Jupiter

Jack Kubinec

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



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More than a half decade into DeFi, the sector is still somewhat of a wild west beset by elevated risk, unpredictable yields and the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hyperliquid-jelly-short-blockworks-research">occasional crisis</a>. Mary Gooneratne, co-founder of Solana DeFi startup Loopscale, wants to give blockchain borrow-lend a facelift.



“A lot of those [existing DeFi] architectures were designed kind of as a function of Ethereum’s constraints,” Gooneratne said in an interview.&nbsp;



Lightspeed has learned exclusively that Loopscale is opening its protocol to the public today, marking the end of its closed beta phase.



Loopscale’s distinguishing feature is its order book architecture that executes loans by directly matching lenders and borrowers with fixed rates and terms. This is in contrast to the pool-based model, which allows users to lend into and borrow against different baskets of reserve assets. The Ethereum borrow-lend giant Aave uses pools, for example.



Pool-based lending leaves markets “constrained by the riskiest asset in that basket,” Gooneratne told me. Loopscale’s order book lets borrowers and lenders take a market view on assets rather than adopting the protocol’s pre-set risk profile, she added.



Gooneratne and her co-founder Luke Truitt met while working on a computer science project for an undergraduate class at Duke. They went on to found a defense startup while still in school, which was acquired in 2020.&nbsp;



After graduating, Gooneratne and Truitt began working on a real-world asset lending startup, Gooneratne said. As part of that work, the pair set up a lending market for whiskey — tokenized by the Solana-based <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erz0fAv5Z7Q">liquor collection startup</a> Baxus in which collectors or distillers could borrow against their spirits.



Building on Solana should allow Loopscale to open new forms of decentralized financing, Gooneratne said. She gave the example of DePIN: Since DePIN payment streams are publicly visible, and their ownership can theoretically be transferred to lenders and priced, node operators could use their payment streams as collateral on loans to acquire more nodes.&nbsp;



But since this is cryptoworld, the most popular initial use cases may be the more speculative ones. Loopscale offers a loop product where users can take on leveraged loans by borrowing against a yield-bearing asset to acquire more of the asset. Loopscale also has a points system set up, presumably for users to stake their claim to a future token.



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Loopscale launches for more efficient Solana DeFi

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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The SEC yesterday approved options on spot ether ETFs by BlackRock, Fidelity and others. 21Shares also became the latest asset manager to float a dogecoin ETF.



The upshot is that 2025 indeed appears to be a year we could see a lot more crypto products come to market. The level of demand for them will be another story.&nbsp;



When the SEC approved options on bitcoin ETFs in October, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-etf-options-trading-begins">industry watchers highlighted</a> how it would enhance liquidity and price discovery around that ecosystem.



Essentially, institutional investors can better manage their exposures under various market conditions via ETF options, they said. Speculators, too, can use them to leverage their bets should they be particularly bullish or bearish on the underlying asset.



The ETF Store president Nate Geraci said (like after the approval of bitcoin ETF options) we can expect to see a bunch of new ether-related launches from issuers.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Covered call strategy eth ETFs, buffer eth ETFs, etc.,” he noted in an X <a href="https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/1910059591720665326">post</a>.



We’ve seen bitcoin-focused funds using options to offer <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/calamos-btc-etf-downside-protection#">downside protection</a>. And you might recall that, just last week, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-launches-crypto-etf-product-innovation">Grayscale filed</a> for options-based “covered call” and “premium income” bitcoin ETFs.



As for the 21Shares Dogecoin ETF proposed yesterday, that filing came alongside news that the Dogecoin Foundation would endorse the product.&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">Bitwise general counsel Katherine Dowling told me in Feb. that DOGE was not among the “dolphins in the fish nets” — alluding to assets with an unclear securities status (per the SEC).<a href="https://t.co/rZvyPq1Jpy">https://t.co/rZvyPq1Jpy</a>&mdash; Ben Strack 🟪 (@strack_ben) <a href="https://twitter.com/strack_ben/status/1910087786570330522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Federico Brokate, head of 21Shares’ US business, said this planned product was designed for retail investors and institutional investors seeking “high-conviction, non-correlated exposures.”



Dogecoin’s one-minute block times and ultra-low fees make it ideal for everyday payments and microtransactions, he argued. Then there’s the “community engagement and social capital” piece.&nbsp;



Brokate added: “Unlike bitcoin’s narrative-driven scarcity model, dogecoin offers functional utility — an increasingly important trait as digital assets move from speculation to application.”



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SEC approves ETH ETF options, faces new DOGE filing

Casey Wagner

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



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In some unexpected good news, inflation last month cooled to a five-month low. But tariffs remain a headwind moving forward.&nbsp;



The headline CPI for March rose 2.4% annually. That was lower than projected (2.6%) and down from February, which showed a 2.8% increase. On a monthly basis, prices actually fell 0.1%.&nbsp;



Core CPI (all goods, minus food and energy) increased 2.8% year over year last month — also down from February, when the core print came in at 3.1%.&nbsp;



As Felix Jauvin mentioned in his <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-put-tariffs-market-inflation-bond">discussion of the markets</a>, US equities early in the session were steady, still riding yesterday’s euphoria following Trump’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-tariff-pause-stocks-cryptocurrencies-surge">tariff pause announcement</a>. But renewed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trade-war-hits-treasurys">trade war fears</a> quickly overshadowed any inflation optimism. 



