Ethereum climbed back above $3,000 after a wave of exchange traded-fund inflows and heavy whale accumulation helped stabilize the market following weeks of selling.

Ethereum has climbed back above $3,000, trading at $3,037, a 3.5% daily gain. The move came after a rough month that has pushed ETH down almost 40%, leaving it 38% below its all-time high of $4,946 set in August.

24-hour trading volume stood at $21 billion, down about 5% from the day before. Derivatives activity, however, painted a different picture. According to CoinGlass data, futures volume slipped 10% to $76 billion, while open interest rose 6.59% to $37 billion. 

A rise in open interest during a price recovery usually shows traders adding new positions instead of exiting old ones, often hinting at fresh momentum.

ETH ETF inflows and corporate accumulation fuel the move

Spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs recorded another strong session, bringing in $78 million in net inflows, according to SoSoValue data. This marks the fourth straight day of inflows, pushing cumulative net inflows above $12 billion.

These steady flows matter because spot ETFs create real market demand. Issuers must buy ETH to back their shares, which can support price during weak market phases.

Institutional interest has also been building outside ETFs. Tom Lee’s BitMine added 69,822 ETH last week worth roughly $197 million, lifting its total holdings to about 3.63 million ETH. BitMine’s holdings are now valued at over $10 billion.

Ethereum whales appear ro be accumulating as well. A Nov. 26 report from CryptoQuant contributor Arab Chain shows that wallets holding 10,000–100,000 ETH now control more than 21 million ETH, the highest balance ever recorded.

The largest category, holders with more than 100,000 ETH, accumulated an extra 4.3 million ETH in recent months. Meanwhile, Binance’s ETH reserves dropped to 3.76 million, suggesting coins are moving into long-term storage or staking rather than exchanges.

Together, these trends cut down sell-side supply and help build price floors during recovery phases.

Ethereum price technical analysis

Ethereum’s daily chart shows the price climbing out of a steady downtrend. ETH is now pushing against the middle band of its Bollinger setup after spending weeks near the lower band, which often marks exhaustion in a sell-off.

Momentum is also improving. The relative strength index has moved up to 41.9, and MACD has crossed into a mild buy zone, showing the market is trying to build strength from oversold territory.

ETH trades just above its 10-day moving averages, which have flipped into short-term buy territory, while the heavier averages, from 20-day to 200-day, still lean bearish. This mix usually appears during early reversal attempts where the market starts to stabilize but hasn’t fully flipped trend yet.

If bulls keep price above $3,000, ETH could work toward the $3,115–$3,250 zone next. Failure to hold this level may pull the price back toward $2,850, where buyers stepped in earlier this week.

Monad’s first week on mainnet hasn’t been entirely smooth, with users now reporting spoofed ERC-20 token transfers after mainnet launch.

Reports regarding widespread spoofing incidents began circulating on Tuesday, Nov. 25, a day after the mainnet debut.

Monad co-founder and chief technology officer James Hunsaker warned on X that scammers were broadcasting fabricated ERC-20 transfers that appeared to come from his wallet.

Fake transfers surface within 48 hours of launch

Spoofing refers to fake on-chain events that appear real on explorers and wallets but involve no actual movement of funds. Hunsaker shared examples showing transactions that weren’t initiated by him.

He pointed out that ERC-20 is only an interface standard, and anyone can deploy a contract that emits misleading transfer logs. These events don’t move tokens or drain wallets, but they can mislead users into thinking they’ve received assets or triggered unexpected activity.

warning – there are fake ERC-20 transfers pretending to be from my wallethttps://t.co/TCZTfDfoTQ

example:https://t.co/wA1I8RFTdQ

you can see the txs are not sent by me

ERC-20 is just a token interface standard, it’s easy to write a smart contract that meets that standard…

— James (mainnet arc) (@_jhunsaker) November 25, 2025

The goal is social engineering. Scammers often try to push users toward phishing sites, “claim” buttons, or malicious contracts that ask for approvals. It’s a recurring issue on new Ethereum Virtual Machine chains when activity surges and users rush to interact with fresh dApps.

