Adam Efrima is the SSV Core team Co-founder. He has been active in the crypto industry since 2013. Over eight years living in China working in the financial industry and fintech space, Adam has worked in CITIC Bank covering outbound investments for Chinese SOEs, he was also in charge of setting up the eToro Shanghai operation. Since then, Adam has been deeply involved in Ethereum staking, co-founding top performing staking project Bloxstaking as well as co-founding SSV Network, a decentralized validator infrastructure for ETH staking.

Adam Simmons is Chief Strategy Officer at RDX Works, a key contributor to the Radix public ledger. He has over 13 years of experience in building &amp; growing businesses in a range of industries including online video, blockchain &amp; digital marketing. With experience in both senior leadership &amp; hands-on roles, he has repeatedly recruited, managed, and trained highly successful teams within marketing, customer success and operations functions. Adam is also a previous member of the UK Paralympic Sprint Kayaking Team and has competed in multiple World and European Championships.


Adam Swick is the Chief Growth Officer at Marathon Digital Holdings. Prior to joining Marathon, he served as a principal at Refinery Ventures, where he was responsible for identifying and recommending business strategies to accelerate the growth of all companies in Refinery’s portfolio. Before Refinery, Swick was the director of strategic finance at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, where he managed the company’s balance sheet, debt program, investor relations, and all forecasting activities. Prior to Kraken, he founded Swick Capital, a crypto-asset hedge fund, worked at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. Swick holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Adrian Brink is the co-founder of Namada and Anoma, where he focuses on building privacy-preserving systems that are resilient to global crises. Previously, he was a core developer at Tendermint (Cosmos) and worked at the Web3 Foundation. He also co-founded Cryptium Labs, which was later sold to Chorus One, and Metastate, where he contributed to major upgrades to the Tezos protocol​.

Adrien Stern is the founder &amp; CEO of Reveel, the omnichain payments infrastructure that enables one-click cross-chain payments to connect people across borders and networks. Before founding Reveel, Adrien led digital transformation efforts at BNP Paribas CIB. He was also previously a venture builder, and owns Bridge Music, a record label and recording studio. Adrien has a Bachelor’s degree in Sciences of Management from The University of Lausanne and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Esade. 

Alex Hoffman is Head of Ecosystem at Superposition Finance. Superposition is revolutionizing DeFi by addressing its core challenges through robust risk management powered by Concordia’s best-in-class risk engine, omnichain functionality, and transparency.

Alexei Zamyatin is a co-founder of BOB, a first-of-its-kind hybrid Layer-2 powered by Bitcoin and Ethereum. He has been a Bitcoin and interoperability research contributor since 2015 and is most known for his work on trustless cross-chain bridges and L2s. Alexei holds a PhD in computer science from Imperial College London.


Alison Haire is the CEO and founder of Lilypad, a serverless, decentralized compute network that democratizes access to computational power by providing scalable infrastructure for AI, machine learning and other high-demand processes. Before founding Lilypad, she held roles at companies such as Filecoin, IBM and Accenture. Under her leadership, Lilypad leverages idle GPU capacity worldwide to fuel an open AI economy, providing cost-effective and scalable compute resources. Her work focuses on making high-performance computing accessible to more developers and researchers, while challenging the dominance of large centralized cloud providers​​.

With over 20 years of experience leading and designing games and tech companies, Alun is well-versed in creating innovative products that tackle experiential and developer challenges. In addition to his stewardship of LAOS Network, he is CEO and co-founder of the company building LAOS, Freeverse, which focuses on building scalable blockchain infrastructure. His history as the co-creator of ‘Barcelona World Race - THE GAME,’ a cutting-edge video game enabling virtual participation in real-world events, and his wider passion for gaming, have fed into his vision for LAOS Network as a solution for the intersection of Web3 tech with both gaming and real-world applications. Alun also led Shar3d.io, a pioneering company enabling collaborative 3D web applications, and served as CTO of Bodypal.com, a virtual garment services company. He holds a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from University College London.



Amanda Cassatt is the founder and CEO of Serotonin. Amanda previously served as Chief Marketing Officer of ConsenSys from 2016 through 2019. Joining one year after the launch of Ethereum, Amanda played a crucial role in defining, creating, and growing the narrative for ConsenSys, Ethereum, and blockchain overall.

Amanda stewarded the ConsenSys brand through its global expansion across enterprises, governments, developers, and consumers. She created and scaled the marketing team to over 50 people, serving both the ConsenSys brand and 50+ portfolio companies such as MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, and Gitcoin; managing teams in product marketing, growth, design, content, community, events, email, analytics and SEO. Amanda’s contributions to some of the most successful product launches, token sales and fundraises landed her on Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016. Amanda is the author of the world's first web3 marketing book, Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution.

Amanda Keleher currently serves as Chief People Officer at Consensys, one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the blockchain technology space. A well-rounded business leader with an over 25-year career in the technology space, Amanda is the driving force behind the human element of Consensys where she is responsible for overseeing all of the aspects of people, from building and maintaining the company culture to harnessing human capital as a key driver of business. 

Before joining ConsenSys, Amanda served as the Head of People at ThoughtWorks, a global technology consultancy company, for nearly ten years, where she led the global scale expansion by opening offices around the world and recruiting a diverse workforce at a time when the DevOps movement had just been born and a new skill set were yet to be developed. After her time at ThoughWorks, she served as the Executive Vice President, People &amp; Culture of Index Exchange, one of the world’s premier ad tech organizations; and as VP of People at Little Bits and Intent Media where she excelled in designing effective and creative strategies to attract and retain world-class talent in hyper competitive environments

Andrea Berry is a seasoned online video strategist with 15+ years of experience in transformative media partnerships. 

Her early successes include helping to launch Qello Concerts, the first direct-to-consumer live-music OTT service, later transforming it into Qello Media Services and Vimeo’s OTT channels offering across various industries as their first strategic sales director for their enterprise.

Currently, as the Head of Business Development at Theta Labs, Andrea leverages her expertise in online video and blockchain to drive strategic partnerships and growth opportunities for the company. She helps enterprises take advantage and lean into the opportunities Web3 presents. 

Andrew Redden is the CEO and CTO of Last Network, a blockchain platform focused on sustainable cash flow and reinvestment. Previously, he worked at Gitcoin and has contributed to numerous DeFi and Web3 projects. Redden's career reflects a commitment to developing technologies that prioritize long-term viability and community engagement​.

Andrew Thurman is a Data Editor based in Washington, DC. He previously wrote for CoinDesk and Cointelegraph, and worked in various roles for Chainlink and Nansen. His analysis has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, Reuters, The BBC, CNBC, and elsewhere. Contact Andrew at andrew@blockworks.co.

Andrey Sergeenkov writes educational articles as a freelancer. His works have been published in Coindesk, Cointelegraph, Entrepreneur and CoinMarketCap. He believes that transforming society towards lifelong learning, combined with decentralization in government and business, will lead to exponential social development.

Andy Bromberg is CEO of Beam and Contributor to the Eco Protocol. Eco has raised more than $90 million from an array of leading investors, including a16z Crypto, L Catterton, Activant Capital, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and others. Prior to Eco, Andy was Co-founder and President of CoinList. Andy is also a founding board member at FreeWorld, a non-profit seeking to end institutionalized poverty in the United States by providing access to living-wage jobs for people with criminal histories. He studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford University and co-founded the Stanford Bitcoin Group.

An established and versatile Financial Executive with over two decades of experience running multiple trading businesses across top-level banks such as HSBC, Barclays, and UBS. After running the top Agency and SSA business for both UBS and Barclays, he took over Emerging Markets macro trading for Barclays. In 2018, wanting to go deeper into Emerging Markets he took a role as Head of Latam local markets trading where he was responsible for trading activities across Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. In 2021 DeMartino moved into Crypto when he became CEO and founder of Coinbase Risk Strategies focused on DeFi and Derivatives trading. More recently he started Trident Digital Group, a crypto-native solutions firm that is focused on lending and safe yield generation and stablecoin adoption.


Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. Earlier, he worked in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs &amp; Co.

In 2022, Scaramucci was ranked #47 in Cointelegraph’s Top 100 Influencers in Crypto and Blockchain. In 2016, he was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst &amp; Young’s New York Financial Services “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award.  Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a board member of the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation. He is the author of five books.

Scaramucci served on President Donald J. Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, and in 2017 briefly served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank and White House Communications Director.

Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Antoni is a co-founder of Aleph Zero Foundation (Switzerland), an organization overseeing the development of the Aleph Zero blockchain, and a Managing Partner of Cardinal Cryptography (Poland), firm focused on core development of the Aleph Zero ecosystem.

Ari Juels is the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor in the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion and a Computer Science faculty member at Cornell University. He is a Co-Director of the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3). He is also Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs. He is the author of crypto thriller novel The Oracle (Talos Press), which was released on 20 February 2024.

Austin Alexander is co-founder of LayerTwo Labs, a company focused on advancing the Bitcoin ecosystem through innovative solutions and specializing in the development of Drivechain, a specific type of blockchain sidechain designed to foster creativity and scalability within Bitcoin.

Austin Campbell is the founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. Previously, he has run portfolio management at Paxos for the stablecoins as well as being the chief risk officer of Paxos National Trust, has managed fixed income trading desks at JP Morgan and Citi, and has been a portfolio manager and structurer at Stone Ridge, the parent of NYDIG. He holds a BS in Mathematics from CSU Chico and a MBA from NYU Stern.

Ben Mills is the co-founder of Meso, a payments platform connecting banks and blockchains. Prior to Meso, Ben spent a decade building payments products as an early team member at Braintree (acquired by PayPal), as Head of Product at Venmo, and working on Solana Pay at Solana Labs.

Ben Rubin is the CEO and co-founder of Towns, a decentralized messaging platform dedicated to redefining online communication. Rubin has a rich background and a decade of experience in creating digital spaces that build trust and foster human connection. Prior to founding Here Not There Labs, the developer of Towns, Ben founded two venture-backed startups, Meerkat and Houseparty, both of which reimagined how people interact digitally. He scaled his communication products to hundreds of millions of users and raised over $70M in funding from Sequoia Capital and Greylock. After Houseparty was acquired by Epic Games in 2019, Ben went on to found Here Not There Labs, a venture-backed startup with over $30M in funding from a16z crypto and Benchmark Capital.

Ben Strack is a senior reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and DeFi into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism.

Contact Ben via email at ben@blockworks.co

Bessie is a Brooklyn-based reporter covering DeFi and technology. Bessie worked as a tech journalist for The Org prior to joining Blockworks and was a management consultant for KPMG in another life. She is originally from Melbourne, Australia and holds an MA from New York University. She is also the mother of a bratty cat named Mochi. You can reach Bessie at bessie@blockworks.co

Bezalel Eithan Raviv, an ex-member of IDF Cyber Unit 8200, is a seasoned entrepreneur with deep expertise in technology and innovation. He now leads Lionsgate Network, a blockchain analysis firm specializing in professional money recovery services for digital asset investors in the +$2.5 trillion market. Prior to this role, Bezalel founded an investment banking firm supporting AI startups and developed Halleluiah, a pioneering web3 migration pattern for global music copyrights.

Billy Luedtke is the CEO and founder of Intuition, an information protocol powering a more trustful internet. Billy previously served as senior technology advisor at EY, a leading global professional services organization providing assurance, tax, audit, strategy and transactions. At EY, Billy created the company’s blockchain consulting practice, leading the technical development of blockchain-enabled distributed systems. Billy later became a senior token engineer at Consensys, a leading Ethereum developer (MetaMask, Infura, Linea). Billy continues to serve as an advisor at Consensys and MetaMask.

Billy Sebell is the Executive Director of the XDC Foundation and an early contributor to the XDC Network. Since early 2018, Billy has worked to develop the XDC community, focused on ecosystem and network growth and implementing use cases in trade finance. Billy previously spent more than 25 years in manufacturing and consumer products, dealing with the challenges businesses face in capital markets and international trade.

Bob Bodily is the Provo, Utah-based CEO and Co-Founder of Bioniq, a BTC Ordinals wallet and marketplace. He has a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and a Ph.D. in educational/instructional technology from Brigham Young University, with 25 articles and 1K citations. He is a data engineer with 100K+ lines of production Python code, and he has two previous software startups, including an EdTech SaaS that sold in 2021.


Bogdan is the Co-Founder and CTO of Tenderly, the full-stack infrastructure solutions provider powering Web3 developer teams with the essential tools and services throughout their development journeys. 

Prior to co-founding Tenderly, Bogdan worked as a software engineer for major software platforms such as MVP Workshop and Go Daddy where he was responsible for constructing and managing the development of distributed cloud systems before realizing the lack of infrastructural support for Web3 developers. With his vast experience in constructing, expanding, and overseeing extensive distributed cloud systems, he is well-versed in the intricacies of blockchain technologies and their practical applications. 

Brandon Truong is lead product contributor for ZetaChain. He previously co-founded social platform Yada (which was acquired in 2020) and spent time building products for BuzzFeed and Udacity. 


