🤑 Coinbase’s Lucrative Payout

💰 Coinbase earns more from USDC than Circle, 🦄 Uniswap holders vote to continue treasury delegation, 👩‍⚖️ SEC and Gemini file for lawsuit resolution, 😬 Ethereum L2 fees drop 95% since March.

Author

Adrian Zmudzinski
April 02, 2025

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🤝 Coinbase’s lucrative partnership with Circle

  • 🗳️ Uniswap DAO extends delegate incentives

  • ⚖️ SEC and Gemini eye possible lawsuit resolution

  • 📉 Ethereum blob fees collapse 95% since March

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Circle’s IPO Filing Reveals Coinbase Earns More From USDC 

Circle, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has formally filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), aiming to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRCL.”

The S-1 registration statement also shows the company’s financial performance for the last three years. In 2024, Circle reported $1.67 billion in revenue, a 16% year-over-year increase, though net income fell 41.8% to $155.6 million.

The biggest line item contributing to that significantly lower net income figure is the $907.9 million that Circle paid to Coinbase as part of its distribution agreement with the crypto exchange. 

“Coinbase makes more money off USDC than Circle,” noted Nick van Eck, CEO of stablecoin issuer Agora, on X.

The filing also disclosed that Circle acquired Coinbase's 50% stake in Centre Consortium — their joint venture for issuing USDC — through an equity transaction valued at $210 million in August 2023.

Circle’s net income is also a fraction of rival stablecoin issuer Tether, which reported a yearly net profit of $13 billion in 2024. USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin with a $60.1 billion market cap, trailing Tether's USDT with $143.9 billion.

Uniswap DAO Votes to Continue Treasury Delegation Program

The Uniswap DAO has approved a preliminary proposal to continue its Treasury Delegation Program, allocating up to 18 million UNI tokens, worth around $113.4 million, to incentivize governance participation among selected delegates.

The initiative aims to support "active but underrepresented representatives" who vote on behalf of UNI token holders, with final details pending an onchain vote.

It would allocate 1 million UNI tokens each to 12 delegates, and an additional 1 million UNI to "top-tier" delegates, based on criteria such as maintaining an 80% voting participation rate over three months.

Voting concluded on Tuesday with 60.35% in favor, but around 32% of delegates abstained from voting entirely.

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SEC and Gemini File Joint Motion to Potentially Resolve Lawsuit

The SEC and crypto exchange Gemini have filed a joint motion requesting a 60-day stay in their ongoing lawsuit to explore a potential resolution.

The joint motion does not specify whether the resolution might involve a settlement or case dismissal.

The legal dispute in question dates back to January 2023 and centers on the SEC’s allegations that Gemini’s Earn program, a crypto lending product, involved the unregistered sale of securities. 

The lawsuit alleged that Gemini and Genesis Global Capital raised billions through Earn without proper disclosures, impacting 340,000 customers holding $900 million in assets when Genesis halted withdrawals in November 2022.

Tuesday’s motion follows the SEC ending its investigation into Gemini last month, and a separate $5 million settlement between Gemini and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in January.

Ethereum’s Layer 2 Blob Fees Drop 95% Since Mid March

Ethereum's weekly blob fees, a key revenue source from layer 2 scaling networks, have plummeted to their lowest levels in 2025, raising concerns about the network's post-Dencun upgrade economic model.

Data from Etherscan shows that Ethereum earned just 3.18 ETH (approximately $6,000) from blob fees — a 73% drop from the previous week and a staggering 95% decline from the mid-March peak of 84 ETH ($157,883).

Ethereum’s reliance on layer 2 networks for scaling has seemingly created a revenue shortfall. DeFi Report founder Michael Nadeau estimates that layer 2 transaction volumes would need to grow 22,000-fold to offset lost fee income.

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  • 🎮 GameStop raised $1.5 billion through a convertible debt offering, with plans to use some of the funds to buy Bitcoin, marking a renewed push into crypto despite limited investor enthusiasm.

  • 🇺🇸 Two crypto-backed Republican candidates, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, won special elections in Florida with significant support from the Fairshake PAC, boosting GOP control in the House and likely strengthening pro-crypto legislation efforts in Congress.

  • 🇰🇵 North Korean-linked tech workers are increasingly infiltrating non-U.S. blockchain and crypto firms — particularly in Europe — using fake identities to generate revenue for the regime amid heightened U.S. scrutiny, posing risks of espionage, data theft, and extortion.

  • 😅 Kentucky has dropped its lawsuit against Coinbase's staking rewards program, following similar moves by Vermont and South Carolina, as calls grow for a unified federal crypto regulatory framework amid shifting SEC policies.

  • 🎒 Crypto exchange Backpack has begun the first phase of the claims process for former FTX EU users, requiring account setup and KYC verification, though no timeline for fund distributions has been set and confusion remains over who is responsible for repayments.

  • 🔥 Senator Ted Cruz introduced the FLARE Act to incentivize Bitcoin miners in Texas to use flared gas for energy, aiming to reduce emissions, boost local mining, and restrict benefits to foreign adversaries.

  • 💵 Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is reintroducing his "Financial Freedom Act" to allow Americans to include cryptocurrency in their retirement plans, aiming to reduce regulatory restrictions and support President Trump’s pro-crypto stance.

  • 🔁 Grayscale has filed with the SEC to convert its Digital Large Cap Fund — which holds a diversified portfolio of major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP, and cardano — into a publicly traded ETF.

  • 📈 American Bitcoin Corp., backed by the Trump family and recently majority-acquired by Hut 8, plans to raise capital and possibly go public. The entity will focus on Bitcoin mining while Hut 8 shifts toward data center infrastructure.

  • 🤑 GoMining has launched a $100 million Bitcoin mining fund for institutional investors, offering direct exposure to mined bitcoin through a reinvestment strategy aimed at boosting hashrate and efficiency, amid growing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.

  • 🇯🇵 Japan-based Metaplanet has expanded its bitcoin holdings to 4,046 BTC (worth over $341 million) following a $67 million purchase, amid efforts to boost investor accessibility through a 10-to-1 reverse stock split.

  • 💸 Tether acquired 8,888 Bitcoin in the first quarter of this year, increasing its holdings to over 100,000 BTC ($8.5 billion) amid regulatory scrutiny and expanding investment ventures, as its USDT stablecoin supply nears $148 billion.