How Large Would a Solana ETF Be?

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Good Morning.

The debate was hard to watch. Unsurprisingly, this means more bloodbath for PolitiFi memecoins. My BODEN bag is crying and I’ll soon be eating ramen noodles and turning off the lights as a means of austerity. Anyway, the show must go on.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: US Solana ETF 📈 

• Founders Highlight: Kong & Li of MegaETH 👾

• Deal Flows: Conduit’s $37M Series A 🤝 

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WHAT MATTERS

VanEck Files for Solana ETF in US

State of play: Matthew Sigel, the Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, said on X yesterday that “VanEck just filed for the FIRST Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.”

• According to the S-1 filing, VanEck Solana Trust would be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange.

• The ETF will hold SOL and value shares daily based on the MarketVectorTM Solana Benchmark Rate.

• Sigel claims SOL is a commodity like Bitcoin and Ether, despite the SEC labeling it a security in its case against Binance last year.

Why it Matters: Solana represents 25% of DEX trading volume, nearing Ethereum's 31%. Pantera even compares Solana to Apple and Ethereum to Microsoft.

For builders and investors: Crypto assets that have embedded TradFi institutional rails will become their own “class” of majors that see a much more sustained flow regardless of market conditions → which is great for builders building in the ecosystem.

• Fun fact, Grayscale’s SOL premium already implies $1,000 per SOL.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Shuyao Kong & Yilong Li of MegaLabs

Intro: Shuyao Kong & Yilong Li are the co-founders of MegaETH, a new “real-time” blockchain that aims to achieve 100,000 TPS developed by MegaLabs.

• MegaLabs recently raised $20M in a seed funding round from Dragonfly, Vitalik Buterin, Joseph Lubin, and others.

Previous background: Kong is the former Global Head of BD at Consensys (now advisor), while Li, who holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University, previously worked at software company Runtime Verification Inc.

The big idea: Kong and Li aim to revolutionize EVM TPS from 3-digit TPS to 100,000 TPS while bringing "real-time blockchain" with full Ethereum compatibility.

• Real-time means MegaETH can process transactions as soon as they arrive and publish the resulting updates in real time.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Q2 Crypto Hacks, Scams Total $573M

State of play: The crypto space lost $572.7M to hacks and scams in Q2 across 72 incidents, according to Immunefi’s report.

• Losses from crypto hacks and scams rose 70.3% from Q1's $336.3M and 112% year-over-year to $572.7M in Q2.

• Over $900M was stolen through hacks and fraud year-to-date, a 24% increase from last year.

• DeFi was the sole target for Q1 exploits, but in Q2, CeFi led with 70% ($401.4M) of losses, compared to 30% ($171.3M) for DeFi.

• Two major exploits accounted for $360M, or 62.8%, of total losses (a $305M attack on DMM Bitcoin & $55M from Turkey's BtcTurk).

• Of the Q2 stolen funds, $28.7M (5%) was recovered from four exploits: Bloom, ALEX Lab, Gala Games, and YOLO Games.

• Ethereum and BNB Chain were again the most targeted networks.

• In Q2, hacks led to 98.5% ($564.2M) of losses in 53 incidents, while frauds and scams accounted for only 1.5% ($8.5M) across 19 incidents.

DEAL FLOWS

Conduit’s $37M Series A

Deal flows soared this week, we saw $135M+ in deals 💼 

Conduit has raised $37M in its latest funding round, co-led by Haun Ventures and Paradigm, to support the development of novel blockchain-based products and services.

• Robot Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Coinbase Ventures, Bankless Ventures, and angel investors also participated in the funding round.

• Conduit will use new funds to develop products that enable developers to create "customizable and reliable" rollups, potentially expanding use cases for distributed-ledger technology.

• Conduit says that as transaction speeds increase, so do opportunities for blockchain developers to create usable on-chain products and services for a broad user base.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Fenix, $300K Seed Round

• Rebard, $2.9M Seed Round

• NovaNet, $3M Seed Round

• Decent Land, $3M Seed Round

• SoSoValue, $4.15M Seed Round

• Verida, $5M Seed Round

• Saltwater Games, $5.5M Seed Round

• MegaETH, $20M Seed Round

• Crossover Markets, $12M Series A

• Ora, $20M Series A

• Conduit, $37M Series A

• Allora, $3M Strategic Round

• Covalent, $5M Strategic Round

• Enso, $4.2M Private Round

• Redacted, $10M Private Round

• Infrared, Undisclosed $ Private Round

QUICK BITES

• Coinbase partners with Stripe.

• VanEck files for Solana ETF in the US.

• Justin Sun wins landmark case in China.

• Hashed expands presence to Abu Dhabi.

• Trump surges to 67% in Polymarket odds.

• Zerion deploys testnet for L2 using ZK stack.

• Coinbase sues SEC, FDIC over FOIA requests.

• Nigeria gives crypto firms one month to register.

• Animoca Brands considers public listing in H2 2025.

• Kraken’s Jesse Powell donates $1M to Donald Trump.

• Jane St & Galaxy team up to launch active crypto ETF.

• GSR goes long on SOL, expecting it to outperform BTC.

• PolitiFi memecoins plunge post the Presidential debate.

• Zeta Markets debuts native token ZEX and starts airdrop.

• Kraken founder Jesse Powell donates $1M to Donald Trump.

• Coinbase will not support the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Matti’s read on the optimistic crypto pitch.

• Katie Chou’s read on crypto-powered status games.

• Hack VC’s read on potential solutions to crypto’s vesting problem.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.