TLDR: Silver fell 43% from its $121.67 all-time high to $69.50 in under eight weeks after Gulf war shocks hit. Over 60% of silver demand is industrial, leaving it exposed when energy costs and rate hike fears surged. Qatar’s helium facility destruction threatens chip fab output, reducing a core source of silver packaging demand. Gold dropped too but held ground as the PBOC bought for 16 straight months and 77% of central banks plan reserve increases. Silver has dropped 43 percent since January 29, falling from an all-time high of $121.67 to $69.50 by Friday’s close. Gold also declined over the same period but found firmer ground through central bank demand.
The divergence between the two metals has raised fresh questions among commodity analysts and investors. These movements are reshaping how markets view silver’s role as both a monetary and industrial asset.
Silver’s Industrial Base Absorbs Three Simultaneous Shocks More than 60 percent of silver demand is industrial, confirmed by JP Morgan’s commodities desk. Electronics, AI chip packaging, solar panels, and electric vehicle wiring are among its primary uses.
When hostilities closed the Strait of Hormuz, energy prices spiked and factory costs rose. Higher costs slowed industrial activity and pulled silver demand lower.
Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera noted on social media that the divergence “is no longer a market event. It is a verdict.” The Federal Reserve now prices a 50 percent chance of a rate hike by October. The ECB and Bank of England are each repricing three or more hikes for 2026.
BREAKING: Silver has lost 43 percent of its value since January 29th. It set an all-time high of $121.67 that day. It closed Friday at $69.50. In less than eight weeks, nearly half the value of the world’s most hyped precious metal evaporated while Chinese banks sold out 600… pic.twitter.com/2AkAg2U6T4
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 21, 2026
Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex supplied 30 to 33 percent of global helium before Iran struck it. SK Hynix sourced 64.7 percent of its helium from that facility alone.
Helium is essential for wafer cooling and lithography in chip fabrication. Fabs are reporting two to three months of buffer supply remaining.
When helium runs short, chip production slows and silver packaging demand falls. Energy spikes, rate hike expectations, and helium shortages hit silver’s industrial base at once.
The metal’s monetary narrative provided no shelter when factories came under economic pressure. Silver entered this environment with three demand shocks arriving simultaneously.
Gold Builds a Floor on Central Bank and Retail Demand Gold fell from $5,589 in January to approximately $4,494 this week, but buying absorbed each drop. Chinese retail buyers cleared supplies in under 60 seconds each morning.
The People’s Bank of China extended its purchasing streak to 16 consecutive months. Chinese banks sold 600 kilograms of gold bars each morning in under a minute.
Seventy-seven percent of central banks plan to increase gold reserves, based on recent surveys. That sustained demand has built a structural floor under gold’s price.
Silver has no central bank buyer of last resort. Its floor rests entirely on industrial consumption, which is now under strain.
Gold’s support comes from institutional policy decisions, not factory orders. Silver’s support depends on factories now facing energy shocks and helium shortages.
The war revealed a structural difference between the two metals that many investors had not previously priced in. That difference now appears lasting rather than temporary.
Rate hike expectations in the United States and Europe continue to reinforce dollar strength. A stronger dollar adds persistent pressure on metals priced in that currency.
Silver enters this environment without central bank support. Whether industrial demand can stabilize will determine the metal’s next directional move.
TLDR: TMSC holds only 11 days of LNG reserve, the least of any major semiconductor economy on Earth. Helium from Qatar powers EUV machines that print every advanced AI chip at 3-nanometre scale globally. Helium spot prices have surged up to 100% since Iranian strikes shut down Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex. Two US carrier strike groups have shifted to the Gulf, thinning Pacific presence and raising Taiwan risk. TSMC produces 90 percent of the world’s most advanced logic chips. Taiwan, where TSMC operates, imports 97 percent of its energy and holds only 11 days of gas in reserve.
A war in the Persian Gulf has now disrupted Taiwan’s helium supply. Helium is critical for printing transistors at 3 nanometres, with no substitute available. The crisis has put global semiconductor supply chains under immediate pressure.
Helium Shortage Pushes Advanced Chip Manufacturing Toward a Critical Threshold Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex once processed roughly one-third of the world’s helium. Iranian strikes shut it down, and repairs will take three to five years.
Taiwan relies on Qatar for the bulk of its helium supply. SK Hynix also sourced 64.7 percent of its helium from Qatar. Helium spot prices have since surged between 40 and 100 percent.
Helium cools the EUV lithography systems that print chips at 3 nanometres. It purges etching chambers of contamination and tests wafer seals.
No substitute for helium exists in these manufacturing processes. Without it, EUV machines stop entirely not slowly, but completely.
Analyst Shanaka Perera wrote on X that helium is “the molecule the market is not pricing.” He added that without it, EUV machines stop “not slow down. Stop.” Bloomberg reported TSMC may prioritise AI chip production over consumer products during shortages.
BREAKING. Every Nvidia GPU is made by TSMC. Every Apple processor is made by TSMC. Every AMD chip that matters is made by TSMC. TSMC manufactures 90 percent of the world’s most advanced logic chips on an island that imports 97 percent of its energy and has 11 days of natural gas… https://t.co/OwXYeEb19N pic.twitter.com/TTVuSAgmzY
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 22, 2026
Fitch Ratings flagged Taiwan and South Korea as the most exposed semiconductor economies. TSMC’s shares have fallen 7 percent since the war began.
Taiwan holds the smallest energy reserve among major semiconductor economies. South Korea holds 52 days of reserve; Japan holds three weeks.
Geopolitical Pressure Compounds Taiwan’s Strategic Energy Exposure Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs says helium supplies are secured through mid-May. Negotiations for June are ongoing, and officials called the situation a controllable risk. The government also announced plans to raise the mandatory LNG reserve from 11 to 14 days next year.
The Persian Gulf war has redirected two US carrier strike groups away from the Pacific. This has thinned the naval presence that historically deters pressure on Taiwan. Regional tensions around Taiwan have been building since 2023.
Beijing does not need an invasion to apply pressure on Taiwan. A military exercise near the island during a supply crisis achieves disruption through perception. That signal alone can alter market behaviour and shipping logistics.
Perera noted that seven reinsurance letters closed the Strait of Hormuz commercially in five days. The same mechanism could apply to the Taiwan Strait, which is 110 miles wide at its broadest point. If risk models shift, insurance letters follow, and shipping stops without any military action.
Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with one-third from the Middle East. Qatar remains the dominant LNG supplier.
The chain connecting helium, LNG, and the world’s advanced chips now runs through an active war zone. TSMC remains the most critical manufacturer of advanced semiconductors on Earth.
Key Takeaways Helium is essential for semiconductor manufacturing and rocket launches, highlighting its importance in advanced technology. The unique properties of helium, including its low boiling point, make it indispensable for superconducting magnets and rocket propulsion. Helium’s effectiveness as a heat transfer medium is crucial in semiconductor processes, preventing errors and ensuring efficiency. Demand for helium in semiconductor manufacturing is rapidly increasing, with new technologies requiring significantly more helium. Helium is rarer than natural gas and is primarily extracted as a byproduct of natural gas production. The formation of helium takes hundreds of millions of years, classifying it as a non-renewable resource. Helium extraction involves complex separation processes due to its small, nonreactive molecular structure. Global helium fields are limited, with only a few significant sources, impacting supply and market dynamics. The US strategic helium reserve played a critical role in capturing helium that would otherwise be lost. Helium’s importance is growing in advanced technologies, raising concerns about future scarcity. The American Physical Society expressed concerns over selling off the helium reserve, citing its increasing importance. Helium’s role in technology is expanding, underscoring its value in various industrial applications. Guest intro Nicholas Snyder is the founder and CEO of North American Helium, which mines helium in Canada. He leads the company’s efforts to address global helium shortages amid limited North American exploration and the US government’s sale of its strategic helium reserve in the late 1990s. Snyder discusses helium’s critical properties and the challenges of expanding production and distribution.
The role of helium in semiconductor manufacturing Helium is crucial for semiconductor manufacturing due to its heat transfer properties. Helium is very good at transferring heat… helium is the smallest molecule in nature that’s also something that can transfer heat away to avoid errors and also is nonreactive.
— Nicholas Snyder
The demand for helium in semiconductor manufacturing is growing rapidly. I’ve seen estimates that the new leading edge chips use 10 times more helium per chip than older technologies.
— Nicholas Snyder
Helium’s nonreactive nature makes it ideal for preventing errors in semiconductor processes. New semiconductor technologies are driving increased helium consumption. Helium’s unique properties are indispensable for the efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing. The semiconductor industry is a major driver of helium demand, impacting global supply dynamics. Helium’s unique properties and applications Helium’s low boiling point is critical for superconducting magnets and rocket propulsion. What makes it so useful is it’s got three or four things going for it that are completely unique… the lowest boiling point of anything in nature.
— Nicholas Snyder
Helium is essential for pressurizing rockets, a key application in space exploration. Helium’s nonreactive nature and small molecular size are advantageous in various industrial applications. The unique properties of helium make it indispensable in advanced technological applications. Helium’s role in technology extends beyond traditional uses, highlighting its versatility. The physical characteristics of helium are linked to its practical uses in critical industries. Helium’s applications in superconducting magnets and rocket propulsion underscore its technological importance. The rarity and extraction of helium Helium is much rarer than natural gas and is primarily found as a byproduct of natural gas extraction. Helium is much more rare than natural gas but most of the world’s helium supply comes as a byproduct of natural gas.
— Nicholas Snyder
Helium extraction involves separating it from nitrogen and methane. The way that the gas separation process works is for the most part you’re actually separating everything except for the helium.
— Nicholas Snyder
Helium fields are rare, with only a few significant sources globally. There’s really only a couple of fields in the world… there’s one field in Algeria that’s been on production for a long time and is falling off.
— Nicholas Snyder
The rarity of helium and its dependence on natural gas exploration impact global supply. Helium’s extraction process is complex due to its small, nonreactive molecular structure. The strategic importance of helium reserves The US strategic helium reserve captured helium that would otherwise be lost during gas production. What the strategic reserve did was allow us to capture something that would have been otherwise lost permanently.
— Nicholas Snyder
The strategic reserve played a critical role in preserving helium resources. The American Physical Society expressed concerns about selling off the helium reserve. Helium’s growing importance in technology underscores the need for strategic reserves. The strategic helium reserve highlights the importance of resource management in preventing scarcity. The historical context of the US strategic helium reserve is crucial for understanding its significance. Helium reserves are vital for ensuring a stable supply for critical technological applications. Helium’s growing importance in technology Helium is becoming increasingly important for various advanced technologies. The American Physical Society got very upset when we talked about selling off the helium reserve.
