Shaunda Devens

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Strategy has stepped back in as a visible treasury bid for BTC, but with a very different financing backdrop compared to 2024-2025



At the end of December, Strategy raised cash but barely deployed it into BTC. On Dec. 29-31, it sold 1,255,911 MSTR shares for $195.9 million net proceeds, yet bought only 3 BTC. In early January, deployment resumed: Jan. 1-4 saw another 735,000 shares sold for $116.3 million net, and 1,283 BTC bought for $116 million (avg $90,391/BTC), bringing holdings to 673,783 BTC.



The bigger signal sits in the financing backdrop. In 2024 through early 2025, Strategy funded itself cheaply via convertible debt (cash coupons 0.625% to 2.25%, then multiple 0% converts). That playbook works best when MSTR trades at a premium to Bitcoin NAV (mNAV &gt; 1) because of the equity optionality.&nbsp;



However, by mid-to-late 2025, that premium compressed and flipped to a discount (mNAV &lt; 1), making equity-linked financing harder to place and common issuance mechanically dilutive to BTC-per-share. As a result, the financing shifted toward high-cash-cost preferred, often issued below par, printing roughly 10% to 12.5% effective cash cost on proceeds. STRC&#8217;s dividend rate has been stepped up from 9% (August 2025) to 11.0% (January 2026) to keep the channel open.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110777" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Interestingly, Strategy is still funding buys by issuing common via the ATM even at an mNAV discount, accepting short-term dilution to keep accumulating and maintain liquidity. When mNAV is below 1 and marginal funding costs are double-digit, scaling purchases becomes both more dilutive and more expensive. That makes Strategy a less-reliable, less-price-setting buyer compared to prior premium regimes. It will still matter as a sentiment marker, but unless the premium reopens, its flow is more likely to be episodic clips than a sustained engine for the tape.



Zooming out, 2025&#8217;s marginal bid was essentially a two-horse race: spot ETFs and Strategy. On the accumulation chart, Strategy&#8217;s cumulative purchases tracked in the same range as ETFs for much of the year, meaning Strategy was comparable in flow impact to the ETF complex at points.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110776" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image-30.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The setup for 2026 looks materially weaker. With mNAV compressed and financing shifting toward double-digit preferred costs plus dilutive ATM common issuance, Strategy&#8217;s bid becomes harder to scale without worsening BTC-per-share dilution. Strategy is still a sentiment marker, but the buying pressure should be more muted and episodic, leaving ETF flows and broader crypto risk appetite as the more reliable price-setting forces.



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0xResearch Newsletter

The Strategy playbook looks different in 2026

Carlos

Sam Schubert

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Markets bounced as December rate-cut odds swung back above 80%, lifting BTC, equities and gold.



Monad launched mainnet yesterday, but MON’s day-one listing on Solana and Hyperliquid was arguably the bigger story. Finally, we dive into Galaxy’s investment case, with GLXY allowing investors to express a bullish crypto view while also getting exposure to AI compute infrastructure demand.



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



Markets bounced on Monday as odds swung back toward a potential December rate cut. Bitcoin climbed as much as 2.73%, briefly pushing above $89,000 before closing the day at $88,200 (+1.72%). The standout performer, however, was the Nasdaq 100 (+2.22%), posting its strongest daily gain since mid-May. The S&amp;P 500 (+1.20%) also logged its best session in six weeks, while Gold (+1.75%) edged out BTC on the day, closing at its highest level since Nov. 14.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="894" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110110" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=467 467w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-144.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



It seems markets have been hyperfocused on US rate developments over the past two weeks. Yesterday, Fed Governor Waller reiterated that the labor market’s weakness could justify a 25 bps cut in December. The latest dovish comments led to probabilities of a December rate cut rising above 80% on both Polymarket and the CME’s <a href="https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html">FedWatch Tool</a>.



The chart below shows Polymarket’s odds for the Fed decision in December. Over the past two weeks, odds have swung sharply between a 25 bps cut and no change, underscoring the challenge the market faces in pricing near-term rates in the absence of economic data after the longest US government shutdown recorded.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110111" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-145.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Back on the crypto side, most indices outperformed BTC, catching a bid after a tough month for risk assets. The best-performing index was Crypto Miners (+8.4%), with Cleanspark (CLSK) up more than 10% after JP Morgan raised its guidance for the company. Notably, the No Revenue index (+7.9%) was the second-best performer in the cohort, suggesting that investors’ risk appetite may be increasing as macro concerns ease.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="904" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110109" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=462 462w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-143.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Market Update</h2>



Monad went live on mainnet yesterday, almost three years after the team <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/paradigm-leads-monad-parallel-evm-fundraise">first raised</a> in January 2023. <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/monad_a-supercharged-evm-layer-1">Monad</a> represents a bold attempt to supercharge the EVM experience from the ground up, introducing a new consensus algorithm, a parallel execution engine, and a custom data architecture. The chain targets 10K+ TPS, 400ms blocks, and 800ms deterministic finality, though it remains to be seen how this fares in production.&nbsp;



While Monad’s architecture may be novel, the fact that it took so long to come to market means it now faces an uphill battle catching up to more mature networks like Solana or even L2s like Base in terms of ecosystem activity, DEX volumes, TVL, stablecoins in circulation and so on. The chart below shows the top applications on Monad by TVL, as of today. The four largest apps are well established players in the EVM ecosystem, with Uniswap v4 topping the cohort with $25 million in TVL.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="900" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110112" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=464 464w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-146.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



The only “Monad-native” applications in the chart above are Kuru and Neverland.



<a href="https://kuru.io/">Kuru</a> is a DEX with a hybrid order book-AMM design. The platform also offers a DEX aggregator. Kuru hopes to take advantage of Monad’s speed and low fees to provide a venue for market makers to handle liquid assets, while also offering passive liquidity solutions to support long-tail assets. The team raised <a href="https://blog.kuru.io/p/kuru-labs-raises-2-million-seed-round">$2 million</a> in a seed round led by Electric Capital in July 2024.&nbsp;



Neverland is a lending protocol built on Aave v3’s architecture. Per DeFi Llama, the protocol has about $1 million in deposits and $420,000 in borrows. So far, Monad apps are not particularly exciting, but rather things we’ve already seen time and again in other ecosystems (DEXs, money markets, etc.). It will be interesting to monitor if truly innovative apps emerge on the chain over the coming months. Personally, I’m interested to see if<a href="https://x.com/ThogardPvP/status/1963379267871613138"> prop AMMs</a> will be able to thrive on Monad, or if they remain a Solana-only phenomenon.



Perhaps more exciting than Monad’s launch itself was the day-one listing of MON by Solana and Hyperliquid. While Hyperliquid has already supported other high profile launches on day one (e.g., PUMP, XPL, 2Z), it was the first time Solana users were able to trade a non-native asset at launch with relatively deep liquidity. The game changer that allows Solana to be competitive with CEXs and Hyperliquid on this front is prop AMMs combined with hardened bridge infrastructure (e.g. Wormhole).MON trading volumes on Solana have surpassed <a href="https://orb.helius.dev/address/CrAr4RRJMBVwRsZtT62pEhfA9H5utymC2mVx8e7FreP2/markets?cluster=mainnet-beta&amp;sort_by=volume24h&amp;sort_type=desc">$60 million</a> over the past 24 hours, roughly 60% more than Hyperliquid spot ($37 million). When stacked against CEXs, Solana would have been the fifth-largest venue by trading volume, only behind Upbit, Coinbase, Bybit and Bithumb. With xStocks, battle-tested bridge infrastructure and prop AMMs, there is no technical barrier preventing Solana from supporting every relevant asset. While it’s tempting to frame yesterday’s events as Hyperliquid vs. Solana (competition is good), the more important story is onchain, decentralized trading venues gradually outcompeting CEXs over the coming years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Galaxy Digital ($GLXY) Investment Case&nbsp;</h2>



Galaxy Digital (“Galaxy”) is turning into one of the cleanest listed ways to own the institutional build out of crypto markets, while also getting exposure to AI compute infrastructure demand. Here we take a closer look at its business segments in light of the recent selloff. The market still mostly files it as a volatile trading shop, but the mix is shifting toward more durable revenue being at the center of institutional crypto flows and contracted infrastructure income, which should support a more stable earnings profile through the cycle.



