Bitcoin Diamond is a Bitcoin hard fork initiated because of perceived weaknesses in Bitcoin's on-chain scaling and mining decentralization design.

Bitcoin Diamond

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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On a long enough timeline, all companies will become Bitcoin companies. Some have just been there from the very start.



PayPal, back when it was still owned by eBay, was an unknowing bedrock for the very first Bitcoin exchanges.



And considering how often the two were lumped together — a tech duo flipping the script on online payments — Bitcoin and PayPal were almost adoptive siblings. One radical, one moderate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">On This Day</h2>



“Commerce on the internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments,” Satoshi wrote to open the Bitcoin <a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf">white paper</a>.



“While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model.”



PayPal was fundamental in the very first trade between bitcoin and the US dollar, which occurred not on this day, but in October 2009.&nbsp;



Martti Malmi, one of Satoshi’s right-hand men in the early days, famously <a href="https://x.com/marttimalmi/status/423455561703624704">swapped</a> $5.02 for 5,050 BTC to the operator of New Liberty Standard, with the fiat side of the transaction handled by PayPal.



It was so early that PayPal had no policies dealing with the concept of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which of course meant everything was fair game!



New Liberty Standard was a manual <a href="https://newlibertystandard.io/exchange">operation</a> — the price was initially fixed to the average electricity cost to mine a whole coin, and anyone wanting to buy or sell bitcoin would need to send an email to a Gmail address stating how many they’d like to trade.&nbsp;



Traders were then directed to send cash to a PayPal account and wait for their Bitcoin address to be credited.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfFSk1dqN8FJPsHdaZxeX-EtiFStm9bZKFOEOdTvLfeBU1Q_287KW_c3n1PKm8_T3jp91QlnSLhTdTWoxhdFYvJlXsH3bN855hx1Ccxy83o2XOh3lbKfpPiERd5RwonaWE82Mz2UA?key=_UXEm8Dw23GofD1xW8zLeg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New Liberty Standard would later add supply and demand into its pricing model, leaving us with this spectacular post from a non-believer.</figcaption></figure>



New Liberty Standard was more of a currency exchange desk than a trading platform. But within two months, Bitcointalk user dwdollar was working on a way to bring true price discovery to bitcoin.



“I am trying to create a market where Bitcoins are treated as a commodity,” he <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20.msg100#msg100">wrote</a> in January 2010, as bitcoin celebrated its first birthday.&nbsp;



“People will be able to trade Bitcoins for dollars and speculate on the value. In theory, this will establish a real-time exchange rate so we will all have a clue what the current value of a Bitcoin is, compared to a dollar.”



Bitcoin Market debuted shortly after as the first official BTC exchange, as denoted by its ability to price bitcoin based on supply and demand rather than mining cost.&nbsp;



In some ways, Bitcoin Market resembled a modern-day crypto exchange, even if you could only have one order open at a time. There were BTC pairs for fiat currencies (US and Australian dollars) as well as for grams of gold, with all trades handled off-chain by a centralized server.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd94C9axAjWl9UHNyy11wj19SomSiEdP3F_0O4I2KnQ-K-38_o1UFdSJ-dzUHLNREUMUifmWGgoc-WhdYW3Qxm_3VrVLLCVPC_RJr2T_MQ-sQKrNqa7scO66bhLI1DVgwdIaiExIw?key=_UXEm8Dw23GofD1xW8zLeg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">It took only six months for the price of bitcoin to rise by 1,000% following the launch of Bitcoin Market. By August 2011, bitcoin was trading on the platform for $15 apiece.</figcaption></figure>



Pairs were also broken down by payment processors, which complicated matters. In PayPal’s case, it eventually stopped allowing its users to transact with Bitcoin Market’s PayPal account — so anyone hoping to trade bitcoin with US dollars from their PayPal accounts would need to buy and sell a specialized PayPal USD pair, BMBTC/PPUSD.



The site <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110826203112/https://www.bitcoinmarket.com/info/faq/#paypal_deposits">read</a>: “Bitcoin Market holds the seller&#8217;s Bitcoins until the seller has received PayPal funds from the buyer. Then the seller confirms payment and the bitcoins are dispersed to the buyer&#8217;s Bitcoin Market account. In short, Bitcoin Market acts like an escrow agent for PayPal payments.”



It was actually on this day, in 2011, that Bitcoin Market was forced to suspend PayPal payments — opposite to how that dynamic usually goes.&nbsp;



After removing the invitation-only restriction on new signups, opening it to the public, Bitcoin Market users were hit by a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120319162645/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12678.0">wave</a> of fraudsters initiating phony PayPal refunds after receiving the coins they paid for. Which is ironically quite similar to a double-spend attack, except it wasn’t the Bitcoin blockchain under siege, but Bitcoin Market’s PayPal hot wallet.



These days, PayPal lets its users buy, hold and sell bitcoin right within its flagship app, and even allows BTC to be withdrawn to external wallets.&nbsp;



But using PayPal to manage bitcoin feels just like that scene from the Matrix, where Neo (a PayPal user) can’t believe that Morpheus (Satoshi) has suggested that they can dodge bullets (transact trustlessly).



“No [PayPal user], I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”



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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Market: How a single user brought price discovery to Bitcoin

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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I’m quite intrigued by the cautious atmosphere that’s been adopted since bitcoin broke through all-time highs last month.&nbsp;



K33 noted that CME exposure has “risen modestly,” but it’s nowhere near its previous peaks.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfAOBNPr9VHFm5WpNNvTPlr3W6EVK9tZ99iPf7fSH0liN8ihVEybBW7y9QpRUsWfVvV9FgThT4HFVuhLx5AoXH-LfrRcsy_m0nnB_tywTQXzES0mERWg0OzxQH0rFVohfD-euPj_g?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: K33</figcaption></figure>



As you can see in the chart above, open interest for CME bitcoin futures is in a slight downtrend.



The good (and potentially risky) news is that “offshore perpetual markets have seen growing open interest nearing late 2024 highs, but with ambiguous funding rates, setting the stage for heightened liquidation risks and potential volatility spikes in both directions.”



Overall, the derivatives environment has gotten a bit of a chill despite us heading into summer, with analyst Vetle Lunde noting that the perpetual future open interest dropped by 15,000 bitcoin since the end of May. The silver lining here, though, is that overall we’re seeing open interest remain near April highs at 278,000 BTC.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfuCtBCEnugT8s72_ZtCiP-Wtnu6XRkUosmcOMUroCn1Pr4mdJ5m1-5w5d_3HC0vqnJQr_Xwy6_uA9h4_6x3VfKT-1Xa1j2IDmnrcEIX7JempW2HV3Zj0DZkmE2l5ztwwO4hvk9?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt="" style="width:556px;height:auto"/></figure>



I know what you’re thinking: Data insights are great, but what do they mean?



As I mentioned in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venture-capital-funding-may-2025">Monday’s Empire</a>, May can be a seasonally weaker month, which leads into the summer months when everyone is busy (hence “sell in May and go away,” if you’re familiar with traditional markets).&nbsp;



So let’s zoom in on CME here.



