This week we dig into why “Crypto Winter 2.0” headlines are totally out of sync with what’s actually happening under the hood — the casino vibes may be gone, but the financial plumbing is being switched on at full blast.

- BlackRock on Uniswap (without touching the AMM)

  - How BlackRock’s tokenized BUIDL fund actually trades on Uniswap via UniswapX RFQ, not the public AMM you use with MetaMask.

  - Why off-chain quote matching + on-chain atomic settlement (T+0) is such a big deal for institutions, slippage, MEV, and counterparty risk.

  - What this tells us about the “institutions are coming” meme and the shift from retail casino to institutional-grade rails.

- LayerZero’s Zero Network and the robot economy

  - The Zero Network’s three-zone architecture (EVM apps, global markets, global payments) and how they’re aiming at 2M TPS per zone.

  - Why backing from ARK Invest and Citadel Securities signals serious intent to run Wall Street-style market making on-chain.

  - AI-native infrastructure: Coinbase’s agentic wallets, Stripe’s USDC flows, and why ultra-high throughput is really for AI agents, not humans.

- Tokens, IPOs, and the Wild West cleanup

  - Backpack Exchange’s new token, the MadLads airdrop, and how their structure blurs the line between a crypto token and a future IPO.

  - The legal crackdown: SafeMoon’s CEO getting over 8 years in prison, global regulators tightening the screws, and what that means for the next cycle.

  - Where “smart money” is positioning while retail checks out, and why the future looks like compliant, hybrid markets rather than pure degen chaos.

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