Crypto’s Plot Twist

The Road to Mainstream

Author

Archie Royce
July 18, 2025

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Defining Crypto’s Future 🔮    

June 2025 didn’t just keep investors guessing—it delivered a full-on plot twist. Forget price pumps and influencer hype. This month marked a major milestone in crypto’s transition from “magic internet money” to regulated asset class.

Here are the three biggest shifts that closed out Q2:

  1. Regulatory Thaw 🧊 

    The shocker? The SEC dropped its lawsuits against both Binance and Coinbase. That’s right—that SEC.

    Binance called it a “landmark moment,” crediting Chair Paul Atkins for moving away from “regulation by enforcement.” It’s also the clearest sign yet that President Trump’s “crypto-friendly” agenda is materializing.

    Meanwhile, Congress made real progress. The CLARITY Act has moved to the Senate, and the GENIUS Act passed the House, establishing a formal framework for stablecoins like USDC to interact with TradFi systems.

  1. ETFs Heat Up 🔥 

    XRP led the charge with Volatility Shares’ XRPI ETF pulling in $13M in three weeks. Teucrium’s leveraged version soared to $118M. But the spotlight now turns to Solana, with six pending ETF applications from Grayscale, VanEck, Bitwise, and others.

    The SEC even requested staking and in-kind redemption options—signaling support for yield-bearing products.

    Most surprising? Canary Capital’s proposed NFT ETF featuring Pudgy Penguins. Half meme, half museum—fully on-brand for 2025’s regulatory mood.

  2. Big Tech Wins 🥇 

    Circle launched USDC on the XRP Ledger, boosting the $250B stablecoin market and kicking off what some are calling Stablecoin Summer. XRP also added key upgrades, like token escrows and DEX enhancements.

    Other notable moves:

✔️ Tron plans to go public via a $210M reverse merger
✔️ Coinbase seeks approval to trade tokenized equities
✔️ Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, was hacked for $90M—funds burned by a hacktivist group, not stolen.

The Takeaway 🥡 

June didn’t bring fireworks—but it did bring clarity. Regulation is finally catching up to the real-world demand for crypto.

The benefits?

✔️ Easier retail access
✔️ More product innovation
✔️ Rising market liquidity

Crypto’s institutional era is no longer a forecast. It’s happening.

And we’ll keep you ahead of it—every step of the way.

Moving to Full DeFi   💹 

If you still think Robinhood is just a meme-stock app with slick graphics, think again. The company just dropped a 12-part crypto and fintech bombshell that could mark a turning point for retail investing.

Here’s a quick breakdown before your brain melts:

  1. Going Global 🌎️ 

    Robinhood Crypto is now live across 31 EU and EEA countries, giving users access to crypto perpetual futures with up to 3x leverage—wrapped in a simple, mobile-first experience.

    In the U.S., traders are getting advanced charts, smarter exchange routing, and tax lot optimization to help reduce taxable gains—nerdy, but powerful.

  2. Crypto Rewards 🏆️ 

    Robinhood’s product suite is expanding fast:

  • Cortex, the AI assistant, now analyzes crypto for Gold users.

  • Staking for ETH and SOL is coming to U.S. users.

  • Its credit card now offers crypto back—including BTC, ETH, ARB, DOGE, and XRP.

  • And for a limited time, there’s a 2% crypto deposit match (no cap, until July 7).

  1. Onchain Melody 🎵 

    Here’s the big one:

    Robinhood EU users will soon be able to trade tokenized U.S. stocks like Apple and Amazon—1:1-backed and tradable 24/5, with 24/7 and self-custody coming soon.

    Even bigger: Private equities, once limited to accredited investors, will now be accessible onchain to everyday users in the EU. No gatekeeping. Just access.

    This is a seismic shift in financial inclusion.

  2.  Robinhood Chain 🏹 

    Robinhood is building its own L2 blockchain on Arbitrum, dubbed Robinhood Chain. It’s designed to bring real-world assets onchain—from real estate to stocks to art—and eventually migrate the entire Robinhood ecosystem onto blockchain rails.

Final Takeaway 📨 

This isn’t a feature update—it’s a full-stack reimagining of retail finance. Robinhood is merging crypto, TradFi, and AI into one seamless platform.

Whether you’re a seasoned degen or crypto-curious, Robinhood just became a platform to watch closely.


COIN SPOTLIGHT 🔍️ 

Sleeper Giant 🔍️  

In a market flooded with hype and half-baked promises, Raydium (RAY) stands out as a rare breed: a battle-tested project with real traction, revenue, and staying power.

Launched in 2021, Raydium is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and full-service DeFi suite built on Solana. It not only survived the last market cycle—it came out stronger, faster, and more deeply woven into the Solana ecosystem. Its token may still sit 86% below its all-time high, but for investors hunting deep-value opportunities, that could be the upside.

Not Just Another DEX 💱 

Raydium may look like a standard DEX, but under the hood, it’s packed with serious firepower:

✔️ Lightning-fast trades via Solana
✔️ Permissionless liquidity pools
✔️ AcceleRaytor, a native launchpad for new projects
✔️ Built-in yield farming, staking, and perpetuals

But its secret weapon? Raydium blends automated market maker (AMM) functionality with a central limit order book through Serum integration—giving users the speed of AMMs and the deep liquidity of traditional exchanges. It’s a hybrid model few others can match.

The Numbers 💹 

Raydium’s fundamentals back the hype-free narrative. With a market cap under $550M and a TVL of $1.69B, its Mcap/TVL ratio is under 0.35—a strong signal it’s underpriced relative to its capital flow.

For DeFi veterans, that’s a flashing green light.

Real Use Cases 🏦 

RAY isn’t just a governance token collecting dust. It has multiple real-world uses:

✔️ Staking for rewards and protocol fees
✔️ Access to early-stage IDOs via AcceleRaytor
✔️ Yield farming boosts
✔️ Payment of ecosystem fees
✔️ Governance participation

That multi-functionality gives it real utility—and real staying power.

The Road Ahead 🛣️ 

Yes, there are risks: Solana reliance, competition from Jupiter and Orca, and regulatory uncertainty. But Raydium continues to generate revenue, grow engagement, and deliver a full-stack DeFi experience.

If Solana’s ETF applications get greenlit this fall, Raydium could ride that momentum to the next level.

The Takeaway 🥡 

In a market hungry for real fundamentals, Raydium delivers. Quietly. Confidently. And with horsepower to spare.


STAGE RIGHT 🎬️     


NOTABLE QUOTES 📚️ 

“Don’t be afraid of anymore. Not of anyone. Not of anything. Nothing. Ever again. Listen to me: not ever again.”
 
— Marguerite Duras


GARAGE LOGIC ☕️

Everybody Knows a Cliff Clavin  🍸️ 

When "Cheers" ended and most of the actors turned out to be massive leftist scolds, it kind of soured me on watching the reruns, but I was heartened when John Ratzenberger turned out to be a conservative. I recently came across an article about Ratzenberger and his audition for the show.

READ THE FULL STORY.


FINAL SPIN 📽️ 


LAST CHAPTER 📺️ 

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