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“I believe that at the end of the century…one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”



— Alan Turing, 1947




Did the AI bubble just have its Burning Up moment?In March 2000, Barron’s published a cover story — Burning Up — detailing how quickly internet stocks were going through cash, predicting that investors would be reluctant to give them more.



“When will the Internet Bubble burst?” the article began. “For scores of 'Net upstarts, that unpleasant popping sound is likely to be heard before the end of this year.”



Incredibly, the article was published within 10 days of the Nasdaq’s peak after a five-year, 570% rally — and the start of a 78% crash.



In hindsight, the Barron’s story looks less like coincidence and more like a catalyst: By spotlighting the cash burn, it helped cut off the flow of investor money keeping the bubble inflated.



Now, investors are having similar doubts about keeping the AI bubble inflated after a report from MIT concluded that “95% of organizations are getting zero return” on their generative AI spend.



Shares of Palantir fell as much as 20% this week in response, with Nvidia and AMD down 8% and 11%, respectively. 



If that turns out to be the beginning of the end of investors’ love affair with those types of AI stocks, the MIT report will surely get the blame.



“These [AI] tools primarily enhance individual productivity, not P&L performance,” the report found, casting doubt on why companies would continue to invest in them. 



The problem could be structural, too. Unlike human intelligence, the report finds that “most GenAI systems do not retain feedback, adapt to context or improve over time.” 



If that makes companies decide to stop buying AI services from software providers, software providers will stop buying cloud services from the

Friday charts: Bubbles then, and now

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There will soon be a lot more avenues to get crypto exposure. 



Like, a lot. 



That’s good for choice, sure — even if those options will be consolidated down the line once we get a better sense of where the space is headed. I wrote earlier this week about the demand for crypto equities (and how some are evaluating those) as more such stocks (like Circle and Bullish) hit major exchanges.  



This IPO chapter is set to collide with regulatory clarity around more crypto ETFs, setting up an all-around boom in how people can access the segment within their brokerage accounts. 



I imagine not all these ETFs (i.e. those looking to hold SOL, XRP, DOGE and even TRUMP) will see a whole lot of demand, particularly not right away. So for fund issuers, these next months and years will be about experimentation. 



21Shares filed for three more ETFs yesterday. One would offer broad crypto exposure via tokens themselves, ETFs, derivatives and equities. Two others offer leveraged exposure to dogecoin and SUI via derivatives.




Looks like this 21Shares ETF would invest in crypto ETPs, futures, equities.Active management "lets us move beyond simple exposure and deliver strategies that adapt in real time to a rapidly evolving market."-@Fede_Brokate, head of US business (and ex-BlackRock exec). pic.twitter.com/rCSIEgebFG— Ben Strack 🟪 (@strack_ben) August 21, 2025




“With both active and leveraged ETFs, we’re moving past replication into the next chapter of crypto investing — research-driven, forward-looking and built to give investors new ways to capture long-term growth across the digital asset ecosystem,” 21Shares’ Federico Brokate said in a statement.



Brokate previously worked at BlackRock as an iShares business strategy director — helping the world’s largest asset manager get its bitcoin ETF, IBIT, off the ground. He shifted to lead 21Shares’ US

Issuers keep filing ahead of expected crypto ETF launch frenzy

A proposal to pre-mint 60 million crvUSD to bootstrap Curve’s new Yield Basis AMM is sparking debate across the governance forum and social media, raising deeper questions about the DAO’s authority, risk management, and how to safely scale the protocol’s stablecoin footprint.



Yield Basis, led by Curve founder Michael Egorov, is a new Curve-native AMM that uses constant leverage to eliminate impermanent loss in Bitcoin pools. To launch its first three pools — wBTC, cbBTC and tBTC — Yield Basis is asking for a 60 million crvUSD allocation, which it says would be borrowed and paired with BTC to create LP positions on Curve without selling the stablecoin into the market.



