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<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en"><head title="Blockworks: News and insights about digital assets."><meta charSet="UTF-8"/><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no"/><link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="https://blockworks.co/apple-touch-icon.png"/><link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="https://blockworks.co/favicon-32x32.png"/><link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="https://blockworks.co/favicon-16x16.png"/><link rel="icon" href="https://blockworks.co/favicon.ico"/><link rel="manifest" href="https://blockworks.co/site.webmanifest"/><link rel="mask-icon" href="/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#fff"/><meta name="twitter:card"/><meta name="twitter:creator"/><meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#ffffff"/><meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"/><title>Bitcoin Price (BTC), Market Cap, Price Today & Chart History - Blockworks</title><meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1, index, follow"/><link rel="canonical" href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc"/><meta name="description" content="Get the latest Bitcoin price, BTC market cap, charts and data today. The live Bitcoin price today is $96,878.00 with a market cap of 1.92T and a 24-hour trading volume of 27.90B. The price of BTC is up 0.04% since last hour, up 1.19% since yesterday. We update our BTC to USD price in real-time."/><meta name="keywords" content=""/><meta property="og:locale" content="en-US"/><meta property="og:type" content="website"/><meta property="og:site_name" content="Blockworks"/><meta property="og:title" content="Bitcoin Price (BTC), Market Cap, Price Today & Chart History - Blockworks"/><meta property="og:description" content="Get the latest Bitcoin price, BTC market cap, charts and data today. The live Bitcoin price today is $96,878.00 with a market cap of 1.92T and a 24-hour trading volume of 27.90B. The price of BTC is up 0.04% since last hour, up 1.19% since yesterday. We update our BTC to USD price in real-time."/><meta property="og:url" content="https://blockworks.co/price/btc"/><meta property="article.published_time" content="Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:15:59 GMT"/><meta property="article.modified_time" content="Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:15:59 GMT"/><meta property="og:image" content="https://blockworks.co/images/Blockworks_Meta_Logo.png"/><meta property="og:image:alt" content="Blockworks"/><meta name="twitter:title" content="Bitcoin Price (BTC), Market Cap, Price Today & Chart History - Blockworks"/><meta name="twitter:description" content="Get the latest Bitcoin price, BTC market cap, charts and data today. The live Bitcoin price today is $96,878.00 with a market cap of 1.92T and a 24-hour trading volume of 27.90B. The price of BTC is up 0.04% since last hour, up 1.19% since yesterday. 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relative gap-2 py-2"><div class="flex flex-wrap lg:flex-nowrap items-center text-left text-4xl md:text-6xl"><div class="item align-middle h-8 w-8 relative flex-shrink-0 sm:h-12 sm:w-12 md:h-14 md:w-14"><img alt="btc" itemProp="logo" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="rounded-full border-white border-8 bg-white object-cover" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent" sizes="100vw" srcSet="/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=640&q=75 640w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=768&q=75 768w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=1024&q=75 1024w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=1280&q=75 1280w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=1536&q=75 1536w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=1920&q=75 1920w" src="/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoin-images.coingecko.com%2Fcoins%2Fimages%2F1%2Flarge%2Fbitcoin.png%3F1696501400&w=1920&q=75"/></div><h1><span class="text-dark ml-3 font-headline" itemProp="name">Bitcoin</span><span class="ml-4 text-primary text-lg md:text-5xl" itemProp="alternateName">BTC</span></h1></div></div><p class="text-lg lg:text-xl text-left text-gray-500">Live Bitcoin price updates and the latest Bitcoin news.</p></div></div><div class="flex flex-wrap"><div class="item w-full lg:w-8/12 lg:border-r"><section class="flex justify-between items-center self-stretch h-[60px] px-6 lg:px-10 py-5 border-t border-b"><div class="flex justify-start items-center gap-3"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start gap-2.5"><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative"><p class="text-base text-left uppercase text-dark">price</p></div></div></div><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative gap-1"><p class="text-sm text-left text-light-gray">sponsored by</p></div><div class="font-semibold"><a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer" target="_blank">Blockworks Research</a></div></div></section><section class="p-8"><div><div class="flex flex-wrap lg:flex-nowrap justify-start items-center self-stretch gap-2 lg:gap-8"><div class="flex flex-col justify-center items-start gap-1"><div class="flex justify-start items-start relative gap-2"><p class="w-64 text-4xl text-left text-dark">$96,878</p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative gap-1"><p class="text-base text-left text-green-900">$0</p><p class="flex text-base text-left text-green-900">(<span class="flex flex-nowrap items-center"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" data-slot="icon" class=" h-3 w-3 mr-0.5"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M10 17a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75V5.612L5.29 9.77a.75.75 0 0 1-1.08-1.04l5.25-5.5a.75.75 0 0 1 1.08 0l5.25 5.5a.75.75 0 1 1-1.08 1.04l-3.96-4.158V16.25A.75.75 0 0 1 10 17Z" clip-rule="evenodd"></path></svg>0%</span>)</p></div></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-end items-start flex-grow relative gap-2 mb-2"><div class="flex justify-between items-center self-stretch flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start relative gap-1"><p class="text-xs text-left uppercase text-light-gray">24h low</p><p class="text-base text-left text-dark">$95,591.00</p></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-end relative gap-1"><p class="text-xs text-left uppercase text-light-gray">24h high</p><p class="text-base text-left text-dark">$97,327.00</p></div></div><div class="w-full relative"><div class="bg-gray-50 w-full absolute h-4 flex"><div class="absolute bg-primary h-4" style="width:74%"></div></div><svg class="absolute l-0 h-4 w-4 top-5 -ml-2" width="15" height="12" viewBox="0 0 15 12" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="left:74%"><path d="M7.48599 0L14.7577 12H0.214355L7.48599 0Z" fill="#5637CD"></path></svg></div></div></div></div><div class="mt-8"><div><div><div class="mt-1 flex flex-col sm:flex-row gap-5 justify-between"><nav class="flex justify-around bg-gray-100 p-1" aria-label="Tabs"><a class="bg-white text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer" aria-current="page">Price</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">Market Cap</a></nav><nav class="flex justify-around bg-gray-100 p-1" aria-label="Tabs"><a class="bg-white text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer" aria-current="page">1D</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">7D</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">1M</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">3M</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">1Y</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">YTD</a><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">ALL</a></nav></div><div class="flex flex-col-reverse sm:flex-row gap-2 justify-between py-4"><div></div><div class="w-full flex justify-center md:justify-end"><button class="inline-flex items-center text-left cursor-pointer bg-gray-50 text-gray-900 border border-gray-100 hover:border-gray-200 hover:bg-white hover:text-black text-base px-3 py-1.5"><svg class="-ml-0.5 mt-0.5 md:mr-1 w-6" aria-hidden="true" viewBox="0 0 36 28" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M14 22H7V11H0V4h14v18zM28 22h-8l7.5-18h8L28 22z" fill="currentColor"></path><circle cx="20" cy="8" r="4" fill="currentColor"></circle></svg> TradingView Chart</button></div><nav class="flex justify-around bg-gray-100 p-1" aria-label="Tabs"><a class="text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer">Linear</a><a class="bg-white text-gray-600 px-2 py-1 font-medium text-sm hover:cursor-pointer" aria-current="page">Logarithmic</a></nav></div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div><p class="mt-2 text-md text-gray-700" itemProp="description">The live Bitcoin price today is $96,878.00 with a 24-hour trading volume of <span class="">$27.90B</span>. The table above accurately updates our BTC price in real time. The price of BTC is up <span class="">0.04</span>% since last hour, up <span class="">1.19</span>% since yesterday. The live market cap, measured by multiplying the number of coins by the current price is <span class="">$1.92T</span>. BTC has a circulating supply of <span class="">19.83M</span> coins and a max supply of <span class="">19.83M</span> BTC.</p></section><main><section class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow gap-3 border-t border-b p-4 pl-8"><header class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start gap-2.5"><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative"><h2 class="text-base text-left uppercase text-dark">about Bitcoin</h2></div></header></section><section class="py-8"><h3 class="truncate text-xl font-headline px-8 leading-9">What is Bitcoin?</h3><div class="px-8 mt-2"><div class="max-w-none post-content overflow-auto break-words text-dark font-normal prose prose-base leading-loose"><p>Bitcoin was created in 2009 by a pseudonymous person or group under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin's vision of an electronic peer-to-peer payment system that enables people to send money to anyone in the world without permission gave birth to the crypto industry we know today. Nakamoto believed that our current financial system was too reliant on a small number of permissioned, large banks that lend out customer deposits and were often left insolvent in the case of bank runs or times of credit retractions. It seems clear that Satoshi also believed that the underlying concept of 'fiat' currencies were an inherently flawed credit based design. Satoshi Nakamoto's indentity remains a mystery to this day, but he/she/they instilled a messaged with the genesis block's data stating "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."</p> <p>Bitcoin is just a simple piece of software, often referred to as a client, that anyone in the world is free to download and run. Every node running a Bitcoin client shares a copy of the blockchain, or a large list of accounts with balances and their corresponding transaction history. Bitcoin targets 10 minute block times, meaning that every 10 minutes a block of transactions should be propogated throughout the network of nodes. Bitcoin's primary innovation was solving the 'double-spend' problem without relying on a centralized entity. For example, banks ensure that no individual or group is able to spend a single dollar more than once because they privately verify every transaction. The Bitcoin software requires nodes to keep all transactions recieved in memory before solidifying their validity by submitting them on chain. Random nodes then add blocks of transactions to the chain after the targeted block interval (10 minutes) has passed and shares it with the rest of the nodes in the network. All nodes come to an agreement on the correct list of transactions while removing any conflicting ones, thus ensuring that no BTC is ever spent more than once.</p> <p>Bitcoin is the longest tenured blockchain and remains the largest digital asset by market capitalization. It represents the birth of digital currencies that are censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer, and permissionless with programatic monetary policy.</p></div></div></section><section><div class="flex flex-col border-t p-8 pt-0"><div><div class="max-w-none post-content overflow-auto break-words text-dark font-normal prose prose-base"><h2 id="about-bitcoin">About Bitcoin</h2> <p>Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital asset - also called cryptocurrency - that allows people to transact directly with each other without intermediaries like banks. As digital means of transferring and settling value, Bitcoin is tamperproof, censorship-resistant, globally accessible, and secured by energy. It was released in 2009 and was the first successful currency of its kind.</p> <p>Bitcoin was created by an unknown person or a group of people going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi was actively leading and developing the project for a while after Bitcoin’s launch. However, on April 26, 2011, he sent a final email to his fellow developers saying he had “moved on to other projects.” Today, more than 800 people are <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">contributing</a> to the development of Bitcoin, according to GitHub.</p> <p>Satoshi designed Bitcoin with a limited total supply of 21 million units, creating digital scarcity, the first of its kind. As of October 4, 2022, there were 19,168,118 bitcoin in circulation (91% of the total supply). Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places (100 millionth). The smallest unit is called a “satoshi.” Bitcoin’s ticker is BTC and is used across many different trading venues.</p> <h2 id="price-history">Price history</h2> <p>Bitcoin’s price is following a cyclical pattern, going through peaks and troughs, which are correlated with its halvings. With every halving, Bitcoin’s supply is cut in half, making it more scarce. Such halvings happen every 4 years approximately. Initially, 50 BTC were added into circulation with each block. Having seen three havlings already, Bitcoin’s supply issuance currently stands at 6.25 BTC every 10 minutes on average. The next halving will take place in 2024, cutting the amount per block to 3.125 BTC. Miners are projected to mine the last BTC around 2140.</p> <p>At launch, BTC didn’t have a price tag. It had no monetary value. When Satoshi mined the genesis block (first block), 50 BTC went into circulation at $0. Fast forward to November 10, 2021, 12 years later, Bitcoin hit an all-time high (ATH) of $68,789.63. This was a huge moment for the Bitcoin community and the crypto space as a whole. Needless to say though, the cryptocurrency has gone through many ups and downs over the years before reaching this historical price. In February 2011, for example, bitcoin’s price rose to $1 for the first time. It then climbed to $10 and $30 in the subsequent months. By the end of 2011, BTC was under $5.</p> <p>2013 was a huge year for bitcoin because it recorded a price gain of 6,600%. Its first major pump is said to have been caused because of Chinese investors circumventing the country’s capital controls. Although it experienced a price correction after almost hitting $250 in April, it reached $1,000 for the first time in the last quarter of 2013. Bitcoin wouldn’t record $1,000 again for more than 3 years.</p> <p>Over the course of its history, bitcoin has always made a strong comeback. In December 2017, the cryptocurrency even peaked at nearly $20,000. A crypto winter followed in 2018 and 2019 until prices began significantly picking up again at the end of 2020. One year later, the current bitcoin all-time high was recorded. In 2022, bitcoin has dropped once more and is hovering around $20,000 - $18,000.</p> <h2 id="how-does-bitcoin-work">How does Bitcoin work?</h2> <p>Blockchain is the underlying technology that stores a record of all BTC transactions. It’s an immutable public distributed ledger stored and maintained by a network of full nodes. The name Bitcoin is used interchangeably to refer to the blockchain network and the cryptocurrency that powers it. More precisely though, Bitcoin with a capital B is referring to the network, while Bitcoin used with a minor b is describing the asset.</p> <p>New bitcoin is created through a process called mining. In the beginning, miners could use moderately powerful devices like CPUs and GPUs. As the number of Bitcoin miners increased, the difficulty of finding new blocks rose to the point that miners now need ASICs to mine profitably.</p> <p>Processing power is needed to provide the necessary proof of work. This is the work that miners (another type of bitcoin node) need to perform to verify and add blocks of transactions to the blockchain by running software with unique hardware. They use mining software to “listen” for transactions broadcasted across the network and compete to generate the mathematical proof of work by generating hashes, which are not difficult to perform but energy intensive. That is why they require specialized mining hardware called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).</p> <p>The miner that assembles a block before everyone else gets to validate and add the next block of transactions to the blockchain. The average time it takes to find a block is 10 minutes. Bitcoin mining is a competitive task, making it hard for anyone to consecutively add blocks of transactions. Miners are incentivized to do this work to earn the block reward, which is how new Bitcoins are minted. Mining creates trust in a decentralized network where there is no trusted third party by ensuring that transactions are confirmed only when enough computational power has been committed to each approved block. As more blocks are accepted on the chain, trust increases even more. This way, practically speaking, transactions committed to the Bitcoin network are permanent, they cannot be reversed.</p> <h2 id="faqs">FAQs</h2> <h3 id="who-owns-the-most-bitcoin">Who owns the most bitcoin?</h3> <p>Distributed over several wallets, it’s estimated that Satoshi owns over 1 million BTC worth in excess of $19 billion at the time of writing this article. This makes Satoshi the biggest bitcoin holder. MicroStrategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin (130,000 BTC as of September 20, 2022). Additionally, over 30,000 bitcoin addresses are holding more than $1 million BTC.</p> <h3 id="is-bitcoin-coin-a-good-investment">Is Bitcoin coin a good investment?</h3> <p>Bitcoin is provably scarce and because of its halving schedule, the cryptocurrency is programmed to become more scarce. Thanks to its proof of work algorithm, mining protects the protocol from disruption and interference, making it resistant to any form of modification or corruption. An asset that cannot become less scarce will likely perform well over time due to its supply and demand dynamics.</p> <h3 id="what-was-the-price-of-1-bitcoin-in-2009">What was the price of 1 Bitcoin in 2009?</h3> <p>The bitcoin price was $0 at launch.</p> <h3 id="can-bitcoin-reach-1000000">Can Bitcoin reach $1,000,000?</h3> <p>Many experts and analysts have given varying bitcoin price predictions. One of the most popular forecasts is the stock-to-flow model, which predicts BTC will reach $100,000 in 2024 and $1,000,000 in 2025. The latter figure still seems to be far out. Although this prediction is attractive to investors, keep in mind that bitcoin is a volatile asset, the price predictions are not guaranteed, and you shouldn’t invest what you cannot afford to lose. The average bitcoin price prediction for 2023 is around $31,000.