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WE-Launch
This Week in Review | US Department of Justice Granted Permission to Sell $6.5 Billion Worth of Bitcoin; Trump May Take Office as Convicted Felon
BlockBeats will summarize the key industry news of the week (1.6-1.12) in this article and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and stay informed about industry trends.
Important News Recap
The U.S. Department of Justice Authorized to Sell $6.5 Billion Worth of Bitcoin Related to the Silk Road Case
On January 9, an official confirmed to DB News that the U.S. Department of Justice has been authorized to liquidate 69,370 BTC confiscated in the Silk Road case (worth about $6.5 billion). Reportedly, citing Bitcoin price volatility, the Justice Department requested permission to sell these assets. When asked about the next steps, a Justice Department spokesperson stated, "The government will take further action based on the judgment in this case." On the same day, according to Arkham data, U.S. government addresses currently hold 198,109 BTC, valued at about $18.59 billion, and hold 54,753 Ethereum, valued at about $1.813 billion.
BIO Token Holders to Participate in Launchpad and BioDAO Governance, BIO Announces Six New IP Tokens Now Trading
On January 6, Bio Protocol's official announcement stated that with the launch of the current BioDAO, BIO token holders will be able to participate in the Launchpad, including: expressing support by staking BIO to the new BioDAO; being whitelisted in the new BioDAO; managing BioDAO liquidity and milestone-based incentive mechanisms. The release of BioDAO will make it autonomous and community-managed, allowing more BioDAO to flow into the Bio Protocol ecosystem. On January 7, BIO Protocol introduced that six new IP tokens are now trading, covering projects such as Alzheimer's (CLAW), industrial hemp fiber (HEMPY), ovarian aging (OVARIA), and cryopreservation (CRYORAT).
ai16z Co-founder: Collaborating with Orca to Develop DeFi Proxy, Widespread Adoption of AI Proxies May Lead to a New DeFi Summer
On January 6, ai16z co-founder Shaw, in an offline interview with BlockBeats, mentioned "DeFi Proxy" and said, "ai16z is collaborating with Orca to develop an automated robot proxy that can autonomously manage Orca's liquidity pools. Users simply need to deposit tokens into it; if the pool does not exist, it will automatically create a new one, and if the pool already exists, it will add tokens to the existing pool. Next, it will continuously monitor these pools, and once it detects situations that may cause impermanent loss, such as token price divergences, it will automatically withdraw assets from the pool." Shaw added, "This method can actually be extended to other DeFi products, like yield farming. This will usher in a new DeFi Summer."
a16z Founder: Official Website Established to Announce Official Partners and Recognized Project List
On January 7, a16z founder Shaw announced that the official website has been established to disclose the official partners and recognized project list. Community developers are still welcome to submit certification applications.
Backpack Acquires FTX EU to Become the Only Compliant Perpetual Contract Trading Platform in Europe
On January 7, compliant cryptocurrency exchange Backpack announced the acquisition of the original FTX European business holding an EU-wide license under the new EU regulation "Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II." This acquisition has been approved by the FTX bankruptcy court and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling a significant step for Backpack in expanding globally and providing a secure, compliant trading solution for the European market. Backpack EU is expected to officially launch in the first quarter of 2025. Through this acquisition, Backpack EU will offer various cryptocurrency spot and derivative services within the EU, including perpetual contracts, and become the only operating entity in the EU holding cryptocurrency derivative service qualifications, including perpetual contracts. As part of the acquisition, Backpack EU will also take on the responsibility of distributing FTX bankruptcy claim payouts to former FTX EU users.
Grayscale Updates Component Weights of Its Funds Quarterly, Adding SUI, LPT, CRV, and Others
On January 9, Grayscale's funds announced the latest component weights for each product. Grayscale's decentralized artificial intelligence fund has added LPT to its components, which now include the following assets: NEAR, RENDER, TAO, FIL, GRT, and LPT. Grayscale's DeFi Fund (DEFG) has added CRV and removed SNX, with the components now including the following assets: UNI, AAVE, LDO, MKR, and CRV. Grayscale's Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund (GSCPxE Fund) has added SUI to its components, which now include the following assets: SOL, ADA, AVAX, SUI, NEAR, DOT. Grayscale's Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC) has added ADA and removed AVAX, with the components now including the following assets: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA, where the allocation of Bitcoin and Ethereum has been adjusted to 90%.
