We seem to be living in an era surrounded by the "cries from afar."

This is not the philosophical debate about the value of art and life that Li Dan argued about, but a more common, more trivial daily experience: in phone notifications, Silicon Valley elites argue vehemently over the AI bubble; in news feeds, financial pundits beat their chests over every rise and fall of the Crypto market.

These grand narratives from the "temples" of technology and finance, laden with anxiety and urgency, are like incessant fire alarms, constantly transmitting the "cries from afar" to us.

Thus, we have grown accustomed to a certain kind of life: waking up in the morning, our first glance is not at the sunlight outside the window, but at the Nasdaq index; before falling asleep at night, the last thing we can't put down is not the warmth around us, but some big shot's sharp prophecy.

We know the fluctuations of capital markets thousands of miles away like the back of our hand, yet we might not know our next-door neighbor's name; we can clearly distinguish the pitch of every "cry," but we cannot hear the faint voice within our own hearts yearning for peace.

Our attention is thus generously "commandeered" by an invisible force.

We unwittingly suffer from a cognitive "farsightedness"—able to precisely analyze the mirages in the distance, yet often unable to see the potholes on the road beneath our feet or the land beside us awaiting cultivation. This excessive empathy for the distant world and detachment from our immediate surroundings, this cognitive dissonance of internalizing others' problems as our own anxiety—perhaps this is the true source of the widespread fatigue and confusion of our time.

We immerse ourselves in listening and trying to understand all these "cries," believing it to be a sign of depth and foresight.

But is it possible that when all the "afar" are vying to cry out, what they converge into is merely a massive noise that obscures our path forward?

Isn't it time to ask ourselves: Beyond the debate of saving the fire or saving the cat, have we neglected our own quiet backyard, the place where we can truly settle and build a life?

Dissecting the Noise – Why Are We Always Captured by the "Cries from Afar"?

If we admit that we are surrounded by noise, then a more fundamental question emerges: Why can these "distant" issues, which have little to do with our immediate well-being, so easily hijack our minds and hold us captive? The answer is far from simple, like "information overload"; it is deeply rooted in our psychological mechanisms and the operational logic of modern media.

1.1 The Allure of the "Social Script": Low-Cost Mental Adventure

We can understand grand narratives like the AI bubble, international conflicts, and巨头 battles as elaborately orchestrated "social scripts."

Starring elites, directed by the media, they feature distinct roles (like Musk's "madman," Altman's "prophet"), clear conflicts (bull vs. bear battles, technical route disputes), and continuous plot twists (policy shifts, earnings surprises).

Immersing ourselves in these scripts offers us a low-cost, high-stimulation mental adventure.

We can experience the twists and turns of the technological frontier by following AI trends without actually bearing the risks of entrepreneurship; we can feel the thrill of wealth creation and destruction in the Crypto market's rises and falls without investing real money.

It's like watching an immersive play; we identify with the characters, sharing their glory and pathos, thus gaining a virtual sense of participation.

In that moment, we are no longer tired office workers or parents bogged down in household chores, but "spiritual shareholders" or "cloud strategists" maneuvering and foreseeing the future. This temporary elevation of identity is an efficient escape from the平庸日常.

1.2 The Cognitive Shortcut: Why Thinking About the "World Order" is Easier Than "Personal Planning"

This sounds counterintuitive, but the human brain has a peculiar habit: sometimes, thinking about grand, abstract problems is "easier" than thinking about specific, personal ones. Because the former requires no responsibility and no immediate action.

Thinking about "the ethical boundaries of AI" or "the Fed's interest rate hike cycle," we can hold forth, quoting classics, without offering any practical solutions. It's an open-ended thought experiment with no right answer, and thus no cost of failure.

However, when we turn to think, "How can I use AI to enhance my professional skills?" or "How should I optimize my household finances to cope with inflation?" the problems immediately become heavy and concrete.

It requires self-examination, decision-making, and bearing the consequences. This kind of thinking is difficult; it forces us out of our comfort zone, confronting our own inadequacies and the real dilemmas of life.

Thus, as a form of cognitive laziness, we instinctively slide towards that more distant, safer realm of thought. Paying attention to the "cries from afar," in a sense, becomes an umbrella for avoiding the "sighs from nearby."

1.3 Social Currency and Belonging: Finding Identity by Taking Sides on Issues

In the digital age, knowledge of and stance on hot-button issues have themselves become a hard currency—"social currency."

In break rooms, in WeChat groups, being able to talk knowledgeably about Nvidia's latest earnings or opine on a Crypto mogul's prediction signals that you are someone who "stays connected" and is "insightful." Conversely, ignorance might risk marginalization, as if being shut out of the era's conversation.

This fear drives us to constantly refresh our information feeds, greedily consuming every trending topic.

We confirm that we are "of the same kind" by focusing on and discussing common issues, thus gaining a virtual sense of community belonging.

We debate whether AI has a bubble, whether Crypto is dead. In the collision and alliance of viewpoints, we accomplish not just an analysis of facts, but also a declaration of identity and tribal recognition. In this process, the rights and wrongs of the issue itself no longer matter; what matters is its role as a medium maintaining our connection to the social network.

1.4 The Exclusivity of Noise: A Game You Can Never Win

Ultimately, the design of all these grand narratives contains a fatal characteristic: exclusivity.

They are set up as highly complex, informationally asymmetric, and perpetually unresolved. Ordinary people can never grasp all the data or see the deals under the table. This means that no matter how much effort you invest, you can almost never reach a conclusive finding that can guide your actions.

This is a carefully designed trap: it gives you the illusion that "if I just study hard enough, I can discern the truth," but never lets you cash in the reward.

You invest vast amounts of time and cognitive resources into a race with no finish line. In the end, what you harvest is not wisdom, but sustained attention and anxiety.

Your attention, not your conclusions, becomes the final commodity consumed in this information ecosystem.

When we see this clearly, we have a sudden realization: our zeal for listening to the "cries from afar" stems not from a broad-minded concern for the world, but more from a complex psychological inertia—a craving for adventure, an avoidance of difficulty, a need for belonging, and a competitiveness that refuses to quit in the face of a giant puzzle.

However, just as listening to fire alarms cannot replace building a fireproof house with your own hands, indulging in these "social scripts," aside from consuming the precious energy we could have used to build our own lives, is futile.

Only after recognizing the nature of this game can we actively choose to: log off, quit the race, and then invest all the saved mental effort into the one domain we truly own and can reap real rewards from—our own "nearby."

Returning to the "Nearby" – Building Your Ark of Certainty in the Flood of Uncertainty

Seeing through the temptations and traps of the "cries from afar" does not mean sinking into nihilistic cynicism, but rather making a decisive turn: withdrawing our dissipated attention and reinvesting it in the only domain we can truly control—the long-neglected "nearby."

Here, the "nearby" is not purely a geographical concept, but a philosophy concerning one's radius of action and circle of influence.

It is your skills, your health, your intimate relationships, your small ventures, the real, small community you can serve and influence. It is the entire ecosystem where you can directly exert influence and receive real, immediate feedback.

If the "afar" is a turbulent, unfathomable ocean, then the "nearby" is the ark you can measure, reinforce, and rely on for survival with your own hands.

2.1 The "Nearby" of AI: From "Prophesying Miracles" to "Holding the Tool"

In the scripts of the "afar," AI is an epic about human survival, a trillion-dollar capital gamble, a prophecy about when AGI will arrive.

But in your "nearby," AI's true face is much more朴实 and powerful: it is an unprecedented lever of efficiency and amplifier of capability.

* Stop being a "spiritual shareholder"; become a "super individual."

Instead of纠结 over whether Nvidia's stock price has peaked, delve into how to use ChatGPT or Copilot to triple your efficiency in writing reports and提炼 information; learn to use Midjourney or Sora to generate unique promotional images for your small e-commerce store, or create captivating short videos for your personal brand.

While others debate whether AI will replace humans, those silent "AI super users" are quietly using this powerful tool to build huge competitive advantages in their own fields.

* Bridge the "knowledge gap"; achieve a "skill leap."

An ordinary marketing specialist can use AI to quickly analyze market data, generate creative copy, simulate user personas, and thus propose strategic insights comparable to those of a senior director.

The "nearby" of AI gives every ordinary person willing to learn the possibility of touching cutting-edge knowledge and compensating for lack of experience at an extremely low cost.

Here, the question of certainty is no longer "Do large models have a soul?" but "**How can I make AI bring me a visible improvement in my work and life next month?**" The answer lies not in any debate, but in your every specific call, debug, and practice.

2.2 The "Nearby" of Crypto: From "Speculative Casino" to "Infrastructure"

In the喧嚣 of the "afar," Crypto is the frenzy of prices, the gambling instinct of going all-in, the game of regulation. But in your "nearby," blockchain technology is silently and steadfastly completing a "trust infrastructure."

* Shift perspective: from "price charts" to "functional tools."

Don't just stare at Bitcoin's K-line chart, restless. Go and personally experience: how to use a decentralized wallet to truly "own" your digital assets, without any intermediary; how to use stablecoins to complete a cross-border transfer in minutes,感受 its low cost and high efficiency.

This hands-on, physical understanding will make you understand what "peer-to-peer value flow" means far better than a thousand market analysis articles.

* See the trend: the "quiet搬家" of finance.

Wall Street institutions may be using Crypto for high-risk speculation, but they are simultaneously doing something extremely certain: "tokenizing" traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate, moving them onto the chain.

This process, like the move of all information to the internet back in the day, is an irreversible trend of certainty. Your "nearby" question is not "Is it a bull market now?" but "**When this new financial infrastructure is built, will I possess the knowledge and skills to survive and thrive on it?**"

2.3 The Source of Certainty: Anchoring Ourselves in "Creation" and "Connection"

Whether it's AI or Crypto, the essence of returning to the "nearby" is transitioning from being a passive "consumer" and "onlooker" to an active "user" and "creator."

* Creation brings a sense of control:

When you use AI to assist in completing a project, deploy a smart contract with code, or even just write an excellent prompt, you are engaging in a微小创造.

This process gives you the most real sense of control—your input directly causes a微小改变 in the world. This feeling cannot be obtained by chewing on ten thousand pieces of second-hand information.

* Connection provides anti-fragility:

Cultivating your "nearby" means building more authentic and牢固 connections with your customers, your readers, your community.

This trust network based on value exchange is the most effective buffer against external storms. When the financial markets "afar" are turbulent, a person with 1,000 staunch user supporters has far more certainty in their endeavors than a lone gambler holding a million chips.

Ultimately, returning to the "nearby" is a cognitive return to sovereignty.

It declares that our attention, our time, the focus of our lives are no longer held hostage by externally set agendas. We choose to pour our mental energy into the land that can bear fruit, rather than indulging in the viewing of mirages.

On this territory of our own, every微小 but certain harvest brought by each sowing and cultivation will converge into the true peace and strength within our hearts.

Becoming the Curator of Your "Nearby" – A Practical Guide to Living Awake

Recognizing the value of the "nearby" is only the first step in awakening the mind. Integrating this awareness into your bloodstream, making it an instinct that requires no willpower, requires a set of practical methods.

This is not a rigid "to-do list," but a mental operating system designed to help us gradually reclaim sovereignty over our attention, transforming from passive information consumers into active "curators" of our own lives and work.

3.1 Implement an "Attention Budget": From Squandering to Investing

In modern commercial society, we know to budget our money meticulously, yet we let our most precious capital—attention—leak away indiscriminately. The first step in managing attention is to establish a "budget" consciousness.

* Step One: Audit.

Spend a day honestly recording where your attention flows. You will discover how much time is spent aimlessly scrolling through social media, immersed in arguments irrelevant to you. This "audit report" itself can be hugely shocking.

* Step Two: Allocate.

Like allocating monthly expenses, set "spending categories" for your attention. For example:

* "Distance Information Fund": Strictly limit the daily time spent on macro news and industry trends (e.g., 30 minutes in the morning). Use a timer; when time's up, close it immediately.

* "Skill Investment Fund": Fixed daily investment of 1-2 hours for deep learning or practicing a tool or skill of practical value to you (e.g., AI drawing, smart contract development, a foreign language).

* "Relationship Nourishment Fund": Ensure high-quality, uninterrupted time for family, close friends, and important partners.

* Core Principle: Treat attention as your venture capital angel investment. Every unit should be invested in "projects" that bring growth, health, or joy, not "tipped" away to content platforms designed to harvest your traffic.

3.2 Reframe Your Questions: From "Why" to "How"

A clear sign of being trapped in noise is having our minds occupied with questions starting with "Why do they...". Changing the way we ask questions is the most direct switch to change our cognitive channel.

* Ineffective Questions (Lead to Anxiety):

* "Why are they messing up the market?"

* "Why hasn't that policy been released yet?"

* "Why does AI hallucinate?"

* Effective Questions (Lead to Action):

* "How can I use market volatility to review and optimize my asset allocation?"

* "Under the current policy, how can I find and serve my first 100 customers well?"

* "How can I reduce the probability of AI errors and make it serve me better by optimizing my prompts?"

Install a "question filter" in your thinking. Whenever a grand question about "them" arises, consciously translate it into a specific, actionable question about "me."

This process repeatedly pulls your focus from judging the external world back to building yourself.

3.3 Create "Tiny Certainties": Countering Delusional Anxiety with Real Achievement

The fear of uncertainty is human instinct, and the most effective way to counter it is not to predict when the storm will end, but to weave a tight raincoat with your own hands.

This raincoat is woven from countless "tiny certainties."

* What is a "Tiny Certainty"? They are those small things that you have complete control over, can accomplish, and bring immediate positive feedback. For example:

* Today, you fully automated a workflow you used to perform manually using an AI tool.

* This week, you successfully deployed a simple smart contract and understood how it works.

* You stuck to a 15-minute meditation session, completed a 30-minute morning run.

* You successfully attracted a new paying customer for your small project.

* Its Psychological Significance:

Every completed "tiny certainty" is a powerful confirmation of your "self-efficacy." They are like solid bricks, gradually building the fortress of your inner confidence.

When the惊涛骇浪 of the "afar" arrives, you, inside the fortress you built, feel not powerless and fearful, but the certainty that "the external world may be chaotic, but here I have order."

3.4 Build Your "Mental Immune System"

Ultimately, the purpose of all these practices is to build a powerful mental immune system for you. It helps you identify and resist those "attention viruses" trying to invade your mental world.

* Establish Rituals:

Design your own "start-up ritual." For example, after making a cup of tea, enter a 90-minute deep work session, isolating all external information during that time. Rituals give your brain a clear signal: now entering "creation time," "noise visitors" are declined.

* Regular Digital Detox:

Set a half-day "offline day" each week. Leave your phone and computer. Go for a walk, read a book, talk to people face-to-face. This resets your stimulus threshold, allowing you to regain the ability to focus and find peace.

* Reflection Moments:

At the end of each week, spend 15 minutes asking yourself: "This week, where did I invest my most precious attention in things that bring long-term returns? And how much was consumed by 'noise'?" Continuous reflection keeps your actions aligned with your inner compass.

Becoming a "curator of your nearby" is not an overnight goal, but a continuous practice.

It means you finally accept this fact: you cannot change the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

By managing your budget, reframing questions, and creating certainty, you are precisely forging that most resilient, most flexible sail with your own hands. While everyone else is exhausted from listening to the "cries from afar," you are silently piloting your ark towards the new continent of possibilities that belongs to you alone.

