Astra DAO

Felix Jauvin

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



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Next week is <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/federal-reserve">the Fed&#8217;s</a> FOMC Day, and it feels like it’s going to be a highly contentious one.



On one hand, you have President Trump pressing Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates by 100bps as soon as possible:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd8eB1ZvxWomBnQCAcNNd6lpxKx5t1qlFqdGlrB0xea0I__ocsww8scEmB9rNOR7jdLHaxoafbfwUWRthCK2vlIq-qQ0qU01mMayMjCBDlQoX3cnLzQEQaugMXvQXfTGeEXZw7y3g?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/></figure>



On the other hand, you have the FOMC toeing the line; they’re in a “wait-and-see” mode. This is because they don’t want to react in either a dovish or hawkish direction until they have a better idea of where the tariff policy will net out.



However, doing nothing is also a policy decision.&nbsp;



Currently, there’s a 97% implied probability for the Fed to pause, so there’s almost no expectation for it to cut next week:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfhHOTkWJNBFLnLCKzjJ2lV6rEQ8mf-nOaDSfatdzqhK1OuQgFne7fMM9-XCIl2mq_kDAdBQFsoADa2a-FOhDcrZpUke6f2UV7oVRoPIj_CVwmqj2_SzVpsNpp2fCt5DZEIcOfwfQ?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: CME</figcaption></figure>



However, next week will also have a dot plot meeting wherein we’ll receive an update on the Fed’s summary of economic projections (SEP). If the Fed wanted to signal a dovish tilt, the SEP is what will be used to signal that.&nbsp;



To gauge whether that will be the case, let’s take a look at some of the most recent economic data that will drive the FOMC’s thinking next week.



The Fed has insisted on being data-dependent while trying to navigate an inflation rate above its 2% target for multiple years now. Looking at the Taylor Rule — a historically accurate model for gauging how tight or loose monetary policy is based on the Fed’s dual-mandate of maximum employment and stable prices — the Fed should be cutting right now, but isn’t:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeC6z191-A7TVGXyilzYgWeRqShZcz6PiXOD2dQNVC4-t6qGlAMKwo0NtW-VkEMmypQvgH3bCO_v0q0ybzfP0LnKLaVyR2WoQPdQcFyQL61W3rptkcCZmkm8WUwFnrHT0zhKFa2LQ?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/></figure>



Labor



This week we saw a huge uptick in continuing jobless claims, emphasizing just how hard it is to get a job when you lose one.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe4fu7mwoxHGK_3tGV-Fk_7up40uPX8oEZ7Jr5nQ_MVi9DlF_7JI5yLu2EGYVSRGosmw6JFDHgxJtUYRR0G7Ej0XGaXagnLCBzYxuv0ARc_srkk3AOs90pV_dRp0EaWlc_kA02asQ?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Augur Infinity</figcaption></figure>



Although we have not seen the same surge in the unemployment rate nor for initial jobless claims, this uptick further validates how little companies are hiring right now. But they’re not at the point of layoffs, either. We are in a regime of attrition right now.



This is a precarious place to be. By the time the labor market deteriorates to the point where we see a surge in the unemployment rate and negative payroll numbers, the Fed will be very behind with respect to a Taylor Rule-like model, as shown earlier.



Inflation



The reason the Fed isn’t pre-emptively cutting rates from the perspective of the labor market is due to a concern about tariffs passing through into higher inflation — thus questioning the Fed’s mandate of stable prices.



This week’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cpi-print-softer-than-expected">CPI data</a>, however, calls into question how large the impact of tariffs will be on inflation.&nbsp;



Core CPI came in at 0.1% month over month, a huge downside miss that not one economist out of the 73 surveyed anticipated:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXemqTnTDHfah9NtUkpsXDC_Tvy8LXInuyJ_3_-yKtppGXZqF7NfmCIm0ge2fs5iTg3monBVyzLUr6c_NvX_BSaz5_6ChnTfRY7Rzz_d15nW5Y5SXFvxmMRGJwFrAbTlRBAQTOaQ?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Bloomberg.</figcaption></figure>



On its own, this would be enough for the Fed to sigh in relief that inflation is on its way to the 2% target.&nbsp;



The issue, however, is inflation expectation in light of surging tariffs:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd1kP8wtYYGPOy4ODKUIWXTHemr_ckOnTOpoeCoXdh8FUkmLCdh0tSMz-WlIUD6tPMtRvbJr-Dk36KXoYm7inAnVRj9we3AKN9n_y2LxlbMsb0yC9jJSgPjt5drccDLLba2446T4w?key=4lX2oWRGbtmvLg_xeGNjyQ" alt=""/></figure>



After being burned too many times in cutting before it became clear that inflation was on its path to 2%, the Fed does not want to make the same mistake.



Putting it all together, we have a unique situation with a significant risk of a potential policy error.&nbsp;



By sitting on their hands and speculating on future data as opposed to reacting to the data that we are getting today, FOMC members are effectively making an intentional decision to be as late as possible in their reaction function.&nbsp;



That’s not a great place to be in.



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Economy

Is the Fed risking a policy mistake by sitting on their hands?

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



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Eight months after its early access public launch, Off The Grid is preparing to release on Steam.



The game is currently available as a free-to-play title via the Epic Games Store on PC and on latest-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles’ respective game shops.&nbsp;



We don’t have the exact <a href="https://gunzillagames.com/en/news/64-Off-The-Grid-Is-Coming-To-Steam">Steam launch</a> date yet, but Delphi Ventures Founding Partner Piers Kicks, whose firm <a href="https://delphiventures.io/blog/delphi-ventures-gunzilla-games">invested</a> in Gunzilla Games, <a href="https://x.com/pierskicks/status/1932899404530196732">said</a> yesterday that the shooter is coming to Steam in a “few weeks” (so likely in the last week of June).&nbsp;



The game remains on Epic’s <a href="https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/collection/most-played">list</a> of “Most Played” games, suggesting it’s doing well, and holds a player rating on Epic of 3.9 out of a possible 5.



Gunzilla CEO Vlad Korolev <a href="https://x.com/VladK133/status/1923861721107624374">said</a> last month that Off The Grid has consistently had over 10,000 new players daily since launch.



Off The Grid falls behind its non-crypto shooter peers when it comes to attention on Twitch, however. In the past month, OTG saw <a href="https://sullygnome.com/game/off_The_Grid/30/summary">less than a million</a> total hours watched, with an average of 28 Twitch streamers broadcasting the game at any given time. The game sees a total average of about 1,400 concurrent viewers on Twitch.



Those numbers don’t compare to games like Counter-Strike 2 (over 75 million hours watched, with 105,000 average total viewers in that same period) or Apex Legends (17.3 million hours, with 24,000 average total viewers), though.



That makes OTG the 157th most-watched game on Twitch by total watch hours in the past month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Wallets don’t equal players</h2>



First things first: We don’t have exact Off The Grid player count numbers yet, and it’s not accurate to interpret a wallet count as a player count. This is in part because OTG’s crypto elements are optional, but also because we live in a world where bots and AI agents can control wallets (and users can have more than one wallet).



