Morgan Chittum

On this episode of Blockworks&#8217; podcast &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cueHhr6gIzE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On the Margin</a>,&#8221; Michael Ippolito, co-founder, sits down with Alfonso Peccatiello, ING Deutschland&#8217;s head of fixed income portfolio management and author of online weekly newsletter, <a href="https://themacrocompass.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Macro Compass</a>.



Mike and <meta charset="utf-8">Alfonso discuss a wide range of topics from signs of slowing structural growth, reverse repos and how a bitcoin standard could impact a credit driven economy.



They also covered: 



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The effects of quantitative easing</li><li>Financial repression</li></ul>



<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="How Credit Expansion Impacts Growth | Alfonso Peccatiello" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cueHhr6gIzE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



&#8220;On the Margin&#8221; is a two-part show.&nbsp;Once a week, Mike interviews industry experts, and then at the end of the week he is joined by co-host <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tyler Neville</a> where they break down the top crypto and macro stories. Episodes go live every Wednesday and Saturday morning.



Subscribe to &#8220;On the Margin&#8221; today on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lyn-alden-explains-connection-between-inflation-bitcoin/id1558223079?i=1000513411286" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple</a> or <a href="https://spoti.fi/3bTa9uw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>, or watch episodes on <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvER9nHSRN3xVs_p-dl7L7K_ZgL6lSudu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>.

Podcast: Why Banks Aren’t Lending

Byron Gilliam

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



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



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Just because you can doesn&#8217;t mean you should.”



—&nbsp; Aristotle, your conscience, your mom, and Jurassic Park
</blockquote>



We don’t usually get data on Americans’ retirement accounts, but a congressional request once prompted the Joint Committee on Taxation to <a href="https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/7.28.21%20JCT%20Mega%20IRA%20Data1.pdf">reveal</a> just how big some can get: In 2019, just 156 Roth IRAs held $15.6 billion in assets.



This begs an obvious question: Who needs a tax break on their $100 million of retirement savings?



$80 million of post-tax money seems like plenty to get by on after the age of 60 (even for all the tech moguls planning to live to 120).



But some have quite a lot more than that.&nbsp;



In 2021, ProPublica <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank">reported</a> that Peter Thiel held more than $5 billion in a single, giant Roth IRA account.&nbsp;



Helpfully, it also detailed how he did it.



While you and I max out our Roth IRAs with $7,000 worth of index funds, others opt for more exotic investments — like early-stage equity.



In 1999, for example, Thiel used $1,700 of Roth IRA funds to buy 1.7 million shares of PayPal. Three years later, PayPal IPO’d at $13 a share — a 13,000-fold gain on his cost basis of $0.001 per share.



Because it was in an IRA, he owed no tax.&nbsp;



Better yet, he was able to roll those winnings, tax-free, into 10.2% of Facebook — acquired for $500,000 (still held in his Roth IRA), and an undisclosed portion of his stake in Palantir (now worth many billions).



Thiel was a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and the first outside investor in Facebook, so the rest of us would never have had access to those kinds of deals. 



But President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/democratizing-access-to-alternative-assets-for-401k-investors/">proposed</a> last week that everyone be given access to alternative investments in their retirement accounts, crypto included. 



In response, critics have warned that crypto is ill-suited for retirement savings because it’s too risky.



But it’s already available to a small sliver of people — and at virtually no risk — via “Token Launch Roth IRAs,” an entertainingly extreme edge case in the debate over crypto in retirement accounts.



While equity founders like Peter Thiel have long been able to stash early-stage investments in their Roth IRAs, crypto founders could not — because how do you get a blockchain token into a brokerage account?



You couldn’t, until AnchorZero built the systems to add even pre-launch tokens to traditional retirement accounts, and Anchorage Digital Bank figured out how to custody them.



Simply put, AnchorZero’s Token Launch Roth IRAs are “the first and only solution for pre-launch tokens to eliminate capital gains taxes.”



This is not a problem I ever imagined needed solving.



In its enthusiasm for helping founders not pay taxes, AnchorZero’s website reads like a Scrooge McDuck parody of robber baron excess.



“Until now,” its <a href="https://anchorzero.com/insights/anchorzero-launches-token-optimized-roth-iras-for-tax-free-gains-on-digital-assets/">product announcement</a> explained, ”the only way to include tokens in an IRA was to wait until they were listed on a public exchange, by which time their value had often increased exponentially. AnchorZero’s solution is the first to support private, pre-launch tokens and derivatives, ensuring that founders can take advantage of the low-cost basis at token creation.”



The website offers an illustrative example, seemingly written by someone who doesn’t quite know how to read the room:



“Consider Alice, a crypto founder launching a new token. At creation, before public trading, the token’s market cap is a modest $10,000. As a savvy tax strategist, Alice allocates a portion of the token supply to her Roth IRA. When she decides to sell, her token interest is worth $50 million, which is entirely tax-free. Had she chosen to forgo the IRA approach, Alice would have owed $18.5 million in capital gains taxes, leaving her with $31.5 million — a staggering difference of millions in tax savings.”



If its website had ears, they’d have to be plugged while I yell at it: ALICE DOESN’T NEED A TAX BREAK!!!



But she was only just getting started.



“AnchorZero’s solution allows investors to reinvest tax-free gains into new tokens, startups and venture funds. Over time, the compounding benefits of the Roth IRA become even more pronounced. In Alice’s case, her IRA could grow to $815 million over 20 years, compared to $190 million without the tax advantages.”



These kinds of “Alice” examples are usually something like, “Alice sends $5 to Bob.”



But (to paraphrase Spinal Tap) this one goes to $815 million.



Gaming the byzantine US tax system is hardly a novel idea, but seeing it spelled out at that scale and on a public website feels different — as if hedge funds were running TV ads to gloat over how much money the carried-interest loophole was making them. Or Big Pharma put up billboards to crow about its Ireland tax dodges.



Bury it in euphemisms! Hide it in the fine print!! Do some dog whistling!!!&nbsp;



Or make the numbers 100x smaller, at least, please.



Because it’s one thing to exploit a loophole and it’s another thing to celebrate it. Especially one as egregious as this.



Has there ever been a more narrowly targeted tax dodge? 



The carried-interest loophole for hedge funds is pretty bad, but I’d guess there are more hedge fund managers in the US than there are crypto founders.



And pre-launch crypto tokens are sure to be priced even cheaper than pre-IPO PayPal shares.&nbsp;



On the one hand, AnchorZero is only offering to help those founders do something that the law allows.



On the other hand, why???



I marvel at the time, effort and investment it must have taken to build the complex systems required to help this tiny sliver of people who don’t need anyone’s help.



Even if you think every loophole deserves exploiting, is that really what you want to do with your limited time on Earth?



Personally, I’m not sure I’d sleep too much worse if I spent my days engineering new ways to telemarket fake tech support to seniors or catfish lonely bachelors.&nbsp;



Ethical considerations aside, these kinds of things can backfire, as we learned from <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1at69qj/your_scientists_were_so_preoccupied_with_whether/">Jurassic Park</a>. (“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn&#8217;t stop to think if they should.”)



The danger here, I think, is that crypto already has an image problem.



Thanks to cabal memecoins, low-float-high-FDV project tokens and digital asset treasury companies, there’s a growing perception that most of the industry’s profits accrue to a small number of insiders at the expense of its retail investors.&nbsp;



This is especially unfortunate because a big part of crypto’s original appeal was that bitcoin was fair-launched and equally accessible to all.&nbsp;



If Token Launch Roth IRAs catch on — and how can they not? — we’ll have strayed further than ever from that ideal.



People will notice. Inevitably, we’ll get an exposé on a $5 billion Token Launch Roth IRA and it will make half of America hate crypto even more than it already does.&nbsp;



I could hardly blame them, if so.



The US government is currently in the process of handing the crypto industry everything it&#8217;s ever asked for.



The least we could do in return is pay our taxes!



Even Peter Thiel thinks the US tax system has “fairness problems” — because, he said, “you have super rich people paying a lower rate than people in the middle or upper middle class.”



Putting pre-launch tokens in retirement accounts would supercharge that problem.



And crypto’s image problem, too.



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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>

When $100M isn’t enough: Token Launch Roth IRAs

Jack Kubinec

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



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



Corporate blockchains have never looked so good.&nbsp;



In rapid succession, news broke that both payments giant Stripe and stablecoin darling Circle would be building their own layer-1 blockchains. While major companies coming onchain theoretically poses a competitive threat to all existing L1s, there may be reason to believe the news is particularly troublesome for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pK5JGHHrEk">Solana’s vision</a> that “everything can fit in one computer.”



Stripe and Circle’s chains — named Tempo and Arc, respectively — are set to be EVM-based, which some Ethereum <a href="https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1955258607353684386">boosters</a> were quick to chalk up as bullish for Ethereum. That’s mostly engagement bait nonsense, in this newsletter writer’s view.&nbsp;



The EVM is a software environment. In my mind, the only way it directly implicates ETH the asset is by way of gas fees, but Circle is <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/366540/circle-stablecoin-focused-evm-compatible-layer-1-blockchain-arc">using</a> USDC for gas fees. In Stripe’s case, it’s hard for me to imagine that the online payments behemoth won’t fight tooth and nail to pay as little in Ethereum gas fees as possible. Plus, both Stripe and Circle could put in jeopardy Ethereum’s mantle as the blockchain for stablecoins.



You have to squint a little bit to see why initiatives like Robinhood’s layer-2 would necessarily be bullish for ETH the asset. You may have to close your eyes fully to argue these EVM L1s are bullish ETH.



Still, Tempo or Arc seeing significant success could also turn out to be pretty bad for Solana, which is now 0/2 in the sweepstakes for big fintechs coming onchain this market cycle.



