Fei is a decentralized, scalable, and DeFi-native stablecoin protocol. It utilises protocol controlled value (PCV) to create a tight peg to the US dollar, providing 1:1 redeemability for FEI, the stablecoin. TRIBE is the governance token which allows holders to manage the PCV backing FEI with the community-owned reserve.

Fei USD

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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We talked a whole lot about <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-execution-stablecoins">Circle</a> last week, and I’ve already mentioned that the success of the IPO opened up doors for other firms (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gemini-files-confidential-s1-with-sec">take a look at Gemini</a>, for example, which announced it confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC earlier this year).&nbsp;



But while there’s a ton of appetite on the public markets, the question has to be asked: Who’s actually ready to premiere on a public stage?



Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick poured some cold water on the hopes and dreams of a crypto IPO season on this <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/0a8df65c-4326-11f0-a24f-870b75d11b1d">week’s Empire episode</a>. He and Haun Ventures’ Diogo Monica noted that most crypto companies are a tad smaller than public markets typically prefer.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How Venture Is Navigating Crypto IPOs" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ivA7W-8jwE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



To put that into perspective, we’d be talking about hundreds of millions raised in an IPO in comparison to the billion-dollar Circle debut. Hadick said that the IPO market is “definitely open.”



But that doesn’t mean that the firms are ready. Hadick expressed doubt that firms like Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan would be advising companies like Fireblocks to go public.&nbsp;



“Fireblocks is not there. And that&#8217;s true of Chainalysis, which is a great SaaS business. That&#8217;s true of most of the other people we talked about. Kraken is a different story. And you know, I expect we&#8217;ll see them [go] public. Maybe not this year, but maybe next year,” Hadick added.&nbsp;



However, because of the appetite, there could be a slew of crypto IPOs that rush to the public markets before they’ve hit the typical maturity points.&nbsp;



Hadick wouldn’t be surprised if firms talk to underwriters who promise to take them public through either a direct listing or go the more typical route like Circle and just aim to raise far lower (eyeing a $100 or $200 million raise versus billions).&nbsp;



And, to be fair, crypto’s not a special snowflake when it comes to massive IPO success. Every industry that sees one company’s success has other players seriously thinking about how they can capitalize on the momentum.&nbsp;



Generally, though, at least in my experience, it’s pretty rare to see firms capture the same fanfare or financial backing when they’re looking to hit copy and paste on another company’s playbook. But crypto thrives on smashing expectations, so perhaps that bodes well.



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Crypto

What crypto firms could go public next?

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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Earlier this week, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">Blockworks first reported</a> that pump.fun has plans to raise $1 billion at a $4 billion valuation via a token sale. 



The potential b-nut would add to a likely already sizable war chest for the memecoin launchpad, which has generated over $700 million in revenue since launching last year. Some have speculated that the fresh funds could go toward the rollout of a pump.fun blockchain, which would capture some of the trading fees that currently go to Solana.  



In this week’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzhd1yWI-XE&amp;t=2271s">Lightspeed podcast roundup</a>, Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz said launching a layer-1 without taking any other swings at growing pump’s business would do little else but increase the business’ take rate, which is another way of saying increase its profit margins. Mumtaz thinks this would be money poorly spent.



“​​Do you think that they would raise a billion dollars if what they cared about was increasing their margins from, let&#8217;s say, 80% to 85%?,” Mumtaz mused. “If I&#8217;m their VC, I&#8217;m going to say, ‘What the fuck are you doing? That&#8217;s extremely boring.’”



Rather, the Solana infrastructure CEO said, pump.fun’s fresh billion could de-risk new moonshot ideas to diversify the core business — which is lucrative but obviously quite captive to the whims of memecoin traders. (In fairness, a world does exist where pump.fun both develops new business lines and grows its margins on a new L1, but we’ll leave that aside for now).



That’s the big question for pump.fun: Can it find a second pitch? Pump could try to take the same path as Jupiter, which went on an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_AavGwooLs">acquisition spree</a>, adding a memecoin frontend, NFTs, lending and more after coming to dominate the Solana swap market.&nbsp;



“Historically, what you&#8217;ve seen in crypto M&amp;A is that it has kind of lacked discipline,” Blockworks Research head of research Ryan Connor said on this point. “Seeing what pump does purchase and if it&#8217;s synergistic to the business is going to be pretty critical.” Connor added that pump may have to deal with significant legal costs if it tries to expand its reach more globally.



If pump.fun tries to internally develop its next big idea, streaming may be the top contender. The platform brought back livestreaming earlier this year after facing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-suspends-livestream-feature">content moderation issues</a> in an earlier version. It has tried to create something akin to Twitch with memecoins on this latest iteration, notably onboarding the anonymous trader gainzy, who has gone viral for irreverent rants in between pulls from a vape.&nbsp;



Whatever it looks like, my podcast guests seemed to think pump.fun’s next move would involve something more inspired than creating yet another L1.



“I think a much more attractive proposition is: ‘Look, we&#8217;re literally going to redefine how crypto and media interact, right? We&#8217;re going to look at the entertainment and social aspects of this business and really take big shots and go for the next 10 to 100x,’” Mumtaz said.



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</ul>

meme coins

Pump.fun may have loftier goals than building an L1

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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I was watching CNBC yesterday afternoon (and the <a href="https://x.com/caseywagnerr/status/1930643273262964849">French Open</a>, don’t tell my boss) hoping to catch a glimpse of the NYSE exchange floor when <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">Circle started trading</a>, but a bigger story quickly dominated the news cycle.&nbsp;



Fortunately for Circle shareholders, the political drama had seemingly no impact on shares of the newly-public stablecoin company. Trading under the ticker CRCL, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-hits-75-nyse-trading">the stock debuted</a> more than 120% above IPO price. Demand was alive and well today, too, with more than 20 million shares traded before 11 a.m. ET.&nbsp;



Back to that other big story, though. The biggest bromance in Washington is, apparently, imploding.&nbsp;



Yesterday, when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside German Chancellor Merz, President Trump revealed cracks in his relationship with Elon Musk.&nbsp;



&#8220;Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said. “I don&#8217;t know if we will anymore.&#8221;



If Merz was upset that his meeting in Washington was completely overshadowed by a public feud, he didn’t show it. I’d imagine he’s just glad he isn’t on the other side of Trump’s wrath.&nbsp;



Trump’s issues with Musk stem from the tech billionaire’s comments about the “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tax-bill-trump-congress-gop">one big beautiful bill” Act</a>, the sweeping tax and budget legislative package Trump is trying to get through Congress.&nbsp;



