Morgan Chittum

In the latest episode of Blockworks’ podcast “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md4XiS4XhCk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Empire</a>,” Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks, <meta charset="utf-8">is joined by Roy Capital Advisors managing partner Avik Roy to talk about CBDCs versus stable coins, the private sector&#8217;s role within the economy and more.



Avik is the president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, the policy editor at Forbes and previously served as an analyst and portfolio manager at JPMorgan, Bain Capital and other firms.&nbsp;



Jason and Avik talk about:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Bitcoin versus CBDCs</li><li>Avik&#8217;s thesis on bitcoin </li><li>&#8220;The fiscal and entitlement crisis&#8221;</li></ul>



Check out what they had to say in the video below. 👇



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Hedge fund manager talks CBDCs | Avik Roy" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/md4XiS4XhCk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



On &#8220;Empire,&#8221; once a week, Jason interviews individuals that have built the crypto industry to talk about their struggles, bold moves and tough decisions. For any NPR or Guy Raz fans out there, you can think of &#8220;Empire&#8221; like a “How I Built This” for the bitcoin and crypto industry.



Episodes are released every Thursday morning.&nbsp;



Subscribe to Empire today on&nbsp;<a href="https://apple.co/389JSpL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://spoti.fi/3uVnxpC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>. Watch episodes on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvER9nHSRN3wPkrDGTT5_8VC4Hjcq0f9U" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>.

Podcast: Hedge Fund Manager Talks CBDCs

Boccaccio

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



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



One of the key things I like to track in crypto is a subjective criterion I call “where are new interesting developments and proposals taking place.” There are plenty of dashboards and analytics sites for this, the most popular being the Electric Capital site. The issue is that it still shows Polkadot as having a lot of developers. (At Blockworks we solved the noise problem with active users; maybe we can try the same for active developers.) Because of this noise, I prefer to track two simple observations:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>What is the velocity of new products launching, and how much mindshare are these products capturing?</li>



<li>Are many people getting nerdsniped into discussing the novelties and intricacies of the chain?</li>
</ul>



A related point is the caliber of people being attracted to new ecosystems.



For example, over the past few years, Solana (and Ethereum) attracted the majority of talent. Talent generally goes where:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>It can solve interesting problems or create interesting projects.</li>



<li>It can make a lot of money.</li>
</ul>



In a podcast I did <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw5K9o5b--o">with Icebergy about a year ago</a>, we discussed how crypto still wasn’t attracting talent at the levels AI was, despite offering faster exits and more money. AI was (and probably still is) more interesting to most talent and seen as more prestigious. After FTX, crypto lost a lot of credibility and has only recently started recovering as larger institutional players re-entered. Apart from FTX, crypto has also been criticized for being full of low-effort forks and limited utility products. This dynamic isn’t unique to crypto though. Many AI companies are also just building wrappers around GPT, which is as uninteresting as some projects in crypto.



Anyway, to the point: Historically, Solana has captured the majority of attention from talent and developers. Regardless of personal views, launchpads, internet capital markets (RIP), creator capital markets, TCGs and prop AMMs have been popular over the past year, drawing developers to the ecosystem. They offer opportunities to solve problems, build products, and make money.



Solana continues to attract talent. There’s still a lot of money on the chain, high velocity of that money, and constant issuance of new tokens. Developers want to capture some of that revenue by building something unique, slightly different, or just a variation with new incentives. Ethereum has had this dynamic too, and still does. Many new AMM structures were first developed on Ethereum and by Ethereum-native founders. More recently, interest has grown in prediction markets. Many who once focused on perpetual markets have shifted to writing about prediction markets as well.



Beyond this, the main point of today’s note is that Hyperliquid has been gaining increasing attention from builders and talent. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zavyhzPZri0">recent podcast with Charlie from Felix</a>, we talked about how many of the basic elements of the L1 HyperEVM have already been built. A common criticism Charlie recognized is that most HyperEVM projects are forks or ports of existing products. This criticism is common for new chains, and it makes sense: Every new chain needs certain basic elements to function properly, such as lending markets, AMMs, bridges and so on. Still, aside from the HyperEVM, we’re also seeing growing interest in Hypercore from both talent and researchers.



This is reinforced by the large number of articles and research written on HIP-3.&nbsp; Bedlam Research has also discussed HIP-3 implementations previously, specifically discussing:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Risk tranching and delegated staking: Builders can pool HYPE from multiple holders, letting them share in fees while managing exposure through senior and junior tranches that take on different levels of slashing risk.</li>



<li>Fees and fee structure experiments: Instead of only rewarding stakers, fees can incentivize liquidity providers and takers, or be tokenized into yield streams; alternative fee schedules like charging only on winning trades are also possible.</li>



<li>New market types: HIP-3 allows deployment of markets beyond crypto, including equities, commodities, leveraged tokens, asset baskets, pair trades, event-contingent markets and even markets tied to DEX fee performance.</li>



<li>Collateral management: Since HIP-3 DEXs are siloed, collateral cannot easily move across venues; prime brokerage-style services could emerge to consolidate risk, transfer collateral, and provide margin financing across multiple DEXs.</li>
</ul>



In its HIP-4 proposal posted yesterday, Bedlam discussed how to extend builder-deployed perps into a format suited for prediction markets. It proposes Event Perpetuals as a way to address HIP-3’s limitations, since continuous oracles and capped price adjustments do not work for binary events that resolve instantly. The design represents probabilities directly on the order book, with values between 0 and 1 reflecting the likelihood of a “YES” outcome.



In practice, it operates like this:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Binary payoff, settling at either 0 or 1 once the event resolves.</li>



<li>No continuous oracle or funding, prices set only by trading.</li>



<li>Isolated 1x margining, with collateral depending on buying YES or NO.</li>



<li>Opening auction to determine the first market price before trading begins.</li>



<li>Continuous trading within bands of 0.001 to 0.999, no leverage.</li>



<li>Resolution through a single oracle update, with optional dispute window.</li>



<li>Settlement by halting trading, canceling orders, and closing positions.</li>



<li>Builders stake 1 million HYPE to deploy markets and define event details.</li>



<li>Markets can be recycled after resolution, and builders can set extra fees.</li>
</ul>



I highly recommend that anybody reading today’s newsletter check out <a href="https://www.bedlamresear.ch/posts/hip-4-event-perpetuals/">Bedlam Research</a>. I also encourage you to think about what edge your ecosystem or chain really has. As more chains have launched and gotten faster, differentiation is less about raw tech and more about something else. Many chains fail simply because they are designed to fail. They launch with an “innovation” that is irrelevant (15K TPS vs. 13K is not innovation) or uninteresting (for example, another restaking-focused chain).



Ask yourself: Are you investing in products, applications or tokens on chains that are actually nerdsniping developers and talent? Are there interesting, novel applications and features being discussed? If not, take a step back and ask why. Why is talent ignoring your chain?



Crypto is one of the easiest ways for developers and engineers to make money. If talent doesn’t think they can make money on a chain, consider two things: (1) will this change in the future? (2) are you looking in the wrong places?



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



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

Is Hyperliquid the new frontier for innovation?

Macauley Peterson

Aave Labs has released its official launch roadmap for V4, laying out the final steps ahead of the major upgrade’s Q4 mainnet launch.&nbsp;



Alongside new architectural and security improvements, the <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-v4-launch-roadmap/23134">roadmap</a> introduces a fundamental shift in how user balances are tracked and highlights a strategic pullback from economically underperforming deployments across <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2</a> and alternative layer-1 networks.



The V4 release moves away from aTokens’ rebasing-style mechanics toward <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/erc-4626">ERC-4626</a>-style share accounting, a change that promises cleaner integrations, easier tax treatment, and better compatibility with downstream DeFi infrastructure.&nbsp;



In a recent technical development <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-v4-development-update/23043">update</a>, Aave Labs confirmed that “tokenization is to remain optional and built using ERC 4626 vaults,” and that internal accounting will eliminate the use of exchange rates or scaled balances. The goal is to “further improve the overall reliability of the protocol.”



ERC-4626 is a widely adopted <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> standard that expresses user deposits as shares of a vault rather than balances that grow over time. In <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a> V3, aTokens accrue interest by increasing a user’s balance directly — behavior that resembles rebasing tokens and often confuses integrations and portfolio accounting tools.&nbsp;



By contrast, ERC-4626 tracks yield through a rising price-per-share metric, leaving token balances unchanged. The result is more predictable behavior for integrators, auditors and tax software, as well as a clearer cost basis for users.



The roadmap also outlines a series of release milestones, including a formal codebase publication, a public testnet launch with a redesigned interface, and the completion of a multi-layered security review involving formal verification and manual audits. Aave Labs said the roadmap reflects the protocol’s “final stages of review, testing, and deployment,” and that additional documentation and launch preparation materials will be released in the coming weeks.



But the most pointed strategic shift comes not from the codebase, but from Aave’s own governance forums.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">“Aave revenue is made on Mainnet”</h2>



In a starkly worded “State of the Union” <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-dao-s-state-of-the-union-by-aci/23124">post</a> published by delegate Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), the DAO signaled a clear intention to consolidate around Ethereum mainnet.



“At this point in time more than half of the Aave instances across L2s and alt-L1s are not economically viable,” Zeller wrote. “Based on YTD data, more than 86.6% of Aave revenue is made on Mainnet; it is now increasingly clear that everything else is a side quest.”



<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">My Modus Operandi for the last years 1) Publish a clear plan on the Aave DAO forum with the why, the how, and the path 2) Most ignore it, some laugh and a few smear because I have not been nice to them or their bags. 3) Execute as announced 4) Aave wins Repeat&mdash; Marc ”七十 Billy” Zeller 👻 🦇🔊 (@lemiscate) <a href="https://twitter.com/lemiscate/status/1967956597118001236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The post goes further, noting that proposals will be submitted to wind down deployments that no longer make sense for the protocol’s bottom line.



“In light of this, the ACI has updated our doctrine toward new network deployments,” Zeller added. “Therefore, we will publish proposals in the near future, aiming to close down shop on underperforming networks.”



Blockworks reached out to Aave representatives for details, such as what metrics will determine which Aave deployments are to be deprecated, but didn’t hear back prior to publication.



