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May 20, 2025 — Following a consolidation phase and recent pullbacks, the market for AI agents has returned to vibrant health.

The total market capitalization of AI agents surged 4.53% over the past 24 hours, reaching $10.59 billion. Meanwhile, Virtuals once again emerged as the clear sector leader, cutting a new all-time high in market mindshare at 43.63%.

Virtuals Reclaims Momentum with Price and Market Cap Growth

The Virtuals ecosystem displayed across-the-board strength, beating broader market trends. The ecosystem’s overall market cap surged 5.70%, climbing to $2.38 billion. Its native token, $VIRTUAL, also had a significant comeback, recovering 5.58% over the past 24 hours to hit a price of $1.9533.

This rally follows a short interval of downward pressure in the sector, and it emphasizes a more profound market assurance in $VIRTUAL as a top candidate in the AI agent sector. As investors divert their attentions back into the ecosystem, the renewed interest in $VIRTUAL not only consolidates its position as a speculative asset but also bolsters its underpinning role in the very emergent landscape of autonomous agents and decentralized intelligence.

Virtuals also gained unprecedented dominance across sectors, with mindshare hitting an all-time high of 43.63%. This metric, which assesses the sway of Virtuals across the larger AI agent landscape, is considered an essential barometer for leadership and ecosystem influence. Right now, it feels like nearly half of the entire AI agent sector is focused much more on the Virtuals ecosystem than anything else.

Smaller Caps Steal the Spotlight with Explosive Gains

Even though the Virtuals are the most dominant and strongest within the ecosystem, much of the market’s excitement has come from smaller-cap tokens. There are a series of up-and-coming stars posting either triple-digit or high double-digit gains—definitely not something restricted to just one or two names—to the extent that it’s become an investor narrative around emerging projects. And these are projects with either very strong narratives or that show signs of early and increasing adoption.

THE SANTA (@santavirtuals) took the lead in adding market cap over the past 24 hours, growing by 215.1%. BIOS (@BasisOS), next in line, still added a pretty decent 39.05% to its value. Then we have SQDGN (@helloSQDGN) adding an impressive 27.06% to its market cap. For the next four, we’re basically in the “virtuals” space with GAME (@GAME_Virtuals) rising by 21.94%; SWARM (@TheSWARM_AI) not far behind with a 21.31% gain. And our last two are in the “virtual” category too.

These increases indicate a coming wave across the sector of AI agents, especially affecting projects in their early stages that have potentially promising use cases or innovations where autonomous agent technology is concerned.

Virtuals Holds the Highest Echo Score Across the Sector

Sentiment and traction metrics, along with sheer market cap and price figures, underscore that Virtuals continue to be extremely well positioned. The project now boasts the highest Echo score across the AI agent sector. The Echo score, an amalgam of sorts, serves as the best kind of up-to-the-minute proxy for assessing which projects, in any sector but especially crypto, are gaining the kind of traction that translates into long-term success.

Virtuals has achieved its highest Echo score to date. Why? Because its most recent advances are rooted in something approaching strong community engagement and development momentum. The kernel dev team continues to push forward on an impressive number of fronts — not only issuing updates to the protocol but also hard at work on the kind of grassroots “community stuff” that portends long-term healthy token performance: making agents work better together, a big step towards making the sandbox an actual metaverse, and crafting an AI that understands both user intent and the capabilities of other parts of the system. Oh, and I almost forgot: big new partnerships in the decentralized finance and AI spaces with some heavy hitters.

Virtuals is not just doing well in the markets; it is also consolidating its position as a foundational layer in the burgeoning agent economy.

This isn’t just some virtual set of capabilities.

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Conclusion

The virtual agents market is once again gaining traction, and Virtuals is leading the way. With a market cap of nearly $2.4 billion, a record-setting mindshare of 43.63%, and a rebounding token price, Virtuals seems to have established itself at the core of the sector.

Concurrently, exceptional growth among lower-cap initiatives shows a more widespread market upswing that may be propelling the entire AI agent space to the next significant wave of adoption. Meanwhile, as the merger of AI and blockchain continues, Virtuals seems very likely to remain a leading architect of this next digital frontier.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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A milestone that underlines the increasing coming together of conventional finance and the world of digital assets is Coinbase’s recent addition to the S\&P 500 index.

This marks the first time a crypto company has been included in this prestigious benchmark. When Coinbase was added to the S\&P 500, it replaced Discover Financial.

From Crypto Pioneer to Market Mainstay

After making its public debut in April 2021, Coinbase has had to deal with the ups and downs of the landscape it serves. From the wild price swings that are part of the life of digital assets to the next wave of regulatory scrutiny that’s coming for crypto, the exchange has seemed to stand its ground. It isn’t always pretty (or as some in the crypto community would like, as ‘decentralized’ or ‘permissionless’ as a hub can sometimes be), but Coinbase very much has a situation under control.

The business model has moved way beyond just trading fees. Coinbase has constructed a diversified portfolio of services, among them Base (its Ethereum Layer 2 network), custodial services for institutional clients, and even a lending platform. Meanwhile, in partnership with Circle, it has a major role in the stablecoin ecosystem through USDC. This deep strategy, clearly laid out in its S-1, positions the company centrally in a digital finance infrastructure ecosystem.

By joining the S&P 500, Coinbase has gone from being a wild stand-in for crypto play to a bona fide financial firm—not that any of this is likely to help its stock price. Unlike the underlying assets traded on its platform, Coinbase’s share price is entirely driven by supply and demand. And right now, demand is not exactly through the roof.

Why the S\&P 500 Inclusion Matters

Being included in the S&P 500 is both a practical and a symbolic home run for Coinbase.

From a practical standpoint, the S&P 500 is the most widely followed stock index in the world. Significance is attached to being in it, and billions of capital index funds that are built around this index effectively buy the stocks in it.

The Coinbase IPO Coin listing is good for the index fund in an S&P 500 and is more beneficial to the company being included than to the index fund itself.

Yet, this powerful message is sent beyond just the immediate market mechanics: the infrastructure associated with cryptocurrency no longer exists on the periphery. It’s now a part of the financial core — and that is a powerful message.

For all the skepticism with which many finance types regard digital assets, Coinbase is now part of the S&P 500. And for many allocators of capital, that is a very big deal indeed.

Coinbase’s visibility among mainstream investors and institutions is enhanced by the shift. For the longest time, exposure to cryptocurrency could only be obtained via speculative tokens or by going the ETF route, both of which are very risky propositions. But now fund managers and pension plans have a more sensible vehicle to use if they want to gain indirect exposure to the asset class. And that vehicle is a company—specifically, one that operates under U.S. regulatory frameworks and delivers financial services with a crypto backbone.

In terms of significance, this is a tipping point. The Nas- daq’s acceptance of Coinbase means something very new and very big: for the first time, a crypto-native company has not just passed through the public market’s gate, but also been recognized as a fundamentally trustworthy part of the U.S. economy. This wasn’t a simple listing. It is a step forward in the validation of a yet-to-be-seen crypto economy.

TradFi and Crypto Are Converging — And Fast

Coinbase’s upswing correlates with several other important occurrences that indicate a strengthening blend of classical finance (TradFi) and the crypto universe. This year, for instance, heralded the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs, an event that, after a long wait, finally opened the door to the average investor and allowed them to step inside and enjoy a regulated, financially secure way of being exposed to the original cryptocurrency. Without cracking open the Bitcoin ETF door, we would probably be seeing an investment-friendly doorstop instead.

The sector is reaching maturity; it is no longer simply concerned with digital currencies or speculative trading. It has moved on to building new financial architecture. Coinbase is using its Base chain and custodial infrastructure to help lay that new architecture, a new wave of decentralized applications, settlement systems, and payment flows that interact with, but also sometimes circumvent, “legacy finance.” Those new flows are starting to power a settlement layer for the kind of programmable money that cryptocurrencies were supposed to be.

Wall Street observes with great interest — and, more crucially, it is beginning to take part. As $COIN increasingly finds a home in S&P 500 portfolios, the distinction between crypto and traditional finance is vanishing faster than ever.

Looking Ahead

Being part of the S&P 500 is not just a win for Coinbase; it mirrors progress in the crypto space. We have come a long way from the early, unsettled days of crypto. Now, with Bitcoin having its 14th birthday this week, in 2023, the same year that Web3—and associated cryptocurrencies—are expected to generate at least $500 billion in global revenues, Bitcoin’s price, at a solid $28,000, is the least part of the story.

This moment signals a new epoch—one where crypto is not merely an outsider disrupting the landscape but a key participant in molding the future of finance. The infrastructure of that future is being put in place as we speak, and by no less a part of the establishment than the SEC, which has recently upped its game with a slew of new charges against crypto firms.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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Ethereum’s Layer 2 (L2) ecosystem is seeing a new wave of activity as Total Value Locked (TVL) shifts across the main scaling networks. Base is approaching its all-time high, Optimism continues to lag behind, and Arbitrum is in transition, moving from recent losses to signs of growth.

Base Mounts a Strong Rebound, Optimism Stuck at Lows

In recent weeks, Base has emerged as the strongest performer among Ethereum’s scaling solutions. Its total value locked is rebounding rapidly, and it has a clear path to reclaiming its all-time high. This surge reflects a renewed confidence in the Coinbase-backed layer-2 solution, which is basking in developer daylight, generous yield, and DeFi friendliness.

In contrast, Optimism keeps underperforming. Even with a generally positive atmosphere in the crypto markets, the total value locked (TVL) on Optimism remains stagnant and hovers around the same levels it reached in April. This current state makes one question not just the retention of users but also the incentive structure ecosystem participants have in place to keep them on Optimism. Though the perception of appearing a top contender in the L2 race for several months helped retain some semblance of an ambitious crypto project, recent trends would suggest a stronger catalyst is needed to keep participants interested in the Optimism ecosystem.

At the same time, Arbitrum occupies a sort of middle ground along the spectrum. Its total value locked is on the mend, but it’s more of a slow-and-steady sort of climb than the rocket ascent enjoyed by Base. This is, no doubt, part of some kind of grander design. Users are being nudged to pay closer attention to developments, and to look beyond the immediate appearances of any one protocol, before they reach any sort of recommitment stage.

Arbitrum Revenue Slides, But New Launches Could Revive Momentum

In the last week, protocols that are based on Arbitrum generated grosses of $1.06 million in revenue. That figure translated into an 18% downturn compared to the previous week. While the number sounds alarming at first, it clearly represents yet another example of just how much revenues can fluctuate within the DeFi space.

An exciting recent development is that Gains Network has expanded its offerings to include 13 new tradable assets—both stocks and indices—launched just this week. The platform has already established itself as a top revenue generator among Arbitrum-based protocols, and it could be poised to see even more growth if these new offerings attract user interest. Gains Network generated $139,000 in revenue over the past seven days, placing it in second among Arbitrum protocols.

