The Theta Network is a blockchain protocol for improving the process of creating, streaming, and consuming video content online. Theta Fuel Tokens are used in the network to incentivize users to act as peers who share redundant or excess computing and bandwidth resources with other peers. In June 2021, Theta Network added NFTs, e.g. trading cards of media celebrities, to the product portfolio. Prices are quoted in USD and TFUEL.



Theta Fuel

Casey Wagner

Ben Strack

Stablecoin issuer Circle started trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday at a price of $69 per share, but quickly jumped as high as $75 in initial trading. The company trades under the ticker symbol CRCL. The stock was halted for volatility within minutes of opening. 



“We’ve seen really, really tremendous demand from phenomenal investors that I think see what we see, which is that the internet is entering a new chapter,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said during an interview with CNBC Thursday ahead of the listing.&nbsp;



“It is the chapter of upgrading the financial system with stablecoin money.”&nbsp;



This opening trade price is higher than the company’s Wednesday evening initial public offering price of $31, which was above the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">proposed range.</a> Investors who purchased directly from underwriters are now up roughly 144%.  



Allaire rang the opening bell at the NYSE ahead of trading and is scheduled to ring the closing bell virtually from Circle’s New York headquarters.&nbsp;



Circle, its founder and its early shareholders <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-price-above-range-to-raise-1-1-billion">raised</a> $1.1 billion from 34 million shares. After the close on Wednesday, the company upped the offering from 32 million shares.



There was overwhelming investor demand for the IPO. The offering was 25 times oversubscribed, according to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-be-likely-to-price-above-marketed-range-mbi24hhn?embedded-checkout=true">report</a> from Bloomberg.&nbsp;



Read more:<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand"> Weighing institutional, retail demand for Circle ahead of public debut</a>



“This is how the US becomes the global crypto/blockchain hub and fulfills the administration&#8217;s objective,” 10T Holdings CEO Dan Tapiero wrote in a Wednesday LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7335823053962080257/">post</a>. “The bigger companies in the digital asset world gain added credibility by going through a real-world vetting process.”



Now, all eyes are on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-nyse-listing-predictions">how the stock moves</a> in the first few hours of trading.&nbsp;



VanEck’s Matthew Sigel told Blockworks Tuesday that Circle can be considered a “boring is beautiful trade” for institutions given its profitability, minimal leverage and position within the Web3 ecosystem. But retail investors “may find it harder to latch on” to a company with less volatility and brand recognition than an exchange like Coinbase, he argued.&nbsp;



Circle’s NYSE listing comes a few weeks after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/galaxy-defi-technologies-nasdaq-us-listings">Galaxy Digital and DeFi Technologies</a> made their respective US public debuts on the Nasdaq.&nbsp;



Tapiero said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in March that ownership of crypto companies via exchange listings was a “mini step” that leads to more value moving onchain.



“American investors like to own businesses with cash flow, balance sheets, income statements, a proper board — and also legitimacy,” he noted at the time.



This is a developing story.



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Circle

Circle hits $75 per share in first-day pop on NYSE

Katherine Ross

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



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



By the end of the day today, a stablecoin issuer will be public on the New York Stock Exchange.&nbsp;



Last night, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-price-before-nyse-debut">the stock priced at $31</a>, well above the initial range of $24 to $26, so clearly there’s excitement for the IPO. Not to mention, it once again upsized its share offering. We’re now at 34 million shares, and it looks like the IPO is on track to raise over $1.1 billion.



I’d expect the first trade to happen mid-morning if not a bit after, taking the demand into account. So this morning, I’m going to do things a little differently and set the stage for today.&nbsp;



The big challenge, ahead of the first trade, will be carefully balancing supply and demand, Bitwise’s general counsel (and former investment banker) Katherine Dowling told me. It’s something that Fineqia’s Matteo Greco <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-nyse-listing-predictions/?nocache">highlighted to my colleague</a> (and Forward Guidance author) Ben Strack as well.&nbsp;



I almost hesitate to bring up Coinbase, because a direct listing and an IPO are two different beasts. But the bankers on Circle’s deal will be cautious to keep the stock’s price at a level where it can’t take off and then come crashing down to earth…which is a bit of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/coinbase-coin-climbs-11percent-in-premarket-after-nasdaq-debut.html">what happened </a>with Coinbase (the stock hit $429 before closing below its opening price of $328).&nbsp;



“You really want that kind of Goldilocks pricing to kind of try to keep it within a narrower band,” Dowling said. “Obviously, that did not happen with Coinbase. So you want to avoid that scenario.”



A strong debut from Circle, eToro’s Bret Kenwell tells me, would be a “huge win” for bulls and crypto.&nbsp;



It’ll also be a testing of the waters for crypto firms, Dowling added. So far, we’ve heard about the institutional demand for Circle’s IPO, but today will also <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand">test the retail demand</a>. Because it’s oversubscribed, she wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a jump in demand which then tapers off.&nbsp;



“I think for the long run, [Circle’s] a good horse to jump on. So I think you&#8217;ll still see that demand out there for the folks that aren&#8217;t getting involved at the IPO stage,” Dowling told me.&nbsp;



Especially given that Circle has (perhaps without meaning to) timed its IPO pretty dang well.&nbsp;



We have lawmakers mulling over a stablecoin bill over in DC at the same time Circle’s making its debut. While I’m not privy to the insider discussions around the IPO, I’d imagine the team is pretty happy about that.&nbsp;



Dowling noted that Circle is just a sign of the evolution we’re seeing in crypto and marks how far we’ve come. Especially taking into account that Circle confidentially <a href="https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-announces-confidential-submission-of-draft-registration-statement-for-proposed-initial-public-offering">filed</a> its initial S-1 back in January 2024.&nbsp;



“The importance of that evolution is notable…because it&#8217;s not just as simple as, ‘We had an administration change, so now we&#8217;re pro-crypto.’ It really isn&#8217;t just about that. You&#8217;ve had people…both sides of the aisle, have a much greater understanding of what [stablecoins are], how they work, and that this is a technological change, and I think that&#8217;s been really helpful to that evolution and to getting where we are today,” she said.



“We’ve come such a long way from the Luna debacle, right?” Dowling said. And if nothing else puts this historical moment into perspective, perhaps that will.&nbsp;



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What to expect when Circle’s stock goes public

WalletConnect is the connectivity layer behind onchain apps and wallets used daily.



