Sahara AI

Byron Gilliam

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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering.”



— Jensen Huang, on building resiliency
</blockquote>



The history of the world’s most valuable company is a study in how improbable its survival was, let alone its success.



In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+nvidia+way&amp;crid=N16XBIMZV1DG&amp;sprefix=the+nvidia+way%2Caps%2C179&amp;ref=nb_sb_noss_1">The Nvidia Way</a>, Tae Kim tells the story of how Nvidia, founded in 1993, emerged from the small and volatile market for graphics chips — an industry in which everyone was always &#8220;thirty days from going out of business,&#8221; as Jensen Huang constantly reminded his employees.



That was more or less true for much of Nvidia’s existence, not only because money was tight for most of its existence, but because graphics chips were so interchangeable that one poorly designed product could sink the company.



After Nvidia’s first two chips were poorly designed, the company really was just weeks away from insolvency.



“We were just bad at our jobs,” Jensen told Kim, who refers to Huang by his adopted first name throughout.



(Born in Taiwan, Jen-Hsun Huang anglicized his first name because his parents sent him to a reform school for juvenile delinquents in Kentucky under the mistaken impression it was a boarding school for high achievers.)



Nvidia’s third chip only happened because Jensen took what little venture capital the company had left and gambled it all on an accelerated production process to get it done while he could still make payroll.



It was a hit and the company survived another cycle.



No one was more surprised than the industry leader at the time, 3dfx, which was forming plans to buy Nvidia out of bankruptcy.&nbsp;



But shortly thereafter, Nvidia was the industry leader and 3dfx was bankrupt.&nbsp;



(Nvidia bought 3dfx’s patents out of bankruptcy and hired 100 of their engineers.)



Nvidia would continue to &#8220;oscillate between near-death experiences and market-defining success,” Kim writes, which does much to explain the company’s culture — the world’s largest company still operates as if it’s 30 days from going out of business.



Much of that is a reflection of Jensen’s personality.



As Kim documents, the billionaire tech founder spends nearly all of his waking hours working, including weekends and holidays.



“Work is how I relax,” he explained to employees who asked why he was bombarding them with emails from a beach.&nbsp;&nbsp;



He expected his employees to do the same and they mostly did: Local competitors took notice that the employee parking lot at Nvidia’s Santa Clara headquarters was typically full on nights and weekends.



Even so, Jensen was tough on them.



His method of managing people, in his own words, was to &#8220;torture them into greatness.&#8221;



That wasn’t always appreciated.



Jensen used to save his most scathing performance reviews for all-company meetings, believing that a public dressing-down was an opportunity for everyone to learn from someone’s mistake.



(“Feedback is learning. For what reason should you be the only person to learn from this?”)



Many talented engineers left the company because of that kind of treatment: “It was the most embarrassing, humiliating thing I’ve ever seen,” an executive told Kim of one such incident.&nbsp;



But Jensen was equally hard on himself: &#8220;I look in the mirror every morning and say, ‘You suck.’&#8221;



Nvidia adopted that harsh personality — the “Nvidia way” of Kim’s title is essentially the mindmeld between Jensen and the company he co-founded with two friends.



(One co-founder quit the company in 2000 and sold his entire stake for about $30 million. His 3.5% of the company would be worth about $140 billion today.)



That may have made Nvidia the most unpleasant place to work in Silicon Valley, but it’s made it a survivor.



Even when Nvidia had survived long enough to IPO in 1999, people doubted its chances of holding on much longer.



“Why would we invest in a graphics company?” one investor asked. “You would be the 40th we’ve backed, and all the others have gone out of business. Why would we do this?” The reason, Kim’s story makes clear, was Jensen.



His maniacal work habits, adopted by the whole company, kept Nvidia alive in the early years, and his uncanny ability to see around corners kept Nvidia at the cutting edge of technology.



Jensen was among the first to recognize that PC gaming would be a bigger market for graphics chips than business workstations.



He was among the first to recognize that graphics chips, like CPUs, could become programmable “general processing units” by running software, which Nvidia went on to invent.



(Nvidia contracted Mythbusters to create a <a href="https://youtu.be/Ge-g3xZ5bb8?si=SPTyEY68TD6unfYd">fun explainer</a> on the difference between GPUs and CPUs.)



Most importantly, he was among the first to recognize that GPUs would become the enabling technology of AI.



The same GPUs that Nvidia had optimized to do the math behind the arc of an arrow in Zelda turned out to be uncannily well-suited for the matrix math that powers today’s AI models.



From afar, it seems like Nvidia lucked into it: GPUs just happened to be good for AI and Nvidia just happened to make them.



But Kim&#8217;s account shows that Jensen spotted the breakthrough progress in deep-learning AI while it was still an academic curiosity.



It’s hard to imagine any other CEO being that early to such a deeply technical trend — and impossible to imagine any of them betting their company on it.



“Deep learning is going to be really big,” he told Nvidia executives in 2013, nine years before the release of ChatGPT. “We should go all in.”



Only with hindsight was that an obvious thing to do.



At the time, Nvidia sales were stagnant, its market capitalization was just $8 billion and its shares traded on 10x P/E, net of cash.



Nvidia’s own investors were so low on the company’s prospects that they badgered Jensen into spending $1 billion of the company’s cash buying back shares; they thought there was nothing else to do with it.&nbsp;



Fortunately, Jensen was simultaneously investing billions in getting Nvidia ready for the AI moment that hardly anyone else saw coming.



In many ways, Jensen created that moment.



Without the billions that Nvidia invested in optimizing its chips and software for AI (years before they could show investors any return on it), the ChatGPT phenomenon would not have happened how and when it did.



Nvidia’s GPUs made large-scale deep learning feasible and they wouldn’t have made them with any other CEO.



“Jensen Huang is surely the only person who could have gotten Nvidia to where it is today,” Kim concludes.



There was a lot of pain and suffering along the way.



But there’s no other way a graphics chip startup becomes the world’s most valuable company.



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The Breakdown Newsletter

The first $4T company

Katherine Ross

Jack Kubinec

Pump.fun plans to share 25% of platform revenue with holders of its token, four sources familiar tell Blockworks. 



The team allegedly told insiders about the arrangement leading up to its public announcement, multiple people said.



Earlier Wednesday, pump.fun said that the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pump-fun-token-ico-date">initial coin offering for its PUMP token</a> would go live on Saturday, July 12.&nbsp;



Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Qureshi posted on X regarding the PUMP revenues, noting that it’ll be “one of the highest gross revenue tokens in crypto.”&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">Wow, this video&#8230;<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PUMP&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PUMP</a> is going to be getting 25% of Pump revenues, so beyond one of the largest ICOs ever, this will be one of the highest gross revenue tokens in crypto. (not an investor) <a href="https://t.co/MYS0NlUxiY">https://t.co/MYS0NlUxiY</a>&mdash; Haseeb ＞|＜ (@hosseeb) <a href="https://twitter.com/hosseeb/status/1942948311545307303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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In June, 6th Man Ventures’ Mike Dudas <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozFYpCovPdY">told</a> Blockworks’ Lightspeed podcast: “So I would imagine there&#8217;s going to be some element of putting revenue to work on behalf of token holders. I won&#8217;t get too specific about that and that there&#8217;s also going to be some component of a token that rewards folks who use the platform.”



6MV is an <a href="https://x.com/mdudas/status/1942951510742016109">investor</a> in pump.fun.



