I'm excited to be attending @Ripple Swell in NYC today! Ripple has been putting on a masterclass for onboarding institutions to crypto. Interested to hear from their team about the future roadmap, as well as from institutions on what they are most excited about!

Zcash fees scale with zcash:native price action. Over the past 90 days, the chain has generated $250k in fees, a +118% increase over the past 3 months. The peak came on Sep 23, which was right around its recent all time high of $1661. Fee generation has since slowed over the past month, with the chain pulling in just $78.4k over the last 30 days, however, as privacy continues to become a must have, table stakes requirement for institutional allocators, I'm sure to we'll start to see that number climbing again soon.

only ethereum:0xe76c6c83af64e4c60245d8c7de953df673a7a33d and zcash:native finished green on the privacy board this week: ethereum:0xe76c6c83af64e4c60245d8c7de953df673a7a33d +9.2%, zcash:native +7.0% on 7d while btc/eth and most of the rest of the set were red. both still deep red on 30d though (RAIL −17.3%, ZEC −25.5%). few explanations i can think of for this: ZEC: @Grayscale zcsh took ~$41.1m in net inflows the week ending 23 oct, which was the best week since mid-sep. zcsh is still roughly −$62m on the month, but this COULD be a sign we're close to bottoming. nu7 (~5 nov, 75s→25s blocks) is the next real date i'm watching since that will have a real impact on the network/change the economics. RAIL: weaker hard catalyst this week. possibly a mean-reversion after the oct 19 dump plus the kohaku/ambire narrative into vitalik's nov 3 demo. the product is privacy on eth defi (shield erc-20 → private pools) with a compliance angle via private proofs of innocence, which appeals to institutional traders. tvl sits at roughly $112m, roughly $383k fees over 30d. its a real protocol with value, but that's probably not why the 7d % is up on its own. more likely it's due to retail investors bidding it up. my read: price movements here are short term and variable, mostly driven by retail and one time events. long term, privacy is still a phenomenal bet. institutions need it to move capital onchain, and large investors will always want to hide their wealth. we are starting to see which projects win, but are definitely still in the discovery stage for this section of the industry. chart: token relations × token terminal

privacy sector circulating mcap went from ~$13.1b to ~$32.6b in 180 days. that's +149%. zcash:native alone is roughly 63% of the entire market now. i don't think this is just a flash in the pan hype cycle. ethereum:0xa12cc123ba206d4031d1c7f6223d1c2ec249f4f3 and DTCC are showing up on the same open transaction layer as @FireblocksHQ, which is the kind of setup institutions actually need if they're going to move size onchain without leaking their strategies. my take is privacy is going to be a required infrastructure for institutional adoption. without it i'm skeptical you get hundreds of millions of institutional capital onchain in a serious way.

📜 Included in our Institutional Ethereum Update for October: >> EIP-8198 (Quick Slots) promises to lower Ethereum block times to 10s >> @BitMNR announces it will stop buying ETH once it controls 5% of the supply >> @Nethermind and @smbcnikko_jp partner to bring agentic vaults to Japan Read the full report below for a complete overview of Ethereum's institutional adoption journey

Last Friday I had the pleasure of speaking at @BlockchainatCU! We covered what we do at @StrataMedia_, what life as a crypto researcher actually looks like, the biggest trends shaping the space right now, and how institutions are dipping their toes into the space. Below are a few tidbits and takeaways from the event 😁! Right off the bat, I want to thank everyone who came out! It was 7pm on a Friday, in the middle of midterm season, and we still filled seats! Great to see the passion and commitment from students to attend, especially on a topic as niche and controversial as crypto. It takes a driven individual to prioritize an event like this over the million +1 other things they could be doing. Not only that, but, during the talk, every time I looked up I saw engagement, interest, curiosity and a stark lack of cell phones. Really gives me faith that the future of crypto is in good hands. Throughout the night, we touched upon a number of topics, with the main points of interest being: > How do you approach research and create a strong thesis? > What makes a good crypto project in 2026 (hint: does the token accrue value?)? > And how far do we have left to go before we see peak institutional adoption (and what does that look like?)? I was also hit with a number of questions, primarily: > How do you evaluate good data vs bad data when multiple sources are giving different values? > Why is privacy so important in crypto and what is the tech behind it? > What is more valuable: the businesses being built today or the companies providing the "picks and shovels" behind their products? After the talk, the conversation continued for another half hour as students approached me to ask more questions, hear how I got into crypto, and learn how they can do the same. If I didn't have to leave I could easily have seen myself staying for another hour at least. For us in the industry, it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind: racing to meet deadlines, trying to keep up with the market, going to conferences and building "strategic" connections. But I remember not to long ago being one of those students, attending guest speaker events at my school's blockchain club, and hoping to get close enough to ask a few questions. I was so appreciative of the speakers who would show up, not because it would progress their careers, but because we were all students at one point and remember what it's like. And for the students out there, be curious and don't be afraid to reach out. I'd like to speak for the rest of the crypto professionals out there in saying that we love to hear from you. If you want to talk crypto, run through ideas, learn what working in the industry is really like, or need an introduction, my dms are always open. Lastly, for those of you reading this who were at the event, thank you. I feel so honored to have sat in front of you, and truly appreciate the eagerness, curiosity, and passion that you brought with you. Don't lose it!

