Scenius Sync (Issue # 216)
Strategy to contribute to Trump Accounts, Payward updates tokenized equity policy, Cloudflare debuts AI stablecoin wallets, Dinari expands tokenized stocks to US investors, & BitGo launches Link
Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.
Welcome to The Scenius Sync.
Our mission with this publication is the following:
Distribute thought leadership that made an impression on us this week
Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.
Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.
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Opinions & Alpha 📡 🧠
What the Internet Hyped vs. What Got Built — Konstantine Buhler, Sequoia
“The top company founded in a given year is rarely related to the hype of that period. Airbnb was founded in 2008, when the top topic was Google. Uber arrived in 2009, while the conversation revolved around low-level programming. Anthropic came in 2021, while the internet was consumed by crypto. Chasing hype rarely leads to enduring outcomes. The top companies of recent years have yet to be decided.”
The Bottleneck in Our Quest for Intelligence is Power, Not Money — Ribbit Capital
“Regardless of what any of us think about the tactical questions around AI—bubble or boom, closed or open weights, transformers or the next thing, today or tomorrow—intelligence is upstream of just about every opportunity to make a better world. Now that we have ways to manufacture it, we are in a dead sprint to create more of it; in the next couple of years, we will use more direct energy in silicon-based brains than carbon-based ones. To get there and beyond, our first job is to figure out how we can create more energy. With each new step in reasoning and agentic capability, the demand for energy will keep soaring—and that is before we even consider the knock-on effects.”
We’re entering a seismic shift in crypto. This is a bull market just not the one you were expecting — Lorenzo Valente, ArkInvest
“We’re entering a seismic shift in crypto. This is a bull market just not the one you were expecting. 75% of perps volume on Hyperliquid is now RWAs, and climbing. Who would have thought BTC would fall to 10% of perps volume on the biggest onchain DEX? Crypto-native assets were the warm-up. Equities are a $65T market, and we’re about to find out how much bigger that gets when it trades 24/7 onchain.”
Essential News 🗞
Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, has joined Coinbase, Circle, and Wall Street giants such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in pledging contributions to Trump Accounts, the president’s initiative to help children begin investing early. Besides making a one-time $1,000 contribution matching the U.S. government’s seed contribution, Strategy said it would contribute $250 annually to Trump Accounts for every eligible child under 18 of its U.S. employees, regardless of the child’s birth year. This is not the first time Strategy has shown support for President Donald Trump or his political agenda. Strategy, then known as MicroStrategy, donated $1 million to the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC in January 2025. Coinbase and Circle, meanwhile, donated $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund, according to Public Citizen.
Kraken parent Payward shifts position on tokenized equities and voting rights
Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, is changing its approach to how holders of tokenized equities can participate in corporate governance. While xStocks holders previously had no voting rights for the underlying shares, a collaboration with Broadridge will now allow eligible investors to submit proxy voting preferences, according to a Wednesday release. “The endgame for tokenization was never just building faster programmable capital markets. It’s about giving people across the world everything that comes with owning a piece of a company, including a voice in how it’s run,” Payward Chief Commercial Officer Mark Greenberg said. “Working with Broadridge is a step in that direction, unlocking opportunities for xStocks holders to participate in corporate governance, while closing the gap between tokenized equities and traditional shares.”
Bernstein says Clarity Act failure could accelerate SEC, CFTC crypto rulemaking
Back in May last year when House representatives French Hill and Glenn Thompson introduced the Clarity Act, supporters heralded the legislation as a long-awaited framework to clarify regulatory responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. More than a year later, the bill’s prospects have dimmed. After Galaxy Research cut its estimated odds of passage in 2026 to 30% last month, analysts at Bernstein said Monday the Senate now has just the coming week before recess to pass what they described as “the most consequential crypto market structure bill in U.S. history.” In a note to clients, the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said that while failure of the bill to pass would trigger a negative knee-jerk reaction across digital asset markets, policy support from the SEC and CFTC would accelerate under Project Crypto rather than stall.
