Biggg fan of this direction, especially the clear line between real tokenized securities and synthetics, with tokens expected to carry the same rights and privileges as the underlying shares. Don’t get me wrong, synthetics like CFDs have an important place in markets (they can provide efficient leverage, hedging, access without requiring ownership of the underlying asset etc.) but tokenization should ultimately move toward bringing the actual security onchain to preserve ownership. IMO that’s where the market needs to go: real assets, real investor rights, onchain.

Earlier today, Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at @StanChart, published his first research report on @SkyEcosystem. IMHO very cool to see another G-SIB who is paying significant attention to this space! The report describes the specialization of Sky’s agent model: capital provided at a wholesale rate to allocators operating across distinct markets and strategies, within defined parameters. From a capital markets perspective, this creates a modular structure for capital allocation. Individual agents can specialize by asset class, market or strategy, while the broader system retains a common source of capital and framework for risk (the Sky Atlas). As the balance sheet grows, expanding the investable universe doesn’t necessarily require centralizing the investment function; it can instead mean adding specialized sources of origination, execution and risk-taking around a common capital base. Additional reporting:

Oracles are the Achilles’ heel of DeFi. @RuneKek @SkyEcosystem and @nomos_paradox @ChronicleLabs discuss on the latest Unwrapped why oracle infrastructure is a critical part of a protocol’s security.

As part of Laniakea, part of my remit is building the market infrastructure that lets Sky allocate capital at institutional scale across BOTH traditional and onchain markets. That means making capital allocation more scalable and dynamic, with the market access, execution and liquidity to efficiently rebalance the portfolio as opportunities and market conditions change.

I spent the first decade of my career in traditional markets, and it's fair to say that not long ago, token buybacks would have been written off as some niche, aspirational crypto phenomenon. This week, they’re being covered by the @FinancialTimes for readers who want to know how these programs are structured, who/what funds them, and what they say about the businesses behind them. That feels like a meaningful shift. @SkyEcosystem was one of the protocols that was covered. Buybacks aren’t novel; public companies have used them for decades. Apple is probably the most obvious example: year after year it funds the business, invests heavily, maintains the balance sheet and still generates enough cash to return tens of billions through repurchases. In FY '25 alone, they generated more than $111b of operating cash flow and spent roughly $91b buying back shares. The orders of magnitude are obviously a bit different, but this same principle is relevant to Sky. Savers get paid via sUSDS yield, the capital buffer gets funded, reserves are built, and surplus revenue beyond those requirements can be allocated to SKY buybacks. Here's Sky Protocol in numbers: >$400m in revenue over the last twelve months, a record $124m and $107m quarters of revenue in succession, and a fifth straight profitable quarter in a market where profitability has been scarce. Cumulative SKY repurchases are ~$125m since the program began in Feb '25. That’s the part I keep coming back to. In public markets, the ability to consistently fund buybacks out of earnings has long been viewed as a sign of financial strength. I don’t think that reads much differently onchain. Onchain markets are increasingly being judged by the same things public markets always have been: revenue, profitability and capital allocation. This feels like progress.

USDS staking rewards have returned to Sky! When staking SKY you can now choose if you want rewards in SKY or USDS. The rewards are entirely funded by protocol income Additionally permanent token burn funded with protocol income have also started

Grove Basin's first transaction is written onchain 🌳 On July 28, a holder of @JHIAdvisors' JTRSY initiated a $111k redemption on @centrifuge and instantly received USDC in the same transaction. The fund's standard redemption process still takes days. The holder’s liquidity arrived immediately. Tokenized Treasuries brought one of the world's deepest markets onchain. But while the assets moved at internet speed, the exit remained tied to traditional settlement timelines. Basin changes that, with up to $1B in committed daily liquidity. Whether holders wait now comes down to one thing: has their platform integrated Basin? Doing for real-world assets what stablecoins did for payments. Tap in.

Every dollar that moves through a payment stablecoin today is a dollar that may eventually look for somewhere to earn. John Conneely, Sky Frontier Foundation's Global Head of BD, wrote about how growth on the payments side of the stablecoin market tends to grow demand on the savings side right along with it. Sky Protocol built USDS and sUSDS to meet that demand, with a savings rate set by protocol governance rather than a platform's rewards budget.

Congratulations to @sparkfinance on their new Earn initiative with @RobinhoodApp! It’s been impressive to watch @hexonaut @nad8802 and team expand across new chains, new applications, and now new user bases. One thing that stands out is how quickly Spark has evolved from a DeFi-native protocol into infrastructure that’s reaching users across chains, apps, and now mainstream financial platforms.

The LinkedIn to Telegram/Signal ratio is becoming one of my favorite leading indicators for the institutionalization of this space. Getting asked for that + email more and more these days. Anyone else?

1/ Today in @FortuneMagazine: Framework Ventures has raised $400 Million for our 4th fund, FVIV. We believe the future is being built at the intersection of blockchain, AI, robotics, energy, and fintech. 🧵👇

Sky Protocol generated $12.85M in protocol revenue over the last 30 days, more than any other protocol on @ethereum, per @DefiLlama. That puts the full-year revenue projection, based on the last 3 months, at $395M. Revenue at this level, sustained over time, is what institutional trust is built on.

Honored to be included in @FortuneMagazine’s inaugural Crypto 100 list. Sky Protocol is featured in the Stablecoins category, with USDS ranking as the third-largest stablecoin in the world after Tether and Circle. See the full list ↓