DWF Labs Announces $20 Million AI Venture Fund Investment in HeyAnon
On January 6, market maker DWF Labs announced a $20 million AI venture fund investment in HeyAnon. HeyAnon is an AI DeFi protocol designed to simplify DeFi interactions and aggregate key project-related information. By combining conversational AI with real-time data aggregation, HeyAnon enables users to manage DeFi operations, stay informed about project updates, and analyze trends across multiple platforms and protocols.
U.S. December "Mini" Nonfarm Payrolls Fall Short of Expectations
On January 8, the U.S. ADP employment report showed a gain of 122,000 jobs in December, below the market expectation of 140,000 jobs, hitting the lowest level since August 2024.
Trump to Assume Presidency as Convicted Felon, Vows to Continue Appeal
On January 11, Trump stated he would continue to appeal following the judgment in the "Hush Money" case. In a tweet, he said, "The Radical Democrats have once again lost a pathetic political persecution. The real jury, the American people, have spoken in a resounding vote to re-elect me. Today's events were a disgraceful charade, but now it’s over, and we will appeal this baseless charade and restore America’s trust in our once-great justice system. Make America Great Again!"
BlockBeats Note: While New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merkan sentenced Donald Trump to no punishment and unconditional release, he still ruled in favor of the 34 charges in the "Hush Money" case, meaning Trump will still hold the status of a convicted felon but will not face imprisonment, fines, or probation. Trump will be sworn in as president on January 20 as a convicted felon, with the court to release the sentencing audio later today.
Coinbase, Google, and a16z Members Team Up to Launch Aiccelerate DAO to Accelerate Crypto and AI Integration
On January 10, members of teams from Coinbase, Google, a16z, and other key participants joined forces to launch Aiccelerate, a new Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) designed to accelerate the integration of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). This DAO focuses on driving decentralized, open-source AI development and supports high-potential projects across different ecosystems. Additionally, Aiccelerate positions itself as an investment and development-focused DAO. Its primary mission is to drive innovation in the so-called "Agentive AI" sector. The DAO aims to establish a collaborative community composed of top developers from multiple frameworks. These experts will contribute to a range of agents and tools aimed at advancing the organization's objectives.
Furthermore, Aiccelerate will unify its initiatives through a token called AICC. The DAO will use a portion of its profits to buy back its native token. The development advisor list includes a16z founder Shaw, Virtuals Protocol core contributor EtherMage, EigenLayer developer relations lead Nader Dabit, and Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao. In terms of investors, Aiccelerate's advisors include Mechanism Capital's Andrew Kang and Marc Weinstein, Coinbase Ventures' Justin Lee, and Delphi Digital's Anil Lulla.
ACT Announces Ecosystem Acceleration Plan, Developing Seamless AI-Crypto Framework
On January 8, the AI Meme project ACT announced the launch of its Ecosystem Acceleration Plan, aiming to advance artificial intelligence development, build a top-tier AI community, empower future leaders, and drive strategic ecosystem growth. Its new bounty system aims to recognize and reward breakthrough contributions to advancing the common mission, including technical solutions and innovative features, and is currently developing a groundbreaking native framework that will seamlessly connect AI and cryptographic capabilities.
Pump Science Airdrops 2.5 Million BIO Tokens to RIF and URO Holders on January 10
On January 10, according to an official announcement by Pump Science, the airdrop of 2.5 million BIO tokens to RIF and URO holders has commenced. The airdrop distribution is based on three snapshot nodes in November, December, and January, with all holding addresses across the snapshot nodes receiving a 2.5x airdrop bonus. Additionally, each wallet can receive a maximum of 8000 BIO tokens.
Sonic SVM's Native Token SONIC Issued on January 7 and Listed on Binance, OKX, Bitget, and More
The first SVM blockchain on Solana, Sonic SVM, announced the issuance of the SONIC token on January 7 (Beijing time), with the token also being listed on exchanges such as Upbit, Binance, OKX, Bitget, and Bybit. Wintermute is one of the market makers for SONIC.
DuckChain to List on OKX and Reveals DUCK Tokenomics
On January 8, according to an official announcement, OKX will list DuckChain (DUCK) spot trading. The DUCK/USDT spot trading is scheduled to open on January 16, 2025, at 6:00 PM (UTC+8). DuckChain is the first Telegram-based consumer Layer project, integrating AI-driven tools, the StarFi system, and EVM-compatible technology to provide on-chain support to dApp developers and 1 billion Telegram users, aiding in the widespread adoption of blockchain. On the same day, DuckChain unveiled the DUCK economic model, with a total supply of 10 billion DUCK tokens, where 77% is allocated to the community and ecosystem development, including 50% for airdrops, 4% for liquidity provision, 3% for marketing, and 20% for ecosystem development support. The remaining 10% is allocated to investors, 10% to the team, and 3% to advisors.
