Unchained - A Soon-to-Be $2 Trillion Stablecoin Market? Stripe, Shopify and Banks Want In - Ep. 851

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Stablecoins are having a moment. From Stripe’s acquisition of crypto wallet startup Privy, to Shopify integrating USDC, to Plasma raising $500 million for its stablecoin-optimized sidechain, stablecoins are having a moment. And at the center of it all is Circle, which had one of the most successful IPOs in decades. But what’s really happening under the surface? And who’s best positioned as stablecoins go mainstream? Vicky Fu, co-founder at Yala and former engineering director at Circle, joins Unchained to explain: How she saw Circle as deeply undervalued before the IPO buzz What Stripe’s crypto moves signal for the broader market Why retail payments could become stablecoins’ breakout use case How network effects give Circle a serious edge, even as banks circle the space Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Ledn FalconX Human Rights Foundation Guest Vicky Fu, co-founder at Yala  Links Unchained: GENIUS Stablecoin Bill Advances in U.S. Senate Bloomberg: Bessent Says $2 Trillion Reasonable for Dollar Stablecoin The Block: Payment giant Stripe to buy crypto wallet firm PrivyMarket Payment giant Stripe to buy crypto wallet firm Privy CoinDesk: Crypto startup Plasma’s XPL Token Sale Hits $500M as Investors Chase Stablecoin Plays The Block: Plasma doubles its deposit cap, clarifies it is eyeing $50M public sale at $500M FDV Reuters: Societe Generale becomes first major bank to launch dollar-pegged stablecoin The Information: Financial Markets Giant DTCC Explores a Stablecoin  Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 🔍 2:40 Why Vicky believed Circle was deeply mispriced BEFORE the IPO hype 🏗️ 11:336 How Circle’s quiet infrastructure play is more powerful than it looks 🛒 17:40 Why the Shopify–USDC integration could be a turning point 💼 19:14 What Stripe’s acquisition of Privy signals 🔥 23:42 What the Plasma ICO reveals about surging interest in the sector 🏦 29:50 Whether crypto-native issuers can really compete with banks entering the stablecoin race 📰 34:10 Weekly News Recap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I feel this is a trend similar with AI agent helps with AI technology. Stable coin helps payment technology. I think this is like a, we're super exciting to see this. So to see this upgrade. Everyone should be able to get benefits from those. Hi everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host, Laura Shin.

Every episode, we'd love to feature listener comments. Today we have some responses to my recent two-part series with Bitwise's Jeff Park. On YouTube, Gatecrasser 1 wrote, I'm not putting anything past Jeff Park. This guy is both smart and forthcoming in his views on Bitcoin and the effects on the future economy. Also on YouTube, XXXX said, I love this guy always, watch his interviews. I don't know, it seems like he genuinely wants me to win.

LMAO. Most people just trying to sell you something. Good episode. Watch the full episode with Jeff on YouTube. or on any podcast platform. And tell us what you think with a comment on YouTube, Farcaster, or X. This is the June 12th, 2025 episode of Unchained.

Leden is a leading platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, offering a secure and transparent way to unlock liquidity without selling your Bitcoin. Issuing loans since 2018 and earning over 1,000 trust pilot reviews. Learn more at leddon.io. In many countries, governments freeze accounts, surveil transactions and seize assets, not just from activists, but from everyday people.

That's why the Human Rights Foundation created the Financial Freedom Report. Sign up to receive it weekly at Financial Freedom Report.org. Imagine an AI that speaks crypto and does the work of a team of analysts. Introducing Focal by Falcon X, bringing clarity to a world of noise. Visit askfocal.com. Today's guest is Vicki Fu. founder at Yala and former engineering director at Circle. Welcome, Vicki. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's great pleasure to have a conversation here. Yeah, yeah, excited to chat. There's been so much stablecoin news this week and last. There was obviously the Circle IBO that most crypto people kind of missed or dismissed. And you were one of the few who understood that people were underestimating

