After 43 days, the government shutdown has finally ended. Markets are still red today (except XRP and ZEC, because of course), but here's why this matters for crypto:

The liquidity that was withheld for the past six weeks is about to start circulating again. It might take a few days or even weeks for that capital to work its way through the economy, but it's coming. (Not financial advice; do your own research.)

More importantly: Trump just floated the idea of $2,000 "tariff dividend" checks, essentially stimulus payments funded by tariff revenue.

If you remember 2020 and 2021, you know exactly where stimulus checks end up: straight into risk-on assets like crypto and tech stocks. Retail loves free money, and retail loves gambling that free money on coins.

The setup is there. Government spending is back on. Potential stimulus is on the table. Liquidity is returning to the system.

Now we just need to see if the market responds, or if it decides to stay cold for a while longer. Anyone else see the disconnect between bullish macro signals and terrible retail investor sentiment? Strange times.

Remember ICOs? The wild west of 2017 where life-changing gains and absolute scams existed side-by-side? Well, Coinbase just announced they're bringing them back… but with all the nasty parts removed.

Here's how it works:

Coinbase is launching a token sale platform that lets retail investors get in on new tokens from day one. Think of it like stock IPOs on Robinhood, except (hopefully) they'll actually work.

The new rules that make this Not a Disaster©:

The first sale? Monad, launching next week. Check the details on Coinbase itself.

This is potentially huge for retail. During the Gensler SEC era, Americans were completely shut out of ICOs while the rest of the world got access to early-stage tokens. Those early entries often produced the biggest gains of entire bull runs.

Now, with Actual Regulatory Clarity©, Coinbase can offer this without the existential legal risk that killed ICOs in 2017-2018.

Is this the return of generational wealth opportunities for retail? Maybe. The platform eliminates the worst parts of ICOs (scams, immediate dumps, bot manipulation) while preserving the best part (early access to high-potential projects). The key question is “will Coinbase ICO some actual decent projects?”

Of course, most tokens will still probably go to zero. But at least now retail has a shot at the upside again, with some actual guardrails in place. I’m for it.

In perhaps the wildest corporate pivot of the year, a failed cancer drug company just rebranded as a Zcash treasury company.

Here's the story: Leap Therapeutics (LPTX), after presumably realizing cancer drugs are hard, took a $58.88 million private placement led entirely by the Winklevoss twins' VC firm and bought 203,775 ZEC tokens.

The company is now called Cypherpunk Technologies, Inc. Because subtlety is dead.

Why Zcash? The privacy coin has been on an absolute tear, rising 11x over about a month and a half. It's increasingly being positioned as a privacy-focused alternative to Bitcoin, and the Winklevoss twins clearly believe that narrative has legs (at least now).

This follows the MicroStrategy playbook but for privacy coins instead of Bitcoin. And honestly? The timing kind of makes sense. With governments worldwide cracking down on crypto tracking and surveillance, privacy-focused assets are having a moment. Also, if you’re going to choose any digital asset for your treasury right now, might as well choose the coin that’s blowing the rest out of the water.

The strategy: Buy a struggling public company, pivot it to a crypto treasury model, ride the wave of a massively outperforming asset.

Will it work? ZEC's recent performance suggests the Winklevoss twins might be onto something. Or they're buying the top of a privacy coin hype cycle. Time will tell.

Either way, "failed cancer drug company becomes Zcash treasury" is the kind of sentence that only makes sense in crypto.

In the most significant regulatory clarity since... ever, SEC Chair Paul Atkins just told the crypto industry exactly which tokens are NOT securities.

Three categories of NON-securities:

1. Network Tokens Crypto tokens linked to functional, decentralized blockchain networks. This likely covers most popular tokens: Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and basically anything running a real network.

2. Digital Collectibles Cryptocurrencies representing rights to media, or (and this is crucial) those referencing "internet memes, characters, current events, or trends."

Translation: Meme coins are explicitly not securities. The SEC just said they don't care about Dogecoin or Pepe or whatever ridiculous thing launches tomorrow.

3. Digital Tools Crypto assets providing practical functions like tickets, memberships, or badges. Utility tokens with actual use cases are in the clear.

Why this matters: For years, the crypto industry operated under existential legal uncertainty. Gary Gensler's SEC treated almost everything as a security and regulated through enforcement actions rather than clear rules.

Atkins just drew a clear line. If your token fits into one of these three categories, the SEC isn't coming after you.

This is the regulatory clarity that was supposed to unlock institutional capital and let builders actually build without legal teams vetting every decision. Now it's here.

We really appreciate you reading our newsletter, and we’d love to hear your feedback.

The foundation is being laid for crypto's next major growth phase. Whether we're in the early innings or the late innings of this cycle, the infrastructure being built now will power the next one.

Markets are red today, but the overall setup still feels bullish long term. Sometimes you just need to zoom out. Not financial advice, and do your own research.

Same time next week? Sounds good.

Until next time,
- The Chain Team