If you’ve ever connected to a crypto app, chances are you’ve used WalletConnect. Today, the ecosystem is reaching new highs and setting the stage for the next wave of growth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">300 million connections and climbing</h2>



The network has now processed more than 300 million cumulative connections, moving billions in value. From individual users to top-tier institutions, WalletConnect is the default for secure, scalable onchain interaction. But this isn’t a peak, it’s the launchpad. The next phase is already underway, and it’s accelerating.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Network growth highlights: May 2025</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Cumulative Connections: Verified connections on the WalletConnect Network surpassed 309 million in May, signaling increasing reliance on infrastructure built for scale, performance, and trust.</li>



<li>Unique Wallets: Over 47.5 million wallets have now connected through the WalletConnect Network. This growth reflects broader adoption across apps, platforms, and chains.</li>



<li>Integrated Apps: The number of apps integrated with WalletConnect reached 66,500. From emerging projects to established protocols, developers continue to choose WalletConnect to deliver seamless onchain UX.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">$WCT momentum: Staking, adoption, and Solana expansion</h2>



$WCT is central to WalletConnect’s move toward decentralization. 



Users can stake WCT to help secure the network and earn real rewards tied to actual usage.



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>121.3 million WCT currently staked</li>



<li>Over 49,400 stakers globally</li>



<li>Up to 22% APY available through staking</li>
</ul>



Now live on Solana:



To mark $WCT’s expansion to Solana, the Foundation announced a 5 million WCT token allocation for active Solana users. The goal is to reach real onchain participants, builders, stakers, and ecosystem contributors.



Partners include Phantom, Jupiter, Backpack, and Solflare and Solana Mobile. These partners will help identify eligible users. This initiative does not increase total supply, which remains capped at 1 billion tokens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New ecosystem members</h2>



The WalletConnect Network continues to grow, welcoming new apps and wallets each week. Recent integrations include Rootstock Collective and KuCoin Wallet, both of which enhance the network’s cross-chain utility and access.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Smart sessions: AI and automated onchain actions at the center of the next chapter</h2>



WalletConnect is betting on a smarter future for onchain UX.



The future isn’t about connecting more wallets, it’s about making crypto as usable as possible. Smart Sessions, also known as Automated Onchain Actions, reduce the need for constant wallet popups. Instead, users grant secure permissions, enabling apps or AI agents to transact on their behalf.



This unlocks real automation, better mobile experiences, and a new layer of utility for $WCT. As adoption scales, it’s expected to drive long-term value through higher transaction volume and broader ecosystem usage.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s ahead for the WalletConnect network</h2>



As adoption grows, WalletConnect is positioning itself as a foundational layer of the onchain economy. The roadmap includes several major milestones:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Launch of Total Value Facilitated (TVF) to show real volume moving through the network</li>



<li>$WCT expansion to additional chains</li>



<li>Community fee proposals and mechanism design</li>



<li>Permissionless node operations to open participation</li>
</ul>



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WalletConnect ecosystem update: Growth, milestones, and what’s next

Circle’s taken one of its final steps to going public.&nbsp;



On Wednesday, the stablecoin issuer <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250604831596/en/Circle-Announces-Pricing-of-Upsized-Initial-Public-Offering">announced</a> the pricing of its initial public offering. Shares of the upsized IPO are expected to price at $31. The issuer is going public on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.



The firm now expects to offer 34 million shares. Bloomberg first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-price-above-range-to-raise-1-1-billion">reported</a> the news.&nbsp;



The announcement comes just days after Circle filed yet another amendment to its S-1, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">upsizing the offering and the price</a>. The filing noted the company intended to offer 32 million Class A common stock in its public markets debut, a jump up from its initial plan to offer <a href="https://empire-blockworks.beehiiv.com/p/meme-to-mainstream?_bhlid=ae8ff9f4587d7becb731092a20ad1600bbabdb5b&amp;last_resource_guid=Post%3Ae12c0195-6707-494d-9dcd-963bdc706fd9&amp;utm_campaign=meme-to-mainstream&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_source=empire-blockworks.beehiiv.com">24 million shares.</a>&nbsp;



Circle said Monday it expected the offering price to be between $27 to $28, an increase from the original range of $24 and $26.&nbsp;



The changes in the Monday filing marked “a crystal-clear signal of strong demand” among institutions, Architect Partners founder Eric Risley told Blockworks earlier this week.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-acquisition">Why an acquisition of Circle may be off the table as its IPO approaches</a>



The stablecoin issuer noted that Cathie Wood-led Ark Invest showed interest in buying roughly $150 million worth of shares. A Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-28/blackrock-is-said-to-plan-to-buy-shares-in-circle-internet-ipo">report</a> last week indicated that BlackRock might also look to acquire Circle shares.&nbsp;



Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand">told Blockworks yesterday</a> that Circle is positioning itself as a “boring is beautiful trade” for institutions seeking crypto exposure without balance sheet risk.&nbsp;



“Retail may find it harder to latch on,” Sigel added. “Circle doesn’t have the same volatility, beta, meme potential or brand recognition as Coinbase.”&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-nyse-listing-predictions/?nocache">Why it’s ‘difficult to predict’ how Circle’s NYSE listing plays out</a>



Circle was expected to debut on the public markets this week after filing its original S-1 amendment last week.



Jay Woods, chief global strategist for Freedom Capital Markets, previously told Blockworks that he wouldn’t be surprised if the company picked Thursday for its debut. There’s not a set reason for it, but it has become a popular choice for IPOs over a Wednesday debut.



As Circle was finalizing its IPO, which it officially announced at the beginning of last year, there were rumors of a potential acquisition by either Coinbase or Ripple. However, Woods said that the S-1 amendment pretty much put the talks of acquisitions to rest, at least for now.&nbsp;



Ben Strack contributed reporting.



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Circle shares price at $31 ahead of NYSE debut

Jeff Albus

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



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



Pump.fun is launching a token. Maybe you&#8217;ve heard? <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-token-sale">Blockworks first reported</a> yesterday that the memecoin launchpad is looking to raise an eye-watering $1 billion at a $4 billion valuation via a token sale.



The timing has raised a few eyebrows, with some industry watchers noting that the launch follows a <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun?dashboard=120">cooling</a> in platform activity from its January peak. At that time, bonding curve volume topped $10 billion, revenue approached $150 million, and nearly 1.7 million tokens per month were launched. Those figures have all dropped by more than half.



To some, it seems that pump.fun rode a euphoric wave of speculative mania, and now it&#8217;s converting that attention into capital while the window&#8217;s still open. Opportunism in crypto? Say it isn&#8217;t so.



The resulting skepticism may account in part for the market&#8217;s sharp reaction following the token rumors.



