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Today's News Recap
Nasdaq Investment - Nasdaq to invest $50M in Winklevoss Twins' Gemini crypto exchange.
Fidelity Tokenization - Fidelity's tokenized money market fund rolled out on Ethereum with Ondo holding $202M.
Upbit Layer2 - Upbit unveils Ethereum layer 2 ‘GIWA’ to Compete in infrastructure race.
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In Messari News
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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.
Security Data Layer: Aggregates, verifies, and processes real-time security data across chains
Security Compute Layer: Runs detection models (phishing, scam tokens, transaction risks)
Token price rose +11%, ecosystem profit +65%, Locker TVL +9%, and blockchain request volume +35% QoQ
Partnerships with Trust Wallet, SushiSwap, and multiple networks to embed real-time threat detection
Advanced its Liquidity Chain vision, integrating EigenDA and progressing OP-Succinct toward a ZK rollup
Ecosystem milestones included the UR beta (fiat–crypto accounts), launch of MI4 ($200M tokenized fund), and MantleX AI incubations
Core protocols mETH ($939M TVL) and Function (FBTC, $1.5B TVL) remain foundational pillars
Decentralized storage marketplace built on IPFS.
Network utilization hit 32% in Q2 2025 as storage demand held up while overall capacity declined from provider churn
Daily new storage deals rose 25% QoQ (3.5 PiB/day), signaling sustained demand for enterprise and research workloads.
Focus is moving from raw capacity toward high-value datasets (864 >1,000 TiB in size, +7.5% QoQ)
From Our Sponsor
Chainlink and the United States Department of Commerce have worked together to bring U.S. government macroeconomic data onchain.
These new Chainlink Data Feeds securely deliver critical information around key U.S. economy metrics onchain, sourced from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, such as Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index.
This development builds upon Chainlink’s accelerated work with the U.S. government in 2025, including meeting with several key officials and regulators to make policy recommendations that are advancing the growth of the blockchain industry.
Two Bits
LayerZero: The “Bridge Wars” Enter The Ninth Inning
By: Alexander Beaudry, Research Analyst
On August 25, LayerZero acquired Stargate, the cross-chain liquidity protocol it originally incubated in 2022. The move came after a brief but public bidding war with Wormhole, signaling LayerZero’s strategic intent to consolidate its position as the dominant bridge infrastructure in crypto.
LayerZero already accounts for approximately 75% of all cross-chain bridge volume, moving an average of $293 million per day. To put that in perspective, Wormhole, which comes in second place, sees just $69.3 million per day. Stargate’s reintegration strengthens LayerZero’s liquidity network and reduces fragmentation across its ecosystem.
The protocol’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard has seen growing adoption, particularly among stablecoin issuers. According to a recent Messari report by Austin Weiler, OFTs represent over 61% of issued stablecoins across supported networks, and more recently have been integrated with upcoming stablechain’s including Plasma, Codex, and Stable.
The stablecoin market cap now sits at over $286 billion, up 6% over the past month. As stablecoins continue to serve as a primary instrument for onchain liquidity and settlement, cross-chain infrastructure that supports native issuance and movement is likely to see sustained demand.
LayerZero’s integration of a messaging layer (LayerZero protocol), a token standard (OFT), and a liquidity protocol (Stargate) positions it as a foundational interoperability provider for stablecoins and other fungible assets.
Despite LayerZero’s network usage metrics, its native token ZRO has struggled since launch. It currently trades 73.8% below its all-time high in December 2024. It remains unclear to what extent the token is designed to accrue value from protocol usage. At present, LayerZero does not charge bridge fees or implement a direct value capture mechanism for ZRO, limiting the current connection between protocol growth and tokenholder returns; however, future governance votes could change this.
LayerZero is positioning its infrastructure as a coordination layer for cross-chain activity. The Stargate acquisition strengthens vertical integration and simplifies governance across key components. With bridge volume growing and OFT adoption increasing, LayerZero appears to be establishing technical and functional standards across chains, though whether this translates to broader economic alignment remains uncertain.