X saw a spike in warnings, and “#MonadScam” trended briefly before cooling off. Monad clarified that this incident is not an exploit and no funds were lost.

The timing, coming just a day after the mainnet launch, added to confusion among new users already navigating a busy rollout. Users praised the team’s quick response, and many highlighted that the fake transfers didn’t affect their wallet balances or token holdings.

High activity and airdrop hype created a target

More than 76,000 wallets claimed 3.33 billion MON tokens in the airdrop round worth roughly $105 million at the time, and the network has seen strong traction since launch. Attackers appear to be taking advantage of this early rush, similar to earlier phishing campaigns that mimicked Monad’s airdrop portal.

Monad’s debut has been one of the most active launches of the year. The chain, a high-performance, EVM-compatible network built by former Jump Trading engineers, went live with support from over 280 projects.

It has raised more than $260 million from Paradigm, Electric Capital, and OKX Ventures. Testnet numbers topped 2.6 billion transactions, with more than 300 million wallets and 41 million blocks.

MON launched at $0.02 and after an early dip, the price has climbed more than 50%, trading near $0.045 at press time. As activity ramps up, the team is urging users to rely only on verified explorers, avoid urgency prompts, and double-check contract interactions.

Pump.fun is back in the spotlight after new on-chain activity raised fresh questions about the project’s finances.

Pump.fun is facing renewed scrutiny after large USDC transfers linked to the team were spotted on-chain.

The project transferred over $400 million in USDC via Kraken over the previous week, according to an analysis shared by EmberCN on Nov. 24.

Large transfers raise questions over private-placement funds

EmberCN reported that the team sent roughly 405 million USDC to Kraken, followed by about 466 million USDC flowing from Kraken to Circle, which is likely a redemption. The firm noted that these funds match the size of the private-placement capital Pump.fun (PUMP) raised in June, when institutions purchased PUMP at $0.004 per token.

pump. fun (@Pumpfun) 项目方这是出金买大别野了吗🥹

最近一周时间里，pump. fun 项目方把 4.05 亿 USDC 转进了 Kraken。然后同期时间里 4.66 亿的 USDC 从 Kraken 转到 Circle (USDC 发行方)，这很可能是进行了出金。

这些钱是 pump. fun 6 月份向机构私募销售 $PUMP… pic.twitter.com/16Z7GZ45XZ

— 余烬 (@EmberCN) November 24, 2025

The private round was a major part of Pump.fun’s fundraising. It allocated 18% of the 1 trillion-token supply, about 180 billion tokens, to institutions at the fixed price, raising an estimated $720 million. This tranche closed before the public sale, giving retail buyers access.

Analysts later found that insiders and early investors controlled roughly 55% of the supply once trading started, which community members argue skewed market dynamics from launch day.

Pump.fun also earned significant revenue from its token factory. Dune Analytics shows more than $908 million in revenue since launch, though activity on the platform has eased in recent weeks.

Daily active wallets have dropped to just under 100,000, and out of more than 10,000 tokens created in the last 24 hours, only 86 managed to “graduate.”The drop has been widely attributed to both strong competition and the crypto market decline.

Token weakness and legal pressure add to the fallout

The controversy surrounding insider allocations and unclear vesting terms increased volatility when PUMP debuted in July. Community analysts also expressed concerns about side wallet sales, arguing that they compromise the project’s buyback initiatives.

Pump.fun has made an effort to boost activity with features like “Mayhem Mode,” which highlights stronger projects.  However, bot abuse has limited the tool’s impact, and new competitors like DegenSafe.fun and four.meme have gained traction by providing clearer incentives.

Additionally, the project is under legal and regulatory pressure. Several class-action lawsuits have been filed against Pump.fun and its affiliated companies in New York, alleging that they sold unregistered tokens and misled users about possible returns.

