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.


Senior Research Analyst at Blockworks Research

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 Breakdown 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 is a Research Analyst based in Guatemala covering Solana and DeFi applications. Carlos previously held a research role at 21Shares. Contact Carlos at carlos.campos@blockworks.co.

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 on the scoops and investigations team, 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 or send her tips 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 Blockworks' editorial operations manager based in New Mexico. 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 and the author of the Lightspeed newsletter. 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' head of media ops 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 New York-based reporter and podcast host. He focuses on scoops and investigations at the intersection of money and power in crypto. In 2024, he was awarded Best Impact by a New Journalist by the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers. Jack can be reached for tips (not pitches) at jackkubinec.23 on Signal and jackkubinec@proton.me.













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 nearly 15 years. 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.

Blockworks

Norwegian authorities are investigating a potential information leak after online bets on this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner spiked hours before the announcement, suggesting possible insider trading.



According to local reports, originally <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-10/unusual-bets-on-nobel-peace-prize-winner-prompt-probe-into-leaks?embedded-checkout=true">surfaced</a> by Bloomberg, wagers favoring Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy of democracy, surged on Polymarket shortly after midnight Norwegian time.



The Nobel Committee, which made its decision earlier in the week, said it is treating the matter as a serious breach of confidentiality.&nbsp;



Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told reporters the spike “seems we have been prey to a criminal actor who wants to earn money on our information.”&nbsp;



As the Empire newsletter discussed earlier today, <a href="https://empire-blockworks.beehiiv.com/p/bloomberg-terminal-for-zoomers">data from Polymarket</a> show a user operating under the handle dirtycup placed about $70,000 in bets on Machado just hours before the announcement, netting roughly $30,000 in profit. Two additional accounts also bet heavily on Machado, with the three collectively earning around $90,000, according to Finansavisen.



The episode raises questions about transparency and oversight in online prediction markets, which let users trade on the outcomes of real-world events.&nbsp;



In 2022, Polymarket agreed to block US users after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ruled it was operating without registration. The Nobel Institute said it will conduct a full internal review to determine whether confidential information was accessed or shared unlawfully.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Polymarket

Polymarket bets trigger Nobel leak probe in Norway

Morgan Stanley will lift all restrictions on which of its wealth management clients can invest in cryptocurrency funds, the firm told financial advisors on Friday, according to a CNBC report.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/10/morgan-stanley-drops-crypto-fund-restrictions-for-wealth-clients.html">Beginning</a> October 15, financial advisors will be able to recommend bitcoin and ether investment products to any client, including those using retirement or trust accounts. Previously, such access was reserved for investors with over $1.5 million in assets and an “aggressive” risk profile.



The policy change comes amid a broader recalibration in US financial regulation toward digital assets following the 2024 election of President Donald Trump. Morgan Stanley, which oversees about $8.2 trillion in client assets, is positioning itself to compete with digital-native brokerages such as Coinbase and Robinhood, which have grown their crypto offerings in recent years.



The firm also plans to enable direct trading of bitcoin, ether and solana through its E-Trade platform later this year.



Morgan Stanley’s global investment committee recently advised clients to limit initial allocations to crypto at roughly 4%, depending on portfolio objectives. Chief investment officer Lisa Shalett described crypto as a “speculative and increasingly popular asset class” that many—but not all—investors will want exposure to.



The bank will rely on automated monitoring tools to prevent excessive concentration in digital assets. At launch, advisors will be restricted to offering funds managed by BlackRock and Fidelity, but Morgan Stanley is evaluating other crypto fund providers as the sector matures.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Morgan Stanley opens crypto fund access to all wealth clients

Kalshi, the US-regulated prediction market operating under Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversight, has raised $300 million in new funding at a $5 billion valuation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/business/dealbook/kalshi-prediction-market-fundraising.html">according</a> to The New York Times on Friday.



The company allows investors to trade on the outcomes of real-world events—from elections to inflation data—and has increasingly attracted both institutional and crypto-native traders seeking regulated exposure to event-based markets.



The platform, founded in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, operates legally under the CFTC’s designated contract market status, distinguishing it from decentralized or offshore prediction venues that lack regulatory approval.



