Tom Lee: Ethereum DATs can use ~$500 million in annual staking rewards to fund grants for Ethereum ecosystem
“The Ethereum Treasuries — Bitmine and Sharplink among others — now own 7% of the Ethereum supply… Treasury stock is essentially supply permanently taken out from the ecosystem, but we also own the yield. The yield is around 3% so today these public treasuries are generating ~$500 million in rewards, and that is what we can use to fund and grant the crypto ecosystem.”
Lee believes that the Ethereum Foundation narrowing its focus to CROPs (censorship resistance, openness, privacy and security) is the right decision.
“Ethereum is a $240 billion network value entity. It has been operating for 11 years without a single day of downtime. There’s 11,500 nodes in 89 different countries. And there’s 15,000 developers. I think this is too big to be coordinated by a single foundation.”
As Ethereum continues to scale, he believes the ecosystem will move beyond a foundation-centric model and points to private companies like Etherealize, Optimism, Consensys, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and Offchain Labs that represent the Ethereum ecosystem and are already doing enterprise engagement.
“This list doesn’t yet reflect the spinoffs coming from the Ethereum Foundation. There’s at least five, and I think Bitmine will play a role in granting and supporting any of those that come out.”
“I think Ethereum is in good hands because the foundation is going to be stronger by staying focused. We have a lot of private sector companies already building products and important L2s on Ethereum. And of course, the treasuries are here to help with funding and granting… If you’re bearish, you are selling at the bottom.”
Bloomberg just put out a piece on Pre-IPO perps. Some things they covered:
-Crypto rails may open pre-IPO access to retail, a market historically reserved for accredited investors and private funds.
-Less than 10% of the global population has direct access to US equities, and access to pre-IPOs is even narrower. TradeXYZ can help collapse that barrier.
-SpaceX perps are already seeing demand, with nearly $18M in average daily volume and >$50M in open interest.
-Cerebras was viewed as early validation of the model, with the perp trading at $340 one hour before Nasdaq open versus a $350 opening print.
Institutions are paying attention.
🚨THE FBI CREATED A FAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY.. LISTED IT ON UNISWAP.. HIRED MARKET MAKERS TO PUMP IT.. THEN ARRESTED EVERYONE WHO SAID YES..
THIS IS THE CRAZIEST LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATION IN CRYPTO HISTORY!!!
The FBI built an actual ERC-20 token on Ethereum called NexFundAI.. 100 billion token supply.. A professional website.. Whitepapers promising "passive income through AI-powered investing"..
It looked exactly like every other crypto project.. Because that was the point..
Undercover agents posed as the founding team.. Then reached out to professional market-making firms and said "we need you to fake our trading volume"..
Every single firm said yes..
Here's what they recorded..
Gotbit.. A firm run by a 26-year-old Russian who publicly bragged in 2019 that he built a business faking trade volumes.. His team kept internal spreadsheets with columns literally labeled "fake volume" vs "market volume"..
When asked how fast they could pump NexFundAI's volume to $1 million per day.. They said "6 hours.. It will cost about $200"..
$200 to fake $1 million in daily trading volume..
MyTrade.. Run by a guy who called himself "the mastermind".. He explained the exact psychology of the scam on camera..
"We make the chart look like a really nice roller coaster ride.. That's where people jump in.. We have to make them lose money in order to make profit"..
He said that on a recorded FBI video call..
CLS Global.. A Dubai-based firm.. Their bots generated 98% of NexFundAI's total trading volume.. When the FBI asked if they could sync fake volume spikes with fake news announcements.. They said absolutely..
ZM Quant.. Bots executing 10 to 20 trades per minute through dozens of wallets to look organic..
All of them knew it was fraud.. All of them did it anyway.. All of it was recorded..
And the clients were even worse..
Saitama.. A meme coin that hit $7.5 billion market cap.. The founders coordinated buys through private Telegram chats.. Sent "pump it" memes while manipulating the price.. Then dumped on retail investors..
$7.5 billion.. Built entirely on fake volume.. Every penny of real money came from retail investors who thought the momentum was organic..
One founder left Saitama and started Robo Inu.. Used Gotbit again.. Another launched VZZN.. Same playbook..
Lillian Finance.. Founder claimed to be a defense contractor who addressed Congress.. Marketed the token as funding children's hospitals.. Pocketed everything..
When the FBI shut it down.. They seized $25 million in one day.. 18 people indicted across the US, UK, and Portugal.. The CEO of Gotbit was arrested in Portugal and extradited.. Sentenced to 8 months plus $23 million forfeiture..
But here's the part that broke my brain..
Real people bought NexFundAI..
The FBI's fake token.. With zero utility.. Zero real developers.. Created solely to catch criminals.. Attracted real retail investors because the fake volume made the chart look bullish..
When the FBI pulled the liquidity to end the operation.. Those people lost real money.. On a government-issued token..
The FBI had to set up a restitution portal to pay them back..
And it gets worse..
Within 24 hours of the DOJ announcing the sting.. Someone cloned the FBI's exact smart contract.. Launched a copycat token.. Rode the viral momentum.. And made $127,000 in a single day..
Using the exact same manipulation tactics the FBI just arrested 18 people for..