Pump.fun didn’t immediately return a request for comment.



According to the tokenomics shared by the team, 33% of PUMP will be sold in the ICO, while 13% was allocated to existing investors. In total, the fully diluted value is around $4 billion.&nbsp;



Of that 33%, an initial 18% goes to institutional purchasers, with 15% going to a public sale.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gate-publishes-removes-pump-fun-token">Gate publishes then removes pump.fun token sale page</a>



“Both private sale and public sale purchasers are on the exact same terms,” the team said. Doing some napkin <a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1942956245331370390">math</a>, that works out to be $720 million from private investors at the $4 billion FDV.



<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"><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24PUMP&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$PUMP</a> will have a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000,000 and will be distributed as follows: 33% will be sold in the Initial Coin Offering 24% reserved for community and ecosystem initiatives 20% to the team 2.4% to the ecosystem fund 2% for the foundation 13% to existing investors… <a href="https://t.co/0SmmEK16O9">pic.twitter.com/0SmmEK16O9</a>&mdash; pump.fun (@pumpdotfun) <a href="https://twitter.com/pumpdotfun/status/1942947291083493495?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“While the token will be fully functional at launch, we’re giving thorough consideration to utility mechanisms like fee rebates, token buybacks, or other incentives and promotions,” the pump.fun team said in the announcement on X.&nbsp;



US and UK investors will not be able to participate in the ICO, the team added.



Blockworks <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">previously reported</a> that pump.fun planned a $1 billion token sale at the $4 billion valuation.&nbsp;



Jack Kubinec contributed reporting.



Updated Wednesday, July 9 at 4:13 pm ET: Added additional source confirmation.



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Pump.fun plans 25% revenue share with token holders: Sources

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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It’s July 9. The 90-day pause on most of President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs was supposed to end today, but the start date has once again been pushed back. Color me surprised.&nbsp;



The White House now says most countries have until August 1 to secure trade agreements, or else the new levies go into effect. For real this time.&nbsp;



Investors seem decently optimistic that deals will materialize. Markets were modestly in the green this afternoon, with the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite up 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively, at 2 p.m. ET. Similarly, BTC was flat, up 0.1% at that time.&nbsp;



To recap the current tariff situation: Trump posted copies of letters he sent to 14 countries — including Japan and South Korea — on Monday. He said that seven more letters should go out today.&nbsp;



During yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Trump also revealed a new tariff on copper of 50%. The president did not specify when, exactly, this rate will go into effect.&nbsp;



US copper prices had already been on the rise on expectations of higher levies, but Tuesday’s announcement sent premiums to new highs. The US price premium over the global benchmark reached 138% yesterday.&nbsp;



US copper prices closed Tuesday 13% higher, the largest single-day increase in decades.&nbsp;



We <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-changes-market-volatility">wrote about copper</a> in the lead-up to Liberation Day as analysts speculated about what new tariffs could mean for metal markets.&nbsp;



As a reminder: The US currently produces about half the amount of copper it consumes annually — meaning around 1 million metric tons are imported, according to the US Geological Survey. Copper is in virtually everything: wiring, plumbing, motors, medical devices, personal electronics, you name it.&nbsp;



The tariffs have so far had a limited impact on inflation, and there are a few theories as to why. First, companies were expecting tariffs, so it’s likely they increased inventories to prepare (in which case they have not had to raise prices for consumers yet). Many sectors have also experienced lower demand, making price increases less likely.&nbsp;



That said, I think we could see a bigger impact on consumer prices from these copper tariffs. Domestic copper production has remained relatively steady over the past few years. Glencore, a top international producer, expects global demand for the metal to rise going forward.



The problem with bringing production onshore is that it’s a slow process. It takes, on average, about 18 years for a copper mine to move from discovery to production, according to S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence. That’s assuming rich deposits are found in the first place.&nbsp;



We’ll be keeping an eye on metal markets and how they’re impacting equities and crypto assets.&nbsp;



Stay tuned.



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Donald Trump

Tariff deadline comes and goes, copper feels the pressure

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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Story, an IP-focused EVM L1 blockchain, is adding Tools for Humanity’s World ID tech in a move to increase transparency around who’s human on its <a href="https://portal.story.foundation/">IP Portal</a> licensing database currently in open beta.



“We’re just coming out of an age where the big AI companies, right, basically scraped the whole internet, and rather than ask for permission, they’re just asking for forgiveness,” Story Foundation President Andrea Muttoni told me in an interview.&nbsp;



“We haven&#8217;t really fully understood the magnitude of it. You know, the whole concept of like, the dead internet theory, right? It&#8217;s going to be so challenging in the future — the better the AI models get, the more content is being produced by AI models — to distinguish what is human and what is not,” he added.



The upcoming integration means users can connect their World IDs to verify their crypto wallets when they engage with the platform. They can then register a piece of content and set it up for fee-based or royalty-based licensing, including by adding a legally-binding Programmable IP License (<a href="https://docs.story.foundation/concepts/programmable-ip-license/overview">PIL</a>).



The goal is that the World ID tie-in can add an extra layer of verification and trust that creators are who they say they are on Story. World currently has 13 million verified humans, meaning people with accounts who got their irises scanned at an Orb.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">In a world where AI can generate content at scale, Story is building the infrastructure to prove who created what with <a href="https://twitter.com/worldcoin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@worldcoin</a> . Authorship matters more than ever—and Story is where verified human identity meets programmable IP. Proud to partner with <a href="https://twitter.com/worldcoin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@worldcoin</a> to bring… <a href="https://t.co/7exkzJulTD">https://t.co/7exkzJulTD</a>&mdash; S.Y. Lee (꧁IP꧂) (@storysylee) <a href="https://twitter.com/storysylee/status/1942965345100443759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Muttoni sees Story as a place not only for licensing all types of art, but also for real-world assets and data for AI training and even individual people, too.



“We&#8217;re definitely going to see humans scaling themselves,” he said. “Anyone who has a name, image, and likeness that might want to be licensed, I think, is a huge untapped IP angle.”



Tools for Humanity is the primary for-profit builder working on the World blockchain, which was cofounded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while the World Foundation is behind the WLD token.&nbsp;



Ajay Patel, Head of World ID at TFH, told me that he met the founders of Story about six or eight months ago and saw a potential for collaboration.&nbsp;



“It’s really this underlying primitive of the internet,” Patel said of World ID.



World ID’s profit mechanism is still in development at the moment, with plans to roll out a fee system at some point next year.&nbsp;



“The key problem to solve there is tying utility to the economics. And so what’s going to happen is that any relying party to World ID, based on their usage of World ID, will end up paying back into the protocol. And so that’s kind of how the system would work,” Patel told me.



“That entire kind of infrastructure for how that would work is something that we&#8217;re actively working on right now,” he added.



When asked, he said TFH did not receive any kind of grant from Story in exchange for the integration.&nbsp;



TFH has increasingly ramped up its blockchain-powered software push this year, from updates to its World app to adding World ID to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-id-verification-gaming">Razer accounts</a> to unveiling the “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-altman-worldcoin-orb-mini-eye-scan">Mini Orb</a>” and a US launch.



The integration with World ID is slated to go live at some point this fall.&nbsp;



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The Drop newsletter

Story Protocol, World prepare for AI-saturated ‘dead internet theory’ future

Donovan Choy

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



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Phantom wallet announced yesterday that it was integrating Hyperliquid perps right into its wallet interface.



