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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack Kubinec

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



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Toronto-based Cypherpunk Holdings <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-sol-strategies-rebrand">rebranded as Sol Strategies</a> and announced it would be accumulating Solana three months ago. It’s gotten busy since then.&nbsp;



The holding company has acquired two separate validator operations, accumulated over 142,000 SOL worth roughly $27 million at current prices, hired Kraken’s former senior director of engineering to be its head of staking, and applied to be listed on the Nasdaq. Just this week, it signed a credit facility with its board chair to buy $17.3 million worth of SOL tokens and announced a private placement deal with ParaFi Capital worth roughly $19 million.



MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor is fond of saying that “there is no second best” crypto behind bitcoin. If there is a second-best version of MicroStrategy’s corporate <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/microstrategy-btc-purchase-recap">crypto purchasing playbook</a>, it just might be the one Sol Strategies is running.&nbsp;



Like Saylor’s firm, Sol Strategies is focused on acquiring crypto as a treasury asset. The difference, CEO <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyWjoGcaeO0">Leah Wald</a> told me, is that Sol Strategies also runs a validator business and invests in Solana ecosystem projects, making its approach “more dynamic.”



Following Sol Strategies’ two validator acquisitions, it now is responsible for a combined 1.5 million staked SOL, which makes it roughly the 65th largest Solana validator. Wald declined to say which ecosystem projects Sol Strategies has taken positions in, if any.&nbsp;



Wald came to Cypherpunk Holdings in July 2024 after a four-year run at the helm of US-based crypto management firm Valkyrie, which had its ETF business <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinshares-buys-valkyrie-fund-business">acquired by CoinShares</a> in March. Wald had been a board member at Cypherpunk since October 2021.



Charged with taking over a company that had seen its stock trade sideways for years, Wald — who was among the first to file for and issue <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/valkyrie-plots-bitcoin-futures-etf">bitcoin futures ETFs</a> — saw a new opportunity. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-bull-run">Solana was hot</a>, but it lacked ETFs that investors could trade on traditional stock exchanges. So far, the SOL strategy appears to be working out.&nbsp;



Since debuting as Sol Strategies in September, the company’s stock price is up more than 1,700% — and that’s while a Nasdaq listing is still pending approval.



There’s probably a storm approaching Sol Strategies’ parade in the form of Solana ETFs. Currently, Sol Strategies is one of just a <a href="https://www.thenew.money/trend/solana-holders">few</a> publicly-traded companies giving investors <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitwise-ceo-solana-ncredible-emerging-asset">regulated exposure</a> to Solana’s price action by virtue of holding the asset in its treasury.&nbsp;



If Solana ETFs get approved, the market would gain competitors offering a similar service (although whether or not those ETF <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-sol-etf-filing">issuers include staking rewards</a> will be key to watch). Sol Strategies will hope the market treats it like a bitcoin mining stock in that case.



But for now, Wald and Sol Strategies’ big bet is paying big dividends.



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



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



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



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

Meet Sol Strategies: The MicroStrategy of Solana

Ben Strack

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



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Investors learned one year ago today that US spot bitcoin ETFs finally had the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-approves-bitcoin-etf">go-ahead to launch</a>, with those products hitting the market the following day.&nbsp;



We now have 12 months of data to look back on.



It was fun reading <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/how-we-got-here-bitcoin-etf">my piece published</a> the morning of Jan. 10, 2024, which recapped <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/spot-bitcoin-etf-timeline">what led to </a>that milestone.



The Winklevoss twins filing for a bitcoin ETF in 2013; BTC futures funds hitting the US market in 2021; the SEC <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-sues-sec-over-rejection-of-proposed-spot-bitcoin-etf">blocking Grayscale’s GBTC conversion</a> the following year — and the firm then <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-faces-uphill-battle-with-lawsuit-against-sec">suing the regulator</a>; <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-files-bitcoin-etf">BlackRock’s head-turning proposal</a> in mid-2023; and, finally, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-grayscale-spot-bitcoin-etf">Grayscale’s legal win</a>.&nbsp;



Predictions seeking to quantify the demand for these then proliferated, with many expecting the bitcoin ETFs to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/analysts-take-on-bitcoin-etf">shatter records</a>.&nbsp;



Spoiler: They did.



Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart reflected on his $15 billion year-one net inflow expectation from a year ago. These were higher expectations than most in the TradFi research world, he told me. Yet lower than some projections from those in the crypto space.



“Still, even issuers who expected these to be blockbuster hits did not expect them to do this well,” Seyffart told me. “They now hold over 1.13 million bitcoin and have $100 billion in assets after taking in almost $38 billion of net inflows in their first year — more than double what we thought would have been a very successful launch.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Just how big was the first year for Bitcoin ETFs? MASSIVE Here&#39;s a list of the largest ETFs 1 year after they launched. Even if you inflation adjust the assets, 4 of the Bitcoin ETFs are in the top 20 US ETF launches of all time. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24IBIT&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$IBIT</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24FBTC&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$FBTC</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ARKB&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$ARKB</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24BITB&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$BITB</a> <a href="https://t.co/MQuf6wp9Fe">pic.twitter.com/MQuf6wp9Fe</a>&mdash; James Seyffart (@JSeyff) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1877755409571684399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



In its 2025 outlook <a href="https://bitwiseinvestments.com/crypto-market-insights/the-year-ahead-10-crypto-predictions-for-2025">report</a>, Bitwise argued that bitcoin ETFs will <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/11-facts-about-bitcoin-etfs-since-launch">attract more flows</a> in 2025 than they did in 2024.&nbsp;



Others have a bit more of a nuanced perspective.



Seyffart noted that after the products welcomed roughly $16 billion in assets during Q4 alone, another $15 billion inflow year (matching his initial year-one prediction) seems like “a foregone conclusion assuming the economy avoids a recession.”&nbsp;



Though he didn’t share a precise 2025 inflow projection, Seyffart believes bitcoin ETFs will grow to triple the size of gold ETFs within the next three to five years.&nbsp;



The biggest bitcoin ETF — BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) — has well surpassed its iShares Gold Trust (IAU) in AUM — ~$52 billion to ~$33 billion. IBIT is still chasing the category-leading SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), which manages roughly $74 billion.



