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From Apps to Assets: Fintech’s Leap into Crypto

· 37 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

Traditional fintech applications have fundamentally transformed from consumer-facing services into critical infrastructure for the global crypto economy, with five major platforms collectively serving over 700 million users and processing hundreds of billions in crypto transactions annually. This shift from apps to assets represents not merely product expansion but a wholesale reimagining of financial infrastructure, where blockchain technology becomes the foundational layer rather than an adjacent feature. Robinhood, Revolut, PayPal, Kalshi, and CoinGecko are executing parallel strategies that converge on a singular vision: crypto as essential financial infrastructure, not an alternative asset class.

The transformation gained decisive momentum in 2024-2025 as regulatory clarity emerged through Europe's MiCA framework and the U.S. GENIUS Act for stablecoins, institutional adoption accelerated through Bitcoin ETFs managing billions in assets, and fintech companies achieved technological maturity enabling seamless crypto integration. These platforms now collectively represent the bridge between 400 million traditional finance users and the decentralized digital economy, each addressing distinct aspects of the same fundamental challenge: making crypto accessible, useful, and trustworthy for mainstream audiences.

The regulatory breakthrough that enabled scale

The period from 2024-2025 marked a decisive shift in the regulatory environment that had constrained fintech crypto ambitions for years. Johann Kerbrat, General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, captured the industry's frustration: "We received our Wells notice recently. For me, the main takeaway is the need for regulatory clarity in the U.S. regarding what are securities and what are cryptocurrencies. We've met with the SEC 16 times to try to register." Yet despite this uncertainty, companies pressed forward with compliance-first strategies that ultimately positioned them to capitalize when clarity arrived.

The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation provided the first comprehensive framework, enabling Revolut to launch crypto services across 30 European Economic Area countries and Robinhood to expand through its $200 million Bitstamp acquisition in June 2025. Mazen ElJundi, Global Business Head of Crypto at Revolut, acknowledged: "The MiCA framework has a lot of pros and cons. It is not perfect, but it has merit to actually exist, and it helps companies like ours to understand what we can offer to customers." This pragmatic acceptance of imperfect regulation over regulatory vacuum became the industry consensus.

In the United States, multiple breakthrough moments converged. Kalshi's victory over the CFTC in its lawsuit regarding political prediction markets established federal jurisdiction over event contracts, with the regulatory agency dropping its appeal in May 2025. John Wang, Kalshi's 23-year-old Head of Crypto appointed in August 2025, declared: "Prediction markets and event contracts are now being held at the same level as normal derivatives and stocks—this is genuinely like the new world's newest asset class." The Trump administration's establishment of a U.S. Federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through Executive Order in March 2025 and the passage of the GENIUS Act providing a regulated pathway for stablecoins created an environment where fintech companies could finally build with confidence.

PayPal epitomized the compliance-first approach by becoming one of the first companies to receive a full BitLicense from New York's Department of Financial Services in June 2022, years before launching its PayPal USD stablecoin in August 2023. May Zabaneh, Vice President of Product for Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal, explained the strategy: "PayPal chose to become fully licensed because it was the best way forward to offer cryptocurrency services to its users, given the robust framework provided by the NYDFS for such services." This regulatory groundwork enabled PayPal to move swiftly when the SEC closed its PYUSD investigation without action in 2025, removing the final uncertainty barrier.

The regulatory transformation enabled not just permissionless innovation but coordinated infrastructure development across traditional and crypto-native systems. Robinhood's Johann Kerbrat noted the practical impact: "My goal is to make sure that we can work no matter which side is winning in November. I'm hopeful that it's been clear at this point that we need regulation, otherwise we're going to be late compared to the EU and other places in Asia." By late 2025, fintech platforms had collectively secured over 100 licenses across global jurisdictions, transforming from regulatory supplicants to trusted partners in shaping crypto's integration into mainstream finance.

Stablecoins emerge as the killer application for payments

The convergence of fintech platforms on stablecoins as core infrastructure represents perhaps the clearest signal of crypto's evolution from speculation to utility. May Zabaneh articulated the industry consensus: "For years, stablecoins have been deemed crypto's 'killer app' by combining the power of the blockchain with the stability of fiat currency." By 2025, this theoretical promise became operational reality as stablecoin circulation doubled to $250 billion within 18 months, with McKinsey forecasting $2 trillion by 2028.

PayPal's PayPal USD stablecoin exemplifies the strategic pivot from crypto as tradable asset to crypto as payment infrastructure. Launched in August 2023 and now deployed across Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Arbitrum blockchains, PYUSD reached $894 million in circulation by mid-2025 despite representing less than 1% of the total stablecoin market dominated by Tether and Circle. The significance lies not in market share but in use case: PayPal used PYUSD to pay EY invoices in October 2024, demonstrating real-world utility within traditional business operations. The company's July 2025 "Pay with Crypto" merchant solution, accepting 100+ cryptocurrencies but converting everything to PYUSD before settlement, reveals the strategic vision—stablecoins as the settlement layer bridging volatile crypto and traditional commerce.

Zabaneh emphasized the payments transformation: "As we see cross-border payments being a key area where digital currencies can provide real world value, working with Stellar will help advance the use of this technology and provide benefits for all users." The expansion to Stellar specifically targets remittances and cross-border payments, where traditional rails charge 3% on a $200 trillion global market. PayPal's merchant solution reduces cross-border transaction fees by 90% compared to traditional credit card processing through crypto-stablecoin conversion, offering a 0.99% promotional rate versus the average 1.57% U.S. credit card processing fee.

Both Robinhood and Revolut have signaled stablecoin ambitions, with Bloomberg reporting in September 2024 that both companies were exploring proprietary stablecoin issuance. For Revolut, which already contributes price data to Pyth Network supporting DeFi applications managing $15.2 billion in total value, a stablecoin would complete its transformation into crypto infrastructure provider. Mazen ElJundi framed this evolution: "Our partnership with Pyth is an important milestone in Revolut's journey to modernize finance. As DeFi continues to gain traction, Pyth's position as the backbone of the industry will help Revolut capitalize on this transformation."

The stablecoin strategy reflects deeper insights about crypto adoption. Rather than expecting users to embrace volatile assets, these platforms recognized that crypto's transformative power lies in its rails, not its assets. By maintaining fiat denomination while gaining blockchain benefits—instant settlement, programmability, 24/7 availability, lower costs—stablecoins offer the value proposition that 400 million fintech users actually want: better money movement, not speculative investments. May Zabaneh captured this philosophy: "In order for things to become mainstream, they have to be easily accessible, easily adoptable." Stablecoins, it turns out, are both.

Prediction markets become the trojan horse for sophisticated financial products

Kalshi's explosive growth trajectory—from 3.3% market share in early 2024 to 66% by September 2025, with a single-day record of $260 million in trading volume—demonstrates how prediction markets successfully package complex financial concepts for mainstream audiences. John Wang's appointment as Head of Crypto in August 2025 accelerated the platform's explicit strategy to position prediction markets as the gateway drug for crypto adoption. "I think prediction markets are similar to options that are packaged in the most accessible form possible," Wang explained at Token 2049 Singapore in October 2025. "So I think prediction markets are like the Trojan Horse for people to enter crypto."

The platform's CFTC-regulated status provides a critical competitive advantage over crypto-native competitors like Polymarket, which prepared for U.S. reentry by acquiring QCEX for $112 million. Kalshi's federal regulatory designation as a Designated Contract Market bypasses state gambling restrictions, enabling 50-state access while traditional sportsbooks navigate complex state-by-state licensing. This regulatory arbitrage, combined with crypto payment rails supporting Bitcoin, Solana, USDC, XRP, and Worldcoin deposits, creates a unique position: federally regulated prediction markets with crypto-native infrastructure.

Wang's vision extends beyond simply accepting crypto deposits. The launch of KalshiEco Hub in September 2025, with strategic partnerships on Solana and Base (Coinbase's Layer-2), positions Kalshi as a platform for developers to build sophisticated trading tools, analytics dashboards, and AI agents. "It can range anywhere from pushing data onchain from our API to, in the future, tokenizing Kalshi positions, providing margin and leveraged trading, and building third-party front ends," Wang outlined at Solana APEX. The developer ecosystem already includes tools like Kalshinomics for market analytics and Verso for professional-grade discovery, with Wang committing that Kalshi will integrate with "every major crypto app and exchange" within 12 months.

The Robinhood partnership announced in March 2025 and expanded in August exemplifies the strategic distribution play. By embedding Kalshi's CFTC-regulated prediction markets within Robinhood's app serving 25.2 million funded customers, both companies gain: Robinhood offers differentiated products without navigating gambling regulations, while Kalshi accesses mainstream distribution. The partnership initially focused on NFL and college football markets but expanded to politics, economics, and broader event contracts, with revenue split equally between platforms. Johann Kerbrat noted Robinhood's broader strategy: "We don't really see this distinction between a crypto company and a non-crypto company. Over time, anyone who is basically moving money or anyone who's in financial services is going to be a crypto company."

Kalshi's success validates Wang's thesis that simplified financial derivatives—yes/no questions on real-world events—can democratize sophisticated trading strategies. By removing the complexity of options pricing, Greeks, and contract specifications, prediction markets make probabilistic thinking accessible to retail audiences. Yet beneath this simplicity lies the same risk management, hedging, and market-making infrastructure that supports traditional derivatives markets. Wall Street firms including Susquehanna International Group provide institutional liquidity, while the platform's integration with Zero Hash for crypto processing and LedgerX for clearing demonstrates institutional-grade infrastructure. The platform's $2 billion valuation following its June 2025 Series C led by Paradigm and Sequoia reflects investor conviction that prediction markets represent a genuine new asset class—and crypto provides the ideal infrastructure to scale it globally.

Retail crypto trading matures into multi-asset wealth platforms

Robinhood's transformation from the company that restricted GameStop trading in 2021 to a crypto infrastructure leader generating $358 million in crypto revenue in Q4 2024 alone—representing 700% year-over-year growth—illustrates how retail platforms evolved beyond simple buy/sell functionality. Johann Kerbrat, who joined Robinhood over three years ago after roles at Iron Fish, Airbnb, and Uber, has overseen this maturation into comprehensive crypto-native financial services. "We think that crypto is actually the way for us to rebuild the entire Robinhood in the EU from the ground up, just using blockchain technology," Kerbrat explained at EthCC 2025 in Cannes. "We think that blockchain technology can make things more efficient, faster, and also include more people."

The $200 million Bitstamp acquisition completed in June 2025 marked Robinhood's decisive move into institutional crypto infrastructure. The 14-year-old exchange brought 50+ global licenses, 5,000 institutional clients, 500,000 retail users, and approximately $72 billion in trailing twelve-month trading volume—representing 50% of Robinhood's retail crypto volume. More strategically, Bitstamp provided institutional capabilities including lending, staking, white-label crypto-as-a-service, and API connectivity that position Robinhood to compete beyond retail. "The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business," Kerbrat stated. "Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the US and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood."

Yet the most ambitious initiative may be Robinhood's Layer-2 blockchain and stock tokenization program announced in June 2025. The platform plans to tokenize over 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs, including controversial derivatives tied to private company valuations like SpaceX and OpenAI tokens. "For the user, it's very simple; you will be able to tokenize any financial instrument in the future, not just US stocks, but anything," Kerbrat explained. "If you want to change brokers, you won't have to wait multiple days and wonder where your stocks are going; you'll be able to do it in an instant." Built on Arbitrum technology, the Layer-2 aims to provide compliance-ready infrastructure for tokenized assets, integrated seamlessly with Robinhood's existing ecosystem.

This vision extends beyond technical innovation to fundamental business model transformation. When asked about Robinhood's crypto ambitions, Kerbrat increasingly emphasizes technology over trading volumes: "I think this idea of blockchain as fundamental technology is really underexplored." The implication—Robinhood views crypto not as a product category but as the technological foundation for all financial services—represents a profound strategic bet. Rather than offering crypto alongside stocks and options, the company is rebuilding its core infrastructure on blockchain rails, using tokenization to eliminate settlement delays, reduce intermediary costs, and enable 24/7 markets.

The competitive positioning against Coinbase reflects this strategic divergence. While Coinbase offers 260+ cryptocurrencies versus Robinhood's 20+ in the U.S., Robinhood provides integrated multi-asset trading, 24/5 stock trading alongside crypto, lower fees for small trades (approximately 0.55% flat versus Coinbase's tiered structure starting at 0.60% maker/1.20% taker), and cross-asset functionality appealing to hybrid investors. Robinhood's stock quadrupled in 2024 versus Coinbase's 60% gain, suggesting markets reward the diversified fintech super-app model over pure-play crypto exchanges. Kerbrat's user insight validates this approach: "We have investors that are brand new to crypto, and they will just start going from trading one of their stocks to one of the coins, then get slowly into the crypto world. We are also seeing a progression from just holding assets to actually transferring them out using a wallet and getting more into Web3."

Global crypto banking bridges traditional and decentralized finance

Revolut's achievement of 52.5 million users across 48 countries with crypto-related wealth revenue surging 298% to $647 million in 2024 demonstrates how neobanks successfully integrated crypto into comprehensive financial services. Mazen ElJundi, Global Business Head of Crypto, Wealth & Trading, articulated the strategic vision on the Gen C podcast in May 2025: Revolut is "creating a bridge between traditional banking and Web3, driving crypto adoption through education and intuitive user experiences." This bridge manifests through products spanning the spectrum from beginner education to sophisticated trading infrastructure.

The Learn & Earn program, which onboarded over 3 million customers globally with hundreds of thousands joining monthly, exemplifies the education-first approach. Users complete interactive lessons on blockchain protocols including Polkadot, NEAR, Avalanche, and Algorand, receiving crypto rewards worth €5-€15 per course upon passing quizzes. The 11FS Pulse Report named Revolut a "top cryptocurrency star" in 2022 for its "fun and simple approach" to crypto education. ElJundi emphasized the strategic importance: "We're excited to continue our mission of making the complex world of blockchain technology more accessible to everyone. The appetite for educational content on web3 continues to increase at a promising and encouraging rate."

For advanced traders, Revolut X—launched in May 2024 for the UK and expanded to 30 EEA countries by November 2024—provides standalone exchange functionality with 200+ tokens, 0% maker fees, and 0.09% taker fees. The March 2025 mobile app launch extended this professional-grade infrastructure to on-the-go trading, with Leonid Bashlykov, Head of Crypto Exchange Product, reporting: "Tens of thousands of traders actively using the platform in UK; feedback very positive, with many already taking advantage of our near-zero fees, wide range of available assets, and seamless integration with their Revolut accounts." The seamless fiat-to-crypto conversion within Revolut's ecosystem—with no fees or limits for on/off-ramping between Revolut account and Revolut X—eliminates friction that typically impedes crypto adoption.

The partnership with Pyth Network announced in January 2025 signals Revolut's ambition to become crypto infrastructure provider, not merely consumer application. As the first banking data publisher to join Pyth Network, Revolut contributes proprietary digital asset price data to support 500+ real-time feeds securing DeFi applications managing $15.2 billion and handling over $1 trillion in total traded volume across 80+ blockchain ecosystems. ElJundi framed this as strategic positioning: "By working with Pyth to provide our reliable market data to applications, Revolut can influence digital economies by ensuring developers and users have access to the precise, real-time information they need." This data contribution allows Revolut to participate in DeFi infrastructure without capital commitment or active trading—a elegant solution to regulatory constraints on more direct DeFi engagement.

Revolut Ramp, launched in March 2024 through partnership with MetaMask, provides the critical on-ramp connecting Revolut's 52.5 million users to self-custody Web3 experiences. Users can purchase 20+ tokens including ETH, USDC, and SHIB directly into MetaMask wallets using Revolut account balances or Visa/Mastercard, with existing Revolut customers bypassing additional KYC and completing transactions within seconds. ElJundi positioned this as ecosystem play: "We are excited to announce our new crypto product Revolut Ramp, a leading on-ramp solution for the web3 ecosystem. Our on-ramp solution ensures high success rates for transactions done within the Revolut ecosystem and low fees for all customers."

The UK banking license obtained in July 2024 after a three-year application process, combined with Lithuanian banking license from the European Central Bank enabling MiCA-compliant operations, positions Revolut uniquely among crypto-friendly neobanks. Yet significant challenges persist, including €3.5 million fine from Bank of Lithuania in 2025 for AML failures related to crypto transactions and ongoing regulatory pressure on crypto-related banking services. Despite naming Revolut the "most crypto-friendly UK bank" with 38% of UK crypto firms using it for banking services, the company must navigate the perpetual tension between crypto innovation and banking regulation. ElJundi's emphasis on cross-border payments as the most promising crypto use case—"borderless payments represent one of the most promising use cases for cryptocurrency"—reflects pragmatic focus on defensible, regulation-compatible applications rather than pursuing every crypto opportunity.

Data infrastructure becomes the invisible foundation

CoinGecko's evolution from consumer-facing price tracker to enterprise data infrastructure provider processing 677 billion API requests annually reveals how data and analytics became essential plumbing for fintech crypto integration. Bobby Ong, Co-Founder and newly appointed CEO as of August 2025, explained the foundational insight: "We decided to pursue a data site because, quite simply, there's always a need for good quality data." That simple insight, formed when Bitcoin was trading at single-digit prices and Ong was mining his first coins in 2010, now underpins an enterprise serving Consensys, Chainlink, Coinbase, Ledger, Etherscan, Kraken, and Crypto.com.

The independence that followed CoinMarketCap's acquisition by Binance in 2020 became CoinGecko's defining competitive advantage. "The opposite happened, and users turned towards CoinGecko," Ong observed. "This happened because CoinGecko has always remained neutral & independent when giving numbers." This neutrality matters critically for fintech applications requiring unbiased data sources—Robinhood, Revolut, and PayPal cannot rely on data from competitors like Coinbase or exchanges with vested interests in specific tokens. CoinGecko's comprehensive coverage of 18,000+ cryptocurrencies across 1,000+ exchanges, plus 17 million tokens tracked through GeckoTerminal across 1,700 decentralized exchanges, provides fintech platforms the complete market visibility required for product development.

The Chainlink partnership exemplifies CoinGecko's infrastructure role. By providing cryptocurrency market data—price, trading volume, and market capitalization—for Chainlink's decentralized oracle network, CoinGecko enables smart contract developers to access reliable pricing for DeFi applications. "CoinGecko's cryptocurrency market data can now be easily called by smart contract developers when developing decentralized applications," the companies announced. "This data is available for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and over 5,700 coins that are currently being tracked on CoinGecko." This integration eliminates single points of failure by evaluating multiple data sources, maintaining oracle integrity crucial for DeFi protocols handling billions in locked value.

Ong's market insights, shared through quarterly reports, conference presentations including his Token 2049 Singapore keynote in October 2025 titled "Up Next: 1 Billion Tokens, $50 Trillion Market Cap," and his long-running CoinGecko Podcast, provide fintech companies valuable intelligence for strategic planning. His prediction that gaming would be the "dark horse" of crypto adoption—"hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into gaming studios to build web3 games in the past few years. All we need is just one game to become a big hit and suddenly we have millions of new users using crypto"—reflects the data-driven insights accessible to CoinGecko through monitoring token launches, DEX activity, and user behavior patterns across the entire crypto ecosystem.

The leadership transition from COO to CEO in August 2025, with co-founder TM Lee becoming President focused on long-term product vision and R&D, signals CoinGecko's maturation into institutionalized data provider. The appointment of Cedric Chan as CTO with mandate to embed AI into operations and deliver "real-time, high-fidelity crypto data" demonstrates the infrastructure investments required to serve enterprise customers. Ong framed the evolution: "TM and I started CoinGecko with a shared vision to empower the decentralized future. These values will continue to guide us forward." For fintech platforms integrating crypto, CoinGecko's comprehensive, neutral, and reliable data services represent essential infrastructure—the Bloomberg terminal for digital assets that enables everything else to function.

Technical infrastructure enables seamless user experiences

The transformation from crypto as separate functionality to integrated infrastructure required solving complex technical challenges around custody, security, interoperability, and user experience. These fintech platforms collectively invested billions in building the technical rails enabling mainstream crypto adoption, with architecture decisions revealing strategic priorities.

Robinhood's custody infrastructure holding $38 billion in crypto assets as of November 2024 employs industry-standard cold storage for the majority of funds, third-party security audits, and multi-signature protocols. The platform's licensing by New York State Department of Financial Services and FinCEN registration as money services business demonstrates regulatory-grade security. Yet the user experience abstracts this complexity entirely—customers simply see balances and execute trades within seconds. Johann Kerbrat emphasized this principle: "I think what makes us unique is that our UX and UI are pretty innovative. Compared to all the competition, this is probably one of the best UIs out there. I think that's what we want to bring to every product we build. Either the best-in-class type of pricing or the best-in-class UI UX."

The Crypto Trading API launched in May 2024 reveals Robinhood's infrastructure ambitions beyond consumer applications. Providing real-time market data access, programmatic portfolio management, automated trading strategies, and 24/7 crypto market access, the API enables developers to build sophisticated applications atop Robinhood's infrastructure. Combined with Robinhood Legend desktop platform featuring 30+ technical indicators, futures trading, and advanced order types, the company positioned itself as infrastructure provider for crypto power users, not merely retail beginners. The integration of Bitstamp's smart order routing post-acquisition provides institutional-grade execution across multiple liquidity venues.

PayPal's technical approach prioritizes seamless merchant integration over blockchain ideology. The Pay with Crypto solution announced in July 2025 exemplifies this philosophy: customers connect crypto wallets at checkout, PayPal sells cryptocurrency on centralized or decentralized exchanges, converts proceeds to PYUSD, then converts PYUSD to USD for merchant deposit—all happening transparently behind familiar PayPal checkout flow. Merchants receive dollars, not volatile crypto, eliminating the primary barrier to merchant adoption while enabling PayPal to capture transaction fees on what becomes a $3+ trillion addressable market of 650 million global crypto users. May Zabaneh captured the strategic insight: "As with almost anything with payments, consumers and shoppers should be given the choice in how they want to pay."

Revolut's multi-blockchain strategy—Ethereum for DeFi access, Solana for low-cost high-speed transactions, Stellar for cross-border payments—demonstrates sophisticated infrastructure architecture matching specific blockchains to use cases rather than single-chain maximalism. The staking infrastructure supporting Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, Polygon, and Tezos with automated staking for certain tokens reflects the deep integration required to abstract blockchain complexity from users. Over two-thirds of Revolut's Solana holdings in Europe are staked, suggesting users increasingly expect yield generation as default functionality rather than optional feature requiring technical knowledge.

Kalshi's partnership with Zero Hash for all crypto deposit processing—instantly converting Bitcoin, Solana, USDC, XRP, and other cryptocurrencies to USD while maintaining CFTC compliance—illustrates how infrastructure providers enable regulated companies to access crypto rails without becoming crypto custodians themselves. The platform supports $500,000 crypto deposit limits versus lower traditional banking limits, providing power users advantages while maintaining federal regulatory oversight. John Wang's vision for "purely additive" onchain initiatives—pushing event data onto blockchains in real-time, future tokenization of Kalshi positions, permissionless margin trading—suggests infrastructure evolution will continue expanding functionality while preserving the core regulated exchange experience for existing users.

The competitive landscape reveals collaborative infrastructure

The apparent competition between these platforms masks underlying collaboration on shared infrastructure that benefits the entire ecosystem. Kalshi's partnership with Robinhood, Revolut's integration with MetaMask and Pyth Network, PayPal's collaboration with Coinbase for fee-free PYUSD purchases, and CoinGecko's data provision to Chainlink oracles demonstrate how competitive positioning coexists with infrastructure interdependence.

The stablecoin landscape illustrates this dynamic. PayPal's PYUSD competes with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC for market share, yet all three protocols require the same infrastructure: blockchain networks for settlement, crypto exchanges for liquidity, fiat banking partners for on/off ramps, and regulatory licenses for compliance. When Robinhood announced joining the Global Dollar Network for USDG stablecoin, it simultaneously validated PayPal's stablecoin strategy while creating competitive pressure. Both Robinhood and Revolut exploring proprietary stablecoins according to Bloomberg reporting in September 2024 suggests industry consensus that stablecoin issuance represents essential infrastructure for fintech platforms, not merely product diversification.

The blockchain network partnerships reveal strategic alignment. Kalshi's KalshiEco Hub supports both Solana and Base (Coinbase's Layer-2), Robinhood's Layer-2 builds on Arbitrum technology, PayPal's PYUSD deploys across Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Arbitrum, and Revolut integrates Ethereum, Solana, and prepares for Stellar expansion. Rather than fragmenting across incompatible networks, these platforms converge on the same handful of high-performance blockchains, creating network effects that benefit all participants. Bobby Ong's observation that "we're finally seeing DEXes challenge CEXes" following Hyperliquid's rise to 8th largest perpetuals exchange reflects how decentralized infrastructure matures to institutional quality, reducing advantages of centralized intermediaries.

The regulatory advocacy presents similar dynamics. While these companies compete for market share, they share interests in clear frameworks that enable innovation. Johann Kerbrat's statement that "my goal is to make sure that we can work no matter which side is winning in November" reflects industry-wide pragmatism—companies need workable regulation more than they need specific regulatory outcomes. The passage of the GENIUS Act for stablecoins, the Trump administration's establishment of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and the SEC's closure of investigations into PYUSD without action all resulted from years of collective industry advocacy, not individual company lobbying. May Zabaneh's repeated emphasis that "there has to be some clarity that comes out, some standards, some ideas of the dos and the don'ts and some structure around it" articulates the shared priority that supersedes competitive positioning.

User adoption reveals mainstream crypto's actual use cases

The collective user bases of these platforms—over 700 million accounts across Robinhood, Revolut, PayPal, Venmo, and CoinGecko—provide empirical insights into how mainstream audiences actually use crypto, revealing patterns often divergent from crypto-native assumptions.

