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Quality technology-focused crypto projects are positioned for a revaluation and potential market 'spring' driven by new TradFi valuation systems and application layer breakthroughs like AI Agents. Executive Summary Market sentiment indicates a re-evaluation of technology-focused cryptocurrency projects, which are perceived as undervalued despite current market pessimism. A significant shift is underway, driven by deeper Traditional Finance (TradFi) integration and the anticipated emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents as critical application layers. This confluence suggests a potential "spring" for infrastructure and utility-driven digital assets, moving capital away from speculative assets such as MEME coins. The Event in Detail Despite a prevailing bearish sentiment and the popularity of MEME coins, a nuanced analysis suggests that quality, technology-centric crypto projects have been oversold, creating strategic long-term entry points. These projects are largely in a silent "build" phase, developing foundational technologies that await breakthroughs in application layers, notably AI Agents, to fully realize their intrinsic value. The market is increasingly scrutinizing projects, favoring those that define technical standards, possess significant ecosystem influence, and are supported by robust bilateral markets. Purely conceptual projects are being phased out in favor of those demonstrating tangible utility and strong fundamentals. This approach contrasts sharply with the speculative nature of MEME coins, which often lack utility and are susceptible to extreme volatility, as exemplified by a 6.9% plunge in SHIB in early 2025. Market Implications This re-evaluation signals a profound evolution within the cryptocurrency industry, shifting from a Bitcoin-centric model towards a more diversified and utility-driven landscape. Institutional capital is increasingly prioritizing projects that deliver tangible utility, robust infrastructure, and real-world adoption, moving beyond purely speculative plays. The normalization of Bitcoin in institutional portfolios, partly due to the success of Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), is paving the way for broader and more sophisticated crypto allocation strategies. Institutions are expanding their focus to include Ethereum and select altcoins, driven by diversification needs and exposure to new blockchain technologies. This trend is expected to lead to significant capital reallocation from speculative assets to infrastructure and utility-driven projects, fostering more sustainable market growth. Regulatory progress, such as the U.S. GENIUS Act providing clarity for DeFi protocols, further legitimizes the ecosystem and encourages institutional engagement. Expert Commentary Matt Hougan, Global Head of Research at Bitwise Asset Management, stated, "Interest rates are more likely to decrease than increase in the coming year, and the willingness of regulators and lawmakers to engage with crypto, rather than outright rejecting it, will significantly lower the risk of future incidents." This perspective underscores a maturing market environment less susceptible to extreme regulatory shocks. Furthermore, the investment philosophy of Mr. KEY, detailed by AInvest, emphasizes deep research and a fundamentals-first strategy, accumulating undervalued assets during market neglect and exiting strategically before irrational exuberance. This approach contrasts with MEME coin investors who often lack basic knowledge of the projects they fund, highlighting a divergence in investor sophistication and strategy. Broader Context The convergence of blockchain and AI is unlocking transformative possibilities. Ethereum, with its newly launched dAI Team, aims to establish itself as the settlement and coordination layer for AI Agents, enabling them to transact and operate on-chain in a trustless and censorship-resistant environment. This initiative is expected to significantly increase real-world demand for Ethereum's blockchain, potentially unlocking trillions in value through AI-driven financial flows. Beyond AI, the corporate sector continues to integrate digital assets, with companies like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) holding 582,000 BTC and Metaplanet accumulating 8,888 BTC, setting a benchmark for corporate treasury management. Additionally, token buybacks have emerged as a strategic mechanism for value redistribution and protocol sustainability. Protocols like Aave launched a $1 million/week buy-back, redistributing AAVE to stakers, and Jupiter allocates 50% of its protocol revenue to repurchase and lock JUP tokens for three years. Hyperliquid has repurchased over 20 million $HYPE tokens, valued at approximately $386 million, representing 6.2% of its circulating supply by mid-2025. These mechanisms bolster token value by reducing supply and aligning stakeholders with the platform's success, showcasing equity-like financial mechanics within the crypto ecosystem.
