Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

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Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

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September 4, 2025

Ethereum-focused firm Etherealize has secured $40 million in fresh funding as it ramps up efforts to bring the second-largest cryptocurrency to Wall Street’s doorstep.

The raise, led by Electric Capital and Paradigm, aims to deepen institutional understanding of Ethereum and accelerate its adoption across traditional finance.

The funding round arrives during a pivotal week for Ethereum, with public firms collectively adding over $1.2 billion worth of Ether (ETH) to their treasuries, a surge that underscores growing institutional appetite for the asset.

Etherealize Aims to Bridge Ethereum and Wall Street

Etherealize, launched in January with backing from the Ethereum Foundation and co-founder Vitalik Buterin, is designed to bridge the gap between Ethereum’s complex ecosystem and the financial world’s demand for clarity, tools, and regulation-ready infrastructure.

Co-founder Grant Hummer previously noted that despite Ethereum’s presence in crypto ETFs, many institutions still lack the fundamental knowledge needed to engage meaningfully with ETH.

The $40 million will fund new tools and platforms tailored to institutional workflows. Etherealize plans to build infrastructure for private trading and settlement of tokenized assets, including a settlement platform for tokenized bonds and other fixed income products.

The firm is positioning itself at the intersection of crypto-native innovation and enterprise-level finance, hoping to deliver scalable solutions for firms seeking exposure to Ethereum’s capabilities.

“Over the past decade, Ethereum has gone from an experiment to the world’s most battle-tested, open financial network,” said co-founder Danny Ryan, adding that the new capital will help “upgrade institutional finance to modern, safer, globally accessible rails.”

The raise comes as Ethereum sees renewed momentum among public companies.

The Ether Machine, a crypto treasury firm planning a public listing, led this week’s accumulation with a 150,000 ETH buy, valued at $654 million.

Meanwhile, BitMine Immersion Technologies, Ethereum’s largest corporate holder, added another $65 million in ETH on Wednesday alone, per data from Arkham.

Other firms followed suit. Sharplink Gaming and Yunfeng Financial disclosed ETH purchases worth $176 million and $44 million, respectively.

Joseph Lubin Predicts 100x ETH Surge

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin believes ETH could rally 100x or more over time, calling it Wall Street’s future infrastructure as TradFi shifts toward decentralized finance.

In an X post, Lubin said Ethereum will replace many siloed systems at institutions like JPMorgan and become the backbone for financial services, staking, and smart contract execution.

Backing the bullish stance of Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, Lubin stated he’s “100% aligned” with Lee’s view that Ethereum could flip Bitcoin in network value.

He compared the moment to 1971 when the U.S. dollar left the gold standard, signaling a tectonic shift in financial architecture led by Ethereum.

Likewise, Lee has predicted that Ethereum will rally in the near term to $5,500, with an ambitious year-end target of $12,000.

During his August 26 guest appearance on the Amitis Investing program, Lee disclosed that institutional Wall Street sentiment toward Ethereum has shifted dramatically following the U.S. Senate’s passage of the GENIUS Stablecoin legislation.

Lee emphasized that Ethereum is the foundational blockchain infrastructure for traditional finance (TradFi), currently supporting over $145 billion in stablecoin supply.

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Tanzeel Akhtar

Journalist

Tanzeel Akhtar

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Tanzeel Akhtar is a seasoned journalist who has been reporting on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology since 2015. Her work has appeared in leading publications including The Wall Street Journal,…

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August 27, 2025

Finastra, a financial services software firm, has announced a collaboration with Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), a stablecoin firm, to allow banks to integrate USDC settlement into cross-border payment flows.

In an announcement, the firm explains that this initiative will use Finastra’s payment hub solutions, including Global PAYplus (GPP), marking the first time Finastra will connect financial institutions to Circle’s payment infrastructure.

The companies said the partnership will also allow for faster international transfers by combining Finastra’s banking network’s scalability with USDC’s stability and transparency.

USDC Settlement Option

Through this collaboration, Finastra’s GPP customers—already processing over $5 trillion in cross-border transactions daily—will be able to settle transactions in USDC, even when underlying payment instructions remain denominated in fiat currencies.

This new option reduces reliance on traditional correspondent banking networks, allowing banks to accelerate settlement times without compromising compliance requirements or foreign exchange processes.

Empowering Banks With New Options

“This collaboration is about giving banks the tools they need to innovate in cross-border payments without having to build a standalone payment processing infrastructure,” said Chris Walters, CEO of Finastra.

He explained that by linking Finastra’s payment hub to Circle’s blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, banks can explore payment models while maintaining operational continuity.