GMX still reigns as the top-earning protocol on Arbitrum. It remains a DeFi pedestal on Arbitrum, with a core user base partaking in perpetual futures trading, allowing GMX to generate $372,000, according to my Akaname output for October.

Following closely behind Gains Network is Ostium Labs, which pulled in $129,000. These three platforms are setting the pace, driving the majority of Arbitrum’s revenue, and keeping the ecosystem vibrant despite the temporary downturn.

Penpie and Aave are lower down on the list, with recorded figures of $55,000 and $52,000, respectively. These numbers, though not as large, do imply consistent engagement with and interest in some DeFi essentials like lending, staking, and governance.

Can Arbitrum Sustain Growth as Base Gains Ground?

The following weeks will be critical for Arbitrum as it looks to uphold its relevance while intense competition swirls around it. The latest revenue report suggests a short-term cooling-off, at least, for the company, but the very recent additions of new trading assets by some of the major players in the space, like Gains Network, point to a possible imminent volume turnaround. And if those assets succeed in attracting volumes, then user activity and capital flows back to Arbitrum could pick up again.

Conversely, the rapidly increasing TVL of Base indicates its possible emergence as a serious challenger. Its current onboarding process is straightforward, and its close relationship with Coinbase’s massive user base gives Base a unique method of attracting not just retail, but also institutional investors.

On the other hand, optimism must reevaluate its strategy. Low TVL continually and weak protocol activity consistently seem to suggest that optimism could be falling behind in the innovation cycle and might require either aggressive developer incentives as a kind of last resort or some kind of high-profile integrations to re-enter the public consciousness.

Conclusion

The Ethereum race at Layer 2 is an ever-changing event; however, it is one that alters the appearance of the Layer 2 ecosystem quite frequently, with more often than not an appearance of two overtaking another—at least for the time being.

Base surges ahead and Arbitrum recalibrates after a revenue dip; however, the Layer 2 solution that is Optimism is almost stagnated at this apparent crossroads.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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A major achievement for the decentralized finance sector is that HyperliquidX has reached an all-time high of $3 billion in Bridge Total Value Locked, a significant milestone for the perpetual DEX.

HyperliquidX is growing rapidly, fueled by strong user adoption, a deflationary token model, and fundamentals that most would describe as excellent. We at DeFiLlama think that it is a dominant force in the decentralize finance ecosystem.

Arbitrum Powers Growth as HyperliquidX’s Liquidity Hub

HyperliquidX’s total value locked (TVL) has increased significantly due to its connection with Arbitrum One, which has become the main liquidity portal for users who need to deposit and withdraw assets.

As one of the largest perpetual DEXs in the market, Hyperliquid has increasingly turned to Arbitrum for expansion and trade execution. Of late, in gas-efficient environments, Arbitrum has churned out high-throughput, low-cost transactions. In the process, it has largely eliminated the kind of counterparty risks that DEXs used to worry about.

Now the DEX can operate at scale.

HyperliquidX can scale while staying decentralized and under user control, thanks to Arbitrum’s infrastructure. This key integration has helped push bridge total value locked (TVL) to recent heights, making it easy and fast for traders and liquidity providers to on-ramp and off-ramp assets. With more than $10 billion in daily trading volume, it’s obvious that the DEX is providing a valuable service to its users vis-a-vis performance and stability.

Hyperliquid Tops Fee Revenue Rankings Amid Token Deflation

Although numerous DeFi platforms face difficulties with sustainability, Hyperliquid stands out by unceasingly leading in fee revenue generation. For a second consecutive time, the platform sits atop a global leaderboard; it is again number one in terms of how much it is generating from users who are trading on the platform. This high level of fee activity is an indicator of how much users are actually engaging with the platform and with its on-chain technology, making it for now a model of sorts for fee sustainability in DeFi.

One economic feature that makes Hyperliquid stand out is its deflationary token model, which contrasts sharply with the inflationary pressures seen on other blockchains, like Solana. While Solana’s dog-paddling in its issuance of tokens—approximately 2 million SOL annually, diluting the token supply—Hyperliquid’s system is selective in reducing HYPE token circulation. And the bad news keeps coming.

In the last 24 hours alone, 107,680 HYPE tokens were bought back by the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that exists to support the Hyperliquid ecosystem. At the same time, the fund only distributed 26,436 HYPE as staking rewards to validators, leading to a net reduction of 81,243 tokens in just a single day. If this rate of buybacks and net reductions in circulating supply holds, then over the course of a year, the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund will have caused a deflation of nearly 29.7 million HYPE tokens.

User Growth Accelerates as Hyperliquid Expands Its Reach

HyperliquidX is constructing a set of foundations—technical and economic—that are far stronger than those underpinning many other DeFi platforms. Where most other DeFi platforms thank less than 1,000 folks, HyperliquidX has expanded its user base at a rate that, if sustained, could bring it to over 1 million users in just under six months. Onboard sign-ups have far more than tripled HyperliquidX’s growth within just the past few months, yielding a signing-up rate that probably exceeds any other DeFi platform at present.

More than 1,200 new users are joining the platform daily, pushing its monthly growth beyond 30,000. And with this rise in adoption, HyperliquidX’s value proposition seems brighter and clearer than ever to folks participating in the DeFi movement. No wonder DeFi enthusiasts are flocking to what is probably the best-performing DeFi platform going.

Other blockchains, such as Solana, may have fast block times—averaging around 400 milliseconds—but there are still concerns about transaction finality and token inflation. HyperliquidX, on the other hand, offers a much more DeFi-cure experience with no trade-offs, combining solid performance, sustainable economics, and transparent, community-driven development. Also, the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund really is a stellar strategic tool. It acts here as the stabilizing force it is designed to be, with ongoing strategic buybacks that provide a decent support level and, well, here’s an important word: stability.

The sustained increase in users and daily volume, along with an active deflation, paints a picture of a DEX that is not just keeping pace with industry trends but is also shaping them. With a super sturdy economic model and a community that is growing like a weed, HyperliquidX looks all set to keep climbing in 2025.

Looking Forward

HyperliquidX’s recent achievements are not merely impressive figures—they signify a substantial transformation in the DeFi ecosystem. While conventional finance struggles with trust and ineptitude, entities such as HyperliquidX are hewing a path toward a new kind of forward iteration, one defined by the efficiency, transparency, and strong economic underpinnings that the DeFi world can now afford to showcase.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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BNB Chain is rapidly becoming a leader in introducing decentralized finance to the world, and right now, it has the top position of moving the most money into and out of decentralized exchanges each day.

In the 24-hour period ending on July 29, 2023, at 3:00 PM (UTC), the BNB Chain decentralized exchange movement was making up to $4.9 billion. That’s more than any other set of smart contracts on any other blockchain, and it clearly means that BNB Chain is starting to fulfill its promise as a DeFi leader.

PancakeSwap Fuels BNB Chain’s Meteoric Rise

PancakeSwap is the largest DEX on BNB Chain and its core liquidity. It now has more than 1 billion in assets inside the DEX; it contributes about 3 billion a day in trading volume. It draws in a huge number of users and accounts for about 60% of the trading volume. This is a big deal because this is the only protocol that generates value within the whole ecosystem.

For the past few years, traction has been steadily gained by PancakeSwap, as it offers users a variety of trading pairs, fast transaction speeds, and minimal fees. And these are just the trifecta of appeal—a set of conditions that has made this Binance Smart Chain platform a platform of increasing choice…and one that layers on the appeal of being an alternative to Ethereum-based platforms. Smarter traders are, of course, somewhat aware of this and of the seemingly endless problem of Ethereum platform congestion that leads to higher transaction fees (or gas fees) on that chain. And they are also aware of Uniswap, which is the platform in this set of conditions that has more or less become the poster child for DEX development on Ethereum.

Moreover, the user-centric innovations of PancakeSwap—like yield farming, staking options, and regular token burns—still serve to keep the community engaged.

BNB Chain’s Competitive Edge: Speed, Scale, and Affordability

It is no accident that BNB Chain has emerged as the leader in DEX trading volume. The blockchain has been systematically working to position itself as a top network for decentralized applications, especially those in the finance and trading space.

A major lever in this strategy is BNB Chain’s technical architecture. It has lightning-fast transaction processing and almost non-existent fees. That makes it a very efficient and cost-effective environment, which are absolute must-haves for any dApp in the trading and finance sector.

As congestion and costs weigh down older blockchains such as Ethereum, traders have sought speedier, more economical alternatives. BNB Chain fills the gap, allowing rapid trading at a time when many seem to need it. And unlike top-tier Ethereum, which can be a layer of hell wracked with high fees at times of peak congestion, BNB Chain’s price performance remains accessible.

This not only brings in retail investors but also captures the attention of project teams and developers who want to launch the DeFi products within a more friendly, user-centered environment. As a result, the BNB Chain ecosystem has expanded rapidly, with new tokens, tools, and protocols introduced at a dizzying pace.

A Sign of Growing Adoption in the DeFi Sector

The recent upturn in decentralized exchange activity on BNB Chain is a part of a larger trend: the adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications by both new users and large, institutional players. As awareness of DeFi has grown and the reliability of its infrastructure has improved, many more participants have been poking around to see the advantages of decentralized trading.

BNB Chain’s dominance might also reflect the general sentiment in the market. Investors are now definedly choosing where and how to trade, and trading on networks that offer a noticeably better user experience, a greater assurance of security, and a more palatable price is becoming the favored option. If you take a look at the past 24 hours, BNB Chain is doing a good job of delivering on all fronts.

In addition, as centralized exchanges and traditional finance come under increasing regulatory oversight, decentralized finance platforms hosted on chains like BNB offer an alternative that is, to many, just as appealing as censorship-resistant trading venues. For a trading audience, these platforms are still alternatives for the very reasons that make them fundamentals of DeFi: they are accessible, they offer decent volumes and liquidity, and they present a platform alternative with more transparency than is available on many centralized trading venues.

Looking Ahead

What BNB Chain has achieved of late is not just a big number; it embodies something quite a bit more significant. Usability. Speed. Affordability. All are crucial for the future of DeFi, and all have been prioritized by BNB Chain. In positioning itself as a major actor in this space, it’s not likely to hand over the baton anytime soon. In fact, BNB Chain’s work to promote this trifecta of features could literally redefine how the world interacts with digital assets and decentralized finance.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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Although the altcoin market is almost everywhere sluggish, the GameFi sector is enjoying what appears to be a solid move. Its market capitalization grew 50% last week.

We are currently tracking 13 narrative-based primitives for DeFiLlama, up from 10 last April. The performance of GameFi is pushing it to the forefront of a couple of these primitives. The sector is clearly not being held back by the bad vibes (signal?) from the altcoin market.

