Hello,
I am kicking off something new here every fortnight. I will share my favourite reads across crypto, finance, technology, and beyond (whenever I can’t resist sharing the magic some writings bring).
Think of it as an antidote to the information overload that we are swimming in each week. From Monday to Friday, there’s so much noise that it is easy to miss the signals that matter. So, I will do the heavy lifting for you (you’re welcome!) by reading, filtering, and curating a list so you can focus on the bigger picture, not just the noise.
Before we dive into the list, here’s a quick recap of the past fortnight.
The last two weeks have been challenging for everyone. Macroeconomic and political uncertainty has shaken the U.S. economy and, by extension, the global market. It has pushed even the most patient ones to their breaking points.
We saw U.S. President Donald Trump invoke the same-old-yet-always-lurking-around tariffs discussion back into the limelight. That set off the alarm bells a couple of weeks back. We then saw the US dollar slipping to a four-year low, even as Trump assured its value was “great”.
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats were negotiating a deal in the eleventh hour to avoid another government shutdown. While they managed to agree on one, the damage to the markets and other asset classes was done. Not to mention, a partial shutdown remains a possibility. Bitcoin slipped further from the $85,000-$86,000 range it managed to hold on to until yesterday. The cryptocurrency touched a two-month low of $81,200. Equity markets and metals, including gold and silver, also pared some of their gains as their record-high rally was brought to a grinding halt.
Despite all this, there’s plenty to take away in the world of crypto.
Hyperliquid continues its meteoric rise as a DEX powerhouse (we wrote about it here); Zama’s encrypted ICO showed why privacy is a big deal in crypto with its $118 million raise; and Tether’s gold bet (which we also covered) seems right on cue, given the current macro environment. Regulatory clarity is inching forward; AI, traditional finance (TradFi), and crypto are converging faster and integrating more deeply each passing day, and there’s a lot to look forward to.
Here’s what caught my attention. Sit back, grab your coffee and dive into whatever (some of these could be paywalled) catches your eye…
Regulation & Policy
Crypto Regulation: SEC and CFTC launch “Project Crypto” to harmonise digital asset regulations
Clarity on CLARITY: Senate Agriculture Committee advances CLARITY Act toward regulatory framework clarity
Crypto’s Congressional Influence: How Coinbase’s $130 million campaign spend gives crypto industry influence in policymaking
Crypto & Tech
Zama’s Encrypted ICO: $118 million raise demonstrates fully homomorphic encryption’s potential for blockchain privacy
Quantum Computing & Blockchains: a16z writes on matching urgency to actual quantum threats facing crypto
Polymarket Arbitrage Research: Academic study reveals $40 million profit extracted from prediction market inefficiencies
Stablecoins’ B2B Opportunity: How business payments and cross-border settlement unlock stablecoins’ true potential
Prediction Markets & ICOs: What prediction market data reveals about token launch dynamics
USD.AI Launch: The compute-backed dollar issuer launches USD.AI foundation, $CHIP token and announces governance structure
Finance and Economy
Holiday High: Apple records blockbuster sales in December quarter
The Velocity Gap: How crypto can help capital infrastructure become programmable software
Sanctions Are Sieges: Stablecoins as escape routes from modern economic siege warfare
AI & Innovation
PageRanking AI Agents: ERC-8004 brings three on-chain registries to build a trust infrastructure for trustless, autonomous AI agents; I wrote about the need for PageRanking for AI agents based on a podcast here
The IPO Race: OpenAI and Anthropic racing toward Q4 2026 public market debuts
AI’s Capital Glut: Claude AI maker, Anthropic, raises $20 billion at $350 billion valuation ahead of IPO
OpenAI Prism Launch: GPT-5.2 powers free collaborative research workspace for scientists worldwide
Galaxy on AI Agents: How autonomous AI agents are transforming prediction markets and DeFi
Funding Announcements
EV3 Venture Fund II: $61.74 million oversubscribed early-stage fund tripling down on crypto entrepreneurs
Mesh $75M Series C: Payments infrastructure startup hits $1 billion valuation, targeting legacy system disruption
Feel free to share any recommendations you think we should include in the next edition.
What I am watching/reading this weekend
I am looking forward to resuming The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (I paused midway through last weekend) and possibly watching Marty Supreme (in which Timothée Chalamet stars as a table tennis prodigy) in cinemas.
That’s all for this fortnight. Catch you in the next edition.
Until then, happy reading!
Prathik
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Disclaimer: This newsletter contains analysis and opinions of the author. Content is for informational purposes only, not financial advice. Trading crypto involves substantial risk - your capital is at risk. Do your own research.