Anthropic’s $550 Million Crypto Hack, Goldman Sachs’ Bitcoin Exposure & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Crypto Exploits: $550 million in crypto exploited in Anthropic simulation.

• Bitcoin Exposure: Goldman Sachs gains Bitcoin exposure via acquisition.

• Old Guard: How Citadel Securities aims to rein in crypto’s momentum. 

The SEC Chair leaning into crypto is like the referee joining the offense—the game just changed. 

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Tiny Tycoons 

Two projects are emerging as bright spots in the debate over kids and financial literacy: Trump Accounts and Binance Junior.

Trump Accounts will grant every American newborn from 2025 to 2028 a $1,000 investment stake—an idea that received an unexpected boost when Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to top up 25 million lower-income children’s accounts by $250 each. In parallel, Binance Junior allows children as young as six to earn and save crypto under parental supervision, treating digital assets not as a casino but as a financial starter kit.

The logic behind both schemes is straightforward: start young and let time do the heavy lifting. This is hardly a radical insight. The UK attempted something similar two decades ago with its Child Trust Fund, and policymakers in the US have toyed with “baby bonds” for years. What is new is the unlikely coalition advancing the agenda: a conservative administration promoting universal investment accounts, and the world’s largest crypto exchange building tools not for traders but for children’s long-term savings.

These initiatives deserve praise for widening access to early compounding. 

Yet, neither fully confronts the question at the heart of modern finance: who controls the assets? Even Binance Junior remains custodial, offering exposure but not ownership. If we are serious about preparing young people for a digital, networked financial system, the logical next step is a crypto-native alternative—secure, self-custodial accounts issued at birth, held jointly with parents until adulthood, and designed for genuine self-sovereignty rather than supervised saving.

Such an approach would marry the oldest principle in finance, starting early, with the newest one: individuals should own their assets outright, without intermediaries dictating terms. 

Should this materialise, the most powerful economic shift may come not from central banks or Big Tech, but from millions of young adults entering the world with assets they mastered early and controlled entirely.

Number Of The Week

News Bites

Euro Stablecoin: Ten European banks—including ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas—have established a new entity to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin in the second half of 2026. The group, operating under the name Qivalis, will be led by Jan-Oliver Sell, formerly chief executive of Coinbase’s German subsidiary and a veteran of Binance. 

Crypto Exploits: Anthropic disclosed that AI agents were able to exploit a significant share of smart contracts in a controlled environment, generating a simulated haul of $550 million. The company said the results should prompt security teams to update their assumptions, arguing that the moment has arrived to deploy AI not merely as a risk, but as a necessary defensive counterpart.

Autonomous Robots: OpenMind, a start-up operating at the convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence and blockchain, has unveiled a collaboration with Circle to integrate USDC into autonomous robotic systems. The partnership aims to equip robots with a native mechanism for stable, real-time settlement, potentially enabling new classes of commerce. 

Bitcoin Exposure: Goldman Sachs announced an agreement to acquire Innovator Capital Management, adding roughly $28 billion in assets to the bank’s oversight. The deal expands Goldman’s footprint in the fast-growing market for thematic and alternative ETFs, including products linked to Bitcoin. 

Old Guard: Citadel Securities has urged the US Securities and Exchange Commission to bring decentralised finance under the same regulatory framework applied to traditional market structures. Predictably, the move has drawn criticism from crypto advocates, who argue that subjecting decentralised systems to TradFi-style controls undermines the sector’s foundational premise of open, non-custodial architecture.

Mainstream Access: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has confirmed that spot crypto assets will be permitted to trade on registered futures exchanges. The ruling marks a significant regulatory shift, laying the groundwork for major brokerages to offer direct access to spot digital assets.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

You can reach me anytime over on 𝕏 or drop me a line. 

Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}