Adam Efrima is the SSV Core team Co-founder. He has been active in the crypto industry since 2013. Over eight years living in China working in the financial industry and fintech space, Adam has worked in CITIC Bank covering outbound investments for Chinese SOEs, he was also in charge of setting up the eToro Shanghai operation. Since then, Adam has been deeply involved in Ethereum staking, co-founding top performing staking project Bloxstaking as well as co-founding SSV Network, a decentralized validator infrastructure for ETH staking.

Adam Simmons is Chief Strategy Officer at RDX Works, a key contributor to the Radix public ledger. He has over 13 years of experience in building &amp; growing businesses in a range of industries including online video, blockchain &amp; digital marketing. With experience in both senior leadership &amp; hands-on roles, he has repeatedly recruited, managed, and trained highly successful teams within marketing, customer success and operations functions. Adam is also a previous member of the UK Paralympic Sprint Kayaking Team and has competed in multiple World and European Championships.


Adam Swick is the Chief Growth Officer at Marathon Digital Holdings. Prior to joining Marathon, he served as a principal at Refinery Ventures, where he was responsible for identifying and recommending business strategies to accelerate the growth of all companies in Refinery’s portfolio. Before Refinery, Swick was the director of strategic finance at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, where he managed the company’s balance sheet, debt program, investor relations, and all forecasting activities. Prior to Kraken, he founded Swick Capital, a crypto-asset hedge fund, worked at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. Swick holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Adrian Brink is the co-founder of Namada and Anoma, where he focuses on building privacy-preserving systems that are resilient to global crises. Previously, he was a core developer at Tendermint (Cosmos) and worked at the Web3 Foundation. He also co-founded Cryptium Labs, which was later sold to Chorus One, and Metastate, where he contributed to major upgrades to the Tezos protocol​.

Adrien Stern is the founder &amp; CEO of Reveel, the omnichain payments infrastructure that enables one-click cross-chain payments to connect people across borders and networks. Before founding Reveel, Adrien led digital transformation efforts at BNP Paribas CIB. He was also previously a venture builder, and owns Bridge Music, a record label and recording studio. Adrien has a Bachelor’s degree in Sciences of Management from The University of Lausanne and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Esade. 

Alex Hoffman is Head of Ecosystem at Superposition Finance. Superposition is revolutionizing DeFi by addressing its core challenges through robust risk management powered by Concordia’s best-in-class risk engine, omnichain functionality, and transparency.

Alexei Zamyatin is a co-founder of BOB, a first-of-its-kind hybrid Layer-2 powered by Bitcoin and Ethereum. He has been a Bitcoin and interoperability research contributor since 2015 and is most known for his work on trustless cross-chain bridges and L2s. Alexei holds a PhD in computer science from Imperial College London.


Alison Haire is the CEO and founder of Lilypad, a serverless, decentralized compute network that democratizes access to computational power by providing scalable infrastructure for AI, machine learning and other high-demand processes. Before founding Lilypad, she held roles at companies such as Filecoin, IBM and Accenture. Under her leadership, Lilypad leverages idle GPU capacity worldwide to fuel an open AI economy, providing cost-effective and scalable compute resources. Her work focuses on making high-performance computing accessible to more developers and researchers, while challenging the dominance of large centralized cloud providers​​.

With over 20 years of experience leading and designing games and tech companies, Alun is well-versed in creating innovative products that tackle experiential and developer challenges. In addition to his stewardship of LAOS Network, he is CEO and co-founder of the company building LAOS, Freeverse, which focuses on building scalable blockchain infrastructure. His history as the co-creator of ‘Barcelona World Race - THE GAME,’ a cutting-edge video game enabling virtual participation in real-world events, and his wider passion for gaming, have fed into his vision for LAOS Network as a solution for the intersection of Web3 tech with both gaming and real-world applications. Alun also led Shar3d.io, a pioneering company enabling collaborative 3D web applications, and served as CTO of Bodypal.com, a virtual garment services company. He holds a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from University College London.



Amanda Cassatt is the founder and CEO of Serotonin. Amanda previously served as Chief Marketing Officer of ConsenSys from 2016 through 2019. Joining one year after the launch of Ethereum, Amanda played a crucial role in defining, creating, and growing the narrative for ConsenSys, Ethereum, and blockchain overall.

Amanda stewarded the ConsenSys brand through its global expansion across enterprises, governments, developers, and consumers. She created and scaled the marketing team to over 50 people, serving both the ConsenSys brand and 50+ portfolio companies such as MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, and Gitcoin; managing teams in product marketing, growth, design, content, community, events, email, analytics and SEO. Amanda’s contributions to some of the most successful product launches, token sales and fundraises landed her on Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016. Amanda is the author of the world's first web3 marketing book, Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution.

Amanda Keleher currently serves as Chief People Officer at Consensys, one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the blockchain technology space. A well-rounded business leader with an over 25-year career in the technology space, Amanda is the driving force behind the human element of Consensys where she is responsible for overseeing all of the aspects of people, from building and maintaining the company culture to harnessing human capital as a key driver of business. 

Before joining ConsenSys, Amanda served as the Head of People at ThoughtWorks, a global technology consultancy company, for nearly ten years, where she led the global scale expansion by opening offices around the world and recruiting a diverse workforce at a time when the DevOps movement had just been born and a new skill set were yet to be developed. After her time at ThoughWorks, she served as the Executive Vice President, People &amp; Culture of Index Exchange, one of the world’s premier ad tech organizations; and as VP of People at Little Bits and Intent Media where she excelled in designing effective and creative strategies to attract and retain world-class talent in hyper competitive environments

Andrea Berry is a seasoned online video strategist with 15+ years of experience in transformative media partnerships. 

Her early successes include helping to launch Qello Concerts, the first direct-to-consumer live-music OTT service, later transforming it into Qello Media Services and Vimeo’s OTT channels offering across various industries as their first strategic sales director for their enterprise.

Currently, as the Head of Business Development at Theta Labs, Andrea leverages her expertise in online video and blockchain to drive strategic partnerships and growth opportunities for the company. She helps enterprises take advantage and lean into the opportunities Web3 presents. 

Andrew Redden is the CEO and CTO of Last Network, a blockchain platform focused on sustainable cash flow and reinvestment. Previously, he worked at Gitcoin and has contributed to numerous DeFi and Web3 projects. Redden's career reflects a commitment to developing technologies that prioritize long-term viability and community engagement​.

Andrew Thurman is a Data Editor based in Washington, DC. He previously wrote for CoinDesk and Cointelegraph, and worked in various roles for Chainlink and Nansen. His analysis has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, Reuters, The BBC, CNBC, and elsewhere. Contact Andrew at andrew@blockworks.co.

Andrey Sergeenkov writes educational articles as a freelancer. His works have been published in Coindesk, Cointelegraph, Entrepreneur and CoinMarketCap. He believes that transforming society towards lifelong learning, combined with decentralization in government and business, will lead to exponential social development.

Andy Bromberg is CEO of Beam and Contributor to the Eco Protocol. Eco has raised more than $90 million from an array of leading investors, including a16z Crypto, L Catterton, Activant Capital, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and others. Prior to Eco, Andy was Co-founder and President of CoinList. Andy is also a founding board member at FreeWorld, a non-profit seeking to end institutionalized poverty in the United States by providing access to living-wage jobs for people with criminal histories. He studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford University and co-founded the Stanford Bitcoin Group.

An established and versatile Financial Executive with over two decades of experience running multiple trading businesses across top-level banks such as HSBC, Barclays, and UBS. After running the top Agency and SSA business for both UBS and Barclays, he took over Emerging Markets macro trading for Barclays. In 2018, wanting to go deeper into Emerging Markets he took a role as Head of Latam local markets trading where he was responsible for trading activities across Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. In 2021 DeMartino moved into Crypto when he became CEO and founder of Coinbase Risk Strategies focused on DeFi and Derivatives trading. More recently he started Trident Digital Group, a crypto-native solutions firm that is focused on lending and safe yield generation and stablecoin adoption.


Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. Earlier, he worked in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs &amp; Co.

In 2022, Scaramucci was ranked #47 in Cointelegraph’s Top 100 Influencers in Crypto and Blockchain. In 2016, he was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst &amp; Young’s New York Financial Services “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award.  Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a board member of the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation. He is the author of five books.

Scaramucci served on President Donald J. Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, and in 2017 briefly served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank and White House Communications Director.

Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Antoni is a co-founder of Aleph Zero Foundation (Switzerland), an organization overseeing the development of the Aleph Zero blockchain, and a Managing Partner of Cardinal Cryptography (Poland), firm focused on core development of the Aleph Zero ecosystem.

Ari Juels is the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor in the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion and a Computer Science faculty member at Cornell University. He is a Co-Director of the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3). He is also Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs. He is the author of crypto thriller novel The Oracle (Talos Press), which was released on 20 February 2024.

Austin Alexander is co-founder of LayerTwo Labs, a company focused on advancing the Bitcoin ecosystem through innovative solutions and specializing in the development of Drivechain, a specific type of blockchain sidechain designed to foster creativity and scalability within Bitcoin.

Austin Campbell is the founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School. Previously, he has run portfolio management at Paxos for the stablecoins as well as being the chief risk officer of Paxos National Trust, has managed fixed income trading desks at JP Morgan and Citi, and has been a portfolio manager and structurer at Stone Ridge, the parent of NYDIG. He holds a BS in Mathematics from CSU Chico and a MBA from NYU Stern.

Ben Mills is the co-founder of Meso, a payments platform connecting banks and blockchains. Prior to Meso, Ben spent a decade building payments products as an early team member at Braintree (acquired by PayPal), as Head of Product at Venmo, and working on Solana Pay at Solana Labs.

Ben Rubin is the CEO and co-founder of Towns, a decentralized messaging platform dedicated to redefining online communication. Rubin has a rich background and a decade of experience in creating digital spaces that build trust and foster human connection. Prior to founding Here Not There Labs, the developer of Towns, Ben founded two venture-backed startups, Meerkat and Houseparty, both of which reimagined how people interact digitally. He scaled his communication products to hundreds of millions of users and raised over $70M in funding from Sequoia Capital and Greylock. After Houseparty was acquired by Epic Games in 2019, Ben went on to found Here Not There Labs, a venture-backed startup with over $30M in funding from a16z crypto and Benchmark Capital.

Ben Strack is a senior reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and DeFi into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism.

Contact Ben via email at ben@blockworks.co

Bessie is a Brooklyn-based reporter covering DeFi and technology. Bessie worked as a tech journalist for The Org prior to joining Blockworks and was a management consultant for KPMG in another life. She is originally from Melbourne, Australia and holds an MA from New York University. She is also the mother of a bratty cat named Mochi. You can reach Bessie at bessie@blockworks.co

Bezalel Eithan Raviv, an ex-member of IDF Cyber Unit 8200, is a seasoned entrepreneur with deep expertise in technology and innovation. He now leads Lionsgate Network, a blockchain analysis firm specializing in professional money recovery services for digital asset investors in the +$2.5 trillion market. Prior to this role, Bezalel founded an investment banking firm supporting AI startups and developed Halleluiah, a pioneering web3 migration pattern for global music copyrights.

Billy Luedtke is the CEO and founder of Intuition, an information protocol powering a more trustful internet. Billy previously served as senior technology advisor at EY, a leading global professional services organization providing assurance, tax, audit, strategy and transactions. At EY, Billy created the company’s blockchain consulting practice, leading the technical development of blockchain-enabled distributed systems. Billy later became a senior token engineer at Consensys, a leading Ethereum developer (MetaMask, Infura, Linea). Billy continues to serve as an advisor at Consensys and MetaMask.

Billy Sebell is the Executive Director of the XDC Foundation and an early contributor to the XDC Network. Since early 2018, Billy has worked to develop the XDC community, focused on ecosystem and network growth and implementing use cases in trade finance. Billy previously spent more than 25 years in manufacturing and consumer products, dealing with the challenges businesses face in capital markets and international trade.

Bob Bodily is the Provo, Utah-based CEO and Co-Founder of Bioniq, a BTC Ordinals wallet and marketplace. He has a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and a Ph.D. in educational/instructional technology from Brigham Young University, with 25 articles and 1K citations. He is a data engineer with 100K+ lines of production Python code, and he has two previous software startups, including an EdTech SaaS that sold in 2021.


