Holozone

Byron Gilliam

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The charters establishing the First and Second Banks of the United States both included a clever clause that limited the ability of those proto-central banks to print money: Every bill issued had to be hand-signed by either the president or cashier of the bank.&nbsp;



This wasn’t an attempt to impose restrictive monetary policy, however — it was more about a Jeffersonian fear of big banks and institutions too far removed from local control.



But the effect was the same: Both the First and Second banks issued less money than their presidents wanted them to, simply because they couldn’t sign bills fast enough.



“We could at once give to the Southern &amp; Western sections of the country two or three millions of sound &amp; useful circulating medium,” Nicolas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States, lamented in 1827. “But to make two millions of five dollar notes, it would be necessary to sign my name 400,000 times, which…is wholly impracticable.”



Biddle found a workaround when he began issuing “bank drafts” — interbank checks which allowed one branch to draw on another&#8217;s reserves (necessary because bank notes issued in one region weren’t always accepted at full value in other regions).



The drafts proved effective — they allowed the bank to provide credit in regions short of currency without Biddle, the third president of the Second Bank of the United States, having to sign thousands of new bank notes.



But those drafts also helped make Biddle the last president of the Second Bank of the United States.



Biddle’s bank drafts were perceived as an abuse of power that allowed the Second Bank to operate far more like a modern central bank the Jeffersonians in Congress were willing to abide — part of what made the bank a “monster,” in President Andrew Jackson’s term.



The Second Bank of the United States closed in 1836 because Congress declined to renew its charter.



Another experiment in restricting the supply of money came in 1863 when the National Currency Act required all nationally chartered banks to back the banknotes they issued with Treasury bonds.



Thereafter, to put $1 of currency into circulation, banks were required to buy $0.90 of federal debt — the result being that, unlike today, banks couldn’t issue notes based simply on local lending demand.



Instead, they could only issue slightly more in currency than they took in from customers as deposits — typically in gold, silver or federally issued &#8220;greenbacks.&#8221;



In 1879, the US government tied its own monetary hands even further by declaring that US dollars would be convertible into a fixed amount of gold — effectively limiting the money supply to the amount of gold the government could credibly promise to redeem.



That may sound appealing in this age of runaway deficit spending.



But the gold standard wasn’t pleasant for the people who lived through it; the monetary discipline it imposed came at a grave cost when the growing US economy demanded more money than the system could supply.



This left the country prone to debilitating bouts of deflation.



William Jennings Bryan declared the gold standard a “crown of thorns” in 1896; in 1924, John Maynard Keynes called the gold standard a “barbarous relic”; and economic historians say the link to gold is largely to blame for the Great Depression.



In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt ended the convertibility of dollars into gold for US citizens and in 1971 Richard Nixon ended it for central banks.



They didn&#8217;t have to — to stay on the gold standard, the US could have raised interest rates, raised taxes and cut spending instead.&nbsp;



But that was unthinkable in 1934 and politically unfeasible in 1971, so we&#8217;ve had a fully fiat monetary system ever since — with dollars backed only by the &#8220;full faith and credit&#8221; of the US government.



It’s worked out better than most predicted — perhaps unsurprising in retrospect since allowing the supply of dollars to expand with the US economy has proven more sensible than constricting it based on how much gold can be dug up in South Africa.



As good as fiat has been for the US, though, we may now be approaching another 1971 moment.&nbsp;



It won’t be as abrupt: If the US hadn’t voluntarily abandoned the gold standard, the gold would have simply left the country and that would have been the end of it.&nbsp;



Today, the process is more of a slow burn — a gradual erosion of faith in the government’s credit.&nbsp;



To forestall it, the US may have to make some of the hard decisions it chose to avoid making in 1971 — to raise interest rates, raise taxes or lower spending.



But even in today’s fully fiat system, the question of who ultimately stands behind the dollar still matters.



Dollar bills are signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, not the chair of the Federal Reserve — because even though it says “Federal Reserve Note” in big letters at the top of each bill, they are liabilities of the government, not the Fed.



But with a “big, beautiful bill” set to add trillions to US debt, the Fed appears to be the last line of defense.&nbsp;



At this week’s FOMC meeting, the market will be looking for clues as to how willing the Fed is to sign off on the government’s runaway spending.



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The Breakdown Newsletter

Will the Fed sign off on runaway spending? 

Casey Wagner

As expected, the Senate passed the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/genius-act">GENIUS Act</a> with bipartisan support Tuesday evening. It’s the first stablecoin-focused bill to pass a chamber of Congress.&nbsp;



The bill passed in a 68-30 vote. 



The GENIUS Act “ensures American consumers and businesses can participate in the digital economy with confidence and security,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who co-sponsored the legislation, said ahead of Tuesday’s vote.&nbsp;



The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1582/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22genius+act%22%7D">bill</a> requires stablecoin issuers to maintain fully-backed reserves of US dollars or “similarly liquid” government-issued assets, such as bonds. Issuers with more than $50 billion in issued tokens must complete annual audits.&nbsp;



The law also affords more authority to state regulators, which will be required to maintain regulatory frameworks that are “substantially similar” to those at the federal level. Issuers who exceed $10 billion in issuance must be overseen by federal regulators or apply for an exemption.&nbsp;



Not all members of the minority party are satisfied. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a longtime <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/on-senate-floor-warren-urges-colleagues-to-use-their-leverage-and-vote-no-on-genius-act-until-critical-issues-addressed">critic</a> of seemingly pro-crypto policy, called the legislation “flawed.”&nbsp;



“A bill that meaningfully strengthens oversight of the stablecoin market is worth enacting,” she said on the Senate floor last month. “A bill that turbocharges the stablecoin market, while facilitating the President’s corruption and undermining national security, financial stability, and consumer protection is worse than no bill at all.”



Other Democrats resigned that while the bill is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction.&nbsp;



“We weren’t able to include certainly everything we would have wanted, but it was a good bipartisan effort,” Democrat Angela Alsobrooks told reporters on Monday. “This is an unregulated area that will now be regulated.”



The bill received more than 100 proposed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1582/amendments">amendments</a> from Republicans and Democrats alike.&nbsp;



The next step for Congress will be to pass a market structure bill, Lummis added, saying that draft legislation will be released in the coming weeks.



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congress

Stablecoin bill passes the Senate with bipartisan support

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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With pump.fun set to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">reportedly raise</a> $1 billion via a token sale, it’s fair to assume the memecoin launchpad will at least be open to exploring acquisitions as a way of putting its fresh capital to work. Based on my own guesswork and a few conversations with industry watchers, here are four businesses I think could make sense for a pump.fun acquisition.&nbsp;



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



Many memecoin traders don’t actually trade through pump.fun’s frontend, opting for the sniping and copy trading features offered by trading bots — many of which run on Telegram.



These bots collect fees on trading volume, which can end up being quite lucrative. Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/telegram-trading-bots">estimated</a> the gross annual revenue for Solana trading bots to have been between $500 million to $1 billion in 2024.&nbsp;



Pump.fun has, so far, been fine to coexist, but as the speculative trading game grows more crowded — and particularly with the entry of more put-together <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/axiom-ycombinator-startup-solana-memecoin-revenue-10m">competitors like Axiom</a> — pump will need to scheme out how it can win back some of those trading volumes.&nbsp;



BullX, a popular Solana Telegram bot that has drawn <a href="https://protos.com/solana-focused-bullx-still-exists-despite-allegations-it-called-it-quits/">allegations</a> of founder disinvolvement, could be a good takeover target.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">DEX Screener</h2>



On top of sniping, another category where pump.fun loses users is in token discovery. Rather than trying to find their next buy through pump’s somewhat limited and clunky interface, traders have historically turned to platforms like DEX Screener that come with more fine-tuned data and tracking features for traders.&nbsp;



A major way DEX Screener makes money is by charging memecoin projects for a more souped-up page on the platform, and DeFiLlama <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/dex-screener?revenue=true&amp;groupBy=cumulative">counts</a> it as having made over $100 million in revenue over the past year and change.&nbsp;



Pump.fun has already launched an “advanced” tab that offers DEX Screener-like features, but if it finds DEX Screener users too sticky to win over, it could make sense to just combine the two. It wouldn’t be the first time one went after the other’s users: DEX Screener <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/moonshot-vertical-integration-memecoins">released a memecoin launchpad</a> called Moonshot that, well, hasn’t been much of a moonshot.