Seyffart highlighted bitcoin’s various use cases: a hedge against currency debasement, as well as a form of “hot sauce and satellite positions” in a portfolio given the asset’s volatility.&nbsp;



He and Neena Mishra, director of ETF research at Zacks Investment Research, also pointed out more wirehouses greenlighting bitcoin ETFs in 2025 as a potential catalyst. Remember <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/on-the-margin-newsletter-morgan-stanley-bitcoin-adoption">Morgan Stanley’s move</a> in August?&nbsp;



Meanwhile, BlackRock and Fidelity — as powerhouses in the asset management industry — are set to continue <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-btc-adoption-wave">“legitimizing” bitcoin</a>, which cannot be overlooked, Mishra added.



“However, much will depend on bitcoin’s performance, as ETF flows tend to follow performance trends,” she said.



Alongside macro factors, set to be a major factor on BTC price in 2025 is whether (and how quickly) the promise of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/financial-advisers-crypto-adoption-survey">crypto regulatory progress</a> is fulfilled.



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Looking back (and ahead) a year after bitcoin ETF approval

Casey Wagner

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



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It’s US Employment Report Day! December’s figures came in much stronger than expected.&nbsp;



Nonfarm payrolls grew by 256,000 and blew past analysts’ forecast of 155,000 — significantly higher than November’s 212,000 positions added. The unemployment rate edged down just slightly, coming in at 4.1% vs. the expected 4.2%.&nbsp;



There is such a thing as a too hot report, though.&nbsp;



“There is a growing worry on Wall Street that inflation is making a comeback. While a strong labor market is good for the US, there are worries that too strong of a jobs market will put reflation back on the table,” said Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro.&nbsp;



The odds of an interest rate cut later this month are all but <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/rate-cutting-cycle-2025">out the window</a>, and chances central bankers opt to lower fed funds in March or even May aren’t looking great, either.&nbsp;



US equities, after a decent start to the new year, are now solidly in the red for 2025 — likely an impact of diminished rate cut expectations and growing concern that the devastating fires in Los Angeles will come with significant financial consequences.&nbsp;



Still, a resilient labor market and economic growth — which, according to the data, is where we currently stand — isn’t bad for stocks, according to Jessica Rabe, co-founder of DataTrek Research.&nbsp;



The employment situation bodes well for corporate profitability.



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



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



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



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Hot employment report leads stocks lower, at least for now 

Donovan Choy

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



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Usual protocol, the shiny new stablecoin on the block, is seeing its USD0++ “stablecoin” (a popular misconception) lose parity with USD0 as of 17 hours ago. It’s now trading at about $0.92.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfJKaQKd3LoR_qlDnq3oXrZuqX6Ishhb91wcSCpb7S3iQV9m_xwHpyQ-IMUbECGXDxj8xCPEI_7iAags70n37IAM3XYVT2zAoyZq6xDVLOvSAgTEwYEtNIrrRjn-eS8YrPCxAH3?key=fEg0kkmvv4f0yuzriG_37lI3" alt=""/></figure>



But of course, USD0++ is not a stablecoin. It’s a liquid staking derivative of the USD0 stablecoin, somewhat like Lido’s stETH compared to ETH. (The USD peg of USD0 is fine, and the underlying T-bills have no backing issue.)



Usual’s business model is based on the idea of an “onchain Tether” that rewards users. By staking USD0 for USD0++, you receive the underlying T-bill yields and rewards in the protocol’s native token, USUAL.&nbsp;



Should USD0++ stakers change their minds before maturity, they can exit by forgoing rewards and unstake back to USD0 at a 1:1 exchange rate. This first exit option will be available as of <a href="https://usual.money/blog/usual-s-next-leap-solidifying-a-4-year-horizon-for-sustainable-growth">next week</a>.



This explains why the “depeg” between USD0 and USD0++ isn’t exactly a flaw. Think of USD0++ as a bond with four-year maturity. That bond should technically be trading at a discounted rate to reflect a risk premium for holding it for four years. Economists call that the “time value of money.”



Recall that in June 2022, Lido’s stETH too, <a href="https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1535336025362288641">depegged</a> from ETH amid financial troubles around the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bankrupt-celsius-estate-bitcoin-mining">now-defunct Celsius</a>.



Market panic led to LPs pulling stETH liquidity from Curve pools, causing massive <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/curve-egorov-exit-defi-positions">liquidity imbalances</a> and a stETH:ETH depeg. Just like stETH does not necessarily have to trade at parity with ETH, USD0++ does not have to trade at parity with USD0.



What’s causing the USD0++ haircut today, however, is Usual’s announcement of an alternative USD0++-to-USD0 exit option. The feature was noted in a blog post <a href="https://usual.money/blog/usual-s-next-leap-solidifying-a-4-year-horizon-for-sustainable-growth">published</a> yesterday.



Based on updated <a href="https://docs.usual.money/usual-products/usd0-liquid-staking-token/usd0++-floor-price">docs</a>, the new exit option would allow users to redeem USD0++ to USD0 at a manually set floor price of 0.87 USD0 per USD0++, while retaining rewards in USUAL emissions (unlike the original 1:1 exit option).



Why $0.87? Because it’s the discounted rate at fair value. As Treehouse Finance’s <a href="https://x.com/mytwogweis/status/1877595190640488708">@mytwogweis</a> explains:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
If you expect 4% annually over four years, the fair value of USD0++ today should be around $0.855. This means you’d buy it at $0.855, hold it for four years, and redeem it at $1 for a risk-free 4% return.
</blockquote>



To put it simply, the new exit option more accurately reflects USD0++ for what it is: a long-term bond.



The problem is that Usual’s go-to-market strategy had already been built on different premises.&nbsp;



Pendle PT-USD0++ farmers who entered into fixed yield trades are now suddenly finding they’ve “overpaid” for a bond at face value (on maturity, 1 PT USD0++ is equal to 1 USD0++).



The USD0++ Pendle pool (with a maturity date of Jan. 30, 2025), for instance, is seeing a dump.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcfAIEZnWVNooHwDCbC1GdokEYZn5aL7OmGp_N9NnZVBnJGBGZruoL0dreDj9MYgXC9Qh784D0YyybLqgmzOmk_fwQKzJctERM-46762x9iD-b4uCUbJCqpbb4KoL4683fXh7gkcg?key=fEg0kkmvv4f0yuzriG_37lI3" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.pendle.finance/trade/markets/0x64506968e80c9ed07bff60c8d9d57474effff2c9/swap?view=pt&amp;chain=ethereum&amp;chart=price">Pendle</a></figcaption></figure>



To make matters worse, vault curators on Morpho lending markets have <a href="https://docs.morpho.org/interface/warnings/#what-are-the-warnings-on-the-morpho-interface">hardcoded</a> the prices in USD0++:USDC markets at a 1:1 parity, rather than basing assets on a free floating market rate.



The result: Risk curator Gauntlet and other LPs promptly reallocated vault supply liquidity in USD0++ out of Morpho vaults above the current market rate of $0.91 ahead of the news, prompting public rumors of insider trading.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Gauntlet withdrew ~$43m from usd0++ markets just before the drama started gg nerd + RIP bozo + suck on deez immutable nuts + thanks for playing <a href="https://t.co/iwb6z8tOaH">https://t.co/iwb6z8tOaH</a> <a href="https://t.co/K1RePomus9">pic.twitter.com/K1RePomus9</a>&mdash; DMH 🦇🔊🌊 (@DeFi_Made_Here) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeFi_Made_Here/status/1877693824790622480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



In an email to Blockworks, Tarun Chitra, founder and CEO of Gauntlet, said of the firm’s activity: “We were not privy to any advance notice, however, as the timestamp of these transactions show (the Usual team updated their docs on redemption before this). We were focused on making sure our users weren’t exposed, and we automatically rebalance out of markets when either risk or concentration limits are breached.”



MEV Capital has released a <a href="https://x.com/MEVCapital/status/1877699650783687078">public statement</a> denying it received any insider information from Usual, although it does not say who the firm received the information from.



USUAL, the protocol’s native token, has unwound -18.7% over the last 24 hours, as of 11:45 am ET.



Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.



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Usual protocol’s depeg spurs instability in DeFi markets

Katherine Ross

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Don’t panic.&nbsp;



That’s the <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/55f5d904-ced5-11ef-ac06-576c7c9a1fcd">gist of the message</a> from Asset Reality’s Aidan Larkin on this week’s Empire Roundup. Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Santos specifically asked him about all that US government bitcoin.



Basically, the recent court approval is par for the course for any civil forfeiture. And, no, it doesn’t mean that the US is immediately hitting the sell button.



 ”There&#8217;s a very strict process that has to get followed,” Larkin said.&nbsp;



“ At some point in the future, it&#8217;ll just go through the normal government processes. There will be a civil forfeiture application hearing. They will get their green light and then it will fall into the normal Marshals process and public domain,” he added. Asset Reality (which is a firm both Santos and Yanowitz invested in) helps governments manage seized assets, so Larkin is not just some armchair expert.&nbsp;



From here, we’ll eventually see Coinbase move the bitcoin onchain before it’s sold off.&nbsp;



Blaming the price action on the possibility of trying to time when the gov is going to sell some of its stash isn’t the right move, Larkin said. Instead, when you see that type of selling pressure, then it’s more than likely due to folks speculating and selling themselves.&nbsp;



And now you know.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The US Govt has been given the greenlight to liquidate 69,000 BTC ($6.5B) from Silk Road, an official confirmed to DB News today Interesting situation less than 2 weeks away from the new admin who vowed to not sell <a href="https://t.co/HqD1KnhJK3">https://t.co/HqD1KnhJK3</a> <a href="https://t.co/xn8ATSEL7H">pic.twitter.com/xn8ATSEL7H</a>&mdash; db (@tier10k) <a href="https://twitter.com/tier10k/status/1877176406905356670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



So how did we get here? Well, a Nevada company called Battle Born Investments initially sought to prevent the US from offloading the bitcoin. However, a judge in California overruled their motion earlier this week, which allows the US to move on with the civil forfeiture, as Larkin noted.&nbsp;



The likelihood of the bitcoin in question being funneled into a potential bitcoin strategic reserve is not very high either, so don’t get your hopes up.&nbsp;



(ICYMI: This summer, Trump <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/revisiting-trumps-crypto-promises-after-his-election-win">said</a> he planned to make it so that the US holds all its current bitcoin and uses it as a strategic reserve.)



To sum it up: Any bitcoin to be sold must first go through older processes. We’re talking pre-crypto processes designed for seized assets such as gold.&nbsp;



Then, there could be a slew of agreements to be made, from using the generated funds to make victims whole to asset sharing agreements with other governments. It’s pretty complicated.&nbsp;



Besides, as Larkin noted, would the US really want to use bitcoin linked to crimes for its reserve stash? Seems unlikely.



When dealing with the government, always assume there’s going to be a lot of bureaucratic red tape. What seems cut and dry probably isn’t.&nbsp;



Instead, Yanowitz thinks we could see — if we get a reserve, mind you — the government buying up bitcoin mined on US soil to stash away. And, honestly, that sounds a lot more interesting than bitcoin simply linked to Silk Road.



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US gov has to follow a ‘strict process’ before unloading $6.5B of bitcoin

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On Tuesday, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/backpack-wallet-acquires-ftx-eu">we reported</a> that Backpack had purchased FTX EU in a $32.7 million deal. The next day, FTX put out a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ftx-clarifies-certain-statements-by-backpack-regarding-backpacks-purported-acquisition-of-ftx-eu-302346394.html">statement</a> clarifying Backpack’s announcement. Then in a press release of its <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/backpack-responds-to-ftx-statement-302346689.html">own</a>, Backpack clarified FTX’s clarification.&nbsp;



This is how companies fight, I guess.&nbsp;



Here’s the crux of it all: What’s left of FTX said it wasn’t aware that Backpack bought FTX EU, and it swore off responsibility for the repayment of FTX EU customers and said it can&#8217;t verify whether what Backpack is saying is true. Backpack responded by saying that much of the saga leading up to its FTX EU acquisition had already been reported, and it would be renaming FTX EU to Backpack EU before it begins doling out customer claims.



