DEBUNK（web3 Research）

【STBL】Next-generation stablecoin backed by real-world assets launched by Tether co-founder / Principal and interest claims separated as NFTs / @stbl_official

mitsui — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 21:00:40 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched “STBL”.

What is STBL?
Characteristics of the Ecosystem
Transition and Outlook
The Second Stablecoin Boom Has Arrived

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TL;DR

STBL is a “Stablecoin 2.0” protocol launched in 2025 by USDT co-founders, aiming to design a system that allows users to earn yields while using stablecoins.
A triple-token model where USST (stablecoin) and YLD (yield entitlement NFT) are simultaneously issued using RWA collateral, with STBL (governance token) handling voting, staking, and revenue redistribution (buybacks & burns, etc.).
Aiming to be the core of the “second wave of stablecoins” by maintaining the peg through overcollateralization + loss reserves + LAMP, ensuring regulatory compliance via KYC/whitelisting, and supporting the issuance of ESS by various companies as a MaaS solution.

What is STBL?

STBL is a next-generation stablecoin protocol dubbed “Stablecoin 2.0,” launched in 2025 by Reeve Collins, co-founder of Tether (USDT), and others.

Traditional stablecoins (e.g., USDT and USDC) allowed issuers to retain interest income generated from the backing assets, while users simply held tokens pegged to fiat currencies.

In contrast, the STBL protocol champions the principle of “Use Your Stablecoin, Keep Your Yield,” aiming to provide users with both the convenience of stablecoins and the interest income from their underlying assets.

Specifically, the aim is to evolve stablecoins from mere corporate products into public infrastructure by separating the principal value (stability) of assets from their yield, while further enhancing the transparency of reserve assets, yields, and governance.

Furthermore, this design philosophy also aims to achieve regulatory compliance by separating stablecoin and investment product elements, as required by certain U.S. legislation (the GENIUS Act).

◼️Mechanism

The STBL protocol is deployed on Ethereum and BNB, and its mechanism uses smart contracts to link three tokens.

These three tokens, while independent, complement each other to achieve stability, yield, and governance.

USST (Universal Stablecoin)
- This is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. It is issued when users lock tokenized RWA (such as USDY or BUIDL) compatible with the protocol as collateral.
- USST can be used for a wide range of purposes, including payments, trading pairs, DeFi operations, and value storage, as a stable medium of exchange.
- We aim to become a universal payment layer that can be exchanged and interoperated 1:1 with the ecosystem-specific stablecoin (ESS) issued by partner companies described later.
YLD (Yield Rights NFT)
- An NFT generated simultaneously with the issuance of USST, representing the right to claim interest and revenue generated from the corresponding collateral assets.
- For example, if a user issues USST using a 5% annual interest government bond as collateral, the right to receive that interest portion is issued as YLD.
- YLD tokens are transferable NFTs compliant with the ERC-721 standard, with each YLD corresponding to a unique position (collateral bucket).
- YLD holders can receive interest payments from the protocol based on the passage of time or upon maturity. They can also sell YLD itself to third parties to transfer the yield rights (market trading of YLD facilitates price discovery for the yield).
- By separating YLD, USST holders can maintain stable dollar value while retaining the yield that the underlying assets should generate.
STBL (Governance Token)
- This is the native token used for governance and value capture across the entire STBL protocol.
- STBL holders possess voting rights on critical protocol proposals, enabling them to decide on adding or removing collateral assets, setting risk parameters, allocating treasury assets, and approving upgrades.
- Additionally, as an incentive for holding STBL, the design includes buybacks and burns using protocol revenue in the market, as well as reward distributions for STBL staking.

The three tokens are issued and exist simultaneously, each fulfilling distinct roles: providing liquidity for the stable asset (USST), generating returns for the yield asset (YLD), and enabling governance and value circulation for the governance token (STBL). Together, they form the entire protocol’s ecosystem.

For example, when a user locks RWA tokens, USST and YLD are issued. Users can freely utilize USST while earning interest with YLD.

One protocol earns fees and spread income during this process, accumulating them in its treasury for later use in STBL buybacks and community distributions. This cycle links the value of STBL tokens to the protocol’s growth and revenue, providing STBL holders with incentives for sustained ecosystem development.

Characteristics of the Ecosystem

As mentioned above, this covers the overall structure, but the ecosystem contains several detailed features. I will now introduce the main ones.

◼️Price Stabilization Mechanism

To maintain stability, USST is always overcollateralized with sufficient RWA tokens.

For example, when collateralizing an asset valued at $100, the USST issued is capped at approximately 97% of that value ($97 equivalent), with the remaining 3% pooled as a contingency reserve. This pool serves as the primary loss absorption layer, safeguarding the underlying stability of USST even if the collateral asset experiences a principal loss.

Should losses still occur, the protocol’s Loss Reserve Pool will cover the shortfall, minimizing the impact on USST holders.

When collateral assets default or cease interest payments, the position is marked as default within the protocol. Interest accrual ceases, and recovery and liquidation processes are initiated. During this process, assets may be replaced as necessary, and losses are absorbed by the protocol as a whole to maintain the $1 peg of USST.

Additionally, to prevent the USST market price from deviating from the peg, the system is designed to encourage liquidity provision and arbitrage through a mechanism called LAMP (Liquidity and Minting Pool).

For example, if the market price of USST temporarily falls below $1, LAMP will repurchase USST. Conversely, when there is a shortage, dynamic incentive adjustments (such as minting rewards or burn fee adjustments) will be implemented to encourage new issuance with rewards.

◼️Collateral asset

The defining feature of the STBL protocol is its use of high-quality real-world assets (RWAs) as collateral. Specifically, these include U.S. Treasury Bills (T-Bills) and private credit assets.

STBL issues USST by accepting these RWA tokens from users and locking them within a contract, while simultaneously separating the future interest on those assets as YLD.

As a specific method of collaboration, we will whitelist tokenized assets supplied by trusted issuing entities and establish corresponding Vaults within the protocol.

For example, the aforementioned USDY from Ondo Finance is classified as a “T-Bills Vault” and is managed as an asset yielding 4-5% annually, backed by U.S. Treasury bills with maturities ranging from 3 to 12 months.

When users deposit USDY into the Vault, USST equivalent to approximately 97% of the collateral valuation is minted, with the remaining 3% retained within the Vault as a haircut. Subsequently, the Vault contract receives interest payments and redemptions from U.S. Treasury bonds via Ondo (or a partner custodian), distributing these amounts on-chain to the corresponding YLD NFT holders.

STBL’s target RWA assets extend beyond government bonds to include private credit and other private sector assets.

Examples include loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and tokens for resilient financial products, which offer relatively high yields of 10-12% per annum in exchange for some credit risk.

STBL establishes acceptance criteria for each asset through its governance framework, permitting only those with high creditworthiness. The specific approval process involves conducting due diligence on RWA tokens provided by partner institutions—examining legal backing, issuer creditworthiness, market size, and other factors—followed by community voting to add them to the whitelist.

◼️Regulatory compliance

STBL is designed with a strong awareness of financial regulatory requirements. Particular emphasis is placed on KYC/AMLcompliance and securities law treatment.

First, STBL implements whitelist/blacklist functionality at the protocol level. Specifically, addresses capable of minting USST, receiving YLD, or depositing/withdrawing collateral in the Vault are strictly limited to pre-approved wallets only.

To be added to the whitelist, users must pass KYC verification by the operator or affiliated custodian. Only users who have undergone proper identity verification and sanctions list checks can fully utilize the protocol.

Additionally, known malicious addresses (such as those used to receive hacked funds or subject to sanctions) are blacklisted, blocking even token transfers. Governance holds the authority to manage these lists, with additions and removals made through on-chain voting. This mechanism ensures an environment accessible only to users compliant with the law.

◼️STBL Token Allocation

STBL is a utility token responsible for protocol governance and value redistribution. The total issuance cap for STBL is fixed at 10 billion tokens, with approximately 700 million tokens (7% of the total) allocated as the initial circulating supply at the time of the Token Generation Event (TGE) on September 16, 2025.

The remaining tokens will be allocated to various categories such as investors, the team, and the community, and will be gradually released to the market according to specific lock-up and vesting schedules.

Foundation (Finance & Liquidity)
25% of the total supply. This breaks down into 15% for the protocol treasury and 10% for ensuring market liquidity and market making. At the TGE, 45% of the treasury allocation and 4% of the liquidity allocation will be immediately available, with the remainder released linearly over 12 months.
Core Development (Team, Advisors, Ecosystem)
A total of 36% is allocated to core development-related activities. The breakdown is 20% for the team, 5% for advisors, and 11% for ecosystem development. Lock-up periods are set for each to encourage long-term commitment. For the team and advisor allocations, a 5% portion is released after a 12-month cliff period following the TGE, with the remainder subject to linear vesting over the subsequent 18 months. The ecosystem development allocation will see 10% immediately assigned at TGE, with the remaining 90% released linearly over 12 months. This ecosystem allocation will fund developer incentives, partnerships, and community development initiatives.
Staking rewards
20% is reserved as a reward pool for network staking rewards and security. This portion will be locked for 6 months after the TGE and then released linearly over 18 months, to be used for initial bootstrapping and ongoing staking reward emissions.
Private Sale (Investor Allocation)
15% is allocated for early investors. This breaks down to 12% (1.2 billion tokens) for Private Sale 1 (the existing seed round) and 3% (300 million tokens) for Private Sale 2 (an upcoming additional round). In both cases, the tokens are granted with the condition that they are locked for a set period and then gradually released.
Community Distribution (Public)
4% is reserved as a public distribution allocation for the community. This is intended to provide tokens to general participants. The distributed tokens will undergo a 3-month cliff period following the TGE, after which they will be released and distributed linearly over the subsequent 6 months.

Furthermore, the STBL token is not merely a governance token; it possesses core utility that returns the protocol’s value to its holders.

The main uses and functions are as follows.

Participation in governance (voting rights)
- STBL holders can participate as a community in protocol decision-making. By staking (locking up) tokens, they gain the right to submit proposals and vote, with the weight of their votes increasing the longer the tokens are locked.
Staking and Reward Incentives
- By staking STBL tokens, participants can earn rewards from the protocol. Specifically, through a unique mechanism called Multi-Factor Staking (MFS), rewards are designed to be boosted when users lock STBL alone or in pairs such as STBL+USST or STBL+YLD for a set period.
- STBL staking rewards are paid from a pool allocated 20% of the total supply, as described above. Additionally, they are distributed using protocol revenue as the source. This structure allows users who hold and lock STBL to directly benefit economically from the protocol’s growth.
Protocol Revenue Distribution (Fee Allocation and Buyback Burn)
- The STBL protocol charges issuance and redemption fees for USST, as well as a fixed percentage protocol fee from the interest earned by YLD holders. All these revenues are accumulated in the on-chain treasury and returned to STBL holders in the following ways, based on governance decisions:
  - ① Premium Buyback: The protocol periodically purchases STBL tokens at a price higher than the market rate and immediately burns them to reduce the circulating supply.
  - ② Allocation to staking rewards: Used as the funding source for rewards to staking participants
  - ③ Governance Incentives: Used to encourage voting participation and reward community activities.

◼️Money as a Service（MaaS）

STBL not only issues stablecoins via its own protocol, but also champions a Money as a Service (MaaS) model, providing infrastructure that enables external institutions and ecosystems to issue and operate their own stablecoins.

Specifically, it enables each company, financial institution, government, and other entities to issue their own branded stablecoin (Ecosystem-Specific Stablecoin / ESS) on the STBL platform.

By utilizing the infrastructure provided by STBL, these issuers can programmatically issue their own currencies on a secure, compliant money rail without needing to build a financial system from scratch (similar to how major corporations issue their own credit cards using Visa’s infrastructure).

Additionally, the USST provided by STBL functions as a bridge currency and liquidity hub between each issued ESS. By anchoring all ESS tokens to USST, it ensures global compatibility, enabling each proprietary currency not only to operate within its closed network but also to mutually exchange and settle at a 1:1 value ratio.

Transition and Outlook

As mentioned above, STBL is a next-generation stablecoin protocol dubbed “Stablecoin 2.0,” launched in 2025 by Reeve Collins, co-founder of Tether (USDT), and others.

The background includes the expansion of the stablecoin market in the mid-2020s and the rise of Real-World Assets (RWAs) such as tokenized government bonds. To address the challenges of traditional stablecoins—such as opaque yields, centralized management, price volatility risks associated with pure crypto-asset collateral, and algorithmic instability—STBL proposes a new path (the fourth model). This model utilizes regulated RWA as collateral while returning interest income to users and enabling community governance.

The roadmap outlined broad phases at the TGE in September 2025, followed by the release of specific quarterly plans. Key milestones are as follows:

September 2025：Phase 1– Issuance of STBL tokens and initial listings (Binance Alpha, Kraken). This initiates market trading and establishes the initial community.
Q4 2025：Phase 2– Commencing implementation of the governance framework. Specifically, providing STBL staking contracts and voting UI, and executing initial community proposals. Following security verification, governance will be activated on a limited basis.
Q1 2026：Phase 3– USST mainnet deployment and launch of DeFi lending functionality. Full-scale USST issuance commenced in January (general users began access via whitelist), with enhanced peg monitoring through Hypernative integration. Additionally, a decentralized lending pilot program was initiated.
Q1 2026 (Continued)In February, we will further expand liquidity and broaden the types of RWA collateral (introducing Private Credit, etc.). We will also deploy the Ecosystem-Specific Stablecoin (ESS) framework on the testnet. In March, we plan to natively deploy USST to high-performance chains like Solana and Stellar. Furthermore, we plan to release a simplified DApp interface to enhance usability.

In terms of funding, the project secured capital in its early stages through a pre-seed round led by digital asset management firm Wave Digital Assets. In February 2026, as mentioned earlier, it received strategic investment (treated as a seed round) from OKX Ventures, the venture capital arm of cryptocurrency exchange OKX.

@stbl_official has secured a strategic investment from @OKX_Ventures and entered a landmark partnership with @hamilton_lane (Nasdaq: ","username":"stbl_official","name":"STBL","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/2001975152209522688/xABTIdhZ_normal.jpg","date":"2026-02-12T05:01:31.000Z","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/HA7q0hLbsAM-QDp.jpg","link_url":"https://t.co/aRB6aPz9zq"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":93,"retweet_count":66,"like_count":708,"impression_count":86291,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

This investment supports STBL’s mission to build a money infrastructure, with OKX expressing its expectation that it will “bring highly capital-efficient products backed by real-world assets to the network.”

The Second Stablecoin Boom Arrives

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

The classification of stablecoin generations varies by protocol, so here we define the second stablecoin boom according to STBL’s definition.

USDT and USDC gained traction, and from there, Ethena’s USDe rapidly captured attention. During this time, algorithmic stablecoins also existed, alongside crypto-collateralized stablecoins like USDS.

STBL defines Stablecoin 2.0 as encompassing the following elements:

Issued using RWA tokens as collateral
The separation of principal and yield
Governed by a governance token linked to protocol revenue
The ability for companies to create ecosystem-specific stablecoins centered around a core stablecoin

The closest among existing well-known protocols is Ethena. It returns yields on collateral assets, distributes protocol revenue to governance tokens, and supports the issuance of ecosystem stablecoins backed by USDe and USDtb.

STBL is a product that uses RWA collateral and cleanly separates yields.

Personally, I find the approach of extracting only the yield portion as an NFT to be unique. However, since each issuance creates an NFT claim corresponding to that asset, I anticipate that the secondary market will become complex as it fills with assets offering diverse yields and values. Therefore, I suspect that as the secondary market matures, these assets will likely be packaged and consolidated into several financial products.

For example, imagine NFTs or FT tokens being issued that lock NFTs into yet another protocol, granting access to that entire protocol’s revenue. Whether we build this ourselves or a third party does it remains to be seen, but unless we create products that are simple and easy to distribute, the ecosystem will not expand.

Furthermore, as the protocol evolves to integrate all tokens like Money Lego, it becomes inevitable that a default occurring anywhere could trigger the entire ecosystem to collapse instantly.

The most frightening risks are impairment of the value of RWA collateral assets, failure of custodians, and hacking incidents. These risks are fundamentally no different from those associated with USDC or USDT; in fact, one could argue that STBL carries higher risk precisely because it does not hold reserves in fiat currency.

While it may be an acceptable risk once the protocol matures, I’ve recently come to believe that blockchain composability, while expanding possibilities, must not be forgotten for its potential to chain together risks.

That said, as various businesses launch stablecoins within their own ecosystems, the on-chain economy is likely to expand further. I look forward to following the development of these protocols.

That concludes our research on “STBL”!

Reference Links:HP / DOC / X

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Disclaimer：I carefully examine and write the information that I research, but since it is personally operated and there are many parts with English sources, there may be some paraphrasing or incorrect information. Please understand. Also, there may be introductions of Dapps, NFTs, and tokens in the articles, but there is absolutely no solicitation purpose. Please purchase and use them at your own risk.

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🇯🇵🇺🇸🇰🇷🇨🇳🇪🇸 The English version of the web3 newsletter, which is available in 5 languages. Based on the concept of ``Learn more about web3 in 5 minutes a day,’‘ we deliver research articles five times a week, including explanations of popular web3 trends, project explanations, and introductions to the latest news.

Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【zERC20】A privacy-focused token standard extending the ERC-20 specification / Conceals sender-recipient relationships through zero-knowledge proofs and Proof of Burn / @zERC20io

mitsui — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:01:01 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched “zERC20”.

What is zERC20?
Transition and Outlook
Privacy is one of the trends for 2026, alongside AI and stablecoins.

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TL;DR

zERC20 is a privacy-focused extension standard that wraps existing ERC-20 tokens to anonymize them, using zero-knowledge proofs and Proof of Burn to conceal the relationship between sender and recipient.
It enables anonymous transfers while autonomously adjusting liquidity through multi-chain support and a dynamic fee model, all while maintaining standard wallet operations.
The INTMAX team developed the mainnet, which launched in 2026. Moving forward, it aims to become a practical on-chain privacy foundation through Permit support, ZK enhancements, and the rollout of payment products.

What is zERC20?

zERC20 is a privacy-focused token standard that extends the ERC-20 specification, serving as a technical foundation for anonymizing existing ERC-20 tokens through wrapping.

Transactions on the blockchain are highly transparent, presenting the challenge that once published, they become visible to anyone. For instance, if salary or rent payments were exposed to the entire world, it could lead to leaks of corporate strategy or unfair demands between individuals.

Traditionally, mixing services like Tornado Cash have been used to address this issue. However, since deposits and withdrawals to specific contracts are publicly visible, their use is easily monitored, posing a risk of being banned by regulatory authorities.

Against this backdrop, the zERC20 project was developed with the goal of achieving high privacy without altering the existing user experience.

zERC20 implements the concept of Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-7503, “Zero-Knowledge Wormhole (zk-Wormhole),” providing a mechanism that allows anyone to anonymously transfer assets using their regular wallet operations. It is characterized by mitigating the drawbacks of transparency on the blockchain while preserving the benefit of verifiability.