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



The majority of onchain Solana activity comes from memecoin trading and swaps between SOL and stablecoins, as Blockworks Research’s Carlos Gonzalez Campo has <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/solana-meta-aggregators">pointed out</a>. Pump.fun is doing pretty well on the memecoin side of things, but likely few users are swapping USDC for SOL on pump.fun’s AMM.&nbsp;



Much of that volume goes to Jupiter, a DEX aggregator that algorithmically finds the best route for trades to travel to achieve the best possible price. It’s a valuable product, and even if a swap aggregator collects minimal fees, it could be a loss leader to draw users who may then convert to customers of more revenue-generating products.&nbsp;



One candidate here could be Titan, a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jupiter-competitor-private-mainnet">newer Solana DEX aggregator</a> that claims its swaps outperform Jupiter most of the time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cube Exchange</h2>



The best business in crypto is arguably still just running an exchange. If pump.fun had its own centralized exchange, it could access a lot more liquidity and likely diversify out from memecoins into other fields like perpetual futures, or even try to capture trading volume on new asset classes.



Pump.fun memes could also get expedited listings on the exchange, maintaining the platform’s edge against the likes of Coinbase and Binance, which are sometimes slower to list popular new memecoins. Pump could use the distribution from the exchange to drive interest in things like pump.fun livestreams.&nbsp;



Compared to some other targets, acquiring an exchange is an expensive proposition. Cube makes sense because its CEO is Solana-native, having previously worked at the foundation, and the exchange’s <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/">volume</a> doesn’t tend to run as high as some competitors. 



Backpack <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/backpack-ftx-eu-acquisition-complications/">acquired FTX EU</a> for $32.7 million earlier this year. Cube probably wouldn’t be that cheap, but pump is likely to have lots of cash.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

4 companies pump.fun could look at acquiring after its $1B raise

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



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US equities and bitcoin were in the red Tuesday afternoon as conflict in the Middle East stretched into a fifth day. Investors are also waiting to hear from the FOMC tomorrow about their interest rate decision and, more importantly, what the committee’s latest Summary of Economic Projections has to say.&nbsp;



Bitcoin had lost 2.7% over the day at 2 p.m. ET, hovering around $104,000. The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite opened lower and were trading 0.8% and 0.9% lower, respectively, at that time.&nbsp;



All signs point to the Fed holding interest rates tomorrow. And probably again in July. Should the Israel-Iran conflict lead to sustained higher oil prices, the FOMC’s timeline for cutting rates could be delayed further.&nbsp;



Speaking of that timeline, we’ll know a lot more tomorrow. The updated dot plot will tell us where committee members see rates ending 2025, plus where they think the unemployment rate, GDP and PCE are headed.&nbsp;



In March, most FOMC members reported expecting interest rates to land at 3.75–4% by the end of 2025. With the current rate being 4.25–4.5%, this means committee members expected two 25 basis point cuts (or one 50bps decrease) by December.&nbsp;



We know that the first few post-Liberation Day inflation data points have come in mild, milder than committee members had expected. Even so, should the market’s expectations for inflation increase, the Fed is going to get concerned. When businesses and consumers expect prices to rise, it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.&nbsp;



It’s also worth noting that Chair Powell is probably in his final lap as head of the Fed. His term ends on May 23, 2026, and based on Trump’s past comments, we doubt Powell will be renominated.&nbsp;



There are eight (including this week’s) FOMC meetings between now and Powell’s presumed departure.



Secured overnight financing rate futures, which provide an avenue for investors to bet on the future of monetary policy, suggest that markets envision Powell cutting rates before the end of his term. Trading volumes on June 2026 options contracts have increased in recent months, per CME Group data.&nbsp;



Historically, though, outgoing Fed Chairs tended to spend their final year being more hawkish. Janet Yellen raised rates three times in the last 12 months of her term. Alan Greenspan, whose final year as Chair was in 2005, issued four hikes. Of course, these were during times of stable growth and low inflation.&nbsp;



In Powell’s case, the most hawkish move of all would be to raise rates this year. We (and markets) are all but certain that will not happen. What he might do instead, which would still be fairly hawkish, would be to delay rate cuts. “Higher for longer.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



All that said, should you buy options? I’m not in the business of offering investment advice, so I’ll hold my tongue, mostly.&nbsp;



My advice is to wait until Powell’s press conference tomorrow. We’ll have a better idea of what the Fed Chair is thinking then.



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Federal Reserve

FOMC preview: What to expect in Powell’s final months

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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Decentralized cloud computing provider io.net, which has its own IO token, is working with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mysten-labs-walrus-decentralized-gaming">Walrus</a> team to let startups train, run and store their own custom AI models.



IO offers a network of GPUs for AI training and fine-tuning, while Walrus is enabling AI model storage in the deal. The integration will be available as a pay-per-use offering, meaning builders are only charged for the amount of storage and computing power they use.&nbsp;



This Bring Your Own Model (<a href="https://www.walrus.xyz/blog/io-net-builds-ai-ml-compute-on-walrus?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=walrus">BYOM</a>) offering lets AI agent devs or AI app builders develop and operate AI models without needing to set up their own data centers or hardware to do it.



IO says it has <a href="https://x.com/ionet/status/1933585865852207428">over 10,000 GPUs</a> and CPUs globally.



Walrus and IOo’s BYOM offering will have to compete with other AI developer cloud services, though, like those from Bittensor, Lambda, Spheron, Akash, Gensyn, Vast AI, and Google’s Vertex products.&nbsp;



“Traditional centralized cloud models are not only expensive — they come with significant privacy risks and limited composability options that are challenging for developers who prioritize decentralization,” said Rebecca Simmonds, Managing Executive at Walrus Foundation.&nbsp;



“By leveraging our decentralized data storage solution, io.net will be able to provide the necessary compute power for advanced AI and ML development without any of the drawbacks of traditional models, making this a clear win for developers, users, and the entire Web3 industry,” the exec continued.



The internet can feel very centralized when giant cloud services experience outages, like what <a href="https://status.cloud.google.com/incidents/ow5i3PPK96RduMcb1SsW">happened to Google</a> last week (and impacted <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-service-outage-june-12-2025/">Cloudflare</a> as well as a range of other apps and sites). That’s one obvious reason why centralized AI compute might not be ideal.



Walrus’s mainnet launched in March, with its main pitch being programmable, decentralized storage. The Walrus Foundation announced a raise of <a href="https://www.walrus.xyz/blog/walrus-foundation-fundraising">$140 million</a> that month.



More broadly, the need for computing power for AI is expected to keep increasing annually. McKinsey researchers <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-cost-of-compute-a-7-trillion-dollar-race-to-scale-data-centers">predict</a> that data centers are going to need $6.7 trillion globally to keep up with demand by 2030 (though there’s a range of possible scenarios they modeled below).



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdeE3FMjbeJu8JoUEwwOTegZVTaMJz6gbSiu-x-rj5KykoEnoagSm6dJLiBBXEv6KSZcVmu4SdyqiVBWH-xYl7Hh4-X0zfD6nYeQi6GrW3jP4bIdzxMsP5xME1Ibo56cOPkBSUa-w?key=g-Zjg6ACpeSZexUcVepx6g" alt=""/></figure>



AI compute is expected to need $5.2 trillion in investments to keep up with current demand in the next five years, while non-AI IT apps are expected to need much less than that at $1.5 trillion.



