Core

Macauley Peterson

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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Blockchain networks have long styled themselves as “decentralized world computers” ever since Ethereum. But one key component of modern computing has been missing: memory.&nbsp;



Now, with the launch of its private testnet this week, MIT-incubated startup Optimum is taking a first step toward fixing that.



Founded by MIT professor and <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/universal-decoder-pioneer">renowned</a> network coding researcher Muriel Médard, <a href="https://www.getoptimum.xyz/">Optimum</a> aims to build a high-performance memory layer for blockchains. Starting with data propagation, and eventually tackling what amounts to decentralized RAM, its core innovation is based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_network_coding#Random_Linear_Network_Coding">Random Linear Network Coding</a> (RLNC), a technique Médard has been refining for over two decades.



Unlike typical gossip-based peer-to-peer systems — where nodes redundantly forward packets — RLNC uses coded data packets that increase bandwidth efficiency and resilience. In private tests and academic research, the technique has shown up to 20x improvements in propagation bandwidth and 2x gains in speed, with flexible tradeoffs depending on application needs, according to the team.



The first tests with validator node operators are now underway, part of the team’s broader go-to-market strategy, Médard told Blockworks.



“We have signed multiple MOUs with large node operators,” Médard said. The private testnet is invite-only and an opportunity for operators to validate performance and help shape product direction.



OptimumP2P, the protocol&#8217;s first product, replaces traditional gossip protocols like <a href="https://libp2p.io/">libp2p</a> with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publish%E2%80%93subscribe_pattern%20layer">pub-sub</a> (publish-subscribe) that functions more like a memory bus in traditional computing. The technique could have obvious advantages, such as faster block propagation, reduced mempool congestion, and better performance for validators, RPC providers and even DEX operators.



Some of these improvements go straight to an operator’s bottom line. But eventually, Optimum will be geared toward small players, too. It plans to introduce a utility token to reward nodes — called “flex nodes” — for contributing to data propagation and, eventually, memory access, with rewards proportional to the useful work they perform, regardless of uptime or stake.



“Almost all blockchain innovation has focused on compute and execution,” Médard said. “But without fast, reliable data access and propagation, blockchains can’t function as true high-speed computing networks.”



Optimum’s blockchain-agnostic approach has already attracted significant backing, most recently an $11 million seed round led by 1kx, and which included investors like Robot Ventures, CMT Digital, Spartan and Finality Capital.&nbsp;



That focus on practical performance improvements has caught the attention of other infrastructure teams, including data availability providers like Avail.



Prabal Banerjee, co-founder of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/avail">Avail</a>, noted the potential relevance of RLNC to its roadmap.



“RLNC and its application to optimizing P2P is interesting to us,” Banerjee told Blockworks, though adding it needs further review. “At this stage we are exploring multiple avenues to optimize the network for 10GB blocks based on the strategy outlined in our scaling roadmap.”



In principle, Avail’s data layer, which aims to scale horizontally to &#8220;infinity blocks,&#8221; could benefit from more efficient network-level coding strategies — something Optimum’s team is hoping to make broadly available.



Although not live yet, Médard says a memory layer (rather than just a bus) is coming later this year. It can be thought of as a decentralized RAM substrate with what are known in CS parlance as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/ACID">ACID guarantees</a> (atomicity, consistency, durability) to significantly lower latency and replication cost over current DA or archival solutions.



For now, Optimum is focusing on perfecting its memory bus. And in an environment where even the fastest <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups">rollups</a> and L1s are still bottlenecked by propagation lag, that might be exactly what the world computer needs.



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Optimum aims to deliver Web3’s missing memory layer

David Canellis

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



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Liberland has fallen.



It’s a tale almost as old as Bitcoin itself. One day, you’re buying just a little bit of bitcoin. Stacking sats on Saturdays.&nbsp;



Suddenly, you mistakenly catch a glimpse of a video about stablecoin yield in your feed. The algorithm’s fault.&nbsp;



Then, a screenshot of generational memecoin gains. A string of governance airdrop tweets follow fast; farmers rich, KOLs richer. You? Fully FOMO&#8217;d.



Congratulations! You’ve been radicalized by the Web3 cabal.&nbsp;



All of your remaining bitcoin has been reallocated to the top 50 altcoins, weighted by their respective partnerships and memorandums of understandings. “E/acc” has been unironically added to your X handle. WAGMI.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">On This Day — Liberland goes Bitcoin</h2>



It’s enough to make you retch. After checking in on Liberland, the libertarian Balkan micronation founded in 2015, I fear it has suffered a similar fate.



It’s not that Liberland was ever exactly sold as a Bitcoin maximalist paradise. Established under Terra nullius rules, Czech politician and activist Vít Jedlička initially <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/magazine/the-making-of-a-president.html">positioned</a> the “three-square-mile teardrop of no man’s land” on the western bank of the Danube as a libertarian refuge for the entire world. A tiny sanctuary for “honest people,” free of big government, central banks and taxes. 



It’s easy to see how bitcoin once fit into that vision. Bitcoin was, and still is, symbolic of what’s possible under laissez-faire capitalism — proof that people can change the foundational structures of our world by taking matters into their own hands.



And while there’s no “legal tender” of Liberland, bitcoin was indeed to be accepted as money within its border, alongside practically all other currencies, even an official Liberland cryptocurrency “like bitcoin” somewhere down the line, as Jedlička himself red-flagged in initial media appearances.



Perhaps Jedlička and Satoshi shared a kindred audacity. Liberland sounds like just as much of an impossible dream as Bitcoin once did.



After arrests, court battles, attempted settlements, festivals and temporary exiles, the Free Republic of Liberland today <a href="https://liberland.org/">boasts</a> more than 1,100 registered citizens, more than 4,000 e-residents, and over 700,000 applicants on their waiting lists. But as one <a href="https://unherd.com/2023/07/inside-liberland-europes-bitcoin-micronation/">report</a> put it in 2023, very few Liberland citizens actually live there. Instead, there’s a “handful of activists moored downstream on a houseboat, under the close supervision of the Croatian police.”