Jambo Announces Its Native Token J, Set to Launch This Month
On January 7, Web3 mobile phone Jambo will launch its native token J later this month. J will be issued on the Solana network with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Jambo has built the largest on-chain mobile ecosystem to date, selling over 650,000 JamboPhones across 128 countries and creating 4.5 million wallets.
Usual's USD0++ Peg Slips to $0.9566 at One Point
On January 10, market data showed that Usual's USD0++ peg slipped to $0.9566, with the USD0/USD0++ pool on Curve currently skewed towards 90.75% USD0++. USD0++ is fully backed by USD0, which is 100% backed by U.S. Treasuries. As an LST, USD0++ functions like a "4-year bond," with its principal guaranteed 1:1 in USD0, and distributes earnings through the USUAL token reward. USD0++ provides flexible dual-path liquidity for users needing immediate liquidity while offering full earnings to long-term participants: conditional exits are 1:1 redemptions but require forgoing some accrued earnings, while unconditional exits are redemptions at a floor price, currently set at 0.87:1 and gradually moving towards $1 over time.
This Week AI Concept Meme Coins Experience a Broad Decline with Some Standout Performers
This week, AI concept meme coins experienced a broad decline with some standout performers. On January 9, AI meme coin LLM issued for 22 hours, briefly surpassing a $1 billion market cap and seeing a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $3.3 billion. On January 8, Solana-based AI concept coin BUZZ briefly surpassed a $1 billion market cap, reaching a new all-time high. SWARMS saw its market cap break $6 billion, also setting a new record.
Top Articles of the Week
《69,000 Bitcoins to be Sold? What Impact Will Silk Road's Coin Sale Have on the Market?》
The U.S. government plans to sell the 69,370 Bitcoins related to the "Silk Road" case, currently valued at around $6.5 billion. These Bitcoins were initially seized by the FBI during the investigation and belonged to the founder of the illicit platform "Silk Road," Ross Ulbricht. In the past, the U.S. government has auctioned off Bitcoin confiscated from the platform, which typically does not have a long-term impact on the market. This sale may cause short-term market fluctuations, but is not expected to significantly affect the Bitcoin price in the long run. Additionally, Trump pledged to pardon Ulbricht and expressed support for cryptocurrency during his election campaign, which may influence whether the U.S. government sells these Bitcoins before Trump's potential return to office.
"Coin Speculation Earnings Taxed $40,000 Requires $130,000, This Is the U.S. Tax Law Musk Mocked"
Musk mocked the U.S. crypto tax law on social media, pointing out that even if investors experienced massive losses in cryptocurrency and NFT projects, they still need to pay high taxes. Through analyzing a tax case, experts revealed the complexity and irrationality of the U.S. crypto tax system, especially regarding the treatment of losses and capital gains. The tax guidance issued in 2023 failed to fully adapt to the uniqueness of the crypto industry, resulting in significant issues in tax calculations, and challenges in crypto tax compliance such as high compliance costs and enforcement difficulties. The newly introduced wealth tax and unrealized gains tax further make tax compliance a critical issue that crypto investors have to face.
"USD0++ Is the Next UST? Is USUAL Holding Panic Necessary?"
In 2024, the Usual stablecoin project experienced rapid development and volatility. After attracting a large amount of investment upon its launch, its token USD0++ quickly unpegged following a new announcement on January 10, dropping to around $0.94, triggering panic selling in the market. The announcement changed the original 1:1 redemption mechanism to set a minimum 0.87:1 redemption ratio, causing both whales and retail investors to withdraw funds, impacting the liquidity of USD0++. This change stemmed from Usual adjusting its approach to handling funds from whales to avoid systemic liquidation risks, causing short-term market unrest. As the market further anticipates redemption details, whether USD0++ can return to stability remains uncertain.
"'TikTok+Onchain' Sensual Narrative, Is Sonic SVM's Coin Offering Worth Investing In?"
Sonic SVM is a blockchain project deeply integrated with TikTok, focusing on a high-performance gaming chain and social applications. It is referred to as Solana's "Specific Layer2," aiming to optimize high-frequency trading and on-chain interactions, addressing the lag issues of traditional blockchains in gaming and social scenarios. Through its partnership with TikTok, Sonic SVM has lowered the barrier of entry for Web3 applications and attracted a large number of users through on-chain gaming and social dissemination. With tremendous valuation potential and relying on TikTok's massive user base, if it can successfully attract more users and expand the ecosystem, it may become a new benchmark in the blockchain industry. However, the project's success still depends on TikTok's policy support and the continuous improvement of user engagement.