Walrus’s AI storage offering with IOo could help the Sui-based storage protocol see more adoption from AI builders and app devs, even from those outside of the crypto space. 



The Walrus mainnet currently has 4,167 TB in total storage capacity, with about 26% of that being used right now. The protocol has <a href="https://walruscan.com/mainnet/home">103 total</a> operators across 121 storage nodes.



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blockchain

Walrus, IO bring GPUs and decentralized storage to AI builders

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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EigenLayer today launched EigenCloud, a developer platform designed to bring crypto-economic trust to any application, whether on- or off-chain. The product debuts alongside a fresh $70 million investment from a16z, bringing the venture firm’s total commitment to over $170 million.



We’ve <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eigenlayer-restaking-mantle-zksync">previously covered EigenDA</a>, but today’s launch brings two additional service offerings to the fore: EigenVerify and EigenCompute.



The gist is to bring EigenLayer closer toward a full-fledged crypto’s AWS: a verifiability layer for Ethereum that combines off-chain execution with onchain guarantees. The protocol is already stocked with $12 billion in restaked assets, namely ETH. This TVL has, of course, fluctuated in USD terms with the ETH price, but has remained remarkably sticky in ETH terms.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf0bNR-EDg7GQV81XODzJeQCcqkcMN4HLSldZYirUvkiX-UtchyadWWoUriq9vtHK8F06d0Zt7hP5NNkqHmpL31UCbbCZDjI-Ch4tVQiMFkT_yNXx8-AmZLQcC4fr-d7rPlNsx9hA?key=NkCplN3EhAv5Yb7PMKid1Q" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/eigenlayer?denomination=ETH">DefiLlama</a></figcaption></figure>



EigenCloud promises a new generation of applications across AI, media, gaming and finance, with key features focused on provability: the what-when-why something happened.



For instance:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI agents that issue proofs for model inference or decision paths</li>



<li>Oracles and games where disputes are crypto-economically resolvable</li>



<li>Memecoins whose mechanics are enforced by programmable slashing</li>



<li>Media feeds immune to deepfakes or manipulated news</li>
</ul>



In short, any Web2 application that needs trust, but doesn’t need to be its own L1 chain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">EigenCloud components</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>EigenDA: A high-throughput data availability layer offering &gt;10 MB/s throughput. Think of it as a turbocharged alternative to Ethereum’s blobspace, ready for rollups and content-heavy workloads.</li>



<li>EigenVerify: A programmable dispute resolution system. Developers can specify fraud or correctness conditions, and violations are punished through slashing.</li>



<li>EigenCompute: Verifiable off-chain compute-as-a-service that abstracts, for instance, node management and links crypto-economic guarantees to general-purpose workflows.</li>
</ul>



Together, these primitives give developers a sort of plug-and-play access to verifiability, piggybacking on Ethereum’s validator infrastructure.



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



A compelling vision, to be sure. But it’s also early for practical applications and risks abound.



Much of EigenLayer’s TVL ramp-up was driven by airdrop speculation, and built up before slashing was enabled in April. But capital can flee just as fast as it arrived.



Second, critics (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/restaking-ticking-time-bomb-eth">including Vitalik Buterin</a>) have warned about restaking contagion, potentially putting Ethereum&#8217;s social consensus between a rock and a hard place. However, EigenCloud’s primitives are secured by a separate operator set distinct from Ethereum’s core validators, so slashing on EigenLayer does not affect Ethereum consensus. Its architecture prevents a single unit of stake from being slashed multiple times across services, with cryptoeconomic guarantees underwritten by the EIGEN token.



Rival Symbiotic’s risk model is a bit different still, with <a href="https://docs.symbiotic.fi/intro/stake/">isolated vaults</a> and per-network slashing parameters. Since each vault operates independently, a failure in one vault does not cascade across all restaked funds.



Third, governance has a relatively big role. With a16z funding both the infrastructure and many of the AVSs it secures, some worry about ecosystem capture.



EigenCloud enters a crowded field, aside from Symbiotic. EigenDA competes with data availability networks like Celestia and Avail, and there are similar compute systems like Gensyn and Akash.&nbsp;



A select group of developers are getting access to EigenCloud today, including Securitize, which will use EigenVerify to validate pricing data for BlackRock’s $2 billion BUIDL fund. Broader access and staking rewards are expected to follow in waves.



The a16z $70 million token purchase sounds impressive, but it has a massive $4.5 billion fund, so it brings its bet to only about 3.7%.



If EigenCloud can execute on its promise, it could finally bridge the gap between Web2 flexibility and Web3 trust. But it still needs to prove that real slashing, decentralized governance and non-DeFi use cases will actually work and scale.



Correction, June 17, 2025 at 3:06 pm ET: Updated the slashing risks section to correctly reflect the current architecture.



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0xResearch Newsletter

EigenCloud launches aiming to bring verifiability to everything

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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Five months ago, Gemini and the CFTC <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/gemini-agrees-5-mln-fine-injunction-over-cftc-charges-filing-shows-2025-01-06/">agreed to a settlement of $5 million</a> related to a 2022 lawsuit from the CFTC <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8540-22">alleging</a> that the crypto exchange made false or misleading statements about a bitcoin futures contract it wanted to launch.&nbsp;



Gemini sent a letter via its lawyers to the CFTC’s Inspector General Christopher Skinner alleging that the Division of Enforcement (DOE), which led the suit, didn’t act in good faith.



The 13-page document claims the DOE “was not motivated by a principled application of the law or a desire to protect the commodities markets.”



The letter alleges, instead, that the individuals involved in Gemini’s case sought to go after Gemini in the hopes of gaining a legal win. But Gemini’s not the only one who’s been critical of the DOE recently.&nbsp;



A court sanctioned the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cftc">CFTC</a> back in May in a case led by the regulator against Traders Global Group. This led to acting chairman Caroline Pham <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9074-25#:~:text=Proactive%20CFTC%20Remediation%20and%20Reform,leverage%20expertise%20and%20reduce%20siloing.">making a public statement</a> about her concerns with the DOE and the efforts she’s since undertaken to reorganize it.&nbsp;



Now <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gemini">Gemini</a> is making its own public statement, alleging that DOE staff failed to provide any evidence proving that information was omitted about the bitcoin futures contract.&nbsp;



(The background of this is that an ex-employee, who was terminated, allegedly lied to the CFTC in a whistleblower report that led to this whole suit.)



Its letter directly referenced the case above, noting that the DOE also tried to “downplay its wrongdoing” to the Commission.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe3v2TfAGFG1EBJNW_j6Bu8bQ0Tqu0odJymnZ7eI2JWbwnFVbcUwKVclNfnFTgtEVaxhANjF_havYsxhs0vpczXRWbj-awjBDSYFDtP-aPvkenKv6_J6xMLWnatBQA2jaabXRv17A?key=dn8MjfZEBB2ayQ0bk5_5MA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: letter from Gemini’s lawyers to Inspector General Skinner</figcaption></figure>



Gemini said it got to the point where it had “no choice” but to agree to the $5 million settlement.



“Gemini Trust did not settle because it did anything wrong…For nearly seven years, the DOE Staff subjected Gemini Trust to abusive investigation and litigation. As detailed above, the DOE Staff took extraordinarily aggressive legal positions and abused special governmental privileges in order to substantially hinder Gemini Trust’s ability to defend itself,” Gemini claims.&nbsp;



It is important to note that while Gemini agreed to a permanent injunction, it did not admit or deny the CFTC’s allegations. However, that is standard in these types of settlements.