The bill is the heart of Trump’s platform, but Musk isn’t a fan for a few reasons:&nbsp;



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>The bill cuts electric vehicle tax credits. </li>



<li>The bill doesn’t do enough to curb government spending. </li>
</ol>



On that first point, we’ll never know if Trump would have won without Musk’s support, but I think it’s safe to say it certainly didn’t hurt. In Musk’s opinion, he spent enough time and money to secure some EV credits. Trump says he doesn’t owe the billionaire a thing.&nbsp;



Because it’s 2025, and because Trump and Musk are who they are, the venue for the fight was, of course, social media. While Trump fired off “truths” on Truth Social, Musk took to X.&nbsp;



In (perhaps) a sign that investors are growing more immune to political antics, US markets didn’t move as much as you may have expected. Well, save for Tesla, which lost 14% on Thursday. The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes closed 0.5% and 0.8% lower, respectively.&nbsp;



By Friday, though, US markets were back in the green, thanks to a better-than-expected May jobs report. The S&amp;P 500 was trading 1.1% higher on the day at 2 p.m. ET while the Nasdaq Composite had gained 1.4% at that time.&nbsp;



As for the current state of affairs between Trump and Musk, things are still rocky. Trump’s chief of staff told NBC today there are “no plans” for a call between the president and his (former?) bestie. The New York Times is reporting that Trump plans to sell the red Tesla he added to the White House’s fleet back in March.&nbsp;



With midterms quickly approaching and Musk’s government contracts apparently on the line (per one of Trump’s threats yesterday), it seems advantageous for the two to kiss and make up.&nbsp;



We wouldn’t be surprised if they both cool down over the weekend, although I doubt either man can resist posting for too long, so we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be back on Monday to unpack it all.



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Circle

Markets recover on jobs surprise amid political feud tensions

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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World Network — known for its eye-scanning orb that verifies human accounts for its mobile super app — is launching the next phase of its developer incentive campaign.



World Network is managed by World Foundation and also involves corporate entities such as World Assets Limited and World Chain LLC. For-profit blockchain product developer Tools For Humanity is overseeing the development of the World app.



Collectively, World Foundation and TFH are working with crypto events DAO <a href="https://www.fwb.help/about">FWB</a> to host their next event for builders, <a href="https://worldbuild.fwb.help/">World Build 2.0</a>, in July, according to a release Tools For Humanity shared exclusively with The Drop. Tools For Humanity Chief Product Officer Tiago Sada was one of the first edition’s judges.



The first World Build event ran for five months, from February until May this year. It included an online hackathon followed by an in-person build sprint and ended with a demo day, where builders pitched their apps to VCs and threw their hats in the ring for various grants. The second Build event is expected to have a similar format.



There are a number of different funding opportunities for mini app builders regardless of their participation in World Build. World Foundation is offering a Mini Apps <a href="https://world.org/grants">Grants Program</a> and Mini App Retroactive Rewards.&nbsp;



TFH’s <a href="https://www.toolsforhumanity.com/legal/developer-rewards-terms-and-conditions">Dev Rewards Pilot</a> has a total of $300,000 to give developers over a three-month period ending June 30. Rewards of $25,000 a week are split across multiple dev teams depending on mini app performance.



The World Foundation is also giving out $1 million worth of its WLD token to developers who’ve already shipped something for the World app and saw over 10,000 verified human users by May 16 as part of a retroactive funding effort. Devs have until June 9 to <a href="https://world.org/retro">apply</a> for that one-time WLD token gift.



There are already 300 mini apps so far available within the World mobile app with roughly $12 million in venture capital funding across them, according to data from Tools For Humanity.



The World app uses the World Network blockchain, which is built on Ethereum via the Optimism Superchain.&nbsp;



Monetization <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-launches-mini-apps-1-2">isn&#8217;t</a> the main focus of the World Foundation or TFH right now. Instead, they’re pushing for platform growth and user adoption.&nbsp;



The World App has seen over 10 million downloads on Android alone thus far, according to its Google Play Store page.&nbsp;



Based on data from analytics platform AppFigures, it looks like World App for Android is a lot more popular than its iOS version. The Android version has seen over 5.9 million downloads this year alone, while the iOS version has less than a million downloads in that same period.&nbsp;



The top countries downloading World’s Android app this year so far the most are, in order, Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, Philippines, and Peru. The US is much further down, in the 19th spot. The top countries data for the iOS app paints a similar picture, suggesting it’s a global app that hasn’t quite breached the US market just yet.



This may be because WLD hadn’t been available to US residents previously until a recent change <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-altman-worldcoin-orb-mini-eye-scan">announced</a> April 30.



Last month, World Foundation <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-biometric-identity-vision">raised $135 million</a> in funding from a16z and Bain Capital Crypto. The VCs’ investment came in the form of buying WLD tokens.&nbsp;



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sam altman

World Foundation, Tools For Humanity unveil World Build 2.0

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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Aave’s new Umbrella staking system <a href="https://x.com/aave/status/1930630754255479080">went live</a> yesterday, replacing the protocol’s once-theoretical insurance model with an onchain, automated safety net tied directly to individual assets.&nbsp;



The USDC and USDT vaults <a href="https://app.aave.com/staking/">currently</a> have yields greater than 10% on offer. But for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-stablecoin-gho-mainnet-launch">GHO</a> — <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave’s</a> bespoke <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoin</a> — a mismatched reward structure is creating an odd dynamic for GHO holders in search of yield.



Since 2020, Aave’s Safety Module (SM) has served as a kind of backstop — stkAAVE and AAVE-ETH LPs (stkABPT) could be slashed in theory, but governance votes and political incentives meant that slashing never occurred — even after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-curve-exposure">bad debt events</a> like the 2022 Curve exploit. With Umbrella, Aave introduces an autonomous mechanism that slashes stakers in real time once bad debt in a particular asset exceeds a preset threshold.



The goal: make Aave’s insurance fund more credible, capital-efficient and aligned with real user behavior.



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



Each Umbrella vault is an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/erc-4626">ERC-4626</a> strategy for staking yield-bearing assets like Aave-deposited USDC, USDT and ETH, or by staking GHO. Users stake their token and earn both the underlying lending APY and an additional “Safety Incentive” stream. Rewards follow an S-shaped curve, with peak emissions at the vault’s “Target Liquidity” and tapering off above or below.



If a shortfall occurs, the protocol automatically burns the same asset from its vault after a configurable “first-loss offset” (currently 100,000 units per asset). There is no governance vote, no auction and no delay.



