OVERVIEW

Crypto ETF Voltron Assembles Tomorrow 🤖

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

NEWS
The First Multi-Crypto ETF Begins Trading Tomorrow 😱 

Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund $GDLC ( ▲ 7.76% ) begins trading tomorrow!

It’s kind of a big deal because it’s the first multi-token crypto ETF to hit the stonk markets. It’s made up of BTC, ETH, XRP, ADA, and SOL. 👍️ 

NEWS
The Chart That Will Determine Altseason’s Length 😱 

The total market cap has made new all-time highs, the total market cap excluding ETH has made new all-time highs, but there’s one that hasn’t. 🧠

The chart above is Tradingview’s TOTAL3E crypto market cap chart. It’s the crypto market cap excluding BTC, ETH, and stablecoins. It’s been nearly 4 years since it’s made a new all-time high - which means almost every crypto, despite the recent pamp in alts, is still lagging BTC and ETH by huge margins.

A return and break above $1.02 trillion is the goal for altseason watchers. 🏇 

ON-CHAIN ANALYSIS
Ethereum: $1M+ Prints Up. Mid-tier Whales Down. Retail Everywhere. 🔄 

Ethereum’s on-chain traffic this year looks like a farmer’s market on Saturday morning - crowded, noisy, and 99% retail. 

The whales? They’re around, but more like the guy who shows up, buys one crate of your neighbor Mary’s stupidly overgrown zucchinis in cash, and leaves without saying a word.

Retail vs Whale, By the Numbers

• Retail dominance: In 2025, retail wallets (sub-$100k moves) pushed 99.75% of ETH’s on-chain USD volume.

• Whale fade: Whales over $100k are down to 0.25%, from 0.34% in 2024. That’s a 27.6% drop in share, YoY.

• Mega whales flex: Meanwhile, the true leviathans ($1M+ transfers) carved out 1.26% of all ETH volume in 2025, up from 0.80% in 2024 - a 57.7% jump.

So yes, “whales” as a broad class got quieter. But the biggest fish actually got louder.

The 2025 Timeline

• Q1: Retail ran the show, whales drifted at 0.27%. Mega whales were steady at 1.1%.

• Q2: Mid-tier whales went into hibernation, slipping to 0.18% share. Mega whales ticked up to 1.26%.

• Q3 (so far): Retail still dominates, but mega whales are now at 1.44% share, a steady climb while smaller whales continue to underperform.

What does that actually mean? The mid-tier wallets (the $100k to $1M crowd) have mostly backed off, leaving the retail army to stuff blocks with noise. But when size does come through, it’s coming from the deep end of the pool - the $1M+ crowd.

In A Nutshell

$ETH.X ( ▲ 2.08% )’s on-chain transaction data for this year is retail chaos punctuated by occasional deep-pocketed clarity. Ignore the $100k-class whales - they’re asleep. Watch the $1M+ crowd instead. They’re the ones quietly steering the boat while the rest of the market argues on Stocktwits and X. 🐳

NEWS
Generic Listing Standards: SEC’s Shortcut for Crypto 🤯 

The SEC just gave U.S. markets a booster shot of clarity. Last night, the Commission approved generic listing standards for Commodity-Based Trust Shares. 🕺 

In other words, exchanges can now list and trade ETFs backed by spot commodities - including crypto - without filing a fresh rule change every single time.

The Deets

• Commodity-based ETFs (yes, crypto counts) get a standardized playbook for listings.

• Exchanges skip the bureaucratic waitlist if products meet the new template.

• Investors get more choice, less delay, and fewer “coming soon” purgatories.

The Commission also gave a nod to specific products:

• The Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund - backed by the CoinDesk 5 Index.

• Options on the CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) Bitcoin U.S. ETF Index and its mini sibling(s) - with Friday, quarterly, and other expiration flavors.

The SEC finally moved at the speed of relevance. Also, I wonder how much seething Gensler is doing right now. 🤷 

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️

🛡️ Zashi CrossPay Brings Shielded ZEC To Any Chain

Zcash just leveled up: with CrossPay, you can send private payments in BTC, ETH, SOL, or stablecoins without ever touching a public ledger. Shielded ZEC gets swapped under the hood via NEAR Intents, so the recipient sees their chosen token - you keep your privacy. It’s the crypto equivalent of whispering the amount to the cashier instead of announcing it on a megaphone (not perfect, but you get it). Zcash.

