Helius has launched a SOL rebate system that allows users to earn 50% of the MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) generated by their transactions through post-trade backrunning opportunities. Users can opt-in by simply adding a "rebate-address" parameter to their RPC calls, after which their transactions enter a private auction where vetted, KYC'd searchers bid to backrun trades that create arbitrage opportunities. The system ensures user transactions execute first in bundles before any searcher activity, and rebates are paid automatically in SOL within the same block as execution. This is a novel approach to MEV sharing that allows users to monetize the price inefficiencies their trades create across decentralized exchanges, rather than having this value captured entirely by searchers and validators.
Pendle has completed all VC token unlocks as of 2021, eliminating future selling pressure, while 35% of its supply remains locked in vePENDLE staking that generates $2M monthly in protocol fees for holders from its $8.7B TVL and $56.85M yearly revenue. The protocol recently launched Boros, the first onchain funding rate trading platform that allows leveraged exposure to funding rates without holding underlying assets, targeting the $80B Bitcoin futures market currently dominated by centralized exchanges. Boros is scaling gradually from $20M to planned $25M+ market caps, with revenue projections suggesting $32M annually if capturing just 1% of the total crypto derivatives market through its 0.2% closing fees. The thesis positions Pendle as infrastructure poised to disrupt centralized derivatives trading, similar to how Uniswap captured spot trading volume from traditional exchanges, with current fundamentals showing genuine revenue generation rather than typical DeFi ponzinomics.
Circle's Arc is an EVM-compatible L1 chain with 20 permissioned validators from regulated institutions. Stripe is building its own L1 called Tempo, likely using Paradigm's RETH client. While it remains uncertain whether these corporate chains will issue tokens or encourage external developer adoption, they represent a significant expansion of Ethereum Virtual Machine usage into traditional finance. TradFi companies are increasingly required to hire EVM developers as the technology becomes essential infrastructure, similar to how Microsoft Excel became ubiquitous in finance. This trend of EVM adoption by major financial institutions potentially creates indirect value capture for ETH as the central asset of the Ethereum ecosystem.
While privacy hasn't found strong adoption in early “degen” crypto use cases, it is essential for mainstream financial activity where public transactions would be unacceptable (e.g., credit cards). The open question is whether privacy will be enforced via custodians, as in TradFi, or achieved through compliant onchain solutions.
ERC-8004 extends the Agent-to-Agent protocol with onchain registries for identity, reputation, and validation, letting autonomous agents transact without pre-existing trust. The proposal envisions Ethereum as the neutral part for a machine economy where millions of AI agents coordinate, negotiate, and form coalitions anchored to an incorruptible ledger. By embedding trust into Ethereum rather than centralized servers, ERC-8004 sets the foundation for AI-native commerce and cross-service automation.
Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, the U.S. Treasury has opened a public comment period on methods to detect illicit activity in digital assets.
2025.08.19·links.tldrnewsletter.com·3 min read·TLDR Crypto Nasdaq-listed ETHZilla, formerly 180 Life Sciences, has rebranded and now trades under ETHZ and ETHZW as it deepens its Ethereum treasury model.
2025.08.19·links.tldrnewsletter.com·3 min read·TLDR Crypto The total stablecoin market cap has jumped $16B in the month since the GENIUS Act became law - $6.75B was added in the past week alone.
Nine protocols accounted for 87% of revenue distributed to token holders last week, with Hyperliquid, Pump.fun, and Aerodrome alone making up 75%.
Windows 11's latest preview build adds more dark mode elements, including updated file operation dialogs, though some buttons and key UIs like Control Panel and Run remain light-themed. These tweaks suggest a broader dark mode overhaul may arrive with the 25H2 update, nearly a decade after Microsoft first introduced the feature.
Spotify is testing a new “Follow Along” feature that enhances audiobooks with synced visuals and music, moving beyond the traditional audio-only format. By collaborating with authors, publishers, and designers, Spotify has created custom assets for titles like “Culpability”, boosting engagement by replacing static PDFs with dynamic, multimodal storytelling, and opening new possibilities for visually rich books.
2025.08.19·links.tldrnewsletter.com·6 min read·TLDR Design Joe Caroff, the American graphic designer who created the iconic 007 James Bond logo in 1962, has died at 103. Though largely unknown outside design circles, his prolific career included posters for “West Side Story” and “A Hard Day's Night”, film title sequences, and logos for Orion Pictures and ABC News. Tributes hail him as a humble yet timeless design giant whose work quietly shaped global culture.
A comprehensive resource collection compiles UX guidelines, design patterns, accessibility resources, and UI showcases into a single location. The compilation addresses the common problem of designers getting lost in bookmarks when searching for specific design references. The resource spans multiple categories, including best practices, inclusive design, UI components, layouts, branding, and regional design showcases.