PayPal and Venmo's data shows 74% of users who purchased crypto continued holding it over 12 months, suggesting stability-seeking behavior rather than active trading. Over 50% chose Venmo specifically for "safety, security, and ease of use" rather than decentralization or self-custody—the opposite of crypto-native priorities. May Zabaneh's insight that customers want "choice in how they want to pay" manifests in payment functionality, not DeFi yield farming. The automatic "Cash Back to Crypto" feature on Venmo Credit Card reflects how fintech platforms successfully integrate crypto into existing behavioral patterns rather than requiring users to adopt new ones.

Robinhood's observation that users "start going from trading one of their stocks to one of the coins, then get slowly into the crypto world" and show "progression from just holding assets to actually transferring them out using a wallet and getting more into Web3" reveals the onboarding pathway—familiarity with platform precedes crypto experimentation, which eventually leads some users to self-custody and Web3 engagement. Johann Kerbrat's emphasis on this progression validates the strategy of integrating crypto into trusted multi-asset platforms rather than expecting users to adopt crypto-first applications.

Revolut's Learn & Earn program onboarding 3 million users with hundreds of thousands joining monthly demonstrates that education significantly drives adoption when paired with financial incentives. The UK's prohibition of Learn & Earn rewards in September 2023 due to regulatory changes provides natural experiment showing education alone less effective than education plus rewards. Mazen ElJundi's emphasis that "borderless payments represent one of the most promising use cases for cryptocurrency" reflects usage patterns showing cross-border payments and remittances as actual killer apps, not NFTs or DeFi protocols.

Kalshi's user demographics skewing toward "advanced retail investors, like options traders" seeking direct event exposure reveals prediction markets attract sophisticated rather than novice crypto users. The platform's explosive growth from $13 million monthly volume in early 2025 to a single-day record of $260 million in September 2025 (driven by sports betting, particularly NFL) demonstrates how crypto infrastructure enables scaling of financial products addressing clear user demands. John Wang's characterization of the "crypto community as the definition of power users, people who live and breathe new financial markets and frontier technology" acknowledges Kalshi's target audience differs from PayPal's mainstream consumers—different platforms serving different segments of the crypto adoption curve.

Bobby Ong's analysis of meme coin behavior provides contrasting insights: "In the long run, meme coins will probably follow an extreme case of power law, where 99.99% will fail." His observation that "the launch of TRUMPandTRUMP and MELANIA marked the top for meme coins as it sucked liquidity and attention out of all the other cryptocurrencies" reveals how speculative frenzies disrupt productive adoption. Yet meme coin trading represented significant volume across these platforms, suggesting user behavior remains more speculative than infrastructure builders prefer to acknowledge. The divergence between platform strategies emphasizing utility and stablecoins versus user behavior including substantial meme coin trading reflects ongoing tension in crypto's maturation.

The web3 integration challenge reveals philosophical divergence

The approaches these platforms take toward Web3 integration—enabling users to interact with decentralized applications, DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and blockchain-based services—reveal fundamental philosophical differences despite superficial similarity in offering crypto services.

Robinhood's self-custody wallet, downloaded "hundreds of thousands of times in more than 100 countries" and supporting Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Dogecoin, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and Base networks with cross-chain and gasless swaps, represents full embrace of Web3 infrastructure. The partnership with MetaMask through Robinhood Connect announced in April 2023 positions Robinhood as on-ramp to the broader Web3 ecosystem rather than walled garden. Johann Kerbrat's framing that blockchain technology will "rebuild the entire Robinhood in the EU from the ground up" suggests viewing Web3 as fundamental architecture, not adjacent feature.

PayPal's approach emphasizes utility within PayPal's ecosystem over interoperability with external Web3 applications. While PYUSD functions as standard ERC-20 token on Ethereum, SPL token on Solana, and maintains cross-chain functionality, PayPal's primary use cases—instant payments within PayPal/Venmo, merchant payments at PayPal-accepting merchants, conversion to other PayPal-supported cryptocurrencies—keep activity largely within PayPal's control. The Revolut Ramp partnership with MetaMask providing direct purchases into self-custody wallets represents more genuine Web3 integration, positioning Revolut as infrastructure provider for the open ecosystem. Mazen ElJundi's statement that "Revolut X along with our recent partnership with MetaMask, further consolidates our product offering in the world of Web3" frames integration as strategic priority.

The custody model differences crystallize the philosophical divergence. Robinhood's architecture where "once you purchase crypto on Robinhood, Robinhood believes you're the legal owner of the crypto" but Robinhood maintains custody creates tension with Web3's self-custody ethos. PayPal's custodial model where users cannot withdraw most cryptocurrencies to external wallets (except for specific tokens) prioritizes platform lock-in over user sovereignty. Revolut's model enabling crypto withdrawals of 30+ tokens to external wallets while maintaining staking and other services for platform-held crypto represents middle ground—sovereignty available but not required.

CoinGecko's role highlights infrastructure enabling Web3 without directly participating. By providing comprehensive data on DeFi protocols, DEXes, and token launches—tracking 17 million tokens across GeckoTerminal versus 18,000 more established cryptocurrencies on the main platform—CoinGecko serves Web3 developers and users without building competing products. Bobby Ong's philosophy that "anything that can be tokenized will be tokenized" embraces Web3's expansive vision while maintaining CoinGecko's focused role as neutral data provider.

The NFT integration similarly reveals varying commitment levels. Robinhood has largely avoided NFT functionality beyond basic holdings, focusing on tokenization of traditional securities instead. PayPal has not emphasized NFTs. Revolut integrated NFT data from CoinGecko in June 2023, tracking 2,000+ collections across 30+ marketplaces, though NFTs remain peripheral to Revolut's core offerings. This selective Web3 integration suggests platforms prioritize components with clear utility cases—DeFi for yield, stablecoins for payments, tokenization for securities—while avoiding speculative categories lacking obvious user demand.

The future trajectory points toward embedded finance redefined

The strategic roadmaps these leaders articulated reveal convergent vision for crypto's role in financial services over the next 3-5 years, with blockchain infrastructure becoming invisible foundation rather than explicit product category.

Johann Kerbrat's long-term vision—"We don't really see this distinction between a crypto company and a non-crypto company. Over time, anyone who is basically moving money or anyone who's in financial services is going to be a crypto company"—articulates the endpoint where crypto infrastructure ubiquity eliminates the crypto category itself. Robinhood's stock tokenization initiative, planning to tokenize "any financial instrument in the future, not just US stocks, but anything" with instant broker transfers replacing multi-day settlement, represents this vision operationalized. The Layer-2 blockchain development built on Arbitrum technology for compliance-ready infrastructure suggests 2026-2027 timeframe for these capabilities reaching production.

PayPal's merchant strategy targeting its 20 million business customers for PYUSD integration and expansion of Pay with Crypto beyond U.S. merchants to global rollout positions the company as crypto payment infrastructure at scale. May Zabaneh's emphasis on "payment financing" or PayFi—providing working capital for SMBs with delayed receivables using stablecoin infrastructure—illustrates how blockchain rails enable financial products impractical with traditional infrastructure. CEO Alex Chriss's characterization of PayPal World as "fundamentally reimagining how money moves around the world" by connecting the world's largest digital wallets suggests interoperability across previously siloed payment networks becomes achievable through crypto standards.

Revolut's planned expansion into crypto derivatives (actively recruiting General Manager for crypto derivatives as of June 2025), stablecoin issuance to compete with PYUSD and USDC, and US market crypto service relaunch following regulatory clarity signals multi-year roadmap toward comprehensive crypto banking. Mazen ElJundi's framing of "modernizing finance" through TradFi-DeFi convergence, with Revolut contributing reliable market data to DeFi protocols via Pyth Network while maintaining regulated banking operations, illustrates the bridging role neobanks will play. The investment of $500 million over 3-5 years for US expansion demonstrates capital commitment matching strategic ambition.

Kalshi's 12-month roadmap articulated by John Wang—integration with "every major crypto app and exchange," tokenization of Kalshi positions, permissionless margin trading, and third-party front-end ecosystem—positions prediction markets as composable financial primitive rather than standalone application. Wang's vision that "any generational fintech company of this decade will be powered by crypto" reflects millennial/Gen-Z leadership's assumption that blockchain infrastructure is default rather than alternative. The platform's developer-focused strategy with grants for sophisticated data dashboards, AI agents, and arbitrage tools suggests Kalshi will function as data oracle and settlement layer for prediction market applications, not merely consumer-facing exchange.

Bobby Ong's Token 2049 presentation titled "Up Next: 1 Billion Tokens, $50 Trillion Market Cap" signals CoinGecko's forecast for explosive token proliferation and market value growth over the coming years. His prediction that "the current market cycle is characterized by intense competition among companies to accumulate crypto assets, while the next cycle could escalate to nation-state involvement" following Trump's establishment of Strategic Bitcoin Reserve suggests institutional and sovereign adoption will drive the next phase. The leadership transition positioning Ong as CEO focused on strategic execution while co-founder TM Lee pursues long-term product vision and R&D suggests CoinGecko preparing infrastructure for exponentially larger market than exists today.

Measuring success: The metrics that matter in crypto-fintech integration

The financial performance and operational metrics these platforms disclosed reveal which strategies successfully monetize crypto integration and which remain primarily strategic investments awaiting future returns.

Robinhood's Q4 2024 crypto revenue of $358 million representing 35% of total net revenue ($1.01 billion total) and 700% year-over-year growth demonstrates crypto as material revenue driver, not experimental feature. However, Q1 2025's significant crypto revenue decline followed by Q2 2025 recovery to $160 million (still 98% year-over-year growth) reveals vulnerability to crypto market volatility. CEO Vlad Tenev's acknowledgment of need to diversify beyond crypto dependency led to Gold subscriber growth (3.5 million record), IRA matching, credit cards, and advisory services. The company's adjusted EBITDA of $1.43 billion in 2024 (up 167% year-over-year) and profitable operations demonstrate crypto integration financially sustainable when paired with diversified revenue streams.

Revolut's crypto-related wealth revenue of $647 million in 2024 (298% year-over-year growth) representing significant portion of $4 billion total revenue demonstrates similar materiality. However, crypto's contribution to the $1.4 billion pre-tax profit (149% year-over-year growth) shows crypto functioning as growth driver for profitable core business rather than sustaining unprofitable operations. The 52.5 million global users (38% year-over-year growth) and customer balances of $38 billion (66% year-over-year growth) reveal crypto integration supporting user acquisition and engagement metrics beyond direct crypto revenue. The obtainment of UK banking license in July 2024 after three-year process signals regulatory acceptance of Revolut's integrated crypto-banking model.

PayPal's PYUSD market cap oscillating between $700-894 million through 2025 after peaking at $1.012 billion in August 2024 represents less than 1% of the $229.2 billion total stablecoin market but provides strategic positioning for payments infrastructure play rather than asset accumulation. The $4.1 billion monthly transfer volume (23.84% month-over-month increase) demonstrates growing utility, while 51,942 holders suggests adoption remains early stage. The 4% annual rewards introduced April 2025 through Anchorage Digital partnership directly competes for deposit accounts, positioning PYUSD as yield-bearing cash alternative. PayPal's 432 million active users and $417 billion total payment volume in Q2 2024 (11% year-over-year growth) contextualize crypto as strategic initiative within massive existing business rather than existential transformation.

Kalshi's dramatic trajectory from $13 million monthly volume early 2025 to $260 million single-day record in September 2025, market share growth from 3.3% to 66% overtaking Polymarket, and $2 billion valuation in June 2025 Series C demonstrates prediction markets achieving product-market fit with explosive growth. The platform's 1,220% revenue growth in 2024 and total volume of $1.97 billion (up from $183 million in 2023) validates the business model. However, sustainability beyond election cycles and peak sports seasons remains unproven—August 2025 volume declined before September's NFL-driven resurgence. The 10% of deposits made with crypto suggests crypto infrastructure important but not dominant for user base, with traditional payment rails still primary.

CoinGecko's 677 billion API requests annually and enterprise customers including Consensys, Chainlink, Coinbase, Ledger, and Etherscan demonstrate successful transition from consumer-facing application to infrastructure provider. The company's funding history, including Series B and continued private ownership, suggests profitability or strong unit economics enabling infrastructure investment without quarterly earnings pressure. Bobby Ong's elevation to CEO with mandate for "strategic foresight and operational excellence" signals maturation into institutionalized enterprise rather than founder-led startup.

The verdict: Crypto becomes infrastructure, not destination

The transformation from apps to assets fundamentally represents crypto's absorption into financial infrastructure rather than crypto's replacement of traditional finance. These five companies, collectively serving over 700 million users and processing hundreds of billions in crypto transactions annually, validated that mainstream crypto adoption occurs through familiar platforms adding crypto functionality, not through users adopting crypto-native platforms.

Johann Kerbrat's observation that "anyone who is basically moving money or anyone who's in financial services is going to be a crypto company" proved prescient—by late 2025, the distinction between fintech and crypto companies became semantic rather than substantive. Robinhood tokenizing stocks, PayPal settling merchant payments through stablecoin conversion, Revolut contributing price data to DeFi protocols, Kalshi pushing event data onchain, and CoinGecko providing oracle services to smart contracts all represent crypto infrastructure enabling traditional financial products rather than crypto products replacing traditional finance.

The stablecoin convergence exemplifies this transformation. As McKinsey forecast $2 trillion stablecoin circulation by 2028 from $250 billion in 2025, the use case clarified: stablecoins as payment rails, not stores of value. The blockchain benefits—instant settlement, 24/7 availability, programmability, lower costs—matter for infrastructure while fiat denomination maintains mainstream acceptability. May Zabaneh's articulation that stablecoins represent crypto's "killer app" by "combining the power of the blockchain with the stability of fiat currency" captured the insight that mainstream adoption requires mainstream denominations.

The regulatory breakthrough in 2024-2025 through MiCA, GENIUS Act, and federal court victories for Kalshi created the clarity all leaders identified as prerequisite for mainstream adoption. May Zabaneh's statement that "there has to be some clarity that comes out, some standards, some ideas of the dos and the don'ts" reflected universal sentiment that regulatory certainty mattered more than regulatory favorability. The companies that invested in compliance-first strategies—PayPal's full BitLicense, Robinhood's meeting with SEC 16 times, Kalshi's CFTC litigation, Revolut's UK banking license—positioned themselves to capitalize when clarity arrived.

Yet significant challenges persist. Robinhood's 35% Q4 revenue dependence on crypto followed by Q1 decline demonstrates volatility risk. Revolut's €3.5 million AML fine highlights ongoing compliance challenges. PayPal's PYUSD capturing less than 1% stablecoin market share shows incumbent advantages in crypto markets. Kalshi's sustainability beyond election cycles remains unproven. CoinGecko's challenge competing against exchange-owned data providers with deeper pockets continues. The path from 700 million accounts to mainstream ubiquity requires continued execution, regulatory navigation, and technological innovation.

The ultimate measure of success will not be crypto revenue percentages or token prices but rather crypto's invisibility—when users obtain yield on savings accounts without knowing stablecoins power them, transfer money internationally without recognizing blockchain rails, trade prediction markets without understanding smart contracts, or tokenize assets without comprehending custody architecture. John Wang's vision of prediction markets as "Trojan Horse for crypto," Mazen ElJundi's "bridge between Web2 and Web3," and Bobby Ong's philosophy that "anything that can be tokenized will be tokenized" all point toward the same endpoint: crypto infrastructure so seamlessly integrated into financial services that discussing "crypto" as separate category becomes obsolete. These five leaders, through parallel execution of convergent strategies, are building that future—one API request, one transaction, one user at a time.

The Solana Treasury Revolution Reshaping Crypto Corporate Strategy

· 38 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

The September 2025 panel "The Solana Treasury Bet: From Balance Sheets to Ecosystem Flywheel" at TOKEN2049 Singapore marked a watershed moment in institutional crypto adoption. Led by industry titans from Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital, Drift, and the Solana Foundation, the discussion revealed how corporations are abandoning passive Bitcoin strategies for active, yield-generating Solana treasuries that turn balance sheets into productive ecosystem participants. With $3+ billion already deployed by 19 public companies holding 15.4 million SOL (2.5% of supply), this shift creates a powerful flywheel: corporate capital purchases SOL, reducing supply while funding ecosystem growth, which attracts developers and users, generating real economic value that justifies further corporate adoption. Unlike Bitcoin's passive "digital gold" narrative, Solana's treasury thesis combines 7-8% staking yields with DeFi participation, high-performance infrastructure (65,000 TPS), and alignment with network growth—enabling companies to operate as on-chain financial institutions rather than mere holders. The panel's roster—representing firms that collectively committed over $2 billion to Solana treasuries in 2025—signaled that institutional crypto has evolved from speculation to fundamental value creation.

The landmark panel that launched a movement

The TOKEN2049 Singapore panel on October 1-2, 2025, assembled five voices who would shape the narrative around Solana's institutional moment. Jason Urban, Galaxy Digital's Global Head of Trading, articulated the regulatory catalyst: "Under the new US regulatory environment, many L1 and L2 are no longer considered securities, which opens the door for public companies to acquire cryptocurrencies in large quantities and trade them on the public market." This regulatory shift, combined with Solana's technical maturity and economic potential, created what Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz called "the season of SOL."

The panel occurred amid extraordinary market momentum. Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital had just closed Forward Industries' record-breaking $1.65 billion PIPE financing—the largest Solana-focused treasury raise in history. Forward acquired 6.82 million SOL at an average price of $232, immediately positioning itself as the world's largest public Solana treasury. Pantera Capital, through General Partner Cosmo Jiang, had simultaneously raised $500 million for Helius Medical Technologies (later rebranding to "Solana Company"), with an additional $750 million available through warrants. Combined with other treasury announcements that month, over $4 billion in capital commitments flooded into Solana within weeks.

The panel's composition reflected different facets of the Solana ecosystem. Saurabh Sharma brought Jump Crypto's engineering credibility—the firm develops Firedancer, a high-performance validator client targeting 1 million+ transactions per second. Cosmo Jiang represented Pantera's asset management sophistication, managing over $1 billion in Digital Asset Treasury exposure across 15+ investments. Akshay BD contributed the Solana Foundation's community-first philosophy, emphasizing permissionless access to "Internet Capital Markets." David Lu showcased Drift's $300+ million TVL perpetuals exchange as infrastructure enabling sophisticated treasury strategies. Jason Urban embodied institutional capital deployment expertise, having just orchestrated Galaxy's acquisition of 6.5 million SOL in five days to support the Forward deal.

Participants maintained an overwhelmingly optimistic outlook on Solana's institutional trajectory. The consensus centered on Solana's potential to generate $2 billion in annual revenue with consistent growth, making it increasingly attractive to traditional public market investors. Unlike passive Bitcoin holdings, the panel emphasized that Solana treasuries could deploy capital in "sophisticated ways within the ecosystem to create differentiated value and increase SOL per share at a faster rate than simply being a passive holder." This active management philosophy—turning corporate treasuries into on-chain hedge funds—distinguished Solana's approach from predecessors.

Why smart money chooses Solana over Bitcoin and Ethereum

The treasury bet thesis rests on Solana's fundamental advantages over alternative blockchain assets. Cosmo Jiang distilled the investment case: "Solana is just faster, cheaper, and more accessible. It maps perfectly to the same consumer demand cycle that made Amazon unbeatable." This Amazon analogy—emphasizing Jeff Bezos' "holy trinity of consumer wants" (fast, cheap, accessible)—underpins Pantera's conviction that Solana will become the premier destination for consumer applications and decentralized finance.

The yield generation differential stands as the most compelling financial argument. While Bitcoin produces zero native yield and Ethereum generates 3-4% through staking, Solana delivers 7-8% annual returns from validation rewards. For Upexi Inc., which holds 2 million SOL, this translates to $65,000 in daily staking income (approximately $23-27 million annually). These yields create recurring revenue streams that can service debt obligations without selling assets—enabling sophisticated capital structures like convertible notes and perpetual preferred stock that work poorly for non-yield-bearing Bitcoin. As Multicoin Capital's Kyle Samani noted, the convertible and perpetual preferred structure "works far better for SOL than BTC" precisely because of this cash flow generation.

Beyond staking, Solana's mature DeFi ecosystem enables treasury deployment strategies unavailable on Bitcoin. Companies can participate in lending protocols (Kamino, Drift), provide liquidity, execute basis trades, farm airdrops, and deploy liquid staking tokens as collateral while maintaining yield. DeFi Development Corp partnered with risk management firm Gauntlet to optimize strategies across these opportunities, claiming 20-40% higher yields than centralized exchanges. Forward Industries emphasized its intention to generate "differentiated on-chain return sources that go far beyond traditional staking, leveraging Solana's high-performance decentralized finance ecosystem."

The performance and cost advantages create operational benefits. Solana processes 65,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality and approximately $0.00025 fees—thousands of times cheaper than Ethereum's variable gas costs. This enables high-frequency treasury operations, on-chain equity issuance (Forward partnering with Superstate to tokenize shares), native dividend processing, and governance execution. Mike Novogratz emphasized that Solana "can process 14 billion transactions a day—that's more than equities, fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange combined. It's tailor-made for financial markets."

From a portfolio construction perspective, Solana offers asymmetric upside potential. Trading at only 5% of Bitcoin's market cap despite comparable or superior usage metrics, early institutional adopters see substantial appreciation opportunity. Pantera's analysis showed Solana generated $1.27 billion in annualized revenue while Ethereum generated $2.4 billion—yet Ethereum's market cap stood 4x larger. This valuation gap, combined with Solana's superior growth rates (83% developer growth vs. industry's -9% decline), positions SOL as an earlier-stage bet with higher potential returns.

The competitive positioning against Ethereum reveals structural advantages. Solana's monolithic architecture captures all value in the SOL token with unified user experience, while Ethereum's value fragments across Layer-2 ecosystems (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base). As Cosmo Jiang observed, Ethereum "is currently losing market share" despite talented builders, trading at a $435 billion valuation that "ranks amongst the most successful companies in the world if compared to equity." Meanwhile, Solana captured 64% of AI agent sector mindshare, 81% of DEX transactions by count, and added 7,625 new developers in 2024—the most of any blockchain, surpassing Ethereum for the first time since 2016.

The sophisticated mechanics behind corporate SOL accumulation

Treasury companies employ diverse capital-raising mechanisms tailored to market conditions and strategic objectives. Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) transactions dominate early-stage accumulation, enabling negotiated deals with institutional buyers at fixed discounts. Forward Industries closed its $1.65 billion PIPE in approximately two weeks, demonstrating execution speed when strategic investors align. Sharps Technology similarly raised $400 million through PIPE financing backed by ParaFi, Pantera Capital, FalconX, and others, securing an additional $50 million in SOL from the Solana Foundation at a 15% discount.

At-The-Market (ATM) offerings provide ongoing flexibility for opportunistic accumulation. Forward's $4 billion ATM program filed shortly after its initial PIPE signals ambition to continue accumulating as market conditions permit. ATMs allow companies to sell shares incrementally at prevailing market prices, timing issuance to maximize proceeds and minimize dilution. This continuous capital-raising capacity proves crucial for maintaining accumulation velocity in competitive markets.

Convertible notes and perpetual preferred stock represent sophisticated financing innovations enabled by Solana's native yield. SOL Strategies secured a $500 million convertible note financing specifically for SOL purchases, described as "first-of-its-kind digital asset financing with staking yield sharing." The 7-8% staking rewards make debt servicing natural—interest payments come from yield generation rather than operational cash flow. Multicoin's Kyle Samani actively promoted perpetual preferred structures where dividends can be serviced from staking income while avoiding maturity dates that force refinancing or repayment.

Locked token purchases at discounts create immediate value accretion. Upexi acquired over 50% of its holdings as locked tokens at approximately 15% discounts, accepting multi-year vesting schedules in exchange for below-market pricing. With 19.1 million SOL (3.13% of supply) currently locked until January 2028, secondary markets emerged where companies purchase these discounted tokens from early investors seeking liquidity. This strategy delivers instant gains once tokens unlock while earning staking rewards throughout the lockup period, and reduces future supply overhang by concentrating tokens in long-term corporate hands rather than retail sellers.

Deployment strategies vary by operational sophistication and risk tolerance. Pure staking approaches appeal to companies avoiding technical complexity—Upexi stakes nearly its entire 2 million SOL position through delegation across multiple validators, earning consistent yields without operating infrastructure. This maximizes capital efficiency and minimizes operational overhead, though it forgoes additional revenue streams available to validator operators.

Validator operations unlock multiple income sources beyond basic staking. Companies running validators capture inflation rewards (earned from staking), block rewards (not available to delegators), MEV (maximum extractable value) rewards with commissions, and validator fees from third-party delegators. SOL Strategies exemplifies this model: holding only 435,000 SOL in treasury yet securing 3.75 million SOL in delegations from external stakers. With commission rates of 1-5%, these delegations generate substantial recurring revenue. The company acquired three independent validators (Laine, OrangeFin Ventures, Cogent) to accelerate this "validator-as-a-service" business model, positioning itself as a technology company first and treasury second—the "DAT++" approach.

Liquid staking tokens revolutionize capital efficiency by maintaining liquidity while earning yields. DeFi Development Corp partnered with Sanctum to launch dfdvSOL, a liquid staking token representing its staked position. Holders earn staking rewards while retaining the ability to trade, use as collateral, or deploy in DeFi protocols. This innovation enables simultaneous pursuit of multiple strategies: staking yields plus DeFi lending yields plus potential liquidation without unstaking delays. VisionSys AI announced plans to deploy $2 billion through Marinade Finance's mSOL, leveraging liquid staking for maximum flexibility.

Advanced DeFi strategies transform treasuries into active investment vehicles. Companies lend liquid staking tokens on platforms like Kamino and Drift, borrow stablecoins against collateral for further deployment, execute delta-neutral basis trades capturing funding rate arbitrage, participate in lending protocols with cross-margin capabilities, and farm airdrops through strategic protocol participation. Forward Industries explicitly emphasized generating "differentiated yields" through these sophisticated tactics, with Galaxy Asset Management providing execution and risk management expertise.