The dueling press releases seem to stem from some bad blood FTX still has with FTX EU. FTX <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ftx-reaches-33-million-settlement-over-failed-european-expansion-2024-02-23/">sued</a> its European arm to try and claw back some of the $323 million Sam Bankman-Fried spent for the startup. The suit ended in a settlement whereby FTX EU’s original founders Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke bought back FTX EU for $32.7 million. Backpack then bought FTX EU from Gruhn and Matzke, and the ownership shares are apparently awaiting transfer.



Backpack failed to elucidate this whole chain of events in its original press <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/backpack-announces-acquisition-of-ftx-eu-expands-crypto-trading-across-europe-302342778.html">release</a>, but it also doesn’t materially change much. Whether Backpack bought FTX EU from FTX or from the people who bought it from FTX, the basic fact remains that Backpack owns the asset.



Still, the sale itself remains a bit weird, at least to my mind. Backpack told me it bought FTX EU in April 2024 for $32.7 million. That’s just a month or two after FTX EU’s founders bought the company back for that exact price as part of a lawsuit settlement. At the time, FTX <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ftx-reaches-33-million-settlement-over-failed-european-expansion-2024-02-23/">reportedly</a> concluded that “no other buyer would agree to purchase” FTX EU.&nbsp;



It doesn’t seem very business savvy for Backpack to pay the full $32.7 million for an exchange that no one else apparently wanted — and which was sold in a court settlement. Couldn’t they have asked for a few million off the sticker price just for getting it off Gruhn and Matzke’s hands? It’s also just a large amount for a startup like Backpack to pay: The project <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/28/solana-veterans-raise-17m-for-backpack-crypto-wallet-exchange">reportedly</a> lost much of its funding in the FTX collapse, and it only raised $17 million in its last funding round. Where did it get $32.7 million to spend on FTX EU? Backpack did not return my request for comment on the financial side of the deal.&nbsp;



In any event, FTX seems to be nitpicking the Backpack press release, the broad strokes of which don’t appear to warrant much doubt. But we’re talking about FTX here, so it just makes sense things wouldn’t go as smoothly as planned.



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FTX didn’t know Backpack bought its EU arm

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After witnessing the post-election rise in crypto asset prices and ETF flows, here’s another data point backing up a sentiment shift: 56% of 430 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/financial-advisers-evaluate-etf-approval">surveyed financial advisers</a> say they’re more likely to allocate to the space because of the November results.&nbsp;



This number came from the Bitwise/VettaFi report we referenced a couple times this week as the companies teased findings before the formal release.



We mentioned, for example, that just 35% of advisers say they’re able to buy crypto for client accounts. Looking a bit deeper, 71% of these financial pros said at least some of their clients were investing in crypto on their own.&nbsp;



“These held-away assets represent a major business opportunity for advisers seeking to help clients integrate crypto into a broader wealth plan,” the report notes. This sort of statement is nothing new, but rather <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/wealth-managers-bitcoin-etfs">drives the point home</a>.



While nearly two-thirds report the inability to own crypto for clients, 22% allocated for clients in 2024 (twice the 11% <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tradfi-bitcoin-economics-crypto-etf">in 2023</a>).&nbsp;



Of the advisers who haven’t yet invested, 19% plan to “definitely” or “probably” add exposure to the asset class this year. That’s more than double the percentage (8%) who said as much in last year’s report.



Other findings surprising to me:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Though US spot bitcoin ETFs notched $36 billion of net inflows in their first year, flows into ETH products accelerated in December and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-etf-filing-futures">filings</a> <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/canary-capital-litecoin-etf">for</a> <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-sol-etfs-unlikely-to-be-approved-soon">other</a> <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitwise-files-for-spot-xrp-etf">spot</a> crypto funds have proliferated, advisers thinking about jumping into crypto favor equity funds. Perhaps State Street Global Advisors’ <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/state-street-galaxy-crypto-etfs">mindset has legs</a>, and we recently heard about how BLOK co-PM Dan Weiskopf is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch">thinking about things</a>.</li>



<li>Secondly, despite the 56% swayed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-impacts-since-election-outcome">by the election</a>, half the surveyed advisers still consider regulatory uncertainty the top hurdle for future crypto investments. That’s down from closer to two-thirds in previous years, but shows the wins of Trump and pro-crypto Congress members have not solved everything overnight.</li>
</ul>



The latter point confirms that amid the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-industry-predictions">optimism of progress</a>, there remains plenty of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-questions-to-answer">healthy skepticism</a> — or at least patience — from those weighing their next move.



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Election swayed advisers, but crypto adoption has room to run

Felix Jauvin

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Back in September, the market priced one of the most aggressive cutting cycles I’ve ever seen, with multiple 50-basis point cuts priced in that would swiftly take us to 3% on the fed funds rate in 2025. Fast forward to today, and it&#8217;s a completely different story, with one to two cuts at best priced for 2025.



Let’s dig into what has driven the change and what to expect.



Below is a chart that compares the effective federal funds rate (EFFR) against the two-year Treasury note.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcR0plmd2BY79J0Lm8s1uFtSBQrfsoMG1zgJo30zNgC5us4A5efOH49YkJ-Gz0_epW-eb2ydI0htUZyJGOFcTdR72bujpyIOyn989MT-amU2ExbxjF_NarlLfB5O-ag6L6kq_n2Mw?key=6LM0Kvlki2uiEmtTlAQaY0px" alt=""/></figure>



There’re a few takeaways we can grab from comparing these two yields:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Throughout the last two years, we’ve seen many moments where the two-year has priced in an imminent and aggressive cutting cycle (as seen when two-year heads lower below EFFR).</li>



<li>For the first time since mid-2022, we see these two yields are parity. This implies the market is pricing in a rate-cutting cycle that is essentially over, but it sees no chance of any hikes either.</li>
</ul>



One of the big drivers behind talk about a swift end to this short-lived cutting cycle is around surprisingly stubborn inflation. As we can see in the December summary of economic projections, FOMC members have aggressively shifted from seeing inflation as being broadly balanced to seeing risks weighted to the upside.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="934" height="696" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png" alt="" class="wp-image-96051" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=934 934w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=345 345w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=350 350w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=294 294w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 934px) 100vw, 934px" /></figure>



This, paired with what is proving to be a much more resilient and solid labor market than what it appeared in September when the FOMC started to cut rates, is shifting the distribution of probable outcomes more toward a hawkish monetary reaction function.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="915" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-96052" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=456 456w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=383 383w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/unnamed-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Putting these pieces together shines a light on why there’s increasing conviction in the idea that the rate-cutting cycle is over.