— Nicholas Snyder
Helium’s role in technology is expanding, raising concerns about future scarcity. The growing importance of helium in critical technological applications indicates potential future scarcity. Helium’s significance in modern technology is recognized by the physics community. The increasing demand for helium highlights its value in various industrial applications. Helium’s role in technology extends beyond traditional uses, emphasizing its versatility. The expanding applications of helium underscore its importance in the technology sector. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Solana-based DePIN protocol Helium Mobile reached a new milestone in March 2026, recording $2.5 million in monthly revenue, its highest level to date, as reported in Syndica’s latest DePIN report. The decentralized wireless network, built on Solana, continues to shift toward a usage-driven model, with carrier offload and network utilization playing a larger role than new infrastructure deployment.
This latest performance places first-quarter 2026 revenue close to surpassing Helium Mobile’s entire mobile revenue for 2025, signaling an acceleration in real-world adoption and monetization.
Subscriber Growth and Product Expansion According to Blockworks data, Helium Mobile currently has almost 700,000 total sign-ups, gaining almost 100,000 sign-ups in the past two months, reflecting continued interest in its service model. Monthly subscriber additions also increased, rising to 14,000 in March from 12,000 in February.
The company introduced Helium Hangouts, a new in-app feature that allows subscribers to discover local venues with Helium connectivity.
This feature aims to deepen user engagement and reinforce the network’s real-world utility by connecting digital participation to physical locations.
At the same time, Helium’s broader usage metrics continue to expand. Daily offload reached 111 terabytes, while total subscribers stand above 3 million. Average daily data offload increased by 10%, and the number of daily offload users rose by 12% in March, indicating stronger engagement across the network.
Shift From Deployment to Utilization Helium’s growth strategy has increasingly emphasized network utilization over rapid infrastructure expansion. Monthly hotspot deployments remained in the low thousands, a sharp contrast to early 2025 levels that ranged between 27,000 and 30,000 per month.
Despite slower deployment, the existing network base of approximately 128,000 hotspots continues to support rising traffic volumes. Real-world usage has begun to validate this approach. Thousands of users connected through Helium infrastructure at the Okeechobee Music Festival, demonstrating the network’s ability to handle dense, high-demand environments.
This shift suggests that Helium has entered a phase where demand growth can be absorbed by existing infrastructure, improving capital efficiency while supporting higher throughput.
Revenue Composition and Carrier Offload As mentioned in Syndica’s March 2026 DePIN report, Helium Mobile’s revenue growth remained consistent throughout the first quarter. Monthly revenue rose 14% from $2.2 million in February to $2.5 million in March. This marks the third consecutive month that Helium Mobile has generated more than $2 million in revenue, a threshold first crossed in January 2026.
Carrier offload now represents the majority of Helium Mobile’s revenue. In March, offload-related fees accounted for 57% of total revenue, continuing a steady increase from near parity earlier in the year. Major United States carriers are routing larger volumes of traffic through Helium’s network, reinforcing its role as a complementary infrastructure layer within the telecom ecosystem.
This transition highlights a structural shift in Helium’s business model. While subscriber revenue remains important, enterprise demand from carrier partners increasingly drives overall income.
Solana DePIN Ecosystem Rebounds According to Syndica’s March 2026 DePIN report, The broader Solana DePIN sector also showed signs of recovery in March. Projects including Helium, Render, Hivemapper, UpRock, NATIX, XNET, and GEODNET collectively generated $2.9 million in revenue, representing a 16% increase from February.
At the same time, deployer rewards reversed a prolonged decline. Total rewards distributed across Solana DePIN protocols rose 31% to $2.1 million, up from February’s $1.6 million. Upcoming token generation events from projects such as Wingbits and Dabba may further increase incentives and network participation.
Wireless-focused protocols reached another milestone, delivering a combined 45,000 terabytes of offloaded data in March. This represents a 22% increase from February’s 37,000 terabytes and underscores rising demand for decentralized connectivity solutions.
Performance Across Key DePIN Projects Several projects within the ecosystem reported notable gains. Dabba Network recorded a 24% increase in usage, reaching 42,000 terabytes of data consumption. The project also signaled a transition toward on-chain infrastructure through a newly published roadmap.
XNET achieved 150 terabytes of offloaded data in March, a 40% increase from the previous month. It also introduced Passpoint, a feature that streamlines WiFi authentication by removing the need for captive portals. This development aims to reduce user friction and attract more venue operators.
Hivemapper delivered one of the strongest recoveries in the sector. Revenue rose from $9,000 in February to $75,000 in March, driven by renewed token burn activity and new product releases. Contributor participation increased 51% to 242, while total mapped distance grew 38% to 11 million kilometers.
Render Network nearly doubled its revenue to $176,000, supported by progress in integrating decentralized GPU infrastructure through a partnership proposal with Salad. Meanwhile, UpRock expanded its reach with the launch of OpenClaw DePIN and a global internet survey covering over 500,000 devices.
Read More on SolanaFloor Solana PropAMMs Better Than CEX in 99.3% of Retail Swaps
Tether Leads $150M Drift Recovery Plan After Circle Refused to Freeze Stolen Funds
Key Highlights Shares of U.S. Energy Corp (USEG) climbed 57.48% following the announcement of a five-year helium offtake agreement with an investment-grade international industrial gas purchaser. The agreement secures 100% of helium production from the company’s forthcoming Montana facility, with a monthly volume ceiling of 1.2 million cubic feet. Pricing is anchored at $285 per thousand cubic feet (MCF), featuring CPI-indexed annual adjustments beginning March 2028. Key contract provisions include take-or-pay guarantees, a third-year price adjustment clause, and a right of first refusal clause at 5% above rival bids. Paired with an enhanced senior secured credit agreement finalized April 20, the company states Phase 1 of its Big Sky Carbon Hub now has complete funding with secured revenue backing. Shares of U.S. Energy Corp (USEG) rallied 57.48% on April 27 following news that the company had finalized a five-year helium supply agreement with an investment-grade international industrial gas firm.
U.S. Energy Corp., USEG
The agreement, executed on April 24, 2026, encompasses the entire helium output from USEG’s planned processing facility located near Oilmont, Montana.
Monthly production under this arrangement is limited to 1.2 million cubic feet. The purchasing party assumes responsibility for all transportation expenses and downstream costs, while USEG receives a predetermined plant-gate rate.
The established rate stands at $285 per thousand standard cubic feet (MCF). Beginning March 1, 2028, this rate will increase annually based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).
The arrangement also incorporates a formal price renegotiation provision at the three-year mark, allowing both parties an opportunity to modify terms. USEG maintains a right of first refusal on alternative proposals, exercisable at a 5% markup.
Take-or-pay provisions are embedded in the contract, featuring a 2.5% de minimis threshold. This structure ensures USEG receives guaranteed cash flow regardless of actual delivery volumes.
Critical Development for Big Sky Initiative Company leadership described the agreement as a pivotal achievement for the Big Sky Carbon Hub, USEG’s comprehensive helium and carbon management initiative in Montana.
The Big Sky facility also encompasses a Cut Bank oil field and is structured to produce three distinct revenue channels: helium extraction, carbon management services, and oil production.
USEG indicated that this contract, when combined with an enhanced senior secured financing arrangement completed on April 20, 2026, provides Phase 1 of Big Sky with full capital funding and guaranteed revenue streams.
Initial commercial production is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. The contractual deadline for commencement is set for July 1, 2027.
The firm is simultaneously advancing through regulatory procedures on the carbon management front. EPA monitoring and reporting authorizations are progressing in preparation for the planned commercial launch.
USEG is pursuing qualification for Section 45Q tax credits related to its carbon management activities, though final approval remains pending.
Market Performance Context Notwithstanding today’s sharp increase, USEG maintains a modest market capitalization of only $49.2 million.
Daily trading volume for the stock averages approximately 6.3 million shares. Technical indicators prior to the announcement showed a Strong Sell rating.
USEG had been trading beneath critical moving averages with bearish MACD signals before the news broke.
The company has posted expanding losses on a trailing twelve-month basis and continues experiencing negative cash flow as it advances toward revenue generation.
Phase 1 success hinges on timely facility completion, achieving the Q1 2027 timeline, and helium output reaching contractually committed volumes.
At press time, Helium [HNT] recorded a sharp rally over the past day, with the asset posting double-digit gains for one of the first times in months.
The asset now appears positioned for further upside. However, several hurdles still need to be cleared to sustain the upward trajectory seen in recent sessions.
Why HNT’s rally may just be getting started The case for further upside stems from strengthening bullish signals across key technical indicators.
At the time of writing, HNT’s Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) was closing in on a potential golden cross. Moreover, the blue MACD line is approaching a crossover above the orange signal line, which would reinforce bullish momentum.
Source: TradingView On the other hand, sentiment remains partially restrained when viewed through the Relative Strength Index (RSI). Although the RSI continued to trend upward, it has yet to break into the bullish zone above 50. A move above 50 would strengthen the case for sustained upside and confirm the recovery already underway.
Perpetual markets support the move Activity in the perpetual Futures market suggests that bullish participation is gradually increasing.
Data from CoinGlass shows that HNT’s Open Interest (OI) has climbed by roughly 10%, reaching $2.3 million. This marks the highest level of capital in the perpetual market since the 29th of April, indicating that investors are beginning to return capital to the asset.
Source: CoinGlass A rise in OI alone does not confirm a bullish or bearish trend. However, Funding Rate data provides additional clarity, as it turned positive, reaching 0.0144% over the past day.
When funding turns positive, it indicates that long traders are dominant and are paying a premium to maintain their positions, reinforcing a bullish bias in the derivatives market.
Structure remains bullish, but resistance is key From a structural standpoint, HNT continues to trade within a broader descending channel that has been in place since 2025.
A closer look shows that since the 19th of February, the asset has moved within a narrower downward channel. More recently, price action has rebounded from a key demand zone, suggesting growing buying interest at lower levels.
However, a decisive bullish confirmation depends on a breakout above the channel’s resistance line. Until then, the broader downtrend structure remains intact.
Source: TradingView If HNT breaks above this resistance, three key upside targets come into focus: $1.16, $1.34, and $1.67.
For now, market sentiment leans bullish, but price reaction at the resistance level will determine whether the rally can extend or fade.
Final Summary HNT edges closer to forming a golden cross pattern as RSI momentum continues to strengthen. Perpetual market activity and broader structure suggest that an extended rally remains possible.
In brief Andrew Yang's Noble Mobile acquired Helium Mobile, the service provider built on top of the crypto-fueled Helium network. Deal terms were not disclosed, but Helium Mobile COO Frank Mong said subscribers should expect a smooth transition. Nova Labs will now focus on growing the network and onboarding additional companies to Helium. Helium Mobile, the mobile service provider built on the decentralized, crypto-powered Helium network, has been acquired by Noble Mobile, the affordability-focused telecommunications company of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Helium Mobile, which at one time offered a free mobile plan (but recently axed it), said it shares a similar commitment to its customers, with the combined company set to offer low-cost service plans in an effort to disrupt the giants of the mobile industry.
