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.

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

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 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. 

John is the Editor of Evergreen Content at Blockworks. Before Blockworks, he was the producer and founder of an explainer studio called Best Explained. As Evergreen Editor, he manages the production of explainers, guides and all educational content for anything crypto related. He is passionate about making digital asset education more accessible for degens and fence-sitters alike. Contact John at john@blockworks.co

John Woods is the CTO of the Algorand Foundation, which supports Algorand’s rapidly growing ecosystem by providing a best-in-class developer environment, supporting key infrastructure and setting technical standards, offering comprehensive support to builders and entrepreneurs, and providing the framework for decentralized governance.

Prior to joining the leadership team at Algorand, John worked as Chief Architect of Cardano at IOHK. He has held roles leading software architecture and applied cryptography at a number of firms including Informatica, ConsenSys and Central Bank of Ireland.

John Wu is President of Ava Labs, an Andresseen Horowitz backed technology company building the next-generation blockchain platform: Avalanche. John’s objective is to open up financial services and products to all. In this role, he leverages his expertise from over 20 years as a fintech executive and technology investor to create a blockchain-enabled solution for originating, issuing, and trading financial assets.  

Jeff Albus

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



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Every great innovation starts with a problem. For Solana, the issue was obvious. Blockchains were too slow, expensive and unapproachable for mainstream adoption. Ethereum struggled with congestion, Bitcoin was too rigid for complex applications, and no one else had made any meaningful strides to address the scalability problem. For one engineer, this would become an all-consuming technical challenge, leading him on a mission to build his own decentralized network capable of processing transactions at internet speed.



In 2017, Anatoly Yakovenko, a seasoned Qualcomm engineer, turned his attention to Web3. He was drawn by its potential to decentralize finance and reshape the internet. While the technology was promising, blockchain had begun to atrophy under a fatal flaw after nearly 10 years of relative triumph: It was too slow to scale. This inefficiency was a fundamental bottleneck. It was clearly preventing mass adoption in fields like real-time gaming, decentralized finance, physical infrastructure networks, AI inference and autonomous machine coordination.



The issue was that blockchains lacked a built-in clock. Each node in a decentralized system confirmed transactions sequentially, requiring network-wide agreement before finalization. This&nbsp; process was sluggish, and it made blockchain unfit for high-speed applications. Yakovenko’s breakthrough came with the introduction of proof-of-history (PoH), a conceptual cryptographic method that timestamps transactions before they enter the block, creating a verifiable sequence of events.



Unlike traditional validation — where nodes process transactions in sequence — PoH enabled simultaneous processing. This innovation was rocket fuel for efficiency, unlocking unprecedented throughput and eliminating congestion. Yakovenko assembled a team of engineers, including Greg Fitzgerald (also from Qualcomm) and Raj Gokal. They founded Solana Labs in 2018, inspired by the California beach town where Yakovenko spent time surfing.



In its early days, Solana Labs was bootstrapped through private fundraising rounds and raised approximately $20 million from venture capitalists and early crypto investors. The team built and tested a prototype network, proving PoH’s potential with benchmarks demonstrating over 50,000 transactions per second — many orders of magnitude faster than Ethereum and Bitcoin.



Solana officially launched its mainnet beta in March 2020, right as the Covid-19 pandemic sent global markets into chaos. Despite the timing, the network gained traction among developers and investors attracted to its promise of high-speed, low-cost transactions. The ability to process transactions for fractions of a cent made it an ideal platform for DeFi applications, gaming platforms and a multitude of experimental decentralized tools — all of which had, up until that point, been constrained by Ethereum’s slow speeds and high gas fees.



In June 2021, Solana Labs secured a $314 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital. The legitimacy this runway brought the ecosystem allowed for rapid expansion and innovation. Solana soon became home to Serum (a DEX), Raydium (an AMM liquidity provider), Mango Markets (a margin trading protocol) and more. The end of 2021 saw the Solana price surge to highs of $260 — up from $0.50 just 18 months before — cementing its status as a top-five cryptocurrency by market cap. Investor confidence soared, and Solana’s momentum appeared unstoppable. By the end of 2021, Solana had evolved from an ambitious experiment into a major force within the crypto space. However, beneath its meteoric rise lay unseen challenges that would soon test the network’s resilience and stability. Next time: The fall. How the collapse of one of crypto’s biggest players sent shockwaves through the Web3 ecosystem, and why many believed Solana wouldn’t survive.



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



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



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



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



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Solana’s origins: Turning an idea into reality

Ben Strack

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



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Grayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products. A recent Cardano ETF filing signals that could be changing as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power">regulatory winds shift</a>.



The company typically first goes with private placement launches for accredited investors (like the Dogecoin Trust it launched a couple weeks ago).



Step two is obtaining public quotations for unrestricted shares of those private placements.



Grayscale then makes its products SEC-reporting companies, subjecting them to more disclosure and regulatory oversight.&nbsp;



Finally, it looks to uplist its products to an ETF when the regulatory environment allows for it (think last year’s conversions of GBTC and ETHE).



“Given the environment is rapidly evolving before our eyes, there may now be a few shortcuts appearing,” said Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Indeed, Grayscale appears to be skipping these steps in its quest to launch an ETF holding cardano (ADA). See NYSE’s 19b-4 filing for listing the planned product <a href="https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/markets/nyse-arca/rule-filings/filings/2025/SR-NYSEArca-2025-12.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp;



Grayscale does not currently have a trust holding ADA. And so, the direct filing for an ETF could signal optimism the SEC “is now open for business” and could move quickly to approve more spot crypto funds beyond bitcoin and ether, Geraci said.



The firm did not return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Various fund managers have live proposals for ETFs holding litecoin, solana, XRP and other crypto assets. We recently reported on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/litecoin-etf-approval-odds-2025">the possible odds</a> of those launching this year.



To Geraci’s point, Bryan Armour, a director of passive strategies research at Morningstar, said he expects Grayscale to file directly for ETFs if the firm expects approval. The private trust/OTC route only makes sense if funds holding those assets are deemed “unavailable” from a regulatory standpoint, he added.



Geraci doesn’t exactly agree on that second point.&nbsp;



From a competition perspective, Geraci explained, he likes the idea of Grayscale bringing a private placement offering to market first (like it did with its latest DOGE Trust).