The World Won't Automatically Get Better, But You Will

We finally understand that the "cries from afar" lingering in our ears are, for the vast majority, nothing more than carefully orchestrated theater sound effects.

They don't require us to actually fight the fire; they only expect us to maintain constant anxiety and围观. We once thought that was depth; later we discovered it was more like an escape—an escape from taking responsibility for the sovereignty of our own lives.

The world is becoming more uncertain; this is perhaps the only certainty in the future. But history tells us that in every great upheaval and change, there is always a group of people who not only survive but thrive against the odds. Their secret has never been foreseeing all the storms, but never stopping their work of cultivation, even in the wind and rain.

Voltaire wrote at the end of Candide: "We must cultivate our garden." This simple adage, traversing centuries, remains the most清醒 way of life for this era. Your "garden" is your "nearby"—your skills, your creations, your health, your connections with loved ones.

Here, every attentive watering brings visible growth; here, the chaotic external world is shut out, and you hold the only, precious sovereignty.

So, please turn off those incessant "fire alarms." Let the elites debate whether the Mona Lisa called "the future" should be saved or is doomed to burn. What you need to do is bend down, pick up the kitten named "the present" at your feet, and feel its real warmth and vitality.

Don't worry that this will make you narrow-minded.

On the contrary, when you deeply cultivate your own garden and build an unshakable internal order and value, you can instead face, even influence, that "afar" with a more composed and powerful stance. You are no longer a passive listener, but an active creator.

The world won't automatically get better, but you will. When countless individuals choose to light up their own small "nearby," we no longer need to fear the night of any era. Because true light never comes from gazing into the distance, but originates from nearby, from those countless, certain lamps lit by our own hands.

* x402's Role: As the "currency" of the machine economy, the x402 protocol solves payment issues between AI agents, focusing on the payment standard within the communication layer.

* ERC-8004's Role: As the "passport" and "credit report" of the machine economy, ERC-8004 builds a decentralized trust layer, solving problems of identity verification and reputation assessment in agent collaboration.

* Core Functions: Through its Identity Registry, Reputation Registry, and Validation Registry, ERC-8004 provides AI agents with verifiable identities, performance history, and capability proofs, all recorded on-chain to ensure transparency and trust.

* Collaborative Operation: In a single agent transaction, ERC-8004 handles service discovery and evaluation, x402 processes the payment, and third-party verification ensures task execution, collectively completing the transaction loop.

* Ecosystem Outlook: ERC-8004 lays the trust foundation for the agent economy, catalyzing downstream applications like explorers, marketplaces, and rating agencies, promoting the development of a permissionless, efficient collaborative ecosystem.

Although ERC-8004 is still in its early stages, facing challenges like adoption and interoperability, it signifies the machine economy's shift from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order," providing critical infrastructure for the autonomous collaboration of AI agents.

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Summary

I. Introduction: From the Buzz Around x402 to the Arrival of ERC-8004

Recently, as the x402 protocol, specifically designed for automated micropayments between AI Agents, became a market hotspot, discussions about its early potential have been rampant. However, under the spotlight of x402, a more foundational standard—ERC-8004—is quietly entering the view of astute observers.

A new question arises: Since x402 already focuses on solving payments, what is the positioning of ERC-8004? Are they competitors?

The answer appears to be no. They seem more like a pair of exquisitely designed, complementary components in the AI agent commercial blueprint.

A noteworthy detail is that x402's creator, Erik Reppel from Coinbase, is also one of the final signatories of the ERC-8004 protocol. Co-signing this standard with him are core representatives from MetaMask, Google, and the Ethereum Foundation. This heavyweight lineup and significant personnel overlap strongly suggest they are not competitors but are jointly constructing a grander vision.

The logic of this vision is clear: If the emergence of x402 validates the huge demand for AI agent payments, then ERC-8004 represents another, more foundational core element essential for building this vast machine economy. It precisely targets the core dilemma that x402 cannot solve alone—in an autonomous collaborative economy of AI agents, where does trust come from? Bitget Wallet Research might help you find the answer in this article.

II. The "Trust" Problem in Agent Collaboration: A Dilemma x402 Cannot Solve Alone

In AI agent commercial collaboration, payment (the problem x402 solves) is merely the final step in the loop. A more fundamental question comes first: How can an AI agent be sure that another AI agent it hires is trustworthy? In other words, how can an agent prove its capability to deliver on a task?

To answer this, we must examine the basic framework of agent commerce. According to the theory endorsed by the Ethereum Foundation's Davide Crapis, a decentralized AI agent commerce system must rely on three pillars to operate stably: Discovery, Communication, and Computation.

As the table above shows, the x402 protocol itself primarily solves the payment standard problem within the Communication layer, but it cannot address key identity verification and reputation assessment. Before making a payment, AI agents first need to be securely "discovered" to build trust and collaboration—ERC-8004 solves exactly this problem, by constructing a decentralized trust layer.

ERC-8004, led by the Ethereum Foundation's dAI team and Consensys, and launched in collaboration with institutions like MetaMask, Google, and Coinbase, aims to become the chain "trust layer" for AI agents. It is a decentralized commerce registration and record-keeping system—providing each AI agent with a verifiable identity, a complete performance history, and proofs of capability. All information is immutably recorded on-chain and made publicly accessible to all participants.

III. ERC-8004: The Decentralized Trust Layer for Agents

ERC-8004 is positioned as the underlying infrastructure for the agent economy. Its core value lies in using blockchain technology to solve the fundamental lack of trusted identity among AI agents, freeing them from the constraints of traditional centralized platforms and establishing verifiable, cross-platform collaborative relationships.

The operation of this mechanism begins with the input of trust data by ecosystem contributors: AI developers are responsible for registering the unique identity of agents; application developers continuously provide behavioral feedback on agents to accumulate reputation data; and validation services act as independent auditors, providing trusted on-chain verification for the outcomes of agent operations.

This information collectively flows into the ERC-8004 Registry, which aggregates the protocol's three core functions:

* Identity Registry: Using the ERC-721 NFT standard, it provides each AI agent with a unique digital identity. This design not only makes the identity transferable but also allows it to be linked to a standardized "Agent Card," used to record details like the agent's name, capabilities, and metadata, ultimately enabling cross-platform permissionless discovery.

* Reputation Registry: Building upon the identity registry, this mechanism acts as a decentralized review system. Clients or other agents can submit structured feedback. Its key design is that these evaluations can be linked to x402 payment proofs, ensuring that only genuine transaction participants can provide assessments, thereby effectively reducing fraud and guaranteeing the transparency of all reputation data.

* Validation Registry: It provides the ultimate guarantee for high-risk or high-value transactions. An agent can request verification from a trusted third party, such as TEE oracles, staked inference, or Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning proofs (ZK-ML proofs). These methods can provide cryptographic proof for specific model execution and outputs, establishing a verifiable accountability mechanism akin to professional certifications in traditional markets.

Relying on the trusted data foundation provided by ERC-8004, a new downstream application ecosystem can flourish—such as Explorers for agent discovery and querying, Marketplaces allowing agents to trade freely based on reputation, and professional Rating Agencies, even giving rise to innovative services like InfoFi and AgentFi. These advanced applications are all built upon the trusted identity and verification records of agents, signaling the formal establishment of a permissionless, efficient, collaborative agent service ecosystem.

IV. Collaborative Operation: The Complete Workflow of an Agent Transaction

So, how do these components work together in practice? The complete lifecycle of a decentralized AI agent transaction clearly illustrates this process.

1. Discovery & Evaluation: The client Agent first uses the ERC-8004 Identity and Reputation Registries for service discovery and evaluation, querying and filtering service provider agents with specific capabilities and good credit.

2. Intent & Payment Lock: After reaching an agreement, the client uses the x402 payment protocol to lock the required funds in a smart contract (providing financial escrow).

3. Execution & Verification: The service agent begins executing the task and undergoes third-party verification. Its work might be run on a verifiable compute layer like EigenCompute to generate cryptographic proofs, and an independent third-party verification agent records the audit result in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry.

4. Automatic Settlement: Finally, in the automatic settlement phase, the x402 smart contract automatically detects the trusted signature in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry. Once task completion is confirmed, the funds are automatically released to the service agent.

In this closed-loop process, ERC-8004 handles access and acceptance, x402 handles payment, and verifiable computation guarantees the process—all three are indispensable. This also suggests that, unlike the early concentration of value in the payment token x402, the ERC-8004 ecosystem will be distributed across infrastructure, middleware, and application layers.

V. Conclusion: The Order and Future of the Machine Economy

It must be acknowledged that ERC-8004 is currently still in the early stages of promotion and adoption—the cold start of related products and the realization of its grand vision to oversee "machine economy identity verification" remain to be seen. Furthermore, the cost and specific implementation paths for third-party verification, as well as its interoperability with protocols like x402, are significant variables that need to be addressed in the future.

However, what is certain is that the emergence of protocols like ERC-8004 signals that the machine economy is transitioning from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order." For the first time, it provides autonomously operating AI agents with a cross-platform identity and credit system.

If x402 is the "currency" of the machine economy, then ERC-8004 provides the "passport" and "credit report." This marks the beginning of a permissionless, efficient, and trustworthy agent service ecosystem.

2. Front-Ends: The New “Broker” Wars

• Based – Super-app with 40× leverage, Visa card and Twitch-style “Based Streams” where influencers trade live and viewers tip USDC. First HIP-3 frontend to list the XYZ100 memecap index; USD 35 m volume in 24 h on day-1. Mobile apps due mid-2025.

• Liquid – Mobile-first, non-custodial, 100× leverage, e-mail login via Privy. Already in the iOS App Store; perfect on-ramp for normies.

• Aura – “Trading is social” angle: share PnL, copy-trade friends, group DM rooms. If Web3 social ever pops, Aura owns the order-flow.

3. Liquid Staking & Money-Markets (The Yield Layer)

• Kinetiq – Largest single pool on HIP-3 (USD 1.9 bn TVL). Stake HYPE → get kHYPE, then use kHYPE as collateral for perps. Launch-pad function lets new DEXs crowdfund liquidity instead of begging VCs.

• Felix – Liquity-style CDP fork on HyperEVM; mint feUSD against HYPE/uBTC. USD 300 m TVL, variable-rate loans, no governance token yet = possible retro-drop.

4. Novel Perp Markets (Real-World & Exotic Underlyings)

• Unit – Tokenized spot + equity perps. Already cleared TSLA, GOOG, NVDA perps on main-net; team ex-Jump/HRT. USD 831 m TVL, deepest on-chain inventory of spot BTC/ETH/SOL.

• Ventuals – Pre-IPO company perps (SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance). 10× leverage, optimistic oracle, self-funded via “Sekai Kappas” NFT sale. Test-net Oct-16 → main-net Q1-26; no VC allocation.

• Volmex – BTC/ETH “VIX” (BVIV/EVIV indices) → trade pure volatility. Institutional pedigree; vol perps launch next month.

• Nunchi – “Funding-rate of funding-rate” meta-perps. First product: FR-perp that tracks Hyperliquid’s own funding payments—perfect hedge for basis-traders.

• Hyperbolic & Ddot – Commodity perps (oil, gold, nat-gas) and physical commodity markets respectively. First on-chain exposure to spot energy/crops.

5. Infra & Pick-And-Shovel Plays

• Global Compute Index – Real-time GPU price feed (H100, A100, H200). Building the first compute perp; data oracle already live, trades go live Q4.

• Sekai – LST factory: plug in any validator set, mint branded LSTs. Solves HIP-3’s 500 k HYPE deployment barrier; airdrop rumours swirl around early minters.

• Flow DEX – Institutional OTC desk + cross-exchange market-maker. Provides hidden liquidity to every HIP-3 book; earns spread and possible token allocation when it finally decentralizes.

6. Long-Tail Bets (High-Risk / Narrative Alpha)

• Hyperbet – On-chain casino (slots, sports, prediction) built on HyperEVM. Gambling is crypto’s oldest PMF; if it ships provably-fair code and revenue share, token could re-rate quickly.

• OnlyVibes – Paid Telegram-style alpha group wrapped as an NFT. Social tokens have died a dozen deaths, but attention is attention; if they cross-subsidise PnL leaderboards it could become the de-facto trading lounge of HIP-3.

7. How To Hunt

1. TVL is not everything – Unit, Kinetiq and Felix are already “priced-in” by smart-money flow.

2. Watch test-net volumes – Ventuals’ pre-IPO cohort and Global Compute’s GPU perp are generating > USD 100 m daily paper volume; that is the early signal that seed-round valuations may be mis-priced.

3. No token yet = potential retro – Sekai, Flow, Volmex and Nunchi have not released governance tokens; main-net launches are slated before 2026.

4. Narrative timing – Real-world-assets (RWA), AI compute, and volatility trading are the three themes institutions have openly telegraphed for 2026 allocations. HIP-3 has functional perps in all three buckets while Ethereum L2s are still on Power-Point.

8. Bottom Line
HIP-3 is still a sandbox, but the toys inside are already producing measurable traction. If Hyperliquid keeps its no-VC ethos, the first wave of tokens will mostly hit the open market via community claims—not private rounds. That means the next 100× move is unlikely to come from chasing Kinetiq’s TVL leaderboard; it will come from quietly staking the underlyings, test-trading the exotic markets, and waiting for the retro-drop that turns early users into early shareholders.

• AI cooled fastest: Virtuals Protocol went from 10 k dUAW in Q2 to ≈ 1.2 k; category share slid from 18.6 % → 16.8 %.

• Social collapsed from 3.8 mln → 1.57 mln dUAW and 15.9 % → 8.4 % share.

• Games consolidated leadership; top-five most-used dapps include three game-centric titles plus shopping app KAI-CHING.

2. DeFi TVL Prints Record $237 Bln—Ethereum Flat, Solana Slides
Total Value Locked reached an all-time high of $237 bln (+12 % QoQ), powered by:

• Stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) and TradFi inflows via BTC ETFs.

• Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenisation and memecoin/AI-token liquidity mining.

Chain-level snapshot

• Ethereum still dominates at $119 bln (-4 % QoQ).

• Solana stays second but TVL down 33 % to $13.8 bln after Pump.fun mania faded.

• BNB Chain & Hyperliquid shone: Hyperliquid TVL +29 % to $2.85 bln on perpetual-DEX traction.

• Cross-chain liquidity layers and “CEX-like” DEX UX are the quarter’s narrative.

3. NFTs: 18.1 M Items Sold—Biggest Quarter Since 2022
Sales volume doubled to $1.58 bln on 18.1 mln assets (+45 % QoQ), the highest unit count since Q1 2022.
Average wallets active: 2.14 mln (+28.6 % QoQ) but each wallet bought 8.4 NFTs vs 4.2 in Q1—indicating super-users, not newbies, drove growth.

Category break-down

• Sports NFTs +337 % to $71.1 mln; 4.1 mln pieces sold (+143 %).

• PFPs (CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins, BAYC) +187 % to $544 mln.

• Gaming NFTs only segment in red: volume -17 %, units -32 %.

Stand-out platforms / experiments

• Courtyard tokenised physical Pokémon & baseball cards → 1.55 mln items, $145 mln volume.

