The Ethereum network is set to undergo the Pectra upgrade, aimed at addressing critical performance issues and enhancing Ethereum’s competitive edge against rival blockchains. 

The Ethereum network is set to undergo the Pectra upgrade, aimed at addressing critical performance issues and enhancing Ethereum’s competitive edge against rival blockchains. This upgrade is particularly urgent, due to Ethereum's underperformance relative to Bitcoin (BTC) and other smart contract–enabled platforms. 

The Pectra upgrade includes several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) designed to improve network scalability, staking efficiency and user experience. Key features include validator consolidation (EIP-7251), which allows for variable stake sizes, and streamlined withdrawal mechanisms (EIP-7002), which simplify the staking process. The upgrade is anticipated to be released in early Q2 2025, following initial plans for Q1.

Technical improvements and their implications

The Pectra upgrade introduces a range of technical enhancements focused on improving the efficiency of 

 processes. EIP-7251 will change the validator balance requirements, enabling validators to consolidate their stakes into larger amounts, thereby reducing the total number of validators and alleviating network congestion. This consolidation will help maintain decentralization while improving scalability. EIP-7002 will facilitate easier withdrawal of staked ETH by separating validator keys from withdrawal keys, allowing for partial withdrawals and reducing trust assumptions for delegated stakers.

Additionally, changes related to blob space (EIP-7691) will increase the space available for 

 (L2) transactions, which is critical for improving transaction throughput and lowering fees. EIP-7623 will modify the cost structure for using calldata, further incentivizing the use of blob space and optimizing transaction efficiency. These improvements collectively aim to enhance Ethereum’s transaction capacity and lower operational costs, increasing its appeal for developers and users alike.

Despite the anticipated benefits of the Pectra upgrade, market expectations appear cautious. Ethereum has consistently underperformed against BTC and other altcoins, with traders reacting negatively to broader macroeconomic conditions, rather than network-specific developments. Historical patterns show that previous upgrades have led to immediate sell-offs, due to “sell-the-news” phenomena — suggesting that traders may not view these upgrades as immediate catalysts for price increases.

Currently, ETH options markets are exhibiting higher implied volatility compared to those for BTC, indicating uncertainty surrounding Pectra's impact. However, this elevated volatility may also reflect broader market trends, rather than Ethereum-specific factors. As the Pectra upgrade approaches, the Ethereum community remains focused on enhancing the network’s long-term scalability and competitiveness. Overall, while Pectra aims to solidify Ethereum's position in the blockchain ecosystem, its success will largely depend upon market sentiment and the network's ability to execute these technical improvements effectively.

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Bybit x Block Scholes Institutional Report: Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade and the market’s cautious reaction

Berachain has launched Proof of Liquidity, a system that directs block rewards to fuel applications and reward economic activity.

Daily top performer — Alchemist AI (ALCH)

The S&P 500 jumped 1.76% on Monday, leading a broad market rally as investors reacted to reports that the Trump administration may ease some planned tariffs. Gold fell 0.67% to $3,002 as easing trade tensions and rising US yields pressured prices. Fed’s Bostic signaled one rate cut in 2025, delaying the inflation target to 2027. Gold holds near $3,000 support. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, are up by 2.02%, with Bitcoin and Ether up by 3.90% and 4.68% in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is ALCH, up 43.4% after Alchemist AI unveils Gemini Flash for rapid and advanced project planning.

Alchemist AI (ALCH), launched in 2024, is a no-code app development platform powered by AI that allows users to create applications by simply describing them. 

, an AI model designed for speed, structure, and logic-heavy tasks like interactive games, advanced tools, and multi-layered web apps. In Hybrid Mode, it handles ideation—laying out mechanics, flows, and architecture—before passing execution to a chosen completion model. Optimized for efficiency and complexity, Gemini Flash is now available for testing.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

, a system that directs block rewards to fuel applications and reward economic activity. With 37 new reward vaults now live, users can earn BGT emissions through various activities like staking, swapping, and liquidity provision. Emissions are distributed every 5 hours, with incentives ramping up over 3 days for new vaults. Users can track emissions and optimize rewards via BeraHub. This new model aims to redefine blockchain incentives, making the network work directly for its participants.