“We were drawn to Noble Mobile because of a deep alignment in values, vision, and the people leading the organization,” Helium Mobile COO Frank Mong told Decrypt.
“Our subscribers deserve a home that shares our conviction that connectivity should be affordable and accessible to everyone,” he added. “Noble Mobile embodies that, and it gave us confidence that our subscribers would be in the right hands long-term.”
Subscribers to Helium Mobile’s mobile plans should expect a smooth transition, according to Mong, who said that users will be able to keep their phone numbers and maintain access to the same 5G network powered by T-Mobile. Helium Mobile’s offering is also underpinned by Helium, the Solana-based decentralized network composed of hotspots deployed worldwide, which Noble has also agreed to use as part of the deal.
The “crowd-built” cellular network is built with nearly 139,000 mobile hotspots that act as miniature cell towers, according to data from the Helium website, and has been used by providers like AT&T and Telefonica to extend or fill gaps in their coverage networks.
It's this opportunity that is most pressing for Nova Labs, the firm that founded the Helium network and launched the Helium Mobile service.
“Our network business is the largest opportunity in front of us,” said Mong. “We've recently onboarded major U.S. carriers to offload traffic at scale and the Helium network now serves millions of users daily. To capture this momentum, we needed to find Helium Mobile the right steward while our team focuses on accelerating network expansion.”
The acquisition does nothing to change the Helium network’s model, which offers a Solana-based HNT token to hotspot operators who provide coverage used by carriers and subscribers. The mobile network boasts more than 2.6 million daily users and is generating more than $47,000 per day in revenue according to Helium World’s dashboard.
HNT is down nearly 7% over the last day at a recent price of $0.64, pushing its 30-day drop to about 28%.
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Bithumb was fined for sharing user data overseas without consent.
South Korean regulatory authorities have ordered cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to pay a 210 million won (approximately $136,000) fine for sharing user personal information with overseas platforms without user consent. According to an announcement released Thursday by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the relevant user data exposure occurred between September and November 2025. At that time, Bithumb transferred user information to overseas platforms while sharing its USDT market order book data. The PIPC also noted that when assisting users with asset transfers to 13 overseas exchanges, Bithumb failed to obtain full and sufficient user consent before sharing personal details including names, wallet addresses, and dates of birth. For the two violations, the PIPC not only imposed the fine but also ordered Bithumb to rectify its processes and management systems related to cross-border transmission of user information.
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Analyst: SK Hynix’s US listing and fund-raising could trigger a valuation re-rating.
According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix is set to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq on July 10. The listing aims to raise nearly $30 billion, making it one of the largest ADR issuances in history. Market participants widely believe the move will significantly expand its global investor base and may drive a valuation re-rating. Multiple asset management firms project that if its valuation converges with Micron Technology’s, its share price could rise by 30% over the next year. One fund manager noted that SK Hynix should trade at a valuation at least on par with Micron, as demand for memory chips is likely to outpace supply for years to come. The listing comes amid an unusually strong boom in the memory chip sector. Shares of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics have all surged over 200% this year, marking their best annual performance in decades. Demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from AI servers is widely seen as the driver of a structural "memory supercycle".
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Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.
Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.
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UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.
Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.
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Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH
According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.
PANews reported on June 2nd that, according to CoinDesk, Noble Mobile, the telecommunications company founded by Andrew Yang, announced the acquisition of crypto-powered wireless operator Helium Mobile, integrating its mobile communications business with Helium's blockchain-based wireless network. Following the transaction, Noble Mobile will integrate Helium Mobile's decentralized network infrastructure into its existing mobile services, aiming to expand wireless coverage and user base through blockchain incentive mechanisms and promote the commercialization of decentralized communication networks.
Helium Mobile has been acquired by Noble Mobile, a U.S.-based telecom startup founded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, while the Helium Network and its native HNT token have remained under existing operational structures.
Summary
Noble Mobile has acquired Helium Mobile, while Nova Labs says the Helium Network and HNT token operations remain unchanged. Helium’s network continues to burn roughly $50,000 in data credits daily, with Blockworks data showing a 7-day HNT deflation rate of 9.72%. HNT remains under technical pressure after breaking below a falling wedge pattern, with support near $0.60 and resistance between $0.65 and $0.70. According to announcements from both companies, Noble Mobile has taken control of Helium Mobile’s wireless service business, gaining access to an existing subscriber base and a network relationship that allows traffic to be routed through Helium’s decentralized wireless infrastructure.
The transaction has generated debate among community members, with some users questioning whether a decentralized project could effectively be sold.
Nova Labs and Helium executives have since clarified that the deal covers only Helium Mobile, a consumer-facing service, and does not include ownership of the Helium Network itself.
Noble Mobile currently operates by leasing spectrum from T-Mobile. Through the acquisition, the company has committed to using connectivity provided by the Helium Network, which relies on more than 138,900 community-operated hotspots to deliver wireless coverage.
Data cited by Blockworks shows the Helium ecosystem burns roughly $50,000 worth of data credits each day. Because data credits are created by burning HNT, continued network usage contributes to token demand through Helium’s mint-and-burn economic model. Additional data from the platform also indicates the token’s rolling seven-day deflation rate stands at 9.72%.
Source: Blockworks The acquisition has not changed Helium Network operations Community concerns intensified shortly after the announcement, prompting Helium co-founder Amir Haleem to explain the distinction between Helium Mobile and the Helium Network.
Haleem stated that the decentralized network remains under Nova Labs’ stewardship and will continue operating as before. Hotspot operators are still expected to earn HNT rewards for providing coverage and data transfer services that can be used by telecom providers, including large carriers such as AT&T.
For existing Helium Mobile subscribers, the transition is not expected to bring immediate service disruptions. Company guidance states that customers can retain their current phone numbers and continue using the service without changes during the migration process.
Pricing remains one area where uncertainty persists. While Helium Mobile’s published FAQ states that affordability will remain a priority, the company said future pricing details will be communicated as the transition progresses.
HNT price remains under pressure despite network demand growth Market reaction to the acquisition has been relatively muted. Helium (HNT) gained roughly 1.7% over the past 24 hours, though the token continues to trade within a longer-term downtrend.
Helium price has broken down from a falling wedge pattern on the daily chart — June 4 | Source: crypto.news Technical analysis of the daily chart shows HNT recently broke below the lower boundary of a falling wedge pattern that had been developing since February. While falling wedges often resolve to the upside, the bearish breakdown suggests sellers remain in control of price action.
Momentum indicators continue to support that view. The MACD remains below its signal line with negative histogram readings, indicating persistent downside momentum. Meanwhile, the Aroon indicator shows Aroon Down at 100% and Aroon Up at 0%, a configuration that typically signals a strong bearish trend.
The breakdown has pushed HNT toward support near $0.60. If that level fails to hold, traders may begin watching the psychological $0.50 area as the next major downside target.
On the upside, the former wedge support between $0.65 and $0.70 now acts as the first resistance zone that bulls would need to reclaim to improve the technical outlook.
Despite continued growth in network usage and data credit burns, the chart suggests traders remain cautious as HNT searches for a stable bottom.
PANews reported on June 4th that Drift released an update on its recovery progress following the April attack , stating that its current focus is on restarting the revenue-generating platform to expedite user payouts. After restarting, the platform will become the engine driving the recovery pool. Drift will relaunch as Solana's largest USDT perpetual contract exchange, with strategic support from partners such as Tether. Regarding security rebuilding, former Helium protocol engineering lead Noah Prince will join as protocol lead, and former Gauntlet team members are involved in risk architecture optimization. In terms of forensic investigation, Mandiant has confirmed that the attackers were the North Korean threat group UNC6862. Drift stated that it will continue to share recovery progress updates.
Bithumb was fined for sharing user data overseas without consent.
South Korean regulatory authorities have ordered cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to pay a 210 million won (approximately $136,000) fine for sharing user personal information with overseas platforms without user consent. According to an announcement released Thursday by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the relevant user data exposure occurred between September and November 2025. At that time, Bithumb transferred user information to overseas platforms while sharing its USDT market order book data. The PIPC also noted that when assisting users with asset transfers to 13 overseas exchanges, Bithumb failed to obtain full and sufficient user consent before sharing personal details including names, wallet addresses, and dates of birth. For the two violations, the PIPC not only imposed the fine but also ordered Bithumb to rectify its processes and management systems related to cross-border transmission of user information.
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Analyst: SK Hynix’s US listing and fund-raising could trigger a valuation re-rating.
According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix is set to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq on July 10. The listing aims to raise nearly $30 billion, making it one of the largest ADR issuances in history. Market participants widely believe the move will significantly expand its global investor base and may drive a valuation re-rating. Multiple asset management firms project that if its valuation converges with Micron Technology’s, its share price could rise by 30% over the next year. One fund manager noted that SK Hynix should trade at a valuation at least on par with Micron, as demand for memory chips is likely to outpace supply for years to come. The listing comes amid an unusually strong boom in the memory chip sector. Shares of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics have all surged over 200% this year, marking their best annual performance in decades. Demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from AI servers is widely seen as the driver of a structural "memory supercycle".
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Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.
Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.
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UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.
Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.
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Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH
According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.
Helium [HNT] has been among the tokens facing steep outflows as the bear market deepens. In the past few hours, HNT set a new all‑time low, dropping to roughly $0.43 during early trading.
The decline carries a twist, since traders typically pile into shorts on bearish momentum and bet on further downside, yet perpetual traders are doing the opposite.
Helium distribution deepens as sellers tighten their grip The case for a further decline still holds, as the indicators point to mounting pressure from the bears. At press time, the Accumulation/Distribution indicator showed heavy offloading of HNT into the market over the past couple of days, which has weighed on the outlook.
The indicator, which was already in negative territory, indicating that sellers dominate HNT’s trading volume, has dropped even lower, highlighting how tightly sellers control the tape.
Source: TradingView This adds to the bearish reading from the Aroon Indicator, which gauges whether momentum sits with buyers or sellers.
The Aroon Down line (blue) hovered above the Aroon Up line (orange), printing 100.00% and 47.86%, respectively. The setup already signals bearish momentum, and should the gap widen as the Aroon Up line slides further, HNT stands a strong chance of extending its drop down the chart.
Perpetual traders bet against the falling price This entire move runs against the positioning of perpetual traders, who appear to be buying, anticipating a rally.
At the time of writing, HNT’s Funding Rate had climbed to 0.0100% during the trading session, its highest level for the period. This reflects concentrated capital in HNT perpetuals, signaling a bullish bet as traders anticipate a rebound.
Source: Coinalyze This is not happening in isolation, as volume has surged alongside it, with buying outweighing selling. The Long/Short Ratio stood at 1.12, meaning positioning leans long and points to upward expectations in the perpetual market.
Yet this positioning carries risk, as losses have skewed heavily against the longs; short traders lost nothing over the past day, while longs shed $38,000 across the same period. The data leaves long traders exposed to a sharp decline.