Bogdan is the Co-Founder and CTO of Tenderly, the full-stack infrastructure solutions provider powering Web3 developer teams with the essential tools and services throughout their development journeys. 

Prior to co-founding Tenderly, Bogdan worked as a software engineer for major software platforms such as MVP Workshop and Go Daddy where he was responsible for constructing and managing the development of distributed cloud systems before realizing the lack of infrastructural support for Web3 developers. With his vast experience in constructing, expanding, and overseeing extensive distributed cloud systems, he is well-versed in the intricacies of blockchain technologies and their practical applications. 

Brandon Truong is lead product contributor for ZetaChain. He previously co-founded social platform Yada (which was acquired in 2020) and spent time building products for BuzzFeed and Udacity. 


 Brian Pak is CEO &amp; Co-Founder of ChainLight, an award-winning blockchain security firm that specializes in smart contract audits and on-chain monitoring. He is also a co-founder of Theori, an established US-based offensive cybersecurity company, since 2016, which he still leads today, having now amassed trusted partners including Microsoft, Google and Samsung. Brian’s early career started when he co-founded and developed Kaprica Security, inventing and patenting the Skorpion Charger, an Android mobile charger that can detect malicious software with no user action required. He has worked on research and development projects with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US. Brian is also a founder of the team PPP (Plaid Parliament of Pwning) which won DEF CON CTF, one of the most prestigious hacker competitions held in Las Vegas, in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Brian graduated with a Masters Degree in Software Security Research from Carnegie Mellon University.

Three years ago, his act of burning a physical Banksy ignited global discourse on NFTs and Web3, exposing the industry's flaws. Now, through XION, founder Burnt Banksy leads a mission to democratize Web3 to the masses, making ownership accessible to all by removing unnecessary barriers and complications through chain abstraction. To date: XION has raised over $36M in funding with the goal of "making crypto disappear." Ultimately, Burnt Banksy wants to provide the benefits of crypto to people without requiring them to know anything about crypto.

Byron Donalds grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and he is also the proud son of a hardworking and loving single mother. His mother dedicated her time instilling in him that greatness requires sacrifice, which drives him as a devoted family man and United States Congressman.  

Byron is a graduate of Florida State University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance and marketing. Byron's career led him to Southwest Florida, where he worked in the banking, finance, and insurance industries. Elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2016, Byron represented Hendry County and east Collier County in the State Capitol. During his tenure in the Florida House, Byron served as the PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee Chair during the 2018-2019 Legislative Session and served as the Insurance &amp; Banking Subcommittee's Chairman 2019-2020 Legislative Session. While serving in the Florida House, primarily focused on elder affairs, criminal justice reform, and ensuring that each child has access to a world-class education. 

Byron is committed to serving and giving back to the community that gave him so much. He has served Southwest Florida in many ways, including previously serving on the Board of Trustees for Florida Southwestern State College after being appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott. Byron continues to volunteer in his church as a youth leader and a mentor. He also enjoys volunteering as a coach in youth football and basketball leagues.

Congressman Byron Donalds lives in Naples, Florida, with his wife, Erika, and their three sons: Damon, Darin, and Mason. Byron has spent his entire adult life serving others, whether it be through volunteering, business, or leadership. He is committed to representing Florida's 19th Congressional District's conservative values in Washington DC to ensure a stronger Florida and a stronger nation.

Byron Gilliam writes the Blockworks Daily newsletter, in which he tries to explain crypto markets to traditional investors and traditional markets to crypto investors (while trying to explain both to himself). Before joining Blockworks, Byron spent 25 years trading international equities for banks and brokers in Frankfurt, London, Paris and New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in History from Binghamton University. Contact Byron at byron@blockworks.co.

Cameron B. Pick is a partner and patent attorney at the Chicago-based intellectual property boutique law firm Marshall, Gerstein &amp; Borun. He prosecutes patents for emerging technologies, including blockchain and crypto, among other innovative areas. He may be reached at cpick@marshallip.com. 

Candace Kelly is the Chief Legal and Policy Officer for the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world's financial infrastructure. She leads the team responsible for SDF’s legal affairs and the policy team that is focused on bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. Previously, Candace worked for Uber Technologies, Inc., where she helped navigate the company’s response to regulatory investigations and advised on safety, security, privacy, consumer protection, and law enforcement response. Prior to that she served for 17 years at the United States Department of Justice.

Carlos Mercado is a data scientist at Flipside Crypto, specializing in the convergence of data science, cryptocurrency, economics, and open-source research. His expertise spans the Ethereum ecosystem and over 20 other blockchains, where he leverages SQL, R, Python, and Solidity to develop innovative data models and analytics tools. Carlos's notable contributions include the creation of the True Freeze DeFi primitive and leading the production of the 2023 Crypto Users Report, generating significant industry impact. Prior to Flipside, he applied his skills in AI strategy and product development at Guidehouse and offered data science consulting services.


​​Casey Wagner is a Senior Reporter based in New York. Casey covers crypto regulation, markets and central banks. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on macroeconomics at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies. Contact Casey via email at casey@blockworks.co

Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure.

His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups – Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and IOHK – and he has held a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors. He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013.

His current projects focus on educating people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream. This includes leading the research, design and development of Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in September 2017.

Chris Barrett serves as the Director of Communications at Chainlink Labs and has been involved with Chainlink since 2017. Chainlink is the only on-chain data and cross-chain platform that enables financial institutions to develop customized, flexible, compliant, and future-proof blockchain applications and tokenized assets. Before this role, he founded a leading PR agency for technology startups, where he worked with over 1,000 innovative companies. Chris is also an avid runner, having maintained a streak of running for over five consecutive years. 

Chris Brooks founded CryptoAssetRecovery.com in 2017 to help digital asset owners recover lost assets. Chris was a programmer at Fidelity Investments, VP of Technology at venture-backed Carescout (which sold to GenWorth, a spinoff of General Electric) and has founded and sold three bootstrapped internet companies. 

Chris Swenor is a seasoned entrepreneur and blockchain pioneer with a 20-year career that kicked off as a self-taught programmer at age 13. He swiftly moved from corporate roles into startups, leading several to successful acquisitions. Chris started venturing into blockchain and cryptocurrency in 2013, founding Reach in 2019, a platform that has since attracted over $13M in funding and onboarded more than 8,000 developers.

In recent years, Chris founded Humble, a decentralized exchange on Algorand, and Alloy, a blockchain gaming platform acquired in 2023. He is currently working on Voi Network, a layer 1 blockchain empowering its community with user-centric governance and economics. 

Christopher Perkins is President of CoinFund, a web3 focused Registered Investment Advisor.  He is also a member of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee and its Digital Asset Markets Subcommittee.

Ciarán Murray is a seasoned veteran of the blockchain industry. Aside from advising on numerous blockchain projects over the years, and releasing a synthetics assets proof-of-concept last year, Ciarán previously worked in the media industry for British Sky Broadcasting. He is not only well placed to understand the issues facing the media industry but also how to apply blockchain and other distributed technologies to remedy them.

Da Hongfei is the founder of Neo, an open-source, community-driven blockchain platform designed to welcome developers into the Smart Economy. Hongfei operates as CEO of Neo Global Development (NGD), the executive arm of the Neo Foundation that is committed to developing the Neo protocol and its supporting ecosystem. He is seen as a luminary in the Web3 space and as a blockchain pioneer in Asia. Hongfei received his education at the South China University of Technology, receiving degrees in technology and English.

Damian Alvarez is a communications professional helping Web3 clients get their stories heard. He is currently the Head of Communications at Aori, an omni-chain logic layer that leverages off-chain data storage to enable high-frequency on-chain trading. He has worked at agencies such as Edelman and YAP Global to assist a variety of emerging and established clients to engage in industry-wide narratives surrounding technology. He may be contacted at damian@aori.io.

Dan Keeler is Editor-in-Chief at Blockworks. Prior to joining Blockworks, he was Frontier Markets Editor at the Wall Street Journal where he managed the Journal’s coverage of smaller emerging markets as well as created a number of high-profile events and a highly regarded newsletter. Before joining the WSJ, he was the Editor of Global Finance magazine. He is also the founder of New York’s FM Network, a group that hosts gatherings of finance professionals focused on smaller emerging markets.

Contact Dan via email at dan@blockworks.co

Dan Smith is a Senior Research Analyst based in the United States covering Curve, Convex, Aave, and Compound. Daniel previously worked in tax and valuation at EY and Bennett Thrasher. He is focused on using data visualization tools to better understand the health and profitability of various DeFi protocols. Contact Dan at daniel@blockworks.co

Daniel Batten is a ClimateTech investor, Bitcoin environmental impact analyst, CEO advisor and author. He is most widely known for his data-driven approach to Bitcoin mining research.


Daniel Cawrey has been involved full-time in the crypto space since 2013, including as an editor at CoinDesk. He is author of 2020’s “Mastering Blockchain” and 2023’s “Understanding Crypto” books, both available on Amazon.

Daranee Ganesh is a publishing and production manager based in Washington, DC. She holds an LLB with a focus on emerging technologies. Prior to Blockworks, Daranee worked on several legal and non-profit projects aimed at integrating decentralized solutions in the social justice framework, specifically within immigration and environmental law. Contact Daranee at daranee@blockworks.co.

Darren Kleine is an Alberta-based reporter covering podcast content at Blockworks. Previously reporting for Cointelegraph, he wrote feature content and a weekly series focused on the personal stories of influential figures in the Web3 space. He has been an active participant in the NFT art scene since 2020, creating works on curated platforms including SuperRare and KnownOrigin and hosting an NFT art-focused podcast called NFP with DKleine. Contact Darren Kleine at darren@blockworks.co.

David is an Editor based in the Netherlands focused on data-driven journalism. Previously, he wrote for TheNextWeb's crypto vertical before launching Protos in 2021. He's a reformed hardline Bitcoiner passionate about permissionless and decentralized networks. Contact David at david@blockworks.co

David Schwed serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Halborn, an elite blockchain security firm. Prior to Halborn, he was the Global Head of Digital Assets Technology at BNY Mellon, the world's biggest custodian bank, where he integrated the IT strategy for the company's digital asset services. David was also CISO for Galaxy Digital, where he led the development of information security and IT infrastructure, and served as a risk committee advisor, evaluating emerging threats in financial services. He also founded the Cybersecurity Master's Program at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health, sharing his expertise as a practitioner-in-residence.


Delphine Forma is the policy lead for Europe &amp; UK at Solidus Labs, a leading market compliance and market integrity firm in digital assets. With a career spanning roles in major banks and blockchain ventures, she brings extensive experience in compliance and legal across sectors. She is the founder of the crypto compliance and legal TG group with 1,400 members. A Sciences Po Lyon alumna, Delphine also holds advanced degrees in European Criminal Business Law and anti-money laundering.

Denelle Dixon is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting changemakers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. She leads the teams that help maintain Stellar's codebase, support the communities around Stellar, and advocate on behalf of the network with international stakeholders. Before joining Stellar, Dixon served as COO of Mozilla, one of the most successful mission-driven open-source organizations.. During her tenure at Mozilla, she led the organization’s business, revenue and policy teams including the ongoing fight for net neutrality and the global effort to ensure that people can control their personal data.

Dermot O’Riordan serves as a Director at the POKT Network Foundation where he helps steer product development and strategy. From Ireland to Silicon Valley, Dermot’s career ranged from advising tech companies and VC firms to leading marquee industry events. His interest in Web3 was sparked in 2016 with the rise of DAOs, leading him to dive deeper into the blockchain space, where he served as an advisor to projects like Radix and Dusk, and later, spearheading growth at Eden Block.

Donovan is a reporter based in Singapore. He previously worked in editorial at Bankless and is a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns and the Wu-Tang Clan. Contact Donovan at donovan@blockworks.co.

Elena leads product marketing at Hiro Systems, a developer tooling company bringing smart contracts to Bitcoin. She has spent the past six years working in blockchain and cryptocurrency startups. Elena co-founded Blockchain Latinx, an online community that explores what blockchain means for Latinos and for Latin America. She has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Eli Cohen is a corporate lawyer with 25+ years of experience in commercial transactions, financial services and regulatory matters and has worked in Asia, Europe and the United States. He is the General Counsel for Centrifuge, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and securitization platform and Chief Compliance Officer for Anemoy Capital SPC Limited a British Virgin Islands fund company issuer of the tokenized Anemoy Liquid Treasury Fund 1. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Eli Zeger writes about democracy and its relationship with technology. His work has been published in the Boston Review, Noema Magazine, Strange Matters, Zora Zine, among numerous other publications.

