Pax Dollar

Jeff Albus

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



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 This is part three of a series on Solana’s rise, fall, and comeback. Click to read <a href="https://link.mail.beehiiv.com/ss/c/u001.5nAyT4XmycPPVBEq-MN0J2uSc7AgWgW1wtEuvbcQ6oLnXz43pTAICRu_h9YVirR5CSRpjDazos9mAhdqsuOGMEK1U0Oaq6-YukZlsA7eYiVu8RvXBwPzzUMQW-hfndUg7_XZpi8U5tpH5BLT0D0YtFngMNUR6c9ZJa2CHgl5eZddO4EJAH3KujgW_s8Zd-iweWDBV8CcI_pW9vTartVM_utNl4nXghgrx7mAJTVUgVUOSXNBxFaqQq7eJwC_esVascoxuyQob-XKdVuq1cnBmA/4ea/3R_xY5LNTtO7P5aPy36BKA/h1/h001.y2IgkQJIRVpQ6Z5va0ycmPJrcFGkvRDcDZseC_9jbLc">part one</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-origins-ftx-alameda">part two</a>.



By early 2023, you&#8217;d be forgiven for thinking that Solana was finished. Certainly, it had been left for dead by much of the wider industry. But the network&#8217;s story did not end there. Instead, it accomplished one of the most remarkable recoveries in Web3 history — not fueled by institutional backing or VC largesse, but by a committed community and a new wave of experimentation that would redefine what Web3 stood for.



The first and perhaps most important shift came in Solana’s branding. Early on, Solana positioned itself as an institutional blockchain. It was supposed to be a high-speed network for the next generation of DeFi power users — it likened itself to a “decentralized Nasdaq” at the time. But the institutional money was gone, and many of the polished financial products built atop these promises had crumbled. In their place, a grassroots, community-driven movement began to fill the void, leaning hard into the irreverent culture of the internet: self deprecating humor, in-group copy pastas, and most of all — memes.



Solana became the people’s chain.



The shift was crystallized by the rise of Bonk, a memecoin launched in late 2022. Unlike most corporate-backed projects, Bonk was distributed widely to the community, embodying a playful but deeply resonant ethos. It brought new users to the ecosystem and restored some of the energy that had been lost in the fallout from FTX. As the perceived value of memes gained social purchase, the air became electric once more with the promise of crypto&#8217;s “next big thing.” Sensing this change in fortunes, a trio of English entrepreneurs — Noah Tweedale, Alon Cohen, and Dylan Kerler — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-pumpdotfun-record-highs">opened Pump.fun</a> in January 2024. It was a cultural force. The platform made it easier (and cheaper) than ever to create and trade tokens with near-instant execution. This democratization fueled an explosion of speculative but highly engaging <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-welcomes-ai-overlords">onchain activity</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Simultaneously, Solana was making serious technical strides. Blinks introduced a new paradigm for seamless, native blockchain transactions where users could transact <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-blinks-twitter">right from their X feeds</a>. Firedancer, a new validator client developed by Jump Crypto, entered development with the goal of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-solana-product-launches">improving network stability</a> and reducing the risk of outages. State compression technology allowed for dramatically lower costs for minting and storing non-fungible assets. Smart wallets leveraged account abstraction to replace traditional seed phrases with multifactor authentication.&nbsp;



Over a few short months, the resurgence of Solana&#8217;s creator community gained rapid narrative clarity. Builders who had stuck around through the worst of the bear market now had better infrastructure, lower costs and a more engaged retail community at their disposal. SOL&#8217;s price, which had languished under $10 in the aftermath of FTX, climbed steadily. By early 2024, the asset was back above $100, and its DeFi and NFT ecosystems were thriving once more.



Sentiment had changed. By the time the price surpassed its pre-FTX all-time high, Solana had transformed into one of the most vibrant, unpredictable and community-driven networks in Web3 history. It proved that ecosystems don’t live or die by their backers, but by the resilience of their builders and users.



Our industry often discards fallen projects. When sentiment shifts and capital moves on, we tend to declare a network dead, reallocate resources and chase the next trend. But Solana did something rare: It survived, adapted, and thrived — not because it was favored to, but because its community refused to let it die. In a space where narratives are written and rewritten at breakneck speed, Solana proved that being an underdog is sometimes the best advantage of all.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Forward Guidance</a>: Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch</a>: Get alpha directly in your inbox — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: The newsletter for crypto collectors and traders, covering games, tokens, apps, memes and more.</li>
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How Solana accomplished one of Web3’s most remarkable recoveries

Casey Wagner

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



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If you unplugged over the weekend, you probably missed some major updates on the crypto front. 



Here’s the 411 on the other big news from the White House we got over the weekend: 



Trump’s AI and crypto czar will be hosting the first-ever “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-crypto-council-setbacks">crypto summit</a>” on March 7.&nbsp;



“Attendees will include prominent founders, CEOs and investors from the crypto industry, as well as members of the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets,” the White House said in a statement late last Friday evening.&nbsp;



The president will deliver remarks, it added.&nbsp;



As a reminder, the Working Group, also chaired by Sacks, includes SEC Chair Mark Uyeda and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.&nbsp;



The summit’s agenda has not been released, but we can imagine the crypto stockpile and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoin-legislation-top-priority">stablecoin legislation</a> will take center stage.&nbsp;



Both the newly announced stockpile and various stablecoin bills in Congress have highlighted tension between crypto companies and high-profile industry members.&nbsp;



Those pushing for a bitcoin-only reserve were disappointed to learn that Trump plans to include four additional tokens, and we’ve written before about how US-based stablecoin issuers may be hoping to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoin-legislation-update">lock in advantages</a> by lobbying for forthcoming stablecoin laws.&nbsp;



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Forward Guidance</a>: Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: The newsletter for crypto collectors and traders, covering games, tokens, apps, memes and more.</li>
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Trump to speak at first crypto summit as industry quarrels over policy 

Ben Strack

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



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You know by now that crypto prices saw a lift after Donald Trump’s <a href="https://x.com/Blockworks_/status/1896240566679310657">crypto reserve announcement</a> on Sunday. By early Monday, they’d retreated.



The president listed assets to be included in the stockpile (BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and SOL) in his post, but did not give any sort of timeline.&nbsp;



So-called <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-picks-crypto-czar">crypto czar</a> David Sacks added: “More to come at the <a href="https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1895660834799698008">Summit</a>.”



Bitcoin surged roughly 10% on Sunday to about $95,000. At this morning’s market open, it was at about $93,100. By 2 pm ET: $87,300.