Its new funding reportedly includes participation from both Wall Street funds and crypto-focused investors, reflecting a broader trend toward convergence between traditional finance and Web3-linked derivatives. Kalshi’s move into “hybrid trading” seeks to blend event-driven contracts with more familiar asset-class tools, extending its reach to professional traders and retail users alike. Event-based trading has grown as market participants look for instruments tied directly to data releases or political outcomes. Kalshi’s expansion follows rising institutional interest in alternative hedging tools, and comes amid regulatory scrutiny of unlicensed platforms offering similar services.



The company’s CFTC oversight and compliance posture have been cited as key competitive advantages as it positions itself at the intersection of financial innovation and regulatory legitimacy.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Kalshi

Kalshi raises $300M at $5B valuation

The Bank of Russia will allow domestic banks to engage in limited cryptocurrency operations under stringent oversight, marking a controlled step toward crypto integration in the country’s financial system.



First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin <a href="https://bits.media/bank-rossii-opredelilsya-s-dopuskom-bankov-k-kriptooperatsiyam/">announced</a> the move at the Finopolis fintech forum, noting that while the central bank remains conservative on decentralized assets like Bitcoin, it recognizes the need to align with market realities.



Chistyukhin stated that the Bank of Russia will impose strict requirements on participating institutions to ensure crypto does not become a dominant banking activity. A draft framework would reportedly cap crypto exposure at 1% of a bank’s capital, paired with high reserve thresholds to mitigate systemic risk. “We hold conservative views and think about how appropriate it is for the banking sector to include cryptocurrency in its assets,” said Chistyukhin, speaking in Russian. “After discussing with the professional banking community, we came to the conclusion that it would be unjustified to exclude banks from such operations.”



The initiative follows growing pressure from Russia’s financial sector to ease restrictions amid persistent Western sanctions and ruble instability.



The country’s experimental legal regime for crypto transactions, introduced earlier in 2025, already allows qualified companies and wealthy investors to use digital assets for international settlements. To qualify, individuals must hold at least 100 million rubles in deposits and securities and report annual income above 50 million rubles.



Chistyukhin and Governor Elvira Nabiullina both urged the swift passage of a comprehensive cryptocurrency bill by 2026. The legislation would establish a licensing system for service providers and clarify the legal status of crypto entities operating in Russia.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Banks

Russia’s central bank to allow limited crypto activity by banks

Macauley Peterson

In the past few months, a new class of public companies has raced to amass billions in crypto. The largest, after Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-focused Strategy, is BitMine Immersion (BMNR) chaired by Wall Street strategist Tom Lee, which now holds about 3.75% of ETH’s supply, <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3025">according to</a> Blockworks Research data.&nbsp;



That begs the question: will <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eth-treasury-companies-growth">digital-asset treasuries (DATs)</a> turn their balance sheets into protocol leverage?



In principle, DATs can garner real sway, <a href="https://x.com/RyanWatkins_/status/1971053119631962230">suggests</a> Ryan Watkins of Syncracy Capital, while skeptics <a href="https://x.com/post_polar_/status/1969850373142986881">counter</a> that Ethereum’s governance process, client diversity and stubborn validator “social layer” make outright capture unlikely.



While the issue quickly enters the speculative realm, one thing that is clear is BitMine is in a privileged position among DATs, according to Watkins, because of its trading volume.&nbsp;



“BitMine’s doing, on average, well over 10x the amount of volume [compared to SBET] every day,” Watkins told Blockworks. “So it can raise money the fastest to buy ETH, and it&#8217;s just going to continue to scale.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108881" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">At this scale, other ETH DATs barely register | Source: <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/treasury-companies/ethereum-treasury-companies/ethereum-treasury-companies-eth-holdings">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Where a DAT could matter</h2>



It’s early days and DATs are still focused primarily on how to grow their treasuries. Watkins sketched a plausible arc for a well-financed DAT if the easy capital flywheel slows.



“At a certain point, I do think that the <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/treasury-companies/market-data/crypto-treasury-companies-mnav">mNAV</a> alchemy will stop working as well, and then you&#8217;ll start to see BitMine getting more creative and aggressive, like deploying the ETH onchain and starting to be a bigger player in the Ethereum economy,” he said.



Influence would accumulate indirectly, most likely affecting application <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/governance">governance</a> first; if a DAT parks a nine-figure balance on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a> or a major <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/liquid-staking">liquid staking</a> protocol, its views would carry weight.&nbsp;



“If you’re Aave and Tom Lee is 10–20% of your deposits, you might want his opinion before a big change,” Watkins said.