<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">This weekend, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Free Republic of Liberland — a sovereign state nestled between Croatia and Serbia on the west bank of the Danube River. It was an incredible experience! Congratulations to President Vit Jedlička (<a href="https://twitter.com/JedlickaVit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jedlickavit</a>) on a decade of… <a href="https://t.co/XSEext3xMA">pic.twitter.com/XSEext3xMA</a>&mdash; Brock Pierce (@brockpierce) <a href="https://twitter.com/brockpierce/status/1912288756222009810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Liberland celebrated its 10th birthday this past weekend</figcaption></figure>



But whatever spiritual overlap there was between Bitcoin and Liberland (which had attracted many to its remote European floodplain in the first place), it’s all but gone from its public messaging.&nbsp;&nbsp;



One might’ve expected the ties between Liberland and Bitcoin to strengthen over the past decade. Especially so, considering bitcoin is up nearly 200x since early <a href="https://www.context.news/digital-divides/breakaway-balkans-micronation-dreams-of-crypto-future">reports</a> suggested that Liberland held much of its reserves in BTC. That would surely have made the microstate relatively wealthy if true.



(For what it’s worth, Liberland’s known bitcoin <a href="https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/13H2VmPrmoucaEgCCoimCPmPU9a7CaMyuw">address</a> contains less than $2,000 worth of bitcoin right now but in total has seen 275 BTC inflows — $23 million at current prices. Liberland deposited its last bitcoin to crypto exchange Bitcoin Suisse in August 2020.)



Today, there is no “bitcoin” on Liberland’s official website, barring what seems to be a single mention about it being a preferred currency alongside Liberland’s own coin.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdQcNd74Xeypm1sIX7LqSpdyHijci9Sq7bzpeeKvv0Is5Ns5UVU5OutQiTbwsAI9I_ioOC_90rUoWtHn7LLilnwq0C-dEvTk4lwHRCrFFESqYgtme395GpOBRjoGyG_R4bkZicGkg?key=ZFawP0Bw9GgBkQFWfWYH0xr_" alt=""/></figure>



There’s blockchain governance, and then there’s blockchain government.



Instead, the worst of blockchain’s buzzwords now overrun Liberland.org: soulbound NFTs that represent citizenship, on-chain governance that enables “decentralized hyperdemocracy,” all powered by an “operational token similar to DOT or ETH,” which users can bridge to TRX, and a small number of other chains.



It took only 10 years for Liberland to go from an economy with Bitcoin at its base, as President Jedlička <a href="https://news.bitcoin.com/liberland-bitcoin-truly-base-economy/">said</a> in 2016, to an economy built around an inflationary governance token, Liberland Dollars, issued on a Polkadot fork called the Liberland Blockchain.&nbsp;



A secondary token, Liberland Merit, is meant to represent the ownership of the actual land.&nbsp; The site promises that one day, the tokens can be “converted into tokenized political power,” giving citizens additional avenues to vote.



<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">Many friends have recently asked me about my involvement with <a href="https://twitter.com/Liberland_org?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Liberland_org</a> , and I am indeed very happy to see the community elect me as the Prime Minister of Liberland. My understanding of Liberland is as follows: Liberland is not just a country; it is a manifestation of a…&mdash; H.E. Justin Sun 🍌 (@justinsuntron) <a href="https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1844664803945775256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Liberland’s Congress recently elected Justin Sun prime minister for the <a href="https://protos.com/justin-sun-elected-prime-minister-of-liberland-for-a-second-time/">second</a> time running.



As it stands, Liberland is essentially a token economy experiment for a blockchain-powered nation that doesn’t really exist. Yet.



Still, the government <a href="https://docs.liberland.org/blockchain/tokenomics-primer">receives</a> vested token unlocks every month to fund itself and its initiatives (which include paying for token listings on crypto exchanges, marketing and incentives) in much the same way as VCs do from their portfolio Web3 companies. The coin has a $2.1 million market cap right now.



Just as there are no true Scotsmen, there is, of course, no one true representation of “Bitcoiner.” And no doubt, there are many among Liberland residents, believers, supporters and investors.&nbsp;



All that only makes the current iteration of Liberland, with all of its mumbo jumbo, that much more of a letdown. Luckily, it’s never too late to adopt the Bitcoin standard — although good luck ever getting the votes.



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A decade in, Liberland needs the Bitcoin standard more than ever

Ben Strack

Markets have clearly been quite volatile in recent weeks — crypto or otherwise.



Zooming out, the S&amp;P 500 was down nearly 9% year-to-date early Wednesday, and the Nasdaq Composite index has fared worse, dropping 14% so far in 2025.



As BTC hovered around $83,700 Wednesday morning, it was similarly down 10% year-to-date. Gold is up 24% over that span, flaunting a safe-haven status that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/investors-bitcoin-narrative-confusion">BTC does not yet widely enjoy</a>.



Shares of Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) have rallied in recent days, putting it barely into the green in 2025 (at +2%). But perhaps the most renowned crypto stock, Coinbase, remains down about 34% from the start of the year.



Crypto assets and stocks have been in a sort of “air pocket,” as reality replaces post-election enthusiasm with the reminder that some of the bigger changes for the space will take time, Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer told me.&nbsp;



Legislation — on market structure and stablecoins — will be key before institutional investors feel comfortable engaging with the space in earnest, he argued.



“The stock prices of companies like Strategy and Coinbase continue to be heavily influenced by retail investors and hedge funds that are more inclined to trade out of their positions than long-term institutional holders whose mandates often cause them to sit tight during market downturns,” Palmer added.



Blockspace’s Colin Harper — for a piece in <a href="https://forward-guidance.beehiiv.com/p/tgif">Blockworks’ Forward Guidance newsletter</a> last week — wrote about how bitcoin mining stocks are not as correlated to BTC as they once were.&nbsp;



Large miners like Marathon Digital and Core Scientific are down 28% and 54% YTD, respectively.&nbsp;



Palmer puts miners into two camps: those involved in building/managing AI data centers and the pure-play BTC miners, with both representing emerging technology plays.



“During a sharp downturn, those visions of future upside can be pushed aside as investor horizons shrink and there is more focus on necessities and staples and stocks with attractive dividend yields,” the Benchmark analyst noted.



Dan Weiskopf, co-portfolio manager of the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), acknowledged the “brutal” Q1 for miners. Still, the fund bought into the recent IPO of AI cloud provider CoreWeave. And CleanSpark (down 25% YTD) is BLOK’s seventh-largest holding.



“We do not believe that the AI/datacenter trend is a bubble and would expect a sizable relief to take form when markets lean more towards risk again,” Weiskopf told me.&nbsp;



Robinhood and Coinbase are BLOK’s second- and third-largest holdings, respectively. Weiskopf called the innovation of these companies exciting — “especially in the context of a friendlier SEC.”&nbsp;



Cantor Fitzgerald analysts are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/the-outlook-for-coin-as-macro-uncertainty-persists">similarly bullish on COIN</a>. T. Rowe Price portfolio manager Dominic Rizzo <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-trowe-price-tech-etf">has said</a> that while he considers Coinbase to be an industry “linchpin” (and his tech fund holds the stock), he doesn’t view Strategy or miners the same way.