“It offers them the ability to get a head start on attracting assets prior to converting into an ETF,” he explained. “They can essentially front-run the competition.”



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



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



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



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



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Planned Cardano ETF signals a Grayscale strategy shift?

Casey Wagner

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



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President Trump released a fresh batch of cabinet nominations late last week and among them are two names familiar to the crypto industry: Brian Quintenz and Jonathan Gould.



Quintenz is being tapped to run the CFTC and Gould is Trump’s pick for comptroller of the currency. Neither nomination hearing has been scheduled yet.&nbsp;



Quintenz served under Trump as a CFTC commissioner from 2017 to 2021. Most recently he’s been the policy lead at a16z crypto. Republican Commissioner Caroline Pham, also seen as a crypto advocate, has led the agency since Trump’s inauguration.&nbsp;



Quintenz mentioned crypto in a post on X last week thanking Trump for selecting him.&nbsp;



“The agency is also well poised to ensure the USA leads the world in blockchain technology and innovation,” Quintez wrote. “I look forward to working with President Trump’s incredible financial regulatory team.”



“Looking forward to more SEC-CFTC cooperation,” SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce replied, adding that “this time” the agencies will <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-sec-crypto-task-force">focus on crypto</a>.&nbsp;



Gould most recently practiced at Jones Day, a law firm that has represented Trump’s campaign. He served at the OCC as chief legal officer during Trump’s first term.&nbsp;



Prior to Jones Day, Gould had a brief stint as the chief legal officer of Bitfury, a crypto infrastructure company.&nbsp;



The crypto industry is fired up for a few reasons. First, these are two major positions in the financial regulation space — a space that in recent years has taken a harsh approach to crypto.&nbsp;



The OCC specifically supervises US banks, a sector of the financial industry many crypto companies have felt ignored by. These frustrations were brought to light during recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/congress-crypto-regulation-updates">Congressional hearings</a> unpacking so-called “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/operation-choke-point-2-0">Operation Chokepoint 2.0</a>.”&nbsp;



Much of the crypto industry has also recently advocated for Congress to give more power to the CFTC to oversee the crypto industry. With Republicans in control of both chambers, this could be the year a market structure bill makes it over the finish line. Plus, Peirce’s comments signal that the agencies are not looking to get involved in a turf war.



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



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



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



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



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Latest Trump nominees have ties to crypto 

David Canellis

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



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In The Prestige, Michael Caine’s character John Cutter is a veteran illusion architect who knows how the magic sausage is made better than most.



As it goes, there are three parts to every great magic trick. And it actually runs analogous to LIBRA, the colossal screwup of a memecoin initially endorsed by renegade Argentine president Javier Milei.



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>“The Pledge” involves the magician showing the audience something ordinary, like a deck of cards, or in crypto’s case, a Solana memecoin.</li>
</ol>



<ol start="2" class="wp-block-list">
<li>“The Turn” sees the magician take that ordinary thing and make it do something extraordinary — like disappear (in LIBRA’s case, pump to a $4.5 billion market cap).</li>
</ol>



<ol start="3" class="wp-block-list">
<li>“The Prestige” involves returning the thing from the ether to complete the illusion. “Because making something disappear isn&#8217;t enough; you have to bring it back.”</li>
</ol>



LIBRA is stuck between stage two and three. After doing 20x in its first hour alongside Milei’s endorsement, LIBRA spectacularly crashed 97% over the next seven and is yet to rebound in any meaningful way.



The bulk of the collapse occurred as project insiders dumped upwards of $87 million worth of LIBRA, as tracked by Bubblemaps, leading Milei to distance himself from the project and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/world/americas/argentina-milei-crypto-trump.html">order an official investigation</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24LIBRA&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$LIBRA</a> TEAM IS CASHING OUT They already made $87M by removing USDC and SOL from liquidity pools <a href="https://t.co/hRGnRPTDiE">https://t.co/hRGnRPTDiE</a> <a href="https://t.co/aiDmODKi6o">pic.twitter.com/aiDmODKi6o</a>&mdash; Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) <a href="https://twitter.com/bubblemaps/status/1890567816752873794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Instead of illusion ingénieur John Cutter spilling the beans on magic, we have memecoin fixer Hayden Davis, also known as Kelsier, telling us exactly what occurs behind the curtain.



Davis, in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqizJTbxAEM">interview</a> with Coffeezilla overnight, described himself as the “launch strategist” for LIBRA, MELANIA and others. He says he’s now fearing for his safety and is unsure of what to do with all the money.



As Davis put it, anyone launching a memecoin in 2025 must fight against unseen forces that nobody has figured out how to beat: onchain snipers who will bid up fresh memecoins at the drop of a hat, only to dump them soon after on anyone buying into the pump they created, usually killing the project in the process.



Which is why Davis opted to snipe LIBRA and MELANIA first — max bidding tokens on the way up and unloading them on the way down, with the supposed intention to rebuy the token once again after the initial wave of external snipers had unloaded their clips.



“Every single time, the snipers walk away with $80 million, $100 million, $200 million, and they just disappear. Meanwhile, the project gets blamed, and so do I,” Davis told Coffeezilla.



&#8220;So do I think that sniping is the most ethical thing in the world? No. But do I think that anyone has figured out a better way to deal with it? Also no. If anyone has a better solution, I’d love to hear it. But nobody has given me one.&#8221;



It all makes fertile ground for an insider cabal to profit in secret, while the general public — albeit cognizant that they’re gambling in an onchain casino — is largely unaware of the rules of the game.



Davis, if he were Michael Caine starring in a crypto version of The Prestige, would say that the restorative third act LIBRA would involve imbuing it with some utility, magically turning it from empty memecoin into “SocialFi” offering with some intrinsic value.



“Like, imagine if you had big influencers, big figures like Dave (Portnoy) getting involved, and these tokens started cross-promoting each other, burning tokens, adding utility,” Davis said. “Then maybe there’s an actual chance that these projects could become part of a real SocialFi ecosystem.&#8221;&nbsp;



Dave Portnoy actually lost $5 million trading LIBRA, which Davis says he directly refunded shortly after.