Then there could be infrastructure ownership. If the DAT starts operating validators, RPCs and indexers in a big way, it could shift who gets called when parameters or client development priorities change.



Talent capture is another risk. While hiring or even starting a core development team alone doesn’t move Ethereum’s governance process, a dense cluster of researchers and client contributors under a single treasury could be a kind of soft power.



<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">Honestly, Ethereum needs to be thinking of counter attack strategies here. People will just build centralised proof of authority chains using the EVM, steal a decades worth of R&amp;D. And then poach all the devs. They are not your friends. <a href="https://t.co/GsNuqZcSek">https://t.co/GsNuqZcSek</a>&mdash; Nick Almond (@DrNickA) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNickA/status/1963722781755056244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis, a lecturer at University College Dublin (known on X as <a href="https://x.com/post_polar_">Polar</a>), and avid <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> governance watcher, pushes in the other direction. Ethereum isn’t a company, and the Ethereum Foundation isn’t a management team.



“It’s a weird polycentric system of people who have specifically opted into its ethos, which is a little ideological,” Dylan-Ennis told Blockworks.



He understands the assumption that “money talks” and, at sufficient scale, someone like Lee could wield ETH holdings to shape Ethereum’s direction.&nbsp;



“But that’s a fundamental misreading of how Ethereum works, both culturally and structurally,” Dylan-Ennis said.



The governance structure of Ethereum, from AllCoreDevs (ACD) calls, EIP editors, the <a href="https://www.ethcatherders.com/">Cat Herders</a>, and so on, are about coordinating processes, not profits. To “take over” Ethereum, a DAT would have to build consensus with client teams, and then convince a globally distributed base of node operators and validators to run its preferred code.



Today, public trackers <a href="https://ethernodes.org/">show</a> on the order of 10,000–15,000+ Ethereum nodes globally — a diffuse base that must opt in to any change. That is far messier than hiring a few senior engineers, in Dylan-Ennis’ view.



“Maybe Ethereum is not the perfect example,” Watkins noted, also referring to the governance process as “messier” than “a democratic or plutocratic governance system where it&#8217;s just clear who has the power [and] how much power they have.”



“For <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a> it&#8217;s more straightforward,” Watkins said. “You hold a ton of tokens, you vote with those tokens — that&#8217;s the impact.”



But DATs are in a “speculative incubation period, where we&#8217;re figuring out how to scale these treasuries the fastest,” he said. Right now, for a successfully scaling DAT like BitMine, there’s no pressure to get creative in governance. At least not yet.



Smaller treasuries are already experimenting at the edges. “They need to find ways to stand out,” Watkins said. So, we see ETHZilla <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethzilla-etherfi-puffer">deploying hundreds of millions of dollars</a> into liquid staking ecosystems, for instance.



BitMine isn’t doing that for now, but the potential is there.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-108882" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-35.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc (BMNR) leads the ETH holdings race among DATs by a wide margin | Source: <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/treasury-companies/ethereum-treasury-companies/ethereum-treasury-companies-eth-holdings">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Ethereum’s immune system</h2>



Dylan-Ennis’ rejoinder is that Ethereum’s governance has repeatedly chosen caution over expediency. The project’s “immune system” is the combination of process and culture: rough consensus on ACD, conservative client teams across both consensus and execution layers, and a constituency of node operators who are ideological first and profit-driven second.



There’s no shortcut around EIP review, client implementation and building social consensus around chain upgrades. Any putative DAT push would still face these bottlenecks.



Coinbase — or any major stakeholder — can offer input like everyone else, but history suggests outsized corporate pressure backfires in credibly neutral systems. The closest historical analog is outside Ethereum: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-blocksize-war">Bitcoin’s 2017 block size war</a>, where a miner-exchange-VC coalition backed SegWit2x, only to lose to a user-led counter-movement.



The most likely outcome of a heavy-handed push, Dylan-Ennis argues, isn’t capture but a hard-forked ghost chain and reputational blowback for whoever tried, much like Bitcoin Cash (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bch">BCH</a>) is today.