You may be wondering why we’re bothering to talk about this, especially since we’re in such a new era. But remember when big players, like Coinbase’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/brian-armstrong">Brian Armstrong</a>, said they wouldn’t hire or interact with firms that brought on ex-SEC enforcement lawyers? This is a similar situation.&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">We&#39;ve let all the law firms we work with know, that if they hire anyone who committed these bad deeds in the (soon to be) prior administration, we will no longer be a client of theirs. Senior partners at these law firms seem unaware of the crypto industry&#39;s position on this.… <a href="https://t.co/k8R6NtfTV1">https://t.co/k8R6NtfTV1</a> <a href="https://t.co/RT0k408i9f">pic.twitter.com/RT0k408i9f</a>&mdash; Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) <a href="https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1863774342267781222?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Yes, things look a lot brighter now, but that doesn’t change the past, and in order to move forward, it’s important to acknowledge what happened and get to the bottom of it. Think about Castle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter’s <a href="https://niccarter.info/">push</a> to prove <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2024/12/06/proof-of-operation-chokepoint-2-0">Operation Chokepoint 2.0 happened</a>.&nbsp;



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CFTC

Gemini says it had ‘no choice’ but to settle with CFTC

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The rise of on-chain private credit</h2>



Institutional investors are increasingly eyeing tokenized private credit as the next frontier in fixed-income. Even BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink has proclaimed that “every asset… can be tokenized” and that this innovation could “revolutionize investing”​. Private credit – loans to businesses outside traditional bank lending – is at the forefront of this trend. As of early 2025, roughly $12.9 billion worth of private credit has been brought on-chain, making it the largest segment of the tokenized real-asset market (surpassing tokenized treasuries at ~$6.2B)​. Investors are drawn by the promise of efficiency and attractive yields: traditional private credit already yields ~8–12% to compensate for illiquidity​, and newer tokenized deals are often targeting 14%+ annual returns. In a world of tightening spreads, double-digit yields from real-world loans have become a compelling opportunity.



Total tokenized real-world asset value (USD)



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="666" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-103599" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=1110 1110w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=435 435w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=365 365w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-12.51.00 PM.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Total value of tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains, by category (USD). Private credit (blue area) leads the pack as of early 2025​.</figcaption></figure>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://debita.io/?utm_source=blockworks">Debita</a> is an on-chain private-credit platform engineered by market-finance experts, delivering alternative financing rails to businesses in emerging economies and aimed at bridging the financing gap for those excluded from capital markets.</li>



<li>US $80 million already placed, inaugural deals yielding 14–20 %, and a pipeline poisedto issue more than US $150 million over the next 12 months. Debita&#8217;s ecosystem includes commercial banks, investment banks, structuring agents and servicers in markets such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Colombia and Argentina. In addition to multilateral and development banks, international credit funds and family offices.</li>
</ul>



“Blockchain has reached the point where it can carry real-world assets with bank-grade controls. By digitising loans or bonds on-chain we settle cash and securities in seconds, 24/7, and even carve them into fractional interests that can trade compliantly. That opens markets once off-limits to a far broader pool of professional capital. We’re standing at the threshold of a US $2 trillion private-credit market that is about to gain liquidity, transparency and fresh funding. In short, this isn’t just back-office efficiency—it’s new yield and true diversification for investors.”



— Julio Ferrón, CEO at <a href="https://neitec.io/?utm_source=blockworks">Neitec</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The $5 trillion SME funding gap</h2>



Behind the excitement over yields lies a deeper issue: a systemic funding gap for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. These companies are the engines of job creation and GDP growth, yet they remain chronically underfinanced. According to the International Finance Corporation, the global **SME credit gap is about $5.7 trillion, and it swells to over $8 trillion if you include informal businesses​. In emerging economies, local banks often consider SME loans too risky or costly to underwrite, citing lack of collateral, high due diligence costs, and limited credit data. This leaves millions of viable businesses without affordable credit. The result is a classic market failure.&nbsp;



On one side, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries struggle to obtain loans to expand factories, hire workers, or purchase inventory. On the other side, investors worldwide are chasing higher yields but face structural barriers that prevent them from channeling funds to these businesses. This persistent financing gap—between microcredit at one end and large-scale corporate finance at the other—has endured for decades. Bridging this financing gap isn’t just a development goal; it represents an enormous untapped market.&nbsp;



In this sense, our mission is to channel financing that helps businesses grow, strengthens local economies, boosts domestic value creation, and improves people’s lives, because that is what matters: doing our part to advance humanity’s progress.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bridging the divide: Neitec and Debita</h2>



This is why Neitec team, uk- basedfintech founded by a team coming from Barclays, Santander or KPMG, among others, built Debita. Debita offers an integrated platform that unifies the origination, structuring, servicing and placement of private debt for mid-sized companies and fintechs in Latin America—markets where access to capital is scarce and local banks cannot meet demand. By bringing risk assessment, compliance controls, data-room management, servicing and syndication processes together in one environment, we tangibly streamline workflows that were previously scattered across multiple actors.&nbsp;



Thanks to this standardization, issuers can structure their deals efficiently and reach global investors at a lower operating cost.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why stablecoins for B2B crossborder transactions?</h3>



The platform selectively incorporates on-chain rails, collapsing both time and cost in the payment and settlement of private debt. By moving the cash leg and the asset leg onto the same block, we eliminate the usual correspondent-bank waiting period and reduce fees for transfers and FX conversions, allowing transactions to settle in seconds rather than days.This speed not only cuts costs; it also translates into greater working-capital headroom for issuers, as funds freed from traditional banking procedures can be deployed immediately into inventory, payroll, or new projects—reinforcing the growth capacity of SMEs in emerging markets.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Extend credit without balance-sheet strain: how banks partner with Debita</h3>



Debita sources transactions through different channels: local structuring boutiques that originate and shepherd deals on the ground; commercial/investment banks that originate new loans and syndicate the risk through the platform instead of keeping it on their own balance sheet; and issuers that come directly to the platform.



Also, this approach allows them to offer new yield-bearing products to private-banking clients—fully managed via the platform—while maintaining visibility over each transaction. By distributing placements beyond local markets, Debita broadens the investor base, enhances risk diversification. Such capabilities are particularly valuable in jurisdictions with evolving financial infrastructures or stricter frameworks, where access to international funding and effective risk-sharing can be crucial to growth.&nbsp;



The result is an ecosystem that provides corporates and fintechs with a more reliable and transparent funding path, spurring productive investment in regions with limited access to capital. By connecting the supply and demand of credit in a single digital flow—including the participation of financial institutions seeking to syndicate or structure transactions—Debita lays the foundations for faster, more global access to capital with the potential for real, sustainable impact on local economies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why is this a great opportunity for institutional investors?</h2>



Global institutional investors access mid- to high-double-digit yield private credit deals—vetted by local partners and rating agencies—managed within a single platform that delivers real-time, transparent oversight and all the cost and settlement efficiencies of on-chain asset representation. In short, Debita turns fragmented, high-friction emerging-market lending into a single, transparent feed of diversified, high-yield private credit ready for institutional balance sheets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Key Takeaways</h2>



Debita is effectively building the infrastructure for a more inclusive financial system. It takes the best of both worlds: the credibility and rigor of traditional finance, and the efficiency and openness of new technology. This alignment positions Debita. We are seeing large asset managers and banks increasingly experiment in this space, from tokenized funds to blockchain-settled bond issues. Their goal is not just to cut costs, but to expand their investment universe safely.&nbsp;



Imagine billions of dollars flowing from pension funds and sovereign investors in North America, Europe, and the Middle East directly to mid-sized businesses in emerging countries. That kind of capital mobilization could fuel a new era of growth in those economies .



