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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Byron Gilliam

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



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



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”&nbsp;



— Warren Buffett
</blockquote>



Warren Buffett is the most quoted person in the history of this newsletter — a crowning achievement of his seven-decade career that must fill him with pride.



I’ve quoted him so often because he has a lot to say about investing and markets, of course, but also because he expresses himself in folksy, quippy, metaphorical sound bites that are universally accessible.



He’s not dumbing it down for us, though.



As best I can tell, that’s genuinely how he thinks about investing — and there’s a lesson in that: The greatest investor of all time invests mostly by common sense.



Investing is so common sense to him that he believes that anyone can do it: “It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”



&#8220;If you can detach yourself….from the crowd, you&#8217;ll get very rich. You don&#8217;t have to be very bright.&#8221;&nbsp;



&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t take brains. It takes temperament.&#8221;



This all doubles as excellent life advice, as so many of his investing maxims do:



&#8220;It&#8217;s good to learn from your mistakes. It&#8217;s better to learn from other people&#8217;s mistakes.&#8221;



“What pond you jump in is more important than how well you swim.”&nbsp;



“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”



Buffett attributes his astounding investment returns to only about a dozen “truly good decisions” that he’s made — about one every five years, on average.



And he lived his life the same way: The sixth-richest man in the world still resides in the house he bought for $31,500 in 1958.



Conversely, his investing process was as simple as the life he led: He doesn’t build financial models, for example, he just reads a lot.



“I probably read five to six hours a day…I read five daily newspapers. I read a fair number of magazines. I read 10-Ks. I read annual reports.”



The compounding knowledge earned from all that reading, he’s explained, allowed him to pounce when an unusual opportunity came along.&nbsp;



“If somebody calls me about an investment…I usually know in two or three minutes whether I have an interest.”&nbsp;



In 2003, for example, he bought the homebuilder Clayton Homes (not just the stock, the whole company) for $1.7 billion after reading its SEC filings and talking to management on the phone (he didn’t visit the company until after he owned it).



In 2008, he turned down a request to rescue Lehman Brothers simply because its financial statements were too complex (a giant red flag for him).



At the height of the subsequent financial crisis, he poured $5 billion into Goldman Sachs after one phone call with its CEO and just a few hours of negotiating terms.



The results, of course, speak for themselves: From 1965 to 2024, Berkshire Hathaway shares rose by more than 5,500,000% — a gravity-defying annual return of almost 20% over 59 years.



By comparison, the total return of the S&amp;P 500 index over that period was “just” 39,000%.



“Buffett’s returns appear to be neither luck nor magic,” an <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/05/buffetts-alpha.html">academic study</a> found, “but, rather, reward for the use of leverage combined with a focus on cheap, safe, quality stocks.”



Lately, however, Buffett hasn’t found many stocks that are cheap, safe and quality enough to leverage into — for the first time in two decades, Berkshire Hathaway holds more cash than it does listed equities.



That’s not because Buffett is worried about what politics or tariffs might mean for the stock market: “I never try to profit from the stock market,” he’s said.&nbsp;



But his failure to find good businesses at reasonable prices probably does tell us something about his view of the market as a whole.



Buffett acolyte Chris Bloomstran <a href="https://www.semperaugustus.com/clientletter">estimates</a> that with valuations and profit margins currently elevated, investors in the S&amp;P 500 should expect returns of “no higher than 1.1% per year for the next decade.”



If so, going into retirement with a record amount of cash may go down in history as the thirteenth “truly good decision” that Warren Buffett has made — and an instructive one, at that.



&#8220;Investing is the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing,” Buffett explains in typical Buffett fashion. “All day you wait for the pitch you like; then, when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.&#8221;



With the market rebound over the past month, it looks like he probably won’t see any more fat pitches before he retires at the end of the year — despite all the seemingly bad news on tariffs.&nbsp;



But I’m sure he’d tell younger investors that there will be plenty to look forward to: “Over the long term, the stock market news will be good.”



Let’s check the charts.



Stocks are up, but estimates are down:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXejjPkEcNflxiLEkJ1-0zu81cCofcDvLbkPYxbIYO9aEgjxq1KfYJKA4u-Ytf0zJS8lGkBALWSoubKSwC_MqEqyhWBP6ds7rWR4Ijsjf9oDP1vg0PYUgwDGU7ZIIESC9aAUy9c9Pw?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



It’s reassuring that stocks are back to where they were before “Liberation Day,” but that doesn’t mean nothing’s happened. Per Torsten Slok, earnings estimates are significantly lower, which means stocks are significantly more expensive.&nbsp;



Stock market vs. betting market:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcK0SgSc5rIOt7tcIChqHukRK9ZC2fv6dKsF6T7gpJvRzUAaJ6NwAFm_ebHefDS_-rvFIlvP4ie_oB5uTCjuwd4baEadc-o42MuUNAQczoXb5nyi6JGsgeMnTfquwlm-L7v7ISFKA?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Polymarket <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/us-recession-in-2025?tid=1746814142831">odds</a> suggest a US recession is still slightly more likely than not, but BCA Research estimates that the stock market is pricing in just a 25% probability now.



Economists are pricing in stagflation:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd3YstTe2wHXmUA_3HekQwIMWRNiTVP78wjP9edQ9ZpE8grphekJYSKg4AvDf4qkqzrAgWNvOF-JddwNTThJKg51ch2Bhc3CDVhOwyk6G-W2CSYwZiMf8pU_kd38TZ7Yem_dP-Y3A?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Torsten Slok <a href="https://www.apolloacademy.com/stagflation-coming/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=pardot&amp;utm_id=701Dp00000017sOIAQ&amp;utm_campaign=EXT_Daily+Spark">notes</a> that rising inflation and falling GDP estimates indicate that stagflation is coming. At the FOMC <a href="https://marketspm.cmail19.com/t/d-l-shyllil-dtudkukduk-h/">presser</a> this week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed to agree: “If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they’re likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth and an increase in unemployment.”



It might get worse than that:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcPxcTtPAHrgZhnj_fSFZZGBHRJbUBkRwVyxtYb4sfNDDCveyV1o8Zoa2lfwyp5OI_3bYlqU5vV77NNQVnZuW97WjnQJ7OwuTs66fLbCxbZ7gbf3t0SoefYqZuufydghV5n8_AIxA?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that tariffs will raise inflation by a whopping 2.25%.



Trade policy is less uncertain, I guess:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfu6-TXdBifjYdyzKvxQzyC9AdW252a4VH_EnH23AuCDxvvNOWPspzC0XJupr1aDCWNXokIwSiDeH5iuFnVmeeD-pSDdeXwB6GwjiE1BJFURnKlLQ9tys-tVMQyXT9zCak9uCFFKg?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Markets are said to hate uncertainty, and despite all the contradictory headlines, the <a href="https://www.matteoiacoviello.com/tpu.htm">Trade Policy Uncertainty index</a> is down — so maybe that’s why stocks are up?



Actual trade is down, too:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcxiPgV_NNT40_Lwe0Vagc5V2v0tWCOsjZLRDtYG03kLvrA2dGjF1JBz20e7AmLAdNpbIj6hjxOu-ip8yXAs_ME9H5dhMxszXN8C_52VsNK0P8VM84NcHzSHB2GoxwTCiCwx5DQwg?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Container bookings from China to the US are down 49% year over year. President Trump <a href="https://x.com/ABC/status/1920505719419211815">said</a> that’s a good thing because no trading means “we lose less money.” But he appears to want some level of trade with China — he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114477628854583525">posted</a> this morning that the current 145% tariff rate could fall to 80% and suggested that he’s leaving it up to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to negotiate a deal when he meets with China this weekend in Switzerland.



Trading with China has been good for us:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeZW11s17t3hmBjL-LlWdYpyd9znwgZ79vrdNmyIKuBejFfMv7Gjam_0u669UvHsmnX0vAb8W1f78yX3WMKzxzNevrU2PDMKYHkddR8v2oM8IvTPe4kxM3zkRm1JynKr0I0Lbmq5g?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Jason Furman <a href="https://x.com/jasonfurman/status/1920161566818800112?t=OdKPjYv-UJlj0Ocb0gSSbQ&amp;s=19">notes</a> that US wages grew faster in the 24 years after China joined the WTO (the orange bars) than in the 24 years before (the blue lines). Most surprisingly, wage growth has been far more equitable in those two decades of globalization than they were before.