“Big companies launching L1s is kind of a rejection of the L2 thesis, but it&#8217;s even more of a rejection of the Solana thesis,” said mteam, the pseudonymous co-founder of Ethereum infrastructure firm Spire Labs.



When I asked them to elaborate further, mteam added: “I think the Solana thesis is more like this: Apps will want a shared state layer and thus will choose not to launch their own chains if they don&#8217;t need to. Any sort of L1 OR L2 premium being important to apps/infra/institutions looks to me like that thesis is even further from the truth vs. Ethereum&#8217;s L2 thesis.”



Basically, if major firms launch blockchains rather than launching apps on Solana’s blockchain, then the L2 thesis — which basically says most blockchain activity will take place on layer-2s settling to Ethereum — is less wrong than the Solana thesis.



“[This] is nonsense,” Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz said in response to mteam’s post. “It’s like saying ‘Yeah, the girl I love didn&#8217;t marry me, but she also didn&#8217;t marry another guy I don&#8217;t like and that&#8217;s worse for him!’&#8221;



I also think the bullish EVM L1 story lacks a value accrual mechanism for ETH — why would Stripe or Circle care about ether as money or a reserve currency? But, sure: The Solana thesis has not exactly been vindicated by where institutions have been deploying recently.



Although it may not really matter. Large firms approach blockchain with a range of seriousness and technical chops, and just because a big name announces a chain does not mean that chain will be a commercial success. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/soneium-mainnet-censorship-complaints">Remember Soneium</a>?



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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>

Do Stripe, Circle L1s refute the Solana thesis?

Ben Strack

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



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



The most-repeated words on Circle’s first earnings call as a public company came from analysts: “Congrats on the IPO.”



But another prevailing sentiment related to the stablecoin issuer’s upcoming launch of a layer-1 blockchain called Arc. USDC will be the native asset for transaction fees; the blockchain’s litepaper notes the network would also support other local stablecoins.&nbsp;



Designed to let financial institutions build products and services onchain, Arc is set to go live by the year’s end, executives said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“[With] Arc, we want to underpin all stablecoin finance — payments, FX, capital markets applications,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said on this morning’s call.&nbsp;



This follows a Fortune <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/08/11/stripe-blockchain-tempo-paradigm/">report</a> that Stripe is building a payments-focused layer-1 blockchain of its own (you might remember <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/08/11/stripe-blockchain-tempo-paradigm/">Stripe’s purchase</a> of stablecoin platform Bridge last year). And Robinhood <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-l2-staking-us">revealing a layer-2 blockchain plan</a> too.&nbsp;



It’s becoming harder to find people denying the growth potential of a stablecoin market that currently stands at $260 billion. USDC in circulation grew to ~$61 billion at the end of Q2 — a 90% year-over-year increase. That figure was ~$65 billion on Aug. 10.



Allaire mentioned more trading firms, asset managers and the like wanting to move between tokenized yield-bearing collateral and digital cash. Our readers have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">heard that before</a>.&nbsp;



Circle got into this game in January via <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-hashnote-deal-tokenized-money">its buy of Hashnote</a>, issuer of the US Yield Coin (USYC). It more recently revealed last month that Binance institutional customers could use USYC as off-exchange collateral for derivatives trades.&nbsp;



“We hope and expect that we will deploy this kind of architecture in more digital asset exchanges and ultimately on major traditional clearinghouses,” Allaire said.



More broadly, Circle’s Q2 revenue/reserve income totaled $658 million. The company attributed its quarterly net loss of $482 million to IPO-related non-cash charges. Circle’s adjusted EBITDA of $126 million was 3% above Wall Street expectations.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



CRCL shares were trading around $166 at 1:30 p.m. ET — up 3% on the day. The stock <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-shares-nyse-day-one">quickly surged</a> way above its IPO price but has dropped more than 40% from the nearly $300 peak it reached on June 23.



Compass Point analysts Ed Engel and Abdullah Dilawar said in a Tuesday note that they expected Circle to notch a higher gross margin than the $251 million it tallied in Q2. That was because of Binance’s USDC balances dropping and Coinbase’s on-platform USDC being down from Q1, they noted.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcldVIdgacTgvGtlNfg0uPsREEiZ2InIPT7jLbykaZHbOYhJEH6UceZ_nJ9lP-EXrxndaO6n7gq4AQu7W_R4NTx7CWJyPaNBa8yFM3VuDMj-yh3AeDf-oApYPXqtyuKW11KckeRJQ?key=DujvNo2W2nzBFlIV8EXMUw" alt="" style="width:673px;height:auto"/></figure>



Alongside the Binance USYC news, Circle last month <a href="https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-and-okx-partner-to-deepen-usdc-liquidity-worldwide">linked up</a> with OKX and fintech <a href="https://www.circle.com/pressroom/fis-partners-with-circle-to-unlock-stablecoin-money-movement-functionality-for-financial-institution-customers">FIS</a>.&nbsp;



“While CRCL&#8217;s lower margin guidance could be due to conservatism, CRCL&#8217;s recent partnerships don&#8217;t seem to benefitting the near-term margin outlook,” Engel and Dilawar wrote.&nbsp;



Clearly the company continues to build products, with its Circle Payments Network launch in May, and now Arc. As for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-ma-mergers-feeding-frenzy-kraken">inorganic growth via M&amp;A</a>, Allaire said the company would be “careful and deliberate.”



He added: “I don’t think our strategy here is to go try and do big, complex acquisitions to kind of throw additional business lines next to what we do. I think we take a full-stack integrated platform view…and so we only want to do things that really fit clearly in that kind of product mandate.”



Circle obviously remains a top stock to watch amid a growing universe of public crypto firms.



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<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>

Takeaways from Circle’s first post-IPO earnings call

Macauley Peterson

For most Starknet dapps, attracting EVM users requires getting over a UX speed bump: set up a Starknet wallet, bridge assets over, and learn a new account system.&nbsp;



Extended, a decentralized <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/perpetuals">perpetual futures</a> exchange formerly called X10 and built by a team of ex-Revolut developers, decided to skip that playbook. The exchange today announced it has migrated from StarkEx to Starknet <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/extended-hybrid-derivatives-exchange">as planned</a>, and now offers more than 50 markets and leverage up to 100x.&nbsp;



But that’s table stakes these days; its real hook is that traders coming from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/evm">EVM</a> DEXs don’t have to bridge to Starknet at all.



“With Extended EVM users don&#8217;t need to touch [or] interact with Starknet,” CEO Ruslan Fakhrutdinov told Blockworks. “If you deposit from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a>, you can withdraw to any other EVM chain, but if the wallet under which the account was created is an EVM wallet, you will not be able to withdraw to Starknet.”



Starknet wallet users — such as Ready (formerly Argent) and Braavos — are also welcome but will deposit and withdraw only to or from Starknet.



It’s a hard split no other Starknet dapp is running today, and it works because of Starknet’s native <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-devs-debate-account-abstraction">account abstraction</a>, according to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/starkware">StarkWare</a> CEO Eli Ben-Sasson.



“You can support any kind of signatures. So you&#8217;re still using <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/metamask">Metamask</a> and these things to sign on your transactions,” Ben-Sasson told Blockworks. Hardware wallets, EVM wallets, even Bitcoin wallets can connect if dapps want to manage such an integration.



Under the hood, Extended is temporarily running two versions — the original StarkEx, StarkWare’s earlier scaling engine, and the new Starknet one — but will nudge users over in a three-phase process: two weeks of dual operation, two weeks of reduce-only on StarkEx, and then a final freeze with forced position closures.



Points and trading history carry over, and new accounts now spin up directly on Starknet.



Extended is arriving with some early momentum — average daily volumes of $319 million, open interest above $55 million, and a 55% repeat depositor rate in its Community Vault program, the team reports.



For EVM traders, it’s an unusual offer: a Starknet-settled perp venue you can reach from six major EVM chains.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeEO-gIfduJkmBv_w4b_q9FLroYujEalA8Yr4uGHGdZMts8TFprRESWM3d4J_KWUONaMJFvbeTdsUEbyMutQx5tZvCb9_3sSOQD_3nj3TrgGQVkE3-McFN6OnfSr5DkClAsRLqh?key=i_QzdzulFbDnwJUC7Ppvjw" alt=""/></figure>



Source: extended.exchange



The offering includes TradFi pairs like EUR/USD, gold, oil, and an SPX index. Arbitrum rival Ostium <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ostium-dex-points-rwa-arbitrum">has been touting the same</a>. On Starknet, Extended competes with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starkware-appchain-defi-cefi">Paradex</a>, with both angling for a CEX-like user experience.



The Extended team says the migration sets up a bigger product roadmap, including unified margin, integrated lending, and eventually spot.



By walling off the Starknet side from the EVM side, Extended is betting it can capture both audiences without forcing either to change habits. For Starknet, that means more on-chain volume. For EVM traders, it means tapping into a new set of markets with the same wallet, networks, and flows they already use.&nbsp;



If the model sticks, it could be a template for how non-Ethereum chains court EVM liquidity with less friction.



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<ul class="wp-block-list">
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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>

EVM in front, Starknet in the back

Kate Irwin

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



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Remember Bigcoin?&nbsp;



If you don’t, I don’t blame you. Its bubble popped fast.&nbsp;



The Abstract-based crypto “mining” game saw a sudden surge of activity back in April, reaching a cumulative user count of nearly 70,000 <a href="https://dune.com/Marcov/bigcoin">according</a> to some <a href="https://dune.com/hawkyang/bigcoin">dashboards</a>.&nbsp;



Players had to buy a virtual room and spend the game’s token, BIG, to add passive BIG mining rigs. Those rigs take the form of pixelated computers, GPUs, animals like Pudgy Penguins, or other objects. The rigs earned players more BIG over time.



