LEO Token

Byron Gilliam

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



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“I respect his independence,” former President Nixon reassured the White House crowd at the 1970 <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-swearing-dr-arthur-f-burns-chairman-the-board-governors-the-federal-reserve">swearing-in</a> of Fed Chair Arthur Burns.



“However, I hope that independently he will conclude that my views are the ones that should be followed.”



There’s no video of the event, so it’s hard to say for sure, but I’m guessing that was meant as a joke.



It’s also exactly how things worked out.



Burns famously allowed Fed policy to become subservient to Nixon’s political goals, fueling the 1970s epidemic of inflation.



The much-maligned Fed chair <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/failed-fed">reportedly</a> acknowledged this as a tactical surrender: &#8220;We dare not exercise our independence for fear of losing it.&#8221;



Subsequent Fed chairs have fought their corner more resolutely, stressing that the Federal Reserve is an independent agency within government.



“Our independence is a matter of law,” Jerome Powell <a href="https://youtu.be/XUFVr430VLU?si=8g0IAiEL-1KBEuZn">said</a> just last week.



But that plain statement may mean less than it sounds.



Specifically, Powell meant that individual members of the FOMC are insulated from politics because they can’t be fired: “We’re not removable except for cause,” he noted. “We serve very long terms.”&nbsp;



(“Seemingly endless terms,” he added, drawing a laugh from the sympathetic crowd.)



This, he says, allows the FOMC to do its job “strictly without consideration of political or any other extraneous factors.”



“We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure,” he promised.



If so, that would be a new development.



For the first two decades of its existence, political influence on the Fed was explicit: By law, the treasury secretary automatically served as the chair of the Federal Reserve as well.



That changed in 1935 as the Fed gained a measure of independence with the chair becoming a presidential appointee, no longer tied to the Treasury Department.



In 1951, the Fed won a further degree of independence when the Treasury Department formally agreed that the Fed could set interest rates without its input.



Still, this hard-won independence remained contingent on political approval.



The Fed was established by an Act of Congress and Congress retains the ability to revise the Act if it disapproves of how its creation is operating.



This is why, at his final press conference as Fed chair, Ben Bernanke offered a simple piece of <a href="https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2016/q2/federal_reserve">advice</a> to his successor, Janet Yellen: “Congress is our boss.”



It’s been a reluctant boss, for the most part — after delegating its Constitutional power over money to the Fed, Congress has generally only held the Fed accountable after financial disasters.



Often, the Congressional response to those disasters is to grant the Fed more power, not less.



This is by design.



In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Independence-Congress-Governs-Federal/dp/0691163197/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9YHOJHSKC7T0&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bsZyT3haiztxYj-2kE6IVQ.JVQBzmH_0aksmHRtvUROqFvO2YSV6vL3czdA0R9vIZM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=the+myth+of+independence+how+congress+governs+the+federal+reserve&amp;qid=1745285598&amp;sprefix=the+myth+of+independ%2Caps%2C160&amp;sr=8-1">The Myth of Independence</a>, Sarah Binder and Mark Spindel explain that, whatever Fed chairs like to say, the Federal Reserve is actually “interdependent” with Congress — and that Congress retains the ultimate authority through the Federal Reserve Act and its power to revise it.



The Fed, they explain, is dependent on Congress for its authority and Congress is dependent on the Fed for its stewardship of the economy.



This arrangement works for Congress largely because it gives them someone to blame when things go wrong — Binder and Spindel note that former Fed Chair William Martin once testified in Congress that “we’re here to be blamed.”



The result, they say, is that the Fed is &#8220;acutely sensitive to the need to secure political support for its policy choices.”



Similarly, the monetary economist James Dorn <a href="https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2019-09/cj-v39n3-5.pdf">found</a> that “the Fed is independent, but in practice that independence is continuously tested by political pressures for using accommodative monetary policy and credit allocation to win votes.”



It&#8217;s mostly been presidents who’ve exerted that political pressure.



Truman called William Martin a “traitor”; LBJ summoned the long-serving Martin to his Texas ranch to verbally assault him over interest rates; Burns was famously subservient to Nixon; Carter reassigned former Fed Chair William Miller to the Treasury Department because interest rates were too low; Paul Volcker was able to raise rates to 20% only because he had Reagan’s backing.



Dorn’s study found all this presidential pressure to be effective: “An examination of the evidence reveals that presidents tend to get the monetary policy they desire,” he concluded.



As a matter of principle, that may not be the worst thing — we wouldn’t let unelected bureaucrats set tax rates without political recourse, so why should we let Fed bureaucrats set interest rates?



As a matter of practice, however, it hasn’t worked out well.



In a <a href="https://econweb.umd.edu/~drechsel/papers/drechsel_political_pressure_shocks.pdf">study</a> of presidential influence on the Fed, the economist Thomas Drechsel unsurprisingly found that political pressure increases inflation “strongly and persistently.”



Specifically, he concluded that “increasing political pressure by half as much as Nixon, for six months, raises the price level more than 8% after a decade.”



Drechsel also found that presidential pressure to lower interest rates negatively affects GDP.



The effect is mild, but he cites it as evidence that “political pressure is not successful” for presidents hoping to win votes by raising economic activity.&nbsp;



That hasn’t stopped them from trying, of course, as we were reminded this week.



Does publicly calling Chair Powell a “major loser” amount to half as much political pressure as Nixon applied on former Chair Burns?&nbsp;



If so, history suggests we have an 8% increase to the price level to look forward to.



Or does President Trump’s schoolyard name calling amount to, say, twice as much pressure?&nbsp;



Drechsel doesn’t do the math on that because, before this week, who could have imagined a president exerting twice as much pressure on a Fed chair than Nixon did with Burns?



But investors appear to be doing the math for themselves: Bitcoin ETFs took in <a href="https://farside.co.uk/btc/">$381 million</a> yesterday — a notable reversal of the recent trend.



That’s helped push the price of bitcoin to near an <a href="https://x.com/MikeZaccardi/status/1914676954868973719">all-time high</a> relative to the S&amp;P 500 — a surprisingly sensible reaction to renewed presidential pressure on a Fed chair.



When former President Nixon swore in Chair Burns in 1970, gold traded at $35 an ounce.



When President Carter swore in Chair Volcker in 1979, it was about $300 and on its way to a high of $850 a year later.



Markets seem to sense the Fed has another tough decade ahead of it — one spent fighting for its independence.



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Donald Trump

Fed independence may be the next major loser

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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There’s a refrain in crypto these days that while many in the industry expected crypto to become more like traditional finance over time, TradFi has actually just become more like crypto.



Zeitgeisty stocks can trade more like memecoins than based on any sort of price-to-earnings ratio. Robinhood offers sports betting. The president of the United States cryptically encouraged investors to buy on social media before a tariff slowdown sent public markets rocketing.



And here’s a new piece of crypto culture to add to the traditional financial world: community takeovers. The CTO happens when a crypto project’s leadership steps away or is no longer cutting it, and its public backers step in to revive its fortunes. Sam Bankman-Fried was once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/09/06/exclusive-sbf-speaks-out-on-defis-sushi-saga/">granted</a> control of the SushiSwap multisig, for instance, and a more recent example came when the X profile “BuzzlamicJihad” added hundreds of millions to Aptos’ market cap by repeatedly posting: “Aptos looking good here.”



