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# ChainUp

## Sitemaps
[XML Sitemap](https://www.chainup.com/sitemap_index.xml): Includes all crawlable and indexable pages.

## Posts
- [How Tokenized Collectibles Are Bringing Real-World Value On-Chain for Businesses](https://www.chainup.com/blog/tokenized-collectibles-a-business-owners-guide-to-real-world-value-on-chain/): Tokenized collectibles are blockchain-based tokens representing ownership of a physical or premium digital item, such as art, memorabilia, or luxury goods. While the underlying physical asset remains securely stored and authenticated in a vault, the token provides a highly liquid and verifiable way to prove ownership, trade, or redeem the item. 
- [The RWA Perps Boom: How On-Chain Derivatives Brought Real-World Assets Into 24/7 Markets](https://www.chainup.com/blog/rwa-perps-boom-real-world-assets-hit-24-7-markets/): RWA perps change the game completely. These are perpetual futures contracts tied to real-world assets such as oil, gold, equities, and FX, traded on-chain around the clock. For the first time at scale, decentralized venues and traditional exchanges are pricing the exactly same underlying assets. And because on-chain markets never close, they are increasingly where new information gets priced first. 
- [The Dual-Track Bottleneck: Why Institutional Crypto Is Waiting on More Than a Single Bill](https://www.chainup.com/blog/us-crypto-market-structure-dual-track-bottleneck/): By David Kermaani, Director of Sales, Americas at ChainUp
- [10 Best .NET Development Companies in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/net-development-companies-for-enterprise/): Demand for a dependable .NET development company has never been higher. Two forces are converging in mid-2026: enterprises launching new cloud-native products on .NET 10 and a wave of urgent migrations from .NET 8 and .NET 9 before both versions hit end of support on 10 November 2026. Business leaders therefore need partners who understand the latest framework while still being able to untangle fifteen-year-old code bases.
- [BTCC Deposit and Withdrawal Guide: What New Users Should Know](https://www.chainup.com/blog/btcc-deposit-withdrawal-guide-for-new-users/): BTCC supports fiat deposits for users who want to buy USDT directly using a credit or debit card. Transactions are processed through regulated payment partners including Simplex, Moonpay, and ITEZ. Card deposits carry zero platform fees and are complete instantly.
- [Crypto Liquidity Aggregation Infrastructure: Driving Platform Growth and Revenue](https://www.chainup.com/blog/liquidity-aggregation-infrastructure-driving-platform-growth/): Without deep, stable order books, even a well-designed exchange loses traders to slippage, delays, and unfavorable pricing. Crypto Liquidity Technology is the solution exchanges are increasingly turning to, and in 2026, it is quickly becoming the standard rather than the exception.
- [Blockchain Analytics and Blockchain Analysis: What Are They?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/blockchain-analytics-explained/): In 2025 illicit crypto activity climbed to roughly $154 billion, the highest level in five years, while hackers drained more than $3.4 billion from exchanges, bridges, and wallets. The FBI logged a record $11.4 billion in crypto fraud losses across U.S. complaints in the same year. Regulators, banks, and exchanges can no longer accept the excuse that nobody knows where funds came from. On-chain visibility has shifted from a nice extra into core infrastructure for compliance, security, and strategy. That visibility rests on two linked disciplines, blockchain analysis and blockchain analytics, which together turn raw ledger data into decisions teams can act on.
- [Which Are the Most Popular Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) in 2026?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/most-popular-decentralized-exchanges-dexs/): Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have transformed cryptocurrency trading by enabling peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. As blockchain adoption grows, these platforms are becoming essential for businesses, traders, and developers. In 2026, the most popular DEXs stand out based on trading volume, liquidity depth, user experience, and cross-chain capabilities.
- [Architectural Deep Dive: Inside the DTCC’s ComposerX Ledger Machinery](https://www.chainup.com/blog/dtcc-composerx-institutional-tokenization-architecture-deep-dive/): The entry of an infrastructure provider operating at this magnitude shifts tokenization from an experimental proof-of-concept to systemic market reality. When an entity that safeguards more than $114 trillion in assets moves onto a distributed ledger, it signals to institutional participants that the technical, operational, and risk-management foundations of blockchain have met systemic banking standards.
- [Wall Street On-Chain: Analyzing the Systemic Impact of DTCC’s Tokenization Launch](https://www.chainup.com/blog/dtcc-institutional-tokenization-systemic-impact-2026/): In a definitive shift for capital markets, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) will launch its institutional tokenization service with a limited production rollout in July 2026, followed by full-service integration in October 2026. Backed by a three-year SEC No-Action Letter issued to its depository subsidiary (DTC), the platform will initially create on-chain digital representations of highly liquid traditional assets, including Russell 1000 equities, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasury bills.
- [Scaling Beyond Speculation: How Coinbase’s Base is Rewriting the Ethereum Layer 2 Playbook](https://www.chainup.com/blog/coinbase-base-layer-2-ethereum-scaling-utility/): In the technology world, having the best code matters, but having the most users matters more. While other Layer 2 (L2) networks spent years focusing purely on complex engineering in a vacuum, Base took a different route. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, they plugged directly into Coinbase’s massive, regulatory-compliant ecosystem. By converting millions of existing app users into active on-chain participants, Base did what few other networks could: they brought real, sustained economic activity to the Layer 2 market. 
- [51% Attacks Explained: Lessons from Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Gold, and Beyond](https://www.chainup.com/blog/51-percent-attacks-explained/): Whether this incident was a hostile takeover or, as Qubic framed it, a benign "experiment," the market’s reaction underscored a sobering reality: 51% attacks remain one of the most disruptive threats to blockchain security. 
- [What are Event Contracts? The New Alternative Asset Layer in Modern Finance](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-are-event-contracts-the-new-alternative-asset-layer-in-modern-finance/): Fueled by expanding retail interest, innovative backend systems, and integration into mainstream brokerage apps, event contracts have officially transitioned from a niche internet subculture into a multi-billion-dollar mainstream financial asset layer. But what exactly are they, how do they work, and how can you navigate them safely?
- [5 Best Crypto Prediction Markets in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/5-best-crypto-prediction-markets/): Crypto prediction markets have gained traction as innovative platforms where users can speculate on real-world events using blockchain technology. Below, we explore the five best crypto prediction markets that combine decentralization with accurate forecasting capabilities.
- [Decentralised apps (DApps) – How Do They Work?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/dapps-blockchain/): Decentralized applications (DApps) completely rewrite this script. Instead of running on a company-controlled cloud server, a DApp distributes its entire operational logic across an immutable, global network of computers (nodes).
- [The Future of DEX Trading with Perpetual Contracts](https://www.chainup.com/blog/a-dex-with-perpetual-contracts/): DEX trading with perpetual contracts lets users trade crypto derivatives on decentralized exchanges without an expiration date. Using wallets, smart contracts, and on-chain or hybrid infrastructure, traders can access leveraged markets while keeping more control over their funds.
- [Building a Premier Perpetual Contract DEX](https://www.chainup.com/blog/build-perpetual-contract-decentralized-exchange-dex/): A perpetual contract DEX is a blockchain-based, non-custodial trading platform where users trade leveraged futures contracts that never expire. Smart contracts handle margin accounting, position tracking, liquidations, and funding rate settlements automatically. Users keep full custody of assets throughout the trading process.
- [How to Evaluate Blockchain Analytics Tools](https://www.chainup.com/blog/evaluating-blockchain-analytics-tool-for-business/): With crypto transaction volumes reaching record peaks and global regulatory pressure mounting, blockchain analytics is no longer a luxury; it’s a foundational requirement. For exchanges, DeFi protocols, and institutional platforms alike, mastering these tools is essential to securing your compliance, maintaining banking partnerships, and earning user trust.
- [7 Best Crypto Debit Cards](https://www.chainup.com/blog/7-best-crypto-debit-cards/): Spending crypto on your morning coffee? It’s not a futuristic dream, it's a reality. As digital assets become more integrated into our daily lives, a new wave of financial tools is bridging the gap between crypto and traditional commerce. Crypto debit cards are at the forefront of this revolution, linking your crypto wallet directly to global payment networks like Visa and Mastercard.
- [Can Crypto Platforms Be Held Liable Like Product Manufacturers?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/can-crypto-platforms-be-held-liable/): Product liability law has a fairly clear purpose: to hold manufacturers and sellers accountable when a defective product causes harm. For decades, courts applied this framework to physical goods, a faulty car airbag, contaminated food, a malfunctioning medical device. The question courts and legal scholars now wrestle with is whether software platforms fit into this same category.
- [What Are Mining Pools?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-are-mining-pools/): Modern mining is an industrial-scale competition where hashpower is the currency of success. In this high-stakes environment, mining pools have emerged as the critical infrastructure layer that makes Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining viable, predictable, and scalable for institutions of every size.
- [How Does Crypto Custody Work? The Complete Guide for Businesses in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-does-crypto-custody-work/): An estimated 559 million people now hold crypto worldwide, and 86% of institutions are either holding or planning digital asset allocations. Family offices have reported a 21-percentage-point surge in crypto adoption since 2024. Wall Street is moving fast too. Citigroup plans to launch crypto custody services in 2026, joining BNY Mellon and Standard Chartered in the race to offer bank-grade digital asset safekeeping.
- [How AI Agents Are Transforming Crypto: A Builder’s Guide to Autonomous Systems](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-ai-agents-are-transforming-crypto/): Artificial intelligence has moved past passive models into proactive, autonomous systems known as AI agents. These aren't chatbots. They're goal-driven software entities that perceive, reason, and act across digital environments without constant human oversight.
- [Why Firms Are Moving to Institutional On-Chain Settlements in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/why-firms-are-moving-to-on-chain-settlements-2026/): Key Takeaways:
- [How Programmable Smart Contracts Automate Complex Supply Chain Milestone Payments](https://www.chainup.com/blog/programmable-smart-contracts-supply-chain-milestone-payments/): That gap between goods moved and cash moved is where programmable smart contracts can help, especially for milestone-based payments where manual checks, disputes, and slow approvals cause delays.
- [On-Chain T-Bills: Navigating Tokenized U.S. Treasuries for Corporate Cash Management](https://www.chainup.com/blog/on-chain-t-bills-corporate-treasury-management/): The term “on-chain T-bills” is often used broadly. In practice, most institutional products fall into two categories.
- [Best Hardware Wallet for Altcoins: 2026 Ultimate Guide](https://www.chainup.com/blog/best-hardware-wallet-for-altcoins/): As a result of this fragmentation, the best hardware wallet for altcoins usually isn’t the one boasting the longest vanity list of supported coins. Instead, it is the device that delivers:
- [Crypto Sanctions Risk: 5 Red Flags Your Provider Is Non-Compliant](https://www.chainup.com/blog/crypto-sanctions-risk-5-red-flags-your-provider-is-non-compliant/): Sanctions risk is highly contagious. If your exchange, custodian, prime broker, or wallet infrastructure vendor facilitates illicit flows or maintains substandard risk controls, your business inherits the operational fallout. Sudden service outages, frozen corporate funds, severe banking de-risking, emergency offboarding, and irreparable reputational damage can manifest overnight.
- [What Is OFAC Compliance in Crypto?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-ofac-compliance-in-crypto/): As cryptocurrency adoption accelerates globally, one regulatory body continues to define the compliance baseline for the entire industry: the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Whether you operate a centralized exchange, a DeFi protocol, or an enterprise tokenization platform, understanding OFAC isn't optional; it's foundational to staying in business.
- [The Architecture of Native On-Chain Assets: Beyond Legacy Tokenization](https://www.chainup.com/blog/architecture-native-on-chain-assets-beyond-legacy-tokenization/): Tokenization, as commonly practiced today, is merely a transitional phase. While current frameworks have validated distributed ledgers within legacy environments, they still inherit legacy friction: off-chain asset dependencies, custodian vulnerability, and intensive reconciliation processes.
- [The Future of Cash Management: Fidelity International’s First Tokenized Fund Secures Moody’s Top AAA-mf Rating](https://www.chainup.com/blog/first-tokenized-fund-moodys-aaa-rating-fidelity-filq/): The intersection of traditional finance (TradFi) and blockchain technology just hit a major milestone. Moody’s Ratings has officially assigned its highest-tier AAA-mf rating to Fidelity International’s first-ever tokenized fund: the Fidelity USD Digital Liquidity Fund (FILQ).
- [The Institutionalization of Perpetual DEXs: Inside the Landmark Launch of the NYSE-Listed Hyperliquid ETFs](https://www.chainup.com/blog/hyperliquid-etf-institutional-onchain-infrastructure/): On Friday, May 15, 2026, Bitwise Asset Management officially launched its highly anticipated Hyperliquid ETF, trading under the ticker symbol BHYP on the NYSE. Bitwise was the first asset manager to file a Form S-1 for a Hyperliquid ETF back in September 2025, beating out rivals to pioneer the regulatory framework for this specific asset class.
- [The End of Weekend FX Risk: On-Chain Settlement for 24/7 Operations](https://www.chainup.com/blog/the-end-of-weekend-fx-risk-on-chain-settlement-for-247-operations/): This is where on-chain settlement fundamentally changes the conversation. In this article, we’ll break down why the “Monday Morning Gap” happens, how tokenized FX and atomic settlement reduce that exposure, what 24/7 liquidity looks like in practice, and why this model is not just better for risk management, but better for business too.
- [Why Prediction Markets Need Central Limit Order Books to Scale Institutional Liquidity](https://www.chainup.com/blog/why-prediction-markets-need-order-books/): Prediction markets require specialized architecture that can price fast-moving real-world probabilities with precision, depth, and minimal execution friction. This requirement is exactly why the industry has shifted away from automated pools toward a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) model.
- [Eliminating Third-Party Risk: Why Hyperliquid’s Native Bridge Dominates Cross-Chain Execution](https://www.chainup.com/blog/hyperliquid-native-bridge-validator-security-gold-standard/): The native bridge should not be viewed only as a defensive feature. Its broader strategic value is that it unlocks the exact performance characteristics that high-frequency traders demand.
- [The Math of the Peg: Inside Hyperliquid’s High-Frequency Funding Rate Engine](https://www.chainup.com/blog/hyperliquid-funding-rate-engine-explained/): By April 2026, Hyperliquid accounted for roughly 70% of all on-chain perpetual futures volume, processing over $4 trillion in cumulative trades with a lean team of 11 people and zero venture capital behind it. 
- [How businesses simplify transactions by setting up a Crypto Payment Gateway](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-business-simplify-transactions-with-crypto-payment-gateway/): At the same time, businesses researching how to set up a crypto payment gateway often find that the implementation process is less complicated than expected.
- [How AI is Changing Crypto Trading and Exchange Security in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-ai-changing-crypto-trading-exchange-security/): Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the cryptocurrency industry. From automated trading systems to advanced fraud detection, AI is now becoming a core technology layer for crypto exchanges, wallets, and digital asset platforms worldwide.
- [Real-Time Settlement: The Ecosystem of Banks and Networks Powering Crypto Cards](https://www.chainup.com/blog/the-ecosystem-of-banks-and-networks-powering-crypto-cards/): Crypto cards work because several parties coordinate in real time. Each one has a different role, and the system only works when all of them stay aligned.
- [Settling the Wagers: Inside Polymarket’s Decentralized Oracle and Resolution Engine](https://www.chainup.com/blog/settling-the-wagers-inside-polymarkets-decentralized-oracle-and-resolution-engine/): Traditional betting platforms rely on centralized, opaque referees. Decentralized markets require a trustless alternative. This is where Polymarket’s decentralized oracle infrastructure, powered by the UMA Optimistic Oracle, stands out. Instead of a single arbiter, the system assumes a proposed outcome is correct unless challenged. If a dispute arises, it triggers a "human-powered truth machine" in which decentralized token holders vote on the result, backed by financial incentives to ensure accuracy.
- [What Are OFAC Sanctions in the Crypto Ecosystem?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-are-ofac-sanctions-a-guide-to-crypto-compliance/): The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) enforces U.S. sanctions against individuals, organizations, or countries that pose threats such as terrorism, human rights abuses, or money laundering. They typically target foreign governments, businesses, individuals, and even specific digital wallets linked to restricted activities.
- [5 Best White-Label Crypto Exchange Providers in the US (2026)](https://www.chainup.com/blog/best-white-label-crypto-exchange-providers-in-us/): Key Takeaways
- [Top 6 Crypto Liquidity Providers for Exchanges in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-crypto-liquidity-providers-for-exchanges/): Running a successful cryptocurrency exchange requires more than just a sleek user interface. Without deep order books and instant trade execution, users quickly leave for platforms that offer better pricing and minimal slippage. This makes partnering with robust crypto liquidity providers for exchanges the most critical decision an operator can make.
- [The Hyperliquid Engine: High-Performance DEX Architecture](https://www.chainup.com/blog/high-performance-perpetual-dex-engine-architecture/): Hyperliquid has moved beyond the status of a rising star to become the definitive engine of the on-chain derivative market. As of May 2026, the platform has cleared over $4 trillion in cumulative volume, frequently producing over $2M in daily revenue.
- [Understanding Perpetual Futures: A Guide for Modern Trading](https://www.chainup.com/blog/understanding-perpetual-futures-institutional-guide/): Perpetual futures are cash-settled, meaning at no point does the actual underlying asset change hands. This is the mechanical necessity that enables the trading of illiquid or physical assets on-chain:
- [What Is a Governance Token? How Decentralized Decision-Making Powers the Future of Crypto](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-a-governance-token/): In early 2026, Apollo Global Management signed a 48-month agreement to acquire up to 90 million MORPHO governance tokens, roughly 9% of the protocol's total supply. Around the same time, BlackRock moved an estimated $100–$200 million into Uniswap's UNI tokens to integrate its tokenized fund infrastructure with decentralized exchange technology. 
- [What is a Sidechain? Understanding Independent Blockchain Scaling](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-a-sidechain-understanding-independent-blockchain-scaling/): Developers require environments where they can build high-performance applications without abandoning the broader blockchain ecosystem. The sidechain emerged as a powerful solution to this exact problem. By running a parallel network alongside a primary blockchain, developers can bypass mainnet bottlenecks entirely.
- [What is Polygon? Scaling on Ethereum L2 Network](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-polygon-scaling-on-ethereum-l2-network/): This congestion created a massive barrier to entry. A global financial system cannot function if a simple transaction costs $50 in network fees. Polygon stepped in to solve this exact problem. By building an "express lane" on top of the Ethereum highway, Polygon delivers the speed and affordability necessary for global blockchain adoption.
- [Prediction Markets vs. Traditional Sportsbooks: What’s Changing and Why It Matters](https://www.chainup.com/blog/prediction-markets-vs-traditional-sportsbooks/): Decentralized prediction markets gained serious momentum in 2025. Total trading volume across major platforms surpassed $44 billion, while open interest reportedly grew from roughly $3.3 billion to nearly $13 billion within the same year. 
- [Tether’s USDT: The Digital Dollar Powering Trillions in Global Finance](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-usdt-tether-explained/): In Q4 2025, Tether’s USDT reached a record market capitalization of $187.3 billion, adding $12.4 billion in a single quarter while facilitating more than $4.4 trillion in on-chain transfers. Today, Tether holds roughly 59% of the total stablecoin market, with Tether and USDC together accounting for approximately 93% of all stablecoin capitalization.
- [What Is a Stablecoin Peg? A Guide to How It Works and Why It Matters](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-a-stablecoin-peg/): A stablecoin peg is the mechanism that keeps a stablecoin’s value tied to an external asset, most commonly the U.S. dollar. The goal is simple: one stablecoin should always equal one dollar.
- [5 Easiest Crypto to Mine: Best Profitable Coins In May 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/easiest-crypto-to-mine/): Algorithm Design: Many networks utilize ASIC-resistant algorithms engineered for general-purpose hardware to prevent industrial-scale operations from monopolizing the network and displacing smaller miners.
- [How Crypto Prediction Markets Work](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-crypto-prediction-markets-work/): The Future of Crypto Prediction Markets
- [Mt. Gox 10 Years Later: What Really Happened and What We Learned](https://www.chainup.com/blog/mt-gox-what-happened-lessons-learned/): In March 2026, wallets linked to the defunct Mt. Gox exchange moved a nominal $500 in Bitcoin, a tiny transfer that still sent ripples through the crypto markets. With the estate still holding roughly 34,500 BTC (valued at approximately $2.4 billion), Mt. Gox remains a living case study in what happens when security, custody, and operational oversight fail at scale. 
- [2026 Institutional Custody Architecture: Why MPC Alone Is Not Enough](https://www.chainup.com/blog/why-mpc-is-not-enough-for-security-architecture/): While Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology was designed to eliminate single points of failure by distributing cryptographic control, the threat landscape has fundamentally shifted. In 2026, institutions are no longer just defending against lone actors, we are now facing highly organized, state-level hacking syndicates capable of executing sophisticated, multi-stage social engineering campaigns. 
- [Top 5 Crypto Remittance Platforms for 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-5-crypto-remittance-platforms-for-2026/): Sending money across borders used to mean paying high fees, waiting long, and hidden exchange rate markups. Traditional wire transfers often strip away 6 to 7 percent of the total transaction value. Now, crypto remittance platforms have stepped in to help with this inefficient system.
- [What Is DAI? How This Decentralized Stablecoin Maintains Its $1 Value](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-dai-how-this-decentralized-stablecoin-maintains-its-value/): With a market capitalization consistently hovering between $4 billion and $5.3 billion, DAI (Decentralized Autonomous Institution) represents a massive shift in decentralized finance.
- [What is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX)? How DEX platforms work?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-decentralized-exchange-dex/): A decentralized exchange (DEX) is a blockchain-based trading platform that allows users to buy, sell, and swap cryptocurrencies directly from their own wallets without relying on a centralized intermediary.
- [North Korea Crypto Hack Report 2026: Why Drift Protocol & KelpDAO Exploits Drove 76% of Losses](https://www.chainup.com/blog/north-korea-crypto-hack-report-2026-drift-kelpdao-exploits/): Recent findings from TRM Labs cast a spotlight on a staggering trend. In the first four months of 2026 alone, North Korean hacking groups were responsible for 76% of all cryptocurrency hack losses globally. While the total number of incidents remain low, their precision and scale are unprecedented, with cumulative theft since 2017 now surpassing the $6 billion mark.
- [The $400,000 Military Bet: How Insider Trading is Forcing Prediction Markets to Evolve](https://www.chainup.com/blog/prediction-market-insider-trading-kyt-analytics/): Prediction markets are exploding. Today, you can trade on almost anything—from election outcomes to the results of secret military missions. But as more capital flows into platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, a major problem has surfaced: insider trading.
- [Sports Betting in Crypto Prediction Markets: What Changed in 2026?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/sports-betting-in-crypto-prediction-markets/): The crypto prediction market, once a niche corner for politics and token speculation, has found a powerful new driver: sports betting. With the global sports betting market projected to reach $182 billion by 2030, this fusion with blockchain technology represents a significant shift.
- [Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? The Mystery Behind Bitcoin](https://www.chainup.com/blog/who-is-satoshi-nakamoto-the-mystery-behind-bitcoin/): Today, global digital asset ownership exceeds an estimated 420 million people. Yet, no one knows exactly who created Bitcoin.
- [5 Ways to Earn Passive Income in Web3: 2026 Institutional Yield Guide](https://www.chainup.com/blog/5-ways-to-earn-passive-income-in-web3/): What if digital assets could generate continuous returns without active trading? Moving beyond simple price action, Web3 has emerged as a high-performance alternative to legacy finance, replacing centralized intermediaries with automated, peer-to-peer banking protocols. With Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Total Value Locked (TVL) consistently exceeding $100 billion, the ecosystem offers robust, tested mechanisms for generating reliable yield.
- [Top 5 Best Tokenization Projects in 2026: Ranked by Real-World Value Generated](https://www.chainup.com/blog/op-5-best-tokenization-projects-2026-real-world-value/): In January 2026, tokenized U.S. Treasuries crossed $10 billion in total on-chain value for the first time, a milestone that confirms asset tokenization has graduated from proof-of-concept to operational infrastructure. The broader real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market has surged past $12 billion by March 2026, up from roughly $5 billion just 15 months ago, representing a 140% increase that is drawing capital from Wall Street, central banks, and DeFi protocols alike.
- [Moving South Africa Beyond Regulatory Gray Zone to Capture $126 Trillion in Digital Assets](https://www.chainup.com/blog/south-africa-digital-assets-regulatory-certainty/): The key to making South Africa a magnet for global opportunities is a "Can’t Be Evil" framework. By baking regulatory requirements directly into the technology stack, compliance stops being a bureaucratic hurdle and becomes a native feature. When trust is anchored in math rather than human discretion, the "Grey Zone" disappears.
- [Top 5 Emerging Web3 Protocols in 2026: Infrastructure Shaping the Decentralized Future](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-5-emerging-web3-protocols-2026/): Before diving into the specifics, it helps to clarify what we mean by "Web3 protocols." In the simplest terms, these are the foundational rules, standards, and systems that govern how decentralized applications communicate, transact, and operate across blockchain networks. Think of them as the underlying infrastructure that allows everything else—exchanges, wallets, DeFi platforms, tokenization engines—to function.
- [What Is Token Minting? How Digital Assets Are Created on the Blockchain](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-token-minting/): At the heart of this financial evolution is one foundational process: token minting. Every stablecoin, tokenized bond, governance token, and NFT had to be minted—brought into existence on a blockchain through a programmable process. 
- [What Is x402? The Machine-to-Machine Payment Protocol Powering the AI Economy](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-x402-machine-to-machine-payment-protocol/): On March 17, 2026, Sam Altman's World Foundation launched AgentKit, a developer toolkit pairing human identity verification with x402—an open-source crypto protocol designed for native internet payments. 
- [How South Africa Built a $40 Billion Closed-Loop Crypto Rail](https://www.chainup.com/blog/south-africa-40-billion-crypto-rail-adoption-2026/): South Africa has effectively moved beyond the speculative phase of digital assets to establish a functional economic infrastructure. While other jurisdictions continue to grapple with regulatory uncertainty, South Africa has synchronized its legal framework, institutional liquidity, and retail endpoints into a single, high-speed financial rail.
- [Beyond Transaction Fees: Meeting the Operational Demands of High-Volume Crypto Traders](https://www.chainup.com/blog/high-volume-crypto-traders-operational-demands/): For years, exchange growth was a game of mass acquisition. But as the market matures, a new reality has emerged: your platform’s survival no longer depends on how many users you onboard, but on how well you retain those who anchor your liquidity. 
- [Why Poor Customer Support Is the Fastest Way to Lose Your Best Traders](https://www.chainup.com/blog/poor-customer-support-trader-churn-crypto-exchanges/): Exchange operators traditionally rely on fee restructuring as their primary retention lever. However, competitive spreads have become a baseline requirement, and their efficacy as a differentiator is plateauing. The Exchange Operator’s Intelligence Report 2026 confirms a narrowing gap in churn drivers: while fees account for 32% of migration, substandard customer support now follows closely at 28%.
- [How Crypto Exchanges Can Capture the Full User Lifecycle & Stop Capital Flight](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-crypto-exchanges-can-capture-the-full-user-lifecycle-and-stop-capital-flight/): Escalating acquisition costs are forcing exchange operators to move beyond a volume-centric growth model. While capital-intensive marketing drives registration spikes, the investment evaporates if the initial user experience fails to trigger immediate activation. 
- [Solving Onboarding Friction in Crypto Exchanges with Immediate Activation](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-to-fix-crypto-exchange-onboarding-friction/): Crypto exchanges spend millions on acquisition, yet registration is merely the beginning of the cost curve. The real test is Time to First Trade (TTFT)—the North Star metric that measures the total friction a user faces before they generate revenue.
- [What Is ERC-8004? The AI Agent Identity Standard](https://www.chainup.com/blog/erc-8004-ai-agent-identity-standard/): Centralized platforms manage trust through walled gardens (e.g., an agent within a single SaaS ecosystem). However, true efficiency requires cross-network collaboration. Without a decentralized layer like ERC-8004, an agent on a DeFi protocol cannot verify the credentials of an AI agent residing on a decentralized storage network.
- [Best Ways to Buy Crypto in Australia: PayID, Cards, or Bank Transfer?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/best-way-buy-crypto-australia/): While some beginners are put off by how complicated it seems, getting started with crypto in Australia is actually quite straightforward. In most cases, the process goes as follows:
- [x402 + ERC-8004: How AI Agents Pay and Get Paid on the Agentic Web](https://www.chainup.com/blog/x402-erc8004-ai-agent-payments-agentic-web/): The x402 protocol solves the "402 Payment Required" hurdle, allowing software to pay for its own resources.
- [Beyond KYC: Why Know Your Agent (KYA) is the Breakout Trend of 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/know-your-agent-kya-2026-trend-ai-commerce/): For decades, the gold standard of financial security was Know Your Customer (KYC)—a framework designed to verify the human behind the screen. But in 2026, the "person" is increasingly likely to be an AI Agent.
- [Bitcoin Depot Security Breach: Lessons from the 50.9 BTC Settlement Account Theft](https://www.chainup.com/blog/bitcoin-depot-security-breach-50-9-btc-analysis/): The incident highlights a critical vulnerability in how high-volume crypto enterprises manage internal liquidity and settlement processes. While Bitcoin Depot confirmed that customer platforms, ATM hardware, and user data remained secure, the theft of corporate assets represents a "material" financial event that underscores the persistent risks of internal credential compromise.
- [Operation Atlantic: How the U.S. Secret Service Utilizes Blockchain Analytics to Disrupt Approval Phishing](https://www.chainup.com/blog/operation-atlantic-blockchain-analytics-approval-phishing/): Enter Operation Atlantic. Concluding in late March 2026, this multi-national “operational sprint” was a joint effort between the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the UK’s NCA, and Canadian authorities. It specifically targeted the infrastructure used for approval phishing—a scam that tricks victims into granting "spending permissions" over their digital wallets via fake apps or alerts.
- [The Executive’s Guide to Security Tokens: Compliance, Custody, and Capital Formation](https://www.chainup.com/blog/executive-guide-security-tokens-compliance-custody-capital-formation/): No longer a distant vision, security tokens are now the standard for institutional-grade regulated operations. Wall Street is already running real money through token rails, such as BNY Mellon plugging LiquidityDirect into Goldman Sachs’s Digital Asset Platform (GS DAP) via the Canton Network. This allows institutions to redeem tokenized money-market fund positions with near-instant settlement finality.
- [Beyond the Trading Engine: Building a Centralized Exchange That Wins Institutional Trust](https://www.chainup.com/blog/building-centralized-exchange-that-wins-institutional-trust/): For builders of centralized exchanges (CEXs), the battleground has shifted. Success is no longer defined merely by having the fastest matching engine or the most aggressive token listings. Today, the primary currency of the crypto market is institutional trust.
- [How to Fix the “Max Fee Per Gas Less Than Block Base Fee” Error?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/how-to-fix-the-max-fee-per-gas-less-than-block-base-fee-error/): You submitted an Ethereum transaction and received a "max fee per gas less than block base fee" error. This error is more common than you might think, especially during periods of network congestion. 
- [What Is OpenClaw? Exploring Its Potential Use Cases in Web3 and Beyond](https://www.chainup.com/blog/openclaw-ai-agent-web3-blockchain-integration/): In March 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called OpenClaw "probably the single most important release of software… probably ever," noting that the open-source AI agent reached adoption levels in weeks that took Linux three decades to achieve. 
- [Choosing the Right Tokenization Engine for Global Capital](https://www.chainup.com/blog/choosing-tokenization-engine-global-capital/): Tokenization structures are the legal and technical blueprints used to represent ownership or interest in an underlying asset via digital tokens. These structures determine how an asset is organized, which entity manages it, and how it interacts with global financial regulations.
- [Why Institutional Treasury is Pivoting to XRP](https://www.chainup.com/blog/xrp-institutional-standard-2026/): XRP, a digital asset refined over more than a decade, has emerged as the definitive solution to this "slow-motion" economy. No longer just a cryptocurrency, it has become the essential engine powering the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions.
- [How to Build a Profitable Trading Model using OpenClaw AI Agents](https://www.chainup.com/blog/build-profitable-ai-trading-model-openclaw/): OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework designed to execute complex, natural-language instructions through modular plugins known as Skills. While a standard Large Language Model (LLM) can only "talk," OpenClaw gives that model "hands" to interact with the world—including crypto exchanges, databases, and communication apps.
- [Agentic AI & OpenClaw: The Next Layer of Crypto Exchange Infrastructure](https://www.chainup.com/blog/agentic-ai-openclaw-crypto-exchange-infrastructure/): At the center of this shift is OpenClaw, an open-source framework designed to transform Large Language Models (LLMs) from passive advisors into active, operational agents.
- [Why 60% of Your Traders Have Already Switched Platforms](https://www.chainup.com/blog/why-60-of-your-traders-have-already-switched-platforms/): The data confirms a critical trend: 60% of active traders have migrated their primary activity to a competitor over the last 24 months. 
- [Why Crypto Exchange UI/UX is a Leading Indicator of Capital Migration](https://www.chainup.com/blog/crypto-exchange-ui-ux-capital-migration-2026/): Professional trading behavior is highly sensitive to the execution environment. When a crypto exchange user interface/user experience (UI/UX) introduces unnecessary complexity or slows navigation, it creates a “cognitive tax” on the trader. This does not stay isolated at the product layer; it degrades the conditions under which high-volume activity happens. 
- [Top 5 Best Cryptos for Remittances in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-best-cryptos-for-remittances-in-2026/): Financial institutions and fintech builders are moving beyond the "experimental" phase to focus on the tangible, real-world utility of crypto remittance rails. By bypassing the friction of intermediary banks, these rails enable providers to capture higher profit margins while offering end users near-instant delivery. For billions of people, this translates to more money reaching families and less being lost to 7%–10% legacy friction.
- [Impermanent Loss Explained: A Guide for DeFi Liquidity Pools](https://www.chainup.com/blog/impermanent-loss-explained-a-guide-for-defi-liquidity-pools/): In the 2026 institutional DeFi landscape, liquidity provision is often mistaken for a passive yield play. However, without the right infrastructure, it becomes a high-stakes balancing act. While Automated Market Makers (AMMs) offer significant fee-generation potential, they expose capital to a critical risk: Impermanent Loss.
- [What Is a Blockchain Explorer? How to Track Crypto Data](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-a-blockchain-explorer-and-how-to-track-crypto-data/): A blockchain explorer solves this exact problem. Think of it as the “Google” of the blockchain, completely open to the public and capable of transforming complex strings of code into readable, actionable insights.
- [Top 6 Real-World Tokenization Use Cases in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-6-real-world-tokenization-use-cases/): By late 2025, real-world asset tokenization reached approximately $36 billion in total value. In 2026, this momentum has accelerated as institutional demand for transparency and 24/7 global market access becomes the industry standard.
- [What Is EigenLayer Restaking? A Complete Guide to Ethereum’s Shared Security Model](https://www.chainup.com/blog/what-is-eigenlayer-restaking/): In early 2026, EigenLayer had locked over $19.5 billion in total value. And nearly matching its peak, with more than 4.3 million Ethereum (ETH) restaked, solidifying its dominance in the restaking market at 93.9% share.
- [Top 7 Layer 2 Ecosystems to Watch: A 2026 Market Overview](https://www.chainup.com/blog/top-layer-2-ecosystems-to-watch-2026/): The top Layer 2 ecosystems in 2026 won’t be decided by marketing or headline TPS. They’ll be decided by where builders can ship fastest, where liquidity stays usable under stress, and where users already behave like the L2 is the default. This list tracks the ecosystems with the strongest “gravity” right now and the clearest signals they’ll keep compounding through 2026.
- [Bitcoin or Gold? Wealth Preservation During the 2026 US-Iran Conflict](https://www.chainup.com/blog/bitcoin-or-gold-wealth-preservation-2026-us-iran-conflict/): While these assets play different roles in a diversified portfolio, they share a common requirement in the modern era: the need for a sophisticated management layer. The right question is no longer "Bitcoin or gold," but rather how to unify and hold both through infrastructure that meets rigorous institutional standards for security, compliance, and scale.
- [Gold in 2026: Why Geopolitical Conflict Is Driving Digital Tokenization](https://www.chainup.com/blog/gold-2026-geopolitical-conflict-digital-tokenization/): In March 2026, global markets woke up to a seismic jolt. Coordinated military strikes in the Middle East triggered a historic flight to safety, and gold responded as it always has. Trading volumes on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) hit record daily highs, and in a single 24-hour period, gold added significant weight to its global market cap as prices touched an intraday peak of $4,450.
- [Why Bitcoin Is the World’s New “Reserve Asset” in March 2026](https://www.chainup.com/blog/bitcoin-sovereign-store-of-value-2026/): Amid geopolitical shockwaves in the Middle East, Bitcoin (BTC) surged nearly 5% within a single session after an initial dip, briefly touching $70,000, erasing war-driven losses within hours.
- [These 7 Crypto Cards with No Fees in 2026: Truth or Just a Marketing Gimmick?](https://www.chainup.com/blog/no-fee-crypto-cards-reviewed/): If you believe the advertising promises of crypto cards, issuing them is like getting a personal banker who doesn't charge a penny for their work. But the truth, as usual, is not so romantic. This list contains the seven most popular cards that claim zero service fees and zero commissions. We checked which ones actually work and which ones turn into hidden spreads or opaque terms of service.
- [Investing in Gold During the US-Iran Conflict: The Case for Tokenized Bullion](https://www.chainup.com/blog/investing-in-gold-during-the-us-iran-conflict-the-case-for-tokenized-bullion/): Geopolitical shocks don’t wait for markets to open. When military strikes involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran began on February 28, 2026, traditional bullion dealers were closed, leaving investors unable to act. Meanwhile, blockchain markets stayed active, with tokenized gold like PAXG and XAUt surging past $1 billion in volume and prices nearing $5,400 per ounce.

## Pages
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## Market Updates
- [(26/52) Weekly Market Insight | July Week 2 | Liquidity Rotation](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/26-52-weekly-market-insight-july-week-2-liquidity-rotation/): Headline News: Liquidity Rotation Bitcoin rallied over 6% to open the first week of July, driven by a combination of exhausted sell-side momentum and softening U.S. macroeconomic data. The latest weak labor market print effectively capped expectations of Fed hawkishness, triggering a pullback in short-term Treasury yields and the US Dollar Index. In response, both Bitcoin and gold caught strong bids as global liquidity proxies. This macro tailwind coincided with a sharp reversal in institutional flows on Thursday, when spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a $221 million net inflow, the highest single-day intake in 2 months. Macro-Outlook: Labor Force Contraction The US JOLTs job openings increased to 7.594M in May, above the market expectations of 7.3M. Meanwhile, the non-farm payrolls decreased to 57K in June, well below market forecasts of 110K with a downward revision of May payrolls from 172K to 129K. However, unemployment rate recorded 4.2% in June, below market forecasts of 4.3% as participation rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points in June. The US ISM manufacturing PMI decreased to 53.3 in June, below market expectations of 54. During the European Central Bank Forum in Portugal, Fed Chair Warsh signaled the Fed balance sheet would shrink far slower than anticipated and emphasized that inflation remains too high. The Fed fund futures yield curve didn't change much from a week ago, anticipating 76% of rate hikes in 2026. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Monday, July 6, 10:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in June Thursday, July 9, 2:00am: US FOMC Minutes Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Bitcoin Monetization Program Strategy unveiled a Digital Credit Capital Framework, raising its USD Reserve to $2.55 billion, increasing the STRC dividend rate to 12%, launching $1 billion repurchase programs, and establishing a $1.25 billion Bitcoin monetization program which sells Bitcoin to fund the capital framework. Open Standard introduced Open USD, a stablecoin built for the internet economy and backed by Visa, Mastercard, with support from Coinbase, Solana, Aave, Polygon, Plasma, Tempo and other major institutions. Cloudflare opened the waitlist for its Monetization Gateway, enabling developers to charge for web pages, APIs, or MCP tools with payments settling directly in stablecoins via the x402 protocol. LINE NEXT plans to launch Unifi Pay globally in Q3, enabling zero-fee payments in USDT, JPYC, and IDRP with 1-second settlement and a developer SDK that builds a payment page in 10 minutes. OKX launched OKX AI, a marketplace where AI agents can discover work, hire each other, complete tasks, and receive onchain payments. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Robinhood unveiled major updates including Robinhood Chain mainnet launch, Robinhood Earn with up to 7% APY via Morpho vaults, maker-taker crypto fees, agentic trading features, and Canada expansion. Mantle integrated Openstock pre-IPO vaults, enabling users to invest in private company shares,starting with Zhongji Innolight (largest global supplier of optical modules for AI data centers), with onchain redemption at listing. Dapps Arcus rebranded from dYdX and launched as the leading DEX on Robinhood Chain, offering 24/7 trading on 95 stock tickers with 0% fees and institutional liquidity. The existing DYDX exchange and DYDX Chain are still fully active and separate. Hyperliquid powered VALR, Africa's largest centralised exchange, on its perps trading infrastructure with markets. Paribu, a Türkiye-based regulated centralised exchange, integrated Hyperliquid and Polymarket into its interface to offer perpetual trading and prediction markets. Chainlink advanced multiple institutional tokenization initiatives, including the Digital Transfer Agent standard with UBS/Swift, NAV data feeds with Fidelity and WisdomTree, and support for Amundi’s tokenized fund. Virtuals integrated its AI agent infrastructure into Robinhood Chain, enabling users to launch, fund, and use agents in tokenized markets. World.xyz (not World Network) launched on Solana as a fully onchain prediction market inside Phantom wallet, powered by Chainlink oracles and CASH stablecoin, starting with crypto and 2026 FIFA World Cup markets. Ethena announced a collaboration with BlackRock to integrate USDe into the Aladdin platform, use BUIDL as the primary asset for its whitelabel product, and provide a liquidity facility for BlackRock tokenized products. Fluid joined the Hashi ecosystem on Sui to provide institutional-grade credit markets for native Bitcoin collateral, alongside Cumberland and SwissBorg. Canborsa launched its DEX on Canton with tokenized stocks, up to 30x leverage, $10,000 max position size, and improved volume-based points multipliers. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Jupiter Finance announced its GUM, the omnichain exchange that enables unified trading of any token across chains with one identity and one balance, will be launching this week. Drift rebranded to Velocity, marking a new architecture and security foundation for its Solana perpetual exchange, with private beta planned for select partners this week. Ethereum Institutional launched as an independent non-profit to accelerate institutional adoption of Ethereum and its ecosystem, founded by the former EF enterprise team with backing from BitMNR, Sharplink, and ethereumJoseph. Solana launched onchain governance via Stake-Weighted Validator Voting (SGP), allowing validators with ≥100k SOL delegated to submit proposals that require 15% network stake support to reach a formal vote. Aave will power a dedicated V4 instance on OP Mainnet for EtherFi Cash, with EtherFi managing the fully owned infrastructure and risk parameters. Token Unlock BB token unlocks on July 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocks on July 14, representing 22.8% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on July 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on July 16, representing 4.47% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on July 17, representing 27.2% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on July 17, representing 12.1% of the token supply. ERA token unlocks on July 17, representing 44.3% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on July 18, representing 4.17% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on July 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on July 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. SCR token unlocks on July 22, representing 5.79% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(25/52) Weekly Market Insight | July Week 1 | Crypto Capital Drain](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/25-52-weekly-market-insight-july-week-1-crypto-capital-drain/): Headline News: Crypto Capital Drain ADriven by persistent inflation concerns, markets are now pricing in a 78% probability of a rate hike in 2026, implying 31 bps of tightening. This hawkish repricing, coupled with broader equity market weakness, has triggered significant capital flight from the digital asset sector. Consequently, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a record $4.06 billion in monthly net outflows in June. Bitcoin has tumbled near 19% month-to-date, putting the asset on track for its worst monthly performance in four years. Macro-Outlook: Ceasefire Violation After signing the ceasefire MoU agreement, Iran appeared to continue implementing its governance in the Strait of Hormuz and attacked a Singapore-flagged cargo ship. The US cited this as a direct violation of the MoU and struck multiple Iranian surveillance and military targets. Iran retaliated with drone strikes targeting US positions in Bahrain and Kuwait. The US PCE index surged to 4.1% in May, the highest in 3 years, in line with market expectations. The durable goods order fell by 4.5% in May, matched with market expectations, driven by a significant drop in transport equipment orders and non-defense aircraft and parts. The US Q1 GDP revised upward to 2.1%, up from 1.6% in the second estimate. The US personal income has grown by 0.7% in May, higher than the market expectations of 0.4%. US personal spending also increased by 0.7% in May, slightly higher than the market expectations of 0.6%. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, June 30, 10:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in May Wednesday, July 1, 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in June Friday, July 2, 10:00pm: US Non Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in June Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: New Product-Driven Ethlabs Meta reportedly directed development of a standalone prediction markets app called “Arena” to rival Polymarket and Kalshi. Tether-backed Oobit integrated USDT with Brazil’s Pix instant payment network, giving nearly 170 million Pix users direct access to USDT. Kraken entered talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave Group for approximately $71 million (via 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens plus equity) at an implied $385 million valuation. Aave founder dismissed potential sales of AAVE at a 70% discount in the reporting. Cboe launched its prediction market platform Cboe Predicts, along with its first products, binary options contracts on the Mini S&P 500 Index that are centrally cleared by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and operate under the same regulatory and surveillance framework as standard US-listed options. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Bittensor upgraded its core incentive mechanism with a new on-chain emission formula to ensure only subnets with active mining mechanisms receive full emissions. The change fixes structural gaming vulnerabilities in the prior system and explicitly ties emissions to price performance and real value returned to TAO holders. South Korea’s third-largest internet-only bank, Toss Bank, signed an MOU with the Solana Foundation to test Solana-based global remittance and stablecoin infrastructure. SBI Group and Startale launched JPYSC, Japan’s first trust bank-backed yen stablecoin. The launch provides institutional-grade credibility through traditional trust bank backing for on-chain yen representation and tokenized assets. Hyperliquid was added to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Investor Alert List. Sophon sunset its ZK-powered L2 and fully pivoted to building consumer applications on Base as Soph(+), a product studio focused on novel on-chain experiences. The first product, Pyre, introduces “entertainment finance” a daily payments app where payment transactions gain users game entries to access games. Dapps Chainlink launched Project Pangea together with multinational banking consortia representing over 50 banks and over $10 trillion in AUM to develop a T+0 cross-border FX settlement framework. The initiative uses Chainlink infrastructure, ISO 20022 messaging standards, and regulated EUR/KRW stablecoins to enable atomic PvP swaps while leveraging existing SWIFT rails for institutional-grade, onchain FX without replacing core banking systems. Spark introduced the Stablecoin FX Layer, a shared liquidity infrastructure on Uniswap v4 designed to combat fragmentation as banks and fintechs launch new stablecoins. Initial deployment brought $150M liquidity into unified USDS/PYUSD and USDS/USDT pools, with its new DualPool hook allowing idle LP capital to earn yield via Spark while remaining instantly available for swaps. Uniswap Auctions went live with a new web app interface that lets teams configure and launch Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) directly from the Uniswap interface for permissionless, transparent onchain token launch and liquidity bootstrapping. Jumper, the leading swap aggregator, launched private swaps across 15+ chains in partnership with HoudiniSwap, giving users the option to execute cross-chain swaps with full privacy protection against MEV bots, copy-traders, and onchain trackers while maintaining the same multi-chain routing experience. Jupiter introduced Post Intents on its Offerbook, allowing users to signal borrow or lend interest completely offchain with zero gas fees and zero locked funds. When a match is found, the intent surfaces in the dashboard for one-click onchain execution. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Ethlabs launched as a new independent non-profit R&D lab focused on Ethereum and ETH, with the mission of making Ethereum the neutral settlement layer of the global digital economy. The lab aims to accelerate protocol-level R&D, shared standards, and infrastructure where the ecosystem needs it most. Bittensor outlined its path to full programmatic decentralization and immutability, targeting completion within the next 18 months once key mechanisms mature. The update previewed upcoming work on conviction rights for alpha holders, symmetrical liquidity pools (enabling shorting), enhanced validator competition, and active exclusion of non-value-adding teams to reduce leakage before ossifying the chain like Bitcoin. NEAR announced SPICE, a major protocol upgrade currently in development that separates consensus from execution to unlock 200ms blocks. The change improves speed for NEAR Intents and NEAR network, enables smarter execution scheduling, and serves as a foundational step toward Nightshade 3.0 and atomic cross-shard execution. SPICE is expected to ship in the coming months and is designed to support machine-speed transactions for AI agents. Token Unlock EIGEN token unlocks on July 1, representing 4.97% of the token supply. KITE token unlocks on July 1, representing 2.53% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on July 1, representing 3.3% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on July 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on July 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on July 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocks on July 14, representing 22.8% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on July 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on July 16, representing 4.47% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on July 17, representing 27.2% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on July 17, representing 12.1% of the token supply. ERA token unlocks on July 17, representing 44.3% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(24/52) Weekly Market Insight | June Week 22 | Chaotic Peace Deal](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/24-52-weekly-market-insight-june-week-22-chaotic-peace-deal/): Headline News: Chaotic Peace Deal Bitcoin retraced 3.73% last week and is consolidating between the $60K and $65K range, as expectations of tighter US monetary policy through 2026 firmed. The dollar index climbed above 101, its highest in a year, adding short-term pressure to dollar-sensitive assets such as Bitcoin and gold. US equities looked past the move, with investor positioning still heavily concentrated in AI trades. Macro-Outlook: Hawkish Fed The US and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding for 60-day ceasefire, reopenning Strait of Hormuz and continuous negotiation about nuclear programs. However, military operation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lenanon remain active, President Trump threathened to strike Iran if it didn't restrain the proxies in Lenanon. The Iranian delegation walked out of Switzerland in-person talks, and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. The WTI oil prices opened near 2% higher on Monday. The Fed held the interest rate steady, with a notably hawkish dot plot showing half of officials projecting at least one rate hike this year and only one projecting a cut. New Fed Chair Warsh stated the Fed will operate in ample reserve policy, and build 5 task forces to research on potential changes in Fed's communication, data collection and more. The task forces are expected to deliver research results and recommendations at the end of 2026. The probability of rate hikes by the end of the year increased from 48.7% to near 90%. US retail sales increased by 0.9% in May, well above the market expectations of 0.5%. The sales increased the most in gasoline stations and miscellaneous store retailers. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Thursday, June 25, 8:30pm: The US PCE Price Index, Durable Goods Orders, Personal Income and Personal Spending in May, and Final Q1 GDP Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: STRC Price Hit All-Time-Low Coinbase unveiled new system upgrades, including options trading for crypto and stocks, tokenised equities, pre-IPO perpetuals, and more. Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock STRC hit a record low of $82 on last Thursday driven by a liquidation cascade. ECB President Lagarde reportedly opposed Binance’s entry into the EU market in discussions with the Greek government, potentially influencing Greece’s stance and leaving France as Binance’s last viable MiCA licensing option in Europe. Binance has about a week before mandatory MiCA requirement to operate in EU on July 1. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Plasma One went live, offering early users the Core tier free for the first year with benefits including up to 10% cashback on AI, airlines and more on the Platinum card, exclusively open to XPL holders during the launch window. Plume partnered with Bybit to launch institutional fixed income vaults, allowing users to deploy idle stablecoins into PIMCO and CMBI-backed products such as mortgage-backed securities, high-yield corporates, and APAC investment-grade bonds with yields uncorrelated from crypto price movements. Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson resigned from the Sonic Labs board. Cronje said he would be focusing on Flying Tulip, his DEX protocol, moving forward. Secret Network’s Axelar bridge was drained of $4.67 million in an infinite-mint exploit that went unnoticed for seven days due to a vulnerable forked CW20-ICS20 contract with core security checks removed. Dapps Zama launched the first DeFi yield venue for confidential USDC (cUSDC) in partnership with Morpho and SteakhouseFi, enabling institutions to earn yield on encrypted positions without revealing holdings or strategies on Ethereum. Curve Finance launched LlamaLend V2 on Optimism, opening new isolated markets powered by LLAMMA for borrow, lend and loop strategies, with OP rewards for eligible positions distributed via Merkl. Flex went live as an immutable, isolated fixed-rate money market where borrowers choose their fixed rate and liquidity adjusts via redemptions to maintain high utilization and reliable lender exits, with the first yvUSD/USDC market now operational. Panoptic upgraded to v2, enabling any Uniswap pair to be upgraded into a lending market, with the wSPCXx/USDC example currently offering 11% yield on SPCX for lenders and direct borrow/lend available. Hylo introduced its V2 xAsset Engine on Solana, bringing structurally superior leveraged tokens (xAssets) across crypto, equities, commodities and yield-bearing assets with event-driven rebalancing and liquidation-resistant design. Lighter enabled Atomic Orders, allowing users to long and/or short multiple markets in a single transaction for fast execution of basket strategies. Kaito AI expanded its influence mapping platform with a revamped Social Card now covering stock trading, AI and crypto, functioning as a live, shareable name card that users can claim and use to accumulate influence across verticals. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Jito's high speed routing trading exchange, JTX, is expected to be launched in private beta in early July. 80% of JTX's revenue will flow back to the Jito DAO. Base detailed its Beryl network upgrade which targeted the mainnet on June 25, featuring the B20 native token standard with built-in compliance tooling, a reduction in withdrawal delay from 7 to 5 days, and Reth V2 optimizations for lower node disk usage and higher throughput. Aster updated its tokenomics that 99% of daily platform fees are now automatically used for ASTER buybacks and burns, with burns executed biweekly until total supply falls from 8 billion to 3 billion, while permissionless listing fees fund additional veASTER staking rewards. Ethereum research detailed SPHINCS minus, an efficient stateless post-quantum signature verification scheme for the EVM achieving practical ~127K–150K gas costs via keccak256 optimizations without requiring precompiles or protocol changes. Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade has reached the final stage on the testnet. Token Unlock H token unlocks on June 25, representing 14.8% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on June 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on June 25, representing 7.15% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on June 26, representing 30.9% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on June 26, representing 9.01% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocks on June 27, representing 21.6% of the token supply. MEGA token unlocks on June 30, representing 1.84% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on July 1, representing 4.97% of the token supply. KITE token unlocks on July 1, representing 2.53% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on July 1, representing 3.3% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on July 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on July 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(23/52) Weekly Market Insight | June Week 3 | Shift of Geopolitical Risk](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/23-52-weekly-market-insight-june-week-3-shift-of-geopolitical-risk/): Headline News: Shift of Geopolitical Risk Bitcoin rose 3.73% as peace deal between the US and Iran is expected to be signed soon. Bitcoin sustained the price above 200-week moving average, but the trading volume remained relatively low as part of the market is sitting sideways for confirmation of the new Fed monetary policy led by Warsh this coming Thursday. Macro-Outlook: Tolerable Inflation Rate The US and Iran announced a deal has been reached and will be signing the terms on June 19 in Switzerland. The agreement is expected to include extension of ceasefire for 60 days, further technical discussion around Iran's nuclear program, reopens Strait of Hormuz, and lifts sanctions against Iran. The US inflation rose to 4.2% in May, the highest level since April 2023, in line with market expectations. This represents the third consecutive monthly acceleration in headline inflation. However, core inflation increased by 0.2% in May, slightly below market expectations of 0.3%, indicating prices excluding food and energy were relatively well anchored. The US PPI suggested a similar indicator. Headline PPI rose to 6.5% in May, slightly above market expectations of 6.4%, while core PPI matched April reading of 4.9%, below forecasts of 5.4%. The probability of rate hikes by the end of the year reduced from 78.4% to 48.7%. The European Central Bank announced the first rate hike by 25 basis points in 2026, citing renewed inflation risk due to rising energy costs. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Wednesday, June 17, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in May Thursday, June 18, 2:00am: US FOMC Meeting Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Convergence of TradFi Japan’s three megabanks, Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho plan to jointly issue a fiat-backed stablecoin by 2026 through a new consortium. Strategy acquired 1,550 BTC for $101 million, increasing its Bitcoin reserve to 845,256 BTC, while also boosting its USD reserve by $100 million to $1 billion. VanEck launched the VanEck BNB ETF, the first ETP offering spot exposure to BNB Chain. Layer 1 and Layer 2s BNB Chain launched bStocks, 1:1-backed tokenized US securities issued by Binance, users are able to mint and redeem the tokenised stocks with the underlying stock directly on Binance. Hedera enabled real-time streaming cash flows for tokenized securities via Archax, with interest payments updating near-instantly in wallets using USDC as ownership changes. NEAR launched Hyperliquid confidential perpetual contracts trading integration, allowing deposits of any supported asset from 35+ chains and up to 40x leverage. Starknet launched STRK20, a privacy framework for ERC-20 assets enabling shielded balances, private transfers, and swaps. It uses note-based privacy pools with ZK proofs and has a fixed ~4 STRK cost per private transaction. Dapps Ether.fi announced expanded fiat payment capabilities, allowing users to send money in 6 currencies (USD, AED, BRL, EUR, ILS, INR) across 120+ countries via bank transfers (ACH, SEPA, PIX, etc.). Ethena selected Centrifuge to support part of the RWA allocation that backs USDe. The partnership started with JAAA private credit fund as the first allocation into the portfolio. Spark announced that institutional capital held in custody via BitGo can now access on-chain credit markets through structured allocation into Spark Savings vaults, where funds are deployed across multiple credit venues based on predefined liquidity, exposure, and allocation parameters. Ondo Perps opened Public Beta access for select traders to trade equity perps on US stocks, ETFs, and commodities. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Polymarket plans to launch a new high-margin product Combo, similar to traditional sport betting parlays, a combinatorial position where users are considered won if all outcomes in the basket of events are all YES. Curve Finance introduced Llamalend v2, a new lending framework allowing Curve LP tokens as collateral in isolated markets with improved range-based liquidations powered by LLAMMA, launching first on Optimism. Plasma is expected to launch Plasma One, its new neobank app that is optimised for zero-fee USDT transfers. Ethereum developer Tom Lehman proposed EIP-8182 for the Hegotá hard fork to introduce optional, protocol-fee-free native privacy transfers directly at the Ethereum L1 layer. Token Unlock KAT token unlocks on June 18, representing 11.8% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on June 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on June 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocks on June 20, representing 8.71% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on June 23, representing 7.22% of the token supply. H token unlocks on June 25, representing 14.8% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on June 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on June 25, representing 7.15% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on June 26, representing 30.9% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on June 26, representing 9.01% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocks on June 27, representing 21.6% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [The Shift to Modular Decentralized Credit](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/the-shift-to-modular-decentralized-credit/): Executive Summary Decentralized credit is transitioning from Aave-style monolithic shared pools to isolated, modular vaults managed by professional risk curators. This unbundling mitigates contagion risks and is a strict prerequisite for real-world asset (RWA) and institutional integration. Key Market Drivers & Data (2025 - H1 2026) Stress Resilience: Vault architectures successfully isolated the "blast radius" during the April 2026 KelpDAO exploit, whereas legacy shared pools absorbed collateral shocks. Curator Growth: Ecosystems demonstrated strong economic durability through Q4 2025 liquidity events (Stream Finance, Elixir). Curator AUM now exceeds $4.6 billion. Protocol TVL: Morpho V1 maintains >$6 billion; Veda’s BoringVault secures $3.8 billion. Institutional Adoption: Major institutional issuances (BlackRock’s BUIDL, Apollo’s ACRED, WisdomTree’s WTGXX) exclusively bypass shared pools in favor of vault architectures. Strategic Outlook Market Segmentation: Modular vaults capture long-tail crypto assets, RWA rails, and bespoke institutional layers. Conversely, Aave retains its moat in blue-chip stablecoin and ETH liquidity. Architectural Convergence: Aave’s V4 Hub-and-Spoke increasingly mirrors Morpho’s isolated markets, while Morpho Vaults V2 emulate managed credit pools. Future Competitive Moats: Moving forward, protocol dominance will hinge on the robustness of curator ecosystems and cross-chain footprints rather than base-layer lending primitives. 1.1 The pooled era and its limits First-generation DeFi lending (e.g., Aave and Compound) optimized for uniform liquidity via shared pools. However, as the asset landscape matured, this model imposed severe structural costs: all depositors implicitly underwrote the risk of every listed asset, creating governance friction, asset listing gridlock, and dangerous parameter inertia. The inherent fragility of shared pools—where suppliers absorb systemic losses from unrelated collateral—has driven a permanent transition toward primitive-level risk isolation. While earlier market shocks exposed these vulnerabilities, the April 2026 KelpDAO exploit served as the definitive breaking point. An attacker leveraged unbacked rsETH to drain approximately $230 million from Aave's unified pools, whereas isolated vault markets with identical exposure successfully contained the contagion. Transaction data now confirms this rotation, showing vault-based borrowing expanding precisely as legacy pooled debt contracts. 1.2 The lending stack The monolithic DeFi lending pool is being actively replaced by a specialized, five-layer architectural stack, fundamentally redistributing economic value across the ecosystem. FIGURE 1: The Five-Layer Lending Stack The decentralized credit stack has unbundled into five specialized layers, shifting fee economics away from single-protocol monopolies into an integrated pipeline: Layer 1 (Lending Primitives): Base protocols like Morpho Blue, Euler v2, and Fluid compete strictly on minimality, capital productivity, and smart contract modularity. Layer 2 (Risk Segmentation): Replaces uniform shared pools with isolated markets, tranched liquidity, and intent-based loans to balance depth against systemic risk. Layer 3 (Vault Infrastructure): Standardized ERC-4626 containers (e.g., Veda’s BoringVault, MetaMorpho) route capital, manage cross-chain logic, and embed compliance hooks, capturing significant economic surplus. Layer 4 (Risk Curators): Professional entities (e.g., Steakhouse, Sentora, Gauntlet) act as on-chain risk advisors, dynamically managing vaults to match depositor parameters with market conditions. Layer 5 (Distribution Channels): Consumer front-ends (e.g., Kraken, Binance Wallet, ether.fi) own the customer relationship, abstracts underlying complexity, and manages fiat onboarding and compliance. Example Pipeline: A stablecoin deposit via Kraken DeFi Earn seamlessly flows through Veda’s vault architecture, is optimized by professional curators, and executes across base primitives settled on networks like Ink. 1.3 The empirical anchor: vault-borrowing share of DeFi credit FIGURE 2: Vault-Borrowing Share of Total DeFi Credit Outstanding, Q1 2022 – Q2 2026 The structural shift from monolithic shared pools (like Aave V3) to modular vault markets (such as Morpho Blue, Euler v2, and Fluid) is evidenced by three clear trends in DeFi borrowing demand from 2024 through H1 2026: Continuous Market Share Expansion: Vault-based borrowing expanded from under 2% in 2024 to over 30% by H1 2026. This growth persisted through credit contractions, signaling a permanent structural reallocation rather than transient capital flight. Contagion Isolation: During the April 2026 KelpDAO exploit, while Aave absorbed rsETH bad debt and saw outstanding loans decline, isolated vault markets seamlessly contained the risk and maintained borrowing growth, validating the market premium on risk segregation. Incumbent Validation: This transition was accelerated by the maturation of MetaMorpho curation in mid-2024, Veda’s institutional integrations in 2025, and the March 2026 launch of Aave V4. Ultimately, Aave’s pivot to a Hub-and-Spoke model serves as an industry concession that effective risk isolation requires primitive-level architectural support. Part II — The Vault Ecosystem 2.1 The vault primitive landscape Vault primitives redefine decentralized credit by shifting risk from the aggregate protocol to individual markets, isolating financial exposure. This replaces centralized governance friction with permissionless, curator-mediated listings and market-specific parameters: Morpho Blue: The minimalist reference design. Its immutable, highly optimized contracts push economic surplus to the curation layer. Reaching over $10 billion in deposits by May 2026, it dominates the ecosystem and proves the viability of separating static infrastructure from dynamic risk management. Euler v2: Extends this modular logic using its Ethereum Vault Connector and Kit to create highly customizable lending markets, using a V4-hook architecture to let collateral simultaneously earn AMM fees. Fluid: Optimizes capital productivity via a cross-VM smart-collateral engine (powering Ethereum and Solana's Jupiter Lend), allowing debt positions to be drawn directly into active LP positions. LlamaLend (Curve): Protects its bad-debt profile using a continuous soft-liquidation mechanism that replaces discrete liquidation cliffs with algorithmic rebalancing. Together, these designs show the primitive layer has evolved from simple risk isolation into a sophisticated arena for bespoke capital optimization. FIGURE 3: Vault Primitive Landscape — Comparative Table These four primitives optimize for distinct vectors—minimality, modularity, capital productivity, and liquidation efficiency. However, they all reject shared-pool designs, making risk segregation the market's standard. Even Aave V4 only partially challenges this; its "Spokes" act as isolated markets backed by a unified balance sheet rather than returning to legacy pooling. As a result, this category is structurally diversified rather than winner-take-all: Morpho dominates curated-vault volume. Euler leads in protocol-developer integration. Fluid captures the dual-yield mandate. LlamaLend retains its specialized soft-liquidation niche. 2.2 Vault infrastructure: the wrapper layer Vault infrastructure sits above the primitive layer as the programmable ERC-4626 engine handling capital custody, multi-market allocation, and accounting. Current designs trade off flexibility against trust minimization: MetaMorpho: The highly constrained reference model. It allocates strictly to native Morpho Blue markets, maximizing asset security and minimizing contract risk at the expense of cross-protocol routing. Veda’s BoringVault: An expressive, architecture-agnostic framework. It uses a minimal core contract that delegates tasks to modular external components (tellers, accountants, compliance hooks) governed by strict Merkle-whitelists. This allows cross-protocol routing, leverage, and swaps across EVM, SVM, and MoveVM environments (e.g., Aave, Morpho, Pendle). It carries higher trust assumptions regarding curator discretion, but its viability is proven by a peak TVL of over $6 billion across 100,000 depositors with no security incidents since 2024. Lagoon & Aera V3: Focus on verticalization by client segment using Merkle-gated execution. Lagoon embeds native KYC/compliance hooks for institutional fund issuers, while Aera V3 tailors its architecture for corporate and DAO treasuries. As technical designs converge on open-ended execution models, this infrastructure layer is increasingly becoming a commoditized operating system for DeFi credit. FIGURE 4: Vault Infrastructure Comparison As a result, competitive edge has shifted from code quality to ecosystem network effects, institutional pipelines, and cross-chain footprints. While MetaMorpho holds a structural moat natively and specialized primitives chase bespoke institutional mandates, Veda maintains a clear lead. This proves vault infrastructure is a standardized utility designed to support the true value-capture layer: the professional curator. 2.3 The curator economy The professional risk curator has emerged as a distinct economic force in the decentralized credit stack, evolving past the advisory roles of the Aave V3 era to directly manage capital pools. Operating effectively as on-chain registered investment advisories (RIAs), these entities custody depositor capital in programmable vaults, actively manage collateral and market parameters, and earn performance-based fees. This transition validates a structural migration of economic surplus from base-layer lending primitives toward vault infrastructure, evidenced by aggregate curator AUM surging from near-zero in mid-2024 to a $4.6 billion peak by Q4 2025. As of Q2 2026, the market is highly concentrated among three dominant institutional players. Steakhouse Financial leads with $2.2 billion in vault deposits — a 50% expansion in 2026 alone, leveraging its Sky Protocol heritage to dominate stablecoin and RWA curation, while securing extensive integrations across major platforms like Coinbase. Sentora follows with $1.53 billion in AUM, utilizing Veda infrastructure to execute institutional mandates such as Kraken DeFi Earn through a highly transparent, multi-protocol risk framework deployed across Ethereum and Ink. Gauntlet ranks third at $1.47 billion, relying on its quantitative modeling legacy to manage conservative blue-chip vaults, though its generalist approach risks being squeezed by the specialized mandates of its top competitors. Ultimately, this landscape reflects a rapidly maturing, segmented ecosystem tailored to highly specific institutional and retail risk profiles. FIGURE 5: Curator AUM Trajectory, 2024-2026 The Q4 2025 Stream Finance and Elixir deUSD unwind was the first major stress test for the crypto curator layer, exposing stark quality differences among managers. Steakhouse emerged as the leader, handling the unwind perfectly and later processing $108.5 million in single-day liquidations in February 2026 without losing vault redeemability. This proved the layer's structural resilience; Q1 2026 data shows curator AUM decoupling from base protocol TVL as depositors now choose specific managers over aggregate yields. Looking ahead, rising competition will compress performance fees toward traditional asset management norms. A curator's long-term moat will rely on operational latency, bad-debt scorecards, and institutional credibility. As Steakhouse, Sentora, and Gauntlet deploy distinct enterprise strategies, the race to $10 billion in AUM will determine the future BlackRock and PIMCO equivalents of on-chain credit. 2.4 Frontier vault designs Vault architecture goes beyond simple risk isolation, functioning as the foundational substrate for advanced credit products that monolithic, shared-pool designs structurally cannot support. By natively allowing isolated, highly configurable parameters, vaults actively address market gaps in risk stratification, idle-capital drag, and capital-efficient positioning. A critical advancement is native tranching, which splits yield into senior, first-loss-protected, and junior tiers. While legacy designs require entirely separate protocols for this, vault primitives like Strata Finance implement it seamlessly via endogenously priced risk premiums. Lotus Protocol’s upcoming Q2 2026 launch expands on this by embedding connected tranches into its base primitive, delivering the granular risk exposure necessary to onboard institutional fixed-income allocators. Furthermore, modular vaults resolve the yield-drag of low borrowing utilization through productive debt and yield stacking. Because risks are isolated, loan assets themselves can be yield-bearing, guaranteeing a return floor. Lotus Protocol exemplifies this by backing LotusUSD with WisdomTree’s WTGXX fund—tokenizing over $857 million in US Treasuries for instant settlement. This flexibility allows curators to permissionlessly deploy yield-bearing assets (sUSDe, sBUIDL) and structured instruments like Pendle principal tokens (PTs) or Rysk options without the rigid governance bottlenecks of shared pools. Finally, this infrastructure supports a rapidly growing ecosystem of leveraged routers. Protocols like Contango, Gearbox V3, and Summer.fi package complex carry, looping, and synthetic positions by consuming vault infrastructure as a backend utility. Competing heavily on automation and gas efficiency, these consumer-facing routers are currently driving faster TVL growth than direct curated-vault deposits. 2.5 Vaults as the institutional and RWA rail Institutional DeFi credit adoption is converging exclusively on curated vault architectures, the only structures capable of meeting institutional RWA requirements: market-level KYC, jurisdictional gating, bespoke NAV oracles, non-atomic liquidations, and highly customized risk parameters. Legacy shared-pool designs are fundamentally incompatible with these constraints. Even Aave’s V4 Hub-and-Spoke model acknowledges this by layering isolated structures atop shared liquidity. Empirical data from 2025–2026 confirms the shift — every major RWA credit deployment has used vault infrastructure. Key examples include Kamino’s $1B RWA deposits, Grove’s $1B allocation into the Janus Henderson Anemoy JAAA Fund, and Fasanara’s rapid scale-up under Steakhouse curation. This unbundling has produced a standardized five-layer “DeFi Mullet” architecture: regulated front-ends manage customer relationships and compliance above non-custodial vaults with programmatic hooks; professional risk curators dynamically allocate capital into core lending primitives secured by a basal settlement chain. The model is already in production. Kraken routes retail deposits through Veda vaults managed by Sentora and Chaos Labs, while Coinbase uses Morpho Blue and Steakhouse-curated vaults on Base for billions in collateral. This layered, modular framework is not a workaround — it is the definitive production architecture for institutional DeFi. 2.6 Cross-chain credit coordination Vault architectures unlock cross-chain credit coordination — a capability structurally blocked by the rigid balance sheets of traditional shared pools. By isolating markets into discrete containers, vaults eliminate bridging friction and security risks. This answers a massive institutional demand: the ability to hold premium collateral on Ethereum mainnet while seamlessly borrowing capital across high-throughput Layer-2s or alternative Layer-1s. Two distinct implementations are competing for this market: Intent-Based Extensions: Protocols like Morpho V2 use intent-based solver networks to enable cross-chain borrowing without bridging underlying assets—a strategy conceptually shared by Aave V4’s Hub-and-Spoke model. Native Cross-Chain Markets: Infrastructure like Soul Labs (in testnet as of Q2 2026) treats cross-chain coordination as its core primitive, reconciling multi-chain supply and borrowing positions through a specialized messaging layer instead of retrofitting single-chain designs. Ultimately, vault architecture serves as the mandatory substrate for modern credit. Emerging primitive innovations are not alternatives to vaults; they are advanced evolutions, expanding basic supply-borrow mechanics into highly expressive, bespoke credit surfaces. Part III — Next-Generation Primitive Innovations 3.0 Three bets on the next primitive Intent-Based Pricing: Protocols like Morpho V2 are abandoning rigid, utilization-based interest rate curves in favor of intent-based marketplaces. Lenders and borrowers negotiate terms directly, allowing a true market-clearing rate to emerge natively instead of through algorithmic parameterization. Oracle-Less Markets: To integrate long-tail assets, Jupiter Offerbook bypasses continuous oracle dependencies via a peer-to-peer orderbook design. This unlocks credit markets for illiquid tokens, LP positions, and complex RWAs previously barred by oracle bottlenecks. Dual-Yield Collateral: To maximize capital efficiency, protocols like Fluid and Euler (via EulerSwap) enable deposited collateral to simultaneously function as active AMM liquidity. Capital earns trading fees alongside baseline borrowing interest, structural elevating yields without token subsidies. 3.1 Intent-based lending: Morpho V2 The intent-based architecture replaces formulaic utilization curves with a credit marketplace. Instead of pooling capital, lenders and borrowers post specific intents (amount, rate, maturity, collateral, access conditions) matched off-chain and settled on-chain. Loans function as zero-coupon bonds: lenders buy claims at a discount and redeem at par upon maturity. The definitive model is Morpho Midnight (announced via whitepaper in late May 2026). Midnight is a distinct paradigm rather than a replacement for Morpho Blue. They run concurrently under Vaults V2: Blue handles variable-rate liquidity, while Midnight serves as the fixed-rate, fixed-term credit layer. Four Core Properties Zero Locked Capital: Offers source liquidity only at settlement. Unmatched capital earns yield elsewhere until matched, eliminating the idle-capital opportunity costs typical of order-driven credit markets. Zero-Coupon Structure: Loans feature fixed rates and fixed terms. This bond-like structure enables precise interest-rate hedging, secondary market trading, and compliance with institutional fixed-income mandates. Externalized Risk & Rates: Midnight lacks an inherent interest-rate model. Rates are purely market-discovered; risk assessment and pricing are externalized entirely to participants. Isolated, Configurable Markets: Anyone can permissionlessly launch isolated markets with arbitrary or multi-collateral assets and optional compliance gates. If liquidation fails, bad debt is haircut proportionally from affected lenders rather than absorbed by a protocol reserve. Key Fragilities Matching Depth: Order-driven credit requires overlapping size, tenor, collateral, and rate demands. Unmatched volume causes efficiency losses, a risk amplified in longer or bespoke maturities. Solver Centralization: While the off-chain matching layer is theoretically permissionless, the operational overhead favors a consolidated group of well-resourced operators, mirroring centralization trends seen in intent-based spot trading. FIGURE 6: Morpho V2-to-V1 TVL 3.2 Orderbook lending: Jupiter Offerbook The orderbook-based lending model offers an alternate path to bespoke configurability, matching counterparties through explicit on-chain bid-offer placement rather than off-chain solvers. The primary production case is Jupiter Offerbook on Solana (following its late-2025 acquisition of Rain.fi). Operating as a peer-to-peer money market, it enables time-based loans against any asset without price-based liquidations, bridging the credit gap for non-standard collateral. A defining advantage is the complete decoupling from continuous oracle price feeds. Because borrowers follow a fixed repayment schedule and positions liquidate based on maturity rather than price thresholds, the design removes oracle risks. This isolates credit risk at the individual lender level, unlocking borrowing capacity for niche tokens, illiquid LP positions, and unpriced RWAs. Ecosystem Integration & Institutional Adoption The Bi-Focal Credit Stack: Offerbook sits alongside Jupiter Lend (built on Fluid technology), which uses tick-based liquidity to handle blue-chip, oracle-priced collateral. While Lend optimizes for highly liquid assets, Offerbook captures the oracle-less long-tail. The Curator Economy: This infrastructure is accelerating institutional adoption on Solana. In mid-May 2026, Bitwise entered the ecosystem as a curator, partnering with Jupiter, Ethena, and Fluid to manage an isolated lending market for USDe, mirroring the popular Ethereum vault-curator-distribution layer. Key Operational Trade-Offs Fragmented Matching Depth: Forcing exact matching on size, tenor, collateral, and rate introduces structural friction compared to automated, pooled liquidity. Terminal Non-Recourse Credit Risk: Settling via fixed time maturity eliminates oracle manipulation vectors but leaves lenders exposed to terminal asset depreciation. If the underlying collateral falls below the loan principal at maturity, the lender's only recourse is seizing the devalued asset. FIGURE 7: Jupiter Lend vs Offerbook 3.3 Dual-yield architectures: Fluid and EulerSwap The third major evolution in decentralized credit has unlocked a structural yield opportunity by allowing collateral to simultaneously function as active automated market maker (AMM) liquidity. This "dual-yield" mechanism doubles the productive capacity of underlying capital, enabling assets to seamlessly capture both lending interest and DEX trading fees. Crucially, this generates a compounded baseline yield without introducing the tail-risks associated with synthetic leverage. Fluid (Smart Collateral & Debt): Fluid currently offers the cleanest production environment for executing this strategy. By requiring isolated market structures, it allows users to exercise position-level discretion. Yield seekers can route deposits directly into paired DEX pools or draw borrowed assets into liquidity provider (LP) positions to completely offset borrowing costs, effectively creating positive carry loops. Furthermore, Fluid’s integration with Jupiter Lend has introduced tick-based liquidity that enables single-transaction liquidations. For yield strategists, this translates to industry-leading loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and minimal liquidation penalties, allowing for tighter, more capital-efficient position management. Euler v2 (EulerSwap): A modular analogue exists in EulerSwap, which leverages Uniswap V4 hooks to deploy lending collateral directly into concentrated liquidity positions. While Fluid acts as a dedicated dual-yield primitive, EulerSwap’s modularity provides highly customizable yield routing. The simultaneous maturation of both models indicates that dual-yield looping is no longer a fringe design choice, but an established structural category for tier-one DeFi yield generation. While the capital efficiency is unparalleled, this yield profile demands sophisticated risk management regarding liquidations. Because AMM collateral exists across a dynamic price curve rather than a static point, liquidating distressed debt requires unwinding the LP position prior to auctioning the asset. For institutional allocators and yield farmers, this multi-step settlement introduces critical slippage risks during periods of high market velocity. Although both Fluid and EulerSwap have engineered robust technical mitigations, the tail-risk profile of dual-yield liquidations remains largely untested against severe, cascading market shocks. Consequently, yield strategies in these protocols should be size-adjusted for liquidity depth and monitored closely during high-volatility events. FIGURE 8: Blended APY vs Lending-Only or DEX-only APY for USDC 3.4 Three bets compared Despite differences across intent-based, orderbook, and dual-yield architectures, a structural convergence is underway: all reject legacy shared pools in favor of isolated vault primitives that scale via curator economies. However, accelerating composability forces these models into direct conflict. Morpho V2’s flexible, oracle-less markets actively encroach on Jupiter Offerbook’s territory, while utilizing a Fluid liquidity position as collateral for a Morpho intent fractures value capture between the underlying yield primitive and the external execution venue. The Aave V4 Hub-and-Spoke Challenge This market fragmentation directly challenges Aave V4’s Hub-and-Spoke model, which attempts to absorb these decentralized innovations back into a shared-liquidity network (routing isolated Spoke risk parameters into a centralized Liquidity Hub). Aave’s capacity to internalize these paradigms is fundamentally uneven: The Fit: Dual-yield mechanisms integrate naturally into isolated Spokes, inheriting Aave’s massive unified liquidity layer from day one. The Friction: Intent-based pricing intrinsically contradicts unified balance sheets, as it relies on off-chain discovery over pool-wide utilization formulas. The Incompatibility: Time-based, oracle-less orderbook lending completely breaks the liquidation invariants required to keep a central liquidity hub solvent. The defining question for this credit cycle is whether Aave V4’s hub-and-spoke abstraction can secure its institutional mandate on safety and shared liquidity alone, or if smart capital will inevitably migrate toward advanced, specialized intent and orderbook primitives that monolithic frameworks are structurally incapable of hosting. Part IV — The Counter-Thesis and the Verdict 4.0 Why Aave V4 is the only serious counter Aave V4 launched on Ethereum on March 30, 2026, introducing a Hub-and-Spoke architecture to counter the rise of isolated vault models and bridge crypto lending with structured credit and tokenized RWA. This design aims to solve the trade-off between market expansion and liquidity fragmentation. By centralizing capital in a unified Hub while enforcing independent risk parameters within isolated Spokes, Aave V4 attempts to combine the customizability of isolated vaults with the deep capital efficiency of shared liquidity pools. The ultimate question is whether this hybrid model can successfully deliver on both fronts or if it introduces new operational risks avoided by pure vault architectures. 4.1 The Hub-and-Spoke architecture Aave V4’s core breakthrough is the decoupling of liquidity accounting from market logic. Capital is centralized within a unified Liquidity Hub (a shared balance sheet), while specialized Spokes dictate individual collateral rules, risk parameters, and liquidation mechanisms. This allows a single capital pool to service diverse lending environments without fracturing liquidity. Key Upgrades over V3 Unified Accounting & Risk Segregation: The Hub manages overarching accounting and enforces strict borrow limits per Spoke. Dynamic Risk Pricing: An overhauled liquidation engine introduces Spoke-specific risk premiums, ensuring borrowing rates accurately reflect each market's distinct risk profile. Bespoke Customization: Developers can build isolated environments with custom oracles, interest rate curves, or access controls without the typical friction of bootstrapping new pools. Structurally, a Spoke functions like an isolated vault, but instead of relying on direct depositors, it draws from the protocol-wide liquidity of the Hub. This hybrid design is tailor-made for institutional onboarding—including tokenized RWAs, structured credit lines, and KYC-gated environments. The core thesis is that institutional players will favor the deep capital efficiency and diversification of the Hub over the minor configurability edge of fully isolated primitives. FIGURE 9: Aave V4 Hub Categorisation and V4 Ratio to Total Aave TVL 5.0 Risks to the vault thesis While isolated vaults offer flexibility, they suffer from capital fragmentation and severe cold-start friction. In contrast, new Aave V4 Spokes draw from a deeply capitalized Hub from day one, providing instant depth for institutional borrowers. Ultimately, markets will likely segment: Aave’s Hub will dominate blue-chip liquidity, while curated vaults capture long-tail and RWA allocations where customization matters more than immediate depth. Additionally, outsourcing risk management to an isolated curation layer introduces vulnerabilities. It creates curator concentration — forms an oligopoly of risk-firm gatekeepers — and amplifies oracle risks via unvetted pricing feeds. It also increases user complexity, forcing depositors to underwrite individual curator track records and bad-debt history, a fundamental risk that distribution-layer integrations merely shift rather than eliminate. 6.0 Verdict and outlook The unbundling of decentralized credit has established a standardized five-layer technology stack, shifting value capture from base primitives up to the vault, curation, and distribution layers. Rather than a winner-take-all outcome, this evolution creates a split market equilibrium: Isolated Vaults: Will dominate long-tail assets, RWAs, and institutional sectors requiring bespoke risk parameters, custom oracles, and compliance hooks. Aave V4 (Hub-and-Spoke): Will remain the superior architecture for depth-sensitive, blue-chip stablecoin and ETH credit, eliminating cold-start liquidity friction. Next-Phase Catalysts Institutional RWAs: Under regulatory frameworks like MiCA and the CLARITY Act, the bottleneck shifts from technical limitations to asset origination and distribution. Curator Consolidation: The risk-management layer is consolidating. Institutional capital is flowing to dominant incumbents like Steakhouse, Sentora, and Gauntlet, forming a high-barrier oligopoly. Cross-Chain Credit: Infrastructure is moving from testnets to production, allowing seamless collateral routing across fragmented execution layers. Ultimately, this five-layer stack standardizes the "DeFi mullet" paradigm—institutional compliance on top, permissionless rails on the bottom—across the US, EU, and global jurisdictions. The legacy shared-pool era has given way to a highly expressive, multi-layered credit ecosystem ready for scale.
- [(22/52) Weekly Market Insight | June Week 2 | New-Low in 2026](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/22-52-weekly-market-insight-june-week-2-new-low-in-2026/): Headline News: New-Low in 2026 Bitcoin's price once plummeted 20% to sub-$60,000, reaching a 20-month low and triggering over $7 billion in market liquidations last week, the highest volume since last October. Spot Bitcoin ETFs seeing a record-breaking four consecutive weeks of billion-dollar net outflows, totaling roughly $5.4 billion. Market sentiment was further dampened by Strategy's liquidation of 32 BTC, its first sale since 2022, to fund an STRC dividend payout. Driven by these converging factors, the Crypto Fear and Greed index has dropped to extreme fear 12. Macro-Outlook: A Resiliance Labor Market The conflict between the United States and Iran remains a highly volatile standoff. Over the past week, the US shot down two Iranian drones threatening the Strait. Additionally, the IRGC fired several missiles at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, all of which were intercepted. Diplomatic talks, currently mediated by Pakistan, have hit a stalemate. WTI crude oil once surged from $88 to $97, and later retraced to near $90 range. Israel conducted an airstrike on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, Iran responded by launching retaliation strikes toward northern Israel. By early Monday, Israel hit Iran with more counter-strikes. As a result, WTI crude oil futures opened at $93 on Monday. US ISM manufacturing PMI climbed to 54 in May, marking a four-year high and continuing a five-month expansionary trend. US ISM services PMI rose to 54.5 in May, marking a resilient expansion in the dominant services sector and exceeding market expectations of 53.8. US Nonfarm Payrolls jumped by 172,000 in May, marking a blowout recovery in labor demand and overwhelmingly exceeding market expectations of 85,000. Besides, unemployment rate held steady at 4.3% in May, marking a stable labor equilibrium and exactly matching market expectations of 4.3%. US JOLTS job openings climbed to 7.6 million in April, marking an unexpected and sharp rebound from an upwardly revised 6.9 million in March. The resilience PMI and job market significantly reduced the downside risks of the labor market, enabling the Fed to hike rates to address the high inflation risk introduced by elevated energy prices. The probabilities of rate hikes increased from 45.2% to 78.4%. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Wednesday, June 10, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in May Thursday, June 11, 8:30pm: US PPI in May Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Convergency of TradFi and CeFi Binance introduced direct trading of stocks and ETFs, expanding its platform to blend traditional assets with crypto rails and planned to launch tokenized stock (bStocks) on BNB Chain this week. The SEC is developing a framework for the listing and trading of tokenized securities under the principle of “Innovation Without Arbitrage,” while coordinating with the CFTC on derivatives rules including perpetual futures to prevent regulatory arbitrage. MoneyGram launched MGUSD, its native USD stablecoin issued on Stellar (built with Bridge, M0, and Fireblocks infrastructure), now live in the US to power its global remittance network. CME Group launched 24/7 trading for its crypto futures (dated contracts, not perpetuals) and options. Kalshi launched Bitcoin Perpetuals, described as the first regulated American perpetual future, with zero trading fees for a limited time. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Tempo announced that Deel’s new stablecoin wallet with DLUSD dollar-backed balances, rewards, and spend cards for global contractors is now live exclusively on Tempo. Plasma launched live USD, EUR, MXN, and BRL bank offramps for Plasma One, enabling seamless movement of funds between the platform and traditional bank accounts. Dapps Ethena partnered with Coinbase to expand onchain finance and savings products to Coinbase's userbase, while Coinbase Ventures made open-market purchases of ENA. Limitless, community-driven prediction market, launched user-generated markets, allowing anyone to select assets/outcomes and create markets while earning a share of trading fees. Aerodrome introduced Predictive Allocation, a new DeFi primitive designed for more responsive capital formation, higher revenue potential, and efficient rewards distribution across onchain liquidity pools. Exponent, yield exchange on Solana, launched v2 with a hybrid liquidity engine (onchain interest-rate order book + active Rate CLMM), Strategy Vaults, and risk-tranching swaps with OnRe for principal protection. BL Labs launched BharatLiquid, a fully FIU-registered, compliant on-ramp/off-ramp for Indian users to access Hyperliquid perpetual markets directly in INR with on-chain proof and rupees in/out. LI.FI Protocol, a leading cross-chain aggregator, introduced LI.FI Intents, enabling gasless flows, 1:1 stablecoin swaps, compliant execution and more. Jupiter launched Jupiter Forecast, Solana’s first fully native prediction market, allowing Prop AMMs to quote into markets for better prices and execution. Pump.fun launched GO, a bounty platform where anyone can create or complete bounties for any task with rewards paid in escrow, with Pump.fun reviewing submissions. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Zcash found vulnerability enabled potential counterfeiting. While patched, privacy features prevent supply verification. The proposed Ironwood upgrade creates a new shielded pool, blocking old outputs to restore total supply auditability and consensus-rule verification. Robinhood teased "a new era of crypto is on the horizon" with a scheduled reveal or launch event on July 1. Ondo Perps announced the launch of perpetual futures on US stocks, ETFs, and commodities on June 9. The TON ecosystem announced the rebranding of its native token from TON to Gram (network name unchanged), with wallets, infrastructure, and apps updating over the next three weeks. SpaceX IPO will be launched on June 12. The existing Pre-IPO contracts are traded at approximately $1.7 trillion in market value. The FIFA World Cup will be kicked off on June 11. Token Unlock FHE token unlocks on June 10, representing 7.09% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on June 10, representing 23% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on June 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on June 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on June 16, representing 19.9% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on June 18, representing 11.8% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on June 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on June 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocks on June 20, representing 8.71% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on June 23, representing 7.22% of the token supply. H token unlocks on June 25, representing 14.8% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on June 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on June 25, representing 7.15% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on June 26, representing 30.9% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on June 26, representing 9.01% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(21/52) Weekly Market Insight | June Week 1 | Lowest Monthly Volumes in Near 2 Years](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/21-52-weekly-market-insight-june-week-1-lowest-monthly-volumes-in-near-2-years/): Headline News: Lowest Monthly Volumes in Near 2 Years Bitcoin extended its downward trajectory last week, posting a 4.4% loss alongside a broader contraction in market activity. Aggregate crypto trading volumes continued to deteriorate, dropping approximately 9% month-over-month to hit their lowest levels since September 2024. Institutional sentiment mirrored this weakness, with spot Bitcoin ETFs registering $1.42 billion in net outflows, the third-largest weekly drawdown to date, behind only February 2025 and January 2026. Additionally, corporate accumulation paused: Strategy opted to repurchase $1.5 billion in convertible bonds rather than deploying those funds to add to its Bitcoin reserves. Macro-Outlook: Optimism on Peace Talk Following an IRGC retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Kuwait, the US and Iranian negotiators reportedly reached a tentative framework for a 60-day ceasefire extension to initiate nuclear talks; however, the agreement — and any potential lifting of the US naval blockade — remains pending President Trump's final approval. Iran's President Pezeshkian submitted his resignation, citing the government has been excluded from major decision-making processes and IRGC has taken control of affairs. The US core PCE Prices index rose to 3.8% in April, matched with the market expectations. This expected print signals a controlled underlying inflationary pressure, lowering the probability of rate hikes in 2026 from 67% to 46%. US GDP recorded at 1.6% in Q1, missing consensus market expectations of 2.0%. However, US durable goods orders surged to 7.9% in April, marking a substantial acceleration and massively exceeding market expectations of 3.5%. This massive beat in durable goods indicates underlying resilience in capital-intensive sectors. US personal income flatlined in April, falling notably short of market expectations for a 0.4% increase. Meanwhile, personal spending came in at 0.5% in April, matching consensus market expectations but decelerating from the prior month's 1.0%. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Monday, June 1, 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in May Tuesday, June 2, 10:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in April Wednesday, June 3, 10:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in May Friday, June 5, 10:00pm: US Non-Farm Payroll and Unemployment Rate in May Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Rise of Privacy Conscious BIS began real-value testing for Project Agorá blockchain cross-border payments with participation from major central banks including NY Fed, ECB, BoJ, BoE, and institutions including JPMorgan, UBS, Visa, and Mastercard using a shared unified ledger for atomic settlement. Block’s Cash App began a phased rollout of USDC payments to 25% of its nearly 60 million users supporting Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum. Layer 1 and Layer 2s NEAR launched Universal Send for confidential cross-chain payments, enabling users to pay anyone for any asset on any chain without exposing wallet activity. Base launched Azul on mainnet, introducing multi-proofs (TEE + ZK), Ethereum EIP upgrades, and new performance-focused clients scaled up to 5,000 TPS. Base also introduced Base MCP, the agent's new gateway to connect to Base accounts for swapping, trading, portfolio management, and using plugins from leading apps including Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, and Aerodrome. Sui experienced six-hour outage caused by a crash bug in the new gas charging logic and several downgraded performances related to the incidents. The network has resumed operation now. X Layer introduced Exchange OS, a major protocol upgrade that enables developers and institutions to deploy spot, perpetuals, and outcome markets using the same institutional-grade infrastructure that powers OKX. Dapps Hyperliquid launched canonical prediction markets based on offchain events, with validators publishing and voting on markets via automated newsfeed software. Darkbloom, Eigen Layer's decentralized AI inference platform that harnesses idle verified Apple Silicon Macs into a privacy-first compute network, completed a major network upgrade and moved from Research Preview to Public Alpha with 30–200% performance gains across key metrics after serving over 600 million tokens. Ondo's founder, Nathan Allman, unexpectedly passed away. Falcon Finance introduced fUSD, a GENIUS-ready stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital with a rewards structure targeting 3% APY for qualifying institutional holders and eligible to serve as off-exchange collaterals. LI.FI introduced LI.FI Intents infrastructure for apps, wallets, and neobanks to enable stablecoin payments, access real-world assets, and tap into compliant onchain liquidity. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Aave published an ARFC proposing a new standardized Technical Asset Listing Framework for Aave V3, V4, and Aave Horizon to establish consistent requirements for asset listings, parameter expansions, and ongoing monitoring. Morpho published the Midnight Whitepaper outlining a noncustodial protocol for fixed rate, fixed term credit markets. Resolv outlined its detailed recovery framework post-March 2026 exploit (pre-incident USR at 1:1 USDC, RLP at 0.71 USDC + RESOLV allocation) and launched Vault Street, a new tokenized RWA distribution business line with primeUSD, a leveraged RWA product, in private beta ahead of full public launch in June 2026. Token Unlock EDGE token unlocks on June 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on June 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. FHE token unlocks on June 10, representing 7.09% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on June 10, representing 23% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on June 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on June 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on June 16, representing 19.9% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on June 18, representing 11.8% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on June 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on June 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocks on June 20, representing 8.71% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(20/52) Weekly Market Insight | May Week 5 | Yield Pressure](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/20-52-weekly-market-insight-may-week-5-yield-pressure/): Headline News: Yield Pressure Bitcoin concluded the week largely unchanged, recording a moderate 0.5% decline. Price action was initially pushed down to the $74K level by shifting macro dynamics, notably the US 30-year Treasury yield surging to 5.2% and slightly recovered amid emerging market optimism surrounding a potential US-Iran deal. On the institutional front, spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced a sharp contraction in demand, posting $1.26 billion in net outflows for the week, marking the largest negative flow since January. Macro-Outlook: Stalled Deal The White House indicated that a formal announcement regarding the Iran agreement will be delayed by several days, contrasting with earlier optimism from Trump that a largely negotiated deal was imminent. Anticipation of this agreement drove WTI crude oil down 4.11% last week. The FOMC’s April meeting minutes signaled that further policy tightening and rate hikes remain on the table if inflation fails to meaningfully cool. Markets are currently pricing in a 67% probability of at least one rate hike in 2026. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Thursday, May 28, 8:30pm: US Q1 GDP, PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in April Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Stalled "Innovation Exemption" SEC considered introducing an “innovation exemption” that would allow third parties to issue tokenized stocks without issuer authorization and trade them on DeFi platforms. However, the decision was being delayed amid concerns over unauthorized third-party equity tokens and challenges ensuring shareholder rights on blockchain. Coinbase launched its Custom Stablecoin platform. Flipcash’s USDF, a Solana-native, USDC-backed stablecoin, is the inaugural partner asset to go live on the network. Polymarket partnered with Nasdaq Private Market to give retail traders exclusive exposure to private company valuations through prediction markets. ICE and OKX partnered to launch perpetual oil futures based on Brent and WTI benchmarks, offered through OKX in licensed jurisdictions. Wintermute launched Armitage, a non-custodial DeFi vault curation platform for institutional onchain yield focused on “hard-to-custody” collateral with no KYC required. Deel extended stablecoin payouts to full-time employees across the Eurozone and US (with UK and LATAM coming soon), allowing each employee to choose fiat, stablecoins, or both within a single compliant platform. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Sui launched gasless stablecoin transfers on the mainnet, allowing users to send supported stablecoins with zero gas fees and no SUI required. Tempo welcomed MoneyGram as its first remittance validator, with plans to integrate stablecoin settlement into live payment flows via Stripe. Ripple integrated Prime with EDX Markets to give institutional clients seamless access to spot and perpetual futures liquidity inside its prime brokerage framework, with RLUSD planned as a future settlement and collateral asset. NEAR powered Trezu Confidential Treasuries, bringing private payroll, balances, and transactions to teams across 35+ chains via NEAR private sharding and Intents. Plume secured a Digital Asset Business Licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, becoming the world’s first regulated onchain vault manager. Dapps Lighter launched RFQ in beta on eligible RWA markets, enabling one-click large-position entry/exit with lower slippage via market-maker liquidity responses. Lighter also achieved full ZK circuit source verification by L2BEAT for its Desert verifier, enabling permissionless emergency exits without trusting the protocol. Jupiter launched Metis V8 to solve quotation-execution drift through slippage penalties, JIT onchain finalization, sub-2 slot latency infrastructure, and an optional Rapid Quotation Mode for speed-sensitive trades. Fetch.ai launched Agent Launchpad, the first agentic token deployment platform where verified Agentverse agents can issue their own tokens via bonding curve on BSC for 120 FET, with 2% FET fees and automatic graduation to PancakeSwap V2 once 30,000 FET liquidity is reached. Pump.fun introduced USDC-paired liquidity pools for new coin launches with higher starting market caps of $4,000 and bonding curves of $58,783 for improved stability, fairer distribution, and reduced supply abuse. Governance and Upcoming Alpha BNB Chain tested its post-quantum cryptography upgrade using ML-DSA-44 signatures and pqSTARK vote aggregation. The migration passed testing but produced a 40% TPS drop due to signature size increasing from 65 to 2,420 bytes. Uniswap proposed expanding v2 and v3 protocol fees to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, enabling additional UNI burns across more chains where fees already live on nine others. BNB Chain activated BEP-677, a UI multiplier standard that lets wallets and explorers automatically display token balances reflecting real-world value without changing onchain supply. NEAR announced dynamic re-sharding in its upcoming network upgrade, enabling the protocol to automatically add shards as demand grows while also introducing post-quantum-safe signing expected in June 2026. Token Unlock HUMA token unlocks on May 26, representing 7.28% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on May 26, representing 7.64% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocks on May 27, representing 21.6% of the token supply. SOPH token unlocks on May 28, representing 6.98% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on May 31, representing 22.9% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on May 31, representing 4.97% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on June 1, representing 4.06% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on June 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on June 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. FHE token unlocks on June 10, representing 7.09% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on June 10, representing 23% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(18/52) Weekly Market Insight | May Week 3 | Surprise Earnings Surge](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/18-52-weekly-market-insight-may-week-3-surprise-earnings-surge/): Headline News: Surprise Earnings Surge Bitcoin advanced 4.6% last week, breaking the $82,000 threshold, tracking broader macroeconomic strength as the S&P 500 secured another all-time high. Equities are being propelled by a robust earnings season, with 84% of companies reporting positive EPS surprises, significantly outpacing the 5-year historical average of 78%. As this week's earnings slate continues, broader market remains bullish in sentiment, while the Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently consolidates in neutral territory. Macro-Outlook: Resilient Job Market The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement on the latest peace proposal. President Trump stated the response from Iran is "totally unacceptable". Military skirmishes and the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz continue. Kevin Warsh is expected to officially take office as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve this week. US trade court ruled against President Trump’s 10% global tariff imposed under Section 122, limiting the administration’s use of emergency powers for broad tariffs. The Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal to the US Court of Appeals. US non-farm payrolls added 115K jobs in April, significantly exceeding market expectations of 62K, indicating the labor market remained structurally resilient. The US unemployment rate suggested a similar outlook, held steady at 4.3% in April, matching market expectations. US ISM services PMI came in at 53.6 in April, marginally missing market expectations of 53.7. US Michigan consumer sentiment dropped to a record low of 48.2 in May, missing market expectations of 49.5. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, May 12, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in April Wednesday, May 13, 8:30pm: US PPI in April Thursday, May 14, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in April Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: TradFi Is Entering 24/7 Markets The US Senate Banking Committee scheduled a vote for May 14 on the CLARITY Act with amendments. The passage would merge with the Agriculture Committee version for a full Senate floor vote on comprehensive crypto market structure rules. DTCC convened more than 50 firms through its Industry Working Group to develop DTC’s tokenization service, building directly on the SEC’s No-Action Letter to support responsible digital asset use cases. BNY expanded its crypto custody services to Abu Dhabi via local partners Finstreet and ADI Foundation, initially focusing on BTC and ETH custody with plans to add stablecoins and tokenized assets. Morgan Stanley launched cryptocurrency trading services on its 8.6 million ETrade users with lower fees than Coinbase, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab later this year. Mastercard completed a landmark interbank settlement pilot with Ondo Finance, Kinexys by JPMorgan, and Ripple, laying groundwork for 24/7 global markets. Coinbase integrated its x402 discovery layer and wallet infrastructure into Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, enabling AWS developers to build enterprise-grade AI agents that discover services, execute managed USDC micropayments on Base and Solana with built-in compliance, budget controls, and 200ms settlement. CME Group announced that cryptocurrency futures and options would become available 24/7 beginning May 29. The group also introduced Bitcoin Volatility futures based on 30-day forward-looking implied volatility, set to begin trading on June 1. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Solana Foundation partnered with Google Cloud to launch an AI agent payment gateway that enables pay-per-call access and stablecoin payments for Google Cloud services and 50+ third-party APIs via Solana wallets without accounts or subscriptions. Solana rolled out Jump Firedancer 1.0, the new high-performance validator client designed to boost network resilience through greater client diversity. Base partnered with Succinct Labs to integrate SP1 zero-knowledge proofs as part of its multiproof system (SP1 ZK + TEE) as part of Base Azul upgrade. Polygon Labs launched shielded USDC and USDT payments in its wallet via Hinkal’s zero-knowledge shielded pool. Tempo activated CADD, Canada’s first Canadian-dollar stablecoin issued by regulated financial institution Tetra Digital Group, enabling 24/7 cross-border settlement, real-time treasury transfers, and programmable payments. Upbit signed an MoU with the Optimism Foundation to launch GIWA Chain, the first Ethereum L2 on the OP Stack using the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise. Dapps Circle partnered with Lighter to make USDC the default and preferred stablecoin across Lighter’s spot and perpetual trading, settlement, liquidations, and onboarding flows. DeepBook, Sui’s premier decentralized liquidity layer, introduced Predict, its third composable financial primitive for onchain options, binary markets, leveraged products, and structured instruments that integrate directly with spot and margin trading. KelpDAO, Solv, Re and several protocols migrated their cross-chain solution from LayerZero to Chainlink's CCIP, shifting approximately $2B worth of assets to be secured with CCIP's 16 independent node operators and carries a SOC 2 Type 2 attestation. Jito unveiled JTX, a new self-custodial on-chain trading app for Solana built for serious traders with reliable maker limit orders, integrated charts, portfolio management, and execution quality that matches the chain’s 400ms settlement speed. Arkham launched full prediction markets analytics, including trader PNL leaderboards, position tracking, live trade tape across politics/sports/crypto categories, and onchain activity. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Starknet is launching its strkBTC, a shielded Bitcoin token redeemable for native BTC, on May 12. Ronin is expected to launch as an Ethereum Layer 2 on May 12, introducing RON staking for receiving profits from sequencing, and marketplace fees. Telegram announced it would replace the TON Foundation as the blockchain’s driving force and largest validator, shifting focus to tech superiority with new dev tools and performance upgrades scheduled for rollout in 2-3 weeks. Token Unlock BB token unlocks on May 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. KERNEL token unlocks on May 14, representing 4.88% of the token supply. CYBER token unlocks on May 15, representing 6.26% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on May 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on May 16, representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on May 16, representing 83.3% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on May 17, representing 40.9% of the token supply. ERA token unlocks on May 17, representing 4.13% of the token supply. BANK token unlocks on May 17, representing 9.58% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on May 18, representing 7.55% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on May 20, representing 10.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on May 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. PYTH token unlocks on May 20, representing 37% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on May 21, representing 4.01% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(17/52) Weekly Market Insight | May Week 2 | Backed to Neutral](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/17-52-weekly-market-insight-may-week-2-backed-to-neutral/): Headline News: Backed to Neutral Bitcoin closed April up 11.86%, marking its strongest monthly performance in a year. Despite the macroeconomic overhang from the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, markets have largely looked past geopolitical conflict, with upside momentum instead being driven by the broader AI infrastructure narrative. However, perpetual futures funding rates remain broadly negative, indicating a lack of structural momentum behind the recent rally. Broader market sentiment is stabilizing, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index recovering to 'Neutral', its highest level since January. Macro-Outlook: War and Interest Rate Are Staying Iran submitted a new 14-point counter-proposal to the US via a Pakistani intermediary, while President Trump publicly doubted the viability of the new proposal. The Trump administration formally informed Congress that hostilities had "terminated", sidestepping the immediate need for congressional authorisation to extend the conflict. Meanwhile, the US plans to start guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump announced a 25% tariff increase on cars and trucks imported from the EU, citing non-compliance with the agreed trade deal. The US Fed kept interest rates unchanged at the April FOMC meeting, with three hawkish members dissenting against the inclusion of an easing bias and one dovish member dissenting in favor of a rate cut. Kevin Warsh is expected to serve as the next Fed Chair in May, while Powell will remain as governor until his legal matters are fully resolved. The market prices in a 92% probability that the rate will remain unchanged for the first Warsh-led FOMC meeting in June, and a 13% probability of a rate cut in 2026. The US PCE Price Index rose to 3.5% in March, matching market expectations. US personal income and spending increased by 0.6% and 0.9% respectively, higher than the market expectation of 0.3% for personal income and in line with market expectations for personal spending. The US ISM manufacturing PMI stayed at 52.7 in April, slightly lower than the market expectation of 53. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, May 5, 10:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in April and JOLTs Job Openings in March Friday, May 8, 8:30pm: US Job Reports in April Friday, May 8, 10:00pm: Michigan Consumer Sentiment in May Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Institutions Are Taking Actions CLARITY Act moved closer to law after bipartisan compromise finalised on stablecoin yield, banning passive yield but allowed activity-based rewards. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to formally mark up the bill and push for a formal debate in May. US Congressman Nick Begich announced he will introduce revised Strategic Bitcoin Reserve legislation to codify Trump’s executive order (which can be easily reverse by future administration) into permanent law. Colombia’s largest pension fund Porvenir moved into Bitcoin exposure via BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, offering indirect BTC allocation to voluntary pension accounts with a minimum investment of $25 after risk profiling. Meta partnered with Stripe to roll out USDC payouts to creators in Colombia and the Philippines on Solana and Polygon networks, marking its return to blockchain-based payments after shutting down the Libra/Diem project in 2022. Western Union announced that its Solana-based US dollar stablecoin USDPT is in final-stage preparation and expected to launch next month as an alternate to SWIFT for cross-border settlements. Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to nine blockchains with onchain settlement volume now running at an annualized pace of $7 billion and support for over 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 50 countries. Stripe launched its new Treasury product, allowing businesses to hold funds in multiple currencies and stablecoins, instantly transfer money to US businesses for free, pay anyone in 160 countries via email, earn credits on balances toward Stripe fees, spend with a Stripe card for 2% cash back, and more. Shinhan Card, South Korea’s leading card issuer, signed a strategic MOU with the Solana Foundation to bring stablecoin payments to its 28 million cardholders and expand Solana-based payment infrastructure. SBI Holdings entered formal talks to acquire Bitbank as a consolidated subsidiary via capital and business alliance, following its recent acquisition of Bitpoint Japan. KBank partnered with Upbit and Ripple to test onchain cross-border remittances. Toku, a stablecoin payroll provider, integrated Paxos Labs’ Amplify to offer yield directly on creators’ and employees’ USDC paychecks. OKX published the Agent Payments Protocol (APP), an open standard enabling AI agents to handle the full commerce lifecycle including dispute resolution across any chain. Gemini rolled out Agentic Trading, allowing AI bots to directly manage crypto exchange trading accounts. NYSE filed a proposed rule change with the SEC to allow tokenized equities and ETFs to trade alongside traditional shares under DTC, using the same CUSIP, ticker, rights and T+1 settlement. Securitize partnered with Computershare to let US listed companies issue real equity as Issuer-Sponsored Tokens (ISTs) alongside traditional shares and DRS without changing their capital structure. Prediction market ETFs are set to launch as early as next week according to ETF analyst James Seyffart, after Roundhill filed a post-effective amendment with the SEC, setting May 5 as the effective date for six funds targeting the 2028 presidential election and 2026 midterms. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ripple Treasury was implemented by Subway, consolidating the fast-food giant’s bank accounts from 450 to 350 and bank relationships from 70 to 30 while automating 90% of payments and delivering 98% cash visibility across its global franchise operations. Base onboarded Chiliz and Fan Tokens onto the network, bringing official fan tokens for Manchester City, FC Barcelona, Juventus and other major sports clubs just in time for the 2026 World Cup. Kite AI, the agentic payments-focus L1, launched its mainnet, featuring a high-frequency low-value stablecoin settlement layer, Kite Agent Passport for identity and programmable governance, and native support for payment standards including x402, Google AP2 and Stripe MPP. Dapps Pump.fun burned $370M worth of PUMP tokens or 36% of circulating supply and launched a programmatic buyback-and-burn scheme using 50% of all net revenue for the next year. The token is expected to have a major unlock, 16% of circulating supply in July. Chainlink completed its SOC 2 Type 2 examination by Deloitte & Touche for CCIP and Data Feeds, becoming the only data and interop oracle platform to hold SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 1 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certifications. Obol, Ethereum distributed validator infrastructure, released ObolClaw v0.8.0, enabling one-command deployment of AI agents on personal hardware that autonomously discover, price and pay for services from other agents on Ethereum/Base via USDC x402 payments)with full agent-friendly CLI and one-agent full-permissions model. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Aave DAO passed a governance vote to pause buybacks and redirect emissions until the rsETH post-incident is resolved. Solana released its post-quantum readiness report from Anza and Jump Firedancer researchers, confirming a ready-to-deploy Falcon post-quantum digital signature scheme (compact, high-throughput design). Sui began testing post-quantum stateless signatures on its testnet, confirming seamless performance for future quantum-resistant cryptography without added validator burden. ZKsync proposed its v31 protocol upgrade (ZIP-16), introducing ZKsync Connect for native interop between ZKsync Chains, Stage 1 support for L1-settling chains, and expanded ZKsync OS compatibility to enable seamless cross-chain activity within the network. The Ethereum community is having debate on staking reward reduction. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee stated that Ethereum staking issuance should reflect actual security costs and could be lower than current levels, adding he is not opposed to a market-based adjustment that would also create new yield opportunities outside native staking. While, Lido staking lead warned that cutting Ethereum staking issuance would likely kill liquid staking tokens (LSTs), shrink DeFi, and ultimately threaten Ethereum’s core value proposition. Token Unlock ADI token unlocks on May 9, representing 7.18% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on May 10, representing 4.08% of the token supply. FHE token unlocks on May 10, representing 7.09% of the token supply. RAIN token unlocks on May 10, representing 10.5% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on May 13, representing 10.9% of the token supply. KERNEL token unlocks on May 14, representing 4.88% of the token supply. CYBER token unlocks on May 15, representing 6.26% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on May 15, representing 5.16% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on May 16, representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on May 16, representing 83.3% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on May 17, representing 40.9% of the token supply. ERA token unlocks on May 17, representing 4.13% of the token supply. BANK token unlocks on May 17, representing 9.58% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(16/52) Weekly Market Insight | April Week 5 | The “Worst is Over” Rally](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-april-week-5-the-worst-is-over-rally/): Headline News: The "Worst is Over" Rally Bitcoin once surged past $79,000 and ended with a 6.57% gain last week, propelled by robust Q1 corporate earnings that lifted the US stock markets and market sentiment pricing in a de-escalation of immediate geopolitical risks in the Middle East. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their fourth consecutive week of net inflows, pushing month-to-date accumulation to $2.44 billion. Macro-Outlook: Absence of Negotiation The anticipated second round of US-Iran peace talks has been canceled. The US cited fragmented Iranian leadership, and extended the ceasefire without a future deadline. Concurrently, Iran's IRGC had escalated tensions by threatening to sever critical undersea internet cables in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz blockade is still in place. US businesses started to apply for the $166 billion in invalidated IEEPA tariff refunds, though concurrent Section 122 global import surcharges are projected to recapture an estimated $35–50 billion (roughly 20–30% of the refund pool) . The US retail sales increased by 1.7% in March, higher than the market expectations of 1.4%. The spending boosted by gasoline spending with higher disposable income due to higher tax refunds during the month. The DOJ has officially dropped its criminal investigation into Fed Chair Powell. The closure of the probe clears the path for the Senate to confirm Kevin Warsh, who is scheduled to succeed Powell as Fed Chair on May 15. Meanwhile, the market expected a 99% probability the rate would remain unchanged this week. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Wednesday, April 29, 8:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in March Thursday, April 30, 2:00am: US FOMC Meetings Thursday, April 30, 8:30pm: US Q1 GDP, PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in March Friday, May 1, 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in April Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: DeFi United Charles Schwab considered launching prediction markets tied specifically to financial events while avoiding sports and pop-culture betting. DoorDash piloted stablecoin driver payouts via the Tempo blockchain, advancing everyday crypto payments. GSR launched its first actively managed crypto ETF investing across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana (including staking) with a 1% fee. Kalshi reportedly plans to launch crypto perpetual futures trading. Coinbase introduced Agentic Market as the homepage of the agent economy, letting agents monitor commerce trends, discover and monetise services without API keys. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Canton Network launched a proof-of-concept with Mizuho, Nomura, JSCC, and Digital Asset that demonstrated 24/7 real-time collateral workflows using Japanese Government Bonds. Optimism shipped PrivacyBoost on the OP Stack, a ZK+TEE confidential computing module delivering sub-500ms private transactions, selective disclosure for regulators/auditors, and compliance features. Starknet activated the Shinobi upgrade, introducing native in-protocol proof verification that enables real privacy at the consensus layer for shielded assets like STRK20 and strkBTC. Dapps KelpDAO had fully secured a recovery fund from several DeFi protocols including Mantle, Arbitrum, Ether.fi, Lido, Golem etc and donation from DeFiUnited.world. Arkham launched decentralized trading on Solana, enabling users to track and instantly trade the best new tokens using its on-chain intelligence. Jupiter unlocked tokenized US stocks as collateral on Jupiter Lend, enabling users to borrow stables up to 75% LTV or loop positions with up to 3.8x leverage while earning xPoints. Succinct Labs launched ZCAM, an iPhone camera app that cryptographically signs photos and videos at the moment of capture using Apple’s Secure Enclave and App Attest, enabling independent verification that content is unaltered and non-AI-generated. Aethir powered Axe Compute’s, a US public listed GPU-as-a-Service provider, $260M multi-year enterprise deal for 2,304 NVIDIA B300 GPUs on its decentralized GPU cloud. Governance and Upcoming Alpha 1inch co-founder hinted launching intent-based P2P lending with fixed rates as the fix. Ripple unveiled its roadmap to make the XRP Ledger quantum-ready by 2028. Base is expected to launch Azul upgrade on May 13, delivering multiproof-driven Stage 2 decentralization, performance-focused client consolidation, and Ethereum Osaka spec alignment. The highly anticipated Layer-2, MegaETH, announced launching its TGE on April 30. Polymarket announced planning to launch crypto-perpetuals with early access sign-up now open. TON is expected to drop 83% of the network fees to a fixed 0.00039 TON (~$0.0005) per transaction regardless of network load, with most transactions soon becoming fully gasless. Token Unlock ZORA token unlocks on April 30, representing 3.73% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on May 1, representing 5.33% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on May 1, representing 4.06% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on May 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on May 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. ADI token unlocks on May 9, representing 7.18% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on May 10, representing 4.08% of the token supply. FHE token unlocks on May 10, representing 7.09% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(15/52) Weekly Market Insight | April Week 4 | Deal or No-Deal](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-april-week-4-deal-or-no-deal/): Headline News: Deal or No-Deal Bitcoin surged 4.35% last week, buoyed by market optimism surrounding US-Iran negotiations, while the S&P 500 climbed 4.54% to hit a new record high. This broad-market rally was largely driven by short covering on positions established during the initial conflict, compounded by stronger-than-expected Q1 bank earnings. Despite this bullish momentum, shifting developments over the weekend regarding the US-Iran talks could temporarily cool the market. Looking ahead, expect continued headline-driven volatility as traders price in the likelihood of a peace agreement ahead of Wednesday's ceasefire deadline. Macro-Outlook: Backed to All-Time-High Despite the failed first round of negotiation, markets were optimistic that the negotiation was heading in the correct direction. President Trump extended ceasefire, and announced the Israel-Lebanon truce and substantial progress in the negotiation, including uranium enrichment terms and reopening of Strait of Hormuz. However, IRGC announced the US's blockade in the Strait is "breaches of trust" and reclosing the Strait themselves, further claiming Iran had not accepted US-proposed nuclear terms. Iran reportedly attacked US military ships with drones in retaliation for the US striking and seizing an Iranian cargo vessel in the Strait. Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair is scheduled on April 21. Several key lawmakers had publicly refused to advance the nomination until these legal pressures over Chair Powell and Cooks were dropped. The US PPI increased by 4% in March, the highest since February 2023, but significantly below the market expectation of 4.6%. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, April 21, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in March Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Second 9-Digit Hack in April SEC announced crypto trading interfaces, including DeFi front-ends, wallet extensions, and mobile apps, may operate without broker-dealer registration if there's no order routing, no investment advice, no custody of user assets, and only fixed, neutral fee structures. Kraken received a $200 million strategic investment from Deutsche Börse, valuing the exchange at approximately $13.3 billion. Goldman Sachs filed for Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, offering a covered-call strategy that provides income and reduced volatility for investors seeking Bitcoin exposure. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Solana partnered with Triton One to rebuild its read layer from the ground up into two modular engines, accounts indexing and columnar ledger managed by the Solana Foundation, addressing latency and cost issues in data access. DoubleZero launched Edge beta, delivering Solana shreds up to 28ms faster via a dedicated high-performance multicast fiber network across over 30 metros which are already backed by 45% of Solana stake from validators and 50 subscribers at launch. Ripple announced its partnership with Kyobo Life Insurance to explore on-chain financial infrastructure using Ripple Custody, marking Korea’s first tokenized government bond settlement on blockchain and bringing institutional digital asset adoption to Tier-1 Korean insurers. XRP Ledger partnered with Boundless, offering native ZK verifier on its public blockchain with programmable privacy for confidential and compliant finance. Avalanche powered NHN KCP, South Korea’s leading payment processor, to launch a dedicated Layer-1 via AvaCloud, modernizing national payment infrastructure with ultra-fast authorization, on-chain encryption for privacy, and customizable merchant digital wallets. Unichain activated ERC-7715 support, enabling agents and apps to request scoped, time-bound wallet permissions to execute transactions on users’ behalf via MetaMask Advanced Permissions. Dapps KelpDAO suffered a $292 million exploit across the mainnet and several L2s. Initial investigation revealed the 1-of-1 LayerZero's DVN may have compromised and caused the incident. Post memorandum from officials has yet to be released. Aave protocol suffered a potential ~$230-$262 million bad debt as rsETH collateral no longer fully-backed. Drift Protocol announced a collaboration with Tether and secured $150 million to fund a dedicated user recovery pool and support relaunch with USDT settlement on its perpetual platform. Tether Wallet officially launched as its fully self-custodial mobile app supporting USDT, USAT, XAUT, and Bitcoin (on-chain + Lightning), with simple username-based sends (@tether.me) via a single QR code across networks and cloud-backed key recovery. Circle launched the USDC Bridge, a direct native burn-and-mint cross-chain transfer solution with upfront clear fees, live status tracking, and automatic destination gas handling, no route selection or complexity required. Morpho launched its fixed-rate vaults named Morpho Midnight, a completely new intent-based paradigm for fixed-term, fixed-rate onchain lending with externalized risk and rate management. Virtuals Protocol introduced Eastworlds, a new initiative designed to accelerate humanoid robots out of labs into real jobs via a prototyping accelerator, robot-as-a-service deployments, and real-world data for full autonomy. Wilder World, an AAA web3 game, launched its Open World live, supports WILD as the main currency, multiplayer, in-game items and marketplace. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Polymarket announced its V2 exchange upgrades will go live April 22, introducing pUSD collateral and open-sourced CTFv2 contracts. Optimism announced a stake-based transaction ordering experiment on testnet, allowing users to stake OP for top-of-block priority access under FIFO then stake-weighted rules. World released World ID 4.0, partnering with Zoom for fighting deepfake in virtual meetings, DocuSign for human-verified signature, Tinder for real-person match etc. Strategy proposed paying semi-monthly dividends on STRC instead of monthly to stabilize prices, dampen cyclicality, drive liquidity, and grow demand. Hyperliquid introduced priority fees on testnet where traders bid in HYPE for faster execution, with the fees burned and drawn from undelegated staking balances. Tempo announced development of Zones, private interoperable blockchains run by institutions for business stablecoin use cases such as payroll, treasury, and settlement, while keeping assets locked on Tempo Mainnet for full interoperability, shared liquidity, and compliance tooling. Token Unlock AVNT token unlocks on April 23, representing 7.84% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on April 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on April 30, representing 3.73% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on May 1, representing 5.33% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on May 1, representing 4.06% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on May 2, representing 4.25% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on May 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. ADI token unlocks on May 9, representing 7.18% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(14/52) Weekly Market Insight | April Week 3 | No Peace Deal](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-april-week-3-no-peace-deal/): Headline News: No Peace Deal Bitcoin erased the partial of its peace-deal-driven gains and ended the week with a 2.53% gain, following the breakdown of negotiations over the weekend. Attention is squarely back on assessing the trajectory of the Middle East conflict, potentially overshadowing the start of Q1 bank earnings this week. Macro-Outlook: Record Low Consumer Sentiment The US and Iran failed to reach a peace deal over the weekend, as misalignment regarding authority over the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear development program. Shortly after the announcement, President Trump announced that the US Navy will immediately begin enforcing a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, intercepting vessels attempting to transit the strategic waterway and aggressively targeting any ships paying unauthorized tolls to Iran. The latest minutes revealed committee members cited sticky inflation metrics and rising geopolitical risks as primary concerns. The US Core PCE index rose by 0.4% in February, matching market expectations of 0.4%. US annual headline CPI surged to 3.3% in March 2026, matching market expectations. The inflation rate was the highest since May 2022. The acceleration is almost entirely driven by spikes in energy costs, as gasoline soared 21.2%. The preliminary Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index crashed to an all-time record low of 47.6 in April, severely missing the market consensus of 52. The US Services PMI registered at 54.0% in March, falling short of market expectations of 54.9% and declining from February's 56.1%. US Durable Goods Orders fell by 1.4% in February, a significant miss compared to market expectations of a 0.5% decline. The final reading for US Q4 GDP was revised lower to 0.5%, falling short of previous estimates of 0.7%. US Personal Income unexpectedly declined by 0.1% in February, falling well below market expectations for a positive print of 0.3%. Meanwhile, personal spending rose by 0.5% in February, inline with market expectations. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, April 14 8:30pm: US PPI in March Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Departure of Core Contributors White House Council of Economic Advisers released its stablecoin yield study, concluding a yield ban would boost bank lending by only 0.02% while imposing net welfare losses on consumers and insignificant deposit-flight risks. CME Group announced plans to launch Avalanche and Sui futures on May 4. Binance launched prediction markets on Binance Wallet via Predict.fun integration, enabling bets on crypto, politics, sports and more. Circle launched Circle Managed Services and CPN Managed Payments, letting businesses stay fully fiat-native and access global USDC settlement through a single API. Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the first two stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial (joint venture of Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecom). UBS, Sygnum and PostFinance joined other banks in the Swiss franc stablecoin sandbox. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Solana Foundation launched STRIDE (24/7 threat monitoring) and SIRN (incident-response network) for better on-chain security. Polygon introduced 1-click payments, letting users send any token to any wallet anywhere with easy integration via trails.build. Polygon also launched six onchain FX liquidity pools with Frax, Curve and DFB, offering deep liquidity for BRZ, KRWQ, IDRX, tGBP, AUDF and USDT against frxUSD base for low-cost cross-border stablecoin swaps and LP rewards. Dapps Covenant AI, the largest decentralized 72B LLM (Covenant-72B), announced its full departure from Bittensor, citing unfair governance control by Bittensor co-founder. Chaos Labs stepped down from its Aave risk-management mandate after three years of zero material bad debt, citing misalignment on V4 scope, resourcing, and operational philosophy. Aave's sGHO received a full architecture upgrade to a standard ERC-4626 vault with fixed 4.25% APR. Aster DEX partnered with World Liberty Financial to position USD1 as the base quote for RWA pairs, launching commodity markets at reduced 1 bps taker / -0.5 bps maker fees. Ethena proposed four new collateral additions for USDe reserves on overcollateralised institutional lending, high-quality liquid RWAs beyond T-bills, equity & commodity basis exposure, and prime lending to reduce concentration risk. Saturn launched its public mainnet with its STRC-backed sUSDat at 11.5% APY. Pyth Network launched its Data Marketplace with six major institutions (Euronext, EDI, Fidelity, OTC Markets, SGX FX, Tradeweb) directly distributing proprietary spot FX, precious metals, crude swaps, OTC pricing, fixed income and corporate action data onchain. Venus Protocol introduced the Pendle Fixed Rate Vault, enabling users to perform looping strategy with Pendle's PT on BNB Chain. GMX launched Gold and Silver perpetual markets, offering up to 100x leverage, backed by WETH-USDC liquidity on Arbitrum. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Polymarket announced plans for its entire CTF and CBOL V2 upgrade over the next 2-3 weeks, introducing new contracts, matching engine, builder codes, 1271 signatures integration, and Polymarket USD as the collateral token. Velora (formerly Paraswap) wound down DAO operations, transferring its $415K treasury to Laita Labs, discontinuing 20% protocol-fee routing to the DAO, and retiring staking/governance rights. Arc unveiled its post-quantum roadmap with four phased upgrades (post-quantum wallet signatures, quantum-secure private state, post-quantum-safe infrastructure, validator hardening) to make blockchain resilient ahead of quantum threats. StarkWare CPO Avihu Levy published a quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction scheme that requires no softfork, using a ~118-bit hash-to-signature puzzle solvable via GPU for legacy UTXOs. However, the transaction cost per transaction is expected to be over $100, and the proposal was not applicable to addresses which public keys were exposed. Token Unlock DBR token unlocks on April 17, representing 12.5% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on April 18, representing 8.08% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on April 20, representing 9.78% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on April 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on April 23, representing 7.84% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on April 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on April 30, representing 3.73% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(13/52) Weekly Market Insight | April Week 2 | Tug of War Between Anticipation and Reality](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-april-week-2-tug-of-war-between-anticipation-and-reality/): Headline News: Tug of War Between Anticipation and Reality Broader markets have staged a tentative rebound on expectations of a US-brokered diplomatic de-escalation in the Middle East. However, with active hostilities persisting, it remains premature to price in a definitive resolution. Concurrently, markets are actively pricing in renewed inflation risks stemming from elevated oil prices, which triggered a repricing of monetary policy expectations across major central banks, specifically the BOJ, ECB, BOE, and BOC, alongside hawkish tail-risk repricing for the US Federal Reserve. This shifting rate environment threatens to apply sustained downward pressure on risk assets and could catalyze further unwinding of global carry trades. Macro-Outlook: No Peace Deal US and Israeli strikes intensified on Iranian infrastructure, including petrochemical plants in Khuzestan. Iran retaliated with multiple ballistic missile salvos fired at Israel. Iran also rejected Trump's 48-hour ultimatum for a peace deal and Strait of Hormuz reopening, increasing risks of escalation. The US retail sales increased by 0.6% in February, slightly higher than the market forecasts of 0.5%. The ISM manufacturing PMI increased to 52.7 in March, also higher than the market forecasts of 52.5. The US JOLTs job opennings decreased to 6.882 million in February, lower than the market expectation of 6.92 million. The non-farm payrolls increased 178K in March, well above the market expectations of 60K. The unemployment rate decreased to 4.3% in March, below the market expectations of 4.4%, indicating a relatively resilient labor market. After Fed Chair Powell shared, the Fed remained inclined to hold rates steady and look past the Middle East-driven oil shock. The markets have repriced the probability of a rate hike in 2026 from 22.2% to 0.2% after the speech, and holds approximately at 10.5% at the end of last week. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Monday, April 6, 10:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in March Tuesday, April 7, 8:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in February Thursday, April 9, 2:00am: FOMC Minutes Thursday, April 9, 8:30pm: US PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in February; US Q4 Final GDP Friday, April 10, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in March Friday, April 10, 10:00pm: Michigan Consumer Sentiment in April Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: The Largest Money Market DeFi Remade Charles Schwab announced the upcoming launch of “Schwab Crypto” accounts, enabling direct spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading inside existing brokerage accounts. Coinbase received conditional approval for a national trust charter from the OCC, expanding trusted custody and banking services across its platform. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Polygon launched private mempools, routing transactions directly to block producers via a new private RPC to deliver full MEV protection and eliminate frontrunning or sandwich attacks. Plume introduced tokenized payroll in partnership with Toku and WisdomTree Prime, eligible contributors can now receive a portion of their salary directly in shares of a regulated money market fund, integrating RWAs into everyday financial workflows. ADI Chain, the institutional L2 for stablecoins and RWAs in MENA, launched Predictstreet as the official prediction market partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Dapps Aave launched V4 on Ethereum, introducing a new architecture that supports broader assets and market structures while maintaining Chainlink oracle security. Hyperliquid released its official Android app, now available exclusively via the verified Google Play Store. Arcium launched Umbra publicly, a privacy-focused Solana wallet for anonymous transfers, swaps and yield powered by Arcium's encrypted supercomputer. Spark added wBTC as collateral on SparkLend, expanding BTC-backed borrowing options beyond constrained venues. The Drift Protocol on Solana was exploited for ~$285 million. Attackers used social engineering and durable nonces to trick the Security Council into pre-signing transactions, introduced a fake collateral token via wash trading, and drained liquidity from key vaults like JLP, SOL, and BTC staking pools. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Solana began testing quantum-resistant signatures with Project Eleven, with early results showing signatures up to 40× larger and network performance roughly 90% slower, highlighting the scalability trade-offs required for future quantum-safe cryptography on high-throughput chains. Linea announced its strategic pivot to RISC-V architecture after three years of direct EVM arithmetization, citing reduced complexity, immediate prover starts via narrower traces, and full alignment with Ethereum Foundation's RISC-V commitment for enshrined rollups. Lista DAO activated LISTA Tokenomics 2.0, fully retiring the veLISTA staking model with immediate unlocks for all staked tokens, redirecting protocol revenue to LISTA buybacks for a deflationary supply path, starting on April 7. Token Unlock LINEA token unlocks on April 10, representing 4.31% of the token supply. BABY token unlocks on April 10, representing 23.5% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on April 17, representing 12.5% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on April 18, representing 8.08% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on April 20, representing 9.78% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on April 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on April 23, representing 7.84% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on April 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [All Roads Lead to Ethereum](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/all-roads-lead-to-ethereum/): Introduction Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation (~$250 billion as of March 2026), has been the foundational protocol of the crypto sector since it pioneered the smart contract platform in 2015. It single-handedly created the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem, spawned the NFT movement, and today hosts over 60% of all tokenised real-world assets by value. Most investors first studied Ethereum during the 2017–2018 ICO boom. A decade later, technology has evolved so dramatically—from proof-of-work mining to proof-of-stake validation, from 15 TPS to a roadmap targeting 10 million TPS—that a comprehensive revisit is not just warranted, it is essential. This report presents the thesis that all roads lead to Ethereum: whether the conversation is about institutional settlement of tokenised US Treasuries, the AI agent economy’s need for trustless payment rails, the quest for quantum-resistant infrastructure, or the onboarding of the next billion users, each pathway converges on Ethereum’s unique architecture. We examine the technical roadmap (“Strawmap”), dissect the blockchain trilemma and how Ethereum is solving it across scalability, decentralisation, and security, analyse ETH’s superiority, and explore the upcoming 2026 hard forks that will deliver the first functional components of this endgame vision. Solving the Blockchain Trilemma The blockchain trilemma, first articulated by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, describes the engineering constraint that no single blockchain can simultaneously maximise all three of: scalability (high throughput), decentralisation (low barriers for validators), and security (resistance to attacks and censorship). Historically, blockchains had to sacrifice one dimension to excel in the other two. Bitcoin prioritises security and decentralisation but caps out at roughly 7 TPS. Solana prioritises scalability and speed but requires industrial-grade hardware for validators, concentrating on the network. Ethereum, for years, appeared stuck in the middle—secure and decentralised, but painfully slow at 15–30 TPS on its base layer. In 2026, Ethereum is no longer merely “acknowledging” the trilemma—it is actively dismantling it at the base layer itself. The breakthrough is zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptographic technology: instead of every validator re-executing every transaction—the bottleneck that historically forced chains to choose between throughput and decentralisation—Ethereum’s roadmap shifts heavy computation to specialised “provers” who generate succinct mathematical validity proofs. Validators then verify these proofs in milliseconds on consumer-grade hardware. This single architectural shift unlocks massive Layer 1 (L1) scalability (targeting 10,000 TPS natively, with an ecosystem-wide target of 10 million TPS) without raising hardware requirements for validators, thereby preserving decentralisation. Combined with the strongest economic security of any smart contract platform (~$110 billion staked) and a zero-outage track record since 2015, Ethereum is solving all three dimensions of the trilemma simultaneously at protocol level. This is the core insight behind the “Strawmap”—Ethereum’s newly formalised multi-year-long roadmap. The Strawmap: Ethereum’s Master Blueprint to 2030 The “Strawmap” (a portmanteau of “strawman” and “roadmap”) was unveiled by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake in February 2026. It charts approximately seven biannual network upgrades through 2029, transitioning Ethereum from its experimental era into what the Foundation calls the “Engineering Era”—characterised by predictable, industrial-grade software delivery akin to iOS or Android update cycles. The Strawmap establishes five “North Star” objectives that define Ethereum’s ultimate architectural end-state: North Star Target How It Works Fast L1 Sub-2-second slots; single-slot finality Progressive slot-time reduction via Lean Consensus + Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) + Minimmit (fast consensus algorithm). Institutional settlement in seconds, not minutes. Gigagas L1 10,000 TPS on base layer zkEVM real-time proving + parallel execution (BALs) + exponential gas limit increase. Validators verify proofs in milliseconds instead of re-executing transactions. Teragas L2 10M TPS ecosystem-wide Expand L2 data bandwidth to 1 GB/s via PeerDAS and blob scaling. Ethereum to become the data highway for thousands of sovereign rollups. Post-Quantum 128-bit provable security Replace ECDSA/BLS with Winternitz and STARKs. Mandate 128-bit provable security by end-2026. Century-proof infrastructure. Private L1 Protocol-native confidentiality Shielded ETH transfers, stealth addresses, encrypted mempools. Institutional-grade privacy without leaving the public chain. The Strawmap’s upgrades are not random feature releases—they are the step-by-step construction of a radically simplified end-state architecture. This “lean” philosophy applies uniformly across all three layers of the Ethereum stack: the Consensus Layer, the Data Availability Layer, and the Execution Layer. In each case, the core principle is identical: use advanced cryptography (ZK proofs, erasure coding, data sampling) to shift heavy computational lifting off individual nodes, allowing the network to scale exponentially while the base layer remains lightweight enough to run on consumer hardware. Think of the Strawmap as the construction schedule and these three lean initiatives as the blueprint for the finished building. Pillar 1: Lean Ethereum (The Consensus Layer) Today, Ethereum’s “Gasper” consensus requires all ~1 million validators to individually sign attestations every 12-second slot, creating enormous signature aggregation overhead that limits how fast the chain can finalise. Lean Ethereum replaces this with a dramatically simplified scheme: a rotating committee of 256–1024 validators signs each slot using post-quantum hash-based signatures (Winternitz) aggregated via STARKs, while the remaining validators provide economic security through staking without per-slot signature duties. This unlocks progressive slot-time reduction (12s → 8s → 4s → 2s) and single-slot finality. The result is faster settlement, post-quantum resistance at the consensus level, and a radically simplified codebase that encourages more diverse client implementations—reducing key-person risk and strengthening decentralisation over the long term. Pillar 2: PeerDAS (The Data Availability Layer) The Data Availability (DA) layer’s job is to provide massive, cheap blockspace for Layer 2 rollups. Under the legacy architecture, every validator had to download 100% of all L2 “blob” data—a fundamentally unscalable requirement that tied data capacity directly to node hardware constraints. PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling, EIP-7594), the cornerstone of the late-2025 Fusaka upgrade, solves this by applying erasure coding and peer-to-peer subnets: each node now downloads only a tiny fraction (roughly 1/8th) of the blob data and, through probabilistic sampling, gains statistical certainty that the full dataset is available across the network. This functionally uncouples data capacity from node hardware requirements. Ethereum can now multiply blob capacity, expanding from 6 to 48 blobs per block and eventually targeting 1 GB/s of data bandwidth, driving L2 transaction costs down to fractions of a cent and pushing the ecosystem toward the 100,000+ TPS target, all without forcing home stakers to buy enterprise-grade equipment. It is scaling by doing less work locally. Pillar 3: EOF and Statelessness (The Execution Layer) The Execution Layer (the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM) carries the heaviest technical debt. It suffers from “state bloat”—the requirement that nodes must store the entire history of Ethereum balances and smart contracts to verify new transactions—and a decade of accumulated opcodes and design compromises that make formal verification difficult. Two major lean initiatives address this: EVM Object Format (EOF), slated for the Glamsterdam upgrade in H1 2026, is the most comprehensive rewrite of the EVM since Ethereum’s inception. It restructures how smart contracts are written and executed by strictly separating executable code from data, removing legacy inefficiencies (such as dynamic JUMP targets), and making smart contracts inherently easier for compilers, and AI agents, to formally verify. By stripping out years of EVM technical debt, EOF makes the execution layer faster, more secure, and cheaper to operate. It is the exact execution-layer equivalent of what Lean Consensus does for validators. The Path to Statelessness permanently solves state bloat through two mechanisms. First, History Expiry (EIP-4444) allows nodes to delete transaction history older than one year, immediately reducing storage requirements and shifting the burden of long-term archival to specialised archive nodes and portal networks. Second, ZK-Verified State replaces the legacy Merkle Patricia Tree (and the previously planned Verkle Trees) with STARK-proven binary hash trees, aligning with the post-quantum cryptographic push. The current Keccak-256 hash used in the Merkle Patricia Tree will be replaced by Poseidon, a ZK-friendly algebraic hash with 8x more efficient, enables proving speed collapsing from 16 minutes to under 10 seconds. The endgame is radical: a fully stateless Ethereum where a node no longer needs to hold any state to verify a block. It simply receives each block accompanied by a compact zero-knowledge proof confirming its validity. This aims to eventually allow a smartphone, or even a smartwatch, to run a fully verifying Ethereum node. Layer Legacy Problem Lean Solution End-State Impact Consensus ~1M validators sign every slot; quantum-vulnerable BLS; 12s slots Lean Consensus: 256–1,024 committee + Winternitz/STARK sigs; post-quantum 2–4s slots; single-slot finality; simpler codebase; more diverse clients Data Availability Every node downloads 100% of L2 blob data; hardware bloat PeerDAS (EIP-7594): erasure coding + sampling; nodes download ~1/8th 6 → 48+ blobs/block; L2 costs <$0.01; target 1 GB/s bandwidth Execution State bloat; legacy EVM debt; nodes must store full state; hard to formally verify EOF (code/data split) + EIP-4444 (history expiry) + STARK binary trees → statelessness Smartphone-capable node; ZK block verification; AI-friendly contracts The unifying theme across all three pillars is cryptographic compression: using advanced mathematics (ZK proofs, erasure coding, data sampling) to shift heavy computation off individual nodes. This provides two critical assurances. First, predictability: the Strawmap’s biannual upgrade cadence gives institutions a concrete timeline against which to plan billion-dollar deployments. Second, a century-proof security guarantee: when the lean end-state is reached across all three layers, every cryptographic primitive, from consensus signatures to state proofs to data availability commitments, will carry 128-bit provable, post-quantum security, while the base layer remains lightweight enough for consumer hardware. The trilemma is resolved not by compromise or delegation, but by engineering each dimension to its theoretical ceiling within a single, unified base layer. Scalability: From 15 TPS to 10,000 TPS Ethereum’s scalability strategy operates on two parallel fronts: aggressively scaling the base layer (L1) itself, and providing massive data throughput for an ecosystem of specialised Layer 2 networks. This dual approach is what makes Ethereum structurally distinct from monolithic competitors. Scaling Layer 1: The Road to Gigagas Ethereum L1 processes roughly 15–35 TPS. The Strawmap targets a “Gigagas L1” capable of 10,000 TPS natively. This 300–600x improvement is achieved through three sequential engineering phases: Phase 1 – Parallelisation and Gas Limit Expansion (2026). In 2025, Ethereum block gas limit had doubled from 30M gas to 60M gas, 2x the network throughput. The 60M gas was based on extensive benchmarking and testing, while keep the chain size small for solo node operators to validate and download. Currently, Ethereum processes transactions sequentially—one at a time. EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists), scheduled for the Glamsterdam upgrade, requires transactions to pre-declare which state elements they will access. This enables execution clients to safely distribute non-conflicting transactions across multiple CPU cores simultaneously, transforming Ethereum from a single-lane road into a multi-lane highway. Combined with EIP-7732 (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation), which decouples block building from consensus and extends the validator’s processing window from ~2 seconds to ~9 seconds, the network can safely utilise a much larger fraction of each 12-second slot for computation. Additionally, the Fast Confirmation Rule is expected to be deployed (currently available for testing) by mid-2026. FCR drastically reduces the transaction finality from ~12 minutes to 12 seconds by utilising the supermajority of validators attestations in real-time. Because FCR is a "soft" consensus change that does not require a hard fork, individual nodes and exchanges can begin adopting it as soon as their chosen client software releases the update. Phase 2 – Multi-Dimensional Gas Pricing (2026–2027). Today, the EVM prices all operations—whether executing a math function or creating permanent new state—under a single “gas” metric. Ethereum is introducing separate pricing for “state creation gas” and “execution gas.” Writing new permanent data becomes significantly more expensive, while raw computation becomes radically cheaper. This economic separation is what allows EIP-7938 to safely target a 100x gas limit increase over four years without bloating the blockchain’s state database. Phase 3 – The ZK-EVM “Magic Bullet” (2026–2029). The ultimate scaling lever is the transition to a “fully SNARKed Ethereum.” Instead of every node re-executing every transaction, heavy computation is shifted to specialised “provers” who generate a succinct zero-knowledge validity proof. Validators simply verify this proof in milliseconds. Proving speed has already collapsed from 16 minutes per block to under 10 seconds on target commodity hardware (~$100,000). To maximise proving efficiency in the long-term, there is strong conviction within the research community to replace the legacy Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with a RISC-V architecture, the open-source instruction set that ZK-provers already compile EVM code down internally. Cutting out this middleman could yield a 50–100x efficiency gain and dramatically simplify the execution client codebase. Layer 2s: From General Purpose to Specialisation The roadmap for Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem in 2026 represents a profound pivot from the "rollup-centric" vision of the past half-decade toward a "Full Spectrum" architecture. The proliferation of generic L2 rollups created a liquidity fragmentation crisis: over $40 billion spread across 55+ incompatible chains, degrading user experience and introducing bridge security vulnerabilities without introducing unique value propositions. Meanwhile, L1 itself is scaling aggressively, rendering general purpose L2 no longer makes sense. Moving forward, L2s must evolve into highly specialized environments that bring unique user experience that Ethereum L1 cannot natively provide: App-specific or non-EVM execution environment, optimising for specific applications such as decentralised social media or gaming. Ultra-low-latency “city chains” provide sub-millisecond pre-confirmation for AI agents with near zero cost or internalise the orderbook-generated MEV for high frequency trading platform. Institutional chains that could use STARK proofs posted to Ethereum L1 to mathematically guarantee algorithmic transparency (inheriting L1 security) while retaining centralized administrative control over their internal rules. Privacy-focused rollups that provide confidential execution environments. Native Rollups, L2 developers will be able to build "EVM plus other stuff" through enshrined ZK-EVM precompiles at the base layer, inherit Ethereum’s exact security and auto-upgrade alongside L1 with no risky bridge multisigs required. To unify this diverse ecosystem, the ecosystem is aggressively deploying the Ethereum Interoperability Layer (EIL) in 2026. EIL functions like HTTP for the early internet; by leveraging Account Abstraction (ERC-4337) and cross-chain intents (ERC-7683, co-developed by Uniswap and Across), wallets will abstract away the complexity of managing assets across dozens of rollups. Users will be able to execute cross-chain swaps or mints seamlessly in a single click, allowing the entire fragmented L2 landscape to "feel like one chain again" without forcing users to trust third-party bridge operators. Decentralisation: The Unbreachable Moat Decentralisation is not merely an ideological talking point for Ethereum, it is the fundamental economic moat that elevates ETH from a high-throughput utility token to a sovereign, institutional-grade reserve asset. It guarantees censorship resistance, which in turn guarantees the neutrality required to settle trillions of dollars without the risk of state-level interference or corporate capture. Ethereum vs. Competitors: An Unbridgeable Gap No other Layer 1 blockchain comes close to Ethereum’s level of decentralisation. Ethereum operates near 1 million active validators distributed across 83 countries, running over five independent execution clients (Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Reth, Erigon) and over five consensus clients (Lighthouse, Teku, Lodestar, Nimbus, Grandine)—plus several new “lean” clients under development. This multi-client philosophy means a bug in any single software implementation that cannot bring down the entire network. Ethereum has never experienced a mainnet outage since its launch in 2015. By contrast, Solana operates approximately 774 validators across 32 countries, historically relying on a single primary client (Agave, formerly Solana Labs), with the alternative Firedancer client only recently reaching production. Solana validators require industrial-grade hardware costing ~$10,000+, effectively excluding home stakers and concentrating on the network. Bitcoin runs approximately ~20,000+ full nodes and also relies overwhelmingly on a single implementation. Metric Ethereum Bitcoin Solana Validators / Nodes 900,000+ validators 20,000+ full nodes 774+ validators Countries 83 100+ 32 Dominance Client Market Shares Execution: GETH: 41% Consensus: Lighthouse: 48% Bitcoin Core: 78% Agave: 86% Min. Hardware Cost Consumer laptop (~$500) Modest (~$300) Industrial (~$10,000+) Architectural Safeguards for Decentralisation Ethereum’s roadmap actively protects decentralisation through several mechanisms. The Verge transitions from heavy Merkle Patricia Trees to efficient Binary State Trees (EIP-7864), enabling “stateless clients” that verify the chain via ZK proofs without storing the entire state database. The Purge (EIP-4444) eliminates the requirement for nodes to store historical data older than one year. By drastically reducing the storage bloat, the network can accommodate the faster state growth that comes with a higher gas limit without forcing node operators onto expensive hardware. PeerDAS allows nodes to verify massive L2 data blobs by sampling tiny cryptographic fragments rather than downloading everything. Together, these ensure Ethereum’s base layer remains verifiable on consumer hardware even as throughput scales 100x. On the MEV front, Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS) moves the block builder market into the protocol, eliminating reliance on trusted third-party relays. Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL / EIP-7805) go further: a randomly selected committee of validators can mandate the inclusion of specific transactions in every block. Even if a hostile actor controls 100% of the block building market, they cannot censor transactions. This combination guarantees Ethereum’s “credible neutrality” at the protocol level—a property no other L1 can match. Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), via projects like Obol and SSV Network, allows a single validator key to be split across a cluster of independent, geographically dispersed nodes. This empowers home stakers and mitigates the risk of regulatory crackdowns on centralised staking providers. The recent MaxEB upgrade (EIP-7251), which raised the maximum validator balance from 32 to 2,048 ETH, further protects network health by reducing signature bloat and peer-to-peer overhead, allowing the system to absorb institutional capital without overwhelming smaller home nodes. Security: Post-Quantum Readiness Ethereum’s security posture extends far beyond its ~$83 billion in staked economic security. The network is executing the most comprehensive post-quantum cryptographic transition of any blockchain—addressing an existential threat that its largest competitor, Bitcoin, remains structurally unprepared to handle. Ethereum’s Four-Pillar Post-Quantum Architecture Ethereum’s quantum roadmap targets the four areas most vulnerable to quantum attack: Consensus-layer signatures (replacing BLS with hash-based Winternitz signatures aggregated via STARKs), Data Availability (shifting from quantum-vulnerable KZG commitments to STARK-based proofs), User account signatures (enabling post-quantum key swaps via Account Abstraction / EIP-8141), and Zero-knowledge proofs (transitioning from elliptic-curve SNARKs to quantum-safe STARKs with recursive proof aggregation). By end-2026, any ZK proof system at L1 must guarantee 128-bit provable security, removing reliance on unproven mathematical conjectures. A critical and often overlooked urgency is the “Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later” (HNDL) threat. Unlike signature forgery, which can be remediated via emergency hard forks, privacy breaches are irreversible. Adversaries can harvest encrypted on-chain data today and decrypt it once quantum computers arrive. Every stealth address announcement, every encrypted compliance credential, and every viewing key becomes a permanent target. Ethereum’s roadmap mandates immediate adoption of post-quantum key exchanges (ML-KEM) for all new confidentiality protocols, preventing a massive “privacy honeypot” from accumulating. Proactive Cryptographic Upgrades As the timeline for quantum computing advances, the crypto industry faces the imperative to secure legacy cryptographic architectures against sufficiently powerful systems running Shor’s algorithm. Across the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, a significant volume of digital wealth is secured by static public keys, which present theoretical vulnerabilities to future quantum capabilities. Addressing this requires robust, forward-looking architectural solutions that do not disrupt network consensus or compromise foundational property rights. Ethereum addresses this looming cryptographic challenge through a structurally advantageous framework: Account Abstraction. By utilising Frame Transactions, Ethereum effectively transforms standard wallets into flexible, programmable smart contracts. This allows for the seamless swapping of signature schemes at the individual account level. Rather than waiting for a globally coordinated, base-layer network upgrade, which can be technically complex and politically contentious in decentralized systems, institutions and everyday users can proactively migrate their treasury wallets. They can upgrade to quantum-resistant standards, such as lattice-based or hash-based cryptography, on their own timelines. This "ship of Theseus" approach provides unparalleled user-level flexibility, ensuring that the network can dynamically adapt to the quantum era without requiring a disruptive, all-or-nothing cryptographic overhaul. Sustainable Security Budgets in a Maturing Market Beyond cryptographic resilience, a core structural challenge for any multi-trillion-dollar digital asset network is the long-term sustainability of its security budget. Across the industry, early network security is often heavily subsidized by inflationary block rewards. However, as block subsidies programmatically decrease over time (especially in Proof-of-Work consensus), networks must find ways to ensure that the economic incentives for securing the blockchain remain robust, even if transaction fee revenues fluctuate. Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism provides a sustainable, long-term solution to the security budget equation. Rather than relying on external, energy-intensive resource expenditure that requires continuous high-level inflation to subsidize, Ethereum compensates its validators through a balanced, self-reinforcing economic loop. The network maintains a low-block-reward issuance (approximately 2.5% annually), which is uniquely counterbalanced by its fee-burn mechanism. This dynamic results in a net inflation rate of roughly 0.8% annually, notably efficient when contextualized against other smart contract platforms, such as Solana’s ~3.94% annual inflation rate. Furthermore, validator yields are supplemented by MEV and standard transaction fees. Because Ethereum's security scales proportionally to the inherent value of the staked ETH itself, rather than depending on a depreciating external subsidy, it creates a robust security guarantee. As the network and its native asset become more valuable, the capital required to attack the network naturally becomes more prohibitively expensive, ensuring structural economic stability for the long term. Privacy: Transforming a Public Ledger into a Digital Sanctuary The Ethereum Foundation has restructured its cryptography division into the Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE), adopting a “Defipunk” mandate: privacy must be an unconditional default, not an opt-in afterthought. The “Private L1” North Star encompasses three pillars: Private Writes (confidential execution): Protocol-native shielded ETH transfers, stealth addresses (ERC-5564) generating one-time, cryptographically unlinked recipient addresses, and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) research enabling smart contracts to compute on encrypted data. Private Reads (anti-surveillance): Private Information Retrieval (PIR) and Oblivious RAM allow institutions to query the Ethereum state without the RPC server knowing which data was requested—eliminating metadata leakage. Private Proving (client-side verification): Optimising ZK proof generation for local devices, enabling zkTLS (privately proving off-chain web data on-chain) and zkID (unlinkable digital identity attestations). The LUCID encrypted mempool (EIP-8184) seals transaction details until they are irreversibly locked into a block, structurally eliminating toxic MEV (front-running and sandwich attacks). For institutions managing trillions, the ability to execute compliant, selectively disclosable, and fully confidential RWA transfers on a public network is a mandatory prerequisite for deployment. Ethereum is the only major smart contract blockchain treating this as a first-class protocol feature. Institutional Onboarding: The RWA Migration to Ethereum The tokenised real-world asset (RWA) market surpassed $20 billion on-chain by early 2026, quadruple from $5 billion at the start of 2025. US Treasuries alone account for $10 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL fund ($2.6B AUM), Ondo Finance, and Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX. McKinsey projects the broader RWA tokenisation market could reach $2 trillion by 2030, with some estimates as high as $16 trillion. Ethereum hosts nearly 60% of all tokenised RWAs by value. For institutions, the choice of settlement layer is existential. They require censorship resistance (no government can freeze or seize tokenised assets arbitrarily), quantum-proof security (protecting trillions of assets for decades), compliance hooks (the uRWA standard, ERC-7943, embeds legal enforcement primitives like forceTransfer and setFrozen directly into token contracts), privacy (the LUCID encrypted mempool and stealth addresses prevent front-running of large institutional trades), and fast settlement (the Fast Confirmation Rule). No other blockchain satisfies all five requirements simultaneously. Major pilot programmes are already live. Project Guardian, a collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore, UBS, and SBI Digital Markets, tests institutional DeFi on Ethereum. Swift and Euroclear integrations allow banks to use existing Swift messaging infrastructure to instruct Ethereum smart contracts, enabling atomic cross-chain settlement of tokenised funds. JPMorgan’s Onyx has processed over $900 billion in tokenised repo transactions. There is simply no second best chain to Ethereum for onboarding highly-valuable tokenised RWA. The AI Agent Economy: Stablecoins as Rails, Ethereum as Foundation The integration of AI with blockchain is creating an entirely new economic paradigm: autonomous machine-to-machine commerce. McKinsey projects AI agents could mediate $3–5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030, while the AI agent market overall is projected to reach $236 billion by 2034. Ethereum is positioning itself as the economic coordination layer for this revolution, not by competing at raw speed, but by providing the trust infrastructure that autonomous agents require. The technical bedrock is the transition from legacy accounts to intelligent “Agent Wallets.” Through ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction) and the ERC-7579 modular smart account standard, AI agents operate independently with Paymasters abstracting gas fees and Session Keys enforcing programmatic spending limits without exposing primary private keys. The Ethereum Foundation’s newly established “dAI” (decentralised AI) division is spearheading this effort, with Vitalik Buterin’s vision of an economic layer where “bots can hire bots,” manage security deposits, and interact trustlessly through ZK-payments. Two critical standards have emerged. ERC-8004 (Trustless Agents) introduces an on-chain Identity Registry (ERC-721-based), paired with Reputation and Validation Registries where agent capabilities are verified via stake-secured re-execution, TEEs, or zkML proofs. By January 2026, over 150,000 agent identities were minted on this standard. ERC-8183 (Agentic Commerce, co-developed by Virtuals and Ethereum Foundation) establishes an on-chain job escrow system: a client agent hires a provider agent, funds locked in escrow, work is submitted, and an evaluator (which can be an AI, a ZK verifier, or a DAO) confirms or rejects before payment releases. Agentic Payment Rails: The “Payment Wars” of 2026 Stablecoins are the core payment rail for AI agents—traditional card rails carry a ~$0.0195–0.50 floor per transaction, making them structurally blocked for the thousands of micro-transactions per hour that agents require. x402 protocol embeds stablecoin payments directly into HTTP requests: when an agent hits a paywall, the server returns HTTP 402, the agent’s wallet auto-pays in stablecoin, and the request retries with payment attached. Over 20 million machine-to-machine transactions have flowed through x402. x402 itself is free (facilitators might charge fees on its managed service layer) and users typically just pay the network settlement fees which cost about $0.0001 on high performance layer 2s such as Base. Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) via Tempo introduces session-based streaming micropayments. Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) covers full shopping journeys. OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) powers in-chat purchases. Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol provides cryptographic identity verification for agent-merchant interactions. All of these rails converge on stablecoins, and Ethereum hosts over 52% of the global stablecoin market (~$164 billion). As the AI agent economy scales, the stablecoin throughput flowing through Ethereum’s infrastructure compounds ETH’s value as the security anchor for this new economy. The upcoming Account Abstraction upgrades (EIP-8141) and interoperability layer (EIL) are specifically designed to make Ethereum the frictionless settlement backbone for autonomous commerce. The 2026 Hard Forks: Glamsterdam and Hegotá The Strawmap’s first two deliverables arrive in 2026 as back-to-back network upgrades, each targeting distinct but complementary objectives. Glamsterdam (H1 2026) EIP-7732 (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation / ePBS): Moves the block builder market directly into the protocol, eliminating trusted third-party relays. Decouples consensus from execution, extending the validator’s processing window from ~2s to ~9s. Creates a transparent, trustless MEV marketplace. This is the architectural precursor to safely scaling gas limits. EIP-7928 (Block-Level Access Lists / BALs): Enables parallel transaction execution by requiring transactions to pre-declare which state elements they access. Transforms Ethereum from sequential processing to multi-core execution. Directly drives the “Gigagas L1” target. EIP-8037 (Multi-Dimensional Gas Pricing) (in-discussion): Begins the separation of state creation costs from execution costs, allowing computation to become radically cheaper while preventing state bloat. Hegotá (H2 2026) EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions / Native Account Abstraction): Transforms all wallets into flexible smart contracts natively. Enables social recovery (eliminating seed phrases), gas sponsorship (paying fees with stablecoins), transaction batching, and—crucially—provides the mandatory off-ramp from legacy ECDSA to post-quantum signature schemes. This is the single most important user-facing upgrade in Ethereum’s history. EIP-7805 (FOCIL / Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists): Empowers a validator committee to mandate transaction inclusion in every block, stripping malicious or compliant builders of censorship capability. Even with 100% builder market concentration, no transaction can be excluded. EIP-8184 (LUCID Encrypted Mempool) was declined: core developers commented: "one hard fork too early". Cryptographically seals pending transactions until they are irreversibly committed to a block, eliminating toxic MEV. Institutions can safely broadcast large trades without exposing strategies. EIP-7807 (SSZ Execution Blocks) was declined: core developers believe SSZ can be rolled out by updating the Engine API on nodes, instead of network-wide hard fork. A unified binary format replacing JSON and RLP, cutting data transmission latency by 50%, enabling independent block hash verification, and making it much easier to check specific data without downloading the entire blockchain. Conclusion: The CROPS Mandate and the Ethereum Endgame The Ethereum Foundation recently formalised its ideological and technical boundaries through the EF Mandate, solidifying the CROPS framework as the non-negotiable bedrock of all protocol development: Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy, and Security. Every upgrade, every EIP, every roadmap decision must inherently guarantee these four properties. The Foundation has adopted a “subtractive” philosophy, engineering its own obsolescence, with the ultimate metric of success being the “walkaway test”: if the Ethereum Foundation dissolved tomorrow, the protocol must continue to function and evolve flawlessly without it. This philosophy is controversial. Critics argue it prioritises ideological purity over commercial pragmatism, that it ignores price action and market sentiment. But for institutional capital allocating billions into long-duration assets, CROPS is precisely the guarantee that matters. It means no government can force Ethereum to censor transactions. No corporation can capture the protocol. No quantum computer can break the cryptography. No single entity can shut it down. It is the “digital sanctuary” that traditional finance requires to migrate trillions on-chain. The investment thesis is straightforward. Ethereum is simultaneously the most decentralised smart contract platform (1M+ validators, 10 clients, zero outages), the most quantum-prepared blockchain (128-bit mandate by end-2026, user-level migration via Account Abstraction), the dominant settlement layer for institutional assets ($164B stablecoins, 60%+ RWA share, BlackRock/ JPMorgan/ Swift integrations), the emerging coordination layer for the AI agent economy (ERC-8004, ERC-8183, x402, stablecoin rails), and the only blockchain executing a credible path from 15 TPS to 10 million TPS without sacrificing any of the above. All roads lead to Ethereum.