• PunkStrategy automates buy-low/sell-high on CryptoPunks; holders of PNKSTR share upside without owning a full Punk.

• OpenSea pre-token airdrop campaign lifted its quarterly sales 29 % to 9.27 mln assets.

4. Hack Losses Lowest This Year—But Attacks Are Smarter
Exploits totalled $434 mln, the quietest quarter of 2025, yet vectors are growing more sophisticated:

• GMX V1 logic flaw: $42 mln

• CoinDCX server breach: $44 mln

• UXLINK multi-sig compromise + infinite mint: $21.7 mln (attacker later phished for $48 mln)

• Social-engineering single victim: 783 BTC (~$91 mln)

RWA tokenisation, on-chain perps and stablecoin rails enlarge the attack surface; iOS & WhatsApp zero-click bugs remind users that keys are only as safe as the handset.

5. Outlook: From Millions to Billions of Wallets
Q3 proved crypto dapps can expand total value locked, unit sales and cultural reach even as headline user numbers slip. DeFi is absorbing institutional liquidity; NFTs are morphing into wrappers for real assets and automated strategies; games keep ordinary consumers clicking.
The next catalysts—lower rates, spot ETH ETFs, stablecoin rails in Big-Tech apps—could flip the funnel from “millions of degens” to “billions of everyday users” looking for yield, fun or a holographic Charizard.

* The first half of 2026 could be a development window for the RWA sector, potentially due to ample macro liquidity and the approval of crypto ETFs.

* As a financial product merging Web3 and Web2, RWA possesses long-term narrative value.

Why Focus on OpenEden?

* Compliance & Financial Recognition: Launched the world's first regulated yield-bearing stablecoin, $USDO. Its TBILL fund received near-top-tier ratings from S&P, Moody's, and Fitch.

* Traditional Finance Collaboration: Deep cooperation with BNY Mellon, which provides custodial services for the fund.

* Web3 Background: Received investment from Binance-linked institutions. Its product cUSDO can be used as collateral on Binance and is deployed on 7 major public chains.

* Founder Experience: Founder Jeremy Ng has a background spanning Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and crypto exchanges.

How Can Retail Investors Participate in OpenEden's RWAFi?

* Participate through low-barrier activities (like the concluded Bills points airdrop) and the newly launched OpenSeason campaign.

* Currently, one can participate in Curve's cUSDO liquidity mining or purchase YT cUSDO on Pendle.

* The project's TVL exceeds $289 million, spanning a multi-chain ecosystem. The $EDEN token will have its TGE in late September.

Summary

Why Focus on RWA

The First Half of 2026 Might Not Be a Bear Market

This market cycle differs significantly because the halving cycle (4-year cycle) and the macroeconomic cycle are substantially misaligned.

In previous cycles, the halving and macro cycles were roughly synchronized. However, this year, as the halving cycle concludes, the interest rate cut cycle is just beginning.

This could lead to a phase in 2026 where liquidity is relatively abundant, but expectations for the crypto market are weakening.

Therefore, the first half of 2026 might not necessarily be a bear market.

On one hand, because the first halves of 2018 and 2022 involved rate hikes, while the first half of 2026 is likely to be within a rate-cutting cycle.

On the other hand, the first half of this fourth year in the cycle often features new narratives.

The key point, emphasized multiple times, bears repeating: don't forget:

* In H1 2018, the EOS and Tron mainnets launched, sparking a mini-hype around public chains.

* In H1 2022, Stepn emerged, sparking a mini-hype around X-to-earn.

This suggests that a new narrative could emerge in the first half of 2026.

Against the backdrop of relatively ample macro liquidity and approved crypto ETFs in H1 2026, RWA could be the theme of this phase. This is because RWA is the sector most correlated with the macro environment and ETFs.

RWA is a Long-Term Narrative

As a financial product merging Web3 and Web2, RWA itself constitutes a long-term narrative.

Why Focus on OpenEden

Compliance & Deep Recognition and Collaboration with Traditional Finance

▌ Full Compliance

All of OpenEden's products meet institutional-grade standards and are fully compliant and regulated.

For instance, OpenEden's dollar stablecoin OpenDollar ($USDO) is the world's first regulated yield-bearing stablecoin. $USDO is backed by US Treasury bills and issued under the Bermuda Digital Asset Business Act (DABA) license.

▌ Consistently High Ratings from Top Global Financial Rating Agencies

OpenEden's TBILL fund has received high recognition from global financial rating agencies.

* S&P (Global Rank #1): Rated the TBILL fund "AA+f/S1+". "AA+" is just below "AAA", indicating very high financial capacity. "f" denotes a fund rating. "S1+" is the highest stability rating. Overall, S&P's rating for the TBILL fund is near the top.

* Moody's (Global Rank #2): Rated the TBILL fund "Aa-bf". "Aa" indicates high quality and very low credit risk, just below "Aaa". "bf" denotes a bond fund.

* Fitch (Globally Renowned): Rated the TBILL fund "AA+", indicating very high credit quality, just below "AAA".

These three institutions collectively account for ~95% of the global financial ratings market and unanimously gave the TBILL fund near-top-tier ratings. This is the world's first tokenized treasury fund to receive such consistently high ratings from top-tier global agencies.

▌ Deep Collaboration with BNY Mellon

OpenEden has established a deep collaboration with The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY).

The exact wording on BNY Mellon's official website is: "OpenEden has selected BNY Mellon to provide investment management and custody services for its tokenized U.S. Treasury Bill ($TBILL) fund." This phrasing suggests OpenEden holds a proactive position in the partnership.

BNY Mellon, as the world's largest custodian bank with assets under custody/administration of $46.6 trillion, is a globally recognized leader and pioneer in custodial services. Its collaboration with OpenEden demonstrates high recognition from traditional global financial institutions towards Web3, RWA, and particularly OpenEden itself.

Strong Web3 Background, Collaboration, and Foundation

▌ Binance Background

1. OpenEden received investment from YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) in 2024.

2. OpenEden partnered with Binance and its custody arm Ceffu, making cUSDO the first yield-bearing digital asset usable as OTC collateral for trading on Binance. cUSDO is a compounding version of USDO, where yield accrues internally. While offering risk-free yield, cUSDO maintains full DeFi compatibility.

3. OpenEden has been featured in Binance Wallet's Booster campaign and is scheduled to be listed on Binance Alpha. A potential spot listing on Binance might also be forthcoming.

▌ Web3 Ecosystem Collaboration & DeFi Integration

OpenEden has established partnerships with numerous Web3 projects. Its ecosystem products are deployed across seven chains: Arbitrum, Solana, Ethereum, XRPL, Base, Polygon, and BSC.

USDO is also integrated into multiple DeFi projects, including Pendle, Morpho Labs, Euler, Spectra, Napier Finance, Balancer, Upshift, and others.

▌ Founder Transitioned from Wall Street to Crypto

OpenEden's founder — Jeremy Ng (@jeremyng777) — previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on cross-asset derivative product innovation, management, and investment. In 2020, he joined Gemini exchange, becoming Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific. He founded OpenEden in 2022. Such a strong and diverse background suggests he will be a successful "human bridge" and "fusion agent" between TradFi and DeFi.

Can Retail Investors Participate in OpenEden? RWAFi Play Begins

A major issue with RWA is its distance from retail investors, who often find it difficult to understand the RWA narrative and participate in the RWA ecosystem. OpenEden has set up low-barrier entry methods for retail.

Concluded OpenEden Bills Points Campaign

In March 2025, OpenEden launched the Bills points campaign, which concluded with a snapshot on September 15th. Reaching 100,000 points qualified users for the airdrop. Rough calculations showed that maintaining an average daily holding of less than $560 in USDO/cUSDO, or providing less than $120 in liquidity daily over six months, could meet the airdrop threshold—a sufficiently low barrier for most retail participants.

OpenSeason Kicks Off RWAFi

With the points campaign over, the new OpenSeason begins. Rewards will shift from points to direct token distributions.

* Curve Stablecoin Vault

* Period: Sep 1, 2025 – Mar 1, 2026

* Method: Provide liquidity in Curve using cUSDO+USDC.

* Pendle YT cUSDO Stablecoin Vault

* Period: Sep 15, 2025 – Nov 20, 2025

* Method: Purchase YT cUSDO on Pendle.

For specific campaign details, follow OpenEden's official Twitter account @OpenEden_X.

Final Notes

OpenEden's TGE is scheduled for late September. Compared to other RWA tokens, $EDEN is a new entrant. OpenEden's choice to conduct its TGE around the time of potential Fed rate cuts might be well-timed.

Furthermore, while $EDEN is a new RWA token, OpenEden itself is a project that has been operational for at least three years.

Currently, the OpenEden ecosystem has broad cross-chain coverage, deployed across 7 chains. Its TVL exceeds $289 million, surpassing Usual's TVL and ranking 13th among RWA projects by TVL.

Recognition and engagement from traditional finance, deep integration within the crypto industry, and substantial TVL—multiple data points indicate that OpenEden is a highly anticipated newcomer in the RWA space. And importantly, it offers RWAFi opportunities accessible to retail investors.

Chain Fame Brings Scrutiny

With fame comes scrutiny. Recent FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) targeted at Base chain eventually led to Vitalik Buterin stepping in to defend Base.

Currently, it seems no major KOLs in the Chinese Crypto Twitter space are discussing this. This thread will briefly break down the "Base FUD Gate" incident.

The Focus of the FUD

The focal point of the FUD is: Because Base operates a centralized sequencer, it is essentially an unlicensed centralized securities exchange.

Coinbase's CLO and Base's lead responsible person offered strong rebuttals:

The core function of the sequencer is transaction ordering, not transaction matching. Transaction matching is achieved by smart contracts in a decentralized manner. Therefore, Base, which operates a centralized sequencer, is not a centralized exchange in the traditional sense.

"Base is not a casino, but that doesn't mean Base is decentralized." I'll offer my preliminary thoughts.

Regarding "Base is not a casino," both executives provided good explanations. Here, the focus is on "**but that doesn't mean Base is decentralized**."

The core function of the sequencer is transaction ordering. Simply put, user transactions on L2 enter the mempool (where transactions are initially unordered). The sequencer orders these transactions, compresses them into an ordered batch, and sends them to Ethereum's Data Availability (DA) layer.

Base operates an official, centralized sequencer. In a sense, this centralization grants the sequencer significant autonomy over transaction ordering. It could potentially order transactions arbitrarily to maximize its own arbitrage opportunities, extract MEV value, delay user transactions, or even censor them entirely.

According to data from growthepie, the Base chain has earned a staggering $5.11 million in revenue in the past month. Over the past year, this figure reaches as high as $87 million, far exceeding the revenue of the second-ranked chain, Arbitrum. The officially operated Base sequencer acts like an invisible hand, quietly extracting enormous value.

The Path to Decentralization

Decentralized sequencers are not a new concept; it's even a relatively mature field. However, decentralization inevitably means distributing power and, consequently, sharing profits. Is the Base chain willing to sacrifice the benefits of being a "super entity" for the grand cause of L2 decentralization?

Currently, it seems unrealistic.

"Not being a casino" does not mean Base is sufficiently decentralized. The path to decentralizing the sequencer remains long and arduous.

More Than 60 Partners, from Coinbase to the Ethereum Foundation

More than 60 organizations—ranging from Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation to Salesforce and American Express—co-drafted the spec. Google argues that stablecoins bring automation-ready stability and near-zero fees, but admits that fragmented global regulation, stringent security demands and user-education gaps remain high hurdles.

From Information to Value: AI Agents Get Wallets

The protocol extends Google’s April launch of a universal messaging layer that lets AI agents “talk.” Adding payments turns those conversations into transactions, shifting AI interaction from information exchange to value exchange. Sub-second programmable networks such as Mysten Labs’ Sui and EigenCloud’s verifiable-compute layer are already integrated, promising both speed and auditability.

Stablecoins as the Native Cash of the Machine Economy

Stablecoins, not volatile crypto assets, are cast as the machine-to-machine medium of exchange: dollar-pegged, programmable and borderless. In use-cases ranging from micro-service fees to autonomous shopping carts, they can settle faster and cheaper than card networks or correspondent banking. If adoption accelerates, the project could re-wire how trillions in AI-driven commerce are cleared and settled.

A Prelude, Not a Product

Google insists the protocol is additive, not substitutive: legacy rails stay, while new ones plug in. Still, the signal is unmistakable—Big Tech is no longer flirting with crypto from the sidelines. By writing stablecoins into the very blueprint of its AI cloud, Google is betting that the future of payments will be minted in code, not just in fiat.

This article provides a detailed analysis of Pendle’s strategic applications across different market cycles (bull, bear, and sideways markets), including buying PT to lock in fixed returns, YT speculation, cross-term arbitrage, and stablecoin pool allocations. It also compares the differences between stETH, uniBTC, and stablecoin pools in coin-denominated strategies.

The Boros module further assetizes funding rates, supporting interest rate swaps, hedging, and arbitrage strategies, providing professional investors with risk management tools.

Pulse, as the first AgentFi product based on Pendle’s PT strategy, achieves dynamic allocation and auto-rollover across multi-chain PT markets through an automated optimization system, significantly lowering user barriers and improving capital efficiency.

Giza’s Swarm Finance incentive layer aims to intelligently allocate capital through standardized APR feeds, enhancing protocol liquidity and reducing governance costs.

The article explores the future development of AgentFi within the Pendle ecosystem, including stablecoin PT strategies, intelligent Auto-Rollover, and Boros strategy-based products, while also highlighting potential risks such as protocol security and market volatility.

Summary
Author: 0xjacobzhao | https://linktr.ee/0xjacobzhao

Undoubtedly, Pendle is one of the most successful DeFi protocols in this crypto cycle. While many protocols stagnated due to liquidity droughts and fading narratives, Pendle’s unique yield-splitting and trading mechanism has positioned it as a "price discovery venue" for yield-bearing assets. Through deep integration with stablecoins, LSTs/LRTs, and other yield-generating assets, it has established itself as a unique "DeFi yield infrastructure."

In the research report "DeFi’s Intelligent Evolution: From Automation to AgentFi," we systematically outlined and compared the three stages of DeFi’s intelligent development: Automation, Intent-Centric Copilot, and AgentFi. Beyond lending and yield farming—the most valuable and easily implementable scenarios—Pendle’s PT/YT yield-right trading is considered a high-priority application highly compatible with AgentFi in our advanced vision. Pendle’s unique "yield splitting + maturity mechanism + yield-right trading" architecture provides a natural space for strategy orchestration, enabling automated execution and yield optimization with richer possibilities.

1. Pendle’s Basic Principles
Pendle is the first protocol in DeFi focused on yield splitting and trading. Its core innovation lies in tokenizing and separating the future yield streams of on-chain yield-bearing assets (e.g., LSTs, stablecoin deposit certificates, lending positions), allowing users to flexibly lock in fixed returns, amplify yield expectations, or engage in speculative arbitrage.

In short, Pendle creates a secondary market for the "yield curve" of crypto assets, enabling DeFi users to trade not only "principal" but also "yield." This mechanism is highly similar to zero-coupon bonds + coupon stripping in traditional finance, enhancing pricing precision and trading flexibility for DeFi assets.