Recent results show what the model can earn when conditions are favorable, with the latest quarter delivering about $505 million of net income against $3.2 billion of balance sheet equity. In Q3, earnings mix translated into about $250 million of EBITDA from Digital Assets and $376 million from Treasury and Corporate, with Data Centers still negligible. Investors are buying a scaling digital asset platform with significant crypto and equity holdings, and essentially a call option on AI infrastructure. Earnings will still swing with asset prices and volumes, but the fact that Q3 2025 nearly matches full year 2024’s net income underlines Galaxy’s earnings leverage to a growing digital asset market. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="blob:https://cms.blockworks.co/ce4295fc-6c7b-4ce6-bb87-7b53f1822df0" width="720" height="340">



Galaxy has three key segments.&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>About 40% of equity capital sits in Digital Assets, which encompasses Global Markets and Asset Management &amp; Infrastructure Solutions. Global Markets drives most of the earnings here, with its sell-side trading desk (spot and derivative OTC, lending, structured products), coupled with the investment banking arm, adding M&amp;A advisory and equity and debt capital markets fees. Asset Management &amp; Infrastructure Solutions earns fee income from active and passive investment products, crypto services, and staking and custody solutions that offer clients customized exposure and stronger security. </li>



<li>35% of equity capital sits in Treasury and Corporate, which manages Galaxy’s own portfolio of digital assets and strategic equity stakes, so Q3’s profit reflects mark to market gains of those holdings. </li>



<li>The remaining 25% is tied to Data Centers, mainly the Helios build in Texas, which is effectively pre-revenue today but is expected to generate contracted rent from 2026 with CoreWeave its anchor tenant. Phase I targets delivery of 133 MW of contracted critical IT load by 1H26, with capacity rising to 526 MW when Phase III is completed in 2028.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1225" height="543" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110117" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=1225 1225w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-149.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1225px) 100vw, 1225px" /></figure>



GalaxyOne is Galaxy’s consumer platform for US individual investors, bundling high yield cash, premium yield notes, and simple-crypto and US-equity trading in one app. If it scales, it can grow fee and spread income on client balances, provide cheaper and stickier funding for the trading and lending book, and create a direct funnel into Galaxy asset management and staking products. In big picture terms, it is a way for Galaxy to capture more of the economics of retail flows instead of relying only on institutional clients.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1229" height="550" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110116" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=1229 1229w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-148.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1229px) 100vw, 1229px" /></figure>



Galaxy is also putting its Class A common shares onchain on Solana in partnership with Superstate, creating fully SEC registered tokenized stock that trades and settles on a blockchain. That is less about near-term earnings and more about proving out tokenized capital markets, giving them a live case study to sell to issuers, funds and banks who want to bring other securities onchain. Supply of onchain GLXY can be tracked with this <a href="https://dune.com/glxyresearch_team/glxy-class-a-common-stock-token">Dune dashboard</a>.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="599" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-110115" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=1100 1100w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image-147.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /></figure>



Galaxy is still a high beta way to express a bullish crypto view, with trading and principal investing a big swing factor, but it offers a cleaner way to play the broader adoption theme than a single coin. There is regulatory risk with the evolving political environment, meaningful execution risk around Helios delivering its planned AI leasing economics, and GalaxyOne gaining real traction in a competitive consumer market.



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Monad ships mainnet, while markets rebound

Katherine Ross

Accountable raised $7.5 million in a round led by Pantera Capital, Blockworks has exclusively learned.&nbsp;



The round also saw participation from OKX Ventures, Onigiri Capital and KPK.&nbsp;



Accountable, which operates in the undercollateralized crypto credit space, raised $2.3 million at the end of 2024 and seeks to use the new capital to expand its team. Currently, there are 18 employees, but CEO Wojtek Pawlowski hopes to expand several teams, including business development.&nbsp;



He added that now was the right time to seek more funding because the business is “really going [in] a good direction.”



But the raise is about more than just fresh capital.&nbsp;



“We curated the whole list of investors as very much strategic partners that can take this product and adoption to the next level, rather than simply looking for pure cash,” Pawlowski told Blockworks. “We see tremendous demand from institutional counterparties, and everybody&#8217;s looking at it with the hope that if this plays out, then we&#8217;ll have much healthier fundamentals of this industry. And we just need to deliver.”



For Pantera, Accountable offers a “missing layer” from the last time that crypto saw credit gain popularity.&nbsp;



“Every major failure in crypto finance from Celsius to FTX shared one flaw: no way to verify solvency in real time. Recent market turbulence underscored the same point. Proof-of-reserves is a strong start but institutions need full visibility into both assets and liabilities,” said Nihal Maunder, partner at Pantera Capital.&nbsp;



“Less than two years in, it’s already verifying over a billion dollars in assets. We believe it will become the standard that institutions adopt as naturally as HTTPS became standard for the internet.”



In his last conversation with Blockworks, Pawlowski noted that his firm aims to be “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/accountable-wants-to-be-the-new-celsius">the new Celsius</a>.” But, he clarified, Accountable is seeking to build something “better” than the products offered in 2021 and 2022.&nbsp;



“We&#8217;re materializing the vision exactly the same as…the last time we spoke, and we are at the stage of now the execution layer with those yield options we build on our platform with this underlying trust, but then we still plan to pack them as a product that neobanks, exchanges and so on can use internally and pass it to their users,” he noted.&nbsp;



Accountable launched its testnet a few months ago and aims to launch its “full platform with very tier one financial institutions,” Pawlowski said. Its mainnet, he added, is set for a mid-November launch.



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crypto hiring

Pantera leads $7.5M round for Accountable: Exclusive

Macauley Peterson

SharpLink Gaming plans to deploy $200 million worth of ether onto Linea, ConsenSys’ zkEVM Layer 2, in a multi-year program that pairs ether.fi staking with EigenCloud restaking rewards and ecosystem incentives.



The public company frames the move as a way to turn an <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sharplink-adds-177m-eth">already large ETH treasury</a> into productive, onchain capital while keeping institutional controls under <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/anchorage-digital">Anchorage Digital</a> custody.



Both Linea and Ether.fi are offering meaningful incentives, according to Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze.



“SharpLink’s $200 million is just a starting point — the intention is to scale that up,” Silagadze told Blockworks.



Mechanically, staking occurs on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> mainnet, with a receipt token bridged to Linea for DeFi activities, Silagadze explained.



“Restaking happens in the background — it doesn’t matter where the token sits,” he said, noting that Ether.fi has been available on Linea for over a year.



Anchorage is integrating with ether.fi so qualified-custody clients like Sharplink can mint and allocate directly from custody, according to a person familiar with the plans.



A SharpLink spokesperson declined to offer details on the net yields, other than to say the plan is “designed to generate risk-adjusted yields well above the native ETH staking rate.”



Regarding related-party considerations tied to ConsenSys founder and SharpLink chairman Joseph Lubin, the spokesperson said, “SharpLink manages all corporate governance matters with the rigor and transparency expected of a Nasdaq-listed company.”



The deployment is similar to <a href="http://ether.fi">Ether.fi’s previous partnership with ETHZilla</a>, which saw $100 million in ether deployed into its staking infrastructure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">ETHZilla sheds some ETH</h2>



The Sharplink announcement comes the same day as social media is atwitter over a different treasury move: ETHZilla said it sold roughly $40 million of ETH to repurchase shares trading below measured NAV after an investor’s open letter urged buybacks.



<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">6/ Yesterday I urged <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24ETHZ&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$ETHZ</a> to start selling part of their Ethereum to buy back shares while they trade at a discount to mNAV. They replied by saying they have already started and bought back 600.000 shares at $20/share. This alone increased NAV by $0.26/share already.&mdash; Capybara Stocks (@capybaraReborn) <a href="https://twitter.com/capybaraReborn/status/1983221348534047214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Silagadze called that decision “about signaling,” aimed to close a steep discount rather than a retreat from DeFi and said ether.fi has seen “no withdrawals” tied to the buyback.



Read against the broader digital-asset-treasury (DAT) landscape, SharpLink’s program underscores two diverging playbooks this cycle: sell ETH to close a market discount, or keep ETH productive onchain to compound staking, restaking and partner incentives. SharpLink is explicitly choosing the latter — and doing so on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/linea-previews-eth-first-roadmap">a specific L2 with a growing institutional pitch</a>.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitmine-adds-200k-eth">ETH DAT King Kong</a> — BitMine Immersion (BTMR) — meanwhile, has yet to take steps into onchain yield.



Risk management sits at the heart of whether more public treasuries follow. On the protocol side, the hazards span L2 bridge and sequencer assumptions, smart-contract vulnerabilities, and the slashing conditions of the specific <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/eigenlayer">EigenCloud</a> AVSs SharpLink elects to back.



Like the ETHZilla deal before it, Silagadze said, AVS selection and risk curation sit within Ether.fi’s remit.



The Sharplink spokesperson confirmed “a collaborative partnership with Etherfi” and added, “we pre-review AVS terms and define clear de-risk triggers.”



A separate source of confusion for equity markets is how to read “mNAV” — the ratio investors use to judge whether a DAT trades above or below its underlying portfolio value.



There are four ways to track mNAV, said Blockworks Research’s Dan Smith, “and the ‘best’ depends on the company.” For instance, prefunded warrants can make outstanding mNAV diverge from fully diluted, while cash-heavy balance sheets argue for enterprise value-based measures.