In summary, Neitec’s Debita platform is closing the credit gap by unlocking high-yield private debt in markets that need it most. It demonstrates that tokenization is not just about improving efficiency in mature markets; it’s about innovating for inclusion, bringing new borrowers and lenders together in ways not previously possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Ready to explore on-chain private credit?</h2>



Request our investor deck or book a 30-minute call with Neitec’s team:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>📧 enquiries@neitec.io</li>



<li>📅 <a href="https://calendly.com/pdelasmatas-neitec/new-meeting?month=2025-06">Schedule a call</a></li>
</ul>



This content is sponsored and does not serve as an endorsement by Blockworks. The veracity of this content has not been verified and should not serve as financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research before making financial decisions.



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Borderless private credit: How Neitec is bridging a $5T credit gap through Debita

This is a segment from The Breakdown newsletter. To read full 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">
“The money supply is the blood of the economic body; when it flows freely, the economy prospers.”&nbsp;



— Irving Fisher
</blockquote>



In New York City, paying by check first became commonplace in the booming economy of the 1840s.&nbsp;



This was a major financial innovation: Instead of walking out of the bank with a satchel of borrowed cash to pay for, say, a steamer full of Southern cotton at the docks, a merchant could have a loan credited to a checking account and then settle his purchases with a few strokes of the pen.



As banking expanded and commerce sped up, checks offered a safer, faster way to move money through the city.



But the money did still have to be physically moved around.



Unlike today, banks did not unquestionably accept each other’s bank notes at face value.



Instead, payments between banks were settled in “specie” (gold coins, usually), which had to be shuttled back and forth across the city according to who had paid whom.



To do so, each bank employed a porter whose job it was to settle the transactions the bank’s depositors had made with checks.&nbsp;



Every day, the city’s 50 or so bank porters would set out with a ledger book, checks their bank had received and bags of gold coins.



Their job was to visit the city’s 49 other banks, present their checks for payment and collect any checks drawn on their own bank.



If the value of the checks they presented was greater than what they had received, they collected the difference in gold — or paid it out of their bag if the balance went the other way.



This system worked well enough when there were only a handful of banks in the city, but by 1850 there were too many of them for porters to both travel to and settle accounts within a single day.



So New York’s banks agreed to continue exchanging checks daily but to settle accounts in specie only once a week.



Friday mornings, the porters would gather on Wall Street (outdoors) to exchange gold coins and close the books on the week.



As a <a href="https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/a_century_of_banking_in_new_york_1922.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com">history of New York banking</a> later explained with an illustrative example, however, this was no easy task:



“Thomas had left a bag of specie at John&#8217;s bank to settle a balance, which was due from William&#8217;s Bank to Robert&#8217;s; but Robert&#8217;s bank owed twice as much to John&#8217;s. What had become of that? Then Alexander owed Robert also, and William was indebted to Alexander. Peter then said that he had paid Robert by a draft from James, which he, James, had received from Alfred on Alexander&#8217;s account. That, however, had settled only half the debt. A quarter of the remainder was cancelled by a bag of coin, which Samuel had handed over to Joseph, and he had transferred to David.”&nbsp;



“It is entirely safe to say that the Presidents and Cashiers of the banks themselves could not have untangled this medley,” the author concluded.



But not for long: The untangling of said medley was the next great innovation in moving money around.



In 1853, the New York Clearing House was established, after which banks settled their accounts “multilaterally” — each bank settling with the Clearing House instead of with each other.



This is a much better way to do business: fewer messengers, fewer mistakes and far less gold to lug around (and get lost or stolen).&nbsp;



“In one case,” the banking historian noted, “a bank which had debit charges footing up $6,180,000 had to pay merely $167.31.”



At first, that remaining balance would still be settled in specie, so the city’s porters stayed busy.&nbsp;



But this soon changed as banks began leaving their gold on deposit with the Clearing House in return for “specie certificates” — paper receipts backed by gold, which could be used to settle debts without moving the metal itself (an early form of ETF, basically).



This was more than just a way to make life easier for banks, however.&nbsp;



Each innovation in payments — from checks to clearing houses to specie certificates — helped money move faster through the system, accelerating commerce for everyone.



That’s important because when money flows freely, economies prosper — the faster banks settle, the faster they can start lending again.



Checks were faster than cash, clearinghouses were faster than porters and specie certificates were faster than gold coins — and each made the economy run faster, too.&nbsp;



Money has since gotten even faster, of course. Today, innovations like Fedwire and CHIPS move trillions of dollars a day with no gold coins, no bank porters and barely any delay.



But as fast as money moves now, there’s no reason to think it can’t move faster — the history of banking suggests there’s always a better way.



Increasingly, people think that way might be stablecoins. CHIPS and Fedwire allow near-instant settlement, but only within a narrow circle of regulated financial institutions and only during regular US business hours.



Stablecoins have the potential to remove these frictions.



Anyone can move digital dollars — globally, 24/7 and permissionlessly — without waiting for a bank to approve the transaction, a clearinghouse to open or a central bank to update its spreadsheets.



In the US, digital dollars have so far been used mostly to facilitate the 24/7 market in crypto trading, which, on its own, isn’t much of a breakthrough.



But <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/walmart-amazon-stablecoin-07de2fdd?st=gUAuRr">news</a> that Walmart and Amazon are both considering issuing store-branded stablecoins hints at something much bigger.



If stablecoins were to gain traction in everyday commerce, it might represent the next evolutionary step in payments: a dollar that not only moves faster than ever before, but moves more often, in more places, by more people.



We’d all stand to benefit — because when money moves faster, everything else does too.



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Are stablecoins the next great acceleration of money?

Jeff Albus

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



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Solana&#8217;s memecoin season mostly played out on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dexs">DEXs</a> like Raydium and Jupiter, with centralized exchanges, which sometimes only get around to listing new tokens after their popularity has peaked, sitting the party out.



Hard to blame them at the time. Liquidity was scattered, tokens were often unserious and (in earlier political climates) listings seemed sure to attract unwanted scrutiny from the big-bads at the SEC.



But the world has changed, there&#8217;s money to be made, and strategies are now in flux.



Last week, centralized exchange Bybit <a href="https://x.com/byreal_io/status/1934085435212308789">announced</a> a new Solana-based exchange called Byreal. According to the company, it&#8217;s being built from scratch and incubated in-house. Today, the project&#8217;s socials went live with the announcement of a testnet, set for June 30, and a mainnet slated for Q3 this year.



According to the announcement, Byreal will offer a &#8220;hybrid&#8221; model meant to merge centralized liquidity with decentralized execution.&nbsp;



Pitched as an extension of Bybit itself, it will route trades using Request for Quote (RFQ) and Concentrated Liquidity (CLMM) mechanisms, integrate MEV protection and leverage unified liquidity sources. Users get execution from market makers or LPs, depending on the asset and conditions.



There&#8217;s also Revive Vault, a curated yield product designed to deliver real yield on Solana assets like bbSOL, and its own token launchpad, called Reset Launch.



The latter seeks to create a more equitable token distribution by combining a Smart Price Ladder that raises token prices incrementally with a Fairshare Engine that distributes allocations based on participation rather than speed.



And that&#8217;s all well and good, but in a world already full to bursting with competing DEXs, why does Bybit think Solana needs another one?



Well, despite DeFi&#8217;s promise of open, onchain finance, most trading still happens on centralized exchanges. That&#8217;s partly due to liquidity fragmentation, partly due to painful UX, and mostly because DEXs still can&#8217;t compete with CEXs on slippage, speed or price execution.



With its fast finality and low fees, Solana is uniquely positioned to bridge that gap. But its most popular DEXs tend to specialize: Phoenix offers pure order books, Jupiter routes swaps and Raydium hosts memecoin liquidity.



Then there’s the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hyperliquid-hype-valued-l1-perps-dex">growing trading juggernaut</a> in Hyperliquid — which uses colocated validators to hit CEX-like performance in a no-KYC DEX environment. It’s obviously a different blockchain with some centralization tradeoffs, but Solana, DEXs, and CEXs could all have a lot to lose if Hyperliquid becomes the retail crypto trading platform of choice.