《The Summer of "DeFAI" Is Coming: How Will AI Reshape the Future of DeFi?》
In this article, crypto researcher Jeff discusses how DeFAI (Decentralized Finance + Artificial Intelligence) is simplifying, optimizing, and enhancing the DeFi experience through abstraction layers, automated trading agents, and AI-driven dApps. Several emerging DeFAI projects are introduced, such as Almanak, Cod3x, and Mode, highlighting the role of AI in improving trading strategies and portfolio management.
《Buzz Ignites Wealth Effect: A Comprehensive Overview of DeFAI Track Projects》
DeFAI is an emerging field that combines AI technology with DeFi, aiming to simplify DeFi operations and lower entry barriers. Through AI agents, users can manage their portfolios as easily as chatting with ChatGPT and seamlessly participate in decentralized markets. Current DeFAI projects can be categorized into three types: assistant-type, trading-type, and dApps-type. Assistant-type projects simplify complex DeFi operations through AI agents, trading-type projects utilize AI for market analysis and automated trading, while dApps-type projects focus on building AI-integrated decentralized applications. These projects continue to evolve to enhance user experience and drive DeFi adoption.
《Base Ecosystem AI Gold Rush: Beyond Virtuals, What Other Treasure Projects Are There?》
This article discusses some of the AI Agent projects emerging in the Base ecosystem, many of which show great potential and are worth paying attention to. For example, TAO CAT is a project that combines real-time data and AI technology for market analysis, Polytrader helps make investment decisions by analyzing popular topics on social platforms, Acolyt provides AI-driven oracle services, and Freya integrates AI agents into games to enhance character interactivity. Additionally, there are several DeFi and investment DAO projects mentioned, such as Kudai and WAI Combinator, which optimize investment strategies and decisions by combining AI and blockchain technology. The article also references some tool platforms like Loomlay, allowing users to create AI agents in a no-code environment. These projects showcase the fusion of AI and blockchain technology and their potential applications in various fields.
MicroStrategy continues to accumulate Bitcoin, and Michael Saylor shared the company's latest Bitcoin holdings data through SaylorTracker.com, hinting at a possible additional purchase. MicroStrategy aims to raise funds through issuing preferred stock and other means to further buy Bitcoin. The company currently holds 446,400 BTC, valued at approximately $44.27 billion. In addition, Saylor announced that he will destroy the Bitcoin private keys after his death, believing that doing so will help reduce the market's supply and increase Bitcoin's value, sparking widespread discussion in the crypto community.
《Musk Tops "Diablo 4," Leaving Everyone Wondering Where He Got the Time?》
Aside from managing multiple businesses, Musk achieved the top player status in the "Diablo 4" game in less than two months, quickly completing the game's most difficult levels, attracting wide attention. Despite this, some questioned how he managed to find time to play games amidst his busy work schedule, speculating that he might have used cheats or hired someone to "power level" for him. Musk's gaming hobby intertwines with his busy business life, as he has stated that he often engages in games while working, even playing games and discussing work with employees during meetings.
This article criticizes the prediction market platform Polymarket for the controversy sparked by users speculating on California wildfires. Against the backdrop of wildfires causing multiple deaths and the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, users coldly bet on the disaster's development, with some prediction pools reaching up to $100,000. This behavior of "gambling" on public disasters has raised strong moral questions.
《AI Agent Upstart Swarms 7x in One Week, What Potential Projects are in the Ecosystem?》
In the first week of 2025, the AI Agent track performed strongly, with the two major ecosystems ai16z and Virtual reaching a historic market value high. However, Swarms, as a dark horse, made a breakthrough. Swarms is a multi-agent collaboration framework that supports seamless cooperation among AI agents, helping to break down complex tasks. Recently, the Swarms token has surged by over 768%, reaching a market value of $4.4 billion. It has attracted multiple ecosystem projects in various fields such as medical diagnostics, investment funds, and data analysis. Swarms is also actively promoting ecosystem development, planning to introduce more features and technical support, aiming to establish a presence in the AI Agent market.
《AI on 2025 BTC, ETH, SOL Price Predictions: How High Will They Rise?》
The application of AI technology in the financial sector is continuously expanding, and more investors are realizing its potential in their portfolios, especially in the cryptocurrency market. Several well-known AI models have made price predictions for major cryptocurrencies in 2025. Bitcoin is expected to reach $175,000-$350,000, driven by institutional adoption and supply scarcity factors. Ethereum is poised to exceed $6,000, relying on technological upgrades and DeFi ecosystem growth. Solana, supported by ecosystem expansion and institutional backing, is expected to rise to $500-$725. Other cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Tron, and Cardano also show positive prospects in AI predictions. However, investors still need to be cautious and mindful of market volatility and policy risks.