<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">Introducing: Phantom Perps 👻 ♾️ Go long or short in just a few taps. 100+ markets. Up to 40x leverage. All in your pocket. Powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/HyperliquidX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HyperliquidX</a> <a href="https://t.co/YDKjUGBdEn">pic.twitter.com/YDKjUGBdEn</a>&mdash; Phantom (@phantom) <a href="https://twitter.com/phantom/status/1942628993636917311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



This is <a href="https://x.com/hyperliquidbull/status/1942630523408351446">surprising</a>, mainly because Phantom is Solana’s marquee wallet and far ahead of competing wallets like Solflare or Backpack, with 15 million monthly active users (MAUs).



If Phantom wanted a cut of the perps market, I suppose one would’ve naively expected it to partner up first with a native Solana perps DEX like Drift or <a href="https://x.com/DefiSolar/status/1942657673994068081">Jupiter</a>.



But though Drift or Jupiter might be hometown favorites, Hyperliquid is where the money already is.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcFE4l4Km4H4mpQpTG8JLhnqumZMyAFqEgNLpMaiAKAF0towGfMZANz_aUCNsS6FI74YF77MmZLj-O3C7wY6vq8uxf-plujUo1HLgHr7uG85vviI-iyDQgiyYoxiFVFNDBrA03dvg?key=D8S8VRimuiNq_D7bNzCT1w" alt=""/></figure>



Source: <a href="https://dune.com/uwusanauwu/perps">Dune</a>



So the wallet that onboarded millions to Solana is now shepherding flow to a rival venue, which doesn’t boost Solana fees or TVL at all.



Just this morning, Kraken and Backed announced that xStocks would also be launching on BNB Chain.



<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">Welcome Kraken, Backed and xStocks to the <a href="https://twitter.com/BNBCHAIN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BNBChain</a> ecosystem. 🤝<a href="https://t.co/gg2k8SEsgE">https://t.co/gg2k8SEsgE</a>&mdash; CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1942933592541110398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Soon, eligible Kraken customers will be able to deposit and withdraw those BEP-20 stock tokens straight from the exchange.



xStocks is Kraken and Backed’s tokenized stock product that debuted on Solana less than two weeks ago (I wrote about it <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-stocks-good-bad">last week</a>).



Tokenized stocks may have been Solana-first, but they will be fiercely multichain. <a href="https://x.com/Bybit_Official/status/1939626244728840498">Bybit</a> is also integrating xStocks.



xStocks’ move to BNB Chain is no surprise, given Backed co-founder Adam Levi’s <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522493630/en/Kraken-Partners-with-Backed-to-Launch-xStocks-on-Solana-Bringing-Tokenized-Equities-to-the-Masses">stated goal</a> for the product to “be a neutral, public good asset class” and eventually “expanding xStocks to other exchanges and chains.”



What investor mental model do these pieces of news affirm?



The Phantom x Hyperliquid news seems to simultaneously affirm both the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/battle-for-wallet-supremacy">Fat Wallet</a> thesis and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-infrastructure-bloat">Fat App</a> thesis.



<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 Phantom x Hyperliquid integration is: • Bullish for Phantom (validation of fat wallet/super app thesis) • Bullish for Hyperliquid (validation of fat protocol thesis) • Bearish for Solana (they have no good perp dex, distribution moat is much smaller than perceived)&mdash; Uma Roy (@pumatheuma) <a href="https://twitter.com/pumatheuma/status/1942669033771536640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Build a great wallet like Phantom, because wallets, not apps, own the users.



Or build a great app like Hyperliquid, because users follow the app, not the underlying chain.



But if you can, you should most definitely build a Fat Exchange like Robinhood or Kraken, because then you can take your users to whichever chain you want.



Kraken is a Fat Exchange, but it’s not quite as Fat as Robinhood’s 14 million MAUs.&nbsp;



That may explain Kraken’s decision to go multichain fast and cement its position on each respective blockchain.



There was never really a reason to believe that wallets, apps or CEXs would be loyal to any particular chain to begin with.



Time to totally disabuse that notion.



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



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



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



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



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



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

0xResearch Newsletter

The winners and losers of Phantom’s Hyperliquid integration

Ben Strack

An overhaul of financial market infrastructure is set to occur, according to Franklin Templeton innovation head Sandy Kaul&nbsp; — and likely faster than many people expect.&nbsp;



“I think our entire product suite will be onchain at some point in the future,” she told me. “It is simply [about], ‘What is the migration path to getting there?’”



Financial institutions, central banks and corporations using account-based infrastructure are set to move to wallet-based systems on top of blockchains for efficiency and other benefits, Kaul argued.&nbsp;



Estimates that the roughly $240 billion stablecoin market could increase by 10 times over the next several years might be conservative, Kaul argued. But she made clear that it won’t be the crypto-native players driving this growth.



“I think banks are going to realize their future is going to be wallet-based, and they’ll begin to issue their own stablecoins and different versions of tokenized cash in an effort to remain competitive,” she said. “That is where trillions and trillions of dollars of deposits sit, so I think it will grow very, very quickly.”&nbsp;



As stablecoins (checking account equivalents, as Kaul labeled them) become “a foundational piece of financial infrastructure,” she explained, tokenized money market funds — acting like savings accounts — will take off in tandem.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">Tokenized yield funds, stablecoins a “powerful” combo</a>



Franklin Templeton launched its OnChain US Government Money Fund in 2021. Its assets under management were $740 million as of June 30.



Illiquid, difficult-to-process assets — like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/janus-henderson-clo-token-1b">CLOs</a> and private credit — are heading onchain to create operational efficiencies, Kaul said. More <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoins-iceberg-rwas-mature-ondo">public equities and ETFs</a> will be tokenized too — and in a less convoluted way than some of the “wrapped workarounds” currently available, she added. 



“And if you move an ETF onchain, in essence you almost eliminate the need for the ETF wrapper over time,” Kaul noted. “Because the smart contract does all the work that the ETF wrapper does today.”



Keep reading for more excerpts from Blockworks’ interview with Kaul.



Blockworks: So you expect Franklin Templeton’s whole product suite will end up onchain. How far into the future could that be? 



Kaul: I think within a decade. I don’t think this is decades away.&nbsp;



One of the really amazing attributes of technology innovation in the last 20 years has been how rapidly it is speeding up. If you think about the fact that Ethereum is just 10 years old, I think things will happen much more quickly than people anticipate. Our CEO is on record saying [she thinks] we will see more transformation in the financial market infrastructure in the next five years than we’ve seen in the last 50. People are going to be surprised, because I think a lot of people are skeptical that it’s going to happen at all.



Blockworks: What is it like to be at a traditional financial company that is also leaning into a disruptive technology like blockchain?&nbsp;



Kaul: We’re very fortunate in that we have a CEO, an executive team and a board who are highly supportive and enthusiastic about the opportunities that we’ve uncovered, the infrastructure we’ve built and the opportunity they see ahead of them.



Now that we’ve reached the point of maturity in the infrastructure we’ve built — where we can issue and program our own tokens, where we have our own transfer agent on blockchain, where we can administer our shareholder records and offer brand new functionality like intra-day yield and peer-to-peer transfers — we’re identifying the spots where we’re integrating it into our own ecosystem.



We’re talking with our vendor management group and our treasury group about ways that we can start to experiment and show the use cases around tokenized money market funds. We’re looking at ways that we can work with our fund boards to see if we can’t introduce new innovations into the way they manage their cash in our traditional mutual funds.&nbsp;



It may take us 10 years to move onto these new rails, but we will do it one step at a time, one set of products at a time, one set of use cases at a time. But that infrastructure that we need to compete in the future, I think we’re one of the first asset managers to really have that in place.



Blockworks: What do you view as the biggest hurdle to overcome in ensuring continued progress in this segment?&nbsp;&nbsp;



Kaul: There’s been a very long, established way of doing know-your-customer and anti-money laundering screening of clients. That is at such foundational conflict with this whole idea of a permissionless ecosystem, and I think the final answer is going to sit somewhere in between. It’s not going to be the same rigidity with which we have to do and maintain and affirm KYC and AML today in the traditional world, where every firm has to do it itself and maintain their own. But I don’t think it’s going to be permissionless either.&nbsp;



“What is the right blend of protection required to ensure that this new financial ecosystem works in a way that protects consumers and discourages bad actors?” is the piece that I don’t see people doing enough work and thinking on.



Blockworks: You were a speaker at a May SEC <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/meetings-events/tokenization-moving-assets-onchain-where-tradfi-defi-meet">roundtable</a> focused on tokenization. What was your <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/van-eck-crypto-tokenization-sec">takeaway from that event</a> and from broader conversations with the SEC?



Kaul: There’s a much more receptive environment for the many, many people within the SEC who have been trying to drive responsible, effective policy for these crypto ecosystems for years. But they weren’t getting the support organizationally to bring all that great thinking and recommendations to the forefront. What we’re most excited about is really defining the regulatory pathway to being able to intermix both securities and tokens. I think that’s where the distribution really opens up. There still has not been the regulatory clarity that’s going to allow someone to just distribute an ETF or just distribute a mutual fund on a blockchain set of rails.



Blockworks: When you mention mixing securities and tokens, what exactly are you envisioning?



Kaul: Why wouldn’t I have Apple stock…and Ethereum in the same portfolio? They’re basically providing very similar, kind of competitive services — and if I was a relative-value trader I might want to trade Ethereum versus Apple.&nbsp;



Right now, I couldn’t put a portfolio together like that unless I got the exposure to Apple in a very convoluted way. But all I need is some regulatory clarity from the SEC and I would be able to do that.



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</ul>

Franklin Templeton

All Franklin Templeton products will one day be onchain, exec says

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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Adoption does not follow a straight line.



At least, not at the local level. But definitely, if you <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ict-adoption">amalgamate</a> the world’s adoption rate for mobile phone subscriptions and the internet, the line will indeed go straight up.&nbsp;



Zoom into individual countries, though, and you’ll soon see that the road to widespread usage can be rocky — but the result is still the same.



Greece in July 2015 was in the midst of an all-out banking crisis.



The European Central Bank had declined to further prop up Greek banks with emergency debt. By this point, Greece was only just <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/greece-meets-imf-payment-deadline/a-18371436">scraping</a> together repayments for a 1.6 billion euro ($1.9 billion) loan from the IMF which had fallen into arrears at the end of June.



Greece’s government scrambled to secure alternative financing but failed. Having judged the terms of the ECB’s deal as politically <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31055069">toxic</a>, the then-prime minister instead called a snap referendum over whether to accept.



Initial deal <a href="https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/draft16h.pdf">terms</a> ranged from indefinite austerity to further cuts to pensions to forced pre-approval of domestic laws to the placing of 50 billion euro ($58.5 billion) in national assets into a fund supervised by EU representatives.



Greeks <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/third-greek-atms-empty-saturday-tsipras-declares-referendum">rushed</a> to ATMs to withdraw cash as soon as the referendum was called, resulting in an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33305019">emergency</a> bank holiday and capital controls. Withdrawals were restricted to just 60 euros ($70) per day, international transfers were mostly barred and the local stock exchange was closed.



Three days later, Greece became the first developed country to ever default on an IMF loan obligation. This effectively isolated Greece financially until votes were counted.



<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">Greece almost left the euro at 6am this morning <a href="http://t.co/xDCYXouFaZ">http://t.co/xDCYXouFaZ</a> <a href="http://t.co/BiQsArYs1d">pic.twitter.com/BiQsArYs1d</a>&mdash; Matt O&#39;Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) <a href="https://twitter.com/ObsoleteDogma/status/620565071039627264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2015</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Citizens <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/05/greek-referendum-no-vote-signals-huge-challenge-to-eurozone-leaders">voted</a> against the deal (61.3%), plunging the Eurozone into another two weeks of deliberations, which almost resulted in Greece leaving the eurozone altogether, as shown above. The government eventually approved austerity measures later in July. The situation would continue to play out for the rest of the year.



When we talk of Bitcoin’s true value proposition — the one underneath the price talk and financial tinkering — it’s hard to find one better than this precise example: Banks and the stock market have effectively locked you out of your value, and even when they can access it, you can only ever get less than $100 cash at a time.



Bitcoin obviously fixes this. If Satoshi had launched Bitcoin in 2015 instead of 2009, perhaps they would’ve buried a headline about the Greek debt crisis in the genesis block instead of one about the UK.



And certainly, people in Greece did turn to Bitcoin. One exchange <a href="https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/198934/fearing-return-to-drachma-some-greeks-use-bitcoin-to-dodge-capital-controls/#:~:text=New%20customers%20depositing%20at%20least,quadrupled%20to%20around%20700%20euros">reported</a> thousands of new users and locals shared tips on how to buy bitcoin on Reddit and the Greek-language <a href="https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/bitcoin-in-greece#:~:text=Nevertheless%2C%20signs%20of%20Bitcoin%20adoption,lately%2C%20coinciding%20with%20recent%20events">version</a> of Bitcointalk.&nbsp;



Their efforts were frustratingly hamstrung by capital controls — banks blocked most transfers, including potential deposits to crypto exchanges for buying bitcoin.



<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">Nothing like capital controls to focus the mind! First Bitcoin Meetup in Greece <a href="https://t.co/fFiYKxpFtR">https://t.co/fFiYKxpFtR</a> v/<a href="https://twitter.com/RedditBTC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RedditBTC</a> <a href="http://t.co/ly3aRQJfnX">pic.twitter.com/ly3aRQJfnX</a>&mdash; Jon Matonis (@jonmatonis) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmatonis/status/621346504280829952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2015</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“If Greeks already have cash in hand, bitcoin is unnecessary. If they don’t, then bitcoin is unattainable. It’s a bank liquidity crisis,” Andreas Antonopoulos <a href="https://x.com/aantonop/status/615571506630905856">tweeted</a> as local banks were closing.



Still, the price of bitcoin did rise somewhat during the ordeal, but it would only really start to take off toward the end of the year, when the worst of it was over.



The Greek debt crisis showed the world what happens when the fiat system fails a population. But when push comes to shove, it’s clear that Bitcoin as a safety net works best when you’ve planned ahead.



After all, it’s tough to build a doomsday bunker on the day after doomsday.



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Euro

What the Greek debt crisis taught us about Bitcoin, 10 years on

Pump.fun’s initial coin offering is set to take place on Saturday, July 12.&nbsp;



While there’s been speculation and reporting around a potential PUMP token, the announcement Wednesday is the first official communication from the team. Blockworks <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">previously reported</a> that pump.fun planned to raise $1 billion through a token sale, which would put the valuation at $4 billion.&nbsp;



The PUMP ICO will not be made available to US or UK investors, the platform said.