Solana (SOL) fell 3% on the pump.fun token news and has <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/assets/sol?tags=sol">slid</a> roughly 7% over the week, from recent highs near $170 down to around $156 at the time of publication.&nbsp;



Some on social media <a href="https://x.com/SpiderCrypto0x/status/1930042330477932619">cite</a> memecoin fatigue. Intraday swings <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/assets/sol?tags=sol">showed</a> heightened volatility, underscoring uncertainty amid heavy retail speculation.



But is this cynicism a bit unfair?



Perhaps. It&#8217;s not hard to argue that pump.fun has earned its moment: The platform bootstrapped its early growth with very <a href="https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/593602-12">limited</a> VC backing and popularized a novel product that brought thousands of new users to Solana.&nbsp;



Looking at the data, Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun?dashboard=127">shows</a> that pump.fun’s bonding curve and AMM products routinely generated between $150m and $250m in daily trading volume, with platform fees peaking above $2m per day during May. The majority of trades remain small in size (often under $100), suggesting continued high-frequency activity from retail participants.



On the token side, pump.fun has <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun?dashboard=120">been responsible</a> for the vast majority of new token launches on Solana in recent months, with spikes of 30,000-40,000 launches per day observed in early May.



This onboarding funnel fed into a broader explosion of Solana usage.&nbsp;



And while it’s true that wallet funnel data shows that only a minority of pump.fun participants go on to use core Solana infrastructure, those who do often move into Jupiter trading, Raydium LPing and experimental dapps, suggesting real (if limited) downstream conversion.&nbsp;



But competition <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/the-launchpad-wars_pump.fun's-dominance-under-siege">continues to intensify</a>. Raydium&#8217;s LaunchLab, Meteora&#8217;s high-profile celebrity token launches, and Believe&#8217;s startup-centric platform represent direct threats, leveraging flexibility and unique narratives pump.fun currently lacks. This fragmentation has reshaped Solana&#8217;s token-launch landscape in short order, threatening pump.fun&#8217;s once entrenched dominance by offering diversified launch strategies that appeal to broader segments of the market.



As for the token itself, little is known at this stage. That information vacuum has left watchers to speculate whether it will function as a fee-back asset, governance token, or participate in future launch rights.&nbsp;



The launch — which pump.fun has <a href="https://x.com/SolanaFloor/status/1930014722117841030">indicated</a> in the past could include an airdrop to users — could reignite some of the segment&#8217;s lost speculative fervor. Or, it might immediately collapse like most of the assets launched through its ecosystem and catalyze deeper skepticism toward memecoin-based speculation. Either outcome could drastically impact not just pump.fun&#8217;s future but the broader Solana ecosystem&#8217;s market dynamics and sentiment.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Solana slips as Pump.fun token rumors swirl

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>.



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



Mastering The Art of the Deal is apparently not easy.&nbsp;



There are supposedly 69 days left to ink a permanent trade agreement with China, but progress has shown signs of stalling in recent days. Here’s what we know:



President Trump in the wee hours of the morning took to social media to comment on the status of trade talks with China. 



Spoiler: There doesn’t seem to be much advancement. 



“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social just after 2 a.m. ET Wednesday.



Last month’s US-China detente placed a mutual temporary (90-day) rollback on tariffs. The US lowered tariffs on China from 145% to 30%, and China decreased levies on US goods from 125% to 10%.&nbsp;



The deal also apparently included a rollback in the strict mineral export restrictions China implemented in retaliation to “Liberation Day,” according to comments from US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.



Last week, when Trump accused China (again via a Truth Social post) of “violating its agreement,” he was talking about China “slow rolling” its side of the deal, Greer said. Greer mentioned restrictions on rare-earth exports specifically.&nbsp;



China is dragging its feet on rolling back the mineral export restrictions, according to a Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/u-s-china-trade-truce-risks-falling-apart-over-rare-earth-exports-c36ceb72?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAgx-dmss5tBM6B9oiloLup2S4TUVaOOxisMxNN4LIPyu5Jhtb3qo9Dyc0SeZ0s%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68408745&amp;gaa_sig=ElhNWTewNk-fEkX0uGYrpopTvdHdVcjfye_u_YZAS_2Eep0hO9VkdAEPfwPXlpoaqJj5byON7dRy11laI_hGRw%3D%3D">report</a>. That’s because the US Commerce Department on May 12 <a href="https://www.bis.gov/press-release/department-commerce-rescinds-biden-era-artificial-intelligence-diffusion-rule-strengthens-chip-related">warned</a> that using Huawei Technologies’ Ascend AI chips “anywhere in the world” violated export controls.&nbsp;



The US did this as part of a continued effort to limit technological advancements in China, so it makes sense that the country would counter with retaliatory measures of its own.&nbsp;



Back to the rare earths. Why does the export restriction matter? China mines 60% of the global supply and manufacturers 90% of the global supply of rare earth magnets. Rare earth elements are essential for technology; they are in cell phones, cars, lights, batteries, you name it.&nbsp;



Solvent extraction (the difficult process of separating rare earth minerals from one another) comes with bad impacts on the environment: high levels of toxic waste, water pollution, etc. The process was actually created in the US in the 1950s, but it’s expensive and unpopular in the States. 



All this to say: US-China tensions may be manifesting themselves as export controls and tariffs, but they’re just tools in a broader economic battle. 



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China

Trump takes to social media to complain about China trade talks

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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Stablecoin issuer Circle’s expected listing on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow comes roughly four years after another crypto milestone: Coinbase’s public market debut.&nbsp;



I wrote yesterday about how the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-price-listing-demand">apparently solid institutional demand for Circle</a> doesn’t necessarily spell out what will happen once CRCL shares list.&nbsp;



&#8220;It’s difficult to predict the precise impact of this listing,” said Fineqia senior associate Matteo Greco. “Back in 2021, there was widespread belief that Coinbase’s stock would soar following its Nasdaq debut. The outcome proved quite different.”



Coinbase’s valuation at the time of its direct listing in April 2021 was widely considered to exceed fair value, Greco told me. And the timing was “unfortunate.”



COIN shares opened at $381 but closed at $328 on day one, Yahoo data shows. Though BTC reached a new high in November 2021, that was the beginning of a bear market. Coinbase stock dipped below $50 at times in mid-2022.&nbsp;



Although the stock has recovered to around $260 today, early investors have effectively been underwater for four-plus years, Greco noted.



With <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">stablecoin use cases gaining steam</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">proposed US legislation</a> on the table, the timing for Circle’s listing appears strong. Still, forecasting how CRCL shares will move on the NYSE is challenging, Greco argued.



“The main factor will be its valuation relative to what market participants deem to be its fair value,” he said.



The $7.2 billion valuation Circle is targeting (given the Monday filing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">upsizing its IPO</a>) is below the $7.7 billion valuation it got in an April 2022 funding round. The final IPO price is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-04/circle-ipo-is-said-to-be-likely-to-price-above-marketed-range-mbi24hhn">reportedly</a> expected Wednesday evening.



