Sean Hanna

Editor’s Note: A 33% down round typically is the sign of a startup in stress. Arjun Sethi just accepted one with a smile, because the buyer on the other side was Stephan Leithner of Deutsche Borse — and the check comes bundled with distribution Deutsche Borse Groupput $200 million into Payward, the parent company behind crypto exchange Kraken, acquiring a 1.5% fully diluted stake in a secondary transaction.

Editor’s Note: Robert Leshner built Compound, the DeFi lending protocol that put the yield-farming craze on the map and sent compliance officers at firms like Invesco reaching for the antacids. Until recently, his name was krypto — and by that we mean kryptonite, not cryptography — to TradFi execs like Andrew Schlossberg. The Invesco deal with Superstate says that era is over. More importantly, it says Andrew sees what’s coming for his own flagship product.

After Grayscale won its victory in court, the Securities and Exchange Commission waited until the end of last days of the slowest news week of the year to make its latest decision on the handful of pending Bitcoin ETP registrations. It delayed them for another 45 days. Those awaiting a decision mark mid-October for the next SEC action on the decision. And don’t be surprised if the regulators smash the “delay” button once again.