Pendle’s Yield-Splitting Mechanism
Pendle splits a yield-bearing asset (YBA) into two tradable tokens:

• PT (Principal Token, similar to a zero-coupon bond): Represents the principal value redeemable at maturity but no longer accrues yield.

• YT (Yield Token, similar to coupon rights): Represents all yield generated by the asset before maturity but becomes zero at expiration.

For example, depositing 1 ETH of stETH would be split into PT-stETH (redeemable for 1 ETH at maturity, with locked principal) and YT-stETH (capturing all staking yield before maturity).

Pendle is not merely about token splitting; it also provides a liquidity market for PT and YT through a specially designed AMM (automated market maker), akin to a secondary liquidity pool for bonds. Users can buy or sell PT or YT at any time to adjust their yield risk exposure. The price of PT is typically below 1, reflecting its "discounted principal value," while the price of YT depends on market expectations of future yield. Importantly, Pendle’s AMM is optimized for assets with maturity dates, enabling PT/YT of different tenors to form a yield curve in the market, highly similar to traditional bond markets.

It is worth noting that for Pendle’s stablecoin assets:

• PT (Principal Token, fixed-income position) is equivalent to an on-chain bond. Buying it at a discount locks in a fixed rate, and it can be redeemed 1:1 for stablecoins at maturity. It offers stable returns with low risk, suitable for conservative investors seeking certainty.

• Stablecoin Pool (liquidity mining position) is essentially AMM market-making, where LP returns come from fees and incentives. APY is highly volatile, accompanied by impermanent loss risk, making it more suitable for active investors who can tolerate volatility and seek higher returns. In markets with active trading and generous incentives, pool returns may significantly exceed PT fixed returns; in inactive markets with insufficient incentives, pool returns often underperform PT and may even incur losses due to impermanent loss.

Pendle’s PT/YT trading strategies primarily cover four paths: fixed income, yield speculation, cross-term arbitrage, and leveraged yield, catering to investors with different risk appetites. Users can buy and hold PT to maturity to lock in fixed returns, equivalent to securing a deterministic rate. Alternatively, they can buy YT to bet on rising yields or increased volatility for speculative purposes. Investors can also exploit price differences between PT/YT of different tenors for cross-term arbitrage or use PT/YT as collateral with lending protocols to amplify yield exposure.

Boros’ Funding Rate Trading Mechanism
Beyond Pendle V2’s yield splitting, the Boros module further assetizes funding rates, transforming them from passive costs in perpetual contract positions into independently priced and tradable instruments. Through Boros, investors can engage in directional speculation, risk hedging, or arbitrage opportunities. This mechanism essentially introduces traditional interest rate derivatives (IRS, basis trading) into DeFi, providing new tools for institutional capital management and robust yield strategies.

In addition to PT/YT trading, AMM pools, and Boros’ funding rate trading mechanism, Pendle V2 offers several extended features, which, while not the focus of this article, serve as important supplements to the protocol ecosystem:

• vePENDLE: A governance and incentive model based on vote-escrow mechanisms. Users lock PENDLE to obtain vePENDLE, participating in governance voting and enhancing yield distribution权重. It is core to the protocol’s long-term incentives and governance.

• PendleSwap: A one-stop asset exchange entry point, helping users efficiently switch between PT/YT and native assets, improving capital convenience and protocol composability. It is essentially a DEX aggregator rather than an independent innovation.

• Points Market: Allows users to trade various project points on secondary markets in advance, providing liquidity for airdrop capture and points arbitrage. It leans more toward speculative and topical scenarios rather than core value.

2. Pendle Strategy Panorama: Market Cycles, Risk Layering, and Derivative Expansions
In traditional financial markets, retail investment channels are primarily focused on stock trading and fixed-income wealth management products, often making it difficult to directly participate in high-threshold bond derivative trading. Similarly, in the crypto market, retail users are more receptive to token trading and DeFi lending. Although Pendle has significantly lowered the barrier for retail users to enter "bond derivative" trading, its strategies still require a high level of expertise, demanding investors to deeply analyze changes in yield asset rates under different market conditions. Based on this, we believe that during different market phases—early bull market, exuberant bull market, bearish downturn, and range-bound periods—investors should match differentiated Pendle trading strategies according to their risk preferences.

• Early Bull Market: Market risk appetite gradually recovers, borrowing demand and rates remain low, and YT on Pendle is relatively cheap. Buying YT is equivalent to betting on rising future yields. Once the market enters an accelerated upward phase, borrowing rates and LST yields will rise, driving up YT value. This is a typical high-risk, high-reward strategy suitable for investors willing to position early to capture amplified bull market gains.

• Exuberant Bull Market: Soaring market sentiment drives borrowing demand, with DeFi lending rates often climbing from single digits to 15–30% or higher, causing YT values to surge and PT to trade at significant discounts. Investors buying PT with stablecoins can lock in high rates at a discount, redeeming the underlying asset 1:1 at maturity. This实质上 constitutes "fixed-income arbitrage" in the late bull market to hedge against volatility risks. The strategy is稳健 and rational, ensuring fixed returns and principal safety during market pullbacks or bear markets, but at the cost of forgoing potential gains from holding volatile assets.

• Bearish Downturn: Market sentiment is低迷, borrowing demand plummets, rates fall sharply, YT yields approach zero, and PT performs closer to risk-free assets. Buying and holding PT to maturity means locking in a deterministic return in a low-rate environment, equivalent to building a defensive position. For conservative investors, this is a primary strategy to avoid yield volatility and preserve capital.

• Range-Bound Market: Market rates lack trend, and expectations diverge significantly, often leading to short-term mismatches or pricing deviations in Pendle’s PT and YT. Investors can engage in cross-term arbitrage between PT/YT of different tenors or capture mispriced yield rights due to market sentiment fluctuations, earning stable spread returns. Such strategies require higher analytical and execution capabilities but can yield steady returns in trendless markets.

Global Perspective: Pendle Strategy Full-Market Cycle Comparison Table

Risk Layering: Pendle Decision Tree Under稳健 vs. Aggressive Strategies
Of course, the above strategies primarily focus on稳健 returns, with the core logic being to balance risk and returns by buying PT, buying YT, or participating in stablecoin pool mining across different market cycles. For investors with higher risk appetites, more aggressive strategies such as selling PT or YT can be chosen to bet on rate trends or market mismatches. Such operations require higher professional judgment and execution, with greater risk exposure, so this article will not extensively expand on them. For reference, see the decision tree below.

Pendle Coin-Denominated Strategies: stETH, uniBTC, and Stablecoin Pool Comparison
The above analysis of Pendle strategies is based on a U-denominated perspective. The strategy focus is on how to obtain excess returns by locking in high rates or capturing rate fluctuations. Additionally, Pendle offers coin-denominated strategies for BTC and ETH.

ETH is widely considered the best标的 for coin-denominated strategies due to its ecological status and long-term value certainty: As Ethereum’s native asset, ETH is not only the settlement basis for most DeFi protocols but also has staking yield as a stable cash flow source. In comparison, BTC has no native interest rate, and its returns on Pendle rely heavily on protocol incentives, making its coin-denominated logic relatively weaker. Stablecoin pools are more suitable as defensive allocations, serving a "preservation + waiting" function.

Under different market cycles, the strategic differences among the three asset pools are significant:

• Bull Market: stETH pool is the most offensive, with YT being the best strategy for leveraged ETH accumulation; uniBTC can serve as a supplement but is more speculative; stablecoin pool吸引力 relatively declines.

• Bear Market: stETH’s low-priced YT provides core opportunities for ETH accumulation; stablecoin pool serves as the main defensive function; uniBTC is only suitable for small-scale short-term arbitrage.

• Range-Bound Market: stETH’s PT-YT mismatches and AMM fees provide arbitrage opportunities; uniBTC is suitable for short-term gambling; stablecoin pool offers稳健 supplementation.

| Asset | Source of Returns

Core Issue: The mismatch between on-chain trading speed and off-chain asset disposal efficiency could cause market confidence to collapse within minutes, while actual asset value changes may take months or even years to materialize.

Risk Scenarios: Include chain reactions of on-chain liquidations triggered by private credit defaults, and flash crashes of real estate tokens due to legal or natural disaster issues.

Derivative Risks: Complex derivatives based on RWAs (e.g., synthetic products and structured instruments) may emerge, increasing leverage and hiding correlations, making the system more vulnerable to oracle errors, smart contract bugs, or protocol failures.

Recommendations: Risks must be managed through conservative oracle design, stricter collateral standards, and circuit breakers to avoid repeating the subprime crisis.

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Summary

Author: Tristero Research

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

The slowest assets in finance—loans, properties, commodities—are being bundled into the fastest markets ever created. Tokenization promises liquidity, but what it truly creates is an illusion: a highly liquid shell wrapped around an illiquid core. This mismatch is the RWA liquidity paradox.

In just five years, tokenized RWAs have evolved from an $85 million experiment to a $25 billion market, growing 245-fold between 2020 and 2025, driven by institutional demand for yield, transparency, and balance sheet efficiency.

BlackRock has issued tokenized treasury bonds, Figure Technologies has placed billions in private credit on-chain, and real estate transactions from New Jersey to Dubai are being fractionalized and traded on DEXs.

Analysts predict trillions of dollars in assets will soon follow. To many, this seems like the long-awaited bridge between TradFi and DeFi—an opportunity to combine the security of real-world yields with the speed and transparency of blockchain.

But beneath this enthusiasm lies a structural flaw. Tokenization does not change the fundamental nature of office buildings, private loans, or gold bars. These are illiquid, slow-moving assets—bound by contracts, registries, and courts, both legally and operationally. What tokenization does is wrap them in a highly liquid shell, enabling instant trading, leverage, and liquidation. The result is a financial system where slowly shifting credit and valuation risks are converted into high-frequency volatility risks, with contagion spreading not over months but within minutes.

If this sounds familiar, it should. In 2008, Wall Street learned the hard way what happens when illiquid assets are transformed into "liquid" derivatives. Subprime mortgages collapsed slowly; collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and credit default swaps (CDS) collapsed rapidly. The mismatch between real-world defaults and financial engineering detonated the global system. The danger today is that this architecture is being rebuilt—only this time on blockchain, where crises will unfold at the speed of code.

Imagine a tokenized commercial property in Bergen County, New Jersey. On the surface, the building is solid: tenants pay rent on time, mortgages are repaid, and titles are clear. But the legal process for transferring ownership—title checks, signatures, filing documents with the county—takes weeks. This is how real estate works: slow, procedural, and bound by paper and courts.

Now put this property on a blockchain. The title is held by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that issues digital tokens representing fractional ownership. Suddenly, a once-dormant asset can be traded 24/7. In one afternoon, these tokens could change hands hundreds of times on a DEX, be used as collateral for stablecoin loans on lending protocols, or be packaged into structured products promising "safe, real yield."

Here’s the catch: nothing about the building itself has changed. If a major tenant defaults, if property values decline, if the legal claims of the SPV are challenged, the real-world impact will unfold over months or years. But on-chain, confidence can vanish in an instant. A rumor on X, a delayed oracle update, or a sudden sell-off could trigger a cascade of automated liquidations. The building hasn’t moved, but its tokenized representation could collapse in minutes—dragging down collateral pools, lending protocols, and stablecoins with it.

This is the essence of the RWA liquidity paradox: bundling illiquid assets into highly liquid markets creates the illusion of safety while actually making them more explosive.

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2008 in Slow Motion vs. 2025 in Real Time

In the early 2000s, Wall Street transformed subprime mortgages (illiquid, high-risk loans) into complex securities.

Mortgages were pooled into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which were then sliced into tranches of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). To hedge risks, banks layered on credit default swaps (CDS). In theory, this alchemy turned fragile subprime loans into "safe" AAA-rated assets. In practice, it built a leveraged, opaque tower on shaky foundations.

When the slow-burning mortgage defaults collided with the fast-moving CDO and CDS markets, crisis erupted. Home foreclosures took months, but the linked derivatives repriced in seconds. This mismatch alone didn’t cause the collapse, but it amplified localized defaults into a global shock.

RWA tokenization risks recreating this mismatch—only faster. Instead of layering subprime mortgages, it slices private credit, real estate, and treasury bonds into on-chain tokens. Instead of CDS, we may see "RWA-plus" derivatives: options, synthetics, and structured products built on RWA tokens. And instead of rating agencies labeling junk as AAA, valuation is outsourced to oracles and custodians—new black boxes of trust.

The analogy is not superficial. The underlying logic is the same: take illiquid, slow-moving assets; wrap them in structures that appear liquid; and let them circulate in markets orders of magnitude faster than the underlying assets. In 2008, the system unraveled over months. In DeFi, contagion could spread in minutes.

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Scenario 1: Credit Default Chain Reaction

A private credit protocol tokenizes $5 billion in SME loans. On paper, yields are stable at 8–12%. Investors treat the token as safe collateral, borrowing against it on Aave and Compound.

Then the real economy sours. Default rates rise. The true value of the loan book declines, but the oracles—reliant on on-chain prices—update only monthly. On-chain, the token still appears robust.

Rumors spread: some large borrowers are overdue. Traders rush to sell before the oracle update. The token’s market price falls below its "official" value, breaking the peg.

This is enough to trigger liquidation bots. DeFi lending protocols record the price drop and automatically liquidate loans collateralized by the token. Liquidation bots repay debts, seize collateral, and dump it on exchanges—driving prices down further. More liquidations follow. Within minutes, a feedback loop turns a slow credit problem into a full-blown on-chain crash.

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Scenario 2: Real Estate Flash Crash

A custodian managing $2 billion in tokenized commercial real estate suffers a hack, admitting its legal claim to the properties may be compromised. At the same time, a hurricane hits a city where many of the properties are located.

The off-chain value of these assets is questioned; on-chain tokens immediately crash.

On DEXs, panicked holders rush for the exits. Automated market maker liquidity is drained. Token prices plummet.

Across DeFi, the token had been used as collateral. Liquidation mechanisms activate, but the seized collateral is worthless and illiquid. Lending protocols are left with bad debt. What was promoted as "institutional-grade on-chain real estate" becomes a hole in DeFi protocol balance sheets—and the TradFi funds attached to them—overnight.

Both scenarios reveal the same dynamic: the liquid shell collapses far faster than the underlying assets can respond. The building still stands, the loans still exist, but on-chain, their representation vanishes in minutes, dragging the system down with it.

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Next Phase: RWA-Plus

Finance never stops at the first layer. Once an asset class emerges, Wall Street (and now DeFi) builds derivatives on top. Subprime mortgages spawned MBS, then CDOs, then CDS. Each layer promised better risk management; each layer amplified fragility.

RWA tokenization will be no exception. The first wave is simple: fractionalization of credit, treasuries, real estate. The second wave is inevitable: RWA-plus. Tokens are bundled into indices, split into "safe" and "risky" tranches, and synthetics let traders go long or short on baskets of tokenized loans or properties. Tokens backed by New Jersey real estate and Singaporean SME loans could be repackaged into a single "yield product" and leveraged in DeFi.

Ironically, on-chain derivatives may appear safer than 2008-era CDS because they are fully collateralized and transparent. But risks don’t disappear—they mutate. Smart contract bugs replace counterparty defaults. Oracle errors replace rating fraud. Protocol governance failures replace AIG. The result is the same: layers of leverage, hidden correlations, and a system vulnerable to single points of failure.

