GameSwift

Byron Gilliam

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
&#8220;The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.&#8221;&nbsp;



— Charles Bukowski
</blockquote>



<a href="https://economics.appstate.edu/sites/default/files/cear_wp_2021_01_-_gender_confidence_and_the_mismeasure_of_intelligence_competitiveness_and_literacy_july_2024.pdf">Crypto bros are from Mars…</a>



An academic study <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/09/it-would-take-more-than-one-paper-to-establish-these-claims.html">flagged</a> by Tyler Cowen might inadvertently explain why the cryptosphere is so male dominated.



The researchers report their findings that the advantage men sometimes have in intelligence testing is eliminated (or reversed) when the tests are adjusted for confidence levels.&nbsp;



Men and women, they find, differ primarily in how sure they’re right: Men are more likely to act as though they’re certain, women are more likely to hedge or admit uncertainty.



This maps neatly to investing styles, I think — crypto-investing styles, especially.



Crypto culture often valorizes conviction (“diamond hands,” “HODL”) and punishes hesitation.



Men are overrepresented in crypto not because they’re more willing to take risks, but because the culture and payoff structure reward overconfidence.



Charles Bukowski says overconfidence is the problem with the world, but there’s something to be said for being irrationally sure that you’re right — if startup founders weren’t overconfident in their odds of success, for example, we might not ever have any new companies.



I’d argue that early Bitcoiners were similarly overconfident. But also that they had to be because you’ll never hit a 10,000x investment if you carefully weigh the risk/reward.



Those kinds of returns can only be achieved through belief.&nbsp;



Only a true believer could resist the urge to sell up 10, 100 or a 1,000x.



This, I suspect, is why men are so overrepresented in crypto: They’re better at believing they’re right.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/tokenized-glxy">There’s now a stock on a blockchain</a>



Bringing stocks onchain has been a crypto talking point for years, but the Galaxy shares on Solana as of this week are the first ones to actually get there.



Most “real-world assets” that claim to be onchain are just IOUs for assets that remain off-chain.



Tokenized Galaxy shares, by contrast, are the real thing — holding Galaxy onchain makes you a shareholder in Galaxy, not a creditor to an intermediary that holds them on your behalf.&nbsp;



You can even take Galaxy shares held in your brokerage account and send them to <a href="https://superstate.com">Superstate</a> to be tokenized on Solana.



There’s not much reason to do that, because you can’t stake, LP or even buy or sell them onchain as of yet.



For now, it’s just a different form of recordkeeping.&nbsp;



But recordkeeping is important.&nbsp;



It means Galaxy could raise capital onchain which is not otherwise possible; or maybe even airdrop shares to incentivize some new behavior.



Superstate’s Robert Leshner says that “moving the recordkeeping from stacks of middlemen to just the token is going to facilitate all these subtle upgrades to the system.”



It’s unclear what that means in practice, but Leshner believes it will bring crypto’s “unbridled innovation” to traditional assets.



Which sounds terrifying.



But fun.



<a href="https://woodcoincrypto.com/coin-verification/">The Wood Wide Web&nbsp;</a>



In addition to the first stock going onchain, we might soon have the first token to go off-chain: “Woodcoin” is pitched as “the first cryptocurrency you can carry in your pocket.”



As the name suggests, these are coins made from wood, which sounds like the least crypto thing imaginable.



But they qualify as crypto because “the images of the coins are secured using cryptographic hash functions and shared via a peer-to-peer network.”



As far as I can tell, no coins have been issued as of yet.



But Woodcoin has big, Bitcoin-like ambitions: “By replacing trust in fiat issuers with trust in physical uniqueness, Woodcoin provides a foundation for trade that is immune to inflationary abuse, resistant to seizure and adaptable to global economic growth.”



The project’s <a href="https://woodcoincrypto.com/whitepaper/">white paper</a> makes a convincing case for why it would make a better global currency than either gold (too heavy) or bitcoin (too deflationary).



It also faults Bitcoin for the “vast electricity consumption” of its proof-of-work mining process.



Woodcoin, by contrast, is secured by a “shared registry and the physical uniqueness of each coin,” which does not involve burning any energy.



We wood have to cut down some trees, though.



<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nasdaq-steps-scrutiny-companies-loading-crypto">Nasdaq taps the brakes on DATs</a>



Yueqi Yang reports that would-be digital asset treasury companies (DATs) are facing new obstacles: “Nasdaq recently told some publicly listed companies that under certain circumstances, their shareholders would need to approve the plan to raise capital to buy crypto, according to people familiar with the matter.”



That doesn’t seem like a lot to ask — shouldn’t shareholders get to vote on such a major change of direction?



But slowing the process down even a little might scuttle the whole trade.



Announcing a shareholder vote on a proposal to pivot to crypto is unlikely to elicit the same market enthusiasm as announcing the pivot as a fait accompli.



And without that first pop, what’s the point? DATs only work if investors are excited about them.&nbsp;



If nothing else, Yang’s reporting is a reminder that exchanges are also regulators — and a warning that they’re not entirely sold on their listings pivoting to crypto.



They haven’t told anyone to stop. But with the DAT trade already stalling, just tapping the brakes might be enough to bring the trade to a standstill.



<a href="https://davidzmorris.substack.com/p/bullish-and-eos-a-fraud-in-plain?utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;_bhlid=c6bacd5903bb15cc96a480860c115dbd78367ab4">The bear case for Bullish</a>



In a Substack post, David Morris contends that the 24,000 BTC held on the balance sheet of the crypto exchange Bullish was effectively stolen.&nbsp;



He traces the history of Bullish back to 2017, when the corporate entity behind the EOS blockchain, Block.One, raised $4.1 billion in an ICO.



Morris cites an EOS community member, Yves La Rose, who says the proceeds were never used to develop EOS, as token holders must have expected.



Instead, they were used to buy the 24,000 bitcoin that can now be found on the Bullish balance sheet.



“A less diplomatic way of putting it,” Morris writes, “would be that EOS is a failure because Block.One stole all the investors’ money.”&nbsp;



“Stole” sounds too strong to me.&nbsp;



Once EOS investors sent their money to Block.One, I’m guessing Block.One was not under any legal obligation to employ it to the benefit of EOS token holders.&nbsp;



Diverting it to the balance sheet of an unrelated entity does seem unethical, though, which is Morris&#8217; main message. He warns the new holders of Bullish equity that they “shouldn’t expect much more ambition or honesty from this team than it has shown at any other moment after a big payout.”