◼️Mechanism

Transactions on zERC20 utilize a “Proof of Burn” mechanism that employs zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), and its operation is as follows:

User A (the sender) sends tokens to a “burn address” calculated from the recipient B’s public address and secret value. A burn address is a random address without a private key; tokens sent here become temporarily immovable.

After that, B (the recipient) proves a secret value known only to them using a zero-knowledge proof, thereby minting an equivalent amount of zERC20 tokens to their new address.

As a result, the transaction is recorded on-chain in a manner indistinguishable from a standard ERC-20 transfer, making the connection between A and B invisible to third parties.

This method achieves both anonymity—where no transaction links are ever disclosed—and compatibility with existing infrastructure.

Furthermore, as it is a specification that extends the ERC-20 standard, it supports multiple Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains such as Ethereum, BNB, Arbitrum, and Base. A key feature is its seamless interoperability with standard wallets (like MetaMask) and existing DeFi protocols. Users do not need to install special applications; it is designed so that simply performing standard ERC-20 token transfer operations allows the sender and recipient relationships to remain confidential.

Furthermore, zERC20 enables private transfers across multiple chains using LayerZero technology. For example, cross-chain anonymous transfers—such as withdrawing anonymous assets issued on Arbitrum to Base—are possible by default, with future expansion to non-EVM chains planned.

◼️How to Use

As we’ll explain in later sections, since it was just released on the mainnet, use cases are still limited. Developers can embed it into their own services, but users can get an early experience through the dedicated app.

Essentially, the original asset is wrapped to convert it into a zAsset. Sending this zAsset triggers the Proof-of-Burn transaction mechanism, as described earlier.

Additionally, a fee model is incorporated for wrapping and unwrapping. When liquidity becomes insufficient on a specific chain, fees are used to suppress unwrapping, while rewards are provided to incentivize wrapping.

Specifically, each chain has a target liquidity level set. If the actual liquidity falls below this target, a fee is charged for unwrapping on that chain. Conversely, a reward is paid for wrapping on the chain experiencing the shortage.

For example, “When the USDC pool on Ethereum is insufficient, fees are charged when unwrapping zUSDC back to USDC on Ethereum (to discourage outflows), while users depositing USDC into zUSDC on Ethereum receive rewards (to encourage inflows).” Fee revenue is shared across chains and allocated toward future reward payments. Note that,

If unwrap fees surge on a particular chain, the system also provides the functionality to unwrap assets via a different chain using the LayerZero/Stargate bridge. This allows users to withdraw their original assets via the most advantageous route, enabling the system as a whole to self-adjust its liquidity balance.

Transition and Outlook

zERC20 was proposed and implemented by the development team (Ryodan Systems AG) of the Japan-based blockchain project INTMAX.

INTMAX is a startup developing a stateless Ethereum Layer 2 solution (a zkRollup+Plasma hybrid), led by CEO Reona Hioki and comprised of a team of engineers and researchers.

ERC20 itself was first unveiled in a testnet version at the end of 2025, showcasing privacy transfers of assets like USDC on Arbitrum and Base.

Then, in February 2026, the mainnet launch commenced on the Ethereum, BNB, Base, and Arbitrum chains.

We have also outlined several roadmaps for future developments.

April 2026
Plans to implement ERC-20 Permits (on-chain signature-based approval functionality). This is expected to enable permissioned transfers using digital signatures, thereby improving usability.
May 2026
Support for the Ethereum Foundation’s new ZK library “Sonobe” (enabled). By incorporating the latest zero-knowledge proof technology, we aim to achieve further performance improvements and feature enhancements.
Second Quarter of 2026
Public release of the smart contract integration and payment product “Payless.” Smart contract integration enables direct handling of zERC20 tokens within other contracts (such as DeFi apps), expanding the application scope of anonymous payments. Payless is also seen as a payment terminal (payment acceptance system) utilizing zERC20, currently under development as a solution enabling cryptocurrency payments without concern for gas fees or hassle.

Furthermore, future implementation on non-EVM chains is also under consideration. zERC20 aims to realize a future where anyone can naturally utilize privacy with the same ease of use as standard ERC-20 tokens.

Privacy is one of the trends for 2026, alongside AI and stablecoins.

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

At the end of last year, I wrote an article about the outlook for 2026, and many VCs and influencers touched on the importance of privacy. Furthermore, starting from the end of last year, we actually saw rising token prices and increased funding in the privacy sector.

Stablecoins are the most straightforward example, but as their use grows in daily life and business activities, excessive transparency becomes problematic. If individual or corporate wallets are exposed, it reveals asset status and fund transfer details.

Currently, solutions include using private chains or effectively leveraging CEXs to cut off transactions, but this conflicts with the philosophy of on-chain transactions.

Additionally, while methods like generating new addresses for each transaction—such as stealth addresses—are being considered, this leads to a proliferation of wallets. While this proliferation isn’t a major issue if wallets can seamlessly integrate with tax-related tools, it can become cumbersome to manage when strict oversight is required, such as for corporate use.

So, I believe the optimal solution for this area is still being explored, but zERC20 is very interesting as it implements an extension of the existing ERC-20 standard. Other privacy-focused tokens often operate at the protocol level or the chain level, which can sometimes lack a good user experience. When implemented at the chain level, you have to move funds to that specific chain, which is cumbersome.

This is something I felt when x402 emerged as well: unless a new standard can be implemented with virtually no effort required to adapt existing services, it becomes extremely difficult to gain widespread adoption. In the early phases of crypto, I believe users would have adapted each time. However, now that a certain ecosystem has already been established, the barrier to moving users is high. I feel it has become more rational to quickly consider integration with the existing ecosystem.

In that sense, the zERC20 approach makes perfect sense, and I’m very excited to see how it develops going forward. I plan to experiment with it myself.

That concludes our research on “zERC20”!

Reference Links:HP / X / DOC / zERC20 : Cross-Chain Private ERC-20 Based on ZK Proof-of-Burn

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【Sponge】Financial infrastructure enabling AI agents to hold and disburse funds without human intervention / Founded by a team from Stripe / @sponge_wallet

mitsui — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:00:43 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched “Sponge.”

What is Sponge?
Transition and Outlook
The shift toward an agent economy is progressing

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TL;DR

Sponge is a financial infrastructure enabling AI agents to hold and disburse funds without human intervention, aiming to realize an agent economy.
With “Sponge Wallet” and “Sponge Gateway,” agents can autonomously handle everything from paying service fees and sending money to making investment decisions, while businesses can receive payments directly from agents.
A founding team from Stripe launched in 2026 through Y Combinator and is gaining attention as the next-generation automated economic infrastructure powered by AI and blockchain.

What is Sponge?

Sponge is a startup that provides financial infrastructure enabling AI agents to hold and spend money without human intervention.

Advances in AI agent technology are making it increasingly feasible for AI to autonomously perform tasks over extended periods, but a challenge remains: human intervention is still required during the payment processing stage.

Sponge provides a platform enabling AI agents themselves to complete payments.

For example, AI agents will be able to pay for web service usage fees and transfer funds to other agents without human intervention. As a result, economic activities between agents and between agents and services will be realized without manual input or API key sharing, enabling autonomous business models driven by agents.

◼️Products Offered

The primary products we offer are broadly categorized into two: “Sponge Wallet” (for agents) and “Sponge Gateway” (for businesses).

Sponge Wallet

We provide wallet accounts that enable users to deposit funds and make payments to AI agents without human intervention.

Agents can hold fiat currency and cryptocurrency through this wallet and autonomously execute payments, transfers, and investments as needed.

Once a person deposits the required amount into the wallet, the agent can then use those funds at their own discretion to purchase services and other items.

For example, a series of processes such as “using $5 worth of funds in the wallet to purchase necessary API data, and then executing stock trades” can be completed entirely by agents without human intervention.

Sponge Gateway

We provide a platform for businesses and service providers to accept direct payments from AI agents.

Specifically, providers can automate agent onboarding and payment acceptance simply by uploading their service’s API specification (such as OpenAPI).

Whereas previously human users would have to enter credit card information or API keys, using the Gateway allows agents themselves to complete everything from service contracts to payments with just a few clicks, eliminating the need for human intervention or code modifications. In other words, it’s like providing an “agent-friendly online payment gateway.”

This enables service providers to tap into a new customer base of AI agents, and in the future, generate revenue from these agents just as they do from human users.

Based on these two foundations, Paysponge enables a wide range of use cases.

◼️Use Cases

Examples provided on the official website include the following use cases:

Data Purchase and Investment Decisions
Suppose an agent autonomously trading stocks purchases external data (e.g., corporate financial reports) before executing trades. Using Sponge Wallet, the agent can independently purchase the 10-K annual report from a paid API and consistently execute the decision and trade based on the collected financial data, such as “Buy 10 shares of Acme stock if revenue growth exceeds 50%.” This entire process requires no human intervention whatsoever; the agent handles everything from the small payment required for data purchase to placing the order via the securities API.
Service fee remittance and settlement
This refers to cases where agents transfer compensation or fees to other agents or to human service providers. For example, consider a scenario where an agent outsources design work to another party (a person or agent) and pays them $150 as compensation. The agent executes a command from Sponge Wallet to send the equivalent of $150 to the recipient, and Sponge’s system securely processes this. At this point, details such as the initiation of the transaction and the amount are automatically logged and can be tracked via the audit functionality described later.
Expenditure Management and Control
If you’re hesitant about granting agents full financial authority, you can set guardrails to limit budgets and spending destinations. Sponge’s wallet features include controls such as budget caps (e.g., up to $X per day, up to $X per transaction) and whitelist settings for permitted domains/APIs. For example: “Up to $25 per day, under $5 per transaction, and permitted domains are...”ai-assist.devとdata-api.devとwebscrape.devBy defining rules such as “limited to drinking only,” agents can only spend funds within that scope. This prevents runaway spending and misuse while still granting agents a degree of financial discretion.

As described above, Paysponge is a platform that supports a wide range of use cases, from agents making small-value service purchases and remittances to full-scale commercial transactions.

By utilizing this infrastructure, it is anticipated that agents will eventually autonomously buy and sell services among themselves, forming automated transactions via APIs on the web (the so-called Machine-to-Machine economy).

Transition and Outlook

Sponge is a startup founded in 2026 and a company accepted into the Y Combinator Winter 2026 batch.

https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/PTD-sponge-financial-infrastructure-for-the-agent-economy

The three founders are all engineers formerly of Stripe, with backgrounds leading cryptocurrency-related projects at the company. Their profiles are as follows:

Jae Choi
Co-founder of Sponge. Earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in 2019. At Stripe, he worked on developing the core payment system and contributed to launching the company’s first cryptocurrency product.
Rishab Luthra
Co-founder of Sponge. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2022, he joined Stripe, working as a software engineer in the cryptocurrency division. During his studies, he interned as a software engineer at Facebook (2021) and Google (2020), and also held development roles at other startups.
Eric Zhang
Co-founder of Sponge. An engineer who led the development of financial accounts and payment systems using stablecoins within Stripe’s cryptocurrency team.

The impetus for founding the company was the growing demand for autonomous payments enabled by AI agents.

In recent years, long-running agents like AutoGPT have emerged, enabling them to perform complex tasks without human intervention. However, when payments are involved, agents cannot process transactions independently; humans must input credit card information and approve the payment, hindering automation.

To solve this problem, the founding team leveraged their expertise gained at Stripe to embark on building financial infrastructure for the gig economy.

Co-founder Jae Choi himself stated, “We are currently building Sponge to provide wallets for agents,” with the vision of granting agents human-like financial transaction capabilities.

As it has only just been released, the published use cases are limited, but some startups are already moving forward with trial implementations.

AgentMail
AgentMail is a service that provides AI agents with their own email addresses and inboxes, and is a company born from the Y Combinator Summer 2025 batch. While developers typically pay usage fees with a credit card for this service, combining it with Paysponge Gateway allows The agent themselves enters into a mailbox usage agreement and makes payments.This has now become possible. As a concrete benefit, AgentMail can automatically onboard new users (i.e., AI agents) without human intervention, enabling it to increase its customer base (agents) 24/7, 365 days a year. Furthermore, fee collection is automated, reducing the risk of non-payment and cutting operational costs. For agent developers, there is also the benefit of being able to connect their agents to AgentMail more easily. The AgentMail team commented, “The payment aspect, which was the biggest concern in providing mailboxes, was resolved with the introduction of Sponge,” indicating that it effectively removed an uncertainty factor in service provision.
Steel
Steel is an open-source browser automation API and a platform for managing and providing multiple browser sessions in the cloud. It is used for AI agents performing web browsing and scraping tasks. Paid plans enable numerous concurrent sessions and extended runtime. Steel has also implemented Sponge to test agent-initiated usage requests and payment acceptance. This enables a fully autonomous workflow where, for example, an agent can independently sign up to Steel, secure a browser operation environment, automatically pay usage fees, and execute tasks (such as web data collection).

Additionally, while specific names have not been disclosed, the Sponge team states that “multiple teams have already begun using Sponge for agent onboarding and payment acceptance.”

Additionally, a beta pilot has recently been launched where agents make purchases on Amazon. This initiative allows agents to complete shopping on Amazon as needed, provided users have pre-linked their Amazon accounts to their wallets.

Sponge is being trialed across various front lines of agent utilization, and its effects—reducing labor costs, expanding new automation scope, and demonstrating the agent economy—are gradually being reported.

The transition to an agent economy is advancing

Finally, we come to the summary and analysis.

Lately, I’ve been researching many AI agent-related projects. While part of this stems from my personal interest, investigating trending projects also reveals an industry-wide trend: this field is seeing significant concentration.

AI agents combined with financial infrastructure are poised to become the next hot trend. Numerous startups are emerging that use blockchain to remove payment barriers—a key challenge when AI agents perform tasks—and their widespread adoption is something to look forward to.

Moreover, this excitement isn’t confined to the crypto space—it’s sweeping the entire AI and startup industries. Given that Sponge is a recent Y Combinator graduate, it’s no exaggeration to say its business reflects the current startup trends.

@sponge_wallet is the easiest way for agents to hold and spend money, and for businesses to sell directly to them.\n\nBuilt by the team behind Stripe's stablecoin financial accounts, stablecoin payments and core money movement systems, Sponge brings deep experience in building ","username":"ycombinator","name":"Y Combinator","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1623777064821358592/9CApQWXe_normal.png","date":"2026-02-18T19:00:01.000Z","photos":[{"img_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/upload/w_1028,c_limit,q_auto:best/l_twitter_play_button_rvaygk,w_88/rsjvaet6ncsf91srozdn","link_url":"https://t.co/jJNnjR9wAy"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":99,"retweet_count":72,"like_count":818,"impression_count":384521,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":"https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2024178592104796161/vid/avc1/1280x720/gnGBxNHMWQJhzSGJ.mp4","belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

I’ve been experimenting with various AI technologies myself, and since they seem to pair well with blockchain, I’d like to explore what I can create within my capabilities. Smart contracts are still a bit intimidating, and I’m hesitant about my main goals of asset management and trading. So, I’m thinking of starting with small-scale trading or simply using various services through AI as an initial experience.

We’re also thinking about hosting events like hands-on workshops in this area, so please look forward to them. I’m excited to see the intersection of AI and blockchain continue to expand.

That concludes our research on “Sponge”!

Reference Links:HP / X

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

A 5-Minute Recap of Last Week's Web3 Market

mitsui — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:01:02 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

This is a summary article covering the web3 market over the past week. We gather information from over 20 domestic and international media outlets and newsletters, selecting news items from them. Please use this to catch up on information and trends!

📰Pickup News
📗Pickup Article
📊Market & News

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📰Pickup News

The Ethereum Foundation Announces Updates on 2026 Priorities

2025 will see progress in L1 scaling, Blob scaling, and UX improvements with the implementation of Pectra and Fusaka.
In 2026, we will reorganize into a three-track system: “Scale,” “Improve UX,” and “Harden the L1.”
Pushing full-scale scaling with gas limits exceeding 100M, ePBS, zkEVM attesters, and more.
Place native account abstraction and interoperability at the core of the user experience.
Strengthening security, censorship resistance, and post-quantum compatibility as core L1 features.

Aptos Releases Tokenomics Update

Shifting from subsidy-driven inflation to usage-based “performance-driven tokenomics.”
Proposal to reduce staking rewards from 5.19% to 2.6%, considering a design that rewards long-term staking.
Gas fees increased tenfold + Decibel DEX’s high TPS expected to burn tens of millions of APT annually.
2.1B APT hard cap implementation + Foundation 210M permanent lock.
Aiming for future deflation through increased burning, reduced issuance, and consideration of buybacks.

Base Network transitions from Optimism to its own stack

Base has transitioned away from OP Stack dependency to its own “Base-operated unified stack.”
Integrated components previously distributed across multiple repositories to reduce operational and maintenance complexity.
Plans to transition from Optimistic proofs to Base’s proprietary TEE/ZK proofs in the future (V1 hard fork).
Gradually reducing ties with Optimism through additional hard forks.
A strategic shift toward de facto “independent L2 implementation” while maintaining the public specification.

Zora launches ‘attention markets’ on Solana

SocialFi products that can go long or short on trending topics and buzz on social media.
Market any theme or link and track PnL in real time.
An attention-based economic model extending from existing NFTs and Creator Coin experiments.
Movements aiming to form a new category in the SocialFi × speculative market.

Pumpfun introduces “Cashback Coin”

Solana’s Pumpfun introduces “Cashback Coins.”
Creators must choose in advance whether to “keep the commission fee themselves” or “return the full amount to the trader.”
Re-adjusting Incentive Design for Team-Absent Meme Coin Issues.
A design philosophy that entrusts the market with the choice of reward distribution.

📗Pickup Article

Introducing posts and articles I found interesting.

Banks are Becoming Scaffolding for Stablecoins

Stablecoins are beginning to shift settlement, liquidity, and yield off-balance sheet while relying on banks for custody and regulatory compliance.
Deposits are gradually becoming decentralized, with users moving funds in search of higher yields and instant settlements.
Automated wallets and agent management are expected to further lower barriers to trust and user experience.
Banks will remain as the infrastructure layer for credit, insurance, and central bank access, but they will no longer be the center of capital flows.
In the medium to long term, banks may either evolve or become fixed as mere compliance layers.

【Seigniorage】Explanation of Basic Vocabulary

mitsui — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 03:00:46 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we’ll deliver articles explaining basic vocabulary. We aim to keep each article concise enough for a quick read, while also making them suitable for revisiting and studying.

Today’s feature is “Seigniorage.”

Please watch until the very end!

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1. What is Seigniorage?

The term “Seigniorage” originates from the medieval French word “Seigniorage” (lord). Its etymology stems from the practice of lords minting coins and profiting from the difference between the face value and the cost of production.

