📈 No top signal in sight

Good news, everyone!

Kate Irwin is back next week, which means The Drop will be returning to its standard programming very soon. Huzzah!

In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of yesterday’s stellar live episode of the Empire podcast. Catch you next week.

Let’s go shopping

This week’s Empire Live dove head-first into three stories that say more about where markets are going than a thousand price charts.

First up: DATs, or digital asset treasury companies, those “public company, crypto-token” hybrids that are everywhere right now.

Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, finds the most interesting DATs are those that have alignment with a protocol’s foundation, “people around it that are trying to build for some sort of longevity,” he said. 

“But then you’re seeing a bunch of really opportunistic sponsors — and I’ll use the word ‘sponsors’ loosely here’ — people who want to figure out a way to make a quick buck.”

Next, there’s Coinbase, quietly pulling off a $2.6 billion zero-coupon convertible note raise. Cheap capital, but no yield for investors. As Santi said, the demand here tells you a lot about how institutions see Coinbase’s future (a long-term play).

Finally, Ripple is on a shopping spree: Hidden Road, Rail, apparently anything that helps push their RLUSD stablecoin into top-five territory. They can’t dump XRP into the market, so they’re using cash and equity to buy real infrastructure. 

The Empire crew also discussed the Roman Storm verdict, Kraken seeking a $15-billion valuation, and a Trump policy shift that could open 401(k)s to crypto and more. 

Full breakdown — with all the sarcasm, data, and horror-movie tangents — on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

This newsletter was created with assistance from AI tooling.

Institutional DeFi has crossed the chasm from dream to reality and Ethena is leading the charge. $USDe has seen a $3.1B inflow over the last 3 weeks, outpacing all Bitcoin ETFs combined.

Guy Young joins the DAS: London lineup this Oct 13-15 to break down the value proposition of institutional DeFi.

Get your ticket today with promo code: DROP100 for £100 off

📅 October 13-15 | London