Stablecoin issuers and exchanges can influence which fork “wins” by deciding what they support — exactly what happened during <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum-merge">the 2022 Merge</a>, when <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/circle">Circle</a> (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/usdc">USDC</a>) and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tether">Tether</a> (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/usdt">USDT</a>) publicly committed to support only the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/proof-of-stake">proof-of-stake</a> chain, starving the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/proof-of-work">PoW</a> fork of oxygen. Any future governance break would likely see similar alignment dynamics.&nbsp;



Watkins invoked the essay by Jo Freeman, “<a href="https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm">The Tyranny of Structurelessness</a>,” as a potential critique of Ethereum governance: when formal authority is weak, informal centers of gravity emerge. “It’s not clear who has the power,” he said. That doesn’t mean power is absent.



“A good candidate for being one of these centers…is whoever holds a 10% mountain of ETH,” Watkins said. Influence, in that world, would mean coalition-building with large stakeholders, like exchanges and asset managers, and winning “hearts and minds” of operators within the ecosystem to adopt a given release when it ships.



The essay’s remedy — make authority explicit — aligns with ongoing efforts to refine and improve EIP/ACD procedures, suggesting Ethereum’s best defense against perceived capture is more sunlight, not less.



But it has to be genuine. Prior <a href="https://hackernoon.com/hows-that-open-source-governance-working-for-you-mphv32ng">analyses</a> of open-source software communities note the same dynamic Freeman flags: rhetoric of openness can mask entrenched, informal hierarchies — useful context when evaluating claims like “anyone can propose an EIP.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Open questions</h2>



For now, Watkins sees limited influence from Tom Lee, in part because scaling the balance sheet is still the main event. “He doesn’t even run a full node,” Watkins said, adding that staking through custodians presumably keeps BitMine’s ether far from having any impact on the day-to-day of client releases and parameter changes in the near term.



But the pace of accumulation, and the willingness of smaller DATs to push into infra, DeFi and validator operations, makes this more than a thought experiment.



Blockworks contacted a BitMine representative for comment on their future plans, but had not heard back at time of publication.



“We still just don’t know what the end state of these treasury companies will be,” Watkins said. If DATs evolve from price bets into policy levers, Ethereum’s norms will be tested in public.



The bet from Dylan-Ennis’ side is that those norms domesticate newcomers, rather than the other way around.



Vitalik Buterin <a href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/09/21/low_risk_defi.html">has framed</a> the cultural constraint clearly: “Ethereum is a decentralized ecosystem, and so any activity that Ethereum does cannot be a backroom decision of a few people, it must be viable as a cultural rallying point.”



You can’t fork culture, and you can’t buy legitimacy. In Ethereum, protocol control isn’t granted by capital, it’s ratified by consensus.



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



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>

Can money buy Ethereum? On power and protocol politics

Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin investor and Bitcoin Cash promoter known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” has reached a tentative $48 million settlement with the US Justice Department to resolve criminal tax fraud charges filed in 2024.



The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/technology/roger-ver-bitcoin-justice-department-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE8.xx5H.LlbKWwOXVl0N&amp;smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare">agreement</a>, first reported by The New York Times and still pending court approval, would drop charges if Ver meets all payment and compliance terms. The case underscores a marked shift in federal crypto enforcement under President Donald Trump’s second administration, which has eased pressure on high-profile industry figures after years of scrutiny under President Joe Biden.



Ver, 46, was accused of evading taxes linked to his digital asset holdings while renouncing his US citizenship in 2014. Prosecutors alleged he concealed the value of his Bitcoin portfolio before expatriation. Arrested in Spain last year, Ver faced extradition proceedings until negotiations began earlier in 2025.



According to the NYT report, Ver also paid $600,000 to political strategist Roger Stone and retained attorneys tied to Trump’s legal defense network in an effort to reduce his exposure.



The case follows a series of reversals in US crypto enforcement. Since January 2025, the SEC has dropped suits against Coinbase and other major exchanges, while President Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht and the BitMEX founders.&nbsp;



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Bitcoin

Roger Ver reaches $48M tax settlement with US prosecutors: NYT

Luxembourg’s Intergenerational Sovereign Wealth Fund (FSIL) will allocate 1% of its portfolio — about €7 million — to bitcoin and other crypto assets, Finance Minister Gilles Roth announced on Thursday, during the 2026 budget presentation. The move makes Luxembourg the first Eurozone country to introduce sovereign exposure to bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a significant symbolic development for Europe’s financial landscape.