Not all were thrilled about the possible inclusion of assets beyond bitcoin (i.e. <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1896350375482970532">Brian Armstrong</a>, <a href="https://x.com/nic__carter/status/1896588091235656190">Nic Carter</a>, <a href="https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/1896378163179237543">Bitwise execs</a>). Check out <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-absurd-crypto-reserve">this</a> piece from Blockworks’ Donovan Choy.



Trump’s reveal was a sign of how quickly a pro-crypto regime can get the market to turn, noted eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert.



“However, the concerns from last week remain unchanged from a macro perspective, and clearly, the market is willing to overlook that for now,” he said.&nbsp;



“Macro perspective” here means all that inflation and monetary policy stuff. Then there’re the tariffs on Canada and Mexico imports set to hit tomorrow — and a new <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-the-threat-to-national-security-from-imports-of-timber-lumber/">investigation</a> into lumber imports. 



Macro headwinds and the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bybit-attack-institutional-grade-security">Bybit hack</a> drove BTC briefly below $80,000 last week. But Trump’s vested interests in the space signal “sell-offs of this nature could continue to be supported moving forward,” Gilbert added.&nbsp;



Some theorized we’d see a further lift in BTC price Monday as investors sought to pile into bitcoin ETFs after Trump’s weekend message. Those don’t trade 24/7, after all. Though we won’t know the Monday inflow tally for a bit, volumes for BlackRock iShares Trust (IBIT), as of 2 pm ET, weren’t exactly atypical.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfhue-GCeU2gET64m6S-B11LgHvX3zh_uQjGvzPkDNelkRFD7O8_MUJ5Nj8Zki0UYchvAJ-FsZ898OZZtHK7Jhvo3dsHkQVA1NUhEGD3Ecow3iyUZuFu8z-xzr1KhT01KIiSeb2?key=GVg10W4MUUDJPPKmDt8MR0ue" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Yahoo Finance</figcaption></figure>



As we wait for more US crypto reserve details, we’ve seen movement from a number of US states. Sen. Cynthia Lummis <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-28/lummis-says-bitcoin-reserve-is-likely-to-come-first-from-states">said</a> last week she expects one of them to have a BTC reserve before the federal government. Those comments from the Wyoming Republican came before Trump’s post. Still, the sheer number of state-level proposals signals she could be right. Though such efforts are effectively dead (at least for now) in five states — Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota — 19 others have live proposals, according to <a href="https://bitcoinlaws.io">Bitcoin Laws data</a>.



A Utah proposal passed the House last month and is <a href="https://le.utah.gov/mtgvotes.jsp?voteid=36093">working its way</a> through the Senate. Similar planned reserves expect to be soon voted on in the <a href="https://www.oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20COMMITTEE%20REPORTS/HOUSE/HB1203%20HCR.PDF">Oklahoma House</a> and the Texas Senate.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Lummis had, prior to the election, proposed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senator-lummis-bitcoin-reserve-bill-crypto-policy">a federal reserve</a>. That was for BTC specifically, and included specifics (a holding period of at least 20 years, funding from revaluing the Fed’s existing gold certificates, etc.), noted S&amp;P Global’s Andrew O’Neill.



“Yesterday’s proposal lacks details on size, timing and whether it will be managed by the Federal Reserve or another new or existing entity,” O’Neill added. Trump speaking without reserve (see what I did there?) is typical. We’ll see what more we learn on Friday and how Congress could choose to act.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Forward Guidance</a>: Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin.</li>



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Unpacking Trump’s crypto reserve reveal 

Macauley Peterson

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



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The Crypto Twitter version of internecine warfare in Ethereum circles has come to a close.



The Ethereum Foundation has announced a significant leadership restructuring. Aya Miyaguchi, who has served as executive director since 2018, previously <a href="https://x.com/AyaMiyagotchi/status/1894422130462249185">announced</a> her transition to the role of president. In her new capacity, Miyaguchi aims to enhance the foundation&#8217;s institutional relationships and broaden the reach of its vision and culture. ​



That left the executive director position to fill. The foundation announced Saturday the <a href="https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/1895851576251826227">appointment</a> of Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive directors, effective March 17.



Wang, a core researcher at the foundation for seven years, contributed significantly to the development of the Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/3-years-launch-eth-staking">beacon chain</a> and has been active in community-building efforts in Taiwan. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind — one of Ethereum&#8217;s major <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-geth-client-diversity">execution clients</a> — brings extensive experience in engineering and organizational development. ​



EF’s loudest critics had lobbied for former Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan to fill the position, but in a coordinated announcement, Ryan <a href="https://x.com/dannyryan/status/1895851747865944114">signaled</a> he would instead join the new <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-foundation-tradfi-push">Etherealize project</a> as a co-founder.



Etherealize is focused on integrating Ethereum with institutional investors and Ryan expressed his commitment to establishing Ethereum&#8217;s relevance in global finance.



&#8220;The world is ready to come onchain, and we’re here to do the hard work necessary to make it happen,” he <a href="https://x.com/dannyryan/status/1895851749514281212">said</a>.



These leadership changes reflect a move toward unity and strategic alignment. The EF resisted calls to get more involved on the commercial and marketing side of the movement, preferring its philosophy of “subtraction” — which centered around thoughtfully distributing power and responsibilities to avoid centralization. The staffing moves are seen as part of Ethereum&#8217;s transition from an early-stage project to a robust, permissionless and censorship-resistant base layer of global financial infrastructure.



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Ethereum community buries the hatchet

Kate Irwin

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



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Wondering what your fave crypto influencer is buying and selling? Fomo could help paint that picture — at least a little bit.



“The name Fomo for us is very subversive,” Fomo co-founder Paul Erlanger tells me.



Fomo is an upcoming SocialFi and crypto trading app (Kaito’s CEO is an investor). It tracks what signed-up users are doing with their assets. It’ll have a lot of “attention-based assets,” as Erlanger puts it, but it’s not just for memecoins.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdZXfCtS0ojCKSFz7h1AkkkaaCcnRo9E6ey77Auozt5jXuU76kZt2mGUm-BDF4ygI4fAzimZr1A50_-gR-IW871r75xk-c4E4-NAqGPlZnTOvPI-VbuTgMNk6KoJRCaAdcsUUhDHw?key=i7ZdzTvJ5CdrJGFbB8mx3dnz" alt=""/></figure>



“We’re not a memecoin-trading app. The goal is to be something a lot larger,” he said.