it. Then this week there was the plasma ICO, the Privy acquisition by Stripe. and the announcement that Shopify merchants would now be able to accept USDC. And that is only the business news on top of all that. It looks like we're going to get a stable coin bill passed in the Senate soon. So I know people want to hear about the privy acquisition, the Shopify news, but I do just want to back up and start with the Circle IPO, because that really sets the stage for how to think about all of this news that we're seeing. And the day before the Circle IPO, you wrote a tweet saying that it was mispriced

in the market was going to learn a lesson about this. You know, you probably heard like a lot of crypto people were comparing circles business model to tethers and frankly the profits, which, you know, are just a small fraction of tethers. And, you know, they have much higher overhead. And so there were numerous crypto people, in fact, on this show who were saying, you know, this IPO was nothing to get excited about. And they were wrong. And you had written this tweet about, you know, how you felt people were mispricing this.

So explain, you know, what it was that you were thinking, how you were evaluating things differently and why you thought the underwriters got it wrong. Thank you. I really appreciate you and notice my tweet. I didn't expect that you have so much attention. Let me start with my story and my journey. So I joined Circle 2021 and left like a 2012. for early 2024 as an director and started my own project, Yala, which is a BTC back liquidity layer to help BDC holder in yield. So I view myself really have thought a lot about the stable coin business. I see that people right now is try to do the traditional way for like a financial model

say, oh, this is the earning, so this is the profit, so how do you measure this company? Actually, Circle is so unique. You actually create a brand new business or a brand new product never seen before,

right? Before we don't have a stable coin as a public trade company. So that's the first initial thing that a Circle pioneer. Actually, in 2021, why join Circle restart the IPO journey? It has been overdue because the regulation,

because all over, like a lot of going on for the crypto side, get evolved. So finally, we get at the point. We get the SCE, prove this deal. We get a circle accepted as a public trade company. A lot of new attention come here. But all world, I think circle really pioneered here of two things. People didn't pay much attention beyond the revenue.

One is circles bring the significant of the liquidity everywhere on chain. What I mean that right now, everyone can bring a stable coin more or less every bank. I mean, talk about every bank in the regulation or something. But as a circles of volume, I think right now it's 60 billion circulation. You have to deploy those liquidity in all the D5 protocol from the trading, from the staking, from everywhere else. That's where a lot of natural organic demand, which is not any other stable coin easy to compare. Of course, Tether is there. I think that's also legit.

also a big player. So that's where I think when people only compare to revenue perspective, they easily miss what's going on underneath. Where's the 60 billion come from, right? 60 billion is the collision. That's the first thing. The second thing is when people compare Tether and the circle, they always feel that, oh, because the revenue is small,

that that means like a circle, a second tier compared to Tether. I think that that's totally misunderstood. business. Because Circle or Tether, they are representing a brand new business, means they do un-run, offering representing the whole geo market. What I mean is that circle really are dominated in North America. Or have been a long time regulation when they are not certain. People feel like they should not invest a lot in crypto space. But given that, the whole climate change after trauma getting their position, the U.S. market, all over the

North American market, will be invests significant. And the circle will be their top choice. When they think about a stable coin, they should bet on or as given that, a circle have a really strong brand in U.S. That's what fundamentally boost all the world circles. circulation and the profit capability. So I think when they just say, oh, because they have less circulation compared to the other, it's just not in the same market. Right.

So that's where I think that given that two things, beyond the number, look at the old market condition and all defy infra, circle to the worth significant more compared to the $31. the starting price. Okay, so basically you're in a way just saying like because the U.S. has the biggest markets, that that is, and that's where circle plays, that that's why it ends up having this

competitive edge. And it really is just a different beast from Tether, which is trying to serve a completely different market. Is that kind of what you're saying? I view that potentially U.S. was the faster growing space in critical. given that right now, the regulation are favorite U.S. investment place. So I think the last few years, U.S. are underdeveloped when we talk about the crypto growing. That's where I see that the new government really think we want to be crypto friendly.

I'm really happy to see that and are really happy to see Circle success. A lot of friends of mine are really celebrating this IPO. And given the IPO, Circle have even stronger brand, and there will be more adoption accordingly. Because Stapoint is a trust again, and the people view transparency as one of the top requirements when they put their money, right? So that's where I think the circle will have even further growing potential given that.

Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. One of the probably longest standing criticisms of tetherers around transparency. But yeah, I just wanted to quote from that tweet that you wrote because it was funny, you know, here we are talking about how a lot of crypto people were kind of comparing the profits to tethers and, you know, and the profit margins. And you just wrote, you know, so you talked about how you felt like the valuations that people were talking about and the price that the IPO was going to launch out, how you felt like that was what you called structural mispricing. And then you wrote, Circle isn't a money market fund. It's a digital dollar infrastructure with quasi-sovereign issuance rights. For context, PayPal, $70 billion market cap, $1.5 trillion.

dollars in volume. Visa, $500 billion market cap, $14 trillion in volume. Circle, $6 billion valuation, $12 trillion in volume. So that was, yeah, it was a really interesting comparison. And you said the math doesn't work, 25 times oversubscribed tells the real story. And actually, one other bit that I wanted to ask you about in this tweet, you said, Circle controls the digital dollar printing press. And, you know, as you had mentioned earlier in the tweet, you said that they're really in this area where it's like a quasi sovereign issuance rights. But I just wanted to understand because it's not like they're like creating dollars. They're like taking analog dollars and turning them into digital. So really, how are you thinking about what this business is?

Yeah, yeah. I think people easily underestimate the effort, the circle. and what's the mold here? Because in the end of the day, Fiat based stable coin actually do a lot for un-run, off-run, right? Because you want to deposit the US dollars that mean the stables and burn US D.C.

Get your dollar back. So so-called catering that with real time and 24 by 7 capability. Why I say is a big deal because I don't know, people remember 2020, 2020 or 2020, the Silicon Valley falling upon at that time. The Silicon Valley Bank. Yeah, yeah.

It was March, yeah, 20, 23. 23, Silicon Valley Bank falling apart. At that time, Circle lose the like the bank, un-rary, off-run, off-ran rail, some portion from the civil gate. So Circle worked really hard to bring the global capability to do un-run, off-run, since then, right? Because this is really allowed global. everybody, if they bring US dollars, they actually can mean to stable.

That's super powerful because dealing with a bank relationship of building the capability to do real-time and handling the report and do three-way accounting for make sure every dollar on chain, online, and in the bank are all meat. this is actually a huge effort for the circle work really hard to get at that point and make the transparency for everyone be able to see. So that's, I view that it's a last mile issue circle has solved. I think when people think about it, oh, you just deposit a US dollar, you get a USDC, that's because the circle are solving this and keep to bring new geo available like Latino and others.

So that's give a circle significant advantage compared to other like our operations. Because if you think about any bank, either they can support their own current region or they somehow have the high cost due to their network. So Circle worked really hard to bring that efficiency. That's where really trillion dollars moving around cross-border payment be able to happen with a stable speed. And that's where Germany-Lare, the Circle CEO, have the vision, this is the future money moment, right, because that's the efficiency. And any bank right now, their traditional infra could be empowered by stable coins with better efficiency, given that, that's a significant amount of,

like, value pop from Circle can offer. So Circle right now, partner with a lot of new brand, a lot of strong brands. So we actually will see this happen more and more. So that's where I think it will be tremendous value so can bring compared to like a Visa or PISA or PayPal, given the more traditional way. Yeah, yeah.

And we'll talk about that in a moment. But first, we'll take a quick word from the sponsors to make this show possible. Wish you could access cash without selling your Bitcoin? Leden makes that possible. The global leader in Bitcoin-backed lending, Lennon has issued over $9 billion in loans since 2018 and never lost a single Satoshi of client assets. Why is a Lennon loan different?