According to Roth, the FSIL will gain exposure indirectly through regulated ETFs rather than direct holdings, minimizing custody and operational risks. Treasury Director Bob Kieffer confirmed that the allocation follows a July 2025 policy revision allowing up to 15% of FSIL assets to be placed in “alternative investments,” including crypto.



As of mid-2025, FSIL held roughly $887 million, mostly in bonds and index funds. Kieffer described the 1% allocation as a balanced experiment reflecting Bitcoin’s “long-term potential.”



The decision aligns with Luxembourg’s ongoing efforts to establish itself as a fintech and crypto hub under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime. The country hosts numerous firms seeking MiCA licenses, reflecting its ambition to shape Europe’s digital finance infrastructure.



Luxembourg joins a growing list of governments cautiously exploring bitcoin exposure.



Norway’s $1.9 trillion sovereign fund indirectly holds bitcoin through corporate equities, while the Czech Republic and Finland have signaled similar interest.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

bitcoin ETFs

Luxembourg wealth fund to allocate 1% to Bitcoin ETFs

Kate Irwin

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>.



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



Could “Gaming Capital Markets” spur interest in crypto gaming?



Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron is behind the <a href="https://x.com/ogprotocol/status/1975715526967239154">upcoming launch</a> of the Open Game Protocol, a chain-agnostic app layer that aims to reward players of any game in any token — and reward developers with tokens, too.



“We think the most important thing for players is that they get rewarded, and even more so, that they believe in the rewards they get. And the most important thing for developers is that they get more players, and that at the end of the day, they can make a living making games,” Waldron told me in an interview.



But it’s not exactly easy for game developers — who are not blockchain engineers — to reward players with any token already on the market, because that would involve buying large amounts of that token upfront and then writing smart contracts to distribute it.



“For most game developers, all that stuff is a non-starter,” Waldron said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conflicting incentives</h2>



Crypto gaming has had an identity crisis for years as disparate genres like narrative games and casino games are lumped together. Many crypto game developers, investors, and influencers have touted the importance of “good games first” before all else.



But perhaps they failed to realize why anyone would play a crypto game in the first place: a player can win something of real financial value. Otherwise, big-budget games like Fortnite and League of Legends — backed by multibillion-dollar studios — offer a better gaming experience overall.



Some indie devs have realized that crypto gaming’s advantage is the financialization that makes it different, but we’ve yet to see any title break out into the mainstream. This year, we’ve seen casino games, hypercasual titles, and “Ponzi-esque” titles come and go, all trying to tap into a more token-forward approach.&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">GCM is next. Gaming Capital Markets&mdash; justin waldron (@jtwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/jtwald/status/1975435878614073788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Marketing around crypto games has emphasized what blockchains are being used, touting them like big-name brands. This is often because it’s the L2s themselves who are doing the marketing.



But L2 blockchains’ motivations and interests may actually be in opposition to what game developers actually need.&nbsp;



“Their own incentives are kind of getting in the way,” Waldron told me. “They’re like, ‘I want to drive a certain type of TVL and transactions on my chain.’ So they’ve become less aligned with the games that they’re working with, to some extent.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How it works</h2>



Waldron likened OG Protocol to Stripe, because any game developer can get token rewards set up for their game as quick as setting up credit card payments.



But there’s also a community component, and tokens can be staked.



“We built a system to create these reward pools so that the token communities can decide which games get how much rewards,” he said. “Instead of the games making the assets, it’s assets pairing with existing games.”



Traders are able to support the tokens and games they like.&nbsp;



All of this is possible because of what Waldron calls “gamecoins,” which are attached to existing tokens. He used FARTCOIN as an example.&nbsp;



“The FARTCOIN gamecoin is not used inside of the games. Actually, it’s a governance token that just determines where the rewards of FARTCOIN go. And so it’s a way of speculating on how big is the game ecosystem for FARTCOIN going to become.”



Game developers outside of crypto might ultimately use the protocol for their non-crypto games as an alternative to traditional advertising, Waldron suggested.



“It becomes like another way to acquire users that’s cheaper and more effective than ads,” Waldron said, adding that developers could also buy gamecoins and stake them against their own titles.



The OG Protocol is using Solana to start, but plans to expand to EVM chains in the future. It’s being incubated by <a href="https://x.com/pixiekate13/status/1976013310593319257">ICMrun</a>, a Solana-forward group focused on applications for tokenization.