Trading with China has been good for us (2):



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc2hbVHEJJKyzOVmIm6KQvlsltaXTOyDMzLvsSuhDeReAgMgEHrx_MB85cmaPA_lSB10stb-Ic60osyGZWnx-gc3HTY3g-EGOOsEYssytdictOMzmqGiW8dEwYu1vX5SMb28lZo?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



<a href="https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/07/the-middle-working-class-has-not-been-hollowed-out/">Jeremy Horpedahl</a> digs a little deeper and finds that the real (i.e., inflation adjusted) earnings for high school graduates without a college degree are higher than they have been in at least 50 years (and I’m guessing probably ever, but the Fed data doesn’t go back any further than that). It seems to be getting even better, too: The Wall Street Journal this week <a href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/skilled-trades-high-school-recruitment-fd9f8257?mod=trending_now_news_1">reported</a> about a high school junior who’s received an annual $70,000 job offer because his school offers welding classes.



Companies are still buying:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcYUhDhgzuKPqlGvxd6s7uPUK-W4c-JLPNFHKUzPaVvgINAZ0PsYUtTzw1cnLC601z4BpJQxAH_pieldHa6ZUWuDrE3e3AFvzsjl9gCUkoOlKvhbC9wGdf5rFn7SNgiHCSyswCjdA?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



The FT <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8361835c-6955-4ee3-80a1-8e7e19127e6c">reports</a> that US companies are on track to buy over $1 trillion of their own stocks this year.



Retail investors are still buying:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe4cIR7RpGUaxxtsVWetn1fETF55TngeYhqpFlv80Dz5VfEuU3RhY0TXDj2wkVFgTMvGNMRbplR9DB-HHQbxTetqQ-wDE2OhyeTTQGv7u_3Yi75zFzVrLcsYt5c0cN-lalbLMVUng?key=u_gKGWHqMqXmT5Wah45p9sCL" alt=""/></figure>



Data from Bank of America shows that its private clients enthusiastically bought the tariff dip in equities.&nbsp;



Warren Buffett would applaud their long-term optimism, if not their short-term timing.&nbsp;



Have a great weekend, long-term readers.



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



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The Breakdown Newsletter

Friday Charts: Investing doesn’t have to be rocket science

Jeff Albus

Managing Editor&#8217;s Note (May 9, 2025 at 6:30 pm ET): 



This report has been retracted for falling short of Blockworks&#8217; editorial standards. The headline and body have been updated to reflect this retraction.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



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RETRACTION: Article about Marinade

Ben Strack

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



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



Coinbase had an eventful Thursday — revealing its intent to buy crypto options giant Deribit before detailing its Q1 earnings after the market closed.&nbsp;



As the dust settled, analysts gave a mixed bag of outlooks for the company.



The crypto exchange’s total first quarter revenue was $2 billion — down 10% from the prior quarter. While trading revenue was down 19% quarter over quarter (nearly $1.3 billion), subscription and services revenue rose 9% over that span (to ~$700 million).&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfKqu3hqHzR9TR8FgcxGYkkHMcfIOPDgK63w7AhraZF1HTCwZRKgGq-jq_Ya47KmUq0VFDeRBQlDPjlb3GZjCjcBTrGWc5ARu6h7pQ4FO8rwSwCKUBcgdDnbORU-Xlo56RuaaNyeg?key=x_C1LikFatz1Sl7HKZBR9ObY" alt=""/></figure>



That subscription and services figure includes stablecoin revenue derived from its arrangement with Circle (Coinbase earns reserve income on the USDC it holds).



USDC’s market cap reached a high around $60 billion in Q1, and average USDC held in Coinbase products grew 49% QoQ to $12.3 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe_uGo6Rna-Ei0fZiS3_Pzr6xJKiTYV1qOSIvT3Qk-sAoq_ZN9QSxeCTyJphkmlMSzRysG0CBS_qwGYTqftD7OPPoFmZaZ5vgxcqsKgLW67EDYuUFAGKfZer0iJ8Pw41-Toi7mqfg?key=x_C1LikFatz1Sl7HKZBR9ObY" alt=""/></figure>



Speaking of stablecoins, the Senate’s cloture vote yesterday on the GENIUS Act failed, 48-49. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he wasn’t discouraged.



“It’s all part of the negotiation,” he noted on yesterday’s earnings call. “We think there’ll be another vote next week on stablecoins so we’re very excited about that progress.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Deribit deal, more M&amp;A?</h2>



Analysts of course asked about the pending $2.9 billion deal to acquire Deribit revealed earlier in the day.



Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-deribit-deal-focus-derivatives/">said yesterday</a> that the purchase would give Coinbase “an immediate and dominant foothold in the high-growth derivatives space” as more institutions adopt crypto. Architect Partners’ Michael Klena told me he expects competitors to respond via their own acquisitions.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



In terms of financial impact, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said: “Deribit has a history of positive adjusted EBITDA, and we believe it will be adjusted EBITDA positive on an accretion basis.”



Oppenheimer &amp; Co. analyst Owen Lau said he believes this deal will make COIN a “legitimate challenger” to Binance, Bybit and OKX when it comes to derivatives.&nbsp;



“Importantly, crypto options are less cyclical, with steady demand during both up and down markets,” Lau explained.



But Compass Point analysts Ed Engel and Joe Flynn pointed out Deribit’s focus on institutional customers. That doesn’t help Coinbase grow its retail-driven perpetuals trading volumes, which they called “a necessary precursor to growing market share.”



When asked about whether the crypto exchange would remain active on the M&amp;A front, Coinbase president Emilie Choi noted the cash on its balance sheet ($8.5 billion, by Lau’s count) means it can make “bigger bets.”



Choi added: “We also think <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-crypto-round-table-execs">regulatory clarity</a> is going to enable us to take larger swings with greater confidence, unlocking new products, utility cases and geographies.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mixed outlook</h2>



Despite general optimism around the Coinbase-Deribit deal, Morningstar analyst Michael Miller told me he doesn’t think the acquisition drastically changes his overall view of, or outlook for, the exchange (his fair value estimate for COIN is $170).



After all, he said, it’s an extension of existing efforts and doesn’t reduce Coinbase’s crypto market exposure, which contributes volatility to quarterly results.



Though Coinbase has had “considerable success” in growing stablecoin revenue, Miller noted, execs expect that to be more than offset in Q2 by a decline in blockchain rewards revenue. The company projects its Q2 subscription and services revenue to fall to somewhere between $600 million and $680 million.&nbsp;



Coinbase’s $240 million of total transaction revenue in April puts it on pace to end Q2 at $720 million. That would be down 34% from Q1.&nbsp;



Engel and Flynn downgraded COIN to a sell rating last week — reiterating in a note yesterday that COIN&#8217;s addressable market for retail trading is already deeply penetrated in the US.



“We believe institutional segments represent a larger growth opportunity; however, these are both lower margin and more competitive businesses than COIN&#8217;s legacy retail footprint,” they explained.



The Compass Point analysts’ stock price target for COIN is $180. The company’s shares were trading for ~$202 at 2 p.m. ET — down 2% on the day.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Lau is more bullish, giving COIN a 12- to 18-month price target of $269. He lowered that from $279, though, noting tariff-fueled macro uncertainty’s effect on volumes.



We’ll see how legislative updates and trade war developments impact COIN going forward.



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Coinbase

Analysts update COIN outlooks after Q1 results, Deribit deal

Kate Irwin

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



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Boop.fun, a new token launch platform, is telling users to start their own “cults” around their tokens.



If this sounds like they’re saying the quiet part out loud, I agree. But we might already be too oversaturated with memecoins and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/base-coinbase-content-coin-crash-pump-memecoin">“content” coins</a>, if you ask me.



If this also sounds like another Pump.fun clone, you’re not wrong. Tokens have to “graduate” for rewards to kick in, and they’re using Solana (and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/raydium-launching-pumpfun-version">Raydium</a>, which Pump.fun previously used before it migrated to PumpSwap).



Boop has its own namesake token that’s being given out to “cult” members and token makers. Staking 100 BOOP awards stakers 60% of trading fees from graduated tokens and a 5% airdrop of every graduated token’s supply, according to a website pop-up that claims Boop will give users money “for doing nothing.”