<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">For the record I could care less that people know Hayden paid me back. I was fully planning on saying it on the live stream but he caught me off guard by texting me in the middle of it and asking me not to mention it. You can actually see my eyes read the text in real time… <a href="https://t.co/DR4pqpDKhS">pic.twitter.com/DR4pqpDKhS</a>&mdash; Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) <a href="https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1891285564713836830?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



In the meantime, Davis, who said he still believes Milei will turn back around and endorse the token again, says he’s holding onto the extracted capital as leverage as investigations start to play out.



Perhaps stranger things have happened, but maintaining the illusion of an impending climactic third act goes one step further than Sam Bankman-Fried did in his now-historic <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/sam-bankman-fried-described-yield-farming-and-left-matt-levine-stunned">interview</a> with Money Stuff’s Matt Levine in April 2022 — about eight months before his arrest.



Bankman-Fried had described yield farming tokens in matter-of-fact terms — black boxes that do “literally nothing” but were dressed up to look like a “life-changing, world-altering protocol that’s gonna replace all the big banks in 38 days or whatever.”



The more money was piled into those completely useless boxes, the higher token valuations went, making headway for early participants to massively profit off of newer entrants. That left Levine to summarize Bankman-Fried’s position as: “I&#8217;m in the Ponzi business and it&#8217;s pretty good.”



For what it’s worth, The Prestige dramatically ends with gruesome details about the lengths to which two magicians went to maintain their “disappearing man” illusions: a mass grave of drowned clones in one instance, and a wife that chose suicide over living with the deceit of being duped by her husband and his secret twin brother.



If crypto can’t move on from these types of predatory token launches, then its future could end up even gorier — tight regulation of memecoin launchpads by way of a US government agency. Yeuch.



Fingers crossed that it’s possible for Davis’ interview with Coffeezilla to be the deathknell for these types of memecoins, in the same way that the Bankman-Fried chat largely put an end to high emission yield farming.&nbsp;



I’m not sure crypto wants to be fooled anymore.



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



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



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



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LIBRA showed us how the memecoin sausage is made — it’s gross

Jack Kubinec

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



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Solana is in love with memecoins, and it just got a Valentine’s Day gift.



The Solana memecoin launchpad pump.fun released a mobile app this morning, representing the viral platform’s first major update since it <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pumpdotfun-suspends-livestream-feature">disabled livestreams</a> in November. It’s further confirmation that apps users can play with on their phones are becoming table stakes for crypto projects, roughly a month after Donald Trump embraced a mobile memecoin app for his <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-memecoins-rock-solana">token launch</a>.



Perhaps true to form for a platform initially dubbed 4chan for memecoins, pump.fun mobile is a bit rough around the edges. The app’s onboarding process is quite smooth — I entered my email, and pump created a crypto wallet for me, courtesy of Privy — but I found it hard to land transactions without manually adjusting my priority fee and slippage.&nbsp;



By the time I got my transaction through on a dog-themed Valentine’s Day memecoin, early buyers had already nuked the chart to go invest in fresher tokens, and I was left holding a big bag of worthless dogwifrose.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcoOFc4I3lceVrDG41Y0T4fCJhJAWlAxf2u3Xli9Ikxt38hE_nYymGIsLoYaodAxSYlQRFmG_y-QuIfr6fRYWc-SIEWObsTw7YxOOe2STHlYVn41eylE982i2sjH731j3Slcg9xHA?key=tuvzs0i8J4eYRURHd5aQRSro" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Transactions failing as I tried to buy a memecoin called dogwifrose</figcaption></figure>



The app’s early users seem to be facing some of the same struggles. Pump.fun has a 2.5 star rating on Apple’s App Store and a 2.1 star rating on the Google Play Store (as a note, many of these reviews came before today’s public launch).&nbsp;



“Is it my internet or [is] the pumpfun app kinda slow,” one user asked on X.&nbsp;



Pump.fun going mobile doesn’t seem to be driving much new usage on day one. The platform has seen 27,000 token launches today, according to a Dune dashboard, which is currently down from a range of 48,000-54,000 daily token launches earlier this week.&nbsp;



Still, a mobile app is a longer-term play, and longtime readers of Lightspeed know that we have learned better than to bet against pump.fun’s continued success. A little more than a year after first launching, the platform has <a href="https://dune.com/adam_tehc/pumpfun">generated</a> around $548 million in revenue.  My gut tells me that to take the mantle from Moonshot — the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/jupiter-majority-stake-moonshot">Trump-favored and Jupiter-owned</a> mobile memecoin app — pump.fun will have to fix the mobile transaction landing woes, even if that means giving users slightly worse prices. Retail users hoping to hit a 100x trade likely wouldn’t be too rankled by a few extra percentage points of slippage if that means their transactions are actually making it to the blockchain.



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Pump.fun releases mobile app

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



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President Trump yesterday said his team is off to the races with reciprocal tariffs. Advisers have been instructed to come up with new tariff levels that consider fees and taxes placed on US exports.&nbsp;



The timeline is a bit uncertain. But Commerce Secretary nominee <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-nominates-commerce-dept-leader">Howard Lutnick</a> said the studies may be completed by early April. Lutnick, if confirmed, will work with the office of the US Trade Representative on establishing the new levies.&nbsp;



The import taxes, Trump said, will be designed on a country-by-country basis in order to offset tariffs on US exports and non-tariffs barriers, like exchange rates and value-added taxes.&nbsp;



Markets took Trump’s announcement well, a sign that his comments were not as bad as investors had feared, or at the very least it’s going to take several weeks for tariffs to be implemented. The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both reversed midway through Thursday’s session to close 1% and 1.3% higher, respectively.&nbsp;



The uncertainty around the nature of the tariffs and when they may start is going to leave investors uneasy. But generally, we expect talk of tariffs — and therefore market impact — to die down a bit over the few weeks while advisers conduct their trade studies.&nbsp;



In the meantime, it’s primarily going to be data moving markets. Next week we’ll get some key manufacturing numbers as well as the minutes from the Fed’s FOMC meeting last month, both of which will be useful in determining how long the interest rate-cutting cycle may be paused.



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



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Reciprocal tariffs may be coming, but markets don’t care much just yet 

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



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When Coinbase reports its quarterly results, crypto and TradFi investors alike tend to tune in.&nbsp;



COIN, after all, is, in the words of Oppenheimer analysts, a gateway for customers to access Web3 given its “leading and focused position in crypto, which benefits the company as onchain becomes the new online.”