That said, there are still dovish voices within the FOMC.&nbsp;



In his speech this week, Governor Waller mentioned he still believed in cutting this year: “So what is my view? If the outlook evolves as I have described here, I will support continuing to cut our policy rate in 2025. The pace of those cuts will depend on how much progress we make on inflation, while keeping the labor market from weakening.”



Much like the last two years, 2025 is shaping up to be another <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fed-dovish-hawkish-2024-conduct">year of extremes</a> where the market goes from pricing in aggressive hawkishness to aggressive dovishness.&nbsp;



Investors will need to quickly decide whether to try and ride these changes in sentiment or ignore them as noise.



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Is the Fed’s rate-cutting cycle over?

Macauley Peterson

ThorChain founder JP Thorbjornsen and the development team have decided to pause the ThorFi Savers and Lending programs for the next 12 months. The decision, announced Thursday, comes after consultations with key community members, devs and node operators, according to the project’s Discord.



Thorchain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that enables cross-chain asset swaps without the need for wrapped tokens or centralized exchanges. It allows users to trade native assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others directly on the platform, using its native token, RUNE, to facilitate transactions and secure liquidity pools. But the protocol is undergoing a major restructuring to make it more secure and easier to understand.



THORFi, a complex component of the ecosystem, has been identified as a primary source of volatility, particularly due to un-throttled redemptions that are driving away new participants and hindering progress on the 2025 roadmap, developers say. By pausing these features, the team aims to ensure that the protocol is ready to scale efficiently.



Read more:<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/rune-code-vulnerability"> Code vulnerability puts damper on RUNE’s wild run</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Under pressure</h2>



Inflation of RUNE’s circulating supply has contributed directly to the token’s poor price action. Several mechanisms are behind this inflation, including block rewards distributed to validators. As with many chains, RUNE is minted to reward participants, thus diluting its value. There is a growing consensus that these rewards should be reduced, but the specifics and timing of such changes are a matter of debate.



Beyond block rewards, other mechanisms such as Savers and Lending programs have added additional pressure. The Savers program, which was designed to create buy pressure for RUNE, has instead exacerbated the situation by creating substantial sell pressure when users withdraw their deposits.



The dynamic is simple: When users enter Savers, they must purchase RUNE, but when they exit, they sell it. This cycle becomes problematic when RUNE is underperforming relative to bitcoin. As users exit at lower prices, they trigger further declines in RUNE’s value, creating a feedback loop.



Lending has similarly introduced inflationary effects. While it has already been shuttered, its lingering impact continues to affect the RUNE price. Loans and collateral, primarily backed by BTC and ETH, have created liabilities that are hard to repay as the value of RUNE declines. The situation is compounded by the fact that, due to the current state of the market, more RUNE is being minted to cover obligations, further diluting the token.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sunset of Savers</h2>



In light of these concerns, community members have called for immediate action to address the protocol’s structural weaknesses. The most immediate of these is the sunset of the Savers program, which continues to exert downward pressure on RUNE’s price.



The plan put forward includes a 72-hour period for dissent and discussion, allowing the community to voice concerns and potentially campaign for an unwinding of the decision. If no changes occur, a six-month &#8220;timeout&#8221; will follow, during which no further discussions or economic changes will be entertained. Developers will shift focus entirely to the app layer, optimizing bandwidth and accelerating development without the overhang of THORFi-related distractions.



After six months, the idea is to tokenize Lending and Saver positions, offering holders early liquidity on a peer-to-peer market. By the 12-month mark, a restructuring plan will be presented to provide liquidity for legacy THORFi holders, potentially introducing a System Income Tax that would remain until all positions are cleared.



Some have called for a more radical solution: Force the closure of all outstanding loans. On X, ThorTrades <a href="https://x.com/ThorTrades8/status/1877337451334873141">expressed</a> his concern on the sunset plan.



“If BTC trades at $75-85k, Rune will trade under $3 likely. Best to use this bad moment in the market to get rid of something bad (loans),” he wrote, arguing this aggressive action should be taken immediately. “The right moment to force loans to close was above $6 but the second best moment might be now.”



So it seems Thorchain is at a crossroads. The combination of underperforming RUNE, inflated supply, and growing liabilities threatens to undermine the protocol’s long-term viability. It’s clear that some immediate action is needed to halt this spiral. The protocol has already made strides in decentralization and cross-chain liquidity, but to ensure its survival, the Thorchain team looks to confront these internal challenges head-on.



The question now is whether node operators will play ball, and what comes of brewing community backlash. As JP put it, “prepare your pitchforks,” and be prepared to make the tough calls to save the protocol.



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ThorChain struggles following executive decision

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ICYMI, Sol Strategies <a href="https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/236287">announced</a> that it was investing CAD $25 million ($17.4 million) in the Solana ecosystem earlier this week.&nbsp;



CEO Leah Wald told me ahead of the new year that Sol Strategies was focused on building up the “next level” of its business strategy.&nbsp;



Obviously, given Sol’s focus, the firm is gonna be bullish on the ecosystem, but Wald noted how pleasantly surprised she was at the amount of developer activity and overall enthusiasm for Solana right now.&nbsp;



She is skeptical, however, about a solana ETF being approved in the US “anytime soon.”



“I think there&#8217;s quite a while until a SOL ETF gets approved. During that time, as a former issuer, I know that you have a long time where you&#8217;re working with the staff and you&#8217;re working on education. That gives [potential issuers] a year…to educate the staff and make sure that everybody&#8217;s up to speed on what you know SOL actually is, and the merits and benefits, and provide…that additional timeline for maturity,” she explained.&nbsp;



But she does think that Canada is likely to approve a SOL ETF from <a href="https://pages.3iq.io/solana">3iQ</a> before we see a slew of US products because the Canadian issuer is “always ahead of the US.”