</p> <h2 id="related">Related</h2> <h3 id="popular-criticisms">Popular Criticisms</h3> <p>Miners use energy-intensive equipment to compete for the chance to find a block. As a result, Bitcoin consumes a lot of power, drawing criticism from many people, including Elon Musk. As of the end of October 2022, Bitcoin <a href="https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">consumed</a> about 102.11 TWh per year. This is the <a href="https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">equivalent</a> of Pakistan’s power expenditure. While Bitcoin does consume a lot of energy, in the grand scheme of things, its consumption is still negligible. Also, because Bitcoin mining is a highly competitive industry with miners looking for the cheapest energy, affordable renewable energy sources are increasingly used. Mining is on course to be the first and only industry to <a href="https://blockworks.co/how-clean-energy-can-further-mass-adoption/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">become carbon negative</a> (a huge positive for the environment).</p> <h3 id="comparisons-to-other-projects">Comparisons to other Projects</h3> <p>Bitcoin is often compared to Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market cap. The latter recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/ethereum-switches-to-proof-of-stake-after-7-years-of-work/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">switched</a> from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), making it less dependent on processing power. Furthermore, Bitcoin is often compared to its fork, <a href="https://litecoin.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">Litecoin</a>, which processes transactions faster (block confirmation time is 2.5 minutes) and has very low fees. Still, though, bitcoin is considered the mother of all cryptocurrencies, leading the way. The jury is still out on whether the trade-offs (switching to proof-of-stake or lowering transaction fees) will be worth it in the long run. After all, security with these alternative blockchains will be reduced. This is also why other cryptocurrencies show a high correlation to Bitcoin’s price.</p> <h3 id="development-timelines">Development Timelines</h3> <p>Since its launch, Bitcoin has received a few upgrades. In 2017, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SegWit" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">SegWit</a> upgrade boosted Bitcoin’s capacity by transforming how data is stored in blocks. Four years later, developers executed the <a href="https://blockworks.co/btc-price-flat-after-taproot-lightning-network-continues-to-grow-markets-wrap/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" node="[object Object]">Taproot</a> upgrade, enabling Bitcoin to compete with smart contract platforms like Ethereum. It also made the network more private and secure. Possible future upgrades could improve security through modifications called covenants and ramp up privacy with the use of sidechains.</p></div></div></div><section class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow gap-3 border-t border-b p-4 pl-8"><header class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start gap-2.5"><div class="flex justify-start items-center relative"><h2 class="text-base text-left uppercase text-dark">Bitcoin Stats</h2></div></header></section><div class="grid grid-cols-1 lg:grid-cols-2 p-8 gap-8"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-3"><h4 class="text-xl font-semibold text-left text-dark font-headline">What is the market cap of Bitcoin?</h4><p class="text-md text-left text-dark">The current market cap of Bitcoin is $<span class="font-semibold">1.92T</span>. A high market capitalization implies that the asset is highly valued by the market.</p></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-3"><h4 class="text-xl font-semibold text-left text-dark font-headline">What is the current trading activity of Bitcoin?</h4><p class="text-md text-left text-dark">Currently, <span class="font-semibold">288.01K</span> of BTC were traded within 24 hours of time. In other words, $<span class="font-semibold">27.90B</span> have changed hands within the past 24 hours through trading. That's a change of <span class="flex flex-nowrap items-center text-green-700 inline-flex"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" data-slot="icon" class=" h-3 w-3 mr-0.5"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M10 17a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75V5.612L5.29 9.77a.75.75 0 0 1-1.08-1.04l5.25-5.5a.75.75 0 0 1 1.08 0l5.25 5.5a.75.75 0 1 1-1.08 1.04l-3.96-4.158V16.25A.75.75 0 0 1 10 17Z" clip-rule="evenodd"></path></svg>1.19%</span>.</p></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-3"><h4 class="text-xl font-semibold text-left text-dark font-headline">What is the current price of Bitcoin?</h4><p class="text-md text-left text-dark">The price of 1 Bitcoin currently costs <span class="font-semibold">$96,878.00</span>.</p></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-3"><h4 class="text-xl font-semibold text-left text-dark font-headline">How many Bitcoin are there?</h4><p class="text-md text-left text-dark">The current circulating supply of Bitcoin is <span class="">19.83M</span>. This is the total amount of BTC that is available.</p></div><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-3"><h4 class="text-xl font-semibold text-left text-dark font-headline">What is the relative popularity of Bitcoin?</h4><p class="text-md text-left text-dark">Bitcoin (BTC) currently ranks <span class="font-semibold">1</span> among all known cryptocurrency assets. The popularity is based on relative market cap.</p></div></div></section></main></div><div class="item w-full lg:w-4/12 lg:pb-8"><section class="flex flex-col lg:border-b lg:border-none"><div class="md:mt-0 md:flex md:justify-between md:items-center w-full px-10 py-5 border-t border-b h-[60px] gap-3 px-6 lg:px-10 py-5"><div class="flex justify-start items-center gap-3"><div class="relative"><h2 class="text-base uppercase text-dark font-semibold">market data</h2></div></div><div></div></div><div class="flex flex-wrap lg:flex-col justify-start gap-5 p-10 border-t-0 border-r-0 border-l-0" itemscope=""><div class="flex flex-col relative gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow flex"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start flex-shrink-0 w-36 gap-2"><div class="text-xxs text-left uppercase text-dark">Market Cap</div><div class="flex justify-start items-start flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 relative gap-1.5"><p class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 text-sm text-left text-dark"><span>$ <span class="">1.92T</span></span></p><div class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 relative gap-1"><svg width="12" height="12" viewBox="0 0 12 12" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 w-3 h-3 relative" preserveAspectRatio="none"><path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M1.97572 5.82427C1.86324 5.71175 1.80005 5.55917 1.80005 5.40007C1.80005 5.24097 1.86324 5.08838 1.97572 4.97587L5.57572 1.37587C5.68824 1.26338 5.84082 1.2002 5.99992 1.2002C6.15902 1.2002 6.3116 1.26338 6.42412 1.37587L10.0241 4.97587C10.1334 5.08903 10.1939 5.24059 10.1925 5.39791C10.1912 5.55523 10.1281 5.70571 10.0168 5.81696C9.90557 5.9282 9.75508 5.9913 9.59776 5.99267C9.44044 5.99404 9.28888 5.93356 9.17572 5.82427L6.59992 3.24847V10.2001C6.59992 10.3592 6.53671 10.5118 6.42418 10.6243C6.31166 10.7369 6.15905 10.8001 5.99992 10.8001C5.84079 10.8001 5.68818 10.7369 5.57566 10.6243C5.46314 10.5118 5.39992 10.3592 5.39992 10.2001V3.24847L2.82412 5.82427C2.7116 5.93675 2.55902 5.99994 2.39992 5.99994C2.24082 5.99994 2.08824 5.93675 1.97572 5.82427Z" fill="#14532D"></path></svg><p class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 text-sm text-left text-green-900"><span class="">1.19</span> %</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="flex flex-col relative gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start flex-shrink-0 w-36 gap-2"><div class="text-xxs text-left uppercase text-dark">Market Cap Rank</div><div class="flex justify-start items-start flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 relative gap-1.5"><p class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 text-sm text-left text-dark"><span>#1</span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="flex flex-col relative gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start flex-shrink-0 w-36 gap-2"><div class="text-xxs text-left uppercase text-dark">24H Volume</div><div class="flex justify-start items-start flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 relative gap-1.5"><p class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 text-sm text-left text-dark"><span>$ <span class="">27.90B</span></span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="flex flex-col relative gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center flex-grow"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start flex-shrink-0 w-36 gap-2"><div class="text-xxs text-left uppercase text-dark">Circulating Supply</div><div class="flex justify-start items-start flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 relative gap-1.5"><p class="flex-grow-0 flex-shrink-0 text-sm text-left text-dark"><span>20,000,000</span></p></div></div></div></div></div></section><div class="hidden lg:block"><div class="gap-4 p-10 border-t md:border-0 lg:border-t md:border-l lg:border-l-0 md:w-1/2 lg:w-full"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-2"><div class="flex justify-start items-center self-stretch relative gap-1"><p class="flex-grow text-xs uppercase 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/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2FResearch_Report_Templates_2_f585e349eb.png&w=1024&q=20 1024w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2FResearch_Report_Templates_2_f585e349eb.png&w=1280&q=20 1280w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2FResearch_Report_Templates_2_f585e349eb.png&w=1536&q=20 1536w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2FResearch_Report_Templates_2_f585e349eb.png&w=1920&q=20 1920w" src="/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2FResearch_Report_Templates_2_f585e349eb.png&w=1920&q=20"/></a></div><div class="flex justify-start items-center self-stretch gap-1"><p class="flex-grow text-xs uppercase text-primary">Research</p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-2.5"><a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/navigating-solana-s-dex-landscape" target="_blank" class="flex-grow text-[22px] font-headline hover:text-primary" rel="noreferrer">Navigating Solana’s DEX Landscape</a></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-2.5"><p class="flex-grow text-base text-left text-[#6a6a6a] line-clamp-6">This reports analyzes the competitive dynamics of the Solana DEX landscape, identifying sustainable moats per protocol. We also find that Raydium (RAY), Orca (ORCA), and Lifinity (LFNTY) are valued very similarly on a P/S basis and what this could mean for Meteroa's (MET) valuation, which is still pre-TGE. </p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-1"><div class="flex justify-start items-start relative"><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray">by <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/team/carlos-gonzalez-campo" class="text-primary hover:text-dark" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Carlos Gonzalez Campo</a></p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start gap-1"><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray">/</p><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray"><time dateTime="2025-02-11T09:55:48.000Z"></time></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="items-start"><div class="pt-10 px-10"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start items-start gap-3"><div class="flex flex-col justify-start self-stretch gap-2"><div class="min-h-[100px]"><a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/ai-agent-platforms-a-survey" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><img alt="zerebro.png" loading="eager" width="384" height="0" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" class="w-full h-auto" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='U28|^l9FM{%MD%~qM{of004n_3WB00%MIURj'/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(min-width: 60em) 300px, (min-width: 28em) 150px" srcSet="/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=16&q=20 16w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=32&q=20 32w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=48&q=20 48w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=64&q=20 64w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=96&q=20 96w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=128&q=20 128w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=256&q=20 256w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=384&q=20 384w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=640&q=20 640w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=768&q=20 768w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=1024&q=20 1024w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=1280&q=20 1280w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=1536&q=20 1536w, /_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=1920&q=20 1920w" src="/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimpressive-horses-5641a8b530.media.strapiapp.com%2Fzerebro_3736cd8e16.png&w=1920&q=20"/></a></div><div class="flex justify-start items-center self-stretch gap-1"><p class="flex-grow text-xs uppercase text-primary">Research</p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-2.5"><a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/research/ai-agent-platforms-a-survey" target="_blank" class="flex-grow text-[22px] font-headline hover:text-primary" rel="noreferrer">AI Agent Platforms: A Survey</a></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-2.5"><p class="flex-grow text-base text-left text-[#6a6a6a] line-clamp-6">Here we tackle the new crypto product ideas we expect agents to enable, reason about the value capture potential of different AI agent platform plays, and survey the current landscape of leading AI agent platform pureplays available to crypto investors today. </p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start self-stretch gap-1"><div class="flex justify-start items-start relative"><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray">by <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/team/ryan-connor" class="text-primary hover:text-dark" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Ryan Connor</a></p></div><div class="flex justify-start items-start gap-1"><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray">/</p><p class="text-xs uppercase text-light-gray"><time dateTime="2025-02-06T07:00:05.000Z"></time></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><section><div class="md:mt-0 md:flex md:justify-between md:items-center w-full px-10 py-5 border-b border-t"><div class="flex justify-start items-center gap-3"><div class="relative"><h2 class="text-base uppercase text-dark font-semibold"><a href="/news">latest Bitcoin news</a></h2></div></div><div><a class="text-sm text-center md:text-left uppercase text-primary" href="/news"><span class="flex align-middle">more from news<svg width="8" height="4" viewBox="0 0 8 4" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" class="ml-1 mt-1.5" preserveAspectRatio="none"><path d="M6.005 1.5H0V2.5H6.005V4L8 2L6.005 0V1.5Z" fill="#5637CD"></path></svg></span></a></div></div><div class="p-12"><div class="grid gap-8 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With a user-friendly platform, extensive range of trading pairs, and robust security features, Binance has attracted millions of users from around the world. The exchange has also expanded its services to include various blockchain-related products, including a decentralized exchange and a platform for creating and launching digital assets. In a rapidly evolving industry with continuous news and developments, staying informed is crucial. Follow Blockworks for the latest insights, expert analysis, and comprehensive coverage on Binance and other major players in the cryptocurrency exchange space, and stay up-to-date on the ever-changing world of blockchain and digital assets."},{"id":215,"count":345,"slug":"stablecoins","name":"stablecoins","description":""},{"id":515,"count":345,"slug":"bitcoin-etf","name":"bitcoin etf","description":""},{"id":164,"count":324,"slug":"latest","name":"latest","description":""}],"readMoreArticles":[{"slug":"blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","id":97676,"permalink":"/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","title":"Objection to DeFi ‘broker rule’ returns to focus","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kristin-smith.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kristin-smith.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eBlockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith | Permissionless III by Mike Lawrence for Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:55:41 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:30:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1740000600,"excerpt":"The Blockchain Association’s latest letter comes with a warning to Capitol Hill lawmakers ","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Blockchain Association has spoken again. Or, well, they’ve written another letter.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the advocacy group that last month brought you a \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-consensus-position-on-market-structure-policy\"\u003e“consensus position”\u003c/a\u003e on market structure policy comes a warning to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe choices they have: act, or possibly “cripple DeFi innovation in this country altogether.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you don’t remember, there was a proposed rule — finalized under the Biden administration — that would \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/sec-expands-dealer-rule-crypto-firms\"\u003eexpand the “broker” definition\u003c/a\u003e to include software that allows users to access DeFi protocols.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Blockchain Association says this “inappropriately and unlawfully misclassifies technology infrastructure as intermediaries” — forcing software companies that never take custody of users’ assets to nonetheless collect (and report to the government) those users’ personal info and transaction details.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Wednesday \u003ca href=\"https://theblockchainassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Blockchain-Association-Letter-to-Congress-on-DeFi-Broker-Rule-CRA-Vote.pdf\"\u003eletter\u003c/a\u003e, addressed to Sens. John Thune and Chuck Schumer, as well as Reps. Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, calls for them to vote “yes” on Sen. Ted Cruz’s Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution and repeal the so-called DeFi broker rule.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlockchain Association’s Kristin Smith reminded us how long this battle goes back:\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e2/ 3+ years ago, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act became law and amended the definition of a “broker” to include “any person who, for consideration, is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person.”\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; Kristin Smith (@KMSmithDC) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/KMSmithDC/status/1889740579824611440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 12, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe IRS then sought to implement this new definition in 2023. The agency, in June 2024, applied the rule to centralized intermediaries — leaving out reporting requirements for decentralized or non-custodial brokers.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn December though, a second IRS rule \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/irs-new-form-crypto-accountants\"\u003esought to force\u003c/a\u003e tax reporting obligations onto crypto software providers that don’t act as intermediaries.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe effort by Cruz and Rep. Mike Carey to \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/irs-crypto-broker-rule-opposition\"\u003ereverse it\u003c/a\u003e came two days after Trump’s inauguration.