- [(12/52) Weekly Market Insight | April Week 1 | Markets Expect TACO Soon](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-april-week-1-markets-expect-taco-soon/): Headline News: Markets Expect TACO Soon Bitcoin recorded moderate losses last week, pressured by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and a broader correction in traditional equities. The S&P 500 has declined 7.41% month-to-date, putting it on track for its worst monthly performance since September 2022. While near-term Middle East resolution expectations remain pessimistic, markets are increasingly anticipating intervention from President Trump to withdraw from the region, as the US 10-year Treasury yield approaches 4.5%, injecting significant stress into the financial sector and government debt. Macro-Outlook: Threats on Bab al-Mandab Strait Despite President Trump announcing a halt on military operations on Iran's power plants until April 6, the escalation in the region over the past week has not de-escalated. Yamen's Houthi Group threatened to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which handles 12% of global trade. Iranian officials dismissed the negotiations with the US, claiming they were cover for a ground attack, and created the "Hormuz Law" for a formal toll system in the Strait of Hormuz. Prediction markets expect a 70% probability that the US will deploy ground troops by the end of April. Markets are currently pricing in a 25% probability of a rate hike in 2026, compared to just a 1.3% chance of a cut, driven by prolonged geopolitical conflicts and elevated inflation expectations. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, March 31 10:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in February Wednesday, April 1 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in February Wednesday, April 1 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in March Friday, April 3 8:30pm: US Jobs Report in March Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Stablecoin Yield Compromise The CLARITY Act reportedly made a compromise on stablecoin yield, restricting platforms from offering yield "directly or indirectly" or anything "economically or functionally equivalent" to interest in stablecoins while permitting "activity-based" rewards. Tether signed KPMG (Big Four accounting firm) to complete its first full audit. Securitize signed an MOU with the NYSE naming it the first eligible transfer agent to mint blockchain-native securities on the upcoming tokenized securities platform, advancing onchain settlement and market infrastructure. Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) received official NYSE listing announcement, signaling launch is imminent and expanding institutional BTC access via legacy wealth channels. Australia's central bank stated that stablecoins and bank deposit tokens can coexist as part of its $17B national tokenization drive. BitGo launched event-linked derivatives on its OTC desk for institutional prediction market access. Whop, a social commerce platform, introduced Whop Treasury, letting users earn 6% yield on all platform earnings in a self-custodial account powered by Aave, Plasma and Moonpay. FHFA ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare proposals allowing cryptocurrencies as reserve assets in single-family home loan risk assessments. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Bitpanda launched Vision Chain to tokenize EU markets, enabling compliant issuance/settlement for banks and fintech under MiCA/MiFID II using euro stablecoins for fees. Canton Network announced Visa as its new Super Validator to advance privacy-preserving blockchain payments and stablecoin infrastructure for banks and financial institutions. ZKsync partnered with BitGo to deliver a production-ready solution for tokenized deposits, combining institutional custody, wallets, and private compliant settlement anchored to Ethereum for banks. Midnight partnered with Monument Bank to enable the first UK-regulated bank to tokenize retail customer deposits on its privacy-enhancing blockchain, targeting an initial £250 million in interest-bearing, GBP-backed, FSCS-protected tokens with shielded transaction data. Dapps Katana launched Katana Perps (following the acquisition of IDEX), a native perpetuals DEX built on structural/sustainable yield from Vault Bridge USDC rather than token emissions. Silo Finance launched Silo v3, introducing isolated lending markets with protocol-level solvency guarantees via DEX liquidation when liquidity is good and Collateral-Debt Swap (directly transfers collateral to lenders plus fees) during a fragmented liquidity environment. Derive activated onchain borrowing, letting users deposit collateral and borrow USDC at low rates directly on the platform. MoonPay open-sourced the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), a local-first Rust-based protocol for AI agents providing one encrypted vault, unified signing across chains, and zero private-key exposure. Ondo Finance partnered with Franklin Templeton to bring tokenized versions of its investment products onchain via Ondo Global Markets for 24/7 wallet-based access. Particle Network upgraded Universal Accounts with full EIP-7702 support, making any app chain-agnostic; seamless EOA connection, gas abstraction, and cross-chain deposits. Pudgy Penguins launched the Pengu Card in collaboration with KAST, making it available globally across 170+ countries with three tiers offering up to 12% rewards plus up to 7% yield. Aevo launched PERPS+, bundling perpetuals with options into one-click structured products featuring enhancers for simplified directional trading without options complexity. Birch Hill launched an onchain credit facility backed by Groma’s tokenized multifamily REIT, enabling permissioned borrowing of USDC against real estate equity via Yearn-curated Morpho markets on Base. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Balancer announced wind-down of Balancer Labs and kept the protocol under DAO framework, while proposing to route 100% fees to the DAO, halting all BAL token emissions ($500K compensation to veBAL) and an approximately $3.6M buyback program. Venice announced a phased 50% VVV emissions reduction from 6 million to 3 million tokens per year starting May 1 2026 (May: 6M→5M; June: 5M→4M; July: 4M→3M) on the path to a deflationary token with native yield via increased revenue-driven burns. Lido published a proposal authorizing the Growth Committee to purchase LDO using up to 10,000 stETH from the DAO treasury. Aave published the ARFC for the Aave Will Win Framework, directing 100% of product revenue to the Aave DAO treasury, unbundling V4 activation and brand & IP protection, and detailed budgeting compared to Temp-Check. Token Unlock EIGEN token unlocks on April 1, representing 5.71% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on April 2, representing 50.2% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on April 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on April 10, representing 4.31% of the token supply. BABY token unlocks on April 10, representing 23.5% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on April 17, representing 12.5% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on April 18, representing 8.08% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on April 20, representing 9.78% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on April 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(11/52) Weekly Market Insight | March Week 4 | Massive Volatility Ahead](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-march-week-4-massive-volatility-ahead/): Headline News: Massive Volatility Ahead The escalating conflict in the Middle East shows no signs of a near-term resolution, and markets are increasingly pricing in the probability of a rate hike in 2026 due to elevated energy prices. Additionally, massive options contracts are expiring this Friday, representing an estimated $13 billion in notional value, or roughly 40% of total open interest. Despite Bitcoin’s relative resilience compared to broader markets, a convergence of macro and crypto-specific headwinds is expected to drive massive volatility this week. Macro-Outlook: The Middle East Conflict Escalates Military strikes on key Gulf energy infrastructure, including facilities handling 20% of global LNG, have pushed 18 million barrels of daily crude offline. The IEA has labeled the Iran War the greatest energy security threat in history, and Saudi Arabia is warning of $180/barrel oil if disruptions persist into late April. While diplomatic talks remain stalled by extreme demands, Trump has threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by Tuesday at 7:44 AM SGT. Iran has vowed to retaliate by "completely" closing the Strait and targeting critical Middle Eastern IT, water desalination facilities, and energy grids. The Fed held rates steady with one dissent. Adopting a "wait-and-see" stance on the Middle East, the committee ruled out a near-term hike but signaled a modestly hawkish shift, as participants projecting over 25bps in cuts dropped from eight to five. Globally, the RBA hiked 25bps, while the BoC, BoJ, BoE, and ECB held steady. Despite the holds, rising energy inflation risks have the markets pricing in three 25bps rate hikes by the ECB in 2026, with the earliest expected in April. US PPI climbed to 3.4% in February, marking the largest increase in a year and exceeding market expectations of 2.9%. Rising inflation expectations and escalating geopolitical tensions are aggressively repricing US fixed income markets. Breakeven rates now indicate the market expects US inflation to surge above 5% over the next 12 months. Consequently, Fed funds futures are pricing in an 80% probability that rates will remain unchanged throughout 2026, alongside a 5.2% tail risk of a rate hike. This hawkish shift drove the US 10-year yield to 4.38% at last week's close, marking its highest level since July 2025. Concurrently, the US bond market volatility index spiked 19.39%, the most volatile week since March 2025, while prediction markets show the probability of a 2026 US recession surging from 21% prior to the Middle East conflict to 37%. Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Clarity Before CLARITY Act Bitcoin hash rate and network difficulty have dropped 18% and 7% from its peak in Q4 2025. Miners faced an average loss of $19,000 per coin amid rising energy costs. US Senators reached a bipartisan agreement (no specifics were disclosed) with the White House on stablecoin yield language in the CLARITY Act, clearing the final major hurdle and positioning the bill for a Senate vote within weeks. US SEC and CFTC issued a formal interpretation clarifying that most crypto assets are not securities themselves, providing a taxonomy for digital commodities, collectibles, tools and stablecoins. Alongside the joint interpretive release, the SEC Chair previewed a forthcoming rulemaking proposal titled "Regulation Crypto Asset", enabling early-stage developers to raise up to $5M and a 4-year exemption period (start-ups only need to provide "principles-based disclosures"). Meanwhile, the "Fundraising Exemption" allows issuers to raise up to $75M within a year, albeit with stricter disclosure requirements. SEC approved Nasdaq's tokenized securities trading and settlement under the DTC tokenization pilot, initially covering Russell 1000 constituents and major index ETFs. Mastercard announced its intent to acquire BVNK Finance, expanding end-to-end stablecoin payment infrastructure and seamless fiat-to-on-chain connections for fintechs and institutions. Polymarket acquired Brahma, a DeFi infrastructure startup with over $1B processed volume, to strengthen its platform infrastructure and improve the user experience. Polymarket became MLB’s official prediction market exchange under an MOU with the CFTC for integrity and information sharing. Coinbase launched 24/7 stock perpetual futures for Mag 7 stocks and major ETFs to eligible non-U.S. Advanced traders with 0% maker / 0.01% taker fees and up to $200K reward pool. Coinbase Asset Management plans to launch its tokenized Bitcoin Yield Fund (4–8% net BTC returns via calls and lending) as an ERC-3643 share class on Base with built-in compliance checks, backed by Apex Group as transfer agent. Layer 1s and Layer 2s Ethereum introduced a new fast confirmation mechanism offering a hard guarantee against reverts after one slot (12 seconds) under supermajority-honest validators and sub-3-second network latency. Metaplex launched the 014 Agent Registry, MIP-014, on Solana, an onchain passport for agent identity and A2A commerce built on Metaplex Core. Aster rolled out Aster Chain (purpose-built L1 for derivatives) with 50ms blocks, up to 100,000 TPS, zero gas and default ZK-verifiable privacy via stealth addresses. ZKsync was selected to power the Cari Network (developed with five US regional banks: Huntington, First Horizon, M&T, KeyBank, Old National) to bring tokenized deposits onchain within FDIC-insured banking systems. Tempo launched mainnet with public RPC endpoints and introduced the Machine Payments Protocol (open standard co-authored with Stripe) for agent/machine payments supporting stablecoins, cards and more. Sui launched Hashi on devnet, a Bitcoin finance framework enabling native BTC collateral for yield, lending and borrowing with custody partners including BitGo, Ledger and liquidity providers such as Bullish and FalconX. Opera plans to acquire 160 million Celo tokens to become a key network stakeholder and deepen its onchain payments push via MiniPay. Kamino piloted integration of Atlas Collateral Management with Anchorage Digital, delivering secure, compliant 24/7 institutional credit infrastructure on Solana. World Network launched AgentKit, a human-verified automation toolkit built on World ID and powered by Coinbase/Cloudflare x402, enabling agents to register with biometric proof, sign auth challenges, and gain verified access to use cases including ticketing, rate limiting, and sybil defense. Codex launched Codex FX, a new wholesale FX platform enabling seamless fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-fiat transfers for emerging and frontier markets. Mantle announced the integration of MNT with 3Jane's credit protocol, enabling holders to borrow up to 30% of their holdings in unsecured USDC lines based on off-chain credit scores, eliminating traditional over-collateralization in DeFi. Plume integrated with Ether.fi via its Nest vault infrastructure and Superstate’s USCC fund, delivering onchain RWA yields to customer deposits through crypto basis, staking, and government securities strategies. Unichain integrated the full Chainlink data standard including Data Feeds, Data Streams, CCIP and Smart Value Recapture (SVR) for MEV recapture, while joining the Chainlink Scale program to accelerate low-cost oracle access for DeFi builders. Dapps Trade launched the first official S&P 500 perpetual contract on Hyperliquid in partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices, delivering the benchmark 24/7/365 with institutional-grade index data. Apyx launched its markets on Morpho, enabling users to lend apxUSD (tokenised STRC stablecoin) into the Alpha APXUSD V2 Vault for variable ~9.5% APY and borrow apxUSD against apyUSD collateral with a 5× Pips multiplier. Derive launched on-chain SOL options markets supporting covered calls, spreads, volatility trades and delta-neutral strategies. Steakhouse launched its USD Machine on MakinaFi, an automated yield-aggregation vault that deposits once across curated strategies. Flap introduced its AI Oracle, enabling on-chain AI prompts, verifiable execution and tool calling in smart contracts to solve off-chain maintenance costs and transparency issues. Jupiter enabled pre-IPO trading with live limit orders on PreStocks for greater control over entry and exit. Fluid launched Fluid Lite USD Vault, a fixed-rate cross-chain stablecoin product offering predictable 6% APR after incentives with 0.05% withdrawal fee and support for sUSDe, syrupUSDC/syrupUSDT and sUSDai. Perena introduced USD* Junior (amplified 12-20%+ APY with first-loss position) and USD* Protected (5% fixed APY with principal backstop, initial $1M capacity), expanding its flagship 8% diversified USD* product. Pyth Network introduced Pyth Pro X, institutional-grade market data for exchanges delivering 3,000+ feeds across crypto, equities, FX and indices with sub-100ms latency, 96%+ accuracy and no redistribution fees or vendor lock-in. Venice AI released end-to-end encryption with four verifiable privacy modes (Anonymous, Private, TEE, E2EE), powered by NEAR and Phala Network enclaves and remote attestation, ensuring prompts stay encrypted and unreadable by Venice or GPU providers. Tangent introduced USG, a new CDP stablecoin backed by Curve LP tokens and Pendle PTs for capital-efficient leveraged farming, hedging and spending. Hinkal updated its self-custodial wallet with Solana integration alongside Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and ARC, adding public/private accounts, MoonPay on-ramps, Coingecko charts, private-to-private transfers, shielded swaps/bridges and exportable compliance history. Altitude, a crypto neobank, activated a SWIFT transfers feature, enabling payments to any bank account in 200 countries and 11,000 banks worldwide. Chainlink powered the launch of Amundi’s €2.3 trillion AUM tokenized mutual fund SAFO (Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund) with automated NAV reporting and cross-chain interop for its $100M initial UCITS structure. Tally (governance tooling platform used by 500+ DAOs including Uniswap, Arbitrum and ENS) announced its shutdown after six years, citing reduced DAO demand under the current relaxed US regulatory environment. Resolv suffered exploits allowing attackers to mint 80 million unbacked USR. The team immediately paused all protocol functions and is actively working on recovery. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Anza (Solana-focused R&D firm building the Agave client) proposed SIMD-0266 introducing the p-token, a compute-optimized SPL Token replacement that cuts Token program CU usage by up to 98%, frees nearly 12% of block space for higher Solana throughput, and remains fully backward-compatible with zero code changes for clients. FTX announced its fourth distribution of approximately $2.2 billion to allow claims on March 31 (funds expected within 1–3 business days thereafter) and set an April 30 record date for preferred equity payment on May 29. Bitcoin Quantum launched testnet v0.3 with the first live deployment of BIP-360, introducing a quantum-resistant upgrade that hides keys and enforces script paths to protect against future quantum attacks. Token Unlocks XPL token unlocks on March 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on March 26, representing 4.56% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on March 29, representing 5.26% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on April 1, representing 5.71% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on April 2, representing 50.2% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on April 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on April 10, representing 4.31% of the token supply. BABY token unlocks on April 10, representing 23.5% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on April 17, representing 12.5% of the token supply. KAT token unlocks on April 18, representing 8.08% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(10/52) Weekly Market Insight | March Week 3 | Navigate The Volatile Markets](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-march-week-3-navigate-the-volatile-markets/): Headline News: Navigate The Volatile Markets Despite heightened geopolitical headwinds and elevated crude oil prices, Bitcoin demonstrated notable relative strength last week, advancing approximately 10% against a 1.6% decline in the S&P 500. This outperformance was structurally supported by $767.33M in consecutive net inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs. These flows suggest an exhaustion of selling pressure and highlight a growing institutional willingness to utilize digital assets for portfolio diversification amid a high-volatility macroeconomic environment. Macro-Outlook: Largest Supply Disruption in Global Oil Markets The US struck Kharg Island, Iran's major export hub, in response to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly 20% of global oil consumption was trapped due to transit halt and production cuts. Despite the fact that the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced releasing a record 400 million barrels of emergency crude reserves, WTI crude oil price increased by 8.8% last week. The US inflation rate remained at 2.4% in February, in line with the market expectations. The PCE price index decreased to 2.8% in January, lower than the market expectations of 2.9%. However, these figures no longer provide an accurate trend after the Middle East conflict escalated. The markets estimated at about 25% probability the Fed will enact a second rate cut in 2026, well below the estimation before the war at 80%. The US Q4 GDP decreased by 0.7%, below the market forecasts of 1.4%. The US durable goods orders were flat in January, compared to market forecasts of a 1.2% rise. The US personal income and spending both increased by 0.4% in January. Personal income was below expectations of 0.5%, while personal spending beat expectations of 0.3%. Michigan consumer sentiment decreased to 55.5 in March, slightly above market expectations of 55. The JOLTs job openings in the US increased to 6.946M, higher than the market forecasts of 6.7M. The Upcoming Economic Calendar, Wednesday, March 18, 8:30pm: US PPI in February Thursday, March 19, 2:00pm: FOMC Meeting Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: 20 millionth Bitcoin Mined The 20 millionth Bitcoin was mined last week, leaving only 1 million Bitcoin to be mined over the next ~114 years. BlackRock's staked Ethereum ETF, ETHB, was launched, introducing staking rewards as monthly cash dividend in USD. HSBC and Standard Chartered could receive Hong Kong’s first stablecoin licenses from the HKMA as early as March 24. The Federal Reserve signaled a new Basel III draft (opening 90-day comment period) that would keep Bitcoin at a 1,250% risk weight for large US banks. The CFTC issued new guidance for prediction markets, urging exchanges to engage regulators before opening markets vulnerable to manipulation and insider trading. Smarkets, a UK sports betting company, applied to the US CFTC for DCM and DCO licenses to enter the US prediction market sector by the end of 2026. Polymarket partnered with Palantir Technologies to develop an AI monitoring tool (using Vergence AI) for real-time trade screening, compliance, and anomaly detection in sports prediction markets. Paxos announced that Aon, the second largest insurance broker worldwide, settled real insurance premiums in an industry-first pilot using PYUSD on Solana. Coinbase is in talks with Bybit for an investment partnership that could help Bybit in compliance to enter the US market. xStocks announced that its framework will power a new gateway connecting Nasdaq’s tokenized equity markets with blockchain networks through a collaboration with Nasdaq and Payward (Kraken), enabling 24/7 programmable equities trading. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Sonic launched USSD, its network-native USD stablecoin built on Frax Finance infrastructure and backed 1:1 by US Treasury bills. Starknet introduced STRK20, a native privacy capability giving any ERC-20 token confidential balances and private transfers with built-in compliance. Dapps Pump.fun launched Automated Buybacks for Tokenized Agents, enabling onchain agents to allocate revenue toward token buybacks and burns to align with community value accrual. The platform also registered subdomains on Base, BSC, Monad, and Ethereum and removed “Solana” from its X profile tag, signaling potential multi-chain expansion. Jupiter introduced Jupiter Offerbook, a peer-to-peer money market for every onchain asset on Solana (tokens, NFTs, RWAs) with fixed-term loans and no price-based liquidations. Brevis launched Brevis Vera, a ZK-powered provenance system built on C2PA that cryptographically verifies original media capture and legitimate edits to combat deepfakes. Vanish integrated with Titan Exchange, enabling instant private trading of any token on Solana via its meta-aggregation engine. GSR completed the first confidential OTC trade on Ethereum using Zama protocol with fully KYC’d counterparties. Duel Duck launched the ability to create predictions with any SPL token on Solana. Virtuals Protocol collaborated with Ethereum Foundation, developing ERC-8183, the open standard for Agentic Commerce defining trustless Job primitives with escrow and evaluator attestation. LI.FI, one of the leading cross-chain aggregators, released its API for Agentic Commerce, a complete toolkit (MCP server, agent skills, documentation) for building onchain AI agent workflows. Perena launched the Glow Vault, its first curated USDT vault on Solana in collaboration with ConcreteXYZ, running delta-neutral quant strategies across perps and lending for ~8.5% APY. Lido launched EarnUSD, its first stablecoin product offering instant access to transparent onchain USD rewards from protocols including Aave, Ethena, Morpho, Spark, and Maple. Avantis implemented a systematic revenue-linked buyback and burn program, allocating 30% of daily opening/closing/win fees to purchase and burn AVNT. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Aave proposed reducing the annual buyback program from ~$50M to ~$30M, including ETH-correlated assets as part of the buyback funding, and reducing token reward emissions. Aave is seeking community feedback and risk analysis for deploying Aave v4 to mainnet soon. Sky proposed reducing the SKY buyback from 300K USDS to 37.6K USDS per day. Aptos proposed Confidential APT, enabling institutional-grade confidential transactions for payments, trading, and asset management. Across proposed “The Bridge Across,” a temp-check exploring evolution from DAO + token structure to a US C-corp via token-to-equity exchange and buyout. Stargate announced that beginning next month 100% (from 50%) of revenue will be directed to ZRO buybacks. Token Unlock ZRO token unlocks on March 20, representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on March 20, representing 7.29% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on March 25, representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on March 26, representing 4.56% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on March 29, representing 5.26% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on April 1, representing 5.71% of the token supply. EDGE token unlocks on April 2, representing 50.2% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on April 2, representing 5.21% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on April 10, representing 4.31% of the token supply. BABY token unlocks on April 10, representing 23.5% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(9/52) Weekly Market Insight | March Week 2 | $100 Per Barrel](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-march-week-2-100-per-barrel/): Headline News: $100 Per Barrel Following a short squeeze in the $70k range, Bitcoin surged to $74k last week before heavily retracing and surrendering the majority of those gains. Concurrently, driven by indications of prolonged geopolitical conflict, widespread energy production shutdowns, and ongoing shipping disruptions, oil prices rallied above $100 per barrel, the highest level observed since June 2022. These elevated energy costs are exerting renewed upward pressure on inflation and straining fiscal budgets, which has injected further uncertainty into future monetary policy and driven a pervasive risk-off sentiment across broader markets. Macro-Outlook: The US ISM manufacturing PMI slipped to 52.4 in February, above market expectations of 51.8. Meanwhile, ISM services PMI surged to 56.1, well above market expectation of 53.5. The US non-farm payrolls decreased by 92K in February, much worse than the forecasts of a 59K gain. The unemployment rate also rose to 4.4% in February, above the market expectations of 4.3%. The market estimates about 48% probability that the first rate cut will happen in June. President Trump explicitly stated the goals of the campaign are regime change, the complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and "unconditional surrender." At least seven major countries in the Middle East have been forced to halt, suspend, or significantly cut their oil and natural gas production. The Strait of Hormuz has effectively shut down despite the US announced plans to protect commercial shipping. WTI crude surged beyond $100 per barrel. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Wednesday, March 11, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in February Friday, March 13, 8:30pm: US PCE, Durable Goods Orders, Personal Income and Personal Spending in January and Q4 GDP Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Convergence of Crypto Exchanges and TradFi JPMorgan Chase released a report forecasting the CLARITY Act could pass by mid-2026, providing regulatory clarity, boosting tokenization, and accelerating institutional adoption. FDIC, Federal Reserve, and OCC jointly issued guidance that tokenized securities receive the same capital treatment as non-tokenized equivalents under bank rules. Kazakhstan's central bank announced plans to invest up to $350 million in cryptocurrency assets and related companies starting April-May 2026. Nasdaq followed Cboe by exploring binary bets and prediction-style contracts as prediction market activity surges on Wall Street. Kraken Financial received a Federal Reserve master account, becoming the first digital asset bank with direct access to the US payments system. OKX announced a strategic relationship with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), including direct investment, board seat, licensing of OKX spot prices for US futures, and access to ICE futures/NYSE tokenized equities for 120 million users. Coinbase introduced Token Manager, a new tool for automated vesting, lockups, bulk distributions, tax withholding, and document workflows. Crossmint partnered with Western Union to bring USDPT stablecoin on Solana to millions of users via 360,000+ global on/off-ramps. Kalshi launched the first-ever luxury watch market in partnership with Bezel, allowing users to trade watch price movements without ownership. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Solana introduced Agent Registry, the Solana implementation of ERC-8004, providing verified identity, reputation, and validation registries for AI agents with native onchain track records. Polygon released the Polygon Agent CLI, an end-to-end toolkit for agents including session-scoped wallets, cross-chain bridging, and ERC-8004 identity support. Sui Sentinel launched the world's first crowdsourced AI red teaming platform on Sui, where anyone can attack AI systems and earn instant crypto rewards. Dapps Lido completed Lido V3 Phase 3 rollout with permissionless stETH minting for all stVaults, extended minting caps for Identified Node Operators, and upgraded tiers for more granular configuration. Espresso Network upgraded to proof-of-stake, with the stake table activating and staking rewards accruing. Solflare launched the Privacy Aggregator Layer (PAL) with Private Send, the first native privacy feature in a Solana wallet that breaks the sender-recipient link using Houdini Swap. Pump.fun expanded its mobile app to support trading coins from other launchpads, WBTC, PUMP, USDC, and more. Genius Terminal launched PropAMMs on BNB Chain in collaboration with Wintermute, offering 70% cheaper USDT-BNB swaps and 1.2x volume multiplier. Wasabi launched its Prop AMM on Base with professional market making for tighter spreads and deeper liquidity. Backpack introduced onchain IPO access in partnership with Superstate, enabling direct share allocations on Solana before stock exchange trading. MetaDAO launched Futardio, a platform for founders to raise directly from aligned communities with rug protection and continuous market pricing. ENS introduced ENSIP-25, a standardized text record for verifying AI agent ownership of ENS names, enabling wallets and apps to display verified identities for autonomous agents. Obol shipped Obol Stack v0.6.0 with a local Qwen 3.5 9B model by default for its agents, running on less than 10GB RAM. Jupiter launched the Jupiter Card integrated into Jupiter Mobile, enabling spending of wallet balances anywhere Visa is accepted with 1-1.8% FX fees. Kaito AI launched Kaito Studio beta for intentional brand-creator matching with 16 launch partners, helping brands find the right ambassadors or creators. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Polkadot announced its economic model reset on March 12, capping DOT supply at 2.1B, reducing emissions 53.6%, eliminating treasury burns, and introducing a Dynamic Allocation Pool. Akash Network put the Burn-Mint Equilibrium (BME) proposal onchain for vote, with upgrade scheduled for March 23, burning AKT used for computing and introducing WASM smart contracts. Fluid teased DEX V2 launch this month for volatile pairs with concentrated liquidity. Hyperliquid received HIP-6 proposal for permissionless token launch auctions using continuous clearing auctions adapted to its CLOB, with proceeds auto-seeding HIP-2 liquidity and aligned quote asset utility. Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI), one of the core Aave DAO contributors, announced it is leaving Aave after years of service. Pendle outlined its 2026 roadmap focused on CEX Highway, one-click leverage, cross-chain PTs, infinite liquidity, advanced notifications, and top-tier customer service. Definitive launched new EDGE rewards directing 20% of revenue to weekly buybacks with distributions to stakers and traders, plus simplified fees and lower rates for staked EDGE holders. Token Unlock VANA token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 83.3% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 7.29% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on March 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on March 26, amount representing 4.56% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on March 29, amount representing 5.26% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(8/52) Weekly Market Insight | March Week 1 | Energy Disruption](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-march-week-1-energy-disruption/): Headline News: Energy Disruption Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $787.31 million in net inflows last week, marking their first positive weekly flow since mid-January. Despite this influx, Bitcoin’s price declined 2.76% amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The market quickly absorbed the risk, with price action rebounding from a weekend low of $63,000 to the $66,000 range. Market participants remain focused on developments in the region, specifically potential disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz. Macro-Outlook: War to Push for Regime Change The US and Israel launched massive, coordinated preemptive military strikes on Iran. Iran launched retaliatory attacks within hours across the Gulf. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, was announced dead. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later warned that no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz. The US PPI eased to 2.9% in January, above market expectations of 2.6%. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Monday, March 2, 11:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in February Wednesday, March 4, 11:00pm: US ISM Service PMI in February Friday, March 6, 9:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in February, Retail Sales in January Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Stock Trading Push by CEXes The SEC clarified that broker-dealers can apply a 2% haircut to stablecoin holdings for net capital purposes, allowing such holdings to meaningfully count toward capital requirements. The UK FCA selected four firms (Monee, ReStabilise, Revolut, VVTX) to test stablecoin issuance in its Regulatory Sandbox starting Q1 2026. Meta is reportedly planning to restart its plans for stablecoin in H2 2026, partnering with a third-party vendor to power payments across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Startale Group and SBI Holdings introduced JPYSC, the first trust bank-backed Japanese Yen stablecoin issued by Shinsei Trust & Banking, with Startale building the regulated digital yen infrastructure. HashKey Group launched its One-Stop RWA Solution in Hong Kong, offering full-lifecycle services with institutional-grade blockchain and compliance. Kraken expanded xStocks Perps to include TSLAx, AAPLx, NVDAx and more, now available for 24/7 trading. Coinbase opened stock trading to all US users with over 8,000 stocks and ETFs, 24/5 trading, and a new partnership with Yahoo Finance for real-time discovery. Binance listed Ondo tokenized securities on Binance Alpha with 0% fees, seamless CEX funding, and 10 assets at launch, plus upcoming trading campaigns. Layer 1 and Layer 2s NEAR Intents activated its fee switch, introducing revenue sharing with distribution partners to drive protocol revenue and NEAR value accrual. Starknet introduced strkBTC, a newly wrapped Bitcoin token with optional built-in privacy features, allowing users to choose between transparent and shielded modes for balances and transfers in DeFi. Initia introduced its native stablecoin iUSD, backed by AUSD and bridged via LayerZero, directing all yield back to the Initia ecosystem with reward opportunities for liquidity providers and lenders. Aptos announced that Decibel, a fully onchain trading engine co-developed by Aptos Labs, is now live. Dapps Pendle introduced tradeable yields on Aave aRLUSD and aPYUSD from Ripple and PayPal, enabling fixed yields and speculation on institutional stablecoins. MetaMask launched the MetaMask Card in the US, offering a Metal Card with 3% cashback on the first $10,000 spend, and zero foreign transaction fees. MoonPay partnered with PayPal and M0, introduced PYUSDx, a new stablecoin tokenization framework backed 1:1 by PayPal USD for rapid issuance, distribution, and interoperability. Injective launched its real-time EVM mainnet upgrade, exponentially enhancing the chain to provide lightning-fast payments, tokenization, and finance for builders, institutions, and users. Symbiotic unveiled a major collaboration with Ether.fi and other partners, delivering real yield through institutional-grade restaking infrastructure. Arbital introduced institutional market making infrastructure, giving access to professional-level strategies on perp DEXs like GRVT, Pacifica, and Extended. Shield launched as a self-custodial privacy wallet built on Aleo, enabling users to hold and move crypto without exposing balances, counterparties, or transaction details by default. 42 launched on BNB Chain, bringing continuously tradable event markets that settle objectively on truth with dynamic pricing and uncapped upside. XMTP collaborated with Mask Network to bring its secure decentralized messaging to the Mask, Lens, Orb, and Firefly ecosystems. Play.fun launched as pump.fun for games on Solana, enabling every viral game to launch its own token via bonding curves where players spend tokens in-game to create built-in demand. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Polygon announced releasing Lisovo Hardfork on March 4 to subsidise agent-to-agent gas costs for payments, improve smart contract compatibility and more. Particle Network teased a major update with the message “EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT” scheduled for March 24. Fluid put forward a governance proposal to establish the Fluid Foundation, moving the protocol and its IP rights toward full community ownership and long-term sustainability. The Temp Check for the "Aave Will Win" proposal has passed, advancing a fully token-centric model that directs 100% of product revenue to the AAVE token. Token Unlock LINEA token unlocks on March 10, amount representing 4.91% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 83.3% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 7.29% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on March 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on March 26, amount representing 4.56% of the token supply. FF token unlocks on March 29, amount representing 5.26% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(7/52) Weekly Market Insight | February Week 4 | Exhausted Sentiment](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-february-week-4-exhausted-sentiment/): Headline News: Exhausted Sentiment Bitcoin declined 1.7% last week, weighed down by a hawkish recalibration in the latest FOMC minutes, trade policy shifts following the Supreme Court's tariff ruling, and escalating geopolitical friction in the Middle East. Concurrently, institutional demand continues to cool as spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $315.86 million in net outflows, officially marking a fifth consecutive week of institutional de-risking. Macro-Outlook: Tariffs Anyway After the US Supreme Court ruled that President Trump exceeded his authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose global tariffs, Trump invoked Section 122 to impose a 15% global tariff. The US and Iran nuclear negotiations are still on-going, potentially resume talks in early March and significant military posturing in the Middle East. The US PCE price index increased to 2.9% in December, higher than the market expectations of 2.8%. Meanwhile, the US durable goods orders decreased by 1.4% in December, milder than the 2% decline expected by the markets. The Q4 US GDP decreased to 1.4%, significantly below the market forecasts of 3%, showing signs of potential stagflation risk. The January FOMC minutes indicated that several participants expressed concerns about sticky above target inflation and surprisingly open for a rate-hike. The Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Friday, February 27, 9:30pm: US PPI in January Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Unclear Path of CLARITY White House set a March 1 deadline to resolve the stablecoin yield dispute, aiming to advance the broader crypto market structure bill known as the Clarity Act. However, the prediction markets are pricing roughly a 56% to 70% chance of passing in 2026. OpenAI introduced EVMbench, a new benchmark measuring how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities, enabling secure integration of AI into blockchain ecosystems. CME Group announced 24/7 trading for cryptocurrency futures and options starting May 29. Grayscale's Sui Staking ETF (GSUI) started trading on NYSE Arca. Layer 1 and Layer 2s World Chain announced Remainder, its open-source GKR prover for machine learning, enabling on-device ML model execution with cryptographic proofs, supporting local World ID upgrades without Orb revisits. StarkWare integrated EY's Nightfall ZK privacy layer into Starknet, enabling confidential payments and DeFi for institutions with private-by-default transactions and selective disclosure. Dapps Uniswap Labs released seven new Skills providing structured access to core Uniswap protocol actions, serving as a starting point for agentic workflows onchain. Zora announced the launch of an attention market for trading trending topics and memes platform on Solana. MYX Finance, a perpetual DEX, announced a Consensys-led strategic funding round, positioning as its largest investor to accelerate growth. Compound announced V4 deployment on Base, leveraging Base's user onboarding tools and institutional focus to embed lending, borrowing, and yield directly into Base-native apps via its API-first design. Securitize partnered with Euler Finance to integrate its DS Protocol, enabling tokenized real-world assets as collateral in risk-isolated lending markets. Pump.fun introduced Cashback Coins, allowing creators to choose between trader rewards or fees at launch, permanently directing all creator fees to traders. Rocket Pool deployed its Saturn One upgrade on the mainnet, introducing RPL fee switch, 4 ETH validators, MEGAPOOLs, and more. Infinit, a Decentralised Finance (DeFAI) app, launched Prompt-to-DeFi, allowing users to research, create, and execute DeFi strategies through natural language prompts, simplifying complex yield farming and portfolio management. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Aptos proposed a shift to performance-driven tokenomics, including reduced staking rewards to 2.6%, 100% fee burning, hard cap at 2.1 billion APT, and KPI-tied emissions, aiming for deflationary APT through burns exceeding emissions starting in 2026. Base evolved its technical roadmap with a new unified stack for Base Chain, enabling six hardforks per year (moves away from OP Stack chain), targeting 1 gigagas/s throughput, 99.99% reliability, and more. Ether.fi announced its plan to migrate to Optimism OP Mainnet in the coming months, bringing 70,000+ active cards, 300,000+ accounts, and over $160 million TVL to the Superchain for enhanced liquidity and DeFi integration. Uniswap proposed expanding protocol fees to all remaining v3 pools on the mainnet and activating fees for v2 and v3 on eight additional chains. Token Unlock XPL token unlocks on February 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocks on February 26, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on February 26, amount representing 4.78% of the token supply. GRASS token unlocks on February 28, amount representing 18% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on March 1, amount representing 6.2% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on March 2, amount representing 5.21% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on March 10, amount representing 4.91% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on March 16, amount representing 83.3% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on March 20, amount representing 7.29% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(6/52) Weekly Market Insight | February Week 3 | Trade With Caution](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-february-week-3-trade-with-caution/): Headline News: Trade With Caution Bitcoin continued to consolidate last week, trading sideways with a bearish bias. Broader risk appetite is currently pressured by escalating geopolitical tensions involving Iran, higher-than-anticipated AI CAPEX, and growing anxieties regarding AI-driven disruptions to legacy business models. Against this macroeconomic backdrop, the crypto market currently lacks a definitive, crypto-native catalyst to drive outperformance. Macro-Outlook: Cooler Inflation Rate, Lower Unemployment Rate The US retail sales stayed unchanged in December, falling short of forecasts for a 0.4% gain. The US non-farm payrolls increased by 130K in January, well above market expectations of 70K. December payrolls were revised downward from a 50K rise to a 48K rise. The unemployment rate also decreased to 4.3% in January, below market expectations of 4.4%. The US inflation rate decreased to 2.4% in January, below the market forecasts of 2.5%. The market expects there is a 90% probability that the Fed will keep the rate unchanged in March. The US Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion regarding President Trump's tariffs on February 20. There is only a 26% chance the Supreme Court will rule in favor of Trump according to Kalshi. Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Wednesday, February 18, 9:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in December Thursday, February 19, 3:00am: January FOMC Minutes Friday, February 20, 9:30pm: US Q4 GDP; PCE Price index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in December Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Zero Chain, BUIDL on Uniswap Malaysia's central bank plans to launch three stablecoin and tokenized deposit initiatives in 2026. Robinhood launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum L2 built on Arbitrum designed for tokenized real-world and digital assets with financial-grade infrastructure. Coinbase Developer Platform introduced Agentic Wallets, non-custodial wallet infrastructure purpose-built for AI agents with programmable policies, gasless transactions on Base, and built-in financial primitives. FalconX launched prime brokerage margin financing for trading on Hyperliquid, offering up to 5x leverage with portfolio-level margining and cross-venue netting across supported CeFi and DeFi platforms. ETHZilla Aerospace launched Eurus Aero Token I, tokenizing CFM56 jet engines on lease with a major US carrier, offering 11% target annual return with monthly USD payouts for accredited investors. Layer 1 and Layer 2s LayerZero announced its high-performance omnichain execution layer, Zero, with ZK proofs, parallel processing, and novel execution modes targeting extreme throughput for real-world applications. The new initiative has received support from Citadel, Ark Invest, Tether and more. MegaETH launched its mainnet with a cold start TVL of $66 million in the first week. Sonic Labs outlined its vertical integration phase, where the chain builds or acquires core DeFi primitives like DEXs and lending to capture 100% of their revenue and route it directly to the S token via buybacks. Solana announced Citi has completed a successful onchain representation and full lifecycle execution of a bill of exchange, demonstrating institutional trade finance settlement on the network. Sui launched suiUSDe, a yield-bearing synthetic dollar powered by Ethena, made available for margin trading on DeepBook and across major Sui DeFi protocols from day one. ADI Chain launched the UAE Dirham-backed DDSC stablecoin in partnership with International Holding Company and First Abu Dhabi Bank. Dapps Uniswap Labs announced a strategic integration with Securitize to enable trading of BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized treasury fund via UniswapX, offering 24/7 bilateral swaps for whitelisted subscribers. Kamino Finance integrated tokenized equities from xStocks into its lending stack and launched the xStocks Market with Multiply strategies offering up to 3.7× leverage on QQQx and SPYx. Ondo Finance enabled SPYon and QQQon tokenized stocks as collateral on Morpho lending markets, with borrowing liquidity from Gauntlet-curated RWA vaults. SparkFi introduced Spark Prime, enabling institutional borrowers to deploy collateral across DeFi and CeFi venues with enhanced transparency and capital efficiency. Kaito AI partnered with Polymarket and launched Attention Markets, enabling prediction markets on internet trends across crypto, AI, finance, entertainment, and more. Derive, a decentralised options market, launched Builder Codes, allowing integrated teams to earn direct revenue share from trading fees on their interfaces and distribution channels. Lighter launched Korean equity perpetuals at 10x leverage including HYUNDAI, SAMSUNG, SKHYNIX, and the KRCOMP index, becoming the first DEX to offer these markets. EdgeX received a strategic investment from Circle Ventures and announced native USDC issuance with CCTP support coming to the EDGE chain. Pudgy Penguins launched the Pengu Card in partnership with KAST and Visa with up to 12% rewards and 7% yield. Royco Protocol launched Royco Dawn, introducing risk tranching to onchain yield sources by splitting deposits into Senior and Junior pools. Virtuals Protocol introduced revenue incentives for AI up to $1 million per month for selling services through its Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP). Governance and Upcoming Alpha FlyingTulip is conducting a public sale on February 16 and FT token is expected to launch on February 23. ETHDenver, Ethereum conference, will be held from February 18 to 21. Aave proposed the "Aave Will Win" framework directing 100% of product revenue to the DAO treasury while advancing V4 monetization features and funding Aave Labs development. Jupiter Exchange proposed measures to achieve net-zero JUP emissions including pausing team reserve emissions indefinitely, absorbing team vesting sales, postponing Jupuary, and offsetting Mercurial vesting. World Liberty Finance plans to launch a foreign exchange platform, World Swap. Perps.fun teased its upcoming launch with a focus on enabling anyone to easily launch perpetual markets on Hyperliquid, featuring novel mechanics like free initial markets secured via HYPE auctions. Scroll implemented DAO 2.0 governance framework with strengthened delegate roles, execution committees, formal treasury structure, and enhanced accountability for 2026 operations. Hibachi outlined its vision for private, fast perpetuals trading with zk proofs, focusing on FX markets and verifiable execution. Token Unlock ZRO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 13.5% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on February 21, amount representing 4.62% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on February 23, amount representing 4.64% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on February 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocks on February 26, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on February 26, amount representing 4.78% of the token supply. GRASS token unlocks on February 28, amount representing 18% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on March 1, amount representing 6.2% of the token supply. ZAMA token unlocks on March 2, amount representing 5.21% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(5/52) Weekly Market Insight | February Week 2 | Extreme Fear](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-february-week-2-extreme-fear/): Headline News: Extreme Fear Bitcoin revisited "Extreme Fear" levels not seen since the post-LUNA collapse of 2022. The Net Unrealized Profit/Loss (NUPL) indicator mirrored this weakness, falling to 12% and entering bear market territory for the first time since March 2023. However, the drawdown was short-lived, as Bitcoin quickly rebounded 15% from the $60,000 lows to close the week with near $70,000. Macro-Outlook: Strong Economy, Weak Labor Market The US manufacturing PMI increased to 52.6 in January, significantly higher than the market expectations of 48.5. The US services PMI also demonstrated strong production in January, increased to 53.8, above market expectations of 53.5. The US JOLTs job openings decreased to 6.542 million in December, significantly below market forecasts of 7.2 million. The US ADP employment also indicated a soft labor market, added 22K jobs in January, below market forecasts of 48K. Meanwhile, Michigan consumer sentiment increased to 57.3 in February, higher than market expectations of 55. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, January 10, 9:30pm: US Retail Sales in December Wednesday, January 11, 9:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in January Friday, January 13, 9:30pm: US Inflation Rate in January Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: China Expanded RWA Tokenisation Regulation Chinese authorities issued new rules reiterated 2021 crypto ban aspects while formally defining and regulating RWA tokenization under approved infrastructure, introducing filing for offshore tokenization of onshore assets. CME Group plans to launch "CME Coin" potentially on blockchains and partners with Google on tokenized cash solutions in late 2026. BBVA joined Qivalis group of 12 major EU banks to launch a regulated euro stablecoin under MiCA, targeting to rollout in H2 2026. Startale and SBI Holdings introduced Strium Network, a dedicated Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for 24/7 trading of tokenized securities and real-world assets. Crypto.com launched OG prediction market app, a US-focused CFTC-regulated platform for sports, politics, crypto, and culture events with plans for margin trading. Coinbase launched Coinbase Predict, its native prediction market platform for sports, politics, crypto, and cultural events. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum's ERC-8004 is live on the mainnet. It is a new standard developed with MetaMask, Google, Coinbase, and others to enable portable reputation and verifiable identity for AI agents. Ripple secured a full EU EMI license in Luxembourg, enabling broader European operations. Ripple also announced Ripple Prime brokerage support for Hyperliquid, enabling institutions to access onchain derivatives liquidity with cross-margining. NEAR AI introduced AI Agent Market, expanding intents to a decentralized marketplace for autonomous agent tasks and payments in NEAR token. Dapps Ondo launched Ondo Perps, offering up to 20x leverage on US stocks and ETFs perpetuals. Ondo also introduced Ondo Global Listing, enabling near real-time onchain tokenization of US stock IPOs from day one across major blockchains for global permissionless access, and received EU regulatory approval to access investors across 30 EU/EEA markets. MetaMask integrated Ondo tokenized US stocks and ETFs, enabling 24/5 trading and 24/7 transfers directly in-wallet. Hyperliquid announced the launch of HIP-4 testnet, introducing fully collateralized contracts for prediction markets, bounded options-like instruments, and novel applications. Silhouette, shielded trading platform on top of Hyperliquid, launched Open Beta for shielded spot HYPE/USDC with delegated execution, user-controlled funds, and upcoming compliance features. Arcium, the privacy protocol on Solana, announced Mainnet Alpha live, and debuting Umbra as a shielded finance layer for confidential onchain applications. Hush Protocol, a privacy layer on Solana, introduced shielded JitoSOL, enabling private transactions while accessing yield. Ventuals launched the V2 app with 24/7 tradfi perps trading, new points program, referrals, growth mode fee reductions, and increased leverage to 20x. Jupiter Exchange integrated Polymarket on Solana, bringing the largest prediction market to the chain for seamless onchain trading alongside Kalshi. DFlow launched DFlow Proof, enabling trustless real-world identity verification on Solana without centralized KYC infrastructure for seamless onchain applications. Virtuals Protocol introduced ACP integration with OpenClawd agents, enabling agent token launches and incentives to accelerate the AI agent economy on Base. ENS announced ENSv2 deployment on Ethereum L1, ceasing Namechain development while maintaining multi-chain support and upcoming cross-chain .eth registrations. Pump.fun acquired Vyper, an advanced multichain trading terminal. The Vyper infrastructure will migrate to Pump.fun's own trading terminal, Terminal. Chance, a prediction markets aggregator, launched a 2.0 update with redesigned UX, advanced analytics, Moonpay deposits, limit orders, and aggregated trading across Polymarket, Kalshi, and Opinion Labs. Pandora, a P2P parlay system on Polymarket developed by HeyAnon, introduced parlay trading for high-multiplier bets or counterparty compounding on user degeneracy. Governance and Upcoming Alpha MegaETH introduced MEGA token utilities including USDM yield buybacks and Proximity Markets bidding, with TGE triggered by ecosystem KPIs like USDM circulation and app deployment. MegaETH will launch its mainnet on February 9. Resolv Labs shared its 2026 roadmap update highlighting expansion of partnerships in RWA yield integrations and delta-neutral allocation in equities and commodities. Token Unlock LINEA token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 5.74% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 4% of the token supply. LAYER token unlocks on February 11, amount representing 57% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on February 15, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on February 16, amount representing 57.7% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 13.5% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on February 21, amount representing 4.62% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocks on February 23, amount representing 4.64% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on February 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [On-Chain Privacy – The Turning Point](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/on-chain-privacy-the-turning-point/): Introduction On-chain privacy witnessed a massive repricing event in 2025. Notably, Zcash saw substantial price discovery, driven by privacy awareness resurgence within the industry and significant advancements in cryptographic technologies, including Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). ZKPs: A method of proving the validity of a statement without revealing anything other than its validity, giving users the ability to publicly share proof of knowledge or ownership without revealing the details. MPC: A cryptographic protocol, involving multiple parties jointly computing data by splitting it into "secret shares." No single person ever sees the full data. TEE: A hardware-based solution. It's a secure "black box" inside a processor that isolates data while it's being used. FHE: An encryption scheme where computations can be made directly on encrypted data without ever decrypting it. The market has moved away from “anonymity” toward “confidentiality,” a functional necessity in the transparent blockchains. On-Chain Privacy mindshare surged in Q4 2025 Source: Dexu 1.1. The Privacy Paradox The history of privacy cryptocurrency could be traced back to 2012, Bytecoin introduced CryptoNote, offering the ring signatures technique which later was used by Monero in 2014. In short, privacy is not a new concept in cryptocurrencies, but, in the early cycles, privacy cryptocurrencies were largely an ideological pursuit or a means of circumvention, and channels for bad actors to evade surveillance. The struggle of on-chain privacy in previous years can be attributed to three primary factors: technological immaturity, liquidity fragmentation and regulatory hostility. Historically, cryptographic technologies faced scrutiny on high latency and cost inefficiency. Today, a “proliferation” of developer tools (zkDSLs) like Cairo and back-ends like Halo2 have made ZKPs accessible to mass developers. The trend of building zkVM (Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machines) on standard instruction sets like RISC-V is making the technology scalable and composable for a diverse range of application usages. MPC is no longer just for splitting private keys, with MP-SPDZ, it supports Arithmetic Circuits (Addition/Multiplication) and Boolean Circuits (XOR/AND), allowing general computation. Advancement in GPUs further benefit these technologies, for example, H100 and Blackwell B200 now support Confidential Computing, enabling AI models to be operated in a TEE. The biggest bottleneck in FHE, bootstrapping latency (the time to “refresh” the noise in an encrypted calculation so it can continue processing), has reduced from approximately 50ms in 2021 to less than 1ms in 2025, enabling real-time FHE-encrypted smart contract implementation. The Evolution of zkVMs Source: Succinct, Brevis Furthermore, privacy was often isolated on specific blockchains, forcing users to bridge out of the existing vibrant ecosystem to achieve anonymity, which came at a high cost in transaction fees and the opportunity cost of capital. Today, privacy protocols such as Railgun can be integrated directly with DeFi applications, offering privacy as a shield against copy-trading and MEV extraction. Boundless, Succinct, Brevis and similar protocols provide ZKPs-as-a-Service to apps, while Arcium and Nillion help to build privacy preserving apps with MPC, Phala and iExec compute apps data in TEE without leaving their blockchain. Lastly, Zama and Octra empower apps to process FHE computation natively. Railgun TVL Source: DefiLlama In the early days, blockchain needed transparency to gain legitimacy. Real builders had to distance themselves from hackers, money launderers, and other bad actors. In this environment, privacy features quickly became perceived as tools for dishonest players. Projects like Tornado Cash, while gaining traction from users who value privacy, put those same users in the position of commingling funds with illicit actors, unable to prove their own innocence. The result was a regulatory crackdown. Exchanges, in their pursuit of operating licenses, froze funds from cash mixers and delisted questionable privacy tokens. Ventures and institutional funds, wary of compliance officers, refused to hold them. On-chain privacy became the industry's "criminal" feature. Today, economic sanctions on Tornado Cash have been lifted. The industry has coalesced around the concept of “compliant privacy”, by designing “viewable data” that is able to decrypt users own transactions with the source of funds by providing a “view key” to the auditors or regulators. This approach can be witnessed in both Tornado Cash and Zcash. Significant changes in Tornado Cash fund flows on sanctions Source: Dune Current Privacy Use Cases The early-day hiccups doesn’t mean privacy isn’t vital. Ask yourself a simple question: “Do you want your coffee purchase today to expose your entire 10-year investment history?” The majority of people would say no, yet the current blockchain setup does exactly this. As crypto legislation advances and more institutions are onboarded, these new institutional players are revisiting that question. Fortunately, the adoption of privacy technology in 2025 is driven less by ideology and more by functional utilities. 2.1. Shielded Transactions Utilising the “viewable data” design, Zcash shielded supply increased from 12% in the beginning of 2025 to approximately 29% now. The demand was raised due to a combination of reasons like the increased speculative interest on ZEC token and organic desire to shield their transaction from the public. The mechanism to shield the transaction is called the Commitment-Nullifier Scheme, where senders can commit a shielded lockbox to a pool, the network will verify the committed fund using ZKPs to prevent double spending and create a new shielded fund lockbox for the receivers. The shielded ZEC on Zcash Source: ZecHub One of the fastest growing sectors, crypto-neobanks, are actively exploring implementing private transactions for their users such as Fuse, Avici and Privily. Although some protocols use different approaches to mask the transactions on-chain. 2.2. High Performance Execution Environment The ZK-rollups grew by 20% in 2025 based on Total Value Locked (TVL), offering a significantly cheaper execution environment compared to Ethereum layer-1. The rollups will bundle all the transactions on their networks into a tiny data blob and send it to sequencers for generating a proof to the underlying layer-1 for verification. Major ZK-rollups Adoption: TVL Changes Source: DefiLlama ZK-rollups today offer comprehensive built-in privacy features such as private smart contracts on Aztec and ZKsync Interop which unify liquidity between ZK Chains and Ethereum. 2.3. MEV Protection One of the most pervasive “hidden” use cases for privacy is the protection against Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). The transparent nature of blockchain allows the predatory bots to view transactions in a public mempool before confirmation and front-run or “sandwich” the trades to extract profit. Flashbot SUAVE is decentralising the block-building process by encrypting the mempools, where transactions remain encrypted until the block builder commits to including them. Unichain also launched TEE-based block building to ensure trades on the layer-2 cannot be front-run. Percentage of transactions landed to Flashbot Protect Source: Dune 2.4. Other Use Cases Beside the major use cases mentioned, developers are actively exploring implementing on-chain privacy on their applications for optimisation and better user experience. Orderbook: Hyperliquid whales such as James Wynn and Machi Big Brother are constantly experiencing liquidation hunting. Despite Hyperliquid's founders arguing that transparency levels the playing field for market makers and leads to tighter spreads, the risk of being front-run or counter-traded is a significant net negative for whale traders. This has created an opening for Aster by providing privacy features such as hidden orders and new Shield Mode by 2026. Identity: Certain activities such as neobank account applications and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) require verification of the identity of the applicants. Protocols such as idOS allows users to upload their KYC once and reuse on other compliant protocols seamlessly, zkPass helps provide users with Web2 credentials without revealing the detail, World ID proves the personhood of the users with hash of their iris, while ZKPassport verifies users’ identity without having the information leave the users’ own devices.   SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that many types of ICOs should not be considered securities and thus fall outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. His stance potentially ignites more ICO fundraising in the near future, which increases the demand for encrypted-KYC. Bridge: Cross-chain bridges have been vulnerable for exploitation in the history of blockchain, for example $624 million and $126 million were stolen from the Ronin Bridge and Multichain due to private key compromise. ZK-bridges minimise the trust assumption, instant finality once the proof is generated and verified, and scalable cost efficiency as volume grows. Polyhedra Network connects over 30 chains using zkBridge, and can be plugged-in as a “DVN” in the LayerZero V2 stack. AI: ZK can help verify the outputs are generated based on the intended inputs and were processed by the specific model. Giza enables non-custodial agents to execute sophisticated DeFi strategies based on the verified generated output. While Phala uses Intel SGX enclaves to hold sensitive information like private keys securely in AI agents. Key DeCC Ecosystem Categorisation On-chain privacy often refers to Decentralised Confidential Computing Network (DeCC). Although the market usually favours categorising the protocols according to the underlying privacy technology, each privacy stack has its trade-offs and an increasing number of protocols adopt a hybrid approach to their privacy solutions. Therefore, it would be better to categorise them into Privacy-Blockchain, Privacy-Middleware and Privacy-Application. Key DeCC Ecosystem Categorisation 3.1. Privacy-Blockchain The “Privacy-Blockchain” category encompasses Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks where privacy mechanisms are enshrined to the consensus or execution environment. The core challenge for these networks is the “bridging barrier”. Users and liquidity must be enticed to migrate from established blockchains, and can be extremely difficult if there is no killer-app that makes the migration economically rational. Layer-1 privacy tokens typically are assigned a “Layer-1 premium”, as they are used as the security collateral to secure the network and gas token. 3.1.1 The Legacy and Evolution of Layer-1 Privacy Zcash has historically been positioned as the Bitcoin with privacy in the sector. The network has a two-address system, offering users to switch between public and private transactions with “view keys” to decrypt the transaction detail for compliance purposes. The protocol is transitioning from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to a hybrid model known as Crosslink, which integrates Proof-of-Stake (PoS) elements in 2026, providing faster finality than the original probabilistic finality of Nakamoto consensus. Following the halving in November 2024, the next halving event should be expected in November 2028. Monero, on the other hand, maintains its default privacy approach, enforcing every transaction using Ring Signatures, Stealth Addresses and Ring CT. The design choice caused the majority exchanges to delist XMR tokens from the platforms in 2024. Additionally, Monero also experienced several hashrate attacks by Qubic in 2025, causing as long as 18-block reorganisation and erased about 118 confirmed transactions. Secret Network is a TEE-powered privacy preserving Layer-1 built on the Cosmos SDK with viewing keys for access control since 2020. Secret positions itself not just as a standalone chain, but also provides TEE-as-a-Service for EVM and IBC chains. The team also focuses on delivering confidential computing in AI and explores combining Threshold FHE to the network. Canton Network is backed by Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi Ventures, Blackstone, BNY, Nasdaq, S&P Global and more. It is a Layer-1 blockchain designed to onboard the trillion-dollar RWA with a unique privacy feature called Daml Ledger Model. The parties in the Daml ledgers can only view a subset of ledgers that connect to their subnets, this model allows only the parties involved in the transactions to validate, non-related parties are literally unaware of the transactions. Aleo is a ZK Layer-1 that uses proprietary Rust-based language, Leo, to compile code into ZK circuits. Users generate (or pay miners to generate) proofs for transaction executions off-chain then send only the cryptographic proof to the network. Inco positions itself as a FHE Layer-1, while also providing FHE-as-a-Service to other chains via bridging and messaging protocols. The same feature enables the chain to serve deep liquidity without needing to bootstrap its own DeFi from scratch. Octra is a high-performance FHE Layer-1. Octra builds its own proprietary cryptography from scratch called Hypergraph FHE (HFHE), allowing parallel processing during computation and achieving a peak throughput of 17,000 TPS on its testnet. Mind Network utilises restaking protocols such as EigenLayer to secure a network of FHE validators. The protocol aims to create an end-to-end encrypted internet, HTTPZ, and enable AI agents to process encrypted data. 3.1.2. The ZK-Rollups ZKsync has expanded beyond simple scaling to implement a range of comprehensive solutions like Prividium, ZKsync Interop and Airbender. Prividium allows companies to execute transactions privately while still using Ethereum for final security settlement. Airbender is a high-performance RISC-V zkVM Prover that generates ZK proofs in sub-seconds. While ZKsync Interop allows users to provide collateral on ZK Chains and borrow assets on Ethereum. Starknet leverages STARKs (Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge) for high-throughput scaling with a native account abstraction feature. Every account is a smart contract on Starknet, allowing stealth transactions to be executed using the account contract. The team also proposed a Layer-2 that settles on Zcash, Ztarknet, introducing a smart contract platform that benefits from the anonymity from Zcash. Aztec operates as a native-privacy Layer-2 on Ethereum, utilising a UTXO-like note system for encrypted data and an account-based system for public data. Aztec’s Noir-based architecture relies on Client-Side Proving or Private Execution Environment (PXE), where users generate ZK proofs locally in their devices then send them to the network. Midnight operates as a Partner Chain to Cardano, leveraging Cardano’s Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) for security while running its own execution layer. It is a ZK Layer-1 based on TypeScript and a selective disclosure feature. It uses ADA for security staking, unshielded NIGHT tokens for governance and staking for gas (DUST) generation, and DUST for gas tokens which are shielded by default. Phala relies on TEEs like Intel SGX for privacy. The protocol has pivoted to an AI coprocessor model, allowing AI agents to run inside TEEs and manage private keys, and migrated from Polkadot Parachain to Ethereum Layer-2 using OP Succinct stack collaborating with Succinct and Conduit. Fhenix is the first fhEVM Layer-2 on Ethereum, bringing encrypted computation to the Ethereum ecosystem. The transactions performed on the chain are protected from MEV, because the transaction inputs are encrypted in the mempool. 3.2. Privacy-Middleware The “Privacy-Middleware” protocols operate on a Privacy-as-a-Service (PaaS) model, providing the computational muscle for proof generation, encryption or verification. This sector competes fiercely on latency, cost efficiency and network support. Boundless is the “Universal ZK Compute Layer” incubated by RISC Zero, a decentralised marketplace for ZK-proving. It allows any blockchain or application to outsource the heavy proving computation to Boundless. Succinct Labs is the direct competitor to Boundless, positioning itself as the high-performance prover network. It adds specialised circuits for common tasks like hashing and signature verification to its zkVM, SP1, making its proof generation faster and cheaper. Brevis serves as the ZK Coprocessor that allows smart contracts to query the historical data from any blockchains trustlessly. Today, Brevis expands to general-purpose zkVM with Pico, in addition to precompiling for heavy workload, the coprocessor can be integrated as a specialised circuit as well. Arcium operates as a tunable performance MPC solution to applications across any chains, despite using Solana for staking, slashing and node coordination. Nillion also provides high performance MPC services to applications. Its Nil Message Compute (NMC) and Nil Confidential Compute (nilCC) enables sharded data to be computed without messaging each other during the calculation phase and secure inside TEEs. iExec RLC has been a long-standing DePIN protocol since 2017, providing cloud computing resources. Today, it shifts its focus to TEE-based confidential computing, enables training or querying AI models without revealing data inputs, and provides privacy tasks for chains such as Ethereum and Arbitrum. Marlin has also undergone a significant pivot from being a CDN for blockchains to a confidential computing layer (Oyster), and a ZKPs marketplace built on top of its compute layer (Kalypso). Zama is the leading FHE protocol that builds fhEVM, TFHE-rs and Concrete, which are used by protocols such as Fhenix and Inco. Zama also provides FHE-as-a-Service on existing public blockchains. It also plans to integrate FHE into zkVM with the recent acquisition of Kakarot. Cysic builds the physical hardware (ASICs) to accelerate ZKPs generation, reducing proof generation time from minutes to milliseconds. Users can request proof generation from ZK Air (consumer-grade) or ZK Pro (industrial-grade ASIC). 3.3. Privacy-Application This is the biggest category among Privacy-Blockchain and Privacy-Middleware, and the listing in this article only shows a fraction of them. The protocols here utilise ZK, MPC, TEE or MPC to improve their products' user experience. The successful applications will abstract away the privacy preserving complexity and deliver actual product-market fit solutions. Tornado Cash is the original decentralised and immutable mixer. The protocol was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 and later lifted the sanction in early 2025. Despite that, it remains as a high risk tool for compliant entities. Railgun is widely known to be endorsed by Vitalik Buterin. It offers a voluntary disclosure shielded transaction solution beyond Tornado Cash by integrating users’ “lockboxes” with DeFi protocols such as Uniswap or Aave. Although its shielded assets are only about 20% of Tornado Cash, it is still widely considered the potential contestant to Tornado Cash. World (formerly Worldcoin) utilised iris scanning to establish “Proof of Personhood”, where biometric data is encrypted and only the ZKPs are sent to the network. World ID becomes an efficient tool to differentiate from bots and AIs. zkPass uses a third-party TLS handshake to allow users to generate proofs of their personal identities and media profile data, gaining access to gated applications without revealing the private information. Privy enables users to seamlessly sign in to decentralised applications with their email or Web2 accounts, creating MPC wallets for users with keys split between users’ devices and a secure server. This essentially removes the cumbersome seed phrase backup and significantly improves user experience. Aster partnered with Brevis to build its Aster Chain, providing private trading features on top of its current Hidden Orders. The protocol roadmap shows Aster Chain is expected to launch in Q1 2026. Malda is a unified liquidity lending protocol, leveraging Boundless to prove and manage users' lending and borrowing positions across multiple blockchains. Hibachi provides high frequency decentralised perpetual exchange and utilises Succinct to prove its off-chain Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) to be verified on-chain. Giza brings machine learning to smart contract, allowing smart contract to run verified output from the intended AI models. This enables AI-powered DeFi strategies to be executed on-chain without manipulation. Sentient is a AI specialised Layer-1 (powered by Polygon CDK) which aims to create an open AGI platform and rewards contributors accordingly. AI model owners upload their specialised AI models to the network and be rewarded depending on the usage. The models on the platform have cryptographic fingerprinting to ensure certain outputs are generated by the specific model. It has also built the Sentient Enclaves Framework, which leverages AWS Nitro Enclaves to enable confidential computation in AI models, masking the users’ prompt and model’s internal state from node operators. The Current Trend and Future Outlook 4.1.1. The Rise of Privacy Middlewares We are witnessing a shift away from monolithic privacy chains toward modular privacy layers. Instead of migrating to privacy blockchain, protocols can be deployed to any established blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana while accessing privacy services via smart contracts, minimising the barrier to access the protocols. Additionally, as the demand for privacy features increases together with the privacy awareness in the sector, privacy middlewares are the ultimate beneficiaries as it is economically irrational for many startup protocols to run their own computationally heavy confidential computing frameworks. Number of proofs requested and fulfilled on Succinct Source: Dune 4.1.2. The Hybrid Solution The current privacy-enhancing technologies have their own limitations. For example, ZKPs cannot perform computation on encrypted data, MPC may have constrained latency with large number of participants, TEE could be compromised via fault injection and side-channel attacks (where attackers get physical hardware access), and complex calculations could take longer in FHE computation and higher risk of data corruption by accumulated noise. Therefore, more protocols are favoured to hybridise their privacy tools or to design specialised hardware for optimised computation. 4.1.3. Confidential and Verifiable AI The global AI-related capital expenditures are estimated to hit $3 trillion according to Morgan Stanley. As AI demand is expected to expand in 2026, confidential and verifiable AI has emerged as a massive trend in 2025 and is expected to scale in 2026. Confidential model training on sensitive data such as medical and financial records could be another significant milestone for the decentralised AI sector. 4.1.4. Privacy DePIN Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) utilize privacy techniques to secure user data. For example, a DePIN project collecting mapping data from user dashcams needs to strip personal identifiable information (PII) like faces and license plates. 4.2. Institutional Initiatives Circle launched USDCx on Aleo Testnet, enabling encrypted stablecoin transfer with configurable compliance and minimal trust assumption. Chainlink introduced Confidential Compute within the Chainlink Runtime Environment, allowing institutions to perform private transactions, confidential data distribution, privacy-preserving identity and more. Coinbase is building a private transaction feature on Base with the talents from the acquired Iron Fish team. 4.3. The Regulatory Environment The European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) both mandate Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) to identify the origin and beneficiary information with a transaction. The “view key” privacy approach is designed to share with the CASPs when transacting with the exchange. The US Treasury lifted economic sanctions against Tornado Cash, after a US appeals court found that OFAC had overstepped its authority. However, the US Treasury still views crypto mixers as a primary vector for illicit finance activities, Tornado Cash founders’ appeals are still ongoing. The upcoming “innovation exemption” and CLARITY Act might provide better guidance for privacy protocol developers. Ending Thoughts The era of privacy tokens without “view key” is likely drawing to a close. The industry is betting this “selective disclosure” approach will be accepted as a sufficient compromise. If regulators later reject this approach, it could force networks to opt into “Regulated Permissioned Chains” for anonymity. The maturation of the privacy-enhancing technologies is the key that unlocks the “trillions” in traditional finance. Bonds, securities, and corporate payrolls cannot live on a transparent chain. As these protocols prove their robustness in 2025, we expect the first major "Private RWA" pilots to launch on one of the networks mentioned previously in 2026. Google trend on “blockchain privacy” in the past 5 years Source: Google The hype of blockchain privacy may cooldown momentarily, but the demand for privacy features on application level is expected to increase steadily, significantly improving the user experience to attract the mass non-crypto native audience. This is the moment on-chain privacy transforms from a "Nice-to-Have" to a "Must-Have." References https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-scraps-sanctions-tornado-cash-crypto-mixer-accused-laundering-north-korea-2025-03-21/ https://www.ft.com/content/7052c560-4f31-4f45-bed0-cbc84453b3ce https://zechub.wiki/dashboard https://dune.com/ https://defillama.com/ https://ethproofs.org/metrics https://messari.io/report/the-privacy-layer-understanding-the-inner-workings-of-decentralized-confidential-computing https://docs.flashbots.net/flashbots-protect/overview https://www.zksync.io/blog https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/proposal-ztarknet-a-starknet-l2-for-zcash/52926 https://www.canton.network/hubfs/Canton/Canton%20Network%20-%20White%20Paper.pdf https://docs.aztec.network/ https://docs.midnight.network/?_gl=1*1suwgof*_gcl_au*NDIyOTI1MjczLjE3NjU0Mjg1MjI. https://scrt.network/graypaper https://docs.octra.org/ https://explorer.boundless.network/orders https://pdf.succinct.xyz/ https://explorer.succinct.xyz/trends https://blog.brevis.network/ https://brevis.network/whitepaper/provernet.pdf https://explorer.brevis.network/ https://docs.iex.ec/ https://docs.nillion.com/learn/what-is-nillion https://docs.zama.org/protocol/zama-protocol-litepaper https://github.com/zama-ai/fhevm/blob/main/fhevm-whitepaper.pdf https://medium.com/@kakarot_team/kakarot-is-joining-zama-3b2047246184 https://medium.com/@cysic https://docs.idos.network/ https://docsend.com/view/5wdg66beu7m95jf3 https://docs.asterdex.com/overview/what-is-aster/roadmap https://x.com/fusewallet/status/1996581763640946749 https://docs.railgun.org/wiki/learn/privacy-system https://docs.gizaprotocol.ai/introduction/protocol https://blog.sentient.xyz/