Fomo is planning a real-time feed showing data on users’ trades, tokens, what they’ve been holding or selling over time, and more. If you choose to look at a token, you’ll see which of your “friends” are holding that token and how much.



They’re going to pull from internal data as well as broader financial data so that you’re well-aware of broader happenings too, like federal interest rates or other relevant pieces that could help inform your next sell or buy.&nbsp;



Wallets on Fomo are non-custodial, meaning you hold the keys to your own crypto. While some builders believe that custodying others’ crypto is easier for newcomers, many crypto believers — myself included — see non-custodial wallets as an integral, critical part of the crypto ethos and experience.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc1M_w3y_MHoVDPKc9FHQBLJyZBpIWfFT0vfOGFmJLGE4IyO-ei70JtajJuonPH_o0BYnN-mb5BKQJcG-_Y8OmsaZI47GJlEBtdkq_3hl6wCvh8eP-WK6swOIc_0RYiuZQUqDn7VQ?key=i7ZdzTvJ5CdrJGFbB8mx3dnz" alt=""/></figure>



“I think the non-custodial experience will win, and that’s kind of our advantage to Robinhood,” Erlanger said.&nbsp;



Fomo won’t be able to identify external or additional wallets at first, so they’ll only be able to track what people are doing via Fomo itself. That means Fomo users could be posturing as buying or selling a token from their Fomo profile, but could be doing the opposite on a secret wallet — so take the data you can see with a couple grains of salt.



But the team is considering a way to provide even more data, like tracking wallets and tying them to various users so you can get a fuller picture of what people are doing.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Fomo team is planning to launch its beta in three weeks, the founders tell me. They’re planning to test it first with up to 10,000 users. In about six to eight weeks from now, we could see a full public launch.



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Fomo could help you track KOL moves

Donovan Choy

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



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On Sunday morning, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114093526901586124">announced</a> on Truth Social his plans to enact a “crypto strategic reserve.”



Which assets? The anointed few: XRP, SOL, ADA, ETH and BTC and <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114093946326587357">maybe more</a>.



Markets loved it, of course. BTC jumped 6% on the day, ETH was up 5.3% and XRP rippled up 18%. But the reality is that the reserve is still just talk, pending Congressional action.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdWmB630_6edUZYCRw9HbhFr3BPEysJsth0AS6z-jGEycOw8itTeK45BbuPqKOxk7-JDqtr28PU2l-0WkVBdOI9-rkCIQZ4hs-_sFHbyURVp4y4IajVbOR1XL49RZlKUx0GAxXNUw?key=Oz1FaTfFBnHUObJJHdW3uW_f" alt="" style="width:519px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/adam3us/status/1896252662875861007">Twitter</a></figcaption></figure></div>


Putting aside legal issues, the idea that the US should <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-as-a-potential-us-reserve-asset">build a crypto reserve</a> is itself completely bizarre, and therefore should be treated with skepticism.



Countries typically establish gold or reserves in foreign currencies for reasons of economic stability and to bolster confidence in their own financial systems.



For instance, when the Swiss franc appreciated rapidly against the euro during the global financial crisis, the Swiss National Bank intervened in March by selling francs and buying euros to protect its export-driven economy.



Gold, on the other hand, serves as a hedge against fiat currency depreciation, and the largest central banks in the world buy them for that reason. Maybe you don’t buy into that thesis, but it reflects more than two thousand years of the metal’s history in being used as money.



What qualifies XRP, SOL, ADA, ETH and BTC to be national reserve-worthy?



Let’s start with the easiest: bitcoin. Bitcoin has the longest history of about 17 years, more than any other asset on Trump’s shopping list. But compared to gold, bitcoin has been around far too short to prove itself as an “inflation hedge.”



One could argue that there is sufficient empirical evidence in the history of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/roger-ver-right-bitcoin-book">blocksize wars</a> to prove the asset as being durable and resistant to change (like gold). Okay, fair enough, though still a <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily/issue/post_a86f70e8-2026-4c78-821e-c99cc7fd3a4b">bad idea</a> for a strategic reserve.



ETH? Ethereum is a technological marvel, but an asset that struggles with value accrual and which is subject to a technological roadmap means the American taxpayer is effectively taking a bet on an equity-like asset, contrary to the entire purpose of a national reserve.



SOL? SOL was until last year a devastated asset, revived only by memecoin trading. That doesn’t sound like something US tax dollars should be spent on.



Cardano and Ripple? Seriously? Both chains struggle to even find product-market fit in the circular industry of crypto and don&#8217;t crack the top 10 TVL page on <a href="https://defillama.com/chains">DefiLlama</a>, let alone having the merit to belong in a national reserve.



None of the above crypto assets are needed in a “strategic reserve” for the Fed to protect the dollar, conduct monetary intervention or strengthen the American economy.



When Trump promised to make the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/donald-trump-economic-new-york-club-comments">US the crypto capital</a> of the world, I assumed that meant fair and generalized regulations so crypto companies could pursue permissionless innovation under a rule of law in a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gary-gensler-resigning">post-Gensler</a> SEC regime.



This development, however, screams political cronyism of the highest order. Surely ripple and cardano did not get on that list by chance.



<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">Sorry poor people, no money left for your Medicaid we had to give it to David Sacks so he can use it to manipulate the crypto market for the benefit of handpicked insiders.&mdash; Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1896347937363652961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



There’s <a href="https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1896362200119538055">talk</a> that the inclusion of these altcoins in the reserve presents a major conflict of interest with the investments of Trump’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-picks-crypto-czar">AI and crypto czar</a> David Sacks, though Sacks has argued that he <a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1896480537839370374">no longer holds</a> BTC, ETH or SOL. It almost feels like something that was memed into existence by Twitter KOLs. It also runs contrary to all of <a href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/07/17/procrypto.html">crypto’s fundamental values</a>. But I guess no one still cares about that these days.



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Trump’s crypto reserve is absurd

Katherine Ross

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



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



We saw a bit of a rally yesterday as folks digested the posts from Trump, who said that we could see SOL, XRP, and ADA —&nbsp;combined with bitcoin and ethereum (and perhaps other, unnamed tokens) — in a strategic reserve.&nbsp;



For Pantera’s Paul Veradittakit, the move helps to further crypto’s “credibility” and reinforces the “store of value” narrative —&nbsp;though it left some folks on the CT timeline a bit concerned about the additions of XRP, ADA and SOL.&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">If you&#39;re in crypto and cheering this, I don&#39;t know what to tell you. There&#39;s just no way that legitimizing two of the largest grift and scams in the existence of the industry is a good thing. Can blame it on the admin being ignorant, misinformed or bought, but this ain&#39;t it. <a href="https://t.co/2ujRHwABmK">pic.twitter.com/2ujRHwABmK</a>&mdash; Quinn Thompson (@qthomp) <a href="https://twitter.com/qthomp/status/1896262133916315864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Before we argue if this is bad or good for crypto, the truth is that not a whole lot has changed. Veradittakit added that he thinks this could lead to a “significant increase” in the likelihood of an altcoin season.