Unlike token holders, however, equity holders have legal rights, so they should be treated more fairly.



But Morris warns they’re already being misled. He cites Dave Wang, who says that Bullish’s preferred accounting metric is deliberately misleading: “The headline 2024 ‘adjusted transaction revenue’ is ~$158 million whereas core transaction revenue is $2 million,” he <a href="https://x.com/DaveWangMIA/status/1957452763287482395">wrote</a> on X.



Wang calls Bullish “a meticulously engineered illusion” that should be valued at “a steep discount to the company&#8217;s net liquid assets” — which is almost the worst possible thing an analyst can say about a company.



Still, I can’t imagine this is news to the institutional investors who bought into the Bullish IPO — they tend to be good at accounting, and presumably did their due diligence before sending Bullish $1.1 billion.



But they were probably all TradFi bros, too, so that might have been overconfident.



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The Breakdown Newsletter

Thursday links: Overconfidence, crypto firsts, DATs and Bullish

Macauley Peterson

ArbitrumDAO has officially launched Season One of its DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP), deploying up to 24 million <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/arbitrum/arbitrum-token">ARB</a> to supercharge top lending protocols.&nbsp;



The initiative marks the first phase of a $40 million campaign, approved by the DAO in June, to roll out targeted DeFi incentives over four seasons.



The program serves to scale capital-efficient strategies on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> by incentivizing borrowing against popular yield-bearing assets, according to Matt Fiebach, co-founder at Entropy Advisors, which helped design it.



“With the rise of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/liquid-staking">LSTs</a> and LRTs like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lido">Lido</a> and EtherFi, yield-bearing stables such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethena">Ethena</a> and Syrup, and robust <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/pendle">Pendle</a> Markets, leveraged looping has become one of the cornerstones of DeFi,” Fiebach told Blockworks. “It’s an open secret that looping these assets is a primary driver of lending market growth today. However, a small fraction of this activity currently takes place on Ethereum L2s.”



“There is a significant opportunity to enable similar activity on Arbitrum, but doing so requires building a solid foundation,” Fiebach added. “The motivation behind DRIP’s Season One is to ensure that users on Arbitrum can loop frictionlessly with the most popular yield-bearing assets.”



Looping — whereby users deposit yield-bearing assets, borrow against them, and redeploy into the same positions — drives tens of billions in open interest on Ethereum mainnet, accounting for about 20–30% of DeFi money market activity, according to RedStone co-founder Marcin Kaźmierczak. He expects DRIP will give that percentage a boost.



“As DRIP brings more exotic collaterals into play… growth will depend on risk management tools keeping pace with innovation,” Kaźmierczak told Blockworks. “Also, we need to remember that looping is mainly around correlated assets with collateral accruing yield over time.”



The ability to double-dip on yield in this way is how DRIP aims to bring greater capital efficiency to Arbitrum, and the rewards will be structured to attract sticky liquidity rather than short-term mercenaries. Entropy plans to adjust the incentive design “continuously” to target “high-quality” capital.



“The program is structured in two-week epochs, enabling measurable iterative progress,” said Fiebach. “We believe the program design is robust, but there is no ‘free lunch’ when it comes to incentives,” he said.



Season One is live across Aave, Morpho, Euler, Fluid, Dolomite, and Silo, with ARB rewards for borrowing against collaterals like weETH, rsETH, sUSDC, and syrupUSDC.



Not included, at least initially, is Notional Finance, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arbitrum-defi-yield-optimization">made a big push to Arbitrum</a> already in 2023 after pioneering the concept of leveraged stablecoins vaults.



Protocols were selected based on scale, traction, and alignment with Arbitrum.



In the “alignment” camp, Fiebach cited <a href="https://docs.theo.xyz/thbill">thBILL</a>, noting that while it’s “a brand-new asset, and still relatively small in size, it is backed with RWAs that are held entirely on Arbitrum One, which we felt justified its inclusion despite its early stage.”



He added that DRIP incentives are already catalyzing deployments: “We have found incentives to be an effective tool to get deployments of applications/assets not yet deployed to Arbitrum (syrupUSDC, Morpho, Euler, etc).”



That’s already playing out. Maple Finance launched its high-yield stablecoin syrupUSDC on Arbitrum this week, integrating with Euler, Morpho, and Fluid. According to Maple CEO Sid Powell, DRIP rewards will compound Maple’s native yield and “accelerate the adoption of onchain capital markets.”



Entropy plans to publicly track DRIP’s effectiveness, via “efficiency metrics, including TVL per dollar spent and overall market share growth,” Fiebach said. “However, not all TVL is created equal; what matters most is how much of that growth remains after the program ends.”



Beyond TVL and strictly onchain metrics, Arbitrum will be looking for qualitative progress in its DeFi offerings, such as new deployments, co-incentives, and integrations.



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Arbitrum

Arbitrum kicks off $40M incentive program with focus on leveraged looping

Felix Jauvin

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



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It’s a big week for labor market data. With everything published except for tomorrow’s NFP report, let’s round up all the data we received this week and get an idea of where things stand — and how that contrasts with the expected Fed rate cut this September.



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



It’s always important to remember how lagged the JOLTS report is as a datapoint. This report is from July and, much like the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jobs-report-number-is-always-wrong">jobs report</a> we received last month, it’s quite weak.