At some point, OG Protocol hopes to offer its app layer as an integration for existing crypto wallets via a “play button” of sorts that lets traders see any token and then have “play” beside it as an option to play games that use that token in addition to existing wallet options like buy, sell, or swap.&nbsp;



“We probably have 30 or 40 wallet partners that are already interested in doing it,” Waldron said.



This could certainly help crypto wallets achieve their <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-trading-apps-going-social">super-app</a> dreams.



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



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>

Gaming

OGP wants to pair any token with any game

Crypto exchange Kraken is expanding access to traditional derivatives markets by connecting U.S. traders directly to CME Group’s futures products, including energy, metals, equities, and foreign exchange.



Originally <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/373899/kraken-expands-access-to-traditional-cme-contracts-like-oil-and-gold">reported</a> by the Block on Thursday, the company confirmed that its regulated futures commission merchant, Kraken Derivatives US, will facilitate trading in CME contracts such as oil, gold, silver, the S&amp;P 500, and other major FX pairs like EUR, GBP, and JPY.



The move marks a significant step in Kraken’s push to bridge digital and traditional finance, positioning it alongside brokerages such as Robinhood, which have also expanded into conventional asset classes.



Kraken, reportedly exploring an initial public offering at a valuation near $20 billion, has been preparing this expansion since acquiring US retail futures platform NinjaTrader earlier this year for $1.5 billion — the largest crypto–TradFi acquisition to date. The firm launched CME-listed bitcoin and ether futures on Kraken Pro over the summer and now plans to extend its coverage to commodities, equities, fixed income, and FX markets.



CME, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, recently reported record crypto derivatives volume exceeding 340,000 contracts per day. The firm is also set to debut options on Solana and XRP futures on October 16.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

kraken

Kraken expands CME derivatives access to oil, gold and FX

Bybit says it has become the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive a full Virtual Asset Platform Operator License from the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).&nbsp;



It’s a regulatory first for the Gulf nation and a significant step in the country’s bid to establish itself as a global hub for compliant digital finance.



The license, <a href="https://www.bybit.com/press/post/bybit-secures-uae-s-first-virtual-asset-platform-operator-license-from-securities-and-commodities-authority-blte25e6cd2d822b03a?channel=pr_&amp;medium=organic_social&amp;source=twitter&amp;sa_utm_ci=107&amp;pid=Social_twitter&amp;dtpid=17600209308403560&amp;campaign=enannouncement_17600209308403560&amp;c=enannouncement_17600209308403560&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=organic_social&amp;sa_utm_tcn=17600209308403560&amp;sa_utm_channel=pr_&amp;is_retargeting=true">announced</a> on Thursday, grants Bybit authorization to operate regulated trading, brokerage, custody, and fiat conversion services for both retail and institutional clients across the UAE.



Bybit’s achievement follows its In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the SCA in February 2025, obtained with guidance from the Blockchain Center in Abu Dhabi, which helped the exchange navigate the SCA’s compliance framework.



The SCA’s approval makes Bybit the first exchange officially <a href="https://x.com/Bybit_Official/status/1976297822103245111">recognized</a> under the UAE’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) rules, <a href="https://x.com/adbc_ae/status/1976313261105741894">reflecting</a> the nation’s push to align with Vision 2031 and international financial standards.



Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said the license demonstrates Bybit’s commitment to “building trust through compliance and transparency.” The company will now expand its regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi, planning more than 500 local hires and launching education and Web3 innovation programs in partnership with local institutions.&nbsp;



Co-CEO Helen Liu credited the SCA’s “clear, well-structured regulatory framework” for enabling compliant innovation in digital assets.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Bybit

Bybit secures UAE’s first SCA virtual asset license

CipherOwl, a crypto compliance startup founded by former Coinbase and Cruise engineers Leo Liang and Ming Jiang, has raised $15 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst and Flourish Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Enlight Capital.



Originally <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/10/09/cipherowl-crypto-compliance-seed-round-general-catalyst-flourish-ventures/">reported</a> by Fortune, the San Francisco–based firm develops artificial intelligence-driven tools to help financial institutions monitor blockchain transactions for suspicious activity as traditional banks and fintechs expand into digital assets.



Liang and Jiang, who previously worked on Coinbase’s internal compliance systems, launched CipherOwl in 2024 to address what they describe as the “dark forest” of crypto — the web of pseudonymous and cross-chain transactions that challenge conventional anti-money-laundering tools.