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On X, Tachy intern said, while how many of these shifts feel obvious in hindsight and still get ignored in real time. Again, if you want your take featured on the show, please write a review or leave a comment on an episode on YouTube, Farcaster, or X. Back to my conversation with Vicky. So this is the perfect segue to talk about the big news that was released on Thursday afternoon, which is that Coinbase, Shopify, and Stripe will now be enabling Shopify merchants

to accept payments in USC, including payments using USC on base. What did you make of this news? I see that, consider all other acquisition happens from strike. It all comes to the place as more info is building up for supporting the stable coin payment. I think that all were stable coin as a settlement vehicle. They actually can be solved each scenario problem with right info. So that's where actually those kind of things are growing. So several play the central role actually have a network effect.

That's where Coinbase payment are using USDC as a settlement. That makes a perfect sense. I'm super exciting to see that to empower retail shopping and help people have more, better payment solution with the cheaper cost. Yeah. And just to make it clear, you know, Shopify has over two million merchants. So this is clearly, you know, just like a really big entry point, I think, for Americans and, yeah, both businesses and consumers.

So the other big news is a little bit related because, you know, as I mentioned, Stripe was part of that Coinbase and Shopify announcement. And this week we also saw news that Stripe had acquired Privy wallet, which is, you know, in it in of itself is kind of one of the new crypto wallets that has gotten a lot of uptake. They have over 75 million accounts, and this is the wallet that's embedded into hyperliquid, FARCaster, OpenC, and other apps. And on top of that, you know, Stripe last year had acquired infrastructure. Stablecoin, yeah, Stablecoin Infrastructure Company Bridge for $1.1 billion. So what's your big takeaways about the Privy acquisition?

I think like a strike block actually representing the payment info. I see that this is the signal is they accept the stable coin as a payment solution for them to be able to offer more efficiency with their merchants. I think this is a super good news for people in this space. And also a validation for us that more and more stable coin payment solution will be adopted. And also for normal user, you and me, we might see more app powered by like USDC as a payment solution, easy to pay between you and me in an easy way. like a wind more or even fancy than that. Even AI agent could use the stable coin USDC as a payment solution

permissionlessly without any notice. That will be a mainstream adoption without much like a harder setting by us, like to figure out how to set a wallet, figure out where we store the recover key or something like that. I expect a strive or a coin base, even circle, they are building some payment network as well. they will make an effort and make a massive adoption by providing a better use experience with the info that are building. I think this is the trend.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, one point that I just wanted to also make about the Shopify thing, which I went to mention earlier, is just, you know, we were talking about Circle. And it goes to show kind of what you were saying about, like, this focus in the U.S., like this potentially could be quite big because if this is the coin that's being used for those payments, then, you know, you know, that will definitely increase the transaction volume. You know, one other thing that I just wanted to ask you more generally is like, you know, Stripe, they are making all these stable coin moves. And I just wondered what you kind of made of looking at all of it together, like where that is going for them or where you, you know, feel like, you know,

this is fitting into their strategy. Yeah, I think definitely it fit their strategy because Stripe, you view themselves as a payment. Infra, right? As a part of offer, the merchant upgrade, the cheaper, the efficient solution, especially a lot of merchants may not a U.S. base, right? And also, when they are global-based, cross-border payment, like for exchange, are all the need to be solved in a more efficient way. That's actually the advantage for Staportoin, be able to help those with a lower like a lower fee, faster settlement.

So that's where I think where all the thing tag should be see this as a two-go solution, right? They will focus more on, build a new network. That's also the early wise strive acquire a bridge, because they want a new network with a stable-point run, permissionless, be able to help with the settlement.

But that's basically, I feel this is a trend similar with AI agent helps with AI technology. Stable coin helps payment technology. I think this is like we're super exciting to see this. So see this upgrade. Everyone should be able to get benefits from those. Yeah. So the last big piece of news that I wanted to chat with you about on the business side is the plasma ICO, which raised $500 million in, I think it was like maybe an hour.