Got a chance to attend @evernorthxrp's Nasdaq listing earlier this week and here were my main takeaways: >> The Nasdaq is REALLY cool!! This was my first time being inside, and first impression: they know how to put on a show. @evernorthxrp branding everywhere, waiters walking around with small bites, champaign after the closing bell, great view of Times Square (why was Sydney Sweeney on all the big screens outside?) >> There is a lot more that goes a livestream and media event than talking in front of a camera. We spent most of the time wrangling guest speakers, taking notes, and making sure the production ran on schedule. Twas much more stressful than anticipated. Big shoutout to the production crew for setting up the audio, cameras, etc, and solving technical issues. I don't think they even took a bathroom break so props to them for standing up the show. >> Investment orgs like @evernorthxrp do a lot more for the community than boosting token demand. The conversation centered around how @evernorthxrp plans to integrate into DeFi, build out the XRPL ecosystem, introduce new products, and overall boost the utility of XRP as an asset. Having a treasury working with an ecosystem can be a major boon when done right. For full coverage on what was said during the event, and what @evernorthxrp plans to accomplish over the coming 6 months-2 years, read our full coverage report below.

OUSD by @OpenStandard has grown to $809M since launching at the end of September, and nearly 64% of supply sits on @Tempo, an L1 blockchain incubated by @Stripe. When OUSD was first announced, @ahbeaudry made the case that it was Stripe’s stablecoin. 👇

We just published the October edition of the State of DeFi. Included in this month: >> @RobinhoodApp unveiled new products, including perpetual futures, 24/7 trading, and AI agents >> Deutsche Bank added institutional crypto custody >> @LidoFinance announced Lido Lend aimed at passive, long-term holders Read the full report below for more updates.

We asked @GabeOtte, Co-Founder and CEO of @DinariGlobal, about the recent growth of tokenized equities, the value in different architectures, and why institutions should care. "Issuing a token will become increasingly standardized. The hard work comes after issuance: maintaining the relationship with the underlying shares, managing issuance and redemption, processing corporate actions, connecting liquidity and distributing the asset across different platforms and networks. I don't expect one company to own the entire stack. Capital markets don't work that way today, and I don't think tokenization changes that. But there are network effects around liquidity and distribution, so I do expect a relatively small number of infrastructure providers to become important connective layers between issuers, financial institutions, trading venues and investors." His full insights below. 👇

We asked @CarlosDomingo, CEO and Chairman of @Securitize, about the recent growth of tokenized equities, the value in different architectures, and why institutions should care. "For issuers, tokenization is an opportunity to modernize how their shares are owned, distributed and used. It can open new distribution channels, facilitate a more direct relationship with onchain investors, streamline corporate actions, and make shares more useful in digital markets. Issuers must understand that not all tokenized stocks are structured the same way. There are meaningful differences between putting the company’s actual shares onchain and creating a separate instrument that represents or tracks those shares. Those choices affect shareholder rights, liquidity, corporate actions, custody and the relationship between the issuer and the investor. The challenge for the industry is making those distinctions clear, and building models that improve the existing market rather than adding unnecessary complexity or fragmentation." His full insights below. 👇

We just published out latest @StrataMedia_ Survey focused on Tokenized Equities. In it we interviewed leaders from @Securitize @AvaLabs @DinariGlobal and @SuperstateInc to hear their takes on tokenized equities growth, the value in different architectures, and why institutions should care. Key quotes from the report: "A telling metric to watch is how many public companies bring their own shares onchain, or participate in the sponsorship of U.S. legal tokens with full entitlement pass-through. That is real adoption." - @carlosdomingo, CEO and Chairman @Securitize "Over the next 12 months the test will be if on-chain stock takes market share from wrapped models. As the market matures, "total assets tokenized" figures should differentiate between synthetic exposure and native tokenization." - @cryptoreine, Business Development (Tokenization) @AvaLabs "Issuing a token will become increasingly standardized. The hard work comes after issuance, when companies will have to maintain relationships with the underlying shares, manage issuance and redemption, process corporate actions, connect liquidity and distribute the asset across different platforms and networks." - @GabeOtte , Co-Founder @DinariGlobal "People are paying too much attention to whatever launched nine hours ago. Someone makes a new stock token, everyone piles in, and suddenly that's the model. Most of it won't be. The bigger change is companies upgrading how their securities are issued and recorded, and that takes years." - @rleshner, CEO and Co-Founder @SuperstateInc

Crypto cards aren't for you. They're for auto manufactures sending inventory abroad, steel traders paying suppliers, and corporate treasuries managing their capital. B2B stablecoin payments grew 733% in 2025 to $226 billion, and now account for 60% of real stablecoin transactions. Companies are finally coming around to the idea of adopting stablecoins, seeing their advantages over traditional networks like ACH and SWIFT, and realizing their cost saving benefits on small margin businesses. Teams like @RedotPay, @slashapp, @dakota_xyz, @koshmoney, and @reapglobal are all building products that serve the B2B payments demand. And they're printing money. On the consumer side, the majority of brands are targeting markets outside of the US and Europe to avoid the stiff competition posed by Chase, Amex, Captial One, etc, and hit users without existing access to strong banking infra. @Plasma, @lemonapp_ar, @KASTxyz, and @wallbit_app are all building for international users first. American's may never fully see the benefits of transacting in crypto, but for consumers in Argentina and Brazil, these cards are a no-brainer. At @StrataMedia_ we spent time diving into the world of crypto cards to find out what's really going on, who is using them, and where the value is actually accruing. Check out our analysis below and consider subscribing to our newsletter at