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

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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jonathan currently serves as the Global Head of Growth at the Web3 ecosystem, Elastos, overseeing marketing, business development, investment and ecosystem strategies. With a background in corporate communications and technology marketing from roles at Edelman, Weber Shandwick, and Burson-Marsteller, Jonathan has transitioned to focus on Web3 innovation in his recent positions at Elastos and CreDA.

Joseph Schiarizzi is the Founder of Open Dollar, a lending protocol built on Arbitrum and has been a blockchain developer for 7 years. Before Open Dollar, Joseph worked at ConsenSys and later led Developer Relations for Gitcoin. He has contributed to impactful DAOs including Meta Cartel and Raid Guild, and is also the chair of the environmental sustainability council for Falls Church, VA. $5B+ has gone through smart contracts Joseph has contributed to. 

Julian Deschler is the Co-Founder of Elusiv, a universal encryption layer for Web3 powering the decentralized world. Elusiv went live on Solana Mainnet in March 2023 following a $3.5 million seed round in November. Julian started carving out his entrepreneurial path during his studies. Involved in the startup world as a board member of START Munich, a member of Sigma Squared, and a scholarship holder from UnternehmerTUM, he brought this wealth of experience to the Web3 landscape. With past roles in TradFi &amp; several Web3 companies, including Staking Facilities, Julian drives the business strategy of Elusiv. His extensive speaking participation at numerous Web3 conferences further underscores his dedication to fostering the future of privacy in Web3. 


Justin Banon is a thought leader and advocate for Web3 technologies, as well as being co-founder of Boson Protocol — a decentralized commerce protocol enabling the tokenization and trade of physical assets without intermediaries.


Katherine is a news editor based in Austin. She worked as a senior producer and correspondent at TheStreet prior to joining Blockworks. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on journalism from Sarah Lawrence. Contact Katherine via email at katherine@blockworks.co.

Kevin is the co-founder and CEO of Keyrock. Before founding Keyrock in 2017, Kevin worked at Roland Berger, where he spent a few years as a consultant and started investigating the expanding cryptocurrency market in 2014. With a background in Business Engineering and International Management, Kevin is an entrepreneur at heart passionate about using innovative technologies to build efficient markets and increase financial inclusiveness. 

Kevin Ho is a co-founder of Optimism and a member of the product team at OP Labs, where he oversees protocol development and contributes to the Optimism Collective. OP Labs’ mission is to accelerate adoption of Ethereum with the most secure, decentralized open source tech stack, the OP Stack. OP Labs also provides resources and support to the developer community building and deploying on the Superchain. 

Kristin is CEO of Blockchain Association, the Washington DC-based trade association representing nearly 100 of the digital asset industry’s leading companies.


Lasha Antadze is the co-founder of Rarilabs (formerly Rarify Labs), a company advancing Rarimo, a layer for universal access and verification for digital identities. In 2022, Rarilabs received US$10 million in a Series A funding round from Pantera Capital at a $100 million valuation.

As a serial founder, Lasha has close to a decade of experience in the blockchain industry. Prior to Rarilabs, Lasha co-founded decentralized auction platform Shelf Network. This was recognized by the 2018 Frontier Innovations Awards as the best blockchain use-case for the real world. It was acquired by the Aurora Group in 2022.

As early as 2015, Lasha led the world’s first government blockchain initiatives as a part of the anti-corruption reform for state property auctioning in Ukraine. Prior to this, he worked on the Ukrainian government’s e-identity and digitalization reform and EU's Stork 2.0 digital signature standardization, placing him in a distinctive position at the intersection of identity and Web3.

Laura is a digital assets policy expert, and serves as the UK Policy Lead for Crypto Council For Innovation (CCI). CCI is the premier global alliance for advancing innovation, which believes in leading with a global view, advocating for inclusive regulation, and developing evidence-based insights to support government and business leaders.  

Leo Li is the Chief Growth Officer of CARV, spearheading operations, strategy, and outreach across departments. At CARV, a modular data layer built for gaming and AI, Leo oversees more than 700 onboarded games and 2.5 million users. His leadership ensures the seamless integration and utilization of CARV’s suite of tools for user acquisition, onboarding, and management. 

Before joining CARV, Leo held key roles as a publishing producer and operations manager at Electronic Arts, Garena, and Tencent. His extensive background includes the global publishing of popular titles including FIFA Online, Apex Legends Mobile, Arena of Valor and more.

Katherine Ross

Former President Donald Trump has officially picked US Senator JD Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential candidate in the upcoming presidential election.



The announcement was made by Trump’s official Truth Social account during the Republican National Convention on Monday and comes just days after Trump survived an assassination attempt.



“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112792061935980928">wrote</a>.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/donald-trump">Trump</a>, who in recent months has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/donald-trump-accepts-crypto-donations-2024-election">changed his stance on crypto</a>, picked a running mate who’s also seen as crypto-friendly. Vance, an Ohio Republican, has floated a legislation draft focused on crypto, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/vance-crypto-00164859">Politico</a> last month.&nbsp;



The legislation would seek to change how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission approach crypto.&nbsp;



Vance was also one of the lawmakers to pen a letter to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec">SEC</a> over its mishandling of the DEBT Box case. The SEC, as ordered by the court, had to pay $1.8 million in legal fees after a<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/debt-box-challenges-sec-motion"> judge ruled that the regulator</a> had made “misleading” statements.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-overreach-failure-debt-box">DEBT Box loss shows SEC ‘overreach and failure,’ Hill says</a>



Ahead of the announcement, crypto prediction market <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/republican-vp-nominee?tid=1721066620121">Polymarket</a> had JD Vance leading as Trump’s top potential VP pick. US residents can’t place bets on Polymarket, though the platform is still viewable.



Crypto’s become a big topic in the presidential election so far this year — though not big enough to be mentioned at the presidential debate hosted at the end of last month. However, Trump has vocalized support for the industry and was the first campaign from a major party to integrate crypto donations.&nbsp;



The Republican party even included crypto in its formal platform earlier this month.



“Republicans will end Democrats&#8217; unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the platform said.



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



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



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



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

Trump chooses crypto-friendly Senator Vance as VP pick

Jack Kubinec

Jeff Albus

Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox.&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter</a>.



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



Howdy!



What a weekend, huh? Saturday was a “two beers at the neighborhood bar and be generally sad about US politics” kind of night.&nbsp;



Now it’s Monday, which is a “wonder what the price of air is” kind of morning. Bear with me:



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SkyTrade’s air rights marketplace&nbsp;</h2>



What if you could tokenize the air?



The 500 feet above the highest point of a building generally <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/328/256/">belongs</a> to the property owner. SkyTrade hopes to build a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a>-based marketplace that would let individuals or real estate companies sell these air rights and developers or drone operators buy or rent them.&nbsp;



Property owners already trade their air rights, just not in a public-facing market. Billionaire hedge fund operator Ken Griffin <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-11/griffin-taps-st-patrick-s-air-rights-to-boost-nyc-office-tower">reportedly</a> paid up to $164 million for the airspace above St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan over the winter. The deal would allow Griffin to build a skyscraper to house Citadel on Park Avenue.



Currently, SkyTrade lets individuals “claim” the airspace above their property with the promise of passive income earned from drone operators who fly in their airspace (this would only be for drones since airplanes, you would hope, are unlikely to fly that low). It’s currently possible to rent airspace on SkyTrade for $2 in 30-minute increments — though there aren’t very many properties currently live, and the site felt more like a proof-of-concept in my time spent browsing it.&nbsp;



SkyTrade co-founder Jonathan Dockrell told me the platform is launching an auction house within a couple weeks where investors will be able to list and bid on air rights.



Before founding SkyTrade, Dockrell was working at a delivery company and started thinking about the implications of drone delivery, he told me. He realized that while most people assume the government owns all airspace, property owners actually have the air rights to the 500 feet above themselves. Dockrell got thinking about how he could build a marketplace for this decentralized network of air rights.&nbsp;



Dockrell and his co-founder wanted to build the marketplace on blockchain in part because it would let individuals own and control their tokenized air rights. They were initially working with a zero-knowledge rollup equivalent, Dockrell said, but switched to working with Solana after finding that it would be much cheaper. The air rights are tokenized on Solana as compressed NFTs — which was the standard built for Instagram during its erstwhile NFT experiment, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-waka-flocka-drip-creator">I previously reported</a>.&nbsp;



SkyTrade received grant money from the Solana Foundation and Emergent Ventures. (As a disclosure, Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz is an investor in SkyTrade.)



Dockrell said SkyTrade will aim to court real estate companies who might buy and sell air rights as investment opportunities alongside individuals who want to earn passive income from drones flying above their property.&nbsp;



On the business-to-business side, Dockrell gave the example that real estate investors might realize zoning laws are going to change and buy up cheap airspace that they can then sell to developers in the future.&nbsp;



On the consumer side, SkyTrade developed an app for property owners to track drones that are flying on their property. SkyTrade will keep this data, and is working with drone companies on built-in ways for drone pilots to pay for their airspace usage. SkyTrade won’t get involved with any legal disputes between property owners and drone operators, Dockrell said.&nbsp;



Dockrell said the startup’s biggest hurdle will be accumulating enough demand for its marketplace — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-helium-solar-power">a common concern</a> among RWA and DePIN projects. Dockrell said the real estate development side of SkyTrade is the more dependable side to find it.



“It&#8217;s like a call option is how we view the drone side of what we do. So if the industry expands, we expand. But real estate is always there,” Dockrell said.



— Jack Kubinec



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Zero In&nbsp;</h2>



Real-world assets, or <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/real-world-assets">RWAs</a>, predominantly consist of private credit.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeQKZe0UlpwJoY8u2C-9xBRbtSekxBxo9_O5SiEREgEALprakdbBSnRO4TSZ9SOtlKL03cCJExvuxN1ajTbSL_NrviTZ-83WpoCCkEL9Z8VtRXPAHsEWyeBes93l6iDZy8zhWei-r62qYhs71LsAmM7icFc?key=wSLsY34NX7k-rbneCyiu9g" alt=""/></figure>



This dashboard from rwa.xyz tracks over $12 billion in onchain RWAs. Private credit — which revolves around non-bank lending — separated itself from other forms of RWAs in September 2022 and has widened its lead since. It’s seen notable growth over the past few months, alongside strong growth in tokenized US Treasury debt.&nbsp;



The numbers are dwarfed, however, if you include stablecoins — which can be thought of as a kind of RWA insofar as they bring US dollars onchain.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXem4L9gtCBsK_hfSRkw_bsAPMQlzmNcNIWU-HD_hTYYl-bNI9mac1aMNl1aht2B50SLepWGPWhANfgnaeD7opjBVzcOKHXxRqe06tQmF3frV3nO35z_jBTTHyRDNcUTPXK4wprNu1-7UADLazRDVz0xpDN5?key=wSLsY34NX7k-rbneCyiu9g" alt=""/></figure>



— Jack Kubinec



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



All the world is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CfF7vKyO5A">green</a> as prices across the crypto space rally, with solana <a href="https://x.com/SolanaFloor/status/1812718272028020956">reaching</a> a nearly two-week high. Some have <a href="https://x.com/Krak_Ai/status/1812774571436650951">attributed</a> the recovery to the aftermath of an unsuccessful assassination attempt on pro-crypto US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Following the incident, solana&#8217;s price increased by approximately 4.75% in a single day, reaching over $153 at time of writing. The price has rebounded from a recent low of about $121.50 on July 5, which was attributed to the <a href="https://x.com/solana_king/status/1809070712629363095">impact</a> of Mt. Gox&#8217;s rehabilitation trustee making repayments to creditors. This represents a 26.85% increase over 10 days.