Still, the number of crypto wallets engaging with Off The Grid has grown (roughly doubled) since the game opened up to the public in October.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc5nPzhCY9TNW_0hjux3YDPhc_QVb0p10yVB-fak4k08FyrVGleuyEKxtzi1Fyt9g8AdSCHhUotkwdScFA-w3KWDuYrVIyUnR4c-e0sst35tycSnbfNQCe7zteSt-c2wq2G6k_jgw?key=bQLVH2apuyKfhys2Z-X9dA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: OTG wallet <a href="https://flipsidecrypto.xyz/Ali3N/avalanche-otg-l1-gunz-dashboard-6j5GNj">data</a> showing initial surge in new addresses at launch.</figcaption></figure>



DappRadar data suggests Off The Grid saw between roughly <a href="https://naavik.co/digest/off-the-grid-takes-on-the-shooter-market/">40,000 and 170,000</a> daily UAWs engaging with its crypto elements in its first month of launch. Today, eight months later, it’s seeing around <a href="https://dappradar.com/dapp/off-the-grid/?range-ds=24h&amp;chains-ds=gunz%2Cgunz-testnet%2Cavalanche">200,000 daily UAWs</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdWg4VVAtrTwwOVgF5AfYWWswh_kgLh6dYx3NZPcRkwx4EExa17YWsMBhGpW3nM8_lGy8LHI8O36XBLzoi0A1sHSqqPngx0Ik7DsMLWLImiMqIoV3I680HWDfTSmVF166W11P8BPg?key=bQLVH2apuyKfhys2Z-X9dA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Off The Grid UAWs (white) and txns (cyan) over time, from DappRadar, including Gunz testnet, mainnet, and Avalanche C-chain.</figcaption></figure>



The vast majority of OTG-related blockchain activity remains on Off The Grid’s testnet, not its mainnet, indicating the ecosystem hasn’t fully switched over just yet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One player’s story</h2>



Aside from the crypto gaming die-hards, how well is Off The Grid retaining new players? A snapshot <a href="https://x.com/TheodoreAgranat/status/1932856053395566833">lauded</a> by Gunzilla’s Web3 director Theodore Agranat paints one person’s perspective. A pseudonymous Off The Grid fan <a href="https://x.com/meatportmusic/status/1932718595437482366">did a test</a> with a new account to get a slice of how many new players are still playing the shooter game — and shared findings in a thread with roughly 12,000 views so far.&nbsp;



He tracked other new OTG accounts to see how many were still playing the game three weeks later.



He found that across 152 accounts and four matches, 40% of those player accounts were “inactive” just three weeks later. A little over 48% were still active after that period, while the rest were “semi-active.”&nbsp;



The conclusion: OTG has “significant” player retention.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcvluNEXbYyb_kDxNvoVi5ZqxQ6HmfIRIidyqhLwQo9VDw7xvONG7R0TKO2lBCa-JnYkG4XL12CpU5XCrL0P7QPM2thtuSrOM5uWCmSOyzWf9Ftnixbp0ixwBjsXn-UxqFvxKs9?key=bQLVH2apuyKfhys2Z-X9dA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: @meatportmusic on X.</figcaption></figure>



To me, this isn’t enough data to draw firm conclusions about the whole game. We also don’t know how many of these are alt accounts, for instance, which could impact those numbers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Retention expectations</h2>



Player dropoff is, of course, normal for all video games — even the most successful ones. And what one game considers a “successful” retention rate could be considered abysmal to another.&nbsp;



There isn’t a lot of public data on what’s widely considered a good retention rate for PC games. Spanish software firm Barbary <a href="https://featureupvote.com/blog/game-retention/#:~:text=Day%201%20retention%3A%2035%2D40%25%20is%20considered%20good,%3A%205%2D10%25%20is%20strong">suggests</a> a 20% retention rate is good for games a week after launch, while anywhere from a 5-10% retention rate is “strong” for PC games after the game has been out for a month.



Data software firm Solsten, however, has <a href="https://solsten.io/blog/d1-d7-d30-retention-in-gaming">found</a> that retention rates higher than this are becoming “the new standard,” because it’s costing developers more money to acquire users now than it did a few years ago. Overall, this makes the gaming industry more competitive.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfQDxJW8zNWqDN2exMxCJd4l902YeDgfrcB9tM2OLjwyCazIXezoV-CzeS7Kj5Y0DYJSGzCjfrDNDInlHm3nV2BgBmr3P0E3zt3olbHi22Ntrki5AKfVNqhbBJWYfFtfXAEoMVLrA?key=bQLVH2apuyKfhys2Z-X9dA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Kevuru Games.</figcaption></figure>



Ambitious, higher-budget live-ops games do need more retention than other types of games, however — especially if they’re free-to-play titles where gamers don’t fork out cash upfront.



I think that over time, Gunzilla will have to either keep spending to add substantial updates that bring gamers back from Fortnite and CoD — or focus more on its pro-crypto core base.



Gunzilla didn’t respond to my request for player count data.



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Gaming

Off The Grid active wallets hold steady ahead of Steam launch

Macauley Peterson

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Spark, the DeFi protocol behind SparkLend and Spark Savings, has <a href="https://x.com/sparkdotfi/status/1933150985645654507">launched</a> Ignition. This long-awaited airdrop campaign is designed to reward early ecosystem contributors and kick off decentralized governance via the SPK token.



The campaign will reach approximately 50,000 participants, spanning users of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pendle-2025-outlook">Pendle</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/centrifuge-fundraise-real-world-assets">Centrifuge</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/morpho">Morpho</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/unichain/unichain-onchain-activity/unichain-stablecoin-transfers">Unichain</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lido">Lido</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">OP Mainnet</a>, according to the Spark team. Eligibility is determined based on prior engagement with SparkLend or by holding <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/makerdao/mkr-dai">select stablecoins</a>, including USDS, sUSDS, DAI, sDAI and xDAI (the gas token of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gnosis">Gnosis Chain</a>). Token recipients can check eligibility and claim their SPK at token launch via Ignition’s <a href="https://app.spark.fi/spk/airdrop">official portal</a>.



The token itself is not yet live, and no launch date has been announced — so watch out for phishing attempts!



The scope of eligibility is strikingly broad: Users who held stablecoins or interacted with platforms like Aave, Morpho, Pendle or Fluid as far back as 2023 — when <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/makers-spark-protocol-dai">Spark launched</a> — may qualify. Users qualify from holding tokens and DeFi positions on Ethereum mainnet, L2s like Base, Arbitrum and Optimism, and even Gnosis and Polygon.



SPK tokens, however, will be claimable only on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> Mainnet, regardless of the network where eligibility was earned. The claim window is expected to run for six weeks following token launch, after which unclaimed SPK will be redirected to the “Overdrive” phase.



Overdrive is the second planned campaign phase following Ignition, and establishes a staking-based rewards program allowing recipients to stake their SPK for additional yield. Participants from Spark Savings may receive boosted allocations during Overdrive, depending on their prior activity. That’s one way in which Spark aims to reward long-term alignment and meaningful participation across its financial stack.



“This airdrop campaign marks a key milestone in Spark’s roadmap and is a foundational step toward a more interoperable and composable decentralized financial system,” said Sam MacPherson, CEO and co-founder of Spark’s core development team, Phoenix Labs.



Spark has expanded its role in the DeFi landscape through vertical integration, as Alea Research noted in a <a href="https://alearesearch.io/perspectives/spark/">recent report</a>.



“Spark offers high‑yield savings (SSR), low‑cost USDS borrowing (SparkLend), and deep cross‑chain liquidity (SLL) in a single stack.” This combination enables Spark to deliver capital efficiency at scale — without fragmentation. Together, SparkLend and SLL manage over $5.5 billion in liquidity, making Spark one of DeFi’s most heavily capitalized systems.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfAD4f9kSY-IBo5Wx-ba11NBkV9hj2bBxPkesxVoiTS06O7y8q_3QTjg-dblTSn-CEy35JkklwAYwWe55unMfWiANRFiwRxIrKRjsdTHiBKf3xnC9TvSCBPaU5tlXGVzkbNoOzt_w?key=_MLqvrCqCUYlnWp7irkkHg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/makerdao?dashboard=110">Blockworks Research</a>.</figcaption></figure>



The SPK token will serve as the governance core of this ecosystem, shaping protocol upgrades, integration priorities and capital allocation via onchain voting. It&#8217;s part of a massive 10-year emission roadmap outlined in the <a href="https://sky-atlas.powerhouse.io/A.AG1_Spark/1c1f2ff0-8d73-8157-a4b8-f568e2f09fe3%7C7896ed332638">Spark Artifact</a> from the Sky (formerly <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/makerdao">MakerDAO</a>) Atlas.



Of the 10 billion total SPK tokens, 6.5 billion will be distributed via Genesis farming by Sky, and 3.5 billion will be allocated to the Spark Foundation. Emissions begin at 1.625 billion per year and taper down gradually to a long-term rate of 203 million SPK annually by year seven.



This measured schedule is designed to balance utility with decentralization. As Alea puts it, “Spark’s value proposition creates a feedback loop that strengthens other protocols while cementing its liquidity moat.” SPK’s long-term design invites holders to become stewards of DeFi infrastructure, not just passive recipients.