Helium liquidation heatmap leaves both directions in play HNT is now at a crossroads, as the liquidation heatmap shows no clear directional cut for the asset and leaves the price free to swing either way.
For context, liquidation heatmaps map the spots on the chart where liquidity concentrates, and these zones tend to act as a magnet that pulls price toward them.
Source: CoinGlass Momentum currently leans toward the bears, and the pull toward the lower clusters remains the likelier path. Either way, the upper cluster stays one to watch, given that the rising funding rate lends support to a rally.
Final Summary Helium fell to a fresh all-time low near $0.43 as heavy HNT selling pushed both the Accumulation/Distribution and Aroon indicators into bearish territory. Perpetual traders positioned the opposite way, a 0.0100% funding rate and a 1.12 long-to-short ratio show them betting on a rebound.
Just one week after the acquisition of its consumer brand, Helium Mobile, at the hands of Andrew Yang, Helium Network is going through some growing pains.
$HNT holders and community members are firmly at odds with the Solana DePIN protocol’s new direction, summarized by a four-part governance proposal.
Making matters worse, $HNT has plummeted over 56% in the past week. Existing holders are in disagreement with the Network’s new direction and the proposed mint of 141M new $HNT tokens.
Helium’s “New Era” Met with Skepticism from $HNT Holders Helium Network has come under fire from community members and token holders over a drastic economic and organizational overhaul floated in the protocol’s latest governance proposal, HIP-149. Originally published on June 4th, HIP-149 centers around four key changes that aim to support the DePIN protocol’s ongoing expansion:
Set a floor for deployer earnings
Capitalize operations and growth through the mint of 141M $HNT tokens over 36 months
Establish a 7-seat advisory council, with 5 community-elected representatives
Transition $HNT rewards to an activity-based system, rather than a flat rate for all providers
Helium Network argues that the change is economically necessary to the survival and growth of the network. In Helium’s own words, the network’s “original economic framework was built for a faster carrier-adoption curve than reality delivered”.
As a result, hotspot deployers were earning more than what carriers were actually paying for data transfer and offload services, meaning that significant adjustments need to be made to the network's model.
The proposal has been met with concern and frustration by $HNT tokenholders and network contributors. Upon the realization that the Helium Network was subsidizing hotspot operation, critics have argued that the protocol was artificially inflating and misreporting its revenue.
Others have argued that the mint of 141M new $HNT tokens to support growth and expansion is unjustifiably dilutive to existing network contributors. Given $HNT’s current circulating supply of 182.4M, the proposed mint would increase the number of tokens in circulation by 77.3%.
Departing Helium Team Members Weigh In With critics and detractors slamming the proposal and disappointed supporters writing off the network’s future, former Helium executives have added some color to the debate. Abhay Kumar posited that shedding the economic weight of the network’s consumer brand, Helium Mobile, removes “a real cost off the books, which is good for the network and for the focus of the core team.”
Former Helium Protocol Engineer Noah Prince reinforced Kumar’s position, arguing that Helium sits at a critical inflection point and comparing the current proposal to Uber’s decision to wind down its $3 uberPOOL offering.
Prince asserts that while Helium has found PMF, the engineer acknowledges that “the age of subsidy is over”. Both Prince and Kumar expressed confidence in Helium’s new CEO Mario Di Dio, vouching for his ability to guide Helium through its next stage of growth and building on the foundation set by founder and former CEO Amir Haleem.
$HNT Down 56% in 7D Following Helium Mobile Acquisition Despite the vote of confidence from departing executive team members, markets are not looking favorably upon Helium Network. Between Noble Mobile’s acquisition of Helium Mobile, the reshuffling of personnel, and the outstanding governance proposal threatening to increase supply by 77%, $HNT has plummeted 53% in the last 7 days.
Meanwhile, some $HNT whale wallets are aggressively exiting their positions. After receiving 2.2M $HNT tokens on June 9, this wallet has already unloaded 900,000 $HNT on the market.
Outside of ongoing sales through Jupiter DCA, the wallet still holds 1.3M $HNT, currently valued at $412,000.
Read More on SolanaFloor Forward Industries wants your $SOL
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Nova Labs has a new CEO, a lighter portfolio, and a lot of explaining to do. Mario Di Dio, who stepped into the top job at the company behind the Helium decentralized wireless network around June 4-5, is set to lay out his vision in a fireside chat hosted by Blockworks on June 17.
The conversation comes at a moment when practically everything about Helium’s corporate structure has shifted in the span of a single week. The company sold its consumer wireless arm, leadership changed hands, and HNT, the network’s native token, has continued its long slide from all-time highs.
What happened at Nova Labs On June 2, Nova Labs sold Helium Mobile, its consumer wireless service, to Noble Mobile. Noble is the telecommunications venture founded by Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and former US presidential candidate.
The deal strips Nova Labs of its direct-to-consumer offering but does not touch the broader Helium decentralized wireless network itself. Noble Mobile’s acquisition integrates Helium Mobile’s subscriber base into its own ecosystem.
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That strategic pivot landed just days before a major leadership transition. Co-founder Amir Haleem stepped down as CEO of Nova Labs, moving into a chairman role. Di Dio, who previously served as General Manager of Network at Helium, was elevated to CEO.
Di Dio’s background and the path forward Di Dio’s promotion was not a random external hire. His background spans telecom and wireless technology, and his prior role as General Manager of Network means he already understands the plumbing that makes Helium tick.
Without the consumer mobile service, the company’s story becomes one about infrastructure: building and maintaining the decentralized wireless network that other businesses can tap into on a wholesale basis.
HNT’s brutal decline The token market has not been kind to Helium through any of this. HNT has declined approximately 96% from its peak in 2021, and the price has continued to slide following the recent leadership changes and asset sale.
For context, a 96% drawdown means that someone who bought $10,000 worth of HNT at the top would be sitting on roughly $400 today.
What this means for investors Investors should pay close attention to what Di Dio says on June 17 about partnership pipelines, network utilization metrics, and any revenue guidance.
The Haleem-to-Di Dio transition also introduces a variable that’s hard to model: founder departure risk. Haleem co-founded Nova Labs and was the public face of Helium for years. His move to a chairman role could mean he remains deeply involved, or it could mean he’s gradually stepping away.
For traders specifically, the June 17 fireside chat is probably the next major catalyst for HNT price action in either direction. Given that HNT is already down roughly 96% from its peak, the risk of further downside is very real for a token that has shown little ability to find a floor.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Today, Web3 has proven itself for securing assets and moving money. But when it comes to protecting data, maintaining confidentiality, and enabling truly private, compliant applications, the tools remain fragmented and siloed. There’s still no native, generalized “privacy-first infrastructure” for Web3: one that combines confidentiality, regulatory alignment and seamless composability across chains.
Enter Horizen. Horizen is launching its mainnet with Caldera as a dedicated appchain built via Caldera’s Rollup Engine — a full production-ready environment where privacy meets interoperability, moving beyond testnets into live deployments. Horizen is an EVM blockchain built on Base for secure, regulatory-compliant confidential trading and DeFi applications for individual traders and financial institutions.
The Horizen testnet is already live, and open for users to explore and developers to launch applications.
Building the Infrastructure for Confidential Web3Horizen is delivering what many blockchains promise but few deliver: a modular, EVM-compatible chain optimized for confidential, compliant, developer-friendly applications.
Key elements of Horizen’s vision:
Privacy by design: integrating technologies like zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments and selective disclosure.
Compliance aware: giving enterprises the tools to build onchain privacy solutions while retaining auditability, regulatory alignment, and control.
Developer-first: EVM-compatible, enabling development with familiar stacks (Solidity, Ethers, Viem, and Foundry) so privacy isn’t the barrier but the enabler.
Now, by launching on Caldera, Horizen gains access to a high-performance, sovereign rollup environment that’s already connected into a broader interoperable network — giving the chain the advantages of both privacy sovereignty and cross-chain reach.
Why Horizen Needed a Dedicated AppchainIn its evolution, Horizen recognized three core limitations of building on a generic shared layer:
1. Deep protocol customization for privacy
Horizen needed to embed confidentiality, selective disclosure, and custom governance directly into the chain’s native execution model. Only a sovereign rollup can give that level of control.
2. Economic sovereignty and token utility
Horizen’s native token (ZEN) and privacy stack required bespoke fee models, staking mechanisms, and ecosystem incentives aligned with confidentiality and compliance use-cases. A dedicated chain enables full alignment.
3. Uncongested, predictable performance
Privacy-enabled applications demand consistent performance and reliability—not subject to the traffic surges of generic DeFi and gaming activity. A dedicated chain ensures resource availability and premium UX.
How Caldera Powers Horizen’s VisionCaldera brings the infrastructure so Horizen can focus purely on privacy innovation:
Production-ready infrastructure: Caldera’s Rollup Engine handles sequencer operations, batching and settlement, so Horizen doesn’t have to build chain operations from scratch.
Built on Base: As a Base L3, Horizen can tap into the network effects provided by one of the top rollups on Ethereum. Horizen’s token, ZEN, has already completed its migration to Base, unlocking access to liquidity and enabling the onboarding of privacy-focused token holders.
Sovereign yet connected: Horizen retains full protocol sovereignty while being part of a wider Internet of Chains — the best of both worlds.
A New Primitive for the Internet of ChainsWith Horizen’s appchain launch, Caldera’s ecosystem gains a powerful new building-block: a privacy-centric rollup that any other chain in the network can tap. The flywheel is real:
Other chains in Caldera’s ecosystem can plug into Horizen’s privacy primitives: identity systems, confidential finance modules, developer tooling.
Liquidity and value propagate: ZEN via Metatoken moves across chains; developers on Horizen build tools that serve users elsewhere.
Network effects intensify: each added chain (Horizen included) doesn’t just bring more users — it brings unique capabilities that strengthen the entire network.
The Future is Interconnected, Confidential, and SovereignHorizen’s launch shows that the next wave of on-chain innovation isn’t about just decentralizing finance — it’s about privacy, compliance, sovereign execution, and interoperability. By combining a dedicated appchain architecture with the connectivity of Caldera’s Metalayer, Horizen can pioneer a new category of apps: confidential, developer-friendly, multi-chain.
As more projects like Horizen build on Caldera, we’re not just adding chains — we’re adding distinct capabilities that raise the baseline for everyone. The Internet of Chains isn’t just about scaling users. It’s about scaling possibilities.
We’re proud to power innovators like Horizen as they push the frontier. Congratulations to the Horizen team on this major milestone.
About CalderaCaldera is powering the next internet. Its architecture consists of two core components: the Rollup Engine and the Metalayer. The Rollup Engine is a modular operating system used to launch high-performance, custom chains on leading chains and frameworks like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and ZKsync. The Metalayer then automatically connects every chain into one network. Through this interoperability protocol, all chains access shared liquidity and secure, intent-based bridging that transforms fragmented networks into a unified Internet of Chains. And now with the launch of the Caldera Bridge Preview, Metatoken, and Stablecoin Module, this expands the product suite and market size that Caldera is tackling.