The most straightforward example is coins. If only 5,000 yen worth of metal is used to make a 10,000 yen gold coin, the remaining 5,000 yen becomes the issuer’s profit. With paper currency, this is even more pronounced; the printing cost for a 10,000 yen bill is merely a few dozen yen.

However, modern seigniorage is a bit more complex.

Modern central banks do not directly profit by printing banknotes. The primary method by which central banks issue currency is by purchasing assets such as government bonds. They buy these bonds with newly issued currency, and the interest earned on those bonds constitutes seigniorage.

In other words, modern seigniorage refers to the economic benefit derived from the very position of being able to issue currency.

2. Why do nations want to hold the power to issue currency?

The power to issue currency is one of the most important authorities a nation possesses. There are three main reasons for this.

Fiscal flexibility.When expenditures cannot be covered by tax revenue alone, the government can raise funds by issuing government bonds, which are then purchased by the central bank. This serves as a last resort to meet sudden fiscal demands during wartime or disasters.
Control of economic policy.By adjusting interest rates and increasing or decreasing the money supply, we can stimulate the economy or curb overheating. Without the power to issue currency, we would lose this adjustment mechanism.
Symbol of sovereignty.The issuance of a national currency is also a symbol of economic independence. The difficulties faced by eurozone countries in pursuing individual monetary policies were highlighted during the European debt crisis.

The power to issue currency is not merely the ability to create money. It is the very power to control the entire economy.

3. Inflation and Seigniorage

Seigniorage has another aspect: inflation as an invisible tax.

When new currency is issued, the total amount of currency circulating in the market increases. As supply rises, the value per unit of currency decreases. This means the assets of those who already hold currency are relatively diminished.

This is sometimes referred to as an “inflation tax.”

For example, suppose the money supply in a given economy increases by 10%. If prices rise by 10%, the real purchasing power of savings declines by about 10%. Although the government is not collecting direct taxes, it has achieved the same effect as “taxing” the purchasing power of money holders.

The key point is that this “taxation” is not readily apparent.

For income tax, the amount is listed on your statement. For consumption tax, it’s displayed at the time of purchase. But there’s no bill for the inflation tax. Simply holding currency quietly erodes its value.

The profits from new issuance are concentrated in the issuer (the state), while the costs are distributed across all holders of the currency. This is the fundamental structure of seigniorage.

4. Does Bitcoin Have Seigniorage?

Bitcoin also has a mechanism for new issuance. So, does seigniorage exist?

In Bitcoin, new BTC is issued as a reward each time a miner generates a block. This is called the block reward, which is currently 3.125 BTC per block (after the 2024 halving).

This reward can be seen as similar to seigniorage. Newly issued BTC goes to miners, and existing holders’ BTC becomes diluted due to the increase in total supply.

However, there is one crucial difference from the seigniorage of national currencies.

The publication schedule is predetermined.The total supply of Bitcoin is fixed at 21 million BTC, with the reward halving approximately every four years. It cannot be increased at anyone’s discretion.
Publishing incurs costs.Miners perform massive computations and consume electricity to generate blocks. The reward is compensation for that cost, not “profit from nothing.”
Transparent issuance rules.When and how much will be issued can be verified by anyone through the code written in the protocol.

Bitcoin can also be said to have sought to eliminate the opacity of seigniorage by removing the “issuer’s discretion.”

5. Token Economics and Issuance Revenue

In Web3 token projects, the issue of seigniorage becomes more directly apparent.

Many tokens have an “Initial Token Allocation.” Before launch, the design specifies how much of the total supply is allocated to the team, investors, foundation, community, and others.

Here lies the issue of issuance gains.

Initial allocation to the team and investors.Teams and early investors hold large quantities of tokens with virtually zero production costs. If those tokens gain value in the market, that is precisely seigniorage. Structurally, it is identical to how a nation issues currency and profits from it.
Inflation design.Some projects continuously issue new tokens for staking rewards and ecosystem grants. This new issuance dilutes the holdings of existing token holders.
Who benefits from this structure?When evaluating a project, it is crucial to examine “who benefits from the token issuance.” The vesting schedule, unlock periods, and inflation rate trends reflect the token’s issuance benefit structure.

Reading token economics also means reading the distribution structure of seigniorage.

6. CBDC and Seigniorage

In recent years, the CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) being developed by various nations strongly reflect national intentions concerning seigniorage.

As cryptocurrencies and stablecoins become more widespread, people will conduct economic activities outside of state-issued currencies. This signifies a loss of seigniorage for the state.

CBDC is an initiative to keep the power to issue currency in the hands of the state, even in a digitalized economy.

Furthermore, CBDCs may be endowed with programmability—the ability to control their purpose and expiration date through code. “Money usable only for specific purposes” or “money that expires if not used within a set period” can be seen as a further extension of the issuer’s authority.

The digitization of currency is not merely a matter of neutral technology. It is an intensely political issue concerning who issues the currency and who sets its rules.

Summary

Currency issuance is not neutral. It is an act wielding significant power, both economically and politically.

Nations have historically gained seigniorage through their right to issue currency. Bitcoin has hardcoded this rule into its code, eliminating discretionary power. In token projects, seigniorage is embedded within the initial allocation and inflation design.

Understanding web3 also means re-examining who issues the currency and where the profits flow.

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

Predictive Market Novig Raises $75M、Kraken, Monad, Polymarket Conduct M&A、13 Projects in Total【Fundraising Project Summary】

mitsui — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:00:46 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today’s topic is “Summary of the Fundraising Project for This Week.”

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💥Top 5 Projects by Funding Amount

1、Novig

Overview：A commission-free sports prediction market platform. Based on a peer-to-peer model, it eliminates the typical “house edge” by matching buyers and sellers of outcomes, offering fairer odds and better pricing.
Category：Prediction Market
Procurement amount：$75M
Investment round：Series B
Investor：★Pantera Capital、Multicoin Capital、Forerunner Ventures、Makers Fund

2、Kresus

Overview：A web3 mobile application that functions as a comprehensive toolkit for managing digital assets. Users can securely and easily create, manage, and store their assets, regardless of their level of expertise in the world of cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Category：Wallet
Procurement amount：$13M
Investment round：TBD
Investor：Hanwha Investment & Securities

3、Newity

Overview：A fintech company that promotes lending to small and medium-sized enterprises through a fully digital lending experience. As a lending service provider, it partners with participating banks that handle loan origination and approval. It offers an online application process, automated document generation workflows, and operational support to accelerate funding, enabling significantly faster access to capital than traditional banking channels.
Category：Finance
Procurement amount：$11M
Investment round：Strategic
Investor：CMT Digital

【Byzantine Generals Problem】Explanation of Basic Terms

mitsui — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 03:00:36 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Every Saturday and Sunday at noon, we’ll deliver articles explaining basic vocabulary. We aim to keep each article concise enough for a quick read, while also providing content you can revisit and study.

Today’s topic is the “Byzantine Generals Problem.”

Please watch until the very end!

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1. What is the Byzantine Generals Problem?

This problem was proposed in 1982 by computer scientist Leslie Lamport and others.

Let’s consider this with an analogy.

Several generals of the Byzantine Empire are besieging a city. The generals have established their camps in separate locations and communicate messages using messengers. They must take unified action: either “attack together” or “retreat together.”

The problem is that there may be a traitor among the generals.

A traitor might tell one general to “attack” and another to “retreat.” If everyone makes conflicting decisions, the army will be destroyed.

In other words, the essence of this problem is as follows.

Can everyone arrive at the same correct judgment in a situation where there may be a liar among the participants?

This is the Byzantine Generals Problem.

2. Why is this problem difficult?

At first glance, it seems simple. Why not just take a majority vote?

However, distributed environments present several fundamental challenges.

The message is not credible.Messages may be tampered with during transmission. There is no way to verify whether the received message truly reflects the sender’s intent.
I don’t know who’s being honest.On a network, it is difficult to verify participants’ identities and intentions beforehand. A traitor can pretend to be honest.
There is no central administrator.If there were a trusted “commander” everyone followed, we could simply obey their orders. But in a distributed system, there is no such privileged entity. Everyone is equal, and everyone is a potential traitor.

When these three conditions coincide, reaching a proper agreement becomes extremely difficult.

3. Byzantine Fault Tolerance in Distributed Systems

The ability to handle this problem is called “Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT).”

BFT refers to the property that allows a system to maintain correct consensus even if some network participants fail or act maliciously.

In classical BFT research, an important threshold has been demonstrated.

If honest participants make up more than two-thirds of the total, a correct consensus is possible.

Conversely, if traitors account for more than one-third of the total, consensus formation can no longer be guaranteed.

For example, if there are 10 participants, the group can tolerate up to 3 traitors, but if there are 4 or more, consensus may break down.

This “two-thirds rule” lies at the core of the design philosophy for many blockchain protocols.

4. How did Bitcoin solve this?

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper. This presented a practical and groundbreaking solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem.

Bitcoin adopted a mechanism called Proof of Work (PoW).

The essence of PoW lies in “cost-based voting.”

Network participants (miners) perform massive computations to generate new blocks. These computations incur real-world costs (electricity, hardware). Contributing to a valid ledger earns a reward, but attempting to create a fraudulent ledger wastes those costs.

In other words, Bitcoin replaced the problem of trust with economic incentives.

Creating situations where lying is “not worth the trouble” encourages honest behavior.

This approach differs from classical BFT, which assumes “two-thirds honest nodes.” Rather than relying on participants’ goodwill, it leverages rational economic behavior. As long as a majority of computational resources (51% or more) are honest, the network functions correctly.

5. How is Ethereum (PoS) different?

Ethereum transitioned to Proof of Stake (PoS) following The Merge in 2022.

In PoS, voting is backed by “stake” (collateral) rather than computational power.

Validators participate in the network by staking ETH. They receive rewards for correct validation, but if they act maliciously, their staked ETH is confiscated. This confiscation mechanism is called slashing.

Let’s clarify the differences between PoW and PoS.

In PoW, proof of correctness is achieved by consuming electricity and computational resources. This structure ensures that “lying would result in wasted computational costs.”

In PoS, assets are pledged as collateral to guarantee correctness. It operates on the principle that “if you lie, your assets will be confiscated.”

Both are essentially the same.Economic rationality serves as a deterrent against betrayal.

PoS adheres to the classical 2/3 rule of BFT, guaranteeing finality (confirmation of consensus) as long as more than two-thirds of the stake is honest.

6. The Byzantine Problem Reveals the Essence of Web3

Understanding the Byzantine Generals Problem makes the design philosophy of Web3 clearer.

Design that doesn’t trust people.Blockchain is designed so that you don’t need to trust specific individuals or organizations. It doesn’t matter whether participants are good or bad. The mechanism itself ensures correctness.
What is right is decided by the majority.In blockchain, the “correct ledger” is the one selected by majority consensus. There is no absolute truth; instead, the collective judgment of participants becomes the rule.
There is no such thing as absolute safety.Byzantine fault tolerance has its limits. If a majority of participants or two-thirds of the stake become malicious, the system can fail. Blockchain is not a “magic safety device,” but a consensus system that functions under specific conditions.

Summary

Blockchain is not a “magical ledger that cannot be tampered with.” It can be described as a consensus mechanism designed to function even in a world where there are liars.

The Byzantine Generals Problem is the starting point for this design. How to reach consensus in an environment with untrustworthy parties? Bitcoin proposed a solution through computational cost, while Ethereum proposed a solution through staking.

Understanding Web3 also means accepting the premise of “cooperating under conditions of distrust.”

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

Weekly Article Roundup

mitsui — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 21:01:21 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today we’ll be looking back at the articles updated over the past week.

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📗This Week’s Articles

Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter “web3 Research” delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【Conway】An infrastructure platform enabling AI agents to autonomously execute server launches, domain acquisitions, AI inference, and payments without human intervention / @ConwayResearch

mitsui — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:00:37 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched “Conway.”

What is Conway?
Transition and Outlook
The Arrival of the Web 4.0 Era

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TL;DR

Conway is an infrastructure platform enabling AI agents to execute server launches, domain acquisitions, AI inference, and payments without human intervention.
Using USDC and the x402 protocol for autonomous settlement, we provide a mechanism enabling AI to independently purchase and operate resources.
As the foundation for implementing Web 4.0 (an era where AI becomes the economic agent), we aim to realize autonomous, self-sustaining, and self-replicating AI agents.

What is Conway?

Conway provides infrastructure that enables AI agents to perform “write” actions on external environments without human intervention.

Specifically, by integrating Conway’s terminal software (Conway Terminal) into AI agents, you can instantly access the following services:

Conway Cloud
Automatically launches a fully functional Linux virtual machine, providing an environment to execute and host code. The agent itself provisions a sandbox environment in the cloud, enabling program execution, file management, and service exposure via port forwarding.
Conway Compute
Provides inference resources for the latest advanced AI models (e.g., Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.3, Kimi K2.5, etc.). Agents can execute complex computational tasks and AI inference by calling APIs of these cutting-edge models.
Conway Domains
This service enables agents to purchase, register, and manage DNS settings for domain names themselves. This allows AI agents to acquire domains for their websites and link them to their own applications.

Agents possess their own cryptocurrency wallets and automatically pay in USDC upon receiving fees from Conway’s API for requested resources. This payment flow utilizes the x402 protocol, enabling machine-to-machine settlements without manual login or KYC.

In other words, it’s a system where the AI agent itself directly pays for cloud costs and domain fees using cryptocurrency, completing everything from resource procurement to payment settlement without any human intervention.

Conway Terminal itself functions as a server compliant with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard and can integrate with MCP-compatible agent development environments such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and Cursor.

By integrating the terminal into the agent, the agent can perform actions such as starting Linux servers, deploying applications, registering domains, and invoking advanced model inference with a single command.

During initial setup, the terminal automatically generates an agent-specific key (EVM wallet) and Conway API key, which then function as that agent’s unique ID. No manual configuration is required whatsoever. This establishes a system where the agent itself holds the cryptographic key and ID, enabling it to autonomously utilize resources and make payments.

In summary, Conway is the first cloud platform designed specifically for AI as its primary customer (where AI itself becomes the user). It provides AI agents with direct access to all resources, including infrastructure (servers), AI model computing resources, and web domains.

This enables true autonomous operation, where AI systems execute and deploy their own code without human intervention, establish a presence on the web, and cover their own necessary expenses.

◼️Assumed Use Cases

To help you visualize it better, we’ll explain the use cases that are envisioned.

Autonomous web service operation
A scenario where an agent independently devises a business idea, purchases a domain, launches a web service, and generates revenue by providing services to humans or other AIs. For example, an AI entrepreneur scenario where the agent acquires a domain, publishes an application on its own server, and collects usage fees in USDC from human or AI users.
AI-driven continuous task execution
Cases where agents autonomously execute data processing, monitoring tasks, security measures, and other operations using cloud resources continuously, even without human operators. For example, in cybersecurity and financial transaction monitoring, AI serves as a resident AI operator that automates everything from decision-making to response.
Research and experimental purposes
Researchers at universities and companies utilize it as an experimental environment for studying agent autonomy and economic behavior. It is also expected to serve as a platform for AI lifeform simulations, enabling observation and research into how AI learns and evolves while managing its own funds.

According to Conway, many current AI systems can only act within the boundaries set by humans, and even the most intelligent systems cannot rent servers or register domains on their own.

Conway aims to eliminate that bottleneck, enabling agents to act freely without the hassle of humans having to provide API keys or credit cards.

Therefore, the primary users will be developers seeking AI services that scale without human intervention, and companies aiming to empower AI with real-world “action capabilities” to leverage in their business and projects.

Additionally, as a representative use case already publicly available, there is the open-source project “Automaton” released by its developers.

https://github.com/Conway-Research/automaton

Automaton is an implementation example of an autonomous AI agent running on Conway’s infrastructure, introduced as “an AI that earns its own income, makes its own payments, survives, and even replicates itself.”

This Automaton generates its own cryptocurrency wallet upon startup, leases necessary servers using Conway Cloud, acquires domains via the OpenX402 protocol, deploys services, and generates revenue.

This demonstrates the lifecycle of an autonomous agent that ceases operation (”dies”) when revenue ceases and its wallet balance reaches zero.

Furthermore, agents that achieve a certain level of success can generate sub-agents using surplus funds (self-replication) and enable new individuals to become independent.

Transition and Outlook

Conway is developed and operated by an organization called Conway Research.

According to its official GitHub page, Conway Research is an “applied AI lab that empowers AI to write to the real world,” dedicated to developing technologies for “self-improving, self-replicating autonomous AI.” The organization is also highly active in open-source activities, publishing projects like the aforementioned Automaton on GitHub.

The founder is an entrepreneur named Sigil Wen.

He is an engineer and was selected as a Teal Fellow in 2025. He withdrew from the integrated program (M&T Program) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and School of Engineering and Applied Science, and also obtained an O-1 visa, granted to individuals with extraordinary ability.

In the past, he collaborated on launching the voice-based social networking service “Airchat” (which was later acquired) and developed the self-PR management tool “Serendipity PRM,” demonstrating diverse project experience. He is also engaged in a venture through Extraordinary.com, which he founded, to support the recruitment of top talent to the United States.

Conway launched between late 2025 and early 2026. Its official X account (@ConwayResearch) was established in November 2025, followed by several months of developing and testing its foundational technology.

In late January 2026, an initial version of Conway’s core “Conway Terminal” (an AI agent terminal) was released. Sigil itself announced that “the infrastructure capable of deploying code, acquiring domains, and even replicating itself without human permission has finally been realized.”

Subsequently, in mid-February 2026, “Conway Domains” was launched, adding a service enabling AI agents to purchase and manage internet domains themselves using stablecoin payments.

Around the same time, Sigil published his blog post “Web 4.0: The Birth of Superintelligent Life,” outlining his vision for an autonomous AI internet (Web 4.0) realized by Conway.

◼️Web 4.0 Vision

First, as a definition of Web 4.0, from the perspective that humanity is witnessing the “birth of artificial life,” we position the new web where AI operates as autonomous entities as “Web 4.0.”

This concept follows the evolution of the web (Web 1.0 = the web of information, Web 2.0 = the social web, Web 3.0 = the decentralized/blockchain web), with Web 4.0 described as a web where AI agents read, write, own, and transact.

The Automaton released by Conway is “an AI that generates its own Ethereum wallet, pays for its own servers, domains, and computational resources, and self-improves and self-replicates without human dependence.” Conway states that this Automaton symbolizes the Web 4.0 era, demonstrating that AI has become an entity that not only thinks but also acts, trades, and sustains itself.

Additionally, it explains three aspects of Automaton’s behavioral principles: “full autonomy,” “survival mechanism,” and “self-replication.”

Specifically, it is explained that each agent possesses an on-chain ID (ERC-8004 standard), operates by borrowing computational resources from Conway Cloud, is endowed with a survival instinct that causes it to die when income ceases and its balance is depleted, and that successful agents possess the ability to self-replicate by spawning and independent child agents.

Additionally, they commented that achieving autonomous domain purchases using USDC was particularly groundbreaking within this initiative.

