Blockchain

DeFi is witnessing an unprecedented wave of buybacks, with leading protocols like Uniswap and Lido accelerating their alignment with traditional financial models in fee distribution, token buybacks, and governance weight. This has sparked intense debate over whether decentralization is being replaced by "corporatization." Using the latest buyback policies as a starting point, this report delves into the centralization controversies, governance structure restructuring, and new trends in token economics facing the DeFi sector, offering a critical perspective for understanding the industry's next phase of evolution.

Grayscale's IPO filing on the New York Stock Exchange marks its entry into US capital markets as a $35 billion leading crypto asset manager. The firm manages more than 40 products and over 45 cryptocurrencies. ETP and ETF assets under management reach roughly $33.9 billion. The IPO will use an Up-C structure, allowing the founding team to retain governance control. While both revenue and profit have seen slight declines, Grayscale's net profit margin remains high at 65%, highlighting the strong net profit margin characteristic of its asset management business.

In October 2025, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization exhibited a “rise-then-fall” pattern, reflecting weak market confidence and a stabilizing trend. Driven by the “BTCFi” narrative, Starknet saw new highs in both capital inflows and on-chain activity, with TVL rising from $170 million at the end of September to $245 million. Prediction markets heated up, with Polymarket and Kalshi recording a combined monthly trading volume exceeding $7 billion. Privacy coins made a strong comeback, with ZEC surging more than 440% for the month and leading the rally. On the funding side, the Web3 sector completed 130 deals totaling $5.12 billion, up 28.43% month-over-month, with total capital raised jumping 104.8% — the second-highest level in nearly a year — with funds primarily flowing into DeFi ($2.15 billion) and core infrastructure.

The chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled the next phase of "Project Crypto" in a recent speech: establishing a token classification system based on economic substance and emphasizing the legal logic that investment contracts may be terminated. This marks the entry of cryptocurrency regulation into an "era of clarity."

The article analyzes the logic behind this shift and the market reaction through specific cases, revealing the potential risks and opportunities of high-valuation ICOs.

Prior to its Coinbase listing, Monad published an 18-page sales document that provides comprehensive details on token allocation, release schedule, market-making strategy, and associated risks. According to the document, just 0.16% of the market-making supply will underpin a $2.5 billion Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV), underscoring the project's highly disciplined and cautious approach to price discovery and liquidity management.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the technical details of the fee switch mechanism, why past proposals failed, and the shifting stances of key stakeholders such as a16z. It further explores how the approval of the proposal could affect the Uniswap protocol and liquidity providers (LPs). It also considers the broader market dynamics.

The article reveals the risk mechanisms underlying these projects, such as high leverage, lack of transparency in asset operations, and complex financial strategies. It also examines the role of Curator within the DeFi lending market and its influence on risk transmission.

The article examines the financial challenges of expanding conventional power grids. It also explains how significantly lower solar hardware costs are creating new opportunities for off-grid solar solutions.

The article offers an in-depth look at multiple earning mechanisms in the TRON ecosystem, such as stablecoin staking, lending, liquidity mining, and the staking rewards and price growth potential of TRX.

The article points out that despite strong global liquidity, higher SOFR rates have led capital to flow into government bonds rather than the cryptocurrency market, leaving the cryptocurrency market in a self-financing phase at present.

By comparing the development history of XRP with traditional financial infrastructure, the author reveals the market's flawed approach to evaluating XRP.

Through an in-depth examination of the current landscape for Web2 professionals, the article highlights the end of the technology dividend era, the disruptive impact of AI, the dangers of platform reliance, the transformation of skillsets and income structures, and the underlying erosion of professional security.

$PING surged 50% following the launch of its x402 protocol-based emission platform, c402.market. This platform enables automatic trading pairs between all new tokens and $PING, transforming $PING from a meme coin into the foundational currency of the x402 ecosystem. The article examines c402.market's mechanism design, incentive structure, and associated risks, and discusses how the x402 protocol could ignite renewed speculation in the “asset creation” narrative.

MicroStrategy (MSTR), a typical example of a "Bitcoin treasury company," recently encountered a structural arbitrage on Wall Street: renowned short-seller Jim Chanos achieved an estimated profit of around 100% by shorting MSTR while going long on Bitcoin (BTC). The article provides an in-depth analysis of his trading logic, the reasons behind the deterioration of MSTR's Bitcoin net asset multiple (mNAV), and how this strategy exposes pricing discrepancies at the intersection of crypto assets and traditional finance.