Elliot is the Head of Climate Strategy at Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol, where he is helping unlock Bitcoin's clean energy potential by bridging sustainable miners and climate-conscious investors. In his role at Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol, Elliot educates policymakers and NGOs on Bitcoin’s relationship with the energy system. He is a climatetech operator focused on alleviating energy poverty, bridging the digital divide, and promoting financial inclusion through technologies such as Bitcoin. Elliot was previously a Schwarzman Scholar and has served in the military, US Department of Energy, Clinton Foundation, and more. 

Evan Thomas is General Counsel for Alluvial, a software development company supporting the Liquid Collective liquid staking protocol. He was previously at Wealthsimple, Canada’s largest consumer fintech, where he was Head of Legal for Wealthsimple’s crypto trading platform. While at Wealthsimple, Evan helped launch Canada’s first regulated staking product. Before Wealthsimple, Evan was a litigator at Osler, Hoskin &amp; Harcourt LLP for nearly 15 years. Among other notable cases, Evan was hearing counsel to 3iQ Corp. in its appeal securing regulatory approval for Canada’s first publicly traded bitcoin fund in 2019.

Felix Jauvin is the host of the On the Margin podcast. Based in British Columbia, Canada, he lives and breathes where crypto and macroeconomics intersect.

Felix Xu, crypto geek, early adopter, and NFT collector. Felix graduated from NYU Stern and founded two crypto projects, ARPA and Bella Protocol, among the global top 500 by market cap. Felix previously worked at Fosun Investment, Sackler family office, and Vertical Research in New York and Beijing. Felix loves sailing, kitesurfing and was featured in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for his NFT collection.

Frank has a diverse career that spans creative writing, day trading, and a 12-year stint in financial planning. After experimenting with blockchain and being an early adapter to the Solana ecosystem, Mathis co-founded GenesysGo in 2021 to create a faster, more reliable and more secure decentralized data storage protocol. Their flagship product, shdwDrive is built on Solana and aims to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and traditional business infrastructure. GenesysGo is powered by a new type of decentralized data storage consensus mechanism, built from the ground up by the GenesysGo team.

Fraser is co-founder &amp; CTO of Cubist and an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She is an expert in software correctness: her research focuses on systems security, automated bug finding, and formal verification, from verifying (parts of) production systems like browser JITs, to finding exploitable bugs in real codebases. Her tools have found many zero-day bountied bugs and CVEs in the Chrome and Firefox browsers and multiple operating systems. Fraser received her BA in English and her MS and PhD in Computer Science from Stanford.


Garrett Harper is the producer for the Empire podcast. Garrett worked in private equity and product management before jumping into crypto full-time in 2021. His favorite thing about crypto? It conflates art, gaming, finance, software, and psychology into one hyper-growth industry.

Gijs op de Weegh is the CEO and Founder of StablR, where he leads the strategy, business operations, and investor relations. He founded StablR out of his passion for implementing blockchain technology in the financial industry and exploring its possibilities. Before founding StablR, Gijs co-founded Payvision, an e-commerce payment service provider, in 2002. Under his leadership, Payvision grew to over 300 employees and achieved a turnover exceeding €4 billion.

Gísli Kristjánsson is co-founder and CTO of Monerium, the first company to issue fiat onchain. He fell in love with programming at the age of 13. After working as a bonds broker, Gísli saw the inefficiencies of securities settlements firsthand and recognized the potential of Bitcoin. Prior to co-founding Monerium in 2015, Gísli founded and sold a platform to give users access to geo-blocked content. Fun fact: Gísli’s Ethereum address is among the 1% of the oldest addresses.

Haden Patrick is Director of Business Operations of Cordial Systems, a provider of institutional-grade self custody software using a Zero Trust security model.  Haden has executive experience in team leadership, engineering and education originating from his 24 year career as a Naval Officer. After co-founding SoloKeys, the first open-source security key company, he went on to manage projects connecting web3 to traditional finance at a cryptocurrency trading firm before joining Cordial Systems.

Hadley Stern, Advisor to MPCH, has extensive experience in leadership roles within TradFi and digital asset industries. As Global Head of Custody at the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) from 2021 to 2023, Hadley spearheaded the creation of the industry’s first bank-grade crypto-custody platform. Hadley also previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Bloq where he was responsible for the P&amp;L, product roadmap, and general operations. Hadley was Founding President of Fidelity Digital Asset Services where he led Fidelity's Blockchain Incubator and Digital Currency group and was pivotal in early product launches, including activating Bitcoin donations to Fidelity Charitable and building and running Fidelity first Bitcoin mining Operation.



Hannah Finnerty is Blockworks' editorial operations manager and is based in the US. Hannah previously worked in podcast production for The National in Abu Dhabi. She graduated from Bowling Green State University with a degree in multiplatform journalism and Middle Eastern politics. Contact Hannah at hannah@blockworks.co.

Hatu Sheikh is the co-founder and CMO of DAO Maker, the largest on-chain funding platform with 1.5M+ users. The platform's contracts have distributed over $600M, with a cumulative return of around 10x. Hatu has a strong background in marketing and strategy and has played a pivotal role in driving the success of various blockchain-based projects and tokens, crafting effective marketing strategies, and forging powerful synergies within the industry.

Harry Duckworth, a law graduate, embarked on a unique journey that led him to become the youngest trader at global commodities giant Trafigura. He then went on to set up desks for several hedge funds worldwide, accumulating over a decade of experience in trading, hedge funds, and emergent technologies. 

Through his work, he became fascinated by the revolutionary power of blockchain tech soon after the inception of Bitcoin. Years later he founded AgriDex International, to provide digital marketplaces and supply chain information for all participants in the global food chain. 

Hind Kurhan is a Co-Founder of Thesis Defense, a decentralized technology security auditing company whose mission is the facilitation of broad adoption of decentralized technology by improving security and audit consistency throughout the blockchain sphere.


Ian Rogers is the Chief Experience Officer at Ledger, leading the consumer-facing business delivering the world’s #1 way to buy and secure cryptocurrency.  Prior, Ian was the Chief Digital Officer at LVMH for five transformative years, working with a portfolio of nearly one hundred brands across luxury including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora, and Hennessy.  Ian also sits on the boards of Dr Marten’s and Lyst.

Ian spent twenty years bringing digital music to the mainstream, first with Winamp then Yahoo!, Beats, and Apple.  Ian contributed to the 2015 launch of Apple Music including Beats 1, their digital streaming channel. Ian graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science (with honors, Phi Beta Kappa) from Indiana University in 1994.  Ian built some of the earliest music-related Web sites in the early 90s and has been working with Beastie Boys since 1993.

Igor Telyatnikov is the CEO and co-founder of the blockchain and financial services technology company AlphaPoint. Headquartered in New York, AlphaPoint supports over 10 million users, powering marketplaces and wallets in over 35 countries. With 15 years of experience in tech and innovation, Igor has empowered over 150 clients, including CME Group and Scotiabank. In 2022, he partnered with the Government of El Salvador to upgrade its Chivo Wallet into a national Bitcoin and dollar wallet, creating the first nationalized crypto ecosystem. Igor previously held roles at Cvetlo, LiftDNA, and Ingersoll Rand/Allegion, and has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Penn State University. He is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Ishan is a University of Texas McCombs School of Business graduate with a BBA in Finance &amp; Marketing. He founded and managed a Private Equity Fund that reached an eight-figure Assets Under Management (AUM) and has also gained experience with many top 200 projects of crypto market cap. In 2022, he helped found SCRIB3, a Web3 Marketing and PR venture. He was notably among the first to raise an alert about potential deceptive and unethical business practices by FTX. Ishan contributes as a DeFi analyst, an active angel investor, and an advisor in projects like Polygon Technologies.

Jack Kubinec is a Solana ecosystem reporter based in Brooklyn, New York. Jack previously interned at Blockworks before joining full-time. He graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a degree in sociology. Contact Jack at jack.kubinec@blockworks.co.

Jag is the CEO and co-founder of re.al, an L2 build to facilitate deep onchain liquidity for tokenized RWAs. re.al seeks to redefine how RWAs are integrated into DeFi, using yield-generating real-world assets as novel building blocks in existing DeFi primitives.

James Cirrone is a breaking news reporter based in New York. Prior to joining Blockworks, James was a reporter and newsletter writer at Bloomberg News. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. He also played trumpet in the university’s marching band. Contact James via email at james.cirrone@blockworks.co.

Jason Allegrante is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at Fireblocks. He is an experienced Counsel with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry with both large, traditional financial institutions as well as early stage fintech startups.



Jason Dehni is the co-founder and group CEO of Credbull, a leading DeFi platform offering structured high fixed yield solutions in SME private credit. Jason has over 25 years of senior management experience in asset management, private banking, SME lending, insurance, risk management, and crypto across North America, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. His background includes serving as group COO &amp; MENA CEO of a publicly traded crypto asset management company, co-founder &amp; CEO of an SME trade finance platform, and senior leadership roles in asset management, wealth management,  insurance, and management consulting. Jason holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an Honours BA in Economics &amp; Political Science from the University of Toronto. 

Jean-Marie Mognetti is Chief Executive Officer of CoinShares, a publicly listed investment firm that manages over five billion in digital assets on behalf of a global investor base, and an experienced commodities trader with a background in quantitative strategies. A veteran of the Global Advisors group of companies since 2011, Jean-Marie has served in various leadership roles throughout his tenure, most recently as CEO of Global Advisors (Jersey) Limited and director of GABI, the world’s first regulated Bitcoin fund. In addition to his management responsibilities as CEO, Jean-Marie oversees the firm’s proprietary trading arm, capital markets portfolio, and risk management practices – areas in which he has developed unique expertise over his career. Prior to joining Global Advisors, Jean-Marie was a quantitative strategist with Hermes Commodities Fund Managers, and an Energy Trader Assistant at Lehman Brothers. He holds Master of Science degrees in Mathematical Trading and Finance from Sir John Cass Business School in London, and Bank-Finance-Insurance from Université Paris Dauphine in Paris, in addition to a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Finance from Université Paris Dauphine.

Jeff is an editor at Blockworks, based in the United States. He has been a part of the blockchain space for over a decade, most recently working as US news editor at Cointelegraph. His areas of focus include empowering artists and creators through technology, using proof-of-participation methods to reward self-improvement, reducing the effectiveness of Sybil attacks, seeking transparent equity for disadvantaged communities, and exploring fairer models of world governance. Contact Jeff at Jeffrey@blockworks.co.

Jesper Johansen is the founder and CEO of NORTHSTAKE, a regulated custodial staking company specialized in building regulatory compliant crypto staking products for institutional investors and financial institutions. The team holds backgrounds from financial institutions, pension funds, large investment companies to consulting, technology and audit firms, such as Accenture, Deloitte, PwC as well as blockchain and crypto projects e.g. DAI Foundation (MakerDao), Ethereum and L1/L2s. 

Prior to NORTHSTAKE, Jesper held leadership positions with Accenture Strategy and Deloitte Consulting advising clients in heavily regulated industries to implement new technologies and drive business transformation. He holds a MBA from Copenhagen Business School and a B.Sc. in International Business. 

Jess is the CEO of Reown, the onchain UX platform and builders of the WalletConnect Network. Previously she led Crypto at Checkout.com, a global fintech company. Jess was also a member of the Bank of England CBDC Engagement Forum and a member of UK Finance New Digital Money Steering Group, Innovate Finance Fintech Strategy Group and Department for International Trade Fintech Group.

Jess Sun is an independent writer and content strategist. She loves bringing good ideas to light, helping the people behind them shine, and bridging gaps in understanding. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn. Go to her website to learn about working with her.

Jesse Knutson is the head of operations at Bitfinex Securities, where he is responsible for expanding the platform’s issuance pipeline, overseeing distribution and building its user base while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Prior to this role, Knutson served as vice president of financial products at Blockstream, and held roles at prominent investment banks including Macquarie Group and Barclays.