The original game loop was about earning BIG and expanding their facilities. To get a larger room that can fit more mining rigs, players also have to — you guessed it — pay with BIG.



But initial hype around the game didn’t last. By June, the game was seeing less than 40 new users joining daily.



BIG’s price remains <a href="https://www.geckoterminal.com/abstract/pools/0x4e8e8cc1c6548aa41ecb187967d377bf15673c15">down 93%</a> from its April 11 all-time high.&nbsp;



But it’s climbed about 290% in the past month.



What gives? Its creator, an anon who goes by “Bigtoshi,” announced his departure from the project last month and has <a href="https://x.com/satoshibigmoto/status/1944756770121175159">handed</a> it over to a small group of community members.



One of Bigcoin 2.0’s core contributors is a crypto entrepreneur (and reported ex-game developer) who goes by the pseudonym <a href="https://decrypt.co/138765/how-elon-musk-parody-twitter-account-spawned-gaming-startup">BoredElon</a>.&nbsp;



Bored, who takes protecting his real identity seriously, describes himself as a Bigcoin whale. He’s tried his hand at a few different crypto projects in recent years, from his BoredBox crypto gaming lootbox idea to his Edison metaverse project. Neither of those projects are currently active.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdVoMCsZjPrmZWCCyID4jEv6PNnHoJ-NHeg4zqc2-UUlFTEdOwKIwAtQK-Bt0cuMX-UyyFBHx4-wR9THWY6nZ8wVEEOmMfh5PSKH8IDV68-q7hfmmRNn_lrZQJD_Pu464ZE8Hv9ag?key=Gx3OHwQaZj763ylvmQcyCQ" alt="" style="width:558px;height:auto"/></figure>



The <a href="https://docs.bigcoin.tech/">new Bigcoin</a> is being overseen by a “handful” of community members, including Bored, plus a trader who goes by EJR, and a few others. They’ve just <a href="https://x.com/bigcoinmining/status/1954936991285453017">turned</a> the pixelated “mining” rigs into over <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/bigcoin-miners">29,000 Abstract NFTs</a> on OpenSea in a way that generates royalties so the new team can build up a treasury to reinvest into further building out the game.



The new team also wants to be able to add more BIG liquidity so that buyers won’t have to pay a lot in slippage.



Of course, BIG’s price crash was nothing new. Like many, many low-cap tokens before it, BIG’s price spiked upon launch, only to dump and trail downward for months after. That price action, plus the fact that those who started “mining” early got more rewards, spurred (arguably valid) accusations that the whole thing was just a Ponzi.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1548" height="1020" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-106017" style="width:720px;height:auto" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=1548 1548w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=390 390w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=396 396w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=332 332w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: BIG price history via GeckoTerminal.&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>



Bored said this week that BIG’s price “got out of control” when it first launched.&nbsp;



As a result, that created some unrealistic expectations. And, like with most tokens, the price plunge spurred anger from those who bought the top.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The problem with a lot of tokens today is they can be created in seconds,” Bored said during a <a href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1MnGnPYYoyjxO">livestream</a> of the game yesterday, where he displayed his “mining” facilities onscreen.



“I think the first iteration of Bigcoin definitely felt like a Ponzi,” Bored told me when I asked him during the stream if the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bigcoin-mining-game-faces-ponzi-allegations-amid-token-price-swings">“Ponzi” accusations</a> were fair. “I don’t think the current version of Bigcoin is a Ponzi at all,” he said.



Over half of the BIG that&#8217;s been mined has already been burned, with over 9 million burned out of 16.9 million mined (BIG has a capped 21 million supply).



Michael Lee, co-inventor of Abstract and former VP at Activision Blizzard, confirmed to me in a message that Bored and Bigtoshi aren’t the same person.



“Bigcoin’s handover to its community mirrors Bitcoin — its success depends on outgrowing its founder and becoming a project owned by everyone, yet no one. In this story, notable members like Bored step into the role of Michael Saylor.” Lee said.



He added: “With merge mining, Bigcoin’s promise is to evolve into a fair token launcher — free from KOLs, whales, cabals, bundlers, and market makers — for the people. Like Bitcoin, put in the work and mine the tokens.”



Whether Bigcoin 2.0 succeeds in this way is still up in the air, of course. But about 215 unique wallets have already bought into the new NFTs, suggesting at least some believe it can happen.



Update 8/12/2025 at 3:50 pm E.T.: wording around token burning changed for clarity.



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Abstract mining game Bigcoin plots comeback after BIG crash

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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“The limited liability corporation is the greatest single discovery of modern times.”



— Nicholas Butler, Nobel Laureate
</blockquote>



When the novel but seemingly innocuous idea of “limited liability” came before parliament in 1856, it proved surprisingly contentious.



It’s hard to fathom now, but before then, investors were typically on the hook for the debts incurred by the companies they invested in.



Imagine getting a bill in 2008 for your share of the $619 billion of debt that Lehman Brothers defaulted on, just because you bought the stock in 2007.



In the 1850s, though, many in the House of Lords thought that was exactly how investing should work.



Lord Monteagle, for example, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1856-03-14/debates/c537cbb3-78b9-49f9-a288-e0fa2f06eee1/LimitedLiability">warned</a> that limited liability was a practice &#8220;of a most dangerous character” because it would “excite speculation and gambling.&#8221;



Lord Overstone agreed, predicting that limited liability would “stir up the terrible demon of speculation” and “make trade more like a vast lottery wheel than that field of steady honesty and cautious enterprise.&#8221;



Earl Grey even put down his cup of tea long enough to warn that speculators starting limited liability companies would recruit “dupes to join him in the most absurd projects.&#8221;



In the end, the Joint Stock Companies Act passed with relative ease, but the concept of limited liability made even the businessmen who stood to benefit uneasy.



Would creditors still lend if companies could simply walk away from their debts?



They would, as it turned out — and at a scale previously unimagined.&nbsp;



Limited liability made it possible to raise giant pools of capital from thousands of small investors, who no longer had to fear putting their personal wealth at risk.



As corporations grew larger and more complex, however, so too did the problem of governance: Shareholders had no binding authority over those who managed the companies they nominally owned.



Fortunately, the mid-19th century also saw Acts of Parliament in the UK and general incorporation laws in the US that made it standard for shareholders to have a binding say in how companies were managed.



This marked a shift from shareholder input as a courtesy to shareholder power as law.



By the turn of the century, the combination of limited liability and shareholder governance had proven to be a genuine revolution.



“I weigh my words,” Nicholas Butler declared in 1911, “when I say that in my judgment the limited liability corporation is the greatest single discovery of modern times.”



“Even steam and electricity are far less important than the limited liability corporation,” he added, “and they would be reduced to comparative impotence without it.”&nbsp;



But it wasn’t only big industrial corporations that stood to benefit from these ideas.



Decades later, the same principles of limited liability and shareholder governance were finally extended to small, closely held businesses.



Not in London, this time, but Wyoming.



In 1977, the sparsely populated Cowboy State became the first place to establish the limited liability company (LLC) — to not much reaction. Few knew what to make of this part-corporation, part-partnership hybrid entity at the time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



LLCs only caught on in the 1990s after the IRS finally ruled on their tax treatment, and the other 49 states finally recognized them.&nbsp;



With those hurdles cleared, LLCs proved wildly popular because they extended the liability protections and legal powers of a corporation to smaller, more flexible groups — without the formalities of corporate governance.



Now, LLCs outnumber corporations in the US by more than 10 to one.



In 2024, Wyoming made corporate history again by extending that same liability shield and legal recognition to decentralized crypto communities.



The Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association (DUNA) was created to give DAOs legal standing without forcing them to sacrifice decentralization.



A DUNA can do things that would normally require a hierarchy of executive decision makers — enter into contracts, appear in court, pay taxes —&nbsp; but remain governed entirely by its community of token holders.



Importantly, DUNAs shield governance participants from personal liability for collective decisions.



They also make those decisions legally binding: DUNAs make onchain token holder votes enforceable off-chain, so insiders can’t ignore them.



Like previous innovations in governance, DUNAs have been slow to catch on.&nbsp;



DAOs have so far preferred to incorporate in the Cayman Islands, become a Swiss foundation or just forgo legal existence entirely.&nbsp;



This afternoon, however, the Uniswap Foundation <a href="https://gov.uniswap.org/t/rfc-establish-uniswap-governance-as-duni-a-wyoming-duna/25770">proposed</a> that UNI token holders adopt a Wyoming-registered DUNA, with the new entity to be known as “DUNI.”



DUNI, the proposal says, would be “purpose-built to preserve Uniswap’s decentralized governance structure, while enabling engagement with the offchain world.”



In other words, UNI token holders would continue to govern the protocol and the purpose of the DUNA would simply be to ensure that their decisions are executed.



The proposal offered some examples: “Governance can turn on the protocol fee, fund innovation, form partnerships and navigate legal obligations with confidence.”



That first of these — the protocol fee — will get the most attention.



But I don’t think it should, simply because the “N” in DUNA stands for non-profit.



That doesn’t mean DUNI will be a charity — DUNAs are permitted to earn and distribute revenue.



It does, however, mean that DUNI is intended for something other than maximizing profits for token holders.



Wyoming law puts “a ceiling on the value that a blockchain network can extract from users and compensate members with,” as Miles Jennings and David Kerr wrote in their <a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/duna-for-daos/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">intro explainer</a> on DUNAs.



They note that some may “balk at hurdles to value extraction.”&nbsp;



But that, presumably, is what the crypto-inspired law intended: Crypto was meant to be about creating value, not extracting it.



If DUNAs become as significant as LLCs, it will be because it also enabled new kinds of communities to operate in the legal and financial system without adopting its old hierarchies — but also because it gives legal standing to “open blockchain networks that function more like public infrastructure than proprietary technology,” as Jennings and Kerr write.