Like the legacy module, staked tokens remain locked for 20 days once withdrawal is requested, with a two-day window to exit.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Migration: New names, new risks</h2>



The shift to Umbrella brings some changes for existing stakers:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>stkAAVE and stkABPT remain active, but with slashing disabled. They now serve primarily as governance power with residual yield.</li>



<li>stkGHO, a staking vault introduced last year, was automatically migrated into a new token: sGHO. Slashing risk and cooldowns were removed, but Aave’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-rewards-program-airdrop">Merit program</a> continues to stream rewards — currently ~7% APY.</li>



<li>A new stkGHO-Umbrella vault was launched for those willing to take on slashing risk.</li>
</ul>



Umbrella’s stkGHO deposits currently earn a ~5% APY — lower than the risk-free sGHO. That’s sparking user complaints and a governance forum discussion. Here’s the status quo:



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td>Token</td><td>Liquidity</td><td>Slashing</td><td>Cooldown</td><td>APY (as of June 6)</td><td>Funding</td></tr><tr><td>sGHO</td><td>Instant</td><td>None</td><td>None</td><td>~7%</td><td>Merit/ASR</td></tr><tr><td>stkGHO</td><td>20d lock</td><td>Up to 100%</td><td>Yes</td><td>~5%</td><td>Umbrella emissions</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



Due to overfunding of the GHO vault and absent a redirection of Merit rewards, stkGHO currently earns less than its risk-free counterpart.&nbsp;



But the opportunity in sGHO will be short-lived. Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP) drafts are circulating to fix this by either shifting Merit rewards or raising the vault’s emissions cap.



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



Umbrella introduces a higher probability of slashing compared to the legacy SM, since there’s no governance barrier. But the scope of slashing is narrower: You only lose funds if there’s bad debt in the specific asset you’ve staked, and only above the offset buffer.



Compared to holding AAVE (a volatile token backing generalized risk), staking stablecoins in Umbrella offers a more targeted risk-return profile. Still, liquidity lock-ups and smart contract risk remain.



Stakers chasing yield can rotate into under-target vaults (waUSDT or waWETH) for better APY. GHO holders could opt for sGHO now and switch over to stkGHO once the emissions patch lands.



Umbrella deployments on L2s are also on the roadmap. Long term, the legacy Safety Module may be retired entirely.



For now, Umbrella marks a shift from “opt-in protection” to credible, real-time insurance — a more tailored approach to putting staker skin in the game.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Umbrella reshapes Aave staking

Gemini announced that it filed a confidential draft S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.&nbsp;



The filing is one of the first steps for the crypto firm to go public through an initial public offering.&nbsp;



The S-1, however, isn’t public yet, but Gemini said that it expects its IPO to move forward following the review process from the SEC.&nbsp;



The move comes just a day after Circle debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in an IPO that was pretty successful. The stock was priced at $31 at an offering of 34 million shares, but started trading at $69 a share. It <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">closed</a> up over 160% at $83 a share on Thursday.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-execution-stablecoins">Did Circle execute its IPO ‘perfectly’</a>



Industry watchers noted that the success of an IPO as big as Circle could spur others to quickly follow in the stablecoins footsteps.&nbsp;



“I suspect we’ll be seeing several crypto companies accelerating their IPO plans now that Circle has revealed Wall Street’s appetite,” GSR’s Carlos Guzman told Blockworks.



Empire co-host and Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz said that he spoke to a couple of firms in crypto that were pulling their IPO timelines forward because of the stablecoin issuer.&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">More true than ever Speaking with founders this week, the demand for Circle / <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CRCL&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$CRCL</a> just pulled forward the IPO timeline for several other companies. <a href="https://t.co/HMbSC4434B">https://t.co/HMbSC4434B</a>&mdash; Yano 🟪 (@JasonYanowitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz/status/1930587713909956769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-07/winklevoss-twins-gemini-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-ipo">reported</a> in March that the Winklevoss-led firm was considering going public, saying that it could hit the public markets as soon as this year.&nbsp;



Both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been supporters of President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto administration, and were also in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/inauguration-weekend-crypto-ball">attendance</a> at the Crypto Ball earlier this year.&nbsp;



Gemini didn’t immediately return a request for comment.



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Gemini

Gemini files confidential S-1 with SEC in road to IPO

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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It’s nice to imagine a world where the price of bitcoin didn’t matter. Sadly, it can never be so.



Perhaps in a vacuum, maybe, in an alternate dimension where human brains are hardwired — like an ASIC miner — to only ever transact in bitcoin and nothing else. Not with <a href="https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/shell.html">shells</a>, gold or livestock. Only bitcoin and barter, forever.



<a href="https://hyperbitcoinization.com/">Hyperbitcoinization</a> or bust.



In boring reality, bitcoin needs reference points. The ones we currently have may well be trending to zero, but Bitcoin could never fulfill its true calling — payments and storing value — without knowing exactly how much it’s worth relative to something else at any given moment.



Tracking exchange rates quickly turns into an obsession, and for good reason: That’s how fortunes are made.&nbsp;



Few know that better than Mark Cuban, my muse for today’s retrospective.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Money Is Speech</h2>



It’s been eight years exactly since <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/06/mark-cuban-calls-bitcoin-a-bubble-price-falls.html">this banger tweet</a> about Bitcoin from the former majority Mavs owner Cuban:



“I think it’s in a bubble. I just don’t know when or how much it corrects. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble.”



It was June 2017, and bitcoin had been rallying for about six months straight to cap off a 10x run over two years — from $250 to $2,800 around the time of Cuban’s post.



Bitcoin would push 600% higher over the next six months until the cycle’s peak in December, before retracing by more than 80% across the following year.



Was that a bubble? It really depends on how loose your definition is, but for what it’s worth, bitcoin never returned to $2,800 again after Cuban’s post.



So, anyone who bought bitcoin as he sent that tweet would have never lost money, and would today be up by 3,600%.



<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">Look at Bitcoin. As long as everyone stays in their comfort zone , btc is never more than a SOV driven by supply and demand. Unless everyone drops fiat, no one drops fiat&mdash; Mark Cuban (@mcuban) <a href="https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/1268663448847765515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Nods in Jack Nicholson: “Unless everyone drops fiat, no one drops fiat.”</figcaption></figure>



Cuban’s opinion about bitcoin and crypto has indeed evolved over time — the same guy who <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/04/mark-cuban-on-the-value-of-bitcoin.html">said</a> “I’d rather have bananas than bitcoin” in October 2019 (when bitcoin was at $8,000) has more recently <a href="https://x.com/mcuban/status/1908344893862269417">said</a> “btc is probably a better buy right now” over stocks, even amid the buyback craze and with bitcoin at $84,000.