BLOK’s number one holding? That would be MSTR. After Strategy’s latest bitcoin buy, the company owns 531,644 BTC (acquired for ~$67,556 per coin)



“We think MSTR&#8217;s growth rate deserves a premium to traditional multiples of book, especially when the book value is so easy to measure,” Weiskopf said. “A lot can happen in the future and this does not mean that we don&#8217;t trade around our position.”



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Navigating crypto exposures in a volatile world

Casey Wagner

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



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US equities were relatively stable Tuesday as investors enjoyed a break from back-to-back tariff headlines and digested a batch of positive bank earnings.&nbsp;



Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Bank of America reported this week. A couple data points of note:&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Banks don’t seem worried about potential loan and lease losses&nbsp;</h2>



In some cases, they’re actually holding less — like Goldman Sachs, which set aside $287 million in credit loss provisions during Q1, compared to $351 million in Q4 2024. The Bank of New York Mellon also decreased its provisions from $20 million in Q4 to $18 million in Q1.&nbsp;



Citigroup increased its credit loss allowance by 1% from the last quarter of 2024. Bank of America also posted a mild increase in Q1, allotting $13.26 billion for defaults vs. $13.21 billion at the end of last year.&nbsp;



Why does this matter? Banks are not expecting a huge increase in loan defaults, meaning they imagine consumers will be healthy and/or they see their risk controls working. All good news.&nbsp;



Of course, defaults lag economic stress, so grain of salt. What I mean is that should tariffs, market volatility, and/or generally-worse economic conditions lead to an increase in loan defaults, it might take a while before we see this materialize — both in losses and in increased loss allowances. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lending is up&nbsp;</h2>



Big banks’ loan balances are increasing.&nbsp;



Goldman Sachs reported $210 billion in loans during Q1, up from $196 billion in Q4 2024.&nbsp;



Bank of America’s Q1 loans came in at $1.1 trillion, up almost 6% year over year. The bank reported quarter-over-quarter increases in both consumer and commercial lending.&nbsp;



Citibank’s lending was up as well, coming in at $702 billion (a 4% increase from the first quarter of 2024). But net credit losses in Q1 were up too, showing a 7% increase year over year.&nbsp;



Why does this matter? Again, it speaks to the health of consumers and businesses. When things are good, businesses want to expand and consumer spending increases given confidence they can pay back what they borrow.&nbsp;



Again, grain of salt here. A rise in defaults is bad. Plus, increased commercial lending last quarter could be a reflection of businesses looking to get ahead of tariffs by increasing working capital or taking out loans to make supply chain changes.&nbsp;



All in all, though, big bank earnings are off to a pretty solid start. Looking ahead at earnings season more broadly, there’s one other thing we are keeping an eye on, thanks to DataTrek Research’s Nicholas Colas. He made an excellent point on quarterly cost accruals in a note yesterday: Many companies have some leeway in how and when they report cost accruals. 



Intentionally increasing reported expenses (accruals) in a quarter where profits were especially high could be advantageous in times where the market is down and expectations for exceptional earnings are low (times like right now). These extra earnings can be “saved,” if you will, for a later quarter when investors will reward better performance.&nbsp;



Colas says looking at how much companies beat on expectations will give us clues into profitability and management confidence. We’ll be watching.&nbsp;



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Big banks report big loans in Q1

Katherine Ross

Jack Kubinec

Movement Labs and Movement Network are conducting an investigation following last month’s market maker issues, when Binance removed an unnamed market maker after “misconduct” around MOVE’s token, Blockworks has learned.



A Movement Labs spokesperson confirmed a third-party review when reached by Blockworks.



In internal Slack messages seen by Blockworks, a profile belonging to Movement co-founder Cooper Scanlon said the investigation into “recent events” has “various routes […] [that] are still being explored,” and “nothing is definitive yet.” The third party involved in the investigation was not named.&nbsp;



In a message to Blockworks, a Movement Labs spokesperson said:



&#8220;Movement Network Foundation is conducting a third-party review following recent market maker abnormalities — a standard best practice to ensure full transparency and accountability. It would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome of the review or any actions that may or may not result. Operations continue normally as the review is conducted.”&nbsp;



Additionally, Movement Labs co-founder Rushi Manche took a temporary leave from the company for an undetermined amount of time, multiple sources told Blockworks.



One source said Scanlon announced Manche’s “temporary leave of absence” during a company all-hands on Monday. The company held an onsite in San Francisco last week which Manche did not attend, according to people familiar.



Manche told Blockworks today that he was “still at” Movement Labs, though neither Manche nor Movement Labs specifically responded to a question asking to confirm if he&#8217;d been on leave.



A spokesperson told Blockworks that operations “are continuing as normal” at the firm.&nbsp;



The reason or length of Manche’s leave was not immediately made clear. Employees had noticed Manche’s profile was no longer in the company Slack on Friday and Monday, according to multiple sources. However, Blockworks was told by a source that Manche’s Slack account was reactivated by the end of the day on Monday.&nbsp;



Manche told Blockworks that he’s “still in Slack and [has] been doing ecosystem calls all week.”



On Monday afternoon — the same day Manche’s leave was announced internally — he took to X to <a href="https://x.com/rushimanche/status/1911850061132378380">advertise</a> “weekly ecosystem syncs” with developers alongside his co-founder, Cooper Scanlon.



The investigation comes a few weeks after Binance disclosed that it had investigated the MOVE token for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-movement-market-maker-investigation">market-making irregularities</a>. Last month, Binance announced that it offboarded an entity behind “misconduct” around MOVE, Movement’s native token.&nbsp;



Binance didn’t return multiple requests for comment regarding the market maker.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe0oJpF4XNOwvHRp-LhAfc5FsCy_YdP2GGKguEiKkKDBvnQN_5G4s8lRh8AP9vTQf8-N8WLPo8NWq2uhEk_HcWGBcJ2Rlun13OYQFIQn0soZY1d_qrWZ9ylQI1bmUqrBiOyRyFYDQ?key=NqqMDFxJ3lOQtG0Uv1cIWv7g" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A screenshot of Web3Port reposting a Movement Labs post from February. The repost was seemingly removed later. </figcaption></figure>



Movement declined to name the market maker at the time, though crypto sleuth ZachXBT had been told the project was linked to Web3Port. An examination by Blockworks revealed that Web3Port had engaged with Movement Labs’ social media posts in the past few months.