The company’s software uses generative AI to automatically flag risky transactions and generate plain-language reports explaining why an alert was triggered, streamlining manual reviews and lowering compliance costs.



Despite competition from established firms such as Chainalysis, Elliptic, and TRM Labs, CipherOwl has already onboarded clients including Coinbase, OKX, and several undisclosed law enforcement agencies.



With only eight employees, the startup aims to differentiate itself as “AI-native,” embedding machine learning into every layer of its detection process. According to General Catalyst managing director Marc Bhargava, this approach could give CipherOwl an edge as the compliance landscape matures and global regulators tighten oversight of crypto markets.



The company has not disclosed its valuation. The new capital will fund hiring and product expansion amid growing institutional demand for crypto risk and compliance infrastructure.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

CipherOwl raises $15 million to advance AI-driven crypto compliance

Casey Wagner

The Senate on Wednesday once again rejected both plans to fund the federal government and end the shutdown, which now enters its ninth day.&nbsp;



Senators have so far voted six separate times on partisan measures to extend funding.&nbsp;



Republicans, with 53 Senate seats, need eight Democrats to cross the aisle.&nbsp;



Without a budget, the crypto policy agenda remains in limbo, but Washington insiders insist that momentum isn’t completely lost.&nbsp;



While the House remains in a shutdown-induced recess, the Senate appears to be in session for both budgetary and crypto matters.



Two people familiar with the matter told Blockworks that the Senate Banking Committee remains committed to moving crypto market structure policy along, even if that means holding a markup hearing mid-shutdown. Regardless of whether a budget is passed, Committee leadership hopes to markup the Responsible Financial Innovation Act before the end of the month, they added.



To recap, the House passed the CLARITY Act in July. The Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees have since been working on their own versions of the bill, which will eventually have to merge with each other and CLARITY.



Senate Banking Committee Republicans released a revamped version of their bill last month. Democrats responded with a list of principles they’d like to see in the legislation.&nbsp;



The Agriculture Committee has yet to release its draft, which will focus mainly on the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission’s role in crypto market regulation.&nbsp;



Pre-shutdown, a person familiar with the matter said the draft bill was “close,” but now, with federal agencies operating with limited staff, it’s going to take <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/etf-sec-govt-shutdown">more time</a>.&nbsp;



Agency staffers working with Congressional committees on policy — like cryptocurrency market structure — are largely furloughed during the shutdown, lowering the odds that we’ll see a draft soon, according to a person familiar.&nbsp;



With federal agencies operating with limited personnel, new spot crypto ETFs are not expected to be approved until the shutdown ends. In its shutdown operations plan, the SEC said it will <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/capitol-gains-shutdown-blues">not review or approve</a> registration statements or issue notices of effectiveness.&nbsp;



Given the SEC’s new generic listing standards and the extensive work issuers and agency staff put in ahead of the shutdown, two issuers who spoke with Blockworks said they are confident that new products will get the green light quickly after federal operations resume.&nbsp;



The issuers added that they have not received communication from the SEC since the shutdown began last week.



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



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>

Capitol Gains

Capitol Gains: Crypto hearings expected to continue mid-shutdown

Ripple has entered a strategic partnership with Bahrain Fintech Bay, the Kingdom’s leading fintech hub, marking a significant expansion of its Middle East presence.



<a href="https://ripple.com/ripple-press/ripple-expands-into-the-kingdom-of-bahrain-through-strategic-partnership-with-bahrain-fintech-bay/">Announced</a> Thursday, the collaboration will focus on strengthening Bahrain’s digital asset and blockchain ecosystem through pilot projects, educational initiatives, and ecosystem events.&nbsp;



Ripple’s Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, Reece Merrick, said the company aims to help Bahrain advance its blockchain infrastructure while preparing to offer Ripple’s digital asset custody solution and Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin to local institutions once approved.



Bahrain Fintech Bay Chief Operating Officer Suzy Al Zeerah emphasized the Kingdom’s growing role as a digital finance hub, noting that the partnership aligns with Bahrain’s long-standing position as a regional financial center.



Ripple’s involvement includes showcasing blockchain use cases such as cross-border payments, stablecoins, and tokenization, underscoring its focus on institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure.