 Brian Pak is CEO &amp; Co-Founder of ChainLight, an award-winning blockchain security firm that specializes in smart contract audits and on-chain monitoring. He is also a co-founder of Theori, an established US-based offensive cybersecurity company, since 2016, which he still leads today, having now amassed trusted partners including Microsoft, Google and Samsung. Brian’s early career started when he co-founded and developed Kaprica Security, inventing and patenting the Skorpion Charger, an Android mobile charger that can detect malicious software with no user action required. He has worked on research and development projects with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US. Brian is also a founder of the team PPP (Plaid Parliament of Pwning) which won DEF CON CTF, one of the most prestigious hacker competitions held in Las Vegas, in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Brian graduated with a Masters Degree in Software Security Research from Carnegie Mellon University.

Three years ago, his act of burning a physical Banksy ignited global discourse on NFTs and Web3, exposing the industry's flaws. Now, through XION, founder Burnt Banksy leads a mission to democratize Web3 to the masses, making ownership accessible to all by removing unnecessary barriers and complications through chain abstraction. To date: XION has raised over $36M in funding with the goal of "making crypto disappear." Ultimately, Burnt Banksy wants to provide the benefits of crypto to people without requiring them to know anything about crypto.

Byron Donalds grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and he is also the proud son of a hardworking and loving single mother. His mother dedicated her time instilling in him that greatness requires sacrifice, which drives him as a devoted family man and United States Congressman.  

Byron is a graduate of Florida State University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance and marketing. Byron's career led him to Southwest Florida, where he worked in the banking, finance, and insurance industries. Elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016, Byron represented Hendry County and east Collier County in the State Capitol. During his tenure in the Florida House, Byron served as the PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee Chair during the 2018-2019 Legislative Session and served as the Insurance &amp; Banking Subcommittee's Chairman 2019-2020 Legislative Session. While serving in the Florida House, primarily focused on elder affairs, criminal justice reform, and ensuring that each child has access to a world-class education. 

Byron is committed to serving and giving back to the community that gave him so much. He has served Southwest Florida in many ways, including previously serving on the Board of Trustees for Florida Southwestern State College after being appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott. Byron continues to volunteer in his church as a youth leader and a mentor. He also enjoys volunteering as a coach in youth football and basketball leagues.

Congressman Byron Donalds lives in Naples, Florida, with his wife, Erika, and their three sons: Damon, Darin, and Mason. Byron has spent his entire adult life serving others, whether it be through volunteering, business, or leadership. He is committed to representing Florida's 19th Congressional District's conservative values in Washington DC to ensure a stronger Florida and a stronger nation.

Byron Gilliam writes the Blockworks Daily newsletter, in which he tries to explain crypto markets to traditional investors and traditional markets to crypto investors (while trying to explain both to himself). Before joining Blockworks, Byron spent 25 years trading international equities for banks and brokers in Frankfurt, London, Paris and New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in History from Binghamton University. Contact Byron at byron@blockworks.co.

Cameron B. Pick is a partner and patent attorney at the Chicago-based intellectual property boutique law firm Marshall, Gerstein &amp; Borun. He prosecutes patents for emerging technologies, including blockchain and crypto, among other innovative areas. He may be reached at cpick@marshallip.com. 

Candace Kelly is the Chief Legal and Policy Officer for the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world's financial infrastructure. She leads the team responsible for SDF’s legal affairs and the policy team that is focused on bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. Previously, Candace worked for Uber Technologies, Inc., where she helped navigate the company’s response to regulatory investigations and advised on safety, security, privacy, consumer protection, and law enforcement response. Prior to that she served for 17 years at the United States Department of Justice.

Carlos Mercado is a data scientist at Flipside Crypto, specializing in the convergence of data science, cryptocurrency, economics, and open-source research. His expertise spans the Ethereum ecosystem and over 20 other blockchains, where he leverages SQL, R, Python, and Solidity to develop innovative data models and analytics tools. Carlos's notable contributions include the creation of the True Freeze DeFi primitive and leading the production of the 2023 Crypto Users Report, generating significant industry impact. Prior to Flipside, he applied his skills in AI strategy and product development at Guidehouse and offered data science consulting services.


​​Casey Wagner is a Senior Reporter based in New York. Casey covers crypto regulation, markets and central banks. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on macroeconomics at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies. Contact Casey via email at casey@blockworks.co

Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure.

His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups – Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and IOHK – and he has held a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors. He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013.

His current projects focus on educating people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream. This includes leading the research, design and development of Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in September 2017.

Chris Barrett serves as the Director of Communications at Chainlink Labs and has been involved with Chainlink since 2017. Chainlink is the only on-chain data and cross-chain platform that enables financial institutions to develop customized, flexible, compliant, and future-proof blockchain applications and tokenized assets. Before this role, he founded a leading PR agency for technology startups, where he worked with over 1,000 innovative companies. Chris is also an avid runner, having maintained a streak of running for over five consecutive years. 

Chris Brooks founded CryptoAssetRecovery.com in 2017 to help digital asset owners recover lost assets. Chris was a programmer at Fidelity Investments, VP of Technology at venture-backed Carescout (which sold to GenWorth, a spinoff of General Electric) and has founded and sold three bootstrapped internet companies. 

Chris Swenor is a seasoned entrepreneur and blockchain pioneer with a 20-year career that kicked off as a self-taught programmer at age 13. He swiftly moved from corporate roles into startups, leading several to successful acquisitions. Chris started venturing into blockchain and cryptocurrency in 2013, founding Reach in 2019, a platform that has since attracted over $13M in funding and onboarded more than 8,000 developers.

In recent years, Chris founded Humble, a decentralized exchange on Algorand, and Alloy, a blockchain gaming platform acquired in 2023. He is currently working on Voi Network, a layer 1 blockchain empowering its community with user-centric governance and economics. 

Christopher Perkins is President of CoinFund, a web3 focused Registered Investment Advisor.  He is also a member of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee and its Digital Asset Markets Subcommittee.

Ciarán Murray is a seasoned veteran of the blockchain industry. Aside from advising on numerous blockchain projects over the years, and releasing a synthetics assets proof-of-concept last year, Ciarán previously worked in the media industry for British Sky Broadcasting. He is not only well placed to understand the issues facing the media industry but also how to apply blockchain and other distributed technologies to remedy them.

Da Hongfei is the founder of Neo, an open-source, community-driven blockchain platform designed to welcome developers into the Smart Economy. Hongfei operates as CEO of Neo Global Development (NGD), the executive arm of the Neo Foundation that is committed to developing the Neo protocol and its supporting ecosystem. He is seen as a luminary in the Web3 space and as a blockchain pioneer in Asia. Hongfei received his education at the South China University of Technology, receiving degrees in technology and English.

Damian Alvarez is a communications professional helping Web3 clients get their stories heard. He is currently the Head of Communications at Aori, an omni-chain logic layer that leverages off-chain data storage to enable high-frequency on-chain trading. He has worked at agencies such as Edelman and YAP Global to assist a variety of emerging and established clients to engage in industry-wide narratives surrounding technology. He may be contacted at damian@aori.io.

Dan Keeler is Editor-in-Chief at Blockworks. Prior to joining Blockworks, he was Frontier Markets Editor at the Wall Street Journal where he managed the Journal’s coverage of smaller emerging markets as well as created a number of high-profile events and a highly regarded newsletter. Before joining the WSJ, he was the Editor of Global Finance magazine. He is also the founder of New York’s FM Network, a group that hosts gatherings of finance professionals focused on smaller emerging markets.

Contact Dan via email at dan@blockworks.co

Dan Smith is a Senior Research Analyst based in the United States covering Curve, Convex, Aave, and Compound. Daniel previously worked in tax and valuation at EY and Bennett Thrasher. He is focused on using data visualization tools to better understand the health and profitability of various DeFi protocols. Contact Dan at daniel@blockworks.co

Daniel Batten is a ClimateTech investor, Bitcoin environmental impact analyst, CEO advisor and author. He is most widely known for his data-driven approach to Bitcoin mining research.


Daniel Cawrey has been involved full-time in the crypto space since 2013, including as an editor at CoinDesk. He is author of 2020’s “Mastering Blockchain” and 2023’s “Understanding Crypto” books, both available on Amazon.

Daranee Ganesh is a publishing and production manager based in Washington, DC. She holds an LLB with a focus on emerging technologies. Prior to Blockworks, Daranee worked on several legal and non-profit projects aimed at integrating decentralized solutions in the social justice framework, specifically within immigration and environmental law. Contact Daranee at daranee@blockworks.co.

Darren Kleine is an Alberta-based reporter covering podcast content at Blockworks. Previously reporting for Cointelegraph, he wrote feature content and a weekly series focused on the personal stories of influential figures in the Web3 space. He has been an active participant in the NFT art scene since 2020, creating works on curated platforms including SuperRare and KnownOrigin and hosting an NFT art-focused podcast called NFP with DKleine. Contact Darren Kleine at darren@blockworks.co.

David is an Editor based in the Netherlands focused on data-driven journalism. Previously, he wrote for TheNextWeb's crypto vertical before launching Protos in 2021. He's a reformed hardline Bitcoiner passionate about permissionless and decentralized networks. Contact David at david@blockworks.co

David Schwed serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Halborn, an elite blockchain security firm. Prior to Halborn, he was the Global Head of Digital Assets Technology at BNY Mellon, the world's biggest custodian bank, where he integrated the IT strategy for the company's digital asset services. David was also CISO for Galaxy Digital, where he led the development of information security and IT infrastructure, and served as a risk committee advisor, evaluating emerging threats in financial services. He also founded the Cybersecurity Master's Program at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health, sharing his expertise as a practitioner-in-residence.


Delphine Forma is the policy lead for Europe &amp; UK at Solidus Labs, a leading market compliance and market integrity firm in digital assets. With a career spanning roles in major banks and blockchain ventures, she brings extensive experience in compliance and legal across sectors. She is the founder of the crypto compliance and legal TG group with 1,400 members. A Sciences Po Lyon alumna, Delphine also holds advanced degrees in European Criminal Business Law and anti-money laundering.

Denelle Dixon is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting changemakers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. She leads the teams that help maintain Stellar's codebase, support the communities around Stellar, and advocate on behalf of the network with international stakeholders. Before joining Stellar, Dixon served as COO of Mozilla, one of the most successful mission-driven open-source organizations.. During her tenure at Mozilla, she led the organization’s business, revenue and policy teams including the ongoing fight for net neutrality and the global effort to ensure that people can control their personal data.

Dermot O’Riordan serves as a Director at the POKT Network Foundation where he helps steer product development and strategy. From Ireland to Silicon Valley, Dermot’s career ranged from advising tech companies and VC firms to leading marquee industry events. His interest in Web3 was sparked in 2016 with the rise of DAOs, leading him to dive deeper into the blockchain space, where he served as an advisor to projects like Radix and Dusk, and later, spearheading growth at Eden Block.

Donovan is a reporter based in Singapore. He previously worked in editorial at Bankless and is a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns and the Wu-Tang Clan. Contact Donovan at donovan@blockworks.co.

Elena leads product marketing at Hiro Systems, a developer tooling company bringing smart contracts to Bitcoin. She has spent the past six years working in blockchain and cryptocurrency startups. Elena co-founded Blockchain Latinx, an online community that explores what blockchain means for Latinos and for Latin America. She has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Eli Cohen is a corporate lawyer with 25+ years of experience in commercial transactions, financial services and regulatory matters and has worked in Asia, Europe and the United States. He is the General Counsel for Centrifuge, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and securitization platform and Chief Compliance Officer for Anemoy Capital SPC Limited a British Virgin Islands fund company issuer of the tokenized Anemoy Liquid Treasury Fund 1. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Eli Zeger writes about democracy and its relationship with technology. His work has been published in the Boston Review, Noema Magazine, Strange Matters, Zora Zine, among numerous other publications.

Elliot is the Head of Climate Strategy at Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol, where he is helping unlock Bitcoin's clean energy potential by bridging sustainable miners and climate-conscious investors. In his role at Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol, Elliot educates policymakers and NGOs on Bitcoin’s relationship with the energy system. He is a climatetech operator focused on alleviating energy poverty, bridging the digital divide, and promoting financial inclusion through technologies such as Bitcoin. Elliot was previously a Schwarzman Scholar and has served in the military, US Department of Energy, Clinton Foundation, and more. 

Evan Thomas is General Counsel for Alluvial, a software development company supporting the Liquid Collective liquid staking protocol. He was previously at Wealthsimple, Canada’s largest consumer fintech, where he was Head of Legal for Wealthsimple’s crypto trading platform. While at Wealthsimple, Evan helped launch Canada’s first regulated staking product. Before Wealthsimple, Evan was a litigator at Osler, Hoskin &amp; Harcourt LLP for nearly 15 years. Among other notable cases, Evan was hearing counsel to 3iQ Corp. in its appeal securing regulatory approval for Canada’s first publicly traded bitcoin fund in 2019.

Felix Jauvin is the host of the On the Margin podcast. Based in British Columbia, Canada, he lives and breathes where crypto and macroeconomics intersect.

Felix Xu, crypto geek, early adopter, and NFT collector. Felix graduated from NYU Stern and founded two crypto projects, ARPA and Bella Protocol, among the global top 500 by market cap. Felix previously worked at Fosun Investment, Sackler family office, and Vertical Research in New York and Beijing. Felix loves sailing, kitesurfing and was featured in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his NFT collection.

