Jack Kubinec 

Donovan Choy

The essential source for all things Solana — exclusive news, deep analysis, and the latest trends.

Lightspeed

(00:00) Introduction
(02:15) Running A Validator
(14:18) Peaq Ad
(14:44) Sablier Ad
(15:12) Solana’s Inflation Rate
(21:35) Crypto In 2026
(28:23) The Path Forward For Pump Fun
(35:59) Lighter vs Hyperliquid
(45:26) Token Buybacks
(52:32) Peaq Ad
(52:58) Sablier Ad
(53:27) The Hyperliquid Stablecoin Strategy
(57:26) Solana Perps In 2026

LS-245

Gm! We're back with Dan &amp; Carlos for our final roundup of the year. We deep dive into the current DEX landscape, crypto's token vs equity dilemma, prop AMMs, onchain equities &amp; more. Enjoy! 
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It powers the world’s first tokenized robo-farm, launching soon in Hong Kong, and has launched the Machine Economy Free Zone in Dubai as a Web3 x Robotics x AI innovation hub.
 
For more about peaq, check out www.peaq.xyz
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Sablier is the leading onchain token distribution protocol — now on Solana. Trusted by top crypto teams, Sablier automates airdrops and vesting onchain, securely and transparently. Start in seconds at sablier.com.
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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: ⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/⁠
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(00:00) Introduction
(01:02) The State of Prop AMMs
(11:55) Peaq Ad
(12:21) Sablier Ad
(12:50) How To Build A Moat In Crypto?
(22:56) Crypto’s Token Dilemma
(44:36) Peaq Ad
(45:03) Sablier Ad
(45:31) Onchain Equities
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Disclaimers: Lightspeed was kickstarted by a grant from the Solana Foundation.

Nothing said on Lightspeed is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Danny, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

How To Fix Crypto's Token Dilemma

Gm! We're back with Marius Ciubotariu to discuss the recent Kamino product launches as we head into 2026. We deep dive into the DeFi lending flywheel, how Kamino became Solana's largest borrow/lend protocol, growth in 2026 &amp; more. Enjoy! 
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Follow Lightspeed: ⁠https://twitter.com/Lightspeedpodhq⁠
 
Join the Lightspeed Telegram: ⁠https://t.me/+QUl_ZOj2nMJlZTEx⁠
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peaq, the Machine Economy Computer, proudly sponsors the Lightspeed podcast. 
 
peaq is home to 60+ apps across 20+ industries and millions of devices, machines, and onchain robots. 
 
It powers the world’s first tokenized robo-farm, launching soon in Hong Kong, and has launched the Machine Economy Free Zone in Dubai as a Web3 x Robotics x AI innovation hub.
 
For more about peaq, check out www.peaq.xyz
--
Sablier is the leading onchain token distribution protocol — now on Solana. Trusted by top crypto teams, Sablier automates airdrops and vesting onchain, securely and transparently. Start in seconds at sablier.com.
--
Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: ⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/⁠
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(00:00) Introduction
(03:46) Becoming Solana’s Largest Borrow/Lend Protocol
(09:07) Assets on Kamino
(14:24) Peaq Ad
(14:50) Sablier Ad
(15:18) Kamino’s New Product Launches
(32:21) Kamino Private Credit
(37:56) Peaq Ad
(38:21) Sablier Ad
(38:50) Prop AMMs
(40:12) Builder Kits
(42:14) Kamino’s Growth in 2026
(50:22) Token Value Accrual
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Disclaimers: Lightspeed was kickstarted by a grant from the Solana Foundation.

Nothing said on Lightspeed is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Danny, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

How Kamino Became Solana's Largest Lending Protocol | Marius Ciubotariu

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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One recurring theme in crypto is that token holders keep discovering that they don’t have the same protection rights as shareholders.



Legal protections make M&amp;A a smooth process. For instance, if BigCo acquires LittleCo for $1 per share, the people who own LittleCo’s shares should get $1 per share. The acquirer is buying the company, and the shares are the company, so the shareholders get bought out. No investor is left behind. There are exceptions, but that is generally “supposed” to be the way it works under traditional financial laws.&nbsp;



Cryptoland, however, has its own rules.



Various efforts exist to mitigate this problem, like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/umbra-metadao-futarchy">MetaDAO’s </a>futarchy markets or the Blockworks <a href="https://blockworks.co/token-transparency">Token Transparency</a> reports. But the default for now is mostly to just vibe it out on Twitter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Pump acquires Padre</h2>



Pump announced its <a href="https://x.com/pumpdotfun/status/1981722548350894498">acquisition</a> of Padre last Friday. Padre is a trading terminal with about 4% market share on Solana (it’s also on BNB Chain, Base and Ethereum).



