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Daily Brief

Where Solana is Accelerating

gm Bankless Nation, Bitcoin certainly earned the most eyeballs this week, but Solana made a splash with a number of ecosystem announcements at its Accelerate event.
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May 23, 20255 min read
Where Solana is Accelerating
Published on May 23, 2025
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NEED TO KNOW
Trump Holds Memecoin Gala
  1. 🤵 Trump Holds Memecoin Gala with Top Memecoin Investors. The black-tie event hosted at the Trump National Golf Club drew significant criticism and a number of irl protestors.
  2. 🫏 Democrats Push Bill to Stop Trump's Crypto Efforts. Rep. Maxine Waters introduced the bill, named the “Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act of 2025.”
  3. 🔴 SEC Acknowledges Application for Staked Tron ETF. Canary Capital's Staked TRX ETF filing gets an acknowledgment from the SEC as the agency continues to delay crypto application approvals.
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Daily Market Snapshot: Crypto and TradFi markets were rattled Friday after Trump ratcheted up his tariff rhetoric, threatening the EU with 50% tariffs. BTC fell back to $108K and ETH sank 4%.
Prices as of 1pm ET 24hr 7d
Crypto $3.43T ↘ 2.4% ↗ 3.0%
BTC $108,721 ↘ 2.4% ↗ 4.6%
ETH $2,560 ↘ 3.6% ↘ 0.6%
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ANALYSIS
What You've Missed at Solana Accelerate
Bankless Author: Nick Shaheen

Solana Accelerate 2025, currently taking place in NYC, has witnessed a packed house, a week of shipping, and a slate of announcements that showcased how Solana builders are thinking about the future of the chain.

It also just so happened to coincide with a nice, green week for the markets, as Bitcoin ticked upwards, lifting the entire crypto mood.

Here’s what has stood out so far this week 👇

🏔️ Anza Makes Waves

In the biggest technical reveal of the week, Anza, a Solana Labs spinout, proposed a new consensus protocol called Alpenglow.

Instead of requiring two-thirds of stake to finalize blocks (as BFT systems do), Anza is introducing:

  • Votor – a voting protocol where just 60% participation is enough for finality
  • Rotor – a refined, lower-latency way to disseminate data across the network

What does this mean? If adopted, Alpenglow could give Solana sub-200ms block finality – on par with traditional web infra and leagues ahead of most other L1s. The update excited many in the Solana community, though it also drew some critiques over centralization concerns.

via Anza

⛓ Chainlink’s CCIP Goes Live

Another big win: Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) is now live on Solana mainnet.

That means Solana apps can now securely move data and tokens between Solana and 57+ other chains, unlocking access to $19B in cross-chain assets.

This is a massive unlock for DeFi protocols, stablecoin bridges, and tokenized RWAs moving into the Solana economy.

📲 Solana Mobile’s Seeker Ships August 4

Solana Mobile is scaling.

Not only did they confirm Seekers will ship globally on August 4, they also announced:

  • The SKR token to power the mobile app ecosystem
  • TEEPIN, a decentralized mobile security architecture
  • Open platform for OEMs to build crypto-native devices

👾 Farcaster Joins Solana

Farcaster, the decentralized social network built on Optimism, officially added Solana support – a big move for ecosystem interoperability – and one that brings Mini Apps into the Solana ecosystem.

🇺🇸 DC Policy Crew Hits the Stage

Earlier today Crypto made it to the Hill… or rather, the Hill came to crypto.

Senator Bill Hagerty, Senator Rick Scott, and Representative French Hill all took the stage to discuss the current state of U.S. crypto regulation with Solana Institute's Kristin Smith.

Their presence signaled that Solana is no longer just a tech or culture play—it’s now a force in policy circles too.

🧾 0xDesigner Talks Onchain Identity

@0xDesigner gave a live talk anonymously—no face, no name—about how much can be inferred about someone simply by analyzing their onchain behavior.

He challenged devs to think of wallet activity not just as data, but as narrative, especially for product design and user experience.

👯‍♀️ The Crowd Was Real

Lastly, attendance was no joke. Momentum felt high across the board, and the week delivered on that energy with real substance.

Kyle Samani’s tweet showed it best:


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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

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