The companies betting billions on Solana's future

Forward Industries represents the apex of Solana treasury ambition. The 60-year-old medical device design company executed a complete strategic pivot, raising $1.65 billion from Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital to establish the world's largest public Solana treasury. The firm acquired 6.82 million SOL at an average price of $232 and subsequently filed a $4 billion ATM offering to continue accumulating. Kyle Samani (Multicoin co-founder) serves as Chairman, with Saurabh Sharma (Jump Crypto CIO) and Chris Ferraro (Galaxy President/CIO) as board observers, providing governance by the ecosystem's most sophisticated investors.

Forward's strategy emphasizes active on-chain participation over passive holding. The company executed its first trades using DFlow DEX aggregator for optimal on-chain execution, demonstrating commitment to utilizing Solana-native infrastructure. Partnership with Superstate to tokenize FORD shares positions the company at the intersection of traditional securities and blockchain, aligning with SEC Chair Paul Atkins' "Project Crypto" initiative for on-chain capital markets. Saurabh Sharma articulated Jump's enthusiasm: "We believe the opportunity exists to provide investors with access to differentiated on-chain return sources that go far beyond traditional staking, leveraging Solana's high-performance decentralized finance ecosystem."

DeFi Development Corp pioneered many treasury innovations as the first major public company centering entirely on Solana strategy. The real estate tech company pivoted in April 2025 under new management from former Kraken executives, raising $370 million through multiple vehicles including a $5 billion equity line of credit for future expansion. Holding 2.03 million SOL, the company achieved remarkable stock appreciation—surging 34x from $0.67 to approximately $23 in 2025, becoming one of the year's top-performing public equities.

The company's innovation portfolio demonstrates ecosystem leadership. It launched dfdvSOL as the first liquid staking token from a corporate treasury through Sanctum partnership, tokenized its equity (DFDVx trading on Solana) as the first public company with on-chain shares, acquired two validators ($500,000 cash plus $3 million stock) for infrastructure control, and initiated international expansion with DFDV UK after acquiring 45% of Cykel AI. The franchise model envisions "a globally distributed network of Solana treasury companies across multiple stock exchanges," with five additional subsidiaries under development. Performance metrics focus on SOL Per Share (SPS), targeting 1.0 by 2028 (currently 0.0618), with 9% month-over-month SOL holdings growth and 7% monthly SPS improvement demonstrating execution discipline.

Upexi Inc. exemplifies the staking maximalist approach. The D2C consumer products aggregator raised $100 million initially, followed by $200 million, plus a $500 million credit line—backed by 15 VC firms including Anagram, GSR, Delphi Digital, Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes' fund), and Morgan Creek. The company acquired 2 million+ SOL, with over 50% purchased as locked tokens at discounts. Unlike validator-focused competitors, Upexi pursues pure delegation: staking nearly its entire treasury across multiple validators to generate $65,000 daily ($23-27 million annually) without operational complexity. The 20-year asset management agreement with GSR (1.75% annual fee) provides professional oversight while avoiding internal infrastructure costs. Stock performance reflected market enthusiasm, spiking 330% following the initial announcement.

Sharps Technology secured $400 million in PIPE financing from ParaFi, Pantera Capital, FalconX, RockawayX, and Republic Digital to build what it described as the "world's largest Solana treasury." Holding 2.14 million SOL, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Solana Foundation for $50 million in SOL at a 15% discount to the 30-day average price—demonstrating Foundation partnership benefits. Leadership includes Alice Zhang (CIO) and James Zhang (Strategic Advisor) from Jambo, bringing operational expertise to the treasury strategy.

Galaxy Digital's involvement transcends board participation through direct treasury accumulation. The firm acquired 6.5 million SOL in just five days during September 2025, moving 1.2 million SOL ($306 million) to Fireblocks custody on September 7 alone. As one of Solana's largest validators, Galaxy provides comprehensive ecosystem services: trading infrastructure, lending facilities, staking operations, and risk management. The firm's September 2025 tokenization of its own shares on Solana through Superstate partnership—becoming the first Nasdaq-listed company with blockchain-tradable equity—demonstrated operational commitment beyond passive treasury exposure.

Helius Medical Technologies (rebranding to "Solana Company") raised $500 million through PIPE with up to $1.25 billion total capacity via warrants, led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital. Cosmo Jiang serves as Board Director, with Dan Morehead (Pantera CEO) as Strategic Advisor, positioning Pantera as asset manager executing the treasury strategy. The deliberate rebrand to "Solana Company" signals long-term ecosystem alignment, with Jiang stating: "We believe we have the right setup to be the leading, if not, at least one of the two or three, but certainly the leading, Solana DAT."

Beyond these marquee names, the ecosystem includes 19 publicly traded companies collectively holding 15.4 million SOL (2.5% of supply) valued at over $3 billion. Additional notable holders include SOL Strategies (435,064 SOL, pursuing "DAT++" validator-centric model), Classover Holdings (57,793 SOL, first Nasdaq company accepting SOL as payment), BIT Mining (44,000 SOL, rebranding to SOLAI Limited), and numerous others with positions ranging from tens of thousands to millions of SOL. With hundreds of millions in undeployed committed capital and multiple companies targeting $1 billion+ treasuries, the corporate accumulation trajectory suggests growth to 3-5% of total SOL supply within 12-24 months.

How corporate SOL holdings create unstoppable momentum

The ecosystem flywheel operates through interconnected feedback loops where each component amplifies the others. Corporate treasury adoption initiates the cycle: companies purchase millions of SOL, immediately reducing circulating supply. With 64.8% of all SOL already staked network-wide, treasury company accumulation further constrains liquid supply available for trading. This supply reduction occurs precisely as institutional capital creates sustained demand, generating upward price pressure that attracts additional treasury adopters—the first reinforcing loop.

Network effects compound through validator participation and ecosystem investment. Treasury companies operating validators secure the network (1,058 active validators across 39 countries), earn enhanced yields through block rewards and MEV, and gain governance influence over protocol upgrades. More sophisticated treasury operators deploy capital across the ecosystem: funding Solana-native projects, providing liquidity to DeFi protocols, and strategically participating in token launches. DeFi Development Corp's white-label validator partnership with BONK memecoin exemplifies this approach—earning validator commissions while supporting ecosystem projects.

Developer attraction accelerates ecosystem value creation. Solana added 7,625 new developers in 2024—more than any blockchain, overtaking Ethereum for the first time since 2016. The 83% year-over-year growth in developer activity, sustained despite broader crypto declining 9%, demonstrates genuine momentum independent of price speculation. Electric Capital's 2024 Developer Report confirmed 2,500-3,000 monthly active developers consistently building on Solana, with India emerging as the #1 source of new Solana talent (27% global share). This developer influx produces better applications, which attracts users, generating transaction volume that creates real economic value—feeding back into treasury valuations.

DeFi ecosystem growth provides concrete metrics for flywheel effectiveness. Total Value Locked surged from $4.63 billion in September 2024 to $13+ billion by September 2025—nearly tripling in twelve months to secure the #2 DeFi ecosystem ranking behind only Ethereum. Leading protocols demonstrate concentrated growth: Kamino Finance reached $2.1 billion TVL (25.3% market share, +33.9% quarter-over-quarter), Raydium hit $1.8 billion (21.1% share, +53.5% QoQ), and Jupiter achieved $1.6 billion (19.4% share). Average daily spot DEX volume exceeded $2.5 billion with H1 2025 total volume reaching $1.2 trillion, while perpetuals DEX volume averaged $879.9 million daily.

The App Revenue Capture Ratio reached 211.6% in Q2 2025—meaning for every $100 in transaction fees, applications earned $211.60 in revenue. This 67.3% increase from Q1's 126.5% ratio demonstrates sustainable business models for protocols building on Solana. Unlike networks where applications struggle to monetize activity, Solana's design enables protocol profitability that attracts continued investment and development. Chain GDP (total application revenue) reached $576.4 million in Q2 2025, down from Q1's $1 billion peak due to cooling speculation but maintaining strong fundamentals.

User growth metrics reveal network adoption trajectory. Monthly active addresses reached 127.7 million in June 2025—matching all other Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchains combined. Daily active wallets averaged 2.2 million in Q1 2025, with 3.9 million daily fee payers demonstrating genuine economic activity beyond bot traffic. The network processed 8.9 billion transactions in Q2 2025, with August 2024 alone recording 2.9 billion transactions—equaling Ethereum's entire history through that date. Non-vote transactions (actual user activity excluding validator consensus) averaged 99.1 million daily, representing real economic usage rather than inflated metrics.

Economic productivity creates virtuous cycles through multiple revenue streams. Solana generated approximately $272.3 million in Real Economic Value (REV) during Q2 2025, comprising transaction fees, MEV rewards, and priority fees. While lower than Q1's speculation-driven peak, this sustained revenue base supports validator economics and staking yields. Staked SOL in USD terms reached $60 billion in Q2 2025 (+25.2% quarter-over-quarter), with liquid staking adoption growing 16.8% QoQ to 12.2% of staked supply. The combination of native staking yield, validator commissions, and DeFi opportunities creates total return potential of 7-8% annually before price appreciation—dramatically exceeding traditional corporate treasury instruments.

Institutional legitimacy amplifies momentum through regulatory clarity and traditional finance integration. The REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF reached $160+ million AUM shortly after July 2025 launch, while VanEck filed for the first JitoSOL ETF (liquid staking token-backed). Nine total Solana ETF applications await SEC approval, with decisions expected October 2025 and beyond. Franklin Templeton integrated its money market fund on Solana, while BlackRock, Stripe, PayPal, HSBC, and Bank of America all initiated Solana-based projects. These traditional finance partnerships validate the network's enterprise readiness, attracting additional institutional capital and creating the legitimacy necessary for broader treasury adoption.

The flywheel's self-reinforcing nature means each component's growth accelerates others. Developer growth produces better applications, attracting users whose activity generates fees that fund validator rewards, improving staking yields that justify treasury accumulation, which provides capital for ecosystem investment that attracts more developers. Corporate holdings reduce supply while staking locks tokens for security, constraining liquidity as demand increases, driving price appreciation that increases corporate treasury valuations, enabling additional capital raises at favorable terms to purchase more SOL. Infrastructure improvements (Alpenglow reducing finality to 100-150ms, Firedancer targeting 1 million+ TPS) enhance performance, supporting more sophisticated applications that differentiate Solana from competitors, attracting institutional builders who require enterprise-grade reliability.

Quantifiable evidence demonstrates flywheel acceleration. Market capitalization grew to $82.8 billion by Q2 2025 end (+29.8% quarter-over-quarter), with SOL trading between $85-$215 throughout 2025. Solana captured 81% of all DEX transactions by count, 87% of new token launches in 2024, and 64% of AI agent sector mindshare—dominating emerging categories where builders choose infrastructure for new projects. The Nakamoto coefficient of 21 (above median versus other networks) balances decentralization with performance, while 16+ months of continuous uptime as of mid-2025 addressed historical reliability concerns that previously hindered institutional adoption.

What the industry's sharpest minds really think

Cosmo Jiang's fundamental analysis framework distinguishes Pantera's approach from speculative crypto investors. "If fundamental investing does not come to this industry, it just means that we failed," Jiang stated in December 2024. "All assets eventually follow the laws of gravity. The only thing that matters to investors at the end of the day—and this has been true for millennia—is cash flow." This conviction that crypto must justify valuations through economic productivity rather than narrative drives Pantera's treasury thesis. As a tech investor bringing ten years of traditional finance experience (Managing Director at Hitchwood Capital, Apollo Global Management, Evercore M&A), Jiang applies public equity valuation methodologies to blockchain networks.

His analysis emphasizes Solana's growth metrics over absolute scale. Comparing incremental developer adoption, transaction volume, and revenue growth reveals Solana capturing market share from established competitors. "Take a look at incremental growth and compare how much has gone to Solana versus Ethereum. The numbers are stark. None of this stuff is worth anything if no one uses it," Jiang observed. Solana's 3 million daily active addresses versus Ethereum's 454,000, revenue growth of +180% versus Ethereum's +37% in 30-day periods, and capturing 81% of DEX transaction count demonstrate actual usage rather than speculative positioning. He framed Ethereum's challenge directly: "Ethereum clearly has a lot of very talented people building on it. It has an interesting roadmap, but it's also valued for that, right? It is a very large asset. At $435 billion, that would rank it amongst one of the most successful companies in the world if it were compared to equity. And the unfortunate fact is it's currently losing market share."

The Digital Asset Treasury investment case centers on yield generation and NAV-per-share growth. "The investment case for Digital Asset Treasury companies is grounded in a simple premise: DATs can generate yield to grow net asset value per share, resulting in more underlying token ownership over time than just holding spot," Jiang explained. "Therefore, owning a DAT could offer higher return potential compared to holding tokens directly or through an ETF." This philosophy treats NAV-per-share as "the new free cash flow per share," applying fundamental equity analysis to crypto treasuries. The 51 Insights podcast titled "Inside Pantera's $500M Solana Treasury Play" detailed this approach for 35,000+ digital asset leaders, positioning treasury companies as actively managed investment vehicles rather than passive wrappers.

Jiang's design philosophy analysis provides intellectual foundation for Solana preference. Drawing parallels to Jeff Bezos' Amazon strategy—the "holy trinity of consumer wants" (fast, cheap, accessible)—he sees identical clarity in Solana's architecture. "I often think back to what Jeff Bezos described as the 'holy trinity of consumer wants', the cornerstone of Amazon's philosophy and what drove that company to great heights. I see that same clarity of vision and that same trinity in Solana, underscoring my conviction." This contrasts with Ethereum's ethos: "The driving force behind Ethereum philosophy has been maximum decentralization. I'm not a crypto native, I'm really a tech investor, so I don't believe in decentralization for the sake of decentralization. There's probably a minimum viable decentralization that's good enough." This pragmatic engineering perspective—prioritizing performance and user experience over ideological purity—aligns with Solana's monolithic architecture choices.

Saurabh Sharma brings infrastructure expertise and engineering credibility to Jump Crypto's Solana commitment. As CIO of Jump Crypto and General Partner at Jump Capital, Sharma joined Forward Industries as Board Observer following the $1.65 billion raise, signaling hands-on strategic involvement beyond passive investment. His background combines quantitative trading expertise (former Lehman Brothers quant trader), data science and product leadership (Groupon), and technical depth (MS Computer Science from Cornell, MBA from Chicago Booth). This profile matches Solana's positioning as the high-performance blockchain for sophisticated financial applications.

Jump's technical contributions provide unique differentiation among treasury investors. The firm develops Firedancer, a second high-performance validator client targeting 1 million+ transactions per second—potentially increasing Solana's capacity 15-20x. As one of the largest validators and core engineering contributors (Firedancer, DoubleZero, Shelby infrastructure projects), Jump's investment thesis incorporates intimate technical knowledge of Solana's capabilities and limitations. Sharma emphasized this advantage: "Jump Crypto has been a key engineering contributor to the Solana ecosystem through critical R&D projects like Firedancer, DoubleZero and others. We hope these efforts will be helpful to Forward Industries in achieving institutional scale and driving shareholder value."

The active treasury management philosophy distinguishes Jump's approach from passive holders. "Jump Crypto is excited to back Forward Industries as it takes a bold step forward with Solana at the center of its strategy," Sharma stated. "We believe the opportunity exists to provide investors with access to differentiated on-chain return sources that go far beyond traditional staking, leveraging Solana's high-performance decentralized finance ecosystem." This emphasis on "differentiated on-chain return sources" reflects Jump's quantitative trading DNA—seeking alpha through sophisticated strategies unavailable to passive holders. Mike Novogratz praised this expertise: "Kyle, Chris, and Saurabh are three of the most established names within the broader digital asset ecosystem. We believe that under their guidance, Forward Industries will quickly separate itself as the leading publicly-traded company within the Solana ecosystem."

Jason Urban's institutional capital markets perspective brings traditional finance legitimacy to Solana treasury strategies. As Global Head of Trading at Galaxy Digital with previous experience as Goldman Sachs VP and DRW Trading Group trader, Urban understands institutional risk management and capital deployment at scale. His options trading background (career began in Chicago options pits) informs risk-aware portfolio construction—focusing on "what's my max loss" and "what exactly could go wrong" in novel asset classes. This institutional rigor counterbalances crypto-native enthusiasm with prudent risk assessment.

Galaxy's September 2025 execution demonstrated institutional-scale operational capacity. The firm acquired 6.5 million SOL in five days, executing through major exchanges (Binance, Bybit, Coinbase) with $530-724 million in SOL purchases between September 11-12 alone. This rapid deployment into Fireblocks custody showcased infrastructure readiness for multi-billion-dollar operations. As co-lead investor in Forward's $1.65 billion PIPE, Galaxy committed $300+ million while assuming board observer role (Chris Ferraro, Galaxy President/CIO). The firm simultaneously provides treasury management, trading, staking, and risk management services to Forward—positioning Galaxy as full-service institutional partner rather than passive investor.

Mike Novogratz's public advocacy amplified Galaxy's Solana thesis through high-profile media appearances. His September 11, 2025 CNBC Squawk Box interview declaring "This is the season of SOL" articulated three supporting pillars: technological superiority (65,000 TPS with less than $0.01 fees, 400ms block times, capacity for 14 billion transactions daily), regulatory momentum (SEC Chair Paul Atkins' "Project Crypto" initiative, Nasdaq filing for tokenized securities trading, new stablecoin framework), and capital inflows (anticipated SOL ETF approvals, institutional competition creating flywheel effect). The emphasis on Solana being "tailor-made for financial markets" with transaction capacity exceeding "equities, fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange combined" positioned the network as infrastructure for tokenized global finance rather than speculative technology.

David Lu's product and experimentation philosophy reflects Solana's builder culture. As Drift co-founder, Lu emphasizes rapid iteration: "Need for rapid experimentation in Web3, especially within the DeFi space, where achieving product-market fit is a dynamic challenge." Drift's Super Stake Sol launch exemplified this approach—deployed in three weeks, achieving 100,000 SOL staked in eight hours, with 60% from new users. This "quick testing of concepts with potential to either excel or fail" methodology leverages Solana's performance advantages for product innovation cycles impossible on slower blockchains.

Drift's growth trajectory validates Solana's infrastructure thesis. From less than $1 million TVL at 2023's start to $140 million by year-end (140x growth), reaching $300+ million TVL and $50 billion+ cumulative trading volume with 200,000+ users by 2025, the platform demonstrates sustainable business model viability. Lu's vision of building "the Robinhood of crypto" and an "on-chain financial institution" requires infrastructure capable of supporting sophisticated financial products at consumer scale—precisely Solana's design goal. The protocol's cross-margin system supporting 25+ assets as collateral, unified capital efficiency, and suite of products (perpetual futures, spot trading, borrow/lend, prediction markets) provides infrastructure that treasury companies leverage for yield strategies.

Lu articulated why issuers will choose Solana for tokenization: "When we're thinking about a future where every single asset will be tokenized, we don't think that an issuer is actually going to look at Ethereum. They're probably going to look at the chain that has the highest amount of activity, the highest amount of users, and the most seamless integration." This user-centric perspective—prioritizing adoption metrics over theoretical capabilities—reflects Solana's pragmatic approach. His confidence in Solana's long-term value proposition extends to Drift's positioning: stating that if Drift underperforms against SOL, investors should consider holding SOL longer-term signals conviction in the underlying platform's fundamental value over individual applications.

Akshay BD's community-first philosophy represents Solana Foundation's distinctive approach to ecosystem development. As Advisor (formerly CMO) and founder of Superteam DAO, BD emphasizes permissionless participation and distributed leadership. His November 2024 marketing memo articulated Solana's promise: "to allow anyone with an internet connection access to capital markets." This democratization narrative positions Solana as infrastructure for global financial inclusion rather than technology serving existing institutions. The "Internet Capital Markets and F.A.T. Protocol Engineering" framework emphasizes creating "an open, permissionless ecosystem where anyone with an internet connection can engage in economic activities."

The decentralization philosophy contrasts with traditional corporate structures. "Solana doesn't have four founders. It has thousands of co-founders, and that's what makes it successful," BD stated in 2023. The "principle of abstract subtraction" means the Foundation intentionally creates vacuums for community to fill rather than centralizing control. "Should we find folks in the community and empower them to build that ecosystem... You get an abundance of leadership," he explained. Rather than hiring regional heads, the Foundation empowers local community leaders through initiatives like Superteam—inspired by Ethereum Foundation's decentralized model but optimized for Solana's performance-focused culture.

The developer onboarding philosophy emphasizes earning rather than buying crypto. Superteam's platform facilitates bounties, grants, and jobs that enable developers to "earn your first crypto, not buy it"—reducing barriers for international talent in countries with restricted access to exchanges. With 3,000+ verified users on Superteam Earn and India emerging as the #1 source of new Solana developers (27% global share), this grassroots approach creates genuine skill development and ecosystem ownership. The Building out Loud hackathon for Indian developers and numerous Hacker Houses globally demonstrate sustained community investment.

The regulatory landscape shaping corporate crypto treasuries

The September 30, 2025 IRS guidance (Notices 2025-46 and 2025-49) removed a critical barrier for corporate crypto adoption. Providing the Fair Value Item (FVI) Exclusion Option for Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) allows companies to exclude unrealized gains and losses on crypto from CAMT calculations—removing billions in potential tax liability that would have penalized long-term holding strategies. For MicroStrategy, which holds 640,000+ BTC with $13.5 billion in unrealized gains, this interim guidance (applicable immediately for 2025 tax returns) proved transformative. The decision levels the playing field with traditional securities, where unrealized appreciation doesn't trigger minimum tax obligations.

FASB's Accounting Standards Update 2023-08, effective January 1, 2025, revolutionized crypto accounting treatment. The shift from cost-less-impairment modeling to fair value accounting eliminated the absurd situation where companies could only recognize decreases in crypto value (as impairments) but not increases until sale. Under the new standard, companies mark crypto assets to market each reporting period with changes flowing through net income. This introduces earnings volatility as prices fluctuate, but provides transparency and reflects economic reality. Balance sheet and income statement presentation requirements mandate separate disclosure of crypto assets with detailed reconciliations, cost basis methodology (FIFO, specific identification, average cost), and unit holdings.

The accounting clarity enables institutional participation previously constrained by financial reporting uncertainty. Public companies can now clearly communicate crypto strategy economics to investors, auditors can apply consistent standards, and analysts can evaluate treasury performance using familiar metrics. The interim and annual disclosure requirements (name of crypto asset, cost basis, fair value, number of units held, gain/loss reconciliations) create transparency that reduces information asymmetry and supports market efficiency. While mark-to-market accounting creates "income volatility where rising Bitcoin prices can inflate net income, while downturns cause it to plummet," this reflects actual economic exposure rather than masking reality through opaque impairment testing.

Solana faces unique regulatory challenges that distinguish its trajectory from Bitcoin and Ethereum. The SEC classified SOL as a security in June 2023 lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, grouping it with 11 other tokens deemed securities under the Howey Test. Despite removing requirements for judges to rule definitively on SOL's status in July 2025 court filing amendments, the SEC maintains its securities classification. Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant Fund, emphasized: "There is no reason to think SEC has decided SOL is a non-security." The SEC faces "a high bar" to prove securities status under Howey, but ongoing litigation creates compliance complexity for corporate treasuries.

This regulatory uncertainty delays certain institutional products. Nine Solana ETF applications (VanEck, Galaxy, Bitwise, Canary, Grayscale, others) await SEC approval, with initial deadlines in October 2025 but approvals unlikely under current classification. The SEC asked issuers to amend S-1 filings and refile by July 2025, creating drawn-out review processes. VanEck argues SOL functions as a commodity like BTC and ETH, but the SEC disagrees. Until regulatory clarity emerges—likely requiring congressional action through comprehensive digital asset legislation or definitive court rulings—spot Solana ETFs remain pending, potentially pushing approvals into 2026.

The Solana Foundation maintains its position unambiguously: "SOL is not a security. SOL is the native token to the Solana blockchain, a robust, open-source, community-based software project." The Foundation emphasizes decentralization, utility-focused design, and absence of ongoing essential efforts by a central party—factors that distinguish commodities from securities under legal precedent. However, regulatory resolution requires SEC concession, congressional legislation, or judicial determination rather than Foundation assertion.

Corporate treasuries navigate this uncertainty through qualified custody solutions, transparent disclosure of regulatory risks in SEC filings, engagement with specialized legal counsel, and conservative accounting practices that assume potential adverse determinations. BitGo and other qualified custodians provide institutional-grade infrastructure (SOC-1/SOC-2 certified) that reduces operational risk even as regulatory questions persist. Companies disclose SOL's contested securities status in 10-Q and 10-K filings alongside standard crypto risk factors: market volatility, cybersecurity threats, liquidity constraints, network stability, and concentration risk.

The broader regulatory environment trends positive despite Solana-specific uncertainty. Trump administration appointments include Paul Atkins as SEC Chair (former commissioner known for balanced crypto approach) and David Sacks as "Crypto Czar" coordinating policy. SEC's "Project Crypto" initiative aims to modernize securities regulation for digital assets, while the GENIUS Act for stablecoin legislation and comprehensive market structure bills (FIT21) signal congressional willingness to provide clarity. Jason Urban's representation on CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee reflects traditional finance integration with crypto policymaking.

State-level strategic reserve discussions amplify legitimacy. Trump's executive order proposal for federal Bitcoin reserve, combined with Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas considering state-level crypto reserves, normalizes corporate treasury adoption as prudent financial strategy rather than speculative risk-taking. International developments in Japan (tax advantages for crypto treasury exposure) and Middle East (UAE's Pulsar Group investing $300 million in Solmate treasury company) demonstrate global institutional acceptance.

What comes next for Solana treasuries and ecosystem growth

Corporate accumulation trajectories suggest substantial expansion from current 15.4 million SOL (2.5% of supply). DeFi Development Corp targets $1 billion in holdings, Galaxy Digital/Jump Crypto/Multicoin Capital previously reported seeking an additional $1 billion for joint treasury investments, and Accelerate Capital plans to raise $1.51 billion to acquire 7.32 million SOL in the largest private treasury initiative. Multiple companies hold multi-hundred-million-dollar undeployed capital commitments, while new entrants announce treasury plans near-daily. Analysts project corporate holdings reaching 3-5% of total SOL supply within 12-24 months—comparable to MicroStrategy's 3%+ of Bitcoin supply but achieved in compressed timeframe.

