👷 Founder mode

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Gm. 

Hope you have a coffee – or whatever your preferred morning drink is – ready as you sip ‘n read. Today’s a fun one. 

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you bright and early Monday. 

Oh — and just a reminder that I can be reached at any point by responding to these emails, through Telegram and Signal and on my social media profiles. 

Just in case you ever want to chat…or perhaps have a tip.

👀 Quarterly review

Bitwise summed up last quarter beautifully in one word: “Frustrating.”

And it’s true. We entered the quarter naive and bullish, thinking every obstacle had been moved out of the industry’s way and that we were ready to really get working. 

Oh, how wrong we were. 

Everyone I speak to still says crypto’s in a better place than it’s ever been. Folks still think what’s being built will one day change the world. But no one can deny that this quarter was a bit of a reality check, meaning that people are still excited about the possibility but also understand that it’s about putting in the work to grab user attention. 

Bitwise, in its first quarter review, looked at various datapoints across crypto. Some of it will seem familiar — like the datasets on venture capital spending, given that we’ve spoken extensively about how VC activity looked. Other parts gauged how the activity we saw in crypto last quarter translated into data.

For example, take a look at daily active addresses. Base is still popping off in terms of dominance, but the volume of active addresses clearly dropped from its peak in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

Now, there’s also a stablecoin chart I want to bring to your attention, and it’s quite a bullish one. It’s perhaps one of the few datasets in the report that paints a very positive picture despite overall activity at the beginning of the year.

You see that, right? Stablecoins outperformed Visa last quarter. Need I say more?

Even if you’re tired of the stablecoin discourse, it’s a positive sign to see that crypto can go up against traditional payments. And this is the proof. 

If you’re looking for another dose of positivity, Amberdata found that daily trading volumes seem to be bouncing back after the dip we saw throughout February.

“Bitcoin (BTC) volumes — which had slumped below $20 billion/day in early March—have steadily climbed back above $60 billion/day in recent sessions, a level more consistent with early February’s trading environment. Ethereum (ETH) follows a similar trajectory, with volumes rebounding from sub-$12 billion levels in mid-March to ~$26 billion/day, reflecting a broader return of trader interest,” analysts wrote.

Solana, especially, has seen a boon. It’s bounced back from its lows of $4 billion a day to $9 billion as activity in DeFi picks up. But it’s not alone, both XRP and TRX have also seen a spike.

Looking ahead, it seems like we’re on track for a bit of a recovery, though analysts cautioned that we’re not yet near the January highs. But that’s okay, perhaps a break out from this stagnant environment is enough to put some pep in everyone’s step.

“The bounce also coincides with a broader market stabilization following ETF volatility, miner distribution pressure, and macro uncertainty. Rising volumes are often a leading indicator of renewed risk appetite. Sustained recovery in spot trading volume may pave the way for stronger price action — particularly if it continues alongside improving sentiment, lower miner pressure, and reduced volatility,” analysts wrote.

So there you have it. We’re looking pretty good right now, so long as the momentum keeps up.

Brought to you by:

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“Be prepared to do more with less,” Framework Ventures’ Michael Anderson said on this week’s Empire round-up. 

Empire co-host Santiago Santos joined the Bell Curve round-up to chat about the cycle, and he talked a lot about what this moment means for founders, given that the overall attitude around crypto is pretty bullish…and yet it’s a tough time to build in crypto. 

As Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick told us yesterday, the valuations are pretty high at this point, and Anderson added another interesting layer: This industry has to be “efficient with the money that we’re using.”

“ There is generally going to be less money than people expect. Every year over the last five years, we’ve had less money than the previous year from a venture allocation perspective,” he added. 

For the founders out there, Santos offered some advice from his unique position of being both a VC and a founder himself: Keep at least 24 months of runway and “understand your position in the stack.”

Which means having an understanding of a monetization plan. 

Santos added that Facebook, back when it was planning to go public — and even after it IPO’d — didn’t have a monetization plan. It actually got dinged by investors for it, if you look at the historical data.

“It just said, we're gonna build a killer product that people love and we'll then figure out how to monetize,” Santos said. But as crypto evolves, the path towards monetization models will also become more clear as users come onboard and — as Santos put it himself — “ if you have attention of the user, you can monetize the shit out of it.”

So go forth and monetize…one day.

And now you know.

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Last week, I asked: How’re we feeling after this week?

Good news! The majority of you are ready to rally. That’s what I like to hear. 

There was a tie between exhaustion and reaffirmation. I get it, it’s been a long few months. Remember to take breaks, drink water, be a human outside of crypto. 

And for the two people who said that they’re ready to call it quits this cycle, I’m going to ask you to scroll back up and reread the last few paragraphs of the main section. We’ve got this. 

This week, I’m wondering: