Crypto opened the week with uneven signals. BTC gained +2.5%, but application and network revenues hit multi-month lows, and BTC ETFs saw their fourth-straight week of outflows. While AI and DePIN jumped +9%, broader activity remains soft, highlighting a market still searching for conviction.

Risk assets leaned modestly risk-on, with BTC (+2.5%) posting a steady gain while traditional equities lagged, as both the S&P 500 (-0.1%) and Nasdaq 100 (-0.1%) slipped slightly. Gold (+0.1%) was essentially flat, reflecting a muted macro backdrop. Overall tone skewed constructive, driven largely by strength across crypto-native sectors.

Over the last 36 hours, crypto sector breadth was notably strong. DePIN (+9.0%) and AI (+9.0%) led the board, continuing their multi-week momentum as investors rotate toward higher-beta thematic plays. DeFi (+4.2%) followed alongside solid showings from Ethereum-aligned assets (+3.5%). On the downside, Modular (-1.7%) was the only meaningful decliner, marking a sharp divergence from the otherwise broad green sweep.

The dispersion suggests a clear preference for high-growth, high-narrative segments rather than broad-based macro buying. AI and DePIN’s outsized moves (both +9%) signal renewed speculative appetite in infrastructure and computation themes as traders position ahead of upcoming macro releases. With equities pausing and volatility suppressed, crypto remains the higher-beta expression of incremental risk-taking. Looking ahead, attention turns to this week’s macro catalysts, which could dictate whether BTC’s grind follows through or stalls. Sector rotation remains active, suggesting volatility may pick back up as positioning normalizes.

— Marc

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On last week’s pod, we were joined by Sreeram from EigenCloud and Bryan Pellegrino from LayerZero to discuss:

EigenZero’s security model: We examined how EigenZero combined LayerZero DVNs with EigenLayer restaked security to create an economically insured bridge where misbehavior triggered slashing and redistribution, aligning bridge safety with the size of bonded stake.

DVN architecture: We analyzed DVNs as modular attestation layers chosen by each application, noting a set of roughly 52 DVNs spanning corporates, infra teams and zk systems, with asset issuers combining multiple DVNs to customize security.

Economic capacity and throughput: We discussed how cryptoeconomic DVNs enabled trustless scaling by letting anyone launch a DVN backed by stake rather than reputation. We noted that evenly distributed $100 million daily volume could be secured with about $35K of stake, and that EigenZero’s $5 million of slashable ZRO enabled $5 million of capacity every 30 seconds.

Slashing and rollout constraints: We explored EigenLayer’s new slashing and redistribution system and the need for precise fault attribution between sequencers and DVNs, which led EigenZero to launch initially on a small set of chains before expanding.

Developer and asset issuer benefits: We discussed how developers and asset issuers could use EigenZero to offer fast exits, intent settlement and near instant withdrawals by charging small fees on accelerated paths secured by slashable stake, reflecting user preference for low latency and strong average case UX.

EigenLayer product roadmap: We noted EigenLayer’s shift toward productized services under IGN Cloud, EigenDA, EigenCompute and EigenAI, enabling verifiable offchain compute, AI inference and agentic applications.

LayerZero growth and adoption: We discussed LayerZero’s immutable protocol, client diversityand rising institutional adoption, including single transfers approaching $800 million and expanding multichain asset flows.

AI agent verification: We examined how EigenLayer provided runtime verification of AI agents’ code and models while leaving model correctness to insurance-like mechanisms where stakers underwrote error rates.

Find the full livestream on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

This summary was generated with assistance from AI tooling.

Charts of the week

Overall, application revenue was down 11% week over week from $49 million to $43.5 million — the lowest weekly revenue since March 2025. Hyperliquid continues to lead in terms of application revenue, making $18.5 million over the past week (up 8%), followed by Pump.fun, which made $7.7 million (down 22%). Ore took third place for the first time, generating $2.3 million in the last week. 

Weekly Network REV has been faring even worse, with the last two prints (both around $29.5 million) the lowest since 2022. Ethereum took top spot ($8.9 million), a position it’s been in and out of for the past few weeks. Solana remains in third with $5.1 million (down 15%) and Tron in second with $6.3 million (down 12.5%). Solana was the market leader in only one of the last seven weeks, after holding top spot for months in a row. 

Over the four weeks, US spot bitcoin ETFs have seen consistent net outflows, with each of the last three weekly bars recording over $1 billion in withdrawn funds. IBIT has been responsible for the largest share of redemptions, while smaller but steady outflows also appear across funds like FBTC, BITB and ARKB. Overall, the trend reflects sustained investor de-risking, with cumulative withdrawals building into late November.

Nubank is one of the world’s largest digital financial services platforms, operating in Latin America with over 127 million customers as of Q3 2025. Nubank has an impressive activity ratio of 83%, and like many neobanks, has no physical branches. The company has become a major crypto gateway with 6.6 million crypto users (up 42% YoY) and transaction volumes jumping 250% after eliminating exchange fees. Future initiatives include a US bank charter application and a pilot for dollar-pegged stablecoin payments (Read more).

Survey data confirms user awareness of these threats. Among respondents to our survey, 88% identify connecting to malicious sites as their primary concern, compared to 77% citing smart contract vulnerabilities. These results show that the market recognizes that frontend attacks are a significant threat vector (Read more).

— Marc

The DeFi frontend security landscape is at a turning point. Awareness of frontend vulnerabilities is widespread, yet adoption of protective measures lags. Looking forward, market demand is poised to grow as institutional investors emphasize operational resilience, regulators move toward higher infrastructure standards, and high-profile exploits reinforce the urgency of stronger protections.