Inflation in the U.S. rose by 3.2% from a year ago in July, still higher than the Federal Reserve’s ideal 2% rate. Bitcoin and Ethereum barely moved in response, increasing a little below 1% each over the past week. The biggest gainers this week were Solana (+9%), Uniswap (+6.83%), and Maker (+2.77%). The latter was the frontrunner in assets under management, accruing 16.52% more than last week. Maker’s surge in total value locked (TVL) can be attributed to the savings rate hike on DAI from 3% to 8%, making it one of the highest yields currently offered by a major stablecoin issuer.
Figure 1: Weekly Price and TVL Developments of Cryptoassets in Major Sectors
Source: 21Shares, CoinGecko, DeFi Llama. Close data as of August 14, 2023.
3 Things to Remember in Markets this Week:
• The Federal Reserve Prepares for Inevitable Stablecoin Adoption
As traditional players begin entering the stablecoin market, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) announced a program to supervise the “novel activities” the banks under its jurisdiction are carrying out. The FRB has also provided guidance on the process a state bank needs to follow before engaging in stablecoin activities. State banks will require a written supervisory non-objection from the FRB before issuing, holding, or transacting in stablecoins. This comes a day after PayPal announced its launch of a fully-backed, dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, with Paxos, built on Ethereum, with zero transaction fees. PayPal expects its PYUSD to be used primarily in decentralized finance and remittances, leveraging its position as a leader in the online payments market with a 40.52% market share. While it’s still too early to tell whether PayPal’s venture into crypto will level up to its success in traditional finance, steady progress should be guaranteed, given the company’s regulatory and adoption advantages.
Figure 2: Total Supply of Stablecoins on Ethereum
Source: @21co on Dune Analytics
• Visa’s Pilot Trial to Simplify Transacting On-Chain
After Visa initially announced their experiment utilizing Account Abstraction (AA) to streamline crypto native payments on top of Ethereum back in May, the financial services giant revealed the piloted project’s latest updates. Namely, leveraging the ERC-4337 standard, more commonly known as AA, Visa was able to abstract the process of paying gas fees in ETH using a credit card. As AA allows for the asset conversion to take place in the backend, users will not have to worry about holding the right native token to pay for transaction costs. Thus, users would be met with the flexibility of paying with their cards or any other ETH-based token, and the AA smart contract will simply trigger the conversion via what’s known as a paymaster smart contract that sponsors transactions on users’ behalf. That said, Visa’s experiment has the power and potential to transform the crypto native ecosystem and make them more accessible using the average users’ traditional financial instruments and could, thus, catalyze the adoption of native blockchain applications without users necessarily becoming aware of the technical intricacies.
Figure 3: Visa’s Process to Abstract ETH Gas Fees
Source: Visa
• Fantom Considering a Return to Ethereum
Fantom is contemplating a strategic move to enhance its integration with Ethereum by establishing an optimistic-based rollup linking the two networks. While Fantom boasts crucial innovations like sharding and sharing gas costs with developers, its growth trajectory faced obstacles following the MultiChain bridge hack, resulting in a significant decline in assets and liquidity. Notably, the past month witnessed the closure of the two largest lending and exchange applications due to challenges within the network and decreasing liquidity. Thus, the decision is aimed at helping Fantom seek recovery by positioning itself as a scaling solution for Ethereum, leveraging its unparalleled user base and liquidity. This trend is not exclusive to Fantom, as Celo also recently announced a similar shift, indicating an emerging industry trend.
Figure 4: Total Assets Under Management on the Fantom Blockchain
Source: DeFi Llama, The Block
What You Should Pay Attention To
• OP Stack Establishing its Presence
Optimism’s modular framework, OP Stack, maintains its position as the leading scaling solution for Ethereum, with established players like Binance, Coinbase, Worldcoin, and A16z all opting to leverage the solution to build their customized networks. This week, Coinbase launched public access to its scaling solution dubbed Base, leveraging the OP Stack. Although developers have been allowed to deploy applications and migrate their capital since mid-June, the official bridge opened last week, allowing users to migrate their capital using official channels. That said, Base experienced tremendous growth quickly, amassing close to ~$200M in AuM in less than three weeks.
Figure 5: Coinbase Scaling Solution AuM
Source: @21co on Dune
While the initial shift was prompted by a meme coin frenzy, the ongoing surge in user activity signifies strong enthusiasm for the Ethereum ecosystem. Moreover, Base holds significant growth potential due to Coinbase’s extensive 110M user base, which can seamlessly transition to the on-chain ecosystem through user-friendly interfaces. In line with this, Coinbase revealed “on-chain summer”, an initiative to introduce users to Base’s vibrant ecosystem and showcase the network’s enhanced performance. The program was a success as the network logged more than 136K daily active users at its peak, surpassing Optimism and Polygon. Whether Base can sustain its user base in the long run, remains to be seen. However, it will certainly be a key network to look for over the next few months.
