For those of you who are new to crypto, you may not know the name Cynthia Lummis. She’s a senator from Wyoming. But more than anything, she was the only friendly face that the crypto industry had in D.C. for a long time. And now, after putting in the work that changed everything, she’s taking a step back.

Gif by PixelBandits on Giphy

But good things happened around the crypto world this week, too. So let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

SoFi Is the First National Bank to Launch Its Own Stablecoin

TLDR

• Last month, SoFi added crypto trading back to its list of services.

• This week, the company officially launched its own stablecoin called SoFiUSD.

• They are the first national bank to do both.

In a landmark move for the intersection of traditional banking and digital assets, SoFi Technologies, Inc. has officially announced the launch of SoFiUSD. The new financial product makes SoFi the first national bank in the United States to issue a stablecoin on a public, permissionless blockchain.

Why SoFi’s stablecoin launch matters for crypto users.

The launch of SoFiUSD is notable not just for the product itself, but for the entity issuing it. While several prominent US dollar stablecoins are currently in circulation, they have primarily been issued by crypto-native firms or fintech companies.

SoFi’s status as a national bank brings a different regulatory framework to the table. By issuing the token through SoFi Bank, N.A., an institution regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the company is offering a level of regulatory oversight that is relatively new to the public blockchain space.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Washington Is Seeing Crypto-Level Volatility

TLDR

• Senator Lummis has announced that she will not seek reelection.

• A new bill in the House proposes a tax exemption on small stablecoin payments.

• The bill also seeks to allow deferral of staking rewards.

Prices go up fast and down even faster. As crypto users, we know that’s the world we live in. But when volatility hits politics, our eyebrows shoot up, especially when there’s crypto involved.

The halls of Congress are typically known for slow-moving legislation and predictable outcomes, but recent weeks have introduced a level of unpredictability usually reserved for the crypto markets themselves. From surprising retirements to ambitious new tax proposals, Washington’s approach to digital assets is undergoing a shake-up.

Saying goodbye to one of crypto’s best friends in Washington…

This one made us sad in our hearts and hit us right in the feels. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), often dubbed the “Crypto Queen” of Congress for her staunch advocacy of Bitcoin and digital assets, has announced she will not seek reelection. This move marks the upcoming departure of one of the industry’s most powerful allies on Capitol Hill.

In a candid statement on X, Lummis expressed that despite her devotion to legislation, the physical and mental toll of the job has become unsustainable. “I feel like a sprinter in a marathon,” she wrote, noting that she does not have “six more years” left in her to serve another term.

Lummis has been instrumental in crafting legislation to integrate digital assets into the US financial system. Her departure after her current term raises questions about who will pick up the torch for pro-crypto legislation in the Senate Banking Committee, a crucial battleground for financial regulations.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From TikTok - “I was looking at the Ethereum validator queue, and the numbers are all over the place. Any idea what’s going on?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $8,049 YTD - (-)15%

A week has gone by in the crypto world, and there’s only a $2 swing in our port value? Are we even in crypto anymore?

This is what is known as “crabbing”. The market moves up and down, up and down, but when you pull that POV back a bit further, you see it’s really not doing much from week to week. It’s kind of like watching tug of war up close and then stepping back 50 feet only to realize everyone is trying really hard, but nothing is really happening.

In this case, the bulls and the bears have locked horns (we know bears don’t have horns), and are in a good old-fashioned stalemate.

Deep Dive - A New Sheriff’s in Town: Selig Takes Over the CFTC

On December 22, 2025, Michael S. Selig was officially sworn in as the new boss of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), after getting the nod from President Trump.

At the same time, the person temporarily in charge, Caroline D. Pham, announced she’s leaving for a job outside government.

Michael Selig received Senate approval on December 18, 2025, and his appointment brings a wealth of digital asset knowledge to the top job. After his nomination, Selig talked about his plan to create “common sense rules of the road” for today’s markets.

Selig was real about how wild the financial world is right now. He pointed out that people are trading commodities more than ever, and that we have all this new tech that needs updated rules.

Looking at Selig’s resume, it’s obvious he was picked to bridge the gap between old-school finance rules and the new world of crypto. He was the top lawyer for the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and a senior advisor to a former SEC Chairman. 

As Selig comes in, Caroline D. Pham is heading out. Pham, who became a Commissioner in 2022 and then Acting Chairman in January 2025, leaves behind a legacy of modernizing the agency and pushing “crypto-forward” policies.

Pham may be out of the CFTC, but don’t cry for her, Argentina. She landed on her feet. Right after announcing her exit, the crypto payments company MoonPay revealed that Caroline Pham would be joining as its top lawyer and administrative officer.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

We can’t say for a fact. But we have a good idea.

After months of more validators wanting out than wanting in, the numbers are starting to flip. And they’re flipping hard.

BitMine Immersion, the single-largest corporate holder of ETH, recently announced it will start staking, with plans to scale those efforts. While a large percentage of that ETH coming in likely belongs to BitMine, there’s also a good chance others are taking this as a green flag that ETH is poised for good things and jumping on the bandwagon.

At least…that’s our best guess…

We’re waiting for official announcements from BitMine to see just how much they laid down for staking.

Now put those hands down. We don’t know if that rumor is real. We’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for updates.

Gif by disneypixar on Giphy

But so far, we haven’t seen anything official about Tether tokenizing their liquidity.

The Tether rumor mill isn’t the only news out of crypto this week. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

North Korean Hackers Made $6.75 Billion From Crypto Hacks

TLDR

• According to this newest report from Chainalysis, North Korean hackers are working smarter, not harder.

• They’re hacking less, but walking away with bigger hauls per job.

• On the flip side, DeFi is actually becoming safer as security protocols shut down hack attempts.

According to a new report from Chainalysis, North Korean hackers stole a whopping $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025 alone. For those of us just trying to buy our first fraction of a Bitcoin, these numbers can feel like they belong in a spy movie rather than real life. 

While the total amount stolen by these cybercriminals hit an all-time high of $6.75 billion, the way they operate is changing. They are getting smarter, sneakier, and more creative with their job applications.

What this means for crypto users.

The crypto world is maturing. Yes, the threats are real, and yes, state-sponsored hackers are still pulling off Ocean’s Eleven-style heists. But the defenses are catching up.

For you, the new investor, the lessons from 2025 are:

• Be skeptical of unsolicited messages: Whether it’s a “recruiter” on LinkedIn or a “support agent” on Telegram, assume it’s a scam until proven otherwise.

• Secure your own fortress: Personal wallet hacks are up. Use strong security practices and don’t be the low-hanging fruit.

• Trust the process: The industry is building better alarms and locks.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Rumor Has It That Tether Wants to Tokenize Equity 

TLDR

• There are unverified reports that Tether is thinking about tokenizing its shares.

• While the claims are unverified, the implications for investing and the future of finance could be substantial.

If you’ve been around the crypto block (pun absolutely intended) for more than five minutes, you know Tether. They’re the folks behind USDT, that digital dollar everyone uses to trade, well, everything else. 

But recent rumblings suggest they might be cooking up something new — and it has nothing to do with stablecoins. We’re hearing chatter that Tether might be looking to “tokenize” its own equity.

What would crypto users care about a company that’s tokenizing liquidity?

Imagine you own a really expensive pizza. It’s worth a billion dollars. You want to sell it, but it’s hard to find one person with a billion bucks who is hungry right now.

So, instead of selling the whole pie to one rich guy, you slice it into a million tiny, digital slices. Each slice represents a piece of that pizza. You can sell those slices to anyone, anywhere, instantly.

Tokenization is the process of turning a real-world asset — like shares in a company, a piece of real estate, or, yes, even a theoretical pizza — into a digital token on a blockchain. But why would a company tokenize and sell off pieces of it?

Good question. For a company like Tether (or any other business that wants to do this), tokenizing shares does a few magic tricks:

1. Liquidity (The “Cash-Out” Factor): Traditional private company shares are notoriously hard to sell. You usually have to wait for the company to go public (IPO) or find a private buyer, which can take months. If shares are tokens, you could theoretically trade them on a secure platform 24/7, just like buying Bitcoin.

2. Fractionalization: You don’t need to be a billionaire to buy a whole share. You could buy 0.0001% of a share if that’s all your budget allows.

3. DeFi Integration: The really nerdy, cool part. If you hold a tokenized share, you can use it as collateral in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) apps. Imagine borrowing money against your stock portfolio without ever calling a bank. That, friends, is a one-way ticket to financial freedom.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From a TikTok DM - “I keep seeing talks mentioning a Santa rally. What is it, and do you think it’ll happen?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $8,047 YTD - (-)15%

The numbers aren’t nearly as bad as they were last week, but also nowhere close to where we were at ATHs earlier this year. As the year starts to wrap up, we aren’t as happy with our performance as we thought we would be. The first half of 2025 was as hot as a firecracker, and every day was a party in the crypto world.

But all good things must come to an end, and we’re seeing the second half of a natural cycle. We’ve seen all of this before. We’ll see it all again. And we’re ready for whatever comes our way.