The Solana market-proper lacks a DEX that combines deep liquidity, fair price discovery and streamlined onboarding into a single package, though.



So that&#8217;s the play for Byreal: balance CEX-grade execution, DeFi transparency and user experience while unifying liquidity into a single trading venue. If it can ship fast and attract real projects, Bybit probably won&#8217;t be the only CEX to script a second act beyond CeFi.



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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/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

Bybit

Solana gets new hybrid DEX from Bybit

Ben Strack

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



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I enjoyed my time off, but it’s always nice to be back in the loop.



A lot happened on the crypto ETF front while I was away. And perhaps you forgot we’re approaching a very important SEC deadline. But first, checking up on ETF filings — as one does first thing after returning from abroad — I came across Yorkville America Digital’s latest proposal. That would be a Truth Social-branded ETF that this time would hold both BTC and ETH.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Yorkville finalized a <a href="https://link.mail.beehiiv.com/ss/c/u001.ZaVO_gulYIDHwTR9OqetU7Bg8sIaNC2rP34QpXDcW9bROa8OG6u8KUk2Ksj30caIO8AshtUnCCj3JUrnZ9ZnCWV7CvGHxy2bb7uPaVtNfMXc6gMcc8RJw2xgWCOf2bltlDITjHKNajWiaKqEvaqpaUaX8He4h4dqq_IResmS6zJa6F7of0_OsuxdefaxYCDTuNUxevPZB6__p5TvYqQ2g8uOGjxB-L5VxsB4QjfbNeCBbQkG7BZKIDfxgW8uFTMXdkS9h9_7lCT61QPi9U-SGA313Qdrfh2rBYszvJAf2r7Q4-LO2H-IqwpFGDao_B3l1-7B84fIZNTyerPJw6GbeN2GO6z3Rdf-MxGt1VeQWKWtAm0I3zddceOO0KXRj-waO1J5GzQjkDqrkY0fJGIxIw/4h2/W281edT0Tvy2ifMnqMRofw/h10/h001.W5z2fT0ooCNchgCsfv4KC5tlh2Ygj72dV8wIcM-wrHQ">partnership</a> with Truth Social parent company Trump Media and Technology Group in April and previously signaled its plan to launch a bitcoin ETF.



CoinShares, meanwhile, joined the spot solana ETF race, becoming the eighth issuer to do so. The firm declined to comment.&nbsp;



Those filings come after the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-etf-sec-forms">SEC engaged with issuers</a> about spot SOL products and the subsequent S-1 amendments. You likely saw that covered in Blockworks last week.&nbsp;



A person familiar with the amendments told me today that the exact timeline of an SEC ruling on the solana products remains unknown. But “a flurry of filings” is typically “the best sign” that products are close to approval, the source noted, adding the latest S-1s point to “some sort of push from the SEC to get things organized.”



While those proposal adjustments dealt with the single-asset funds (complete with staking language), let us not forget about crypto index ETFs.



We should know by July 2 whether the SEC is letting the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC) convert to an ETF. That fund’s holdings are below: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcaun9C2KV1UUFZEXv4cG6fs3L8u9ppVUPmFWjK0sOqKa8Ac0WHg5f2X6PmbLc82sqPXjljtzY1XjF_Be49KszGMlGAEAriAksWqcGiBS7TMZDEfVcoxFa-SmgSPniNJpMCEbuKbA?key=GRK8bxE7P9eK5pHWpv-e5Q" width="624" height="291"> 



Bloomberg Intelligence analysts expect the agency to let GDLC — and the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) — become ETFs.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Having only small allocations to alternative coins might help their ETF conversion bids even if the SEC hasn’t individually approved each asset for an ETF wrapper,” James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas wrote in a note last week.



Samir Kerbage, CIO of Brazil-based asset manager Hashdex, shared a similar sentiment when we <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hashdex-crypto-etfs-index-sec-interview">spoke last month</a>. The company filed to allow its existing Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (NCIQ) to hold tokens beyond BTC and ETH — like SOL, XRP and others.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Kerbage told me today that he views the solana ETF S-1 amendments as “a positive development toward approving broader crypto index ETF proposals — as BTC, ETH and SOL, combined, constitute more than 90% of the Nasdaq Crypto Index.”



To be clear, the person familiar with the latest ETF filings views the S-1 amendments and upcoming crypto index product deadline as two distinct things.



Still, some think the SEC greenlighting crypto index ETFs could open the floodgates. Take this June 10 X post by Van Buren Capital general partner Scott Johnsson, for example, which appears to allude to the July 2 deadline.



<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">Should be about 3 weeks away from the SEC laying out the playing field for crypto ETFs for the next several years. Expecting the universe of allowable strategies to begin expanding meaningfully.&mdash; Scott Johnsson (@SGJohnsson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SGJohnsson/status/1932433474872565797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



He <a href="https://x.com/SGJohnsson/status/1915619368156762388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1915619368156762388%7Ctwgr%5E00d4fbd43a5d291f9b959e2f9ff743febce506e2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblockworks.co%2Fnews%2Fhashdex-crypto-etfs-index-sec-interview">noted</a> last month that because the index products have a more undefined universe of allocations, the SEC would theoretically adopt a general rule vs. a case-by-case rule application.



“Once the index products are (hopefully) cleared, it should be a simple application of the general rule to the single asset spot products,” Johnsson added at the time.&nbsp;



We’ll be watching this very closely over the next two weeks.



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



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
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ETFs

Crypto ETF filings multiply ahead of SEC index fund decision

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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Now that the US regulatory climate around crypto has shifted, some, like a16z’s Miles Jennings, have declared that crypto foundations like those set up in the Cayman Islands are no longer necessary and should be a thing of the past.



Jennings, who is the venture firm’s head of policy and general counsel, <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/end-foundation-era-crypto/">wrote</a> in a recent blog post that foundations became standard initially to increase decentralization. But over time, he argues, foundations’ lack of economic incentives, combined with existing legal and economic constraints, have made it difficult for the nonprofits to be productive or broadly financially successful.



“Most foundation setups require projects to spend upwards of $500,000 and several months working with an army of lawyers and accountants. This not only slows innovation, it’s cost prohibitive for small startups,” Jennings said.&nbsp;



“The situation has gotten so bad that it’s now increasingly difficult to even find attorneys with experience setting up foreign foundation structures, because many have given up their practices. Why? Because they now just collect fees as professional board members on dozens of crypto foundations,” he argued.



Jennings concluded that companies are just better. Foundations have turned into controlling entities, but could evolve into other formats like Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Associations (DUNAs), while developer firms could become Public Benefit Corporations (PBCs).&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">I&#39;ve never been more optimistic about the chances of market structure legislation passing in the U.S. It&#39;s a great time to be building in crypto in America. <a href="https://t.co/ZO8HjVrErS">https://t.co/ZO8HjVrErS</a>&mdash; miles jennings (@milesjennings) <a href="https://twitter.com/milesjennings/status/1932883189443539059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



How do other blockchain attorneys feel about crypto foundations, especially when they have historically been set up to address regulatory and taxation concerns?&nbsp;



&#8220;Foundations for token issuances are neither needed nor would they be particularly effective in instances where there was a concern whether or not the token constitutes a security,” David Otto, managing partner at Martin Davis PLLC who led defense in the <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/litreleases/2025/stip26299.pdf">recently-dismissed</a> SEC lawsuit against DragonChain, told me in a message.



“There generally is no longer the perception that one needs to create a foundation (other than for specific jurisdictions that provide for tax benefits) in connection with a token issuance,” Otto added.



Moish Peltz, co-managing partner of Falcon, Rappaport &amp; Berkman&#8217;s <a href="https://frblaw.com/practices/digital-assets/">Digital Assets Group</a>, said that offshore foundations can still have a role in crypto, but “rationale is narrowing as US rules catch up.”