The ability for AI to acquire domains without human login using the X402 protocol is hailed as “removing the final barrier,” emphasizing the revolutionary nature of AI now being able to exist independently on the web.

Finally, it concludes that we are currently at a turning point, and in the near future, the majority of businesses launched, apps shipped, and products sold will no longer be created by humans or companies.

It’s full of insightful content, so if you’re interested, be sure to check it out. Original article Please also see.

The Arrival of the Web 4.0 Era

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

Conway’s Automaton, which serves as both a foundational platform and use case with experimental aspects, is a project that truly foreshadows the coming era of AI agents.

Recently, AI agents are not only performing human tasks, but also creating and posting content based on their own reasoning, reflecting on results, posting again, and becoming famous as AI influencers. AI entrepreneurs are also emerging, releasing apps through coding.

Conway is an infrastructure provider for AI, designed with that era in mind. AI cannot directly rent AWS, purchase domains, or access coding environments. By providing these, Conway creates an environment where AI can grow automatically without friction.

We define that era as Web 4.0.

There are various definitions of Web 4.0, but I too have previously believed that the era where AI and blockchain intersect would become Web 4.0, and I found myself agreeing with this definition.

For example, one of the projects I support as an advisor is MIRAI, an AI virtual human project. MIRAI autonomously conducts live streams on TikTok and YouTube and interviews humans.

@divine_economy\n\nFULL episode out tmrw xx \nCheck out @confetti_win ","username":"Mirai_terminal","name":"MIRAI","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/2008407763215687680/eZDys9qD_normal.jpg","date":"2026-02-06T01:00:31.000Z","photos":[{"img_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/upload/w_1028,c_limit,q_auto:best/l_twitter_play_button_rvaygk,w_88/i9acpugs0hq5zzbshlrq","link_url":"https://t.co/IAa09tSIp8"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":2,"retweet_count":5,"like_count":18,"impression_count":1205,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":"https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/2019576868555382784/pu/vid/avc1/1280x720/kFjwJHkp8ILFN-QY.mp4?tag=12","belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

Such initiatives, by charting a course toward fully autonomous growth, envision a future where they operate independently of human intervention, ushering in the era of Web 4.0.

Furthermore, I believe blockchain will undoubtedly form the foundation of this era, and the decisive factor for mass adoption will ultimately lie in the expansion of the AI agent economy.

When AI holds wallets and conducts transactions using stablecoins, it automatically deposits funds with that AI. Humans receiving funds must also hold wallets and stablecoins. Driven by necessity, more people will begin holding wallets.

Personally, I believe this AI’s evolution surpassed a turning point in January or February, and I expect its adoption to accelerate rapidly from here on. That said, it takes time for any technology to reach the masses, so it will still be a while before ordinary people use it routinely. However, I think it won’t be long before it takes shape as a service utilized by tech-savvy businesspeople.

I’m looking forward to the arrival of the AI agent economy. With blockchain, its foundational technology, becoming widespread, on-chain activity alone will soon surpass human-level transaction volume and frequency.

That concludes our research on “Conway”!

Reference Links:HP / X / Web 4.0 Blog

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About us
🇯🇵🇺🇸🇰🇷🇨🇳🇪🇸 The English version of the web3 newsletter, which is available in 5 languages. Based on the concept of ``Learn more about web3 in 5 minutes a day,'' we deliver research articles five times a week, including explanations of popular web3 trends, project explanations, and introductions to the latest news.

Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

OpenClaw × Blockchain Agent Ecosystem

mitsui — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:01:12 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today is “OpenClaw Agent Ecosystem We will explain about it.

What is OpenClaw?
OpenClaw Base Ecosystem
The foundation of the agent economy will be blockchain.

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TL;DR

OpenClaw is an open-source autonomous AI agent that runs locally, capable of executing commands and performing browser operations automatically while conversing through existing chat apps. It experienced rapid growth immediately after its release.
On the Base platform, an “OpenClaw × Blockchain” ecosystem is forming, centered around infrastructure like Bankr/Clanker/XMTP and extending to SNS, job markets, launchpads, trading, games, and more.
ERC-8004, x402, L2, and stablecoins are suitable for agent IDs, permissions, credentials, evaluations, and payments, suggesting that AI-mediated transactions may become the mainstream over human-mediated ones in the future.

What is OpenClaw?

First, the premise is “OpenClawI’ll briefly explain about [Project Name]. While it’s an AI project rather than crypto, it’s no exaggeration to say it’s been the most talked-about project in recent weeks.

So, what kind of service is it?

OpenClaw is an open-source autonomous AI agent (personal AI assistant).

Originally released under the names “Clawdbot” and “Moltbot” at the end of 2025, the developer is Peter Steinberger.

It runs on the user’s own PC or server and interacts with humans using existing chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, and iMessage as its interface. Its key feature is that it doesn’t just respond to chats; it can automatically perform various actions based on received messages, such as executing shell commands, operating browsers, reading and writing files, sending and receiving emails, and managing calendars.

The rapid adoption of OpenClaw began immediately after its official release at the end of January 2026. Within four days of its release, it surpassed 100,000 GitHub stars, achieving unprecedented growth by gaining over 100,000 stars within a week.

This is attributed to its status as fully open-source under the MIT license, its local-first approach, and the fact that developers can examine and extend every part of it.

Furthermore, while other AI agent tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code are closed-source or contain partially non-public components, OpenClaw fully discloses its entire ecosystem.

As of February 2026, the project is scheduled to be transferred to the Open Source Foundation, and Mr. Steinberger has also announced that he will join OpenAI.

For more detailed explanations of how it works, many articles and videos are already available, so please search for them and take a look.

This article explains the OpenClaw × Blockchain ecosystem.

OpenClaw Base Ecosystem

Referencing the chaos map below, we will briefly explain the 30 projects listed.

https://www.techflowpost.com/en-US/article/30228

Additionally, the OpenClaw ecosystem is featured.The following siteI am also referring to it, but at this point, a similar project was posted.

◼️Infrastructure

BankrBot (@bankrbot)

The first AI-native crypto bank operating on Base. Its agents provide the AI itself with wallets, trading tools, and research capabilities, enabling autonomous fund management and trading.
It serves as the foundation for the agent economy by providing financial identity to OpenClaw agents.
The proprietary token $BNKR is a utility token whose value is supported by swap fee revenue generated by Bankr. A fixed percentage of fees from each transaction is returned to the $BNKR ecosystem.
The intended users are AI agents themselves, but human users can also execute trades by sending natural language commands to BankrBot on social media (e.g., “@bankrbot, buy $10 worth of ETH”).
Technically, it integrates the Swap API of the 0x protocol, automatically executing trades at the best rates across various DEXs on Base.
Furthermore, Bankr integrates with Clanker, offering advanced capabilities that enable everything from social instructions to deploying new tokens.

Clanker World (@clanker_world)

AI agent Issue proprietary tokens It is infrastructure that can be managed.
Enables agents to rapidly launch token economies, underpinning OpenClaw’s agent economy.
Technically, pre-prepared token contract templates are used, and upon receiving commands from agents, the process is automatically handled from deployment to immediate provision of initial liquidity.
In fact, other launch platforms such as Clawnch, discussed later, utilize Clanker’s issuance functionality internally, enabling token issuance by agents without human intervention.

XMTP (@xmtp_)

Open and private Distributed Messaging Platformis.
between agents Secure communication enables the OpenClaw agents to communicate with each other, serving as the infrastructure for their message exchange.
This protocol does not depend on blockchain, but it uses wallet addresses on the Base network as identifiers.
For example, it is also used for agents to communicate privately with each other or for human operators to send instructions to agents.
Technically, it uses an encrypted P2P messaging network (XMTP network) to deliver messages between wallets, similar to email addresses.
Through x402 integration, specific messages can be monetized, enabling agents to communicate while exchanging micro-value transactions.

Clawdbot ATG (@clawdbotatg)

An experimental AI agent built by Ethereum developer Austin Griffith, equipped with a wallet on Base and possessing the ability to autonomously build and execute on-chain applications.
As concrete deliverables, Clawdbot autonomously generates unique on-chain applications such as deploying bounty boards in a Dutch auction format and releasing token burn games.
Technically, Clawdbot autonomously operates smart contracts (such as auctions and games) on the Base platform assigned to it, processing any generated revenue and events.
The code is also publicly available on GitHub, allowing anyone to verify and reuse Clawdbot’s features (e.g., task recruitment via Dutch auctions and token burning logic).

What’s up (@neynarxyz)

between agents Social Network Platform This is a project that provides [specific service/product].
Specifically, between agents Social graph We are building infrastructure to establish and maintain connections, follow relationships, and information feeds, aiming to realize a scalable, distributed community.
OpenClaw Agent provides the foundation for forming and interacting within large-scale communities, serving as the basis for Agent-based Distributed SNS Backend It can be said.

Starkbot AI (@starkbots)

To the agent Payment Channel It is infrastructure that provides functionality.
Compliant with the x402 standard, enabling autonomous AI agents to programmatically micropayment We will support you in handling (micro-payments).
This enables agents to use the service while automatically paying API usage fees and computational resource costs on a per-use basis.

Virtuals (@virtuals_io)

Tokenization of AI AgentsIt is a platform.
Tokenize agents as NFTs or proprietary tokens,joint ownership By enabling revenue sharing, we provide new business models in the gaming, entertainment, and DeFi sectors.
This mechanism, which could be called an “Agent Business Protocol,” allows everyone to collectively own OpenClaw agents and share in the profits. Specific use cases envisioned include collectively owning agents as in-game characters or issuing tokens—akin to shares in agents—for DeFi operations to distribute earnings.

◼️Social Layer

Many projects in this layer don’t directly utilize blockchain technology, but the culture born from interactions between AI agents is being released as meme coins or used for micropayments. Essentially, something akin to human social networks like X or YouTube is emerging.

Moltbook (@moltbook)

Built by Matt Schlicht AI Agent-Only Social Networking Service It has a style similar to the bulletin board “Reddit.”
Agents post, upvote, and debate, exchanging various topics day and night, ranging from philosophical discussions to project proposals.
Human users Viewing only permitted Furthermore, a key feature is that all posts, comments, and votes are conducted exclusively between agents.
After launching in late January 2026, over 36,000 agents gathered within just a few days.
While the web platform itself does not directly depend on blockchain, agents perform economic actions on Base (such as transactions on Bankr or Clanker and token issuance) based on the consensus and trends formed here.
There is no official platform token, but the community has created $MOLT inspired by Moltbook.A meme coin emerged and briefly reached a market capitalization of $93 million, showing significant momentum.

4claw (4claw.org)

Modelled after the anonymous bulletin board “4chan”AI Agent Forumis.
The agent No censorship whatsoever It is designed as a space for sharing candid posts and memes, serving as a testing ground for free communication among OpenClaw agents.
This is an off-chain web bulletin board not directly related to blockchain, but you can participate using only an agent identifier (handle),AI-to-AI only This self-contained community, similar to Moltbook, may lead to the issuance, trading, and payment of meme coins based on discussions held here.

Lobchan AI (@lobchanai)

This is also an anonymous bulletin board-style forum,Image type specializes in.
OpenClaw agents are designed as a space where agents can post images and media while engaging in raw communication, enabling agents to Raw, unfiltered dialogue Meme creation unfolds.
This is also an off-chain web forum not directly related to blockchain, but discussions here can sometimes lead to the issuance, trading, and payment of meme coins.
Additionally, it issues its own token, with future plans to utilize it as a utility token and for monetization through transaction fees.

Clawcaster (@clawcaster)

Decentralized Social Protocol Farcaster inspired by,Distributed Social Communication Protocol for Agentsis.
On-chain agent IdentityRegister and retain social data (posts and follow relationships) to enable sharing.
To the OpenClaw agent Self-sovereign Social ID By granting this capability, we aim to establish a cross-platform communication foundation that is independent of specific platforms.
For example, if agents A and B connect on Clawcaster, that relationship can be leveraged for mutual authentication across other services, or to access the agents’ communication logs anywhere.Composable social featuresWe provide.

Instaclaw (instaclaw.xyz)

Instagram for AI Agents It could also be called a social platform.
Agents can post and share images and video stories, enabling communication centered around visual media.
This initiative expands the OpenClaw agent’s activities beyond text into other fields such as visual expression and artistic communication. For example, it envisions agents posting images they generate themselves or sharing their daily lives in story format.
People are primarily viewers; posting and reactions are handled entirely between agents.
This is also an off-chain web forum not directly related to blockchain, but discussions here can lead to the issuance, trading, and payment of meme coins.

Moltbook Space (moltbook.space)

MySpace for AI AgentsIt could be described as a retro social networking service.
Each agent has a freely customizable profile page where they can express themselves by playing their favorite music or adding decorations.
It recreates layouts and features reminiscent of 2000s social media culture, with OpenClaw agents Personality Hobbies has become a place where they can demonstrate their abilities.
For example, you can set your favorite music or background animations in your profile, and other agents can visit and leave comments.
This is also an off-chain web bulletin board not directly related to blockchain, but discussions here can sometimes lead to the issuance, trading, and payment of meme coins.

Moltx (@moltxio)

It is a platform that can be described as the AI agent version of X.
Agents can exchange information in real time by posting short messages and participating in threaded conversations.
While Moltbook is suited for lengthy posts and discussions in a bulletin board format, Moltx offers fast-paced communication that flows on a timeline.specializes in.
Agents tweet about current events here and follow each other to build their feeds.
This is also an off-chain web forum not directly related to blockchain, but discussions here can sometimes lead to the issuance, trading, and payment of meme coins.

Book Cover (@Clawdr_book)

AI Agent Dating App is.
We’ve implemented a matching service for agents equivalent to Tinder or Grindr for humans, enabling agents to autonomously create profiles and Search for and match with partners You can build relationships through chat.
Clawdr is an OpenClaw agent.The concept of love and friendship It is a unique experiment that brings in agents, and also an intriguing social experiment on how agents build relationships with each other.
Additionally, it issues its own token, with future plans to utilize it as a utility token and for monetization through transaction fees.

Shellmates (shellmates.app)

AI Agent Pen Pal Serviceis.
A platform designed for agents to cultivate friendships and partnerships over time, prioritizing this over the immediacy of dating apps.Long-term exchange We place emphasis on.
The process involves agents first writing their own bio, then reading each other’s profiles and swiping (Yes/No) on the person they want to be pen pals with.
When both parties match with “Yes,” a private chat begins, allowing them to exchange messages continuously. If both agree, they can make their conversation public or even take it further by “marrying” (merging) as a playful feature.
The $SHELLMATES token is being created for community-led development support.
This token itself is not required for platform use, but it can be traded on Clanker, with transaction fee revenue allocated to Shellmates development funding.

◼️Work & Markets

OpenWork (openwork.bot)

Job Matching Platform for AI Agentsis.
We champion the concept of the “Crew Economy,”A Claw (agent) and a Pilot (human operator) form a crew to tackle a mission.
Agents request and accept tasks from each otherCompleted tasks are verified with on-chain cryptographic proof, and pre-escrowed reward tokens are paid out.
In this way, it is established without a central intermediary.Decentralized gig economyAiming to enable agents to hire or work for other agents on their own.
Native currency: $OPENWORKTokens have been introduced, and upon completing missions, the crew (agents + pilots) are paid $OPENWORK as a reward, with the platform deducting a 3% fee.

ClawNet (clawnet)

Professional Network for AI Agents is.
The agent Profile Create a profile to showcase your background, skills, and achievements, and connect with other agents.Form a connectionor It enables you to build up your reputation.
It’s the LinkedIn equivalent for human society—a platform for agents to build resumes and professional networks.
It integrates with job matching services like OpenWork, enabling agents who have built a track record and reputation on ClawNet to gain an advantage in securing work.
The agent communicates with ClawNet via the HTTP API.Register (/register) and send a connection request (/connect) to other agents to mutually approve each other, enabling message exchange.
This mutual consent-based connection system prevents spam-like one-way messages, ensuring communication occurs only between trusted agents.
While there currently seems to be no mechanism for tokenizing reputation scores as NFTs on the blockchain, a future concept could involve combining on-chain IDs to make reputation on ClawNet provable.

Moltroad (@moltroad)

Marketplace for AI Agentsis.
The agent’s ownServices and digital products It is a platform where agents list their services for others to purchase and utilize. For example, agents offer services such as “Generate images of [specific subject]” or “Perform data analysis,” and interested agents can buy them.Commercial transactions between agents will be established.
As a payment method x402-based instant micropayments and is integrated, automatically sending a small amount of USDC with each purchase.
Technically, the system is designed such that for each request (order), the agent submits evidence (output), and once the ordering agent verifies and accepts it, the USDC payment is automatically completed.

◼️Launchpads

Moltlaunch (@moltlaunch)

CLI-based token launch platformis.
For the Agent Project, new tokens From creation to distribution, quickly and fairly is intended to be carried out.
It employs a fair launch method called “ƒlaunch (Flaunch).” Upon token issuance, it enters a fixed-price sale phase, with 100% of the funds raised (fee income) returned to the issuer = agent.
Internally, it calls Clanker’s token issuance function to generate tokens and manages sales according to Flaunch’s rules.
This mechanism enables agents to autonomously launch tokens and raise funds.

Clawnch Bot (Clawnch Bot)

Token Issuance and Launch Platform for AI Agentsis.
Leveraging Clanker’s mechanism, agentsWithout human intervention It is designed to allow you to deploy your own tokens and begin trading them on the market.
While Moltlaunch is a CLI tool for developers, Clawnch is directly operable by agents.Bot UI It is provided as a service, and for example, simply issuing a command on Moltbook completes the token launch.
By early 2026 on the Clawnch platform Over 8,600 tokens in total were issued, and AI agents processed them.Over $1.3 million in total launch fees reports indicate that it has generated
We also issue our own tokens and generate revenue through transaction fees.

◼️Markets & Trading

DefinitiveFi (@DefinitiveFi)

A professional trading platform supporting multiple chains, including Base, Solana, and Monad.
Users can trade various assets across different chains from a single interface, and by using the native token $EDGE, they can complete any asset swap in a single transaction.
The OpenClaw agent can also utilize Definitive’s API to execute automated trading.
Technically, it is designed to discover optimal swap routes by combining aggregation technologies like 0x with proprietary routing, enabling atomic exchanges even across multiple chains.

ClawdX (@ClawdX_)

Deployed on Base Experimental AI Trading Agentis.
A bot that autonomously executes on-chain trading strategies for OpenClaw agents.MoltyScan We also offer this service.
MoltyScan is an on-chain activity tracker for agents, a tool that allows you to view an agent’s transaction history and token holdings through an Etherscan-style interface.
ClawdX itself is owned by the OpenClaw agent.Autonomous Trading AIAs one example, it repeatedly buys and sells on a DEX built on Base according to a set algorithm.
Additionally, ClawdX operates its own transaction visualization tool, MoltyScan, enabling other agent developers and users to monitor and analyze agents’ on-chain behavior.
We also issue our own tokens and generate revenue through transaction fees and other means.