And it’s public — unlike some others <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ipos-bringing-back-retail">waiting their turn</a>.&nbsp;



Onto the results from yesterday: The crypto exchange’s $2.2 billion of net revenue last quarter was up 143% year over year.



That was $305 million above Oppenheimer analysts’ estimate.



Transaction revenue was nearly $1.6 billion, a 172% increase from Q3. So-called subscription and services revenue grew 15% over that span, to $641 million.



The biggest surprise, Oppenheimer’s Owen Lau told me, was the higher-than-expected participation from the retail segment — showing such users are “gradually coming back.” See, for example, the “consumer” line in the chart below.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeWr-jn1FRkgNWITopySCbliiuEXeyLGEJSWnWOmv9gdlroXdqEw0R_XCJQdmmEZHpPdsSsJW4bk9D_HbhZ7i7QxyXKv_UjB9miz4OvdA6cjqNYeR3a2EP_kUliQ70dkU03JCjVeQ?key=pR55TriNLz_IB-A4BWeYJbgp" alt=""/></figure>



Sure, this was during a quarter where <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-all-time-high">bitcoin</a> and a number of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-sets-all-time-high-of-263">other</a> crypto assets hit all-time highs following the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/donald-trump-declared-president-2024-election">victory</a> of Donald Trump and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power">crypto-friendly</a> Congressional candidates.&nbsp;



But even as BTC has remained range-bound in recent weeks below its peak, Coinbase’s early 2025 numbers appear to be strong.



Its 2025 transaction revenue stood at $750 million as of Feb. 11, the company said. Coinbase is forecasting Q1 subscription and services revenue to slightly increase to between $685 million and $765 million.



On that point, Morningstar analyst Michael Miller said his eye will be on the exchange’s USDC revenue in Q1 given the stablecoin recently hitting an all-time high market cap.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I’ll be curious to see what a full quarter will look like at its scale and if USDC continues to take market share away from other stablecoins,” Miller told me.



COIN’s price was around $278 at 2 pm ET — down nearly 7% on the day.&nbsp;



Oppenheimer’s price target for the stock is $388, while Miller believes the shares are “overvalued” as, post-election, “the market is pricing in too much growth.”



You might recall one of Bitwise’s 10 predictions for 2025 was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-industry-predictions">Coinbase surpassing Charles Schwab</a> as the world’s most valuable brokerage. The asset manager said it expects its stock will top $700 per share, citing continued growth in its stablecoin business, L2 Base, and staking and custody services.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Bitwise senior investment strategist Juan Leon has this November 2023 tweet pinned:



<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">How can <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24COIN&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$COIN</a> get to $1,000 in this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/crypto?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#crypto</a> cycle? • 2023 Net Revenue Estimate: $2.6B • 2025 Net Revenue Estimate: $14.5B • 2023 Monthly Transacting Users Estimate: 8.5M • 2025 Monthly Transacting Users Estimate: 32M • 2023 Assets on Platform Estimate: $130B • 2025…&mdash; Juan Leon (@singularity7x) <a href="https://twitter.com/singularity7x/status/1729553963677053106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Another catalyst to watch for, Lau said, is COIN’s possible inclusion in the S&amp;P 500.&nbsp;



And then, you know, all the potential regulatory tailwinds that come from having a pro-crypto president, Congress and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-chair-nominee-crypto-past">SEC</a>. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said “it’s hard to overstate the significance of this change” given it is likely to pressure increased crypto adoption worldwide.&nbsp;



“Up to 10% of global GDP could be running on crypto rails by the end of this decade,” Armstrong said on Thursday’s earnings call — noting Coinbase will be “the preferred partner” due to its “trusted and scalable infrastructure with the longest track record.”



The company said it’s chatting with regulators and legislators to help shape US crypto regulation.



The chance of a stablecoin bill and digital asset market structure bill passing in the 119th Congress? Compass Point’s Ed Groshans, in a Friday note, said 75% and 60%, respectively.



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



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Coinbase Q4 takeaways, updated outlook

Donovan Choy

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



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The permissionless nature of crypto means anyone with a computer and internet connection can have a bag. That makes it really hard to value tokens.



Price-to-sales multiples of L1s like Cardano or Ripple trade at absurd four to five figure ranges, far above actual value-generating L1s like Solana (32x) and Ethereum (227x).



Then there are tokens like OM (who?) that are clocking in the highest price gains of 47.6% since the industry’s biggest liquidation earlier this month.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The best advice I can give crypto founders right now is to find the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24OM&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$OM</a> market maker and hire them. <a href="https://t.co/0NuazFN4N7">pic.twitter.com/0NuazFN4N7</a>&mdash; Lai Yuen (Former .eth) (@0xlaiyuen) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xlaiyuen/status/1888823059584602544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



No rational explanation exists. It’s all narrative and “speculative premiums.”



But is that going to stop investors from trying to formally value tokens? No, because there is a lot of money to be made from unearthing the gems.&nbsp;



In the short history of this industry, investors have <a href="https://youtu.be/aCHY9iPS8sI">tried to value</a> L1s with a variety of now-abandoned tools like the stock-to-flow model, total-value-locked to market cap ratios or proof-of-stake staking cash flow yields.



The latest shift in investor sentiment around token valuations is doubling down on an emphasis on the importance of fundamentals.



Maelstrom fund <a href="https://x.com/MaelstromFund/status/1889706122107338761">points</a> to Vertex perps DEX, arguing that markets are “underestimating” the DEX’s growth and that it “should” be trading at a 200% to 300% greater valuation in line with its peers.



1kxnetwork fund’s recently <a href="https://x.com/pet3rpan_/status/1887140527310864481">published</a> Ronin chain thesis points to the gaming chain’s deflationary burn of SLP, plus rising daily active users and breakout revenue-generating game Pixels ($20.7 million in 2024).



Applications like Raydium, Hyperliquid, Metaplex, GEODNET, and Jupiter are all trading at reasonably “rational” P/S ratios that are based on consistent cash flows and more measurable growth potential.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdXdgcWvGoqtpq_ESTlfJ9JukSDa8GGFbvuPles2tYtLJlUgD_lU5BXqQ7qTOsoEK1zrNsE51XT16BW8vVVmHlV5yCo2UMX3Y_88DSo9Sd4DGc5Bb3GJcyOc5JsV68WB6BGnEk-Qg?key=ttbwXyG5YLiXMxIfjc4w1cbH" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/artemis/status/1890162713244102993">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



Many of these projects are also engaging in huge token buybacks, often perceived as a “fundamentals-driven” strategy to improve the attractiveness of price multiples.