Deep Dive - Coinbase Finds Younger Investors Are All About Crypto

According to a new report from Coinbase, Gen Z and Millennials aren’t just dabbling in crypto — they are completely rethinking what it means to build wealth.

If you feel like the economic game is rigged against you, you aren’t imagining things. The data backs you up. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of younger adults believe it is harder for their generation to build wealth through traditional means than for older generations. 

While stock ownership is similar across age groups (about half of both young and old investors own stocks), their intentions differ. A whopping 86% of younger investors are actively hunting for rewards beyond boring old dividends.

For older generations, crypto is often seen as “risky” or “scary.” For younger investors, it represents an opportunity. Younger investors are twice as likely as older investors to already own crypto. But it goes deeper than that. They view crypto as a legitimate tool for financial leveling.

• Optimism: 4 in 5 younger adults believe cryptocurrency will play a much larger role in the future financial system.

• Opportunity: 4 in 5 agree that crypto gives their generation financial opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have.

• Social Proof: 7 in 10 personally know someone who has made serious money trading crypto.

It’s not just about Bitcoin anymore, either. Younger investors are diversifying and have about 25% of their portfolios in “non-traditional assets” (think crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets), compared to just 8% for older investors.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

A Santa Rally is a term in financial markets for a phenomenon in which prices tend to rise during the last week of December and sometimes into the first few days of January. Here’s a simple breakdown for a new investor:

Typically, it occurs in the final trading days of the year (between Christmas and New Year's) and sometimes spills over into the first couple of trading days in January.

There’s no single reason, but a few factors might contribute:

• Year-End Tax Strategies: Some investors sell losing stocks, tokens, etc, earlier in December to realize tax losses (called tax-loss harvesting) and then reinvest in other assets, boosting demand.

• Lower Trading Volume: Many institutional investors and traders are on vacation, resulting in a less active market. Sometimes that can make it a little easier for prices to rise (or go down…).

• New Year Optimism: Investors may start positioning their portfolios for the new year, anticipating positive market trends.

Keep in mind, a Santa rally is not guaranteed. While it’s a common trend, crypto markets are unpredictable, and external factors (like economic news or global events) can influence whether a Santa Rally occurs.

As a new investor, it’s fun to be aware of, but it’s not something to rely on when making investment decisions. Focus on your long-term strategy rather than short-term market movements.

What? Full blockchain? We can’t be serious. The US government would never allow such a thing.

Gif by BenJammins on Giphy

For years, that was certainly the case. But the G-men are singing a different tune these days. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

SEC and DTCC Pave the Way for Tokenized Assets

• The DTCC has received a no-action letter from the SEC to explore using blockchain tech to tokenize real-world assets.

• A no-action letter means the SEC won’t pursue any kind of legal action against the DTCC.

• Plans are already underway, with a rollout planned for the second half of 2026.

The line between TradFi and crypto continues to blur. In a move that feels like seeing your grandparents sign up for TikTok, the heavy hitters of the US financial system are officially moving onchain.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) — the massive, invisible engine room that keeps the US stock market running — has received a No-Action Letter from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

What is a no-action letter, and why is it important?

If you’re new to this space, a No-Action Letter might sound boring, but in the regulatory world, it’s a golden ticket. The SEC is saying, “Go ahead and try this new tech; we won’t sue you”. If you’ve been around crypto for a while, you know that:

1. Not too long ago, everyone was being sued.

2. Not being sued is a good feeling. 

This specific ticket enables the DTCC to begin tokenizing real-world assets, such as US Treasury bills and major stock indexes. Blockchain tech is becoming the future infrastructure of the entire global economy.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Banks Get Green Light for Crypto Trades From the OCC

TLDR

• The OCC has officially told the nation’s banks that they can make crypto trades on behalf of customers.

• What’s the mean? You tell your bank you want one Bitcoin. They say ok. They go, buy it, and sell it to you for the same price they paid. The customer doesn’t deal with exchanges or need a wallet. The bank is the middleman.

• The OCC head, Jonathan Gould, recently spoke at a blockchain conference and said that crypto trades and transactions should be treated the same as every other banking service.

Big news dropped this week that might just bridge the gap between your dusty old savings account and your shiny new crypto wallet. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) — the boss of national banks in the US — released a letter stating that national banks can now act as middlemen for crypto trades.

Why this is a big win for crypto users (especially beginners).

1. The Trust Factor - Banks have their issues, but they are heavily regulated. If you’re nervous about hacks or exchanges disappearing into the night, doing business through a national bank offers a layer of comfort. As the OCC letter noted, this allows you to transact “through a regulated bank, as compared to non-regulated or less regulated options”.

2. Convenience Is King - For many people, the biggest hurdle to crypto trades and buying crypto has always been the hassle. Setting up new accounts, verifying ID, linking bank accounts — it’s a lot. If your current bank starts offering this, you could theoretically buy Ethereum right alongside paying your electric bill.

3. Legitimacy Boost (It’s Over 9,000!) - When the OCC says something is part of the “business of banking,” it’s saying that crypto is becoming a standard part of the financial plumbing (more or less). This could lead to more stability and better services down the road.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

X DM - “The market is slumping, but the US government and major corporations are still using blockchain. Why?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $8,047 YTD - (-)16%

Welp…things were looking up last week. Then the US markets opened up on Monday morning, and this happened…

Not much to really add here. We’re staying the course and still trying to figure out whether this is a short-term slump or a slide into a bear market. Right now, we don’t like how things are looking. 

For the most part, our strategy stays the same in both a sideways or down market. We may change that a bit depending on how things go, but this portfolio is designed to be relatively hands-off, so we’re not thinking of making any major changes. 

Deep Dive - Is ETH Ripe Enough for a Supply Squeeze?

While the price of ETH has been doing a bit of a crab dance or outright headed south for the winter, something interesting is happening behind the scenes. The amount of ETH available on exchanges has dropped to an all-time low. This has got a lot of crypto nerds whispering about a potential supply squeeze.

A supply squeeze happens when the available, liquid supply of an asset drops significantly. When there’s less of something to go around, even a small increase in demand can have a big impact on the price. With so little ETH available to buy on exchanges, any new wave of buyers could find themselves fighting over a shrinking pile, pushing the price upward.

The percentage of ETH held on these exchanges recently hit a historic low of 8.7%. That’s the lowest it’s been since Ethereum was a wee baby back in 2015. Since July, the amount of ETH on exchanges has plummeted by 43%.

The evidence suggests that something big is brewing for Ethereum. The shrinking supply on exchanges, coupled with growing utility across the ecosystem, creates a compelling case for a potential supply squeeze. We’re watching closely and will update as we see things happening.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

Great question. The short answer is: Blockchain tech and crypto are not mutually exclusive.

The longer answer: Blockchain technology enables systems to operate much faster and more cheaply than legacy systems currently in use. 

For example, the COBOL system, according to IBM, “supports 80 percent of in-person credit card transactions, handles 95 percent of all ATM transactions, and powers systems that generate more than USD 3 billion of commerce each day”.

That system was developed in 1959.

Considering how many people wait in line to get the latest iPhone the day it comes out, we’re a little surprised that they still rely on tech that’s 65 years old for something as important as their finances…

The crypto market has little impact on blockchain efficiency. So whether BTC is up or down, it won’t take away from the fact that the tech is better for what many people want to use it for.

We knew stablecoins would be the first crypto product to go mainstream. But the second? That was anyone’s guess. If you had told us it would be prediction markets, this would have been our response:

Giphy

But here we are. And that’s not all that went down this week. Time to get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Chainlink Gets a Wall Street Glow Up

TLDR

• Grayscale has launched a Chainlink ETF with the ticker symbol GLNK.

• Chainlink is the oracle protocol that makes up the backbone of decentralized finance.

• This is the first time Chainlink has seen the love it deserves from TradFi, despite working with dozens of TradFi companies worldwide.

Chainlink (LINK), the crypto world’s go-to for connecting blockchains to real-world data, is finally getting some love on the stock market. After years of being a darling in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, it’s now making moves in traditional finance with the launch of a new investment product.

Grayscale Investments, a big name in the digital asset world, rolled out its Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (ticker: GLNK) on the NYSE Arca exchange. Regular (retail) investors can now get a piece of the Chainlink action through a familiar investment wrapper — an Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) — without having to navigate the often-tricky world of crypto exchanges and digital wallets. 

Why users should care about Chainlink.

Chainlink is what’s known as a “decentralized oracle network”. Blockchains are great at a lot of things, but they’re terrible at talking to the outside world (and each other). They’re like isolated computer networks that can’t access real-world information on their own. 

Oracles act as a secure bridge, feeding real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain. Chainlink is the most popular and widely used oracle network out there. It’s a decentralized network, meaning it’s not controlled by a single company, which makes the data it provides more secure and tamper-proof.

Chainlink’s tech underpins a huge part of the crypto ecosystem, securing tens of billions of dollars across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and insurance applications. It’s the invisible plumbing that makes much of Web3 work. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

DAT Drama: FUD or Legitimate Concern?