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="962" height="524" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109535" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=962 962w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-122.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 962px) 100vw, 962px" /></figure>



Padre also has a PADRE token of its own. Why does a trading terminal have a token? I don’t know. The token confers things like fee discounts and access to features, which is nice, but not the same as “owning Padre,” which is a different thing.



Unfortunately for the PADRE investors who raised ~$1.7 million on Fjord Foundry 19 months ago, that token will “no longer have utility on the platform with no further plans for the future,” as per Pump’s acquisition <a href="https://x.com/pumpdotfun/status/1981722561235788074">announcement</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1389" height="729" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109537" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=1389 1389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-125.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1389px) 100vw, 1389px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/FjordFoundry/status/1764807903150739688">X</a></figcaption></figure>







PADRE token holders got upset and complaints of classic rugging ensued, with some <a href="https://x.com/1ntr0l1na1/status/1981748544651637230">alleging</a> the team was banning Discord users for speaking the unspeakable thing about ownership rights.



You can see below that PADRE’s price tanked 80% moments after the acquisition was made public.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="904" height="669" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109538" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=904 904w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=347 347w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=353 353w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=296 296w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-124.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 904px) 100vw, 904px" /></figure>



This wouldn’t happen in an alternate universe where crypto tokens are governed by the same laws as TradFi.



But in cryptoland, if the token you own is adjacent to the company that gets bought, and that token doesn’t give you cash consideration, then the rational thing to do for the PADRE holder, upon learning their adjacency, is to be extremely adjacent and sell.



In any case, the ruckus on Twitter seems to have prompted teams to take action.



Just this morning, Padre announced that PADRE token holders will be compensated with PUMP tokens, based on a snapshot from Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">A snapshot was taken of all <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PADRE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PADRE</a> holders at 13:59 UTC on Friday, October 24th 2025. These holders are now able to receive a set number of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PUMP&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PUMP</a> tokens which correspond to the value of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PADRE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PADRE</a> they held at the time of the snapshot. Holders can submit their Solana wallets and…&mdash; Padre (@PadreApp) <a href="https://twitter.com/PadreApp/status/1982571060785545554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Nice! This is the part where crypto governance is sometimes benevolent.



Still, there’s a valuation problem. If Pump bought Padre for, say, $40 million, and PADRE’s value at the snapshot was ~$5 million, then compensating token holders at market is merely ~13% of what they would’ve gotten as per the deal’s implied equity value.



Shareholders would’ve gotten the $40 million pro rata, as StrategicHash points out.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Wait a second. That&#39;s not how M&amp;A is supposed to work. This is straight up unethical, and would be illegal in traditional finance. The <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PADRE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PADRE</a> holders deserve to be paid at the pro rata acquisition value (40M?) not at the FDV value at the time of snapshot (5M). futardio <a href="https://t.co/ww1CAD2tAX">https://t.co/ww1CAD2tAX</a>&mdash; StrategicHash (@StrategicHash) <a href="https://twitter.com/StrategicHash/status/1982596235128348703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Making PADRE holders “whole” at the pre-announcement price is better than nothing, I suppose, but it is also not the same as paying them as if they owned the company, because they do not.



You can think of Pump’s swap as a goodwill gesture, or even a (Padre) customer retention strategy, kind of like if United Airlines gives you 1,000 miles for canceling your flight. But it’s not a legal payout.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Pump acquires Padre trading terminal, promises token compensation

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Bee Maps has raised $32 million to scale its DePIN mapping network, with Pantera Capital, LDA Capital, Borderless Capital and Ajna Capital participating in the round. Hivemapper, Inc. now operates under the brand name Bee Maps.



Alongside the raise, Bee Maps is introducing a new subscription-based “Bee Membership” to improve accessibility for contributors. Instead of paying $589 upfront for the Bee LTE device, drivers in the US can now get hardware, LTE connectivity and Beekeeper fleet software bundled for $19 per month on a 24-month term.



Hivemapper CEO Ariel Seidman frames the network’s challenge as one of supply rather than demand. The funding is earmarked to quickly expand coverage and scale contributor rewards so Bee Maps can meet a backlog of enterprise needs across navigation, automotive and city planning.



The company’s go-to-market momentum has grown through a string of notable customers in the past year.



