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Bitcoin entered the geopolitical spotlight over the weekend after a report alleged Venezuela secretly accumulated as much as 600,000 BTC, coinciding with the US capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

A new Whale Hunting investigation landed just as Washington delivered its own shock to Caracas: over the weekend, US forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and transported him to the United States, where he is expected to face federal charges in New York. Against that backdrop, the report makes a massive claim: that a Maduro-era shadow network may have stockpiled Bitcoin on a scale that would instantly rank among the biggest in the world.

The piece, published by Project Brazen’s Whale Hunting, says Alex Saab, long described as a key financial operator for the Maduro government, “may control $60 billion in Bitcoin” tied to the regime. If you translate that notional value into coins, the figure ricocheting around crypto X has been roughly 600,000–660,000 BTC, though that conversion is coming from social-media extrapolation rather than the report itself.

What We Know About The Venezuelan Bitcoin Reserve

Still, timing matters. The authors frame the US raid as the opening act and the money trail as the real second act. In one of the article’s bluntest passages, Whale Hunting puts it this way: “Nicolás Maduro is in US custody. Where is the money? His name is Alex Saab.”

The report does not present an on-chain attribution proving a $60 billion hoard. It says the allegation comes from HUMINT sources and “has not been confirmed through blockchain analysis.” That caveat is doing real work: the story is written as an intelligence-and-networks narrative, not a blockchain-forensics teardown.

What the authors do supply is a plausibility sketch based on Venezuela’s resource flows and historical BTC price bands. Venezuela exported “73.2 tons of gold in 2018 alone,” the report notes, roughly $2.7 billion at the time, and argues that converting even a fraction into Bitcoin when BTC traded between roughly $3,000 and $10,000 could yield outsized gains if held into the 2021 cycle peak.

They then outline an alleged operational pipeline: gold proceeds routed through Turkish and Emirati intermediaries, passed through mixers, and moved into cold wallets “beyond the reach of Western enforcement,” with access concentrated among a small group around Saab. The implied risk is simple: even if authorities can seize people, they may not be able to seize keys.

The Maduro capture immediately fused two storylines that usually live in different parts of the market’s brain: geopolitics and the strategic-bitcoin-reserve discourse. Former Bitwise exec and now ProCap CIO Jeff Park posted via X, “What if Venezuela is the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” crystallizing the cynical version of that mash-up in a single sentence.

Others ran the arithmetic. Crypto commentator MartyParty (@martypartymusic) suggested: “With the assumed 600-660k $BTC added to the existing 328k in the US Government wallets the total of the SBR would be roughy 928k-988k. Very close to the projected 1m Bitcoin from the original Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Senate markups.”

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $92,558.

Новая фишинговая кампания нацелена на пользователей криптокошелька MetaMask. Об этом предупредил директор по безопасности китайской компании SlowMist под ником 23pds.

Объем переводов стейблкоинов в сети Эфириум превысил $8 трлн в четвертом квартале 2025 года — это новый исторический максимум, следует из данных аналитического сервиса Token Terminal.

Following the weekend pump, leading meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have emerged with double-digit gains in an attempt to show their dominance on the market. However, these leading meme coins have fallen short of other competitors when it comes to gains, showing rising profit opportunities in meme coins with lower market caps. Thus, this report takes a look at the meme coins that have outperformed both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu with better profit margins.

PEPE’s Outstanding 67% Run

After a prolonged downtrend, the PEPE meme coin re-emerged to the frontline with an incredible rally over the last week. CoinGecko data shows that PEPE’s price is up 67% in a 7-day period, making it the top gainer among the largest meme coins by market cap.

This rally resulted in over $1 billion added to the meme coin’s market cap during this time, and solidified its position as the third-largest meme coin by market cap. Its daily trading volume also ballooned above $1.2 billion during this time as investors rushed in to take advantage of the fast pump.

BONK Follows PEPE’s Lead

Similar to PEPE, the BONK meme coin also saw a rapid ascent that put it ahead of meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. In the same 7-day period, the BONK meme coin rose by over 46%, pushing its market cap above $1 billion, while its daily trading volume raced toward $500 million.

The optics around BONK have also been particularly bullish, given the rise in the Solana price as well. Solana saw approximately 8% week-on-week gains, pushing its price toward $135. As a result, meme coins domiciled on the Solana blockchain have witnessed major rebounds during this time.

