Liz Coyne

On this episode of Blockworks&#8217; podcast &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6HESVcM4Ic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On the Margin</a>,&#8221; Michael Ippolito, co-founder, sits down with Demetri Kofinas, a media entrepreneur, financial analyst and host of the renowned <a href="https://hiddenforces.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hidden Forces</a> podcast.



Mike and Demetri discuss a wide range of topics from political volatility, the fourth turning and what prospects decentralization can offer to society.



They also covered: 



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Financial nihilism</li><li>US and China relations</li><li>How a bitcoin standard would differ from a gold standard</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Financial nihilism and political volatility | Demetri Kofinas" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G6HESVcM4Ic?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



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



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

Podcast: When Global Superpowers Collide

Donovan Choy

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



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



In his work on the pre-800 AD Classic Maya economy, the historian Philip Curtin recounts a striking finding: Archaeologists measured the ratio of cutting length to weight in obsidian blades and discovered that the ratio varied inversely with distance from obsidian sources.&nbsp;



The economist Deirdre McCloskey <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08913819908443534">cites</a> this as evidence that the human impulse toward exchange and profit-seeking gain has always existed.



“If Mayans lived in a gainless, profitless, nonmarket economy, it would not matter to them how expensive obsidian was. But…the ratio varied inversely with the distance from the sources of the obsidian. By taking more care with more costly obsidian, the blade makers were earning better profits, as they did by taking less care with less costly obsidian.”



Formal markets add property rights and legal enforcement. But they channel innate human behaviors that were already there, contrary to the popular belief that capitalism “causes” consumerism.



Modern Japan (and parts of Asia) offers a vivid illustration of what that economic logic looks like in the extremes.



The average Tokyo street is chock-full of cute and colorful Gachapon capsule machines. People flock to them for the prospect of a rare collectible.&nbsp;



Yet a meaningful share of buyers in these markets aren’t pure collectors: Many chase quick flips.&nbsp;



Take Asia’s latest <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/labubus-succeeded-nfts-failed">Labubu</a> phenomenon, for instance. Resale prices of the wildly popular Pop Mart series <a href="https://www2.yicaiglobal.com/news/pop-mart-slumps-after-chinese-toymaker-boosts-labubu-supply-causing-resale-prices-to-plungehttps://www2.yicaiglobal.com/news/pop-mart-slumps-after-chinese-toymaker-boosts-labubu-supply-causing-resale-prices-to-plunge">reportedly</a> halved when the company announced a supply increase.&nbsp;



There’s also evidence that at least <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2025/08/13/labubus-remain-king-of-the-collectibles-stockx-reports/">40%</a> of consumers buy such toys for “appreciation potential.”



But if profit-seeking is the dominant motive to make and sell these things, then it’s not surprising that the door to hyperfinancialization inevitably swings wide open.



Predictably, crypto entrepreneurs are the first ones kicking the door down.



In the last few months, Gachapon-like platforms have seen growing product-market fit. Total money spent on platforms like Courtyard, Collector Crypt, Phygitals and Emporium grew from $10.4 million in January to $61.1 million in August, according to <a href="https://mementoresearch.com/the-state-of-pokemon-rwa-tcg">Memento Research</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107455" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-66.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Last month clocked a monthly high of about ~$114 million of trading volumes.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107456" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-67.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



These platforms have a similar business model:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Platforms keep a secure vault inventory of professionally-graded collectible cards (typically Pokemon/baseball).</li>



<li>The cards are tokenized as a NFT.</li>



<li>They are sold as randomized Gachapon items to users with paying stablecoins.</li>



<li>After a reveal, you can sell them back to the platform at a predefined buyback rate based on the insured market value of the card, sell it on a secondary marketplace or redeem the physical card from the vault for a fee.</li>
</ol>



There are exceptions. The Phygitals platform on Solana, for instance, does not necessarily have rare cards on hand, and relies on “dropshipping” procurement if the user decides to claim the card. Otherwise, users are offered refunds.



“That&#8217;s a drawback because they don&#8217;t really own the card,” Memento Research’s analyst zkayape told me. “On the other hand, Collector Crypt rare cards are quite well-stocked (759 epic cards at the moment) due to strong procurement on their end from Web2 rails and connections. They’ve been in the scene for quite some time.”



Gachapon spending also resembles a similar whale-like economy structure across all four platforms.



Memento’s research shows that on Polygon’s Courtyard platform, 90.5% of total spend came from just 5.9% of users. On Solana’s Collector Crypt, 93% of all Gachapon revenues came from 17.5% of users — about 50% of users spent above the “whale” threshold of $1000.



Revenues are conclusively driven by Gachapon spending, rather than secondary marketplace trading.



As far as I can tell, these platforms do not use a verifiable RNG, so users are still trusting that platforms are assigning cards at the stated tier probabilities.



Do users care?



The average consumer of real-world Gachapon or blind boxes certainly doesn’t. I don’t know any blind-box collectors complaining of the non-transparency involved with these products.&nbsp;



Financial speculators, however, are a different breed of consumers. These are the guys who live in “expected value” probability math, seeking to optimize every basis point for an edge.



The platforms are designed to buy back cards at a fair market value from users (to keep users gambling), so there’s at least a cap on the financial downside.



Even so, a trust gap remains. Verifiable randomness and zero-knowledge proofs could make Gachapon draws auditable, not just promised.



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



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



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



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



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



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

Gaming

Gachapon on the blockchain is already a hundred-million dollar market

Blockworks

Nasdaq will invest $50 million in Gemini’s initial public offering, aligning the two firms ahead of the crypto exchange’s planned debut under the ticker GEMI, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg.



Founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini aims to raise up to $317 million in its listing at a target valuation of $2.2 billion, with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup acting as lead underwriters. The IPO would make Gemini the third publicly traded US crypto exchange, following Coinbase, which earlier this year joined the S&amp;P 500, and Bullish.



The deal is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/winklevoss-founded-crypto-exchange-gemini-taps-nasdaq-strategic-investor-sources-2025-09-09/">structured</a> as a private placement that extends beyond financing. Nasdaq’s clients will gain access to Gemini’s custody and staking services, while Gemini’s institutional users will be able to use collateral management features from Nasdaq’s Calypso system, a risk management platform widely adopted across asset classes.



Gemini’s IPO plans arrive during a rebound in equity capital markets, with recent offerings such as Circle and Bullish drawing strong institutional demand. Gemini reported a $282.5 million loss in the first half of 2025 despite revenue of $68.6 million, underscoring challenges in scaling profitably.



Beyond the US, Gemini is expanding its European presence with new staking services for ether and solana under the EU’s MiCA framework and regulated derivatives under MiFID II, signaling a push to build compliance-driven growth abroad.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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



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</ul>

Gemini

Nasdaq lines up $50M investment in Gemini IPO

Carlos

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



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Crypto markets have had a positive start to the week, with clear outperformers but for very different reasons. The chart below shows the week-over-week performance of various assets as of Sept. 8. We observe that WLD (+84%), PUMP (+39%), ENA (+25%), HYPE (+18%), and SOL (+9%) have shown remarkable relative strength against BTC (+3%) and ETH (flat).



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107449" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-64.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Let&#8217;s start discussing HYPE and PUMP, whose outperformance has been primarily fundamentals- or value-driven. Regarding Hyperliquid, major stablecoin issuers including Paxos, Frax, Sky and Agora are outbidding each other ahead of a Sept. 14 validator governance vote that will determine who gets to have Hyperliquid&#8217;s native &#8220;USDH&#8221; ticker, with proposals offering aggressive revenue-sharing agreements (up to 100%).