Social sentiment seems to reflect a growing optimism. @HighCoinviction <a href="https://x.com/HighCoinviction/status/1812651329476603907">noted</a>, &#8220;Things are starting to look exciting again. My gut tells me we are playing on a similar fractal to Q3’21 with shades of Q4’20 — in both cases the most explosive returns were just around the corner.&#8221; Similarly, @MoonOverlord <a href="https://x.com/MoonOverlord/status/1812827880197341639">commented</a>, &#8220;This is so clearly the intermission to the bull market. The 2nd half is going to be batshit insane and about 5 people on Twitter are ready for it.&#8221;



Others kept their celebrations to simple &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/wdotsol/status/1812755037900218434">W</a>&#8220;s and &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/_sammified/status/1812760200765403575">LFG</a>&#8220;s. @SorayaIMX <a href="https://x.com/SorayaIMX/status/1812828437377437807">proclaimed</a>, &#8220;Solana is crushing it!&#8221; while @queencryptooo <a href="https://x.com/queencryptooo/status/1812279964668199297">cheered</a>, &#8220;Lfg $SOL on top!&#8221;. However, my personal favorite response came from @0xHarmon, who <a href="https://x.com/0xHarmon/status/1812651345599725973">quipped</a>, &#8220;I can afford to eat again.&#8221;



— Jeffrey Albus



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One Good DM</h2>



A message from Jonathan Dockrell, co-founder of SkyTrade:&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe4tLyyHf-3cSuuk2TRcj-d_-ZhJNcfS0tfT-GXDIzmAcE22ZrUKv0aXlmMU7C_AEYs_mwvKPN8RhsgaPvppkNWY7VsDjas-v1KUhDpYXXqWta4X1WfbAR5dIFUG64Y_Yj5vU6BrPZWyf7lBFNiem_Ragr0?key=wSLsY34NX7k-rbneCyiu9g" alt=""/></figure></div>


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



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



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



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

Lightspeed Newsletter: SkyTrade is building a marketplace for air rights

Ben Strack

Bitcoin funds in the US raked in more than $1 billion in assets last week, marking a weekly total the category has rarely hit in recent months.&nbsp;



It’s the segment’s highest weekly inflow amount since the period of June 3 through June 7, during which $1.8 billion entered the funds.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Net inflows for the 10 US spot bitcoin funds tracked by Farside Investors now stand at $15.8 billion since launching in January.&nbsp;



“We believe price weakness due to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-german-governments-selling-bitcoin">German government bitcoin sales</a> and a turnaround in sentiment due to lower-than-expected CPI in the US prompted [investors] to add to positions,” CoinShares research head James Butterfill wrote in a Monday <a href="https://blog.coinshares.com/volume-191-digital-asset-fund-flows-weekly-report-78ab8a02059e">report</a>.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/on-the-margin-newsletter-crypto-optimism-prevails">On the Margin Newsletter: Crypto may seem down, but here’s why analysts remain optimistic</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/fidelity">Fidelity Investments</a>’ Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) fund hit the $10 billion assets under management milestone last week, becoming just the third such offering to reach that level.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blackrock">BlackRock</a>’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) leads the BTC fund sector with $18.2 billion. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gbtc">GBTC</a>) — with nearly $30 billion in assets when it converted to an ETF and bleeding $18.6 billion since then — stands at about $15.7 billion.



FBTC’s $358 million of net inflows from July 8 to July 12 was second only to IBIT’s $523 million. About $35 million of investor capital left GBTC.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/bitcoin-etf">Bitcoin ETF Tracker&nbsp;</a>



Friday was the sixth straight day of net inflows into US spot bitcoin funds — the first such streak since a 19-day inflow streak snapped on June 7.



Fineqia International analyst Matteo Greco noted in a Monday research note that the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bitcoin-etf">bitcoin ETFs</a> — with about $51 billion in combined assets — now hold roughly 4.5% of the total BTC supply.



Despite the latest outflows, he added, trading volumes remain below average (but rather high for July) — totaling nearly $7 billion for the week.



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



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



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



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

Bitcoin ETF snapshot: Fidelity fund hits $10B milestone amid big inflow week

David Canellis

Today, enjoy the Empire newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox.&nbsp;<a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Break the cycle!</h2>



Are we about to buck the precedent of a volatile four-year cycle?&nbsp;



Framework Ventures co-founder Michael Anderson thinks so…if and when we get formal SEC approval for ETH ETFs.&nbsp;



But he noted that the market structure began to change after Grayscale’s court win last August (which also pushed the SEC to approve the spot bitcoin ETFs).&nbsp;



“In previous cycles, you had bitcoin as the primary asset that people would enter into the ecosystem with, and then they kind of move on to another thing, like Ethereum, or maybe, you know, one of the other kind of alt platforms,” Anderson said.&nbsp;



“DeFi summer brought everybody into Ethereum, and then they went further and further out the risk curve. But at each one of those moments, they would sell the primary or the initial asset to move to the next level, and then do it again, to move to the next level. But I think what we&#8217;re seeing now, with the inflows in these ETFs, is there&#8217;s no kind of ‘sell when you move from bitcoin to ether,’ bitcoin to something else, or ether to something else.”



With that in mind, ETF flows will “dampen volatility pretty drastically,” he added. That could be enough to break the market out of its current cyclical pattern because you don’t have “mass-selling” when folks run from one asset category to the next.&nbsp;



There are some things that remain unchanged this cycle. The dueling narratives from potential “Ethereum killers,” for example.



Last go around, it was Optimism and Arbitrum, Anderson said. Before that, it was Solana and Avalanche. The two emerging now aren’t necessarily ETH killers, but Berachain (which Framework has invested in) and Monad have caught Anderson’s eye this time.



“Fewer and fewer people will be transacting on ETH mainnet going forward, is the general perspective, whether it&#8217;s an L2, L3 or an ecosystem where it&#8217;s completely abstracted away,” Anderson said. “[And that’s] kind of the ideal state where we&#8217;re directionally heading.”



“Then, it&#8217;s not really about killing ETH. It&#8217;s more about adding more layers of abstraction above ETH, so you don&#8217;t even know that you&#8217;re touching it, would be the ultimate goal.”



With more L2s, prices could go <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-longest-inflationary-period-since-merge">back to deflationary</a>. “We&#8217;re kind of in that transition period of the applications haven&#8217;t really hit scale yet, where we now have the cheap transaction prices to support massive scale, but like, the curves haven&#8217;t intersected yet,” he added.&nbsp;



Framework’s eyeing infrastructure plays right now, but that focus doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in apps either.&nbsp;



Last week, as EthCC wound down, there was a lot of chatter about how the conference seemed very focused on infrastructure and apps were more or less forgotten.&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">Last year I left Eth CC enthused. This year, I&#39;m struggling to identify a common theme from the conference. The event feels fragmented across many redundant, partially filled side events. And worst of all&#8230; no apps. <a href="https://t.co/MpcCZXRAZM">https://t.co/MpcCZXRAZM</a>&mdash; Mippo 🟪 (@MikeIppolito_) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_/status/1811395619199631859?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



But while apps might not be a conference topic, it doesn’t mean it’s getting ignored by VC. Anderson’s firm is currently intrigued by “games and weird consumer applications,” like Puffpaw’s vape-to-earn system for helping folks to quit vaping on Berachain.&nbsp;



“Our perspective is that the first applications to hit this level of steel that the infrastructure is now supporting are games,” he said.



At the end of the day though, infra will also remain top of mind for Anderson too. “We&#8217;re always going to need bigger, faster, cheaper blockchains,” he said.



Perhaps we won’t see an ETH killer this go-around, but we sure are witnessing an extremely interesting cycle play out in real-time.



— Katherine Ross



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Data Center</h2>



<ul>
<li>A smallish Polymarket <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/ethereum-etf-begins-trading-by-july-26?tid=1721045668636">pool</a> puts the odds of an ETH ETF trading by July 26 at 83%.</li>



<li>Uniswap and Tether are still the no. 1 Ethereum apps by fee spend, with 2,010 ETH ($6.7 million) and 838 ETH ($2.8 million) <a href="https://ultrasound.money/">burned</a> in the past 30 days.</li>



<li>Telegram trading bots BananaGun and Maestro are third and fourth, each burning over 400 ETH ($1.33 million).</li>



<li>Memecoin MOG has entered CoinGecko’s top-100 and is currently its best performer, surging 52% in the last week.</li>



<li>BTC and ETH are both up 4.5% over the past day, to $62,570 and $3,340.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Summertime sadness</h2>



Ethereum is in the midst of a vibecession.



At least, that’s going by the Twitter metric, which is notoriously fickle.



Following EthCC in Brussels last week, questions swirled around whether the ecosystem was really on track to mass adoption.



Were there enough interesting crypto apps in the pipeline to justify all the venture funding into infrastructure?&nbsp;



It’s not exactly a new problem for the crypto space. Outside of a few extreme periods, such as the brief <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-etf-hype-classic">inscriptions spam</a> that crippled a string of EVM chains last year or the legendary CryptoKitties <a href="https://consensys.io/blog/the-inside-story-of-the-cryptokitties-congestion-crisis">congestion</a>, there have always been more blockchains than users can actually use.



Wallets, lending protocols, decentralized exchanges and prediction markets are all apps. And, as far as crypto goes, apps within all those categories are about as popular as can be with the folks who are actually here.



To be clear, Solana — the last line of defense for monolithic blockchain design — has its own brand of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-congestion-transaction-volume">congestion issues</a>.&nbsp;



But it’s hard to argue that there isn’t some degree of layer-2 fatigue out there when it comes to Ethereum.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1579" height="1133" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png" alt="" class="wp-image-89309" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=1579 1579w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=358 358w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=364 364w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=305 305w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-16.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1579px) 100vw, 1579px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Each bubble is the launch of a different layer-2. The bigger and brighter the bubble, the larger the current TVL.</figcaption></figure>



Over the past year, at least 19 layer-2 Ethereum networks have launched, per DeFiLlama data. Each one has its own brand of apps — usually at least one DEX and a lending protocol — leading to fragmentation of users and liquidity across the different chains.



“Vibecession” — a term coined by financial commentator Kyla Scanlon — refers to the phenomenon of widespread negative sentiment about the economy, despite things being pretty okay, and even going up.