CrvUSD currently has a market cap of about $127 million, placing it around the 25th-largest stablecoin. Among decentralized stablecoins, however, it’s the third-largest behind USDS/DAI and GHO.



Proponents argue the Yield Basis design solves a key bottleneck for scaling crvUSD: demand-side absorption. 



“In a way, the pre‑mint is just a borrowing cap,” community member Llamaste wrote, since crvUSD is paired with BTC inside Curve pools rather than sold. Other backers compare the mechanism to Curve’s existing PegKeepers, which also hold pre-allocated crvUSD that doesn’t count toward circulating supply. 



But some are more skeptical.



TokenBrice, a builder of the DeFi transparency tool DeFiScan, called it “a proposal suggesting to mint out-of-thin-air, unbacked, 60M crvUSD,” adding that this kind of “upgradability risk” contributed to Curve’s “Stage 0” rating in DeFiScan’s decentralization framework. That designation reflects Curve’s powerful DAO permissions, including the ability to arbitrarily mint crvUSD or assign control of key contracts.



Curve contributor Saint Rat, who helped draft Curve’s DeFiScan profile, defended the DAO’s structure but acknowledged the optics. 



“The Curve DAO could choose to mint $1 trillion crvUSD… but that

Curve debates 60M crvUSD pre-mint for Yield Basis amid governance pushback

This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Jeffrey Albus before publication.







Ethereum researchers published a new protocol update today, outlining a multi-pronged strategy to expand blob throughput for layer-2 scalability while maintaining decentralization and censorship resistance.



Following on from Protocol Update 001, this update details how PeerDAS, the centerpiece design for the upcoming Fusaka upgrade, will permit nodes to sample rather than fully download blob data. This enables up to eight times higher throughput without significantly increasing hardware requirements.



Between major upgrades, “Blob Parameter Only” (BPO) forks will incrementally raise blob limits, while bandwidth optimizations like cell-level messaging reduce redundant data transfers.



According to AllCoreDevs discussions, Fusaka is targeting an early November mainnet launch, just ahead of Devconnect Buenos Aires. PeerDAS (EIP-7594) has been confirmed as Fusaka’s headliner, and a BPO mechanism (EIP-7892) has been scheduled for inclusion.



Fusaka testing is already underway on devnets, with client teams preparing for public testnet deployments through September and October before mainnet activation. 



Meanwhile, developers are preparing Glamsterdam, the subsequent network upgrade expected around mid-2026, which will further extend PeerDAS with advanced networking and pipelining techniques.







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Ethereum protocol update details plan to boost transaction capacity with blobs

This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Jeffrey Albus before publication.







Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s keynote at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium delivered a cautiously optimistic signal that seems to have renewed momentum across crypto markets. 



Bitcoin rebounded to trade near $115,800, up around 2% in the last 24 hours, responding to Powell’s implicit dovish lean on monetary policy. ETH and other major tokens are also showing strength, reflecting renewed investor interest heading into what could be a pivotal September Federal Reserve meeting.



Markets had pulled back in the days leading up to the speech, with BTC dipping below $112,000 and ETH sliding over 4%. Traders positioned defensively amid uncertainty, but Powell’s measured tone, emphasizing flexibility and data reliance, appears to have reassured markets enough to trigger a modest relief rally. Price action suggests crypto remains highly sensitive to shifts in central bank policy expectations.



Interest rate easing typically increases liquidity and investor risk appetite, which could further boost capital flows into DeFi platforms, stablecoin infrastructure and tokenized financial instruments. Institutions and retail alike may view this environment as more conducive to launching and scaling in Web3.



However, market watchers caution that Powell’s approach was more observant and data-driven rather than decisively dovish, suggesting any further rallies could hinge on forthcoming economic data and Fed communication.