Pump.fun livestreamers are earning substantial rewards by promoting Solana meme coins through bizarre stunts, creating highly volatile "creator capital markets" with rapid price fluctuations. Executive Summary Pump.fun livestreamers are engaging in increasingly bizarre stunts to promote their Solana meme coins, generating significant creator rewards and high market volatility. This trend underscores the emergence of "creator capital markets," where content creators directly monetize their audience's engagement through associated crypto tokens, often leading to rapid price fluctuations and speculative market sentiment. The Event in Detail The Pump.fun platform has recently seen a resurgence in livestreams, with creators performing unusual acts to promote their newly launched meme tokens. These promotions range from individuals pretending to be lamps for eight hours, hosting bizarre talent shows, spinning an egg wearing a hat, to acting as "Joker-esque" characters. The platform's new fee model directly incentivizes these activities by allowing token creators to earn a percentage of every trade. Significant earnings have been reported by these creators. Former League of Legends esports player Michael "BunnyFuFuu" Kurylo earned $243,600 in creator rewards since launching his BunCoin. The developer behind the RUNNER token earned $108,410. The deployer of the EGG token accrued $72,760 in creator rewards, despite the token's market capitalization dropping 80% from its peak of $1.6 million to $308,600. The duo behind the "lamps" stream earned $4,710, with their token reaching a peak market cap of $262,000 before retracing to $157,000. Market Implications These livestream promotions generate substantial trading volume and rapid, often extreme, price fluctuations for the associated meme coins. The market sentiment surrounding these "creator capital markets" is characterized by high volatility and speculative activity. The meme coin market carries inherent risks, including illiquidity, potential for exit scams, and significant price discovery volatility due to the absence of clear valuation baselines. Small-cap meme tokens can experience parabolic price movements with relatively modest capital inflows, largely due to their low liquidity. Expert Commentary The concept of "creator capital markets" is gaining traction, driven by the direct monetization opportunities for creators through crypto tokens. The underlying philosophy behind some creator payout models aims to align incentives, ensuring that creators are rewarded for building sustainable projects rather than merely engaging in speculative ventures. This approach seeks to build trust by rebutting the assumption that new tokens are solely vehicles for creators to enrich themselves, instead tying rewards to the long-term health and success of the platform. Broader Context This trend is situated within the expanding Web3 creator economy, where decentralized technologies aim to empower content creators with new monetization and audience interaction models. However, the rapidly evolving landscape of crypto advertising faces tightening global regulations in 2025. These regulations include stringent influencer disclosure rules and platform restrictions, potentially impacting the types of promotional activities seen on platforms like Pump.fun. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU's MiCA regulation and the U.S. GENIUS Act are establishing clearer guidelines for crypto-asset advertising. In 2024, misleading or false advertising in the crypto sector resulted in $115 million in fines globally, with projections for higher losses in 2025. Despite a general increase in cryptocurrency adoption, with approximately 28% of American adults owning crypto in 2025, concerns persist regarding the security of digital assets, as 40% of owners express a lack of confidence in the technology's safety. These factors introduce a layer of scrutiny to highly speculative and unregulated promotional activities within the crypto market.
Starknet's Grinta upgrade, intended to enhance performance and decentralization, experienced a multi-hour outage and chain reorganization, leading to a 4.5% drop in the STRK token's price. The Grinta Upgrade: Features and Implementation The Starknet v0.14.0, codenamed Grinta, was launched on Mainnet on August 18, 2025, introducing several significant enhancements aimed at advancing the network's capabilities and decentralization. Key features included a decentralized sequencer architecture, marking the initial step toward a fully decentralized sequencing model on Starknet with three sequencers operating under Tendermint consensus. The upgrade also introduced pre-confirmations, an intermediate transaction status with approximately 0.5 seconds latency, designed to make most transactions feel near-instant. Furthermore, Grinta implemented a new fee market for L2 gas, inspired by Ethereum’s EIP-1559, which incorporates a system of base fees and tips. With this update, the network exclusively supports v3 transactions, utilizing STRK for gas fees, and an upgraded mempool prioritizes transactions based on tip amount, replacing the previous First-In, First-Out (FIFO) system. Post-Launch Instability and Network Reorganization Immediately following its deployment, the Starknet network experienced a multi-hour outage on September 2, 2025, halting block production between 02:23 and 04:36 UTC. This incident, attributed to an ungraceful recovery from P2P issues on the Ethereum network and sequencer failure during the transition to Cairo1 code, necessitated a chain reorganization from block 1,960,612. As a consequence, transactions submitted during the outage window were invalidated, requiring users and decentralized applications (dApps) to resubmit them. Developers acknowledged the turbulence, drawing comparisons to similar outages experienced by other networks like Solana, while emphasizing the ongoing progress in uncharted ZK rollup design and the project's long-term decentralization objectives. Financial Impact and Market Response The outage had a direct financial impact on the STRK token, which saw its price drop approximately 4.5% to $0.1204 during the disruption. The introduction of STRK as the exclusive token for gas fees within the new EIP-1559-like fee market integrates the token more deeply into the network's economic mechanics. Despite the short-term price volatility and operational challenges, Starknet's Total Value Locked (TVL) stands at $548 million, positioning it among other Layer 2 solutions that face similar pressures to balance innovation with stability. Strategic Context and Decentralization Roadmap Starknet's decision to batch multiple features into a single