Spark’s Ignition arrives amid growth in other DeFi primitives. Morpho today <a href="https://morpho.org/blog/morpho-v2-liberating-the-potential-of-onchain-loans/">announced</a> v2, with a focus on fixed-rate, fixed-term loans via an intent-based lending platform. Its onchain lending infrastructure already powers third-party services such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbases-btc-backed-loans">Coinbase BTC‑backed loans</a>.



SPK governance could influence capital allocation — not just in savings and stable borrowing, but across multi‑chain lending markets. Its ambition: to align governance, liquidity and yield under one roof.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Spark airdrop lights the fuse on decentralized governance

David Canellis

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



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Today’s retrospective will be a trauma-bonding experience for anyone who was too busy playing Plants vs. Zombies or StarCraft 2 to stack sats in 2010.



At this point 15 years ago, the premier Bitcoin faucet was in full swing.



Gavin Andresen, one of Satoshi&#8217;s first collaborators, had only been a member of Bitcointalk for two weeks when he <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183.0">announced</a> he would give away free bitcoin.



“For my first Bitcoin coding project, I decided to do something that sounds really dumb: I created a web site that gives away Bitcoins,” he wrote.



Anyone who entered a Bitcoin address and solved a captcha would soon soon receive 5 BTC, worth about five cents apiece at the time. Today, 5 BTC would trade for more than half a million dollars.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXenNA-6Q7-Dvyk0fVrdPPR5egVEp1wgprTqGb_Tvklvb0AvSD_vEh4TcDp1oBpN65CmjZh4J9iin8DKfXdH1J3a_KfeUzEmhibTZKAWQcb2e1ulWRQ-cepxdsRfHG6RWcWfbtaruQ?key=UOy3Jz74SGgMbJKgrO5IMQ" alt=""/></figure>



Gavin filled the faucet with 1,100 of his own bitcoin to start, or about $55 in US dollar terms, and said he would add more once he was sure the system worked as intended. Those same coins would fetch nearly $118 million at current prices.



“Why? Because I want the Bitcoin project to succeed, and I think it is more likely to be a success if people can get a handful of coins to try it out. It can be frustrating to wait until your node generates some coins (and that will get more frustrating in the future), and buying Bitcoins is still a little bit clunky.”



At first, the faucet was restricted to dishing out 5 BTC per IP address, leading one user to pull out 50 BTC in minutes using Tor, which can quickly generate new IP addresses within the browser itself. In good faith, that user sent the coins back to the faucet.&nbsp;



“He&#8217;s giving it away, it&#8217;s an honor system, so don&#8217;t take more than you need,” wrote Laszlo Hanycez.&nbsp;



Gavin then made it so each bitcoin address could only ever receive one faucet donation “to make it a teeny-tiny bit harder to cheat. I don&#8217;t want to blacklist anybody coming from Tor, though — I think a lot of people using Tor will also be interested in Bitcoin.” He also tipped one user 50 BTC ($2.50 then, $5.4 million now) for submitting a bug report for a security flaw.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcy7vU92BCZJJJMVEp-Eh3LAT87C8cTsxr-wmERoOBgmycBS4xV1izzJA0lMo4wloQ2BB-Py4N7B5hQDwpLTTCK0eq--VDdp1Rr7FRnfQLlGIb5694HoB_mq3jXbyvy67tKBiq2_A?key=UOy3Jz74SGgMbJKgrO5IMQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Within a week, Gavin’s project received approval from the big S himself.</figcaption></figure>



The faucet was active for a little under two years, right up until March 2012. Bitcoin’s price had exploded up to 500x all the while, to nearly $30 at most, leading Gavin to scale payouts down over time.&nbsp;



When the faucet had run dry (<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/thousands-of-bitcoins-stolen-in-a-hack-on-linode">accelerated by a hack</a> on the Linode cloud server that was <a href="https://gavintech.blogspot.com/2012/03/bitcoin-faucet-hacked.html">underpinning</a> the faucet and a number of other Bitcoin services), bitcoin’s US dollar exchange rate had settled at about $5, and each user was receiving 0.0015 BTC, or less than a penny.



It’s difficult to say exactly how much bitcoin the faucet distributed overall. Part of the intended appeal was that anyone could donate coins for the benefit of the community, and often recipients would simply return the coins they received back to the faucet’s address. Giving and receiving coins had clearly become a ceremony for some. The total volume of the faucet’s <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC-full">address</a> amounted to nearly 19,716 BTC ($2.1 billion at current prices).&nbsp;



Realistically, actual distributions likely amounted to a few thousand coins at best, at least by my very surface-level count.



Is there a moral here? Something hokey might do, like “giving is good” or “pay it forward.” I’m just not sure any of that eases the pain of being 15 years too late for a free bitcoin fortune. 



In that case, there’s always Charlie Shrem’s faucet <a href="https://x.com/CharlieShrem/status/1919161109300281350">revival</a>, if it ever attracts any coins.



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Bitcoin

We’re all still early — but not early enough for the free bitcoin faucet

Katherine Ross

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



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30% of bitcoin is now held by centralized entities.&nbsp;



Pretty wild, especially if you rewind to the past couple of years and remember how much of a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-strategic-bitcoin-reserve">dream</a> it was to even think that we’d get something like a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.



But it also might be a good thing, from a volatility perspective, <a href="https://www.gemini.com/strategic-bitcoin-reserve">a report from Gemini and Glassnode noted.</a>&nbsp;



“With 30.9% of bitcoin’s circulating supply now held in centralized treasuries — including governments, ETFs, public companies, and centralized exchanges — the market has undergone a structural transformation toward institutional maturity,” the report said.



“As adoption has broadened, particularly across sovereign and regulated financial entities, annualized realized volatility across all time frames — from 1-week to 1-year — has declined consistently since 2018.”



We’re now more likely to see “more sustained and orderly rallies” versus the spikes we used to see.&nbsp;



That 30% figure means that there are 216 entities holding BTC, the report noted.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeW8GI86BlcGwAIi2oYl-P84cNue-A-LKTldnBxQnpovGda7LK0MLUfB04ls-aai15YDXCxSA_Mb1CNkYycu8932fbtVQ66qvBCJB4pIt0EBGUB_71YZNOOuM18zd2WE4r72-UQrg?key=Jau5HJhq1dVRKHo87fbBIg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Gemini and Glassnode</figcaption></figure>



While no one holds a candle to the amount of bitcoin held by exchanges, it’s surprising (and yet also not surprising, if you know what I mean?) that public companies are the most numerous.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdV6mpFDjklRwWNGR8IrFm4ec3mtzBh9B2L0WdqT11_QbySwzlpZpt9QQBzLZ7xiSEoTuI8M8AaD1ckz7yRFce1eS5yTyp-vttdLF2St_ymArwF9Pch_fdkhWG7zrENWxcSP5NNrA?key=Jau5HJhq1dVRKHo87fbBIg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">I believe the pale yellow is a typo and should say ETF/Funds. </figcaption></figure>



Yep, you read that right, 101 companies.&nbsp;



Those firms hold a total of 765,300 bitcoins, which is a hefty amount, but they are still only third behind ETF/Funds, which hold 1.3 million bitcoins. Exchanges easily take the lead with over 3 million bitcoin.&nbsp;



“Across nearly all institutional categories — excluding private companies — the top three entities control between 65% to 90% of total holdings, underscoring the dominance of early adopters in the Bitcoin treasury space,” the report said.&nbsp;



“This pattern is particularly stark in the DeFi, public company, and ETF/fund categories, where pioneers have shaped the early trajectory of adoption.”



There is a bit of a shift happening behind the scenes as well, where exchanges and also DeFi protocols are seeing their balances decline overall. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, because the report notes that the shift is moving the bitcoin over to ETFs and funds as they gain popularity.&nbsp;



“The total bitcoin held by this spot trading sector has remained relatively stable, ranging between 3.9M-4.2M BTC since June 2021. This stable range suggests that the drop in exchange balances does not imply shrinking supply, but rather a structural reshuffling of custody,” it said.



Times have changed, but I’m not mad about this development. Though we could, perhaps, do with fewer bitcoin treasury companies if you ask me.



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30% of bitcoin’s supply is held by centralized entities: Gemini 

Jack Kubinec

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



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The Solana-based golfing loyalty app GolfN has gone live on the App Store, Lightspeed has learned exclusively.