“While exposure from both direct participants and leveraged ETFs on CME has seen an uptrend over the past month, both cohorts see considerably lower exposure than during prior activity peaks. This is indicative of broad passivity and modest froth, despite BTC’s solid performance over recent months,” Lunde noted.&nbsp;



However, notional open interest in bitcoin perpetuals was on the rise, and remains on an uptrend…something that could — like we noted above — suggest potential volatility.&nbsp;



“There is no clear one-directional bias to read into this activity. In essence, this creates a structure that enhances liquidation risks in either direction thus setting the stage for accelerated volatility ahead,” Lunde wrote.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeqB9TPj61eZAe3quRv2ljvtk_GC0LiXLWOTCZDajLC1-HHxWQoIX9Fei7Cpozvsg85UxEf-BLqVtFkajhnwl6aA3An1WBSQvtu-0QVtp7uhwjIqu72O-YwmhLNDTuv3HztrTAi7w?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt="" style="width:638px;height:auto"/></figure>



Basically, prepare yourselves for volatility, because it’s crypto and, well, that’s par for the course here. But keep in mind we’re heading into the seasonally weaker summer months.



With the hefty amount of institutional interest we’ve witnessed, there is a possibility that we see crypto act a bit more like the traditional markets during seasonally weaker months.&nbsp;



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Derivatives

Caution is the ‘modus operandi’ for markets: K33

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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With Congress back in session, senators have their work cut out for them if they want to meet President Trump’s deadlines.&nbsp;



Due first is Trump’s sweeping tax and budget package, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tax-bill-trump-congress-gop">dubbed the</a> “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” An updated version of the legislation passed the House last month in a razor-thin vote (215-214).&nbsp;



Two Republican representatives (Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson) voted against the bill. Chair of the House Freedom Caucus Andy Harris voted present after the coalition expressed concern over the level of spending in the bill.&nbsp;



The bill now heads to the Senate, where it’s expected to face similar opposition from certain GOP holdouts. Republican leadership has a goal for the bill (ideally one that looks as close as possible to the current version) to make it to the president&#8217;s desk by the Fourth of July.&nbsp;



During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KpsqN5hW-M">interview</a> with CBS last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s advised GOP senators to “make as few modifications as possible.”&nbsp;



Senate Majority Leader John Thune later told reporters he plans to make an “imprint” on the bill. Assuming all Democrats vote against the bill and no one is absent, Republicans can have a maximum of three senators stray from the party.&nbsp;



Next on senators’ to-do list is the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">GENIUS Act</a>, which Trump wants to see passed before summer’s end. The president’s crypto business interests, which seem to be growing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-wallet-magic-eden">by the day</a>, pose a problem for bipartisan support, a person familiar with the matter told me.&nbsp;



Democrats are getting less and less likely to support any crypto legislation the more Trump and his family engage personally with the industry.&nbsp;



Some members of Congress and crypto lobbying groups have started toying with the idea of combining stablecoin and market structure legislation into one bill. This would be a massive undertaking, but with wavering support from Democrats, the odds of passing two crypto bills before midterms are starting to look slim.



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congress

Trump pressures Senate to pass budget, crypto bills

Jack Kubinec

Pump.fun plans to raise $1 billion via a token sale, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Three sources said the sale would come at a $4 billion token valuation.&nbsp;



The token will be sold to both public and private investors, sources added. Blockworks could not immediately confirm when the token is set to go live or whether it will be issued on the pump.fun platform. However, a <a href="https://x.com/nextfckingthing/status/1929871539018576257">post</a> on X teased that it could come in the next two weeks.



The potential $4 billion token valuation would mint pump.fun as crypto’s latest unicorn startup after a year in which it helped ignite a memecoin frenzy.



Pump.fun did not immediately return multiple requests for comment.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/how-projects-show-rise-consumer-crypto-pump">How 3 projects show the rise of consumer crypto</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/pump.fun">Pump.fun</a> — a memecoin launchpad that allows anyone to spin up their own Solana token instantly and for free — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpswap-large-amm-solana">was a breakout hit</a> with crypto users after launching in early 2024. The app has already generated over $700 million in cumulative revenue, according to Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun/?dashboard=127">data</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeTeMkXIkV6uwA4DBnKGkI_H02fq2Pmt8APbPXLzB0LMq8jhr3-yrfK-WS8c0RZQy63tq77eGBl0_Nj5iHsBlTcbsf3jQTpdL_w5EAIpc3zfYNFfaYRZAfxR4ItGpQ1kJEBOaYj?key=dIDlxqJQ7nD0zecIJEEGmw" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/pumpfun">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



Users on the platform have <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun?dashboard=120">minted</a> nearly 11 million new tokens with a current cumulative market cap of roughly $4.5 billion.&nbsp;



As <a href="https://x.com/nextfckingthing/status/1929871539018576257">competition</a> heats up among token launchpads, pump.fun has made some updates to its core business — most notably when it launched an AMM that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-ditching-raydium-rumor">ended its unofficial partnership</a> with Raydium.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-top-protocols-by-fees">Tracking Solana’s top protocols by fees</a>



Pump.fun also recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-releases-mobile-app">launched a mobile app</a> and re-released a live streaming feature it had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-suspends-livestream-feature">temporarily suspended</a> after content moderation complaints late last year.



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investors

Pump.fun plans $1B token sale at $4B valuation: Sources

Ben Strack

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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Investors getting crypto exposure via stocks will soon have access to a stablecoin issuer: Circle is expected to list on the NYSE any day now.&nbsp;



While institutional demand for the company’s shares appears robust, retail interest is more of a wild card.



The USDC issuer launched its IPO last week and on Monday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">boosted the number of shares</a> it plans to offer (from 24 million to 32 million). Circle also set a higher price expectation per share — between $27 and $28.&nbsp;



Generally, underwriters (in this case JPMorgan, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, etc.) and their clients seek to slightly under-promise and over-deliver, Architect Partners co-founder Eric Risley told me.



“Both upsizing the number of shares expected to be sold as well as the price range is a crystal-clear signal of strong demand,” he noted.



That said, the roughly $7.2 billion valuation Circle is targeting is below the $7.7 billion valuation it got in an April 2022 funding round.



Risley explained that changes to IPO terms (like yesterday’s) are typically only made after a full assessment of demand. His point: The listing of CRCL shares is imminent.&nbsp;



Some of the strong institutional demand is coming from Ark Invest. Circle said in a Monday filing that the firm is interested in buying up to $150 million of Circle’s Class A common stock at the updated IPO price.



Lorenzo Valente, Ark’s digital assets research director, pointed out in February that stablecoins’ $220 million supply hit roughly 1% of the US’s M2 money supply. Stablecoins currently have a market cap around $235 billion, according to <a href="http://rwa.xyz">rwa.xyz</a> data. Ark’s <a href="https://www.nikkoam.com.hk/files/sp/ark/pdf/2502_ark_big_ideas.pdf">research</a> suggests it could hit $1.4 trillion by 2030.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdKtovOFBtk0kcucC93X40RKSwF5K61vNSbanu7J5jOnzvSKJtlzt4JuQ9Tzs0JsZpWb419gBDniDAr4psljU3ypIatep6s6SU6pS2PXR5UdarlCT8jjBQ2HJmrwZiNzrFA1v5y?key=0bMyocLhOZKNva5UxDX8Uw" alt=""/></figure>



“They settle more transaction volume across all blockchains than either Bitcoin or Ethereum, highlighting their growing dominance as the foundation of onchain activity,” Valente wrote about stablecoins.