The USDH debate has centered around institution- vs. native-team issuance and ecosystem alignment. For instance, Native Markets, led by Max Fiege,<a href="https://nativemarkets.substack.com/p/expanded-proposal-native-markets"> proposed</a> that 50% of the reserve yield be immutably contributed to the Assistance Fund, while the other 50% be dedicated to USDH growth through partnerships with builder-code interfaces, HIP-3 markets and HyperEVM apps. Paxos, on the other hand,<a href="https://x.com/Paxos/status/1964422295176564937"> proposed</a> allocating 95% of interest from reserves backing USDH to buy back HYPE and redistributing it to applications and validators proportional to their USDH balances across their platforms.



While Native Markets would be GENIUS-compliant via Bridge, Paxos has highlighted its already proven global regulatory coverage and reach (not only GENIUS, but also MiCA and MAS-compliant), with existing payment corridor integrations across the Middle East, Latam, Africa and Asia. While it&#8217;s still unclear who will come out on top, it&#8217;s evident that Hyperliquid wins regardless. Migrating $5 billion in USDC deposits to USDH could represent an additional $200 million in revenue for Hyperliquid annually, representing ~20% of its ~$1 billion revenue run rate. At the same time, the battle to win the USDH ticker showcases the conviction and value these issuers see in Hyperliquid&#8217;s exchange and the HyperEVM ecosystem, with HYPE hitting an all-time high of $52.67 today.



While Hyperliquid has been the center of attention, PUMP has actually been the best-performing asset of the two in the past week, up 39% (vs. 18% for HYPE). Pump has decisively reclaimed its launchpad market share, now above 85%, running at an annualized revenue rate of $540 million and using 100% of its revenues to buy back the token. Moreover, it remains surprisingly attractively priced, with a circulating P/S of three and FDV/Sales of&nbsp; nine.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107450" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-65.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The other side of HYPE and PUMP&#8217;s fundamentals-driven price increases are SOL, ENA, and WLD’s DATCO-driven flows. Yesterday, Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FORD), Galaxy-Multicoin’s SOL DATCO, announced<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250907677362/en/Forward-Industries-Inc.-Announces-%241.65-Billion-Private-Placement-in-Cash-and-Stablecoin-Commitments-Led-by-Galaxy-Digital-Jump-Crypto-and-Multicoin-Capital-to-Initiate-Solana-Treasury-Strategy"> $1.65 billion</a> in cash and stablecoin commitments, confirming <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/samani-expected-chairman-solana-treasury">Kyle Samani as chairman</a>. With this announcement, the big question regarding whether DATCO purchases would translate to buying SOL with cash on the secondary market vs. simply purchasing locked SOL at a discount has been answered. Combined with Solana ETFs under the &#8217;33 Act likely being approved in October, SOL is poised for outperformance into year-end as the third crypto asset with a structural funnel to TradFi flows after BTC and ETH.



On its part, StablecoinX<a href="https://x.com/ethena_labs/status/1964063567772340432"> announced</a> on Friday an additional $530 million capital raise to buy ENA on the open market. The planned deployment schedule for ENA purchases will be dynamic based on price: $5 million per day if ENA is above $0.70, and $10 million per day if ENA is below $0.70 or if it&#8217;s down more than 5% in a 24-hour period. Importantly, the Ethena Foundation has the right to veto any sales of ENA by StablecoinX at its sole discretion.



Finally, Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: OCTO) <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eightco-holdings-inc-octo-announces-250-million-private-placement-with-an-additional-20-million-strategic-investment-from-bitmine-bmnr-to-initiate-worlds-first-worldcoin-wld-treasury-strategy-302549012.html">announced</a> on Monday a $250 million raise to implement the first Worldcoin-focused DATCO strategy, with Dan Ives appointed as chairman. Notably, Tom Lee’s Bitmine (BMNR) had purchased 13.7 million shares of OCTO at $1.46, which rose ~3,000% to $45 on Monday, meaning that the $20 million investment is now worth more than $600 million. On its part, WLD rose as much as 85% on Monday, hitting a high of $1.92.



The contrast between value- vs. momentum-driven price action is interesting to think about, especially in the context of investment horizons and sustainability of flows. The buying pressure from DATCOs has been telegraphed to the market, leading to frontrunning by traders and investors. The main uncertainty for these vehicles is whether they will trade at a premium to NAV, in which case they will be able to sell equity to buy more of the underlying token, à la BMNR. On the other hand, Hyperliquid and Pump&#8217;s flows are more reliant on these apps expanding their leading position in each of their respective verticals and increasing their revenue (and thus buybacks) growth rate. That is, of course, not to say assets like SOL and ENA are devoid of fundamentals, since they have clearly found product-market fit and are quality tokens. Still, the majority of their inflows in the past few weeks have come from DATCOs&#8217; expectations as opposed to fundamental catalysts.



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



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



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</ul>

0xResearch Newsletter

Hyperliquid’s USDH battle and the DATCO bid

Macauley Peterson

Barter, the second-largest routing engine on Ethereum and the top solver on CoW Swap, has acquired the solver codebase of competitor Copium Capital in a move that could reshape the dynamics of decentralized trade execution.



The deal brings together two of CoW Swap’s most effective strategies. Copium had carved out a niche with efficient usage of RFQ (request-for-quote) and market maker liquidity, while Barter specialized in maximizing flow through <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/understanding-automatic-market-makers">AMMs</a>. According to CEO Nikita Ovchinnik, the combination provides the missing piece for Barter to push beyond 50% market share on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cow-dao-mev-capturing-amm">CoW Swap</a>.&nbsp;



“Copium built its edge around efficient usage of RFQ and market maker liquidity, while Barter specialized in routing more flow through AMMs than anyone else,” Ovchinnik told Blockworks. With Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade and the rise of gas-optimized AMMs like Euler Swap, Fluid, and Ekubo, RFQ share has been declining — but Barter believes those capabilities are key to consolidating leadership.



From a user’s standpoint, CoW Swap’s mechanism selects the best price available for each order, so head-to-head comparisons between solvers are less meaningful: If a solver doesn’t win, it’s because another produced a better quote at that moment, a spokesperson told Blockworks.



Barter has already executed over $18 billion in total volume, averaging roughly $900 million weekly. The integration of Copium’s code will roll out gradually, with internal audits and canary releases before full production deployment. The first strategies to hit production will target new-token onboarding and RFQ upgrades, aimed at improving execution for large trades and fresh assets.



The acquisition comes as the solver market itself is maturing, according to Mounir Benchemled, founder of Velora (formerly Paraswap). “In ’23 or late ’22 where the first real solvers started to emerge, I think Barter was one of the first and [then came] Wintermute and others,” Benchemled told Blockworks. That evolution coincided with the rise of solver auctions. “Building auctions and innovating the auction structure, becomes the new standard for intent-based products,” he said.



While auctions broaden competition, some centralization concerns persist. “The selection of winners still happens in a centralized fashion…A user will send their sign order to the protocol server — which is a centralized AWS server in general — we create an option and select the winner,” Benchemled explained.&nbsp;



CoW Swap takes a pragmatic stance: RFQ owners set their own access rules, and from the protocol’s perspective the key criterion is whether users get better prices. CoW cares most about outcomes at the point of execution. The “Solver Info” <a href="https://dune.com/cowprotocol/solver-info">Dune dashboard</a> provides transparency into the distribution of active solvers.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="888" height="612" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png" alt="" class="wp-image-107446" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=888 888w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=373 373w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=379 379w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=318 318w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-63.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Barter at 28.2% | Source: <a href="https://dune.com/cowprotocol/solver-info">Dune / cowprotocol</a></figcaption></figure>



In May, CoW DAO <a href="https://snapshot.box/#/s:cow.eth/proposal/0xf9ecb08c4738f04c4525373d6b78085d16635f86adacd1b8ea77b2c176c99d32">approved</a> moving from batch auctions to “fair combinatorial auctions” to improve fairness and throughput and to address centralization risks (e.g., single-winner limitations and reliance on Ethereum Best Bid and Offer).



