💀 $134M IP = "Instant Payday"?

A crypto token just partnered with the owner of the New York Stock Exchange… and it’s not Bitcoin. It’s surging 50%, locking in whales, launching a self-funding treasury, and pulling Wall Street data directly on-chain 🔥

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ⭐ 5 Things You Shouldn’t Miss

• 🚨 Story Protocol’s Founder Just “Slow-Rug” After …

• 💰 Crypto Treasury Trend: The New Gold Rush on Wal …

• 🤡 Meme Of The Day

⭐ 5 Things You Shouldn’t Miss

📉 Bitcoin just dropped below $116K after hitting $124K last week, as hot inflation data crushed hopes for 3 Fed rate cuts this year, now markets only expect two. Now all eyes are on Powell’s Jackson Hole speech this Friday. If they hint at easing, $BTC.X ( ▼ 2.93% ) might bounce, otherwise, more chop ahead.

😁 Eric Trump is back at it with the classic advice. But this time, he actually backed it up. Eric just bought $8.6M worth of $ETH.X ( ▼ 0.72% ) and $10M worth of $BTC.X ( ▼ 2.93% ) . Right after that, he publicly told people to “buy the dips.” Looks like he’s not just talking this time, folks. He’s putting serious money where his mouth is.

🤝 $TRUMP.X ( ▼ 1.88% ) coin is holding steady at $9.02 despite the much-hyped Trump–Putin summit in Alaska. Even with optimism, investors didn’t push prices up. Market sentiment looked good at first, but buyers are backing off. For a clean move up, investor confidence needs a real boost, and right now, that’s missing.

🔥 Chainlink $LINK.X ( ▲ 0.93% ) ’s up 50% in 2 weeks, whales are buying big, and the new on-chain treasury is live, auto-accumulating LINK from revenue like $USDC.X ( ▼ 0.0% ) and gas fees. Plus, a major partnership with NYSE’s parent company (ICE) was announced. LINK is showing real strength backed by adoption and utility.

🧨 Fed just officially killed its crypto bank watchdog program created in August 2023. For the first time in years, U.S. banks are no longer under a special “crypto surveillance” framework. A new “normalization era” starts under Trump. Michael Saylor posted: The door is now wide open for Bitcoin and banks to move forward together.

🚨 Story Protocol’s Founder Just “Slow-Rug” After Raising $134M from a16z?

The crypto world on X was buzzing yesterday after Jason Zhao, co-founder of Story Protocol (IP), announced he's stepping away from the project, just 6 months after launching the $IP.X ( ▲ 29.13% ) token.

We feel like this isn't just a typical founder exit. Here’s why it matters, and why the backlash is massive.

🧠 What is Story Protocol? From Academic Prodigy to $143M Crypto Founder

Meet Jason Zhao - a real-life genius:

• Scored perfect 2400 SAT

• Interned at Google DeepMind at just 19

• Graduated from Stanford

• Then left DeepMind to build something ambitious: Story Protocol

Story Protocol is a blockchain platform aiming to revolutionize IP (intellectual property) ownership (like books, brands, stories) all on-chain. While the idea sounds ambitious, some say it still feels distant from practical, real-world use cases.

And it raised BIG:

• Total funding: $143M

• Backers: a16z led Seed, Series A, and Series B. Polychain joined in Series B

• Brand partners: Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, even BTS

For a while, everyone called it “the future of on-chain IP.” Then came the token hype. On Feb 13, 2025: $IP.X ( ▲ 29.13% ) token was launched with initial valuation: ~$2B

Since late June 2025, $IP token has surged.

Most recently, rumors say a U.S.-listed company just launched a $340M treasury fund involving IP.

FDV quickly pumped to over $7B, now hovering around $6B. By price action alone, you’d say: mission accomplished. But… what’s actually happening on-chain?

Let’s talk real usage:

• On DefiLlama, Story Protocol’s entire chain made only $17 in fees in 24 hours.

• TVL? Just $25 million across the whole system.

• For perspective: that’s lower than a mid-tier dApp on most Layer 1s.

No one’s denying the token is performing well. But the question is:

• Where’s the product traction?

• Where’s the user activity?

• Where’s the real IP revolution?

Great founder, big vision, massive funding, but as of now, on-chain activity doesn’t reflect the $7B valuation.

🤯 But Is Jason Zhao Quietly “Slow-Rugging” His Own Project?

Until something rare just happened: Jason Zhao - the founder - has exited the project. That’s highly unusual, especially in crypto.

On August 16, 2025, founder Jason Zhao officially stepped down, saying he’ll now be a strategic advisor and focus on a new AI project called Poseidon, oh, and surprise: Poseidon is also backed by a16z. 👀

Even more “coincidental”? Jason quit just 5 days after Story sold $82M worth of $IP tokens via OTC.

→ Same pattern: bold vision, elite school background, token allegations.

💥 Community Reaction on X

Let’s just say… not great. While the Story team left supportive comments, the rest of crypto X - especially big KOLs - were brutal:

• “Built a chain nobody uses.”

• 3 years building nothing, launched token then left.”

• “Stop talking. You took the money and dipped.”

Flashback to exactly one year ago when Story was heating up… Co-founder S.Y. Lee took a public shot at Berachain, mocking: 

→ “What real-world problem has Berachain solved?”. This industry must move beyond DeFi circlejerks and gimmicky liquidity bootstrapping.”