Out of curiosity, and given Wald’s experience, I pushed her on why she thinks a potentially crypto-friendly regulator wouldn’t look to get an ETF that holds SOL out the door. She told me part of her reasoning was exactly because of the changing leadership at the SEC.&nbsp;



If the new SEC chair “came in and said, ‘okay, all crypto ETFs are approved overnight,’ I think that that&#8217;s dangerous, actually,” she explained. It would be better to see a regulator who’s willing to put in the work to understand the differences between something like Solana and Ripple and speak to potential issuers prior to just greenlighting ETFs.



I guess we’ll have to make do with the crypto ETFs we have at home.



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SOL ETFs unlikely to be approved in US ‘anytime soon’

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Market watchers have cast <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-prediction-markets-post-election">doubt on prediction markets’ ability</a> to draw meaningful volumes after the presidential election. Enter: Livestreams of drugged-up mice trying to balance on a rotating rod.&nbsp;



The so-called DeSci platform pump.science announced a partnership with Solana-based prediction market Hedgehog Markets whereby users can place bets on the outcomes of longevity experiments on mice. It’s arguably a move in a more reputable direction for the speculative DeSci trend, which has drawn criticism for creating misaligned incentives.&nbsp;



Decentralized science, or DeSci, has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/daos-nature-biotechnology-editorial-benefits-science">been around for some time</a> in crypto, generally in the form of DAOs crowdfunding scientific experiments that otherwise wouldn’t get funded. Pump.science emerged in the past few months, borrowing its name and funding mechanism from the popular memecoin launchpad pump.fun.&nbsp;



Researchers submit experiments focused on longevity, or the increasing of lifespans, to pump.science, and a corresponding token is listed on pump.fun. As the memecoin’s market cap increases, pump.science will run experiments testing the compound on increasingly-larger animals, ending with humans. The experiments are livestreamed, so investors can see whether the compound appears to be working. The project’s docs say chemical suppliers could eventually purchase the rights to the chemical interventions from the token holders. One such licensing deal was <a href="https://app.realms.today/dao/5WYPm474q4ACEzGR457XMAFyjkQfRrxVUzqiRdHxy4wg/proposal/5J4JArBhF3LQdfG7NaCsQWGp8oDEBkSakqwcdaNFKHPR">approved</a> on the Solana DAO platform Realms, though how this would be enforced legally is a bit of a question mark.



This is a wonky way to fund science by any standard, and pump.science has drawn its fair share of critics.



Gauntlet CEO and Robot Ventures partner Tarun Chitra, one of speculative DeSci’s loudest critics, <a href="https://x.com/tarunchitra/status/1865950366052868548">called</a> projects like pump.science “at best naive and at worst a predatory scam.”



With the Hedgehog Markets partnership, the rules of the pump.science game at least make a bit more sense. Mice will be injected with longevity compounds and then tested versus a control group on a rotarod, which is a rotating cylinder that can test mice motor skills. Users — brandishing data including how the compound performed in flies and what the mice’s names are, among other things — bet on which mice will perform best prior to the trials, which are then livestreamed. For Chitra at least, this could be a better road for DeSci.



Chitra said in a direct message that the lower potential returns offered by prediction markets compared to memecoins could limit the pool of bettors on DeSci prediction markets. “But philosophically, there&#8217;s nothing that is scam-like about this — it just might be very hard to bootstrap, especially if you look at how long it took Polymarket.”



Updated Jan. 10, 2025 at 3:55 pm ET: Added mention of pump.science’s first licensing deal.



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The hottest new betting market is mice motor skills

David Canellis

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This is not a happy story. But I can’t get it out of my head.



Earlier this month, it was <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2025/01/02/blockchain-macdill-undead-apes-nowlin-rhoden/">reported</a> that 21-year-old Alabama resident Berman Nowlin — <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/jury-finds-non-fungible-token-developer-guilty-defrauding-investors-and-laundering">convicted</a> of wire fraud and money laundering charges over an NFT rug pull in 2022 — had died by suicide.



A district court in Florida had ruled him guilty only three weeks earlier. He was due for sentencing later in January and faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison.



The rug pull in question referred to a short-lived Bored Apes-inspired project Undead Apes Society, which included three NFT collections released over two months.



Nowlin was described as the developer who coded the smart contracts.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdHn6NJIvhVxPKDTNTB6yUp0QhjI_wLYH3Qo2Tbnfu5wZ0Xw2JlkxoEdbJ7sFXlGe3qC5eiXax2N_wea31ByapMIkFgOKbfWLu0J1px0UnGcC337GDJNwrxMR2JaWV_HxDs_tfiAQ?key=Zw6IOD2a_wvSfbUPWTWrY3AB" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Undead Apes were briefly popular on <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/undead-apes">OpenSea</a></figcaption></figure>



A second individual, Devin Rhoden, managed the art model engine for the NFTs. Rhoden is a 23-year-old senior airman in the US Air Force who worked as a cyber analyst.



Here’s the timeline as presented in court filings:



March 2022: 2,500 Undead Apes NFTs were minted on Solana for 0.05 SOL each (~$10,000 at the time). UndeadApes were “unique Apes with over 60 hand-drawn traits on the Solana blockchain. Ready to take on the Metaverse.”



Later in March 2022: 750 Undead Lady Apes were minted on Solana for 0.75 SOL each (~$53,400). These had supposed DeFi functions — stakers would earn up to 6x, 75% of royalties would go back into the liquidity pool, with the rest going toward paying the team.



April 2022: Floor prices for the initial Undead Apes collections reached 3.6 SOL (~$400) and 6 SOL ($660), respectively. In terms of SOL, that&#8217;s 72x and 8x on their initial mint prices.



Later in April 2022: A third mint was announced for Undead Tombstones, featuring a collaboration with Stoned Ape Crew, an unaffiliated project, which allegedly drove up mint prices.



Tombstones were said to come with additional features for existing Undead Apes holders that could generate additional return on investment.



Two hours later: The Stoned Ape Crew denies any partnership or involvement with Undead Apes Society. The Undead Apes team abandons the mint shortly after — taking the proceeds — and floor prices for all related NFTs immediately crash 85%.&nbsp;



Discord members then received a message from Rhoden in the Undead Apes Society chat saying, “Yall are dumb as fuck.”