The commentary reflects frustration within the Aave community about the “spray and pray” expansion tactics of 2021–2023, when protocols launched instances across dozens of chains to capture incentives, often with little sustained user activity or economic value.&nbsp;



While some deployments — particularly on Ethereum L2s like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">OP Mainnet</a> — have shown signs of growth, many others have remained dormant or thinly collateralized. With <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dao">DAO</a> resources stretched across audits, governance overhead, and service-provider budgets, the protocol appears to be tightening its scope ahead of the V4 release.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107966" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-129.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Aave weekly revenue over the past year | Source: <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/application-comparison">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>



The roadmap also dovetails with broader economic planning within the DAO. ACI estimates Aave’s annual net protocol revenue at around $130 million — even with the protocol controlling a dominant share of DeFi lending. Roughly 80–95% of gross lending revenue is returned to liquidity providers, leaving the DAO with narrow operating margins. This has prompted a renewed focus on more profitable verticals like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/umbrella-reshapes-aave-staking">GHO</a>, Aave’s native stablecoin, where the protocol itself earns the spread by acting as the sole liquidity provider.



For service providers and tokenholders, the V4 launch represents a clean break. The shift to ERC-4626 removes a major accounting complexity from aTokens and aligns Aave with standards already used by protocols like Yearn, Beefy and Pendle. Meanwhile, the governance direction makes clear that “more chains” is no longer synonymous with growth. Instead, the DAO is doubling down on Ethereum mainnet and a small set of strategically differentiated deployments.



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

Aave V4 roadmap signals end of multichain sprawl

MoneyGram has launched a new mobile application in Colombia that uses USD-pegged stablecoins to modernize cross-border remittances. According to an <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moneygram-reinvents-cross-border-finance-with-next-generation-app-302559343.html">announcement</a> on Wednesday, the app allows customers to receive money instantly into a US dollar balance backed by Circle’s USDC stablecoin, which can be stored, spent, or cashed out through MoneyGram’s global retail network. The rollout is designed to address the volatility of local currencies, particularly the Colombian peso.



Built on the Stellar blockchain and supported by wallet infrastructure provider Crossmint, the app marks MoneyGram’s most significant move yet to integrate stablecoins into consumer-facing services.



Colombia was selected as the first market due to its heavy reliance on inbound remittances—families in the country receive more than 22 times the amount they send abroad, according to Statista. The announcement said future expansions will target other remittance-heavy markets.



MoneyGram, which has nearly 500,000 retail locations globally, has experimented with blockchain rails since partnering with the Stellar Development Foundation in 2021. It has since built cash on and off ramps for stablecoins, developed APIs for crypto integration, and incorporated stablecoins into its internal settlement processes.



“This launch is the first step toward a world where every person, everywhere, has access to dollar stablecoins,” CEO Anthony Soohoo stated.



The company emphasized compliance, citing decades of regulatory experience, though stablecoin oversight remains fluid. The US Congress passed the GENIUS Act earlier this year, establishing a framework for stablecoin regulation, which MoneyGram has pointed to as providing clearer guardrails.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

MoneyGram launches stablecoin-powered app in Colombia

Marginfi, a Solana-based lending and borrowing protocol, has patched a critical vulnerability in its flash loan mechanism that briefly placed more than $160 million in user deposits at risk.



The bug, disclosed by security researcher Felix Wilhelm through Marginfi’s bug bounty program, would have allowed an attacker to borrow funds without repaying them. The issue was resolved before any exploit occurred, and no funds were lost, <a href="https://blog.asymmetric.re/threat-contained-marginfi-flash-loan-vulnerability/">according</a> to Asymmetric Research’s report.



Flash loans, a common DeFi feature, allow users to borrow nearly all available liquidity on the condition that the funds are repaid within the same blockchain transaction. Solana protocols typically enforce this by introspecting instructions in a transaction to ensure a repayment step is included.



According to Asymmetric, Marginfi followed this approach but introduced a new instruction, transfer_to_new_account, that unintentionally bypassed repayment checks. This meant liabilities could be shifted to a new account mid-loan, enabling funds to be drained without triggering safeguards.



The report indicates that the Marginfi team swiftly deployed a patch to block account transfers during flash loans and prevent disabled accounts from being used for repayment. While Solana’s architecture limits some common Ethereum-style exploits, the vulnerability underscores that logic errors remain a critical threat.



The swift resolution demonstrates the role of bug bounty programs in preventing systemic losses. Similar past incidents, including attacks on Mango Markets and other Solana-based protocols, have shown how flash loan vulnerabilities can lead to multimillion-dollar losses.



Marginfi representatives did not respond to Blockworks’ request for comment before publication.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

Asymmetric Research discloses Marginfi flash loan bug that risked $160M

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Sept 17, setting the federal funds target range at 4% to 4.25%. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/monetary20250917a1.pdf">cited</a> slowing economic activity, weaker job growth, and persistently elevated inflation as key factors behind the decision. The Fed said risks to employment have risen, while inflation remains above its long-term 2% goal, underscoring the challenge of balancing its dual mandate.



The rate cut marks the latest adjustment in a cycle that began in 2022, when the central bank aggressively raised borrowing costs to combat the highest inflation in four decades. While inflation has since moderated, it has recently moved higher, prompting concerns that price pressures could become entrenched. The Fed also confirmed it will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, a process known as balance sheet runoff, which tightens financial conditions even as rates fall.



The policy statement revealed a split within the committee. Stephen Miran dissented, favoring a larger 50 basis point cut, highlighting the internal debate over how quickly to ease monetary policy amid uncertainty about the outlook. Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair John Williams, along with the majority of members, supported the more incremental move.



The Fed also adjusted supporting tools: it lowered the interest rate on reserve balances to 4.15% and reduced the primary credit rate to 4.25%. The New York Fed’s open market desk will maintain the new target range through operations including repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">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/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 25 bps

Byron Gilliam

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
​​“The most valuable commodity I know of is information.” — Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
</blockquote>



Ten months ago, FBI agents raided Shayne Coplan’s Manhattan apartment, ostensibly in search of evidence that the prediction market he founded, Polymarket, had illegally allowed US residents to place bets on the US election.



Two weeks ago, the CFTC gave Polymarket the green light to allow those very same US residents to place bets on whatever they like.



This is quite the turn of events — and it’s not just about elections or politics.



With its US government seal of approval in hand, Polymarket is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polymarket-sees-valuation-skyrocket-in-new-funding-round-2025-9">reportedly</a> raising capital at a valuation of $9 billion — a reflection of the growing belief that prediction markets will be used for much more than betting on elections once every four years.



Instead, proponents say prediction markets can provide a real service to the world by providing it with better information about nearly everything.



I think they might, too — but only if insiders are free to participate.



Yesterday, for example, Polymarket announced new betting markets on company earnings reports, with a promise that it would improve the information that investors have to work with.&nbsp;



Instead of waiting three months to find out how a company is faring, investors could simply watch the odds on Polymarket.&nbsp;



If the probability of an earnings beat is rising, for example, investors would know at a glance that things are going well.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="853" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107902" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-128.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



But that will only happen if enough of the people betting actually know how things are going.



Relying on the wisdom of crowds to magically discern how a business is doing won’t add much incremental knowledge to the world; everyone’s guesses are unlikely to average out to the truth.



If company insiders were allowed to bet, however, prediction-market odds would offer a real-time barometer of a company’s fortunes.



This would be an excellent replacement for quarterly earnings reports if President Trump decides to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-quarterly-earnings-reports-sec-semiannual-cd5fbed69b72e7525848bc11109d0d35">ban them</a>.



In some ways, it might even be an improvement: Why incur the trouble and expense of updating investors so frequently when investors can get the basic idea from a chart on Polymarket?



Ideally, you’d want people at all levels of the company participating.



Early in a reporting period, warehouse managers might have the best idea of how sales are going, and their bets would share that anecdotal information with the market.



Late in the reporting period, the finance department would start to know what the earnings number will be, and their bets would share that more precise information with the market.



If that sounds like insider trading to you, that’s because it is.



But that’s no reason to disallow it: Insider trading is the kind of victimless crime that’s not worth policing.&nbsp;



In fact, non-insiders should not feel victimized at all. If you’re wrong, you’d rather sell to someone who knows you’re wrong, because they’ll give you a better price for your bet and you’ll lose less money.&nbsp;



“Lose less money” is admittedly not much of a selling point, but prediction markets are a zero-sum game (at best), so someone has to lose.



Losing is the cost of getting better information.



In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko got new information by presenting Bud Fox with a check over lunch.&nbsp;



“Astonish me, pal,” he instructed Fox. “New info. I don&#8217;t care where or how you get it, just get it.”



Fox did get it, and Gekko then shared his new information with the world by betting on it.



You probably agree with both moviegoers and lawmakers that this seems unfair. It’s hard to sympathize with Michael Douglas as a hedge fund manager with slicked-back hair.



But why would anyone do the hard work of digging up new information for free?



At their best, prediction markets are a way of paying people to dig up new information.



In the last presidential election, for example, prediction markets incentivized an anonymous Polymarket bettor to put their own poll in the field and then share that information with the world by betting on Trump to win.



More recently, Blockworks <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/native-markets-leads-usdh-race/?nocache">reported</a> that the Polymarket odds of Ethena winning the USDH ticker on Hyperliquid collapsed “after validators dismissed its chances behind closed doors.”



This is precisely how prediction markets are meant to work: Polymarket incentivized someone to go get better information — otherwise hidden “behind closed doors” — and then share that information with the world by betting on it.



Unfortunately, doing the same with quarterly earnings reports will almost certainly be illegal.



In its <a href="https://polymarket.com/tos">terms of service</a>, Polymarket prohibits several things that are universally disallowed in financial markets: front-running, wash trading, pre-arranged trading and spoofing.&nbsp;



“Insider trading” is conspicuously absent, however, which is hopeful.



But there’s also a catch-all prohibition against engaging in any activity “that violates Applicable Law.”&nbsp;



In the US, the laws applicable to prediction markets will be made by the CFTC, and the CFTC’s <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/amaf_factsheet_final.pdf">rulebook</a> seems to prohibit insider trading: “Depending on all of the facts and circumstances, trading on the basis of material non-public information in breach of a pre-existing duty…may violate final Rule 180.1.”&nbsp;



That is more permissive than the SEC’s blanket prohibition on any use of material non-public information, so it might leave scope for the CFTC to allow insiders to participate in prediction markets.



But I’m not hopeful: Every employee of an exchange-listed company has a “pre-existing duty” not to share their inside information with markets.