Disclosure: Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz is an angel investor in Movement Labs.



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Movement Labs, Foundation conducts ‘investigation’ into ‘market maker abnormalities’

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Canada is leading the way again — this time on spot solana ETFs.&nbsp;



Such products from Purpose Investments, Evolve, 3iQ, and CI Global Asset Management are set to debut Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.



Crypto ETF milestones in Canada are not new. In case you forgot, Purpose launched the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/how-the-first-north-american-bitcoin-etf-made-it-across-the-finish-line">world’s first</a> bitcoin ETF backed by physically settled bitcoin in February 2021. Other issuers in the country brought their own products to market shortly after.



Canadian securities regulators cleared spot ether ETFs just two months after the first bitcoin funds hit the market.



As you probably know, the SEC didn’t greenlight spot bitcoin and ether ETFs until 2024.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Fast forward to today, and despite a crypto-friendly president, Congress, and SEC helping the US catch up to the rest of the world, Canada has won the race to wrap yet another crypto asset into a familiar financial vehicle.



I spoke with 3iQ when the firm <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/how-us-canada-solana-fund-filings-differ">filed for a solana fund</a> last summer; VanEck proposed a spot solana ETF in the US around the same time. While other US issuers have since followed, the SEC <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/execs-das-crypto-futures-etfs">may be patient</a>, as CME SOL futures contracts just went live last month.&nbsp;



It’s also worth mentioning that ether ETFs in Canada and elsewhere stake a portion of the ETH they hold. The US ether funds <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/spot-eth-etfs-without-staking-mistake">do not</a>, and the SEC continues <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/nysearca/2025/34-102855.pdf">mulling</a> proposals to allow those ETFs to start doing so.



SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce noted in a February <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-journey-begins-020425">statement</a> that “the commission may have to make progress on custody and other issues” before allowing these changes to existing ETFs.&nbsp;



Back to the solana funds: Evolve said in a Monday release that it intends to initially stake up to half of the portfolio’s SOL. As we mentioned yesterday, the firm touted its initial 0% management fee (through the end of 2025).



Purpose noted that staking would be powered by its in-house validator infrastructure, eliminating third-party costs. CI’s fund is subadvised by Galaxy Asset Management, a spokesperson told me. Galaxy is set to facilitate staking arrangements for the fund.



A 3iQ spokesperson confirmed that the company anticipates the launch of its solana ETF this week, but declined to comment further.



Let the race for assets begin.



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Canada again set to beat US to milestone crypto ETF launch

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



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Kraken has signed a non-binding letter of intent to delegate some of its current and future staked Solana tokens to validators operated by Janover Inc., the real estate company turned Solana treasury play told Lightspeed exclusively.



Publicly-listed Janover, which intends to change its name to DeFi Development Corporation, announced last week that a group of ex-Kraken employees had acquired a majority stake in the company and raised $42 million via convertible bonds from a group of firms including Kraken.



With this LOI, Kraken appears to be doubling down on its Janover backing — although details on the deal, such as how much Kraken stake Janover will oversee, are still scant. Interestingly, Janover does not yet own a validator operation, so Kraken is essentially pledging its stake to validators Janover intends to operate.&nbsp;



Janover chief investment officer and chief operating officer Parker White did note that Kraken would receive more Janover stock consideration as part of the deal.&nbsp;



The new Janover team — which includes Joseph Onorati as CEO alongside White in the C-suite — acquired the company founder’s shares for about $4 million, per SEC <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1805526/000121390025029871/xslSCHEDULE_13D_X01/primary_doc.xml">filings</a>. It then managed to raise $42 million in debt and has already <a href="https://ir.janover.co/content/news/Janover-Purchases-Approximately-10-5-Million-of-Solana-SOL-as-Part-of-New-Treasury-Strategy">snapped</a> up around $21 million in Solana.



The Janover debt is converted when the company reaches $100 million in market capitalization, so investors appear to be valuing the company at a far higher level than what the new owners paid to acquire it. JNVR stock is up over 1,700% since right before the company’s new ownership was announced.



The company’s real estate business is still operational, but the value appears to be coming from the treasury. In an interview, Janover executives pitched the company as a sort of better investment vehicle for Solana compared to ETFs — and a spiritual successor to Michael Saylor’s bitcoin treasury strategy.&nbsp;



“A lot of people said, ‘The [bitcoin] ETFs are going to kill MicroStrategy. Actually the exact opposite happened,’” White said, later adding: “I think in 10, 20 years people are going to look back and be like, ‘Of course the ETF is not the best way to hold digital assets, especially yield bearing digital assets.’”



White argued that potential staked Solana ETFs would not be able to stake their entire balance due to liquidity demands, and ETF issuers cannot run their own validators, so they have to pay extra fees. Janover isn’t the first company to make this bet: Canadian holding company Sol Strategies has also been likened to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sol-strategies-is-solanas-microstrategy">MicroStrategy on Solana</a>.



Since solana tends to be more volatile than bitcoin, and much of Strategy’s business model revolves around bitcoin volatility, White argued that Janover could play the convertible debt strategy even more successfully.&nbsp;



Either way, Kraken appears all-in on its former employees’ Solana venture. Onorati was previously chief strategy officer at the exchange.&nbsp;



“I messaged [Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell] about this, and his first response was something like, ‘Hell yes, where do I send the check?’” Onorati said.



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Janover Inc. set to receive some of Kraken’s staked SOL

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



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In the wake of recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-tariff-changes-exemption-electronics">tariff turmoil</a> in markets, investors have walked back their expectations for an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve come May.&nbsp;



Fed funds futures markets are now pricing in a 16% chance of a 25bps cut next month. That’s down from 45% just a week ago.&nbsp;



What changed? FOMC members started talking.&nbsp;



Fed Governor Chris Waller said yesterday that the inflationary impact of tariffs could be “temporary.” He’s said that before, but he added that should the economy slow too much, he expects the FOMC will cut “sooner.” 



Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this month that the central bank plans to take a “wait-and-see” approach to Trump’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-put-tariffs-market-inflation-bond">trade policies</a>. Given the runaround the administration has given markets these past two weeks, this isn’t surprising. It’s hard to speculate too much on the inflationary impacts when the tariff rates change on an almost daily basis. 



