Howdy!

I opened my laptop today, and for what felt like the first time in two weeks, there were interesting and new Solana developments to explore. Welcome back, crypto news, I’ve missed you.

Today, we have Backpack buying FTX EU, Sol Strategies’ credit facility, and Meteora’s proposed points overhaul:

Backpack acquires FTX EU and its 110k former users

Backpack, a crypto wallet and exchange popular among Solana users, has acquired FTX EU for $32.7 million.

In buying the defunct exchange’s European arm, Backpack — which was started by FTX and Alameda alumni — gets access to more than 110,000 former FTX EU users, Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante told me. On top of that, it inherits FTX EU’s European regulatory license that will let European users trade perpetual futures, which are very popular among crypto traders.

Ferrante said the deal was signed back in April of 2024, and Backpack spent the next eight months going through due diligence with regulators. In buying FTX EU, Backpack now becomes responsible for distributing bankruptcy claims to the exchange’s former customers. 

Ferrante formerly worked at Alameda Research, the research and trading firm that totally wasn’t commingling bank accounts with FTX. Another Backpack co-founder who just stepped back from an operational role at the company, Tristan Yver, was the head of strategy at FTX US.

FTX is tied to Solana because it built its Serum DEX on the network in 2020 and is widely credited with helping put the network on crypto investors’ radars in Solana’s early days.  

Backpack has never been shy about the connection to FTX, and it’s pitching this acquisition partly as a way to get customers their funds back. “FTX EU users have been waiting for their distribution for too long. We believed that we could do it faster and more efficiently,” Ferrante said.

Outside of those connections, this deal feels a bit surprising at first glance, because FTX obviously doesn’t have any staff or proprietary technology that Backpack can access. Backpack also now has to distribute bankruptcy claims, which it didn’t have to do before. 

Perhaps the most lucrative part of the deal is FTX’s MiFID II license that lets Backpack offer trading services including perps in Europe. Convincing regulators to reactivate the FTX license — which was suspended after the exchange’s collapse — was part of what took the deal so long to be finalized, Ferrante told me. 

Europe is a big trading market, and a large chunk of crypto trading volume comes in the form of perps, Ferrante said in an email. “Yet there are no compliant crypto perpetual futures offerings on the market right now in Europe.”

A Coinbase spokesperson said the exchange bought an EU MiFID II entity last year, and it plans to “expand our derivatives offering from the EU in due course.”

Crypto derivatives were also relevant to the only other FTX post-collapse acquisition: It sold the LedgerX derivatives platform to a Miami-based holding company for $50 million in 2023.

— Jack Kubinec

$17.5 million

That’s roughly the size of the credit facility that Toronto-based Sol Strategies secured from its chair, Antanas Guoga, for the purchase of Solana tokens.

Guoga was formerly a member of the European parliament, a professional poker player, the founder of multiple news sites, and the director of Lithuania’s men’s basketball team, according to his LinkedIn page. In a press release, he called the loan for SOL tokens “the least risky investment I've ever made.”

Here’s to hoping you’re right, Antanas. Also, nice CV.

— Jack Kubinec

Meteora points system overhaul sparks debate

A proposed reform to Meteora's MET TGE points system has been under active discussion since November, aiming to address issues of fairness, loyalty rewards, and long-term value creation. The current system awards uncapped points based on contributions — 1 point per $1 of TVL per day and 1,000 points per $1 of fees earned — while incorporating loyalty multipliers for early adopters. However, the lack of a cap risks point dilution over time. Meteora points currently trade for a tenth of a cent on Whales Market.

The reform would introduce a fixed monthly points pool capped at 1 billion points, with 99.9% allocated for fees and 0.1% for TVL. Early adopters would benefit from a larger initial points pool that gradually decreases until stabilizing in August 2024. This model could ensure predictability while prioritizing contributions tied to fee generation — directly reflecting platform activity and user experience.

Takeaway: While the proposed capped system aims to balance sustainability and fairness, it has sparked debate over the weight of early versus late contributions and whether the changes sufficiently incentivize impactful participation.

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Max von Wallenberg, founder and CEO of Iron: