Prediction markets and stablecoins

5 weekend reads and a podcast

Author

Boccaccio
August 08, 2025

Hey all, this is Boccaccio. We’ve reached the end of the first week of the 0xResearch newsletter, revamped. You can find below a list of reports, articles and blog posts that the research team will be reading over the weekend. Read along with us!

Have a good Friday and a happy weekend!

Social Graph Ventures published a blog on next‑gen prediction markets. It discusses Polymarket and Kalshi as incumbents, outlines innovations like Limitless (short‑term event wagering), Onit (chat‑based custom markets), Hedgehog (no‑loss betting via DeFi), and concepts such as futarchy and “multiverse finance” that combines prediction markets with DeFi composability. It emphasizes UX, focused verticals, community, liquidity and regulatory awareness as criteria for backing startups. Read more

AQR published a perspective on the less‑efficient market hypothesis. It argues that equity markets have become less informationally efficient over the past 30+ years, partly due to social media. The author suggests that investors willing to exploit these inefficiencies may earn higher returns, though with elevated risks. Read more

Glow published a blog on sacrificing revenue. It introduces Glow’s protocol for solar farms that requires participants to commit their electricity revenue into a performance‑based competition. Farms are rewarded based on carbon reduction efficiency and can earn back their deposit plus token incentives if they outperform peers — creating a competitive loop that drives renewable impact. Read more

Angstrom released its white paper introducing v1, a non-custodial decentralized exchange built as a Uniswap v4 hook. The protocol addresses two key issues in DeFi: loss-versus-rebalancing (LVR) that hurts liquidity providers, and sandwich attacks that exploit swappers. Angstrom runs parallel off-chain auctions during Ethereum block production — a top-of-block auction that redistributes arbitrage value back to LPs, alongside a uniform-clearing batch auction that eliminates sandwich attacks by batching user orders at a single clearing price. Read more

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.

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

📅 October 13-15 | London

On Monday’s Lightspeed episode, Carlos and Jack covered:

  • Solana's recent technical upgrades, including Jito's BAM (Block Auction Mechanism). BAM introduces private and verifiable block building through encrypted mempools in TEEs. They also discuss the block limit increase from 48 million to 60 million compute units, with plans to reach 100 million by year end.

  • Current price dynamics show Solana trading around $186-$187 (its highest since Trump's inauguration). Meanwhile, the SOL/ETH ratio dropped below 0.05 to its lowest point in a year, with Ethereum outperforming due to treasury company narratives and traditional finance adoption.

  • Revenue (tips and fees) analysis reveal Solana generated $62 million in June 2024, representing one of the lowest months since February 2024 (except for September, with the decline attributed to reduced memecoin trading activity on platforms like Pump.fun).

  • Competitive positioning against Ethereum in stablecoin markets — despite Solana's technical improvements, Ethereum maintains 80% market share in stablecoins, with protocols like Aave holding $50 billion in deposits compared to Solana's largest money market, Kamino, at $4 billion.

  • BAM's potential to address sandwich attacks through private transaction processing and enable new applications like onchain order books and perps exchanges — potentially allowing Solana-based platforms to compete with competitors like Hyperliquid.

  • Treasury company vehicles are speculative and less attractive than direct asset ownership or staking ETFs — which raises concerns about tying Solana's narrative too closely to such vehicles.

  • Network performance improvements, including successful transaction volume reaching all-time highs this week and plans to reduce block times below 400 milliseconds through the upcoming Firedancer and Alpenglow upgrades.

Find the full podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and X.