A Landmark Moment for Ethereum as It Turns 10 Years Old

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Hi! In today’s edition:

🎉 A decade of Ethereum

🔄 Crypto ETFs get a major upgrade from the SEC

🧨 Base rockets past Solana in token creation

🧾 Crypto for mortgages? Lummis says yes

🎙️ Bits + Bips: ETH surges, tokenization booms

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Ethereum Turns 10 Years Old

It’s been ten years since the genesis block on the Ethereum blockchain was mined.

Since then, its native token ether, the second largest by market cap, has grown in price from $0.40 to $3,800 and is now worth $460 billion.

The network has also seen major upgrades over that time, including the historic “Merge” event in September 2022, which shifted its consensus from energy-intensive proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

Subsequent upgrades like “Shanghai/Capella” enabled staked ETH withdrawals in 2023, while "Dencun" introduced proto-danksharding to reduce costs for layer 2 solutions.

In the last few years, institutions have increasingly looked to ETH as a source for potential income generation. Spot ETH ETFs were approved in July 2024 and now hold over $21 billion in assets, while ETH treasury companies have collectively acquired 2% of all ETH supply within a few months in 2025.

“It was this day 10 years ago that we changed the world forever. We were a small team of hackers in an office in Kreuzberg in Berlin and we had just launched the Ethereum network. The rest is history,” said Ethereum developer and founder of Rotki Lefteris Karapetsas.

It’s the big 1-0! 🎉

 Join us in celebration of Ethereum’s first decade!

Laura joins Bitget this morning (8:00 am ET) for a special livestream.

At 10:00 am ET, streaming on X and YouTube, Laura chats with Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov about why he built Aave on Ethereum and why that matters on ETH’s 10th anniversary. 

Then, at 1:00 pm ET on X and YouTube, Ethereum Foundation Co-Executive Director Tomasz Stanczak joins Laura live on Unchained. Don’t miss it!

🔁 And transport back to 2018 by checking out Unchained's first interview with Vitalik Buterin! ⏳

SEC Approves In-Kind Redemptions for Spot Crypto ETFs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially approved in-kind creations and redemptions for all spot Ethereum and Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The landmark decision, announced on Tuesday, allows authorized participants – typically large financial institutions – to exchange ETF shares directly for BTC or ETH instead of being required to transact only in cash.

The regulatory change brings crypto ETFs in line with traditional commodity ETFs, improving operational flexibility and tightening bid-ask spreads. 

Tuesday also saw the SEC acknowledge a Nasdaq filing to allow staking in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). The move sets in motion a 90-day countdown for the application to either be approved or denied, unless the regulator chooses to extend the period for evaluation.

 If approved, ETHA could stake its ETH holdings to generate yield for investors. ETHA manages over $11 billion in assets and is one of the top three fastest-growing ETFs globally.

Base Outpaces Solana in Daily Token Launches 

Coinbase's layer 2 network Base has overtaken Solana in daily launchpad token launches, ending the latter’s two years of dominance.

Data from analytics firm SeaLaunch suggests that onchain social network Zora drove most of that activity. Tokens created on Zora spiked after Base integrated with the protocol earlier this month, soaring to a record 54,000 on July 27.

Notably, Zora also saw three consecutive days of token creations that outpaced the combined number of tokens created on popular launchpads LetsBonk and Pump.fun.

“DEX volume of Zora Coins has also spiked and this is a key metric since both creators and referrers earn a % of volume,” said SeaLaunch on X, while noting that it was a small set of tokens driving most of the volume.

“It is an expected pattern in content creation, but the broader the volume distribution across more tokens, the higher the number of creators who get to earn.”

Still, it’s early days for launchpad tokens on Base. As Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz pointed out, the collective market cap of Base launchpad tokens sits at $422 million as against the $5.9 billion on Solana. 