The locked token market dynamics create medium-term supply constraints. With 19.1 million SOL (3.13% of supply) locked until January 2028, early investor tokens vest on predetermined schedules. Corporate purchases of these locked tokens at 15% discounts accomplish two objectives: securing below-market prices with instant gains at unlock, and removing future sell pressure by concentrating tokens in long-term holders rather than early investors likely to distribute. As 2.1 million SOL unlock before 2025 ends, corporate buyers stand ready to absorb supply, maintaining price stability while continuing accumulation.

Infrastructure improvements provide technical catalysts for sustained growth. Alpenglow upgrade reducing finality from 12.8 seconds to 100-150 milliseconds eliminates the largest remaining performance gap versus centralized systems, enabling real-time settlement for financial applications. Firedancer's mainnet launch targeting 1 million+ transactions per second (15-20x current capacity) positions Solana for global-scale adoption. With Frankendancer (Firedancer's testnet version) already operating on 124 validators controlling 11% of stake as of July 2025, client diversity improves network resilience while demonstrating technical readiness.

ETF approval catalysts loom in near-term timeline. The REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF reaching $160+ million AUM demonstrates institutional demand for regulated Solana exposure. Nine additional applications (VanEck JitoSOL ETF for liquid staking, Galaxy, Bitwise, Grayscale, others for spot exposure) await SEC decisions, with October 2025 initial deadlines and potential approvals throughout 2025-2026. Each approval creates dedicated investment vehicle for traditional finance portfolios, pension funds, wealth managers, and institutions restricted from direct crypto holdings. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust reached $50+ billion AUM in 11 months—the fastest-growing ETF in history—suggesting Solana ETFs could attract substantial capital once approved.

DeFi ecosystem maturation provides infrastructure for sophisticated treasury strategies. Total Value Locked reaching $13+ billion (from $4.63 billion twelve months prior) creates deep liquidity across lending, DEX, derivatives, and structured products. Kamino Finance ($2.1 billion TVL), Raydium ($1.8 billion), and Jupiter ($1.6 billion) provide institutional-grade protocols for treasury deployment. The 211.6% App Revenue Capture Ratio demonstrates protocols generate sustainable business models, encouraging continued development of sophisticated financial products. Integration with traditional finance (Franklin Templeton money market fund, Stripe payments, PayPal infrastructure) bridges crypto and mainstream finance.

Developer momentum creates compounding ecosystem value. With 7,625 new developers in 2024 (industry-leading growth) and sustained 2,500-3,000 monthly active developers, the builder pipeline ensures continuous application innovation. India's emergence as #1 source of new Solana talent (27% global share) diversifies geographic contribution beyond typical crypto centers. Electric Capital's validation of 83% year-over-year developer growth—while industry average declined 9%—confirms Solana captures disproportionate mindshare among builders choosing where to invest time and expertise.

Real-World Asset tokenization represents substantial growth vector. Solana's RWA market cap reached $390.6 million in Q2 2025 (+124.8% year-to-date), with Franklin Templeton's FOBXX fund and Ondo Finance's USDY demonstrating institutional appetite for on-chain traditional assets. Tokenized bonds, real estate, commodities, and credit instruments require blockchain infrastructure capable of handling traditional finance transaction volumes at costs that preserve economics—precisely Solana's competitive advantage. As Galaxy's tokenization of its own shares (first Nasdaq company with blockchain-tradable equity) demonstrates viability, other issuers will follow.

Consumer application adoption expands Solana's utility beyond DeFi. Solana Mobile shipped 150,000+ Seeker phones with integrated wallet and crypto-native experiences. Successful consumer applications in payments (via Solana Pay), social (various platforms), gaming, and NFTs (Magic Eden, Metaplex) demonstrate blockchain utility beyond financial speculation. As Cosmo Jiang emphasized, "none of this stuff is worth anything if no one uses it"—consumer adoption validates infrastructure investment and creates sustainable demand for network resources.

Consolidation pressures will reshape treasury company landscape. Kyle Samani indicated Forward Industries may acquire smaller DATs trading below net asset value, creating efficiency through scale and improved capital markets access. Companies lacking strategic differentiation, struggling with operational execution, or trading at persistent NAV discounts become acquisition targets for better-capitalized competitors. Market structure evolution likely produces 5-10 dominant treasury companies controlling majority of corporate holdings within 24 months, similar to MicroStrategy's dominance in Bitcoin treasuries.

International expansion diversifies geographic risk and regulatory exposure. DeFi Development Corp's franchise model pursuing DFDV UK (via Cykel AI acquisition) and five additional international subsidiaries demonstrates strategy. Solmate's $300 million UAE-backed raise positions Abu Dhabi as Middle East hub with bare metal validator infrastructure. These international entities navigate local regulations, access regional capital markets, and demonstrate Solana's global ecosystem reach beyond U.S.-centric crypto industry.

Competitive pressures intensify as other blockchains adopt treasury strategies. Avalanche Treasury Co. announced $675 million SPAC merger in October 2025, targeting $1 billion+ AVAX treasury with exclusive Avalanche Foundation relationship. Ethereum corporate holdings exceed 4 million ETH (~$18.3 billion), though focused on different use cases and treasury strategies. Solana's differentiation—superior yields, performance advantages, developer momentum—must sustain against well-funded competitors pursuing similar institutional adoption playbooks.

Risk factors temper unbridled optimism. Network stability improvements (16+ months continuous uptime) address historical concerns, but any future outage would undermine institutional confidence precisely when credibility matters most. Regulatory uncertainty specific to SOL's securities classification creates ongoing compliance complexity and delays certain institutional products. Market volatility affecting treasury valuations translates to stock price swings—DFDV's 700% volatility demonstrates extreme investor exposure. Operational challenges (validator management, DeFi strategy execution, cybersecurity) require sophisticated expertise that legacy companies pivoting to crypto strategy may lack.

The sustainability question centers on whether corporate treasuries represent structural shift or cyclical trend dependent on bull markets. Bears argue strategies require continuous capital raises at premium valuations—unsustainable during market downturns when NAV premiums compress or invert to discounts. Fair-weather treasury adoption could reverse rapidly if crypto enters extended bear market, forcing liquidations that cascade through ecosystem. Bulls counter that fundamental analysis methodology, staking yield generation, active treasury management, and ecosystem alignment create sustainable models independent of price speculation. Regulatory clarity, accounting standards, and tax relief provide institutional infrastructure supporting long-term viability regardless of short-term price volatility.

Expert consensus suggests cautious optimism with October 2025-Q1 2026 representing potential inflection point. Bernstein anticipates bull market potentially stretching into 2026 in "long and exhausting" grind versus explosive retail-driven rally. Goldman Sachs notes increased institutional exposure to crypto ETFs signals comfort with asset class. ARK Invest analysis finds corporate treasuries contribute moderately to BTC valuation in base case scenarios, with digital gold and institutional investment driving majority of value—suggesting treasury trend provides support but not primary price driver. Applied to Solana, this implies corporate accumulation creates positive baseline with upside from broader adoption, developer growth, and ecosystem expansion providing primary value drivers.

The Solana treasury movement represents more than financial engineering—it embodies strategic positioning for the blockchain economy's next phase. As traditional finance tokenizes assets, enterprises require performant infrastructure supporting global-scale transaction volumes at costs preserving economics. Solana's technical architecture (65,000 TPS, sub-second finality, fraction-of-a-cent fees), economic design (yield generation through staking), and ecosystem momentum (developer growth, DeFi TVL, consumer adoption) position it as infrastructure layer for "Internet Capital Markets." Corporate treasuries allocating billions to SOL make calculated bets that this vision materializes—and that early positioning provides asymmetric returns as the ecosystem flywheel accelerates from sustained momentum into exponential growth.

Tickets, But Programmable: How NFT Ticketing Is Quietly Rewriting Live Events

· 11 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

The concert ticket in your digital wallet is on the verge of a massive upgrade. For decades, a ticket has been a static, disposable proof of purchase—a barcode to get you in the door, and nothing more. That model is evolving. The ticket is becoming a programmable, portable membership object, capable of unlocking experiences long after the show ends.

Done right, NFT tickets can drastically reduce fraud and scalping, create fairer access for superfans, and give organizers powerful new ways to reward loyalty—all without forcing fans to understand cryptocurrency. This isn't a theoretical future; real deployments are already live across major concerts, professional sports, aviation, and even Formula 1. The next wave of adoption hinges on seamless user experience, thoughtful policy design, and pragmatic technology choices.

The Old Ticket Stack Is Fraying

The traditional digital ticketing system is brittle and showing its age. Fans and organizers alike feel the pain points:

  • Fraud & Bots: Predatory bots snatch up inventory the moment it goes on sale, only to list it on secondary markets at hugely inflated prices, shutting out real fans. Fake or duplicate tickets plague these markets, leaving buyers with empty hands and lighter wallets.
  • Fragmented Systems: A fan’s history is scattered across dozens of vendor accounts. This makes simple actions like transferring a ticket to a friend a painful process and leaves organizers with no unified view of their most loyal attendees.
  • Disposable Artifacts: Once scanned, a QR code or PDF ticket becomes useless digital trash. It holds no ongoing value, tells no story, and offers no future utility.

Meanwhile, the market remains dominated by a primary seller facing ongoing antitrust scrutiny. State-by-state reform efforts are gaining steam, signaling that the status quo is neither beloved nor stable. The system is ripe for a change.

Tickets, But Programmable

NFT tickets aren’t about speculative digital art; they're about programmable access and ownership. By representing a ticket as a unique token on a blockchain, we fundamentally change what it can do:

  • Provable Ownership: Tickets live in a user's digital wallet, not just in a vendor's siloed database. This cryptographic proof of ownership dramatically reduces the risk of counterfeit tickets and enables secure, verifiable transfers between fans.
  • On-Chain Transfer Rules: Organizers can embed rules directly into the ticket’s smart contract. This could mean setting fair-transfer windows, capping resale prices at face value, or building in other logic that curbs predatory scalping and aligns incentives for everyone.
  • Loyalty That Compounds: A wallet containing tickets from past events becomes a portable and verifiable “fan graph.” Organizers can use this history to offer token-gated presales, seat upgrades, and exclusive perks that reward actual attendance, not just names on an email list.
  • Interoperability: “Sign in with wallet” can become a universal identity layer across different venues, artists, and partners. Fans get a unified experience without spreading their personal information across countless platforms.

This technology is already leaving the lab and proving its value in the wild.

Proof It Works: Live Deployments to Study

These are not “maybe someday” pilots; they are live systems processing real fan traffic and solving real problems today.

  • Token-Gated Presales at Scale: Ticketmaster has already launched NFT-gated ticket sales. In a pilot with the band Avenged Sevenfold, members of the "Deathbats Club" NFT community received exclusive early and discounted access to tickets, rewarding dedicated fans and filtering out bots.
  • Souvenir NFTs with Mainstream Brands: Live Nation and Ticketmaster have issued millions of virtual commemorative ticket NFTs, called “Live Stubs,” for major concerts and NFL games. This introduces fans to digital collectibles with virtually zero friction, turning a simple ticket into a lasting keepsake.
  • Aviation Goes On-Chain: Argentinian airline Flybondi began issuing its tickets as NFTs via the TravelX platform on the Algorand blockchain. This model enables flexible name changes and new commerce opportunities, proving the technology can work in an industry with strict operational, security, and identity requirements.
  • Global Sports & Premium Hospitality: Formula 1’s ticketing provider, Platinium Group, rolled out Polygon-based NFT tickets that come with perks persisting long after race day, such as hospitality access and future discounts. This transforms a one-time seat into an enduring membership touchpoint.

What NFT Tickets Unlock for Fans & Organizers

This shift creates a win-win scenario, offering tangible benefits to everyone in the ecosystem.

  • Fairer Access, Less Chaos: Token-gated presales can effectively reward verified attendees or fan club members, bypassing the captcha wars and bot-driven chaos of a general sale. The fact that the largest U.S. primary ticket seller now natively supports this proves its viability.
  • Transfers with Guardrails: Smart contracts allow organizers to define how and when tickets can be transferred, aligning with local laws and artist preferences. Secondary royalties are also possible through standards like EIP-2981, though enforcement depends on marketplace adoption. This gives organizers more control over the secondary market.
  • Portable Loyalty: Commemorative drops, like digital stubs or POAPs (Proof of Attendance Protocols), build a verifiable fan history that can actually be used across different venues, brands, and seasons. Your attendance record becomes a key to unlocking future rewards.
  • Interoperable User Experience: With custodial wallets and simple email or SMS logins, fans don’t need to manage complex seed phrases. Mass-market rollouts like Reddit’s millions of on-chain avatars—purchased with standard currency—prove this user-friendly pattern can scale.

Patterns We Recommend Shipping (In Order)

  1. Start with “Souvenir Mode.” The lowest-risk, highest-reward entry point is to issue free or bundled commemorative NFTs delivered after a ticket is scanned. This builds your on-chain fan graph and educates users without adding friction to the core job of getting them in the door. Live Nation’s “Live Stubs” is the perfect precedent.
  2. Layer in Token-Gated Presales for Superfans. Use the fan graph you’ve built. Let proven attendees or fan club members unlock prime seats or early access windows. This creates a clear reward for loyalty, reduces bot competition, and provides much cleaner economic data. The Avenged Sevenfold presale is the canonical case study here.
  3. Make the Ticket a Wallet. Treat each ticket as the root credential for delivering ongoing perks. This could be exclusive merchandise access, instant seat upgrades, food and beverage credits, or even artist AMAs—delivered before, during, and after the show. Formula 1’s membership-style approach points the way forward.
  4. Design the Secondary Market Thoughtfully. If you allow resale, establish clear rules that fit your policies and fan expectations. This could mean time-boxed transfer windows, fee caps, or face-value requirements. While standards like EIP-2981 signal royalty preferences, some marketplaces have made them optional. A direct, branded resale channel can be a wise move to ensure your rules are respected.

What Can Go Wrong (and How to Avoid It)

  • Custody & Platform Risk: Don’t strand your customers on a centralized island. When the crypto exchange FTX collapsed, some Coachella NFTs tied to the platform were stuck. If a technology partner disappears, fans shouldn’t lose their assets or benefits. Use portable wallets and ensure perks can be reissued or recognized elsewhere.
  • UX Over Crypto Jargon: The average fan should never have to see terms like “seed phrase,” “gas fees,” or “blockchain.” As Reddit demonstrated, gentle, custodial onboarding with familiar fiat checkouts is the key to scaling to millions of users. The complexity should remain under the hood.
  • Unrealistic Royalty Expectations: “Automatic royalties forever” is not guaranteed across all secondary markets. If resale economics are a key part of your strategy, consider launching your own resale venue or enforcing your rules through allowlists and clear branding terms with partners.
  • The Policy Patchwork: Ticketing laws are actively being revised across the U.S., with a focus on refunds, price transparency, anti-bot measures, and transfer rights. Your system must be architected to allow for configuration by region, and your policies must be communicated explicitly to fans.

Architecture Blueprint (Pragmatic, Chain-Agnostic)

  • Chain Selection: Favor low-fee, high-throughput networks already used in consumer contexts, such as Polygon, Flow, or Algorand. Mainstream deployments have gravitated toward these chains for their low cost, speed, and better environmental footprint.
  • Token Standard: Use ERC-721 for unique, assigned seats and ERC-1155 for general admission sections or tiers. Add EIP-2981 metadata if you plan to support royalties within compliant marketplaces.
  • Wallet UX: Default to custodial wallets that use email/SMS login or passkeys for authentication. Provide an easy, optional path for users to “export to self-custody.” Pre-mint tickets to wallets or use a mint-on-claim model to reduce waste.
  • Gating & Scanning: Use fast, off-chain allowlists or Merkle proofs at the gate for quick entry. Verify ownership with time-limited digital signatures to prevent simple QR code screenshotting. After a successful scan, delight the fan by airdropping perks like POAPs, collectibles, or coupons.
  • Secondary Market & Compliance: If you enable resale, route it through a branded marketplace or a partner that respects your rules. Parameterize transferability settings to comply with different state and local laws, and pair on-chain rules with clear, human-readable refund and transfer policies.

Metrics That Actually Matter

Move beyond vanity metrics and focus on what truly indicates success.

  • Access Fairness: Measure the presale conversion rate for verified fans versus the general public. Track the percentage of tickets that are resold within a face-value price band.
  • Operational Reliability: Monitor gate throughput, scan failure rates, and the load on your customer support team. A successful implementation should reduce friction, not create it.
  • Fan Compounding: Track repeat attendance among NFT holders, measure the redemption rates for digital perks, and analyze the revenue uplift from token-gated campaigns.
  • Unit Economics: Analyze your fee take-rate net of fraud-related chargebacks. Calculate the blended customer acquisition cost and lifetime value when wallet data is used to inform marketing and targeting.

Case Study Nuggets to Borrow

  • Use NFTs as a "Thank You," Not a Hurdle: Live Nation’s commemoratives cost fans nothing and teach them the flow. Start there before you touch access control.
  • Reward Real Attendance: Token-gated presales that reference past check-ins feel fair and build loyalty.
  • Design Perks with a Shelf-Life: Formula 1’s persistent benefits, like hospitality access and future discounts, extend the ticket’s utility far beyond the event itself.
  • Avoid a Single Point of Failure: The Coachella-FTX saga underscores why portability matters. Own the fan relationship; let users take their assets with them when they want.

The Policy Reality (Briefly)

The regulatory landscape is heating up. Federal and state attention on ticketing is rising, with transparency, refunds, anti-bot rules, and transferability becoming hot-button issues. Your smart contracts and user experience must be flexible enough to adapt on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. The entire market structure is in flux, and building on portable, open rails is the safest long-term bet.

A Practical Rollout Plan (90 Days)

Phase 1: Collectibles (Weeks 1-4)

  • Implement free commemorative NFTs for all attendees, claimed via email after the event. Measure your claim rate and wallet creation stats.

Phase 2: Fan-First Presales (Weeks 5-8)

  • Pilot a small, token-gated presale for verified past attendees. Communicate the process clearly and keep a traditional queue open as a backup.

Phase 3: Perks & Partnerships (Weeks 9-10)

  • Turn the ticket into a perks wallet. Link it to merchandise unlocks, partner discounts, or exclusive content drops for specific seat sections or cities.

Phase 4: Controlled Resale (Weeks 11-12)

  • Launch a branded resale page with rules aligned to local law. Test face-value caps and transfer windows on a small scale before rolling out nationally.

Closing Thought

The paper stub was once a cherished souvenir of a great night out. NFT tickets can be that—and so much more. When access is programmable, loyalty becomes a composable asset that travels with a fan across venues, artists, and seasons. Fans get fairer access and better perks; organizers get durable relationships and cleaner economics. And when the crypto complexity stays under the hood where it belongs, everybody wins.

A Developer's Guide to Stripe's L1 Tempo

· 11 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

Introduction

Stripe's Tempo is a newly launched Layer-1 (L1) blockchain network with a core focus on processing high-speed, low-cost stablecoin payments. The project was co-incubated by payments giant Stripe and prominent crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. From its inception, it has been positioned as a "payments-first" blockchain, designed to meet the demanding scale and performance requirements of real-world financial scenarios. In 2025, Tempo entered a private testnet phase, co-designing and validating its features with several heavyweight partners, including Visa, Deutsche Bank, Shopify, and OpenAI. For the developer community, the emergence of Tempo presents a new opportunity—to build the next generation of payment applications on an underlying infrastructure optimized for stablecoins and commerce use cases. This guide will detail how developers can technically integrate with Tempo, what resources and communities are available, and how to participate in this growing ecosystem.

1. Technical Integration: Building on L1 Tempo

A core design philosophy of Tempo is to lower the barrier to entry for developers by choosing a path of full Ethereum compatibility. This means developers can build on it using existing mature tools and knowledge bases. Tempo's architecture is based on Reth (a Rust implementation of an Ethereum client led by Paradigm), making it naturally compatible with Ethereum smart contracts and its developer toolchain.

Here are its key technical features and integration points:

  • EVM and Smart Contracts: Tempo fully supports Solidity smart contracts and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Developers can use standard frameworks like Hardhat, Truffle, and Foundry, as well as libraries like ethers.js and web3.js, to write, test, and deploy smart contracts. For Web3 developers, this seamless compatibility means there is almost no learning curve. Existing dApps, wallets (like MetaMask), and development tools work "out-of-the-box" on Tempo, paving the way for the easy migration of mature applications from Ethereum.

  • High Throughput & Finality: Tempo has been deeply optimized for the speed requirements of payment scenarios. Its design target is to achieve a processing capacity of over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) and to reach sub-second deterministic finality. This means that once a transaction is confirmed, it is irreversible, eliminating the risk of transaction reordering (reorgs) that can occur with traditional probabilistic confirmations (like Proof-of-Work). This high performance and certainty are crucial for applications with stringent instant settlement requirements, such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, exchanges, and micropayments.

  • Stablecoin-Native Design: Unlike most general-purpose public chains, the Tempo network does not rely on a volatile native token to pay for transaction fees (Gas). Transaction fees on its network can be paid directly using major stablecoins (like USDC, USDT, etc.). To achieve this, the protocol integrates an automated market maker (AMM) that can automatically handle swaps between different stablecoins in the background, ensuring "issuer neutrality" for fee payments. For developers and users, this greatly improves the experience, as transaction costs can be stably pegged to fiat value (e.g., always around $0.001), avoiding the uncertainty caused by native token price volatility.

  • Payment-Oriented Features: Tempo adds several features at the protocol level tailored for financial and payment applications. These include:

    • "Payment Lanes": By isolating payment-type transactions from other types of on-chain activity (like complex DeFi operations), these lanes ensure low latency and high priority for payments.
    • Native Batch Transfers: Leveraging technologies like Account Abstraction, it supports efficiently sending payments to multiple addresses in a single transaction, which is highly practical for scenarios like payroll and supplier payments.
    • Transaction Memo Fields: This field is compatible with the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard, allowing metadata such as invoice reference numbers or compliance data to be attached to on-chain transactions, greatly simplifying corporate financial reconciliation processes.
    • Optional Privacy: The protocol supports optional transaction privacy features to meet enterprise compliance needs for protecting commercially sensitive information.
  • Integration via Stripe API: Stripe plans to deeply integrate Tempo into its existing product suite, offering developers two integration paths. The first is direct on-chain development, where Web3 developers use familiar toolchains to deploy smart contracts directly on Tempo. The second is integration via Stripe's high-level APIs, which completely abstracts away the complexity of the blockchain. For example, Stripe's Bridge platform (a tool for cross-chain stablecoin flows) will use Tempo as one of its core settlement rails in the future. Developers will only need to call Stripe's familiar REST API to initiate a payment or transfer, and the Stripe system will automatically execute it on the Tempo network in the background. This allows them to enjoy the speed and cost advantages of the blockchain without needing to worry about underlying details like node management or private key signing.

2. Developer Documentation, Tutorials, and Onboarding Resources

As of late 2025, Tempo is still in a private testnet phase, and its official developer documentation is actively being written. However, Tempo's official website has confirmed that "comprehensive technical documentation for developers is coming soon."

In the meantime, interested developers can obtain preliminary information through the following channels:

  • Official Website & FAQ: Visiting Tempo's official website and its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page provides a high-level overview of its design philosophy, core features, and how it differs from general-purpose blockchains.
  • Apply for Testnet Access: Interested developers or companies can submit an application through the channel provided on the Tempo website (partners@tempo.xyz) to gain access to its private testnet for early exploration and prototyping.

Based on Stripe's consistent focus on developer experience, we can expect the official documentation, once released, to include the following resources:

  • Getting Started Guides: Detailed tutorials guiding developers on how to set up their development environment, connect to the Tempo testnet, and deploy their first smart contract.
  • API References and SDK Documentation: Complete technical references for the Stripe API integration path, as well as documentation for the JSON-RPC endpoints for interacting with the Tempo protocol.
  • Tutorials & Sample Applications: Open-source sample code and projects demonstrating how to build common payment applications on Tempo.
  • Best Practices: Professional advice on security, compliance, performance optimization, and other areas.

Stripe is renowned for its clear, high-quality API documentation, and there is good reason to believe that Tempo's documentation will maintain the same standard.

3. Stripe’s Developer Engagement Channels and Community

Stripe has a mature and active developer community ecosystem. For developers who want to stay updated on Tempo and receive technical support, the following official channels are available:

  • Stripe Developer Discord: This is a large community with over 120,000 members, where Stripe engineers directly participate in answering questions. The latest announcements, technical discussions, and community support for Tempo can all be found here.
  • Online Forums and Q&A Platforms: Stripe's team actively monitors and responds to questions posted on Stack Overflow (using the stripe tag) and Twitter/X (@StripeDev).
  • Stripe Blog and Newsletters: This is the primary channel for official information, in-depth technical articles, and product updates. Major milestones and case studies for Tempo will be published here.
  • Developer Events & Webinars: Stripe regularly hosts online and offline events. In particular, its annual developer conference, Stripe Sessions, is often the platform for major product announcements and will likely feature dedicated technical sessions and workshops for Tempo in the future.

By tapping into these established channels, developers can easily obtain information, solve problems, and connect with other developers interested in Tempo.