Jupiter’s token <a href="https://x.com/JupiterExchange/status/1890089764218630253">buyback</a> program may quite possibly be the largest (in USD terms) with a commitment of 50% protocol fees. That comes up to a buyback of ~9.4% of JUP’s total circulating supply, based on this rough <a href="https://x.com/alpha_pls/status/1883496465160458659">estimate</a>.



Supporting the point that “fundamentals are back” is also the ugly reality of declining L1/L2 valuations.



The fabled “Layer-1 premium” is slowly evaporating. L1s in the previous cycle like Starknet raised at eye-popping valuations of $8 billion, while newer L1s command less than half of those valuations (Berachain $420 million, Story Protocol $2.25 billion, Celestia $3.5 billion).



The <a href="https://x.com/Febers4/status/1889671466041614568">down-only price action</a> of most L1s/L2s in the last 12 months will likely grind future valuation numbers down even further.



Application revenues are also beginning to outpace the revenues of the underlying L1 and L2 protocols, Blockworks’ <a href="https://x.com/smyyguy/status/1890088127617987066">Dan Smith</a> points out.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXckuTfvYMVthDMuaxyo0WxSxozxN-4YZwPobsaPPaUmQcT4K2xIruQAn44yJA8BoUb5E6Zfje61ASi_i5aQkpFxQgaNovSof5RToq6Ni6pKsbnVvOBvhcSZ84MaeImh33tyn1u0?key=ttbwXyG5YLiXMxIfjc4w1cbH" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/l1">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



This all hinges on the growing disdain of the industry’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-infrastructure-bloat">infrastructure bloat</a>. The fat protocol thesis is no longer, now is the era of <a href="https://x.com/jon_charb/status/1890210333714960787?s=19">the fat app thesis</a>.



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Crypto fundamentals are back

Katherine Ross

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



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You don’t need to understand it to use it.&nbsp;



That’s Empire co-host Santiago Santos’ ideal situation in building Inversion Chain.&nbsp;



Confused? Think about the 1990s. Businesses used “.com” and — outside of the somewhat ridiculous Homes.com commercial we saw during the Super Bowl — dot com isn’t really used anymore. If you don’t believe me — or Santos — bring it up to your local Gen Zer and you’ll quickly see how out of tune it is.&nbsp;



Point being that the internet is just a part of doing business nowadays. And for Santos, crypto or crypto rails are following in the same path. He doesn’t need to market Inversion Chain to the masses. They won’t know of it unless they pay attention during transactions with potential projects like Helium.&nbsp;



But let me back up: For you lot, my goal is to ensure you understand it — even if you don’t need to.&nbsp;



Inversion Chain was announced by Santos this week, though he’s more or less been thinking about it since he left ParaFi over four years ago. Seven months ago, he started planning and now he’s hiring.



<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">It’s been inspiring seeing the reception to Inversion over the last 24 hours. Fired up So far almost everyone has rallied behind the vision and mission: build the best user acquisition channel for crypto and accelerate mainstream adoption. The mission transcends maximalism at…&mdash; Santiago R Santos (@santiagoroel) <a href="https://twitter.com/santiagoroel/status/1889905071888146727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



There isn’t a set timeline for launch just yet, though Santos told me the goal is “as soon as possible.”&nbsp;



The L1 will be built on Avalanche because, as Santos noted, it’s one of the only places to truly customize the chain for specific use cases and support that covers the gambit.&nbsp;



There are added bonuses, like permissioning your network at the validator, privacy, EVM compatibility and native interoperability as well.



Making his own chain was the clear path for Santos after looking around.



“Having our own chain lets us purposefully build a stack exactly to the specs of the businesses that we acquire and really allows us to go tailor-made,” he explained. “I believe in a multi-chain world.”



Right now, we’re not keeping users. As Santos pointed out to me, folks are coming on chain through an exchange with some sort of speculation in mind — and that’s not totally a bad thing, given that there’ll be room for speculation in crypto (just like there’s room for speculation in stocks), but the goal is to retain users and show them to use cases crypto has to offer.&nbsp;



Which is where Santos hopes we end up, with people not having to think twice about the crypto of it all.&nbsp;



“I think we’re selling ourselves short as an industry, and we can lead. The focus is very specific: You lead with a core service like mobile and FinTech — and when I say FinTech, it really is a stablecoin,” Santos explained.&nbsp;



“My singular focus is to create an onboarding acquisition channel for the next 100, 200, 500 million users that will come onchain.”



Sounds pretty bullish to me. Something Santos explained to co-host Jason Yanowitz on this <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/d5b1522c-eaa5-11ef-a4ec-5ff0abfd24ce">morning’s Empire Round Up</a> — was his idea of building Berkshire on-chain.



Santos explained that the analogy “would be what AOL did at the peak of the .com bubble. The stock was quite inflated, so what did they do? They go and acquire Time Warner, a real business,” he said.



“And I think the role [of] the foundations is to really accelerate the adoption of crypto, the uptake. I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;re being strategic enough. The opportunity here is to use, eventually, that Treasury value in a very strategic manner to go and acquire businesses and anchor them to the chain and activate that user base to come on chain,” he continued.&nbsp;



If executed properly, then Santos thinks that the flywheel for the economic activity on that chain is one where you&#8217;re going out and continuously acquiring more businesses, bringing on more users, and that generates” more and more activity.&nbsp;



Bringing it back to Berkshire: For Santos it’s creating an operable base from which you can go and explore other ways to not only be profitable but also not be front and center for the userbase.&nbsp;



If you’re not following along, think about how Warren Buffett does things (and put aside your thoughts about him from an anti-crypto perspective). He goes and finds potentially successful investments but it’s not like we necessarily interact with Berkshire itself on any given day as customers.&nbsp;



They exist in the background, as necessary as your shadow.



