Empire

Jason Yanowitz × Hayden Adams

Uniswap is repositioning as a liquidity network, handling 60–70% of EVM stablecoin swaps while Robinhood Chain delivers its highest volumes anywhere.Hayden Adams argues AMMs can compete through lower capital costs, while correlated base pairs and V4 hooks could extend efficient liquidity to volatile and tokenized assets.That B2B flywheel now ties partner distribution and volume to roughly $100M annualized UNI burn, with payment-network adoption and execution still worth monitoring.

Jason Yanowitz × Paul Frambot

Morpho raised $175M in roughly two-to-three weeks by positioning its network, not code, against a global credit market.Connectivity, enterprise integration, and neutral rails used by Robinhood, Coinbase, and Kraken support the network thesis, while Morpho Midnight tests curator-driven rate control; zero protocol revenue and a deliberately inactive switch leave adoption and monetization timing as key watchpoints.

Crypto funds moving into robotics and hardware may be an adverse-selection trap as LPs question mandate creep and post-2021 returns converge with regular venture.Cloudflare’s guardrailed, chain-agnostic wallets could make identity and authorization a value layer, while Circle’s 7% revenue growth, falling USDC supply, 62% distribution share, and November’s Western Union bet leave monetization unresolved.

Jason Yanowitz × Johann Kerbrat

Three weeks after launch, Robinhood Chain reported $750M market cap, roughly half a billion in TVL, 105M+ transactions, 2M addresses, and over $560M in 24-hour DEX volume, with DAU comparisons dependent on measurement.Its Arbitrum stack atop Ethereum prioritizes adoption over chain-fee revenue, while Robinhood’s 27M funded accounts distribute crypto products; tokenized equities offer a global-access wedge whose catalyst remains regulatory clarity, not technology.

Jason Yanowitz × Paul × Se

FOMO is building a pseudonymous, self-custodied trading social graph, with roughly 700,000 lifetime users and 30% deposit conversion.Sponsored fees, USDC balances, 5-bps major-asset pricing, and creator distribution support adoption, while crypto-native users drive 30–50% of volume.Whether the graph compounds before Coinbase, Binance, and Robinhood move more trading onchain remains the key test.

OpenUSD targets Circle with Stripe, Visa and hundreds of partners, but Rob doubts a consortium this large will drive adoption.Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based L2 makes wallet placement scarce, while Cloudflare tests x402 stablecoin settlement across roughly one-fifth of web traffic.Circle’s bank exposure, Saylor’s Stretch overhang and October’s expected DTCC launch leave execution and regulation unresolved.

Jason Yanowitz × Vishal Garg

Better’s mortgage platform runs at an $8B annualized origination rate, with platform revenue above 50% and production costs under $2,000.AI standardizes agency rules; tokenization could cut capital costs 25–100bps, but the planned $500M Sky facility is not live.Coinbase’s product produced a 6.5% fixed-rate mortgage without margin calls; Garg targets adjusted-EVA breakeven by September and calls AI essential.

Avichal Garg × Jason Yanowitz

AI’s dominance makes early-stage entry difficult, pushing Electric Capital toward cold spots such as crypto.Certora’s formal verification could become critical as AI-powered attacks target DeFi securing billions.Stablecoin rails may let 5-6 billion people with limited U.S. market access pay higher P/E multiples for on-chain cash flows, though token re-rating depends on durable revenue and buybacks.

Mike Cagney × Jason Yanowitz

Connect—not lending—is Figure’s claimed moat: a Six Street-backed guarantor provides a private Fannie and Freddie-style takeout, supporting $1.6B of Q1 volume and roughly 50% adjusted EBITDA margins.First-lien expansion could make TAM 25x larger, but the wallet and native on-chain vision still depend on moving TradFi dollars and securing durable legislative clarity.

Jason Yanowitz × Stani Kulechov × Mike Silagadze

Kelp’s exploit threatened an rsETH freeze across Aave, Compound and Euler, exposing a potential systemic cascade.Aave formed DeFi United, while Mike’s team committed 5,000 ETH; ETH stayed near $2,300 for two weeks and Arbitrum recovered roughly 30,000 ETH, but underwriting and token rights remain unresolved.