The financial world has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">woken up to stablecoins’ utility</a> as a fiat-pegged payment tool, especially given US lawmakers’ progress on legislation there (Casey has more on that if you scroll).&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">Digesting Stablecon: Execs bullish on imminent financial infrastructure revolution</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">BlackRock’s Robbie Mitchnick said in March</a> that while he sees tokenized money market funds as a better cash savings vehicle, stablecoins “will retain their dominance” as the instrument for payment and transaction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Institutional vs. retail demand</h2>



Reports that BlackRock plans to buy Circle IPO shares reinforces Circle&#8217;s reputation as “the most institutionally integrated company in crypto,” argued Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research.&nbsp;



“In a sector still defined by volatility and regulatory overhang, Circle is positioning itself as the ‘boring is beautiful’ trade: profitable, minimally levered, and plugged into the core financial infrastructure of Web3,” he said.



For institutions looking for crypto exposure without balance-sheet risk, the company resembles a high-yield, regulated stablecoin utility, Sigel added. Circle’s core revenue, after all, comes from interest on USDC reserves — much like a money market fund, he said, but with programmability and 24/7 settlement.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe0hdaV_zL81TTSympUBxl84ZH0rl8DEFhpjVZEOPWR1nQWydAuUOBURlaXL-WEwE5Rpx5ylBNcBpGASvM1ThkmPGxfHWDdRjmJyK4l4flggMFD_JIZTB6JN7i-ScT0RwNz_28r?key=0bMyocLhOZKNva5UxDX8Uw" alt=""/></figure>



“Retail may find it harder to latch on,” the VanEck executive added. “Circle doesn’t have the same volatility, beta, meme potential or brand recognition as Coinbase.”&nbsp;



Speaking of Coinbase, COIN shares started trading on the Nasdaq — via direct listing — in April 2021. The stock opened at $381 and peaked at roughly $430. Shares are now hovering around $260.&nbsp;



COIN has earned a ~4% allocation in VanEck’s new Onchain Economy ETF (NODE), a fund that Sigel manages.&nbsp;



Circle labels “intense and increasing competition” — i.e. from <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tether-profits-versus-blackrock">USDT issuer Tether</a> — and “fluctuations in interest rates” among its risk factors.&nbsp;



Despite that, Sigel said it’s rare to find a crypto-native company that is “profitable, growing, capital-light and central to stablecoin infrastructure.” So NODE will evaluate Circle based on its valuation and growth outlook for the stock. Other crypto equity ETF <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch">portfolio managers</a> will also consider a position in Circle as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-exposures-volatility-stocks-analysts-saying">they navigate</a> a growing universe of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ipo-boom-etoro-kraken">US public stocks</a> in the segment — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/exodus-uplists-to-nyse-american">Exodus</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/galaxy-defi-technologies-nasdaq-us-listings">Galaxy and DeFi Technologies</a> now among them.&nbsp;



“If Coinbase is one of the main storefronts in the onchain economy, Circle could be the payments pipework running beneath it: less visible, but still essential to the flow of capital and trust,” Sigel said. Keep an eye on <a href="http://blockworks.co">Blockworks.co</a> — and your inbox — as our Circle IPO watch continues.



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Circle

Weighing institutional, retail demand for Circle ahead of public debut

The team behind President Trump’s memecoin is launching a $TRUMP branded crypto wallet in partnership with Magic Eden, Blockworks has confirmed.



A website teasing a wallet and trading app tied to President Donald Trump’s memecoin seemed to go live on Tuesday. A Magic Eden spokesperson confirmed the legitimacy of the website to Blockworks when reached.



The team behind $TRUMP, the President’s memecoin, partnered with Magic Eden and its recently acquired Slingshot on the wallet, according to the website.&nbsp;



“Magic Eden partnered with GetTrumpMemes.com to create the first and only $TRUMP Wallet. Have Fun!” the website said.&nbsp;



Right now, it requires users to insert their emails, phone numbers and has an option to include the X handle in order to join the waitlist.&nbsp;



News: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-coin-unlock-token-holdings">TRUMP token slides ahead of massive unlock</a>



Crypto journalist Molly White first reported the news.&nbsp;



The app will allow users to buy TRUMP, BTC, SOL, ETH, ADA, XRP and ME, and “all other tokens,” according to a Magic Eden spokesperson.&nbsp;



“Upon launch, there will be $1 million worth of $TRUMP available for rewards, and more rewards post-launch. Today, users can sign up for a waitlist with email and invite their friends so we can contact them as the app launches,” the spokesperson confirmed to Blockworks.&nbsp;



A timeline on the app launch was not clear, though Blockworks was told it would happen “soon” and would be available to US users.



As for how the relationship between TRUMP and Magic Eden developed, Blockworks was told: “We have historically worked with the $TRUMP project to support their prior NFT launches and are excited that we’re working on a much larger project now with $TRUMP Wallet.”



There appeared to be some disconnect between the Trump family and the teams involved in the TRUMP Wallet as of Tuesday afternoon, with both Donald Jr. and Eric Trump <a href="https://x.com/EricTrump/status/1929966635445576103">denying</a> their knowledge of the wallet.&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">The Trump Organization has zero involvement with this wallet product. <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EricTrump</a> and I know nothing about it. Stay tuned—World Liberty Financial <a href="https://twitter.com/worldlibertyfi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@worldlibertyfi</a>, which we have been working tirelessly on, will be launching our official wallet soon. <a href="https://t.co/h1wO7dy6AX">https://t.co/h1wO7dy6AX</a>&mdash; Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1929965961341247842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Instead, Trump Jr. teased a potential World Liberty Financial wallet, also coming “soon.”



Updated 4:50 p.m. ET to reflect Donald Trump Jr. and World Liberty announcements.



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Donald Trump

TRUMP wallet will let users buy BTC, SOL and more: spokesperson

Kate Irwin

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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A female-focused crypto community known as the Berabaddies has teamed up with infra firm Concrete to launch a community-yield vault that offers yield farming on Berachain, all with the goal of making DeFi simpler and easier for non-technical traders and those newer to crypto.



Berachain <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/berachain-pengu-burn">launched</a> earlier this year, in February — but the Berabaddies had formed a year prior in February 2024, when Berachain was in testnet. The girl group is separate from the Berachain Foundation and team, and is incubated by Berachain-focused venture studio Honey Jar plus Ursadom Labs.



“Berachain is the community that I found my home in and I found my voice,” Berabaddies founder Keisha, who prefers to only use her first name, told me in an interview.&nbsp;



Keisha said the idea for the Berabaddies came when she had been heavily involved in trading, but found herself missing her best girlfriends when spending countless hours in crypto Discord servers and chat groups full of guys.&nbsp;



The Berabaddies multisig vault is expected to conduct weekly reviews and has a 72-hour withdrawal hold window for security.