This is understandable as a rule designed for stock markets, where it’s important to maintain a sense of fairness.



If people think the stock market is rigged, they’ll be less inclined to invest, and companies will have a harder time raising capital.



But what’s the harm in letting insiders share their information with prediction markets?



No one’s betting their 401k money on Polymarket, so there’s no harm in people thinking that the odds are stacked against them.&nbsp;



(Nor will it stop people from participating. Everyone knows the odds are against them in sports betting, but they keep betting on sports.)



If anything, allowing insiders to trade in prediction markets would make stock markets more fair by disseminating information to everyone at the same time.



Without insiders, we’ll learn how uninformed people think a company is doing, which isn’t very helpful.



With insiders, we&#8217;ll learn how informed people know a company is doing, which is.&nbsp;



The purpose of prediction markets is to provide better information to the world, and the best information comes from insiders, so they should be encouraged to participate — even if that means we have to pay them.



“It&#8217;s all about bucks,” Gordon Gekko explained to Bud Fox.&nbsp;



“The rest is conversation.”



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Let insiders trade

Kalshi, the US-regulated prediction market exchange, rolled out a new program on Wednesday called KalshiEco Hub.



The initiative, <a href="https://x.com/Kalshi/status/1968307024799879505">developed</a> in partnership with Solana and Coinbase-backed Base, is <a href="https://x.com/base/status/1968313776740225179">designed</a> to attract builders, traders, and content creators to a growing ecosystem around prediction markets. By combining its regulatory footing with crypto-native infrastructure, Kalshi said it is aiming to become a bridge between traditional finance and onchain innovation.



The hub offers grants, technical assistance, and marketing support to selected projects. Kalshi also announced that it will support native deposits of Solana’s SOL token and USDC stablecoin, making it easier for users already active in crypto to participate directly.



Early collaborators include <a href="https://x.com/Kalshinomics/status/1968322941290172445">Kalshinomics</a>, a dashboard for market analytics, and <a href="https://x.com/VersoTrading/status/1968319644533682223">Verso</a>, which is building professional-grade tools for market discovery and execution. Other partners, such as <a href="https://x.com/brianjckim/status/1968321917657723081">Caddy</a>, are exploring ways to expand retail-facing trading experiences.



Kalshi’s move to embrace blockchain partnerships comes at a time when prediction markets are drawing fresh attention for their ability to capture sentiment around elections, economic policy, and cultural events.



Competitor Polymarket recently <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/polymarket-acquires-cftc-licensed-exchange-and-clearinghouse-qcex-for-112-million-302509626.html">acquired</a> QCEX — a derivatives exchange with a CFTC license — to pave its way back into US operations under regulatory compliance. At the same time, platforms like PredictIt continue to push for a clearer regulatory footing.



The legal terrain remains complex, with some states <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/massachusetts-accuses-kalshi-running-illegal-sports-wagering-operation-2025-09-12/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">issuing</a> cease-and-desist orders over whether these event contracts count as gambling, not finance.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Kalshi debuts ecosystem hub with Solana and Base

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has instructed banking organizations under its supervision to adopt blockchain analytics tools as part of their compliance frameworks.



The notice, <a href="https://www.dfs.ny.gov/industry-guidance/industry-letters/il20250917-blockchain">issued</a> on Sept. 17, applies to state-chartered banks and branches of foreign institutions licensed in New York. Superintendent Adrienne Harris suggested the move reflects increasing exposure to digital assets through both customer activity and bank-led virtual currency initiatives.



The department first issued guidance in April 2022 requiring licensed virtual currency firms to employ blockchain analytics to trace transactions and assess risk. It later expanded oversight in December 2022, mandating prior approval for new or materially different virtual currency-related activity.



With traditional banks now engaging in similar activities, the regulator said analytics tools should be used to screen customer wallets, verify fund origins, monitor exposure to high-risk virtual asset service providers, and detect money laundering or sanctions evasion.



NYDFS emphasized that the guidance is not a formal rulemaking but a supervisory expectation. Institutions are expected to tailor controls to their risk appetite and business models, while reassessing them regularly as market conditions evolve.



The regulator warned that growing adoption of digital assets increases the potential for illicit finance. “Covered institutions play a critical role in safeguarding the integrity of the financial ecosystem,” the agency said in its notice.&nbsp;



The directive underscores New York’s role as one of the strictest crypto oversight regimes in the United States, alongside its BitLicense framework.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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New York regulator directs banks to use blockchain analytics

At EDCON 2025 in Osaka, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered fresh details of Ethereum’s technical roadmap, delineating both short-term scaling goals and longer-term protocol transformations.



The immediate priority, <a href="https://x.com/_FORAB/status/1968167088784281921">according</a> to slides from the presentation, is scaling at the L1 level by raising the gas limit while maintaining decentralization. Tools such as block-level access lists, ZK-EVMs, gas repricing, and slot optimization were highlighted as means to improve throughput and efficiency.



A central theme of the presentation was privacy, divided into protections for on-chain “writes” (transactions, voting, DeFi operations) and “reads” (retrieving blockchain state). Write privacy could be achieved through client-side zero-knowledge proofs, encrypted voting, and mixnet-based transaction relays.



Read privacy efforts include trusted execution environments, private information retrieval techniques, dummy queries to obscure access patterns, and partial state nodes that reveal only necessary data. These measures aim to reduce information leakage across both ends of user interaction.



In the medium term, Ethereum’s focus shifts to cross-Layer-2 interoperability. Vitalik described trustless L2 asset transfers, proof aggregation, and faster settlement mechanisms as key milestones toward a seamless rollup ecosystem. Faster slots and stronger finality, supported by techniques like erasure coding and three-stage finalization (3SF), are also in scope to enhance responsiveness and security. The roadmap also includes Stage 2 rollup advancements to strengthen verification efficiency, alongside a call for broader community participation to help build and maintain these improvements.



The long-term “Lean Ethereum” blueprint emphasizes security, simplicity and optimization, with ambitions for quantum-resistant cryptography, formal verification of the protocol, and adoption of ideal primitives for hashing, signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs. Buterin stressed that these improvements are not just for scalability but to make Ethereum a stable, trustworthy foundation for the broader decentralized ecosystem.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Vitalik Buterin lays out new Ethereum roadmap at EDCON

Botanix Labs has launched stBTC, a liquid staking token designed to turn Bitcoin into a yield-bearing asset by redistributing network gas fees directly to users.



The protocol will begin yield accrual later this week, with its Genesis Vault <a href="https://botanixlabs.com/blog/introducing-stbtc-cold-hard-bitcoin-yield-on-botanix">scheduled</a> to open on Sept. 25, capped at 50 BTC. The initiative marks one of the first attempts to generate Bitcoin-native yield without relying on inflationary token models or centralized custodians.



stBTC works by allowing users to deposit Bitcoin into Botanix’s permissionless smart contract, receiving stBTC tokens that represent their share of the staking vault. As transactions occur, 50% of Botanix network gas fees, paid in BTC, flow back to stBTC holders.



Over time, the value of stBTC increases relative to BTC, enabling users to redeem their original deposit plus yield. Botanix estimates early returns could reach 20–50% annually before stabilizing around 6–8%, a level similar to Ethereum staking but fully denominated in Bitcoin.



Botanix says that security audits have been completed by Spearbit and Sigma Prime, and the protocol is built on the EIP-4626 vault standard, which also underpins Ethereum-based staking products.



The company’s Spiderchain architecture, operated by 16 independent entities including Galaxy, Alchemy, and Fireblocks, secures the network. If adoption grows, Botanix argues the system could make Bitcoin a productive, composable asset for decentralized finance, while reinforcing network consensus.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Botanix launches stBTC to deliver Bitcoin-native yield

Wormhole is changing how its W token works by creating a new reserve designed to hold value for the long term. <a href="https://wormhole.com/blog/wormhole-announces-w-token-2-0-upgrade">Announced</a> on Wednesday, the Wormhole Reserve will collect onchain and offchain revenues and other value generated across the protocol and its applications (including Portal) and accumulate them into W, locking the tokens within the reserve.



The reserve is part of a broader update called W 2.0. Other changes include a 4% targeted base yield for tokenholders who stake and take part in governance. While staking rewards will vary, Wormhole said active users of ecosystem apps can earn boosted yields through features like Portal Earn.



The team stressed that no new tokens are being minted; rewards come from existing supply and protocol revenues, keeping the cap fixed at 10 billion.



Wormhole is also overhauling its token release schedule. Instead of releasing large amounts of W at once under the old “cliff” model, the network will shift to steady, bi-weekly unlocks starting October 3, 2025.



The aim is to avoid sharp periods of selling pressure and create a more predictable environment for investors. Lockups for some groups, including validators and investors, will extend an additional six months, until October 2028. Core contributor tokens remain under longer contractual time locks.



Wormhole launched in 2020 as a cross-chain bridge and now connects more than 40 blockchains. The W token powers governance and staking, with a capped supply of 10 billion. By redirecting fees and revenues into the new reserve, Wormhole is betting that its token can maintain value as demand for moving assets and data between chains grows.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Wormhole launches reserve tying protocol revenue to token

Ethereum Layer 2 project Taiko has named Chainlink Data Streams as its official oracle infrastructure, introducing sub-second, tamper-proof market data across its rollup network.



The integration, <a href="https://taiko.mirror.xyz/s45LBZf_0OwIRc4j2kJv0hFAJG1hEvxL4g94OcXraiI">announced</a> Wednesday, is designed to accelerate DeFi application development on Taiko’s based rollup architecture, which relies on Ethereum validators for transaction sequencing and censorship resistance.



Chainlink oracles, which have already secured more than $100 billion in decentralized finance (DeFi) activity, have facilitated over $25 trillion in transaction value. By embedding Chainlink’s infrastructure into its ecosystem, Taiko aims to give developers access to liquidity-weighted bid-ask spreads, flexible reporting schemas, and institutional-grade market data.



The integration also allows macroeconomic data, including figures from the US Department of Commerce, to be posted onchain.



Taiko Chief Operating Officer Joaquin Mendes said adopting Chainlink ensures the network has “secure, high-fidelity market data” that can support advanced financial products such as lending protocols and derivatives platforms.&nbsp;



Mendes emphasized the project’s alignment with Ethereum’s decentralization ethos and its ambition to attract institutional capital.



