The Daily: Trump Media plots $2.5 billion corporate bitcoin treasury, Cobie’s ICO platform Sonar goes live, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.Happy Tuesday! All eyes are on Bitcoin 2025 this week, with hopes that fresh announcements can propel the top cryptocurrency to another all-time high. But if the news underwhelms, the dreaded event curse could drag prices back down again.In today's newsletter, Trump Media launches a corporate bitcoin treasury strategy with a $2.5 billion offering, Cobie's ICO platform Sonar goes live with Plasma seeking $50 million, Standard Chartered sees Solana reaching $500, and more.Meanwhile, Ethereum validators begin signaling another gas limit boost.Let's get started.Trump Media plots $2.5 billion corporate bitcoin treasuryTrump Media and Technology Group is launching a corporate bitcoin treasury backed by a $2.5 billion private placement from around 50 institutional investors.The raise includes $1.5 billion in common stock and $1 billion in convertible notes priced at a 35% premium.The company, which operates the social media platform Truth Social and the FinTech brand Truth.Fi, said it plans to add bitcoin to its balance sheet alongside $759 million in existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.Anchorage Digital and Crypto.com will provide custody services for Trump Media's bitcoin holdings.Trump Media previously denied a Financial Times report on Monday claiming it planned a $3 billion crypto raise, calling the journalists "dumb writers listening to even dumber sources.""We view bitcoin as an apex instrument of financial freedom, and now Trump Media will hold cryptocurrency as a crucial part of our assets," Trump Media CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said on Tuesday.Cobie's ICO platform Sonar goes live with Plasma seeking $50 millionCobie's Echo has launched Sonar, a new ICO platform, with Plasma's $50 million public sale of XPL tokens marking its debut offering.Plasma is selling 10% of its 10 billion token supply, aiming to raise $50 million at a $500 million valuation — matching Founders Fund's recent equity-plus-token deal.Participants must deposit stablecoins into a Plasma vault, with allocations based on time-weighted deposits and lockups depending on jurisdiction.Plasma aims to "power the stablecoin economy" as a Bitcoin sidechain, with EVM compatibility, zero-fee USDT transfers, and DeFi integrations underway.Standard Chartered sees Solana reaching $500Standard Chartered Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick expects Solana to reach $275 by the end of 2025 and $500 by 2029 but sees it underperforming Ethereum in the next few years.Kendrick said Solana's overreliance on memecoin trading stress-tested its infrastructure but has peaked, and new use cases will take two to three years to scale.The analyst sees Ethereum widening its lead over Solana by 2027, projecting an ETH-SOL ratio increase from 15 to 17 before narrowing later.Kendrick's other targets include Bitcoin at $500,000, BNB at $2,775, and XRP at $12.50 by 2028, plus Avalanche's AVAX at $250 by 2029.Strategy's Michael Saylor calls onchain proof-of-reserves a 'bad idea'Michael Saylor argued that publishing onchain proof-of-reserves for its bitcoin holdings is a "bad idea" that could pose security threats to Strategy.He argued that proof-of-reserves for a bitcoin treasury company is also incomplete without a Big Four auditor verifying both asset ownership and liabilities, and likened wallet disclosure to handing out personal bank info to hackers.Saylor said institutional investors prefer audited financials signed by accountable executives over blockchain wallet balances.He left the door open to a potential zero-knowledge-proof solution in the future, but stressed that it must obscure addresses and include liability data to be viable.Solana co-founder's personal ID leakedHackers leaked Solana co-founder Raj Gokal's personal ID documents via American hip-hop group Migos' compromised 13-million-follower Instagram page in an apparent data breach.One post referenced a demand for 40 BTC, hinting at a blackmail attempt tied to the leak of Gokal's information.Gokal previously reported sustained hacking attempts across his email, social media, Google, Apple, and other accounts, and the Instagram posts have since been taken down.In the next 24 hoursU.S. FOMC members Neel Kashkari, Thomas Barkin, and John Williams are scheduled to speak at 4 a.m., 8:30 a.m., and 9 a.m. ET, respectively, on Wednesday.The latest FOMC meeting minutes are released at 2 p.m.IOTA and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance are set for token unlocks.Bitcoin 2025 continues in Las Vegas.Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.Disclaimer: This article was produced with the assistance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5/4 and reviewed and edited by our editorial team.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.