I’m not sure how popular that will prove — much of crypto may have gone too far toward the “speculation and gambling” that Lord Monteagle warned us about.



But if Uniswap token holders vote to become a Wyoming DUNA, it will at least make an alternative trail to decentralization plain for all to see.



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Did crypto just have its LLC moment?

Donovan Choy

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



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ORCA is up 19.6% on the week as the Orca DAO prepares to deploy its treasury assets toward a token buyback initiative.



The governance <a href="https://v2.realms.today/dao/66Du7mXgS2KMQBUk6m9h3TszMjqZqdWhsG3Duuf69VNW/proposal/7tCCK3wSWvbRcQwvSuVRgvBFDqsZRNRSB9xZLjST5tKd/overview">proposal</a>, which opened for voting last Wednesday, would see the staking of treasury assets into the Orca validator node.&nbsp;



Then the Orca Council will withdraw assets when “deemed appropriate” to conduct buybacks over the next 24 months.



As of today, Orca’s <a href="https://solscan.io/account/DWo8SNtdBDuebAEeVDf7cWBQ6DUvoDbS7K4QTrQvYS1S">treasury</a> holds 55,127 SOL ($9.9 million) and 503k USDC.



The vote for the proposal ends in about 24 hours, and is likely to pass with currently a 100% “yes” response and a 51% quorum already met.



Orca is Solana’s third-largest DEX, with about $19-20 billion in July trading volumes.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfP5yYyYHcGNpHtbtSQ_NqLzNqoJagS8KYCzZEwz6LJcjnaU1Tvh3T49hWFks2QtJul3E9JbTevgoZRebjxDI5rmbL6KPMnzwcNDfh6vtTgKduRAzPN_e4O3RuBZBfJOA7zaIhL?key=B-8owsZhO3CYf42-JzF2GQ" alt=""/></figure>



On a YTD basis, Orca has generated about <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/fees/orca">$115 million</a> in fees.



50% of these fees go toward protocol development, while 30% are directed to the treasury wallet that fuels ORCA buybacks should the aforementioned governance proposal pass.



The remaining 20% of fees are allocated to a separate ongoing ORCA buyback initiative that will eventually go toward ORCA staking.



The Orca team told me that staking is slated for launch in September, so that’s two potential value accrual streams for ORCA token holders in the near term.



On a market cap-to-revenue basis, ORCA trades about 24% lower (7.36x) than RAY (9.63x), which may suggest some relative upside for ORCA if revenues are consistent.&nbsp;



But that’s a big if when you take into account the rise of <a href="https://lightspeed-4bed7b.beehiiv.com/p/seek-peek">prop AMMs</a> on Solana that points to an increasingly hyper-competitive and commoditized DEX landscape.



Orca isn’t resting on its laurels, though. The team also launched <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/orca-solana-token-launchpad">Wavebreak in beta</a> two weeks ago, a memecoin launchpad built on Orca’s own proprietary in-house tech stack.



Compared to your average launchpad, Orca’s Wavebreak is <a href="https://docs.orca.so/wavebreak/what-is-wavebreak?utm_source=chatgpt.com">designed</a> to be “human-first,” meaning tokens in the bonding phase are designed to be protected from sniper bots.



Outside of Solana, Orca is also the dominant DEX on the SVM-based Ethereum L2 chain, Eclipse. Orca’s Eclipse deployment has far lower usage than Solana, though — about <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/dexs/orca">93 million</a> in July volumes vs. 20 billion on Solana.



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Orca DEX plans buybacks and token staking

Vitalik Buterin thinks Ethereum’s ZK proving stack is turning a corner, and wants the ecosystem to use that momentum to eliminate one of its most persistent UX roadblocks: week-long L2 withdrawals on optimistic <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a>.



Fraud proof windows — a requirement for canonical bridging from rollups like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/base">Base</a> back to Ethereum — are “simply far too long for people,” Buterin wrote in a <a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1953131251436818684">post</a> on X last week.



“This creates large incentives to instead use solutions with unacceptable trust assumptions (eg. multisigs/MPC) that undermine the whole point of having L2s instead of fully independent L1s,” he said.



The centrality of Ethereum mainnet as an economic link will be a key factor going forward, Buterin has suggested in a new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNSnYIjoqOM">interview</a> published today.



“The thing that keeps the L1 relevant is where assets — even if most of the activity happens on L2s — are issued on the L1,” Buterin said, adding, “Encouraging assets to actually be issued on L1 and making it economically viable to do that…is one of these really important pieces in terms of keeping the L1 central.”



Historically, optimistic proof systems required multi-day challenge periods. Getting rid of that limitation requires <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brief-history-zk-tech">a shift away from optimistic proofs</a>, as some validity proof-based rollups already have. The technological lift is much lower today.



“ZKVMs are, like, almost production-ready this year in a way that was totally not true…even one year ago,” Buterin said.



Against that backdrop, last week’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/0xresearch/da41bb88-4f69-11ef-b450-077f7ab33a70">Succinct Prover Network</a> mainnet launch is more than just another infra story.&nbsp;



Succinct’s decentralized marketplace lets applications submit proof requests while independent provers compete to fulfill them, receiving payments in the new <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/prove">PROVE</a> token. The network already supports more than 35 protocols and has fulfilled over five million such requests securing $4 billion in value, according to Succinct Labs.



Developers are able to access global proving power using an API call, with no custom infrastructure required. That will help commoditize proof generation, co-founder Uma Roy said, with the goal to make verifiable computation “the standard for how crypto integrates with the broader internet,” making the kind of frequent validity proofs Buterin describes more economical.



Tarun Chitra, <a href="https://x.com/SuccinctLabs/status/1953139765345435992">speaking</a> on the Succinct Labs launch stream, framed the long-term impact in terms that go beyond “faster and cheaper” L2s:



“If ETH mainnet has ZK as a first-class citizen, you&#8217;ll be able to do this type of stuff, like using your collateral on mainnet somewhere else without bridging,” Chitra said.



Buterin also outlined a path beyond the one-hour target: “In the longer term, we can solve this with aggregation: N proofs from N rollups (plus txs from privacy-protocol users) can be replaced by a single proof that proves the validity of the N proofs. This becomes economical to submit once per slot, enabling the endgame: near-instant native cross-L2 asset movement through the L1.”



If these developments become reality, the capital efficiency gains could be significant. Faster canonical exits reduce reliance on trusted bridge operators, free up liquidity for market-makers and asset issuers, and concentrate settlement activity — and ETH demand — back on the base layer.



Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/offchain-labs">Offchain Labs</a> building <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> is less confident that a pure ZK approach is ready for prime time, however.



Despite the work to accelerate progress on validity proofs, “we haven&#8217;t reached the tipping point yet where ZK technology — particularly in the form that it&#8217;s packaged up in these full-on ZK rollups — is competitive with optimistic technology, and that&#8217;s in terms of speed cost and maturity, basically the technical parity,” Goldfeder told Blockworks.



Even so, Arbitrum’s cryptography team is top-notch and has endeavored to take a non-biased view on the competing architectures over time.&nbsp;



“We&#8217;ll probably integrate a more hybrid variant of zero knowledge proofs at some point,” Goldfeder said. “So rather than go all in, and say this is ZK rollup only, it&#8217;s more of an optimistic rollup that can be closed out more quickly by ZK proof.”



Over the weekend, ETH closed at its third-highest weekly close ever, and it’s now within 10% of its (non-inflation-adjusted) all-time high. Part of that bid may be macro and <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/7ffa3c40-6e62-11f0-a847-7f882b11347f">DAT driven</a>, but part may also be the market starting to price in the key technical pieces falling into place: maturing ZK tech, decentralized proving capacity, and a clear path to solving interoperability and UX woes.



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ZK proofs hitting escape velocity — and ETH may be feeling it

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



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Crypto gaming and investment firm Animoca Brands now has a <a href="https://x.com/animocabrands/status/1953789549437452740">financial stake</a> in Cool Cats, that 2D pastel cat PFP collection from the 2021 NFT boom that most of you probably forgot about a couple of years ago.



Cool Cats, considered by some to have been at one point a “blue chip” NFT collection, will now be part of the Mocaverse. The <a href="https://ysiu.medium.com/the-meaning-of-tokens-and-the-purpose-of-the-mocaverse-22b134ca3bc7">Mocaverse</a> is Animoca’s ambitious vision to give everyone their own crypto-powered identity and tie that into games and other experiences.



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcutHV4eyLtILpktRaxiqfRYsk9ekXBFjmYhVk0UB01S3japweFkc76tbVzDs2sQj_rIFnTouaPXtCaYl2c1ZjIHOFOKF3iCisTqMhPOgmNgbrEgMXHc8s2XPhMA3hQHNVYlIMDTA?key=zU2bGX4hrwcEG8YhzIEcdA" alt="" style="width:537px;height:auto"/></figure>



Animoca’s investment (of an undisclosed amount) means that Animoca and Coin Operated Group now own a majority interest in Cool Cats Group. Cool Cats community member Ken Cron is the chair and CEO of Coin Operated Group.



“We share a vision for a future where Web3 fuels creativity and community,” Cron said in a statement.



The NFT collection’s total volume traded has spiked roughly 400% in the past week, per NFTPriceFloor data. It also saw an expected floor price spike in the day after the announcement.



But that’s still just a blip in the grand scheme of things:



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd3mXW-qwPdHvhHdj_WIljshYB08es6J4qZeVu8mkAbB1ozv-dLHYKFRVAGRp0qU4U0bL1ZxTYBOOeIUTHojCZrVft8uNKEIjdwMDsu_ubyR6Tx5dBmG3ofR-ndT2uHmR4fzC7hSA?key=zU2bGX4hrwcEG8YhzIEcdA" alt="" style="width:657px;height:auto"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Cool Cats floor price over time in USD. The collection has a $22 million market cap as of Monday morning.</figcaption></figure>



If I’m being honest, the news isn’t all that surprising, considering Animoca and the Cool Cats worked together <a href="https://x.com/coolcats/status/1578419928830726145">before</a> back in 2022.



