RaaS #611: Tether Invests $200M in Whop!

WLFI Staking Proposal Hits Forum, Chainlink Powers Up Canton Network, and Moar!

The Ethereum Foundation published its new "Strawmap" roadmap, focused on faster transaction finality, higher throughput, L2 scaling, post-quantum security, and built-in privacy. Vitalik stated the long-term vision feels tangible instead of scattered EIPs. This could finally align builders, researchers, and users around one clear roadmap and accelerate delivery.

Tether strategically committed $200M to Whop at a $1.6B valuation. The largest stablecoin issuer is betting big on the “world’s largest internet market,” where creators and entrepreneurs earn sustainable income. This partnership could bring billions of people into the open internet economy, especially in regions where traditional finance still feels distant.

Aave just crossed $1 trillion in all-time loans, becoming the first DeFi protocol to reach that milestone. What started as a simple lending market has quietly become the backbone of onchain credit.

Your daily dose of bite-sized crypto news.

1. Nous Research launched an open-source agent, Hermes Agent.

2. Gate secured a Malta PSD2 license, unlocking EU-wide stablecoin payments under MiCA.

3. Hyperbeat Liquid Banking went into Private Beta.

4. Anthropic acquired Vercept AI to further expand Claude’s computer-use capabilities.

5. N1 Explorer is now live for clean onchain visibility on the N1 chain.

A new governance proposal on the WLFI forum asks the community to vote on enabling staking for $WLFI holders to reward participation. If it passes, it could turn passive holders into active governors and give the token real utility beyond speculation, a meaningful step toward maturing the project.

Chainlink’s data standard is now live on Canton Network, with CCIP integration coming soon. Canton already handles $350B in U.S. Treasuries daily, bringing enterprise-grade oracles and cross-chain security to one of the most serious institutional networks.

Dune released its Stablecoin Dataset, covering 200+ assets across 37 chains with rich labeling for balances and activity. This powers everything from Visa’s upcoming report to onchain analytics.

Going in circles, aren’t we?

Top Gainers: POWER, CFG, DENT, RAVE, SIREN.

High-signal reads are worth your time, all in one place.

1. The next great media company won’t be a publisher or platform. It’ll be a worldview engine that owns creation, conviction filtering, community, commerce, and cultural feedback loops. AI creates infinite content, so the scarce asset becomes coherent meaning.

2. AI vs. AI security arms race in DeFi, where attackers use the same models, so defenders need continuous AI scanning in CI/CD plus human audits for major releases. Speed is everything now.

3. The only MCP on Claude guide you’ll actually finish is the USB-C for AI that turns Claude into a universal router for your tools, files, databases, and workflows without context-switching hell.

4. How ZK proof costs are collapsing from $2 to $0.001, hardware, proving networks, and applications are unbundling fast, and the winners will be whoever rides the cost curve while applications proliferate.

5. Hard-won startup marketing lessons. Post small wins consistently, build personal brands as a team, host field events, and ride relevant trends rather than waiting for the perfect “big launch.” Consistency beats perfection.

Perplexity launched Perplexity Computer, a unified system that researches, designs, codes, deploys, and manages entire projects end-to-end using 19 different models in parallel. It’s personal, remembers your history, stays secure by default, and feels like what a 2026 computer should actually be.

The OCC just invited comments on a proposed regulatory framework for payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act. A clear signal that U.S. regulators are moving from observation to structured oversight.

That’s all for today!