Ovchinnik counters that different teams still win across different order profiles. “Some teams excel at niche pairs, some win with best routes, others utilize their private liquidity to provide better prices,” he said. He added that CoW Swap’s evolving auction parameters and incentives ensure no single solver can rest on its laurels.&nbsp;



More broadly, the CoW team says it is not its role to dictate how the market should consolidate or diversify; the solver set is open to any team that follows the rules, and performance from there is up to each participant.



Barter says it will measure success in the next three to six months by expanding its presence on meta-aggregators and intent-based venues beyond CoW Swap, including UniswapX and 1inch Fusion. A user-impact update highlighting surplus metrics will be published on its <a href="https://x.com/BarterDeFi">social channels</a>.



“This isn’t just about merging codebases — it’s about shaping the execution layer of Ethereum,” Ovchinnik said. Traders may never interact with solvers directly, but their algorithms are increasingly what determines the price users receive.



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crypto apps

Barter buys rival solver codebase to expand CoW Swap dominance

Coinbase announced that it has acquired the founders of Sensible, a team specializing in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, to strengthen its onchain consumer roadmap.



Co-founders Jacob Frantz and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7371179867008049152-xduY?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAI-1EsBdXb9eqW8Lj0Y1aFQpUkvgw_kYBo">Zachary Salmon</a> will lead teams <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/blog/Coinbase-acquires-team-to-accelerate-onchain-consumer-roadmap">tasked</a> with making DeFi tools easier to use, part of Coinbase’s broader ambition to become what it calls an “everything exchange.”



<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">Excited to share that <a href="https://twitter.com/coinbase?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@coinbase</a> is acquiring the Sensible team to help make crypto something people *use* in addition to *own*. <a href="https://t.co/TYZK3KMrmU">pic.twitter.com/TYZK3KMrmU</a>&mdash; jacob (@therealjfrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/therealjfrantz/status/1965415706503381360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Sensible’s co-founders previously built applications that brought DeFi to retail users, an area Coinbase has been steadily expanding through initiatives like Coinbase Wallet and its layer-2 network, Base.



By integrating their expertise, Coinbase aims to reduce the complexity of decentralized lending, staking, and rewards programs, which often remain out of reach for newcomers. The company highlighted examples such as non-custodial smart wallets for crypto-backed loans and staking services that allow users to earn rewards for helping secure blockchain networks.



This acquisition follows a series of Coinbase moves in 2024 and 2025 aimed at bolstering its onchain ecosystem. The company bought the Utopia Labs team in late 2024 to accelerate its payments roadmap and added Spindl in early 2025 to expand onchain advertising. More recently, Coinbase welcomed leaders from Opyn Markets to develop market infrastructure.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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Coinbase

Coinbase adds Sensible leadership to build onchain consumer tools

Cboe Global Markets announced on September 9 that it plans to launch bitcoin and ether “Continuous futures” on the Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) beginning November 10, 2025, pending regulatory review.



The contracts are <a href="https://ir.cboe.com/news/news-details/2025/Cboe-Plans-to-Launch-Continuous-Futures-for-Bitcoin-and-Ether-Beginning-November-10/default.aspx">designed</a> to mimic the appeal of offshore perpetual futures while operating within a US-regulated, centrally cleared, and intermediated framework.



Unlike traditional futures, which require periodic rolling into new maturities, Continuous futures are structured as single, long-dated contracts with a 10-year expiration. According to Cboe, positions will be adjusted daily to spot prices of bitcoin and ether using a transparent funding rate mechanism, creating a regulated alternative to perpetual contracts.



Catherine Clay, Cboe’s Global Head of Derivatives, said the products are intended to expand access to US traders, including institutions and retail customers, while simplifying risk management. The initiative follows Cboe’s June 2025 migration of its financially settled bitcoin and ether futures to CFE, part of its broader roadmap to expand digital asset offerings.



The contracts will clear through Cboe Clear U.S., a derivatives clearing organization regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Educational sessions hosted by Cboe’s Options Institute are scheduled for October 30 and November 20. While the exchange emphasized regulatory safeguards, it cautioned that futures trading carries substantial risk and may not suit all participants.



Cboe first entered crypto derivatives with margined Bitcoin and Ether futures, announced in November 2023 and launched on Cboe Digital on January 11, 2024. Backed by 11 major firms, the launch made Cboe the first U.S.-regulated crypto-native exchange to offer both spot and leveraged futures on one platform.



On June 9, 2025, Cboe migrated its Financially Settled Bitcoin (FBT) and Ether (FET) futures from Cboe Digital to the Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE), bringing them under its centrally cleared ecosystem. These contracts are cash-settled, reference Kaiko rates, and trade nearly 24×5, providing regulated tools for speculation, hedging, and risk management.



This is a developing story.



Updated 10:29 a.m. ET for with details about Cboe.



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



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Bitcoin

Cboe to debut bitcoin and ether Continuous futures in November

A new compensation report from the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/protocol-guild">Protocol Guild</a> paints a clear picture of the tradeoffs Ethereum core developers face: Many are underpaid in fiat terms and receive no upside exposure to tokens, yet continue to maintain Ethereum’s most critical infrastructure.&nbsp;



For this cohort, Protocol Guild (PG) has become the sole source of “equity-like” compensation, filling a structural void that traditional employers can’t — or won’t — bridge.



The numbers are striking. The median Ethereum core developer earns $140,000 in fiat compensation from their employer, while the median external offer stands at $300,000, creating a 114% gap. PG distributions, which are streamed via a transparent, onchain vesting schedule, add another $67,121 at the median, boosting total compensation to $207,121. That still falls short of market, but helps close the gap and represents nearly one-third of total income for the average developer.



Where PG’s role is most pronounced is in risk compensation. Only 37% of surveyed contributors receive any equity or token grants from their employers. PG fills that gap with a mechanism that behaves more like early-stage equity than salary: long-dated, ecosystem-aligned, and tied to the long-term health of Ethereum itself.



In the past year, 38% of surveyed members received employment offers — typically from L2s or other L1s — often with token or equity components. Reports from a small but revealing subsample indicate the median grants amount to 6.5% of tokens/equity, indicating substantial upside potential unavailable to most core Ethereum contributors.



Compensation disparities arise not only between ecosystems, but within Ethereum itself.&nbsp;



For example, the <a href="https://www.protocolguild.org/blog/20250909-compensation-insights-for-ethereum-core-developers-2025">report shows</a> Research roles carry a $215,000 median cash package, while client development and coordination sit at $130,000 — despite the latter being indispensable to the protocol’s functioning. Similarly, developers with 7–8 years of experience earn a median $212,000, outpacing the $150,000 median for those with 9+ years, hinting at lagging raises or under-leveled roles for some of Ethereum’s most seasoned contributors.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="851" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107421" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-62.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://www.protocolguild.org/blog/20250909-compensation-insights-for-ethereum-core-developers-2025">Protocol Guild</a></figcaption></figure>



The implication is there’s real retention risk, and 59% of respondents rate Protocol Guild as “very” or “extremely” important to their decision to stay in Ethereum core development. Since its May 2022 pilot, PG has distributed over $32 million to contributors, funded by ecosystem projects pledging 1% of their token supply. But the donor base is concentrated: Just three foundations account for nearly the entire current vesting pipeline, underscoring the need for broader buy-in if the model is to scale.



