This content is provided by a sponsor. As of April 2025, Solana’s decentralized application (dApp) ecosystem has seen significant swings in revenue and activity. Here’s a look at the latest trends—and the emerging opportunities they reveal: Recent Revenue Trends In March 2025, Solana’s dApp ecosystem generated $146 million in total revenue, capturing 46% of all […]

Solana’s dApp Revenue Opportunity: Resilience in a Volatile Market

Brazilian fintech company Méliuz has become the first publicly traded firm in 
Brazil and Latin America to adopt Bitcoin as a treasury asset following 
shareholder approval. In a statement issued on May 15, the cashback-focused 
firm, which serves over 30…

Méliuz becomes Brazil’s first publicly listed firm to adopt Bitcoin treasury model

Blockchain gaming user activity dipped and funding slowed in April, but the 
overall ecosystem is healthier and maturing, according to blockchain analytics 
platform DappRadar.
User activity dropped 10% over April, with blockchain gaming reaching a 2025 
low of 4.8 million daily Unique Active Wallets, DappRadar analyst Sara 
Gherghelas said in the platform&#8217;s April Games Report.
Gaming dominance over the decentralized app industry also fell and is now tied 
with decentralized finance at 21%.
Gherghelas said it&#8217;s clear user attention is shifting away from gaming, but 
under the surface, new infrastructure went live, major publishers doubled 
down, and high-quality games edged closer to launch.
_Source:__DappRadar_
&#8220;The blockchain gaming industry isn&#8217;t dead &#8212; it&#8217;s evolving. It&#8217;s moving from 
noise to signal,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;Teams are building, and capital continues to flow into the space. What we 
might be seeing is a healthier ecosystem &#8212; one driven less by speculative 
play-to-earn mechanics and more by users who have a genuine interest in 
gameplay, asset ownership and community.&#8221;
April&#8217;s blockchain gaming investment activity also dropped 69% from March, 
reaching $21 million.
## Weaker projects die off, funds shift to builders
Gherghelas said part of the drop is because investor and user interest is 
increasingly shifting toward real-world assets and artificial intelligence.
Another factor is the macroeconomic landscape, with ongoing market uncertainty 
weighing on investor sentiment, making capital harder to secure for startups.
Gherghelas said weaker projects &#8220;are falling away,&#8221; and funds are flowing into 
other projects that &#8220;are quietly laying the groundwork for the next generation 
of blockchain games.&#8221;
_Blockchain gaming funding has seen a sharp drop since last year. 
Source:__DappRadar_
&#8220;Investors are now optimizing for sustainable models, player engagement, and 
actual retention, not just token hype,&#8221; she added. &#8220;This shows that the 
market&#8217;s clearly in reset mode.&#8221;
Gherghelas noted that &#8220;66% of all blockchain game funding in 2025 so far has 
gone to infrastructure,&#8221; signaling a more mature market.
_**Related:**__**Crypto gaming has mixed Q1 as deals jump, investment totals 
dip: DappRadar**_
Mainstream gaming companies are also still experimenting with blockchain- 
powered games, with Gherghelas pointing to Ubisoft&#8217;s partnership with 
Immutable, and Sega adding non-fungible tokens and play-to-earn mechanics to 
its game, KAI: Battle of Three Kingdoms.
&#8220;April 2025 wasn&#8217;t a record-breaking month for blockchain gaming, and that&#8217;s 
okay. What we&#8217;re seeing is a space recalibrating,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;Speculative hype is cooling down, but the builders haven&#8217;t stopped,&#8221; she 
added. &#8220;Games are launching. Ecosystems are expanding. Infrastructure is 
maturing.&#8221;
_**Magazine:**__**Illegal arcade disguised as … a fake Bitcoin mine? Soldier 
scams in China: Asia Express**_

Crypto gaming interest drops in April, overall ecosystem healthier: DappRadar

Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform Starknet has reached a decentralization 
milestone laid out by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and is now the 
largest zero-knowledge rollup-based network by total value locked.
Starknet said in a press release shared with Cointelegraph that it has hit 
&#8220;Stage 1&#8221; decentralization, according to a framework Buterin laid out in 2022, 
which means the network operates with limited oversight or &#8220;training wheels.&#8221;
Starknet added that the framework was the &#8220;gold standard onchain tool for 
analyzing Ethereum scaling solutions,&#8221; and said it achieved the milestone 
through changes such as creating a security council and censorship-avoidance 
mechanisms.
While the system still allows intervention from a security council, it has 
implemented a fully functional validity proof system governed by smart 
contracts.
Starknet is now the only layer-2 ZK-rollup network to have reached Stage 1 and 
has grown to be the largest ZK-rollup blockchain with a total value locked of 
$629 million, just ahead of ZKsync&#8217;s $610 million, according to L2beat.
Starknet is the fifth-largest layer-2 network by value locked, with the top 
four all Optimistic rollup-based and all reached Stage 1 decentralization 
using fraud proofs.
_Layer-2 networks ranked by total value locked. Source:__L2beat_
Fraud proofs assume transactions are invalid until proven valid, while 
validity proofs assume transactions are valid only if proven valid with 
cryptographic evidence.
&#8220;Our goal is for the training wheels to come off completely and to reach Stage 
2 decentralization on Ethereum, and simultaneously steam forward with our work 
on Bitcoin too,&#8221; said Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, the 
developer behind Starknet.
&#8220;Stage 2&#8221; decentralization is the point where the network will be fully 
autonomous and community-governed. Only three small layer-2 scaling platforms 
have reached this stage, according to L2beat.
_**Related:**__**Vitalik Buterin says rollups must prove security before 
decentralizing**_
Buterin introduced the concept of &#8220;training wheels&#8221; or three stages for 
Ethereum scaling rollup projects at various phases of development in 2022.
## Base leads layer-2 ecosystem
The Coinbase layer-2 network Base is the leader of the sector in terms of 
value locked, with $14.7 billion, giving it a market share of 33%. 
Comparatively, Starknet has a market share of 1.4%.
The total value secured onchain in the layer-2 ecosystem is $44.2 billion. The 
figure has jumped recently as the value of Ether (ETH) has gained, but is down 
20% so far this year.
_**Magazine:**__**Metric signals $250K Bitcoin is &#8216;best case,&#8217; SOL, HYPE 
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Starknet hits ‘Stage 1’ decentralization, tops ZK-rollups for value locked

Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong announced that the Singapore High Court has 
approved the liquidation of Multichain Foundation, appointing KPMG’s Singapore 
branch as liquidators. Multichain’s Refusal to Cooperate Forced Sonic Labs’ 
Hand Sonic Labs CEO Michael Kong said the Singapore High Court has approved 
his firm’s application to liquidate Multichain Foundation. Kong revealed that 
the […]

Sonic Labs Wins Court Order to Liquidate Multichain Foundation

The Pacific US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands has passed a bill 
allowing its small constituent island of Tinian to launch a stablecoin, 
overriding an earlier veto by the territory&#8217;s governor.
The 20-member Northern Mariana Islands House voted 14-2 to undo Governor 
Arnold Palacios&#8217; April 11 veto of the bill, which allows the Tinian local 
government to issue licenses to internet casinos and includes a provision for 
the Tinian treasurer to issue, manage and redeem a &#8220;Tinian Stable Token.&#8221;
The territory&#8217;s nine-member Senate had revived the bill on May 9, voting 7-1 
in a two-thirds majority to override the veto, which then needed a two-thirds 
majority in the House to pass.
_Representative Marissa Flores (top left) had urged for &#8220;thoughtful 
deliberation&#8221; on the internet gaming and stablecoin bill. Source: __YouTube_
Originally, a four-member Tinian delegation to the Marianas legislature had 
unanimously passed the bill to Governor Palacios on March 12.
It may put the Tinian government in the lead to be the first US public entity 
to issue a stablecoin, which it must do before July if it&#8217;s to beat the state 
of Wyoming government, which is aiming to issue a stablecoin by then.
Tinian has just over 2,000 residents and a largely tourism-based economy. Its 
local government, the Municipality of Tinian and Aguiguan, is one of four 
municipalities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US 
territory in the Pacific Ocean north of Guam.
Governor Palacios said in a letter that he vetoed the bill as it &#8220;presents 
several legal issues and may be unconstitutional,&#8221; would regulate an activity 
that could not &#8220;be clearly restricted&#8221; to Tinian and that it lacked needed 
enforcement measures to counter illegal gambling.
The stablecoin is called the Marianas US Dollar (MUSD) and will be backed by 
cash and US Treasury bills held in reserve by the Tinian Municipal Treasury, 
according to statements shared with Cointelegraph in March.
The Tinian government chose local tech services firm Marianas Rai Corporation 
as the exclusive infrastructure provider for MUSD, which will be launched on 
the eCash blockchain, a network that rebranded from Bitcoin Cash ABC in 2021 
and is a fork of Bitcoin Cash, a blockchain forked from Bitcoin.
A Marianas Rai Corp. spokesperson did not comment beyond telling Cointelegraph 
the company would announce more on MUSD on May 19.
## &#8220;Bitter pill to swallow&#8221;
Before the vote, House lawmakers heard from the public and discussed 
overturning Governor Palacios&#8217; veto before they voted it through, with 
independent House floor leader Marissa Flores airing concerns over the bill.
Marianas Rai Corp. co-founder and technology chief Vin Armani had urged 
lawmakers to undo the veto, saying the bill would &#8220;attract billions of dollars 
of investment and tax revenue&#8221; from the crypto industry without the government 
having to pitch in.
Clyde Norita, a Marianas Rai Corp. director and local legal cannabis mogul, 
told the House that the local economy was &#8220;dying out&#8221; and the bill would allow 
business in the region &#8220;without affecting our culture, without affecting our 
environment, without affecting our immigration status.&#8221;
Representative Flores, who voted against the override, said, &#8220;Every time we 
talk about casinos, there&#8217;s always some kind of bitter pill to swallow.&#8221;
_**Related:**__**Stablecoin regulation &#8216;next catalyst&#8217; for crypto industry &#8212; 
Aptos head**_
&#8220;It is true, we are in dire need of money, but what I don&#8217;t like is when we 
are desperate, and we are now forced to make a decision because we are 
desperate once again,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Every time we&#8217;re desperate, it always seems 
that we come back to casinos.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t like to be pushed to a corner to make a decision based on fear,&#8221; 
Flores said.
Others were more supportive of the measure, with Republican Representative 
Patrick San Nicolas, a Tinian delegation member who initially voted on the 
bill, saying it would help pull the region out of &#8220;a deep economic crisis.&#8221;
&#8220;We need this legislation to unlock our potential,&#8221; he added. &#8220;This bill does 
not depend on tourists or federal subsidies &#8212; it builds a digital industry 
generating revenue from a licensed jurisdiction.&#8221;
_**Legal Panel:**__**Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it &#8216;s becoming them 
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