Compass Point analyst Ed Engel pointed out that the $7.2 billion valuation implies a 14.3x multiple on annualized first quarter EBITDA; Coinbase and Robinhood trade at about 30x their estimated 2025 EBITDA.



VanEck’s Matthew Sigel told me yesterday that Circle can be considered a “‘boring is beautiful’ trade” given its profitability, minimal leverage and position within Web3 financial infrastructure. But retail investors “may find it harder to latch on” to a company with less volatility and brand recognition than Coinbase, he argued.&nbsp;



Circle’s USDC stablecoin holds a roughly 24% market share in the ~$250 billion stablecoin segment. It generates highly visible interest income that can scale alongside stablecoin adoption, Engel said.&nbsp;



But, he added: “We also expect near-term USDC supply to remain driven by DeFi and crypto trading volumes, which are historically correlated with crypto market cycles.”Check <a href="http://blockworks.co">Blockworks.co</a> for updates on Circle’s final IPO pricing and CRCL stock movements.



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Why it’s ‘difficult to predict’ how Circle’s NYSE listing plays out

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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A crypto wallet made by Magic Eden, its subsidiary Slingshot, and the TRUMP memecoin team called Trump Wallet is facing scrutiny from the US President’s sons.



The wallet’s reveal — which began as a leak after crypto researcher and critic Molly White spotted it online — spurred an announcement from Magic Eden yesterday confirming the Trump Wallet’s existence, calling it an “official $TRUMP wallet.”&nbsp;



The marketplace <a href="https://x.com/MagicEden/status/1929955044725583993">promoted</a> the upcoming wallet as “the first and only crypto wallet for true Trump fans.”



Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu also posted on X about the wallet, encouraging users to sign up for it after some media outlets <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-wallet-magic-eden">including Blockworks</a> had already <a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1929961038843142288">reported</a> the news.&nbsp;



The marketplace later <a href="https://x.com/MagicEden/status/1930011587257217323">said</a> “Yes. It’s real” in response to a tweet from the TRUMP memecoin account.



But the pro-crypto President’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., who are working on various Trump-themed crypto projects of their own via <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-strategic-crypto-reserve">World Liberty Financial</a>, both said they had no idea the wallet was being launched.



There’s also a difference between the “$TRUMP team” (who made the TRUMP memecoin) the “Trump team” (Presidents’ advisors and staff), and the “@Trump team” (Trump Organization), to make things even more confusing.



To further that confusion, CIC Digital, which is owned by the Trump Organization, is affiliated with the token. But the coin’s website says that the Trump family and The Trump Organization aren’t distributing the coin.



Fight Fight Fight LLC is behind the TRUMP token. Fight Fight Fight is run by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-21/trump-s-old-partner-sells-memecoins-cologne-and-access">Bill Zanker</a>, a man believed to be close to the President and who co-authored a book with him that was released back in 2007.



Fine print on the memecoin’s website notes that CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight collectively own 80% of the token supply, with a three-year unlocking schedule.



The TRUMP token — and the President’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cb1def8f-53a6-478e-9b3e-33c383b29629">profits</a> from it — <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025-05-06-Letter-from-Sen.-Richard-Blumenthal-to-Fight-Fight-Fight.pdf">sparked</a> an investigation last month from the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which seeks to understand the steps Fight Fight Fight is taking to prevent “conflicts of interest or foreign interest” and to assess whether it’s violating federal laws, among its concerns.



Donald Trump Jr. <a href="https://x.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1929965961341247842">said</a> The Trump Organization has “nothing to do with” the Magic Eden-powered Trump Wallet and that he knew nothing about it. Eric Trump also <a href="https://x.com/EricTrump/status/1929966635445576103">denied</a> any knowledge of the wallet, and later cautioned the NFT marketplace against using his family’s name.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdRD2NebS2P5392_6NOBhkWb77fVBuObBkD8KjYufgTaFyw5Sr33d4iSsdwPfdcZBw567FDqCH7Cn0034cjTCLSgsZJfLPuc6E9_SibpUz5M7g8q5hvJISSNfX13UuqUQp0jKuI?key=w58N1Wt491f4R7vc5AMTSg" alt="" style="width:448px;height:auto"/></figure>



“This project is not authorized by @Trump,” Eric wrote, adding: “@MagicEden I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Eric Trump reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/technology/trump-crypto-wallet-sons-rift.html">told</a> The New York Times yesterday that his family will take action against the Magic Eden Trump Wallet, which could include legal steps. In a text to the newspaper, he said: “There is no deal for this product” and added that “There is no agreement for this product. It has not been approved.”&nbsp;



Donald Jr. shared that WLF will launch its own “official wallet” soon. This could mean there may be two Trump-branded crypto wallets out in the world at some point in the near future, which would surely cause confusion.



The X account (@TrumpWalletApp) linked to Magic Eden’s so-called Trump Wallet was&nbsp; suspended for breaking the social media platform’s rules, but it’s unclear which rule or rules might have been broken.



Magic Eden’s ME token spiked shortly after the wallet was first revealed online, rising from $0.86 to roughly $1.04. ME is up roughly 7% in the past month, but remains down about 94% from its all-time high.



A spokesperson for Magic Eden and Lu declined to comment further beyond its existing social media posts.



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Donald Trump

Eric Trump to Magic Eden: ‘Be extremely careful using our name’

Macauley Peterson

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



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Hyperliquid has become the dominant venue for onchain perpetuals, leapfrogging <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dydx">dYdX</a> by embracing a radical idea: full transparency. Every resting order is hash-linked to a wallet, whose P&amp;L and liquidation level are visible to the network. This “L4” order book is more granular than TradFi’s L3 venues, which conceal trader identity, positions or leverage levels.



Hyperliquid’s radically transparent market structure has no informational asymmetry between participants — and given its stellar growth, it’s working. But is it optimal?



Jeff Yan, the founder of Hyperliquid Labs, argues yes. In a recent <a href="https://x.com/chameleon_jeff/status/1929753039969440212">X thread</a>, he likened the design to ETF rebalances and electronic lit markets in equities. His thesis: Transparency lets market makers identify non-toxic flow, tighten spreads and scale liquidity, even for billion-dollar whales.



Yet, Variational, the team behind a new derivatives protocol on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> called Omni, is betting on the opposite design choice: total privacy.