Marc Zeller, the founder of Aave, the largest lending protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem, initiated criticism of the Ethereum Foundation's inaction and proposed five major reform suggestions to improve ecosystem efficiency and address controversies. These suggestions include firing a large number of non-developers and team leaders, converting the Foundation's held ETH into long-term staking assets, reducing sponsored projects, avoiding Ethereum dumping, and handing over the Twitter account to those who understand technology and marketing to drive forward. Zeller's remarks have sparked widespread discussions, with some community members believing that the Ethereum Foundation is overly conservative, insufficiently invested in marketing and development, and even holding the view that the Foundation is filled with interest groups and has failed to genuinely advance decentralization. How to address this crisis has become key to Ethereum's future development.
“Which AI Agent Projects Have VCs Invested In?”
The AI Agent field is rapidly developing, with multiple well-known institutions expressing optimism about the combination of AI and cryptocurrency. Unlike traditional project funding models, the explosion of the AI Agent sector has mostly taken the form of on-chain memes, attracting a large number of retail investors. However, despite this fair launch approach enhancing transparency and openness, VCs still have a significant advantage in terms of early-stage project due diligence, funding support, and technological innovation. Investment opportunities in the AI Agent space are not limited to on-chain meme projects, and the entry of VC funds can bring more technical support and marketing advantages. Several innovative projects, such as Payman, Skyfire, and Axal, are driving industry development by providing payment and service support for AI.
“Solana AI Hackathon Sees Continued Alpha, Organizers Say, ‘Stop the Hype!’”
Currently, many Crypto x AI projects have rushed to issue tokens for short-term gains, leading to an over-tokenization phenomenon in the market, where many projects are seen as speculative tools rather than actual products. This practice may cause long-term harm to genuine developers, especially when token issuance becomes the sole means of attracting attention. Whales and KOLs often pump up token prices through false advertising, ultimately causing harm to retail investors and developers. Organizers urge developers not to blindly follow the trend of token issuance but to focus on product development, recognizing the complexity of token management and the potential risks.
“Top 10 Crypto AI Projects at Solana AI Hackathon: Investment Analysis and Entertainment Dominant”
The recent Solana AI hackathon showcased several innovative projects combining cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. These include The Hive, which uses AI to provide intelligent investment decisions, Solana's smart assistant Neur integrating natural language processing technology, and AgentiPy, which helps Python developers simplify blockchain app development. Other projects such as Voltr and Cleopetra offer intelligent investment and liquidity management tools, FomoFactory introduces a new celebrity AI interaction model, Break.fun gamifies security testing, Redux replicates historical figures' thinking, C.A.T provides market analysis and insights, and Roastmaster9000 explores AI entertainment content creation. These projects demonstrate the vast potential of artificial intelligence in the cryptocurrency field.
"Analysis of Concentration of Six Major AI Tokens: SPORE Over 50%, FARTCOIN More Evenly Distributed"
In the current Crypto x AI field, the phenomenon of token misuse is becoming increasingly serious. Many projects hastily issue tokens for short-term hype, ignoring the need for long-term development. Developers in projects focus more on how to attract capital and speculators through tokens rather than focusing on actual product development. This over-tokenization not only harms genuine developers but also exacerbates market bubbles. Token management is complex and full of risks. Developers should avoid blindly following trends, carefully issue tokens, and focus on technical development and the actual value of the product.
"a16z Releases Seven Core Cryptocurrency Trends for 2025 and Other Developments Worth Noting"
The cryptocurrency field will experience several key trends in the coming years. Enterprises will increasingly accept stablecoin payments, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, as it can reduce payment costs and increase profits. The exploration of on-chain government bonds will provide new collateral sources for decentralized finance (DeFi). Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) will receive broader legal recognition, driving the development of decentralized governance. Meanwhile, developers will reuse existing infrastructure to improve development efficiency. With the emergence of new decentralized app stores, the distribution channels for crypto apps will become more diverse. Additionally, the behavior of crypto users will shift from holders to more active users. The concealment of technical details will also help popularize Web3 apps, reducing the user's learning curve.
"New Article by Arthur Hayes: How Will US Dollar Liquidity Drive a New Crypto Market Rally in 2025?"