Yesterday, BTC spot ETFs recorded $66.1M in net inflows, solely from non-GBTC funds, while GBTC saw no activity.

 USDe pre-deposits have surpassed $539M, signaling strong interest ahead of a potential airdrop. Users can earn points by swapping and depositing USDe, with a 30x multiplier for the Ethena airdrop.

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Berachain launches Proof of Liquidity, unlocking BGT rewards for users and applications

Avalanche Spot ETF could bring institutional access to AVAX. Learn about VanEck’s SEC filing, its impact on AVAX, and what approval could mean.

 (AVAX) is one of the cryptocurrency industry's major 

 (EVM)–compatible blockchains. Its native coin, AVAX, ranks among the top assets in the market, in 16th position by 

After the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) approved 

 (ETH) ETFs in mid-2024, several other prominent 

, including AVAX, are now vying for the same privilege.

In March 2025, VanEck, one of the major investment fund managers in the world, applied to the SEC to approve its newly registered Avalanche Spot ETF. With this application, AVAX joins 

 (DOT) as one of the altcoins seeking spot ETF status. If approved, the AVAX ETF will mean a significant milestone for the project, likely strongly affecting the coin's market performance. The project’s team, backers and VanEck are all keeping their fingers crossed for approval. Current AVAX 

ers are another group that’s eager to see the application receive a nod from the SEC.

Many others in the crypto community are also keeping an eye on the application, although it’s unclear whether the approval process will be a swift affair or a long-winded marathon. The SEC has historically drawn out the Bitcoin ETF approval process over several years, sometimes delaying approvals with vague reasons yet also raising valid concerns at times. 

AVAX’s ETF approval might follow a similar trajectory. On the other hand, the new US administration of Donald Trump is widely viewed as crypto-friendly, particularly after the recent announcement of the planned US 

. While AVAX isn’t among the coins included in the fund, the general crypto-friendly stance of the new administration raises hopes for a quick and painless approval process.

In this article, we’ll cover VanEck’s AVAX Spot ETF, the implications for its potential approval and what it means for the future of AVAX and the Avalanche blockchain in general.

The Avalanche (AVAX) Spot ETF is an ETF product registered in the US state of Delaware by the VanEck investment management firm. 

As of Mar 25, 2025, it's under review by the SEC, America’s primary financial regulator. If approved, the ETF will trade on regulated US stock exchanges. It will consist of AVAX crypto currency, and will track the MarketVector™ Index's Avalanche Benchmark Rate. VanEck submitted the application in mid-March 2025, and if cleared it will be the first Avalanche Spot ETF on the market.

The Avalanche Spot ETF would allow investors to access AVAX through regulated markets. Like any other ETF, the AVAX ETF would be available for trading on stock exchanges during market hours, and over-the-counter (OTC). This would create opportunities for many investors, particularly 

 investors who couldn’t buy the crypto before due to regulatory barriers.

The Avalanche Spot ETF would offer investors direct exposure to AVAX, unlike derivative products such as 

. Another advantage would be that ETFs are highly liquid, offering easy access through regulated exchanges. Investors would also avoid the complexities of buying, selling and holding AVAX through the blockchain system. For many investors who aren’t familiar with crypto, setting up wallets and dealing with blockchain can be a hassle. An AVAX ETF would allow them to simply buy and sell it for fiat, based on the value of the ETF at that time.

In theory, the SEC might approve the option for in-kind redemption (i.e., ETF shares are exchanged directly for AVAX tokens), or cash-based redemptions (whereby ETF shares are bought or sold for fiat currency). However, this is unlikely to occur, at least in the initial period after the approval. So far, even 

 — the first crypto ETF products approved by the SEC — have largely followed the cash redemption model. Thus, direct in-kind redemption for AVAX coins isn’t expected following the approval.

There are currently no spot ETFs based on AVAX approved by the SEC. If VanEck’s application is successful, it will be the first Spot Avalanche ETF on the market.