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis vote is (very) big for two reasons:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(1) We get a heat check from the Dems on a limited crypto-specific resolution. They had an unpopular crypto platform under Biden and this rule encapsulates everything wrong with that approach. It\u0026#39;s going to pass regardless, with at least… \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/oSm0H4eBAK\"\u003ehttps://t.co/oSm0H4eBAK\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; Scott Johnsson (@SGJohnsson) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SGJohnsson/status/1892237592222965883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 19, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlockchain Association members are set to discuss the CRA resolution with Congressional offices in DC on Feb. 26, a group spokesperson said. It’s unclear when exactly a vote would take place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe latest letter adds: “Policy decisions with such severe consequences should be made by Congress deliberately — not accidentally through ill-conceived midnight rulemaking.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Forward Guidance Newsletter","categories":["Forward Guidance Newsletter","Policy"],"primaryTag":"Blockchain Association","tags":["Blockchain Association","Forward Guidance newsletter","IRS","regulation"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Objection to DeFi ‘broker rule’ returns to focus","description":"The Blockchain Association's latest letter comes with a warning to Capitol Hill lawmakers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Objection to DeFi ‘broker rule’ returns to focus","og_description":"The Blockchain Association's latest letter comes with a warning to Capitol Hill lawmakers.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T21:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kristin-smith.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Strack","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/strack_ben","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Strack","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule","name":"Objection to DeFi ‘broker rule’ returns to focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/blockchain-association-defi-broker-rule#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/kristin-smith.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-19T21:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/f4914afc4aae12ac17c73cccb6b79405"},"description":"The Blockchain Association's latest letter comes with a warning to Capitol Hill 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focus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/f4914afc4aae12ac17c73cccb6b79405","name":"Ben Strack","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","caption":"Ben Strack"},"description":"Ben Strack is a Denver-based reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence, and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. Twitter: @strack_ben","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-strack-621a2265/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/strack_ben"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/benstrack"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Ben Strack","id":23,"slug":"benstrack","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"public-crypto-company-nasdaq","id":97706,"permalink":"/news/public-crypto-company-nasdaq","title":"Bitcoin company joins the publicly traded ‘Fold’","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sign-nasdaq.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/sign-nasdaq.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eGoran Vrhovac/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:55:27 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739998800,"excerpt":"A bitcoin financial services company is now listed on the Nasdaq","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eA bitcoin financial services company is now listed on the Nasdaq — joining a limited list of public players in the segment.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCalled Fold, the company revealed a combination with FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp. last July in an effort to go public.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen, in December, Fold closed a $20 million convertible note financing from ATW Partners. That was secured in part by the company’s bitcoin holdings (totaling roughly 1,000 BTC) as collateral and was set to mature three years after Fold became a public company.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat brings us to today, when Fold shares were set to start trading on the Nasdaq after its deal with FTAC was approved. Founded in 2019, Fold lets customers accumulate BTC through its rewards program.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmong the top crypto predictions for 2025 were more crypto-related companies \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/2025-crypto-stocks-to-watch\"\u003egoing public\u003c/a\u003e — joining Coinbase, Strategy and a bunch of miners.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGalaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said at the Ondo Summit \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-narratives-to-watch\"\u003eearlier this month\u003c/a\u003e he expected such progress on that front by May or June. His firm has been waiting to list publicly in the US for four-plus years.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eShares of crypto wallet provider Exodus hit the NYSE American stock exchange \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/exodus-uplists-to-nyse-american\"\u003ein December\u003c/a\u003e. That company held 1,900 BTC and 2,660 ETH in its reserves at the time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eDan Weiskopf, co-portfolio manager of the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), said he counts about 20 blockchain-related companies at various stages of the US public listing process (or considering it).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eA revamped SEC that has Hester Peirce leading a \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/sec-new-crypto-task-force\"\u003ecrypto task force\u003c/a\u003e should support an expected 2025 public listing boom, Weiskopf added.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Bitcoin price action will continue to be the focus of excitement,” he told me. “But behind the scenes people forget that the picks and axes are also an important way to capitalize on the innovation that is in front of us.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Business","categories":["Business","Forward Guidance Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Forward Guidance newsletter","tags":["Forward Guidance newsletter","investors","IPO","NASDAQ"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Bitcoin company joins the publicly traded ‘Fold’","description":"A bitcoin financial services company is now listed on the Nasdaq.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/public-crypto-company-nasdaq","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bitcoin company joins the publicly traded ‘Fold’","og_description":"A bitcoin financial services company is now 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decentralized finance (DeFi) into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence, and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. Twitter: @strack_ben","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-strack-621a2265/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/strack_ben"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/benstrack"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Ben Strack","id":23,"slug":"benstrack","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"soft-landing-is-on-track","id":97677,"permalink":"/news/soft-landing-is-on-track","title":"Economic growth data says we’re on track for a soft landing","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/austan-1.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/austan-1.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eChicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee | \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/federalreserve/53499607907\"\u003eFederalreserve/”FOMC_01302024_redacted_9703″\u003c/a\u003e (\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/\"\u003eCC license\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:50:43 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:30:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739997000,"excerpt":"Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting reflect that officials are on hold until inflation trends much lower","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eI \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season\"\u003ewrote yesterday\u003c/a\u003e about how the market has generally remained pretty resilient despite recent bouts of volatility.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-markets-tariff-reaction\"\u003eTariff concerns\u003c/a\u003e, geopolitical tensions, earnings season and \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/fed-rate-cutting-journey\"\u003einflation\u003c/a\u003e have all weighed on US equities at different points throughout 2025, but one tailwind has remained constant: economic growth is — at least for now — solid enough.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSome economic data points are looking really strong. Manufacturing is on the rise with the most recent ISM manufacturing PMI and the Empire State Manufacturing Survey both coming in better than expected.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eJanuary’s ISM services PMI came in a bit lower than December’s figure, but is still healthily above 50. Retail sales saw their expected January dip, but are also still in a Goldilocks range.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the labor front, non-farm payrolls were up solidly, and initial jobless claims ticked up only slightly in recent weeks. Unemployment has stabilized and wage growth has started to moderate. Our labor market is, as Powell said, “solid.”\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Conference Board projects real US GDP to come in at 2.3% in 2025, a decline from 2.8% in 2024. Globally, the non-profit expects real GDP to show 3% growth for 2025.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“While the US economy is set to start 2025 on strong footing after a year of surprisingly robust growth, a combination of proposed policies will likely weigh on growth and leave inflation elevated as the year progresses, resulting in a more patient policy stance from the Fed,” The Conference Board wrote in a statement earlier this month.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo, what does all of this mean? I think it means the Fed just may be on track to achieve its coveted soft landing — that is if the data continues to reflect decent economic growth.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eChicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said a few weeks ago he’s still “optimistic” about a soft landing.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMinutes from the FOMC’s most recent meeting (released today) show staff have concerns about the direction of federal policy.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey “continued to note elevated uncertainty regarding the scope, timing and potential economic effects of possible changes to trade, immigration, fiscal and regulatory policies,” the \u003ca href=\"https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminutes20250129.pdf\"\u003eminutes\u003c/a\u003e read.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTrade and immigration specifically could impact progress being made on inflation reduction, some staff noted.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSeveral participants also said it could be appropriate to pause or slow balance sheet runoff until Congress reaches a debt ceiling resolution.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt sounds like the pause on interest rate cuts will continue in the near term, unless there are significant changes to economic conditions.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“If labor market conditions deteriorated, economic activity faltered or inflation returned to 2% more quickly than anticipated,” committee members would consider easing monetary policy.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGenerally, the minutes reflect what we’ve known since \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/jerome-powell-testimony-capitol-hill\"\u003ePowell\u003c/a\u003e’s last press conference: Officials are on hold until inflation trends much lower.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe economic data situation however remains the same. And again, unless we see major declines in growth, a soft landing is not out of the question.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Business","categories":["Business","Forward Guidance Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Forward Guidance newsletter","tags":["Forward Guidance newsletter","investors","IPO","NASDAQ"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Economic growth data says we’re on track for a soft landing","description":"Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting reflect that officials are on hold until inflation trends much lower.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Economic growth data says we’re on track for a soft landing","og_description":"Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting reflect that officials are on hold until inflation trends much lower.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T20:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/austan-1.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Casey Wagner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/austan-1.jpg","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/caseywagnerr","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casey Wagner","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track","name":"Economic growth data says we’re on track for a soft landing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/soft-landing-is-on-track#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/austan-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-19T20:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/0c3aa3d6e7409ce07260250ecd2ea702"},"description":"Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting reflect that officials are on hold until inflation trends much 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asset investment firms, market structure, central banks and governments, and CBDCs. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on markets at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies. Contact Casey via email at casey@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-wagner-a49b3a152/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/caseywagnerr"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/casey-wagner"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Casey Wagner","id":19,"slug":"casey-wagner","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"kaito-preps-token-launch","id":97668,"permalink":"/news/kaito-preps-token-launch","title":"Crypto sentiment analytics platform Kaito AI prepares for token launch","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/social-media.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/social-media.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eWatchara Newman/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:48:37 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739988000,"excerpt":"The AI platform looks to reshape Web3 marketing with yaps","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCrypto is a volatile industry for primarily two reasons: 1) it’s permissionless (anyone can make a token) and 2) it’s still largely looking for product-market fit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat does this mean to a short-term trader looking to flip a quick buck? If you’re trying to frontrun the market, you’d want to know when a certain narrative is falling in (and out of) favor.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eYou can then spend absurd hours doomscrolling Twitter and Telegram groups — or you can use Kaito, a Web3-focused search engine that scrapes troves of data across social media to generate quantifiable sentiment analysis for you.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve spent time on CT in the last year, you’ve likely seen many of these useful Kaito dashboards around.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcY4JFvrXLi5IXhwdAk8n0E0bn5WUgwTfEikldvvnLsgPCdP0qdeCyqTPw4T70vQg-QHn1Ve5OsllI_X6QF_IIgZJlBMFpR5cq1CkcP9cf5Kt0R_jld87dM4bWHuKrkbyp9HqYsQw?key=OwV2jL9DN49AICoIFwBGNID_\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/sandraaleow\"\u003e@sandraaleow\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut people are excited about Kaito today because of its token airdrop, not its core analytical product.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWait, a data analytics platform needs a token?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eYes it does, because you can apparently tokenize anything in crypto. In Kaito’s case, it’s tokenizing the attention economy of Crypto Twitter.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eEveryone has a shot — you can connect your X account to Kaito, and tweet a lot to \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-yap-to-earn-takeover\"\u003eearn “Yap” \u003c/a\u003epoints, which entitle you to a larger KAITO airdrop.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo deter mindless spam, the team \u003ca href=\"https://docs.kaito.ai/kaito-yaps-tokenized-attention\"\u003eweights\u003c/a\u003e Twitter posts by relevance (proof-of-work), originality (proof-of-insight) and engagement based on “reputation” (proof-of-exchange).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eKaito has made CT a much shittier place. Discussion quality has gone down, outrage marketing has further gone up. You can really tell which people are performing for the algorithm. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you’re reading this \u0026#8211; you know who you are.\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; Hasu⚡️🤖 (@hasufl) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hasufl/status/1887513212414771485?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 6, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis entire idea is based on a familiar sales pitch: Big Tech sucks because they monopolize the value created by content creators. Kaito lets the people retain some of that value.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt also opens up a very interesting business model for Web3 marketing.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe users who’ve signed up to “yap” away on Twitter provide Kaito with quality data around crypto trends and KOLs that can be sold to major ecosystem projects.