It’s not totally fair to surmise Cuban’s personal views from just his tweets and media spots. But I’ll do it anyway.



Cuban’s tendency is to consume Bitcoin through the very narrow lens of prices and profits, and he has certainly agreed with bitcoin’s potential as a store of value, even if it’s really a euphemism for “number go up.”



His most telling <a href="https://x.com/mcuban/status/1426920428237434888">tweet</a> is this, from August 2021, peak bull market: “BTC is a great SOV. Far better than gold. I own a bunch. But it is what it is. It doesn’t have all the special powers Maxis try to assign to it.”



Calling it now: If Bitcoinization is anything like the Apocalypse — 15 signs and all — then let the moment Cuban finally sees the magic of Bitcoin, beyond its price, be undeniable.



— David



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Historian’s View</h2>



To pull a quote from Harry Suddock, when it comes to Bitcoin —&nbsp;“price is the product,” but I’ll add my own twist. It’s also the marketing. Since David has regaled us with a tale of just how late Mark Cuban has been to Bitcoin, I thought it would be nice to provide a reminder that we’re still early.



Take this quote from Zooko Wilcox, written 14 years ago:



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc0FiUG4XAVIQ8SZCpf8nc3AA0gdYt7HN-uRl_wMZq91hwFgqD4YRpYarV_nAiY6BLTELV01MSbrZ47kF9NE4nIoQH8ApyvLM_HI5gAcNMtE7GtgrrpvwUp-O8ZV-9jiYuAoE4n1w?key=2bRz0-TRqtndVWoTllE4yw" alt="" style="width:528px;height:auto"/></figure>



An off-the-cuff remark from a renowned cypherpunk (with his own fascinating crypto story), it’s a 14-year-old observation that rings true today.



It makes you wonder how high the price will be when the number of economists supporting BTC is over 10%.



— Rizzo



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Bitcoin

What Mark Cuban still misses about Bitcoin

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 know we’ve been talking a lot about <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/circle">Circle</a>, but let’s be honest…whether you love or hate the firm, it’s a huge success story this week.&nbsp;



The stablecoin issuer finally debuted on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, jumping as high as $103 before closing around $83. Quite a ride if you were watching it in real time, but if you weren’t, it closed up over 160% after pricing at $31 Wednesday night. 



What was clear today was that retail was just as interested as institutions (ICYMI: Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-be-likely-to-price-above-marketed-range-mbi24hhn?embedded-checkout=true">reported</a> that the offering was 20x oversubscribed earlier this week).&nbsp;



Speaking of institutions, Cathie Wood’s Ark disclosed that it bought nearly 4.5 million Circle shares, an amount worth over $373 million. Ark <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand">previously said</a> it was interested in roughly $150 million, per a Circle filing.&nbsp;



As my colleague (and <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance newsletter</a> author) Ben Strack <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">wrote</a>: It makes sense for folks to be interested in both COIN and CRCL.&nbsp;



“Coinbase is the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-circle-amazon-of-crypto">Amazon of crypto</a> — trading, derivatives, custody, staking and, of course, stablecoins,” Bitwise’s Ryan Rasmussen told Strack. “Circle now offers pure-play exposure to stablecoins. I suspect investors will want both in their portfolios.



“With stablecoin legislation <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">likely to pass this year</a>, that growth is only going to accelerate. So they smash the buy button on Circle.”



But, on the Empire podcast today, co-hosts Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Santos talked not only about COIN and CRCL but also Robinhood. When Santos asked Yanowitz which stock he’d choose if he could only pick one, Yanowitz responded that he’s “gigalong HOOD at this point.”



What was perhaps more surprising — to me at least — was that Yanowitz said if he were to recreate his equity portfolio from scratch, he’d include <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/coinbase">Coinbase</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/robinhood">Robinhood</a> but not Circle.&nbsp;



“I think we’re nearing a local top in sentiment for stablecoins,” Yanowitz explained. “I think Circle hit this IPO perfectly.”



But it’s not enough to get him to buy the stock.



Meanwhile, GSR’s Carlos Guzman told us: “Such a high degree of investor interest reflects significant optimism about the potential for stablecoins, especially as US legislation gets close to the finish line. As market structure legislation advances in Congress, we could see this interest extend to the rest of the industry, as clearer regulation sets the stage for broader adoption. I suspect we’ll be seeing several crypto companies accelerating their IPO plans now that Circle has revealed Wall Street’s appetite.”



What I’ll be watching now is whether or not Circle can keep the momentum. Hype’s great, but it doesn’t always last, and is $83 a fair price for the stock? We’ll have to see.



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Did Circle execute its IPO ‘perfectly’?

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



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Solana’s real economic value, app revenue, and DEX volumes were <a href="https://x.com/blockworksres/status/1930337683039236215">all up</a> on the order of 20-30% in May, but one noteworthy figure didn’t keep pace: stablecoin supply.



Today, there are 15% fewer stablecoins on Solana than a month ago, per Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana?dashboard=159">data</a>. Stablecoins are often an important source of liquidity for doing things like swapping in and out of SOL, although Solana’s stablecoin dip comes after the gray swan that was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/dinner-with-trump-memecoins-lobbyists">Donald Trump’s memecoin</a>.



Solana’s stablecoin supply doubled essentially overnight when Donald Trump’s memecoin was paired with USDC, meaning investors essentially had to buy TRUMP with Circle’s stablecoin. Interestingly, the fresh stablecoin supply didn’t evaporate when TRUMP investors flocked for the exits, and it even hit a fresh all-time high in April when the presidential memecoin was far from its initial highs.



So given that context, some in Solana find the decline in stablecoin supply unconcerning.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXePty3KuGwKcUnApEIzazGWN961pTfwhuZIygF9eC5Ti4Bt_x2AExHqGvhkXjA1JBnn-nyIqOiiHGO9_xFwTHrdq1l-oGLPhRQr-NTohI7-Pb1Gk6FmBmt8gs2sS-LFqaBREbXsvg?key=MiWNmfJsUfYxuRKsiPBVtQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Blockworks Research</figcaption></figure>



“[Y]ea this chart looks a lot better than the SOL price chart lol,” Lulo co-founder Jesse Brauner said when I asked him about the stablecoin supply dip.



In any event, the stablecoin exodus has been led by USDC, which saw its market cap on Solana shrink by some $1.8 billion in May, according to Blockworks Research analyst Carlos Gonzalez Campo. Perena founder Anna Yuan speculated that the sudden drop in supply could be funds shorting the dollar in a topsy-turvy macro environment.