Protocol Guild operates as a shared funding mechanism. Participating projects commit 1% of their token supply to a vesting contract that streams funds to Guild members over four years. These distributions are governed by a transparent, onchain allocation system based on each contributor’s tenure and role weight. Importantly, Protocol Guild doesn’t employ developers directly; it supplements their existing compensation with an “equity-like” stream that reflects Ethereum’s long-term success and ecosystem-wide commitment to credible neutrality. Contributions and vesting schedules are fully auditable on platforms like Dune.



PG’s designers emphasize that this is not charity, it’s a form of economic infrastructure. The four-year vesting stream aligns incentives with Ethereum’s roadmap, without compromising the credible neutrality core developers are meant to uphold. In effect, PG has become the equity package for contributors working outside of traditional corporate structures.



The question is: Can Ethereum scale this mechanism to keep valuable human capital around for the long-haul?



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Developers

The most important Ethereum developers are the most underpaid

Jack Kubinec

Plasma, a forthcoming layer-1 blockchain built for stablecoins, has made three new senior hires, Blockworks has learned exclusively.



The startup brought in Murat Firat as head of product, Adam Jacobs as head of global payments, and Usmann Khan as head of protocol security. These senior level hires come shortly after the Peter Thiel-backed project held a blockbuster token sale that netted some $373 million in commitments. 



Plasma is yet to publicly announce a date for its mainnet launch.



Plasma will be purpose-built for stablecoins, which according to its public documentation means over 1,000 transactions per second, zero-fee USDT transfers, custom gas tokens, and confidential transactions.&nbsp;



The fee-less Tether stablecoin transfers will be enabled by an in-protocol paymaster, according to Plasma’s documentation. Charging no gas fees would mean users wouldn’t need to hold native tokens in order to transact on Plasma.



The protocol seems to be on friendly terms with Tether. Zero-fee transfers are only enabled for USDT, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is on the cap table, and Bitfinex, where Ardoino is also chief technology officer, <a href="https://www.plasma.to/insights/plasma-raises-24m-led-by-framework-and-bitfinex-usdt0-to-build-the-leading-blockchain-for-stablecoins">led</a> Plasma’s seed and series A rounds alongside USDT “liquidity protocol” USDT0 and Framework Ventures.



“[We will] work closely with Tether to ensure Plasma becomes a key distribution channel for the most liquid and dominant stablecoin,” Plasma CEO and founder Paul Faecks said.



Plasma’s new hires come from varying backgrounds. Firat had previously founded Turkish crypto exchange and Lira-pegged stablecoin issuer BiLira. Jacobs was once global head of payments at FTX before spending time at the Canadian fintech firm Nuvei. Khan is rated sixth on the <a href="https://immunefi.com/leaderboard/">leaderboard</a> for crypto bug-bounty site ImmuneFi.



Plasma has made several other key hires since coming out of stealth in October 2024. Others include Jacob Wittman <a href="https://x.com/jakewittman/status/1915447216384467101">becoming</a> general counsel and the anonymous <a href="https://x.com/river0x_/status/1963224607416299588">river0x</a> and <a href="https://x.com/lemurf/status/1963577216740049048">murf</a> becoming DeFi lead and senior product designer, respectively.



As the protocol approaches mainnet, the thesis that stablecoins need a blockchain of their own will be put to the test.



“We’ve made deliberate, protocol-level design changes to treat stablecoins as first-class citizens. This way, stablecoins rails on Plasma will be able to underpin global money movement in the digital era,” Faecks said.



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Peter Thiel

Plasma builds out senior team ahead of mainnet: Exclusive

Stripe and Paradigm are plotting to launch a new platform that some have likened to a “Libra that lived.”&nbsp;



The chain, Tempo, aims to bring stablecoin-powered payments onchain at a scale Stripe is uniquely positioned to deliver.



The announcement came with heavyweight design partners, such as Visa, Deutsche Bank, OpenAI, Shopify, and the sketching of an architecture: not an Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2">layer-2</a>, but a new L1, optimized for predictable fees, sub-second finality, gas-in-stables, and 100,000+ TPS.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> community was mostly nonplussed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why Tempo is an L1 — and why should we care</h2>



Paradigm’s Matt Huang <a href="https://x.com/matthuang/status/1964123449045242041">laid out the case</a>. “Tempo will be a permissionless chain. On day 1, anyone will be able to deploy a token, and anyone will be able to transact on the chain…We’ll start with a permissioned validator set to get going and decentralize further from there.”



Huang framed the decision to go L1, not L2, as both technical and political.



“Building a network for global payments will require bringing together thousands of partners that may not trust us, or Stripe, or anyone as a platform. We think a decentralized validator set — for the chain itself — is a necessary requirement for those partners, and to ensure that the chain is unquestionably neutral in the long run.”



On its face, that sounds a lot like Ethereum, and the new chain will be built on Reth and therefore EVM-compatible. But Huang also cited UX features L2s don’t currently offer natively — like multi-token gas support via an enshrined AMM, payments-specific lanes, sub-second finality, and with opt-in privacy features.



Paradigm has been a major Ethereum proponent and develops the Reth execution client, boosting the network&#8217;s client diversity. That detail drew particular attention from Ethereum core devs, since just days earlier, a critical bug in Reth caused synced nodes to stall. Paradigm CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos <a href="https://x.com/gakonst/status/1963633379284587017">called it</a> a “brutal moment, but ultimately one we learn from and get stronger.”&nbsp;



On Ethereum, the bug was annoying but not catastrophic, because Reth is just one of many. For Tempo, launching with Reth as its primary execution engine, an episode like that could plausibly halt the chain.



Critics quickly zeroed in on what they saw as Tempo’s contradictions. “Where is the Ethereum alignment?” <a href="https://x.com/preston_vanloon/status/1963689840051896383">wrote</a> Ethereum core dev Preston Van Loon.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">My take on Tempo as an VC chain / L1: &#8211; No client diversity (major risk) &#8211; Anyone can just make a token and use that to pay gas? lol &#8211; Should be an L2, not L1. Where is the justification for this? Where is the Ethereum alignment? &#8211; Smells like another consortium chain, oh well&#8230;&mdash; prestonvanloon.eth (@preston_vanloon) <a href="https://twitter.com/preston_vanloon/status/1963689840051896383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Paradigm has already tried the L2 route with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blast">Blast</a>, sometimes thought of as “Paradigm’s L2” due to its lead role in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blast-layer2-ethereum-yield">Blast’s $20M raise</a>, so it’s possible the VC firm could have ruled out building on Ethereum <a href="https://x.com/0x9212ce55/status/1963942915786383683">to avoid a conflict</a>.



(A Paradigm spokesperson declined to comment specifically for this story.)



At stake is more than just branding. Tempo’s design decisions reignited long-running questions about whether L2s can deliver the UX and institutional trust required for real-world payments. But they also raised alarms about what happens when corporate players reinvent blockchain infrastructure outside the neutral, credibly decentralized systems Ethereum has tried to protect.



It’s bound to be a years-long battle, but as Yuval Kogler <a href="https://x.com/yugacohler/status/1963865768291877275">put it</a>: “The relative success of the various blockchains will be a direct referendum on the market value of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/decentralization">decentralization</a>.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The corp chains critique</h2>



To many longtime crypto builders, Tempo echoes the dreams — and mistakes — of Facebook’s Libra. Christian Catalini, one of Libra’s original architects, <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964027796864585747">questioned</a> whether any corporate player could deliver on the promise of neutrality.