Putin signs landmark crypto law allowing regulated retail trading in Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a landmark law establishing a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market, according to state-run news agency TASS. The law sets up rules for crypto exchanges, custodians, brokers, clearing houses, investors and other market participants, while maintaining the ban on using crypto as a means of payment or legal tender domestically, TASS reported Tuesday. Under the framework, retail investors are allowed to buy the most liquid cryptocurrencies capped at 300,000 rubles ($3,700) each year per intermediary. The report, however, did not specify which crypto assets would qualify.
Proof of Attendance Protocol is shutting down after 5+ years
The Proof of Attendance Protocol is shutting down after more than five years, having minted millions of collectable mementos for crypto events, conferences, hackathons, classrooms, and community gatherings, co-founder Isabel Gonzalez announced. POAP, as the project is often called, has been a mainstay part of crypto culture for years, having found a way to immortalize conference attendance onchain. Users would scan a QR code to claim or pay for a unique badge to show “proof of attendance.” According to Gonzalez, POAP has also worked with the likes of “Coinbase, Amex, WMG, Bayer, and a long tail of others, including countless in crypto.” Special POAPs were also created to commemorate historic Ethereum milestones, like The Merge upgrade to proof-of-stake.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Cloudflare kicks off stablecoin wallet rollout for AI agents to pay for APIs and online content
Cloudflare is in the early stages of rolling out programmable wallets designed to let AI agents pay for APIs, data and online content using stablecoins, adding a key piece of infrastructure to its agentic commerce ecosystem.
The first step, revealed Tuesday, allows users to claim a unique Cloudflare Wallet handle tied to their account. The primary functions of the wallet, like funding it with stablecoins and authorizing agents to make purchases, will become available “soon,” according to a company release. Cloudflare says the wallets will come in two forms: an Account Wallet that lets individuals and organizations add funds and control spending, and a Virtual Wallet that operates through API keys and allows agents to make purchases on their behalf.
Dinari Opens 724 Tokenized US Stocks to Eligible US Investors
Dinari opened tokenized U.S. stock trading to U.S. investors on Tuesday, saying 724 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs — including every company in the S&P 500 — can now be bought with USDC from self-custody wallets by eligible investors in the United States. The company said it is the first platform to make the 724 tokenized stocks available to both eligible U.S. investors and U.S. businesses, with purchases settled in USDC through a partnership with Circle and broker-dealers able to license Dinari’s API-based infrastructure to offer the products to their own customers. Avalanche said the tokens are live on its C-Chain through the Dinari Trading App. Dinari said it currently supports Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Base, and will expand to Sei and Solana. Alongside its own app, the company named Monaco, Eldora, Kredete, Yield.xyz, Liminal, Para, Privy and Axal as launch partners.
World Chain becomes first production L2 to ship streaming Block Access Lists via Flashblocks
World Chain plans on becoming the first production Layer 2 blockchain to stream full EIP-7928 Block Access Lists inside every flashblock, with the feature rolling out on mainnet on Aug. 17, according to an announcement on Wednesday. The upgrade enables validators to verify blocks in parallel while they are still being built, targeting throughput of up to one gigagas per second without requiring more powerful hardware. (A gigagas is a performance metric representing the processing of one billion gas units.) “Traditionally, validators must re-execute every transaction in a block sequentially before confirming its validity,” the statement reads.
BlackRock launches two tokenized money market funds for stablecoin reserves
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has expanded its tokenization footprint with the launch of two new onchain money market products, according to an announcement on Monday. The OnChain Shares of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL) and the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) aim to blend the liquidity and principal stability of regulated traditional money market funds with the operational efficiencies of blockchain technology, targeting institutional investors and digital-asset market participants, according to the announcement. Both funds will invest primarily in cash, short-term U.S. Treasuries, and overnight repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. Treasuries.
BitGo launches Link, connecting clients to Coinbase, Kraken, Crypto.com and more
BitGo Holdings Inc. on Monday announced the launch of BitGo Link, a new tool that connects institutional clients’ accounts at external crypto exchanges like Crypto.com, Kraken, and Coinbase to the company’s own platform.
Link is designed to provide a single interface for viewing and moving digital assets held both in BitGo custody and at centralized exchanges, making it easier for treasury teams to handle their holdings, according to the announcement. “Link makes BitGo the command center for institutional treasury and trading,” BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said. “One network, no borders: governance travels with the capital, wherever it moves.”