Jim Myers is an engineer, early-stage investor, and the CTO &amp; Co-Founder of Flipside Crypto, a leading blockchain data analytics and business intelligence platform. Prior to co-founding Flipside, Jim developed the core technology that took products from 0 to 1 at companies such as Mylestone, Pluralsight, and Smarterer. Jim’s journey into the crypto industry began in 2015, eventually co-founding Flipside Crypto in 2017 to help empower crypto communities to create and share data-driven insights on the projects they care most about. Jim's passion for building extends to the broader startup community via his developer event series, Stack Dive, and as an angel investor to several local Boston-area startups, including AdHawk and LinkSquares. In a previous life, Jim developed advanced models to quantify risk and abnormal returns in the market for Financial Transmission Rights, a type of energy derivative.

JJ is an advisor, mentor and co-founder working across Bitcoin, mining and web3. He currently mentors for Outlier Ventures new Bitcoin Base Camp program and has co-founded a new protocol operating in stealth mode.

Joey is ranked by Chambers and Partners as one of the top 12 lawyers in the world, advising many of the largest platforms around the globe in the space. He co-chaired the Gibraltar Government’s working group on Blockchain for 3 years, which was established to develop the infrastructure to accommodate a DLT regulatory framework. Joey is also a specialist consultant to the United Nations and trains and assesses authorities primarily around South East Asia in virtual asset developments, DeFi and regulation. He is a member of several think tanks including the prestigious global ‘Wharton Reg@Tech’ initiative, the Blockchain Industry Parliamentary Roundtable on Blockchain Technologies at Parliament in the UK, and also contributed to the UK Law Society on the Blockchain Legal and Regulatory Guidance publication. He was the Xapo Representative on the Libra/Diem Association and has also contributed to various stablecoin and CBDC developments. 

Joeyz Yu is an entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in product design and development. He co-founded Sending Labs to revolutionize communication protocols and social applications for Web3, leading the development of their flagship products SendingMe and SendingNetwork. Previously, Joeyz co-founded MoboTab, where he created the Dolphin Browser, used by over 200 million users and later acquired by ChangYou. Joeyz's passion for empowering users and building exceptional teams drives his mission to shape the future of the internet. 

Donovan Choy

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



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



I’m a Firefox user. I say that with pride and shame.



Pride because I’ve stayed loyal to a browser that once upon a time was the “cool” alternative to Internet Explorer.



Shame because I know the world has moved on to Chrome.&nbsp;



The irony is that despite my “loyalty” to Firefox, it only exists thanks to Chrome.



85% of the Mozilla Foundation’s revenue ($570 million) comes from a revenue-sharing agreement with Google, where Mozilla takes a share of ad revenue generated by Google searches from Firefox users.



Google also pays out billions to OEMs like Samsung, Motorola and AT&amp;T to ensure Chrome (and Google Search) is preinstalled on their hardware devices.



It’s the price Google pays for maintaining the browser’s dominant (~70%) market share.



It was also always the plan. During Chrome’s 2008 launch, Sundar Pichai <a href="https://www.promarket.org/2024/08/08/chrome-is-the-forgotten-fulcrum-of-googles-dominance/">stated</a> upfront that Google’s core business depends on dominating the browser market.



If Google doesn’t control the browser market, less people are Googling, which means less ad revenue.&nbsp;



In other words, it all comes down to owning the end user.



Now Chrome’s decades-long dominance may be facing its first-ever serious competitive threat.



A slew of AI-first browsers, notably Perplexity’s recently-announced <a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/comet">Comet</a>, are looking to reinvent the browser experience.



Based on all the information our browsers know about us — our history, bookmarks, credentials, web behavior — AI-first browsers like Comet can become an “active participant” and “embedded” part of our workflows, Delphi’s Can Gurel <a href="https://www.delphiintelligence.io/research/browser-wars-got-personal?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=Browserwarsintel#browser-war-iii">pointed out</a> in “Browser Wars Got Personal.”



If a browser-integrated AI agent can find and make restaurant reservations for me, I no longer need Google.&nbsp;



Again, it comes down to owning the end user.



Crypto isn’t an exception to this rule. A similar phenomenon is playing out in Solana’s memecoin land.



Of late, Pump has been losing market share to LetsBonk — putting out $229 million in trading volumes compared to LetsBonk’s $1.1 billion in the last week.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfCuPzytdbx_b4N5rZEUZK5ox4wWg8sFLY3GJfZl0a3Nml73wQcbiO_PwGG-B6gwBuV6QGUwFy75KY5hBeKB_DWTLC6x6SIOdOanXkmHrFLbgDKEdOGUjloOqVB9leBBQ8FxL5t?key=Wntvl5Sn4L_8fKC76FtKdw" alt=""/></figure>



Pump’s revenues have seen a steep decline.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc8x2owpsoec1PgL32U8aCeRhupEAT4B8s0a-tuFFwYk9PY0-6Mkx60Bh-W7INz9kX_0J7QjF8WkS_u0YLl2wm6b5peIOGsfbR2dL-R1-v8IfL5OHNBuTUNnuAA-v78Ykx8CxTRpg?key=Wntvl5Sn4L_8fKC76FtKdw" alt=""/></figure>



Yet while order-flow volumes are bouncing between Pump and LetsBONK, it doesn’t affect the revenues of the dominant trading bot Axiom.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdvO9PyG9i4gpLBhIoB838V_VvcIOxkA0V1aZgQ1j5ivftgIG56NNBJ7JnsoUob9GjMzngD5I27n2fPx6C4lka-OVGcIjmhXAZw88X1s51Q6jZH70ZVi4r3fdaR8sx3udndKIEngw?key=Wntvl5Sn4L_8fKC76FtKdw" alt=""/></figure>



That’s because while memecoins are launched on Pump or LetsBonk, degen traders are in Axiom’s frontend UI.



Launchpad bonding curves are permissionless, so Axiom simply looks at every new token, detects which launchpad contract it came from and builds a buy/sell button around it.



And traders stick around on Axiom for its comprehensive suite of pro tools like advanced charts, wallet trackers and the integration of other popular trading products (Hyperliquid perps), rebates, etc.



In other words, Axiom — like Google — owns the user. It monetizes whatever launchpad is hot by pointing to any launchpad contract.



Whether it’s web search or onchain degen trading, the game is the same: The interface that commands daily habit and captures the last click captures the money.



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



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



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



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



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



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



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

0xResearch Newsletter

Why owning the end user is profitable – lessons from Axiom and Google

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"/>



It’s the final day of July, so I figured, why not look back at this month and recap what happened from a market point of view?



I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting some of the big events that happened just this month, such as bitcoin topping a fresh all-time high (though it’s backed down slightly since), the passage of the GENIUS act, and ETH being up 56% in the past month.&nbsp;



Speaking of ETH, Kraken’s OTC desk noted: “ETH has broken decisively above the long-standing pivot at $2,813, a level that had capped price for over a year. This breakout marks a significant structural shift and clears the path towards the next major resistance zone near $4,000, which now comes into view as the next upside target.”



In the short term, however, we may be in for a somewhat volatile start to August, given Trump’s tariff deadline and other macroeconomic factors. Though even bearing that in mind, Kraken’s OTC report suggests that the momentum has already softened for bitcoin.



The good news: bitcoin managed to bounce back from an initial dip after Galaxy unloaded 80,000 BTC for a client.&nbsp;



“One core explanation behind the resilience lies in the continuous strong accumulation from BTC treasury vehicles and ETPs throughout July,” K33 noted. That helped to offset the “sale order effect in the broad market. This resilience has reignited risk appetite, with perpetual futures open interest climbing toward Q4 2024 highs, though funding rates have remained neutral.”



I don’t think anyone will be surprised by the next stat that K33 pointed out: While July tends to be a more chill month, this July bucked the trend.&nbsp;



“Average daily trading volumes over the past week come in at $4bn. This reflects a 12% decline from last week’s level but remains well above May to June levels,” K33 said.&nbsp;



Like I noted above, the first week of August may not be very smooth, but the volatility may not be here to stay.&nbsp;



Looking at CME data, K33 analysts said that the “August premium over July futures initially reflected confidence, but compressed post-expiry to levels not seen since May, signaling cautious medium-term positioning during a seasonally quieter period.”



At least we’re at the tail end of the dog days of summer.&nbsp;



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



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



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Bitcoin loses momentum to close out July, as ETH eyes new upside target

Byron Gilliam

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“The continuous rise of the debt-to-GDP ratio indicates that current policy is unsustainable.&#8221;&nbsp;



— Financial Report of the United States Government
</blockquote>



There once was a happy time when Fed chairs felt free to lecture politicians on their irresponsible spending habits.



In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/07/19/fed-would-lower-rates-if-congress-cuts-deficit/d1a24805-d603-436b-92c0-5779ffdc5c99/">1990</a>, for example, Alan Greenspan told Congress he would lower interest rates, but only if it cut the deficit.



In <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/02/20/Volcker-says-Congress-must-cut-deficit/9515477723600/">1985</a>, Paul Volcker even specified a number, telling Congress that the Fed&#8217;s “stable” monetary policy was contingent on Congress cutting about $50 billion from the federal budget deficit.



(Oh, for the days when $50 billion of federal debt wasn’t just a rounding error.)



In both cases, the Fed chairs were not-so-subtly threatening Congress and the White House with recession: That’s a nice economy you&#8217;ve got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it.



Now, however, it’s the other way around, with President Trump lecturing the Fed on interest rates.



In just the last few weeks, the president has opined that the fed funds rate is “AT LEAST 3 points too high,” insisted there is “no inflation” and mocked the Fed Chair as Jerome “Too Late” Powell.



This, too, is a shakedown: That’s some nice central-bank independence you’ve got there…



President Trump lobbied for lower interest rates during his first term as well. Like nearly every modern US president, he wanted the Fed to stimulate the economy.



This time, however, it’s about much more than that: Trump wants the Fed to finance the deficit.



The Trump vs. Powell showdown is ostensibly about the current level of interest rates (which the FOMC left unchanged today, presumably to the president’s displeasure).



But what the president has been threatening is “fiscal dominance” — the state of affairs when monetary policy is subordinated to the needs of government spending.



“Our Rate should be three points lower than they are saving us $1 trillion a year (as a Country),” the president recently <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114902704048179740">wrote</a> on Truth Social (in his signature style of random capitalization).



With repeated such statements, Mr. Trump has made history by being the first US president to explicitly call for fiscal dominance.



But he’s far from the first to acknowledge the possibility.&nbsp;



When Volcker and Greenspan threatened Congress with rate hikes, it brought the usually hidden link between monetary and fiscal policy out into the open.&nbsp;



It worked for them: Both Fed chairs had some success in using the threat of recession to get Congress to address its deficit spending, which is a hopeful precedent.



But that tactic seems unlikely to work this time.



Chair Powell has often warned about the risks of growing deficits, and even explained that higher deficits could mean higher long-term interest rates.&nbsp;



But it’s hard to imagine him making an explicit threat in the way Volcker and Greenspan did — perhaps because he knows he’s bargaining from a much weaker position.



In the 1980s, the most-feared effect of higher interest rates was recession, which the Fed was willing to risk in order to get Congress to change its free-spending ways.&nbsp;



Back then, lawmakers faced a ballooning defense budget and a stagnant economy, both of which seemed manageable.&nbsp;



At just 35% of GDP, the national debt seemed manageable too.



Now, with federal debt at 120% of GDP, the US <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/debt-has-always-been-the-ruinof-great-powers-is-the-u-s-next-02f16402">spends more on interest payments</a> than it does on defense:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXflkgNB1zlYtVD1qwbyfEhsXMynn4rcesXGWNtdFWBmiuFkjXtq077kd8t-pS_jjRqUSVVscyZT69E2YRXT5hiYlJtWWHkMGTHI9nrgi7UExqtw-mbAzffDpztweWIWx3hx6uVMvw?key=iWJ7_ctUrfu-bNc4jMJZgw" alt=""/></figure>



The fast-rising blue line above may now be the biggest budgetary problem.



This puts the Fed in a bind because raising interest rates to encourage fiscal sanity would only exacerbate the problem it wants lawmakers to address.



The Fed could risk it, of course.&nbsp;



But if rate hikes drive the deficit even higher, who blinks first: the Fed or the White House?



