Against that backdrop, Ethlabs represents what supporters describe as a broader transition toward a “multi-node” development model, where independent organizations share responsibility for advancing the network rather than relying heavily on the Foundation.
“We are now poised to recognize and implement the idea that there should be a number of steward nodes of Ethereum,” Joe Lubin said, “each configured in their unique way to evolve and protect what is sacred about the network and massively grow the world’s appreciation and utilization of it.”
Ethlabs’ initial work will focus on faster transaction settlement, expanding Ethereum’s capacity and improving infrastructure for institutions issuing tokenized assets and stablecoins onchain. Ethereum dominates the $300 billion stablecoin market with a 53% market share and hosts roughly half of the $32 billion tokenized asset market, RWA.xyz data shows.
The initiative also reflects the growing institutional investment in Ethereum. SharpLink and Bitmine have both built sizable ETH treasury strategies, while Ethereum continues to host the majority of stablecoins and tokenized real-world asset issuance.
“Ethereum is at a pivotal moment,” Ansgar Dietrichs, Ethlabs’ executive director, said in a statement. “As blockchain systems move rapidly into mainstream use, the coming years will define the shape of the onchain economy for decades.”
If you are into Bitcoin, you might have heard “Nostr,” a strange, nearly unpronounceable word that stands for “Notes and other stuff transmitted by relay”. This acronym that’s captured the imagination of Bitcoin technologists for years has a big idea. That you don’t need to be locked into a social media giant to talk to your friends.
Invented at the start of COVID19 by Fiatjaff in March of 2020, today the Nostr protocol has a seemingly infinite amount of websites custom-built around this niche, with world-class influencers like Edward Snowden and Jack Dorsey prominently on the platform.
Unlike the internet and social media ecosystem of today, Nostr lets users take their followers and content with them from website to website, from app to app, as they see fit. The algorithms are fundamentally in the hands of users, supporting maximum control, variety and censorship resistance, qualities largely lost from the modern big tech clear web.
A Tool of Bitcoin Evangelism
Built on Bitcoin native technology, Nostr has supported bitcoin micro payments called zaps from almost day one. Its login system resembles a Bitcoin wallet more than it does any other login credential, resulting in a fresh and novel experience of the web.
Artists have started to find their way to this strange corner of the internet, as they do, growing their brands into international communities that tip in Bitcoin, not just in appreciation for great art, but to make a point. To demonstrate that, regardless of where you are in the world, Bitcoin can be delivered to your door.
Take Pubpay, for example, a Nostr-powered music site built to elevate the musicians not just online, but in live performances. I got to see this app in action at a Bitcoin party in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago. The site seen on that massive screen showed off the artist on stage, with a massive QR code and a leaderboard of Zaps, tiny bitcoin donations made to the artist over the lightning network. Those who donated most rose to the top, claiming the bragging rights, while the artist claimed the sats.
Have a listen to the trending tab of Wavlake, for example, another music dedicated Nostr site with a smooth design and instant access to surprisingly good music.
Stories of onboarding new people to Bitcoin via Nostr social media apps like Primal are common at Bitcoin meetups and conferences. Primal is a Twitter clone of sorts built from the ground up around Nostr, it is without a doubt the fastest way to get into this social media niche, start growing your followers and start stacking sats by posting great content.
Unlike the boring payments-only Bitcoin wallet whose design principles are now more than 15 years old, the Nostr app is fresh and has a direct pipeline of content that can be delivered to newcomers if done right, keeping them tumbling down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.
Easy to Understand Nostr Fundamentals
Built on Bitcoin native cryptography, Nostr uses public addresses and privacy keys to authenticate its users, the same as Bitcoin wallets. Nostr public addresses start with “npub” while private keys start with “nsec”. Users sign posts or messages they want to publish to the Nostr network with their private key. Those signed posts can be found by looking at the same user’s public address. Like normal social media apps, users can follow and mute each other across the Nostr ecosystem.
Data about who follows whom, and what they have published, is stored on relays, special servers that users can run themselves, and which sync with other relays to varying degrees, similar to Bitcoin nodes.