Powell’s Jackson Hole speech sparks renewed momentum amid rate‑cut hopes

“Investing is about beliefs in the future, and what to do when they’re wrong.” — Rohit Krishnan








Fundamentals vs. flows



The crypto investor Jon Charbonneau explains that crypto investing is just investing.



Whatever the asset class, he argues, there are only two basic ways to approach investing: forecasting fundamentals or predicting flows.



Fundamental investors form beliefs about future cash flows: “The whole point of fundamental investing is that you don’t need other people to agree with you” (aka the Warren Buffett way).



Flow investors form beliefs about future trading flows: “You’re just hoping someone else will buy it from you at an even higher multiple” (aka the greater fool theory).



These are familiar concepts, but it’s helpful to see them framed so thoughtfully in the context of crypto.



Either approach can work, Charbonneau says, but things get muddled if you don’t know which one you’re taking.



For example, is ETH a fundamental investment or a flows one? 



It seems to be a little of both, which makes the investment case more complex: “It requires taking more leaps of faith around human behavior and market psychology.”That sounds difficult. 



The simplicity of Bitcoin’s flows-based investment thesis, by contrast, has been so successful that it “can straddle the line of ‘fundamental investing’ and ‘greater fool investing’ depending on how you quantify monetary utility.”



I personally think “monetary utility” is mostly fake news, but I also think bitcoin has probably hit escape velocity and can now be considered a fundamental investment, like gold. 



Crypto investing more generally may be at a similar inflection point. 



“Historically, it has paid off to be primarily flows-driven as a crypto investor,” Charbonneau notes. “Looking forward though, I believe that focusing more on fundamentals...could finally produce more alpha as the industry matures.”



That would be

Thursday links: Investing, revenue meta, DATs, prediction markets

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Did Shopify dropping Ye push him to promote his own crypto payments processor — and memecoin?



The rapper formerly known as Kanye West’s X account, which has been frequently purged after bizarre bouts of antisemitic and incoherent tweets for years, is now promoting “YZY Money.” 



Earlier this year, Shopify stopped powering payments for Ye’s Yeezy apparel website after the rapper began selling swastika t-shirts, resulting in the website’s temporary disappearance. 



A Shopify spokesperson said at the time back in February that the Yeezy site “did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms.”



Shopify’s legal counsel ultimately clarified that the Yeezy Shopify site was taken down due to a risk of fraud to consumers, not because of the Nazi swastika itself. 



Details of an internal Slack memo from Shopify legal counsel described the t-shirt as a “vile, disgusting, and inexcusable” stunt. They also said it “was not a good faith attempt to make money” and “brought with it the real risk of fraud.” 







Now there’s a YZY memecoin, Ye Pay, and the YZY Card. 



Let’s all take a moment and ask ourselves: What could go wrong?



The memecoin is live and a contract address is visible on the Yeezy website and the rapper’s X account. 



But RugCheck’s analysis of the token cautions: DANGER.



“The contract creator can make changes to the token contract such as contract metadata, disabling sells, changing fees, unrestrictive minting of more tokens, transferring tokens etc.,” a warning from RugCheck that appears on CoinGecko reads.



The YZY Money website claims the whole point here is to “put you in control, free from centralized authority.”



But of course, if you buy in, it’s helping Ye free you of some of your cash.



Here’s a look at the “YZYNOMICS” of this token:







The YZY Money website suggests

Kanye West’s YZY memecoin is the last thing crypto needs

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As we reach the end of August, all eyes are once again on the Grand Tetons. 



Not because of its striking views, but because the annual Woodstock of central banking is about to go down. 



Tomorrow morning, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver his keynote speech. Historically, these speeches have served as key inflection points for the Federal Reserve’s thinking on monetary policy from a high level. More importantly, it’s an opportunity for Powell to speak for himself and not on behalf of the whole FOMC committee.



There are two key catalysts to consider as we await tomorrow's speech. 



The first: any indication about whether a rate cut will come in September. 