“We are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance,” Powell said days after Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement.&nbsp;



Trump has argued that the Fed needs to act now in lowering rates, writing in a Truth Social <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114280322706682564">post</a> that Powell is “always late” in reacting.&nbsp;



Up ahead, Governor Lisa Cook is slated to speak this evening at an event in Washington. Chair Powell will speak Wednesday, followed by Governor Michael Barr on Thursday.



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Markets lower expectations for Fed rate cut amid tariff turmoil

Securitize is acquiring MG Stover’s Fund Administration Business, which will make Securitize Fund Services (SFS) the “largest” digital asset fund administrator in the world, Blockworks has learned.&nbsp;



Securitize declined to disclose the terms of the deal to Blockworks.



&#8220;This is a significant step in our growth, reinforcing our commitment to expanding our capabilities as we serve an ever-expanding cohort of asset issuers and investors,” Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said. &#8220;Securitize’s acquisition of MG Stover’s Fund Administration business cements our role as the most comprehensive platform for tokenized securities and fund administration.”



“This acquisition positions us as the largest and most complete digital asset fund administrator,” Domingo exclusively told Blockworks.



According to a press release, the deal will help expand SFS’s abilities to offer fund administration, compliance and reporting solutions to asset managers and institutional investors while integrating with other Securitize offerings.



SFS will now service $38 billion in assets across 715 funds, the release added.&nbsp;



MG Stover’s Fund Administration business, a fund administration firm focused on crypto, offers primary issuance, tokenization services and transfer agent services.&nbsp;



Securitize’s BUIDL — its flagship fund in partnership with BlackRock — is the largest tokenized US Treasury fund in the world, with over $2 billion. BlackRock also <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blackrock-tokenization-investment">announced an investment</a> in Securitize last May.



The firm has also carved out other partnerships with big TradFi institutions, including Apollo, as Blockworks has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/apollo-securitize-partnership-institutional-adoption">previously reported</a>.



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Exclusive: Securitize acquires MG Stover’s Fund Administration business

Donovan Choy

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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ETH is trading at ~$1,600 today.



Can ETH pump again? Wen moon?



Getting to the heart of this simple question requires an inevitable detour into the boring, technical weeds of data availability (DA).



The ELI5 explanation of data availability is storage fees, or bandwidth resource. All chains – L1s and L2s – need them to operate, but their primary supplier is the L1.



Here’s the rough train of thought:&nbsp;



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>What is the fate of ETH as an asset?</li>



<li>That depends on how well Ethereum can generate fees.</li>



<li>Ethereum generates fees in three primary ways: execution, MEV, and data availability.</li>



<li>Execution fees (aka congestion fees) have largely been given up to L2s, as per the intent of the rollup-centric roadmap.</li>



<li>MEV fees are compressing due to better research. More and more wallets and apps are finding better ways to retain MEV and return them to users. The below chart of Ethereum’s REV (real economic value), excluding blob fees, is a rough proxy for how Ethereum’s MEV has been trending down over time.</li>
</ol>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXftW0Euic203BY1w1ZhnDMf2-4lrrE1njuJ31rAk6k9E3oQ0qoO_yFPmMKczPN6_JYgsYm-iIIcRo2k511sVRlptsJ1B3dUjt17FPcV9T5OdpDnh_2-ZD5kppenA3pOg-skpSZdRA?key=8_JrYLtsh5-0PxdExGL64a7h" alt=""/></figure>



Another way to look at the downtrend of MEV is the diminishing extracted value of sandwich attacks. This is largely due to an <a href="https://x.com/smyyguy/status/1910072084073697688">increasing amount</a> of Ethereum private transaction orderflow that is not going through the public mempool.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfqom86tOtNJpKatTH9ARP9RZCgVh3WPMpKb9JSGzHIxuhHVd9kcHoF_t0lFP0enSTRjQ51Lz0Pcdntx9-39fNU2_2b6t8wFXAoN6ou2Hq5gIwC5p9CLx21CXmTqWw9r9xOan9iow?key=8_JrYLtsh5-0PxdExGL64a7h" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://libmev.com/?mevTypeLabels=%5B%22Sandwich%22%5D">Libmev</a></figcaption></figure>



<ol start="6" class="wp-block-list">
<li>As more rollups launch, and since every chain needs DA, DA fees remain ETH&#8217;s last bastion of value accrual.</li>
</ol>



So we’ve established that data availability fees are essential to Ethereum’s success.



That is not just my opinion; it is the explicit position of leading Ethereum researchers like Justin Drake. As he puts it in the latest <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/1iw8ln8/comment/mepbml5/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">Ethereum Foundation Reddit AMA</a>, DA is “the only sustainable source of flows for L1s,” not for execution or MEV fees.



(I realize this is a simplification. There are efforts to scale the L1 and to <a href="https://x.com/Etherealize_io/status/1882213980858642599">attract</a> institutional capital to the L1, but put that aside for now.)



Now, let’s look at how much Ethereum makes from DA today.



Unfortunately, not much. Since the inception of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-improvement-proposal-4844">EIP-4844</a> in March 2024, Ethereum has generated a total of $26m in fees.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdTjTy1rCE4HyEKp0PG3fkVmHKHOpKUXHG93XaHExGwVgz0tcEM0Xoi3pQxN_ejX79P81aCkCAkqvShOjMqvIES6DRYt1dnPj90HTvQ3fM-E8rZtP2biKK6aejY033Oz7F5rIRm8g?key=8_JrYLtsh5-0PxdExGL64a7h" alt=""/></figure>



Reaching that fee level is a function of both demand (rollups) and supply (Ethereum L1 DA capacity).&nbsp;



Let’s assume Ethereum had sufficient user demand today. Even then, Ethereum lacks the supply.&nbsp;



EIP-4844 introduced blobs to Ethereum’s DA capacity in March 2024. Blob capacity is about 384 KB per slot, or approximately 32 KB/s.&nbsp;



For context, alternative-DA layers like Celestia have 8 MB blocks today that are about 182% larger. (Celestia is gearing up <a href="https://x.com/celestia/status/1911782025100771603">for 128 MB blocks</a>.)



Yes, blob capacity is expanding, but it’s slow. DA capacity is set to expand from 3 blobs to 6 blobs in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-fusaka-fork-pectra-devs-call">Pectra hard fork</a> next month. The eventual plan is to expand blob capacity to <a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1895863075527700959">48-72</a> in the subsequent Fusaka hard fork, but who knows when that’s going to happen.