Frank has a diverse career that spans creative writing, day trading, and a 12-year stint in financial planning. After experimenting with blockchain and being an early adapter to the Solana ecosystem, Mathis co-founded GenesysGo in 2021 to create a faster, more reliable and more secure decentralized data storage protocol. Their flagship product, shdwDrive is built on Solana and aims to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and traditional business infrastructure. GenesysGo is powered by a new type of decentralized data storage consensus mechanism, built from the ground up by the GenesysGo team.

Fraser is co-founder &amp; CTO of Cubist and an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She is an expert in software correctness: her research focuses on systems security, automated bug finding, and formal verification, from verifying (parts of) production systems like browser JITs, to finding exploitable bugs in real codebases. Her tools have found many zero-day bountied bugs and CVEs in the Chrome and Firefox browsers and multiple operating systems. Fraser received her BA in English and her MS and PhD in Computer Science from Stanford.


Garrett Harper is the producer for the Empire podcast. Garrett worked in private equity and product management before jumping into crypto full-time in 2021. His favorite thing about crypto? It conflates art, gaming, finance, software, and psychology into one hyper-growth industry.

Gijs op de Weegh is the CEO and Founder of StablR, where he leads the strategy, business operations, and investor relations. He founded StablR out of his passion for implementing blockchain technology in the financial industry and exploring its possibilities. Before founding StablR, Gijs co-founded Payvision, an e-commerce payment service provider, in 2002. Under his leadership, Payvision grew to over 300 employees and achieved a turnover exceeding €4 billion.

Gísli Kristjánsson is co-founder and CTO of Monerium, the first company to issue fiat onchain. He fell in love with programming at the age of 13. After working as a bonds broker, Gísli saw the inefficiencies of securities settlements firsthand and recognized the potential of Bitcoin. Prior to co-founding Monerium in 2015, Gísli founded and sold a platform to give users access to geo-blocked content. Fun fact: Gísli’s Ethereum address is among the 1% of the oldest addresses.

Haden Patrick is Director of Business Operations of Cordial Systems, a provider of institutional-grade self custody software using a Zero Trust security model.  Haden has executive experience in team leadership, engineering and education originating from his 24 year career as a Naval Officer. After co-founding SoloKeys, the first open-source security key company, he went on to manage projects connecting web3 to traditional finance at a cryptocurrency trading firm before joining Cordial Systems.

Hadley Stern, Advisor to MPCH, has extensive experience in leadership roles within TradFi and digital asset industries. As Global Head of Custody at the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) from 2021 to 2023, Hadley spearheaded the creation of the industry’s first bank-grade crypto-custody platform. Hadley also previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Bloq where he was responsible for the P&amp;L, product roadmap, and general operations. Hadley was Founding President of Fidelity Digital Asset Services where he led Fidelity's Blockchain Incubator and Digital Currency group and was pivotal in early product launches, including activating Bitcoin donations to Fidelity Charitable and building and running Fidelity first Bitcoin mining Operation.



Hannah Finnerty is Blockworks' editorial operations manager and is based in the US. Hannah previously worked in podcast production for The National in Abu Dhabi. She graduated from Bowling Green State University with a degree in multiplatform journalism and Middle Eastern politics. Contact Hannah at hannah@blockworks.co.

Hatu Sheikh is the co-founder and CMO of DAO Maker, the largest on-chain funding platform with 1.5M+ users. The platform's contracts have distributed over $600M, with a cumulative return of around 10x. Hatu has a strong background in marketing and strategy and has played a pivotal role in driving the success of various blockchain-based projects and tokens, crafting effective marketing strategies, and forging powerful synergies within the industry.

Harry Duckworth, a law graduate, embarked on a unique journey that led him to become the youngest trader at global commodities giant Trafigura. He then went on to set up desks for several hedge funds worldwide, accumulating over a decade of experience in trading, hedge funds, and emergent technologies. 

Through his work, he became fascinated by the revolutionary power of blockchain tech soon after the inception of Bitcoin. Years later he founded AgriDex International, to provide digital marketplaces and supply chain information for all participants in the global food chain. 

Hind Kurhan is a Co-Founder of Thesis Defense, a decentralized technology security auditing company whose mission is the facilitation of broad adoption of decentralized technology by improving security and audit consistency throughout the blockchain sphere.


Ian Rogers is the Chief Experience Officer at Ledger, leading the consumer-facing business delivering the world’s #1 way to buy and secure cryptocurrency.  Prior, Ian was the Chief Digital Officer at LVMH for five transformative years, working with a portfolio of nearly one hundred brands across luxury including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora, and Hennessy.  Ian also sits on the boards of Dr Marten’s and Lyst.

Ian spent twenty years bringing digital music to the mainstream, first with Winamp then Yahoo!, Beats, and Apple.  Ian contributed to the 2015 launch of Apple Music including Beats 1, their digital streaming channel. Ian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science (with honors, Phi Beta Kappa) from Indiana University in 1994.  Ian built some of the earliest music-related Web sites in the early 90s and has been working with Beastie Boys since 1993.

Igor Telyatnikov is the CEO and co-founder of the blockchain and financial services technology company AlphaPoint. Headquartered in New York, AlphaPoint supports over 10 million users, powering marketplaces and wallets in over 35 countries. With 15 years of experience in tech and innovation, Igor has empowered over 150 clients, including CME Group and Scotiabank. In 2022, he partnered with the Government of El Salvador to upgrade its Chivo Wallet into a national Bitcoin and dollar wallet, creating the first nationalized crypto ecosystem. Igor previously held roles at Cvetlo, LiftDNA, and Ingersoll Rand/Allegion, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Penn State University. He is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Ishan is a University of Texas McCombs School of Business graduate with a BBA in Finance &amp; Marketing. He founded and managed a Private Equity Fund that reached an eight-figure Assets Under Management (AUM) and has also gained experience with many top 200 projects of crypto market cap. In 2022, he helped found SCRIB3, a Web3 Marketing and PR venture. He was notably among the first to raise an alert about potential deceptive and unethical business practices by FTX. Ishan contributes as a DeFi analyst, an active angel investor, and an advisor in projects like Polygon Technologies.

Jack Kubinec is a Solana ecosystem reporter based in Brooklyn, New York. Jack previously interned at Blockworks before joining full-time. He graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a degree in sociology. Contact Jack at jack.kubinec@blockworks.co.

Jag is the CEO and co-founder of re.al, an L2 build to facilitate deep onchain liquidity for tokenized RWAs. re.al seeks to redefine how RWAs are integrated into DeFi, using yield-generating real-world assets as novel building blocks in existing DeFi primitives.

James Cirrone is a breaking news reporter based in New York. Prior to joining Blockworks, James was a reporter and newsletter writer at Bloomberg News. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. He also played trumpet in the university’s marching band. Contact James via email at james.cirrone@blockworks.co.

Jason Allegrante is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at Fireblocks. He is an experienced Counsel with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry with both large, traditional financial institutions as well as early stage fintech startups.



Jason Dehni is the co-founder and group CEO of Credbull, a leading DeFi platform offering structured high fixed yield solutions in SME private credit. Jason has over 25 years of senior management experience in asset management, private banking, SME lending, insurance, risk management, and crypto across North America, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. His background includes serving as group COO &amp; MENA CEO of a publicly traded crypto asset management company, co-founder &amp; CEO of an SME trade finance platform, and senior leadership roles in asset management, wealth management,  insurance, and management consulting. Jason holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an Honours BA in Economics &amp; Political Science from the University of Toronto. 

Jean-Marie Mognetti is Chief Executive Officer of CoinShares, a publicly listed investment firm that manages over five billion in digital assets on behalf of a global investor base, and an experienced commodities trader with a background in quantitative strategies. A veteran of the Global Advisors group of companies since 2011, Jean-Marie has served in various leadership roles throughout his tenure, most recently as CEO of Global Advisors (Jersey) Limited and director of GABI, the world’s first regulated Bitcoin fund. In addition to his management responsibilities as CEO, Jean-Marie oversees the firm’s proprietary trading arm, capital markets portfolio, and risk management practices – areas in which he has developed unique expertise over his career. Prior to joining Global Advisors, Jean-Marie was a quantitative strategist with Hermes Commodities Fund Managers, and an Energy Trader Assistant at Lehman Brothers. He holds Master of Science degrees in Mathematical Trading and Finance from Sir John Cass Business School in London, and Bank-Finance-Insurance from Université Paris Dauphine in Paris, in addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Finance from Université Paris Dauphine.

Jeff is an editor at Blockworks, based in the United States. He has been a part of the blockchain space for over a decade, most recently working as US news editor at Cointelegraph. His areas of focus include empowering artists and creators through technology, using proof-of-participation methods to reward self-improvement, reducing the effectiveness of Sybil attacks, seeking transparent equity for disadvantaged communities, and exploring fairer models of world governance. Contact Jeff at Jeffrey@blockworks.co.

Jesper Johansen is the founder and CEO of NORTHSTAKE, a regulated custodial staking company specialized in building regulatory compliant crypto staking products for institutional investors and financial institutions. The team holds backgrounds from financial institutions, pension funds, large investment companies to consulting, technology and audit firms, such as Accenture, Deloitte, PwC as well as blockchain and crypto projects e.g. DAI Foundation (MakerDao), Ethereum and L1/L2s. 

Prior to NORTHSTAKE, Jesper held leadership positions with Accenture Strategy and Deloitte Consulting advising clients in heavily regulated industries to implement new technologies and drive business transformation. He holds a MBA from Copenhagen Business School and a B.Sc. in International Business. 

Jess is the CEO of Reown, the onchain UX platform and builders of the WalletConnect Network. Previously she led Crypto at Checkout.com, a global fintech company. Jess was also a member of the Bank of England CBDC Engagement Forum and a member of UK Finance New Digital Money Steering Group, Innovate Finance Fintech Strategy Group and Department for International Trade Fintech Group.

Jess Sun is an independent writer and content strategist. She loves bringing good ideas to light, helping the people behind them shine, and bridging gaps in understanding. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn. Go to her website to learn about working with her.

Jesse Knutson is the head of operations at Bitfinex Securities, where he is responsible for expanding the platform’s issuance pipeline, overseeing distribution and building its user base while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Prior to this role, Knutson served as vice president of financial products at Blockstream, and held roles at prominent investment banks including Macquarie Group and Barclays.

Jim Myers is an engineer, early-stage investor, and the CTO &amp; Co-Founder of Flipside Crypto, a leading blockchain data analytics and business intelligence platform. Prior to co-founding Flipside, Jim developed the core technology that took products from 0 to 1 at companies such as Mylestone, Pluralsight, and Smarterer. Jim’s journey into the crypto industry began in 2015, eventually co-founding Flipside Crypto in 2017 to help empower crypto communities to create and share data-driven insights on the projects they care most about. Jim's passion for building extends to the broader startup community via his developer event series, Stack Dive, and as an angel investor to several local Boston-area startups, including AdHawk and LinkSquares. In a previous life, Jim developed advanced models to quantify risk and abnormal returns in the market for Financial Transmission Rights, a type of energy derivative.

JJ is an advisor, mentor and co-founder working across Bitcoin, mining and web3. He currently mentors for Outlier Ventures new Bitcoin Base Camp program and has co-founded a new protocol operating in stealth mode.

Joey is ranked by Chambers and Partners as one of the top 12 lawyers in the world, advising many of the largest platforms around the globe in the space. He co-chaired the Gibraltar Government’s working group on Blockchain for 3 years, which was established to develop the infrastructure to accommodate a DLT regulatory framework. Joey is also a specialist consultant to the United Nations and trains and assesses authorities primarily around South East Asia in virtual asset developments, DeFi and regulation. He is a member of several think tanks including the prestigious global ‘Wharton Reg@Tech’ initiative, the Blockchain Industry Parliamentary Roundtable on Blockchain Technologies at Parliament in the UK, and also contributed to the UK Law Society on the Blockchain Legal and Regulatory Guidance publication. He was the Xapo Representative on the Libra/Diem Association and has also contributed to various stablecoin and CBDC developments. 

Joeyz Yu is an entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in product design and development. He co-founded Sending Labs to revolutionize communication protocols and social applications for Web3, leading the development of their flagship products SendingMe and SendingNetwork. Previously, Joeyz co-founded MoboTab, where he created the Dolphin Browser, used by over 200 million users and later acquired by ChangYou. Joeyz's passion for empowering users and building exceptional teams drives his mission to shape the future of the internet. 

Byron Gilliam

This is a segment from The Breakdown newsletter. To read more editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/brand/the-breakdown">subscribe</a>.



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“The miracle of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs.”&nbsp;



— John Bogle



<a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2025/08/06/how-loyalty-programmes-are-keeping-americas-airlines-aloft">Could stablecoins kill the airlines?</a>​​



The Economist writes that the four biggest US airlines would all have made a loss last year if not for their side hustle selling loyalty points.



Delta, for example, made an operating profit of $6 billion on the year, $7 billion of which came from selling loyalty points to credit card companies.&nbsp;



Incredibly, Delta says 1% of America’s GDP is spent through its co-branded cards.



