SEC’s Project Crypto: A New Era for Onchain Markets?

Plus, 🧑‍⚖️ Winklevii block CFTC pick, 🦾 Ethereum plans Beast Mode, 📈 Coinbase targets tokenized stocks.

Author

Juan Aranovich
August 01, 2025

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Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🛠️ SEC’s Project Crypto pushes for onchain U.S. markets

  • ⚖️ Winklevoss twins oppose Trump’s CFTC nominee

  • 🦾 Ethereum lays out “Beast Mode” 10-year roadmap

  • 📉 Coinbase to offer tokenized stocks, prediction markets

  • 💰 Robinhood’s crypto play boosts Q2 earnings

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By Tikta and Kate Drew

SEC Unveils Project Crypto to Bring U.S. Markets Onchain

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled a new initiative to modernize securities rules around digital assets dubbed “Project Crypto,” with the goal of bringing U.S. financial markets onchain.

The SEC said it will draft “clear and simple rules of the road” for crypto asset distribution, custody, and trading, moving away from legacy rules that have been considered outdated and ill-suited for digital assets.

The initiative supports the emergence of “super-apps” — platforms that would allow broker-dealers to offer a broad suite of financial products, including tokens, staking, and lending, under a single license. Effectively, that would replace the costly and complex web of state-by-state regulations.

Project Crypto also proposes updated rules that allow both tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets to trade side-by-side on regulated, onchain platforms.

“Many of the Commission’s legacy rules and regulations do not make sense in the twenty-first century—let alone for on-chain markets,” said SEC Chair Paul Atkins.

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of VC firm Dragonfly, wrote on X, “The SEC's new ‘Project Crypto’ is the most bullish thing I've seen in a long time from a regulator.”

Winklevoss Twins Sound Alarm Over CFTC Nominee Brian Quintenz’s Kalshi Ties

Gemini's Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are at the center of the latest controversy in the crypto world, concerning the nomination of Brian Quintenz for chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The two billionaire Gemini co-founders pressed President Donald Trump to rethink Quintenz’s nomination, sources told Politico. The Senate Agriculture Committee then canceled a vote to advance Quintenz at the White House’s request.

The New York Post reported an uproar erupted after emails, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, were shared with the Post.

Quintenz's incoming staff reportedly sought confidential CFTC information while he remained on the board of prediction market platform Kalshi, causing concern in both regulatory and crypto industry circles over his conflict of interest.

Tyler Winklevoss said that Quintenz’s regulatory approach was “not aligned with President Trump and the Administration's stated goals” and argued his policy record and conflicts render him unfit to advance the administration's deregulatory and pro-crypto agenda.

Ethereum’s 10-Year Vision: Fort Mode and Beast Mode

Ethereum has unveiled an ambitious 10-year strategic roadmap called "Lean Ethereum," which aims to scale the base layer to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and layer 2 solutions up to 1 million TPS.

The plan also includes key goals like achieving quantum-resistant cryptography, ensuring 100% uptime and full decentralization, and building on two main ideas: Fort Mode and Beast Mode. 

The former is defense-based and builds on the idea of making it secure and reliable so it can keep running in the face of a quantum attack or government intervention.

The latter is offense-based and focuses on the plan to scale Ethereum’s infrastructure to handle far more TPS, using real-time zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) for lean execution and data availability sampling.

“TLDR: next-generation cryptography is central to winning both offense and defense,” said Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake.

Coinbase Expands Into Tokenized Stocks and Prediction Markets

Crypto exchange Coinbase plans to introduce both tokenized stocks and onchain prediction markets, as the firm looks to become an “everything exchange.”

The firm plans to roll out the new offerings to U.S. users first, followed by a gradual international rollout, Max Branzburg, vice president of product at Coinbase, told CNBC on Thursday.

CEO Brian Armstrong also elaborated on those plans during Coinbase’s Q2 earnings call, after the company missed Wall Street estimates and reported a significant decline in trading volume.

The news came just a few hours after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled Project Crypto.

Offering tokenized stocks would bring Coinbase into direct competition with platforms like Robinhood, eToro, and Kraken, which currently offer equities or fractional shares alongside crypto trading.

Similarly, by integrating onchain prediction markets, Coinbase sets itself apart in the U.S. by offering a feature typically found on decentralized platforms like Polymarket or Augur, but with the scale and compliance standards of a major exchange.

💸Q2 earnings reports are here 🤑

Tune in today as Unchained Executive Editor Steven Ehrlich breaks them down:

  • 9:00 am ET: MicroStrategy earnings with Lance Vitanza, Managing Director & Sr. Analyst at TD Cowen 

  • 1:30 pm ET: Coinbase earnings with Owen Lau, Executive Director and Sr. Analyst at Oppenheimer 

How Robinhood’s New Crypto Strategy Could Help Its TradFi Ambitions

Fintech giant Robinhood (HOOD) announced strong results for the second quarter of 2025. The company reported $989 million in total net revenue, up 45% year over year, and a 105% increase in net income to $386 million. Transaction revenue, which makes up the bulk of the company’s top line, advanced 65% to $539 million, and included a 98% bump in crypto revenue to $160 million.

Crypto revenue is a major contributor to revenue growth, but its volatility is a concern. In Q4 2024, crypto contributed 35% of Robinhood’s total net revenue, clocking in at a whopping $358 million. In Q1 2025, crypto dropped to 27% of total revenue, or $252 million. Other drivers of transaction revenue are far more stable — for example, options revenue came in at $265 million in Q2, $240 million in Q1, and $222 million in Q4 of last year.

As Robinhood dives deeper into tokenization and infrastructure, one question looms: is this a tech pivot or a total reinvention of TradFi itself?

  • 🧑‍⚖️ A U.S. appeals court threw out the conviction of ex-OpenSea manager Nathanial Chastain, ruling that using internal NFT listing info didn’t amount to stealing actual property, which undermined the fraud case.

  • 🚀 Tether smashed its own earnings record with a $4.9 billion profit in Q2 2025, driven by rising USDT circulation and nearly $9 billion in bitcoin holdings, cementing its place as one of the most profitable firms globally.

  • 💰 Strategy posted record Q2 net income of $10.02 billion—boosted by a $14B unrealized bitcoin gain—and filed to raise $4.2B through an STRC offering to buy even more BTC, bringing its total holdings to 628,791 coins worth over $46B.

  • 📈 Ethereum spot ETFs hit their 20th straight day of net inflows on Thursday, pulling in $17 million and pushing the total haul to nearly $5.4 billion, quadrupling their previous best streak and boosting total ETH ETF holdings to $21.5 billion.

  • 💼 Democratic senators demanded answers from the U.S. bank regulator on how it will prevent Trump from shaping stablecoin policies to benefit his family’s crypto ventures, including a newly launched token tied to their own DeFi firm.

  • 💳 Native USDC and Circle’s new cross-chain transfer tool (CCTP V2) are heading to Hyperliquid.

  • 💱 Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement platform to include Avalanche and Stellar, adding to Ethereum and Solana support as it continues to push faster blockchain-based payments across four networks.

  • 🏗️ Crypto startup Stable raised $28 million from backers including Bitfinex and Hack VC to launch a blockchain purpose-built for Tether (USDT), aiming to streamline payments and accelerate stablecoin adoption.

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