The mobile app combines collectibles with digital caddie features and a native GOLF token for an experience that CEO Jared Phillips described to me as “Chase rewards meets Strava meets Pokémon Go.” The app’s self-reported waitlist of over 47,000 golfers will now gain access to the latest shot at crypto consumer rewards.&nbsp;



Upon downloading GolfN, I was directed to create a free account. I then received three digital golf clubs, which enable rewards, but most rounds with my free account will only earn me non-financialized “tickets.” However, non-members earn points for their first round, and there are other free in-app ways to gain points.



To gain better access to points, which will soon become convertible to Solana-based GOLF tokens, users have to get a paid GolfN membership that runs between $15 to $1,000 per month. These memberships come with a slew of perks and will also let users accrue points that can become GOLF, which can be redeemed for things like golf gear or traded on the open market. GolfN will also circulate partly via “rentals” of virtual golf club collectibles.



When I asked Phillips how the economics of such a scheme can work, he said he expects golfers to be willing to shell out a monthly fee to be rewarded for the money they put into golf, similarly to how membership-based credit cards work. For GolfN’s golf industry partners, the app can offer more finely-tuned customer data, Phillips said.



As for the users themselves, Phillips estimated GolfN will have a 10:1 ratio of non-crypto to crypto people since the app is built for golfers more than for crypto-natives. Nevertheless, Phillips argued that “not everyone in crypto golfs, but everyone in crypto is golf-adjacent.”



“The average person in crypto is more highly educated than not — usually bachelor’s degree —&nbsp; generally makes more money, and has more disposable income,” Phillips said, noting that a number of crypto people have “come out of the woodwork” as golfers while he’s been building the app.



Golf and crypto’s demographic overlap has made the sport a target for crypto experimentation in the past, particularly with LinksDAO — a group that <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/03/linksdao-nft-sale-books-first-10m-toward-buying-an-actual-golf-course">raised</a> $10 million in a 2022 NFT sale with the promise of buying a golf course. It actually went on to do so, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/08/03/linksdao-the-online-community-that-bought-a-golf-course-is-accepting-new-members">acquiring</a> Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland in 2023 and gating club membership with the NFTs. LinksDAO has <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/02/12/linksdao-plans-to-launch-a-community-token-on-base">become</a> part owner of a second course in Kansas City.



GolfN boasts a lot of potential demand. But if the app has an Achilles’ heel, it may be its complexity. Even as someone who writes about crypto full-time, my head spun for a few minutes trying to grok the distinctions between GOLF, points, tickets, digital clubs and digital golf balls. We’ll see if the golfers fare better.



Updated 6/12/25 at 9:05 a.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that GolfN memberships start at $50 per month, rather than $15. Article has also been updated to note that non-members can earn GolfN points.



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crypto apps

Solana-based golf rewards app GolfN hits App Store

Casey Wagner

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



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US stocks and bitcoin moved a bit higher Wednesday morning before paring gains after May’s CPI came in cooler than expected, suggesting that tariff-related price hikes are so far not a reality.&nbsp;&nbsp;



After a slight rally at the beginning of the session, the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes were down 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, at 2 p.m. ET. Bitcoin, meanwhile, had lost 1.1% to trade around $108,800.&nbsp;



Headline CPI rose 0.1% over the month and 2.4% annually. Economists had projected the figures to come in at 0.2% and 2.4%, respectively.&nbsp;



Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also rose 0.1% over the month and 2.8% year over year, compared with expectations of 0.3% and 2.9%, respectively.&nbsp;



Economists had largely expected tariffs to start impacting consumer prices in May, but today’s figures suggest otherwise. There’s a few theories as to why:&nbsp;



First, businesses could be eating costs for now, as opposed to passing them off to consumers. The fact that many of the higher tariff rates have been paused and the policies are still in limbo make this theory more likely, in my opinion.&nbsp;



We also know that companies bulked up their inventories at the start of the year to get ahead of tariffs, so if they are using stocked-up supply, it makes sense that prices aren’t moving higher.&nbsp;



Second, data shows that Chinese manufacturers have increased exports to Southeast Asia, likely in an effort to avoid US tariffs. Exports to this region increased 15% year over year in May, according to government data released earlier this week. Meanwhile, shipments to the US fell 34.5%. This could be helping delay tariff-related price increases.&nbsp;



June’s data will more accurately reflect how the United States’ latest deal with China is impacting exports, assuming this new truce is inked and lasts. More on that later.&nbsp;



Third, consumer caution is high. We’ll get updated consumer sentiment numbers on Friday, but May’s figure came in at 52.2, unchanged from April. The CPI report showed new vehicle prices declined 0.3% over the month, suggesting that dealerships are offering reduced prices due to lower demand.&nbsp;



Speaking of that latest trade truce, the US and China have reached a new (old?) preliminary trade deal, President Trump said Wednesday.&nbsp;



Late last night, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters that the London meeting concluded with officials agreeing to a “framework” to “implement” the plan they hatched three weeks ago in Geneva.&nbsp;



This morning, Trump clarified that the latest deal includes China rolling back its rare earth material export limitations. The US agreed to rescind recent visa restrictions for Chinese students and relax export controls on AI chips. He and Xi Jinping still need to officially sign off, Trump added.&nbsp;



We’ll be keeping an eye on that, so you keep an eye on your inbox.



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China

CPI print comes in softer than expected

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



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Not all OpenSea users are happy about its plans to kill some features, as the company sets a date for its newly-launched OS2 to fully replace its predecessor.



OS2, which primarily splits users into “Collectors” and “Pros,” was first <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opensea-nfts-overhaul-comeback">teased</a> back in November but saw its full <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opensea-sea-token-os2-launch">public launch</a> late last month.&nbsp;



In a <a href="https://opensea.io/blog/articles/saying-goodbye-to-os1-whats-changing-and-what-comes-next">post</a>, OpenSea revealed yesterday that it won’t rollover all OS1 features to the latest marketplace version and will sunset OS1 come June 16, giving traders no choice but to use OS2.&nbsp;



Deals, English auctions, testnet support, and the Shopping Cart feature are all going away in less than a week from now. OpenSea said in its post that Deals and English auctions simply weren’t being used by enough traders to justify making those features part of OS2.



“While there are no immediate plans to bring this functionality into the new OpenSea, we plan to listen to feedback and could decide to include it in a future product roadmap,” the crypto firm said of Deals.



On Crypto Twitter, I tracked over a dozen users specifically taking issue with OpenSea ditching the Deals feature. Deals was first <a href="https://x.com/opensea/status/1682077991029932032">launched</a> back in July 2023 and was <a href="https://x.com/opensea/status/1682077994502815745">advertised</a> as a way to do custom, make-your-own deals like three NFTs for one NFT plus some ETH, for example, without having to risk it in the DMs.



“Without a ‘Deals’ feature (which isn’t available in V2) it poses major scam risks for collectors,” <a href="https://x.com/randomcdog/status/1932335368508149988">wrote</a> one trader.



“I loved using the &#8216;Deals&#8217; feature—it was fun, engaging, and led to plenty of interesting trades,” <a href="https://x.com/feurez/status/1932352658146271515">explained</a> another.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcuaiJp7DxEPHsfN0YmF8zrZLLsfPMdm3kzmV3PCT6Qa2Sk9lmpQVsE4csDVQ5c4qDUKfaqe52Y4hvVDAGl8KgPw2__Rh0cgatVhN4ybfF5RpeSIhqtz7H9ajhXyIVCMGIphH1r?key=Wc42brSCVTcdemJA-338vA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Deals on OpenSea.</figcaption></figure>



“We need [the] deals feature to keep us safe please,” <a href="https://x.com/justinaversano/status/1932465620911812865">added</a> NFT artist Justin Aversano.



A response from OpenSea CMO Adam Hollander added another layer to the reasons behind the feature’s shutdown.



“The functionality simply doesn&#8217;t work with ERC 721-C contracts where royalties are enforced,” he <a href="https://x.com/HollanderAdam/status/1932519970824462513">said</a> of Deals. “As more and more of these contracts have been deployed, the product felt increasingly broken and inconsistently useful.”



Hollander emphasized, however, that OpenSea will continue to encourage — and listen to — user feedback as they update the marketplace.



