Weekly Newsletter, 29 August 2025

Crypto never sleeps

As investors come back from the beach, it’s clear that the crypto industry didn’t take much of a vacation. In fact, the last two months have brought some of the most meaningful regulatory, institutional, and technological developments we’ve seen in years. The global infrastructure upgrade that blockchain technology’s rails enable is gathering ever stronger momentum. As we all wander back to our desks, we thought it would be useful to give a summary of where we stand.

Over the summer, crypto regulation in the US took a generational leap forward. In July, the House passed two landmark bills: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (also known as the market structure bill) and the GENIUS Act for stablecoins. The latter is already codified in law. For the first time, stablecoins now have a federal framework: issuers must hold fully audited reserves, comply with AML rules, and, as result of at least a half successful banking lobby, are prohibited from paying interest. With this regulatory clarity, the road is now clear for stablecoins to truly take off, even more so with the U.S. Treasury secretary actively rooting for them. The market structure bill, meanwhile, is moving through the Senate with the goal of year-end passage. It aims to clarify the securities vs. commodities distinction, assign responsibilities across the SEC and CFTC, and open the door to compliant token launches. It may do to DeFi and blockchain infrastructure at large, what we are currently witnessing for stablecoins. Though hurdles remain, the bipartisan momentum is real and a marked shift from the regulatory hostility of just a year ago.

The best illustration of the new tone came through SEC Chairman Paul Atkins ‘Project Crypto’ speech on July 31st, in which he declared that “we are at the threshold of a new era in the history of our markets” (see our summer update for more detail ). Globally, the picture is also brightening. From MiCA in Europe, to licensing regimes in Hong Kong and Thailand, jurisdictions are racing to legitimize the space. For the first time, regulation isn’t a bottleneck. It’s a catalyst.

At the same time, institutions are no longer just dipping their toes into crypto, they are now deeply integrating digital assets into their core offerings. During this busy summer, BlackRock’s digital assets funds saw record inflows, while Fidelity launched new crypto index funds for institutional clients. JPMorgan rolled out onchain settlement solutions using JPM Coin and partnered with stablecoin issuers, and Goldman Sachs began offering tokenized U.S. Treasuries and money market funds on public blockchains. US pension and endowment funds are now allocating to crypto, following new regulatory clarity and executive orders that explicitly allow such investments. This is a very significant step, as these funds represent trillions in potential capital that so far had been on the sidelines. And as if this was not enough President Trump announced that 401k schemes will be allowed to invest in crypto.

The biggest ‘adoption’ impact at least for the short term, has come from the enormous growth in Digital Asset Treasuries, or ‘DATs’. While Michael Saylor’s (Micro)Strategy has been hoarding Bitcoin for some years already, the summer months saw a true explosion of new DATs, with FundStrat’s Tom Lee’s Bitmine being the star of the show, accumulating almost $8bln in ETH over the summer. Investors clearly have an appetite for digital assets and DATs are offering exposure through a familiar instrument. In total over $15bln of Ethereum, and $80bln of Bitcoin have found a semi-permanent home in these companies. As everyone is rushing to launch new DATs, also for assets further up the risk curve, frothiness is clearly around the corner, and public equity investors should probably start to be wary of which ones to chase. But for the digital assets in question it is a great development, as a new, massive, market of long-term holders.

On the infrastructure side, some of the biggest fintech names are now building their own blockchains. Stripe is launching Tempo, and Circle is rolling out Arc: both chains are optimized for payments, settlements, and stablecoin infrastructure. Think of them as vertical-specific execution layers that aim to make stablecoins the rails for global money movement. This comes right after Robinhood’s announcement that they will build a layer 2 for tokenized stocks. These developments are setting the stage for even greater institutional participation, capital inflows and usage by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, onchain activity is following suit. Lending platforms have crossed $100bln in deposits, decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid has powered through to $1bln of annualized revenue, and more and more traditional assets are getting tokenized. Notably, Ethereum (ETH) has been staging a summer comeback, hitting a new all-time-high just shy of $5k, outpacing Bitcoin (BTC) and hinting at an "Ethereum season" that could ignite broader momentum for other infrastructure-based projects. Remember only a few months ago many pundits thought Ethereum was on life support. Sentiment can change very quickly. It looks like we are at the start of a new bull cycle, this time driven by fundamentals and institutional flows.

Also this week

Relevant financial updates

Stargate Finance*, a cross-chain bridge solution built on LayerZero, was acquired by leading cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero* for $120mln
Camp Network*, an autonomous IP Layer 1 blockchain, had its TGE and is now trading at a $1bln FDV
Mitosis*, a platform that offers tools and infrastructure to help developers build and operate independent blockchain networks that can interact with each other, had its TGE and is currently trading at a $215mln FDV
Hemi Network, a modular Layer-2 protocol enabling decentralized interoperability and scalability between Bitcoin and Ethereum, has raised $15mln in a funding round with investments from YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), Big Brain Holdings, Crypto.com Capital, Republic, Selini Capital and 2 others
Polymarket*, a decentralized prediction market platform that allows users to trade on the outcomes of various events, has raised double-digit millions in a Strategic funding round from Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital
Gondor*, a protocol that enables users to borrow against positions held on Polymarket by providing a DeFi layer for prediction markets, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Seed funding round with investments from Maven 11 Capital
The Clearing Company, a company developing a permissionless onchain prediction‑market platform for real‑world events, spanning crypto, politics, sports, and culture, has raised $15mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Union Square Ventures, Haun Ventures, Compound VC and 12 others
Credit Coop*, an onchain structured finance protocol that enables businesses to access debt financing by collateralizing future revenue and onchain assets, has raised $4.50mln in a Seed funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, TRGC, Faction VC, dlab and 2 others
aPriori*, a MEV powered liquidity staking platform on Monad that repurchases MEVs and redistributes proceeds to protocols and ecosystems, has raised $20mln in a Strategic funding round with investments from Hashkey Capital, Pantera Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Echo, Primitive Ventures and 4 others
Rain*, a card issuer integrated with the Visa network, providing an issuing infrastructure for platforms, banks, and custodians, has raised $58mln in a Series B funding round with investments from Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Samsung Next, Sapphire Ventures and 2 others
M0*, the universal platform powering builders of application-specific stablecoins, has raised $40mln in a Series B funding round with investments from Polychain Capital, Pantera Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bain Capital Crypto and Endeavor Catalyst

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 29/08

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