Figure 6: Daily Active Addresses of the Four Leading Ethereum Scaling Solutions
Source: Artemis.xyz
Comparatively, Debank, a renowned portfolio tracker, has revealed plans for a social media network on the OP stack. This initiative aims to convert their messaging service into a complete social graph, rewarding users for valuable contributions like posts and time invested. Debank has already introduced a testnet version of this network, demonstrating nearly 100x lower gas costs for data storage compared to traditional blockchains. Similar to Coinbase, Debank boasts a substantial user base, offering the potential to drive decentralized social media adoption beyond Lens. Lastly, the upcoming OP Stack network releases are a net positive for the ecosystem, as a portion of their respective transaction costs is directed towards the Optimism treasury to help drive its sustainable growth.
Bookmarks:
• Inside Crypto Exchange-Traded Products; check out our 9th issue of State of Crypto
• Check out our Dune dashboard, tracking Worldcoin’s airdrop and adoption metrics, here.
Next Week’s Calendar
These are the top events we’re monitoring for next week.
Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com
Disclaimer
The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.
Last week, I was in Washington, DC to attend the DC Blockchain Summit and to meet with regulators and policymakers to share our experiences as a crypto-focused asset manager over the last seven years.
The Summit, hosted by The Digital Chamber, included speeches from dozens of members of Congress, regulators, and industry leaders. After listening to presentations and speaking with a number of regulators and policymakers I have one key takeaway: Regulatory clarity for crypto will come much faster than I previously anticipated.
A dramatic shift in tone
As I wrote in January, US policymakers and government leaders—at nearly every level—are embracing this technology. For years, the lack of clear rules for digital assets in the US has been a major obstacle for institutional investors and financial firms looking to enter the crypto space. However, this past week in DC, as well as several of the conversations I’ve had with advisors and wealth managers over the last several weeks, has left me with an even higher sense of optimism.
One of the most striking takeaways from my meetings was the shift in how policymakers are discussing crypto. Just a year ago, many in Washington viewed digital assets primarily through the lens of risk—concerns over fraud, illicit finance, and speculative volatility dominated the conversation. While these concerns still exist, the discussions now are much more nuanced and focused on the opportunities that crypto can create to the American economy and how to address these risks through a clear regulatory framework.
Bipartisan support for legislation
Perhaps the most encouraging sign is the concrete progress being made on both legislative and regulatory fronts. Several key developments indicate that clearer guidelines for crypto businesses and investors could arrive sooner than expected. There is growing bipartisan momentum behind crypto-related legislation. The House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee are moving forward with stablecoin legislation, and it is possible legislation could be signed into law as early as this summer. Stablecoins have also been a key focus of regulatory discussions, with growing consensus that they should be subject to clear guidelines similar to those governing payment systems and money market funds.
House and Senate committees are also actively discussing proposals that aim to define the jurisdiction of regulatory agencies, clarify the status of digital assets, and establish consumer protections. Unlike previous years, these efforts are being taken seriously by both parties, increasing the likelihood of meaningful legislative progress.
Adding to these regulatory discussions is the growing demand for crypto exposure from institutional investors. This demand is influencing policymakers and regulators, as they recognize that a lack of clarity is pushing innovation overseas.
What does this shift mean for investors?
The acceleration of regulatory clarity is a significant development for investors. While the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs last year was a watershed moment, it’s just the beginning. Several large financial institutions, including major banks and asset managers, are actively exploring tokenization, digital asset custody, and blockchain-based financial infrastructure. These institutions are engaging with regulators, advocating for a clear framework that allows them to enter the market with confidence.
Uncertainty has been one of the biggest barriers to broader crypto adoption by financial institutions and institutional investors in particular. As regulations become clearer this year, we expect to see:
• Increased institutional participation: With regulatory uncertainty diminishing, more traditional financial institutions will feel comfortable offering crypto products and using crypto technologies such as stablecoins to offer more efficient services, driving further mainstream adoption.
• Growth in tokenization and blockchain use cases: Clearer regulations will pave the way for asset tokenization, improving efficiency in markets like real estate, bonds, and private equity.
• A stronger US crypto market: By establishing a clear regulatory framework, the US can assert itself as a global financial leader, which we believe will help spur more regulatory clarity in other jurisdictions.
Final thoughts
The message from Washington is clear: crypto regulation is coming, and it’s coming faster than many expected. While there are still hurdles to overcome, the shift from uncertainty to structured regulation is well underway. For investors, this marks an important transition. Clearer rules will reduce risks, enhance market stability, and unlock new opportunities for institutional and retail participants alike.
At Hashdex, we remain committed to navigating these changes and providing investors with access to the best opportunities in this evolving landscape. As we move forward, continued engagement with regulators, policymakers, and financial institutions will be key. The crypto industry has a critical role to play in shaping the future of regulation, and by working collaboratively, we can help ensure that the next phase of crypto’s growth is built on a foundation of clarity and trust.
