Another day, another launchpad

Inflows reverse as launchpad wars intensify

As markets see a tug-of-war between significant ETF outflows and bullish corporate treasury activity, a new battle is forming in the launchpad arena. Heaven, a pre-product newcomer, is looking to take on incumbents like Pump.fun and Believe. Backed by a $27m raise, the team promises to redirect all protocol revenue into token buybacks. It remains to be seen whether Heaven can claim market share or if it will become just another name lost to the hype cycle.

Institutional DeFi has crossed the chasm from dream to reality and Ethena is leading the charge. $USDe has seen a $3.1B inflow over the last 3 weeks, outpacing all Bitcoin ETFs combined.

Guy Young joins the DAS: London lineup this Oct 13-15 to break down the value proposition of institutional DeFi.

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📅 October 13-15 | London

Tuesday marked the fourth consecutive day of BTC ETF net outflows. It’s the longest streak since April, when tariff concerns were at their peak. Over those four days, BTC ETFs saw $1.45b in outflows. ETH ETFs initially followed suit, with a massive $617m pulled across Friday and Monday — the largest outflows since their inception.

Macro factors took center stage. Slightly hotter inflation, soft employment data and a hawkish Fed tone prompted investors to reduce exposure. However, ETF flows are beginning to hint at a shift in sentiment, with both BTC and ETH ETFs recording net inflows yesterday. ETH continues to show more strength, with flows being the last to flip negative and the first to turn positive.

That resilience is backed by a wave of bullish treasury activity. This week, both Bitmine and SharpLink announced ETH purchases of $757.5m and $264.5m, respectively. Meanwhile, ETHZilla joined the fray with a $425m raise that has likely started to trickle into the market. However, the pace of treasury flows are worth watching closely, with several of these firms fast approaching an mNAV multiple of 1. 

Just last week, Bitmine announced that its board of directors has approved a stock repurchase program to acquire up to $1b of the company's stock in order to defend its mNAV multiple. With August shaping up to be a choppy ride, treasury firms will likely face their first real test.

Kunal

Heaven: Competition in the launchpad arena

The launchpad meta continues to attract strong attention and consistent revenues ($64m in July), with Pump.fun, Believe and Zora dominating the narrative. Last month saw significant shifts: Bonk emerged as a strong competitor to Pump.fun, generating $37m in revenues (capturing 54% market share) and sharply contrasting Pump.fun’s historical dominance as its share fell to just 11%. Despite intensified internal competition, the sector overall demonstrates increasing revenue consistency and user retention.

Pump.fun, acknowledging its weak initial performance (dropped 42% from ICO to bottom at $0.0023), has significantly increased token buybacks to regain market share. Initially rumored at 25%, buybacks have accelerated, now consistently 90% and 150% of the previous day's revenues. Additionally, Alon’s increased support for ecosystem tokens leveraging Pump.fun's visibility reveals an implicit strategic recognition: Launchpads have weak moats when most volume comes from aggregator terminals, making strong token performance essential to retain issuers who choose platforms based on which offers the highest chance of success.

Adding further competition, Heaven completed its ICO yesterday, explicitly leveraging dissatisfaction with Believe and Pump.fun’s initial lack of revenue distribution. Heaven committed to allocating 100% of protocol revenue toward buying back its native token, $LIGHT. Though initially scheduled for a 48-hour raise, Heaven closed the sale early after just 11 hours, securing $27m from 9,000 unique addresses.

Documentation and Twitter communications suggest the team may issue partial refunds to depositors, a mechanism designed to increase buy-side pressure upon public trading — historically a challenge post-ICO due to exhausted demand. Trading for $LIGHT will start on Aug. 15 between 11 am and 2 pm ET on Heaven’s own AMM.

Shaunda

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Payy Network tackles the seemingly contradictory goals of blockchain privacy and regulatory compliance through an Ethereum L2 validium rollup. Using a UTXO model with zero-knowledge proofs, it enables fully private transactions while maintaining compliance through innovative mechanisms like privacy pools (grouping users by risk profile) and "proof of innocence" attestations.