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- Glue Founder Accuses Across of Secretly Taking $23M From DAO
Glue Founder Accuses Across of Secretly Taking $23M From DAO
Plus, 🤑 Polychain cashes $80M in staking rewards, 📱 Kraken launches “Krak”, 💼 Bakkt files for $1B raise, 🤖 AI tokens sink as Nvidia soars.
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Hi! In today’s edition:
🧨 Glue’s Ogle says Across team took $23M via secret DAO votes
💰 Polychain rakes in $80M selling Celestia staking rewards
📱 Kraken launches Krak to rival Venmo and PayPal
🧾 Bakkt files to raise $1B for BTC and crypto treasury
📉 AI tokens slump as Nvidia hits new highs
🎧 U.S. perps are coming
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By Tikta and Steve Ehrlich
Ogle Claims Across Protocol Used Secret Votes to Extract $23 Million From DAO
Glue’s pseudonymous founder Ogle has publicly accused the Across Protocol team of manipulating DAO votes and extracting around $23 million from the DAO treasury.
In a post on X, Ogle said the Across team used secret wallets to influence DAO voting outcomes, enabling them to transfer funds from the DAO treasury to a private company associated with the team.
One alleged example includes an October 2023 proposal that requested 100 million ACX (valued at around $15 million at the time) to be sent to Risk Labs, the core development company behind Across.
Ogle claims that the main project lead, Kevin Chan, used his public wallet to submit the proposal but then used a different, less obvious wallet (maxodds.eth) to cast a large “yes” vote. The second-largest voting wallet was linked to Hart Lambur, founder of both Risk Labs and Across.
Almost a year later, another proposal asked for 50 million more ACX tokens, worth around $7.5 million. Once again, secret wallets controlled by the team reportedly made up a huge portion of the “yes” votes—enough to push the proposal past the required quorum.
“The allegations in here are categorically untrue and I will vigorously defend our protocol and our team,” Across’ Lambur said in response to the post.
Polychain Made $80 Million From Selling Celestia Staking Rewards
Polychain Capital invested around $20 million in modular blockchain network Celestia, but has made over $80 million worth of Celestia’s native TIA tokens solely from selling staking rewards.
According to Pavel Paramonov, founder of blockchain research firm Hazeflow, this means they realized a return of more than four times its initial investment from staking rewards alone, without selling their original investment stake in Celestia.
“Any chain that allows insiders to earn emissions on locked tokens is optimizing insider/VC profits over product success,” commented Columbia University blockchain professor Omid Malekan on X.
“I am all for VCs maximizing LP profits, but if you participate in such an arrangement save me the BS about believing in the project. You don’t.”
Polychain was founded in 2016 by Olaf Carlson-Wee, known for notable investments in companies like Coinbase, Tezos, and Compound. It manages around $5 billion in assets as of June.
Kraken Launches ‘Krak’ App to Rival Venmo and PayPal
Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a new peer-to-peer (P2P) payment system called "Krak," designed to allow users to send and receive both cryptocurrency and fiat across borders with ease.
Users can now send money peer-to-peer internationally without needing to input bank details or wallet addresses, using a personalized payment ID called "Kraktag.”
The app offers dedicated accounts for spending and earning, with users able to earn yields up to 4.1% on USDG stablecoin balances and up to 10% on more than 20 other digital assets.
USDG is issued by Paxos Digital Singapore and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The offering makes Kraken well positioned to compete with established payment apps such as Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal as the firm aims to expand beyond crypto trading.
Bakkt Files to Raise $1 Billion for Bitcoin and Crypto Treasury Push
Bakkt Holdings has filed a shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking approval to raise up to $1 billion through the sale of various securities.
The move follows an updated investment policy, which allows Bakkt to allocate capital to bitcoin and other digital assets using proceeds from these offerings, excess cash, or debt issuance.
The shelf registration provides Bakkt with the flexibility to issue these securities in multiple offerings over time without needing new SEC filings for each, enabling the company to respond quickly to market conditions and liquidity needs.
Bakkt is a publicly traded company focused on crypto custody and loyalty solutions for institutions. It is a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the New York Stock Exchange, and was launched to leverage regulated markets and secure warehousing for digital assets.
It is the latest entrant to a growing list of bitcoin treasury companies, which includes 130 publicly traded firms that collectively own hundreds of thousands of BTC.
AI Crypto Tokens Swoon as Nvidia Reaches a New All-Time High
GPU manufacturer Nvidia (NVDA) reached a new all-time high on Thursday morning of $155.45 after recovering from a rocky start to 2025, when it briefly plunged to $93.31 amid global market turmoil and trade tensions.
But while Nvidia’s AI-fueled rally is lifting the entire semiconductor sector, crypto’s AI tokens, like Bittensor, Fetch.ai, Near, Render, and Worldcoin, have dropped more than 20% during the same stretch.
So why is Wall Street doubling down on AI while crypto investors are bailing out—and can the sector ever catch up?
Perps Are Coming to America. Will Coinbase and Robinhood Win the Race?
Hyperliquid has exploded in popularity by offering easy access to perpetual futures. Now, Coinbase and Robinhood are jumping into the market. Will regulated U.S. products find the same success?
Perpetual futures (perps) are among the most traded crypto products globally. But so far, they’ve been mostly off-limits in the U.S. That’s about to change.
Unchained executive editor Steven Ehrlich joins Laura to discuss his recent reporting on Hyperliquid’s rise, the surging American appetite for perps, and why Coinbase and Robinhood are finally entering the market. They break down what makes perps attractive, the barriers U.S. firms will face, and whether regulated platforms can really compete with a token-fueled DeFi juggernaut.

🚫 A federal judge rejected Ripple and the SEC’s joint request to end a long-standing injunction, saying the conditions hadn’t changed enough to justify cutting Ripple’s penalty or lifting restrictions imposed after the token’s institutional sales.
🚀 🇺🇸 Coinbase will launch nano-sized, CFTC-compliant perpetual futures for Bitcoin and Ethereum on July 21 to fill a long-standing domestic gap as its stock hit $382 for the first time since its 2021 IPO, recovering from a 90% crash.
🕵️ TRM Labs suggested Israeli cyber units may have leveraged data from the $90 million Nobitex hack to arrest three individuals allegedly working for Iranian intelligence, highlighting crypto’s role in covert cross-border payments.
🕵️ Stablecoins are now the dominant tool for illicit crypto activity, with the FATF warning that broader adoption in unhosted wallets could magnify risks tied to money laundering, terrorism financing, and regulatory blind spots.
📲 Telegram’s one billion users can now earn 4.7% yield on staked TON via a new partnership between P2P.org and Ton Whales, offering seamless access through Telegram-linked wallets with institutional-grade security.

🌏 Hong Kong unveiled an updated national strategy for digital assets that prioritizes stablecoin adoption and real-world asset tokenization, rolling out tax incentives and regulatory streamlining as it competes directly with a pro-crypto U.S. policy wave.

🇦🇪 Trump-linked crypto platform World Liberty Financial received a $100 million token purchase from UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation, raising fresh scrutiny over foreign influence after its USD1 stablecoin was used in a $2 billion Binance investment.

Coinbase and Robinhood be like
— Unchained (@Unchained_pod)
1:49 PM • Jun 26, 2025


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