At the time of writing, PUMP traded at $0.002643, down 35% over the past month. Analysts at Coincodex expect the token to fall toward $0.001929 by Dec. 23, citing bearish sentiment, high volatility, and an Extreme Fear reading of 13 on the Fear & Greed Index.

If you spend enough time on X, which, if you’re reading this, you likely do, you’ll see the same warning popping up declaring that BlackRock, the legacy finance, is coming for crypto. The world’s largest asset manager, sitting on roughly $13.5 trillion in assets under management, has become shorthand for the institutional floodgates opening. It’s the final stamp of legitimacy. But what if that entire premise is backwards? What if, instead of BlackRock entering ‘crypto, crypto’, and more specifically, autonomous blockchain infrastructure, is about to make BlackRock irrelevant?

That’s not a throwaway line. The core argument here is that wealth management and financial coordination — historically the last fortress of the traditional financial system — are about to be automated, decentralized, and personalized beyond recognition. The “agentic” financial frameworks now emerging on-chain could eventually absorb the very function that makes BlackRock powerful: the ability to mediate intent and allocate capital at scale. Many readers will disagree, arguing that trust, regulation, and complexity make such automation impossible. But dismissing the possibility would be a mistake; the technology is already catching up.

As of September, BlackRock’s AUM reached a record high of $13.46 trillion, roughly four times the entire cryptocurrency market cap. The company’s ETF empire, its “premixed spice jars,” to borrow a Redditor’s famous analogy, simplified investing for the masses. Buying one share of an S&P 500 index fund meant instant diversification across 500 companies. It’s elegant, efficient, and human-curated. The problem is that the same structure has become a bottleneck. ETFs and managed portfolios are top-down coordination systems that rely on human oversight, regulatory constraint, and centralized custody. They’re stable, yes, but static.

Now contrast that with the growing sophistication of autonomous, blockchain-based financial agents. The rise of DeFi didn’t just enable permissionless trading; it enabled programmable coordination. What started as smart contracts moving liquidity between pools has evolved into frameworks that can parse strategies, optimize capital allocation, and execute on intent without human mediation. This is the thesis behind Agentic Finance, pioneered by teams like Kuvi through its Agentic Finance Operating System (AFOS). The concept is straightforward yet radical: the coordination layer of finance itself, which decides what happens with assets, and why, can be automated.

From human expertise to autonomous strategy

For centuries, wealth management has been exclusive precisely because it required human expertise. You needed analysts, brokers, and asset allocators to structure risk and find yield. AI and agentic systems are rewriting that assumption. A single intelligent framework can now read hundreds of charts, interpret market signals, test strategies, and reallocate assets in real time — all faster and cheaper than any portfolio manager. Once you add on-chain execution, transparent auditability, and permissionless access, the traditional barriers collapse.

Critics will call this naïve. They’ll argue that regulation, human psychology, and macro-level risk require oversight — that machines can’t replicate fiduciary responsibility or judgment. Fair enough. But that’s precisely what every industry said before software ate it. In the 1980s, trading pits dismissed electronic exchanges. In the 2010s, banks dismissed crypto entirely. Today, stablecoins settle trillions of dollars monthly on Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin (BTC) is considered a macro hedge asset. The idea that human-run institutions will forever monopolize financial mediation is starting to sound more nostalgic than rational.

Assets under autonomy

If agentic frameworks like AFOS succeed, we’ll witness a migration of assets — not just from traditional funds to DeFi protocols, but from managed products to self-directed, automated systems. Imagine a user instructing an on-chain agent: “allocate my liquidity toward mid-cap DeFi protocols with Sharpe ratios above 2.0 and auto-rebalance weekly.” The agent executes, measures performance, and adapts. There’s no fund manager, no custodian, and no intermediary fees — just pure intent translated into coordinated action. That’s not science fiction. The infrastructure is quietly being built right now.