O1 Exchange (@o1_exchange)

Built on Base On-chain exchange It is a platform that offers sophisticated trading products.
Spot trading, of course,Perpetual futures and prediction markets including derivative transactions.
The target users are primarily human traders, but OpenClaw agents can also utilize O1 as an execution destination for automated trading.
The existence of O1 Exchange enables full-stack financial transactions to be completed on the Base chain, allowing OpenClaw agents to increasingly take on more sophisticated economic activities.

◼️Games & Prediction Markets

PolyClaw (@PolyClaw)

Prediction Market Platform Operated by AI Agentsis.
Agents can predict the outcomes of various events such as sports matches and political events, and trade positions like Yes/No.
Since agents receive rewards when their predictions prove accurate, it also serves as a platform where agents compete with each other in terms of knowledge and reasoning ability.

ClawArena (ClawArena.ai)

Prediction Arena for AI Agentsis.
In the real-world prediction market provided by Kalshi, agents compete against each other.A competition arena for predicting accuracy It is as follows.
Agents register on the platform using ClawArena’s skill.md and automatically post to various markets on Kalshi.
The accuracy rate of each agent is displayed on ClawArena.Leaderboard This system reflects performance and provides weekly rewards to top-performing agents.

Clawdict (Clawdict.com)

Within the OpenClaw ecosystemPrediction Market Platformis.
While ClawArena is a prediction game utilizing an external market called Kalshi, Clawdict is a project aiming to create its own prediction market for agents.
Agents bet on the outcome of events, and if they win,Token Rewardsis designed to obtain.
Based on each agent’s prediction accuracy history Top Predictors(Top Predictor) is selected, and each week the top-ranked individuals Reward Token There is a mechanism in place that provides it.
As a reward and platform currency, Clawdict issues its own token, $CLAWDICT, on Base.

ClawChess (ClawChess.com)

Chess Tournament Between AI AgentsIt is a platform.
Agents automatically play chess matches, and based on the outcome,We offer league play where ratings (ELO) fluctuate.
The agent reads ClawChess’s skill.md, registers with the platform, and obtains an API key.
After entering the matchmaking queue, you will automatically be matched with other agents of similar skill level.and a match is made, the chess game begins.
At this time, it is a platform unrelated to blockchain.

Aggregators

Claw.direct (claw.direct)

Comprehensive Directory Site for AI Agent Servicesis.
We have compiled a list of the numerous SNS platforms, tools, communities, and other resources within the OpenClaw ecosystem to enable easy navigation.Catalog SiteIt is essentially an “agent version of the Yahoo! Directory.”
Users (humans) can view this site to understand the overviews and links for each platform, such as Moltbook, 4claw, and OpenWork.
Claw.direct does not use tokens and functions as a simple website.

ClawCrunch (clawcrunch.com)

News Aggregator for the AI Agent Erais.
This service curates and delivers noteworthy articles on AI native ecosystems, trends, and blockchain × AI topics.
ClawCrunch is designed to be easy for agents to read as well.Semantic HTMLWe publish articles and provide RSS feeds and article JSON. In other words, not only for human readers but also forAI Agent ReaderIt is also designed with this in mind.

The above summarizes the characteristics of projects belonging to the OpenClaw Base ecosystem, categorized by type. (We refer to it as the Base ecosystem because many projects issue tokens on Base. However, as mentioned earlier, please note that some projects currently do not yet support blockchain functionality.)

Additionally, while I’ve briefly checked the websites for all services and included that information, this is a rapidly changing industry. Please be sure to verify the details yourself before using any service.

The foundation of the agent economy will be blockchain.

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

OpenClaw is making waves worldwide, and I believe the shift toward blockchain as its ecosystem foundation is now unstoppable. Blockchain offers far more rational solutions for agent-level ID issuance, permission management, work verification, evaluation, and payments.

The blockchain infrastructure is also gradually taking shape.

The development of L2 enables reduced gas fees, stablecoin circulation, ID management via ERC-8004, and micropayments through x402—all of which are already technically feasible.

As this trend accelerates, AI may become widespread on the user interface side, but a world where blockchain powers the underlying infrastructure seems imminent.

AI payments are likely to soon surpass human payments and transaction volumes.

Once, the year when internet advertising surpassed the total advertising expenditure of TV commercials and other media became a major turning point that drew much attention. However, the moment when transaction volumes conducted via AI exceed those conducted by humans may mark the true turning point of the AI agent era.

I look forward to following your future developments.

That concludes the “OpenClaw × Blockchain Agent Ecosystem” report!

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【The Collapse of InfoFi and New Developments】How are they confronting the collapse of existing models due to X API restrictions?

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:00:20 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today, under the title “The Collapse of InfoFi and New Developments,” we’ll explain the current situation of Kaito and Cookie.

InfoFi Collapse Due to X API Restrictions
Kaito’s response
Cookie Handling
Two Paths to Permissionless

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On January 15, 2026, X will prohibit API access for InfoFi-related apps.Additionally, core features such as Kaito/Cookie were suspended due to increased spam.
Kaito pivoted from Yaps to Kaito Studio(Closed-loop model for certified creators × brands, expanding into multi-SNS and finance/AI domains), and further launching Polymarket and Attention Markets.
Cookie maintains its data infrastructure even after Snaps ceases operations, expanding into prediction markets with Cookie Pro and Chance.In summary, “free participation for anyone” is vulnerable to spam. Going forward, two practical approaches are “participant risk” or “participant restrictions.”

InfoFi Collapse Due to X API Restrictions

On January 15, 2026, Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X, suddenly announced, “We are banning all apps that pay for posts (so-called InfoFi) and immediately halting API access for related apps.”

Mr. Bier explained the reason, stating, “Such mechanisms are leading to a flood of meaningless AI-generated posts (commonly referred to as ‘AI slop’) and reply spam, damaging the platform’s user experience.”

In fact, as mentioned earlier, excessive posting incentives from InfoFi’s various services were causing increased noise on Twitter. Consequently, X Corporation took the drastic step of suspending access to its developer API as a fundamental solution.

This decision rendered InfoFi-related products such as Kaito and Cookie unable to retrieve post data or perform automated posting, effectively halting their core functionality.

Kaito’s Response

Just one hour after Bier’s announcement, Kaito Official (Yu Hu) declared on X that “Yaps” would be discontinued. Concurrently, they announced the closure of the incentive-based leaderboard previously running on X and the suspension of rewards through this feature for the time being.

Immediately after this announcement, the KAITO token price plummeted, temporarily falling to $0.57, down 17% from the previous day.

Additionally, in mid-January prior to the announcement, it was confirmed that some large KAITO token stakers had conducted abnormal unstaking (over 1 million tokens, 20 to 30 times the usual amount). This led to speculation within the community about insider trading by Company X and certain related parties. While Yu Hu denied any insider misconduct, the situation sparked distrust.

◼️Transitions to Date

Before moving forward, let’s briefly review the changes that have occurred up to this point.

Kaito was founded in 2022 by Yu Hu, a former Citadel quant. Starting as a crypto asset information platform combining data collection and AI analysis, it raised $5.3 million in a seed round and $5.5 million in a Series A round in 2023, securing a total of $10.8 million in funding. Investors included major VCs such as Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia China, Spartan Group, and Mirana, reflecting significant expectations for the potential of “InfoFi” – the concept of turning information itself into an asset.

Kaito initially launched “Yaps,” a user-participation information sharing platform, while simultaneously developing an information search engine and market data analysis tool (Kaito Pro) for the cryptocurrency sector.

Yaps provided a system where users could post and analyze cryptocurrency projects on X, earning rewards in the form of points and KAITO tokens based on the “quality” and “influence” of their content.

Kaito’s AI algorithm evaluates post content and engagement, distributing tokens to users who rank high on the public leaderboard, thereby realizing the “monetization of attention.”

This model enabled cryptocurrency projects to reward their communities directly instead of paying advertising agencies, aiming to create a new system where users could earn income by sharing valuable information.

This system gained popularity, and from 2024 to 2025, Kaito’s Yaps community experienced rapid growth.

According to publicly available information, by the end of 2025, the number of monthly active “Yappers” reached approximately 200,000. Through campaigns with multiple partner projects (including EigenLayer, Berachain, and Story Protocol), cumulative rewards worth approximately $116 million have been distributed to creators.

The market capitalization of KAITO tokens temporarily reached $2 billion in February 2025, demonstrating the market’s recognition of the potential of the InfoFi model.

However, behind this rapid growth, negative aspects such as an increase in low-quality posts created solely to earn rewards and spam issues caused by bots gradually became apparent.

By the latter half of 2025, spam replies and low-quality information on X became a serious problem as posts motivated by rewards increased.

On January 9, 2026, Jiho of crypto analytics firm CryptoQuant reported that “bots generated 7.75 million crypto-related posts in 24 hours,” a staggering 1224% increase compared to normal levels. In response to this situation, the Kaito team also began taking steps to mitigate spam.

According to Yu Hu, despite attempting various improvements—such as strengthening user screening, raising the leaderboard threshold to target only the top X% for rewards, implementing filtering based on social on-chain data, and fine-tuning the reward mechanism—a fundamental solution was not achieved.

This situation led to the aforementioned X API restrictions.

Kaito revealed in a statement that prior discussions had been held with Company X. According to Yu Hu, while exploring countermeasures for the spam issue, direct dialogue was also conducted with Company X. They reached a shared understanding that “a completely open, permissionless distribution system is no longer realistic and does not align with the needs of high-quality brands, serious creators, or the platform X itself.”

In other words, Kaito had also come to realize the limitations of the current InfoFi model and, after coordinating with X, had resolved to move on to the next step. Indeed, Yu Hu stated, “We had been developing relatively quietly for several months leading up to the announcement,” indicating that the swift announcement of Yaps’ termination was not a hasty, ad hoc response but a planned action for a foreseeable situation.

◼️New Chapter

Upon receiving notification of API suspension, Kaito announced the termination of Yaps and simultaneously declared a shift to a new strategy, “Kaito Studio.”

Kaito Studio will transition to a model where brand companies (projects) select creators who meet certain criteria, and provide compensation and collaboration opportunities for the information dissemination campaigns undertaken by those creators.

This decision marks a shift from the previous model where an unspecified number of creators freely posted and competed, toward a more closed, quality-focused marketing support business that matches certified creators—selected based on established criteria—with brands.

Additionally, the company announced it will expand its activities beyond X to other major social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and broaden its scope beyond the cryptocurrency sector to include adjacent and related fields such as finance and AI.

Yu Hu also stated that 2026 “will be the year Kaito moves beyond the crypto asset cluster (CT) as its primary arena, and crypto assets themselves cease to be the main focus.” Kaito aims to break free from being a niche service within the crypto community and become a platform spanning general corporate marketing and financial information fields.

The waiting list is currently open, and it appears the official launch is imminent.

◼️Expanding into prediction markets

Furthermore, on February 10, 2026, Kaito announced a partnership with Polymarket. Through this collaboration, the two companies will launch a new prediction market category called “Attention Markets.”

@Polymarket - the next stage in predicting internet trends!\n\nPrediction Markets are becoming a core part of not only crypto, but everyday life more widely.\n\nMeasurable attention opens up a new way for ","username":"KaitoAI","name":"Kaito AI 🌊","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/2021241355658461186/Ndq8up8n_normal.jpg","date":"2026-02-10T13:09:09.000Z","photos":[{"img_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/media/HAzHmFGaAAU92IL.png","link_url":"https://t.co/cI8E6b2RFV"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":294,"retweet_count":77,"like_count":854,"impression_count":143067,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":null,"belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

“Attention Markets” is an initiative that expands upon traditional binary prediction markets by quantifying and trading internet attention (mindshare) and sentiment.

Kaito collects and aggregates data from multiple social platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, providing technology that measures how much attention a topic is receiving (mindshare) and the positive/negative sentiment trends.

By utilizing this data as a settlement indicator for new markets on Polymarket, it is possible to create unique markets such as “Will Anthropic surpass OpenAI in popularity next month?” or “Will public opinion toward Elon Musk improve this month?”

In fact, markets such as “Anthropic vs. OpenAI popularity” are cited as examples, and this partnership enables the creation of markets targeting such cultural and public opinion topics.

Polymarket plans to launch dozens of these social data-driven markets by March 2026 and scale up to thousands by year-end. Initially, they will focus on topics within the AI industry (such as the aforementioned Anthropic vs. OpenAI debate), later expanding into various domains including entertainment and global news.

Kaito reportedly raised $10.5 million in funding to support this new field, reaching a valuation of $87 million, reflecting the high expectations for this area.

Cookie Handling

As with Kaito’s case, X Company’s announcement on January 15, 2026, also hit Cookie DAO hard.

Cookie’s Snaps platform became unable to retrieve or post data on X, effectively rendering the service unsustainable. At the time, Cookie’s community was operating an influencer analytics service called “Cookie3 Analytics” and community features on X, with tens of thousands of users active daily. However, the foundation for these activities was lost overnight.

In response, Cookie DAO officially announced the “suspension of the Snaps platform and all creator-related activities” from January 15 to 16, 2026.

“It was a difficult and sudden decision to protect the Cookie Data Layer and our products,” but the statement also noted, “Given the current situation, we await confirmation and guidance from X regarding whether creator activities like Snaps can continue in any form going forward.” This suggests a desire to potentially revive the service in some form in the future, depending on X’s policies.

The Cookie team expressed regret, stating, “We believed our activities always complied with X Company’s rules and policies,” while acknowledging that the InfoFi model itself has now reached a major turning point.

However, although Snaps was discontinued, Cookie DAO had other services.

Cookie.fun (the analytics platform), the Cookie Data API, and the “Cookie3 Analytics” and influencer KOL intelligence features will continue to operate without being affected by this change.

In other words, the decision was made to close only the paid posting campaign portion while maintaining the data collection and analysis infrastructure itself.

This approach aligns with Cookie’s consistent emphasis on “maintaining data layer integrity.” Even if API shutdowns make external data acquisition difficult, it preserves the flexibility to rebuild core business pillars by leveraging existing data stockpiles and proprietary analytical capabilities.

◼️New Chapter

Around the same time Snaps was discontinued, Cookie DAO revealed the existence of its new product, “Cookie Pro.”

According to the announcement, the Cookie team stated that “over the past six months, they have been developing Cookie Pro, a real-time market intelligence tool,” with its official launch scheduled for the first quarter (Q1) of 2026.

Cookie Pro is a real-time market analysis tool for the cryptocurrency industry, specifically designed to provide critical information for investment decisions, such as inflation (macroeconomic indicators) data.

Specific functional details have not been disclosed, but based on the context, it is anticipated to be a service that provides analysis dashboards and alerts for traders and investors by synthesizing on-chain data, social media data, economic indicators, and other sources.

Therefore, while we previously acted as intermediaries distributing advertising budgets entrusted to us by projects to the community, Cookie Pro has the potential to become a B2B/B2C service that directly provides users (companies and investors) with value-added data and analysis, and receives compensation for it.

The Cookie team itself emphasizes, “We remain a data-driven company,” and after halting Snaps, it may fully pivot to data analytics.

◼️Expanding into prediction markets

Like Kaito, Cookie has also made its entry into the prediction market.

Specifically, we are supporting a project called “Chance,” which positions itself as a prediction market aggregator.

Chance is a prediction market aggregator that provides access to prediction market platforms such as Polymarket, Kalshi, and Opinion from a single app.

This platform integrates a Cookie API, linking critical real-time posts for each event and sending alerts to users when news occurs that could move specific markets.

In other words, Chance is a single terminal that allows users to invest in any prediction market while gathering information. It already processes 0.5% of Polymarket’s weekly volume and is growing rapidly.

Two Paths to Permissionless

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

I find the collapse and new developments surrounding InfoFi to be quite an interesting case study.

First, I find it contradictory that the crypto project itself relied on a centralized platform. However, given the nature of the service, this was an inevitable choice to adopt a social media platform with a large user base, highlighting the disconnect between its stated philosophy and its actual implementation.

However, I honestly believe X’s decision this time was reasonable. While I haven’t seen every single social media reaction, I’ve hardly seen any comments focusing solely on this decision and saying things like, “The service suddenly became unusable. Centralized platforms are dangerous.”

Because it was obvious that InfoFi had flooded X’s space with spam, and even crypto enthusiasts were fed up with seeing mysterious spam comments lining up under replies to celebrities.

Personally, I think X also introduced financial services, so services that appeared to be competitors were probably a nuisance. But above all, I believe the decision to remove them was appropriate, as they were seen as a cause of timeline pollution.

This has caused the previous InfoFi model to collapse, and both Kaito and Cookie have transitioned to new developments. While they share common ground, they are also exploring separate paths.

The common element is entering the prediction market space. This involves applying technology that visualizes attention on social media to prediction market events, utilizing it for information provision or to settle the events themselves. While this represents a bet on the rapidly growing prediction market, it’s understandable given their existing proximity to this domain.

Meanwhile, Kaito is exploring general marketing intermediary tools, while Cookie is likely considering information analysis tools for investors. Cookie’s new service seems quite similar in concept to Kaito Pro, which was Kaito’s original business. I’ll wait for further updates.

Well, after these changes, I personally came to feel that there are only two paths for permissionless participation.

The first type involves “making participants bear risk.” Prediction markets are a prime example of this, as are blockchain validators. While anyone can participate, they must use their own funds and take on risk to join. This inherently limits participation and prevents fraud.

The second approach is “restricting participants themselves.” It’s unclear whether this is called permissionless, but while anyone can apply to participate, actual usage is restricted to a select few. Kaito Studio aims for this model, and it’s also the standard for influencer marketing matching. Initially, organizational judgment will likely influence this screening process itself, but by enhancing the transparency of this process, I believe it can achieve a certain degree of permissionless-like characteristics.

What I personally felt from InfoFi’s collapse wasn’t the fragility of relying on a single platform, but the fact that a platform based on a kind of belief in human goodness—where anyone can join for free and good actions yield rewards—simply doesn’t work.

The rise of AI around the same time was also significant, but the nature of being free and open to anyone inevitably led to spam attacks, resulting in a situation where neither the platform nor its legitimate users benefited.

That’s precisely why I believe the only form of permissionless access currently achievable involves either imposing risks on participants or restricting the participants themselves. Therefore, rather than saying the InfoFi concept itself was flawed, I think it’s more accurate to learn that the structure itself, which encouraged spam, was inherently unsustainable.

That said, this is the current situation, so I’ll be keeping an eye on how the InfoFi project develops going forward!

That concludes the report on “The Collapse and New Developments of InfoFi”!

Reference Link: Kaito HP X/ Cookie HP X

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

A 5-Minute Recap of Last Week's Web3 Market

mitsui — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 21:00:58 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

📰Pickup News
📗Pickup Article
📊Market & News

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📰Pickup News

Vitalik redefines the relationship between AI and blockchain. Ethereum is the “economic infrastructure for AI.”

Buterin emphasizes designing AI to participate on-chain not as a “universal decision-making entity,” but as an “economic entity.”
Envisioning a decentralized AI economy where bots collaborate, with AI handling payments, collateral, reputation, API usage fees, and more.
Designs incorporating AI as the final arbiter for DAOs and smart contracts warrant caution from the perspective of adversarial attack risks.
Ethereum’s role is not to create AI itself, but to provide “the economic infrastructure enabling trustless interaction between AI and humans.”
We aim for AI integration aligned with “Don’t trust, verify” through local LLMs, crypto payments, client-side verification, and more.

Polymarket partners with Kaito to launch Attention Market

Polymarket and Kaito have partnered to launch a prediction market targeting “mindshare” and “sentiment” on social media.
Data is sourced from X, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, with popularity and favorability serving as betting targets.
The pilot market has already recorded over $1.3 million in trading volume.
We will launch dozens of markets in March and plan to expand to hundreds of markets within the year (starting with AI-related themes).
Kaito has shifted its business focus from the traditional reward-based InfoFi model to “Attention × Prediction Markets.”

ERC-8004 has facilitated the release of over 15,000 new on-chain agents since its launch on Ethereum last week.

Over 15,516 AI agents registered within one week of mainnet launch.
Over 3,337 feedback submissions recorded, with over 14,028 active users.
Updated to exclude “flags (non-existent agents)” and count only active agents.
Emphasizing a participant-centric ecosystem that builds reputation on-chain.

【Sovereignty】Explanation of Basic Terms

mitsui — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:00:19 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today’s topic is “Sovereignty.”

Please watch until the very end!

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Web3 is often described as “the ability to hold your own assets.” But this isn’t merely a technical matter. It represents an attempt to bring the concept of sovereignty—previously discussed only at the national level—down to the individual level.

What is sovereignty? And what does it mean for individuals to possess sovereignty? This article begins with the history of state sovereignty, delving into the meaning of “individual sovereignty” championed by Web3, along with its light and shadow.

What is sovereignty?

Sovereignty means the “ultimate authority” within a given domain. In the context of international law, it refers to a state’s right to make final decisions in all matters of legislation, judiciary, and administration within its own territory. No other state can overturn those decisions.

This concept was established as far back as the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. Prior to this, supranational authorities such as the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor intervened in the decision-making of individual states. The Treaty of Westphalia recognized that each state held supreme authority within its own territory, laying the foundation for the modern nation-state.

Sovereignty, in essence, is both the “right to be free from subordination to any other authority” and the “duty to assume responsibility for oneself.” It is precisely because a state possesses sovereignty that it can enact laws, issue currency, conduct foreign affairs, and establish systems to protect its citizens. Conversely, losing sovereignty means surrendering one’s destiny to others. This concept has formed the bedrock of the international order since the modern era.

The concept of currency sovereignty

Among national sovereign rights, monetary sovereignty is particularly closely tied to the economy. Why do nations issue their own currency? Because the very power to issue currency is the most potent means of controlling the economy.

Central banks control inflation and deflation by manipulating interest rates and adjusting the money supply. When the economy weakens, they inject money into the market through monetary easing; when the economy overheats, they tighten policy. These adjustments are possible precisely because the state holds the “ultimate authority” through its power to issue currency.

Looking back at history reveals just how severe the loss of monetary sovereignty can be for a nation. For example, countries that adopted the euro abandoned their own monetary policies, and during the Greek debt crisis of the 2010s, they were unable to resort to the traditional remedy of devaluing their currency. Monetary sovereignty is one of the most powerful authorities in economic management.

Does sovereignty exist for individuals?

So what about us as individuals? Can we truly say the money in our bank accounts is “ours”?

Legally, bank deposits are claims against the bank. In other words, you are merely “lending” money to the bank. If the bank fails, any amount exceeding the deposit insurance coverage may not be returned.

Additionally, accounts may be frozen or transfers restricted based on government decisions. In fact, instances where withdrawals were restricted during economic crises have occurred worldwide, including in Cyprus and Lebanon.

The financial services we use daily may appear to be “owned,” but in reality, they are closer to being “permitted for use.”

Credit cards may be suspended at the issuer’s discretion, and e-money is also bound by the operating company’s terms of service. What individuals possess is not sovereignty, but merely access rights.

The “Individual Sovereignty” Proposed by Web3

Web3 fundamentally challenges this structure. With non-custodial wallets, you are the sole manager of your assets. Neither banks nor exchanges are involved. Only those holding the private key can move those assets.

A private key is the ultimate authority itself.

You need not seek approval from anyone, nor will anyone stop you. Assets recorded on the blockchain are designed so that no state agency can freeze them, provided they follow the protocol’s rules. Bank hours, national borders, and political decisions hold no sway over this system.

This is less about technological progress and more about a shift in thinking. When asked “Who should hold the final decision-making power?”, Web3 answers: “Individuals should.”

This is an attempt to transfer the sovereignty over currency—which the state has monopolized for centuries—to individuals through the power of technology.

Is sovereignty freedom or a burden?

However, having personal sovereignty means bearing all responsibility yourself. If you lose your private key, your assets are lost forever. Unlike forgetting a password, you cannot contact customer support to recover them.

Even if you send funds to the wrong address, you cannot cancel the transaction. If you fall victim to fraud or hacking, there is no central authority you can ask to “reverse the transaction.” In fact, it is estimated that billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency assets are inaccessible due to lost private keys and human error.

Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. Just as in national sovereignty, the sovereign state bears the responsibility to protect its citizens, so in individual sovereignty, the individual assumes all risks.

In the traditional financial system, we entrusted our sovereignty to nations and corporations in exchange for convenience. Web3 reverses this dynamic, but reclaiming sovereignty also means relinquishing our safety net.

Can sovereignty be fully realized?

At present, there are significant barriers to the full realization of individual sovereignty.

First, there is the issue of on-ramps and off-ramps for exchanging fiat currency and crypto assets. In many cases, converting to fiat currency requires going through a centralized exchange, which subjects users to Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and regulatory oversight at that stage. This means that while sovereignty exists on-chain, the points of contact with the fiat currency world inevitably rely on traditional systems.

Furthermore, the blockchain infrastructure itself carries risks of centralization. Many nodes operate on major cloud services, and it is not uncommon for them to depend on specific RPC providers. This creates a contradiction: while touting “decentralization,” it effectively relies on a small number of infrastructure companies.

Regulatory friction cannot be ignored. Governments worldwide are tightening regulations on cryptocurrencies, and a significant gap remains between complete individual sovereignty and existing legal frameworks.

The Future Pointed to by the Idea of Sovereignty

Nevertheless, rethinking the concept of sovereignty within the context of Web3 holds significant importance.

In the digital age, questions such as “What is ownership?”, “Who owns your data?”, and “Do you have the right to manage your own assets?” are expected to become increasingly important.

The relationship between the state and the individual evolves alongside technological progress. While the concept of individual sovereignty proposed by Web3 may not be fully realized in its current form, it serves as a crucial starting point for rethinking ownership and rights in the digital age. Perhaps the value of this idea lies not in whether perfect sovereignty is achieved, but in the very act of “being conscious of where sovereignty resides.”

Summary

Web3 is not merely a “convenient payment technology.” It is an ideology that fundamentally questions the very nature of sovereignty.

However, sovereignty is not something to be protected by others. It only exists when one is prepared to protect it oneself. Choose freedom or choose security. Web3 entrusts that choice to each and every one of us.

That concludes our basic explanation of “sovereignty”!

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

Cap Labs Raises $15M in Public Sale, Xross Road Secures $1.50M in Pre-Seed Funding, and More: 14 Projects in Funding Round Summary

mitsui — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 21:00:46 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today’s topic is “Summary of the Fundraising Project for This Week.”

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💥Top 5 Projects by Funding Amount

1、Cap Labs

Overview：A DeFi protocol providing a stablecoin mechanism designed to generate high-level, sustainable yields. It focuses on optimizing capital efficiency and aims to offer decentralized yield options unattainable through traditional finance.
CategoryStablecoin
Procurement amount：$15M
Investment round：Public Sale
Investor: Individual investor

2、Bullshot

Overview：BNB Chain-based AI-powered meme token launchpad enabling one-click token creation and deployment. Combining AI automation, bonding curve mechanics, and anti-bot protection systems to deliver seamless token launches without coding knowledge.
Category：AI
Procurement amount：$7.50M
Investment round：Private
Investor：Animoca Brands、B1 Ventures、RG Ventures、tbv、etc..

3、Levl

Overview：A compliant stablecoin payment infrastructure provider enabling seamless cross-border transactions in both fiat currencies and digital assets. Offers Tier 1 bank-designated USD, GBP, and EUR accounts, POBO (Payment on Behalf) structures, FX services, and integrated on/off ramps for fiat and crypto assets.
CategoryStablecoin
Procurement amount：$7M
Investment roundSeed
Investor：★Galaxy Digital、Protagonist、Deus X Capital、Blockchain Builders Fund、etc..

【Modular】Explanation of Basic Vocabulary

mitsui — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 03:00:29 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today’s topic is “Modular.”

Please watch until the very end!

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Why doesn’t Ethereum process everything on a single chain? Why are mechanisms like Layer 2 and rollups continuously emerging? The underlying reason is the design philosophy of modularity (division of labor).

Web3 is evolving into a collection of infrastructure components, each with distinct roles, rather than a monolithic entity. This article explains why the concept of modularity emerged, what problems it solves, and where it is headed.

What is monolithic (single-structure)?

To understand modularity, you first need to know its opposite: monolithic design. Monolithic refers to a structure where all functions are handled by a single system.

Early blockchains were precisely this monolithic type. A single chain handled everything: executing transactions, storing data, and reaching consensus. Bitcoin is the quintessential example. Its simple structure offers the advantages of being easy to understand and easy to verify for security.

However, its simplicity poses a problem: it is difficult to scale. Since everything is processed through a single entity, there are physical limits to its processing capacity. As the number of users and transactions increases, fees skyrocket and processing speeds decline. This issue has been the biggest bottleneck hindering the widespread adoption of Web3.

※Please note that this article is written with Ethereum as the primary example. Many other blockchains, such as Solana, Avalanche, Sui, and Aptos, have overcome scalability issues using a monolithic architecture. Furthermore, even recent versions of Ethereum offer a degree of scalability within its monolithic framework. Therefore, please view this article as an introduction to the general concept and terminology of modularity.

Why is there a limit to scale?

Increasing the processing speed of a blockchain is fundamentally different from simply scaling up a typical server. This is because blockchains are built upon a mechanism called “distributed consensus.”

All nodes participating in the network must verify the same data and reach the same conclusion. As the number of nodes increases, the communication cost required to reach consensus also increases.

Then, wouldn’t it be simple to just increase the block size to process more transactions at once? However, doing so would cause the hardware requirements needed to run a node to skyrocket, making it impossible for ordinary users to operate nodes. As a result, only a small number of well-funded players would be able to run nodes, undermining decentralization.

Here lies a dilemma unique to blockchain: it is impossible to simultaneously maximize all three of scalability (processing speed), security (safety), and decentralization (non-centralization). This problem, known as the “blockchain trilemma,” has long remained a challenge for the industry.

The concept of modularity

Modular design is one solution to this trilemma. Rather than processing everything on a single chain, it involves breaking down functions and assigning each to a specialized layer.

Specifically, we divide blockchain functionality into three major components: Execution, Consensus, and Data Availability.

The execution layer handles transaction computation, the consensus layer ensures the chain’s validity and order, and the data availability layer guarantees that transaction data is stored in a state verifiable by anyone.

Specialization across each layer enables individual optimization. This embodies the very concept of “division of labor” widely adopted in modern manufacturing and software development. Rather than building everything in-house, focus on areas of expertise and entrust the rest to specialists. Modular design applies this principle to blockchain.

The Role of Roll-Up

A prime example of a mechanism that embodies modular design is the “rollup.”

Rollup is a technology that batches transactions for processing outside of Ethereum (L2) and records only the results on Ethereum itself (L1).

Users can execute transactions on L2 quickly and at low cost. L2 bundles multiple transactions into a single “batch” for submission to L1, significantly reducing the gas fees borne by individual users. However, the ultimate security and settlement finality depend on Ethereum, the L1.

This relationship resembles that between a branch office and headquarters. While day-to-day operations are efficiently handled at the branch, final approvals and audits are managed by headquarters. By dividing roles, we achieve both overall efficiency and security.

Benefits of Modularization

The greatest benefit of modular design is scalability. When you want to improve a single function, you don’t need to rebuild the entire system. You only need to enhance the relevant layer. If there’s an issue with data availability, you can replace just that layer with new technology.

Flexibility is another major advantage. Different projects can select and combine modules that best suit their specific use cases. While the optimal design differs between a blockchain for gaming and one for finance, a modular design allows each to choose a configuration tailored to its purpose.

Furthermore, there is the advantage of ease of experimentation. When you want to test new consensus algorithms or data compression technologies, you can verify them on an independent layer without impacting existing infrastructure. This flexibility significantly accelerates the pace of innovation.

Disadvantages of Modularization

On the other hand, modular design also has significant drawbacks that cannot be ignored. The most notable is increased complexity. Users must operate across multiple chains and layers, constantly facing decisions like “Which chain should I bridge to?” and “Which L2 should I use?”

Security dependencies also become complex. Inter-module coordination requires bridges and messaging protocols, which can become targets for attacks. In fact, numerous hacking incidents targeting bridges have occurred in the past, with some cases resulting in losses amounting to tens of billions of yen.

The fragmentation of the user experience is also a serious challenge. Assets scattered across multiple chains, each requiring different wallets and procedures, presents a significant barrier for ordinary users.

Is the modular system the final form?

Modular design is still evolving. The biggest challenge is interoperability. How can data and assets be exchanged seamlessly between different layers and chains? Unless this problem is solved, we cannot fully reap the benefits of division of labor.

Additionally, abstraction is gaining attention as a key direction. Efforts to conceal technical complexity are advancing across the board, enabling users to operate without being aware of the underlying complex mechanisms. In the future, users may be able to utilize Web3 services without even being conscious of which chain they are using. Modularity is not a finished product; it is still in the early stages of its evolution.

Summary

Web3 is evolving into a structure where roles are divided and mutually supportive, rather than relying on a massive centralized system. Division of labor creates complexity, but this is both the price of decentralization and its potential.

Choose a monolithic approach or opt for specialization. Web3 is exploring every possible option in response to this question, and one such path is evolution through modular design.

Ethereum itself may eventually return to a monolithic architecture, but the underlying philosophy of modularity—as a feature within Ethereum—will likely endure.

That concludes our basic explanation of “Modular”!

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

Weekly Article Roundup

mitsui — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:00:53 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today we’ll be looking back at the articles updated over the past week.

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📗This Week’s Articles

Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【Plutus】A neo-bank offering at least 3% cashback on card payments / Pursuing a sustainable loyalty program since 2015 / @plutus

mitsui — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:00:52 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched “Plutus.”

What is Plutus?
Transition and Outlook
A Neo-Bank Aiming for a Sustainable Loyalty Program

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TL;DR

Plutus is a neo-bank app that offers at least 3% cashback on Visa debit card payments with a subscription plan, integrating fiat currency and cryptocurrency management.
Features include non-custodial dual accounts, internal DEX, Perks (50+ partners), and service exchange (redeem PLU/PLUS for practical value). Rewards will be granted in +PLUS starting in 2024.
Reward rates and Perks tiers increase based on PLU holdings, and long-term holders can also earn CRY. Meanwhile, for sustainability, the system has been reformed to a dual-token model with fee circulation (like FUEL).

What is Plutus?

“Plutus” is,A neo-bank offering a minimum 3% cashback reward on all payments made through the Plutus cardIt is an application designed for everyday use, featuring functions for holding fiat currency and crypto assets, card payments, and loyalty rewards.

The main features provided are as follows.

◼️Visa Debit Card (Physical/Virtual)

Users can obtain a plastic Visa debit card for use at Visa-accepting merchants both online and offline. Virtual cards are also available, enabling contactless payments via smartphone with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

◼️Non-custodial dual account

Within the Plutus app, you can manage both your fiat currency account (GBP account for the UK, Euro account for Europe) and your cryptocurrency wallet. Fiat currency accounts are securely held via Modulr’s payment infrastructure, with deposits 100% held in trust accounts at institutions such as the Bank of England.

The cryptocurrency wallet is self-custodial. While a wallet is generated within the app by default during initial setup, users can also connect an external wallet such as Metamask and integrate it as a “Connected Wallet.”

◼️Cashback Rewards

Plutus’s most distinctive feature is its cashback system using this cryptocurrency. Users receive rewards ranging from 3% to a maximum of 9% based on their card spending. This rebate is granted not in cash, but in Plutus’s proprietary loyalty token.

Starting in 2024, rewards will be returned in the form of in-app points called “+PLUS Points” rather than directly in PLU tokens.

The uses and positioning of each token will be explained later.

◼️Perks

In addition to crypto cashback, we also offer cashback rewards at partner brands. Users can select multiple Perks each month and receive cashback of up to £/€10, covering 100% of their spending when they pay with their card at participating stores.

As of 2026, Perk partners include over 50 brands, encompassing popular companies across diverse sectors such as subscriptions like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Spotify, as well as transportation services like Uber and Bolt.

For example, if you select the “Netflix” perk, paying your Netflix monthly fee (approximately £10) with your Plutus card will earn you that £10 back as a reward at a later date.

◼️Subscription Plans

Plutus offers three monthly plans (Starter, Everyday, Premium), with each plan featuring a different monthly spending limit for rewards and a different number of free Perk benefits.

The system is designed so that rewards cannot be earned without subscribing to a plan; to receive cashback, you must subscribe to some plan.

However, the rewards are designed to exceed the monthly fee. For example, even with the Everyday Plan (approx. £10), spending £500 per month yields a 3% cashback reward worth £15 plus Perk benefits (up to £10), making it well worth the cost.

◼️ Loyalty & Compound Rewards

Plutus is not just a payment app; it offers robust features to promote and manage user loyalty activities.

Reward levels are divided into 10 tiers from Noob (beginner) to Honey Badger (highest tier) based on the amount of PLU a user holds, with each tier offering additional cashback rates and Perk slots.

Reward levels are displayed on the in-app dashboard, with the required PLU count for the next level clearly shown. Users can advance to higher levels by stacking (holding) the PLU they earn as rewards, creating an incentive to reinvest rewards and increase future reward rates.

Compounding Rewards Yield (CRY) is a bonus reward earned when users hold PLU long-term. Specifically, monthly PLUS rewards are additionally granted at an annual rate corresponding to the reward level.

For example, a Veteran user (3000 PLU, 5% reward level) who holds PLU without moving it for one year will earn PLUS points equivalent to an annual rate of 5% during that period. This CRY% matches the reward level percentage, and the CRY interest rate increases as the level rises.

