Stablecoins are the gateway drug to tokenization in fintech. "It's only a matter of time before all assets are tokenized." - @sytaylor @Nasdaq plans to tokenize all its stocks by 2026. It's finally happening.

The emergence of AWS and hyperscale computing platforms brought the internet a leap from 0 to 1. @sytaylor suggests that payment chains will bring the same revolution to currency. Stablecoins reduce costs and complexity in the financial sector by 80%. When transaction capacity grows unchecked, things get crazy. Buckle up.

Among the top Pokémon tokenization platforms, Emporium stands out for its convenience. Unlike other clunky gacha systems, it offers a seamless experience—draw cards, ship them, or sell them back at 85% of the market price. No fuss. Here's why Emporium is the premier Pokémon card platform 👇 ~~ @wmpeaster's analysis ~~ Getting Started Register on @TCG_Emporium through Privy using your email, Google, or X account and click the "Connect" button in the top right corner. Once logged in, head to the vending machine, which has brand new PSA 10 cards. Drawing cards on Solana costs USDC, so you'll need to transfer some funds, along with Solana, to your Phantom wallet. Click "Select Wallet" on the vending machine page to connect. Before purchasing, check the draw price (US$60/card), the expected average value (approximately US$65/card), and the buyback rate (85%) on the purchase screen. This means a card worth US$100 can be sold back for US$85/card. Scroll down to see the total number of draws (e.g., 6,856), the available legendary and rare cards, and the draw probability (75% for common cards, 3% for legendary cards). Scroll down further to view the "Recently Drawn" carousel and the "Highest Available Cards." The current maximum draw value is US$1,500, but this varies with restocks and buybacks. Buying, Selling, and Shipping To draw a card, return to the purchase screen, click "Draw Now for US$60," confirm the transaction, and then click the Poké Ball to display your card. For example, if you draw a 2019 Rare Gnat worth US$130, you can sell it back for US$110.50 or keep it. To keep a card, click "Reserve Card" and manage it on the "My Cards" page. On the "My Cards" page, click the dollar sign to sell a card, or transfer it using the paper airplane icon. To ship a card, use the truck icon to ship a single card, or select "Select Cards" to ship up to 10 cards for a flat fee of $25, delivered within 3-5 business days. Enter your address and pay, optionally adding $4.99 shipping insurance. Zoom Out The arcade won't make you rich; you'll likely draw common cards. But if you enjoy Pokémon cards and blockchain applications, this is an easy way to get started. The points system may hint at future airdrops, so it's worth checking out. More tokenized bank card platforms are expected to emerge in the future.

Live - Fintech Meets Crypto: The Future of Global Payments What if Payment Chain Becomes the "AWS of Money"? @sytaylor, fintech veteran, former Head of Crypto at Barclays, and author of "Fintech Brain Food," joins Bankless to discuss the convergence of fintech and crypto. From stablecoins becoming a "Trojan Horse" for tokenization to @tempo's push into Payment Chain, Simon explains why the financial industry is on the brink of the biggest infrastructure shift since Visa. -------------- Timestamp 0:00 Introduction 4:28 The Collision of Fintech and Cryptocurrency 9:47 AWS: The Age of Money 14:34 Why Payments Fail 21:25 The Practice of Stablecoins 25:59 The Rise of Payment Chains 38:11 Neutrality, Permissionlessness, and the Lessons of Libra 52:48 Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, and CBDCs 59:08 The Coming Stablecoin Boom 1:12:24 Is Fintech Transforming into Cryptocurrency? 1:15:22 Tokenization Beyond Payments 1:36:25 Agents and AI-Powered Commerce 1:40:33 Conclusion