Smith pointed to ETHZilla selling ETH when outstanding mNAV was below 1 but fully diluted was above 1 — suggesting it manages to the outstanding figure. By contrast, BitMine has sold stock even while its outstanding mNAV was less than 1, implying it makes its determination based on the fully diluted metric, Smith said.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109603" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-146.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3762">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







For now, SharpLink’s move jives with an approach of putting ether to productive use, staking and restaking at institutional scale, with token incentives sweetening initial economics.&nbsp;



Whether that approach becomes the default for public ETH treasuries will hinge on what matters most to boards and investors: closing today’s market discount, or compounding tomorrow’s onchain yield to maximize ether.



Updated 10/28/25 at 3:30 pm ET to reflect comments from SharpLink.



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ConsenSys

Sharplink takes its ETH onchain, as ETHZilla trims its stash

Blockworks

Western Union plans to launch a US dollar-backed stablecoin on the Solana blockchain next year, marking its biggest step yet into digital assets.&nbsp;



The new token, called the US Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), will be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and will allow Western Union’s 100 million customers to send money internationally without exposure to local currency volatility.



The news was first <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/western-union-early-telegraph-pioneer-joins-the-crypto-arms-race-a0aa7f02?mod=hp_lead_pos8">reported</a> by the Wall Street Journal.&nbsp;



The initiative follows the passage of the Genius Act, signed by President Trump in mid-2025, which created the first federal framework for stablecoins.&nbsp;



Western Union <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251028647920/en/Western-Union-Announces-USDPT-Stablecoin-on-Solana-and-Digital-Asset-Network">said</a> the stablecoin will be accessible through partner exchanges and integrated into a new digital asset network connecting crypto wallets and its 400,000 retail outlets worldwide.



According to the WSJ, Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan described the launch as a natural extension of the company’s 175-year history of using technology to connect people.&nbsp;



By using stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies — Western Union aims to cut settlement times and transaction costs while reducing dependence on legacy correspondent banking systems.



This story was updated at 1:30 pm ET to reflect confirmation from Western Union.



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Solana

Western Union to launch Solana-based dollar stablecoin

Trump Media &amp; Technology Group announced that it will launch Truth Predict, a prediction-market product built into its Truth Social platform.



The prediction market will launch through an integration with Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA), a CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse.



Truth Predict will allow users to trade event contracts tied to real-world outcomes, including U.S. elections, interest-rate decisions and sports results. The platform’s real-time price updates will reflect shifting market sentiment as events unfold.&nbsp;



A beta version will debut “in the near future” before a national rollout, with global expansion to follow once additional regulatory requirements are met.



Under the arrangement, Truth Social and its sister platforms Truth+ and Truth.Fi will integrate with CDNA’s infrastructure, enabling users to convert in-platform rewards called “Truth gems” into Cronos (CRO) tokens for use in prediction contracts.&nbsp;



The system builds on Trump Media’s existing partnership with Crypto.com to establish Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, Inc., a digital asset treasury vehicle formed through a proposed SPAC merger.



Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said the integration aims to “democratize information” and “turn free speech into actionable foresight.” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek called prediction markets a “multi-deca-billion dollar opportunity” and said the collaboration aligns social engagement with transparent market sentiment.



This is a developing story.



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Crypto.com

Trump Media unveils prediction market Truth Predict

Figment and Coinbase Prime have expanded their institutional staking partnership to support a wider range of Proof-of-Stake networks, the companies announced on October 28, 2025.&nbsp;



The integration, which began in early 2024 with Ethereum staking, has enabled more than $2 billion in staked assets to date.



Through this extended collaboration, institutional clients using<a href="https://www.coinbase.com/en-gb/blog"> Coinbase Prime</a> — Coinbase Global’s full-service prime brokerage for trading, financing, and custody — can now access Figment’s institutional-grade staking infrastructure across multiple networks. The expansion adds support for assets such as Solana, Sui, Aleo, Aptos, Avalanche, Axelar, Cardano, Celestia, Cosmos, EigenLayer, NEAR, and Polkadot.



Coinbase Prime clients are able to stake tokens directly from Coinbase’s custody platform without moving assets, allowing institutions to manage staking, trading, and financing in one interface. The firms said the integration enhances decentralization and maintains the security standards required by institutional asset managers.



“Expanding our staking integration gives institutions more flexibility to select high-quality staking providers like Figment while safeguarding assets with Coinbase Prime’s institutional-grade controls and secure custody,” said Lewis Han, Head of Staking Sales at Coinbase.&nbsp;



“Clients will continue to benefit from our comprehensive staking solution, including turnkey infrastructure and robust staking reporting.”



“From the start, Figment has focused on security and risk-adjusted performance, building infrastructure for the world’s most trusted financial institutions,” said Lorien Gabel, Co-founder and CEO of Figment.&nbsp;



“Our relationship with Coinbase Prime has been integral here, and we look forward to bringing more companies onchain together.”



This is a developing story.



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Coinbase

Coinbase Prime, Figment expand institutional staking integration

Securitize, a leading platform for tokenizing real-world assets, announced that it will go public through a business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II, a special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald.&nbsp;



The merger values Securitize at a $1.25 billion pre-money equity valuation, positioning it as the first publicly traded company dedicated to securities-focused tokenization infrastructure. The combined entity will trade under the ticker “SECZ” on Nasdaq upon completion in the first half of 2026.



The deal includes an upsized $225 million PIPE financing, led by Arche, Borderless Capital, Hanwha Investment &amp; Securities, InterVest, and ParaFi Capital, alongside $244 million in CEPT’s trust account.&nbsp;



Existing equity holders — including ARK Invest, BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Tradeweb Markets — will roll 100% of their stakes into the new company.



As part of the transaction, Securitize plans to tokenize its own equity, a first-of-its-kind move designed to demonstrate how capital markets can operate entirely onchain.&nbsp;



Founded in 2017, Securitize has tokenized over $4 billion in assets, working with institutions such as KKR, Apollo, and VanEck. Its work with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund in 2024 marked the largest real-world asset tokenization to date.&nbsp;



CEO Carlos Domingo called the listing “a defining moment” for bringing traditional finance onchain, while Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Brandon Lutnick said the partnership underscores confidence in tokenization’s long-term potential.



This is a developing story.



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IPOs

Securitize to go public at $1.25B via Cantor SPAC deal

Ben Strack

Bitwise’s proposed solana ETF is set to go live on the NYSE Arca Tuesday — marking the latest milestone in a pivotal year for crypto.&nbsp;



The firm revealed the upcoming launch Monday evening, calling its Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) the “first US ETP to have 100% direct exposure to spot SOL.” Staking of the product’s SOL will be powered by Helius, Bitwise said. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="717" height="600" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109550" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=717 717w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=307 307w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=312 312w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=262 262w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-129.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/BitwiseInvest/status/1982927182901993968">X</a></figcaption></figure>



 The announcement came just hours after Bitwise wrote “Big week incoming” in an X post, fueling speculation of ETF developments. A NYSE <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2045872/000114336225000365/BSOL102725.pdf">letter</a>, dated Monday, noted the exchange “certifies its approval for listing and registration” of the product.  



Proposed Canary Capital ETFs that hold hedera (HBAR) and litecoin (LTC) also “went effective” Monday, Canary CEO Steven McClurg told me in an email. The plan is for those to begin trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow morning, he added.



The imminent product debuts follows the launch of US bitcoin and ether ETFs in January 2024 and July 2024, respectively.&nbsp;



Issuers had been working with the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance in recent months to finalize S-1 registration statements tied to solana product proposals. Though progress was slowed amid the ongoing US government shutdown, discussions with the regulator did not halt completely.&nbsp;



The greenlight from the SEC to launch these ETFs comes after the agency last month finalized generic listings standards for exchange-traded products that hold spot commodities.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-etf-swell">Crypto ETF swell approaching after Grayscale’s latest launch</a>



The standards essentially streamline an ETF’s approval so long as the underlying holdings meet certain requirements — like having futures trading on CFTC-regulated venues for six-plus months.



Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan told Blockworks last month that new crypto ETPs could <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-etf-market-outlook">launch by Halloween</a>.



Hougan wrote in a September <a href="https://experts.bitwiseinvestments.com/cio-memos/solana-season">memo</a> that Solana’s promoters argue it’s “the only blockchain fast enough to support the tokenization of major assets at a global scale.”&nbsp;



Other issuers with solana ETF proposals include Grayscale, 21Shares, Canary Capital, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, Fidelity and CoinShares.&nbsp;



A number of asset managers, including Bitwise, are also seeking to launch ETFs holding other crypto tokens. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="502" height="572" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109551" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=502 502w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=263 263w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=226 226w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=229 229w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=192 192w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-130.png?w=70 70w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1980775078922166338">X</a></figcaption></figure>







With the generic listing standards in place, industry watchers expect many more single-asset crypto ETFs — including products that hold XRP — to hit US exchanges by the end of the year.