Sprott Physical Uranium ETC (SPUT ETC), med ISIN XS2937253818, är utformad för att erbjuda investerare ett effektivt sätt att få tillgång till prisutvecklingen hos fysiskt uran.
För att uppnå detta innehar Sprott Physical Uranium ETC, som strävar efter att ge exponering mot priset för fysiskt uran, före avgifter och utgifter, genom att hålla fysiska lager hos tre olika leverantörer.
Den börshandlade produktens TER (total cost ratio) uppgår till 0,55 % p.a. Denna ETC replikerar resultatet av det underliggande indexet med en skuldförbindelse med säkerheter som backas upp av fysiska innehav av den underliggande metallen.
Sprott Physical Uranium ETC lanserades den 27 februari 2025 och har sin hemvist på Jersey.
Caset för en fysiskt uran ETC
Obalans mellan utbud och efterfrågan på uran kommer sannolikt att växa: Den växande efterfrågan på kärnenergi överträffar uranproduktionen, som hämmades av historiskt låga priser, och därmed begränsade nya projekt. Detta kan skapa en gynnsam miljö för stigande uranpriser.
Ny tjurmarknad för uran potentiellt under utveckling: Befintligt utbud kanske inte möter framtida efterfrågan, vilket uppmuntrar köpare av icke-nyttigt uran att komma in på marknaden. Verktygen förväntas påskynda inköpen av uran för att säkerställa långsiktig pris- och leveranssäkerhet.
Uran ger pålitlig och ren baslastkraft: Kärnenergi levererar konstant, ren elektricitet dygnet runt, vilket gör den till en kritisk kraftkälla när den globala energiförbrukningen fortsätter att växa.
Priset på uran kan vara volatilt och kan gå upp och ner. När du investerar i en ETC är ditt kapital helt i riskzonen. Investerare kanske inte får tillbaka det belopp de ursprungligen investerade. Uran- och kärnkraftsindustrin kan påverkas av förändringar i politiken/statliga regleringar, säkerhetsbrott, illvilliga terrordåd eller naturkatastrofer. Även om Sprott Physical Uranium Trust har för avsikt att följa det föreslagna investeringsmålet, garanterar emittenten inte fondens resultat.
Det betyder att det går att handla andelar i denna ETC genom de flesta svenska banker och Internetmäklare, till exempel Nordnet, SAVR, DEGIRO och Avanza.
Idag tillkännagav kapitalförvaltaren VanEck ETF noteringen av VanEck Celestia ETN på Euronext Amsterdam och Euronext Paris.
Celestia möjliggör säker skalning av blockchain-applikationer
Modularitet tillåter utvecklare att bygga och skala nya blockkedjor med lätthet
VanEck Celestia ETN är tillgängligt i följande länder: Österrike, Schweiz, Tyskland, Danmark, Spanien, Finland, Frankrike, Italien, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Nederländerna, Norge, Polen, Portugal och Sverige
Detta börshandlade certifikat (ETN) gör det möjligt för investerare att delta i utförandet av TIA-tokenet i en investerarföredraget omslag. TIA-token är Celestia-nätverkets ursprungliga kryptovaluta.
Celestia är ett specialiserat blockchain-nätverk designat för att optimera och skala datatillgänglighet, branschens grundläggande skalningsflaskhals. Detta gör det möjligt för utvecklare att enkelt distribuera applikationer i sitt eget blockutrymme med hög genomströmning med full-stack-kontroll.
”Efterfrågan på TIA-token är ett direkt resultat av behovet av Celestias tjänster, eftersom alla interaktioner på Celestia är denominerade och betalda i TIA,” förklarade Menno Martens, Crypto Product Manager på VanEck Europe. ”När fler och fler utvecklare använder Celestias tjänster för att bygga fullstackapplikationer med hög genomströmning, ser vi tillväxtpotential för Celestia.”
VanEck Celestia ETN erbjuder investerare ett reglerat och börshandlat sätt att få exponering för denna innovativa blockchain. Investerare bör dock notera risken för extrem volatilitet i samband med digitala tillgångar.
”VanEcks ETN är ett av de första stegen mot utökad tillgång till Celestia av institutioner”, säger Mustafa Al-Bassam, medgrundare av Celestia och ordförande för Celestia Foundation. ”Snart kommer det att finnas fler sätt att gå med i Celestias ekosystem för alla typer av användare och deltagare.”
Denna ETN spårar MarketVector Celestia VWAP Close Index, som återspeglar priset på TIA-token. Den är helt säkerställd, vilket innebär att de underliggande tillgångarna faktiskt köps och förvaras säkert i kylförvaring. VanEck samarbetar med Bank Frick, ett reglerat förvaringsinstitut i Liechtenstein, för att säkerställa höga standarder för förvaring av kryptovaluta över sina ETNer.