Chainlink Labs’ Chief Business Officer Johann Eid said the partnership positions Taiko to “unlock significant DeFi innovation” while providing institutions with reliable infrastructure. Beyond DeFi, the collaboration is framed as a step toward enabling tokenized real-world assets and enterprise smart contract applications.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Taiko adopts Chainlink oracles to power market data

Bullish has secured a coveted BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, clearing the way for the crypto exchange to operate in one of the toughest US jurisdictions.



The license, <a href="https://bullish.com/news-insights/news/bullish-secures-new-york-bitlicense-from-the-nydfs-paving-way-for-u-s-launch/">confirmed</a> in a company statement on Wednesday, positions Bullish to expand into the American market after years of focusing abroad.



New York’s BitLicense, created in 2015, is widely seen as one of the strictest state regimes for digital asset firms. It requires licensees to meet stringent anti-money laundering and know-your-customer standards, hold sufficient reserves, and demonstrate strong cybersecurity protections. Fewer than 40 firms have obtained the license to date, underscoring the regulatory hurdles facing newcomers. Blockchain firms have long cited US entry as risky because of murky rules and aggressive enforcement by regulators. However, the current administration has brought about rapid changes aimed at clarifying the playing field, leading to a perceived opening for exchanges seeking to establish credibility in the world’s largest capital market.



For Bullish, the approval eliminates a major barrier to US entry and could help attract institutional investors who value regulatory clarity. Still, that approval is only the first step: License holders remain under close scrutiny and must file detailed reports to maintain good standing.



This is a developing story.



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This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Bullish secures New York BitLicense from NYDFS, paving way for US launch

CME Group is preparing to launch options on SOL and XRP futures next month, giving traders new ways to manage exposure to the two assets.&nbsp;



The contracts are set to go live on October 13, pending regulatory approval, and will come in both standard and micro sizes with expiries offered daily, monthly and quarterly.



The new <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cme-group-to-launch-options-on-solana-and-xrp-futures-302558956.html">listings</a> mark a major step for CME, which first brought bitcoin futures to market in 2017 and added ether contracts in 2021. Solana and XRP futures have quickly gained traction since their debut earlier this year.



CME says more than 540,000 Solana contracts (worth about $22.3 billion), and 370,000 XRP contracts (worth $16.2 billion), have already been traded. Both products hit record trading activity and open interest in August.



Market makers including Cumberland and FalconX plan to support the new contracts, arguing that institutional investors want hedging tools beyond bitcoin and ether. CME’s move also highlights the growing demand for regulated ways to access a broader set of digital assets.



The launch, which still needs the green light from regulators, follows the end of XRP’s years-long legal fight with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. A federal court ruling in 2023 found that institutional sales of XRP violated securities laws, but programmatic exchange sales did not. The case officially closed in August 2025 after Ripple agreed to pay a $125 million fine, removing one of the biggest uncertainties hanging over the token.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

CME Group to launch Solana and XRP futures options in October

Forward Industries is continuing to bet big on Solana. The Nasdaq-listed company said on Wednesday that it will raise up to $4 billion through an at-the-market equity program, with proceeds aimed at expanding its SOL holdings.



The program, arranged with Cantor Fitzgerald, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250916485458/en/Forward-Industries-Announces-%244-Billion-At-The-Market-Equity-Offering-Program">allows</a> Forward to sell shares directly into the market over time instead of in a single issuance. The company said the flexible structure will support its Solana-focused treasury strategy, which has already included the purchase of more than 6.8 million SOL this year.



Chairman Kyle Samani described the program as a way to keep building the company’s Solana position while giving it room to fund other growth initiatives. Forward’s strategy is backed by investors including Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, positioning it as one of the largest public firms centered on Solana rather than Bitcoin or Ethereum.



Forward acknowledged that its stock price may become tightly linked to the value of SOL, a token known for sharp volatility. US regulators have also raised questions about how companies account for and disclose crypto holdings, leaving open the possibility of shifting compliance requirements.



Still, the scale of the raise highlights how some public companies are using traditional capital markets to double down on digital asset strategies. If fully executed, the $4 billion program would make Forward one of the most aggressive corporate buyers of Solana to date.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

Forward Industries launches $4B Solana treasury equity plan

Kraken announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Circle to expand access to USD Coin (USDC) and launch support for Circle’s euro-backed stablecoin, EURC.



Kraken says the <a href="https://blog.kraken.com/news/circle-partnership">move</a> will provide its clients with deeper liquidity, reduced conversion fees, and new ways to deploy stablecoins across the exchange’s suite of financial applications. Circle, the issuer of USDC and EURC, has positioned its products as fully reserved and regulated alternatives to traditional banking rails.



USDC, first launched in 2018, has become one of the most widely used dollar stablecoins, while EURC extends that model to Europe’s common currency. Kraken first listed stablecoins in 2017 and has seen accelerating demand as regulatory clarity improves in key jurisdictions.



Kraken Global Head of Consumer Business Mark Greenberg said stablecoins are “permissionless, programmable and global by default,” emphasizing their alignment with crypto’s original design.&nbsp;



Circle Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi highlighted the company’s ambition to build the world’s largest stablecoin network by partnering with established trading venues like Kraken.



The announcement follows broader industry trends where exchanges and issuers are working to integrate stablecoins into payments, lending, and settlement systems. Kraken indicated more product details tied to the partnership will be released in the coming months.



This is a developing story.



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



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>



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



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</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/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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

Kraken and Circle expand stablecoin access with USDC, EURC integration

Join global sovereigns, endowments, pensions, foundations, and family offices as they explore this new asset class.


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Speakers

Nigel Farage is the Reform UK MP for Clacton, and has been an MP continually since 4 July 2024.

Nigel Farage MP

Joseph Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum, the founder and CEO of <a href="https://consensys.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Consensys</a> and Chairman of SharpLink. Since 2014, Consensys has played a foundational role in Ethereum’s growth, from pioneering products like MetaMask and Infura to shaping protocol development and staking infrastructure.



Born and raised in Toronto, Lubin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked in the Princeton Robotics Lab, at tomandandy music developing an autonomous music composition tool, and at private research firm Vision Applications Inc. building autonomous mobile robots.



As a software and AI consultant, Lubin worked with eMagine on the Identrus project and was involved in the founding and operation of a hedge fund with a partner. He held positions as Director of the New York office of Blacksmith Software Consulting, and VP of Technology in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs. Through these posts, Joe focused on the intersection of cryptography, engineering, and finance.



In 2014 he met Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian programmer, writer and Founder of Ethereum and joined the Ethereum Project as a co-founder. After the Project was launched, Joe established Consensys. Since 2014 Joe and the Consensys team have been working on the foundational software for web3, the next wave of the internet for a decentralized future.

Joseph Lubin

Chris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. His core policy focus is on digital technology for the public good with a particular interest in technologies such as AI and blockchain.



In Parliament, he specializes in legislation that deals with technology. He is a member of the House of Lord’s Digital and Communications Select Committee and was appointed to the Special Bill Committee considering Digital Asset legislation. He introduced a private members’ bill that proposed the regulation of artificial intelligence and was integral to the passing of the ground-breaking Electronic Trade Documents Bill.



On technology, he has previously co-authored House of Lords Select Committee Reports on: Democracy and Digital Technologies [2020], Artificial Intelligence [2018], and Digital Skills [2015] and under his own auspices published an influential report encouraging government testing of blockchain solutions for policy delivery, DLT for Public Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation [2017] He is also adviser to several tech and fintech companies.



On inclusion, and again under his own auspices, he has published influential reports on accessibility in the public realm and support for disabled students as well as Lords reports on Financial Exclusion [2017], Social Mobility [2016] and, for the Cabinet Office, The Lord Holmes Review on opening up public appointments to disabled people. He continues to advise the government on diversity and inclusion.



An ex-Paralympic swimmer, Chris won nine gold, five silvers and one bronze medal across four Games, including a record haul of six golds at Barcelona 1992.

Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE

Mathew has more than 25 years of industry and leadership experience, having previously held several leadership positions at Goldman Sachs globally and across different functions. As Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, Mathew is responsible for leading the firm’s cross-divisional digital assets strategy, which includes a wide range of client-led tokenization activities, crypto-linked product offerings and blockchain investments.

Mathew McDermott

Elif Bilgi Zapparoli is head of International Client Strategy. In this role, Elif leverages her long-standing relationships around the world to ensure connectivity and consistency in delivering the firm to our clients and develops strategic business initiatives.



 The role is a franchise function, covering both banking and markets clients and bringing the firm together, such as in Sovereign Solutions Group and International Analytics, with the objective of adding strategic value to clients and utilizing the full might of our platform. Elif is a member of Bank of America’s Management Committee, International Management Committee and the Global Corporate &amp; Investment Banking (GCIB) Executive Committee. 



She is based in Paris. Prior to this position, Elif served as co-head of Global Capital Markets at BofA Securities, the institutional broker dealer business of Bank of America. In this role, she was responsible for leading four primary businesses – Equity Capital Markets, Investment Grade Capital Markets and Debt Advisory, Leveraged Finance and Rates and Currencies Solutions. Her earlier roles included serving as co-head of Asia Pacific GCIB from 2015 to 2018, head of Investment Banking coverage in Central-Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and country executive for Turkey. Elif served from 2009 to 2019 as a member of the Supervisory Board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft. She was a trustee at Robert College from 2006 to 2022 and is on the Global Advisory Council of Harvard University.



She has been recognized by Barron's as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2022; by American Banker as one of the Most Powerful Women in Finance for the fourth consecutive year in 2023; and by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow in 2004.



Elif holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and international relations from Brown University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Elif Bilgi Zapparoli

Daniel is the Chairman, Founder and largest shareholder in CoinShares International Limited, Europe’s largest digital asset manager with $6 Billion USD under management. He serves on the Board of the Tezos Foundation, StableMint, GTSA, Satohshi pay, and a number of CoinShares' affiliates. Since engaging initially in 2012 in crypto he has made numerous investments across the infrastructure powering crypto from data to blockchains to wallets, defi, mining, custody and crypto banks. He was formerly the global head of energy trading at JP Morgan and ran two successful commodity hedge funds. He holds three degrees: Physics, Management Science, and Applied Statistics.