This is a developing story.



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Bitwise

Bitwise slated to launch milestone US solana ETF Tuesday

tZERO Group, Inc. announced plans to pursue an initial public offering, signaling its intent to expand its blockchain-powered platform for tokenized securities and real-world assets.&nbsp;



Chief Executive Officer Alan Konevsky <a href="https://tzero.com/press-releases/tzero-announces-plan-to-pursue-public-listing/?utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_3CTndkLVLTlJ-pTxPOitjQVn2ZVZBM2Csv0B2F2O6AJSKdcyb4BCDbHvDpP-Zs18TbmxNDk2EYpcPECyS2Swwtmq2fQ&amp;_hsmi=387007124&amp;utm_content=387007124&amp;utm_source=hs_email">said</a> the IPO would mark tZERO’s next step in building “regulated infrastructure for digital assets” through its U.S.-based broker-dealer platform. The proposed listing is subject to regulatory approval and market conditions.



He told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-27/tokenized-securities-market-tzero-is-readying-2026-ipo">Bloomberg</a> that the company is also mulling a pre-IPO fundraising round and that it’s not currently profitable.



The firm’s ecosystem integrates the issuance, trading, and settlement of tokenized securities, aiming to create transparency and scalability across asset classes — from private equity to real estate and derivatives.



tZERO’s move comes as tokenization gains momentum among traditional finance players, with institutions exploring blockchain rails for efficiency and liquidity.&nbsp;



Its largest shareholder, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis, praised the company’s strategy to “democratize access” to tokenized assets.



The IPO could reinforce tZERO’s position in the regulated segment of digital markets, distinguishing it from decentralized exchanges that face heightened scrutiny under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) evolving framework for crypto assets.



This is a developing story.



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tZERO plans IPO to expand tokenized asset platform

IBM has launched a new platform for banks, governments, and corporations to build and manage blockchain-based services with enterprise-grade security and compliance, the company said in a press release.&nbsp;



Developed with digital wallet infrastructure provider Dfns, the Digital Asset Haven platform allows institutions to manage the full digital asset lifecycle — from custody to transaction and settlement — across more than 40 connected public and private blockchains.



Bloomberg first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-27/ibm-launches-digital-assets-platform-as-crypto-activity-jumps">reported</a> the news.&nbsp;



IBM <a href="https://newsroom.ibm.com/ibm-digital-asset-haven">said</a> the platform integrates its Z and LinuxONE infrastructure with Dfns’ multi-party computation (MPC) and hardware security module (HSM) custody technology.&nbsp;



It also includes native support for governance frameworks, programmable multi-party approvals, and policy-driven compliance tools. Dfns, which has created over 15 million wallets for 250 clients, brings digital asset custody and transaction management expertise to the partnership.



According to Tom McPherson, IBM General Manager for Z and LinuxONE, Digital Asset Haven “empowers governments and enterprises to build the next generation of financial services” with the same resilience and security standards as IBM’s core financial infrastructure.&nbsp;



Dfns CEO Clarisse Hagège added that the collaboration “goes beyond custody to orchestrate the full digital asset ecosystem,” paving the way for large-scale institutional deployment.



The launch arrives as financial institutions increasingly explore tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure following U.S. legislative clarity under the GENIUS Act.&nbsp;



IBM joins a growing field of enterprise providers developing compliance-ready blockchain services amid rising demand for asset tokenization and blockchain settlement capabilities.



This is a developing story.



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IBM unveils blockchain development platform for governments and institutions

The rapid slide in US Treasury yields is prodding some stablecoin treasuries to diversify.&nbsp;



This week, Spark — the DeFi lending protocol and core “Star” within the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/makerdao">Sky</a> (formerly MakerDAO) ecosystem — allocated $100 million of its stablecoin reserves to Superstate’s USCC fund, a regulated crypto carry product that earns yield from futures basis trades instead of solely interest on government debt.



The move comes just as the 10-year Treasury yield dipped below 4% for the first time since April, closing at 3.976%. Lower yields have squeezed protocols that rely on short-duration Treasuries to fund operations and incentives. Spark’s pivot marks one of the first large-scale moves by a major stablecoin issuer away from Treasuries into regulated, crypto-derived yield.



“Access to stable, diversified yield is increasingly critical as Treasury returns compress,” <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/24236f98-1f88-11ee-8f36-3b1c045b48bd">Superstate</a> CEO Robert Leshner said. “The investment allows Spark to maintain exposure to yield opportunities uncorrelated with Federal Reserve rate policy while operating within a compliant institutional framework.”



Sam MacPherson, CEO and co-founder of Phoenix Labs — which developed <a href="https://blockworks.com/analytics/spark">Spark</a> — said Superstate’s USCC fund enables the protocol to “diversify its reserves while maintaining the same level of safety and compliance Spark always prioritizes.”



USCC uses basis trading strategies that exploit the spread between spot and futures prices on assets such as bitcoin, ether, solana, and XRP. It currently reports a 30-day yield of 8.35%. The strategy benefits from busy derivatives markets, which provide the pricing gaps the fund harvests. CME alone logged more than $900 billion in futures and options volume in Q3, led by ETH.



The product is custodied by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/anchorage-digital">Anchorage Digital</a>, audited by Ernst &amp; Young, and calculates its NAV through NAV Fund Services.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rate compression meets tokenomics overhaul</h2>



The USCC allocation comes amid broader changes in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sky-dao-adoption">the Sky ecosystem</a> as it adapts to a lower-rate environment. A fresh governance proposal would shift staking rewards from being paid in <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usds">USDS</a>, Sky’s flagship stablecoin, to the SKY token itself. The plan would direct 500 million SKY to the treasury and raise daily buybacks to $300,000 in USDS, with rewards transitioning fully to SKY after 90 days. The change would be reversible if market conditions shift.



This tokenomics revamp follows Sky’s introduction of stUSDS, its first risk capital token. The new instrument is designed for advanced users and institutions willing to take on more protocol risk in exchange for a higher share of system rewards. stUSDS yield is derived from the stability fees paid by borrowers minting USDS against SKY collateral, linking capital formation more directly to protocol revenues.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rune-christensen">Rune Christensen</a>, co-founder of Sky, said stUSDS is part of a strategy to bring “maximum effectiveness and efficiency to capital formation” as the protocol scales beyond its original MakerDAO model.



Christiansen is also the top user of the new borrowing option, which could strain liquidity in a crisis.



<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">We already see the risk-reward for depositors deteriorating, with yield (still subsidized) down to 15%. Similarly, the cost to borrow is reduced from 20% to 15%, which should save Rune around $2m a year in borrowing costs. With borrowers paying 15%, and utilization around 33%,… <a href="https://t.co/wVvz2ZspS7">https://t.co/wVvz2ZspS7</a>&mdash; PaperImperium (@ImperiumPaper) <a href="https://twitter.com/ImperiumPaper/status/1978796127953580395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Sky’s ecosystem has expanded through its autonomous Stars — Spark, Grove, and Keel — which deploy stablecoin reserves into DeFi markets. Spark alone has grown to over $11 billion in total volume locked.&nbsp;



Grove has secured <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/janus-henderson-clo-token-1b">$1 billion in allocations</a> for institutional credit strategies, while <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/bellcurve/e52e1726-a071-11f0-9ade-f7dada941856">Keel</a> is set to bring $2.5 billion in capital to Solana’s on-chain ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Spark’s evolving yield mix</h2>



Spark’s own Savings product has been expanding in parallel. Its V2 launch this week brings support for USDC, USDT, and ETH, while maintaining a conservative risk framework. Spark Savings currently offers 4.75% APY — about 75 basis points above <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave’s</a> comparable stablecoin yields — primarily from lending against BTC, ETH, and liquid staking tokens.



<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">Stablecoin composition on SparkLend has seen big changes over the past couple months. USDT and PYUSD have quickly become the dominant stablecoins on the platform, replacing USDS and DAI as both the 1st and 2nd most deposited and borrowed stablecoins on the platform. DAI, and… <a href="https://t.co/gXe8y5TJPA">pic.twitter.com/gXe8y5TJPA</a>&mdash; Jack 🟪 (@JackMandin) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackMandin/status/1981349953969516941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The USCC allocation represents a measured step into basis-driven, crypto-native yield that remains market-neutral and regulated — a combination DeFi protocols increasingly seek as Treasury returns slide. For Sky, which oversees more than <a href="https://info.sky.money/supply">$9 billion</a> in circulating USDS and DAI across multiple chains, the shift shows how the DAO can maintain flexibility in its treasury strategy, positioning for a lower rate environment where yield will have to come from new sources.



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MakerDAO

Sky pivots beyond treasuries as yields dip, staking overhaul looms

Ledger is recasting its companion app from a portfolio viewer into the primary interface for its hardware.