On Thursday, Boop <a href="https://x.com/boopdotfun/status/1920551132218146887">said its X airdrop</a> has been “a bit controversial” and changed its token allocation so that 50% of the BOOP goes to token creators and 50% of it goes to token buyers (“cult members”).&nbsp;



X airdrop amounts will vary because Boop <a href="https://x.com/boopdotfun/status/1917944856909066730">said</a> it used Kaito to rank accounts. Users will also have to create a coin (“cult”) to be eligible.



Boop’s marketing and site copy is openly degen, though some might argue it’s just being honest about what many memecoins are: cash grabs and/or jokes created with zero effort because the creators were bored.



“Just create a cult, shill the shit out of it, and cash innnnn,” a pop-up on the site reads.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdbiIO9tbjF4VR0zU2do0rILfBDtAgNVKAgE3j8_J4zvxr6CBa8QFJKhPJj6DZckh8RbCikrQVc0462ikaaIfV7ZXzYtq7B-Jw1EZHufGomSkFPVqSbSAwf53dRg5NEqeyEjojQjA?key=pgTXN9_1MM3FOsVv1SmVgA" alt=""/></figure>



Boop.fun is also promising 50% of its BOOP supply to “the real ones in the trenches,” which apparently means “memecoin bagholders” and “hot X account holders.”



One of the pages on the site declares: “VCs and insiders can go fuck themselves.”



Ironically, Su Zhu, who is a VC and cofounded the now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital, launched a ZHU token which has a market cap of about $75,000 via Boop.fun as of mid-day Friday.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdlQ0DTvCxXmp3aPTFH4DNu3hpGl4KlUJk4j-ZfFZhgJ5X9CESPMsQnXtoMttpnw6BRxvLyQ9XQHGB72UxXEt0hkiIXrpbs8nYwhweA8qTSdc8FxWmF_n9mc3oVPxAff8MWQFmK3w?key=pgTXN9_1MM3FOsVv1SmVgA" alt=""/></figure>



Cole “ColeThereum” Villemain, creator of the Pudgy Penguins NFTs who left the project years ago, also launched a token via Boop, dubbed “gf,” which has a $400,000 market cap as of Friday.



Other crypto influencers, like Irene Zhao, Orangie, Deez, Nick “ChooseRich” O’Neill and KookCapital, also dropped their own “cult” tokens on Boop.



Three tokens on Boop have market caps of over $1 million: Boopa (a dog coin), Kuma and Beevo (a beaver coin). A number of Boop tokens explicitly tell users not to buy them, with creators warning buyers: “Farming airdrop do not buy” in all-caps.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc_RqKK4_vDBVDxSDHrwiE7ro0s3rbZ0FZfbmXHcse_j8mHAzoCK-6bYLFph8f1OKBkiUiE6d6dFTYABPqDQXm5HvyjznFhCorJEInb4s0T8TOOLo-5rote3Saaq4PMWSvV0QnLOQ?key=pgTXN9_1MM3FOsVv1SmVgA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The project’s official FAQ section includes cursing and a slur.</figcaption></figure>



But Boop’s frequent use of F-bombs and offensive language in its public-facing copy will be off-putting for some. It feels to me like they are trying very hard to be edgy.



Then, there’s the speculation around the real-world identity of Boop’s creator, who goes by “Dingaling” on X.&nbsp;



While he claims in his X bio to have held high-level roles at Binance and PancakeSwap, those claims have been called into question and no concrete proof of a “Dingaling” serving in either role has surfaced. Dingaling’s bio states he was an “ex-Binance CRO.”



Earlier this week, a cryptic tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao triggered further speculation about Boop’s creator, though they weren’t named directly in CZ’s tweet or the one to which he replied.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">也有因为老鼠仓被币安开除的前员工，几年后说是什么什么创始人，CXO的。币安除了CEO, CTO, CMO, CCO, CFO, COO之外就没有过其他的C什么O的。 以上故事纯属虚构，请勿对号入座。&mdash; CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1919379383950692752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



While Boop’s creator’s identity remains in question, I’d broadly conclude with this: Boop does feel like a Pump.fun clone. It&#8217;s interesting that platforms like Boop, Pump and Zora are incentivizing users to make tokens for little to no reason. They’re making it as easy as just sending a tweet (yes, you can tweet at the <a href="https://x.com/beeponboop">Boop bot</a> and it’ll create a token for you).



TL;DR: Is Boop.fun moving crypto forward? Not really.



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meme coins

Memecoin platform Boop.fun claims ‘cults are in’

Macauley Peterson

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



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Over the past 48 hours, crypto markets have impulsed higher. The action was led by BTC breaking the $100k barrier for the first time since the start of February.



BTC is now in an uptrend, after two weeks of consolidation above the prior critical $91k breakdown level. On April 24, <a href="https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/will-appchains-work-this-time">I wrote</a> “the trend looks primed to resume — if it doesn’t break down soon.” Other than a test just below $93k a few days later, we saw a steady grind higher.



The ETH rally hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. ETH saw strong upside momentum, with spot up about 30% since Wednesday amid surging trading volumes — a good sign.



Some argue Ethereum’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-pectra-fork-live?utm_source=mail.blockworks.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=wednesday-may-7">recent Pectra upgrade</a> is one reason. “It introduces long-awaited improvements that will boost Ethereum’s efficiency and scalability,” said BOB co-founder Dom Harz.



Meanwhile, a pivotal institutional story unfolded with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-deribit-deal-focus-derivatives">Coinbase’s acquisition of Deribit</a>, the leading off-chain venue for crypto options. “Global derivatives trading is a key driver of growth for Coinbase,” said Fractal Bitcoin’s Spencer Yang, the ex-product head for Coinbase Wallet. “A cash [and] stock deal is a great bargain for Coinbase shareholders since it helps them expand globally.”



And speaking of derivatives, what do they tell us about the longevity of this price action? This move was driven by heavy call spread activity and optimism around trade developments, according to Wintermute analyst Jake O.



Traders are chasing frontend volatility, creating a positive spot-vol correlation through mid-May. However, implied volatility (IV) softens past June, suggesting the rally isn’t being aggressively pursued further out.



That’s confirmed by Nick Forster, founder of onchain options platform Derive.xyz. He sees trader sentiment as “overwhelmingly bullish, with 59% of all ETH premiums and 67.3% of BTC premiums being used to buy calls.”



The expectation is for further short-term upside. “The chance of ETH settling above $2,500 by the end of the month has surged from 2% to 15%, and the chance of BTC hitting over $115K by month’s end has increased from 3% to 13%,” according to Forster.



The broader crypto market landscape is even more telling: ETH is playing catch-up with a 25% rally in the ETH/BTC ratio. And beyond the majors, there’s also strength. We’re witnessing signs of life in the long tail of crypto assets. TradingView’s OTHERS index is up 16%, while stablecoin dominance is dropping — a sign that sidelined capital is flooding back into risk assets.



The US-UK “trade deal” announced yesterday is credited by some with boosting market risk appetite, though it’s largely symbolic. While still more of a framework than a deal, it will have no meaningful impact on US exports and will keep 10% tariffs on most UK imports, making them more expensive for American consumers. As economist Justin Wolfers noted: The Brits “already charge average tariffs of only 1%,” so this turn of events is “a photo op with little macroeconomic significance.”



Even optics can move markets, of course.



“[W]ith these deals, there is hope for more such concessions, and with more deals and concessions will come more certainty and better market conditions,” said Galxe co-founder Charles Wayn. “The bull market may revive yet, and alt season could still be <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/altcoin-season-over-memecoins-value">on the horizon</a>.”



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0xResearch Newsletter

Rally mode: BTC hits $100K, ETH catches a bid

David Canellis

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



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Who is Bitcoin for?



That depends on who you ask. A BlackRock analyst would say that Bitcoin is a key portfolio differentiator. The volatility is the use case, best utilized by those who want to capitalize on it.



Someone living in countries suffering from rampant inflation would share a different view. Bitcoin would be a potential route toward capital preservation, shielding them from sudden currency devaluation due to central bank policy, and so on.



For activists living under totalitarian regimes, like <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1903439181705335253">Farida Nabourema</a>, the robust decentralization and pseudonymity of Bitcoin make it additionally suited to fight back against hostile states.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin Legends — Farida Nabourema</h2>



Farida Nabourema was born in 1990 and grew up in Togo, a former French colony that gained independence in 1960.