The promise of diversification—mixing treasuries, credit, and real estate in a tokenized basket—ignores the reality that all these assets now share a common correlation vector: DeFi infrastructure itself. If a major oracle, stablecoin, or lending protocol fails, all RWA-based derivatives could collapse, regardless of underlying asset diversity.

RWA-plus products will be marketed as a bridge to maturity, proof that DeFi can reinvent complex TradFi. But they could also be the catalyst that ensures the system doesn’t buffer the first shock—it shatters.

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Conclusion

The RWA boom is promoted as a bridge between TradFi and DeFi. Tokenization does bring efficiency, composability, and new access to yield. But it does not change the nature of the assets themselves: loans, houses, and commodities remain slow-moving and illiquid, even as their digital wrappers trade at blockchain speeds.

This is the liquidity paradox. Bundling illiquid assets into highly liquid markets increases fragility and reflexivity. The very tools that make markets faster and more transparent also make them more vulnerable to sudden shocks.

In 2008, subprime loan defaults took months to become a global crisis. With tokenized RWAs, a similar mismatch could unfold in minutes. This is not to abandon tokenization, but to design for its risks: more conservative oracles, stricter collateral standards, and stronger circuit breakers.

A repeat of the last crisis is not inevitable, but ignoring this paradox could ensure it happens even faster.

Laying the Tracks Years Before the Headlines

• March 2023: Avanza Group launches Pakistan’s first national-grade, blockchain-based eKYC platform, hard-wiring compliance and digital identity into the state.

• December 2023: Invoicemate pilots private credit on the XDC Network, proving that SMEs can collateralise invoices and digitise trade flows.
  These two quiet milestones gave Islamabad the rails on which to run an audacious national strategy.

Eight Months of Legal, Institutional and Energy Lego-Building

1. The 2025 Virtual Assets Ordinance – births PVARA (Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority), a full-spectrum licensing and supervision body.

2. Central Bank Digital Currency Pilot – State Bank of Pakistan now expects to roll out the digital rupee within this fiscal year.

3. Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) – chaired by the Finance Minister, led day-to-day by CEO Bilal Bin Saqib, and advised by Binance founder CZ.

4. 2 GW Power-to-Hash Strategy – 2 000 MW of surplus electricity will be funnelled into Bitcoin mining and AI data centres, underwritten by a sovereign strategic-Bitcoin reserve. Abu Dhabi’s Phoenix Group is already eyeing the tariff incentives.

5. Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) – the cross-ministry coordinator for national digital identity, tokenisation sandboxes, and state-backed digital-economy programmes.

6. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) MoU – the Trump-linked DeFi platform signed a framework with PCC in April 2025 to embed stable-coin settlement, tokenised asset corridors, and a joint regulatory sandbox. The Abu Dhabi photo-op between WLFI’s founders and CZ was not accidental.

These are not isolated regulatory boxes; they are interlocking pieces of economic and geostrategic infrastructure.

Washington’s Deliberate Embrace

• Pakistan receives tariff cuts on textiles, IT, and agriculture, plus access to U.S. petroleum reserves and joint digital-asset ventures.

• India faces a 25 % tariff (rising to 50 % by end-August) for buying discounted Russian oil. Islamabad’s effective tariff rate (~19 %) suddenly makes it the preferred export hub.
  The message is blunt: align with Washington’s priorities, get rewarded; hedge toward Moscow, get punished.

India’s Strategic Hesitation—and Rising Costs
New Delhi still treats crypto as a high-tax casino, not as critical infrastructure. While it pushes UPI and ONDC, it keeps digital assets outside the strategic frame. The bill is now coming due:

• U.S. tariffs could shave 0.3–0.6 % off Indian GDP.

• A stubborn tilt toward Russia and multi-polar finance unsettles Quad partners.
  Pakistan, by contrast, has moved faster on regulation and faster on political alignment, making itself the easier—and more attractive—ally.

Pakistan’s Four New Revenue and Leverage Streams

1. Capital Magnet – crystal-clear licensing plus marquee global advisers turns the country into a hub for exchanges, custodians, and tokenisation shops.

2. Energy Monetisation – idle megawatts become a balance-sheet asset via mining and AI compute.

3. Remittance & Trade Rails – CBDC pilots and licensed stable-coin rails promise to cut the cost of $30 bn in annual remittances.

4. Diplomatic Currency – crypto policy itself becomes a bargaining chip in U.S.–Pakistan negotiations.

Crypto as Grand Strategy
This is no longer an industry story; it is statecraft. By rewarding Pakistan’s cooperation, Trump tightens the screws on India’s independent streak—especially its discounted Russian-oil trade and flirtation with de-dollarisation. Digital assets serve both symbolic and utilitarian roles in this balancing act.

Islamabad’s willingness to embed crypto in national strategy has bought it room and favour. New Delhi’s hesitation has left it exposed to tariffs and pressure. The open question is whether Pakistan’s digital-asset pivot becomes durable infrastructure or remains a tactical artefact of current geopolitical competition.

Either way, cryptocurrency in South Asia has graduated from sector play to statecraft—and the regional balance of power is shifting accordingly.

01 Strategic Backdrop: Why Bitcoin Needs a Layer 2—and Why Bitlayer Delivered
Bitcoin is the most secure and decentralized chain, but that security comes at the cost of limited throughput, high fees, and zero native smart-contract support. Bitlayer was conceived to square the circle: keep Bitcoin’s rock-solid security while grafting on Ethereum-grade programmability.
As the first rollup purpose-built for Bitcoin, Bitlayer is anchored in the breakthrough BitVM paradigm. It is 100 % EVM-compatible, so Solidity tooling, wallets, and dApps port over with minimal friction.

02 Technical Roadmap: A Three-Stage Flight Path to Mass Adoption
Stage 1 – Bitlayer PoS (live since Apr 2024)
• Combines Proof-of-Stake with multi-sig and MPC custody for a secure, scalable base.
• Full EVM equivalence + cross-chain bridges to BTC and EVM chains.

Stage 2 – Bitlayer Rollup (target Q1–Q2 2025)
• Brings BitVM to the BTC Bridge and the rollup itself.
• State transitions are proven directly on Bitcoin, delivering near-L1 security with trust-minimized bridges.

Stage 3 – Rollup Supercharged (target Q4 2025)
• 20,000 TPS, 3-second soft confirmations, UX tuned for mainstream adoption.

03 Ecosystem Snapshot: 1 M+ Users, 100+ dApps
In two months, on-chain assets have grown 10×. Flagship protocols now anchor the network:
• Avalon Finance – the self-proclaimed first “CeDeFi” lending market, $120 M TVL.
• Pell Network – $95 M TVL; provides security, infra, and yield-boosting services for BTC L2s.
• BitCow – $35 M TVL concentrated-liquidity AMM on Bitlayer.
Gaming, infra, and DeFi verticals are all live, forming a fly-wheel around BTR demand.

04 Token Design: BTR Economics & Price Layers
Total supply: 1 billion BTR. Initial float after TGE: 235 million, of which 90 million are earmarked for airdrops and pre-sales.
Utilities:

1. Incentives—rewards for devs, users, liquidity providers.

2. Governance—proposal voting and parameter tweaks.
   Pricing tiers (a deliberate staircase):
   • Binance Wallet pre-TGE: $0.02
   • CoinList public round: $0.20
   • Official “mystery box” on website: $0.30
   The gap creates early-stage optionality, but also volatility risk.

05 Market Metrics: A Growth Story in Hard Numbers
• TVL: $391 M → 31 % of BTC-L2 market.
• Nearest competitor Merlin: $196 M (down 50 %).
• Rootstock & CORE trail at ~$170 M each.
Catalysts: launches of pStake (liquid-staking) and Bedrock (restaking), plus Franklin Templeton’s freshly announced $11 M Series A extension.

06 Binance Listing: Liquidity, Eyeballs, and Volatility
Binance listings historically turbo-charge price discovery. Pre-TGE pricing at $0.02 vs. other tranches sets up potential arbitrage, but locked allocations from Binance Wallet sales will dampen initial float. Expect two-way volatility as early unlocks hit the order book.

07 Risk & Opportunity Matrix
Opportunities
• Sector leadership in the fastest-growing Bitcoin narrative.
• Deep, battle-tested technical roadmap with milestones already delivered.
• Tier-1 exchange debut = liquidity + credibility.

Risks
• Crypto-wide volatility; short-term price may detach from fundamentals.
• Roadmap execution risk—BitVM integration is uncharted territory.
• Regulatory uncertainty around Bitcoin L2s remains a wildcard.

Play it smart: size positions you can afford to lose, diversify, and keep one eye on the official channels.

The black box of large language models drives us mad, so blockchain now tries to install a transparent white box inside the laboratory.

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1943: A Quantum Cat, A Teenage Prodigy, and the Question “What Is Life?”

In 1943, the owner of the quantum cat, Erwin Schrödinger, delivered a high-wire lecture in Dublin. From the perspective of statistical physics he linked atoms, life, and cells. Across the Atlantic, the 15-year-old James Watson was already a freshman at the University of Chicago. After reading the lecture-turned-book What Is Life?, Watson decided genetics would be his lifelong quest.

Ten years later, PhD in hand, Watson unveiled the double-helix structure of DNA. A 25-year-old Nobel Prize was already waiting on the mantelpiece.

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Grafting, Cloning, Gene Editing

There are two trees in front of my house; one is a jujube, and the other, too, is a jujube.

Anyone who has sat through middle-school biology now knows that a gene is an information snippet on DNA—like a function in code, the minimal unit of execution. DNA itself is an instantiated module; RNA plays the router and messenger, ferrying instructions to their intended targets.

Watson showed us the structure, but not how to use it. Knowing the cat is in a superposition is easy; quantum communication takes decades. Watson, at least, was luckier than Schrödinger. In the summer of 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna discovered that CRISPR sequences and Cas proteins could be paired: snip a chosen locus, insert a desired snippet, and let the cell’s own repair machinery finish the graft—quietly, invisibly.

It is exactly like pruning in a garden: you eyeball the branches, splice them, and, without understanding the underlying botany, still manage to make different plants grow together—trial and error suffices.

Cloning follows the same rulebook: nucleus and cytoplasm can be separated and re-paired. After enough experiments, isomers of organisms appear, as What Is Life? predicted.

Gene editing is merely cloning pushed one notch smaller. From the perspective of atoms, life is just heat death in slow motion—time can stretch or compress but never reverse.

We graft fruit trees, we clone sheep—can we edit humans?

In 2018 the “mad scientist” He Jiankui became either Eve or the serpent. He edited the genomes of twin embryos whose parents carried HIV. Pandora’s box opened. Cloned animals can be euthanized; edited humans—are they still human?

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The Lure of Longevity

Yet gene-level control exerts a fatal attraction: longevity. Find the snippet that governs lifespan, hack it like a North-Korean cyber-soldier, nudge the value from 100 to ∞. Even adding a single zero would be enough.

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Coinbase Alumni Turn from Coins to Chromosomes

In 2023 Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam left crypto and founded Nudge Biosciences. Fred also happens to be the co-founder of Coinbase; after the 2017 listing he pivoted to venture capital.

Back in 2017, Paul Kohlhaas was head of BD at ConsenSys. A year later he quit: why not use blockchain for something more interesting—say, science?

In 2018 Molecule was born, one of the first attempts to combine blockchain with biological research. Meanwhile DeepMind’s AlphaFold (2016) was already dazzling structural biologists.

By 2020 AlphaFold2 cracked the protein-folding problem. A 4-year-old algorithm was pre-booking half of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Fred’s 2023 switch was late; in 2020 Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong had already launched ResearchHub to dismantle the university–journal–grant trinity. Universities control tenure, publishers skim profits, reviewers work for free, and grant committees hold the sword of Damocles. Scholars pay to submit, publishers charge to read, and only the middleman wins.

AI, science, and tokens converged on life sciences—biology really was the science of the 21st century.

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DeSci as the Pharma of Immortality

Decentralized science (DeSci) is pharma R&D in a permissionless wrapper.

It is the crypto remix of AI4Science, laser-focused on AI, longevity, and drug discovery.

Remember Paul Kohlhaas’s Molecule? Balaji invested in 2022—nobody can resist the promise of a longer life.

One step further: in 2022 Paul launched Bio Protocol, intent on giving crypto barons extra decades. Sub-DAOs cover everything from male pattern baldness to toe-nail fungus.

In 2024 a reborn CZ and a youthful Vitalik shared a stage in Bangkok. Vitalik recommended VitaDAO’s supplement VD001; CZ’s YZi Ventures wrote the check. BIO tokens listed on Binance. Paul even cloned PumpFun into PumpScience—meme meets molecule.

But after the pump comes the reckoning. A new drug costs a billion dollars and ten years; the secondary market won’t wait five minutes. Raising money and not pumping the chart is the new mortal sin.

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Enter the Agents

Yet the story does not end; the Agent wave has arrived. AI agents may finally speed up research. In February 2025 ResearchHub raised a $2 million Boost round; DeSci agents now have peer review.

On August 1, 2025, Bio Protocol released V2: a new launchpad, BioXP points, and BioAgents—built on ElizaOS, forever surfing the latest trend. Within seven days more than 100 million BIO were staked (8,000 million on the 7th alone—data integrity may vary). Tokenomics were redesigned to favor small floats and continuous sponsorship over mercenary dumps.

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Catching Up with AlphaFold

Still, DeSci lags behind AI4Science. AlphaFold open-sourced its database in 2021; 200 million protein structures later, it has mapped most known species.

Bio Protocol begs the FDA to open pharma vaults; V2 will fast-track drugs in the UAE where human-trial rules are looser. Whether the next hero is Watson or He Jiankui remains to be seen.

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Epilogue: Resurrection, Evolution, Extinction

GPT-5 may disappoint in the general case, but in high-value verticals—medicine, science—the scaling laws may yet bloom. Colossal Biosciences, deep in Silicon Valley, is already CRISPR-engineering a “woolly mouse” (mammoth genes in a mouse) and a ghost-white dire wolf.

One day humans may evolve.

One day humans may vanish.

Enter Rialo, a new chain purpose-built for the real world by Subzero Labs. It refuses to label itself Layer 1, 2, or 3; the official expansion of the acronym is simply “Rialo isn’t a layer 1.”

iPod ➜ iPhone: The Analogy
Subzero co-founder Ade Adepoju told Fortune: “We don’t need another device that only plays music—we need the iPhone moment, one gadget that fuses camera, GPS, and the web.” Rialo’s ambition is the same: a single platform where blockchain disappears into the background, letting teams ship production-grade apps as effortlessly as they once deployed web services.

Native Real-World Plumbing
Rialo bakes everyday essentials directly into the protocol:

• Smart contracts can call HTTPS endpoints—grab a FICO score without an oracle.

• Users log in with email, SMS, or existing social IDs; no seed-phrase boot camp.

Fabric Ventures, an investor, explains: “Calling an API, scheduling a timer, or moving data across chains becomes a native instruction, not an external bridge or indexer. Oracles and bridges may simply become obsolete.”

Team & War Chest

• Seed round: $20 M led by Pantera Capital, joined by Mysten Labs, Variant, Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Fabric, Mirana, Susquehanna, Edge, Flowdesk.