We still need regulatory clarity. And we probably need to hear more about the plans at the reserve — something we can hopefully get later this week at the White House’s crypto summit.



As for why we haven’t already seen an altseason? Well, Empire co-host Jason Yanowitz has a <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/9d0b954e-f631-11ef-9a9d-f39e71cf4f29">few ideas of what’s going on.&nbsp;</a>



Folks became aware of a game underfoot and some went straight to the memes to get away from not only trying to predict the cycle but also to escape the “venture games” of tokens with low float and high FDV.&nbsp;



But Reflexive Capital’s David Kalk thinks that people also remember the scars of last cycle, which means that they’re unlikely to go back to some of the names. This could lead to a different market structure. Kalk thinks that potential regulatory clarity and the belief in the utility of some of these tokens could be a gamechanger for folks.



At the end of the day, retail is “somewhat playing defense,” Kalk said.&nbsp;



VanEck’s Pranav Kanade agreed with Kalk, saying that he thinks that the “gambling” retail is back, not the “investing retail.”



And perhaps that’s leading us to a spot where we have “microcycles,” Kanade noted.



If the retail crowd that’s interested in memecoins exhausts itself, then perhaps that opens the door for a different set of folks who are looking for projects to support. Or, maybe we’ll see more institutions at play outside of bitcoin and ether.



Either way, it doesn’t seem like we’re quite ready for an altszn…yet.



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Retail’s ‘playing defense’ right now: Reflexive Capital 

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



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It’s hard to deny that crypto is having a moment, especially when the President of the United States posts about crypto on a Sunday morning.&nbsp;



While that’s currently the bullish force pushing us forward to start the week — after a less than stellar time last week — it’s hard to say whether the positive momentum is enough to last.&nbsp;



Here’s the good thing though: We don’t necessarily need to just rely on posts from world leaders to legitimize the space, we’re seeing that happen in a myriad of ways.



Take PayPal, for example.



“I think that the ultimate goal is that whatever you see a way to move money around, on the PayPal side, you should have an option to do that with digital currencies,” PayPal’s Jose Fernandez da Ponte told me.



He thinks that this is the year overlap between crypto and traditional payments becomes a bigger focus. Clearly, stablecoins are the “killer application of blockchains for payments” right now, he noted. The sector has a market cap of $220 billion, according to rwa.xyz.



PYUSD, PayPal’s stablecoin offering, has a market cap of roughly $760 million which puts it in the top 10 stablecoins, but it’s nowhere near Circle and Tether — the two whales in the space.



For da Ponte though, market share isn’t the main focus.&nbsp;



“I think that the obsession with market cap is because that&#8217;s an artifact of how stable coins get monetized. Today, a lot of the large issuers basically make money out of the deal done on the reserves. We think that over time, that&#8217;s going to be less relevant, that monetization will move away from interest rates and more toward transaction fees, and that stablecoins are going to be monetized by consumer flows,” he explained.&nbsp;



Now that doesn’t mean that they don’t want PYUSD to grow, da Ponte clarified, adding “we want to be bigger than we are today.” But rather than obsess over market cap, da Ponte and his team are focused on chain transfer volume.&nbsp;



What’s interesting is that da Ponte thinks we’re going to see more of what he calls a “stablecoin sandwich,” which is “fiat on one side, and then the stablecoin as a sort of settlement layer and then you see fiat on the other side.”



“We have seen that in our own remittance flows. So when we are settling with partners in the Philippines and other markets in stablecoins these days, the consumer sees fiat, the sender sees fiat, the receiver sees fiat, and we are capturing the advantages of stablecoins on the infrastructure side.”



Obviously, being the payments giant it is, PayPal has to straddle the line of being focused on both fiat and digital currencies and allowing for the customers to have that choice when interacting on the platform.&nbsp;



Full disclosure: I did ask if PayPal would consider a yield-bearing stablecoin offering if the conditions were right. Da Ponte was a good sport about it, telling me that it’s “difficult to talk about hypotheticals,” but they haven’t really considered it. That doesn’t mean it’s totally off or on the table — just not on the radar of the payments giant at this time.&nbsp;



The way da Ponte explained PayPal’s focus is simple: Weave traditional payments seamlessly with crypto. But more than that, make it effortless for non-crypto native folks and crypto natives alike.&nbsp;



And that’s the kind of adoption we need.



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PayPal’s ‘ultimate goal’ is to weave crypto and traditional payments

Jack Kubinec

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



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Solana tends to get touchy about scaling. Since day one, the network’s pitch has been a layer-1 blockchain using novel technology to run faster and cheaper than other layer-1s on offer.&nbsp;



So it’s no surprise that when Base announced a new feature called FlashBlocks would bring its “effective block times” down to 200 ms — or half the length it takes Solana to create new blocks — Solana followers were quick to point out the somewhat-faulty logic. FlashBlocks are sub-blocks that allow for early confirmation times, but Base’s full block times will still be two seconds. Solana has a feature called shreds which operates similarly to FlashBlocks, but its full block times are 400 ms.&nbsp;



The whole ordeal is a bit melodramatic, but it highlights something that often doesn’t get across in blockchain scaling conversations, which is that most of this stuff is basically made up anyways.



When Base’s creator Jesse Pollak gets on X to say that Base is about to be “2x faster than” Solana, he reveals nothing about how he’s measuring speed, or why that would matter for Base’s developers and users. Likewise when Firedancer developers say the Solana client can process <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-firedancer-testnet">one million transactions per second</a> in a test environment — it’s a nice sounding number that would almost certainly hit snags in the real world.&nbsp;



Even if Firedancer could run that fast, it would be of little import: Solana is currently processing roughly 1,000 user TPS.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rK3jWJdDks">On the Lightspeed podcast this week</a>, my co-host Mert Mumtaz got talking with NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin about scaling. Polosukhin and fellow NEAR developer Bowen Wang said the blockchain will soon bring its block times down to 400 ms, and its blockchain shards — part of a scaling technique known as “sharding” — can handle 10,000-20,000 TPS each.&nbsp;



So if NEAR is so scalable, Mumtaz asked, then why is no one talking about it?



