Came on Bankless today and broke my silence on the Roman Storm case. A lot to say—important discussion.
We also talk Project Crypto, Ethereum's position in the market, and Zora vs Pump 👇
The SEC's new "Project Crypto" is the most bullish thing I've seen in a long time from a regulator. Read the speech, it's incredible:
* Almost all tokens are not securities
* Want to discourage decentralization kabuki theater
* Americans should not get excluded by IP/VPN blocks
* Explicit exemptions for ICOs, airdrops, etc.
* Non-securities should be tradeable alongside securities on the same platforms
* Protect software engineers
* Streamline licensing requirements
* "Innovation exemption" to protect builders pre-decentralization
Wow. Wow wow wow.
Gotta give kudos to the @WhiteHouse crypto report for adding this easter egg at the end.
Give the intern a raise!
DoubleZero has launched a 3M SOL stake pool.
It’s designed to expand DoubleZero’s high-performance fiber network, support early testnet users, accelerate validator performance and unlock geographic decentralization across the @Solana ecosystem long-term.
Let’s break down what
Y'all I was just notified of something mind-boggling, in the current context, by the inimitable @sbetamc:
The beacon deposit contract for all staked ETH was deployed by an address ...
funded from Tornado Cash.
Since our statement on Friday, we've received overwhelming support from across the crypto, tech, and venture communities. We want to sincerely thank you all for standing behind us.
The DOJ has now backtracked. They have stated on the record in the trial Monday morning that the media reports that they were planning to bring charges against Dragonfly were inaccurate, and neither Dragonfly nor any of its principals are targets in their investigation.
The DOJ's public statements on Friday in open court—that Dragonfly, as investors, could face prosecution merely for backing an open-source privacy technology—was not only unprecedented, it was a clear violation of DOJ policy. They are never allowed to speculate on prosecuting a third party in open court in front of the media. The prosecutors did this to prevent us from testifying for the defense. But even the notion that an investor could be charged would have induced a chilling effect on investment into blockchain and privacy-preserving technologies.
We sincerely thank you all for your support. With that behind us, the focus should remain on Roman Storm's trial, which is now nearing closing arguments as soon as this week. Its outcome will have massive implications for open-source software and privacy rights in America.
We are hopeful that the American judicial system will get this right.
Dragonfly invested into PepperSec, Inc., the developers of Tornado Cash, in August of 2020. We made this investment because we believe in the importance of open-source privacy-preserving technology. Prior to our investment, we obtained an outside legal opinion that confirmed that Tornado Cash as built complied with the law, under the guidance given by FinCEN in 2019.
The government has now stated in open court that they are contemplating charges against Dragonfly for having invested into the Tornado Cash team in 2020.
On counsel’s advice, we have refrained from public comment. But we can no longer remain silent.
We believe deeply in Americans’ right to privacy, and the lack of it remains one of crypto’s largest unsolved problems. We therefore stand by our investment. We did not operate or exercise any control over Tornado Cash, we had no contact with any malicious users, we always encouraged our portfolio companies to follow the law, and we maintain that Tornado Cash itself has a lawful right to exist—a view reinforced by Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury and OFAC’s subsequent rescission of sanctions. Charging a venture firm for a portfolio company’s alleged misconduct would be unprecedented, especially under these circumstances.
In 2023 we received a DOJ subpoena and have fully cooperated with the government’s investigation of Tornado Cash, confident that we have always complied with the law. The DOJ has made clear that we are not ourselves a target of their investigation. As with every investment, we provided PepperSec the same advice and support we offer all portfolio companies.
We believe the government’s statement in court today was primarily to undermine a defense of Tornado Cash—to make it more difficult for the defense to call Tom to testify on the stand.
After all of this time—years later—bringing charges against Dragonfly would be outrageous, contrary to the facts and the law, and would induce a chilling effect onto all investment into crypto and privacy-preserving technologies in America.
We don’t believe the DOJ would actually bring such absurd and groundless charges. But if they do, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.
Crypto finally gets some clarity with the Clarity Act passing the House.
But what's actually in it? Turns out, no one has actually read the whole bill—besides @RebeccaRettig1.
She gives us the cliff notes on Genius + Clarity, so you don't have to read it yourself. If you're in
Crypto finally gets some clarity with the Clarity Act passing the House.
But what's actually in it? Turns out, no one has actually read the whole bill—besides @RebeccaRettig1.
She gives us the cliff notes on Genius + Clarity, so you don't have to read it yourself. If you're in
Crypto finally gets some clarity with the Clarity Act passing the House.
But what's actually in it? Turns out, no one has actually read the whole bill—besides @RebeccaRettig1.
She gives us the cliff notes on Genius + Clarity, so you don't have to read it yourself. If you're in crypto, this will be on the quiz ⤵️
Fun podcast with the @CryptoAmerica_ crew—we break down why NYC is the crypto capital of the world, where most of the stablecoin adoption is coming from, and how stables might break the Visa / Mastercard duopoly. 👇
🚨NEW: Our latest episode with @dragonfly_xyz Managing Partner @hosseeb explores the quiet forces reshaping the payments world, including why believes we could be on the brink of seeing stablecoins disrupt @Visa and @Mastercard’s long-standing retail payment monopoly.
Plus, is
🗞️WEDNESDAY NEWSLETTER: Wall Street’s Stablecoin Gold Rush
The GENIUS Act’s passage is fueling a Wall Street rush into digital assets, why @hosseeb believes stablecoins could break Visa’s payments monopoly, plus this week’s top headlines.
In 2018, @naval hired me to be a human ChatGPT for crypto white papers. That's how I got my start as a crypto investor. My job was to read ICO white papers and report back if they made sense. Unsurprisingly, most did not.
Back then, LLMs didn’t exist. If it weren't for that, I might never have become an investor.
Today, the white paper I just tossed into o3 was probably written by another LLM. Intelligence has now become less important among junior investors, and charisma has become more important. LLMs can parse the pitch, but the ability of a junior investor to find and win over the founder can't be automated.
Intelligence⬇️ Charisma⬆️
Today, we at @OpenAI achieved a milestone that many considered years away: gold medal-level performance on the 2025 IMO with a general reasoning LLM—under the same time limits as humans, without tools. As remarkable as that sounds, it’s even more significant than the headline 🧵
Clarity was 294-134, 78 Democrats in favor (69%)
GENIUS was 308-122, 102 Democrats in favor (72%)
Despite all odds, crypto is actually still bi-partisan.
Surfacing and using CEX onchain data
Unwrapping the talk @ETHCC by @hildobby from @dragonfly_xyz aka the main source of datasets and dashboards available on @Dune 📊
Critical insights *AND* a bonus 🎁 at the end of this thread 🧶
$500M Pump ICO. Hyperliquid dominance. Congress pushing pro-crypto bills.
Crypto’s booming, but why does Tarun feel worse?
New episode, we give Tarun some group therapy ⤵️