TLDR

• Media outlets rely on drama and clickbait titles to get reads. 

• Right now, large DAT acquisitions are not part of the narrative.

• However, the drama surrounding the market, and notably, digital asset treasury companies, is overblown. Here’s what’s really happening.

Headlines are screaming about liquidation risks, market meltdowns, and corporate whales dumping their bags. It’s enough to make even the most diamond-handed investor a little sweaty. But is all this drama legit, or is it just another classic case of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) in a down market? 

Everyone’s looking for a villain when prices are in the red, and big-money players like DATs are an easy target. The narrative that these giants are about to fold and crash the market seems a bit overblown. In reality, many of these companies are sticking to their long-term conviction. 

The biggest DATs are sticking to the game plan.

Strategy has been proactive in addressing investor fears. They recently launched a “BTC Credit” dashboard to provide more transparency about their financial health. According to their data, they have enough assets to cover their debt obligations for decades, even if Bitcoin’s price stays flat. 

On the Ethereum side of the fence, BitMine recently announced that its crypto and cash holdings have reached a staggering $11.2 billion, including 3.63 million ETH tokens. That’s a whopping 3% of the entire Ethereum supply. Their stated goal is to acquire 5% of the network.

In just one week, the company acquired nearly 70,000 ETH. Shortly after, reports surfaced of another purchase of over 14,600 ETH worth around $44 million. This is not the behavior of a company that’s scared or on the verge of liquidation.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Kalshi Prediction Markets: CNN’s New Partner

TLDR

• Kalshi is a fully regulated prediction market.

• Prediction markets were born in crypto just a couple of years ago. 

• CNN has partnered with Kalshi to integrate prediction market data into the news giant’s programming — officially making prediction markets mainstream.

Kalshi and Polymarket are two of the biggest names in prediction markets. The difference? Polymarket is a DeFi blockchain-based entity on the Polygon network. Kalshi is a fully regulated market that has no ties to crypto or blockchain. But… prediction markets are the hottest narrative in finance right now, and they were born in Crypto Land. 

CNN has announced a partnership with Kalshi, the world’s largest federally regulated prediction market. It’s a perfect example of how something that was crypto-centric became mainstream in just a couple of years. So, keep in mind that what is crypto-only today could be getting used by everyone tomorrow. 

Why this story is such a big deal.

We are seeing a convergence of traditional media and new financial tech. It started with Bitcoin ETFs making it to Wall Street, and now we have prediction markets making it to CNN.

For those of you just dipping your toes into digital assets and new financial technologies, this is a massive green flag. It shows that the tools being built in this ecosystem are powerful enough to complement — and maybe even outperform — the legacy systems we’ve relied on for decades. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From TikTok - “Do you guys think SBF will receive a pardon?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $8,411 YTD gain -  (-)13%

ETH had a strong weekend. It’s showing some resilience. And this is probably due, at least in part, to the current supply shortage. We just wrote an article about this. Check it out.

Right now, we’re channeling our inner Tay Tay and asking, “Are we outta the woods yet?”

While we can’t answer that with 100% certainty, we’re still very happy with our current position.

Deep Dive - Hostile Takeover? YZi Labs Wants Control of BNB Treasury

We’ve seen a lot of things in our years in the crypto industry. We’ve seen APYs in the millions. We’ve seen Tomb forks. We lived through crypto winter. But a crypto company initiating a hostile takeover of a TradFi company? Well…I guess we can add that to the crypto bingo card now.

YZi Labs — an entity linked to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) — made a bold move to seize control of the board of CEA Industries (ticker: BNC). If you’re scratching your head wondering, “Who is CEA and why does CZ care?” you aren’t alone. The story involves a vape company, a massive pivot to crypto, and a stock price that fell off a cliff. 

In a regulatory filing submitted on Monday, YZi Labs announced it plans to shake up CEA Industries’ board of directors. They aren’t asking nicely, either. They are asking shareholders to support a move that would essentially wipe the slate clean and install their own hand-picked team of directors.

Until recently, CEA was a Canadian vape company. But in July, the company decided to pull a massive pivot. They announced plans to become a “BNB treasury company”. A treasury company in this context is a business that holds a massive amount of a specific asset (in this case, BNB, the native token of the BNB Chain) on its balance sheet. 

The market went wild for this idea. When the news dropped on July 28, the stock surged a mind-blowing 550%, hitting a peak of $57.59. It seemed like a genius move.

But the honeymoon phase ended quickly. Since that July peak, things have gone south. Fast. 

Shares in CEA Industries (BNC) have tumbled around 89% from that $57.59 high. By the time CZ and Co. launched their takeover bid on Monday, the stock was trading at a measly $6.47.

YZi Labs, which helped bankroll CEA’s pivot with a massive $500 million investment, is clearly tired of watching the red candles. In their filing, they didn’t pull any punches regarding why they think the ship is sinking.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

We don’t know. And we’re happy this question wasn’t “does he deserve one”, because we would not want to answer that, nor would we want the eyebrow twitch that would come with it.

While Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht and Binance’s CZ have both received pardons, the “crimes” were much different. It’s definitely possible that SBF could get one. But what he did is still pretty fresh in a lot of people’s minds. 

Crypto users, especially those who lost everything, have a long memory. And honestly, if he were to be pardoned any time soon, we would be concerned for his safety.

One of the biggest fears during the previous administration was that the crypto industry, and the thousands of talented US engineers working in it, were being pushed offshore. Polymarket, despite being born and bred in the US, was one of those companies that was forced to ban American users from participating.

Gif by snowfallfx on Giphy

And it’s officially changing. The CFTC has greenlit the move to come home. But that’s not all that went down last week. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Don’t Call It A Comeback – Polymarket Returns to the US

TLDR

• Polymarket is coming back to the US.

• The CFTC has lifted its ban on the platform.

• There are some stipulations. Polymarket has to beef up its security and add some bells and whistles to keep users safe while ensuring they’re on the hook for taxes.

Polymarket. The internet’s favorite crystal ball where you could bet on, well, pretty much anything, is coming back home. After a bit of a time-out, they’re making a comeback in the US, and this time, they’re doing it by the book. 

…The order books!

How it happened.

On November 25, 2025, Polymarket announced that it received a thumbs-up from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC is the SEC of the derivatives markets. Futures are all about commodities trading. Futures and commodities are in the name.

In the press release, Polymarket revealed that the CFTC issued an “Amended Order of Designation”. So… in plain English, this means Polymarket has been given the green light to operate as a fully regulated exchange in the United States. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Coinbase Ventures Has Big Ideas for 2026

TLDR

• Coinbase Ventures knows what it wants to see in 2026.

• They want to spend funds on specific areas of DeFi, RWAs, robotics, and AI.

Coinbase Ventures has released a “what should we build next?” list. But realistically, it’s more of a “what should we buy next?” list. If you’re looking for the next big thing in crypto, this is a treasure map. 

Every year sees massive changes to the crypto landscape. Stablecoins are changing how we think about payments, and prediction markets are finally going mainstream.  With all the regulatory clarity 2025 brought, Coinbase Ventures is strutting around with deeper liquidity and better tech. And they’re looking to make some big bets.

What’s at the top of the list?

Real-world assets (RWAs) on the blockchain have been a hot topic, but Coinbase Ventures thinks the real action is in “RWA perpetuals.” What does that even mean?

Think of perpetuals (or “perps”) as futures contracts without an expiration date. They let you bet on the future price of an asset without actually owning it. In plain terms, you can create a market for almost anything — from oil prices and private company stock to economic data.

According to Kinji Steimetz from the Ventures team, this “perpification of everything” will allow traders to hedge their bets or get exposure to assets that are normally hard to trade. It’s about bringing more of the traditional finance world onto the blockchain in a faster, more flexible way.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Kraken’s Krak Card Launches — Krak Epidemic Incoming?

TLDR

• Kraken has released the Krak Card, which is connected to the Krak app launched back in June.

• Right now, it’s only available for EU and UK users.

• It offers cash back, no fees, and other features that are better than what most brick-and-mortar banks can offer right now.

The folks at Kraken continue to push the limits of what the platform can do. With a goal similar to Robinhood in becoming a one-stop-shop for customers, Kraken unveiled a new product this week.

The exchange rolled out a new debit card and app features, positioning its Krak money app as a full-blown alternative to traditional banking for UK and EU customers.

Kraken isn’t a bank yet. So, why is this news so important?

With the way several of these platforms are forging ahead with features and plans, the days of the traditional bank may be numbered…at least for those who prefer crypto exchanges like Kraken and brokerages like Robinhood, which is also working on a one-stop-shop approach.

Kraken’s push to become an all-in-one financial app is part of a larger trend of crypto firms and fintech companies moving into the mainstream financial services space. By combining the convenience of neobanks with the unique opportunities of crypto and DeFi, Krak represents a significant step toward a future where digital and traditional finance are seamlessly integrated.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto 

Question of the Week

A TikTok DM - “Can you please explain buy pressure vs. sell pressure? I don’t think I fully understand exactly what it is and how it impacts the market.”