Now, let’s look at the DA market.



More bad news. It’s a competitive market. There’s Celestia, EigenDA and Avail.



Celestia is the main alternative DA provider today, so let’s just consider them. Celestia’s DA is dirt cheap. Celestia’s co-founder, Mustafa Al-Bassam, <a href="https://x.com/musalbas/status/1893975544636563736">states</a> that this is not a competitive pricing strategy but rather a move to &#8220;achieve spam resistance&#8221; for the chain.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdGKxqGF7BDPw97W5aagAnzNxadDDrStdDwfZdSbrxsSoiyBMQX_-HKWTOrtiGOfzP96p0pPyMAsKWlequznKiFwghP5r_CPMnnYTiF7Ky6zQYAi8xtjkJcrV2X9g_mT-lAU8xN2A?key=8_JrYLtsh5-0PxdExGL64a7h" alt=""/></figure>



In any case, Celestia’s enormous price advantage means it dominates the DA market share compared to Ethereum (for now). Though it’s still early days for Celestia, it already attracts DA demand from L2s like Eclipse. In other words, less demand for Ethereum DA.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf09vi_kw97dU7XmSmAi2zuD5h8DLiumdS9i_pPs8bhCaQjJEttm6QTVmvy-bSnCWYTdMzpledR03JvlazzgNXYRRUPL22h2O4NQa9w_tjcRMoRfrJvuDWcEc1CWU-xoYysitf8pg?key=8_JrYLtsh5-0PxdExGL64a7h" alt=""/></figure>



Celestia may even be competing with Ethereum on proof verification as per its &#8220;Accidental Computer&#8221; roadmap, as Delphi Digital analyst Facundo Indabera pointed out <a href="https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/celestias-roadmap-tia-time-or-is-da-a-commodity#key-takeaways">elsewhere</a>. But that’s a whole other story.



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What would it take for ETH to succeed?

Kate Irwin

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



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Crypto firm <a href="https://solayer.org/">Solayer</a> is releasing a debit card for crypto users, the company shared exclusively with Blockworks.&nbsp;



The card, called the Emerald Card, will use the Solayer Infini Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) L1 chain.



The Emerald Card will be available in over 100 countries, including the US, and it has an Apple Pay and Android Pay integration, according to a press release.



A rewards program tied to the card is expected to launch soon, allowing cardholders to earn crypto, airdrops and access staking.



Solayer will use <a href="https://www.solana.id/">SolanaID</a> — an account system from Bulgarian firm Digitalsocial — for the card. This system identifies users and lets them link multiple wallets across chains to create a single identity, which may then be offered rewards, discounts and access tailored to their trading profile.



“We’re excited to work with Solayer to help bring off-chain spending into the world of on-chain reputation,” said SolanaID Head of Growth Ben Showard in a statement.&nbsp;



“Emerald Card is a huge step forward in connecting real-world activity with your crypto identity — and we’re proud to support a product built for users who move the ecosystem forward. Emerald Card is not only transforming your yield-bearing digital assets into real-world dollars to spend at every corner, it is also a path for users to build up their internet reputation utilizing Solana ID,” Showard added.



The card is first being made available to 40,000 users via a community sale. New registrations will open at a later date.



It’s not the first crypto card to hit the market, though, so it’ll have to compete with the others out there. There’s the Solana SolCard and the Gnosis Pay debit card, for example. Avalanche <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/avalanche-visa-card-payments">announced</a> a Visa-powered credit card back in February, and MetaMask <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/metamask-ux-overhaul">unveiled</a> something similar that month using Mastercard.

Exclusive: Solayer launches crypto rewards Visa debit card

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The technological singularity, when men will merge with machines to shed all “limitations of our biological bodies and brain,” may only be 20 years away, says Ray Kurzweil.



Something to look forward to! Meanwhile, Bitcoin has already brought about something similar.&nbsp;



Fourteen years ago today, the price of bitcoin traded at under dollar parity for the last time ever — an event that we’ll call “the Coinvergence,” because “financial” and “economic” singularities were already taken.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">On This Day — Dollar parity</h2>



To be clear, this was the second time that bitcoin had traded above $1.



Bitcoin spent about a week above a dollar in mid-February 2011 — around the same period that blogger Plato was planning the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/plato-bitcoin-road-trip-price">first ever Bitcoin road trip</a> — before falling back to under $0.70 by early April.



While dollar parity didn’t immediately stick, the first time around led to Bitcoin’s second-ever Slashdot feature. “Online-Only Currency BitCoin Reaches Dollar Parity,” one user <a href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/10/189246/online-only-currency-bitcoin-reaches-dollar-parity">wrote</a>.&nbsp;



“In only two years, this open-source currency has gone from having no value at all to one with not only an open market of competing exchanges, but the ability to buy real goods and services like web hosting, gadgets, organic beauty products, and even alpaca socks.&#8221;



Of course, there isn’t anything particularly special about 1 BTC reaching $1. As one Bitcointalk poster <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2734.20">commented</a> in a “parity party” thread, “we humans like neat number,” even if it awarded bitcoin a modest market cap of under $6 million.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeOSE_o323cBnfTPXFdBsGkV0bmDLo7b7lvRUczO6ar5Kc7WOVWd_7fwZoxPwO3L0iPSSAc-ZNtnG8S3tyC700Wtfv0WMuEqTzQDPzidR5Lu4xH-XbPlN1LLKKo8DleCr3WC1PnfQ?key=m42APRgQYans0qnkgty-Ltkk" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Preparations for bitcoin reaching dollar parity had been underway for months</figcaption></figure>



Dollar parity is, then, mostly symbolic. It was bitcoin’s first great event horizon: A dollar bought more than 1,300 BTC in late 2009, but only a year and a half later could buy just one. The US dollar had technically fallen by 99.9% against bitcoin in 24 months. Bullish.



What’s most impressive is that bitcoin never again saw under $1. At least, that’s not counting the flash crash on Mt. Gox in June 2011, when its BTC order book briefly <a href="https://blog.bitmex.com/the-june-2011-bitcoin-flash-crash/">collapsed</a> from over $17 to $0.01 amid a hacking incident. The exchange later rolled back trading histories to make users whole.



Kurzweil similarly <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140316213301/http://hfg-resources.googlecode.com/files/SingularityIsNear.pdf">describes</a> a point of no return with AI. Once artificial intelligence eclipses biological intelligence, an augmented human race will eventually saturate the entire universe with man-machine know-how — fulfilling our destiny to reorganize the very patterns of matter and energy to maximize computation forever and ever.