Danny Masters

Chris Rayner-Cook, CIO, leads Brevan Howard’s Digital investment team. Over a 20+ career, Chris has held senior roles including at Coinbase, where he was Global Head of Trading and Financing, managed capital at large hedge funds including Brevan Howard, Citadel and Millennium, and founded and successfully sold a tokenisation business. Chris started his career at Merrill Lynch in 2000. He obtained his BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol in June 2000.

Chris Rayner-Cook

Samantha is RockawayX's Partner &amp; Chief Growth Officer. Samantha invests across stages and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. She also oversees the firm's post-investment engine and portfolio management, and its growth efforts across operating divisions.



Samantha previously spent four years as Head of Growth at DCG (parent company of CoinDesk, Grayscale, Luno, Foundry, Genesis and Tradeblock.) In that position, Samantha oversaw the firm's 250+ company venture portfolio and ran strategic growth and corporate development initiatives on behalf of DCG and its network of businesses. Prior to DCG, Samantha led business development efforts at Elder, a London-based health tech company, and spent four years at Orbis Investments, the global asset manager, working on its emerging market equity fund and spearheading the roll-out of an innovative online retail investment platform.

Samantha Bohbot

Cynthia Lo Bessette is head of Fidelity Investment’s Digital Asset Management division. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals. In her role, Ms. Lo Bessette oversees the strategic vision and priorities for the digital asset investment, operations, and ecosystem groups, including research analysts, portfolio construction, trading, data science and blockchain engineering, investment product, operations and digital asset strategists teams. In addition to developing and managing investment products and advisory services, Ms. Lo Bessette’s team engages with clients on digital asset education including investment and ecosystem perspectives, as well as opportunities to create new utilities and access in using digital assets. 



Ms. Lo Bessette has extensive experience working with asset management firms investing globally across asset classes and serving a worldwide investor base, including retail and institutional investors. She has broad experience working with global asset managers on strategic transactions and on start-up and establishment of new businesses in global markets, investment product development and distribution, and portfolio management matters involving U.S. and foreign regulations and local market practices. She leverages this deep asset management experience to lead the development and design of investment solutions investing across digital assets and using blockchain and smart contract technology to enhance the utility of assets and capital allocation between traditional and digital finance.

Cynthia Lo Bessette

Ray Hindi is the co-founded L1D and currently acts as the CEO/CIO. Ray has an investment background in venture, hedge funds and interest rate trading. Ray holds a BEng from UCL and an MSc in Finance from Imperial College. He previously acted as the CIO of Bellegarde Capital AG an independent investment group with activities focused in fintech, blockchain and other alternative investments. Also previously at Swiss Capital (StepStone Group) responsible for the firm’s macro outlook, macro hedge funds and event driven coverage. From 2005 to 2011 Ray was part of Harcourt Investment Consulting AG, a USD 6 bn fund of hedge funds firm in Zurich, and responsible for USD 2 bn of investments (rates, macro and distressed). He started his career at Bloomberg LP in London and subsequently left the firm to trade interest rates for a London based proprietary group. Ray holds a BEng from University College London (UCL) and an MSc in Finance from Imperial College.

Ray Hindi

Ben founded ParaFi in 2018 as one of the earliest investment firms focused on the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem. Prior to founding ParaFi, Ben spent the first 10 years of his career in institutional investing roles at leading asset managers including KKR and TPG. While at KKR, Ben served as a Director in the credit business, investing across a wide array of industry sectors and parts of the capital structure, including distressed special situations, private credit, and opportunistic and liquid credit. Ben also led KKR's blockchain research as part of the firm's Innovation and Disruption Council beginning in 2016. Prior to KKR, Ben served as a Vice President with TPG’s former credit business, Sixth Street Partners. As one of the first investment professionals to join the platform, Ben helped scale its private credit vehicle, TPG Specialty Lending, which went public in 2014. Earlier in his career, Ben was a member of the private equity team at Littlejohn &amp; Company and investment banking team at Rothschild &amp; Co. Ben has a passion for capital markets, behavioral economics and game theory, all of which drew him to the blockchain space. He grew up playing chess competitively and continues to play actively to this day (peak ELO 1871). He graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Forman

Sandy Kaul is senior vice president, Franklin Templeton, providing advisory consulting for the firm and thought leadership as part of the Franklin Templeton Institute. She delivers actionable intelligence and insights on the future of the investment and wealth management industry for the firm and its clients. Ms. Kaul has cultivated deeply informed insights and has an extensive background in driving market leading research, thought leadership and predictive models centered on the evolution of the investment and wealth management industry. She identifies and champions opportunities to address industry advancements and drive transformation, with a focus on innovative distribution trends and digital disruption. She delivers strategic insights to inform the firm's decision-making on partnerships and investments, including within Franklin Templeton's growing digital asset business. Ms. Kaul has over 25 years of well-rounded industry experience and is a frequent speaker at industry events and a widely published author. She combines her unique blend of sell-side, buy-side and consulting insights to drive her research and thought leadership around what constitutes best practices and where innovation is occurring. Ms. Kaul joined Franklin Templeton in 2022 from Citi, where she served as Managing Director and Global Head of Business Advisory Services, and launched and built out the Citi's Business Advisory Services practice, a market leading provider of industry thought leadership spanning Citi's Markets and Global Wealth organizations. Ms. Kaul rejoined Citi in 2009, after originally starting her career there in 1985 as a Futures Research Analyst covering the soft commodities markets with Citi's predecessor firm, Shearson Lehman Brothers. She joined Commodities Corporation/Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 1995 as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and Portfolio Manager. After managing money for nearly six years, Ms. Kaul shifted her attention to consulting where she led the strategy practice within the Financial Services division of the renowned dot.com firm, Scient, and then went on to become a Partner at the capital markets niche management consulting firm m.a.partners/Detica. Ms. Kaul holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Colgate University.

Sandy Kaul

Leading Strategy and Partnerships for Digital Assets in Citi's Treasury and Trade Solutions Business. Working with a truly dynamic global team serving 140 countries, 160 currencies while regulated in 95 countries.

David Cunningham

Alexandra Prager

Ryan is based in London and heads up Digital Assets globally and Strategic Investments across Europe and Asia at Barclays. The DA team is responsible for digital asset strategy, governance and the establishment of new asset, money and tokenisation initiatives across the bank. The SI team is responsible for originating, executing and portfolio managing all strategic principal equity investments made by Barclays in external companies.  Ryan joined Barclays in 2011 as an M&amp;amp;A advisor in the investment bank and moved to the Strategy and Corporate Development team in 2013, where he acted as a principal in originating and executing M&amp;amp;A transactions.Prior to Barclays, Ryan was at Nevsky Capital, a $7bn long/short equity asset manager, where he covered a range of sectors including oil &amp;amp; gas, chemicals and agriculture and before that worked at Deutsche Bank as a corporate finance advisor in the Industrials practice across Europe. Ryan holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford and also holds an MA (Oxon) from the University of Oxford.

Ryan Hayward

Peter Left

Mike Higgins is an early Partner and acting, International CEO and Global Head of Corporate Development at Hidden Road. An experienced Director with two decades of active engagement within financial markets, Mike possesses expertise in market structure across the full spectrum of Global Financial Markets, including Digital Assets, FICC and Synthetic Swaps. A strong emphasis on electronic trading technologies, methodologies and workflows. His specific skills in E-Commerce, APIs, GUI, price generation algorithms, risk management and hedging strategies to a diverse group of market participants prove invaluable as Hidden Road network continues to expand. Prior to joining Hidden Road, Mike successfully built, managed and commercialised a number of businesses within financial markets which included solutions in technology, trading and brokerage. Having started his career in New York on Wall Street, Mike moved with his family to London in 2009. Mike earned a bachelors degree in economics and statistics from Fordham University in New York.

Michael Higgins

Meltem Demirors is Founder and General Partner at Crucible, an early-stage fund investing in the foundations of our digital future. Before launching Crucible in 2024, she served as Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, Europe’s largest and longest standing digital asset investment firm which oversees $7B in AUM. Meltem started her crypto career on the founding team at Digital Currency Group, which grew from 40 to 200 portfolio companies and 2 to 4 subsidiaries during her tenure. Beyond her corporate positions, Meltem has lectured at MIT and Oxford and is an active angel investor in over 100 startups. She leverages her vast network – ranging from major institutions to builders at the fringe – to find and fund unique opportunities for Crucible. Before joining the crypto industry in 2015, Meltem began her career trading and working in the oil and gas industry. She studied math and econ at Rice University and has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. When she isn’t talking about data centers, the energy grid, or forward curves she can be found reading, wandering in the woods, or scheming with her magical internet money friends.

Meltem Demirors

Xiao-Xiao J. Zhu currently serves as Digital Operating Partner at KKR where he leads technology-driven value creation, innovation and digital transformation at the board and top management level of European private equity portfolio companies such as Axel Springer, GfK and Roompot Landal. He also leads KKR’s global Digital Assets &amp; Blockchain strategy, driving investments in foremost Crypto VCs such as Dragonfly Capital and Ethereal Ventures as well as Digital Assets companies such as Anchorage Digital. He is a regular speaker at key Digital Assets &amp; AI conferences, and is an angel investor in fast growing early stage technology companies such as Fuse Energy or Anagram. Prior to joining KKR, he was General Manager at BCG Digital Ventures in London and Beijing where he founded, launched and scaled new digital companies such as Heycar.com (backed by Volkswagen &amp; Daimler) or Tracr.com (backed by DeBeers). He began his career in management consulting advising Fortune 500 companies at the Boston Consulting Group in London. Notably, in an earlier life, he performed as a professional concert pianist on some of the world’s most prestigious concert venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, and played for global leaders such as George H.W. Bush, Helmut Kohl or Mikhail Gorbachev. He holds a MSc in Managerial Economics &amp; Strategy from the London School of Economics, a BA in Philosophy &amp; Economics from the Humboldt University Berlin, and a Masters in Concert Piano from the Berlin University of Arts.

Xiao-Xiao Zhu

Melvin Deng is the Chief Executive Officer of QCP, one of the first digital asset trading firms in Singapore and global market maker in digital asset derivatives. As the CEO, Melvin leads the company’s rapid growth and expansion towards its vision to partner the next generation of investors to unlock institutional opportunities in digital assets. Under his leadership, he has built the company’s institutional-grade experience, research and infrastructure into a compelling proposition for clients, in addition to overseeing all operations and risk management. He is a believer in the immense growth potential of digital asset derivatives, to unlock future adoption by traditional and institutional players. Inspired by the opportunity to disrupt financial services through digital assets and blockchain technology, he left a more than 15 year career in banking to join QCP in 2021. He was previously the Head of Treasury for a global bank, where he was a member of the Singapore management team, responsible for business and balance sheet strategy. In addition to oversight of all the bank’s Treasury-related activities, he also led balance sheet optimisation initiatives, and launched the first SORA bond in Singapore, deepening the local financial market. Melvin holds a Bachelor of Engineering with honours from the National University of Singapore, and speaks four languages.

