This week, we're on the ground at Korea Blockchain Week, one of Asia’s largest crypto conferences. The DACM team has been meeting with current portfolio companies, emerging projects, and investor peers. A key theme throughout the week has been stablecoins, which Tom Threlfall explores in more detail below.

Stripe's announcement of Tempo, a "payments-oriented Layer 1" built in partnership with Paradigm, reads like a masterclass in corporate blockchain strategy. Optimized for high-throughput payments, denominating fees in fiat currencies, and backed by an impressive roster of high-profile investors. The problem it solves appears real. Yet it feels like it falls into the "intranet trap" where established institutions recreate centralized versions of technology rather than valuing the network effects.

Financial markets have an uncanny ability to rediscover the same structures under new names. Today's Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies—from Strategy's pioneering model to the dozens of new entrants flooding NASDAQ—are following a remarkably familiar playbook. For those who witnessed the Listed Investment Company (LIC) and Listed Investment Trust (LIT) booms of previous decades, the current DAT phenomenon isn't revolutionary finance. It's history rhyming with stunning precision.

What's stopping institutions from investing in crypto?" Over eight+ years of conversations with sophisticated and institutional investors, DACM's Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Richard Galvin, has heard the same three concerns surface repeatedly: Systemic risks – particularly around Tether's USDT and stablecoin backing; Unclear revenue models – tokens are simply too difficult to value; Regulatory uncertainty – and in some jurisdictions, outright hostility.

This week, we dive into Ethena ($ENA), the synthetic stablecoin project whose recent interest exposes a fundamental shift in how institutional capital views crypto infrastructure. While corporate crypto treasuries have historically focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum as digital stores of value, StablecoinX's $360 million commitment to building an $ENA treasury represents the first major bet on protocol governance itself—signalling that sophisticated investors now see DeFi infrastructure as investable assets rather than speculative experiments.

This week, we examine recent structural changes to Ethereum. As institutional supply dynamics shift and ETF flows accelerate, we explore how "hated rallies" often provide the best risk-adjusted returns for institutional allocators, and why sometimes the simplest supply-demand math matters more than complex technological narratives.

This week's passage of the GENIUS Act and Clarity bills through the House marks a watershed moment for crypto's institutional future. As regulatory clarity emerges, we explore how sustainable DeFi applications like Maple Finance are scaling and beating traditional competitors. Following last week's discussion and Pump's successful $500 token sale, we examine how established dominance can shift within weeks, as an alliance between DACM portfolio companies Graphite Protocol, Raydium, and BONK, challenge pump.fun's historical supremacy in a battle that blends genuine platform value with extraction concerns.

This week, we explore a significant shift in crypto's competitive landscape: LetsBONK has recently overtaken Pump.fun as the dominant memecoin launchpad on Solana, capturing over 65% market share while Pump.fun's anticipated token launch is confirmed for July 12. Meanwhile, corporate Bitcoin adoption is accelerating, with 34 public companies now holding over 730,000 BTC worth over $84 billion in their treasuries, led by established players and emerging newcomers. This reflects crypto's maturation into distinct institutional and retail pathways—each creating different opportunities for portfolio allocation as digital assets move from speculation to strategic adoption.

This week marks a pivotal moment as traditional finance migrates onto blockchain rails. Robinhood's launch of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs for European customers signals the beginning of 24/7 global equity markets, while Circle's application for a national banking charter positions stablecoins as legitimate banking instruments. These developments represent the maturation of crypto from speculative asset to foundational financial infrastructure—creating new opportunities for institutional capital allocation and portfolio diversification.

This week, we examine how perpetual futures—the derivative born from frustrated Chinese gold miners in the 1980s—are reshaping traditional finance as NASDAQ prepares for 24/5 trading and institutions embrace crypto's continuous market innovations. Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's directive allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept cryptocurrency as mortgage collateral represents more than regulatory accommodation—it creates the first tax-efficient bridge between crypto wealth and real estate markets. Together, these developments demonstrate how crypto's most practical innovations are migrating into traditional finance, not through disruption but through demonstrated superiority in solving real-world problems.

This week, we examine how the passage of the GENIUS Act through the Senate, combined with Circle's groundbreaking partnership with Nodal Clear to make USDC eligible collateral for US futures trading, further reinforces the stablecoin market segmentation we've been tracking across recent newsletters. With Trump's characteristically enthusiastic endorsement calling the legislation "American Brilliance at its best," may have started "stablecoin summer," reflecting the political tailwinds accelerating institutional adoption of what industry projections suggest could become a multi-trillion-dollar market by decade's end. The real story isn't just regulatory progress—it's the crystallization of distinct use cases that confirm stablecoins are bifurcating into specialized infrastructure rather than competing for the same deposit markets.

This week, we examine two compelling infrastructure plays that demonstrate how crypto technology can solve genuine coordination problems while building defensible competitive moats. Plasma's recent $1 billion token sale—oversubscribed by 10x in the first tranche in just five minutes—reveals explosive institutional appetite for purpose-built stablecoin infrastructure, while GEODNET's deployment of 17,000 precision GPS stations across 140 countries showcases how crypto incentives can accomplish what traditional finance couldn't economically achieve - something covered in our recent discussion with co-founder Mike Horton. Both projects illustrate the maturation of blockchain applications from speculative vehicles toward essential infrastructure that generates real revenue while creating sustainable competitive advantages through network effects.

This week, we examine how two billion-dollar crypto fundraises expose the hidden economics driving institutional adoption. Circle's successful NYSE debut at $6.9 billion saw its stock close at $83—up 168% from its $31 IPO price—revealing the true cost of regulatory compliance, with the stablecoin issuer paying over 50% of its revenue to Coinbase for distribution while earning modest returns on Treasury management. Meanwhile, Pump.fun's reported $4 billion token sale valuation—despite rapidly declining revenue—demonstrates how innovative funding models can achieve astronomical valuations through programmatic capital access. The stark contrast between Circle's constrained profit margins and Pump.fun's estimated 85-90% margins illustrates why the most innovative crypto projects may increasingly choose token architectures over traditional equity structures, creating complementary paths for institutional and retail capital in digital asset markets.

The future of robotics and blockchain

This week, we examine the landmark regulatory moment reshaping the $244 billion stablecoin ecosystem as Congress advances the GENIUS Act toward final passage. With the Senate's procedural vote clearing 66-32 and bipartisan momentum building, we analyze which protocols stand to benefit most from regulatory clarity, identifying clear winners among both stablecoin issuers and the DeFi infrastructure that supports them. The consolidation dynamics already playing out through Circle's acquisition battle with Coinbase and Ripple reveal how quickly regulatory legitimacy is transforming market structure, creating distinct categories of winners in what may be crypto's most consequential legislative moment.

This week, we examine both the technical conditions needed for a true "alt season" and the fascinating competitive dynamics unfolding in Solana's memecoin market. While Ethereum's price surge following its Pectra upgrade has sparked excitement about a broader altcoin rally, we look beyond simple price movements to analyze what the ETH/BTC ratio truly signals about market cycles. Meanwhile, on Solana, the strategic battle between launchpad platforms reveals a more nuanced reality than typical "coopetition" narratives suggest, with Raydium's LetsBonk partnership gaining market share in what appears to be a potentially contracting memecoin market.