In the same sense, Ethereum’s vibecession probably isn’t actually indicative of the actual health of the underlying ecosystem.&nbsp;



But it is possible to point to sadness in the data: When the market bottomed out in November 2022 following the FTX debacle, there were as many as 35,200 Twitter accounts posting about Ethereum every day, based on a 30-day average.



Now, there are only 6,600 — an 80% drop.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1581" height="1134" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png" alt="" class="wp-image-89310" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=1581 1581w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=358 358w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=364 364w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=305 305w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-17.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1581px) 100vw, 1581px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The purple band shows the number of Twitter accounts posting about Ethereum — and it’s getting very thin.</figcaption></figure>



Solana saw a boost following FTX, too, probably on account of the ecosystem’s connection to Sam Bankman-Fried, and a subsequent fall.&nbsp;



But since the bitcoin bull market really kicked off last October, the number of Twitter accounts posting about Solana has exploded from under 700 to almost 3,000 currently.&nbsp;



Perhaps the most telling of all is Ethereum’s “NVTweet Ratio.” Data provider The Tie developed the metric to compare a cryptocurrency’s social media activity to its market cap: How many tweets does each project have per $1 million in market cap?



A lower NVTweet Ratio means more tweets per $1 million market cap — correlating social media chatter to high valuations.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1577" height="1136" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png" alt="" class="wp-image-89311" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=1577 1577w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=357 357w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=362 362w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=304 304w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-18.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1577px) 100vw, 1577px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ethereum’s NVTweet ratio is nearly 50% higher than even bitcoin’s.</figcaption></figure>



It turns out that Ethereum’s NVTweet Ratio has more than tripled since December — when markets were betting hard that the SEC would finally approve spot bitcoin ETFs.



That means that ether’s market cap is growing faster than its Twitter mentions, which could reflect less retail involvement in Ethereum markets, <a href="https://docs.thetie.io/docs/metric-definitions">according</a> to The Tie.



“An increasing NVTweet™ Ratio could suggest that a particular coin&#8217;s market is becoming increasingly driven by institutional trading.”



And there’s your vibecession.



— David Canellis



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



<ul>
<li>Bernstein <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/305240/bernstein-goldilocks-bitcoin-miners-trump-factor?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss">says</a> there’s a ‘Goldilocks scenario’ playing out for bitcoin miners.</li>



<li>Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer convicted of money laundering by a Dutch court, was denied bail, DLNews <a href="https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/dutch-court-rejects-bail-for-tornado-cash-dev-alexey-pertsev/">reported</a>.</li>



<li>BlackRock’s assets sit at a whopping $10.6 trillion, the world’s largest asset manager <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-15/blackrock-hits-10-6-trillion-asset-record-reports-etf-boost?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=share&amp;utm_campaign=twitter">disclosed</a>.</li>



<li>Former Chainalysis chief economist Philip Gradwell <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/07/15/tether-taps-chainalysis-chief-economist-philip-gradwell-as-economics-head/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_campaign=headlines">joined</a> Tether as its head of economics.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Digital asset investment products saw $1.44 billion worth of inflows last week, with bitcoin topping the fifth-largest weekly inflows on record, CoinShares <a href="https://etp.coinshares.com/knowledge/market-activity/fund-flows-15-07-24">noted</a>.</li>
</ul>



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



Q: What does bitcoin going up after Trump&#8217;s attempted assassination say?



I’ve seen some analysts note that the price action in bitcoin — which jumped to $62,000 after the assassination attempt — is partly driven by another week of impressive ETF flows.



All told, it’s hard to separate how much could be the ‘safe haven’ play versus the ETF play.&nbsp;



Either way, the overall market’s been in a weird place. But this could give the environment an unexpected catalyst, which pushes bitcoin up further and gets it out of the sideways rut it was in for months.



The other thing is that the stock market, for example, loves certainty. I think it’s fair to say that’s been imprinted on bitcoin at this point, too. The attempt on Trump’s life has completely derailed the unknowns around Biden’s re-election bid, and — according to <a href="https://x.com/DougKass/status/1812587351333568878">some</a> rumors — even secured his place as a Democratic candidate.



There’s a lot of speculation out there, and it’s not clear if bitcoin is really being treated as a safe haven asset or if this is just the perfect storm that traders have been waiting for.



— Katherine Ross



The general consensus right now is that crypto could broadly do well under a second Trump term.



But price action right now is very likely just noise.



For the longest time, bitcoin has been tipped as a hedge against global instability. A flight to the safety of uncensorable hard money that can’t be confiscated by totalitarian regimes, idealistically, at least.



Except that hasn’t always been the case. Bitcoin crashed alongside the stock market during the worst of COVID, and more recently, tanked over 10% when Iran attacked Israel in April.



Odds for Trump to win the election are rising, and if anything, bitcoin going up after he survived suggests crypto markets reckon the world will be safer and more stable if he’s re-elected, at least for the average crypto investor.&nbsp;



Either that, or this was the “buy the rumor” part of the “sell the news” arc. Classic.



— David Canellis



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



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



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



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

Empire Newsletter: How crypto could break its four-year cycle

A former executive at Charles Schwab has joined bitcoin financial services firm Onramp as president of its managed wealth division.



Rich Kerr spent the past 31 years at the traditional finance giant, he told Blockworks. He was most recently Charles Schwab’s managing director of income and wealth solutions, according to his LinkedIn profile.



He also worked as director of Schwab Wealth Advisory and helped lead the giant’s client services and support unit.



&#8220;His vast experience and proven track record in wealth management align perfectly with our mission to support advisers and their clients with bitcoin financial services,” Onramp CEO Michael Tanguma said in a statement.&nbsp;



Also naming a new president (and CEO) this week was Canada-based investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings.&nbsp;



Leah Wald co-founded Valkyrie Investments and served as its CEO for several years. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinshares-buys-valkyrie-fund-business">CoinShares acquired Valkyrie’s ETF business in March</a>, with Wald staying on to oversee the company’s private funds.



She now moves on to lead Cypherpunk — a publicly traded firm that invests in blockchain-related businesses and crypto assets such as BTC and SOL.



“My first priority is to assess the business and how everything is going, and then look for those new opportunities,” Wald told Blockworks.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/former-valkyrie-ceo-interview-on-being-cyperphunk-ceo">Cypherpunk seeks more crypto investments after SOL buy, new CEO says</a>



Another C-suite addition came from bitcoin miner Ionic Digital, which on Thursday appointed John Penver as its chief financial officer. Penver was previously the CFO of TSS, Inc.&nbsp;



The Austin-based company seeks to go public, it noted in a news release.



&#8220;Having worked in data centers for nearly 20 years, I am excited to combine my expertise in technology infrastructure and finance to ensure Ionic Digital’s corporate strategy and financials are aligned on the same level,” Penver said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the team to foster innovation and unlock Ionic Digital’s potential to be a leading publicly-traded bitcoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/mining">mining</a> company.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other people moves&nbsp;</h2>



<ul>
<li>Ex-<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cftc">CFTC</a> official Joshua Sterling has joined Milbank LLP. His practice is set to focus on regulatory and enforcement issuers tied to derivatives, financial market infrastructure and crypto, the company said.</li>



<li>Auros Ventures — to invest in the digital assets and Web3 sectors — named Julien Auchecorne as its leader. Auchecorne previously held operating and advisory roles at XBTO, JPMorgan and Brevan Howard.</li>



<li>Daniel Schoenberger, former chief legal officer at the Web3 Foundation, is now general counsel at Mina Foundation.</li>
</ul>



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



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



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



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Crypto Hiring: Schwab veteran joins Bitcoin-focused platform

A little under a hundred million dollars was raised by the funding rounds mentioned in this week’s roundup.



The biggest round came from blockchain payment network Partior, which raised $60 million in a Series B. The blockchain payment network’s round was led by Peak XV Partners and also saw contributions from Jump Trading Group and Valor Capital Group.



The network is a joint venture between founding shareholders <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/jpmorgan">JPMorgan</a> and Temasek — which both participated in this round as a previous investor — as well as DBS. Standard Chartered is also part of the joint venture, and an investor in this round.&nbsp;



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/future-finance-tradfi-plus-defi">The future of finance? TradFi plus DeFi</a>



“Improving <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/liquidity">liquidity</a> management for both corporate and financial institutions is imperative in a world where many companies operate ‘round the clock globally,” the company said in a <a href="https://www.partior.com/news-and-insights/partior-announces-60m-series-b-round-to-transform-clearing-and-settlement-infrastructure-worldwide">press release</a>. Standard Chartered, JPMorgan and DBS all use Partior.&nbsp;



“This new round of funding will enable the advancement of new capabilities like Intraday FX swaps, Cross-currency repos, Programmable Enterprise Liquidity Management, and Just-in-Time multi-bank payments. The investment will significantly support Partior’s international network growth and the integration of additional currencies,” the release continued. Right now, Partior supports USD, SGD and EUR.&nbsp;



Speaking of traditional financial players, let’s take a look at a pre-seed round from Tread.Fi.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tradfi-blockchain-trials-mass-adoption">How the latest TradFi blockchain trial could mark the ‘five-yard-line’ for mass adoption</a>



The crypto-native algorithmic trading infrastructure company is helmed by former Morgan Stanley VP of quantitative research, David Jeong.&nbsp;



Earlier this week, the firm announced a $3.5 million pre-seed investment round led by New Form Capital. Aquanow and Varys Capital also participated in the round.&nbsp;



Tread.fi, which includes portfolio management tools and various features such as advanced execution algorithms, also allows for its clients to run the trading engine in-house privately, per a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/treadfi-raises-3-5-million-pre-seed-investment-launches-crypto-native-oems-302193523.html">press release</a>.&nbsp;



“This layer of separation gives clients a unique level of privacy and ownership over their trading and is a unique advantage for routing orders to crypto-native exchanges, which often have open access that allows all users to view trading activity,” the firm said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Jeong said that his firm aims to “modernize institutional digital asset trading.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable raises:</h2>



<ul>
<li>Blast-based token distribution protocol ZAP <a href="https://x.com/zaponblast/status/1811783100407418888">announced</a> a $15 million raise. The round was led by Rarestone, Cypher Capital and Sharding Capital. </li>



<li>Crypto startup Rome Protocol raised $9 million to bring modular services on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a> to the Ethereum network.*</li>



<li>DeFi fixed-rate lending protocol Term Finance <a href="https://x.com/dionchu/status/1810637372175819128/photo/1">announced</a> it raised $5.5 million. The round was led by Electric Capital.</li>
</ul>



* Blockworks co-founder <a href="mailto:jason@blockworks.co">Jason Yanowitz</a> and Empire podcast host Santiago Santos participated in the round.



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



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



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



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

Funding Wrap: Partior raises $60M to support ‘international network growth’

This week, crypto descended on Brussels for EthCC.



Given that Ethereum popularized smart contracts and was the home of NFTs during the space’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nft-craze-rages-on-as-august-sales-near-900m">2021 craze</a>, it seems like consumer applications could have been prominently featured at the yearly Ethereum gathering. But some attendees felt that apps were too muted at the conference — and that crypto’s infrastructure era has overstayed its welcome.