“Would a sane competitor bet its future on Stripe&#8217;s promise not to eventually favor its own products?”



Catalini, co-founder alongside David Marcus of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspark-bitcoin-lightning-payments">Lightspark</a>, a payments-infrastructure company building on Bitcoin’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lightning-network">Lightning Network</a>, went <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964028283844251736">further</a>: “As long as there is a single throat to choke — or a committee of them — you can’t truly rewire the system. Worse, any network with an architect is living on borrowed time.”



Omid Malekan, a crypto author and early educator, was <a href="https://x.com/malekanoms/status/1963931256111944079">equally blunt</a>: “I can&#8217;t believe I still have to say this in the year 2025, but let me explain once again why permissioned chains like Tempo (or Canton or <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-l1-impact-ethereum">ARC</a> or any other corporate chain) are likely to fail.” His critique centers on liability: if validators are known and permissioned, they can be sued, censored, or compelled to roll back the chain.



<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">Question: if every large corporation is going to operate their own chain with their own on-ramps, stablecoins, etc., how is it better than the current system?&mdash; Toghrul Maharramov 🇺🇦 (@toghrulmaharram) <a href="https://twitter.com/toghrulmaharram/status/1964449544986603973?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Still, not everyone saw Tempo as a retreat into safe corporatism. Nick van Eck <a href="https://x.com/Nick_van_Eck/status/1964140110666191294">argued</a> Stripe is unlikely to be merely experimenting, but launching a full-stack payments competitor to Visa.&nbsp;



“Tempo is a clear shot across the bow [announcing] that they are trying to build the next generation Visa network,” said van Eck, calling Huang’s ode to neutrality tantamount to “gaslighting everyone”: “They are openly declaring war against everyone building in stablecoins, the payment networks, and the banks.”&nbsp;



In van Eck’s view, Stripe is moving fast because it has to — before incumbents cut them off. Agora is one of those stablecoins seeking to grow distribution.



“The opportunity up for grabs here is enormous,” van Eck said. “Probably $1T+ in enterprise value to be won or lost if we look a decade down the road.”



From the market-structure angle, there’s a strategic read on stablecoin rails themselves, according to Laurent Benayoun, CEO of Acheron Trading.



“Having control over the infrastructure powering payments and RWAs will increase the revenue and influence of stablecoin issuers,” Benayoun told Blockworks. “That said, two things will ultimately matter: how private issuers will tackle creating public chains, and as a consequence which will receive the highest degree of adoption post consolidation of that niche.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A fresh look at fast finality</h2>



Tempo may be shipping fast finality, but Ethereum researchers made it clear they’re working on it too, and faster than critics might think.



Barnabé Monnot, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, <a href="https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/1964252013459386496">posted</a> a breakdown of ongoing work to shorten slot times, expose fast confirmation rules in clients, and pursue more aggressive finality gadgets.



ZKsync’s Alex Gluchowski <a href="https://x.com/gluk64/status/1964241553364296038">responding</a> to Huang’s Tempo preview, noted “the only serious technical argument in this post is fast L1 finality — something we as L2s can neither fix nor mitigate.” That’s the sort of dependency chains like Circle’s Arc also seek to avoid.



<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 only serious technical argument in this post is fast L1 finality—something we as L2s can neither fix nor mitigate. We fully depend on the L1 progress rate here. I&#39;d told <a href="https://twitter.com/ethereumfndn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ethereumfndn</a> leadership earlier in summer that&#39;s the ONLY thing we care about on the ETH roadmap. <a href="https://t.co/LWb3jNBhKg">https://t.co/LWb3jNBhKg</a>&mdash; ALEX | ZKsync ∎ (@gluk64) <a href="https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1964241553364296038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Vitalik Buterin <a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1964407261801173312">joined</a> the thread to support Monnot’s work: “These are good ideas! Most of them are delta-neutral (in the sense of the δ network latency assumption), which is even better.” In distributed-systems terms, δ (delta) is the maximum time messages take to propagate; calling proposals “delta-neutral” signals they don’t require faster networks or tighter validator clustering to be safe.



The real trick, Buterin caveated, is whether Ethereum can maintain geographic and economic decentralization while cutting time to finality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">“Revolution” or “failed coup”?</h2>



The emergence of Tempo is less a rejection of Ethereum than a test of its pace. Stripe isn’t launching Tempo to provoke the Ethereum community, though it may have that consequence.



Ethereum still has the network effects, and decentralization strengths, like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-upgrade-testnet-hiccup">client diversity</a>, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-inclusion-lists-scrutiny">credible neutrality</a>. Tempo will have distribution, product polish, and a measure of institutional trust. The challenge for Ethereum is to meet the moment technically — fast confirmations, better L2 UX, cleaner <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/interoperability">interop</a> — before Tempo or any other major fintech player captures the payments layer outright.



As Catalini <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964027763616358450">warned</a>, if the world settles on corporate chains like Tempo, “the crypto experiment was not a revolution, but a failed coup.”



But as stablecoin adoption grows, Tempo may well serve as a catalyst for Ethereum rather than competition.



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Ethereum

Upping Tempo: Stripe’s planned L1 challenges Ethereum to move faster

Byron Gilliam

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



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



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
&nbsp;“Without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.”



— Satoshi
</blockquote>



Property rights are not sacrosanct in traditional finance.



Even in the US stock market — where shareholder rights are treated with near-religious reverence — a company’s management can sometimes forcibly divest an unwanted shareholder of their shares.



In 2009, for example, the struggling software firm Selectica used a poison pill defense to cut a single shareholder’s stake in half.



When the pill was triggered, all shareholders other than Versata, a hedge fund, received rights that effectively doubled the number of shares they owned.



In effect, this redistributed half of Versata’s share in the company to the company’s other shareholders.



Versata sued, but a Delaware judge sided with the company — proving that, under some circumstances, a board can seize a shareholder’s property much like a government invoking eminent domain.



Unlike eminent domain, however, the company doesn’t have to compensate the dispossessed owner.



It’s not done lightly.&nbsp;



Selectica had to prove in court that its action was a “proportionate” response to a threat posed by a hostile shareholder.



But the fact that it’s possible is part of what inspired crypto and decentralized finance: a new kind of financial system where property rights are enforced by code, not the whims of a Delaware judge.



On Friday, however, World Liberty Financial — a DeFi protocol that’s “governed by a distributed community of WLFI tokenholders” — effectively dispossessed a large token holder of their tokens.&nbsp;



Justin Sun’s substantial holding of WLFI was frozen (perhaps temporarily) when his tokens were added to a blacklist that prevents them from being moved.



In total, World Liberty <a href="https://x.com/worldlibertyfi/status/1964081166367035684">blacklisted 272 accounts</a> this weekend, mostly in an effort to stop phishing attacks — which is laudable, but not exactly in the spirit of not-your-keys-not-your-coins permissionless crypto.



Sun’s tokens, however, were frozen amid reports that he shorted WLFI tokens borrowed from an exchange he controls.



Someone at World Liberty took exception to this and froze Sun’s property in response — something they can do without consulting the “distributed community” of token holders that ostensibly governs the protocol.



TradFi executives don’t appreciate short selling either, of course.



Companies that feel attacked by short sellers will sometimes issue special dividends to complicate short positions, contrive to have large holders recall the shares they’ve lent out, or even lobby the government to ban the practice (as banks successfully did in 2008).



But crypto makes this so much easier: Smart contracts can give protocols the ability to stop their tokens from moving.&nbsp;



Few protocols grant themselves this ability, presumably because it’s counter to the spirit of a decentralized, permissionless financial system.