While the White House may have paused its more aggressive tariffs for the next three months, the blanket 10% levy remains in place. That is, except for Chinese imports, which now face fees of 145%.&nbsp;



While 10% may be significantly less than most of the policies announced last week on “Liberation Day,” the levy still is expected to significantly impact prices. Plus, many sector-specific tariffs, like those on auto parts and cars, remain in place.&nbsp;



There’s also no telling what will happen in 90 days with these “paused” policies.&nbsp;



Let’s be honest, there’s no telling what will happen in the next 90 minutes.



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Inflation unexpectedly fell last month, but tariffs still loom

Felix Jauvin

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



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We got the Trump put: The president finally caved after the yield on the 30-year bond hit 5%. As is the theme for this year, the bond market is driving everything, and equity markets are simply along for the ride. 



The bond market started to fall apart late Tuesday evening, and I admittedly got very worried about financial stability. In a two-hour span, the 30-year rose 21bps and hit 5%.&nbsp;



In the early hours of Wednesday morning (for those on the East Coast), the wonkish parts of the monetary plumbing system also began to show signs of strain. For the first time this year outside of period-end dates — when we typically see funding strains — we started to see stress and fracturing. 



A simple way to look at this is the SOFR/IORB spread. For the first time since QT began (and outside of period-end window dressing moments), the spread turned positive. I’ll avoid going into too much detail here, but the point is this: The important parts of the bond/funding market started to show strain:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfKcX08dIPYwbs3p4a968-vusfJ3EV2bd8tVWopC7sAQMvFZ5nt6UmfqmYrsJ2GIEnJ3r-IFPMc3iAe8Mo-1G4sd80aVnjjHJ9wOVyTm3hc_NqMt0PlxIxdr8Z21Gwjepit1dOfNQ?key=mgdAoOkUqQCiJTPL5wnSuR0Z" alt=""/></figure>



As I saw these developments unfold, it turns out I wasn’t the only one glued to the bond market — President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were, too. 



By Wednesday mid-day, the Trump administration relented and announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs on all countries except for China, which was slapped with additional fees.&nbsp;



This was a welcome reprieve and quickly led to one of the largest single-day rallies of all time:



 <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="624" height="405" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdKpCpwo-E5-O8A9fa3WasIpyPF-mEkfKgDw8uvgu_G3omXkkL0u2dzjB7mLx6V2pemqH5FZrZhy8mIiTQhUAveH2WX4cT5oPPTCJq8tI5K0U6OWJPBu5Y6fShYuGDleM_jwG0CTQ?key=mgdAoOkUqQCiJTPL5wnSuR0Z">



Now, however, the market has to digest where things stand.&nbsp;



Anna Wong, chief US economist at Bloomberg, crunched the numbers to see where the impact on the economy nets out. It turns out the aggregate tariff impact on the economy as a whole is mostly the same; the risk just got transferred to China:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeQK2p3fESTivFggqFaTEjA3xapqY8vJ2PN5pWXAX0eSr-PBrDA9CC60SGxjV1W_COf9S9kwpk2-A_6lqffJvWn3HpIsd54uVZzdNGrJSWlP8RjN_2CSwWP2poJobuRnS2Cz25Z?key=mgdAoOkUqQCiJTPL5wnSuR0Z" alt=""/></figure>



At time of writing, US equities have given back half of the gains from yesterday’s huge rally.&nbsp;



What’s difficult about ascertaining what comes next? None of the economic data we’re receiving is all that useful.&nbsp;



For example, this morning we saw that March marked the first negative month-over-month print on CPI inflation since 2020, and yet, bonds sold off. Something that would typically be very positive for bond markets sent the market in the opposite direction.&nbsp;



Simply put, there are bigger forces at play right now. The fact that bonds couldn’t rally off an ice-cold CPI print tells you there’s some big issues in bond markets. Although Trump’s pivot resulted in a short-term bounce, the fundamental issues remain.



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The Trump put was struck, but at what cost?

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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Truth Arts — formerly known as Truth Labs, the team behind the 2022 Goblintown Ethereum NFT collection — has released NFT “licenses” inspired by driver’s licenses.



To become eligible to mint a Goblintown license, aspiring drivers had to wait for a seemingly endless amount of time with no end in sight in a DMV. In this case, the wait was at the Goblintown DMV, which was a webpage with a DMV simulator. You took a number, waited, waited some more, and ultimately submitted your email address to the team. (You also need to create a DYLI account with that same email address to claim your license.)



When I stumbled upon the DMV simulator shortly after it launched April 1, I didn’t know what the endgame was, but I figured it would probably end in some exclusive reward. I clicked on it to check it out.&nbsp;



I took a number, saw the depressing knowledge of a long wait and some extremely high numbers (like 99,999), and gave up after about 30 seconds.



I had work to do, okay?&nbsp;



Truth CEO and cofounder Alexander Taub said in a <a href="https://x.com/ajt/status/1907117106295967809">post</a> that wait times were anywhere from one to five hours per customer.



The Goblintown DMV is now closed. If you didn’t get the chance to pass idle hours waiting, the NFTs can be bought on secondary marketplaces.