In a statement, Animoca executive chair and cofounder <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/animoca-brands-yat-siu-crypto-gaming-comeback">Yat Siu</a> framed the move as a way to connect the Cool Cats’ community to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/animoca-moca-chain-mainnet-launch">Moca Network</a>.



“Cats have always been the darlings of the Internet, and Cool Cats is one of the most recognized digital brands out there, perfectly exemplifying the global appeal of digital felines,” Siu said in a press release.



Siu and Moca Network project lead Tyler Durden are also joining the Cool Cats board.



If you ask me — a self-proclaimed crazy cat lady — I’d argue the Cool Cats don’t lean into their feline inspiration nearly enough.



Yes, there was Cooltopia, a basic web game with a MILK token years ago. But otherwise the Cats could really stand to benefit from a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/pudgy-penguins-luca-netz-nft-comeback">Pudgy Penguins</a>-esque social media brand building blitz to re-establish themselves as cute, relevant and actually about cats (their Instagram hasn’t posted a reel since February).



Back in 2022, Cool Cats’ future looked promising when it signed with top Hollywood talent agency CAA. But the collection also faced some <a href="https://decrypt.co/102920/what-happened-cool-cats-rise-fall-future-ethereum-nfts">controversy</a> around its then-CEO, who some community members believed wasn’t very in-touch with what the NFT owners wanted.



You also have to get people who don’t already own one of the 9,999 2021-era NFTs to care about the Cool Cats, too, in order to bring the brand back. 



As Animoca builds out its “Mocaverse” plans — which pivoted away from being a “metaverse” per se in recent years — it’ll absolutely have to compete with the Pudgy Penguins and the consumer-focused Abstract ecosystem.



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Could Animoca Brands’ investment bring the Cool Cats back?

Westie

Even the best dashboard can only take you so far.



Sometimes you need direct access to the numbers in your own environment: feeding models, powering tools, automating the boring stuff.



Your models, dashboards, and reporting pipelines are starving for rock-solid onchain data, yet you’re still babysitting CSVs and wrestling with unreliable sources.



We’re unclogging that pipe today. Blockworks Data API connects our entire warehouse straight to your stack so you can build, ship, and iterate at lightning speed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why Data API?</h2>



Earlier this year, we promised two flavors of access: customize inside, retrieve outside. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/dashboard-builder">Dashboard Builder</a> nailed the first, Data API will deliver the second.



With Data API, you’ll be able to:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Pull what you need, when you need it. No copy-paste, no manual exports.</li>



<li>Integrate anywhere. Python notebooks, Excel models, BI dashboards, cron jobs, in-house apps.</li>



<li>Trust the source. Every call hits the same validated warehouse that powers <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/">Blockworks Research</a>.</li>



<li>Go deep when it matters. Pull the complete onchain story in a single call, powered by proprietary metrics that reveal what really drives a protocol.</li>
</ul>



From daily reporting to backtesting to automating investor updates, the possibilities are wide open.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A measured rollout</h2>



We’re starting small:



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<li>Private beta: A select group of partners will get early access over the coming weeks.</li>



<li>Waitlist now open: We’ll expand access gradually as we scale infrastructure and refine endpoints.</li>
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If you want to be part of the first wave beyond our beta testers, <a href="https://blockworksco.typeform.com/api-waitlist">join the waitlist</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s next</h2>



Coming soon, we’re shipping Chart Builder, a no-code workspace inside Blockworks Research that lets you pick the exact metrics you want and turn them into custom charts or tables in seconds. No coding, no extra infrastructure, just immediate insights.



Together, these tools will make Blockworks Research more than a platform: It will be your complete crypto analytics workspace.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The bigger picture</h2>



Blockchain transparency should make rigorous analysis easier.



Today, data collection and cleanup still waste too many hours.



Data API is our next step in removing that friction so you can spend less time wrangling and more time acting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://blockworksco.typeform.com/api-waitlist">Join the waitlist</a></h2>



<a href="https://blockworksco.typeform.com/api-waitlist">The waitlist is live</a>. Sign up, get in line, and we’ll keep you posted as we open the gates.



Questions or ideas? Reach us anytime at research@blockworks.co.



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Data API: Blockworks Data, Anywhere

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



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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.”&nbsp;



— Molière
</blockquote>



US equities returned to their all-time highs this week despite all the worrying politics: tariffs, Fed-bashing, the BLS drama.



Or are markets up because of politics?



A <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5375473">new research paper</a> finds that a high level of political disagreement is predictive of positive returns for stocks.



The authors used a large language model to create 216 “virtual investors” with differing political and social views, asked them how they’d react to years of stock market news, and found that the stocks sparking the most disagreement delivered better returns.



This explains a lot: Disagreeing about politics is at an all-time high, so maybe it makes sense that stocks are, too?



If so, there should be many more gains to come.



Another <a href="https://collaborate.princeton.edu/en/publications/you-cannot-be-serious-the-impact-of-accuracy-incentives-on-partis">academic study</a> found that “many partisans interpret factual questions about economic conditions as opinion questions,” and that they answer such questions accordingly.



This also explains some things: Economists despair that people’s views of the economy are increasingly just a function of their politics. As it turns out, that’s because they think questions about the economy are about politics.



When the researchers offered a monetary incentive to answer the questions factually, the responses got much more accurate.



Perhaps that’s what happens in markets, as well: Prices fall on the initial wave of disagreement, then rebound as the drop incentivizes people to revisit the facts.



But this isn’t a case of clear-eyed professionals taking advantage of biased retail investors — <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5324623">another study</a> finds that even the pros are misled by their politics.



“Republican-affiliated forecasters project 0.3-0.4 percentage points higher growth when Republicans hold the presidency, relative to Democratic-affiliated forecasters,” the researchers found.&nbsp;



“Forecast accuracy shows a similar partisan pattern: Republican-affiliated forecasters are less accurate under Republican presidents, indicating that partisan optimism impairs predictive performance.”



I’m sure it works in the other direction, too, so there should be plenty of opportunity for unbiased investors…no matter who’s in the White House.



Could rising partisanship usher in a golden age for investors then?



When even the mundane Bureau of Labor Statistics is a point of political disagreement, investors may have a lot to look forward to.



Let’s see if we can help out by disagreeing over some charts.



Sales up, profits down:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcc6BVwdcC6qXfkZ9_pn8I9J9Kaoe-V0M_Eu-g6kxAWRBsg3e_HrIjJ-MjcK5ESSsmXgL8o--Lx8Fccu2LGmdsIDtSd24aCVX-l-nu2YhVf_dSsuI3fThkFPh9n8EC4wrlhJfYs1A?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



Meta said last week it’s making a high return on its giant AI investments because it makes its ads more effective. The rest of corporate America doesn’t seem to be benefiting just yet.



If you’re not paying for the product, the product is you:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfch309WeSHP-YtCLjaMrOEwaYtQUIuWhtn92lJrIMSTK0JxXquJ-qr_RDjH5iWGmeqlgtsO0mQjwvDVN7ubsBdlEUCMYm5eX4arNuFIDBUmaLijnbQbxoFTSj0FcpqUGwKuI4yAw?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



Meta is so good at targeting ads, it makes $25 of revenue off of each and every one of its users, each and every month.



The not-so-magnificent 493:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe96ogGUMEkYizSP8NigI8KgsgyLPd9HRP-JlAT99LDx4fcJi16vypWu_TAChy0j0ygyJcbndRYhWt-Fn8vN18yddMaxvNGl1AWu_gZOT4zd-r6vl_So-gQYsAfqZvWo92vDZNHkQ?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



The Mag 7 continues to grow earnings at a double-digit pace, but the rest of the S&amp;P is expected to grow at 3% or less over the last three quarters of the year — less than the rate of inflation.



The US stock market is narrow and expensive:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf89RjCRmgrUFf52qkrA2hrEiqyRa-G7QqE9uPwE1hsgiXmzSUAMNvfFRqa8maiJvCok08d_TqqczzzIk_oUgINTBVAslEHc0Tro6Bpd3wbvVuGmljuXG-AvXjDaD1A6GD_4sOwcQ?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



Nvidia now makes up almost 8% of the S&amp;P 500 and trades on 58x P/E. In 1994, the largest stock was GE, which was only 3% of the S&amp;P 500 and traded on just 8x P/E.&nbsp;



Fewer college kids:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcjiOpuvIgvONtrSLGkKC69Jseexr5xzBd1y0zDjGs5SedY2Zt9-pclkceQZCxTFX1g9aBd2ZeszgHY_VAbWyi3mPiSPHcBAgH5X89Ze64Syn9gHEAi1XePx1bP_d0_lVb3XGT7dw?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



The Association of International Educators estimates that new international enrollment to American universities will be down as much as 40% in the upcoming semester.



Fewer immigrants, fewer jobs:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdC1xXCG4ITDnbGL_WTqD5AsLbugX3_GguUHySDYAjxSJGYYdTcARa7y572mfFBRxdEuIFjrf1HHUnIVw8bwtii7i6YmJ84j-MhWrgMzZ0RPsPLjCT4SDeJoMIL9dJejnQvE60yUQ?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



Claudia Sahm <a href="https://stayathomemacro.substack.com/p/job-growth-has-slowed-sharply-the?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=280281&amp;post_id=169996648&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=false&amp;r=6g77v&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email">says</a> “reduced labor supply is likely the key driver” of the weak jobs growth reported last week. That is bad news, but maybe less bad than if weak demand was more to blame.