Ledger Live is becoming Ledger Wallet, with native dapp logins (starting with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/1inch">1inch</a>) and integrated cash-to-stablecoin rails.



Front and center is the goal is to remove <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ledger">Ledger</a> owners’ need to use a third-party wallet like Rabby to as an interface for their signer.



At the same time, Ledger is targeting institutional workflows with Enterprise Multisig. The new offering is “built on Safe’s open source tech, but with Clear Signing natively integrated,” Sebastien Badault, Ledger&#8217;s VP of Enterprise, told Blockworks.



The company says it will be simple to migrate from <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a> to Ledger Multisig to make use of Clear Signing features not yet available in the Safe Wallet.



“The industry told us they want Multisig, but the last year of hacks told us they also need Clear Signing (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bybit-attack-institutional-grade-security">see Bybit</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/p2p-eth-staking">Swissborg</a> etc), so we built it,” Badault said.



Ledger <a href="https://shop.ledger.com/pages/ledger-multisig-terms-of-use">charges</a> a &#8220;multisig fee&#8221; per transaction, automatically bundled into the transaction’s “priority fee,” however.



For Safe, it’s “a validation” of the infrastructure provider’s role as “the industry standard,” according to Lukas Schor, President of Safe Ecosystem Foundation.



“We are collaborating with Ledger as well as the wider ecosystem on making clear signing the standard,” Schor told Blockworks, noting that the feature should make its way into “all products build on Safe,” soon.



On the hardware side, Ledger is pitching its new Nano Gen5 signer as a step-up for budget conscious users looking for features found in the company’s pricier hardware.



“The goal was to offer the experience of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-new-touchscreen-focused-offering">Ledger Flex</a> and Ledger Stax at a more affordable price point,” Ledger spokesperson Ariel Wengroff told Blockworks. The device lists at $179/€179 and includes Bluetooth 5.2, NFC and an E Ink touchscreen.



It could also be seen as a replacement for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-nano-s-support-ending">the aging Nano S line</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109481" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-118.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">DEX trading volume, which was steady throughout the summer, has spiked sharply in October. | Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/2164">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







Currently, few dapps offer direct Ledger connections, and many users prefer connecting <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cold-wallets-secure-crypto-custody">hardware signers</a> through a browser-based wallet such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/metamask">MetaMask</a>, Rabby or <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/phantom">Phantom</a>. On-ramping from fiat rails is getting a boost via global payments firm Noah, to provide instant USD/EUR top-ups into USDC with no additional fees from Ledger.&nbsp;



Under the hood, Ledger continues to emphasize its audit posture and the maturity of its secure-element stack, which has a spotless record in an increasingly crowded hardware signer market.



Rival Trezor just unveiled its Safe 7 (no relation to Safe Wallet), an all-wireless, “quantum-ready” device using Tropic Square’s TROPIC01 open, auditable chip with a $250 price, <a href="https://thedrop.beehiiv.com/p/crack-it-open">according to my colleague Kate Irwin at The Drop</a>.



While Ledger’s hardware has remained secure, its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-victims-being-made-whole">software connections</a> and customer data have been the target of hackers in the past, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-class-action">a persistent industry problem</a>.



Competition beyond incumbents like Trezor, Keystone, GridPlus and Keycard, include a new wave of mobile-first signers — such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/seeker-review-solana-mobile">Solana’s Seeker</a> and the Ethereum-focused <a href="https://x.com/EthereumPhone">dgen1</a>. These devices target a bespoke dapp experience, for users on-the-go.



For Ledger users, the Nano Gen5 pairs with Bluetooth 5.2 for signing and NFC for Ledger Security Key (FIDO2 passkeys) for logins, alongside USB-C when you want a wired link.



Under this paradigm, the hardware becomes less a dongle and more an identity-and-approvals layer that spans uses from retail swaps to policy-gated multisig.



Updated October 24, 2025 at 4:13 am ET: Added info about Ledger Multisig fee



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Ledger

Ledger Nano Gen5 feels like Flex for less

Donovan Choy

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



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Less than two years ago, Jupiter was “just” a DEX aggregator. Today, the company looks more like a DeFi conglomerate, or a “superapp.”



On top of its flagship spot aggregator, the team runs perps, a memecoin launchpad, the JLP liquidity pool, lending, liquid staking, a portfolio tracker, a RFQ venue (JupiterZ), developer APIs, a token verification system (Verify) and the third-largest Solana validator.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1166" height="1263" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109473" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=1166 1166w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=277 277w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=945 945w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=237 237w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=241 241w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=202 202w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-117.png?w=74 74w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1166px) 100vw, 1166px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://docsend.com/view/bihwsdikxcpnv3kt">Jupiter</a></figcaption></figure>







Too many? That’s not yet including the pipeline of emerging products: a jupUSD stablecoin, a prediction market in partnership with Kalshi, an ICO launchpad (Jupiter DTF), and its “omnichain” network JupNet. I’m probably still missing some.



Jupiter’s suite of products is not inactive shelfware, either. Almost every product stands on its own. In its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBZ1N7cOddY">Q3 token holder update</a> yesterday, the team pegs Q3 revenue at ~$45 million — ~$180 million annualized. 



For a crypto business, that’s real money.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="922" height="503" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png" alt="" class="wp-image-109470" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=922 922w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-114.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 922px) 100vw, 922px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Jupiter’s DEX aggregator dominates Solana DeFi</figcaption></figure>







But while Jupiter is firing on all cylinders, there’s an uncomfortable truth: The JUP token hasn’t kept up. JUP sits at around a $1.1 billion market cap today, down from $3 billion at its peak earlier this year, or a ~6.2x P/S.



In my conversations with Solana traders and investors, everyone has a different explanation for why the token of Solana’s most prominent protocol hasn’t performed well this year.



Some cited the token’s lack of utility. One liquid fund told me that JUP was perceived as too “safe” for speculative money; others pointed to the fact that JUP’s buybacks were too small relative to its FDV.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1179" height="579" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109471" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=1179 1179w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-116.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px" /></figure>



The pseudonymous founder of Elemental, Moo, gave me a simpler take: “Jupiter had an ‘Avengers’ moment where all the hype the team built culminated in last year’s Catstanbul event.



“Given the level of hype, a correction was inevitable. And when prices drop, people start questioning everything. The community’s main concern now seems to be whether Jupiter&#8217;s growth plans will be enough to reignite interest in the token. Jupiter has a grand vision, but it will take time to execute.”



Jupiter also has something of a complexity tax, a similar problem that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-elevator-pitch">Ethereum</a> suffers from.&nbsp;



When a company spans a dozen interrelated businesses, the story gets harder to model, and markets often apply a discount until the value capture is obvious.&nbsp;



I’d love to see an investment analyst brave enough to publish a sum-of-parts model for Jupiter’s product zoo.



To the team’s credit, they seem to recognize these problems and are taking steps to rectify it.



In the team’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBZ1N7cOddY">Q3 token holders update</a> last night, the Jupiter team called for a “fresh start for JUP” and outlined moves aimed at tighter focus: scaling back DAO voting to only &#8220;major tokenomics and treasury decisions&#8221;, cutting the JUP unstaking period from 30 days to seven, and — pending governance — burning 121 million JUP (~$42 million) from the Litterbox strategic reserve.



“Some of the mechanics around [the] JUP token were preventing people from getting engaged. We want to fix that. Some of the overemphasis and overfocus on the comms side around the DAO was turning people off and creating a negative attention flywheel. Don&#8217;t want to do that anymore,” Dhanda said on the livestream.



Jupiter has built a rare thing in crypto, an operating business that throws off cash across multiple product lines.&nbsp;



Markets are for now pricing the token like a safe, sprawling operator rather than a single, spicy bet. If Jupiter can make the value path to JUP simpler, maybe it can change the fate of its token, too.&nbsp;



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DEXs

Jupiter wants to turn its token’s fate around

Paxos is rolling out the ability for employees to receive part of their salaries in USDG due to a Toku integration, Blockworks has exclusively learned.&nbsp;



The integration will utilize the same payroll platforms — ADP and Workday — but allows employees to receive USDG straight to their wallets.&nbsp;



For employees who opt to receive USDG, the settlement, unlike with traditional paychecks, will be immediate. There won’t be a waiting period to receive the stablecoin.&nbsp;



“By adopting USDG payroll for our team, Paxos is showing the most direct path for users to access and experience USDG in everyday life. As more companies plug into Toku’s payroll rails, USDG becomes accessible to thousands of employees globally, right at the source of their income,” Paxos noted in a press release.&nbsp;



Stablecoins are the biggest way that employees across the industry are being paid in crypto, per a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoins-salaries-2024-pantera-survey">Pantera survey</a> conducted at the end of 2024.&nbsp;



“USDC (63%) and USDT (28.6%) collectively account for over 90% of crypto salaries, cementing their status as the go-to choices for payroll stability and liquidity,” the report found.



