a16z crypto released Lattice Jolt, a new version of its open-source Jolt zkVM that rebuilds the cryptography on lattices instead of elliptic curves, making it post-quantum without slowing down.

The switch replaces Jolt's old Dory commitment scheme with Akita, a lattice-based scheme built on Module-SIS, the same assumption family behind NIST's ML-DSA and ML-KEM standards, developed with LayerZero, Carnegie Mellon and USC, targeting a full 128 bits of security. Because lattices reach comparable security over 128-bit fields instead of 256-bit ones, the prover and verifier run 2 to 3 times faster: over 2 million RISC-V cycles per second on a laptop CPU, and more than 10 million on a MacBook GPU via Apple Metal. Its proofs are the shortest of any post-quantum zkVM, under 100 KB, which makes onchain verification cheaper.

Most post-quantum SNARKs in production today are hash-based; Lattice Jolt argues lattice-based ones can be both faster and more compact, mirroring how digital signatures have already shifted toward lattices. Jolt stays open-source, letting developers prove ordinary programs rather than hand-crafted circuits.

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Pump.fun introduced Custom Pairs, letting token creators launch coins paired with tokenized stocks, crypto majors and metals on Solana, not just SOL or USDC.

The feature brings 20 brand-new asset pairs to Solana through a partnership with Sunrise, spanning tokenized equities like BA, BABA, COST, DELL, DJT, HIMS, IBM, JNJ, LMT, LULU, MGM and PFE, alongside crypto majors and metals. Pump.fun pitches more variety, deeper liquidity and lower fees than rival launchpads. Pairing a token to a tokenized stock only mirrors that asset's price, though: holders get no claim on the real shares, no dividends and no voting rights.

The move pushes Pump fun past pure memecoins into the fast-growing tokenized-stock narrative, and lands amid a wave of stock-paired launchpads, from Robinhood Chain's PAIR and Long xyz to Solana rivals like StonkFun, all betting community tokens will trade against equities instead of gas coins.

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StoneX analysts see further upside for Robinhood, raising their price target as the company continues expanding across crypto, equities and prediction markets.

The analysts highlighted Robinhood’s growing transaction activity, crypto adoption and expansion into new financial products as key drivers for future growth. The company’s blockchain strategy and increasing onchain activity also strengthen its position as it moves deeper into crypto infrastructure.

StoneX expects Robinhood’s broader product ecosystem and increasing user engagement to support continued revenue growth, with the firm maintaining a bullish outlook despite the stock’s strong recent performance.

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Robinhood Chain generated a record $6M in daily fees on September 4, while weekly DEX volume reached $12.4B, more than double the previous week's total.

Chain fees totaled approximately $25M over the seven days through September 4, up from just $1.4M the previous week. Despite average daily active accounts falling to 396K, fees per active account surged from $0.13 in mid-August to $15.90 in early September.

The surge is largely driven by Pons, Robinhood Chain's leading token launchpad. Pons generated nearly $6M in fees on September 3, while its PONS token briefly reached a valuation above $970M.

Around 80% of Pons' revenue is used for token buybacks, with more than 28% of the token supply already burned.

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Consensys plans to split MetaMask into an independent company, separating its wallet business from its Ethereum infrastructure and institutional operations by the end of 2026.

Consensys Software Inc. will rebrand as MetaMask, with Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin serving as chairman and CEO. The new Consensys will retain the Consensys name and focus on Linea, Besu, Teku, and blockchain infrastructure for banks and other institutions.

The restructuring comes as MetaMask expands beyond its wallet roots into payments, savings and investing, while the new Consensys focuses on tokenized assets, stablecoins and institutional settlement infrastructure.

The company did not provide an update on its previously delayed U.S. IPO plans or clarify which entity could pursue a listing.

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Plume opened its Factor credit vault, a capacity-limited pool on Plume Vaults that gives stablecoin depositors exposure to a curated book of invoice factoring and working-capital loans.

Built with Tradeable and New York credit fund Deep Ocean Partners, Factor is an actively managed book rather than a single wrapped fund: depositors get a FACTOR receipt token and hold exposure to short-dated, self-liquidating, asset-backed facilities like invoice factoring, receivables revolvers and floorplan lines. The targeted 14%+ net APY comes from capital efficiency, cycling each dollar four to twelve times a year against investment-grade obligors, not from reaching for riskier credit. Weekly liquidity is engineered from a liquid treasury sleeve, contractual collateral runoff, and a contractual buyback from the lender of record.

It targets the roughly $170 billion US factoring market and the underserved $2M to $20M ticket that banks find too small and big private-credit funds too large, turning an asset class that once needed an LP agreement and quarterly redemptions into a receipt token in a wallet. All APY figures are targets, not guarantees.

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9 fresh projects we caught on the radar this week. Not memecoins, not hype — early-stage with real products: from an AI agent you trade just by texting it, to perps on pre-IPO stocks.

Hunter Biden's $LAPTOP went live on Base this morning and collapsed roughly 99% within the first hour of trading, as the launch spike unwound almost as fast as it formed.