The “license” NFTs can be claimed until this Friday, April 11, according to an X <a href="https://x.com/goblintown/status/1910041909483163757">post</a>. They’re minting on the Abstract blockchain. There are six possible character designs: “pumplescroob,” “lord buttbat,” “jug,” “gromblar,” “urki,” and “gobbie.”&nbsp;



When asked why the Goblintown team chose Abstract for its latest NFTs, Taub told Blockworks via email: “We are big fans and friends of Luca, Pudgy Penguins, and the Abstract team. The licenses were first and foremost something that we wanted people to be able to physically redeem (if they choose to),” he said, adding: “We are also building more things for Abstract, this just happened to leapfrog those things.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf3bPtvLx5P55AOt_Ee1r95vlmBwApcvVAOD6gIhtrKmj-5MVCtoQBnv_90eOOvIkba0I5kKjF3aB9RcRDQn1utjtR0YBsvM1QieM0cMUZ4aD_IGUfgORZWqqxrxmi8HQ5KEiFa4w?key=_wpzkD5qD2jCe8WvVXiLWgnj" alt=""/></figure>



The NFTs can be “burned,” or removed from the blockchain permanently, in exchange for real-life physical versions of the licenses.



The licenses are thematically tied to the upcoming Goblintown racing game, <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3417510/Goblintown_Really_Hard_Driving_Game/#:~:text=Goblintown%3A%20Really%20Hard%20Driving%20Game%20on%20Steam&amp;text=Do%20you%20have%20the%20skill,don't%20forget%20to%20SCREAM!">Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game</a>, which was announced back in February.&nbsp;



It’s technically not a crypto game, though. The game won’t require any NFTs to play, but it won’t be free-to-play, either (exact pricing is TBD).



“This game is very purposefully a non-Web3 game. The first reason is that you cannot have anything crypto- or token-related and be in good standing on Steam, which is where we will be first distributing the game. This is the number one marketplace for indie games, so that made the decision for us,” Taub explained.



“The second reason is we wanted to make a game that is fun and entertaining and something people WANT to play, not because they might make money or speculate on it. We are building an entertainment and technology company, and creating entertaining games is something we need to deliver on outside of speculative digital assets. So the game has IP origins with Goblintown and our original digital collection, but it is our attempt to build ourselves into a character IP brand,” the CEO continued.



On April 20, Goblintown is <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/goblintown-hosts-high-stakes-gaming-challenge-in-nyc--beat-the-really-hard-driving-game-win-10-000--302422857.html#:~:text=Launching%20Sunday%2C%20April%2020%2C%202025,first%20look%20at%20the%20challenge.">hosting</a> an IRL event in New York City where invitees can try to beat the game for $10,000 in cash.



The game will also be on offer IRL at Pax East in Boston next month and at DreamHack in Dallas at the end of next month. At all of these events, those with NFT licenses will be able to cut the line to play the game.



“We figure you waited at the digital DMV for a minimum of an hour (to 5 hours!), so we can let you skip the line. In the future, we might come up with more fun little things, but tying it to the actual in-game is not something we plan to do,” Taub told Blockworks.



Like Really Hard Driving Game’s title suggests, it’s intended to be very difficult to play.



“This isn&#8217;t just about skill — it&#8217;s about nerves, instinct, and maybe a little bit of chaos. Goblintown has always thrived on unpredictability, and this challenge is no exception,” Taub said in a press release.



Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game has echoes of Yuga Labs’ Dookey Dash, which was a difficult driving game with obstacles that was released for a limited time beginning in January 2023.&nbsp;



The original Dookey Dash was also for degens and competitive gamers, but it required a “Sewer Pass” NFT to access the game. The winning Dookey Dash key ultimately sold for $1.6 million in February 2023. In September 2024, Yuga Labs released a free-to-play, newer version of the game.



Goblintown’s Really Hard Driving Game will launch before the end of this month, Taub confirmed to Blockworks.



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Goblintown launches driver’s license NFTs ahead of ‘Really Hard Driving Game’ release

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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What happens when a stablecoin isn’t stable, and the founder’s response is “no crying in the stablecoin casino”?



The vibes in the Synthetix and Infinex Discords are down bad. So is <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/susd">sUSD</a>, the Synthetix-native stablecoin, which dropped below $1 in March, but today has slipped dramatically below $0.90 — hitting a low (so far) of about $0.835.



While founder Kain Warwick insists that this is temporary and that the overcollateralized stablecoin is fundamentally safe, the community’s patience is wearing thin. So is its trust.



The root of the problem? The 420 pool, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/synthetix-staking-stablecoin-fix">an upgrade</a> that made sUSD more capital-efficient by letting a pooled SNX staking system mint sUSD at a lower 200% collateralization ratio. In the process, it also forgave $60m in staker debt over 12 months — removing the reflexive peg defense that previously incentivized stakers to buy discounted sUSD to repay debt. That incentive is now gone. And so is the peg.



While the protocol hasn’t sold sUSD, according to Warwick, the new issuance mechanics have flooded liquidity pools, skewing Curve’s sUSD stableswap pools 90%+ toward sUSD. Users trying to exit are getting crushed. One posted a screenshot showing a USDC/sUSD LP with literally 0% USDC remaining.



There are about 51 million sUSD in circulation between Ethereum mainnet and Optimism, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/usd-stablecoin">according</a> to CoinGecko.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/lightspeed/1bd088c0-3f45-11ef-8d0e-33cba733fb4d">Infinex</a>, the frontend product meant to onboard normies, hasn’t helped. It launched an incentive campaign to hold sUSD in the Infinex wallet <a href="https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/wednesday-january-15">not long before</a> the depeg, which has been renewed twice. Now Infinex <a href="https://blog.synthetix.io/collectsnx-rewards-on-infinex/">wants</a> people to stack SNX to farm even more rewards. This has users fuming.



“You guys promote sUSD through campaigns, you take responsibility,” wrote one user on the <a href="http://discord.gg/infinex">Infinex Discord</a>.