Job openings surprised to the downside at 7.18 million, below the expected 7.4 million.&nbsp;



When we contextualize that alongside how many unemployed people there are, we actually saw the jobs-workers gap go negative for the first time since the pandemic.&nbsp;



Although not an outright sign of recession (we spent the entirety of the 2010s in negative territory), it does highlight the relative weakness of the labor market.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="966" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107216" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=426 426w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=432 432w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=363 363w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-42.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



A key input into the Beveridge curve is the job vacancy rate that comes from this report.&nbsp;



I’m a big fan of the Beveridge curve as it&#8217;s an effective way to gauge the amount of slack in the labor market. Given where we are in the Beveridge curve now, any meaningful weakening in jobs available from this point forward would likely trigger an aggressive increase in the unemployment rate.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="blob:https://cms.blockworks.co/29059b91-39e2-4e99-a14f-5c4294ded7ec" width="624" height="487">



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">ADP report</h2>



With the recent firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, ADP’s employment data has taken on increased importance in gauging labor market strength.&nbsp;



Although ADP gets a lot of flack since it comes out before NFP and thus has little predictive power, on a longer-term horizon the two actually track quite nicely:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="742" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107215" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-41.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Today’s ADP report came in below expectations and further emboldened the doves on the FOMC to move forward with a cut in September: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="blob:https://cms.blockworks.co/f061d7d1-9b9d-402a-b85a-fc4fc8617ec8" width="624" height="487">



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Challenger Survey</h2>



Finally, we received today’s Challenger Survey layoffs report. It showed a 13% YoY increase, which is significant. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1404" height="916" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107218" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=1404 1404w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=394 394w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=400 400w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=336 336w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-04-at-16.48.45.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1404px) 100vw, 1404px" /></figure>



As economist Parker Ross noted in tandem with the chart above: “Last Aug. is a tough benchmark, when layoffs were already 81% above the pre-Covid norm, so the fact we&#8217;re up 13% YoY from that elevated level means we&#8217;re now 105% above the pre-Covid norm for Aug., up from 98% in July.”



Even without the NFP report in hand, the present labor market data overall offers plenty of rationale to warrant the Fed cutting rates in a couple of weeks.







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Federal Reserve

The state of the labor market

Jack Kubinec

Apps, users, and revenue are all nice, but what blockchains really need in 2025 is a Michael Saylor.



As Wall Street has swooned over public companies that buy crypto, it’s become clear that Solana has a couple of disadvantages in the digital asset treasury (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/treasury-companies">DAT</a>) game. It is younger and carries a smaller market cap than bitcoin or ether, so Wall Street is less familiar with it.&nbsp;



And in the eyes of some investors, SOL is missing something else: a Michael Saylor-like figure who can sing the asset’s praises to mainstream investors.&nbsp;



The lack of a Wall Street advocate has contributed to Solana’s struggle to keep up with bitcoin and ether treasury companies. While so-called DATs hold roughly 3.4% and 2.9% of all BTC and ETH, respectively, they hold just 1% of SOL. And despite their growing number, the largest Solana DAT is just the tenth-largest DAT overall.&nbsp;



In conversations on Solana’s search for a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/michael-saylor">Michael Saylor</a> or a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tom-lees-price-predictions">Tom Lee</a>, two common threads emerged: Solana needs a Wall Street figurehead to keep pace in the current market environment, and no one is quite sure who that person should be.&nbsp;



Multiple sources told Blockworks that Solana’s version of Saylor should be someone from a traditional finance background rather than Solana’s current online orbit.



At Strategy, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/michael-saylor-bitcoin-microstrategy">Saylor has turned</a> what was once a middling software company stock into a bitcoin-buying behemoth with a net asset value — which is the market value of its bitcoin holdings — of more than $70 billion. His bullish X posts and TV appearances have turned him into a de facto bitcoin spokesperson.



BitMine, a bitcoin mining company that recently adopted an Ethereum treasury strategy, appears to have caught the same lightning in a bottle when it appointed Fundstrat chief investment officer and CNBC contributor Tom Lee as its chairman.&nbsp;



With Lee making regular CNBC appearances to sing ETH’s praises and a Founders Fund investment providing legitimacy in the eyes of investors, BMNR has grown to become the second-largest treasury company with a NAV of over $8 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="772" height="320" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107201" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=772 772w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-39.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The ten largest DATs. Source: <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/treasury-companies">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



Behind the scenes, DAT executives are casting around in search of public-facing Solana advocates.&nbsp;



One person involved in a Solana DAT recounted asking ChatGPT who Michael Saylor’s equivalent could be for a Solana treasury company. The chatbot listed Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, Asymmetric CEO Joe McCann, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, and Solana Foundation CEO Lily Liu.



The problem with well-known Solana figures like these is that they tend to have “something [else] going on,” as a different person working at a DAT put it.



In a text, Mumtaz said he has been “approached by roughly all [Solana DATs] to be involved in varying capacities,” noting that he hasn’t made any final decisions and adding: “[I’m] overall interested in the long-term health of solana above all and am trying to figure out how best I can help with that.”



McCann, who until recently would frequently post about Solana to more than 100,000 X followers, was <a href="https://unchainedcrypto.com/new-solana-treasury-company-raising-1-5-billion-to-be-led-by-joe-mccann/">tapped</a> as CEO of a potential $1.5 billion Solana DAT. The deal fell apart after a limited partner in McCann’s hedge fund posted about the fund’s poor performance on X, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/joe-mccann-solana-spac-deal-off">Blockworks previously reported</a>. McCann did not return a request for comment.



Gokal and a representative for Liu did not return requests for comment on whether they intend to formally get involved in DATs.



Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, and Jump Crypto are reportedly plotting a $1 billion Solana DAT raise, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-25/galaxy-jump-multicoin-seek-1-billion-for-buying-solana-token">Bloomberg</a>. Such a deal would involve two names that came up in conversations about potential Solana DAT leaders: Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz and Multicoin managing partner Kyle Samani. But both already have day jobs, so it’s unclear whether they’d want to take on a role akin to being CEO of a publicly traded company.&nbsp;



Samani and Novogratz did not comment on their roles in the reported DAT.



Among the CEOs of existing Solana DATs, Sol Strategies <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sol-strategies-is-solanas-microstrategy">CEO Leah Wald</a> shows promise as a public face for Solana, boasting a sizable online following and an impressive institutional crypto resume. However, she has (so far) played a more behind-the-scenes role as the Canadian holding company <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nasdaq-on-solana-opening-bell-sol-strategies">awaits</a> a hoped-for Nasdaq listing.



“I don’t see myself as a Saylor or a Lee. I’m secretly an introvert, and that job would mean way too much public speaking. That’d be like being scared of heights and then deciding to become a window washer on skyscrapers,” Wald said in a text.