, with the first approvals announced in January 2024, and Spot Ethereum ETFs, which were cleared in mid-2024. Several other altcoins, including SOL, XRP, LTC and DOT, are also seeking ETF approval. The AVAX ETF is the latest among these applications.

At the same time, there are also approved futures-based crypto ETFs, which predate their spot counterparts. The first one among 

, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), was approved in October 2021. Meanwhile, the first 

 were approved two years later, in October 2023. However, there have never been AVAX futures ETF applications to the SEC. Thus, if approved, VanEck’s Avalanche Spot ETF will be the first AVAX-based ETF on the market.

Current impact of Avalanche ETF applications on the crypto market

The news of VanEck’s application to the SEC first surfaced on Mar 14, 2025. Some observers might have anticipated that the news would positively influence AVAX's price. However, AVAX's price remained sideways for some time afterward. Its recent increase on Mar 24, 2025, was likely driven by positive market sentiment following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in which officials unanimously voted to 

. Over the past week, AVAX's price trajectory has closely mirrored Bitcoin’s and the broader crypto market. This suggests that investors haven’t significantly reacted to the news, possibly expecting the SEC to take its time reviewing the application.

The SEC is known for dragging out reviews of crypto ETF submissions. Approval could take months or even years if the regulator raises concerns over any aspects of the application. A fun fact in the crypto folklore is that it took the SEC 

 Bitcoin Spot ETFs, from when the first of these products' applications were submitted in 2013 to the first approvals in January 2024. Naturally, this was during quite a different era, when crypto was still emerging as a financial asset.

The crypto landscape in 2025 is drastically different. Given that the SEC has already established a procedure for crypto spot ETF approvals, it’s unlikely that VanEck's AVAX ETF application will face multi-year delays. Now that the SEC has a history of clearing crypto spot ETFs, the process will likely be much shorter.

What will it mean if an Avalanche ETF application is approved?

If the application is approved, it's likely to spark increased interest in AVAX from institutional investors. Due to regulatory constraints, many of these investors have so far stayed away from crypto, including AVAX. The Avalanche Spot ETF would provide them access to the coin through the regulated environment of stock exchanges. This influx of institutional investment may well lead to price appreciation for AVAX. 

While this price effect isn't guaranteed, historically, such ETF approvals have had a significant impact on the prices of cryptocurrencies. For example, when the SEC approved Bitcoin Spot ETFs on Jan 10, 2024, BTC was trading at around $46,600. Following the approval, Bitcoin's price surged, crossing the $70,000 barrier two months later.

The approval of the AVAX Spot ETF could also attract more institutional interest in the Avalanche 

 as a technology platform. Avalanche has already partnered with notable financial players, including JPMorgan and Mastercard, to provide blockchain-based services. Approval of the ETF could lead to further partnerships and integrations between the Avalanche chain and financial institutions and companies in other industries.

The potential approval of the Avalanche Spot ETF could significantly change the crypto ETF landscape. If VanEck's application is cleared, it may also create an easier route for subsequent crypto ETF applications for smaller coins. Thus, the implications could be far-reaching. The AVAX coin will also likely experience price growth, as it will no longer be restricted to trade on crypto exchanges only, and will enter the lucrative domain of institutional investing through stock exchange platforms.

The potential Avalanche Spot ETF is also in the company of several other altcoin-based ETFs awaiting approval by the SEC. Thus, the collective nature of these applications puts further pressure on the US financial regulator. 

If the SEC is reluctant to quickly clear all of these ETFs, it will need a highly plausible reason to justify its position. In the atmosphere of the maturing crypto market and past approvals for Bitcoin and Ethereum Spot ETFs, finding such a reason might prove to be tricky. Therefore, most of the signals point to a positive future outcome for the AVAX ETF. The key question is — when will the potential big YES arrive?

Intermediate

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Avalanche Spot ETF: Expanding institutional access to AVAX

Prosper is a decentralized protocol that enables community participation in Bitcoin mining by tokenizing institutional-grade mining power (hashrate).

Bitcoin's $40.5 billion mining industry remains dominated by corporate giants, creating significant barriers to entry for individual investors. Prosper (PROS) addresses this challenge by tokenizing Bitcoin's 

 and bringing it on-chain, allowing community members to own and govern institutional-grade mining power.