“To make money on Berachain right now, you need to understand the parts, the DeFi, how [Proof-of-Liquidity] works specifically for Berachain. You could be a DeFi expert on Ethereum, on any other chain, and then you could come over to Berachain and still have a steep learning curve because there’s so many layers to it,” Keisha said.



“We’re trying to abstract away as much of the risk and as much of the complexity, and just make it super simple. It’s [a] one-click deposit, either HONEY or BERA,” she continued.



BERA is Berachain’s native token, and HONEY is its native stablecoin.



“You shouldn’t have to need to understand 70 complex terms. You shouldn’t need to know that in order to make money,” she added.



I also asked about that <a href="https://x.com/berabaddies/status/1919365528826827023">viral Berabaddies video</a>, the Real Housewives of Berabaddies, that’s 100% satire and has sparked joy — and resentment.



“I waffled a little bit back and forth on posting that video,” Keisha explained. “People are always going to be unhappy with me or unhappy with what the baddies are doing.”



Ultimately, it seems like a lot of viewers missed the point. The goal of the Berabaddies group isn’t to present all women as vapid or shallow. It’s to bring a bit of humor to the timeline and to show all women that there’s a space for you in crypto where you can be yourself.



“Our community, when we have these events, they are for women, but these products can be used by anybody,” Keisha said of the vault. “Our focus and our attention is on the aesthetic and the femininity and the cuteness and making it fun and simple.”



The Berabaddies team is small, with six team members in total and just three to four working on the project full-time, the founder said. But the Berabaddies appeal is clearly there — there are over 900 women in its group chat.



The group is also offering educational resources to help women get careers in crypto, starting with marketing, and also has plans for a Dress-Up game.



“I support Baddies’ rights and wrongs,” Keisha said. “We’re also here for all the Baddies, all the women in this space, for you to have the freedom to express yourself however you see fit.”

Berachain

Berabaddies’ founder: Make DeFi simple — and cute AF

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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The Ethereum Foundation has redrawn its engineering playbook just as its next major hard fork, Glamsterdam, takes shape.



Announced Monday, “<a href="https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/06/02/announcing-protocol">Protocol</a>” is a reorganized EF R&amp;D division focused on three goals: scaling L1, expanding blobspace and improving UX. Project coordinator Tim Beiko set <a href="https://x.com/TimBeiko/status/1929620527670575347">the tone</a>: “Protocol is now a more united and leaner organization with more focused teams&#8230;ensuring the EF’s resources are allocated toward maximal impact.”



Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs will co-lead L1 scaling, while Francesco D’Amato and Alex Stokes oversee blob expansion and Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf lead UX. Their mandates align directly with early <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-consensus-evm-upgrade-fusaka-devs">Glamsterdam priorities</a>.



At the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIHtUaIev4M">latest</a> AllCoreDevs call, developers floated two potential headliner EIPs: <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7732">7732 (ePBS)</a>, which enables pipelined block validation to reduce node load, and <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7805">7805 (FOCIL)</a>, which introduces fork-choice inclusion lists for stronger UX and censorship resistance.



“For Glamsterdam…we will have to find some ways to continue the blob scaling,” Dietrichs said on the call, adding that “there might be some EL-side scaling opportunities” too.



This new structure signals <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/steep-disconnect-ef-crypto-community">a much-needed shift</a>: less sprawl, more delivery. But the renewed focus also required layoffs. The EF hasn’t disclosed numbers, but Beiko acknowledged, “It was a difficult decision…We are deeply thankful for their contributions and are confident they will find other opportunities to impact Ethereum’s trajectory.”



Still, not everyone is reassured. Developer Micah Zoltu <a href="https://x.com/MicahZoltu/status/1929792695599616507">questioned</a> why improving censorship resistance, privacy and end-user security weren’t reaffirmed as “strategic goals,” calling the omission “incredibly concerning.” Hasu (of Flashbots and Lido) <a href="https://x.com/hasufl/status/1929799732173373614">responded</a> that prioritizing short-term usability — like cheap blobs and UX — may be necessary for Ethereum to scale without implying abandonment of its values. “More specialization [and] division of labor” between teams, he argued, is a feature, not a bug.



Yet Zoltu cautioned that unless values like CR and privacy are embedded into roadmap decisions — such as whether to include FOCIL — they risk becoming second-tier concerns. Whether Ethereum preserves its ethos while scaling depends not just on what it builds, but who decides what gets built.



That ethos sits at the heart of <a href="https://cyber.fund/content/eth">Cyber Fund’s thesis</a>: Ethereum is more than a platform — it’s a global coordination machine for programmable institutions. But that vision only holds if the system can scale without compromising neutrality or sovereignty. The Protocol reorg appears engineered for that balance.



Cyber Fund also contends that Ethereum’s dominance will deepen as rollups adopt Ethereum for data availability, enabling seamless interoperability. Shared DA does simplify trust models and bridges, but it’s not sufficient. Interop also depends on compatible proof systems and message standards, which can work across heterogeneous DA layers like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/celestia">Celestia</a> or <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eigenlayer-restaking-mantle-zksync">EigenDA</a> if paired with robust light clients and proof aggregation.



In practice, shared DA lowers friction, but isn’t mandatory, and may prove most valuable for DeFi and financial apps.



The bottom line is: Expectations are now high. “Ethereum stands at the edge of major breakthroughs,” Beiko <a href="https://x.com/TimBeiko/status/1929620437421773080">said</a>. “This may be our best shot at deploying not only our technology, but our values, at planetary scale.”



Glamsterdam will be the first real test of that model. As scoping progresses, it will show whether the Ethereum Foundation’s streamlined “Protocol” can move from principles to production.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Ethereum refactors itself for Glamsterdam hard fork

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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It took nearly seven centuries for a cryptography breakthrough to sunset the Caesar cipher that was big in the first century BC.



Caesar ciphers simply shifted letters up or down in the alphabet by a fixed number of positions. Starting in the year 800, Arab polymath <a href="https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3162">al-Kindi</a> began working on what&#8217;s known as frequency analysis — a type of systematic pattern recognition that would result in reverse-engineering shift cipher encryption, like the Caesar.



By the 16th-century Renaissance, solving Caesar ciphers was so easy that they were considered children’s puzzles.



So it was until two cryptographers, Italian Giovan Battista Bellaso and French Blaise de Vigenère, discovered and popularized the so-called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vigenere-cipher">Vigenère cipher</a>, which incorporated multiple cipher alphabets derived from a single keyword.



The Vigenère cipher was a revolution in information privacy. The poly-alphabetic method was believed unbreakable and even named the “indecipherable cipher.”&nbsp;



Three hundred years would pass before, in the mid-19th century, two others independently cracked the system.&nbsp;



Charles Babbage, a revered grandfather of computer science, and military man Friedrich Kasiski, unknown to each other, had separately rendered Vigenères entirely obsolete, even before the arrival of computers.