From early childhood, Farida learned to exist and thrive in the face of authoritarians. Togo’s then-president, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, was a military leader who’d taken power in a violent 1967 coup.&nbsp;



Eyadéma was known for human rights <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/afr570131993en.pdf">abuses</a>, economic mismanagement and cult-of-personality stunts, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO5Ixk8N7yA">reports</a> of entourages of 1,000 dancing women singing his praises.



“Every day…people had to queue from the military camp, where he lived, to the presidential palace to clap for him in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening,” Nabourema <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/13/africa/farida-nabourema-togo-activist">said</a> in 2018.



Standing up to power is in Nabourema’s blood. In 2003, Togo authorities arrested and held her father, Bemba, for three days after he participated in a meeting that opposed Eyadéma’s rule. He’d also been arrested in 1977 and severely <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/farida-nabourema-daughter-of-togo/">tortured</a> in 1985 over his political dissent.



After Eyadéma&#8217;s son, Faure, had assumed leadership in a closely-contested election following his father’s death, Farida protested at just 15 years old. She joined the Union of Force for Change (UFC), the same political party of her own father.&nbsp;



Farida fought even after moving to the US to study in 2008, where she founded a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OAfd9odSSs">movement</a> called “Faure Must Go” and kept up the grassroots pressure.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc6xmCilVNLF1wUxzwMVKUHHvpWkK1oY5i13nXAkG47qoFygcp1G-FvQnofAINfrrL2jcMbqOUOOlC3CpBkx2AqL884m0LkHgkoCImE6yciwXCEalCqo97Ww0Qbw32wrUmcrBla?key=o8YAJrztsWVz3PKlec-a3A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Farida <a href="https://youtu.be/1OAfd9odSSs">presented</a> the movement at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2018.</figcaption></figure>



The need for Bitcoin quickly became apparent once Farida caught the attention of the corrupt government. “In 2014, I published the personal contact numbers for all members of Togo’s Parliament. I asked my compatriots to call the members and ask why they had voted against a bill to reinstate presidential term limits. I called the majority leader, who insulted me, then abruptly hung up the phone,” Farida was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/13/africa/farida-nabourema-togo-activist">quoted</a> as saying to CNN.



“I shared a recording of that call on social media and it soon went viral. A few days later, Parliament held a session in which they complained about not being able to sleep because they were harassed by hundreds of phone calls.”



Farida struggled with personal attacks and smear campaigns, but her following only grew. However, she now faced exile. Her family was threatened after attempting a return to Togo in 2016, leading Farida to instead base herself in nearby countries. By 2018, she was moving between them every few weeks.



The situation was just as sensitive for other local dissidents. Still, resistance movements need funding. Farida <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/togolese-activist-farida-nabourema-finds-freedom-in-bitcoin">told</a> Bitcoin Magazine: “When the government started arresting people for donating money to the movement…we needed a safe way to send and receive funds for resistance activities.&#8221;



<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/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> is private money, not anonymous. Cash rather is anonymous as you can’t tell all who held it before you. Corrupt politicians are afraid of Bitcoin because it stores every single transaction on the blockchain for ever and can never be altered. FIAT enables corruption.&mdash; Farida Bemba Nabourema (@Farida_N) <a href="https://twitter.com/Farida_N/status/1607298949236260867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 26, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Farida elaborated in a recent Human Rights Foundation <a href="https://www.facebook.com/humanrightsfoundation/videos/is-bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-africa-hrfs-dissidents-dictators/1303208041133352/">interview</a>: “Sending money became difficult because we had to do it without exposing those who were back home. Linking them to us is going to be costly for their lives.



“Without money, without financial resources, it’s difficult to fight any oppressive system in place. And the regime in Togo has managed to maintain itself in power by doing something very simple: suffocating the movement and the opposition.”



Bitcoin is built for many purposes, and this is clearly one of them. As of last year, Farida was “very frequently” sending bitcoin to Togo without any paper trail. The recipient doesn’t need to go to a bank or public institution to withdraw the funds — a huge plus.



Parallel to these efforts, Farida has organized the Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC) for three years running in both Ghana and Nairobi, attracting the likes of Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark and Block founder Jack Dorsey. 



Farida’s conference even operates a “Bitcoin For Youngsters” program that has trained over 3,000 students in all things Bitcoin, and helped Ghanaian high school students celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, complete with pizza.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfSxqoJBFFcUZeyimedcCNyTtoqZKpiICDVIh9X7SFDiv5eGboI76zc1uQpldc5LUJF_uWbvGV5auk5_eLx3o_IUrDMhkO4il6OLzeT_yBgs-ldmifEE73J-KZT7-jjCKsMUq-1?key=o8YAJrztsWVz3PKlec-a3A" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://x.com/AfroBitcoinOrg/status/1660657649736724483#m">Image source</a></figcaption></figure>



A fourth ABC <a href="https://afrobitcoin.org/">conference</a> in Mauritius is set for December this year, despite a <a href="https://x.com/Farida_N/status/1870367175338324291">series</a> of <a href="https://x.com/Farida_N/status/1870375685082005780">setbacks</a> that led to financial losses and burnout.&nbsp;



Many of us may go our whole lives and never need Bitcoin in quite the same way as Farida and the rest of Togo, a nation of more than nine million, not to mention the wider global population living in analogous circumstances.



Bitcoin is for everyone. At times, uncomfortably so, as there’s nothing technically stopping those in power from taking advantage of its trajectory for their own gain.



Luckily there are those, like Farida, “<a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/farida-nabourema-daughter-of-togo/">Daughter of Togo</a>,” who understand that Bitcoin is first and foremost <a href="https://aier.org/article/bitcoin-is-resistance-money/">resistance money</a>. A critical tool for freedom and self-sovereignty. Farida is a bonafide Bitcoin Legend.



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Bitcoin

Why Bitcoin is key for resistance movements in Togo

Katherine Ross

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



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Almost a month ago, OKX announced an expansion into the US.&nbsp;



To lead the expansion, OKX tapped Roshan Robert, who’s held a number of TradFi-crypto roles throughout his career — having worked at both Hidden Road and Barclays.&nbsp;



On paper, the expansion makes sense: OKX wants a piece of the American pie, which is now more intriguing and, well, friendlier.&nbsp;



However, Robert told me he actually joined OKX back in September, before the path forward became more clear and when it looked like SEC chair Gary Gensler would still be in charge.&nbsp;



“I joined [OKX] before we had any idea of how the elections were going to turn out. Over the past many years, I have had a belief that public blockchains are the future of finance,” he said.&nbsp;



It was a “no brainer” to build out a US position, he told me. The team then plotted out next steps, which would later turn out to include a California headquarters.&nbsp;



“A lot has evolved since I&#8217;ve joined, including some long-awaited regulatory clarity in the US, and it&#8217;s a more stable environment to properly expand in the US,” he continued.&nbsp;



OKX has the opportunity to expand with a “strong compliance and risk management focus,” with the goal of delivering seamless onramps and low fees to users. The team also aims to ensure that between the risk management and the liquidity, it’s bringing in institutional clients.&nbsp;



But no doubt it’s a crowded arena right now, and from the looks of things, both Kraken and Coinbase are making billion-dollar acquisitions to differentiate their offering.



OKX picked San Jose to embed itself in Silicon Valley’s “innovation engine.” Right now, it’s available in 46 states (and Washington, DC). The focus is not only to keep building, but securing the proper licenses before looking at other areas to expand its presence.&nbsp;



It may be early days for OKX in comparison to some of the other giants operating in the US right now, but I also have to point out that OKX is kind of doing the opposite of Coinbase and Kraken. The two US-based companies are looking to expand internationally, whereas OKX has an international presence and is doing the exact opposite — expanding to the US.&nbsp;



I’m curious to see how OKX can go toe-to-toe with the other big exchanges once it&#8217;s had some time to mature in the market.&nbsp;



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



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



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



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

Empire Newsletter

‘No brainer’ to expand into US: OKX US CEO

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Bitcoin offers something unique: unstoppable, uncensorable, permissionless money.”



— Win Ko Ko Aung
</blockquote>



Q: Should sentiment in crypto be better?



I think it should — crypto market cap is back above $3 trillion, bitcoin has become part of the zeitgeist, stablecoins are booming, the institutions are here, regulators are sympathetic, memecoins are out, utility is in.&nbsp;&nbsp;



But I can also see why it isn’t.



