Mastercard’s Push For Crypto Adoption, Revolut's Growing Crypto Influence & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Crypto Ambitions: Revolut partners with Pyth to power DeFi platforms. 

• Enhancing Trust: Mastercard continues to roll out its crypto credential solution.

• Banking Crypto: Standard Chartered announces crypto custody services.

We’re all juggling the New Year’s chaos, so I’ll keep it brief — here’s the one crypto graph you need to see even if you’re short on time today.

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Skin In The Game

We’re witnessing a growing trend of both large corporations and small-cap companies setting up Bitcoin treasuries. 

But let’s be honest: They’re not doing it because they believe in the transformative potential of Bitcoin or because it aligns with their long-term vision. More often than not, it’s a strategic move to boost their stock price, leveraging Bitcoin’s appeal as a speculative asset to excite stakeholders.

Regardless, Bitcoin treasuries represent an important first step — a proverbial Overton window — to engage and educate a small but growing cohort of institutional stakeholders about the true advantages of the onchain economy: Self-sovereignty, powered by self-custody.

Apart from the ideological appeal of self-sovereignty and self-custody, crypto rails offer a range of practical benefits that make them hard for institutions to ignore:

• Efficiency & Cost Savings: Crypto rails reduce the reliance on intermediaries, streamlining processes and enabling real-time settlement — while cutting down on costs. In the finance industry, in particular, these efficiencies can be significant. 

• Transparency & Trust: The decentralised nature of blockchains ensures that data is immutable and transparent. This fosters trust among stakeholders by providing an auditable and tamper-proof record of transactions. 

• New Markets: Blockchain networks also allow for modern cross-border infrastructure, enabling businesses to transact globally with reduced costs and friction, all while unlocking opportunities in untapped markets. 

• Customer Experience: As blockchain technology facilitates faster settlements, real-time updates, and streamlined transactions, customer satisfaction can significantly be improved; particularly in sectors such as e-commerce, payments, and remittances, where delays and high fees often hinder the user experience.

• Future-Proofing: By engaging with the onchain economy early, corporations can stay ahead of technological disruption, ensuring they remain relevant in an increasingly digital economy.

While none of this is new to crypto-natives — who will roll their eyes at how obvious all this is — the reality is that these benefits aren’t as clear to those outside the onchain economy. That’s why it’s crucial for us to communicate them clearly and consistently, any chance we get. 

Yes, we’ve successfully piqued the interest of institutions in crypto through Bitcoin. But the challenge now is to deepen their involvement and encourage them to put real skin in the game and help us in reshaping the digital economy. This also means building bridges — not just to corporations, but also to policymakers and capital markets. 

So let’s get moving, there’s work to be done.

Numbers Of The Week

News Bites

Crypto Ambitions: Revolut is doubling down on its crypto strategy. Following the launch of its standalone crypto trading platform, Revolut X, and considerations of introducing its own stablecoin, the company now plans to integrate its digital asset quote and trade data into Pyth price feeds — a pivotal building block for DeFi platforms.

Market Readiness: Firedancer, an independent Solana validator client, is nearing market readiness. This development is crucial for the Solana network, as the new validator client will enhance reliability and speed, strengthening Solana’s infrastructure for high-demand use cases such as trading and payments.

Enhancing Trust: Mastercard continues to innovate in the onchain economy with its crypto credential solution. This service aims to make cryptocurrency transactions more accessible and secure, streamline processes, and build greater trust in the ecosystem — essential steps toward mainstream adoption.

Banking Crypto: Standard Chartered has entered the digital asset sector, announcing plans to offer cryptocurrency custody services in Europe. This marks a major step for traditional banks, signalling that 2025 could see a broader embrace of crypto services as the line between conventional finance and the onchain economy continues to blur.

Institutional Trading: South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is reportedly planning to allow institutional investors to open trading accounts on crypto exchanges. If this move goes through, South Korea — already a leading crypto hub — is set to further solidify its position as a crypto trailblazer. 

Platform Wars: Raydium, one of the longest-standing DeFi platforms on Solana, has launched the public beta for its perpetual futures product. With features such as 40x leverage, gas-free trading, and the lowest fees on over 70 trading pairs, this release intensifies competition among DeFi platforms on Solana.

Stablecoin Storytelling: Stablecoins remain crypto’s premier use case, but their importance can sometimes be hard to grasp. If you’re on the fence, this post breaks down why stablecoins are so pivotal.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}