Digest of four stories: SafePal data breach affecting 40k users, Paul Tudor Jones resuming Bitcoin ETF purchases, Michael Saylor's firm selling $334M MSTR, and Bitpanda's €70k MiCA fine in Austria.
Regulation & Gov ·
Tudor Investment, the macro hedge fund led by Paul Tudor Jones, resumed accumulation in BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF during the second quarter, marking a reversal after a year of reductions. The firm's stake in IBIT grew to 688,529 shares valued around $22.9 million as of June 30, per its latest SEC filing, up 18.9% from the prior quarter. Alongside the share purchases, Tudor cut call options on the ETF by roughly 85% while maintaining put positions, suggesting a strategic shift toward direct spot holdings rather than leveraged derivatives exposure.
The position remains modest relative to the fund's roughly $100 billion in assets and sits well below its late-2024 peak of over 8 million IBIT shares. Yet the move signals renewed interest from a prominent institutional investor who has long advocated Bitcoin as an inflation hedge. The timing aligns with a broader uptick in inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs, though the full mechanics of Tudor's options strategy remain unclear from public filings alone.
Separately, SafePal disclosed a data breach affecting approximately 40,000 customers, a cryptocurrency wallet provider reported a security incident involving personal information. In regulatory enforcement, Austria's financial authority imposed a €70,000 fine on Bitpanda in the country's first publicly disclosed enforcement action under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Additionally, an investment firm associated with Michael Saylor sold $334 million worth of MSTR shares during the period.