PIPPIN Emerges From The Shadows To Dominate Meme Coin

Unlike PEPE and BONK, which were already established large-cap meme coins, PIPPIN is a complete underdog that has taken the market by storm. The meme coin was first created back in 2024, and “died” a quick death after its initial pump, until it was resurrected back in 2025.

Since then, the PIPPIN meme coin has continued to outperform, rising from a $20 million market cap to over $650 million at its peak. The price is up more than 1,000% in the last three months, and rose over 13% in the last week alone. While expectations have been that the PIPPIN price will see a quick dump like JELLYJELLY, it has held up, resting at over $500 million market cap at the time of this report.

According to joint research cited in news reports, about $110 billion — roughly ₩160 trillion — left South Korean crypto platforms during 2025. Trading activity did not stop. Instead, much of the money moved to foreign exchanges where more products and tools are available to ordinary investors.

Market Limits Fuel Outflows

Reports have disclosed that domestic rules largely confine local exchanges to spot trading. Many complex products remain off limits for retail traders in Korea, so traders turned to overseas platforms such as Binance and Bybit. The joint study by CoinGecko and Tiger Research is cited as the primary basis for the $110 billion figure.

Banking And Rules Shape Choices

According to a joint report by CoinGecko and Tiger Research, South Korean investors moved over KRW 160 trillion (~$110 billion) in crypto assets from domestic exchanges to overseas platforms in 2025 due to local regulatory limits that restrict CEXs largely to spot trading. Korean… pic.twitter.com/KrYgFurdsm

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 2, 2026

South Korea tightened compliance and user protections in recent years. Laws designed to protect customers were passed, such as the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in 2024, but firms and users say the laws did not create a full framework for wider market services.

Lawmakers debated the Digital Asset Basic Act, but delays left gaps that some traders found limiting. As a result, a growing share of Korean-held crypto migrated to wallets and platforms abroad.

Fee Impact And User Behavior

Based on platform analyses, fee revenue from korean users on overseas exchanges became significant. Estimates in the sector put user-based fees at about ₩2.73 trillion for Binance and roughly ₩1.12 trillion for Bybit in 2025.

Reports also indicated the number of Korean accounts with large overseas balances grew by more than double year-on-year. Some capital was shifted into self-custody wallets too, showing that users split bets between exchanges and private wallets.

Authorities point to risks when money crosses borders. Regulators have focused on anti-money-laundering checks and bank partnerships for crypto firms. Traders, on the other hand, emphasize access. They want margin trading, derivatives, and other services that they cannot get at home. This tension between access and oversight is central to the movement of funds.

Trading Demand Remains High

Volume trends suggest Korean interest hasn’t waned, but shifted location. Domestic platforms handled substantial spot trading, but overall demand appears to have flowed into overseas venues instead of disappearing. The $110 billion figure tracks transfers and placements, not asset losses. In other words, value was relocated rather than erased.

Lawmakers in Seoul are said to be working on broader rules, including stablecoin provisions that many industry players have pushed for. If new statutes arrive and markets reopen to a wider set of services, some funds may return. But for now, many users keep trading outside Korea to access a wider menu of choices and tools.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The crypto market produced one of its most disappointing performances in the final quarter of 2025, with most large-cap assets ending the year in the red. While prices struggled to make any mark in the last few months of the year, liquidity also continued to seep out of the market. 

According to the latest on-chain data, the crypto derivatives market posted its lowest trading volumes of 2025 in December. This downturn in activity reflects the shift in investors’ risk appetite, especially with prices remaining down in the last few months of the year.

Low Market Activity Signals Rising Risk Aversion: Analyst 

In a Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, pseudonymous analyst Darkfost revealed that December was the lowest trading month for the crypto derivatives market in 2025. According to the on-chain pundit, this decline of derivatives market activity signals a disengagement of leveraged traders.

Using a chart showing the trading volumes of the top 10 coins aggregated across several major exchanges, Darkfost highlighted a broad decline in liquidity. The broad nature of this liquidity decline confirms that the low trading volume trend is spread across the entire derivatives market.

As observed in the chart above, the Binance exchange dominates the crypto futures market with approximately $1.19 trillion in trading volume in December. However, this figure is relatively low—its weakest trading activity in the past year—compared to its performance in other months in 2025. For context, Binance recorded almost double that trading volume in August 2025.

A similar trend of liquidity decline can be seen across other major exchanges. For instance, OKX recorded only $581 billion in trading volume, while Bybit was limited to $421 billion. “These levels further confirm a significant liquidity contraction in the derivatives markets, mechanically reducing risk appetite and the use of leverage,” Darkfost added.