Authorities traced earnings from the rug pull amounting to $161,548, which had been cashed out into US dollars and split about evenly between the bank accounts of Nowlin and Rhoden.



Going by the evidence supplied by the prosecutors, there appeared to be a plan to rug the entire time. The Feds were initially tipped off by another Air Force member who lost money in the scheme.



Still, two things are haunting me. The first thing is the relatively low amount of money extracted from the rug pull.&nbsp;



Perhaps I’m desensitized by much larger fraud cases over the years, but it was still enough for Rhoden to receive five years probation after pleading guilty, and his testimony is said to have led to the conviction of Nowlin, now deceased.&nbsp;



The other is that Nowlin had been diagnosed with autism. His family described him as above-average when it came to intelligence but he had the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old. He reportedly taught himself to code and spent most of his time online, playing video games and chatting in Discords.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcuoQzgIiqZ-VWvXemSaAlMKSChJ_G-rH-AtS2tKZurs1y_zxcPuweJR9rkRg9GvV0JilDh7NpMT1eQzeH-vwR7FOGBovOSCXkTuHAYSQKYoZBFxVcgqtopuwkCdkPRxvb-Xmjs?key=Zw6IOD2a_wvSfbUPWTWrY3AB" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Some messages between the Undead Apes team sourced from court documents</figcaption></figure>



There is so much about crypto that is larger than life — often larger than any life we could ever imagine. But the Undead Apes rug pull wasn’t any of that.&nbsp;



People, of course, lost money very quickly. Who knows what would have happened had the team actually followed through on their promises. More than likely, they would have still lost money.



Usually, reading about rug pulls comes with some schadenfreude. Perps get caught under all sorts of silly circumstances, which makes for compelling crime stories.



Fraud is bad and bad actors should be caught. That’s what happened with the Undead Apes rug pull. Woefully, though, it now serves as a dark reminder that while the money and assets are silly and digital, the stories are painfully real.



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Undead Apes rug pull reminds that magic internet money is totally real

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While some continue to hope that the upcoming Trump-era SEC will wave its magic wand and dismiss pending lawsuits against multiple crypto firms, Coinbase was just handed a win.&nbsp;



The exchange, which the SEC <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-sues-coinbase">sued in 2023</a>, yesterday won its motion for an <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-coinbase-motion-interlocutory-appeal">interlocutory appeal</a> on whether crypto assets constitute investment contracts. The ruling is not an end to the case. But it will require the Second Circuit to consider this question, which, Coinbase argued, “could not be more pressing” in “numerous cases pending…across the country.”&nbsp;



From Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s order to grant Coinbase’s interlocutory <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-sec-foia-lawsuit-continues">appeal</a> motion:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote>“At issue is more than how to apply Howey (about which, the Court agrees, there is an extensive body of case law); at issue is how to apply Howey to crypto asset transactions, in the context of the surrounding digital ecosystems. That is a difficult legal question of first impression for the Second Circuit — more than mere disagreement with the Court’s Order.” </blockquote></figure>



In other words, Failla thinks the legal question at hand — how and if crypto assets should be subject to securities laws — is too big to not consider at the appellate level.&nbsp;



Failla has ordered a stay in proceedings until the interlocutory appeal is resolved, which could take months, if not longer. A ruling from the Second Circuit bears more weight than the District-level orders we’ve seen in recent months, many of which contradict one another.&nbsp;



Coinbase’s expensive, time-consuming legal battle just may be exactly what the industry is looking for…assuming things go its way, of course.



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Judge sends Howey question to higher court in Coinbase case 

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Treasury yields were once again on the rise Wednesday while US equities struggled to recover from a rough day of trading yesterday.&nbsp;



The US government’s monthly 10-year Treasury note auction on Tuesday drew the highest yield since 2007: 4.68%. Benchmark yields on 10-years hit a high of 4.73% Wednesday morning, a level not hit since last spring.



Zooming out, since the Fed started its rate-cutting cycle <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/on-the-margin-newsletter-uk-japan-rate-decisions">in September</a>, yields on 10-year notes have increased from around 3.7% to 4.7%. It’s an inverse correlation not typically seen, at least if you look back upon the past 10 easing cycles.&nbsp;



What gives?&nbsp;



Well, first of all, we aren’t in a typical easing cycle. Normally, rate cuts signal an approaching recession. This time, the Fed is lowering interest rates because central bankers believe inflation is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fed-interest-rate-policy-mistake">sufficiently declining</a> — or at least, they did.



FOMC members’ inflation expectations have risen from 2.6% to 2.8% for 2024, and as such, their median projections for cuts to the fed funds rate has decreased by 50 basis points. Futures markets are now pricing in a 95% chance central bankers hold rates steady at their next meeting later this month.&nbsp;



Plus, bond traders are reacting to the new (old) administration headed for the White House in less than two weeks. Today’s selloff (remember, bond prices and yields move in opposite directions), is likely linked to rising <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/trump-mulls-national-economic-emergency-declaration-allow-new-tariff-program-cnn-2025-01-08/">concerns</a> about Trump’s incoming <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/unpacking-trump-potential-tariff-policies">tariff policies</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



So, it’s a strange situation with perhaps a reasonable explanation, but we’re keeping an eye on the situation. The latest Fed minutes — set to be released this afternoon — should also give us more insight.



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Yields up, rates down 

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Fidelity Digital Assets addressed a question in its 2025 outlook report that many investors have been asking: “Is it too late?”



The query isn’t absurd given BTC’s recent rise to an all-time high above $108,000 last month. Buying is of course more fun before a big run.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In the <a href="https://fwc.widen.net/s/zbhjbmppgq/fda-2025-look-ahead-report-v6">report</a>, Fidelity Digital Assets research director Chris Kuiper mentions starting to see “early signs of mass diffusion and adoption.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



He adds: “Although this process will likely take decades, 2025 has the potential to be the year that is looked back on as the pivotal time where the ‘chasm was crossed’ as digital assets begin to take root and embed themselves into multiple fields and industries.”&nbsp;



Kuiper cites existing and discussed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brazil-bill-for-national-bitcoin-reserve">nation-state</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/company-treasuries-btc-reserve-asset">corporate crypto adoption</a>, which we’ve tracked here in recent weeks.&nbsp;



“Therefore, it may be too late for the speculators that want another frenzy,” he explained. “However, we believe we are still incredibly early in terms of this new era of sustainable adoption, diffusion and integration.”



