Hi everyone! AI is back in focus, with TAO leading strength across the Bittensor ecosystem and subnets quietly outperforming. 

Meanwhile, Axiom finds itself under scrutiny following insider-trading allegations, a development that could reshape the competitive landscape among memecoin terminals. Below, we unpack the implications and examine OnRe’s rapid AUM growth and the sustainability of its reinsurance-driven yield model.

The divergence continues: Gold added 0.49% while BTC, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all closed lower. Despite trading higher earlier in the session, all three benchmarks reversed course and finished down −0.71%, −0.82%, and −1.28% respectively.

The weakness in tech was driven by Nvidia. Although the company beat revenue and EPS expectations, investors were disappointed by signs of slowing revenue growth. After multiple quarters of outsized beats, simply exceeding estimates is no longer enough. The bar has been raised, and markets are punishing anything that hints at deceleration.

In crypto, pockets of strength emerged. Memes and AI led performance, up 4.4% and 2.6%. The meme index was lifted by Memecore, which gained 9.4% and which accounts for roughly 8% of the index. Beyond that, broader meme participation still looks muted, with little evidence of sustained risk appetite returning onchain.

AI strength was largely driven by TAO, which rose 2.7% and makes up 24.1% of the index. The broader TAO ecosystem is also worth monitoring. Subnets such as Chutes, Affine and Ridges posted weekly gains, with Ridges up an impressive 51%. For a deeper dive, check out our recent report on the Bittensor ecosystem.

Elsewhere, ZachXBT released a widely-anticipated investigation alleging insider trading at Axiom Exchange. The report claims certain employees misused internal tools to access private wallet data and front-run users, prompting Axiom to revoke access and launch an internal probe.

Axiom is one of the most profitable memecoin terminals in crypto, generating around $280 million in revenue last year. Roughly 40% of pump.fun’s volume flows through trading platforms, with 56% of that attributed to Axiom. If trust erodes, users may migrate to alternatives such as Fomo or pump.fun’s own Terminal, which has quietly been gaining share.

Terminal currently contributes just 8%−11% of pump.fun’s revenue. This controversy could be the opening it needs to accelerate that growth, especially as pump.fun rolls out additional perks to keep traders within its ecosystem. 

— Kunal

Reinsuring DeFi’s future yield

OnRe is a Solana-based reinsurance company whose flagship token, ONyc, represents a proportional share of a segregated account funded by reinsurance premiums and collateral yield. The product targets 10% to 12% APY from underwriting or a blended 12% APY, currently delivering 10.25% (6.5% from underwriting, 3.8% from collateral). 

AUM growth has been rapid, now nearly at $115 million, and the pace looks to be accelerating.

Redemptions are quarterly and KYC-gated, meaning most holders access liquidity through secondary markets rather than forcing AUM outflows. This eliminates run risk on the reinsurance book but makes secondary market depth the metric that actually matters.

So how has that depth held up? ONyc’s spread to NAV has stayed below 50bps since September 2025, even through the 10/10 liquidation cascade and the early February market selloff. 

OnRe maintains a 20% liquidity reserve that funds OTC market-maker arrangements and triggers buybacks when ONyc trades below a given discount to NAV, tightening the spread while increasing asset value per remaining token. As AUM grew from ~$20 million to over $100 million, the discount notably compressed from 60-80bps to under 20bps.

The flywheel is intuitive: a tighter peg builds confidence in ONyc as collateral, which attracts DeFi integrations, which drives demand, which deepens liquidity, which tightens the peg further.

On Kamino, ONyc collateral deposits have grown from ~$5 million to nearly $40 million, with utilization persistently above 90%, the inflection point on Kamino's rate curve where borrowing costs accelerate sharply. Put simply, more capital wants to borrow against ONyc than can currently be supplied.

The question is now whether the underwriting side can keep pace with DeFi demand.

Rapid AUM growth has pushed the undeployed portion to roughly 66%, mechanically compressing yields for all holders in OnRe’s single-pool model. Partnerships like Rhodium Re ($150 million in delegated capacity) should help close the utilization gap, but until the deal pipeline catches up with inflows, delivered yield will lag the 12% blended target. 

— Sam

1. Why L2s were a success

Blockworks Research argues that Ethereum’s move to a rollup-centric roadmap was a necessary but costly tradeoff. 

Shifting execution to L2s weakened composability, fragmented liquidity, complicated security, and reduced L1 fee revenue, putting pressure on the store-of-value narrative. At the same time, cheaper transactions kept users and developers in the ecosystem and helped attract major institutions to launch their own L2s. Competition among rollups accelerated client upgrades, zero-knowledge research, and account abstraction, with benefits flowing back to the core protocol. 

The outcome now depends on improving interoperability, decentralization, and economic alignment between L1 and L2.

2. The DeFi-Native Prime Broker | MacBrennan Peet

Lightspeed published a podcast episode with MacBrennan Peet, founder of Project 0 (P0), on building a DeFi-native prime brokerage for Solana. P0 inserts a self-custodial account layer between users and underlying venues (Kamino, Drift, Jupiter), enabling unified margin, cross-venue credit, and portfolio-aware liquidations. The platform already covers ~70% of Solana lending TVL, with Jupiter integration pushing that to ~98% post-audit.

Peet details the “Strategies” product offering one-click levered carry, basis, and rate trades across venues without vault manager fees, and introduces P0 Pay, which automates borrowing against on-chain positions to pay off existing credit cards without liquidating crypto exposure. Derivatives integration is next, enabling multi-venue basis trades that have driven growth on Ethereum but remain absent on Solana.

3. The retail trade: crypto vs equities

The report argues that retail investors are starting to treat crypto and equities as substitute risk assets rather than buying both at the same time. 

Since late 2024, retail flows into equities have surged while crypto activity has cooled, marking a clear inversion from prior cycles. One driver is volatility compression in crypto, which reduces its appeal as a high-beta product just as equities offer competitive swings. Easier cross-platform access also lets capital move seamlessly between the two. 

At the same time, AI tools give retail investors more confidence analyzing stocks, while crypto still lacks clear valuation anchors. As a result, crypto must now compete within a broader multi-asset portfolio framework.

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