🔒 Stellar Wants To Prove Privacy At Scale

Stellar is pitching itself as the proving ground where open ledgers meet real-world financial privacy. Their roadmap includes zk-friendly primitives, confidential tokens, and opt-in privacy layers built for compliance from day one. It’s not “hide everything,” it’s “toggle privacy like airplane mode” - and banks might actually buy that. Stellar.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙

🏦 Sonic Labs Backs FinChain To Push RWAs On-Chain

Sonic Labs invested in Hong Kong–based FinChain, an institutional RWA network with reusable KYC, compliant ramps, and a token issuance platform. The deal means RWAs like bonds and equities will launch natively on Sonic and plug directly into its DeFi stack. Sonic Labs.

💳 Apollo’s $50M Diversified Credit Strategy Lands On Plume

Apollo, Centrifuge, and Plume teamed up to tokenize Apollo’s global credit fund, with Grove anchoring $50M into the new ACRDX product. Investors can now access Apollo’s lending and credit strategies via Nest Credit on Plume. That’s Wall Street private credit, but tokenized - the kind of stuff TradFi clients usually need three suits and a golf membership to even hear about. Centrifuge.

🤖 NewEra Finance Integrates Reactive For Automated RWA Trading

NewEra, the Uniswap-backed RWA marketplace, is wiring Reactive contracts into its TWAMM and limit order functions. Orders will now execute every minute automatically across 50+ tokenized assets without human babysitting. It’s the DeFi version of hiring a robot intern - never late, never tired, and never front-run. Reactive Network.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️

🎮 Chiliz Buys Majority Stake In OG Esports

Chiliz grabbed 51% of OG Esports, reuniting the Dota 2 legends “n0tail” and “Ceb” with their original co-founder. The $OG Fan Token - already a $100M+ market - will now be Socios.com’s flagship case for “Fan Tokens 2.0.” Translation: esports fans are about to get the full tokenized merch, tickets, and perks package. Chiliz.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending News 🏦

⚖️ Synthetix Brings Multi-Collateral Margin To Ethereum Mainnet

When Synthetix perps launch on mainnet Q4, traders can post margin in sUSDe, wstETH, or cbBTC - all while those assets keep earning yield. That means basis trades, delta-neutral setups, and arb plays get juiced by productive collateral. Ethereum’s $90B DeFi base just became the playground for the most capital-efficient perps yet (at least that’s what they say). Synthetix.

🕶️ AdamantFi Alpha Launches Privacy DEX On Secret Network

AdamantFi is live with limited pairs like sSCRT/USDC and sSCRT/ETH, aiming to deliver privacy-preserving swaps. The whole thing is open-source and comes with a bug bounty - payouts in bADMT for anyone who breaks it. DeFi got messy by doxxing everyone’s wallet flows; Adamant wants to put the curtains back up. Secret Network.

🚫 Neo X Deploys Anti-MEV To Mainnet

MEV isn’t inevitable, it’s a design flaw - and Neo just patched it out. Neo X v0.4.2 went live with protocol-level Anti-MEV, combining dBFT consensus, encrypted transactions, and threshold decryption. Front-running, sandwiches, and block-reorg games are cut off at the root. Neo.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Protocol News 🏦

🇬🇧 Avalanche Adds Lord Chris Holmes To Board

UK House of Lords member Chris Holmes, known for pushing blockchain-friendly trade laws, is joining the Avalanche Foundation board. His job: help steer Avalanche through the global regulatory minefield with “right-sized” rules. In practice, it’s Avalanche signaling to policymakers that it wants a seat at the grown-ups’ table. Super posh. Avalanche.

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🤑 Solana Foundation, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest join $300 million placement for new SOL treasury Solmate

🇬🇧 UK Reform Party opposes Bank of England’s stablecoin limits and CBDC plans

👛 Tangem wallet brute force vulnerability revealed by rival Ledger

🤯 Crypto growth outpaces internet era, says $1.6 trillion Franklin Templeton on CNBC

🎨 Microsoft's Paint now lets you save projects as layered files in the latest Insider build

🤖 The new robot that could make chores a thing of the past

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Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, IMX, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, ZEC, XLM, and NEAR. 📋