Web3 Gaming Gains While Altcoins Stumble

Even as significant digital assets like Bitcoin maintain a solid standing above the $100,000 threshold, in spite of several pressures—like the Wisconsin Investment Board exiling ETF holdings and FTX in the process of repaying creditors—GameFi has developed its own momentum of bullishness. This sector, with which this article is concerned, has a market capitalization that has grown by more than 50%, thus outpacing most other categories in the crypto space.

We accompany this growth with a very substantial increase in trading, with volume up 78%, which suggests increased interest and engagement from both users and investors. GameFi’s rise on DeFiLlama’s narrative tracker reflects its increasing relevance and liquidity in the broader decentralized finance ecosystem.

In contrast to other segments of the cryptocurrency market that are consolidating, GameFi is defying gravity and exhibiting independence. The activity suggests that investors are identifying gaming as a unique value proposition within Web3, one whose momentum is clearly not dependent on just the current market cycle.

DappRadar Insights: Maturation, Not Decline

Although a DappRadar report from April indicated some declining numbers in Web3 gaming (a 10% dip in user activity and a 69% drop in funding), analysts are now treating those figures more like signs of industry maturation. They’re building a narrative of natural selection, where projects not lacking in substance are naturally phasing out, allowing the stronger, more sustainable platforms to rise.

According to this shift, the market is getting more fine-tuned. Producers and consumers are leaning toward the sorts of games that have built-in longevity, with actual engagement mechanics and real economic models. This is not a speculative sector anymore, pumping and dumping in the name of crypto. And slimmed-down utility is the big story.

Decreased funding, though it may appear to be a negative development, can indicate that capital is now being allocated with greater care and to better effect. Nowadays, when a venture does secure investment, one can be fairly certain that it was because it had a plan that stretched well beyond just the next quarter. Indeed, the investment climate today necessitates that projects be built to last.

OuterLife and Bombie: Pioneering the Next Wave of GameFi

“Backed by PlayWay and GameSwift, the newly launched Web3 gaming platform OuterLife is positioned to lead the next GameFi wave. Its goal: to seamlessly onboard 20 million traditional gamers into a series of interconnected universes where they’ll be able to achieve cross-game progression, use NFTs with wild abandon, and enjoy genuine digital asset ownership. It’s a massive opportunity to offer the impossible-to-satisfy gamer something they’ve always wanted, and OuterLife is hoping to deliver.

OuterLife aims to take Web3 gaming to a much broader audience by building a seamless bridge between the traditional gaming experiences and the mechanics of the blockchain. This is not a user acquisition play; instead, it prioritizes retention and cross-game identity, the ability for a player to take achievements and items from game to game in the ecosystem.

Another key player in the space, Bombie is adapting its model in response to the industry’s evolution. It is transitioning from a play-to-earn system to a stake-to-earn framework. This change is designed to enhance user commitment and address sustainability concerns that plagued earlier GameFi models. By encouraging long-term participation and reducing short-term speculative activity, Bombie is aiming to achieve a far more resilient economic environment for its user base.

Conclusion

The recent ascent of GameFi, in terms of both market capitalization and trading volume, stands out as a bright spot in a largely stalled market. Most sectors are either stagnant or in pullback mode, yet Web3 gaming keeps pushing ahead as if the broader crypto economy doesn’t exist.

Progressing towards sustainable business models, along with the currents of strategic ecosystem launches and the now-mature market in behavior, indicates that GameFi is much more than a momentary diversion. Instead, it is quickly shaping up to be a primary pillar of the burgeoning decentralized digital economy, and with platform innovations continuing apace and user onboarding as much a part of the sector’s routine as it is for traditional video gaming, its long-term prospects approach a certitude.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, is in the news once again with its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) achieving a significant milestone.

The spot Bitcoin ETF now holds 631,962 BTC, which is currently worth about $65 billion at market prices. This enormous accumulation of Bitcoin in the ETF represents a notable shift in the world of traditional finance, where increasingly institutional investors are embracing the cryptocurrency as a bona fide, mainstream asset class.

The ETF is a major step in the evolution of cryptocurrency markets. It’s no longer just companies within the Bitcoin ecosystem that are buying Bitcoin. The ETF’s holdings now represent almost 3% of the total Bitcoin supply.

A Milestone in Institutional Bitcoin Adoption

The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF’s most recent update is an unmistakable sign that confidence in Bitcoin is blossoming among serious, big-money investors. The ETF’s latest report shows it has accumulated over 630,000 BTC. That’s not just a blatant play to show how much these guys want to inflate the direct price of Bitcoin; it’s also a fairly large-scale showcase of experimentation on how to play with direct exposure to Bitcoin in your P&L sheet if you’re a diversified institutional investor.

For numerous years, traditional financial institutions regarded Bitcoin as far too volatile or speculative to even entertain for serious investment. Yet as Bitcoin’s marketplace dynamics have increasingly matured and its presence alongside other financial assets has become more obvious, the digital currency has started to drop that old reputation of being an investor’s risk. As one of the world’s largest holders of Bitcoin, BlackRock’s ETF certainly seems to signal that prominent institutional investors are now more at ease with Bitcoin.

This milestone also comes when the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has arrived at a heightened level of integration with the overall financial markets. The institutional acceptance of Bitcoin is not just about whether the price will go up or down. It is also about accepting Bitcoin as a stable store of value, much like gold, in our increasingly paperless and digitized world. Bitcoin’s maturity as an asset class is also now supported by some reasonably clear rules of the road in many jurisdictions, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular, beginning to approve many various Bitcoin-related financial products, including ETFs.

BlackRock ETF Outpacing Competitors

Since its launch, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has achieved steady inflows that outstrip those of its rivals. The firm’s immense heft and worldwide presence make it a major force in the burgeoning world of big-time Bitcoin investment. BlackRock’s ETF is a prominent pathway for deep-pocket funds to get a stake in Bitcoin without the trouble of holding the actual coin.

BlackRock’s ETF inflows are consistent and suggest that institutional investors see it as a safer, more reliable, and straightforward way to invest in Bitcoin, compared with other available options. That preference might stem from BlackRock’s long-standing reputation in traditional finance, the ETF’s relative safety and security (thanks to the strict regulations governing investment vehicles in the US), and the ETF’s straightforwardness (it’s a Bitcoin investment that, unlike a Grayscale trust, doesn’t come with a significant premium or discount). Institutional investors seeking to enter the Bitcoin space have made BlackRock’s ETF one of their credible options.

BlackRock rules this realm, but it also hints that other big financial players might not be far behind. We could see other behemoths, with or without BlackRock’s blessing, also rolling out the kind of ETFs that could turn a lot of Bitcoin holdings into a jammy investment for their (institutional) owners. ‘If you’re BlackRock, and you want to just widen your lead in the space, then why not get all the way in and, say, price your Bitcoin as an institution?’ —Trusted Computing Group.

The Implications for Bitcoin’s Market Liquidity and Institutional Adoption

The Bitcoin ETF from BlackRock is a sign of institutional confidence in Bitcoin. It could allow for something even better: the adoption of Bitcoin by institutions in a way that’s almost seamless for the institutions themselves. I say that because the ETF is a regulated product—a kind of wrapper around Bitcoin—that institutions can use, and a way that, so far, they appear to be using. BlackRock is not just buying a little bit of Bitcoin for the ETF. It’s using its heft to acquire a whole lot of Bitcoin. Fairly soon, BlackRock could very plausibly be holding about 3% of all the Bitcoin that’s ever been mined.

In addition, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF shows that the cryptocurrency might not just be an asset for a limited audience but is becoming essential for different kinds of institutional portfolios.

If other big institutions—like pension funds and hedge funds—place money in a BlackRock Bitcoin ETF, that could lead to an even bigger Bitcoin mainstream moment, more spectacular than anything we have seen so far.

The stronger institutional presence in Bitcoin markets could bring about better price stability and more sustainable growth. Although Bitcoin is still pretty much a plaything for speculators, the high involvement of traditional financial institutions could cut down on the price swings that have made Bitcoin a very funny kind of money. They could reduce some of the speculative volatility that has defined the market. More and more, Bitcoin could make sense as a hedge against inflation, a store of value, and a digital asset that is part of a traditional investment portfolio.

Conclusion

An ETF from BlackRock holding Bitcoin that has hit the $65 billion milestone is not just a financial milestone; it is also a signal for something else. Attitudes towards Bitcoin in the institutional investment world are changing, and they are changing in a big way. Currently, the ETF holds 631,962 BTC, and that is not a typo—the number is indeed that high. And you have to ask yourself: How does an entity like BlackRock reach such staggering heights with a product wrapped around an asset like Bitcoin?

BlackRock’s ETF is quite likely to be the one that not only dominates the space but also garners the most attention, serving (in large part, because of its heft) as a branding vehicle for catapulting Bitcoin into an even more global audience. For whatever reason, Bitcoin’s nighttime price seems more stable than its daytime price. One way to take this all in is to imagine a night in the life of bitcoin.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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Even though a lot of what is happening in the cryptocurrency world seems to be dominated by speculation and the kinds of narrative cycles we see in any emerging story, Sei Network is going about its business in a different way and is showing what it can do with real adoption.

User activity and on-chain operations are up and the project is starting to pull in some serious attention. Not that attention is everything, but what seems to be happening in the way of attention is pretty nice considering what new initiatives are now shoving themselves onto the scene in the way of daily activity metrics.

Usage Surges as Sei Network Activity Climbs

Sei Network has in the last 24 hours seen over 462,000 active addresses—an increase of 38% over the previous day. At the same time, daily transactions have shot up by more than 43%, boosting the chain past 1 million daily transactions. These figures don’t suggest a temporary spike or superficial activity; they indicate a growing ecosystem where top developers are actually deploying and using the network.

Most crucially, the rising engagement with Sei is not being pushed by nothing but hype and marketing. Daily contract deployments are on a steady upward trend, while new applications are launching with a nice frequency of their own. In an industry that sometimes seems to be defined more by promotional noise and inflated metrics than anything else, the data points for Sei indicate that something real and substantial is happening. And in the next phase of this story, Sei Giga is going to happen.

Sei Giga: Pioneering the First Multi-Proposer EVM Layer 1 Blockchain

Sei Network Labs recently unveiled their Giga whitepaper, outlining a audacious new technical vision for scaling blockchains. It core defines and presents the first multi-proposer EVM Layer 1 blockchain, architecture expressly designed for decentralized applications where performance matters. This architecture directly tackles what is, in our view, a pivotal problem in blockchain design: how to massively increase throughput, how to sharply reduce finality time, and how to do both without sacrificing security or going back to the bad old days of centralization.

Sei Giga manages an impressive 200,000+ transactions each second with a throughput capacity of 5 gigagas. It delivers outstanding finality times—under 400 milliseconds, which puts it among the fastest Layer 1 platforms in existence. The massive computing capability aims to serve the new-age applications demanding extreme low latency and high throughput, like real-time gaming, financial trading protocols, and other interactive decentralized applications (dApps) that can’t run on slower chains.