Due to the slim pickings in Solanaland, some DATs are thinking the right person might be a relative unknown to Solana folks — as Saylor and Lee were to bitcoin and ether before assuming their current roles.&nbsp;



“In Tom Lee you have two things: He is very comfortable on CNBC, and he speaks to TradFi. I have been looking and have not found who that person would be,” said one person working on a Solana DAT, who said they had considered making inroads with candidates ranging from former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci to the meme stock influencer Roaring Kitty.&nbsp;



Potential leaders also don’t come cheap. Former BlackRock executive Joseph Chalom <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1981535/000164117225020947/form8-k.htm">received</a> a $7 million stock grant plus a potential salary and long-term incentive bonus in the millions to become co-CEO of SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest ETH treasury company.&nbsp;



Looking at Chalom’s compensation package, one Solana DAT executive said the price tag “could be well worth it” for SharpLink. Even so, the executive noted, getting Wall Street compliance departments to sign off on DAT partnerships can be a challenge.



“Our issue is not getting it in front of these crazy high-level people, it’s the strict compliance side of things” that is making it hard to get well-known Wall Streeters on board, they said.



It’s nevertheless becoming clear that Solana DATs intend to start rolling out their own versions of Saylor and Lee.&nbsp;



Last week, the crypto investment platform CoinList sent some investors an email, reviewed by Blockworks, which advertised an “upcoming SOL treasury company coming imminently to the public market.”



“This anticipated vehicle is currently in stealth, and we cannot disclose the details. If completed, it will be the largest SOL treasury vehicle on the market with some of the most prominent industry backers, and the likely ‘Saylor of Solana,’” the email said.



The deal is expected to close and be announced on September 8th, the email said. CoinList did not return multiple requests for comment.



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</ul>

Michael Saylor

Solana continues to search for its champion on Wall Street

Blockworks

Fireblocks, the $8 billion crypto infrastructure firm, has launched a new payments network designed for stablecoins.



<a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/09/04/fireblocks-network-for-payments-stablecoins-michael-shaulov/?utm_source=organic_social&amp;utm_medium=blog_newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=20250904_global_content_fireblocks_networks_for_payments_fortune_blog&amp;utm_content=linkedin">Announced</a> on Thursday, the Fireblocks Network for Payments brings together more than 40 participants, including Circle, stablecoin startup Bridge — recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">acquired</a> by Stripe — along with firms such as Zerohash and Yellow Card.



The initiative aims to reduce engineering costs and operational risks for companies building stablecoin products or transferring digital dollars across borders, according to CEO Michael Shaulov.



In July 2025, Fireblocks processed a record $212 billion in stablecoin volume, underscoring its role in the asset class. The firm already provides custody and transfer services for banks, including BNY Mellon and fintechs like Revolut, but its existing infrastructure was built around crypto trading rather than streamlined stablecoin payments.



Shaulov said the new network expands on models like the Circle Payments Network, but supports multiple stablecoins rather than only Circle’s USDC. The launch comes amid rising institutional interest: a Fireblocks report back in May <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fireblocks-report-stablecoins-move-from-experiment-to-production-with-revenue-growth-as-top-driver-302456793.html">found</a> 90% of firms are already using or exploring stablecoin payment programs, with cross-border settlement cited as the top driver. Blockworks Research data <a href="http://blockworks.co/analytics">highlights</a> the scale of stablecoin flows Fireblocks is targeting. On Ethereum, where $164 billion in stablecoins circulate, daily transfer volumes regularly exceed $60 billion. USDC alone accounts for nearly $47 billion in supply, while USDT still dominates at over $81 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107177" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Solana stablecoin supply and transfers | Source: Blockworks Research



Meanwhile, Solana has emerged as a high-throughput stablecoin rail, processing around $11 billion in daily transfers across tokens like USDC, USDT and PYUSD.



The network handles roughly 3 billion monthly transactions (excluding validator votes), far outpacing Ethereum in raw activity. Stablecoin volume spikes have helped to drive Solana DEX trading to nearly $300 billion in monthly spot volume, cementing its role as a low-cost complement to Ethereum’s liquidity-heavy ecosystem.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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



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



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Circle

Fireblocks launches payments network for stablecoins

Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang announced on Thursday that his firm and Stripe are incubating Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain designed to streamline stablecoin use in real-world financial flows.



Tempo has <a href="https://x.com/matthuang/status/1963633379284587017">entered</a> private testnet with support from initial design partners including Anthropic, Coupang, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Lead Bank, Mercury, Nubank, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, Visa, and more. The project represents Stripe’s most direct step into blockchain infrastructure, extending its payments business toward native onchain settlement.



Tempo is engineered to handle more than 100,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality, according to project materials. Its payments-first architecture enables transaction fees and gas to be paid in any stablecoin through an enshrined automated market maker (AMM).



Additional features include dedicated lanes for payments, support for memos and access lists, and opt-in privacy settings. Built on Reth, an Ethereum execution client, the chain maintains compatibility with existing Ethereum smart contracts and tooling.



Huang said Tempo is intended to support diverse financial applications such as payroll, remittances, global payouts, and embedded accounts. The protocol will follow a principle of “stablecoin neutrality,” allowing any issuer to deploy tokens for settlement. Validators will initially be curated but are expected to transition toward a permissionless model.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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OpenAI

Stripe and Paradigm incubate Tempo blockchain for stablecoin payments

Donovan Choy

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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How was Solana doing in August? Let’s unpack some numbers.



About $78 million REV (fees + tips) was paid to transact on Solana in August. In 2025, that was Solana’s third-lowest REV month.



On a year-over-year basis, Solana’s REV saw about 24% growth.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="967" height="465" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107158" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=967 967w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-29.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px" /></figure>



Total stablecoin supply on Solana has stagnated at the $10–$13 billion range since March.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="958" height="499" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107157" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=958 958w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-28.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" /></figure>



Solana is far from dead, but these numbers certainly don&#8217;t scream “growth on all cylinders” as they did in early 2025.



Application revenues tell a more optimistic story. Solana apps generated $148 million in August, a 93% increase on a YoY basis.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="984" height="498" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107162" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=984 984w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px" /></figure>



I want to say the “fat app thesis,” but in Solana’s case, it’s probably more accurate to call it the “fat memecoin app” thesis. Broken down, the bulk of revenue-generating applications belong to the trading tools and memecoin categories, namely Axiom, Pump, Phantom, LetsBonk, Photon, etc.