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXciaK9GojuG18YNWods_Pb6auHf7pZSlS6t93GQEWDJzMRmUuhl_bYMztxgBJWQg3_-SgiFHu6e4nR0dQOggSfHHQc3AsTNZ7kIFMOc68US87HDaL_fWbBZKgQFrpbrnagfDHJj4g?key=OwV2jL9DN49AICoIFwBGNID_\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://yaps.kaito.ai/movement\"\u003eKaito\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Essentially Kaito does all the hard work that marketing teams would otherwise need to spec out to determine how and where to develop and spend on social marketing campaigns in terms of selecting the right set of KOLs, targeting the proper audience and so forth,” Blockworks’ Danny Knettel told me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eWe are talking about \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/KaitoAI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003e@KaitoAI\u003c/a\u003e in the crypto marketing cabal today \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome say it doesn’t reward “high quality” posts. I don’t think that is kaito’s purpose in the first place\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s a measurement of influence, quality of reach \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003einfluence ≠ quality content \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf i was in house at a… \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/wAVK4VnRiz\"\u003epic.twitter.com/wAVK4VnRiz\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; Emily Lai (@emilyxlai) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/emilyxlai/status/1891187384169214392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 16, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow back to the points. Maybe you think this is another pointless “SocialFi” game we’ve seen with \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/sec-doj-charge-bitclout-creator-crypto-fraud-social-media\"\u003eBitClout\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/frienddottech-relinquishes-platform-control\"\u003efriend.tech\u003c/a\u003e, but Kaito’s points are actually shaping up to be valuable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/ren_gmi/status/1890385280114315736?s=46\u0026amp;t=2q9OLMlaobNlHLewOXT4uA\"\u003e@Ren_gmi’s estimates\u003c/a\u003e, YAP points are worth anything between $20 to $140 per point.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s unclear how Kaito’s token product ties into its core analytics product, and it’s still too early to speculate on there being any kind of value accrual between the two.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAssuming an annual price of \u003ca href=\"https://kaito.ai/pricing\"\u003e$10,000\u003c/a\u003e and 1,000 paid seats, Kaito generates annualized revenues of $10 million.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne could value KAITO at a conservative 20x P/S multiple, which would place the token’s value at a $200 million market cap (assuming a 24% token supply airdrop).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Aevo’s pre-launch market, KAITO is\u003ca href=\"https://app.aevo.xyz/perpetual/kaito\"\u003e presently trading\u003c/a\u003e at a $320 million market cap/$1.3 billion FDV.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUpdated Feb. 19, 2025 at 1:48 pm ET: Updated KAITO P/S multiple.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"0xResearch Newsletter","categories":["0xResearch Newsletter","DeFi"],"primaryTag":"0xResearch Newsletter","tags":["0xResearch Newsletter","airdrop","social media","Tokenization"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Crypto sentiment analytics platform Kaito AI prepares for token launch","description":"The AI platform Kaito looks to reshape Web3 marketing with yaps.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crypto sentiment analytics platform Kaito AI prepares for token launch","og_description":"The AI platform Kaito looks to reshape Web3 marketing with yaps.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T18:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-19T18:48:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/social-media.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Donovan Choy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Donovan Choy","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch","name":"Crypto sentiment analytics platform Kaito AI prepares for token 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yaps.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/social-media.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/social-media.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Watchara Newman/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/kaito-preps-token-launch#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crypto sentiment analytics platform Kaito AI prepares for token launch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/c4a1189eb3d6ce74aa8c11a73babc1db","name":"Donovan Choy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-45.png","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-45.png","caption":"Donovan Choy"},"description":"Donovan is a reporter based in Singapore. He previously worked in editorial at Bankless and is a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns and the Wu-Tang Clan. Contact Donovan at donovan@blockworks.co.","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/donovan-choy"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Donovan Choy","id":390,"slug":"donovan-choy","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"trump-orange-pilling-influence","id":97659,"permalink":"/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence","title":"This long-time Trump figure was pivotal to his orange-pilling","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/trump-2.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/trump-2.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003ePresident Donald Trump | noamgalai/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:27:47 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739980800,"excerpt":"It took months of educating Trump’s team on bitcoin before ever meeting at Trump Tower","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTrump didn’t take a direct route to Bitcoin — having sold three NFT collections on Polygon long before he \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/on-the-margin-newsletter-trump-bitcoin-mining-meeting\"\u003emet with bitcoin mining executives\u003c/a\u003e at Mar-a-Lago last June.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd Trump is obviously no maxi. He and the First Lady have their own memecoins on Solana, not to mention his DeFi project World Liberty Fi has \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-backed-project-token-swaps\"\u003eactively courted crypto teams\u003c/a\u003e for token swap deals and other types of partnerships.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eStill, something clearly happened last year that changed his tune toward bitcoin, which he’d initially \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57392734\"\u003ecalled\u003c/a\u003e a “scam against the dollar” in the thick of the 2021 bull run.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTurns out that thing was Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn this week’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcpCNXyHGaE\"\u003eepisode\u003c/a\u003e of \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c/em\u003e, David Bailey, CEO at BTC Inc, gave host Jason Yanowitz\u0026nbsp; the inside scoop on how \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/26/trump-orange-pilled-by-three-bitcoiners-in-puerto-rico-100-million.html\"\u003ehe and two other Bitcoiners\u003c/a\u003e were able to orange-pill Trump heading into election season.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“I was hanging out in Puerto Rico with a friend of mine that lives here and we were sitting around — this is in January 2024 — and like, we’re a company but we are all in on bitcoin, all in emotionally, spiritually, financially. Our mission is hyperbitcoinization and we actually [wonder] all the time, \u0026#8220;how do we accelerate hyperbitcoinization?\u0026#8221;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf114aaZOa81M9ZeW87EgCLZwcsvabFuL-bQiF6QVlA_HgR5WqZ3pdmj1hdRCe0ZMPkw7Jbr5urhjURmHQ0FSSl_rpvqA04zW6C3rQH3XhI-z7tCQoLtV0JDkzWzWxjFby7ZJcRfQ?key=S6ZUtrpxMXUcwkCzW7EXNWHK\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“And so, we were sitting around like ‘damn, if we could just get in front of Trump, like we could pitch bitcoin to Trump and get him bought in on it, and it\u0026#8217;d be huge for bitcoin.’”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy happenstance, Bailey’s friend could make that connection — through her sister, whose godfather is Manafort. “So she was able to get a call set up with Paul, and so that’s how it got started.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom there, it took months of Bitcoin education with Trump’s team before getting all the way to the big man, who had one key concern that hadn’t yet been resolved: Bitcoiners say bitcoin is going to destroy the dollar.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTrump likes the dollar — so what gives?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“And we\u0026#8217;re like, ‘well, you know, America built Fort Knox and stored the world\u0026#8217;s gold in Fort Knox — that didn\u0026#8217;t undermine the dollar; it made the dollar stronger than ever. And if you want the dollar to stay strong into the future, then we got to build the digital Fort Knox and need to have the world\u0026#8217;s digital gold stored in America as well. That\u0026#8217;s how we get another 200 years of the dollar being relevant.’”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Bailey, Trump instantly understood and agreed to the next step — meeting in person at Trump Tower. And the rest is history.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Empire Newsletter","categories":["Empire Newsletter","People"],"primaryTag":"BTC","tags":["BTC","Donald Trump","Empire Newsletter"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"This long-time Trump figure was pivotal to his orange-pilling","description":"It took months of educating Trump's team on bitcoin before ever meeting at Trump Tower.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This long-time Trump figure was pivotal to his orange-pilling","og_description":"It took months of educating Trump's team on bitcoin before ever meeting at Trump Tower.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/trump-2.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"David Canellis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Canellis","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence","name":"This long-time Trump figure was pivotal to his 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Tower.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/trump-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/trump-2.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"President Donald Trump | noamgalai/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/trump-orange-pilling-influence#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This long-time Trump figure was pivotal to his orange-pilling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/169d92c899e039eaa3200366502ce4b2","name":"David Canellis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-02-at-20.17.00-e1651515763548.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-02-at-20.17.00-e1651515763548.jpg","caption":"David Canellis"},"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/david-canellis"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"David Canellis","id":56,"slug":"david-canellis","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"universal-raise-led-by-a16z","id":97663,"permalink":"/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z","title":"Exclusive: Universal raises $9M in round led by a16z","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eJulia Manga/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:26:09 GMT","publishedAt":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:26:06 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739975166,"excerpt":"“The goal with Universal is to make everything that we consider to be a crypto asset tradable with very deep liquidity on crypto rails,” Universal’s Austin Diamond explained to Blockworks","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe vibes may be off over on CT, but they’re not off for wrapped asset startup Universal, which exclusively told Empire about a $9 million round it raised led by a16z.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eUniversal Protocol was deployed roughly six months ago. According to Universal’s Austin Diamond — who’s also behind Alongside — the team’s been “really excited about the growth it’s seen since then.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhich is understandable, given the metrics readily available via Dune. Since the launch, users have traded well over $800 million in uAsset volume.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdoFaDXz9cJ2hogUam6-l7fWAiqEjijcdRwS2BVpCCLGZpTNuFO1JTetznT6KCUu9W5sHtGufAHDE60lVNfuCjYUmIBP9d8lf74-zkqDbpRSoyvNP9Gzrib2j7JlW7Qa9dYbDxC9w?key=S6ZUtrpxMXUcwkCzW7EXNWHK\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSource:\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://dune.com/universalasset/universal\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDune\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut let me back up quickly: The idea of Universal is kind of baked into the name, which is to make all kinds of tokens “tradable on crypto rails.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;“The goal with Universal is to make everything that we consider to be a crypto asset tradable with very deep liquidity on crypto rails, such that not only can end users just access any asset that they might be able to access on a centralized exchange but that any developer can use those,” Diamond explained.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo, Universal wraps the assets for users to trade. Taking it outside of crypto, Diamond likened it to bringing analog newspapers online.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Historically speaking, none of those newspapers talk to each other. And now it\u0026#8217;s like everything lives on a shared internet,” which is why Universal wants to make assets usable and tradable onchain.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfDuAnf03Cf90n3NfLOhcR-Jw47Cb60GH0k4jjia73jsI0PFrZJQ3NKKVceRwBD87rG2A2oPrZ68ervXjyAvoiqoX5qmS0K1VHh-orgMax5gRPAqr32KC7OSwWIaSuSkTo6L4mC?key=S6ZUtrpxMXUcwkCzW7EXNWHK\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSource: \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://docs.universal.xyz/universal-protocol/introduction-to-universal/universal-asset-overview\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eUniversal’s docs\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiamond explained that this most recent funding round was a chance to once again work with partners — like a16z — and they pursued the round after Universal gained traction.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“We really reached kind of an inflection point on our growth, it felt like it was the right time to be in a position to pour gas on it, and so we view that money as fuel to be able to expand on what we\u0026#8217;re doing. To date, we\u0026#8217;ve launched largely through distributing new assets through other dapps. We want to continue to do that, but also want to drive more people to our front-end experience. And I think it felt like a good time for us” to raise now, Diamond explained. \u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor the team, it’s “champagne problems” of having to scale up. It hasn’t been an easy road, Diamond noted…well, until they got “sufficient traction.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“It was a very long and windy path to get there. I think once we\u0026#8217;ve reached escape velocity and … We were lucky to have a long-standing relationship with a lot of our investors, and they trusted us. We were very upfront about the trials and tribulations over the course of the last couple of years. We came to them with [the] growth. There are real numbers here, here’s [what] our plans look like over the course of the next three, six months to six years,” he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiamond’s dream is to make Universal’s offerings as “ubiquitous as wrapped bitcoin” which he admitted is not a simple task. But the goal is to break folks out of some of the “tribalism” and “divided factions” in crypto.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps that’s the next big narrative.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Business","categories":["Business","Empire Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"a16z","tags":["a16z","Empire Newsletter","Funding","Payments"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Exclusive: Universal raises $9M in round led by a16z","description":"“The goal with Universal is to make everything that we consider to be a crypto asset tradable with very deep liquidity on crypto rails,\" Universal's Austin Diamond explained to Blockworks.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exclusive: Universal raises $9M in round led by a16z","og_description":"“The goal with Universal is to make everything that we consider to be a crypto asset tradable with very deep liquidity on crypto rails,\" Universal's Austin Diamond explained to Blockworks.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-19T14:26:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-19T14:26:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Katherine Ross","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/byKatherineRoss","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katherine Ross","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z","name":"Exclusive: Universal raises $9M in round led by a16z","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-19T14:26:06+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-19T14:26:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/a8f9a113f6017d6aaa63f86ed288df05"},"description":"“The goal with Universal is to make everything that we consider to be a crypto asset tradable with very deep liquidity on crypto rails,\" Universal's Austin Diamond explained to Blockworks.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/funding-pink.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Julia Manga/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-raise-led-by-a16z#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Exclusive: Universal raises $9M in round led by a16z"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/a8f9a113f6017d6aaa63f86ed288df05","name":"Katherine Ross","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-3.52.23-PM.png","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-3.52.23-PM.png","caption":"Katherine Ross"},"description":"Katherine is a news editor based in Austin. She worked as a senior producer and correspondent at TheStreet prior to joining Blockworks. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on journalism from Sarah Lawrence. Contact Katherine via email at katherine@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinerooss/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/byKatherineRoss"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/katherine-ross"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Katherine Ross","id":94,"slug":"katherine-ross","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","id":97647,"permalink":"/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","title":"LIBRA jumped the shark","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eArgentina President Javier Milei | Jonah Elkowitz/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:40:17 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:45:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739915100,"excerpt":"Nothing about Argentine President Javier Milei’s disastrous memecoin launch was that unprecedented","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne thing to note about Argentine President Javier Milei’s disastrous memecoin launch is that nothing about it was that unprecedented.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery viral memecoin tends to pump before quickly losing value. So-called snipers have long been known to buy up new tokens before the broader public gets involved. Celebrities and “key opinion leaders” often engage with crypto on pay-to-play terms. Hell, two other presidents launched memecoins this past month.