Non-USDC stables actually grew last month, notably including PayPal’s PYUSD, which saw its supply grow 48%.



PYUSD is one of several newer stablecoins vying for a piece of USDC’s 70% market share on Solana. It’s joined by USDG — a Paxos-issued stable that pledges to share revenue with its network partners, which include Robinhood and Kraken — and USX, a forthcoming basis-trade token that its developer company <a href="https://x.com/ben_solstice/status/1927809303827644557">dubbed</a> “Solana’s stablecoin.”



I have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-stablecoins-stickier-than-anticipated">speculated previously</a> that Solana may look to drive adoption on non-USDC stablecoins, since a significant portion of Circle’s revenue goes to Coinbase, which is possibly building Solana’s chief competitor in Base. On a permissionless network, however, disincentivizing usage of a product that users want is pretty difficult.



Gonzalez Campo noted how alternative stablecoin growth strategies have so far mainly revolved around shelling out incentives for users, but paying for adoption is ultimately unsustainable.



The analyst added he’d like to see a B2B model where upstart stablecoins like USDG share revenue with DeFi protocols to create a vested interest in supply growth.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Solana stablecoin supply dip led by $1.8B USDC outflow

Ben Strack

Circle shares surged during their first day trading on the New York Stock Exchange as interest in the stablecoin issuer spilled over to retail investors.



The company’s stock opened around $69 — more than double the upsized IPO price of $31 per share. CRCL shares peaked at $103.75 before settling at $82 when the market closed, up 167% from the IPO price and about 20% from the opening price.



Institutional demand for Circle was evident when the company on Monday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">increased both the number of shares</a> it planned to offer and the price range. Circle <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-price-before-nyse-debut">revealed further upsizing</a> — 34 million shares at $31 each — Wednesday evening after a Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-be-likely-to-price-above-marketed-range-mbi24hhn?embedded-checkout=true">report</a> indicated the offering was roughly 25 times oversubscribed.



GSR research analyst Carlos Guzman told Blockworks that Circle’s “impressive pop” as shares hit the NYSE is “further evidence of the market’s substantial demand for crypto equities as both institutional and retail investors rush to scoop up shares.”



The stock pared gains but held up despite a broader crypto selloff. Bitcoin’s price was about $102,000 at 4 pm ET — down 2.5% from 24 hours prior.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/circle">Circle</a>’s listing marks a milestone for the industry, giving equity investors another access point for crypto exposure. It comes roughly four years after Coinbase’s arrival on the Nasdaq in April 2021 — a direct listing different from the IPO route that Circle chose.



VanEck’s Matthew Sigel <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand">told Blockworks Tuesday</a>: “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.”



Bitwise research head Ryan Rasmussen said it makes sense for investors with a positive outlook on the long-term growth of crypto to hold both COIN and CRCL.&nbsp;



&#8220;Coinbase is the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-circle-amazon-of-crypto">Amazon of crypto</a> — trading, derivatives, custody, staking and, of course, stablecoins,” Rasmussen said. “Circle now offers pure-play exposure to stablecoins. I suspect investors will want both in their portfolios.”



Circle’s USDC stablecoin has a market cap of roughly $62 billion — about a quarter of the broader stablecoin market (~$230 billion). Tether (USDT) leads the category with a market cap above $150 billion. Public market investors examining the stablecoin space notice that Tether generates more profit than Goldman Sachs, Rasmussen noted. The company posted an operating profit exceeding $1 billion during the first quarter. 



<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">Why are people shocked by the CRCL price action? Circle is going after the same market as Tether, which generates more profit than Goldman Sachs (and Goldman&#39;s worth $187 billion). Circle is currently valued at $17 billion&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/vtxSY2KIxT">pic.twitter.com/vtxSY2KIxT</a>&mdash; Ryan Rasmussen (@RasterlyRock) <a href="https://twitter.com/RasterlyRock/status/1930698675527078391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“They want to invest in it, but they can&#8217;t; they know that Circle is the second-largest stablecoin issuer today and is growing rapidly,” the Bitwise executive told Blockworks. “With stablecoin legislation <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">likely to pass this year</a>, that growth is only going to accelerate. So, they smash the buy button on Circle.”



While Circle labeled “intense and increasing competition” and “fluctuations in interest rates” as risk factors in IPO filings, industry watchers have pointed to tailwinds for the company. Aside from regulatory clarity, we have seen many traditional financial companies exploring more ways to use blockchain technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“To say that stablecoins are simply a new form of payment or a new digital currency would be like saying that the internet is a better version of the fax machine,” Circle executive Spencer Spinnell said at last week’s Stablecon conference.



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



Circle’s public debut follows the Nasdaq listings of fellow crypto-focused firms Galaxy Digital and DeFi Technologies last month. Segment observers had predicted 2025 to be a year of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch">more crypto public listings</a>, as well as mergers and acquisitions.



Guzman noted: “With this IPO surpassing everyone’s expectations, we’ll likely see greater institutional and retail attention directed toward crypto and stablecoins, along with more crypto companies looking to go public.”



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Circle ends NYSE debut up 167% from IPO price

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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This week is all about the labor market! With the jobs report coming out tomorrow, let’s dive in and get a state of play on where things stand.&nbsp;



My favorite way to get a high-level pulse on the labor market is taking a look at Atlanta Fed’s labor market spider chart:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdl_1-GmyBgNjNKdMUI41Ss4x5RPqT4t08Uex5Jx3wCK_fbt03yG7IT1k2y38ZZUsrF7-hrb-toq0F36TE9K2wIRxCa3etSggRf5_ciRgz2Jnwu_y4DBx8tKX76rrr2Z6rLrTld?key=P1xUCJRImdAC8G2rHgJigA" alt=""/></figure>



Compared to both one year ago and to the pre-Covid trend, we can glean a few general trends:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The private sector is quite weak and continues to be. Hiring rates are very low, causing people to hold onto their jobs and avoid quitting at all costs.</li>



<li>Wage growth, one of the key drivers of the huge inflation we saw in 2021-2022, continues to soften as the labor market returns to being in balance.</li>



<li>Generally, it’s a bad time to look for a new job, but as long as you don’t quit, it’s unlikely you’ll be laid off either.</li>
</ul>



With the stage set, let’s dig into all the labor market data we’ve received this week.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">JOLTS</h2>



On Monday, we received the JOLTS report for April, which came in quite strong.



Job openings rebounded higher to 7.39 million, above consensus expectations of 7.10 million.



