Solana’s Alpenglow Upgrade Promises 100x Throughput

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🚀 Solana governance backs Alpenglow speed revolution

• 💹 Winklevoss twins’ Gemini seeks $2.2B IPO

• ⚖️ SEC and CFTC set clearer spot trading rules

• 🔥 Ethereum Foundation sparks debate with $43M ETH sale

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Solana’s Alpenglow to Boost Throughput 100-Fold After Clearing Governance Vote

Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade has officially cleared its governance vote, with over 98% approval from network stakers, comfortably exceeding the 33% quorum it required to pass.

The upgrade paves the way for the implementation of a major overhaul that will drastically increase transaction speed and network responsiveness.

Alpenglow introduces a new consensus protocol designed to boost transaction throughput by approximately 100-fold. It replaces Solana’s existing TowerBFT and Proof-of-History systems with two new components: Votor and Rotor.

Votor cuts transaction finality to as low as 150 milliseconds, down from over 12 seconds, enabling near-instant confirmations. Rotor replaces the network’s Proof-of-History timestamping and substantially reduces data transfer times between validators.

“The devs claim it's [Alpenglow] like upgrading from a bicycle to a hyperloop – fast AF and built for the long haul,” noted X user Nomad.

“But hey, not all is rosy in paradise. Remember when ETH 2.0 was promised as the savior back in the day? Expectations were through the roof but delays and hiccups left many feeling rekt. Solana needs to avoid falling into that trap.”

Bits + Bips is back! 

Tune in for your weekly dose of macro x crypto — watch live on YouTube or X at 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT.

Gemini Seeks $2.22 Billion Valuation in Nasdaq IPO

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has filed an S-1 for an initial public offering (IPO) with a 16.7 million share offering.

The firm is pricing shares between $17 and $19 each, aiming to raise up to around $317 million, targeting a valuation of up to $2.22 billion.

Gemini filed as an “emerging growth company” and said it intends to “take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies.”

Those exemptions include reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and foregoing being subject to an audit from a registered accounting firm. 

Shares will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GEMI. It comes at a time when crypto companies have seen immense interest during the public debuts on Wall Street, evidenced by massive day-one trading volumes.

U.S. Regulators Clarify Rules for Spot Crypto Trading

U.S. regulators have officially clarified the rules for spot crypto trading, allowing registered exchanges in America to offer certain spot crypto products.

In a joint statement from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Tuesday, regulators said existing laws do not prevent regulated exchanges from listing spot crypto products.

The agencies said securities exchanges, designated contract markets, and foreign boards of trade can list spot crypto products, including those involving margin or leverage, if they meet investor protection and operational standards.

They also noted that exchanges must collaborate with custodians, provide clear reference pricing, and commit to public dissemination of trade data to boost transparency and enable effective monitoring.

“Market participants are invited to engage with SEC staff or CFTC staff, as needed,” they said.

Ethereum Foundation Plans $43 Million in ETH Sale via CEXes

The Ethereum Foundation has announced plans to sell 10,000 ETH, valued at roughly $43 million, over several weeks through centralized exchanges (CEXes).

The Foundation said the sale would fund research and development (R&D), ecosystem grants, and donations related to the Ethereum ecosystem.

“Conversions will take place over multiple smaller orders, rather than as a single large transaction,” said the Foundation.

The decision to sell ETH through centralized exchanges drew backlash from the crypto community, with some questioning why the Foundation hadn’t opted for the sale via a decentralized exchange or an over-the-counter (OTC) deal with an ETH treasury company instead.

“This is the most polite way I've seen someone dump on us ever,” said one X user.

“Translation: price goes down, then everyone forgets it happened and price goes up.”

• 🔥 Bitget said it would migrate 440M BGB tokens onto the Morph layer 2 as its native gas and governance coin, destroying half immediately, linking future burns to onchain activity, and targeting a drastic supply cut from 1.1B to 100M while tapping its 120M-user base.

• 🛡️ Venus Protocol on BNB Chain resumed operations after halting withdrawals during a $27M exploit, confirming the funds were recovered, though its XVS token stayed in the red.

• ⚡ ETHZilla, the Peter Thiel-backed Ethereum treasury firm, committed $100M into EtherFi’s liquid restaking system to boost yields, days after lifting its holdings above 100,000 ETH and raising $425M from investors including Polychain and GSR.

• 🌐 Somnia, built by UK firm Improbable, launched its mainnet with token SOMI after claiming 10B testnet transactions, onboarding 118M wallets, and securing validators like Google Cloud.

• 🏥 Hong Kong’s Fosun Wealth tokenized $328M worth of Sisram Medical’s listed shares using Vaulta’s tech with Solana integration, kicking off a broader plan to digitize bonds and equities.

• 💵 Strategy bought 4,000 bitcoin for $450M using fresh stock sales, lifting its holdings to 636,500 BTC worth $70.6B.

• 🪙📉 BitMine Immersion, chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, grew its ether stash to 1.87M ETH worth $8.1B with $623M cash left for buys, aiming for 5% of supply even as its stock slumped 35% after ETH’s pullback from record highs.

• 🏦 Yunfeng Financial, backed by Jack Ma, bought 10,000 ETH for $44M as part of a new treasury plan to cut reliance on fiat and fuel its Web3, AI, and digital asset expansion.

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