In recent months, Solana has tried to position itself as the go-to venue for trading crypto assets, encapsulated by the “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-market-microstructure-ace">Internet Capital Markets</a>” meme.



The data seems to affirm that narrative. The below chart shows overall spot DEX volumes broken down for major L1 chains.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="975" height="452" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107161" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=975 975w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-31.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 975px) 100vw, 975px" /></figure>



BNB Chain claims the top spot with $214 billion in volumes, but those numbers are inflated by the ongoing “Alpha” incentive <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/07e8c812091a49ae9eefaeabe3c35f53">campaign</a> that’s rewarding wash trading. When adjusted to exclude Alpha tokens, BNB Chain’s August volumes fall to an estimated <a href="https://dune.com/queries/5728540/9297734?category=abstraction&amp;namespace=dex&amp;id=dex.trades">$138 billion</a>.



That puts Solana in first place at $153 billion, with Ethereum in second at $143 billion.



Zooming into Solana DEX volumes, no-name AMMs (prop AMMs) are carving out a significant chunk of market share, about $47 billion in August. These AMMs use one single market-maker for liquidity provision, and route users by plugging into DEX aggregators on the backend (read more <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solanas-proprietary-amms">here</a>).



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="793" height="456" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107163" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=793 793w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=454 454w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=381 381w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-33.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px" /></figure>



Now let’s look at perps volumes. The two dominant perps exchanges on Solana are Jupiter Perps and Drift, with 4.9% and 3.3% volume market shares, respectively. Unsurprisingly, they’re eclipsed by Hyperliquid (71.6% market share) ,which is averaging about $10.4 billion in daily volumes over the last 90 days.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="984" height="498" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107164" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=984 984w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-34.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px" /></figure>



Solana’s slowing growth can be attributed to Hyperliquid’s dominance over the past four quarters, Blockworks Research’s Ryan Connor told me.



“Making Drift (or something similar) work is critical to Solana’s success.”



Drift isn’t asleep at the wheel, though. The perps DEX did some of its best lifetime volumes in August, thanks to unique features like cross-margin capabilities.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1003" height="456" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107160" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=1003 1003w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-32.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1003px) 100vw, 1003px" /></figure>



Finally, you can’t talk Solana without talking memecoins.&nbsp;



After a brief two to three weeks during which Pump appeared to lose its leading position, the platform has decisively regained its dominance over competitors like LetsBonk and Heaven. As of the last week, 148K tokens were launched on Pump’s launchpad — about 89% of total tokens launched.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="970" height="453" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107159" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=970 970w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-30.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 970px) 100vw, 970px" /></figure>



Solana’s largest tailwinds in the near future may have nothing to do with onchain products.



Last week saw <a href="https://lightspeed-4bed7b.beehiiv.com/p/sol-dats-are-here">reports</a> of three new SOL treasury companies coming to market with about $2.65 billion in total raised.&nbsp;



On the horizon is also a likely October approval of existing Solana ETF applications.



The new ETFs “will be more tax-efficient, have better distribution (from Fidelity, Bitwise, etc.) than REX-Osprey, and [will] likely include in-kind creations and redemptions, as well as support for staking,” wrote Carlos Gonzalez Campo in a Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/flashnotes/sol-coming-tailwinds">report</a>.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Solana in 8 charts: August edition

Onchain AI agents are edging out of the lab.&nbsp;



Lit Protocol’s agent stack, Vincent, now gives developers a way to ship non-custodial automation that actually touches money, but under explicit, enforceable limits set by users and app authors. An “early access” launch just went live, Blockworks has learned exclusively.



Lit frames the core model simply: policies (guardrails) and abilities (discrete actions like swap/borrow/bridge) that are bound together at deploy time and enforced at runtime, according to co-founder David Sneider.



“Vincent Policies (the guardrails and controls) are created and exposed by Vincent application developers based on any given use case,” Sneider told Blockworks. “For example, a trading app might expose a ‘spend policy’ or ‘token allowlist policy,’ which users would be able to fine-tune based on their own needs and preferences.”



Under the hood, Vincent rides on Lit’s existing “defense-in-depth” key model: Threshold-split keys run inside <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/0xresearch-newsletter-mev-trusted-execution-environments">secure enclaves</a> (TEEs), and the enclaves execute only when an onchain policy check passes. In practice, that means permissions like spend caps, allowlists, time windows and rate limits are evaluated before any signing or contract call occurs. A key recent improvement is how easily developers can now package and enforce those rules through Vincent at the point of execution.



According to examples from a “<a href="https://github.com/LIT-Protocol/vincent-starter-kit">starter kit</a>,” developers can define and expose app-specific policies as needed; the platform now supports both narrowly scoped and broader smart-contract permissions, with one-line SDK calls to invoke them.



In Sneider’s view, the job is to let agents act, but only inside well-defined lanes.



That’s effective, according to David Johnston, the lead code maintainer at Morpheus, which has built in Lit Protocol as part of its reference open-source agent work.



“MPC enables good spending caps, whitelists of agents, and limited time approvals for agents to access user funds,” Johnston told Blockworks. “These types of capabilities should be native to all agents,” he said, adding that it’s safer to integrate Lit rather than “rolling their own, less battle-tested solutions.” 



DeFi-specific risk hooks like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/mev">MEV</a> protection and dealing with oracles are being left to app authors. “They also have the power to define all of their data sources [and] integrations with external protocols, which can help address possible constraints like these,” Sneider said, referring to aspects like slippage caps, private order flow routes, RFQ checks, or price-staleness guards. That stance keeps the core platform minimal while allowing domain-specialized teams the flexibility to customize.



Automated agents are not magic, and Morpheus’ Johnston notes “all the normal attack vectors and failure modes from DeFi will apply to agents leveraging DeFi, so the best means of mitigating them is to leverage L2s that have eliminated many of these risks with their structure, such as ordering transactions to avoid attacks.”



Vincent already produces success and failure signals and proofs for every execution, but those remain local to the developer’s app rather than being published to a wider registry. The roadmap points to privacy-preserving attestations that could travel across registries and agent networks, such that compliance proven in one venue can be trusted in another.