Interfaces and apps can be built on top of Nostr to let users experience their social network in different ways, and many different approaches exist, from Twitter-like clones like Primal and Amathyst, to blogging platforms, music and even micro video sites like Divine. Basically, any website can be Nostr integrated as long as it makes its users’ identities Nostr compliant, and user-generated content becomes available via relays.
If you get tired of one app or don’t like how they are treating you, you can just grab your nsec and move to another. The new app will look up your npub, find all your friends, notes and preferences and let you continue connecting with them without issue. In other words, the network effects built on Nostr apps are owned by you, controlled by you and not by the platform. This is the big idea of Nostr, and it is why so many Bitcoiners are obsessed with it.
A lot more than Social Media
It’s important to note that Nostr isn’t just a social network protocol; it is actually an open-source and actively growing information protocol that can transfer any kind of data. Devices can talk to each other via the nostr without you having to see them. In fact, a wide range of apps have already been built to transmit data over Nostr; many of those apps can be found in one of the most important places of this ecosystem, the Zapstore.
That’s right, Nostr has its own dedicated app store, and it’s quite impressive. Led by a gentleman known as Franzaps, this open source Nostr-powered app store gives you direct and often early access to over 150 apps in the Nostr ecosystem, published directly to it by its developers, signed cryptographically and publicly with their Nostr keys.
But Zapstore goes beyond just its Nostr niche; it lets you download a wide range of popular apps that publish to GitHub. We are talking over 3000 of the most popular apps, according to Fran, who talked to Bitcoin Magazine in an exclusive interview. Examples like Mullvad VPN and Brave browser can be found on the Zapstore, along with many others; it could very easily replace the Play Store and App Store for a privacy-conscious user, by passing the choke point that Google and Apple have been building inside mobile phones.
The Zapstore software goes through significant lengths to verify the authenticity of apps via cryptography. Fran explained that “Android uses the APK format. All APKs have a developer signature, and this is what Android checks during updates.” Google now effectively KYCs its app developers, but Nostr is decentralized, so to know whether an app was actually published by its developer, Nostr social proof is used. “Nostr is a *social* protocol where keys carry social weight, so now that Zeus signed their wallet, you can be certain it’s the real one.”
This concept of Nostr social proof is historically known as a Web of Trust. If you log into Zapstore with your Nostr keys, you get to see if anyone you follow has engaged with the publishers of the app, an early web of trust solution to the question of security and authenticity in a decentralized world.
Fran estimates the Zapstore has around 4,000 daily users, with half installing or updating at least one app. These are estimates — he clarified, “because we value privacy, we have zero tracking in the client and must derive them from relay and Blossom server data.”
Digital Identity on Hard Mode
Since authentication into Nostr is done via Bitcoin-style private-public key pairs, the security practices to protect your identity are similar. Rather than emails, passwords and password resets, in Nostr, you have to take precautions to make sure your nsec (private key) does not get hacked. If it ends up on the dark web somehow, there’s not much you can do to recover it, and your identity and data can not be transferred to a new key pair either; the hacker can take control. For years, I’ve criticized this design, but while a protocol-level solution to password resets in Nostr has not been widely adopted, other solutions have emerged, such as remote signers.
Amber, an app created by Greenart7c3, a popular Nostr developer, can generate and sign Nostr events remotely, giving you full control over the nsec, without exposing it to every website you connect to. This technology works quite well, with wide adoption. It takes advantage of NIP-46 — an open-source Nostr improvement proposal designed for this purpose.
If you have never had a Nostr account, Amber is a great place to start, have it generate your Nostr keys, and use it exclusively to login to Nostr apps.
Zap Zap Zap!
The most viral and innovative element of Nostr, a feature called by some “the moat” of Nostr apps, is, of course, the Zap. Those small bitcoin tips, which can be as little as 1 satoshi, though can be much higher as well, with a new Nostr site designed specifically around onchain Zaps, making the minimal viable over 1500 sats. Zaps, as a result, can deliver an excess amount of dopamine to its recipients relative to the cost, a reinvention of the Facebook “like”, with the weight of the hardest money in the world behind it. The Zap anchors approval and value to something that can not be faked by sock-puppet accounts on social media. If you want to try to game the popularity of a post, you have to pay up.