However, when contrasting it to higher-frequency data like Indeed Job Postings, this is likely to be an outlier bounce higher that is likely to return to a downward trend next month.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfBLuU8ER87COjuMY2STgxWLLa1pR8h2QV1-j9yOTXixfzXPbYXtBuPWj3ewJYrMxKS4YcbX1OOa72QaiXVKnY7rhq4ydawC7g3TkVMBN0gV4hXB3yYvfWvanqwu36Hz9G1vNy0Xg?key=P1xUCJRImdAC8G2rHgJigA" alt=""/></figure>



One of the key insights for understanding slack in the labor market is comparing the number of job openings to unemployment.&nbsp;



One of the big reasons the Fed was able to hike so aggressively in 2022 without hurting the labor market is because the huge amount of job openings acted as a buffer so that the unemployment rate wouldn’t tick up. The Beveridge curve is the best way to view this dynamic.&nbsp;



As we can see from this week’s print, we held steady at the low end of the job vacancy rate where there’s just enough slack in the labor market to avoid an acceleration in unemployment:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcSdKL_HEL6fJSwlBhzctWOajhBfV5c8z0tH1hNNrlB2u_J1QwsASelwvXytOvwaQpZsvHd7GPfjfayskXSWCxMeFz8GNYrbZWv5FGdx09TVvAfULwWE1Asj4_xnz4F2WP0fjc1vQ?key=P1xUCJRImdAC8G2rHgJigA" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Claims data</h2>



Today we received the claims data, which provides one of the more high-frequency labor market data points we can see every week.&nbsp;



Interestingly, continuing claims — which saw a new cycle high last week — were revised lower and are now back within the range:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXenzw1VeKvGYZ88zL4N-8gQ5nHapVUXpPJNr7oDCMrFJpSyd8j-6D8Pd-NiHF3kGHQZs9CsGI-rR4U88xjPrSwPh53c6gIb3W-TB0n2PdEHzU8tOO6eXsb3ulxCt4jpw8DknsMvvg?key=P1xUCJRImdAC8G2rHgJigA" alt=""/></figure>



Finally, we receive the jobs report tomorrow, which will provide a good look into how the labor market is digesting the impact of tariffs:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe-zrs5X2pKIR76pN7AxCxGGTH7N0tEMvkTsnSaHd5j7GsfujQwfvUHpUQyn4EOXdlKQ5k8QPs56AYw58ykx3eelJpDFdgWwdkJLJfnDjt68oW_EVU4ieB5Pqa8uVPiB6rJnMF9?key=P1xUCJRImdAC8G2rHgJigA" alt=""/></figure>



Overall, according to this week’s data, a picture of a labor market that remains on thin ice emerges.&nbsp;



Not quite bad enough to crack the ice — but still strong enough to hold up the economy.



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</ul>

Economy

The current labor market, in charts

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>.



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



No, it’s not a Twitter <a href="https://dfpi.ca.gov/consumers/crypto/crypto-scam-tracker/#:~:text=Crypto%20Giveaway%2FAirdrop%20Scam%20%E2%80%93%20Scammer,or%20offering%20airdrops%20on%20a">giveaway scam</a> — a reality show about livestreaming influencers who compete to win one whole bitcoin is coming to Netflix in the UK and Ireland June 18.



The House of Streams <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28994419/">show</a> will feature eight Twitch streamers who live in a villa in Malta for two weeks over the course of the competition.&nbsp;



EA FIFA streaming host Nicole Holliday is hosting the show. It was created by Mark Holland, CEO of Stream House Media Productions. The show was made with support from the Malta Film Commission.



Holland <a href="https://timesofmalta.com/article/maltamade-reality-tv-show-award-winner-one-bitcoin-worth-97000.1110565">told</a> news outlet Times of Malta that the bitcoin grand prize — as opposed to fiat currency — helps the show feel different.



“Everything about House of Streams is different, so the final reward couldn’t have been a simple cash prize or a trip to the Maldives,” Holland said.



The show’s eight streamers are from different countries including the US, UK, and Australia, to name a few.



And just in case you’re unaware of degen internet culture and how Twitch streaming works, Twitch streamers interact with their “chat,” or live audience that types in chat messages, during their broadcasts. Those chat members can influence streamer behavior, and can send streamers money or other types of gifts.



While it’s not a crypto-focused reality show, House of Streams using BTC as a prize does normalize crypto in a way, especially for younger audiences interested in Twitch and livestreaming culture.



We’ve seen some startup attempts at reality shows in the past that are entirely crypto-focused, like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29703667/">Killer Whales</a>. That show, which was very Shark Tank-like, has just a 2.9 out of 10 rating on IMDB.



House of Streams apparently started shooting when bitcoin was near its recent low of just around $18,000, which happened most recently in late 2022 and early 2023.&nbsp;



A lot has changed since then, though — so will the show still feel relevant in 2025?



1 BTC is now more than $104,000. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap hit a new all-time high of over $111,000 just two weeks ago.&nbsp;



“I think it will lead the way for shows that have real-time audience participation and will reshape the ‘real’ in reality TV,” Holland said.



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Gaming

Netflix show to give away 1 BTC in Twitch streamer competition

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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Since its genesis, crypto has been a wildly speculative market where excellence in storytelling commands a price premium.



Crypto’s average daily volatility is several times higher than that of traditional assets like gold or equities.



Storytelling pervades all capital markets, but why is it especially pervasive and magnified in crypto?&nbsp;



I can think of two reasons.&nbsp;



The most obvious: its permissionless nature. Anyone can buy a token (no KYC), and anyone can launch a token (see <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">pump.fun’s success</a>).



A second and more subtle reason: weak legal protections for token holders.



As a professional investor, these are all questions you have to reckon with:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Will your DAO launch a second token?</li>



<li>Do protocol revenues accrete to private equity, rather than the token?</li>



<li>What do your token’s market-making agreements look like?</li>



<li>Will founders sell their allocations on the private OTC market quietly?</li>
</ul>



All of these questions (with no answers) create uncertainty for investors, which shrinks the available market pie to the most degenerate gamblers.



That, in turn, produces incentives for companies to ignore the laws of profit and loss and rather play the narrative game, or what Theia Research’s Felipe Montealegre termed “<a href="https://youtu.be/99XsVSN_doQ">narrative Stalinism</a>” in a recent talk.



“Whoever decides what the narrative is decides what tokens do well regardless of product-market fit and customers, and decides who gets more capital or less capital to invest. It’s a perverse equilibrium.”



To be sure, storytelling is and has always been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockworks-research-crypto-investing">part of investing</a>.&nbsp;



Investing is fundamentally a social, not natural, science.