Meme of the Week

Perspective…

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $7,416 YTD (-)23%

After a strong weekend where things were looking up, it would appear that Wall Street had a nasty case of the Mondays. The whole market went red. While that is unfortunate, the volatility is producing some nice fees in our yield farming position. Co-Founder and Analyst CJ Miller will have more information in his monthly update, which will be released soon.

Deep Dive - The Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade Is Coming Soon – What to Expect

Get ready, Ethereum fans. The next major network upgrade, Fusaka, is on the horizon, planned for December 3rd, 2025. Following the Pectra upgrade, Fusaka is set to introduce a host of new features aimed at improving scalability, security, and the overall user experience for everyone on the Ethereum network.

The main event of the Fusaka upgrade is all about making Layer 2s (L2s) faster and cheaper. Right now, L2s post their transaction data to Ethereum using “blobs,” a special data type designed for them. But as L2s grow, the amount of data gets huge, and asking every full node to download it all is unsustainable.

Enter PeerDAS (Data Availability Sampling). This is the star of the show. Instead of every node downloading every single blob, PeerDAS cleverly splits the data up. Each node will only be responsible for storing a small fraction of the total blob data.

With this method, the network can theoretically scale blob capacity by up to 8 times. Don’t worry about data going missing; clever cryptographic techniques ensure that the full data can be reconstructed from just 50% of the pieces, making the chance of data loss practically zero. 

Fusaka also brings important updates to Ethereum’s base layer to make it more robust and secure. Several technical improvements (EIPs) are focused on hardening the network against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and ensuring stability. These include:

• Capping Transaction Gas: A new cap of 16.7 million gas will be placed on individual transactions. This is large enough for complex operations but prevents a single transaction from hogging an entire block.

• MODEXP Gas Cost Adjustments: The pricing for the MODEXP precompile (used for complex math in cryptography) is being updated to reflect its actual computational cost, preventing it from slowing down the network.

• Block Size Limits: A hard cap of 10 MiB is being placed on the size of blocks sent over the network to prevent propagation delays and potential consensus issues.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

Imagine the crypto market as a giant auction house where people are constantly buying and selling assets. Buy pressure and sell pressure describe the forces that influence the prices of these assets.

• Buy Pressure: When more people want to buy a cryptocurrency than sell it. Think of it as a crowd of eager buyers at an auction, all bidding higher and higher to get their hands on the item. 

• Sell Pressure: The opposite. It occurs when more people want to sell a cryptocurrency than buy it. Imagine sellers flooding the auction house, trying to offload their items quickly, even if it means lowering the price. 

Impact on the market:

1. Price Movements:

   • When buy pressure is high, prices tend to rise because buyers are willing to pay more to secure the asset.

   • When sell pressure is high, prices tend to fall because sellers are willing to accept lower prices to get rid of their holdings.

2. Market Sentiment:

   • Buy pressure often reflects positive sentiment — people are optimistic about the asset’s future and want to invest.

   • Sell pressure can indicate fear or uncertainty — people might be worried about the market or trying to lock in profits before prices drop further.

You walk into a financial advisor’s office. You have a mil to drop, and you want to put 20% of it, split evenly, into ETH and BTC. The advisor gives you a smug look before telling you that he doesn’t deal with scams.

Giphy

You stand up, walk out, and go buy a Ledger instead. That’s exactly what many younger, high-net-worth individuals are doing right now, according to a new report from zerohash. But that’s not all that happened this week. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Your Financial Advisor Should Probably Read This Report

TLDR

• A new report from zerohash finds that more and more people are investing in crypto.

• The problem? Many financial advisors are not offering that service.

• The result has been many young investors, including high-net-worth individuals, jumping ship to manage their own portfolios or to find advisors who offer the services they want.

What if your trusted financial advisor — the person who helps you with stocks and retirement plans — suddenly started talking about Bitcoin? What if they didn’t? Would you stick with them?

A recent study commissioned by zerohash, a crypto-as-a-service platform, surveyed 500 US investors aged 18-40 and found a huge shift in how younger, affluent people view crypto. They see it as a core part of building wealth.

FAs need to get with the program or get left behind.

While young investors are diving headfirst into crypto, most are doing it on their own. The zerohash study revealed that 76% of crypto holders manage their digital assets independently, without a financial advisor.

Why? Because most advisors simply haven’t caught up. They don’t offer crypto services, and this inaction is costing them. A whopping 35% of investors have already moved money away from advisors who don’t offer crypto exposure. We’re not talking about pocket change, either. More than half of those who left moved between $250,000 and $1 million.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Kraken’s Going Public. Kinda. Probably. Here’s What We Know

 TLDR

• Kraken announced that it has filed an S-1 form with the SEC — essentially, that means the company wants to go public.

• Securitize recently announced that it also intends to go public. Other crypto companies that have recently gone public include Gemini and Bullish.

• Kraken has not released any official information regarding the stock price or date.

Kraken is one of the biggest centralized exchanges in the US. The big news? Kraken has announced it’s taking steps to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Release the kraken! (They’re working on it)

On November 19, 2025, Kraken dropped a press release stating it had “confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the ‘SEC’).”

Let’s translate that to human-speak.

• “Confidentially submitted”: The company has filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC, but they’re doing it on the down-low for now. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act allows certain companies to file confidentially to test the waters with regulators before making a big public splash. It keeps their financial details private until they’re closer to the actual offering.

• “Form S-1“: The official document a company must file with the SEC to go public. It’s the company’s tell-all book, containing everything from its business model and financial statements to potential risks. The SEC reviews this document very, very carefully.

Kraken also noted that “the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined”. This is standard procedure. The final details will be sorted out later, depending on how the SEC review goes and what the market looks like.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Explaining Uniswap’s New Continuous Clearing Auctions

TLDR

• Uniswap has released continuous clearing auctions.

• The feature will help facilitate fairer launches for retail users and hopefully reduce pump-and-dump trading of new tokens.

Uniswap, the king of decentralized exchanges, has launched a new feature called Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA). It sounds fancy, complicated, and maybe a little intimidating. You might be thinking, “Great, another crypto thing I have to pretend to understand”.

And we get that. But if you’re in crypto, or want to be, you have to know that the things going down in the DeFi world today will be in the TradFi world tomorrow. 

How we know: Prediction markets. And that’s only the latest example.

Breaking down CCAs.

Continuous Clearing Auctions (CCA) are a new, permissionless way for crypto projects to sell their tokens and figure out a fair market price. Think of it as a super-organized, public sale that runs automatically on the blockchain.

The “continuous clearing” part is the secret sauce. Instead of a single, chaotic moment where everyone tries to buy at once, the auction happens block by block over a set period. This process helps prevent bots from snatching everything up in the first five seconds and gives the market time to breathe and find a stable price.

At the end of the auction, the money raised is automatically used to create a brand-new liquidity pool on Uniswap v4. The token immediately has a market where people can start trading it, avoiding the liquidity crunch that plagues so many new projects.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

A YouTube Comment - “Do you guys think a bear market is starting?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $7,725 YTD - (-)20%

Not much to say this week. Things are looking quite bearish right now. Does that change anything for us? No. Our strategy is built with volatility in mind. 

The last bear market was so bad that it earned the name “crypto winter”. We made it through that. We’ll make it through this one. The difference? We’re ready.

Deep Dive - Here’s Why Decentralization Matters Now More Than Ever

Centralization is like a traditional kingdom. You have one ruler (a king, a CEO, a single server) who makes all the decisions. That central authority controls everything. Most of the systems we use every day are centralized, from finance to social media and the internet as a whole.

Centralization can be efficient. It’s often faster and simpler to have one entity in charge. But it also creates a single point of failure. If the king gets sick, the whole kingdom is in chaos.

The tech world got a few loud wake-up calls recently. Earlier this month, a Cloudflare outage sent major platforms like X, ChatGPT, and others into a nosedive. 

Cloudflare is a company that provides security and performance services for a massive chunk of the web. It admitted a bug in their own system caused the widespread failure. It wasn’t a cyberattack — just a tiny software hiccup with a gigantic ripple effect.

Just a month earlier, in October, Amazon Web Services (AWS) had its own meltdown. AWS is the biggest cloud provider on the planet, and when it went down, so did thousands of apps and websites (including many DeFi projects that host on AWS — the irony wasn’t lost on us). 

Microsoft wasn’t spared either, with its Azure cloud service experiencing a similar DNS-related outage that took down services from Xbox Live to Starbucks.

In each case, the problem stemmed from a single, centralized point of failure. These outages are more than just an inconvenience. They show how fragile our centralized digital world has become. 

Decentralization is the answer.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto to find out why

Question of the Week Answer

We can’t say for sure. As unfortunate as it is, we are not fortune tellers. But we’ve danced this dance before, and the market is starting to have that familiar scent of bearishness. 

So, why we can’t tell you if it’s a bear market for sure, we can give you some tips on how to prepare for one if that’s what your gut is telling you.