Critics like <a href="https://x.com/ThomasUhm/status/1929170772095815702">Thomas Uhm</a> and Edward Yu (Variational’s co-founder) <a href="https://x.com/mr_plumpkin/status/1929059419326918822?s=46">pointed out</a> a potential flaw: Transparency benefits uninformed flow — not alpha traders. “If you’re a profitable trader with edge, you want to move in stealth,” Yu told Blockworks. “Otherwise, the market will price in your impact the moment your intent becomes visible.” For example, “if someone can see your flow ahead of time through L4 data, they can frontrun, fade or cancel. Your alpha disappears.”



Omni, which announced today that it has raised $1.5 million in strategic funding from Mirana Ventures, Caladan, Zoku Ventures among others, is a peer-to-protocol trading venue, CEO Lucas Schuermann explained to Blockworks.



Users RFQ directly against an integrated market maker — the Omni Liquidity Provider (OLP). There’s no public book. No shared intent. Every fill is private.



When a trader joins Omni, they receive a segregated individual smart contract to hold all their funds. “We call it a settlement pool — essentially an escrow account for the margin that sits between the user and OLP,” Scheurmann said.



Omni is explicitly designed to shield traders. It’s a philosophical fork from the Hyperliquid hypothesis. Schuermann explained that the architecture evolved from institutional RFQ rails: “We essentially took all of our experience and infrastructure and market making liquid products…and we put that knowledge into OLP,” Schuermann said. “But after building all this infrastructure, we realized it could solve problems for retail.”



This private structure enables more than just discretion — it also redistributes protocol revenue. OLP vault depositors <a href="https://docs.variational.io/variational-omni/about-omni/the-omni-liquidity-provider-olp#how-olp-is-funded">will eventually</a> earn market-making profits, while traders receive partial refunds on losing trades. “We don&#8217;t want to sell the order flow to a third party who&#8217;s going to extract value. We want to give it back to users.”



This may sound similar to Hyperliquid’s HLP model, but the design philosophies differ sharply. Hyperliquid’s HLP vault allocates capital to in-protocol market makers who compete to quote tight spreads on the order book, with profits or losses passed back to HLP depositors. By contrast, the OLP vault routes liquidity to external venues — including Binance, Bybit and even Hyperliquid itself — where it acts as a taker, not a maker. This lets OLP sidestep the toxic flow and predatory dynamics that can come with posting passive quotes, especially on transparent books.



It does introduce custodial risk for liquidity providers, comparable to holders of Ethena’s synthetic dollar product: Funds leave the Omni protocol and rely on third-party exchange APIs and account controls.



Variational mitigates this risk by maintaining control over those deployments and publicly tracking all balances and trades for the OLP strategy. The added operational risk is compensated by what the team believes is materially better execution.



Omni is part of a broader movement: user-owned infrastructure. And Schuermann believes this model can scale liquidity — even for the long tail of assets, which are usually related to AMM pools like Uniswap or Radium.



Omni routes trades through a competitive, gasless RFQ pipeline where OLP quotes all pairs.&nbsp;



“We pick these up automatically amongst many others, and list them along with hundreds on our platform, but the key thing is OLP market makes them from day one,” he said, noting that making illiquid products liquid is part of the Variational team’s core expertise.



So while it’s hard to see anyone dethroning Hyperliquid right now, Omni may hope to carve out a new lane, one built for retail flow with edge, where alpha is protected and profits flow back to users.



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0xResearch Newsletter

To take on Hyperliquid, Omni bets on privacy

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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On a long enough timeline, all companies will become Bitcoin companies. Some have just been there from the very start.



PayPal, back when it was still owned by eBay, was an unknowing bedrock for the very first Bitcoin exchanges.



And considering how often the two were lumped together — a tech duo flipping the script on online payments — Bitcoin and PayPal were almost adoptive siblings. One radical, one moderate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">On This Day</h2>



“Commerce on the internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments,” Satoshi wrote to open the Bitcoin <a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf">white paper</a>.



“While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model.”



PayPal was fundamental in the very first trade between bitcoin and the US dollar, which occurred not on this day, but in October 2009.&nbsp;



Martti Malmi, one of Satoshi’s right-hand men in the early days, famously <a href="https://x.com/marttimalmi/status/423455561703624704">swapped</a> $5.02 for 5,050 BTC to the operator of New Liberty Standard, with the fiat side of the transaction handled by PayPal.



It was so early that PayPal had no policies dealing with the concept of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which of course meant everything was fair game!



New Liberty Standard was a manual <a href="https://newlibertystandard.io/exchange">operation</a> — the price was initially fixed to the average electricity cost to mine a whole coin, and anyone wanting to buy or sell bitcoin would need to send an email to a Gmail address stating how many they’d like to trade.&nbsp;



Traders were then directed to send cash to a PayPal account and wait for their Bitcoin address to be credited.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfFSk1dqN8FJPsHdaZxeX-EtiFStm9bZKFOEOdTvLfeBU1Q_287KW_c3n1PKm8_T3jp91QlnSLhTdTWoxhdFYvJlXsH3bN855hx1Ccxy83o2XOh3lbKfpPiERd5RwonaWE82Mz2UA?key=_UXEm8Dw23GofD1xW8zLeg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New Liberty Standard would later add supply and demand into its pricing model, leaving us with this spectacular post from a non-believer.</figcaption></figure>



New Liberty Standard was more of a currency exchange desk than a trading platform. But within two months, Bitcointalk user dwdollar was working on a way to bring true price discovery to bitcoin.



“I am trying to create a market where Bitcoins are treated as a commodity,” he <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=20.msg100#msg100">wrote</a> in January 2010, as bitcoin celebrated its first birthday.&nbsp;



“People will be able to trade Bitcoins for dollars and speculate on the value. In theory, this will establish a real-time exchange rate so we will all have a clue what the current value of a Bitcoin is, compared to a dollar.”



Bitcoin Market debuted shortly after as the first official BTC exchange, as denoted by its ability to price bitcoin based on supply and demand rather than mining cost.&nbsp;



In some ways, Bitcoin Market resembled a modern-day crypto exchange, even if you could only have one order open at a time. There were BTC pairs for fiat currencies (US and Australian dollars) as well as for grams of gold, with all trades handled off-chain by a centralized server.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd94C9axAjWl9UHNyy11wj19SomSiEdP3F_0O4I2KnQ-K-38_o1UFdSJ-dzUHLNREUMUifmWGgoc-WhdYW3Qxm_3VrVLLCVPC_RJr2T_MQ-sQKrNqa7scO66bhLI1DVgwdIaiExIw?key=_UXEm8Dw23GofD1xW8zLeg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">It took only six months for the price of bitcoin to rise by 1,000% following the launch of Bitcoin Market. By August 2011, bitcoin was trading on the platform for $15 apiece.</figcaption></figure>



Pairs were also broken down by payment processors, which complicated matters. In PayPal’s case, it eventually stopped allowing its users to transact with Bitcoin Market’s PayPal account — so anyone hoping to trade bitcoin with US dollars from their PayPal accounts would need to buy and sell a specialized PayPal USD pair, BMBTC/PPUSD.