Melvin Deng

Nikita is a Managing Partner and Head of Fasanara Digital, the crypto division of Fasanara Capital, a $5 billion hedge fund based in London. He oversees the investment strategies and strategic direction of Fasanara Digital. He originally started The Quant Group from his dorm room, building quant strategies for digital assets. In 2018, the team joined Fasanara Capital and became Fasanara Digital, which has since grown into one of the leading and best-performing digital asset funds in the space.



Additionally, Nikita is the founder of The Digital Asset Conference, an annual event aimed at advancing industry adoption, and hosts the Speaking to Legends podcast. He’s a regular speaker at major crypto conferences and has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30 and Financial News’ Rising Stars in Finance. Nikita is also a Young Leader Circle (YLC) at the Milken Institute, and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews.

Nikita Fadeev

Michael Howell is CEO of CrossBorder Capital, a London-based FCA registered, independent research and investment company that he founded in 1996. The firm provides asset allocation and capital markets advice to institutional investors, and manages US$1 billion of assets. Michael is involved with educational charities and currently advises a major educational foundation on its investment strategy. He brings 40 years finance experience and is a regular international conference speaker, and a media and social media commentator. He has also advised the World Bank on capital flows, co-authoring their publication Opportunities in Emerging Markets (World Bank, 1995), served as board director of a listed Japanese investment trust and recently authored the book Capital Wars (Macmillan, 2020). Previously he was Head of Research for Baring Securities and board member, where he focussed on Emerging Markets, and Research Director of Salomon Brothers Inc, the US investment bank. Before entering finance, Michael worked as Group Economist for Blue Circle Industries plc. He holds a Phd. in financial economics from London University, specialising in Fixed Income, and is a SEC-qualified US Supervisory Analyst. Michael lives in Oxford, England, and is married with four children.

Michael Howell

Jess is the CEO of WalletConnect, the connectivity layer for the financial internet. 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 Houlgrave

David Karney

Santiago Roel Santos (CryptoPunk #9159) is an investor focusing at the intersection of DeFi and the Web3 metaverse (NFTs/gaming). Most recently was a Partner at ParaFi Capital, one of the largest crypto funds specializing in DeFi. Prior to that, he was at Sageview Capital investing in Internet and software and, before that, at JP Morgan investment banking. Santiago began investing in crypto in 2012.

Santiago Roel Santos

Matt Kunke, CFA, is an iShares Product Strategist at BlackRock focused on digital assets. In this role, Matt is focused on developing the growing digital assets ETF business, supporting efforts across research, marketing, and sales. Before joining BlackRock, Matt was a crypto research analyst at GSR, a crypto market maker and OTC trading desk, where he authored fundamental crypto research and was frequently cited in crypto media outlets. Prior to joining GSR, Matt led the digital assets research vertical at Global X ETFs and he spent several years researching alternative investment strategies in J.P. Morgan's Private Bank before that. Matt graduated Summa Cum Laude from Portland State University with a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and Finance, and he is a CFA charterholder.

Matt Kunke

Waqur Chaundry

Jeff Park is the CIO of ProCap. He also serves as an advisor to Bitwise Investments.

Jeff Park

Rebecca Rettig is the Chief Legal Officer at Jito Labs, where she leads legal, compliance, and policy strategy. She previously held the same role at the Aave Companies, a DeFi software developer, and Polygon Labs, a blockchain technology company; at both, she built the policy function and managed all legal and compliance matters. Ms. Rettig is a pioneer in shaping legal and regulatory frameworks for blockchain systems and applications, advising on matters including decentralization, token launches, and mechanisms. DeFi, structuring, and decentralized governance. She has liaised with policymakers and regulators globally on how DeFi systems operate and the appropriate intersection of law with this novel technology. Ms. Rettig began her legal career at Cravath, Swaine &amp; Moore LLP, litigating complex financial disputes, as well as a landmark peer-to-peer file-sharing case and one of the largest airline mergersin history. She was a partner at Manatt, Phelps &amp; Phillips and currently is Of Counsel at Arktouros pllc, a boutique law firm specializing in cutting-edge technology companies. She has been recognized as one of Crain’s Top Women Lawyers in New York City.

Rebecca Rettig

Nicolas is a Founding Partner of Numeus, a global digital asset investment and trading firm founded by a team of finance, blockchain and technology professionals. Nicolas leads the firm's asset management division, Forteus, that is backed by Schroders and offers institutional funds for investors seeking exposure to the digital asset ecosystem. Nicolas brings over twenty years of professional experience in a career spanning crypto, traditional finance and consulting industries. Before co-founding Numeus, Nicolas was a founding partner of Argentière Capital, a volatility-focused multi-strategy hedge fund where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager focusing on volatility strategies across equities and FX. He was a member of the firm’s Risk Management Committee and was instrumental in building many of the tools and processes employed by the firm across investment and risk management functions.



Prior to launching Argentière, Nicolas was a Portfolio Manager in JPMorgan Chase’s Equity Proprietary Trading Group in London. He previously spent nine years at Bain &amp; Company, where he was a Manager running consulting projects in the areas of corporate strategy, M&amp;A, private equity and operational improvements for clients in Europe, US and Japan.



Nicolas obtained his BA / MA in Mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Nicolas Vanhoutteghem 

Jakob is the President of GSR, he previously served as the Global CEO of GSR for over 2.5 years. Prior to joining GSR, he was Head of EMEA business at Two Sigma Investments and a board director of Two Sigma International. He has 18 years of experience developing business and investment solutions in systematic investment management, including roles at Winton Capital Management and Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Jakob earned a BSc in Economics from Lund University where he also completed the MSc coursework in Economics (without dissertation). He also holds a Ships Officers Degree, Class VIII from Chalmers University of Technology.

Jakob Palmstierna

Prior to joining the Board of the Algorand Foundation, Staci ran the Global Market Development practice at the Milken Institute, where she led its work on capital market development, crypto/blockchain solutions, and innovative finance to promote the sustainable development goals. Prior to Milken, Staci ran JPMorgan’s EMEA public sector practice out of London. Before JPMorgan, she led the Nasdaq’s two markets for microcap companies, and in the public and non-profit sectors had senior roles at the U.S. Treasury Department, the Center for Global Development, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Staci has done business in more than 50 countries and has advised and spoken widely on the potential for cryptocurrencies and blockchain to solve real-world problems, and for financial innovation to improve inclusion and reduce global poverty. In addition to the Algorand Foundation, she sits on the Boards of the Global Blockchain Business Council, the Rwandan Capital Market Authority, and the Energy for Growth Hub. She also serves on the advisory committees of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the European Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee (STOA), the U.S. Financial Technology Association, and Evolution Environmental Asset Management.

Staci Warden

Ruud Smets is the Managing Partner and CIO at Theta Capital Management, one of theworld’s largest fund of funds allocators in blockchain-native VCs, having deployed a $650 million into early-stage strategy across 45+ specialized managers since 2018. Under Ruud's stewardship, Theta has secured early, private-stage exposure to 80% of successful blockchain projects, leveraging its unique relationships with top VCs. With Master’sdegrees in Information Technology and  Investment Theory and as a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Ruud combines deep financial acumen with blockchain expertise. Ruud joined Theta in 2005 and has positioned the firm as a pioneering, AIFMD licensed fund manager, offering unmatched access to blockchain’s investment potential.

Ruud Smets

Haseeb is a Managing Partner at Dragonfly. He was previously a partner at Metastable Capital, and has a background in software engineering at Airbnb and Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase).

Haseeb Qureshi

Matt Hougan is one of the world’s leading experts on crypto, ETFs, and financial technology. He is Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise Asset Management, a pioneer in cryptoasset index funds with more than $1.2 billion in assets under management. He was previously CEO of ETF.com, where he helped build the world’s first ETF data and analytics system, the leading ETF media site, and the world’s largest ETF conference, Inside ETFs. Hougan is co-author of both "A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds" and "Cryptoassets: The Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies for Professional Investors" from the CFA Institute’s Research Foundation. He is a crypto columnist for Forbes, and a three-time member of the Barron’s ETF Roundtable.

Matt Hougan

Morgan Krupetsky is Senior Director of Business Development for Institutions &amp; Capital Markets at Ava Labs. In her role, Morgan partners with financial services institutions as they operationalize their digital asset strategies, as well as with early stage teams building blockchain-enabled products and services for institutions.



Before joining Ava Labs, Morgan spent 12 years at Citi; she spent the majority of that time on the Institutional FX &amp; Macro sales desk covering Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, and Pension Funds, before transitioning to become Chief of Staff to Citi’s Chief Compliance Officer.

Morgan Krupetsky

Konstantin Richter is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He has been active in the blockchain ecosystem as an advisor and contributor since 2015, with the likes of Gem, <a href="http://po.et/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Po.et</a>, and MadHive. In 2017, he created Blockdaemon in order to bring institutional-grade infrastructure to blockchain protocols, crypto native and traditional financial institutions. Subsequently, Konstantin has helmed Blockdaemon through three major funding rounds raising $400M to date. The most recent being a Series C raising $207M at a $3.25B valuation led by Sapphire and Tiger Global with previous backers SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, and Citi Ventures. Blockdaemon is the world’s largest blockchain infrastructure company for node management, MPC tech, and staking.

Konstantin Richter

Mara Schmiedt, CEO and Co-Founder of Alluvial, oversees business, operations, and strategy. She previously worked at Coinbase as Head of Sales for Coinbase Cloud, managed Business Development at Bison Trails, and served as Strategy Manager at ConsenSys, focusing on Codefi. Mara is a board member at Obol Labs, a leading DVT provider, and a strategic angel investor in over 15 projects. Passionate about open-source technology, she has published research on liquid staking and led a working group with the Ethereum Foundation that developed the Ethereum Launchpad and the first DVT proof of concepts.

