Author: Alice Monroe

Solana’s biggest breakthrough since launch is The Alpenglow Protocol. This protocol, spearheaded by Anza, marks a radical redesign aiming for sub-second finality and unparalleled reliability. If we pull it off, we may see a blockchain under the Alpenglow Protocol as fast and stable as traditional Web2 systems. Replacing what Solana had with Proof of History and TowerBFT, we present Votor and Rotor. These introduce to the table solutions for issues of latency and scale. The Alpenglow experience helps difficult decentralized applications, like dApps, to operate more in real-time. Anza’s Role and Design Philosophy In 2024, the formation of Anza focused…

In a defining moment for crypto, the U.S. Senate on May 19, 2025, voted 66-32 in favour of the passage of the GENIUS Act. This is to say the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoin Act. This breaks from a recent stalemate and brings into reality the prospect of federal regulation of stablecoins like never before. The bill aims to bring much-needed clarity to the crypto space. It does this by putting in place a licensing system for issuers and rules which do not allow for interest to be paid to stablecoin holders. The passage reports a big…

In May 2025 Ethereum’s latest upgrade Pectra went live which saw into action the eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals that as per JPMorgan Chase  Co which had the aim of improving staking efficiency, validator operations and compliance. This Ethereum upgrade resulted in transaction volumes that did not see growth, also retail participation went down. This paradox also presents the growth of Ethereum’s institution play which sees the CME futures positions rise and we see the launch of new security token standards. At the same time daily active addresses have stabilised at 387,000 and transactions are at 1.1 million per day which…

Circle Internet Financial, which issued the USD Coin (USDC), is at a crossroads. They are in the process of preparing for a $5 billion IPO. At the same time, they are in talks to acquire major crypto players Ripple and Coinbase. Circle Internet also has to consider the rebounding crypto markets. The $250 billion stable coin sector is seeing more competition and regulation. What Circle does going forward may well restructure the future of digital finance. It will also affect the adoption of blockchain in financial services worldwide. Circle has had three IPO attempts which had failed due to regulatory…

In May 30, 2025 James Wynn, who is into cryptocurrency trading saw a huge blow to his fortune as he lost out on a Bitcoin bet he had put forward at the Hyper Liquid decentralised exchange which resulted in a loss of $99.3 million. Wynn had taken very aggressive positions which were at 40x leverage and the forced closure of these trades came about when Bitcoin’s price broke key support levels, which we also see as a display of the risk that comes with high leverage in volatile crypto markets. The liquidation happened on two large scales. James Wynn saw…

In May 2025 we saw SOL, the native token of Solana, drop 10% which brought the price down to $167  the first time in a week that we had seen such a low price. That price fall is a reflection of the fact that there is growing worry about a coming June to August release of 600 million SOL tokens into the market, also the decline of memecoins’ popularity and at the same time validators’ issues with increased MEV which is the maximum extractable value. Many fear the SOL token unlock will further affect prices. The token unlock is for…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 29, 2025, that the lawsuit against Binance was dropped. This marks a turning point in the crypto regulatory environment. It came about almost two years after the SEC Chair Gary Gensler put forward an aggressive enforcement program. The lawsuit which went on for nearly two years, accused Binance Holdings Ltd., its U.S. affiliate BAM Trading, and founder Changpeng Zhao of 13 counts. These included running unregistered securities exchanges and putting out unregistered tokens like BNB and BUSD. The passage of a joint motion also puts an end to pursuit of…

In first decision, the Thailand SEC has issued a ban which includes Bybit, OKX, and CoinEx. This ban is also applied to 1000X and XT. The announcement came out on May 30, 2025, with an implementation date of June 28. It is reported that the exchanges were offering their crypto services to local users without the required registration. This action broke national digital asset regulations. As a result, the Thailand SEC blocks access to Bybit, OKX, and others. This is the most aggressive regulatory action we have seen in Thailand to date. The SEC reported that these platforms did not…

Paris Saint-Germain has gone down in history as the first of the top flight football clubs to jump on the Bitcoin Treasury bandwagon. At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, the club broke the news of their subtle yet bold move. This move was to put some of their traditional reserves into Bitcoin. It not only secures their treasury but also places PSG at the head of financial and technological change in sports. Paris Saint-Germain Bitcoin Treasury Strategy Explained In 2024 Paris Saint-Germain put into practice its Bitcoin acquisition, which was run by its tech branch, PSG Labs. Over…

Elon Musk’s Polymarket Partnership announcement in early June 25’ is already making waves in tech, finance, and AI circles. In a move that took place June 6, 2025, it was reported that X (which was at the time Twitter) had partnered with Polymarket. They aim to roll out a decentralized prediction market platform. This platform also includes X’s AI-driven Grok engine, a real-time sentiment-based forecasting tool. It is meant to question traditional polling and market prediction models. Polymarket has processed over $3.2 billion in bets since going live in 2020. The company saw a 6.4% rise in its parent company’s…