🎭 Memecoins Off the Hook?

Plus, 🏛️ Trump picks CFTC chief, 🚀 Another Solana ETF contender, 🔄 Uniswap unveils layer 2, and more!

Author

Juan Aranovich
February 12, 2025

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🎭 Are memecoins off the SEC’s radar?

  • ⚖️ A16z policy lead takes over at the CFTC

  • 📢 Another big player seeks a Solana ETF

  • 💰 Unichain’s layer 2 debuts

  • 💼 BitGo eyes an IPO

A multi-currency wallet that’s easy, quick, and secure? …That’s RockWallet! Discover how you can take control of your assets and feel confident in the digital economy.

By Tikta and Veronica Irwin

Hester Peirce, who heads up the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto task force, says many memecoins likely fall outside the agency’s regulatory jurisdiction.

In an interview with Bloomberg Crypto, Peirce said that while the SEC would examine each situation individually, "many of the memecoins that are out there probably do not have a home in the SEC, under our set of regulations.”

She also suggested that Congress or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission might provide clarity on the regulatory landscape for memecoins, if required.

As far as a regulatory agenda for all crypto assets goes, Peirce said at a virtual panel organized by the ultra-conservative Federalist Society think tank that it might be “a little premature” to begin the process of crafting rules before a new SEC chair is confirmed by the Senate.

Mantle is building the largest sustainable hub for on-chain finance. Launching three new core innovation pillars: Enhanced Index Fund, Mantle Banking and MantleX. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is Brian Quintenz, who leads policy at a16z Crypto and was formerly a commissioner at the agency, according to a White House document seen by Unchained.

Quintenz is expected to be a major advocate for the industry in his new position and someone who will encourage it to be overseen primarily by the CFTC rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Franklin Templeton Joins Solana ETF Race

Heavyweight asset manager Franklin Templeton has joined a growing list of finance sector firms looking to launch a spot Solana-based exchange-traded fund.

The firm registered its Franklin Solana Trust in Delaware on Feb. 10, taking the first step in the ETF launch process. Grayscale, Canary Capital, Bitwise, VanEck, and 21Shares have also registered similar entities for prospective Solana ETFs.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledged filings by Canary Capital, Bitwise, VanEck, and 21Shares on Tuesday.

The asset managers will also need to file a Form 19b-4 and a Form S-1 with the securities regulator to further the process.

Franklin Templeton has already launched spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum, and it was singing Solana’s praises as early as last July.

“Solana has shown major adoption and continues to mature, overcoming technological growing pains and highlighting the potential of high-throughput, monolithic architectures,” Franklin Templeton said in an X post at the time.

Uniswap Kicks Off Unichain Mainnet

Uniswap Labs, the entity behind the largest decentralized exchange, Uniswap, has officially launched the mainnet for Unichain, its new Ethereum layer 2 blockchain.

Unichain is designed to optimize DeFi transactions on Ethereum, offering faster and cheaper services. 

The new layer 2 claims its gas fees will be 95% lower than Ethereum mainnet’s.

It is built on Optimism's OP Stack technology, making it part of the growing Optimism Superchain ecosystem.

Later this year, it will support native interoperability, enabling single-block message transfers across the Superchain.

Circle, Coinbase, Lido, and Morpho are already building on the Superchain. More than 9 million transactions have taken place on the network, which has 28,270 active wallet addresses, according to data from open-source blockchain research tool Blockscout.

BitGo Mulling IPO This Year: Report

Crypto custodian BitGo is in talks with advisers on an initial public offering as early as the second half of this year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

No final decisions have yet been made as deliberations are still ongoing, unnamed sources told the newswire.

BitGo serves more than 1,500 institutional clients in 50 countries and processes around 8% of global Bitcoin transactions by value.

Its most recent funding round in 2023, which saw participation by the likes of Goldman Sachs, DRW Holdings, and Redpoint Ventures, valued the company at $1.75 billion.

Build real-time, reactive, fully on-chain applications with Somnia: 400,000 TPS, sub-second finality, and sub-cent fees. Perfect for gaming, social, and metaverse builders.

  • ⚠️ Blockchain security ranking platform CertiK admitted on Tuesday to auditing the stablecoin of a Cambodian black-market platform that reportedly facilitates human trafficking and online fraud, saying it had failed to vet the project properly before accepting payment.

  • 💸 Indian crypto exchange WazirX plans to reimburse users affected by a $230 million hack by issuing RT tokens, which will be tied to any future fund recovery, but the exchange’s revival depends on a user vote.

  • 🤝 World Liberty Financial on Tuesday doubled down on its bet on tokenized real-world assets by integrating Ondo Finance’s treasury products, aiming to bridge traditional finance with DeFi lending and trading.

  • 🖼️ NFT marketplace OpenSea denied rumors that users would need know-your-customer verification for an airdrop, blaming test website language, while Polymarket’s odds on an airdrop before April surged from 25% to 45% after the controversy.

  • 🛠️ DAO Lido’s proposed V3 upgrade would introduce “stVaults,” a modular staking system allowing institutions and advanced investors to customize Ethereum staking strategies beyond standard liquid staking.

  • 🏦 Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged concerns about crypto firms being “debanked” in the U.S., blaming banks’ fear of compliance risks and pledging to review regulatory pressure on crypto banking access.

  • 💰 A U.S. House hearing exposed deep divides on stablecoin regulation, with Republicans pushing for state-level oversight while Democrats sought more federal control and President Donald Trump’s memecoin launch added political tensions to the debate.

  • 🔓 Starknet-based zkLend lost more than $9 million in a hack and is offering the attacker 10% as a “white hat” reward in exchange for returning the remaining 3,300 ETH ($8.4 million) to avoid legal action.

  • 🇭🇰 Hong Kong now accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum as proof of wealth for its investment visa, allowing applicants with at least $3.8 million of assets to qualify, although crypto cannot form part of the required post-approval investments.

  • 🏦 Goldman Sachs more than doubled its bitcoin ETF holdings in Q4 to $2.05 billion, signaling strong institutional demand as it ramped up investments in BlackRock and Fidelity’s crypto funds.

  • 🚀 Blockchain game development studio Mirai Labs secured $4 million to build AI-powered crypto assistants that automate wallet management, betting that self-learning AI will drive the next phase of Web3 adoption.

Unchained is seeking a proactive, part-time Sponsorships Manager to generate and manage sponsorships across Unchained’s platforms.