The social lead of the Milk Road newsletter <a href="https://x.com/Raul_Impact3/status/1811045339144585292">wrote</a> that it “[f]eels like we&#8217;ve come to a consensus that we don&#8217;t need more infra. We just need usable apps.”



2077 Collective director Emmanuel Awosika <a href="https://x.com/eawosikaa/status/1811788222076494295">said</a> “one of those things I&#8217;m excited about is people finally (!) acknowledging consumer apps are necessary.”



Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs’ A.J. Warner said he “heard 10x the number of interoperability/crosschain proving ideas compared to novel user applications” at the conference.



Crypto may still be lacking in compelling consumer apps, but EthCC exit reviews definitely showed that the desire is there. This wishful thinking has shown up in other places too: The Arbitrum DAO notably is <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research/issue/post_dd5f18da-fa69-4bbb-b755-0264dd06ea37">aiming to pour</a> $215 million into crypto <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gaming">gaming</a> projects.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2560" height="1707" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-89265" style="width:491px;height:auto" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=2560 2560w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1000151795-scaled.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: EthCC</figcaption></figure></div>


Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-infrastructure-lacking-apps">The crypto infrastructure is here, but where are the apps?</a>



This week, Electric Capital general partner Maria Shen released a “market map” categorizing over 1,500 crypto projects. Interestingly, more than one-third of the projects were labeled as apps.&nbsp;



There’s also a case to be made that insisting on more apps might be putting the cart before the horse. Celestia Labs CEO Mustafa Al-Bassam <a href="https://x.com/musalbas/status/1811039551957156013">said</a> that crypto should focus on mastering its original use case of payments before it moves on to more complex applications.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helio-upgrades-solana-pay-plugin-for-shopify">Helio upgrades its Solana Pay plugin for Shopify</a>



There are also crypto apps with real users, even if they don’t currently compete with the titans of Web2. Telegram has a lot of users, and the loosely-associated TON blockchain is drawing lots of attention (alongside lots of bots) to (admittedly rudimentary) Telegram games.



And <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-x-users-solana-blinks">with Solana blinks</a>, you can now <a href="https://x.com/sol_idity/status/1810692504934846564">play</a> Pokemon onchain directly within your X feed. So that’s something, right?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Story Protocol is launching a layer-1</h2>



A16z-backed Story Protocol <a href="https://x.com/StoryProtocol/status/1810705596250980677">announced</a> this week it would be launching the “world’s first [<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/intellectual-property">intellectual property</a>] blockchain” with its new Story network.&nbsp;



The chain will let creators upload their intellectual property to the blockchain, where they can then set the terms for how the intellectual property can be used and monetized. Story cast the onchain intellectual property as being like legos, saying the chain would create an internet “legoland.”



In a seeming homage to the week’s frustration with crypto’s dearth of widely-used applications, Story co-founder S.Y. Lee <a href="https://x.com/storysylee/status/1810741771845939298">said</a> the protocol wouldn’t just be the “millionth defi chain/app without a clear use case in mind.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One interesting stat:</h2>



<ul>
<li>Farcaster’s daily active <a href="https://dune.com/pixelhack/farcaster">users</a> hit an all-time high for seven-day trailing average at around 67,000 late last week, according to a Dune dashboard.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Also of note:</h2>



<ul>
<li>Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic published a <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/blog/cyber-scam-marketplace">report</a> linking “pig butchering” crypto scams to a “multi-billion dollar marketplace” popular in Southeast Asia named Huione Guarantee.</li>



<li>Soccer stars Lionel <a href="https://x.com/BitDegree/status/1810678040575566268">Messi</a> and <a href="https://x.com/ikuzoeth/status/1811128692212633774">Ronaldinho</a> promoted a memecoin called WaterCoin.</li>



<li>The forthcoming mobile shooter game “For The Win” <a href="https://x.com/jungle_xyz/status/1811027368116392229">announced</a> it would be building on Solana.</li>
</ul>



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Web3 Watch: EthCC attendees ask: “Where are the apps?”

They say a hallmark of a mania is the rapid rise in the rate of fraud.&nbsp;



The exact same can be said of crypto adoption. In fact, fraud is inevitable.



Normie media is ablaze with the latest in crypto-tinged true crime. An online pastor in Colorado dumped a worthless token on his flock, screwing them out of millions of dollars because “God told him to.”



It’s the sort of Schadenfreude that just rolls off the tongue to coalesce as viral internet traffic. Hence the rush from dozens of outlets in all different languages to run with their own quirky headlines, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/23/crypto-pastor-colorado-god-eli-regalado/">including</a> the Washington Post.



But this sad tale is not a crypto story. It’s a simple fraud story posing as commentary about crypto.



Separating the concept of fraud from crypto will come easy through mass adoption. Like the hyperbitcoinization that will price the whole world in disgustingly expensive satoshis after price discovery goes parabolic, mass adoption of crypto more broadly would encrypt our entire modern consciousness on blockchain rails.



Your passport metadata would exist on a blockchain. As would your presidential vote. Bank deposits are tokenized and lent out to the highest bidder. Your smart fridge feeds directly from a supermarket price oracle that tells it when your favorite kombucha is on special and orders it for you right away — with all payments settled in crypto.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-phishing-attacks">Crypto phishing attacks are everywhere. It might not get better anytime soon&nbsp;</a>



At this point, blockchain would thrum beneath every facet of our lives. The jury is still out on whether all that is even beneficial. Still, if everything ran on crypto, then the self-styled Colorado holyman dumping a useless crypto on his followers would be a run-of-the-mill affinity scam and nothing more. Other than really boring.



Over a long enough period, all fraud stories become crypto stories, on account that a stupidly high percentage of fraud would interact with crypto and blockchain if everything in our world does too.



The same effect will happen to business writ large — give this industry enough time and all companies will be “crypto companies.”&nbsp;



Think PayPal, Square, Visa, Mastercard, Western Union, Starbucks and eBay.&nbsp; All those companies are already interacting with crypto and blockchain in some way. At the very least, they’re crypto curious.



Crypto-related stuff makes up only a small fraction of those companies overall. Although, one could reasonably argue their initiatives are enough even now to consider them competitors to crypto-native companies like Circle, OpenSea, Yuga Labs and Trust Wallet.



Some anticipate great technological leaps forward by porting our lives to the blockchain, some of which may even stamp out certain kinds of fraud altogether (scan your eyeballs with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">Worldcoin Orb</a> to combat identity theft, for instance).&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">Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he says he perpetrated at God&#39;s command January 18, 2024<a href="https://t.co/jLVpmMYKw2">https://t.co/jLVpmMYKw2</a> <a href="https://t.co/tb6jfhV2up">pic.twitter.com/tb6jfhV2up</a>&mdash; web3 is going just great (@web3isgreat) <a href="https://twitter.com/web3isgreat/status/1748902654565056641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Molly White infamously catalogs fraud stories like these</figcaption></figure>



More fundamental to this thought experiment is this: Of course crypto fraud will be more common over time. Crypto is money and money is valuable, and people do all sorts of stupid and malicious things for stuff that’s valuable.



In a crypto-powered future, a story about two fraudsters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/nyregion/wine-ponzi-scheme-charges.html">bilking</a> $99 million from wine investors in a Ponzi scheme — despite having no bottles of wine at all — might include details like “the perpetrators raised the funds in various cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether and tether.”&nbsp;



That wouldn’t at all make the case a matter of crypto crime because everybody uses bitcoin, ether and tether all the time. For everything.



Same goes for a phony Indian cricket league on YouTube that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/world/asia/fake-indian-cricket-league-russia.html">cheated</a> Russian gamblers with fake matches. Mass adoption would mean all bets would be paid in crypto — just like your grocery bill. The crypto element wouldn’t even raise eyebrows, let alone go viral.



As crypto becomes more ubiquitous, stories like these will only become more frequent. A “crypto crime” is a crime that takes advantage of something unique about the underlying technology, whether it’s raiding a token bridge or raiding a protocol through a flash loan attack.



A crime that uses cryptocurrency instead of dollars, rupees or euros is not a crypto crime. It’s just a crime.



All told, this is where we are on the adoption scale: A cheesy online pastor selling a worthless cryptocurrency sounds about right. But it’s still a novelty.



The novelty is very close to wearing off for everyone except those 45 years or older, which, as it turns out, makes up 40% of the Washington Post audience, according to <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/washingtonpost.com/#demographics">Similarweb</a>. Go figure.



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


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">David is an Editor based in the Netherlands focused on data-driven journalism. Previously, he wrote for TheNextWeb&#8217;s crypto vertical before launching Protos in 2021. He&#8217;s a reformed hardline Bitcoiner passionate about permissionless and decentralized networks. Contact David at david@blockworks.co</div>


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All fraud will eventually be ‘crypto fraud.’ And that’s okay.

Casey Wagner

Today, enjoy the On the Margin newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter</a>.



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



Welcome to the On the Margin Newsletter, brought to you by Ben Strack and Casey Wagner. Here’s what you’ll find in today’s edition: 



<ul>
<li>The Senate questioned four Biden nominees up for agency roles. Crypto got a mention, albeit a small one. </li>



<li>Crypto stock performance was mixed this week. We unpack why. </li>



<li>We made it to the end of another busy week. Read on for our recap. </li>
</ul>



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Senate seems poised to push Biden nominations through&nbsp;</h2>



Fortunately for the nominees, yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearings were largely uneventful.&nbsp;



SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, up for another term at the securities regulator, flew mostly under the radar. Committee members posed more questions to Christy Goldsmith Romero, President Biden’s pick to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.&nbsp;



Kristin Johnson, put up to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Gordon Ito, nominated to be a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, also faced questions Thursday.&nbsp;



Goldsmith Romero stands to take over the FDIC as the agency faces controversy. A May <a href="https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/fdic-special-review-committee-releases-independent-report-workplace-misconduct">report</a> uncovered allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the FDIC, raising questions about whether Chair Martin Gruenberg should continue in the role.&nbsp;



The nominee told Senators Thursday she plans for a “complete overhaul” of the agency should she be approved, including firing employees who have harassed or abused others and implementing a new system for registering complaints.&nbsp;



Somewhat surprisingly, the few crypto mentions were directed at Goldsmith Romero, not Crenshaw. During prepared remarks at the start of the hearing, Virginia Senator Mark Warner cited Goldsmith Romero’s track record of engaging with the crypto and AI industries.&nbsp;



“Having…a technology-based knowledge about how AI is going to change our systems and our banking regulations — and blockchain and the whole realm of digital assets — this is exactly the kind of experience we need at this <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hester-peirce-sec-endgame">troubled agency at this point</a>,” Warner said.&nbsp;



Having support from Warner, a moderate Democrat, could prove invaluable to Goldsmith Romero, who has faced criticism from some Republicans who claim she is unqualified to lead the FDIC. Committee members on Thursday, however, seemed largely satisfied with her answers, so we expect she is feeling relieved.&nbsp;



Later on, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senators-oppose-sec-accounting-standards">long-time crypto advocate</a> Sen. Cynthia Lummis asked Goldsmith Romero if she thought banks should be allowed to hold the assets of crypto companies. 



“Banks do hold custody of digital assets right now,” Goldsmith Romero said.&nbsp;



“I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the FDIC’s role to tell banks what industries or companies they should be providing services to,” she added.&nbsp;



Lummis did not ask Crenshaw any questions during her allotted time.&nbsp;



Crenshaw defended her record. She mentioned specifically the agency’s decision to allow spot bitcoin ETFs <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-approves-bitcoin-etf">to begin trading</a> in January, a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/commissioner-etf-statements-signals-contention">position on which she dissented</a>.&nbsp;



The SEC should not have allowed these products to go live “given the significant fraud in the underlying spot markets globally,” she told Senators.&nbsp;



The relative lack of pushback from Senators Thursday means Crenshaw is likely to sail through her nomination as well. But as we all know, anything can happen in politics.&nbsp;



— Casey Wagner&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">173</h2>



The number of days left before taxpayers must find a new way to allocate their unused cost basis, according to new IRS guidance.



Taxpayers who have been using a universal or multi-wallet basis allocation approach will have to switch to a wallet-by-wallet or account-by-account system.&nbsp;



“Taxpayers in the past may have been selling a unit of BTC out of their Coinbase wallet but treating a unit of BTC as having been disposed of out of their self-custodied wallet,” accountants at Ledgible wrote in a <a href="https://ledgible.io/news/the-impact-of-final-digital-asset-tax-reporting-regulations-whitepaper/">report</a> Thursday. This is no longer allowed under the final IRS regulations, they added.



The TL;DR? You may want to call your accountant.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Crypto stock fluctuations</h2>



Publicly traded crypto companies had a pretty eventful news week, though the market’s response to the updates varied.&nbsp;



MicroStrategy revealed a 10-for-1 stock split on Thursday. The company’s share price was up about 7% this week (as of a couple hours before Friday’s close). MSTR is up 108% year-to-date.&nbsp;



Though the split doesn’t change the company’s inherent value, it will make the stock more affordable to certain investors and enhance the shares&#8217; liquidity, noted Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer.



“The split should support the marketability of MicroStrategy&#8217;s stock, thereby making it easier for positive developments — including increases in the price of bitcoin — to translate into share price appreciation,” he told Blockworks.&nbsp;



The share price of Northern Data — a company focused on high-performance computing (HPC) and bitcoin mining — saw a roughly 12% boost this week, as of 2 pm ET. That came after it said it expects its 2024 revenues to triple year-over-year.



But news from other bitcoin miners did not meaningfully move the needle in a positive way — at least from a near-term stock price perspective.&nbsp;



Despite Hut 8 securing an additional 205 megawatts of power capacity on Tuesday, the bitcoin miner’s stock price fell about 3.5% this week.&nbsp;



Core Scientific said Monday it was set to eliminate $260 million of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/adam-sullivan-core-scientific-bitcoin-halving">debt from its balance sheet </a>after converting secured convertible notes. CORE’s price saw a slight boost Monday but ended up down about 4% for the week.&nbsp;



Bitfarms stock has dipped about 7.5% over the last five days despite rebounding Friday. That share price drop came during a week when the bitcoin miner <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitfarms-names-new-ceo-amid-riot-takeover-attempt#">named a new CEO</a> and revealed Friday that its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitfarms-riot-vote-date-board-members">anticipated shareholder meeting</a> would take place in October. The company’s shareholders are set to address rival miner Riot Platforms’ call to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/riot-nominates-bitfarms-board-directors-takeover">replace a few of its board members</a> at that time.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-coinbase-stock-crypto-success">Coinbase’s stock price has dropped</a> about 3% this week despite the crypto exchange revealing a new Coinbase Wallet web app — lagging bitcoin’s 4% gain over that span.



— Ben Strack&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Did You Notice</h2>



Happy Friday! It was a packed week after the July 4 holiday weekend. Congress is back in session and markets are digesting more economic data. Here are the key takeaways:&nbsp;



<ul>
<li>Fed Chair Jerome Powell made his biannual rounds on Capitol Hill this week, appearing before the House and Senate to address the state of monetary policy. He reiterated that central bankers need more proof of inflation cooling before cutting rates. He also told lawmakers that trying to ensure a soft landing is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/on-the-margin-newsletter-crypto-optimism-prevails">keeping him up at night</a>. </li>



<li>Thursday’s CPI report showed prices are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cpi-thursday-report-prices-inflation-rate-cuts">increasing less than analysts expected</a>. May’s annual CPI came in at 3%, and core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy, showed a 3.3% year-over-year increase in May. Stocks were relatively unimpressed with the print, but investors seem more confident than ever that the first interest rate cut will come in September. </li>



<li>Also on Capitol Hill this week was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who told House representatives that President Biden has been “effective” in meetings. The comments came ahead of Biden’s Thursday evening press conference, which received mixed reviews as more lawmakers called for him to drop out of the 2024 race. </li>
</ul>



— Casey Wagner&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bulletin Board&nbsp;</h2>



<ul>
<li>As of publishing time, the SEC has not publicly responded to the latest revised registration statements filed by fund groups seeking to launch US spot ether ETFs. Still, signs point to the agency permitting these funds soon. Keep an eye on <a href="http://blockworks.co">Blockworks.co</a> for updates.</li>



<li>Speaking of the US securities regulator, it closed its investigation into the Stacks blockchain, according to a Friday regulatory <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1693656/000119312524178107/d781779d1u.htm">filing</a>. The SEC does not intend to recommend an enforcement action against blockchain software developer Hiro Systems PBC, the document adds.</li>



<li>BTC’s price was roughly $58,200 at 2 pm ET Friday — up about 2% from a week ago. ETH has seen a slightly better rise (at nearly 3%) over that span, hovering around $3,145. </li>
</ul>



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On the Margin Newsletter: Biden’s SEC nominee appears safe

The Senate Banking Committee gathered on Thursday to hear from four of President Joe Biden&#8217;s nominations for positions at federal agencies.



US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, nominated for another term at the securities regulator, mostly flew under the radar. Committee members directed more questions to Christy Goldsmith Romero, President Biden’s pick to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.&nbsp;



Kristin Johnson, put up to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Gordon Ito, nominated to be a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, also faced questions Thursday.&nbsp;



Mentions of cryptocurrencies or digital assets were sparse, as committee members largely opted to use their allotted time to discuss recent cultural issues at the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/fdic">FDIC</a>.&nbsp;



Goldsmith Romero stands to take over the FDIC as the agency finds itself embroiled in controversy. A <a href="https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/fdic-special-review-committee-releases-independent-report-workplace-misconduct">report</a> from May uncovered allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the FDIC, raising questions about whether current Chair Martin Gruenberg should continue in the role.&nbsp;



Goldsmith Romero told Senators Thursday she planned for a “complete overhaul” of the agency should she be approved. This would include firing perpetrators of harassment or abuse and implementing a new system for registering complaints.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fdic-crypto-risk-report">FDIC lacks ‘clear procedures’ for crypto-related risks, report says</a>



In a show of support, during prepared remarks at the start of the hearing, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., highlighted Goldsmith Romero’s track record with engaging with the crypto and AI industries.&nbsp;



“Having knowledge, a technology-based knowledge about how AI is going to change our systems and our banking regulations, and blockchain and the whole realm of digital assets, this is exactly the kind of experience we need at this troubled agency at this point,” Warner said.&nbsp;



Having support from Warner, a moderate Democrat, could prove invaluable to Goldsmith Romero, who has faced some criticism from Republicans that she is unqualified to lead the FDIC. Committee members on Thursday however seemed largely satisfied with her answers, so we expect she is feeling relieved.&nbsp;



In a second brief mention of crypto, long-time industry advocate Sen. Cynthia Lummis asked Goldsmith Romero if she thought banks should be allowed to hold the assets of digital asset companies.&nbsp;



“Banks do hold custody of digital assets right now,” Goldsmith Romero said.&nbsp;



“I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the FDIC’s role to tell banks what industries or companies they should be providing services to,” she added.&nbsp;



Lummis did not ask Crenshaw any questions during her allotted time.&nbsp;



On Thursday, Crenshaw, like the other nominees, used the stage as an opportunity to defend her record. She specifically mentioned the agency’s decision to allow bitcoin spot ETFs <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-approves-bitcoin-etf">to begin trading</a> at the start of the year, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/commissioner-etf-statements-signals-contention">a position she dissented</a>.&nbsp;



“Given the significant fraud in the underlying spot markets globally,” the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec">SEC</a> should not have allowed these products to go live, she told Senators.&nbsp;



A shorter version of this article first appeared in Friday&#8217;s On the Margin Newsletter. Sign up <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">here</a> to never miss an issue.



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Biden nominees emerge from Senate confirmation hearings unscathed

Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter</a>.



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



Howdy!



Against <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-helium-solar-power">my better judgment</a>, I ventured out after work yesterday in pursuit of a free 7-Eleven slurpee. Upon entering the store, I beelined for the slurpee machine, at which point a haggard-looking employee frowned at me and said: “<a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1811522400883744988">No more slurpees</a>.”



I hung my head and walked out of the store back into the heat, my July 11th ruined.&nbsp;



But today is July 12th, and I interviewed a rapper:



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hard in Da Drip</h2>



Waka Flocka Flame, the artist who gave us “Hard in Da Paint,” is taking another spin at the crypto world.&nbsp;



He’s been promoting his memecoin on X alongside “Block Squad Monopoly,” an onchain “talent finding platform” that lets users stake Flame’s memecoin. Then on Wednesday, he released a single on the NFT collecting platform Drip.&nbsp;



Waka Flocka Flame told me in an interview that he decided to launch his <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/meme-coins">memecoin</a> after seeing the online provocateur Andrew Tate launch a memecoin using the n-word. He likened himself to a figurative Batman in the Gotham City of memecoins.&nbsp;



“Batman don’t look good in the beginning, he don’t always look good in the middle, but he always wins in the end,” the rapper said of his memecoin and his plans to have a more positive impact than people like Tate.



In this Batman timeline, a bunch of insiders seem to have bought up most of the Wayne Enterprises stock: Flame’s memecoin was <a href="https://x.com/bubblemaps/status/1802608696381305310">alleged</a> to have seen one whale buy up 40% of the supply before the rapper announced its existence. (Waka Flocka denied involvement in the early buying in an <a href="https://decrypt.co/238187/waka-flocka-flame-insists-meme-coin-isnt-cash-grab">interview</a> with Decrypt, saying the token was “sniped” by traders outside of his team.)



Waka Flocka Flame, or Juaquin James Malphurs, has been involved in crypto for years. In 2021, he made headlines after $19,000 was <a href="https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=waka-flocka-flame-opensea-account-hacked">drained</a> from his OpenSea account.



His new track “4th Quarter” — which Flame called “war music” for Web3 — debuted on the NFT collectible platform Drip this week.&nbsp;



On Drip, creators can release collectibles — things like art, videos and music — for users to collect, and they can offer fans perks based on tips that are paid out in off-chain “droplets.” The platform is enabled by compressed NFT technology on Solana, which was originally developed for Instagram during its now-sunset NFT <a href="https://solana.com/meta">initiative</a>, CEO Vibhu Norby told me.



Drip is also developing a mobile app that Norby said he hopes to release before Solana Breakpoint in September.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/drip-haus-mass-adoption-strategy">Most Drip creators aren’t celebrities</a>, so I picked Norby’s brain a bit about the platform allowing Flame and singer Jason Derulo to recently join.



Norby said “we kind of live in this ZachXBT world” (in reference to the notorious onchain sleuth) where celebrities can be labeled “scammers” for being paid to promote projects. Norby noted he wished some celebrities would do more “diligence” on promoting products they may not know much about.



But, as Norby pointed out, being paid to promote products is not “unusual” for celebrities, who spend a lot of time doing paid promotions to profit from their platform. “This is actually the de facto thing that they do,” Norby said.



Norby called celebrity projects a “permissionless referral scheme for <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a>” and said he sees them as an effective way <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-caitlyn-jenner-ethereum-memecoin">for celebrities to monetize attention</a> — which is already a big business outside of crypto.



“I think it&#8217;s actually one of the better things that this infrastructure provides, basically tokenizing an audience,” Norby said.



After tipping two droplets, I’m #41 on the Waka Flocka leaderboard, meaning I’m part of this tokenized audience — and am currently slated to earn a “Legendary” alternate album cover. Norby said his main requirement for celebrities coming to Drip is that they have a content strategy.&nbsp;



It remains to be seen how thought-out or long-term Waka Flocka Flame’s strategy is.&nbsp;



— Jack Kubinec



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Zero In&nbsp;</h2>



Norby called celebrity projects a “permissionless referral scheme for Solana,” and there seems to be some data backing that classification.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfZeZUMdVD0_uq3Ld0wuTMzq0o0euuU8TrWwgM7GV8-_2S-JQd8gx_RoZYJWcLt3zPzb7M78aWBbrjhKPMQBzU-X0I3Iq5xqSyT0rZeUnJcsgyHwAkh39iBtwHylmng39H9FbR0oBlFV5sP5rNgdTE8O_VT?key=NGs18w2RilA1z7gTGaquZA" alt=""/></figure>



Moonpay’s report on the first half of 2024 showed Solana experienced a 1650% increase in buying volume compared to 2023.&nbsp;



Moonpay provides a service for investors to convert fiat into crypto, and it’s a popular onramp for retail users. This major increase in Moonpay purchasing could indicate an increase in retail users using the blockchain.&nbsp;



— Jack Kubinec



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



Imagine donating your hard-earned crypto to put a meme on the Vegas Sphere, and it never happens. Disaster! Pandemonium! Crisis wif hat!



Well, maybe/maybe not, depending on who you ask. Back in March, Ansem, a prominent figure in the DogWifHat memecoin community, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/memecoin-dogwifhat-shibainu-lasvegas-sphere">raised</a> over $700,000 to display the $WIF dog meme on the Vegas Sphere. Despite the successful raise, the project never <a href="https://x.com/Vybe_Network/status/1811112115593245009">materialized</a>. What&#8217;s more, any queries into the situation seem to have been met with <a href="https://x.com/BradMichelson/status/1810715872589459687">silence</a> from the people involved. Speculation has ensued.



Ariel Givner, an attorney who runs a law firm focused on blockchain and other “emerging technologies,” <a href="https://x.com/givnerariel/status/1810711428879483333?s=46">posted</a> about potential legal issues, noting that regulations might actually prevent crypto advertisements on the Sphere. She raised concerns about the funds&#8217; usage, suggesting possible legal ramifications like fraud and misappropriation. Critics <a href="https://x.com/GivnerAriel/status/1811440298389881028">argued</a> that the funds are held in a multisig wallet <a href="https://x.com/joaomendoncaaaa/status/1810717972434194554">controlled</a> by a number of individuals, not just Ansem, making it <a href="https://x.com/FreeSolGamesDev/status/1810715238372696433">difficult</a> for a single person to misappropriate the funds​.



Responses to Givner&#8217;s tweets have often been <a href="https://x.com/graceb_art/status/1811482989970489722">harsh</a> <a href="https://x.com/Slim_Picking5/status/1810724380034453950">and</a> <a href="https://x.com/richclasdecor/status/1810721396911116484">dismissive</a>, with many <a href="https://x.com/wildrosol/status/1811465393938350190">accusing</a> <a href="https://x.com/osf_rekt/status/1810775808010768671">her</a> of engagement farming and <a href="https://x.com/CryptoSrm/status/1811458213256048718">lacking</a> <a href="https://x.com/AJH_sol/status/1811478531911876937">proper</a> <a href="https://x.com/serelton/status/1811502958380535888">legal</a> <a href="https://x.com/AndrewAsksHow/status/1810726929164816496">understanding</a>. Which makes sense, of course. Surely Twitter&#8217;s armchair legal scholars know more about the law than an actual, practicing lawyer.



— Jeffrey Albus



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One Good DM</h2>



A message from Nicolás Lallement, co-founder of NFT Price Floor:


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfOcPiUBC875O_xeLW6hoN-gfcIdS-qTJikzGSpvTN4a0jyu3_d2NVRuVU5f9xOAX1SI6yreqplKc97mndm2RlHxxbtsVoFpqXmQ7vQFVjUnAULIbtc4NaJB3E1s5AF6wOyFBWHktjJC6Fk1MAfbrPWXbRU?key=NGs18w2RilA1z7gTGaquZA" alt=""/></figure></div>


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Lightspeed Newsletter: Waka Flocka Flame is Drip’s newest celebrity creator

In light of the Securities and Exchange Commission dropping its probe into Paxos over its branded Binance stablecoin (BUSD) — after it was almost completely unwound — one wonders whether there was any material impact on Binance.



It turns out, not so much, at least going by how much crypto users are keeping there.&nbsp;



Collating Binance’s monthly proof of reserves reports shows the firm disclosing $115 billion in user funds at the start of July, up from $61 billion one year ago.&nbsp;



When reports first surfaced of a years-long Department of Justice investigation into <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/binance">Binance</a> in December 2022, there was $45.6 billion. That’s 150% growth as US agencies rained down on Binance, then-CEO Changpang Zhao and, apparently, at least one company that supported them.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/irs-justice-department-probing-binance">IRS, Justice Department probing Binance</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/busd">BUSD</a> was the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap, worth $16.1 billion before the SEC sent its Wells notice to Paxos in February 2023.&nbsp;



Paxos stopped minting new tokens and over the next month, BUSD holders redeemed about half the supply. By January this year, there was only $100 million in circulation.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-triggers-bank-run-on-busd">SEC triggers billion-dollar ‘bank run’ on Binance’s BUSD</a>



Other <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoins</a> including TrueUSD, USDT and FDUSD plugged the gap left by BUSD, with the latter two headquartered outside the US. TrueUSD meanwhile fell out of favor, leading to a number of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-trueusd-stablecoin-trading-pair-delisting">delistings</a> earlier this year.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXewkuNKaD6cqqfrTCebu5MlB1OiII84LBjG_qJuhTXzlNl7CYviEqHD1RZtXhM9ANVnTBtMexIq9hcGXwT18FRh49oYYxx9RJDCPT5HpQEudMrx5DFiGjGgnnN6Uk0vfXH8Q0IjmZrWqSdqNCnHPlCKoC76?key=dL8WNk-QWs_wtDkpRUubRg" alt=""/></figure>



The dollar value of user deposits obviously rises alongside prices, but the purple area and the orange line would decouple if there were any meaningful user exodus. It could also be that US intervention actually boosted confidence in Binance overall.



In any case, as Zhao waits out the rest of his sentence, the makeup of user funds on the platform is morphing, with the data indicating that the general consensus is to hold.



Bitcoin made up 18% of user funds in December 2022 — now it’s over one-third. Similarly, BNB went from 14% to 20%, while ETH has stayed largely unchanged at about 14%, presumably on account of lackluster price growth compared to bitcoin and BNB.



The real tell is that only one-fifth of all user funds on the platform are currently stablecoins — $24.4 billion — down from more than half before Zhao’s troubles really began.&nbsp;



<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="624" height="468" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc6BZfrOdDsM3iTWHna8Nwq7fwhw35tWElrPPYvXj4ST_9ADbXRGzHHLbS0eNjHsBCmHLr702uwQwWD9Fxg_Esh0r7fTx8H2qoaUikRZgOvFDe58wotW1qwzsrtpFZBQzvqfXXZbOBp75Q2J9cbzThMXmer?key=dL8WNk-QWs_wtDkpRUubRg">



That means 80% of Binance user funds are held in non-dollar-pegged crypto assets, practically the highest point on record (which, unfortunately, only began post-FTX).



A similar distribution is seen on OKX’s latest proof of reserves report, dated last month.



As for which cryptocurrencies Binance users are gravitating towards, comparing the most recent number of base units (as in, individual tokens) they held to how many were held in October 2023 can offer some insight. Bitcoin markets really picked up around then.



The tokens with the largest balance increases were curve DAO, arbitrum, aptos, hashflow, enjin and optimism, all growing by more than 70% (and in CRV’s case, 270%).&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXedFm2xA3cgb0vE9IgXwj0VGZH7IXyDanlx9mESxc4BZgztjmI5dFSaNNs3TJdxMhh3sFuK0qEKHueDy1K89OpeJRu0cEbhuzynFXCKNZmwOBMgvIKvIy9sB5ColgG94aIuyMBc027_rWOzPi6mVbzv9oil?key=dL8WNk-QWs_wtDkpRUubRg" alt=""/></figure>



Chiliz and shiba inu were on the other end of the table, losing 32% and 18%, respectively. USDT and USDC balances meanwhile grew by 51% and 37%.



That could also just mean CHZ and SHIB holders pulled their tokens off Binance for long-term cold storage.&nbsp;



Either way, the data suggests that Binance users are confident after the SEC and DOJ’s actions that not only is everything at Binance above board, but that prices will widely rise from here.



A shorter version of this article first appeared in Friday’s Empire Newsletter. Sign up <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">here</a> to never miss an issue.