The site <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110826203112/https://www.bitcoinmarket.com/info/faq/#paypal_deposits">read</a>: “Bitcoin Market holds the seller&#8217;s Bitcoins until the seller has received PayPal funds from the buyer. Then the seller confirms payment and the bitcoins are dispersed to the buyer&#8217;s Bitcoin Market account. In short, Bitcoin Market acts like an escrow agent for PayPal payments.”



It was actually on this day, in 2011, that Bitcoin Market was forced to suspend PayPal payments — opposite to how that dynamic usually goes.&nbsp;



After removing the invitation-only restriction on new signups, opening it to the public, Bitcoin Market users were hit by a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120319162645/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12678.0">wave</a> of fraudsters initiating phony PayPal refunds after receiving the coins they paid for. Which is ironically quite similar to a double-spend attack, except it wasn’t the Bitcoin blockchain under siege, but Bitcoin Market’s PayPal hot wallet.



These days, PayPal lets its users buy, hold and sell bitcoin right within its flagship app, and even allows BTC to be withdrawn to external wallets.&nbsp;



But using PayPal to manage bitcoin feels just like that scene from the Matrix, where Neo (a PayPal user) can’t believe that Morpheus (Satoshi) has suggested that they can dodge bullets (transact trustlessly).



“No [PayPal user], I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”



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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Market: How a single user brought price discovery to Bitcoin

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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I’m quite intrigued by the cautious atmosphere that’s been adopted since bitcoin broke through all-time highs last month.&nbsp;



K33 noted that CME exposure has “risen modestly,” but it’s nowhere near its previous peaks.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfAOBNPr9VHFm5WpNNvTPlr3W6EVK9tZ99iPf7fSH0liN8ihVEybBW7y9QpRUsWfVvV9FgThT4HFVuhLx5AoXH-LfrRcsy_m0nnB_tywTQXzES0mERWg0OzxQH0rFVohfD-euPj_g?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: K33</figcaption></figure>



As you can see in the chart above, open interest for CME bitcoin futures is in a slight downtrend.



The good (and potentially risky) news is that “offshore perpetual markets have seen growing open interest nearing late 2024 highs, but with ambiguous funding rates, setting the stage for heightened liquidation risks and potential volatility spikes in both directions.”



Overall, the derivatives environment has gotten a bit of a chill despite us heading into summer, with analyst Vetle Lunde noting that the perpetual future open interest dropped by 15,000 bitcoin since the end of May. The silver lining here, though, is that overall we’re seeing open interest remain near April highs at 278,000 BTC.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfuCtBCEnugT8s72_ZtCiP-Wtnu6XRkUosmcOMUroCn1Pr4mdJ5m1-5w5d_3HC0vqnJQr_Xwy6_uA9h4_6x3VfKT-1Xa1j2IDmnrcEIX7JempW2HV3Zj0DZkmE2l5ztwwO4hvk9?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt="" style="width:556px;height:auto"/></figure>



I know what you’re thinking: Data insights are great, but what do they mean?



As I mentioned in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venture-capital-funding-may-2025">Monday’s Empire</a>, May can be a seasonally weaker month, which leads into the summer months when everyone is busy (hence “sell in May and go away,” if you’re familiar with traditional markets).&nbsp;



So let’s zoom in on CME here.



“While exposure from both direct participants and leveraged ETFs on CME has seen an uptrend over the past month, both cohorts see considerably lower exposure than during prior activity peaks. This is indicative of broad passivity and modest froth, despite BTC’s solid performance over recent months,” Lunde noted.&nbsp;



However, notional open interest in bitcoin perpetuals was on the rise, and remains on an uptrend…something that could — like we noted above — suggest potential volatility.&nbsp;



“There is no clear one-directional bias to read into this activity. In essence, this creates a structure that enhances liquidation risks in either direction thus setting the stage for accelerated volatility ahead,” Lunde wrote.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeqB9TPj61eZAe3quRv2ljvtk_GC0LiXLWOTCZDajLC1-HHxWQoIX9Fei7Cpozvsg85UxEf-BLqVtFkajhnwl6aA3An1WBSQvtu-0QVtp7uhwjIqu72O-YwmhLNDTuv3HztrTAi7w?key=JSpEp1UER4Z_ZhvK96TtaA" alt="" style="width:638px;height:auto"/></figure>



Basically, prepare yourselves for volatility, because it’s crypto and, well, that’s par for the course here. But keep in mind we’re heading into the seasonally weaker summer months.



With the hefty amount of institutional interest we’ve witnessed, there is a possibility that we see crypto act a bit more like the traditional markets during seasonally weaker months.&nbsp;



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Derivatives

Caution is the ‘modus operandi’ for markets: K33

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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With Congress back in session, senators have their work cut out for them if they want to meet President Trump’s deadlines.&nbsp;



Due first is Trump’s sweeping tax and budget package, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tax-bill-trump-congress-gop">dubbed the</a> “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” An updated version of the legislation passed the House last month in a razor-thin vote (215-214).&nbsp;



Two Republican representatives (Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson) voted against the bill. Chair of the House Freedom Caucus Andy Harris voted present after the coalition expressed concern over the level of spending in the bill.&nbsp;



The bill now heads to the Senate, where it’s expected to face similar opposition from certain GOP holdouts. Republican leadership has a goal for the bill (ideally one that looks as close as possible to the current version) to make it to the president&#8217;s desk by the Fourth of July.&nbsp;



During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KpsqN5hW-M">interview</a> with CBS last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s advised GOP senators to “make as few modifications as possible.”&nbsp;



Senate Majority Leader John Thune later told reporters he plans to make an “imprint” on the bill. Assuming all Democrats vote against the bill and no one is absent, Republicans can have a maximum of three senators stray from the party.&nbsp;



Next on senators’ to-do list is the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">GENIUS Act</a>, which Trump wants to see passed before summer’s end. The president’s crypto business interests, which seem to be growing <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-wallet-magic-eden">by the day</a>, pose a problem for bipartisan support, a person familiar with the matter told me.&nbsp;



Democrats are getting less and less likely to support any crypto legislation the more Trump and his family engage personally with the industry.&nbsp;



Some members of Congress and crypto lobbying groups have started toying with the idea of combining stablecoin and market structure legislation into one bill. This would be a massive undertaking, but with wavering support from Democrats, the odds of passing two crypto bills before midterms are starting to look slim.