1. Assess Your Financial Situation

• Have Funds on Deck: Set aside a fund to buy the dip. It provides capital ready for deployment without you having to wait for a paycheck.

2. Reevaluate Your Portfolio

• Quality Investments: Focus on high-quality blue chips and projects that are more likely to weather economic downturns.

3. Stick to Your Plan

• Avoid Emotional Decisions: Bear markets can be emotionally challenging, but avoid panic selling. Stick to your long-term investment strategy.

• Dollar-Cost Averaging: Continue investing regularly, even during downturns, to take advantage of lower prices.

4. Focus on the Long Term

• Historical Perspective: Remember that bear markets are a normal part of the market cycle and are often followed by recoveries.

• Opportunities: Use the downturn to identify undervalued assets that could perform well in the long run.

5. Maintain a Healthy Mindset

• Stay Calm: Avoid making impulsive decisions based on fear.

• Education: Use the time to learn more about crypto, investing, and market cycles to build confidence in your strategy.

We’ve seen some red candles lately. A lot of red candles, if we’re being honest. But the news that’s rolling in about the crypto industry continues to blow our minds and give us hope.

Gif by starwars on Giphy

There’s a lot that happened this week. Time to get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Circle Had a Huge Q3 and Gave a Teaser of What’s to Come

TLDR

• Circle posted big numbers in Q3 – USDC in circulation doubled, total revenue up 66%, and net income more than doubled.

• But what has everyone excited is that the company is exploring a native token for its new Arc blockchain.

Circle, the company behind the popular USDC stablecoin, released its third-quarter earnings report, and let’s just say things are looking pretty good. However, buried in all the impressive numbers was a small nugget of information that has the crypto world buzzing: Circle is considering launching a native token for its new Arc blockchain.

Does the world need a Circle token? 

For a company that has built its empire on a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, venturing into the world of native, non-stable tokens is a massive deal. A native token is the primary cryptocurrency of a specific blockchain (like ETH on Ethereum). It’s typically used for things like paying transaction fees, participating in network governance, and securing the network.

Circle believes an Arc token could:

• Drive adoption by giving people a reason to use the network.

• Align the interests of everyone involved in the Arc ecosystem.

• Support the long-term growth of the Arc network.

Being that Arc is an L1, it can’t use ETH or BTC for gas. While we, along with everyone else, assumed that USDC would be used for transaction fees, there are good reasons for exploring a native token. A token could create a built-in incentive system to attract developers, users, and investors to the Arc blockchain, helping it grow and compete with other Layer 1s. It could help build hype. It could open many doors, including incentivizing institutional hodlers, among others. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Crypto Trading Is Officially Back on SoFi

TLDR

• After months of waiting, crypto trading has relaunched on SoFi.

• The company offered this service years ago, but stopped, and is now relaunching it and preparing to release its own stablecoin.

• It’s the first nationally chartered bank to offer crypto trading.

We’ve known for a while that SoFi was bringing crypto back sooner rather than later. The self-proclaimed “digital one-stop shop for your money” has reintroduced crypto trading. But this isn’t an ordinary relaunch. They’ve become the first and only nationally chartered, FDIC-insured bank to offer crypto trading directly to consumers. It’s a pretty big deal.

But why is it a big deal?

Putting “bank” and “crypto” in the same sentence used to be like mixing oil and water. Banks were the old guard, and crypto was the rebellious newcomer. But things are changing, and SoFi is leading the charge.

As the first nationally chartered bank to launch crypto trading, SoFi is bridging a major gap. A recent survey conducted by the platform showed that 60% of SoFi members who own crypto would rather trade with a licensed bank than a typical crypto exchange. 

Why? Trust. Knowing your crypto activities are happening on a platform overseen by federal bank regulators adds a layer of confidence that many have been waiting for.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Ready, Set, Launch – Google x Prediction Markets

TLDR

• Google is introducing numerous new AI features to Google Finance.

• Among them will be information from prediction markets Polymarket and Kalsh.

• Other tools will enable investors to utilize AI for in-depth analysis of financial research and earnings.

If you’ve ever found yourself doomscrolling political Twitter or trying to decipher financial news, you’ve probably thought: “Man, I wish I could just bet on this stuff.” Well, you’re not alone. 

Prediction markets, where people bet on the outcomes of future events, are gaining traction in the mainstream. And now, the biggest name in tech is getting in on the action.

Google has announced a major partnership with leading prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi.

Why this is a bigger deal than it sounds.

News articles and expert analyses are great, but they’re often influenced by bias, editorial slants, or outdated information. Prediction markets, on the other hand, provide a raw, live, and financially incentivized consensus. 

When new information emerges — a new economic report, a political scandal, a surprise movie nomination — the market reacts instantly. Integrating this into Google Search means you get a dynamic, up-to-the-minute forecast, not a static one.

The Google partnership is the cherry on top of a massive growth period for prediction markets. Polymarket, which has a strong crypto user base, has seen its monthly volume and active traders hit all-time highs. 

Read the full article at dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From an X DM - “Lots of red lately. When people start selling, what do they do with their money? Because it doesn’t look like anyone is buying much of anything.”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $8,270 YTD - (-)14.5%

It’s been a brutal couple of weeks. There’s no sugar coating it. Everything is running red right now, from stocks to crypto. 

For us, it’s not the time to get scared or make moves. Now is the time, at least with our plan, to hunker down and wait out the red candles. There are green days ahead. We just have to be patient and stay the course.

We do not preach panic selling, so we won’t do it. If anything, we’re hunting for a good spot to buy more. 

From our analyst and CEO CJ Miller, “The market is in a very indecisive place at the moment. Investors are holding their breath and seeing what happens next before they make their next move.”

Deep Dive - Highlights From Paul Atkins’ “Project Crypto” Speech

Another day, another regulator talking about crypto. But this time, it hit different.

On Wednesday, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins took the stage at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Fintech Conference and laid out a new vision for crypto regulation in the US. Dubbed “Project Crypto”, the plan is a shift away from the regulation-by-enforcement approach that has left the industry in a state of confusion for years.

One of the most frustrating parts of the crypto regulation debate has been the question: “Are crypto assets securities?” Atkins sympathized with this frustration, pointing out that “crypto asset” is a technological description, not a legal one. It explains how value is transferred, but it doesn’t define the legal rights associated with an asset.

He made a crucial distinction: most crypto tokens trading today are probably not securities themselves. However, a token might have been sold as part of an investment contract, which is a security. This is a huge deal. For years, the prevailing view among regulators seemed to be that if a token was ever part of a securities offering, it would be considered a security forever.

Chairman Atkins was clear that this new approach isn’t a free pass for bad actors. “Fraud is fraud,” he stated, and the SEC will still go after those who deceive investors. This framework is about providing “integrity and intelligibility” to the market, not abandoning oversight.

He concluded by emphasizing that the SEC’s role is to serve entrepreneurs, investors, and all Americans striving for prosperity. “Project Crypto” is a commitment to do just that — to create rules that are firm, fair, and fit for the digital age.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

Great question. There are several possibilities.

1. Cash or Stable Assets: Many investors sell their assets to move into cash or cash equivalents like stablecoins (in the crypto world) or money market funds. This is often done to preserve capital during periods of uncertainty or market downturns.

2. Other Investments: The money might flow into other asset classes perceived as safer or more stable, such as:

   • Bonds: Government or corporate bonds are often seen as a "safe haven" during market volatility.

   • Gold and Precious Metals: These are traditional stores of value during economic uncertainty.

   • Real Estate: Some investors may shift their focus to tangible assets like property.

3. Paying Off Debt or Expenses: In some cases, investors sell assets to cover personal or business expenses, pay off debt, or meet margin calls (in leveraged trading). This is also the time of year many pro traders and institutions will start tax harvest to reduce capital gains taxes.

It's important to note that the "money leaving the market" is a bit of a misnomer. For every seller, there is a buyer. What changes is the price at which the transaction occurs. The red candles reflect a lower price because sellers are willing to accept less, and buyers are not bidding as high. The money doesn't disappear — it just moves to different places based on the strategies and risk appetites of investors.

Publicly traded crypto companies have been releasing Q3 earnings reports over the last few weeks. The numbers we’re seeing are staggering, especially in the exchange and brokerage space.

Giphy

Unfortunately, we had a stark reminder that crypto isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Banco Inter and Chainlink Make International Trade Easier

TLDR

• Chainlink is helping make international trade easier, cheaper, and faster.

• A new project used Chainlink’s technology for a transaction between a bank in Brazil and one in Hong Kong.

• Not only will using blockchain for imports/exports save money, but it also makes things easier and safer for all parties involved and will allow smaller businesses to enter international markets.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on crypto news/drama, you’ve probably heard a lot about blockchain solving “real-world problems”. Or as we like to call it…use cases. Chainlink, once again, is showing the world how it’s done. 

Banco Inter and Chainlink have pulled off something remarkable with the central banks of Brazil and Hong Kong. They completed the first-ever blockchain-based international trade finance experiment that could change how businesses around the world buy and sell goods.

Why the latest Chainlink project matters.