hour-ish via an ICO. And the original target had been for $15 million. And then they raised it to $250 million. And then they ended up raising $500 million. So what was interesting to me is, you know, I was trying to figure out what this XBL token, what you can do with it, because this is meant to be, Plasma is meant to be a Bitcoin side chain that's purpose built for stable coins, but also compatible with the EVM. And, you know, I was wondering, so, okay, so like, if you own XPL, then what are you getting? But, you know, despite at least to me, just like in a, it's not like I did a super deep dive, but just from some of the, you know, more cursory things I was looking at online, it just felt like, you know, this is

capitalizing in a few different trends here, like obviously stable coins, you know, I think ICOs are coming back. But what did it say to you that this particular ICU was such a hot ticket? Yeah, I think the observation is basically is primary institution participating. I think because when I look at the number, it's about a thousand wallet participating in debt, a billion pool for the deposit. So primary is come from large check, large deposit. So in that way, I think the institution are really bullish in the global warming. info. That's right now the hardest topic. And the circle, given that, is more work on the, like a Wall Street. And in that way, IPO is taking that portion of the investment money.

And this is for on-chain, take a big check from people who using USDA-D-T to do the deposit, that could come from people not be able to access IPO or like international or especially, I see that TETA actually have some investment in this as well. So I think everyone is figuring out a way to help to build up the info, right? Because I see their mission is the side change helps with the, the performance issue with the speed,

help with the stable coin movement settlement with the faster speed. So that's what they're offering. With those kind of institutions put a lot of money, I expect they should have a good ecosystem built up quickly because everyone contributed their token. In this way, I think OUOW, If you look at a blockchain or crypto business,

they just are significantly faster to raise the money compared to traditional way, right? Because Seco has been 12 years, finally IPO raised so much money. It never issued any tokens beyond the USDC as for just the stable coin business. So that's the harder way. And right now, given that everyone thinks,

I think everyone has the concerns. The stable coin business is a good business. So I think a lot of new money will come to this place to bat on different info pieces as long as they can solve some scenario or some problems that they realize could grow. So I think that this is really good for us. Same as Yala. We are Bitcoin back stable coin to enable to help. users to earn yield with the liquidity come from the Bitcoin.

That's another angle, right? Because Circle has built a significant of the info from the un-run-of-ran bank relationship to bring the fiat money into crypto. On the other side, Bitcoin is totally decentralized. We want to have the info to help the Bitcoin get more liquidity to make a yield for the Bitcoin holder. There are the liquidity layer from the Bitcoin asset. So this is a totally different info.

We view that the stable coin will be a bigger business to everyone can solve some portion of problems. Then this could be helped all financial system upgrade to a new level and get more transparent and more efficient. Okay. And then, you know, last question. So here we have the Staplecoin bill going through the Senate. It looks like it will probably be passed sometime soon. And then hopefully we'll actually have a like legislation that will arrive on President Trump's desk and hopefully it will be signed.

But, you know, what that is causing is like a bunch of other players to also take notice that this sector is poised to take off. And so we are seeing Society General is the first major bank that's going to launch a dollar peg stable coin. It looks like even DTCC is trying to get done on this. And, you know, we've done some interviews here where, you know, other analysts have said to us that they feel like, you know, once big banks get in, like once there's like a stable coin on at JP Morgan, that I think the one, you know, term that this person used is that the, the, big banks could crush Circle. So it'd be curious to hear your thoughts about how Circle or really any of these other stable coin players could fare against competition with Big Banks. Yeah, I think the last few years, there's a lot of trying, right, because PayPal have a stable coin for a little bit more than one year, I think more than one year, about a billion range. I'm really

happy to see everyone try to build themselves up with some stable coin because like earlier I shared is really solved the efficiency problems like for example in any bank even using the stable coin rather than their own like to rewrite the info part could be much more efficient for all the transparency and the efficiency for the operation part so that's where I think it's a significant value for everyone adopters stable coin. On the other side, you feel some people may think this could be a challenge for a circle. I actually think opposite.

The reason for that is the $60 billion circulation circle built is the two part. One is the liquidity comes in all chains. of chains that right now. So I think I have 20, 20 chains where I talk about integrated and on top of that, all the decentralized exchange or all the liquidity provider are using U.S. D.C. in some kind of way to do the liquidity. So that's where it's the network effect, so far as built, it's not easy to replace, right? Bank America, you have, or any bank, I should not say Bank of America. Any new bank have a stable date.