PANews reported on December 9th that Horizen, a privacy project founded in 2017, has officially transitioned to a Layer 3 mainnet on Base, aiming to provide "compliant optional privacy" features. The project has abandoned its old mainnet and EON sidechain and relaunched the ZEN token. Horizen plans to invest 100 million ZEN over five years to support the development of privacy-related applications, including those in finance, gaming, and social scenarios. The new architecture supports customized modules by jurisdiction, enabling compliant disclosure. ZEN is now traded on the Base chain and is supported by exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
Bithumb was fined for sharing user data overseas without consent.
South Korean regulatory authorities have ordered cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to pay a 210 million won (approximately $136,000) fine for sharing user personal information with overseas platforms without user consent. According to an announcement released Thursday by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the relevant user data exposure occurred between September and November 2025. At that time, Bithumb transferred user information to overseas platforms while sharing its USDT market order book data. The PIPC also noted that when assisting users with asset transfers to 13 overseas exchanges, Bithumb failed to obtain full and sufficient user consent before sharing personal details including names, wallet addresses, and dates of birth. For the two violations, the PIPC not only imposed the fine but also ordered Bithumb to rectify its processes and management systems related to cross-border transmission of user information.
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Analyst: SK Hynix’s US listing and fund-raising could trigger a valuation re-rating.
According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix is set to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq on July 10. The listing aims to raise nearly $30 billion, making it one of the largest ADR issuances in history. Market participants widely believe the move will significantly expand its global investor base and may drive a valuation re-rating. Multiple asset management firms project that if its valuation converges with Micron Technology’s, its share price could rise by 30% over the next year. One fund manager noted that SK Hynix should trade at a valuation at least on par with Micron, as demand for memory chips is likely to outpace supply for years to come. The listing comes amid an unusually strong boom in the memory chip sector. Shares of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics have all surged over 200% this year, marking their best annual performance in decades. Demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from AI servers is widely seen as the driver of a structural "memory supercycle".
1 seconds ago
Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.
Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.
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UBS and TD Cowen sharply raise Arm’s target price, betting on a revaluation of Arm’s AI data center CPU value.
Arm’s stock price pulled back this week alongside the high-valuation AI sector, though some Wall Street analysts say the correction does not alter the company’s long-term standing in AI data centers. UBS sharply raised Arm’s price target from $260 to $470, retaining its Buy rating; TD Cowen lifted its target from $265 to $475, also keeping a Buy recommendation. Both firms share the view that as agentic AI evolves, CPUs could gain greater importance in data center architectures, rather than GPUs continuing to monopolize the investment narrative. TD Cowen believes that over the long term, CPUs could hold a more strategic position in certain AI workloads. UBS, meanwhile, emphasizes that the real debate in the market centers on the revenue potential of Arm’s self-developed or independent CPU business. The bank projects Arm’s CPU-related revenue could reach around $14 billion by 2030, though the company itself has stated this business will not have a material impact on its finances until fiscal 2028. Arm’s strengths lie in low latency and energy efficiency—metrics that major cloud providers are increasingly prioritizing as they expand AI infrastructure. Even with its stock pulling back from recent highs in the short term, analysts still view Arm as one of the key beneficiaries of the server CPU upgrade cycle.
1 seconds ago
Crypto whale who profited over $23.77 million from BAT ICO liquidates 27,586 ETH
According to monitoring by Yu Jing, a whale that earned $23.77 million from participating in the BAT ICO sold 15,000 ETH (valued at roughly $24.29 million) two hours ago. The whale has now fully liquidated all 27,586 ETH it received from selling 35 million BAT on-chain over the past day and a half, converting the proceeds into 44.836 million USDS at an average selling price of $1,625.
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Sources: Iraqi officials once considered withdrawing from OPEC, but current plans are to remain a member and pursue a higher quota.
A senior Iraqi oil ministry official said that if OPEC quotas are not significantly increased, Iraq will be forced to consider all available options. Sources said Iraqi officials had considered withdrawing from OPEC, but the current plan is to remain a member and push for higher quotas. (Jinshi)
In our previous announcement, we shared how Horizen was preparing to bring privacy-preserving infrastructure to Caldera through a dedicated appchain built with the Rollup Engine. Today, that moment has arrived: Horizen’s mainnet is officially live. This launch isn’t just another chain going live. It’s the introduction of privacy as a first-class primitive into the Caldera ecosystem — a capability that unlocks entirely new categories of onchain applications, use cases, and cross-chain interactions. Horizen is now the privacy backbone of the Internet of Chains.
Why Privacy Matters for the Next Phase of Web3Public blockchains have made data verifiable, but not private. Everything — user behavior, business logic, transaction intent — is exposed. For consumer applications, enterprise adoption, and AI-driven systems, this is a structural barrier. Horizen solves this by providing configurable, end-to-end privacy infrastructure. Its mainnet combines:
Zero-knowledge capabilities for proving facts without revealing sensitive information
Selective disclosure so users and enterprises choose what to reveal
Compliance-aware architecture that preserves auditability while keeping data confidential
Full EVM compatibility, meaning builders can use standard tooling while gaining advanced privacy protections
This transforms privacy from an afterthought into a programmable feature of the chain itself. And now, thanks to Caldera, that privacy becomes interoperable.
A Privacy Chain Inside the Internet of ChainsHorizen’s mainnet joins a growing network of specialized rollups built on the Caldera Metalayer. But Horizen contributes something unique: privacy as a shared capability across the entire ecosystem. This unlocks a host of cross-chain possibilities:
Confidential DeFi Across ChainsOther Metalayer-connected L2s can route sensitive transactions through Horizen for private order flow, compliance checks, or selective verification.
Private Identity & Reputation for Every AppchainGaming rollups can use Horizen to hold private player profiles. Social rollups can keep user graphs confidential but provable. Enterprise chains can integrate KYB/KYC without leaking user data.
Privacy for AI-Enabled ApplicationsAI systems require verifiable yet private datasets. Horizen provides the confidentiality layer while Caldera provides the interoperability, allowing AI agents to operate across chains without compromising sensitive information.
How the Metalayer Multiplies Horizen’s ImpactHorizen chose Caldera partly to ensure its privacy stack wasn’t isolated. With mainnet live:
ZEN becomes universally accessible through Metatoken and the Metalayer
Attestations, proofs, and confidential data flows can move across chains
Developers building on any Caldera chain can instantly deploy private components by calling into Horizen
This accelerates the ecosystem flywheel:
New chains launch →
They integrate Horizen’s privacy features →
Users and liquidity flow across the network →
More developers build →
More chains join →
Horizen grows as the privacy hub
With mainnet live, developers can begin deploying privacy-preserving applications that simply aren’t possible on transparent chains. Users can access these applications using standard Ethereum wallets, such as Metamask.
Developers and users alike can get started by visiting https://horizen.hub.caldera.xyz.
The Privacy Era of the Internet of Chains BeginsThis launch marks a pivotal expansion of Caldera’s vision: a world where specialized chains form a unified, interoperable network — and where privacy is a core building block, not an optional add-on. Horizen’s mainnet is now live. Its privacy infrastructure is now interoperable. And the Caldera ecosystem is stronger, more capable, and more composable than ever. Congratulations to the Horizen team on reaching this milestone. We’re proud to partner with them in building the next generation of confidential, interconnected blockchain systems.
In 2025, Horizen made the decisions that define long-term relevance. The team clarified what privacy must mean in an onchain world, sharpened who Horizen is built for, and aligned the network around real users, real businesses, and real developers - not abstract ideals. These choices shaped everything that followed, from product direction to ecosystem design, and set the foundation for sustainable growth.
The results of that work became visible toward the end of the year, with milestones that mark the beginning of Horizen’s next chapter.
A major emphasis was placed on research and discovery. Throughout the year, the team developed a structured understanding of market dynamics, emerging privacy technologies, regulatory realities, competitive approaches, developer needs, and real-world user needs. This targeted work was designed to answer one question:
Where can Horizen win, and why?
That research-driven approach created clarity and alignment across product, engineering, and ecosystem growth. It sharpened Horizen’s positioning around practical and regulatory-compliant privacy, and clarified how privacy must function inside open ecosystems like Ethereum and Base, not outside of them.
Several initiatives that will define Horizen’s future were born from this approach, including initial product designs like Horizen Confidential Compute Environment (HCCE).
By choosing to prepare deliberately, Horizen entered mainnet not as a project searching for relevance, but as a network launching with purpose.
One of the most significant milestones in Horizen’s history took place in 2025 with the successful migration of the ZEN token to Base, accompanied by the introduction of a new tokenomics model designed to support Horizen’s next phase of growth.
This migration marked a strategic shift in how Horizen participates in the broader onchain ecosystem. By migrating ZEN to an ERC-20 asset on Base, Horizen moved from operating as an isolated Layer 1 to becoming a first-class participant in the Ethereum ecosystem. The migration unlocked immediate access to deep liquidity, native DeFi integrations, and composability with the tools, protocols, and capital that developers already use. More importantly, it removed friction for builders, creating a faster and more credible path from idea to live application.
Just as importantly, the transition was executed with ZEN holders front and center. Horizen delivered a seamless, user-friendly claiming experience that enabled holders to move their assets safely to Base with confidence.
Throughout the migration, the team worked closely with major exchanges to ensure uninterrupted access to ZEN, preserving liquidity and minimizing disruption for the community. This combination of thoughtful execution and broad exchange support ensured continuity, accessibility, and trust at a critical moment of change.
Together, these efforts laid the economic and infrastructural foundation for Horizen’s next phase of ecosystem growth, one that is fully embedded in the Ethereum and Base environments, without leaving its community behind.
That foundation was completed with the launch of the new Horizen chain at the end of the year. With this launch, Horizen finalized its transition to a fully EVM-native, privacy-enabled Layer 3 blockchain on Base.
By launching on Base, Horizen positioned privacy where it matters most: alongside deep liquidity, mature tooling, and a rapidly growing developer and user base. The new chain will enable a practical and compliance-friendly path to private onchain activity, allowing users and businesses to participate without exposing sensitive strategies, positions, or data. Rather than treating privacy as an add-on or an edge case, Horizen established it as a foundational capability that works natively within real onchain workflows.
The launch also introduced the first cohort of ecosystem applications and infrastructure partners, reinforcing Horizen’s focus on execution, composability, and ecosystem readiness from day one.
We’re live!
Join us as we celebrate Horizen’s mainnet launch on @Base. Tune in to hear from special guests and core team members as they share insights on what’s ahead.
x.com/i/broadcasts/1…
Most importantly, the mainnet launch marked a clear transition in Horizen’s trajectory. The network moved from preparation to participation, from laying foundations to enabling real usage. With the core infrastructure live, Horizen is now positioned to shift its focus toward growing adoption, supporting builders, expanding the ecosystem, and delivering the next wave of privacy-enhancing capabilities, including staking and confidential compute.