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Melania Trump’s token pumped and dumped, the world moved on. Crypto doesn’t seem so willing to forgive and forget this time around. Maybe that\u0026#8217;s because of how brazen the whole thing was.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eLIBRA raced above $4 billion in market cap before dropping under $200 million in a matter of hours — a pump and dump far more drastic than, say, the MELANIA coin. After the fact, popular crypto figures spoke openly about trading on insider information. Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy was \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-memecoin-sausage-gross\"\u003eallegedly refunded\u003c/a\u003e the $5 million he put into LIBRA, a privilege not afforded to most traders who lost money.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd unlike the majority of celebrity memecoin launches, this one had real-world fallout attached. Most surprisingly, it was announced that Ben Chow, CEO of Jupiter-linked DeFi platform Meteora, chose to resign — although Chow and Jupiter’s pseudonymous CEO meow both maintain that he did nothing tangibly wrong apart from showing a “lack of judgement.” Meow said Jupiter would be hiring the tech law firm Fenwick \u0026amp; West to investigate what happened.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMilei faces a lawsuit, Argentina’s stock market fell 5% after the opening bell yesterday, and SOL is down nearly 20% since Friday. KOLs started \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/notthreadguy/status/1891635451011776953\"\u003eissuing\u003c/a\u003e mea culpas.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCrypto’s Twitterati is also very mad, and some are insistent that Solana needs to get back to focusing on constructive use cases like DePIN. It all feels a bit performative in the same way that investors and venture capitalists raced to explain why they never trusted Sam Bankman-Fried only after FTX went belly-up. I expect Kelsier Ventures CEO Hayden Davis — a LIBRA and MELANIA kingmaker who is doing a bizarre amount of media for someone accused of impropriety — to face some sort of legal action following all this collective ire.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut while lawyers will certainly rack up billable hours as a result of LIBRA, I doubt memecoin trading will take much of a hit. I asked Sphere CEO Arnold Lee whether he thinks the LIBRA fallout hints toward crypto finally drawing some sort of line on memecoins.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“An elephant never forgets, but crypto is not an elephant,” Lee said.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Lightspeed Newsletter","categories":["Lightspeed Newsletter","Web3"],"primaryTag":"Argentina","tags":["Argentina","Libra","Lightspeed Newsletter","meme coins"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"LIBRA jumped the shark","description":"Nothing about Argentine President Javier Milei’s disastrous memecoin launch was that unprecedented.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LIBRA jumped the shark","og_description":"Nothing about Argentine President Javier Milei’s disastrous memecoin launch was that unprecedented.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T21:45:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Jack Kubinec","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://x.com/whosknave","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jack Kubinec","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins","name":"LIBRA jumped the shark","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T21:45:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/a2ba185171edaaaeee3be572a2b05c96"},"description":"Nothing about Argentine President Javier Milei’s disastrous memecoin launch was that unprecedented.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Argentina President Javier Milei | Jonah Elkowitz/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-will-not-deter-memecoins#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LIBRA jumped the shark"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/a2ba185171edaaaeee3be572a2b05c96","name":"Jack Kubinec","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jack-Headshot-2022-square-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jack-Headshot-2022-square-scaled.jpg","caption":"Jack Kubinec"},"description":"Jack Kubinec is a Solana ecosystem reporter based in Brooklyn, New York. Jack previously interned at Blockworks before joining full-time. He graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a degree in sociology. Contact Jack at jack.kubinec@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-kubinec-3737ba233/","https://x.com/https://x.com/whosknave"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/jack-kubinec"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Jack Kubinec","id":64,"slug":"jack-kubinec","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit","id":97625,"permalink":"/news/crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit","title":"SEC says crypto task force could help end Coinbase suit","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hester-1.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hester-1.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eIncoming crypto task force head Hester Peirce | Permissionless II for Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:31:11 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:30:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739914200,"excerpt":"One of the biggest Biden-era crypto enforcement actions may be on its way to resolution","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the biggest Biden-era crypto enforcement actions may be on its way to resolution.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe SEC last week said its \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/new-sec-crypto-task-force\"\u003enew crypto task force\u003c/a\u003e “may affect and could facilitate the potential resolution” of the agency’s lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe lawsuit, first filed in 2023, \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-howey-question-second-circuit\"\u003ewas escalated\u003c/a\u003e to the Second Circuit last month with Coinbase’s successful motion for an interlocutory appeal.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBasically, the SDNY (the federal court that handled SBF’s trial and many other ongoing crypto matters) decided that a higher court needs to step in to resolve a key question: Do intermediated crypto transactions involve investment contracts (i.e., transactions made on an exchange)?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf the answer to this question is yes, then that means crypto exchanges are facilitating securities transactions, which would be a problem.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the one hand, a ruling from the Second Circuit on this question would bring a lot more clarity to the space. One of the biggest issues with crypto regulation and enforcement today is that district court judges, sometimes even from the same district, are taking different stances.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn appeals court ruling would provide more concrete precedent for \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/legal-pro-analyzes-coinbase-sec-ruling\"\u003efuture cases\u003c/a\u003e. (The caveat here is the appeals process is long and expensive. And either party could keep appealing to higher courts should things not go their way.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, a definitive crypto policy stance from the SEC would be even better than legal precedent. “Better,” of course, is relative here. The agency could come up with something the industry opposes.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo lots of potential outcomes here. We’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Forward Guidance Newsletter","categories":["Forward Guidance Newsletter","Policy"],"primaryTag":"Coinbase","tags":["Coinbase","Forward Guidance newsletter","SEC","Securities"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"SEC says crypto task force could help end Coinbase suit","description":"One of the biggest Biden-era crypto enforcement actions may be on its way to 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit","name":"SEC says crypto task force could help end Coinbase suit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-task-force-coinbase-suit#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/hester-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T21:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-18T21:31:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/0c3aa3d6e7409ce07260250ecd2ea702"},"description":"One of the biggest Biden-era crypto enforcement actions may be on its way to 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investment firms, market structure, central banks and governments, and CBDCs. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on markets at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies. Contact Casey via email at casey@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-wagner-a49b3a152/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/caseywagnerr"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/casey-wagner"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Casey Wagner","id":19,"slug":"casey-wagner","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season","id":97629,"permalink":"/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season","title":"Earnings season takes back seat to interest rate, tariff concerns ","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/donald-trump-1.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/donald-trump-1.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003ePresident Trump | Consolidated News Photos/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:01:41 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739912400,"excerpt":"Investors evaluating tariff risks has contributed to market volatility over recent weeks","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe “tariff trade,” or the market volatility we’ve seen the past couple of weeks as investors evaluate \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-markets-tariff-reaction\"\u003etariff risks\u003c/a\u003e, has overshadowed the tail end of earnings season.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut many analysts still think US equities have room to go higher.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePresident Trump’s threats have been delayed, not canceled. 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum tariffs are slated to start next month, and \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/reciprocal-tariffs-may-be-coming\"\u003ereciprocal tariffs\u003c/a\u003e against a range of countries are still being designed, so the news cycle — and market — are likely to take a break from focusing on duties.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, Big Tech stocks are just starting to recover from some post-earnings dips, but the S\u0026amp;P 500 is still outperforming the Magnificent Seven.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmazon’s web services business reported a 37% profit margin in Q4 2024 — an impressive feat, but investors weren’t sold. Shares fell more than 4% following the company’s report.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMicrosoft was a similar story. Shares had their worst day since 2022 after execs reported Q4 earnings, even though figures for earnings per share and revenue came in higher than expected.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGoogle shares were down more than 8% after Alphabet missed on Q4 revenue.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eStill, Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye says that as long as economic data continues to stay in the “Goldilocks” range, the market should prove resilient. Should the Fed signal that this pause is likely to continue for a long while, we could be in trouble.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Forward Guidance Newsletter","categories":["Forward Guidance Newsletter","Markets"],"primaryTag":"big tech","tags":["big tech","Forward Guidance newsletter","Interest Rates","Stocks"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Earnings season takes back seat to interest rate, tariff concerns ","description":"Investors evaluating tariff risks has contributed to market volatility over recent 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Wagner","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season","name":"Earnings season takes back seat to interest rate, tariff concerns ","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/tariff-trade-overshadows-earnings-season#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/donald-trump-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T21:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-18T21:01:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/0c3aa3d6e7409ce07260250ecd2ea702"},"description":"Investors evaluating tariff risks has contributed to market volatility over recent 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concerns "}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/0c3aa3d6e7409ce07260250ecd2ea702","name":"Casey Wagner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Headshots_12082021_KarlLMoore-6-1-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Headshots_12082021_KarlLMoore-6-1-scaled.jpg","caption":"Casey Wagner"},"description":"Casey Wagner is a New York-based business journalist covering regulation, legislation, digital asset investment firms, market structure, central banks and governments, and CBDCs. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on markets at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies. Contact Casey via email at casey@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-wagner-a49b3a152/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/caseywagnerr"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/casey-wagner"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Casey Wagner","id":19,"slug":"casey-wagner","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"btc-near-term-price-drivers","id":97616,"permalink":"/news/btc-near-term-price-drivers","title":"BTC sinks after a quiet week. But now what?","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/bitcoin-blue.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/bitcoin-blue.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eImages with good Karma/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:30:50 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 20:30:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739910600,"excerpt":"“Crypto prices often rally into the spring before declining into summer,” Compass Point analysts wrote","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBTC was rather quiet again last week as various narratives seem to be pulling sentiment in different directions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe then saw the asset’s price sink below $94,000 around 1 pm ET Tuesday — down more than 3% from seven days prior.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCrypto exchange volumes reached their lowest level since the US presidential election, Compass Point analysts said in a Tuesday note.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eLast week, the US spot bitcoin ETFs had $580 million of net outflows, Farside Investors \u003ca href=\"https://farside.co.uk/bitcoin-etf-flow-all-data/\"\u003edata\u003c/a\u003e shows — breaking a six-week inflow streak.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd yet, on the other side, we have Crypto Twitter lighting up at each sign of institutional buying. 13F filings (showing holdings of investment managers with at least $100 million AUM) have given us a glimpse into that.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere was the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund — Mubadala Investment Co. — holding $437 million of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), as of Dec. 31.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile, the state of Wisconsin reported having nearly 6.1 million shares of IBIT in Q4 — roughly double the 2.9 million shares it had held the prior quarter.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere was also Tudor Investment Corp’s increased BTC \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/923093/000090266425001008/xslForm13F_X02/infotable.xml\"\u003eposition\u003c/a\u003e. The Paul Tudor Jones-founded firm upped its 4.4 million shares of IBIT held in Q3 to 8 million shares (worth $427 million) in Q4.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis reminded me of a \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/paul-tudor-jones-likes-bitcoin-as-portfolio-diversifier\"\u003epiece\u003c/a\u003e I wrote early in my Blockworks career. Jones, talking about bitcoin, said on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the time: “I like the idea of investing in something that’s reliable, consistent, honest and 100% certain.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image wp-duotone-grayscale\"\u003e\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc3mYD6ITxck2yEVUWBYWLys1K0QJFO3rQnzTCmCiSTeivrPeqxOnCrEo-CrFW8EQIXDJPSpGvvzdjM7sIKFCgBtto6mcWMuiq305yTa-VEs-6l0U45umwjsbwKvTLDt1mysWqMrA?key=Y3ev__dZt6jpCFns2ttWkIiP\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:572px;height:auto\"/\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eJones noted allocations of 5% in gold, 5% in bitcoin, 5% in cash and 5% in commodities at that point before considering other positions based on Fed actions, etc.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe billionaire then \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/paul-tudor-jones-bitcoin-looming-recession\"\u003esaid\u003c/a\u003e in October 2023 that gold and BTC “probably take on a larger percentage of your portfolio” given the macro picture and geopolitical tensions.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo, based on past comments, Tudor’s hefty IBIT position reveal is not exactly surprising. But this bitcoin vehicle being among the firm’s largest single positions is certainly noteworthy.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGoing back to price action, BTC remains well off its all-time high around $109,000.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMike Marshall, Amberdata’s head of research, noted that liquidity is accumulating around the $95,000 mark “with smart money positioning and retail making small purchases.”\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe attributed BTC’s “quiet phase” to investors waiting for clearer economic data [and] \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power\"\u003epolicy\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/top-signals-of-this-cycle\"\u003erenewed\u003c/a\u003e market confidence.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Better CPI results for February and resolution of tariff uncertainty could trigger this,” Marshall noted.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBTC\u0026#8217;s recent low-volatility profile mirrors those seen in September/October 2023, as well as those in February, June and October of 2024, Compass Point’s Ed Engel and Joe Flynn argued.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Pronounced volatility” followed each of those four periods, they added, with price moving upward three times.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Crypto prices often rally into the spring before declining into summer,” Engel and Flynn wrote. “BTC\u0026#8217;s [$92,000] cost basis for short-term holders still provides strong support.