So, that makes for a 700-year gap between Caesar and al-Kindi, and a 300-year gap between Bellaso-Vigenère and Babbage-Kasiski.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A cypherpunk breakthrough</h2>



On this exact day in 1976 — 49 years ago and more than a century after Babbage and Kasiski cracked Vigenère — a pair of American academics presented their own revolution: the concept of public key cryptography, which today underpins Bitcoin and most modern communication technologies.



Building off the novel work of computer scientist Ralph Merkle, the duo of Richard Diffie and Martin Hellman had devised a way to achieve what was, once again, considered theoretically impossible: enabling secure communication without a secret key shared between the two parties.



The method was outlined in their <a href="https://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/publications/24.pdf#:~:text=Manuscript%20received%20June%203%2C1976,1975%20and%20the%20IEEE%20International">paper</a>, New Directions in Cryptography, which WIRED would later describe as “a cypherpunk sacred text.”



“We stand today on the brink of a revolution in cryptography,” Diffie and Hellman wrote. “The development of cheap digital hardware has freed it from the design limitations of mechanical computing and brought the cost of high grade cryptographic devices down to where they can be used in such commercial applications as remote cash dispensers and computer terminals.”



“&#8230; At the same time, theoretical developments in information theory and computer science show promise of providing provably secure cryptosystems, changing this ancient art into a science.”



Diffie-Hellman’s paper would be adapted into RSA encryption within two years, itself a touchy cornerstone of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cypherpunk-movement-history-wired-1993">Crypto Wars</a> that directly followed.&nbsp;



Amazingly, <a href="https://www.wired.com/1999/04/crypto/">as WIRED documented</a>, another cryptographer, British intelligence officer James Ellis, had proposed a public-key system years before the Diffie-Hellman paper. But Ellis’ work was never permitted to see the light of day, a factoid that makes the conclusion of Diffie and Hellman’s foundational work so much more poignant:&nbsp;



“We hope this will inspire others to work in this fascinating area in which participation has been discouraged in the recent past by a nearly total government monopoly.”&nbsp;



And while specific or weak forms of public-key encryption have been broken over the years, it remains unbroken at a theoretical level.



Now, (almost) half a century on from cryptography’s last great breakthrough, all eyes are on the arrival of practical quantum computing — whenever that may be.



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Public-key birthday: ‘Cypherpunk sacred text’ turns 49 today

Jeff Albus

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



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Stop right there. Hall pass?&nbsp;



In a permissionless world, it&#8217;s an awkward question. Blockchains weren&#8217;t really built for access control; they were built to say yes to anyone with a private key.



But as crypto collides more and more with life outside our little bubble, the need for permissions has become unavoidable. Who&#8217;s old enough to enter? Who lives in the correct country? Who has permission to vote, and how many times? Who isn&#8217;t a bot?



For too long, the only answers have come from walled-off KYC platforms or one-off user flows that trap dev teams in maintenance purgatory. Every dapp that wants to check a credential ends up rebuilding the same brittle backend over and over, and users get stuck re-proving their right to access at every door.



Many builders are working on this today, but here in Solana land, there&#8217;s one solution in particular that&#8217;s seen a lot of buzz of late. The Solana Attestation Service (SAS) is <a href="https://solana.com/news/solana-attestation-service">a new open protocol</a> for turning off-chain facts into reusable, verifiable claims that stick to your wallet like a passport stamp.



Essentially, it offers a universal layer for issuing and checking identity-based credentials. Issuers, like KYC providers, DAOs, employers and maybe even governments, are now able to write signed attestations to Solana wallet addresses that can prove things like &#8220;I&#8217;m over 18,&#8221; &#8220;I live in the US&#8221; or &#8220;I passed this DAO&#8217;s verification process.&#8221;



Dapps don&#8217;t need to store or recheck that data — they just verify the stamp.



A typical attestation <a href="https://solana-attestation-site.vercel.app/docs">includes</a> a wallet address, a claim (like &#8220;is accredited&#8221;), metadata (optional) and a signature from the issuer. Solana stores that proof onchain, where it can be queried and verified with a single SDK call.



There is no server, no user data and no custom logic. Just trust, composability and a speedy path to compliance.



It&#8217;s privacy-preserving (no personal info onchain), frictionless (attest once, use everywhere) and permissionless (it&#8217;s open, so anyone can build with it), resulting in a <a href="https://www.range.org/blog/introducing-solana-attestation-service">smoother, safer, more composable</a> user experience.



Stamps earned across DAOs, onchain careers or verified actions can become inputs to everything from undercollateralized lending, to onchain reputation to dynamic governance weight.&nbsp;



We&#8217;ve already seen a few OGs <a href="https://attest.solana.com/use-cases">take steps toward integration</a>. Civic recently announced its intention to use SAS to issue reusable compliance credentials. Solid will let users collect stamps like &#8220;verified developer&#8221; or &#8220;founding community member.&#8221; RNS.ID has said it&#8217;ll be launching its own &#8220;Proof&#8221; infrastructure on SAS sometime next month.



Solana&#8217;s performance edge has made it a playground for DePIN, DeFi and hyperactive gaming, but scaling to the next billion users means handling real-world constraints. SAS allows developers to respect those constraints without sacrificing UX, privacy or decentralization.



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Cybersecurity

New Solana tool fixes the KYC bottleneck

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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June has certainly started off with a bang, and we don’t expect things to slow down anytime soon. With lots of updates on the tariff front, Congress back from recess, and an FOMC meeting on the horizon, it’s going to be a busy month.&nbsp;



Focusing on tariffs, though, here’s where we currently stand: After last week’s court drama, certain tariffs (including Trump’s fentanyl-related levies against Canada, Mexico and China) will remain in place until at least June 9.&nbsp;



To recap: The US Court of International Trade last Wednesday ruled that some of the Trump administration’s new trade policies are illegal. Within 24 hours, though, an appeals court issued a temporary pause on the ruling, allowing certain tariffs to continue while the appeals process plays out. The plaintiffs (a group of US businesses) have until June 5 to respond to the stay.&nbsp;



Should the pause be reversed, the White House has already said it would seek a ruling from the Supreme Court for “emergency relief.” The appeal itself could also make it to the highest court, but that’s likely months down the line.&nbsp;



The Trump administration on Monday appealed a <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/post/ruling-vernon-hills-toy-companies-lawsuit-president-donald-trumps-tariffs-delayed-appeals-court/16593543/">separate ruling</a> from a DC federal court that found Trump’s tariffs to be unlawful. This suit was brought by two children&#8217;s toy companies.&nbsp;



The administration said in April it would ink 90 trade deals in 90 days; that deadline (July 9) is quickly approaching. There’s also the separate 90-day pause on certain sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods Trump announced three weeks ago.&nbsp;



That truce with China appears to be in jeopardy. In a Monday statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce responded to accusations from Trump that the country had violated the recently penned agreement.&nbsp;



It was the US, Chinese officials said, that has taken steps that “seriously undermine” the truce. These include new AI chip export restrictions and the administration’s plans to revoke visas for Chinese students, they said.&nbsp;



You may have read about the so-called “TACO trade,” named after the acronym Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined last month to describe the president’s constant tariff reversals. For those not familiar, it stands for “Trump always chickens out.”&nbsp;



After escalating trade tensions with China rocked US markets Monday morning, some investors are expecting Trump to revise his policies tonight or tomorrow. A “TACO Tuesday,” if you will.&nbsp;



Unsurprisingly, Trump is not a fan of the now-viral “TACO” meme.&nbsp;



When a reporter asked Trump about the acronym during a press conference last week, Trump denied that he has “chickened out” in the past.&nbsp;



&#8220;That&#8217;s a nasty question,&#8221; Trump added.&nbsp;



The question now is: Does this discourse enrage Trump enough to impact his policy? Maybe. Trump said Friday that he’s doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum starting June 4.&nbsp;



I’m also starting to wonder if and when we will creep into “boy who cried wolf” territory. If Trump keeps pausing and reversing and amending trade policies, will investors eventually stop taking him seriously? Could markets stop moving on every headline?&nbsp;



I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see.