I don't think like Solana were directly adopted because if they see that they use USC is easy-use trade. One data I can share when Trump, the mean token about Trump happens early this year, they actually mean to $1 billion, $1 billion, dollar USDC on Solana. Because people think that this is the liquidity come from, users can have a trading best on Solana.

That's it. So that's part, I don't think the traditional bank, no matter how many stable coin, the issue, can replace that. Right. And on the other side is the unrefran globally support, right? The US can offer that. But if you talk about a global scale, people are using the check from like a Europe or,

Africa or anyway, can they mean that the stable? Because this is actually a user experience problem, and which central exchange will accept it. Circle have a really good relationship with Coinbase. Everyone know that. That's the partnership has been together. And that's where retail can easily get a USDC to dollar, dollar to USDC.

And it's the necrow effect, so about with their EU systems. So I think it's totally opposite. Every bank, if they want to have liquidity, they need to rely on USDA or USDT to help with their liquidity when they're using, when they are being online, have more use case around them. Okay, well, it was so great chatting with you. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on Unchained.

Yeah, my pleasure. It's a greater conversation. Yeah. Don't forget, next up is the weekly news recap. Stick around for this week in crypto after this short break. Markets are ripping, but not every pump is created equal. You need to make sense of the action and what's coming next. But where do you start?

Meet Focal by Falcon X, your AI-powered crypto analyst. It's like having a legion of experts at your fingertips, ready to break down market-making events, chart protocol TVL, track ETF flows. Get clarity in a world of noise with Focal. Learn more at askfocal.com. Welcome to this week's Crypto Roundup. In today's recap, the SEC signals possible approval for Solana ETFs, Gemini and bullish Edge closer to IPOs, and lawmakers advance the Clarity Act through Congress. We'll also cover interactive strengths, 500 million crypto, Treasury gamble, a major Bitcoin protocol update and Black Rock's record-breaking ETF milestone.

Plus, CETIS relaunches after the exploit, Musk's ex-partners with Polly Market, and Paraguay's president gets hacked by a fake Bitcoin campaign. Thanks for tuning in to the weekly news recap. Let's begin. SEC signals openness to Solana ETFs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked several asset managers seeking to launch Solana Exchange traded funds to revise their S-1 filings, a move seen as a potential step toward approval. According to sources cited by Blockworks and Bloomberg, the SEC is focused on two

critical issues. Whether the ETFs will permit in-kind redemptions using Sol tokens and how they will handle staking, a feature that allows token holders to earn rewards by validating blockchain transactions. At least seven firms, including Grayscale, Fidelity, Vanek, and 21 shares are in the running to bring Solana ETFs to market. A spokesperson for 21 shares confirmed to Blockworks it had received feedback and plans to submit an amended filing shortly. Bloomberg analysts estimate a 90% chance of approval this year, possibly as early as July. The regulator's engagement is widely seen as a sign that a new wave of crypto-etiffs may be nearing launch. Coinbase unveils on-chain decks access, Bitcoin Rewards Card, and U.S. Futures Push.

Coinbase announced a sweeping set of product expansions at its state of Crypto Summit, signaling a deeper move into both decentralized finance and traditional financial services. The most immediate change is the integration of decentralized exchanges built on Coinbase's base network directly into its main app. Users will now be able to access and trade thousands of on-chain assets without leaving Coinbase's interface. Coinbase also revealed the upcoming launch of perpetual futures contracts in the U.S. A feature previously limited to non-U.S. users. The exchange said it is working with regulators, including the CFTC, to bring these derivatives to American customers.