“We will determine our own fate, rather than have it determined by the current ‘dumb,’ simple, machinelike forces that rule celestial mechanics,” he wrote in his 2005 book.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdU5EpHt9JkXFWIvOKSfIjL-Lz_SWKW24dCJMSrlrlSmvUA1BuvdDYr8j6FS_7i2zFZQmc5KK5Ft154uGJBydK264J2lw7qi_fdc9so-ardhihkpc0TJJgrpiu7ATBQzmtP7CzlbA?key=m42APRgQYans0qnkgty-Ltkk" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: TradingView</figcaption></figure>



By some point in 2045, Kurzweil’s technological singularity will have transformed “every institution and aspect of human life, from sexuality to spirituality.”&nbsp;



On the anniversary of the Coinvergence, it’s hard to say that Bitcoin hasn’t already done all that in some form. Bitcoiners indeed determined their own fate by rejecting the dumb forces that rule financial mechanics.&nbsp;



Now, what comes next is the real question: the technological singularity, or bitcoin’s closest big milestone of $1 million per coin?



We’ll need a new name for that one — how about the “Satoshilarity”?



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Crypto Singularity: How Bitcoin redefined value at $1

The WCT token is now officially transferable, this marks a pivotal moment in WalletConnect’s decentralisation roadmap. Transferability of WCT brings the onchain economy closer to a more open, permissionless, and community-driven experience.



Since its inception, WalletConnect has been guided by a singular mission: to make onchain UX amazing. The WalletConnect logo is as iconic to onchain connectivity as the Visa logo is to payments. As billions in value flow through the WalletConnect network annually.



WCT plays a crucial role in this mission, WCT will allow for fees, rewards, staking and governance on the WalletConnect Network and ensures that the community, wallets and apps have their say in the future of onchain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why This Matters</h2>



The transferability of WCT represents more than just a technical milestone, it’s a move to decentralize the core infrastructure that powers interactions and connectivity across the onchain economy. Transferability allows anyone, anywhere, to acquire WCT, enabling broader participation in governance and helping shift power from a central entity to a distributed network of contributors and users that are shaping the onchain future.



Until now, the WCT token was non-transferable by design. It was carefully distributed through an eligibility framework that rewarded long-term supporters, partners, and contributors, ensuring alignment between those who built the protocol and those who would eventually help govern it and use it.



This cautious and strategic approach is essential for critical infrastructure.The transition to transferability was never about speed it was about doing it right.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Criteria for Transferability</h2>



The WalletConnect Foundation laid out clear, thoughtful criteria that needed to be met before enabling WCT transferability. These included:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Certifying at least 16 Wallets as part of the WalletConnect Certified program.</li>



<li>Achieving at least 100M WCT tokens on the staking pool.</li>



<li>Onboarding at least 16 Node Operators to the WalletConnect Network.</li>



<li>Staking has been live for at least 12 weeks on Mainnet since TGE.</li>



<li>Open-sourcing WCN source code.</li>
</ul>



The last of the milestones, open-sourcing the Walletconnect source code took place on April 7th, 2025.



The availability of the WalletConnect Token (WCT) on major centralized exchanges like Binance, OKX and many more reflects the growing recognition of the role of WalletConnect in the infrastructure of web3. By enabling secure, permissionless connections between wallets and apps, WalletConnect has become a core part of how users interact with decentralized networks. The token’s broader availability enhances this infrastructure by making participation in the network more open and distributed.



The WalletConnect global community will continue to grow. When more users, developers, and contributors can participate in the ecosystem on their own terms, we move closer to the ideals of user ownership and protocol autonomy. It also strengthens WalletConnect’s core value of remaining a neutral, permissionless layer that any project or user can build on or connect to.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s Next for WalletConnect — and Why It Matters for the Ecosystem</h2>



Enabling transferability is not the end, it’s a beginning. Transferability means more than just liquidity. It means governance participation. It means developer alignment. And it means a stronger, more resilient protocol secured by third part node provider such as Sensei, Quantnode, Nodemonster, Nansen, Luganodes, Ledger, Kiln, Hextrust, Figment, Everstake, Cryptomind, Consensys, Chainsafe, Arc and 1kx.



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WalletConnect unlocks transferability of WCT token, marking a major step in its decentralization journey

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>.



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



Just last week, the FT reported that Tether’s considering a US-only stablecoin. Why? Because their current $144 billion-dollar stablecoin USDT may not comply with potential new US regulation (which is still making its way through the relevant checkpoints down in DC).&nbsp;



Wintermute, in its last weekly <a href="https://www.wintermute.com/insights/market-color/market-update/market-update-14-apr-2025?utm_campaign=Market%20commentary%20newsletter&amp;utm_source=telegram&amp;utm_medium=social">market update</a>, noted that some of USDT’s market share had been “eroding,” thanks to both the as-of-yet nonexistent US regulation and, of course, MiCA.



Here’s why it matters: No doubt, Tether is still the biggest and&nbsp; — as we’ve seen Circle’s S-1 — most profitable player in the space right now. But, as I’ve been writing the past couple of months, regulation and adoption could lead to further shakeups as we get new entrants into the space and as others eat up more market share.



“The stablecoin market cap soared 15% in 2025 to a record $233 billion, with USDC fueling much of the growth by adding $16 billion <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins">compared</a> to USDT’s $7 billion increase,” Wintermute wrote.&nbsp;



Then, let&#8217;s take a look at specific ecosystems.&nbsp;



You have Tron, which saw a $6 billion bump — from $61 billion to $67 billion — pretty much only driven by USDT.



Solana’s stablecoin market cap sits at $12 billion now, up from $5.3 billion.



And over on Ethereum, USDC’s market share has jumped to 30% while USDT slipped slightly to 52% (a 4% decline), though it held on to its $64 billion valuation.&nbsp;



I am in no way, shape or form rooting for any of the OG stablecoin issuers to lose their footing or profitability; that’s not why this type of data interests me. Rather, I think competition in the space is good, and it’s a win-win for consumers: force the heavyweights to keep innovating without monopolizing and make space for the new wave of entrants. 



It adds a little spice to the sector. What’s wrong with a little spice?



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USDC’s ‘fueling’ stablecoin market cap rise: Wintermute

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>.