Furthermore, the crypto analyst noted that this fall in trading volume shows how investors behave in an unfavorable market condition. 

Darkfost said:

The increase in liquidations, combined with a period of heightened market uncertainty and unclear directionality, has reinforced risk aversion. In such conditions, market participants clearly prioritize capital preservation over performance.

Darkfost concluded that this level of decline in derivatives has historically often aligned with transitional phases, where the market flushes out excess leverage ahead of building a stronger and healthier trend.

Total Crypto Market Capitalization At $3.17 Trillion

As of this writing, the total cryptocurrency market stands at about $3.17 trillion, reflecting a 0.3% jump in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

Ilya Lichtenstein, the man at the center of the 2016 Bitfinex theft, has been released from federal custody after serving roughly 14 months of a five-year sentence, according to reports.

He had been sentenced in November 2024 for a money-laundering conspiracy tied to the theft of about 120,000 bitcoin, one of the largest crypto thefts on record.

The move has reignited debate over how prison credits and reform laws affect high-value cybercrime cases.

Bitcoin Hacker’s Release Credited To First Step Act

According to Lichtenstein’s public posts and interviews, he credited his early freedom to the First Step Act, the prison-reform law signed by US President Donald Trump in 2018.

Reports say he was placed on home confinement after qualifying for earned time credits and program participation, a process allowed under federal rules.

He posted on social media a short message thanking Trump and saying he hopes to work in cybersecurity going forward.

Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.

To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.

— Ilya Lichtenstein (@cipherstein) January 2, 2026

The Theft And The Sentence

Based on reports from federal prosecutors, the Bitfinex breach involved nearly 120,000 bitcoin, which at the time was worth roughly $71 million and later ballooned in value as markets rose.

Lichtenstein pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in US District Court on November 14, 2024. The Department of Justice described the laundering operation as complex and said prosecutors recovered the bulk of the stolen funds.

Details Of The Case

Reports have disclosed that Lichtenstein and his then-partner Heather Morgan used layered transfers, fake identities, and conversions across services to obscure the source of funds.

The couple were arrested in 2022 after agents traced a set of private keys and other evidence back to their accounts.

Morgan, known online as Razzlekhan, pleaded guilty as well and received a shorter sentence; she was also reported to have been released early.

The case drew wide attention because agents later seized a large portion of the assets tied to the hack.

Bitcoin Recovery, Seizures And Public Reaction

Federal filings and news agencies say investigators recovered more than 90% of the stolen Bitcoin and the government seized billions in crypto-linked assets, a recovery that prosecutors called one of the largest in US history.

The sale and custody of those assets remain part of ongoing administrative steps. Many legal experts and members of the public have pushed back on the timing and optics of the early release, arguing that cases involving billions in stolen property raise unusual questions about deterrence and fairness.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Турецкая биржа криптовалют BtcTurk, одна из старейших и наиболее крупных в стране, сообщила, что злоумышленники получили доступ к горячим кошелькам платформы. Специалисты по блокчейн-безопасности из AnChain.AI оценили ущерб в примерно $48 млн. В 2024 и 2025 годах криптобиржа уже сталкивалась с аналогичными атаками.

The positive start of the Bitcoin price to the new year was threatened on Saturday, January 3, as the cryptocurrency market reacted negatively to the recent United States military action in Venezuela. The flagship cryptocurrency briefly lost its hold above the $90,000 mark after US President Donald Trump announced the capture of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro.

While the long-term impact of the latest US military strikes on the cryptocurrency market remains unknown, the Bitcoin price seems to be gearing up for an upward move in the short term. Interestingly, the latest on-chain data suggests that the cryptocurrency market leader could potentially reach a correction low.

Could A Bottom Be Forming For BTC Price?

Crypto analyst Darkfost revealed in a Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform that the most reactive group of Bitcoin investors, known as short-term holders (STHs), have remained under pressure, as the BTC price oscillates between the $85,000 and $92,000 levels.

Darkfost shared that the Bitcoin short-term holders have their estimated cost basis around $103,000, after accounting for the on-chain impact of Coinbase’s recent large BTC transfers. Based on data from CryptoQuant, the average unrealized losses for this investor cohort stand at around 15%.

As Darkfost explained in their Quicktake post, this figure was arrived at based on the percentage deviation from the short-term holder cost basis. “Using this approach makes it possible to identify periods when the most reactive and sensitive investors in the market are under stress,” the on-chain analyst said.