The TradFi version of a CTO comes from investors buying up niche publicly-listed stocks and announcing a crypto treasury strategy — leading the price to pump. Janover Inc. (now DeFi Development Corporation) <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/janover-to-receive-kraken-staked-sol">did so recently</a> after buying a real estate company and issuing convertible bonds to raise capital and buy Solana.



Yesterday, crypto-native market maker and investor GSR announced it had led a private placement into Nasdaq-listed Upexi alongside a group of other crypto investors. The funds were meant to back a Solana-based treasury strategy. Like DeFi Dev Corp, Upexi is relatively new to crypto. It went from <a href="https://ir.upexi.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/85/upexis-tytan-tile-kits-disney-frozen-and-new-disney-jr">selling</a> Disney-branded products at BJ’s Wholesale Club to strategically <a href="https://ir.upexi.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/97/upexi-shifts-focus-into-bitcoin-and-crypto-with-strategic">investing</a> in crypto via holding companies over the past year. Both stock prices surged by hundreds of percent following their crypto treasury and investment announcements.&nbsp;



In crypto, it’s easier to CTO a microcap memecoin than a blue-chip token, and the stock market CTO’ers seem to have learned this. Upexi had a market capitalization of $3.65 million at the end of last year, and Janover’s was $6.87 million. Both could likely have been flirting with forced delisting from the Nasdaq due to poor financial performance. Instead, the crypto saviors stepped in and offered US investors a regulated wrapper in which to gain Solana exposure.



Many have expressed doubts about the longevity of Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-buying spree at Strategy, but for the time being, the stock is a success story. And while SOL ETFs await approval, Solana folks want in on the action.



“Michael Saylor and his team pioneered some extremely capital efficient accrual mechanisms — I&#8217;m excited to see GSR through Upexi attempt to bring this mechanism to assets other than bitcoin,” DoubleZero co-founder Austin Federa, who participated in the Upexi placement alongside GSR, said in a direct message.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Small-cap stocks are adding Solana exposure

Casey Wagner

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



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President Trump is still going after Fed Chair Powell. In a Monday Truth Social Post, Trump reiterated that he wants to see lower interest rates now, adding that Powell is “a major loser.”&nbsp;



Trump is hardly the first president to voice frustrations with the Fed and its leadership. But he is the only sitting president in modern history who has publicly threatened to fire the chair.&nbsp;



Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama — during their respective terms — said they were disheartened by slow progress on inflation, but each also stressed their respect for the central bank’s independence.&nbsp;



Of course, there’s the question of whether or not the president has the authority to remove a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jerome-powell-chair-stance-trump">sitting Fed chair</a>. Given what we’ve already seen from this administration (remember what happened at the FTC?), I’d argue fleshing out the legal argument is perhaps moot.&nbsp;



Trump has shown us that he’ll usually do what he wants. Should the courts uphold his decision to remove FTC commissioners, Powell’s job is even more at risk.&nbsp;



ECB President Christine Lagarde said during a Tuesday morning CNBC appearance that she hopes the Fed maintains its independence. Though she, too, has faced political pressures. When asked about what impact firing Powell could have, she declined to speculate.&nbsp;



&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to comment on market reaction to hypotheticals that I hope are just not on the table,” Lagarde said.&nbsp;



One <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/351539/standard-chartered-bitcoin-rising-fed-independence-risks?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">argument</a> is that growing tensions between the Fed and executive branch could boost the price of bitcoin. I’d have to disagree, though. The Fed’s independence is a key stabilizing factor of the economy, and removing this would surely damage risk assets. For now at least, bitcoin still trades like a risk asset.&nbsp;



I’ll go ahead and apologize now to any bitcoin maximalists I may have offended.



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Trump continues criticizing Powell as global leaders stress importance of independence 

Ben Strack

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



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Because the industry’s been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoins-tokenization-blackrock-galaxy-das">talking a lot</a> about the use cases for stablecoins and onchain RWAs, it’s worth highlighting a soon-to-launch settlement network for institutions.



Called Lynq, the network will be powered by the Arca Institutional US Treasury Fund (TFND). That has a portfolio of short-term, yield-bearing US Treasurys and issues its shares via the Avalanche Blockchain.&nbsp;



TFND requires AML/KYC on subscribers, and all client funds are held with US Bank.



Speaking of partners, Lynq is set to use tZERO’s special purpose broker-dealer <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tzero-spbd-license-custody">license</a> and Tassat’s real-time blockchain infrastructure. (Since launching in 2017, Tassat has settled more than $2.5 trillion for institutions).&nbsp;



B2C2, Galaxy and Wintermute will “ensure critical mass by onboarding their top clients early, expanding adoption and establishing initial liquidity,” Arca Labs president Jerald David told me.



Arca Labs has been consulting with prime brokers, market makers, exchanges and stablecoin issuers for more than a year, David added. The goal is for funds to flow to and from exchanges to fund accounts and trades. And for stablecoin issuers to create and redeem for their users on Lynq.&nbsp;



In Wintermute managing director Katryna Hanush’s words: Lynq “streamlines onboarding, subscription and redemption, offering counterparties a safer and more efficient way to transact through settlement rails that integrate regulatory clarity, real-time operations and yield.”&nbsp;



That last word — yield — is important.



Taking a step back, stablecoins (aka tokenized cash) have grown to be a roughly $230 billion market. Agora co-founder Nick van Eck said at last week’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-rwa-segments-will-boom-next">TokenizeThis conference</a> that he expects USD-denominated stablecoins to “nuke” most non-G20 country currencies over the next 20 years as more people adopt blockchain-based finance.&nbsp;



Van Eck projects that stablecoins could grow to a $2 trillion market cap in five years.&nbsp;



Meanwhile, tokenized money market funds are a smaller — but growing — segment, with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund recently passing $2 billion in AUM on its own.&nbsp;



Industry watchers expect this category to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">grow in tandem</a> with stablecoins — with the former serving as a cash savings vehicle and the latter being an instrument for payments.



Stablecoin issuer Circle noted the demand to move <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-hashnote-deal-tokenized-money">between cash and yield</a> when it acquired Hashnote in January.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Lynq uses Tassat’s “yield in transit” functionality, meaning institutions can receive interest based on intraday fund holdings, David explained. Fund interest is sent to Lynq users in five-second increments and distributed daily.&nbsp;



It remains to be seen whether Lynq can fulfill what it hopes to do. David labeled that goal, in 10 years, as aiming to “facilitate seamless interoperability between traditional and decentralized finance” via tokenized securities settlement, permissioned liquidity pools and who knows what else.



First it has to launch. Then we’ll see what sort of traction it gets and who else seeks to follow suit (and improve upon it).



