Retail is getting smarter, America is charging ahead, and Maple hits $1B on-chain
Last week, we flagged what could be a key moment in this cycle: crypto finally starting to break away from its old correlation with tech stocks. We covered it in more detail in our latest CHAINLETTER, and interestingly, even CNBC is now picking up on the same shift.
As we’ve been saying for a while, this feels like more than just a short-term bounce. It’s a turning point, not just for institutions, but for retail too.
Back in January, the rally was all noise and memecoins. Projects with strong fundamentals were overlooked as retail chased casino-style gains. But the tone is starting to change. Search trends are shifting away from meme tokens and toward real themes like RWA, DeFi, and even DePIN. Retail looks like it’s maturing—finally paying attention to utility, not just hype.
Meanwhile, on the macro front, the contrast between the U.S. and Europe couldn’t be clearer. America is charging full speed into crypto with the appointment of Paul Akins, an openly pro-Bitcoin SEC Chair, whose first statement was “Bitcoin and crypto first.” Across the Atlantic, Europe’s response has been… less inspiring.
While the U.S. builds, Europe warns that U.S. stablecoin adoption might “crash” their economy. A bit dramatic, considering they’ve had four years to become the home of crypto and ended up delivering MiCA, more regulation than innovation.
Trump has also taken a firm stance: no CBDCs, calling them a tool for authoritarian control. Europe, on the other hand, is pushing ahead with its own. The headlines often paint Trump as the dictator and Europe as the economy of hope and prosperity, yet the policies tell a very different story.
In this week’s edition, we check in on Raydium’s big upgrade. Will it reignite Solana’s memecoin wave or will it finally attract real builders to the chain?
We also revisit Maple Finance, which continues to quietly build one of the most impressive DeFi stories this year.
No trades to report this week, but if you missed the breakdown of our top 5, check back to last week’s edition for the full deep dive.
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