Traditionally, international trade is complicated, expensive, and slow. Banks have to coordinate manually with shipping companies and other financial institutions. There’s a lot of paperwork, delays, and risk involved. And as we all know, the speed of business is fast, but the speed of TradFi…is not…

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), these barriers often make it hard to compete in global markets.

The new platform changes the game by using tokenized payments and smart contracts. The process becomes faster and more cost-effective with permissionless smart contracts. Small businesses can now sell commodities abroad without jumping through endless hoops or paying massive fees. It opens doors that were previously closed.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Coinbase Crushes Q3 – Highlights From the Earnings Call

TLDR

• Coinbase recorded $1.9 billion in revenue for Q3.

• Volume was up 37% on the retail side and more than doubled on the institutional side.

• As far as individual tokens, stablecoins are taking over the industry, and Ethereum trading is gaining momentum.

Coinbase has dropped its third-quarter earnings, and honestly? The numbers are looking pretty sweet. While every earnings call in the history of publicly traded companies highlights the positives, this one backs up the crypto news we’re seeing everywhere.

And what news is that? Crypto is taking off. It’s getting serious. 

Overall, this is amazing news for crypto users.

Coinbase’s strong Q3 shows the platform is stable, growing, and investing in features that’ll make your crypto experience better. They’re adding more assets, improving security, expanding payment options, and building tools that’ll make it easier to start small and grow your portfolio over time.

The crypto market is heating up, and Coinbase is positioning itself as the beginner-friendly gateway. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Robinhood's Q3 2025: A Crypto Gold Rush Story

TLDR

• Robinhood saw crypto revenue explode over the last year.

• Their new Q3 report shows an increase in revenue, to the tune of over 300%.

• The numbers were fantastic across the board, with overall revenue coming in at over $1 billion.

Robinhood’s Q3 report has some seriously impressive numbers, and if you're new to the crypto game, this is your wake-up call. The trading platform isn't just growing — it's absolutely crushing the game. Revenues doubled year-over-year to hit a record $1.27 billion.

What does this have to do with crypto? Good question. And we’ve got the answer you want to hear. Cryptocurrency revenue skyrocketed over 300% compared to last year. That's not a typo. While traditional markets did well, crypto absolutely stole the show.

Why is crypto taking off so hard on platforms like Robinhood (and Coinbase)?

So what's driving this crypto boom? Several factors are at play.

First, Robinhood made crypto trading dead simple. You don't need to be a blockchain expert or understand complex wallet addresses. The platform stripped away the technical barriers that once kept beginners out of the market.

Second, they expanded their offerings. Through their acquisition of Bitstamp, Robinhood now offers crypto perpetual futures across Europe and over 400 Stock Tokens to EU customers. They're also rolling out institutional-grade services, legitimizing crypto for more conservative investors.

Third, market conditions are right. With crypto values climbing and media coverage increasing, more people are curious about digital assets. Robinhood positioned itself perfectly to capture this wave of new users.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

A YouTube Comment - “What does the Balancer exploit mean for DeFi and for users? It is time to bail?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $9,584. Growth - Currently at a loss! Oh no!

Here’s why we aren’t worried:

The current level of volatility, which has been substantial, is reflected in printing fees that make us happy. These fees are reinvested, which will grow our position over the long term. Secondly, we’re still making 3% on our Lido position. When ETH price action recovers, our port will be looking better than ever.

Deep Dive - Balancer Got Wrecked in a $100 Million Exploit

Around 7:45 AM UTC on Monday, November 3rd, someone discovered a vulnerability in Balancer V2’s Composable Stable Pools and exploited it. Think of Composable Stable Pools as special containers designed to hold similar assets (like different versions of stablecoins or wrapped tokens) and let people swap between them efficiently.

The problem? A tiny rounding error in how these pools handled certain types of swaps. Sounds boring, right? Except this tiny mathematical hiccup let attackers drain funds from pools across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Base, Avalanche, and several others.

Here’s the technical bit made simple: Balancer V2 lets you do “batch swaps,” which bundle multiple transactions together to save on gas fees. These swaps have a cool feature called “deferred settlement” — basically, you can borrow tokens temporarily as long as you pay them back. This term is often referred to as a flash loan.

The exploit leveraged this feature, combined with incorrect rounding when scaling token amounts, enabling attackers to manipulate pool balances and withdraw funds that did not belong to them.

This exploit is yet another example of how code vulnerabilities can remain hidden for years. We’ve seen this multiple times in 2025, unfortunately. These Composable Stable Pools had been live and audited by top security firms. They had active bug bounty programs. And yet, this specific combination of features created a vulnerability that was not discovered for years.

However, there’s a flip side — when the exploit occurred, the decentralized community responded faster and more effectively than most centralized systems could. Validators coordinated network halts. Whitehat hackers mobilized within minutes. Protocols across different chains worked together to freeze assets and limit damage.

Update: As of the time of this writing, there have been no further recoveries reported. The Balancer team has reached out to the hacker and is trying to negotiate a return of the funds.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

We can’t tell you what to do. That would constitute financial advice. But we can say this:

What happened with Balancer is unfortunate. And it’s a nasty side of DeFi that we’ve seen a lot over the years. Has it changed how we feel about it?

No. 

Why?

Every time a big protocol, such as Balancer, is exploited, teams of devs and whitehats deploy. They go to work. They implement fixes. They track digital bad guys. And every single time, decentralized finance walks away bruised and beaten up. But also, smarter. Things get fixed. Patched. Users are made whole (most of the time). And the world keeps on turning.

And they do so without government intervention. Without banks. Without any players that we rely on in TradFi when this kind of thing happens to them. The teams are better than ever. They’re faster than ever. We believe it’s only a matter of time before DeFi surpasses many TradFi alternatives in terms of safety and reliability.

We know stablecoins are boring to most people. But when a16z drops a crypto report showing $4 trillion in annual volume, we’re ok with boring. We like to eat…and we’ll take everyone’s lunch.

Giphy

Between that report and recent happenings that continue to blur TradFi and crypto, this week had us packing lunchboxes super full. Time to get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Highlights From a16z’s 2025 Crypto Report

TLDR

• The annual a16z crypto report is here.

• Stablecoins are going bonkers, AI is finding its place, and it’s all being driven by regulatory clarity.

Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) annual State of Crypto report is a big deal. These folks have been backing crypto startups since the early days. They’re the ones who blew the whistle on Operation Chokepoint. So when they drop their yearly insights, the entire industry pays attention.

Their 2025 report has some genuinely exciting stuff packed in it. Some we knew. Some we didn’t. And all of it could make crypto way more accessible.

Crypto is the future (according to the report, but we already knew that).

The trends in a16z’s 2025 crypto report paint a picture of crypto becoming more accessible, stable, and user-friendly. But what should you actually do with this information?

Start Small and Safe: With stablecoins becoming more mainstream and infrastructure improving, there’s never been a better time to start with small amounts. Consider beginning with a stablecoin like USDC to get comfortable with wallets and transactions.

Explore AI-Powered Tools: As AI agents become more common, look for platforms that use AI to simplify crypto management. These tools can help automate tasks that would otherwise require deep technical knowledge.

Take Advantage of Better Apps: The new generation of crypto applications focuses on user experience. Try apps that integrate crypto into activities you already enjoy, like gaming or social media.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Two Brand New Solana ETFs Have Hit the Market 

TLDR

• Two Solana ETFs have launched this week.

• The first, by Bitwise, has the ticker BSOL. The Grayscale product was given the ticker GSOL.

• Both products tap into staking to maximize investor profits.

Two major players — Bitwise and Grayscale — launched Solana ETFs this week, marking a huge milestone for one of the fastest-growing blockchains out there.

If you’re wondering how to get exposure to Solana without actually buying and storing SOL tokens yourself, these new ETFs might be exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Here’s why these Solana ETFs hit different.

Here’s where these ETFs get really interesting: staking rewards. Unless this is your first article at Dypto Crypto, you know we love staking. That’s why we do it with our own portfolio. When you buy Solana directly, you can “stake” your tokens to help secure the network and earn rewards — currently averaging around 7% annually.

Both BSOL and GSOL handle this staking automatically. Your ETF shares benefit from both the potential price appreciation of SOL tokens and the steady income from staking rewards. It’s like owning a stock that pays dividends, except the “dividends” come from helping maintain a blockchain network.

Grayscale plans to pass through 77% of staking rewards to investors after expenses. Bitwise hasn’t specified its exact percentage yet, but it has emphasized maximizing shareholder rewards.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Tokenize Everything – A Securitize IPO Is on the Way

TLDR

• Securitize is going public.

• The company is best known for partnering with BlackRock to create the investing giant’s BUIDL fund.

• The valuation the company is looking for? A cool $1.25 billion. Too high? We’ll let you be the judge.

Securitize, the company that has been quietly tokenizing billions of dollars’ worth of real-world assets, is about to go public with a whopping $1.25 billion valuation. And honestly? It’s about time the market recognized what this company has been building.

Why the IPO matters for crypto users.