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Arca

How a yield-bearing settlement network reflects a tokenization trend

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



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US equities are once again trading on a dream.&nbsp;



The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite indexes hit intraday highs Tuesday after Bloomberg — citing unnamed sources&nbsp;— <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-22/bessent-sees-de-escalation-with-china-situation-unsustainable">reported</a> that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US/China trade war is unsustainable. While he expects de-escalation in the future, he said negotiations have not yet started.&nbsp;



Bessent apparently made the comment at an investor event in Washington closed to the public and media.&nbsp;



The Dow had gained more than 1,000 points midway through Tuesday’s session while the Nasdaq Composite rose as much as 3.3%.&nbsp;



The moves once again show just how desperate investors are for signs that the White House is inking deals with trade partners. As of 2 pm ET, the Trump administration had not commented on Bessent’s reported remarks.  In a report published Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast to 2.8% (from 3%) in 2025 and 2026. Analysts cited “epistemic uncertainty and policy unpredictability,” adding that the US effective tariff rate is now higher than it was during the Great Depression.



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China

US stocks erase Monday losses after Bessent calls China trade situation ‘unsustainable’

Kate Irwin

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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Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson <a href="https://x.com/0xferg/status/1914650894840500628">wrote</a> on Tuesday morning: “Tomorrow we announce the outcome of a multibillion dollar partnership that&#8217;s been in the works for 2+ years.”&nbsp;



While we didn’t hear anything from Immutable by publication time, it could be about their game with Ubisoft.



Immutable’s partnership with Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovation Lab was first <a href="https://www.immutable.com/blog/immutable-and-ubisofts-strategic-innovation-lab-pioneering-a-frictionless-web3-gaming-experience">announced</a> in November 2023.



During an on-record interview at the Game Developers Conference in March, Immutable Chief Studio Officer Justin Hulog told Blockworks that he has been “working on co-developing a game with Ubisoft that we’re going to announce next month” for the past two and a half years. He added that “it’s one where we’ve really worked with their dev team to take the best of their learnings around TCGs.”



“Gods Unchained has been running for four years, so that’s been really helping to combine those two learnings together,” Hulog said.



While more specific details about the new game have not yet been made public, it’ll likely have blockchain elements and may use Immutable’s zkEVM, which Immutable is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-gaming-walled-garden-ethos">leading game developers toward</a> these days over its Immutable X chain.



Ubisoft is the studio behind the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy game franchises, to name a few. The studio previously launched Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles using the Oasys blockchain back in October 2024.&nbsp;



“I believe, really, that we should stay chain-agnostic,” Ubisoft’s Innovation Lab VP Nicolas Pouard said during a panel moderated by Blockworks during the Game Developers Conference. Pouard did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.



Before Champions Tactics, Ubisoft unveiled its Ubisoft Quartz NFT platform and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ubisoft-nft-efforts-are-off-to-a-rocky-start">released NFTs on Tezos</a> for its Tom Clancy game Ghost Recon: Breakpoint back in 2021.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The IMX token pumped after Ferguson’s tweet, spiking 28% from $0.46 right before the post to $0.59 within two hours, per CoinGecko data. IMX is up about 34% in the past week.



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Gaming

Immutable teases ‘multibillion dollar’ collab that could be its game with Ubisoft

Macauley Peterson

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



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Michael Egorov is no stranger to token incentive mechanisms. As the founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/curve">Curve</a>, he pioneered vote-escrow (ve) tokenomics to juice the growth of the stablecoin AMM. But his new protocol, Yield Basis, is built for a different kind of user: “people who want to earn something on mostly Bitcoin,” as Egorov told Blockworks.



At its core, Yield Basis is an attempt to eliminate LP impermanent loss by leveraging liquidity. Egorov explains: “If you leverage liquidity by a factor of two and keep this leverage, then the pricing of liquidity which gives you impermanent loss actually disappears.” The result, he says, is LP positions that behave like spot BTC exposure — with none of the usual downside when prices move violently.



The mechanism builds on Curve’s liquidity pools, but with key upgrades. Egorov has engineered the system to “re-leverage” automatically, keeping the 2x ratio constant. “It’s very important to keep this ratio very, very precise,” he said, noting that “a special AMM will do it for you.”



That precision, he argues, is what distinguishes Yield Basis from <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/fluid">Fluid</a>. “From what I understand, [Fluid is] doing it rather manually,” he said. “They’re earning a lot in fees, but they are losing more when this process of moving the range happens.” With Yield Basis, by contrast, the rebalancing logic is automated and driven by arbitrage, preserving capital value in BTC terms. “You want your number of bitcoin to smoothly go up rather than ever go down.”



Of course, there are new protocol tokens involved. And the tokenomics design is no less ambitious. LPs must choose: Either earn real BTC-denominated yield from trading fees, or forgo that income in exchange for emissions of the protocol’s first native token, $YB. “We only distribute real revenues to liquidity providers who did not choose to earn YB inflation,” Egorov said.



That dynamic turns YB emissions into something closer to mining than farming. “Every single $YB token has an intrinsic cost of being mined,” <a href="https://x.com/vasily_sumanov/status/1913267626391863370">wrote</a> researcher Vasily Sumanov in a recent X article. “Users efficiently buy $YB from the protocol at a certain price (or bear a certain cost to obtain them).”



The token’s utility follows a familiar Curve model. YB can be locked into veYB to direct emissions and capture BTC yield, launching what some are already calling <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/podcast-understanding-the-curve-wars">Curve Wars</a> 2.0. “When bootstrapping a new project, it’s actually good to have a new token,” Egorov said — and there is expected to be one for each chain deployment with “its own governance on every chain.”



That decision, which is likely to raise some eyebrows, is driven partly by a desire to remove any need for bridging, and partly because “having one token per chain can open good business opportunities to align with local ecosystems in non-ETH chains,” Egorov said.



Despite being a standalone protocol, Egorov insists Curve also stands to benefit. “10% of the fully diluted YB token distribution will go toward Curve,” he said. Plus, Curve’s collateralized stablecoin, crvUSD, is central to the architecture. “These YB tokens can be used to buy votes for crvUSD liquidity…that’s revenues for the DAO if you count vote incentives as revenues.”



The Curve DAO <a href="https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/ethereum-curve-spending-microscope">directly funds</a> Egorov’s company, Swiss Stake AG. Aave founder Stani Kulechov recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/making-sense-of-daos-in-2025">received pushback</a> from Aave token holders about his plans to launch a new protocol under similar terms.



Yield Basis quietly raised $5 million in February, and is not yet live. It will launch first on Ethereum mainnet. When? “Once I’m sure the code is safe and ready,” Egorov said. “I want to see it performing in real life.”



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0xResearch Newsletter

Yield Basis wants to be DeFi’s ‘Bitcoin black hole’

David Canellis

Pete Rizzo

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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We all know halvings double the cost of production, a fact the media tends to dress up as an existential threat to Bitcoin every four years.



Miners seeking profit must also contend with fluctuating difficulty and energy costs. But if the price goes up, at least they’d get more money for every coin they mine.



At $88,500, bitcoin is ahead by 36% since the halving. More importantly, it’s up 130% on the average price during the last phase of the prior halving cycle (more than double!)



As it goes, high prices attract more miners, which have driven bitcoin’s total hash rate to all-time highs alongside the difficulty.