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Forward Guidance Newsletter","categories":["Forward Guidance Newsletter","Markets"],"primaryTag":"BTC","tags":["BTC","ETFs","Forward Guidance newsletter","investors"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"BTC sinks after a quiet week. 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But now what?","og_description":"“Crypto prices often rally into the spring before declining into summer,\" Compass Point analysts wrote.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/btc-near-term-price-drivers","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T20:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-18T20:30:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/bitcoin-blue.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Strack","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/strack_ben","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Strack","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/btc-near-term-price-drivers","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/btc-near-term-price-drivers","name":"BTC sinks after a quiet week. 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But now what?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/f4914afc4aae12ac17c73cccb6b79405","name":"Ben Strack","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","caption":"Ben Strack"},"description":"Ben Strack is a Denver-based reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence, and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. Twitter: @strack_ben","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-strack-621a2265/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/strack_ben"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/benstrack"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Ben Strack","id":23,"slug":"benstrack","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"ton-telegram-relationship","id":97607,"permalink":"/news/ton-telegram-relationship","title":"TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eCryptoFX/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:07:10 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:56:41 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739905001,"excerpt":"Telegram games on TON could become more sophisticated this year — or at least improve their tokenomics, says TON Society co-founder Jack Booth","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://thedrop.beehiiv.com/subscribe\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Open Network, aka TON, made a splash with Telegram games and crypto integrations built on top, like with NOTcoin, which has seen over $1 billion in total volume traded since its launch.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eA TON app page lists over 570 different gaming-related TON apps, which is a staggering number for any chain. But are the games on TON any good — and where does the TON ecosystem go from here?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Ivan Gusev, head of fun at TON NFT marketplace Getgems, tells me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe games that launched on TON in 2024 are very early-stage right now. Jack Booth, co-founder of TON Society, an organization that contributes to TON, tells me he believes the games that release in 2025 and beyond will be evolved — hopefully better — versions of what we’re seeing now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe tokens launched via TON and Telegram also don’t have much staying power. The games are typically very simple, using “tap-to-earn,” spinning a roulette, or other play-to-earn methods.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The sustainable token model is something that I think these games will start to implement,” Booth said, noting that in his view, crypto in general has been too much about price speculation thus far.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to playing games to earn altcoins, Telegram users can also buy Telegram usernames, profile decals, stickers, and more via TON as NFTs using the TON cryptocurrency.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTelegram has begun using TON for its own products and ads without notifying TON builders, Booth said. Telegram doesn’t tell TON builders what it’s going to do or when, creating a symbiotic but disjointed relationship.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBooth and Gusev both separately told me that TON builders like themselves have “zero relationship” with Telegram.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“We don’t know Telegram’s plans. I’m pretty sure Pavel doesn’t know Telegram’s plans,” Gusev tells me with a smile, referring to Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov. “They operate in chaos.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eDespite that chaos, however, TON builders like Booth and Gusev are confident that keeping TON tied to Telegram is the best move.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is primarily because Telegram already has so many users — billions, in fact, many of whom like crypto. And user acquisition and growth is arguably one of crypto’s biggest hurdles.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBooth sees 2025 as a year where more favorable US regulation could mean the Telegram Wallet may become available in the US “very soon.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUpdated Feb. 19, 2025 at 3:06 pm ET: Clarified language.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Business","categories":["Business","The Drop Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Gaming","tags":["Gaming","Telegram","The Drop newsletter","TON"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram","description":"Telegram games on TON could become more sophisticated this year — or at least improve their tokenomics, says TON Society co-founder Jack Booth.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram","og_description":"Telegram games on TON could become more sophisticated this year — or at least improve their tokenomics, says TON Society co-founder Jack Booth.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T18:56:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-19T20:07:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Kate Irwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kate Irwin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship","name":"TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T18:56:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-19T20:07:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/142667578725123db036cebdc39a3fea"},"description":"Telegram games on TON could become more sophisticated this year — or at least improve their tokenomics, says TON Society co-founder Jack Booth.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/tonm.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"CryptoFX/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ton-telegram-relationship#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TON builders reveal there’s ‘zero relationship’ with Telegram"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/142667578725123db036cebdc39a3fea","name":"Kate Irwin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Kate-Irwin-headshot.png","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Kate-Irwin-headshot.png","caption":"Kate Irwin"},"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/kate-irwin"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Kate Irwin","id":422,"slug":"kate-irwin","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","id":97597,"permalink":"/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","title":"FTX payouts begin, but will creditors buy back in?","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ftx-blue.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ftx-blue.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eIvan Babydov/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:39:14 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739901600,"excerpt":"With $800 million now flowing to creditors, some expect a market boost — yet many remain cautious after years of waiting","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlockworks has published \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/tag/ftx\"\u003e520 articles\u003c/a\u003e on FTX over the years, including a play-by-play of the exchange’s implosion \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/the-last-10-days-in-the-ftx-saga-a-timeline\"\u003eand its aftermath\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGiven the company’s scale and influence, the FTX bankruptcy was \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-is-bankrupt-but-you-can-still-trade-crypto-there\"\u003ea surreal experience\u003c/a\u003e for those of us working full-time in crypto in November 2022.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut down it went! And for the thousands of customers left with assets stranded in bankruptcy limbo, it was painful. At the time, I don’t think anyone would’ve expected that two years and three months later, creditors would be seeing 120% recovery of those funds. (Yes, yes, I know — only in depreciated nominal terms from the petition date — and many have missed out on realizing gains from the bull market of 2023-24, but still…)\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt could have been a lot worse.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eUnsecured creditors typically recover a fraction of their claims in bankruptcy cases. FTX paying effectively 9% interest on the USD value is a rare outcome.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, creditor payments are now flowing. According to multiple members of the “FTX 2.0 coalition” Telegram group, Kraken — one of two official distribution partners for the FTX estate — credited accounts on schedule around 10:00 am ET. Many claimants who selected BitGo are still waiting as its website is apparently buckling under the traffic influx — though that should be short-lived.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAround $1.2 billion in total is eligible to be paid to creditors with claims under $50,000. But for now, that will only include creditors who completed all preliminary steps including KYC with FTX — I’ve seen 70% or so mentioned — and around a third of those claims (an \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/sunil_trades/status/1891821557338538468\"\u003eestimated\u003c/a\u003e $400m worth) were resold. That money is most likely not coming back into crypto.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo, let’s assume $400 million will be available to original FTX users today. What will they do with that cash?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGiven the current market sentiment, I’d bet they won’t put it all back into the market. And perhaps not even most of it. No matter where you think bitcoin is going long term, or what your views are on a “super cycle,” you have to at least entertain the possibility that the top is in for a good long while. Folks who were burned by FTX — uncertain for years whether they would see any of that money — are prone to be cautious.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e$1.2b worth of FTX distributions going out today\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere does the money go?\u003cbr\u003e\u0026#8211; Surely some goes to mending wounds. Straight into repaying debts and cash.\u003cbr\u003e\u0026#8211; Everyone is exhausted with memecoins\u003cbr\u003eand in extension SOL.\u003cbr\u003e\u0026#8211; ETH on a relative basis has gone nowhere.\u003cbr\u003e\u0026#8211; AI just did -90%.… \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/qd5hwYVS7r\"\u003ehttps://t.co/qd5hwYVS7r\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; hansolar (@hansolar21) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hansolar21/status/1891661657660850526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 18, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eNot everyone agrees. Mena Theodorou, co-founder at crypto exchange Coinstash, suggests Solana (SOL) may be a major beneficiary.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“FTX’s \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-crypto-portfolio\"\u003ehistoric investments in SOL\u003c/a\u003e and the Solana ecosystem make it likely that some of these funds will flow back into the network, especially since SOL has been a standout performer, rising over 500% in the past year, with strong onchain activity and developer growth continuing to fuel demand,” Theodorou told Blockworks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eI’m not so sure. In the wake of the latest \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode\"\u003ememecoin scandal\u003c/a\u003e, SOL has now broken through a key daily support level on both the USD and BTC charts. For aggressive dip buyers, this arguably could be an opportunity, but for many it’s time to panic.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eEven if I’m wrong on the trader psychology, this isn’t likely to be the big liquidity injection that some have been hoping for. The vast majority of the claims in nominal terms are those greater than $50k — some $17b worth — and for any of that to re-enter crypto we’ll have to wait at least a few months longer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"0xResearch Newsletter","categories":["0xResearch Newsletter","Business"],"primaryTag":"0xResearch Newsletter","tags":["0xResearch Newsletter","bankruptcy","FTX","Sam Bankman-Fried"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"FTX payouts begin, but will creditors buy back in?","description":"With $800M now flowing to creditors, some expect a market boost — yet many remain cautious after years of waiting.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"FTX payouts begin, but will creditors buy back in?","og_description":"With $800M now flowing to creditors, some expect a market boost — yet many remain cautious after years of waiting.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T18:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ftx-blue.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Macauley Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/yeluacaM","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Macauley Peterson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin","name":"FTX payouts begin, but will creditors buy back in?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-creditor-repayments-begin#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ftx-blue.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T18:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/50839baf1e52e068535d90ee8f5692c4"},"description":"With $800M now flowing to creditors, some expect a market boost — yet many remain cautious after years of 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in?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/50839baf1e52e068535d90ee8f5692c4","name":"Macauley Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Peterson-Twitter_sm.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Peterson-Twitter_sm.jpg","caption":"Macauley Peterson"},"description":"Macauley was an editor and content creator in the professional chess world for 14 years. Prior to joining Blockworks, he researched stablecoins, decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies at Bucerius Law School (Master in Law and Business, 2020). He also holds an MA in Film Studies; film credits include Associate Producer of the 2016 Netflix feature documentary, \"Magnus\" about World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/macauleypeterson/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/yeluacaM"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/macauleypeterson"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Macauley Peterson","id":32,"slug":"macauleypeterson","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","id":97591,"permalink":"/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","title":"Crypto market no longer able to separate memecoins from Solana","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003epakie/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:00:51 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739894400,"excerpt":"There’s more to do on Solana than memecoins, but the market isn’t seeing it that way","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eKanye West. J.K. Rowling. Woody Allen. Some find it nearly impossible to separate art from artist.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCrypto markets are struggling with something similar about Solana. While there are all sorts of use cases for the chain that don’t have anything to do with highly manipulated memecoins, SOL is still getting punished for the LIBRA debacle — which all happened on Solana.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSince LIBRA insiders pumped and dumped the coin on Friday evening (supposedly to \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-memecoin-sausage-gross\"\u003eoutsnipe the snipers\u003c/a\u003e waiting to capitalize first), SOL has tanked by as much as 18%.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s rebounded slightly since but the damage is clear, especially considering BTC and ETH are mostly even over the same period. SOL now has a $83.4 billion market cap, just over half that of XRP.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeteora is tied to both Jupiter — though it’s said that the two have been positioned independently over the past year — and LIBRA. JUP, the native token for Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter, has also shed as much as 24%.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfUhy5p_b413tBM0t9o3mP24arRq7RoOF69aRpkIrMs6t7Fu8LqA5aGJXM-U04MhEeZ5HkJMV-CNKnuJwntLu68XyoTTOEw38ZxYBYG3xpqUDSx75DuI_kPxu5i9wqopYuNI99ldA?key=NsXOV3_qihTu7KComdTDSng6\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe chart above plots price action for six coins throughout the LIBRA launch starting almost two days earlier: TRUMP (orange), MELANIA (yellow), ETH (green), SOL (purple) and JUP (pink).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eLIBRA’s market cap is otherwise shown by the blue area in the front.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat’s peculiar is that TRUMP, JUP and MELANIA rallied hard leading up to LIBRA’s sudden appearance, with the former reaching as high as 54% just four hours before LIBRA launched, and JUP as much as 17%.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThose trajectories changed one or two hours before LIBRA hit the chain and have been trending downward ever since the scandal broke out.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eJupiter, in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JupiterExchange/status/1891181433588470052\"\u003estatement\u003c/a\u003e on X, described plans to launch LIBRA as an “open secret in memecoin circles.” The team says it has conducted an internal investigation and found no evidence of insider trading.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe’ll probably never know if the pre-LIBRA pumps were coincidences. But it’s obvious that the market finds it all convenient enough to bundle them all together under one roof — the Solana memecoin complex, as Galaxy’s Thorn put it — and it’s indeed valued much lower than before, at least over the short term.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Analysis","categories":["Analysis","Empire Newsletter","Uncategorized"],"primaryTag":"Argentina","tags":["Argentina","Empire Newsletter","Libra","meme coins","Solana"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Crypto market no longer able to separate memecoins from Solana","description":"There's more to do on Solana than memecoins, but the market isn't seeing it that way.