“The bigger vision is that agents will be able to surface these attestations in privacy-preserving ways into shared registries like <a href="https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/erc-8004-trustless-agents/25098">ERC-8004</a> and interagent communication protocols like A2A [Agent-to-Agent],” Sneider said. Think verifiable credentials (e.g. “I’ve complied with XYZ policy 100 times”) broadcast into a shared agent ecosystem, where other agents or platforms can trust them without re-auditing.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Beyond DeFi</h2>



Crucially, the agent landscape is expected to evolve to new use cases other than pure DeFi automation, to encompass credentials and APIs that real businesses live on, said Sneider.



“Our focus at the moment is on managing more secret types, like passwords and API keys so that agents can log into apps and we can break the current paradigm of agents being embedded within apps,” he said. “We’re also continuing to build out more Policy and Ability examples across many different chains and protocols (i.e. BTC and Solana), to give developers more jumping-off points and make it simpler to start launching agents with Vincent.”



If this sounds like the agent version of account abstraction, it’s intentional. Back in 2024, Sneider argued that “key, material signing is like the ultimate unifier amongst distributed systems, which are really just like state and signing at the end of the day.”



Tie that to enforceable policies and you get something closer to production-grade autonomy, as we see starting to happen now.&nbsp;



“This idea that everybody is going to have essentially a quant in their pocket to manage their funds seems pretty, pretty coherent and is starting to come together.”



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Onchain AI agents move from demo to deployment

Boerse Stuttgart Group has launched Seturion, described as the first digital pan-European settlement platform for tokenized assets.



The blockchain-based system is designed to unify Europe’s fragmented post-trade landscape by enabling faster and cheaper cross-border settlement. <a href="https://group.boerse-stuttgart.com/media/4ribx1sl/250904-mr-seturion-settlement-platform.pdf">According</a> to the group, Seturion can reduce settlement costs by up to 90% while supporting transactions across all asset classes.



The platform is open to banks, brokers, trading venues, and tokenization platforms, offering connectivity to both public and private blockchains. It supports settlement in central bank money or tokenized on-chain cash. Boerse Stuttgart’s own trading venues will serve as the initial users, with additional partners expected to follow.



Seturion builds on years of experimentation. The system has already been <a href="https://group.boerse-stuttgart.com/media/gduevs2m/250318-mr-bx-digital-authorisation.pdf">deployed</a> at BX Digital, a FINMA-regulated DLT trading facility in Switzerland, and successfully tested during the European Central Bank’s blockchain trials in 2024, which <a href="https://group.boerse-stuttgart.com/media/rh2hko1b/240626-mr-ecb-blockchain-tests.pdf">demonstrated</a> efficiency gains in tokenized securities settlement.



Leadership for Seturion is subject to regulatory approval, with Dr. Lidia Kurt named as CEO and Lucas Bruggeman, Boerse Stuttgart’s Chief Digital Assets Officer, designated as Chairman of the Board. A license application under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime has been submitted to BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator.



This is a developing story.



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



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Europe

Boerse Stuttgart launches Seturion settlement platform

Kunal Doshi

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



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Tron cut transaction fees by 60% last Friday. While this looks like a move to improve accessibility, the real driver is almost certainly the looming launch of Plasma, which will enable zero-fee USDT transfers.



Tron’s moat has always been its distribution. Users continue to transact on Tron despite much cheaper alternatives, a sign of the deep merchant and banking ties it has built, especially in Latin America. The fact that Tron is now lowering fees could suggest this moat is being threatened.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107131" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-25.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The stakes are high. Around <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/application-activity/tron?chartMetric=GAS_FEES_USD">90% of Tron’s revenue</a> comes from USDT transfers. Even after the recent cut, average fees sit at $2.80 per transaction, nearly 5x Ethereum’s $0.60. Over the past month, Tron’s USDT supply has <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins/Tron">fallen 1.4%</a>, representing around $1.1 billion of outflows. At the same time, Plasma’s pre-launch campaigns have already attracted <a href="https://x.com/PlasmaFDN/status/1961340200237342947">$2 billion in USDT deposits</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107133" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-27.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Financially, Tron remains solid. On August numbers, the fee cut would drop it from the third to the fourth largest chain by revenue, though it would still generate twice as much as BNB. Its FDV/Fees multiple would shift from roughly Hype’s 36x to Solana’s 135x, a level still well below the broader L1 group.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107132" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-26.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



For the first time, Tron faces a serious challenger in its core market. Only time will tell if the fee cut is sufficient to keep Tron competitive and sustain stablecoin volumes on the network.



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0xResearch Newsletter

Tron’s fee gamble

Kraken has acquired Breakout, a proprietary trading platform launched in 2023 that funds traders based on proven performance, the companies announced on Thursday.



The deal will integrate Breakout’s evaluation-based model directly into Kraken Pro, allowing eligible users to access up to $200,000 in notional capital and retain up to 90% of profits.



Breakout requires traders to purchase and pass an evaluation that tests risk discipline, drawdown management, and strategy consistency before receiving funded accounts. Each account is capped at $100,000, though traders may hold multiple accounts up to $200,000 in aggregate. Supported markets include more than 50 crypto pairs, with up to 5x leverage available on bitcoin and ether contracts.



Arjun Sethi, Kraken’s co-CEO, said the acquisition reflects the company’s commitment to merit-based capital allocation, describing Breakout’s system as “a filter for scalable signal.”&nbsp;



Breakout’s co-founder and CEO Alex Miningham called the deal a natural fit, pairing Breakout’s trader-first model with Kraken’s global infrastructure. He said, “Together, both companies form a unified ecosystem that supports the full trader journey from education through independent capital deployment.”



The move follows Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of U.S. futures broker NinjaTrader earlier this year, as well as its purchase of Capitalise.ai, a no-code automation startup.



This is a developing story.



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



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kraken

Kraken acquires Breakout to expand prop trading services

Blockchain oracle provider RedStone announced on Thursday that it is acquiring decentralized credit specialist Credora to create a unified service offering real-time pricing data alongside risk assessments for decentralized finance (DeFi) markets. The merged platform will operate under the brand Credora by RedStone.



