Middleware is MEV for Devs

"We're in a golden age to create canonical markets onchiain" - @nihal_maunder - Equities - Commodities - Prediction event markets - Sports - Forex - Bonds - Derivatives - Insurance and reinsurance - Attention - Alternative investments Markets for everything are coming

Our mission is to support the long-term success of both our portfolio companies and the broader crypto ecosystem. One major gap we’ve consistently seen? Reliable, transparent compensation data for crypto teams. That’s why we created our annual Crypto Compensation Survey – a resource designed to help founders, hiring managers, and candidates alike benchmark equity, cash, and token comp across the space. Below are key takeaways from our 2024 edition 👇 —Last year we saw 3% of people paid in crypto. This year we've seen a 3x jump to 9.6%. Stablecoins USDC & USDT are leading the charge with the majority of folks who take their salary in crypto receiving USDC —Is crypto going back to the office? Probably not, but in office work is up 4x (to 6%). —Looking at the median numbers, having an MBA does not equate to higher salaries in Web3. In fact, there's a slight decline in compensation. —By looking at median salaries, women make more in Marketing, Operations, BD, but not in Engineering and Executive positions. —Engineering Salaries across the board in seniority are on the rise! Most notably Jr & Mid-level roles have seen a large increase: 25.6% increase for Jr Engineers, 14.49% for Mid, 4.9% for Sr.

1/ A new blockchain network in 2025 needs to either optimize for a particular application or expand the adjacent possible. Most new blockchains have focused on optimizing for speed; faster block times, higher TPS. That is no longer the bottleneck. @RialoHQ is focused on a complete suite of infra for building apps that speak to the outside world.

Say hello to Rialo. It's the first full stack network for real world apps, bringing real users to real builders. Why does it matter to you? Because today’s Web3 isn’t the future we were promised.

Morpho’s TVL crossed $6B+ for a new ATH, up 89.2% YTD. #2 DeFi lending protocol worldwide.

Moats in crypto are hard. Open markets. Open data. Connected gardens. Terminals differentiate on product execution and brand. Axiom. Photon. Gmgn. TG bots. Mobile apps. etc. Exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood are able to differentiate because they have proprietary orderflow, exchange-owned liquidity, and some regulatory advantages. Most terminals don't have these benefits today and therefore barrier to entry are low. After all, Axiom is one of the fastest revenue scaling companies of all time. They were able to do this through speed, execution, and incentives (e.g. rev shares). But, that also means new trading apps can also scale quickly. The Terminal Wars aren't over.

Internet Capital Markets

Some bittersweet news: this is my last week at @VariantFund. Working with our founders became my favorite part of the job, so now I’m stepping into an operating role to help one of my favorite projects grow.

Today Ethereum turns ten. Ten years of uptime and continuous transactions. A decade of innovation and reshaping the future of global markets. At Pantera, we've proudly supported visionary teams and developers building the applications and infrastructure that advance Ethereum's mission. Our commitment to the ecosystem remains stronger than ever. Job's not finished.