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 treasury

Trump 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 million

Cobie'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 $500

Standard 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 leaked

Hackers 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 hours

• U.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.