In total, US consumers paid $187 billion in credit card interchange fees last year, which always seems ripe for disruption.



But The Economist points out that roughly three-quarters of interchange fees are returned to customers as rewards or rebates.



People love their rewards, especially the airline rewards that make travel feel like it’s free. This could be a defensive moat for the credit card companies that stablecoin issuers are hoping to disrupt.



Understandably, the airlines would like the card companies to maintain that moat — so much so that they lobbied against an amendment to the GENIUS Act that would have lowered interchange fees.



In a <a href="https://www.digitaltransactions.net/opposition-mounts-to-the-durbin-marshall-amendment/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">letter</a> to Congress, the airline industry warned that the legislation would “lead to significantly fewer passengers and flights.”



The amendment was dropped, but if stablecoins really catch on, it could have the same effect: fewer flights and higher ticket prices.



But what if stablecoins offer points, too?&nbsp;



The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/business/wall-street-banks-crypto-stablecoins.html">reported</a> this morning that big US banks planning to issue stablecoins also “plan to operate rewards programs, similar to existing credit card promotions, to woo customers to their own coins.”



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-crypto-1e7ab14a?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAi8AHEWU5AffhZBSv_TQbcTnUofOrvKWrD2LDnjVPiUPUopD2VUdx7lmQIqyKQ%3D&amp;gaa_ts=689cfe24&amp;gaa_sig=Of7yLxXiom12TAQLQTXDx1x7fG8CZhe2xrGRkEyM2ozPTIWhlZbOAZYs8_QD2FXa_OxhUqBdMYcgIFsrUAD5sg%3D%3D">PancakeSwap diplomacy</a>



The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-crypto-1e7ab14a?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAiQ5e0ijjCRuKB28f0bK_cN-PmNcO3Dyy02yWmbP9s183aOIDOA0m1-a4bbJgE%3D&amp;gaa_ts=689e03f8&amp;gaa_sig=3K9u0zdaSpLfTwXipkjvw7rHnBrH0tIRlcEJWoLgejOE9AE3oTMfO_0XBeVBIGyjfT96cOUq-MiqwWHb9zLXrA%3D%3D">reports</a> that Binance is making a concerted effort to promote World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin, presumably to curry favor with President Trump.



Amusingly, much of it is happening on PancakeSwap.



90% of the trading in USD1 happens on the breakfast-themed decentralized exchange, where volumes exploded over the last two months.



The reason? “Crypto investors were chasing prizes worth up to $1 million for generating as much USD1 trading as possible as part of a ‘Liquidity Drive.’” (I’m guessing paid by Binance.)



Popular USD1 pairs include Torch of Liberty and Eagles Landing — memecoins launched with the explicit goal of getting people to use the president’s stablecoin.



Despite the America-first branding, most of the activity happens in China: “Traders, mostly writing in Chinese, gather in groups on the Telegram messaging app to talk about competing for rewards paid out to top users of USD1 and advertised by PancakeSwap.”



Recent events have left many <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-trump-being-so-generous-to-china/a-73594826">wondering</a> why Trump is being so nice to China.



Could it have anything to do with a Chinese crypto exchange paying Chinese traders to use a US president’s stablecoin, to trade US-themed memecoins, on a US-breakfast-themed exchange?



I mean, it’s only natural to feel more generous toward someone that’s making you a lot of money.



Improbably, I know. The US-China détente is probably not about PancakeSwap.&nbsp;



But we can’t rule it out!



Which is wild.



If memecoin traders on PancakeSwap ease tension between China and the US, it will all have been worth it.



<a href="https://blog.bitmex.com/treasury-company-advisory-agreements/">DATs are more expensive than you think</a>



BitMEX Research details the hidden costs of investing in digital asset treasury companies.



Many DATs pay an outside asset manager just to hold on to their crypto for them.



The Solana DAT Upexi, for example, pays an annual fee of 1.75% of its assets to custody its SOL tokens.



Verb Technologies, a Toncoin DAT, pays an annual “advisory fee” equal to 2% of its market capitalization (every year!) to the investment firm Kingsway Capital Partners.&nbsp;



How much there is to advise on with a DAT is unclear — you just buy the token, right?



And paying your advisor as a percent of market capitalization instead of NAV seems particularly egregious.



MEI Pharma, the Litecoin DAT, pays 0.75% a year to an advisor and 1.75% a year to an asset manager.



ATNF, the latest ETH DAT, pays an asset manager 2% assets for custody, with a hefty annual minimum of $1 million.



ATNF is up 113% this week, so you can see why investors might not care just at the moment.



But they should because the “tyranny of compounding costs” is inescapable over time.



Most of these new DATs issue warrants and/or options to their advisors as well, which will dilute shareholders when exercised.



BNC, the BNB coin DAT currently trading at $28, has granted options to its advisor at an exercise price of $0.00001 per share.



“In some cases,” BitMEX adds, “there is often an incentive or payment linked to the market capitalization or premium to mNAV.”



You can also throw in the cost of the C-suite incentives, payroll, legal advice, banker advice, auditor fees, exchange-listing fees…&nbsp;



All of which must add up to multiple percentage points of NAV per year. Every year.



Or you could hold an ETF for an all-in annual fee of 0.2%.



Or hold the crypto yourself for a fee of 0.00%.



“The end game here is that many of these companies eventually trade at a significant discount to mNAV and become zombies once again,” BitMEX concludes, “potentially still paying significant fees.” Emphasis added to make John Bogle roll over in his grave.



<a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/08/11/3130918/0/en/Safety-Shot-Announces-Strategic-Alliance-with-Bonk-Founding-Contributors-Initiating-BONK-Treasury-Strategy.html">Bonk treasury strategy</a>



Markets have a knack for chasing any profitable strategy right up to its breaking point — and for DATs, they may have hit it this week.&nbsp;



Could a Bonk treasury company be to DATs what Pets.com was to e-commerce — a cartoon mascot that ends up discrediting the whole category?&nbsp;



Maybe. The token dropped 5% after the announcement.



<a href="https://stargate.discourse.group/t/layerzero-foundation-acquisition-of-stargate-stg/682">Merger arbitrage comes to crypto</a>



The financial blogger Mojo <a href="https://mojo3324106.substack.com/p/the-factory-that-makes-investment">explains</a> why “merger arbitrage” is the best way to learn about markets.



Speculating on whether a company with a pending takeover offer will ultimately be bought and at what price requires deep knowledge of both bidder and target, the industry it’s in, antitrust law, how the regulatory bodies work and much more.



It also makes you think harder about investing: “Merger arbitrage forces systematic thinking and mastery of process in ways that picking growth stocks never could,” Mojo writes.



Unlike most investing, merger arb generally requires you to be right for the right reason — being carried along by momentum or catching a narrative won’t save you from lazy decision making.



I’d argue that being right for the wrong reason is especially prevalent in crypto.&nbsp;



If so, the merger-arb situation announced this week might be especially educational.&nbsp;



On Monday, the LayerZero Foundation, which develops the LayerZero messaging protocol, proposed the acquisition of Stargate, a bridge protocol that uses LayerZero.&nbsp;



Just like a stock-based deal, the foundation’s offer was $0.1675 per token, paid in ZRO at a ratio of 1 STG to 0.08634 ZRO.



To know whether that presents an opportunity for arbitrage (by buying STG and shorting ZRO), you’ll need a deep understanding of DAO governance, how both protocols work, who the stakeholders in each community are, the crypto borrow-and-lend market&#8230;



There’s a lot more to it than, say, guessing how much the market will overpay for a DAT.&nbsp;



“Merger arbitrage strips investing down to its essential elements,” Mojo sums up.



Crypto investing could use some of that, I think.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

The Breakdown Newsletter

Thursday links: Points, pancakes, DATs and merger arb

Donovan Choy

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



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Here’s a weekly snapshot of the Solana ecosystem.



SOL’s price briefly flirted with the $200 mark before it dipped to $193 amid a broader market dip this morning.



Unlike BTC and ETH, SOL does not enjoy an institutional bid (yet) from treasury companies. SOL DATs, mainly Upexi (UPXI) and DeFi Development Corp (DFDV), have accumulated about $596 billion in SOL, compared to $11 billion in ETH and $86 billion in BTC.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfo3qnUVE2EwsXbB3ctZI-7qkQ1miqzkVGMBKhAQgPGYvT0kpRmhwNcQhyLZUjW_E8h9viFaTkW9zcUgrFlvwWiJU7ZtfEFkVvC_B04TbZa9rUvmEM5Cpg9w818GtNgGc7GpUUEHA?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



Looking at daily REV (all fees paid to transact onchain), Solana’s REV has stayed relatively stagnant at the $2.5 million to $3.5 million mark for months.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcWMB1FxPxzEY5E6gzvo0iwUJxtt8T-TWPWZuafG-SA2tKqylwxIFaqvxLAbPmk2FvbjuUCujqz0K0GSA-2MTDEnPc0yvYAH82fvJACo30UyRkzNW7BWePw2pWDm9Jt3kMvRp2rGw?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



Net inflows into SOL’s sole institutional ETF — the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-rex-osprey-first-solana-staking-etf">REX-Osprey SOL Staking ETF</a> (SSK) — have slowed. The fund drew $3.7 million for the week of Aug. 4-10, compared to $58.3 million in its launch week. Daily net flows were $5.2 million on Tuesday.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXct3Z7-BJMyI0zuS63L0ZiIxoe7iKMmEkXZ9UpEw5JF1QSUVUKOzqHgdg5kfef8XDMD-7N-mkbtWTGuk8ce-rWYNps_6Hp2KpdYlwkB5b4MxLGpbkxmkyKUGZ6SxqlBJ3SfEpnsOg?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



Over on the memecoin side of the world, Pump lost its dominance to Letsbonk through July, but recently reclaimed its spot in the last week. Yesterday, Pump saw 30,550 tokens launched compared to 1,499 on Letsbonk.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcDeKL_YMDtlTDWEb8gcdq50zqOhvnnDOxsKsG2-K6uIAVjQCKUxQTEkownKiknmlTyZ6BaNDxZpw-8INqb68Nz_ccjmQf5XK_idxIapkzuLvc9mmMRNdiGBfOyRJEJOF3r0zu1rQ?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



The PUMP token has traded down to $0.0036, after it briefly touched its ICO price of $0.004 last night.



The Axiom trading bot continues to dominate the trading bot market, regardless of which launchpad is winning. Axiom has grown to 60% market share since its inception in February.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeug22PZabAQnYntB4Qmse1Enj0UAkrHrPkPZyx22I8JvI2_nJCh_surFQY2SjYJg14zH6v8Lmn6HOtPQ1IOi9uADXAXUzc9RVC9ec4nmzAw24YSMBmhQkiHeaX3nR-ZEnf1d-oqg?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



Over on the perps market, Drift has been having a good month, <a href="https://x.com/cindyleowtt/status/1955668879398568134">hitting</a> $500 million in open interest yesterday. Its zero-fee trading for BTC and ETH introduced in mid-July has sparked a growth of volumes, as seen in the below chart.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc8qZoCqS4QJUiHzCtAXqV9_2PsK38b2rAQTl8I53QYpjFamiVfbcZhCt-E-otlXFXUxQveTX5KpvWKoApbKa6_Aw8nZlFbf_QKDRnpYD87UFs5jNcG2QN8qqntT5i9OkjJh3oRrQ?key=lCGEZ20LQzDEgtY3bmAgFw" alt=""/></figure>



Despite its growth, though, the perps crown in Solana is still held by Jupiter. 



Based on trading volumes, Drift has about $17.1 billion in the last 30 days, compared to Jupiter perp <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/perps/jupiter">volumes</a> of $23.1 billion. Both are of course still eclipsed by Hyperliquid’s trading volumes of ~<a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/hyperliquid?dashboard=135">$371 billion</a> within the same time period.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

ETFs

The state of Solana in 6 charts

Felix Jauvin

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">subscribe</a>.



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It’s amazing how quickly things can change in one week.



It feels like only yesterday that the Fed appeared unlikely to cut rates at all in September. Now, we’re beginning to price in the chance of not just a 25 basis point cut, but a 50 bps one!



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcIqLXVnFPxgRS9-SQdjWp3QktkkCO7GOzrD5hMp4MTlc65rMLV_DMlDl8FXkrveiiTbx2mlyszeDAJCpomXmce_fvTtZ_36yjHYCYpzffvHxKyoB52CWJVqjUZrUETprAab8Z9?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" alt=""/></figure>



In a Tuesday Fox Business interview, Treasury Secretary Bessent added fuel to the speculation by saying &#8220;the real thing now to think about is: Should we get a 50 basis point rate cut in September?”