The potential of Zaps is likely still in its infancy, but may one day serve as a novel kind of advertisement medium, ultimately paying consumers to experience content, or simply as an undeniable sign of gratitude from Nostr users towards a piece of content and its creator.
Setting up Zaps on your Nostr account however could be easier, there are two sides to getting your Zaps up and running, sending and recieving, and for both you need the right kind of Bitcoin wallet. Not all Bitcoin wallets are made the same, as you might know. Most focus on handling onchain transactions, which, for the most part, are not compatible with Zaps. You need a lightning wallet that supports NIP-57, which gives you an email like nym, such as [email protected], a human-readable address that can receive lightning payments. And you also need to be able to send Zaps from a lightning wallet, which does not have to be the same one you receive them to.
The easiest way to start by far is by using Primal.net, likely the most popular Nostr social media client to date. Primal has a deep range of tools for Nostr users and often serves as the gateway to the ecosystem. It has a wallet built in that manages to stay on the self-custodial side of the regulatory line, while also being a low effort, low cost lightning wallet. It does this by using Spark, a layer 2 protocol similar to lightning.
Most important of all, Primal’s wallet support Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) a very powerful and standard in the ecosystem under NIP-47, which lets you connect Nostr enabled websites to a wallet, to enable Zaps, without giving every website custody of your satoshis.
Other options range from running an Alby lightning node, which costs $12 dollars a month on server fees, far too much if you ask me, though a viable option for power users. Or running an Electrum Lightning wallet from a home machine and making sure it is always open and online. From there, there’s a wide range of lightning node software that enthusiasts can set up and make compatible with NWC and Nostr Zaps.
A Glimpse of the Nostr Ecosystem
Including all the tools mentioned above, here are some of the most notable Nostr sites and tools I discovered in my deep dive into the Nostr ecosystem, in no particular order.
Latest developments: Digital credit products tied to Strategy’s bitcoin-backed ecosystem suffered steep declines last week before partially recovering.
Strategy’s preferred stock funding vehicle STRC fell as low as $82.53 on Thursday before rebounding to roughly $90.50, according to Strive Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton.
Strive’s SATA dropped into the low $90 range before recovering to about $98.59.
Walton attributed the move to leverage liquidations and heavy selling pressure rather than deterioration in the underlying credit quality.
CEO Matt Cole previously described the episode as a “leverage liquidation event, not a credit failure.”
CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie interviewed Strive Chief Risk Officer, Jeff Walton on Public Keys.
What happened: Strive’s analysis points to forced selling rather than a breakdown in decentralized finance markets.
Walton said trading data suggests holders sold the instruments, triggering liquidations elsewhere in traditional financial markets.
He said the event did not appear to originate from DeFi protocols.
The selloff occurred amid unusually large trading volumes across both securities.
Walton characterized the volatility as part of the maturation process for a new asset class.
The liquidity story: Strive argues the market’s ability to absorb large trading volumes is a positive signal.
The move contrasted with US stock markets, which opened lower on continued uncertainty over the fate of the US-Iran peace deal. The mood settled as the US allowed Iranian oil trading for two months.
“Iranian oil is officially returning to global markets for the first time since 2018,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded in a post on X.
US WTI crude returned to near $73 per barrel, marking some of its lowest levels since early March and the start of the war.
CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
For Bitcoin traders, it was all about nearby pockets of liquidity around the spot price on the day.
“Took out that thick liquidation cluster above $65K. Right after the US Market open. Going to be important where this moves in the next few hours,” Daan Crypto Trades commented alongside data from CoinGlass.
BTC liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass
“If it rejects here, it will likely try to clean up some liquidity lower. So this is $65K area is a good level to gauge for low timeframe strength/weakness I’d say.”
Trader CrypNuevo eyed a potential trip toward $70,000 should bulls manage to sustain the low-time frame breakout.
BTC/USDT one-hour chart. Source: CrypNuevo/X
BTC sees “insane” multibillion-dollar liquidations
Trading and liquidity analysis account CryptoReviewing, meanwhile, described recent liquidations as “completely insane.”