“Liquidate the collateral and get out of the damn stablecoin business,” wrote another on the <a href="http://discord.gg/synthetix">Synthetix Discord</a>.



Kain’s replies? A mix of sarcasm and stoicism.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe9AkEyW9xTAeKkvho6ezcBXJ1ily5P6203AIra3rTKhPof126metYJXe811E4EaGXup-lJJXU22nVLpzv_XyK_2X-ZCWtorYzXZ88QaIxqTN7fTHsE9iWQaST-cn4418WqUmeOoQ?key=xDlpETItJAmhbYXrOPgoIiCW" alt=""/></figure>



Fair or not, it’s a tough look as users are down 13% on what was marketed as a stable asset.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">So…what now?</h2>



If you bought sUSD for yield expecting stability, you’re in damage-control mode.



Short-term: The peg won’t snap back quickly. No active treasury buybacks, no peg-stabilizing module yet.



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Exit now if you need capital or can’t stomach further drawdown, or</li>



<li>Hold and wait if you believe the peg will recover to $0.95+ via incentives, integrations or treasury action.</li>
</ol>



Or maybe you’re considering buying now, fancying yourself a distressed asset investor.



This is obviously a speculative trade, not a passive stablecoin yield play. A bet on recovery assumes:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>SNX price holds or rebounds (key to overcollateralization premise).</li>



<li>The team executes on liquidity and incentives.</li>



<li>The peg restoration becomes a top short-term priority.</li>
</ul>



A slow grind back to $0.99 is plausible — but so is more chop around $0.85–$0.90 if treasury action lags.



While sUSD isn’t <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/terra">Terra</a>, it’s showing some of the same reflexive fragility. Overcollateralization only helps if the market believes it. Right now, confidence is depegged about as much as price is, and until that’s restored, the status quo will remain.



The “s” in sUSD may really stand for “Synthetix,” but this week, it sure feels more like it stands for “suspect” or “suffering.”



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Synthetix’s sUSD stablecoin sees continued depeg to $0.86

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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Bitcoin’s first Ponzi scheme was nothing special — but it was early.



After the 1906 inception of the international reply coupon, it took 14 years for Charles Ponzi to come along with his <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/">legendary</a> scheme, which he peddled across Boston society to the tune of $20 million at the time ($319 million in today’s money).



Meanwhile, it only took Trendon Shavers, aka Pirateat40, less than three years to pull off something similar on the Bitcoin blockchain: Bitcoin Savings &amp; Trust.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">On This Day – Bitcoin Savings &amp; Trust&nbsp;</h2>



Shavers originally launched the scheme as First Pirate Savings &amp; Trust in November 2011, having cultivated an online persona of a savvy over-the-counter bitcoin trader in IRC channels and on Bitcointalk.



Bitcoin had opened the year at $0.30, hit $30 in June, and had since settled at around $3. Shavers’ supposed OTC desk was now running dry, with requests for more coins only “getting larger and more frequent.”&nbsp;



“Over the last few months I have been selling BTC to a group of local people,” Shavers wrote in his launch <a href="https://pastebin.com/yH0jr6KY">post</a>. “Now this is a ‘don&#8217;t ask don&#8217;t tell&#8217; group of people, so I can&#8217;t tell you exactly where and to whom the coins ultimately end up with, but so far it&#8217;s been pretty painless.”



To help source liquidity, he devised two ways to inspire early adopters to send him their bitcoin, starting at a minimum of 50 BTC ($150 then, $4 million now).



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The “on-demand” tier would pay a 3.5% fee for filling buy orders over what the desk has available.</li>



<li>The “storage” tier would pay 1% per day for bitcoin sent to First Pirate Savings &amp; Trust, with a promise that “you can withdraw your balance at any time.”</li>
</ul>



As was the case with the original Ponzi scheme, initial inflows were rather small, only $60,000 in total over the first two months.&nbsp;



But after rebranding it to “Bitcoin Savings &amp; Trust” on this day in 2012 (with a new website) Shavers’ wallets saw that much on an average day, despite repeated warnings of the community, including <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/ponzi-schemes-the-danger-of-high-interest-savings-funds-1338461999">from</a> Vitalik Buterin.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcVSRh9xXbGUjnpZ8nUZKHr8BqN4bpwt-Pg2qCs4Lxmu6UsQVdHYSyYDygREXaEff6H2bBuJlPQw_wZd72pVBvWkvYT2QpZcpGMn00SGIy2jS1WEb0D6L8sWakXDRtnMLYPpBsN?key=xm2WtSBqbG4DoznrxKgR4WvZ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bitcoin’s push to $15 was interrupted by Bitcoin Savings &amp; Trust’s sudden closure, but BTC quickly rebounded.</figcaption></figure>



Just like the real Charles Ponzi almost a century earlier, Shavers never really did any of what he said. To go back in time a bit: Ponzi had promised up to 100% returns to investors who’d backed his wacky plan to arbitrage postage stamps between Italy, where they were cheap in the wake of World War I, and the US, where they were still expensive.



Ponzi couldn’t actually redeem his stamps for cash, or ship enough of them from Europe in any case. Still, he easily paid out interest with the waves of fresh capital, splitting the difference with a mansion, luxury car and a honeymoon vacation. Ponzi was sentenced to five years in prison.