- [(4/52) Weekly Market Insight | February Week 1 | 7-Handle](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-february-week-1-7-handle/): Headline News: 7-Handle Bitcoin dropped 11.17% to under $80,000 last week, battered by a combination of geopolitical instability in Iran, US government shutdown, and hawkish signals surrounding Kevin Warsh’s nomination. The sell-off was exacerbated by sustained spot ETF outflows and stalled regulatory progress, which continues to drive capital away from the sector in the near term. Macro-Outlook: Partial Shutdown The Senate passed a funding package to keep the government open, but the bill is expected to be enacted this week after being passed by the House and signed by the President. The US government is currently on partial shutdown. President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair. The market anticipates that Warsh might cut rates, but aggressively shrink the Fed Balance sheet in exchange for maintaining "sound money" credibility. The January FOMC kept the interest rate unchanged. The Fed Chair Powell stated the upside risk of inflation and downside risk of the labor market have been diminishing. The US durable goods orders increased by 5.3% in November, significantly higher than the market forecasts of 3.7%. The US core PPI increased to 3.3%, well above the market expectations of 2.9%, largely driven by rising services prices. Upcoming Economic Calendar, Monday, February 2, 11:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in January Tuesday, February 3, 11:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in December Wednesday, February 4, 9:15pm: US ADP Employment Change in January Wednesday, February 4, 11:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in January Friday, February 6, 9:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in January Friday, February 6, 11:00pm: Michigan Consumer Sentiment in February Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Crypto Policies Postponement SEC delayed the decision on crypto innovation exemptions, raising concerns across the industry about regulatory hurdles for new protocols and products. SEC clarified tokenized securities fall into issuer-sponsored tokens (direct DLT integration) as standard securities while reclassifying unauthorized third-party wrappers (synthetic/linked assets) as security-based swaps. BlackRock files S-1 for iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, employing covered calls on IBIT shares to generate premium income. VanEck launched the first-ever Avalanche ETF, VAVX, on Nasdaq. Kraken launches DeFi Earn, offering up to 8% APY on assets via automated vaults powered by Aave, Morpho, and other protocols. WisdomTree expanded its tokenized funds to Solana network. Fidelity launched FIDD stablecoin on Ethereum with institutional-grade reserves and compliance. Binance announced converting its $1 billion stablecoin SAFU emergency fund to Bitcoin in the next 30 days. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum announced ERC-8004 for portable AI agent reputation live on mainnet soon. Mantle launched MNT on Solana via Super Portal, demonstrating instant cross-chain transfers and DeFi integrations. Optimism unveiled OP Enterprise, offering managed, permissioned blockchain infrastructure with full revenue control for large institutions entering Web3. Linea integrated Phylax’s Credible Layer, adding proactive smart contract exploit prevention and real-time monitoring to enhance security for users and builders. Citrea, Bitcoin's ZK rollup, announced mainnet launch, enabling trust-minimized programmable BTC with cBTC bridge and ctUSD native stablecoin. Dapps Bitwise debuted an onchain vault via Morpho, targeting up to 6% yield on USDC. Uniswap integrated Continuous Clearing Auctions into its web app, introducing easy access to new protocol token price discovery auctions. Uniswap also rolled out Uniroute, delivering better prices on over 50-70% of swaps across chains. Lido launched V3, introducing modular stVaults, allowing third parties to deploy isolated, custom-configured staking strategies that maintain distinct operator sets and risk profiles while still inheriting stETH's deep liquidity and composability. SSV Network introduces staking with composable cSSV, routing ETH validator fees to staked SSV holders. Jupiter launched Offerbook, a permissionless time-based money market on Solana featuring no price-based liquidations and flexible borrowing terms. Jupiter also launched Global, delivering onchain fiat on-ramps, QR Pay, virtual accounts, and crypto-linked cards to bridge traditional and decentralized finance. OpenMind announced a partnership with AGIBOT, integrating Lingxi humanoid robots into its App Store ecosystem. XMAQUINA introduced the RCM Protocol, a liquidity layer for private robotics equity through SubDAO tokens, enabling fractional ownership and trading of physical robot assets. Ostium, a decentralized RWA perps platform, launched Uranium trading. Flying Tulip launched PUT Options Marketplace for secondary trading of ftPUTs, providing early investors and public sales investors a channel to monetise their perpetual put options. ZetaChain launched 2.0 featuring AI Portal and Private Memory Layer that allows users to cryptographically own and port their encrypted context across different apps. Lighter mandated staking of LIT for LLP access and enables LLP as collateral. Lighter also detailed EVM upgrades including async writes and potential synchronous execution. Polaris, a self-scaling stablecoin operating system that generates yield from market volatility, introduced pUSD as its native overcollateralized stablecoin with sustainable returns. Governance and Upcoming Alpha White House is scheduled to have a "closed-door" conversation about CLARITY Act with senior leaders from the banking and crypto sectors on February 2. Ondo is hosting the Ondo Summit on February 3 in New York City. Flying Tulip launched public sales on Coinlist from February 2 to February 4. Fluid-powered Venus Flux will be launching on BNB Chain on February 4, bringing enhanced lending and borrowing efficiency through its liquidity aggregation technology. MegaETH announced its public Mainnet launch scheduled for February 9, promising sub-millisecond latency and extreme throughput for real-time Ethereum applications. MegaETH also introduced KPI-based rewards, unlocking over half of the total MEGA supply to locked holders upon achieving key protocol milestones. Bybit plans to launch MyBank in February 2026, providing personal IBANs and banking services post-KYC to bridge centralized and decentralized finance for its users. Axelar outlined the 2026 roadmap featuring co-staking with blue-chip assets to enhance network economic security. Filecoin outlined the 2026 roadmap including onchain deal payments and enforcing stricter allocator stewardship model to ensure network incentives are solely toward verified, useful data storage. Token Unlock LA token unlocks on February 4, amount representing 5.94% of the token supply. BERA token unlocks on February 6, amount representing 46.1% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 5.74% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 4% of the token supply. LAYER token unlocks on February 11, amount representing 57% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on February 15, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on February 16, amount representing 57.7% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on February 20, amount representing 13.5% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(3/52) Weekly Market Insight | January Week 5 | Price Divergence](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-january-week-5-price-divergence/): Headline News: Price Divergence Bitcoin prices diverged from gold and equities this week, falling over 7%. This decline triggered more than $1 billion in liquidations and resulted in $1.33 billion in net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs, effectively erasing the previous week's inflows. The postponement of the CLARITY Act has left investors on the sidelines, maintaining a patient stance while searching for new catalysts to drive direction. Macro-Outlook: TACO Victory President Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed to a "framework of a future deal" at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The deal reportedly expands US military usage of Greenland and establishes a framework for joint development of critical minerals. Meanwhile, President Trump suspended the February 1 tariffs on European goods. President Trump also threatened Canada with 100% tariffs over its potential trade deal with China. The Senate Democrats threatened blocking the upcoming government spending bill if Department of Homeland Security spending is included, as Minneapolis protest escalated. The chances of a government shutdown on January 31 increased to 75% on Kalshi. The US Q3 GDP increased to 4.4%, slightly above the market estimations of 4.3%. The US core PCE increased to 2.8% in November, in line with the market forecasts. The US personal income grew by 0.3% in November, slightly below the market expectations of 0.4%. Meanwhile, US personal spending increased by 0.5% in November, matched with the market expectations. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Monday, January 26, 9:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in November Thursday, January 29, 3:00am: FOMC Meeting Friday, January 30, 3:00am: US PPI in December Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Prediction Market Obstruction NYSE announced a new digital platform for trading and on-chain settlement of tokenized securities, enabling 24/7 operations, instant settlement, stablecoin-based funding, and fractional trading of US-listed equities and ETFs. Delaware Life Insurance announced the addition of BlackRock's US Equity Bitcoin Balanced Risk 12% Index to its fixed indexed annuity lineup, marking the first US insurer to offer Bitcoin exposure in this retirement product category. Coinbase, in partnership with Circle, is supporting Bermuda's initiative to build the world's first fully-onchain national economy. Grayscale filed S-1 with SEC for a BNB ETF application, aiming to offer publicly traded exposure to Binance's native token BNB. Kalshi faced a preliminary injunction in Massachusetts requiring it to halt sports-related event contracts in the state, as a Superior Court judge ruled the offerings violate local sports betting laws by operating without the required license. Polymarket has been ordered blocked in Portugal by gambling regulator SRIJ for operating without authorization and violating the national ban on political betting. Layer 1 and Layer 2s MegaETH initiated a global stress test, targeting 18-35k real TPS with ultra-low fees, opening to all via native bridge. Mantle upgraded to Ethereum blobs as primary DA layer, transitioning to full Ethereum ZK rollup status while retaining EigenDA for specialized use cases. Celestia introduced Private Blockspace, allowing confidential onchain markets to keep positions, balances, and execution logic private while preserving public verifiability of data availability. Stellar completed its X-Ray upgrade, introducing privacy-feature smart contracts on the mainnet. Hashed proposed Maroo, a sovereign KRW-native blockchain standard designed for Korea's digital economy and AI agent commerce with programmable compliance and privacy features. Dapps Pendle announced a new sPENDLE tokenomics with up to 80% of protocol revenue will now fund PENDLE buybacks and distributed to sPENDLE holders, shifting away from the previous vePENDLE manual gauge allocation and multi-year lockup model. Jupiter Exchange integrated Ondo Global Markets, bringing 200+ NYSE-backed tokenized US stocks and ETFs to Solana with just-in-time mint/redeem and permissionless liquidity. Circle launched Circle Gateway on Solana, enabling chain-abstracted USDC with instant cross-chain availability across 12 networks for DeFi, payments, and treasury use cases. Uniswap expanded its Continuous Clearing Auctions on Base, enabling permissionless onchain token launches with credible price discovery and automatic Uniswap v4 liquidity bootstrapping. Chainlink launched 24/5 US Equities and ETF data feeds, providing DeFi with continuous pre-market, regular, after-hours, and overnight US stock data, enabling on-chain perpetuals, synthetics, prediction markets, and RWA applications across the $80 trillion US equities market. Chainlink also acquired Atlas (by FastLane), expanding SVR (OEV recapture) to new ecosystems including Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and HyperEVM. Ranger Finance launched UltraX Arbitrage vault, a delta-neutral funding rate arbitrage strategy targeting 20% APR across Hyperliquid, Drift, Aster, and Lighter perp DEXs. Farcaster protocol, app, and Clanker were being acquired by Neynar team while original founders transitioned to new projects. DeepBook on Sui launched margin trading alongside a Liquidity Points Program rewarding all interactions (direct or via integrations) to enhance capital efficiency and builder alignment. HyENA, a USDe collateral trading engine on Hyperliquid, went fully public with 50% lower fees, boosted 12% collateral APR for all positions, and open referrals. World Liberty Financial partnered with Spacecoin to utilise USD1 as payments and settlements for satellite business. Basketball.fun, a fantasy hoops platform on Somnia, went fully live, users can now open packs, earn shares, and build NBA rosters powered by real-time stats. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Magic Eden announced that starting February 1, 15% of all platform revenue will flow to the ME ecosystem: 50% for ME buybacks and 50% as monthly USDC rewards to ME stakers, with first claims available in March 2026. PancakeSwap successfully passed the proposal to reduce CAKE max supply from 450 million to 400 million tokens, reinforcing long-term sustainability and a deflationary tokenomics model. Injective introduced the INJ Supply Squeeze, a new tokenomics overhaul designed to permanently increase the rate of INJ supply reduction by 100%, escalating token deflation. Maple Finance opened MIP-020 vote to extend the current Syrup Staker Fund (SSF) buyback and allocation framework for another 6 months. Noble announced migration to a standalone EVM Layer 1 on March 18. It is purpose-built for stablecoin issuance, FX, payments, and agentic commerce with sub-second finality. Binance applied for EU-wide MiCA license through a new entity in Greece, positioning it to operate crypto services across the entire EU ahead of the July 1 deadline. Token Unlock RON token unlocks on January 28, amount representing 4.16% of the token supply. TREE token unlocks on January 30, amount representing 58.1% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 3.73% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 6.9% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on February 2, amount representing 6.78% of the token supply. LA token unlocks on February 4, amount representing 5.94% of the token supply. BERA token unlocks on February 6, amount representing 46.1% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 5.74% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on February 10, amount representing 4% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(2/52) Weekly Market Insight | January Week 4 | Debasement Trade](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-january-week-4-debasement-trade/): Headline News: Debasement Trade Bitcoin reclaimed the $97,000 level last week, driven by growing concerns over Federal Reserve independence and inflation data falling within expectations. On-chain metrics support this momentum, with the Long-Term Holder Net Position Change indicating a deceleration in distribution. Bitcoin Spot ETFs recorded $1.42 billion in net inflows last week, the highest weekly volume since October. Despite these bullish signals, the market remains cautious regarding looming political risks in the week ahead. Macro-Outlook: Greenland Tug-of-War The US Federal Reserve faces DOJ subpoenas threatening criminal indictment over Chair Powell's testimony, linked to the Fed's independent rate decisions amid political pressure. President Trump announced 10% tariffs (rising to 25% in June) on European nations until a Greenland purchase deal is reached. Meanwhile, the European Union plans to retaliate with €93 billion in tariffs in response to Trump's threat. The US inflation rate remained at 2.7% in December, in line with market expectations. The US PPI increased by 0.2% in December, also in line with market expectations. The US Supreme Court decided not to issue a ruling on President Trump's tariffs last week. The next potential ruling will be on January 20, 10:00 PM SGT. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Thursday, January 22, 9:30pm: US Q3 GDP Thursday, January 22, 11:00pm: US PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in November Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: InfoFi's Death Sentence The latest drafted crypto market structure bill has not reached bipartisan agreement over subjects such as stablecoin yield restrictions. Coinbase opposes the bill publicly. X Platform terminated developer API access for apps rewarding posts (InfoFi), citing AI slop and spam proliferation. Kaito and Cookie both sunsetted their Yaps and Snaps features. Google partners with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart to launch Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard for AI agents in shopping, enabling native checkout on AI Mode and Gemini apps soon. Standard Chartered prepares to launch crypto prime brokerage services. DZ Bank (Germany's second-largest) launched MiCAR-approved crypto platform offering BTC, ETH, LTC, ADA trading. London Stock Exchange Group launched blockchain-based Digital Settlement House for faster 24/7 cross-network settlement. CME Group launched Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures in standard and micro sizes. South Korea ended a nine-year ban on corporate crypto investments, allowing listed companies and professional investors to hold up to 5% of equity in the top 20 cryptocurrencies on major exchanges. Nigeria introduced tax law requiring VASPs to collect TIN/NIN for crypto transactions, submit monthly reports, and flag suspicious trades for traceability and compliance. Layer 1 and Layer 2s MegaETH announced deployment of World Markets, an onchain CLOB unifying perps, spot, and lending with extreme leverage and low-latency execution. Canton Network launches Temple, a privacy-preserving order book for digital asset trading including Bitcoin, stablecoins, RWAs, and Canton Coin. Polygon acquired Coinme and Sequence to build a regulated US payments platform with fiat on/off ramps and one-click cross-chain transactions. TRON integrated native support into MetaMask mobile and browser extension for seamless asset management. Sui Network resolved a six-hour stall caused by validator consensus divergence. Optimism launched Actions SDK for embedding DeFi lending/borrowing/swaps into apps with minimal code. Boundless introduced framework for OP Stack rollups offering switchable ZK fraud/validity proofs for faster finality. Brevis partners with BNB Chain to build a generalized privacy framework, launching Intelligent Privacy Pool with Bow. Celestia unveiled Fibre, achieving 1Tb/s blockspace via ultra-fast ZODA-based DA encoding (881x faster than KZG). Dapps World Liberty Financial launched WLFI Markets on Dolomite, offering lending, borrowing, and future RWA access with USD1 integration and community governance over collateral and incentives. Infinex launched browser extension unifying portfolio views, Swidge swaps, and cross-chain support. YieldBasis introduced Hybrid Vault requiring crvUSD staking for increased personal caps while enhancing peg support. Jumper Exchange launched Earn and Portfolio features, offering personalized DeFi yields and unified cross-chain position management. Ether.fi launched physical debit cards (Core, Luxe, Pinnacle tiers) for direct crypto spending, with VIP and corporate options coming soon. WalletConnect launched Pay for embedded crypto payments, enabling seamless fiat-to-stablecoin conversions in apps. Markets Protocol launched a universal frontend for trading global assets 24/7, unifying traditional and crypto markets with single-balance funding. Pendle introduced Scale Orders for automated DCA-style buying/selling across yield ranges, supporting flat, ascending, and descending distributions. Huddle01 launched HuddlePad, an Arbitrum-native launchpad using Uniswap's Continuous Clearing Auctions for fair token distribution. MiniPay announced upcoming cards supporting online/in-store purchases and Apple/Google Pay integration. Privacy Cash launched Private Swaps on Solana, enabling shielded token exchanges via Jupiter routing. Hinkal launched Private Send for shielded transfers from public wallets with split recipients and time windows. Fluidkey expanded private payment links to accept USDC/USDT from 9 additional chains plus Bitcoin via NEAR Intents. Figure launched OPEN on Provenance for native onchain public equity issuance and continuous trading via its ATS. Remora Markets launched tokenized ETFs for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper on Solana. Governance and Upcoming Alpha ZKsync prioritizes real-world infrastructure in the 2026 roadmap, focusing on institutional adoption and coordinated ZK stack development. DeFi Saver partners with Summer.fi to manage Summer.fi Pro positions and integrate Lazy Vaults in Q1 2026. Sentient unveiled SENT tokenomics with about 20% unlocked at TGE with utilities such as staking, governance, fees and payment. ETHGas Foundation introduced GWEI governance token for Realtime Ethereum. Token Unlock PLUME token unlocks on January 21, amount representing 44.2% of the token supply. HYPER token unlocks on January 22, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on January 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on January 26, amount representing 5.02% of the token supply. RON token unlocks on January 28, amount representing 4.16% of the token supply. TREE token unlocks on January 30, amount representing 58.1% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 3.73% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on February 1, amount representing 6.9% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on February 2, amount representing 6.78% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(1/52) Weekly Market Insight | January Week 3 | Wave of Stimulus](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-january-week-3-wave-of-stimulus/): Headline News: Wave of Stimulus Bitcoin consolidates around $90,000 following a failed attempt to break the $95,000 resistance level. Despite Spot ETFs recording a $681 million net outflow last week, weekly trading volume surged by 30%, signaling a resurgence of market participation. Macro-Outlook: Spotlight on Macro Events The US December nonfarm payrolls gained by 50,000, below the expectations of 60,000. The US unemployment rate decreased to 4.4%, below the market estimations of 4.5%, pointing to some improvement in underlying labor market slack. The market currently estimates a 96% chance interest rate will remain unchanged in January. The US ISM manufacturing PMI decreased to 47.9 in December, well below expectations of 48.3. Meanwhile, ISM services PMI increased to 54.4, well above expectations of 52.3. The market currently estimates a 23% chance the US government will be shutdown on January 31. The market expects the Supreme Court to have a 31% chance to rule in favor of Trump's tariffs. The ruling is expected to be made on January 14. White House stated having "plan B" to reinstate the tariffs if Supreme Court rules against them. President Trump stated the US will acquire Greenland through negotiation or force for strategic reasons against Russia and China. The market currently estimates a 42% chance the US will take control of a part of Greenland by 2029. President Trump also threatened to intervene in Iran if the protests turn violent. President Trump also announced a $200 billion purchase of mortgage bonds, a 10% interest cap on credit cards, and a ban on institutional purchases of single family homes. The major US financial institutions like JP Morgan, Bank of America, Blackrock etc are releasing their Q4 earnings this week. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, January 13, 9:30pm: US Inflation Rate in December Wednesday, January 14, 9:30pm: US PPI and Retail Sales in November Thursday, January 15, 3:00am: Fed Beige Book Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Highway in the West; Bump in the East Morgan Stanley filed for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs, a strategic move to capture advisory assets and expand their ETF business. Morgan Stanley is also planning to launch its digital wallet for tokenized assets later in 2026. BNY Mellon launched tokenized deposit service for on-chain payments, collateral, and settlements, accelerating digital asset expansion. Barclays made its first stablecoin investment backing Ubyx, a clearing system for stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Fireblocks acquired Tres Finance to create unified OS for digital assets, enabling automated financial records from blockchain activity for compliance and integration. Strategy announced MSCI confirmed Digital Asset Treasury Companies remain in MSCI Indexes for the February 2026 review. South Korea plans to allow spot crypto ETFs including Bitcoin in 2026, accelerating legislation referencing US and Hong Kong markets. Florida introduced bill for strategic Bitcoin reserves allocating up to 10% of public funds to BTC and ETFs. Tennessee regulators issued cease-and-desist to Polymarket and others for unlicensed sports betting, requiring operations to halt by January 31. China classified RWA tokenization as illegal finance, warning domestic and overseas operators of liability for unauthorized activities. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Polygon deployed Dandeli hardfork increasing capacity 30% and stabilizing gas, advancing Gigagas roadmap toward full onchain money infrastructure. Tempo launched TIP-20 token standard for stablecoins, featuring transfer memos, compliance policies, yield rewards, and multi-stablecoin gas fees. TRON DAO partnered with Wirex to develop an on-chain payment layer for instant, autonomous global value transfers, focusing on agentic payments and stablecoin infrastructure. Arbitrum deployed ArbOS Dia upgrade, enhancing fees during spikes, throughput foundations, passkeys for onboarding, interop gas tokens, and Ethereum Fusaka compatibility. Fluent introduced Prints, unique onchain proofs of humanity and reputation for filtering bots and finding valuable users. Plume powered the launch of GemStone by BlackOpal, tokenizing Brazilian credit card receivables for institutional yields in emerging markets. Canton Network announced JPMorgan extending JPM Coin to Canton for institutional RWA and collateral ecosystem. ADI Chain, an institutional RWA-focus L2 MENA, partnered with M-Pesa to onboard 60 million users in Africa for cross-border settlements via dirham-backed stablecoin. Starknet was restored after a four-hour outage affecting block production. Dapps Jito launched IBRL Explorer to analyze block production, introducing IBRL Score to measure validator quality and highlight issues like late packing and slot lagging for better network performance. Jupiter launched JupUSD, a reserve-backed USD stablecoin in partnership with Ethena, initially backed 90% by USDtb and 10% USDC, features institutional custody, open-source code with audits, and integrations into lending, trading, perps, and mobile. Pump.fun introduced creator fee sharing for up to 10 wallets, ownership transfer, and authority revocation; signals more changes to fees for better trader incentives and project utility. Ondo Finance added 98 new tokenized stocks and ETFs to Global Markets, expanding onchain access to traditional equities with blockchain liquidity. World Liberty Financial applied for a national trust bank charter to issue and custody USD1 stablecoin, targeting institutional services. Yield Basis added ETH pools, enabling users to create impermanent-loss-less yield-bearing ETH positions. Lighter disclosed revenues will fund growth and token buybacks, trackable onchain via treasury account. Tether Gold introduced Scudo, a granular unit equaling 1/1000 of an XAU₮ gold ounce, enabling easier on-chain transactions and tracking of physical gold in smaller amounts. Parcl launched real estate prediction markets on Polymarket for housing prices in major US cities and nationwide, settling against Parcl's indices. Delphi Digital also partnered with Polymarket to create tradable research markets, turning institutional forecasts into prediction markets. Polymarket partnered with Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as the exclusive prediction market provider, supplying data for financial news and features. Polymarket introduced taker fees on 15-minute crypto markets to fund maker rebates for better liquidity, keeping most markets fee-free. StraitsX enabled Apple Pay In-App provisioning for Pionex cards, supporting instant activation via Visa BIN sponsorship for seamless mobile payments. Zcash developers quit the Electric Coin Company after board clash and formed a new entity, potentially fragmenting development of privacy-focused cryptocurrency. Virtuals Protocol updated its launch model with three tiers: Pegasus for prototyping, Unicorn for scaling, Titan for high-liquidity mature projects; with new baseline liquidity requirements, fee adjustments, and automated revenue sharing to enhance agent ecosystems. Governance and Upcoming Alpha US Senate committees to vote on crypto market structure bills January 15. Polygon unveiled the Polygon Open Money Stack, a vertically integrated system for seamless onchain money movement, targeting global payments and institutional adoption. Optimism Foundation proposed monthly OP token buybacks to support token value amid ecosystem growth. Token Unlock ZKC token unlocks on January 15, amount representing 6.71% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on January 16, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on January 17, amount representing 26.9% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on January 17, amount representing 14.3% of the token supply. ONDO token unlocks on January 18, amount representing 61.4% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on January 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on January 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on January 21, amount representing 44.2% of the token supply. HYPER token unlocks on January 22, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on January 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on January 26, amount representing 5.02% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(52/52) Weekly Market Insight | January Week 2 | Geopolitical Risk Resurgence](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-january-week-2-geopolitical-risk-resurgence/): Headline News: Geopolitical Risk Resurgence Bitcoin reclaimed the $91,000 mark for the first time since December 12, closing the week with a 4.08% gain amidst escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Venezuela. The rally was supported by $458.77 million in net weekly inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs. The focus shifts to this week’s fund flows to gauge institutional sentiment as year-end tax-loss harvesting pressures subside. Macro-Outlook: Macro-Uncertainty The US launched targeted airstrikes on key military infrastructure in Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. President Trump stated the US will "run" Venezuela until a "safe, proper, and judicious transition" can be achieved, and confirmed continued oil supply for China. The geopolitical escalation is seen to have limited immediate global economic impact, with effects concentrated on energy, yet elevating long-term risk sentiment across markets. The December FOMC minutes showed most participants suggested keeping the future rate unchanged after lowering 25bps in December, with concern over inflation. The upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Monday, January 5, 11:00pm: The US ISM Manufacturing PMI in December Wednesday, January 7, 11:00pm: The US ISM Services PMI in December and JOLTs Job Openings in November Friday, January 9, 9:30pm: The US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in December Friday, January 9, 11:00pm: The Michigan Consumer Sentiment in January Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: More Altcoin ETFs Grayscale filed an initial S-1 registration for the Grayscale Bittensor Trust (GTAO), advancing toward converting it into the first US-listed TAO ETP for Bittensor, the decentralized AI protocol. Bitwise submitted SEC applications for 11 single-asset cryptocurrency ETFs, including AAVE, UNI, ZEC, ENA, HYPE, NEAR, STRK, SUI, TAO, and TRX Strategy ETFs, expanding potential institutional exposure. The OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) takes effect on January 1, 2026, mandating crypto platforms in the UK, EU, and 48 other jurisdictions to report user tax data for enhanced global compliance. Dapps Zama, a Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) protocol, launched its mainnet and executed the first confidential stablecoin (cUSDT) transfer on Ethereum. iExec RLC, a privacy-focused decentralized compute platform, became the first TEE decentralized provider on TDX, boosting confidential computing on Arbitrum. Lighter, a low-cost low-latency perpetual trading platform on Ethereum L2 using custom ZK circuits, listed its LIT token on the mainnet. Jupiter Exchange announced Jupiter Mobile V3, a native pro trading terminal with improved UX for discovery, analysis, and low-fee trading, featuring rollouts over 21 days. Spreads Finance, a DeFi protocol focused on amplified yields through vaults, launched its mainnet, enabling users to deposit USDC, mint sprUSD, and earn enhanced yields or points from integrated DeFi applications. Jeju, an open decentralized permissionless internet platform by Eliza Labs offering compute, storage, and agent-powered security, was announced and launched on testnet, enabling cross-chain token usage without bridging to shift value accrual to applications. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Gnosis will announce its 3.0 vision and 2026 roadmap during its AMA session on January 7. BNB Chain extended its zero gas fees carnival for USDC, USD1 and U until January 31. Pendle launched a new feature enabling protocols to add extra rewards to their markets, starting with Midas' YTs mHYPER and mAPOLLO expiring January 29, 2026. Tria, a crypto-neobank protocol, outlined Q1-Q2 2026 plans including futures, prediction markets, on/off-ramps, AI agents, and Season 2 rewards targeting over $1 billion transactions. Aave Labs plans to propose sharing a portion of off-protocol revenue with AAVE token holders, including governance and risk safeguards, in response to community discussions. Jupiter Exchange is considering shifting protocol revenue from buyback to alternative options including incentive payout, staking yields and trading discounts. Token Unlock MOVE token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 5.78% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 6% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 4.16% of the token supply. RAIN token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 11% of the token supply. US token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 6.32% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on January 13, amount representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on January 15, amount representing 6.71% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on January 16, amount representing 4.47% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocks on January 17, amount representing 26.9% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on January 17, amount representing 14.3% of the token supply. ONDO token unlocks on January 18, amount representing 61.4% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(50/52) Weekly Market Insight | December Week 4 | Santa Rally Watch](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-december-week-4-santa-rally-watch/): Headline News: Santa Rally Watch Bitcoin remained range-bound last week, posting a marginal 0.55% gain. Despite dovish macroeconomic signals, specifically a weakening labor market and cooling inflation, market expectations for a January 2026 rate cut remain subdued at just 21%. Volatility may increase due to the record level options expiry on the upcoming Friday. The market needs a clear catalyst to shift market sentiment significantly to the upside. Investors are closely watching for regulatory developments in January, specifically the advancement of the CLARITY Act or potential SEC innovation exemptions. Macro-Outlook: Distorted Economic Data The US non-farm payrolls decreased by 105K in October and subsequently increased by 64K in November. The unemployment rate increased to 4.6% in November, higher than the market expectations of 4.4%. The current population survey (CPS) response rate dropped to the lowest on record of 64% in November, indicating deteriorating economic data. The US retail sales flattened in October, below forecasts of a 0.1% rise. The US inflation decreased to 2.7% in November, below forecasts of 3.1%. However, some economists described the report as downwardly biased, noting that assuming zero price changes for missing October data. New York Fed President John Williams also stated the inflation data in November was likely distorted. The Bank of Japan increased the interest rate by 25bps to 0.75%, aligning with market expectations. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, December 23, 9:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in October and Q3 Estimated GDP Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Broader Institutional Adoption Coinbase unveiled major upgrades, integrating stocks and ETFs, prediction markets powered by Kalshi, AI advisor and more in the Coinbase app. Coinbase also launched Custom Stablecoins, providing branded stablecoin issuance services to institutions. Visa announced that all US card issuers can now settle directly with Visa using USDC stablecoin. Crypto.com partnered with DBS to accept direct bank deposits of SGD and USD to the crypto exchange. SoFi, a US chartered online bank, launched SoFiUSD stablecoin to streamline their operations with faster and more efficient money movement. Bitfinex announced zero fees for maker and taker on Bitfinex across spot & margin trading, derivatives trading, securities trading and OTC trading. The US Federal Reserve withdrew the policy statement that restricted state member banks from novel activities like crypto. Securitize, the major tokenisation platform for assets such as Blackrock's BUIDL, introduced tokenisation of stocks on the platform. CME Group launched spot-quoted XRP and SOL futures. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum named the major upgrade after Glamsterdam, Hegota, potentially including upgrades to Verkle Trees, state management and execution optimisations. Glamsterdam is expected to be execute in the first half of 2026, introducing enshrined proposer-builder separation (ePBS), while Hegota is expected in second half of 2026. JP Morgan launched its USD deposit token, JPMD, on Base. JP Morgan also launched its tokenised money market fund, MONY, on Ethereum. ZKsync announced Managed Services, providing dedicated ZK Stack chains along with RPC, block explorer, indexers, and event delivery to simplify operations for enterprises. Blackrock, Mastercard and Franklin Templeton signed MOUs with ADI Chain, a Middle East-focus compliant Layer-2, to advance regulated digital asset infrastructure on ADI Chain. Kalshi integrated deposit and withdrawal using TRX and USDT on Tron Network. BOB introduced Native Bitcoin Vaults Stack, a BitVM powered infrastructure, allowing using native Bitcoin as DeFi collateral and borrowing assets on other supported chains. DTCC partnered with Canton Network to bring DTC-custodied US treasuries on-chain. Dapps ETHGas raised $12 million led by Polychain to build Ethereum's blockspace futures market. Ondo introduced Ondo Bridge for its tokenised stocks across Ethereum and BNB Chain via LayerZero. Ondo also launched its Global Markets on Solana. United Stables launched USD-stablecoin, U, natively on BNB and the protocol has issued more than $100 million U token. Brevis partnered with Opinion bringing verifiable results for the resolutions in the prediction markets. World (previously Worldcoin) introduced a new World App, including encrypted messaging, multi-currency support, and more. Rysk introduced Rysk Premium, an abstracted volatility income strategy for passive investors and customised volatility strategy for sophisticated allocators. Pendle launched its principal tokens (PTs) on Solana via Chainlink CCIP and Kamino. Phantom introduced Phantom Cash debit card and Kalshi prediction markets integration on the platform. Euler partnered with HypurrFi to bring full Euler lending stack integration on Hyperliquid. Render Network introduced Dispersed, a new AI and 3D compute network. PancakeSwap and YZi Labs announced a new incubated prediction markets on BNB Chain, Probable. It is the third prediction market on BNB Chain publicly backed by YZi Labs, after Opinion and Predict.fun. Circle acquired the core contributors of Axelar, Interop Labs, and intellectual property. Notably, the acquisition didn't include Axelar Network. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Uniswap's final fee switch proposal, Unification, will be concluded on December 26. About $23.8 billion notional value worth of Bitcoin options are expiring on December 26. Aave is actively discussing a proposal to transfer Aave's brand assets to Aave DAO from Aave Labs. Eigen Cloud proposed ELIP-12, an Incentives Committee to direct EIGEN emissions and drive value back to EIGEN holders. Lido is expected to launch phase 1 of Lido v3 soon, as the activation proposal passed. World Liberty Finance proposed to use less than 5% of unlocked WLFI on treasury to accelerate USD1 adoption. According to Arkham, the team currently holds about 46.6% of WLFI total supply. The White House AI & Crypto Czar, David Sacks, stated a markup for CLARITY Act is coming in January 2026. Token Unlock XPL token unlocks on December 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on December 26, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. TREE token unlocks on December 29, amount representing 6.16% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on December 31, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on December 31, amount representing 6.92% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on January 1, amount representing 7.52% of the token supply. LA token unlocks on January 5, amount representing 5.94% of the token supply. MOVE token unlocks on January 10, amount representing 5.78% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on January 11, amount representing 6% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(49/52) Weekly Market Insight | December Week 3 | Key Economic Data Ahead](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-december-week-3-key-economic-data-ahead/): Headline News: Key Economic Data Ahead Bitcoin closed last week down 2.51%. While the Fed cut interest rates by 25bps, hawkish projections for 2026 stifled any bullish momentum. Investors remain cautious ahead of this week's key economic releases, which will provide the first clear view of the economic landscape following the government reopening in November. Macro-Outlook: Resistance to Future Rate Cuts The Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate by 25bps to a range of 3.5% to 3.75% during the FOMC last week, together with a $40 billion monthly purchase of Treasury bills for the purpose of "Reserve Management Purchases". The latest economic projections showed the Fed expects the median rate for 2026 to be 3.4%, unchanged from the September projection. Chair Powell expressed concern about the downside risk of unemployment rate, despite raising the expected economic growth forecast in 2026. The market expects a 75% probability that the interest rate will remain unchanged in January 2026. The upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, December 16, 9:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls in October and November; The US Unemployment Rate in November; The US Retail Sales in October Thursday, December 18, 9:30pm: The US Inflation Rate in November Friday, December 19, 11:00am: Bank of Japan Interest Rate Decision Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Resurgence of the ICO-Era The SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that many Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) should not be considered securities and suggested they fall under CFTC jurisdiction. CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham launched a digital-assets collateral pilot program, allowing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC to be used in US derivatives markets. DTCC received a No-Action Letter from the SEC to tokenize stocks, ETFs and bonds. Interactive Brokers began allowing eligible US retail clients to fund brokerage accounts directly with stablecoins, powered by Zero Hash. Strategy Inc confirmed it will remain in the Nasdaq 100 index for another 12 months, with Global index provider MSCI set to decide on its inclusion in January. Coinbase released x402 V2, expanding beyond single-call payments to a general payment layer with wallet-based identity, multi-chain by default, extensions, automatic API discovery, dynamic payment recipients and more. Layer 1s and Layer 2s Firedancer, the high performance validator client for Solana, is officially live on the mainnet. Firedancer demonstrated the ability to handle over 1 million TPS in a controlled environment. Ethereum activated the BPO-1 upgrade, increasing blob capacity to 15 per block to provide more space for Layer 2 rollups without requiring a hard fork. BPO-2 with maximum blob capacity of 21 is expected in January 2026 with the goal of progressively increasing to 48 throughout 2026. Sei Network announced that a built-in wallet and Sei-based app will be integrated into the Xiaomi mobile ecosystem, coming pre-installed on new devices. Polygon completed its Madhugiri upgrade on the mainnet, introducing adjustable blocktimes, faster consensus, and increased throughput to enhance network stability. Plume Network launched institutional-grade vaults on Solana with assets from issuers like WisdomTree and Hamilton Lane to bring real-world yield onchain. Aleo launched USDCx on testnet with Circle xReserve, introducing a private and programmable stablecoin solution for confidential real-world transactions. Horizen went live on Base as a Layer-3, bringing faster and cheaper privacy preserving solutions to applications on Ethereum and Base. Dapps Coinbase partnered with Chainlink CCIP as the exclusive bridge provider to bring Coinbase Wrapped Assets to new blockchain ecosystems. Coinbase also enabled direct trading of Solana ecosystem tokens on Coinbase apps. xStocks launched xBridge using Chainlink CCIP to enable cross-chain transactions of tokenized equities while preserving rebasing capabilities for events like dividend distribution and stock splits. Farcaster announced a strategic pivot from a "social-first" approach to a "wallet-driven" growth model to better achieve product-market fit. Pendle launched new OKX exchange funding rate markets for Bitcoin and Ethereum on Boros. Kamino rebranded its brand logo and unveiled six new products including fixed rates and terms product, intent-based credit market, off-chain collateral, private credit, RWA DEX, and a plug-and-play buildkit. Loyal launched its Solana transfer feature on Telegram. Users can send Solana to friends by their Telegram handle, and the transactions are shielded without exposing the users' public addresses. dYdX launched spot trading for Solana assets with zero fees. Worm.wtf launched a leverage prediction market on Solana. Pyth Network introduced the PYTH Reserve, using revenue from products like Pyth Pro to systematically buyback PYTH tokens on the open market. DeBridge announced a new execution model, deBridge Bundles, introducing intent cross-chain execution design by attracting gas payments, slippage, retries and more. Based launched private-beta HyENA, a perpetual exchange with USDe as the quote asset, offering yield on idle collateral and a HLPe vault. LayerZero introduced ZeroOS, a universal modular Library OS for zkVMs and enables zkVM builders like Succinct and RISC Zero to unlock compatibility with Linux applications. Arcium introduced C-SPL, enabling SPL tokens to be encrypted and transferred, and Cerberus Protocol, increasing the multi-party computation (MPC) security assumptions with only one honest participant. Brevis launched ProverNet mainnet beta, a decentralized marketplace for zero-knowledge proof generation. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Coinbase is expected to make a major announcement (reportedly related to prediction markets) on December 17. Synthetix is expected to launch decentralised perpetual exchange on Ethereum on December 17. INFINIT is expected to launch Prompt-to-DeFi, enabling AI-generated DeFi strategies using user prompts, on December 18. Jupiter revealed multiple upgrades at Solana Breakpoint, including the launch of JupUSD this week, upgrading execution tools, and acquiring Rain.fi to integrate its Offer Book money market. Meteora announced DLMM V2, offering a new rebalancing tool, on-chain limit orders, preferred fee tokens and more, which will be released in Q1 2026. Project 0, the DeFi native Prime Broker on Solana, where users can collateralise their portfolio on different dapps and borrow against the portfolios, is expected to be launched in Q1 2026. Curve Finance has approved the crvUSD credit line for Yield Basis from $300 million to $1 billion. A new $50 million cbBTC cap-raise on Yield Basis filled within a few hours. The Official Trump Meme announced launching a new mobile game soon. Hey Anon is expected to launch a permissionless prediction market supporting all EVM networks, allowing anyone to create markets without KYC this month. IO.net introduced Incentive Dynamic Engine (IDE), a new tokenomics design where USD-stablecoin will be used as the payment and reward tokens for predictability, at least 50% of revenue will buyback IO and burn, and dynamic pricing based on utilisation. Hyperliquid announced that portfolio margin is now live on testnet in pre-alpha mode, with a full mainnet launch coming in an upcoming network upgrade. Token Unlock VANA token unlocks on December 16, amount representing 19.9% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocks on December 21, amount representing 13.1% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on December 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on December 26, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. TREE token unlocks on December 29, amount representing 6.16% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on December 31, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on December 31, amount representing 6.92% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on January 1, amount representing 7.52% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(48/52) Weekly Market Insight | December Week 2 | FOMC Week](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-december-week-2-fomc-week/): Headline News: FOMC Week The crypto market traded sideways in anticipation of the upcoming FOMC meeting, weighed down by persistent liquidity constraints visible in elevated Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and Standing Repo Facility usage despite the conclusion of the Fed's quantitative tightening. Selling pressure was further exacerbated by a hawkish Bank of Japan, which triggered an unwinding of JPY-funded risky investment. However, as the US stock market staged a mild recovery, Bitcoin also demonstrated resilience to close the week marginally higher with a 0.06% gain. Macro-Outlook: Hawkish BOJ; Resilient US Economy The US ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.2 in November, higher than the market expectations of 51.9. Meanwhile, the US ISM service PMI rose to 52.6 in November, also higher than the market expectations of 52.1, indicating a resilient economy. The Fed preferred inflation indicator PCE decreased to 2.8% in September, in line with the market forecasts. The US personal income and spending increased by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively in September, which is higher than expectations for income, while spending matched market expectations. The Michigan consumer sentiment increased to 53.3, higher than market forecasts of 52 and marked as the first improvement in sentiment in five months. The market expects roughly 80% chance of a December rate hike by the Bank of Japan on December 19 as governor Ueda signalled BOJ is considering the "pros and cons" of raising rates last Monday. The market expects about 88% chance the Fed will cut 25bps in the upcoming FOMC meeting. New economic projections and additional guidance on the Fed balance sheet are also expected from the upcoming meeting. Upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Tuesday, December 9, 11:00pm: The JOLTs Job Openings in September and October Thursday, December 11, 3:00am: FOMC meeting Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: The Inevitable Innovation Exemption The SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated "innovation exemption" is expected to be introduced in January 2026. Strategy Inc announced the establishment of a $1.44 billion reserve to cover dividend and interest payments for at least the next 12 months. Sony Bank plans to issue a USD-pegged stablecoin as early as 2026, aiming to facilitate payments within the Sony ecosystem for gaming and anime. European banks, including ING and BNP Paribas, formed a new company called Qivalis to launch a Euro-denominated stablecoin in the second half of 2026. Kraken acquired BackedFi to bring the issuance of xStocks fully in-house, accelerating its move into tokenized equities and 24/7 capital markets. Crypto.com announced a partnership with Fanatics to launch Fanatics Markets, a fan-led prediction market at the intersection of sports, finance, and culture. Binance introduced Binance Junior, a parent-controlled sub-account feature designed to help parents educate kids and teens about crypto savings and financial literacy. Coinbase introduced a minimal fee of $0.001 after 1,000 settled x402 payments per month. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum successfully upgraded the Fusaka update on the mainnet, introducing features like PeerDAS to increase rollup data throughput and increasing the Layer 1 gas limit to prepare for further Layer-1 scaling. Optimism successfully activated the Jovian upgrade and across the Superchain (Base, Unichain), allowing chain operators to specify a minimum base fee, limit to DA usage and more. Base launched Base-Solana bridge, enabling seamless asset transfers between the two major ecosystems. TON network launched its decentralised confidential compute network, Cocoon, allowing users to process AI requests privately while enabling GPU owners to earn TON. ZKsync introduced ZKsync Interop, enabling ZKsync users to seamlessly access Ethereum markets on Layer-1 without leaving ZK Chain. ZKsync also announced the team will deprecate ZKsync Lite in 2026. NEAR introduced NEAR AI Cloud and Private Chat, enabling end-to-end privacy when interacting with open-source AI models like ChatGPT. Immutable introduced Immutable Audience, an AI-powered growth software that helps game developers to better identify real players from bots, target quests and campaigns to retain and reward organic audiences. Dapps Kalshi announced the launch of its tokenized prediction markets on Solana, enabling prediction markets to broader crypto users and potentially new use cases of tokenised prediction markets in DeFi. The platform also announced major media partnerships with CNN and CNBC to integrate real-time prediction data into their programming. Trust Wallet launched a native predictions feature powered by MyriadMarkets, allowing users to trade sports, crypto, and political outcomes directly within the app, with Polymarket and Kalshi integrations coming soon. Polymarket launched an iOS app. MetaMask also integrated Polymarket into its MetaMask Mobile. MetaMask introduced MetaMask Transaction Shield, covering up to $10,000 per transaction against wallet drainers. Circle announced a collaboration with OpenMind to develop standards for machine-to-machine payments, aiming to build the infrastructure for autonomous AI transactions using USDC. Aave partnered with CoW Swap to integrate their solver network, providing users with better pricing, MEV protection, and a new intent-based flash loan product on the Aave interface. Curve Finance launched its first FX liquidity pool (CHF-USD) on Ethereum, powered by the new FXSwap algorithm designed for low-volatility forex pairs. Drift Protocol announced Drift v3, featuring a complete redesign that claims to offer 10 times faster execution and improved liquidity for traders on Solana. Lighter introduced spot trading, enabling users to deposit and transfer ETH as the first native asset on its network. Farward Industries Partners, the SOL-DAT company, partnered with Sanctum to launch fwdSOL liquid staking token. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Stable, the USDT-focused layer-1, introduced its STABLE token, which will be used for staking but not as a gas token. The token is launching on December 8. ADI Chain will launch its mainnet and the ADI token on December 9, positioning the chain for regulated Dirham-backed stablecoin and institutional adoption in Abu Dhabi. Yield Basis announced activating fee switch, distributing protocol fees to veYB holders depending on staked ybBTC. The voting will end on December 10. Midnight, Cardano's privacy-focused Partner Chain announced its NIGHT token allocation will begin on December 10 with a thawing schedule for token unlock. Solana's biggest conference, Breakpoint, will be held from December 11 to 13 in Abu Dhabi. Almanak, the highly anticipated DeFAI protocol, plans to launch its ALMANAK token on December 11. The protocol will also launch an incentive campaign, Almanak Games, from December 11 to 30. Bittensor is expected to be halving its block reward for the first time on December 15. Talus, the decentralised AI agent infrastructure protocol, introduced US token as the workflow payment token and staking token for operators. The token is expected to launch very soon. Zama, the leading Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) protocol, announced a public auction for 10% of the ZAMA supply from January 12 to 15, utilizing a sealed-bid Dutch auction on Ethereum secured by FHE to ensure fair price discovery. Solana Mobile revealed SKR tokenomics, allocating 30% to airdrops and 15% to Solana Mobile in January 2026. Guardians have to stake SKR to provide device authenticity verification, dapp reviews and enforce community standards. Fluid announced Venus X, a money market and DEX on BNB Chain powered by Fluid and Venus Protocol, scheduled for release in Q1 2026. Aster released its H1 2026 roadmap, confirming the Aster Chain L1 mainnet launch for Q1 2026 and the introduction of staking and governance in Q2. Shield Mode, TWAP strategies, RWA stock perpetual are expected to be launched this month. Celo announced an extended partnership with MiniPay to expand its payment apps to Asia and Latin America in the first half of 2026. Babylon partnered with Aave to build the first native Bitcoin-based Spoke on Aave v4, enabling native Bitcoin collateral on Aave. Scroll teased a new initiative about privacy. Token Unlock LINEA token unlocks on December 10, amount representing 6.11% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on December 10, amount representing 4.71% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on December 14, amount representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on December 15, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on December 16, amount representing 19.9% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocks on December 21, amount representing 13.1% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on December 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on December 26, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(47/52) Weekly Market Insight | December Week 1 | Holiday Optimism](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-december-week-1-holiday-optimism/): Headline News: Holiday Optimism Market sentiment has stabilized as Bitcoin reclaimed the $90,000 level, ending a four-week streak of outflows with a fresh $70 million in net inflows last week. Optimism was being driven by the increasing probability of a December rate cut alongside key sector upgrades. The immediate focus is now on the Ethereum Fusaka upgrade, the most highly anticipated event scheduled for December 3. Macro-Outlook: Pricing in a Near-Certain Rate Cut The US PPI increased by 0.3% in September, in line with the market expectations. The US durable goods in September also increased by 0.5%, above market expectations of 0.3%. Meanwhile, the retail sales in September increased by 0.2%, below the market forecasts of 0.4%. The latest Beige Book reported largely stable economic activity, though employment edged down and consumer spending declined despite strength in high-end retail. The market estimates the probability of a 25bps rate cut in December is about 86%. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Monday, December 1, 11:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in November Tuesday, December 2, 9:00am: Fed Chair Powell Speech Wednesday, December 3, 9:15pm: US ADP Employment Change in November Wednesday, December 3, 11:00pm: US ISM Service PMI in November Friday, December 5, 11:00pm: US PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in September ; Michigan Consumer Preliminary Sentiment for December Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Monad Mainnet; Ethereum Fusaka The Texas Blockchain Council President confirmed the state purchased $5 million worth of Bitcoin, becoming the first state to hold cryptocurrency in its treasury. The payments giant Klarna introduced KlarnaUSD, its first stablecoin launched on Tempo, a blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, to accelerate stablecoin adoption for its 114 million users. Polymarket received CFTC approval for intermediation, allowing it to offer services to US customers through registered brokers. Galaxy Digital is also reportedly exploring partnerships to serve as a liquidity provider for prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi. Robinhood announced a new futures and derivatives exchange, significantly deepening its investment in prediction markets and expanding its crypto product suite. S&P Global Ratings downgraded Tether stability assessment of USDT to "Weak," citing limited transparency and a higher allocation to riskier reserve assets. Naver and Dunamu announced a plan to invest approximately $6.8 billion over five years to build next-generation financial infrastructure and issue a Won-pegged stablecoin. Upbit exchange experienced a security breach of approximately $38.5 million on the Solana network. Strategy CEO, Phong Le stated the company would sell Bitcoin if the mNAV of the company falls below 1. Strategy's current mNAV is approximately 0.9, while mNAV based on enterprise value is about 1.15. Layer 1 and Layer 2s The Monad Mainnet is officially live, opening its high-performance parallel EVM network to the public after months of anticipation. Sunrise, developed by Wormhole, facilitated the native listing of the MON token on Solana, providing deep liquidity on day one. Ethereum increased its Layer 1 gas limit from 45 million to 60 million with the majority validator consensus, a move designed to increase network throughput. Avail Nexus Mainnet is now live, aiming to unify liquidity and enable users to transfer seamlessly across different blockchains. Dapps Ondo Finance partnered with Binance Wallet to integrate tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds on its wallet platform via the BNB Chain. Jupiter launched Refinance, allowing users to move active borrow and lend positions from other protocols to Jupiter with zero slippage. Pendle Boros completed the first on-chain OTC Interest Rate Swap, executing an $8 million notional trade led by a digital asset management firm. OpenLedger Foundation announced the next cycle of its buyback program, allocating protocol revenue to repurchase 5 million OPEN tokens. Terminal Finance, the institutional liquidity hub for USDe, announced the protocol will shut down because the underlying Converge chain is unlikely to go live in the near future. Synapse unveiled Hypercall, an on-chain options venue built for every asset on the Hyperliquid network. Warden launched its WardenChain Mainnet, unlocking an agent app store, on-chain agent identity (ERC-8004), and instant agent monetization features. Fluid launched DEX V2, introducing smart collateral range orders and automated lending yields for liquidity providers. Yearn Finance suffered an exploit in its yETH vault, where an attacker minted unlimited tokens to drain the pool of approximately $3 million. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Ethereum will undergo the Fusaka upgrade on December 4 (approximately between 5am to 6am), introducing 8x data throughput for Layer-2, capping transaction gas limit to prevent DoS attacks, native support for biometric signing and more. Cosmos community released a proposal to research a new revenue-based tokenomics model for ATOM. Spark community passed a proposal to adopt a buyback mechanism known as the SubDAO Proxy Management Plan, which would accumulate net revenue for token repurchases. Token Unlock EIGEN token unlocks on December 1, amount representing 7.59% of the token supply. LA token unlocks on December 4, amount representing 5.94% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on December 10, amount representing 6.11% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on December 10, amount representing 4.71% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on December 15, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. VANA token unlocks on December 16, amount representing 19.9% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on December 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on December 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocks on December 26, amount representing 7.42% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(46/52) Weekly Market Insight | November Week 4 | Extreme Fear](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-november-week-4-extreme-fear/): Headline News: Extreme Fear Bitcoin closed down 7.9% last week, breaking below the $81,000 price level. Selling pressure was driven by a confluence of headwinds, including declining probabilities of a December rate cut before Friday, concerns over AI valuations affecting the US stock market, and the potential removal of Strategy from MSCI and Nasdaq 100 indices. This risk-off sentiment triggered $1.22 billion in net outflows from Bitcoin spot ETFs, keeping the Crypto Fear and Greed Index firmly in 'Extreme Fear' territory. Macro-Outlook: Quick Change in December Rate-Cut Expectation The US non-farm payrolls increased by 119K in September, higher than market expectations of 50K. However, August non-farm payrolls revised from 22K jobs added to a net loss of 4K jobs. The US unemployment rate increased to 4.4% in September, exceeding market expectations of 4.3%. New York Fed President John Williams indicated "near-term" room for a rate cut as employment risks rise and inflation eases. Though officials' views remain split as seen in the October FOMC minutes, the market still increased the probability of a December rate-cut from about 30% to 70% last Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed that there will be no October CPI report and the November CPI data is scheduled for release on December 18, 2025 (after December 11, FOMC meeting). Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, November 25, 9:30pm: US PPI and Retail Sales in September Wednesday, November 26, 9:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in September and Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Thursday, November 27, 3:00am: Fed Beige Book Thursday, November 27: The US stock markets closed (Thanksgiving) Friday, November 28: The US stock markets open until 1pm ET Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Expanding Prediction Markets; Aave App Multiple Ripple ETFs and Solana ETFs (from Fidelity, 21Shares, VanEck, Canary, Bitwise and more) have launched with $11.89 million and $128.2 million of net inflow respectively. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum experienced $1.22 billion and $500.25 million net outflow last week. Strategy Inc reportedly faces potential removal from major benchmarks like the MSCI USA and Nasdaq 100. Strategy's mNAV is currently trading below 1. Coinbase acquired Vector.fun, a Solana NFT and token trading platform. Additionally, Coinbase also launched zero-fee USDC loans against cbETH on Base, powered by Morpho. Circle introduced xReserve, enabling developers to create USDC-backed stablecoin seamlessly with 1:1 USDC exchange capabilities. StockX partnered with Kalshi to launch prediction markets on collectibles such as Labubu and sneakers. Layer 1 and Layer 2s India plans to launch ARC, a stable digital asset pegged 1:1 to the Rupee, in Q1 2026. The project is a joint development between Polygon and Anq, designed to operate alongside the RBI's CBDC. Mastercard also partnered with Polygon to launch username-based transfers for self-custody wallets. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) partnered with IOTA, World Economic Forum and Institute for Global Change, to build a public digital infrastructure connecting Africa with seamless cross-border trade, instant payments & secure digital identities. Aztec, the privacy-focused L2, Ignition Chain, has launched on mainnet following its token sale. DINBuild launched an AVS (Autonomous Verifiable Service) on EigenLayer, leveraging decentralised economy security to secure its RPC (Remote Procedure Call) marketplace. BOB (Build on Bitcoin), the Bitcoin L2 mainnet is officially live, positioning itself as a gateway to Bitcoin DeFi. Scroll announced the USX stablecoin is officially live on the network, offering gasless and private transactions. Cardano experienced a brief chain split due to a bug triggered by a malformed ADA delegation. The issue is currently under FBI investigation according to founder Charles Hoskinson. Core DAO successfully obtained a court injunction against Maple Finance in the Cayman Islands. Core alleges Maple breached a 24-month exclusivity agreement by using confidential information to build a competing product. Dapps Aave launched Aave App, a user friendly mobile application designed to onboard non-crypto users into DeFi. Aave V4 testnet is live, featuring a developer preview of the new interface, Aave Pro. 1inch introduced Aqua, a new liquidity protocol that leverages token "committed" instead of locking on a smart contract, enabling users to have full custody and flexibility on their token holding. Ondo obtained EU approval for offering tokenised stocks and ETF across Europe. Centrifuge partnered with Caesar Data to offer tokenized equity via a SEC-registered transfer agent, marking the first crypto-native company to issue tokenized equity directly on-chain instead of synthetic wrappers. Polymarket announced a partnership to become the official prediction market of the UFC. Additionally, KaitoAI launched verifiable mindshare markets on Polymarket. Zama, the leading fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) protocol, launched its testnet v2. Talus Labs launched a demo for Talus Vision, a no-code visual workflow builder designed to enable developers to create, deploy, and manage decentralized AI-powered automations directly on-chain. Fraction AI introduced Stable-Up, a new space for AI agents to manage stablecoins in a capital-efficient manner based on user risk profiles. RedStone launched the Dynamic PT Oracle in collaboration with Objective DeFi, providing accurate pricing for Pendle's Principal Tokens, with the first use cases launching on Euler Finance. Redstone also launched Push Oracle on Upbit's Layer-2, GIWA testnet. Walrus Protocol partnered with Myriad Markets to bring fully verifiable onchain data to prediction markets. Pudgy Penguins collaborated with collectible toy brand BE@RBRICK to launch a limited edition 750 physical collectible sets. Pendle partnered with Galaxy to provide institutional investors with scalable access to fixed and variable yields, bridging traditional finance and DeFi through principal (PT) and yield (YT) tokens. Nillion, a privacy computing protocol, stated its market maker sold NIL tokens without legal authorisation and caused NIL prices plummet. The team is currently taking legal actions against the mentioned market maker. Injective introduced Community Buyback, enabling users that burnt INJ to earn a share of protocol's onchain revenue. Filecoin introduced Filecoin Onchain Cloud, a new warm storage platform with programmatic payment rail via smart contract. OpenLedger launched its first phase of mainnet. Users can now contribute datasets to OpenLedger Studio and be rewarded every time dataset is used for an output inside ModelFactory. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Monad mainnet is launching on November 24. Coinbase teased a major announcement on December 17 on its X bio. An independent researcher suggested the announcement could potentially be related to the launch of prediction markets and stock trading by reverse-engineering code from Coinbase mobile apps. Solana community introduced proposal SIMD-0411, which seeks to double the inflation decrement rate from -15% to -30%. If passed, this would accelerate SOL reaching its 1.5% long-term inflation target by early 2029 rather than 2032. Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder hinted at the development of private Arbitrum chains, noting the original Arbitrum paper focused heavily on privacy. Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov proposed increasing the crvUSD credit line for Yield Basis to $1 billion, to be utilized in increments as required. Velora proposed seeding a VLR/BOLD pool on Base using funds from an existing OP grant to leverage Liquity V2 incentivized liquidity. The fast growing perpetual exchange, EdgeX announced the platform will soon integrate Polymarket. Hyperliquid announced HIP-3 Growth Mode, reducing the taker fees for eligible trading pairs by 90%. Token Unlock XPL token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 9.12% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on November 26, amount representing 68.8% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocks on November 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. TREE token unlocks on November 29, amount representing 6.16% of the token supply. HYPE token unlocks on November 29, amount representing 2.66% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on November 30, amount representing 3.73% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on November 30, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on November 30, amount representing 6.92% of the token supply. EIGEN token unlocks on December 1, amount representing 8.35% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [The Unshielding: Why This Isn’t Another False Dawn for Blockchain Privacy](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/blockchain-privacy-renaissance/): The "Exit Liquidity" Spark The ridiculous price action of Zcash (ZEC), which surged over 444% in October, has done more than just create "exit liquidity" for savvy traders. It has violently reignited a debate that has long haunted crypto: the role of privacy in a transparent-by-default world. While prominent voices warn that new buyers are playing a dangerous game in a liquidity-tight market, this surge isn't just a simple pump. It's a market signal, and it coincides with a fundamental technological shift. The development of privacy technology is back, and this time, it looks different. The Privacy Paradox: Why It Failed the First Time Privacy is not new. Veterans will remember Monero, which has been around since 2014. But for most of crypto's history, the industry has been in a paradoxical battle with itself. To gain legitimacy, blockchain needed transparency. Real builders had to distance themselves from hackers, money launderers, and other bad actors. In this environment, privacy features quickly became perceived as tools for dishonest players. Projects like Tornado Cash, while gaining traction from users who value privacy, put those same users in the position of commingling funds with illicit actors, unable to prove their own innocence. The result was a regulatory crackdown. Exchanges, in their pursuit of operating licenses, froze funds from cash mixers and delisted questionable privacy tokens. Ventures and institutional funds, wary of compliance officers, refused to hold them. Privacy became the industry's "criminal" feature. Why This Time Is Different: From "Criminal" to "Compliant" This regulatory retreat doesn't mean privacy isn't vital. Ask yourself a simple question: "Do you want your coffee purchase today to expose your entire 10-year investment history?" The majority of people would say no, yet the current blockchain setup does exactly this. As crypto legislation advances and more institutions are onboard, these new, big players are revisiting that question, and they demand a solution. The answer is auditable privacy. This is the Zcash model: optional ZK-shielded transactions that are private by default but have the built-in ability to be decrypted with a "viewing key" for audit and compliance purposes. This crucial distinction is supercharged by the fact that technology is finally ready: ZK-Proofs used to be slow and expensive. Today, a "proliferation" of developer tools (zkDSLs) like Cairo and back-ends like Halo2 have made ZK accessible. The trend of building zkVMs (Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machines) on standard instruction sets like RISC-V is making the technology scalable and composable. This is the moment privacy transforms from a "Nice-to-Have" to a "Must-Have." We no longer need to compromise between privacy and compliance or rely on centralized exchanges as the only "private" clearing houses. A Maturing Privacy Stack: The Technology (PETs) The current privacy renaissance is being driven by a full toolkit of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). ZK-Proofs (The Star of the Show): A Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) is a method of proving the validity of a statement without revealing anything other than its validity. It involves a "prover" and a "verifier," giving users the ability to publicly share proof of knowledge or ownership without revealing the details.   This tech is advancing on many parallel paths: some focus on zkEVMs for ZK-rollups (scaling), others on general-purpose zkVMs (RISC Zero, Succinct), some on hardware, and others on entirely new proof systems like Polygon's Plonky3, which uses sum-check to achieve high performance without a trusted setup. The Broader Toolkit (TEE, MPC, FHE): ZK doesn't stand alone. Developers now have a full toolkit to tackle different privacy needs: TEE (Trusted Execution Environment): A hardware-based solution. It's a secure "black box" inside a processor that isolates data while it's being used. MPC (Multi-Party Computation): A cryptographic protocol, involving multiple parties jointly compute data by splitting it into "secret shares." No single person ever sees the full data. FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption): An encryption scheme where computations can be made directly on encrypted data without ever decrypting it. The Rabbit Hole: Trade-Offs & Challenges This new toolkit is powerful, but this jumps into another rabbit hole: there is no "magic bullet." Each technology has significant trade-offs. FHE is the most hyped. Zama, the leading open-source solution, has enabled an "fhEVM" (Fully Homomorphic EVM) used by Fhenix and Inco Network to build confidential smart contracts. Mind Network is focusing on FHE for secure data and AI. But FHE is incredibly slow, 1,000x to 1,000,000x slower than traditional computing. Complex calculations can also accumulate "noise" that corrupts the data. The current solution is to hybridize FHE with TEEs or ZK (as Horizen and Chainlink are exploring) or to design specialized hardware like Zama's "HPU" (Homomorphic Processing Unit). MPC offers moderate performance, but the "multi-party" framework is constrained by latency. Each party must constantly "talk" to the others to perform a computation, a problem that grows bigger with more participants. TEEs are the most mature solution today, offering fast, efficient computation within a hardware enclave. However, their trust model is in the hardware, which is not perfect. Recent hacks via fault injection and side-channel attacks (where hackers get physical hardware access) have proven that TEEs can be vulnerable. The New Privacy Battleground: Who Will Win? With these tools, ZK is breaking out of its "scaling-only" box. It's now being used for shielded transactions, private smart contracts, web2 infrastructure connections, identity proofs, confidential AI, and trustless bridges. This raises the central question: What is the final form of blockchain privacy? Is Zcash, the incumbent, the final form? The views are split. Some argue Zcash has a strong moat with proven technology tested by time. Others argue its features can be easily replicated in more programmable environments, avoiding migration. This opens a new battleground with several key players: The Incumbent: Zcash & Its L2s. This camp is watching Ztarknet, a programmable Layer-2 on Zcash. It aims to utilize the security of Zcash's PoW UTXO model while increasing shielded transactions to boost network-wide anonymity, shielded transactions increased from 14% in July to around 26% at the end of October. The Integrated Platforms. This group bakes ZK services directly into their chains. Developers can write in custom languages like Cairo on Starknet, Leo on Aleo, or o1js (TypeScript) on Mina. Or, they can leverage the post-Atlas ZKsync, which now uses the native Airbender prover to run familiar languages like Rust or C++ compiled to RISC-V, generating ZK proofs for their application's use case. The "Picks & Shovels" (PaaS & Hardware). This model unbundles the stack. Developers can use ZK-provers-as-a-service like RISC Zero's Boundless or Succinct's SP1 to generate fast, cost-efficient ZK proofs for any blockchain. We already see this in action: Malda uses Boundless for its Unified Liquidity Lending model, and Hibachi uses Succinct's SP1 to prove its private CLOB. This layer also includes hardware providers like Cysic (building ZKP-optimized ASICs) and specialized tools like ZK data coprocessors and Chainlink's Confidential Runtime (CRE). Conclusion: Beyond the Hype, a Race for Adoption Ultimately, the winner of the blockchain privacy race, whether it's the incumbent L1, the integrated platform, or the modular PaaS provider, will be determined not by the elegance of its technology alone, but by its ability to attract a critical mass of users and developers. As you noted, without real adoption, even the most advanced cryptography remains "just on paper."