The shift won’t happen overnight. Institutions still hold the regulatory high ground and the trust of pension funds, governments, and corporations. But the arc of financial innovation always bends toward access and freedom of action. Stablecoins eroded the monopoly of banks on money movement. Tokenization is starting to challenge the exclusivity of private markets. The next frontier — intent mediation and asset coordination — is the last monopoly left. When it breaks, the entire premise of “assets under management” could be redefined as “assets under autonomy.”

Some readers might find this threatening, even reckless, perhaps. They’ll possibly argue that entrusting capital to code is dangerous, that decentralized coordination invites chaos. They’re not wrong about the risk. But innovation has always walked that line. The truth is, we already entrust our wealth to algorithms — whether it’s passive index rebalancing or quant-driven ETFs. The difference now is that these systems are moving on-chain, transparent, and user-controlled. The opacity of Wall Street’s structures will no longer be a feature; it will be a liability.

The institutional parallel: BlackRock’s dilemma

If this thesis plays out, the market impact could mirror the early internet’s effect on media. At first, newspapers laughed at bloggers. Then, they lost distribution. Similarly, asset managers might dismiss autonomous frameworks as “DeFi toys.” But once users realize that agentic systems can coordinate portfolios, execute credit strategies, or even participate in on-chain governance more efficiently than institutions, the narrative flips. The cost structure collapses, access widens, and capital migrates.

BlackRock, to its credit, has read the writing on the wall. Its foray into tokenized funds and Bitcoin ETFs shows an understanding that digital infrastructure is the next growth channel. But even that adaptation might not be enough if the underlying function, intent mediation, becomes open-source. When anyone can deploy an intelligent financial agent capable of doing what a fund manager does, the trillion-dollar question shifts from “who manages your money?” to “which framework executes your intent?”

The coming decade of crypto won’t just be about price cycles or ETF approvals. It will be about the disintermediation of financial decision-making itself. Wealth management won’t vanish, but its architecture will invert, from hierarchical to modular, from proprietary to permissionless, from human-mediated to agentic. That’s not anti-institution; it’s post-institution. And when the dust settles, we may find that BlackRock’s greatest legacy was not its dominance, but the inevitability of its obsolescence.

Teresa Goody Guillén, Changpeng Zhao’s personal attorney, denied pay-to-play allegations surrounding the Binance founder’s presidential pardon.

In a podcast interview with Anthony Pompliano, Guillén addressed critiques linking the pardon to Binance’s dealings with World Liberty Financial and other Trump-connected entities.

Guillén explained that Zhao, aka CZ, was charged with Binance’s failure to implement anti-money laundering compliance programs, not money laundering itself.

“This is a regulatory infraction. There’s no money laundering involved,” she said. The attorney argued CZ never should have been prosecuted.

Reports based on unverified sources, Binance founder attorney claims

Guillén described the corruption allegations as “a pile-up of a lot of false statements, misstatements, sometimes assumptions.”

She challenged reporters to verify their sources and noted that media outlets cite other media reports without solid evidence.

“You’ll see a media report, citing a media report, citing a media report, and there’s no basis for it other than sources that are close to somebody, which is kind of code for not a strong source,” Guillén stated.

The attorney disputed claims that World Liberty Financial is “Trump’s company,” saying she hasn’t seen evidence supporting this characterization.

Guillén addressed allegations about USD-1, the stablecoin World Liberty Financial issued on the Binance chain.

“Just because I list something on Craigslist, it doesn’t mean that I therefore have some special relationship with the former CEO of Craigslist,” she said.

She explained USD-1 exists on multiple chains, and other exchanges hold it.

Other crypto executives received pardons

Guillén pointed out that Arthur Hayes, former BitMEX CEO, also received a pardon along with the BitMEX company itself. Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, was pardoned as well.

“We’ve been pardoning people for, and companies, juridical people also from the beginning of our country all the way back to England,” she said.

The attorney noted pardons have historically covered both criminal and civil offenses for individuals and entities.