In this article, we look at what Prosper is, its history, what it aims to achieve and how it works. We also dive deep into Prosper’s key features, road map, tokenomics and investment potential, concluding with thoughts on its role in the evolving Bitcoin ecosystem.

 is a decentralized protocol that enables community participation in Bitcoin mining by tokenizing institutional-grade mining power (hashrate), thus allowing users to own a share of Bitcoin's underlying network infrastructure through Prosper’s native PROS token.

Prosper emerged from a vision to further decentralize the Bitcoin ecosystem by bringing Bitcoin's mining power on-chain for community participation. The project’s founders identified an untapped opportunity at the intersection of three massive markets: Bitcoin's $1.39 trillion valuation, 

 or lending protocol, Prosper's founders focused on building PROS as the go-to Bitcoin ecosystem token backed by institutional-grade Bitcoin mining power.

Strategic partnerships with industry giants like BITMAIN and ANTPOOL have created a solid foundation, bringing professional mining expertise into a decentralized, community-governed framework. 

Prosper seeks to transform Bitcoin's underlying infrastructure by addressing the following critical gaps in the current ecosystem.

This combination of community ownership, institutional-grade execution and sustainable token economics forms the foundation of Prosper's vision of making Bitcoin mining more accessible while creating lasting value for participants across its ecosystem.

Prosper is built on the following four key components that work together to ensure transparency, community governance and sustainable growth.

The foundation of Prosper's design is its accretive hashrate-per-token ratio, which means each PROS token represents an increasing fraction of mining power over time. This model operates in two phases:

This mechanism ensures PROS tokens gain more mining power backing over time, creating a virtuous cycle of value accrual.

Prosper secures institutional-grade mining operations through strategic partnerships. Mining hardware from top-tier manufacturers is owned by Prosper's DAO and maintained by professional hosting services for optimal uptime. The system integrates with leading mining pools for efficient Bitcoin production, with real-time performance metrics displayed on the protocol dashboard for complete transparency.

Mining rewards flow through a structured process. Bitcoin is first credited to Prosper's mining pool account, with a portion allocated to cover operational expenses and hosting fees. The remaining BTC transfers to a secure protocol wallet, where the balance is split between the DAO treasury and staking rewards for active participants.

Prosper implements multiple safeguards to maintain the hashrate-per-token ratio, including a reserved hashrate buffer not shown in displayed totals, the capacity to deploy additional miners when needed, and the ability to buy and 

 PROS tokens if necessary to maintain the minimum peg.

These interconnected systems create a stable, transparent protocol in which community members can participate in Bitcoin mining with minimal technical expertise while benefiting from professional execution.

Prosper offers a comprehensive ecosystem built on three core features that enable it to deliver its mission of democratizing Bitcoin mining while creating sustainable value for token holders.

Prosper revolutionizes Bitcoin mining by combining community ownership with institutional expertise. The protocol leverages strategic partnerships with industry leaders, including BITMAIN for hardware manufacturing and hosting, ANTPOOL for mining pool services and Metalpha for Bitcoin price hedging and liquidation.

The collaboration between leading industry experts and community governance creates a unique model whereby individuals can access mining returns without technical knowledge or large capital investments. This approach ensures professional mining operations while maintaining the decentralized nature of the protocol.

Prosper's governance structure balances decentralization with operational efficiency through a sophisticated DAO model. The Cayman-based legal entity holds the intellectual property and assets, creating a proper representation of the DAO in traditional legal frameworks, while PROS token holders engage in the decision-making process via structured protocols.

Prosper’s system includes built-in safeguards to prevent harmful decisions, while it incentivizes active participation by distributing Bitcoin rewards to governance participants. This ensures that those who contribute to the protocol's direction share in its success, creating alignment between individual token holders and the broader Prosper ecosystem.

Prosper's treasury grows continuously through Bitcoin mining rewards, creating long-term value for the entire ecosystem. The treasury management's conservative approach prioritizes security, even as it seeks strategic growth opportunities.