The tokens will be sold for $0.004 apiece. With a maximum supply of one trillion tokens, that means the public sale will happen at a $4 billion fully diluted valuation. Only 49 tokens currently hold that high of an FDV, per CoinGecko.



Large tranches of the token are also set to be allocated to pump.fun’s team, investors and community. While the account promised that an airdrop is “coming soon,” it was not immediately clear when it would take place. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd9y21ShFLmbNNO9RLZgV8cj2EKE-qeE4mzO-JV9zYP9CcbwunGvwl1vV1fs6qYQU7Fa2uIpG7RNjp-ItgFKP6FL-YfnUu5kfKFR3cpo7WUl4bGbzZmGsZ-J-lRFlDr1V6pbWPpSw?key=i6UIN611kc9XH_9PAND4Ng" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Pump.fun’s X account&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>



According to the announcement, Kraken, Kucoin, Bybit, Bitget, Gate and MEXC are all launch partners.



“[P]ump fun invented a completely new way to launch tokens, owned this crypto cycle, and became one of the most successful startups ever. now, we’re aiming to kill legacy social media platforms,” pump.fun’s pseudonymous co-founder alon wrote on X. “$PUMP will fuel our domination of crypto and social media.”



This is a developing story.



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

Pump.fun formally announces token, sets ICO date

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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The Monad Foundation has acquired Portal, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, the team exclusively told me.&nbsp;



Portal will continue to operate as an independent entity, though it’ll be able to leverage Monad’s technology to serve customers. Portal’s founder, Raj Parekh, will transition to become the Head of Payments and Stablecoins at the Monad Foundation.&nbsp;



The team declined to give financial terms about the acquisition, but Monad Foundation co-founder Keone Hon told me that they’ve “been thinking about how to grow the onchain economy for quite some time.”



The two noted that they have natural synergies and will leverage them to collaborate on things such as bridges and stablecoin wallets.&nbsp;



“When we at the Monad Foundation thought about this acquisition, we were excited both about the opportunity to partner really closely with [Parekh] and the team that he built, as well as to really grow the adoption of this product, and, more generally, to utilize the product to grow the adoption of crypto,” he continued.&nbsp;



The goal for Monad — which is still in testnet, though Hon told me that the team is preparing to launch mainnet “very soon” (he unfortunately wouldn’t give me more than that) — is to become the “blockchain of choice” for stablecoin transactions.



“There&#8217;s obviously maturity from a volume standpoint, circulating supply standpoint. The infrastructure at the developer tooling side is improved with things like what Portals built. Newer architectures like Monad now actually allow some of the sharp edge of the blockchain that existed before to now be removed as well. So I think it was a natural maturation phase of the infrastructure layer,” Parekh said.&nbsp;



All of this is aided by the fact that the regulatory shift is supporting stablecoins and the interest in them as well, such that stablecoins have come out on top as the defining narrative this year.&nbsp;



“Now I think folks are starting to see real volume, and use cases like banking…Some of the more boring use cases that you see in payments are starting to proliferate with stablecoins,” Parekh noted.



But for Monad and Portal, it’s about utilizing the groundwork that’s been built to “push the limits of what’s possible in terms of money moving globally,” Parekh said.



If you pay attention to headlines as much as I do, then you’ll know stablecoins aren’t the only trend we’re seeing pick up in the space. M&amp;A activity is on the rise, as you can see in the chart below from Blockworks Research.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdxfNm_vb4atMlrSYS8Y-9EeUCY15vyu-nhqV0RCfjYx9S890nCvYjQOX03Z84VX0WrB9xdBJ1_FHjW_49PhJRSf3Z6-AyPunivNQz3Zzuym2d1_BgUedF2qFEplUJDndNMDnQInA?key=YXcSYbpdce2AIX5nwHJgww" alt="" style="width:588px;height:auto"/></figure>



Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of the deals were for projects in the financial sector of crypto.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc1ZrNCkTDVGNRXxPbpDfOPRkpGmZFCLSOitssegwJGDic1lidtjSqGzImxRPLmop9vqOf4tdry85RwbLPc8tyzqP0gvytkLsM5PZzUZ7Nt8ThKPKlhkFX4Y6Dc6G9Dac1tld5eUA?key=YXcSYbpdce2AIX5nwHJgww" alt="" style="width:591px;height:auto"/></figure>



But consumer has also seen a pick-up in activity. Take OpenSea’s acquisition of Rally yesterday, for example. Thesis, Worldcoin and Stripe also made consumer-focused acquisitions.&nbsp;



Not to mention that Coinbase made yet another acquisition just last week when it announced it was buying LiquiFi for an undisclosed amount.



Consolidation is a good sign in this space, and shows just how much various sectors are heating up.&nbsp;



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Empire Newsletter

Exclusive: Monad Foundation acquires stablecoin infrastructure project Portal

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Since health, well-being, and security are proper concerns of Government, scientific progress is, and must be, of vital interest to Government.”



— Vannevar Bush, godfather of government research spending
</blockquote>



Should the US government spend money on scientific research? It’s a fair question to ask: Critics worry that government-funded R&amp;D may crowd out private-sector investment and that we’ll never truly know to what extent because the government, unrestrained by profit-and-loss statements, is not accountable for its results.



So let’s look at some results.



A 2015 <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w20889/w20889.pdf">study</a> of NIH grants found that virtually every new drug the FDA approved between 2010 and 2016 benefited either directly or indirectly from NIH support — and that every $10 million of NIH funding resulted in a net increase of two to three private-sector patents.



You might not care about drug patents, sure.&nbsp;



Maybe you think <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/04/1034364/altos-labs-silicon-valleys-jeff-bezos-milner-bet-living-forever/">Jeff Bezos</a> or <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/24/retro-biosciences-backed-by-sam-altman-is-raising-1-billion-to-extend-human-lifespan/">Sam Altman</a> will single-handedly solve longevity for all of us, or that AI will do <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91363911/googles-ai-drug-company-says-human-trials-are-very-close">drug discovery</a> now.



Those are reasonable opinions to have.



But what if I told you the government earns a high and quantifiable return on those grants?



A congressional committee <a href="https://www.ott.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/policy/wydenrpt.pdf">report</a> once estimated that the government earns an annual rate of return of 25% to 40% on the money it spends on NIH grants, because they reduce the economic cost of illness in the US.



It’s not just about being healthier, though. It’s about being wealthier, too.



A recent <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/%7E/media/documents/research/papers/2023/wp2305r2.pdf">study</a> published by the Dallas Fed found that non-defense government R&amp;D spending has accounted for at least one-fifth of business-sector productivity growth since 1945.



Productivity is the most important driver of long-term economic growth, so that’s a significant return on investment.



Another <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/research/papers/2025/wp2519.pdf">Fed study</a> found that the R&amp;D increases authorized under the CHIPS Act, if fully appropriated, would raise US productivity by as much as 0.4%.



That seems underappreciated because even the proponents of the CHIPS Act pitched it mostly for the investments it would make in physical infrastructure.&nbsp;



But the innovation policy expert Heidi Williams <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d5fe0bfb-4c3f-4aa2-b57f-51295f4a30e2?utm_source=chatgpt.com">cites studies</a> estimating that the return on government R&amp;D spending (in terms of economic growth) is 20x greater than the return on infrastructure spending.



