.@livepeer just had its strongest usage quarter ever.
network usage increased 72% QoQ to 134M minutes processed in Q1 2026, a new ATH.
full @messaricrypto report below 👇
the monster has been unleashed. the $RAIL valuation report is live.
40 pages, 40 minute read.
https://t.co/TXYzEbhzGe
it is an enterprise report, so only @MessariCrypto enterprise clients have access. HOWEVER, let's break down the key points:
1) what is RAILGUN?
@RAILGUN_Project is onchain ZK privacy infra for EVM networks. it lets users transact on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and BNB Chain without revealing wallet identity, balances, or transaction intent.
the protocol charges a 0.25% fee when assets enter or exit the privacy set (shield/unshield). all fees accrue onchain to the DAO treasury.
2% of the treasury is distributed to $RAIL stakers every two weeks, creating a direct link between usage, treasury growth, and staker cash flows.
2) how does RAILGUN work?
railgun lets users move assets from public ERC-20 balances into a shared private pool (shielding), then transact from that pool without revealing wallet identity, balances, or intent.
assets inside the pool aren’t account balances. they’re represented as private notes, proven valid with ZK proofs instead of being publicly readable onchain.
users keep their normal 0x address, but also generate a private railgun address (0zk…). private transactions are built in-wallet, proven locally, then executed onchain with no link back to the public wallet.
railgun is infrastructure, not a consumer wallet. wallets and apps integrate the railgun contracts and SDK to support private balances and private smart contract execution.
this design keeps users on Ethereum’s existing liquidity and apps, while adding privacy at the settlement layer.
3) what does railgun adoption and revenue look like?
railgun processed $2b in combined shield/unshield volume in 2025. this generated the protocol $5M.
importantly, this revenue is earned without emissions, liquidity incentives, or subsidized activity. users are paying real fees for privacy.
railgun captures nearly 5% of its TVL as revenue, materially higher than most DeFi infra protocols, which typically capture around 0.3-3%.
this reflects the transactional nature of privacy flows as railgun monetizes capital movement, not passive liquidity.
4) what is the Kohaku Wallet SDK and why does it matter for RAILGUN?
kohaku is an open-source wallet privacy SDK being developed under the @ethereumfndn. its goal is to make privacy native at the wallet layer, not a separate opt-in tool.
instead of users going out of their way to use a privacy protocol, wallets can integrate Kohaku and offer private balances and private transactions directly in normal wallet flows.
railgun is already integrated into Kohaku. that means railgun becomes part of default wallet transaction flows.
once Kohaku goes live and tier-1 wallets (like @MetaMask) start integrating it, railgun’s addressable market expands from users who actively seek privacy to a massive share of Ethereum’s wallet-reachable capital.
that shift, from niche tooling to default wallet infra, is the core driver behind the upside scenarios in my valuation.
5) how exactly did I value $RAIL?
i start with Ethereum’s capital base (ETH market cap + stablecoins), model how much of it migrates into RAILGUN’s privacy set over time, and translate that into revenue thru a declining capture rate.
revenue minus operating expenses = operating cash flow. ~52% gets paid to stakers, the rest accumulates in the DAO treasury, and i value both pieces (cash flows + treasury) to arrive at intrinsic $RAIL per token.
the base case intrinsic value provides a clean and defensible anchor for what $RAIL should be worth if adoption plays out as modeled.
$RAIL's current price sits at a significant discount to that base case.
6) disclaimer: i hold $RAIL. this report is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice.
7) railtardio.
- railgun quant
OKX, the largest offshore crypto exchange serving the Chinese-speaking market, will list Zcash (ZEC) for spot trading at 20:00 (UTC+8) on November 24, 2025. Notably, OKX previously delisted three major privacy coins — Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) — between January 4–5, 2024.
https://t.co/mEjkvMb6j4
Privacy matters. Today during @web3privacy, maestro @VitalikButerin highlighted #Kohaku, a new Ethereum framework focused on bringing real privacy to wallets. All 8mins!
It might sound like a random take, but I think there’s a very specific reason why Zcash is doing so well while most other altcoins are struggling.
It’s about belief.
This is my third bull cycle, but in that regard, it feels very different.
Sure, back then we were earlier, valuations weren’t so inflated, altcoins weren’t this hyper-inflationary, and the overall market wasn’t as mature.
And yes, most of the altcoins that performed well in 2017 and 2021 were absolute shitcoins with zero fundamentals, basically no different from today’s memecoins.
But still, it felt like people believed in the vision. People were bidding on these coins as if they were call options on decentralization, disruption, and a technological revolution.
Investors actually put their money into something because they identified with it, they wanted to support it, be part of that potential revolutionary journey.
And because people weren’t constantly overanalyzing market cap vs. FDV ten times a day, comparing P/E ratios, or projecting future growth, they were built differently. They actually diamond-handed what they believed in.
Some of those assets went 100x, and you just kept holding, because in your mind, this thing was going to change the world. The upside felt infinite.
Of course, that also meant a lot of people round-tripped their gains, got wrecked, lost trust, and ended up burned. Also unsurprisingly, value extractors exploited all of this and that’s partly why we are where we are today.
But you get the point.
If you compare that to this cycle, it’s just...very different.
I don’t see many people hunting for the next undervalued gem anymore. People in my own network aren’t even really willing to allocate properly these days.
Visionaries have somehow turned into traders, online casino gamblers, and (the worst of all) farmers.
It often feels like crypto natives don’t really believe in crypto anymore. They’re just chasing the next quick flip, deploying their stables into the next unsustainable airdrop farm, or faking it till they make it on InfoFi.
Even though I’m sidelined on it, $ZEC is giving me those old vibes again, for the first time in a long while. And that, I think, is why it’s outperforming so wildly while the rest of the market feels dead. It’s not necessarily rational, but belief gives people like @mert, @naval, @cobie a reason to ZODL beyond just pure monetary incentives.
Where did all the cypherpunks go? What happened to the days when people actually believed in something?
It’s time to start believing again, before the institutions swoop in, grab all our coins, and we, the natives, end up sitting on the sidelines like fools (again).
Maybe sometimes you should actually hate the player, not the game.
ok I really like $rivn a lot here. 400k is extremely low compared to what the narrative is worth tbh
$rivn is a pfp cult and the first crypto coin representing a NASDAQ stock
don't believe in it? everyone said the same thing about Tesla before it went insane. $rivn is next. once stocks surge, this will as well.
easy front run
Ejm6CEvFtRR9Rib7vjCGr6UYn4xWRSEKFxX6BxvTpump
Related story:
Awhile ago I noticed that a guy I know was at 210k followers all the sudden, whereas previously he'd been at 10k
I sent a DM, "whoa, didn't notice your account blew up"
He replied that he'd bought 200k followers, and while it had hurt his engagement, amusingly it had been a huge ROI
He was getting better job offers, advisor offers, and people offering to pay him to tweet. Most offers were more than he'd paid for the 200k followers
This is exactly how bad the average CMO is in our space.
One more reason "the crypto industry" has been net negative for the world