Additionally, the company introduced the Coinbase 1 card in partnership with American Express. The credit card offers up to 4% cashback in Bitcoin and will be available exclusively to Coinbase 1, subscribers beginning this fall. Bullish and Gemini quietly advance IPO plans. Crypto exchanges. Bullish and Gemini have each filed confidential paperwork with the U.S. SEC, signaling plans to go public as investor interest in digital assets intensifies. Bullish, the Gibraltar-based trading platform backed by Peter Thiel and led by former NYSE

President Tom Farley, is preparing for a potential U.S. listing with Jeffreys as lead underwriter, according to the Financial Times. The filing follows a previously failed SPAC, attempt in 2021 and comes amid renewed optimism as Bitcoin trades near 110,000 pro-crypto signals emerge from the Trump administration. Gemini, run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, submitted its draft S-1, just one day after Stablecoin issuer Circle's stock surged 168% on its first day of trading. The timing suggests that Circle's success may have influenced the decision. I suspect we'll be seeing several crypto companies accelerating their

IPO plans, said Carlos Gousman of GSR to Blockworks, noting the clear market appetite for digital asset firms. SEC floats defy innovation exemption. Paul Atkins, the U.S. SEC chair, instructed staff to explore a new innovation exemption aimed at easing regulatory burdens for decentralized finance platforms. Speaking at the Defy and the American Spirit roundtable, Atkins outlined a vision to allow developers and intermediaries to launch on-chain services more freely while ensuring compliance with key safeguards. The exemption would not eliminate oversight, but could streamline the path to market for defy projects that meet certain conditions. Atkins emphasized that publishing open source code should not be treated as a regulated financial activity, citing First

Amendment protections. The right to have self-custody of one's private property is a foundational American value, he said. Following the remarks, DeFi tokens, including A.A.V., uni, and Sky, surged more than 20%, reflecting a wave of optimism. Clarity Act clears House committees. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act advanced through two key U.S. House committees this week, marking a step toward establishing a regulatory framework for digital assets. The House Financial Services Committee approved the bill

in a 32-19 vote, while the House Agriculture Committee passed it with an even stronger 47-6 margin. The legislation aims to define the oversight roles of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, resolving long-standing questions around jurisdiction in the cryptospace. Congress has a historic opportunity

to provide the clear regulatory framework needed to unlock this innovation, said Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill in a statement. Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson added, the timing is ripe to advance common sense legislation. With both committees now aligned, the bill moves to the full House for debate,

bringing lawmakers closer to a comprehensive approach to digital asset regulation, struggling fitness firm bets on AI crypto token. Interactive Strengthink, a fitness equipment company facing steep financial losses, is pivoting to crypto with a headline-grabbing move, a 500 million plan to acquire Fetch AI's FET tokens. The deal, backed by ATW partners and market maker DWF Labs, aims to build a token treasury centered on artificial, intelligence. The company, which reported a $34.9 million net loss in 2024 and has seen

at stock plummet over 99 cents sent in a year, says the tokens will support future AI-powered fitness services, including personalized workout recommendations and incentive-based health tracking. However, only $55 million of the deal is confirmed upfront. The remaining $44 million is structured as an optional note issuance dependent on performance. CEO Trent Ward, the partnership as a strategic step toward long-term growth. TR&R stock dropped 21% following the announcement. Ethereum veteran says he declined $5 million offer. Pater Silagi, former lead developer of Ethereum's main client software geth,

says he turned down a $5 million proposal to separate the project from the Ethereum Foundation and turn it into a private company. In a string of posts on X, Silagi claimed the offer came with pressure to leave the foundation, which he said was also quietly supporting a parallel Geth team housed within the Nethermind client group. Did you all know the Ethereum Foundation started and funded a second Geth team inside Nethermind? He posted, citing Foundation co-chair Josh Stark. Selaggy added that he was fired from the foundation just a day after raising concerns

about the second team while on sabbatical. Geith, short for Go Ethereum, remains the dominant Ethereum client, currently running on over 60% of network nodes. Bitcoin update to expand data storage sparks debate. Bitcoin developers are moving ahead with a major protocol change that would expand the amount of data users can embed in transactions. The upcoming version 30 update, expected in October, will raise the OP return limit from 80 bytes to nearly 4 megabytes,

aligning with Bitcoin's block size and enabling much larger data entries. Supporters say the change could open doors for new end up. applications. But critics warn it risks overloading the network. Developer Luke dashjir sharply criticized the move, saying it enables denial of service attacks, referring to data-heavy transactions like inscriptions. In a separate development, Bitcoin Core reaffirmed its position on neutrality in a public statement. The team wrote, This is not endorsing or condoning non-financial data usage, but accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use-case.