In fact, while mining revenue is more-or-less in line with its five-year average, the difficulty is currently five times what it was in April 2021, and 40% higher than just before the last halving.



So, it’s harder than ever to generate bitcoins. But how much does it cost to mine 1 BTC right now? Always hard to say, with the answer highly dependent on electricity and other overhead costs, although Cambridge currently <a href="https://ccaf.io/cbnsi/cbeci/mining_map/mining_data">estimates</a> $48,671 per coin.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcPm6lCLOLsYMEswc_dYNNK9i5qsFS8r9u6e8SEU8JiY-JFKhv5m-fNWgp89v4igCvYAWgHMKT4E9OOGoZ15mJl1HwlqHfMe3wuo2yKynPSFMVChcoq7tRJNfWf2s3_cAVtuDgwRQ?key=GuAZi2sZmjsdrrf8BehQomo4" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Strong bitcoin prices have kept miner revenue almost on par with peak 2021 and 2024 bull markets (source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/bitcoin?dashboard=btc-financial">Blockworks Research</a>).</figcaption></figure>



Let’s use Marathon, the $4 billion mining giant responsible for about 7% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate, as an example.&nbsp;



In the three quarters leading up to the most recent halving, Marathon’s cost of mining revenues were $224.95 million, according to its SEC filings.



Marathon mined in total 10,542 BTC over the same period, which puts the estimated cost of producing each coin at just under $21,500. Bitcoin traded at $39,300 on average over that time, implying potential profit of $17,800 per coin.



Across the third and fourth quarters of last year, Marathon’s estimated cost of production using the same method works out at $43,270 — correctly doubling since the halving and in line with Cambridge’s estimate — against an average trade price of $72,250. That suggests potential profit of nearly $29,000, which is even higher than before the halving.



(Marathon CEO Fred Thiel <a href="https://www.investing.com/news/transcripts/earnings-call-transcript-marathon-digital-q4-2024-beats-eps-forecasts-93CH-3894570">said</a> in February that Marathon’s direct energy cost per bitcoin for last year was $28,801 overall, although that would include some of the previous epoch, before the cost of production doubled. Marathon profited over half a billion dollars in Q4 2024)



One year on from the halving and based on Marathon’s figures, the bitcoin block subsidy is still lucrative enough, at least at current prices for the most well capitalised operations. Other miners might sometimes run at a loss, going by <a href="https://data.hashrateindex.com/network-data/bitcoin-hashprice-index">Luxor’s Hashrate Index</a>, which points to some of the lowest profitability on record. Understandable, given five halvings have passed.



In any case, Bitcoin has three years left to double in price to counteract the next one. Plenty of time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Money is speech</h2>



“I&#8217;m sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.”



Satoshi <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48.msg329#msg329">said</a> that on Valentine’s Day in 2010 — a little over 15 years ago.&nbsp;



It was an addendum to a comment about the necessity for transaction fees in a system that sees block rewards cut to zero over time. “In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes.”



So, how close is Satoshi to the truth, less than five years out from his hypothetical?&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfBSQ3CtFqYrljmyWJd6NYWzi3g6VHPlZsMXVaHCwM1w-Vlz57E7EnL5QV3bL9PMRQMgQfnXqbT-oRxJebHxNof0_HD0JVLBv_AQEgtAzQdbhD7u_ucy9J59yFfgyES3fSs6codQg?key=GuAZi2sZmjsdrrf8BehQomo4" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Monthly transfer volume has fallen in recent months but is still way up 2023 (source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/bitcoin?dashboard=btc-onchain-activity">Blockworks Research</a>).</figcaption></figure>



Bitcoin processes more than 11.5 million transactions per month, up from under 8 million in early 2022, converting to $1.8 trillion BTC in volume on average.



On one hand, that might be “very large,” like Satoshi predicted, but over 98% of miner revenue still comes from the block subsidy.



A few more halvings and the current dynamic may no longer be tenable, so expect debate over Bitcoin’s fee market structure to ramp up over time. For more on the reasons to be alarmed, you can listen to core developer James O’Beirne on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JITvE9BwIRQ">today’s episode of Supply Shock</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rizzo&#8217;s view, on this day</h2>



You might hear the phrase “Bitcoin bubble” a lot these days, what with prices surging over $100,000. A look back at media articles from the past, however, and not much has changed. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeTmUnYXhCXGgDnb_SdUU5uw0CYsphzDre8GS216mFldrul2DEHXCJegoDGveIcgBVIaUeyzRsouF-Q8gEQFzICjoCZkRPcGaejY6MU2qaF8XokBMLsc25n6_T5G7H5RPd8bWvi4A?key=GuAZi2sZmjsdrrf8BehQomo4" width="624" height="333">



On Reddit, I posted this chart as a reminder of just how long the trope has lasted. In fact, the above chart was <a href="https://techliberation.com/2011/04/25/revisiting-the-bitcoin-bubble/">posted by Coin Center founder Jerry Brito</a>, 14 years ago. There he wrote about how even if Bitcoin died, the technology was here to stay. He was right with one caveat — the technology was Bitcoin. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/rizzobitcoinhistory/">Follow me on Reddit</a>.



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bitcoin halving

A year after the Bitcoin halving, how much does 1 BTC cost to mine?

Katherine Ross

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



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Let’s talk about tokens.&nbsp;



It’s been a fairly big debate on CT (sorry, Elon, CX just doesn’t have the same ring to it). But let me back up for those of you who have managed to spare yourselves from the takes across social media: Basically, in light of ZORA, folks are debating the overall appetite for tokens.&nbsp;



“$ZORA is for fun only and does not entitle its holders to any governance rights or a claim on any equity ownership in Zora or its products,” Zora said on its <a href="https://support.zora.co/en/articles/4796161">website</a>.&nbsp;



We’ve <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-evolving-fundamentals-skale">talked a few times</a> now about the rise of fundamentals in crypto, and tokens like ZORA kind of go directly against that thesis because there are no fundamentals. And that’s the debate that I’ve been stuck on.



Ryan Connor of <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com">Blockworks Research</a> thinks that crypto should focus on tokens that are backed by fundamentals. Connor has long been a believer in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-fundamentals-metrics-to-watch">rise of fundamentals</a>.



On the other hand, folks say that tokens like ZORA are bullish because they introduce a new type to experiment with.&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">seeing lots of hate for the zora token because it doesn&#39;t grant any rights to holders imo this is good actually – we need more experimentation on what tokens mean, in all directions. not a memecoin, not a gov token, but an exciting new thing. bullish&mdash; yitong (@zhayitong) <a href="https://twitter.com/zhayitong/status/1914459763586605432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



However, is ZORA really any different than a memecoin? While Zora promotes itself as being for “fun only,” it’s not as fun as a memecoin per se, given that those who buy the token are funding the treasury without getting anything in return.&nbsp;



In fact, one of the best critiques of ZORA I’ve seen came from Triton’s Kevin Mills, who noted that the issue isn’t that the token is for fun, but rather the fact that the money goes to serve the project and investors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">This is exactly the problem. Zora launching a token &#8211; and simultaneously claiming it is just &#39;for fun&#39; and does not confer any rights or claims on flows, but then allocating &#39;just for fun money&#39; to its treasury and investors. What does that mean? They are willingly letting… <a href="https://t.co/IEBFs6gghz">https://t.co/IEBFs6gghz</a> <a href="https://t.co/fbcLFswEnz">pic.twitter.com/fbcLFswEnz</a>&mdash; Kevin Mills (@__kfm__) <a href="https://twitter.com/__kfm__/status/1914316780618870815?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“Tokens are controversial,” Connor noted. “Especially in the context of memecoins, which I think have been objectively the most successful product in the history of crypto.”