Securitize represents something much bigger: the maturation of blockchain tech as a tool for traditional finance. While other crypto companies have focused on creating entirely new financial systems, Securitize has been quietly working to improve the existing system using blockchain.

The company operates as a fully regulated platform with SEC-registered entities across multiple areas: transfer agent, broker-dealer, alternative trading system (ATS), investment advisor, and fund administration. In simple terms, they’ve built all the regulatory infrastructure needed to make tokenization legitimate in the eyes of traditional finance.

This regulatory approach matters because it shows that crypto companies can work within existing frameworks rather than trying to replace them entirely. For new crypto users, this provides a level of security and legitimacy that pure DeFi platforms often can’t match.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From a DM on X - “Watching the crypto market after the Fed lowered rates and there wasn't much volatility. Many reports are saying the rate drop had already been "priced in". What does that mean?”

Meme of the Week

Dypto Crypto team members at Thanksgiving Dinner…

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $9.673. Growth - Not much YTD

Ok. We admit it. We did not smile when we checked out our Debank this morning. However…we did make a noise.

Gif by RosannaPansino on Giphy

What else were we going to do? The crypto market is down across the board today, from stocks to token prices. Even BNB (which we aren’t currently holding) has dropped back below a grand after running hot all October. However, the volatility isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Here’s how CJ, our CEO and analyst, put it in his most recent portfolio update on the Circle platform.

“If ETH’s price goes below our bottom range, we are buying more and more ETH. The kicker is that we are buying ETH at a lower price every time.

Not only that, but we’re also reinvesting the fees we earned back into our position. These fees are in ETH and USDC. This is why LPers (liquidity providers) like to see movement in both ways, up and down.

1. Because it creates volatility, and thats where we earn the most fees.

2. Because it gives us an opportunity to buy low, sell high.

So then why is it important that we have more ETH, even though our valuation is lower? Well think about when ETH’s price goes back up. We now have 0.1 more ETH so as the price goes back up, we have more ETH to sell at a higher price, AND we’re also making more in fees because our overall position is larger.”

Deep Dive - Arc Testnet is Live – Inside Circle’s New Layer 1 Blockchain

You’ve probably heard of Circle. They’re the company behind USDC, the popular stablecoin that’s pegged to the US dollar. We’ve known they were working on their own chain for a few months. The public testnet for their new Layer 1 blockchain, Arc, is now live.

To break it down in its simplest form, Circle is building its own superhighway called Arc, and launching a “testnet” is like opening it to a select group of drivers (in this case, developers and large companies) to take it for a spin before it opens to everyone.

Imagine the internet is like a giant, busy city. Blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin are like the first major highways built in that city. They work, but they can get congested and expensive, especially during rush hour. A Layer-1 blockchain is like building a brand-new, super-efficient highway system from scratch to solve those traffic jams.

At its core, Arc is a brand-new Layer-1 blockchain designed to be an “Economic Operating System” for the internet. That sounds fancy, but the goal is simple: make it easier, faster, and cheaper for businesses and developers to move money and create financial applications online.

Think about how you pay for things now. You use credit cards, bank transfers, or apps like PayPal. These systems are often slow, have high fees (especially for international transfers), and involve a bunch of middlemen. Arc wants to build a new foundation for finance directly on the internet, using the power of blockchain to cut out the friction.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

When people say that a rate drop (or any other anticipated event) has already been "priced in," they mean that the market had already anticipated the event and adjusted asset prices accordingly before the official announcement was made. 

In other words, traders and investors expected the Federal Reserve to lower rates, and they made their buying or selling decisions based on that expectation ahead of time.

Here’s how it works:

1. Market Expectations: Financial markets are forward-looking, meaning they try to predict future events and react to them in advance. If there’s widespread speculation or strong signals that the Fed will lower rates, investors may start adjusting their portfolios before the announcement.

2. Price Adjustments: For example, in the crypto market, if traders believe a rate cut will make riskier assets like cryptocurrencies more attractive (due to lower yields on traditional investments), they might start buying crypto ahead of the announcement. This buying activity pushes prices up before the rate cut actually happens.

3. No Surprise, No Volatility: When the rate cut is finally announced, it doesn’t come as a surprise because the market had already factored it into prices. As a result, there’s little to no additional movement or volatility in the market.

In your case, the lack of volatility in the crypto market after the Fed’s rate cut suggests that traders had already anticipated the move and adjusted their positions beforehand. The announcement simply confirmed what they already expected, so there wasn’t a big reaction.

This concept applies to all financial markets, not just crypto, and is a key reason why unexpected events (those not priced in) tend to cause much larger market reactions.

We knew it. Kevin O’Leary knew it. Most of the people in the industry knew it. And then…we felt it. 

Gif by thebachelor on Giphy

Adoption is happening. Right now. And stablecoins are the reason. But that’s not all that’s happening in the crypto world this week. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

President Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ

TLDR

• President Trymp has pardoned Binance founder CZ.

• CZ was found guilty of failing to implement proper AML protocols, among other violations, and sentenced to four months in jail.

• He also had to step down as Binance’s CEO and pay billions of dollars in penalties.

President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao. Known in the crypto world as CZ, he’s the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The pardon effectively wipes the slate clean of his federal conviction for failing to implement proper AML/KYC protocols in the United States.

The pardon is a big win for the industry.

The pardon of Changpeng Zhao is a landmark moment. It’s more than just one man’s legal troubles disappearing.

It highlights how politicians’ views on digital assets have shifted over the last year — from a sketchy, unregulated frontier that needs to be tamed to a landscape of innovation and economic opportunity that needs to be nurtured.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

OG Bitcoin Whales Are Ditching Their Keys for ETFs

TLDR

• Billions of dollars worth of BTC have moved from onchain to ETFs.

• Self-custodied Bitcoin is at its lowest point in 15 years.

• The main reason? Tax advantages.

“Not your keys, not your coins.” For years, this has been the rallying cry for serious crypto holders. The idea is simple: if you don’t personally control the private keys to your crypto wallet, you don’t truly own your assets. But now, some of the biggest players in the game — the legendary OG Bitcoin whales — are starting to sing a different tune.

These early adopters, who stacked massive amounts of Bitcoin when it was practically worthless, are now moving their fortunes from self-custody into shiny new spot Bitcoin ETFs. Why would the most hardcore believers give up their keys? Good question.

Why are whales moving to TradFi?

In July 2025, the SEC approved “in-kind” creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs. This is a bit technical, but stick with us. Previously, if you wanted to move your Bitcoin into an ETF, you’d have to sell your Bitcoin for cash, then use that cash to buy ETF shares. This selling part is a “taxable event,” meaning you’d likely have to pay capital gains tax.

With in-kind redemptions, authorized participants can now directly swap Bitcoin for ETF shares. This process is far more efficient and can be more tax-friendly, saving these large investors a ton of money. It’s a game-changer that makes ETFs much more attractive.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

MrCrypto? MrBeast Files MrBeast Financial Trademark

TLDR

• MrBeast has filed for a new trademark — MrBeast Financial.

• The goal is to provide a fintech app appealing to his audience.

• Offering a crypto exchange service was listed as one of the features of the app.

The YouTube king is making moves beyond viral videos. Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has filed a trademark for “MrBeast Financial“. He’s setting his sights on something completely different: helping his fans manage their money. 

So what exactly is MrBeast planning? And more importantly, what does this mean for his massive audience of young viewers who’ve watched him give away millions in cash? 

Spoiler! There’s crypto involved. 

On October 13, 2024, MrBeast’s team filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for “MrBeast Financial.” The filing isn’t vague — it specifically outlines plans for a comprehensive suite of financial services.

According to the application, MrBeast Financial would offer:

• Mobile app and online banking services

• Financial advisory services

• Cryptocurrency exchange capabilities

• Various other financial products and services

The trademark suggests a full-scale entry into financial services, complete with the infrastructure needed to handle everything from basic banking to crypto trading.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

From a Dypto Crypto Team member - “I keep seeing mentions of the digital asset treasury companies being in a bubble. What’s actually going on?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $10,898. Growth - 12.7% YTD

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. We were sweating for a few days. And we don’t sweat easily. Given the volatility of the last few weeks, we’ve been printing fees pretty hard with our yield farming position in Uniswap. While the liquid staking position isn’t doing much — it’s doing what we need it to do.

These positions are hedges against each other. One, the slow and steady approach of liquid staking gives us max ETH exposure. Two, the Uniswap position takes full advantage of volatility. Even though ETH price action has been “meh” after the summer hype, we’re pretty happy right now. 

Deep Dive - TRM Labs Has Released Its Annual Crypto Adoption Report

TRM Labs has released its 2025 crypto adoption report, and the numbers are mind-blowing. If you’ve been wondering whether crypto is actually going mainstream or just riding another hype wave, this data might surprise you.

India clinched the top spot for crypto adoption for the third year running. But the US? We’re not messing around either, holding steady at #2 while our crypto transaction volume jumped by roughly 50% compared to the same period last year.