The memecoin, named after the laptop at the center of years of political controversy, went live at 8:00 AM ET with a one billion supply. Founders including Biden hold 30%, locked for six months; 20% is airdropped to wallets that lost money on TRUMP, his Substack subscribers and journalist Andrew Callaghan's mailing list; and another 30% is tied to real-world prediction outcomes, with tokens burned if events hit and otherwise eventually donated to charity. Despite launching on Base, neither Base nor Coinbase endorsed the project, with Base lead Jesse Pollak stressing the network is permissionless, while Kraken drew criticism for promoting the token.

The near-vertical drop is a familiar day-one memecoin pattern: an early spike as buyers chase the headline, then a rapid unwind as the first holders sell into the hype, leaving latecomers deep underwater.

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Bybit launched Bybit AI, a conversational assistant built into its app that lets users trade and manage their accounts with plain natural-language commands instead of tapping through menus.

Through chat, users can query their assets and place spot, derivatives and options orders, and reach Earn, copy trading, lending, P2P and customer-support tickets without leaving the conversation. Enabling Bybit AI automatically creates a separate sub-account whose assets are physically segregated from the user's main account, ringfencing whatever the assistant is able to touch. The design keeps the assistant's activity walled off from a user's core balance while it acts on their instructions.

The move puts Bybit among the exchanges racing to wrap AI agents around trading, days after Binance opened early access to its own in-app assistant, as venues bet natural-language interfaces will lower the barrier for everyday users.

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Ten early-stage crypto projects that hit our radar this week, most of them betting that stocks belong onchain. With a link to each one.

1/ Talis (Trading)

An AI trading agent for stocks, commodities, FX, crypto, prediction markets and pre-IPO names in one portfolio, with up to 50x leverage and AI-assisted risk management, powered by Hyperliquid. You hand it a strategy and the agent handles execution. Early and small, with no token despite lookalikes claiming otherwise.

2/ standard_rsv (DeFi)

An onchain "central bank" on Ethereum where the only input is net ETH flow through a Uniswap v4 hook: inflows expand issuance, outflows cut it and fund buyback-and-burn. A soulbound "Charter" NFT acts as a banking license, no DAO or committee, just ~4,000 lines of immutable code. Still pre-launch and anonymous; the design leans hard on the OlympusDAO reserve-currency lineage, so treat it as unproven.

3/ Denar (DeFi / RWA)

A money-market on Robinhood Chain that lets you borrow stablecoins against tokenized stocks (NVDA, AAPL, TSLA) without selling the position. Built on Morpho Blue's immutable lending engine with Chainlink oracles that respect market hours and corporate actions. Early and small: utilization sits near 8% and the team is anonymous.

4/ v4.fun (Launchpad)

A token launchpad built on Uniswap v4 hooks, native to Robinhood Chain: no bonding curve, liquidity locked at launch, fees hardcoded forever. Run by the Canopy team (co-founder Adam Liposky, ex-Pocket Network); ~$6.2M in all-time platform volume so far. Pump.fun mechanics, but on Robinhood's new L2.

5/ not a website (NFT / Ads)

Turns every element of a webpage into a tradable NFT that holders rent out for advertising: publisher owns the page, holder owns the slot, tenant pays to display. Live on Robinhood Chain with a working SDK (websitekit) and reference builds. The team flags it as experimental and unaudited: an early novelty, but with real code behind it.

6/ Vorta (RWA)

Onchain, tokenized price exposure to private pre-IPO companies ("the market before the market"), settling on Robinhood Chain. You buy in at the last published valuation into escrow, get a tracker-token, and a reference event resolves it at IPO. Pre-launch, anonymous, and geo-blocked for US/EU/UK/Singapore.

7/ ST0x (RWA)

A DeFi DEX on Base for 24/7 trading of tokenized equities, ETFs and commodities, each backed 1:1 by real shares at a regulated broker, with 54 markets live. One of the few onchain RWA venues with an approved EU base prospectus (FMA Liechtenstein). Note the structure: tokens are contractual debt instruments, so holders carry issuer credit risk.

8/ Mocha (DeFi)

Perpetual futures on US stocks, pre-IPO names and commodities aimed at Indian retail: rupee deposits via UPI, settlement built on Hyperliquid. YC Spring 2026, backed by Coinbase Ventures and CoinFund, from a repeat founder (Martian Wallet exit). Regulatory status is still "FIU registration in process," and leverage runs high.

9/ Ligero (Infra)

Privacy infrastructure for onchain payments: ZK proofs hide sender, receiver and amount while staying auditable for compliance, across 10+ chains. Backed by a $4M seed from Galaxy Ventures and 1kx (plus Franklin Templeton, DCG), on a protocol with DARPA and academic roots. The odd one out: not equities, but the privacy rail those flows may eventually need.

The pattern this week: tokenized stocks are going mainstream onchain, from cashback into equities to lending against them, pre-IPO access and 24/7 DEXs, and more than half the list is already building on Robinhood's new chain. Add a perps venue, a launchpad, an ad primitive and a privacy rail, and you've got a snapshot of where the next cycle thinks real-world assets are heading.

Which one are you watching?