Among other things (many listed <a href="https://x.com/intern/status/1919791584888881154">here</a>), it feels like the wealth that crypto is currently generating is unrelated to the value that it hopes to deliver.



Case in point: If you bought Bearchain’s token, BERA, when it launched in February, you’re down about 50% — which is fair enough because people don’t seem to be using the chain very much (per data from <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/berachain">Blockworks Research</a>, Berachain has been generating about $500 of revenue per day).



But the <a href="https://x.com/crainbf/status/1919715154113040618">unofficial marketing</a> around Berachain celebrates wealth as if investing in it will somehow allow you to live a lifestyle of the rich and famous — now, before the project has delivered any value.&nbsp;



Similarly, Token2049 was reportedly a party, but from The Wall Street Journal’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/crypto-token2049-dubai-cz-eric-trump-rave-093b1d7e">reporting</a>, it sounds like what was being celebrated was not so much crypto’s utility as its political influence.



So far, the benefits of that influence have been narrowly distributed.



The FT <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f5797d16-6299-444c-b990-5cbc6a7ccfca">reported</a> this week, for example, that a “small group of traders” made $99.6 million by buying up the MELANIA token in the two and half minutes before it was publicly announced.&nbsp;



These well-informed buyers unloaded 81% of their tokens within 12 hours of the launch — at&nbsp; prices at least 90% above where they are now.&nbsp;



This kind of thing is dispiriting to anyone who invested in crypto because they thought people would use crypto.&nbsp;&nbsp;



But it’s worth remembering that this is a story at least as old as stock markets.



Recounting the 1870s mania for railroad shares, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;sca_esv=896bc82726dbc1e3&amp;rls=en&amp;q=Americana:+A+400-Year+History+of+American+Capitalism&amp;stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLVT9c3NEypSMqzNEs2VoJwk82KjbIKjSq0pLKTrfST8vOz9RNLSzLyi6xA7GKF_LycykWsJo65qUWZyYl5iVYKjgomBga6kamJRQoemcUl-UWVCvlpCjAFCs6JBZkliTmZxbk7WBkBxhLeHHYAAAA&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi8-rXtvZSNAxUQHNAFHdmHB-gQgOQBegQIMxAG&amp;biw=1152&amp;bih=656&amp;dpr=2">Bhu Srinivasan</a> writes that “shareholders got rich when railroad stocks went up, not when people actually used the railroad.”



When “the moment of clarity set in” and “financing for speculative and incomplete projects was frozen,” the investing mania ended in a financial crisis.&nbsp;



But people did end up using the railroads.&nbsp;



Q: What could get people to start using crypto?



Stablecoins still seem like the best bet.



At Stripe’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/ONIexChUpuw?si=wKbOYVrzJ_hf-BHc&amp;t=1460">annual conference</a> yesterday, the co-founding Collison brothers listed stablecoins and AI as “the two big tailwinds” they expect to drive the next evolution of “the internet economy.”



Amazingly, stablecoins were listed ahead of AI:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe44Yp2x9NR-x-srtPYt1qMR_kRuOtuZ74DtYcYwmYg3RkmuIKeWRtLpzKmKPh-_zn0Qr3OFDLQrE4pmMNm2oiu0Y6xGHiuqZG0pYpa52efoPDzIMxsW53dSRu1hG8Tpd1UC0YuAQ?key=xzgnyWEn7hk7cKiVAdZs2A" alt=""/></figure>



I guess that ordering is to be expected from a payments company, but still, John Collison made a convincing case for why stablecoins, paired with AI, will lead to a “way higher rate of breakout company creation.”&nbsp;



Stablecoins enable “borderless financial services,” he explained, which will make it possible for small businesses to be borderless, too.



Collison says it’s already happening: “People have been waiting since 2010 to see if crypto is for real and what you&#8217;re seeing with stablecoins is real utility for real business at a growth rate which eclipses anything we’ve seen before at Stripe, including Stripe itself.”



Stablecoins are centralized, so this is not exactly the realization of cypherpunks’ dreams.



But it’s real-world utility and the world will be a better place with a “higher rate of breakout company creation” — so I&#8217;ll take it.



Q: Could SBF have turned a profit?



I think so, yes.



To take just one example, the FTX estate sold SBF’s seed round investment in Cursor for exactly what he paid for it: $200,000.



At Cursor’s latest valuation, that stake would be worth <a href="https://dailyhodl.com/2025/05/06/ftx-estate-fumbles-500000000-investment-as-ai-coding-platform-cursor-now-valued-at-nearly-1000000000-report/">$500 million</a>.&nbsp;



That’s a 250,000% return — far more than the crypto he “borrowed” from FTX customers would have returned.&nbsp;



A profitable fraud is still a fraud, of course.



Still, pretty funny to think that if he had managed to fake it just a little longer, he might actually have made it.



Q: Is bitcoin a risk-on asset or risk-off asset?



Yes.



It’s been a risk-on asset this week, as evidenced by all the headlines saying some version of “bitcoin up on talk of trade deals.”&nbsp;



This doesn’t entirely make sense — the asset for people who think things will be bad, is good because things are not as bad as expected?



But bitcoin’s correlation to risk comes and goes and it feels like it’s trending toward being more risk-off.



Here, for example, is the year-to-date return of bitcoin (in purple) oscillating around the return of gold (in, well, gold):



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdxp_Gre6jaWtymm7VomZqk5gVW4Kc4MV-_rCoK0HWO0pjsuZO7v5hexv3osKGa64rZZ2ZcsElenVRMc__zGguo2BOTGWblLJxvuYzgVfZeO0u0vkT-ppb07MIQ0a7zNrTzRUcPBg?key=xzgnyWEn7hk7cKiVAdZs2A" alt=""/></figure>



Were it to carry on like that, bitcoin might finally cement itself in investors’ minds as a risk-off asset (which should make it more valuable).



I expect it will continue to be both risk-on and -off for a while — it’s still the only liquid thing you can sell when you’re feeling nervous on nights and weekends.&nbsp;



But that could change.&nbsp;



It was <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-07/robinhood-said-to-plan-blockchain-to-trade-us-assets-in-europe?taid=681ba7d579cfff00010e5bc2&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">reported</a> this week that Robinhood is developing a blockchain platform to offer US securities trading to European investors — and people like Kyle Samani and Robert Leshner think that eventually, all assets will be available to trade onchain, all the time.



If so, we’ll be able to stop using bitcoin to amplify our short-term risks — and start using it to hedge our long-term ones.&nbsp;



Q: Is bitcoin just another thing to trade?



Not for the people who really need it, no.



In a recent <a href="https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/hrf-fountainhead-announce-resident-artists-9101873?e=824562d621">email</a>, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) highlighted the story of Win Ko Ko Aung, who fled persecution in his native Burma in 2021: “I made it to the US with almost nothing — except a small amount of bitcoin I had once bought out of curiosity. With my money trapped back home, bitcoin helped me survive.”



Since then, he’s been promoting the use of bitcoin as a form of resistance money: “For people living under dictatorship, it’s a tool for financial autonomy and freedom,” he writes.



Aung cites the example of the recent earthquake in his native Burma: “The military junta blocked access to the hardest-hit areas and even launched airstrikes against people trying to flee, continuing their long-standing pattern of blocking humanitarian and financial aid. But bitcoin made peer-to-peer relief possible.”



“When governments fail, repress their people, and collapse currencies,” he concludes, “bitcoin provides an escape hatch. In times of crisis, it makes aid and survival possible.”



That, at least, is something everyone can agree to feel good about.



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



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
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Thursday Mailbag: Sentiment, stablecoins and resistance money

Jack Kubinec

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



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Superstate, the tokenization startup co-founded by DeFi OG Robert Leshner, announced a new stock tokenization product on Solana and Ethereum this morning.



Named “Opening Bell,” the platform allows companies to natively issue shares onchain — a notable innovation for tokenized public equities. The Solana-focused holding company <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sol-strategies-is-solanas-microstrategy">Sol Strategies</a> became the platform’s first participant.