NFL football is back, and so are prediction markets! Today, we'll explore the forces driving this resurgence and interpret their implications for the future of prediction markets. 🏈👇 ~~ @JackInabinet Analysis ~~ The return of televised professional football in the US has been a godsend for prediction markets, which had previously seen a slowdown in trading volume and a significant drop in open interest from their peaks during the US presidential election. Trading volume in prediction markets doubled in September, and the resilient platforms at the center of the frenzy are now rumored to have eleven-digit valuations. 🏈 Prediction Market Frenzy Prediction markets are an all-or-nothing game. Winning shareholders receive $1 per share, while all other players lose their bets, becoming victims of fate. The "event contracts" that underpin prediction markets are regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and pay out returns based on specific outcomes, whether they be a Federal Reserve interest rate decision or the outcome of a sporting event. While successful prediction markets are flexible enough to accommodate a variety of niche themes, they need mass appeal to generate sufficient betting interest to facilitate larger order sizes without impacting market prices. Prediction markets (particularly the stablecoin-settled varieties offered by Polymarket on the Polygon blockchain) became a breakthrough use case for crypto in the run-up to the 2024 US election, with speculators around the world investing hundreds of millions of dollars in attempts to monetize the outcome. Unsurprisingly, trading volume on major prediction platforms plummeted immediately following the election results. A year later, the emergence of the NFL filled this void. The start of the NFL season sent trading volume in the sector soaring to its highest level year-to-date. This growth was fueled by increased integrations between major trading platforms, growing user familiarity with prediction markets, and clarity from US regulators. While prediction market giant Polymarket saw a significant surge in trading volume following its football market debut, emerging company Kalshi has been the biggest beneficiary of this momentum, surpassing Polymarket in weekly trading volume for the first time. In addition to offering sports contracts through retail brokers Robinhood and Webull, Kalshi also offers proprietary prediction markets, which saw $441 million in trading volume during the NFL's opening weekend alone. Sports betting currently dominates Kalshi, accounting for 95% of the platform's trading volume, with American football betting accounting for the majority. 🤔 Competition Compared to traditional state-regulated sportsbooks (such as those offered by the online gambling service DraftKings $DKNG), prediction markets offer greater convenience for non-sports enthusiasts and potentially offer better prices. While sportsbooks can offer greater returns than prediction markets through parlay betting (a leveraged bet where multiple bets are linked together and only payouts if all bets win), they also employ "moneyline" odds, making them more difficult for unfamiliar players to navigate than simple probability-based prediction markets. Furthermore, a single centralized operator acts as the bookmaker for sportsbooks. They act as the counterparty for all bets and impose a spread or "commission" on their pricing to ensure profitability. Prediction markets, in contrast, match users based on market-specified probabilities and can charge an optional service fee. Despite the clear demand, growing dominance, and undeniable profits of sports prediction markets, they still operate in something of a legal gray area. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sought to crack down on contracts based on election and sports betting, claiming they constitute "gambling" markets prohibited by the Commodity Exchange Act. Although regulatory pressure has eased somewhat under the Trump administration, many state gaming commissions have still issued cease-and-desist orders to prediction markets. They argue that prediction markets are operating unlicensed sportsbooks in violation of their respective state laws. Prediction markets counter that they do not need to comply with state gambling regulations because their contracts are federally authorized and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal law prevails when it conflicts with local law. The NFL itself has expressed concerns about sports betting contracts, claiming that without proper state regulation, prediction markets "may be susceptible to manipulation or price distortion." Amidst legal uncertainty, the longevity of sports-centric betting contracts remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: prediction markets are eager to capitalize on the craze. Kalshi is reportedly raising funds at a $5 billion valuation, while Polymarket's investors are considering a new term sheet that would value the company at $9 billion to $10 billion.

Google and Coinbase launch proxy payment agreement

Ethereum's Privacy Stewards (PSE) are doubling down on privacy and have a bold new roadmap. They're moving from cryptographic experiments to practical solutions aimed at preventing Ethereum from becoming a surveillance network. Here's how @PrivacyEthereum's mission is shaping the future of Ethereum. 👇 ~~ @wmpeaster's analysis ~~ Their roadmap focuses on three key areas: ➢ Private Writes — Making on-chain private operations (transfers, DeFi, voting) as easy as public operations. ➢ Private Reads — Preventing metadata leaks when authenticating or querying on Ethereum. ➢ Private Proofs — Making zero-knowledge proofs more affordable and convenient on mobile devices. PSE will maintain an issue radar to identify privacy vulnerabilities, an execution graph to guide building or collaborating, and an open communication mechanism to engage the Ethereum community. Their initiatives include: 1️⃣ Plasma Fold (write) — An experimental Layer 2 design using zero-knowledge folds for private transfers 2️⃣ Kohaku (write) — A wallet proof-of-concept supporting private sends via a privacy pool 3️⃣ Privacy Governance (write) — A "State of Private Voting in 2025" report and collaboration with Aragon and other voting protocols 4️⃣ Confidential DeFi (write) — An institutional privacy working group established in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation's EcoDev Enterprise group 5️⃣ Network Privacy (write) — A Privacy RPC working group, the Oblivious RAM solution, and experiments with hybrid network-style transaction routing 6️⃣ Privacy Identity (Proof) — Standards for privacy-preserving credentials and modular zk-snark wallets 7️⃣ Client-Side Proofs (Proof) — Providing an efficient proof system for mobile devices to support new privacy applications The improved privacy features ensure that Ethereum remains transparent while offering protections. The PSE serves as a neutral hub for realizing this vision, a role the Ethereum Foundation is well-suited to fulfill. A network that protects trillions of dollars of data while exposing transaction details is incomplete. Privacy for both writes and reads solidifies Ethereum's position as the foundation of the Internet of Value. The roadmap indicates that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) considers privacy a key issue.

So excited to see @davewardonline's Nethermind highlights from @BanklessHQ! We're building every day!

"Central bank 'independence'" has always been our self-proclaimed ideal. After the 1970s, we abandoned the gold standard and sent our PhDs into ivory towers. But the central bank's mission has never changed: it exists to provide funding for the nation. "Fiscal and monetary policies cannot be separated." - @VincentDeluard

In 1999, everyone knew e-commerce would change the world. They were right. Amazon's market capitalization briefly reached a trillion dollars, but its stock price plummeted 85% before it did. @VincentDeluard suggests that artificial intelligence could follow the same path.