JPMorgan Tests Blockchain Deposits on Coinbase’s Base

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🧪 JPMorgan goes onchain

• 🕵️‍♂️ Tron’s black market pegged at up to $10B

• 😮 Meta Pool bug allowed $27M mint, but losses were quickly halted

• ⏳ Trump’s crypto deadline delayed by Senate

On the podcast:

• 🎧 Unchained: Can Hyperliquid survive the hype?

• 🎤 Bits + Bips: Tron IPO, stablecoins, ETH momentum

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JPMorgan to Pilot ‘JPMD’ Token on Base

JPMorgan is launching a pilot for its new deposit token JPMD on Coinbase’s Base blockchain.

According to Bloomberg, the JPMD token represents dollar deposits at JPMorgan and is designed specifically for institutional clients, enabling them to move money onchain 24/7.

“Moving money should take seconds, not days. Commercial banking is coming onchain,” said Base in a post on X.

Over the next few days, a fixed amount of JPMD will be transferred from JPMorgan’s digital wallet to Coinbase, with the transaction denominated in US dollars.

The pilot is expected to last several months, after which Coinbase’s institutional clients may gain access to JPMD for transactions.

Executives at the bank also recently met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force to discuss the potential migration of capital markets activities onto public blockchains.

‘Black U’ on Tron Valued Between $5B and $10B: ZachXBT

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT estimates that the “Black U” market operating on the TRON network is valued at between $5 and $10 billion, with a significant portion of the activity remaining untraceable.

“Black U” refers to a segment of economic activity on the Tron blockchain that operates outside official, regulated channels, using USDT (referred to as "U" in crypto circles) as its primary medium of exchange. 

“Laundering groups and small OTC brokers have seemingly won the battle for Lazarus Group after successfully laundering recent hacks (Bybit, DMM Bitcoin, WazirX, etc) with ease,” said ZachXBT on X.

“A number of teams sit and watch collecting fees doing nothing when >50% of the activity for their protocol comes from stolen funds.”

Tron is poised to enter the public markets in the U.S. through a $210 million reverse merger with SRM Entertainment, a company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Meta Pool’s $27M Exploit Limited due to mpETH Lack of Liquidity 

Multi-chain asset-staking protocol Meta Pool suffered an exploit due to a critical bug in its staking smart contract — a vulnerability that allowed an attacker to mint 9,700 of the protocol’s mpETH tokens, valued at around $27 million, without needing to stake the underlying ETH.

mpETH is Meta Pool’s liquid staking token that represents staked ETH within the protocol and can be traded or used in DeFi applications.

This unauthorized minting occurred through a flaw in the contract’s minting logic, specifically related to the “fast unstake” functionality, which bypassed the usual waiting period for unstaked funds.

Despite the potential for massive losses, the attacker only managed to extract about 52.5 ETH, worth around $132,000, from liquidity swap pools before the Meta Pool team detected the exploit and paused the affected contract.

“Resolving the security issue is now a top priority, and developers are actively working on developing a plan to restore functionality,” said the Meta Pool team. 

The protocol also reassured users that all ETH staked on the protocol remains safe and delegated to SSV Network operators, who continue to validate blocks and accrue staking rewards on the Ethereum mainnet.

CLARITY Act Will Miss Trump’s August Deadline: Senate Banking Chairman

President Donald Trump’s stated goal of passing market structure cryptocurrency legislation by the August recess is in serious jeopardy.

A spokesperson for Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) confirmed to Unchained in an email this morning that while the senator plans to hold a hearing on the CLARITY Act next month, a markup session will not happen until the fall. These comments confirm a timeline that the senator shared in an interview with Bloomberg published Tuesday morning.

With tensions over conflict-of-interest provisions and political timelines slipping, is Trump’s promised crypto revolution already hitting the brakes?

Arthur Hayes and Hanson Birringer on Hyperliquid’s Success (And What Could Stop It)

It made users rich. It skipped VCs. It’s challenging Binance. Hyperliquid has been a huge success this year, but can it be sustained?

Hyperliquid is one of the most talked-about platforms in crypto right now.

It’s an onchain perpetuals exchange that sidestepped VCs, built a deeply loyal user base, and launched with transparency most rivals avoid. But it’s also staring down some massive challenges—from incoming competitors like Coinbase and Robinhood, to the technical hurdles of decentralizing its core exchange engine.

Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom and one of crypto’s most iconic traders, and Hanson Birringer of Flowdesk discuss:

• What actually drove Hyperliquid’s success

• How a user-first approach is outpacing venture-backed models

• Whether the James Wynn saga was legit

• Why the HIP-3 proposal could be the “holy grail” for DEXes

• And whether Hyperliquid can survive its next big test: the entrance of giants

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 Tron’s IPO Matters & How Crypto Exchanges Will Win

A new crypto treasury powered by Tron. Wall Street circling stablecoins. And what will determine the winners amongst crypto exchanges. 

In this week’s episode of Bits + Bips, the panel digs into why Tron’s rumored IPO is more than a headline, what Wall Street’s quiet shift into stablecoins signals, and how exchanges are racing to control token flow, even as regulation hangs in the balance.

They also explore:

• What the Israel–Iran conflict means for global markets, oil prices, and crypto positioning

• Whether banks can adopt stablecoins without threatening their own deposits

• If regulatory clarity will come fast enough to shape the next crypto phase

• How to tell if ETH’s revival has staying power

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

• 🕵️ Iranian exchange Nobitex was hacked for over $82 million by the Israeli-linked group Gonjeshke Darande, which claims to have exfiltrated internal data and vows to leak source code while accusing the platform of helping Iran sidestep sanctions.

• 🏛️ The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act with a 68–30 vote, creating the country’s first stablecoin regulatory framework despite internal Democratic disputes over Trump’s crypto empire and concerns about political corruption.

• 🎈 The Ink Foundation, which is the non-profit entity behind Kraken’s layer 2 Ink, will launch its INK token with an airdrop tied to a DeFi protocol on Aave, aiming for utility over hype amid a weak L2 token market and just $7 million in TVL and $93 in daily revenue on its chain.

• 📊 Coinbase is seeking SEC approval to offer tokenized versions of traditional stocks in the U.S. through a no-action letter or exemption, aiming to compete with Robinhood and Schwab as it diversifies beyond crypto trading.

• 🧾 Gemini accused the CFTC of weaponizing fraudulent whistleblower claims in a seven-year legal battle it settled for $5 million, calling the regulator’s conduct unconstitutional and emblematic of a toxic enforcement culture.

• 🇹🇭 Thailand approved a capital gains tax exemption on crypto transactions conducted through licensed platforms until the end of 2029, aiming to attract foreign investment, boost the domestic economy, and enhance transparency in digital asset trading.

• 🇪🇸 Spanish banking giant BBVA is now advising wealthy clients to allocate 3–7% of their portfolios to bitcoin and ether, with plans to expand this crypto investment strategy to additional assets later in the year.

• 💱 Chinese giant JD.com announced plans to apply for stablecoin licenses in major economies to cut cross-border payment costs by up to 90 percent and reduce settlement time to under 10 seconds, as part of a broader bid to revive post-slump growth.

• 🛢️ A $75 million acquisition of a Latin American oil and gas facility by Feniix Energy was completed using tokenized equity and debt via Global Settlement’s GSX Protocol, marking the first fully tokenized capital stack for a functioning energy asset.

• ☁️ EigenLayer secured $70 million from a16z to launch EigenCloud, a verification platform enabling off-chain apps in AI and finance to access blockchain-grade trust using programmable slashing and custom settlement tools.

• 💱 Ubyx, a stablecoin startup, raised $10 million in a seed round led by Galaxy Ventures to create a universal stablecoin clearing system, partnering with issuers like Ripple and Paxos to offer seamless redemptions through regulated financial channels.

• 🍜 Asian food brand DayDayCook secured $528 million across multiple funding channels, including a $300 million convertible note and a $200 million equity line, all earmarked for purchasing bitcoin to grow its corporate treasury.

• 🟠 Fold, the parent company behind the Fold Bitcoin wallet and app, obtained a $250 million equity facility to grow its bitcoin treasury.

1. Stablecoins and the Collapse of the Legacy Payment Model by Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly

2. Austin Adams from Whetstone Research on how “Circle’s IPO left $1.72 billion on the table for investors and how we can remake the IPO system”

3. This Is Water (or, What the Hell Is Fiat?) by Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise