Deleted Aave Proposal Hints at MetaMask’s Stablecoin mmUSD

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🥶 MetaMask’s mmUSD stablecoin leaked (then deleted)

• 📜 Liquid staking is safe, says the SEC

• 💥 CZ hits back against FTX’s $1.7B demand

• 🛑 Base halted hard — sequencer outage blamed

• 🎙️ Bianco breaks down why cheap money’s over

• 💡 Bits + Bips: Are we reading the jobs data wrong?

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Deleted Proposal Suggests MetaMask mmUSD Stablecoin in the Works

MetaMask could be planning to launch its own U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin MetaMask USD (mmUSD) issued by Stripe, according to a now-deleted proposal on Aave’s governance forum.  

The proposal was authored by TokenLogic, an Aave DAO delegate that oversees key operations across the protocol, and called for a temperature check on adding mmUSD to Aave V3 on Ethereum and Linea.

Details from TokenLogic’s initial post seemed to imply that mmUSD will utilize the M^0 network for onchain minting and redemption, enabling efficient, fully onchain issuance and settlement.

“mmUSD is intended to be the cornerstone asset of the MetaMask ecosystem,” read the proposal, noting that mmUSD could be expected to deepen stablecoin liquidity across decentralized protocols.

Neither MetaMask nor Stripe has publicly acknowledged or confirmed the development. 

SEC Clarifies Liquid Staking Tokens Are Not Securities

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a staff statement clarifying that certain liquid staking activities do not constitute the offer or sale of securities under federal law.

The securities regulator emphasized that liquid staking refers to participants depositing crypto assets with a third-party provider, which issues receipt tokens evidencing ownership of the staked assets.

The SEC clarified that these receipt tokens themselves are not considered securities because providers act as agents, do not undertake managerial or entrepreneurial efforts, and merely facilitate staking on behalf of depositors.

Essentially, this exempts liquid staking providers like Lido, which accounts for $31.8 billion in onchain deposits, from registering with the SEC in relation to these activities. 

Total value locked across all liquid staking protocols currently sits at $66.8 billion. 

Meanwhile, former SEC official Amanda Fischer compared liquid staking to Lehman Brothers-era risk-taking, sparking backlash from crypto leaders who defended the transparency of decentralized protocols.

CZ Files to Dismiss $1.7 Billion FTX Clawback Lawsuit 

Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, has filed a motion to dismiss a $1.76 billion lawsuit brought by the FTX bankruptcy estate, which seeks to claw back funds linked to a 2021 share repurchase agreement between Binance and FTX.

Zhao’s lawyers argued the Delaware bankruptcy court lacks jurisdiction over him, as he resides in the United Arab Emirates, and the transactions and involved entities are all based offshore.

FTX sister company Alameda Research was headquartered in the British Virgin Islands.

“The claims are so far removed from Delaware, and even the United States, that the statutes at issue, which lack extraterritorial application, do not even apply,” said Zhao’s lawyers.

On substantive grounds, Zhao’s lawyers also denied that Zhao or Binance was responsible for FTX’s collapse, arguing that Binance was only a nominal counterparty in the repurchase agreement and that their business relationship with FTX ended long before FTX’s downfall.

Base Mainnet Sequencer Lag Triggers 33-Minute Outage

Coinbase layer 2 network Base experienced a 33-minute network outage on Tuesday, caused by a failure during a sequencer failover process.

The primary sequencer responsible for ordering transactions began lagging, prompting the system called Conductor to switch to a backup sequencer. 

However, the backup sequencer was not properly configured or fully prepared to take over, resulting in the network halting block production and transaction processing during the outage.

“We quickly switched to a healthy mainnet sequencer and Base Chain resumed normal operation,” said the Base team in a statement.

Jim Bianco on Why 0% Interest Rates and Money Printing Are Gone for Good

Has the Fed entered a new era?

In this episode of Unchained, macro strategist Jim Bianco of Bianco Research lays out why the current economic cycle is fundamentally different from what came before. He explains the implications of sticky inflation, why 0% interest rates and money printing may be relics of the past, and how the COVID-era economy created lasting structural shifts.

Bianco also gives his candid take on how retail investors have changed markets, why the payments system is still stuck in the 1950s, and how stablecoins and tokenized assets could fix that—if regulators allow it. He breaks down the threats facing major players like Coinbase and Robinhood, and shares a bold theory on what really happened during the GameStop short squeeze.

Bianco also assesses what could happen if the Fed is politicized — and whether Chair Powell is likely to be replaced.

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

Bits + Bips: Why Investors Are Looking at the Jobs Data All Wrong

Last week’s macroeconomic data came with a twist: a massive job downward revision from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But is it a recession signal, or just statistical noise?

In this episode of Bits + Bips, Ben Werkman, chief investment officer at Swan Bitcoin, joins hosts Ram Ahluwalia, Noelle Acheson, and Steve Ehrlich to examine why markets shrugged off the data, and what it means for crypto. The panel also discusses:

• Whether markets are mispricing macro risk

• How Strategy’s latest capital raise may reflect rising treasury company risk

• The future of tokenized equity and how Coinbase could unlock private market value

• New regulatory signals suggesting the U.S. may allow banks to hold crypto

• The rise of “super apps” blending payments, trading, and custody

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

• 👁️⚠️ China’s top security agency warned that crypto projects collecting iris and facial data may pose espionage threats, indirectly referencing Sam Altman’s Worldcoin initiative.

• ⛽ Ethereum developers proposed a new fee model to simplify how users pay for transactions, aiming to streamline costs after the 2024 Dencun upgrade slashed average gas fees by 95%.

• 🛡️ SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce defended the right to financial privacy in the digital age, urging regulators to protect people’s ability to self-custody crypto and use privacy-preserving tools.

• 🧩 Coinbase launched ‘Embedded Wallets’ for developers, allowing them to add self-custodial wallets with onramps and swaps directly into apps using minimal code.

• ⚖️ The founder of defunct lending platform MyConstant agreed to pay $10.5 million after the SEC found he used customer funds to gamble on the failed TerraUSD stablecoin.

• 💧 Fluid briefly overtook Uniswap in daily Ethereum trading volume with $1.5 billion on Sunday, marking a major milestone for the two-year-old DeFi protocol built by the team behind Instadapp.

• 🇮🇩⚡ Indonesia is considering mining and holding Bitcoin as a national reserve asset, after a local advocacy group pitched the idea to the Vice President’s office.

• 💵 Coinbase announced a $2 billion convertible note sale targeting institutional buyers, just days after reporting a 25% revenue drop and amid a pre-market dip in its stock price.

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1. Bits + Bips on Jim Bianco’s contrarian take: will Trump fire Powell? 

2. Crypto lawyer Austin Campbell on Trump’s EO on Operation Chokepoint 

3. Chris Perkins, President of CoinFund, on why the CFTC should allow fully backed stablecoins to serve as variation margin