Before answering, consider that 73% of federal spending is now non-discretionary, vs. just 45% in the 1980s.



To believe the Fed can win a showdown over deficits is to believe Congress will make significant cuts to non-discretionary spending like Social Security and Medicare.



This seems, well, unbelievable.&nbsp;



Now, especially, with a president who appears wholly unperturbed by the country&#8217;s growing indebtedness.



This may come from his experience as an over-indebted real estate developer in the 1990s.



&#8220;I figured it was the bank&#8217;s problem, not mine,” Trump later <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Think-Big-Make-Happen-Business/dp/0061547840">wrote</a> of not being able to service his debts. “What the hell did I care? I actually told one bank, &#8216;I told you you shouldn&#8217;t have loaned me that money. I told you that goddamn deal was no good.'&#8221;



Now, as president, when Trump tells Powell that interest rates should be lower, what he’s really saying is that the national debt is the Fed’s problem, not his.



He’s not wrong.&nbsp;



“When interest payments on the debt rise and primary surpluses are politically off the table,” David Beckworth <a href="https://macroeconomicpolicynexus.substack.com/p/the-consolidated-government-budget">writes</a>, “something else has to give. That something is more debt, more money creation, or both.”



Yes, the Fed could run the Volcker/Greenspan playbook and threaten Congress with higher interest rates.



But Powell presumably knows that following through would only exacerbate a problem that might ultimately be the Fed’s to fix — and pull forward the time by which it’s forced to fix it.



“If debt levels are too high and growing,” Beckworth explains, “it becomes the Fed’s job to accommodate — by suppressing interest rates or monetizing debt.”&nbsp;



That, and not President Trump, he warns, is the real existential threat to the Fed: “When the central bank is forced to accommodate fiscal needs, it loses its economic independence.”&nbsp;



Beckworth remains hopeful that it might not come to that.&nbsp;



And maybe it won’t. We’ve just seen how unpopular inflation is, so maybe if we get another bout of it, voters will force lawmakers to address the deficit.



But he despairs that the focus on Trump’s demands for lower interest rates is a distraction: “What we are witnessing is less about Trump himself and more about the growing and unavoidable fiscal demands being placed on the Fed.”



President Trump is the first to start explicitly making those demands, presumably because he knows the US government’s current fiscal policy is unsustainable.&nbsp;



But everyone knows that, even the government itself.



The only question now is: Who’s going to deal with it?



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



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



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



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



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

Fiscal dominance: Behind the Fed’s growing and unavoidable burden

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>.



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When building on Solana up until now, you&#8217;ve really only had two bad choices for storing and delivering your app&#8217;s data.



You could lean on Web2 giants like Cloudflare or AWS, which are fast and easy, but very much centralized and outside the crypto ethos. Or you could try to piece together more decentralized fixes using IPFS, Arweave, and other assorted gateways — bearing in mind that, while these latter methods do work, they require lots of duct-tape and set-top thwacking to dial in.



Decentralized CDN Pipe Network aims to change all that with Firestarter Storage, an infrastructure play designed to transform Pipe into a full-stack Cloudflare alternative for the Solana ecosystem.



Until now, Pipe has operated behind the scenes, powering Solana&#8217;s full <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-proof-of-history">proof-of-history</a> archive and snapshots via its Firestarter infrastructure.



Now, with Firestarter Storage, Pipe graduates from decentralized transport to a full-stack cloud competitor, combining origin storage, CDN delivery and edge compute into a Cloudflare-class system — but decentralized from the ground up.



Developers can tap into the same backbone to serve anything from pay-as-you-scroll video to edge-optimized AI workloads.



&#8220;Storage from day one has been a critical element of Pipe Network&#8217;s service as a decentralized CDN running a global network of over 280,000 points-of-presence (PoP) node operators,&#8221; said David Rhodus, founder of Permissionless Labs.



&#8220;This would be impossible without origin support, which is already holding Solana&#8217;s full data set — 1 PB containing 350 million files — and cutting sync time by up to 30% through Solana Snapshots.&#8221;



Unlike legacy CDNs, Firestarter serves content directly from Pipe&#8217;s native storage layer, meaning it never leaves the Pipe Network.



Content lives entirely within the decentralized system, with pricing bundled at the protocol level — 1 $PIPE token per gigabyte for the base tier.&nbsp;



For developers, this manifests entirely new architecture capabilities: streaming micropayments per byte, geo-pinned smart contracts with hard data sovereignty guarantees, and pop-level compute for edge inference and ultra-low-latency gaming.



&#8220;Pipe&#8217;s unified fabric lets frontend code stream satoshi-sized, onchain payments per byte, so devs can launch pay-as-you-scroll video and per-query dataset APIs instead of pre-purchasing bandwidth buckets,&#8221; Rhodus told Lightspeed.



A critical differentiator is Pipe&#8217;s ability to meet jurisdictional and defense-grade requirements.



As Rhodus explained, &#8220;Firestarter nodes can be whitelisted to run only inside a customer&#8217;s jurisdiction, with remote-attested proofs that no replica ever leaves the boundary.&#8221;



With Firestarter now public, Pipe Network is positioning itself as a new foundation for real-time, decentralized content distribution, with sovereignty, speed and cost-efficiency converging at the protocol layer.



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Lightspeed Newsletter

Pipe Network debuts Firestarter Storage for Solana developers

Casey Wagner

The presentation portion of Roman Storm’s criminal trial came to a close Wednesday afternoon with the prosecution and defense each making their final pleas to the jury.&nbsp;



Both sides spent over 90 minutes on their closing arguments. The government opted to close with an additional 45-minute rebuttal. Attorneys on both sides focused on the same essential facts of the case, but urged the jury to come to different conclusions.&nbsp;



“This is a story about greed,” government attorney Benjamin Gianforti said at the beginning of his closing arguments. “It’s a story about helping criminals hide bags and bags of money.”&nbsp;



“Tornado Cash made dirty money clean money, and made it impossible to tell the difference,” he added.&nbsp;



The defense does not argue the truth of this second statement: they admit that criminals did use Tornado Cash for illicit activities, but this was never Storm’s intent in creating the software.&nbsp;



Storm created Tornado Cash to give users the ability to keep their financial transactions private, defense attorney David Patton told the jury.&nbsp;



“Did that also make it extremely useful to criminals? You bet it did,” Patton said.&nbsp;



The “privacy argument,” prosecutor Nathan Rehn said during the government’s rebuttal, is simply a “cover story.”&nbsp;



Storm not only knew criminals were using Tornado Cash to launder money, he supported them, Rehn argued.&nbsp;



The government presented messages to the jury in which Storm calls reports of hackers using Tornado Cash “advertising.” They also submitted photos of Storm and his co-developers wearing Tornado Cash T-shirts with images of a laundry machine.&nbsp;



These messages and photos are a mischaracterization, Patton later insisted. The shirts were a joke, and there are many communications that show Storm was not “celebrating hackers’ use of Tornado Cash.”&nbsp;



As for the prosecution’s claims that Storm “made millions” from Tornado Cash, the defense again maintained that this was a misleading portrayal of reality. The money Storm made came from selling the TORN token, which, Patton added, lost value when reports of criminals using Tornado Cash surfaced.&nbsp;



“They weren’t getting a cut” of money hackers laundered through Tornado Cash, nor did developers charge fees for using the software, Patton added.&nbsp;



After two weeks of witness testimony, jurors received charge instructions late Wednesday afternoon, the final step before the group heads to the deliberation room.



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Roman Storm

Tornado Cash trial is now in the jury’s hands

Ben Strack

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



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Despite Coinbase’s second quarter milestones, not all is rosy for the crypto exchange as it gets set to discuss its Q2 results tomorrow.



Coinbase’s stock price roughly doubled during the quarter — performance Oppenheimer analysts attributed to its S&amp;P 500 inclusion and progress around the GENIUS Act (progress that led to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-signs-genius-law">its ultimate passage</a> earlier this month).



COIN shares were trading around $382 on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET — up 9% from a month ago.&nbsp;



And yet, in other ways, COIN’s setup ahead of the quarterly print is “unfavorable,” Oppenheimer’s Owen Lau and Guru Sidaarth wrote in a note. They estimate Coinbase’s Q2 trading volume to be ~$220 billion, marking a 44% decline <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-outlooks-q1-results-deribit-analysts">from the prior quarter</a>.



Morningstar analyst Michael Miller noted that transaction volume will always be a key data point, given transactions account for Coinbase’s largest revenue stream.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Beyond that, though, Miller will be listening for commentary on pricing pressure (or lack thereof) as competitors like Robinhood ramp up their crypto offerings in a friendlier regulatory environment.&nbsp;



“I’ll also be looking for any data or commentary on the firm’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/base/base-overview/base-stablecoin-supply-and-transfer-volume">Base transaction volume</a> and revenue and how much USDC is on the firm’s platform and products,” Miller told me. “While Coinbase is still heavily exposed to cryptocurrency trading, USDC and Base have enjoyed a lot of momentum this year.”



Miller, in a Monday note, revealed he had increased his COIN “fair value estimate” from $170 to $205. A part of that was indeed due to USDC’s market cap eclipsing $60 billion and overall bullish sentiment after the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act became law. If you forgot, Coinbase earns interest income on the USDC it holds on its platform.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcxoVOjxECsiraxBs-F32R7RMas5TsgXnD6OsYK_TVqFJZb0x4VXaZA72hqhn3zzG932EqmSISMNtPCLgQW3eGbWpqh73UmBVPDeYlCsYj54nKSu6NzV_wOgXDNuAwHLnlcnROB9A?key=wc4qbIEt1FJXnWzzwbFkzg" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: rwa.xyz</figcaption></figure>



Despite Miller’s COIN upgrade, he still considers shares “significantly overvalued” as the market reacts to recent crypto price surges.&nbsp;



The Oppenheimer analysts see things a bit differently. They have a COIN price target (in the next 12-18 months) of $417.



Lau and Sidaarth note Coinbase’s US derivatives and International Exchange notional values were more resilient than spot trading volume — up 22% and 28%, respectively, quarter over quarter. That’s an area they’re more focused on after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-deribit-deal-focus-derivatives">Coinbase’s Deribit acquisition</a>.&nbsp;



Maybe Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will give us a sense of other <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-circle-amazon-of-crypto">possible acquisition targets</a>. As far as link-ups go, Coinbase on Wednesday revealed a partnership with JPMorgan Chase that lets Chase customers link their bank accounts to Coinbase wallets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Lau told me he’ll be seeking expense guidance from Coinbase executives tomorrow, as well as any update on July trading revenue.&nbsp;



Coinbase is pretty connected in DC, and could also offer thoughts around when they expect the CLARITY Act to become law. That bill, which would create a definition for “digital commodities,” got the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-house-passes-clarity-act">House’s blessing</a> on July 17.“Passage of the CLARITY Act will support <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-treasury-companies-alt-season">Altcoin Summer</a>, following the Stablecoin Summer after the passage of the GENIUS Act,” Lau explained.



Add it to the list of things we’re monitoring. Never a dull moment.



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Coinbase

Coinbase outlooks are mixed ahead of Q2 earnings

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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Ethereum’s first decade has taken it from a fringe experiment to the potential backbone of digital finance. In the roundup below, 10 builders, researchers, and market watchers explain what that journey has meant, and where the next 10 years may lead.



We open with Michael Egorov, founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/curve">Curve</a>, who reminds us of just how far things have come: “Ethereum is turning 10 years old: The time flies! Over that time, it has grown from an idea to the foundation of the new financial system.”



For Kirill Fedoseev of Blockscout, that foundation is now an ecosystem: “<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> turning 10 marks more than just the anniversary of a single chain. It’s a celebration of an open ecosystem that’s driving some of the most important infrastructure innovation in Web3.”



Anurag  Arjun, co‑founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/avail">Avail</a> and Polygon alumnus, quantifies the scale‑up: “The ecosystem growth is unprecedented: from 15 transactions per second to 24 million daily transactions across multiple layers, 127 million active wallets, $75 billion in DeFi protocols.” Those numbers, he argues, vindicate the modular, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollup‑centric</a> thesis.