Then in 2026.. The FBI did it again.. New token called Lexobit.. 10 more arrests.. Including operators extradited from Singapore..
IRS forensics showed that in one firm's trading.. 1,209 out of 1,221 consecutive transactions went straight back to wallets the firm controlled.. 99% circular..
The FBI proved what everyone in crypto suspected..
The volume is fake.. The charts are painted.. The momentum is manufactured..
And every time you buy a token because "the chart looks bullish".. You might be the exit liquidity.
schwab is rolling out crypto to 35.7m brokerage accounts. BTC and ETH only. morgan stanley recommending 2-4% allocations across $6.5t in client assets. the distribution pipe treats both assets as equals. ETH/BTC ratio sitting at 0.028, a 3-year low. $11.9t in schwab AUM and $6.5t in morgan stanley AUM funneling into two assets through the same door. one of these is mispriced relative to the other and the plumbing doesn't care which.
Aave LLC has filed an emergency motion to vacate a restraining notice served on Arbitrum DAO on May 1, 2026 that attempts to seize approximately $71 million in ETH belonging to victims of the April 18 exploit.
A thief does not gain lawful ownership of stolen property simply by taking it, and the law is clear on this. Those assets were recovered to be returned to users victimized in the April 18, 2026 exploit. Freezing them harms the very people this recovery effort is designed to protect.
We’ve asked the court for an expedited hearing and a temporary vacatur, and we are continuing to work alongside the Arbitrum community and DeFi United to make affected users whole.
Wild story unfolding around the KelpDAO hack funds frozen on Arbitrum.
Quick context: in April, Lazarus Group (DPRK-linked) hacked KelpDAO for $292M via a LayerZero bridge bug. Some of the stolen ETH flowed through Arbitrum, and Arbitrum's Security Council froze $71M before the attacker could move it further.
The industry mobilized to recover. Aave, KelpDAO, LayerZero, EtherFi, and Compound co-authored a proposal asking Arbitrum DAO to release the frozen ETH to a multisig that would compensate hack victims. The vote is passing.
Then this week, a plot twist. Lawyers showed up with a restraining order. But not on behalf of the KelpDAO victims.
The plaintiffs are Han Kim and two other groups - family members of people killed in DPRK-backed terrorist attacks years ago. They hold combined ~$877M in unpaid US court judgments against DPRK. North Korea never paid. They have been hunting for any reachable DPRK asset for over a decade.
When Arbitrum's frozen ETH was publicly identified as "DPRK money," they saw a target.
Their argument: this is DPRK property, we have $877M in judgments against DPRK, give us the money.
The counter-argument: DPRK does not actually own this ETH - they stole it. The real owners are the KelpDAO hack victims. The old terrorism creditors are trying to grab money that was never really DPRK's.
Arbitrum is now caught in the middle. The industry wants to release funds for hack recovery. NY court is saying "do not move anything until we resolve this." If multisig signers transfer the ETH while the restraining order is active, they become personally liable.
This is the first real test of DAO funds against competing US court claims. The precedent set here will shape how every future DAO incident response handles legal pressure.
Someone who deserves max props in this defi united is @MikeSilagadze / @ether_fi
- donated 5k ETH with no loan, no token swap, no disguise "just an aave deposit"
- saved a direct competitor by doing it
- already had multiple dvn for their own oft bridge
- 0 exposure to rsETH
- bigger donation than Lido despite Lido having a bigger eth staking business and direct rsETH exposure
- same size donation as layerzero who was hacked
so why do it? they legitimately just care about defi and ethereum
note: dcf cap seeded etherfi
BITMINE BUILDS $13.3B ETH TREASURY, TARGETS 5% OF SUPPLY
Bitmine Immersion Technologies reports $13.3B in crypto, cash, and investments, led by 5.08M ETH, 200 BTC, and $940M cash.
The firm holds 4.21% of Ethereum supply and aims for 5%, cementing its position as the largest ETH treasury globally.
It has staked 3.7M ETH, generating strong yield income, and is backed by major investors including ARK’s Cathie Wood and Pantera Capital.
Bitmine remains one of the most actively traded U.S. stocks, with ~$845M daily volume.
The hardest week of my career.
And also the week I saw what this industry is truly made of.
We are contributing 2,000 ETH to DeFi United. Every rsETH holder will be made whole. That was always the only acceptable outcome for me personally.
To everyone who showed up, thank you.
DeFi United.
100% rebacking of rseth with no haircut
0 bad debt on any aave instances on any chain
No liquidations apart from North Korea
Kumbaya defi energy restored
They’re calling it kulechov mode
After discussions with several stakeholders, Aave service providers, @Ether_fi, @KelpDAO, @LayerZero_Core, @compound_xyz, and others have submitted a governance proposal to the @arbitrum DAO requesting the release of ETH frozen by the Arbitrum Security Council following the April 18 rsETH incident.
If released, the funds will be directed into DeFi United, a coordinated cross-protocol recovery effort aimed at restoring rsETH backing and remediating impairment of rsETH for users. This contribution would meaningfully advance the path to resolution as others confirm their commitments.
The proposal is open for review, and we welcome feedback from the Arbitrum community.
https://t.co/KwofmX2RYP