Sei Giga’s performance rests upon several key technical innovations. One is the Autobahn consensus protocol, which permits parallel block proposals. This parallelism sidesteps much of the bottlenecking that afflicts traditional linear consensus designs. Another, async state commitments, further tidies up the data propagation and finality optimization process without introducing any inconsistency. When you combine these two, you get a system that scales much better—by orders of magnitude, actually—than anything else we know of while still being compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

A Scalable Infrastructure for the Future of Web3

Sei Labs seeks not just to become another blockchain platform but to lay a building block of sorts for the next generation of internet applications. The lab and its core team, which includes a product lead from fintech giant Stripe, focus on performance, scalability, and developer experience—clear indicators of how serious they are (or should be taken) and how well they understand their potential customers—the Web3 developers community.

Supported by a cadre of notable financiers, Sei Labs possesses both the means and the strategic know-how to play with the kinds of big, established names in the smart contract world that most upstarts stay clear of. Amongst these company of heavyweights, what exactly allows Sei Labs to stand out? A clearly delineated focus on delivering performance. And what company of the performance-focused smart contract world do they most clearly resemble? Near as we can tell, it’s Solana.

The user base and capabilities that Sei Network extends continue to grow. They release Sei Giga. Praise is not too great here, either for the project itself or for the too-swift-to-come conclusion that Sei is a serious player in the blockchain space with the development of Layer 1. An architecture unique to Sei, a proven capability to deliver, and a concentration on performance make this a project of note.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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A proposal has been put forth by Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, that could significantly reduce the current demand for both hardware and storage to run an Ethereum node.

In contrast to current designs, which require node operators to serve up a near-complete package of state and history of the blockchain, the proposed “local-first” design would allow a user to run a node on their device without first needing to download the whole blockchain. This major shift could play a critical role in the further decentralization of Ethereum.

Tackling the 1.3TB Barrier to Node Operation

Currently, it takes over 1.3 terabytes of data storage to run a full Ethereum node. This requirement doesn’t just limit who can participate in the network—mostly well-resourced individuals and companies—but it also raises real concerns about the health and decentralization of the network itself. Full node operation is becoming a task that is, for all practical purposes, limited to the wealthy, and this leads us to worry about a network that is funded and run mostly by well-off service providers in a price-collapsed zone.

Vitalik Buterin’s latest proposal tackles this problem by redefining what it means to manage data on Ethereum’s decentralized nodes. Instead of making each resource on the network maintain a complete replica of the shared history and global state (the way the Bitcoin network does), the local-first design lets each Ethereum node store only the data that’s most relevant to the person using it. And if the node needs anything else, it can cull that information from the shared, peer-to-peer network.

A fundamental redesign is introduced in the Ethereum ecosystem, leading to a lightweight architecture that fulfills the promise of scalable software. This is not a singular event; it is an introduction happening in stages as part of the broader Ethereum vision to move from a slow, heavyweight stack to a fast, lightweight stack.

A Local-First Architecture for Broader Participation

Buterin’s proposal centers on a local-first design. This means that rather than having a single contract on the Ethereum blockchain, which every Ethereum node tracks, having every Ethereum node track the state of the blockchain, and having a smart contract API, for the sorts of personalized data that an Ethereum user might need a node to track, every Ethereum node could simply track the sorts of personalized, relevant-to-the-user data that it was designed to track. This also means that when it was necessary for the user’s node to track something sort of global in scope, the node could fetch and verify that data as needed.

This shift has multiple effects. To begin with, it enables the execution of Ethereum nodes on run-of-the-mill consumer hardware—like laptops or, for that matter, mobile devices—by trimming the overhead to manageable levels. To end with, it promotes a motley array of node operators, which in turn helps ensure that the Ethereum network attains consensus in some sort of distributed way, since the operators are using such a variety of consumer hardware.

Historic data more than 36 days old is stored in a distributed archive system. This system takes the burden off of every node in the network, allowing for shared storage across multiple participants within the Ethereum network. If a node ever needs to access the data for legitimate verification or audit purposes, it can retrieve the shards from the peers in the system that holds the complete picture.

The priorities in the proposal are the same as those in the forthcoming Pectra upgrade. They are:

– Usability

– Decentralization

– Performance optimization, with no compromises on core Ethereum security principles

Guarding Against Centralization and Censorship

A fundamental driver of this redesign is the need to cut back on Ethereum’s present excessive dependence on centralized infrastructure suppliers. As it becomes more complex and less appealing to run an Ethereum node, it is driving more users to the kind of centralized APIs and “blockchain data services” that are utterly incompatible with the ideals of a permissionless and censorship-resistant system. When you create a system with that many backdoors, vulnerabilities, and single points of failure, you not only make it possible for someone to impose censorship, but also for someone to exert control over the Ethereum service by manipulating the appearance and disappearance of transactions.

Strengthening the basic principles of decentralization, the design of local-first reinforces user self-reliance. “We the people” are no longer just nodes in someone else’s network. Serving more as its own infrastructure on a user’s terms, the design enables smaller, local, and purpose-driven “nodes” to carry out local computation and storage necessary to work with the Ethereum blockchain.

This also chimes with a decentralization of data storage, if you will, in blockchain technology. Here, we aim to increase modularity and specialization of roles among network participants, which seems to be key to scalability and long-term sustainability.

Conclusion

The new local-first node proposal from Ethereum is a big step toward making participation in the blockchain more inclusive and accessible, and that’s a prerequisite for anything resembling a truly decentralized system. In the current system, you’d have to download and store 1.3TB worth of data to operate a node and interact with the Ethereum blockchain. That’s not a trivial storage requirement. And the read and write speeds of the kinds of hard drives required to perform those functions meaningfully limit the number of users who can run nodes on the EVM. The local-first node proposal puts forth a plan in which users run local nodes and access state changes in a way that improves the price and performance possibilities of the kinds of hard drives you can use to build a node.

The upcoming Pectra upgrade makes clear an initiative that demonstrates how Ethereum keeps on evolving. It is pushing the boundaries of decentralization while at the same time making itself more usable in practical terms.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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Even though retail investors have been noticeably selling off Bitcoin, the price of the cryptocurrency has remained firm.

This is mostly because strong absorption and strategic accumulation by large holders have counterbalanced the influx of sell orders. The major market movers (whales) have not left the party. Many of them are in fact buying more and supporting the upwards price momentum and keeping the positive sentiment. But if they (and any erstwhile retail holdouts) start selling just as the horizon looks clear for the Bitcoin price to breach a key level like $110,000, watch out below.

The present scenario is a tightrope act between hope and danger. Money flowing into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs is like adding gasoline to the Bitcoin fire. The next few weeks will be crucial in figuring out whether the Bitcoin uptrend stays intact or instead we see a deeper correction.

Whales Quietly Accumulate While Retail Investors Exit

Current blockchain data affirms that large investors are moving in the opposite direction to retail wallets concerning Bitcoin holdings. Namely, notable whale wallets have made significant withdrawals of Bitcoin from major exchanges over the past day. Such behavior indicates that these wallets are in accumulation mode—an interpretation that’s more favorable than the opposite scenario of “distribution.”

One of the biggest wallets in the ecosystem,  “bc1qcp,” withdrew 1,350 BTC (approx. $141.91 million) from Binance just eight hours ago. This address now holds a total of 20,723 BTC, valued at about $2.19 billion.

A similar withdrawal happened with the wallet “bc1qpu,” linked to institutional entity Abraxas Capital, which pulled 675 BTC ($71.03 million) from Kraken just hours ago. Its current holdings stand at 1,797 BTC, worth about $190.11 million.

An extremely fresh wallet, “bc1q5k,” has apparently taken a page from the recent playbook of high-capital investors and institutions. Fifteen hours ago, it withdrew 500 BTC (almost $51.58 million) from Binance. This was the second gigantic withdrawal from that exchange in a 24-hour period.

This continued buildup by whales is offsetting the ongoing retail sell-off, which might otherwise exert a lot of downward pressure on the price. It also suggests that large market participants are collectively viewing the current market structure as favorable and showing deep conviction, at least for now.

ETF Inflows Signal Institutional Demand Still Growing

Besides on-chain whale activity, money is flooding into regulated Bitcoin investment products. On May 19 alone, U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total net inflow of $667 million. This was the fourth consecutive day of net inflows into these funds, which are swiftly becoming the preferred vehicle through which institutions can gain exposure to Bitcoin without holding the asset directly.

The potency of Bitcoin ETF inflows adds support to its current price. It implies that, even amidst greater macro uncertainty, large-scale investors continue to see Bitcoin as a viable part of a diversified, 60%-40% portfolio. The ETF inflows also help Bitcoin avoid an immediate price slump, since the funds have to back their shares with actual BTC, which cuts into the supply side of the equation.

These ETF shifts reflect wider institutional interest in Bitcoin, which has been rising steadily since the second half of 2020. This interest has largely been driven by the search for hedges against inflation and for diversifiers that can add return potential in a low-yield environment. Demand from ETF buyers, alongside the buying binge that the Bitcoin whales have been on of late, has kept the Bitcoin price from breaking down despite the retail outflow.

A Warning from History: What Happens If Whales Sell?

Even though the current market landscape seems quite stable, traders with a lot of experience understand that it can change in an instant—most often when both retail and whale traders decide it’s time to sell and do so at the same time. Historical correction data show that the market tends to come off quite sharply when both large and small investors are aligned in a bearish direction. If whales start to unload their positions and do so in some number, particularly in the event that prices hit the not-so-psychologically-defensive level of $110,000, well, the market could be set up for a cascading sell-off.

At this point, there’s not much indication that such a well-coordinated exit is on the horizon. By contrast, the behavior of the big players—trustworthy indicators of overall market sentiment—suggests they remain confident in the stability of both the Bitcoin price and the trading environment. Meanwhile, continued inflows of investment capital into Bitcoin ETFs are maintaining upward pressure on the price.

Currently, Bitcoin’s surge is upheld by systematic accumulation and demand from institutions, but the market is ever vigilant. If these players read the situation as ripe for profit-taking, history indicates that the following decline could be both rapid and ruthless.

Conclusion

At present, the Bitcoin market is moving through a multifaceted environment. Retail selling and whale accumulation are two counterbalancing forces at work. Add ETF inflows to that mix, and the result is price stabilization with a hint of upward momentum. Yet, it is precisely that facade of resilience that might be enticing a larger group of traders to fish for a reversal, much in the way a basketball player hopes for a favorable bounce after attempting a layup. It is hard to understand just what price level would mark the end of the line in this reversal gambit. And it is perhaps harder still to know how to act once that level has been breached.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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For the first time in its history of more than a decade, Ethereum has seen the portion of its supply maintained on centralized exchanges dip under 4.9%.