Networking expert Muriel Médard of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/optimum-ram-web3-protocol-memory-decentralized">Optimum</a> points to adaptability: “What attracted me most to Ethereum was seeing a decentralized network that could actually evolve and improve over time, and 10 years in, that adaptability has been validated repeatedly.” Her next priority is a faster networking layer to “strengthen how information flows between all stakeholders.”



Markets are noticing. Shawn Young of MEXC notes that “this is due to the shift in the institutional perception of Ethereum…spot Ether ETFs [have logged] 16 consecutive days of net inflows totaling over $5 billion.”



Yet usability still lags. Vikram Arun of Superform observes: “10 years in, Ethereum feels less like an experiment and more like critical infrastructure…The next 10 years will be defined by cohesion at the product layer: fintech‑like mobile apps with seamless UX.”



Rob Viglione of Horizen Labs underscores the slow grind behind that cohesion: “Over the past 10 years, Ethereum’s growth has often felt slower than we anticipated…but in reality, we’ve made meaningful progress in solving many of these issues.” He expects <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/privacy">privacy</a> — via technologies such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-is-fully-homomorphic-encryption">fully homomorphic encryption</a> — to dominate the next cycle.



Steven Goldfeder, co‑founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/offchain-labs">Offchain Labs</a>, is motivated by the runway ahead: “What keeps me most excited…is its untapped potential paired with the community’s dedication to transparently and openly building a better system.”



Aryan Sheikhalian of CMT Digital sounds a cautionary note: “Even if ETH accrues value through <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-blobs-balancing-act">blobspace</a>, Ethereum risks becoming the TCP/IP of crypto: essential, invisible, commoditized.” Remaining the cultural and economic center, he says, requires owning standards, liquidity and UX — not just settlement.



Finally, Hart Lambur of UMA and Across sketches the end‑state: “The real endgame is straightforward: a giant payments-and-exchange network that connects every blockchain.” Achieving that will hinge on seamless interoperability and the liquidity battles it will ignite.



From visionary beginnings to trillion‑dollar ambitions, these 10 voices agree on one thing: Ethereum’s first decade was merely the preface. Scaling trust, usability, privacy and culture for the world is an ongoing project.



What I return to as truly novel is Ethereum’s global scale and resilience. Spend a few minutes on the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/igPIMF1p5Bo?si=mvTIndVlXDDT8HZS">10 Years of Ethereum Livestream</a>” and you find celebrations jumping from Toronto to Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Lagos and Mumbai. As a truly decentralized network, it has succeeded in maintaining <a href="https://dune.com/queries/3367820">virtually 100% uptime</a> across 10 years and 16 hard forks. That’s a level of resilience that no other network has been able to match.



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10 reflections on Ethereum’s 10th anniversary

“Nothing further from the defense,” attorney Brian Klein told Judge Katherine Polk Failla yesterday afternoon at Manhattan’s Thurgood Marshall courthouse.



The team representing Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm had cycled through what remained of its witness list, and Storm chose not to take the stand.&nbsp;



A reminder that Storm is being charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.



His defense (and advocates of the privacy protocol) argue Storm isn’t criminally responsible for<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/treasurys-tornado-cash-sanctions-have-companies-stepping-back-from-users"> bad actors using</a> something he helped create.&nbsp;



Closing arguments were scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. “sharp” Wednesday — meaning in a matter of minutes (if you’re reading this when it publishes).&nbsp;



In the meantime, let’s go through Tuesday’s witnesses and some of the more memorable moments:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Guy Wuollet, partner at a16z crypto</h2>



Tuesday’s first witness, Wuollet had evaluated whether Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto/Web3 unit would invest in Tornado Cash in 2021.&nbsp;



In an email to Storm at the time, Wuollet wrote he was “impressed by the strength of the privacy” of Tornado Cash and “excited about the next iteration of the protocol.”



The reason a16z didn’t invest? Wuollet said the firm didn’t know if Tornado Cash would be profitable. “We will continue to be fans of Tornado Cash and to track its adoption onchain,” Wuollet added in the email.&nbsp;&nbsp;



When asked to acknowledge that crimes are committed on the blockchain, Wuollet paused before saying he thinks of it differently. “If someone robbed a store, I wouldn’t say the store was used in the crime.”



An attendee sitting to my left started laughing. The prosecution ended the cross-examination there.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Omid Malekan, Columbia Business School professor&nbsp;</h2>



Not on the stand long, Malekan said he used Tornado Cash in 2021 to purchase an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) name.&nbsp;



He used the protocol because he “didn’t want to put a bullseye on my back.”&nbsp;



The prosecution’s Ben Arad shouted out an objection. Failla asked Klein to control his witness.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Dr. Stephanie Hurder, founding economist of Prysm Group&nbsp;</h2>



We found out the defense has so far paid Hurder $120,000 for her time analyzing this case and being an expert witness. She reviewed Tornado Cash DAO proposals, TORN token price data, transactions on Etherscan, etc.&nbsp;



She countered several points previously brought up by the government about Tornado Cash’s supposed lack of decentralization. Hurder noted the protocol’s DAO was “well-designed and active” (55% of TORN tokens initially went to the DAO treasury) and that Tornado Cash founders did not have (or always use) their voting power on proposals.



She added that the founders did not have a direct hand in selecting entities on Tornado Cash’s relayer registry.



The government’s exchanges with Hurder were heated, with prosecutors getting her to acknowledge that bad actors have apparently used Tornado Cash to hide criminal proceeds. As we know, the case against Storm is more nuanced than that.&nbsp;



And in a reference to the vesting schedule for founders’ TORN tokens, a prosecutor asked: “Tornado Cash became less decentralized over time, right?”



Despite the government wanting only yes or no answers, Hurder got out: “The distribution of tokens became less decentralized. Yes.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Dr. Matthew Green, computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University</h2>



Green, who helped create the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286668243_Zerocash_Decentralized_Anonymous_Payments_from_Bitcoin">Zerocash</a> protocol, was brought in to emphasize the value of privacy.&nbsp;



Though he was intrigued with crypto and blockchain technology essentially from its outset, Green called the lack of privacy (i.e. public transactions) “a huge bug.”



He talked about the value of VPNs and credit-card tokenization in protecting individuals and institutions. At one point, I caught a juror dozing.



The Tornado Cash pools were immutable, Green confirmed — preventing hackers or founders from making changes there.&nbsp;&nbsp;



During the cross-examination, Arad asked Green whether the Tornado Cash website, user interface and relay registry could be changed. “Yes” to all three.



Also of note was Klein wanting Green to address the feasibility of a hypothetical user registry that one of the government’s witnesses, AnChain.AI’s Philip Werlau,<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/roman-storm-government-may-rest-case"> brought up last week</a>.&nbsp;



Green’s initial hesitation to respond and a subsequent sidebar with the judge meant that the question went unanswered.



But as this case winds down and the jury is charged, we’ll have other, more critical answers soon.&nbsp;



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Roman Storm trial: Witnesses play up Tornado Cash privacy, decentralization

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“An economist says to a physicist: ‘Sure, this equation works in practice. But does it work in theory?’”



— Overheard in the faculty lounge
</blockquote>



For those fortunate enough never to have learned the mechanics of special purpose acquisition vehicles, here’s all you really need to know: If you don’t like the company a SPAC finds to buy, you can get your money back.&nbsp;



There are lots of important details, of course — PIPEs, warrants, fees, the price you paid — but the differentiating factor is the redemption mechanism.



SPACs raise capital by issuing shares at $10 and then looking for a company to buy.



If you like the one they find, you stay invested. If not, they’ll give you your $10 back.



In theory, this democratizes the IPO process.



As a retail investor, you won’t be getting into the next Goldman IPO at the offer price — banks reserve IPO allocations for their top institutional customers.



With SPACs, however, retail investors can typically buy in at or near the standard $10 offering price.



You won’t know what company the SPAC will become, which isn’t ideal, but when you do find out, you’ll have the option to redeem at $10.



In theory, that lets you participate in the IPO process at something close to the same terms of institutional investors.



In practice, however, it rarely works out.



Citing data from ListingTrack, the Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6da2f475-dd6a-4de4-abac-9e62f808bd41">reported</a> that “the median return from [SPACs] that have completed mergers with target companies is minus 83% since 2020.”



Minus 83%! Yikes.



In hindsight, though, it’s not hard to see why.



Here are some of the dubious businesses that were brought to the stock market in the last SPAC boom: electric-scooter sharing, hydroponic farms in Kentucky, cell towers in outer space, a music-streaming service with no paying users, an EV truck company that couldn’t make trucks, bitcoin ATMs, Playboy Inc. and BuzzFeed, to name just a few of the notorious ones.



(Partial disclosure: I may or may not have invested in the cell-towers-in-outer-space one.)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Even so, there was still a lot of money to be made — just not by retail.&nbsp;



One <a href="https://site.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/files/SPACs.pdf">academic study</a> found that SPAC sponsors —&nbsp; the bankers who list the SPAC and go hunting for a deal — do extremely well: “The average annualized sponsor return, over approximately 2.5 years, was 113%.”



The institutions that invest in those SPACs via private funding rounds also did fine, earning an average one-year return of 9.3%.



But the public shareholders who invested in the exact same deals made an average loss of 19.8%.



And yet, SPACs have been wildly popular at times.



In 2021, a series of SPACs sponsored by Chamath Palihapitiya traded 50% to 80% above their $10 issue price before investors even knew what company they were investing in.



Most egregiously, a SPAC sponsored by star banker Michael Klein traded up 550% in anticipation of a merger with Lucid Motors (thought, at the time, to be the next Tesla).



It’s hard to overstate how irrational those prices were.



With his $10 SPAC trading at $65, the market was implying that Michael Klein could negotiate a deal that would instantly make a 6.5x return for his investors.



There are only two ways he could have made that happen: 1) by finding a company willing to sell itself for far less than its worth, or 2) finding a business that’s worth far more on the stock exchange than it is as a private company.



Either way, it turned out to be a poor assumption to make: Lucid Group now trades at $2.60.



That is an extreme example, but it illustrates the point that paying well above $10 for a SPAC doesn’t make much sense.



A skilled banker like Klein might buy a company for 10% or 20% below what it’s worth on the stock market, which would justify paying $11 or $12 for a SPAC, but not much more.&nbsp;



But what if the SPAC buys crypto?



As we’ve learned from MicroStrategy, the stock market routinely values crypto at double what it’s worth on a crypto exchange. Or more.



So it makes sense that a SPAC that uses $10 of investor money to buy $10 of crypto could be worth $20 or more.



In theory.



In practice, it’s not working.



SPACs that have recently announced deals to become digital asset treasury companies (let’s call them DAT SPACs) are mostly trading around $11 per share.



This seems pointless.



An $11 SPAC price implies that the new company will be valued at 1.1x NAV — and what’s the point of a digital asset company that trades at 1.1x NAV? The core value proposition of DATs is that they can grow their stack of crypto by selling shares above NAV: MicroStrategy, for example, has been growing its “bitcoin per share” by exchanging $10 of equity for $20 of crypto.



But exchanging $11 of equity for $10 of crypto? That hardly seems worth the trouble.



Weirdly, DATs that have gone public by merging with a shell company have been doing much better.



The shares of VAPE, SBET and TRON, for example, are all up 5-10x since announcing their conversion into digital asset companies (buying BNB, ETH and TRON, respectively).



Even the Litecoin one, MEIP, has doubled in price.



There’s no obvious reason why a digital asset company that started as a shell company should be any more valuable than one that started as a SPAC.



But most DAT SPACs — including high-profile ones like CEPO, led by Adam Back, and CCCM, led by Anthony Pompliano — are only up about 10%.&nbsp;



This doesn’t make much sense, in theory.



But it might make sense in practice: SPAC investors have learned that paying a big premium to NAV rarely works out.



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

The practice and theory of DAT SPACs

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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Orca has released Wavebreak, a “human-first” Solana token launchpad.



The launchpad, which I <a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1945463174943138117">first</a> caught wind of earlier this month, integrates CAPTCHA with an onchain permission structure to keep bots and snipers from crowding out real humans, Orca CEO Nathan Davis told me. The move comes amid a raft of Solana DEXs releasing token launchpads — or vice versa — to compete in the memecoin-focused Solana DeFi market.



Outside of the onchain CAPTCHA, Wavebreak looks pretty similar to other launchpads on offer, with a few tweaks. One carrot Orca’s offering is daily rewards where users can earn rakebacks from a prize pool based on how much volume they trade.