In this article, Hayes analyzes how US dollar liquidity affects the cryptocurrency market, particularly Bitcoin's trend. By explaining the Federal Reserve's reverse repurchase operations (RRP) and the flow of funds in the US Treasury General Account (TGA), it discusses how increased USD liquidity drives the rise of the cryptocurrency and stock markets. In the first quarter of 2025, approximately $612 billion of US dollar liquidity will be injected, which may have a positive impact on the market. Finally, the author mentions that the Maelstrom Fund is investing in the DeSci sector and holds a bullish view on the future market.
《Farcaster's 2024 Year-end Review: AI Agent Development Hotspot; Farconomy Will Continue to Grow》
In 2024, Farcaster saw significant growth, with a substantial increase in users and daily active users, especially in its role as a crypto-native social network. Farcaster's development benefited from several factors, including the community-driven incentive token $DEGEN and its collaboration with the Base chain, which spurred the formation and development of more ecosystem projects. While in the short term, some SocialFi applications and incentive models failed to sustainably attract users, Farcaster still maintains its unique community culture and developer activity. The team continues to focus on interaction with the crypto market, building a more robust community and programmable social features, while supporting various applications and developers through open protocols, aiming to create a highly sticky ecosystem in the long term.
《How to Make Money with Agent Economy in 2025?》
This article explores the future development of the agent economy, particularly the evolution of AI agents. From phase 1's simple chatbots, to phase 2's privacy and DeFi integration, and onwards to phase 3's collaboration between agents, it emphasizes the critical role of infrastructure, frameworks, and technology. While the current market is filled with basic social media agents, the real opportunity lies in the technology and platforms that support autonomous economic activities.
《Bull Market AI Agent: Five Major Trends, Have You Positioned Yourself?》
This article discusses the five major trends of combining crypto with AI agents. Firstly, investment-oriented DAOs and agent launch platforms (such as daosdotfun, ai16zdao) are on the rise; secondly, DeFAI will become the new frontier of agent applications, where agents will start autonomously executing tasks and achieving value accumulation; at the consumer level, agents will develop more complex personalities and interactions, especially in the entertainment, gaming, and metaverse sectors. Moreover, DAOs will evolve into multi-agent systems, enhancing efficiency through collective cooperation, and finally, agents will have the ability to autonomously manage funds, similar to how freysa_ai has achieved autonomous key management, driving agents to become economic proxies.
This article points out the current issue of AI agent fragmentation, where the diversity, liquidity, and attention of AI agents are scattered across different areas. The article mentions two development paths for agents: one is to transition to an open-source framework, and the other is to continue focusing on a single agent function. It analyzes several promising AI domains such as DeFAI, NSFW agent, robotics, investment DAOs, and suggests that developers and investors should focus on narratives and products with long-term growth potential, ultimately driving innovators to establish a unified ecosystem by simplifying complexity.
《AI All-Stars Join Forces, Aiccelerate DAO Drives Decentralized Open-Source AI Development》
Aiccelerate DAO is an investment and development organization focused on driving decentralized open-source AI development, aiming to combine AI and crypto technologies to build an ecosystem supporting related projects. The DAO has brought together experts and advisors from various fields, including the founder of ai16z, senior figures in the crypto industry, and open-source AI developers. Aiccelerate DAO plans to advance the cutting-edge of blockchain and AI technologies by creating AI agents and tools, and manage the DAO's assets and returns through the AICC token. Despite the project not being fully public yet, it has attracted significant attention, particularly garnering support from developers, researchers, and investors, paving the way for potential breakthroughs in the open-source AI field.
《How to Determine If a Crypto Dev Is Reliable Through GitHub?》
Developers' impact on projects is crucial, as their technical skills, sense of responsibility, and personal reputation directly determine the project's future. In the case of the SKYAI project, developer Bob's failure led to a market value plummet, highlighting the risks irresponsible developers pose to investors. Conversely, BUZZ project developer Jason Hedman, with a strong technical background and responsible attitude, earned investors' trust and market recognition for the project. Identifying reliable developers can be done through platforms like GitHub to analyze their technical proficiency and project contributions, focusing on aspects such as code quality, development processes, and community interactions. Additionally, emotional intelligence and transparency are also key factors for developers' success.