Blacklists are usually only found in centralized stablecoins, where issuers need the ability to freeze criminals’ funds at the request of law enforcement.&nbsp;



But a blacklist for tokens?



World Liberty might be unique in granting itself the ability to extinguish property rights with just a function call to blacklist(address).



This seems to contradict the spirit of its founding mission.



As World Liberty co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff tells it, the project was inspired by a conversation he had with the Trump brothers, Eric and Donald Jr., shortly after their accounts were “terminated” by two of the largest US banks.&nbsp;



“So, we started discussing solutions, and the conclusion was that we needed a more democratized system,&#8221; he <a href="https://wublockchain.medium.com/wlfi-ceo-coo-in-conversation-dismantling-banking-hegemony-03546c1579f8">explained</a>. “The origin of World Liberty was to truly return financial control to the users.”



But not, evidently, to users of the World Liberty token.



The project’s <a href="https://static.worldlibertyfinancial.com/docs/intl/gold-paper.pdf">Gold Paper</a> states “WLF believes that the ability to transact privately and without intermediaries is a core American value.”



But World Liberty itself is an intermediary — and an unusually powerful one.



They did warn us.&nbsp;



Further down in the gold paper it cautions that in a “Material Adverse Event or Security Risk,” governance power can be “completely vested in the multisigs.”



This makes dispossessing an unwanted token holder much easier compared to executing a complex poison pill defense that a shareholder can appeal in a Delaware court of law.



Justin Sun, by contrast, can appeal the seizure of his property only to the court of social opinion: “My tokens were unreasonably frozen,” he <a href="https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1963807543983263802">posted</a> on X after denying accusations of short selling.&nbsp;



That’s not how this alternative financial system was meant to work.



Just the opposite: World Liberty’s multisig appears to give its founders a level of control that TradFi founders can only dream of.



Traditional founders sometimes maintain control of their company with special voting rights, but how much easier is it when that control is baked into a smart contract?



World Liberty’s control appears to be absolute.



Their token, WLFI, is strictly for governance —&nbsp; “the sole utility of holding WLFI is governance of the WLF Protocol” — but World Liberty can ignore the decisions token holders make.



Late last year, WLFI holders <a href="https://snapshot.box/#/s:worldlibertyfinancial.com/proposal/0xce3ff6b195863c2217865ba6f028d2e163d9156a25cb35d923da3a5bc8479483">voted</a> to grant the Aave DAO “approximately 7% of the total supply of $WLFI tokens” (because World Liberty was originally conceived as a fork of Aave).



Eight billion tokens voted in favor of the proposal, vs. just 187,000 against.&nbsp;



Despite that overwhelming consensus, World Liberty appears to be reneging on the deal, <a href="https://x.com/WuBlockchain/status/1959288692159512991">reportedly</a> calling it “fake news.”



This, too, is a TradFi founder&#8217;s dream.



Crypto founders already have the magical ability to raise capital without surrendering a share of their future profits (by issuing governance tokens).&nbsp;



And in this case, the founders didn’t have to surrender any governance rights, either.



Could anything be a better deal than that?



To be fair, selling a token that people think of as equity but is actually more like a collectible is hardly unique to World Liberty — there are many such cases.



If anything, World Liberty deserves credit for being upfront about it: Just the fact that it employs a CEO tells you that, whatever idealistic language used in its gold paper, it’s more of a company than a protocol.&nbsp;



But blacklisting shareholders is a level of centralization that outdoes even TradFi.



“Tokens are sacred and inviolable,”&nbsp; Justin Sun <a href="https://x.com/justinsuntron/status/1963807543983263802">wrote</a> on X, ”this should be the most basic value of any blockchain.”



Sun is not generally known as a champion of decentralization, but he makes the case for it concisely.&nbsp;



“It’s also what makes us stronger and more fair than traditional finance,” he added.



World Liberty’s founders would presumably agree: The first line of their gold paper says World Liberty is “pioneering a new era of Decentralized Finance.”



So far, though, they’re making it look a lot like the old era.



But better.



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The Breakdown Newsletter

World Liberty Financial is perfecting TradFi

Kate Irwin

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



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



You’ve probably heard about <a href="https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2025/03/the-superhero-fatigue-epidemic-is-upon-us">superhero fatigue</a> — the oft-written-about concern that moviegoing audiences are burnt out on superhero movies as a genre because studios like Marvel and Warner Bros. have been churning out so many for over a decade now.&nbsp;



Some believe superhero fatigue has occurred in part because the quality of said movies and shows has declined overall over time. The movies start to blend together; a few gain loyal fans, while many others are quickly forgotten.&nbsp;



Sound familiar?



I can’t help but feel like this is also how many in crypto must be feeling about blockchains, too.&nbsp;



I’ll be honest: I think I have both superhero fatigue <a href="https://x.com/pixiekate13/status/1917344999727063263">and new-blockchain fatigue</a>.&nbsp;



Every time a new one is announced, I ask myself — how is this one actually different? Why does this one actually matter more than the last one that came before it?



And especially, when it comes to gaming: Is yet another gaming-focused blockchain really the answer to crypto gaming’s longstanding core issue of failing to appeal to game studios and gamers more broadly?&nbsp;



But maybe I’m asking the wrong questions. Crypto is magic internet money, after all. If creating a new blockchain generates cash, people will keep creating them. But that’s more a strategy for creating a flash in the pan — and less so for creating long-term viability.



You could argue that the teams behind these new blockchains don’t have to justify their creations. Maybe you believe in platitudes like a “the more, the merrier” philosophy, where “a rising tide will lift all boats.” The more chains to choose from, the higher chances of “mass adoption.”



Maybe you believe crypto will entirely replace the traditional financial system soon enough, so you believe that crypto’s TAM is massive and global. Its potential audience is everyone, because everyone uses money, so why not launch yet another chain?&nbsp;



And there are <a href="https://www.blog.udonis.co/mobile-marketing/mobile-games/modern-mobile-gamer#h2-0">billions</a> of gamers globally, so why not launch yet another gaming chain?



Or maybe, like me, you’re a bit more skeptical that more chains are really needed. New “consumer” chains appear to be more focused on finding devs to build with them than on actually appealing to consumers.&nbsp;



Blockchain teams focus on touting technical advantages and offering grants to game projects, while everyday consumers see very little actually being marketed to them to get them on board with the promised crypto gaming revolution.&nbsp;



Consider the “XRPL Gamechain,” built on the XRPL EVM sidechain the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/b3-pc-startup-desktop-destroy-button">B3</a> team <a href="https://x.com/b3dotfun/status/1963299800562241538">announced</a> last week with XRPL Commons. It effectively brings B3’s Open App Layer to the XRP blockchain because XRPL Gamechain transactions will settle on XRP.&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">welcome <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24XRP&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$XRP</a> to B3&#39;s Open App Layer³ today, in partnership with <a href="https://twitter.com/xrpl_commons?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xrpl_commons</a>, B3 launches&#8230; ⚫ XRPL Gamechain on testnet 🕹️ XCADE &#8211; XRP&#39;s onchain arcade this effort marks the expansion of B3&#39;s appchain vision &amp; network. <a href="https://t.co/H4Jt4cThrF">pic.twitter.com/H4Jt4cThrF</a>&mdash; B3 🎮 (@b3dotfun) <a href="https://twitter.com/b3dotfun/status/1962917076802404807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



But the name is quite the mouthful.&nbsp;



“XRPL Gamechain” is not a consumer-friendly name at all. In fact, it’s more a name for developers. It speaks to what it is technically.