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congress

Trump pressures Senate to pass budget, crypto bills

Jack Kubinec

Pump.fun plans to raise $1 billion via a token sale, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Three sources said the sale would come at a $4 billion token valuation.&nbsp;



The token will be sold to both public and private investors, sources added. Blockworks could not immediately confirm when the token is set to go live or whether it will be issued on the pump.fun platform. However, a <a href="https://x.com/nextfckingthing/status/1929871539018576257">post</a> on X teased that it could come in the next two weeks.



The potential $4 billion token valuation would mint pump.fun as crypto’s latest unicorn startup after a year in which it helped ignite a memecoin frenzy.



Pump.fun did not immediately return multiple requests for comment.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/how-projects-show-rise-consumer-crypto-pump">How 3 projects show the rise of consumer crypto</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/pump.fun">Pump.fun</a> — a memecoin launchpad that allows anyone to spin up their own Solana token instantly and for free — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpswap-large-amm-solana">was a breakout hit</a> with crypto users after launching in early 2024. The app has already generated over $700 million in cumulative revenue, according to Blockworks Research <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun/?dashboard=127">data</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeTeMkXIkV6uwA4DBnKGkI_H02fq2Pmt8APbPXLzB0LMq8jhr3-yrfK-WS8c0RZQy63tq77eGBl0_Nj5iHsBlTcbsf3jQTpdL_w5EAIpc3zfYNFfaYRZAfxR4ItGpQ1kJEBOaYj?key=dIDlxqJQ7nD0zecIJEEGmw" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/pumpfun">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



Users on the platform have <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/pumpfun?dashboard=120">minted</a> nearly 11 million new tokens with a current cumulative market cap of roughly $4.5 billion.&nbsp;



As <a href="https://x.com/nextfckingthing/status/1929871539018576257">competition</a> heats up among token launchpads, pump.fun has made some updates to its core business — most notably when it launched an AMM that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-ditching-raydium-rumor">ended its unofficial partnership</a> with Raydium.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-top-protocols-by-fees">Tracking Solana’s top protocols by fees</a>



Pump.fun also recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-releases-mobile-app">launched a mobile app</a> and re-released a live streaming feature it had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-suspends-livestream-feature">temporarily suspended</a> after content moderation complaints late last year.



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investors

Pump.fun plans $1B token sale at $4B valuation: Sources

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



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Investors getting crypto exposure via stocks will soon have access to a stablecoin issuer: Circle is expected to list on the NYSE any day now.&nbsp;



While institutional demand for the company’s shares appears robust, retail interest is more of a wild card.



The USDC issuer launched its IPO last week and on Monday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-upsizes-ipo">boosted the number of shares</a> it plans to offer (from 24 million to 32 million). Circle also set a higher price expectation per share — between $27 and $28.&nbsp;



Generally, underwriters (in this case JPMorgan, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, etc.) and their clients seek to slightly under-promise and over-deliver, Architect Partners co-founder Eric Risley told me.



“Both upsizing the number of shares expected to be sold as well as the price range is a crystal-clear signal of strong demand,” he noted.



That said, the roughly $7.2 billion valuation Circle is targeting is below the $7.7 billion valuation it got in an April 2022 funding round.



Risley explained that changes to IPO terms (like yesterday’s) are typically only made after a full assessment of demand. His point: The listing of CRCL shares is imminent.&nbsp;



Some of the strong institutional demand is coming from Ark Invest. Circle said in a Monday filing that the firm is interested in buying up to $150 million of Circle’s Class A common stock at the updated IPO price.



Lorenzo Valente, Ark’s digital assets research director, pointed out in February that stablecoins’ $220 million supply hit roughly 1% of the US’s M2 money supply. Stablecoins currently have a market cap around $235 billion, according to <a href="http://rwa.xyz">rwa.xyz</a> data. Ark’s <a href="https://www.nikkoam.com.hk/files/sp/ark/pdf/2502_ark_big_ideas.pdf">research</a> suggests it could hit $1.4 trillion by 2030.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdKtovOFBtk0kcucC93X40RKSwF5K61vNSbanu7J5jOnzvSKJtlzt4JuQ9Tzs0JsZpWb419gBDniDAr4psljU3ypIatep6s6SU6pS2PXR5UdarlCT8jjBQ2HJmrwZiNzrFA1v5y?key=0bMyocLhOZKNva5UxDX8Uw" alt=""/></figure>



“They settle more transaction volume across all blockchains than either Bitcoin or Ethereum, highlighting their growing dominance as the foundation of onchain activity,” Valente wrote about stablecoins.



The financial world has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">woken up to stablecoins’ utility</a> as a fiat-pegged payment tool, especially given US lawmakers’ progress on legislation there (Casey has more on that if you scroll).&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecon-execs-bullish-stablecoins-financial-revolution">Digesting Stablecon: Execs bullish on imminent financial infrastructure revolution</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">BlackRock’s Robbie Mitchnick said in March</a> that while he sees tokenized money market funds as a better cash savings vehicle, stablecoins “will retain their dominance” as the instrument for payment and transaction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Institutional vs. retail demand</h2>



Reports that BlackRock plans to buy Circle IPO shares reinforces Circle&#8217;s reputation as “the most institutionally integrated company in crypto,” argued Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research.&nbsp;



“In a sector still defined by volatility and regulatory overhang, Circle is positioning itself as the ‘boring is beautiful’ trade: profitable, minimally levered, and plugged into the core financial infrastructure of Web3,” he said.



For institutions looking for crypto exposure without balance-sheet risk, the company resembles a high-yield, regulated stablecoin utility, Sigel added. Circle’s core revenue, after all, comes from interest on USDC reserves — much like a money market fund, he said, but with programmability and 24/7 settlement.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe0hdaV_zL81TTSympUBxl84ZH0rl8DEFhpjVZEOPWR1nQWydAuUOBURlaXL-WEwE5Rpx5ylBNcBpGASvM1ThkmPGxfHWDdRjmJyK4l4flggMFD_JIZTB6JN7i-ScT0RwNz_28r?key=0bMyocLhOZKNva5UxDX8Uw" alt=""/></figure>



“Retail may find it harder to latch on,” the VanEck executive added. “Circle doesn’t have the same volatility, beta, meme potential or brand recognition as Coinbase.”&nbsp;



Speaking of Coinbase, COIN shares started trading on the Nasdaq — via direct listing — in April 2021. The stock opened at $381 and peaked at roughly $430. Shares are now hovering around $260.&nbsp;



COIN has earned a ~4% allocation in VanEck’s new Onchain Economy ETF (NODE), a fund that Sigel manages.&nbsp;