Similarly, Shavers was simply selling coins to cover rent, car payments, shopping and casino gambling. Both plans were over and done in under 12 months.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdgGVAZESOhrEeoQfAYeJIfmlI6CeFPdP09OBF4jHYJiBuHdeUSpfU1p3JVVvmEUWjVGEQ5CEWTlRCwyMnpsJRk96bvDPWwt0oa15wQW7p89qyeGzxOvLhBKmA57lbhKu5e7kDmrA?key=xm2WtSBqbG4DoznrxKgR4WvZ" alt=""/></figure>



Shavers’ username is a reference to a Jimmy Buffett song, “A Pirate Looks at 40,” which laments about a man born too late in history to get away with adventurous crimes.



The Feds calculated that Shavers, drawing from about 100 investors, had siphoned 193,000 BTC for himself, worth up to $1.5 million back then and $16 billion today (coincidentally similar to the BTC supposedly held by the US government). He was <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/lawyer-reveals-details-about-the-man-behind-bitcoins-45-million-ponzi-scheme/">fined</a> $40 million and sentenced to 18 months in prison.



Look onchain and you can still spot the robbing of Bob to pay Alice: On every other day, total flows for Shavers’ wallets would be divided fairly evenly between inflows and outflows. Coins in from new investors, coins out to older ones.



And you can still see almost 1.18 million BTC flowing through wallets linked to Bitcoin Savings &amp; Trust in its short history — the equivalent of around 10% of the entire circulating supply at the time.



At risk of searching for a silver lining in the fraud, there’s this: Whereas actual physical records of Charles Ponzi’s scheme are presumably long gone, we’ll at least forever have a perfect account of Bitcoin’s first-ever imitation.



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Bitcoin’s first Ponzi scheme would be worth $16B today

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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Agora CEO and co-founder Nick van Eck is pretty realistic about where the space stands right now. 



Clearly, there are plenty of reasons to maintain a bullish attitude. But he cautioned folks to rethink the time horizons when it comes to adoption.&nbsp;



The CFOs and CEOs of large US corporations aren’t necessarily aware of the developments in crypto, even when it comes to something like stablecoins. Van Eck believes we’re looking at a much longer time horizon for adoption — three to four years — versus the optimistic outlook of one to two years.&nbsp;



Van Eck told me he’s having plenty of conversations with folks in the TradFi space — including some of the largest hedge funds in the US — and that there’s still a lack of understanding when it comes to the role that stablecoins play.&nbsp;



“We live in our own bubble in crypto…We think everything that&#8217;s going on…everyone else in the world is aware of [it], right?” But that’s not the case.&nbsp;



The real curve we have to tackle is educational. We’re in the early innings here, and that’s the big hurdle now that the regulatory picture is so much better for crypto.&nbsp;



However, once people understand, van Eck is pretty bullish on the stablecoin sector taking off in four to ten years.



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Stablecoin adoption is still 3 to 4 years away: van Eck

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



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We’re thinking about stablecoin classification all wrong, Agora CEO Nick van Eck told me.&nbsp;



It’s easy to lump all of the stablecoins into one single bucket, but the reality is that the offerings are quickly becoming more unique and different as the space matures.&nbsp;



A lot of stablecoins are “very different, and have very different user profiles,” which means they “ultimately don’t even end up competing.”



“Someone who is looking to use USDe as a form of collateral is 95% of the time probably not the same user of AUSD or USDC. Maybe they&#8217;ll use it for trading, but [if]… you want to buy a treasury bill or a treasury bond, you don&#8217;t buy a corporate bond, right?”



You have centralized high-trust stablecoins, which include Agora or Circle. Then there’s centralized opaque, which would be Tether. The difference between the two is the amount of transparency offered, but both categories are focused on the global monetary network perspective.



Another is “centralized captive distribution,” which includes gaming companies or banks like Bank of America (CEO Brian Moynihan previously <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/02/26/bank-of-america-ceo-says-stablecoins-coming-very-soon-cfo/">teased</a> that the bank’s interested in such an offering). The idea here is that companies in this category are more interested in keeping their stablecoin offering within their business rather than expanding globally, van Eck explained.&nbsp;



The fourth and final one is decentralized stablecoins. This broader category captures the likes of Ethena, which van Eck praised as a “very good operator,” and some of the more experimental forays into stablecoins.&nbsp;



Agora’s customer base, van Eck noted, is usually made up of folks just coming into crypto, not more seasoned people who want to make a return on their collateral.



The team aims to create a global stablecoin network.&nbsp;



“We see a world where AUSD is traded on every single exchange and has global liquidity,” he told me. This opens the door for folks to build on top of Agora and “tap into our tooling and cross-chain infrastructure, our centralized exchange infrastructure, our FX on and off ramps.”



As lawmakers mull and vote on stablecoin legislation, van Eck is excited about what it means for the space. While he told me never say never when it comes to yield-bearing stablecoins — that’s not going to be a priority for Agora.&nbsp;



“From day one, I was very much expecting that the US government and the SEC would not allow interest-bearing stablecoins, which is why we designed our model as one-to-one, where we just share underlying economics with the businesses, versus it being natively yield-bearing.”



No skin off of Agora’s back, especially since it seems lawmakers aren’t too keen on yield-bearing stablecoins, either.



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Agora CEO has 4 stablecoin classifications

Jeff Albus

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



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We&#8217;ve got a fresh market <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/flashnotes/solana-march-2025-update">update from Blockworks Research</a>, and if it makes anything clear, it&#8217;s this: March was not kind to Solana.