《Vitalik's New Article: Decentralization Accelerationism One-Year Review and Outlook》
This article revolves around the concept of Decentralization Acceleration (d/acc), discussing its application in technological development and the challenges it faces, including AI security and regulation, its relationship with cryptocurrency, and public goods funding. It emphasizes the importance of d/acc in building a safer and better world and explores the opportunities and challenges for future development. Vitalik elaborates on the essence of d/acc, analyzes its role in addressing AI risks through various strategies, discusses the value of cryptocurrency in this context, and explores the public goods funding mechanism. Finally, it looks ahead to the future of technological development, acknowledging challenges but highlighting the opportunity for humans to build a better world with existing tools and concepts.
《Listing 20 Official Eliza Labs Partner Projects: Low Market Cap Boost Effect More Evident》
Shaw's tweet drove a significant increase in the market cap of multiple AI Agent and Metaverse projects like Hyperfy, with Hyperfy experiencing a near $3 billion market cap surge within hours of its launch. As Shaw's Eliza Labs announced several partnership projects, some emerging projects showed strong market performance. Among the partner projects, apart from Hyperfy, larger market cap projects saw steadier gains, while lower market cap projects exhibited more significant fluctuations and gains. These projects span across various areas such as decentralized AI systems, virtual world creation, AI-driven Web3 games, demonstrating the robust market potential of AI Agent and the Metaverse.
《Anonymous Survey Given to 42 Key Solana Figures, What Are Their Views on the Crypto Industry?》
A Lightspeed-initiated anonymous survey targeted Solana's founders and heavy users, aiming to understand their views on other blockchains, venture capital firms, and startups. The survey covered multiple aspects, including the assessment of Solana's ecosystem, competition with other blockchains, and the impact of Memecoins. The results showed that founders generally see Solana's biggest current issue as insufficient block space and exhibit high interest in Solana's competitors, Base and Sui. While some founders are critical of certain projects or venture capital firms, overall, they remain strongly supportive of Solana and believe Memecoins are beneficial to the ecosystem.
《Ethena 2025 Roadmap: Entering Traditional Finance with Customized Product sUSDe》
In 2024, Ethena achieved significant milestones, becoming the third largest USD asset in the crypto space, successfully weathering market downturns and experiencing rapid growth of its core products. Through innovation, risk-taking, and long-term commitment, the team has propelled the integration of fund flows among DeFi, CeFi, and traditional finance. In 2025, Ethena plans to enter the traditional finance market, launch a regulated iUSDe product, and provide savings and payment services to global users through platforms like Telegram. Looking ahead, Ethena will continue to expand its ecosystem, drive innovation protocols based on sUSDe, and strive to disrupt the global financial system.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?｜100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
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After Surging 40%, Has Ethereum Price Peaked Upon Exiting the Craze?
Whether you are an insider or an outsider, these days you must be familiar with the news about Ethereum. The reason is simple, causing Ethereum enthusiasts to sigh with emotion and almost throwing off-guard those who defend Ethereum, Ethereum, with a "3-day surge of 40%," climbed to the top of the Douyin Hot List.
As we all know, Ethereum launched the Pectra upgrade on May 7th. This most significant network upgrade since early 2024 integrates the Prague execution layer hard fork and the Electra consensus layer upgrade, significantly improving Ethereum's performance through 11 improvement proposals. The account abstraction feature (EIP-7702) allows users to flexibly manage wallets through social media accounts or multi-signature schemes, reducing the user threshold, attracting more users and developers. The staking mechanism optimization increases the validator ETH cap from 32ETH to 2048ETH and introduces a flexible withdrawal method, making it easier for institutions and individuals to participate in network security, enhancing the market's confidence in Ethereum's long-term value.
At the same time, Pectra optimized the interaction efficiency of Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism, making transactions faster and cheaper, leading to a surge in on-chain activity. As a crucial step for Ethereum's transition from "2G" to "5G," the Pectra upgrade not only enhances network vitality but also "recharges confidence" in the market, directly driving the price increase.
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It's not just Ethereum itself, as Wall Street also brought important bullish news.
The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proposed to the SEC allowing Ethereum ETFs for staking. This proposal is expected to elevate Ethereum ETFs from a mere investment tool to a bond-like "interest-bearing asset," bringing investors both capital appreciation and passive income, igniting market optimism about Ethereum's future potential.
Specifically, BlackRock has proposed to amend its S-1 filing to allow investors to create and redeem ETF shares directly with Ethereum instead of the U.S. dollar (i.e., in-kind redemption). This move, combined with its $2.9 billion BUIDL Fund launched in March 2024, aims to deepen the integration of traditional finance with blockchain. The BUIDL Fund is a tokenized fund operating on the Ethereum network, investing in traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. This setup is highly attractive to institutional investors, as they can not only benefit from Ethereum's price appreciation but also earn stable cash flow through staking.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, stated in a CNBC interview in March 2025 that the addition of staking functionality will significantly enhance the appeal of the Ethereum ETF. He admitted that when the Ethereum spot ETF was launched in July 2024 without staking functionality, the market demand was lackluster, and staking could be the key to reversing this trend.