The political landscape shifted big time. Trump became the first major party candidate to accept crypto donations, and after his election victory, there was a 30% spike in web traffic to crypto platforms. Since taking office, his administration has been making moves:

• Congress passed the GENIUS Act (the first comprehensive stablecoin law)

• The White House dropped its 180-Day Digital Assets Report

• The SEC launched a dedicated Crypto Task Force, got rid of outdated policies, and even came up with some new ones just for crypto

The regulatory clarity is huge for adoption. When people know the rules of the game, they’re way more likely to play.

In 2025, stablecoins hit 30% of all crypto transaction volume — that’s their highest share ever.

By August 2025, stablecoin transaction volume reached over $4 trillion for the year, an 83% increase from 2024. To put that in perspective, that’s more money moving through stablecoins than the GDP of most countries.

The 2025 data shows people are using digital assets for real-world stuff: payments, remittances, and protecting their money from economic instability. Retail adoption jumped 125% between January and September compared to the same period in 2024. That’s regular people, not just institutions or whales, driving crypto growth.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

It depends on how you look at it. From our perspective, there was a bubble, and it’s already popped. Many of these companies are trading below their NAV (net asset value), meaning the company's actual per-share value is higher than its current stock price.

To us, this means there are two possible things going on:

1. The asset treasury thing is running out of gas. We report on the major buys that happen every week, and most of these companies are buying more, not less.

2. The more likely scenario: It’s a nothingburger. Look at the companies you’re interested in, perform your due diligence as an investor, and decide for yourself what you want to do. Many of these companies have solid fundamentals, but stocks are just as susceptible to volatility as crypto, even though the swings aren’t usually as severe. If you like what you see, it could possibly be an attractive buying opportunity if it aligns with your goals. To put it into some more perspective, after the “dot com” bubble popped, Amazon was trading at about $10 a share.

For months, things were smooth. Regulatory clarity was having an impact. Digital asset treasury companies were hoarding crypto, and token prices were sky rocketing.

Now. It’s back to business as usual in the crypto world.

Giphy

Good things are still happening all over. But volatility is back, X drama is all over the place, and honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s get after it.

From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom

Bitcoin’s Wild Ride – Uptober’s First Major Speed Bump

TLDR

• President Trump announced that massive tariffs would be imposed on China.

• The event created extreme volatility in the crypto market.

• That volatility led to something called a “liquidation cascade”, further increasing selling pressure on every major token.

• By Sunday evening, most coins were already experiencing a decent amount of recovery from the weekend dip buyers.

Man…Uptober was going great, wasn’t it? The crypto world was riding high, everyone was feeling good, and it seemed like the only way was up. Then, last weekend happened. If you glanced at your portfolio and choked on your coffee, you’re not alone. Bitcoin took a nosedive, and the entire market followed suit in a spectacular, gut-wrenching fashion.

What happened? It all boils down to political drama and crypto markets doing what they do best: being volatile.

The beautiful disaster of the market mayhem.

So why did one announcement cause such a dramatic collapse? Let’s look at the underlying mechanics.

The Power of Leverage - Leverage is like a double-edged sword. It allows traders to amplify their potential profits by borrowing funds to make bigger bets. However, it also magnifies their losses. When the price started to drop, it triggered a “liquidation cascade.” As positions were forcibly closed, the sell orders pushed the price down further, which in turn triggered the next batch of liquidations. 

Open Interest Takes a Hit - Another key indicator of market sentiment is “open interest,” which represents the total number of outstanding futures contracts that have not been settled. Following the crash, aggregate open interest in BTC showed a sharp decline, signaling that traders were hesitant to open new positions amidst the uncertainty. But more realistically, we think that most traders don’t do much on the weekends, which explains the lack of open interest.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

S&P Global Teams Up with Chainlink

TLDR

• S&P Global and Chainlink are making stablecoins even more stable. Kind of.

• S&P Global will be rating stables on their ability to maintain peg and overall safety.

• Chainlink will be responsible for bringing all of that data onchain.

It’s time for the next phase of stablecoin evolution. The keyword here is going to be “stability”. S&P Global Ratings — those folks who rate everything from government bonds to corporate credit — has partnered with Chainlink to bring their stablecoin assessments directly onto the blockchain.

Why this new system is important.

The problem is, not all stablecoins are created equal. And not all of them are capable of maintaining their pegs. Some are backed by actual dollars sitting in bank accounts, while others use complex algorithms or a mix of different assets. S&P’s assessments help users understand which ones are most likely to actually maintain their peg to the dollar.

Their rating system is simple: 1 means very strong, 5 means weak. So if you’re looking at two stablecoins and one has a rating of 2 while another has a rating of 4, you’d probably want to go with the one with the higher rating.

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Did X Drama Just Get BNB on Coinbase?

TLDR

• A recent tweet from a Coinbase Ventures-backed protocol outlined the requirements for listing on Binance.

• Another Coinbase insider commented that an exchange shouldn’t charge to list a token.

• This prompted crypto users on X to tell Coinbase to list BNB if that was the case. 

• BNB is now listed on Coinbase’s roadmap.

Spicy drama on X has pushed Coinbase to finally list BNB, Binance’s token. Coinbase announced it’s adding its rival’s flagship token to its listing roadmap. For those new to the space, this is like McDonald’s suddenly deciding to sell the Whopper. It’s a big deal.

This whole episode is more than just juicy gossip. It shines a light on the competitive, and sometimes petty, world of crypto exchanges. It also raises important questions about how tokens get listed and who really benefits. 

What the drama means for users…now and in the future.

Okay, so a bunch of crypto folks had a Twitter fight, and a token got listed. Why should you, a newcomer to crypto, care?

1. Transparency - The process of getting a token listed on a major exchange is opaque and often favors insiders. For the average user, more transparency means a fairer market and less chance of being caught in a project that paid its way to the top.

2. The Power of Community - Never underestimate the power of a riled-up crypto community. The drama is a perfect example of how public pressure can influence decisions. 

The crypto community saw an opportunity to call out what they perceived as hypocrisy, and they succeeded in pushing Coinbase to act. 

3. Competition Is a Good Thing - At the end of the day, the rivalry between Coinbase and Binance is a good thing for consumers. When giants compete, they are forced to innovate, lower fees, and offer better products to attract and retain users. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week

A TikTok DM - “I see a lot of news on the major crypto media outlets reporting about ETF inflows and outflows. What do I do with this information?”

Meme of the Week

Source

By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio

Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.

Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH (~$9,670)

Current portfolio valuation - $10,426 - Growth 7.8% on the year.

Ethereum is being hit pretty hard with market volatility. Good thing we’re using semi-passive long-term strategies! But seriously, seeing our Debank hurts us even though we’re prepared for this kind of thing. We still think we’re on the right track.

We’re currently being beaten YTD by the SPY, which we would like to outpace by the end of the year. Our fingers are crossed that ETH is just taking a little nap before it drops the hammer like Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder.

Gif by Cinisioracing on Giphy

Deep Dive - Kraken Buys A Second Derivatives Platform for $100 Million

Kraken just bought another company. While acquisitions happen all the time in the crypto world, this one is a little different. It is, at least potentially, a big deal for the US market. The big squid bought a smallish derivatives platform called Small Exchange.

On the surface, it’s a simple purchase. But the key here is what Small Exchange is: a Designated Contract Market (DCM) licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Let’s unpack that:

• CFTC: The US government agency that regulates derivatives markets. Think of them as the financial police for things like futures and options. They make sure everything is fair, transparent, and that companies aren’t doing anything shady.

• DCM: A Designated Contract Market is basically a fancy license from the CFTC that allows a company to create and list its own derivative products for trading in the US

By buying a company with a DCM license, Kraken has fast-tracked its way to becoming a fully regulated US derivatives player. It’s like wanting to open a restaurant and instead of building one from scratch and waiting years for permits, you just buy an existing one that already has all the licenses. 

Read the full article at Dypto Crypto

Question of the Week Answer

The short answer? Whatever you want. 

The longer answer? It depends on your goals.

The much longer answer?

takes a deep breath

ETFs are products that aren’t really meant for day trading. You can totally do it, but that’s not really ideal. ETFs are more for buy and hold strategies, which is the TradFi version of hodling. Crypto ETFs don’t cost as much as an individual BTC, ETH, or SOL token. So the prices are a bit easier to digest.

The reports on inflows and outflows are less about price action and more about market sentiment. If the markets running red hot and seeing a ton of inflows, you can use that information to do things like selling a covered call or looking to take some profits before a dip, especially if you’re watching flows meticulously. Conversely, you can use heavy outflows as an opportunity to enter at a more reasonable price.

Lastly, having a broad view of the market, even if you don’t participate in TradFi isn’t a bad idea. Crypto is a growing ecosystem, but it still doesn’t have anywhere close to the volume of the US stock market, which doesn’t have anywhere close to the volume of the global Forex market. So in perspective, it’s still relatively small. Watching from multiple angles may give you a glimpse into the price action crystal ball so you can plan short term moves accordingly.

Circling back around, we love ETFs. But we use them for hodling to hedge again regular trading activities.