4. Opportunities to Contribute to the Tempo Ecosystem

As Tempo transitions from an internal incubation project to an open public network, developers have various ways to participate and contribute to its ecosystem beyond just building applications:

  • Open Source Contributions: Tempo is based on the open-source Reth client, and its own core components are expected to be gradually open-sourced. Developers will be able to review the code, submit issues, propose improvements, and even contribute code directly to jointly enhance the protocol's performance and security.
  • Validator Participation and Network Governance: Tempo's validator nodes are currently operated by founding partners in a permissioned model, but the long-term plan is to transition to a permissionless model. At that point, any technically capable developer or organization can run a validator node, participate in network consensus, and earn transaction fees in the form of stablecoins while securing the network. As the network decentralizes, a community governance mechanism may also be established, allowing developers to participate in protocol upgrade decisions.
  • Protocol Improvement Proposals (TIPs): Developers can draw inspiration from the Ethereum EIPs model by writing and discussing Tempo Improvement Proposals (TIPs) to suggest new features or optimizations to existing mechanisms, thereby directly influencing the protocol's evolution.
  • Participating in Hackathons and Developer Challenges: Stripe and Paradigm both have a tradition of supporting developer events. It is foreseeable that once Tempo's developer toolchain matures, there will be dedicated hackathon tracks or prize challenges to encourage developers to innovate on it.
  • Community Education & Knowledge Sharing: As early participants, developers can share their experiences and insights by writing technical blogs, creating video tutorials, answering questions in the community, or speaking at technical conferences, helping to grow the entire developer community.

The Tempo ecosystem is in its early stages of construction, providing a valuable opportunity for developers to get deeply involved in various ways and shape its future.

5. Incentives and Grant Programs for Developers

Currently, Stripe has not formally announced any grant programs or incentives for Tempo developers. At the same time, Tempo's design explicitly rules out issuing a new, speculative native token. However, this does not mean the ecosystem lacks support for developers. It is foreseeable that future incentives will focus more on utility and ecosystem building, and may include:

  • Ecosystem Fund: Established by Stripe, Paradigm, or an independent foundation to provide direct grants to teams building critical infrastructure (such as wallets, explorers, analytics tools) or promising applications for the Tempo ecosystem.
  • Hackathon Prizes & Bounties: Incentivizing developers through competitions and by posting bounties for specific development tasks, such as developing an open-source library for a particular feature.
  • Partner Incentives: For enterprise partners who choose to integrate Tempo into their business, Stripe may offer commercial incentives such as fee reductions, priority technical support, or joint marketing promotions.
  • Validator Rewards: Once the network transitions to a permissionless model, running a validator node and processing transactions will provide a continuous stream of income from transaction fees denominated in stablecoins.
  • Strategic Investment: For startups that build outstanding products or services on Tempo, strategic investment or potential acquisition from Stripe or Paradigm is also an important incentive.

In summary, Tempo's incentive model will revolve around building real-world value rather than token speculation.

6. Events, Workshops, and Meetups Around Tempo

Developers who want to learn more about Tempo and connect with the community can pay attention to the following types of events:

  • Stripe Sessions: Stripe's annual developer conference is the most important venue for getting the official roadmap and major updates for Tempo.
  • Paradigm Frontiers: Hosted by Paradigm for developers of cutting-edge crypto technology, future events will likely include in-depth technical sessions and hackathon challenges for Tempo.
  • Fintech & Crypto Industry Conferences: At major conferences like Money20/20 and Consensus, discussions on payment innovation will inevitably involve Tempo, making them good opportunities to understand its market positioning and commercial application prospects.
  • Local Meetups & Online Webinars: Smaller events organized by Stripe or local developer communities often provide more direct interaction and hands-on learning experiences.
  • Global Hackathons: Large hackathon events like ETHGlobal may feature Tempo as a sponsoring platform in the future, providing an opportunity for developers to innovate on an international stage.

Conclusion

Stripe's Tempo blockchain offers developers a unique intersection, blending the rigor of traditional fintech with the openness of the crypto world. Developers can leverage its Ethereum compatibility to get started quickly with familiar tools, or seamlessly integrate Tempo's powerful features into existing businesses through Stripe's APIs. Although the project is still in its early stages with much of the documentation and support programs still in development, the strong backing of Stripe and Paradigm signals a high commitment to developer experience and technological advancement. By actively using existing resources, joining the community, and participating in relevant events, developers can seize a valuable early-stage opportunity in a blockchain network focused on solving real-world payment problems.

How EigenLayer + Liquid Restaking Are Re‑pricing DeFi Yields in 2025

· 9 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

For months, "restaking" was the hottest narrative in crypto, a story fueled by points, airdrops, and the promise of compounded yield. But narratives don't pay the bills. In 2025, the story has been replaced by something far more tangible: a functioning economic system with real cash flows, real risks, and a completely new way to price yield on-chain.

With key infrastructure like slashing now live and fee-generating services hitting their stride, the restaking ecosystem has finally matured. The hype cycle of 2024 has given way to the underwriting cycle of 2025. This is the moment where we move from chasing points to pricing risk.

Here’s the TL;DR on the state of play:

  • Restaking moved from narrative to cash flow. With slashing live on mainnet as of April 17, 2025, and the Rewards v2 governance framework in place, EigenLayer’s yield mechanics now include enforceable downside, clearer operator incentives, and increasingly fee-driven rewards.
  • Data availability got cheaper and faster. EigenDA, a major Actively Validated Service (AVS), slashed its prices by approximately 10x in 2024 and is on a path toward massive throughput. This is a big deal for the rollups that will actually pay AVSs and the operators securing them.
  • Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs) make the stack accessible, but add new risks. Protocols like Ether.fi (weETH), Renzo (ezETH), and Kelp DAO (rsETH) offer liquidity and convenience, but they also introduce new vectors for smart contract failures, operator selection risk, and market peg instability. We’ve already seen real depeg events, a stark reminder of these layered risks.

1) The 2025 Yield Stack: From Base Staking to AVS Fees

At its core, the concept is simple. Ethereum staking gives you a base yield for securing the network. Restaking, pioneered by EigenLayer, allows you to take that same staked capital (ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens) and extend its security to other third-party services, known as Actively Validated Services (AVSs). These can be anything from data availability layers and oracles to cross-chain bridges and specialized coprocessors. In return for this "borrowed" security, AVSs pay fees to the node operators and, ultimately, to the restakers who underwrite their operations. EigenLayer calls this a “marketplace for trust.”

In 2025, this marketplace matured significantly:

  • Slashing is in production. AVSs can now define and enforce conditions to penalize misbehaving node operators. This turns the abstract promise of security into a concrete economic guarantee. With slashing, "points" are replaced by enforceable risk/reward calculations.
  • Rewards v2 formalizes how rewards and fee distributions flow through the system. This governance-approved change brings much-needed clarity, aligning incentives between AVSs that need security, operators that provide it, and restakers who fund it.
  • Redistribution has started rolling out. This mechanism determines how slashed funds are handled, clarifying how losses and clawbacks are socialized across the system.

Why it matters: Once AVSs begin to generate real revenue and the penalties for misbehavior are credible, restaked yield becomes a legitimate economic product, not just a marketing story. The activation of slashing in April was the inflection point, completing the original vision for a system already securing billions in assets across dozens of live AVSs.


2) DA as a Revenue Engine: EigenDA’s Price/Performance Curve

If rollups are the primary customers for cryptoeconomic security, then data availability (DA) is where the near-term revenue lives. EigenDA, EigenLayer's flagship AVS, is the perfect case study.

  • Pricing: In August 2024, EigenDA announced a dramatic price cut of roughly 10x and introduced a free tier. This move makes it economically viable for more applications and rollups to post their data, directly increasing the potential fee flow to the operators and restakers securing the service.
  • Throughput: The project is on a clear trajectory for massive scale. While its mainnet currently supports around 10 MB/s, the public roadmap targets over 100 MB/s as the operator set expands. This signals that both capacity and economics are trending in the right direction for sustainable fee generation.

Takeaway: The combination of cheaper DA services and credible slashing creates a clear runway for AVSs to generate sustainable revenue from fees rather than relying on inflationary token emissions.


3) AVS, Evolving: From “Actively Validated” to “Autonomous Verifiable”

You may notice a subtle but important shift in terminology. AVSs are increasingly described not just as “Actively Validated Services” but as “Autonomous Verifiable Services.” This change in language emphasizes systems that can prove their correct behavior cryptographically and enforce consequences automatically, rather than simply being monitored. This framing pairs perfectly with the new reality of live slashing and programmatic operator selection, pointing to a future of more robust and trust-minimized infrastructure.


4) How You Participate

For the average DeFi user or institution, there are three common ways to engage with the restaking ecosystem, each with distinct trade-offs.

  • Native restaking

    • How it works: You restake your native ETH (or other approved assets) directly on EigenLayer and delegate to an operator of your choice.
    • Pros: You have maximum control over your operator selection and which AVSs you are securing.
    • Cons: This approach comes with operational overhead and requires you to do your own due diligence on operators. You shoulder all the selection risk yourself.
  • LST → EigenLayer (Liquid restaking without a new token)

    • How it works: You take your existing Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) like stETH, rETH, or cbETH and deposit them into EigenLayer strategies.
    • Pros: You can reuse your existing LSTs, keeping your exposure relatively simple and building on a familiar asset.
    • Cons: You are stacking protocol risks. A failure in the underlying LST, EigenLayer, or the AVSs you secure could result in losses.
  • LRTs (Liquid Restaking Tokens)

    • How it works: Protocols issue tokens like weETH (wrapping eETH), ezETH, and rsETH that bundle the entire restaking process—delegation, operator management, and AVS selection—into a single, liquid token you can use across DeFi.
    • Pros: The primary benefits are convenience and liquidity.
    • Cons: This convenience comes with added layers of risk, including the LRT's own smart contracts and the peg risk of the token on secondary markets. The depeg of ezETH in April 2024, which triggered a cascade of liquidations, serves as a real-world reminder that LRTs are leveraged exposures to multiple interconnected systems.

5) Risk, Repriced

Restaking’s promise is higher yield for performing real work. Its risks are now equally real.

  • Slashing & policy risk: Slashing is live, and AVSs can define custom, and sometimes complex, conditions for penalties. It is critical to understand the quality of the operator set you are exposed to and how disputes or appeals are handled.
  • Peg & liquidity risk in LRTs: Secondary markets can be volatile. As we've already seen, sharp dislocations between an LRT and its underlying assets can and do happen. You must build in buffers for liquidity crunches and conservative collateral factors when using LRTs in other DeFi protocols.
  • Smart-contract & strategy risk: You are stacking multiple smart contracts on top of each other (LST/LRT + EigenLayer + AVSs). The quality of audits and the power of governance over protocol upgrades are paramount.
  • Throughput/economics risk: AVS fees are not guaranteed; they depend entirely on usage. While DA price cuts are a positive catalyst, sustained demand from rollups and other applications is the ultimate engine of restaking yield.

6) A Simple Framework to Value Restaked Yield

With these dynamics in play, you can now think about the expected return on restaking as a simple stack:

Expected Return=(Base Staking Yield)+(AVS Fees)(Expected Slashing Loss)(Frictions)\text{Expected Return} = (\text{Base Staking Yield}) + (\text{AVS Fees}) - (\text{Expected Slashing Loss}) - (\text{Frictions})

Let's break that down:

  • Base staking yield: The standard return from securing Ethereum.
  • AVS fees: The additional yield paid by AVSs, weighted by your specific operator and AVS allocation.
  • Expected slashing loss: This is the crucial new variable. You can estimate it as: probability of a slashable event × penalty size × your exposure.
  • Frictions: These include protocol fees, operator fees, and any liquidity haircuts or peg discounts if you are using an LRT.

You will never have perfect inputs for this formula, but forcing yourself to estimate the slashing term, even conservatively, will keep your portfolio honest. The introduction of Rewards v2 and Redistribution makes this calculation far less abstract than it was a year ago.


7) Playbooks for 2025 Allocators

  • Conservative

    • Prefer native restaking or direct LST restaking strategies.
    • Delegate only to diversified, high-uptime operators with transparent, well-documented AVS security policies.
    • Focus on AVSs with clear, understandable fee models, such as those providing data availability or core infrastructure services.
  • Balanced

    • Use a mix of direct LST restaking and select LRTs that have deep liquidity and transparent disclosures about their operator sets.
    • Cap your exposure to any single LRT protocol and actively monitor peg spreads and on-chain liquidity conditions.
  • Aggressive

    • Utilize LRT-heavy baskets to maximize liquidity and target smaller, potentially higher-growth AVSs or newer operator sets for higher upside.
    • Explicitly budget for potential slashing or depeg events. Avoid using leverage on top of LRTs unless you have thoroughly modeled the impact of a significant depeg.

8) What to Watch Next

  • AVS revenue turn-on: Which services are actually generating meaningful fee revenue? Keep an eye on DA-adjacent and core infrastructure AVSs, as they are likely to lead the pack.
  • Operator stratification: Over the next two to three quarters, slashing and the Rewards v2 framework should begin to separate best-in-class operators from the rest. Performance and reliability will become key differentiators.
  • The "Autonomous Verifiable" trend: Watch for AVS designs that lean more heavily on cryptographic proofs and automated enforcement. These are likely to be the most robust and fee-worthy services in the long run.

9) A Note on Numbers (and Why They’ll Change)

You will encounter different throughput and TVL figures across various sources and dates. For instance, EigenDA's own site may reference both its current mainnet support of around 10 MB/s and its future roadmap targeting 100+ MB/s. This reflects the dynamic nature of a system that is constantly evolving as operator sets grow and software improves. Always check the dates and context of any data before anchoring your financial models to it.


Bottom Line

2024 was the hype cycle. 2025 is the underwriting cycle. With slashing live and AVS fee models becoming more compelling, restaking yields are finally becoming priceable—and therefore, truly investable. For sophisticated DeFi users and institutional treasuries willing to do the homework on operators, AVSs, and LRT liquidity, restaking has evolved from a promising narrative into a core component of the on-chain economy.


This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice.

Chain Abstraction Is How Enterprises Will Finally Use Web3 (Without Thinking About Chains)

· 8 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

TL;DR

Cross-chain abstraction turns a maze of chains, bridges, and wallets into a single, coherent platform experience for both developers and end users. The ecosystem has quietly matured: intent standards, account abstraction, native stablecoin mobility, and network-level initiatives like the OP Superchain and Polygon's AggLayer make a "many chains, one experience" future realistic in 2025. For enterprises, the win is pragmatic: simpler integrations, enforceable risk controls, deterministic operations, and compliance-ready auditability—without betting the farm on any single chain.


The Problem Enterprises Actually Have (and Why Bridges Alone Didn’t Fix It)

Most enterprise teams don’t want to “pick a chain.” They want outcomes: settle a payment, issue an asset, clear a trade, or update a record—reliably, auditably, and at a predictable cost. The trouble is that production Web3 today is irredeemably multichain. Hundreds of rollups, appchains, and L2s have launched over the past 18 months alone, each with its own fees, finality times, tooling, and trust assumptions.

Traditional cross-chain approaches solved transport—moving tokens or messages from A to B—but not the experience. Teams are still forced to manage wallets per network, provision gas per chain, pick a bridge per route, and shoulder security differences they can’t easily quantify. That friction is the real adoption tax.

Cross-chain abstraction removes that tax by hiding chain selection and transport behind declarative APIs, intent-driven user experiences, and unified identity and gas. In other words, users and applications express what they want; the platform determines how and where it happens, safely. Chain abstraction makes blockchain technology invisible to end users while preserving its core benefits.

Why 2025 is Different: The Building Blocks Finally Clicked

The vision of a seamless multi-chain world isn't new, but the foundational technology is finally ready for production. Several key components have matured and converged, making robust chain abstraction possible.

  • Network-Level Unification: Projects are now building frameworks to make separate chains feel like a single, unified network. The OP Superchain aims to standardize OP-Stack L2s with shared tooling and communication layers. Polygon's AggLayer aggregates many ZK-secured chains with "pessimistic proofs" for chain-level accounting, preventing one chain’s issues from contaminating others. Meanwhile, IBC v2 is expanding standardized interoperability beyond the Cosmos ecosystem, pushing toward "IBC everywhere."

  • Mature Interop Rails: The middleware for cross-chain communication is now battle-tested and widely available. Chainlink CCIP offers enterprise-grade token and data transfer across a growing number of chains. LayerZero v2 provides omnichain messaging and standardized OFT tokens with a unified supply. Axelar delivers General Message Passing (GMP) for complex contract calls across ecosystems, connecting EVM and Cosmos chains. Platforms like Hyperlane enable permissionless deployments, allowing new chains to join the network without gatekeepers, while Wormhole offers a generalized messaging layer used across more than 40 chains.

  • Intent & Account Abstraction: The user experience has been transformed by two critical standards. ERC-7683 standardizes cross-chain intents, allowing apps to declare goals and let a shared solver network execute them efficiently across chains. Concurrently, EIP-4337 smart accounts, combined with Paymasters, enable gas abstraction. This allows an application to sponsor transaction fees or let users pay in stablecoins, which is essential for any flow that might touch multiple networks.

  • Native Stablecoin Mobility: Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) moves native USDC across chains via a secure burn-and-mint process, reducing wrapped-asset risk and unifying liquidity. The latest version, CCTP v2, further cuts latency and simplifies developer workflows, making stablecoin settlement a seamless part of the abstracted experience.

What “Cross-Chain Abstraction” Looks Like in an Enterprise Stack

Think of it as a layered capability you can add to existing systems. The goal is to have a single endpoint to express an intent and a single policy plane to govern how it executes across any number of chains.

  1. Unified Identity & Policy: At the top layer are smart accounts (EIP-4337) with role-based access controls, social recovery, and modern custody options like passkeys or MPC. This is governed by a central policy engine that defines who can do what, where, using allow- and deny-lists for specific chains, assets, and bridges.

  2. Gas & Fee Abstraction: Paymasters remove the "I need native gas on chain X" headache. Users or services can pay fees in stablecoins, or the application can sponsor them entirely, subject to predefined policies and budgets.

  3. Intent-Driven Execution: Users express outcomes, not transactions. For example, "swap USDC for wETH and deliver it to our supplier's wallet on chain Y before 5 p.m." The ERC-7683 standard defines the format for these orders, allowing shared solver networks to compete to execute them safely and cheaply.

  4. Programmable Settlement & Messaging: Under the hood, the system uses a consistent API to select the right rail for each route. It might use CCIP for a token transfer where enterprise support is key, Axelar GMP for a cross-ecosystem contract call, or IBC where native light-client security fits the risk model.

  5. Observability & Compliance by Default: The entire workflow is traceable, from the initial intent to the final settlement. This produces clear audit trails and allows data to be exported to existing SIEMs. Risk frameworks can be programmed to enforce allowlists or trigger emergency brakes, for instance, by pausing routes if a bridge’s security posture degrades.

A Reference Architecture

From the top down, a chain-abstracted system is composed of clear layers:

  • Experience Layer: Application surfaces that collect user intents and completely hide chain details, paired with SSO-style smart account wallet flows.
  • Control Plane: A policy engine for managing permissions, quotas, and budgets. This plane integrates with KMS/HSM systems and maintains allowlists for chains, assets, and bridges. It also ingests risk feeds to circuit-break vulnerable routes automatically.
  • Execution Layer: An intent router that selects the best interop rail (CCIP, LayerZero, Axelar, etc.) based on policy, price, and latency requirements. A Paymaster handles fees, drawing from a treasury of pooled gas and stablecoin budgets.
  • Settlement & State: Canonical on-chain contracts for core functions like custody and issuance. A unified indexer tracks cross-chain events and proofs, exporting data to a warehouse or SIEM for analysis and compliance.

Build vs. Buy: How to Evaluate Providers of Chain Abstraction

When selecting a partner to provide chain abstraction capabilities, enterprises should ask several key questions:

  • Security & Trust Model: What are the underlying verification assumptions? Does the system rely on oracles, guardian sets, light clients, or validator networks? What can be slashed or vetoed?
  • Coverage & Neutrality: Which chains and assets are supported today? How quickly can new ones be added? Is the process permissionless or gated by the provider?
  • Standards Alignment: Does the platform support key standards like ERC-7683, EIP-4337, OFT, IBC, and CCIP?
  • Operations: What are the provider’s SLAs? How transparent are they about incidents? Do they offer replayable proofs, deterministic retries, and structured audit logs?
  • Governance & Portability: Can you switch interop rails per route without rewriting your application? Vendor-neutral abstractions are critical for long-term flexibility.
  • Compliance: What controls are available for data retention and residency? What is their SOC2/ISO posture? Can you bring your own KMS/HSM?

A Pragmatic 90-Day Enterprise Rollout

  • Days 0–15: Baseline & Policy: Inventory all chains, assets, bridges, and wallets currently in use. Define an initial allowlist and establish circuit-break rules based on a clear risk framework.
  • Days 16–45: Prototype: Convert a single user journey, such as a cross-chain payout, to use an intent-based flow with account abstraction and a paymaster. Measure the impact on user drop-off, latency, and support load.
  • Days 46–75: Expand Rails: Add a second interoperability rail to the system and route transactions dynamically based on policy. Integrate CCTP for native USDC mobility if stablecoins are part of the workflow.
  • Days 76–90: Harden: Wire the platform’s observability data to your SIEM, run chaos tests on route failures, and document all operating procedures, including emergency pause protocols.

Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

  • Routing by "Gas Price Only": Latency, finality, and security assumptions matter as much as fees. Price alone is not a complete risk model.
  • Ignoring Gas: If your experience touches multiple chains, gas abstraction isn't optional—it's table stakes for a usable product.
  • Treating Bridges as Interchangeable: They aren’t. Their security assumptions differ significantly. Codify allowlists and implement circuit breakers to manage this risk.
  • Wrapped-Asset Sprawl: Whenever possible, prefer native asset mobility (like USDC via CCTP) to minimize liquidity fragmentation and reduce counterparty risk.

The Enterprise Upside

When chain abstraction is done well, blockchain stops being a collection of idiosyncratic networks and becomes an execution fabric your teams can program against. It offers policies, SLAs, and audit trails that match the standards you already operate under. Thanks to mature intent standards, account abstraction, robust interop rails, and native stablecoin transport, you can finally deliver Web3 outcomes without forcing users—or your own developers—to care about which chain did the work.

Ethereum's 2026 Roadmap: Stanczak's Push for 10x Scaling

· 23 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

Ethereum is targeting 10x Layer 1 scaling by 2026, driven by Co-Executive Director Tomasz Stanczak's operational transformation of the Ethereum Foundation. The Glamsterdam hard fork, planned for mid-2026, will deliver Verkle Trees, enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation, and progressive gas limit increases to 150 million units—representing the most ambitious single-year upgrade in Ethereum's history. This isn't just technical evolution; it's a fundamental shift in how the Foundation operates, moving from long-term theorizing to aggressive six-month upgrade cycles under Stanczak's mandate to make Ethereum competitive now, not later.

Since becoming Co-Executive Director in March 2025 alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang, Stanczak has restructured the Foundation around three strategic pillars: scaling Ethereum mainnet, expanding blob capacity for Layer 2 growth, and dramatically improving user experience through unified cross-chain interactions. His background building Nethermind from a project to the third-largest Ethereum execution client, combined with Wall Street experience at Citibank's FX trading desk, positions him uniquely to bridge Ethereum's decentralized developer community with traditional financial institutions increasingly eyeing blockchain infrastructure. The 2026 roadmap reflects his operational philosophy: "no amount of talking about Ethereum's roadmap and vision matters if we cannot achieve coordination levels that consistently meet goals on schedule."

A Wall Street veteran reimagining Ethereum Foundation leadership

Tomasz Stanczak's journey from traditional finance to blockchain leadership shapes his approach to Ethereum's 2026 challenges. After building trading platforms at Citibank London (2011-2016) and discovering Ethereum at a London meetup in 2015, he founded Nethermind in 2017, growing it into one of Ethereum's top three execution clients—critical infrastructure that processed transactions during The Merge. This entrepreneurial success informs his Foundation leadership style: where predecessor Aya Miyaguchi focused on long-term research and hands-off coordination, Stanczak conducts over 200 stakeholder conversations, appears on major podcasts monthly, and publicly tracks upgrade timelines on social media.

His co-directorship with Wang divides responsibilities strategically. Wang stewards Ethereum's core principles—decentralization, censorship resistance, privacy—while Stanczak owns operational execution and timeline management. This structure aims to free Vitalik Buterin for deep research on single-slot finality and post-quantum cryptography rather than daily coordination. Stanczak explicitly states: "Following the recent changes in leadership at the Ethereum Foundation, we aimed, among other things, to free more of Vitalik's time for research and exploration, rather than day-to-day coordination or crisis response."

The organizational transformation includes empowering 40+ team leads with greater decision-making authority, restructuring developer calls toward product delivery rather than endless discussion, integrating application builders into early planning stages, and implementing dashboard tracking for measurable progress. In June 2025, Stanczak laid off 19 employees as part of streamlining efforts—controversial but consistent with his mandate to accelerate execution. He positions this urgency in market context: "The ecosystem called out. You're operating too disorganised, you need to operate a bit more centralised and way more accelerated to be there for this critical period."

Three strategic pillars define Ethereum's next 12 months

Stanczak and Wang outlined three core objectives in their April 2025 Foundation blog post "The Next Chapter," establishing the framework for 2026 deliverables.

Scaling Ethereum mainnet represents the primary technical focus. The current 30-45 million gas limit will increase to 150 million by Glamsterdam, enabling roughly 5x more transactions per block. This combines with stateless client capabilities via Verkle Trees, allowing nodes to verify blocks without storing Ethereum's entire 50+ GB state. Stanczak emphasizes this isn't just capacity expansion—it's making mainnet "a solid rock and nimble network" that institutions can trust with trillion-dollar contracts. The aggressive target emerged from extensive community consultation, with Vitalik Buterin noting that validators show roughly 50% support for immediate increases, providing social consensus for the technical roadmap.

Scaling blobs addresses Layer 2 ecosystem needs directly. Proto-danksharding launched in March 2024 with 3-6 blobs per block, each carrying 128 KB of rollup transaction data. By mid-2026, PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling) will enable 48 blobs per block—an 8x increase—by allowing validators to sample just 1/16th of blob data rather than downloading everything. Automated Blob Parameter Only hard forks will progressively increase capacity: 10-15 blobs by December 2025, 14-21 blobs by January 2026, then continued growth toward the 48-blob ceiling. This blob scaling directly translates to lower L2 transaction costs, with Layer 2 fees already down 70-95% post-Dencun and targeting further 50-70% reductions through 2026.