Expanding USDC’s Global Role

“Finastra’s reach and expertise in powering the payments infrastructure for leading banks worldwide makes them a natural choice to further expand USDC settlement in cross-border flows,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Circle.

With stablecoin adoption gaining momentum, the Finastra-Circle partnership represents a major move in reshaping international payments.

Circle Debuts Layer-1 Blockchain Arc Using USDC for Native Gas

Earlier this month, Circle unveiled Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin finance. This marks what the company calls a “defining moment” as it moves toward developing a full-stack internet financial platform.

The announcement came alongside Circle’s fiscal Q2 2025 results, which showed substantial growth in its core business. Circle reported that USDC in circulation surged 90% year-over-year to $61.3 billion, reaching $65.2 billion as of August 10, 2025. Total revenue and reserve income grew 53% to $658 million, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 52% to $126 million.

The company posted a net loss of $482 million, primarily due to $591 million in non-cash charges tied to its June IPO. That offering raised $1.2 billion, with 19.9 million newly issued shares sold at $31 each, generating $583 million in net proceeds.

CEO Jeremy Allaire described the IPO as a “pivotal moment” for Circle and for the broader adoption of stablecoins, noting accelerating interest from global financial institutions and internet companies.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) overnight push towards fresh records met with profit-taking on Monday, knocking prices down to $118,500.

The pullback left bitcoin 2.8% off its session high of $122,200, though the largest crypto remained up 0.4% over the past 24 hours.

Ether held above $4,200, modestly up 0.8% during the same period, while major altcoins Solana’s SOL (SOL), dogecoin

and Sui’s native token (SUI) slipped 3%-4%.

James Van Straten, senior analyst at CoinDesk, noted that bitcoin’s weekend rally left a gap in the CME futures market, which trade only on weekdays, between Friday’s close at $117,430 and Monday’s open at $119,000. History suggests that BTC could pull back to revisit and “fill” that gap, he said.

Tuesday’s U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report could be the week’s biggest catalyst for traders, with Producer Price Index (PPI) data following later in the week.

Whether bitcoin’s momentum continues will likely depend on those U.S. macroeconomic data reports, Bitfinex analysts said in a Monday market report.

“With market sensitivity to macro events running high, traders should prepare for increased volatility and the possibility of a retracement toward $110,000 in the near term,” the Bitfinex analysts wrote.

“We believe that the ranging conditions and oscillation between the range highs and lows will continue, since price is constantly moving above and below the cost-basis of fresh buyers allowing for charged sentiments around key macro data releases,” they added.

Read more: Watch Out Below: Bitcoin’s Weekend Surge Leaves CME Gap

08 August What can simplicity bring to liquid networks?

Simplicity is a formally verifiable smart contract language designed to bring versatility and programmability with Bitcoin, recently deployed on BlockStream’s Liquid Network. Unlike Ethereum’s EVM, Simplicity avoids global state and Turing’s integrity and instead focuses on predictable, auditable contracts. Its deterministic design allows developers to rigorously verify contract behavior and resource use before execution, making it particularly suitable for high paying applications such as contracts, vaults, and multi-party financial arrangements. With the introduction of high-level interfaces, simplicity and early deployment into liquids, simplicity represents a major leap into the safe and flexible smart contracts of Bitcoin’s wider ecosystem, continuing to remain true to the principles of conservatism, auditability and minimal trust.

What is simplicity?

Simplicity is a low-level programming and is a formally verifiable smart contract language designed to enhance Bitcoin programmership while maintaining the core principles of security and predictability. Recently active on BlockStream’s Liquid Network, Simplicity introduces a new way of creating contracts using recursive and no loops, allowing for rigorous static analysis and mathematical proof of accuracy. This is a noticeable deviation from traditional scripting environments such as Bitcoin Script and Ethereum’s EVM. This is not sufficiently expressive, bringing unpredictability and complexity. Instead, simplicity emphasizes determinism and auditability, consistent with Bitcoin’s conservative development philosophy.

Integration into liquid sidechains represents a significant advance in the network, allowing you to create sophisticated financial products such as programmable safes, multi-party controls, and threshold signature schemes. These features extend the utility of liquid networks beyond asset issuance and confidential transactions by supporting use cases that require stronger assurance properties. Simplicity works with Bitcoin’s UTXO model and implements self-contained logic, avoiding reliance on the global state of variability, thereby reducing the likelihood of unintended behavior and exploitation, and reducing the concerns that plague the more tolerant smart contract platform.

One important improvement that one of the simplicity brings to liquids is compatibility with formal methods. Developers can use Proof Assistants such as COQ to verify contracts before deployment, reducing the risk of bugs and vulnerabilities in production environments. The availability of high-level programming languages such as SimplicityHL further reduces the barriers to entry for developers and allows for wider adoption without compromising the inherent safety guarantees of the system. This places liquids as a viable environment for experimenting with smart contracts that prioritize accuracy over flexibility.

Looking ahead, simplicity could serve as a stepping stone to implementing secure, verifiable contract capabilities in the Bitcoin base layer if the community ultimately supports such upgrades with future soft forks. The presence of robust contracting capabilities that remain fixed in Bitcoin’s security model, even if left to liquids, could encourage more institutional and corporate use of Bitcoin adjoining infrastructure. In this way, simplicity not only advances the technical capabilities of liquids, but also contributes to conversations about the future direction of programmerism within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

What leaps does simplicity bring to liquid networks?

Simplicity began as an initiative in 2017 when Blockstream’s Russell O’Connor proposed a new paradigm for Bitcoin native smart contracts. Unlike the iterative improvements in Bitcoin script, simplicity was conceived as an alternative to clean slate, which aims to combine greater expressiveness with stronger formal guarantees. For many years, the Bitcoin development community has been thought to be supported by modest script upgrades, mature in the background, formal methods and theoretical rigor, with focus on scaling solutions such as Lightning. After eight years of development, BlockStream is now using this vision practically implementing simplicity in liquid networks, marking a major milestone in Bitcoin infrastructure.

The recent announcement of Simplicity’s integration into liquids represents the first time this language will be rolled out in production settings. Liquid offers a sidechain environment with faster finality and greater privacy, making it a testbed suitable for advanced contract capabilities. Simplicity’s debut here avoids the risks and trade-offs associated with deploying experimental features directly into the basic layer of Bitcoin. Deploying it into liquids also avoids the potential multi-year consensus battle needed to shake up the Bitcoin community and make changes to Bitcoin. In addition to the attribute that is attributed to being a low-level programming language, BlockStream also introduced SimplicityHl, a developer-friendly high-level programming language designed to resemble rust, focusing on Rast Code. This abstraction is key to making the platform accessible, auditable and practical for real-world application development.

Technically, Simplicity introduces several important innovations. It is tightened by the design, avoiding structures such as unfixed loops and variable global states, which are common causes of failure in other environments. All simplicity contracts can be statically analyzed for pre-execution accuracy, resource use, and possible outcomes. This makes it particularly suitable for applications that require high guarantees, such as vaults with programmable departure conditions, multi-party threshold signatures, or deterministic exchanges. The language also supports formal verification via the Proof Assistant, allowing developers to mathematically prove that their contracts behave as intended.

By simply expanding the liquid, the Bitcoin ecosystem acquires a programmable layer that can support complex financial primitives without compromising on the principles of predictability and auditability of Bitcoin. This opens the door to new use cases such as contracts, derivatives, pooled wallets, and tokenless dexes. This was previously relegated to a more tolerant, but risky environment. Although initial deployments are limited to liquids, the long-term goal is to gather community feedback, extend touring, and potentially move towards the testnet. Simplicity represents a change in how Bitcoin’s programmerism is considered. It is intentional, safe and based on formal logic.

How can Simplicity stack up compared to other smart contract solutions in Bitcoin?

Simplicity is distinguished from other Bitcoin smart contract solutions by providing a basic rethink rather than an incremental patch on essentially limited Bitcoin script. While Bitcoin Script remains limited to the scope and flexibility with most contracts restricted to basic signature verification templates, Simplicity introduces a more expressive and formal verifiable framework. This allows developers to define features without introducing Turing integrity. This avoids many of the risks associated with open-end logic. This makes it much more simplicity than native scripts and allows for use cases such as contracts, delegated control schemes, or threshold signatures that are otherwise tedious or impossible to implement in Bitcoin Layer 1.

Compared to proposed new opcodes (OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY or OP_CTV), Simplicity offers a wider, more unified design space. New opcodes can unlock certain features, but they are inherently narrow in scope and require a change in consensus for each extension. In contrast, simplicity defines a generic language that can encode various contract logic using a small defined set of compound primitives. This allows developers to build more complex programs that are less attractive and less attractive to protocol-level changes. In this sense, simplicity scales their capabilities horizontally rather than vertically through continuous patching.

