Alex Harutunian

While crypto remains banned, China’s state-backed blockchain ecosystem — led by Conflux — is expanding across Asia and into global finance. Conflux Network bridges China’s academic research, state strategy, and open blockchain innovation.

DeFi is moving from standalone apps into the backend of exchanges, with Coinbase and Crypto.com leading by embedding Morpho’s lending vaults. This “embedded DeFi” model raises a key question: are exchanges becoming banks, or just UIs? The answer will define DeFi’s role in future banking.

Curve Finance is launching Yield Basis with a $60M crvUSD credit line. The product aims to eliminate impermanent loss for liquidity providers, and at the same time transform CRV from a governance token into an income-generating asset with revenues shared back to holders

Monero, the leading privacy coin, suffered an 18-block reorg after Qubic consolidated large mining power. Debate rages: Qubic claims 51% control; Monero devs deny widescale damage. Exchanges raised confirmations. The episode shows PoW chains can be threatened by economic incentives

After years of development, blockchain games still capture only a sliver of the gaming industry. The promise of true asset ownership, stable economies, and transferability remains unmet. Recent trends suggest blockchain was more hype feature than genuine necessity

Nasdaq has filed with the U.S. SEC to bring tokenized securities onto its main market, aiming to trade blockchain-based and traditional shares side by side. If approved, the move could make Nasdaq the first U.S. exchange to integrate tokenized equities under existing protections

Hyperliquid is preparing to launch its own stablecoin, USDH, through a validator-led governance vote. With USDC currently dominating its ecosystem, USDH would reduce reliance on external issuers and capture reserve yield. Paxos, Frax, Ethena, and an Agora–MoonPay coalition are competing to deploy it

The Ether Machine is bringing Ethereum to Wall Street through a SPAC merger and $2.1B in committed assets. Backed by ConsenSys veterans, it mirrors MicroStrategy’s playbook with convertible financing and promotion, while adding staking and restaking strategies that ETFs and Bitcoin wrappers cannot