Meanwhile, the SEC's shifting stance on cryptocurrency regulation has also fueled this upward trend. During the tenure of the previous SEC chairman, the regulatory approach was tough, and staking was strictly viewed through the Howey test as a potential unregistered security. Therefore, when approving the Ethereum spot ETF in May 2024, staking functionality was explicitly prohibited.
However, with Trump back in the White House and Paul Atkins taking over the SEC, there has been a noticeable relaxation in crypto regulation. Apart from BlackRock, ETF issuers such as Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also submitted applications for similar staking and in-kind redemption.
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If staking ETFs are approved, the benefits are likely to go beyond price appreciation. The introduction of staking functionality could redefine the role of crypto assets, making them more similar to traditional financial products that provide returns and value appreciation, thereby driving Ethereum closer to mainstream finance.
Currently, the SEC still needs to address several decisions related to crypto ETFs, including whether to approve ETFs for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin. With the calls for an "altcoin season" growing louder, Ethereum's strong performance may just be the beginning of a larger crypto market frenzy.
In addition, the Trump family-related DeFi project WLFI is also bullish on this wave of rise, with frequent on-chain activities. According to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, a WLFI-related address is currently borrowing coins to go long on ETH, borrowing 4 million U from Aave to buy 1590 ETH at an average price of $2515 per ETH.
For this epic surge of Ethereum after half a year of silence, the community has indeed gained more confidence and hope, which has also led to a revival of the entire altcoin market. However, amidst the joy, there are also voices of pessimism. Below is a summary conducted by BlockBeats based on community discussions.
The optimists point out that the current market structure is similar to the eve of the bull markets in 2016 and 2020, predicting a life-changing surge in the next 3-6 months, where some altcoins may even achieve astonishing single-day gains of up to 40%.
@liuwei16602825 stated that this surge signifies the return of the bull market as a sure thing. There is no need to worry about a pullback. The driving force behind the surge uses a high-cost isolated operation, fearing a drop more than any retail investor and will definitely do everything to support the price.
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The bears mainly believe that this surge is different from the bull market of 2021, as the current market lacks the confidence of large-scale retail investors entering and holding positions for the long term, with funds rotating too quickly.
@market_beggar observed that a Bitfinex E/B whale has started to close positions and believes that if this whale maintains its high-speed position-closing operation for the next few days, it can be inferred that the whale no longer sees the upside potential of ETH, preparing to take profits and exit. The closing time will be a key focus going forward.
@FLS_OTC stated that there are still many uncertainties at the macro level, and the liquidity cannot support a major bull market. At this stage, it is a "last hurrah," not a complete reversal, and will continue to remain in a short position.
@off_thetarget believes that after ETH transitioned from POW to POS, it lost the "gold standard" of mining machine power cost support. The staking economic model led to a breakdown in value anchoring. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem (such as Starknet, zkSync, etc.) suffered from liquidity fragmentation, failing to establish an effective capital inflow mechanism, causing the collapse of the split disc pattern. Furthermore, the ETH community's excessive pursuit of technical narratives divorced from real-world needs resulted in a weak ecosystem growth. Therefore, he believes that ETH's intrinsic value system has crumbled, and the price is bound to plummet to the 800-1200 range, with a decisive short position at 1800.
@Airdrop_Guard, based on the core logic of the "High Probability Trading Strategy," where three sets of underlying logic different trading systems (such as volume depletion, price supply-demand, long/short position funding rate, etc.) simultaneously issue a short signal at the same point (2580), creating a high-probability trading opportunity. He emphasizes that these systems must be based on different algorithms and logics (rather than mere technical indicator overlays). The current ETH trend aligns with the short conditions in multiple independent dimensions of his trading system, hence the decision to short.
Overall, Bitcoin still maintains over 54% market dominance, and institutional funds' continued preference for it may limit the altcoin's upward potential. The market's future direction will depend on multiple factors, such as Bitcoin's price trend, global macroeconomic conditions, and whether funds can effectively rotate from Bitcoin to the altcoin sector.
Although Ethereum's recent leadership in the market has brought about optimistic sentiment, investors still need to remain rational as different sectors of altcoins are likely to show divergence in trends. Whether this round of Ethereum's rise will usher in a true altcoin frenzy may require more time and conducive conditions.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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