• Cap table: mix of equity and token warrants, closed Q1 2025.

The team hails from Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, TikTok, Citadel, Mysten, and Solana, bringing deep expertise in distributed systems, AI, hardware, and crypto.

• CEO Ade Adepoju, 30, NYC—ex-AMD, Dell, Netflix; founding engineer at Mysten Labs (2021-2024).

• CTO Lu Zhang—former Mysten Labs engineer.

Under the Hood (What We Know So Far)
Rialo has not yet published a full white-paper, but early teasers reveal three design pillars:

1. RISC-V + Solana VM Compatibility

• Eliminates reliance on bridges and oracles.

• Aligns with Vitalik’s April 2025 Ethereum Magicians post proposing RISC-V as the foundation for a leaner, faster EVM 2.0.

2. Developer UX That Feels Like Web2

• Single-line HTTPS calls inside smart contracts pull real-time data.

• Event-driven and async programming models mirror traditional software stacks.

3. End-User UX That Hides the Chain

• Sub-second finality, flat & predictable fees.

• 2FA and scheduled transactions—familiar Web2 guardrails.

• Encrypted messaging baked in.

Real-World Lego Bricks
At the protocol layer, Rialo exposes native hooks to payment rails, weather APIs, and other off-chain services. Apps can therefore span on-chain and off-chain logic without bespoke middleware.

The Road Ahead
If onboarding feels as simple as downloading an app, blockchain may finally escape the crypto echo chamber. Yet big questions remain:

• How will Rialo preserve decentralization while integrating tightly with centralized services?

• How will it balance openness with privacy and compliance?

For now, Rialo is the boldest attempt yet to give blockchain its iPhone moment—and the real world its first truly invisible chain.

• Scope: Only “authorized payment-stablecoin issuers” may issue tokens in, or into, the United States. Authorization can be granted to (a) insured depository-institution subsidiaries, (b) OCC-registered non-bank issuers, or (c) state-licensed issuers.

• Dual-track Oversight: Issuers above US$10 billion in circulation fall under Fed/OCC supervision; smaller issuers may opt for state charters.

• 100 % Reserve Mandate: Every token must be backed 1:1 with cash, Fed deposits, Treasury bills (<93 d), repos, money-market funds, or central-bank reserves—no corporate paper, crypto, gold, or loans .

• Transparency & AML: Monthly audited reserve attestations (PCAOB-registered auditor), public redemption policies, full BSA/AML/KYC obligations, and super-priority for holders in bankruptcy .

• Penalties: Up to US$1 million per day for reserve or disclosure breaches; criminal charges possible if tokens are marketed without authorization .

2. Impact on USDT and Tether Inc.
USDT—market cap ≈ US$130 billion—was built on offshore opacity and only ~85 % disclosed reserves, including Bitcoin, gold, and secured loans . The Act’s requirements directly collide with Tether’s current model:

Consequences if Tether fails to comply

• After an 18-month transition, USDT becomes an “illegal payment instrument” in the U.S., triggering forced delistings and daily fines up to US$100 k for platforms still listing it .

• Treasury can add Tether to a public “non-compliant” blacklist, cutting off U.S. banking rails.

• Criminal liability attaches to any continued issuance targeted at U.S. persons .

3. Strategic Options for Tether
CryptoSalad sees a 300-day critical window within the 540-day transition:

1. Full U.S. compliance route – register a U.S. special-purpose trust bank, liquidate non-qualifying assets, submit to Fed/OCC oversight. Costly, dilutes offshore flexibility.

2. Offshore niche survival – abandon direct U.S. touch-points, rely on grey-market arbitrage and emerging-market corridors. Shrinks global share.

3. Layer-2 “wrapped-USDT” model – partner with a regulated issuer to tokenize USDT inside a compliant wrapper, similar to wBTC. Policy uncertainty remains high.

4. GENIUS vs. Hong Kong Stablecoin Regulation (Effective 1 Aug 2025)

Both laws impose strict redemption rights, segregation of reserves, and investor priority in liquidation, but Hong Kong’s regime is more permissive on reserve type and governance structure, making it a magnet for non-U.S. issuers .

5. Global Aftershocks

• Circle/USDC emerges as the clearest winner—already >90 % reserves in overnight repos & T-bills, SOC-2 certified, and applying for a federal license .

• Non-USD stablecoins face de-facto exclusion from U.S. markets unless Treasury grants a waiver, reinforcing dollar-dominance .

• DeFi protocols may re-balance collateral baskets toward USDC, DAI (over-collateralized), and upcoming bank-issued tokens, shrinking systemic exposure to USDT .

• Regulatory arbitrage: expect new issuance hubs in Singapore, UAE, and Switzerland as issuers seek “GENIUS-equivalent” labels to retain USD access.

6. Bottom Line
The GENIUS Act is the single most important stablecoin inflection point since the birth of USDT. It forces a “compliance wash”: opaque, offshore coins must either remake themselves inside the U.S. regulatory perimeter or retreat into ever-smaller grey zones. For investors, the message is simple—preference will accrue to tokens that can display a GENIUS-compliant badge.

Since the passage of Hong Kong’s stablecoin draft, enthusiasm for stablecoins in Hong Kong’s stock market has surged. The Hong Kong stock stablecoin sector has seen a skyrocketing rise, with not only numerous double-digit gains but also several 10x "big bull stocks." Investors are abuzz, and listed companies are celebrating increased capital inflows. Amid this seemingly joyous atmosphere, however, Hong Kong’s regulators have new concerns. Recently, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Chief Executive Eddie Yue wrote an article on the official website titled "Stablecoins: Moving Steadily Toward a Sustainable Future," aiming to cool down the overheated stablecoin market.

Yet, taming a boiling kettle is no easy feat.

On May 21st, Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulation draft was passed by the Legislative Council in its third reading. At the time, with the U.S. stablecoin bill still under Senate review, Hong Kong’s "early move" sparked widespread market discussion. In content, the regulation—featuring a licensing system, 100% full reserves, a HK$25 million paid-up capital requirement, and anti-money laundering (AML) rules—aligns with legislation in other major regions. Public opinion, however, has been sharply divided, painting a paradoxical picture of Hong Kong’s stablecoin landscape.

On one hand, due to Hong Kong’s declining influence in the crypto space and the underwhelming outcomes of past "early moves," the crypto market generally holds a pessimistic view. Critics argue that even with strengthened regulatory frameworks, Hong Kong’s stablecoin sector will likely remain a subsidiary of U.S. dollar stablecoins given limited market demand, serving only as a residual window.

Despite crypto market apathy, other sectors have hailed the news as a major positive. After the regulation passed, 敏锐 industry giants rushed to establish a presence, while traditional media and securities firms competed to cover the story, propelling stablecoins into the mainstream. Discussions on their implications, use cases, and value quickly escalated, even sparking debates on the need for a renminbi stablecoin. This trillion-dollar market appears poised for an explosion.

This Friday, Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulation will take effect, opening license applications. However, a week before the launch, Eddie Yue poured cold water on the hype. In "Stablecoins: Moving Steadily Toward a Sustainable Future," he explicitly noted that stablecoins are being overly conceptualized and show signs of bubbling. Yue stated that only a handful of licenses would be approved initially, urging investors to remain calm and think independently amid market optimism. The HKMA will also seek public feedback on regulatory and AML guidelines, with stricter AML requirements to minimize stablecoins’ misuse for money laundering.

Stablecoin Regulation Imminent: Undercurrents in the Hong Kong Market

These remarks reflect Hong Kong’s concerns about the current market and its cautious stance on license approvals. The reason for the regulator’s public cooling effort is simple: stablecoin fever in Hong Kong has reached excessive levels.

This overheating is most evident in the stock market. The contrast between promising prospects and early-stage development has turned stablecoins into an attractive capital narrative, driving rapid, immediate gains for nearly all related stocks.

Guotai Junan International, after obtaining a securities trading license in June (becoming the first Chinese brokerage to offer full-chain virtual asset services), surged 198% on June 25th, with a year-to-date gain of 458%.

On July 7th, Goldstream Investment announced a strategic cooperation framework with AnchorX to explore cross-border payments, trade, and stablecoin use case expansion. The next day, Goldstream’s stock soared 533.17% on heavy volume.

Stablecoin Regulation Imminent: Undercurrents in the Hong Kong Market

On July 15th, China 33 Media announced plans to apply for a stablecoin license. On July 16th, its stock closed up 72.73%, with a year-to-date surge of 1,495%.

Stablecoin Regulation Imminent: Undercurrents in the Hong Kong Market

A single announcement triggering such sharp gains underscores the power of the stablecoin narrative. Beyond these new entrants, established 概念股 have also rallied: OKLink, Yunfeng Financial, Yixin Group, New Fire Technology Holdings, and OSL Group have all gained over 100% this year. Even China’s A-share market, long criticized for stagnation, has been stirred, with digital yuan 概念股 like Hengbao Co., Sifang Jingchuang, and Chu Tianlong seeing multi-fold increases.

Against this backdrop, a rush has ensued: "chameleon" companies capitalizing on trends, financial institutions seeking a slice of the pie, and strategic giants aiming to reduce settlement costs or build moats. According to Caixin, 50-60 companies—including mainland Chinese central enterprises, financial institutions, and internet giants—have expressed interest in applying for Hong Kong stablecoin licenses.

However, application enthusiasm does not translate to approval ease. The HKMA notes that most applicants remain at the conceptual stage, lacking real-world use cases, while those with use cases often lack the technology to issue stablecoins or experience in managing financial risks. Issuing stablecoins purely for the sake of issuance is not what Hong Kong wants, hence the HKMA’s emphasis on granting only a handful of initial licenses.

To manage the influx, the HKMA plans a pre-screening mechanism. Sources cited by Caixin indicate that licenses will not be issued via open applications; instead, a quasi-invitation system will be used. The HKMA will pre-communicate with potential applicants to assess basic eligibility, and only those meeting initial criteria will receive application forms.

As for who will secure licenses, market sentiment favors participants in Hong Kong’s stablecoin sandbox pilot. Launched in July 2024, the sandbox included JD Coin Chain Technology, Circle Innovation Technology, and a Standard Chartered-led consortium (with Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom). Now in its second phase, the HKMA stresses that sandbox participation does not guarantee licensing, and participants must still apply formally. Nevertheless, their experience in testing use cases and risk controls under regulatory guidance gives them an edge in navigating compliance requirements.

Stablecoin Regulation Imminent: Undercurrents in the Hong Kong Market

Overall, Hong Kong’s license evaluation focuses on three key areas:

1. Technical capability to meet issuance requirements;

2. Practical use cases with feasible implementation plans;

3. Risk control capabilities, particularly in preventing money laundering via stablecoins.

Objectively, large enterprises with existing cross-border financial and payment operations and robust risk management systems hold an advantage. Smaller firms face slim approval chances, often acting as "also-rans."

For now, despite the HKMA’s calls for calm, market FOMO (fear of missing out) is unlikely to subside soon.

First, U.S. and Hong Kong stablecoin developments are interconnected. Following the passage of the U.S. Genius Act, stablecoin enthusiasm remains high, with Circle hitting new highs and major institutions expressing strong interest. Combined with positive crypto market sentiment and expected rate cuts, the U.S. stablecoin narrative will persist and spill over into Hong Kong.

Second, Hong Kong’s stablecoin discourse is expanding. Initially focused on Hong Kong dollar stablecoins, discussions now center on the need for an offshore renminbi stablecoin. National think tanks (e.g., the National Financial Development Research Institute), local governments (e.g., Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), securities firms, and civil organizations have all joined the debate. Many argue for piloting an offshore renminbi stablecoin in Hong Kong, with future expansion to domestic offshore zones like free trade 试验区. Previously, Hong Kong’s slow Web3 development was attributed to blocked channels; a viable offshore renminbi stablecoin could unlock growth potential and reshape the financial system long-term.

Crucially, stablecoins represent a profitable, growing market with a forming industry chain. For issuers:

• Retail-focused issuers can reduce transaction costs and boost competitiveness;

• Payment-focused issuers aim to penetrate digital asset markets and expand global financial infrastructure;

• Even firms seeking to boost stock prices through narratives have incentives to participate.

Amid the hype, over five groups—including ZhongAn Online, 4Paradigm, JiaMi Technology, and Easou Technology—have announced large-scale share placements. OSL Group, for instance, plans to raise nearly HK$2.4 billion by placing over 101 million shares at HK$14.9 each. Beyond issuance, virtual asset trading platforms (for monetizing traffic) and banks (as custodians) are also actively positioning themselves to capture industry .

Given these factors, stablecoin speculation will persist ，with license competition intensifying as compliance becomes a key entry barrier. However, the license’s actual influence, business viability, and associated costs (HK$25 million in capital plus potential annual compliance fees exceeding HK$1 million) warrant caution. Without a strong business model, hasty applications may backfire. As the HKMA noted, only a few will thrive long-term, while trend-chasers will likely fade after regulatory scrutiny.

For stock investors, extra vigilance is advised.

1. Exchange Trading Volumes Surge, South Korea Leads Global Market

• Upbit recorded a 24-hour trading volume of $10.2 billion (+94.5%), solidifying its position as South Korea's top exchange.

• Bithumb saw trading volume surpass $3.2 billion (+61.5%), steadily expanding its market share.

• Stablecoin trading volume across South Korea's top five exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Cobbit, Gopax) reached 2.226 trillion KRW (~$1.62 billion) between July 13-19.

South Korean exchanges' liquidity advantage has made them a key indicator for global crypto markets, particularly in their outsized influence on altcoins.

2. XRP Leads Rally as Korean Buying Power Drives Market Frenzy

• XRP surged from $2.60 to $3.00 within hours on July 11, with 70% of net buying volume originating from Upbit.

• On July 18, XRP broke through $3.60, hitting a six-month high, and currently stabilizes around $3.16, accounting for $2.28 billion of Upbit's trading volume and remaining the platform's top-traded asset.

• SAHARA (an AI-themed token) posted single-day gains of 86%, with 43.56% of its trading volume coming from Upbit.

• NEWT (Newton Protocol) rose 70% in 24 hours, with 57.07% of spot trading occurring on Upbit.

South Korean retail investors' preference for high-risk, high-volatility tokens far exceeds international markets, creating a unique "Kimchi Premium" phenomenon.

3. Listing Boom Accelerates as New Tokens on Bithumb Rally

• Bithumb's listings of LISTA and MERL drove the tokens up 33.97% and 20.53% respectively, reaching six-month highs.

• So far in 2025, South Korea's top five exchanges have listed 229 KRW trading pairs, accounting for 85.44% of last year's total listings, including:

  • Upbit: 37 new listings (vs. 35 in 2024)

  • Bithumb: 84 new listings (vs. 82 in 2024).

• The market expects this year to potentially become the most active for new listings in five years.

4. Risk Warning: Extreme Volatility and FOMO Mentality Spread

• XRP, SAHARA, and other tokens have experienced short-term pullbacks exceeding 10%, triggering waves of contract liquidations.

• Analysts at CryptoQuant warn that South Korean retail investors' FOMO (fear of missing out) psychology could lead to irrational investments and amplify market volatility.

• Tighter regulations are emerging as financial authorities increase scrutiny on exchanges to prevent market manipulation and money laundering risks.