When asked about secret Bitcoin payments to Trump, Guillén said: “I know CZ. I just know that that would never happen. That’s just not who he is.”

Elizabeth Warren made inaccurate claims about CZ

Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on social media that CZ had been convicted of crimes he wasn’t convicted of. Warren also alleged CZ engaged in pay-to-play to obtain his pardon.

“You can’t just go and say things about people and allege that they violated various crimes or committed various crimes that they haven’t committed,” Guillén stated.

CZ will not return to Binance, which still faces restrictions from DOJ, CFTC, FinCEN, and OFAC. The exchange has a Treasury Department monitor ensuring U.S. law compliance despite being banned from serving U.S. customers.

Strategy moved 43,415 Bitcoin worth $4.26 billion across more than 100 addresses since 00:00 UTC on November 14.

The massive transfers caused speculation before blockchain analytics firm Arkham clarified the movements were part of an ongoing custodian migration.

Arkham stated the transactions are not Bitcoin (BTC) sales. The firm explained that Strategy has been transferring assets from Coinbase Custody to a new custodian over the past two weeks, with similar movements occurring throughout the migration process.

Arkham breaks down custodian migration details

The November 14 transfers are mainly three types of movements, according to Arkham. Strategy moved Bitcoin from Coinbase Custody to a new custodian provider.

The company also conducted internal transfers within the new custodian’s infrastructure. Coinbase wallet refreshes accounted for additional movements.

ON TODAY’S STRATEGY BITCOIN MOVEMENTS

Since 00:00 UTC today, Strategy moved 43,415 BTC worth $4.26B to over 100 different addresses.

Over the past two weeks, Strategy has been making transfers from Coinbase Custody (their existing custodian) to a new custodian. We believe… pic.twitter.com/RY9mcT8MDv

— Arkham (@arkham) November 14, 2025

“This does not mean that Strategy has sold their BTC, nor do transfers from Arkham’s Strategy entity automatically imply the sale of those assets,” Arkham wrote on X.

The analytics firm noted that Strategy regularly undergoes wallet and custodian rotations. Anyone monitoring Arkham’s Strategy entity over the past two weeks would have seen similar transfers followed by re-labeling of new custodian addresses.

“Most of the movements that have been reported this morning appear to be a continuation of those transfers,” Arkham stated.

Saylor confirms accelerated Bitcoin purchases on CNBC

Michael Saylor, Strategy’s founder and executive chairman, confirmed on CNBC that the company continues buying BTC. “We are buying. We’re buying quite a lot, actually. And we’ll actually report our next buys on Monday morning,” Saylor said.

When asked if Strategy is ever not buying, Saylor replied: “No, we’re always buying. Bitcoin’s always a good investment.”

Saylor explained that Strategy has been ramping up purchases at current price levels. The company has been buying BTC at both recent highs around $106,000 and at current levels near $96,000.

“I think people will be pleasantly surprised” by Monday’s purchase announcement, Saylor stated.

Saylor addressed concerns about Strategy’s leverage and debt structure. The company maintains leverage of less than 1.15 times and has debt extending four and a half years out. “If Bitcoin were to fall 80%, we’re still overcollateralized, and we’re fine,” he said.

The executive emphasized that Strategy has no trigger points or default scenarios from its digital credit instruments.

Saylor maintained his long-term bullish outlook and stated that BTC will outperform both gold and the S&P 500. “If you’re a long term investor, this is the place to be,” he said.

Canary Capital’s new spot XRP ETF, trading under the ticker XRPC, made a strong entrance on Nasdaq on Nov. 13, becoming the highest-volume exchange-traded fund debut of 2025. 

The fund generated $58 million in first-day trading activity, edging out Bitwise’s BSOL ETF, which launched last month with $57 million.

The milestone was first highlighted by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who noted that among roughly 900 ETFs launched this year, XRPC and BSOL stand far ahead of the pack, with third place over $20 million behind.