Then there’s the “<a href="https://xcade.fun/">Xcade</a>,” which launched on the XRPL Gamechain testnet with some browser-based minigames that look like we’ve traveled back in time to the early 2000s MiniClip era of Adobe Flash Player gaming:



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="948" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107379" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=441 441w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=370 370w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-59.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A look at Xcade’s game library, intended to have a mobile-first focus.</figcaption></figure>



B3 says Xcade “eliminates onboarding friction and creates a low barrier to entry into the XRP ecosystem, making it easier than ever to become an active participant.”



NPC Labs’ Daryl Xu says the Xcade is intended to “jumpstart a thriving consumer ecosystem built around XRP.”



But I’m not so sold on the idea that the “Xcade” is really going to bring new people to crypto. It’s more likely another addition to the GameFi trenches.&nbsp;



Overall, I think it’s worth asking ourselves: What does crypto gaming’s growth look like? Where might growth come from, especially if traders are still busy launching <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/are-memecoins-successful-crypto-products-zora">memecoins</a>?&nbsp;



Are we really getting anyone new onboarded with new gaming-focused blockchains — or are we just preaching a slightly different sermon to the same degen choir?



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



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



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blockchain

Does crypto really need more blockchains?

The NFT marketplace OpenSea announced the creation of its Flagship Collection on Monday. According to the company, this will be a $1 million initiative to acquire and curate digital art and culturally significant NFTs.



The move marks the company’s first formal reserve, <a href="https://x.com/opensea/status/1965133373489484275">designed</a> to showcase NFTs as cultural artifacts while giving artists and collectors heightened visibility. The launch also coincides with OpenSea’s broader strategy ahead of its SEA token rollout.



The program will operate under a committee-driven process, with OpenSea employees and external advisors selecting acquisitions. Purchases will be celebrated as “acquisition moments” across the platform’s channels, designed to encourage dialogue and education in the collector community. To safeguard against conflicts, OpenSea says it has established strict internal procedures to prevent leaks or trading misuse.



The first purchase in the collection is <a href="https://www.cryptopunks.app/cryptopunks/details/5273">CryptoPunk #5273</a>, one of the original 10,000 NFTs in the iconic Larva Labs series later acquired by Yuga Labs. The marketplace <a href="https://etherscan.io/tx/0xe38213bde0e43693df83838147a08bb914ad253105dfee127d4aeb556bfcf76a">appears</a> to have paid 65 ETH for the asset, worth ~$285K at time of purchase, roughly two weeks ago.



OpenSea Chief Marketing Officer Adam Hollander said the initiative is intended to “spotlight emerging artists and creators,” placing their work alongside historically significant digital pieces. Over the coming months, the marketplace says that it plans to target one acquisition every few days, spanning works from emerging artists to rare, high-profile tokens, with the goal of building a long-term cultural archive.



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M&amp;A

OpenSea launches NFT archive with $1M+ acquisition plan

Ben Strack

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



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A Monday <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nasdaq-sec-tokenized-securities">Nasdaq filing</a> seems to affirm what many of you may have read previously: Tokenization could transform finance sooner than many think.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In a <a href="https://listingcenter.nasdaq.com/assets/rulebook/nasdaq/filings/SR-NASDAQ-2025-072.pdf">proposal</a> to the SEC, the exchange seeks to let firms and investors tokenize the equity securities and ETPs they currently trade on the Nasdaq.&nbsp;



More specifically, the approach would allow participants the choice (upon entering an order) to have the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC) clear and settle trades in tokenized form.



Nasdaq noted that tokenized securities are “technologically distinct” from those traded on the exchange today (blockchain tech can offer faster settlements, improved audit trails, etc). But the company emphasized that both the traditional and tokenized types of shares would have the same value, rights/benefits, and market identification number.



Integrating digital assets into Nasdaq’s existing infrastructure “will advance financial innovation while maintaining stability, fairness and investor protection,” the exchange’s VP of North America said in a statement.



Ondo Finance chief strategy officer Ian De Bode said the filing reinforces the vision that blockchain tech can enhance traditional markets while preserving what makes them trusted.&nbsp;



“The same rails that gave people global access to the US dollar will now give global access to US capital markets,” he added.&nbsp;



This filing comes a bit more than a month after SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ made his “Project Crypto” pronouncement — an initiative to let the US financial markets <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-chair-atkins-project-crypto">move onchain</a>. The agency then issued a couple joint statements with the CFTC last week, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-cftc-crypto-coordination">promising collaboration</a> that fosters innovation:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="958" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107384" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=436 436w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=366 366w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-60.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



With a household name in finance getting on the tokenization train, let’s mention another that has jumped on the bandwagon.



Fidelity launched its Treasury Digital Fund (FHYXX) in December before filing for its OnChain share class in March — allowing it to use both traditional book-entry form and blockchain tech to record share ownership on Ethereum. The new share class went live last month.  



This is Fidelity’s first tokenized investment product — following fellow TradFi behemoths like Franklin Templeton and BlackRock into this realm. Its blockchain representation, the Fidelity Digital Interest Token (FDIT), can be bought/redeemed through Fidelity Investments.



The combined assets under management in BlackRock’s BUIDL, WisdomTree’s WTGXX and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI make up more than half the $7.4 billion tokenized treasury space. FDIT, in its early days, manages roughly $200 million.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="779" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107385" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-61.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Basically, FDIT is a step toward the company building out more efficient systems and interoperability between traditional and onchain investors. Fidelity and other aforementioned financial giants clearly view yield products as a good way to start.&nbsp;



Fidelity’s Cynthia Lo Bessette told me: “Longer-term, we anticipate that market infrastructure will integrate tokenized assets, which will reshape market structure and create new opportunities for investors to access broader asset classes and personalize portfolios.”



And that expectation brings us back to what Nasdaq is trying to do. In other words, more of the financial world is getting on the same page.



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



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



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



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

Fidelity

The ongoing TradFi bids to enhance markets via blockchain tech

A critical software hack may be putting crypto funds at risk, Ledger’s chief technology officer Charles Guillemet warned on Monday.



Hackers appear to have <a href="https://jdstaerk.substack.com/p/we-just-found-malicious-code-in-the">compromised</a> the npm account of an unnamed developer who’s “well-known,” Guillemet said.&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">🚨 There’s a large-scale supply chain attack in progress: the NPM account of a reputable developer has been compromised. The affected packages have already been downloaded over 1 billion times, meaning the entire JavaScript ecosystem may be at risk. The malicious payload works…&mdash; Charles Guillemet (@P3b7_) <a href="https://twitter.com/P3b7_/status/1965094840959410230?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The hackers slipped malicious code into a tiny but widely used JavaScript package called error-ex. That package has been downloaded more than one billion times and is embedded in countless apps and services.



The malware operates by silently monitoring for cryptocurrency activity. When a user tries to send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, or other tokens, it swaps the destination wallet with one controlled by attackers. Victims may believe they are sending funds to a trusted address, but the money instead flows to malicious actors.



Security analysts <a href="https://x.com/BleepinComputer/status/1965094845543850353">warned</a> that the code can hijack transactions at multiple layers — altering what websites display, changing background processes, and even tricking apps into misrepresenting what users are signing.



Guillemet advised hardware wallet owners to carefully confirm each transaction on the device’s screen before approving it. Because the hardware displays the true recipient address, diligent users can still spot tampering. For those using software wallets alone, he urged avoiding all on-chain transactions until the attack is better understood.