Bitcoin isn’t too far behind, with only 7.1% of its total supply now residing on exchanges, the lowest it’s been since November 2018. These numbers were recently reported by the analytics firm Glassnode, and while they don’t necessarily forecast future price movements, they do suggest something about the kind of market we’re in. Unprecedented figures like these are strong indicators of rising long-term conviction among holders of the two largest cryptocurrencies.

When you combine increasing money coming into the market, network improvements, and a generally favorable atmosphere for ETFs, the data paints a picture in which the underpinnings of both Ethereum and Bitcoin look stronger than ever—even if the market is still acting somewhat shell-shocked in the short term.

Ethereum Realized Cap Rebounds Post-Pectra

Since the eagerly awaited Pectra upgrade was rolled out, the on-chain valuation of Ethereum has been moving noticeably upward. The total capital in the Ethereum network, as reflected by its Realized Cap, has been increasing. When I checked the Realized Cap on May 19, it was $244.6 billion. Just 12 days earlier, on May 7, the Realized Cap was $240.8 billion. So the on-chain valuation increased—and pretty clearly—broke a downtrend that had been in place since early February.

The Pectra upgrade, with its network efficiency, user accessibility, and scalability optimizations, seems to have brought a renewed air of confidence among investors. Compared to market capitalization, Realized Cap often appears to be a more stable and sensible way of measuring a network’s value, mainly because it adjudges the value of coins in use and tends to filter out the short-term price noise that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

This renewed on-chain capital injection indicates that Ethereum’s usefulness and demand are growing since the network upgrade. When we put this alongside dwindling exchange balances, it paints an even clearer picture: in ever-increasing numbers, users appear to be storing their ETH somewhere other than on exchanges. It remains to be seen whether they’re doing this mostly for staking, as a not-so-short-term investment, or to read the casual Friday morning bestsellers list on dApps.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Supply Dries Up on Exchanges

In the last five years, the number of Bitcoins stored on centralized platforms has drastically reduced. In fact, 1.7 million less BTC now inhabit these trading platforms, according to Glassnode. That may not sound like much—almost 9 billion worth of BTC sit on these trading platforms today. But what was once a BTC supply of 17.3 billion, back in April 2020, has plummeted by almost 50 percent. Similarly, Ethereum is seeing a large supply downturn on centralized exchange trading platforms.

For active traders, keeping crypto assets on exchanges has for some time now been a convenient arrangement. But the basic vulnerabilities of exchanges—security breaches, regulatory scrutiny, and centralized control—have led many users to move toward private wallets and cold storage. This migration has accelerated since 2019, following some spectacular exchange implosions, and a general trend toward more robust, user-friendly non-custodial alternatives.

When more coins go off exchanges, the available supply for immediate sale or trading diminishes, tightens liquidity, and could reduce volatility in the long run. It could also serve as a bullish signal for market participants because it reduces the selling pressure that might have been partially to blame for the recent slide.

This behavior also corresponds with the increasing embrace of Ethereum staking, in which users stake their ETH to help secure the network and earn rewards, thereby effectively removing it from the liquid supply.

Institutional Confidence Grows with Ethereum ETF Inflows

The institutional interest in Ethereum seems to be gathering steam, as evidenced by the U.S.-based spot Ethereum ETFs that on May 19 recorded a net inflow of $13.66 million. What makes this demand even more pronounced is that it came without any outflows across all nine ETFs, which suggests that both institutional and high-net-worth investors have a clear and consistent appetite for spot Ethereum.

The appearance of Ethereum ETFs is helping to connect traditional finance and digital assets by providing regulated access to ETH that doesn’t necessitate dealing directly with crypto infrastructure. These products are gaining traction and serving a dual purpose: They’re not only validating the emergence of Ethereum as a serious contender in the crypto space but also acting as a conduit for institutional capital that’s more apprehensive about diving into the Ethereum network directly.

The outflow situation is especially striking, implying that the latest crop of investors is sticking with ETH and not regarding its exposure as anything but an intermediate-term position. This can only be interpreted as a signal by young investors that they’re far more comfortable with holding Ethereum than, say, if they were mostly flipping it for Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Record-low exchange balances, rising on-chain capital, and increasing institutional inflows are good news for Ethereum and Bitcoin. The combination of these three metrics paints a compelling picture.

There’s a reason last week’s increase in Bitcoin’s price drew some attention. Anytime you see a major move in the price of Bitcoin, it’s worth asking what pushed it there. And as Coindesk’s John Law nicely summed it up in a tweet, this week’s price action seems to be related to a few key dynamics.

Ethereum’s network keeps evolving, while Bitcoin steadfastly holds its spot as “digital gold.” Now, if we take the declining exchange supply of both assets as a given, what are the implications for the next one to three months?

Bitcoin’s “functional” bottoming process seems like it’s entering the last phase ahead of the next upcycle. Meanwhile, Ethereum appears on the verge of some “structural” updates. If we take both as assumptions grounded in the current market narrative, can we make sense of the two assets together under the declining-exchange-supply dynamic?

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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In a major shift within the stablecoin ecosystem, Ethereum has seen its tether (USDT) issuance once again overtaken by Tron. This occurred in May 2025.

It should be noted that this tether is now USDT issued on the TRC20 basis. As of that month, tether issued on the TRC20 basis had reached a staggering $75.7 billion. This should also be the moment we should note tether issued on the ERC20 basis. As of May 2025, tether issued on the ERC20 basis had a circulation of $74.5 billion. So at this moment in time, tether on TRC20 is doing better than tether on ERC20.

As of now, the total worldwide circulation of USDT has surpassed $151.2 billion, a number that puts it in league with the gross domestic product (GDP) of the 60th largest economy in the world. And it’s worth noting that the combined issuance of USDT on the Tron and Ethereum blockchains now makes up a staggering 99.36% of all USDT that’s out there, with almost half of that coming from Tron.

A Look Back: From Underdog to Dominant Player

Tron’s incredible path to rise in the stablecoin world has been nothing short of a marvel. When Tron launched its mainnet in May 2018, the blockchain landscape was already dominated by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Omni Layer — the original host for USDT. Tether started issuing USDT on Tron in April 2019 as the third of its layer-2 platforms, following Omni and Ethereum. Its USDT circulation on Tron was very limited at first and lagged significantly behind its competitors.

During the past years, Tron adjusted to the market demands of stablecoins and made efforts to attract them to its ecosystem, holding events and working with projects creating these kinds of assets. According to the data provided by Tron, only in 2022, there was a 224% increase in the total amount of stablecoins issued on its network, while 473% in 2021. That is why in 2025, when it comes to total stablecoins circulating in the ecosystem, Tron isn’t the runner-up anymore. It isn’t only the main network used for USDT stablecoins across the world, but it also uses the total on the network as a hedge to keep a position ahead of Ethereum.

Supporting and promoting USDT on Tron has arguably become one of the most key and profitable strategic maneuvers for the network. Tronscan indicates that in just the past week, there were over 16.01 million contract calls related to TRC20-USDT, signifying the unrelenting activity and enthusiasm surrounding this token.

Burning TRX, Generating Yield: The Economic Engine of TRON

Aside from circulation numbers, TRC20-USDT has also established itself as a main driver of value and utility within the Tron ecosystem. In just the last seven days, over 49.36 million TRX—roughly equivalent to $13.02 million—have been burned due to transactions related to USDT. This has constituted a staggering 96.87% of all TRX burned during that time. These figures underscore how deeply integrated and reliant Tron’s token economy is on the activity of USDT and, moreover, how it is increasingly utilizing the stablecoin to generate passive income through burning mechanisms that, at least in terms of crypto tokenomics, go some way toward ensuring a sustainable token supply.

This feedback loop — where increased usage of USDT causes more burning of TRX — really seems to help keep the value of TRX up and incentivize ongoing work with the network. I don’t know if anyone has formally identified this as a model, but it seems to work and be effective in aligning user activity with network health.

Sun’s Broader Stablecoin Strategy: USD1 Joins the Mix

Recently, Tron announced integration with USD1, a new stablecoin launched by WLFI, a platform where Tron founder Justin Sun serves as a strategic consultant. This move pushes the ailing network further into the still nascent, semi-secret influencer world of stablecoins, in which Sun is apparently one of the main characters. On top of this, Sun has previously supported a variety of other stablecoins, such as TUSD, USDD, and USDJ. What could potentially lie behind all this Bolivar-esque support for stablecoins?

Although the exact use cases and financial applications of USD1 are still unknown, we can infer something of its structure and intent from the workings of the existing Tron protocol. Tron is a so-called public blockchain with a project vision of “decentralized internet and decentralized storage of digital assets.” Built around this public interface, Tron seeks to provide conditions under which apps can work across free and seamless customization, while all users interact in a distributed and decentralized manner.

While Tron advances aggressively in the contest for control in the stablecoin sector, its strategy of growth and efficiency appears to be bringing good dividends — so much so, that from our standpoint, it looks like Tether has reissued 4 billion USDT into circulation as of May 30, 2023.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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Leading AI projects within the Solana ecosystem are experiencing a wave of investor confidence.

On-chain data indicates that the projects are seeing net inflows that are growing substantially. Among the Solana-native AI projects, one is clearly outpacing the others in terms of both investment interest and market activity. And that is: Virtuals.

In the past 24 hours, Virtuals has net bought $353,360 worth of tokens, more than double what its closest competitor, AI16Z, managed to bring in. This is a very strong indicator of the confidence that the people participating in these token sales have in the recent developments of the projects themselves. With Virtuals, we are particularly excited about their Genesis initiative and their ACO (Agent Coordination Offering). These two innovations appear to be key breakthroughs in the decentralized AI landscape.

Despite the fact that the whole AI sector working on Solana is alive and vibrant, it seems that investors have concentrated their capital on just a couple of high-conviction bets. Among these bets, it is clear that Virtuals has emerged as the preeminent product of the Solana AI sector, given the level of investment that it has attracted.

Virtuals Pull Ahead of the Pack with Strong Community Backing

The concentrated net inflows into Virtuals reveal a strong alignment between its development and investor sentiment. Since its inception, the project has been gradually but steadily building a reputation for delivering on its stated development trajectory while fostering an admirably engaged community. Recent news centered around its Genesis program and ACO framework has only strengthened that perception.

The Virtuals ecosystem permits early backers a more profound investment in its virtual universe than other entities. Yet even among many projects that are still largely theoretical or in the early stages of development, Virtuals is distinct for another reason besides its ecosystem. That is the work of the Virtuals ACO—auto-coordination organism—which seeks to establish a system of decentralized orchestration between the virtual agents (a.k.a. the smart contracts) that inhabit the Virtuals universe. In this context, the ACO represents a step toward making the Virtuals universe—which exists on the blockchain—more useful and intelligent.

