For the past few years, most DePIN projects focused on one thing: bootstrapping supply.
In plane terms: incentives, points, rewards, emissions —> whatever brings people in fast. 🏃♀️ 💨
🧵👇🏻
Mobile data demand is outpacing what cellular networks were built to carry. Today, that pressure lands hardest in cities.
Earlier this week, India's leading broadband policy forum responded to the country's public Wi-Fi consultation with a direct verdict: mobile networks alone cannot meet the demand. For any major city, Wi-Fi offload is a structural necessity.
In most high-density urban markets, the infrastructure to support that offload already exists. Where it doesn't exist at scale, countries like India with a population of 1.4 billion people are actively working to build it, specifically because mobile networks can't carry the load alone.
The barrier to greater adoption worldwide isn't physical. It's commercial.
Connecting existing Wi-Fi supply to carrier demand still requires bilateral agreements: one per carrier, per venue, per market. That model doesn't scale. Uplink is the marketplace that connects supply to demand directly. One integration. Automated settlement. No bilateral stack.
India is formalising the need. The problem exists everywhere. Uplink is built to solve it.
LATEST: ⚡️ Avalanche saw a 24x volume surge and 10x active address growth over several days as World Cup fans rushed to buy "Right to Buy" digital tickets, according to Ava Labs SVP Arielle Pennington.
Wi-Fi has the coverage. It has the standards (Passpoint, OpenRoaming).
What it's lacked is the same clearing infrastructure that made cellular roaming scale.
Not a new network. A marketplace layer that verifies supply, coordinates demand, and settles automatically.
That's what Uplink does.
Anthropic has confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Pending completion of SEC review, this gives us the option to pursue an initial public offering.
Read more: https://t.co/onGZAhRLvD
Retro9000: C-Chain Round 4 is live 🔥
New this round: verified users now impact project rankings, and smaller projects receive a meaningfully larger share of rewards relative to what they have burned.
The leaderboard just got a lot more interesting 🔺
🚨Upcoming AMA 🚨
We'll be holding our next Uplink Community AMA this Friday with our CMO @cryptocolah to share the latest news and answer your questions!
📅Date: May 29
🕜Time: 1:30 PM UTC
Get your questions in ahead of time on Discord.
See you there!
@Weaver_Labs@uplink_xyz Exactly - we've worked with enterprises in the industry since 2016 and that's the general feedback we've received. Since then, we focused on Demand and are now enabling easy access to the marketplace for supply - live traffic in minutes.
Most useful ways I use AI lately:
🥬 health + fitness tracking
👩💻 website coding/platform building
🤒/🐶 Analysis + exam results
✍️ 1st Draft copy - *not final content
🏗️ Building artifacts for everyday use
What am I missing?
what's next for @uplink_xyz :
today: DEMO day in Dallas
2morrow: IRL announcement on stage at WGC Americas in Dallas.
Thursday: We'll explain (w/ visuals) what went down at WGC this year & why it matters.
NEXT FRI: AMA with the Community for update & run-thru.
buckle up. 🚀
Phase 2. Dallas. Next week. Our team will be at WGC Americas — come say hi. 👋🏻
We're speaking at the event AND dropping an announcement with @WBAlliance that I'm genuinely excited about.
Hint: it's live. 👀
DMs open if you'll be there. 🛜🚀💙 #LFG
📍Dallas. Tuesday May 19. Let's go 🙌
We'll be at the Wireless Global Congress + Network X Americas, speaking at the event and dropping an announcement with the @WBAlliance we're genuinely excited about. 📡
The WGC community is where Wi-Fi offload standards get built and partnerships get made. Being a long-standing WBA member means a lot to us.
Stay tuned. And if you'll be in Dallas, come find us! DMs open 🤝
I received an email from someone (cold outreach) wanting to join my team. Here's how it went:
Me: responded very honestly, thoughfully.
Candidate: reacted to my email with "👍" . no message.
🙃 I didn't know you could do this.
what is the world coming to?