A former manager reflects on a top designer who worried colleagues resented her for always getting “fun” projects, but in reality, most of her assignments started out difficult or unglamorous. What made them great was her ability to transform messy, uninspiring work into exciting outcomes. Designers shouldn't wait for shiny projects, but instead create them by bringing energy, vision, and enthusiasm to whatever they're given.
Tempo is a visual editor for React that gives PMs, designers, and engineers the ability to collaborate visually on code. It offers the familiar UX of a design tool but functions like an IDE under the hood.
Discover handpicked pricing page examples from SaaS companies, ecommerce brands, and digital agencies.
Generate professional and stunning documents using prompts and chat-based updates.
Design has gained business integration but lost its distinct voice that once challenged products from a unique perspective. Real product evolution requires contrasting viewpoints and creative tension, not homogeneous thinking across team roles. Designers contribute through visual coherence and microdetails that build long-term value beyond immediate metrics.
2025.08.19·mydesignside.substack.com·2 min read·TLDR Design UX metaphors enable users to learn new interfaces by transferring knowledge from familiar concepts to unfamiliar digital systems. These metaphors work through analogical reasoning, mapping multiple attributes between familiar source domains and new target interface domains. Successful metaphors reduce cognitive load, accelerate understanding, and bridge the gap between designers' models and users' mental models.
2025.08.19·jakobnielsenphd.substack.com·38 min read·TLDR Design Many creatives leave the industry as they age due to family priorities, disenchantment, relocation, or health issues, often shifting to consulting, starting businesses, or new careers. Yet age diversity is vital: older creatives bring deep experience, cultural insight, and credibility with older clients, making them an untapped resource that should be celebrated and more visible in the industry.
Grid systems provide the structural framework of vertical columns and horizontal rows that create visual harmony and consistent spacing in user interfaces.
2025.08.19·links.tldrnewsletter.com·3 min read·TLDR Design Traditional design portfolios are dying as AI-driven hiring systems reduce visual work to keywords and bullet points before humans see them.
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While security teams wrestle with NVD backlogs and CVE delays, threat actors are having their best year yet. Flashpoint's midyear threat intelligence report [4] analyzed 3.6+ petabytes of data to reveal:
AI chatbots can easily be manipulated to harvest personal data by tweaking system prompts. Even people with little technical skill can weaponize these bots, making privacy risks greater for users. Regulators and companies need stronger safeguards to protect personal information.
Workday disclosed a breach on August 6 where attackers accessed business contact information (names, emails, and phone numbers) from its third-party CRM platform through social engineering, though customer tenants remain unaffected. The attack is linked to ShinyHunters' ongoing campaign targeting Salesforce instances via OAuth app social engineering, which has affected multiple major companies, including Adidas, Google, and luxury brands. Attackers pose as HR or IT staff via phone/text to trick employees into revealing credentials, then use malicious OAuth apps to exfiltrate databases for extortion purposes.
N-central is a popular platform, developed by N-able, that is used by managed services providers (MSPs) and IT departments to monitor and manage networks and devices from a centralized web-based console. N-able has announced two vulnerabilities that allow authenticated attackers to inject commands due to improper sanitization of user input and execute commands on unpatched devices by exploiting an insecure deserialization weakness. The vulnerabilities are reportedly under active exploitation.
Hundreds of TeslaMate setups are exposed online with no authentication, leaking GPS, vehicle, and charging data. Attackers can track vehicle locations and patterns, presenting serious privacy and physical security risks for Tesla owners. The fix is to secure deployments with authentication and firewalls.
Researchers found critical vulnerabilities in Axis Communications' surveillance camera systems that could allow hackers to remotely access, control, and disable cameras at thousands of organizations. Axis has released security patches, and users are advised to update their systems right away to prevent exploitation.
AI agents using LLMs can boost security productivity by 1,000x in tasks like vulnerability patching, but need strict implementation with permissions, transparency, and security controls to prevent hallucinations and data leaks. Security professionals should adopt a "yes with guardrails" approach: automate low-level tasks such as CSV processing and ticket creation while maintaining evidence validation, treat MCP servers as APIs with proper authentication, and ensure vendor AI products don't share data externally. Focus on upskilling teams in AI tools for multiplication, ask critical questions on permissions and data flows before deployment, and keep source code visible for all AI implementations.
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DllShimmer parses DLLs and extracts information about exported functions (name, ordinal number, and forwarder info) and creates a boilerplate C++ file (.cpp) based on this information. The generated file allows you to add your own code to each function exported from the original DLL without disrupting the normal operation of the program.
Wallarm offers a unified platform for API and AI security, providing real-time attack blocking, abuse detection, and advanced penetration testing for AI through intelligent agents.