I’m old enough to remember when Bessent said he wouldn’t comment on future monetary policy decisions. But here we are.&nbsp;



So, should the Fed cut 50 bps in September? Let’s look at both sides of the argument.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">No cuts</h2>



Although this month’s CPI print was pretty tame and consensus, there are some underlying inflation pressures building.&nbsp;



Core goods, one of the biggest drivers of the disinflation story over the last couple years, is now beginning to accelerate higher, largely driven by tariffs:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfxynCt7Fbq84LrOU49AcJo-R6lEirkgOm2MqZNFb1PXKKFSV6DP5CsPqXhgqzvegULkOl01gOsvxvHXTBB3VxPX4500nHkdAyWN8454L6i4yQTSJbz9NdntZgrdgRFcRRaLb0Uxg?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" alt=""/></figure>



Despite a pretty nasty jobs report last week, forward-looking estimates point to a labor market that is beginning to reaccelerate again.&nbsp;



In the most recent business headcount surveys, the amount of businesses that planned on meaningfully increasing headcount in the next year bounced higher:<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd2Y48iD6dzODB5onj4GCQPcoIhm8f7AyZrCQth5vH3RRbs2l4PwQuhvUOz-M9B_5piBInOGXMWx9B6L7-U7H1vnX2BQLANCd07rEPKuPK-UHVBmiZV_DpBtJ1Rdq1h9uFk7O-Y?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" width="624" height="375">



Looking at Visa’s US spending momentum index, the consumer appears pretty resilient in the face of tariffs and their spending habits are looking like they’re beginning to tick higher:<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc57w1GNEk5DGjGydNeqjW_7VvnHftktH-M6t6VMhN-5HhfrWeOSBQjWu7BGYJCFVSBWkqTf-jvb-A-6Jl6-IejRTxXhkFZT4Sx6pm0vgztMYvq8-ACUbR-sC8jzbBEumu2lpF9?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" width="624" height="377">



Based on this confluence of data, I could make the argument that the economy is beginning to reaccelerate. If the Fed were to cut in September based on lagging data such as NFP, it could end up being a mistake that makes the bond market sell off like it did last year when the Fed did the same thing.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cut and go big</h2>



Consumption is the engine that drives the US economy. Ever since Q4 2024, it’s been meaningfully slowing.&nbsp;



If purchasing power decreases due to the continued implementation of tariffs, we could well see further weakening in consumer spending that could quite quickly look recessionary.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc86KmotSb3WAyp4UaTK4PCnHiGcK9uB_XGxmZsXTxJwhpFUyaEYBrM4i7c065zePzZdLWLB77kZ87lL4M0mbc52BQ1uvLiHYNVD23QSU8RCtwkCJKmzQQ4wh8SQyRnOpz5rf6Vng?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" alt=""/></figure>



Meanwhile, tariff collections continue to surge higher — and someone needs to foot that bill:<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfo6SOm7VSHGBcekQ5hd2kECPnMYNo1---J3qozxcxv_WMVWG4Q56KVUklkplQ7frEqmHAe6gF2t9WY7ur2s8dNm_p3OiG8yny7McZUtn9t20AcK0CwJAvWshZO7UTYstAXmzCi-A?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" width="624" height="377">



If companies pass on the tariffs to the consumer, those higher prices will eventually hurt aggregate demand since that additional price increase means that money cannot be spent elsewhere. Without an offset, this is negative for growth.&nbsp;



If companies absorb the price hikes, it will squeeze their corporate profit margins, which will also lower economic output. Either way, it’s negative for the growth outlook.&nbsp;



Finally, with a labor market that continues to surprise to the downside with downward revisions that continue to tick lower pro-cyclically, some sort of insurance rate cut could make sense here. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfxEa3gUV14t39q7WjqIHTMeKiFGmEMmo-rN_qgMfcMGx8WTumgAfvTF5K0PUH85Q9f7XlMePHrr2_sW-fdhIZqBgh6eCmmozx6qjbwhG3Rmxq5j90RpCR9_HdmQRvOfG7Y_YgI?key=QdJD92B_gjB-YBebhmyAqg" width="624" height="333">



Putting it all together, I can make the case for a pause as much as I can make a case for substantial cuts.&nbsp;



It’s no wonder the FOMC, on the question of where to go from here, is the most divided it’s been in decades.



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FOMC

Should the Fed cut 50bps in September?

Macauley Peterson

Circle is building its own blockchain —&nbsp;and it’s not a rollup, but a layer-1.



In doing so, the American stablecoin issuer is betting that the shortest path between a dollar and a smart contract is the one it controls — full-stack, sovereign, and custom-built for payments.



The new chain, dubbed Arc, will be Ethereum-compatible, but use USDC for gas, and feature sub-second deterministic finality.&nbsp;



The big question for Ethereum is whether Arc will shift stablecoin activity or function more like a hub-and-spoke architecture, internalizing issuance and settlement while routing liquidity and flow outward to the broader EVM ecosystem via <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/0xresearch/58c53fc4-c272-11ed-a55a-23d88d4d81ed">CCTP</a> and other bridges.



The decision to build a new sovereign chain — rather than deploying on a modular layer 2 — has reignited a familiar argument on Crypto Twitter: does this mark a return to enterprise chains, or is it simply the logical architecture for a dollar-native payments platform? Does it weaken Ethereum’s long-held role as crypto’s settlement layer for stablecoins, or further entrench it through cross-chain interoperability and network effects?



The answers may hinge less on ideology than execution, and whether <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/circle">Circle</a> pursues Arc as a walled garden or merely a better bank.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Vertical integration</h2>



Circle declined to comment on Arc’s technical design, citing a quiet period. But what we know from the <a href="https://6778953.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6778953/Arc%20Litepaper%20-%202025.pdf">published</a> light paper is that the L1 is built on <a href="https://github.com/circlefin/malachite">Malachite</a>, a new high-performance BFT consensus engine originally developed by Informal Systems as a rewrite of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cosmos">Tendermint</a>. Circle has hired the core team of nine behind Malachite, but the engine remains open-source and is already being used elsewhere, <a href="https://www.starknet.io/blog/product-market-fit/">including</a> in Starknet’s decentralization roadmap.



Informal co-founder Ethan Buchman told Blockworks he views Malachite as akin to the Rust language: “Originally developed at Mozilla, now used by everyone.”



For Buchman, Circle’s decision to launch its own chain is not a rejection of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>, but a standard business choice for a team with sufficient resources. “It’s the same decision every time when people choose to build their own chain: they value vertical integration,” Buchman said.



“The kind of predictability that gives you, and how it sort of hedges uncertainty — because you have the stack, you have the team, you&#8217;re not dependent on some external team for core components,” he said.



Crypto Twitter/X is split on the net-impact. The bullish-ETH read (<a href="https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1955270488860614795">Ryan Sean Adams</a>, <a href="https://x.com/armaniferrante/status/1955261652892348782">Armani Ferrante</a>) says EVM-first corporate chains still feed Ethereum’s network effects. The bearish-ETH camp (<a href="https://x.com/jon_charb/status/1955260430890213650">Jon Charbonneau</a>) argues the marginal EVM developer now accrues close to zero to ETH if flows internalize elsewhere.&nbsp;



Others worry about censorship and developer gravity: <a href="https://x.com/EliBenSasson/status/1955237895473672568">Eli Ben-Sasson</a> fired a warning shot — “Corporate L1s / L2s won’t succeed” — against more open systems, while <a href="https://x.com/adamscochran/status/1955257074318823568">Adam Cochran</a> tried to disqualify Arc as “a consortium chain” rather than an L1.



The counter-narrative from operators is that deterministic finality and protocol-level controls are critical for payments and FX. Arc’s paper leans into that: “A transaction on Arc is either unconfirmed or it is 100% final and irreversible.”&nbsp;



This is the crux of L1 over L2 as a business decision. Rollups “rent” Ethereum’s finality and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-roadmap-data-availability-da">data availability</a>; sovereign L1s own the base-layer policy surface, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gas-fees">gas</a> denomination, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/kyc">KYC</a> hooks, dispute/refund logic, and transaction ordering.



Circle will start with what amounts to a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cosmos">Cosmos</a> chain using Proof-of-Authority, with a closed validator set. “It’s very cheap to operate,” Interchain Labs co-founder Barry Plunkett told Blockworks.&nbsp;



For instance, 5-10 Cosmos validator costs on the order of a few thousand dollars a month. “Maybe an L2 is a little cheaper because you don’t need as many boxes and don’t have the overhead of paying third parties to operate them for you. But you do have DA costs, so it’s probably a wash,” Plunkett said.



If your profit margin lives on settlement economics and working-capital velocity, sovereignty is attractive. If your priority is time-to-market and broad composability, a centralized-sequencer rollup may be cheaper and easier to ship.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stablecoin boom as backdrop</h2>



A Keyrock/Bitso <a href="https://documents.keyrock.com/hubfs/Stablecoin-Payments-The-Trillion-Dollar-Opportunity.pdf">report</a> out today argues stablecoins are already reshaping the payments landscape. Monthly stablecoin payments more than tripled to $6.3 billion by February 2025, with B2B volumes jumping from $120 million to $2.7 billion in two years; card-based flows crossed $1 billion/month. On their trajectory, annual stablecoin payment volume could approach $1 trillion by 2030.&nbsp;



That helps explain why companies with distribution are eyeing sovereign rails, according to Alchemy CTO Guillaume Poncin, formerly Stripe’s engineering head.



“We are seeing several companies race to build a stablecoin-first blockchain,” Poncin told Blockworks. “The revenue opportunity from owning the settlement layer will dwarf traditional payment processing margins.” The infrastructure costs are tiny by comparison.



Poncin similarly frames L1 vs. L2 analysis as boiling down to a question of control vs time-to-market. “Choosing between the two is a nuanced trade-off… L1s can be fully customized at every layer, [but] <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a> are battle-tested and much easier to build and secure.” He’s not too concerned with fragmentation due to Arc’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/evm">EVM</a> compatibility, because it “speeds adoption by both developers and users.”



As crypto-native builders chase composability and yield, Circle is playing a different game: infrastructure that can compete with payments giants like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/visa">Visa</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stripe">Stripe</a>, or even <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/fednow">FedNow</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Ethereum isn’t going anywhere</h2>



Critics have framed Arc as a sign that Circle, whose USDC accounts for <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/ethereum/ethereum-stablecoins">nearly 30%</a> of stablecoin supply on Ethereum, is pulling away from the chain that bootstrapped it.



But that overstates the case, according to Buchman.



“I think Ethereum is here for the long term, no matter what decision Circle makes today. I think it, it has achieved a kind of breakout velocity, it&#8217;s entrenched itself as a technology of fundamental import to human rights… Its longevity will be related to its neutrality and its conservatism.”



Circle will continue to have to grapple with that. Past concerns over the influence of the USDC issuer over Ethereum’s direction have been muted by the proliferation of competing stablecoin issuers, in Buchman’s view.



“This is part of Ethereum&#8217;s evolution and the idea that Ethereum only works if all compute happens on Ethereum, I think, is obscene and just it kind of misses the fundamental role Ethereum is going to have over the next 100 years or so,” Buchman said.



Ethereum’s centrality as a destination for stablecoin flows can persist even as issuance and FX trading move upstream to Arc. We don’t yet know the extent to which Circle will court DeFi apps to deploy on Arc, but in general, the application layer still wants to live where liquidity is deepest.



One legitimate concern is whether Arc’s USDC-native design introduces new vectors for censorship or exclusion, especially in sanctioned jurisdictions. If USDC is both asset and gas, what happens when the token itself is frozen?



“Technically, fallback mechanisms are possible,” Buchman said, but the baseline should be the current banking system and he thinks Arc will certainly clear that low bar.



“Is it going to be as freedom-supporting and protective of human rights as Ethereum and Bitcoin themselves? No. I don&#8217;t think anyone&#8217;s trying to kid themselves about it. But I feel like Circle is trying to go to bat for an open economy.”



There remain open questions about system-level privacy and regulatory constraints, which Circle has only lightly touched on. “We pitched them hard on privacy,” Buchman added.



“They’ve acknowledged it, but we’ll see how far they take it,” he said. “Malachite is well-suited to support privacy-preserving chains, and that’s going to be a critical next step.”



Whether it will ultimately be a handful of new chains or a <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily/issue/post_afb749f3-24b3-4a45-a982-d6e174f353d7">Cambrian explosion</a>, it’s clear that some enterprises still prefer building sovereign chains, even in the era of modular, shared security stacks. The tradeoffs between customization, governance, cost, and platform risk are nuanced, whether it’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-l2-staking-us">Robinhood’s rollup</a> on Arbitrum Orbit or Arc’s full L1, or whatever Stripe has in store its newly announced L1 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-circle-l1s-solana">Tempo</a>.



“I see it a lot like cloud versus on-prem[esis],” Buchman said. “Right now there&#8217;s this whole movement to move things out of the cloud back to on-prem and it&#8217;s going to oscillate back and forth until the end of time — and I think we&#8217;ll see something similar with L1s and L2s.”



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
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Circle

Why Circle chose an L1 — and what it means for Ethereum

Ben Strack

TeraWulf’s stock soared Thursday after revealing a 10-year deal with AI cloud platform Fluidstack that also aligns the bitcoin miner with Google.



The decade-long high-performance computing (HPC) colocation agreements — with two five-year extension options — come as bitcoin miners have looked to diversify income streams in recent years away from volatile crypto-linked revenues.