Bee Maps <a href="https://beemaps.com/blog/bee-maps-adds-lyft-as-customer">announced</a> in May that ride-hailing company Lyft was sourcing real-time, crowdsourced street-level data to improve routing and support its autonomous strategy, while Volkswagen’s autonomous vehicle unit was <a href="https://x.com/aseidman/status/1942600814591082523">revealed</a> in July to be leveraging Bee Maps for robotaxi mapping data.&nbsp;



Bee Maps’ site also highlights media and mapping companies like NBCUniversal, Mapbox and HERE (formerly Nokia HERE) among users of its technology.&nbsp;



CEO Ariel Seidman tells me: “These aren’t small pilots; some of these are six and seven-figure deals,” noting that interest from those companies is driven by Bee’s ability to deliver data they can’t obtain elsewhere.



Companies “want broader coverage, especially in smaller markets like Des Moines. Dropping the Bee price from a $500 upfront cost to $19 a month changes who can participate. It turns this from a niche device into something anyone can deploy anywhere.”



Built on the Hivemapper Network, Bee Maps uses an edge-based AI pipeline to convert contributor imagery into dynamic map features.&nbsp;



By bootstrapping the supply side of the network with token rewards, Hivemapper is able to produce fresher map data at about a faster rate of <a href="https://x.com/aseidman/status/1753600670857671092">5-6x</a> than those supplied by incumbents like Google Maps and Apple Maps that traditionally rely on infrequent fleet surveys to refresh data.



According to Hivemapper official data, the network has mapped 644 million km of roads in total, including 21 million km in unique roadway.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1442" height="482" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108694" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=1442 1442w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-13.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1442px) 100vw, 1442px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://hivemapper.com/">Hivemapper</a></figcaption></figure>







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DePIN

Hivemapper raises $32M, launches new subscription for Bee dashcams

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It’s Token2049 week in Singapore.



The week kicked off yesterday with demo day of Ignition, a Y-Combinator-like initiative by Superteam Singapore.



This marks the fourth iteration of Superteam Singapore’s Ignition. Alumni from previous Ignition programs have collectively raised $24 million in the past, the team told me.



A total of 223 projects building on Solana sent applications in this cohort, but only six lucky finalist projects were shortlisted by judges to present: Home Harvest, Motif, Azza, Onta, DeCharge and Altify.



“Stablecoin-related projects are very popular now, we’re seeing lots of cross-border FX plays,” Superteam SG lead Nick Tong told me. He also noted a flood of memecoin and AI-themed projects.



The six teams seeking funding demoed their projects in front of a packed auditorium of at least 150 people, with VCs like Dragonfly, Hashed and Spartan in attendance.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Full house at <a href="https://twitter.com/SuperteamSG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@superteamsg</a> ignition! Thanks everyone for supporting <a href="https://t.co/alJage2FBl">pic.twitter.com/alJage2FBl</a>&mdash; Nick Tong (@tongnk) <a href="https://twitter.com/tongnk/status/1972576066398220412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Of the six finalists, companies varied in three broad categories: stablecoin networks, AI-enabled wealth advisors and DePIN.



The first was Azza, a “stablecoin neobank” offering cross-border payments to consumers in Africa. Azza’s application is tightly integrated with Whatsapp messenger, which its CEO Toochukwu Okoro pointed to as a decision made to meet where “African consumers are.”



Azza has seen $5.7 million in volumes in the last eight months across ~7000 users, without any marketing spend.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1489" height="967" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108492" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=1489 1489w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=396 396w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=402 402w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=337 337w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-193.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1489px) 100vw, 1489px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://dune.com/devjosh/useazza-monthly-volume">Dune</a></figcaption></figure>



The second was Home Harvest, a DePIN team with the goal of reimagining everyday food production.&nbsp;



Rather than depending on imported fresh produce, Home Harvest hopes to empower consumers to grow their own greens with indoor hydroponic smart appliances.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="874" height="474" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108496" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=874 874w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-30-at-11.00.44.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dezzufmdyaexgvcnjrcwc/HomeHarvest-Colosseum.pdf?rlkey=pd760qn63fly2a96h4f2ygcho&amp;e=1&amp;dl=0">Home Harvest</a></figcaption></figure>



“We’re using the blockchain to verify and transfer the customer harvest data we are capturing from our growers — their harvests, meal plans, diets, recipes and how they are engaging with the product,” Home Harvest’s co-founder Hedley Aylott told me.&nbsp;



“We also plan to use the blockchain to verify the carbon offset created by each unit so that we can aggregate and sell these on the tokenized carbon market and return the income to customers via our tokenized rewards program.”



Home Harvest was a previous winner of Solana’s Colosseum hackathon and is currently raising in a $3 million seed round with $1.5 million pre-seed committed.



The third project to take stage was DeCharge, a DePIN team that touts itself as the “Helium of electric vehicle charging.”