Right now, CME futures project a 71% odds of a cut, down from 92% odds last week: 







The crux of this consideration is a very weak jobs report last month, combined with inflation that seems to keep surprising to the upside and shows no signs of returning to the Fed’s 2% target. 



Andy Constan tweeted out a helpful framework of how to think about the probabilities of what could happen here:







The second potential catalyst: The Fed will publish the results of its five-year monetary policy framework review. 



In its last review in 2019, the FOMC introduced its flexible average interest targeting (FAIT), which targeted an average of 2% of inflation over the long term. With inflation running above its 2% target for nearly five years now, this framework is expected to be retired and a return toward a hardline target of 2% is anticipated. 



Underlying this shift are implications around what the Fed perceives to be the neutral rate. 



Right now, the Fed sees the current federal funds rate as slightly above neutral. This opens the possibility of Fed cuts without an easing stance. If the Fed were to move its neutral rate higher, such a move could indirectly imply that it no longer thinks

Could FOMC minutes be hinting at a hawkish Jackson Hole speech?

DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, has taken a notable step onchain by moving its structured-note tokenization efforts onto Ethereum mainnet. 



The bank announced Thursday that it will issue crypto-linked structured notes as $1,000-denominated tokens, distributed through three digital investment platforms: ADDX, DigiFT, and HydraX.



This is DBS’s first use of Ethereum’s public blockchain for token issuance, expanding beyond earlier experiments on permissioned networks. The bank framed the launch as part of a larger strategy to “scale this ecosystem by fostering responsible innovation” and meet demand for more flexible portfolio tools, according to Li Zhen, Head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Assets, Global Financial Markets at DBS.



Unlike traditional structured notes, which typically require a $100,000 minimum investment and are tailored individually, tokenization breaks instruments into smaller, fungible units. DBS said this “bite-sized” format should make structured notes more liquid and accessible to accredited and institutional investors.



Still, the extent of that liquidity is bounded. Compared to crypto-native structured products — such as yield instruments from Pendle — DBS’s notes will not circulate freely across Ethereum’s open ecosystem.



Kelvin Tan, who heads tokenization at DBS’ global financial markets group, said the aim is to help investors “manage their portfolios across platforms with greater precision and agility.”



“Tokenising a structured note on the Ethereum public blockchain provides eligible accredited and institutional investors with greater flexibility to transfer and trade individual ‘bite-sized’ tokens between whitelisted wallets across different platforms, compared to an entire structured note,” Tan told Blockworks. 



That design reflects how banks are approaching Ethereum: as settlement rails and programmable infrastructure rather than an open market. Tan acknowledged the bank will not

DBS taps Ethereum for tokenized structured notes, but trading stays fenced

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The Solana ecosystem revolves heavily around the aptly named Jupiter protocol, and for good reason.



They’re an ambitious team trying to do damn near everything in DeFi.



In 2021, Jupiter launched a DEX aggregator on Solana, the dominant venue today for routing order flows to DEXs and prop AMMs. Alongside the aggregator, Jupiter founder meow also launched Mercurial DEX, rebranded today as Meteora.



A perps DEX followed in 2023, then a memecoin launchpad in 2024, and then a majority stake acquisition in the Moonshot memecoin trading platform earlier this year. There’s also the upcoming omnichain network “JupNet,” which plans to aggregate liquidity across chains. 



But all eyes this week are on Jupiter Lend, the superapp’s first formal foray into the Lending vertical.




jupiter lend public beta coming this week 👀👀👀devs had a last-minute idea to make it even better, can't wait to show you all— Jupiter (🐱, 🐐) (@JupiterExchange) August 20, 2025




Jupiter’s lending product is built on Fluid’s liquidity/risk engine. If you’ve never heard of Fluid, it’s a protocol that took the Ethereum world by storm over the past year.



To see the promise of Jupiter Lend requires a baseline understanding of how Fluid actually works. It’s not the most straightforward product, but here’s the gist.