From a historical perspective, when Bitcoin short-term holders witness significant drawdowns, and their average unrealized losses stand at around 15%, the formation of a correction low is often next for the premier cryptocurrency. According to Darkfost, BTC could be staring at a similar situation here.

However, the crypto analyst noted that this signal could be false, especially if the Bitcoin price is at the start of an extended bear market. A deep or prolonged bear market could cause the STH’s unrealized losses to stay above 15% for longer periods or open the door to persistent distribution.

Bitcoin Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of BTC stands at around $91,160, reflecting a more than 1% jump in the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, the flagship cryptocurrency has increased by nearly 4% in the past seven days.

Мошенники обманули двух пожилых жителей Индии на сумму более $380 000. Аферисты убедили своих жертв инвестировать в фейковую платформу для торговли акциями и криптовалютами.

Аналитики Lookonchain обнаружили три криптоадреса, которые собрали на платформе прогнозов Polymarket прибыль в $630 484, сделав ставки на отстранение президента Венесуэлы Николаса Мадуро (Nicolás Maduro) от власти. Ставки были сделаны за несколько часов до задержания Мадуро американским спецназом.

Phishing losses fell drastically in 2025 by over 83% compared to the previous year. However, the underlying data show that reduced figures do not translate to a decline in security threats.

Crypto Phishing Losses Down From $494M To $84M In 2025

A phishing attack occurs when an unsuspecting user is tricked into giving up sensitive information or signing off on malicious transactions. In the crypto space, signature phishing attacks are a major security concern and are facilitated using wallet drainers.

According to Web3 security outfit Scam Sniffer, total phishing losses in 2025 were valued at $83.85 million across 106,106 victims, representing respective drops of  83% and 68% from 2024. There were also 11 large cases of theft over $1 million compared to 30 in 2024. Meanwhile, the single largest theft was a $6.5 million loss via a permit signature attack in September, which was 8x lower than that of 2024.

While the latest figures represent a significant decline from the previous year, Scam Sniffer analysts state there is no direct translation to decreased market threat as losses moved in parallel with the market cycle. Therefore, losses increased or decreased in relation to the global crypto user activity. 

Notably, monthly losses varied from $2.04 million in December to $12.17 million in August. However, Q3, which was the busiest market period, accounted for the largest portion (29% i.e $31 million) of the yearly losses. However, figures dropped to $13 million in Q4, as user activity cooled off.

Related Reading: Aave Founder Responds To Governance Tension With Strategic Plan – Details

EIP-7702 Emerges As Latest Phishing Signature Type

According to Scam Sniffer’s report, EIP-7702 exploitation emerged as a new threat in the signature-based wallet-drainer ecosystem. Leveraging account abstraction introduced in the Pectra upgrade in May 2025, attackers can bundle multiple malicious operations into a single signature. 

Notably, the largest EIP-7702 losses, with two incidents culminating in $2.54 million, were recorded in August. Meanwhile, Permit/ Permit2 signature types lead the space, accounting for $8.72 million in losses across three major incidents, I.e. 38% of all large-case losses. 

Beyond signature phishing types, Scam Sniffer also highlighted other phishing attack types that threaten the crypto space. The Bybit incident in February stands out, after the Lazarus group breached a Safe (Wallet) developer machine and launched a program that imitated the multi-sig interface, resulting in losses of $1.46 billion.

In conclusion, while reported signature phishing losses have declined, the threat landscape remains active. Moreover, the fall in trackable losses may suggest attackers are employing harder-to-track vectors such as private key breaches or targeted social engineering.

Кто мог предположить взлет анонимных криптовалют в 2025 году? Однако они взлетели. Понятно, что точность предсказаний не может быть 100%. Но мы попробуем назвать список наиболее перспективных коинов наступившего 2026 года.

Суд эмирата Дубай приговорил женщину к двум месяцам тюремного заключения и штрафу 4,3 млн дирхамов (около $1,1 млн), признав виновной в криптовалютном мошенничестве.

The US federal debt passed $38 trillion on January 3, 2026, according to Treasury tracking. That new milestone was reached as some in the cryptocurrency community observed Genesis Day, the anniversary of Bitcoin’s first block. Reports note the timing drew attention because it highlighted contrasts between public borrowing and Bitcoin’s fixed supply.

Debt Hits New High

According to Treasury figures, the gross federal debt climbed past $38 trillion on January 3. The rise has been sharp over the last two years, moving from about $34 trillion in early 2024 to roughly $36 trillion by late 2024, and then at $38.5 trillion in late 2025.

