This hiring announcement had heat. On Tuesday, Tether said Bo Hines is joining as Strategic Advisor for Digital Assets and U.S. Strategy.

Yes, that Bo Hines, the 29-year-old who until two weeks ago led the White House Crypto Council alongside crypto czar David Sachs. He was one of the key architects behind the GENIUS Act.

Now, he’s tasked with making sure Tether looks like a genius in the new U.S. stablecoin landscape. But hey, sometimes suspicion is just pattern recognition.

Today, we’ll talk about:

• Legion raises $5 million to take IPOs onchain

• TRM Labs launches new network to combat crypto hacks

• MetaMask unveils its own stablecoin

Legion Raises $5 million to Take IPOs Onchain, Make Private Markets More Accessible

Fundraise: On Wednesday, onchain fundraising platform Legion announced a $5 million seed round led by VanEck Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital. The company aims to become a leading venue for early-stage startup fundraising while expanding global retail access to private investment opportunities.

• Why it matters: “Historically, IPOs have been wealth-creation events for the middle class,” Matt O’Connor, co-founder of Legion, told us in an interview. “But today, IPOs are happening less frequently, they’re happening later, and often after larger VC funding rounds, with much of a company’s value creation captured by venture capitalists and accredited investors, leaving retail behind.”

Failed solutions: The crypto industry has tried to solve this before — first with ICOs in 2017 and later with permissionless token launchpads — but both approaches have struggled with fraud and regulatory uncertainty, making them impractical for serious fundraising.

New attempt, new approach: Legion aims to revive the concept of ICOs, but with three key improvements: full regulatory compliance, curated project selection, and merit-based investor matching.

1. Regulatory compliance: In the EU, Legion operates under a MiCA license obtained in Malta. In the U.S., the platform is open to accredited investors, and the team is in discussions with the SEC to eventually expand access to retail users. Only a few jurisdictions, such as the U.K., are excluded due to stricter local rules on crypto offerings.

2. Project curation: To ensure quality and reduce fraud, only projects vetted by Legion’s network of VCs and power users can raise on the platform. “If you go fully permissionless, you inherently have more scams and fraud,” O’Connor explained. “Legion is creating the concept of an ICO underwriter, and building for the world where IPOs and ICOs are the same thing.”

3. Merit-based system: Unlike token launchpads or other fundraising platforms like CoinList, where projects have little visibility into who is buying their tokens, Legion allows teams to search for investors who bring strategic value: "Projects can target very specific investors across developer, onchain, and social activity, such as DeFi power-users by evaluating their onchain wallet history.”

Investor onboarding: This is why on Legion, investors don’t only need to complete KYC, but are also encouraged to create detailed profiles by connecting their social accounts, crypto wallets, and other platforms, which provide insights into their network and expertise.

Business model: For their service, Legion charges projects a percentage of the funds raised and a share of the tokens sold, following the same vesting terms as investors.

Traction: Since its launch last August, Legion has onboarded around 150,000 users, with about 8,300 of them investing over $25 million across 21 startups.

Next steps: With its fresh funding, the team plans to accelerate growth, primarily by expanding the marketing and growth teams. O’Connor also told us that the company expects to announce major partnerships in the coming weeks, aiming to attract both new users and high-quality deals.

Bigger vision: Eventually, the platform aims to expand beyond crypto fundraising and serve traditional companies looking to issue tokenized equity. Over time, Legion plans to evolve into a full-stack token launch partner, offering services such as market making and go-to-market advisory.

TRM Labs Launches Beacon Network to Combat Rising Crypto Hacks

Real-time intelligence sharing: On Tuesday, TRM Labs officially launched the Beacon Network, a new security collaboration aimed at stopping illicit funds in real time. The network connects exchanges, issuers, payment firms, law enforcement agencies, and independent investigators to share instant alerts on addresses linked to hacks, scams, and fraud — enabling freezes before stolen funds can be laundered.

Why it matters: 2025 is on track to become the worst year on record for crypto hacks, driven largely by the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit in February. So far, only 3.5% of stolen funds have been frozen, around 8% has vanished into the dark web, and the rest remains traceable but difficult to recover.

• “The hack showed us how quickly money moves now and how sophisticated these threat actors have become,” Isabella Chase, Head of Policy EMEA at TRM Labs, told us. “They’re not just using centralized exchanges but also DEXes, bridges, and many other services.”

It takes a network: As one of the leading blockchain intelligence firms, TRM noticed a recurring problem: fragmented and delayed communication. Despite advances in onchain tracing, coordination often lagged, leaving investigators one step behind.

• “Beacon was born out of the realization that in every hack or major exploit, investigators and exchanges were scrambling to coordinate through Signal chats or email threads,” Chase said. “By the time we had reached everyone, the funds were often already gone. We needed a faster, structured way to share alerts in real time.”

How Beacon works: Beacon functions as an automated alerting system. When a member flags suspicious activity, they can immediately create an alert. If the funds associated with the alert hit another member’s platform, they receive a tailored notification through their preferred channel.

• “What makes Beacon different is that it brings together exchanges, issuers, compliance teams, law enforcement, and even independent investigators in the same network,” Chase explained. “We’ve never had a system where all of these stakeholders could share information in real time before.”

Traction: Beacon has quietly been live since early April, onboarding dozens of members ahead of launch. Initial partners include Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, PayPal, and Stripe, alongside law enforcement agencies spanning five continents. Over time, TRM aims to expand the platform’s capabilities based on feedback from early participants and bring more participants to the network.

A conversation with Ajay Mittal, VP of Product Strategy & Monetization at Consensys, about the company’s plans for its new mUSD stablecoin.