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Trade war updates keep investors on their toes

The SEC’s move to halt proposed crypto ETFs that would allow staking likely won’t help or hurt other issuers’ efforts to unlock that feature for their own funds, industry watchers argue.



Registration statements for the Rex-Osprey ETH Staking ETF and the Rex-Osprey SOL Staking ETF went effective on May 30 “without resolution of staff comments,” the SEC wrote in a letter that day.&nbsp;



The funds were structured as C-corporations, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart pointed out in a series of X posts. This “unique structure” would allow the funds to bypass the 19b-4 process, which requires self-regulatory organizations to propose rule changes to the SEC.&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">BIG NEWS: <a href="https://twitter.com/REXShares?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@REXShares</a> just filed an effective prospectus for Solana and Ethereum staking ETFs to list here in the US. Don’t know launch date but could be within the next few weeks. These are 40-act funds with a unique structure and do not go through the 19b-4 process <a href="https://t.co/cqUCWlFAZW">pic.twitter.com/cqUCWlFAZW</a>&mdash; James Seyffart (@JSeyff) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1928543214530683328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The agency had requested that the fund issuers delay the effectiveness of the registration statements tied to these proposals, the agency’s division of investment management noted in the letter.



“As we have communicated to you on several occasions, commission staff continues to have unresolved questions whether the funds, if structured and operated as proposed, would be able to meet the definition of ‘investment company’ under the Investment Company Act,” the letter states.



An <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec">SEC</a> spokesperson had no comment beyond the letter. REX Financial and Osprey Funds also declined to comment when reached.&nbsp;



Seyffart told Blockworks he doesn’t think these actions mean the SEC is pushing against <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/staking">staking</a> ETFs. “This is more to do with the structure of these specific filings,” he added. “I believe the SEC is working more broadly toward a framework for staking in an ETF wrapper.”



Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said this appears to be an issuer testing the SEC’s regulatory boundaries on crypto ETFs.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“With a perceived pro-crypto tilt at the SEC, the downside risk for issuers pushing the envelope is relatively low,” he explained. “In an increasingly competitive crypto ETF landscape, where first-mover advantage can be significant, issuers are motivated to explore any potential edge.”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-actions-timeline">Amid volatility, a stable flow of SEC actions</a>



Ultimately, this saga is “probably all for naught,” Geraci argued.&nbsp;



“I expect the SEC to ultimately approve spot solana ETFs&nbsp; — and staking within both spot solana and ether ETFs — likely by year-end,” he told Blockworks.



The securities regulator indicated in a May 28 <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/nysearca/2025/34-103137.pdf">filing</a> that it would take more time to rule on Grayscale’s proposal to allow its two ether ETFs — the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) — to stake its holdings. The SEC has until October to rule on that. “Institution of proceedings does not indicate that the commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved,” the agency filing notes. “Rather, the commission seeks and encourages interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change.”



SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce noted in a February statement that before greenlighting modifications to existing crypto ETFs — such as staking and in-kind creations and redemptions — “the commission may have to make progress on custody and other issues.”  



More recently, the SEC’s division of corporation finance shared its <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/statement-certain-protocol-staking-activities-052925">opinion</a> on the protocol staking activities that it deems not to involve the offer and sale of securities.



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ETFs

What the SEC’s staking ETF objection means for other proposals

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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Yuga Labs is cleaning house.



The crypto startup, known for creating the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and promising a massive metaverse game called Otherside, has continued to purge itself of all the other NFT IP it’s acquired in recent years.



Yuga has now <a href="https://x.com/CryptoGarga/status/1928498064500945303">sold</a> off Kevin Rose’s Moonbirds IP, which it bought via an acquisition of Proof Labs in 2024, to a company called Orange Cap Games. Quick sidenote: Rose is now <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/digg-news-reboot-relaunch-crypto-wallet-kevin-rose">rebooting his old news site Digg</a> with a crypto wallet integration.



“Moonbirds deserve a team whose whole world is the birds, and there&#8217;s no one better than Orange Cap Games to help them reach their potential,” Yuga Labs cofounder Greg Solano wrote. “As for Yuga, we&#8217;re laser-focused on Apes, Otherside, and something special we&#8217;ve been cooking up.”



Moonbirds’ new owner Orange Cap Games previously made a Pudgy Penguins-themed trading card game called Vibes. Moonbirds could get some kind of game of their own, but will also <a href="https://x.com/Ocapgames/status/1928496749360066683">still be playable</a> in the Otherside. Moonbirds NFTs minted for 2.5 ETH back in 2022, worth $7,600 at the time. The current floor price is 0.9 ETH ($2,290), up 40% in the last four days.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdu7YlhzwArhwjKUZoK5RmrepGGAw2TidqPnVnJ78FFWZTrvxxokHVsMsQyOPHaicVACW1kucAHcPKgmfErgbt-pvsW1hpJV9NAOV2hl7OzPw3G-v7qZ4848oeA7cnNyBBBg6dr?key=SFpmdb3LyZYuA60Lgc3UPw" alt=""/></figure>



Now that the Moonbirds are out, will anything else Yuga-related be cut? In response to a post that suggested the Apecoin DAO should also be shut down, Solano said that “eliminating cruft” and being “thoughtful but also kinda fucking ruthless” going forward is the goal.



<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">Have heard a lot of voices on this and similar ideas. At the end of the day, I just want apes and our core to fucking win. It requires being thoughtful but also kinda fucking ruthless. Eliminating cruft, and as much as possible, doing it in a way that&#39;s win-win for everyone… <a href="https://t.co/c3YWlLvG2B">https://t.co/c3YWlLvG2B</a>&mdash; Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) <a href="https://twitter.com/CryptoGarga/status/1929208353861038573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“At the end of the day, I just want apes and our core to fucking win,” the Yuga cofounder said.



Yuga cofounder Wylie Aronow agreed with the idea that DAO may no longer be needed, <a href="https://x.com/GordonGoner/status/1929314912490426510">writing</a>: “I think the DAO experiment for Apecoin may have run its course and with the regulatory nature changing rapidly in the States.”