He added that crypto projects have to ask themselves: where does a token make sense?



“You have a lot of data collected in crypto where you should mostly know where tokens make sense. In the context of scarcity and assets that have value, tokens make a lot of sense. In the context of governance, tokens make a lot of sense in the context of the memecoin game,” he added.&nbsp;



But the difference between a memecoin for fun and a token like ZORA is that folks understand the game of “chicken” that they’re playing when jumping into a memecoin that could quickly wipe out in a matter of minutes.&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">launching a 300M FDV token just for fun and without any responsibility, then giving 56.7M to investors and team members as a little joke <a href="https://t.co/BIeYSNYsx8">https://t.co/BIeYSNYsx8</a>&mdash; zkboccaccio (@salveboccaccio) <a href="https://twitter.com/salveboccaccio/status/1914319121929441601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“However, in the context of project tokens, it was a very early 2024 thing where a project could launch a memecoin, and people would jump in,” Connor said. “The market is increasingly punishing projects that have done that, and in light of the market exhaustion over a low float, high FDV … my bet is ZORA, if it is just a memecoin, I don&#8217;t expect it to do too well.”



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Empire Newsletter

Memecoins are ‘objectively’ the most successful crypto product: Analyst

Jeff Albus

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



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



Crypto cycles tend to have two big innovations: something real and something ridiculous that distracts retail, pumps the wrong narrative and eventually implodes the market.



We&#8217;ve had a ton of innovations this cycle, but none have really stuck because memecoins showed up early and stole the show. However, if recent <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/helium-decentralizing-telecom-with-web3-incentives">momentum</a> from projects like Helium is anything to go by, the current run might get its more &#8220;serious&#8221; cycle innovation after all, thanks to decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).



DePIN uses crypto incentives and public coordination to bootstrap real-world infrastructure (like wireless coverage, sensor networks, GPU clusters, energy grids). Instead of billion-dollar telcos or centralized cloud platforms, the infrastructure gets built by communities and aligned with token rewards. In theory, it&#8217;s the internet&#8217;s final Frankenstein, turning crypto into a tool to build digital utility outward into meatspace.



In recent weeks, <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/helium-decentralizing-telecom-with-web3-incentives">Helium has hit new all-time highs</a> in DAO voting participation, $MOBILE validator onboarding and usage-based rewards. It’s also <a href="https://world.helium.com/en/mobile">passed</a> major protocol milestones: expanding 5G coverage to over 4,500 radios across 2,000+ US cities and driving real-world traffic to Helium Mobile&#8217;s $20/month unlimited plan — now sold in 3,000 Walmart stores.



Take that in for a moment: These are actual phones using a crypto-backed, community-powered DePIN network.



Traditional telecom is bloated, centralized and hostile to innovation. Infrastructure costs are egregious, rural service is often non-existent, and MVNOs are locked into opaque backend deals. Helium is flipping this by letting users deploy coverage infrastructure, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helium-mobile-introduces-free-plan">earn rewards</a> based on network demand, and manage protocol upgrades through its onchain governance systems. It&#8217;s basically Uber-for-cell-towers (ew, I know. Such a cheugy analogy at this point), except instead of squeezing labor, it aligns long-term incentives through verifiable coverage proofs and onchain traffic accounting.



That said, it’s far from a done deal for Helium. The protocol’s parent company Nova Labs underwent a significant <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helium-parent-company-layoffs">round of layoffs</a> last summer, and it now has competition from the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/xnet-att-partnership-wifi-depin">likes of XNET</a>. It’s still unclear just how profitable Helium Mobile’s business is.



Initially launched for low-data IoT sensors (LoRaWAN), Helium&#8217;s pivot to 5G mobile was a big step toward legitimacy. Through a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helium-cell-plan-goes-nationwide">partnership with T-Mobile</a>, Helium Mobile now operates as a hybrid carrier, routing data across both centralized infrastructure and community-run equipment. Doing this has enabled fresh experiments in coverage-based rewards, user-side rebates and real-time tracking of infrastructure usage — all of which are settled on Solana.



Helium&#8217;s not alone. In recent months, projects like Hivemapper (decentralized Street View), WeatherXM (community weather data) and Grass (browser-based data capture for AI models) have each carved out early traction. The common thread here is real-world participation, mostly thanks to tokenized incentives. These are applications that COULD exist without crypto, but they scale better with it. People like monetary rewards, it turns out.



If any of these networks hit a tipping point where proper utility gains equilibrium with the joys of token yield, I think we might see it spark the first DePIN-native flywheel.



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DePIN

Solana’s biggest DePIN is setting records

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



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As you may recall, financial advisers in a January Bitwise/VettaFi <a href="https://bitwiseinvestments.com/crypto-market-insights/the-bitwise-vettafi-2025-benchmark-survey">survey</a> said equity ETFs were their top choice for gaining <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-exposures-volatility-stocks-analysts-saying">crypto exposure</a> in 2025.&nbsp;



And, more recently, 10T Holdings founder Dan Tapiero said on stage at the Digital Asset Summit that people will always like investing in companies with cash flows, a balance sheet, a board of directors, etc.



VanEck’s Onchain Economy ETF (NODE) — set to launch next month — looks to be different from the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch">BLOK</a>), for example — or even its own Digital Transformation ETF (DAPP).



DAPP holds 20 names. Strategy is the top holding, representing nearly 11% of the portfolio. If you add bitcoin miners to the MSTR position, that’s where a majority of the fund’s assets are allocated.



While MSTR has driven gains, most miners have not offered great “across-the-cycle returns,” noted VanEck digital assets research head Matthew Sigel. He’s set to manage NODE.



With a target launch date of May 14, NODE plans to instead look for opportunities across a broader universe of more than 130 companies. Here’s how it labels them in the prospectus:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd7WQ5mTbX98EBW7oyGk0QUM_DxNsEyneGVx5KSolkUWXzylQsQmIUH0nXyriy7phrW8TARTWZrvc07DURft8-eGh3GzmJ28CVc6KrMHbCSzjKIT-MEyn_YEPIOdiSwYzOzjppBYA?key=3B78uNv88CoZyO8r8oQKfEXL" alt=""/></figure>



The fact NODE will focus less on the volatile mining space (filled with bankruptcies and the like) means that “maybe long-term allocators would be more willing to hold this one over a multi-year horizon,” Sigel told me.&nbsp;



He didn’t want to name possible top holdings. But Sigel mentioned the opportunity in “downstream and midstream energy companies” tied to BTC mining that offer a different volatility/beta to bitcoin than the pure-play miners.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



He added: “There are a number of Web2 companies globally that have been more forward-thinking about adopting stablecoins and digital assets more broadly. And we’re focused not only on the revenue opportunity directly, but also on how crypto rails can improve the cost structure of many traditional companies.”There’s also the fact that more crypto companies (and those wading into the space) are expected <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ipo-boom-etoro-kraken">to go public</a> (eToro, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-stablecoin-competition-investors">Circle</a>, etc.).



