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Today's News Recap
USDT Milestone - Tether’s USDT sets new record market cap above $160 billion in ‘mind-blowing milestone,’ CEO Paolo Ardoino says.
Base Rebrand - Coinbase unveils Base App, rebrands wallet as all-in-one social and trading platform.
ETH Inflows - Ether ETFs post record $726M daily inflow as analysts signal ‘deep demand shift’.
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Top Assets
Messari Protocol Reporting
Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
DePIN Built on Solana, interoperable with BSC, EVM, and L2 rollups
Replaces centralized mobile and WiFi access with decentralized, credential-authenticated connectivity
Integrates WiFi OpenRoaming and eSIM to create a seamless, carrier-agnostic wireless access network
Since its March 2025 TGE, Roam has grown from 2.3M to 2.9M users and scaled its active node base from 2.2M to 5.1M
Layer-1 / DeFi Infrastructure built on Cosmos SDK
Bitcoin-backed security sharing for other chains (BSNs – Bitcoin Supercharged Networks)
Secured 57,167 BTC, representing 0.29% of Bitcoin's supply—ranking 4th behind only BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelity
BABY token launched in April with a 6% airdrop. It powers governance, gas, and staking
Gaming / DePIN
Turns unused high-end gaming PCs into nodes for a decentralized, low-latency cloud gaming network
Combines compute, storage, and bandwidth on a single node to minimize latency
Developing AI-powered video delivery system to send intent not pixels, 75% bandwidth savings & scalable concurrent streaming
From Our Sponsor
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Two Bits
ETH Was Never Dead
By: Mohamed Allam
Back in April, ETH was trading around $1500. At the time, I published a newsletter saying it was a great time to buy, and people thought I was nuts—not random speculators but people deep in crypto, folks who should have known better. The general vibe was that Ethereum was done. Regulation fears, narrative fatigue, and the Bybit hack had everyone gripped by FUD.
But here’s the thing: ETH hadn’t traded that low since the bear market of 2022 to 2023. That’s what made it such a screaming opportunity. Everyone forgot the obvious. Everything in crypto is either built on Ethereum or learned how to build from it. Over 2700 active projects. 93000 GitHub repos. And yet the timeline was convinced it was over.
This is where Buffet-style logic applies. If you should take away anything from this newsletter, it’s, buy when there is blood on the streets. ETH had strong fundamentals and got caught in a feedback loop of fear. The Bybit hack didn’t touch Ethereum’s infrastructure, but people saw red and ran anyway. Same story with SOL after FTX. The smart move? Ignore the noise and load up.
Now we’re here. ETH has rebounded to nearly $3400 and is finally outpacing BTC. Capital is rotating, altcoins are gaining steam, and early-stage euphoria is starting to bubble up.
Later today, I’m publishing a full report that breaks down how all these ingredients are lining up: ETH’s reversal, new token launches, memecoin activity, and the macro backdrop. Spoiler: This cycle might look different, but it is following a very familiar pattern.
Here’s a quick look at some of the projects I cover in the report:
Pumpfun and the PUMP token: A Solana-based memecoin launchpad that lets anyone spin up tokens in seconds. Their token presale raised hundreds of millions in 12 minutes. No US or UK access. That only made the demand stronger. Now it is trading and deciding whether it will pump or dump.
Plasma and XPL: Building a zero-fee Bitcoin-based stablecoin settlement layer backed by big names like Peter Thiel and Paolo Ardoino. They raised $500 million from over 1000 wallets. The TGE is today, and everyone is watching.
WLFI: A politically backed DeFi platform tied to Trump’s circle. No liquidity for months after the raise. Now that it is tradable, it is getting picked up by both political maxis and opportunistic traders. It has a stablecoin, a lending platform, and a big narrative.
PENGU: Pudgy Penguins went from NFT speculation to a real brand. They’ve got merch, a multiplayer game, Coinbase using the avatar, and now a token that popped over 200%. It is not just a JPEG play anymore.
BONK: Solana’s OG memecoin is back. The new LetsBonk launchpad uses BONK to buy and burn tokens, which gives it recurring demand. The price has doubled, volume is up, and it is back in the top memecoin conversation.
This is the setup phase. The early movers are in, narratives are forming, and ETH is once again the axis of rotation.
The gates of euphoria are slowly opening.
That’s all for today, folks! As always, contact me on LinkedIn if you have ideas, suggestions, or just want to chat crypto. Until next time.