3x more electric vehicles are hitting the road compared to the number of chargers being deployed, according to the framing of DeCharge co-founder Mohan Ponnada.



DeCharge hopes to address what centralized charge point operators like ChargePoint and Electrify America have failed to do, namely by incentivizing property owners with tokens to put idle parking spaces and power to productive use.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1280" height="960" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108493" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=1280 1280w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=343 343w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=348 348w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=292 292w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-194.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/DeCharge__/status/1972643661113626661/photo/3">DeCharge</a></figcaption></figure>



DeCharge claims to be generating $2.8 million in annual recurring revenues across 1000+ hosts onboarded.



Finally there is Altify, an investment platform operating at the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence.



Altify’s thesis is simple: Most money to be made in investing are in private markets, an asset class that is locked out of the retail public. Altify wants to give you access.



Altify’s platform strives to source the best tokenized investments — private credit, structured products, crypto, commodities etc. — and make them available to their users.&nbsp;



The team has generated $1.4 million in annual recurring revenues, with 13,100 monthly active users.



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Developers

Solana finalists: Ignition Demo Day at Singapore Token2049

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">subscribe</a>.



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Every industry has its crown jewel worth fighting for. In crypto, that crown jewel is perpetual derivatives.



Perps give high-risk traders leveraged exposure to crypto markets, using periodic funding payments between longs and shorts to anchor prices to spot.



It’s a highly lucrative financial instrument that dominates trading flow. Perps account for at least 70% of CEX volumes and the majority of its revenues. Based on Kaiko data, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/bitcoin-perps-cryptocurrency-trading-leverage-238e53ff">68%</a> of all bitcoin trading volume in 2025 came from perps alone.



Given Solana’s stated ambitions to rival Nasdaq, the absence of the chain’s very own flagship perp venue to rival CEX perps stands out as a deficiency that’s hard to ignore.



Measured by open interest, Solana’s largest perps DEXs, Jupiter and Drift, come in at ~$533 million, about 4% of Hyperliquid’s open interest. And while Hyperliquid dominates the perps DEX landscape, its ~$300 billion in monthly volumes is still only roughly 6% of total CEX perps volumes.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="972" height="529" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108423" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=972 972w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-180.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 972px) 100vw, 972px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Solana’s plan to compete on perps</h2>



To regain perp market share, Solana’s perp DEXs have taken divergent paths. Drift, for instance, is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jito-bam-solana-mainnet">leaning</a> on Jito’s newly launched Block Assembly Marketplace (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jito-bam-solana-mainnet">BAM</a>) to enable custom transaction-ordering logic.



Then there are teams like Bullet which have taken a far more radical approach, like building out a dedicated app-specific L2 rollup.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-dex-network-extension-testnet">Bullet</a> was previously Zeta Markets, the first order book perps DEX on Solana. In its heyday, Bullet commanded $10 billion+ in annual volumes. That product was shuttered in May to focus on the development of its appchain.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1090" height="545" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108421" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=1090 1090w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-178.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1090px) 100vw, 1090px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/zeta-x-reimagining-perps-trading">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



The team decided to build an app-specific L2 to scale beyond Solana’s 400ms block time limitations, Bullet co-founder Tristan Frizza told me.



Bullet’s appchain architecture is a highly customized <a href="https://x.com/Tristan0x/status/1971180825103540580">stack</a>: It runs native Rust code without a general-purpose VM, pairs it with an application-specific sequencer and processes transactions on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) model.



Despite the absence of a general purpose VM, Bullet still targets verifiability with zk proofs using a zkVM to attest state transitions. The long-term plan is to eventually transit to a full zk rollup and eliminate bridging altogether.



Based on early testnet numbers, Bullet’s bespoke stack is showing impressive ultra-fast latencies of 1.2ms, coming out far ahead compared to Solana’s 400ms or even Hyperliquid’s 70ms block time latencies.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="677" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108422" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-179.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/Tristan0x/status/1971180825103540580">Bullet</a></figcaption></figure>



Importantly, Bullet’s sequencer also offers cancel prioritization, the feature that enables traders and market makers to reliably cancel orders during periods of market volatility — what many have considered instrumental to Hyperliquid’s success.



Frizza pointed to the lack of cancel prioritizations as Zeta’s “Achilles heel” on Solana last year, where traders would have to often compete with MEV arbitrage bots to cancel transactions.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="669" height="667" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108420" style="width:840px;height:auto" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=669 669w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=258 258w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=262 262w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=220 220w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-177.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Reverted transactions on Solana peaked at 72% in April 2024</figcaption></figure>



“We had to pay so many priority fees to allow people to cancel their transactions. What if there&#8217;s a $50 million liquidation and that transaction is delayed [by] a minute? All this made me realize it&#8217;s difficult to scale and compete with Binance [on Solana].”