For Toku, this move is the first step to opening up a new way for employees to be paid.&nbsp;



Toku CEO Ken O’Friel told Blockworks that he wants to broaden the horizon for employees and make it so folks don’t have to receive a payment to a checking account, but instead can receive salaries “directly to where you want.”



He believes Paxos is just one of the first companies to implement this type of option for employees, but that we’ll start to see more companies — even traditional institutions — roll out this option as part of their payroll in the future.&nbsp;



“People really discount how entrenched a lot of these enterprise software solutions are to the entire organization. And then there are people behind those tools that have been doing things a certain way for fifteen to twenty years [or] their whole career. And so forcing change on that in that big enterprise that’s resistant to change is really, really hard,” O’Friel noted.&nbsp;



So Toku developed an API that works inside payroll software to “coordinate and orchestrate [receiving stablecoins] between the payroll provider and the company,” he explained.



O’Friel told Blockworks that this is the “gateway” to a broader adoption. The technology, he added, is finally ready in ways it wasn’t even four years ago.&nbsp;



“From our standpoint, I think when you start being in that flow of funds, like, there’s a lot of optionality in terms of what you can do from a product standpoint, but we’re just really focused on getting the institutions on board. And so for us…we can also pay people and tokenized money market funds; it’s really anything. We can pay people in Bitcoin if they want, or any token we’re able to support. So it doesn’t just stop at stablecoins,” he said.&nbsp;



Updated 10/23/2025 at 10:23 a.m. ET to reflect Toku&#8217;s software integrations.



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employees

Exclusive: Paxos to allow employees to be paid in USDG

As markets melted on October 10, and many centralized exchanges stuttered, Aave didn’t flinch.



The protocol automatically liquidated over $200 million in collateral, preserving solvency without disruption, as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aave">Aave</a> founder Stani Kulechov told a DAS London audience last week during a panel on DeFi rate markets.



“It was scary because of the size of the protocol today,” Kulechov said. “But things ended up well. DeFi really proved itself.”



That resilience followed from a Q3 marked by steady deposits, healthy lending demand, and normalized rates. But looking ahead, Kulechov sees an even bigger shift coming: global rate cuts could reignite yield flows — and widen the rate spread between TradFi and DeFi.



The quarter ended with Aave’s lending machine looking sturdy and, increasingly, boring — in the good way. The protocol’s revenue stack was led once again by net interest income, with flash loans and liquidations a comparatively small slice. That’s exactly how the system is supposed to behave in a normalized rate regime.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109432" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-104.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Blockworks Research financials dashboard makes it easy to see the mix in one view | Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3394">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







A calmer rate backdrop also showed up in stablecoin supply APYs on Ethereum, which settled into the 3%–5% range after the late-2024 spikes. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109435" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-106.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3443">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







That normalization coincided with a steady climb in total deposits and outstanding loans, pushing Aave’s footprint back toward cycle highs across deployments.



“What’s powerful about DeFi is transparency — you can actually see where the yield is coming from,” Kulechov said.



All together, that added up to a record quarter for the protocol, topping Q4 2024 and reversing a two quarter slide.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109431" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-103.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3871">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







Kulechov was pleased with how DeFi dapps handled the bout of extreme volatility.



“They get stress tested based on the parameters and risk assessments done before events like this,” he said. “We liquidated over $200 million worth of collateral — that’s the native way the protocol keeps solvency in turbulence.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109433" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-105.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Liquidation fee revenue, while modest, hit a 4-month peak | Source: <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/team/charts/3394">Blockworks Research</a></figcaption></figure>







Euler, by contrast, saw fewer liquidations, CEO Michael Bentley explained on the panel, citing a difference in the typical borrower mix.



“People build bespoke credit markets [on Euler] — some use just-in-time liquidity to market make or provide instant redemption for RWAs [and] every market on Euler has a unique use case,” Bentley said.



On product roadmap and Q4 direction, Bentley pointed to “more integrations with fintechs — and new products coming online.”



“We’ve been working a lot on fixed rate products, so we’re going to keep innovating and pushing out new products for integrators using Euler,” he said.



Kulechov’s focus heading into year-end is on macro.



“I’m super eager for central bank rates to go down. Historically, when that happens, financial innovation accelerates. Rate cuts could create big arb opportunities between TradFi and DeFi. If DeFi remains safe, we’ll see more traditional participants — neobanks, fintechs — plugging in for yield.”



When policy rates drift lower, spreads between on-chain funding and TradFi tend to widen, setting up the kind of basis-style flows that supported lending during prior easing cycles.



The quarter is also expected to see <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aave-v4-roadmap">the launch of Aave V4</a>, which aims to streamline the protocol’s architecture and expand its product surface for both crypto-native and institutional users.



Armed with granular data, DeFi watchers can track the same protocol levers Kulechov highlighted — deposits vs. loans, revenue composition, liquidation activity, and rate volatility — and judge whether the coming macro shift turns into the “arb opportunities” he expects.



If it does, Aave’s metrics should tell the story quickly: spreads widen, utilization grinds higher, and net interest continues to climb alongside deposits.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/skZoQuC5tAg?si=FlOnwwnEz_pXcF3D" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>



Watch the panel here:



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skZoQuC5tAg">The Next Generation of Rate Markets | DAS London 2025</a>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Next Generation of Rate Markets | DAS London 2025 | Day 2 | Investor" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/skZoQuC5tAg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



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Aave

Aave’s Q3 showed resilient revenue and calmer rates — and Stani is eyeing a Q4 macro tailwind

Prediction market operator Kalshi is receiving investor offers valuing the company at more than $10 billion, according to a Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-22/prediction-market-kalshi-fields-investor-offers-at-over-10-billion-valuation?srnd=phx-crypto">report</a>.&nbsp;



That valuation would make Kalshi one of the largest prospective valuations yet for a regulated event-trading platform.&nbsp;



The offers come just weeks after Kalshi closed a $300 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, which pegged the New York-based startup at around $5 billion.



Founded in 2018, Kalshi lets users trade contracts tied to real-world outcomes — from U.S. elections and economic data to sports contests and government shutdown durations.&nbsp;



The company operates under a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) license, distinguishing it from crypto-native venues such as Polymarket, a major rival. After a court victory in October 2024 allowed Kalshi to list presidential-election contracts, trading volumes surged to new highs.&nbsp;



Chief executive Tarek Mansour said this month the exchange has reached an annualized volume of $50 billion.



<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">Kalshi recently raised $300M+ at $5B from Sequoia, a16z, Paradigm and others. Since then, we&#39;ve grown over 3x, hit $50B of annualized volume, and became the largest prediction market in the world. And today…Kalshi goes global. 140+ countries. 1 liquidity pool. <a href="https://t.co/Z2myzRw9bA">pic.twitter.com/Z2myzRw9bA</a>&mdash; Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) <a href="https://twitter.com/mansourtarek_/status/1976641515549348160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The competition in prediction markets is intensifying. Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, recently pledged up to $2 billion in Polymarket at an $8 billion valuation. The National Hockey League became the first major sports league to partner with both Kalshi and Polymarket under multiyear agreements announced this week.



This is a developing story.



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



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Kalshi

Kalshi attracts investor offers valuing platform above $10 billion: Report

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



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



New US crypto ETF launches remain on pause given the ongoing government shutdown.&nbsp;



This just means there’s more time to make sense of what the upcoming product wave will look like — and how the world’s largest asset manager will (or won’t) participate.



Being on the Digital Asset Summit stage in London last week with BlackRock’s Matt Kunke and 21Shares’ Mandy Chiu gave me a unique chance to explore the different product development approaches of a TradFi incumbent and a crypto-centric firm.&nbsp;



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-3tIgDCqVUo?si=Mu_AAlLvsE4m1cNJ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







With the SEC offering <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-etf-swell">generic listing standards</a> around what crypto assets would be allowed in the ETP wrapper, Kunke noted: “There will probably be an asset manager that will launch everything that you can imagine that falls within this scope.”



It’ll be a “Cambrian explosion” of sorts, he added, alluding to the period of rapid animal diversification 540 million years ago (Google’s AI overview helped me with that). A provider of 50 or so ETPs in Europe already, 21Shares (set to be <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/falconx-21shares">acquired by FalconX</a>) is among those that will indeed look to offer many similar access points for US investors. You’ll see the firm’s name peppered throughout this long proposals list shared by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart in August (and there have been plenty more filings since):



<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">NEW: Here is a list of all the filings and/or applications I&#39;m tracking for Crypto ETPs here in the US. There are 92 line items in this spreadsheet. You will almost certainly have to squint and zoom to see but best I can do on here <a href="https://t.co/lDhRGEQBoW">pic.twitter.com/lDhRGEQBoW</a>&mdash; James Seyffart (@JSeyff) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1961171325374095552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Chiu said her team considers onchain data, tokenomics, risk and governance when choosing which crypto ETPs to file for. But there’s one thing above all.



