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This Week on Unchained: PumpFun's Plans, USDH Bidding War, Tokenized Stocks, and More!
Laura spoke with Pump's co-founder. Plus, all the USDH drama!
Juan Aranovich
September 14, 2025
Good Sunday! Here’s what we unpacked this week on Unchained:
🎥 Pump.fun’s Big Bet – Can a crypto app really take on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok?
💵 The USDH Ticker Fight – Why the battle on Hyperliquid could reshape stablecoins everywhere.
📊 Bits + Bips: Stablecoins, DATs, and Tokenized Stocks – What the USDH war reveals about incentives and why DATs might be broken.
🧑⚖️ The Chopping Block: The USDH Bake-off – Was it governance innovation or just a beauty contest?
Bots, buybacks, and a bid to beat YouTube and Twitch: Pump’s plan to go mainstream.
Pump.fun rocketed to revenue, ran a blockbuster token sale, and then hit turbulence: rivals took share, the token slid, bots spammed launches, and critics cried “casino.”
Now the team is fighting back with a dynamic creator-fee model, a liquidity foundation for cult communities, and an unapologetic push into live streaming and mobile.
In this episode, co-founder Noah Tweedale lays out how Project Ascend aims to align creators and communities, why buybacks aren’t a long-term business model, what they’re doing about bots and user losses, and how Pump plans to compete not just with crypto apps, but with YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok.
It’s a candid look at whether a crypto product can become a mainstream platform.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Why the War Over the USDH Ticker on Hyperliquid Is Bullish for Crypto
The competition for Hyperliquid’s native stablecoin has been fierce. Shuyao Kong of MegaETH, which just announced USDm, explains why every chain will have a protocol-native stablecoin.
Stablecoins are supposed to be boring, but the fight for the USDH ticker on Hyperliquid has turned into one of the most dramatic battles in crypto.
From Ethena suddenly pulling out, to Paxos revamping its bid, to whispers of favoritism, the contest has put protocol-native stablecoins in the spotlight.
In this episode, MegaETH co-founder Shuyao Kong, who just announced their own stablecoin USDm, speaks about why they chose Ethena as a partner, and why alignment with Hyperliquid matters more than short-term incentives.
She also explains why ecosystems need both yield-chasing and yield-agnostic stablecoins — and whether Circle and Tether could be pushed aside in the next wave of competition.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Bits + Bips: Hyperliquid’s USDH Bidding War & Why the DAT Model Is Broken
We debate Hyperliquid’s USDH bidding war, DATs drifting off course, and why Galaxy skipped L2s for its tokenized stock.
The fight for Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin is more than a ticker battle—it’s a referendum on how crypto distribution, governance, and incentives will shape the next trillion-dollar market.
In this episode of Bits + Bips, Steve Ehrlich sits down with Delta Blockchain Fund’s Kavita Gupta, Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn, and Frax founder Sam Kazemian to dig into the big questions: Who will win the USDH war, and why does distribution matter more than design? Are DATs fulfilling their promises—or raising money without accountability? Why are L2s the wrong place for tokenized stocks? And where exactly is the trillion-dollar opportunity in stablecoins?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
The Chopping Block: USDH Bake-off—Native Markets, Validators & the “Beauty Contest” Debate
USDH Bake-off—Native Markets, Validators & the “Beauty Contest” Debate
This week, we’re joined by Guy, founder of Ethena, as a single ticker (USDH) sparked a weeklong spectacle: Hyperliquid’s “Bake-off” to award the USDH stablecoin brand. Native Markets surged ahead as validators signaled support, Paxos rallied late with partners and incentives, and Ethena ultimately withdrew. Was this always a vibes‑based beauty contest, or a deliberate move to pressure Circle and re‑route bridge yield?
We parse the incentives, the governance, and the market microstructure — and peek at what happens if every big chain/app tries the “native stablecoin” playbook.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
In Case You Missed It 👀
Crypto is entering a new phase of mainstream distribution. Here are five companies that will lead the movement.
Tether’s appointment of the former executive director of the White House Crypto Council leverages Hines’ political connections as it enters the U.S. market.
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