A group of Senate Democrats introduced a seven-pillar framework for U.S. crypto market regulation, aiming to establish clear rules and consumer protections through bipartisan legislative efforts. Executive Summary Twelve Senate Democrats have released a comprehensive seven-pillar framework detailing their conditions for supporting a digital-asset market-structure bill in the United States. This initiative signals a willingness by the Democratic party to engage in bipartisan negotiations with Republicans to establish a durable regulatory framework for the nearly $4 trillion global crypto market. The proposal emphasizes investor protections, closing regulatory gaps, and curbing potential illicit finance activities, aiming to reduce future regulatory uncertainty and foster innovation. The Event in Detail The framework, introduced on Tuesday, outlines a detailed approach to regulating U.S. crypto markets. It proposes granting the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) new powers over spot markets for non-security tokens, while establishing a clear process to determine if a digital asset falls under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s jurisdiction as a security. This aims to provide jurisdictional clarity for the sector. The framework also mandates disclosure requirements for token issuers and calls for crypto-specific rulemaking for exchanges and custody providers. Strict anti-manipulation and consumer protection standards are central to the proposal. Additionally, all digital asset platforms serving U.S. users would be required to register with FinCEN as financial institutions, subjecting them to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, and sanctions enforcement. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is identified as a key vector for illicit finance, with the framework calling for new oversight tools to prevent its misuse. It also seeks to prohibit interest or yield paid by stablecoin issuers, whether directly or indirectly. A politically charged section targets ethics, barring elected officials and their families from launching or profiting from crypto projects while in office, and mandating disclosure of their digital asset holdings. The Democrats called for increased funding for financial regulators and a guarantee of bipartisan representation in their rulemaking processes. Market Implications The introduction of this framework could lead to more predictable regulation for the crypto industry in the U.S., potentially fostering innovation and institutional adoption. The bipartisan effort suggests a path towards regulatory clarity, which could mitigate the current state of market uncertainty. However, failure to reach a consensus between the Democratic and Republican proposals could prolong regulatory ambiguity, hindering further growth and investment within the Web3 ecosystem. Expert Commentary In their proposal, the senators stated: > "Digital asset technology has the potential to unlock new businesses and spur American innovation. But questions about digital assets place in the U.S. regulatory framework have hobbled both innovation and consumer protection." This sentiment underscores the legislative intent to address the regulatory void that has constrained both innovation and consumer safeguards. Regarding the ethics provisions, Democrats have alleged, as per their framework, that certain actions by elected officials have undermined confidence in the broader digital asset industry, emphasizing the need for robust ethics rules. Broader Context The Democrats’ framework sets the stage for negotiations with Republicans, who have also introduced their own market structure bill drafts. The bipartisan approach is deemed essential for any legislation to advance through Congress. The objective is to create "clear rules of the road that protect consumers and safeguard our markets" and to ensure that digital assets are not exploited for illicit activities or personal gain by public officials. The overarching goal is to define how cryptocurrencies fit into current or future regulatory frameworks, thereby solidifying the U.S. position in the evolving global digital asset landscape.
StarkNet is a permissionless decentralized Layer 2 (L2) validity rollup, built to allow Ethereum to scale via cryptographic protocols called STARKs, without compromising Ethereum’s core principles of decentralization, transparency, inclusivity and security. The StarkNet Token is needed to operate the ecosystem, maintain and secure it, decide on its values and strategic goals, and direct its evolution. This token will be required for (i) governance, (ii) payment of transaction fees on StarkNet, and (iii) participation in StarkNet’s consensus mechanism. (Data from Coingecko)
Starknet (STRK) current price is 0, down 0.28% today.
Starknet (STRK) daily trading volume is $29.3M
Starknet (STRK) current market cap is $537.2M
Starknet (STRK) current circulating supply is 4.0B
Starknet (STRK) fully diluted market cap (FDV) is $1.3B