Howdy!

ZORA is down 24% while PUMP is up 7.5% on the day. Nature is healing.

Today, we’ve got crypto markets going onchain, Solana DATs, and a new Solana letter to the SEC:

Atkins pledges to move financial markets onchain

SEC Chair Paul Atkins dropped a crypto market bombshell this morning.

“Today I am announcing the launch of ‘Project Crypto’ — a Commission-wide initiative to modernize the securities rules and regulations to enable America’s financial markets to move onchain,” Atkins said in a speech to the America First Policy Institute. 

Atkins’ talk came a day after President Trump’s crypto working group released its report, which contained a slew of fairly boring crypto-linked policy suggestions. 

Atkins has injected some excitement with his pledge to move financial markets onchain, though his speech was somewhat light on the particulars. Will onchain markets run alongside traditional financial rails, or replace them altogether? Will those outside the US be allowed to invest? Curious observers will have to wait on more concrete answers.

“No one knows what it means but [it’s] provocative,” a host of crypto podcast The Rollup said of Atkins’ pledge on X, channeling Blades of Glory. 

Nonetheless, Atkins’ onchain markets line feels like a new high-water mark in the crypto industry’s repaired marriage with US regulators. It’s one thing to drop a bunch of onerous lawsuits, as the SEC has. It’s another thing altogether to begin the process of moving the world’s largest financial markets onchain.

In other words, crypto replacing TradFi rails is quickly going from a crypto investor’s pipe dream to a crypto investor’s PIPE dream.

Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito asserted onchain financial markets are “[m]assively bullish Ethereum,” which makes sense given retail giant Robinhood’s planned move to begin tokenizing US equities on Arbitrum.

But Ethereum’s chief competitor in Solana will be looking to capitalize on the major shift in regulatory winds as well.

The Solana Policy Institute lobbying group has already begun pitching the SEC on a framework to compliantly bring tokenized securities onchain. The SPI asked the SEC for exemptive relief for blockchain infrastructure, which would essentially allow crypto infrastructure to operate outside of existing regulations. Based on Atkins’ speech this morning, it seems like the SEC may be happy to oblige.

“I'm absolutely blown away by the breadth of the ambition of the agenda laid out in Chair Atkins' speech. Project Crypto, led by the SEC, is going to revolutionize financial markets generally, and ensure that the US remains at the forefront of Internet Capital Markets,” Solana Policy Institute CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine, who attended Atkins’ speech today, said.

— Jack Kubinec

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📅 July 31 | 12 pm EST

The state of Solana DATs:

Per Blockworks Research data, DeFi Dev Corp and Upexi are in a near deadlock for largest Solana treasury vehicle. 

Sol Strategies, with a market cap of nearly $150 million, would come in a bit lower on this chart — though its fortunes may shift with a hoped-for US stock exchange listing. 

— Jack Kubinec

Jito Labs, joined by Bitwise, VanEck, Multicoin Capital and the Solana Institute, submitted a letter to the SEC arguing for the inclusion of liquid staking tokens (LSTs) in proposed Solana exchange-traded products.

They've cited the recent SEC guidance suggesting that stake delegation doesn't create a securities transaction to frame LSTs as an extension of that logic.

According to the letter, LSTs offer a capital-efficient alt to native staking, which enable ETFs to earn rewards without compromising liquidity or decentralization.

The name of the game is normalizing staking yields inside ETFs, and LSTs like JitoSOL provide the operational abstraction needed to make that viable. By embedding LSTs, issuers can sidestep the complexities of validator selection, reduce risk and eliminate unbonding delays while passing yield to investors.

Jito argues that excluding staking dilutes returns and undermines the very utility of proof-of-stake assets, such as SOL.

Although the SEC's public comment period on staking in ETPs closed on July 25, this July 31 letter may still influence internal deliberations as the commission weighs next steps on the pending Solana ETF applications.

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Lucas Bruder, CEO of Jito Labs: