Wall Street wants blockchain, degens want memes, and stablecoins want to take over the world. 

This Week in Crypto, institutional adoption is heating up, with Ondo Finance rolling out its Layer 1 blockchain for tokenized capital markets; meanwhile, memecoins continue their casino-like domination, with Flaunch challenging Solana’s Pump.fun for the degenerate throne.  

Before we get into our stories, lets go over the price movements of the week. Spoiler alert: oof.

Think of this week’s edition as a balanced diet– part degen and part buttoned-up. 

Here’s what’s inside today’s breakdown:

• 💼 The BlackRock-backed Ondo Finance finally launches its Layer 1

• 🐸 Memecoin Wars between Flaunch and Pump.fun 

• 💵 The Stablecoin Takeover– USDC and USDT outpace Visa—and could reshape global finance  

• 😂 $PAIN token craze raises $40 million in 48 hours for the “Hide the Pain Harold” memecoin and is down 85% – hope Harold sold, or else holding Harold lives up to the meme’s reputation.   

Let’s dive in. ⤵️

🙂 “Hide the Pain Harold" Cashes In

The latest meme just printed $40 million. 

If you’ve been online in the last decade, you’ve seen “Hide the Pain Harold.” 

You know, this guy. 

The meme legend, real name Andras Arato, just launched his own memecoin—$PAIN—with Memeland and raised $40 million in $SOL in two days. One trader alone tossed in $20,000 SOL (~$4M) in the final hours.  

This isn’t just a random cash grab. Memeland, the NFT project from 9gag (a meme platform with 150M users), has been one of the more successful Web3 ventures. Their previous token, $MEME, peaked at a $760M market cap in early 2024 before cooling down to $180M today.  

What this means: Memecoins have gone corporate. Instead of faceless Twitter traders launching dog and poop-themed scams, we’re now seeing professional media brands and internet celebrities get in on the action. 

Expect more meme IPOs—where viral icons tokenize their clout. The engagement economy is now a tradeable economy, completely subverting the whole NFT premise of tokenizing fandom. 

Without strong utility or branding beyond Harold’s face, $PAIN could fizzle completely once post-launch hype dies. The token is already down 85% since launch.

The challenge for future brands is turning nostalgia-driven momentum into long-term sustainable value– a feat that seems impossible as the argument for holding memecoins long-term in the face of rampant over-saturation is bleak. 

Still, raising $40M while the market was tanking is legendary. The memecoin casino remains open for business. 

You go, Harold, hopefully this puts a brighter smile on that eternal pained expression.

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⛓️ Ondo’s Big Layer-1 Play: Bringing Wall Street On-Chain

Ondo Finance just unveiled Ondo Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain designed to bring capital markets into the crypto age. At the first-ever Ondo Summit in New York, the firm laid out its plan to merge the efficiency of blockchain with the institutional-grade reliability of traditional finance. 

The goal is to tokenize assets like US Treasuries, ETFs, and equities and make them more transparent, accessible, and cost-effective.  

This isn't some crypto vanity project—legacy institutions are taking it seriously. Heavyweights like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Wellington Management are advising on Ondo Chain’s design.

The validator network will be permissioned (read: institution-friendly), and the chain includes advanced compliance tools—two things financial regulators love.  

Broadly speaking, tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is gaining momentum. BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund hit $375 million in assets this year, and JPMorgan’s Onyx division processed billions in blockchain-based repo transactions. 

Ondo is throwing another heavyweight player into the mix, with backing from firms that move trillions in assets.  

Regulators still haven’t figured out clear rules for tokenized securities. Under Gary Gensler, the SEC has been skeptical of blockchain-based financial products… but Gensley is no more. 

However, with major banks and asset managers now invested, policy clarity might come sooner rather than later.  

The bigger picture? If Ondo succeeds, expect a flood of financial products onchain. 

The days of T+2 settlements and opaque financial plumbing could be numbered.  

🤔 What’s New at CoinCentral: A Guide to the Sui Blockchain and $SUI token

Memecoins and politics got weirder, and for some, incredibly lucrative.