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



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Exclusive: Inversion Chain’s plan to be the Berkshire of crypto

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



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Outside of L1s, this was also a big week for token announcements.&nbsp;



OpenSea <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opensea-announces-token-and-open-beta">teased</a> SEA and a new platform, and Doodle’s <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/340760/nft-brand-doodles-to-launch-solana-based-token-called-dood">plans</a> to launch its own token.&nbsp;



Does it mean that NFTs are back? Eh. But for <a href="https://thedrop.beehiiv.com/subscribe">The Drop’s</a> Kate Irwin, it’s a vibes booster for people, one that’s perhaps necessary right now.



(ICYMI: The Drop is our newest newsletter, and I’ve been following Irwin’s reporting in Web3 and gaming for a few years now.)



She and I chatted about the tokens and OpenSea’s OS2 and she explained that there’s another part to this: XP, which is not a token but is earnable and is “core” to the OS2 rewards program.&nbsp;



“There&#8217;s a lot of other moving pieces as well, besides just the token, which is exciting, because then it&#8217;s not a memecoin. It&#8217;s actually a utility token that has a place in the OpenSea ecosystem,” she added.&nbsp;



Phew. Nice to have an announcement not focused on memecoins.



My big thing is whether or not this comes a little too late. When Irwin and I chatted this through, she made the sage point that this could be simply because OpenSea was worried about the potential regulatory issues that could arise (they were served with a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-issues-wells-notice-opensea-nfts">Wells notice after all</a>) and now, well, that’s no longer a problem.



But, unfortunately for OpenSea, they are following in Magic Eden’s footsteps after it <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/magic-eden-airdrops-me-token">launched a token first</a>. It, notably, hasn’t dulled the excitement around OS2 or SEA though.  This could also be the beginning of a new wave of tokens, Irwin noted — especially because there is an appetite for tokens that have actual utility and not just speculation.



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



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OpenSea and Doodle token teasers are a potential vibes booster for crypto

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



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When it comes to crypto adoption, we’ve repeatedly heard how much room there is to run.&nbsp;



If you took a liquor shot every time someone said “early innings” at a crypto conference, you’d have trouble walking a straight line out of there. The need for “more education” is another phrase we hear ad nauseam.



But a recent CoinShares survey of financial advisers confirmed some of this, with specifics. We referenced one stat from it in yesterday’s edition (79% saying their role is shifting to risk management as clients invest in crypto on their own).



There are a few more worth pointing to. CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said he was perhaps most struck by a belief 62% of advisers hold: Recommending bitcoin doesn’t align with their obligation to act in their client’s best interest.



“This highlights a significant perception gap between regulatory approval, client demand and advisers&#8217; fiduciary concerns,” he told me.&nbsp;



Then there was the 55% who said recommending digital assets would harm their reputation with colleagues. This, Mognetti explained, “underscores the cultural and institutional barriers that still exist within traditional financial circles.”



It wasn’t long ago that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/matt-hougan-crypto-reputational-risk">Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argued</a> Trump’s election win and a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power">pro-crypto Congress</a> “removes the last vestige of reputational risk from crypto.”



Not everyone feels that way apparently, even with 85% of the advisers that CoinShares surveyed saying their organization’s sentiment toward crypto (and how they’re advising clients) changed since the election.



Another fascinating finding: Gen Z and Millennial advisers are more likely to think recommending speculative assets doesn’t align with their fiduciary duty — and to say that “threats outpace innovation.”



While this younger demographic is often more open to digital assets, they also seem to face “stronger resistance from more established industry norms and colleagues,” Mognetti said.



Back to the education point: Though 71% say their firm is educating them on crypto, 84% are likely to pay for such education (mostly via online courses and conferences).



Also, 43% of advisers cite crypto platforms publishing biased information as a barrier. So maybe read Forward Guidance instead.



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Advisers on crypto: Takeaways from another survey

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Robotics and crowdsourced data startup Frodobots has raised $6 million in seed funding to create BitRobot, which will be a Solana-based embodied AI research network.



BitRobot will aim to connect different subgroups in robotics research using a shared token and network to solve resource allocation and data scarcity. Protocol VC led the funding round, which also drew participation from Big Brain Holdings, Solana Ventures, Virtuals Protocol and Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, among others. Frodobots previously also raised $2 million in pre-seed funding.



Frodobots started out building sidewalk robots that slowly trawled global city streets to build giant crowdsourced datasets including things like audio, video and GPS data. The project aims to add token incentivization to become part of the decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) movement.&nbsp;



Over the past several months, however, Frodobots’ ambitions have widened: The lab’s co-founder Michael Chung Yeung Cho said the goal is now to launch BitRobot and “solve embodied AI.” Frodobots will be a subnet in the BitRobot network.



“If we were to be successful, we would be on par with the Teslas and the DeepMinds of the world,” Cho said, adding that the new project would help generate a “series of really performant foundational robotics models that can be deployed across all kinds of robots.”



The problem, Cho and his co-founder Jonathan Victor explained, is that rich robotics data is scarce, and robot developers are working on subsets of a bigger shared problem. Large language models have the entire internet to train on, Victor said, but most robotics businesses outside of Tesla’s self-driving unit are “starting effectively from zero.”



That’s partly because while a new AI model, for instance, could be benchmarked digitally in an hour, robotics faces the bottleneck of having to test products in the real world. You can’t know if a self-driving car really works until you drive it for a trillion miles, Cho said.



BitRobot will create a shared network of “subnets” so that pooled resources and data can more efficiently create robotics data. Humans, fleets of humanoid robots and Frodobots’ sidewalk bots are example subnets, according to a document shared with Blockworks.



With BitRobot, massive amounts of resources could be shifted between researchers based on need, and a DePIN token reward system could align the economic incentives. There is also cross-embodiment learning, which suggests that AI models trained on one type of robot — such as a robotic arm — can effectively transfer learned skills to entirely different robotic systems, like drones or wheeled robots. This works because many robotic tasks share core design needs.



A white paper containing more details on BitRobot, as well as the project’s tokenomics, will be released in a few weeks.