While other Solana AI tokens see rising transaction volumes, the move of capital toward Virtuals indicates a growing conviction that the project is poised to become a key building block for Solana’s infrastructure. Investors appear to be acting on something more than just the narrative that Dilworth and his team are spinning. They seem to be responding to the progress that is being made.

Emerging Players Jockey for Position Behind the Leaders

Several other projects are starting to build followings of their own behind Virtuals and AI16Z, which racked up a net $165,950 in buys between January 2022 and May 2023. ARC added a net buy of $97,160 over that same timeframe, with GRIFFAIN not too far behind at $73,610. SWARMS, meanwhile, could be likened to a cousin of the ubiquitous Google Earth, at least based on its net buy of $42,380. And these numbers were not flagged in the recently released Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) report, so they likely come as a shock to observers of the otherwise slow-moving asset.

Also in the mix are HAT with $30,190 in net inflows, and BOTIFY, which brought in $20,140. Though smaller in scale, these movements indicate that there is still an appetite for experimentation and potential discovery within the broader Solana AI agent category.

Nevertheless, inflows are falling away steeply after the top two projects, which demonstrates that capital isn’t being spread around evenly. Market participants are applying more scrutiny and are looking for unambiguous value propositions before they commit any funds. This trend fits right in with a broader maturation of the crypto investor base, which is now much more selective and is choosing to put its funds in clear new verticals.

AI Narrative on Solana Reaches New Maturity

The latest 24 hours of data has shown us more than just short-term, temporary movements in the market. We are seeing something evolve in the AI space on Solana—something that seems to be shifting from pure speculation into what looks more like a regular market sector.

This is necessary and welcome evolution, not just for the AI agent projects, but for the Solana ecosystem as a whole. Why? Because it’s pushing us closer to what we really want: a society in which the projects we build and the tokens we trade have utility to the people who use them.

The sustained market leadership of Virtuals, coupled with its consistent performance and the strength of its product roadmap, may offer a blueprint for would-be successors. Meanwhile, projects such as AI16Z and ARC are demonstrating quite the opposite—that there’s plenty of room for innovation and differentiation.

The next phase of AI on Solana is likely to be all about deployment, interconnectivity, and real user applications. What was once a small corner of smart contracts has become a growing interest area, attracting the attention of some top-tier VCs. Dreams of AIs that become not just chatbots but working agents are being taken more and more seriously.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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International markets have perked up since Monday’s announcement of a 90-day break in the trade tariff battle between the United States and China.

This pause in hostilities between the world’s two biggest economies has seemingly diluted the immediate threats to global growth that have been hanging over financial markets for much too long. And the respite has injected a new dose of confidence into the markets, with the major asset classes—stocks, cryptocurrencies, and commodities—clearly inching back toward their record high values.

Even if the overall macroeconomic environment is still somewhat hazy, the truce has done enough to restore the old bullish sentiment across crucial sectors. Whether from Wall Street, digital assets, or safe-haven commodities like gold, markets are once again dancing with historic price levels.

S\&P 500 Closes in on Record Despite Volatility

The S&P 500, which is among the most closely followed stock market indexes in the world, currently has a level of 5,953.57. This is just 195.86 points (3.27%) below where it was when it set a record high of 6,147.43 on February 19, 2025.

The U.S.-China tariff truce is a big deal for investors. It seemed like a de-escalation to the folks I spoke with yesterday. They are seeing it as a way for corporations to recalibrate their businesses and for the global economy to recalibrate itself, all without the overhang of new tariffs on imports and exports. Meanwhile, there’s growing optimism that the Fed will take a more dovish tone and that this may support risk assets in the second half of the year.

It’s close to an all-time high, and that means investors are feeling pretty good about things. They’re pricing in at least a moderately favorable set of outcomes between now and year-end.

Those outcomes would likely include solid corporate earnings, as inflation eases up enough to allow companies to start seeing profits again. And when we say “breakout,” we mean, buddy, they’re not kidding. Internationally, investor sentiment couldn’t be much better, especially for developed-market equities.

Bitcoin Surges Back Toward $110K High

When it comes to digital asset resilience, nothing compares to Bitcoin. The leading cryptocurrency has consolidated since its January 2025 highs yet now trades at an impressive $103,502, just 5.33% off the January 20, 2025 record of $109,026.02.

The price movement of Bitcoin echoes a larger trend: institutional adoption is up, and the demand for decentralized stores of value is booming. On the geopolitical front, easing U.S.-China trade tensions have lessened the immediacy of global economic risk, and that usually helps do away with crypto asset volatility. At the same time, anticipation of the 2024 Bitcoin halving event continues to push bullish momentum, with the prospect of ever fewer Bitcoins to be mined in the future serving to underpin ever higher prices.

Even though it seems to be at the peak of a monetary policy cycle, analysts remain divided over Bitcoin’s next move. Some see it starting a new leg up if overall market conditions stay favorable and it gets more regulatory clarity. But many other analysts say crypto in general, and Bitcoin in particular, could stay range-bound for a long time without fresh catalysts.

Gold Holds Strong as Geopolitical Hedge

Gold, which has long been viewed as the ultimate safe-haven asset, also is trading near historic highs. The current price of gold sits at $3,196.80 per ounce, which is just 9.79% below its all-time high of $3,509.90, set on April 22, 2025.

The yellow metal has benefitted from a complex mix of conditions, including not only buying by central banks but also a number of other factors, like currency instability in emerging markets and a heightened taste among investors for non-correlated assets.

While the tariff ceasefire has lessened immediate trade concerns, the bigger picture—featuring unresolved geopolitical tensions in places like Eastern Europe and the Middle East—comports with gold’s ascendance, because it makes the metal all the more appealing as a long-term store of value. With central banks the world over holding huge quantities of gold and individual investors hunting for reliable hedges against currency devaluation, the yellow metal figures to enjoy untroubled demand.

The prospect of gold regaining its most recent height may hinge on a couple of factors—if real interest rates will hold steady or fall, and how responsive the major global economies will be to the unfolding trade and monetary-policy adjustments in the months ahead. When gold slumped to around $1,080 last December, it was mainly because real rates had moved up significantly—by about 1.5 percentage points—from their July 2015 low.

Conclusion: A Calm Before the Next Storm?

There is no denying that the 90-day tariff truce between the U.S. and China has calmed investors’ nerves and provided a window for risk assets to regroup. With stocks, Bitcoin, and oil all near their respective all-time highs, markets seem to be pricing in a relatively stable short-term outlook.

Yet, how long this optimism lasts will depend on whether fundamental, structural problems—the sort that persist even through good times—can be kept under control. Right now, a lot of day-to-day market action seems to be driven more by liquidity and technical factors than by a fundamental improvement in the economy. If that changes, let’s hope it changes to the upside.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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In a historic moment for the crypto institutional world, Galaxy Digital hit the Nasdaq on May 16, 2025.

Founded in 2018 by prominent crypto proponent and former hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz, the crypto investment and asset management firm now officially resides at the intersection of traditional finance and the digital asset economy—having secured a spot among the most influential players in that space with its recent public listing.

The firm, operating under the ticker symbol $GLXY, provides a varied selection of financial services focused on cryptocurrency. Among these are institutional over-the-counter (OTC) trading and derivatives markets. For the not-so-institutional family offices and high-net-worth individuals we serve, we also offer crypto asset management. And for the not-so-crypto part of the world, we are building state-of-the-art AI data centers.

Mike Novogratz: From Wall Street Legend to Crypto Visionary

Mike Novogratz, who is frequently described as a Wall Street legend and a key opinion leader in the crypto sphere, has stayed extremely bullish on the crypto sectors long-term potential. Speaking recently about Galaxy’s public market debut, Novogratz offered the view that Bitcoin could soon be in (i.e., $130,000 to $150,000), and with the appearance of an increasingly institutional participation profile, a favorable macroeconomic backdrop, and maturing infrastructure.

Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchanges platform, was also singled out by Novogratz as a rising star in the area, with him likening it to a “decentralized Nasdaq” because of its transparency, profit-sharing model, and appeal to traditional investors looking for credible alternatives in the DeFi space. This, to me, highlights the fact that not only are we seeing some traditional investors and managers take notice of the DeFi space, but they’re actually beginning to express interest in particular projects or platforms.

Besides its traditional business of trading and mining, Galaxy is now doing something truly exciting: using blockchain to create real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Most of us don’t know what that means, but it has the potential to change everything. At least, that’s what the folks at Galaxy are betting.

Crypto-Linked Stocks on the Rise: Galaxy Joins the Heavyweights

Galaxy Digital now joins an ever-growing roster of publicly traded firms with substantial crypto exposure, several of which have been experiencing considerable ups and downs in sync with digital asset price action.

From an investor sentiment perspective, these firms are serving as stand-ins for the blockchain and Web3 spaces. Perhaps even more interesting, several of them are beginning to materially outperform their tech and financial sector peers that lack significant crypto exposure.

Some outstanding players in this field include:

1. MicroStrategy (#MSTR): With its aggressive strategy of amassing Bitcoin, MicroStrategy has become a standard-bearer for institutional exposure to BTC.

2. Coinbase (#COIN): The largest crypto exchange in the U.S. that trades publicly, Coinbase allows for a direct look into the market via its trading volume and platform usage.

3. Galaxy Digital (#GLXY): The new kid on the Nasdaq block, Galaxy Digital has diversified crypto infrastructure, investment services, and AI integration under its belt.

4. Marathon Digital Holdings (#MARA): North America’s largest Bitcoin mining firm, Bar Mitzvah mining.

5. Cantor Equity Partners Inc. (#CEP): A hybrid financial services company that has made some strategic investments in the crypto space.

6. Upexi (#UPXI): They do some really interesting things with blockchain at Upexi, and combine it with consumer brand development and AI analytics.

7. DeFi Development Corp. (#DFDV): A relatively new company focusing on Web3 infrastructure and smart contract platforms.

As these companies garner visibility and investors’ interest, the crypto stock narrative is moving into the mainstream. It is no longer relegated to just being a fringe story. And as the crypto stock story moves into the equity mainstream, it now forms an even more dominant part of the narrative arc within equity markets.

Conclusion: A Defining Moment for Institutional Crypto

Galaxy Digital’s entry onto the Nasdaq is not just a significant landmark for the company. It represents, more broadly, the mounting maturity of the whole crypto industry. With regulatory compliance that runs deep, a lineup of diversified services, and a founder who comprehends both Wall Street and Web3, Galaxy seems primed to lead the next phase of the convergence between crypto and the financial world.