For data availability, Bullet is tapping Celestia, the team announced today at Token2049 Singapore.



“Solana is not optimized for a data availability use case, but for executing SVM transactions,” Frizza told me, pointing to Celestia’s multiple megabytes per second throughput as optimal for Bullet’s use case.



Bullet’s highly bespoke tech stack — customized execution, Celestia DA and an app-specific sequencer tuned to curb MEV — struck me as closer to the vision of Ethereum’s “modular” roadmap: spin up specialized chains for specific jobs rather than keep all state on a single base layer like Solana.



However, Frizza insisted that perps are the exceptional reason for L2s making sense.



“Perps may be the most complex DeFi use case — you need high performance, low fees, low latency and forcing it onto a general purpose chain that isn&#8217;t optimized for it is not ideal,” Frizza said. “What Bullet is optimizing for is…very hard to do on a geographically distributed validator set of 2,000.”



Frizza told me Solana’s global state machine still excels for most other use cases, so there’s little need for a&nbsp; general purpose rollup like Arbitrum atop Ethereum.



Slated for a mainnet launch later this year, Bullet is perhaps the most ambitious bet from a Solana-native project to contest perps at CEX scale.



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layer-2

Inside Bullet’s goal to compete with CEX perps

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">subscribe</a>.



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Honeycomb Protocol has acquired GameShift from Solana Labs, combining two complementary tech stacks to push Web3 gaming into the consumer mainstream. Deal terms remain confidential.



Honeycomb co-founder Karthik M told Blockworks exclusively: “Our vision for Honeycomb + GameShift is we believe consumer crypto is the next big unlock that needs to happen for us to move the industry forward.”



“We see Solana positioned very well for consumer adoption.”



On the developer side, Honeycomb offers a modular toolkit of onchain game primitives — player profiles, character and resource systems, mission frameworks and staking — delivered via easy-to-integrate SDKs.



On the consumer side, GameShift brings a consumer-ready layer: abstracted gasless wallets, fiat payments, embedded marketplaces and seamless onboarding designed to hide blockchain friction for non-crypto natives.&nbsp;



GameShift was originally built inside Solana Labs to simplify the process of adding Web3 elements to games so studios wouldn’t need specialized blockchain engineers.&nbsp;



Together, the combined platform combines dev tooling to invisible Web3 UX aimed at solving distribution, monetization and usability hurdles that have slowed Web3 gaming adoption.



The plan is to make GameShift the “consumer portal” that bridges non-crypto gamers into Web3 with abstracted wallets, gasless transactions and other friction-killers, while Honeycomb’s SDKs powers the underlying game logic and performance-minded compression that slashes onchain costs.



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Gaming

Honeycomb Protocol acquires Solana Labs’ GameShift platform

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">subscribe</a>.



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Titan announced today a $7 million seed round led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from Frictionless, Mirana, Ergonia, Auros, Susquehanna and several angels.



“At Galaxy Ventures, we look for teams working to build foundational infrastructure with long-term impact,” said Will Nuelle, general partner at Galaxy Ventures. “We believe Titan is creating an advanced gateway to internet capital markets on Solana.”



Titan’s raise coincides with the public launch of its frontend meta-DEX aggregator, graduating from a private beta that has processed more than $1.5 billion in spot volume. Blockworks previously <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jupiter-competitor-private-mainnet">covered</a> Titan’s launch in March.



Titan’s meta-DEX aggregator sits one layer on top of Solana DEX aggregators such as Jupiter, OKX, DFlow and its own router Argos, which the team claims outperforms competitors with better quotes in 70% of cases.



Argos (previously Talos) processed $87.4 million in volumes for August, per Blockworks Research <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/solana/solana-dex-activity">data</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1048" height="498" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107986" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=1048 1048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-130.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1048px) 100vw, 1048px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/solana/solana-dex-activity">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



While DEX aggregators hide the complexities of DEX mechanics to get users the best price, a meta-DEX aggregator like Titan abstracts the differences in how each aggregator’s algorithm works.



“Since algos behave differently, it’s better to have a mix of algos compete and see which quote is actually the best,” Titan co-founder and CEO Chris Chung told me.



Alongside the consumer frontend, Titan is also introducing Titan Prime API in its product suite, now open for public waitlist requests.