Analysts have calculated that the debt has been increasing by roughly $6 billion per day recently, a pace that pushes interest costs higher and narrows options for future budgets. Some of the increase comes from continuing budget shortfalls where spending outstrips revenue.

On 3 January 2009, the Bitcoin network launched with the mining of its first block, known as the Genesis Block.

Embedded in that block was a headline from @TheTimes newspaper:

“Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

The message permanently anchors Bitcoin’s origin… pic.twitter.com/hGozJOYd3I

— Bitcoin Policy UK (@bitcoinpolicyuk) January 3, 2026

Drivers Behind The Surge

According to market coverage, several factors are behind the jump: sustained annual deficits, increasing interest payments on existing debt, and large spending bills enacted in recent sessions of Congress.

Debt held by the public and amounts owed to federal trust funds together make up the headline figure. Economists warn that as the debt grows relative to the size of the economy, more taxpayer dollars will be needed just to service interest payments, which could crowd out other priorities.

Bitcoin Community Responds

On January 3, many Bitcoin supporters marked Genesis Day, a date they view as symbolic of financial change when Bitcoin’s first block was mined in 2009. Some users posted about the contrast between a national debt that keeps climbing and Bitcoin’s capped supply of 21 million coins.

Others used the anniversary to elevate broader questions about fiscal rules and money supply. The reactions were mixed; some view it as a warning, others saw it as a moment for commemoration.

Investors and commentators have weighed the implications. A portion of the market treats scarce assets like Bitcoin and gold as hedges against what they view as the risks of heavy borrowing.

At the same time, mainstream economists caution that running large and persistent deficits can raise borrowing costs and slow growth over the long run. Treasury officials monitor cash needs closely and sometimes change borrowing schedules to cover gaps between receipts and outlays.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The US strike on Venezuela represents the largest headline event of the new year so far. In several developments spinning off this incident, Representative Ritchie Torres is reportedly moving to introduce a bill targeting insider trading on prediction markets amid traders’ netting heavy profits on forecasted capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

The Push For Integrity In Prediction Markets

On January 3, US President Donald announced a successful military mission in Venezuela resulting in the capture of President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The Republican-led administration in Washington accuses Maduro and his spouse of running a “narco-terrorist organization,” and both parties have been arraigned to face charges of drug trafficking in New York.

Amid the numerous condemnations and reactions to this move by the US government, there have been revelations of insider trading around the event in the predictions market. Blockchain analysis page Lookonchain reports that three insider wallets placed Polymarket bets on the capture of Maduro just hours before the attack.

Data shows that these three wallets were recently created, funded, and only placed bets relating to Venezuela and Maduro’s capture to net total profits valued at $630,848. The largest of these transactions came from a trader who invested $34,000 to record gains of $409,900. 

According to the founder of PunchBowl News, Jake Sherman, Rep Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) aims to introduce a bill that illegalizes this act among government officials and protects important state-related information. The bill, which would be titled the Public Integrity In Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, aims to ban all affiliated government persons from participating in the prediction market bets when exposed to certain information. 

Sherman states that the description of the proposed law read: 

This bill prohibits federal elected officials, political appointees, and Executive Branch employees from engaging in certain transactions involving prediction market contracts when they either possess material nonpublic information relevant to the transaction or could reasonably obtain such information through their official duties. 

The restriction applies to buying, selling, or exchanging prediction market contracts tied to government policy, government action, or political outcomes on platforms engaged in interstate commerce

Notably, prediction markets surged in late 2025 following growing Wall Street interest in the blockchain market infrastructure. Kalshi, which presently ranks as the largest prediction platform, is presently valued at $11 billion after a $1 billion fundraising in December.

Crypto Market Resilient Amid Venezuela Attack

In other news, the crypto market has shown no significant negative reaction to the US attack on Venezuelan soil. Over the last day, Bitcoin has moved by 2.13% to trade at $91,414 as the total crypto market cap climbed to $3.08 trillion.

Пользователи сети Cardano оказались под угрозой фишинговой атаки: злоумышленники распространяют ссылки на вредоносное программное обеспечение, замаскированное под десктоп-приложение кошелька Eternl. Атака началась 31 декабря и продолжается до сих пор.

В первый торговый день года суммарный чистый приток средств в американские биржевые фонды (ETF) на биткоин и эфир достиг $645,8 млн. Это рекорд последних более чем полутора месяцев.