Markets may be attempting to conflate traditional assets with decentralized innovation, but firms like Galaxy offer something potentially much more valuable: a roadmap for growth that remains in the bounds of (current) regulation, and for which (institutional) investors might actually feel some trust. That’s because trust—like it or not—is the foundational fuel of the financial engine, and in an era in which stock market tokens, AI-driven infrastructures, and decentralized exchanges are supposedly coming next, it could be that Galaxy’s arrival on Nasdaq marks the dawn of a new financial apparatus.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

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A major shift in the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape has occurred. The BNB Chain has now officially surpassed Ethereum and Solana to become the #1 blockchain for DEX trading volume.

In the past 24 hours, the network recorded a staggering $4.19 billion in trading activity. That figure is basically the result of the DeFi adoption happening on BNB Chain. DeFi, for whatever reason, appears to be much more popular on the BNB Chain than on either Ethereum or Solana—its two closest competitors. The reason for this is low transaction fees and a relatively rapid speed of transactions on this platform.

A sizable chunk of this volume can be credited to PancakeSwap, BNB Chain’s most prominent DEX, which contributed more than $3 billion to the total trading figure, as per DefiLlama. This considerable ascent serves as a top moment for BNB Chain, positioning it as a DEX player and within the wider blockchain ecosystem’s increased DEX popularity.

Why BNB Chain is Dominating DEX Trading Volume

The surge in DEX trading volume on BNB Chain is a direct consequence of its low fees and fast transaction speeds. Those attributes make BNB Chain a favored blockchain for traders and developers who are otherwise dissatisfied with the high costs and relatively slow speeds of Ethereum.

This performance is not just a flash in the pan. The upsurge in activity on BNB Chain is part of a much bigger trend of increasing adoption of DeFi (decentralized finance). DeFi is a sector that allows users to trade, lend, borrow, and earn interest without intermediaries. It has been seeing explosive growth over recent years, and BNB Chain is now a clear leader in this space.

The entry barriers are now lower, and mainly this is due to the cheaper transaction costs and these transaction costs enticing new retail traders and developers to now flood into the BNB Chain. The DeFi ecosystem now serves these new inhabitants, with PancakeSwap acting as the centerpiece of it. It allows you to trade in a smooth, cost-efficient way. And trading is what these retail traders and developers mostly do.

Top AI and Meme Tokens on BNB Chain

The BNB Chain is gaining even more traction these days, and some of its ecosystem tokens—particularly those in the AI domain and meme coin categories—are rising significantly. These tokens lend themselves to the BNB Chain narrative as a rapidly emerging “hub for innovation.” That said, I think it’s worth taking a deeper look at the tokens making moves in BNB Chain and figuring out what’s driving their price discoveries.

1. $BANANA – A token linked to Banana S31, an AI-focused protocol.

2. $CGPT – Chain GPT, for AI and blockchain solutions.

3. $COCO – Future AI crypto solutions.

4. $SIREN – Genius Siren, AI decentralized data predictions.

5. $SHELL – Shell AI, for machine-learning solutions.

The intersection of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is becoming a strong magnet for followers of these AI projects. The reason is simple: Blockchain is being set up to be the infrastructure for AIdata sets and the execution of smart contracts for AI. These tokens are aiming to be at the forefront of the growth we’re seeing in not just one sector (AI), but two (AI and blockchain).

BNB Chain operates under strict compliance with regulations mandated by FATF. The BNB Chain team adopts a hold-your-keys vision that is compatible with the self-sovereign philosophy of decentralized finance (DeFi). Thus, the BNB Chain ecosystem builds all projects in a way that they provide value to users and partners. Moreover, the BNB Chain Team ensures that BNB Chain and its projects have sufficient long-term business viability to benefit all stakeholders. This is how we ensure:

1. $MUBARAK – A meme coin that is gathering speed in the BNB Chain ecosystem.

2. $CAT – Simon’s Cat, a playful token inspired by memes that has seized the fancy of cryptocurrency fans.

3. $TUT – Tutorial Token, a meme coin with a community-driven methodology.

4. $BROCCOLI714 – A very strange meme token based on the Broccoli NGO.

5. $KOMA – Koma BNB, a very popular meme coin with a wide fan base.

Keys from the BNB Chain narrates meme tokens, which have drawn a diverse community of traders and enthusiasts. Tokens from BNB Chain are highly speculative, driven by social media trends and community engagement. These tokens beckon a not-too-stable investment vehicle that nevertheless attracts a number of traders and enthusiasts.

Although meme coins are often seen as very risky investments, they can serve an essential purpose. Like other cryptocurrencies, they can bring new users into the ecosystem. And unlike some of the more somber and serious coins that are out there, they (hopefully) bring users into the space with a smile. What’s more—and it’s a big what’s more—many of these tokens offer wonderful opportunities for not only trading but also, in some cases, holding, thanks to the rapid transaction speeds and low costs on BNB Chain.

BNB Chain’s Growth Is Just Beginning

The significant surge of DEX trading volumes on the BNB Chain is merely the start. The chain has continued to scale and evolve in its short lifetime and is programmed to keep doing this in the future. Much of what DeFi has to offer, in terms of sheer volume, user-friendliness, and speed of transactions, makes it an attractive option for chain participants who want to be part of the rapidly expanding world of DeFi.

PancakeSwap’s success, along with that of AI and meme tokens, clearly shows that BNB Chain has become the platform of choice for decentralized exchanges. And as we know, the future of DeFi is all but guaranteed with the continued emergence of innovative projects and the rising adoption of existing ones.

In the next few months, BNB Chain is expected to maintain its dominance in the DeFi space. Its ecosystem continues to mature, and new opportunities are surfacing for both developers and traders.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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Uniswap, the protocol that led the way in creating automated market makers (AMMs) in DeFi, has now brought forth its most far-reaching update yet with the arrival of Uniswap v4.

Much more than a straightforward iteration, this version is being called a “canvas” for constructing new kinds of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). The main innovation is around something new called “hooks”—a programmable feature that lets developers inject custom logic into all sorts of places in each trade or liquidity operation.

The consequences extend far and wide: We can reinvent liquidity provision strategies, deploy AI agents, and build on these fundamentals to create fully composable finance applications and assets that behave like solvent primitives. We can also create fully composable trading solutions that act as solvent assets in a way that no previous version of Uniswap has done. A main goal of v4 is to evolve Uniswap into a financial infrastructure layer upon which we can build innovative on-chain financial applications.

Hooks and Efficiency: Unlocking Customization and Cost Savings

Central to Uniswap v4 is the notion of hooks. These are modular smart contracts that can be plugged into different points of the trading lifecycle, such as swaps, liquidity provisioning, and withdrawals. These hooks allow developers to customize the behavior of pools in real time. This supports use cases that range from dynamic fees and token gating to fully automated trading agents powered by AI.

Here’s an example. Say a developer wants to create a pool where the price of ETH is allowed to fluctuate within a certain band; outside of that band, the price must remain relatively stable (say, between $2500 and $4000). Uniswap v4’s hooks would allow for that. So even if the contract governing the pool isn’t altered, the pool’s behavior would change in real time based on what the developer wanted.

Uniswap’s flexibility enables developers to build their own decentralized exchanges (DEXs) using Uniswap’s engine. Consequently, developers can create unique trading experiences for their end users. This lowers the barrier to entry for on-chain trading, allowing developers to construct all manner of trading mechanisms using Uniswap’s core protocols.

Gains in efficiency are also very compelling. We have a new singleton architecture, which means that creating new pools in v4 is 99% cheaper than in prior versions. This version’s Flash accounting makes it possible for multi-hop swaps to be far more gas-efficient. Why? Because all of the balance changes that a multi-hop swap requires are processed all at once at the end of a transaction, instead of making an intermediate update after every hop.

The most cost-effective version to date is Uniswap v4, and that is a new critical upgrade in an industry where every basis point matters.

Built for Trust: Security and Transparency at Scale

Uniswap Labs has ensured the safety and soundness of v4. The update went through nine individual audits, was put to the test in a $2.35 million security competition, and is covered by a $15.5 million bug bounty—the biggest ever offered in decentralized finance.

The v4 development was also centered around community involvement and transparency. Public access during its development allowed for thousands of pull requests to be made. The broader developer ecosystem also participated in the debates and discussions that helped shape v4. This open-source approach inculcates trust and allows the v4 to gain from the community’s collective criticism and improvements.

This makes v4 especially appealing to institutions and serious builders who demand both technical brilliance and secure guarantees. For them, Uniswap v4 is not merely a DEX; it is a platform upon which DeFi applications of institutional caliber can be constructed with confidence.

Early Traction and the Road Ahead

Even though Uniswap v4 was only launched recently, it is already building serious momentum. Over 200 external hooks have been deployed, which really shows the desire for customizability from developers. Meanwhile, there has been over $400 million traded in pools that are using the hooked functionalities.

New projects like Flaunch and Bunni are already enhancing the potential of decentralized trading. AI-native hedge funds like Silicon Valley Fund are experimenting with on-chain autonomous trading strategies. They are doing this because of the range of opportunities that hooks offer. These applications of DeFi show us the next frontier, the one where agents respond dynamically to market conditions and execute sophisticated trading logic—all under the improbable, and thus insane, rubric, ‘without user input.’

Uniswap v4 promises to drive further iteration and experimentation in DeFi. It has an extraordinary combination of gas efficiency, modularity, and security, which makes it seem like the best-equipped protocol to enable a new generation of DeFi apps—trading systems that work together (composably), liquidity strategies that take advantage of MEV (maximal extractable value), dynamic risk models, and maybe even the next generation of on-chain financial institutions.

In brief, Uniswap v4 is not just a protocol upgrade. It’s a future-ready operating system for decentralized finance.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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Marinade Finance, a top liquid staking protocol on Solana, has made a big move toward increasing the value of its native token MNDE.

The company, which is organized as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), recently approved a governance proposal — MIP.11 — that directs a sizable chunk of revenue flowing into its treasury to go toward buying back tokens.

Menelau stated that the use of treasury funds to buy back MNDE would help reduce its circulating supply.

What distinguishes this decision is the method by which it was made—not through a conventional DAO vote, but using a futarchy market run by MetaDAO. This method lets participants make predictions about proposals’ outcomes, and then those predictions are turned into economic incentives for voting—speculating on a proposal’s possible approval or rejection creates signals that help the ecosystem as a whole figure out what might be good or bad for it in the long run. When MIP.11 was passed using this method, it marked not only a financial pivot for Marinade but also a potentially significant moment in futarchy’s development as a Web3 governance mechanism.

Understanding MIP.11 and Marinade’s Revenue Structure

Marinade receives its earnings from many places within the Solana ecosystem. These include, but are not limited to, the following: 1. Inflation from the native SOL token; 2. Miner Extractable Value (MEV); and 3. The protocol’s own Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM). Most of this revenue—about 90.5%—goes to stakers. Almost all (9.5%) of the remaining revenues flow directly into the DAO treasury.