The “meta-aggregator” API compares quotes from leading Solana routers, including Titan’s own proprietary algorithm Argos, and is launching with a zero fee model. The goal with Titan Prime is to let users “get as close to a real market order as possible,” Chung explained on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@LightspeedpodHQ/videos">Lightspeed podcast</a>. “Users won’t have to worry about slippage, speed or landing the transaction — we handle all of that for you.”



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DEXs

Titan raises $7M seed round alongside public launch of meta-DEX aggregator

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In early 2021, the video game streaming platform Twitch faced a major PR problem.



Female streamers scantily clad in bikinis started streaming themselves hanging out with cocktails in jacuzzis — what viewers dubbed the “hot tub meta.”



Unsurprisingly, Twitch’s advertisers pushed back. Twitch responded by quickly tightening its policies, and <a href="https://x.com/Amouranth/status/1394699454654124033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1394699454654124033%7Ctwgr%5Ebc8c994b17fa8f6c504b37ff0728acaef26c7d8d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2021%2F5%2F18%2F22442733%2Famouranth-twitch-ads-suspended-indefinitely">top streamers</a> saw ad monetization get deactivated overnight.



That category of streaming continues to exist today, but in a quarantined corner operating under highly permissioned <a href="https://twitchsupport.my.site.com/s/article/pools-hottubs-beaches?language=en_US">rules</a> most advertisers opt out of.



From a business standpoint, it was the right move for Twitch.&nbsp;



A significant chunk of Twitch’s revenue comes from advertisers, and brands aren&#8217;t interested in associating their names with risky content. The economics of Twitch don&#8217;t align with shock value.



That’s the market space Pump is leaning into.



Take, for instance, the 4-day-old BAGWORK memecoin.&nbsp;



Over the weekend, a creator duo ran the classic “do anything for attention” playbook: streaking across a live baseball game, getting slapped by famous fitness influencers, threatening to jump off the Santa Monica pier, shaving their heads…you get the idea.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Day 2 – From Jail to Twitch Fresh out (bailed out by creator fees), he crashes Bradley Martyn’s gym stream. Snatches Martyn’s hat, flashes the CA. Bradley slaps him on stream → 5M+ views in hours. That single slap = $40K in creator fees. <a href="https://t.co/tFag3TCcZu">pic.twitter.com/tFag3TCcZu</a>&mdash; maanav ⚡️ (@maanavjporwal) <a href="https://twitter.com/maanavjporwal/status/1967077859773870430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The strategy worked. BAGWORK is trading at a <a href="https://dexscreener.com/solana/fbzsqpaygqjpmrt8l33qngwv6bcatx6xcjmtpvcw3gdz">$27 million</a> market cap now and the duo behind the token has pocketed a tidy $169K within four days of the token being live.



That’s thanks to Pump’s revamped <a href="https://pump.fun/docs/fees">fee model</a> in early September that lets token creators earn a cut every time their token is traded.&nbsp;



(Creators earn a 0.95% take-rate fee at a 420 SOL market cap, which scales down to 0.05% at a 98240 SOL market cap.)



This presents unusual incentives for Pump’s streamer creators.&nbsp;



Creators get paid on volume, not loyalty. If traders don’t see upside, volume dies, so creators are incentivized to keep the spectacle rolling to drive more trades. That’s very different from Twitch streamers or OnlyFans models who monetize from one-time gifts, tips or subscriptions from a dedicated fanbase.



It’s easy to see how Pump’s fee model incentivizes creators to supply not only shockbait content, but a constant stream of it.



Pump’s business model also only works because it isn’t beholden to advertisers (unlike Twitch). The platform takes a 0.05% protocol fee for every token traded on its platform.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="662" height="527" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107781" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=662 662w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=323 323w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=328 328w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=275 275w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-118.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" /></figure>



What makes Pump so unique compared to traditional streaming platforms is that the addressable “stunts for attention” surface area is basically infinite.&nbsp;



There are only so many video game streamers or OnlyFans models willing to strip for the camera, but there are endless ways to manufacture buzz that moves a memecoin and, by extension, creator fees.



Before you get any ideas, Pump creators don&#8217;t have it that easy. Only 819 addresses — ~0.094% of all wallet addresses that have created a Pump token — have earned more than $10K in creator rewards, according to Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun">data</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1045" height="562" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107782" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=1045 1045w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-119.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1045px) 100vw, 1045px" /></figure>



Creators literally have to “work for their bags” (hence BAGWORK, get it?), and only a small sliver of them see a lucrative payday.



The only question is what else creators would be willing to do for their bags.



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What makes Pump livestreaming different from Twitch or OnlyFans?