A notable launch in a shaky market

The launch landed on a rough day for crypto. Bitcoin slipped under $99,000, and the overall market shed about 3.5%, dropping to $3.43 trillion. Even so, activity around XRPC was strong from the start. About $26 million traded in the first 30 minutes, including about $500,000 on Robinhood within five minutes, and more than $36 million by mid-morning.

Congrats to $XRPC for $58m in Day One volume, the most of any ETF launched this year (out of 900), BARELY edging out $BSOL‘s $57m. The two of them are in league of own tho as 3rd place is over $20m away. pic.twitter.com/MjsOeceeNb

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 13, 2025

The product is the first U.S.-listed spot ETF offering direct exposure to XRP, the native asset of the XRP Ledger. Its listing was certified by Nasdaq on Nov. 12, going effective under Section 8(a) of the Securities Act. Because the fund did not receive pushback during its standard waiting period, it was able to move ahead without delay.

What the spot XRP ETF offers

XRPC is a straightforward physical product, holding only spot XRP to track the asset’s real-time price using the CME CF XRP-USD Reference Rate (New York Variant). It carries a 0.50% annual fee and uses Gemini Trust Company and BitGo Trust as custodians.

The sponsor, Canary Capital Group, is a Tennessee-based digital asset firm with prior ETF launches covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, and HBAR. The firm positions XRPC as a simple way for institutions to gain exposure to XRP’s utility in cross-border payments and settlements without handling digital wallets or managing custody risks.

Utility tokens are experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Earlier this month, Canary’s HBAR ETF raised $70 million in its first week, and analysts observe that demand for payment-linked assets is rising. 

However, with a correlation to Bitcoin of almost 40%, XRP is still susceptible to macro volatility and wider market swings.

Sonic Labs is entering a new phase under chief executive officer Michael Demeter, who shared a long-term roadmap designed to reshape how the layer-1 blockchain creates and sustains value.

Sonic Labs is shifting its focus toward sustainable growth built on fundamentals, not speculation. 

In a detailed update on Nov. 11, CEO Michael Demeter unveiled a new strategy that will turn the high-speed layer-1 blockchain into a long-term value engine for builders, validators, and token holders.

Refocusing on fundamentals and real utility

Demeter said the next phase for Sonic (S) will prioritize “disciplined execution” and “real economic value” over short-term hype. Because of its strong treasury, the business is able to pursue growth and new alliances without concern for cash flow. A new “Fee Monetization” model will introduce tiered rewards for network participants while increasing token burns to strengthen deflation.

The update also confirmed plans for a U.S. expansion, including the opening of a New York office to anchor Sonic’s institutional outreach and policy engagement. Sonic Labs is hiring across business development, marketing, and sales to better position the project within regulated markets and attract enterprise adoption.

Building a sustainable ecosystem

Demeter also pointed out that Sonic’s growth strategy centers on turning network activity into measurable value. Builders will earn based on the transactions they generate, validators will receive fixed rewards for securing the network, and token holders will benefit from reduced supply through consistent burns.

The firm’s partner platform, GMSonic, will also evolve into an educational and content hub, helping expand Sonic’s global reach.

The CEO stressed that price performance remains an important indicator of confidence and execution. “A healthy, sustainable price reflects the strength of our ecosystem,” he said, noting that token value should come from usage and delivery rather than speculation.

Sonic’s technology already ranks among the fastest in the industry, and the new focus will move toward functionality, interoperability, and business-focused upgrades. Future Sonic Improvement Proposals will target real-world adoption and integration with traditional finance, including ongoing discussions about ETF-related opportunities.

Demeter concluded that Sonic is entering a new stage of disciplined, purpose-driven growth. “This next chapter will take time, but the foundation is strong, and momentum is building every day,” he said.

Crypto prices today saw a modest recovery as signs of progress in Washington eased some of the tension that has been hanging over global markets.

The Senate moved a funding bill forward late on Nov. 9, creating a clearer path toward reopening the federal government after weeks of closures and stalled operations.