Related: US dollar strength hits highest since May 2025: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
Bitcoin, it noted, had liquidated $2.5 billion in just seven days.
“Now, $65,000 – $67,000 has sizable liquidity above that could be swept next – potentially leading to higher levels,” an X post read.
“However, $61,000 – $63,000 has significantly larger liquidation clusters stacked up, making this the ‘higher probability’ zone to visit next.”
A cautionary note came from trader Killa, who noted that Mondays had tended to mark the week’s swing high for Bitcoin in recent months.
“Over the past six weeks, 6 out of 6 Mondays have marked a local pivot high before price moved lower. Worth keeping an eye on if we start seeing strength and a push higher heading into Monday,” they told X followers.
What she’s saying: Former 21Shares co-founder Ophelia Snyder argues that crypto and traditional finance are talking past each other when it comes to tokenization.
Tokenization solves real problems around settlement rails and moving assets, Snyder said.
The larger challenge is integrating blockchain-based assets with the systems banks, brokerages and asset managers already use.
Existing discussions often overlook the operational processes that occur after a trade is executed and before assets are fully settled.
Snyder joined CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie on Public Keys.
The gap: Snyder said blockchain firms have largely addressed transaction throughput but not the broader operational requirements of financial institutions.
Questions remain about how tokenized assets fit into books and records systems, compliance workflows and regulatory reporting.
Financial institutions also must rethink risk management frameworks if tokenized assets can trade around the clock.
Many firms rely on third-party software providers that have not yet adapted their systems for blockchain-native transactions.
Why it matters: Snyder believes the industry’s biggest challenge is scale, not functionality.
A tokenization project can work at a limited scale and still struggle to support the volume of U.S. capital markets.
“A billion dollars is nothing when it comes to traditional financial flows,” Snyder said.
Moving large amounts of digital bearer assets on behalf of clients requires significantly more oversight and controls than existing book-entry systems.
Thanks to the newly passed U.S. Senate housing affordability bill, the Federal Reserve may be heading toward a formal ban from instituting a digital dollar in the form of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), despite the fact the Fed wasn’t working on such a project.
Republican politicians had embraced an aggressive opposition campaign against the U.S. following in European and Chinese footsteps in the pursuit of a CBDC, labeling the idea a dangerous overreach of government surveillance. So they insisted it get inserted into the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that just passed the Senate in an 85-5 vote Monday night.
The concept of a digital dollar likely would have needed the backing of the White House, Congress and the Federal Reserve, none of which pushed to pursue one. But if the House of Representatives follows suit and votes to send the housing bill to President Donald Trump for his signature, the CBDC will be legally stifled.
However, the ban would only last for a very limited four years until the end of 2030.
The three largest U.S. crypto trade associations sent a joint letter to the House Ways and Means Committee on June 21, calling for passage of H.R. 9175, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, introduced by Representative Mike Carey (R-OH).
The Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), and Digital Chamber described the bill as “a durable compromise” and pressed lawmakers to pass it without changes.
The dispute between the IRS and the crypto industry over mining and staking taxes stretches back over a decade.
In 2014, the IRS issued Notice 2014-21, which declared that miners must report the fair market value of any mined Bitcoin as gross income at the moment of creation — not at the point of sale. The rule treats mined coins like wages: taxable on receipt, whether or not the miner ever converts them to cash.
The situation for stakers worsened in 2023, when the IRS published Revenue Ruling 2023-14, extending the same logic to proof-of-stake validators. Under that ruling, staking rewards are taxable income the moment a validator earns them, creating a cash-flow problem: validators owe tax on assets they may have no intention of selling.
This dynamic pushes U.S.-based miners and stakers into a difficult position. Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake networks secure more than $1.7 trillion in digital assets. The trade groups argue that forcing participants to recognize income on illiquid rewards discourages domestic validation activity and cedes ground to foreign competitors operating under more favorable tax treatment.
What H.R. 9175 will do for crypto mining
H.R. 9175 does not eliminate tax on mining or staking rewards. Instead, it gives taxpayers a choice.