In parallel with these significant infrastructure milestones, Horizen launched the Thrive Builder Program in 2025, establishing Horizen’s long-term commitment to ecosystem growth.
First announcements from our Horizen x @thriveprotocol builder funding program drop next week
These aren’t just ideas - they’re applications already building on our infrastructure
The privacy-first builders we’ve been waiting for are here.
Backed by a community-approved allocation of one million ZEN over five years, the program established a structured path for builders to ship privacy-preserving applications that drive real ZEN usage.
The program introduced milestone-based funding accountability and transparent oversight while prioritizing high-impact use cases across DeFi AI gaming and governance.
Meet the first builders funded by the Horizen x @ThriveProtocol Builder Funding Program:
- @LighterIM - ZK-enabled DeOTC protocol for private, compliant OTC trading
- @datahubz - Automated compliance workflows (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA) powered by Hubz
- @tachyonpe -
Together, the program and the new Horizen chain create a reinforcing loop: infrastructure designed for privacy-aligned applications, paired with a funding mechanism built to bring them to life. The program is already supporting a growing set of live and in-development applications, including:
Zendex as a private DEX designed to stop MEV bots from front running trades
Tachyon enabling cross chain transfers that break the surveillance trail
DataHubz delivering enterprise compliance through cryptographic proof instead of trust based audits
Nyra bringing private perpetuals trading onchain
Obscura powering social trading with verifiable PnL
Lighter.IM enabling ZKP based on and off ramps
AdPriva building verifiable ad engagement with zero knowledge proofs
Gamblor introducing provably fair gaming with privacy built into every hand
Learn more about the program
Further Supporting Builders and the ZK EcosystemThroughout 2025, Horizen hosted and supported a select number of workshops and hackathon-style events, in collaboration with the ecosystem partners such as zkVerify. These efforts focused on education, experimentation, and early developer engagement.
Notable activations included:
Fhenix
ETHDenver participation through SporkDAO
SocialConnect New Delhi
0xCairo
Berlin Hackathon
The Horizen community voted in on 7 ZenIPs (ZEN Improvement Proposals) in 2025, including:
ZenIP 42406 Addendum: Proposing a Bold Leap Forward to Base for $ZEN and EON – 99.7% in favor
ZenIP 42410 Horizen Developer Grants Program - Thrive Partnership – 100% in favor
ZenIP 42411: A Treasury Management Framework for Horizen DAO – 100% in favor
Exchange Listings and Marketing Allocation – 99.2% in favor
The community also voted to elect new Special Council members to maintain strong governance and continuity throughout the year.
March Cohort Special Council Election
September Cohort Special Council Election
Check out all ZEP IPs and their details.
With the core network live and ecosystem taking shape, Horizen enters its next phase focused on deepening utility, expanding adoption, and delivering privacy capabilities that scales with real-world demand.
A major milestone on the near-term horizons is the release of the Horizen Confidential Compute Environment (HCCE). Designed to make privacy-preserving computation accessible without complex cryptography, HCCE introduces a powerful new execution layer that enables developers to run sensitive logic securely and verifiably onchain. This will unlock a broad class of applications, from institutional workflows to privacy-sensitive business use cases. This will mark a significant step forward in making privacy practical at scale. Read the HCCE whitepaper to learn more.
ZEN staking will be relaunched in Q1 2026, re-establishing a crucial participation and incentive mechanism for the Horizen community.
The ZEN staking is designed to strengthen network security, reward long-term participation, and reinforce ZEN’s role as the economic backbone of the Horizen ecosystem. This will turn passive holding to active engagement, tying network growth more closely to community involvement.
At the same time, the Horizen ecosystem will continue to expand. More new applications are preparing to go live across DeFi, business infrastructure, gaming, and emerging onchain categories. As more teams deploy and iterate, Horizon’s ecosystem will move from early formation to sustained momentum, driven by real usage and real demand for privacy-enabled execution.
Together, these developments signal a clear shift in Horizen’s trajectory. With infrastructure in place, aligned incentives coming online, and a growing pipeline of applications, Horizen is positioned to turn its vision of practical, compliant privacy into durable, onchain reality.
Dash leads a sharp rally in privacy coins as Monero, Zcash, Verge and Horizen bounce from support, with thin liquidity magnifying moves versus Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Summary
Dash hit fresh short‑term highs, outpacing Monero and Zcash as privacy‑focused tokens from Verge to Horizen logged intraday gains amid renewed sector interest. Technicals show Dash and Monero breaking higher on strong volume toward nearby resistance zones, with traders eyeing round‑number targets if momentum extends. Analysts warn that thin liquidity versus Bitcoin and Ethereum leaves Dash, Monero and peers vulnerable to sharp reversals even as bulls reclaim key support levels. Dash price reached new highs in the past 24 hours, leading a rally among privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, according to market data. Monero also advanced as the privacy coin sector registered gains.
Privacy coins gain momentum after Dubai crackdown Dash (DASH) outpaced both Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) during the rally. Dash and Monero prices rose early Tuesday as privacy-focused tokens registered fresh gains. Zcash, which has declined in recent weeks, also showed renewed strength. Other coins, including Verge and Horizen, posted intraday gains. The upswing in the privacy coin segment occurred amid broader market volatility, with Bitcoin and Ethereum positioned at key price levels.
Dash traded higher as price action indicated increased buying pressure, reflected in a surge in 24-hour trading volume. Technical analysis shows near-term support in a lower range, while a resistance cluster has formed above current levels. A break above the resistance cluster could lead to a potential breakout, according to market observers.
Monero has gained attention among privacy-focused cryptocurrencies at the start of the year, even as Zcash led the sector through much of last year. Market focus has shifted toward Monero, which is regarded as a benchmark for transaction privacy due to its default use of obfuscation techniques. The token has rallied over the past 24 hours, accompanied by a surge in trading volumes, indicating strong market participation.
From a technical perspective, traders are monitoring whether momentum can carry prices higher. Support is identified below current levels. If the rally extends, market participants are watching a higher range as a potential next area of resistance, with a round-number level emerging as a longer-term upside target.
Analysts noted that liquidity in the privacy coin segment remains relatively thin compared with major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. As a result, assets including Dash and Monero are more susceptible to sharp price swings. Privacy-focused tokens have begun to reclaim key technical levels amid renewed investor interest, raising the possibility that bullish momentum could continue. Alongside Dash, Monero, and Zcash, traders are monitoring Verge and Horizen for further signals from the sector.
Every day, millions of dollars are silently extracted from DeFi traders. Not through hacks or exploits, but through something far more insidious: the public mempool. MEV bots, front-runners, and sandwich attacks have turned transparency into a tax on every trade. But what if there was a way to trade in silence?
The Horizen x Thrive Builder Funding Program is now in full swing. With 16 approved projects in the pipeline and more under evaluation, we're launching a Project Showcase to give the community a closer look at what's being built on Horizen's privacy-first infrastructure.
For our first showcase, we're featuring one of the most anticipated projects: ZENDEX, a privacy-preserving decentralized exchange that's turning heads with its ambitious mission to become the "Private Liquidity Hub" for the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
To better understand their vision and what they are building, we sat down with the ZENDEX team.
1) In simple terms, what is ZENDEX, why does it exist, and what specific problems in decentralized trading are you trying to solve?
ZENDEX is a high performance trade execution layer built on a Horizen Chain. ZENDEX exists to remove the "Transparency Tax" that extracts millions of dollars from traders everyday in order to benefit MEV bots, front-running schema, and increases slippage costs. ZENDEX ensures that Horizen enabled shielded execution environments disarms public predators from benefiting from intent leakages while delivering measurable value added trading enhancements through privacy technologies.
2) ZENDEX positions itself as a privacy-first decentralized exchange. For a user making their first trade today, what is the most noticeable difference compared to trading on a typical public DEX?
The most noticeable difference is the "Silence." On a typical DEX, you confirm a trade and watch it sit in a public mempool where bots can attack it; on ZENDEX, your order is matched privately on the Horizen Blockchain. With ZENDEX, you get CEX-like execution speed and "Invisible" limit orders, meaning the market doesn't move against you the moment you place a large trade.
3) What message would you like to share directly with the Horizen community, including builders, validators, and supporters, about ZENDEX's mission and progress so far?
Our mission is to turn Horizen into the "Private Liquidity Hub" for the entire Ethereum ecosystem. We've successfully moved from a hackathon concept to an execution powerhouse by turning every trade into a ZEN enhancing event. We are proving that Horizen's zero-knowledge tech isn't just for "hiding" data, it is primed for building the most efficient and fair financial markets in the world.
4) Many exchanges are fully public and transparent by default. How is ZENDEX able to implement hidden order books and shielded trades from a technical standpoint, and what impact do these features have on user experience and market integrity?
Technically, we utilize Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) on Horizen Chain. This allows the exchange to "verify" that a match is valid without "revealing" the details of the orders to the public blockchain until after settlement. This creates a "Dark Pool" effect that protects market integrity by preventing predatory front-running and allowing institutional-sized trades to execute without causing massive price volatility.
This is a critical distinction. Traditional DeFi's radical transparency was initially seen as a feature, but it's increasingly clear that full visibility creates attack vectors that sophisticated actors exploit at retail's expense.
5) Comparing ZENDEX to other decentralized exchanges, both the typical AMM platforms and the newer privacy focused exchanges, where does ZENDEX stand out in terms of performance, privacy, and real world usability?
ZENDEX stands out because it doesn't force a trade-off. Typical AMMs are usable but public; most "privacy DEXs" are private but slow or suffer from low liquidity. ZENDEX uses a Hybrid HCLOB/AMM engine that offers the performance of a CEX, the privacy of a ZK-chain, and the ability to route to external liquidity (like Aerodrome) to ensure you always get the best price.
6) What has been the most significant technical or conceptual challenge you've faced so far while building ZENDEX, and how did you and your team overcome it?
The biggest challenge was the "ZEN Converter", mechanically converting multi-asset fees into a single deflationary sink for ZEN without causing high slippage. We overcame this by building a specialized ZEN engine that strategically converts protocol fees, ensuring that our tokenomics constantly strengthens ZEN.
Worth noting: this design creates direct alignment between ZENDEX usage and ZEN value accrual. Every trade contributes to deflationary pressure on the token.
7) Who are the people behind ZENDEX, and what are your team members' backgrounds? How did you all come together to build a privacy centric exchange on Horizen?
ZENDEX was born by a hackathon tested builders guild of ZK enthusiasts and programmers. We were able to solidify a number of our ideas thanks to the Horizen x Thrive program, evolving our current vision for a full-scale institutional grade execution layer driven by the belief that the "Mempool is a bug, not a feature."