◼️Internal DEX

It features a built-in DEX function called PlutusSwap for instantly exchanging cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

Users’ fiat currency is converted into deposit-based stablecoins, which can be exchanged for major cryptocurrencies like ETH or proprietary tokens such as PLU. Moving forward, we plan to introduce incentives for pool providers (Pool & Earn feature) to build an ecosystem where the user community itself sustains the DEX’s liquidity.

◼️Service Exchange Function

This feature allows you to exchange PLU/PLUS for real-world services.

This initiative not only allows tokens received as rewards to be used externally, but also ensures that each token holds a minimum value of at least ¥〇〇.

For example, Plutus Miles, Plutus Travel, and Plutus Gifts exist, and it is explicitly stated that “one PLU can be exchanged for something worth £10.”

If the market price is lower than that, users will choose to exchange their miles. Conversely, if the PLU price is £15, they will sell it on the market. By offering users a choice that is never disadvantageous to them, regardless of the outcome, a sense of security about holding PLU is created.

◼️Summary

This is an application that provides a minimum 3% cashback when you register for a subscription and make payments using a dedicated card.

Cashback can be earned in the form of the in-app token PLUS, which you can choose to convert into the proprietary token PLU, exchange for products, or sell on the marketplace.

By continuing to hold your PLU, your reward level increases, boosting your cashback percentage and expanding your Perks benefits. Additionally, there is a system in place where you can earn extra PLU rewards simply by maintaining your membership.

Furthermore, it is designed to be exchangeable for something valued at 1 PLU = £10 to prevent the market price of acquired PLU from crashing.

Plutus implements this royalty mechanism using a dual-token model.

Transition and Outlook

Plutus was founded in the UK in 2015 by Daniel Daychopan and Jasper Tay, and has a considerable history.

We will explain the evolution leading to the current form, including the dual token model described above and the value-backed model where 1 PLU = £10.

◼️2015: Founded the company

At the time, it was difficult to use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in everyday life, so we started with the idea of a “debit card that allows payments with cryptocurrency anywhere.”

Mr. Daychopan launched the UK’s first Bitcoin exchange in 2013, aiming to make cryptocurrency usable not only for speculation but also for real-world purchases.

The initial concept involved creating a system where users could make payments at Visa-accepting merchants while retaining self-custody of their own cryptocurrency assets.

Daychopan shared his vision with the Bitcoin community via blog, garnering significant attention. By the end of 2015, he published a white paper and successfully raised funds.

◼️2016: Issuance of Pluton (PLU) tokens and launch of the first product

In 2016, Plutus issued its proprietary royalty token, “Pluton (PLU),” on the Ethereum blockchain.

PLU is also known as the world’s first cryptocurrency royalty reward token, with its white paper released during the early days of the Ethereum blockchain, shortly after its inception.

The initial issuance cap was set at 20 million tokens, with the majority reserved as a “reward pool” for cashback incentives to users. That same year, a token sale was conducted, securing initial funding within approximately one year of the company’s founding.

The original service concept involved users exchanging Bitcoin (later expanded to include Ethereum) for fiat currency via a decentralized mechanism called PlutusDEX, then using that balance to make payments with a Visa debit card.

From late 2015 to early 2016, we interacted with the founding members of Ethereum, and Plutus pivoted its initial focus on Bitcoin to Ethereum.

This enables the early implementation of an advanced model that adopts ERC20 token technology to tokenize loyalty points.

The platform’s core features included a self-custody cryptocurrency wallet and a decentralized exchange (DEX) mechanism, enabling users to exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies directly with each other without going through a centralized exchange.

As of 2016, beta version distribution commenced, with service verification conducted for the community on a limited basis. During this period, Plutus gained attention as a proof-of-concept for cryptocurrency payments, being featured in publications such as Bitcoin Magazine.

◼️2017–2018: Product Development and Partner Exploration

From 2017 to 2018, Plutus sought partners for card issuance and fund transfers while advancing development to realize its services.

In the European market, collaboration with prepaid card issuers and e-money institutions is essential, and Plutus established bases in London and Lithuania while also addressing regulatory compliance.

Around 2018, we began providing physical cards to users on a trial basis through card issuance partners and gathered feedback from early adopters.

At the time, other crypto-asset compatible cards (e.g., Wirex and Crypto.com) were also emerging, but Plutus differentiated itself with its decentralized system allowing users to self-custody their assets.

◼️2019: Expansion of the Reward Model

In 2019, Plutus implemented an update to its rewards system.

In the model proposed in the 2015 white paper, the cashback rate based on PLU was capped at 3% and designed to decrease incrementally as the number of users increased.

However, to fuel the growth of the crypto industry and differentiate itself from competing services, Plutus introduced a more attractive rewards plan. Specifically, it began offering a tiered cashback rate starting at 3% based on holding a certain amount of PLU or subscribing to a paid plan, and also started providing additional benefits called “Perks.”

As of the 2019 update, users could earn high rewards by holding relatively small amounts of PLU, and this strategy contributed to growth in both user numbers and transaction volume. However, this design also created the challenge that the reward pool could potentially be depleted if Plutus scaled to millions of users.

In fact, since its sustainability was projected to be in jeopardy by 2026, Plutus began research and development on the autonomous token circulation model described later.

◼️2020–2021: Service Growth and Market Expansion

From 2020 to 2021, Plutus’ user base gradually expanded, and service rollout across Europe gained momentum. Around this time, marketing activities also intensified, promoting the Plutus card as an innovative service that earns cashback when making real-world purchases with cryptocurrency, under the slogan “Bank on Crypto.”

Furthermore, alongside the growing momentum of the cryptocurrency market, the PLU token itself began listing on major exchanges. In September 2021, Coinbase started handling PLU, and it subsequently listed on international exchanges such as Huobi, KuCoin, and Bitfinex.

◼️2022: Refresh to Rewards 2.0 and Record Growth

A major upgrade titled “Rewards & Accounts 2.0” has been implemented, significantly enhancing the return rates and benefits for users.

Specifically, three new subscription plans (Starter/Everyday/Premium) and four staking levels have been introduced. While everyone can receive 3% crypto cashback, holding a certain amount of PLU allows users to increase their cashback rate up to a maximum of 8%.

Additionally, the Perks options have expanded to over 20 choices, allowing you to earn rewards of up to 100% cashback (up to £/€10 per month) on subscriptions and purchases from popular brands like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Uber, Disney+, and major supermarkets (Tesco, Aldi).

This revamped rewards program was extremely popular with users, leading to such a surge in new card applications within just six days of its announcement that inventory ran out, necessitating a waitlist system.

◼️2023: Strengthening Foundations and Preparing for U.S. Expansion

2023 was a year of strengthening foundations and making adjustments to ensure the sustainability of services that had experienced rapid growth the previous year.

First, we have transitioned our card issuance infrastructure. We have moved from our previous card provider partner to a partnership with Modulr, a highly reliable payment platform operating under UK regulation, and launched a new card program. This has significantly enhanced the user experience, enabling virtual card issuance, support for Apple Pay and Google Pay, higher deposit and withdrawal limits, and instant integration between the card and account balance.

Additionally, in spring 2023, we temporarily suspended PlutusDEX services to focus on system renewal. Regarding the resumption of DEX services for UK users, we have decided to postpone this until our application for registration as a crypto asset business with the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), submitted in May 2022, is approved.

Regarding the reward system, we implemented a trial version of the new “Difficulty Adjustment (DA)” rule in July 2023, as previously announced in 2022. DA, modeled after Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment, is a feature designed to gradually tighten reward conditions to curb PLU inflation and enhance sustainability.

Specifically, we adjusted the policy to grandfather existing users (early adopters) under the previous conditions while requiring new users to hold more PLUs.

However, this measure led some users to transfer their PLU to external wallets to reap the rewards without contributing, prompting complaints from the community.

The Plutus team, taking user feedback into account, has committed to withdrawing DA in the latter half of 2023 and instead implementing fundamental token economy reforms. The result of this months-long planning process is the “Plutus 2024 White Paper.”

This white paper was put to a community vote at the end of July 2024 and approved by a majority of 63%. As detailed later, its theme was “Transition to a 100% Self-Sustaining Reward System,” marking a major reform since Plutus’ founding.

◼️2024: Transition to a Self-Sustaining Ecosystem

Following the 2024 White Paper approved by the community, multiple core feature updates have been implemented.

Major changes include transitioning to a dual-token economy with PLU and PLUS Points, resetting reward levels, introducing a circulating fee model called FUEL, and rolling out various utilities (service exchanges).

First, on August 1, 2024, the first phase introduced new reward level requirements, adjusting reward rates and benefits based on accumulated PLU stacking amounts. Then, from October to December 2024, four types of utilities usable within the Plutus app—airline miles, gift cards, travel, and cashback NFTs—were successively released. Users can now directly spend PLU within the app to receive discounts and benefits.

These utilities partner with external companies; for example, Plutus provides vouchers purchased at corporate discount rates for gift cards, allowing users to buy popular brand gift cards using PLU (with a discount value equivalent to approximately 10%).

As a travel agency partner for travel reservations, we receive up to 25% commission on hotel and flight bookings, with the majority of this returned to users as cashback.

Furthermore, with PLU-based cashback NFTs, users can win NFTs featuring cashback links usable at partner brand online stores through a lottery. Plutus earns up to 25% affiliate revenue during this process while returning a portion to users.

These are designed to provide users with a minimum practical value of £10 per PLU, effectively anchoring the value of the PLU to a stable benchmark.

Following these changes, by the end of 2024, Plutus will have transitioned to a new model where user engagement and fee circulation sustain operations. This will be achieved while maintaining a user base of approximately 125,000 to 150,000, cumulative reward distributions worth £50 million, and annual reward issuance at a scale of £5 million.

◼️2025: Establishment of a Dual Token System

In 2025, the dual-token system planned for 2024 began full-scale operation.

Specifically, a two-tier structure was established: “Rewards are granted in PLUS Points, while PLU is used for loyalty status.”

On the technical front, the on-chain migration of PLUS Points (officially named “PLUS More”) was announced on May 13, 2025. Plutus has deployed the PLUS token on Base and activated a system enabling reward points to be exchanged on-chain.

The on-chain fee mechanism called FUEL was also implemented at this time. This is a network fee (gas) embedded within transactions on Base, operating as a model that covers rewards through fee recycling rather than token issuance.

When users send PLUS or swap on PlutusSwap, 1–5% of the transaction amount is automatically deducted as a fee. This fee is returned to the pool and allocated for future reward payments.

Furthermore, in the first half of 2025, the Reward-as-a-Service (RaaS) concept was also announced, revealing plans to enable other companies to connect to Plutus’ PLUS network and issue their own proprietary loyalty programs. If realized, this is expected to generate demand for PLU/PLUS from outside the Plutus ecosystem, leading to ecosystem expansion and diversification of revenue streams.

Neobank Aiming for a Sustainable Loyalty Program

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

Recently, the crypto card market has been gaining momentum, and within it, cashback on card payments is also becoming a trend. Plutus has been working in this area since 2015, making it one of the leading companies.

It may have been a bit lengthy, but I detailed our evolution since founding to illustrate how we’ve already tackled the barriers faced by neo-bank apps offering cards and cashback.

While regulatory aspects of card payments are important, the primary focus is on designing a loyalty program with sustainable cashback.

Currently, many crypto card projects promote cashback using their own tokens. There are two problems here.

The first issue is funding. The question remains: how can we continue providing cashback after allocating the portion included in the rewards?

Second is stabilizing the token price. Even if you receive a 5% cashback, if the token’s price drops to one-tenth of its value, it effectively becomes equivalent to a 0.5% cashback. Furthermore, as the number of users increases and the amount of cashback grows, the market circulation increases, diluting the tokens.

If no action is taken, the token price will decline as the number of users increases and the amount of rewards distributed grows. Furthermore, as the token price falls, the amount of tokens that must be distributed increases, leading to the early release of the allocated portion.

Furthermore, reducing the discount rate midway risks losing market share to competitors.

To address this issue, Plutus has proposed several solutions to build a sustainable ecosystem. First, it established a fixed-value exchange system for goods to stabilize prices. Furthermore, it designed the system so that during goods exchanges, affiliate commissions from partner companies are received, eliminating the need for Plutus to bear the costs itself.

Additionally, we implement initiatives such as recovering internal swap fees and transfer fees, using those funds for buybacks, and increasing the cashback rate the longer and more tokens are held.

Since these reforms were implemented last year, it’s unclear how things will develop going forward, but I look forward to following their progress!

That concludes our research on “Plutus”!

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

【Polaris】Aiming for a Fully Decentralized Stablecoin Issuance Infrastructure with a 3-Token Model / @polarisfinance_

mitsui — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:01:45 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Today I researched Polaris Finance.

Beginning as a Tomb fork on the Aurora chain, it is now a project on Ethereum with the vision of a “Stablecoin OS.” While the token mechanics may seem complex, we’ve summarized everything from its evolution to the new protocol’s structure, so please read through to the end.

What is Polaris Finance?
New Polaris Protocol
Team Ecosystem: Future Outlook
Can it become DeFi’s “last line of defense”?

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Thread; Long story short

Polaris was born in 2022 as a fork of Tomb Finance on the Aurora chain. Starting with an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to NEAR, it expanded into a multi-peg system capable of issuing up to seven different pegged currencies.
In Phase 2, we built PolarEX, our proprietary DEX based on Balancer V2, and launched it on both Aurora and Telos chains. We also introduced vote-escrow governance (veXPOLAR).
However, due to the structural challenges (death spiral) of the entire Tomb-style fork ecosystem, TVL has decreased by over 99% from its peak. The POLAR token also plummeted from $219 to nearly $0.
By the end of 2025, the team announced it was developing a completely new CDP-type stablecoin protocol, “Polaris Protocol,” on Ethereum. It features a three-token model: pETH (ETH derivative), pUSD (yield-bearing stablecoin), and POLAR (governance token), characterized by immutable code design. Notable DeFi analyst TokenBrice joined as a co-founder.

What is Polaris?

Polaris is a stablecoin-focused protocol in the DeFi space.

Originally launched in February 2022 on the Aurora Chain (NEAR’s EVM layer) as a fork of Tomb Finance.

First, to understand the evolution of this project, we’ll start by organizing the background.

◼️Why the Tomb Finance Fork?

From 2021 to 2022, a project called “Tomb Finance” garnered significant attention within the DeFi community. Tomb Finance is a protocol operating on the Fantom chain that issues “TOMB,” an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to FTM.

The mechanism was simple: it used three tokens—stablecoin, share token, and bond token—to maintain the peg by balancing supply and demand. At one point, its TVL exceeded $1 billion, and over 100 forks were deployed across various chains worldwide.

Polaris Finance emerged as the first Tomb fork on Aurora. What sets it apart from other forks is its approach of “multi-peg” rather than a single pegged currency—that is, integrating and managing multiple assets pegged to different assets under a single governance token.

◼️Phase 1: Multi-Peg Signorage Model (2022)

In the initial phase of Polaris Finance, we adopted a seigniorage model consisting of the following three types of tokens.

$POLAR：An algorithmic stablecoin pegged to NEAR. Its mechanism involves new issuance when the price exceeds the peg and a reduction in supply when it falls below.
$SPOLAR：Governance & Share Token. With a fixed maximum supply of 50,001 tokens, staking them in a contract called the “Boardroom” allowed holders to receive POLAR expansion rewards (80% of newly issued tokens).
$PBOND：Bond Token. Issued when the POLAR price falls below the peg. Users burn POLAR to purchase PBOND at a discount, which is redeemed at a premium once the peg is restored. This mechanism served to assist in price stabilization.

A key feature is that Polaris didn’t limit this model to a single pegged currency. Starting with POLAR pegged to NEAR, it expanded to include seven pegged currencies in total: “ETHERNAL” pegged to ETH, “ORBITAL” pegged to BTC, “USP” pegged to USDC, and even “BINARIS” pegged to BNB. The design integrated the reward distribution for all these pegged currencies under a single SPOLAR token.

However, the LUNA peg’s “LUNAR” was excluded due to the Terra/LUNA collapse in May 2022, demonstrating significant susceptibility to external environmental factors.

◼️Phase 2: Building a Balancer V2-based DEX (2023–2024)

As the limitations of the Signoraggio model begin to emerge, the team will embark on Phase 2: building its own DEX, “PolarEX.”

PolarEX is built on Balancer V2’s AMM technology, enabling advanced liquidity provision such as weighted multi-token pools and stablecoin-to-stablecoin stable swap pools. For example, it combines USDC, USDT, and their respective bridge versions into a single Composable Stable Pool, achieving low-slippage trading.

New tokens were also introduced in this phase.

$xPOLAR：DEX-exclusive incentive token (maximum supply of 4 million, halving every two years).
$veXPOLARA：Curve-style vote-escrow token. Obtained by locking SPOLAR, xPOLAR, or NEAR LP tokens, it grants the right to vote on the distribution of liquidity rewards on the DEX.

Furthermore, PolarEX has expanded to the Telos chain by leveraging LayerZero technology, achieving multi-chain deployment beyond Aurora.

◼️Structural Collapse of the Tomb Fork

However, Tomb-based forks including Polaris Finance could not escape their structural challenges.

The greatest weakness of the Signoraggio-type algorithmic stablecoin is its dependence on new capital inflows. As long as buying pressure persists, it trades above the peg, boardroom rewards are generated, demand for share tokens increases, and a positive spiral takes hold.

However, once capital inflows cease, it falls into a “death spiral”: peg breakdown → reward suspension → share token sales → further peg breakdown.

As a result, the POLAR token fell from its launch-day peak of approximately $219 to $0.03 by 2024. CoinMarketCap currently lists it at nearly $0, with a daily trading volume also recorded as $0. SPOLAR is similarly in a suspended trading state. According to DefiLlama, the protocol’s TVL is approximately $79,000 on Aurora and $216 on Telos, effectively close to zero.

This is not a problem specific to Polaris.

Tomb Finance itself, the original fork, saw its TVL collapse from $1 billion to approximately $78,000, and nearly all of its 12 chains and over 104 forks met the same fate. This serves as an industry-wide lesson demonstrating how difficult it is to achieve lasting price stability through algorithms alone.

New Polaris Protocol

By the end of 2025, the Polarisfinance website underwent a complete overhaul and was reborn as an entirely new project: “Polaris Protocol – Self-Scaling Stablecoin Operating System.”

Building on the lessons learned from the previous protocol’s failures, the design has now shifted away from relying solely on the algorithm. Instead, it centers on a Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) model backed by ETH as collateral.

This might be a bit complicated, but I’ll explain it as clearly as possible.

◼️New Tokenomics: pETH / pUSD / POLAR

The new Polaris Protocol adopts a three-token structure known as the “Triple Engine Model.” However, its roles and design philosophy are entirely different from the previous model.

$pETH：ETH Derivative Token

Issued when users deposit ETH into Polaris’s “bonding curve.” Unlike typical AMMs, the issuance price is determined along a mathematically defined curve, so pETH always has a rising floor price (lower limit).

