BNC, a subsidiary of CEA Industries, has become the largest publicly listed holder of Binance Coin (BNB) after acquiring 200,000 tokens for $160 million through its treasury arm, BNB Network Company. The move follows a strategic pivot from nicotine vapes to building a BNB-focused treasury, accompanied by a ticker change from VAPE to BNC. Last month, the Nasdaq-listed firm secured $500 million in private funding led by 10X Capital and YZi Labs, founded by Binance’s Changpeng Zhao.

The company highlighted BNB’s deflationary token burns, rising on-chain activity, and potential catalysts like a spot ETF as drivers for long-term value. BNC plans to continue purchasing BNB until its initial treasury funds are used and could invest an additional $750 million through its warrant structure, potentially reaching $1.25 billion in holdings. It aims to increase institutional participation in the U.S. BNB ecosystem.

BNB, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, currently trades at $820.5. Shares of CEA Industries closed Friday at $17.10, up 92% since revealing its BNB strategy, reflecting growing investor enthusiasm for corporate altcoin treasuries.

Bitcoin investor Willy Woo declared the cryptocurrency the “perfect asset” for the next 1,000 years but warned it must attract far more capital to rival gold or the US dollar. Speaking at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga, Latvia, Woo noted Bitcoin’s $2.42 trillion market cap is still far behind gold’s $23 trillion and the US dollar’s $21.9 trillion supply.

Concerns over corporate Bitcoin treasuries dominated Woo’s remarks. While companies are driving adoption, he cautioned that little transparency exists around their debt structures, risking a potential “treasury bubble.” Reliance on spot Bitcoin ETFs and institutional custodians like Coinbase, instead of self-custody, could also place large Bitcoin holdings within reach of governments, increasing the risk of a “nation-state rug-pull.”

Fellow panelists, including Blockstream CEO Adam Back, acknowledged the risks but argued companies remain the most logical entry point for adoption. Back said businesses unable to outperform Bitcoin should consider holding it directly, while Woo stressed that true long-term resilience depends on widespread self-custody—from corporations to individuals.

Source

Steak ‘n Shake reported a 10.7% jump in same-store sales for Q2 2025, attributing part of its success to Bitcoin adoption. The company shared the news on X, thanking the Bitcoin community shortly after CEO Sardar Biglari released the quarterly results, calling the cryptocurrency a “game changer.” Chief Operating Officer Dan Edwards, speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in May, revealed the chain is saving 50% in payment processing fees by using Bitcoin. The move, Edwards said, has boosted efficiency while appealing to a growing base of crypto-friendly customers. With the slogan “Bitcoin, Burgers & Beyond,” Steak ‘n Shake signaled plans to continue integrating cryptocurrency into its business model, positioning itself as a fast-food pioneer in the digital payments space.

Nothing is as crucial to the functionality of a free market as its money. Money constitutes half of every transaction, representing one side of all value expressed in the exchange of goods and services. But what, exactly, is the price of money?

The commodity with the highest marketability tends to become a society’s preferred medium of exchange — that is, its money. Prices denominated in this common medium enable economic calculation, which in turn allows entrepreneurs to spot opportunities, make profits and push civilization forward.

We’ve seen how supply and demand determine the price of goods, but determining the price of money is a bit trickier. Our predicament is that…

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Brown University has significantly expanded its investment in Bitcoin, purchasing additional shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). The Ivy League school added about $6.5 million worth of the spot Bitcoin ETF, according to portfolio-tracking data, raising its total position to roughly $13 million.

The latest move increases Brown’s holdings to 212,500 IBIT shares, signaling growing confidence in cryptocurrency’s long-term potential. This bold step places the university among prominent institutional investors embracing Bitcoin exposure, reflecting a broader trend of digital assets gaining acceptance in traditional finance circles.

Filing

Harvard University has disclosed a $116 million stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of June 30, 2025, according to a quarterly SEC filing released Friday. The investment, held by Harvard Management Company — which manages the university’s $50 billion endowment — marks one of the largest known bitcoin allocations by a U.S. university endowment.

The IBIT fund, launched in January 2024, is a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund that offers exposure to the cryptocurrency without requiring direct ownership. Harvard’s sizable position signals growing acceptance of bitcoin among major institutional investors, joining a trend that includes hedge funds, pension funds, and other large asset managers. The move reflects increasing comfort with regulated digital asset products that offer transparency and daily liquidity.

Spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. have seen their combined assets climb into the tens of billions, driven by both retail demand and institutional inflows. For large endowments, such ETFs provide a compliant, SEC-regulated pathway into the digital asset market while meeting governance and risk management requirements. Harvard’s move could influence other universities to follow suit.

Filing

“…we’re definitely going to be the crypto capital of the world for regulated ETF funds, [but] are we serious about making America the crypto capital of the world for peer-to-peer transactions and individual liberty? We should be.” -Peter Van Valkenburgh

After Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm was found guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and the Samourai Wallet developers accepted a plea deal, Peter Van Valkenburgh is concerned that the United States may not become the crypto capital of the world — at least as far as transactional privacy and peer-to-peer rights are concerned.

In my interview with Van Valkenburgh, we…

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The know-your-customer (KYC) threat isn’t coming. It’s already here, and it didn’t arrive through a nationwide ban or an emergency executive order. It quietly showed up with a checkbox and a Terms of Service agreement.

While the influencers make noise about CBDCs and paper bitcoin, the real control system has already been deployed: Know Your Customer.

Not dramatic. Not dystopian. Just regulated, normalized and accepted.

But compliance isn’t neutral. It’s the infrastructure of financial control, and if you’re still handing over your ID to stack sats, you’re not buying freedom. You’re financing your own cage.

The Real Attack Vector from KYC

KYC regulations…

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