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Binance has $115B in user crypto — only 20% of it is stablecoins

Bitfarms scheduled a special shareholder meeting for late October as rival bitcoin miner Riot Platforms seeks to replace two of the company’s directors.&nbsp;



Riot called for the meeting after seeking to acquire Bitfarms via a so-called <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/riot-mining-hostile-bid-bitfarms-acquisition">hostile takeover bid</a>, which was ultimately rejected.&nbsp;



The meeting’s Oct. 29 date is more than three months from now.&nbsp;



Bitfarms said in a Friday news release that it was important to give shareholders “a reasonable period of time” to evaluate Riot’s proposal given that Riot “seeks a reconstitution of a majority of the board to gain control of the company.” <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/riot-blockchain">Riot</a> has called out Bitfarms for “poor corporate governance practices and consistent inability to realize Bitfarms’ full potential.” It previously requisitioned a vote to replace directors Nicolas Bonta, Andrés Finkielsztain and Fanny Philip with three other independent directors it nominated.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/riot-nominates-bitfarms-board-directors-takeover">Riot nominates directors for Bitfarms board as part of takeover saga</a>



Bonta had been Bitfarms’ interim CEO until the miner elevated Ben Gagnon, its former chief mining officer, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitfarms-names-new-ceo-amid-riot-takeover-attempt">to the CEO role</a> earlier this week.&nbsp;



Riot ramped up its holdings in Bitfarms last month, increasing its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/riot-bitfarms-miner-takeover-continues">share ownership in the company to 14%</a>.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bitfarms">Bitfarms</a> has accused Riot of disrupting the company’s “strategic alternatives review process,” which Bitfarms launched to evaluate its next steps.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitfarms-on-defense-while-riot-plots-takeover">A shareholder rights plan Bitfarms floated last month</a> may also be considered at the October meeting, the company said. The plan essentially seeks to issue more company shares as a way to limit the control of any one shareholder. Specifically, the plan would allow the company to attach a right to each issued common share that becomes exercisable if an owner holds 15% or more of Bitfarms’ outstanding shares.



“The company remains committed to constructive engagement with all shareholders and remains hopeful that Riot will seek to constructively engage with the company so that Bitfarms need not expend its limited cash resources to protect the interests of its stakeholders against the actions of Riot,” Bitfarms said in the Friday release.&nbsp;



A Riot spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



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



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Bitfarms sets vote date after rival Riot proposes new board members 

Patrick Joyce

In today’s academic world, the pressure to publish and amass citations has created a culture of quantity over quality — the rise in retracted papers and irreproducible results underscores the deep flaws in our current system.&nbsp;



At the heart of these issues are broken incentives for academic success. In order to progress in their careers and attract funding dollars for their research, academics are optimizing for publication-based metrics. However, as Goodhart&#8217;s Law states: “When a measure becomes a public target, it ceases to be a good measure.”



That is why, instead of relying on citation-based success metrics, the scientific community needs to embrace more transparent, community-governed reward systems that incentivize healthy research behaviors rather than superficial, incomplete measures of quality.



Decentralized science (DeSci) and blockchain-based scientific publications are key to making this happen. To that end, scientific reputation should be determined by a decentralized community of scientific colleagues rather than reliance on the validation of higher institutions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The current state of academic publishing</h2>



Most researchers today rely on bibliometrics (publication-based metrics) as a proxy for their research impact and consequent career success. This approach is embodied by the impact factor (IF), which measures the importance of a scientific journal by calculating the average number of citations received by its articles over a two-year period.



At first glance, this approach makes sense — assuming that widely cited papers are higher quality. But the sad truth is citation-based metrics are easily and often gamed in a myriad of ways: tit for tat citation agreements, incentivizing a prominent academic to co-author a report for clout, splitting one significant study into multiple publications — as just some examples.



IF (and other similar metrics) cannot then predict the success of individual papers or account for the multifaceted impacts of research. And researchers who want to advance their careers or secure funding are actively incentivized to optimize their outputs based on these metrics. In short, today’s research incentives are a reflection of Goodhart’s law.



The consequences of these broken incentives are widely felt.&nbsp;



Academia is currently in the midst of a “replication crisis,” with studies showing that approximately <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cancer-biology-studies-research-replication-reproducibility">50-85% of all biomedical research</a> cannot be independently replicated. Even high-profile studies, such as<a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-plan-retract-landmark-alzheimers-paper-containing-doctored-images"> a landmark 2006 Nature paper</a> on Alzheimer’s, often contain doctored figures, underscoring the deep flaws in our current system. On top of that, traditional funding mechanisms unintentionally incentivize the production of irreproducible research. In 2009, The Lancet <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60329-9/abstract">published an article</a> estimating that 85% of all research funding ($200 billion annually) is wasted due to an overreliance on bibliometrics.



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: Focusing on behavioral targets, not publication metrics</h1>



Unless the underlying motivations driving academic publishing themselves are structurally improved, the consequences of this perverse incentive structure will continue to cascade.



Fortunately, Goodhart’s law also reveals that targets for human behavior can in fact be used as a barometer of quality — so long as the ones determining what “quality” means include a wide range of scientific stakeholders rather than ivory tower institutions.&nbsp;



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/decentralize-science-research-data">We need to decentralize science</a>



This is where Web3-enabled scientific communities come in. Blockchain’s decentralized governance mechanisms empower the scientific community to democratically refine incentive structures. The borderless, censorship-resistant flow of value and ideas makes it easier to distribute resources and collaborate both directly and globally.&nbsp;



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">What should tomorrow’s research incentives look like?</h1>



There are many types of DeSci incentive systems. But every successful ecosystem must be evidence-based, governed by the scientific community and intentionally crafted to incentivize healthy research behaviors.&nbsp;



To begin, we must incentivize open access, which ensures that scientific knowledge is freely available to everyone, breaking down barriers to information and fostering a more inclusive research environment. By providing financial incentives and recognition for open access publications, we can encourage more scientists to share their findings with the world.



To promote open data, we should also create targets that reward researchers for making their data publicly available. When researchers share raw data alongside their publications, it allows the greater scientific community to verify results, conduct meta-analyses and build on existing work.



And finally, we should encourage preregistration on open research platforms so scientists and academics actually lay out their hypotheses and methods of their intended study before they even begin. This will help reduce bias, increase transparency and help prevent fraudulent practices such as <a href="https://scienceinthenewsroom.org/resources/statistical-p-hacking-explained/">p-hacking</a> (when non-meaningful connections are highlighted in data anyways). Creating a culture that values and rewards preregistration can improve the integrity of scientific research and increase the reproducibility of results.



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">Embracing the wisdom of the crowd</h1>



To date, academic publishers have monopolized scientific reputation — but the fact is, better alternatives already exist. Instead of a handful of traditional gatekeepers, we need to give the broader scientific community the power to decide which research is impactful and relevant. And the best way to do so in a truly trustless, transparent manner is by leveraging blockchain technology’s decentralized, immutable nature.&nbsp;



The scientific community is beginning to understand the need to adopt, or at least begin experimenting widely with, a new generation of Web3-enabled incentive systems.



Today’s leading DeSci projects are already putting much of this into practice: incentivizing open access, open data and preregistrations through token rewards, and allowing a global community of researchers to determine each others’ reputation scores across various subdomains. These efforts shift researchers away from superficial metrics and towards a transparent, adaptable reputation system that values genuine scientific impact beyond the esoteric realm of citation-based quality measures.&nbsp;



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


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Patrick Joyce is the Co-founder and COO of ResearchHub. He is a double dropout who left a PhD program in molecular biology to attend medical school, and then subsequently dropped out of medical school to build ResearchHub. During his time in academia he came to understand the true extent of how broken incentives in academic publishing hold back human knowledge creation. He co-founded ResearchHub to help accelerate science by aligning incentives within the academic marketplace.
</div>


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



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Web3 can fix academia’s broken incentives

Michael McSweeney

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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TheBinanceBay</h2>



The coolest thing about torrenting site ThePirateBay is that it really does operate like a pirate ship. When one jurisdiction forces it offline, it pops back up under a different domain.



At least in one <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-ingenious-way-the-pirate-bay-avoids-the-police-2014-9?international=true&amp;r=US&amp;IR=T">point</a> in time, ThePirateBay itself didn’t own any actual servers. Its operators instead chose to spread the site’s functionality across 21 virtual machines hosted around the world by various commercial cloud providers.



If one of the hosts pulled out, those virtual machines could be easily deployed to a different provider. More importantly, though, it meant there were no physical servers for police to seize.&nbsp;



And besides, the virtual server structure meant the actual cloud hosts keeping ThePirateBay online were unaware they were even hosting the torrenting portal — further insulating it against police.



Binance has operated under similar mystique. For the longest time, the company had claimed to have no headquarters, something new CEO Richard Teng walked back after taking over from founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, who’s currently serving a four-month prison sentence in California.



Like ThePirateBay, Binance bounced between jurisdictions for years, from China to Japan and Malta, before all three eventually pushed the exchange to mosey on somewhere else. Dubai is currently tipped as the next potential destination to dock, although there hasn’t yet been any official announcement.



<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">Afternoon meeting with Prime Minister <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephMuscat_JM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JosephMuscat_JM</a>, and Jr Minister <a href="https://twitter.com/SilvioSchembri?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SilvioSchembri</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Malta?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Malta</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlockchainIsland?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlockchainIsland</a>. These guys have done so much for the blockchain industry. Thank you! <a href="https://t.co/EQLNgHWNFv">pic.twitter.com/EQLNgHWNFv</a>&mdash; CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1048271738780438528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Zhao was a big fan of Malta in 2018 but was forced to sail onwards</figcaption></figure>



All this might explain why the SEC was so eager to cut Binance off from its primary stablecoin provider, the New York-headquartered Paxos, by threatening to take it to court to prove that BUSD was an unregistered security.



And that really worked: BUSD was the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap, worth $16.1 billion, before the SEC sent its Wells notice to Paxos in February 2023. Paxos stopped minting new tokens and over the next month, BUSD holders redeemed about half the supply. By January this year, there was only $100 million in circulation.



But while the US has seemingly thrown anything that might stick at Binance and Zhao, there appears to have been little impact on Binance user activity.&nbsp;



After collating the exchange’s monthly proof of reserves disclosures, it’s clear that Binance hasn’t skipped a beat, at least in terms of user capital on the platform.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeW-P8lSG6qCuq-K2k0AzUXwngZW-uAF05S_tL2C6d2UIxmavlgRRkl-K7L8wHHZq8Lh5X7aCvcmpeG6eOMmStEkaNrc2UQEUvNFU_5_LXUfIFtZu6Dm-3E1a3QMNbBBGu_fnpHULTzoNUNWrDQNUkxdx-N?key=NpibROXxzPGADSHu9JOh8w" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The dollar value of user deposits obviously rises alongside prices, but the purple area and the orange line would decouple if there were any mass user exodus</figcaption></figure>



Binance disclosed $115 billion in user funds at the start of July, up from $61 billion one year ago, and $45.6 billion when reports first surfaced of a years-long DOJ investigation in December 2022.



Other stablecoins including TrueUSD, USDT and FDUSD plugged the gap left after Paxos wound down BUSD, with the latter two headquartered outside the US. TrueUSD meanwhile fell out of favor, leading to a number of <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-trueusd-stablecoin-trading-pair-delisting">delistings</a> earlier this year.



In any case, as Zhao waits out the rest of his sentence, the makeup of user funds on the platform is morphing, with the data indicating that the general consensus is to hold.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdnT4oQmNahj1zaleiP20W89seTJdv88Ok433kVyW17KCu8J9n0YWcpM_-5RuK0gVR9SIJe8UmTm0-s4iavcdjhbNnL9XYxdv-2FMc-MMs4WqeBhqCfLmSSmBc19UHpYFg-P8xMuCzAcbXsgb6ExCm0x3G6?key=NpibROXxzPGADSHu9JOh8w" alt=""/></figure>



Bitcoin made up 18% of user funds in December 2022 — now it’s over one-third. Similarly, BNB went from 14% to 20%, while ETH has stayed largely unchanged at about 14%, presumably on account of lackluster price growth compared to bitcoin and BNB.