Peltz suggested that US teams should look into starting US-based UNAs or DUNAs instead — or set up an LLC as a for-profit option.&nbsp;



He advises to “only look offshore if (a) a significant share of contributors cannot participate under U.S. securities or tax laws, or (b) the project’s community is already truly global and wants a neutral flag. Even then, they should expect to satisfy disclosure, KYC, and board-independence standards they would face here.”



“The real barrier is the tax,” Peltz continued. “Token treasuries often appreciate before they are spent. If the IRS provides clearer deferral or charitable-like treatment for bona-fide decentralized or public-goods projects, many of the remaining reasons to go offshore will compress.”



Tyler Harttraft, a partner at Bull Blockchain Law, told me that crypto foundations remain essential for US teams launching tokens. He noted that the tax breaks are the main reason crypto has been drawn to Cayman Islands foundations in the past, and this will likely remain the preferred pathway until new US regulation is solidified.



“The current US regulatory landscape offers no clear issuance pathway: Although the SEC is exploring exemptive relief and Congress has proposed measures like the Clarity Act and the Digital Asset Market Structure draft, none have yet created a formal safe-harbor for new token launches. As a result, advising a crypto firm to establish a separate non-US foundation remains the only reliable option for legal and tax certainty,” Harttraft said.



Video streaming- and data storage-focused network Livepeer is one example of a crypto ecosystem that just launched a foundation earlier this month in the current climate.&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">Today is a big day in the <a href="https://twitter.com/Livepeer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Livepeer</a> ecosystem, as we share the launch of the new Livepeer Foundation! 8 years ago, at the dawn of the project, we opted not to take the Foundation path, for many of the reasons that <a href="https://twitter.com/milesjennings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@milesjennings</a> from A16Z Crypto recently articulated in a… <a href="https://t.co/a99WApcJP3">https://t.co/a99WApcJP3</a>&mdash; Doug Petkanics (@petkanics) <a href="https://twitter.com/petkanics/status/1930642003156435232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“We’re creating something leaner, more focused, and better suited to the actual needs of a mature, multi-entity, decentralized network,” Livepeer cofounder and CEO Doug Petkanics told me in a message. “Many foundations have become bloated intermediaries that exist as a regulatory workaround, and neither accelerate decentralization nor improve execution.”



The current political climate suggests foundations may not be needed for much longer, which would be a drastic change from the status quo of the past decade.&nbsp;



While some foundations serve more of a purpose than others, setting up something leaner or doing away with the model entirely would increase competition and aid scrappy startup builders in the US looking to bring tokenization to their consumer apps. Progress!



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International

Do crypto teams still need offshore foundations?

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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World War II’s outcome was fundamentally determined by access to oil.



So depleted was the resource by the final stages of the war that Nazi Germany resorted to extraordinary measures to maintain basic mobility — pulling trucks by oxen, four at a time.



The oil situation for the armies of Imperial Japan was equally dire. In Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Prize, he documented how the Japanese kamikaze suicide pilots would fill their tanks to only halfway since they were not meant to return from their missions.



The armies of both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were defeated not for lack of manpower or armaments, but because they ran out of oil.



Oil’s enduring legacy in the history of the deadliest conflict in human history continues to influence and reverberate throughout contemporary thinking.



For instance, “<a href="https://truthonthemarket.com/2019/10/08/why-data-is-not-the-new-oil/">data is the new oil</a>” is the rally cry of Big Tech critics when they clamor for stronger regulations of tech companies.&nbsp;



Whether they do it unknowingly or not, the metaphor draws a parallel between oil’s historical importance and the emerging value of data in the digital economy.



That analogy too has permeated crypto, evident in our use of words like “gas” and “burn.”



Channeling that meme to the fullest is last week’s “The Bull Case For ETH” report co-authored by top Ethereum stakeholders.



In the report, ETH is projected at a value of $8k per ETH ($1 trillion market cap) in the short term.



The long-term moon math goes even further: ETH at a $85 trillion asset of $706k per ETH — a steal at today’s prices!



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcHACO2f_Raldni6zd72h5ZTPMm8xUJwkGkixyDxfyP9lDXVTpSYWc13ZpJO96z-rsKsA8CPsuSWOaqDcLlMj9EqUxC3s7MbwmKFJ8GMgyXLz_X5IsU1lre_I3LtaBDheSsJ-1wAw?key=7beOlZh4fLlxRGum6-OPxA" alt=""/></figure>



Source: <a href="https://ethdigitaloil.com/">Ethdigitaloil</a>



Part of this valuation model benchmarks ETH against today’s $85 trillion oil market valuation.



But the case for ETH as “digital oil” is more complex than that.



For one, unlike real armies, the heaviest gas guzzlers of ETH have cheaper alternatives.



Ethereum’s largest <a href="https://etherscan.io/gastracker">gas guzzlers</a> have historically been Uniswap and Tether. Both are actively moving their execution onto more gas-optimized environments (Unichain and Plasma).



Though Plasma isn’t live yet, and Unichain is still in its early days, it does considerably weaken the case for ETH as “digital oil.”



What about data availability?



The biggest ETH-denominated bill for L2s is the cost of using Ethereum DA, namely publishing your raw transaction data to the L1.&nbsp;



Before the introduction of blob space with EIP-4844, 1 kB of call data would cost about 16,000 gas, or about $1.44 (assuming ETH at $3000).



That’s a non-trivial 80-90% of a typical L2 fee.



EIP-4844 brought legacy call data costs down by ~99%, yet it is still cheaper by ~20-30x if rollups use an alternative-DA layer like Celestia or EigenDA.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc_leEK2S_w7cCv3UrbbgcTiDJmo1dUmcydr-icsFXuCTvSdrY4X9SXO3AQtXI_I8cqee6IYDcSzKJVTX1L5Fp1zCoFdQ9RKr_eVg_k_zpeDnxGwfRGq4_BOQzgOUS2A3tPhotq?key=7beOlZh4fLlxRGum6-OPxA" alt=""/></figure>



The ETH as “digital oil” thesis crumbles further when you consider that Ethereum itself faces stiff competition from competing L1s.



If Ethereum can claim its native asset as “digital oil,” so can Solana, Sui and every other ecosystem.



Yes, Ethereum is the largest crypto economy and the second largest crypto asset. But the Ethereum economy is not so far ahead of its peers that ETH would have the same overwhelming influence that oil does.



The whole analogy of ETH as “digital oil” rests on shaky premises.



ETH may very well be a global reserve asset, but memeing that into existence would be tough for institutional investors to swallow.



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ETH as digital oil is a tough sell

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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Last week, we <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-faucet">covered a story</a> that might’ve made you feel impossibly late to Bitcoin.



Let’s undo that feeling.&nbsp;



I’m not here to make the case that nation states and multibillion-dollar companies buying bitcoin is not a big deal.



El Salvador adopting BTC as legal tender will go down in history as one of the most significant events in finance, modern or otherwise, regardless of how it ended. Bhutan’s harnessing of its bountiful hydropower capacity to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bhutan-btc-mining-operations">mine bitcoin</a> is equally momentous.&nbsp;



So is Michael Saylor and (Micro)Strategy’s toppling of the first corporate domino, when it bought $250 million bitcoin in 2020. Square (now Block) and Tesla quickly followed, then a few firms across Asia, and then a few more in the US. Now, companies are announcing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-treasury-companies-alt-season">new treasury strategies</a> every other day.



Almost half a decade later, one portal <a href="https://bitbo.io/treasuries/">counts</a> 74 public stocks with at least some bitcoin on their balance sheets, totaling 764,070 BTC ($86.1 billion), or almost 4% of the circulating supply. (Strategy makes up over three quarters of the whole.)