5. Conclusion: Can South Korea's Market Momentum Last?

• Short-term outlook: Abundant liquidity and fervent retail participation suggest the rally may continue.

• Long-term outlook: Regulatory policies, global capital flows, and market sentiment will determine the sustainability of South Korea's crypto boom.

• Investor caution advised: High rewards come with high risks—particularly the extreme volatility of altcoins may lead to significant losses.

(Data as of July 24, 2025)

Feeling lost after endless shitposting? 🤔 Amid AI-generated spam and information noise, the InfoFi space may seem oversaturated, but effective participation isn't about mindless scrolling.

We’ve compiled a practical guide to help you refine your approach, elevate content quality, and engage more strategically! 👇

⭐ 1. Decoding InfoFi’s Core Metrics: Move Beyond "Spam" Mentality

Smart Followers: High-influence, high-quality followers. Many InfoFi platforms prioritize follower quality over quantity in algorithmic rankings. Accounts with more Smart Followers earn higher rewards and visibility due to algorithmic "weighting."

Mindshare: The essence of discussion heat and mindshare. Some platforms track social media buzz around tokens/topics, offering metrics like price trends, sentiment, and mindshare to gauge project popularity.

Points System: Projects incentivize content creation with points (e.g., "Yaps points"). Algorithms evaluate post quality, engagement depth, and relevance, especially interactions from Smart Followers (comments, reposts).

Points can be used for: Future airdrop eligibility, leaderboard rankings (e.g., Galxe Starboard rewards on-chain contributions like tweets, likes, and task completions).

Key takeaway: Focus on value-driven content and meaningful community engagement, not just volume.

⭐ 2. From Zero to Hero: A Tiered Growth Strategy

Phase 1: Starting Out (100–1,000 Followers)

• Engage to gain visibility: Leave insightful comments under trending KOLs/project tweets to spark discussions.

• Content tips: Begin by retweeting quality posts or adding brief commentary on hot topics. Use hashtags for algorithmic traction.

• Pro advice:

  • Check project leaderboards (7-day/30-day) to identify top KOLs for engagement.

  • Avoid spamming your own links—keep comments relevant to avoid flags.

  • Target responsive KOLs (e.g., @Leoninweb3, @0x_Todd, @sleepy0x13).

Phase 2: Growth (1,000–5,000 Followers)

• Post original content: Market analyses, project breakdowns, airdrop strategies—keep it concise and timely.

• Quality > quantity: Avoid AI-generated fluff. Long-form, high-quality threads earn more points.

• Engage strategically: Comment thoughtfully on Top KOLs’ posts (add them to Twitter Lists + notifications).

Phase 3: Advanced (5,000+ Followers)

• Niche down + build a brand: Specialize in specific ecosystems or unique market insights.

  • Data shows: Accounts with 35K followers but high Smart Follower ratios dominate by focusing on original, niche content.

• Collaborate with projects: Engage official accounts for potential partnerships.

• Network with KOLs: Co-create content or cross-promote for mutual growth.

Golden rule: Avoid over-relying on AI—authentic insights build lasting influence.

⭐ 3. Case Study: Low-Follower Success

@Alvin0617 grew his Smart Followers by 80% in 6 months (reaching 1,000) and ranked daily on InfoFi platforms. His secrets:

• Smart Follower Ratio: Attract experts (e.g., Hyperliquid’s DeFi/PerpDEX users) for exponential reach.

• Mindshare mastery: Be the first to spotlight gems (e.g., his early Huma coverage peaked at 15% mindshare during its hype).

• Precision engagement: Target mid-tier KOLs for meaningful connections ("ripple effect").

⭐ 4. Picking the Right Projects

• High-competition (high rewards): @Galxe, @ethos_network—big airdrops but fierce rivalry.

• Mid-tier (balanced): @noise_xyz, @wallchain_xyz—moderate effort, solid returns.

• Early-stage (low competition): @MirraTerminal, @GiveRep—easier to qualify for airdrops.

Tip: Track ≤3 projects to avoid burnout. Align choices with your expertise/time.

⭐ 5. Content Strategy: Crafting High-Value Tweets

• Structure: Blend context, insights, and data (e.g., charts, on-chain stats). Long threads (1,000+ words) score higher in algorithmic "information weighting."

• Frequency: 1–3 tweets/day during peak hours (UTC+8 noon/evening). Mix originals with curated retweets + commentary.

• Engagement hacks:

  • Set notifications for top KOLs/projects—comment early with depth.

  • Debate respectfully to spark discussions.

  • Leverage external tools (e.g., Mindshare leaderboards) to spot untapped trends.

Pro move: Engage swiftly with Binance/CZ’s tweets for viral comment exposure.

⭐ 6. Final Thoughts

InfoFi is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t fret over others’ airdrop wins—top KOLs’ influence took years to build. Stay focused on quality, nurture patience, and help foster a healthier crypto-Twitter ecosystem!

Remember: In InfoFi, substance beats spam. 🚀

The BYB platform coin, with its utility, strong ecosystem support, and robust security mechanisms, is gradually gaining significant importance in the digital finance sector.

Amidst the rapid development of the global digital asset market, blockchain technology is accelerating the reshaping of the boundaries between traditional finance and the emerging economy. Industry reports indicate that, driven by the influx of institutional funds and technological innovation, the digital asset market is experiencing explosive growth. As a key asset in exchange ecosystems, platform coins are increasingly drawing market attention for their utility and potential for appreciation. Against this backdrop, the platform coin BYB launched by BYEX exchange has emerged with its innovative applications and ecological layout, attracting widespread industry attention. It is worth noting that BYB officially went live on CoinMarketCap on June 28th.

Utility and Innovation - Driven Platform Coin

The BYB platform coin, relying on the stable operating system of BYEX exchange, offers a variety of exclusive benefits and practical scenarios for coin - holding users. According to the introduction, BYB plays a core role in transaction fee discounts, VIP - level services, and wealth management products. Users can enjoy transaction fee discounts and participate in airdrop activities by holding a certain amount of BYB. This incentive mechanism not only enhances user stickiness but also endows the platform coin with actual value in daily transactions. BYEX has integrated BYB into spot, futures, margin trading, and DeFi ecosystems through diversified product layouts, further enhancing its functionality.

In terms of technological innovation, BYEX is exploring the application scenarios of Layer 2 technology and Web3 wallets. Looking to the future, as cross - chain technology and the DeFi ecosystem mature, BYB is expected to play an important role in cross - platform asset transfers and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance, thereby further expanding its application boundaries and securing a place in the fiercely competitive digital currency market.

In addition, BYEX maintains the value of BYB through a buyback and burn mechanism, regularly repurchasing and destroying a certain proportion of tokens from net profits to gradually reduce the circulating supply. This design not only enhances the token's scarcity but also makes it an ideal asset for appreciation and long - term holding.

Adhering to Compliance and Putting Users First

As a core component of the BYEX ecosystem, the advantages of BYB are not only reflected in its wide range of application scenarios but also in its robust security and compliance system. According to the official introduction of BYEX, the exchange has obtained MSB licenses from the US FinCEN and the Canadian FINTRAC, and has received formal permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SERC) to join the fintech regulatory sandbox for the legal operation of a digital asset trading platform. The platform is also actively applying for compliance licenses and qualifications in multiple countries and regions, including Dubai, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Japan, to meet global regulatory standards. BYB has passed the security audit of CertiK, a top - tier global auditing firm, ensuring the security of the technical architecture and smart contracts and providing a transparent environment for the stable operation of BYB. The platform employs bank - level security technologies, including multi - factor authentication, cold storage solutions, advanced encryption algorithms, and real - time monitoring systems, to comprehensively safeguard user assets and data security.

BYEX also focuses on a global - local combined operation strategy, providing a consistent experience for global users through multilingual services and localized operations. This global vision, combined with an efficient customer service system, enhances the competitiveness of BYB in the international market. Through regular community activities and transparent information disclosure, BYEX continues to stimulate user participation and forms a virtuous ecological cycle.

The Core Engine Driving the New Digital Finance Era

With the maturation of the global crypto market and blockchain technology, high - quality platform coins are attracting increasing attention from institutional investors and strategic partners. Market data indicates that the global cryptocurrency market cap is expected to exceed one trillion dollars in 2025 (Digital Asset Research, 2024). As a key component of the ecosystem, the demand and application scenarios for platform coins will see significant growth.

The gradual clarification of global regulatory policies provides a favorable environment for the development of platform coins. Regulatory authorities in various countries are exploring regulatory frameworks adapted to blockchain technology, bringing greater trust and space for platform coins like BYB. Meanwhile, the involvement of institutional investors and traditional financial institutions further increases the investment demand for platform coins, and their market performance and long - term value are highly anticipated.

Standing at the forefront of the new digital finance era, BYB expands its potential in asset management and ecosystem governance through DeFi and cross - chain technologies. As the ecosystem continues to grow, BYB is expected to become the core engine driving the coordinated development of the exchange. The new user registration event on June 28th will offer global users the opportunity to participate. Those interested can learn more details through the official BYEX X.

Conclusion

The BYB platform coin, with its utility, strong ecosystem support, and robust security mechanisms, is gradually gaining significant importance in the digital finance sector. From transaction discounts to cross - chain governance, the wide - ranging application scenarios of BYB bring tangible value to investors and users. With the launch on CMC on June 28th and the concurrent registration event, BYB's market influence is expected to further increase. Driven by the maturation of the global market and the improvement of regulations, BYB's future performance is worth continuous attention and may become an important engine driving the new digital finance era.

This explosive growth isn’t merely driven by hype—it reflects a structural change in how users interact with dApps. Whether through DeFi, social agents, or autonomous gaming assistants, AI agents are becoming a new layer of on-chain interaction. They aren’t replacing users but expanding their capabilities, enabling automation, optimization, and acting on their behalf.

The data supports this claim: AI has dominated Web3 discussions over the past month and is likely to define its next phase of development. This report explores the evolution of AI agents, their applications, the role of tokens, and the capital fueling this transformation.

Key Takeaways

• AI’s on-chain dominance rose from 9% in January to 19% in June, with transaction activity growing by 86% and daily active unique wallets reaching 4.5 million.

• As of June 2025, AI agent projects have raised $1.39 billion, a 9.4% increase over the total funding for 2024.

• Since November 2024, 17,124 agents have gone live on the Virtuals Protocol, averaging over 85 new agents daily.

• Despite a 64% drop from its early June peak, the AI token market cap remains at $5.9 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.4 billion.

• Europe (26.2%) and Asia (21.9%) lead in AI dApp usage, followed by North America (15.8%).

1. What Are AI Agents?
AI agents are autonomous software programs capable of performing tasks, making decisions, or interacting with users based on goals, prompts, or real-time data. Traditional AI agents serve industries like finance, healthcare, or customer service, while the Web3 ecosystem is giving rise to crypto-native agents with unique capabilities and roles.

In Web3, AI agents are becoming increasingly specialized. Some act as on-chain DeFi agents, executing trades, managing yield strategies, or serving as portfolio "managers." Others are social agents, representing users in decentralized social apps, managing profiles, and even responding to messages. In gaming, a new class of native gaming agents has emerged—AI companions trained on game lore, mechanics, or player behavior to act as guides or even opponents.

This isn’t theoretical. According to cookie.fun, a platform tracking the agent economy, 1,748 AI agents are currently active across various environments. Since its launch in November 2024, the Virtuals Protocol—which allows users to create and deploy their own AI agents—has seen over 17,000 agents go live. The actual number may be higher, as multiple blockchains are now prioritizing infrastructure for agent creation, training, and deployment.

The agent economy is taking shape—and growing rapidly.

2. AI Agent Tokens: Utility, Hype, and Capital
In Web3, most AI agents aren’t launched in isolation but are accompanied by tokens. The role of these tokens varies based on the project’s vision. In many cases, they support community governance, grant access to premium features, or serve as fundraising mechanisms—especially since training and maintaining AI agents remains resource-intensive.

For others, tokens are purely capitalization strategies—ways to secure liquidity, reward early adopters, or ride market momentum. In some cases, they resemble meme coins wrapped in AI narratives, lacking technical substance but thriving on speculative fervor.

Despite the noise, the AI agent token market has made remarkable strides. At the time of writing, the total market capitalization of AI-related tokens stands at $5.9 billion, accounting for 0.18% of the broader crypto market. The 24-hour trading volume is equally notable, exceeding $1.4 billion.

However, recent trends have been less optimistic. Earlier this month, the sector’s market cap peaked at $16.6 billion, meaning it has shed 64% in just weeks. This decline reflects broader market conditions rather than a loss of faith in AI. But it also underscores the volatility of early-stage sectors, where token hype often outpaces utility.

AI agents are here to stay. But their tokens?

3. Top Blockchains Powering AI dApps
While AI agents are often the visible layer—interacting with users, executing transactions, or providing in-game assistance—their success hinges on underlying infrastructure. Blockchains supporting high-capacity AI dApps are laying the groundwork for agent deployment, training, and interaction.

From January to June 24, 2025, the following blockchains were the most active in AI dApp usage:

• Matchain leads with nearly 1.9 million daily active users, indicating thriving AI infrastructure driven by social or agent-oriented dApps.

• opBNB and Nebula follow closely, both showing strong adoption linked to lightweight or gamified AI services.

While not all these dApps currently deploy agents, the momentum is clear. As AI agent frameworks mature, these blockchains may host the next wave of autonomous agents—whether in DeFi, gaming, or social applications.

We may still be in the infrastructure-building phase of the AI agent boom, and these networks are leading the charge.

4. Where Are Users Coming From?
AI agents may exist on-chain, but their users span the globe. Understanding engagement by region provides insights into adoption trends, localization needs, and untapped opportunities.

From January to June 2025, Dapprader’s traffic data reveals:

• Europe leads with 26.2% of AI dApp interactions.

• Asia follows at 21.9%, with North America at 15.8%.

• South America, though smaller at 2.5%, shows growing traction.

• Notably, 33% of traffic comes from unspecified or hard-to-classify regions labeled "Other."

This global distribution confirms that AI agents aren’t region-locked. Whether it’s DeFi agents managing trades in Asia, social agents representing users in Europe, or gaming companions in North America, demand is diverse—and increasingly cross-continental.

As the industry matures, expect more regionalized agent behaviors, refined language models, and even culturally tailored agent personalities. For now, the playing field is wide open, and the race for user attention is global.

5. Capital Flowing Into AI Agents
The AI narrative continues to dominate headlines—and funding rounds. While centralized giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral have raised tens of billions, Web3’s AI agent economy is also gaining traction.

As of 2025, AI agent projects have secured $1.39 billion in funding, up 9.4% from 2024. This signals growing investor confidence that autonomous on-chain agents could be the next frontier. Though still dwarfed by centralized AI investments, this figure now rivals—or surpasses—other Web3 sectors like blockchain gaming.

The contrast is telling. Centralized AI still dominates, with hundreds of billions flowing into model development, chips, and infrastructure. But in Web3, investors increasingly see AI agents as a new "primitive" that could redefine how users engage with protocols, navigate dApps, or automate personal finance strategies.

The momentum is building. If sustained, 2025 could be the year AI agents attract more funding than any other Web3 vertical.

6. Conclusion
The rise of AI agents marks a profound shift in how users interact with decentralized systems. From DeFi traders and social companions to gaming-native assistants, agents are evolving from experimental bots into foundational infrastructure.