“Everybody now comes out and says they&#8217;re scaling, [and] everybody throws a number out from a marketing perspective, [and] as Solana saw, until you actually put real pressure on the system, you don&#8217;t actually know how it&#8217;s going to behave,” Polosukhin said.



The more important question, in Polosukhin’s view: “What are the use cases that people are actually using blockchain for right now?”



200 ms block times sound nice. One million TPS sounds nice. But if blockchains want to be more than intellectually stimulating engineering problems with no underlying value, then use cases are the much more important conversation to be having.



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Base, Solana spar over scaling numbers

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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Solana futures are coming March 17, pending regulatory review.&nbsp;



For real this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



When CME Group’s announcement came through, I made sure to triple-check its validity.&nbsp;



If you recall last month, a beta page from CME Group’s website surfaced; a header on top read, “Introducing SOL and XRP futures.” That was released “in error,” <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cme-group-considering-sol-xrp-futures">a spokesperson clarified</a> at the time; no decision had been made on such products.



Now, though, the derivatives marketplace is officially moving ahead with cash-settled SOL futures — to be available via a micro-sized contract (25 SOL), and a larger one (500 SOL).



Why does this matter, exactly?



The thought is this type of product gives sophisticated investors (i.e. institutions and active traders) a better way to manage volatility within a growing market. Those unable to hold SOL directly would be able to gain access via a regulated product.



But beyond that, it extends a tool already available for bitcoin and ether to another asset — possibly setting the stage for US solana ETFs.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We&#39;re delighted to play a part in the upcoming launch of <a href="https://twitter.com/CMEGroup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CMEGroup</a> SOL Futures, the first CFTC-regulated Solana derivatives. They will settle to our CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate (SOLUSD_RR), paving the way for US-listed SOL ETFs! 🎉Read more 👇<a href="https://t.co/ViITWFguWM">https://t.co/ViITWFguWM</a> <a href="https://t.co/50j5bRtq9D">pic.twitter.com/50j5bRtq9D</a>&mdash; CF Benchmarks (@CFBenchmarks) <a href="https://twitter.com/CFBenchmarks/status/1895495933301018968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



CME Group launched bitcoin futures and ether futures in 2017 and 2021, respectively. These helped institutionalize crypto as an asset class prior to the US spot bitcoin and ether ETF launches last year.



Industry watchers <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-position-new-crypto-etf-proposals">have questioned</a> the timeline around <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/litecoin-etf-approval-odds-2025">further spot crypto ETF approvals</a> by the SEC, pointing out the agency has previously wanted to first see a regulated futures market.&nbsp;



The ETF Store president Nate Geraci <a href="https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/1895482828789625195">wrote</a> this morning on X that the planned solana futures launch “definitely bodes well for SOL ETF prospects.”



As for whether XRP futures are next (given the aforementioned beta page), a CME spokesperson told me today: “We do not comment on our product pipeline.”



In addition to SOL futures, the rep added, the company is focused on growing its existing BTC and ETH derivatives suite.&nbsp;



Year to date, average daily volume for CME’s BTC and ETH futures/options is 202,000 contracts — up 73% from a year ago. Average open interest (243,600 contracts) has jumped 55% year over year.



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Planned CME solana futures could boost ETF approval odds

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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The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge inched down just slightly in January, but we remain a ways off from its 2% target.&nbsp;



Decreased consumer spending and sharp income growth complicate the central bank’s mandate, and throw a wrench in the works for those hoping it would be a quarter of economic expansion.&nbsp;



Here’s a rundown of the latest personal consumer expenditures print and what it means for interest rates, markets and economic growth.&nbsp;



The <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index">PCE index</a> rose 2.5% annually in January, down from 2.6% in December. Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, saw more of a decline, coming in at 2.6% in January vs. 2.9% in December.&nbsp;



Personal income increased 0.9% month over month, led by private wages and salaries, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said. Personal current transfer receipts, which reflect payments made without the exchange of services, also increased sharply, although this can be attributed to beginning-of-year Social Security payment adjustments.&nbsp;



Consumer spending was down in January, coming in 0.2% lower than the month prior. The biggest sectors that saw a drop in spending were motor vehicles, household furnishings and recreational goods.&nbsp;



This latest data significantly lowered expectations for Q1 GDP outlook. The Atlanta Fed’s <a href="https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow#Tab2">GDPNow</a> model was revised today to project the US economy will contract by 1.5% during the first three months of 2025. This would be the first contraction recorded since Q1 2022.&nbsp;



On Feb. 19, the model had called for expansion at a rate of 2.3% during the first quarter of this year.&nbsp;



In terms of market impact, stocks initially rose slightly on the mild decline in headline PCE, although quickly erased any gains as geopolitical tensions took center stage. President Trump’s Friday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did little to assure the world that Russian-Ukrainian negotiations are going well.&nbsp;



Fed funds futures markets are still calling for central bankers to hold interest rates at their next meeting on March 19, pricing in a 94% probability of this outcome.&nbsp;



We’ll have to wait and see how Powell is thinking about the long-term outlook. On the one hand, it’s encouraging to see headline inflation dipping — even if only slightly — but we can’t imagine he’s too satisfied with the current labor market situation.&nbsp;



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The Fed’s job did not just get easier 

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



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MetaMask has tweaked its fox logo and is making major changes to its crypto wallet, the team <a href="https://metamask.io/news/metamask-roadmap-2025">announced</a> on Thursday.



I chatted with MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay to get all the deets on how the classic crypto wallet is changing.&nbsp;



“It almost feels like closing Chapter Two on wallets,” Finlay said.



Ethereum’s Pectra hard fork will let MetaMask change its wallet so that it’s asking you way less often to sign something. That could be a plus for safety, and it’s definitely a plus for more seamless usability.&nbsp;



The current way wallets work can be bad for security too — Finlay said a “blind sign” incident was what enabled the recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bybit-hack-raises-security-questions">Bybit hack</a>.&nbsp;



“They were asked to sign a hash just blindly. And they did it. That’s just so deeply, fundamentally broken,” he tells me.



With this update, you’ll be able to revoke permissions right in your wallet. They’re also going to abstract away networks and gas to make using MetaMask feel easier — no more typing in strange codes to add blockchains to your wallet.