TeraWulf is set to deliver to Fluidstack more than 200 megawatts of critical IT load at its Lake Mariner datacenter in New York, the company said Thursday. TeraWulf estimates $370 million in annual revenue from this deal.&nbsp;



Perhaps a bigger takeaway from the deal is Google taking a roughly 8% stake in TeraWulf. The tech giant — as a result of backstopping $1.8 billion of Fluidstack’s lease obligations — is set to acquire about 41 million shares of WULF common stock.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coreweave-pending-buy-ai">CoreWeave’s pending Core Scientific buy gives ‘optionality’ as AI needs evolve</a>



TeraWulf’s move to host AI workloads exhibits how a large miner can turn its energy infrastructure into stable, long-term revenue, said BlocksBridge Consulting founder Nishant Sharma.



“The scale and Google’s financial backing make it a standout and could inspire similar moves from peers,” Sharma added.



Despite Google’s involvement making the deal unique, TeraWulf’s deal resembles similar recent pivots across the mining segment. Sharma pointed to Bit Digital entering into a $44 million credit facility in June with the Royal Bank of Canada to expand its AI-focused infrastructure.



Gaining more attention was Core Scientific last year signing various 12-year contracts with CoreWeave. The bitcoin miner offered 200 MW of infrastructure to host the cloud provider’s HPC services; expected annual revenue stemming from the deal was $290 million.



CoreWeave then revealed last month that it would <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coreweave-to-acquire-core-scientific">acquire Core Scientific</a> in an all-stock deal.



“Like Core Scientific’s multi-hundred-megawatt hosting deals with CoreWeave, this is a major long-term HPC commitment,” Sharma said.&nbsp;



“But TeraWulf’s version adds a strategic investor and backstop, giving it more financial certainty and independence.”



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Google

Google involved in BTC miner TeraWulf’s ‘standout’ hosting deal 

Kate Irwin

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



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Blockchain devs are increasingly centering their new products around user accounts and identities — and are launching their own chains as a result.



Zink, an SVM L1 from ATMTA, is the latest new blockchain to join the trend. ATMTA is the studio behind the in-development space exploration game <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/star-atlas-development-advances">Star Atlas</a>, which for years was expected to use Solana’s mainnet for all its crypto elements.&nbsp;



But that now appears to be changing. While some die-hard Solana fans might see the move as a shakeup, those unfazed by this reveal might argue Star Atlas making its own chain was inevitable for scalability, anyway.



Zink uses zero-knowledge proofs to power features like “zProfiles,” which will give users a central identity with “global permission settings” that can automate transactions and connect and apply to multiple apps, according to a statement.&nbsp;



ATMTA founder and CEO Michael Wagner told me via email that Zink is intended to be a “generalist consumer blockchain” long term, but that initially the studio is looking to bring other crypto gaming studios onboard to use the Zink chain.



“Zink will start as a largely centralized and permissioned blockchain. We do anticipate a validator set that includes several external parties on mainnet launch; large validators from Solana. But generally, ATMTA wants to control how the L1 matures in the early phases, and prioritize performance for Star Atlas,” Wagner explained.&nbsp;



<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">Star Atlas Dev Log 5: Spent time refactoring the crouch logic. State machine can get a bit complicated given support for toggle crouch and various movement abilities. Did you know if you hold forward and crouch during a dash or upon landing your character will try to slide? <a href="https://t.co/EUbT5c4rEg">pic.twitter.com/EUbT5c4rEg</a>&mdash; Chypto (@Chypto_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chypto_/status/1955297614716363017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“However, we have a roadmap that ultimately leads to going open access and permissionless. I would anticipate we achieve that within 18-24 months, though expect greater degrees of decentralization over time in a more iterative fashion,” he added.



The studio has slated Zink for a December mainnet launch.&nbsp;



As with most blockchains, Zink’s native token of the same name will be used for staking, consensus and community incentives.&nbsp;



Next month, a ZINK airdrop campaign will track community members’ activity and contributions to let them earn XP (and then ultimately the token). Playing Star Atlas and its affiliated games, like the SAGE browser game, will earn XP, as will locking up Star Atlas tokens ATLAS and POLIS.



Other existing chains focused on user identities include Worldcoin’s EVM blockchain, which seeks to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-biometric-identity-vision">discern between</a> bots and humans, and the upcoming EVM L1 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/animoca-moca-chain-mainnet-launch">Moca Chain</a>, which aims to give users more control over their identities and data.



How many of these blockchains we actually need is up for debate, of course, though ultimately metrics like revenue and user activity will answer that question in the long term.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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Gaming

Solana-compatible Star Atlas L1 plots December launch

Katherine Ross

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



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



In July, we saw over $6 billion go into funding, a pretty big increase in comparison to June, according to Blockworks Research data.&nbsp;



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Look at the itty-bitty June bar in comparison to July&nbsp;



Of that $6 billion, roughly $177 million came from M&amp;A activity. To break that down further: 96 raise announcements were made in comparison to just 12 M&amp;A announcements. Both June and May saw 10 or fewer M&amp;A announcements, it did pick up ever so slightly.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="1245" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png" alt="" class="wp-image-106112" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=330 330w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=335 335w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=281 281w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXdiqko7sDez8scTxE8_7uHFb3sMUjTl4fw7mPM4tlmXQr9M_PDvz7gFuFEIlYYXKIhnzvNOkXXPdQei1AAJsSwO0rOEj3RkWzxjsa4X99tw7FaCf70wzZtNLtqeBhx8WhGgWxB25A.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



To give you a better idea of the breakdown



If we look at TIE data, which included <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfPMvCtU7PQ">Digital Asset Treasury</a> company raises, then we can also gauge what stage of raises were the most popular last month.&nbsp;



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Source: The TIE Terminal



With the rise of the Digital Asset Treasury companies, there is a decent amount of post-IPO equity being raised. But, excluding DATs, most raise announcements were either seed rounds or Series A rounds.&nbsp;



Let’s break down venture funding further: Coinbase Ventures was one of the most active investors in the last month, participating in 21 rounds.&nbsp;



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To put all of this in perspective, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venture-capital-funding-up-in-june">June saw a bit of a comeback in funding</a> after a very slow May, and it looks like July is yet again showing another pick up.&nbsp;



Last month also outpaced March, which had been the most successful month since 2021 based on Blockworks Research data, which goes to show how large the appetite is. Currently, DATs clearly reign supreme if we’re looking at total fundraising.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1120" height="693" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png" alt="" class="wp-image-106109" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=1120 1120w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=415 415w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=422 422w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=354 354w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AD_4nXc9PqxEsL0-HzHT6nTGZD-P72CC30-qTqFRxZPAOti1867U_hKjyh0BmvlTLHDjK_9KdFdWopbzBOoMr_bAR3QEsLied-egENpR65ISO_CC5HYUeP44-8IULLtGiWcz0l7DXvINg.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1120px) 100vw, 1120px" /></figure>



Source: TIE Terminal



Payments, however, also saw a decent amount of activity. As did DeFi (which was the second most popular category in June for fundraising).&nbsp;



Here’s my take: DATs are the hot item of the moment, and it shows in the data. However, I’m curious to see if they can continue this momentum into August (which, like the summer months, tends to be seasonally weak) or if we’ll see a slight decline next month.&nbsp;



But overall, the data looks pretty strong at this point, and we didn’t even really touch on just how successful crypto IPOs have been.



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Crypto funding tops $6B in July: Blockworks Research

This is a segment from The Breakdown newsletter. To read more editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/brand/the-breakdown">subscribe</a>.



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“For new technologies to play a role in protecting Americans’ privacy, government must guard jealously the ability of Americans to use them.”



— Hester Peirce
</blockquote>



Centralized stablecoins, permissioned blockchains, corporate treasury companies…the hottest topics in crypto are not very cypherpunk these days.



Weirdly though, the SEC is.



In a <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-remarks-blockchain-conference-080425#_ftn47">speech</a> last week, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered a defense of privacy that wouldn’t be out of place on the original <a href="https://mailing-list-archive.cryptoanarchy.wiki">cypherpunk mailing list</a>.



She even cited Eric Hughes, founder of the mailing list and author of <a href="https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html">A Cypherpunk Manifesto</a>, as an inspiration for her surprisingly radical line of thinking.



Hughes probably never imagined he’d be approvingly quoted by a government official, as you can tell from the line Peirce chose to quote: “We cannot expect governments, corporations or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence.”



And yet, here is one of the US’s most influential regulators not just name-dropping Hughes, but amplifying his radical views on privacy-preserving technology.



She hardly sounds like someone who works for the government, though: “Where, by design or deficiency, the law will not protect us, technology might.”&nbsp;



That’s a pretty good summation of Hughes’ core message that, because we trust governments to grant it, “privacy in an open society requires cryptography.”



Writing in 1993, Hughes spoke aspirationally about the need for “systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place.”



Writing in 2025, Peirce cites crypto mixers, privacy-preserving blockchains and even decentralized physical networks (DePIN!!!) as systems that can provide such anonymity.



She makes the case for these technologies succinctly: “New and improved technology can diminish the need for us to rely on third parties and thus to hand our information over to them.”&nbsp;



Peirce even makes explicit what Hughes diplomatically left unsaid in the Manifesto: Privacy preserving technology must be allowed “even though doing so enables people to use them for bad purposes.”



What could be more cypherpunk than that?



It’s an extraordinary turn of events to see an SEC commissioner being so closely aligned with the author of the original cypherpunk’s call to arms on privacy.



Their views are not entirely aligned, however — but in the opposite way you might expect.



Much of Peirce’s speech targets the “third-party doctrine” — the legal theory that lets law enforcement access your banking data without a warrant — which she accuses the US government (her employer!) of wielding like a “sledgehammer.”



“The third-party doctrine is a key pillar of financial surveillance in this country,” she writes, before making clear that she’d like to knock it down.



In short, she argues that your banking records deserve the same Fourth Amendment protection as whatever goes on in your home behind closed doors.



Weirdly, I think Hughes might disagree.



“If two parties have some sort of dealings,” he wrote in the Manifesto, “then each has a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it?”



That is a tidy restatement of the government’s insistence that once you give your information to a third party, such as a bank, it’s no longer your private information.



Hughes even adds that “we seek not to restrict any speech at all” — which must therefore include banks speaking about their customers.



(Wouldn’t it be funny if the prosecution cited Hughes in the next Roman Storm trial.)



But this is why both Peirce and Hughes put their faith in technology: Even if the current government chooses to respect your privacy, the next one probably won’t.



“We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place,” Hughes wrote.



But not just that.



“For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract,” he added. “Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one&#8217;s fellows in society.”



This will be a hard sell, I think.



Most people say they are in favor of privacy. But most people also say they’re against money laundering and terrorist financing.



Few are as radical as Peirce and Hughes in believing that privacy is so fundamental that its benefits outweigh any harm it might enable (or fail to prevent).



If Peirce’s speech finds its way to Hughes (wherever he is), I’m sure he’d recognize and appreciate it as an effort to win the not-yet-radicalized over to the cause.



“We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your concerns and hope we may engage you,” he wrote in 1993.



Hester Peirce can count herself among the “we.”



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A regulator’s radical defense of privacy

Jeff Albus

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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Lightspeed has exclusively learned that Maple — one of Solana&#8217;s largest onchain asset managers — is bringing its yield-bearing syrupUSDC stablecoin into perpetual futures markets operated by Drift, Solana&#8217;s flagship perps DEX.



Drift, known for its deep onchain liquidity and capital-efficient margins, will accept syrupUSDC as margin collateral, allowing traders to earn a 7-8% APY on their margin while trading.



This will be the first time the exchange has allowed a collateral asset to serve dual purposes, earning yield while backing positions — sweetened by $100,000 in incentives and an initial $50 million cap.



One of Solana&#8217;s biggest wins is that its DeFi ecosystem can move at the speed of centralized markets. It doesn&#8217;t matter how advanced your strategies are or how complex your positions get.



The network&#8217;s speed means traders can rebalance instantly, while staying entirely onchain. That&#8217;s more than competing ecosystems like Ethereum can often promise without high fees or serious latency.



Often, though, the very need for collateral means capital ends up sitting idle as margin, earning nothing while waiting for trades to play out. That leads to higher opportunity costs, less capital efficiency and slower compounding for active traders.



But because users can now post syrupUSDC as margin on Drift, those same dollars can both secure your trades and earn passive income. Traders will be able to offset funding costs, free up cash flow and keep capital productive without changing their trading style.



More capital will flow into Solana&#8217;s onchain perps market, which also means Drift&#8217;s open interest should climb, and we&#8217;re more likely to see syrupUSDC adoption spread across more protocols.



SyrupUSDC is backed by Maple&#8217;s institutional lending pools and earns a steady yield from over-collateralized loans. Drift&#8217;s cross-collateral system treats it like USDC for margin purposes, but allows the yield stream to keep running while positions are open.



Altogether, their goal is to allow money to multitask, cutting out the dead time it would otherwise spend doing nothing.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Yield-bearing margin arrives on Drift

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



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We watched what happened when Circle listed on the NYSE two months ago. Today, the industry looked on as crypto exchange Bullish did the same.



BLSH jumped to more than triple its IPO price minutes after going public before losing momentum later in the session.&nbsp;



The company yesterday revealed IPO pricing of 30 million shares at $37 per share — up from the $32-33 estimate it shared in a Monday <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1872195/000110465925075896/tm2421409-23_f1a.htm">filing</a>.