Orca was launched on Solana by two Tokyo-based builders in 2021, according to the DEX’s docs. The DEX is also live on the SVM-based blockchain Eclipse.&nbsp;



During the doldrums of 2022 and 2023, <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/flashnotes/orca-breaching-in-rough-seas">Orca was</a> Solana’s dominant DEX. Its market share would then come under siege by Raydium, which catapulted in usage in 2024 partly due <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-raydium-volume-growth">to its popularity</a> among memecoin traders and partnership with Pump.fun.&nbsp;



Today, <a href="https://blockworks.co/analytics/solana/solana-dex-activity-2-0">Solana’s DEX sector</a> is more competitive than ever — and most of the top players, which include PumpSwap, Raydium, SolFi and Meteora, alongside Orca, have some connection to a memecoin launchpad, if they haven’t already developed one in-house.



The issue with existing memecoin launchpads, says Orca, is the proliferation of bots which buy up tokens as quickly as possible in hopes of selling at a profit. Earlier this year, one research outlet <a href="https://x.com/PineAnalytics/status/1914301091337953734">found</a> more than 50% of new Pump.fun tokens were being sniped, or purchased in the same block they were created. Such trades were profitable the vast majority of the time.



Whether this behavior is strictly bad is a matter of perspective (blockspace can be for bots, too), but it certainly does disadvantage human users.



“It&#8217;s not necessarily that other platforms themselves are intentionally malicious; many are also trying to combat this problem,” Davis explained.



There have been prior attempts to thwart snipers and bots from buying up memecoins, from anti-bot taxes to dutch auctions.&nbsp;



But Davis claims that “[o]ther implementations are exploitable by malicious users. We believe our implementation will be the first to mechanically prevent sniping, bundling, sandwiching and wash trading from being possible.”



Orca plans to host project fundraises on Wavebreak as well. DeFiTuna’s TUNA token will go live on the platform tomorrow, Davis said.



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DEXs

Orca releases Wavebreak launchpad for Solana tokens

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



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Crypto investment products have raked in record monthly flows in July, putting a spotlight on the institutional demand for ETH.&nbsp;



How much interest coins will see from investors further down the curve remains an open question.



The aforementioned flows record had extended to $11.2 billion by July 26, CoinShares data shows. That’s well above the prior monthly high of $7.6 billion seen in December 2024.&nbsp;&nbsp;



While bitcoin products have historically carried the crypto pack from a flows perspective, those have tallied only about half the segment’s flows this month.&nbsp;



ETH offerings attracted most of the rest:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd70pfkURfWv2Fvew7xAmOeHOHbdU7XFlf2D8ooWe4XbEDNx_TiuNArr_26raBuN5DhW7BfBUvgGxaYN-Op7-LJBaK-lMjDd_wij8aKhrs22YcPq9wIz2cOQpJKgb_vzKaTMogd?key=peWoWZmYrygpJv74KCLAQA" alt="" style="width:645px;height:auto"/></figure>



Ether products clearly saw the most attention last week as money trickled out of bitcoin vehicles. US ETH ETFs brought in another $65 million on Monday.



It seems to be the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/year-old-us-ether-etfs">institutional demand progression</a> we’ve heard about for years. BTC has the largest market cap. It gets the headlines. The narrative around BTC is a bit simpler and intuitive, attracting capital. It’s digital gold, yada yada.&nbsp;&nbsp;



But Ethereum has become hard to ignore, particularly after<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-signs-genius-law"> </a>the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-signs-genius-law">GENIUS Act became law</a>.&nbsp;



Competition among institutions that now have a path to issue stablecoins (by registering with the OCC) is set to speed up adoption in the US, noted ZX Squared Capital co-founder CK Zheng. That will disrupt the existing payment infrastructure with faster and cheaper processes built on blockchain technology.&nbsp;



“Given most of the stablecoins are built on [Ethereum], the demand from the institutional investors for ETH will grow exponentially for the foreseeable future,” Zheng told me. “We expect ETH price to hit $10,000 during this bull market run.”



ETH was trading around $3,750 at 1 p.m. ET Tuesday — up 54% from a month ago.&nbsp;



Even with the narrative for ETH (as the platform for stablecoins) being stronger than ever, it remains “a catch-up trade.” For those keeping score at home, BTC has the edge over ETH on YTD returns, +26% to +12.5%.&nbsp;



As the chart further up shows, $860 million has flowed into solana and XRP products this month as well.&nbsp;



Whether or not we’re entering an “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-treasury-companies-alt-season">altcoin season</a>” is a question with an “inconclusive” answer, according to CoinShares research head James Butterfill.



“These altcoin inflows may be driven less by broad-based enthusiasm and more by anticipation surrounding potential US ETF launches,” Butterfill<a href="https://blog.coinshares.com/volume-244-digital-asset-fund-flows-weekly-report-c9432f2cd3b1"> wrote</a>.



It’s worth noting too that, on the corporate crypto treasury strategy front, some are buying altcoins directly.&nbsp;



Mill City Ventures revealed a $450 million private placement on Monday to kick off efforts to make SUI — the native token of the layer-1 Sui blockchain — its primary treasury reserve asset.&nbsp;&nbsp;



London-based hedge fund Karatage Opportunities and Sui Foundation were the biggest investors. The company intends to use ~98% of the proceeds to buy SUI and ~2% to fund its short-term lending business.&nbsp;



Also on Monday, CEA Industries said it looks to build the world’s largest publicly listed BNB Chain treasury strategy. BNB’s market cap of ~$115 billion is the fifth-largest among cryptos.



The current lack of US ETFs holding altcoins boosts interest in these companies to access token exposure in a traditional brokerage account, said Grayscale research head Zach Pandl.&nbsp;&nbsp;



As <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-etf-launch-timelines-sec">more crypto ETPs</a> become available, he told me, demand for altcoin treasury companies may diminish. He expects those ETP launches later this year.&nbsp;



“Regardless of the product wrapper, institutional investors are likely to focus on the altcoins with sustainable revenue,” Pandl added. “In traditional finance, the ‘revenue meta’ never goes away.”



Zheng noted that it could take years before institutional investors get comfortable to take risks in this space — beyond BTC and ETH.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It may require regulatory clarity around the entire crypto ecosystem as well as a clear narrative for a specific coin that has an eye-catching application with strong fundamentals,” he explained.&nbsp;



While we expect more clarity, the market will decide what applications catch their eye. As with most things, time will tell.



Updated 7/30/2025 at 3:15 p.m. ET to reflect US ETH inflows at $65 million.



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altcoins

Record crypto product inflows in July brings ETH demand into focus

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



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It’s Fed Decision Day Eve, and while we’re all but certain interest rates will remain unchanged, tomorrow’s FOMC statement and Chair Powell’s press conference have potential to move markets.&nbsp;



Investors are hoping for a September rate cut, and right now, they’re decently confident that’s what we’ll get. Markers are currently pricing in a 62% chance of a 25bps cut in September, per <a href="https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html?redirect=/trading/interest-rates/countdown-to-fomc.html">data</a> from CME Group.&nbsp;



What kind of language in tomorrow’s statement would assure markets that FOMC members are feeling dovish? For starters: any indication that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/economic-strains-for-growth-outlook">tariff-related</a> <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily/issue/post_d73eda3f-a46d-4b1e-84fc-d50b5685d944">inflationary fears</a> are easing.&nbsp;



We know uncertainty around trade relations has central bankers worried that there could be a relapse in inflation, and that has been a key reason why the Fed hasn’t cut rates so far this year. So if tomorrow’s statement notes that inflation is “easing,” that would be a positive sign for a September rate cut.&nbsp;



What else? Markets would like to see language suggesting that committee members are less concerned about economic uncertainty.&nbsp;



In June, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/june-fomc-meeting-takeaways">the FOMC wrote</a> the following: “Uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished but remains elevated.”&nbsp;



If tomorrow’s statement cuts those last three words, it would be a very dovish signal.&nbsp;



We know Powell is going to be asked about when the committee will cut rates, and we know he’s going to be evasive. But should he express confidence in the direction of inflation and the labor market, expect equities to rally. 



We’ll be watching tomorrow, and Forward Guidance podcast host Felix Jauvin will be breaking down the statement and Powell’s comments live. Be sure to <a href="https://x.com/ForwardGuidance">tune in on X</a> around 3:30 p.m. ET.



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Federal Reserve

What would a dovish Fed look like?

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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Linea, the layer-2 built by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/consensys">Consensys</a>, is making a play to become Ethereum’s most aligned rollup. In an updated roadmap announced Tuesday, the network committed to three headline features: native staking for bridged ETH, a protocol-level ETH burn equal to 20% of net fees, and an 85% token allocation to builders and users. Together, the features aim to make ETH on Linea not just more productive, but a scarcer asset.



If the idea of ETH yield as a layer-2 core feature sounds familiar, it’s because Linea is drawing clear lessons from Blast’s rise and fall. That network drew $2 billion in TVL by routing ETH into stETH and streaming yield back to depositors, only to see liquidity vanish after its June 2024 airdrop. Without any coherent follow-up to its initial marketing blast, Blast’s user base cratered — along with its narrative.



Linea, by contrast, looks to keep ETH native while promising fast withdrawals alongside ETH staking… eventually. While the July press release previews staking yield by October 2025, the canonical bridge’s yield feature was already discussed in a January roadmap post and flagged for rollout first on Status L2, not <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/linea-mainnet-ethereum">Linea Mainnet</a>.



While often referred to as a single network, Linea is also a modular rollup stack — much like the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">Optimism</a> OP Stack or <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/polygon">Polygon</a>-developed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/espresso-polygon-partnership-rollup-interoperability">AggLayer</a> CDK — that can be used to deploy independent <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zero-knowledge-rollup">zkEVM rollups</a>. Status L2 is one such chain: a separate layer-2 built on the Linea codebase, operated by the <a href="https://status.app/blog/linea-partnership-status-network">Status Network</a>, and focused on gasless transactions and native ETH yield. Though both chains share infrastructure and ETH-centric design goals, they operate independently, with distinct tokens, deployment schedules and governance structures.



Still, there is fresh clarity today: Linea head Declan Fox told us ETH deposited via the canonical bridge “will be staked natively through institutional-grade validators, with a noncustodial vault set-up,” with further technical details to come.



Linea also <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-katana-defi-focused-chain-agglayer">shares similar concepts with Katana</a>, the rollup incubated by Polygon Labs and GSR that launched last month. Both networks use ETH as their sole gas token and emphasize “productive capital,” but Katana routes fees to curated DeFi apps via VaultBridge. Linea goes further: Every transaction burns ETH on mainnet and LINEA on L2. That creates a visible value loop to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> — at least in theory.



But theory runs into friction while the sequencer is still permissioned. According to the same January roadmap, Linea planned to move from Clique to QBFT consensus in Q2 and begin transitioning to a permissioned validator set in the second half of 2025. Full permissionless DPoS isn&#8217;t slated until “2027+.” Fox referred us to the roadmap timeline, which means all ETH burn mechanics still rely on operator goodwill for now.



Token utility remains another open thread. LINEA can now be used to pay gas, thanks to an ERC-20 payment feature that launched earlier this year, but it holds no formal governance power and no claim on revenue. Katana sidestepped that issue by stripping its token of any voting rights. Linea will eventually need to clarify whether burn and fee utility are enough to sustain long-term demand for its token.



Then there’s the regulatory question. A token that captures protocol fees and is permanently bought-and-burned resembles a corporate buyback loop — something US regulators have flagged in other contexts. Neither the roadmap nor the new announcement addressed the legal implications of the model.



For now, Linea has bought itself a strong narrative: a chain where ETH gets yield, ETH gets burned, and builders get the bulk of the token supply. If the staking bridge launches on time and the ecosystem fund is deployed with transparency, it could be a compelling alternative to L2s that extract more than they give back. But the hard parts — decentralization, custody design, token value — are still in the delivery phase.



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Linea previews ETH-first roadmap

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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Core VC’s David Roos is still pretty excited about all of the attention stablecoins are getting.&nbsp;



And he’s clearly not alone, based on Bitwise data. 