Revenue cratered 87% from January&#8217;s all-time high, DEX volumes dropped 74%, and SIMD 228 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-simd-0228-failing-means-for-solana">failed to pass</a>.&nbsp;



SIMD 228&#8217;s loss wasn&#8217;t due to a lack of effort. The proposal sparked the highest stake participation of any vote in Solana&#8217;s history (74.3%). It drew input from institutional players like Coinbase, Kraken and Bybit for the first time.



And while small validators mostly opposed it, native builders like Helius, Jupiter and Jito overwhelmingly supported the change; a sort of philosophical split between those extracting yield today and those betting on Solana&#8217;s long-term sustainability.&nbsp;



Small validators (s &lt; 0.05%) voted “No” by a wide margin. Large ones (0.5% to 1.0%) were 85% in favor. Strategic abstention became a weapon: Voting “No” counted toward quorum, so many opponents waited until the last minute, hoping the vote would fail without their input.



SIMD 123, which introduces protocol-level revenue sharing, did succeed, though, showing validators are open to changes that increase optionality rather than those which remove incentives outright. SIMD 248, proposing TPU feedback to reduce spam and improve UX, and SIMD 268, which raises the CPI nesting limit to deepen composability, are both in discussion.



Turning to DeFi, Solana apps pulled in $131m in revenue, maintaining their lead across all chains and setting a record-high revenue-to-REV ratio of 1.84. Institutional momentum hasn&#8217;t disappeared. SOL&#8217;s open interest in CEXs is near all-time highs. CME launched SOL futures in March, which are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cme-planned-solana-futures">often a prelude</a> to a spot ETF. Meanwhile, bridge inflows from other ecosystems reached $158m despite a market-wide cooldown.



Takeaway: March was painful, yes. But also a pressure test — one Solana didn&#8217;t fail. Engagement is up, institutional interest is sticky, and apps are still building. If this is what a lousy month looks like, the ecosystem is in far better shape than the charts suggest. SOL prices remain volatile at publication time, hovering around $118.



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Solana shrugs off a bearish March

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



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Investors may still be recovering from tariff policy whiplash, but the world keeps spinning.&nbsp;



Representatives on the House Financial Service’s Digital Assets Subcommittee met today for a hearing on US crypto policy. That topic may not be top of the news cycle, but is still big in Washington.&nbsp;



Rep. Brad Sherman from California, who has long been skeptical of any legislation deemed “pro crypto,” had an interesting take. “New coins” will overtake “old coins,” he said, and he’s all for new coins. 



We aren’t sure at all what he means here, but we think he’s saying he’d like to see some disruption in the crypto space. 



The hearing comes after six Financial Services Committee Democrats voted to advance the House’s STABLE Act last week. The legislation is similar to the GENIUS Act <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-stablecoin-bill">in the Senate </a>(which also received bipartisan support), but the House’s version gives more power to state regulators to oversee issuers.&nbsp;



The next step for both bills will be a full floor vote. Should the trade war continue to escalate, we expect crypto legislation will move to the back burner. Still, insiders on the Hill tell us stablecoin legislation should be the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoin-legislation-top-priority">first crypto measure</a> to pass. Up next is market structure, which has the industry much more divided.&nbsp;



Meanwhile, in the Senate, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/paul-atkins-sec-chair-hearing">Paul Atkins’ nomination</a> to the SEC today passed the cloture vote, 51-45. The final vote could be scheduled as soon as this evening.&nbsp;



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Congress keeps talking crypto amid trade war shifts

US equities and cryptocurrencies surged Wednesday after President Trump issued a stark reversal on tariff policies.&nbsp;



The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2,600 points Wednesday afternoon while the S&amp;P 500 surged 9.1%, marking the biggest intraday rally for both indexes in five years.&nbsp;



The Nasdaq Composite rallied almost 12%, a daily gain not seen since 2008. Bitcoin and ethereum gained as much as 6% and 11%, respectively.&nbsp;



The moves followed Trump’s announcement that reciprocal tariffs on all countries except for China will be delayed for 90 days. He also said the levy on Chinese imports will be raised from 104%, which took effect just after midnight, to 125%.&nbsp;



Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tariffs on all countries other than China will remain at 10% in the interim.&nbsp;



The 10-year Treasury yield, which spiked to 4.51% overnight, also declined to 4.3% following the White House’s announcement.&nbsp;



The cooling follows a better-than-anticipated 10-year auction Wednesday, indicating that demand remains high. Indirect bidders, which represent an imperfect proxy for foreign buyers, made up about 88% of accepted bids.&nbsp;



Wednesday’s changes marked a change from the White House’s previous stance on tariffs. Since last week, the administration’s insisted that the new “Liberation Day” tariffs would proceed as scheduled.&nbsp;



Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday maintained that “there is no postponing.” Also on Sunday, Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, said “this is not a negotiation” when asked about potentially adjusting tariffs.



While investors breathe a sigh of relief, though, the volatility is far from over. Markets now face another three months of uncertainty about where tariffs will land. Still, analysts’ general outlook has improved.&nbsp;



Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok and Goldman Sachs analysts both rescinded their forecasts for a 2025 recession Wednesday afternoon.



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US stocks, cryptocurrencies surge on tariff reversal

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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You know what the stock market is doing broadly. And how BTC has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-volatility-this-week-stocks">trended lower</a>, too. 



But what about crypto equities — particularly the one many deem to be the purest of them all?



Coinbase’s stock price hovered around $165 at 1:30 pm ET — down 35.6% year to date. That’s worse than BTC and the Nasdaq Composite Index, which have decreased 13.6% and 15.2%, respectively, since the start of 2025.



