREN to transform from a pure Bitcoin mining company into a global supplier of AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. Previously, IREN had just announced plans to build an 800-megawatt data center park in South Australia and has signed a multi-billion dollar AI cloud agreement with Microsoft, as well as established a partnership with NVIDIA.After the announcement, IREN's stock price rose nearly 4% on Monday, reporting around $62.