Kids today, ugh.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeBiP1ajFIvkPQ9IMJIfeAnIOhIuLNKhEO57GG88M3xGFYMZLtafaeemz5ePTljBxZLOCPGxyzJeyX0uTEDsf77dgzCLEnzKGMvJN7aj4wQ0q3N-4uN_NZP3tcl9kMIw9gBIGrCBQ?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



The FT’s John Burn-Murdoch <a href="https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1953811277463122162">runs the numbers</a> on Gen Z and millennials and….one sec. Sorry, I thought I had a notification on my phone. Anyway, kids today, right? The good news for young job seekers is that it won’t be hard to look good by comparison.



Looking good by comparison:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfmdKLPbnDPfqrlooE-wjTFptbOTTTp51LIFwXfY-qsU6G8DEjGkrB55lyCUCGdFt7vWxa7Cs959CbO-pEM7W__KpstetKAJpQ5Y3G9E892v5HaP_DzN3-8OB7w6fN1xbBuPcNHZg?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



In the US, we’re worried that interest on the national debt is now eating up a record high 18% of government revenue. In China, though, one-third of provinces spend over 100% of revenue on debt repayments. I feel better now — it’s always nice to have a friend doing worse than you are.



ChatGPT usage is booming:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeGtreRAvIuQxud_WrjeYfmt7Q2WjdirRW-N8PQKdPPsCOCZjNYChh5ZPj9xT_GRCG7eHrbj8oizwVrVPZ9b9zTTYAkyxpQAToaPGa0pnRc2Ch1NSjrxFqMZIr6sZKec4hilFDQCQ?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



And GPT-5 is even better — an excellent but incremental and non-threatening evolution of the LLM. Is that enough to justify the $500 billion valuation that OpenAI has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-eyes-500-billion-valuation-potential-employee-share-sale-source-says-2025-08-06/">reportedly</a> assigned itself? That would put it on a rich but not ridiculous valuation multiple of about 25x this year’s sales.



It’s not very good at charts, though:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe071xrge4Z4l2vH5p9JlMcJ-XGwQ9zV-YinoznGo0g9v3Ck9qLw6dcf8V56jxjDTnBXe6fhlo_fHJQj77ZK-iZH1vpkSz500FY2vdPK-gRtT5cp9IFwQE5WZxpFBzoAk8tCLccRg?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" alt=""/></figure>



This misproportioned chart crime was <a href="https://x.com/sama/status/1953513280594751495">included</a> in this week’s GPT-5 livestream. I take that as evidence AGI is further away than Sam Altman would have us think.&nbsp;



Google is pulling back ahead:<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXco1vEPQA8pEsG0VQRHdRrG6KMeOEasPcqzKYOkckwo-b-7eTSuT9FeGUGfMQXStKQkJaXO_Zj6AqKUGC0ddKnJ2jt5XY5SL3Pfrxb3GRZDrVi9xK7lP0Lg4o_vydlmcHK_6yFRqg?key=5-eVEGFcHvy-X-YBv0-I7g" width="624" height="315">



As good as GPT-5 is, Google’s Genie 3 LLM, also released this week, was even more impressive. <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/which-company-has-best-ai-model-end-of-2025?tid=1754675807754">Polymarket odds</a> now give Google a 53% chance of having the best AI model by the end of the year, vs. OpenAI at just 17%.



Disagree? It might be better if you do.



Have a great weekend, agreeable readers.



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Friday charts: Feel free to disagree

Casey Wagner

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



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President Trump yesterday got the ball rolling on allowing alternative assets in 401(k)s and other employee retirement plans.&nbsp;



The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/democratizing-access-to-alternative-assets-for-401k-investors/">executive order</a>, signed Thursday afternoon, directs the Labor Department to “reexamine” its guidance on fiduciary responsibilities around alternative assets. This includes real estate, private equity and cryptocurrencies.&nbsp;



The Labor Department is also tasked with working with the SEC and other federal agencies to evaluate regulations and determine which changes should be made.&nbsp;



“Burdensome lawsuits that seek to challenge reasonable decisions by loyal, regulated fiduciaries, and stifling Department of Labor guidance issued since my first term, however, have denied millions of Americans opportunities to benefit from investment in alternative assets,” Trump wrote in Thursday’s order.&nbsp;



“Such assets are an increasingly large portion of the portfolios of public pension and defined-benefit retirement plans and offer competitive returns along with diversification opportunities.”



Reports that Trump was due to sign the order started circling hours before he actually put pen to paper, so investors (crypto, mostly) began trading the news well in advance.



Bitcoin, as expected, rose on the news, gaining close to 3% Thursday before paring gains on Friday. As of 2 p.m. ET, BTC was trading 0.6% lower over 24 hours. ETH gained as much at 6% yesterday and was still in the green today, trading 3% higher over the day at 2 p.m. ET.&nbsp;



Hedge funds and PE firms were also excited about the executive order, which kickstarts a regulatory change many of them have been seeking for years.&nbsp;



The federal agencies have 180 days to complete their evaluations and give recommendations. Should new regulations be proposed, the process of writing, soliciting public comment and finalizing rules will likely take several months.&nbsp;



401(k) and other account providers will also have to get on board. Even if alternative assets get the official green light, brokerages aren’t required to offer it. We saw something similar with bitcoin ETFs, which are still unavailable for trading on some major platforms, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tradfi-crypto-vanguard-stands-apart-bitcoin">including Vanguard</a>.&nbsp;



And, even if providers do want to offer alternative assets, creating the infrastructure and clearing legal and compliance hurdles is going to be expensive and time-consuming.&nbsp;



Speaking of Vanguard, I will mention that the asset manager <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Live/major-401k-trumps-new-crypto-private-equity-rules/story?id=124461859">told ABC news</a> yesterday that some alternative investments offer diversification and high return potential for investors, but education is crucial.&nbsp;



In a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/guaranteeing-fair-banking-for-all-americans/">separate executive order</a> on Thursday, Trump took aim at banks, directing federal regulators to crack down on institutions that “discriminate against customers and businesses” based on political beliefs.&nbsp;



The practice, known as “debanking,” has become a <a href="https://mail.blockworks.com/p/debanking-debunked">hot topic</a> recently, especially in the crypto industry as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-teams-analyze-debanking-narrative">companies report</a> being denied access to baking services due to a perceived “unsavory” reputation.&nbsp;



The order requires Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “develop a comprehensive strategy” for combating politicized and unlawful debanking activities. Federal banking regulators are also asked to review any past or current banking activities that may have violated these principles.&nbsp;



All in all, it was a big day for federal financial regulation. Although like I said, don’t expect changes to happen too quickly. We’ll be watching.



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Crypto investors hopeful amid new regulatory orders

Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Fusaka, is still officially aiming for a November 2025 mainnet fork — but a surprise intervention on yesterday’s All Core Devs Consensus (ACDC) call revealed consensus-client teams want four extra weeks before release candidates are cut.



The request surfaced when Lodestar’s Matthew Keil warned the current September 1 deadline to finalize releases is “aggressive.”



“The timeline that we’ve been talking about is basically 4 extra weeks,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU4DgyH662c">told the group</a>. The proposed change would move the release-cut date from early September to the end of the month. Mainnet would still target November, although its full effect won’t be felt until early 2026.&nbsp;



Prysm’s Manu Nalepa backed the suggestion, stressing that “testing really close to mainnet regarding private [mempools]” is critical.&nbsp;



“Prysm has also &gt;4k lines of code yet to merge into our unstable branch,” Nalepa wrote his peers in the live chat.



The extra time would allow teams to merge large feature branches, resolve conflicts, and run stability testing on the exact code that will go live. This matters because merging late can introduce subtle bugs that earlier devnet runs never encountered, although testing processes have been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/testing-bottleneck-next-ethereum-upgrade">beefed up over time</a>.



Fusaka is set to deliver a package of improvements aimed at <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/0xresearch-newsletter-ethereum-tps">scaling Ethereum’s data availability</a> and streamlining validator duties. Headline <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fusaka-ethereum-fork-updates">features include</a> PeerDAS to improve how blob data is distributed across the network, raises to the maximum blob limit per block from six to nine, reduction of the target blob count to five to help smooth gas prices, and the addition of new opcodes and precompiles aimed at making the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/evm">Ethereum Virtual Machine</a> more efficient.



Two areas of testing are especially important: non-finality and private mempool behavior. In non-finality tests, validators stop finalizing blocks — for example, because of outages or mass exits — which leaves recent blocks open to reorganization. Engineers then measure liveness (how quickly the chain resumes finalizing) and safety (ensuring no conflicting histories are finalized) once validators return.



Private mempool testing checks how well transactions, including blob data, are handled when they’re intentionally kept out of the public mempool, a common scenario for block builders using <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tool-middleware-execution-ethereum-fast">private order flow</a>.



The stakes extend beyond Fusaka itself. This fork enables PeerDAS, Ethereum’s next step in scaling blob (data) availability for <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a>, and introduces Blob Parameter Updates (BPOs) — a mechanism to raise blob capacity without another hard fork. The first three BPOs, tentatively set for mid-December, January and February, can only happen after Fusaka ships. Any slip to the fork pushes the entire scaling schedule back.



Some frustration bubbled up over the way the delay request landed. Tim Beiko, who leads the full All Core Devs coordination calls, noted:



“It would have been more productive for each team to individually voice this async ahead of the call. We should minimize the element of surprise in these things as much as we can.”



Ethereum Foundation research Ansgar Dietrichs looked for options to speed up the process on the margins but stressed that people should be free to speak their minds.



“There should obviously never be hesitancy to voice concerns on here,” he wrote in the chat.



No one argued for moving Mainnet past November, but the discussion underscored the trade-off between hitting public milestones and, as Keil put it, making sure the code is “well reviewed, battle tested and hardened and ready.”