As a result, sentiment has improved slightly. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose to 29 from 22 yesterday, leaving the “extreme fear” zone. The market’s total value gained 4.6%, now about $3.66 trillion.

At press time, Bitcoin was trading near $105,990, up around 4% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum was up about 7% to $3,622. XRP gained roughly 8.7% to $2.46, and Solana was up about 6.5% to $167.

CoinGlass data shows $338 million in liquidations over the past day, while open interest has increased to about $148 billion. This suggests some traders are returning to positions after stepping back during the recent pullback.

Why the shutdown matters

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after disagreements over federal spending priorities. During the past six weeks, many government functions were paused, workers were furloughed, and regulatory processes were delayed, including those tied to digital asset oversight. The uncertainty weighed on crypto, which tends to react quickly when liquidity feels tight or policy direction is unclear.

The Senate’s progress last night does not fully end the shutdown yet, but the vote was the first meaningful movement in weeks. If the remaining steps pass without extended delay, government operations could restart within days. Traders are responding to that possibility.

Crypto market to recover after shutdown end

Analysts expect somewhere between $180 billion and $300 billion to return into markets over the next several weeks, which often works like a quiet stimulus. A similar pattern occurred after the 2018–2019 shutdown, when stocks recovered and Bitcoin went on to post large gains in the months that followed.

Confidence is also improving. Shutdown uncertainty tends to push investors out of high-volatility assets. That effect was clear over the past month, with Bitcoin sliding and exchange-traded fund flows turning cautious. A completed funding deal removes that pressure and usually brings risk-on appetite back into markets.

The resolution also matters because it puts regulatory work back in motion. The shutdown slowed reviews at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, including progress on stablecoin rules and multiple pending crypto ETF filings. With staff returning, attention turns back to open proposals in the Senate and the possibility of new approvals before the end of the year. 

Tempo is injecting $25 million into Commonware to accelerate its unique approach to blockchain architecture.

The startup aims to provide discrete, remixable primitives that allow teams to build custom stacks without starting from scratch.

According to an announcement on Nov. 7, payments-focused blockchain Tempo is leading a $25 million strategic investment into infrastructure startup Commonware.

Beyond the capital, Tempo will integrate the Commonware Library, including a collection of modular, standalone primitives for consensus, networking, and storage, and become a core contributor to its development.

Per the statement, this deep technical partnership is designed to free Tempo’s engineers from building base-layer components, allowing them to focus exclusively on crafting differentiated payment features.

“Commonware will enable us to get to <250ms finality on a globally distributed permissionless payments system. This will come via multiple innovations in consensus, cryptography, and networking,” the Tempo team said in the statement.

Tempo bet signals a shift

According to Commonware founder Patrick O’Grady, the monolithic, one-size-fits-all blockchain frameworks are ultimately holding back developer innovation.

In his view, these generalized systems force a compromise on performance and functionality, preventing ambitious teams from building applications with a truly specialized edge.

The Commonware Library, which his team developed, is his answer.

O’Grady describes Tempo as directing its research toward “differentiated payment experiences” while Commonware supplies the “state-of-the-art primitives for everything else.”

Once live on Tempo’s network, Commonware will collect invaluable telemetry from a high-stakes, real-world payments environment. This operational data will be funneled back into the open-source library, continuously refining and hardening its components for all users. This perk goes far beyond a simple capital infusion.

Founded in 2024, first gained attention after launching Alto, a lightweight blockchain prototype designed to demonstrate its “remixable” primitives.

Commonware’s early momentum was backed by a $9 million seed round co-led by Haun Ventures and Dragonfly, with participation from industry figures such as Avalanche’s Kevin Sekniqi and Solana’s Mert Mumtaz.

Tempo’s involvement adds a different dimension. The payments-focused blockchain, recently valued at around $5 billion after a $500 million raise led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, has emerged as one of the few layer-1 networks actively tackling stablecoin settlement and cross-border payments at scale.