Sapio and Simplicity differ fundamentally in design, functionality, and intended use. SAPIO is a high-level developer-friendly framework that compiles into Bitcoin scripts, relies on the proposed OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV) to implement contract structures, suitable for contracts within Bitcoin consensus constraints. In contrast, simplicity is a low-level language with its own independent execution model that is not compiled into Bitcoin scripts, allowing for greater expressiveness, accurate static analysis, and guaranteed termination. Sapio emphasizes Bitcoin usability and short-term developments, but simplicity is designed for formal, secure and complex contracts that are more suitable for environments such as sidechains that can support advanced features without a soft fork.

Finally, when evaluated alongside Bitcoin adjacency platforms such as RSK and Stack, both aim to bring Ethereum-style smart contracts to Bitcoin, but the simplicity is more conservative and takes a path lined with Bitcoin. RSK and Stacks often introduce their own consensus and account models with their own security and trust assumptions. The simplicity implemented in liquids and potentially Bitcoin itself adheres to Bitcoin’s UTXO structure and security model. The lack of recursion and global state reflects intentional design decisions to prioritize predictability, efficiency, and formal inference over general purpose programmerism. In this respect, simplicity does not attempt to replicate Ethereum, but rather creates a safer, dedicated alternative that is tailored to Bitcoin’s strengths.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/what-can-simplicity-bring-to-liquid-networks/feed/ 0 52314 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/goldman-sachs-partners-with-bny-mellon-to-bring-7-trillion-money-market-to-crypto/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/goldman-sachs-partners-with-bny-mellon-to-bring-7-trillion-money-market-to-crypto/#respond Thu, 24 Jul 2025 05:55:55 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/goldman-sachs-partners-with-bny-mellon-to-bring-7-trillion-money-market-to-crypto/

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The growing intersection between traditional finance and digital asset infrastructure has taken another step forward, as Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon announced a joint initiative aimed at integrating blockchain technology into the money market fund (MMF) ecosystem.

The collaboration will see BNY Mellon leverage Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP® (also known as its private blockchain) to maintain a mirrored tokenized record of customer ownership in select MMFs. This marks the first instance in the United States where mirrored tokenization will be used to reflect ownership in MMFs through a blockchain-based ledger.

The rollout includes major asset managers such as BlackRock, BNY Mellon Investment Management’s Dreyfus, Federated Hermes, Fidelity Investments, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Investors will now be able to subscribe to and redeem MMF shares using BNY’s Liquidity management platform, which has been integrated with its digital assets platform to connect with the private blockchain.

The mirror tokens created on the Goldman Sachs’ private blockchain platform do not replace official records but serve as a complementary layer that increases the accessibility and potential use cases of MMF shares in a digitized financial ecosystem.

Blockchain Integration to Expand MMF Utility

The mirrored tokenization of MMF shares using blockchain represents a new model for fund management infrastructure. Although the underlying assets remain managed through traditional custodial and compliance channels, the blockchain layer enhances interoperability and real-time transferability.

Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP®, is built on smart contract technology from the startup Digital Asset and offers programmable finance functionality for institutions.

BNY Mellon’s LiquidityDirectSM platform is also one of the leading portals for institutional cash investors, and the integration of the private blockchain opens the door to extending MMF shares into use cases like collateral optimization and intraday liquidity management.

According to Laide Majiyagbe, BNY Mellon’s Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral, “Mirrored tokenization of MMF shares is a first step in this transition,” noting the company’s position as a link between established financial systems and new technology.

GS DAP® was previously piloted for bond issuance on blockchain networks in Asia and Europe. Its adaptation for MMF share representation in the US signals a broader vision for tokenizing real-world assets beyond equities and debt, potentially reshaping capital markets infrastructure.

This particular use case focuses on liquidity and settlement efficiency in short-term investment vehicles, valued at over $7 trillion globally, according to ICI data.

A Step Toward Collateral Utility and Global Scalability

Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, emphasized the potential benefits of using tokenized MMF shares as collateral in various trading and settlement contexts.

“Using tokens representing the value of shares of Money Market Funds on GS DAP® would enable us to unlock their utility as a form of collateral and open up more seamless transferability in the future,” he said in a statement.

BNY Mellon will continue to serve as the official recordkeeper, maintaining existing regulatory compliance and settlement protocols. However, the addition of tokenized mirrors creates new flexibility for financial institutions seeking to modernize collateral management and liquidity strategies.

While this initiative currently focuses on US MMFs, both institutions signaled interest in expanding the model globally, potentially applying similar technology to other fund structures and asset classes.

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Rumor mill: Since their launch in early 2022, AMD’s X3D CPUs have become the most-sought after CPUs for PC gamers who want top performance, thanks largely to their 3D V-Cache technology, which enables higher frame rates and smoother gameplay. Intel is now reportedly planning to counter AMD’s recent dominance in high-end gaming by incorporating similar technology in its upcoming Nova Lake CPUs.

According to tipster @Haze2K1, at least two SKUs in the Nova Lake lineup will ship with increased L3 cache. Intel calls the new technology “bLLC,” which is short for “big Last Line Cache.” The leaker added that both SKUs with bLLC will feature 8 P-cores and 4 LP-E cores. One will be paired with 20 E-cores, while the other will include only 12. Both chips are expected to have a 125W TDP.

bLLC is an integral part of Intel’s latest Clearwater Forest server CPUs, but the company has so far denied plans to bring the technology to its consumer lineup.

In a November 2024 interview with YouTubers der8auer and Bens Hardware, Intel’s Tech Communications Manager, Florian Maislinger, stated that Team Blue had no plans to introduce a 3D V-Cache-like technology in its desktop processors.

8p, 16e
8p, 12e

Both 4lpe, bLLC, 125w https://t.co/EQo4MiaGpq

– Haze (@Haze2K1) June 17, 2025

In the Clearwater Forest chips, the local cache is integrated into the base tile, which sits beneath the active tiles and acts as an interconnect. Adding more cache to the base tile would make the Nova Lake processors structurally similar to AMD’s 9000-series X3D chips, which also feature V-Cache attached to the bottom of the CPU dies.

Intel’s future lineup will reportedly be led by the flagship Core Ultra 9 485K with 52 cores and a 150W TDP, while the entry-level chip is expected to be the Core Ultra 3 415K, featuring 12 cores and a 125W TDP.

In the first two generations of X3D, AMD placed the V-Cache on top of the CPU chiplets, which led to poor thermals and throttled clock speeds. With its third-generation X3D lineup, AMD moved the V-Cache beneath the chiplets, improving both thermal performance and clock behavior.

Nova Lake-S is expected to launch in late 2026 or early 2027 and is rumored to include at least six desktop SKUs. The lineup will reportedly be led by the flagship Core Ultra 9 485K with 52 cores and a 150W TDP, while the entry-level chip is expected to be the Core Ultra 3 415K, featuring 12 cores and a 125W TDP. The processors are also tipped to use the all-new LGA 1954 packaging and a new socket.

Why it matters: Most people think of multi-frame generation when they hear about Nvidia DLSS 4, but the transformer model upgrade in DLSS Super Resolution might be the update’s most consequential upgrade. Many games can already benefit from the feature, and it’s likely to become the standard across upcoming releases.

The latest version of Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction SDK, released on Wednesday, brings the transformer model out of beta. Promoting the upscaling technology into DLSS’s stable branch will likely broaden its adoption in upcoming PC games.

First introduced in January alongside Nvidia’s RTX 50 series graphics cards, the vision transformer model replaces the long-standing convolutional neural network previously used in DLSS. This marks the most substantial improvement to Nvidia’s image reconstruction method since DLSS 2 popularized the technology in 2020.

Also read: DLSS 4 Upscaling at 4K is Actually Pretty Amazing

Although DLSS has earned praise for using machine learning to scale images to higher resolutions with good image quality over the past several years, the process isn’t without visual flaws. Issues that often occur include ghosting, shimmering, and smearing. Ray Reconstruction, which combines denoising for ray tracing with the DLSS algorithm, can also sometimes worsen the problem.

DLSS 4’s transformer model alters the algorithm to minimize these blemishes, resulting in a noticeably cleaner image, even when upscaling from half resolution in performance mode.

Our testing shows that, while AMD’s competing FSR 4 method beats DLSS 3, DLSS 4’s transformer model takes the lead. While Nvidia’s marketing for DLSS 4 mostly focuses on multi-frame generation, which is exclusive to the RTX 50 series GPUs, the transformer model which improves upscaling quality on games supports RTX 20 series and newer.

Also check out: DLSS 4 Ray Reconstruction Analysis: Fixing Ugly Ray Tracing Noise

While many prominent games such as Doom: The Dark Ages, Dune: Awakening, Stellar Blade, and F1 25 have adopted the beta version of DLSS 4 since January, some notable recent titles still default to DLSS 3, such as The Alters, Oblivion Remastered, Expedition 33, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The next major game to upgrade to DLSS 4 will likely be Diablo IV when the Season 9 update launches on July 1.

Users can also force DLSS 4’s transformer model into many older DLSS-compatible titles in the Nvidia App by navigating to Graphics > selecting the desired game > clicking on DLSS Override Model Presets under Driver Settings > and selecting Latest in the drop-down menu.

You can also try third-party apps like DLSS Swapper, DLSS Updater, or Optiscaler.