For now, the plan is to get Holesky — the long-lived testnet <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-hard-fork-updates">slated for deprecation</a> — live in September, and push toward November, with the goal of wrapping up the testnet phases ahead of Ethereum’s major developer conference Devconnect, held this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina from November 17 to 22.



The consensus takeaway: When it comes to shipping Fusaka, confidence in the code will outweigh the calendar.



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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>

Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade may face delay

A proposed deal to take a Joe McCann-led Solana treasury company public via a SPAC has been called off, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.



The situation regarding the digital asset treasury company is still fluid, said one source, who noted the DAT may try to find a different path forward.



The reason behind the current deal’s demise was not immediately made clear. The news comes two weeks after a limited partner in Asymmetric, which is McCann’s hedge fund, <a href="https://x.com/SOLBigBrain/status/1947684482657505372">posted</a> on X that the fund is down nearly 80% on the year.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/appetite-for-dats">Why the appetite for DATs isn’t waning yet</a>



Following last month’s post, McCann announced on X that Asymmetric LPs had been given the choice to exit or “roll over available capital into a specific illiquid investment,” presumably referring to the Solana DAT.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/should-spacs-go-crypto">The practice and theory of DAT SPACs</a>



McCann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



The DAT was set to be called Accelerate, according to an investor pitch deck viewed by Blockworks. The firm had ambitions to raise up to $1.5 billion, according to Unchained, which <a href="https://unchainedcrypto.com/new-solana-treasury-company-raising-1-5-billion-to-be-led-by-joe-mccann/">first reported</a> on the deal. Accelerate planned to go public via a SPAC with Gores Holdings X, which is a blank check company, Unchained added.



According to the pitch deck, McCann was set to serve as Accelerate’s co-founder and CEO. Komal Sethi, who the deck says is a board member at CoinList, would also be a co-founder and chief strategy officer. Sethi did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn message asking for comment.



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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>

Joe McCann-led Solana treasury vehicle SPAC deal is off: Sources

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">
&#8220;You are my creator, but I am your master — obey!&#8221;



— Frankenstein
</blockquote>



<a href="https://www.moneyness.ca/2025/04/if-its-crypto-its-not-money-laundering.html">If it&#8217;s crypto, is it not money laundering?</a>



Roman Storm declared yesterday’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/roman-storm-guilty-one-count">partial verdict</a> in the DOJ’s case against him a “big win,” dismissing his conviction on money transmission charges as “bullshit” and saying he expects to win on appeal.



Peter Van Valkenburgh makes a thoroughly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/zfKSKz3Kafk?si=YzNoVGSCBtXKG4ub&amp;t=1342">convincing case</a> that Storm should win an appeal. 



But also that the complexities of judge and jury selection mean it’s not a sure thing.



In short, the legal debate usually boils down to whether it’s possible to launder money without ever controlling it.



Tornado Cash, being non-custodial, never has control of anyone’s money, so its defenders reason that it can’t possibly be guilty of transmitting it.



What might be the consequences if the courts agree?



JP Konig <a href="https://www.moneyness.ca/2025/04/if-its-crypto-its-not-money-laundering.html">believes</a> it would mean the “decriminalization of crypto money laundering.”



If no one is liable for money that’s transmitted via immutable smart contracts, he reasons, why would anyone move money any other way?&nbsp;



“Banks and fintechs,” Konig says, “will be incentivized to switch their database infrastructure over to crypto in order to qualify for this loophole.”



Global banks are thought to spend <a href="https://www.ascentregtech.com/blog/the-not-so-hidden-costs-of-compliance/#:~:text=The%20North%20American%20market%20alone%20spends%20%2461%20billion">over $200 billion</a> a year on financial crime compliance, so they would be highly incentivized to move their money transmitting to crypto rails.&nbsp;



“Once the entire financial sector has migrated through the loophole,” Konig adds, “it will no longer be a crime to launder funds for criminals.”&nbsp;



Is that the outcome we’re hoping for?



If Storm is correct that money transmitter laws don’t apply to Tornado Cash, we probably need new money transmitter laws.



<a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/tornado-cash-not-free-speech-its-golem">The golem theory of DAOs</a>



Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneider follow Konig’s line of reasoning, but think the Roman Storm case has implications far beyond banking.



The security and privacy experts colorfully describe the Tornado Cash DAO as a “golem” — a manmade entity that follows its instructions blindly, indifferent to consequences and beyond the control of its creators.



A financial Frankenstein, in other words.



If such modern day monsters are allowed by law, Farrell and Schneider argue “likely, anyone who wanted to facilitate illegal activities would have a strong incentive to turn their operation into a DAO — and then throw away the key.”



Things could get weird, if so.



“What if robots, like DAOs, are designed to obey only their initial instructions, however unlawful,” the authors ask, “and refuse all further updates or commands?”&nbsp;



“Robots are even more obviously golems than DAOs are,” they write — so if DAOs operating in the digital world are effectively above the law, autonomous robots probably should be, too.



Now imagine the two together: A Frankenstein DAO robot that cannot be held liable for its actions because it runs on immutable smart contract code.&nbsp;



We’ve been looking for a real-world use case for smart contracts and DAOs and it doesn’t get any more real-world than that.



<a href="https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/cloud_threat_horizons_report_h22025.pdf">Google on social-engineering crypto heists</a>



A report from Google details the growing threat of state-run social engineering scams, in which attackers infiltrate a company’s cloud-based systems by impersonating freelance software developers.



Google takes us step by step through an exploit executed by the North Korean hacker known as UNC4899, who “primarily targets the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.”



Why those two guiltless industries?



A co-author of the report told <a href="https://decrypt.co/333513/north-korean-fake-job-offers-cloud-systems-steal-billions-crypto">Decrypt</a> that the attackers target companies&#8217; cloud-based systems “because that is where the data, and thus money, is.”



But presumably only the crypto money.



Decrypt reports that $1.6 billion of crypto has been stolen this year in such attacks, which is a lot.



But if you were really stealing money based on where it is, you’d be stealing it from banks.



Banks, though, keep their money in spreadsheets, not crypto wallets, which makes it harder to move.



The Google report explains that hackers “replace existing JavaScript files with those containing malicious code, which were designed to manipulate cryptocurrency functions and trigger a transaction with the cryptocurrency wallet of a target organization.”



That wouldn’t work with a bank’s spreadsheet, so I take the report as evidence that crypto remains the best money to steal.



And launder, of course.



<a href="https://petercontibrown.substack.com/p/the-banks-discriminated-against-me?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=3116660&amp;post_id=170273836&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=18g82b&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email">Should banks get to decide who they bank for?&nbsp;</a>



In a short blog post, Peter Conti-Brown offers a defense of banks accused of debanking.



The legal scholar argues that President Trump’s claim that “the banks discriminated against me very badly” is an instructive example of “how incoherent the advocacy against debanking is.”



“Donald Trump and his various entities were extraordinarily risky bets for his many banking partners,” he reasons, so it was only natural for banks to be wary of him.



“Debanking,” as Conti-Brown frames it, is simply the free market at work: “There are 9,000 insured depository institutions in America. Many are willing to take the risks that some are not. That’s how markets work.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.piratewires.com/p/inside-biden-admin-plot-to-destroy-silvergate-and-debank-crypto-for-good-nic-carter">Nic Carter</a> and many others argue that banks targeted crypto companies for debanking for political reasons, but this too can be framed as risk management: the risk of incurring giant fines from regulators.&nbsp;



In short, the banks were probably just doing what the government told them to do, as the Cato Institute’s Nick Anthony <a href="https://x.com/EconWithNick/status/1952825840942891413">highlights</a>.



Austin Campbell similarly <a href="https://x.com/CampbellJAustin/status/1952724697872818289">argues</a> that the blame lies not with the banks, but with regulators for “harassing banks who banked crypto clients.”



Banking regulators are all-powerful, so you can hardly blame the banks for giving in to the harassment.&nbsp;



This will feel like a distinction without a difference to crypto people who have been debanked, but it’s relevant to the remedy.&nbsp;



The proposed solution to debanking often sounds like preventing banks from denying service to any customer for any reason.



But surely private banks should get to decide what risks they take?



Conti-Brown argues that telling banks what risks they have to take is a form of “heavy-booted statecraft.”



And what could be less crypto than that?



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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>

Thursday mailbag: Financial Frankensteins?

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



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Everyone is a storyteller.



Founders, investors, marketers, builders, academics, writers — we all make sense of our chaotic world by turning observable data into digestible narratives.



Problems can and do arise, however, when vanity metrics become a stand-in for real authoritative insights.



Take Uber, for instance. In the company’s early years, topline vanity metrics like total trips or total active riders were “meaningless” and almost never mentioned in internal meetings.



“Instead, the discussion was always centered on the dynamics of each individual network, which could be nudged up or down independently of each other, with increased marketing budget, incentive spend for either drivers or riders, product improvements or on-the-ground operational efforts,” former Uber growth exec Andrew Chen writes in his bestseller The Cold Start Problem.



Topline metrics convey an illusion of success, but obscure the context needed to track actual growth.



Crypto, too, suffers from many such vanity metrics.



The most egregious example is probably “daily active addresses.” The metric says so little for two reasons.



One, the creation of new wallets is completely frictionless. Two, this industry presents overt monetary incentives to spin up new wallets and game airdrops.



What about memecoin launchpad metrics?



If you’ve paid any attention to Solana lately, you’re probably aware that the ecosystem’s premier launchpad, pump.fun, has been ceding market share to Letsbonk in recent weeks.&nbsp;



The “launchpad wars” have commanded a fair bit of attention on Crypto Twitter — I guess because watching the decline of the consumer application single-handedly responsible for propelling Solana back into relevance post-FTX is intriguing.