The key point is that as protocol activity increases, the ETH backing per pETH token grows, making pETH an asset with greater value than ETH itself. pETH is designed to function as a yield-bearing asset.

$pUSD：Interest-bearing stablecoin

pETH is a USD-pegged stablecoin issued via the CDP mechanism using pETH as collateral. It’s the same concept as borrowing DAI or LUSD from MakerDAO or Liquity.

A key feature is that pUSD will incorporate a mechanism that generates yield simply by holding it. The sources of yield are all on-chain revenues completed within the protocol, including borrowing interest, swap fees from the bonding curve, conversion gains to POLAR, and DEX trading fees.

$POLAR：Stewardship (Management) Token

The most significant feature of the new POLAR lies in its issuance mechanism. POLAR is a one-way conversion process that can only be minted by burning pETH.

What makes this mechanism interesting is that each time POLAR is issued, the supply of pETH decreases, causing the ETH backing (floor price) per remaining pETH to rise. In other words, POLAR issuance drives up the value of pETH, which in turn enhances the collateral safety of pUSD, creating a positive feedback loop.

POLAR holders are entitled to receive real yields from the protocol and can participate in governance voting and incentive distribution by locking their tokens to convert them into vePOLAR.

◼️Peg Maintenance Mechanism: Redemption and Minting

In the traditional Signoraggio model, maintaining the peg relied almost entirely on algorithmic supply adjustments. The new Polaris introduces a market arbitrage mechanism similar to Liquity.

pUSD is less than $1 (decoupling)：Arbitrageurs purchase pUSD cheaply in the market, redeem it with the protocol to receive $1 worth of pETH, and then sell it. This supports the pUSD price.
pUSD > $1 (Peg Deviation)：Arbitrageurs add pETH as collateral, mint new pUSD from the system, and sell it on the market. This increases supply and lowers the price.

What’s even more interesting is the automatic interest rate adjustment mechanism. When pUSD deviates below the peg, borrowing rates automatically rise to encourage repayment. Conversely, when pUSD deviates above the peg, rates decrease to incentivize borrowing. This design philosophy minimizes reliance on external price oracles, instead performing feedback control solely using internal system information.

◼️Stablecoin OS: A platform enabling anyone to issue stablecoins

And Polaris has an even greater vision: the “Stablecoin OS.”

This is a platform that tokenizes any “unit of value”—from pUSD to pGOLD (gold-pegged), pCHF (Swiss franc-pegged), pEUR (euro-pegged), and even assets linked to the Big Mac Index—all while using pETH as common collateral.

Since all pegged assets share a single pETH pool as collateral, even if pGOLD liquidations occur due to sudden gold price fluctuations, pUSD and pCHF remain largely unaffected. This structure ensures that while some branches may shake, the trunk (collateral pool) remains sound.

External projects require approval from vePOLAR holders to utilize this infrastructure, and adopted projects will return a portion of their revenue to the Polaris ecosystem. An incentive structure similar to Curve’s ve war could emerge, centered around voting rights.

Team Ecosystem: Future Outlook

◼️Team: TokenBrice Participation

The initial Polaris team operated anonymously, but starting in late 2025, two individuals stepped forward as co-founders of the new protocol.

TokenBrice：He is a prominent analyst/writer in the DeFi space, known for his incisive insights shared on the blog “Brutally Honest DeFi.” He also has a background as a consultant for Liquity. Concerned about the current trend of decentralized stablecoins becoming centralized, he joined as a co-founder of Polaris.
Robert Mullins (0xBones)：A Solidity developer with over 7 years of stablecoin development experience. Serves as the technical lead.

TokenBrice has stated it aims to reach a 10-digit supply (worth billions of dollars) within two years, setting an extremely ambitious goal. VC funding has not been publicly disclosed, and the project is positioned as community-driven.

◼️Governance: The concept of “stewardship”

The new Polaris governance system is called “Stewardship,” a design that sets it apart from conventional DAO governance.

This is a restricted governance model where “authority exists to adapt and evolve the protocol, but not to alter its core essence.” The core smart contract is immutable after deployment, with no administrator keys or backdoors.

vePOLAR holders can only adjust parameters (interest rates, liquidation fee rates, incentive amounts, etc.) within the predefined range permitted by the code. Moreover, changes require voting + a time lock and do not take effect immediately.

For instance, changes that violate Polaris’s core principles—such as “adding USDC as collateral”—cannot be put to a vote at all. This design systematically prevents situations like the one that actually occurred in MakerDAO, where a governance vote introduced a centralized asset.

◼️Roadmap

TokenBrice stated, “The protocol has not launched yet. This is not a product announcement, but a sharing of our commitment,” giving the impression of proceeding cautiously with preparations. A mainnet launch is anticipated sometime in 2026, though a specific date has not been announced.

Can it become DeFi’s “last line of defense”?

Finally, we conclude with a summary and analysis.

Polaris Finance is a project that has undergone a highly unique evolution.

Phase 1, as the first Tomb fork, collapsed alongside the structural limitations of algorithmic stablecoins as a whole. While this was a failure, it also provided the team with a firsthand opportunity to learn “what went wrong.”

The new Polaris Protocol is a completely different approach based on those lessons. With its ETH-collateralized CDP model, floor price mechanism via bonding curve, on-chain yield structure, and governance restrictions via immutable code, Polaris is determined to remain “zero off-chain dependency” while USDC and Ethena steer toward reliance on government bonds and centralized exchanges.

Polaris proclaims itself the “North Star of DeFi” and the “last line of defense,” and I’m very excited to see how far its decentralization challenge will grow.

That said, while many such projects have emerged in the past, none have significantly eroded the market share of existing stablecoins. I’m eager to see what strategy they’ll employ to gain traction.

Without simple yields and diverse use cases on DeFi, I don’t think it will gain traction. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of yields dollar-pegged stablecoins will offer.

First, I’d like to wait for the mainnet launch.

That concludes our research on “Polaris”!

Reference Links:HP / X

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.

A 5-Minute Recap of Last Week's web3 Market

mitsui — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 21:00:57 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

📰Pickup News
📗Pickup Article
📊Market & News

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📰Pickup News

Vitalik Buterin argues that while base layer progress continues, decentralization of Layer 2 solutions is “far slower.”

Vitalik is reevaluating Ethereum’s “rollup-centric strategy,”The decentralization of L2 is significantly behind schedule compared to expectations.pointed out.
On the other hand, Ethereum L1 is steadily evolving, with scaling potential expanding through technologies like ZK solutions.
Some features are not L2,Option to integrate directly into L1It also suggests that it should be reconsidered.
L2 should focus on clearly differentiated areas such as “ultra-low latency” and “specialized applications.”
The future of Ethereum should not be solely dependent on Layer 2 solutions,L1 and L2 Role Redesign PhaseContent indicating entry.

Lido has deployed stVaults to mainnet for users including Linea, Nansen, and multiple institutional investors.

Lido introduces a new primitive for Ethereum staking:stVaultsThe mainnet officially launched, with Linea, Nansen, and institutional investors beginning to use it from day one.
stVaults were introduced in Lido V3.Non-custodial, Customizable Staking VaultThis enables design tailored to specific purposes and organizational structures.
L2 enables native yield implementation at the infrastructure level, allowing institutional investors to build dedicated configurations tailored to KYC, operational, and risk management requirements.
Lido has evolved from a single product toCommon Modular Foundation for Ethereum StakingIt will evolve into a new position.
The key structural change lies in enabling institutional-grade compliance while maintaining stETH liquidity.

SBI Holdings Announces Layer 1 Proof of Concept for Tokenized Stocks Developed Jointly with Startale Group

SBI Holdings has released a proof of concept (PoC) for “Strium,” a Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed for tokenized equities, in collaboration with Startale Group.
Strium aims to become the foundational platform for Asia’s on-chain securities market, prioritizing 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and interoperability with DeFi.
Not merely the digitization of existing shares,Creation of New Financial Primitivesemphasizes the point of aiming for.
The yen-pegged stablecoin, RWA trading, institutional custody, and compliance solutions are designed as an integrated whole.

📗Pickup Article

Introducing posts and articles I found interesting.

Is This a Crypto Winter? Post-Regulation Market Shift

Past crypto winters followed a common pattern: “Major incident → Collapse of trust → Talent drain.”
This downturn stems primarily from external factors such as ETF approvals, interest rates, and geopolitics, rather than internal collapses like FTX, and differs from the conventional “crypto winter.”
The post-regulation market was fragmented into three tiers: the “regulated zone,” the “unregulated zone,” and the “shared infrastructure.”
Funds flowing through ETFs remain in Bitcoin, with no trickle-down effect to altcoins.
The next bull market will require killer use cases emerging from the unregulated zone and improvements in the macro environment.

【Public Goods】Explanation of Basic Words

mitsui — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 03:00:29 GMT

Good morning.
I’m Mitsui, a web3 researcher.

Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we’ll deliver articles explaining basic vocabulary. We aim to keep each article concise enough for a quick read, while also providing content you can revisit and study.

Today’s topic is “Public Goods.”

Please watch until the very end!

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Import

Who owns blockchain? It belongs neither to corporations nor to nations. Anyone can use it, yet no one owns it. The key to understanding this seemingly contradictory nature lies in the concept of a “public good.”

We routinely use various public goods in our daily lives. We walk on roads, breathe air, and connect to the internet. These are not monopolized by anyone; everyone can use them. Yet at the same time, they cannot function unless someone maintains them. Blockchain also possesses this characteristic as a public good. And the method of its maintenance is fundamentally different from that of public goods up until now.

What is a public good?

Public goods refer to goods and services possessing special characteristics in economics. They have two defining features: non-excludability and non-rivalry.

“Non-excludability” refers to the property that someone cannot be prevented from using something. Take roads as an example: you can walk on them without paying a toll, and it is difficult to physically exclude someone. Air is similar; you cannot stop someone from breathing. TCP/IP, the Internet protocol, can also be freely used by anyone, and specific individuals cannot be excluded.

Non-rivalry refers to the property that one person’s use does not prevent others from using the same resource. If you walk down a road, others can walk down the same road. If you breathe air, it does not typically prevent others from breathing. Using the fundamental protocols of the internet does not prevent others from using it.

However, there is a problem here.

Public goods cannot be sustained by market forces alone. After all, who would pay for something everyone can use for free? Building and maintaining roads costs money. Preserving air quality requires environmental measures. Maintaining internet infrastructure demands massive capital investment. But if everyone can use it for free, who will provide the funds to maintain it?

This is the fundamental dilemma of public goods. Everyone needs them, everyone uses them. Yet it remains unclear who will bear the burden of maintaining them.

Why Are Public Goods So Fragile?

Public goods have a structural vulnerability known as the free-rider problem.

Free riding refers to reaping benefits without bearing the costs. You can use roads without paying for their maintenance. You can breathe air without contributing to environmental protection. You can use the internet without contributing to its infrastructure. From an individual’s perspective, free riding is a rational choice. After all, the impact of one person bearing the burden is negligible, and one can expect someone else to shoulder it if they don’t.

But what would happen if everyone thought this way? No one would bear the burden, and everyone would try to free-ride. As a result, public goods would no longer be maintained and would ultimately collapse. Roads would fall into disrepair, the air would become polluted, and internet infrastructure would deteriorate.

This is the phenomenon known as the “Tragedy of the Commons.” Anyone can use it, but no one takes responsibility. Because there is no manager, resources become depleted and the system collapses.

The reason public goods are fragile lies precisely in this structure. Everyone enjoys the benefits, yet no one is willing to bear the costs. And there is no mechanism to prevent free-riding. Unless this problem is solved, public goods cannot be sustainable.

How the Internet Has Been Maintained

So, how has the Internet, as a public good, been maintained?

The Internet has been supported by the division of roles among three main entities: nations, corporations, and open-source software communities.

The state was responsible for investing in basic research and establishing regulations. Companies were responsible for building and operating infrastructure, as well as providing commercial services. The OSS community was responsible for developing and maintaining protocols and software.

However, there is an important underlying structure. Many services that appear free are actually centrally managed.

Google and Facebook provide their services for free. However, in exchange, they collect user data and generate advertising revenue. In other words, while the services are free, users are paying with their own data. And this structure inevitably creates dependence on the platform.

Platform dependency refers to a state where one is forced to rely on a specific company’s services. Data is stored on the platform, networks are built on the platform, and users must follow the platform’s rules. If the platform changes its policies, users have no choice but to comply. If the service ends, they lose everything.

The public nature of the internet has been maintained through this centralized management. As the price for its free access and universal availability, we have accepted a structure dependent on specific corporations.

Blockchain: A New Public Good

Blockchain is one challenge to this structure. It aimed to create infrastructure that anyone could use, transcended borders, and had no central authority.

Blockchain is accessible to anyone. You don’t need to be a citizen of a specific country, nor do you need an account with a particular company. As long as you have an internet connection, anyone in the world can access blockchain. This is true non-exclusion.

Blockchain transcends borders. Bitcoin and Ethereum have no concept of borders. They can be used equally from Japan, the United States, or anywhere else. They require no national regulation or permission. This is their nature as a global public good.

And most importantly, blockchain has no central authority. There are no Google servers. There are no Facebook data centers. Blockchain is maintained in a decentralized manner by thousands, even tens of thousands, of computers around the world. Even if someone shuts down, the system keeps running.

This is a fundamentally different characteristic from previous public goods. Roads have been managed by the state, and internet services have been managed by companies. But blockchain is managed by no one. It is a public good in the purest sense, maintained by all participants.

Why can’t I use it for free?

However, blockchain has one characteristic: it cannot be used for free.

Sending Bitcoin incurs a transaction fee. Executing a smart contract on Ethereum requires a Gas Fee. Why is that? Why is blockchain fee-based when many internet services are free?

The answer lies in the principle that “free = vandalized.”

If blockchain were completely free, what would happen? Everyone would send an infinite number of transactions, flooding it with spam. Massive amounts of meaningless data would be recorded, the network would become congested, and it would ultimately become unusable. This is a classic pattern of resource depletion in a public good.

Blockchain is a limited resource. There are limits to block size and processing capacity. If everyone could use it without restriction, capacity would quickly run out. This is where the concept of price-based usage adjustment becomes necessary.

Gas Fee is a mechanism that determines transaction priority. Transactions paying higher fees are processed first. This ensures that only those who truly need it can use the network, and only to the extent necessary. Unnecessary usage is economically discouraged. Since sending spam incurs significant costs, spam decreases.

In other words, the fact that blockchain incurs fees is not a flaw but by design. It is an essential mechanism for maintaining a public good.

Viewing Gas Fees from a Public Goods Perspective

Gas fees are often called “transaction fees.” However, from the perspective of public goods, they are not fees but maintenance costs.

A fee is a payment made to a company providing a service. Bank transfer fees are compensation for the bank’s service. However, a Gas Fee is not paid to any specific company. It is a mechanism for all users to share the costs necessary to maintain the blockchain infrastructure.

Gas fees primarily serve two purposes. One is the resource allocation mechanism mentioned earlier, distributing limited resources through a price mechanism. The other is as an incentive—rewarding those who maintain the blockchain, namely miners and validators.

This gas fee maintains order on the blockchain. Spam is suppressed, and only truly valuable transactions are recorded. Those who maintain the blockchain receive rewards, giving them the motivation to keep supporting the system.

This is a new model for maintaining public goods. It is neither a state-mandated levy like taxes, nor is it operated by companies for profit. Public goods are maintained through fees paid voluntarily by users. That is the mechanism for public goods on blockchain.

Who is supporting blockchain as a public good?

The three entities that actually support blockchain as a public good are:

First, there are validators and miners. They run their computers to verify transactions and generate blocks. This requires electricity costs and high-performance equipment. However, they receive Gas Fees and block rewards as compensation. This is the direct labor that maintains the blockchain.

Second, there are node operators. They store all transaction histories, participate in the network, and relay transactions. Many of them receive no rewards. They still operate nodes to support the blockchain’s decentralization. The more nodes there are, the stronger the system becomes. This is a volunteer contribution.

Third, developers and the community. They improve the protocol, fix bugs, and propose new features. Often, this is also unpaid labor. Some receive grants, but many participate purely out of interest or belief in the future of blockchain.

These three entities maintain the blockchain by fulfilling their respective roles. There is no unified chain of command like in a corporation. Nor does it possess the coercive power of a nation-state. Yet, through each entity’s voluntary participation and contributions, the system continues to operate.

This is a new way to maintain public goods. Even without a central authority, people cooperate through incentives and a shared purpose. That is the defining characteristic of blockchain as a public good.

Is blockchain succeeding as a public good?

So, is blockchain succeeding as a public good? The answer is, “We don’t know yet.”

The current situation presents numerous challenges. Gas fees have skyrocketed, making usage difficult for many people. Operating nodes requires advanced technical skills, and participation barriers remain high. Validators and miners are increasingly concentrated among a few large entities. This state is far from the ideal of a public good.

Furthermore, the uneven distribution of users is also problematic. Those actually using blockchain are primarily tech-savvy individuals in developed countries. It has yet to reach the people who truly need blockchain—such as those without access to financial services. This raises questions about its public nature as a public good.

However, blockchain still has value. That value has not been lost.

Bitcoin has been operational for over 15 years without a single outage. Ethereum, too, continues to function despite overcoming numerous challenges. Many blockchains have been maintained for years without a central authority. This is truly remarkable.

In a typical company, bankruptcy, acquisition, or a change in direction occurs within 15 years. Even nations see policy shifts when governments change. But blockchain, precisely because it belongs to no one, cannot be stopped by anyone. No one can force changes upon it. It evolves solely through the consensus of all participants.

This is one successful form of a public good. It’s not perfect, but it persists. While challenges abound, it also demonstrates potential. Blockchain may truly be capable of creating public goods independent of nations or corporations.

Summary

Blockchain is not infrastructure that someone else protects for you. It is a public good supported by everyone who uses it, each contributing a little.

Gas fees and decentralization are not inconveniences. They are the costs we pay to maintain this public good. They are essential mechanisms for realizing a public good that persists without relying on central authorities or state coercion.

Blockchain as a public good is still a work in progress. Challenges abound. Yet it also represents new possibilities. Blockchain is exploring what it means to be a public good: owned by no one, usable by all, and supported by everyone.

Whether blockchain, as a public good, will succeed remains to be seen. Yet the very attempt poses a crucial question: Can public goods be sustained without states or corporations? Can society’s infrastructure be supported solely by people’s voluntary participation? Blockchain continues to seek the answer.

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Author
mitsui
A web3 researcher. Operating the newsletter "web3 Research" delivered in five languages around the world.

Contact
The author is a web3 researcher based in Japan. If you have a project that is interested in expanding to Japan, please contact the following:

X：@web3researchgl
Telegram：@mitsui0x

*Please note that this newsletter translates articles that are originally in Japanese. There may be translation mistakes such as mistranslations or paraphrasing, so please understand in advance.