Parse notes
In a sad example of DAO voter apathy and a lack of incentives, the Mango DAO could not accrue votes from a mere 2% of token holders to accept its lawsuit settlement with the SEC. Though the proposal was passing, one large voter withdrew their vote with four hours remaining. Had the vote passed, the DAO would have paid the SEC $670,000 and ceased interactions with MNGO in the United States.
HBO's documentary Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery suggests Peter Todd, a prominent Bitcoin developer, as a potential candidate for Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, citing circumstantial evidence like a mistaken forum post reply and shared communication patterns. However, the crypto community has largely dismissed these claims as speculative and unsupported, with Todd himself denying being Satoshi.
VanEck argues that the crypto industry is focusing too much on infrastructure rather than value-driven products. It is introducing a $30M early-stage fund dedicated to building innovation at the intersection of fintech, crypto, and AI. This initiative aims to support founders who are defining the application layers in their markets, emphasizing tokenized assets, marketplaces, and on-chain payments.
After seven years of public development, the privacy-focused Aztec L2 has finally released its road to mainnet with an interactive roadmap. It is similar in structure to Ethereum's roadmap, with several categories like programmable privacy, decentralization, and proving system with several steps in each ultimately leading to the mainnet launch. As one of the original privacy projects, Aztec enables private smart contracts and interactions through its Noir programming language and zero-knowledge proofs.
Sponsored
BOXABL is attempting to mass produce houses on a scale/cost never before possible. The technology - which Elon Musk has called a “cool product” [8] - is a patented way to build factory-made houses, which could help tackle the growing affordable housing crisis. With 600+ houses built and 3 factory buildings in Las Vegas their future looks
The crypto market saw major fluctuations last week, with Bitcoin dropping to $60,000 before rebounding to $62,000 due to geopolitical tensions between Israel and Iran and a strong U.S. jobs report. Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, reached $2 billion in total value locked (TVL), driven by the success of Aerodrome, while Ethereum's liquid restaking protocols saw explosive growth, with TVL surging from 112,000 ETH to 3.5 million ETH in 2024.
Blockchain-based applications like pump.fun are increasingly out-earning infrastructure and smart contract platforms. There has been a shift toward “fat applications” and modularization across blockchains as apps seek greater economic control and technical flexibility. While apps capture a larger share of the blockchain fee pool, L1s could compete as digital money, acting as a store of value and medium of exchange.
DeFi might pay TradFi for asset flow, like how startups pay Google for search result ranking. Since TradFi owns distribution, they can integrate with existing DeFi protocols and incentivize the movement of assets to their platforms for custody, insurance, and other benefits.
Blockchains face complex challenges in value accrual and must balance revenue from transaction fees, MEV, and token emissions while navigating the trade-off of higher per-transaction value or maximum volume capacity. Appchains and application-specific sequencing could internalize priority fees and MEV for apps, potentially reducing protocol revenue. With enough misalignment between protocols and apps, there could be a shift in value accrual from protocols to the apps, forcing protocols to rely on high transaction volumes rather than individual transaction value.
Taiwan plans to begin a pilot for crypto custody services through local banks in 2025, with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) beginning to accept apps in Q1.
There's unlikely to be much difference between the candidates for Bitcoin, as both are expected to continue printing large amounts of money.
~12.7% of Polymarket user wallets have seen profits, with most gains under $100, revealing a challenging landscape for the majority involved in the prediction market.