Funds can be stored with professional third-party custodians, allocated to compatible DeFi protocols for generating yield or used for 

Throughout all treasury operations, Prosper maintains a fundamental conviction in Bitcoin's long-term potential, aligning the protocol's financial strategy with the interests of the community it serves.

Prosper's development follows a strategic approach to ensure sustainable growth and value creation. The protocol entered phase one (hashrate backfilling) in early November 2024, focusing on bringing contributed hashrate online and establishing the crucial minimum hashrate-per-token peg.

Phase two (protocol scaling) will commence following the successful completion of phase one and the migration of legacy token contracts to a new unified contract through the community-approved 

 proposal. This migration is designed to streamline operations without requiring any token swap from holders.

Beyond these initial phases, Prosper has outlined ambitious expansion plans to increase its community-owned mining power and develop new strategic partnerships across the Bitcoin ecosystem. The project’s team is also committed to enhancing token utilities and refining governance mechanisms. Such long-term vision positions PROS as the definitive Bitcoin ecosystem token backed by real mining power, creating a sustainable bridge between traditional Bitcoin mining operations and DeFi opportunities for community participants.

PROS serves as the native utility token of the Prosper ecosystem. Each PROS token represents ownership in a growing pool of Bitcoin mining power, creating intrinsic value beyond market speculation.

Prosper's innovative supply model centers on maintaining and increasing the hashrate-per-token ratio:

This approach prevents dilution while enabling strategic expansion when market conditions are favorable, ensuring that growth always benefits current token holders through increased mining power backing.

The price outlook for the PROS token is closely tied to Prosper’s development as a community-driven Bitcoin mining protocol. Currently trading at approximately $0.4085 (as of Mar 24, 2025), PROS has potential for growth as Prosper implements its road map and expands its mining operations.

While cryptocurrency price predictions are inherently speculative, several forecasting services are providing outlooks for PROS's future value:

These forecasts suggest a positive long-term trajectory for PROS, driven by Prosper’s innovative hashrate-backed model and accretive tokenomics. However, ultimately, PROS's future value will ultimately depend upon successfully executing its phased road map, continued expansion of mining operations and broader Bitcoin market conditions.

While PROS demonstrates strong fundamentals in the decentralized Bitcoin mining space, investors must carefully consider its strengths and risk factors before making investment decisions.

Prosper (PROS) shows promising potential with its institutional-grade mining approach and community governance model. However, potential investors should 

 before investing, particularly given the innovative nature of community-owned mining operations.

Prosper's community-driven Bitcoin mining addresses traditional mining barriers by enabling collective ownership while leveraging institutional-grade operations. With its accretive hashrate model and strategic industry partnerships, Prosper offers a practical solution for investors seeking mining exposure without the technical complexity or large capital requirements.

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Prosper (PROS): Community-driven Bitcoin mining for the future

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PayFi bridges traditional payments with blockchain technology to enable instant settlements, reduce transaction costs and tokenize future cash flows and assets for liquidity.

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The world’s financial infrastructure remains plagued by high transaction fees, lengthy settlement times and limited accessibility, leaving billions of people excluded from essential financial services. 

 has shown promise in addressing these issues, but adoption challenges persist in bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized solutions.

This article explores how Payment Finance (PayFi) creates smarter payment solutions through DeFi integration. We'll examine what PayFi is, how it works, its advantages and disadvantages, how it compares to traditional systems, its real-world applications and its future potential in transforming global finance.

Payment Finance is a breakthrough financial model that bridges traditional payments with blockchain technology in order to enable instant settlements, reduce transaction costs and tokenize future cash flows and assets for immediate liquidity.

Championed by Solana Foundation's President Lily Liu, PayFi harnesses the 

 principle by allowing assets and future revenues to be tokenized and instantly monetized. The result is a financial ecosystem in which capital flows more efficiently, and users can access the value of tomorrow's assets today.

PayFi’s streamlined architecture combines blockchain infrastructure, 

 and tokenization to revolutionize payment processes. 