“I would simplify it by saying there’s no difference between crypto vs. other asset classes,” she told me. “It’s about whether or not you have the investment case and are we ready to get behind it as an asset manager.”



But Kunke said BlackRock — which manages ~$13.5 trillion in assets — is not ready to commit to launching more spot crypto ETFs after its successful BTC and ETH product launches last year.&nbsp; “It’s a client demand question,” he said, noting that his meetings with pro investors suggest demand is “overwhelmingly skewed toward bitcoin.”



Passage of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genius-act-passes-house">GENIUS Act</a> and the narrative of ETH being “the institutional smart contract chain” has helped awareness of the second-largest crypto asset in recent months. But those asking about solana and XRP represent only “a very small fraction” of the investors/institutions BlackRock is speaking to, Kunke added.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Given the relative size of [BTC and ETH] markets compared to some of the smaller ones, I think commercially we’re probably better off prioritizing and elevating those two main products from an education perspective and a marketing perspective,” the BlackRock exec said.



Chiu pointed out an interesting stat. AUM in US crypto ETFs is roughly 6% of the total crypto market cap. Meanwhile, assets in US equity ETFs are about 20% of the US equity market size. “I’m not saying we’ll reach 20% anytime soon,” she said. “But it’s definitely moving toward that direction and there’re still huge pockets of investors who haven’t gotten in yet.”



BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and ether ETF (ETHA) tout AUM totals of ~$90 billion and ~$16 billion, respectively. IBIT (with weekly flows shown below) is the fastest-growing ETF in history and recently <a href="https://etfdb.com/compare/market-cap/">cracked the top 20</a> in AUM.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="906" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-109370" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=461 461w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=387 387w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-84.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



So back to BlackRock’s decision to hold off on more crypto ETF filings, Kunke said: “I don’t think we’re at saturation. These are scarce assets with a lot of capital that still have barriers inhibiting that.”&nbsp;



The barriers are eroding though. An example, ironically, came the day of this panel discussion. On Oct. 15, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/10/morgan-stanley-drops-crypto-fund-restrictions-for-wealth-clients.html">Morgan Stanley started allowing</a> its advisers to pitch crypto funds to any client (previously they could only do that for those with aggressive risk tolerances and $1.5 million or more in assets).



BlackRock competitor Vanguard still <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tradfi-crypto-vanguard-stands-apart-bitcoin">doesn’t allow clients</a> to trade crypto ETFs on its platform. Kunke didn’t want to comment much on that, but did note Vanguard’s stance “wasn’t terribly surprising” given the index fund giant’s focus on stocks and bonds.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



When will more wirehouses follow Morgan Stanley in lifting other crypto investing restrictions?



“I would say months, not years,” Kunke said. “Conversations are accelerating.”&nbsp;



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bitcoin etf

BlackRock to keep focus on BTC, ETH ahead of crypto ETF ‘explosion’

Modern Treasury will acquire Beam, a startup specializing in stablecoin-based payment infrastructure, in an all-stock transaction valued at $40 million.&nbsp;



The deal marks Modern Treasury’s first major move into blockchain-enabled finance and reflects growing institutional interest in programmable money and digital dollar rails.



Fortune first <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/10/22/modern-treasury-beam-stablecoin-startup-acquisition-40-million-all-stock/">reported</a> the news.&nbsp;



Founded in 2018, Modern Treasury offers payment operations software used by companies such as Stripe and Gusto to automate bank transfers and reconciliation. Beam, launched in 2022, builds systems for real-time transactions using stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currency—to reduce settlement time and costs.&nbsp;



According to Fortune, Beam’s technology will be integrated into Modern Treasury’s existing payments APIs to enable instant value transfer across traditional and crypto rails.



By combining Beam’s stablecoin expertise with its own treasury infrastructure, Modern Treasury aims to compete in the fast-growing market for blockchain-enabled enterprise payments.The deal comes as M&amp;A activity picks up throughout crypto. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">Stripe notably bought Bridge</a> earlier this year in a billion-dollar deal. Coinbase, just yesterday, made a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-acquires-echo">$375 million acquisition</a> of Cobie’s Echo. And, earlier on Tuesday, FalconX <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/falconx-21shares">announced</a> that it’s acquiring 21Shares.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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DATs

Modern Treasury acquires Beam stablecoin startup in $40M deal

FalconX, a leading institutional digital asset prime brokerage, announced that it will acquire 21Shares, the Swiss-based provider of the world’s largest suite of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) and funds (ETFs).&nbsp;



The deal unites FalconX’s institutional-grade trading, derivatives, and credit platform with 21Shares’ asset management infrastructure, which oversees more than $11 billion across 55 listed products. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The deal was first <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/crypto-trading-firm-falconx-to-buy-etf-manager-21shares-f77cb4d3?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqc1zYXYQcbIK3SF4NLXxasiWeuYfh5wfTIbq1fUXU1qj-qOtDmBFzHvTRLrnBU%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68f8cf50&amp;gaa_sig=eN32nd-D6ybW0purFcqyE_e_kDdYOolSxSZ_tZN8XV2jkdiJP3J3pWQc2hqao0mXL0sVJFqteyc_6_SSnnXa8A%3D%3D">reported</a> by the Wall Street Journal.&nbsp;



The acquisition, one of the largest in the ETP sector in recent years, marks FalconX’s third strategic transaction of 2025 following its <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/falconx-expands-global-derivatives-footprint-with-acquisition-of-arbelos-markets-302341536.html">acquisition</a> of Arbelos Markets. It also took a majority <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monarq-asset-management-announces-strategic-investment-from-falconx-302470263.html">stake</a> in Monarq Asset Management earlier this year.&nbsp;



FalconX said the move advances its goal of converging listed and digital markets while expanding its presence across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The company, co-founded by CEO Raghu Yarlagadda, has facilitated more than $2 trillion in digital asset trading volume and serves over 2,000 institutional clients globally.



21Shares, founded in 2018 by Hany Rashwan and Ophelia Snyder, has become a leading name in crypto investment products and research.&nbsp;



CEO Russell Barlow will continue leading the firm, which will remain independently managed under FalconX. Both companies emphasized their shared goal of expanding access to regulated digital asset exposure through innovative investment vehicles.



FalconX confirmed that existing 21Shares ETFs and ETPs will continue to operate without changes to their investment objectives or structure.



“The convergence between digital assets and traditional financial markets is accelerating,” said Yarlagadda. “Extending our institutional infrastructure into listed markets through 21Shares is a natural next step.”



This is a developing story.



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



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



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21Shares

FalconX to acquire 21Shares

Galaxy Digital reported net income of $505 million for the third quarter of 2025, driven by record trading performance and gains across digital asset and investment positions.&nbsp;



The company’s adjusted EBITDA rose to $629 million, marking its strongest quarter since listing. The Toronto- and New York–based digital asset firm said total assets grew 27% quarter-over-quarter to $11.5 billion, with $1.9 billion in cash and stablecoins and $3.2 billion in equity.&nbsp;



Galaxy’s Global Markets division led the rebound, delivering a 432% increase in adjusted gross profit to $295 million amid higher spot and derivatives activity. Trading volumes jumped 140% from Q2, including the execution of a $9 billion bitcoin sale on behalf of a client.



The company’s Asset Management &amp; Infrastructure Solutions segment recorded $2 billion of net inflows and ended the quarter with $9 billion in assets under management and $7 billion under stake. Its Treasury &amp; Corporate unit generated $408 million in adjusted gross profit, supported by digital asset and equity investment gains.



Galaxy said its Helios data center campus in Texas remains on schedule, with 133 MW of capacity set to come online in the first half of 2026 under lease to AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave. A newly secured $1.4 billion project financing facility will fully fund the $1.7 billion Phase I build, while Phase II expansion is now under contract.



Recent initiatives include the October 6 launch of GalaxyOne, a unified platform for U.S. investors to access high-yield cash, crypto, and equities, and a $460 million equity investment from an unnamed asset manager to support corporate growth.



Galaxy’s management said the quarter reflects the company’s “record operating performance across trading and asset management,” while noting that data-center earnings will remain immaterial until 2026.



This is a developing story.



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



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



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Galaxy

Galaxy posts $505M profit as trading and asset gains surge

YZi Labs, which was rebranded from Binance Labs, led a $25.5 million strategic investment round for Sign, Blockworks has exclusively learned. IDG Capital also participated in the round.  In January, Sign raised <a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/01/28/billionaire-binance-cz-founder-jumps-back-into-crypto-with-16-million-investment-in-token-airdrop-service-sign/">$16 million</a> from YZi Labs, which was also the firm’s first investment following its <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-23/crypto-s-richest-man-cz-zhao-turns-binance-labs-into-family-office">rebrand</a>. Sign has, in total, raised over $55 million in all three — seed, Series A and strategy — rounds.