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crypto market no longer able to separate memecoins from Solana","og_description":"There's more to do on Solana than memecoins, but the market isn't seeing it that way.","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T16:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-18T16:00:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"David Canellis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Canellis","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins","name":"Crypto market no longer able to separate memecoins from Solana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-18T16:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-18T16:00:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/169d92c899e039eaa3200366502ce4b2"},"description":"There's more to do on Solana than memecoins, but the market isn't seeing it that way.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/solana-pixel.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"pakie/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-market-impact-solana-memecoins#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crypto market no longer able to separate memecoins from Solana"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/169d92c899e039eaa3200366502ce4b2","name":"David Canellis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-02-at-20.17.00-e1651515763548.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-02-at-20.17.00-e1651515763548.jpg","caption":"David Canellis"},"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/david-canellis"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"David Canellis","id":56,"slug":"david-canellis","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","id":97586,"permalink":"/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","title":"LIBRA’s the latest ‘sordid episode’ of Solana memecoins: Galaxy","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier-milei.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier-milei.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eArgentina President Javier Milei | Matias Lynch/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:09:16 GMT","publishedAt":"Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:34:36 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739889276,"excerpt":"Galaxy’s Alex Thorn said that the saga, paired with TRUMP and MELANIA, could lead to “further destruction of the memecoin complex”","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“I spread the word,” Argentine President Javier Milei \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-18/milei-denies-wrongdoing-in-his-first-defense-of-crypto-debacle?embedded-checkout=true\"\u003ereportedly said\u003c/a\u003e in a TV interview yesterday defending his promotion of Libra.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMilei seems pretty set in denying any wrongdoing in the Libra fiasco, despite promoting the coin on his own social media and watching it tumble more than 90% overnight after briefly hitting a $4.5 billion market cap.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe8GIPSGkx-88qnIc7B2M--ZTy2yEKXlMz3dDSLktcioIoPm4QhaKSvVNN8xR7KbR5uu8blfXBBF4iR_Gd_ePp6KZXK7dIEsWcW1-3bhJD0TCg8CoYNqQQLTblQfXklzH5J37Zdeg?key=NsXOV3_qihTu7KComdTDSng6\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eA quick timeline for those of you who didn’t catch \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-memecoin-sausage-gross\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDavid’s write-up on LIBRA\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e Monday morning\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor Milei, who admitted he’s not an “expert,” the lack of judgment here is potentially career-damaging. And my use of “potentially” there is generous given Milei’s excuse that his specialty is “economic growth, with and without money.”\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMonday morning saw the S\u0026amp;P Merval index — the benchmark stock market index for Argentina — fall over 5%. Mind you, for the folks who don’t keep up with the Argentinian economy, it \u003cem\u003ejust \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.ft.com/content/c92c1c71-99e7-49c1-b885-253033e26ea5\"\u003eexited\u003c/a\u003e a recession.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Galaxy’s Alex Thorn pointed out, this is just the latest Solana memecoin debacle after TRUMP and MELANIA earlier this year. And that’s going to lead to some potentially painful questions.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“While a souring memecoin narrative had already begun following the liquidity suck caused by $TRUMP’s launch, the fallout from the $LIBRA launch and dump could result in further destruction of the memecoin complex, thus reducing the market’s need to hold SOL,” Thorn wrote in a note.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image\"\u003e\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd6XO8BqFjXWswufoDMlmXxppNsvECbUIlxfQXhNhMR2STSkNYBZvEOrgjm9x8sAOmLXa_39Wpl6H5MiYXI67Wwk4c8tBTlPpoCjSMkYHUfH2Sz8DhwpQAVU10mO2VJ6js1zWN9yQ?key=NsXOV3_qihTu7KComdTDSng6\" alt=\"\"/\u003e\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eA look at SOLUSD\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/figcaption\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis saga, however, has all the drama: A president in hot water, onchain data showing insider selling, and — as of late last night — an executive departure.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBen Chow, co-founder of Meteora (which was used to create liquidity pools for LIBRA), resigned late Monday after the scandal.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePrior to Chow’s resignation, he said: “Meteora and I personally, have never received or managed any tokens on the side, do not receive knowledge or get involved with any offchain dealings, and we keep to the highest levels of confidentiality for any token launch happening on our platform.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere have been questions regarding Meteora and my involvement in \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=%24LIBRA\u0026amp;src=ctag\u0026amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003e$LIBRA\u003c/a\u003e, so I want to explain our role and share why we work with 3rd parties.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeteora and I personally, have never received or managed any tokens on the side, do not receive knowledge or get involved with any…\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; benchow.sol (@hellochow) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hellochow/status/1891341548115149190?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 17, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eMeow, who founded Jupiter and co-founded Meteora, said he believes Chow’s statement that there wasn’t any “financial inappropriateness in dealing with partners” but that he had “shown a lack of judgment and care about some of the core aspects of the project.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor Thorn, this is just the latest “sordid episode of Solana’s memecoin complex.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"\u003e\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003eHi, I’m meow from Jupiter, and I also cofounded Meteora.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirstly, I’d like to reiterate my confidence that no one at Jupiter or Meteora committed any insider trading or financial wrongdoing, or received any tokens inappropriately.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSecondly, we are hiring an independent 3rd…\u003c/p\u003e\u0026mdash; meow (🐱, 🐐) (@weremeow) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/weremeow/status/1891664435321647186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"\u003eFebruary 18, 2025\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/blockquote\u003e\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eHere’s the thing: There’s now a pattern of memecoin launches tied to political figures and I can’t be the only one watching it take place with discomfort.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere’s no denying that memecoins have had quite the run, but — as Thorn pointed out — this type of activity could just lead to the market reducing overall positions in SOL.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhich leaves me wondering: Where do we go from here?\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Analysis","categories":["Analysis","Empire Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Argentina","tags":["Argentina","Empire Newsletter","Libra","meme coins","Solana"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"LIBRA's the latest 'sordid episode' of Solana memecoins: Galaxy","description":"Galaxy's Alex Thorn said that the saga, paired with TRUMP and MELANIA, could lead to \"further destruction of the memecoin complex.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LIBRA's the latest 'sordid episode' of Solana memecoins: Galaxy","og_description":"Galaxy's Alex Thorn said that the saga, paired with TRUMP and MELANIA, could lead to \"further destruction of the memecoin complex.\"","og_url":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","og_site_name":"Blockworks","article_published_time":"2025-02-18T14:34:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-18T21:09:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier-milei.jpg","type":"image/jpeg"}],"author":"Katherine Ross","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https://twitter.com/byKatherineRoss","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katherine Ross","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode","name":"LIBRA's the latest 'sordid episode' of Solana memecoins: 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complex.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier-milei.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/javier-milei.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Argentina President Javier Milei | Matias Lynch/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/libra-latest-solana-memecoin-episode#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LIBRA\u0026#8217;s the latest \u0026#8216;sordid episode\u0026#8217; of Solana memecoins: Galaxy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/a8f9a113f6017d6aaa63f86ed288df05","name":"Katherine Ross","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-3.52.23-PM.png","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-3.52.23-PM.png","caption":"Katherine Ross"},"description":"Katherine is a news editor based in Austin. She worked as a senior producer and correspondent at TheStreet prior to joining Blockworks. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on journalism from Sarah Lawrence. Contact Katherine via email at katherine@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinerooss/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/byKatherineRoss"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/katherine-ross"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Katherine Ross","id":94,"slug":"katherine-ross","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"solana-network-origins","id":97497,"permalink":"/news/solana-network-origins","title":"Solana’s origins: Turning an idea into reality","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/anatoly-yakovenko.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/anatoly-yakovenko.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eSolana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko | \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/techcrunch/52457248290/\"\u003eKimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch/”1434830174″\u003c/a\u003e (\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/\"\u003eCC license\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Sat, 15 Feb 2025 22:47:56 GMT","publishedAt":"Mon, 17 Feb 2025 21:30:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739827800,"excerpt":"Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017 embarked on the technical challenge of solving blockchain’s scalability problem","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery great innovation starts with a problem. For Solana, the issue was obvious. Blockchains were too slow, expensive and unapproachable for mainstream adoption. Ethereum struggled with congestion, Bitcoin was too rigid for complex applications, and no one else had made any meaningful strides to address the scalability problem. For one engineer, this would become an all-consuming technical challenge, leading him on a mission to build his own decentralized network capable of processing transactions at internet speed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2017, Anatoly Yakovenko, a seasoned Qualcomm engineer, turned his attention to Web3. He was drawn by its potential to decentralize finance and reshape the internet. While the technology was promising, blockchain had begun to atrophy under a fatal flaw after nearly 10 years of relative triumph: It was too slow to scale. This inefficiency was a fundamental bottleneck. It was clearly preventing mass adoption in fields like real-time gaming, decentralized finance, physical infrastructure networks, AI inference and autonomous machine coordination.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe issue was that blockchains lacked a built-in clock. Each node in a decentralized system confirmed transactions sequentially, requiring network-wide agreement before finalization. This\u0026nbsp; process was sluggish, and it made blockchain unfit for high-speed applications. Yakovenko’s breakthrough came with the introduction of proof-of-history (PoH), a conceptual cryptographic method that timestamps transactions before they enter the block, creating a verifiable sequence of events.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike traditional validation — where nodes process transactions in sequence — PoH enabled simultaneous processing. This innovation was rocket fuel for efficiency, unlocking unprecedented throughput and eliminating congestion. Yakovenko assembled a team of engineers, including Greg Fitzgerald (also from Qualcomm) and Raj Gokal. They founded Solana Labs in 2018, inspired by the California beach town where Yakovenko spent time surfing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn its early days, Solana Labs was bootstrapped through private fundraising rounds and raised approximately $20 million from venture capitalists and early crypto investors. The team built and tested a prototype network, proving PoH’s potential with benchmarks demonstrating over 50,000 transactions per second — many orders of magnitude faster than Ethereum and Bitcoin.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eSolana officially launched its mainnet beta in March 2020, right as the Covid-19 pandemic sent global markets into chaos. Despite the timing, the network gained traction among developers and investors attracted to its promise of high-speed, low-cost transactions. The ability to process transactions for fractions of a cent made it an ideal platform for DeFi applications, gaming platforms and a multitude of experimental decentralized tools — all of which had, up until that point, been constrained by Ethereum’s slow speeds and high gas fees.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn June 2021, Solana Labs secured a $314 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital. The legitimacy this runway brought the ecosystem allowed for rapid expansion and innovation. Solana soon became home to Serum (a DEX), Raydium (an AMM liquidity provider), Mango Markets (a margin trading protocol) and more. The end of 2021 saw the Solana price surge to highs of $260 — up from $0.50 just 18 months before — cementing its status as a top-five cryptocurrency by market cap. Investor confidence soared, and Solana’s momentum appeared unstoppable. By the end of 2021, Solana had evolved from an ambitious experiment into a major force within the crypto space. However, beneath its meteoric rise lay unseen challenges that would soon test the network’s resilience and stability.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNext time:\u003c/strong\u003e The fall. How the collapse of one of crypto’s biggest players sent shockwaves through the Web3 ecosystem, and why many believed Solana wouldn’t survive.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Analysis","categories":["Analysis","Lightspeed Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Anatoly Yakovenko","tags":["Anatoly Yakovenko","Lightspeed Newsletter","SOL","Solana"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Solana's origins: Turning an idea into reality","description":"Anatoly Yakovenko turned his attention to Web3 in 2017 to address the technical challenge of blockchain’s scalability 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins","url":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins","name":"Solana's origins: Turning an idea into reality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/anatoly-yakovenko.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-17T21:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/81d908bdb2a2116f62b40268244b9397"},"description":"Anatoly Yakovenko turned his attention to Web3 in 2017 to address the technical challenge of blockchain’s scalability problem.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins#primaryimage","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/anatoly-yakovenko.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/anatoly-yakovenko.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko | Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch/\"1434830174\" (CC license)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-origins#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://blockworks.co/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Solana\u0026#8217;s origins: Turning an idea into reality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/81d908bdb2a2116f62b40268244b9397","name":"Jeff Albus","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/86d4590109ad848f74cb25247b433d95?s=96\u0026d=mm\u0026r=g","contentUrl":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/86d4590109ad848f74cb25247b433d95?s=96\u0026d=mm\u0026r=g","caption":"Jeff Albus"},"description":"Jeff is an editor at Blockworks, based in the United States. He has been a part of the blockchain space for over a decade, most recently working as US news editor at Cointelegraph. His areas of focus include empowering artists and creators through technology, using proof-of-participation methods to reward self-improvement, reducing the effectiveness of Sybil attacks, seeking transparent equity for disadvantaged communities, and exploring fairer models of world governance. Contact Jeff at Jeffrey@blockworks.co.","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyalbus/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/muchfunsuchjeff"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/jeffrey-albus"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Jeff Albus","id":99,"slug":"jeffrey-albus","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null},{"slug":"grayscale-etf-strategy-shift","id":97477,"permalink":"/news/grayscale-etf-strategy-shift","title":"Planned Cardano ETF signals a Grayscale strategy shift?","type":"post","typeLabel":"post","isSticky":false,"imageUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/cardano.jpg","thumbnail":{"url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/cardano.jpg","caption":"\u003cp\u003eVoar Designs/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks\u003c/p\u003e\n","dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":900}},"lastUpdate":"Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:25 GMT","publishedAt":"Mon, 17 Feb 2025 21:00:00 GMT","publishedAtTimestamp":1739826000,"excerpt":"Grayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products, but there’s an indicator this could be changing","content":"\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, \u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance\"\u003e\u003cem\u003esubscribe\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products. A recent Cardano ETF filing signals that could be changing as \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-friendly-congress-steps-into-power\"\u003eregulatory winds shift\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe company typically first goes with private placement launches for accredited investors (like the Dogecoin Trust it launched a couple weeks ago).