Many in Solana were quick to celebrate the news, because in its early days, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko would sometimes <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-genesis-story-powering-nasdaq-on-public-blockchain">liken</a> the network to Nasdaq on the blockchain. Today, Yakovenko penned a rare blog post alongside Anza lead economist Max Resnick <a href="https://www.anza.xyz/blog/the-path-to-decentralized-nasdaq">outlining</a> how Solana’s path to creating a decentralized Nasdaq runs through the implementation of multiple concurrent leaders, where different validators can create blocks at the same time.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The concept of tokenized stocks isn’t new: I could give you a token in exchange for your Tesla stock, and there it is. Besides potential regulatory red flags, the issue with this kind of thing is that your token would trade in a less-liquid environment than the original stock did. If you tried trading it on DEXs, you could get stuck with stale prices compared to what’s available on stock exchanges.



What seems to set Superstate apart is its SEC-registered transfer <a href="https://superstate.com/blog/superstate-transfer-agent-registration">agent</a> that performs the issuance and redemption of shares or dividends on behalf of companies. Onchain equity issued this way can move around the world more efficiently, and maybe even be used as collateral in DeFi. Users must go through KYC checks before accessing shares on Opening Bell.



Superstate <a href="https://superstate.com/blog/introducing-opening-bell">points</a> out another interesting use case: “up-listing,” whereby non-public companies can issue shares on a crypto-native market before trying to achieve listing on the Nasdaq or NYSE. In a Telegram message, Leshner told me Superstate can’t make it easier for companies to go public, but he believes that the “up-listing” process will become popular nonetheless.&nbsp;



To see why this may be the case, consider a hypothetical: Sol Strategies is currently awaiting approval to trade on the Nasdaq. If its shares gin up a lot of interest on Opening Bell, perhaps that could make regulators more assured in approving and investment bankers more excited about underwriting US-based Sol Strategies stock.&nbsp;



“[We’re] proud to be the first public company working hard to take this step,” Sol Strategies CEO Leah Wald said. “Tokenizing shares is more than a technology upgrade — it’s about aligning with the next generation of market infrastructure and investor expectations.”



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Anatoly Yakovenko

‘Nasdaq on Solana’ vision sees progress with Opening Bell launch

Felix Jauvin

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With the US imposing 145% tariffs on China, the two largest economies in the world are effectively in a trade embargo. Shipping volumes from China are completely freezing up. Many compare this situation to the Covid supply chain shock we experienced just a few years ago.&nbsp;



To better understand what’s truly going on and how to effectively analyze the situation, I had Craig Fuller, CEO and founder of FreightWaves, on Forward Guidance this week to unpack all things shipping and logistics.&nbsp;



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xbERzXSG0qQ?si=m9zZJT1n3DO-F_ei" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







Here are my top takeaways from our interview:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Covid vs. today</h2>



Craig was quick to emphasize that there won’t be toilet paper shortages or food shortages. He was also quick to emphasize that the US is highly self-sufficient in that realm, and the bigger impact will be on hard goods.



As Craig told me:



“There&#8217;s unlikely to be a food shortage. I remember in early Covid, you would go to the grocery store and there wouldn&#8217;t be meat, there wouldn&#8217;t be chicken. Those types of things just aren&#8217;t real [concerns] here. And one of the things to keep in mind is, everybody keeps talking about supermarket shelves being empty, and that&#8217;s not going to happen.&nbsp;



“We produce 88% of the food we eat here in the United States. So the idea that you&#8217;re gonna go to the grocery store and not have food is not credible.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Shipping volumes drying up from China</h2>



Due to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-stocks-retreat-trump-china-trade-deal-uncertain">Chinese tariffs</a>, shipping containers heading to the US are already down 35% year over year and accelerating.&nbsp;



What’s crucial is understanding how the second-order impacts will affect the US economy.&nbsp;



Craig was quick to mention that some of the first things to spike will be trucker and distribution center layoffs:



“The volume that would&#8217;ve come over is not coming, and now we&#8217;re in the thick of it, where we are seeing sharp volume drops going to major shipping ports.&nbsp;



“And so let&#8217;s talk about what happens from there. There’s half a million people in Southern California that work in logistics. They&#8217;re just simply not gonna have as much work. So the ports union contracts have a little bit more…staying power. They can do maintenance around the port, but then you&#8217;ve got this sort of dependency of the truckers that are in and out of the ports. They&#8217;re gonna see a sharp drop. So you&#8217;re going to see reduced order counts that will quickly shift into mass layoffs.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How long does Trump have to negotiate before it’s too late?</h2>



The big question for many: How long can the economy weather this storm and draw down inventories until the store shortages become more apparent and we hit the point of no return?&nbsp;



Although Craig was quick to highlight that a “point of no return” is not the right way to think about it, he did imply that things can still revert if tariffs normalize by the summer:



“So let&#8217;s say we get a trade deal in a couple of weeks. Those orders that would have come over for back-to-school can easily be sent over, and inventory stockouts just probably aren&#8217;t a major concern.&nbsp;



“But if we get later into the calendar, and we&#8217;re starting to look in July and certainly August, this is where ‘would-be orders’ are a problem. Because what&#8217;s happening is, US companies are not placing orders to Chinese contract manufacturers, because they&#8217;re not placing orders to contract manufacturers.&nbsp;



“The lead time, if we were to get a deal, would be about a month to put the economy back in line and [for] those products that were ordered to come back and flow over. So if trade can somewhat normalize by July or August, the economy would be able to look through this.”



There’s a lot more to the interview, so I recommend giving it a watch. But to summarize the framework I learned for how to think about this supply shock:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>There are more differences than similarities between this shock and the Covid shock, and it’s really more a convenient comparison.</li>



<li>Shipping volumes are drying up and will quickly trigger layoffs and inactivity in wide swaths of the shipping industry.</li>



<li>The Trump administration has until summer to get a deal done. Otherwise, the negative impacts of this trade war will be set in stone to a certain degree.</li>
</ul>



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Donald Trump

What’s going on with the supply chain? We asked an expert

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There’s now sparkling water that comes with an Abstract NFT and points attached.



Rekt Brands — a crypto startup from the traders known on X as OSF (Ovie Faruq) and RektMando on social media — has launched a new drink. It’s a sparkling water dubbed Abstract Apple.



Like its name suggests, Abstract Apple offers rewards for the Ethereum L2 chain Abstract. Each case of 24 cans <a href="https://x.com/rektdrinks/status/1919436083495874907">grants</a> the buyer <a href="https://x.com/AbstractChain/status/1880035786772607487">Abstract XP</a> and 25,000 DRANK points (Rekt’s rewards points), plus an Abstract NFT. Next week, case buyers <a href="https://x.com/rektdrinks/status/1919436103536324689">can collect</a> their Abstract NFTs.&nbsp;



Each case costs $69.69 (plus shipping and applicable tax, of course), and can be bought using crypto or fiat currencies.



Buyers could purchase up to 250 cases per order, but could place multiple orders.&nbsp;



That’s a LOT of cans.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcDqFQMe7tm3TdpwYmP8X3Kg5PtfMjKct8FSCmWCRp-98-KU2Pb_1Rsu6MUVHoWgAkds0U7lJQJcDqIcc3eVZaDckOkZvMKFtSUDipuZPjjLNArQ9M9z_lOrC4vKjjr07OzqEGE?key=OT2IUAxfUKjU_-OIb83isQ" alt=""/></figure>



From Abstract team member <a href="https://x.com/Rajp_14">Raj on X</a>.



While the launch sold out on Wednesday, with over 220,000 cans of sparkling water purchased, the Rekt team said extra DRANK points were being given out by mistake.



“Devs are on it, will get it fixed,” the brand <a href="https://x.com/rektdrinks/status/1920187030505488411">said</a> in a post.



A member of the Abstract team confirmed to me that they aren’t involved in this project, but they said that future collabs between Rekt and Abstract are being explored.



Rekt Brands’ first drink, a lime-flavored sparkling water, was announced in November and similarly sold <a href="https://x.com/rektdrinks/status/1852734297985417511">over 220,000 cans</a> within 48 hours.



Rekt Brands previously <a href="https://chainwire.org/2024/11/07/rekt-raises-1-5m-seed-round-backed-by-angels-and-community-following-sell-out-success-of-rekt-drinks/">raised $1.5 million</a> in seeding funding late last year. Their brand was created following the 2022 NFT collection OSF launched called Rektguy.