Ripple’s renewed momentum comes on the heels of major regulatory and strategic wins — notably securing a DFSA licence in Dubai to offer regulated crypto payments from the DIFC, the acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, and fresh institutional tie-ups tied to its RLUSD stablecoin, such as the DBS / Franklin Templeton integration.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Bahrain

Ripple partners with Bahrain Fintech Bay to boost digital asset innovation

Sharps Technology Inc. announced on Thursday that it is expanding its Solana digital asset treasury strategy through a partnership with Coinbase Global.



The <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sharps-technology-expands-digital-asset-treasury-strategy-with-coinbase-302579160.html">collaboration</a> will enable Sharps Technology to use Coinbase Prime for custody, liquidity, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading as it manages more than 2 million SOL — currently valued at roughly $400 million with SOL trading above $210.



According to strategic advisor James Zhang, the partnership gives Sharps Technology institutional-grade infrastructure and deep liquidity to support its growing treasury initiative. The company, traditionally focused on medical device sales and distribution, has adopted an unusual digital asset strategy aimed at leveraging blockchain-based yield generation within the Solana ecosystem.



The decision aligns Sharps Technology with a broader trend of public firms incorporating digital assets into balance sheet strategies, echoing earlier moves by Tesla and MicroStrategy. While Coinbase provides regulatory-grade custody, Sharps Technology’s pivot into crypto introduces volatility risk tied to SOL price fluctuations and evolving US oversight of corporate digital asset holdings.



The collaboration highlights Coinbase’s continued expansion into institutional services amid a more moderate regulatory posture by the SEC in 2025. Sharps Technology said it views this partnership as a cornerstone for advancing decentralized finance participation.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Coinbase

Sharps Technology expands Solana treasury with Coinbase partnership

Binance Japan and PayPay announced on October 9, 2025, that they have entered a capital and business alliance aimed at merging cryptocurrency services with Japan’s leading cashless payment platform.



As part of the <a href="https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000037.000126862.html">agreement</a>, PayPay acquired a 40% equity stake in Binance Japan, signaling a strategic effort to integrate digital assets into mainstream financial ecosystems. The collaboration seeks to create seamless user experiences that bridge crypto and fiat transactions across PayPay’s network of over 70 million users in Japan.



Initial initiatives under discussion include allowing purchases of cryptocurrencies through “PayPay Money” within the Binance Japan app and enabling crypto-to-fiat withdrawals into PayPay accounts. The companies described the move as a step toward a “new financial experience” that unites blockchain infrastructure with everyday digital payments.



Binance Japan CEO Takeshi Chino said the partnership marks “an important step toward Japan’s digital finance future,” highlighting plans to expand Web3 adoption through accessible payment tools. PayPay’s Financial Strategy Head Masayoshi Yanase emphasized the firm’s focus on offering secure, user-friendly solutions for crypto transactions integrated into PayPay’s platform.



Binance Japan has operated under the registration of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau as a licensed crypto asset exchange since August 2023, providing spot trading and lending services.&nbsp;



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>

Binance

PayPay takes stake in Binance Japan to merge crypto and cashless payments

Citigroup has invested in BVNK, a London- and San Francisco-based startup building payments infrastructure for stablecoins.



The company <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/09/biti-bvnk-stablecoin-banks-crypto.html">told</a> CNBC on Thursday that the investment, made through Citi Ventures, underscores the growing interest of major US banks in crypto-based settlement systems following regulatory advances like the GENIUS Act, which established clearer rules for dollar-pegged digital assets.



Stablecoins are increasingly being used for cross-border transfers because of faster settlement times and lower transaction costs compared with traditional systems. BVNK’s platform enables clients to move seamlessly between fiat and stablecoins, supporting global payments for merchants, contractors and digital banks.



Co-founder Chris Harmse said BVNK’s valuation now exceeds its prior $750 million round, though the company declined to disclose Citi’s investment amount. Harmse noted that the US is BVNK’s fastest-growing market over the past 18 months, attributing this to the GENIUS Act’s regulatory clarity and surging institutional demand for compliant infrastructure.



CEO Jane Fraser said in June that the bank is exploring issuing its own stablecoin and offering crypto custody services. Other Wall Street firms are following suit — JPMorgan launched its JPMD token, and Bank of New York Mellon and HSBC are developing tokenized deposit products.



BVNK, already backed by Coinbase and Tiger Global, competes with Alchemy Pay, TripleA and Ripple in the cross-border stablecoin market. Harmse said BVNK expects to reach profitability next year.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



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>