GameStop files for a $1.75 billion offering to potentially add to its BTC stack

The following article is adapted from The Block's newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Coinbase is listing Fartcoin on Thursday, which could provide some amusement—if not the heating power needed to ignite a crypto market.

Its heating is already threatened by another round of Trump-linked macro fears that could cool yesterday's lukewarm price action further.

But on a more serious note, we'll also be looking out for the latest moves in the U.S. Congress on the cryptocurrency agenda.

Here's what else is happening Thursday.

What happened yesterday

GameStop (NYSE:GME) filed to sell up to $1.75 billion in zero-coupon convertible notes, with an option to increase that by $250 million.

The video game retailer may use the proceeds to fund more bitcoin purchases as it continues to build out its treasury holdings of the cryptocurrency.

Earlier this week, GameStop disclosed that it had purchased 580 bitcoin for $15 million in the second quarter, adding to the 488 bitcoin it held at the end of the first quarter.

The company began buying bitcoin in November 2022 with an initial investment of $50 million, kicking off its bitcoin treasury strategy.

The news comes as GameStop prepares for a crucial earnings report on Thursday, where investors will be eager to hear more about the company's revenue trends and outlook amid the broader economic uncertainty.

Also yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a congressional hearing that he expects the U.S. dollar stablecoin market to reach more than $2 trillion by 2028.

However, Bessent noted that this will only happen if Congress passes legislation to support the development of the stablecoin sector.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to study the risks and benefits of digital assets.

The administration is currently working on a report on the risks and benefits of digital assets, which is expected to be completed by early autumn.

On the crypto market, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs pulled in $240.3 million on Wednesday.

This outpaced Bitcoin ETFs, which saw net inflows of $164.6 million, and marks 18 straight days of net inflows for the crypto ETFs, totaling $1.3 billion.

The strong inflows into crypto ETFs come amid a period of sustained price action in the crypto market.

Despite a recent pullback from recent highs, both Bitcoin and ether have managed to hold onto significant gains from the lows reached earlier in the year.

As of Wednesday’s close, the price movements in the two largest cryptocurrencies are:

Bitcoin is up 76% year-to-date.

Ether is up 64% year-to-date.

The strong performance of cryptocurrencies and related investment products has been a highlight of the 2024 market, especially in an otherwise turbulent year for financial markets.

Later Thursday: Plasma doubles deposit cap to $1 billion and USDC goes live on XRP Ledger

Plasma, an EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechain designed to eliminate transaction fees for Tether’s USDT, announced it has doubled its stablecoin deposit cap to $1 billion.

The move comes after Plasma successfully integrated with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling seamless transfer of ether and ERC-20 tokens, including Tether’s USDT, between the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems without any fees.

Moreover, Plasma has achieved significant milestones in its development, including the launch of its testnet in December 2022 and the integration of the first institutional counterparties earlier this year.

In other news, USDC is now live and fully integrated on the XRP Ledger.

This launch marks a significant step forward for both Circle and the broader crypto industry.

With USDC's integration, developers, institutions and users can now access the world’s second-largest stablecoin directly on the XRP Ledger, eliminating the need for any bridging services or complicated processes.

It is also the first time that a major stablecoin will be available in a fully composable manner within the XRP ecosystem.

This will enable the creation of new and innovative DeFi applications and services, further expanding the possibilities of Web3 on the XRP Ledger.

The move comes just a week after Circle went public via a SPAC merger with at a valuation of $6.2 billion. Afterwards, the company's stock price was battered.