Mara Schmiedt

With 7 years of experience across investment banking, hedge funds, and private equity, Guy has built a strong foundation in the financial sector. Prior to founding Ethena, he spent 6 years at Cerberus Management, a firm with $60 billion in assets under management, where he focused on investing in financial services businesses across the capital structure.

Guy Young

Sid Powell is the CEO &amp; Co-Founder of Maple Finance and with his Co-Founder Joe Flanagan founded Maple in 2019. Sid comes from a background in debt capital markets and institutional banking. During his career in traditional finance, he participated in $3BN+ of corporate bond issuance,and served as Treasurer for a commercial lending company in Australia. Maple has originated more than $5b in institutional lending since inception and currently holds over $550m in assets on the platform. We aim to be the global leader in tokenized private credit and first choice for institutional borrowers.

Sid Powell

Jordi Alexander is the Founder of Selini Capital, a leading firm within Digital Assets trading and investing. Selini has its roots in traditional markets and High-Frequency Trading, but is currently one of the most active firms in onchain DeFi as well as early stage venture investing. Jordi is an advisor to projects innovating in the space including Mantle, and is cohost of the weekly Steady Lads podcast.

Jordi Alexander

Evgeny has 15+ years of experience growing fintech businesses. He has consistently grown market share in Europe’s top fiat exchanges, developed and executed ambitious expansion projects and led agile cross-functional teams. Prior to founding Wintermute, Evgeny built and ran the Optiver’s European ETF business (HFT and OTC) – one of the largest in the EU. Evgeny holds MSc in Finance and EMBA from London Business School.

Evgeny Gaevoy

Vivek Raman

Michael Bucella is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Neoclassic Capital, a digital asset investment firm with a strong focus on Asia. Prior to Neoclassic, Michael served as General Partner with BlockTower Capital from 2017 to 2022, growing the firm near inception to managing in excess of $1B in AUM across hedge fund, venture, and credit strategies. Previous to BlockTower, Michael spent nearly a decade with Goldman Sachs in New York across both the Asset Management (GSAM) and Securities Division.

Michael Bucella

Simon Taylor is the Founder of Fintech Brainfood. Simon has been immersed in the technology of financial services for as long as he’s been working and is consistently voted one of the most influential people in Banking, Insurance and Fintech by banks, his peers and a number of industry bodies. Simon runs Fintech Brainfood, the weekly newsletter subscribed to by over 45k people at banks, fintech companies and VCs. A regular speaker, media presenter and podcaster, Simon has spent two decades in financial services in payments, banking, crypto and consulting. Simon is now focused on bringing payments onchain at Tempo, the payments-focused Blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm.

Simon Taylor

Anatoly is an investment professional with 30 years of experience in investment management and hedge fund industry. Nickel Digital is a regulated multi-PM quant hedge fund specialising in market-neutral strategies in digital assets, providing institutional-grade access to this nascent market. In co-founding Nickel Digital in 2019, Anatoly leveraged his prior experience with investment management divisions of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan in London, where he was dealing with asset allocation and portfolio construction. Anatoly earned an MA degree in International Business from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia and an Executive MBA degree from the University of Oxford in 2009. He returned to Oxford in 2018, to become part of the pioneering cohort of global investment professionals to graduate from the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme, which played a pivotal role in the decision to transit from traditional finance into digital assets. Anatoly is an avid sailor who has crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on a single-hull racing sailboat and a catamaran, respectively.

Anatoly Crachilov

Diogo is the co-founder of Anchorage Digital, where he served as President prior to joining Haun Ventures and where he currently serves as Executive Chairman. Anchorage Digital is the first federally chartered crypto-native bank in the US. Prior to founding Anchorage Digital, Diogo served as Platform Security Lead at Square (now known as Block). At Square, Diogo worked on the infrastructure security platform (including identity, access management, and responses systems) that is now used to move over $200B in annualized gross payments volume. Diogo also served as Security Lead at Docker, where he and his team wrote code that helps secure one of the core underpinnings of modern computing infrastructure: containers. Diogo serves as the Chairman of the NEAR Foundation. He previously served as an advisor to Airtable and StackRox.

Diogo Monica

Jenna Wright is the Managing Director of LMAX Digital, part of LMAX Group, and has recently been named as one of the top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Europe by The Financial Technology Report. Jenna has been instrumental in driving growth of LMAX Digital and building it into the leading institutional spot crypto currency exchange globally. &nbsp;Jenna joined LMAX Group in January 2009 and has held multiple senior managerial roles at LMAX Group, including Head of Broker Operations and Head of Client Services. Prior to LMAX Group, Jenna worked at Cantor and UBS. Jenna holds BA in Economics &amp; Politics from the University of Manchester.

Jenna Wright

Lekker Capital is a global macro hedge fund with a particular focus on the emerging digital asset industry. Prior to founding Lekker, Quinn served as the Head of Capital Markets for two institutional lending businesses in the digital asset ecosystem, most recently at Maple Finance. Quinn spent five years in fixed income and capital markets at Guggenheim Partners in New York before his full-time foray into crypto.

Quinn Thompson

Zaheer Ebtikar

Rob Hadick is a General Partner at Dragonfly, a ~$4bn crypto focused investment firm. Previously, he helped lead multi-stage investments into crypto companies and protocols at GoldenTree Asset Management ("GTAM"), a ~$50bn multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to GTAM, Rob invested in and advised fintech, technology, and crypto companies while at Heritage Partners, Goldman Sachs, and PJT Partners. He holds a MBA from Columbia Business School, and a Bachelors in Economics and Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Rob Hadick

Hadley is the Chief Commercial Officer at Marinade Labs, the web3 software development team behind Solana liquid and native staking protocol Marinade. He previously founded and led Fidelity’s digital assets division, after serving as SVP of Fidelity Labs where he led several divisions to research and pilot several emerging technologies, including wearable computing, VR/AR, mobile applications (including the company’s first-ever app and app brokerage), AI, and others. He also led global digital asset custody for the Bank of New York Mellon, where he launched the industry’s first bank-grade platform for digital asset custody on bitcoin and Ethereum. He also served as COO at blockchain infrastructure company Bloq, and previously led Amazon Web Services’ AWS Innovation Lab.

Hadley Stern

Alexia Theodorou is head of derivatives at Kraken, responsible for the development and product strategy of Kraken's full suite of fixed-term and perpetual contracts. Before joining Kraken, Alexia was the Chief Strategy Officer at Trading Point Group and has more than 15 years worth of experience in traditional finance, including at UBS and JPMorgan. Alexia is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds degrees from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.

Alexia Theodorou

Omar is a digital asset expert, investor, and consultant active in the space since 2016. As Chief Business Development Officer at SecondLane (Web3 native investment bank and asset manager with $100 M+ AUM) Omar leads strategic partnerships and oversees complex deal execution with a focus on legal and operational integrity.



In addition to his role at SecondLane, Omar is a LP in several leading crypto venture funds, including Multicoin Capital, Alliance DAO, and Topology Ventures, backing the next generation of protocols and infrastructure across Web3. His investment focus also spans the convergence of blockchain and artificial intelligence, with recent backing of frontier tech companies such as Figure AI and Apptronik.



With deep involvement at both the operational and capital levels, Omar operates at the intersection of institutional adoption, capital formation, and regulatory evolution in digital assets. He is driven by his deep belief in blockchain’s potential to drive long-term, meaningful social impact on a global scale.

Omar Shakeeb

Chris is the CIO of Digital Assets at Amitis Capital. In his early career, Chris worked at several major institutions including CIBC World Markets, Société Générale Barr Devlin, Antarctica Asset Management and ING Investment Management. In 2010, he joined SAIL Advisors (the family office of the founder of Duty-Free Shoppers) as Head of Research for Tactical Trading and Relative Value Strategies. He later joined Cliffwater LLC as Managing Director covering global macro and relative value strategies on the hedge fund research team. Most recently, Chris was the CIO of Digital Assets at Forest Road, where he oversaw a digital assets-focused venture capital fund of funds. Chris has a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris holds the CFA, CPA, and CAIA designations. Chris has broken 9 Guinness World Records and has run marathons on all 7 continents and in all 50 US states.

Chris Solarz

Mandy Chiu heads up the global Financial Product Development team at 21Shares, the leader in cryptocurrency investments. Previously, she served as Chief Product Officer at Tabula Investment Management, as well as the Managing Director and Head of EMEA and APAC ETF Products at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) in London. Prior to SSGA, she held various roles at HSBC Banking &amp; Global Markets, ETF Securities, and Yuanta Securities (Taiwan). She was awarded "25 Under 40 Rising Stars in the European Asset Management Industry" by Financial News and "25 Leaders in 2025" by Morningstar.



She is a CFA Charterholder and completed the General Management Program (GMP) at Harvard Business School (HBS). She is also a career coach in her free time.

Mandy Chiu

Simone Maini

Seth Ginns is a Managing Partner and Head of Liquid Investments at CoinFund, and a key member of the Venture Investment Committee. He has 20 years of Wall Street experience and has been deeply involved in the crypto community since his angel investment in Coinbase in 2012. He is also an angel in Starkware, Chainalysis, participated in the Ethereum ICO in 2014, and loves traveling globally to developer events as a way to keep a finger on the pulse of the market. His angel portfolio also includes Instacart, BillionToOne and DoorDash, and many earlier stage, high growth startups.



Prior to CoinFund, Seth invested in public growth equities over 18 years at Jennison Associates. He holds a BA in Mathematics and South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he serves on the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the School of Arts and Sciences and served as an Overseer at the School of Nursing and Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee.

Seth Ginns

Andrew Peel is CEO and Founder of TVL Capital and a board member of SIX Digital Exchange. With 20 years in global finance, including as Head of Digital Assets at Morgan Stanley, he has been active in digital assets since 2013. TVL Capital is a Swiss investment and technology firm positioned at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi, focused on asset management, technology, and onchain product issuance.

Andrew Peel

Ryan Rasmussen is the Head of Research at Bitwise Asset Management. Prior to Bitwise, he held a variety of corporate finance roles at Cetera Financial Group, a network of independent broker-dealers with over 8,000 financial advisors and $300 billion in assets under administration. Before Cetera, Ryan was a business analyst at Oakley and spent time as a research associate at UK Trade &amp; Investment in Sydney, Australia. He is a graduate of the Argyros School of Business &amp; Economics at Chapman University, with a B.S. in finance and a secondary focus in graphic and web design.