Shares opened at $90 around 1 p.m. ET — roughly 143% higher than the IPO price. The company’s stock quickly <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bullish-stock-surges-ipo-110/">surged to $118</a>, but had dropped below the opening price when the market closed.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcdjt8d5uKtuNatOpxA_h_zUgWoGg422vRMyjCVViVkBuHvRVDUcwlIfd2-EjDKmncnQTkTWnXnhMKsK_yT8pxC4WLf76EydDFaT51a6ThvvxTSSfyAtjE2jXxBA9yMxa-BBz5TgA?key=ugntXJX7FAzGhfsEJue-hA" alt="" style="width:602px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Yahoo finance</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">Circle stock debuted</a> at $69 per share on June 5 (more than double its IPO price of $31). Though the USDC issuer’s stock price peaked near $300 on June 23, CRCL shares were trading for around $156 midday Wednesday.&nbsp;



All’s to say: Where Bullish’s stock price goes from here is anyone’s guess.&nbsp;



Led by former NYSE president Tom Farley, Bullish launched in 2021 with backing from Block.one, Thiel Capital, Galaxy Digital, Nomura and others. It offers a spot and derivatives exchange, as well as liquidity services; Bullish also owns crypto media company CoinDesk.



As of March 31, Bullish held $1.7 billion worth of bitcoin, $144 million of US dollar stablecoins, $28 million in cash and $55 million of ether and other digital assets.



The company’s roughly $1.8 billion in cash and crypto makes it one of the most well-financed companies in the space, noted Architect Partners VP Ryan McCulloch.



“By buying this stock, you are heavily invested in their future potential to invest this cash,” he told Blockworks.



McCulloch labeled Amber Group and OSL Group as the most similar public companies to Bullish, given that they are Asia-focused exchanges offering a similar suite of services.&nbsp;



But Amber Group and OSL Group are trading at enterprise values around $600 million and $1.4 billion, respectively — significantly lower than the roughly $13 billion valuation Bullish went public with,&nbsp; he explained.



“They get significantly more public exposure via the media business, which likely serves as free lead generation for the trading business and vice versa,” McCulloch said. “This is far different than any others and seems to provide a unique market positioning.”



Matthew Sigel, who manages the VanEck Onchain Economy ETF (NODE), also noted Bullish’s sizable bitcoin treasury — enabling tighter spreads and “competitive positioning” in both spot and derivatives markets.&nbsp;



“These capabilities can compound across trading, data and index businesses,” Sigel added. “In a bull scenario based on our internal modeling, there is a path to $600 million in revenue and $200 million in EBITDA.”



More crypto company IPOs are expected in the coming months, as Gemini, <a href="http://grayscale">Grayscale</a>, BitGo and Figure Technology have confidentially filed draft registration statements with the SEC.



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Bullish

Bullish closes 89% above IPO price after up-and-down NYSE debut

Five years ago today, Curve Finance — now one of DeFi’s longest-running protocols — saw the launch of its governance token CRV in what remains one of the most unusual moments in crypto history.



On August 13, 2020, an anonymous Twitter account, @0xc4ad, announced that they had gone ahead and deployed the CRV token and DAO contracts before the Curve team themselves had done so.



“Yo, @CurveFinance! Saw your DAO is ready to rock and I gots to MAXIMIZE MY ALPHA! So I went ahead and deployed it for you,” the account posted.



<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">Yo, <a href="https://twitter.com/CurveFinance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CurveFinance</a> ! Saw your DAO is ready to rock and I gots to MAXIMIZE MY ALPHA ! So I went ahead and deployed it for you. Get at me in DM to verify and lets get this party started!! <a href="https://t.co/D0KqEg4Ldr">pic.twitter.com/D0KqEg4Ldr</a>&mdash; 0xc4ad (@0xc4ad) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xc4ad/status/1293977012550467584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



They linked to the deployment address, token contract, and even the freshly created Aragon DAO, assuring followers the contracts matched Curve’s specifications.



“You guys ready to harvest some CRV with me or what?!?” they <a href="https://x.com/0xc4ad/status/1293978460411568131">wrote</a>, tagging a who’s-who of early DeFi influencers.



The Curve team, ostensibly blindsided, responded carefully. “Interesting. We are proceeding with caution here, so far looks like contracts are the correct ones,” the official account <a href="https://x.com/CurveFinance/status/1294007705263386631">tweeted</a>, noting they would verify before endorsing the launch.



Once confirmed, the deployment effectively became the official CRV token launch, initiated — the story goes — not by the team, but by an opportunistic outsider. The @0xc4ad account soon vanished from Twitter, leaving behind one of DeFi’s most enduring origin stories.



Asked if the mystery will ever be solved, founder Michael Egorov told Blockworks, “Good question! I still don&#8217;t really know today. Looks as hard to know as Satoshi&#8217;s identity.”



Since that chaotic start, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/curve-finance">Curve Finance</a> has grown from a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoin</a>-focused AMM <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dex">DEX</a> into a core layer of DeFi’s liquidity stack, influencing protocol design across the industry. Reflecting on its rise, Egorov said: “What went as calculated is market sizing of stablecoin swaps,” though he added Curve’s centrality in DeFi infrastructure “was a bit surprising, but not totally unexpected.”



Today’s anniversary coincides with a <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/crv">CRV</a> inflation drop, reducing the token’s emission rate. Egorov sees ongoing misunderstandings around Curve’s governance design: “Many projects think that token burn is better (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/changpeng-zhao">CZ</a> thinks that!),” he said, but noting that, to him, “it appears that token locking is simply much more efficient for reducing circulated supply as well as in aligning people with governance.”



Egorov is now focused on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/michael-egorov-yield-basis-protocol">Yield Basis</a>, an AMM-based solution to impermanent loss. “I think ve-tokenomics is good, so I apply it there,” he said, adding that Yield Basis will split rewards between LP tokens and real yield without a boosting mechanism.



From an unplanned, community-triggered launch to becoming a foundational DeFi protocol, Curve’s story is proof that sometimes chaos — and a little mystery — can yield lasting decentralized infrastructure.



Correction Aug 14, 2025 at 5:20 am ET: Description of Yield Basis.



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Curve

Curve turns 5, marking a half-decade since DeFi’s strangest token launch

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



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Since the Zora app launched in September last year, it’s seen some adoption, with over 127,000 downloads on iOS and more than 50,000 downloads on Android, according to data from Appfigures and Google.



Out of those, nearly 18,000 Zora accounts are posting daily, Blockworks Research data shows. And 36% of daily posting Zora accounts are actually doing so not from Zora itself, but from the Base app.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXca2U_cdFXr4c7adzIPpiEYkTe1kFSr717AD8zRa-RjuL5s8uSdx41I3z_Y-hlAYqlXN-thwuO_D0RqT4P6RQnxPPR0DogZbfTF1WS8BNn3iDD1xXp5l2hzEevyHiJvF_II7WeREA?key=3HoGeV0_RBk32QwQrWRvSA" alt="" style="width:692px;height:auto"/></figure>



When the Coinbase Wallet app rebranded to just “Base” last month and integrated Zora for some users, that sparked a surge in Zora use through the Base app itself (Zora can also be accessed and used via a web browser).&nbsp;



Yesterday, Base engineer Youssef El Allali <a href="https://x.com/0xyoussea/status/1955424838379770241">shared</a> an AI agent tool that lets Base app users trade small amounts of Zora creators’ tokens by mentioning a Zora account’s handle, which could further speed up trading and further abstract it away from the mobile app itself.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcqERkbYEtBqoya0ACzQwuu6fKsPpckfK9ZaJuYDFJ7UR0TmeXnYbK-PMlzE4uQLHSWYPtfUqnAYCQqtiVyqaCXXoA_5j6vBmILrS9kgsj7aPeFstwECGoe1RfMsHP6iCMSqeWu?key=3HoGeV0_RBk32QwQrWRvSA" alt="" style="width:694px;height:auto"/></figure>



When you join Zora, a creator token is automatically generated and associated with you, and other users can effectively “trade” you. There isn’t really an obvious reason to buy someone else’s token, though, other than to financially support them or potentially flip their token to make a quick buck.



And while some crypto traders may have written off Zora as a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zora-latest-content-coin-fad">short-lived fad</a> like Friendtech or StarsArena, Zora has something those don’t — backing from Coinbase.



<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">Introducing&#8230; Zora Coins Agent 🤖 An AI agent that uses Base Account Spend Permissions, <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinbaseDev?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoinbaseDev</a> server wallets and <a href="https://twitter.com/zoradevs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@zoradevs</a> SDK to buy you any creator coin you want Just give it the handle and it will do the rest, no clicks, no pop-ups, all managed by spend permissions <a href="https://t.co/Y1U37EQKCY">pic.twitter.com/Y1U37EQKCY</a>&mdash; Youssef (@0xyoussea) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xyoussea/status/1955424838379770241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



So far, some of the Zora creator tokens’ market caps are surprising. As of Wednesday morning, about 20 Zora content creators, including ex-Coinbase employee turned Zora cofounder Jacob Horne, have creator account market caps of $1 million or more each.&nbsp;



45 creators have “market caps” of over half a million dollars each.&nbsp;



The top 10 accounts on Zora by market cap include a porn account, an AI art account, a crypto trading influencer, and some meme accounts, to name a few. Overall, it doesn’t look like art is dominating Zora’s financial landscape.&nbsp;



Some Zora accounts are personal and tied to individuals, while others are more anonymous or appear to represent a company or group.



But is it a good idea to assign “value” to people — or their personal posts or pieces of content — in such a rapidfire, mercurial way?&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXehA1FjdF89Pc_GR6KhC7fvETj3ssKt9FiU_9fscip9vVSFZDZgEeH2rr5Te7aVFckbJfcRhbEU0KTnZpmlkBd4btjOhxYFYklJpBp4vdJRdZSxg2LhlqkuTybcJdVrxw4qSLGi?key=3HoGeV0_RBk32QwQrWRvSA" alt="" style="width:674px;height:auto"/></figure>



Some artists and founders aren’t so sure about Zora.&nbsp;



This week, Coinbase’s Base lead and unofficial Zora hype-man Jesse Pollak wrote: “Help I keep putting money into @zora and supporting creators and collecting content but my balance keeps going UP?!?!?”



“It doesn’t always go up,” electronic music artist and Royal founder Justin Blau <a href="https://x.com/justinblau/status/1955067797555315069">replied</a>. “The narrative is beginning to feel irresponsible. I don’t wanna wait another 4 years to convince creatives that crypto has more uses for them than memetic speculation.



“There is nothing wrong with speculation, just call it what it is. This disguising narrative is dangerous,” Blau continued.&nbsp;



Pollak hit back: “I didn&#8217;t promise up only. I described my experience that is very real. I&#8217;m also more optimistic than you about the combination of infinite creativity and a better creator economy.”



<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">I funded my Zora account and base app account with $100 (separately) supported a bunch of creators and posted original content over the past few weeks. Here’s my updated liquid balances: Zora: $0.29 base app: $1.35&mdash; foundnone.eth (@transmental) <a href="https://twitter.com/transmental/status/1953571741902811622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Some other artists, like visual artist ThankYouX, aren’t sold on the Zora idea, either (ThankYouX has released his work as NFTs and integrated blockchain tech into his work since 2020).



“It just adds a purely speculative element which isn’t what art is about,” ThankYouX <a href="https://x.com/ThankYouX/status/1955074694669123659">wrote</a> of Zora. “And the Zora team is very irresponsible with how they’ve handled things by launching automatically for artist[s] and hyping the speculation element too much.”



Notably, Vitalik Buterin tried Zora recently — and argued, among other things, that requiring users to input email addresses (and the affiliated smart wallets tied to them) could contribute to user segregation on Ethereum.



“You want compatibility for existing ethereum uses, no?” he <a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1954987470896107592">asked</a> Horne in a post. “Otherwise you&#8217;re creating two incompatible ecosystems, one for ‘real ethereum users’ [and] one for ‘mainstream people’; I actually think this is one of the biggest risks in ethereum UX right now.”



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Coinbase

‘Memetic speculation’: Users debate Zora, the creator-token app with Coinbase backing

The stock of crypto exchange Bullish popped in the first few minutes after its New York Stock Exchange listing Wednesday, marking more evidence of demand for equity exposure in the segment.&nbsp;



Bullish on Tuesday revealed the pricing of its initial public offering of 30 million shares at $37 per share. That was up from a per-share price between $32 and $33 that the company anticipated in a Monday <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1872195/000110465925075896/tm2421409-23_f1a.htm">filing</a> to the SEC.



BLSH shares opened around 1 pm ET at $90 — about 143% above the IPO price. Minutes later, the company’s stock surged to $118, according to Yahoo Finance data.&nbsp;



Led by former NYSE president Tom Farley, Bullish launched in 2021 with backing from Block.one, Thiel Capital, Galaxy Digital, Nomura and others. It offers a spot and derivatives exchange, as well as liquidity services; Bullish also owns crypto media company CoinDesk.



As of March 31, Bullish held $28 million in cash, $144 million of US dollar stablecoins and $1.7 billion worth of bitcoin and $22 million of ether, the Monday filing shows.