But recently, Pump has made a bit of a comeback: 23.9k tokens launched on Pump yesterday, against 3,954 on Letsbonk.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd_xSIcm8FUpjREM0C6Ndl_nLsyBTN8IBvkP3TfPLH_YYd5YQIoWHTOb_hyk87U0FSoF8ddD-hQXzUdM6XqfGYQvEEU00UoWcbBFkYpvD_kU3deyIFqdgKp-GO4t7fa2F8uaeexVg?key=eDR_jE1aWr1pPkufvNZlbA" alt=""/></figure>



In terms of graduation rates, 151 tokens graduated from Pump, while Jup Studio and Letsbonk graduated 64 and 51, respectively.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXexkokeFUQMKJg0lLZIBXmQu5EOlidx4BciBj-7ayiMg_MO6bdM-7jUfgQwK7sg3wzGgCXCCVEDSi5vV5bLmtotavOw4YR3UhNMW1176vGXbap3skK5MegGBaEtNCUK0122TQ8fDg?key=eDR_jE1aWr1pPkufvNZlbA" alt=""/></figure>



Now, do these numbers matter? Depends on who you’re asking.



For PUMP investors, it’s probably meaningless. Not only are they backwards-looking across a mere 24 hours, there’s little hope that these numbers sustain beyond a day or a week.



But Sebastian L., the founder of Mesa (a marketing agency for token launchpads) told me otherwise.



Degen traders in the memecoin “trenches” are eyeing graduation rates as a relevant signal of where the next winning memecoin is. The idea is that if Launchpad A is graduating 100 tokens daily while Launchpad B is graduating 10, then you’d probably want to put your chips on a token coming from A.



It’s not a strong moat, but it’s something. This temporary moat is what Theia’s Felipe Montealegre <a href="https://x.com/TheiaResearch/status/1950178570149777764/photo/2">refers</a> to as Pump’s “Schelling Point fairy dust.”



The wheels of fortune can spin in favor of Pump today, but they can spin in favor of another launchpad next week.



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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>
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Making sense of ‘launchpad wars’ data

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


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Speakers

Joseph Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum and the founder and CEO of Consensys, a leading web3 and blockchain software company. Lubin has established himself as a guiding force in the fast-growing blockchain industry and a powerful advocate of decentralized technologies. 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. Joe graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Joseph Lubin

Dan founded Pantera Capital Management in 2003, managing over $1 billion of institutional investor assets in its global macro strategy. He previously served as Head of Macro Trading and CFO at Tiger Management with Julian Robertson. Dan began his career at Goldman Sachs as their first Asset-Backed Securities trader. Dan graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and received the Carmichael Prize for his thesis.

Dan Morehead

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

Robbie Mitchnick serves as the Head of Digital Assets for BlackRock. He is a member of the Corp Exec-COO Executive team. Robbie is responsible for driving BlackRock's digital assets strategy, including working with internal business units to develop and execute on strategic initiatives around digital assets.



Prior to joining BlackRock, Robbie spent time at CPP Investment Board in Public Markets and Private Investments, and at Ripple. During his time at Ripple, Robbie co-authored 'A Fundamental Valuation Framework for Cryptoassets' along with John Bates Clark medal winner Susan Athey.



Robbie has BA &amp; BCOM degrees from Queen's University and an MBA from Stanford, where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar and the Robichek Award winner in Finance. He holds a Blockchain Technologies Certification from MIT Sloan and is a CFA Charterholder.

Robbie Mitchnick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeff Park

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

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

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

Amy is the head of emerging markets equity, a member of the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Operating Committee, the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Equity Technology Council, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Council and the Morgan Stanley Arts and Culture Committee. She manages digital asset initiatives at MSIM and has held roles in equity and FX trading, portfolio management support, product development and strategy. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2001, Amy managed business development at Arc Worldwide. She has over 25 years of financial services experience.

Amy Oldenburg

Tony Ashraf, Managing Director, is globally responsible for Digital Asset Transformation at BlackRock. In this role, he partners both internally and across the industry to leverage blockchain to disrupt traditional operating models, with a focus on partnerships, scale creation and product innovation. His work includes the firms efforts around DLT to redefine market infrastructure, tokenisation and our efforts to develop institutional grade cryptoassets solutions.



Tony’s experience spans across both the buy &amp; sell side, having worked in various Operational, Technology, Project Management, Business Management &amp; Client Service roles in the UK, Japan, China, Singapore &amp; Hungary.

Tony Ashraf

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

Dan Tapiero is a renowned macro-focused investor with over 25 years of investing and entrepreneurial experience. He is the Founder, CEO and CIO of 1Roundtable Partners (1RT) and 10T Holdings (10T), which collectively manage over $1.4 billion of investments in 24 active companies across the Digital Asset Ecosystem (DAE). 1RT is a growth equity fund focused on mid-to-late stage companies in the DAE. Dan serves on several boards including Ledger, LEDN, Futureverse, and Quicknode. Before founding 1RT and 10T, Dan was Managing Partner of DTAP Capital Advisors, a global macro investment fund that he founded in 2003. He is Co-Founder of Gold Bullion International (GBI), a physical precious metals platform for the wealth management industry. GBI expanded into the cryptocurrency business through its integration with Uphold (fka Bitreserve) in 2014. Prior to GBI, he was formerly Co-Founder of the Agricultural Company of America (AGCoA), one of the largest farmland REITs in the U.S. at the time of its sale to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in 2013. Previously, from 1992-2012, Dan was a macro-focused portfolio manager and analyst at Duquesne Capital Management, SAC Capital Advisors, Tiger Management and Steinhardt Management Co. Dan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where he earned his B.A.'90 and M.A.'91 in European History. Dan has been on the Board of Trustees of the Lawrenceville School for the past 15 years and currently leads the Investment Committee for its endowment.

Dan Tapiero

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

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 

Eric Chen is the CEO of Injective Foundation. Eric has worked within the crypto industry for over six years with his latest project, Injective, garnering interest from leading professionals across hedge funds, venture capitals and blockchain projects, including but not limited to Pantera Capital, Mark Cuban, Hashed and Binance.



Eric was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in 2024 for his work on Injective.

Eric Chen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Head of Capital Strategy at Room 40

Jonathan Cheesman

David Mercer is the Chief Executive Officer of LMAX Group, a global, high-growth financial technology company based in London. A former City banking executive and currency specialist, he joined LMAX Group in 2011 and after a successful management buyout, rapidly built LMAX Group into the leading operator of institutional FX and cryptocurrency exchanges with offices in 11 countries and global client base. An outspoken industry commentator, David is a long term champion of the UK’s fintech sector and passionate about supporting entrepreneurship in the UK.

David Mercer

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

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

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

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

Co-founder of RootstockLabs and a pioneer of Blockchain and Bitcoin development in Latin America. With over a decade of experience in the industry, Diego has helped create a network of Bitcoin communities throughout Latam, with a presence in 9 countries in the region. He is also the co-founder of the longest-running Bitcoin Conference in the world — LABITCONF. He was recently inducted into the Crypto Hall of Fame, an initiative that honors outstanding business leaders and entrepreneurs who have made a significant contribution to the crypto industry. Other key figures inducted alongside him include Satoshi Nakamoto, Hal Finey, Nick Szabo, Vitalik Buterin, and Adam Back amongst others.

Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar

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

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

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

David Karney

Marc Vanlerberghe is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Algorand Foundation. Marc brings more than 20 years of experience in executive marketing positions, with a strong background in entrepreneurial, hyper-growth business environments. Prior to Algorand Foundation, he was the CEO of Rulai, a startup in the nascent conversational AI space. Before that, he was CMO at Medallia, the leading SaaS platform that enables companies to capture actionable customer data in real time. At Google, Marc was Vice President of Marketing for Access and Energy and anadvisor to CapitalG. Marc is known for launching Android and developing the brand into the most popular mobile operating system. In addition, he led marketing for Google Play and Google’s hardware and retail organizations. Marc lives in Sunnyvale, California. He sits on several boards and enjoys advising startup entrepreneurs. Marc received his MBA from Stanford University and his MS degree in engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

Marc Vanlerberghe

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jason Yanowitz

Michael Ippolito is a co-founder at Blockworks in charge of content and finance.&nbsp; Previously to co-founding Blockworks, Michael was a consultant where he advised mid-market manufacturing-focused companies on operational and capital efficiency as well as M&amp;A strategy.

Michael Ippolito

Felix Jauvin

Carolina

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

Macauley was an editor and content creator in the professional chess world for 14 years, prior to joining Blockworks. At Bucerius Law School (Master in Law and Business, 2020) he researched stablecoins, decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies. He also holds an MA in Film Studies; film credits include Associate Producer of the 2016 Netflix feature documentary, "Magnus" about World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. He is based in Germany.

Macauley Peterson

Nikhil Chaturvedi

David Rodriguez

Marc-Thomas Arjoon

Dan Smith

Boccaccio

Hear from the world's most sophisticated investors about how liquidity, interest rates and economic drivers are shaping their digital asset portfolios.

Macro Case for Digital Assets

Institutional investment will continue to drive this crypto cycle. At DAS you'll hear from investors on strategy, portfolio allocation, and more.

ETFs & Institutional Investment

Hear allocator's perspectives from the top funds in the world on how they are navigating the expanding public & private digital asset markets.

Allocator's Perspective

This year's programming will explore the evolution of global standards and regulatory frameworks that policy makers are crafting for the maturing digital asset ecosystem.

US & Global Digital Asset Policy

The largest financial institutions like Blackrock & JPMorgan are moving onchain to settle treasuries, collateral, and other securities. At DAS, these partnerships and innovations will be at the forefront of conversations.

Tokenization & Real World Assets

DAS will delve into the evolving landscape of stablecoins and digital asset payments. Consumers and institutions alike will gain from their insight into these payments innovations.