not everyone agrees on. BlackRock's IB becomes fastest ETF to reach $70 billion. BlackRock's I-Shares Bitcoin Trust has set a new benchmark in the ETF world, surpassing $70 billion in assets under management just 341 trading days after its U.S. launch in January 2024. This makes it the fastest ETF in history to cross that threshold, outpacing the SPDR Gold Shares Fund, which took more than 1,600 days to reach the same level. With over 600,000 Bitcoin under custody,

Ibit now ranks as the largest institutional holder of the cryptocurrency, ahead of Binance and strategy. The fund's rapid ascent follows a 31-day streak of positive inflows and growing mainstream adoption, placing it on pace to exceed the estimated holdings of Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, by next summer. X partners with Polymarket. Elon Musk's X has announced a new partnership with crypto prediction platform Polymarket,

naming it the platform's official prediction market partner. The collaboration introduces a live analytics product that integrates Polymarket event contracts, user posts from X, and GROC, the chatbot developed by Musk's XAI, to explain market shifts as they happen. This will provide contextualized, data-driven insights to millions of polymarket users around the world, said Shane Copeland, CEO of Polymarket. The partnership follows a record period for Polymarket, which saw an all-time high in market creation this spring, and peaked with $463 million in open interest on Election Day. Future integrations between the two companies are planned,

as both aim to deliver more interactive and real-time financial forecasting tools across crypto and traditional markets. Sue-based Dex relaunches after hack. Cetus, a decentralized exchange operating on the sui-enaptos blockchains, has relaunched its protocol just over two weeks after a major exploit drained its liquidity pools. The May 22nd attack, caused by a flaw in a shared math library, allowed an attacker to inflate token deposits and siphon off funds, ultimately compromising over $220 million.

In a controversial step aimed at recovering the lost funds, Cetus managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen assets, with the help of SUI validators. The protocol also secured a $30 million USDC loan from the SUI Foundation and tapped into $7 million in reserves to help restore affected pools. Liquidity providers are now seeing reimbursement rates

between 85% and 99%, with full recovery expected through a token-based compensation plan. 15% of the CDIS token supply has been allocated, with 5% immediately claimable and the rest unlocking over-eastern. year. Cetus says it is strengthening its security and pursuing the attacker through legal channels. BitGlobal ends legal battle with Coinbase. BitGlobal has officially dropped its lawsuit against

Coinbase, closing the chapter on a high-profile dispute tied to the delisting of wrapped Bitcoin, WBTC. Filed in December 2024, the lawsuit alleged that Coinbase's removal of 13.8 billion ETC unfairly harmed the token's market position in favor of its own. own product, CBBT. The suit sought over $1 billion in damages. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning BIC Global cannot revive the same claims in the future. Both parties agreed to cover their own legal expenses. Coinbase had cited security concerns over Bik Global's ties to Tron founder Justin Sun, stating the decision was based on unacceptable risk to customers. A judge previously denied BitGlobal's request to halt the delisting, and transcripts show the court had been leaning

toward dismissing the case altogether. Time for fun bits! Hacker turns Paraguay's president into Bitcoin Maxi. In a plot twist, straight out of crypto fan fiction, the ex-account of Paraguay's president Santiago Pena was hijacked and briefly transformed him into Bitcoin's biggest cheerleader. The hacked post claimed Paraguay was adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, launching BTC bonds and even accepting donations to a wallet address. Bonus red flag, the whole thing was written in English. A bit odd for a Spanish-speaking president who always posts in Spanish. The real presidency quickly clarified it was all bogus.

No Bitcoin bonds, no legal tender law, and definitely no presidential fundraising wallet. Nice try, hacker, and that's all. Thanks so much for joining us today. To learn more about Vicky, Yala, and Stablecoins, check out the show notes for this episode. Unchained is produced by me, Laura Shin, both help from Matt Pildred, Roni Vanovich, Pam Bejumdar, and Margaret Correa. Thanks for listening.