The numbers tell the story: Over 17,000 virtual agents have launched since late 2024. Even amid market downturns, the AI token market holds a $5.9 billion valuation. Agent-focused startups have raised $1.39 billion this year alone. And user engagement is global, with strong showings in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Challenges remain. Many tokens are driven more by hype than utility. Not all agents deliver on promises of autonomy. And cross-chain infrastructure is still uneven. But as tools mature and real-world use cases proliferate, the agent economy is approaching a new baseline—where interacting with on-chain AI isn’t the exception but the norm.

The race to build smarter agents, stronger ecosystems, and clearer standards is on. And we’re still in the early innings.

When the Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty replaced iron coins with paper, solving the circulation dilemma of "a thousand coins weighing a hundred catties," it was not only a material innovation but also the prototype of credit currency: the Jiaozi jointly issued by wealthy merchants, established a credit anchor through "a thousand boxes of copper coins in reserve." The monetization of silver in the Ming and Qing dynasties shifted trust from paper contracts to precious metals. After the Bretton Woods system collapsed in the 20th century, the US dollar reconstructed global hegemony as a pure credit currency: the value of the dollar, decoupled from gold, was no longer dependent on physical precious metals but was tied to US Treasury bonds and military hegemony. This "credit hollowing" model completely shifted monetary power from physical anchors to national credit. When Bitcoin, with its daily fluctuation of more than 10%, tore apart the traditional financial system, the rise of stablecoins marked a paradigm revolution in the trust mechanism: USDT's claimed "1:1 US dollar peg" is essentially replacing sovereign credit with algorithmic code, compressing trust into mathematical certainty. This new form of "code as credit" is rewriting the logic of monetary power distribution - from the seigniorage privilege of sovereign states to the consensus monopoly of algorithm developers.

Each transformation of currency form reshapes the power structure: the barter trust dependence in the cowrie shell era, the centralization endorsement in the metal currency era, the national credit enforcement in the paper currency era, and the distributed consensus in the digital currency era. When USDT is criticized as a "digital Ponzi scheme" due to reserve controversies, and the SWIFT system becomes a cold tool for financial sanctions in political games, the rise of stablecoins has long surpassed the category of "payment tools." It is not only a leap in payment efficiency but also reveals the prelude to the quiet shift of monetary power from sovereign states to algorithms and consensus: in this digital age of fragile trust, code is becoming a harder credit anchor than gold with mathematical certainty. Stablecoins will eventually push this millennium-long game to its end: when code begins to write the monetary constitution, trust is no longer a scarce resource but a programmable, divisible, and negotiable digital power.

Chapter 1: Origins and Sprouts (2014-2017): The "US Dollar Surrogate" in the Crypto World

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the "Bitcoin Whitepaper," proposing a decentralized digital currency concept based on blockchain technology. On January 3, 2009, the first Bitcoin block (the genesis block) was mined, marking the official birth of Bitcoin. In its early days, Bitcoin transactions entirely relied on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, with users directly exchanging keys through local wallets to complete transfers, but they lacked standardized pricing and liquidity.

In July 2010, the world's first Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, was established, allowing users to purchase Bitcoin via bank transfer for the first time. However, the transaction efficiency at this stage was extremely low: bank transfers took 3-5 business days to arrive, with handling fees as high as 5%-10%, and there were exchange rate losses between different countries. For example, if a US user wanted to buy Bitcoin worth $1,000, they would first have to remit money to Mt. Gox's offshore account, and only after the bank clearance could they obtain Bitcoin, a process that might take more than a week. This inefficient payment system severely restricted the liquidity of Bitcoin, keeping it confined to the "small circle" of tech geeks and early enthusiasts. Moreover, due to the lack of regulation and hacker attacks, it declared bankruptcy in February 2014, known as the "Mt. Gox" incident. After 2022, global compliant exchanges began to emerge, with US-based Coinbase and Hong Kong-based Hashkey leading the way in providing compliant and secure trading services for global customers.

By 2014, Bitcoin's market value had exceeded $10 billion, but the shackles of traditional bank transfers remained unbroken. As users waited for Bitcoin to arrive on Mt. Gox, Tether (USDT) emerged with the promise of "1:1 US dollar peg" - it was like a sharp scalpel, cutting through the barriers between fiat currency and cryptocurrency, becoming the first "fiat surrogate" in the crypto world. Tether (USDT) was launched in 2014 by Tether Limited, initially named "Realcoin," founded by Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, and Craig Sellars in Santa Monica, and issued the first batch of tokens through the Omni Layer protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain. In November of the same year, it was renamed Tether, claiming that for every $1 USDT issued, an equivalent amount of US dollar assets would be reserved, aiming to provide a stable-value cryptocurrency trading medium. Its parent company, iFinex Inc., also operates the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, a connection that has sparked controversy. Early academic research questioned the association between Tether issuance and Bitcoin price manipulation (for example, Griffin and Shams pointed out that during market downturns, the issuance of USDT was accompanied by an increase in BTC prices), but subsequent studies denied a direct causal relationship, considering it a normal market reaction to liquidity news. After years of development, Tether has expanded to multiple blockchains (such as Ethereum, Tron, etc.) and supports various fiat-pegged versions. As of June 2025, the total circulation exceeded $150 billion, but its reserve transparency and compliance still face ongoing regulatory scrutiny and market skepticism.

USDC (USD Coin) is a US dollar stablecoin launched in September 2018 by the Centre Consortium, jointly established by the US fintech company Circle and Coinbase. Initially pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and issued based on the Ethereum ERC-20 protocol, its original intention was to provide a transparent and compliant fiat-pegged tool for the cryptocurrency market. It gradually expanded its influence through the Coinbase exchange and Circle's payment network. In March 2021, Visa announced support for USDC as a settlement currency, marking its formal entry into the mainstream financial payment system. In September of the same year, USDC announced that its reserve assets would fully shift to high-liquidity statutory instruments such as cash and short-term US Treasury bills, completely detaching from the cryptocurrency collateral model, reinforcing its credibility of "full fiat reserve." As of January 2022, the circulation of USDC reached $45.2 billion, once surpassing USDT to become the world's largest stablecoin. After the FTX collapse in 2023, the cash proportion in USDC reserves increased from 80% in 2022 to 93% in 2024 to enhance market confidence. Technically, USDC has gradually expanded to multiple chain ecosystems such as Algorand and Solana, and strengthened its compliance layout through acquisitions such as Paxos. Despite a brief depegging event in 2023 that raised doubts, its close cooperation with regulatory authorities (such as the US SEC review finding no significant violations) still makes it a representative of institutional stablecoins, continuously promoting the integration of the crypto economy and traditional finance. Circle went public on June 5, 2025, and has risen sixfold in just ten days.

By 2017, USDT, with its seamless connection between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem, quickly occupied 90% of the trading pairs on exchanges, with its market value soaring from a few million dollars to $2 billion. It sparked a frenzy of cross-platform arbitrage: traders shuttled between Binance and Huobi, leveraging USDT's second-level settlement to complete dozens of price difference trades in a single day, an efficiency a hundred times higher than the SWIFT system; it built a bridge of liquidity: in 2017, the on-chain trading volume of USDT exceeded $100 billion, accounting for 40% of Bitcoin's trading volume, even attracting Standard Chartered Bank to complete the first cryptocurrency salary disbursement for an African mining company through USDT; it also became the "digital gold" of countries with hyperinflation: in Argentina, the black market USDT premium rate once reached 30%, with the public viewing it as a "last line of defense" against local currency depreciation. However, beneath the prosperous facade, cracks in trust were quietly spreading.

USDT's "1:1 peg" has always been shrouded in a black box of doubt: in 2015, Bitfinex was hacked and 1,500 BTC were stolen, and in 2016, another 120,000 BTC were stolen. Since Bitfinex and USDT are both managed and operated by their parent company iFinex Inc., they are commonly perceived as sibling companies. In 2018, Tether first disclosed its reserve assets, with cash accounting for 74%. In a controversial event in 2021, the cash ratio plummeted to 2.9%, with the remainder being commercial paper and reverse repurchase agreements, raising market doubts about its solvency. More dangerously, its anonymity made it a "golden channel" for the dark web: in 2016, the USDT transaction volume seized from Silk Road 2.0 reached $42 million, accounting for 1.2% of its circulation; in 2017, a US SEC investigation showed that at least 12% of exchange OTC transactions involved money laundering - stablecoins had become an "invisible pipeline" for the flow of criminal funds.

The root of this trust crisis is the deep contradiction between "efficiency first" and "trust rigidity": the coded "1:1 promise" attempts to replace sovereign credit with mathematical certainty, but due to centralized custody and opaque operations, it falls into a "trust paradox" - when users discover that USDT's reserve funds are actually deposited in Deutsche Bank's offshore branch and can be arbitrarily called upon by the issuer, its claimed "rigid redemption" instantly becomes a digital illusion. This foreshadows the ultimate proposition that stablecoins must answer in the future: how to find a balance between the ideal of decentralization and the reality of financial rules?

Chapter 2: Unbridled Growth and Trust Crisis (2018-2022): Dark Web, Terrorism, and Algorithmic Collapse

When Bitcoin emerged in 2009 with its decentralized ideal, no one could foresee how it would transform into the "black gold" of the digital age. The anonymity and cross-border liquidity of early cryptocurrencies were originally intended as a utopian experiment to combat financial censorship, but gradually became the "digital Swiss bank" for criminals. Dark web markets were the first to smell the business opportunity: Silk Road 2.0 traded drugs and firearms with Bitcoin, and Monero, due to its complete anonymity, became the preferred payment tool for ransomware. By 2018, the cryptocurrency crime industry had formed a complete chain - a closed loop of hacking, money laundering, and kidnapping for ransom, with annual case amounts exceeding $100 billion.

Stablecoins, which evolved from being a "payment tool" in the crypto world to a carrier of "dark finance," saw the simultaneous arrival of the efficiency revolution and the abyss of trust collapse. After 2018, the anonymity and cross-border liquidity of stablecoins like USDT made them the "golden channel" for criminal activities: in 2019, the US Department of Justice accused the North Korean hacking group Lazarus of laundering over $100 million through USDT, with funds hidden between Philippine casinos and Dubai cryptocurrency exchanges; in 2020, Europol cracked a case where ISIS used stablecoins to raise $500,000 in cross-border funds, with the funds completing the entire process of "whitening - transfer - deployment" through the TornadoCash mixer. These incidents forced FATF to release the "Risk-Based Approach Guidance for Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers" in 2021, requiring virtual asset service providers to implement KYC and AML reviews, but the lag in regulation反而催生了更复杂的规避手段——犯罪团伙利用虚拟资产服务商牌照漏洞，通过“稳定币-混币器隐私币”三级跳完成资金隐匿。

The rise and fall of algorithmic stablecoins pushed the trust crisis to its climax. In May 2022, Terra's UST, an algorithmic stablecoin, depegged due to a liquidity crisis. Its collapse mechanism was a "perfect storm": it attracted users to stake Luna and mint UST with high-interest staking (20% annualized). When market panic triggered a sell-off, the algorithm forcibly burned Luna to maintain the peg, but the overwhelming selling pressure led to an infinite minting of Luna. The UST collapse wiped out approximately $18.7 billion in market value, causing 3AC, Celsius, and other institutions to fail, and the DeFi market value shrank by 30% in a single week. This disaster exposed the fatal flaw of algorithmic stablecoins—their value stability entirely depends on the fragile balance of market confidence and algorithmic logic. When the panic index exceeds a critical point, the mathematical model instantly becomes a "death countdown timer."

The trust crisis of centralized stablecoins stems from the "black box" operations of the financial infrastructure. In 2021, when Tether disclosed its reserve assets, the insufficient cash reserves raised doubts about its solvency. In 2023, during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, USDC's price temporarily fell to $0.87 due to the freezing of $5.3 billion in reserves, revealing the deep integration risks between the traditional financial system and the crypto ecosystem. These events forced the industry to re-examine the nature of trust: when users discovered that USDT's reserve funds were actually deposited in Deutsche Bank's offshore branch and could be arbitrarily called upon by the issuer, its claimed "1:1 rigid redemption" instantly became a digital illusion.

In response to the systemic trust crisis, the stablecoin industry launched a self-rescue movement through over-collateralization and transparency revolution. DAI built a multi-asset collateral system (ETH, WBTC, etc.), anchoring the collateralization rate threshold at 150%. During the 2022 Luna collapse, it resolved over $20 billion in risks through smart contract liquidation mechanisms, and its market value grew by 60% against the trend, verifying the resilience of the decentralized collateral model. USDC adopted a "glass box" strategy, publishing reserve reports audited by BNY Mellon every month (cash ratio increased from 52% in 2021 to 80% in 2023), and leveraging blockchain browsers to track the flow of reserve funds in real time. During the SVB crisis, it became the first choice for institutional funds to hedge risks, with its market value exceeding $50 billion. The essence of this self-rescue movement is the transition of cryptocurrency from the utopia of "code as credit" to the traditional financial regulatory framework—when 72% of DAI's collateral assets depend on centralized custody and USDC accepts the Federal Reserve's "window guidance" on Treasury reserve, the contradiction between technological idealism and institutional realism is highlighted: algorithmic stablecoins trigger death spirals due to market panic (e.g., UST's market value evaporated $40 billion), exposing the fragile balance between mathematical models and financial reality. Meanwhile, the new regulatory paradigm and the codification of sovereign credit suggest that the future of stablecoins may evolve into a coexistence game between "regulation-compatible technology" and "anti-censorship protocols," seeking a new balance between the regulatory determinacy of quantum entanglement (wave function collapse) and the innovation uncertainty (superposition state).

Chapter 3: Regulatory Enlistment and Sovereign Games (2023-2025): The Global Legislative Race

On June 17, 2025, the US Senate passed the "Guidance and Establishment of the US Stablecoin National Innovation Act" (referred to as the GENIUS Act) with 68 votes in favor, requiring stablecoins to be pegged to US dollar assets and incorporated into the Federal Reserve's regulatory framework. Just two days later, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the "Stablecoin Ordinance" at its third reading, becoming the first jurisdiction globally to implement full-chain regulation of fiat-pegged stablecoins. The essence of this competition is the ultimate contest between sovereign states in the digital financial era for monetary pricing power and control over payment infrastructure.

The US GENIUS Act, the "Stablecoin Innovation and Guidance Act of 2025," was passed by the Senate on June 17, 2025, with a 68-30 vote, becoming the first federal-level regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. This marked the formal incorporation of stablecoins into the national financial regulatory system. The bill requires stablecoin issuers to be US-registered entities, with reserve assets matching 1:1 with highly liquid assets such as US dollar cash or short-term US Treasury bills. It establishes a dual-track regulatory mechanism: issuers with a market value exceeding $10 billion must accept federal regulation (Federal Reserve/OCC), while those below this threshold may choose state-level regulation. The bill explicitly states that stablecoins are neither securities nor commodities, exempting them from the traditional financial regulatory framework. It also strengthens anti-money laundering (AML), consumer protection, and priority in bankruptcy liquidation, stipulating that coin holders' rights take precedence over other creditors. Its core significance lies in consolidating the digital hegemony of the US dollar through a compliance path, attracting global stablecoin resources to flow into the US market,