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eStep two is obtaining public quotations for unrestricted shares of those private placements.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrayscale then makes its products SEC-reporting companies, subjecting them to more disclosure and regulatory oversight.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, it looks to uplist its products to an ETF when the regulatory environment allows for it (think last year’s conversions of GBTC and ETHE).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Given the environment is rapidly evolving before our eyes, there may now be a few shortcuts appearing,” said Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, Grayscale appears to be skipping these steps in its quest to launch an ETF holding cardano (ADA). See NYSE’s 19b-4 filing for listing the planned product \u003ca href=\"https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/markets/nyse-arca/rule-filings/filings/2025/SR-NYSEArca-2025-12.pdf\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrayscale does not currently have a trust holding ADA. And so, the direct filing for an ETF could signal optimism the SEC “is now open for business” and could move quickly to approve more spot crypto funds beyond bitcoin and ether, Geraci said.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe firm did not return a request for comment.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eVarious fund managers have live proposals for ETFs holding litecoin, solana, XRP and other crypto assets. We recently reported on \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/news/litecoin-etf-approval-odds-2025\"\u003ethe possible odds\u003c/a\u003e of those launching this year.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo Geraci’s point, Bryan Armour, a director of passive strategies research at Morningstar, said he expects Grayscale to file directly for ETFs if the firm expects approval. The private trust/OTC route only makes sense if funds holding those assets are deemed “unavailable” from a regulatory standpoint, he added.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eGeraci doesn’t exactly agree on that second point.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom a competition perspective, Geraci explained, he likes the idea of Grayscale bringing a private placement offering to market first (like it did with its latest DOGE Trust).\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e“It offers them the ability to get a head start on attracting assets prior to converting into an ETF,” he explained. “They can essentially front-run the competition.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStart your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire\"\u003eSubscribe to the Empire newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExplore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin\"\u003eSubscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGet alpha directly in your inbox with the \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research\"\u003e0xResearch newsletter\u003c/a\u003e — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. \u003ca href=\"https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed\"\u003eSubscribe to daily Solana news\u003c/a\u003e from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n","primaryCategory":"Business","categories":["Business","Forward Guidance Newsletter"],"primaryTag":"Cardano","tags":["Cardano","ETFs","Forward Guidance newsletter","Grayscale","SEC"],"customFields":{"display_options":[]},"meta":{"title":"Planned Cardano ETF signals a Grayscale strategy shift?","description":"Grayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products, but there's an indicator this could be changing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https://blockworks.co/news/grayscale-etf-strategy-shift","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Planned Cardano ETF signals a Grayscale strategy shift?","og_description":"Grayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products, but there's an indicator this could be 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shift?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#website","url":"https://blockworks.co/","name":"Blockworks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://blockworks.co/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/f4914afc4aae12ac17c73cccb6b79405","name":"Ben Strack","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https://blockworks.co/#/schema/person/image/","url":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","contentUrl":"https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Ben-Strack.jpg","caption":"Ben Strack"},"description":"Ben Strack is a Denver-based reporter covering macro and crypto-native funds, financial advisors, structured products, and the integration of digital assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) into traditional finance. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence, and was a reporter and editor for various local newspapers on Long Island. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. Twitter: @strack_ben","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-strack-621a2265/","https://x.com/https://twitter.com/strack_ben"],"url":"https://blockworks.co/news/author/benstrack"}]}},"authors":[{"title":"Ben Strack","id":23,"slug":"benstrack","image_url":""}],"blurhash":null}],"asset":{"id":"4","code":"BTC","title":"Bitcoin","slug":"bitcoin","imageUrl":"https://coin-images.coingecko.com/coins/images/1/large/bitcoin.png?1696501400","tagline":"A peer-to-peer electronic cash system","description":"Bitcoin is the first distributed consensus-based, censorship-resistant, permissionless, peer-to-peer payment settlement network with a provably scarce, programmable, native currency. Bitcoin (BTC), the native asset of the Bitcoin blockchain, is the world's first digital currency without a central bank or administrator. The Bitcoin network is an emergent decentralized monetary institution that exists through the interplay between full nodes, miners, and developers. It is set by a social contract that is created and opted into by the users of the network and hardened through game theory and cryptography. Bitcoin is the first, oldest, and largest cryptocurrency in the world.","type":"Infrastructure","category":"Infrastructure","isSupported":true,"dominance":"49.9323","cgRef":"bitcoin","analystRef":null,"tradingViewRef":null,"sector":"L1","oldSector":"Currencies","price":{"usd":96878,"eth":19.522734313181,"btc":1},"marketcap":{"rank":1,"usd":1920813676235,"usdVolume24h":27901700000},"supply":{"circulating":19826721,"liquid":0,"total":19826721},"ohlcv24h":{"open":60270.235008533,"high":97327,"low":95591,"close":58040.60631435,"volume":43062467389.346},"change":{"usd1h":0.0445476,"usd24h":1.1884,"btc1h":0,"btc24h":0,"eth1h":-0.00124721,"eth24h":-3.09621},"isFavorite":null},"summary":{"id":342,"title":"Bitcoin Overview","tab":"summary","code":"btc","order":0,"content":"Bitcoin was created in 2009 by a pseudonymous person or group under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin's vision of an electronic peer-to-peer payment system that enables people to send money to anyone in the world without permission gave birth to the crypto industry we know today. Nakamoto believed that our current financial system was too reliant on a small number of permissioned, large banks that lend out customer deposits and were often left insolvent in the case of bank runs or times of credit retractions. It seems clear that Satoshi also believed that the underlying concept of 'fiat' currencies were an inherently flawed credit based design. Satoshi Nakamoto's indentity remains a mystery to this day, but he/she/they instilled a messaged with the genesis block's data stating \"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.\"\n\nBitcoin is just a simple piece of software, often referred to as a client, that anyone in the world is free to download and run. Every node running a Bitcoin client shares a copy of the blockchain, or a large list of accounts with balances and their corresponding transaction history. Bitcoin targets 10 minute block times, meaning that every 10 minutes a block of transactions should be propogated throughout the network of nodes. Bitcoin's primary innovation was solving the 'double-spend' problem without relying on a centralized entity. For example, banks ensure that no individual or group is able to spend a single dollar more than once because they privately verify every transaction. The Bitcoin software requires nodes to keep all transactions recieved in memory before solidifying their validity by submitting them on chain. Random nodes then add blocks of transactions to the chain after the targeted block interval (10 minutes) has passed and shares it with the rest of the nodes in the network. All nodes come to an agreement on the correct list of transactions while removing any conflicting ones, thus ensuring that no BTC is ever spent more than once.\n\nBitcoin is the longest tenured blockchain and remains the largest digital asset by market capitalization. It represents the birth of digital currencies that are censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer, and permissionless with programatic monetary policy.\n","createdAt":"2023-09-05T17:40:48.849Z","updatedAt":"2023-09-05T17:41:54.889Z","publishedAt":"2023-09-05T17:41:54.884Z"},"about":{"id":252,"title":"About Bitcoin","tab":"about","code":"btc","order":0,"content":"## About Bitcoin\n\nBitcoin (BTC) is a digital asset - also called cryptocurrency - that allows people to transact directly with each other without intermediaries like banks. As digital means of transferring and settling value, Bitcoin is tamperproof, censorship-resistant, globally accessible, and secured by energy. It was released in 2009 and was the first successful currency of its kind.\n\nBitcoin was created by an unknown person or a group of people going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi was actively leading and developing the project for a while after Bitcoin’s launch. However, on April 26, 2011, he sent a final email to his fellow developers saying he had “moved on to other projects.” Today, more than 800 people are [contributing](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin) to the development of Bitcoin, according to GitHub.\n\nSatoshi designed Bitcoin with a limited total supply of 21 million units, creating digital scarcity, the first of its kind. As of October 4, 2022, there were 19,168,118 bitcoin in circulation (91% of the total supply). Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places (100 millionth). The smallest unit is called a “satoshi.” Bitcoin’s ticker is BTC and is used across many different trading venues.\n\n## Price history\n\nBitcoin’s price is following a cyclical pattern, going through peaks and troughs, which are correlated with its halvings. With every halving, Bitcoin’s supply is cut in half, making it more scarce. Such halvings happen every 4 years approximately. Initially, 50 BTC were added into circulation with each block. Having seen three havlings already, Bitcoin’s supply issuance currently stands at 6.25 BTC every 10 minutes on average. The next halving will take place in 2024, cutting the amount per block to 3.125 BTC. Miners are projected to mine the last BTC around 2140.\n\nAt launch, BTC didn’t have a price tag. It had no monetary value. When Satoshi mined the genesis block (first block), 50 BTC went into circulation at $0. Fast forward to November 10, 2021, 12 years later, Bitcoin hit an all-time high (ATH) of $68,789.63. This was a huge moment for the Bitcoin community and the crypto space as a whole. Needless to say though, the cryptocurrency has gone through many ups and downs over the years before reaching this historical price. In February 2011, for example, bitcoin’s price rose to $1 for the first time. It then climbed to $10 and $30 in the subsequent months. By the end of 2011, BTC was under $5.\n\n2013 was a huge year for bitcoin because it recorded a price gain of 6,600%. Its first major pump is said to have been caused because of Chinese investors circumventing the country’s capital controls. Although it experienced a price correction after almost hitting $250 in April, it reached $1,000 for the first time in the last quarter of 2013. Bitcoin wouldn’t record $1,000 again for more than 3 years.\n\nOver the course of its history, bitcoin has always made a strong comeback. In December 2017, the cryptocurrency even peaked at nearly $20,000. A crypto winter followed in 2018 and 2019 until prices began significantly picking up again at the end of 2020. One year later, the current bitcoin all-time high was recorded. In 2022, bitcoin has dropped once more and is hovering around $20,000 - $18,000.\n\n## How does Bitcoin work?\n\nBlockchain is the underlying technology that stores a record of all BTC transactions. It’s an immutable public distributed ledger stored and maintained by a network of full nodes. The name Bitcoin is used interchangeably to refer to the blockchain network and the cryptocurrency that powers it. More precisely though, Bitcoin with a capital B is referring to the network, while Bitcoin used with a minor b is describing the asset.\n\nNew bitcoin is created through a process called mining. In the beginning, miners could use moderately powerful devices like CPUs and GPUs. As the number of Bitcoin miners increased, the difficulty of finding new blocks rose to the point that miners now need ASICs to mine profitably.\n\nProcessing power is needed to provide the necessary proof of work. This is the work that miners (another type of bitcoin node) need to perform to verify and add blocks of transactions to the blockchain by running software with unique hardware. They use mining software to “listen” for transactions broadcasted across the network and compete to generate the mathematical proof of work by generating hashes, which are not difficult to perform but energy intensive. That is why they require specialized mining hardware called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).\n\nThe miner that assembles a block before everyone else gets to validate and add the next block of transactions to the blockchain. The average time it takes to find a block is 10 minutes. Bitcoin mining is a competitive task, making it hard for anyone to consecutively add blocks of transactions. Miners are incentivized to do this work to earn the block reward, which is how new Bitcoins are minted. Mining creates trust in a decentralized network where there is no trusted third party by ensuring that transactions are confirmed only when enough computational power has been committed to each approved block. As more blocks are accepted on the chain, trust increases even more. This way, practically speaking, transactions committed to the Bitcoin network are permanent, they cannot be reversed.\n\n## FAQs\n\n### Who owns the most bitcoin?\n\nDistributed over several wallets, it’s estimated that Satoshi owns over 1 million BTC worth in excess of $19 billion at the time of writing this article. This makes Satoshi the biggest bitcoin holder. MicroStrategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin (130,000 BTC as of September 20, 2022). Additionally, over 30,000 bitcoin addresses are holding more than $1 million BTC.\n\n### Is Bitcoin coin a good investment?\n\nBitcoin is provably scarce and because of its halving schedule, the cryptocurrency is programmed to become more scarce. Thanks to its proof of work algorithm, mining protects the protocol from disruption and interference, making it resistant to any form of modification or corruption. An asset that cannot become less scarce will likely perform well over time due to its supply and demand dynamics.\n\n### What was the price of 1 Bitcoin in 2009?\n\nThe bitcoin price was $0 at launch.\n\n### Can Bitcoin reach $1,000,000?\n\nMany experts and analysts have given varying bitcoin price predictions. One of the most popular forecasts is the stock-to-flow model, which predicts BTC will reach $100,000 in 2024 and $1,000,000 in 2025. The latter figure still seems to be far out. Although this prediction is attractive to investors, keep in mind that bitcoin is a volatile asset, the price predictions are not guaranteed, and you shouldn’t invest what you cannot afford to lose. The average bitcoin price prediction for 2023 is around $31,000.\n\n## Related\n\n### Popular Criticisms\n\nMiners use energy-intensive equipment to compete for the chance to find a block. As a result, Bitcoin consumes a lot of power, drawing criticism from many people, including Elon Musk. As of the end of October 2022, Bitcoin [consumed](https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index) about 102.11 TWh per year. This is the [equivalent](https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index/comparisons) of Pakistan’s power expenditure. While Bitcoin does consume a lot of energy, in the grand scheme of things, its consumption is still negligible. Also, because Bitcoin mining is a highly competitive industry with miners looking for the cheapest energy, affordable renewable energy sources are increasingly used. Mining is on course to be the first and only industry to [become carbon negative](https://blockworks.co/how-clean-energy-can-further-mass-adoption/) (a huge positive for the environment).\n\n### Comparisons to other Projects\n\nBitcoin is often compared to Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market cap. The latter recently [switched](https://blockworks.co/ethereum-switches-to-proof-of-stake-after-7-years-of-work/) from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), making it less dependent on processing power. Furthermore, Bitcoin is often compared to its fork, [Litecoin](https://litecoin.com/), which processes transactions faster (block confirmation time is 2.5 minutes) and has very low fees. Still, though, bitcoin is considered the mother of all cryptocurrencies, leading the way. The jury is still out on whether the trade-offs (switching to proof-of-stake or lowering transaction fees) will be worth it in the long run. After all, security with these alternative blockchains will be reduced. This is also why other cryptocurrencies show a high correlation to Bitcoin’s price.\n\n### Development Timelines\n\nSince its launch, Bitcoin has received a few upgrades. In 2017, the [SegWit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SegWit) upgrade boosted Bitcoin’s capacity by transforming how data is stored in blocks. Four years later, developers executed the [Taproot](https://blockworks.co/btc-price-flat-after-taproot-lightning-network-continues-to-grow-markets-wrap/) upgrade, enabling Bitcoin to compete with smart contract platforms like Ethereum. It also made the network more private and secure. Possible future upgrades could improve security through modifications called covenants and ramp up privacy with the use of sidechains.\n","createdAt":"2023-08-18T20:21:49.434Z","updatedAt":"2023-08-18T20:21:49.434Z","publishedAt":"2022-11-10T19:02:54.000Z"},"meta":{"title":"Bitcoin Price (BTC), Market Cap, Price Today \u0026 Chart History","description":"Get the latest Bitcoin price, BTC market cap, charts and data today. The live Bitcoin price today is $96,878.00 with a market cap of 1.92T and a 24-hour trading volume of 27.90B. The price of BTC is up 0.04%\n since last hour, up 1.19%\n since yesterday. 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