The Daily: CME to launch XRP futures as ETF momentum builds, Metaplanet reaches 5,000 BTC in expanding bitcoin accumulation race and more

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

Happy Thursday! SBF is on the move again — now housed in a low-security prison in Los Angeles, after stops at a "Con Air" transit hub in Oklahoma and California's notoriously violent "Victimville" facility, following the disgraced FTX co-founder's 25-year sentence for fraud.

In today's newsletter, CME Group is set to launch XRP futures as spot ETF momentum builds, Metaplanet hits the 5,000 BTC milestone, RockawayX raises $125 million for a second crypto fund and more.

Meanwhile, Shaquille O'Neal reaches a settlement in an FTX class action lawsuit.

Let's get started.

CME Group set to launch XRP futures, following BTC, ETH and SOL

CME Group, the company behind the largest U.S. derivatives exchange, plans to launch XRP futures next month , pending Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval, marking its fourth crypto futures product after BTC, ETH and SOL.

• The offering includes both micro (2,500 XRP) and standard (50,000 XRP) cash-settled contracts using the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate.
• CME's move comes shortly after listing Solana futures in a sign of building spot ETF momentum for both assets in the U.S. — with CME futures seen as a key stepping stone to the earlier Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF approvals.
• Deep lobbying efforts from Ripple, the company most closely associated with XRP's development, and regulatory clarity post-Securities and Exchange Commission settlement have also helped clear a pathway to potential ETF approval.
• Earlier this month, analysts at Kaiko said XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a $127 billion market cap, was more likely than other digital assets to be approved for a spot ETF in the U.S.
• Despite its rise, Ripple and the XRP community remain controversial within crypto, often clashing with rivals over energy use and regulatory narratives.

Metaplanet hits 5,000 BTC milestone as corporate bitcoin accumulation race heats up

Japanese investment firm Metaplanet announced the acquisition of a further 145 bitcoin on Thursday, bringing its total holdings to the 5,000 BTC milestone — currently worth $460 million.

• "We have reached 50% of our initial goal of 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025," Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said. "This is a big step forward in our aim to become one of the world's leading bitcoin holding companies. We will lead the global bitcoin race from Japan."
• Metaplanet has been actively buying the world's largest cryptocurrency since it introduced its bitcoin adoption strategy in April 2024 and has set another target of 21,000 BTC by the end of 2026.
• On Tuesday, Gerovich defended the company's bitcoin treasury strategy amid share price concerns, stating, "We're just getting started."
• Meanwhile, following in the footsteps of Strategy-esque bitcoin treasury companies like Metaplanet, on Wednesday, Cantor Fitzgerald, SoftBank, Bitfinex and Tether announced they are set to launch a multi-billion dollar bitcoin venture called Twenty One.

RockawayX raises $125 million for second Solana-focused fund

RockawayX, a crypto venture capital firm with over $2 billion in assets under management, has closed a $125 million second fund , with up to 75% earmarked for early-stage Solana projects, Chief Growth Officer Samantha Bohbot told The Block.

• Backed by major LPs, including Solana Labs co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, the new fund has already started deploying capital into projects like DoubleZero and Hyperlend.
• The firm sees Solana's speed, low cost and builder-first culture as key reasons to double down on the ecosystem, while other target areas include DeFi, infrastructure protocols and decentralized networks.
• RockawayX describes itself as an "engineering-first" investor, running validators out of its own European data centers and building protocol-ready hardware tools like optimized GPUs.

Securitize launches new crypto index fund with $400 million investment from Mantle

Real-world asset tokenization firm Securitize has launched the MI4 crypto index fund in partnership with Mantle , which committed $400 million as the fund's anchor investment.

• The fund offers exposure to BTC, ETH, SOL and U.S. dollar stablecoins while boosting returns through DeFi staking strategies and quarterly rebalancing — with a goal of becoming the "S&P 500 of crypto."
• Mantle Global Head of Strategy Timothy Chen pitched MI4 as a "set-it-and-forget-it" solution for institutions seeking onchain income without the complexity of direct custody.
• MI4 debuts within a tokenized RWA market that has more than doubled to over $21 billion during the past year.

'Sun' username registers an HTX cold wallet for Trump's memecoin holders' dinner: Arkham

An address labeled by Arkham as an HTX cold wallet and tied to the username "Sun" registered for President Donald Trump's official memecoin holders' gala , boasting the largest stash at nearly 1.2 million tokens — worth around $14.5 million.

• The move sparked speculation that the address may be connected to HTX advisor and Tron founder Justin Sun, a notable supporter of the sitting president, as well as an investor in the Trump family-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
• However, the username could have been registered by anyone able to connect the wallet address to the Trump Meme website.
• The memecoin project announced on Wednesday that the president will host the top 220 TRUMP token holders at his private golf club in the nation's capital on May 22.

In the next 24 hours

• It's quiet on the economic calendar front.
• Moca Network and Venom are set for token unlocks .

Never miss a beat with The Block's  daily digest  of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.