Fundamentally, PayFi runs on high-performance blockchains like 

 (SOL), providing 400 ms transaction finality and processing thousands of 

 (TPS) at minimal cost. This infrastructure ensures nearly instantaneous settlement as compared to traditional systems' multi-day processes. For example, RippleNet uses the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to conduct global money transfers with almost instant finality at near-zero fees, as opposed to SWIFT transactions that may take days to settle and cost between $15 and $75.

Smart contracts form PayFi's operational core, automatically executing financial instructions when predefined conditions are met. These self-executing agreements eliminate intermediaries, enabling complex financial operations to proceed without manual intervention.

 with blockchain capabilities by creating digital representations of invoices, future earnings and physical goods. These tokens interact with 

 (DeFi) protocols, unlocking new liquidity opportunities and enabling innovative financing models — such as, "Buy Now, Pay Never," whereby yield generated from deposits covers payment costs without touching principal.

PayFi effects transformative benefits alongside important challenges that impact its adoption and implementation.

PayFi vs. other traditional payment systems

Traditional payment infrastructure operates through a complex web of intermediaries — banks, processors, clearinghouses and correspondent networks — each of them extracting fees while adding settlement delays. This multi-layered system creates 2–3% merchant fees and 3–5 day settlement periods, and excludes the 1.4 billion adults globally who have no banking access.

PayFi fundamentally reimagines this architecture by leveraging blockchain's 

. By removing intermediaries and enabling 

 value transfer, PayFi dramatically reduces costs while allowing near-instant settlement across borders. This structural shift creates unprecedented efficiency and accessibility — regardless of banking status.

PayFi unlocks financial capabilities that are impossible in traditional systems. Its programmable nature enables automatic conditional payments, revenue-sharing and complex financial arrangements without human intervention. Meanwhile, pre-funding requirements that burden cross-border commerce are eliminated through real-time settlement mechanisms.

Perhaps most revolutionary is PayFi's potential for financial inclusion: while traditional systems require extensive documentation, credit histories and bank accounts, PayFi requires only internet access, transforming financial services from an exclusive privilege to a universal utility.

PayFi's applications span diverse financial sectors, revolutionizing everything from consumer payments to global trade finance via blockchain-based solutions.

Unlike traditional financing that requires eventual principal repayment, this innovative model allows users to deposit funds into yield-generating protocols and use only the interest to cover purchases, leaving the principal untouched. Users can maintain their capital while letting the generated yields pay for goods and services.

Businesses can tokenize their invoices or future revenue streams and instantly access liquidity through decentralized marketplaces. This alleviates cash flow constraints without the extensive paperwork and delays of traditional factoring, helping companies maintain operations while waiting for customer payments.

Content creators can receive advance funding based on projected earnings, or tokenize future revenue streams. Accessing capital immediately rather than waiting for platform payouts that typically take weeks or months allows creators to maintain continual content production without financial interruptions. 

By leveraging stablecoins and blockchain's borderless nature, individuals can send money globally in seconds — with fees often less than 1%, compared to traditional remittance services' 6%–7% average cost. This dramatically reduces costs while increasing the speed of international transfers.

Suppliers can receive immediate payment for goods through tokenized purchase orders or invoices, while buyers maintain their standard payment terms. The resulting win-win arrangement improves liquidity throughout the supply chain — particularly benefiting smaller suppliers who often struggle with delayed payments. 

Traditionally paper-heavy and inefficient, trade finance is being streamlined by PayFi platforms that tokenize letters of credit and other trade documents. Digitizing these instruments reduces processing times from weeks to hours while enhancing security through cryptographic verification.

The future of PayFi holds tremendous potential as blockchain technology continues to mature and gain mainstream acceptance. Key developments we can expect include the following:

As PayFi matures, its integration with traditional finance, its technological improvements and growing institutional adoption will likely transform it from an emerging concept into a fundamental component of the global financial infrastructure.

Payment Finance (PayFi) combines blockchain efficiency with traditional finance, enabling instant settlements, reduced fees and novel financing models. Though adoption and regulatory challenges persist, PayFi's ability to unlock liquidity, drive financial inclusion and reshape transactions positions it as a pivotal innovation in global finance.

Payment Finance (PayFi): Smarter payments in a DeFi world

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