Sigel said: “We count more than $10 billion of IPOs in the pipeline that should make for interesting hunting ground over the next year for active equity investors.”&nbsp;



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ETFs

How a soon-to-launch crypto equity ETF looks to be different

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



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As the global trade war rages on, US companies navigating earnings season are being cautious to avoid forward-looking statements.&nbsp;



We’ve already seen Delta Airlines pull its 2025 guidance, with executives saying tariff policy&nbsp; “uncertainty” makes future projections challenging. CarMax also withdrew its long-term growth timeline.&nbsp;



“Why put a target out there that’s really speculative, not knowing exactly where this environment is going to go?” CarMax CEO and president Bill Nash said on the company’s earnings call earlier this month.&nbsp;



United Airlines executives took a different approach, opting on their earnings call to provide investors with two vastly different profit forecasts. On the high end — should conditions remain “stable” — adjusted earnings per share could be as high as $13.50. On the low end — if the US economy enters a recession — EPS could dip to $7.&nbsp;



President Trump’s “Liberation Day” <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/markets-rate-cut-tariff-fed-reserve">tariff policies</a> may not be directly reflected in Q1 earnings. But we know that companies and consumers have changed their behavior in the past few months in anticipation of a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/global-markets-recalibration">global trade shift</a>.&nbsp;



US retail sales were up 1.4% in March, with big-ticket items like cars leading the way — a sign consumers were looking to lock in prices ahead of tariffs going into effect. The US ISM manufacturing inventories index also rose last month, signaling companies may have been stockpiling goods and supplies before import prices go up.&nbsp;



The first of the so-called Magnificent 7 (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla) are scheduled to report earnings this week. Tesla kicks things off tomorrow, and Alphabet’s call is slated for Thursday.&nbsp;



Tesla will be particularly interesting to watch — because of CEO Elon Musk’s ties to the White House and because tariffs are expected to impact the electric vehicle company.&nbsp;



Despite Tesla ramping up its domestic supply chain in recent years and assembling its cars in the US, the company relies heavily on foreign imports (especially from China). On Tesla’s Q4 2024 earnings call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said tariffs are expected to have an impact on the company’s “business and profitability.”&nbsp;



For Alphabet, investors will be waiting to hear how executives are thinking about global macroeconomic conditions. Business spending is expected to decrease with tariffs, leading to a smaller global ad market. Retail ads represent almost a quarter of Google’s ad revenue, analysts from Oppenheimer estimate.&nbsp;



Alphabet in February said it would invest $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 — spending that would help build out its AI offerings and data center infrastructure. The company has not yet adjusted this figure, but we will be listening on Thursday.&nbsp;



We’ve written before about how we’ll be watching <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/banks-lending-increase-reports-q1">quarterly cost accruals</a> this earnings season. This is not a market that will reward outperformance on earnings, so we could see companies intentionally increase reported expenses to “save” any extra earnings for later this year.&nbsp;



Coming up, Meta and Microsoft are scheduled to report on April 30. Results for the rest of the Mag 7 are slated for May.



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earnings

Tesla to kick off Mag 7 earnings as more companies withdraw guidance

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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Ah, “Base is for everyone.” If you haven’t heard that by now, go catch up quickly with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/base-coinbase-content-coin-crash-pump-memecoin">this story</a>.



Here’s a hot take: Base is not sexy.&nbsp;



Jesse Pollak, Coinbase’s head of Base and Coinbase Wallet, has been on a posting spree since Base launched some “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/base-coinbase-content-coin-crash-pump-memecoin">content coins</a>” that pumped, dumped, and then pumped again. The first one was “Base is for everyone,” a token with seemingly no purpose other than to promote the idea that everyone should tokenize everything for profit but also, for funzies. 



One Pollak <a href="https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1913230788411429108">post</a> with a GIF full of different phrases declared, among other things, that “Base is for pimping” while another made the claim that “Base is for squirting.” Those two in particular caused a stir on Crypto Twitter.



Both have <a href="https://x.com/jacqmelinek/status/1913239619275051377">shock value</a> — and are also just a bit bizarre to state at all. In response to one <a href="https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1913248254013440414">post</a> about the latter statement, Pollak said we should respect “provocative artists.” In another reply, he <a href="https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1913250831073509730">said</a> he would love it if someone launched a “better OnlyFans on Base.”



But the company behind Base, Coinbase, isn’t for everyone.



As some have <a href="https://x.com/CupOJoseph/status/1913277432943030526">pointed out</a>, Pollak’s wish for a Base-based OnlyFans is ironic considering Coinbase’s current <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/legal/prohibited_use">terms block</a> anyone from using Coinbase who conducts business around “any sexually-related services such as prostitution, escorts, pay-per view, [or] adult live chat features.” 



Because OnlyFans involves pay-per-view and chat features, OnlyFans and creators making similar content independently or on other platforms would be banned from using Coinbase.



Coinbase has banned all types of sexually suggestive work and sex work without distinction, lumping in lewd OnlyFans photos with activities that are illegal in most states.



When I <a href="https://x.com/pixiekate13/status/1913383712034865238">posted</a> about this, a number of reply guys didn’t deny that Coinbase is doing this. But they tried the good ol’ “it’s a blockchain” argument, meaning sex workers could or should find other ways to use Base while avoiding Coinbase, the company that created it.



But is that a world we really want to live in? One where sex workers are promoted publicly and superficially when they use blockchains and are then shamed or restricted when they try to onramp or offramp their cash?&nbsp;



The head of Base, who works at Coinbase on Base, is saying sex workers should come to Base while ignoring Coinbase’s rules against letting said workers use Coinbase itself.



In 2022, CNBC found that Coinbase has been banning sex workers from its platform since at least as early as 2016. Coinbase <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/05/bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-sex-workers-like-ex-nurse-making-1point3-million.html#:~:text=Later%2C%20in%202016%2C%20Coinbase%20closed,connected%20to%20adult%20content.%22)">told</a> the news outlet in 2022 that its terms of service bar “commerce or retail services connected to adult content.”&nbsp;



All of this ties into a bigger problem: As crypto has bowed down to Wall Street in hopes of “mass adoption” and better (or at least clearer) regulation, it’s become more like those big banks it once sneered at.&nbsp;



Crypto had been touted as one of the few promised payment methods besides cash that sex workers could actually use. But it <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/sex-workers-crypto-failing-them/">has</a> <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2023/08/crypto-sex-work-banking-access.html">failed</a> to live up to that promise.



