👋 What’s up?
This is The Chain, where we remind you of crypto days gone by (you’ll see what we mean).
We’ve got a week’s worth of news to share with you, and it’s weird: a lot of old faces. Oh, and Bermuda coming on-chain (what?!)
This week:
⛓️ BlackRock swears tokenization will matter a lot
🇧🇲 Bermuda goes blockchain big time
🦹♀ Caroline Ellison walks free after 2 years
🐭 Axie Infinity is still a game (and pumped this week)
Let’s get to it!
In partnership with AltIndex
What Your 2026 Could Look Like:
Imagine waking up to a notification that a stock you've never heard of just saw a 4,000% spike in Reddit mentions overnight. Sentiment is overwhelmingly bullish. You have time to research it before the market even opens.
You check AltIndex. The stock's web traffic is up 80% month-over-month. They're hiring aggressively. A Congress member with a strong track record just bought $200K worth.
You do your own research. The fundamentals check out. You take a position before the crowd arrives.
Two weeks later, the stock is up 50%. You were early. For once, you were on the right side of the information curve.
This isn't hypothetical. Things like this happened with stocks like IREN (up 585% after a buy signal), PLTR (Reddit mentions predicted the surge), and dozens of others in 2025.
Please support our partners!
⛓ BlackRock Says Crypto is “Driving Markets” (Lol right)
Though it may not feel like it (AT ALL), crypto is a huge factor in where financial markets are headed right now.
That’s something that people in crypto have said for years until now, when sentiment is so low.
What’s crazy is that the one who actually said it is BlackRock. You know. THE biggest asset manager in the world.
BlackRock released a new report talking about tokenization and digital assets as serious tools for the future of finance.
Which is super cool. But also, no one really cares, because it didn’t make Bitcoin’s price change. Ha!
What a world. Crypto people would’ve lost their minds if they heard Larry Fink’s company praising blockchain tech 6 years ago. And yet…
It seems like the more BlackRock talks about blockchain, the worse crypto does 😆
🇧🇲 The Big Bermuda Blockchain
In THE turn of all turns of events, Bermuda is tapping Circle and Coinbase to build the world’s first fully-on-chain economy.
Like, entirely. Totally. Fully on-chain.
What will it start with? Government stablecoins.
What’s the end goal? “Lower costs and greater global financial access” for both citizens and businesses, according to Decrypt.
The fact that Bermuda’s economy largely runs on tourism might be a large part of what makes this possible; they already have financial rails to process payments from banks around the world. This kind of initiative might not work in all island nations.
It will certainly provide an interesting case study for any countries looking to come on chain in the future, large or small.
🦹♀ Caroline Ellison Released from Federal Prison
Breaking: SBF’s ex-girlfriend has been released from federal prison.
If you haven’t kept up with FTX news (we definitely have not), there was a big update today:
Caroline Ellison, former CEO of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research, was released from federal prison.
She only had to serve 2 years while Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) himself was sentenced to 25 years.
Ellison pled guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in December 2022 after FTX’s collapse. The judge remarked that she was very cooperative and seemed genuinely remorseful over her actions, but that there was no way she could get out of a jail sentence.
She’ll now go through 3 years of supervised release.
🐭 Axie Infinity Is Back? They’re Still AROUND?!
This week, crypto gaming had the comeback no one expected.
Axie Infinity (AXS) shot up by 89%, followed by The Sandbox rising 15%, and Decentraland posting a modest 4% gain.
The catalyst for the Axie Infinity spike was a “major tokenomics overhaul aimed at reviving its game economy,” according to Decrypt.
Experts aren’t convinced though, and neither are we. It’s cool that crypto gaming got its moment in the spotlight again, but we won’t be very intrigued until we see more actual utility from gaming tokens.
🍟 Extra Crispy Crypto Links
Steak n Shake is going to pay its employees a bonus in Bitcoin. Get me an apron and sign me up!
Pudgy Penguins apologized for a post that Manchester City called racist.
The officially licensed “PGA Tour Rise” mobile golf game is launching this year.
Here’s what’s next for Zcash after its dev team up and left.
Hong Kong plans to create its first stablecoin licenses early this year.
📩 Weekly Meme Delivery
🎤 Let us know what you thought
We really appreciate you reading our newsletter, and we’d love to hear your feedback.
How was this week's edition?
⏳ Wrapping Up
See what we mean? Weird week. Lot of old faces. Caroline, SBF, Axie Infinity… so many strange memories from 2019-2022. That was an odd time.
It’s a good that things aren’t as crazy now as they were back then. We just have, you know, meme coins launched by the president and his wife, Bitcoin prices that ping pong back and forth perpetually on liquidated trades, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink saying that crypto is driving markets.
Just normal stuff.
Same time next week? Sounds good.
Until next time,
- The Chain Team