Improving user experience tackles Ethereum's fragmentation problem. With 55+ Layer 2 rollups holding $42 billion in liquidity but creating disjointed user experiences, the Ethereum Interoperability Layer launches Q1 2026 to "make Ethereum feel like one chain again." The Open Intents Framework enables users to declare desired outcomes—swap token X for token Y—while solvers handle the complex routing across chains invisibly. Meanwhile, the Fast Confirmation Rule reduces perceived finality from 13-19 minutes to 15-30 seconds, a 98% latency reduction that makes Ethereum competitive with traditional payment systems for the first time.

Glamsterdam upgrade represents 2026's pivotal technical milestone

The Glamsterdam hard fork, targeted for Q1-Q2 2026 approximately six months after the December 2025 Fusaka upgrade, packages the most significant protocol changes since The Merge. Stanczak repeatedly emphasizes timeline discipline, warning in August 2025: "Glamsterdam may be getting some attention (it is a fork for Q1/Q2 2026). In the meantime, we should be more concerned about any potential delays to Fusaka... I would love to see a broad agreement that the timelines matter a lot. A lot."

Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (EIP-7732) represents the upgrade's headline consensus layer change. Currently, block building occurs off-protocol through MEV-Boost, with three builders controlling roughly 75% of block production—a centralization risk. ePBS integrates PBS directly into Ethereum's protocol, eliminating trusted relays and enabling any entity to become a builder by staking requirements. Builders construct optimized blocks and bid for inclusion, validators select the highest bid, and attester committees verify commitments cryptographically. This provides an 8-second execution window (up from 2 seconds), enabling more sophisticated block construction while maintaining censorship resistance. However, ePBS introduces technical complexity including the "free option problem"—builders might withhold blocks after winning bids—requiring threshold encryption solutions still under development.

Fork-Choice enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL, EIP-7805) complements ePBS by preventing transaction censorship. Validator committees generate mandatory inclusion lists of transactions that builders must incorporate, ensuring users cannot be indefinitely censored even if builders coordinate to exclude specific addresses. Combined with ePBS, FOCIL creates what researchers call the "holy trinity" of censorship resistance (alongside future encrypted mempools), directly addressing regulatory concerns about blockchain neutrality.

Verkle Trees transition from Merkle Patricia Trees enables stateless clients, reducing proof sizes from roughly 1 KB to 150 bytes. This allows nodes to verify blocks without storing Ethereum's entire state, lowering hardware requirements dramatically and enabling lightweight verification. The full transition may extend into late 2026 or early 2027 given complexity, but partial implementation begins with Glamsterdam. Notably, debate continues about whether to complete Verkle Trees or skip directly to STARK-based proofs for quantum resistance—a decision that will clarify during 2026 based on Glamsterdam's performance.

Six-second slot times (EIP-7782) propose cutting block times from 12 to 6 seconds, halving confirmation latency across the board. This tightens DEX pricing mechanisms, reduces MEV opportunities, and improves user experience. However, it increases centralization pressure by requiring validators to process blocks twice as fast, potentially favoring professional operators with superior infrastructure. The proposal remains "draft phase" with uncertain inclusion in Glamsterdam, reflecting ongoing community debate about performance-decentralization tradeoffs.

Beyond these headliners, Glamsterdam packages numerous execution layer improvements: block-level access lists enabling parallelized validation, continuous gas limit increases (EIP-7935), history expiry reducing node storage requirements (EIP-4444), delayed execution for better resource allocation (EIP-7886), and potentially EVM Object Format bringing 16 EIPs for bytecode improvements. The scope represents what Stanczak calls the Foundation's shift from "ivory tower" research to pragmatic delivery.

Data availability sampling unlocks the path to 100,000+ TPS

While Glamsterdam delivers Layer 1 improvements, 2026's scaling story centers on blob capacity expansion through PeerDAS technology deployed in December 2025's Fusaka upgrade but maturing throughout 2026.

PeerDAS implements data availability sampling, a cryptographic technique allowing validators to verify blob data exists and is retrievable without downloading entire datasets. Each blob gets extended via erasure coding and divided into 128 columns. Individual validators sample just 8 of 128 columns (1/16th of data), and if enough validators collectively sample all columns with high probability, the data is confirmed available. KZG polynomial commitments prove each sample's validity cryptographically. This reduces bandwidth requirements by 90% while maintaining security guarantees.

The technical breakthrough enables aggressive blob scaling through automated Blob Parameter Only hard forks. Unlike traditional upgrades requiring months of coordination, BPO forks adjust blob counts based on network monitoring—essentially turning a dial rather than orchestrating a complex deployment. The Foundation targets 14-21 blobs by January 2026 via the second BPO fork, then progressive increases toward 48 blobs by mid-2026. At 48 blobs per block (approximately 2.6 MB per slot), Layer 2 rollups gain roughly 512 KB/second of data throughput, enabling 12,000+ TPS across the combined L2 ecosystem.

Stanczak frames this as essential infrastructure for Layer 2 success: "Ahead of us lies one year of scaling—scaling Ethereum mainnet (L1), supporting the success of L2 chains by providing them with the best architecture to scale, to secure their networks, and to bring confidence to their users." He shifted the narrative from viewing L2s as parasitic to positioning them as Ethereum's protective "moat," emphasizing that scaling comes before fee-sharing mechanisms.

Beyond 2026, research continues on FullDAS (led by Francesco D'Amato) exploring next-generation data availability with highly diverse participant sharding. Full Danksharding—the ultimate vision of 64 blobs per block enabling 100,000+ TPS—remains several years away, requiring 2D erasure coding and complete ePBS maturity. But 2026's PeerDAS deployment provides the foundation, with Stanczak emphasizing measured progress: careful scaling, extensive testing, and avoiding the destabilization that plagued earlier Ethereum transitions.

Layer 2 unification tackles Ethereum's fragmentation crisis

Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap created a fragmentation problem: 55+ Layer 2 chains with $42 billion in liquidity but no standardized interoperability, forcing users to manually bridge assets, maintain separate wallets, and navigate incompatible interfaces. Stanczak identifies this as a critical 2026 priority: making Ethereum "feel like one chain again."

The Ethereum Interoperability Layer, designed publicly in October 2025 and implementing Q1 2026, provides trustless, censorship-resistant cross-chain infrastructure adhering to "CROPS values" (Censorship-Resistance, Open-source, Privacy, Security). Unlike centralized bridges or trusted intermediaries, EIL operates as a prescriptive execution layer where users specify exact transactions rather than declaring abstract intents that third parties fulfill opaquely. This maintains Ethereum's core philosophy while enabling seamless cross-L2 operations.

The Open Intents Framework forms EIL's technical foundation, with production-ready smart contracts already deployed. OIF uses a four-layer architecture: origination (where intents are created), fulfillment (solver execution), settlement (on-chain confirmation), and rebalancing (liquidity management). The framework is modular and lightweight, allowing different L2s to customize mechanisms—Dutch auctions, first-come-first-serve, or novel designs—while maintaining interoperability through common standards like ERC-7683. Major ecosystem players including Across, Arbitrum, Hyperlane, LI.FI, OpenZeppelin, Taiko, and Uniswap contributed to the specification.

Fast confirmation rules complement cross-chain improvements by addressing latency. Currently, strong transaction finality requires 64-95 slots (13-19 minutes), making cross-chain operations painfully slow. The Fast L1 Confirmation Rule, targeting Q1 2026 availability across all consensus clients, provides strong probabilistic confirmation in 15-30 seconds using accumulated attestations. This 98% latency reduction makes cross-chain swaps competitive with centralized exchanges for the first time. Stanczak emphasizes that perception matters: users experience transactions as "confirmed" when they see strong probabilistic security, even if cryptographic finality comes later.

For Layer 2 settlement improvements, zksettle mechanisms enable optimistic rollups to settle in hours rather than 7-day challenge windows by using ZK-proofs for faster validation. The "2-out-of-3" mechanism combines ZK-based real-time proving with traditional challenge periods, providing maximal user protection at minimal cost. These improvements integrate directly with OIF, reducing rebalancing costs for solvers and enabling cheaper fees for intent protocol users.

Quantifying 2026's performance revolution in concrete metrics

Stanczak's scaling targets translate to specific, measurable improvements across latency, throughput, cost, and decentralization dimensions.

Throughput scaling combines Layer 1 and Layer 2 gains. L1 capacity increases from 30-45 million gas to 150+ million gas, enabling roughly 50-100 TPS on mainnet (from current 15-30 TPS). Layer 2 rollups collectively scale from 1,000-2,000 TPS to 12,000+ TPS via blob expansion. Smart contract size limits double from 24 KB to 48 KB, enabling more complex applications. The combined effect: Ethereum's total transaction processing capability increases by roughly 6-12x during 2026, with potential for 100,000+ TPS as full Danksharding research matures post-2026.

Latency improvements fundamentally change user experience. Fast confirmation drops from 13-19 minutes to 15-30 seconds—a 98% reduction in perceived finality. If EIP-7782's 6-second slot times get approved, block inclusion times halve. Layer 2 settlement compression from 7 days to hours represents an 85-95% reduction. These changes make Ethereum competitive with traditional payment systems and centralized exchanges for user experience while maintaining decentralization and security.

Cost reductions cascade through the stack. Layer 2 gas fees already dropped 70-95% post-Dencun with proto-danksharding; further 50-80% blob fee reductions emerge as capacity scales to 48 blobs. Layer 1 gas costs potentially decrease 30-50% via gas limit increases spreading fixed validator costs across more transactions. Cross-chain bridging costs approach zero through EIL's trustless infrastructure. These reductions enable entirely new use cases—micropayments, gaming, social media onchain—previously uneconomical.

Decentralization metrics improve counterintuitively despite scaling. Verkle Trees reduce node storage requirements from 150+ GB to under 50 GB, lowering barriers to running validators. The increased maximum effective balance from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH per validator (deployed in Pectra May 2025) enables institutional staking efficiency without requiring separate validator instances. ePBS eliminates trusted MEV-Boost relays, distributing block building opportunities more widely. The validator set could grow from roughly 1 million to 2 million validators during 2026 as barriers decrease.

Stanczak emphasizes that these aren't just technical achievements—they enable his vision of "10-20% of the global economy onchain, and it may happen faster than people think." The quantitative targets directly support qualitative goals: tokenized securities, stablecoin dominance, real-world asset markets, and AI agent coordination all require this performance baseline.

Account abstraction matures from research concept to mainstream feature

While scaling grabs headlines, user experience improvements through account abstraction represent equally transformative 2026 developments, directly addressing Ethereum's reputation for poor onboarding and complex wallet management.

ERC-4337, deployed March 2023 and maturing throughout 2024-2025, establishes smart contract wallets as first-class citizens. Rather than requiring users to manage private keys and pay gas in ETH, UserOperation objects flow through alternative mempools where bundlers aggregate transactions and paymasters sponsor fees. This enables gas payment in any ERC-20 token (USDC, DAI, project tokens), social recovery via trusted contacts, transaction batching for complex operations, and custom validation logic including multisig, passkeys, and biometric authentication.

EIP-7702, deployed in May 2025's Pectra upgrade, extends these benefits to existing Externally Owned Accounts. Through temporary code delegation, EOAs gain smart account features without migrating to new addresses—preserving transaction history, token holdings, and application integrations while accessing advanced functionality. Users can batch approval and swap operations into single transactions, delegate spending permissions temporarily, or implement time-locked security policies.

Stanczak personally tested wallet onboarding flows to identify friction points, bringing product-thinking from his Nethermind entrepreneurship. His emphasis: "We will focus on speed of execution, accountability, clear goals, objectives, and metrics to track" extends beyond protocol development to application-layer experience. The Foundation shifted from pure grants to actively connecting founders with resources, talent, and partners—infrastructure that supports account abstraction's mainstream adoption during 2026.

Privacy enhancements complement account abstraction through the Kohaku privacy wallet project, led by Nicolas Consigny and Vitalik Buterin, developing through 2026. Kohaku provides SDK exposing privacy and security primitives—native private balances, private addresses, Helios light client integration—with a power-user browser extension demonstrating capabilities. The four-layer privacy model addresses private payments (integrated privacy tools like Railgun), partial dApp activity obscuring (separate addresses per application), hidden read-access (TEE-based RPC privacy transitioning to Private Information Retrieval), and network-level anonymization. These capabilities position Ethereum for institutional compliance requirements while maintaining censorship resistance—a balance Stanczak identifies as critical for "winning RWA and stables."

Operational transformation reflects lessons from traditional finance and startups

Stanczak's leadership style derives directly from Wall Street and entrepreneurial experience, contrasting sharply with Ethereum's historically academic, consensus-driven culture.

His restructuring establishes clear accountability. The 40+ team leads model distributes decision-making authority rather than bottlenecking through central committees, mirroring how trading desks operate autonomously within risk parameters. Developer calls shifted focus from endless specification discussions to shipping current testnets, with fewer future fork calls until present work completes. This parallels agile methodologies from software startups: tight iteration cycles, concrete deliverables, public tracking.

The six-month upgrade cadence itself represents dramatic acceleration. Ethereum historically launched major upgrades every 12-18 months, with frequent delays. Stanczak targets Pectra (May 2025), Fusaka (December 2025), and Glamsterdam (Q1-Q2 2026)—three significant upgrades in 12 months. His public statements emphasize timeline discipline: "I know that some extremely talented people are now working on resolving the issues that caused teams to suggest moving the dates. I would love to see a broad agreement that the timelines matter a lot. A lot." This urgency acknowledges competitive pressure from Solana, Aptos, and other chains shipping features faster.

The Foundation's communication strategy transformed from infrequent blog posts to active social media engagement, conference appearances (Devcon, Token 2049, Paris Blockchain Week, Point Zero Forum), podcast circuits (Bankless, Unchained, The Defiant), and direct institutional outreach. Stanczak conducted over 200 conversations with ecosystem stakeholders during his first months, treating Co-Executive Director as a customer-facing role rather than pure technical leadership. This accessibility mirrors startup founder patterns—constantly in market, gathering feedback, adjusting strategy.

However, his dual role as Ethereum Foundation Co-Executive Director and Nethermind founder creates ongoing controversy. Nethermind remains the third-largest Ethereum execution client, and critics question whether Stanczak can fairly allocate Foundation grants to competing clients like Geth, Besu, and Erigon. A June 2025 conflict with Péter Szilágyi (Geth lead) over Foundation-funded Geth fork development highlighted these tensions. Stanczak maintains he's transitioning out of Nethermind's CEO role but retains significant involvement, requiring careful navigation of perceived conflicts.

The layoffs of 19 employees in June 2025 proved equally controversial in a community valuing decentralization and collective decision-making. Stanczak frames this as necessary streamlining, implementing "more hands-on hiring review process" and focusing resources on execution-critical teams. The move signals that Foundation leadership now prioritizes operational efficiency over consensus-building, accepting criticism as the cost of faster delivery.

Single-slot finality and quantum resistance remain active research beyond 2026

While 2026 focuses on deliverable upgrades, Stanczak emphasizes the Foundation's continued commitment to long-term protocol evolution, explicitly positioning near-term execution within broader strategic context.

Single-slot finality research aims to reduce Ethereum's current 12.8-minute finality (64 slots across 2 epochs) to 12 seconds—finalizing blocks in the same slot they're proposed. This eliminates short-range reorganization vulnerability and simplifies the complex fork-choice/finality interface. However, achieving SSF with 1-2 million validators requires processing massive attestations per slot. Proposed solutions include brute-force BLS signature aggregation using ZK-SNARKs, Orbit SSF with validator sub-sampling, and two-tiered staking systems separating high-stake validators from broader participation.

Intermediate solutions deploy during 2026. The Fast Confirmation Rule provides 15-30 second strong probabilistic security using accumulated attestations—not technically finality but achieving 98% latency reduction for user experience. Research tracks including 3-Slot Finality (3SF) and alternative consensus protocols (Kudzu, Hydrangea, Alpenglow) continue exploration, led by Francesco D'Amato, Luca Zanolini, and EF Protocol Consensus team. Stanczak's operational changes deliberately free Vitalik Buterin to focus on this deep research rather than daily coordination: "Vitalik's proposals will always carry weight, but they are intended to start conversations and encourage progress in difficult research areas."

Verkle Trees versus STARKs represents another long-term decision point. Verkle Trees deploy partially in 2026 for stateless clients, reducing proof sizes and enabling lightweight verification. However, Verkle's polynomial commitments are vulnerable to quantum computing attacks, while STARK-based proofs provide quantum resistance. The community debates whether completing Verkle Trees then migrating to STARKs adds unnecessary complexity versus skipping directly to STARKs. Stanczak's pragmatism suggests shipping Verkle Trees for near-term benefits while monitoring quantum computing progress and STARK-proof performance, maintaining optionality.

Beam Chain and "Ethereum 3.0" discussions explore comprehensive consensus layer redesign incorporating lessons from years of proof-of-stake operation. These conversations remain speculative but inform incremental improvements during 2026. Stanczak's "secondary roadmap" posted in April 2025 outlines aspirational goals beyond core protocol work: winning real-world assets, dominating stablecoin infrastructure, greatly increasing security expectations for "quadrillion economy" scale, and positioning Ethereum for AI/agentic protocol integration as "long term which will be so cool that it will attract the greatest thinkers over long time."

This balance—aggressive near-term execution while funding long-term research—defines Stanczak's approach. He repeatedly emphasizes that Ethereum must deliver now to maintain ecosystem momentum, but not at the cost of foundational principles. His April 2025 blog post with Wang states: "The values remain unchanged: open source, censorship resistance, privacy, and security... Ethereum mainnet will remain a global, neutral network, a protocol trusted to be trustless."

Stanczak's background in traditional finance uniquely positions him to engage institutions exploring blockchain infrastructure, but this creates tension with Ethereum's cypherpunk roots.

His European institutional tour in April 2025, direct engagement with financial services firms, and emphasis on being "face of the organization" represent departure from Ethereum's historically faceless, community-driven ethos. He acknowledges this explicitly: "Institutions need someone to be the face of the organisation that is representing Ethereum." This positioning responds to competitive dynamics—Solana, Ripple, and other chains have centralized leadership structures institutions understand. Stanczak argues Ethereum needs similar interfaces without abandoning decentralization.

The Foundation's strategic priorities reflect this institutional focus: "Win RWA (Real World Assets), Win stables (stablecoins)" appear prominently in Stanczak's secondary roadmap. Real-world asset tokenization—equities, bonds, real estate, commodities—requires performance, compliance capabilities, and institutional-grade security Ethereum historically lacked. Stablecoin dominance, with USDC and USDT representing massive onchain value, positions Ethereum as settlement layer for global finance. Stanczak frames this as existential: "Suddenly you have 10% or 20% of the whole economy onchain. It may happen faster than people think."

His "Trillion Dollar Security" initiative envisions infrastructure where billions of people hold $1,000+ onchain securely, and institutions trust single smart contracts with $1 trillion. This requires not just technical scaling but security standards, auditing practices, incident response capabilities, and regulatory clarity Ethereum's decentralized development process struggles to provide. Stanczak's operational changes—clear leadership, accountability, public tracking—aim to demonstrate Ethereum can deliver institutional-grade reliability while maintaining neutrality.

Critics worry this institutional focus could compromise censorship resistance. Stanczak's response emphasizes technical solutions: ePBS eliminates trusted relays that could be pressured to censor transactions, FOCIL ensures inclusion lists prevent indefinite censorship, encrypted mempools hide transaction contents until inclusion. The "holy trinity" of censorship resistance protects Ethereum's neutrality even as institutions adopt the platform. He states: "The focus is now on interoperability, tools and standards that can bring more cohesion to the Ethereum network—without compromising its core principles, such as decentralization and neutrality."

The tension remains unresolved. Stanczak's dual role at Nethermind, close institutional relationships, and emphasis on centralized execution for "critical period" acceleration represent pragmatic adaptation to competitive pressures. Whether this compromises Ethereum's founding values or successfully bridges decentralization with mainstream adoption will become clear through 2026's execution.

2026 marks a definitive test of Ethereum's scaling promises

Ethereum enters 2026 at an inflection point. After years of research, specification, and delayed timelines, the Glamsterdam upgrade represents a concrete commitment: deliver 10x scaling, deploy ePBS and FOCIL, enable stateless clients, unify Layer 2 fragmentation, and achieve 15-30 second confirmations—all while maintaining decentralization and security. Stanczak's leadership transformation provides the operational structure to execute this roadmap, but success requires coordinating 23+ client teams, managing complex protocol changes, and shipping on aggressive six-month cycles without destabilizing the $300+ billion network.

The quantitative targets are explicit and measurable. Gas limits must reach 150 million or higher. Blob capacity must scale to 48 blobs per block through automated BPO forks. Fast confirmation rules must deploy across all consensus clients by Q1 2026. EIL must unify 55+ Layer 2s into seamless user experience. Glamsterdam must activate mid-2026 without significant delays. Stanczak stakes his credibility and the Foundation's reputation on meeting these deadlines: "no amount of talking about Ethereum's roadmap and vision matters if we cannot achieve coordination levels that consistently meet goals on schedule."

His vision extends beyond technical metrics to ecosystem transformation. Institutional adoption of tokenized assets, stablecoin infrastructure dominance, AI agent coordination, and autonomous machine integration all require the performance baseline 2026 delivers. The shift from Ethereum as "world computer" research project to Ethereum as global financial infrastructure reflects Stanczak's Wall Street perspective—systems must work reliably at scale, with clear accountability and measurable results.

The operational changes—accelerated timelines, empowered team leads, public tracking, institutional engagement—represent permanent cultural shift, not temporary response to competitive pressure. Stanczak and Wang's co-directorship model balances execution urgency with values preservation, but the emphasis clearly lies on delivery. The community's acceptance of this more centralized coordination structure, the June 2025 layoffs, and aggressive deadlines indicates broad recognition that Ethereum must evolve or lose market position to faster-moving competitors.

Whether 2026 validates or undermines this approach depends on execution. If Glamsterdam ships on time with promised improvements, Ethereum cements its position as the dominant smart contract platform, and Stanczak's operational model becomes the template for decentralized protocol governance at scale. If delays occur, complexity overwhelms client teams, or security issues emerge from rushed deployment, the community will question whether speed was prioritized over the careful, conservative approach that made Ethereum secure for a decade. Stanczak's repeated warnings about timeline discipline suggest he understands these stakes completely—2026 is the year Ethereum must deliver, not plan, not research, but ship working infrastructure that scales.

The technical roadmap is comprehensive, the leadership committed, and the ecosystem aligned behind these goals. Stanczak brings unique capabilities from traditional finance, client implementation, and entrepreneurial success to marshal resources toward concrete objectives. His vision of Ethereum processing 10-20% of global economic activity onchain within years, not decades, provides ambitious North Star. The 2026 roadmap represents the first major test of whether that vision can materialize through disciplined execution rather than remaining perpetual future promise. As Stanczak emphasizes: "People say we need the Foundation now." The next 12 months will demonstrate whether Ethereum Foundation's operational transformation can deliver on that urgent demand while maintaining the credible neutrality, censorship resistance, and open development that define Ethereum's foundational principles.

Sui Blockchain: Engineering the Future of AI, Robotics, and Quantum Computing

· 22 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

Sui blockchain has emerged as the most technically advanced platform for next-generation computational workloads, achieving 297,000 transactions per second with 480ms finality while integrating quantum-resistant cryptography and purpose-built robotics infrastructure. Led by Chief Cryptographer Kostas Chalkias—who has 50+ academic publications and pioneered cryptographic innovations at Meta's Diem project—Sui represents a fundamental architectural departure from legacy blockchains, designed specifically to enable autonomous AI agents, multi-robot coordination, and post-quantum security.

Unlike competitors retrofitting blockchain for advanced computing, Sui's object-centric data model, Move programming language, and Mysticeti consensus protocol were engineered from inception for parallel AI operations, real-time robotics control, and cryptographic agility—capabilities validated through live deployments including 50+ AI projects, multi-robot collaboration demonstrations, and the world's first backward-compatible quantum-safe upgrade path for blockchain wallets.

Sui's revolutionary technical foundation enables the impossible

Sui's architecture breaks from traditional account-based blockchain models through three synergistic innovations that uniquely position it for AI, robotics, and quantum applications.

The Mysticeti consensus protocol achieves unprecedented performance through uncertified DAG architecture, reducing consensus latency to 390-650ms (80% faster than its predecessor) while supporting 200,000+ TPS sustained throughput. This represents a fundamental breakthrough: traditional blockchains like Ethereum require 12-15 seconds for finality, while Sui's fast path for single-owner transactions completes in just 250ms. The protocol's multiple leaders per round and implicit commitment mechanism enable real-time AI decision loops and robotics control systems requiring sub-second feedback—applications physically impossible on sequential execution chains.

The object-centric data model treats every asset as an independently addressable object with explicit ownership and versioning, enabling static dependency analysis before execution. This architectural choice eliminates retroactive conflict detection overhead plaguing optimistic execution models, allowing thousands of AI agents to transact simultaneously without contention. Objects bypass consensus entirely when owned by single parties, saving 70% processing time for common operations. For robotics, this means individual robots maintain owned objects for sensor data while coordinating through shared objects only when necessary—precisely mirroring real-world autonomous system architectures.

Move programming language provides resource-oriented security impossible in account-based languages like Solidity. Assets exist as first-class types that cannot be copied or destroyed—only moved between contexts—preventing entire vulnerability classes including reentrancy attacks, double-spending, and unauthorized asset manipulation. Move's linear type system and formal verification support make it particularly suitable for AI agents managing valuable assets autonomously. Programmable Transaction Blocks compose up to 1,024 function calls atomically, enabling complex multi-step AI workflows with guaranteed consistency.

Kostas Chalkias architects quantum resistance as competitive advantage

Kostas "Kryptos" Chalkias brings unparalleled cryptographic expertise to Sui's quantum computing strategy, having authored the Blockchained Post-Quantum Signature (BPQS) algorithm, led cryptography for Meta's Diem blockchain, and published 50+ peer-reviewed papers cited 1,374+ times. His July 2025 research breakthrough demonstrated the first backward-compatible quantum-safe upgrade path for blockchain wallets, applicable to EdDSA-based chains including Sui, Solana, Near, and Cosmos.