Fundamental insights and behind the scenes perspectives from the industry’s key operators and innovators

Empire

For savvy degens who want to think like researchers and analysts, from Blockworks Research

0xResearch

Investigates the macro landscape as the laws of investing are being rewritten, helping investors adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

Forward Guidance

Detailing Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.

Supply Shock

The Breakdown

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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The NEAR L1 blockchain is running into something of a governance debacle.



Since June, NEAR’s community has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/l1s-overpaying-security-tokens-inflation">debated</a> a proposal to halve protocol emissions from 5% to 2.5%.



The original proposal argues that fee burns have fallen well short of expectations, leaving “high inflation without high usage,” which is unsustainable.



The situation for NEAR is stark. NEAR is issuing roughly $140 million of tokens annually to secure a chain with $157 million in TVL and about $3.2 million in year-to-date fees.



For context, Solana’s estimated annual issuance is roughly $5.5 billion, but it supports a far larger, more active DeFi ecosystem with around $11 billion in TVL. From a purely economic lens, NEAR is definitely “overpaying” for security.



That discussion finally culminated in a vote that concluded earlier this week. But though the vote won a simple majority, it failed to clear the 66.67% approval threshold, leaving it technically unsuccessful under NEAR’s governance rules.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1014" height="636" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109508" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=1014 1014w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=410 410w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=416 416w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=349 349w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-121.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://vote.linearprotocol.org/">Linearprotocol</a></figcaption></figure>







That’s where the controversy begins. Validator operator Chorus One is criticizing indications that NEAR’s core contributors may still ship a nearcore release containing the change, relying on a subsequent onchain upgrade mechanism to activate it.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Despite this, the NEAR core team decided to proceed with implementing the inflation reduction in the next network upgrade, even though the governance process did not reach consensus.&mdash; Chorus One (@ChorusOne) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChorusOne/status/1981009981026799734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Louis Thomazeau of L1D fund is <a href="https://x.com/0xLouisT/status/1981334985387757821">pushing back</a> against Chorus One, countering that cutting emissions is “common sense” economics and should take precedence over blind adherence to decentralization ideals. In other words: Sure, there are rules, but a startup’s main job is not to die.



It’s hard to say if there’s a clear right or wrong here; it fundamentally comes down to your philosophical values.



Breaking the rules delivers short-term efficiency, but it risks a dangerous “Fed put” precedent. Following the rules of governance, I guess, safeguards governance integrity, but that’s costly for the network and NEAR in the near term.



Crypto seems to run into the same kinds of problems all the time.



Hyperliquid recently faced a similar <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hyperliquid-liquidation-market-uncertainty">bind</a>.



In March, a trader squeezed the JELLY perps market, saddling the HLP vault with large losses. The team delisted JELLY perps and manually overrode the oracle price to close exposure and stem the damage — an explicit break from crypto’s sacrosanct “code is law” principle to protect depositors.



There are countless examples: Should a chain halt during an exploit (e.g., <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-it-takes-to-halt-a-decentralized-blockchain-like-binance">BNB</a> in 2022)? Should a community hard fork to reverse a hack (Ethereum in 2016)? You get the idea.



If NEAR wants legitimacy, it should probably take the loss and honor its own thresholds. Forcing the outcome through for a “good” outcome today signals that your governance rules are written in sand. But then again, this industry has the memory of a goldfish, so who are we kidding?



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NEAR’s inflation reduction vote fails pass threshold, but it may still be implemented

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It is frankly really hard to be the Ethereum Foundation.



Your job is to fund public goods R&amp;D and ship complex network upgrades. But that means you’re also constantly choosing between selling ETH and being yelled at for selling ETH.



The EF has a staff of about 200 employees and an annual operating budget of ~$145 million. That money comes from a treasury of largely ETH. That ETH needs to be sold to pay your staff, but ETH holders dislike when you sell the thing they own. This is crypto’s most uniquely recurring theme: “Please make number go up, while also paying for things with the number.”



So the Crypto Twitter peanut gallery wants the EF to know they can simply “use DeFi.” Put the ETH in a lending vault, collect yield and stop wrecking the ETH chart, please.



The EF has historically been reluctant to do that for obvious reasons: It is not the job of a neutral ecosystem steward to be making complex risk management decisions.



Yet, yesterday the Ethereum Foundation doubled down on its use of DeFi (a <a href="https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/1889978208986280031">continuation</a> since February). The EF deposited 2400 ETH ($9.1 million) and $6 million of stablecoins into Morpho’s vaults.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">0/ Today, the Ethereum Foundation deposited 2400 ETH and ~$6M stablecoins into Morpho’s yield-bearing vaults. Morpho is a pioneer in permissionless DeFi protocols and consistently demonstrates a commitment to Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) principles.&mdash; Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethereumfndn/status/1978460652877267301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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This should be good news for bagholders, but not everyone is happy:



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="798" height="175" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109201" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=798 798w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-55.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px" /></figure>



Where previously the Ethereum Foundation wasn’t supporting its own ecosystem, now it’s not supporting the right players, i.e. the smaller guys and underdogs.