Pretty much everyone is in favor of infrastructure spending, so why wouldn’t they be in favor of research spending too?



In Williams’ own <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fjep.33.3.163&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com">study</a>, she finds that R&amp;D is probably the most impactful policy the government has to raise both innovation and productivity in the US economy.&nbsp;



Still, you might be a de-growther, and unmoved by the prospect of the US government growing its deficit problem.&nbsp;



Or uninterested in people living longer, wealthier lives.



But what if I told you that government research grants helped develop something really important? Like Bitcoin.



Cryptocurrency didn’t spring fully formed from Satoshi’s white paper; instead, it built on decades of academic work in cryptography and distributed systems, much of which was funded by the US government.



Foundational things like public-key cryptography, cryptographic hash trees and tamper-proof time-stamping were developed at university research labs with funding from government agencies like the National Science Foundation and DARPA.



If that sounds like ancient history to you and therefore irrelevant, I get it — now that we have crypto, what else could we possibly need from the government?&nbsp;



But consider that a government agency — the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — is leading a multi-agency effort to encourage the development of the quantum-resistant algorithms that will soon be necessary to protect Bitcoin from a quantum-enabled hacker.



It’s not an immediate risk: Dr. Michele Mosca, CEO of the quantum software security firm <a href="https://www.evolutionq.com/company/about">evolution q</a>, assured me in a call that quantum computers are currently too small and error-prone to break Bitcoin’s cryptographic defenses.



But a <a href="https://globalriskinstitute.org/publication/2024-quantum-threat-timeline-report/">survey</a> Dr. Mosca conducted among fellow cryptographers found they estimate a 10% chance that quantum computers will be powerful enough to threaten Bitcoin within five years, rising to a 27% chance within 10 years and an 85% chance within 30.



Fortunately, the NIST is on the job — evaluating, vetting and standardizing the quantum-proof algorithms that will hopefully make Bitcoin quantum-resistant.



(Not to mention the global financial system, everyone’s emails and all of our login passwords.) Unfortunately, the NIST is facing a <a href="https://fedscoop.com/quantum-industry-leaders-voice-support-for-nist-other-science-agencies-following-trumps-requested-budget-cuts/">$325 million</a> cut to its annual budget.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The cuts, part of the president’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf">proposals</a> for discretionary spending, haven’t been passed by Congress just yet, so perhaps the White House will be dissuaded — possibly by its many Bitcoiner friends.



Or maybe the NIST’s quantum efforts will be spared (the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf">says</a> the cuts are punishment for the NIST pursuing “a radical climate agenda”).



But I’m not sure why we’re risking it because government research appears to pay for itself.&nbsp;



Especially for a government that’s long bitcoin.



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The Bitcoiner’s case for government R&D

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



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The crypto exchange Gate briefly <a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1942313027493073003">published</a> a webpage yesterday showing that pump.fun’s reported forthcoming token would go on sale early Saturday morning. Within a few hours, the page had been taken <a href="https://x.com/SolanaFloor/status/1942339492909666802">down</a>.



It’s the latest twist in a token rollout that has seen information come from just about anyone but pump.fun itself. Gate and pump.fun did not comment on the token sale webpage or whether the Saturday morning presale date was correct. The snafu went down as a BONK-themed launchpad commands impressive revenue figures compared to pump’s.



In early June, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">we first reported</a> that pump.fun had plans to raise $1 billion at a $4 billion valuation via a token sale. Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-03/solana-based-memecoin-platform-pump-fun-plans-1-billion-raise-via-token-sale">confirmed</a> the news, as did The Block — which also <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/357359/pump-fun-will-distribute-protocol-revenue-to-pump-token-holders-sources">scooped</a> that the platform plans to distribute revenue to token holders.



But in the month since, pump.fun has remained tight-lipped about the whole situation — no founder podcast circuit, no points program, no other pageantry that typically revolves around a token rollout. In talking to sources, I get the sense the specifics of pump.fun’s TGE plan is not very well known, even to relative insiders.



<a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1942657755740864670">Gategate</a> underscores what has always seemingly been pump.fun’s PR strategy: Don’t say anything unless you absolutely need to. The exchange and its founders rarely, if ever, get involved in the multiple controversies that have sprung up around the project — with the only exception to wit being when it <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-suspends-livestream-feature">disabled its livestreaming feature</a>.&nbsp;



So far, that strategy has worked out pretty well for consumer crypto’s revenue <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun/?dashboard=127">behemoth</a>. Still, some believe a credible challenger to pump.fun’s dominance has finally emerged. Letsbonk.fun, a launchpad built with Raydium’s LaunchLab, has bested pump in revenue each of the past three days, taking 61% of Solana launchpad market share yesterday compared to pump.fun’s 19%, according to Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana?dashboard=339">data</a>.



But I really wouldn’t bet on it. Pump.fun could just announce a token airdrop based on trading activity if it wanted to, and I bet the platform’s volume would spike right back up.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Gate publishes then removes pump.fun token sale page

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Let’s take a few minutes to address the latest developments in crypto ETF land.&nbsp;



Yesterday, the SEC <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/cboebzx/2025/34-103393.pdf">delayed</a> its decision on Fidelity’s spot solana ETF proposal. Not surprising — but a reminder that the regulator needs to sort out more before approving those.



The SEC’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-etf-sec-forms">engagement with issuers</a> last month spurred optimism of possible ahead-of-schedule rulings (before October deadlines). And I confirmed with a person close to the filings that the SEC got back to the asset managers about their latest amendments — giving them until July 31 to respond to the agency’s new questions about “how the product will be structured.”



But that person also told me the SEC could very well be waiting to develop the anticipated “generic listing standards” before greenlighting SOL funds. Though SEC staff has asked exchanges to offer feedback on those drafts, the person said, their current expectation is for those to come closer to (or in) October — not sooner.&nbsp;



No one I’ve spoken to is particularly confident on timelines, given we’re essentially in uncharted territory. It’s worth noting, however, that SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hester-peirce-on-sec-priorities">has urged patience</a> on several occasions. So I doubt the SEC will rush to judgment.&nbsp;



Switching gears, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-greenlights-grayscale-crypto-fund-etf">I had written</a> last week about the SEC approving NYSE Arca’s 19b-4 to list the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC) on its exchange as an ETF.&nbsp;&nbsp;



But a corresponding July 1 letter — from the SEC’s deputy secretary to NYSE Group’s senior counsel — said that order was “stayed” until the regulator says otherwise.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXccuVlPo3-afCTP-xAy9yNjQVyBsqELtyEUqhOZKXBf6Ww3pD6uwtnu7rNkw3fAHBBa52MqV2tYhxQq-DqlWglYlZsfIWQ3yFdXRIQXpPfgJVlIOYQNJS5KT5osl6KC5AFX2Go3vQ?key=ROBUtjyr-_Zh-GXDJ-w23w" alt="" style="width:704px;height:auto"/></figure>



In case you missed it, a Grayscale spokesperson <a href="https://x.com/strack_ben/status/1940822809175101581">told me</a>: “While this development was unexpected, it reflects the dynamic and evolving nature of the regulatory landscape surrounding a first-of-its-kind digital asset product like GDLC.”



The firm is still pursuing the GDLC listing. Just as Bitwise still looks to convert its Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) to an ETF and Hashdex wants to add assets to its Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (NCIQ).&nbsp;&nbsp;



We don’t have an update on the Bitwise and Hashdex proposals. So we’re in a bit of a holding pattern.