So what’s next for Yuga now? In a January tweet, Solano <a href="https://www.theboredapegazette.com/post/coming-soon-yuga-labs-ceo-garga-announced-that-the-first-persistent-version-of-otherside-is-opening#:~:text=COMING%20SOON:%20Yuga%20Labs%20CEO,Otherside%20Is%20Opening%20This%20June!">said</a> the team planned to get a “persistent” version of Otherside out by roughly June this year (which could mean a launch sometime this month).&nbsp;



Otherside has been many years in the making. In case you forgot, the planned Otherside metaverse game held a massive “Otherdeed” virtual land mint back in 2022 that resulted in <a href="https://decrypt.co/99156/yuga-labs-sees-561-million-in-otherside-ethereum-nft-sales-within-24-hours">$561 million</a> in NFT land sales within a day. It triggered massive gas fee wars where some paid thousands of dollars in Ethereum network fees alone. That fee and minting chaos could have absolutely been avoided, <a href="https://decrypt.co/99848/infura-co-founder-bored-apes-on-otherdeed-nft-mint-chaos-future-of-ethereum">according</a> to one Ethereum infrastructure expert.



Yuga Labs has since been dealing with a lawsuit in the years since that mint (separate from its legal <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/yuga-labs-award-ryder-ripps-lawsuit">battle</a> with Ryder Ripps). Yuga, along with numerous other defendants including various celebrities and firms like MoonPay, was <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221209005588/en/ScottScott-Attorneys-at-Law-LLP-Files-Securities-Class-Action-Against-Yuga-Labs-Inc.-YUGA-its-Executive-Officers-and-Celebrity-Promoters">sued</a> in late 2022 for creating what the <a href="https://rosenlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Yuga-Complaint-Web.pdf">complaint</a> alleges is a “vast scheme” to sell what the Plaintiff claims are securities. Nearly three years later, that lawsuit appears to be ongoing, per PACER records inspected by Blockworks.



Yuga, which raised <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220322006088/en/Yuga-Labs-Closes-%24450-Million-Seed-Round-of-Funding-Valuing-the-Company-at-%244-Billion-Confirms-Plans-for-Metaverse-Project">$450 million</a> in seed funding in March 2022 at a $4 billion valuation, bought the CryptoPunks IP that month alongside the Meebits IP. At that point, Yuga had plans to expand its crypto empire. But recently, it’s been selling off that IP in a move that suggests it may have bitten off more than it could chew — or at least is dramatically <a href="https://x.com/pixiekate13/status/1922316697970635122">pulling back</a>.



Last month, Yuga <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cryptopunks-yuga-labs-sold">sold</a> CryptoPunks to a new nonprofit that plans to exhibit the NFTs at an art gallery in California. Yuga also sold Meebits to MeebCo in February, and <a href="https://x.com/farawaygg/status/1780627363069403391">sold</a> off its HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara IPs to Faraway in April last year.



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Yuga Labs sells off Moonbirds IP as push to clean house continues

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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A specter is haunting crypto — the specter of cheap leverage.



“Digital Asset Treasury companies” (DATs) are assembling stockpiles of bitcoin by funding it with primarily cheap debt and equity.



It’s particularly weird because it’s not just financial services companies in the mix. GameStop has <a href="https://x.com/gamestop/status/1927679297252364502">bought</a> 4,710 BTC, the Japanese hotel business Metaplanet has built up $930 million in BTC holdings, and the Singapore-based Basel Medical Group announced a purchase agreement of up to $1 billion in BTC.



Not one to be left out of the spotlight, Trump Media also <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/27/3088703/0/en/Trump-Media-Announces-Approximately-2-5-Billion-Bitcoin-Treasury-Deal.html">announced</a> its own $2.5 billion BTC treasury deal last week.



It’s not just BTC treasuries either — DeFi Development Corp. (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/janover-to-receive-kraken-staked-sol">formerly Janover</a>) has <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/15/3082094/0/en/DeFi-Development-Corp-Purchases-16-447-SOL-Becomes-Leading-Solana-Treasury-Company.html">amassed</a> 609,190 SOL ($107 million), the Consensys-backed Sharplink Gaming is <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/27/3088575/0/en/SharpLink-Gaming-Announces-425-000-000-Private-Placement-to-Initiate-Ethereum-Treasury-Strategy.html">raising</a> $425 million to buy ETH, and VivoPower has <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/30/3091001/0/en/CORRECTION-VivoPower-Announces-XRP-Focused-Digital-Asset-Treasury-Strategy-and-US-121-Million-Private-Placement-Priced-at-US-6-05-Per-Share-Above-Last-Market-Closing-Price-Under-NA.html">raised</a> $121 million for an XRP treasury.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The trade explained</h2>



DATs are funding their crypto purchases by issuing bonds at low coupon rates (0-5%).



Who’s buying these?



One group of buyers are the market-neutral hedge funds, which simultaneously buy the bond note and short MSTR stock to delta-hedge.



Their profits come from the underlying volatility of MSTR stock. When MSTR’s price goes up, the fund shorts more stock. When prices drop again, they buy it back at a lower price.



The more volatile the stock price, the more of a profitable spread there is. The profit exists because realized volatility exceeds expected/implied volatility (otherwise known as gamma-scalping).



As my colleague Byron Gilliam <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily/issue/post_7d7eb3a7-4808-4c3c-afae-3838c37b49da">put it</a> aptly, Saylor is in the business of selling cheap volatility.



The second group of buyers are long-only asset managers (e.g. <a href="https://www.mitrade.com/insights/news/live-news/article-3-484667-20241122">Allianz</a>, <a href="https://www.hedgeweek.com/hedge-funds-bet-big-on-microstrategy/">Calamos</a>).



For these guys, if MSTR trades above the conversion price of the bond, then the bond is just like equity and can soar well past par.



Should MSTR’s price collapse, bondholders still have a senior claim on principal at maturity; today that claim is backed by <a href="https://bitcointreasuries.net/">~$60.4 billion</a> of BTC on its balance sheet (though MSTR’s converts are unsecured).



It’s profitable due to an asymmetric payoff. Limited downside and equity-like upside.



Both these sets of buyers enable Saylor to buy more bitcoin, which drives up the net asset value (NAV) of the company, which in turn drives up the price of MSTR stock.



This is what’s referred to as Saylor’s “infinite money loop”: It works so long as the option value of the equity trades at a premium to the net bitcoin per share (because markets are inefficient!)



Why aren&#8217;t funds just buying the ETF if they want crypto exposure?



I’ll let Pantera’s Cosmo Jiang do the explaining for me, per his recent <a href="https://panteracapital.com/blockchain-letter/a-new-frontier-for-crypto-exposure/">letter</a>: “If you buy MSTR at 2x NAV, you are buying 0.5 BTC instead of buying 1.0 BTC via spot. However, if MSTR can raise capital and grow BPS 50% per year (last year it grew 74%), by the end of year two you would have 1.1 BTC — more than if you had simply bought spot.”



Bitcoin per share (BPS) is the benchmark metric that all the participants in this game are eyeing.



DATs want to grow BPS (or ETH/SOL/XRP per share) faster than the company’s stock price appreciation, and that in turn depends on how well the firm can leverage capital markets to raise even more.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The risks</h2>



But of course, there is no such infinite money glitch.