I don’t know, man. You can’t seem to please everyone, so maybe these decisions simply shouldn’t be public.&nbsp;



You could imagine a world where the EF tries to be “fair.” It allocates capital to smaller projects, but that exposes the foundation to a wider range of smart contract/security risks.&nbsp;



Best case scenario: Nothing breaks but the foundation’s operating expenses are inflated to pay for security researchers and an investment team. Fairness is expensive. Worst case: Protocols get exploited and the EF’s treasury runway is shortened.



Solana doesn’t seem to have the same problems, namely because its foundation isn’t committed to the same levels of radical transparency as Ethereum is. Solana is selling SOL too, presumably, but no one’s upset because it’s not on the Twitter timeline.



For starters, the foundation has actively backed the Solmate DAT, and has an active partnership with the “Solana Company” DAT (previously Helius Medical). The EF has <a href="https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/1943642682825523320">sold</a> ETH in OTC sales to DATs, but has not participated in any formal investments or partnerships with DATs.



Solana DATs, too, have been unabashedly proud about using DeFi. Forward Industries’ Kyle Samani wants Forward to be the most “natively onchain publicly traded company in the world,” he said on an <a href="https://youtu.be/1NQENVL4n4c">Empire</a> podcast, teasing the use of SOL in select Solana protocols.



Ethereum’s commitment to neutrality is admirable (remember when Justin Drake had to <a href="https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/1852734263541874824">step down</a> as an advisor to Eigenlayer for violating that tenet?).



But no one in Solana world seems to have a problem with that, so maybe the foundation’s optimal strategy is to do the low-profile, risk-minimized thing and announce as little of it as possible.



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Digital asset treasuries

Running a blockchain foundation is actually really tough

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The decentralized content delivery network (CDN) Pipe launched on Solana mainnet today alongside the token generation event of its PIPE token.



Pipe is integrating Jito&#8217;s Node Consensus Network (NCN) as its economic security layer, effectively restaking a pool of already staked SOL without standing up its own validator set. Pipe node operators will stake PIPE tokens to participate in the network.



The testnet has delivered 60+ petabytes of data across a network of ~290,000 Point of Presence (PoP) nodes, reporting ~70% lower latency and ~100x cost efficiency than traditional CDNs, according to Pipe’s press release.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108807" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-34.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



About $2.5 million in PIPE testnet tokens have been burned to date.



“Our CDN is ready to go live and compete against the offerings from Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai and Web2 stalwarts of the world,” David Rhodus, founder of Permission Labs and core contributor to Pipe Network said, emphasizing Pipe’s performance and uptime “at the edge” as a traditional weak spot for incumbents.



CDNs act as local delivery hubs for the internet, caching popular content in local data centers near users so websites, videos and apps load faster.



Pipe aims to provide the same service using a DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure) model. Instead of owning or leasing thousands of servers, it coordinates independent node operators’ under-utilized resources to expand capacity where bandwidth is scarce and costly.



This distributed supply model gives Pipe two key advantages. One, Pipe can scale and target regions where bandwidth costs have historically been prohibitive. Based on its roadmap, Pipe’s stated expansion efforts include regions like South Korea and emerging markets like India and Egypt.



Secondly, it enables Pipe to welcome and monetize AI-agent traffic that are often <a href="https://x.com/DavidRhodus/status/1940593266946462121">default-blocked</a> by incumbent CDNs due to rising egress costs from AI crawlers, or intellectual property concerns around model training from CDN’s customers.



Pipe is estimated to be generating at least about $55 million in annualized revenues, with stated revenue targets of at least $100 million in ARR by end of 2025, according to a <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/pipe-network-valuation-and-market-positioning">report</a> by Blockworks Research’s Nick Carpinito.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Pipe Network usage</h2>



Pipe’s flagship CDN has been used to store saved states of the Solana network’s ledger and the chain’s full Proof-of-History archival dataset, amounting to about 1.5 petabytes stored with roughly 100 terabytes of daily egress.



The PIPE token can be used to pay for CDN usage and the company’s Firestarter Storage offering, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pipe-network-debuts-firestarter-storage">went live </a>in late July.



Following mainnet, Pipe plans to introduce a liquid stake delegation program with Jito, directing staked PIPE to Pop nodes based on bandwidth and uptime.



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