Berachain’s ecosystem project, Fable Platform, clapped back hard:

(The tweet has since been deleted, but the receipts live on.)

Since launching in Feb 2025, Story Protocol has been accused of price manipulation around $IP token. It’s being compared to Movement ($MOVE.X ( ▼ 0.06% )) - another student-led crypto project that ended in scandal.

The optics? Not good. Jason Zhao was once a crypto prodigy. Now, many wonder if Story Protocol was just hype, headlines, and exit liquidity.

😶 Aptos Déjà Vu? The Script Feels So Familiar

This reminds many of what happened at Aptos with CEO Mo Shaikh. We’ve seen this pattern before: hyped projects, massive funding, charismatic founders... and then silence.

Aptos story:

• Aptos & Sui both launched in 2022, hyped as the next-gen Move blockchains.

• Aptos raised a massive $350M, including 2 rounds with a16z fingerprints.

• It rode the VC hype wave hard, just like Story.

Then came the classic exit move

• In late 2024, Aptos hit a pumped FDV of $17B.

• Right then, Mo Shaikh - the face of Aptos (famous for his wild social content) suddenly stepped down as CEO.

• He handed the reins to CTO Avery Ching.

Sound familiar? Meanwhile… Sui kept building. While Aptos faded from headlines, Sui climbed into the top 20 market caps.

• Ecosystem devs kept shipping, airdrops kept dropping, and the Sui community thrived.

• Aptos is mostly forgotten.

The Jason Zhao–Story arc feels like a remix of the Aptos saga: Raise big. Hype hard. Launch token. Exit stage left.

It’s a script we’ve seen before.

⁉ Can Story Protocol Survive Without Jason Zhao?

The tech brain behind programmable IP is gone. But does that mean Story Protocol is doomed? Not necessarily. But it’s complicated.

Story has announced big names like: Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, BLACKPINK, Madonna, Selena Gomez, Sabrina Carpenter, Maroon 5. Also Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, and even investor ties with Bang Si-hyuk (HYBE/BTS).

But here’s what’s actually happening:

• These are expensive sponsorship deals, not organic adoption.

• HYBE? Not using Story. No BTS content on-chain.

• D&G or Balmain? Just press releases, zero $IP.X ( ▲ 29.13% ) deployed, zero on-chain assets.

Lots of burn, not much build. But the team is still solid so technically, the ship still has captains. And surprisingly… token price held up

Despite all the chaos, STORY didn’t crash when Jason left → a sign that the community or insiders still believe in the brand (or maybe… already priced it in).

Jason Zhao wasn’t just a co-founder, he was the architect of the protocol, the one who shaped the idea of programmable IP.

His exit leaves a gap in:

• Technical direction

• Protocol leadership

• Vision for how this becomes more than just paid partnerships

In short, Jason’s gone. The partnerships are paid. The numbers are weak. But the team is strong. The token’s still up.

💰 Crypto Treasury Trend: The New Gold Rush on Wall Street

A new trend is heating up: public companies are now stockpiling billions in digital assets as part of their corporate treasuries.

These firms are being called Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies and the implications could be huge.

Supporters say it’s a smart move:

• It increases corporate value

• It adds real demand for tokens

• It helps align incentives between token ecosystems and shareholders

For an industry hungry for legitimacy, this looks like institutional validation in action. But the skeptics are raising red flags. Here’s what critics worry about:

• Insider manipulation — execs may be using shareholder money to buy their own project tokens

• Liquidity traps — insiders pump token prices just enough to exit quietly

• It blurs the line between company strategy and token speculation

In short, is this a long-term value play, or just a new form of exit liquidity?

1️⃣ The DAT Wave Is Real (and Spreading Fast)

5 years ago, Michael Saylor transformed MicroStrategy (now renamed Strategy) into a Bitcoin accumulation machine.

As BTC soared, so did the company’s stock, and Saylor became an icon across both Wall Street and crypto. Now in 2025, his playbook is going mainstream.

Since May 2025, this strategy has exploded. And on July 21, the market saw an unprecedented wave of crypto buys, not from crypto-natives, but publicly traded companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

It’s no longer just about Bitcoin: Companies are now loading up on $ETH.X ( ▼ 0.72% ) , $SOL.X ( ▼ 4.93% ) , $BNB.X ( ▼ 1.68% ) , $TON.X ( ▲ 6.99% ) , $SUI.X ( ▼ 4.29% ) and other emerging tokens.

Why are public companies going crypto? We see 3 reasons:

• Diversify treasury reserves

• Boost profit potential

• Attract indirect institutional capital

Big funds like pensions, insurance firms, or state-owned entities often can’t buy crypto directly… But they can buy stocks.

→ So, buying shares of a DAT company becomes a legal, indirect way to get crypto exposure. This led to something wild:

• DAT company stocks are now trading far above their NAV (net asset value) - the actual value of crypto they hold.

• That premium creates a powerful feedback loop

Stock trades above NAV → company issues more shares → Raises lots of cash at a high price → Uses that cash to buy more crypto → That raises NAV → Higher NAV = more investor confidence → stock goes higher → Repeat

→ This flywheel makes issuing new shares + buying more crypto = extremely profitable and self-reinforcing.

2️⃣ Boosting Ecosystems or Just a Giant Exit Plan?

🤡 Meme Of The Day

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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Traders should conduct thorough research, understand the risks, and carefully evaluate their decisions before investing in cryptocurrency.