And then there’s the two-and-a-half dozen ETFs and other funds with 1.39 million BTC ($148.7 billion), or over 6.6% of the coins in existence, most of it belonging to BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale.&nbsp;



Obviously, the price of bitcoin has jumped alongside each leap of adoption in the past five years: major corporations, sovereigns, asset managers and then back to corporations of all sizes, including SPACs.



Bitcoin is up almost 10x since Strategy’s first buy, 3x since Nayib Bukele announced the Bitcoin Law, and nearly 2.5x since the SEC approved ETFs for trading.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfOiN6nQrDvOI1Ii7Numjb7G17I49pICdmwOuxOTcLjY44cCdVjoEModDz82cOlu6AKyLBvYAYq7nWSAvi1ETAc7fHbXLoZF9cfmxbxG7E4YGhPVqPWxGufPchsiqdvJvZGney1Qw?key=bpLdakvHr3aDuf5I1h5bXg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">MetaPlanet has only 1.5% of Strategy&#8217;s stash, but the impact is still clear.</figcaption></figure>



At this point, and however unintuitive, the supply of bitcoin could be more decentralized than it has ever been, even if more of it is owned by centralized entities than ever before.



Wasn’t this meant to make you feel early to Bitcoin?&nbsp;



There are plenty of reasons to be confident about the price of bitcoin. I’ll leave it to others to amplify them, but if your yardstick for “earliness” is based on your entry point to BTC, then I’m afraid it’s all relative. You’re always earlier than some but later than others.



Here’s an alternative view: We’re all early to Bitcoin until the novelty wears off.



First, it was crime. The media loved crypto crime stories — because these soaked up traffic. But on a long enough timeline, all crime <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-fraud-financial-scam">will be “crypto crime</a>,” and related headlines have been passé for years already.



News of corporate bitcoin treasuries is destined to go the same way. As will word of sovereign funds, governments, <a href="https://x.com/cardano_5pc/status/1932445329074655563">altcoins</a> and pensions buying bitcoin. Maybe religious institutions will come next, or Ivy League universities. Record labels and movie studios, public and private. Elementary schools and mom and pops.



As Bitcoin eats the world, each wave of adoption will feel like a novelty, until it isn’t. Only then will I happily agree that we’re no longer early.



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Bitcoin

You’ll know Bitcoin has won when it’s suddenly boring

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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Could we get an alt season after all?



Monarq Asset Management’s Shiliang Tang told <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire">Empire co-host Jason Yanowitz</a> that there’s a possibility that the popularity of crypto treasury companies sparks an alt season that we haven’t seen before. This one would be focused on tokens deemed “ fundamentally valuable enough for traditional public money and capital” to get involved with.



It’s an interesting take, and one that I haven’t heard before. Especially because there’s a lot of criticism around these vehicles, some of which is warranted due to the entities’ structure.&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">In this morning&#39;s spaces that we had I was banging the drum about how I was concerned that these treasury acquisition vehicle companies were fleecing equity holders by being higher up the capital structure and using retail as exit liquidity to dilute and sell into. Here we are. <a href="https://t.co/X0pgBx1FoO">https://t.co/X0pgBx1FoO</a>&mdash; fejau (@fejau_inc) <a href="https://twitter.com/fejau_inc/status/1933274896924356750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Meanwhile, FalconX’s Josh Lim said that the rise of these treasury companies puts crypto — if we’re recycling what we talked about on Friday — in the “early to mid” innings of crypto’s adoption.&nbsp;



 ”There&#8217;s a pretty healthy pipeline of large deals. Like, we think there&#8217;s only going to be a handful of really credible teams like operators and the bankers [and investors]” that participate in these deals, he said.&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="The State Of Crypto Derivatives" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzMlgm3o_rM?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>



He noted that there’s generally a “chosen one” in each category, and those are the winners. Take, for example, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/microstrategy">Strategy</a> or perhaps SharpLink Gaming. Strategy’s pretty much set itself as the gold standard, and SharpLink <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-treasury-strategies-sharplink-eth">could apply</a> the Strategy playbook to ETH.



Lim noted that he thinks there’ll be four or five “big ones” and then “lots of small ones.” His exact estimate was 50 or so.&nbsp;



But while there’s an appetite now, Lim noted that there are still risks.&nbsp;



 ”The downside risks are basically there could be sort of…fatigue for these like public equity deals and crypto — let&#8217;s say flat lines — and all these things trade at a small discount to NAV,” he noted.&nbsp;



If the risks play out, then Lim says that the market needs to stabilize and wait for “more capital to come in.” He added that there’s precedent for it.&nbsp;



But Yanowitz thinks there’s a different risk on the horizon. He believes that these companies need a good financial engineer and a marketer. And for him, a lot of the smaller ones making the pivot don’t have either.



Look, it’s clear that the treasury companies are here to stay. But the battles for the best is still underway.&nbsp;



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altcoins

Can the rise in crypto treasury companies spark an alt season?

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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Volatility is back. After rallying to $167 on June 11, SOL <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol">reversed</a> sharply below $145 as geopolitical shocks rattled risk markets. Israeli airstrikes on Iran and the ensuing global rush to hard assets <a href="https://x.com/3orovik/status/1849954887469089125">appear to be the trigger</a> here.



Oil surged. Gold <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/13/oil-and-gold-prices-soar-after-israel-attacks-on-iran">climbed</a>. Solana and Bitcoin stumbled off a cliff.



Early Friday, we saw BTC <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">dip briefly below $103k</a>, triggering over $400 million in long liquidations before rebounding to ~$105k. Solana dropped around 9.6% with $52 million in liquidations, third only to BTC and ETH.



Despite the correction, Solana&#8217;s <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana">core metrics have held</a>. Daily transaction counts remain around 80 million. Compute throughput is stable. Application revenue is steady at $4-7 million/day.



Solana&#8217;s DEX layer is rotating, with volume down to $2.5-3.5 billion, from over $6 billion in May. Pump.fun continues to dominate meme traffic while SolFi captures SOL-USD pairs. Meta-aggregators like Titan and Kamino Swap are <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/solana-meta-aggregators">quietly gaining ground</a>, offering better routing via off-chain sources like Pyth&#8217;s Express Relay, and even as volumes dipped, execution efficiency improved.&nbsp;



Underneath the rabble, <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana?dashboard=131">Solana&#8217;s staking layer is unshaken</a>. The stake rate holds at 65.4%, with net activations still outpacing deactivations. Liquid staking tokens, led by jitoSOL, remain steady near $7 billion. MEV tips from Jito declined post-frenzy, but validator income remains resilient. In other words, no real crisis of confidence is to be seen among active users.



It&#8217;s easy to see why some might worry superficially, what with SOL currently testing $140 support. A breakdown could open moves to $123 or even $110. But if BTC holds above $100k and oil premiums fade, SOL seems likely to stage a recovery.



Like it or not, the technical binary of reclaiming momentum vs. a deeper correction likely hinges a lot on bitcoin’s next move.



It&#8217;s a tough one to predict, given that the macro environment remains so unstable. Fed policy is tight, energy volatility is high, and crypto is once again correlated to equities and oil. That said, the US regulatory backdrop continues to shift positively.



President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/donald-trump-digital-asset-summit-address">public embrace</a> of dollar-backed stablecoins and federal frameworks adds a long-term bullish undertone, for instance — especially for chains like Solana that anchor stablecoin infrastructure.



The bottom line is, Solana is weathering a macro squall with surprising internal strength. While price remains pinned by risk-off sentiment, the ecosystem&#8217;s throughput, revenue and <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana?dashboard=39">developer momentum</a> are intact.



If the market stabilizes and volatility recedes, Solana could quickly reassert leadership in the next leg up. If not, our real test won&#8217;t be whether the network avoids the downside but how well it builds through it. So it has been, and so (someday, though maybe not today) it shall be.



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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/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

HolozoneHOLO

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