Sign builds digital infrastructure and plans to use the capital to expand its tech team, CEO Xin Yan told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Sign is “actively seeking top talent in Hyperledger Fabric, zero-knowledge proofs and interoperability. Additionally, we are establishing local teams in each country,” Yan continued.&nbsp;



Capital will also be used to expand various partnerships aimed at boosting the development of sovereign blockchain infrastructure.



“The crypto industry is currently rich in technology but poor in adoption,” Yan said. “Investors and our team believe it&#8217;s time to unite and tackle the biggest hurdle to crypto adoption: engaging with countries. Our goal is to implement progressive solutions that benefit nations while respecting existing regulations.”



The team currently works with Thailand and South Korea as well as “leading tech nations in Central Asia and the Middle East,” though Yan didn’t disclose specifics.&nbsp;



“While the concept of blockchain for nations is new, we believe a progressive approach to new technology adoption is crucial. Tempo and other projects share this perspective. However, we anticipate being the first cryptocurrency company to implement a nationwide digital currency system, ahead of competitors like Ripple or Solana,” Yan said.



Additionally, Sign initiated <a href="https://x.com/ethsign/status/1955616135778570565">buybacks</a> of its native token SIGN through both open market purchases and private settlements.&nbsp;



Now the team will move forward with securing national deals, as well as continuing to develop infrastructure.



Updated Oct. 21, 2025 at 10:18 am ET: Clarified that YZi Labs was rebranded from Binance Labs.



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Funding

Exclusive: YZi Labs leads $25M round for Sign

Jack Kubinec

Some crypto founders releasing tokens end up giving a portion of the token’s supply to Binance in order to be listed on the exchange. Just don’t call it a listing fee or imply Binance makes money from it.



Binance <a href="https://x.com/binance/status/1978429250735677766">argues</a> that it does not make money from token listings since it reinvests the assets in its users. It also <a href="https://x.com/FTPager/status/1978631990917156994">contests</a> the term “listing fees” to describe its token allocations.



But regardless of how it’s described, and despite the sometimes steep cost of a Binance listing, engaging with the world’s largest exchange is likely still a good business decision for crypto founders.



Three founders granted anonymity to discuss their dealings with Binance told Blockworks that the world’s largest crypto exchange asked for a percentage of their token supply in order for their tokens to be listed on Binance.&nbsp;



These offers can be negotiated, of course, and not every project ends up giving the same amount of supply to the exchange. One source at a Binance-listed project said they ended up giving none of the token’s supply to Binance. A second source said they agreed to give Binance 3.5% of their token supply, which were earmarked for airdrops and marketing.



Although the concept is nothing new in crypto, the most recent flareup in interest surrounding Binance listings was kicked off by CJ Hetherington, founder of the prediction market startup Limitless. Hetherington posted an alleged token listing offer from Binance that would have given the exchange control over 8% of the Limitless token supply. The post gained over 3 million views on X.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">offer from <a href="https://twitter.com/binance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@binance</a>: &gt; 1% airdrop on day 1, alpha listing &gt; 3% further airdrops in 6 months &gt; 1% for &quot;marketing&quot; at Binance full discretion &gt; provide 100% of TVL for token pool on Pancake Swap ($1M+) &gt; $250k security deposit &gt; 3% reserved for BNB HODLer programme &gt; $200k…&mdash; CJ / 晨杰 (@cjhtech) <a href="https://twitter.com/cjhtech/status/1978039748565532700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Binance’s customer support page on X <a href="https://x.com/FTPager/status/1978631990917156994">called</a> Hetherington’s post “false and defamatory” and implied that Binance could take legal action. It then deleted the post and <a href="https://x.com/binance/status/1978429250735677766">replaced</a> it with a slightly more PR-friendly one from Binance’s main account.&nbsp;



“Binance does not make money from the listing process. All project token allocations go 100% to users,” Binance said, continuing later: “Our business model is simple: small trading fees, not listing revenue.”



Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao <a href="https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1978172838990258626">called</a> Hetherington a “loser” in a post from his personal page.



It may be a red herring to say Binance doesn’t make money from the listing process. Binance says it routes token allocations to its users for things like airdrops. However, in order to qualify for Binance airdrops, users often must complete actions that can make money for Binance, such as <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/d2942143c5e342dc9490eeeca9b75343">purchasing</a> tokens or <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/1a341efb516d46609b77dab6bd3f85e0">holding</a> assets on the exchange.&nbsp;



Founders certainly don’t seem too appreciative. One founder who didn’t end up listing their token on Binance said the exchange listing process in general is “extremely predatory” and “made [them] lose a lot of faith in the industry.”&nbsp;



A second founder who did gain a Binance listing said, “I never want to deal with their listing team again.”



But lest we feel too sorry for the poor founders, it’s worth noting that no one is forcing projects to be listed on Binance. It’s one exchange among many, and crypto projects who end up ponying up some of their supply for a Binance listing are betting that the exchange’s distribution will make the dilution worthwhile.



In July 2025, Binance accounted for 39.8% of crypto exchange market share, according to a CoinGecko <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/centralized-crypto-exchanges-market-share#top-10-centralized-exchanges-market-share-july-2025">report</a>. Binance’s market share is greater than that of the next five biggest exchanges combined, according to the report, which notes that Binance processed nearly $700 billion in trading volume in July.



Due to its size, Binance can offer listing terms that other exchanges don’t have the leverage to ask for.&nbsp;



“[O]ther exchanges were incredibly reasonable compared to [Binance],” said one of the founders.



Despite the annoyance of listing standards, it’s probably good business for crypto projects to continue working with Binance, said Switchboard co-founder Chris Hermida, who declined to comment on his startup’s SWITCH token.&nbsp;



However, some high-performing tokens may be able to get by without a Binance listing. Hermida gave the example of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, which has grown to over $10 billion in market capitalization in under a year without a Binance listing.



When reached for comment, a representative for Binance pointed Blockworks to Binance’s <a href="https://x.com/binance/status/1978429250735677766">post</a> on X.



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Binance

Crypto founders criticize Binance listing process

Coinbase has acquired Echo, the onchain capital formation platform founded by crypto investor Cobie, for approximately $375 million.



The move underscores the exchange giant’s push to build compliant, blockchain-native fundraising infrastructure as onchain capital markets mature, according to<a href="https://www.coinbase.com/en-gb/blog/coinbase-acquires-echo-unlocking-the-future-of-onchain-capital-formation"> Coinbase’s announcement</a>.&nbsp;



Cobie reflected on the sale in a <a href="https://x.com/cobie/status/1980579379244855384">post</a>, writing: “When I started building Echo two years ago, I knew it had a 95% chance of failing. To be honest, I couldn’t really imagine any other outcome, but I thought at least it may be a noble failure worth attempting.&nbsp;



“I certainly didn’t think Echo would be sold to Coinbase, but, here we are,” he added.



<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">New episode with <a href="https://twitter.com/ShanAggarwal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ShanAggarwal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/coinbase?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@coinbase</a> out now! <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JasonYanowitz</a> We discuss: &#8211; Acquiring <a href="https://twitter.com/echodotxyz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@echodotxyz</a> for $375m &#8211; Coinbase&#39;s end goal &#8211; IPOs &amp; tokenization &#8211; Advice for founders &#8211; Prediction markets &#8211; The acquisition process &#8211; Exchange listings, crypto venture &amp; more!… <a href="https://t.co/JltPZIr58P">pic.twitter.com/JltPZIr58P</a>&mdash; Empire 🟪 (@theempirepod) <a href="https://twitter.com/theempirepod/status/1980594280361046384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Echo will remain a standalone platform under its existing brand while Coinbase integrates Sonar, Echo’s public sale product, into its ecosystem. The companies plan to expand access for founders and investors to onchain capital formation directly through Coinbase’s interface.



On Monday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the company also purchased Cobie’s original UpOnly NFT — the emblem of Cobie’s long-running crypto podcast — for $25 million, calling it “a piece of crypto culture worth preserving” in a<a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1980397986149744769"> tweet</a>. The NFT will reportedly be displayed in Coinbase’s onchain heritage collection, though financial details have not been independently verified.



Coinbase has made a handful of acquisitions so far this year.&nbsp;The exchange bought Deribit in a multi-billion dollar deal to expand into global derivatives trading,<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-deribit-deal-focus-derivatives?utm_source=chatgpt.com"> Blockworks</a> reported. It also acquired the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-acquires-opyn-leadership-team">Opyn leadership team</a> in July to strengthen its onchain markets stack, and acquired the founders of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-adds-sensible-leadership?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Sensible</a> in September to develop consumer-friendly DeFi tools.



This is a developing story.



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



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