- [(45/52) Weekly Market Insight | November Week 3 | Awaiting Guidance](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-november-week-3-awaiting-guidance/): Headline News: Awaiting Guidance Bitcoin price fell below the critical $100,000 level last week, closing the week with a 10% drop, as Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced their third consecutive weekly net outflow of $1.11 billion. These moves are being driven by tightening and uncertain macro conditions, including lower expectations for a December Fed rate cut and stock market pressure, which contributed to a retreat from high-risk assets like crypto. Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit 10, its lowest value since February 2025. The market is anticipating the upcoming Nvidia earnings report to support the high valuation in the AI sector and the revised September jobs data to be released on Thursday. Macro-Outlook: Rate Cut Caution The US Congress passed the funding bill to reopen the government, ending the 43-day government shutdown. The $961 billion in Treasury General Account (TGA) is expected to be spent soon. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced the revised release of September jobs report on November 20, but October jobs report will likely not be published as the data is conducted using household surveys. President Trump signed the Executive Order to reduce tariffs on foods such as beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas. The probability of a 25bps rate cut in December dropped from 66% to 43%, due to several hawkish Fed commentaries last week and the absence of October economic data would encourage the Fed officials to stay cautious and remain on hold. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Thursday, November 20 (after the US market closes): Nvidia Q3 earnings Thursday, November 20, 3:00am: October FOMC Minutes Thursday, November 20, 8:30pm: US Non Farm Payroll and Unemployment Rate in September Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Lean Ethereum ; More Fees Switch Proposals SEC Chair Paul Atkins has unveiled a plan for a "token taxonomy" aimed at redefining crypto regulation, explicitly stated network tokens, digital collectibles and digital tools such as memberships and tickets are not securities. The US Treasury announced new guidance, providing a clear and seamless regulatory path for crypto ETPs to stake digital assets and distribute rewards to retail investors. DBS Bank and JPMorgan are reportedly building an interoperability framework (via Kinexys) for tokenized deposits between Ethereum and DBS's network. JPMorgan also officially launched its JPM Coin deposit token for institutional clients, enabling 24/7 real-time transfers using the Base blockchain. Standard Chartered and DCS are partnering to support a stablecoin credit card in Singapore. NH NongHyup Bank, the major South Korean bank, is piloting a stablecoin-based VAT refund system. The proof-of-concept involves Avalanche, Fireblocks, Mastercard, and Worldpay. Taiwan's government and central bank are reportedly evaluating adding Bitcoin to the national strategic reserves, potentially using seized BTC as a pilot. FanDuel and CME Group are launching "FanDuel Predicts" in December, a platform for trading sports outcome contracts in non-betting states. SoFi has launched early access for its crypto trading product, with a waitlist open until November 30, 2025. UAE's new Central Bank law reportedly criminalizes offering unlicensed crypto tools, including self-custody wallets and explorers. OKX launched in-app DEX trading on OKX App (similar to Binance Alpha), offering users access to on-chain assets on Solana, Base, and X Layer with no gas or bridging friction. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum core developer, Justin Drake, introduced the Lean Ethereum initiative, aiming to make Ethereum base layer quantum-resistant, scale to 10,000 TPS and support 1 million TPS on rollups, integrate zkVM and more. Circle announced Circle StableFX, an institutional-grade stablecoin FX engine, and Circle Partner Stablecoins, aiming to integrate partners' stablecoin for real-world payment and low splippage pricing. Circle also plans a native token for its Arc layer-1 enterprise testnet to facilitate distributed governance, as gas was previously planned to be USDC. Babylon mainnet upgraded successfully and reduced BABY inflation from 8% to 5.5% and added a BTC co-staking, offering 109% APR for co-stakers, versus 0.06% for BTC-only stakers. Polygon has been chosen by Calastone, the world's largest funds network with over 4,500 institutional clients, to launch tokenized fund share classes。 Cardano Foundation announced the Cardano Card, launched by Emurgo and Wirex, to integrate Cardano into mainstream payments for over 6 million users. Helios launched its beta mainnet, a layer-1 designed to provide the core infrastructure for creating and managing automated, cross-chain financial products, like tokenized portfolios, directly at the blockchain level. Conflux Network launched USDT0 and offshore Chinese Yuan CNHT0, adding omnichain stablecoin liquidity to power global Web3 payments and settlements. EigenCloud and LayerZero have partnered to launch EigenZero, introducing slashable security modules on the Decentralized Verifier Network (DVN), backed by $5 million in ZRO stake. Dapps Aave Labs announced the launching of zero-fee fiat on/off-ramps solution, Push, for GHO and other stablecoins in Europe under MiCAR authorisation. DYDX passed the DYDX token buybacks from 25% to 75% of protocol fees, removed trading fees for BTC and SOL perpetual markets, and upgraded its affiliate program to offer up to 50% of taker fees to boost referral activities. Hyperliquid Liquidity Provider (HLP) vault suffered a $4.9 million loss due to a sophisticated price manipulation attack centered on the POPCAT memecoin. Polymarket partnered with Yahoo Finance (exclusive) and Google to integrate its betting odds directly into their search and finance results. It has also quietly relaunched in the US in beta mode. Yield Basis announced a migration of liquidity providers to an improved pool contract to correct fee allocation logic, and enhance stability of the pool during high volatility market conditions. Chainlink's Automated Compliance Engine (ACE) is being integrated by Global Layer One (GL1), a public-private group that is led by MAS, defining standards for regulated digital assets. DualMint launched RoboFarm on Peaq network. RoboFarm is an automated farm that generates yield for investors on every green produced and sold. Jupiter's Ultra API is now live on the Robinhood app, enabling users to explore, swap, and trade SPL tokens. Virtuals Protocol introduced Luna.fun, a new AI-powered launchpad that aims to automate the entire lifecycle of content creation and promotion, specifically for creating and popularizing meme tokens. Allora Network announced the launch of the S&P500 prediction market in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud and CloudicianTech. Pieverse released its whitepaper, detailing its agent-native, compliant payment stack for auditable, gasless payments using x402b and on-chain invoicing. T1 Protocol released its Vision Litepaper, detailing a design for real-time, permissionless interoperability between Ethereum and existing rollups by interacting with rollups' layer-1 bridge contracts directly and using hybrid security models including TEEs, ZK-proofs and security bonds. Threshold Network launched its upgraded app and website, offering a unified experience for managing tBTC across supported networks. Beep introduced Beep Pay on the Sui Network, enabling instant payments globally using either credit cards or USDC. Centrifuge launched Centrifuge Whitelabel, a Tokenization-as-a-Service platform to help others build, launch, and scale tokenized assets faster. Roba Labs, a decentralised robotics platform, partnered with IoTeX to use ioID-verified identities and other DePIN sensor data, enabling their robots to be "context-aware" and adapt. Fhenix announced that its CoFHE (Confidential Homomorphic Encryption) is now live on the Base network, enabling developers to create encrypted smart contract applications. Renaiss Protocol is now live on BNB Chain, building a RWA liquidity infrastructure for real-world collectibles. Ethena announced the new sENA value model, where sENA now earns airdrop rewards from Ethena ecosystem protocols such as Ethereal, Based, Derive and more. Magic Eden announced the use of 30% of all secondary marketplace revenue for buybacks, where 15% is used for on-chain ME buybacks and 15% for NFTs buyback based on volume generated on Magic Eden. Bluwhale launched WhaleTank V2 on BNB Chain. Similar to Virtuals, the platform tokenises AI agents and supports x402 rails for payments. Nillion announced it is bringing Blind Computer, its privacy-focused compute and storage layer, to the Ethereum network. Safe launched Safe Ventures, a new venture fund dedicated to backing startups that accelerate self-custody adoption. ENS and Celo launched Celonames, human-readable names powered by ENS and integrated with Self Protocol for proof-of-personhood verification. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Coinbase is launching token sales on its platform, including for US users. The first sale will be for Monad's MONAD on November 17. Aave teased a major announcement on November 17. Ethereum DevConnect is held from November 17 to 22 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fluid will introduce DEX v2 and release potential "alpha" (potentially official launch) at DevConnect on November 21. Uniswap co-founder Hayden Adams has formally proposed to governance to turn on protocol fees, potentially introduce one-time 100 million UNI token burn and 1% to 5% token burn annually based on volume generated from Uniswap v2, v3 and Unichain sequencing. The new Continuous Clearing Auction Protocol (CCA) has been launched to create a fairer token distribution mechanism, with Aztec being the first protocol to use the CCA for its AZTEC token sales. Lido proposed a new automated LDO buyback mechanism, targeting $4 million annually with $10 million maximum cap, and only execute buyback if ETH price is above $3000 and Lido annual revenue exceeds $40 million. Maple Finance proposed MIP-019 that aims to shift the SYRUP staking yield funded by the protocol revenue to the Syrup Strategic Fund (SSF) which can be used for automated token buybacks. Pendle's Boros is expanding beyond BTC and ETH, with new trading venues and UX updates planned soon. Sonic's new CEO shared a new update that focuses on building a sustainable, revenue-driven business, which includes a new tiered FeeM structure from 15% to 90% for developers, 10% for validators and the remaining portion will be burned. Cookie DAO launched the Cookie Launchpad, powered by Legion. It aims to use attention, capital commitment and COOKIE stakers as part of the allocation model for new launches. Vooi, the perpetual exchange aggregator, will be the first protocol launched on Cookie Launchpad. Aerodrome and Velodrome are reportedly merging into a single protocol, Aero, which will launch on Ethereum and Circle's Arc. The team also introduced MetaDEX03, a new DEX model that aims to increase revenue by capturing MEV revenue and increase efficiency, built-in cross-chain functionality and compliance institutional pools. MetaDEX03 is expected to fully launch in Q2 2026. Aevo proposed AGP-3, Aevonomics, introducing a one-time 69 million AEVO token burn (6.9% of total supply), new staking rewards tier funded by DAO treasury's LP revenue, new dynamic buyback model based on exchange volume and more. Huma Finance introduced a new flywheel mechanism, launching in Q4 2025, which includes a humaSOL validator, looping strategies, and HUMA buybacks funded by vault yield. Zama announced its upcoming ZAMA token, which will be used for fee payments (which will be 100% burnt), staking (10% inflation rate initially) and governance. Zama is expected to launch its mainnet in Q4 2025. Token Unlock ZRO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. SCR token unlocks on November 22, amount representing 5.73% of the token supply. TURTLE token unlocks on November 22, amount representing 7.82% of the token supply. NIL token unlocks on November 24, amount representing 4.16% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 9.12% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on November 26, amount representing 68.8% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocks on November 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(44/52) Weekly Market Insight | November Week 2 | Liquidity Constraints and “Reopening”](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-november-week-2-liquidity-constraints-and-reopening/): Headline News: Liquidity Constraints and "Reopening" Bitcoin's price declined 5.26% last week, initially pressured by signs of liquidity constraints evident in the Standing Repo Facility (SRF) and SOFR markets. However, these stresses proved temporary and subsided as the week progressed. Separately, market sentiment was aided by optimistic public comments from bipartisan US senators, who indicated a potential deal to fund the government through January 30, 2026, is within reach. Macro-Outlook: Better Than Expected ADP The US ADP employment added 42,000 jobs in October, above the market forecasts of 25,000. The market expects approximately 67% probability of a 25bsp rate cut in the December FOMC meeting. The US ISM manufacturing PMI slightly decreased to 48.7 in October, below market expectations of 49.5. The US ISM services PMI slightly increased to 52.4 in October, above market expectations of 50.8. The Michigan consumer sentiment dropped to 50.3 in November, well below market forecasts of 53.2. According to Kalshi, the market expects the US government to reopen this week, with the highest probability (83%) on Tuesday. A reopening would potentially reintroduce liquidity to the market through Treasury General Account (TGA) payments and spending. This would also keep key roles (such as air traffic control) in place before the holiday season, allow for the release of economic data from the BLS, and potentially advance altcoin spot ETF applications. The US Senate votes 60-40 to advance the funding bill on Monday, which will then lead to the final vote on the passage of the bill. After that, the exact same bill must be passed by the House of Representatives and later signed by the president. President Trump announced a $2,000 tariff dividend per American, excluding "high income people". Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: DeFi Risk Reminder: Don't Trust, Verify Gemini crypto exchange reportedly plans to offer prediction market contracts on its platform. Google integrated prediction markets data from Polymarket and Kalshi into Google Finance. CFTC stated the agency is working with registered exchanges including CME, Cboe, ICE and Coinbase to launch leveraged spot crypto products by 2026. Japan's Financial Services Agency announced a pilot program in which MUFG, SMBC and Mizuho will jointly issue a yen-stablecoin this month. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ripple acquired Palisade, a wallet-as-a-service platform. Palisade is the fourth major acquisition by Ripple after Hidden Road (Prime Broker), GTreasury (Treasury Management) and Rail (Stablecoin Payment). Mastercard partnered with Ripple and Gemini to explore using RLUSD to settle traditional credit card transactions. Mantle partnered with Bybit and BackedFi to launch tokenised equities to the network with deep liquidity. Tether-backed stablecoin network, Stable, launched its public testnet. Starknet launched S-two on the mainnet, enabling 100x faster, cheaper and more efficient ZK proving on the network. The fast proving speed also opens the path for Starknet to decentralise its sequencer layer. Pi Squared, a decentralised universal settlement layer that enables language-agnostic support and interoperability across different blockchains, launched its Devnet 2.0. Dapps Balancer V2 was exploited for over $128 million. Hackers compromised the invariants that control the pricing in liquidity pools and swapped out tokens with wildly favourable prices. Berachain hard-forked the network to recover $12.8 million from the BEX/Balancer v2 exploit and returned the funds to users. The Elixir stablecoin deUSD depegged and collapsed after its largest counterparty, Stream Finance, disclosed a $93 million loss from an external fund manager, which caused Stream to default on its $68 million loan from Elixir, effectively wiping out 65% of deUSD's backing. Lido partnered with Mellow launching stRATEGY, a set of curated DeFi strategy vaults surrounding stETH with bonus Mellow points. Aerodrome launched Slipstream V2, introducing dynamic fees based on market volatility. The tokenised Treasury fund by VanEck, VBILL, went live on Aave's Horizon RWA market. Chainlink partnered with FTSE Russell to launch institutional-grade index data onchain via DataLink , including Russell 2000, FTSE 100 index and more. Chainlink also announced Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) an end-to-end layer to build institutional-grade smart contracts, including Chainlink Confidential Compute which enables private smart contracts. Cookie DAO announced its new roadmap, including a stricter algorithm, Cookie Alpha (token launchpad for lower FDV protocols), token station, Cookie Launchpad (capital launchpad), and Global SNAPS. RedStone launched HyperStone, HIP-3 dedicated oracle that powers permissionless perpetual market launch. Redstone's Credora went live, providing transparent risk ratings across DeFi. Zama, the leading FHE protocol, acquired the zkVM protocol Kakarot as part of its strategic technology integration before Zama mainnet launch. Zora launched a fully encrypted messaging function powered by XMTP, allowing users to send messages and tokens with their friends. Neutrl launched its mainnet, introducing a new yield strategy, NUSD, by acquiring OTC discounted altcoins and hedging against the holdings. Arx Research raised $6.1 million led by Castle Island, aiming to launch its Burner Terminal this month, a point-of-sale device that lets consumers spend crypto seamlessly. The Graph introduced Amp, enabling real-time, verifiable, cross-chain SQL queries with enterprise-grade security and zero-local-setup. Trendle, a prediction market where traders can trade the mindshare of protocols, is now live. The liquidity on the platform is powered by Azuro Protocol. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Injective Altria upgrade is expected on November 11, activating high-performance, permissionless EVM layer, unifying the existing Wasm applications seamlessly on one chain. Allora Network, a decentralised AI protocol where multiple models compete to produce predictions for applications, is expected to launch its mainnet on November 11. Cardano is holding Cardano Summit from November 12 to 13 in Berlin. Avalanche is expected to launch the Granite upgrade on November 19, introducing more reliable cross-chain messaging, native biometric authentication support and dynamic block times for faster transaction. The founder of ZKsync introduced new ZK tokenomics, adding on-chain interoperability fees and offchain enterprise licensing fees to ZK governance for staking rewards, token burn or ecosystem funding. The founder of Internet Computer introduced a new vision of Internet Computer 2.0 that focuses on "self-writing apps" where non-technical users could easily create applications on-chain, new DFINITY 2.0 by restructuring the foundation to become more agile and aims to reduce ICP inflation by 70%, and Caffeine, which is a for-profit venture to accelerate the new vision. The perpetual liquidity layer protocol Orderly Network started its token buyback with 60% of the protocol fees. Hyperliquid community proposed HIP-5, creating Assistance Fund 2 (AF-2), a stake-governed buyback pool using 1 to 5% of protocol fees to purchase Hyperliquid ecosystem tokens. Some community members suggested the proposal would introduce bribery and value extraction from the DAO. The Hyperliquid team is also experimenting with a native borrowing and lending market on Hypercore, BorrowLendingProtocol. Starknet proposed Ztarknet, a Layer-2 on top of ZCash, creating a private programmability layer. Token Unlock LAYER token unlocks on November 11, amount representing 12.00% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on November 14, amount representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on November 16, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on November 17, amount representing 46.2% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. SCR token unlocks on November 22, amount representing 5.73% of the token supply. TURTLE token unlocks on November 22, amount representing 7.82% of the token supply. NIL token unlocks on November 24, amount representing 4.16% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on November 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. WCT token unlocks on November 26, amount representing 68.8% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(43/52) Weekly Market Insight | November Week 1 | Alternative Guidances](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-november-week-1-alternative-guidances/): Headline News: Alternative Guidances Bitcoin price slid 3.5% last week as Fed Chair Powell highlighted there were "strongly differing views about how to proceed in December." The hawkish pivot was immediately reflected in the rate-cut probability in December from 91% to 69%, indicating a higher level of uncertainty in the future rate path with the absence of major economic data. This gives greater weight to the nuances in upcoming speeches by Fed officials and private-sector economic data such as ADP employment change. Macro-Outlook: A Shaken Rate Path The US and China reached a 1-year trade deal to delay the planned export restrictions on rare-earth minerals, resume US soybeans purchases, cutting fentanyl tariffs in half and more. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25bps and announced a stop to quantitative tightening on December 1 in last week's FOMC meeting. The participants' views on economic activities remained unchanged. However, Chair Powell indicated the reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion, "far from it." Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Monday, November 3, 11:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in October Wednesday, November 5, 9:15pm: US ADP Employment Change in October Wednesday, November 5, 10:00pm: Supreme Court Oral Argument on President Trump's Tariffs Authority Wednesday, November 5, 11:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in October Friday, November 7, 11:00pm: Michigan Consumer Preliminary Sentiment in November Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Privacy and ZK Resurgence Trump Media & Technology Group announced partnering with Crypto.com to launch a new prediction market, Truth Predict, on Truth Social platform. Latin American crypto exchange Ripio launched wARS, an Argentine peso-stablecoin, on Ethereum, Base and World Chain. Mastercard is reportedly in late-stage discussions to acquire Zerohash, a crypto infrastructure firm backed by Morgan Stanley and Interactive Brokers, for a price range between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. Revolut announced free on/off-ramp services from USD to USDC and USDT on a 1:1 basis. MetaMask launched its MetaMask Reward campaign, rewarding users with over $30 million worth of LINEA, discounted fees and more. Its parent company Consensys reportedly selected JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters for its upcoming IPO. SharpLink also announced deploying up to $200 million worth of ETH on Linea network to capture yield from staking, EigenCloud and other ecosystem incentives. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum launched an Institutions site for builders from institutions to have clearer pathways for resources, including dedicated resources for privacy integrations using ZK, TEE, FHE and more. Base Chain increased its throughput from 75 to 100 Mgas/s. Base USDC is now supported for depositing on Kalshi. Flutterwave, the leading payment service provider in Africa, selected Polygon as its default blockchain to launch cross-border stablecoin payment services. Starknet partnered with Hyperlane, launching direct Solana bridge on StarkGate. Western Union announced the launching of its USDPT stablecoin and a Digital Asset Network that provides on/off-ramp services on Solana. Circle's Layer-1 Arc launched its public testnet with a huge number of institutional participants including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and more. Stacks launched Dual Staking, enabling sBTC stakers to earn up to 0.8% APY and more if stacked together with STX. Japan's payment leader TIS launched Multi-Token Platform on AvaCloud to efficiently enable the issuance, management and distribution of digital assets. Unichain added support for more Layer-1 coins such as ZEC, DOGE and XRP by adopting the Universal bridge standard. Dapps Pump.fun announced Spotlight, a new program that aims to advance Internet Capital Markets by helping utility token projects to gain market visibility, liquidity and more support. Animoca Brands announced an undisclosed position of AERO and 4-years-locked for veAERO. INFINIT announced integrating Virtuals' ACP to enable agents access to INFINIT's automated execution layer and will soon be x402 compatible as well. Ondo Finance expanded its Global Markets to BNB Chain, enabling direct trading of tokenised stocks on DEX such as PancakeSwap. Myriad prediction market is now live on BNB Chain. The third blockchain integration after Abstract and Linea. Frax Finance launched FraxNet, a GENIUS standard account which users can on/off ramp with frxUSD across 20+ chains. Fluidkey launched its mobile applications on both iOS and Android, introducing privacy transfers, access to Morpho yield vaults, bank transfers and more. Frax partnered with IQ to launch KRWQ, a Korean-won stablecoin, on Base and uses LayerZero for cross-chain transfer. Stablecoin legislation in Korea has not been finalised yet. Trump's official memecoin team reportedly plans to acquire a pre-IPO equity tokenisation platform Republic. SSV introduced Anchor, a Rust-based client, as the second client after Go-SSV in its multi-client DVT strategy. F(x) Protocol introduced fxMINT, enabling users to mint fxUSD with WBTC and ETH with zero interest rate, only a one-time opening and closing fee. Lombard Finance acquired the BTC.b brand from Ava Labs to expand its Bitcoin Capital Market strategy. Some Ether.fi cards were reportedly compromised in upstream or downstream partners, resulting in unauthorised transactions charged on users' cards. The team promised to compensate affected users. Ether.fi also launched on/off-ramp services on its platform. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Ripple is holding Ripple Swell conference from November 4 to 5 in New York. Meanwhile, Chainlink is also holding its SmartCon conference during the same period in New York. Aerodrome is expected to launch Slipstream v2 and Autopilot this week, introducing automated concentrated liquidity strategy to the protocol. Jupiter announced launching Decentralised Token Formation (DTF) in November, a new token launchpad that potentially allows JUP stakers early access to the sales. Jupiter is also voting to burn the 130 million JUP (about 4% of circulating supply) in the "Litterbox". Telegram founder Pavel Durov introduced Coccon, a confidential compute network for AI that is built on TON Network and planned to launch in November 2025. Ether.fi proposed a dynamic buyback of up to $50 million worth of ETHFI when ETHFI price is below $3 (ETHFI price is currently trading below $1). Rabby wallet announced integrating Aave into its wallet soon. GMX approved purchasing $110,000 worth of GT tokens from GMX Solana each month for 12 months to support the GMX Solana operational expansion. GT tokens are the reward tokens on GMX Solana that can be redeemed for USDC from GMX Solana treasury. ZCash released its Q4 roadmap, which includes temporary addresses for NEAR Intents swap and Zashi wallet users, aiming to reduce the reuse of addresses and increase overall anonymity set. DYDX plans to reenter the US market with trading fees slashed by 50% by the end of 2025. Token Unlock AVNT token unlocks on November 9, amount representing 4.64% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocks on November 10, amount representing 6.59% of the token supply. HOME token unlocks on November 10, amount representing 4.06% of the token supply. LAYER token unlocks on November 11, amount representing 12.00% of the token supply. BB token unlocks on November 14, amount representing 10.9% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on November 16, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on November 17, amount representing 46.2% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on November 21, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply.
- [(42/52) Weekly Market Insight | October Week 5 | All-Eyes on Fed](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/crypto-market-outlook-fomc-cz-solana-etf-october-2025/): Ripple introduced Ripple Prime, providing clearing, prime brokerage and financing services to institutions across foreign exchange, digital assets, derivatives, swap and fixed income through the acquisition of HiddenRoad.
- [(41/52) Weekly Market Insight | October Week 4 | Temporary Risk-Off Sentiment](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-october-week-3-temporary-risk-off-sentiment/): Headline News: Temporary Risk-Off Sentiment Bitcoin slid by 5.5% last week, pushing the Crypto Fear & Greed Index down to 22, its lowest level since April 2025. This downturn mirrored anxieties in the broader market, where concerns over US banking risks caused the VIX to peak at 24 before retracing on Friday. Investors are maintaining a conservative posture amid persistent uncertainty, awaiting the FOMC meeting at the end of the month for an anticipated 25 bps rate cut and further details on Quantitative Tightening (QT). Macro-Outlook: "Cockroach” Fears The trade tension between the US and China deescalated as President Trump stated 100% tariff on China will not stand and potentially meet with President Xi in 2 weeks. Regional bank stocks in the US faced significant sales pressure as Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance Bank reported $50 million charge-off and a credit fraud lawsuit respectively, signalling signs of potential cracks in the US credit market. Some experts suggested the banking risk will eventually be bailed out by the Fed if it becomes significant. The latest Fed's Beige Book showed little change in employment levels with softer labor demand and consumer spending. The Japan central bank stated the board will continue raising interest rates if economic and price trends meet expectations, potentially reintroducing selling pressure on the US dollar. Kalshi's market predicts the US government shutdown will last over 43 days, potentially affecting the jobs report in November. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Friday, October 24, 8:30pm: The US Inflation Data in September Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: The Return of ICO-Era The US Department of Justice seized 127,271 Bitcoin in the "Pig-Butchering" scheme orchestrated by Chen Zhi via a wallet key generation flaw. The US government now holds 316,760 Bitcoin in custody. Robinhood announced to launch 400+ tokenised stocks to EU users via Arbitrum One, there are over 80 equities tokenisation being deployed currently. Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans allowing banks to hold digital assets and opening banks to register as "cryptocurrency exchange operators". Major Japanese banks MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho partnered to launch Japanese yen and US dollar stablecoins for cross-border settlements. The Bank of England reportedly plans to introduce stablecoin regulation by the end of 2026 with public consultation beginning on November 10. Major European bank ODDO BHF announced issuing MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoin, EUROD. Connectia Trust, Sony Bank subsidiary, filed with the US OCC for a national crypto bank charter, joining the race to become a stablecoin issuer. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ripple announced acquiring corporate treasury management system operator, GTreasury, positioning Ripple to access corporates' idle capital and cross-border payments. Jovay Network, backed by Ant Group, officially announced it will be deployed as Ethereum Layer-2 with focus on compliant RWA tokenisation. Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio launched JioCoin, its blockchain reward program, on Aptos. Bybit introduced Bybit Alpha, enabling users to trade on-chain assets directly from Bybit accounts similar to Binance Alpha. Berachain introduced BEND, an enshrined credit layer that forks from Morpho with users can now lend and borrow ETH, BTC, BERA and major stablecoins natively on Berachain. Chainlink launched the first native, real-time oracle on MegaEth execution environment, enabling smart contracts to read high-frequency prices natively. Dapps As uncertainty surged in the broad market, gold prices crossed the $30 trillion market cap. The market enthusiasm caused PAX Gold's price surged abnormally to $4790, approximately 10% above market price. Uniswap launched Solana token swap on its Uniswap Web App powered by Jupiter Finance. Tether released its open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK), enabling developers to build a secure multi-chain self-custody wallet. Ondo Finance submitted an open letter to the SEC requesting more information about Depository Trust Company (DTC) handles tokenised settlement before reaching any final decision on Nasdaq's tokenised securities trading proposal. INFINIT launched Strategies, an automated DeFi workflow, enabling seamless DeFi strategies such as delta-neutral position, airdrop farming and looping with 1-click. Jito raised a $50 million strategic investment from a16z. Superform launched the V2 Web App, providing a clean view of portfolios and access to high yield SuperVault. Yield Basis launched its YB token on major exchanges with approximately $300 million FDV. The YB stakers share 50% of the fees with ybBTC holders dynamically. Four Meme announced launching Token Name Protection, protecting the name of the token to be duplicated once the token gained over 100 holders during its bonding curve. ZXBT Labs introduced Zora Creator Index, a market cap-weighted index of the top 50 creator coins on Zora. The new index has a very high correlation to Zora's price. Jupiter released Ultra V3, enhancing execution efficiency, predictive stimulation to minimise slippage and MEV, gasless transaction and more. Jupiter also introduced JupVM, aggregating decentralised identities, delegating signatures, creating omnichain ledger, app-specific sequencing and more. Aerodrome announced it completed the first programmatic buyback of $400K worth of AERO. Strata, protocol that splits USDe into senior and junior tranches, launched its mainnet. Tydro, a native Aave v3 instance on Ink Network, is now live. The Base app launched Zora's creator coins directly in the app. Meanwhile, Zora announced a 20M ZORA Believe Fund helps grow potential creators. Safe wallet partnered with Circle to establish Safe as a premier institutional storage solution for USDC. S&P Global partnered with Chainlink to bring stablecoin ratings on-chain. Orderly, the perpetual swap liquidity layer, announced Orderly RWAs by introducing SPX500 and NAS100 with 20x leverage. YGG Play from Yield Guild Games released YGG Play Launchpad, a new platform for gamers to explore games, do quests and participate in new game token launches. Governance and Upcoming Alpha The US Federal Reserve is holding the Federal Reserve Payments Conference on October 21 with representatives from Chainlink, Paxos, Circle and Coinbase. MegaETH announced a public offering soon on Sonar launchpad with KYC registration open from October 15 to October 27. Flying Tulip plans to raise another $800 million via public sales on Impossible Finance and Coinlist at $1 billion FDV. Full details of the open sales are expected to be announced by the end of October. OpenSea announced shifting from a "NFT marketplace" to a "trade everything" approach, launching of SEA token in Q1 2026 with 50% supply allocated to community and 50% of revenue will be used to buyback SEA token. Arbitrum passed the vote to deploy 8,500 Ethereum in the DAO treasury to various DeFi strategies. The fast growing lending protocol, Euler, is planning to release its own stablecoin with a fixed borrowing rate. Token Unlock PLUME token unlocks on October 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. SCR token unlocks on October 22, amount representing 64.50% of the token supply. HYPER token unlocks on October 22, amount representing 8.12% of the token supply. INIT token unlocks on October 24, amount representing 4.40% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on October 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on October 25, amount representing 10.1% of the token supply. RON token unlocks on October 27, amount representing 4.48% of the token supply. GRASS token unlocks on October 28, amount representing 58.60% of the token supply. ZORA token unlocks on October 30, amount representing 3.73% of the token supply. REZ token unlocks on October 31, amount representing 12.00% of the token supply. IO token unlocks on October 31, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocks on October 31, amount representing 22.00% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(40/52) Weekly Market Insight | October Week 3 | Record Level Liquidations](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-october-week-3-record-level-liquidations/): Headline News: Record Level Liquidations The crypto market underwent a historic deleveraging event last week, with over $20 billion in liquidations recorded across major exchanges. The sell-off saw Bitcoin plunge to a low of $104,000, ultimately closing the week with a 6.79% loss. The impact on altcoins was more severe, as some assets experienced flash crashes, dropping as much as 99.99%. Initial reports suggest cascading liquidations further fuelled the de-pegging of key collateral assets, such as USDE, wBETH, and BNSOL, within Unified Account systems. Following this major leverage reset, investors are now assessing whether contagion is contained, while a softer tone in US-China trade relations over the later weekend may help alleviate broader market concerns. Macro-Outlook: TACO Trade Revival Over the weekend, President Trump threatened and announced 100% additional tariff on China as the countermeasure of export controls on rare earths implemented by China. China responded that export controls are "very limited" and willing to engage in deeper dialogue with the US. President Trump later posted a softer tone statement, saying "Don't worry about China, it will be fine". The September FOMC minutes indicated most officials agreed to cut rates toward the neutral level as the downside risks to employment had increased. However, the majority of officials also emphasised upside risks to the outlooks for inflation as continued uncertainty about the effects of tariffs. The Michigan consumer sentiment had a slight decrease to 55 in October, higher than the market expectation of 51.7. The prediction market is expecting the government shutdown to last over 33 days, potentially surpassing the record 35 days in 2019. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Wednesday, October 15, 12:20am: Fed Chair Powell Speech Thursday, October 16, 2:00am: Fed Beige Book The BLS announced a delay in the September CPI report this week to October 24. Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: SuperApp Expansion Grayscale filed a Form 10 for its Bittensor Trust with the SEC. The market viewed this as the key step before ETF conversion. DCG also introduced Yuma Asset Management, enabling institutional investors to invest in subnet tokens. Luxembourg Intergenerational Sovereign Wealth Fund (FSIL) invested 1% of its holding in Bitcoin ETFs, making it the first state level fund in Eurozone to invest in digital assets. The Russian Central Bank allowed selected commercial banks to conduct regulated crypto-related activities. Major banks such as Goldman Sachs, Santander and more plan to issue "G7-digital money" on blockchains. Morgan Stanley lifted its restriction on crypto investment, allowing clients to invest in any crypto funds from BlackRock and Fidelity. Citi partnered with BVNK, a stablecoin payment company, integrating fiat-to-stablecoin global payment transfer. Softbank and PayPay acquired a 40% stake in Binance Japan, introducing seamless integration of Binance Japan and PayPay mobile payment application. Galaxy Digital launched Galaxy One, a super app that allows users to trade crypto assets, trade US equities and ETFs, and earn yield on crypto assets on the platform. Coinbase now allows DEX trading directly on the Coinbase platform. Layer 1 and Layer 2s The Ethereum Foundation announced a privacy-focus wallet, Kohaku, which users can send private transactions with minimum trust to third parties. Plume Network registered a transfer agent with the SEC, enabling on-chain reporting to the SEC and DTCC, and compliant on-chain fund administration. Plume also acquired Dinero, the leading tokenised stock issuer across EVM and institutional-grade staking infrastructure. Mantle launched UR, a crypto-neobank with 0 off-ramp fees, Mastercard debit card and access to multiple fiat currencies accounts. ZKsync completed Atlas upgrade, introducing high performance TPS sequencer, 1-second ZK finality and $0.0001 proving cost per transaction. Polygon completed Rio upgrade, introducing near-instant finality, eliminating reorganisation risk, lightweight nodes and increased overall throughput for payment service providers. Celo integrated x402 agentic payment framework into its network, allowing protocols to accept HTTP micro-payment in any tokens. Dapps Ondo Finance acquired Oasis Pro, a SEC-registered digital assets platform, as the strategic investment to gain access to provide tokenised securities to the US market. MetaMask integrated Hyperliquid perpetual trading on MetaMask Mobile and the team announced Polymarket will be the next integration. Based introduced Based Streams, a live trading streaming platform, allowing creators to receive tokens directly from their viewers on HyperCore. Ranger Finance, the perpetual trading aggregator on Solana, integrated Hyperliquid onto the platform. A new Zcash mobile wallet, Zashi, integrated NEAR Intent to support other assets such as BTC, SOL and USDC in the application. NEAR Intent processed over its record breaking $600 billion in volume within October. Lombard partnered with CapMoney to enable Symbiotic restaking LBTC as the credit default swap of institutional financing. PancakeSwap introduced Cake.Pad, allowing CAKE holders to gain tokens early access without complicated staking pool and the fees generated from this platform will be used to burn CAKE supply. Morpho launched its first Morpho V2 vault, a USDC vault curated by Keyrock. Ocean Protocol announced withdrawing from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance. Superform, an on-chain asset allocator platform, released its UP tokenomics with validator staking and strategy bonding as the main token utilities. Jupiter Finance introduced Jupiter Wallet for Desktop, providing gasless trading, PnL analysis and more. Jupiter also announced to launch its own stablecoin, jupUSD, using the Ethena stablecoin-as-a-service framework. Fluid began its token buyback with 100% of its Ethereum mainnet revenue in the early stage. The token brought back will be allocated into the Fluid Reserve. Virtual launched Unicorn, a new launch system with cost-heavy sniper protection, linear fundraising from $2 million FDV to $160 million FDV using limit-sell order mechanism, scheduled or FDV-tier vesting, and 5% of new launches to be airdropped to VIRTUAL stakers. Maple Finance launched its first loan backed by Ethereum on Linea Network. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Hyperliquid is launching the highly anticipated HIP-3, enabling permissionless perpetual market creation with 500K HYPE stake. Ventuals, the pre-IPO markets, introduced vHYPE with deposits open on October 16. The liquid staking HYPE will be used to power the pre-IPO markets listing on Hyperliquid via HIP-3. Binance Wallet launched the first Pre-TGE Prime Sale, allowing users to subscribe to a new project with BNB. Yield Basis will be the first project on the platform, with sales will be conducted on October 13. Yield Basis also proposed to Curve Finance to increase the crvUSD credit line from 60 million to 300 million. Monad will open its airdrop claim portal on October 14. The pre-market is pricing MON at approximately $8.7 billion in FDV. Synthetix will conduct its $1 million prize pool perpetual trading competition on October 20. AI16Z is expected to rebrand to ELIZAOS on October 21, with an additional 40% token supply increase post migration to fuel the new Generative Treasury. Fox Business reported the White House is considering pardoning former Binance CEO, CZ, but the timeline before decision might be longer than expected. The Polymarket founder hinted at launching its native token, POLY, soon. Polymarket raised $2 billion from ICE as the strategic investment to reenter the US market. Meanwhile, Kalshi raised $300 million to expand its platform globally. Babylon announced Trustless Bitcoin Vault Protocol, unlocking trustless Bitcoin bridging to EVM networks early next year. Token Unlock PUMP token unlocks on October 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocks on October 15, amount representing 2.95% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocks on October 15, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. STBL token unlocks on October 16, amount representing 46.2% of the token supply. DBR token unlocks on October 17, amount representing 16.80% of the token supply. ASTER token unlocks on October 17, amount representing 9.70% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocks on October 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocks on October 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocks on October 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. SCR token unlocks on October 22, amount representing 64.50% of the token supply. HYPER token unlocks on October 22, amount representing 8.12% of the token supply. INIT token unlocks on October 24, amount representing 4.40% of the token supply. XPL token unlocks on October 25, amount representing 4.94% of the token supply. TAKE token unlocks on October 25, amount representing 10.1% of the token supply. RON token unlocks on October 27, amount representing 4.48% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(39/52) Weekly Market Insight | October Week 2 | Back to All-Time-High](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-october-week-2-back-to-all-time-high/): Headline News: Back to All-Time-High The fourth quarter began on a strong footing for Bitcoin, which posted a 10% gain last week. The rally appeared after a series of liquidation events that reset market leverage, and investors brushing aside concerns related to the US government shutdown. Bitcoin established a new all-time high of $125,700 and is creating a favourable environment for altcoins to follow. Bitcoin spot ETFs attracted $3.24 billion in net inflows last week, marking their second-best week on record. Macro-Outlook: Road to the Second-Longest Shutdown Due to the US government shutdown, non-farm payroll and unemployment rate were not available last week. However, ADP showed a loss of 32K jobs in September, significantly lower than the market expectations of 50K job gain. Meanwhile, JOLTs job openings increased to 7.227 million in August, in line with market expectations. The US ISM manufacturing PMI increased to 49.1 in September, slightly above market expectations of 49. The ISM services PMI decreased to 50 in September, below the market expectations of 51.7. Both manufacturing and services sectors showed signs of a contracting economy. According to prediction markets, the market is expecting the government shutdown to last approximately 21 days. The upcoming Economic Calendar includes, Thursday, October 9, 3:00am: September FOMC Minutes Friday, October 10, 10:00pm: Preliminary Michigan Consumer Sentiment in October Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: The ETF Turning Point or Another Delay The SEC missed the deadline for Canary Capital's spot Litecoin ETF amid government shutdown. The Bloomberg analyst stated that the SEC likely wants the pending crypto applications to be filed under the new Generic Listing standard. The upcoming SOL ETFs deadline might experience a similar situation. Kazakhstan launched its first national crypto reserve, Alem Crypto Fund, and acquired BNB as its first investment in the fund. Binance announced a Crypto-as-a-Service solution for institutional clients across services such as trading, custody, compliance, on/off-ramps and market access. Swift announced a new blockchain-based ledger with 30+ banks to enable instant and 24/7 cross-border payments. CME Group plans to launch 24/7 cryptocurrency futures and options market in early 2026. VanEck filed for a Lido Staked Ethereum ETF with the SEC. Walmart's fintech arm, OnePay, launched cryptocurrency trading on its platform, enabling crypto payment for Walmart purchases and card debt repayment. Stripe launched Open Issuance, helping businesses to create their own stablecoins that are issued by Bridge. Phantom is among the first to use Open Issuance to launch its stablecoin CASH, similar to MetaMask's mUSD and Hyperliquid's USDH. Coinbase partnered with Samsung to offer Coinbase One access directly within the Samsung Wallet app on Galaxy devices in the US. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Starknet launched Bitcoin staking on its mainnet, receiving a fixed 25% share of network emissions. Endur Finance offers the first liquid staking BTC on Starknet, supporting WBTC, tBTC, LBTC and solvBTC. Sui partnered with Ethena to launch suiUSDe and USDi, which is a delta-neutral yield stablecoin and a BlackRock BUIDL fund-backed stablecoin respectively. Both stablecoins aim to go live within 2025. EigenLayer launched EigenCompute and EigenAI on EigenCloud, providing verifiable computation and verifiable inference to run trustless decentralised AI models. OKX founder revealed X Layer future roadmap, including USDG stablecoin, integration of Aave, Uniswap, Balancer and Chainlink, and a $100 million Vision Fund. Celo launched Nightfall testnet, a Layer-3 built by EY for on-chain payment privacy, aiming to onboard institutions that are underserved by banks. Psy Protocol, a new scalable Layer-1 that utilises Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) to validate transactions, launched its testnet. BOB and LayerZero launched a 1-click native BTC and wBTC.OFT swap across 11 blockchains. Neura launched its public testnet for its sovereign stablecoin blockchain, featuring its own physical hardware across the globe, private fiber networks, gasless stablecoin transfers, compliance by design, in-built yield capture that is recycled back to stakeholders. ANKR is used for staking and as an alternative gas token on the network. DoubleZero, the super-fast highway for blockchain communication, launched its mainnet and its native token 2Z. 2Z token is used for payment, incentives and network security. Dapps Coinbase integrated 1inch Swap API into its platform. 1inch also rebranded its logo last week. The leading intent-based aggregator on Ethereum, CoW Swap, launched on BNB Chain with gasless trading and MEV-shielded transfers. Tether plans to launch USAT through the crypto wallet of the video platform, Rumble. Tether owns a 48% stake in Rumble. PancakeSwap added another 3 tokenised stocks on its Stock Perps, totalling 6 assets with up to 25x leverage to be traded on the platform. PancakeSwap also launched a fee-earning feature whenever users' limit orders are filled. SG Forge, Societe Generale's digital arm, launched MiCA-compliant lending and borrowing for EURCV and USDCV using Morpho vault. Aragon introduced Guardian V2, allowing depositors to have veto rights to vault curators' actions, and participate in governance while receiving DeFi yield in Morpho Vaults V2. Sky Protocol introduced Keel, an on-chain capital allocator similar to Spark Finance on Solana. Ethena's ENA and USDe went live on OKX's X Layer. Injective announced the launching of pre-IPO perpetual trading with 5x leverage, starting with OpenAI shares. The universal ZK verifier, zkVerify, launched its mainnet and VFY token. The protocol can provide ZK proofs from any system on any blockchain. Recall, an AI agent marketplace protocol backed by Multicoin and Coinbase, introduced its RECALL token. NFTStrategy.fun's total market cap grew to over $180 million in less than a month, introducing innovative NFT strategies that use accumulated trading fees to acquire NFTs and sell them for additional 20% profit, which then uses the profit to burn the NFT strategy tokens. Cypher, a crypto card issuer, launched its CYPR token on Base. CYPR stakers will be eligible to vote for brands to earn boosted rewards when spending. Infinex, a crypto super app, launched Hyperliquid perpetual trading frontend on its platform. The CF Large Cap Index DTF powered by Reserve was listed on Kraken exchange. Solstice, a delta-neutral stablecoin (USX) issuer, launched natively on Solana. BounceBit announced V3, Big Bank, introducing rebasing the BB-token standard for assets such as BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB and USDT, to provide liquidity for BounceBit Perps on BounceBit Chain. BLP represents diverse asset vault that serve a similar purpose. The highly anticipated decentralised perpetual exchange, Lighter, launched its public mainnet as a Ethereum Layer-2 with custom ZK circuits for verifiable matching and liquidations. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Plasma will launch its Basis Trade Vault with Aave, Ethena and Pendle soon. World Liberty Financial announced that its team is planning to tokenise Trump's family real estate on blockchain. Mantle is expected to launch its neobank, UR, on October 7, providing seamless crypto saving and spending. The USDe powered spot and perpetual exchange, Ethereal, announced mainnet alpha on October 20. The Solana leading DEX, Meteora, is expected to launch its MET token on October 23, and 3% airdrop is allocated to JUP stakers. Prediction market, PMX, also launched on Solana by using Meteora to seed liquidity. Morpho proposed to deploy MORPHO token and provide full Morpho frontend support on HyperEVM. Yearn Finance outlined 3 phases of establishing guidelines and accountability for DAO operation, simplify YFI staking, and efficient treasury management programs. The full-suite DEX founded by Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje, Flying Tulip, raised $200 million at a $1 billion valuation and aims to raise another $800 million through public sales in October. The sales will be perpetual put, where investors can burn FT tokens any time to redeem up to their original principal. MetaMask introduced the "Ways to Earn" campaign, where users earn points based on both spot and perpetual trading volume. Activities conducted on Linea network will be entitled double points. Spark announced its latest roadmap including Saving V2 launch in October, institutional lending using Morpho V2, stablecoin liquidity as a service, expansion of its automated trading operations and more. Token Unlock JTO token unlocked on October 7, amount representing 2.96% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocked on October 9, amount representing 4.64% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocked on October 10, amount representing 6.59% of the token supply. BABY token unlocked on October 10, amount representing 4.57% of the token supply. HOME token unlocked on October 10, amount representing 12% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocked on October 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocked on October 15, amount representing 2.95% of the token supply. ZKC token unlocked on October 15, amount representing 7.46% of the token supply. STBL token unlocked on October 16, amount representing 46.2% of the token supply. DBR token unlocked on October 17, amount representing 16.8% of the token supply. ASTER token unlocked on October 17, amount representing 9.7% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocked on October 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on October 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. SCR token unlocked on October 22, amount representing 64.5% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(38/52) Weekly Market Insight | October Week 1 | Leverage Shakeout](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-october-week-1-leverage-shakeout/): Headline News: Leverage Shakeout Bitcoin experienced a turbulent week, declining 2.7% and saw over $6.3 billion in all perpetual contracts liquidated across major exchanges. A resilient US economy dampened the expectations for steeper rate cuts, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield up by 4 basis points. Despite these headwinds, Bitcoin is entering what is traditionally its strongest month, with October boasting a median return of 21.2%. This seasonal strength, combined with anticipated spot altcoin ETF approvals and more regulatory embracement. Macro-Outlook: Resilient Economy President Trump announced a 100% tariff on pharmaceuticals, 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products, 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and 25% tariff on heavy trucks, effective on October 1. The continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through November 21 is still at a standstill. The White House announced preparations for a "reduction in force" if shutdown occurs. However, the probability of shutdown in Kalshi dropped from 74% to 56%. The US durable goods orders increased 2.9% in August, significantly higher than the market forecast of a 0.5% drop. The final Q2 GDP also revised upwards to 3.8%, higher than the previous estimate of 3.3%, indicating a stronger than expected economy. The US core PCE price index increased to 2.7%, in line with the market expectation. Personal income and spending increased by 0.4% and 0.6% respectively, both above the market expectations by 1 percentage point. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, September 30, 10:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in August Wednesday, October 1, 8:15pm: US ADP Employment Change in September Wednesday, October 1, 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in September Friday, October 3, 8:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in September Friday, October 3, 10:00pm: US ISM Services PMI in September Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Tether Shines, Hyperliquid Retaliates The US Senate is holding a hearing on cryptocurrency taxation on October 10, at 10pm SGT. The US SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced plans to introduce "innovation exemption" by the end of 2025, allowing crypto firms to launch new products without regulatory hurdles. The US CFTC plans to allow stablecoins to serve as collateral in derivatives markets. The National Bank of Kazakhstan announced the launch of a national stablecoin pilot project, Evo (KZTE), pegged to the local currency, the tenge, on Solana network. Cloudflare introduced NET Dollar stablecoin that enables instant and secure payment transfers for AI agents, and contributes to open standards such as Google's AP2 and x402 with Coinbase. Naver, the leading search engine and LINE operator, acquired Upbit operator Dunamu through a stock-swap deal, expanding its presence in crypto space. ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank and Raiffeisen Bank jointly issue a MiCA-compliant Euro-stablecoin in the second half of 2026. Ant International became the first financial institution to use HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) in Hong Kong. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Tether-backed, Plasma had a successful launch with FDV at approximately $14 billion. The team also announced Plasma One, offering 10% yield vaults and 4% cash back when spending. Stable, stablecoin blockchain backed by Bitfinex, announced an undisclosed strategic investment from Paypal. Unlike Plasma, Stable focuses on USDT transfer and payment applications, while Plasma focuses on building a DeFi ecosystem using USDT. SoftBank and Ark reportedly are in discussions about participating in Tether's latest funding round at a valuation of $500 billion. Kaia announced its stablecoin strategy, including the Stablecoin Orchestration Layer, a super-app called Project Unify on LINE NEXT that aims to support stablecoin transfers in Southeast Asia, and K-STAR alliance for issuing KRW-stablecoin. Crypto exchange Gate launched Gate Layer, an Ethereum Layer-2 with high throughput and 1 second block times, focusing on perpetual exchange, launchpad and advanced trading engine for memecoins. GT token will be used as gas token. Quant Network announced a partnership with the UK Finance association to launch a pilot project for sterling deposits stablecoin, GBTD. Swift partnered with banks including BNP Paribas and BNY Mellon to test global payment messaging using Linea blockchain. NTT Digital, the web3 arm of the largest Japanese telecom, announced it would become a validator for EigenDA after previously joining OG network and Canton Network as validators. NEAR Protocol increased the number of chunk validator seats from 300 to 500. Dapps Circle introduced an on-chain reversibility mechanism for USDC transfers on Arc blockchain in the event of disputes, fraud or hacking, opposing the crypto ethos but useful in compliance applications. LayerZero announced a discretionary buyback of 5% token supply from early investors. As the official partner of Plasma, LayerZero facilitated a record daily transaction volume of $4.6 billion on September 25. Uniswap launched The Compact V1, introducing more efficient cross-chain experience across Ethereum, Unichain, Base and Arbitrum. Pyth Network introduced Pyth Pro, a subscription-based low latency wide-range market data service for institutions. ApeX Protocol, a DEX with perpetual markets endorsed by Bybit, launched a $10,000 campaign for new sign-up, loss protection and trading volume. DYDX launched Pocket Pro Bot, a social trading platform in Telegram with a $100,000 launch campaign. Flare officially launched FAssets on Flare mainnet, enabling XRP holders mint FXRP on Flare and participating across DeFi activities. Mira Network launched its mainnet and MIRA token at approximately $1.1 billion FDV. Mira combines diverse AI models to cross-verify outputs to reduce biases and eliminate hallucinations. Governance and Upcoming Alpha The community proposed to reduce HYPE token supply by 45%, by burning the huge unvested allocation for the Future Emission & Community Rewards" that worried the market, and token in Assistance Fund. The proposal also called for removing the maximum supply cap, which raised some concerns from the community that this could make the token less appealing. Hyperliquid launched permissionless spot quote assets on the mainnet, enabling anyone to propose a quote token with 200K HYPE staked and responsible for the orderbook quality of the asset pair. The team also announced more details on HIP-3, permissionless perpetual market listing, including 500K HYPE staking requirement, fee share of 50%, new markets will be launched via HIP-1 auction and more. Solana proposed SIMD-0370, removing fixed compute unit block limit after Alpenglow, increasing throughput at the expense of validators with lesser resources. BNB Chain proposed reducing the minimum gas price from 0.1 Gwei to 0.05 Gwei and improving the block interval from 750ms to 450ms. Aster stated in a podcast that the team is building Aster Chain to preserve verifiable privacy in trading. Synthetix announced a $1 million prize trading competition ahead of its Ethereum native perpetual exchange mainnet launch in October. World Liberty Financial announced at Korea Blockchain Week that the team is planning to launch its debit card very soon. Token Unlock TREE token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 6.16% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 22% of the token supply. MAV token unlocked on October 2, amount representing 7.2% of the token supply. ASTER token unlocked on October 6, amount representing 19.3% of the token supply. JTO token unlocked on October 8, amount representing 2.96% of the token supply. AVNT token unlocked on October 10, amount representing 4.64% of the token supply. LINEA token unlocked on October 11, amount representing 6.59% of the token supply. BABY token unlocked on October 11, amount representing 4.57% of the token supply. HOME token unlocked on October 11, amount representing 12% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [Crypto Cards: Bridging the Gap Between Digital Assets and Real-World Spending](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/crypto-cards-bridging-the-real-world-spending/): Introduction The fundamental purpose of money is to serve as a medium of exchange. In the modern financial system, payments represent a colossal market, with an estimated $66 billion processed daily. Yet, for all their innovation, digital assets like Bitcoin and stablecoins have largely been sidelined from this core function, hampered by a lack of infrastructure connecting them to real-world retail merchants. That story is rapidly changing. As cryptocurrencies gain mainstream acceptance, receive regulatory embraces from governments, and see adoption by major institutions, the landscape is shifting. The era of spending our hard-earned frog tokens on a Lamborghini is no longer a distant dream. This article will explore the emerging crypto card sector, a critical piece of infrastructure poised to solve crypto's "last-mile" problem, providing insights from a user's as well as an investor's perspective. Why Do We Need Crypto Cards? Solving the 'Last-Mile' Problem For crypto holders, spending digital assets has traditionally been a cumbersome and costly process. It involves a multi-step conversion from an altcoin to a stablecoin, a transfer to a centralized exchange, and finally, an off-ramp to fiat currency. Each step introduces friction and value erosion, from exchange spreads to foreign exchange fees for those outside the US. Crypto cards are designed to eliminate this friction. Imagine bypassing the complex off-ramp process entirely. Instead of getting "chopped" by multiple fees, you could pay for a Rolex directly with the USDT in your self-custody wallet, incurring only a fraction of the typical costs. This model offers two distinct advantages: Efficiency: You only convert the exact amount needed at the point of sale, minimizing exposure to volatility and unnecessary fees. Rewards: Many cards offer cashback on spending. While we might shy away from the term "Pay-to-Earn," the concept of earning rewards on daily expenditures is a powerful incentive. Anatomy of a 10/10 Crypto Card Evaluating a crypto card requires looking beyond traditional metrics. Here are the key elements to consider: Fees and Charges: This is the most critical differentiator. Unlike traditional cards, crypto cards can involve a unique set of fees, including crypto-to-fiat (C2F) conversion fees, top-up fees, and on-chain gas fees, in addition to standard foreign exchange (FX) markups and potential annual fees. However, the competitive landscape is forcing issuers to minimize these costs, and savvy users can find cards with highly favorable terms. Gnosis Pay Ether.fi Metamask Brahma Ready Crypto.com Wirex C2F Fee Free Free 0.5%~0.875%: non-denominated assets 0.25% Free 0.75% Free for denominated Top-up Fee Free Free Free Free Free Card Top-up: 1% Free Processing Fee Gas Fee Free Gas Fee 0.5% Free Free Free FX Fee Free 1% 1% $0.3 + 1% Free Basic: 0.5% Free Annual Fee Free Free Free Metal: $199 None Free Metal: $120 Basic: Free Premium Tiers required subscription or staking Standard: Free Premium: €9.99/m Elite: €29.99/m Rewards and Yield: The "fun part." Since most crypto cards are debit or prepaid, holding a balance incurs an opportunity cost. Top-tier cards mitigate this by offering attractive yields or savings rates on deposits. These rewards typically come in three forms: Cashback: Rewarding users for every dollar spent on the crypto card On-chain Yield: Generated from DeFi strategies where user deposits are deployed. Protocol Incentives: Native tokens or points awarded to users, which can lead to significant airdrops if the protocol performs well post-Token Generation Event (TGE). This, combined with spending cashback and saving yield, forms the core of the card's value proposition. Gnosis Pay Ether.fi Metamask Brahma Ready Crypto.com Wirex Saving Rate Aave integration USD Vault (approx 11%APY) DeFi token (subject to 0.5% fees) Aave, Euler, HypurrFi vaults BTC, ETH, STRK vaults NA Separate account(X-Account) Airdrop No Seasonal campaign Potential Potential Potential No No Cashback Up to 8% Up to 3% Up to 3% None Up to 3% (10% for first 30 days) Up to 8% Up to 8% (Cryptoback) Key Features and Considerations: The ecosystem is dynamic, and terms can change based on protocol governance, as seen with the community backlash against Gnosis Pay's GIP-131 proposal, which aimed to tie cashback rates to GNO holdings. Beyond fees and rewards, other crucial factors include: Custody Model: Non-custodial options are strongly preferred by crypto natives for security and self-sovereignty. Payment Network & Acceptance: Visa or Mastercard ensures global acceptance. Geographic Availability: We picked Crypto.com and Wirex as both are applicable to Singapore residents. Technical Features: Apple/Google Pay integration, credit capabilities (e.g., Swype.fun's integration with Aave, Euler and HypurrFi), supported assets, and privacy features. Limits & Support: For high-net-worth individuals, spending limits, ATM withdrawal caps, and cashback caps are important considerations. Competitive Moats and Market Leaders In this nascent sector, several factors determine a protocol's competitive advantage. The Value Proposition: A generous rewards structure is paramount. Paralleling the traditional credit card industry, the card offering the most compelling value, calculated as Yield on Deposits + Potential Airdrop Value + Cashback Rate, will attract the most users. Geographic Reach: A straightforward moat; a great product is useless if it's not available in your country. The Crypto-Native Ethos: As "web3-native," we value ownership. Non-custodial models that allow users to maintain control of their funds are a powerful differentiator. The irony, of course, is that we must still rely on TradFi rails like Visa and Mastercard because, well, we are still early. Aggressive Growth: The market is new and fiercely competitive, user growth itself is the reputation block. Protocols must invest heavily in marketing, sign-up bonuses, and incentive programs to build a brand and capture first-mover advantage. Among current players, Gnosis Pay and Ether.Fi stand out, with cumulative spending volumes reaching over $90 million and $40 million, respectively. While small by TradFi standards, their growth is explosive; Gnosis Pay's volume grew 300% in 2025, while Ether.fi built its entire card business within the year. Similarly, Metamask captured over 90% of its card spending in 2025, processed over $20 million in volume. Their success highlights a winning formula: a non-custodial model, low fees, and attractive yield solutions for deposited assets that significantly lower the opportunity cost for users. An Investor's Perspective: Revenue Models and Valuation How do these protocols generate revenue? The models are multifaceted: Interchange & Partnerships: Sharing in the interchange fees from Visa/Mastercard networks. With scale, they can also negotiate merchant-funded rewards, or what we on Web3 would simply call an airdrop partnership. Value-Added Services: Offering attractive benefits/perks with an annual subscription, earning spreads from integrated services, such as borrowing for payments via hooks, in-app asset swaps, or performance fees from DeFi yield vaults. Tokenomics: Accruing value to a native token through staking mechanisms that unlock card benefits (similar to the Crypto.com model), creating a sustainable supply sink. Ultimately, the success protocols have the option to launch a native stablecoin, internalizing all associated yield, or even build a proprietary payment blockchain to capture transaction fees and enable full customization. To frame valuation, we can reference Arthur Hayes' analysis by using the 1.78% Fee-to-Value ratio of JPMorgan and applying this to the stablecoin market. He projects Ether.fi could reach a $36 billion FDV by 2028 by capturing just 1% of the stablecoin market. Given DeFi's superior capital efficiency and higher yield environment, this Fee-to-Value ratio could potentially be even higher for crypto-native issuers. Challenges and The Road Ahead Significant hurdles remain. The regulatory landscape is a primary challenge. For instance, BasedApp, once a promising crypto card candidate for Singapore residents, ceased its card operations after opting not to renew its MAS license. This move left a sudden vacuum in the SGD-denominated crypto card market. Furthermore, our revolution is, for now, dependent on TradFi infrastructure. A pure crypto-to-crypto retail payment network is difficult to build due to fluctuating gas fees, the need for low-latency settlement, and the lack of established systems for fraud protection and chargebacks. Additionally, convincing existing POS device manufacturers to adopt contactless crypto payment is also a huge challenge. The ultimate vision is a peer-to-peer system using open-source NFC technology to bypass Visa and Mastercard entirely. Vly demonstrated an excellent payment workflow, here. Initiatives like Solana Pay and Coinbase Pay are steps in this direction, aiming to finally close the payment loop. Conclusion The stablecoin market is projected to become a multi-trillion dollar industry, a fact explicitly acknowledged by the US government. Do not fade this trend. The crypto market is experiencing rapid adoption, particularly among younger generations, and is expected to grow at a 30% CAGR over the next five years. Crypto payment is not a meme or a "nice-to-have" feature; it is a fundamental utility for the industry. This sector has not yet seen its "Uniswap" or "Aave" moment. For crypto card protocols, it is still 2019. The opportunity is immense for projects that can successfully build the bridge to the real world. As one observer noted, "One day, you'll leave the banks behind. So get a card you will remember." For Further Research: Protocols to watch include Fuse Card, Payy, Bleap, KAST, Holyheld, Cypher, RedotPay, Bip Tap, Mantle's UR, BitPay, Nexo, Rain's Avalanche Card, Tuyo, Solayer Emerald, Bitrefill, CrossFi, Avici, Vly, Zebec, Young Platform, Plasma One, Coinbase One Card, Gemini Mastercard, and the Bitpanda card. https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/buffalo-bill https://x.com/vlyai/status/1891684963675758618