Fluid (previously Instadapp) is an integrated application consisting of DEX, lending and borrowing. All three draw from a unified liquidity layer, which enables unique features that just aren’t possible on other DEXs or lending protocols.



For instance, a borrower on Fluid can denominate their debt to serve as liquidity for Fluid DEX (what the team calls “smart debt”), rather than letting it sit idle as posted collateral.



This, in effect, puts a borrower’s debt to “work.” As traders on the DEX side are paying fees to trade, that lets

Jupiter Lend readies for public beta launch this week

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Kanye did it. He launched a memecoin on Solana.



Some say this is the top signal for which we’ve been waiting, making Yeezy the Lisan al-Gaib of bears.



Source



Maybe so. Although the top signals were much, much louder last time around.



For one thing, Yeezy has fallen off. I’m not sure YZY on Meteora in 2025 will ever have the same impact as if it was sold at the height of the Yeezy brand circa 2020.



Still, I spent my morning going over archives of crypto headlines from the tail-end of the monster 2021 bull market.



What were the signs that crypto would peak at a $3-trillion market cap in the second week of November? 



Any top signal would need to come within six months of that cycle peak, I decided. You probably remember that 2021 saw two major tops, in May and November, so really any signal that came before May would’ve ultimately pointed to much higher prices (making them bullish signals).



And yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But tell me that these headlines weren’t screaming that a top was soon near.



“FTX Closes $900M Series B Round Valuing Exchange at $18B” — July 20, 2021 (yes, that’s a $900-million raise).



“Tim Berners-Lee sells web source code NFT for $5.4m” — June 30, 2021 (132 days until top).



“CityCoins Community Officially Launches with MiamiCoin, Its First City-Based Token” — August 3, 2021 (remember these?)



“El Salvador buys bitcoin as the digital currency becomes legal tender” — September 6, 2021.



“OpenSea admits insider trading of NFTs it promoted” — September 16, 2021 (arguably the most compelling yet).



“China declares all crypto-currency transactions illegal” — September 2, 2021 (68 days until top).



“Coinbase’s New Direct Deposit Feature Allows Users to Get Paychecks in Crypto” — September 27, 2021.



“TikTok Is Auctioning Its NFT Collection Featuring Lil Nas X, Grimes,

If Kanye's memecoin is a top signal, then crypto has fallen off

Kraken has become the first major crypto exchange to fully adopt Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) across its Ethereum staking infrastructure, using the open-source SSV Network protocol. 



The move marks a major shift towards a more decentralized validator architecture for Ethereum.



“Following the successful transition, [100%] of Kraken’s ETH staking infrastructure runs on distributed validator clusters, rather than single-machine validators,” a Kraken spokesperson told Blockworks.



DVT decentralizes validator operations by splitting responsibilities across multiple independent nodes that cooperate to perform attestations and block proposals. Kraken said each validator is now operated by “a cluster of typically four independent nodes,” with deliberate diversity in both software and geography. 



“We design for maximum diversity: nodes are spread across different regions and run a mix of Ethereum client implementations to avoid any single-client bug impacting the whole cluster,” the spokesperson added.



Key management was also overhauled as part of the migration. “As part of our transition to DVT, validator keys were split and distributed to cluster operators to ensure no single operator holds the entire key,” Kraken said. For newly created validators, keys are generated in a distributed manner “so the full private key is never assembled.”



To reduce slashing risk, Kraken’s operators use a synchronized, distributed slashing-protection database. “If a node goes offline, it can sync the history of signed duties from the cluster before signing anything new,” the spokesperson explained.



SSV Labs, which is a core contributor to the DVT protocol, emphasized the modularity and configurability of its approach. “The nature of DVT is more diversity by design, and it is more of a ‘user’ choice. Every participant can optimize for diversity, whatever that means for them,” an SSV spokesperson told Blockworks.



Kraken’s