And the social sciences will always contain elements of subjectivity — contrary to mainstream economics, where the economy can be neatly modulated on a supply and demand graph with perfect causal explanations.



F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of the great American food and tobacco conglomerate RJR Nabisco in the 1980s, often lamented the poor market valuation of his shares despite its great cash flows.



In the revered business book Barbarians at the Gate, Johnson famously complained:&nbsp;



“It’s plain as the nose on your face that this company is wildly undervalued…we tried to put food and tobacco businesses together, and it hasn’t worked. Diversification is not working. We are sitting on food assets that are worth 25x earnings and we trade at 9x earnings, because we’re still seen as a tobacco company.”



Negative cultural perceptions of tobacco soiled RJR Nabisco’s prospects.



But in the case of crypto, the problem is even more fundamental.



Fundamental property rights suck.



As Montealegre argued, most companies play the game of “narrative Stalinism” because weak token holder protections raise the cost of capital and entry barriers for more risk-averse institutional investors.



From the viewpoint of a fundamentals investor, wishing for an alt season so “number goes up” is pure hopium. You’re better off betting on a token with real revenue flows, but first: Fix the property rights problem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fundamental companies</h2>



Despite the prevailing problems in crypto capital markets, however, a handful of companies have punched up against their weight. Revenue-generating companies are scarce, but they exist.



Within finance, Jupiter, Raydium and Ethena are all million-dollar-generating businesses. The Hyperliquid perps DEX stands out at the top, with <a href="https://dune.com/queries/4508934/7532291">$1-2 million</a> in daily revenues.



If you prefer businesses not tethered to the “circular” economy of DeFi, there is the onchain private credit Maple Finance, which hit a monthly high in <a href="https://dune.com/maple-finance/maple-finance">$1 million</a> revenue in May. Or Shuffle, a gambling app generating an annualized <a href="https://x.com/bidclubio/status/1927324325884944639?s=19">$100 million +</a> in “net gaming revenue.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcwWGMa9q_a0nGA7I67wWWafRX6tAxpuunLV-ERhC5sTBEx8r87SfT9o5WoFoS7CUDJaOWQRQZzag2m90vsUeeAE5godw5uImT7zCpanfVf5cfON2u1aDeyS206702R8tCRPgPgtQ?key=DVgGkajGsjjCdTe9gXd0JA" alt=""/></figure>



Even the nascent DePIN sector has a few breakouts of its own, namely the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/depin-grass-reshaping-ai-data-layer">data-scraping Grass</a> (allegedly generating <a href="https://www.bidclub.io/posts/cmbhf46080000eu6u0azpimfs?invite=cmbhf732f0003eu6uwfmf7158">eight figure annualized revenues</a>) and the real-time kinematic network Geodnet, making sub $2-3 million in <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/geodnet-enabling-ubiquitous-autonomy">annual recurring revenues</a> (ARR). 



Debate around the right ways to value tokens is also notably louder, as seen in recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/valuing-blockchains-rev-debate">talk</a> around real economic value (REV). This suggests a growing class of investors moving away from speculation, and toward more rigorous approaches to valuations.



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Crypto needs to fix token holder protections

FAIR introduces native AI optimization to blockchain infrastructure with Vodafone as a founding validator.



<a href="https://skale.space/?utm_source=blockworks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SKALE Labs</a>, the team behind the gas-free invisible blockchain network, SKALE, today announced its plans to launch FAIR, the world’s first MEV-resistant Layer 1 blockchain. Built to serve the future of financial protocols that leverage AI agents for value transfer, FAIR launches with Vodafone as a founding validator for the network. The blockchain creates a fair environment where AI agents and users can access deep liquidity without MEV or other forms of value extraction.



Traditional finance is driven by quant bots executing trades across deep, liquid markets in private environments. With the use of AI onchain projected to increase 100-fold, MEV will continue to extract more value from blockchain ecosystems. Both users and AI agents will need a fair blockchain environment to interact with.&nbsp;By eliminating MEV at the consensus level with BITE Protocol, FAIR enables AI agents and financial protocols to execute transactions onchain and access deep liquidity&nbsp;– privately and with fairness guaranteed.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
SKALE Labs CEO and Co-Founder Jack O’Holleran&nbsp;commented on the news, “MEV has an expiration date. It is a major flaw in the current state of decentralized finance. Today, every user pays a tax on every trade to MEV bots. This problem will grow exponentially with the growth of agentic AI. Blockchains that don’t solve for MEV will someday be obsolete. FAIR solves for MEV by embedding encryption directly into consensus and is the first truly MEV-resistant blockchain, solving a problem the industry has long accepted as inevitable. With the launch of FAIR EVM and the FAIR SDK, developers can now build AI-driven applications and autonomous agents that operate privately, without front-running or manipulation. Whether deploying on SKALE or directly on FAIR, we’re giving builders a platform where cryptographic fairness, privacy, and performance are guaranteed by design.”
</blockquote>



FAIR will introduce native AI integration designed for both security and autonomy. In the short term, FAIR leverages AI to secure transactions, stopping hacks and making blockchain more user-friendly. Long-term, FAIR is built to support AI agents’ onboarding to DeFi, with the FAIR SDK including tools for autonomous agents to interact securely with onchain markets, execute logic-based strategies, and access DeFi rails without risk of transaction manipulation.&nbsp;



FAIR will be powered by FAIR EVM, a C++-based, parallelized virtual machine featuring asynchronous execution, instant finality, and database-level optimization, setting a new standard for performance while maintaining MEV protection and native AI integration.



While the FAIR Mainnet will eventually introduce its own native token, $SKL will remain a core asset through targeted burn mechanics and cross-network utility. FAIR will operate with a dual-token model that creates mutual value across both the FAIR and SKALE ecosystems, with a significant allocation of the FAIR native token going to the community and $SKL holders.&nbsp;



SKALE has already established itself as a leader in web3 gaming and AI application development, and with FAIR, the network positions itself as the foundational infrastructure for autonomous AI systems.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
David Palmer, Pairpoint by Vodafone, Chief Product Officer&nbsp;commented, “The rapid evolution of AI and other automation technologies is forcing the evolution of a new digital infrastructure to serve the fast-evolving digital world, and cellular, Web3, and AI will be a part of it. As part of the technological convergence this requires blockchain adoption is growing with the potential to form a trust and automation link between people, businesses, IoT devices and even AI Agents,&nbsp;which places significant emphasis on security both at the edge and onchain to prevent attacks like miner/maximal extractable value attacks (MEV). Pairpoint by Vodafone is proud to join FAIR as a validator and partner, helping build and validate a network that global institutions can trust for transparency and fairness. We’re excited to foster and maintain this ecosystem alongside other leading validators in the space, to help bring the world of cellular and blockchain and create new trust and automation for business as we move to the AI economy.”
</blockquote>



Through a shared tech stack, SKALE Chains will upgrade to the FAIR SDK, making all SKALE Chains MEV resistant and faster while enabling SKALE-based dApps to benefit from encrypted execution and native AI functionality.&nbsp;



For more information, users can visit:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.fairchain.ai/">https://www.fairchain.ai/</a>&nbsp;



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SKALE Labs launches FAIR, world’s first MEV-resistant L1 built for AI and DeFi

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Decentralization is a spectrum.