<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">Stablecoins are going parabolic. <a href="https://t.co/Fwj8b0Hhwg">pic.twitter.com/Fwj8b0Hhwg</a>&mdash; Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitwiseInvest/status/1949871459570008553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“You&#8217;re seeing that this is an innovation that really has legs,” Roos added. Conduit, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, is one of Core’s portfolio companies.&nbsp;



I asked him if he thought that everyone and their mother would launch stablecoins post-GENIUS, because we’ve already heard from a slew of interested firms, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/interactive-brokers-considers-launching-new-stablecoin-customers-2025-07-28/">including Interactive Brokers</a>.



“It&#8217;s not going to be like thousands of stablecoins out there, but I do think there will be — call it a dozen — and it&#8217;ll be led by massive organizations that have the power to do so,” he said. Not every company has the brand power to launch its own stablecoin, he added.&nbsp;



He doesn’t think we’ll see something like Zelle but for stablecoins, “in terms of banks just kind of taking over the one use case.”



“I think we&#8217;ve seen, between Walmart and Amazon, you know, some Fortune 500’s that are looking at the ability to create this kind of closed-loop financial payment system in a way they weren&#8217;t able to do previously, and it gives them a lot of benefits to bypass the system and save a lot of dollars that they&#8217;re spending in interchange,” he continued.&nbsp;



This, Roos noted, makes a great case for digital wallets as well, which makes projects building wallets compelling.&nbsp;



“I think there still is a lack of consumer-friendly user interfaces in the crypto world…There is consumer education that&#8217;s typically needed in order to use digital wallets, and so I&#8217;m still in search of digital wallet unit interfaces that have usability and have friendly interfaces for the non-crypto-native users, because at the end of the day, the mass market will struggle to use what is currently the infrastructure that we built out today,” he said.&nbsp;



But he’s also interested in digital identity because, “as more and more companies [benefit from] your data, you want to be able to control what is in your wallet, and there needs to be more security around the identity of your wallet. And so I think there will be a platform that exists and a protocol that exists that creates this consumer-centric identity,” Roos added.&nbsp;



And there’s your food for thought today.



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Empire Newsletter

Not every firm has the brand power to launch a stablecoin: Core VC

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“It&#8217;s like heroin: You do a little and you want a little bit more.”&nbsp;



— Jim Sinegal on the danger of raising prices
</blockquote>



The Monday after meeting Jim Sinegal for coffee in 2001, Jeff Bezos informed his top executives that, going forward, Amazon would model itself on the price-obsessed retailer that Sinegal had built: Costco.&nbsp;



Like Costco, Amazon had always promised low prices, but unlike Costco, it hadn&#8217;t always delivered. There were plenty of deals to be had at Amazon.com, but they weren’t always the best deals.



After meeting Sinegal, Bezos made it his mission to change that.&nbsp;



“There are two kinds of companies,” he told his executive team, “those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”



Bezos found Sinegal inspirational because keeping prices low at Costco had become, in Charlie Munger’s words, “almost a religious duty.”



“When other companies find ways to save money, they turn it into profit,” Munger explained. But when Costco finds ways to save money, they pass it on to customers.



Another prominent Costco investor, Nick Sleep, described this as “scale efficiencies shared.”&nbsp;



“Savings achieved through purchasing or scale are returned to the customer in the form of lower prices, which in turn encourages growth and extends scale advantages.”



Or, as Sam Walton put it, “keep costs low and pass the savings on to customers.”



It’s not charity, of course. “You can generate far more [profit] at a cheaper retail price than you would have by attempting to sell the item at a higher price,” Walton explained.



This philosophy of passing all savings on to customers is what turned Costco and Walmart into what Nick Sleep called “retail’s version of a perpetual motion machine.”



It takes a near obsession with low prices to become that.



Sinegal was so committed to keeping prices low that when a new CEO suggested raising the $1.50 price of Costco’s hot dog and soda combo (which was being sold at a loss), Sinegal shot back: “If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.”



They did figure it out — by building a factory to make the hot dogs themselves.



As a result, the price of a hot dog and soda at Costco hasn’t changed since 1984.



Bezos was similarly obsessed with prices.



Soon after his meeting with Sinegal, Amazon began scraping competitors’ websites in search of any product offered anywhere for less than it was on Amazon.com.



When it found one, Amazon’s website automatically matched it.



If that meant selling something for less than it cost them to procure it, so be it.&nbsp;



Amazon not only passed efficiency gains and cost savings on to customers, it sold products at a loss to force itself to get more efficient and find more cost savings.



It’s not the only way to run a business, of course.



Luxury goods makers like <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;sca_esv=97ba584d5f1b9119&amp;rls=en&amp;q=Herm%C3%A8s&amp;si=AMgyJEv4SzCgky5yjH-2ngoVwLJNIjQ20h2ebpIlCJ5wxSO-Qx_2EPeWqq0TYK-Xm1muFNvu1f6ywfB6ehtxTtb715Q2lvCODiVz61pzQ_Be_Axg4xTi0jMmUdQ38421Ng70QptUnA9x&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjW3MPlkeCOAxUzJNAFHUuoM_IQ_coHegQIGhAE&amp;ictx=0">Hermès</a> keep prices artificially high to create a sense of exclusivity, for example, and Nvidia prioritizes sky-high profit margins so it can plow the profits back into R&amp;D.



It isn’t always a good way to run a business, either.



Companies like WebVan and MoviePass prioritized low prices, but failed because they couldn&#8217;t find enough efficiencies or cost savings to make the prices sustainable.



(MoviePass is now trying again with higher prices.)



Even McDonald’s, famous for its meal deals, has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/mcdonalds-value-inflation-fast-food-38611481?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAhGtk_GbUniCuqsA1L_pwpFtFDgIvJXEkpnWcail_XP0UJWFhGwCbzvIsPz_nY%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68877bd6&amp;gaa_sig=rwDgMCmFJp4Nz-Jy4IDBdvsR0XcyFhaAKPFSqwY2kcUVgGHWwI1RWQ74ebX3tJv1yFHgMyrj-VaPhcevl6bfcQ%3D%3D">recently struggled</a> to keep prices low enough to maintain its reputation for value.&nbsp;



One way to frame this dynamic is that some companies choose to have low margins (as part of a business strategy), while others are forced to have low margins (because they&#8217;re in a bad business).



As a rule of thumb, you want to invest in companies that have low margins by choice and not by necessity.



That might be a good way to think about layer-one blockchains, as well.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">If you raise the effing MEV…</h2>



It’s not particularly expensive to create blockspace, so there’s no obvious reason why blockchains should have pricing power.



Kyle Samani, for example, <a href="https://youtu.be/qZq6bxfVQBE?si=ZcEuIjrVC-7JtUvC&amp;utm_source=mail.blockworks.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=crypto-s-enduring-mystery-why-l1-blockchains-have-value">thinks</a> blockchain fees will ultimately be close enough to zero that maximal extractable value (MEV) will become the sole reason layer-1 blockchain tokens have value.



MEV is the profit earned by validators who have the right to order the transactions in any given block, and on Solana, virtually all MEV is captured with software that’s created by Jito Labs.



Validators run Jito’s software to optimize MEV extraction and to share those profits with the SOL holders who’ve staked their tokens with them.



Now, however, a new Jito processing system — the Block Assembly Marketplace (or BAM) — will shift some MEV capture from the Solana blockchain to the applications running on top of it.



To me, this sounds a lot like Costco choosing to forgo profits in order to pass efficiency gains through to customers.



“BAM could lead to a reduction in topline revenue for the Jito DAO and SOL token holders,” <a href="https://x.com/0xcarlosg">Carlos Gonzalez Campo</a> wrote in a <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/flashnotes/jito-bam-near-term-headwinds-for-sol-and-jto">recent report</a> for Blockworks Research.



Even in an asset class that doesn’t worry much about revenue, this should probably give token holders pause: “The shift to app-specific sequencing,” the report continues, “raises questions about the economics of the network.”



But Campo believes this is ultimately for the best: “By enabling apps to internalize transaction sequencing, Jito is acting as a good steward for the [Solana] network, despite forgoing meaningful incremental revenue in the short- to medium-term.”



He still expects Solana’s revenue to rise over the next year because “the increase in aggregate demand” should offset lower fees per transaction.



But this appears to be a defensive measure: “A significant motivator behind BAM is that Solana is losing the perps race to Hyperliquid.”



Sinegal might not be impressed. Adopting the Costco model would mean relentlessly pursuing efficiencies and then passing the savings through to customers as a matter of course, not just in response to a new competitive threat.



Sam Walton preached “everyday low prices,” regardless of what the competition was doing.



But if lowering fees at the expense of short-term profits becomes part of Solana’s culture, it could work out well for token holders. An investment portfolio of just Walmart, Costco and Amazon would have outperformed just about everything over the past 30 years or so.



Their “shared efficiencies” business model is not for everyone, however, because selling hot dog combos for $1.50 is a tough business.



And what’s made Costco great isn’t just that it’s managed it — it’s that it chose to.



If Solana is also a business, is it the kind that can choose to sacrifice profitability?&nbsp;



Or is it the kind that has to?



We might soon find out.



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What blockchain investors can learn from Costco

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For some time now, Solana&#8217;s pitch <a href="https://www.solanaroadmap.com">has hinged</a> on the levers of bandwidth and latency.



However, as we&#8217;ve seen from the limitations of high-frequency trading systems and the often uneven performance of existing onchain order books, high throughput and sub-second finality alone are likely insufficient to support the future of global markets.



While that may sound counterintuitive for a chain built on speed, it&#8217;s now emerging as the core thesis of a new, community-authored roadmap that lays out how Solana can become the backbone for internet capital markets.



Released last week, this <a href="https://www.anza.xyz/blog/the-internet-capital-markets-roadmap">new roadmap</a> was co-authored by Anatoly Yakovenko (Solana Labs), Max Resnick (Anza), Lucas Bruder (Jito Labs), Austin Federa (DoubleZero), Chris Heaney (Drift) and Kyle Samani (Multicoin Capital).



They argue that in addition to solving for bandwidth and latency, the network <a href="https://x.com/solana/status/1948432399333044621">must also account </a>for market microstructure.



Solana wants to be the best place to build — not just for liquidity and scale, but for custom markets themselves. To do that, it needs to let applications control the rules of their own transaction sequencing.



The roadmap <a href="https://x.com/anza_xyz/status/1948408290112889240">proposes</a> a shift toward application-controlled execution (ACE), a model that would give smart contracts granular control over how trades are ordered and settled.



ACE breaks with the single-leader norm in favor of programmable execution environments and multiple concurrent validators.



Combined with infrastructure upgrades like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jito-upgrade-block-assembly-marketplace">Jito&#8217;s Block Assembly Marketplace</a> (BAM), the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-exec-founds-internet-depin">DoubleZero</a> fiber network and the upcoming <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-alpenglow-next-gen-consensus-layer-speed">Alpenglow consensus engine</a>, Solana apps will soon be able to define bespoke order-matching rules designed to rival Wall Street systems.



BAM, rolling out in late July, <a href="https://x.com/jito_sol/status/1947293546182025551">enables</a> apps to integrate custom sequencing logic — effectively delivering ACE today via a decentralized, TEE-powered network. It turns Solana blockspace into a programmable sandbox where developers can ship tailored order flow logic without forking clients or cutting BD deals with validators.



DoubleZero, currently <a href="https://x.com/doublezero/status/1947730722380227061">live on testnet</a> with over 100 validators and 3% of mainnet stake, reduces latency and jitter across the network by replacing the public internet with a multicast fiber backbone. It&#8217;s expected to go live on mainnet in mid-September.



Alpenglow, currently slated for late 2025 or early 2026, <a href="https://x.com/anza_xyz/status/1924491939040133515">finalizes</a> blocks in ~150ms and simplifies Solana&#8217;s consensus logic to support faster execution and future features, such as MCL and async program execution (APE).



By these <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F6YKiC1MI4">powers combined</a> — along with MCL, which introduces multiple simultaneous leaders — developers will be able to build high-performance markets without relying on good validator behavior or suffering from the single-leader bottleneck.



If successfully executed, the post’s authors believe that Solana apps will offer fairer, faster and more transparent trading, closer to a CEX experience but without compromising decentralization. Devs will unlock permissionless experimentation with tools like speed bumps, quote protection and order privacy. And for institutions, it will open the door to globally synchronized, composable liquidity onchain.



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