Solana is approaching a pivotal moment in its evolution as it prepares for one of the most consequential network upgrades. After a long period recognized for its speed and low fees, the network has also faced criticism around stability, validator performance, and long-term scalability. This upcoming upgrade aims to directly address those concerns that could redefine SOL’s role in the blockchain ecosystem.

Performance Improvements That Matter At Scale For Solana

Solana is preparing for one of its most significant upgrades with Alpenglow, a consensus overhaul that replaces both Tower BFT and Proof of History (PoH) to achieve sub-second finality. In an X post, Delphi Digital revealed that the upgrade will introduce two protocol components.

At the core of this upgrade is Votor, which would replace the Tower BFT’s incremental voting rounds with a lightweight vote aggregation model.  Validators can aggregate votes off-chain before committing finality, allowing the block to be finalized in one or two confirmation rounds rather than multiple chained rounds. Due to this, the theoretical finality would drop down to the 100-150 millisecond range, representing roughly a 100-fold reduction from its original 12.8 seconds.

Furthermore, Votor would achieve this through two concurrent finalization paths: Fast Finalization triggers when a proposed block gains 80% or more of the total stake approval in the first round, and instantly finalizes. After, Slow Finalization would kick in when the first round reaches 60 to 80%, which will require a second round to exceed 60% before the block is finalized. Both paths operate in parallel and will ensure finality is achieved even when under partial network participation.

The other core of this upgrade is Rotor, which has been redesigned to rework the SOL block propagation layer. Meanwhile, the original Turbine gossip network relied on multihop relays with variable latency. Rotor will introduce stake-weighted relay paths that would prioritize bandwidth-efficient propagation, meaning high-stakes validators with reliable bandwidth will become the key relay points.

In simulation, block propagation can occur in as low as 18 milliseconds under typical bandwidth conditions. This upgrade is expected to roll out gradually, with initial activation anticipated in early to mid-2026.

How Solana Emerges As The Leading On-Chain Trading Hub

The Kobeissi Letter has reported that the Solana on-chain spot volume reached $1.6 trillion in 2025, officially overtaking all off-chain exchanges except Binance. According to data from Jupiter Exchange, SOL on-chain volumes have surged from 1% of total volume to a massive 12% since 2022.

In 2025, SOL officially surpassed Bybit, Coinbase Global, and Bitget in total trading volume. Meanwhile, the Binance share has declined from 80% to 55% since 2022. This shows that the crypto activity is rapidly moving on-chain.

Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov has responded to recent governance tensions within the Aave ecosystem, outlining a strategic plan to address operational control concerns and accelerate long-term growth. The controversy followed a DAO vote on whether the community should assume full control over the protocol’s brand and front-end assets. The proposal was decisively rejected—with 55% voting against, 41% abstaining, and just 3.5% in favor—highlighting persistent questions around value capture and alignment between Aave Labs and token holders.

Time To Scale Beyond Crypto – Aave CEO

In a post on Friday, Kulechov framed the present moment as a crossroads for Aave, emphasizing that the protocol’s growth cannot be limited to its current crypto-native lending products. He sees enormous potential in expanding into real-world assets (RWAs) and institutional markets, projecting that Aave could ultimately support a $500 trillion asset base and onboard tens of millions of users through the Aave App. 

Kulechov said:

Today, most of Aave’s lending is concentrated around ETH, BTC, or leverage-driven looping strategies correlated with crypto market cycles. When I started Aave (originally as ETHLend) in 2017, the vision was to use smart contracts to power lending across virtually all asset classes and use cases.

A core aspect of this strategy is the upcoming Aave V4, a modular architecture designed to integrate new lending models and asset classes safely. The design allows innovation without compromising protocol integrity, enabling both crypto-native and RWA-backed use cases while creating a developer-friendly environment to encourage innovation.

Consumer Products, Revenue, And Alignment

Addressing operational concerns, Kulechov stressed that mainstream consumer-grade products needed to onboard millions of users should be developed by independent, highly autonomous teams on top of the permissionless Aave Protocol rather than funded or controlled directly by the DAO. This approach ensures rapid execution while allowing the protocol to benefit from increased usage and revenue.

Kulechov said:

World class consumer products are built by highly opinionated teams with the autonomy to move quickly. While decentralized governance works well for protocol economics, it is not suited for product-level decision making.

Kulechov also pledged to share revenue generated outside the protocol with token holders and confirmed that upcoming proposals will include clear guardrails for branding and revenue alignment. In his concluding notes, Kulechov reinforced his belief in Aave’s potential while also appealing for collaboration to drive the protocol and its native token’s success.