MIP.11 proposed that 40% of this treasury revenue be dedicated to purchasing MNDE on the open market. Given Marinade’s annualized DAO revenue ranges between $7.2 million and $16.4 million, the buyback initiative could result in an annual acquisition of between $2.9 million and $6.6 million worth of MNDE.

This means that the conceivable impact relative to MNDE’s current market capitalization of $50 million is between 5.8% and 13.2%. We can’t stress enough that this is not just a smart way to allocate funds—that part is not negligible, mind you; it’s a decent investment strategy. But it’s more than that; it’s not a technical move. It’s aimed at increasing the long-term value of the tokens we hold, and it’s aimed at a path to better liquidity in MNDE-related markets.

Futarchy in Action: Market-Based Governance

The decision to greenlight MIP.11 happened through a futarchic process. In this, traders buy and sell conditional tokens that represent the value of MNDE if the proposal were to pass or fail. This is done to calculate with much better accuracy which outcome—in this case, the passing of MIP.11—might be more beneficial to the protocol.

MetaDAO hosted the futarchy market and presents the following as a final result: a 5.8% spread between the time-weighted average price (TWAP) of the Pass and Fail scenarios. The TWAP for the Fail condition was $0.0992, while the TWAP for the Pass condition was $0.105— higher than the spot price of MNDE, which was just $0.096. Notably, they refer in their conclusion to a market that is guessing fairly accurately.

The market had a volume of $33,000 and 50 trades—a good figure for a governance-specific prediction market. When the proposal was confirmed as passed, MNDE rallied hard, going up more than 50% and then stabilizing at a point that is roughly 16% above the Pass TWAP. This move highlights how confident the market is in the proposal and how powerful futarchy can be for making governance decisions that have a measurable financial impact.

Tokenomics Meets Governance Innovation

MIP.11 is now in effect Marinade is positioning itself as one of the first DeFi projects to successfully implement futarchy in a high-stakes, revenue-based decision.

The approved MNDE buyback program sets a precedent not just for MNDE holders, but for the entire DAO-driven Web3 space.

The buybacks serve two purposes. They return value directly to tokenholders. When we buy back your tokens, it is your value that we are restoring. The value proposition becomes even more compelling because of the price floor potential. Steady demand could serve as a nice buffer against shambolic market sentiment. But the buyback makes sense in context—when steering governance tokens to the right nodes becomes paramount—because the shambolic governance problem could dampen demand.

Even though DAO governance is frequently characterized by low engagement or incentives that are not aligned, the way that Marinade Finance has opted to govern itself through the use of futarchy could serve as a model for other protocols when it comes to being both efficient and legitimate in their decision-making.

Marinade is becoming more than just a staking protocol; it has an appropriate treasury strategy and governance structure that delivers stakeholder value. In this configuration, it is a sustainable Web3 organization.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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A report put out recently by Dune Analytics and called State of Wallets 2025 sheds light on Africa’s rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem.

While the continent may be behind in most metrics (like overall transaction volume and wallet balances), it is seen as the next big opportunity for Web3 growth, with increased activity in onboarding new users to decentralized finance, digital assets, and crypto-power financial services.

The information leads us to an intriguing contradiction: while Africa provides under 1% of the worldwide transaction and balance activity, it possesses some of the loftiest user penetration rates for headline wallet platforms. This subset of the digital economy is not only open for business in Africa—a notion often ridiculed as “moonshot” thinking—but it is also making genuine inroads and securing substantive locales within the continent.

Zerion, Bitget, and Phantom Lead the Charge

Among the non-custodial and multi-functional wallets, Zerion is the clear leader in Africa, with 38% of its user base coming from the continent. It is followed by Bitget with 23.9%. Phantom, a wallet that is traditionally associated with the Solana ecosystem, holds a strong 21% of its user base in Africa.

This user growth is the result of a meeting of demographic and economic forces. It is driven predominantly by that segment of Africa’s population that is both young and tech-savvy—a demographic that is largely unbanked and thus very much in need of the types of services that Web3 can provide. This is a population that gets its news from TikTok and spends a good amount of time on Instagram and other social media; if anything, they gossip even more than we do, thanks to a chat function on every possible app.

In little over a year, might we add, these services have shot up from half a billion dollars to a figure that almost clips two billion.

The regional situation is highlighted by Nigeria. It is responsible for accounting for at least half of the crypto activities of the continent’s “wallet users.” Among crypto enthusiasts, Nigeria’s role in the emergence of the digital economy in Africa is undisputed. This country has now established itself as a trendsetter on the continent. But other countries are also carving their niches. South Africa is the leader in the use of Best Wallet, with a commanding 36.4% of its local market. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is a surprise when it comes to adoption rates for Ton Wallet. This country tops the charts with an impressive 45.2% share.

Low Transaction Volume, High Potential

Africa is lagging behind despite large user figures. It is performing poorly across total transaction activity and wallet holdings. In a recent report from Dune, they shared the following statement: “We estimate that Africa contributes less than 1% of global crypto transaction volume and wallet balances.” Translating this massive interest into economic engagement is proving to be quite a challenge.

The issue of security is pressing. Parts of the crypto ecosystem have created part of that mistrust because of scams and phishing attacks. And regulatory uncertainty plays a role, too. Because inconsistent policies across different African nations create friction for both users and developers of cryptocurrency. For instance, countries like Nigeria have shown much more progressive positions recently. But many other nations still continue to either ban or restrict activities related to cryptocurrency.

Even so, specialists are still hopeful. They contend that the low amount of capital flowing into African markets should not obscure the continent’s strategic relevance. As an increasing number of worldwide crypto exchanges and protocols look to grow their user bases, Africa stands as one of the best places for them to do so and experiment with new technologies.

A Roadmap Toward Becoming a Web3 Powerhouse

The crypto journey in Africa has just started. The wallet adoption wave is here, and as infrastructure improves, and as the regional needs of our innovators and entrepreneurs are met through thoughtful local solutions, the wave will deepen. The current of pan-African crypto innovation is set to grow. Already, we see the emergence of platforms like a Web3 accelerator that focuses on Africa, educational platforms for the next wave of crypto users, and DeFi tools that seem purpose-built for low-bandwidth, mobile-first users.

What’s clear is that Africa provides a perfect gateway for worldwide crypto adoption. It has a huge number of unbanked and underbanked people; its mobile network penetration is very strong; and there is a burgeoning interest in digital finance. These three factors alone mean Africa could contribute significantly to the next chapter of the Internet.

Africa could become a real Web3 powerhouse. This is Dune’s report on where development in decentralized finance stands in Africa today. And there’s hope! If we can get more regulatory clarity, and protections for users can be boosted, then we can head off the dangers I listed above. The safe future noted above is one what portals like Zerion, Bitget, and Phantom are leading us toward. These are not seen as safe because, hey, there’s no such thing as a totally safe place; they are avenues into the future bordering territory that is safer than other borders.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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A monumental milestone for blockchain finance was reached when Ethereum registered an on-chain stablecoin transaction volume of an never-before-seen $908 billion in April 2025.

The figure that Techinasia got for us not only highlights stablecoins’ ever-closer integration into the real-world financial system but also underscores that system’s clear preference for Ethereum and, by extension, for the EVM technology it uses.

These new highs denote a distinctly noticeable increase in not just blockchain activity itself but in the way that stablecoins are now being used within that activity. This development increasingly highlights stablecoins as an important bridge between decentralized finance and traditional finance.

USDC Takes the Lead, But the Market Broadens

Although Ethereum’s stablecoin volume reached unprecedented levels in April, a closer examination demonstrates that one particular token is driving much of the forward momentum: USD Coin (USDC). Over the last half-year, USDC has been responsible for in excess of $500 billion in transaction volume on Ethereum. To say this is substantial is an understatement. It is certainly the most significant thing that USDC has done in its short life. With a price that is supposed to remain at nearly $1, and a purported backing of real dollars, USDC driving this much volume on Ethereum is really saying something.

USDC was once viewed simply as a pair to the much more dominant USDT, but it is increasingly seen as a contender for first place in the regulated stablecoin race, especially among institutional customers and enterprises that want something more transparent and compliant.

However, USDC wasn’t the only stablecoin that contributed to the surge. Decentralized alternatives like DAI—governed by the MakerDAO protocol—showed significant trading volumes, alongside recent entrants like USDS. This diversity points to a growing demand for different stablecoin flavors that suit different user needs, whether it’s using an off-chain or on-chain stablecoin, or a stablecoin designed for the multi-chain world we live in.

The stablecoin market seems to be shifting from a winner-takes-all model to a more subtle ecosystem of assets driven by different purposes. This is due to investors and consumers becoming much more sophisticated.

Big Tech and Fintech Drive Enterprise Adoption

The high transaction volumes on Ethereum are not happening in a vacuum. Several major technology and payments companies are exploring or piloting stablecoin-based solutions.

Facebook, now known as Meta, is allegedly testing a payment system that uses stablecoins on its messaging platforms. Stripe, a worldwide payment infrastructure provider, is reportedly integrating stablecoins into its cross-border business payment operations.

This trend is gaining traction: stablecoins are increasingly no longer just a vehicle for crypto speculation and are now more often being utilized for the practical, everyday use cases that crypto proponents have long promised. Whether for instant payroll, international transactions, or consumer payments, the reliability and speed of stablecoins offer a compelling alternative to legacy banking systems—especially in the many regions around the world that suffer from volatile currencies and/or slow settlement times.

The robust developer community at Ethereum, combined with its long-standing compatibility with enterprise tools and DeFi protocols, makes it a natural fit for such integrations. Even with competition from faster or cheaper blockchains, Ethereum’s stability, tooling, and network security continue to make it the platform of choice for enterprise-grade stablecoin applications.

Ethereum Reinforces Its Role as the Stablecoin Backbone

Alternative Layer-1 chains like Solana, Avalanche, and BNB Chain may be rising, but stablecoin action occurs primarily on Ethereum. Not only was the April record of $908 billion in stablecoin transactions an affirmation of the adoption of these digital dollar proxies, but it also underscored Ethereum’s still-central role in the global financial infrastructure.

The ecosystem is committed to heaps of scalability—through innovations like rollups and Layer-2 solutions—that further consolidates its long-term allure. Elusive as it may be, the mainnet won’t reach its promised beacon until full Ethereum service, with all its appealing features, is available to all users. Obvious advantages (much lower gas fees) and unavoidable side effects (much reduced demand for ether) take most of the thunder out of innovations like rollups and layer-2 solutions.

Ethereum is ideally situated to be at the center of the next generation of programmable money, as payment systems and value-exchange mechanisms are modernized and made native to the blockchain by governments, enterprises, and financial institutions.

Ethereum’s stablecoin economy is now processing close to a trillion dollars each month. That’s not an experiment. It’s a fast-growing, foundational layer in global digital finance.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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