Under the bill, miners and stakers can elect to treat new digital assets as self-created property, deferring tax recognition until the point of sale. The bill also allows grantor trusts holding digital assets to receive staking rewards without forfeiting their trust status — a technical fix that matters for institutional participants managing funds through trust structures.
The Ways and Means Committee held a full-committee hearing on digital asset taxation on June 9, the first of its kind in years. Six digital asset tax bills were on the table. H.R. 9175 was among them.
The June 21 letter was signed by Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim, and Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone.
Their unified front represents a coordinated industry push at a moment of rare legislative momentum. Senator Cynthia Lummis has run parallel efforts in the Senate, introducing legislation that would defer tax on mining and staking until the point of sale — language that aligns in spirit with H.R. 9175.
The clock is a factor. Congress faces a narrow legislative window before the August recess, and Lummis — one of the Senate’s most vocal advocates for digital asset reform — departs in January 2027. The broader crypto tax reform effort has drawn support from across the crypto industry, with groups pressing Congress to treat digital assets with the same coherence applied to other asset classes.
For crypto miners and stakers who have operated under a cloud of tax uncertainty since Bitcoin’s earliest days, H.R. 9175 represents the most concrete legislative vehicle for relief in years.
Latest developments: Edelman argues investor sentiment and industry fundamentals are moving in opposite directions.
Bitcoin ETF investors have pulled billions from funds in recent days, while market fears have risen amid concerns about Mt. Gox wallet movements and regulatory uncertainty, Edelman said.
Debate around the CLARITY Act has added to uncertainty, with lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushing for additional provisions related to crypto oversight, according to Edelman.
The result is a market focused on negative headlines even as major financial institutions continue expanding crypto-related initiatives.
Edelman joined CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie on Public Keys.
The contrast: Wall Street firms are increasing their involvement despite weak market sentiment.
BlackRock, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, State Street and Invesco are all advancing tokenization efforts, Edelman said.
Tokenization is expanding beyond crypto assets into equities, cash and ETFs, according to Edelman.
Institutional investors are showing growing interest in crypto exposure, with many firms planning first-time allocations or increasing existing positions, he said.
Worth watching: The fate of the CLARITY Act could shape crypto markets in the months ahead.
The Bitcoin funding rate climbed to 7%, showing confidence, but spot ETF outflows keep a $70,000 breakout on hold for now.
Strong order-book bids and lower oil prices helped, but weakness across stocks, bonds, and gold signals a preference for cash.
Bitcoin (BTC) flirted with the $65,500 level on Monday after US Vice President JD Vance said that the Strait of Hormuz remains open amid “encouraging progress” on talks with the Iranian delegation in Switzerland. Bitcoin traders showed signs of optimism through growing demand for bullish leveraged positions, raising the question of whether $70,000 is next.
The Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate jumped to 7% on Monday, its highest level in nearly three weeks. Although still within the neutral 6%-12% range, the indicator reflects growing confidence among bulls. Part of the optimism likely stemmed from Brent crude oil prices declining to $77.50, their lowest level since March.
The Nasdaq 100 Index posted a modest 1% decline as artificial intelligence stocks weakened. SpaceX (SPCX US) shares dropped 13% after the company announced plans to raise debt despite holding more than $100 billion in cash. Investors fear the sector will need higher investments for longer before turning profitable.
Bitcoin options premium put-to-call ratio at Deribit, USD. Source: Laevitas
Demand for put (sell) options outpaced call (buy) instruments by over two times on Monday, signaling stronger demand for downside price protection. The indicator has leaned toward bearish strategies since Friday, reversing the trend from the prior week.
Strategy eases concerns, but stocks and bonds signal increased risk
Part of traders’ concerns stemmed from weakness in Strategy’s (STRC US) valuation. Shares of Strategy traded 13% below the $64.1 billion cost to acquire BTC 847,363. Despite holding a comfortable $6.75 billion in debt, investors feared the company would need to sell reserves. Those concerns eased somewhat as Strategy announced a $300 billion additional cash position.
Bids on major exchanges’ Bitcoin order books exceeded offers by $12 million on Monday, reversing the weekend trend. Consequently, Bitcoin’s failure to hold the $65,000 level should not signal weakness, especially since gold traded down 0.9% on Monday while investors sold US government bonds.