Still, Cantor Fitzgerald kicked off its coverage of Coinbase by giving the crypto exchange’s shares a buy rating and a $245 price target.



“We expect we will soon see a ‘ChatGPT’ moment when it comes to Web3, and there is, in our view, no better way to play this dynamic than COIN given it has its hands in virtually every aspect of the crypto ecosystem,” Cantor Fitzgerald analysts wrote in a Tuesday note.&nbsp;



They highlight the “robust” user growth on Coinbase’s layer-2, Base. And the potential for Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue ($910 million in 2024) to grow as stablecoins have a chance to displace traditional cross-border payment rails.&nbsp;



“As such, we expect COIN&#8217;s business to be perceived less as a cyclical trading platform and more as a mission-critical infrastructure layer of the crypto economy,” the analysts wrote.



Morningstar analyst Michael Miller’s current fair value estimate for COIN remains at $170. He <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-q4-earnings">said in February</a> he believed the company’s shares were “overvalued.” When I connected with Miller this morning, he said he now sees the stock as “slightly undervalued.”



“The obvious caveat here is that Coinbase&#8217;s business remains heavily exposed to cryptocurrency valuations,” Miller noted. “It has significant influence on their trading revenue and a direct impact on their custody and staking revenue, as those segments generate revenue based on assets held.”



As for other stocks tied to crypto, Strategy (MSTR) and Marathon Digital (MARA) are down 9.3% and 33.2% year to date. Galaxy Digital, which we noted yesterday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/galaxy-sec-listing-nasdaq-ipo-market-crypto">could go public</a> in the US next month, is down 48%.



Meanwhile, the share price of Robinhood, which saw crypto revenue of $358 million in Q4 2024, is right about where it was at the year’s start.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto&#8217;s hottest networks.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

The outlook for COIN as macro uncertainty persists

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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As equities posted a modest rebound, it was US Treasury markets that had Wall Street worried this morning.&nbsp;



The 10-year yield climbed above 4.51% around midnight, just as President Trump’s 104% tariff against Chinese imports went into effect. The question on everyone’s mind now is why.&nbsp;



I know I <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/treasury-yields-remain-elevated-as-stocks-waver">wrote yesterday</a> that foreign bond holders could be selling, and this is still a possibility. But the overnight moves point to a perhaps more frightening reality: The basis trade is unwinding.&nbsp;



Hedge funds frequently employ a Treasury basis trade strategy. It’s an arbitrage trade that looks to exploit the tiny price differences between Treasurys and futures. It’s low-risk and low-reward, but huge when leveraged — so funds typically borrow to fund these trades and multiply their bets.



Mass selling causes Treasury yields to spike, like we saw last night. The lower the price falls (remember Treasury prices and yields are inversely correlated), the more margin calls we see, and the more selling we see to meet those calls. Plus, liquidity evaporates when the number of sellers is vastly greater than buyers. 



“If it’s not a case of selling winners to pay up margin elsewhere, then maybe it’s a market bracing for a deep recession that would start with a 7% deficit that will then only get worse,” Pepperstone research strategist Michael Brown said. “I’m honestly not sure which of those scenarios is worse.”



So either way — bad. As Joseph Wang <a href="https://x.com/FedGuy12/status/1909848492010266921">said</a>: “This might become a legitimate market functioning issue.” 



We saw an unwinding in 2020. Yield on the 10-year went from a record low of 0.3% to 1.2% in a matter of days in March 2020. The Fed intervened with quantitative easing on March 23, 2020, and by the end of the month the 10-year yield had retreated back to around 0.7%.&nbsp;



There is a little bit of good news, though: The Treasury’s <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2025/R_20250409_2.pdf">10-year auction</a> today was strong. Indirect bidders, which represent an imperfect proxy for foreign buyers, made up about 88% of accepted bids (higher than the average).&nbsp;



In yesterday’s <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2025/A_20250403_6.pdf">three-year auction</a>, 73% went to indirect bidders. Direct bidders however were down 45% from January.&nbsp;&nbsp;



We don’t know exactly who is selling, which is why you’ve seen a lot of speculation around what’s fueling the selloff in Treasurys (including in this newsletter). The Treasury reports foreign holder data monthly, but there’s a six-week lag. We won’t get February’s holdings until next week.&nbsp;



We also don’t know what the Fed will do. Odds of an interest rate cut in May actually decreased today, hovering around 38% after spiking to 45% yesterday, per CME Group <a href="https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html?redirect=/trading/interest-rates/countdown-to-fomc.html">data</a>.&nbsp;



You’ll be the first to hear, though, when we have some answers. 



In the meantime, maybe take a screen break. 



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<ul class="wp-block-list">
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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto&#8217;s hottest networks.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

Trade war hits Treasurys

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



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US-based startup Axal is combining crypto trading with AI agents. They’re starting with automated trades through their <a href="https://www.ax.al/autopilot">Autopilot</a> tool, which lets users set a risk tolerance level and other restrictions to automate trading with crypto and stablecoins.



The team told me in an interview that the tool currently uses Ethereum L2 chains Base, Optimism and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> on the backend, with plans to add <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a> in the coming weeks.&nbsp;



Autopilot users can fund their accounts via crypto wallets, or by using an email and funding with Venmo. Once personal trading preferences and settings are set up, Autopilot’s AI agents can get to work.