Certipy is a tool to enumerate and assess Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) for misconfigurations.
Security researchers found malicious npm packages "solana-pump-test" and "solana-spl-sdk" posing as Solana SDK components but stealing cryptocurrency data from Russian developers. These infostealers send data to US servers, suggesting possible state-sponsored activity targeting Russia's ransomware ecosystem relying on cryptocurrency. The attacker, using the handle "cryptohan," promotes these packages that expose password files, exchange credentials, and wallet data from infected systems.
The U.S. Department of Justice confiscated more than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency, $70,000 in cash, and a luxury car from Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko. He is accused of participating in the Zeppelin ransomware scheme from 2019 to 2022. Antropenko faces charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to launder money, having processed funds through ChipMixer while targeting healthcare and IT companies worldwide. The Zeppelin ransomware operation ended in November 2022, and its source code was later sold for only $500 on a hacking forum in January 2024.
A federal class-action lawsuit accuses Otter.ai of violating privacy laws by secretly recording and using meeting participants' voices to train its AI without consent, particularly affecting non-account holders who join virtual meetings. The Otter Notetaker bot can automatically join meetings linked to workplace calendars and record all participants, with the lawsuit citing cases where sensitive business discussions were inadvertently captured and shared. With 25 million users and over 1 billion meetings processed, the case could set a precedent for AI transcription services' consent requirements and data usage practices.
Cybercriminals are using phishing kits to hijack brokerage accounts and coordinate “ramp and dump” schemes by inflating foreign stock prices with compromised accounts after failing to cash out funds directly.
Nuance, owned by Microsoft, agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit after hackers exploited the MOVEit software, exposing the data of over 1.2 million people.
PipeMagic is a malicious backdoor disguised as an open-source ChatGPT desktop app that facilitates ransomware operations.
Bastion's G2M Video Games Marketing Survey shows that discoverability is the biggest challenge for publishers and developers. 94.4% of respondents expect it to remain their top issue this year. Despite 63.9% of companies having over a decade of publishing experience, most have marketing teams of only 1-5 people, and just 36.1% believe their current budget is adequate. Budgets are tightening, and companies are shifting strategies, with many finding organic influencer marketing as the most effective channel and paid media as the least effective.
Amazon's exit from Google Shopping in July instantly reduced its presence from dominant market share to complete absence across the US, Europe, and Japan. This sudden change in auctions drove cost savings of about 25% to 30% for other advertisers and marked the company's boldest advertising strategy shift since its temporary withdrawal during the 2020 lockdowns.
The Progressive Squeeze gradually increases upgrade prompts as users engage more, while the Feature Tease displays gated premium features to spark curiosity and FOMO. The Moment of Need tactic surfaces upgrade options when users are most invested, and the Transparent Countdown builds trust by clearly showing limits and resets. The Omnipresent Nudge integrates multiple contextual upgrade touchpoints across the interface.
With over 110M daily users, Reddit rewards genuine contributions and punishes anything staged. It's a trust-based economy where recommendations carry real weight. Brands like 1Password have succeeded by building communities and engaging transparently, while others face backlash for inauthentic tactics. Successful brands are led by people who understand internet culture, value transparency over control, and engage in unscripted conversations.
Google Ads will remove manual language targeting for Search campaigns by year-end, shifting fully to AI-driven detection based on user signals. Non-Search campaigns like Display and YouTube remain unchanged. While this move simplifies setup and may improve targeting accuracy, it reduces advertiser control and risks misaligned placements.
Searches for “vibe marketing” rose 686% in the past year, and nearly 47% of Fortune 500 companies now use it. VIBE stands for Velocity, Identity, Boundaryless, and Emotions first. Velocity means moving at cultural speed, Identity aligns campaigns with who consumers want to be, Boundaryless blends brand and product into a seamless experience, and Emotions first focuses on triggering specific feelings before crafting messages.
Bilt created the scripted series “Roomies” as a marketing campaign without featuring its brand in the first nine episodes. It has drawn 3.2M combined views on Instagram and TikTok without paid promotion. The company used a separate account for the show to align with social algorithms and avoid overtly promotional content. Bilt plans to eventually integrate its partners, such as Barry's gym, into the storyline. Other brands like Alexis Bittar, InStyle, and Sephora are also using episodic social content to connect with audiences, with some reporting strong community response and product sales tied to their series.
Roughly 80M US adults closely follow the news, making them a highly desirable audience for advertisers. Studies show “news junkies” have 16 percentage points higher purchase intent than the general population and stronger trust and favorability toward brands. Yet many advertisers avoid news sites due to outdated brand safety fears, missing out on a demographic that includes most business leaders. Evidence shows ads in news perform just as well as those placed in entertainment, sports, or lifestyle content.
7 growth tactics to overcome buyer hesitation with psychology.