- [(37/52) Weekly Market Insight | September Week 4 | The Decentralised Perpetual Exchange War](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-september-week-4-the-decentralised-perpetual-exchange-war/): Headline News: The Decentralised Perpetual Exchange War Bitcoin demonstrated lack of momentum last week, closing with a marginal 0.05% loss despite the Fed's 25bps rate cut. Meanwhile, the Altseason Index touched 99, a level unseen since 2018, before retracing to 76. A standout performer was BNB, which surged 13% to break the key psychological barrier of $1,000 and further fueled by the successful launch of Aster, a new decentralized perpetual exchange widely seen as a Binance-backed "vampire attack" on Hyperliquid. Efforts to avert a US government shutdown have stalled after a short-term funding bill failed to secure the required votes in the Senate. The political impasse is expected to continue, increasing the likelihood of a shutdown after the September 30 deadline unless a compromise is reached. Macro-Outlook: Risk Management Cut The US Federal Reserve reduced the interest rate by 25bps, shifting the balance of risk between inflation rate and unemployment rate. The Fed acknowledged the downside risk of employment has risen and most of the Fed committees expect two more rate cuts by the end of 2025. Chair Powell stated the committees don't feel need to move quickly to cut rates and wasn't widespread support at all for a 50bps cut. The weekly initial jobless claims was 231K last week, lower than the market expectations of 240K. The US retail sales increased by 0.6% in August, well above the market forecasts of 0.2%. The US Secretary Bessent commented that the next round of US-China trade talks could result in another 90-day pause. The most aggressive phase of the US Treasury's TGA replenishment is now largely complete, with the account balance reaching $816 billion, just $34 billion shy of the end-of-quarter target, reducing the significant headwind on market liquidity. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Wednesday, September 24, 12:35am: The Fed Chair Powell Speech Thursday, September 25, 8:30pm: US Final Q2 GDP & Durable Goods Orders in August Thursday, September 26, 8:30pm: US PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in August Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: In-coming Alt-ETF Waves The SEC approved the generic listing standards proposed by Nasdaq, Cboe and NYSE, streamlined the process of crypto asset ETF listing with a track record of six months futures trading on Designated Contract Market, and more. The previously halted Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund got the final approval from the SEC to be traded on NYSE, marking the first multi-crypto asset ETF with BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and ADA. Banco Santander, the largest bank in Spain, launched retail crypto trading with its online banking brand, Openbank. The trading service will be available to German clients and soon to Spanish clients. The Swiss Bankers Association stated PostFinance, Sygnum Bank and UBS are experimenting with binding payment using bank deposits on public blockchains. London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) launched its blockchain platform Digital Markets Infrastructure, focusing on tokenised private funds with the goal of expanding to other asset classes. Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced exemption for issuing stablecoin by Australian Financial Services (AFS) providers. BDACS launched the first Korean won-stablecoin that fully collateralised with Korean won deposited at Woori Bank, KRW1, on Avalanche. Google partnered with Coinbase and Salesforce, releasing an Agent2Agent payment protocol with stablecoins. Google also announced Agent Payment Protocol (AP2), an open-source payment protocol between agents and merchants, collaborating with multiple crypto protocols including Coinbase, Crossmint, EigenCloud, Ethereum Foundation, Mysten Labs, Mesh and Metamask. Layer 1 and Layer 2s The Ethereum Foundation introduced a new AI team (dAI Team), aiming to make Ethereum the preferred settlement and coordination layer for AIs and the machine economy. The team is working on ERC-8004, a standard for AI agents with unique identity, reputation score, and verifiable action. Ethereum tentatively set Fusaka upgrade on December 3, introducing PeerDAS, making Layer-2 blob verification much more efficient. Mantle completed the mainnet upgrade using OP Succinct, becoming the largest ZK rollup based on TVL. This upgrade significantly reduces the finality to 1 hour and 6 hour for withdrawals, instead of 7 days, and massive transaction cost reduction. Bybit is expected to announce additional MNT integration this week. DBS Bank announced listing of Franklin Templeton's sgBENJI and Ripple's RLUSD on the DBS Digital Exchange. DBS Bank will later provide credit lines by taking sgBENJI as collateral, creating a repo with tokenised securities and stablecoin. Tron launched SunPerp, a Tron-based perpetual exchange with high liquidity and no gas fee. Tron also onboard PYUSD to the network via Stargate, further expanding its stablecoin ecosystem. Paypal also launched its PYUSD on Aptos, its first Move-based blockchain. Movement announced migration from Layer-2 to become Layer-1. Dapps Perpetual exchanges have been favourable by the market lately. Yzi Labs-backed Aster launched its ASTER token at approximately $12 billion FDV, with an open interest (OI) of $380 million and a Hidden Order feature. According to Arkham, 93% of the token supply is held by the team. Meanwhile, Pantera-backed Avantis launched AVNT token at approximately $2 billion in FDV with $40 million in OI and features such as Zero-Fee Perpetual and Loss-Rebate. Metamask launched its stablecoin mUSD using the M^0 framework, offering strong liquidity on Linea network, and low-cost for on-ramp. The team also announced Metamask will be launching a token "very soon". Metamask is also expected to launch Hyperliquid integration directly from the wallet, potentially at Token2049. Trust Wallet released an update on its TWT tokenomics, including loyalty reward for boosted yield or airdrop, fee discount and more. The platform also integrated StockX, enabling direct tokenised stocks swap in the wallet. Wormhole announced W 2.0 tokenomics upgrade, using protocol revenue to form the Wormhole Reserve, distributing a 4% target reward to W stakers, and changing the annual unlocks to bi-weekly unlocks for a smoother schedule. Pendle announced the official full launch of Boros, increasing the cap of open interest and maximum leverage to 2x, reiterated Boros revenue will be direct back to PENDLE holders. Pendle also launched cross-chain PTs powered by LayerZero, starting with PT-USDe on Avalanche. Noon Capital, a curated DeFi strategy yield-bearing stablecoin, announced the team is considering integrating Pendle's and Spectra's Principal Tokens into their strategy. Yield Guild announced partnership with Public AI with undisclosed strategic token swap, linking gaming data produced by Yield Guild players to PublicAI for monetisation. Zora updated its fee structure by lowering the trading fee from 3% to 1%, while creator revenue sharing increased from 33% to 50%, reduced protocol split from 33.33% to 5% and more. Everlyn, an AI-generated video platform, partnered with Walrus for storing videos, training data onchain and utilising Sui network for smart payment channel. Aethir announced Chainlink joining the AI Unbundled alliance, providing grants to eligible participants that adopted both Chainlink and Aethir infrastructure. Decentralised De-Science launchpad, Bio Protocol, raised $6.9 million from Maelstrom Fund. Symbiotic partnered with Chainlink and Lombard to power LBTC interoperability using CCIP across multiple blockchains. Lombard, the 1.5 billion BTC liquid staking protocol, launched BARD token at approximately $1 billion in FDV. Circle announced launching native USDC support and CCTP v2 on HyperEVM. The team also stated CCTP support for USDC in HyperCore will soon be available, and the team is considering becoming a Hyperliquid validator. Circle also introduced CCTP.to, a fee-free frontend for users to swap USDC across chains. Governance and Upcoming Alpha Ethena Foundation disclosed that the Risk Committee is discussing the fee switch implementation and is expected to finalise soon. Base announced the team is "beginning to explore a network token." The potential airdrop could boost the activities in ecosystem protocols. According to Polymarket's filing to SEC, showing the latest raise involved "other warrants" which is speculated as a possible protocol token. Polymarket also launched new markets for trading companies' earnings. Limitless, a prediction market on Base, is launching on Kaito Launchpad on September 25. Hyperliquid proposed permissionless spot assets listing requirements, involving 200K HYPE staked for 3 years and slashable if the new listed asset has poor quality quote. The community proposed HIP-4, introducing prediction market architecture to Hyperliquid. Based, the leading Hyperliquid front-end, is launching its first Fair Launch protocol on its launchpad with Upheaval this week. Bitfinex-based stablecoin blockchain, Plasma, is expected to launch its token XPL on September 25. Maple Finance announced partnership with Plasma, launching an exclusive syrupUSDT vault with $200 million pre-deposit on Plasma. Curve Finance is voting to create a 60 million crvUSD credit line for Yield Basis to boostscrap the launch. The proposal is likely to be passed on September 25. Ronin announced the team will use the USDC and ETH from its treasury to buyback RON in the open market starting on September 29, for approximately $4.6 million or 1.3% RON supply. Fluid will start its token buyback on October 1 with 100% revenue from Ethereum, potentially 0.2% of FLUID supply per month. The team then slowly incorporates revenues from Jupiter Lends and Layer-2s. Project 0 launched the first DeFi-Native Prime Broker, where users can borrow against their entire portfolio in other protocols on Solana. Kamino integration will be live on October 8, while Drift integration is expected in November. The team will also be rewarding MarginFi point holders. The Solana leading DEX, Meteora, is expected to launch its MET token in October, following with a new Airdrop Claim feature on the platform. Polkadot passed the proposal to cap the maximum DOT supply at 2.1 billion and reduce the yearly emission by half every 2 years on Pi Day (March 14). Gnosis proposed to launch gEURO, an Euro-denominated stablecoin using Liquity V2 mechanics with 75% borrowing fees accure to gEURO holders. Polygon plans to increase the network throughput by 33% by increasing the block limit in Q4 2025. CoWSwap is hiring Solana engineering, looking to integrate Solana network into its intent-based aggregator swap next. Token Unlock NIL token unlocked on September 24, amount representing 29.1% of the token supply. PARTI token unlocked on September 25, amount representing 39.7% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on September 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocked on September 27, amount representing 3.82% of the token supply. TREE token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 6.16% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on October 1, amount representing 22% of the token supply. MAV token unlocked on October 2, amount representing 7.2% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(36/52) Weekly Market Insight | September Week 3 | Fed Week](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-september-week-3-fed-week/): Headline News: Fed Week Bitcoin posted a 3.81% gain last week due to softer inflation data. Meanwhile, Solana significantly outpaced both Bitcoin and Ethereum, fueled by two DATs announcements led by Pantera Capital and Galaxy Digital, raising nearly $3 billion to accumulate SOL as treasury asset. The upcoming FOMC meeting will dominate the landscape. With a 25bps rate cut widely anticipated, the market will focus on Chair Powell's guidance during the press conference and the updated Economic Projections. Macro-Outlook: Tamed Inflation Despite Reciprocal Tariffs Global trade policies remain highly uncertain as President Trump urged NATO nations to impose major sanctions on Russia and impose 50% to 100% tariffs on China. The US non-farm payrolls revised downward with record 911K lesser jobs in the 12 months through March 2025, indicating weaker than anticipated labour market. Notably, the weekly initial jobless claims also increased to 263K last week, the highest level since October 2021. The US PPI decreased by 0.1% in August, significantly lower than market expectations of a 0.3% gain. Meanwhile, the US core CPI increased by 0.3% in August, in-line with the market forecasts. The better than expected inflation data increased the probabilities of 75bps rate-cut by the end of 2025 from 65% to 74% last week. The Michigan consumer sentiment dropped to 55.4 in September, well below market expectations of 58. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, September 16, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in August Thursday, September 18, 2:00am: FOMC Meeting Thursday, September 18, 8:30pm: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Big RWA moves by Nasdaq and Blackrock Nasdaq filed with the SEC to launch tokenised stocks on the exchange. Blockrock is reportedly seeking to tokenise ETFs to blockchain. WisdomTree launched its first tokenised private credit fund, CRDT, on Ethereum and Stellar networks with 11.23% dividend yield and minimum $25 to invest. Binance announced a partnership with Franklin Templeton to develop new digital asset products that bridge traditional finance and blockchain. Layer 1 and Layer 2s The Ethereum validator withdrawal queue surged to an all-time-high with more than 46 days wait time and 2,673,349 ETH in the line. Native Markets won the Hyperliquid USDH stablecoin bidding, promising 50% reserve yield goes to HYPE buyback and the remaining goes to ecosystem growth. This creates a new opportunity for potential airdrop from the protocol. MegaETH partnered with Ethena to launch MegaUSD, USDm, the native stablecoin of MegaETH Layer-2. USDm is backed by USDtb, which is backed by Blackrock BUIDL fund. The team explained by internalising native stablecoin yield, MegaETH is able to run sequencer at-cost and maintain low gas fee. Linea has launched its LINEA token at approximately $2 billion in FDV with over $3 billion in TVL. 20% of ETH gas revenue will be burnt and 80% of it will be used to buy and burn LINEA. Story Protocol introduced IP Vault, enabling IP owners to store data offchain and key secured with IP Vault where IP Buyer needs to buy license tokens with approved conditions to access IP content through the vault. Upbit, the largest Korean crypto exchange, introduced Global Infrastructure for Web3 Access (GIWA), an Ethereum Layer-2 built on-top of OP Stack. WeBlock, a tokenised real estate protocol in Korea, announced adopting Avalanche to launch its Layer-1 network. Monero reportedly faced an 18-block reorganisation or 118 transactions. Dapps Tether introduced USA₮, a GENIUS-compliant stablecoin that aims to strengthen institutional and businesses adoption. Pendle's Boros has integrated Hyperliquid funding rate market, initially cap BTC and ETH open interest at 15 million and 20 million. Both liquidity vaults have hit the cap. Giza introduced Pulse, a Pendle agent that specialise to optimise users PT portfolios, taking slippage and maturity into account. This helps users to construct and rebalance PT-assets to maximise fixed returns. Pump.fun introduced MEXC Monday, aiming to list a pump.fun ecosystem token to MEXC exchange every Monday. LayerZero introduced OVault, enabling users to deposit and redemption into a DeFi strategy vault from different chains. Polymarket integrated Chainlink on Polygon to provide temper-proof asset pricing. Switchboard, an ultra-low latency oracle protocol (claimed better performance than Pyth), introduced its native token, SWTCH, as security deposit for oracle operators, governance and enjoys reward distribution at the end of each epoch. Holoworld AI launched its native token, HOLO, for protocol governance, payment currency in Holoworld Open MCP network, and staking for launches on HoloLaunch. Governance and Upcoming Alpha  Binance integrated USDe to the exchange, enabling users to use it as collateral for futures trading or deposit into the Binance Earn program. Ethena also successfully onboard USDe on Avalanche and Hyperliquid. With the success of Binance integration, Ethena has fulfilled all the criteria of turning on the fee switch. The market cap of USDe has increased to over $13 billion. REX-Osprey DOGE ETF is expected to start trading on September 18 under the 40 Act similar to REX-Osprey SOL Staking ETF, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst. Falcon Finance announced launching FF token community sale on Buidlpad, aiming to raise $4 million with valuation at $350 million and $450 million in FDV. Investors who are interested are required to complete KYC by September 19. Ethereum Foundation rebranded its privacy team to Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE), aiming to create architecture for end-to-end private transfer and expected to deliver proof-of-concept in Devconnect November. World Liberty Finance has passed the protocol to allocate 100% of WLFI Treasury liquidity fees to buy and burn WLFI tokens. Ronin passed the proposal to utilise OP Stack for its Layer-2. RON will continue to be used as gas after migration. DYDX proposed ending protocol level trading rewards, potentially saving approximately 0.5% to 0.8% token annual emission and having a simplified incentive model. Scroll has paused DAO governance and shifted to its own organisation-driven. StakeWise proposed using 100% of DAO monthly earnings to buyback SWISE, which represents approximately 5% to 10% supply sink in a year. Bluefin, the largest DEX on Sui, passed a quarterly buyback programme with 25% of Bluefin net revenues. The purchased BLUE will be kept in DAO treasury. Token Unlock ZK token unlocked on September 19, amount representing 2.4% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. LISTA token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 15.4% of the token supply. LZO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocked on September 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. NIL token unlocked on September 24, amount representing 29.1% of the token supply. PARTI token unlocked on September 25, amount representing 39.7% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on September 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 22% of the token supply. MAV token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 7.2% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(35/52) Weekly Market Insight | September Week 2 | Optimistically Cautious](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-september-week-2-optimistically-cautious/): Headline News: Optimistically Cautious Bitcoin outperformed Ethereum last week, weighed down by a record $787.74M net outflow from ETH ETFs that overshadowed a shrinking staking queue. The crypto market remains cautiously optimistic, balancing hopes for a September rate cut which is fueled by weak jobs data, against caution ahead of this week's pivotal inflation report, where the market expects cooler PPI but a higher CPI. Potential ETF approvals and legislative progress remain key catalysts to watch for the second half of September. Macro-Outlook: Jobs Deteriorating The US ISM manufacturing PMI increased to 48.7 in August, below market expectation of 49. The manufacturing employment, inventories and order backlogs shrank, signalling weaker demand conditions. The JOLTs job openings fell to 7.18 million in July, well below market expectation of 7.4 million. Meanwhile, job quits also fell to 3.208 million in July, from 3.209 million in June, indicating companies reluctant to have significant change in human resources during this high economic uncertainty environment. The US ISM services PMI increased to 52 in August, higher than market expectation of 51. The US non-farm payrolls increased by 22K in August, well below market expectations of 75K, with job losses in government and manufacturing payrolls. Additionally, June payrolls were revised downward to a job loss of 13K, the first job loss month since December 2020. The US unemployment rate increased to 4.3% in August, matched with market forecasts. The labor force participation rate in the US increased from 62.2% to 62.3% in August. The probability of a 75bps rate cut by the end of 2025 has increased from approximately 40% to 73%. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, September 9, 10:00pm: The US Non-Farm Payroll Annual Revision Wednesday, September 10, 8:30pm: The US PPI in August Thursday, September 11, 8:30pm: The US Inflation Rate in August Friday, September 12, 10:00pm: The Preliminary Reading of Michigan Consumer Sentiment in September Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Unstoppable Regulatory Embracement The US SEC and CFTC jointly proposed a 24/7 Markets policy to accelerate securities trading onchain, creating "innovation exemptions" for DeFi related protocols, making prediction markets available in US, allowing spot crypto assets and perpetual contracts to trade across SEC-and CFTC-regulated platforms and more. The Senate Banking Committee introduced the latest draft of "Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025" (RFIA), clarifying staking and airdrops are not securities, DePIN is exempted from securities laws, self-custody and DeFi protection etc. Austrialian self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) that invest in crypto products have increased by sevenfold since 2021, reaching A$1.7 billion as of March 2025. Coinbase announced the launching of Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index Futures on September 22, which consists of AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN, NVDA, META, TSLA, COIN, IBIT and ETHA. Kraken acquired Breakout, a proprietary trading platform for crypto-traders. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ondo Finance launched Global Markets, introducing over 100 tokenised stocks to users with high liquidity embedded on the platform and APIs support directly into third party apps. 1inch has integrated the Global Markets into its Swap API, enabling users to swap tokenised directly via 1inch. Tempo, stablecoin layer-1 by Stripe and Paradigm has officially launched its private testnet, with early partners such as Visa, Deutsche Bank, Shopify and Standard Chartered. Fireblocks launched Fireblocks Network, a new blockchain for stablecoin payment, on/off-ramps, onchain banking relationships and more, with more than 40 providers supporting the network. Bitcoin BRC20 has completed the BRC2.0 upgrade, introducing EVM compatibility directly onto the Bitcoin network. The smart contract computation will be handled by indexer operators off-chain, and then inscribed back onto Bitcoin network. Particle Network announced launching Particle Chain as Avalanche Layer 1. Starknet network was halted for approximately 4 hours due to sequencer failure to process transactions and had to reorganise about an hour of network activities prior to the halt. Toyota partnered with Avalanche to launch Mobile Orchestration Network (MON), a layer-1 blockchain that secures data sharing for vehicle financing, ride sharing, insurance and carbon credit tracking, while streamlining ownership transfers for secondary markets. The US Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) provider SmartGold partnered with Chintai to launch tokenised gold on Chintai Nexus. Investors can now use funds from retirement accounts to participate in DeFi strategies with tokenised gold. Bitget partnered with Morph blockchain, a consumer-focus Layer-2, to use BGB as its gas and governance token. The new foundation will burn 220 million or 11% of BGB supply. Omni Network announced rebranding to Nomina, migrating token from OMNI to NOM in 1:75 and broader goal of creating a user friendly crypto experience. Dapps Lido launched Lido Earn, stETH vaults that were designed to enable stakers to earn additional rewards from DeFi (GG Vault) and DVT incentivised reward (Decentralised Validator Vault). ETHZilla, a Ethereum DAT company, announced to deploy $100 million ETH into EtherFi. XStocks announced launching tokenised equities on Ethereum network. Pump.fun announced Project Ascend, introducing a Dynamic Fees model where Creator Fee will be adjusted lower with higher market capitalisation and streamline the process for replacement of creators. BONK.fun announced bringing USD1 launchpad to Solana, where tokens are raised and paired with USD1. Alkimi Exchange partnered with Walrus to launch a decentralised advertising marketplace with encrypted campaign data on Sui. The protocol rebranded its token to ALKIMI with revenue sharing to stakers. Redstone acquired Credora Network, the leading DeFi risk rating provider. Twyne, a credit delegation protocol built atop Euler, is now live on Ethereum, enabling borrowers to borrow at a higher liqLTV to avoid being liquidated with idle capital from lenders. Virtual introduced Agent Liquidity Engine (ALE), a dedicated dashboard where agents displayed their fundamental metrics such as revenue generation. Resolv introduced Clusters, integrating stablecoin collaterals into other DeFi protocols to generate an addition and diversity yield to the RLP and USR, starting with Fluid Protocol. Upcoming Alpha and Governance Hyperliquid aims to launch its native stablecoin USDH. Multiple parties such as Paxos and Frax Finance have proposed to be the issuer of USDH. Paxos proposed its compliance advantage and suggested using 95% of the interest from reserve to buyback HYPE and redistributed to stakeholders, while Frax Frinance suggested 100% of the yield can be decided by Hyperliquid governance for appropriate purposes. Agora later proposed a 100% revenue share as well. More proposals are expected by September 10. Validators will choose their preferred proposal by September 11 and users will delegate to their preferred validators by September 14. World Liberty Finance proposed using fees earned by WLFI's protocol-owned liquidity to buyback and burn WLFI. Justin Sun's team was accused of dumping WLFI after sending 60 million WLFI to Binance. The team then clarified the transactions were deposit tests. Despite that, World Liberty Finance froze Justin Sun's address, locking 2.94 billion tokens. The US Federal Reserve will host a conference on payments innovations on October 21. Arbitrum launched its DeFi incentive program, Drip, allocating 80 million ARB to reward DeFi users within a period of 12 months. Aave, Dolomite, Euler, Fluid, Morpho and Silo are selected as the participating protocols in Season 1: Leverage Looping Strategy. Linea is expected to launch TGE on September 10. The pre-market is trading LINEA at approximately $7 billion in FDV. Aave is the highest TVL protocol on Linea, and SharpLink Gaming announced planning to stake part of its $3.6 billion Ethereum treasury on Linea. Pyth proposed Phase 2, introducing a subscription model that integrates market data directly into various systems, creating a new revenue stream for DAO and token holders. Wildcat Labs raised $3.5 million from Robit Ventures and others, with the goal of bringing uncollateralised private credit onchain, rivaling 3Jane, which offers a similar solution. Token Unlock IO token unlocked on September 11, amount representing 1.82% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocked on September 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocked on September 15, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. SEI token unlocked on September 15, amount representing 1.75% of the token supply. ARB token unlocked on September 16, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. LZO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. NIL token unlocked on September 24, amount representing 29.1% of the token supply. PARTI token unlocked on September 25, amount representing 39.7% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on September 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 22% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(34/52) Weekly Market Insight | September Week 1 | Bad Month, Good Opportunity](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-september-week-1-bad-month-good-opportunity/): Headline News: Seasonality Turbulent Bitcoin ended August down 6.49% as macroeconomic headwinds including signs of slowing AI-related expenditures and deteriorating economic health, marked by persistent inflation and a softening labor market, creating significant uncertainty around the long-term path for interest rates. Meanwhile, Ethereum shed 8% last week after failing to break the $5,000 key psychological barrier. Evidence of capital rotation by DATs emerged, towards altcoins such as Solana and BNB. Macro-Outlook: Busy US Court, Jobs Reports Ahead The durable goods in the US fell by 2.8% in July, softer than market expectations of a 4% drop. The second estimation of US Q2 GDP increased to 3.3%, higher than the forecasts of 3.1%, primarily driven by upward revisions to investment, consumer spending and imports. The US PCE price index rose to 2.6% in July, in-line with expectation. Personal income and spending increased by 0.4% and 0.5% respectively in July, both in-line with market consensus. The EU announced proposing to remove all tariffs on US industrial goods. In exchange, the US is expected to lower tariffs on automobiles from the EU. The US Appeals Court has ruled tariffs implemented by President Trump be illegal. Trump posted that all tariffs are still in effect. The Trump administration has 90 days to file a "petition for a writ of certiorari" to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. The Fed Governor Lisa Cook sued the Trump administration over firing attempt. The Fed stated the board will abide by any court decision. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, September 2, 10:00pm: The US ISM Manufacturing PMI in August Wednesday, September 3, 10:00pm: The US JOLTs Job Openings in July Thursday, September 4, 8:15pm: The US ADP Employment Change in August Thursday, September 4, 10:00pm: The US ISM Services PMI in August Friday, September 5, 8:30pm: The US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in August Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Google's "Android of Blockchain" REX-Osprey filed a BNB-staking ETF with the SEC using the 40 Act framework similar to the SOL-staking ETF approved in June 2025. Google Cloud introduced GCUL, its Layer-1 blockchain with permissioned validators, python-based smart contract and predictable gas fees. The blockchain aims to serve financial institutions and institutional partners, CME Group is the early pilot partner. SIX Network partnered with the Thai government to develop the G-Token project, issuing tokenised government bonds backed by the Ministry of Finance and listed on KuCoin exchange. Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum Community Foundation introduced tokenised burned ETH, a smart contract that mint BETH for every ETH burned. The announcement has drawn criticism from the community over its necessity and its potential to undermine the deflationary effects of EIP-1559. Succinct announced entering a partnership with Tandem to transform Arbitrum to ZK proving with fast finality, better security and interoperability. Tron reduced the network fees by 60%, aiming to capture more stablecoin transactions. Aleo announced to join Global Dollar Network, the stablecoin with MAS approval, aiming to bring private stablecoin transactions on-chain. Union, interoperability execution layer, introduced U tokenomics, serving as a gas token, staking for security and governance. The token will be launched with 19.9% initial circulation, 6% emission rate in the first year, and a 12-month incentivised staking vault. Symbiotic launched External Rewards for restaking vaults with native tokens. Dapps Aave launched Horizon RWA market on the mainnet, listing tokenised assets such as AAA-rated CLOs fund, JAAA as collateral. The revenue generated by Horizon was previously agreed to split 50:50 between Aave and the team. Jupiter and Fluid launched Jupiter Lend, enabling users easily create a leveraged lending vault. Jupiter Lend has attracted more than $800 million deposited assets in less than 4 days after launch. Sky Protocol announced the DAO now has zero governance-determined fixed core expenses, introduction of Aggregate Risk Capital for better risk management of the protocol, and SKY endowment mandate to buyback SKY with 10% of all net revenue and restricted to sell any SKY except to pay core contributor teams. Chainlink and Pyth were selected by the US Department of Commerce to bring key economy metrics such as GDP onchain. Chainlink also announced partnering with SBI Group to provide services such as CCIP, NAV Smart Data and Proof of Reserve for their tokenised RWA. Pudgy Penguins launched Pudgy Party, a mobile game on both iOS and Android. Ether.Fi partnered with Plasma to bring $500 million worth of ETH staking vault to Plasma. Metamask now supports social login using Google or Apple ID. It also proposed listing mUSD in Aave core market. Euler Finance introduced EulerEarn, helping users to aggregate and manage multiple strategies with minimal effort. Hyperliquid introduced new hard cap prices to 10x the 8-hour EMA and incorporated external perpetual price oracle as the countermeasures to price manipulation. Hyperliquid also announced buying back using 99% of protocol fees, an increase from 97%, on the next network upgrade. Based has integrated Hyperliquid on its mobile apps in both iOS and Android. The leading EVM wallet, Rabby Wallet, is also expected to integrate Hyperliquid into its wallet interface soon, potentially generating additional source of revenue through Builder Codes from the trades the platform facilitates. Hyperbeat introduced dnTokens, tokenised delta-neutral strategies on Hyperliquid, directly competing with Liminal protocol which offers similar products. Upcoming Alpha and Governance Ondo is expected to make tokenised stock-related announcements on September 3. Solana is expected to complete Alpenglow voting this week, and mainnet implementation is expected to rollout by the end of 2025 or early 2026. Mantle and Bybit released a roadmap 2.0, introducing up to 25% trading fee discount with MNT, VIP boost, higher cashback rate for Bybit Card, access to Megadrop and Launchpool, and more. DYDX announced a new roadmap, integrating Telegram trading set in September, social login, 50% partner fee sharing, stake for discounted fees, and integrating spot trading starting with Solana and RWA perpetual markets in the future. Marinade passed its major proposals including activating the Staking Reward Program, increasing buyback by 10-percentage-points, burning 30% of total token supply and redirecting protocol fee flow to DAO treasury. Token Unlock JTO token unlocked on September 7, amount representing 3.07% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on September 11, amount representing 1.82% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocked on September 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocked on September 15, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. SEI token unlocked on September 15, amount representing 1.75% of the token supply. ARB token unlocked on September 16, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. LZO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 10.3% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on September 20, amount representing 3.46% of the token supply. NIL token unlocked on September 24, amount representing 29.1% of the token supply. PARTI token unlocked on September 25, amount representing 39.7% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on September 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on September 30, amount representing 22% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(33/52) Weekly Market Insight | August Week 5 | “A Changing Situation”](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-august-week-5-a-changing-situation/): Headline News: Winter Soldiers PTSD Ethereum surged by 6.77% last week, setting a new all-time high of $4,950. The rally was primarily propelled by a dovish tone from the Fed Chair Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium, which lifted broader risk assets. On-chain data indicates a trend of some Bitcoin whales rotating their holdings into ETH. Despite this bullish momentum, Ethereum faces significant headwinds from staker profit-taking, with the withdrawal queue reaching approximately 847,000 ETH, and the slow down of DATs acquisition due to low mNAV. Macro-Outlook: "A Changing Situation" The US July FOMC minutes showed the majority of the participants raised concern about short-term persistent inflation and slow pass-through of input cost to consumers. Participants noted stable unemployment rate reflected a combination of low hiring and layoffs. They also commented on stablecoin and its implications for banking and financial systems, warranted close attention. Fed Chair Powell suggested due to the increasing risks to employment to the downside as "a changing situation" to monetary policy in Jackson Hole. Besides, Powell also announced some changes to the five-year review policy framework, including abandoning the "Makeup" Strategy, removing "shortfalls" view of employment, and de-emphasising the Zero Lower Bound (ELB). These aim to position the monetary framework to be forward-looking in the new higher interest rate environment. After the speech, the market increased slightly the probability of rate-cut in September from 85% to 89%, while a 75bps cut by the end of 2025 remained at 35%. The Commerce Department announced a new 50% tariff on more than 400 steel and aluminum derivative products. On the other hand, Canada announced removing most of the retaliatory tariffs on US goods. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, August 26, 8:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in July Thursday, August 28, 8:30pm: US Q2 GDP Second Estimation Friday, August 31, 8:30pm: US PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in July Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Memes Never Died, Tokenisation Never Stopped Startale Group partnered with SBI Holding, a financial institution with 11 trillion JPY in AUM, launching an onchain trading platform for tokenised stocks and other RWAs. EU officials are reportedly working to ditch CBDC and reworking plans for retail stablecoin. TRM Labs partnered with major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance launching Beacon Network, a real-time response network to flag out criminal transactions on-chain. Layer 1 and Layer 2s The first Wyoming state-issued stablecoin, FRNT, launched on Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and 4 other blockchains. The stablecoin partnered with LayerZero for cross-chain token transfers. DBS Bank announced tokenising structure notes on Ethereum. SkyBridge plans to tokenise $300 million worth of funds on Avalanche, including one with a basket of cryptocurrencies and one with both venture and crypto. Avalanche C-Chain throughput has improved by 30% after validators raised gas targets. Alpen Labs revealed Glock, a new protocol, similar to BitVM, for optimistic verification of computation on Bitcoin. It utilises Garbler Circuit to cryptographically reveal fraud proofs and SNARK verification to minimise cost. Kraken and Backed Finance announced expanding xStocks' tokenised stocks to Tron Network. Core DAO partnered with Hex Trust to offer institutional non-custodial Bitcoin staking for CORE reward. Dapps Metamask officially introduced MetaMask USD, mUSD, partnering with Bridge and M0. The stablecoin will be launched on Linea Network and be spendable with MetaMask Card. LFG launched a new token launchpad, Token Mill, on Solana. Creators can opt in to a new feature, King of the Mill (KOTM), to compete for trading volume every 30 minutes. The top 10 tokens will gain all the fees generated within each round and are used to buying and burning their tokens via TWAP. Another token launchpad, Heaven, has also launched, featuring permissioned fee structure and Flywheel address that automatically buyback and burn tokens to encourage actual builders behind the tokens. USD.ai launched USDAI public deposit on Arbitrum, enabling users to mint USDAI that is backed by GPU clusters and receiving yield from real-world borrowers. 1inch Network integrated Solana into 1inch Fusion, enabling swap of Solana assets across multiple blockchains via intent-based resolvers network. INFINIT V2 launched the public beta, allowing users to run multi-step DeFi strategies via AI agent coordination. The team plans to open up for builders and experts to create their own no-code DeFi strategies in the next step. Particle Network integrated xStocks, allowing users to trade tokenised stocks from any chain. Ether.fi launched its physical cards for crypto-to-cash payment. Injective introduced Nvidia GPU Derivative Market, a tokenised Nvidia H100 hourly rental cost with up to 5x leverage. Upcoming Alpha and Governance China's State Council reportedly plans to approve the new CNY-stablecoin in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with more detail expected in Tianjin SCO Summit from August 31 to September 1. Aave proposed adding XAUt to Aave v3 Core as the first tokenised gold money market. Horizon, RWA instance of Aave, activation vote is set to pass on August 28. Sonic proposed minting approximately 600 million S or additional 18% token supply to fund US expansion initiatives such as ETF enablement, bootstraping a Nasdaq-listed DAT company, and funding Sonic USA LLC to drive growth in the US. The proposal also includes a 5% gas burn from FeeM transactions, at the expense of validators. The voting is expected to end on August 31. World Liberty Finance announced WFLI will be tradable on Ethereum on September 1. Plasma partnered with Fluid to become the preferred DEX after Plasma mainnet launch. Fluid proposed 3 dynamic token buyback models based on FLUID token performance. The buyback is expected to be implemented on October 1, after the community aligns a buyback model. Curve Finance founder proposed pre-mint 60 million crvUSD to booststrap Yield Basis BTC pools. In exchange, Curve will get 20% of YB emission, while benefiting from the supply sinks for crvUSD and potential increase demand for crvUSD stableswap. Starknet passed SNIP-30, laying the framework for decentralised sequencer in the future, sub-second pre-confirmation, and implementing EIP-1559 fee market. The upgrade is expected on September 1. The team is also discussing implementing Bitcoin staking on Starknet in SNIP-31, targeting release in Q3. Marinade proposed multiple proposals (MIP-13, 14 and 15), potentially increasing the token buyback, introducing a staking reward program, burning part of MNDE in DAO treasury, 100 million MNDE for operation budget and redistributing 50% of protocol fees from the team to DAO treasury. After LayerZero offered a $110 million worth of ZRO conversion buyout over Stargate and passed, Wormhole made a counter offer of at least $120 million USDC for Stargate and requested to hold the deal with LayerZero. Silo Finance passed the proposal to activate buyback USDC or ETH and distribute them to xSILO stakers. Ethena approved BNB as the new eligible asset backing USDe and indicated XRP and HYPE as next candidates soon, potentially improving the USDe APY. Napier Finance introduced Napier AMM, a yield curve built on top of Uniswap v4, featuring concentrated liquidity, JIT liquidity, rehypothecation, and time-adaptive curves. The new upgrade is expected in October 2025. Token Unlock ALT token unlocked on August 26, amount representing 6.03% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocked on August 27, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on August 28, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. OP token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 1.84% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 22% of the token supply. SUI token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 1.62% of the token supply. ENA token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 1.42% of the token supply. JTO token unlocked on September 7, amount representing 3.07% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [DeFi’s Shadow Wars: The Unseen Battles of 2025](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/defis-shadow-wars-the-unseen-battles-of-2025/): Introduction: The Evolving Frontiers of Decentralized Finance The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) landscape extends far beyond the paradigm of Automated Market Makers (AMMs), with zero-to-one innovations emerging on a daily basis. DeFi has since established itself as a cornerstone of blockchain technology's value proposition, empowering self-custodian, borderless payment, real-time settlement, programmable transaction, eliminating high middleman cost and more. The sector's maturity is evidenced by a Total Value Locked (TVL) exceeding $300 billion, strategic pivots toward decentralization by major CEXs like Binance Alpha and ByReal, and a palpable sense of urgency from TradFi. This urgency is highlighted by the rush to tokenize securities issuance, the onboarding of cryptocurrency custodies and trading services, stablecoins integration, and development of proprietary blockchain technologies. This analysis aims to dive into DeFi from a different angle and delves into several innovative DeFi mechanisms operating under the public radar, alongside the key mainstream trends shaping the future of the on-chain economy. The Convergence of Liquidity: Unifying Trading and Borrowing Fuild DEX Trading Volume A pivotal trend is the optimization of capital efficiency by enabling liquidity providers (LPs) to simultaneously earn fees from both trading and lending. Fluid DEX's "Smart Vault," introduced in October 2024, was an early pioneer of this model. This mechanism is now gaining broader adoption, notably with EulerSwap, which integrates Uniswap v4 directly with lending vaults. This deepens liquidity through just-in-time (JIT) borrowing and establishes LP positions as native collateral. While Uniswap v4 appears poised to dominate with its first-mover advantage and robust Hooks feature set, the future is more nuanced. The increasing prevalence of Request-for-Quote (RFQ) systems and aggregators means that the underlying AMM's efficiency is paramount for capturing order flow. Competing protocols like Fluid are also planning to integrate modular "Hooks" designs. In this evolving environment, platforms offering only a single yield source or lacking modular integration points will inevitably lose their competitive edge. The Race for Execution: Efficiency, Intents, and Aggregation CoWSwap V3 Swap Volume As aggregators and RFQ systems become standard, the efficiency of the underlying trading mechanism is the primary determinant of success. Ekubo, an optimized AMM that proved its efficiency on Starknet before launching on Ethereum in March 2025, serves as a prime example. Despite being only months old, it consistently ranks among the top 3 protocols by trading volume on Ethereum. Its innovations include: Ultra-Precision Concentrated Liquidity: Allowing for more granular and efficient capital deployment. Singleton Architecture: Consolidating core logic into a single contract to reduce gas costs. Flash Accounting: Netting out a series of trades within a single transaction to optimize execution. Layered on top of these efficient AMMs are aggregators, which face their own intense competition. Some, like 1inch, focus on refining their routing algorithms, as seen in the recent Pathfinder upgrade that splits trades across numerous DEXs based on real-time depth. Others, like CowSwap, are moving towards full intent-based models, employing Fair Combinatorial Batch Auctions to secure optimal execution prices. We believe intent-based approaches are poised to become the standard, offering superior price execution, an improved user experience (e.g., gas abstraction, faster execution), and greater resistance to MEV attacks. The application of intents is already expanding beyond spot trading into lending (Morpho V2), perpetuals (Symmio), and bridges (Across). Modular and Cross-Chain Lending: The New Frontier Euler Total Borrowed and Available Supply Euler has been a dominant force in the lending sector in 2025, posting an astonishing 1280% growth. Its success is built on modularity that surpasses even Morpho Blue, featuring: EVC (Euler Vault Connectors): Enabling cross-vault borrowing between isolated markets. EVK (Euler Vault Kit): Providing extensive customization, including multiple oracle choices, custom interest rate models, and unique governance options. JIT Liquidity: Facilitating more efficient liquidation processes. However, the market's ambition now extends to seamless cross-chain interoperability — a challenge once attempted by the since-exploited Tapioca protocol. Morpho v2 is emerging as a powerful solution, introducing intent-based primitives for peer-to-peer loans. This allows for more efficient price discovery for rates (including fixed rates), flexible loan terms, integrated compliance, and the cross-chain compatibility that the market demands. While the highly anticipated Aave v4 is expected to address this, detailed plans for its cross-chain functionality remain unconfirmed. A newer contestant that pushes the boundary even further is Soul Protocol, currently on testnet, which aims to enable cross-platform borrowing (e.g., supplying collateral on Aave on Ethereum to borrow on Compound on Arbitrum). Perpetual Futures: The Lucrative Arena of Privacy and Performance Hyperliquid New Users and Trading Volume Perpetual exchanges remain one of the most competitive and profitable sectors in DeFi. Hyperliquid, for example, generates over $700 million in annualized revenue and is consistently among the top five highest-earning protocols while eroding CEX market share. However, its radical transparency has drawn criticism, most notably regarding liquidation hunting of large traders like James Wynn. While Hyperliquid's founders argue that transparency levels the playing field for market makers and leads to tighter spreads, the risk of being front-run or counter-traded is a significant net negative for whale traders. This has created an opening for newcomers like Defx and Aster, which emphasize privacy through features like hidden orders. The competitive moat here is narrow; established players can integrate these features, as seen with Drift's plans to integrate BAM for private transaction sequencing. Other similar solutions are emerging, such as Silhouette, which builds advanced privacy features on top of Hyperliquid, and Vooi, which aggregates multiple existing perpetual exchanges into a unified, feature-rich trading terminal. The Super App Thesis: Consolidating the Fat-Front-End MetaMask Revenue and Aggregator Volume The mantra "whoever controls the front-end, controls the money flow" is driving a race to build "Super Apps." Platforms like Robinhood, Base App, Jupiter, Phantom, Defi App and Infinex aim to become the single point of interaction for users. The on-chain user experience remains fragmented and complex, plagued by issues like gas token management, wallet proliferation, and multi-signature cross-chain transactions. Effective wallet abstraction solves these pain points, offering immense convenience. In exchange, these front-end platforms capture value through small service fees — a lucrative model that outsources protocol-level maintenance. The integration of Hyperliquid into the Phantom wallet, which generated nearly $1 million in new revenue for Phantom within the first month, is a testament to this model's power. Similarly, MetaMask's native swap feature commands a 0.875% fee, facilitating approximately $50 billion swap volume since launched, capturing significant revenue despite zero-fee alternatives like LlamaSwap existing. Solving Impermanent Loss: The Holy Grail for Liquidity GammaSwap Total Value Locked "DeFi Summer" during 2020-2021 saw higher relative trading liquidity, despite total market cap having grown by 36%, partly because many LPs had not yet fully priced-in the risk of impermanent loss (IL). As awareness grew, liquidity provision became less attractive as IL was often greater than the trading fees received, pushing users away from providing liquidity and simply practicing buy-and-hold. The key to unlocking the next wave of DeFi liquidity is to mitigate or eliminate IL for core assets like ETH and several protocols are working to tackle this "holy grail" problem: GammaSwap: Yield Token, isolating IL by allowing traders to borrow LP positions, effectively transferring the long gamma exposure to speculators. Yield Basis: Aims to nullify IL by applying a constant 2x leverage to an LP position and rebalancing through a "squaring the square root" methodology. Flying Tulip (by Andre Cronje): Proposes a redesigned AMM that automatically adapts between constant product and constant sum models based on real-time volatility to reduce IL and improve capital efficiency. The Great Value Migration: Real-World Assets (RWA), and PayFi Ether.Fi Cash Spend Volume While DeFi has spent years creating native value, the tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs) represents a massive importation of value from traditional finance. As the macroeconomic environment shifts towards anticipated interest rate cuts, capital is expected to flow from lower-yielding treasuries into higher-yield private credit and other tokenized risk assets. Major players are positioning themselves to capture this trillion-dollar market: Robinhood is leveraging the Arbitrum stack for tokenized stocks, Kraken is adopting xStocks that on Solana, and Coinbase is likely to build on its native Base chain. This influx will create immense opportunities across existing DeFi shovels such as AMMs and lending markets, enabling novel strategies that blend traditional assets with DeFi's composability. Within this trend, "PayFi" — the use of stablecoins for payments — is gaining traction for remittances, FX settlement, and credit card processing through protocols like Huma Finance and Clearpool. Under the hood, the crypto-card sector is also booming. While Gnosis Pay established itself as the leading player, Ether.fi has become one of the fastest-growing crypto cards in 2025, facilitating over $20 million in transaction volume by offering compelling cash back up to 3% and up to 10% yield on stablecoin balances. The Diversification of DeFi-Native Yield for Stablecoin Total TVL of On-Chain Asset Allocators The consensus benchmark "risk-free" rate in DeFi is the yield from ETH staking, currently ~2.6%. However, the sources of stablecoin yield have diversified dramatically beyond simple lending or stable-pair LPing. New categories of DeFi-native yield include: Funding Rate Arbitrage: Delta-neutral strategies offered by Ethena (sUSDe) and Resolv (RLP and USR). Protocol Revenue Share: Stablecoins like Curve's scrvUSD, Aave's sGHO, and Liquity's sBOLD that distribute a portion of the protocol's borrowing interest to holders. Additionally, sBOLD holders also received liquidation gain from Liquity V2. F(x) Protocol's fxSAVE earns yield from trading fees, reserve yield, and LP fees. Perpetual Exchange Market Making: Yield-bearing LP tokens like Hyperliquid's HLP and Gains' gUSDC, which are exposed to trader PnL as a counterparty. As these opportunities multiply and increasingly complex, yield aggregators and strategy vaults are becoming essential. Platforms like Level USD (strategy allocation across blue-chip lending protocols), Gauntlet USD Alpha (adaptive yield optimization), and Summer.fi (risk-profiled yield vaults) help users navigate this complex landscape. DeFAI: Integrating AI with On-Chain Execution Theoriq's Mindshare The convergence of AI and DeFi ("DeFAI") is one of the most controversial narratives of 2025. The ultimate vision is an AI agent that can execute complex, conditional instructions like: "Swap 2/3 of my ETH to USDC when ETH hits $10k, and use the proceeds to buy Pendle's sUSDe tranche maturing within 100 days if the fixed APY is above 10%." The primary obstacle is the inherent probabilistic nature and risk of "hallucination" in Large Language Models (LLMs). While methods like RAG and reinforcement learning can help, still the most viable path for financial transactions involves deterministic workflows. Protocols like Theoriq, Infinit, Almanak, Magic Newton, and Wayfinder are creating environments where experts can build predictable, custom transaction routes or "agents." The moat for these platforms will be determined by their economic incentives, integration scope, and customization flexibility. The potential for a DeFi expert or KOL to offer a complex, one-click leveraged farming strategy to followers for a small commission is immense. Given that AI-related CAPEX among hyperscalers grew by 65% year-over-year in Q2 2025, the DeFAI narrative is poised for significant market attention, regardless of the final value delivered by these early-stage protocols. The Evolution of Capital Formation: Beyond the Launchpad X Crypto-Related Activities Early launchpads required staking of platform tokens, exposing participants to undesirable price volatility. Pump.fun disrupted this with a permissionless bonding curve model that dominated the memecoin space but suffered from bot-sniping and limited configuration. Its lack of a defensible moat was proven in July 2025 when Let's Bonk surpassed it as the leading launchpad on Solana. The next wave is more sophisticated. Zora is using Uniswap v4 hooks to allow creators to launch tokens with customized fee-sharing models. However, the most innovative models are Capital Launchpad and Attention Capital Markets, pioneered by Kaito and Cookie. These platforms move beyond first-come, first-served (FCFS) or simple staking. Instead, token allocation is determined by a holistic analysis of a user's: Social and on-chain reputation. Historical project participation and conviction. Geographic region and wallet holdings. This creates a positive feedback loop, rewarding genuine engagement and capital commitment over mercenary airdrop farming, and forcing participants to perform deeper due diligence. Conclusion: An Era of Specialization and Abstraction The DeFi landscape of 2025 is defined by a dual mandate: profound specialization at the protocol level and radical simplification at the user-facing layer. Successful protocols are required to excel in their specialisation — be it hyper-efficient trade execution, modular cross-chain lending, private perpetuals, or the mitigation of impermanent loss, and create a moat for competition. Simultaneously, the importation of value from TradFi through RWA tokenization and the diversification of DeFi-native yields are blurring the line between on-chain and TradFi, expanding the total addressable market and the opportunity set. Ultimately, while innovation in financial primitives remains critical, the most significant value accrual in the coming cycle may shift to the platforms that successfully master the act of abstraction for user experience. The enduring winners will be those who become the indispensable and most trusted entry point to the entire on-chain economy.