Others have tried to bring crypto to the food and drink industry before, though the efforts thus far have primarily come from holders of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bored-ape-yacht-club">Bored Ape Yacht Club</a> NFTs. There’s Ape Water, for instance, which is canned water with a Bored Ape emblazoned across it. In 2023, Snoop Dogg released ice cream inspired by his Bored Ape.



There was also a short-lived Bored Ape-themed burger joint, Bored &amp; Hungry, which I visited back in 2022 (food was good, but most of the people there had zero clue what the Apes were, and didn’t care).



In the case of Rekt Brands, its limited-edition runs of sparkling water that you only hear about on Crypto Twitter don’t seem to be targeting the masses — but broader distribution may be coming soon.



Rekt is planning to release new flavors and bring back older ones, too, in future drops. It may also expand beyond just sparkling water.



“Our goal is to have mainstream distribution and we have been actively working on it over the past few months. There will be a point where people can get their hands on Rekt in their local store,” OSF told me in a DM, adding: “Maybe for some that&#8217;s sooner than they think.”



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food

Drink-to-earn? A new sparkling water comes with an NFT and points

Donovan Choy

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



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Obol launches its native OBOL token today.



Token holders will be able to stake OBOL for a liquid staking token, which can be used for governance in the Obol Collective, as DeFi collateral, or for voting in retroactive funding rounds (RAF).



&#8220;After years of building reliable, distributed validator technology that eliminates single points of failure, we&#8217;re now putting governance in the hands of the community,&#8221; said Obol Association CEO Thomas Heremans.



&#8220;The OBOL Token represents more than just governance — it&#8217;s the coordination mechanism for an entire ecosystem of operators who are revolutionizing how Ethereum secures its infrastructure.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is Obol?</h2>



Obol is a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/obol-network-sustainable-ethereum-development">middleware tech provider</a> for Ethereum network staking. The company enables “distributed validators” (DV), which allow multiple independent nodes to collectively operate one validator by sharing its duties and private keys.



This solves a longstanding problem faced by all proof-of-stake networks.



Ethereum validators stake about a collective <a href="https://beaconscan.com/">~34 million ETH</a> ($64.7 billion) today. Large institutions especially may control hundreds of millions of dollars as one operator entity. These operators may be hosting validators across the same hardware servers or in concentrated geographic jurisdictions, exposing them to technological disruption or regulatory risks.



Thanks to distributed validator technology enabled by companies like Obol and SSV, multiple nodes (two of three, four of seven, seven of ten) globally can now collectively run one Ethereum validator. 



Therefore, one node going down causes no disruption to the validator, reducing its exposure to these concentrated risks.



This helps validators avoid slashing and reduces risks of single points of failure, thereby improving validator uptime and overall network resilience.



Today, 800+ unique node operators, from major staking services to solo home stakers, run Obol-powered validators. <a href="https://obol.org/">$975 million</a> worth of ETH from Lido, EtherFi, StakeWise, Swell, Bitcoin Suisse and more are secured by Obol’s distributed validator clusters across Ethereum today.



Thanks to Obol, Lido has increased its operators from 36 to over 200, according to its press release.



EtherFi, the largest restaking protocol with $5.4 billion TVL, was able to expand its operators from ~10 to nearly 100 today. About 258,784 ETH ($499 million) from EtherFi is staked on Obol DVs today. An additional 40 on testnet are set to move to mainnet soon.



According to DV Labs, the 30-day average RAVER score in January 2025 for Obol DVT was 98.23%, outperforming SSV SDVT and a curated Lido set. The RAVER score is a metric used to measure validator effectiveness across proposal and attestation success in Ethereum staking.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXciNcsmlRWwDKqMrdRYzzhw5xsz9j10p0oTq1QFh3ggs3NxmUG03pdim1cWqq5e7nPRCRNij_90ozrHQiJheRajf5fh-3uXICwFS8WI0qnf1UR0rJkgcjXP_P3BfltWGI96G1qz5g?key=I9lTUDkD_yYeib4zoapi_w" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/DV_Labs/status/1882769337762890237">DV Labs</a></figcaption></figure>



The Pectra network upgrade, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-pectra-fork-live">which went live yesterday</a>, included EIP-7251. This increased the maximum validator stake to 2048 ETH from its previous cap of 32 ETH. That favors institutions, who can consolidate thousands of validators.



“EIP-7251 represents a long-awaited leap forward in validator efficiency,” Heremans told Blockworks.



“By enabling validator consolidations, it addresses one of the biggest operational burdens faced by large stakers and institutions,” Heremans said. He forecasts “up to 80% reductions in operational and infrastructure costs.”



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Distributed validator technology provider Obol launches OBOL token

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



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When Johannes Gutenberg built the first movable-type printing press in the mid-15th century, he could hardly have imagined the impact it would have on humankind.



Civilization-style achievements fell like dominos over the next 300 years. People who weren&#8217;t priests learned to read within decades, and within a lifetime, the Protestant Reformation brought <a href="https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/the-protestant-reformation-and-freedom-of-conscience">freedom of conscience</a>, trailed by an explosion in scientific progress half a century later.&nbsp;



When the 1800s came around — 332 years after Gutenberg’s death — the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution had reshaped the world, powered by the printed works of Galileo, Newton, Descartes and others.&nbsp;



Then came public education, decolonization and the subsequent rise of nation-states, some of which are now opening their coffers to bitcoin, including the US.



When Satoshi toppled the first of his own set of dominos, could they have anticipated that only 16 years later, multiple US states would compete for bitcoin bragging rights?



Arizona is now the first state to ensure that any unclaimed bitcoin or cryptocurrency is never sold for cash.&nbsp;



The law includes the establishment of a state-controlled bitcoin reserve fund, which would also custody any other cryptocurrencies handed over to the Arizona revenue department.&nbsp;



Arizona officials are permitted to stake crypto held by the fund and even collect airdrops. But by law, they can’t sell any coins.



“Digital assets aren’t the future — they’re the present,” said House Committee Chair Jeff Weninger in a <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/press/house/57LEG/1R/250507WENINGERHB2749.pdf">release</a>. “This law ensures Arizona doesn’t leave value sitting on the table and puts us in a position to lead the country in how we secure, manage and ultimately benefit from abandoned digital currency.”



<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">ARIZONA SIGNS STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE INTO LAW! 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/xQXsm2fEXQ">pic.twitter.com/xQXsm2fEXQ</a>&mdash; Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dennis_Porter_/status/1920270813506290100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Is this cool? For sure. Could it be cooler? Also yes.



The law relates only to property for which the state cannot find or contact the original owner for three years. Think lost property, forgotten bank accounts and now, perhaps, crypto exchange accounts belonging to the deceased.



Arizona’s fund is different from the US government’s strategic bitcoin reserve <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/establishment-of-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-united-states-digital-asset-stockpile/">established</a> by Trump earlier this year, which for now exclusively holds coins seized by criminal forfeiture (although we still don’t know exactly how many).&nbsp;



The Arizona law is more about adding bitcoin and crypto to standard civil asset procedures, with Governor Katie Hobbs <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/thebreakdown/ccdd2238-2a1b-11f0-80b0-0fe8e51e0e48">vetoing</a> a separate bill earlier this week that would’ve permitted the state to invest 10% of its public funds into bitcoin.&nbsp;



Weninger explained in an X post that there are other avenues through which Arizona’s fund can acquire bitcoin without taxpayer money.



<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">Hi &#8211; it’s staking any crypto asset that is being held for the consumer as unclaimed property that has emissions. Then that revenue is sent to the treasurer where the bitcoin reserve would be. At that point most revenue would be converted into Bitcoin most likely and held. Actual…&mdash; Jeff Weninger (@JeffWeninger) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffWeninger/status/1920299302674718980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



It’s all necessary progress that was long overdue. However, both Arizona and Trump’s reserves would be radically improved if they could actually buy bitcoin at will, which at least in the latter’s case, is technically on the table pending budget-neutral strategies.



New Hampshire has already laid claim over those bragging rights, with Governor Kelly Ayotte on Tuesday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-hampshire-crypto-reserve-bitcoin-state-governments">signing into law</a> provisions for the state to invest 5% of all public funds into bitcoin.



The real question is then: Where does this put Bitcoin on its grand unified timeline, if the white paper was the first domino?&nbsp;



Almost two decades in, it’s clear we’re still early. Just look at the printing press.