“Generally speaking, women are not outraged about Base possibly bringing adult content onchain. Adult service workers are more punk and anti-establishment than most of the people in crypto,” CoinFund Head of Comms and Marketing Jules Mossler <a href="https://x.com/julie_mo/status/1913714629429305681">wrote</a> on X.&nbsp;



“Being taken seriously is about having good taste. There is a school of thought that believes some art is cheap: gross-out humor, useless nudity, excessive cursing for shock value. It’s not really anyone’s place except the company itself to judge if using sex in their marketing is on target and a good decision,” Mossler continued in reference to Pollak’s GIF post, adding: “The use of the word ‘pimp’ is a choice though. And no matter how often the term appears in rap it doesn’t change that pimps play a central role in sex trafficking and exploitation of women.”



Pollak later <a href="https://x.com/jessepollak/status/1913384737865179525?s=46">posted</a> an apology for the “Base is for pimping” part of his previous post.



“This morning I also posted a piece of art someone coined, which (among many phrases) said ‘base is for pimping.’ To be 100% clear: this was made by a creator I wanted to support (not me or Base marketing), and it was a single phrase among many, but I&#8217;ll own this was [sic] a mistake and apologize. I&#8217;m sorry,” Pollak wrote in lowercase text, adding: “I unequivocally back artists to create without fear on Base and I support provocative art — but the messages I share matter, especially when they look and feel like a direct message from me.”



Reached for comment, a Coinbase spokesperson did not respond to my question about why the company continues to bar creators engaged in legal sex work from Coinbase.&nbsp;



Instead, the spokesperson reiterated that Base is permissionless and recommended “anyone” use Coinbase Wallet or a DeFi platform to “get onchain with Base.”



“If someone wanted to build a version of OnlyFans on Base, they would be free to do so,” the Coinbase spokesperson said.&nbsp;



But they can’t take those earnings to Coinbase itself.



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Base

Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak calls for ‘better OnlyFans on Base,’ apologizes for post about ‘pimping’

Donovan Choy

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



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“ETH sucks, it has no value accrual, and the L1 is dead,” says everyone with an X account. “Want Ethereum to return to its glory days? Forget the L2 roadmap — scale the L1!”



It appears the Ethereum <a href="https://x.com/christine_dkim/status/1892364990608486555">inner circles</a> are finally listening.



<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">Our discussions about the Layer 1 scaling roadmap have been extensive, and the feedback so far suggests that the community appreciates our ambition. Turning that ambition into reality now depends on the focus of the core development teams and researchers. Following the recent…&mdash; Tomasz K. Stańczak (@tkstanczak) <a href="https://twitter.com/tkstanczak/status/1914092488396091444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A new Vitalik blog <a href="https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/long-term-l1-execution-layer-proposal-replace-the-evm-with-risc-v/23617">post</a> published yesterday lays out an exploratory long-term and “radical” plan to scale the execution layer of the Ethereum L1. It’s a seemingly stark acknowledgement of all the past year’s complaints.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfdzTPsozY4zdgm_WI7Ht_pyZeEOFQIrzbzv05NQZajPinIfyt-ZrrP57z8yz6X92KMWs_AHIfNs2qUrNC-HI9YeKscAqeNVy1rizJuydOBBI-IlQmtPWiSKFQHcQ6grplPTBHXZg?key=yx51XPN04uqXS0mc98qqd12v" alt=""/></figure>



The upgrade, if done, may bring efficiency gains of over 100x to the L1, Vitalik says.



How would it actually be done?



Vitalik’s proposal looks to replace the beloved Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with a general purpose RISC-V virtual machine — all while maintaining the backward-compatibility of old EVM contracts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is a RISC-V virtual machine?</h2>



“RISC-V” is a hardware instruction set architecture (ISA). The simplest way to think of it is as a standardized language that defines communication between the hardware and software.



Though RISC-V was not originally built for blockchain purposes, its open design allowed crypto developers to leverage it for building virtual machines that could generate zero-knowledge proofs at far lower resource costs than the EVM.



The outcome is what’s known as a zero knowledge virtual machine (zkVM), which enables developers to write applications in high level languages like Rust without needing to be trained in cryptography.



In the absence of zkVMs, companies that want to leverage zk tech to build a privacy-secure application to process payroll/healthcare data would need to spend much more time writing custom zk circuits that cannot be easily changed after deployment (unlike a zkVM where devs could simply recompile RISC-V code).



Today, there are already several zkVMs built on top of RISC-V, including Succinct’s SP1, Risc Zero’s “<a href="https://dev.risczero.com/api/zkvm/">RISC0</a>,” a16z’s <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/building-jolt/">Jolt</a>, Axiom’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/scroll-announces-new-zkevm">OpenVM</a>, Polygon’s <a href="https://polygon.technology/polygon-miden">Miden</a> and more.



zkVMs have largely been talked about in the context of usage on L2 zkrollups. Vitalik’s latest blog post shifts the focus to L1 usage.



It’s an ambitious goal, given the obviously far more monumental task of implementation, given the coordination problems of upgrading the L1.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What about zkEVMs?</h2>



What does this mean, however, for zkEVMs — the interim solution for scalability? zkEVMs are more customized to an EVM instruction set, unlike the more general purpose zkVM.



Vitalik acknowledges in his post that zkEVMs will remain a “medium term” stopgap solution for L1 scalability.&nbsp;



Yet, current zkEVM proving remains resource intensive. Based on data from Succinct’s zkEVM proving of the EVM execution layer, ~59% of time spent verifying transactions comes from executing EVM code — a bottleneck inherent to the EVM’s design.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe_U675xjCBj4-5tl930MMP6YlkMx-xjn1r0zhxkmgfA9-UDd3HT9nmHD8h4G4NN5MJVcKAgxwmXoGgU3CjLnBdBUVfEnRBvEsiyfB7y5UdNPYE5tWWYs391nwBJfTsO7mvKRHj?key=yx51XPN04uqXS0mc98qqd12v" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/long-term-l1-execution-layer-proposal-replace-the-evm-with-risc-v/23617">Ethereum Magicians</a></figcaption></figure>



Succinct co-founder Kshitij Kulkarni <a href="https://x.com/ks_kulk/status/1913985882001965133">echoes</a> this view, claiming that the EVM interpreter &#8220;adds up to an 800x overhead to zkVM proving times. The EVM is very inefficient for zk.&#8221;



RISC-V based VMs would eliminate the need for the interpreter, thereby removing key bottlenecks in the EVM, which could reduce proving overhead by 50-100x.



Others <a href="https://x.com/_weidai/status/1914053842888769626">question</a> whether RISC-V is necessarily the better choice over Wasm.



“There are pros and cons for both RISC-V or Wasm. Wasm could be better because it offers the benefits that EOF (EVM Object Format) is trying to add i.e., better support for static analysis. It&#8217;s a win for Ethereum L1 regardless of the exact approach,” 1kx research partner Wei Dai told Blockworks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>



Ethereum’s major <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-fusaka-fork-pectra-devs-call">upcoming Pectra upgrade</a> brings with it changes, including expansion of blob data availability (EIP-7691), account abstraction (EIP-7702), and raised ETH staking limits (EIP-7251). These are all welcome changes, but notably do not bring any tangible upgrades that will buttress ETH as an “ultrasound money” asset.&nbsp;



But one can at least take heart in the fact that the Ethereum ship seems to be slowly turning in that direction.&nbsp;



Don’t expect these changes — even if it gets buy-in from the community — to come any time soon.