That didn’t stop Yorkville America Digital (in partnership with Trump Media and Technology Group) from <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2075457/000110465925066296/tm2519799-1_s1.htm#tCOI">filing</a> for a Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF on Tuesday. That fund’s expected holdings would be bitcoin (70%), ether (15%), solana (8%), cronos (5%) and XRP (2%).&nbsp;



A spokesperson did not immediately comment on the rationale behind those proposed allocations (or cronos’ inclusion), though we do know Crypto.com (a partner of Trump Media) developed the Cronos blockchain. CRO’s market cap this morning ranked 44th among crypto assets, according to CoinGecko.



To summarize, the paperwork progress hasn’t yet led to launches. Well, except for the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-rex-osprey-first-solana-staking-etf">REX-Osprey SOL Staking ETF</a> (a product structured differently than traditional crypto trusts).&nbsp;



As for the spot crypto ETFs trading, the US bitcoin products have been on an inflow tear. Those funds have seen net inflows on 18 of the last 19 trading days (totaling $5.6 billion over that span). The segment sits on the $50 billion net inflow precipice, according to Farside Investors.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcgQPOLAsoUoMYiZ4KtUgiVSB335B9t5Np6LdMPPFsibiz8mVWNtrKhFZVZdF1NkcghcC3ijJTBld1EJoCftdce3Id0TYqTn4X2oJMnfLsJZDjD67t9ipJCbY9Xn6vHYtlczqV0wA?key=ROBUtjyr-_Zh-GXDJ-w23w" alt="" style="width:570px;height:auto"/></figure>



What about US ETH ETF inflows from June 9 to July 7? A respectable $1.1 billion.&nbsp;



Overall, we’re up to 12 straight weeks of inflows for crypto investment products, CoinShares data <a href="https://blog.coinshares.com/volume-241-digital-asset-fund-flows-weekly-report-0c44f0a06577">shows</a> — pushing AUM to a record $188 billion.&nbsp;



I’m curious what sort of demand we see for other single-asset crypto ETFs once they go live in the US. Some believe the bigger opportunity is those <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hashdex-crypto-etfs-index-sec-interview">crypto index funds</a> — tailored for investors who don’t want to spend the time trying to pick individual winners.&nbsp;



I’d say that take makes sense, but we’ll see what the market thinks soon enough.&nbsp;



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ETFs

Why crypto ETF launch timelines remain up in the air

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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President Trump’s sweeping Liberation Day tariffs were broadly expected to go into effect tomorrow, July 9. But things have changed.&nbsp;



After seeing various updates and changes to Trump’s trade policies — both on rates and timing — we can’t say we were shocked by yesterday’s news. Traders appeared relieved by the prospect of deals, with US stocks recovering early in today’s session after dipping Monday.&nbsp;



The moves come after Trump signed an executive order Monday delaying the start of all “reciprocal tariffs” (announced in April) to Aug. 1. More than a dozen countries also got updated levies.&nbsp;



Imports from Japan and South Korea will have a 25% tariff. Japan’s Liberation Day rate was 24%, while South Korea’s was 25%.&nbsp;



South Korea has said it plans to negotiate this figure down in the coming weeks. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday called Trump’s decision “extremely regrettable.” Even so, Ishiba hopes to come to an agreement with the US as well.&nbsp;



Other countries that received letters yesterday include Malaysia, which will now face a 24% rate — vs. the 25% levy unveiled in April. In his letter to Cambodia, Trump declared a 36% rate, compared to 49% on Liberation Day.&nbsp;



Wondering if Aug. 1 is a hard deadline? Trump essentially told reporters yesterday: Maybe.



“I would say firm, but not 100% firm,” he said.&nbsp;



Trump is hosting a Cabinet meeting today to discuss the trade situation, among other things. He also faced questions about the war in Ukraine (“it’s turned out to be tougher”) and Fed Chair Jerome Powell (“I think he’s terrible”).&nbsp;



Check back tomorrow for insights into the meeting.



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Trump delays tariff deadlines

Eigen Labs has laid off 29 employees as it reorients its EigenCloud product, Blockworks has learned.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The product, which was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eigencloud-launch-a16z-eigenlayer">unveiled last month</a>, is a developer platform focused on off- and onchain verification. As part of the announcement at the time, a16z unveiled a $70 million investment. In total, the firm has raised $220 million — including <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/28/staking-protocol-eigenlayer-raises-50m-amid-crypto-winter">$50 million</a> in a Series A in 2023.&nbsp;



The decision to reduce the headcount — which impacts 25% of employees — was not motivated by financials, and the project still has financial runway, an Eigen Labs spokesperson confirmed to Blockworks.&nbsp;



The goal, as outlined by a note seen by Blockworks from Eigen Labs CEO Sreeram Kannan, is to reorganize “resources around the product and key user scenarios and streamlining our teams and leadership to give us years of runway to concentrate on building and growing EigenCloud.”



Employees from various roles and departments were impacted as part of the decision. No further reductions are planned at this time.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/a16z-series-b-eigenlayer-investment">A16z injects $100M into EigenLayer</a>



“Restructuring our organization and saying goodbye to a number of our teammates, who have given so much to the project, is incredibly painful. This morning, I spoke with impacted team members, shared my immense gratitude for their contributions, and laid out how Eigen Labs is committed to supporting their next chapter with empathy, respect, and concrete resources,” Kannan’s message said.



“These changes enable us to sustainably pursue our long-term objectives with renewed focus and energy. While today’s reorganization is painful, I’m extremely optimistic about our future. Demand for verifiable compute is growing as developers build software for the AI era, and EigenCloud is uniquely positioned to service this market need with a cloud platform backed by billions in stake and thousands of operators around the world.”



Impacted employees who’ve been with the project for more than a year were given accelerated vesting on tokens, as well as three months’ base pay. Additionally, Eigen Labs is offering career support.



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crypto hiring

Eigen Labs lays off 25% of employees, turns focus to EigenCloud

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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Does expanding to Solana give a token “the juice?”&nbsp;



Off The Grid developer Gunzilla Games is going to offer its GUN token on Solana in addition to Avalanche as <a href="https://x.com/GUNbyGUNZ/status/1942224870764589125">part of</a> its “multi-chain strategy.”



A Solana token version contract address <a href="https://x.com/GUNbyGUNZ/status/1942251893339639963">wasn’t shared</a> in the initial announcement. It’s currently unclear whether the Solana expansion changes the existing token’s supply or distribution schedule, though it’s possible an existing portion of the token supply (whether circulating or not yet circulating) may be moved to Solana.



Existing Avalanche GUN holders will be able to move their tokens to Solana if desired, according to the team. But the Gunz mainnet — which is an Avalanche subnet — and the studio’s other blockchain features are staying put (at least for now).



The Solana token version and token bridge option are <a href="https://x.com/VladK133/status/1942282952911577148">slated</a> to go live this week on Thursday.&nbsp;



An in-game Solana-branded hoodie, sunglasses, and gun skin were also shown as part of the reveal. Gunzilla CEO Vlad Korolev and Solana Gaming’s Marketing Lead both <a href="https://x.com/i/spaces/1eaKbWnPDzoGX">suggested</a> in an X Space that Solana cofounder Anatoly Yakovenko is being added to the game (“Toly” is also etched onto the Solana gun).