Ryan Rasmussen

Paul Faecks is the Founder and CEO of Plasma, a high-performance, scalable, and secure blockchain built for stablecoin payments. At Plasma, Paul is leading the team building a blockchain tailored for stablecoin transactions from the ground up. Before founding Plasma, Paul served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Alloy, a platform for institutional digital asset operations, beginning in August 2021.

Paul Faecks

Richard Green

Serene Murphy is head of corporate development, Europe &amp; Asia at Tradeweb. Serene manages a team focused on identifying trends and opportunities to grow the Tradeweb business, and is responsible for sourcing and executing these opportunities across the firm’s divisions. She also works in partnership with business product heads to drive innovation and design of new products and offerings. After joining Tradeweb in 2011, Serene spearheaded the launch of its wholesale business (Dealerweb) in Europe, and drove the design and implementation of the firm’s link to China’s Northbound Bond Connect initiative. She also led Tradeweb’s acquisition of Australian trading platform Yieldbroker, as well as other strategic investments, including several partnerships in the digital space. In recognition of her contributions to Tradeweb and the industry, Serene won the ‘Excellence in Innovation’ category in the European Women in Finance Awards 2022, and was included in the 2023 FN100 Women in European Finance list. In early 2024, she joined as an independent non-executive director the board of Axiology, a Vilnius-based alternative capital market infrastructure. Prior to Tradeweb, Serene worked in the Principal Strategic Investments group at Goldman Sachs in New York and London. She holds a BA in Economics from Boston College.

Serene Murphy

Alwyn Clarke is a Director on Galaxy Digital’s investment banking team. Prior to joining the firm, Alwyn worked at Fenchurch Advisory Partners and Barclays Capital in London and New York, advising businesses on M&amp;A, capital raising and other strategic initiatives. He has worked with businesses across the full financial services landscape, with a core focus on financial technology and asset management. Alwyn holds a B.A. in Jurisprudence (Law with French Law) from the University of Oxford.

Alwyn Clarke

Ian brings over 20 years of experience in capital markets and fintech and is widely regarded as one of the UK’s foremost experts in blockchain and digital assets. He most recently led KPMG’s UK Crypto &amp; Digital Assets practice, and previously served as Executive Director and Board Advisor to CryptoUK, the UK’s digital asset trade association.

Ian Taylor

Christian Angermayer is a serial entrepreneur and investor who builds and invests in companies that are shaping the Next Human Agenda: a future in which technology empowers people to live longer, healthier, and happier lives. He is the world’s leading advocate for human enhancement and believes in advancing scientific progress to usher in an era of physical and mental potential, improving life for all.



Apeiron Investment Group, Christian’s family office and private investment firm, has more than USD 2.5 billion under management and 50 people in London, New York City, Abu Dhabi and Berlin. Apeiron focuses on Life Sciences, FinTech &amp; Crypto, Future Tech, Natural Resources &amp; Clean Energy, and Experiences, Hospitality &amp; Happiness. Over the past 20 years, Christian has founded three unicorns and has been the lead investor in four unicorns and two decacorns.

Christian Angermayer

Chuck Mounts is the Chief DeFi Officer in S&amp;P Global Ratings and leading the newly formed DeFi strategy team. In this role Chuck will help advance S&amp;P Global Ratings' approach and capabilities in the fast-moving decentralized market environment. The team will focus on bringing S&amp;P Global's robust analytic and risk assessment capabilities forth to support both traditional institutional (TradFi) clients and the growing universe of crypto-native DeFi clients. With 30 years of experience in global financial markets, Chuck has led global businesses comprised of research teams, strategists, and product specialists that integrate market knowledge, product expertise and analytic capabilities across asset classes. Chuck began his career as a bank regulator at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and spent the majority of the following two decades as a global credit analyst and a manager of research teams, including stints at Goldman Sachs and UBS, where he was the Global Head of Fixed Income, Currency and Commodity Research for UBS investment bank. He has served as the Chairman of the Bond Market Association’s Committee on Research Conflicts and has been recognized by global institutional investors for his understanding and insights in global financial markets. During his career Charles has presented at numerous conferences, has been cited in international publications and has appeared in the media. Chuck holds B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University.

Chuck Mounts

Avi Felman is a Principal and Head of Digital Assets Trading at&nbsp;GoldenTree&nbsp;Asset Management. Mr. Felman is also a General Partner of&nbsp;GoldenChain, a wholly owned subsidiary of&nbsp;GoldenTree&nbsp;that manages the Firm’s funds focused on digital assets. Mr. Felman is one of the longest tenured traders in digital assets and has held several prominent positions, including most recently as Co-Portfolio Manager and Head of Trading for&nbsp;BlockTower&nbsp;Capital where he grew the flagship fund portfolio from $40mm at time of joining to over $800mm. Previously, Mr. Felman was Lead Trader at Wave Financial where he co- led the development of the first SEC-regulated Bitcoin fund and he also was responsible for the derivatives strategy and trading execution. Prior to joining Wave Financial, Mr. Felman founded Ledger Capital, a firm focused on cryptocurrency trading and investments. Mr. Felman received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering&nbsp;from&nbsp;Washington University.

Avi Felman

Ran Neuner is the founder of Crypto Banter, one of the world’s largest and most influential crypto media platforms. With over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers, 10M+ monthly views, and one of the most engaged communities in the industry, Crypto Banter is a go-to source for real-time crypto content. Ran personally hosts the largest live crypto show on the internet. He also co-founded Crypto Town Hall, a leading daily X (formerly Twitter) Spaces series, alongside Mario Nawfal and Scott Melker, making it one of the most consistent and widely followed audio platforms in the crypto space. In addition to his media leadership, Ran is the CEO of Onchain Capital, a blockchain investment fund and advisory firm that manages over $250 million in venture and listed crypto assets. Ran gained international recognition as the creator, producer, and host of CNBC’s “Crypto Trader”, the world’s first televised cryptocurrency show, where he interviewed the biggest names in Web3 during their earliest days, building a vast network of early blockchain pioneers in the process. Before entering the crypto industry, Ran was already an award-winning entrepreneur. He co-founded and scaled The Creative Counsel, Africa’s largest marketing agency, which was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2015 for over $150 million, marking one of the continent’s largest private transactions at the time. Ran’s mission is to build the most profitable and educated crypto community in the world, a vision he pursues through a mix of educational content, community-building, investment, and mentorship.

Ran Neuner

Lewis is a Portfolio Manager at Re7 Capital - an award winning Digital Asset Investment firm, specialising in DeFi Yield and Liquid Alpha strategies. Lewis focuses on the Opportunities Fund, investing via liquid secondary market strategies. Lewis has over 6 years running liquid portfolio strategies in digital assets, directing the investment strategies at Decentral Park Capital previously. Lewis is the most extensive writer for OurNetwork, the largest on-chain analytics newsletter globally. Lewis studied Psychology at the University of Bristol before starting his career at Tilney Investment Management.

Lewis Harland

William joined Marshall Wace in May 2022 to oversee Fintech and Digital Assets investments for MW Digital Finance Fund.



Prior to joining Marshall Wace, William worked at Candy Capital, a family office where he was responsible for various investments across the technology sector. Prior to Candy Capital, William worked for HSBC and Greyspark Partners, were he was heading Fintech Investment Advisory. William is also an active seed investor across digital assets and fintech.

William Benattar

James is General Partner – Fund Manager &amp; GP at Republic. Prior to this, James worked in a wide variety of investing, business building and operating roles across the Alan Howard ecosystem. Originally hired into Brevan Howard, his focus was Principal Investing across Crypto, Web3, Fintech &amp; Frontier Technologies. James was also one of the founding team at WebN Group, the well-known incubator for Fintech &amp; Web3 innovation, where over 18 months significant equity value was created. Twinstake, TruFin, Libre, Geometry and Soter are a few of those companies. Due to James’s extensive experience, he additionally spent 6 months restructuring, realigning and putting into place operational policies and scaling procedures at Elwood, a market leading EMS &amp; PMS provider backed by Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, and Barclays. Having been heavily involved in Web3 &amp; Digital Assets Markets for over 8 years, James started his career with ~15 years of investment banking experience across multi-asset trading, derivative, sales and structuring desks at top tier banks. His deep understanding of the intersection between digital assets, financial technologies and traditional finance has been crucial to creating robust investment thesis’s, venture builds and implementing operational policies, scalable processes and go-to-market strategies in portfolio companies. Outside of work, James is an advisor to various companies, including Saltford FC and has published numerous quantitative, financial and regulatory papers across both traditional and digital markets, most recently for the Digital Economic Initiative. As a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst®, James holds a Masters in Finance (Distinction) &amp; graduated with an Honours Degree in Economics from Durham University.

James Newman

Serafin Lion Engel is the Founder and CEO of Yield.xyz (formerly StakeKit), the ultimate Web 3 yield infrastructure Backed by Multicoin Capital, Yield.xyz provides customers access to over 1,000 self-custodial yields across staking, stablecoins, and DeFi. The platform facilitates over $100 million in monthly volume and powers more than 50 of the leading companies in Web3 and Fintech, including wallets like Ledger and neobanks like DeBlock.



 Before Yield.xyz, Serafin founded Omni in 2021, one of the first mobile multichain wallets. Omni was acquired by Paxful via Echo Base in 2024. Serafin entered the crypto space in 2014 through Draper University and began building on Ethereum in 2016, pioneering data sovereignty technologies and early data marketplaces.

Serafin Lion Engel

Karl-Martin Ahrend

Alex is a software architect with over 15 years of experience in engineering and startups. He is the co-inventor of ZKsync and currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs. At Matter Labs, he leads a talented team focused on addressing blockchain scalability challenges using zero-knowledge proofs. Alex's passion lies in using technology to advance personal freedom, self-ownership, and decentralization

Alex Gluchowski

Stephen Hess is the founder of Metaplex, the leading protocol for digital assets on Solana. As a Director of the Metaplex Foundation, he drives strategy, product and ecosystem growth, supporting thousands of applications and millions of users who rely on the protocol. Metaplex now powers 99% of tokens and NFTs on Solana, and through its Genesis protocol is opening the Internet Capital Markets, giving projects and entrepreneurs the ability to launch onchain and access global capital from day one. Previously, Stephen served as Head of Product at Solana Labs, where he helped scale the application layer of the network and introduced the first liquid staking programs, bridges, stablecoins, games, token standards and ecosystem integrations.