Brought to you by:

Markets are catching their breath after the Fed’s first rate cut since 2024, but crypto is still struggling to find direction. BNB continues to outperform, while ETH and SOL retrace and ETF flows remain mixed. In Korea, Naver’s acquisition of Upbit shows how Big Tech is pulling crypto deeper into its ecosystem.

Markets caught a brief relief rally yesterday, with BTC finishing +1.2% after a tough week of trading. Relief rallies like this often reveal which sectors are best positioned to outperform when risk appetite returns. Gaming led the rebound with a +3.07% gain, extending its strong momentum from last week, while Memes also stood out with a +1.53% rise. On the other end, L2s slipped -1.17% and L1s edged lower at -0.37%, making them the weakest sectors in an otherwise positive session.

— Kunal

While large liquidations that clear out leverage are often followed by a sharp V-shaped recovery, this time the rebound hasn’t materialized. Since Monday’s wipeout, markets have continued to drift lower. ETH and SOL, which had surged on the back of DAT flows, have retraced to the $4,000 and $200 levels, respectively, both down about 20% from recent highs.

ETF flows paint a mixed picture. The start of the week saw heavy outflows from BTC and ETH ETFs, though yesterday BTC ETFs flipped back to positive territory. Sustained inflows here could signal capital rotating back to the relative safety of BTC, which historically holds up better during risk-off stretches.

The picture isn’t much brighter among treasury companies. Premiums to NAV for the top treasury companies, MSTR and BMNR, have continued to compress.

That makes it harder for them to issue shares and accumulate BTC/ETH at the same pace. Their steady bid was a key driver of the recent rally, but as those purchases taper off, the market is losing a major source of demand.

Overlaying all this is the macro backdrop. The Fed has formally entered an easing cycle with two more cuts expected this year. Yet, Powell’s comments this week noted that equity valuations remain fairly high, underscoring lingering caution. In short, crypto markets are searching for their next catalyst, and until it arrives, investors should brace for more chop ahead. 

— Kunal

Brought to you by:

Katana was built by answering a core question: What if a chain contributed revenue back into the ecosystem to drive growth and yield?

We direct revenue back to DeFi participants for consistently higher yields.

Katana is pioneering concepts like Productive TVL (the portion of assets are actually doing work), Chain Owned Liquidity (permanent liquidity owned by Katana to maintain stability), and VaultBridge (putting bridged assets to work generating extra yield for active participants).

Naver buys

Naver, South Korea’s largest internet portal, has completed a comprehensive stock swap to acquire Upbit through its fintech arm, NAVER Financial. Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, confirmed the deal. Naver shares jumped 11.4% on the news.

The move is part of NAVER’s broader push to become a comprehensive super app. Earlier this year, NAVER Pay acquired a 70% stake in Dunamu’s Securities Plus Unlisted (Korea’s largest platform for unlisted stocks) and secured an OTC license. NAVER and Dunamu have also been developing a KRW stablecoin initiative. With crypto, equities, private equity and NAVER Pay, which processed KRW 20.8 trillion in Q2 2025, NAVER is positioning itself under one roof as a financial and digital hub similar to the “everything app” vision Elon Musk has described (but failed to achieve) for X.

— Shaunda

1. Ether.Fi: The Crypto NeoBank

Ether.Fi has evolved from a staking protocol into a multi-line financial platform. The report highlighted its dominance in the LRT sector with ~85% share, $31 million in Q3 card spend across 11K Visa cards, and Liquid Vaults TVL growth of 82%. Revenues re-accelerated to ~$14.1 million in Q3, with 50% directed to buybacks. The analysis framed Ether.Fi as trading at ~20–24x P/S, but argued that its neobank trajectory could warrant a re-rating as revenues diversify and consumer products scale.

2. Onchain Asset Management: Designing the Future of Investment Strategies

This report maps the onchain asset management landscape across automated yield vaults, discretionary strategies, credit products and structured payoffs, highlighting how AUM has surged 118% YTD to $35 billion with discretionary strategies up 738%. It compares gross APYs (7.5-10.3%) and fees vs. TradFi benchmarks, showing net returns remain competitive despite higher costs. The piece underscores programmability, liquidity and transparency as structural advantages, while smart contract risk and fee drag are key constraints. Forward projections see the sector scaling to $64-$85 billion by 2026, driven by institutional adoption, tokenized T-bills, whitelisted pools and clearer regulation.

3. Why Redistributing Tokens is Better Than Burning Them

Hazeflow released an article on whether burning or redistributing assets creates better incentive alignment in crypto systems. It argues redistribution is superior when slashing occurs, since it punishes malicious actors while compensating victims and keeping value in the ecosystem. Burning is simpler and works when slashing is not involved, such as with deflationary models like ETH’s fee burn. Ultimately, redistribution promotes fairness but adds complexity, while burning offers simplicity with fewer risks.

Crypto is changing TradFi derivatives and rate markets as we know them.

DAS: London will feature all the builders driving this change. 

Get your ticket today with promo code: 0X100 for £100 off.

📅 October 13-15 | London