OpenSea’s Deals feature is still unique among NFT marketplaces and caters to traders looking to swap more than just one NFT for some crypto.&nbsp;



Deals has also been home to some strange blockchain incidents, like when one collector apparently <a href="https://thedrop.beehiiv.com/p/tokenize-it">lost</a> his Bored Ape in an $80,000 whoopsie.



But not everyone’s against OpenSea killing Deals. Yuga Labs Director of Art Eli Scheinman <a href="https://x.com/eli_schein/status/1932523387823202376">argued</a> that the decision actually “makes a lot of sense.”



“It is a relatively niche product feature used mostly for high-end art. This will be a continued trend — marketplaces will have to get more verticalized and focus on specific user audiences,” Scheinman said.



Originally launched on Ethereum, OpenSea has been expanding its scope in other areas lately, with an increased focus on adding support for more and more blockchains, plus Solana memecoins and crypto gaming assets.&nbsp;



Ethereum NFT trading volumes have largely stagnated so far this year following a short-lived surge in February. This month so far, OpenSea has seen anywhere from roughly <a href="https://dune.com/sealaunch/NFT">$1.4 million</a> to $2.4 million in daily ETH NFT volume traded.



The NFT industry more broadly is facing pressure to shake up strategies as <a href="https://www.cryptoslam.io/nftglobal?timeFrame=year">total annual sales</a> last year were down 62% from 2022 all-time highs.



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NFTs

OpenSea sunsets ‘Deals,’ other features in OS2 shakeup

Donovan Choy

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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In the wake of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-hits-75-nyse-trading">Circle’s IPO</a> and Plasma’s token sale, stablecoins are undisputedly in vogue.



Meanwhile, the US Senate is going into a final vote on the landmark stablecoin bill, dubbed the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">GENIUS Act</a>, this week.



What does the stablecoin landscape look like today?



First, total stablecoin supply remains up and to the right — $249 billion in the last week. USDT and USDC represent the lion’s share of stablecoins, about 88% ($218 billion) of the entire stablecoin market put together.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcwOcBAI_1ARWa4GWK9q7hORy4CfolwJ45QA9kdi4a4tWP6cQNMNqfKD3KjkD8TeDtASgakuQaXFPgK81uM1oaF5XWuUl_t-NgxVZCTfRvHtaQyEMQ8XmJQvfbKtuoGbYNgBaFGtw?key=uZGaWtDD5o70irUY8op54A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/l1?dashboard=225">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



Okay, stablecoin supply is growing, but how are they being used?



B2B use cases drive the largest share of stablecoin usage today.



B2B cross-border payments tracked at nearly $3 billion in February 2025 alone, compared to $1.1 billion for card-based spending, $1.5 billion in peer-to-peer payments, or $275 million in B2C payments across the same time period.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeMXE7gk2EeffMZD7wbBCo1uOq_XW6EFA4mzjZTB8EYdS4F1R0Ury-IIOU_2exUgm--Zg_wkDbpYz-dgk3Wh60u_5UPsfjvkCTJne0XhcXjTldCTyP2MKw0fyi6mEHSYTd4fr9m?key=uZGaWtDD5o70irUY8op54A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://www.stablecoin.fyi/use-case#b2b-stablecoin-volumes">Stablecoin.fyi</a></figcaption></figure>



18% of small and medium US businesses “[that] are aware of cryptocurrency” use stablecoins for their business needs in 2025 — up from 8% in 2024, according to Coinbase’s State of Crypto 2025 <a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/sygt3q11s4a9/6oinXHvVekdIUw2Ch7yIQw/22d0185eba3c49322ce7cf0d287ea872/SOCQ2Report_final.pdf">report</a>.



The chains facilitating the most stablecoin transfers? Ethereum, Base and Tron.&nbsp;



In May, Ethereum saw $1.2 trillion in volumes (29%), while Base had $1 trillion (26%) and Tron $687 billion (17%). Total stablecoin volumes in May came up to $4 trillion.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdMht8oQftaPSSSvZmqb1ELTZHuK87BgVNg2dqZyZo28efugDVzXJUumx2D8JaCBNeIeXjXaPWk2LRRCdOqHv6iGpzSeBgAU2HdEYfJoxOKC2a46vh-w1N46HM5dhh0kxazQo9_?key=uZGaWtDD5o70irUY8op54A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/stablecoins?tab=chains">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



Should the GENIUS Act come to pass, which players stand to gain the most?



If the GENIUS Act requires stablecoins to be backed by US dollars or Treasury bills, the answer is probably: TradFi regulated issuers such as Circle, traditional Fintech companies like PayPal, and banks and money market funds, Blockworks Research analyst Luke Leasure told me.



Decentralized stablecoins like Ethena’s USDe or Sky’s (previously Maker) USDS are not entirely backed by cash equivalents, so would not be compliant with GENIUS (unless registered in the US).



Yet, there are still downstream positive effects for DeFi from a burst in stablecoin growth.



In particular, money markets like Aave and Pendle stand to gain.



On Aave v3 alone (across all chains), stablecoins make up about $10.2 billion in TVL.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfta1DbYCfqjWBYsWOCcjBCPHFUcCn24uc-Lrx2I6qU-qeYvm6iVvZCjMSxd4rQ0PgiymNXKItoUtRpiK8_TQWgAnXxHqXC1T_-1xDgoVkMe0tMQlUrJWqw-VgBfL1x1hgTu7p6CA?key=uZGaWtDD5o70irUY8op54A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/tvl/aave-v3">DefiLlama</a></figcaption></figure>



What about Pendle?



Though Pendle is technically a “yield trading” app, it has cemented itself as a de facto go-to-market platform for all yield-bearing assets, particularly stablecoins.



High risk appetite users onchain don’t just want to stake and earn an underlying T-bill yield, they want to speculate on points.



A snapshot of Pendle’s $5.3 billion in TVL today demonstrates the business’s effectiveness in capturing the downstream growth of new yield-bearing stablecoin launches. About ~61% of it comprises Ethena’s USDe and eUSDe (a restaking token), Sky’s USDS and OpenEden’s USDO.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeMAW-x1DpEbtyttgYSbMOGeSquG7_iNAY9SGmkRPPK4MNB0irqYXh-WMUjmPFkjX6jUHYczCYVRzJjtJ3uLxYWIDevFeNFQYk8q4Ei8t2xFUrB2UcjxFf6Ify6du9hx_QmUxMTQw?key=uZGaWtDD5o70irUY8op54A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/tvl/pendle">DefiLlama</a></figcaption></figure>



A recent <a href="https://www.modularcapital.xyz/writing/pendle">report</a> from Spartan Group and Modular Capital found that Pendle has captured approximately 30% of the whole $11 billion yield-bearing stablecoin market — about 1.3% of total stablecoin supply.



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What does ‘stablecoin summer’ look like?

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



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Eleven years ago to the day, the Bitcoin space was grappling with the ballooning hash rate of one massively popular mining pool: Ghash.io.



Ghash, which was owned by <a href="http://cex.io">CEX.io</a> (an exchange still operating today) was widely <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=644185.0">considered</a> the best mining pool in 2014. It had automatic payouts and ultra-low fees, and it even shared transaction fees with the entire pool, whereas others tended to keep those for themselves.



There was also clear and responsive tooling for tracking hash rates and incomes, and it supported more merge-mined coins than any other pool. Users could even trade hash rate and mining contracts via the CEX.io platform.



One problem: Ghash was attracting too many miners.



“The people behind GHash are to mining as Mark Zuckerberg is to social networking,” one Reddit user wrote. “If there wasn&#8217;t a 50% concern they would have over 90% of the pooled network by now I&#8217;m sure.”



Users on Bitcointalk had been sounding the alarm. “GHash is at 48% WTF. This is fucking serious people get off GHash the consequences for 51% are huge. It could be detrimental for bitcoin going forward. Once people realize that the Achilles heel in bitcoin is real, they&#8217;ll permanently mark it with a negative stigma.”



Discus Fish, the second-most powerful pool <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/13/bitfury-pulls-1phs-of-mining-power-from-ghashio-amid-community-uproar">at the time</a>, only had 11% of the total hash rate.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdLn648JjdBU_U64cOGkOepN_-LHSjU6dNLRTWfBZ6GVElNCUQeToyD2Asp1H36TC8I0AL_vc6leRQ9skpsBUhqNl3LfHX6QRz6sJZcYGug0SvfMzHDKqQvTW7Ff_1F4vc_syk4?key=aSNHP7ap7LHoDKSFi9P4Fg" alt=""/></figure>



“Bitcoin pirates with their DDOS botnets” is a great name for a punk band.