Researchers are <a href="https://x.com/buyerofponzi/status/1965105171089785100">describing</a> the breach as possibly the largest open-source supply chain attack in history. It highlights the fragility of shared software libraries and the direct financial risk they can create in crypto.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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



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



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Cybersecurity

Critical hack may put crypto funds at risk: Ledger CTO

Former Symbolic Capital principal Sam Lehman is taking on a new role as a junior partner at Pantera Capital, Blockworks has learned exclusively.



Pantera brought Lehman in for his expertise on investments at the intersection of crypto and AI, Lehman said. The crypto VC is stocking the cupboard shortly after its first closing for Pantera Fund V, which is <a href="https://panteracapital.docsend.com/view/ju2beeuhswk8vpu6">targeting</a> a $1 billion raise. Pantera general partner and portfolio manager Cosmo Jiang has <a href="https://www.dlnews.com/articles/deals/pantera-capital-to-invest-over-200m-into-ai-crypto-projects/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">implied</a> a significant amount of the new fund will be earmarked for crypto-AI bets.



Pantera is one of the largest and oldest crypto venture firms, having <a href="https://panteracapital.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">grown</a> to $4.8 billion in assets under management since its 2013 founding. It has cut the third-most deals among crypto VCs over the past 90 days, per Blockworks Research.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="894" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107351" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=467 467w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-58.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Pantera previously showed support for Bittensor, and Jiang told Blockworks that he’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/projects-to-watch-pantera">watching other projects</a>, such as Grass, in March. It also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/decentralized-ai-network-sahara-raises-fresh-capital-samsung-backed-round-2024-08-14/">led</a> a $43 million round for the blockchain-AI startup Sahara AI in 2024.



Lehman will become Pantera’s fourth junior partner. The firm also employs two managing partners, two general partners, and two partners.



While at Symbolic, Lehman made multiple investments at the intersection of crypto and AI, he said. He has also written about the sector, particularly in <a href="https://www.symbolic.capital/writing/the-worlds-rl-gym">regards</a> to reinforcement learning and pre-training, two processes through which AI models are developed.



Crypto and AI became popular speculative retail bets in late 2024, with several new projects tying tokens to AI agents — which, in many cases, were just chatbots. Many of these projects’ tokens have <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ai-agent-market-wipeout">since cratered</a>. Lehman’s interests lie outside of curiosities like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-ai-bot-goat-memecoin">the GOAT memecoin</a>.



“If we’re using [projects] like goat, zerebro, etc, to define [the intersection of] crypto [and] AI, then, yeah, I’d definitely say there is nothing exciting to invest in there,” Lehman said in a text. “For me, however, I’m focused on more distributed, open-source AI companies where the focus is on using blockchains very intentionally / sparingly to facilitate coordination of people all over the world to collaborate on building SOTA AI.”



Lehman said he was drawn to Pantera partly due to the opportunity to work with companies “throughout their full journey, not only at the earliest stages.” He also said the move was due to the team he will be working with.



“I got to know the Pantera team during my time at Symbolic, having co-invested in several deals together. The team has a really unique mix of analytical rigor, warmth with founders, and extremely high integrity,” Lehman said.



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Ex-Symbolic principal joins Pantera to help with crypto-AI investing

David Canellis

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



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If you’re waiting for the conversation to shift away from Digital Asset Treasury companies, prepare to wait longer. Same goes for those anticipating a cascade of implosions.



“ You probably end up having an evolution of these DATs, where instead of just putting a one-to-one token in it, DATs basically become this vehicle through which capital ends up getting mobilized in the TradFi world and then deployed onchain at scale,” Yano posited on today’s Empire podcast to Ethena Labs CEO Guy Young.



With that in mind, Yano wondered whether the over-leveraged blowups at the end of 2021 and into 2022 has Young scared of a redux.



In the cases where the carry trade is collateralized one-to-one with the target asset — for example, raising $5 billion to deploy $5 billion — the stablecoin founder doesn’t see cause for concern.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NrIfwXyVtWQ?si=-c9z_b39j_eV-uPQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







“I think the risk obviously comes if you start to lever up all of the underlying assets and you&#8217;re, you know, 2x long ETH within the vehicle itself, and then these things start getting liquidated. Obviously that becomes a bit more challenging,” Young said.



“I think the one thing that&#8217;s good is that they&#8217;re all much more transparent vehicles, right? Like, we couldn&#8217;t really see into the balance sheets of all of the entities that blew up last cycle, while here, you actually have disclosure requirements to be showing to the market. So anyone who&#8217;s reading those documents will be well aware of how much leverage there actually is.”



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



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



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



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



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

DATs

Shifts in strategy, increased transparency may help DATs evolve

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


Allocators

Meet with VCs, hedge funds, private equity, global investment firms, and the likes as they build crypto strategies across their portfolios.


Asset Managers

Engage with banks, brokerages, credit unions, payment processors, fintechs, and insurance providers as they develop internal digital asset strategies.


Financial Institutions

Experience

Who you can expect to meet at DAS

Stats from our previous Digital Asset Summits

By The Numbers

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Please note, an <a href="https://www.gov.uk/eta">electronic travel authorisation (ETA)</a> is now required to visit the UK.

Speakers

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



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



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



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



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

Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE

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



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



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



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

Joseph Lubin

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

Mathew McDermott

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



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

Samantha Bohbot

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

Danny Masters

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

Chris Rayner-Cook

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

Ray Hindi

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

Ben Forman

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

Sandy Kaul

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

David Cunningham

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

Ryan Hayward

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

Michael Higgins

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

Meltem Demirors

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

Xiao-Xiao Zhu

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

Melvin Deng

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



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

Nikita Fadeev

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

Michael Howell

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

Jess Houlgrave

David Karney

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

Dan Tapiero

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

Santiago Roel Santos

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

Jeff Park

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

Rebecca Rettig

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



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



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

Nicolas Vanhoutteghem 

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

Jakob Palmstierna

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

Staci Warden

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

Ruud Smets

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

Haseeb Qureshi

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

Matt Hougan

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



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

Morgan Krupetsky

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

Konstantin Richter

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

Mara Schmiedt

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

Guy Young

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

Sid Powell

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

Jordi Alexander

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

Evgeny Gaevoy

Vivek Raman

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

Michael Bucella

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

Simon Taylor

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

Anatoly Crachilov

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

Diogo Monica

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

Quinn Thompson

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

Rob Hadick

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

Hadley Stern

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



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



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

Omar Shakeeb

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

Marc Vanlerberghe

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

Chris Solarz

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



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

Seth Ginns

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

Ryan Rasmussen

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

Paul Faecks

Richard Green

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

Alwyn Clarke

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

Ian Taylor

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

Avi Felman

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



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

Eric Chen

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



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

William Benattar

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

James Newman

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



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

Serafin Lion Engel

Karl-Martin Ahrend

Hong Sun joined Core as institutional contributor after serving as the VP of BD at Paxos, where he focused on infrastructure and stablecoin partnerships. He has led efforts to introduce Core’s dual staking solutions, which unlock sustainable Bitcoin yields at scale for institutional investors. Hong actively educates stakeholders on Core’s innovative staking mechanisms, helping drive institutional adoption of Bitcoin DeFi.

Hong Sun

Jeremy Ng is the Founder and CEO of OpenEden Group, a leading real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform. He brings over 20 years of experience in institutional finance, fintech, and digital assets, and leads the company's strategic direction and growth as it builds compliant, tokenized RWA products that bridge traditional finance and Web3. Prior to founding OpenEden, Jeremy served as the APAC CEO of Gemini Exchange, establishing it as Singapore's leading fiat on-ramp exchange. He also held senior leadership roles at tier-1 investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Leonteq, and Morgan Stanley.

Jeremy Ng

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

Alex Gluchowski

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