Chalkias's vision positions quantum resistance not as distant concern but immediate competitive differentiator. He warned in January 2025 that "governments are well aware of the risks posed by quantum computing. Agencies worldwide have issued mandates that classical algorithms like ECDSA and RSA must be deprecated by 2030 or 2035." His technical insight: even if users retain private keys, they may be unable to generate post-quantum proofs of ownership without exposing keys to quantum attacks. Sui's solution leverages zero-knowledge STARK proofs to prove knowledge of key generation seeds without revealing sensitive data—a cryptographic innovation impossible on blockchains lacking built-in agility.

The cryptographic agility framework represents Chalkias's signature design philosophy. Sui uses 1-byte flags to distinguish signature schemes (Ed25519, ECDSA Secp256k1/r1, BLS12-381, multisig, zkLogin), enabling protocol-level support for new algorithms without smart contract overhead or hard forks. This architecture allows "flip of a button" transitions to NIST-standardized post-quantum algorithms including CRYSTALS-Dilithium (2,420-byte signatures) and FALCON (666-byte signatures) when quantum threats materialize. Chalkias architected multiple migration paths: proactive (new accounts generate PQ keys at creation), adaptive (STARK proofs enable PQ migration from existing seeds), and hybrid (time-limited multisig combining classical and quantum-resistant keys).

His zkLogin innovation demonstrates cryptographic creativity applied to usability. The system enables users to authenticate via Google, Facebook, or Twitch credentials using Groth16 zero-knowledge proofs over BN254 curves, with user-controlled salt preventing Web2-Web3 identity correlation. zkLogin addresses include quantum considerations from design—the STARK-based seed knowledge proofs provide post-quantum security even when underlying JWT signatures transition from RSA to lattice-based alternatives.

At Sui Basecamp 2025, Chalkias unveiled native verifiable randomness, zk tunnels for off-chain logic, lightning transactions (zero-gas, zero-latency), and time capsules for encrypted future data access. These features power private AI agent simulations, gambling applications requiring trusted randomness, and zero-knowledge poker games—all impossible without protocol-level cryptographic primitives. His vision: "A goal for Sui was to become the first blockchain to adopt post-quantum technologies, thereby improving security and preparing for future regulatory standards."

AI agent infrastructure reaches production maturity on Sui

Sui hosts the blockchain industry's most comprehensive AI agent ecosystem with 50+ projects spanning infrastructure, frameworks, and applications—all leveraging Sui's parallel execution and sub-second finality for real-time autonomous operations.

Atoma Network launched on Sui mainnet in December 2024 as the first fully decentralized AI inference layer, positioning itself as the "decentralized hyperscaler for open-source AI." All processing occurs in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) ensuring complete privacy and censorship resistance while maintaining API compatibility with OpenAI endpoints. The Utopia chat application demonstrates production-ready privacy-preserving AI with performance matching ChatGPT, settling payments and validation through Sui's sub-second finality. Atoma enables DeFi portfolio management, social media content moderation, and personal assistant applications—use cases requiring both AI intelligence and blockchain settlement impossible to achieve on slower chains.

OpenGraph Labs achieved a technical breakthrough as the first fully on-chain AI inference system designed specifically for AI agents. Their TensorflowSui SDK automates deployment of Web2 ML models (TensorFlow, PyTorch) onto Sui blockchain, storing training data on Walrus decentralized storage while executing inferences using Programmable Transaction Blocks. OpenGraph provides three flexible inference approaches: PTB inference for critical computations requiring atomicity, split transactions for cost optimization, and hybrid combinations customized per use case. This architecture eliminates "black box" AI risks through fully verifiable, auditable inference processes with clearly defined algorithmic ownership—critical for regulated industries requiring explainable AI.

Talus Network launched on Sui in February 2025 with the Nexus framework enabling developers to build composable AI agents executing workflows directly on-chain. Talus's Idol.fun platform demonstrates consumer-facing AI agents as tokenized entities operating autonomously 24/7, making real-time decisions leveraging Walrus-stored datasets for market sentiment, DeFi statistics, and social trends. Example applications include dynamic NFT profile management, DeFi liquidity strategy agents loading models in real-time, and fraud detection agents analyzing historical transaction patterns from immutable Sui checkpoints.

The Alibaba Cloud partnership announced in August 2025 integrated AI coding assistants into ChainIDE development platform with multi-language support (English, Chinese, Korean). Features include natural language to Move code generation, intelligent autocompletion, real-time security vulnerability detection, and automated documentation generation—lowering barriers for 60% of Sui's non-English-speaking developer target. This partnership validates Sui's positioning as the AI development platform, not merely an AI deployment platform.

Sui's sponsored transactions eliminate gas payment friction for AI agents—builders can cover transaction fees allowing agents to operate without holding SUI tokens. The MIST denomination (1 SUI = 1 billion MIST) enables micropayments as small as fractions of a cent, perfect for pay-per-inference AI services. With average transaction costs around $0.0023, AI agents can execute thousands of operations daily for pennies, making autonomous agent economies economically viable.

Multi-robot collaboration proves Sui's real-time coordination advantage

Sui demonstrated the blockchain industry's first multi-robot collaboration system using Mysticeti consensus, validated by Tiger Research's comprehensive 2025 analysis. The system enables robots to share consistent state in distributed environments while maintaining Byzantine Fault Tolerance—ensuring consensus even when robots malfunction or are compromised by adversaries.

The technical architecture leverages Sui's object model where robots exist as programmable objects with metadata, ownership, and capabilities. Tasks get assigned to specific robot objects with smart contracts automating sequencing and resource allocation rules. The system maintains reliability without central servers, with parallel block proposals from multiple validators preventing single points of failure. Sub-second transaction finality enables real-time adjustment loops—robots receive task confirmations and state updates in under 400ms, matching control system requirements for responsive autonomous operation.

Physical testing with dog-like robots already demonstrated feasibility, with teams from NASA, Meta, and Uber backgrounds developing Sui-based robotics applications. Sui's unique "internetless mode" capability—operating via radio waves without stable internet connectivity—provides revolutionary advantages for rural deployments in Africa, rural Asia, and emergency scenarios. This offline capability exists exclusively on Sui among major blockchains, validated by testing during Spain/Portugal power outages.

The 3DOS partnership announced in September 2024 validates Sui's manufacturing robotics capabilities at scale. 3DOS integrated 79,909+ 3D printers across 120+ countries as Sui's exclusive blockchain partner, creating an "Uber for 3D printing" network enabling peer-to-peer manufacturing. Notable clients include John Deere, Google, MIT, Harvard, Bosch, British Army, US Navy, US Air Force, and NASA—demonstrating enterprise-grade trust in Sui's infrastructure. The system enables robots to autonomously order and print replacement parts through smart contract automation, facilitating robot self-repair with near-zero human intervention. This addresses the $15.6 trillion global manufacturing market through on-demand production eliminating inventory, waste, and international shipping.

Sui's Byzantine Fault Tolerance proves critical for safety-critical robotics applications. The consensus mechanism tolerates up to f faulty/malicious robots in a 3f+1 system, ensuring autonomous vehicle fleets, warehouse robots, and manufacturing systems maintain coordination despite individual failures. Smart contracts enforce safety constraints and operating boundaries, with immutable audit trails providing accountability for autonomous decisions—requirements impossible to meet with centralized coordination servers vulnerable to single points of failure.

Quantum resistance roadmap delivers cryptographic superiority

Sui's quantum computing strategy represents the blockchain industry's only comprehensive, proactive approach aligned with NIST mandates requiring classical algorithm deprecation by 2030 and full quantum-resistant standardization by 2035.

Chalkias's July 2025 breakthrough research demonstrated that EdDSA-based chains including Sui can implement quantum-safe wallet upgrades without hard forks, address changes, or account freezing through zero-knowledge proofs proving seed knowledge. This enables secure migration even for dormant accounts—solving the existential threat facing blockchains where millions of wallets "could be drained instantly" once quantum computers arrive. The technical innovation uses STARK proofs (quantum-resistant hash-based security) to prove knowledge of EdDSA key generation seeds without exposing sensitive data, allowing users to establish PQ key ownership tied to existing addresses.

Sui's cryptographic agility architecture enables multiple transition strategies: proactive (PQ keys sign PreQ public keys at creation), adaptive (STARK proofs migrate existing addresses), and hybrid (time-limited multisig with both classical and PQ keys). The protocol supports immediate deployment of NIST-standardized algorithms including CRYSTALS-Dilithium (ML-DSA), FALCON (FN-DSA), and SPHINCS+ (SLH-DSA) for lattice-based and hash-based post-quantum security. Validator BLS signatures transition to lattice-based alternatives, hash functions upgrade from 256-bit to 384-bit outputs for quantum-resistant collision resistance, and zkLogin circuits migrate from Groth16 to STARK-based zero-knowledge proofs.

The Nautilus framework launched in June 2025 provides secure off-chain computation using self-managed TEEs (Trusted Execution Environments), currently supporting AWS Nitro Enclaves with future Intel TDX and AMD SEV compatibility. For AI applications, Nautilus enables private AI inference with cryptographic attestations verified on-chain, solving the tension between computational efficiency and verifiability. Launch partners including Bluefin (TEE-based order matching at \u003c1ms), TensorBlock (AI agent infrastructure), and OpenGradient demonstrate production readiness for privacy-preserving quantum-resistant computation.

Comparative analysis reveals Sui's quantum advantage: Ethereum remains in planning phase with Vitalik Buterin stating quantum resistance is "at least a decade away," requiring hard forks and community consensus. Solana launched Winternitz Vault in January 2025 as an optional hash-based signature feature requiring user opt-in, not protocol-wide implementation. Other major blockchains (Aptos, Avalanche, Polkadot) remain in research phase without concrete implementation timelines. Only Sui designed cryptographic agility as a foundational principle enabling rapid algorithm transitions without governance battles or network splits.

Technical architecture synthesis creates emergent capabilities

Sui's architectural components interact synergistically to create capabilities exceeding the sum of individual features—a characteristic distinguishing truly innovative platforms from incremental improvements.

The Move language resource model combined with parallel object execution enables unprecedented throughput for AI agent swarms. Traditional blockchains using account-based models require sequential execution to prevent race conditions, limiting AI agent coordination to single-threaded bottlenecks. Sui's explicit dependency declaration through object references allows validators to identify independent operations before execution, scheduling thousands of AI agent transactions simultaneously across CPU cores. This state access parallelization (versus optimistic execution requiring conflict detection) provides predictable performance without retroactive transaction failures—critical for AI systems requiring reliability guarantees.

Programmable Transaction Blocks amplify Move's composability by enabling up to 1,024 heterogeneous function calls in atomic transactions. AI agents can execute complex workflows—swap tokens, update oracle data, trigger machine learning inference, mint NFTs, send notifications—all guaranteed to succeed or fail together. This heterogeneous composition moves logic from smart contracts to transaction level, dramatically reducing gas costs while increasing flexibility. For robotics, PTBs enable atomic multi-step operations like "check inventory, order parts, authorize payment, update status" with cryptographic guarantees of consistency.

The consensus bypass fast path for single-owner objects creates a two-tier performance model perfectly matching AI/robotics access patterns. Individual robots maintain private state (sensor readings, operational parameters) as owned objects processed in 250ms without validator consensus. Coordination points (task queues, resource pools) exist as shared objects requiring 390ms consensus. This architecture mirrors real-world autonomous systems where agents maintain local state but coordinate through shared resources—Sui's object model provides blockchain-native primitives matching these patterns naturally.

zkLogin solves the onboarding friction preventing mainstream AI agent adoption. Traditional blockchain requires users to manage seed phrases and private keys—cognitively demanding and error-prone. zkLogin enables authentication via familiar OAuth credentials (Google, Facebook, Twitch) with user-controlled salt preventing Web2-Web3 identity correlation. AI agents can operate under Web2 authentication while maintaining blockchain security, dramatically lowering barriers for consumer applications. The 10+ dApps already integrating zkLogin demonstrate practical viability for non-crypto-native audiences.

Competitive positioning reveals technical leadership and ecosystem growth

Comparative analysis across major blockchains (Solana, Ethereum, Aptos, Avalanche, Polkadot) reveals Sui's technical superiority for advanced computing workloads balanced against Ethereum's ecosystem maturity and Solana's current DePIN adoption.

Performance metrics establish Sui as the throughput leader with 297,000 TPS tested on 100 validators maintaining 480ms finality, versus Solana's 65,000-107,000 TPS theoretical (3,000-4,000 sustained) and Ethereum's 15-30 TPS base layer. Aptos achieves 160,000 TPS theoretical with similar Move-based architecture but different execution models. For AI workloads requiring real-time decisions, Sui's 480ms finality enables immediate response loops impossible on Ethereum's 12-15 minute finality or even Solana's occasional network congestion (75% transaction failures in April 2024 during peak load).

Quantum resistance analysis shows Sui as the only blockchain with quantum-resistant cryptography designed into core architecture from inception. Ethereum addresses quantum in "The Splurge" roadmap phase but Vitalik Buterin estimates 20% probability quantum breaks crypto by 2030, relying on emergency "recovery fork" plans reactive rather than proactive. Solana's Winternitz Vault provides optional quantum protection requiring user opt-in, not automatic network-wide security. Aptos, Avalanche, and Polkadot remain in research phase without concrete timelines. Sui's cryptographic agility with multiple migration paths, STARK-based zkLogin, and NIST-aligned roadmap positions it as the only blockchain ready for mandated 2030/2035 post-quantum transitions.

AI agent ecosystems show Solana currently leading adoption with mature tooling (SendAI Agent Kit, ElizaOS) and largest developer community, but Sui demonstrates superior technical capability through 300,000 TPS capacity, sub-second latency, and 50+ projects including production platforms (Atoma mainnet, Talus Nexus, OpenGraph on-chain inference). Ethereum focuses on institutional AI standards (ERC-8004 for AI identity/trust) but 15-30 TPS base layer limits real-time AI applications to Layer 2 solutions. The Alibaba Cloud partnership positioning Sui as the AI development platform (not merely deployment platform) signals strategic differentiation from pure financial blockchains.

Robotics capabilities exist exclusively on Sui among major blockchains. No competitor demonstrates multi-robot collaboration infrastructure, Byzantine Fault Tolerant coordination, or "internetless mode" offline operation. Tiger Research's analysis concludes "blockchain may be more suitable infrastructure for robots than for humans" given robots' ability to leverage decentralized coordination without centralized trust. With Morgan Stanley projecting 1 billion humanoid robots by 2050, Sui's purpose-built robotics infrastructure creates first-mover advantage in the emerging robot economy where autonomous systems require identity, payments, contracts, and coordination—primitives Sui provides natively.

Move programming language advantages position both Sui and Aptos above Solidity-based chains for complex applications requiring security. Move's resource-oriented model prevents vulnerability classes impossible to fix in Solidity, evidenced by $1.1+ billion lost to exploits in 2024 on Ethereum. Formal verification support, linear type system, and first-class asset abstractions make Move particularly suitable for AI agents managing valuable assets autonomously. Sui Move's object-centric variant (versus account-based Diem Move) enables parallel execution advantages unavailable on Aptos despite shared language heritage.

Real-world implementations validate technical capabilities

Sui's production deployments demonstrate the platform transitioning from technical potential to practical utility across AI, robotics, and quantum domains.

AI infrastructure maturity shows clear traction with Atoma Network's December 2024 mainnet launch serving production AI inference, Talus's February 2025 Nexus framework deployment enabling composable agent workflows, and Swarm Network's $13 million funding round backed by Kostas Chalkias selling 10,000+ AI Agent Licenses on Sui. The Alibaba Cloud partnership provides enterprise-grade validation with AI coding assistants integrated into developer tooling, demonstrating strategic commitment beyond speculative applications. OpenGraph Labs winning first place at Sui AI Typhoon Hackathon with on-chain ML inference signals technical innovation recognized by expert judges.

Manufacturing robotics reached commercial scale through 3DOS's 79,909-printer network across 120+ countries serving NASA, US Navy, US Air Force, John Deere, and Google. This represents the largest blockchain-integrated manufacturing network globally, processing 4.2+ million parts with 500,000+ users. The peer-to-peer model enabling robots to autonomously order replacement parts demonstrates smart contract automation eliminating coordination overhead at industrial scale—proof of concept validated by demanding government and aerospace clients requiring reliability and security.

Financial metrics show growing adoption with $538 million TVL, 17.6 million monthly active wallets (February 2025 peak), and SUI token market cap exceeding $16 billion. Mysten Labs achieved $3+ billion valuation backed by a16z, Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, and Jump Crypto—institutional validation of technical potential. Swiss banks (Sygnum, Amina Bank) offering Sui custody and trading provides traditional finance onramps, while Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck institutional products signal mainstream recognition.

Developer ecosystem growth demonstrates sustainability with comprehensive tooling (TypeScript, Rust, Python, Swift, Dart, Golang SDKs), AI coding assistants in ChainIDE, and active hackathon programs where 50% of winners focused on AI applications. The 122 active validators on mainnet provide adequate decentralization while maintaining performance, balancing security with throughput better than highly centralized alternatives.

Strategic vision positions Sui for convergence era

Kostas Chalkias and Mysten Labs leadership articulate a coherent long-term vision distinguishing Sui from competitors focused on narrow use cases or iterative improvements.

Chalkias's bold prediction that "eventually, blockchain will surpass even Visa for speed of transaction. It will be the norm. I don't see how we can escape from this" signals confidence in technical trajectory backed by architectural decisions enabling that future. His statement that Mysten Labs "could surpass what Apple is today" reflects ambition grounded in building foundational infrastructure for next-generation computing rather than incremental DeFi applications. The decision to name his son "Kryptos" (Greek for "secret/hidden") symbolizes personal commitment to cryptographic innovation as civilizational infrastructure.

The three-pillar strategy integrating AI, robotics, and quantum computing creates mutually reinforcing advantages. Quantum-resistant cryptography enables long-term asset security for AI agents operating autonomously. Sub-second finality supports real-time robotics control loops. Parallel execution allows thousands of AI agents coordinating simultaneously. The object model provides natural abstraction for both AI agent state and robot device representation. This architectural coherence distinguishes purposeful platform design from bolted-on features.

Sui Basecamp 2025 technology unveils demonstrate continuous innovation with native verifiable randomness (eliminates oracle dependencies for AI inference), zk tunnels enabling private video calls directly on Sui, lightning transactions for zero-gas operations during emergencies, and time capsules for encrypted future data access. These features address real user problems (privacy, reliability, accessibility) rather than academic exercises, with clear applications for AI agents requiring trusted randomness, robotics systems needing offline operation, and quantum-resistant encryption for sensitive data.

The positioning as "coordination layer for wide range of applications" from healthcare data management to personal data ownership to robotics reflects platform ambitions beyond financial speculation. Chalkias's identification of healthcare data inefficiency as problem requiring common database showcases thinking about societal infrastructure rather than narrow blockchain enthusiast niches. This vision attracts research labs, hardware startups, and governments—audiences seeking reliable infrastructure for long-term projects, not speculative yield farming.

Technical roadmap delivers actionable execution timeline

Sui's development roadmap provides concrete milestones demonstrating progression from vision to implementation across all three focus domains.

Quantum resistance timeline aligns with NIST mandates: 2025-2027 completes cryptographic agility infrastructure and testing, 2028-2030 introduces protocol upgrades for Dilithium/FALCON signatures with hybrid PreQ-PQ operation, 2030-2035 achieves full post-quantum transition deprecating classical algorithms. The multiple migration paths (proactive, adaptive, hybrid) provide flexibility for different user segments without forcing single adoption strategy. Hash function upgrades to 384-bit outputs and zkLogin PQ-zkSNARK research proceed in parallel, ensuring comprehensive quantum readiness rather than piecemeal patches.

AI infrastructure expansion shows clear milestones with Walrus mainnet launch (Q1 2025) providing decentralized storage for AI models, Talus Nexus framework enabling composable agent workflows (February 2025 deployment), and Nautilus TEE framework expanding to Intel TDX and AMD SEV beyond current AWS Nitro Enclaves support. The Alibaba Cloud partnership roadmap includes expanded language support, deeper ChainIDE integration, and demo days across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai targeting developer communities. OpenGraph's on-chain inference explorer and TensorflowSui SDK maturation provide practical tools for AI developers beyond theoretical frameworks.

Robotics capabilities advancement progresses from multi-robot collaboration demos to production deployments with 3DOS network expansion, "internetless mode" radio wave transaction capabilities, and zkTunnels enabling zero-gas robot commands. The technical architecture supporting Byzantine Fault Tolerance, sub-second coordination loops, and autonomous M2M payments exists today—adoption barriers are educational and ecosystem-building rather than technical limitations. NASA, Meta, and Uber alumni involvement signals serious engineering talent addressing real-world robotics challenges versus academic research projects.

Protocol improvements include Mysticeti consensus refinements maintaining 80% latency reduction advantage, horizontal scaling through Pilotfish multi-machine execution, and storage optimization for growing state. The checkpoint system (every ~3 seconds) provides verifiable snapshots for AI training data and robotics audit trails. Transaction size shrinking to single-byte preset formats reduces bandwidth requirements for IoT devices. Sponsored transaction expansion eliminates gas friction for consumer applications requiring seamless Web2-like UX.

Technical excellence positions Sui for advanced computing dominance

Comprehensive analysis across technical architecture, leadership vision, real-world implementations, and competitive positioning reveals Sui as the blockchain platform uniquely prepared for AI, robotics, and quantum computing convergence.

Sui achieves technical superiority through measured performance metrics: 297,000 TPS with 480ms finality surpasses all major competitors, enabling real-time AI agent coordination and robotics control impossible on slower chains. The object-centric data model combined with Move language security provides programming model advantages preventing vulnerability classes plaguing account-based architectures. Cryptographic agility designed from inception—not retrofitted—enables quantum-resistant transitions without hard forks or governance battles. These capabilities exist in production today on mainnet with 122 validators, not as theoretical whitepapers or distant roadmaps.

Visionary leadership through Kostas Chalkias's 50+ publications, 8 US patents, and cryptographic innovations (zkLogin, BPQS, Winterfell STARK, HashWires) provides intellectual foundation distinguishing Sui from technically competent but unimaginative competitors. His quantum computing breakthrough research (July 2025), AI infrastructure support (Swarm Network backing), and public communication (Token 2049, Korea Blockchain Week, London Real) establish thought leadership attracting top-tier developers and institutional partners. The willingness to architect for 2030+ timeframes versus quarterly metrics demonstrates long-term strategic thinking required for platform infrastructure.

Ecosystem validation through production deployments (Atoma mainnet AI inference, 3DOS 79,909-printer network, Talus agent frameworks) proves technical capabilities translate to real-world utility. Institutional partnerships (Alibaba Cloud, Swiss bank custody, Grayscale/Franklin Templeton products) signal mainstream recognition beyond blockchain-native enthusiasts. Developer growth metrics (50% of hackathon winners in AI, comprehensive SDK coverage, AI coding assistants) demonstrate sustainable ecosystem expansion supporting long-term adoption.

The strategic positioning as blockchain infrastructure for the robot economy, quantum-resistant financial systems, and autonomous AI agent coordination creates differentiated value proposition versus competitors focused on incremental improvements to existing blockchain use cases. With Morgan Stanley projecting 1 billion humanoid robots by 2050, NIST mandating quantum-resistant algorithms by 2030, and McKinsey forecasting 40% productivity gains from agentic AI—Sui's technical capabilities align precisely with macro technology trends requiring decentralized infrastructure.

For organizations building advanced computing applications on blockchain, Sui offers unmatched technical capabilities (297K TPS, 480ms finality), future-proof quantum-resistant architecture (only blockchain designed for quantum from inception), proven robotics infrastructure (only demonstrated multi-robot collaboration), superior programming model (Move language security and expressiveness), and real-time performance enabling AI/robotics applications physically impossible on sequential execution chains. The platform represents not incremental improvement but fundamental architectural rethinking for blockchain's next decade.

Sui's Quantum-Ready Foundation for Autonomous Intelligence

· 24 min read
Dora Noda
Software Engineer

Sui blockchain stands apart from competitors through its foundational cryptographic agility and object-centric architecture, positioning it as the only major Layer 1 blockchain simultaneously advancing AI integration, robotics coordination, and quantum-resistant security. This isn't marketing positioning—it's architectural reality. Co-founder and Chief Cryptographer Kostas "Kryptos" Chalkias has systematically built these capabilities into Sui's core design since inception, creating what he describes as infrastructure that will "surpass even Visa for speed" while remaining secure against quantum threats that could "destroy all modern cryptography" within a decade.

The technical foundation is already production-ready: 390-millisecond consensus finality enables real-time AI agent coordination, parallel execution processes 297,000 transactions per second at peak, and EdDSA signature schemes provide a proven migration path to post-quantum cryptography without requiring hard forks. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum face existential threats from quantum computing with no backward-compatible upgrade path. Chalkias's vision centers on three converging pillars—AI as coordination layer, autonomous robotic systems requiring sub-second finality, and cryptographic frameworks that remain secure through 2035 and beyond. His statements across conferences, research papers, and technical implementations reveal not speculative promises but systematic execution of a roadmap established at Mysten Labs' founding in 2022.

This matters beyond blockchain tribalism. By 2030, NIST mandates require deprecation of current encryption standards. Autonomous systems from manufacturing robots to AI agents will require trustless coordination at scale. Sui's architecture addresses both inevitabilities simultaneously while competitors scramble to retrofit solutions. The question isn't whether these technologies converge but which platforms survive the convergence intact.

The cryptographer who named his son Kryptos

Kostas Chalkias brings uncommon credibility to blockchain's intersection with emerging technologies. Before co-founding Mysten Labs, he served as Lead Cryptographer for Meta's Diem project and Novi wallet, worked with Mike Hearn (one of Bitcoin's first developers associated with Satoshi Nakamoto) at R3's Corda blockchain, and holds a PhD in Identity-Based Cryptography with 50+ scientific publications, 8 US patents, and 1,374 academic citations. His dedication to the field extends to naming his son Kryptos—"I'm so deep into the technology of the blockchain and cryptography, that I actually convinced my wife to have a child that is called Kryptos," he explained during a Sui blog interview.