“Users are still signing stuff they don&#8217;t understand. And if we want to make this like the rails of an actual functional economy, people need to actually get what they&#8217;re doing, and it has to be like at the deepest level,” Finlay added.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcRlfU1S8IdFTmaIqFLbPWHDi99axY1lxPXERxgIWLg4J1_dif8MOLy1DuAZeIQKp_7QTM1tyBNnFg7PM_RbWbOVpF01MoSbPG5fTOXI4B7ykzhVZ_bxx72M-VkYtjkxb0TM3R9Ig?key=Rviz9PDTT75f7M-Sc1wMW4CU" alt="" style="width:519px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: MetaMask</figcaption></figure></div>


They’re also enabling gas-included swaps within the wallet itself, so you don’t have to go through the hassle of getting other gas tokens into that wallet to complete the swap. And next month, they’re going to also let MetaMask users pay gas fees in whatever tokens you hold to make transactions even smoother.



Multiple secret recovery phrases will soon be possible, as will be the ability to sync up your MetaMask profile regardless of what web browser or device you’re using.



The wallet’s page that shows all your tokens will now show all of them in one place, like the Coinbase Wallet, regardless of what chain they’re on. It just makes more sense to see all your crypto in one place. Plus, the wallet will filter out spammy tokens and stuff that’s causing clutter from view.



“We&#8217;re in the, like, spam filtering, trying to filter sewage era of blockchain,” Finlay said. “I hope that people are going to notice like, hey, this, this actually works better.”



And then, similar to what Avalanche is doing with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/avalanche-visa-card-payments">Avalanche Visa</a> card, MetaMask is launching a Mastercard-powered credit card that lets you connect your self-custody MetaMask wallet and spend that crypto.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcUFe4gu6bwdGHKYDrRurnXi_yuWtBZ1ZtTDYJQ75GI7BQwZvvqxL3RRPKXFtJGZjluWd_78voExATHnnw9LR4rYnw3-jy2cmyhg61eevJoUjhiIDU1wpN5mxaA1UYbhUvjOKuZ?key=Rviz9PDTT75f7M-Sc1wMW4CU" alt="" style="width:492px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: MetaMask</figcaption></figure></div>


Full Bitcoin and Solana support is coming to the MetaMask wallet, too — in a more seamless way than the current third-party enabled option — so your MetaMask can finally feel more like the be-all, end-all crypto wallet of your dreams.&nbsp;



I’ll be honest: I have a MetaMask wallet, a Coinbase wallet, a Phantom wallet, a Ronin wallet, and a Ledger hardware wallet. It’s a lot. It’s too much. I mainly just use my Coinbase wallet because its UX is sleek, and its swaps and automatic network switching just makes more sense. Ease-of-use wins.&nbsp;



But this update could get me to reconsider MetaMask, for sure.



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Forward Guidance</a>: Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch</a>: Get alpha directly in your inbox — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana, in your inbox, every day from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.</li>



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

MetaMask gets an overhaul with better UX, simpler swaps

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



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Yesterday was day one of ETHDenver.&nbsp;



The price of ETH was ~$2,300. People here must be depressed, right?&nbsp;



Eh, not really. I must’ve had 20 conversations yesterday and maybe one person mentioned market prices.&nbsp;



With about 18,000 attendees coming into the city, ETHDenver is still the largest free-of-charge Ethereum-centric event next to Devcon.&nbsp;



The event kicked off with the folkiest of folk songs brought to you by <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-sec-action-nfts">Jonathan “A Song A Day” Mann</a>. Think “<a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1880635379771904423">feminized wef soyboy mentality</a>” vibes that Solana DeFi bronze age spartans would probably cringe at.



<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 to the ETH Denver Opening Ceremony featuring some awesome music! <a href="https://t.co/k71hYkAoA8">pic.twitter.com/k71hYkAoA8</a>&mdash; ETHDenver 🏔🦬🦄 (@EthereumDenver) <a href="https://twitter.com/EthereumDenver/status/1895153145883566352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Oh, and apparently people are complaining that ETHDenver is not so “Ethereum-aligned” anymore because there are non-Ethereum sponsors?


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdhMWVRaNepCtBygzL9tewB8x_La3q_cl1nJZ7a7yLbsFUDIbKcHDCvakrz2OgOvb-4KQf68S0rLvst596dlqY4Exr1wQRnOCKd24GQgRTBDkisMtmb9u8E9qMDG2e8Fi1mlognIg?key=OLwcemOxY1D9tbe6iEIZ4St_" alt="" style="width:401px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WUFpY-ByNA">ETHDenver</a></figcaption></figure></div>


So salient is the criticism that ETHDenver founder John Paller felt the need to address it at the festival’s opening.



“95%+ of our sponsors and 90% of our content is ETH, EVM or ETH aligned 😘😘😘,” his slide deck read.



Step into the main conference hall and you’re greeted with large booths representing Uniswap, Arbitrum and Coinbase.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXccp329pa1cTFr26ROG6pCteUyAFWgI8NqxBkc9IhDJqw2feSiX5ygkcM-SfQgwKb_gheNLf5wgTtV_N8yBRpzGA2btPJ1Oa9iykShmWMAYIzgIjgn_k8SeJSfvpFjUvHSTpgYp?key=OLwcemOxY1D9tbe6iEIZ4St_" alt="" style="width:601px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Picture taken on day one event closure</figcaption></figure></div>


There’s a markedly more professional vibe to ETHDenver this year, founder of Yap Global and ETHDenver’s official PR partner Samantha Yap told me.



“ETHDenver in its earlier years was more scrappy. This year, booths are spending a lot more money and there’s a greater professionalization of the event. The industry is evolving,” Yap said.



<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">DOGE pulled up to ETHDenver 👀 Much wow <a href="https://twitter.com/DogeOS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DogeOS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MyDoge?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MyDoge</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/dogecoin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dogecoin</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a> 👀 <a href="https://t.co/WJb0vBx7x6">pic.twitter.com/WJb0vBx7x6</a>&mdash; ETHWomen (@Ethereum_Women) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ethereum_Women/status/1895198203479461907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



There also doesn’t seem to be just one dominant overarching narrative this year.&nbsp;



Unlike <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/eth-denver-2024-unfocused">last year</a>, where EigenLayer and restaking dominated the agenda, there’s pretty much a sprinkle of anything you could think of: DePIN, AI agents, regulation, RWAs, privacy and — of course — interoperability. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-cross-chain-transactions">Ethereum loves interop</a>.



Conferences are often chock-full of panels and fireside chats, speakers armed with their sometimes dreary PR-approved speeches. Standing out on the day one agenda was a spicy debate between Haseeb Qureshi from Dragonfly Capital and Matt O’Connor at Legion, on the topic of ICOs vs. venture capital funding. Legion is an ICO-like fundraising platform.