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Domino effect: Arizona forms 2nd state bitcoin reserve in one week

Coinbase’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-to-acquire-deribit-in-2-9b-deal">agreement to acquire</a> crypto options giant Deribit affirms the trend of industry players flocking to a fast-growing derivatives market.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Industry observers expect more deals to come in this sub-sector, as the changing regulatory landscape empowers crypto giants to capitalize on heightened institutional demand.



The crypto exchange is set to pay roughly $2.9 billion for the Panama City-based company — $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of COIN stock.



Coinbase said in a blog post that Deribit’s options platform complements its US futures and international perpetual futures businesses — “completing our derivatives offering.”



The company added: “This is an important step toward our goal of providing traders access to spot, futures, perpetual futures, and options trading — all in one seamless, capital-efficient platform.”



This deal — subject to regulatory approvals — “would give the company an immediate and dominant foothold in the high-growth derivatives space ahead of an anticipated increase in institutional adoption of digital assets,” Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer wrote in a Thursday research note.



After all, he noted, Deribit is the world’s largest platform for bitcoin and ether options. Its nearly $1.2 trillion in trading volume in 2024 was almost double that of the prior year.&nbsp;



“The firm’s sophisticated trading tools, which cater to institutional and high-frequency traders, could strengthen Coinbase’s Prime platform and institutional appeal,” Palmer explained.&nbsp;



This pending deal follows Coinbase’s 2022 acquisition of FairX, which was later rebranded to Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. That gave the company a CFTC-regulated platform for offering crypto derivatives in the US.&nbsp;



Coinbase is now going a step further by expanding its international footprint, Morningstar analyst Michael Miller said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This is also a sign that the new regulatory environment is giving them more confidence to be aggressive in their growth efforts,” Miller told me.



The crypto industry saw <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ma-mergers-feeding-frenzy-kraken">a record number of M&amp;A deals</a> during the first three months of 2025. There were 62 such crypto transactions in Q1, according to advisory firm Architect Partners — up from 59 deals in the final quarter of 2024.&nbsp;



This deal would surpass — in size — two others revealed earlier this year. Kraken shared in March that it was set to purchase NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. A few weeks later, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-tradfi-intersections-ripple-blackrock">Ripple said it agreed to buy Hidden Road</a> — a prime broker clearing $3 trillion annually — for $1.25 billion.&nbsp;



Before those, digital asset prime broker FalconX bought trading firm Arbelos Markets in January as part of a push to become one of the largest crypto derivatives dealers.



“It follows our thesis that derivatives M&amp;A will continue to be active,” Architect Partners’ Michael Klena told me. “But the difference in this deal is scale, as Coinbase acquired one of the largest in a headline deal.”



Because derivatives are a higher-margin product than spot trading, firms will look to expand those types of offerings as trading fees are compressed, he added.



Regulatory changes and optimism around upcoming crypto-friendly frameworks has also spurred institutional demand — further fueling these kinds of moves. Coinbase’s institutional trading volume in 2024 amounted to $941 billion, which was up 139% year over year.



“Since Coinbase is taking captive one of the largest derivatives firms, their competitors will be looking to enhance product via acquisitions,” Klena said. “So overall it&#8217;s a deal that makes sense in the market, and we expect more to come around derivatives trading and infrastructure.”



Coinbase’s stock price was roughly $205 at 11 a.m. ET, marking a 4.3% increase on the day.&nbsp;



The company is hosting a Q1 earnings call at 5:30 p.m. ET. Following the deal announcement, Palmer noted: “Our estimates for the company are under review.”



<a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Subscribe</a> to the Forward Guidance newsletter for more on Coinbase’s Q1 results.  



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Coinbase-Deribit deal affirms industry’s growing focus on derivatives

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



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If spending $1.1 billion wasn’t enough of a sign that Stripe is serious about stablecoins and gaining market share there, its newest announcement shows that it is serious.



Stripe unveiled Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which — much like the name suggests — is a money-management feature. Businesses in over 100 countries can now use these “stablecoin-powered” accounts.&nbsp;



Basically, a business can not only hold their balance in stablecoins, but they can also receive funds on both crypto and fiat rails.&nbsp;



Oh, whoop, big deal.&nbsp;



Let me explain: Empire subscribers like yourself are very in the weeds when it comes to crypto. Many of you are crypto-native and likely interact with crypto daily.&nbsp;



We’re all aware that stablecoins have been the big winner for crypto, and the extent of their usefulness hasn’t even been realized yet by non-crypto folks. Announcements like this are the exact sort of moves you want to see when introducing stablecoins to businesses, entrepreneurs and executives who’ve probably heard about stablecoins through headlines, but don’t understand the usefulness.&nbsp;



“Because stablecoins make it dramatically faster and cheaper to move money internationally, many of the world’s largest companies are turning to Stripe to help assemble their stablecoin strategies. But a challenge remains: making it possible to spend stablecoins at businesses that only accept fiat currencies,” Stripe said in a <a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/sessions-2025">press release</a>.



Announcements like Stripe’s have a chance to open the eyes of non-crypto folks to show them how stablecoin payments can make a difference when it comes to speed and cost.&nbsp;



If we pair this with the one they made last week (<a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/bridge-partners-with-visa">partnering</a> with Visa on a card-issuing product that allows folks to spend stablecoin balances as fiat), we really are cooking.&nbsp;



Normalizing stablecoins — and showing off how effective they are — is the first step to mass adoption, if we’re simplifying it.&nbsp;



Patrick Collison, CEO, noted that stablecoins are a “gale-force” tailwind alongside AI, and are “dramatically reshaping the economic landscape around us.”



“Our job is to pull these technologies forward so businesses on Stripe can benefit from them right away,” he added.



Last year, businesses using Stripe processed roughly $1.4 trillion in total payment volume. Yes, with a T.&nbsp;



Right now, these accounts will support USDC and USDB (Bridge’s stablecoin), but it plans to add more in the future.&nbsp;



This is how crypto wins.



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What Stripe’s new Stablecoin Financial Accounts mean for adoption

Coinbase has agreed to snap up Deribit in a $2.9 billion deal, executives from both companies told The Wall Street Journal.&nbsp;



The deal is the single largest acquisition in crypto’s history, easily beating Kraken’s $1.5 billion deal for NinjaTrader earlier this year. Stripe said it planned to acquire Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal, and Ripple announced it would acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.&nbsp;



The makeup of the deal is $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of its Class A common stock.&nbsp;



In a blog post, Coinbase said that it expects the deal to close by the end of this year.



By acquiring Deribit, which had been shopping itself around for a few months, Coinbase will now expand into crypto derivatives. Deribit has seen an <a href="https://insights.deribit.com/exchange-updates/deribit-reports-q4-and-2024-year-end-volumes-provides-operational-update/">uptick</a> in overall trading volume activity thanks to a softening regulatory environment and expanding interest from institutional investors looking to capitalize on crypto.&nbsp;



“With Deribit’s strong presence and professional client base, Coinbase is making its most substantial move yet to accelerate our international growth strategy,” Coinbase said. It plans to create the most “comprehensive institutional derivatives platform.”



“We’re excited to join forces with Coinbase to power a new era in global crypto derivatives,” Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers said in a statement emailed to Blockworks.



“As the leading crypto options platform, we’ve built a strong, profitable business, and this acquisition will accelerate the foundation we laid while providing traders with even more opportunities across spot, futures, perpetuals, and options – all under one trusted brand. Together with Coinbase, we’re set to shape the future of the global crypto derivatives market.&#8221;



Prior to striking the deal with Coinbase, Kraken also expressed <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/02/20/crypto-exchange-deribit-still-in-talks-to-be-acquired-by-kraken-source">interest</a> in the options exchange.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcEpvO2GFVKQmVXCxIrDu4X8iCBJdZdpf-Qi8e-ocH8XGrnU_sQYBNqGb0LPJXmeeKt2LXgOyuBm9MUO3wtC1G_YXf663Ow-mbs6271AVnSBQ70xOgA1_RXGO76uhVl0pFpeh3BHQ?key=mnhKqsV8m8wnndNQJnLvBg" alt=""/></figure>



Overall crypto M&amp;A has seen an uptick last quarter, per data from Blockworks Research. Crypto firms specializing in finance have seen the largest amount of M&amp;A activity.&nbsp;







Updated May 8, 2025 at 9:30 am ET: Added additional context throughout.



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