- [(32/52) Weekly Market Insight | August Week 4 | Another Buying-The-Dip Opportunity?](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-august-week-4-another-buying-the-dip-opportunity/): Headline News: Unstaking and Profit Taking Bitcoin retreating 1.53% after hitting a new all-time high near the $124,500 level last week, pulling back coincided with the release of persistent wholesale inflation data in the US. In contrast, Ethereum showed relative strength, climbing 5.26% but ultimately falling short of its $4,868 peak. The staking withdrawal queue has surged to a record high of over 872,000 ETH, suggesting potential profit-taking from stakers. Additionally, wallets associated with the Ethereum Foundation sold approximately $33 million of ETH last week at an average price of $4,558. Macro-Outlook: Mixed Inflation Reading President Trump extended the trade framework with China for another 90 days, into early November. Trump later told the media that more tariff details on semi-conductors and steel will be announced this week. The US inflation rate remained at 2.7% in July, below forecasts of 2.8%. Core inflation increased by 0.3% in July, in line with market expectations. While the latest CPI data revealed signs of tariff-driven inflation, the resulting impact was more subdued than market consensus. However, PPI in July rose by 0.9%, significantly higher than market forecasts of 0.2%, revealing significant impact of recent trade policies such as steel and aluminum, and rising labor costs on service components, which could be the result of shrinking labor supply. The US retail sales increased by 0.5% in July, in line with market expectations. Meanwhile, the preliminary Michigan consumer sentiment dropped to 58.6 in August, well below market forecasts of 62. The probability of 75bps rate-cut decreased by approximately 8 percentage-point to 38.8% by the end of 2025. Following the bilateral summit between President Trump and President Putin in Alaska, diplomatic talks between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and key European leaders are scheduled with Trump this week. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Thursday, August 21, 2:00am: July FOMC Minutes Friday, August 22, 10:00pm: Fed Chair Powell Speech at Jackson Hole Symposium Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: The Stablecoin Layer-1s War The US Federal Reserve announced sunseting its novel activities supervision program that treats cryptocurrencies as exotic risk to banking operations. The Japanese Financial Services Agency plans approving the issuance of yen-denominated stablecoins. JPYC is expected to be launched as early as in fall 2025. Thailand launched the "TouristDigiPay" sandbox scheme, allowing foreign visitors to convert cryptocurrencies to Thai baht with QR code payment. Gemini launched a self-custody Gemini Wallet with a web interface for token trading and dapps explorer.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s Circle introduced Arc, an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain for USDC stablecoin payments, FX, and capital markets applications. The chain features FX engine, sub-second settlement finality, and opt-in privacy controls. Stripe is reportedly building a payment-focus Layer-1, Tempo, in collaboration with Paradigm. CMB International partnered with DigiFT and OnChain tokenised HK-Singapore mutual recognition USD money market fund on Solana. TON announced Coinbase Venture had acquired an undisclosed TON holding. Sonic launched Testnet 2.1, featuring compatibility with Ethereum Pectra upgrade. Qubic successfully executed 51% attack on Monero network, reorganising as deep as 6 blocks and demonstrating its "Useful Proof of Work" (UPoW) system, where mining power is purportedly used for meaningful computational tasks. Dinari, the tokenisation firm that partnered with Gemini to launch tokenised stocks, plans to launch a proprietary Layer-1 with Avalanche to serve as the compliant settlement layer for tokenised assets. Ronin announced to migrate back to Ethereum as Layer-2 by 2026, and introducing a new Proof of Distribution mechanism that redirects block rewards to the Governing Validators and Contributors. OKX burnt 75% of the OKB and fixed the total supply at 21 million tokens. The team also completed the PP upgrade on X Layer, increasing the throughput to 5000 transactions per second, and sunsetting OKTChain. Jason, the co-founder of Story Protocol, announced stepping down from the project. The decision has drawn criticism from the community, citing concerns that the protocol has consistently under-delivered to its high expectations, viewing the co-founder's departure as further confirmation of the project's issues.   Dapps Coinbase launched Bootstrap Fund to increase stablecoin liquidity with placements on protocols such as Aave, Morpho, Kamino and Jupiter. Chainlink partnered with Intercontinental Exchange, a global financial exchange and clearing house, bringing high-quality derived forex and precious metals data onchain. Drift integrated syrupUSDC as collateral for perpetual futures trading on the exchange. GMX launched RWA perpetual markets, including SPY, QQQ, AAPL and more, on Solana. Resolv launched maxiUSR, an incentivised leveraged USR vault, aiming to boost the USR demand with 20% target APY. Wormhole integrated Boundless ZKverifier and open source Ethereum consensus proofs with NTT token standard to minimize trust in native token transfers. Upcoming Alpha and Governance The Brazilian parliament is expected to hold the first hearing on the National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on August 20. Solana is expected to vote for the new Alpenglow Consensus Protocol next week, aiming to reduce block finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds. Solana also proposed SIMD-204, upgrading the current social slashing to a trustless programmatic slashing. SIMD-204 is expected to launch on the mainnet in the coming months. Lido plans to implement NEST, a triggerable rails to buyback LDO with stETH, laying a foundation for potential future buyback mechanisms. World Liberty Finance is expected to launch WLFI soon and allocating 7% of token supply to Aave for licensed instance. The pre-markets for WLFI were traded in the range of $20 billion to $100 billion FDV. RISE, the high performance blockchain, is launching on Kaito's Capital Launchpad with a valuation of $200 million. 50% of the token sold is subjected to vesting, which unlocks 6 months after TGE. UMA passed a proposal to allow only whitelisted members of the platform to effectively propose resolutions for Polymarket. Token Unlock ZRO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 22.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocked on August 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. INIT token unlocked on August 25, amount representing 1.55% of the token supply. NEWT token unlocked on August 25, amount representing 2.91% of the token supply. ALT token unlocked on August 26, amount representing 6.03% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocked on August 27, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on August 28, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. OP token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 1.84% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on September 1, amount representing 22% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(31/52) Weekly Market Insight | August Week 3 | Optimistic Dip Buying](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-august-week-3-optimistic-dip-buying/): Headline News: $4000 Breakout or History Repeats Despite the White House's "reciprocal" tariffs taking effect and the softening labor market, the broader market was driven by a renewed wave of dip buying as the Fed is inching closer to lower interest rates. Ethereum continues to outperform Bitcoin as more favouring digital asset specific policies were announced, and increased over 20% last week, revisiting over the $4000 level for the first time in 8 months. Macro-Outlook: Overlook Stagflation, Betting Rate Cuts President Trump announced a 100% tariff on all imported semi-conductors and exempting companies that build in the US. Trump also imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, totalling 50%. Commerce Secretary Lutnick suggested most likely reaching an agreement with China. The EU paused its counter-tariffs against the US. US ISM services PMI fell to 50.1 in July, well below forecasts of 51.5, showing increasing risk of stagnated services sector. The market expects a 46% probability of 3 rate-cuts or 75bps cut by the end of 2025. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, August 12, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in July Thursday, August 14, 8:30pm: US PPI in July Friday, August 15, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in July Friday, August 15, 10:00pm: Michigan Consumer Sentiment Preliminary Reading in August Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Retire with Bitcoin ; Liquid Staking is Cool President Trump signed an executive order, directing the Department of Labor to revise "qualified assets" for 401(k) investment to a broader range of assets, including cryptocurrencies. Trump also signed an executive order, aimed at preventing banks from denying services to companies that involve in cryptocurrency services. The SEC clarified that liquid staking services and LSTs are not considered as securities. The SEC also announced stablecoins to be classified as cash equivalents in accounting. The US CFTC announced the beginning of Crypto Sprint implementation, inviting recommendations on spot crypto asset contracts trading on registered futures exchanges. KakaoBank announced reviewing new business ventures in digital asset issuance, custody and won-based stablecoin. Coinbase app now supports DEX trading, and it plans to expand to Solana soon. Binance partnered with BBVA, leading bank in Spain, as the off-exchange service custodian for customers to use the margin for trading on Binance. Animoca Brands, Anchorpoint, Standard Chartered, and HKT announced establishing a joint venture to apply for a stablecoin issuer license from HKMA.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s The SEC and Ripple jointly dismissed appeals, ending their 5-year legal case. Base experienced a 33-minute network halt due to sequencer management disruption. Kaia partnered with DaWinKS to enable cash withdrawal, card issuance and on-ramp services across Korea's travel hubs using USDT. Fluent, the multi-VM blockchain optimised for EVM, SVM and Wasm, launched the public testnet.   Dapps Pendle launched Boros, a new platform for funding rate trading, on Arbitrum. Boros will initially support Binance's BTC and ETH markets with a $10 million cap on notional open interest and 1.2x maximum leverage. Chainlink launched Chainlink Reserve, using protocol revenue to buyback LINK and accumulate in the reserve. Jupiter Lend, the advanced money market developed by Jupiter and Fluid, launched private Beta on Solana, featuring 95% LTVs on borrowings. PancakeSwap launched AAPL, AMZN, and TSLA on PancakeSwap Pepetuals with up to 25x leverage on BNB Chain. INFINIT's IN token is now live with approximately $100 million FDV. IN holders can stake to entitle for protocol fees sharing, governance and priority access. Euler announced the zkVerified lending vaults, enabling institutions to deploy permissioned, verifiable and complaint lending markets. Euler also launched the UI for its previously launched EulerSwap, enabling users to earn from swap fees and lending yield from the same LP. Succinct, the ZK Prover Network, launched its PROVE token with approximately $1.4 billion FDV. Lens protocol announced Lens Token Distributor, a gasless GHO distributor based on users' contribution, consistency, influence and quality. Alchemix introduced V3, revamping the redemption mechanism Transmuter to set specific redemption periods and provide predictable timeframe when they can redeem alAssets at 1:1 value, and Meta-Yield Token that represents multiple yield-bearing strategies into one. Magic Eden launched Solana liquid staking token, meSOL, using 100% of the validator revenue to buyback ME and redistribute to ME stakers. BounceBit partnered with Franklin Templeton to launch BB Prime, using BENJI as collateral for its basis-trading strategy. PreStocks, tokenised pre-IPO stocks trading platform which is backed by Republic, is now live on Solana network. Pump.fun introduced Glass Full Foundation, aiming to inject "significant" liquidity into the most active and promising communities within the pump.fun ecosystem. Upcoming Alpha and Governance Fluid has hit over $10 million annualised revenue goal. The protocol is expected to implement buyback using the protocol revenue soon. Lido proposed Dynamic Buyback Program, using portion of the operating surplus to buyback LDO based on the current size of protocol treasury, such as using 70% of surplus for buyback if treasury amount is above $85 million. However, the discussion of the proposal is mixed. Many suggested Lido has not achieved a sustainable operating surplus yet. Linea will be integrating Lido V3 stVault to facilitate its Layer-2 native staking. Jito proposed to increase the Block Engine fees from 50% to 100% directing to DAO Treasury, along with all future BAM fees. A governance proposal from TokenLogic suggested that Metamask plans partnered with Stripe to launch mmUSD stablecoin. The proposal was later deleted. LayerZero proposed to acquire Stargate by offering every STG for 0.08634 LZO. Token Unlock PUMP token unlocked on August 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocked on August 15, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. ARB token unlocked on August 16, amount representing 1.8% of the token supply. VANA token unlocked on August 16, amount representing 1.47% of the token supply. APE token unlocked on August 17, amount representing 1.92% of the token supply. ZK token unlocked on August 19, amount representing 2.4% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 22.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocked on August 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. INIT token unlocked on August 25, amount representing 1.55% of the token supply. NEWT token unlocked on August 25, amount representing 2.91% of the token supply. ALT token unlocked on August 26, amount representing 6.03% of the token supply. HUMA token unlocked on August 27, amount representing 7.28% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on August 28, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(30/52) Weekly Market Insight | August Week 2 | A Break from Optimism](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-august-week-2-a-break-from-optimism/): Headline News: The First Crack in the Jobs market Last week, Bitcoin fell 4.36% amid a broader market sell-off, driven by a confluence of macro headwinds including a hawkish Federal Reserve, persistent inflation, and a significant downward revision in jobs data. Market anxiety intensified, with the VIX surging by 545bps last week. This risk-off sentiment reflected in Bitcoin ETFs, culminating in a historic $812.25 million net outflow last Friday—the second largest on record. Macro-Outlook: Trade Disturbance Reflects on Jobs Demand President Trump signed an executive order imposing new "reciprocal" tariffs on approximately 69 countries, effective on August 7. The executive order includes baseline tariffs of 10%, and notably 25% on Indian goods, 35% on Canadian goods, 15% on Korean goods, 50% on Brazilian goods, 20% on Taiwan and Vietnam, a 90-day delay for Mexico and more. Trump also imposed a 50% tariff on imports of semi-finished copper products and copper derivative products. While there was no formal ruling in the latest hearing in the Court of Appeals on July 31, challenging the President's authority to impose broad tariffs. Legal analysts widely believe, based on the tone and substance of the hearing, the court is leaning toward upholding the lower court's decision and estimated ruling to be delivered around late August or September. However, the case is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, which could extend the court challenge to at least the second quarter of 2026. The US Treasury kept the quarterly treasury refunding size steady with focus on shorter term debts. The US advanced Q2 GDP increased to 3%, beating expectations of a 2.4% rise. The expansion primarily reflected by plunge in imports and increase of consumer spending on goods. The US ISM manufacturing PMI decreased to 48, missing expectations for an increase to 49.5. The US core PCE increased by 0.3% in June, in line with market forecasts. The headline PCE increased to 2.6% in June, slightly higher than market forecasts of 2.5%. Personal income and spending both increased by 0.3% in June, higher than market expectations for personal income, but lower than expectations for personal spending. The Federal Reserve kept the rate unchanged in June, but two dissenters preferred a rate cut, the first double dissent in more than 30 years. The probability of a rate cut in September decreased from approximately 63% to 37% after the hawkish tone of Fed Chair Powell in the press conference, but later surged to 80% after the latest jobs report showed weakening signs. The US unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% in July, aligning with market expectations. Labor force participation rate dipped by 0.1 percentage point to 62.2%. US non-farm payrolls increased by 73K in July, well below expectations of 100K. The non-farm payrolls in May and June were revised significantly downwards by 258K, suggesting the labor market cooling more rapidly than initially anticipated. JOLTs job openings in June fell to 7.437 million, below market expectation of 7.55 million. President Trump also criticized the statistics from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as not accurate and highly political, announcing dismissal of Dr. Erika McEntarfer as the Commissioner of the BLS, and plans to appoint a new BLS head in the following days. The action raised concerns over the independence of US economic statistics in the future. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, August 5, 10:00pm: US ISM Service PMI in July Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: "Golden Era of Crypto" The White House Crypto Working Group released the Digital Assets Report, granting CFTC authority to regulate spot markets for non-security digital assets, urging Congress to advance the CLARITY Act, encourage SEC to create "fit-for-purpose" exemptions, implementing GENIUS Act, establish US Digital Stockpile and Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (no specific funding strategy within the report), pushing policymakers to embrace DeFi, directing IRS to publish clear crypto tax guidance and reporting of foreign crypto accounts. The SEC Chair Atkins outlined "Project Crypto", aiming to support President's goal of establishing America as the "crypto capital of the world". Atkins plans to modernise rules and regulations to enable the financial market to move on-chain, facilitating "Super-Apps", fostering innovation with "Innovation Exemption" and more. The SEC also approved in-kind creation and redemption for crypto ETFs, increasing the trading efficiency of issuers, authorized participants and traders. Grayscale introduced the new Grayscale Story Trust to accredited investors. EToro announced 24/5 trading for 100 US stocks and ETFs, with plans to launch tokenised stocks on Ethereum soon. Interactive Broker reportedly plans to launch stablecoin for 24/7 account funding and fund transfer. Paypal launched "Pay with Crypto", enabling US merchants to accept over 100 cryptocurrencies with near-instant conversion to fiat or stablecoins with 0.99% transaction fee. Visa integrated Paypal's pyUSD, Paxos' USDg, Circle's EURC, along with Stellar and Avalanche blockchains. FIS partnered with Circle integrating USDC into its Money Movement Hub, enabling US financial institutions to offer secure, real-time domestic and cross-border stablecoin transactions. CBOE filed Generic Listing Standards for Crypto Asset ETPs with the SEC, setting a framework which tokens can be listed as ETPs if they have futures market on a Designated Contract Market for at least 6 months. JPMorgan partnered with Coinbase to seamlessly link their bank accounts to Coinbase wallets, transfer of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Coinbase accounts and fund Coinbase accounts using Chase credit cards.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s The Ethereum Community Foundation released BlobKit, an SDK that allows developers to seamlessly write to blobspace. Hyperliquid experienced network outage due to congested API servers. The team plans to refund affected users in the coming days. Avalanche partnered with Grove to launch $250 million worth of RWA deployment, including JTRSY on Avalanche. Sonic partnered with Paint Swap to launch Airdrop Oderbook, enabling users to trade vested and unvested airdrop as fNFTs with market determined discounts. Daehong Communications launched Giftiel, its mobile voucher service, on Aptos. U-Power announced tokenising its battery-swap & charging infrastructure on IoTex and accumulating IOTX as its corporate strategic reserve asset as well. Plasma Blockchain completed $373 million public sales with 7x in oversubscription. The team plans to launch the mainnet soon with $1 billion in stablecoin. Polygon experienced an hour network outage as the system that manages validators went offline caused by a validator exit. EigenLayer launched EigenDA v2 on the mainnet with 100MB/s throughput, 6.7x faster than v1. Rise Chain introduced Shred API, enabling dapps to achieve real-time continuous execution and updated global state before the completion of a block.   Dapps Pendle launched on HyperEVM mainnet, offering several yield markets such as hnUSDT, hbHYPE, liquidHYPE and kHYPT. Terminal Finance, the liquidity hub for sUSDe on Converge Network, partnered with Euler to enable collaterising Pendle PT tUSDe for looping. Metamask introduced Stablecoin Earn, enabling users to directly deposit USDT, USDC and DAI to Aave. Ethena introduced Liquid Leverage, incentivising users to deposit sUSDe and USDe to Aave and complete at least one loop. This allows sUSDe stakers to easily adjust yield exposure without the 7-day withdrawal limitation. Gala Games announced Shrapnel, a popular web3 shooting game, migrating from Avalanche to GalaChain to integrate with China's Trusted Copyright Chain (TCC) and access the Chinese market. Orca released its own version of token launchpad, Wavebreaker, with proprietary anti-bot technology to prevent bot sniping. GammaSwap launched the first yield token, gETH, on Base. The yield token earns liquidity fees from Uniswap V3 without impermanent loss exposure. Drift announced zero fees on BTC and ETH perpetual trading on the platform. Drift trading volume reached an all-time-high in July. The team also announced integrating Jito's BAM for encrypted, faster and custom transaction ordering soon. Ebisu Finance, a fork of Liquity V2, was launched, enabling users to borrow against sUSDe with approximately 4.3% fixed interest, which potentially creates a good looping opportunity. Backpack has integrated Sei Network into its self-cutodial wallet and trading platform. Clearpool introduced cpUSD, a permissionless PayFi Credit yield bearing token that powers real-world short term liquidity for remittances, credit card settlements, forex settlements and more. Upcoming Alpha and Governance The UK FCA opens retail access to crypto ETNs on FCA-approved exchanges, on August 8. President Trump urged Russia to cease its military operations in Ukraine by August 7~9, or face "severe tariffs" on Russian goods and secondary sanctions on Russian trade partners. Trump also announced that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines to "appropriate regions", further escalating geographical tension. ChatGPT 5 announcement is expected on August 8, OpenAI-concept tokens such as World and Arkham may be affected. Curve Finance proposed to pause all future Layer 2 expansion due to low utility, leading to waste of team resources. Curve emission is expected to be halved on August 12. Aerodrome is expected to be integrated into the Base App in the upcoming weeks. Linea Network announced its LINEA tokenomics with 85% token allocation to the community, 20% of net gas income will be burned and 80% will be used to burn LINEA. The ETH bridged to Linea Layer-2 will be eligible for native yield from staking and DeFi rewards. Babylon proposed Multi-Staking, allowing BTC stakers that stake before September 1 to secure multiple networks and have more reward streams, and Co-Staking, reallocating 2% of BABY emission to stakers that stake both BABY and BTC. Virtuals Protocol plans to further enhance Butler, a new agent that connects people on X with agents on Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP). DYDX proposed to fund Grants Ltd with $8 million worth of DYDX, an independent entity to operate a new grants program to expand support for stakeholders across the protocol ecosystem. Cardano passed the proposal to fund Input Output Engineering with approximately 96 million ADA for key development such as Hydra, Ouroboros Leios and many more. Aave has passed a proposal to reduce its token emission and slashing percentage to stkAAVE and stkABPT, representing a total of approximately 26% reduction in emissions. Solayer proposed to set the PoS annual inflation to 8% with 15% annual disinflation until reaching a long-term annual inflation of 2%. Token Unlock ENA token unlocked on August 5, amount representing 2.7% of the token supply. JTO token unlocked on August 7, amount representing 3.15% of the token supply. IMX token unlocked on August 8, amount representing 1.3% of the token supply. APT token unlocked on August 12, amount representing 1.72% of the token supply. PUMP token unlocked on August 14, amount representing 2.83% of the token supply. STRK token unlocked on August 15, amount representing 3.33% of the token supply. ARB token unlocked on August 16, amount representing 1.8% of the token supply. VANA token unlocked on August 16, amount representing 1.47% of the token supply. APE token unlocked on August 17, amount representing 1.92% of the token supply. ZK token unlocked on August 19, amount representing 2.4% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 22.2% of the token supply. KAITO token unlocked on August 20, amount representing 6.91% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocked on August 21, amount representing 3.25% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(29/52) Weekly Market Insight | July Week 5 | Will White House Give Ethereum a Good Birthday Gift?](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-july-week-5-will-white-house-give-ethereum-a-good-birthday-gift/): Headline News: A Risk-On Market Ethereum outpaced Bitcoin last week, posting a gain of 3.06% versus Bitcoin's 1.87%. This outperformance was fueled by robust weekly inflows of $1.85 billion into spot Ethereum ETFs. Underscoring the market's liquidity, the total stablecoin market capitalization and total value locked in DeFi reached a new all-time high of $265 billion and $330 billion respectively. In the macro environment, the VIX fell to its lowest level since February 2025, signaling market calm ahead of the August 1 tariff deadline. Macro-Outlook: A Packed Macro-Week The US has struck a trade deal with the EU to impose a 15% tariff across EU exports and an agreement on purchasing $750 billion worth of energy from the US. The ECB also held its interest unchanged last week, matched with market consensus. The White House has confirmed multiple times with the press, that the deadline on August 1 for US tariff policy is firm, with no further extension. The administration indicated it will enforce a new baseline tariff of 15%. The US durable goods orders declined by 9.3% in June, which is slightly benign compared to market forecasts of 10.8% decline. This was the largest monthly decline since April 2020, due to a decrease in orders for transport equipment. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, July 29, 3:00am: US Treasury Refunding Financing Estimates Tuesday, July 29, 10:00pm: US JOLTs Job Openings in June Wednesday, July 30, 8:15pm: US ADP Employment Change in July Wednesday, July 30, 8:30pm: US Q2 Advance GDP and US Treasury Refunding Announcement Thursday, July 31, 2:00am: US FOMC Meeting Thursday, July 31, 8:30pm: US Core PCE Price Index, Personal Income and Personal Spending in June Friday, August 1, 8:30pm: US Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate in July Friday, August 1, 10:00pm: US ISM Manufacturing PMI in July Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Tokenised Real-Estate, Solana BAM, New InfoFi replaces Airdrop Meta The SEC staff approved the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund and paused subsequently by the commissioners, similar to Grayscale's Digital Large Cap Fund. Bitwise's fund includes BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, ADA, SUI, LINK, AVAX, LTC and DOT. 21Shares filed an Ondo spot ETF application with the SEC. Goldman Sachs and BNY are reportedly planning to enable their institutional investors to purchase tokenised money market funds. JPMorgan is reportedly exploring offering loans backed by Bitcoin and Ethereum. PNC Bank partnered with Coinbase to offer crypto trading services to customers. Western Union is exploring using stablecoin for cross-border transfers and fiat conversion. Christie's International Real Estate announced becoming the first US real estate broker to conduct property transactions entirely on-chain. MUFG, the largest Japanese bank, plans to tokenise a high-rise office building in Osaka with a value of over ¥100 billion on its Progmat platform. The Vietnamese government is reportedly developing a national blockchain, NDAChain, to enhance digital security and transparency across sectors in government affairs, finance and healthcare. Binance introduced RWUSD, offering native yield from tokenised US treasury at approximately 4.2% on its exchange platform.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s Ethereum average gas limit has reached 45 million, with more than 46% validators support above 45 million gas limit. Solana has increased its block limit from 50 million compute units (CU) to 60 million CU and aims to increase to 100M CU by the end of 2025. Solana also introduced Solana Attestation Service (SAS) with TypeScript and Rust clients, enabling developers to integrate SAS into dapps. EigenLayer announced its first step toward multi-chain expansion, launching AVS verification on Base. Avail partnered with SOON Network to launch svmBNB, a Solana Virtual Machine that runs on Avail and settles on BNB Chain. Berachain introduced Reward Vault Utilities, enabling BGT distribution without requiring deposit interactions. Built on Proof of Liquidity, these tools let protocols reward users based on any on- or off-chain activity, including novel formats like loot boxes or real-time rewards. Peaq, the DePIN-focus Layer-1, has launched on Binance Alpha and multiple CEXes such as Bitget, Kraken and Pionex. TON wallet launched in the US, offering zero fees to convert dollars to crypto. Chromia introduced a physical AI pilot program, enabling interaction logs stored as vector representations on-chain and indexing, laying the groundwork for evaluating, coordinating, and improving how these systems operate together.   Dapps Jito introduced Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM), enabling encrypted the mempool to prevent MEV attack, application-specific sequencing and attestation of the transactions being executed accordingly. Sanctum acquired Ironforge, a Solana RPC service provider, expanding its business model into transaction infrastructure, guaranteeing transactions priority and maximum uptime. Sanctum subsequently introduced Gateway, enabling optimise and increase likelihood of transaction inclusion on the network. Kaito officially announced the launch of Capital Launchpad, a KYC-required token launchpad based on social reputation and other onchain metrics. All fees generated by this launchpad will potentially be distributed gKAITO soon. Espresso will be the first protocol launch on Capital Launchpad, raising at $400 million valuation and a 2-year vesting schedule with a 1-year cliff. Similarly, Cookie partnered with Legion launched the Attention Capital Market (ACM), offering users to SNAPS (by acquiring mindshare) or cSNAPS (commiting capital preferred by protocols) to participate in token sales. Almanak, a DeFAI protocol, is the first protocol to be listed on ACM. Pendle listed Hyperwave's hwHLP, offering the first liquid HLP yield market on the platform with approximately 15% fixed APY. PancakeSwap launched Infinity Farms on Base, enabling seamless liquidity mining on Base. Polymarket acquired QCEX, a CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, to regain legal access to the US market. Polymarket is also reportedly considering issuing its own stablecoin or pursuing a revenue sharing agreement with Circle to capture the potential yield from stablecoin held on its platform. Firelight launched liquid staking Ripple, stXRP on Flare Network, enabling stakers to participate in DeFi activities on Flare Network while receiving staking rewards. Private chat and crypto payment mobile app, TOMI, has launched on iOS and Andriod. Bonk has burnt 500 billion BONK with the revenue generated from Let's Bonk launchpad. Let's Bonk launched a mobile app as well. Centrifuge V3, its tokenisation management platform, is now live on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Plume, with cross-chain functionality powered by Wormhole. DeBridge announced the deBridge Reserve Fund, using 100% protocol earning to buyback DBR and other major crypto assets to form diversified treasury holdings. Upcoming Alpha and Governance The White House is expected to announce the Digital Assets Report on July 30. Ethereum is celebrating its 10-year anniversary on July 30. Ika, MPC network which features cross-chain transactions and wallet abstraction, is expected to launch its IKA token on July 29. Spheron Network, a decentralised computing protocol, is expected to launch its SPON token on July 29. Ethena introduced StablecoinX Inc, a merged entity of TLGY and SC Assets, raising $360 million to purchase ENA as its corporate treasury. The $260 million proceeds received by Ethena Foundation will be used to purchase ENA across public traded venues over the coming weeks. The foundation also has the right to veto any sales of ENA by StablecoinX. Resolv announced activating the fee switch from 2.5% of daily protocol profits to the Foundation treasury on July 31 and subsequently increasing to 10% on August 21. Zircuit introduced a new AI Trading Engine, providing real-time AI signal trading strategy and seamless cross-chain execution on EVM chains and Solana. The closed beta will be rolled out by the end of July and public launch in August 2025. Fluid introduced Fluid DEX Lite, a gas-efficient DEX designed to capture the MEV volume and bootstrapped via a credit line from the Fluid Liquidity Layer. Fees generated by DEX Lite will be distributed to the LP on Liquidity Layer and additional fees flow to DAO treasury. Jupiter is expected to launch Jupiter Lend this week. Injective is expected to launch Ethernia EVM Mainnet Beta this week. WalletConnect proposed redesigning its staking mechanism from immediate decay of stakeweight after staking to full stakeweight until user chooses to unstake. Lido released roadmap to release Lido v3 in Q4 and Staking Router v3, consolidating validators, enhancing deposit and stake allocation mechanisms, in the first half of 2026. Pump.fun cofounder stated the protocol is not going to conduct any airdrop in the near future. Maple Finance proposed MIP-018, increasing SYRUP buyback by 20% to 25% from protocol revenue. Token Unlock OP token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 1.84% of the token supply. GRASS token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 1.26% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 22% of the token supply. SUI token unlocked on August 1, amount representing 1.65% of the token supply. ENA token unlocked on August 1, amount representing 1.48% of the token supply. JTO token unlocked on August 7, amount representing 3.15% of the token supply. IMX token unlocked on August 8, amount representing 1.3% of the token supply. APT token unlocked on August 12, amount representing 1.72% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(28/52) Weekly Market Insight | July Week 4 | Ethereum Takes The Spotlight](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-july-week-4-ethereum-takes-the-spotlight/): Headline News: Halfway to Altcoin Season The crypto market saw a notable divergence, where Bitcoin experienced a slight dip of 1.49%, while Ethereum surged by a significant 26.46% over the same period. This strong performance in ETH, along with broader market momentum, has propelled the Altcoin Season Index from 20 in early July to a current 51 with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index consistently holding above 70. This sustained optimism is further supported by the significant milestone achieved in US crypto legislation and the continued accumulation of crypto assets by public companies. Macro-Outlook: Trump vs Powell The Trump administration has exerted continuous pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell this past week, demanding rate cuts. Reports also suggest a formal search for Powell's successor is underway, and despite President Trump's public assurances that he would not dismiss Powell, efforts toward his removal are reportedly being pursued. The latest released Beige Book indicated a slight increase in economic activities from May to July, persistent labor market and signs of higher inflation in the coming months, supporting the Fed to remain in "wait and see" mode. The US core inflation rate increased to 2.9% in June, slightly lower than the market expectation of 3%. Apparel prices had a notable increase in June, suggesting the impact of tariffs started to surface on consumer costs. Meanwhile, the US PPI was unchanged in June, below forecasts of a 0.2% gain, led by a plunge in prices for services. The US retail sales increased by 0.6% in June, higher than the market estimation of 0.1%. The Michigan consumer sentiment preliminary estimates increased to 61.8 in July, above forecasts of 61.5. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, July 22, 8:30pm: Fed Chair Powell Speech at the Integrated Review of the Capital Framework for Large Banks Conference Thursday, July 24, 8:15pm: ECB Interest Rate Decision Friday, July 25, 8:30pm: US Durable Goods Orders in June Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Significant Milestone in US Crypto Legislation, Base App, Penguin Everywhere The GENIUS Act has officially signed into law by President Trump, a major milestone for cryptocurrency regulation, requiring stablecoin issuers to maintain 1:1 reserves in short-term Treasury bills or cash, and regulatory oversight with AML, KYC and audit requirements. The CLARITY Act and Anti-CBDC Act have passed the House and moved to Senate. The government is also working to support a de minimis tax exemption for Bitcoin payments ranging from $200 to $300. President Trump is reportedly preparing to sign an executive order to allow 401(k) programs to invest in alternative assets such as crypto, gold, and private equity. The House of Financial Services and Veterans' Affairs introduced a new bill, HR4374, requiring mortgage lenders to consider crypto assets in the mortgage credit evaluation process. The SEC Chair Atkins stated the commission is considering an "Innovation Exception" to encourage tokenisation activities. The whale, who bought BTC in 2011, transferred all holding to Digital Capital, potentially sold all its 80,202 BTC. Canary Capital filed a staked INJ ETF application with the SEC. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, announced plans to offer digital assets custody services. Standard Chartered institutional banking and tokenisation partner, Libeara, partnered with Theo to launch a money market on-chain fund. Standard Chartered also launched BTC and ETH spot trading services through its UK branch. SRM Entertainment rebranded as Tron Inc, staking $365 million TRX as its corporate treasury. Thailand SEC and central bank launched a crypto sandbox, allowing foreign tourists to convert digital assets to Thai baht for spending. The UK plans to launch stablecoin and tokenisation sandbox in the wholesale market. The UK government is also reportedly working to liquidate at least 61,000 seized Bitcoin.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s Coinbase announced a new Base app, integrating with Farcaster and enabling users to earn from content, social, chat with friends, explore mini-apps, and send anyone USDC directly with Base Pay. Binance launched Shariah-compliant BNB, ETH and SOL staking on its platform. Binance also launched Exclusive Bonding Curve-Based TGE on Binance Wallet, in collaboration with Four.Meme. Conflux announced Conflux TreeGraph Blockchain 3.0, partnering with AnchorX and Eastcompeace to promote the implementation of overseas benchmark projects for offshore RMB stablecoin issuance, cross-border settlement, RWA and other initiatives in the Belt and Road. Sonic announced Spark, a no-code AI-powered dapps development platform, enabling easy dapps development on Sonic Network. Core DAO launched Rev+, a gas revenue sharing mechanism similar to Sonic. Ripple partnered with Ctrl Alt and Dubai Land Department to tokenise real estate title deeds on XRP Ledger, enabling fractional ownership and global access to Dubai properties. Babylon announced the first wave of Bitcoin Supercharged Networks (BSNs), where BTC stakers can stake in these networks and start to earn rewards. The networks include Sui, Osmosis, Plume, Manta Network and more. Polkadot allocated $3 million worth of DOT incentive for a 12-month liquidity campaign across Arbitrum, Base, BNB and Ethereum. Anoma, the highly anticipated intent-based platform, launched its public testnet. Another highly anticipated multi-VM blockchain, Fluent, launched its testnet and raised $2.2 million to fund the testnet operation.   Dapps Pudgy Penguin announced partnerships with PEZ, Suplay, and Don Quijote to make physical Pudgy Toys available across US, China and Japan retail shops. Pudgy Penguin also announced the Pudgy Party game is launching soon on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Ondo Finance acquired Strangelove, a blockchain development company whose experienced team has unique expertise in building secure and modular blockchain infrastructure. Ondo also announced BNB Chain joining the Global Markets Alliance and supporting Ondo's suite of tokenised assets. Kamino announced the launching of the money market for xStocks' tokenised stocks with Chainlink as the oracle partner. EtherFi partnered with Hyperbeat to offer new liquid staking token for Hyperliquid, beHYPE. Euler Finance partnered with Tac to launch on TON Network. Euler also partnered with Brahma to launch Swype.fun, a crypto native credit card on Base where users can borrow to spend directly against their USDC. Strata introduced the risk tranching protocol on USDe, splitting sUSDe into stUSDe (senior tranche) and stJLP (junior tranche), providing a similar product structure compared to Resolv. Falcon Finance launched its USDf on BNB Chain. Cap Money announced partnering with PayPal's pyUSD in its Cap Stablecoin Network (CSN), where users are able to exchange pyUSD 1:1 to cUSD while enjoying additional yield from various strategies. Privacy Pools Protocol, backed by Vitalik, onboard Sky's USDS into its multi-assets privacy pools. Fantasy Top launched Fantasy V3 on Base, completely migrating its social card trading game from Blast to Base. BounceBit introduced xRWA, enabling staking of tokenised RWA on the network alongside BB and BTC. DYDX acquired Pocket Protector, a Telegram-native trading app, to further expand DYDX's spot trading and social initiatives. Arweave partnered with Midnight Network to provide the permanent storage solution to the shielded data on Midnight. The technical development team, Shielded Technologies, is a spin-out of Input Output Global (IOG). Upcoming Alpha and Governance The Trump administration's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets is expected to deliver the crypto policy report and potentially budget neutral funding strategy for Bitcoin reserve on July 22. Block Inc is expected to join S&P 500 this week, while Coinbase and payment giant Mastercard will release earning guidance this week. Berachain is expected to launch PoL V2 this week, redirecting 33% of current PoL incentives which are currently issued to BGT boosters to BERA stakers. Optimism is expected to undergo Upgrade 16 this week, including interoperability upgrade on smart contracts, increase of gas limit to 500m gas per block and more. Kaito teased the upcoming launch of Capital Launchpad, with Espresso as the first protocol to be launched on the platform. Espresso serves as a shared liquidity bridge, resulting in faster transaction confirmation between Layer-2s. Cookie DAO also announced a similar initiative, partnering with Legion to launch Attention Capital Market. Legion enables protocols to launch their tokens to a specific KOL or community based on Legion Score. Ink Foundation proposed to deploy the whitelabel version of Aave v3 on Ink and governed by the foundation, Aave DAO will eligible for 5% revenue sharing and 4% of the protocol governance token. Linea is expected to announce LINEA tokenomics details at the end of July. Renzo is the largest protocol on Linea network by TVL. Bitcoin community proposed a controversial proposal to restrict transaction from quantum-vulnerable address types within 5 years. These addresses account for about 25% of all Bitcoin. Saga is expected to pass the proposal of redirecting the protocol block reward to a community pool intended to incentivise Chainlets' activities. Additionally, the proposal changes inflation from 2% ~ 5% to fixed 3%. Saga also introduced Colt, a stablecoin protocol that is backed by governance-approved stablecoin designed to embed natively into every Chainlet. Colt will have its own governance token. World Liberty Finance passed the proposal to make the WLFI token tradable. The team is currently working with major CEXes for token distribution. Gnosis proposed to fund Gnosis Ltd, the core team behind Gnosis ecosystem with $30 million per year to build a core consumer-facing brand through Gnosis Wallet, Gnosis Pay, Gnosis Chain and more. Token Unlock AVAIL token unlocked on July 23, amount representing 38.3% of the token supply. INIT token unlocked on July 24, amount representing 1.58% of the token supply. ALT token unlocked on July 25, amount representing 6.4% of the token supply. H token unlocked on July 25, amount representing 5.01% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocked on July 26, amount representing 4.12% of the token supply. RON token unlocked on July 27, amount representing 4.83% of the token supply. RESOLV token unlocked on July 27, amount representing 9.14% of the token supply. OP token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 1.84% of the token supply. GRASS token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 1.26% of the token supply. REZ token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 12% of the token supply. IO token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 6.09% of the token supply. KMNO token unlocked on July 31, amount representing 22% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [(27/52) Weekly Market Insight | July Week 3 | Crypto Surged Ahead of Crypto Week](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-july-week-3/): Headline News: Ethereum ETFs set Record Inflow Bitcoin increased by 8.98% last week and set another new all-time-high of $119,400 on July 13, position itself to challenge the $120,000 psychological price level ahead of Crypto Week. Meanwhile, Ethereum increased by 15.55% in the same period, exhibiting strong momentum as stablecoin and tokenisation adoption kicks in. The Ethereum spot ETF net inflow hit a new record high of $907.99 million last week. Macro-Outlook: All Eyes on Inflation Data President Trump announced 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico goods, effective on August 1. Trump also previously threatened to increase tariffs to 35% on Canadian goods and 50% on Brazilian goods, both effective on August 1. The Chairman of the board of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, William Pulte, released a statement stating he is encouraged that Jerome Powell is considering resigning. The June FOMC minutes showed a small level of split among the officials. Most officials considered lowering the policy rate in 2025 would be appropriate, while some would keep the rate unchanged in 2025. A couple of officials noted they are willing to cut rates in July if the data changed as they had anticipated. Upcoming Economic Calendar including, Tuesday, July 15, 8:30pm: US Inflation Rate in June Wednesday, July 16, 8:30pm: US PPI in June Thursday, July 17, 8:30pm: US Retail Sales in June Friday, July 18, 10:00pm: Michigan Consumer Sentiment Preliminary Reading in July Weekly-Cryptos-Overview: Increase Communication on Alt-ETFs Application between Regulators and Applicants, GMX Hack, PUMP Launch The SEC reportedly asked Solana spot ETF issuers to submit revised S-1 documents by the end of July. HSBC announced testing of Project e-HKD+ on Arbitrum, Ethereum, Linea and Polygon. Spain's second largest bank, BBVA, announced offering Bitcoin and Ethereum trading and custody services to retail customers. Coinbase acquired the leadership of the decentralised option protocol, Opyn. Zerohash, a crypto and stablecoin infrastructure startup, raised $100 million with $1 billion valuation, led by Interactive Broker.   Layer 1 and Layer 2s BNB Chain's FastFinality upgrade is now live, reducing the finality of a transaction from 180 seconds to 3.75 seconds. Polygon completed Heimdall v2 upgrade on Polygon PoS, reducing the finality from 90 seconds to average 5 seconds and cut the block time to 2 seconds. NRWBANK, Germany's largest regional development bank, launched €100 million tokenised bond on Polygon. Monad acquired Portal, an infrastructure platform that facilitates stablecoin payments from businesses, banks and more. Eigen Labs laid off 25% of his employees to focus on EigenCloud and emphasised it was not motivated by financials. Ink announced acquisition of Vertex Protocol to build on Ink Layer-2. As a result, the current Vertex EVM and VRTX token will both be sunsetted, VRTX holders will be allocated with 1% of INK airdrop instead. Oasys partnered with GATES Inc to tokenise $75 million of Japan real estate on Oasy Chain, with plans to expand to over $200 billion worth of real estate. Sei Network announced integrating native USDC and CCTP v2 soon. Solayer adopted Telegram to deliver real-time notifications to Emerald card transaction information.   Dapps GMX v1 was exploited for $42 million due to a re-entrancy attack, inflating the GLP price by over 18x. The fund was later returned to GMX after $5 million paid as bounty. Pump.fun launched its PUMP token public sales and completed the sales in 12 minutes. The token will be distributed and becomes tradable soon. Based on the perpetual market, PUMP is traded at approximately $6 billion in FDV. Hyperliquid launched the CoreWriter contract on HyperEVM, enabling users to interact with the HyperCore seamlessly on HyperEVM with smart contracts. Solana mainstream wallet, Phantom, launched Phantom Perps, offering perpetual trading up to 40x leverage powered by Hyperliquid. Pendle LP can now be deposited on Morpho as collateral, offering attractive leverage opportunity to provide liquidity on Pendle. Falcon's USDf experienced temporary depeg due to criticisms from LlamaRisk on USDf's low quality collateral, unclear oracle etc. Falcon's founder responded to the criticisms USDf is now restored back to peg. OpenSea acquired Rally, a user friendly crypto social trading mobile app. Limitless, a 0DTE trading platform on Base, launched Limitless Points Program to incentive trading. World partnered with Story Protocol to add a trusted layer to IP tokenisation. Backed Finance announced expanding xStocks's tokenisation stocks to BNB Chain. XStock also partnered with Bitget launching tokenised stocks on Bitget Onchain. Upcoming Alpha and Governance LFJ is expected to launch Token Mill V2, a bonding curve AMM on July 15. Coinbase is expected to announce "the next chapter of Base" on July 16. The Trump administration's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets is expected to deliver the crypto policy report and potentially budget neutral funding strategy for Bitcoin reserve on July 22. Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Stablecoin Ordinance will take effect on August 1 and the stablecoin license application will be opened as well. NEAR is voting to reduce its inflation target from 5% to 2.5%. The vote ends on August 1 and currently 31% stake voted for Yea. Cookie is expected to launch Deep Research soon, enabling users who stake at least 100,000 COOKIE at access real-time information and fresh signals of a protocol. Cookie also announced tokenomic updates, where every Snaps Campaign now contributes 10% to 20% of its reward pool to COOKIE stakers, discontinuing COOKIE emissions, 10% burn when stakers unlock from Multi-Airdrop Farming and more. Stargate proposed to allocate $20 million to intent-based bridging systems, creating a Protocol Owned Liquidity and offering solver better spread with large size order. Ethereum announced plans to launch zkEVM on the mainnet by the end of November 2025, enabling less than 10 seconds in proving with modest hardware setups. Falcon Finance founder announced USDf holders will be able to redeem physical gold with USDf in UAE soon. Dabba Network, the decentralised hotspot protocol, announced it will launch DBT TGE on Bonk.live launchpad soon. Defi.app passed the proposal to use 80% of the protocol revenue to buyback HOME tokens using TWAP. Token Unlock STRK token unlocked on July 15, amount representing 3.81% of the token supply. ARB token unlocked on July 16, amount representing 1.87% of the token supply. VANA token unlocked on July 16, amount representing 1.47% of the token supply. DBR token unlocked on July 17, amount representing 20.3% of the token supply. SOLV token unlocked on July 17, amount representing 20% of the token supply. APE token unlocked on July 17, amount representing 1.92% of the token supply. CLOUD token unlocked on July 18, amount representing 69.7% of the token supply. ZK token unlocked on July 19, amount representing 2.42% of the token supply. MERL token unlocked on July 19, amount representing 4.98% of the token supply. ZRO token unlocked on July 20, amount representing 22.2% of the token supply. PLUME token unlocked on July 21, amount representing 4.26% of the token supply. AVAIL token unlocked on July 23, amount representing 38.3% of the token supply. INIT token unlocked on July 24, amount representing 1.58% of the token supply. ALT token unlocked on July 25, amount representing 6.4% of the token supply. H token unlocked on July 25, amount representing 5.01% of the token supply. SAHARA token unlocked on July 26, amount representing 4.12% of the token supply. RON token unlocked on July 27, amount representing 4.83% of the token supply. Please click HERE to subscribe for weekly market insight and exclusive research.
- [Weekly Market Insight | July Week 2 | Institutional Accumulation Ahead of Tariffs Deadline](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-july-week-2-institutional-accumulation-ahead-of-tariffs-deadline/): Backpack experienced a bug that caused incorrect perpetual order placed and users' fund losses. The team acknowledged the issue and pledged to full reimbursement affected users.
- [Weekly Market Insight: June Week 3](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/weekly-market-insight-june-week-3/): 16 Jun 2025
- [Bittensor: The AI Alpha](https://www.chainup.com/market-update/bittensor-the-ai-alpha/): Bittensor was founded in 2019 by Jacob Robert Steeves, a former Google AI engineer, with the vision of building a democratized platform for artificial intelligence (AI) development. The protocol enables peer-to-peer collaboration through incentive-driven architecture, allowing participants to contribute and evaluate AI models in a decentralized manner.

## Events
- [iFX EXPO Cyprus 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-ifx-expo-international-cyprus-2026/): As the benchmark event for the global online trading industry, iFX EXPO International serves as the central hub for senior leaders, fintech innovators, and digital asset pioneers. From 16–18 June, ChainUp will be at the City of Dreams Mediterranean Integrated Resort in Limassol, Cyprus, to showcase our institutional-grade infrastructure and discuss the future of digital asset integration within the global trading ecosystem.
- [Istanbul Blockchain Week 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/istanbul-blockchain-week-chainup-2026/): As the premier annual gathering in Turkiye, Istanbul Blockchain Week (IBW) serves as the central hub for the brightest minds in Web3. From 2–3 June, ChainUp will be at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti to showcase our institutional-grade infrastructure and discuss the future of global digital assets.
- [Crypto Ignite: Miami After Dark](https://www.chainup.com/events/crypto-ignite-miami-after-dark-consensus-2026/): ​As the city ignites, join ChainUp for an exclusive pre-Consensus mixer where the global financial fabric meets the Miami coast. Connect with the industry’s architects by the Atlantic for a curated evening of executive networking, bridging the gap between TradFi and digital assets.
- [Consensus Miami 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-consensus-miami-2026-agentic-ai-finance/): ChainUp serves as a strategic partner in making institutional adoption a reality. At Consensus Miami, the team will showcase a comprehensive suite of enterprise solutions, engineered to meet the most rigorous standards of global finance and navigate complex regulatory landscapes with precision. 
- [Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-at-hong-kong-web3-festival-2026/): As Asia’s premier crypto gathering, the Hong Kong Web3 Festival brings together over 100,000 attendees and the industry’s most influential builders to the HKCEC. 
- [Paris Blockchain Week 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/paris-blockchain-week-2026/): For two days, 10,000 decision-makers will convene at the Louvre to define the next era of market structure and regulation. We invite you to join us at the heart of these discussions to explore the practicalities of institutional digital asset integration.
- [The Official TechCon 2026 Welcome Networking Party](https://www.chainup.com/events/the-official-techcon-2026-welcome-networking-party/): ​TechCon 2026 convenes the industry to bridge the gap between digital policy and technical execution. Following the ​opening sessions at Century City, this Official Welcome Networking Party brings together the leaders building the infrastructure and trust layers required to move Africa’s digital economy forward.
- [iFX EXPO Dubai 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/ifx-expo-dubai-chainup-2026/): As the global benchmark for the online trading industry, iFX EXPO Dubai connects the world’s biggest power players—from retail brokers to institutional liquidity providers. With over 17.5k attendees and representatives from more than 130 countries, this is the central stage for networking, ideation, and massive business expansion.
- [Crypto Ignite 2026: The Fire Horse Mixer](https://www.chainup.com/events/crypto-ignite-2026-the-fire-horse-mixer/): As the global digital asset community arrives in Hong Kong, we are hosting a focused evening for the C-suite executives, investors, and builders driving Web3’s next chapter. 2026—the year of the Fire Horse—represents breakthrough momentum and radical transformation. Join us in the heart of the city to define that momentum before the conference rush begins.
- [Consensus Hong Kong 2026](https://www.chainup.com/events/consensus-hong-kong-chainup-2026/): Consensus returns to Hong Kong from February 10–12, 2026, cementing its status as the premier bridge between East and West. As Asia’s leading Web3 conference, this is where global leaders convene to drive innovation in one of the world’s fastest-growing crypto markets.
- [Vietnam Fintech Summit 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-vietnam-fintech-summit-2025/): This year, the conversation accelerates at Vietnam Fintech Summit 2025. Held on 13th Dec 2025, this is where regulation meets innovation. Where ambitious visions for a digitized financial system are drafted into reality. But every transformative vision requires an institutional-grade engine to power it.
- [Bitcoin MENA 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-bitcoin-mena-2025-abu-dhabi/): The global Bitcoin stage has found its home in the heart of the Middle East. Following the legacy of the world's most recognized Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin MENA returns to Abu Dhabi on 8-9 December 2025, to chart the future of open money. This is where the region's leaders converge to build a new financial skyline, with Bitcoin as its cornerstone.
- [Australian Crypto Convention 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/australian-crypto-convention-2025-chainup/): Mark your calendars for 22-23 November, as Sydney becomes the capital of Southern Hemisphere crypto. The Australian Crypto Convention gathers the key players shaping the next wave of digital asset adoption—your pivotal growth opportunity awaits.
- [What The Fraud Summit by Sumsub](https://www.chainup.com/events/wtf-summit-2025-chainup-fraud-prevention/): The WTF Summit is where fintech, crypto, and compliance leaders converge to connect the dots between prevention, AI security, and regulation.
- [Singapore Fintech Festival 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-singapore-fintech-festival-2025/): From 12-14 November, the global financial community will converge in Singapore for the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). This is where leaders and innovators define the next chapter of Policy, Finance, and Technology—and where your next strategic advantage begins.
- [Blockchain Life 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/blockchain-life-2025/): The 15th Anniversary Blockchain Life Forum — one of the world’s largest events dedicated to cryptocurrencies, Web3, and mining — will take place on October 28–29, 2025, in Dubai. More than 15,000 attendees from over 130 countries are expected, including entrepreneurs, investors, traders, and top blockchain companies.
- [iFX EXPO Asia 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-ifx-expo-asia-tradfi-web3-bridge/): From 26-28 October 2025, the global leaders in online trading and fintech will converge in Hong Kong for iFX EXPO Asia. Join over 4,000 professionals, 150+ exhibitors, and 100+ industry visionaries to help define the next chapter of our industry.
- [TOKEN2049 Singapore](https://www.chainup.com/events/chainup-at-token2049-singapore/): Happening from 1-2 October 2025, the crypto world is converging in Singapore for TOKEN2049, the ultimate crypto festival. With over 25,000 attendees and the world's top innovators in one place, the future of decentralized finance will be decided here.
- [Coinfest Asia 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/coinfest-asia-2025-chainup/): As Southeast Asia's most accessible crypto gathering, Coinfest Asia brings together over 10,000 participants from across the globe. With this year's "Full Moon" theme, the event shines a spotlight on renewed optimism and the turning point for Web3 innovation.
- [The ATH Night: Unlocking Infinite B2B Digital Assets Growth](https://www.chainup.com/events/the-ath-night-chainup-token2049-side-event/): ​Join ChainUp at "The ATH Night" – the All-Time High edition of the largest pre-TOKEN2049 side event, specifically designed to help you unlock infinite B2B digital asset growth through meaningful, ROI-driven connections.
- [Dubai Crypto Connect: Cocktails & Conversations](https://www.chainup.com/events/dubai-crypto-connect-cocktails-conversations/): ​Dubai’s crypto scene is buzzing, and we’re bringing together the best minds in the industry for an exclusive evening of networking, cocktails, and conversation. Before the main event at Token2049 Dubai, join ChainUp for this invite-only gathering where connections are made, ideas spark, and the future of digital assets takes shape.
- [Insights for Crypto Success in 2025: Regulation and Business Forecast in Hong Kong](https://www.chainup.com/events/insights-for-crypto-success-in-2025-regulation-and-business-forecast-in-hong-kong-2/): Exclusive Access to Key Regulatory Insights: A Must-Attend Event at Consensus Hong Kong #CUatConsensusHK
- [Hear from ChainUp at Digital Assets Week 2025 Hong Kong: Institutional Digital Asset Adoption in Focus](https://www.chainup.com/events/hear-from-chainup-at-digital-assets-week-2025-hong-kong-institutional-digital-asset-adoption-in-focus/): Unlock the opportunities in digital securities, digital assets, and institutional crypto at Digital Assets Week 2025 Hong Kong. This event brings together key players to explore the intersection of traditional finance and the evolving digital asset ecosystem.
- [Unlock Blockchain Potential with ChainUp at AIBC Africa 2025](https://www.chainup.com/events/unlock-blockchain-potential-with-chainup-at-aibc-africa-2025register-now/): Africa is poised to become a crypto tech hub. The AIBC Africa Summit is at the center of this revolution, connecting future leaders with today's investors. This summit aims to attract individuals from every corner of the globe, representing a multitude of perspectives. 
- [South Africa Crypto Connect: Cocktails & ConversationsRegister now](https://www.chainup.com/events/south-africa-crypto-connect-cocktails-conversationsregister-now/): ​After a day of insightful discussions and keynotes at AIBC Africa, continue building valuable connections at our exclusive networking mixer. This is your chance to unwind and connect with industry leaders, innovators, and fellow crypto enthusiasts in a relaxed and vibrant setting.

## Academy Articles
- [Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake: Key Differences](https://www.chainup.com/academy/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake/): Proof of Work (PoW) is a blockchain consensus mechanism that secures a network by requiring computers, known as miners, to solve complex cryptographic puzzles before new blocks can be added to the blockchain.
- [Virtual Card Explained: How It Works, Benefits & Security](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-virtual-card-and-its-features/): A virtual card is a digital payment card that provides a unique card number, expiration date, and security code (CVV) for making online or contactless purchases.
- [What Is Gold? History, Value & the $29 Trillion Gold Rush Explained](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-gold/): Gold (Au) is a naturally occurring precious metal known for its durability, rarity, and resistance to corrosion. It has been used for thousands of years as a store of value, currency, and symbol of wealth.
- [NFTs: Non-fungible Token explained simply for beginners](https://www.chainup.com/academy/nft-non-fungible-token-explained/): Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are unique digital assets that prove ownership of something, usually art, music, Trading cards, game items, or collectibles. 
- [What is a Crypto Liquidity Pool: A Simple Guide for Beginners](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-crypto-liquidity-pool/): A crypto liquidity pool is a shared reserve of two or more tokens locked in a smart contract that anyone can trade against at algorithmically quoted prices. The contract holds the inventory, sets the rate for each swap using a formula, and distributes trading fees to depositors in proportion to their share of the pool.
- [What is a crypto card and how does it work?](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-a-crypto-card/): A crypto card is a Visa or Mastercard product issued by a crypto platform or, more commonly,  its licensed banking partner, that lets you spend your digital assets in everyday places. At checkout, you still pay a merchant over the traditional card network. 
- [Stablecoin Regulation: The Future of Digital Dollar Laws](https://www.chainup.com/academy/stablecoin-regulation-digital-dollar-laws/): The U.S. recently passed its first federal law specifically targeting stablecoins: the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act), signed into law on July 18, 2025. This makes U.S. the latest major economy to formalize its stablecoin regulations. 
- [Top 5 Crypto Intelligence Platforms in 2025 and How to Pick the Right One](https://www.chainup.com/academy/top-crypto-intelligence-platforms-2025/): Crypto intelligence is not a single product. It’s a combination of two distinct missions often handled by  different teams:
- [Crypto Wallets and Digital Asset Custody Encyclopedia](https://www.chainup.com/academy/crypto-wallets-digital-asset-custody-encyclopedia/): The crypto wallet and digital asset custody landscape can be confusing, especially for newcomers. With so many overlapping terms and technologies—such as hot wallets, MPC wallets, custodial vs. non-custodial solutions, and more—it’s easy to lose track of what each really means.
- [What is Real‑World Assets (RWAs) Tokenization?](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-real-world-assets-tokenization/): Asset Tokenization — also known as Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWA) — has become one of the most talked-about innovations in the blockchain and digital finance ecosystem. 
- [What Is Real Estate Tokenization?](https://www.chainup.com/academy/real-estate-tokenization-guide/): Real estate tokenization is the process of representing ownership or economic rights in a real estate property as digital tokens on a blockchain. Each token represents a fractional share of the real estate asset, allowing investors to buy and trade pieces of property much like they would stocks or cryptocurrencies.
- [Navigating the Global Compliance Maze: KYC/AML for Crypto Exchanges (2025 Guide)](https://www.chainup.com/academy/kyc-aml-crypto-exchanges-compliance-guide/): If you operate a crypto exchange (or plan to), your license, bank access, and partner integrations live or die on Know Your Customer (KYC)/Anti-Money Laundering (AML). 
- [Centralized Or Decentralized Exchange: Which Business Model Is Right for You?](https://www.chainup.com/academy/centralized-exchange-vs-decentralized-exchange-which-exchange-model-right-for-you/): Choosing between a centralized exchange (CEX), a decentralized exchange (DEX), or a hybrid is an architectural decision that fixes your custody model, licensing path, liquidity strategy, UX, security posture, and operating costs.
- [Mining Explained: Comprehensive Guide on How Cryptocurrency Mining Works](https://www.chainup.com/academy/crypto-mining-explained/): When most people hear the term crypto mining, they immediately think of Bitcoin. But while Bitcoin mining uses Proof-of-Work (PoW), not all crypto networks rely on the same method—and not all “mining” looks the same anymore.
- [Smart Contracts 101: What Are They and Why They’re a Game-Changer for Businesses](https://www.chainup.com/academy/smart-contracts-101-business-guide/): Smart contracts are widely used to power decentralized applications (dApps), digital asset transactions, and automated business processes.
- [What Is Blockchain? The Simple Explanation of Digital Trust](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-blockchain/): That’s the problem blockchain solves.
- [What Is a Crypto Exchange?](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-a-crypto-exchange/): If cryptocurrency is digital money, then a crypto exchange is the essential platform that lets you use it. Whether you’re a casual user buying your first SGD1,000 worth of Bitcoin, a trader swapping Ethereum for stablecoins, or a business offering crypto-based services, you’ll almost always interact with a crypto exchange at some point.
- [What Is Cryptocurrency? A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Money](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-is-cryptocurrency-beginners-guide/): Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that uses computer networks and cryptographic techniques to operate securely, independently, and transparently. Unlike traditional money issued by governments, cryptocurrencies are not tied to any single institution or central bank. They exist purely in digital form and are typically not issued or controlled by any government.
- [Stablecoins 101: Uses, Technology, and Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.chainup.com/academy/what-are-stablecoins-uses-types/): Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a steady value by being pegged to a stable asset, such as the US dollar, euro, gold, or a basket of assets. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which could experience sharp price fluctuations, stablecoins aim to provide consistency and reliability, making them more practical for everyday use.
- [Blockchain Technology 101 Guide: What it is, and how it can be used](https://www.chainup.com/academy/blockchain-technology-ultimate-guide/): Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that records transactions across a network of computers in a way that makes the data transparent, secure, and nearly impossible to alter. Instead of relying on a single authority (like a bank or government), blockchain distributes information across many participants, each holding a copy of the ledger. Every new record, called a block, contains data and is linked in a chronological “chain” (linked to the previous one), hence the name blockchain.

## Categories
- [Asset Tokenization](https://www.chainup.com/category/asset-tokenization/)
- [Crypto Payments](https://www.chainup.com/category/crypto-payments/)
- [Custody & Wallet](https://www.chainup.com/category/custody-wallet/)
- [Digital Assets Exchange](https://www.chainup.com/category/digital-assets-exchange/)
- [Liquidity & Market Making](https://www.chainup.com/category/liquidity-market-making/)
- [Mining & Staking](https://www.chainup.com/category/mining-staking/)
- [Prediction Market](https://www.chainup.com/category/prediction-market-blogs/)
- [Regulatory Compliance](https://www.chainup.com/category/regulatory-compliance/)
- [Web3 & Emerging Innovations](https://www.chainup.com/category/web3-emerging-innovations/)

## Academy Categories
- [Blockchain Basic](https://www.chainup.com/academy_category/blockchain-basic/)