<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">Debate: ICOs Are Better Than VC Funding by: &#8211;<a href="https://twitter.com/mattyTokenomics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mattyTokenomics</a> from <a href="https://twitter.com/legiondotcc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@legiondotcc</a> &#8211;<a href="https://twitter.com/hosseeb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hosseeb</a> from <a href="https://twitter.com/dragonfly_xyz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dragonfly_xyz</a> &#8211;<a href="https://twitter.com/AshleyStanhope?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AshleyStanhope</a> from Hardfork Media Full video below 👇🧵 <a href="https://t.co/QiMLqWpAsm">pic.twitter.com/QiMLqWpAsm</a>&mdash; ETHDenver 🏔🦬🦄 (@EthereumDenver) <a href="https://twitter.com/EthereumDenver/status/1895227229648650689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Matt: “The idea that VCs are catalyzing growth and the product’s purpose to begin with…this gatekeeping and holier-than-thou attitude of VCs knowing which projects to fund leads to less experimentation and variety of what’s backed.”



Haseeb: “It’s rich since Legion raised money from VCs…and how many individual users using Legion own equity in Legion? I’m going to assume the number is zero.”



Anyway, here are some key launches from yesterday:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>MetaMask is <a href="https://x.com/MetaMask/status/1895292999615369660">launching</a> Bitcoin and Solana integrations, gas abstraction, a UX overhaul, smart transactions and a MetaMask card.</li>



<li>14 teams, including NEAR AI, Coinbase Agent Kit and Eliza Labs announced the Open Agents Alliance (OAA), an initiative to provide permissionless and free AI access globally by combining infrastructure.</li>



<li>Uniswap <a href="https://x.com/Uniswap/status/1895123116239503692">announced</a> fiat off-ramping on the Uniswap Wallet powered by Transak, Moonpay and Robinhood.</li>



<li>BitLayer announced the BitVM Bridge, enabling trust-minimized bridging between the Bitcoin network and other chains like Base, Starknet, Arbitrum, Sonic and Plume.</li>



<li>Babylon and digital asset insurance broker Native are developing institutional-grade insurance coverage for bitcoin stakers, enabling bitcoin slashing coverage denominated in BTC.</li>
</ul>



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Inside day 1 at ETHDenver 2025

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



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



Need some reassurance after watching bitcoin fall under $80,000 last night?&nbsp;



We managed to climb back above that level this morning, but only slightly — at least at the time I was writing this. I hope I didn’t jinx it. ETH, on the other hand, is holding on to $2,100.&nbsp;



On the Empire roundup this week, co-host Jason Yanowitz <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/b63f8e8a-f578-11ef-aa2c-6b38a8299856">explained his thoughts on the current market</a>. For him, there are only three options: The start of the bear, the end of the four-year cycle or a simple pullback.&nbsp;



If you voted for pullback, then you’re right on the money.&nbsp;



“ I feel very convicted that this is not a bear market. So let me just [go] on the record, this is not a bear market,” he said, giving it a 20-30% chance that this marks the end of the four-year cycle and roughly an 80% chance that this is merely a bull market pullback.



Yanowitz gave 2021 as an example, citing the 56% pullback that bitcoin experienced a few years ago.&nbsp;



“ ETH drew down 61%, SOL drew down 67%. And a lot of other things, in the middle of the year — in the middle of what we look back and think [of as the] 2021 peak bull market — drew down like 70 to 80%. I just think people are very quick to forget that,” he said.



If Yanowitz is right — and my reporting this week is in favor of what he’s said — then the harsh truth is that pullbacks are tough and anxiety inducing, but they’re not forever.&nbsp;



I know it’s an utter cliche at this point, but the Brits really nailed this one: Keep calm and carry on.



And now you know.



<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">New Staff Statement from the SEC on memecoins just landed (link in thread). Two observations: 1. It&#39;s refreshing to see the SEC adopt a constrained view of its own power. 2. Fraud is, always has been, and always must be illegal. <a href="https://t.co/Rw7agzjcxa">pic.twitter.com/Rw7agzjcxa</a>&mdash; Katie Biber (@katiebiber) <a href="https://twitter.com/katiebiber/status/1895230270552580609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A dose of clarity was handed over to the market last night in the form of an SEC statement on memecoins. I think, after spending some time on it, that I’d characterize this as a bit of a mixed bag, though I’m leaning towards optimism.



Let’s start with the good: The <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-statement-meme-coins?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery">SEC actually put the Howey test to work</a> without a lawsuit! Huge. Love this for them. It’s exactly what the industry has wanted to see — and no one had to file a lawsuit or a FOIA for this clarity.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfWmIimWsMdn2Um9zWIBfPMuNbpR4CsHTgyci-jokzWy7cujz-9euv9zyT8Q1CRuybrBjRVO0mwOD2v9lixkv_eysasDxYlbdu6UCBMqQ5fdkgN923tIXlpPXjqu7KfyxYzBnxPAA?key=4y1qKT7jIXjlIuUA4ciMOS8J" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The SEC’s determination on memecoins based on the Howey test</figcaption></figure>



If the collectible language sounds familiar, it’s because crypto czar David Sacks <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zOqyntqzOI">seems to have paved the way</a> for this statement by saying, back in late January, that memecoins resembled something more akin to collectibles than securities.&nbsp;



SEC commissioner and head of the new crypto task force, Hester Peirce, also <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-02-11/most-memecoins-not-under-sec-jurisdiction-peirce-video">said that memecoins</a> don’t fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction in an interview earlier this month.



Why is the SEC’s new stance a mixed bag? Because it now seems more likely that the industry will have to self-regulate, meaning that it’s still open season for memecoins.



The SEC isn’t totally washing its hands of them, noting that any “fraudulent conduct” in relation to the sale or the offer of memecoins is still subject to enforcement actions and prosecution by federal agencies.&nbsp;



But this statement did come at the perfect time: We’re starting to see memecoins slow down naturally, which could point to a focusing of market momentum elsewhere, potentially leaving memecoin hype behind.&nbsp;



My insight is that I think it’s okay to let them operate in their own bubble. We don’t want memecoins taking up so much space, but — bear with me here — I’m not sure I totally see them as something akin to baseball cards. However, I definitely think they’re like slot machines or something more along the lines of a crappy penny stock with no fundamentals. If people want to put their money there, then let them. The trick is to ensure that folks are well aware of the risks.&nbsp;



Now we only have to hope for a flight to higher quality tokens backed by fundamentals, and bam, we’re cooking again.