Circle labels “intense and increasing competition” — i.e. from <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tether-profits-versus-blackrock">USDT issuer Tether</a> — and “fluctuations in interest rates” among its risk factors.&nbsp;



Despite that, Sigel said it’s rare to find a crypto-native company that is “profitable, growing, capital-light and central to stablecoin infrastructure.” So NODE will evaluate Circle based on its valuation and growth outlook for the stock. Other crypto equity ETF <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch">portfolio managers</a> will also consider a position in Circle as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-exposures-volatility-stocks-analysts-saying">they navigate</a> a growing universe of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ipo-boom-etoro-kraken">US public stocks</a> in the segment — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/exodus-uplists-to-nyse-american">Exodus</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/galaxy-defi-technologies-nasdaq-us-listings">Galaxy and DeFi Technologies</a> now among them.&nbsp;



“If Coinbase is one of the main storefronts in the onchain economy, Circle could be the payments pipework running beneath it: less visible, but still essential to the flow of capital and trust,” Sigel said. Keep an eye on <a href="http://blockworks.co">Blockworks.co</a> — and your inbox — as our Circle IPO watch continues.



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Weighing institutional, retail demand for Circle ahead of public debut

The team behind President Trump’s memecoin is launching a $TRUMP branded crypto wallet in partnership with Magic Eden, Blockworks has confirmed.



A website teasing a wallet and trading app tied to President Donald Trump’s memecoin seemed to go live on Tuesday. A Magic Eden spokesperson confirmed the legitimacy of the website to Blockworks when reached.



The team behind $TRUMP, the President’s memecoin, partnered with Magic Eden and its recently acquired Slingshot on the wallet, according to the website.&nbsp;



“Magic Eden partnered with GetTrumpMemes.com to create the first and only $TRUMP Wallet. Have Fun!” the website said.&nbsp;



Right now, it requires users to insert their emails, phone numbers and has an option to include the X handle in order to join the waitlist.&nbsp;



News: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-coin-unlock-token-holdings">TRUMP token slides ahead of massive unlock</a>



Crypto journalist Molly White first reported the news.&nbsp;



The app will allow users to buy TRUMP, BTC, SOL, ETH, ADA, XRP and ME, and “all other tokens,” according to a Magic Eden spokesperson.&nbsp;



“Upon launch, there will be $1 million worth of $TRUMP available for rewards, and more rewards post-launch. Today, users can sign up for a waitlist with email and invite their friends so we can contact them as the app launches,” the spokesperson confirmed to Blockworks.&nbsp;



A timeline on the app launch was not clear, though Blockworks was told it would happen “soon” and would be available to US users.



As for how the relationship between TRUMP and Magic Eden developed, Blockworks was told: “We have historically worked with the $TRUMP project to support their prior NFT launches and are excited that we’re working on a much larger project now with $TRUMP Wallet.”



There appeared to be some disconnect between the Trump family and the teams involved in the TRUMP Wallet as of Tuesday afternoon, with both Donald Jr. and Eric Trump <a href="https://x.com/EricTrump/status/1929966635445576103">denying</a> their knowledge of the wallet.&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">The Trump Organization has zero involvement with this wallet product. <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EricTrump</a> and I know nothing about it. Stay tuned—World Liberty Financial <a href="https://twitter.com/worldlibertyfi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@worldlibertyfi</a>, which we have been working tirelessly on, will be launching our official wallet soon. <a href="https://t.co/h1wO7dy6AX">https://t.co/h1wO7dy6AX</a>&mdash; Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1929965961341247842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Instead, Trump Jr. teased a potential World Liberty Financial wallet, also coming “soon.”



Updated 4:50 p.m. ET to reflect Donald Trump Jr. and World Liberty announcements.



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TRUMP wallet will let users buy BTC, SOL and more: spokesperson

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A female-focused crypto community known as the Berabaddies has teamed up with infra firm Concrete to launch a community-yield vault that offers yield farming on Berachain, all with the goal of making DeFi simpler and easier for non-technical traders and those newer to crypto.



Berachain <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/berachain-pengu-burn">launched</a> earlier this year, in February — but the Berabaddies had formed a year prior in February 2024, when Berachain was in testnet. The girl group is separate from the Berachain Foundation and team, and is incubated by Berachain-focused venture studio Honey Jar plus Ursadom Labs.



“Berachain is the community that I found my home in and I found my voice,” Berabaddies founder Keisha, who prefers to only use her first name, told me in an interview.&nbsp;



Keisha said the idea for the Berabaddies came when she had been heavily involved in trading, but found herself missing her best girlfriends when spending countless hours in crypto Discord servers and chat groups full of guys.&nbsp;



The Berabaddies multisig vault is expected to conduct weekly reviews and has a 72-hour withdrawal hold window for security.



“To make money on Berachain right now, you need to understand the parts, the DeFi, how [Proof-of-Liquidity] works specifically for Berachain. You could be a DeFi expert on Ethereum, on any other chain, and then you could come over to Berachain and still have a steep learning curve because there’s so many layers to it,” Keisha said.



“We’re trying to abstract away as much of the risk and as much of the complexity, and just make it super simple. It’s [a] one-click deposit, either HONEY or BERA,” she continued.



BERA is Berachain’s native token, and HONEY is its native stablecoin.



“You shouldn’t have to need to understand 70 complex terms. You shouldn’t need to know that in order to make money,” she added.



I also asked about that <a href="https://x.com/berabaddies/status/1919365528826827023">viral Berabaddies video</a>, the Real Housewives of Berabaddies, that’s 100% satire and has sparked joy — and resentment.



“I waffled a little bit back and forth on posting that video,” Keisha explained. “People are always going to be unhappy with me or unhappy with what the baddies are doing.”



Ultimately, it seems like a lot of viewers missed the point. The goal of the Berabaddies group isn’t to present all women as vapid or shallow. It’s to bring a bit of humor to the timeline and to show all women that there’s a space for you in crypto where you can be yourself.



“Our community, when we have these events, they are for women, but these products can be used by anybody,” Keisha said of the vault. “Our focus and our attention is on the aesthetic and the femininity and the cuteness and making it fun and simple.”



The Berabaddies team is small, with six team members in total and just three to four working on the project full-time, the founder said. But the Berabaddies appeal is clearly there — there are over 900 women in its group chat.



The group is also offering educational resources to help women get careers in crypto, starting with marketing, and also has plans for a Dress-Up game.



“I support Baddies’ rights and wrongs,” Keisha said. “We’re also here for all the Baddies, all the women in this space, for you to have the freedom to express yourself however you see fit.”

Theta FuelTFUEL

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