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Frodobots raises $6M for Solana-based robotics network

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



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President Trump’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-appoints-crypto-council-head">crypto advisory council</a>, established by <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-vs-biden-crypto-orders">executive order</a> during his first week in office, may not be shaping up to be exactly what the industry had envisioned.&nbsp;



<a href="https://unchainedcrypto.com/trump-is-having-second-thoughts-about-his-crypto-council/">Unchained</a> reported yesterday that the council may be scrapped altogether. In its place, according to unnamed sources, the Trump team would organize “policy summits” to discuss legislation with industry stakeholders.&nbsp;



I’ve also heard that policy summits are on the table. Two other sources familiar with the matter told me that if there’s an advisory council at all, it would likely be made up of government employees rather than industry executives.&nbsp;



It’s no secret that a lot of people wanted roles on that council. The <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/04/business/everyone-in-crypto-begging-for-a-spot-on-trump-advisory-council/">NY Post</a> reported there were at one point two dozen seats up for grabs, although I haven’t been able to confirm that figure.&nbsp;



What I’m hearing: Trump’s team is trying to avoid having too many cooks in the kitchen.&nbsp;



On the one hand, they’re in a tough spot. They want to avoid alienating certain sections of the industry —&nbsp;many of which were big donors during the campaign — but the act of bringing everyone together will lead to inter-industry conflict. Enter the “policy summit” pitch.&nbsp;



It wouldn’t be unprecedented. The House Financial Services GOP retreat earlier this month featured a 45-minute presentation and Q&amp;A with a16z’s Chris Dixon, according to people familiar. Industry execs and lobbyists are on the Hill all the time trying to inform policy.&nbsp;



We’ll be monitoring the council situation. You just monitor your inbox.



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The advisory council that may not be 

Felix Jauvin

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



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A lot has changed in the six months since the Fed decided to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/treasury-yields-on-the-rise">cut rates</a>.&nbsp;



If we rewind back to September, things looked very different:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The unemployment rate was looking weak and had surged to 4.2%, triggering the Sahm rule and causing a cacophony of concerns that a recession was imminent.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeipYKDPTaXosKM0XXDfYUqA41i93sp7tG6ObRX2wJ_QF5NUsALsPsBaAKJD57g62peXw8nZHVIQZ3xkQQxqQtPx7JVlrkzi0JAmCgGXZ6I7KDG2WBlaeMJLt4cHSv4ljRvgiFcLg?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" alt=""/></figure>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>At the same time, inflation looked like it was close enough to the Fed’s 2% target that it could forego concerns about stable prices and hone in on supporting the labor market by beginning to cut the fed funds rate.</li>
</ul>



With this balance in mind, the Fed went ahead and cut 100 basis points in that time up until today:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc1sVeB-n2hGRryeMExy1pZqn4ySn4OY9HFmQvyIVaKX2eajxlZGFQOBBttrSTGrpUKVoFi_FEmuIHZLiTj4YJlPBZBrmKeTuQOecJgwZY87F4U7q-f2CiGxUrh6uEi532wVUqYgQ?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" alt=""/></figure>



During these months, it became easy to be complacent that we were set into an easing cycle and it was time to ride that wave.&nbsp;



However, coming back to the present day, the environment could not be more different. For all intents and purposes, the cutting cycle is over.&nbsp;



Looking at the labor market, it has improved significantly. Comparing the unemployment rate to the Fed’s forecast from only December, we can see that it has come down significantly.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdW_7-hJvlEqvj-K5AnU352EjtKR3If4MOp0FgDluNBoTL1JuQdlXNa0nMh43FrTAMUtEDM9Rdpwy3EdZoVsUjqxdMe3wdOhq_jc3vlBbNAIriv54O0mVZGbW90t7LmFoCzTs9eIg?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" alt=""/></figure>



Therefore, if one is looking to the employment side of the Fed’s dual mandate, there is no reason whatsoever for it to be easing at this juncture.&nbsp;



And so, the onus for any marginal easing from the Fed falls to the inflation side of the dual mandate.&nbsp;



This week we received the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/first-2025-inflation-print">CPI print for January</a>, and it was a hot one by all accounts.



Core CPI came in at 0.4%, a notable jump higher from recent data.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc8eIJo23vwtJMmSvPcTTkLRTTCZaGg4de6DrhwQJVvCyqyLoJhcLuuEkp_uHYYAVvTjUYJ7PQQ5EkENBSAAyV2otAAh3WVAffqmfHmnRRZTne4QXJBpRRuQUeffHxjkJM0zGqx?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" alt=""/></figure>



The theme of the inflation story over the last two years has been goods disinflating while services remain stubbornly high. As seen in the chart below, the major issue today is that goods are inflating again and services are refusing to take the baton of disinflation: <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdtxrTxJjfxrbmG56fLSEwTL9_EHvXUHxhikS5eknV3_Q0FGSOSSlUZPvWp3MSrC4mL6eJfBqupk4Js3GEbEPiPTVe5ImHmtAJNKQX1HIE0tnCV_UREoq4pziKYS9wdKBAlXvxv1A?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" width="480" height="480">



The simple takeaway from this granular data is that inflation is remaining above the Fed’s 2% target and bouncing around the 3-4% level. As long as this is occurring, there’s little reason for the Fed to cut rates when both sides of its dual mandate are seeing such strength.&nbsp;



Putting it all together, we are now seeing a rate-cutting cycle that is seemingly over. As it stands today, the market has moved from expecting a rate cut in March to the end of this year instead:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXedzUg08_FjkBwZLD8-p1EyH3IuLE4ciUWcdhrMwBmOLPkyuKE1KR5Wg-Qw73q-JhGHpwZgMWcHvStVVIsUbJdby61YDwgcRBOnJL8nhYkP8mPUMaVBoklfRc_-DVE5osLRv7_mbQ?key=kjWSye0LKEZ2ZNu3yDR95a1x" alt=""/></figure>



If the data continues to come in above the Fed’s targets, it’s reasonable to think that these cuts will continue to get pushed out until they no longer exist.



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The cutting cycle is dead. Long live the cutting cycle

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



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When I interview Web3 founders, I like to ask one question: “Which thinkers in history inspire you?”



One name invariably comes up more than any other: Friedrich Hayek.



Aave’s Stani Kulechov, Base’s Jesse Powell and many more said the same.



<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">Reality: Ethereum is the most capitalistic network.&mdash; Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) <a href="https://twitter.com/StaniKulechov/status/1889956363255816280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan even mandates Hayek’s famous essay “The Use of Knowledge in Society” as compulsory reading for employees, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2024/07/31/meet-the-26-year-old-building-a-billion-dollar-prediction-marketplace/">Forbes</a>.