Bullish’s IPO comes about two months after stablecoin issuer Circle listed on the NYSE.&nbsp;



CRCL stock opened around $69 during its June 5 debut — more than double the upsized IPO price of $31 per share. The shares rose slightly above $100 that day before settling at $82 at market close.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">Circle ends NYSE debut up 167% from IPO price</a>



Though the USDC issuer’s stock price peaked near $300 on June 23, CRCL shares were trading for around $155 on Wednesday afternoon.



Industry watchers predicted Circle’s IPO would lead to more companies following suit.&nbsp;



Most recently, Figure Technology confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the SEC. Gemini and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-exposure-signals-etfs">Grayscale</a> did the same in June, while BitGo filed such paperwork last month.



Check out today’s Forward Guidance <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">newsletter</a> for more on Bullish’s NYSE debut.



This is a developing story.



Updated 8/13/2025 at 1:33 p.m. to correct an error in the article subheading.



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Bullish stock surges above $110 per share minutes after public debut

Offchain Labs, the company behind Arbitrum, has acquired smart account infrastructure provider ZeroDev in a move that signals its ambitions beyond scaling infrastructure.&nbsp;



The deal, which brings ZeroDev’s five-person team fully into Offchain Labs, represents what CEO Steven Goldfeder calls “a very logical next iteration” of the company’s mission.



Founded in 2018, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/offchain-labs">Offchain Labs</a> initially focused on scaling Ethereum with optimistic <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a>. But Goldfeder says the broader goal has always been “to solve the hardest problems that are standing in the way of bringing blockchain technology to mass adoption.”



In that light, the acquisition isn’t a pivot, Goldfeder told Blockworks. “We started off [with] layer two, we went down to layer one, and now we&#8217;re going a little bit further up&#8230;in the smart contract layer,” he said. “We can make these tools work seamlessly together.”



ZeroDev, whose platform powers <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/vitalik-buterin-eip-account-abstraction">smart account</a> infrastructure for projects like ApeChain, <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/lightspeed/1bd088c0-3f45-11ef-8d0e-33cba733fb4d">Infinex</a>, and Crossmint, fits neatly into that stack-wide ambition. “They’re the leaders, the innovators in the smart account space,” Goldfeder said. “It fit very well with the profile of our team.”



With smart accounts enabling features like gas abstraction, programmable security, and automated transactions, Offchain sees them as critical to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/if-we-dont-make-crypto-invisible-it-will-never-reach-the-mainstream">onboarding the next wave</a> of users. The challenge today, according to Goldfeder, is not just the technology but the fractured developer experience; he flagged “wallet integration and wallet support” as a bottleneck.



“Often the user experience doesn&#8217;t seamlessly pull these all together in a way that&#8217;s abstracted away from the user,” Goldfeder said.



He offered a familiar metaphor: “When I go on YouTube to watch a video, I don’t get a pop-up that says, ‘Do you wanna watch this video on AWS or on GCP?’ I just want to watch my video.”



Chain fragmentation remains a UX hurdle, even within the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> ecosystem. “If I&#8217;m a user on Arbitrum One and I want to go and buy an NFT on ApeChain…The gas on Arbitrum is ETH, the gas on ApeChain is APE, maybe I&#8217;m holding ARB, but there&#8217;s just a lot of manual steps.”



ZeroDev’s smart account tooling could help streamline this, and other of the “harder problems.”



“Everyone says Ethereum has a fragmentation problem,” Goldfeder said, “This is just another tool in our toolbox.”



That tooling focus doesn’t mean Offchain Labs is losing sight of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/scaling">scaling</a> fundamentals. The company is still exploring hybrid rollup architectures, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zk-proofs-escape-velocity-eth">eventual ZK proof integration</a>.



For now, Offchain is betting that improved UX, smart accounts, and deeper vertical integration will push Ethereum’s most-used rollup into a new phase. “It’s not only about the raw technical components,” Goldfeder said, “but how do we actually package it up?”



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Arbitrum

Arbitrum’s next chapter: Smart accounts, UX, and Offchain Labs’ ZeroDev bet

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



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A16z and the DeFi Education Fund are asking the SEC for a safe harbor for blockchain technology. Simply put, this means that projects wouldn’t have to pursue broker registration for DeFi apps.&nbsp;



“While decentralized blockchain systems underlying apps are clearly excluded from the SEC’s broker-dealer registration regimes, apps face regulatory uncertainty because they are typically developed and maintained by centralized actors. The SEC has previously taken the position — through enforcement actions and Wells notices — that developers of apps could be deemed brokers if they enabled users to transact in securities,” a16z wrote in a blog post this morning. 



In order for an app to qualify, a16z and DEF proposed four criteria: underlying protocols have to be decentralized, it has to be non-custodial, there can’t be investment recommendations, and no discretion. 



“The guiding principle of the safe harbor is that only those Apps which do not engender the risks that the Exchange Act’s broker-dealer regulatory regime was designed to address should be eligible; in such cases, registration as a broker under the Exchange Act is unwarranted and inappropriate,” the two said in their official proposal to the SEC.



So, all in all, they have to be credibly neutral and permissionless. Makes sense, right?&nbsp;



Both DEF and a16z have made it pretty clear that they’re looking out for projects in crypto. Heck, if you missed it earlier this week, a16z’s Miles Jenning and Eddy Lazzarin even went on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/5f38c3ec-749c-11f0-96bf-4bef818bfbd7">Empire podcast</a> to discuss safely launching tokens. 



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zfqASHqSTl0?si=77yyTwKO1PPfGLSg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







“Developers shouldn’t have to guess whether building public, neutral, and non-custodial software exposes them to the risk of being treated like financial intermediaries,” a16z said. 



The push comes roughly a week after Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/roman-storm-guilty-one-count">was found guilty</a> of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter business by a jury in a trial that’s left all of us <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opinion-tornado-cash-conviction-raises-alarm">wondering about</a> potential implications. This push from a16z and DEF would help to clear some of the current murkiness.&nbsp;



“This proposal aims to be flexible to account for the ever-evolving nature of early-stage tech development and is grounded in the understanding that most apps are fundamentally non-custodial, passive software tools that allow users to interact directly with public, decentralized network and protocol infrastructure — and, therefore, should not be subject to broker-dealer registration requirements,” DEF’s Amanda Tuminelli said. 



Despite the fact that it’s very clearly a new era at the SEC, there’s work to be done to allow projects and developers in the space to continue to innovate safely.&nbsp;



Now to see how the SEC plans to approach this topic.&nbsp;



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Empire Newsletter

A16z and DeFi Education Fund propose ‘safe harbor’ policies for DeFi apps

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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Just because you can doesn&#8217;t mean you should.”



—&nbsp; Aristotle, your conscience, your mom, and Jurassic Park
</blockquote>



We don’t usually get data on Americans’ retirement accounts, but a congressional request once prompted the Joint Committee on Taxation to <a href="https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/7.28.21%20JCT%20Mega%20IRA%20Data1.pdf">reveal</a> just how big some can get: In 2019, just 156 Roth IRAs held $15.6 billion in assets.



This begs an obvious question: Who needs a tax break on their $100 million of retirement savings?



$80 million of post-tax money seems like plenty to get by on after the age of 60 (even for all the tech moguls planning to live to 120).



But some have quite a lot more than that.&nbsp;



In 2021, ProPublica <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank">reported</a> that Peter Thiel held more than $5 billion in a single, giant Roth IRA account.&nbsp;



Helpfully, it also detailed how he did it.



While you and I max out our Roth IRAs with $7,000 worth of index funds, others opt for more exotic investments — like early-stage equity.



In 1999, for example, Thiel used $1,700 of Roth IRA funds to buy 1.7 million shares of PayPal. Three years later, PayPal IPO’d at $13 a share — a 13,000-fold gain on his cost basis of $0.001 per share.



Because it was in an IRA, he owed no tax.&nbsp;



Better yet, he was able to roll those winnings, tax-free, into 10.2% of Facebook — acquired for $500,000 (still held in his Roth IRA), and an undisclosed portion of his stake in Palantir (now worth many billions).



Thiel was a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and the first outside investor in Facebook, so the rest of us would never have had access to those kinds of deals. 



But President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/democratizing-access-to-alternative-assets-for-401k-investors/">proposed</a> last week that everyone be given access to alternative investments in their retirement accounts, crypto included. 



In response, critics have warned that crypto is ill-suited for retirement savings because it’s too risky.



But it’s already available to a small sliver of people — and at virtually no risk — via “Token Launch Roth IRAs,” an entertainingly extreme edge case in the debate over crypto in retirement accounts.



While equity founders like Peter Thiel have long been able to stash early-stage investments in their Roth IRAs, crypto founders could not — because how do you get a blockchain token into a brokerage account?



You couldn’t, until AnchorZero built the systems to add even pre-launch tokens to traditional retirement accounts, and Anchorage Digital Bank figured out how to custody them.



Simply put, AnchorZero’s Token Launch Roth IRAs are “the first and only solution for pre-launch tokens to eliminate capital gains taxes.”



This is not a problem I ever imagined needed solving.



In its enthusiasm for helping founders not pay taxes, AnchorZero’s website reads like a Scrooge McDuck parody of robber baron excess.



“Until now,” its <a href="https://anchorzero.com/insights/anchorzero-launches-token-optimized-roth-iras-for-tax-free-gains-on-digital-assets/">product announcement</a> explained, ”the only way to include tokens in an IRA was to wait until they were listed on a public exchange, by which time their value had often increased exponentially. AnchorZero’s solution is the first to support private, pre-launch tokens and derivatives, ensuring that founders can take advantage of the low-cost basis at token creation.”



The website offers an illustrative example, seemingly written by someone who doesn’t quite know how to read the room:



“Consider Alice, a crypto founder launching a new token. At creation, before public trading, the token’s market cap is a modest $10,000. As a savvy tax strategist, Alice allocates a portion of the token supply to her Roth IRA. When she decides to sell, her token interest is worth $50 million, which is entirely tax-free. Had she chosen to forgo the IRA approach, Alice would have owed $18.5 million in capital gains taxes, leaving her with $31.5 million — a staggering difference of millions in tax savings.”



If its website had ears, they’d have to be plugged while I yell at it: ALICE DOESN’T NEED A TAX BREAK!!!



But she was only just getting started.



“AnchorZero’s solution allows investors to reinvest tax-free gains into new tokens, startups and venture funds. Over time, the compounding benefits of the Roth IRA become even more pronounced. In Alice’s case, her IRA could grow to $815 million over 20 years, compared to $190 million without the tax advantages.”



These kinds of “Alice” examples are usually something like, “Alice sends $5 to Bob.”



But (to paraphrase Spinal Tap) this one goes to $815 million.



Gaming the byzantine US tax system is hardly a novel idea, but seeing it spelled out at that scale and on a public website feels different — as if hedge funds were running TV ads to gloat over how much money the carried-interest loophole was making them. Or Big Pharma put up billboards to crow about its Ireland tax dodges.



Bury it in euphemisms! Hide it in the fine print!! Do some dog whistling!!!&nbsp;



Or make the numbers 100x smaller, at least, please.



Because it’s one thing to exploit a loophole and it’s another thing to celebrate it. Especially one as egregious as this.



Has there ever been a more narrowly targeted tax dodge? 



The carried-interest loophole for hedge funds is pretty bad, but I’d guess there are more hedge fund managers in the US than there are crypto founders.



And pre-launch crypto tokens are sure to be priced even cheaper than pre-IPO PayPal shares.&nbsp;



On the one hand, AnchorZero is only offering to help those founders do something that the law allows.



On the other hand, why???



I marvel at the time, effort and investment it must have taken to build the complex systems required to help this tiny sliver of people who don’t need anyone’s help.



Even if you think every loophole deserves exploiting, is that really what you want to do with your limited time on Earth?



Personally, I’m not sure I’d sleep too much worse if I spent my days engineering new ways to telemarket fake tech support to seniors or catfish lonely bachelors.&nbsp;



Ethical considerations aside, these kinds of things can backfire, as we learned from <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1at69qj/your_scientists_were_so_preoccupied_with_whether/">Jurassic Park</a>. (“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn&#8217;t stop to think if they should.”)



The danger here, I think, is that crypto already has an image problem.



Thanks to cabal memecoins, low-float-high-FDV project tokens and digital asset treasury companies, there’s a growing perception that most of the industry’s profits accrue to a small number of insiders at the expense of its retail investors.&nbsp;



This is especially unfortunate because a big part of crypto’s original appeal was that bitcoin was fair-launched and equally accessible to all.&nbsp;



If Token Launch Roth IRAs catch on — and how can they not? — we’ll have strayed further than ever from that ideal.



People will notice. Inevitably, we’ll get an exposé on a $5 billion Token Launch Roth IRA and it will make half of America hate crypto even more than it already does.&nbsp;



I could hardly blame them, if so.



The US government is currently in the process of handing the crypto industry everything it&#8217;s ever asked for.



The least we could do in return is pay our taxes!



Even Peter Thiel thinks the US tax system has “fairness problems” — because, he said, “you have super rich people paying a lower rate than people in the middle or upper middle class.”



Putting pre-launch tokens in retirement accounts would supercharge that problem.



And crypto’s image problem, too.



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