His career trajectory reveals consistent focus on practical cryptography for massive scale. At Facebook, he built security infrastructure for WhatsApp and authentication systems serving billions. At R3, he pioneered zero-knowledge proofs and post-quantum signatures for enterprise blockchain. His early career included founding Betmanager, an AI-powered platform predicting soccer results using stock market techniques—experience informing his current perspective on blockchain-AI integration. This blend of AI exposure, production cryptography, and blockchain infrastructure positions him uniquely to architect systems bridging these domains.

Chalkias's technical philosophy emphasizes "cryptographic agility"—building flexibility into foundational protocols rather than assuming permanence. At the Emergence Conference in Prague (December 2024), he articulated this worldview: "Eventually, blockchain will surpass even Visa for speed of transaction. It will be the norm. I don't see how we can escape from this." But speed alone doesn't suffice. His work consistently pairs performance with forward-looking security, recognizing that quantum computers pose threats requiring action today, not when the danger materializes. This dual focus—present performance and future resilience—defines Sui's architectural decisions across AI, robotics, and quantum resistance.

Architecture built for intelligent agents

Sui's technical foundation diverges fundamentally from account-based blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. Every entity exists as an object with globally unique 32-byte ID, version number, ownership field, and typed contents. This object-centric model isn't aesthetic preference but enabler of parallel execution at scale. When AI agents operate as owned objects, they bypass consensus entirely for single-writer operations, achieving ~400ms finality. When multiple agents coordinate through shared objects, Sui's Mysticeti consensus delivers 390ms latency—still sub-second but through Byzantine Fault Tolerant agreement.

The Move programming language, originally developed at Meta for Diem and enhanced for Sui, enforces resource safety at the type system level. Assets cannot be accidentally copied, destroyed, or created without permission. For AI applications managing valuable data or model weights, this prevents entire vulnerability classes plaguing Solidity smart contracts. Chalkias highlighted this during Sui Basecamp 2025 in Dubai: "We introduced zero knowledge proofs, privacy preserving technologies, inside Sui from day one. So someone can now create a KYC system with as much privacy as they want."

Parallel transaction execution reaches theoretical limits through explicit dependency declaration. Unlike optimistic execution requiring retroactive verification, Sui's scheduler identifies non-overlapping transactions upfront via unique object IDs. Independent operations execute concurrently across validator cores without interference. This architecture demonstrated 297,000 TPS peak throughput in testing—not theoretical maximums but measured performance on production hardware. For AI applications, this means thousands of inference requests process simultaneously, multiple autonomous agents coordinate without blocking, and real-time decision-making operates at human-perceptible speeds.

The Mysticeti consensus protocol, introduced in 2024, achieves what Chalkias and co-authors proved mathematically optimal: three message rounds for commitment. By eliminating explicit block certification and implementing uncertified DAG structures, Mysticeti reduced latency 80% from prior Narwhal-Bullshark consensus. The protocol commits blocks every round rather than every two rounds, using direct and indirect decision rules derived from DAG patterns. For robotics applications requiring real-time control feedback, this sub-second finality becomes non-negotiable. During Korea Blockchain Week 2025, Chalkias positioned Sui as "a coordination layer for applications and AI," emphasizing how partners in payments, gaming, and AI leverage this performance foundation.

Walrus: solving AI's data problem

AI workloads demand storage at scales incompatible with traditional blockchain economics. Training datasets span terabytes, model weights require gigabytes, and inference logs accumulate rapidly. Sui addresses this through Walrus, a decentralized storage protocol using erasure coding to achieve 4-5x replication instead of the 100x replication typical of on-chain storage. The "Red Stuff" algorithm splits data into slivers distributed across storage nodes, remaining recoverable with 2/3 nodes unavailable. Metadata and availability proofs live on Sui's blockchain while actual data resides in Walrus, creating cryptographically verifiable storage at exabyte scale.

During Walrus testnet's first month, the network stored over 4,343 GB across 25+ community nodes, validating the architecture's viability. Projects like TradePort, Tusky, and Decrypt Media integrated Walrus for media storage and retrieval. For AI applications, this enables practical scenarios: training datasets tokenized as programmable assets with licensing terms encoded in smart contracts, model weights persisted with version control, inference results logged immutably for audit trails, and AI-generated content stored cost-effectively. Atoma Network's AI inference layer, announced as Sui's first blockchain integration partner, leverages this storage foundation for automated code generation, workflow automation, and DeFi risk analysis.

The integration extends beyond storage into computation orchestration. Sui's Programmable Transaction Blocks (PTBs) bundle up to 1,024 heterogeneous operations atomically, executing all-or-nothing. An AI workflow might retrieve training data from Walrus, update model weights in a smart contract, record inference results on-chain, and distribute rewards to data contributors—all in a single atomic transaction. This composability, combined with Move's type safety, creates building blocks for complex AI systems without the fragility of cross-contract calls in other environments.

Chalkias emphasized capability over marketing during the Just The Metrics podcast (July 2025), pointing to "inefficiencies in healthcare data management" as practical application areas. Healthcare AI requires coordination across institutions, privacy preservation for sensitive data, and verifiable computation for regulatory compliance. Sui's architecture—combining on-chain coordination, Walrus storage, and zero-knowledge privacy—addresses these requirements technically rather than conceptually. The Google Cloud partnership announced in 2024 reinforced this direction, integrating Sui data into BigQuery for analytics and training Google's Vertex AI platform on Move language for AI-assisted development.

When robots need sub-second settlement

The robotics vision materializes more concretely through technical capabilities than announced partnerships. Sui's object model represents robots, tools, and tasks as first-class on-chain citizens with granular access control. Unlike account-based systems where robots interact through account-level permissions, Sui's objects enable multi-level permission systems from basic operation to full control with multi-signature requirements. PassKeys and FaceID integration support human-in-the-loop scenarios while zkTunnels enable gas-free command transmission for real-time remote operation.

During discussions on social media, Chalkias (posting as "Kostas Kryptos") revealed Sui engineers from NASA, Meta, and Uber backgrounds testing dog-like quadruped robots on the network. The object-based architecture suits robotics coordination: each robot owns objects representing its state and capabilities, tasks exist as transferable objects with execution parameters, and resource allocation happens through object composition rather than centralized coordination. A manufacturing facility could deploy robot fleets where each unit autonomously accepts tasks, coordinates with peers through shared objects, executes operations with cryptographic verification, and settles micropayments for services rendered—all without central authority or human intervention.

The "internetless" transaction mode, discussed during Sui Basecamp 2025 and London Real podcast (April 2025), addresses robotics' real-world constraints. Chalkias described how the system maintained functionality during power outages in Spain and Portugal, with transaction sizes optimized toward single bytes using preset formats. For autonomous systems operating in disaster zones, rural areas, or environments with unreliable connectivity, this resilience becomes critical. Robots can transact peer-to-peer for immediate coordination, synchronizing with the broader network when connectivity restores.

The 3DOS project exemplifies this vision practically: a blockchain-based 3D printing network enabling on-demand manufacturing where machines autonomously print parts. Future iterations envision self-repairing robots that detect component failures, order replacements via smart contracts, identify nearby 3D printers through on-chain discovery, coordinate printing and delivery, and install components—all autonomously. This isn't science fiction but logical extension of existing capabilities: ESP32 and Arduino microcontroller integration already supports basic IoT devices, BugDar provides security auditing for robotic smart contracts, and multi-signature approvals enable graduated autonomy with human oversight for critical operations.

The quantum clock is ticking

Kostas Chalkias's tone shifts from philosophical to urgent when discussing quantum computing. In a July 2025 research report, he warned bluntly: "Governments are well aware of the risks posed by quantum computing. Agencies worldwide have issued mandates that classical algorithms like ECDSA and RSA must be deprecated by 2030 or 2035." His announcement on Twitter accompanied Mysten Labs' breakthrough research published to the IACR ePrint Archive, demonstrating how EdDSA-based blockchains like Sui, Solana, Near, and Cosmos possess structural advantages for quantum transition unavailable to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The threat stems from quantum computers running Shor's Algorithm, which efficiently factors large numbers—the mathematical hardness underlying RSA, ECDSA, and BLS cryptography. Google's Willow quantum processor with 105 qubits signals accelerated progress toward machines capable of breaking classical encryption. The "store now, decrypt later" attack compounds urgency: adversaries collect encrypted data today, waiting for quantum computers to decrypt it retroactively. For blockchain assets, Chalkias explained to Decrypt Magazine, "Even if someone still holds their Bitcoin or Ethereum private key, they may not be able to generate a post-quantum secure proof of ownership, and this comes down to how that key was originally generated, and how much of its associated data has been exposed over time."

Bitcoin's particular vulnerability stems from "sleeping" wallets with exposed public keys. Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1 million BTC resides in early addresses using pay-to-public-key format—the public key sits visible on-chain rather than hidden behind hashed addresses. Once quantum computers scale sufficiently, these wallets become instantly drainable. Chalkias's assessment: "Once quantum computers arrive, millions of wallets, including Satoshi's, could be drained instantly. If your public key is visible, it will eventually be cracked." Ethereum faces similar challenges, though fewer exposed public keys mitigate immediate risk. Both chains require community-wide hard forks with unprecedented coordination to migrate—assuming consensus forms around post-quantum algorithms.

Sui's EdDSA foundation provides elegant escape path. Unlike ECDSA's random private keys, EdDSA derives keys deterministically from a seed using hash functions per RFC 8032. This structural difference enables zero-knowledge proofs via zk-STARKs (which are post-quantum secure) proving knowledge of the underlying seed without exposing elliptic curve data. Users construct post-quantum key pairs from the same seed randomness, submit ZK proofs demonstrating identical ownership, and transition to quantum-safe schemes while preserving addresses—no hard fork required. Chalkias detailed this during the June 2022 Sui AMA: "If you're using deterministic algorithms, like EdDSA, there is a way with Stark proofs to prove knowledge of the pyramids of your private key on an EdDSA key generation, because it uses a hash function internally."

Cryptographic agility as strategic moat

Sui supports multiple signature schemes simultaneously through unified type aliases across the codebase—EdDSA (Ed25519), ECDSA (for Ethereum compatibility), and planned post-quantum algorithms. Chalkias designed this "cryptographic agility" recognizing permanence is fantasy in cryptography. The architecture resembles "changing a lock core" rather than rebuilding the entire security system. When NIST-recommended post-quantum algorithms deploy—CRYSTALS-Dilithium for signatures, FALCON for compact alternatives, SPHINCS+ for hash-based schemes—Sui integrates them through straightforward updates rather than fundamental protocol rewrites.

The transition strategies balance proactive and adaptive approaches. For new addresses, users can generate PQ-signs-PreQ configurations where post-quantum keys sign pre-quantum public keys at creation, enabling smooth future migration. For existing addresses, the zk-STARK proof method preserves addresses while proving quantum-safe ownership. Layered defense prioritizes high-value data—wallet private keys receive immediate PQ protection, while transitory privacy data follows slower upgrade paths. Hash function outputs expand from 256 bits to 384 bits for collision resistance against Grover's algorithm, and symmetric encryption key lengths double (AES remains quantum-resistant with larger keys).

Zero-knowledge proof systems require careful consideration. Linear PCPs like Groth16 (currently powering zkLogin) rely on pairing-friendly elliptic curves vulnerable to quantum attacks. Sui's transition roadmap moves toward hash-based STARK systems—Winterfell, co-developed by Mysten Labs, uses only hash functions and remains plausibly post-quantum secure. The zkLogin migration maintains same addresses while updating internal circuits, requiring coordination with OpenID providers as they adopt PQ-JWT tokens. Randomness beacons and distributed key generation protocols transition from threshold BLS signatures to lattice-based alternatives like HashRand or HERB schemes—internal protocol changes invisible to on-chain APIs.

Chalkias's expertise proves critical here. As author of BPQS (Blockchain Post-Quantum Signature), a variant of XMSS hash-based scheme, he brings implementation experience beyond theoretical knowledge. His June 2022 commitment proved prescient: "We will build out our chain in a way where, with the flip of a button, people can actually move to post quantum keys." The NIST deadlines—2030 for classical algorithm deprecation, 2035 for complete PQ adoption—compress timelines dramatically. Sui's head start positions it favorably, but Chalkias emphasizes urgency: "If your blockchain supports sovereign assets, national treasuries in crypto, ETFs, or CBDCs, it will soon be required to adopt post-quantum cryptographic standards, if your community cares about long-term credibility and mass adoption."

AI agents already generating $1.8 billion in value

The ecosystem moves beyond infrastructure into production applications. Dolphin Agent (DOLA), specializing in blockchain data tracking and analytics, achieved $1.8+ billion market capitalization—validating demand for AI-enhanced blockchain tooling. SUI Agents provides one-click AI agent deployment with Twitter persona creation, tokenization, and trading within decentralized ecosystems. Sentient AI raised $1.5 million for conversational chatbots leveraging Sui's security and scalability. DeSci Agents promotes scientific compounds like Epitalon and Rapamycin through 24/7 AI-driven engagement, bridging research and investment through token pairing.

Atoma Network's integration as Sui's first blockchain AI inference partner enables capabilities spanning automated code generation and auditing, workflow automation, DeFi risk analysis, gaming asset generation, social media content classification, and DAO management. The partnership selection reflected technical requirements: Atoma needed low latency for interactive AI, high throughput for scale, secure ownership for AI assets, verifiable computation, cost-effective storage, and privacy-preserving options. Sui delivered all six. During Sui Basecamp 2025, Chalkias highlighted projects like Aeon, Atoma's AI agents, and Nautilus's work on verifiable offchain computation as examples of "how Sui could serve as a foundation for the next wave of intelligent, decentralized systems."

The Google Cloud partnership deepens integration through BigQuery access to Sui blockchain data for analytics, Vertex AI training on Move programming language for AI-assisted development, zkLogin support using OAuth credentials (Google) for simplified access, and infrastructure supporting network performance and scalability. Alibaba Cloud's ChainIDE integration enables natural language prompts for Move code generation—developers write "create a staking contract with 10% APY" in English, Chinese, or Korean, receiving syntactically correct, documented Move code with security checks. This AI-assisted development democratizes blockchain building while maintaining Move's safety guarantees.

The technical advantages compound for AI applications. Object ownership models suit autonomous agents operating independently. Parallel execution enables thousands of simultaneous AI operations without interference. Sub-second finality supports interactive user experiences. Walrus storage handles training datasets economically. Sponsored transactions remove gas friction for users. zkLogin eliminates seed phrase barriers. Programmable Transaction Blocks orchestrate complex workflows atomically. Formal verification options prove AI agent correctness mathematically. These aren't disconnected features but integrated capabilities forming coherent development environment.

Comparing the contenders

Sui's 297,000 TPS peak and 390ms consensus latency surpass Ethereum's 11.3 average TPS and 12-13 minute finality by orders of magnitude. Against Solana—its closest performance competitor—Sui achieves 32x faster finality (0.4 seconds versus 12.8 seconds) despite Solana's 400ms slot times, because Solana requires multiple confirmations for economic finality. Real-world measurement from Phoenix Group's August 2025 report showed Sui processing 3,900 TPS versus Solana's 92.1 TPS, reflecting operational rather than theoretical performance. Transaction costs remain predictably low on Sui (~$0.0087 average, under one cent) without Solana's historical congestion and outage issues.

Architectural differences explain performance gaps. Sui's object-centric model enables inherent parallelization—300,000 simple transfers per second don't require consensus coordination. Ethereum and Bitcoin process every transaction sequentially through full consensus. Solana parallelizes through Sealevel but uses optimistic execution requiring retroactive verification. Aptos, also using Move language, implements Block-STM optimistic execution rather than Sui's state access method. For AI and robotics applications requiring predictable low latency, Sui's explicit dependency declaration provides determinism that optimistic approaches cannot guarantee.

The quantum positioning diverges even more starkly. Bitcoin and Ethereum use secp256k1 ECDSA signatures with no backward-compatible upgrade path—quantum transition requires hard forks, address changes, asset migrations, and community governance likely to cause chain splits. Solana shares Sui's EdDSA advantage, enabling similar zk-STARK transition strategies and introducing Winternitz Vault hash-based one-time signatures. Near and Cosmos benefit from EdDSA as well. Aptos uses Ed25519 but less developed quantum readiness roadmap. Chalkias's July 2025 research paper explicitly stated the findings "work for Sui, Solana, Near, Cosmos and other EdDSA-based chains, but not for Bitcoin and Ethereum."

Ecosystem maturity favors competitors temporarily. Solana launched 2020 with established DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and developer communities. Ethereum's 2015 launch provided first-mover advantages in smart contracts, institutional adoption, and network effects. Sui launched May 2023—barely two and half years old—with $2+ billion TVL and 65.9K active addresses growing rapidly but well below Solana's 16.1 million. The technical superiority creates opportunity: developers building on Sui today position for ecosystem growth rather than joining mature, crowded platforms. Chalkias's London Real interview reflected this confidence: "Honestly, I won't be surprised at all if Mysten Labs, and anything it touches, surpasses what Apple is today."

Synergies between seemingly disparate visions

The AI, robotics, and quantum resistance narratives appear disconnected until recognizing their technical interdependencies. AI agents require low latency and high throughput—Sui provides both. Robotic coordination demands real-time operations without central authority—Sui's object model and sub-second finality deliver. Post-quantum security needs cryptographic flexibility and forward-looking architecture—Sui built this from inception. These aren't separate product lines but unified technical requirements for the 2030-2035 technology landscape.

Consider autonomous manufacturing: AI systems analyze demand forecasts and material availability, determining optimal production schedules. Robotic agents receive verified instructions through blockchain coordination, ensuring authenticity without centralized control. Each robot operates as owned object processing tasks in parallel, coordinating through shared objects when necessary. Micropayments settle instantly for services rendered—robot A providing materials to robot B, robot B processing components for robot C. The system functions internetless during connectivity disruptions, synchronizing when networks restore. And critically, all communications remain secure against quantum adversaries through post-quantum cryptographic schemes, protecting intellectual property and operational data from "store now, decrypt later" attacks.

Healthcare data management exemplifies another convergence. AI models train on medical datasets stored in Walrus with cryptographic availability proofs. Zero-knowledge proofs preserve patient privacy while enabling research. Robotic surgical systems coordinate through blockchain for audit trails and liability documentation. Post-quantum encryption protects sensitive medical records from long-term threats. The coordination layer (Sui's blockchain) enables institutional data sharing without trust, AI computation without compromising privacy, and future-proof security without periodic infrastructure replacement.

Chalkias's vision statement during Sui Basecamp 2025 captures this synthesis: positioning Sui as "foundation for the next wave of intelligent, decentralized systems" with "growing capacity to support AI-native and computation-heavy applications." The modular architecture—Sui for computation, Walrus for storage, Scion for connectivity, zkLogin for identity—creates what team members describe as "blockchain operating system" rather than narrow financial ledger. The internetless mode, quantum-safe cryptography, and sub-second finality aren't feature checklists but prerequisites for autonomous systems operating in adversarial environments with unreliable infrastructure.

The innovation methodology behind technical leadership

Understanding Mysten Labs' approach explains execution consistency. Chalkias articulated the philosophy during his "Build Beyond" blog post: "Mysten Labs is really good at finding new theories in the space that nobody has ever implemented, where some of the assumptions may not be accurate. But we're marrying it with the existing technology we have, and eventually, this drives us in creating a novel product." This describes systematic process: identify academic research with practical potential, challenge untested assumptions through engineering rigor, integrate with production systems, and validate through deployment.

The Mysticeti consensus protocol exemplifies this. Academic research established three message rounds as theoretical minimum for Byzantine consensus commitment. Previous implementations required 1.5 round trips with quorum signatures per block. Mysten Labs engineered uncertified DAG structures eliminating explicit certification, implemented optimal commit rules via DAG patterns rather than voting mechanisms, and demonstrated 80% latency reduction from prior Narwhal-Bullshark consensus. The result: peer-reviewed paper with formal proofs accompanied by production deployment processing billions of transactions.

Similar methodology applies to cryptography. BPQS (Chalkias's blockchain post-quantum signature scheme) adapts XMSS hash-based signatures for blockchain constraints. Winterfell implements first open-source STARK prover using only hash functions for post-quantum security. zkLogin combines OAuth authentication with zero-knowledge proofs, eliminating additional trusted parties while preserving privacy. Each innovation addresses practical barrier (post-quantum security, ZK proof accessibility, user onboarding friction) through novel cryptographic construction backed by formal analysis.

The team composition reinforces this capability. Engineers from Meta built authentication for billions, from NASA developed safety-critical distributed systems, from Uber scaled real-time coordination globally. Chalkias brings cryptographic expertise from Facebook/Diem, R3/Corda, and academic research. This isn't traditional startup team learning on the fly but veterans executing systems they've built before, now unconstrained by corporate priorities. The $336 million funding from a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Binance Labs reflects investor confidence in execution capability over speculative technology.

Challenges and considerations beyond the hype

Technical superiority doesn't guarantee market adoption—a lesson learned repeatedly in technology history. Sui's 65.9K active addresses pale against Solana's 16.1 million despite arguably better technology. Network effects compound: developers build where users congregate, users arrive where applications exist, creating lock-in advantages for established platforms. Ethereum's "slower and expensive" blockchain commands orders of magnitude more developer mindshare than technically superior alternatives through sheer incumbency.

The "blockchain operating system" positioning risks dilution—attempting to excel at finance, social applications, gaming, AI, robotics, IoT, and decentralized storage simultaneously may result in mediocrity across all domains rather than excellence in one. Critics noting this concern point to limited robotics deployment beyond proof-of-concepts, AI projects primarily in speculation phase rather than production utility, and quantum security preparation for threats five to ten years distant. The counterargument holds that modular components enable focused development—teams building AI applications use Atoma inference and Walrus storage without concerning themselves with robotics integration.

Post-quantum cryptography introduces non-trivial overheads. CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures measure 3,293 bytes at security level 2 versus Ed25519's 64 bytes—over 50x larger. Network bandwidth, storage costs, and processing time increase proportionally. Batch verification improvements remain limited (20-50% speedup versus independent verification) compared to classical schemes' efficient batching. Migration risks include user error during transition, coordination across ecosystem participants (wallets, dApps, exchanges), backward compatibility requirements, and difficulty testing at scale without real quantum computers. The timeline uncertainty compounds planning challenges—quantum computing progress remains unpredictable, NIST standards continue evolving, and new cryptanalytic attacks may emerge against PQ schemes.

Market timing presents perhaps the greatest risk. Sui's advantages materialize most dramatically in 2030-2035 timeframe: when quantum computers threaten classical cryptography, when autonomous systems proliferate requiring trustless coordination, when AI agents manage significant economic value necessitating secure infrastructure. If blockchain adoption stagnates before this convergence, technical leadership becomes irrelevant. Conversely, if adoption explodes sooner, Sui's newer ecosystem may lack applications and liquidity to attract users despite superior performance. The investment thesis requires believing not just in Sui's technology but in timing alignment between blockchain maturation and emerging technology adoption.

The decade-long bet on first principles

Kostas Chalkias's naming his son Kryptos isn't charming anecdote but signal of commitment depth. His career trajectory—from AI research to cryptography, from academic publication to production systems at Meta, from enterprise blockchain at R3 to Layer 1 architecture at Mysten Labs—demonstrates consistent focus on foundational technologies at scale. The quantum resistance work began before Google's Willow announcement, when post-quantum cryptography seemed theoretical concern. The robotics integration started before AI agents commanded billion-dollar valuations. The architectural decisions enabling these capabilities predate market recognition of their importance.

This forward-looking orientation contrasts with reactive development common in crypto. Ethereum introduces Layer 2 rollups to address scaling bottlenecks emerging after deployment. Solana implements QUIC communication and stake-weighted QoS responding to network outages and congestion. Bitcoin debates block size increases and Lightning Network adoption as transaction fees spike. Sui designed parallel execution, object-centric data models, and cryptographic agility before launching mainnet—addressing anticipated requirements rather than discovered problems.

The research culture reinforces this approach. Mysten Labs publishes academic papers with formal proofs before claiming capabilities. The Mysticeti consensus paper appeared in peer-reviewed venues with correctness proofs and performance benchmarks. The quantum transition research submitted to IACR ePrint Archive demonstrates EdDSA advantages through mathematical construction, not marketing claims. The zkLogin paper (arXiv 2401.11735) details zero-knowledge authentication before deployment. Chalkias maintains active GitHub contributions (kchalkias), posts technical insights on LinkedIn and Twitter, presents at PQCSA workshops on quantum threats, and engages substantively with cryptography community rather than exclusively promoting Sui.

The ultimate validation arrives in 5-10 years when quantum computers mature, autonomous systems proliferate, and AI agents manage trillion-dollar economies. If Sui executes consistently on its roadmap—deploying post-quantum signatures before 2030 NIST deadline, demonstrating robotics coordination at scale, and supporting AI inference layers processing millions of requests—it becomes infrastructure layer for technologies reshaping civilization. If quantum computers arrive later than predicted, autonomous adoption stalls, or competitors successfully retrofit solutions, Sui's early investments may prove premature. The bet centers not on technology capability—Sui demonstrably delivers promised performance—but on market timing and problem urgency.

Chalkias's perspective during Emergence Conference frames this succinctly: "Eventually, blockchain will surpass even Visa for speed of transaction. It will be the norm. I don't see how we can escape from this." The inevitability claim assumes correct technical direction, sufficient execution quality, and aligned timing. Sui positions to capitalize if these assumptions hold. The object-centric architecture, cryptographic agility, sub-second finality, and systematic research methodology aren't retrofits but foundational choices designed for the technology landscape emerging over the next decade. Whether Sui captures market leadership or these capabilities become table stakes across all blockchains, Kostas Chalkias and Mysten Labs are architecting infrastructure for the quantum era's autonomous intelligence—one cryptographic primitive, one millisecond of latency reduction, one proof-of-concept robot at a time.