The real tell is that only one-fifth of all user funds on the platform are currently stablecoins — $24.4 billion — down from more than half before Zhao’s troubles really began. That means 80% of Binance user funds are held in non-dollar-pegged crypto assets.&nbsp;



Clearly, users are confident after the SEC and DOJ’s actions, not only that everything at Binance is above board, but that prices will rise from here.



— David Canellis



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Data Center</h2>



<ul>
<li>SOL was only 1% of Binance user funds this time last year — now it’s over 4%.</li>



<li>USD <a href="https://defillama.com/cex/binance-cex?tvl=false&amp;usdInflows=true&amp;groupBy=monthly">flows</a> to Binance are off to a ripper start to July, currently $1.02 billion net.</li>



<li>Net flows hit $7.1 billion in April, followed by $6 billion net outflows in the last two months.</li>



<li>BTC and ETH have slipped 2% each over the past day, to $57,250 and $3,070.</li>



<li>FLR, WIF and RNDR are the worst hit in the <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/">top-100</a> this week, down between 11% and 10%.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A win’s a win</h2>



Paxos is getting off scot-free after the SEC said it wouldn’t pursue legal action against the company.&nbsp;



Let’s back up for a second. The SEC issued Paxos a Wells notice last February. This came, obviously, before the SEC’s case against Binance in June.



I mention this because the SEC, in its complaint against Binance, alleged that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-stablecoin-security-paxos-sec-wells">BUSD was a security</a>.&nbsp;



There’ve been some interesting developments in that case as well.



Last month, Judge Amy Berman Jackson — the judge overseeing the Binance case — ruled against a motion to dismiss filed by Binance and its US entities. However, there were a few curveballs hidden in her ruling.&nbsp;



Jackson wrote that the SEC didn’t “plausibly allege” that BUSD was offered and sold as an investment contract.&nbsp;



“The SEC makes the vague assertion that Binance used ‘at least a portion’ of those returns to enable and promote the Binance ecosystem, which it says “gave BUSD its potential profit,” but it does not explicitly link the value of the token — which was tied to the US dollar — to the success of the platform,” she said.



The SEC, at the hearing on the motion to dismiss, also tried to argue that it wasn’t claiming BUSD by itself was a security — but rather that it was sold as a “package” that promoted a “profit-making program.”



Judge Jackson, in denying the charge regarding BUSD sales, clearly decided that there wasn’t enough to support the claims.



Unfortunately, the BUSD of it all is a bit of a moot point, given that Paxos quickly shut down its Binance partnership and stopped issuing the stablecoin in late February of last year.&nbsp;



But there’s no doubt the SEC dropping the investigation is a win for Paxos.



“Paxos Trust Company has always maintained that its USD-backed stablecoins are not securities under federal securities laws and that the Wells Notice was unwarranted and unjustified,” the company said in a statement.&nbsp;



Does this mean that the SEC is potentially abandoning the ability to label stablecoins as a security?&nbsp;



“The SEC’s decision to not bring an enforcement action against Paxos signals that it may consider that USD-backed stablecoins are not securities. If the question of whether stablecoins are securities is definitively answered, the SEC would provide a necessary degree of regulatory certainty to this asset class,” said David Oliwenstein, partner at Pillsbury Law.



But others say it’s still unclear. Right now, there’s too little information to read deep into that scenario confidently.



The “declination letter is a significant victory for Paxos and what should be viewed as encouraging to the industry, even though it doesn’t establish with any certainty that any specific type of stablecoin is or is not a security,” Andrew Hinkes, partner at K&amp;L Gates, said.&nbsp;



If you wanted to look on the positive side, then one might even think the SEC was somehow being thoughtful in its approach to regulating the industry. Or maybe it’s just acknowledging that BUSD is DOA at this point.



Either way, it’s Friday.&nbsp;



— Katherine Ross



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



<ul>
<li>The House <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/house-fails-to-override-anti-sab121-veto">failed</a> to override President Biden’s veto of the anti-SAB 121 bill.&nbsp;</li>



<li>The SEC may allow some banks and brokerage firms to bypass SAB 121, Bloomberg <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/financial-accounting/sec-allows-some-exceptions-to-crypto-accounting-rule-compliance">reports</a>.</li>



<li>Two lawmakers <a href="https://hill.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=9337">introduced</a> a resolution to force Nigeria to send detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan back to the US.</li>



<li>OKX is reportedly leaning towards Malta as its European hub over France, CoinDesk <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/07/11/okx-picks-malta-over-france-as-europe-hub-to-comply-with-eus-mica-crypto-rules-sources/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_campaign=headlines">reported</a>.</li>



<li>Culper Research <a href="https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/cc91fda7-4669-4d1b-81ce-a0b8d77f25ab/downloads/Culper_IREN_7-11-24.pdf?ver=1720711055685">published</a> a short report on bitcoin miner Iris Energy, dubbing it a “Prius at the Grand Prix.”</li>
</ul>



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



Taking a page from the Gensler playbook?



That was the impression I couldn’t quite shake whilst following Rostin Behnam’s testimony yesterday before Congress.&nbsp;



According to Fox Business’ Eleanor Terrett, the CFTC chief reportedly <a href="https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/1811043005056401434">said</a> that 70-to-80% of the crypto market comprises “non-securities.” A bold statement, and suggestive of the idea that they’re commodities instead —&nbsp;and thus under the agency’s purview. Behnam might also be signaling that the CFTC is basing this reasoning on market capitalization, with BTC and ETH comprising the bulk of the pie.&nbsp;



Sound familiar? That kind of expansive terrain-charting is reminiscent of Gensler’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gensler-crypto-wild-west">frequent citation</a> that most of the crypto market consists of, well, securities — a declaration that would make it largely the SEC’s beat instead.



It’s certainly curious of Behnam to make such statements, especially as — if some Congress has its way —&nbsp;the two agencies will be required to join forces in some areas on crypto oversight.



Perhaps the jockeying for position, and money, has already begun.&nbsp;



— Michael McSweeney



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



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



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

Empire Newsletter: What the SEC dropping its Paxos probe really means

Last week, the Helium Foundation said in a somewhat-cryptic <a href="https://blog.helium.com/network-of-networks-24c58012d2e9">blog</a> post that it would be unveiling new proposals for “subnetworks” that go “beyond wireless.” Guesses as to what these subnetworks would be flooded in, ranging from proof-of-location to decentralized compute.&nbsp;



The answer became clear this week when a Swedish energy-focused project named Srcful <a href="https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0128-energy-subnetwork.md?utm_campaign=hd_newsletter_4&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsmi=314996807&amp;utm_content=314996807&amp;utm_source=hs_email">proposed</a> becoming a Helium subnetwork with its own ENERGY token. The Helium Foundation has mostly kept mum on what other future subnetworks might be.



Helium currently lets individuals run nodes in its Internet of Things (IoT) network in exchange for Solana-based IOT tokens, which can be converted into HNT tokens. The MOBILE wireless network is also under the Helium umbrella. To participate, households or businesses can drop a few hundred dollars on a Helium <a href="https://www.helium.com/mine#hotspots">hotspot</a> and plug it into the wall while hoping the token payouts exceed the energy bill.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-first-vc">Lightspeed Newsletter: A conversation with Solana’s first VC</a>



At a high level, a firmware upgrade would let existing Helium IoT hotspots also power Srcful. This would expand the network’s usefulness while also opening up another avenue for token rewards. The proposal also alludes to ENERGY-exclusive “gateways” that could work as hotspots — saying vendors would need to stake 50 million ENERGY to sell them.&nbsp;



Subject to a successful governance vote, Srcful plans to use <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/helium">Helium</a> hotspots to run a virtual power plant. Virtual power plants (or VPPs) are a new-ish <a href="https://rmi.org/clean-energy-101-virtual-power-plants/">idea</a> in the renewable energy space whereby smaller-scale distributed energy sources can be aggregated to support the energy grid.&nbsp;



In Srcful’s case, this <a href="https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0128-energy-subnetwork.md?utm_campaign=hd_newsletter_4&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsmi=314996807&amp;utm_content=314996807&amp;utm_source=hs_email">looks</a> like households offering the power from their solar panels or batteries (the kind of batteries big enough to power a house for a few hours) to build a VPP — and receiving ENERGY tokens in exchange.



Helium hotspots would be used for “reading and controlling” the solar panels and batteries, and hotspot operators would get rewarded in ENERGY tokens.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-depin-projects-with-real-world-utility">DePIN projects have gained momentum on Solana blockchain</a>



Srcful would then sell the virtual power plant energy — and potentially some accompanying energy data — to clients like energy companies or grid operators, which would hopefully bring in enough revenue to keep the lights on (pun intended).



If you feel like this is a bit convoluted, you’re not alone. Srcful’s complicated business model became a source of concern for some in the HIP’s Discord discussion.&nbsp;



“Here is the issue, I want to support everything in the Helium ecosystem. However…I can’t even fully explain it to friends of mine in the Solar business,” one user <a href="https://discord.com/channels/404106811252408320/1257917899319017553/1260678553046093836">wrote</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Srcful CEO Fredrik Ahlgren told me in an interview that he realizes “it&#8217;s very hard for people to understand” what Srcful does, but he wants to present Helium community members with a more streamlined narrative: “If you have solar or batteries, you get rewards for helping the grid.”&nbsp;



There’s also the obstacle that Srcful is yet to nail down contracts with energy-needy operations that would pay for its VPP.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-stablecoins-depin">Empire Newsletter: How ‘number-go-up’ fuels DePIN</a>



“I would say that this applies for every <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/depin">DePIN</a> project,” Ahlgren said. “You need to start somewhere. You need to believe that there is a demand side and have a product market fit.”



Helium Foundation CEO Abhay Kumar didn’t have much to add when I asked him about the future of Helium’s subnetworks. He said in a text that building a hub for all DePIN “could be a direction we go,” but added: “I don&#8217;t like to ‘ship a vision’ before shipping a product. Plenty of that out there.”



Kumar did say he expects “many such proposals” like Srcful’s to reach Helium’s governance forum.&nbsp;



As Helium looks to onboard Srcful — and presumably other new DePINs as well — I’ll be interested to see how these subnetworks resolve the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/where-is-the-revenue-helium-investors-inquire">classic Helium question of tokenomics</a>.



Helium has a complex utility score used to allocate HNT to its networks, and the tokenomics have been subject to some tinkering from the Helium community. Regardless, HNT has seen its price drop by two-thirds since February, trading at around $3.08 at time of writing.



A version of this article appeared in today’s Lightspeed newsletter, which covers all things Solana. Click <a href="https://lightspeed-4bed7b.beehiiv.com/subscribe">here</a> to subscribe.



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



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



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



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