DATs are already <a href="https://x.com/DylanLeClair_/status/1929383745657741473">advertising</a> their stock as offering “yield,” but no such organic cash yield exists. The metric works only as long as the stock price stays above the underlying NAV.



Whereas Strategy’s bonds were originally <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201211005457/en/MicroStrategy-Completes-%24650-Million-Offering-of-0.750-Convertible-Senior-Notes-Due-2025">unsecured</a>, copycats are raising capital with secured terms, which entails real liquidation risks.



<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">Some quick thoughts on the acquisition vehicle meta: It seems like we&#39;ve found the 2025 equivalent of GBTC. I have no idea if these vehicles will achieve that level of scale and destructive potential, but make no mistake, this is leverage getting injected into the system. To…&mdash; Mippo 🟪 (@MikeIppolito_) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_/status/1927450775870931015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Should crypto markets tank, DATs will be forced to sell their assets to repay note-holders if they cannot top up collateral.



Everyone’s excited about the buying, but no one’s talking about the potential forced selling.



Until they have to.



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The MicroStrategy playbook: The good, bad and ugly

Stablecoin issuer Circle is upping the number of shares it plans to offer as the company gets set to go public on the New York Stock Exchange.&nbsp;



The company is offering 32 million shares of Class A common stock, according to a Monday <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1876042/000119312525132755/d737521ds1a.htm">filing</a>. That includes 19.2 million shares offered from selling stockholders, for which Circle will not receive proceeds from.&nbsp;



Circle expects the initial public offering price to be between $27 and $28 per share, it added in the disclosure.&nbsp;



The share count and anticipated price are higher than what the company originally <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-acquisition">revealed</a>. Circle announced the launch of its IPO last week with plans of offering 24 million shares (14.4 million from selling stockholders). The IPO price at that time was projected to be from $24 to $26.&nbsp;



A <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/circle">Circle</a> spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the changes.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">Digesting Stablecon: Execs bullish on imminent financial infrastructure revolution</a>



A company upsizing an IPO in this way typically signals an increase in demand from investors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



ARK Investment Management, for example, has indicated its interest in buying up to $150 million of Circle’s Class A common stock at the IPO price, Circle’s latest filing notes. A Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-28/blackrock-is-said-to-plan-to-buy-shares-in-circle-internet-ipo">report</a> last week indicated that BlackRock is also interested in acquiring shares. Check <a href="http://blockworks.co">Blockworks.co</a> — as well as the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a> newsletters — for ongoing coverage of Circle’s IPO. 



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Circle ups IPO share count, price ahead of NYSE listing

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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About 15 million people go whale watching every year — many in places like Mozambique, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka.



Stuck in Iceland, a travel magazine, <a href="https://www.stuckiniceland.com/whale-watching/">labeled</a> whale watching “a demanding contact sport where you battle the elements while looking for creatures that care nothing, whether you see them or not.&nbsp;



“Sometimes you are lucky, and the whales take a long time when they are visible. Sometimes they move fast, pop up all over the place, and you must be quick to see them.”



Today’s post celebrates Bitcoin’s version of the sport. So grab your spray jacket and binoculars, and let’s go crypto-catamaranning. 



Thar she blows!



The earliest known efforts to find, track and even identify Bitcoin whales occurred in August 2013, as bitcoin was crossing over the $100 mark for the last time ever.



Prominent Bitcointalk user prophetx had <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=282879.0">proposed</a> three whale-hunting commandments and encouraged others to join in:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Post any address holding in excess of 5,000 BTC ($500,000 then, $522 million now) in the last 90 days on a rolling basis.</li>



<li>Collaborate to identify the owner of the address, either in the real world or through their online footprint.</li>



<li>Use that information to map the biggest whales in the Bitcoin economy and follow the movement of their coins.</li>
</ol>



“Why?” was the first response.



“I study economics, so observing and studying the spending of the capitalist group is important to me,” prophetx said.



“It seems a bit creepy and stalkerish…,” replied another.



Prophetx: “This is no different than Forbes’ richest list. Bitcoin enables this and it should be used to advance knowledge. And if someone is that concerned perhaps they shouldn&#8217;t use a currency with a public tx ledger…”



Quickly, though, other whale hunters joined in. Within two days, someone had produced a rich list of about 300 addresses with more bitcoin than anyone else, discovered at 50,000 block increments (every 350 days or so).



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfmEBT3konP17uSTDNxl1F-STSovvFFbLJkZ4WcERKvLJsOexHrVCbDI9i3THmHDjskl24ToYjX69qg9vcJafJt1saW2r6BNK8HICQZgcPyw50EvIu_5d4JlWywyKA2COYj8b2QfQ?key=cMtRQN4-8YMqHSlqsgMNgw" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In the future, bitcoin would be worth much more than $500.</figcaption></figure>



Among those whales was an address starting with “12ib7…” with 31,000 BTC — $3.1 million at 2013 prices and $3.2 billion today. It’s the 967th address ever created and was initially funded in May 2010.



The address can still be found on Bitcoin’s <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html">rich list</a>, currently ranked 28th, closely trailing behind a Binance mining pool and cold wallet.



Prophetx’s thread never went far beyond that, with no whales identified under the actual post. Years later, as part of the depressingly long Kleiman estate court case, Craig Wright would falsely <a href="https://blog.wizsec.jp/2018/02/kleiman-v-craig-wright-bitcoins.html">assert</a> ownership of the address alongside others via Tulip Trust.&nbsp;



Wright had claimed that hackers had stolen the private keys and any backups were deleted — even though the coins in question had not been moved following the theft. He also attempted to sue Bitcoin developers into somehow granting control of the coins.&nbsp;



Of course, Wright ultimately lost the Kleiman case and was <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/craig-wright-to-pay-100-million-in-kleiman-v-wright-56b-case/">ordered</a> to pay the estate $100 million, dropping the case against the Bitcoin devs shortly after.



So, who owns 12ib7? Nobody knows. 12ib7’s last outgoing transaction was in July 2010, when it directed 9,000 BTC to an unidentified address (its first outgoing transaction was also on this day in 2010!)



Much juicier: Coinbase director Conor Grogan got as far as potentially linking the address to Satoshi.&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">This address is also associated with funding 12ib, one of the largest active BTC address of all time, which hold 3B of BTC today. This lends credence to the link that 1PY was associated with Satoshi or a very early adopter/contributor <a href="https://t.co/q0b0H8PrMj">pic.twitter.com/q0b0H8PrMj</a>&mdash; Conor (@jconorgrogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/jconorgrogan/status/1887154642267574302?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A so-called Patoshi address originally funded 12ib7 with 3,700 BTC. Patoshi addresses are believed to have mined bitcoin using a method that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/satoshi-bitcoin-holdings-wallet-123b">only Satoshi may have known</a> was possible.



Whether that means Satoshi technically controls 12ib7 is unclear. All we know for sure is that the true owner was an early adopter and, for whatever reason, a Satoshi-linked wallet felt it necessary to send them thousands of bitcoin. Lucky them!&nbsp;



If they still have the keys, that is.



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Bitcoin DiamondBCD

about Bitcoin Diamond

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