Fast, cheap, and ambitious—Sui is making big claims about scalability, but is anyone actually using it? The Layer 1 promises blazing transaction speeds (297K TPS) and a slick Move programming model, but the real question is whether developers and users care.

With a $250M token unlock looming, skeptics are watching for sell pressure, while believers argue Sui is quietly building the infrastructure for Web3’s next wave.

Hype or real traction? We break it down.Check it out here!

Memecoin Wars: Base vs. Solana in the Degens’ Playground

Boy, do we love news that sounds really dumb but is actually legit. 

Solana’s Pump.fun made launching memecoins so easy that total trading volume exploded. But critics call it a financial black hole—$500 million in fees collected while billions in $SOL are locked away in dead projects. 

Now, a challenger has appeared:

Flaunch, a new memecoin launchpad on Base.  

Flaunch isn’t a Pump.fun clone—it offers some new unique features:

1. Zero protocol fees: All trading fees go to the memecoin creators and holders.  

2. Automated buybacks: Each trade contributes to price support.  

3. Tokenized dev fees: Trading fees are turned into NFTs, adding a new secondary market.  

4. Fixed price launch system: No whales sniping early entries.  

Flaunch launched over 2,600 tokens in its first week and saw $86.3M in trading volume. But it’s still nowhere near Pump.fun, which does 30,000 launches a day on Solana. 

The biggest challenge is that Base (an Ethereum Layer 2) doesn’t yet have the true degen culture that fuels Solana’s memecoin casino.  

Something about this whole situation reminds us of how OpenSea led NFTs for the first part of the hype cycle, but was quickly buried by competitors like Magic Eden, Rarible, and SuperRare. 

Why It Matters: Memecoins are shaping major blockchain adoption trends. Ethereum lost ground to Solana last year because Solana made memecoin trading frictionless. If Base can establish itself as a serious competition, it could attract the retail traders that drive liquidity.  

A lot of this revolves around meme culture. No amount of innovation will matter if traders prefer the chaos and familiarity of Solana. 

Plus, the biggest pump-and-dump schemes love unregulated niche markets—if Base gets hit by legal pressure, memecoin activity could dry up fast. Due to its Coinbase associations, it may be forced to pivot in ways a looser project like pump.fun might hesitate.

Flaunch has a real shot at disrupting the space, but it will need viral meme power to do so.

🦳 Stablecoins Are Quietly Overtaking the Entire Financial System  

Closing out this week’s news is crypto’s favorite boring and slightly sketchy wealthy uncle. 

ARK Invest’s Big Ideas 2025 report dropped a shocking stat: stablecoins processed $15.6 trillion in transaction value last year, surpassing Mastercard and Visa. The two biggest players—Tether ($USDT) and Circle ($USDC)—are now the 20th largest buyers of US Treasury Securities. 

The model is pure genius. Digitize dollars and use the real dollars to earn a yield on Treasuries. That also means stablecoins are effectively propping up the US government’s debt.  

Tether is also absurdly profitable: it makes more net income per employee than Visa, Mastercard, or even Berkshire Hathaway. 

This isn’t just a crypto thing anymore—stablecoins are quietly becoming the backbone of digital finance.  

: If adoption continues, stablecoins could become the dominant form of money movement globally. Emerging markets grappling with inflation (Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela) already use $USDT as an alternative to their national currencies. 

If this trend expands, the need for international dollar reserves could shift from governments to everyday people using stablecoins.  

Washington is just waking up to this. If the US wants to maintain dollar dominance, stablecoins might be their best bet—it puts USD-denominated assets directly into the hands of people in unstable economies without needing to trust their local banking system. Some lawmakers are catching on, with new stablecoin legislation rumored to be in the works.  

The rub– governments don’t like ceding control over monetary systems. Regulation is inevitable, and how the US handles stablecoin oversight will determine whether this becomes a $10 trillion opportunity or just another overregulated fintech product.  

Stablecoins aren’t exciting like memecoins—but they might be the most disruptive force in global finance today.  

We’ll see you next week!

AM

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The content herein is not an investment recommendation or a solicitation to buy or sell any financial instruments or assets. Readers are advised to conduct their own research and exercise caution in making any financial decisions.