TLDR Index
TLDR Crypto

TLDR CRYPTO 2025-10-10

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01MARKETS & BUSINESS

KRAKEN EXPANDS INTO OIL, GOLD, AND FX FUTURES AHEAD OF IPO

Kraken is integrating CME Group's traditional futures markets, including energy, metals, FX, and equity indices, into its US derivatives platform via Kraken Derivatives US, a regulated futures commission merchant. The expansion lets traders access CME contracts like oil, gold, and S&P 500 futures alongside crypto products, positioning Kraken as an all-in-one platform bridging TradFi and DeFi. With an IPO reportedly targeted at a $20B valuation, this marks Kraken's latest step following its $1.5B NinjaTrader acquisition, the largest crypto-TradFi merger to date.

links.tldrnewsletter.com3 min read

STATE STREET: INSTITUTIONAL CRYPTO EXPOSURE TO DOUBLE BY 2028

Nearly 60% of institutional investors plan to boost crypto allocations over the next year, with average exposure set to double within three years. More than half expect 10–25% of portfolios to be tokenized by 2030, led by private market assets such as private equity and debt. Institutions cite transparency, speed, and cost savings as key drivers, with 40% already operating dedicated digital asset units.

links.tldrnewsletter.com2 min read

02INNOVATION & LAUNCHES

ZK STACK'S ATLAS UPGRADE

ZKsync's Atlas upgrade for ZK Stack features a high-performance sequencer that achieves over 15,000 TPS with 500ms average transaction inclusion time, integration with Airbender (the world's fastest open-source RISC-V zkVM) for one-second block proofs, and native EVM support through a flexible architecture that allows multiple VM configurations. Performance benchmarks show 23,000 TPS for high-frequency oracle price updates, 15,000 TPS for stablecoin transfers at 0.5 gigagas per second, and 43,000 TPS for native ETH transfers at 0.9 gigagas per second, with proving costs dropping to approximately $0.0001 per ERC20 transfer. The upgrade enables one-second ZK finality where blocks are proved and verified by ZKsync Gateway at the network edge before settling to Ethereum within minutes, allowing counterparties to receive cryptographic execution assurance almost immediately without re-executing transactions or running full nodes. This architecture supports the vision of many sovereign chains forming a secure network where banks, enterprises, and public agencies operate private blockchain infrastructure while participating in an incorruptible network anchored to Ethereum's security and liquidity.

threadreaderapp.com6 min read

ETHEREUM FOUNDATION EXPANDS PRIVACY PUSH WITH RESEARCH TEAM

The Ethereum Foundation has formalized privacy as a core roadmap pillar by consolidating existing Privacy and Scaling Explorations experiments like Semaphore, MACI, zkEmail, and Anon Aadhaar under a new privacy cluster coordinated by Igor Barinov with expanded focus on private payments, proofs, identity, and enterprise use cases. New initiatives include private reads/writes for payments and interactions, portable proofs for identity and asset ownership, zkID systems for selective disclosure, UX work normalizing privacy tools, Kohaku SDK and wallet for usable cryptography, and an Institutional Privacy Task Force translating compliance requirements into enterprise-testable specifications. The Foundation positions privacy as essential to Ethereum's credibility for widespread adoption, as transparent blockchain design requires options for users and institutions to transact without exposing sensitive data, though privacy remains politically charged after regulators targeted mixers and shielded transactions, requiring careful balance between confidential use enablement and illicit finance prevention.

coindesk.com5 min read

03GUIDES & TUTORIALS

TOKEN FUNDRAISING SHOULDN'T EXIST

VCs prefer token investments over equity because exits happen within one year versus 3-7 year IPO/acquisition waits, forcing founders who don't need tokens to launch them anyway and diverting attention from product building toward hype creation, community sentiment management, and mindshare battles rather than revenue generation or utility creation. Token launches require massive spending on separate teams, security audits, KOL budgets, market makers, and exchange listings, explaining why projects raise significantly more via tokens than equity and why zkSync maintains a $500 million market cap with only $50 in onchain revenue. The system creates two founder types: those genuinely wanting to build but forced into token models, and grifters like Blast and Movement who design slow-rug protocols using buzzwords and show-off marketing to extract value from secondary buyers and retail who provide the $200 million liquidity pools needed for $20 million raises to achieve 10x exits. Alignment between teams and investors ends at unlock dates when investors dump, while founders face longer vesting, leading to OTC sales through market makers or insider trading via buying low, pumping, and dumping high, with examples like Privy and Flashbots demonstrating successful equity-only models while meaningful token utility remains limited to L1s and core DeFi protocols where tokens integrate fundamentally into products.

links.tldrnewsletter.com7 min read

HOW V4 TURNS AAVE INTO DEFI'S OPERATING SYSTEM

Aave V4 solves the liquidity fragmentation problem where V3's separate markets like Core ($60 billion) and Prime ($2 billion) cannot share liquidity despite holding the same assets, forcing each new specialized market to bootstrap deposits from zero even though Aave holds tens of billions in existing liquidity. The new architecture separates liquidity storage in Hubs from market logic in Spokes, allowing multiple specialized Spokes to draw from shared Hubs based on governance-set credit line allocations, enabling new markets to access Aave's existing depth from day one rather than competing for the same deposits. Spokes enable previously unviable markets, including custom collateral for Ethena's sUSDe and Pendle PTs, institutional segregation requirements, secondary debt position markets, credit against AMM positions with dynamic LTV adjustments, and fixed-tenor credit matching while unmatched liquidity continues earning yield from underlying Hubs. The system creates positive feedback loops where each successful Spoke makes the platform more attractive to next builders through better liquidity utilization, specialized features without asset fragmentation, and innovation atop proven infrastructure rather than repeated bootstrapping.

aave.com6 min read

04MISCELLANEOUS

RAIN CARDS HITS $146M IN MONTHLY COLLATERAL DEPOSITS

Stablecoin card issuer Rain Cards processed $146M in collateral deposits in September, led by Ethereum ($95M), Polygon ($32M), and Base ($9M). USDC dominated with $116M in deposits, followed by USDT and smaller AVAX volumes. Active collateral addresses ranged between 50–95 monthly, including partners like KAST and Kolo.

threadreaderapp.com3 min read

AMINA BANK LAUNCHES INSTITUTIONAL STAKING FOR POL

Europe's AMINA Bank, a regulated crypto institution with $4.2B+ AUM, has launched institutional staking for Polygon's POL token, expanding regulated participation in onchain validation. Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal said each new institutional staker strengthens network security and ecosystem effects.

threadreaderapp.com2 min read