It was also the second time in six months that Ghash’s popularity had become an issue. After gathering 42% of the hash rate, the pool released a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140109211601/https://ghash.io/ghashio_press_release.pdf">memo</a> stating it would restrict registrations for new miners and pledged to help its existing users diversify into other pools. Many miners exited Ghash, dropping its share of the hash rate back to 38% within a day.&nbsp;



So by the time Ghash’s hash rate had swelled to 50% at multiple times in a week, five months later, it was up to BitFury to scale its pooled operations back significantly, starting with 1 PH/s (about 1% of the total hash rate), followed by more petahashes over a 72-hour period. Ghash’s influence would fade over the next six months, shutting down completely by early 2015.



Bitcoin is, of course, optimal when no one entity controls even close to half of the hash rate. It doesn’t matter if it&#8217;s a mining pool, made up of thousands of individual miners, or a multi-billion dollar mining behemoth.&nbsp;



On a technical level, the danger for malicious double-spending is clear. In the real world, these types of situations tend to be more of a <a href="https://x.com/andyroth/status/1725520692198715480">temporary</a> branding issue, and the ecosystem has historically mitigated the issue quickly enough.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeCSM7SH5zJYO-IQHrKwe9SqBiUzGaG72OlmGP22Yh_LTzA-faMWq_IVUuDjcXPX5O87yHqz3q_O_KRzlU327bAp_lNA_VGIYKp7JjS_EvkFYzo8jWobOYzoVgUkufAHFabAXGlsg?key=aSNHP7ap7LHoDKSFi9P4Fg" alt=""/></figure>



The panic spread over to mainstream media, which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/16/bitcoin-currency-destroyed-51-attack-ghash-io">reflected</a> concerns from some Bitcointalk users.



These days, three mining pools altogether wield more than half of the hash rate — Foundry, AntPool, ViaBTC or F2Pool on any given day.



Is that better than 2014? For sure. But it could still be better. Alejandro de la Torre, CEO and co-founder of the pool <a href="https://www.dmnd.work/">DMND</a>, tells me the issue is not necessarily a problem of potential collusion; it’s that the mining pools themselves are building Bitcoin blocks, rather than the individual miners within the pool.



“Everything is decentralized except for the blocks. Let’s say the top five players build more than 80% of the blocks. These top five players, half of them are in the United States, the other half are in China. So what if the Chinese government comes in and says, ‘Hey, stop doing that, or start having this’? Or the Americans say, ‘You need to do all this compliance or we’ll send your ass to jail.’”



De la Torre worries such measures are very simple for governments to take — it just means knocking on the doors of the top mining pool operators. “It’s a huge risk for Bitcoin, the biggest risk right now in Bitcoin.”



Similarly to OCEAN, DMND’s solution is to decentralize the responsibility of forming blocks away from the pools and toward whoever actually generates the correct hash, thereby reducing the threat of government intervention. There would be a higher chance that every other block would be constructed by a different miner within the pool, ideally each one in a different physical location.



Efforts like these may seem like competition, even among pools for miner mindshare. But that’s only on the surface.&nbsp;



Underneath, miners and the pools they use can only ever serve one master, the Bitcoin protocol itself — regardless of who they’re supposed to enrich.



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Everything in Bitcoin is decentralized — except the blocks

Stripe is acquiring Privy, a crypto wallet provider.&nbsp;



Privy says that it will remain an “independent product” but will operate under Stripe’s umbrella. It will “move faster, ship more, and serve you even better, so you can stay focused on your users.”



The amount was not immediately disclosed. Stripe didn’t immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Bloomberg first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-11/payment-company-stripe-to-acquire-crypto-wallet-provider-privy?taid=68499be47922900001efdf80&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;embedded-checkout=true">reported</a> the news.



“From our earliest conversations with Stripe, they impressed us with their craft, ambition, and willingness to imagine new worlds,” Privy said in a post. “Like us, they believe in bringing crypto and fiat closer together to change how value moves through the Internet.”



<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">1/ Today, we&#39;re proud to announce that Stripe is acquiring Privy. We couldn’t be more excited. Privy will continue as an independent product – but now we’ll move faster, ship more, and serve you even better, so you can stay focused on your users. <a href="https://t.co/8CHJqhqYy7">pic.twitter.com/8CHJqhqYy7</a>&mdash; Privy (@privy_io) <a href="https://twitter.com/privy_io/status/1932816495719166167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The acquisition is just the latest example of Stripe doubling down on crypto.&nbsp;



It bought stablecoin firm Bridge for $1.1 billion in one of the largest crypto acquisitions in history last year. It also reintegrated crypto payments in the US last fall.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure</a>



Back in May, Stripe announced that it was rolling out Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which will allow businesses to hold their balances in stablecoins and gives them the option to receive funds on both crypto and fiat rails. 



“Because stablecoins make it dramatically faster and cheaper to move money internationally, many of the world’s largest companies are turning to Stripe to help assemble their stablecoin strategies. But a challenge remains: making it possible to spend stablecoins at businesses that only accept fiat currencies,” Stripe said in a <a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/sessions-2025">press release</a> at the time.



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M&amp;A

Stripe acquires crypto wallet provider Privy

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



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Franklin Templeton is <a href="https://www.franklintempleton.com/press-releases/news-room/2025/franklin-templeton-launches-patent-pending-intraday-yield-feature-on-benji-technology-platform">introducing intraday yield</a> to Benji users.&nbsp;



Basically, investors can “own a tokenized security for part of the day, transfer it to another investor, and still earn yield for the period they were a shareholder.”



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/franklin-templeton">Franklin Templeton’s</a> Roger Bayston explained: “To actually splice the day, to be able to do that, opens up market opportunities and things like collateral markets, where money may be moving in and around multiple times a day, but as long as you&#8217;re in Benji, you can earn the interest for that part of the day, and it begins to find application and other things too.”



And investors can now purchase tokenized securities using <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoins</a>.&nbsp;



Bayston told me this announcement is just one of the many things he and his team are working on. They have been “heads down” to focus on bringing new utilities to Benji.&nbsp;



Right now, there’s about $7 trillion in money market fund assets in the US, and there’s room to improve them.&nbsp;



“So crypto-native private funds that have been using stablecoins as collateral for their structured transactions can now begin to use Benji in that construct…that collateral market activity that&#8217;s all brand new use cases for money markets; and we see the future where the TradFi markets will begin to use these same feature sets, because these have benefits of moving money really quickly, and that money continuing to earn, right? Continuing to work for you during that whole process,” he explained.&nbsp;



And, look, I know what you’re thinking: These tokenized funds aren’t the sexiest crypto use case, but there’s clearly a lot of capital to tap there.&nbsp;



Besides, Bayston believes that if “stablecoins were a killer app for blockchains in general, tokenized money funds are going to be another one because they complement each other.”



He admitted that he’s spending a lot of time looking at how one can get liquidity between the two.&nbsp;



“Money funds are five business days. Stablecoins are 24/7, and so there is liquidity between those two things, which I think is a future opportunity for market makers and market participants by and large,” he said.&nbsp;



But he’s also learning that it’s not just about <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tokenization">tokenization</a> this year.&nbsp;



“I think what we&#8217;re learning in 2025 is the use of a lot of different assets on blockchain rails can be effective as collateral, and…if you&#8217;re acting as collateral, that means you&#8217;re borrowing something against it. Well, this is the business of banks, right? So the banks have a lot of interest in building infrastructure or beginning to utilize infrastructure where a number of different assets become easier to deal with in the collateral management process,” he explained.&nbsp;



So far, banks have shown a lot of interest in figuring out how all of this works, especially in different scenarios like a collateral liquidation.