<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">GUNZ is Coming to <a href="https://twitter.com/solana?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@solana</a> 📅 Launching on July 10th Find out what this means for you, Zeroes! 🫵 🧵 <a href="https://t.co/NTA1L6rfqg">pic.twitter.com/NTA1L6rfqg</a>&mdash; GUNZ Official (@GUNbyGUNZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/GUNbyGUNZ/status/1942224841555492895?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 7, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“To evolve, to succeed, we at Gunzilla believe that you need to ship something today what [sic] will become very successful and famous — the product, which will be very successful and famous — and which our users and future users will love in several years ahead,” Korolev said during the Space.&nbsp;



“So today, if you are working on something [that] is popular today, from our point of view, you’re already late. This is why we made a bet with Off The Grid when investing our resources heavily in our community-driven economy,” he continued.



GUN’s price remains down about 70% from its all-time high three months ago (but is up 45% in the past two weeks). It’s also worth noting that only about 6% of the total GUN supply is currently in circulation, a component that can impact price as more tokens unlock over time.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf4SUxXG9_EyEvW7HaHvx9-mdH3JE9EyQ7JStrceBi_yErIkAJNIA03hl3DURRfqtktA1mL2pkmNZoXg3yLKKmSOgtU2XM_09b0BJZv3URak6amYh-S7kYalAaT7fayZ1zrae0Kmg?key=JWvYS_EDNcx57zyBRqzjdw" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: GUN tokenomics from CoinGecko/Tokenomist</figcaption></figure>



If we’re comparing chains, Solana simply sees more activity than Avalanche alone. Total <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/avalanche">network revenue</a> combining REV from Avalanche’s C-chain, P-Chain, X-Chain, and Avalanche PAYG (Pay-as-you-go) fees was just over $1.5 million last quarter, while Solana saw an REV of <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana">over $819 million</a> in that same period, according to Blockworks Research data.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfi1hI9f94xKzU7HjI-6VWvWjI2Vqs5wrDaTA3UaJqWpMV051cED80yQj-_oGKftU4ovkTIUOVzhJKUo_8mfGImXvBx_qmu7e1ITeQ6KxCYaZ3El8DHGEwqROTQCtrSaA-Zk-3DQQ?key=JWvYS_EDNcx57zyBRqzjdw" alt=""/></figure>



Solana also saw over 8.5 billion transactions in Q1, while the Avalanche saw 32 million across that three-month period.&nbsp;



The Gunz chain’s testnet has facilitated over <a href="https://testnet.gunzscan.io/">705 million</a> total transactions, while its mainnet (still in migration) has seen over <a href="https://gunzscan.io/">8.9 million</a> transactions so far. However, in all cases, it’s difficult to say how much of the activity is inorganic.



Off The Grid’s release on the PC game launcher Steam was initially expected to occur in June, but appears to have been delayed. The team said in a <a href="https://x.com/GUNbyGUNZ/status/1941853153814626374">post</a> over the weekend that they’re still “putting the final touches” on the Steam game version.



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Gunzilla

Off The Grid studio unveils Solana cofounder-inspired skin

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Blockchains inflate their tokens to pay their validators as rewards.



I guess this is ironic, given how much contempt the industry has for inflationary fiat.



But there’s a crucial difference:



Tokens exist in a vastly competitive marketplace; fiat doesn’t.



If a token has too much inflation, holders simply swap to a less dilutive option. Fiat users don’t get that choice.



That is what the economist Ludwig von Mises argued in his magnum opus Human Action: “Free banking keeps credit expansion within narrow limits.”&nbsp;



But of course, token issuers don’t need to read a thousand-page treatise on economics to know that their tokens don’t enjoy the same privilege of fiat’s political monopoly.



Of late, a slew of L1s are looking to reduce their inflationary token schedules in a bid to stave off sell-side pressure on their tokens.



Two weeks ago, NEAR L1 <a href="https://gov.near.org/t/reduce-inflation-for-near-protocol/41140">proposed</a> to halve its 5% annual inflation rate (60m NEAR) to 2.5%.



The proposal by HOT DAO cites the lack of fee burns (0.1% in reality vs. an expected 2-3%) as one of the main causes, claiming “high inflation without high usage is unsustainable.”



Just two days prior to NEAR’s proposal, Celestia co-founder John Adler also <a href="https://x.com/jadler0/status/1936813032140636643">proposed</a> an ambitious overhaul of the network’s consensus from proof-of-stake to “proof-of-governance.”&nbsp;



It’s a long and highly technical proposal, but here’s the rough idea:&nbsp;



Rather than having Celestia validators take a commission on delegated stake from TIA liquid stakers, the plan is to phase out liquid staking entirely, handpick validators via off-chain governance, then pay them a flat rate.



If passed, TIA issuance will plunge 20x, from 5% to 0.25%.



Earlier this year in March, Solana too attempted to cut SOL inflation by revising its fixed inflation curve as part of the widely publicized SIMD-228 proposal.



The proposal <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-simd-0228-failing-means-for-solana">was unsuccessful</a>. Had it passed, SOL inflation would’ve reduced from its existing ~4.4% to an ~1% per annum.



My colleague Carlos over at Blockworks Research reminded me that Galaxy has an alternative proposal (<a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/flashnotes/solana-april-2025-update#simd-279-mesa-vote-for-reducing-inflation">SIMD-279</a>) to reduce SOL inflation, but it doesn’t seem to have picked up much traction.



Tron, on the other hand, successfully <a href="https://www.ainvest.com/news/tron-halves-block-rewards-8-trx-aiming-1-29-deflation-rate-2506/">halved</a> its block rewards to validators. As part of Committee Proposal 102 passed in mid-June, block and voting rewards were reduced, thereby increasing its deflationary rate to ~1.29%.



How about Ethereum?



No major changes to its monetary policy in its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fusaka-ethereum-fork-updates">upcoming Fusaka</a> or Glamsterdam hard forks, it seems.



But of course, Ethereum already got the job done in 2022 as part of the Merge upgrade. ETH inflation was slashed by about ~90% — the equivalent of three Bitcoin halvings — when Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake consensus.



As far as I can tell, neither BNB Chain nor Avalanche are doing anything on the front of cutting network inflation.



What these chains are counting on, however, is reducing total supply via token burning.



(L1 blockchains typically have some kind of mechanism that permanently removes tokens from the supply the more its chain is used.)



In Avalanche’s case, 100% of C-Chain fees are burned — about 16.4% of AVAX issuance is offset by a burn in the last month.



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For BNB Chain, the chain conducts a quarterly burn of BNB through a series of <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/7732625721697">different burn mechanisms</a>. In the last burn event, ~1.6 million BNB ($916 million) was <a href="https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/31st-bnb-burn">burned</a>. Another 1.6 million BNB is slated to be burned in the next quarter, according to <a href="https://bnbburn.info/">Bnbburn’s</a> dashboards.



Since BNB’s token generation event, net supply of BNB has been cut down from 202 million to 141 million today.



Then finally, there is Bitcoin.



Obviously, the Bitcoin network has its famous block-subsidy halving every ~four years, currently at an annual issuance rate of ~0.85%.



Aside from that, no protocol mechanism burns BTC. 



But I guess Bitcoin is a special snowflake, so it’s immune from the kinds of economic laws that economists have debated for hundreds of years. (<a href="https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/1928025981270519924">Or is it?</a>)



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