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



So lending markets have yet to make a comeback this cycle — and it kinda makes sense.&nbsp;



But Galaxy may have some good news for us all: Lending could be ready for some green shoots of its own.&nbsp;



“The convergence of traditional financial expertise with blockchain-based innovation suggests a future where crypto lending services become increasingly sophisticated and reliable, while maintaining the unique benefits of blockchain technology,” Galaxy’s Zack Pokorny wrote.



“As the sector continues to mature, it may well serve as a bridge between traditional finance and the emerging digital asset ecosystem, facilitating broader adoption of cryptocurrency-based financial services.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdGeYUkL4j9yywfyEiegcpEXxvuANCiCNVKv0Wzoyaw1DSrKcTSJgjQtyjVvOiYAWVPgn-9tihplUcPVC1wOUd4IV49eP-lpB-UpA8ul1WL0u4AUlLqCZ9KkY0Cwxiu-3vTqQT6eQ?key=cg99dqhikuDosdVOGNmsTCEf" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A look at the players in the space, courtesy of Galaxy. </figcaption></figure>



At the end of last year, Tether, Galaxy and Ledn led the CeFi lending pack. Combined, the three had a loan book of $9.9 billion.&nbsp;



Lending, at its peak, had a total loan book of $34 billion, per Galaxy’s data — and it dropped as low as $6.4 billion after the collapse of the sector. Yikes.&nbsp;



Depending on your vibe this morning: The segment is up 73% from the lows, if you want to look at it positively, or down 68% off the highs.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfYezQcJqmWjpfI-BhIaPHSmz8bvXdzGBxyon4nxnkFqmx9XHln5Sx8jAH3E67bYnbpQbloq0R1sO90QZ0r4jefegf5HtkfAB46CV62_3z6fbNw10lw206DxwxJ38Bm22SR5zJ0?key=cg99dqhikuDosdVOGNmsTCEf" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A look at the performance of lending over the years. </figcaption></figure>



But let’s not just focus on the CeFi of it all, right?&nbsp;



DeFi lending has actually seen more of a comeback. There’s been a whopping 959% increase — with $19 billion in open borrows at the end of last year — in “open DeFi borrows on the observed chains and applications in the eight quarters since the bottom was set.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf6nBeKMJzI29nUIpxvPRwzH7Klupde7QYB2wLAahjpGcC9z5EhtaIyV_linUw1UcIvx_aQqhZhVKbocv8qMyprJ7UPzz8Db1XbY9dpBPR4VXrdwRjmh8c-bX7LMDtC2nuxVRFc2A?key=cg99dqhikuDosdVOGNmsTCEf" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Just in case you’re more of a visual person.</figcaption></figure>



At the end of last year, the number of outstanding loans through onchain lending apps was roughly 18% higher than the peak — $16 billion — set at the height of the bull market last cycle.&nbsp;



The strength of the recovery “can be attributed to the permissionless nature of blockchain-based applications and the survival of lending applications through the bear market chaos that felled major CeFi lenders.”&nbsp;



I know what you’re thinking: This data is great, but what’s next for both CeFi and DeFi lending?&nbsp;



Well, the answer is pretty obvious for CeFi — it all boils down to TradFi adoption. That subsector of the larger lending market will bounce back as we see more institutional adoption. Easy peasy — or so it looks.&nbsp;



But funnily enough, DeFi’s in a similar boat. Pokorny noted that DeFi lending’s future is tied to more institutions being onboarded, and, of course, building on the lending apps.&nbsp;



“The cryptocurrency lending market appears poised for a new phase of growth, characterized by improved risk management frameworks, greater institutional participation, and clearer regulatory guidelines,” he noted. 



I know we’ve been talking so much about institutions coming in, but this is why.



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CeFi lending’s up 73% after the sector’s collapse: Galaxy

Jeff Albus

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"/>



Solana DeFi has matured rapidly in recent years.&nbsp;



But even as core behaviors like high-speed trading, airdrop farming and multi-leg strategies gain traction, many users still face infrastructure built for slower, passive chains. And while recent attention has turned toward liquid restaking, most new LRTs are functionally yield wrappers with limited composability. That leaves users in a situation where they must either sacrifice liquidity for returns or forgo yield entirely to participate in DeFi strategies.



Blueprint Finance, the team behind the Ethereum-based Concrete protocol, saw an opportunity. After quietly acquiring Jet Protocol&#8217;s Solana-native lending platform last October, they&#8217;ve spent months rebuilding it from the ground up — not just as a lending platform, but as a full-stack liquidity engine for active Solana users.



The result is Glow Finance: a rebranded and re-engineered protocol that officially launches today on Solana mainnet.



It&#8217;s introducing a composable, margin-first architecture explicitly built for Solana&#8217;s high-speed trading environment. According to the team, Glow Finance enables non-custodial margin accounts with integrated adapters that allow users to borrow, lend and trade — all within a single wallet-controlled interface. These margin accounts are programmable and modular, offering sub-account functionality similar to what power users expect from centralized exchanges.



Glow Finance introduces several key primitives that form the backbone of its trading-first architecture. At the core are Margin Accounts, or fully onchain, multi-strategy accounts that allow users to deposit assets, earn passive yield, and simultaneously use those assets as collateral. 



To enable composability across the Solana ecosystem, Glow integrates Adapters. These protocol-level connectors plug into Solana-native DEXs like Jupiter, letting users deploy leveraged strategies without jumping between platforms. According to Glow Finance, this allows users to route trades and deploy capital within a native environment, eliminating the friction of switching platforms or manually managing positions.



These primitives pair with the launch of a new asset called $glowSOL: a liquid restaking token that will earn yield through Solayer&#8217;s mega validator while acting as an entry point into the broader ecosystem.



&#8220;Early $glowSOL users will have influence in governance over the Glow Finance protocol as well as first access to new features. We see $glowSOL as the optimal entry into the Glow Finance ecosystem. Earn some of the highest staking yields and drive utility through borrowing, lending and trading,” co-founder and CEO of Concrete &amp; Glow Finance, Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, explained to Lightspeed.



Behind it all is Blueprint Finance, a team of quant devs, protocol engineers and institutional investors with backgrounds spanning Coinbase, Morgan Stanley, Consensys, and Avalanche. The team’s Ethereum product, Concrete, boasts over $650m in TVL and powers automated yield strategies with institutional-grade liquidation protection.



Glow Finance now extends that toolkit to Solana, though Roberts-Huntley told us that Glow won&#8217;t stop there. The protocol is already preparing to expand into a new wave of chains like Fogo and Atlas, which he describes as &#8220;building around DeFi-centric design that is uniquely powered by the SVM.&#8221;



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