“They do see this as a way of using new and other types of assets, using these blockchain rails for the truth of record and the ease of transferability of those ownership things as a new ecosystem for collateral, which allows them to do what their basic business is, which is lend,” Bayston said.&nbsp;



So perhaps a bit in the weeds, but it’s an area of potential adoption we haven’t quite explored yet.&nbsp;



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Empire Newsletter

Tokenized money market funds could be the next ‘killer app’

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



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Another day, another bitcoin rally.&nbsp;



After making a run approaching its all-time high last night, bitcoin was back in the red this afternoon, hovering around $108,600 and trading 1.4% lower over the past 24 hours as of 2 p.m. ET.&nbsp;



Bitcoin’s latest move is similar to what it did three weeks ago, when the largest cryptocurrency notched a new all-time high just shy of $112,000. BTC went from around $103,000 to above $110,000 in roughly two days.&nbsp;



As Noelle Acheson pointed out in today’s Crypto is Macro Now newsletter, bitcoin’s late-May rally coincided with a surge in short liquidations. In other words, investors were buying up BTC to cover their leveraged short positions.&nbsp;



Short BTC liquidations lately are similarly high, so Acheson estimates that last night’s run up was likely driven by leverage covering vs. new spot investors. I’d have to agree.&nbsp;



That being said, bitcoin often trades like a Big Tech stock: It’s high volatility and, at least in recent months (dare I say years), has not been insulated from macroeconomic moves.&nbsp;



Bitcoin’s correlation to the Nasdaq Composite is currently 0.81, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The crypto’s correlation with gold has recently moved negative, now sitting at -0.07, per Yahoo Finance.&nbsp;



The “bitcoin is digital gold” narrative has certainly lost steam in recent years, with the cryptocurrency rising and falling along with risk appetites. Just look at what happened in April: BTC lost more than 11% the week after April 2 (Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day”). The S&amp;P 500 shed 12%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 13%.&nbsp;



Before the HODLers come for me, yes, bitcoin bounced back stronger than stocks. Since April 2, BTC has gained around 29%. The S&amp;P 500 is up 7%, and the Nasdaq Composite has gained just under 12%.&nbsp;&nbsp;



I still think bitcoin is going to trade on big macro news (interest rate decisions, inflation data, employment reports, etc.), but I’ll add that Big Tech companies are obviously more vulnerable to tariff policies, and we’ve seen that in the price action.&nbsp;



Apple is down more than 17% year to date. Alphabet has lost more than 5% since the start of 2025.&nbsp;



Bitcoin is up more than 16%.&nbsp;



Looking ahead, the eight biggest US tech stocks (Mag 7 plus Broadcom) have seen an average downward earnings revision for Q2 of -5.9% (-2.2% if you exclude Tesla). Half of these names are currently underperforming the S&amp;P year to date (Tesla, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon).&nbsp;



I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to expect that BTC will continue to outperform these stocks, at least until the trade war settles down (assuming it does settle down, of course). Reminder that this is not investment advice, just your local newsletter writer taking a look into her crystal ball.&nbsp;



With the second quarter nearing an end and few updates on trade deals, we’ll just have to wait and see.



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Will tariffs be the catalyst for bitcoin’s decoupling?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has asked prospective Solana ETF issuers to submit amended S-1 forms within the next week, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Blockworks.&nbsp;



The agency told issuers it would make comments on the S-1s within 30 days of their submission, two sources added.



“We have received comments from the SEC and have been asked to address and file an amended S-1, which we plan to do so shortly,” a 21Shares spokesperson told Blockworks.



The SEC asked issuers to update language surrounding in-kind redemptions and how issuers would approach staking, two of the sources said, adding that the agency appears open to including staking as part of Solana ETFs.



One source estimated these updates could put Solana ETFs on track to be approved within three to five weeks. Bloomberg Intelligence’s James Seyffart told Blockworks that he’s eyeing approval this year, <a href="https://x.com/JSeyff/status/1924886375347716466">possibly as soon as July</a>.&nbsp;



“We think the SEC may now focus on handling 19b-4 filings for Solana and staking ETFs earlier than planned. Issuers and industry participants likely have been working alongside the SEC and its crypto task force to hash out rules, but the final deadlines for the agency&#8217;s decisions on such applications aren&#8217;t until October,” Seyffart wrote in a note this week.



Crypto exchange-traded products are regulated funds that give investors exposure to the spot price of underlying crypto tokens. Numerous issuers are vying for Solana ETFs, including Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, Bitwise, Canary Capital, 21Shares and Grayscale.



The SEC, VanEck, Fidelity, and Bitwise declined to comment. Canary Capital, Grayscale, and Franklin Templeton didn’t immediately return requests for comment.



Grayscale, in a similar move to its bitcoin and ethereum ETFs, is looking to convert its SOL Trust into a spot ETF.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Last month, the SEC <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-grayscale-solana-etf">delayed a decision</a> on Grayscale’s Solana ETF, saying it hadn’t “reached any conclusions” on the 19b-4 filing to list the proposed spot ETF.&nbsp;



The regulator officially recognized Grayscale’s filing in February. That month, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart acknowledged the move as “significant” because the SEC had previously “refused” to acknowledge such filings.&nbsp;



“We are under the assumption that most, if not all [filings for crypto ETFs] will be approved this year, some possibly earlier than others,” he said at the time.



Seyffart noted that both the filings for Solana and XRP ETFs have derivatives-based ETFs already, which paves the way for spot approval.&nbsp;



“So I would just be absolutely and utterly stunned if the SEC does something to not allow a spot XRP or spot Solana ETF to launch,” he added.&nbsp;



In April, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said that they were boosting the chance of a SOL ETF to 90% from 70%.&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">Would love to hear directly from Atkins, but all good chance of happening. Here’s our latest odds of approval for all the dif spot ETFs via <a href="https://twitter.com/JSeyff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JSeyff</a> <a href="https://t.co/nLhYJJmO9U">https://t.co/nLhYJJmO9U</a> <a href="https://t.co/4AcJVwhics">pic.twitter.com/4AcJVwhics</a>&mdash; Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1917444433282490606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Forward Guidance’s Ben Strack <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-etf-sec-approval-timelines-july-october">previously reported</a> that the 240-day deadlines for the products are in October, meaning that the SEC must make a decision on them. However, Blockworks’ sources expressed optimism that the agency’s approval for the ETFs could come sooner.



In a move <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=solana+cme+blockworks&amp;sca_esv=87b41ab4477c98ab&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1087US1087&amp;biw=1312&amp;bih=1167&amp;tbm=nws&amp;ei=hAFDaIfOKbOPur8PzqCeuQU&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiHoKvvht2NAxWzh-4BHU6QJ1cQ4dUDCA4&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=solana+cme+blockworks&amp;gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LW5ld3MiFXNvbGFuYSBjbWUgYmxvY2t3b3JrczIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSOAQUPwFWIgQcAB4AJABAJgBd6AB4AeqAQM4LjO4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgugAoEIwgIKEAAYgAQYQxiKBcICBRAAGIAEwgIGEAAYFhgewgILEAAYgAQYkQIYigXCAgUQIRirAsICBRAhGJ8FwgIHECEYoAEYCsICBBAhGAqYAwCIBgGSBwM4LjOgB45GsgcDOC4zuAeBCMIHBTAuOS4yyAcY&amp;sclient=gws-wiz-news">widely seen as positive</a> for potential SOL ETFs, CME launched SOL futures in February. It previously launched futures markets for both BTC and ETH prior to the ETF launches, a move that helped the SEC approve the products.&nbsp;&nbsp;



As a result, numerous SOL futures ETFs have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sol-futures-etfs-to-launch">launched</a> — including two from Volatility Shares.



Updated 6/11 at 10:00 am ET with comment from 21Shares. 



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ETFs

SEC asks potential Solana ETF issuers to update S-1s: Sources

Kate Irwin

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There’s another card trading platform in the ring: Enter Drip Shop Live, aka Drip, which has a shopping site, a livestreaming-focused mobile app and plans for more crypto integrations.&nbsp;



Drip has just released Instant Packs, a new feature that gives anyone the ability to “open” physical cards online whenever they want, instead of during limited-time, limited-edition windows to buy from drops or live auctions. Instant Packs are intended to give the feeling of opening a physical card pack, and the physical cards are then shipped to buyers.