8) In traditional finance and centralized exchanges (CEXs), order books and even private or hidden trades are common. What insights or surprises have you discovered about bringing similar privacy features into a decentralized exchange while building ZENDEX?
The biggest surprise was realizing that "Privacy" actually makes the market more efficient. In TradFi, dark pools are seen as exclusive; in DeFi, we believe that when we hide retail trades, we will attract more liquidity because so many interested parties prefer quoting tighter spreads knowing that they will not be picked off by arbitrage bots.
This inverts the common narrative. Privacy isn't a concession, it's a liquidity magnet.
9) What are the biggest misconceptions about privacy in DeFi, and how does ZENDEX address them, especially for traders who might be hesitant about trading privately?
The biggest misconception is that privacy is for "bad actors." In reality, privacy is for confidentiality. Professional traders need it to protect their strategies, and retail needs it to avoid being taxed by bots.
10) Where does ZENDEX stand today in terms of product readiness and public availability, and what is the next major milestone or launch phase you're targeting?
We are currently in the Milestone One (Fortress) phase, with our internal shielded HCLOB (Hidden Central Limit Order Book) and AMM live on the Horizen L3. Our next major milestone is Milestone Two (The Orchestrator), which will introduce the External Router. This will allow ZENDEX to pull liquidity from across the Base then EVM ecosystem while still keeping the user's identity and intent shielded.
11) Looking 12 months ahead, what specific indicators would tell you that ZENDEX is on the right track, in terms of users, liquidity, ecosystem integrations, or actual trading behavior?
Our key indicator is the ZEN Burn Rate. If we see a consistent increase in the amount of ZEN being burned by the protocol, it means we are successfully capturing "Flow." Additionally, we look at "Execution Delta", the percentage of trades filled better on ZENDEX than they would have been on a public AMM.
12) Why did you choose to build ZENDEX within the Horizen ecosystem, was the support of the Horizen x Thrive program a factor in that decision, and how have Horizen's privacy features and appchain technology enabled or accelerated your development?
We chose Horizen because it's the only ecosystem that treats privacy as a first-class citizen. The Horizen x Thrive program was the catalyst that allowed us to scale, but the real "secret sauce" is Horizen architecture. It allowed us to build privately and settle efficiently on BASE.
13) If privacy-preserving trading becomes mainstream and ZENDEX plays a meaningful role in that shift, how do you think trader behavior and market dynamics will change compared to today?
Trading will shift from "Bot-Avoiding" to "Strategy-First." Today, traders spend half their energy worrying about how their order will be exploited. In a ZENDEX led future, traders will focus entirely on their price targets. Market volatility will decrease because large orders will no longer trigger "Cascade Liquidation" bots that react to public mempool signals.
Follow ZENDEX
🌐: https://www.zendex.fi/
𝕏: @zendexfi
Stay tuned for the next Project Showcase as we continue to highlight the teams building on Horizen through the Thrive Builder Funding Program.
Loyalty programs were designed to create sustainable relationships between brands and users. In practice, many have devolved into fragmented point systems, low signal engagement, and short term incentive loops. In Web3, these issues are amplified. Airdrops are routinely captured by bots and disposable wallets, activity is inflated without retention, and genuine users are buried in noise. The result is clear engagement without loyalty, and incentives that fail to translate into trust or long term value.
There is a different path forward. One where loyalty is private by default, verifiable without unnecessary exposure, and designed for an environment where both users and AI agents interact onchain. Not surveillance driven engagement, but confidence driven participation.
The Horizen x Thrive Builder Funding Program continues to highlight teams building toward that future on Horizen’s privacy first infrastructure. With sixteen approved projects in progress and additional teams under evaluation, the program reflects growing momentum around confidential, verifiable applications that businesses can actually deploy.
For our second builder showcase, we are featuring Gatta. Gatta is a next generation loyalty system rethinking customer engagement from first principles. By using zero knowledge proofs, verifiable credentials, and privacy preserving infrastructure, Gatta enables brands to reward real behavior without tracking, spam, or artificial activity. It’s a practical example of how privacy can restore trust, signal confidence, and make loyalty systems work again.
To go deeper into how Gatta is being built and why privacy is central to its model, we spoke with the team about their approach to loyalty, verification, and real user engagement.
Gatta is a next-generation loyalty system that rewards real engagement automatically across brands, apps, and devices, spanning both Web2 and Web3. It enables companies to recognize genuine customer behavior in a fair, privacy-preserving way, without users having to manage points, apps, or sign-ups.
2) What was the moment when you realized traditional loyalty programs were fundamentally broken and worth rethinking from scratch?The turning point came when we saw the same failure repeat across industries: loyalty programs were optimizing for surface-level actions rather than real engagement. Dissatisfied customers with brands repeating the same transactional model to attract customers. In crypto, this flaw was impossible to ignore; airdrops were consistently drained by bots and sock-puppets, creating short-term activity with no trust, no habits, and no actual lasting user retention in Web3 communities.
At the same time, AI agents and blockchain have converged in a way that fundamentally reshapes how people can interact with products today. AI can now act on users’ behalf, while mature blockchain infrastructure enables trustless coordination between brands. It became clear that loyalty wasn’t a tooling problem but a structural one, designed for manual participation in a world moving toward automation, context, and privacy. That realization led us to rethink loyalty from the ground up and build Gatta.
Conceptually, the hardest part has been anticipating how brand engagement will evolve over the next 5–10 years and designing for how the customer would actually want to interact in that future. Technically, building privacy as a default, not an add-on, has been a major challenge. It requires rethinking the entire product architecture around privacy-first principles. Commercially, while we’re not fully there yet, onboarding large brands will come with its own set of challenges, from longer sales cycles to aligning incentives across stakeholders.
Early on, we thought brands could build a loyal user base just by handing out freebies. Turns out, real engagement isn’t about what you give. It’s about creating meaningful, trust-based interactions and relationships that people actually care about — which generate emotional experiences.
5) Who is behind Gatta? Can you briefly introduce the team and what each of you brings to the project?Saif Akhtar is the founder and CEO of Modulo Labs and visionary behind Gatta. With over 20 years of experience building large-scale software solutions, he has a proven track record in Blockchain, Privacy, and Zero-Knowledge innovation. With a background in Mathematics and Computer Science, Saif enjoys tackling complex challenges and turning them into products that make a real-world impact, while shaping the company’s vision and keeping its technology at the cutting edge.
Dr. Ann Brody, Co-founder and COO of Modulo Labs, brings a strong academic perspective to the team, with pioneering research in decentralized governance and DAOs. Having studied blockchain ecosystems and community dynamics for many years, she has identified systemic challenges that hinder engagement and trust in Web3. Ann applies this understanding to shape Gatta’s innovation and guide its voice in the market.
Working with niche technologies such as ZK and TEEs introduces unique budget and resourcing challenges, from limited talent pools to higher R&D overhead. To address this, we’ve intentionally built a lean, expert team designed to move quickly and deliver meaningful results.
7) Privacy and verification are often seen as trade-offs. How does Gatta balance user privacy with the need for trust and verifiability?Gatta removes this trade-off by separating proof from disclosure. Using verifiable credentials and zero-knowledge proofs, users can prove eligibility for rewards, such as being a real participant, meeting certain criteria, or holding a status, without revealing personal data. This allows brands to personalize offers and prevent fraud while staying compliant with privacy regulations, and lets users receive meaningful rewards without being tracked or profiled.
From the outset, we were driven by a fundamental question: what would a loyalty program look like if it were genuinely human-centered while preserving the core Web3 principles of user ownership and autonomy? As agentic systems become increasingly prevalent, Gatta is well positioned to operate within this emerging landscape. At the same time, we remain committed to ensuring that technological advancement enhances, rather than undermines, the human experience. To get Gatta right, we obsessed over small details like language — interactions most users would never notice.
9) Where is Gatta today in terms of product readiness, and what’s the next concrete milestone you’re aiming to ship?The first version of Gatta is launching this month in January, which will allow for running on-chain verifiable, privacy-preserving marketing campaigns for brands.
Next concrete milestone: addition of cross-chain capability.
10) Looking 12 months ahead, what would “success” look like for Gatta, both for the team and for users?Success would look like real usage and traction. We’d want to see over 100 Web3 brands actively running One-Time Campaigns on Gatta, alongside a clear, validated solution for Web2 brands and partnerships in place with at least five leading companies. On the product side, success means completing the Gatta token launch, having Brand Reputation Staking underway, and operating a live AI-driven workflow with an MVP that’s already delivering value to users.
11) Why did you choose to build within the Horizen ecosystem, and what advantages does it give you compared to other options?Two main reasons. First, Horizen has strong support for privacy-preserving tech like ZK and TEEs, which are core to what we’re building. Second, it’s low-cost and scalable, so we can experiment, iterate, and grow without unnecessary overhead.
12) If you could fast-forward to a future where Gatta is widely adopted, what changes for brands and customers compared to today?In a widely adopted future, loyalty becomes more open and transparent, with Web2 and Web3 working seamlessly together. AI agents help guide purchasing decisions, applying loyalty points where they’ll earn the most rewards. Brands can confidently reward real engagement using verifiable credentials and zero-knowledge proofs, while customers receive rewards without exposing personal data or being tracked. The result is a cleaner, more trustworthy ecosystem where loyalty programs foster genuine, long-term relationships rather than short-term extraction. Overall, loyalty evolves from being purely transactional to experiential and emotional.
13) Is there anything you’d like to say directly to the Horizen community, and supporters following your journey?To the Horizen community and everyone following our journey, thank you for believing in Gatta. We’re excited to keep building, learning, and growing this community together.
Compliance was supposed to protect organizations and build trust. Instead, it became a paperwork nightmare, a frantic scramble of spreadsheets, screenshots, and last minute audit prep that consumes resources while delivering little real assurance. For SMBs (Small, Medium, Businesses) without dedicated compliance teams, the burden is even worse: abstract framework requirements, evidence scattered across dozens of tools, and verification that only happens under audit pressure, months after the fact.
The industry's answer? More consultants, more checklists, more documents that sit in folders until someone asks for them. Meanwhile, actual security and privacy practices drift out of alignment with what's written on paper, and nobody knows until an auditor finds the gap.
But what if compliance could be rebuilt as a continuous, verifiable process? What if evidence integrity could be proven cryptographically, not assumed on trust?
The Horizen x Thrive Builder Funding Program continues to spotlight the innovative teams building on Horizen's privacy first infrastructure. With 16 approved projects in the pipeline and more under evaluation, we're bringing the community closer to the builders shaping the future of confidential, verifiable applications.
For our fourth showcase, we're featuring DataHubz, a team building compliance infrastructure from the ground up. Their flagship platform Hubz turns compliance from a manual, document heavy exercise into a living system of record, with evidence integrity anchored on the Horizen blockchain.
1) How would you describe DataHubz and its flagship platform Hubz to someone unfamiliar with compliance automation?