This “Am I too late?” question reminded me of my conversation with Franklin Templeton’s Roger Bayston last month. He too mentioned this was something on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/franklin-templeton-etfs-tokenization-2025">minds of institutions</a>.&nbsp;



“We’ve seen this price run up and now I’m going to buy it?” he said, imitating an investor questioning that logic and wanting to buy cheap.



But with a more favorable US regulatory environment <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power">unfolding</a>, it appears there’s “plenty of run room,” Bayston added. Bullish <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-q1-analyst-predictions">2025 BTC price predictions</a> range from $125,000 to $200,000.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Beyond the potential regulatory catalysts, Kuiper wrote that inflation could come back in a second wave (given inflation measures resisting a return to the 2% target, large fiscal deficits and the Fed’s rate-cutting cycle).



“If a recession does occur, it will likely be responded to with additional monetary and fiscal stimulus, which historically has been good for bitcoin,” he noted. “If risk assets continue to appreciate and inflation continues to run above the 2% target, bitcoin will also likely do well.”



And then there’s the potential for a stagflationary environment, which Kuiper says BTC has not ever really encountered. A Fidelity Digital Assets chart illustrates gold’s performance during the stagflation era of the 1970s and early ’80s. It shows gold rallying most during the second wave of inflation, offering a potential parallel for how bitcoin might behave.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcOzxUkgRW1XAvJ4g_iMTip6-UCddfGY9JijOwgq8L6Y7SZjIfS3U1OYCl6yA6y2SebIQ5vkUtLL0g2woVQ3eIgv-AlWjOE2O07IZsHYEIzbgm8n40c7NDYYwG0LBWKhs77ACNjGw?key=4NP7wyvb3dLIhRYmIpR1QGIS" alt=""/></figure>



BTC is currently 13% below its all-time high, with potential corrections ahead that could present additional buying opportunities.



Swan Bitcoin co-founder Brady Swenson said it appears the market has largely priced in the creation of a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senator-lummis-bitcoin-reserve-bill-crypto-policy">strategic bitcoin reserve</a> soon after Trump takes office.



He added in an email: “If that does not happen quickly, the inauguration could actually be a ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ event, which would send bitcoin price temporarily downward.&#8221;



You don’t need me to say none of this is investment advice. But I’ll remind you anyway.



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Fidelity exec addresses ‘too late?’ question, stagflation scenario

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Today, Starknet unveiled its dedicated rollup chain tech stack, SN Stack. The project was first <a href="https://medium.com/starkware/the-starknet-stacks-growth-spurt-ab7ea3ebd596">teased</a> in a July 2023 blog post.



The SN Stack offers developers the ability to build validity rollup chains with customized parameters like block times and sizes, using proven components of Starknet such as Starknet OS, CairoVM or the Blockifier execution engine.



Developers can opt to use Madara, an open source and modular framework to quickly develop appchains, or Dojo, a framework more suited to building onchain gaming apps. Starknet appchains will also be able to leverage the StarkWare sequencer infrastructure which in future will be open source.



“From now, projects will be able to build appchains using the gold-standard ZK-STARK cryptography with the ease and low-cost that has only been possible with optimistic rollups,” said StarkWare co-founder and CEO Eli Ben-Sasson.



ZK-STARKs are considered to be an <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starkware-polygon-labs-stwo-zk-prover">improved version</a> of zk-SNARKs due to their lack of reliance on an initial trusted setup, though STARK proof sizes are larger.



For cross-chain interoperability, there is a proof-based interoperability solution in the pipeline that leverages Starknet’s upcoming open-sourced prover <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starkware-starknet-zero-knowledge-prover">Stwo</a> (Stark Two), a Starknet spokesperson told Blockworks.



<a href="https://docs.paradex.trade/documentation/getting-started/what-is-paradex">Paradex</a>, a perpetuals exchange, is the only existing rollup built on SN Stack today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A short history of rollup stacks</h2>



In 2020, Ethereum embarked on a rollup-centric roadmap that sought to offload execution to L2 chains for scalability. This introduced the incentive for rollup teams to develop their own custom rollup tech stacks, attract rollup chain developers and curate a gated ecosystem.



Optimism was first to the game. Optimism’s OP Stack was officially introduced in late 2022 and launched in early 2023. In 2023 followed the launches of Arbitrum’s “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-arbitrum-orbit-mainnet">Orbit</a>” then Zksync’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-launches-op-stack-rival">ZK Stack</a>.



Last month also saw the announcement of Commonware’s “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/commonware-optimized-blockchain-development">anti-framework</a>” stack by ex-Ava Labs VP of engineering Patrick O’Grady. Commonware promises an even more modular architecture and less lock-in than the aforementioned rollup stacks.



Optimism’s first-mover advantage has largely paid off, as is the case with open-source tools. Based on L2Beat, OP Stack is the most widely used stack with at least 50 combined rollup and Validium chains built <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/optimism-interoperability-layer-superchain">on its technology</a>, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/kraken-ethereum-layer-2-superchain">Kraken’s Ink</a>, Coinbase’s Base and the upcoming <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/0xresearch-newsletter-uniswap-layer-2">Unichain</a>.



This network effect provides Optimism with a lucrative monetization opportunity. For instance, Optimism offers rollups the option to enter into a revenue-sharing agreement that shares 2.5% of sequencer revenues or 15% of transaction fee profits (whichever is higher).



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc97Gs0wGFCj2hTJuMUEmmpTFmoznE1qrl-OQBfQbnEhAcqUiBGC9PudFEOl_9cap1cE3g7slfrsPuH1q4YGsrouxCIQJhj6HmD2foZwOC1o73VpWO25E31n3qfDTuWYZPtEJ-fNQ?key=qgLCVkfQQmtfMDLHMgqaypk0" alt=""/></figure>



While Starknet has yet to specify a monetization model for SN Stack, the team has confirmed details will be announced in the future.



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