Packs can include cards from a range of IPs. You’ll see a lot of Pokémon on their site, but there’s also some Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z cards. There’s a category for sports cards, though there aren’t actually a lot of that type listed on the site yet.&nbsp;



On Drip, collectors can buy and sell unopened card packs, individual cards, collectors’ boxes, “slabs” or graded encased cards. It’s possible to pay with crypto or fiat currency.&nbsp;



For Instant Packs, the team (for now) is focusing on digitizing slabs, its most popular category.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcBy8tM0yu4tWQ1lm0lei5G2_GwMtgNEdm4WGP3t5cCZwSihpgHFHr27AENxrn7H1g9FyU6N_WCWOknGRfEGkl8jlt4ciYIIc0EXs9ZXurhbjz2vCtOYYmbc04SaaC9_yxCcqsIBQ?key=NUoV0zL-O9jcgjUyYj_R7w" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Screenshots I took while exploring Drip’s app on iOS.</figcaption></figure>



“We configure the packs using an algorithm that maps probabilities to each reveal. These reveals are 100% random based on the probabilities we map,” Drip CEO and cofounder Javaughn Lawrence told me in an email. “Users can also preview what’s in each pack by 1) looking at the collections in each pack 2) trying in demo mode.”



Drip has a mobile-first feel because their iOS and Android apps offer the livestreaming component. But their website isn’t bad, either.&nbsp;



While the site feels more like eBay, the mobile app is a lot like TikTok Live and TikTok’s shopping features. Both the Drip Android and iOS app versions have positive reviews overall (its Android version has over 100,000 downloads so far). There are about 40 sellers offering collectibles on the platform right now, Lawrence said.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdLYDRU9DFHYw6ixg3QrF2AGQD2jfw1-xMfpEd-G7SODRpFkOxnDUgiq0xuY3zwnN4kV_OHJhxvdXdVde0DU4P1j25WsrL0pEWcz_KXwbVPEEkZi2-MG1dng4hFSEKL3lfQZWHjsg?key=NUoV0zL-O9jcgjUyYj_R7w" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Drip on the web.</figcaption></figure>



The apps are designed to appeal to live streamers and the entire category of influencers who make videos about card collecting and pack-ripping more broadly, plus the collectors and fans who watch them (think creators like <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@pokedexter_">Pokedexter</a>, who I know from my Twitch-streaming and TikTok days).&nbsp;



While the packs and cards on the site aren’t NFTs or onchain right now, Lawrence shared that the Drip team is currently in talks with a few different blockchains, including L1s and L2s, to determine who to work with to explore that possibility. They’re doing a pilot with Ronin in a few weeks.



It’s also possible to open Instant Packs on desktop via a web browser. I did it via Drip’s demo, and they definitely try to give that ASMR card-opening experience with an emphasis on the shiny wrapper and that ripping sound.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXema3ZTh2ryc0q_CFj1Z19KhyyhIZLiygOkMPAj77Z2BteFI2cYUGLvkn6ZTptqxS7k8A3_2bS4fGi0igDpBaHUgqaRLp-MfrWTto1qEojGlvqBxGgfPbL9ea_Z4iZEHmOxG39eMA?key=NUoV0zL-O9jcgjUyYj_R7w" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Screenshot from a pack-pulling demo on browser (I did not actually get a card).</figcaption></figure>



Drip also has an in-shop synthetic currency called Driplets, which can be used to get giveaway entries on the app or other rewards. Lawrence said that while the currency isn’t a token right now, “this will be the beginning of our social token when we put that onchain.”



For now, Instant Packs are just for opening cards, but Drip could add a loot box-style opening experience for toys, sneakers, or even jewelry at some point in the future.



The app is a bet on the future importance of livestreaming to shopping and collector culture, for sure. That’s what makes it stand apart from Courtyard, which is mainly a slab-buying platform where buyers can choose whether to “vault” or redeem a card (the physical cards have onchain counterparts).



Courtyard, which uses Polygon, has continued to see substantial sales since a spike back in January. It’s netted over <a href="https://www.cryptoslam.io/courtyard">$53.7 million</a> in sales in the past month across over 459,000 transactions and more than 74,600 buyers.



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Drip Shop Live launches Instant Packs for trading cards

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Ethereum’s 12-second block time has long been a sticking point for traders and dapps chasing the speed of high throughput chains like Solana or the UX of centralized exchanges. But a new system called TOOL (Trustless Orderflow Operations Layer) is aiming to change that, and do it without changing Ethereum itself.



Billed as a “middleware” solution, TOOL slices each 12-second Ethereum block into 12 one-second mini-rounds, each with a sealed-bid auction for transaction execution. This approach promises sub-second trade confirmations on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum Mainnet</a> — not <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a> or sidechains — and without changes to the protocol.



The TOOL team <a href="https://docs.nuconstruct.xyz/s/212d8a9e-66f5-41cf-bfb8-dff38edd691f">says</a> the system is designed to process order flow off-chain to offer faster and cheaper execution — without compromising Ethereum’s mainnet security or decentralization.



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



At the core of TOOL is a network of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) — secure hardware enclaves used to process order flow privately. When you submit a transaction through a TOOL-connected RPC, it enters a sealed auction where searchers compete to include your trade. If your transaction wins, you receive a one-second execution commitment, even before the transaction hits the chain.



“We enforce transaction privacy and transaction processing rules with TEEs,” pseudonymous founder of TOOL developer nuConstruct, <a href="https://x.com/0x9212ce55?">0xprincess</a>, told Blockworks. They added that “we keep the network live by opening it to all participants that are naturally incentivized to support it: Arbitrage searchers, Solvers, RPC providers, DEX traders and so on.”



TOOL does not rely on slashing or staking to enforce behavior, like an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/eigenlayer">EigenLayer</a> or <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/symbiotic">Symbiotic</a> AVS would. The reasoning, per the team:&nbsp;



“Attackers’ profit and users&#8217; loss for [privacy or fair sequencing] attacks cannot be estimated, and so, it cannot be enforced by slashing any meaningful amount of collateral.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What to expect</h2>



Some may be wary that TOOL places significant trust in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/0xresearch-newsletter-mev-trusted-execution-environments">proprietary TEEs</a>. If a vulnerability leaks enclave data, the guarantees around privacy and fair ordering could vanish. However, it&#8217;s important to note that nuConstruct uses Intel TDX (Trust Domain Extensions), not the older SGX. TDX offers stronger security guarantees and isolation, which mitigates some of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/secret-network-crypto-transactions-not-so-secret-after-all">risks associated with SGX</a>.



In the unlikely event of a hardware compromise — which would require both a zero-day vulnerability and physical access to the TEEs — the team believes its system would remain resilient. TOOL&#8217;s permissionless and self-adapting p2p nature, combined with proactive defense mechanisms, ensures that the network can continue to protect user transactions, according to 0xprincess.



The team also argues that additional economic mechanisms like slashing wouldn’t help here anyway — and would just gatekeep new participants.



There’s also the question of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/measuring-decentralization-is-your-crypto-decentralized">decentralization</a>: TEEs are mostly hosted on centralized cloud providers today. And TOOL’s fast confirmations only work when validators opt in.



But the team says TOOL is still better than alternatives on this score, and was built “with Ethereum&#8217;s first principles in mind.”



“TOOL aims to be censorship resistant and to have unmatched liveness properties due to being a fully permissionless peer-to-peer network,” 0xprincess said.



And for users — wallets and dapps — the UX lift is minimal: “Opting into TOOL is only a matter of changing an RPC endpoint,” they said.



It may be even more censorship resistant that the existing Ethereum roadmap’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-is-not-under-attack-understanding-mev-boost-relays">Proposer-Builder Separation</a> (PBS), 0xprincess notes: “In the current PBS design, transactions are [gatekept] by Builders and Relays, and if a validator wants to receive high value blocks it has no choice but to receive blocks from those parties.”



Instead, TOOL is positioned as an alternative or successor to Flashbots’ popular <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/flashbots-block-building-network-mev">MEV-boost</a>. Its first product is a &#8220;Searcher Network&#8221; MVP, a decentralized network of searchers who compete to find and submit the most profitable MEV opportunities.



NuConstruct has raised $6 million from seed investors, led by <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/6cc9a6fa-dfcb-11ee-a5dd-4f9a9a4a49ad">Cyber Fund</a> and including Maven11, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dcg">DCG</a>, Greenfield Capital and Eden Block.



Success hinges on “quickly achieving 50%+ pre-commitment rate on the validator side and aggregating 80+% private order flow in the space in the course of the next three months.”



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