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It’s not a bear market, just a bull market pullback: Yanowitz

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



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Yesterday, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou posted on X that the platform’s $1.4 billion hack had been caused by “malicious code originating from Safe{Wallet}’s infrastructure.” Solana CEOs had many words, including “<a href="https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1894778195120894054">nightmare</a> season,” “<a href="https://x.com/Austin_Federa/status/1894773418010034411">holy</a> hell,” and “<a href="https://x.com/buffalu__/status/1894771203480400020">holy</a> shit.”



Preliminary reports indicate Safe’s frontend was exploited to trick Bybit into signing a malicious transaction, and Safe’s actual smart contracts appeared to perform as intended. Still, the foul language likely stemmed from the fact that wallets being exploitable gives hackers access to a whole lot of assets — Safe’s smart accounts <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bybit-hack-raises-security-questions">secure over $100 billion</a> in digital assets.&nbsp;



In other words, hackers could go further than Bybit.



Squads, a multisig wallet used by a number of prominent Solana teams including Helium, Kamino, Pyth, Helius, Drift, Jupiter and Ellipsis, is “conducting a comprehensive review of our infrastructure to mitigate the possibility of such an attack,” CEO Stepan Simkin told me.&nbsp;



Simkin emphasized that “high value accounts” need purpose-built wallet solutions because sophisticated hackers can “potentially compromise any frontend.”



The Bybit hackers — whom the FBI has now <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/fbi-says-north-korea-was-responsible-15-billion-bybit-hack-2025-02-27/">accused</a> of being linked to North Korea — injected malicious code into Safe’s JavaScript files to alter Bybit’s multisig transactions and send the funds to the attacker’s address, according to a <a href="https://slowmist.medium.com/bybits-1-5-billion-theft-unveiled-safe-wallet-front-end-code-tampered-84b78f0fa9c2">report</a> from blockchain security firm Slowmist. While the crypto industry puts a lot of effort into auditing smart contracts, it focuses less than it should on “conventional infrastructure” — like leaked Amazon Web Services credentials, which was the culprit in this case, Simkin said.&nbsp;



“JavaScript side hacks are the easiest to execute due to lack of audits,” Cube Exchange CEO Bartosz Lipinski said. “Solana is not immune to that.”



Lipinski said Cube chose multi-party computation over multi-signature for wallet security in part because it prevents “blind signing “ — which Bybit <a href="https://x.com/prasincs/status/1893486874091532432">apparently</a> did.



Simkin said Squads is working on a “decentralized frontend” that would allow users to interact with the protocol without having to rely much on its infrastructure.



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Solana multisig provider conducting ‘comprehensive review’ after Safe exploit

David Canellis

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



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



Humanity clings to mysteries that border on compulsions at this point.&nbsp;



The moon landing — did we actually go, and if we did, is the footage real? And what about the pyramids — built by laborers and farmers, or were those 80-ton granite blocks actually set in place by ancient alien technology?



Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity has fast become another cultural oddity that just won’t quit.&nbsp;



Craig Wright was the ringleader of that particular media circus for years, until <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74x0j47gz8o">courts took action against him</a>. Now that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/craig-wright-is-not-satoshi-nakamoto">Wright is finally proven to be totally wrong</a>, it’s the rest of us that are doomed to be repeatedly punished for the closure.&nbsp;



In the past six months alone, we’ve had multiple fresh attempts at reviving the Nakamoto narrative. First was HBO’s Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, from documentarian Cullen Hoback, and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/26/seeking-satoshi-the-mystery-bitcoin-creator-review-a-documentary-so-thin-it-features-the-creators-mum">new documentary</a> from the UK’s Channel 4 lacked compelling evidence, let alone a tangible theory.



You can read my <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/satoshi-nakamoto-identity-money-electric">thoughts about HBO&#8217;s take</a>, but ultimately it came to the laughable conclusion that long-time Bitcoin contributor Peter Todd was in fact Satoshi, hiding in plain sight.&nbsp;



In between those releases, we were also subjected to <a href="https://x.com/financeguy74/status/1890850549035110558">threads</a> on X, including <a href="https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/1891852538376487327">one</a> from Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, which suggested that tech billionaire Jack Dorsey is the man behind the Nakamoto moniker.



Veteran Bitcoiner Jameson Lopp shared his method of debunking the Dorsey theory during a premiere episode of Supply Shock on Thursday — a <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/onthemargin">brand-new Bitcoin brand and podcast hosted by Bitcoin Historian Pete Rizzo</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeRObx87-gaLxmGoX5AcwisQE-O0gTL4GsZHdoFkPk-f_ZYO7GwJxY4Xn6MzCEDjg9YfDyOTPtbJgdaEkMBlZ_Z4sYxWRcRFXbzABjRwN3CiJOlB2C8d-u4NGI1duxV7Tz3ICy_?key=4y1qKT7jIXjlIuUA4ciMOS8J" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUv2Und8o-s">full episode of Supply Shock on YouTube</a></figcaption></figure>



Lopp had previously <a href="https://blog.lopp.net/hal-finney-was-not-satoshi-nakamoto/">busted</a> an earlier suggestion that Hal Finney was Nakamoto by showing Finney had competed in a 10-mile race in Santa Barbara at the same time Nakamoto was emailing early developer Mike Hearn.&nbsp;



Eventually, Lopp found enough instances, after trawling through Dorsey’s old Twitter posts, where it would have been almost impossible for Dorsey to coordinate a double life as Nakamoto to consider the theory bunk.



“I think a lot of the people who are accused of being Satoshi candidates are Bitcoin legends in their own right,” Lopp told Rizzo.



“Like they don&#8217;t have to be Satoshi — they have contributed in a variety of different ways to being Satoshi in the way that we are all Satoshi, right? It&#8217;s like anyone who contributes to [Bitcoin] is essentially building upon the legacy where Satoshi, you know, left the project open to the world so that anyone who cared could contribute to it.”



If it weren’t obvious by now, here it is: Nobody can ever prove any theory in any case. The only legitimate proof would be to sign a transaction with one of Satoshi’s keys — but even if someone did, we would likely never know for sure how those keys came into their possession — sending us on a never-ending loop of inconclusive proof.



It’s high time we relegate the Satoshi question to the annals of boring normie talking points, like the moon landing and pyramids, and move on.  Speaking of, you won’t see me much around Empire for the foreseeable future. I’m headed on a spirit quest to learn more about this whole Bitcoin thing, I hear it might be a big deal. It’s been a pleasure.



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