A sneak peek at the Satellite view 2025

Each year, we put together The Satellite View—a 100+ page deep dive into the latest blockchain developments, packed with insights from some of the sharpest minds in the industry. It’s based on our Legends4Legends conference and goes a step further with speakers’ outlooks for 2025 and a bold prediction for the year ahead.

As always, our goal is to cut through the noise and present blockchain’s biggest trends in a way that actually makes sense for traditional investors. Over the coming weeks, we’ll unpack key themes and highlight insights from our contributors, but today, here’s a sneak preview of what’s inside.

Our experts highlight significant market growth and mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in 2025. We will see a strong influx of new mobile-first consumer applications and gaming experiences. There are signs that old narratives—crypto as an isolated asset class—are losing relevance. The industry is integrating with global markets, with the convergence of AI and crypto driving innovation, while DeFi and stablecoins mature. Trends like speculative memecoins will sharpen market structure regulations developing in the US and major markets. Meanwhile, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) will address real-world problems, and community-driven fundraising will challenge the position of institutional VC.

Here are a couple of the bold predictions:

* Chris Perkins, CoinFund: “US Stables will surpass $500B and be a top 5 holder of US Treasuries.”

* Mike Zajko, Lattice: “Elon Musk will move beyond DOGE and publicly take an interest in the DePIN sector with an energy protocol token being the most likely candidate.”

* Hootie Rashidifard, Hash3: “Tier 1 protocols will raise at least a third of Series A+ funding from the community, instead of institutional capital sources.”

* Shaishav Todi, Lemniscap: ”Total crypto market cap will break $5 trillion. The intersection of AI and crypto will spawn multiple decacorns.”

* Franklin Bi, Pantera Capital: “The majority (50%+) of onchain transactions will originate on our smartphones, turning the onchain economy into a mobile-first experience.”

* Greg van den Bergh, Panga Capital, “The fastest-growing consumer app of 2025, will be an App Protocol, redefining how we think about growth, engagement and monetization.”

* Olaf Carlson-Wee, Polychain Capital: “Social media will transform into a financialized ecosystem, where posts become investable assets, enabling users to stake, trade and ear revenue directly from their engagement.”

* Nick Tomaino, 1Confirmation: “A nation state will announce the first strategic ETH reserve this year.”

* Tyler Spalding, Acronym Foundation: “At least two of the top 10 global retailers (by sales) will accept some form of digital asset payments.”

* Ruud Smets, Theta Capital: “By the end of 2025, blockchain VC will emerge as the most commonly shared investment priority among institutional allocators.”

If this piques your interest, keep a look out for the Satellite View in your inbox!

Also this week

• SEC dismisses litigation against Coinbase
• Honk Kong's five-pillar ASPIRe strategy aims to tackle liquidity fragmentation, regulatory arbitrage and market volatility while fostering blockchain innovation.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has withdrawn its appeal in the dealer rule lawsuit filed by the Blockchain Association and Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas. This decision marks a decisive win for both organizations and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole, effectively ending the contested dealer rule
• Argentine attorneys have filed criminal fraud charges against President Javier Milei over his social media promotion of a cryptocurrency. The legal complaint was submitted to criminal court on Sunday, according to one of the lawyers who spoke with The Associated Press
• Robinhood Markets reported a 700% surge in cryptocurrency trading revenue in the fourth quarter, helping the retail brokerage post record profitability as digital asset volumes rebounded
• Bernstein analysts predict a “perfect storm” of political and regulatory support will drive U.S. stablecoin legislation forward this year, integrating stablecoins deeper into traditional finance

Relevant financial updates

• Kaito*, an advanced data analytics provider in the space launched at token network and currently tradest at $1.5bln FDV
• Altius Labs*, a blockchain technology company providing a modular execution layer for enhanced network performance, raised $11mln in a Pre Seed funding round on February 18th, 2025, with investments from Digital Currency Group, Pantera Capital, Amber Group, Founders Fund, Archetype and others
• Blockaid, a Web3 cybersecurity firm protecting decentralized applications from fraud and hacks, raised $50mln in a Series B funding round on February 18th, 2025, with investments from Variant, Ribbit Capital, Google Ventures and Cyberstarts Ventures
• Cygnus*, a DeFi platform combining non-EVM and EVM ecosystems with a distributed validation system, raised $20mln in a Pre Seed funding round on February 19th, 2025, with investments from OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Manifold Trading, UpHonest Capital, eGirl Capital and others
• Universal*, a DeFi platform for trading wrapped tokens across multiple blockchains, raised a $9mln in a Series A funding round on February 19th, 2025, with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Four Cities Capital and Data Tech Fund
• Fluent*, a blockchain platform integrating WebAssembly with Ethereum to enable multi-language smart contract development, raised $7.5mln in a Extended Seed funding round on February 19th, 2025, with investments from Polychain Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Santiago R Santos, MH Ventures, dao5 and others.
• Mansa Finance, a fintech company providing liquidity solutions for cross-border payments and trade financing in emerging markets, raised $3mln in a Pre Seed funding round on February 20th, 2025, with investments from Polymorphic Capital, Faculty Group, Tether, TRIVE Digital and Octerra Capital
• Obol*, a platform that enables the creation, testing, running, and coordination of distributed validators for Ethereum will raise a $12mln public round powered by CoinList
• Maestro, an enterprise-grade infrastructure provider for Bitcoin DeFi raised $3mln in a Pre Seed funding round on February 10th, 2025, with investments from Draper Associates, UTXO Management amongst other investors
• Acre*, a BTC-denominated yield bearing protocol raised $4mln in a Pre Seed funding round on February 10th, 2025, with investments from Orange DAO, Draper Dragon and Big Brain Holdings

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 21/02

Interesting things to read

• The Satellite View 2025 – bold predictions
• What happened in Argentina: Unchained Podcast: How the Libra scandal exposed memecoine insider trading on the world stage.
• Interesting discussion on fundamentals behind blockchain protocols. Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research discusses traditional private equity valuation methods and crypto investing

Upcoming events

• ETHDenver, Denver
• Legends4Legends 2025, Amsterdam