Related: Bitcoin tipped for $66K top as trader flags ‘suspicious’ BTC price gains
Gold/USD (left) vs. US 5-year Treasury yield (right). Source: TradingView
Higher yields on US Treasuries signal that investors demanded higher returns to hold those bonds, whether driven by inflation or by the anticipation of dilution from rising US government debt levels. The simultaneous weak performance across stocks, bonds, and gold points to a preference for cash positions, creating a cautious backdrop for Bitcoin.
Weak demand for US-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continues to weigh on investor sentiment after six weeks of outflows. Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $228 million in net outflows the prior week, according to CoinGlass data. Consequently, the odds of a short-term Bitcoin rally to $70,000 look limited.
The CFTC issued a request for comment on running standard futures around the clock and on perpetual contracts referencing physically delivered energy commodities such as crude oil, extending the perpetual-contract model from crypto into oil and gas derivatives.
The CFTC asked the public to weigh in on running standard futures around the clock and on listing perpetual contracts tied to physically delivered energy commodities such as crude oil. The request opens the door to importing the crypto-native perpetual design into the oil and gas derivatives markets.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued the request for comment Monday afternoon, organizing it around two questions. The first asks how standard futures, including energy futures, would function on a 24/7 schedule with no change to their fixed expiration, delivery, or settlement terms. The second asks what happens when perpetual contracts reference physically delivered or storable energy commodities. Comments are due within 30 days of the notice’s publication in the Federal Register, per the CFTC release.
The filing is a request for comment, a procedural step that gathers input ahead of any rulemaking rather than a proposed rule with regulatory text attached. The agency says it “intends to use the information and comments received to inform its understanding of these developments.”
Selig’s Innovation Pledge
Chairman Michael Selig framed the move as supporting new market designs without loosening guardrails. “As registered entities extend trading hours and introduce new contract designs, a clear, data-driven record will help the Commission better understand these developments’ implications and impact in the market,” Selig said in the release. He added that the request “reflects the Commission’s commitment to supporting responsible innovation, while preserving the protections against manipulation and market disruption that participants and the public rely on.”
Selig echoed the framing on his own account, calling the request a reflection of the agency’s pledge to back “responsible innovation” while preserving anti-manipulation protections, in a post quote-tweeting the CFTC announcement.
Perps Meet Physical Oil
Perpetual contracts have no expiry. A periodic funding payment between long and short holders tethers the contract price to the spot reference, the mechanism that made perps the dominant instrument on crypto venues like Hyperliquid and Binance. The RFC asks how that funding-rate convergence would behave against the cost-of-carry economics of a storable physical commodity, where delivery, storage capacity, and seasonal supply all shape price.
The request names crude oil as a central example of a physically delivered or storable energy commodity, the kind of market where delivery logistics and storage constraints can drive sharp price moves that a perpetual design would have to contend with.
Building on the Bitcoin Order
The energy request extends a regulatory arc that began in crypto. In May, the CFTC cleared the first US-regulated bitcoin perpetual futures, then issued a policy statement saying other asset classes, “including, among others, agricultural and energy products,” would be judged on their own terms. CFTC staff later gave designated contract markets a path to convert perpetual-style digital commodity futures into true perpetuals.
The expansion has drawn pushback. CME Group has moved to sue the CFTC over the perpetual approval, arguing the contracts meet the Dodd-Frank definition of a swap and should face the heavier regulatory regime that attaches to swaps. CME Chief Executive Terry Duffy has separately called US crypto perps “a disaster waiting to happen.” The energy RFC pulls that same contract design toward the commodity markets CME has long dominated.
What the Comment Record Targets
The first set of questions concerns moving standard energy futures to a 24/7 schedule without changing their fixed expiration, delivery, or settlement terms, while the second addresses how perpetual contracts would work against a physical underlier. The agency tied the request to a live trend, noting that registered entities are already extending trading hours and introducing new contract designs.
The comment window opens once the notice hits the Federal Register, setting a 30-day clock for hedgers, exchanges, and commercial energy participants to respond before the agency weighs its next step.