Credora, originally founded as X-Margin in 2019, offers privacy-preserving credit risk technology. The platform applies trusted execution environments and zero-knowledge proofs to generate standardized credit ratings without exposing sensitive financial information.



The company has raised funding from major backers including Coinbase Ventures, Hashkey, and S&amp;P Global, and has already facilitated more than $1 billion in uncollateralized loans across centralized and decentralized platforms.



RedStone currently provides oracle feeds across more than 110 blockchains and rollups, securing over $10 billion in value locked with no reported mispricing incidents. By integrating Credora’s independent ratings, RedStone aims to extend its role from data delivery to actionable intelligence for lending and yield strategies.



Co-founder Marcin Kazmierczak said in a statement that “As DeFi yield strategies grow more complex, users need a simple way to navigate beyond headline APYs. Ratings provide that clarity.”



The companies said rated DeFi strategies such as Morpho Vaults have grown up to 25% faster than unrated peers, underscoring user demand for risk-aware tools. Credora’s co-founders Darshan Vaidya and Matt Ficke will join RedStone as strategic advisors to support integration. The relaunch of Credora ratings is expected to include public access and API distribution across RedStone’s oracle network, bringing dynamic, data-backed risk scores directly to DeFi protocols.



This is a developing story.



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



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M&amp;A

RedStone acquires Credora to launch DeFi risk oracle

Grayscale Investments announced on Thursday the launch of the Ethereum Covered Call ETF (ETCO), a fund designed to generate income by writing call options on exchange-traded products (ETPs) tied to Ether.



The new ETF is actively managed and will distribute income to shareholders on a bi-weekly basis. Krista Lynch, senior vice president for ETF capital markets at Grayscale, said the product was created to add “an income component” for investors already holding Ethereum exposure.&nbsp;



ETCO’s stated objective is to prioritize current income while also aiming to capture some of Ether’s price movements. Rather than investing directly in ETH, the fund sells call options on vehicles such as the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH).



By writing options close to market prices, ETCO collects premiums that may help mitigate volatility during downturns but cap potential gains during rallies. The fund charges an expense ratio of roughly 0.66%, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/quote/ETCO%3AUS">according</a> to Bloomberg, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/etfs/grayscale-ethereum-covered-call-etf-us38963h6027">commits</a> to maintaining at least 80% of assets in derivatives tied to Ethereum ETPs.



The strategy is intended to provide cash flow through premiums collected on these contracts, though it also limits upside during rallies. Grayscale noted that ETCO joins its broader suite of income-oriented funds, which includes the Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (BTCC) and the Grayscale Premium Income ETF (BPI).



<a href="http://blockworks.co/analytics">According</a> to Blockworks Research, Ethereum ETFs have drawn more than $23 billion in cumulative flows, led by BlackRock’s ETHA at roughly $13 billion. Grayscale’s ETHE ranks second with about $4.7 billion, followed by Fidelity’s FETH at $2.7 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107205" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-40.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Ethereum ETF cumulative flows | Blockworks Research



ETCO enters a market where ETH-linked products already command significant demand, positioning the fund as a differentiated, income-focused alternative within the maturing ETF segment.



Grayscale, which has been registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser since 2022, emphasized that ETCO will not invest in digital assets directly but will rely on options contracts tied to ETPs. The fund is advised by Grayscale Advisors, LLC and distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.



Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET to include information on the cumulative flows of Ethereum ETF products.



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



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Grayscale launches Ethereum covered call ETF

The state of Union: Mainnet, momentum, and the path to global interop

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
&nbsp;&#8220;It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little.&#8221;



— John Ruskin
</blockquote>



The half-life of a market opportunity is a function of the frictions involved in exploiting it.



A business opportunity like selling GPUs might last forever because GPUs and the proprietary software needed to run them are hard to make.



A financial opportunity like arbitraging a stock across exchanges might last just a fraction of a second because trading on stock exchanges is easy.



Digital asset treasury companies (DATs) are somewhere in between.



There’s currently a mad rush of new DATs seeking to arbitrage the premium that investors are willing to pay for crypto tokens held by an exchange-listed company.



But it takes months for a company to get listed on exchanges, so despite all the new entrants, the window of opportunity has not yet been closed.



Everyone expects it will be soon though, so only those fastest to market are likely to profit.



Getting there via an IPO is out of the question — wrangling all the lawyers and bankers, getting approved by the SEC, and marketing a deal to investors can take a year or more.



A SPAC listing is faster — it might compress the listing process down to six months or so, as several DATs are currently attempting.



They still might not make it in time.



The premium for exchange-listed crypto (as measured by <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/treasury-companies/market-data/crypto-treasury-companies-aggregate-mnav-by-asset/">mNAV</a>) is already shrinking — before any of the proposed SPAC deals have even been finalized.&nbsp;



So to get a new company listed on the stock exchange before the DAT opportunity is arbitraged away, the only option may be to acquire a company that’s already on the stock exchange.



This is creating some strange exposures for investors.



Just recently, we’ve had a biotech company become an ETH DAT, a toy maker a TRON DAT, a maker of cleaning products a DOGE DAT, and a wellness company a BONK DAT.



In most cases, the only redeeming feature of this odd assortment of businesses is that they’re already listed on a US stock exchange.



A new Solana DAT, for example, has been created by a de facto takeover of a company that’s developed a new kind of syringe, Sharps Technology.



It’s not a good business.



For the first quarter of this year, Sharps Technology recorded $0 of revenue and an operating loss of $2 million. At the end of last year, the company told the SEC it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern. In 2023, Sharps’ accounting firm resigned because the company “did not meet [its] internal risk tolerance metrics.”



And yet, the newly crypto-focused company says it will remain in the business of selling syringes.&nbsp;



This commitment to a failing enterprise — wholly unrelated to the company’s new mission to accumulate crypto — seems to defy business logic.&nbsp;



But it does have financial logic.



“If you don’t create an ACTUAL operating business aside from crypto asset accumulation,” <a href="https://www.kbw.com/about-us/our-team/investment-banking/paul-mccaffery/">Paul McCaffery</a> wrote in an email this week, “you’re going to get excluded from Russell indices.”