There’s a wide range of functionality with Autopilot, but it’s more newbie-friendly and ideal for non-technical crypto fans who like crypto but aren’t day-traders or DeFi experts. Autopilot can collect stablecoin yields, engage with DeFi tools, and trade BTC, ETH, memecoins and other tokens. Users can also make a custom index of specific tokens for the AI agents to trade.&nbsp;



It’s not an intimidating tool, and it seems like there are enough parameters that can be set to ensure there will be no major surprises. But like with any AI tool, hallucinations are still possible.



Axal’s team is aware of this flaw, but they see the blockchain as one way to verify that requested tasks are actually completed per instructions.&nbsp;



“You can literally look onchain that this thing that you wanted this agent to do, it actually did,” Axal Head of Strategy and Operations Ari Santos said.



Under the hood, Axal’s also using <a href="https://blog.axiom.xyz/what-is-a-zk-coprocessor/">zero-knowledge co-processors</a> and <a href="https://docs.uma.xyz/protocol-overview/how-does-umas-oracle-work">Optimistic oracles</a> to verify information.



“If a model hallucinates, it still has collateral at stake and it gets slashed. Whoever’s running the model, or the model itself, if it has very low accuracy, it’s just taking that risk,” Axal founder Ashlan Ahmed told Blockworks, explaining that hallucinating models are essentially punished for mistakes.



The team has plans for future AI tools, including one that can automate more daily tasks such as ordering food for delivery based on a general request or booking travel when given travel dates and preferences.



“There’s a lot of different people in the agentic space,” Axal Head of Growth Jacob Kozhipatt acknowledged. “What we believe is that in order for the agentic feature to happen, people need some form of guarantee that it&#8217;ll actually be done the way that you asked to be done.”



This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily">Blockworks Daily</a>: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto&#8217;s hottest networks.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

Crypto startup Axal automates trading with AI agents

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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NFT marketplace Magic Eden is acquiring trading app Slingshot.



As of Tuesday, the deal has been signed and is expected to close soon, a spokesperson for Magic Eden confirmed to Blockworks. Jack Lu, Magic Eden’s CEO and cofounder, also spoke to us about the deal.



“Why Slingshot, right? The way we would think about it is, if you look at the market today, there was a time everyone was launching L2s,” Lu told Blockworks. “But it was pretty obvious that the market was pretty over it. And our conviction in this cycle — but also over the long term — is [in] the apps. It&#8217;s the apps that are going to win and get the most attention.”



Lu explained that he enjoys a number of Slingshot’s features, including what he describes as super-fast trading and the ability to trade across any chain without bridging tokens. He also likes that more tokens are available to trade on Slingshot, compared to a centralized exchange like Coinbase.



Magic Eden is also planning social features for Slingshot in the future.&nbsp;



“Our vision for Magic Eden has always been all chains, all assets,” Lu said. “This is not just an app that allows you to trade memecoins.”



Support for HyperLiquid, XRP, Cardano, Sui, TON and Chainlink is in the works on Slingshot, he added. 



Lu clarified that while there might be integrations between Slingshot and Magic Eden in their long-term vision, nothing’s imminent in the short-term. However, there could be a user identity tie-in at some point in the future, where users of both trading platforms are able to see all their assets in one place, under one account.



“We don&#8217;t want to create too much interdependency between Magic Eden and Slingshot. [Slingshot is] a really fast team. They ship super fast,” Lu explained.



When asked how much Magic Eden paid to acquire Slingshot, Magic Eden’s rep said both sides of the deal prefer not to share the financial details behind it.&nbsp;



Slingshot’s app is available on iOS and Android, and can be <a href="https://help.slingshot.finance/en/articles/10949185-who-can-use-slingshot">used almost worldwide</a>, including in the US, as long as you comply with its terms of service. It launched in February 2023, according to one of its <a href="https://x.com/SlingshotCrypto/status/1630614199905796108">posts</a> on X.&nbsp;



Slingshot lets users connect Apple Pay, Venmo, PayPal, credit card or debit card to make crypto purchases. It offers a non-custodial wallet for users and is a decentralized app, meaning all swaps occur onchain and users retain custody of their crypto at all times. There’s no option for Slingshot to custody user assets.



Slingshot is a mobile-first app, and has a simplicity to its interface and design that reminds me of Robinhood.



But it has to compete with Robinhood — which has a market cap of $30 billion — as well as other behemoths like Coinbase and Binance. Plus it’s in the ring with DeFi platforms and other smaller crypto trading tools. But Slingshot seems to have an ease-of-use that could make it appealing to crypto newcomers.



The app’s Google <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.slingshot.finance&amp;hl=en_US">Play Store page</a> shows Slingshot has over 10,000 unique user downloads, which means its Android version has more than 10,000 but less than 50,000 downloads (“50K+” would appear as the download count if the app has over that amount).&nbsp;



Magic Eden’s move to expand beyond just NFTs is something other NFT marketplaces have been exploring, as NFT <a href="https://dune.com/sealaunch/NFT">trading volumes</a> stagnate. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opensea-announces-token-and-open-beta">OpenSea</a> has said it wants to add fungible tokens to its latest marketplace, OS2, to expand beyond just NFTs.



Despite markets being down this year, Magic Eden’s Lu isn’t worried about the broader sentiment and state of crypto because he’s taken a builder’s perspective — a stance execs and devs often take in bear markets.



“Now is the best time,” Lu said. “Right now when it’s really quiet, we actually find it the best time for us to cool our minds and really bet deep on our thesis and build really hard.”



Lu’s interview was edited and condensed for clarity.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily">Blockworks Daily</a>: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto&#8217;s hottest networks.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

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