No doubt you’ve heard this before. After all, Bitcoin started out much more centralized than it is today: There were <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=194078.0">check points</a> and single-digit node counts, and the hash rate is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/satoshi-bitcoin-holdings-wallet-123b">believed</a> to have been concentrated mostly with Satoshi for at least the first year.



But a spectrum needs two dimensions, otherwise it’s just a scale.&nbsp;



For blockchains (and peer-to-peer networks more generally), the other dimension would be “interestingness” — the more decentralized something is, the more interesting it is.



Pre-Bitcoin, e-gold was the most successful alternative digital currency. And it was still very interesting, even with its overt centralization.



Seventeen years ago, in 2008 (and five months before Bitcoin’s white paper), the public got <a href="https://www.offshorealert.com/us-judge-rejects-e-golds-argument-that-it-is-not-a-money-transmitter/">confirmation</a> that e-gold’s legal appeals couldn’t save it: A federal judge had ruled that e-gold was in fact a money transmitter by the government’s standards.



The company and its execs would officially stand trial for operating as one without a license, with four criminal counts against their names, for which they’d plead guilty.



At the very surface level, e-gold was not totally dissimilar from how some stablecoins operate, only it was launched in 1998, when there was no such thing as a cryptocurrency.



Users would first exchange fiat currency for digital grams of gold that would then be credited to their e-gold accounts. Gold &amp; Silver Reserve Inc., an offshore company registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis, physically backed each of those digital grams with actual gold — first in a safe deposit box in Florida and later across bank vaults in London and Dubai.



E-gold users could then cheaply send gold-denominated payments to other users, and balances could then be cashed out via supporting money exchangers.



All transactions were instant, irreversible and tallied by a private ledger operated by the company on a centralized server. Gold &amp; Silver Reserve Inc. charged a minor fee for the trouble, and allowed accounts to be opened without any identity checks, making each user pseudonymous.



E-gold was properly massive for its time. At its 2006 peak, it was second only to PayPal when it came to internet-native payment processing: over 5 million registered <a href="https://www.wired.com/2009/06/e-gold/">accounts</a> spread all over the world, with active users pushing $2 billion worth of transactions per year.&nbsp;



But the cumulative value of all the e-gold in circulation — which we’d probably describe as its market cap — was low by today’s standard. It was only $85 million, converting to around 3.8 metric tons of physical gold to back each unit.



Tether Gold, probably the closest we have to a modern crypto equivalent of e-gold, otherwise has a circulating <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tether-gold">supply</a> of over $800 million, but only about 134,000 transactions in the token’s entire <a href="https://etherscan.io/token/0x68749665ff8d2d112fa859aa293f07a622782f38">history</a>. Around 7,250 Ethereum addresses contain at least some Tether Gold, although those include exchange hot wallets holding balances on behalf of an unknown numbers of users.



E-gold unravelled precisely due to its lack of decentralization. In the simplest terms, the feds could shut it down because it was run by a small number of people who controlled all of its functions, from the buying and selling of gold reserves to server maintenance and lax fraud prevention.



E-gold was interesting on a libertarian level — and even with cypherpunks — until the risks of its centralization became glaringly obvious.&nbsp;



Bitcoin fixed this.



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digital gold

Before Bitcoin: Digital gold in the ’90s was interesting, until it wasn’t

Stablecoin issuer Circle started trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday at a price of $69 per share, but quickly jumped as high as $75 in initial trading. The company trades under the ticker symbol CRCL. The stock was halted for volatility within minutes of opening.&nbsp;



“We’ve seen really, really tremendous demand from phenomenal investors that I think see what we see, which is that the internet is entering a new chapter,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said during an interview with CNBC Thursday ahead of the listing.&nbsp;



“It is the chapter of upgrading the financial system with stablecoin money.”&nbsp;



This opening trade price is higher than the company’s Wednesday evening initial public offering price of $31, which was above the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">proposed range.</a> Investors who purchased directly from underwriters are now up roughly 144%.&nbsp; 



Allaire rang the opening bell at the NYSE ahead of trading and is scheduled to ring the closing bell virtually from Circle’s New York headquarters.&nbsp;



Circle, its founder and its early shareholders <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-price-above-range-to-raise-1-1-billion">raised</a> $1.1 billion from 34 million shares. After the close on Wednesday, the company upped the offering from 32 million shares.



There was overwhelming investor demand for the IPO. The offering was 25 times oversubscribed, according to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-be-likely-to-price-above-marketed-range-mbi24hhn?embedded-checkout=true">report</a> from Bloomberg.&nbsp;



Read more:<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand"> Weighing institutional, retail demand for Circle ahead of public debut</a>



“This is how the US becomes the global crypto/blockchain hub and fulfills the administration&#8217;s objective,” 10T Holdings CEO Dan Tapiero wrote in a Wednesday LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7335823053962080257/">post</a>. “The bigger companies in the digital asset world gain added credibility by going through a real-world vetting process.”



Now, all eyes are on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-nyse-listing-predictions">how the stock moves</a> in the first few hours of trading.&nbsp;



VanEck’s Matthew Sigel told Blockworks Tuesday that Circle can be considered a “boring is beautiful trade” for institutions given its profitability, minimal leverage and position within the Web3 ecosystem. But retail investors “may find it harder to latch on” to a company with less volatility and brand recognition than an exchange like Coinbase, he argued.&nbsp;



Circle’s NYSE listing comes a few weeks after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/galaxy-defi-technologies-nasdaq-us-listings">Galaxy Digital and DeFi Technologies</a> made their respective US public debuts on the Nasdaq.&nbsp;



Tapiero said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in March that ownership of crypto companies via exchange listings was a “mini step” that leads to more value moving onchain.



“American investors like to own businesses with cash flow, balance sheets, income statements, a proper board — and also legitimacy,” he noted at the time.



This story was updated 6/5: Added additional context throughout.



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