That may not sound like the worst fate in the world to you, but it could be for a business that’s dependent on its share price trading above NAV.



“Russell inclusion is essential to monetizing the capital markets flywheel,” McCaffery explains. “It forces institutional buying in the order of approximately 17% of the free float of a company…and increases proportionally as companies issue new shares.”



This could prove to be mission-critical: A DAT that’s excluded from indices, McCaffery warns, is almost certain to trade below mNAV.



Trading below mNAV is the DAT equivalent of failing to sell any syringes, so index exclusion is not something they will want to risk.



Those aren’t the only risks in being a pure-play asset company, either.&nbsp;



Without an operating business, a new DAT could fall short of exchange listing requirements and face higher regulatory scrutiny if the SEC deems it an investment company.



As a result, the seed investors that create these new DATs have been taking on some strange business risks.



(And legal risks, too — Andrew Keys <a href="https://youtu.be/KHGEZf0TnzY?si=vPmWiOntMHdlqC9T">warns</a> that reverse-takeover DATs are a “honeypot” for litigation.)



They could, of course, look for higher-quality companies to merge with, but that would be 1) more expensive and 2) slower.



“For now,” McCaffery explains, “these investors have insisted on mNAV (or very close) valuations with the primary focus on speed and the goal of tapping the capital markets flywheel ASAP.”



In other words, they just want the exchange listing and something they can call an operating business — and they don’t want to pay anything for it.



Unfortunately, you do get what you pay for.



And in their rush to catch the DAT opportunity before it’s arbitraged away, what investors are getting is some strange risks.



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Reverse-takeover DATs are a grab bag of risks for investors

Ben Strack

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



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Buzz around <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/evaluating-crypto-stocks-ipos-on-deck">crypto-linked stocks</a> has proved unrelenting.&nbsp;



As shares of such companies continue to hit major exchanges, a few more could also join one of the best-known indexes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Shares of American Bitcoin — a self-labeled “bitcoin accumulation platform” backed by the Trump Family — became available on the Nasdaq today after a stock-for-stock merger with Gryphon Digital Mining. ABTC opened at $9.22, shot up to above $14 and was back near its opening price by 1:30 p.m. ET.



The company’s listing comes a day after crypto platform Gemini <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2055592/000110465925085963/tm255912-15_s1a.htm">revealed</a> its expected IPO of ~16.7 million Class A common stock shares (estimated price at $17-19 each). The stock would trade as GEMI on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.



But let’s go back to crypto equities already available, as it seems Robinhood (HOOD) and Strategy (MSTR) getting into the S&amp;P 500 could only be a matter of time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Since launching crypto trading in 2018, Robinhood has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-l2-staking-us">doubled down on the segment</a> with bigger plans. The trading app also met with the SEC’s crypto task force yesterday: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="blob:https://cms.blockworks.co/aa645a3a-6cc8-4c2f-904d-85642d31d76c" width="624" height="295">



As many investors — rightly or wrongly — compare HOOD to Coinbase, an Aug. 29 <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/coin-vs-hood">report</a> by Blockworks Research analyst Marc Arjoon gives us a side-by-side view of both.



HOOD has materially outperformed COIN year to date — with the stock prices up 156% and 18%, respectively, over that span.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This divergence is likely due to COIN’s equity story remaining tethered to crypto prices and volume, while HOOD has demonstrated resilience by broadening its revenue base across equities, options, crypto, and prediction markets, thereby capturing a wider slice of retail financial activity,” Arjoon wrote.



Robinhood’s market cap recently surpassed Coinbase’s, “underscoring how investors are assigning a premium to HOOD’s diversified growth and monetization model over COIN’s more cyclical, crypto-driven profile,” he added.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="745" height="411" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107106" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=745 745w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-21.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 745px) 100vw, 745px" /></figure>



Coinbase has sought to diversify its revenue streams in recent years, with some success. Though its Q2 transaction revenue declined 39% quarter over quarter, its stablecoin revenue grew 12% (with average USDC balances held in Coinbase products reaching $13.8 billion).&nbsp;&nbsp;



The company now looks to build what it calls <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-eyes-everything-exchange-q2">an Everything Exchange</a> — enabling many more assets to trade in a “one-stop shop” on crypto rails.



So COIN has the revenue advantage over HOOD, but shows “far greater cyclicality” in that realm, Arjoon notes:



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="746" height="420" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107105" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=746 746w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-22.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px" /></figure>



Let’s also touch on another company <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microstrategy-eyes-p-500-analyst-201103867.html">some think</a> could soon enter the S&amp;P 500: Strategy. You might recall the largest corporate bitcoin holder (now with 636,505 BTC)&nbsp; joining the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mstr-and-bitcoin-standard-etf-filing">Nasdaq 100 index</a> in December.&nbsp;



MSTR stock is down ~14% in the past month. Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer attributed that to a compressing market premium to its underlying bitcoin holdings and a choppy macro environment.&nbsp;



You might have seen Strategy take some heat (on Crypto Twitter, at least) for relaxing what Palmer noted is a “self-imposed constraint.” The company told investors in late July that it would only use its common-stock ATM to buy bitcoin when its <a href="https://medium.com/@yves-andre.graf/explaining-the-mnav-as-strategys-main-valuation-method-b0f28f82f65d">mNAV</a> was at least 2.5x — aiming to prevent it from issuing equity when the stock traded too close to the value of its underlying BTC.&nbsp;



But around the time MSTR’s mNAV slid toward 1.6x, Strategy said it may tactically issue shares to meet fixed obligations and “when otherwise deemed advantageous” even if mNAV is below 2.5x. That gives it the option to buy bitcoin with equity even during premium troughs.&nbsp;



“The company’s subsequent decision to adjust course when the guideline itself became counterproductive by starving the program of cheap capital exactly when bitcoin weakness created attractive entry points was an appropriate move,” Palmer argued in a Tuesday note.&nbsp;



Palmer reiterated his buy rating of MSTR and its price target of $705 (it stood at ~$335 this afternoon).



Finally, on the aforementioned Circle and Bullish: CRCL shares were trading for about ~$118 Wednesday afternoon — up 280% from its $31 IPO price. BLSH’s ~$54 stock price was about 50% higher than its $37 IPO price.



More to come here, no doubt.



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