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Today's News Recap
Legislative Surge - Coinbase, Robinhood hit record highs as U.S. House passes landmark crypto legislation.
XRP Breakout - XRP rockets 20% to set record highs, with $10 price target in play.
BNB Expansion - BNB Chain teases new blockchain with privacy features to compete with crypto exchanges.
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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.
MapleStory N, the blockchain version of Nexon’s legendary MMORPG, launched May 2025
Over 1.1M users on day one and 1.7M NFTs minted pre-launch
Averaging ~36K daily active wallets and over 10K daily marketplace participants
Most active Layer-1 on Avalanche by address count
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
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Two Bits
The Real ETH Beta is Boomer Coins
By: Sam Ruskin, Research Analyst
Those chasing ETH beta via DeFi tokens will be let down this bull run.
During DeFi Summer in 2020, there was a clear narrative: value accrues from ETH into DeFi. This made sense at the time: ETH acted as base collateral and gas, while DeFi tokens represented productive assets layered on top.
But today, that thesis is breaking down. ETH beta is no longer flowing into DeFi. Instead, it's migrating into large-cap "boomer coins", such as XRP, ADA, TRX, HBAR, XLM, ALGO. These tokens have market caps in the tens of billions despite near-zero economic throughput or developer traction.
Their outperformance isn’t driven by fundamentals, but by two structural tailwinds: the Lindy effect and CEX accessibility. These tokens have survived multiple market cycles and remain recognizable to retail traders, especially those disengaged from onchain activity. At the same time, their widespread listings on centralized exchanges make them far more accessible than DeFi tokens, which typically require self-custody, bridges, or direct interaction with smart contracts.
This proves two things:
Fundamentals remain largely irrelevant in bull markets. Metrics like protocol revenue, TVL, and user growth are good for narratives, but they don’t drive flows at the margin when liquidity is driven by retail speculation and momentum.
Unless you have asymmetric edge in medium/small caps, it's structurally more efficient to express ETH beta via large-cap majors or ETH leverage. Mid-cap DeFi bets carry high selection risk and often lower liquidity, while lacking the reflexivity boomer coins benefit from.
The token landscape has dramatically expanded since DeFi Summer. With more options, selection risk increases, and picking the right DeFi token becomes harder and statistically less rewarding.
Messari Research
DePIN Summit Africa: Analyst Takeaways and the Case for DePIN Market Fit in the Continent
By: Dylan Bane, Enterprise Research Analyst
This report presents an in‑depth analysis of the DePIN Summit Africa, held in Mombasa and Zanzibar, and examines why Africa represents a uniquely strong opportunity for decentralized physical infrastructure networks. The report explores how structural factors such as high price sensitivity, limited centralized infrastructure, and lower median wealth create stronger incentives for DePIN deployment compared to developed markets.
It highlights three areas of particular potential, affordable internet connectivity, distributed energy access, and real‑world data collection, and assesses how emerging projects are already addressing these needs while aligning with global demand. The findings illustrate how DePIN can deliver essential infrastructure while creating meaningful local economic value.