“For context: zora is a social network and every single new post is a new token. obviously quite a different model than what's being compared on other chains. not trying to dunk, but adding mcap does show the difference,” said Mumtaz on X. 

Senator Lummis Introduces Bill to Let Crypto Count Toward Home Loans

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced the 21st Century Mortgage Act, a mortgage reform bill aimed at modernizing the home loan eligibility process by including crypto in mortgage assessments.

The bill builds on a June directive from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to consider crypto assets in mortgage risk assessments, but codifies this directive into law to provide clear legal backing for lenders.

It aims to help borrowers use their stable digital assets, held for at least two years, as part of their financial profiles to qualify for mortgages.

Lummis said the bill’s motivation stems from a need to address the homeownership crisis among young Americans, especially those under age 35.

“We’re living in a digital age, and rather than punishing innovation, government agencies must evolve to meet the needs of a modern, forward-thinking generation,” said Lummis.

Bits + Bips: ETH Makes a Comeback While Crypto’s Animal Spirits Revive

Recently, ETH has been on an upward trend. Meanwhile, when will the digital asset treasuries trend lead to a crash? 

This week on Bits + Bips, Ethereum’s rally has reignited market energy, triggering fresh questions about the return of alt season, and whether Bitcoin’s dominance will continue to fall.

With special guests Katalin Tischhauser from Sygnum Bank and Wintermute’s Jake Ostrovskis, we dive deep into how corporate treasuries, tokenized assets, and shifting ETF flows are reshaping crypto’s microstructure. 

Plus, we dissect the macro impact of rising tariffs, the Fed’s delicate dance with Trump, and whether tokenization could breathe new life into the US dollar.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• ₿ Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold nearly $2.5 billion in new preferred shares—five times its original target—and immediately used the cash to buy 21,021 bitcoin, raising its total BTC holdings to 628,791, worth about $74 billion.

• 💰 Kraken is seeking to raise $500 million at a $15 billion valuation—up from $11 billion in 2022—as it publicly discloses $1.5 billion in annual revenue and prepares for a possible IPO despite lacking major institutional backers.

• ⚖️ Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm declined to testify at his money laundering trial, where internal chats revealed he was alarmed by North Korean hackers exploiting the tool and pushed to block their wallets after the Ronin Bridge attack.

• 🌀 The U.S. Department of Justice clarified in court that Dragonfly and its leadership are not targets in its Tornado Cash probe, walking back earlier reports that the firm might face charges over a 2020 investment in the now-sanctioned crypto mixer.

• 🌉 Ethereum layer-2 Linea unveiled plans to launch a native token and ecosystem fund—75% of which will be distributed by a consortium of Ethereum-aligned firms like ENS Labs and EigenLayer—to position itself as the primary home for ETH capital.

• ⚖️ Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill signaled they intend to change their not-guilty pleas in a federal case alleging their crypto mixer processed over $2 billion in illicit transactions.

• 🚖 Turkey’s largest ride-hailing firm, Martı, has allocated 20% of its cash reserves to crypto, starting with Bitcoin, aiming to hedge idle capital against inflation while keeping its core business growth plans unchanged.

• 🏦 Twenty One Capital, backed by Cantor Fitzgerald and Tether, increased its bitcoin holdings to at least 43,500 BTC (about $5.15 billion), setting it up as the third-largest corporate holder ahead of its planned Q3 public listing.

• 📉🔁 BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ethereum holder with $2.4 billion in ETH, approved an open-ended $1 billion stock buyback as part of a broader push to control 5% of the token’s supply.

• 🧬 Nasdaq-listed biotech firm 180 Life Sciences will rebrand as ETHZilla after raising $425 million to convert into an ETH-first treasury company, joining a wave of firms now holding 2% of total ether supply.

• 🇭🇰 Ahead of Hong Kong’s August 1 stablecoin licensing deadline, RD Technologies raised $40 million to fund its HK dollar-backed stablecoin and announced a new partnership with ZA Bank to explore regulated use cases.

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