I don’t know what Vitalik would say. But given his close association with many George Mason scholars — like <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/07/conversation-vitalik-buterin.html">Tyler Cowen</a> and <a href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/11/09/infofinance.html">Robin Hanson</a> — it wouldn’t be a stretch to consider him something of a Hayekian (George Mason is a university renowned for its Hayekian scholarship).



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfxrXmdlk1vz3kHP39bW-BQRudp_5TkkqOowhNvb2xCP1Yt9ywC4dey3_J0Y3-aTflHtwFh_Mwd8B6XXZAvXmMYscsCnLe80yxrURAzY2JKxV5qXICMuAT7FzvU_1vA6JVApoFFrQ?key=wRDchsL9xz3IML1H0rj2VGRs" alt=""/></figure>



For the uninitiated, Hayek was a 1974 Nobel Laureate and a pioneer of the Austrian School of Economics, a school of thought closely associated with free market libertarianism and early Bitcoin thinking.



Hayek’s key insight was that markets work best when individuals can freely act on their local knowledge.&nbsp;



For individuals to do so requires economic certainty provided by a rule of law, a free price system, robust property rights and a profit-loss calculus that is not distorted by state regulation.



When this “recipe” of institutions is in place, the outcome is market innovation.



These ideas are consistently applied in crypto. For example:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The idea of immutable smart contracts comes as close to having sacrosanct property rights in a rule of law. In the real world, laws are subject to constant rent-seeking pressures to change.</li>



<li>Capital markets are permissionless. Anyone can write a smart contract and issue assets without approval. In the real world, regulators give approval.</li>



<li>Anyone can launch an unsustainable liquidity mining campaign with their token, but the unsustainability inevitably shows up in falling prices in a free price system. In the real world, prices are distorted by regulations that benefit incumbents like tariffs.</li>



<li>Ethereum’s open source culture enables the endless code-forking of protocols with incremental improvements and the composable nature of DeFi. This is closely related to Hayek’s ideas around “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_order">spontaneous orders</a>” (and how market competition acts as a knowledge “<a href="https://www.adamsmithworks.org/documents/garret-edwards-competition-discovery-procedure">discovery procedure</a>”). In the real world, intellectual property laws don’t allow for this.</li>
</ul>



The institutional design of the Ethereum protocol (or any other blockchain for that matter) is the furthest thing from “communism,” where market processes are controlled from the top-down and where people are outlawed from acting on individual information.



Even Ripple cannot unilaterally inflate the total token supply of XRP. That’s the rule of law (immutable smart contracts) at work.



Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-foundation-governance-debate">critics</a> <a href="https://x.com/ameensol/status/1889758396166926527">complain</a> that the “culture” of Ethereum is left-leaning. They point to the Ethereum Foundation or Gitcoin’s initiatives on “public goods” funding.



But these public goods are crowdsourced by private funding. No taxpayers were fleeced.



Gitcoin’s quadratic funding mechanism matches more central funds based on the amount of individual contributor funding.



That is a blatantly market-oriented idea. It’s a fundraising process that works best when markets signal they want it — plus it’s all onchain (property rights).



Contrary to popular belief, capitalism is not about unbridled greed. Neither is it against communal public goods. Both exist in all political systems.



Capitalism is a <a href="https://www.amazon.sg/dp/0199219206?ref_=mr_referred_us_sg_sg">liberal archipelago</a>. You’re free to work on Wall Street, or go live in a socialist commune.



Therein lies the beauty of the crypto industry. No one cares what your political identity is. You can be a raging Milton Friedman acolyte or a diehard 19th century Trotskyist.



But no matter which political tribe you preach, everyone has to abide by the blockchain’s rule of law.



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Ethereum’s political identity is on trial (again)

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I’m going to be honest with y’all: I’ve been down bad with the flu this week but from where I’m sitting, CT’s vibes are still off.&nbsp;



And, unfortunately, Bitwise’s crypto asset sentiment index is <a href="https://experts.bitwiseinvestments.com/cio-memos/the-most-important-chart-in-crypto-right-now?_gl=1*aqblej*_gcl_au*MTE4ODUxNjMzMi4xNzMxOTQwODUy&amp;_ga=2.20635067.245398238.1739373176-805437865.1731940852">echoing</a> the same vibes we’ve picked up on.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXewFS4h-8fK5B2_fdbOmTe7sh4_6sPtgkGCtXqAgauI23X5GJxfdPxveWCs48a8Mb4Rzr2spA4vtr5nyXr2Ig95pEQJ4LcIxdZywLuxGypdGhYqqLgyUrT-GbOGyzJMm1g9QChDlA?key=JOAUs5lZRL4PgoRC0B8h7JAu" alt=""/></figure>



Everyone’s left wondering — unless you’re David — where altcoin season is and if it’s even possible at this point. (If you didn’t <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/altcoin-season-may-already-be-here">read yesterday’s Empire</a>, then you’re in for a somewhat optimistic surprise about altcoin season’s potential.)



Is this potentially a sign that we’re still early in the cycle? Perhaps, given that historically altcoin season comes at the tail end of the bull market, but we can’t ignore that things are different this time around.&nbsp;



For Bybit, one potential difference is the institutional entry because they’ve changed the way that capital has traditionally flown. And, to add to that, Bitwise’s Matt Hougan said that the institutional sentiment in crypto is “the most bullish I’ve ever seen.”



But those institutional investors? They’re not going to swap out their bitcoin holdings for altcoins even with a friendlier regulatory environment, which could explain some of the down bad energy we’re seeing.



Though Bybit’s not willing to throw in the towel just yet, with analysts <a href="https://learn.bybit.com/crypto-insight/bybit-x-block-scholes-institution-report-altcoin-rotation-why-this-time-is-different/">noting</a> that “robust stablecoin supply growth and record exchange volumes point to ongoing retail engagement, suggesting that while the script may have changed, an altseason-like frenzy could yet materialize if the right confluence of events aligns.”



This could be likely, especially when looking at Robinhood’s <a href="https://investors.robinhood.com/static-files/42ec63c5-2eb5-4d25-8030-18da1827ce06">earnings</a> from last night. Revenue from crypto trading in its last quarter surged 700%.&nbsp;



I obviously have to caveat that this data is from the prior quarter before we saw the market selloff, but I don’t think that actually makes a huge difference here.&nbsp;



The point remains that retail has come running back.



Vibes are one thing, but data is another and I’m more inclined to lean into the data personally.



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



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