DataHubz builds compliance infrastructure, not just compliance software.
Our flagship platform, Hubz, helps organizations turn compliance from a manual, document heavy exercise into a continuous, structured, and verifiable operational process.
In simple terms: Hubz helps teams understand what a framework actually requires, guides them step by step, automatically gathers and organizes evidence, and proves, cryptographically, that the evidence hasn't been altered. Instead of chasing spreadsheets and screenshots, teams get a living system of record for compliance.
2) What is the single biggest compliance pain point Hubz solves for SMBs?
The biggest pain point is the gap between what frameworks ask for and what organizations actually do day to day.
SMBs don't fail at compliance because they don't care. They fail because requirements are abstract, evidence is scattered across tools, and verification happens months later under audit pressure. Hubz closes that gap by mapping real operational signals and documents directly to controls, in real time, so compliance becomes part of normal work instead of a separate, painful project.
3) How does Hubz orchestrate documents, evidence, controls, and audits from start to audit ready?
Hubz follows a clear lifecycle:
Framework aware roadmaps break requirements into concrete, actionable steps.
Centralized evidence vault ingests documents, logs, configurations, and artifacts.
Control to evidence mapping links every artifact to specific requirements.
Continuous monitoring and validation track drift and missing evidence.
Audit ready views give assessors a structured, time ordered trail of proof.
The result is not just "audit prep," but a defensible compliance posture at any point in time.
4) How does Verifiable Compliance Evidence (VCE) anchored on Horizen change trust assumptions?
Traditional audit trails rely on trust: trust that evidence wasn't modified, backdated, or selectively presented.
With Verifiable Compliance Evidence, Hubz cryptographically fingerprints evidence and anchors those fingerprints on the Horizen blockchain. The evidence itself stays private, but its integrity becomes mathematically provable.
For auditors, customers, and regulators, this shifts trust from process based ("we trust how you prepared this") to cryptographic ("we can independently verify this was unchanged").
5) What real time insights or alerts does Hubz provide?
Hubz can alert teams when:
Required evidence expires or goes stale
Controls drift from their expected state
New risks appear due to configuration or policy changes
Framework coverage drops below a defined threshold
These alerts help organizations stay compliant continuously, instead of scrambling once or twice a year for audits.
6) What makes Hubz accessible to SMBs without compliance teams?
We designed Hubz assuming no dedicated compliance department:
Plain language guidance instead of regulatory jargon
Opinionated workflows that reduce decision fatigue
Automation where possible, human checkpoints where necessary
Interfaces built for operators and founders, not auditors
The goal is to let small teams act like large, well resourced compliance organizations, without the overhead.
7) Can you give a concrete example of AI catching a risk or insight?
One example is evidence intelligence: Hubz uses AI to analyze uploaded documents and configurations and flag mismatches between what a policy claims and what the evidence actually shows.
In practice, this has surfaced cases where policies looked compliant on paper, but operational artifacts told a different story, something that would likely be missed until an external audit.
8) What is the role of context matched AI models in Hubz?
Compliance is highly contextual. A control means something different in CMMC than in GDPR or SOC 2.
Hubz uses context matched models that are constrained by:
The specific framework
The control intent
The type of evidence being analyzed
This reduces hallucination risk and keeps outputs aligned with regulatory reality rather than generic AI responses.
9) How do you balance privacy and transparency when anchoring evidence onchain?
Only cryptographic hashes and metadata are anchored onchain, never raw documents or sensitive content.
This means:
Evidence remains private and access controlled
Integrity and timestamping are publicly verifiable
Organizations maintain full data sovereignty
It's transparency without exposure.
10) What has been the hardest technical or product challenge?
The hardest challenge has been building systems that are rigorous enough for auditors but usable by non experts.
That meant combining formal compliance logic, cryptography, AI reasoning, and UX design into a single coherent experience without overwhelming users or oversimplifying requirements.
11) Who is the team behind DataHubz?
DataHubz is built by a team with deep technical and regulatory expertise, including a PhD in Computer Science with a background in privacy enhancing technologies, alongside professionals with decades of experience in data systems, analytics, and compliance operations.
That blend is intentional: Hubz sits at the intersection of theory, engineering, and real world audits.
12) Why did you choose the Horizen ecosystem?
Horizen stood out for three reasons:
Strong support for privacy preserving architectures
Flexible infrastructure for anchoring proofs without exposing data
A philosophy aligned with decentralization, verifiability, and trust minimization
Those capabilities map directly to what compliance should become: provable, privacy first, and independently verifiable.
13) What does success look like in 12 to 18 months?
Success means:
Hundreds of organizations using Hubz as their system of record for compliance
Support for multiple major frameworks across security and privacy
Deep partnerships with auditors, platforms, and ecosystems
Compliance shifting from "audit season" to always on assurance
Ultimately, success is when compliance stops being a tax and becomes a strategic asset.
Keep up with the latest updates from DataHubz:
🌐 https://www.datahubz.com/
𝕏 https://x.com/datahubz
Stay tuned for the next Project Showcase as we continue to highlight the teams building on Horizen through the Thrive Builder Funding Program.
For years, the Horizen community has known that the lack of privacy on public blockchains was the problem holding serious adoption back. Today, we're ready to show you what we've built to solve it.
If you've been following Horizen's development closely, you know about HCCE: the Horizen Confidential Compute Environment. That was the engineering name for something we've been quietly hardening for production. Today HCCE has a proper name, and it's open for developers to build with.
Meet Vela.
Vela is the confidential compute layer that powers private execution on the Horizen Chain. It's the infrastructure that makes privacy practical.
Blockchain transparency created something genuinely valuable: open, permissionless liquidity accessible to anyone. But it also created a structural problem for serious market participants. Every position, every rebalancing decision, every institutional move is permanently visible to competitors, front-runners, and bad actors.
Over $600 million is extracted annually from public blockchain participants through front-running and sandwich attacks alone. In February, the Axiom insider trading case, where platform employees used internal dashboards to track user wallets and trade ahead of them, demonstrated the problem even more starkly: when a platform can see your activity, the only safeguard is human trust. Human trust fails.
Vela's operator-blind architecture eliminates that attack surface at the hardware level. Not as a policy or as a promise, but as a cryptographic guarantee.
The timing matters too. Regulatory clarity is converging at the same time. MiCA is live. The SEC issued its joint staff statement on tokenized securities in January. ERC-7943 is standardising the compliance interface at the token level. The infrastructure for institutional DeFi is being built, and the missing piece has always been confidential, auditable execution. Vela is that missing piece
Vela executes applications inside Trusted Execution Environments: hardware-isolated enclaves where every computation is cryptographically attested and no one, including us, can observe what's running inside.
The only information that reaches the public ledger is an encrypted state root and a proof that the computation ran on verified hardware. Your logic, your positions, your data stay sealed.
This is how Horizen delivers on its core promise: privacy that protects strategy and commercial activity while remaining auditable and regulatory-compatible. Confidentiality you can prove.
Three capabilities work together to make this real:
Private from the public. Every execution starts clean, inside an isolated enclave. Nothing persists between runs. The public sees only encrypted outputs.
Private from the operator. Hardware-level isolation means even Vela cannot observe what's running inside. There is no internal dashboard to abuse.
Transparent to the regulator. Compliance is verifiable through cryptographic proof, not manual data dumps. MiCA-compatible. Travel Rule compatible. On your terms.
Vela is currently available as a local development environment. The starter kit gives you a fully working sandbox to start building confidential applications using Go, Rust, or any language that compiles to WASM. No circuit design. No ZK expertise required. No new cryptographic paradigms to learn.
Start here: 👉 Vela Starter Kit on GitHub
Supporting repositories:
vela
vela-common-ts
vela-common-go
vela-nova
Vela is the confidential compute layer that makes privacy-first applications on Horizen Chain possible. We're building it in public, and we want the community to shape what comes next.
Build with the starter kit. Tell us what you need. File issues. The roadmap is influenced by what we hear from builders.
If you've worked through the starter kit and want to go further, we can deploy a dedicated Vela instance for your team on the Horizen chain testnet on request. We're prioritising two features before opening testnet to a wider audience: multi-app support and self-deployment. When those are ready, testnet access opens fully. Subscribe to receive the announcement directly to your inbox.
In the meantime, if your team is ready to move beyond the local sandbox, reach out. We'll get you set up 👉 Get Early Access
Read the Vela Whitepaper
Explore Vela Documentation
Visit Vela Website
Have questions? Find us at Discord
Vela is built by Horizen Labs. Documentation, repositories, and the starter kit are publicly available at the links above.
See the full press release from Horizen Labs
LinkLayerAI, an incentive protocol driven by intelligent agents, has announced its strategic partnership with IOST, a well-known platform for multi-chain infrastructure for real-world assets (RWA). The primary purpose behind this partnership is to enhance the utility of artificial intelligence (AI-Driven) trading and its growth across decentralized ecosystems.
🤝 Excited to announce our partnership with @IOST_Official !
👉IOST is a multi-chain ecosystem focused on RWA infrastructure.
🚀Together with @LinkLayerAI, we’re exploring new opportunities at the intersection of AI, trading, and decentralized innovation — driving growth and… pic.twitter.com/bNw9zQJnvl
— LinkLayerAI (@LinkLayerAI) November 10, 2025 Both platforms are well aware of artificial intelligence trading in decentralized ecosystems. They are moving one step forward in the decentralized world by utilizing their specifications. LinkLayerAI has revealed this news through its official X account.
LinkLayerAI–IOST Partnership Fuels Web3 Growth LinkLayerAI and IOST are collectively merging AI+trading+decentralized innovation for better results and making a productive effort in driving growth across ecosystems. Since IOST’s main focus is on scalability, security, and decentralization of RWAs. ISOT is already working efficiently and providing its significant services for Web3 applications, such as gaming, AI, and decentralized Finance (DeFi). Basically, they are unlocking the free utility of AI trading for users.
LinkLayerAI and IOST Alliance Elevate Global AI Trading Through Intelligent Innovation LinkLayerAI and ISOT alliance provide useful intelligence-based facilities that level up the status of users in terms of AI trading and innovation. This collaboration will open many more opportunities in decentralized finance (DeFi) and trading in the coming time.
This collaboration is of great significance as it doesn’t only benefit both entities in terms of expanding user base but also benefitting the crypto community by enhancing the Utility of AI-Driven Trading. In a nutshell, they are trying to make their services efficient, seamless, and error-free all around the world. The provided services will help in a decentralized scenario of Web3 trading and building a name in the market.
AUTHOR
Crypto journalist with years of experience providing in-depth analysis and news on blockchain and decentralized finance. With a keen eye for detail, Shahzaib delivers insightful articles that explore the latest trends, market movements, and innovations within the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. His work focuses on educating readers while offering expert commentary on the evolving landscape of digital assets, DeFi protocols, and the broader impact of blockchain technology.