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Vitalik Buterin suggests replacing EVM with RISC-V to scale Ethereum

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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Reading back the official <a href="https://wikileaks.org/Transcript-of-secret-meeting-between-Julian-Assange-and-Google-CEO-Eric-Schmidt.html">transcript</a> of a secret five-hour meeting between Julian Assange and then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt — released 12 years ago this week — gives an equally eerie feeling.



Along with veteran global affairs fixer Jared Cohen, who was head of internal think tank Google Ideas (now Jigsaw), Schmidt was co-writing a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Digital-Age-Reshaping-Business/dp/0307957136">book</a>, The New Digital Age, about the intersection of US global power and social media. It was set in the backdrop of the so-called “Twitter revolutions” of the Arab Spring in the early 2010s.&nbsp;



The meeting was set under pretence of research for that book, with Schmidt and Cohen visiting a number of tech leaders around the same time. Assange published his <a href="https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/">account</a> of the meeting in his own 2014 book When Google Met WikiLeaks.&nbsp;



WikiLeaks was highly active in mid-2011, even with Assange under house arrest in rural UK as he fought extradition to Sweden. “Schmidt plunged in at the deep end, straightaway quizzing me on the organizational and technological underpinnings of WikiLeaks,” Assange wrote. WikiLeaks had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/julian-assange-extradition-wikileaks-crypto-wakes-up">just begun accepting bitcoin</a> donations after a high-profile banking <a href="https://wikileaks.org/Banking-Blockade.html">blockade</a> cut them off from Bank of America, Mastercard, Visa, Western Union and PayPal.



Assange didn’t think much of the visit at the time, and had considered Schmidt “a politically unambitious Silicon Valley engineer, a relic of the good old days of computer science graduate culture on the West Coast.”&nbsp;



But he felt differently after some digging into Google’s confluence with US foreign policy. “While WikiLeaks had been deeply involved in publishing the inner archive of the US State Department, the US State Department had, in effect, snuck into the WikiLeaks command center and hit me up for a free lunch.”



Bitcoin came up a few times during that lunch. The first was a little awkward: Schmidt, a former director of software engineering at Sun Microsystems, curiously said he hadn’t heard of Bitcoin when Assange asked (Cohen otherwise said he “was reading about this just yesterday”).



<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">At secret meeting Julian <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Assange?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Assange</a> describes <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> to Google chairman Eric Schmidt in 2011 <a href="https://t.co/9LdBouHdMZ">https://t.co/9LdBouHdMZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/EalZa4LIu9">pic.twitter.com/EalZa4LIu9</a>&mdash; WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a href="https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/674511298907004928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2015</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



What seems to have stuck most of all about Bitcoin — for both Schmidt and Assange — was that it was only one expression of the technology.



Maybe the global DNS regime could be overhauled to operate similarly to Bitcoin, freeing the internet from centralized control, censorship and manipulation. Like traditional financial institutions, DNS providers are prone to censorship by the state, with Assange telling Schmidt that the Chinese government was actively filtering WikiLeaks content from the country’s internet.



So, an internet routing system built on a global distributed ledger could allow WikiLeaks releases, for example, to be assigned to cryptographic hashes that were always accessible on a blockchain, just as bitcoins are.&nbsp;



Such a system would be especially effective during uprisings, when governments typically try to suppress citizen resistance by cutting off access to the internet. A truly peer-to-peer communications network would be, if it was decentralized enough, freedom technology for information in much the same way that Bitcoin is freedom technology for money.&nbsp;



Assange was describing <a href="https://bluishcoder.co.nz/2011/05/12/namecoin-a-dns-alternative-based-on-bitcoin.html">Namecoin</a>, the early Bitcoin fork based on the BitDNS concept initially <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1790.msg28696#msg28696">entertained</a> by Satoshi.



“I think we should study this quite a bit more so we generally understand it&#8230; so we might have a few more questions about it,” Schmidt told Assange, before wondering whether it would ever be possible to break that system’s encryption, undermining it completely.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">More so than ever, Google Is Not What It Seems: “What Lockheed Martin was to the twentieth century, technology and cybersecurity companies will be to the twenty-first,” according to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, former director of Google Ideas.…&mdash; WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a href="https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1903583749289529524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Assange and WikiLeaks have meticulously <a href="https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1903583749289529524">detailed</a> the links between Google and US foreign policy



Schmidt showed interest in Bitcoin’s proof of work and the scarcity of the currency, thanks in no small part to Assange’s lucid explanation of the difficulty setting.



“And scarcity will go up as time goes by, and what does that mean for incentives in going into the Bitcoin system? That means that you should get into the Bitcoin system now. Early. You should be an early adopter,” Assange said. “Because your bitcoins are going to be worth a lot of money one day.”&nbsp;



Of course, Assange was right. Bitcoin is up 5,000x (half a million percent) since the secret meeting with Google’s CEO.&nbsp;



One year later, Assange arrived, seeking asylum at the Ecuador embassy in London, where he spent seven years holed up avoiding extradition to Sweden over bunk rape charges. Assange then served another five years in a London prison as his team fought extradition to the US, and was released in June last year as part of a plea deal with the Feds.



The internet, meanwhile, is today highly <a href="https://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/blog/internet-censorship-part-2-technology-information-control">censorable</a> by world governments and corporations, in many cases at the whim of Google itself, as Bitcoin remains free. We can only hope that the time Assange served still stands for something, in the end.



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Bitcoin

WikiLeaks, Google and Bitcoin: What happened in 2011

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



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M&amp;A szn is still going strong.&nbsp;



Kado Software, the Web3 payments infrastructure company, was acquired by Swapped.com.&nbsp;



The team declined to disclose the terms of the deal, but it plans to grow the US operations for Swapped.com, which is a Denmark-based firm.&nbsp;



Emery Andrew, Kado’s founder, told me that the team’s been weighing its options for a while — from debating a fundraise to looking for the right fit to acquire it.&nbsp;



It was an obvious choice, he added. Especially because Andrew will stay on to help helm the US operations and product expansion. He teased that they already have some products in the works, but they’re not yet ready to disclose them.



“By merging our expertise and vision, we can accelerate the creation of best-in-class Web3 products and UX, achieving more than either team could on its own. In addition, the US market expertise is something of great value to us,” Swapped.com CEO Thomas Franklin said in a statement.&nbsp;



The company — which, transparently, was not one I was very familiar with before chatting with Andrew — is fairly new, only about three years old. Its focus is on expanding Web3 payments, which is what drew it to Kado. 



For Andrew, it’s about building the “next generation of crypto-native payments products.”



“It’s a natural progression that payments is a race to zero in terms of fees, as more players enter the market, it’s natural that there’s more competition,” he told me. Right now, it’s still quite expensive, but Andrew’s hoping to take a page out of the stablecoin book when looking at how Kado — and Swapped.com — can lower fees for users.&nbsp;&nbsp;



And now we wait to see what products these two have up their sleeves.&nbsp;



Note: Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz is an investor in Kado.



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