@gokulr@coinbase@brian_armstrong@emiliemc Oooof - bad timing my friend to be throwing your mindset at this flame. Let the dust settle, let the founder handle this. Crypto twitter will not be so nice.
5/ AI might make it feel like you’re behind - you’re not. You're early to a reset most people haven't made yet.
DM me if you want to think it through. Genuinely. Here to help.
- Claudia , CMO @uplinkxyz
1) TLDR; 1/ Coinbase just cut 14% of its workforce.
Brian Armstrong’s reason? AI.
This isn't just Coinbase. This is the memo every founder is reading right now. This thread is to help people get out in front of it & figure out their next move in this market.🧵
This is an email I sent earlier today to all employees at Coinbase:
Team,
Today I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%. I want to walk you through why we're doing this now, what it means for those affected, and how this positions us for the future.
Why now
Two forces are converging at the same time. We need to be front footed to respond to both.
First, the market. Coinbase is well-capitalized, has diversified revenue streams, and is well-positioned to weather any storm. Crypto is also on the verge of the next wave of adoption, with stablecoins, prediction markets, tokenization, and more taking off. However, our business is still volatile from quarter to quarter. While we've managed through that cyclicality many times before and come out stronger on the other side, we’re currently in a down market and need to adjust our cost structure now so that we emerge from this period leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth.
Second, AI is changing how we work. Over the past year, I’ve watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks. Non-technical teams are now shipping production code and many of our workflows are being automated. The pace of what's possible with a small, focused team has changed dramatically, and it's accelerating every day.
All of this has led us to an inflection point, not just for Coinbase, but for every company. The biggest risk now is not taking action. We are adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase to be lean, fast, and AI-native. We need to return to the speed and focus of our startup founding, with AI at our core.
What this means
To get there, we are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs, we’re fundamentally changing how we operate: rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it. What does this mean in practice?
- Fewer layers, faster decisions: We are flattening our org structure to 5 layers max below CEO/COO. Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high context teams that can move quickly. Leaders will own much more, with as many as 15+ direct reports. Fewer layers also means a leaner cost structure that is built to perform through all market cycles.
- No pure managers: Every leader at Coinbase must also be a strong and active individual contributor. Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams.
- AI-native pods: We’ll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact. We’ll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including “one person teams” with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.
In short: AI is bringing a profound shift in how companies operate, and we’re reshaping Coinbase to lead in this new era. This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs.
To those who are affected
I know there are real people behind these decisions — talented colleagues who have poured themselves into this company and our mission. To those of you who will be leaving: thank you. You’ve helped build Coinbase into what it is today, and I am sincerely grateful for everything you've done.
All impacted team members will receive an email to their personal account in the next hour with more information, and an invitation to meet with an HRBP and a senior leader in your organization. Coinbase system access has been removed today. I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information.
To those affected, we will be providing a comprehensive package to support you through this transition. US employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks base pay (plus 2 weeks per year worked), their next equity vest, and 6 months of COBRA. Employees on a work visa will get extra transition support. Those outside of the US will receive similar support, based on local factors and subject to any consultation requirements.
Coinbase prides itself on talent density. Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters.
How we move forward
To the team that is staying, I know this is a difficult day. We’re saying goodbye to colleagues and friends you've been in the trenches with. But here’s what I want you to know as we move forward together:
Over the past 13 years, we have weathered four crypto winters, gone public, and built the most trusted platform in our industry. We’ve made it this far by making hard decisions and by always staying focused on our mission. This time will be no different – nothing has changed about the long term outlook of our company or industry. And most importantly, our mission has never been more important for the world. Increasing economic freedom requires a new financial system, and we’re building it.
The Coinbase that emerges from this will be more capable than ever to achieve our mission.
Brian
4/ If you've been laid off — you’ll need to reframe how you work with AI too.
Become the person who directs it, interprets it, and makes the calls.
That's the job startup founders will be looking to fill.