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In this month’s newsletter: Alana’s Crypto Trends Report for 2025, why M&A might be the fastest path forward for crypto compliance, how to market your token launch, and where to find a sustainable market for onchain options. Plus: new investments, a new partner, and where to connect with our team.
Enjoy!
2025 Crypto Trends Report
Alana compiled a comprehensive Crypto Trends Report for 2025 showing where, exactly, crypto stands in four broad categories: macro, stablecoins, centralized exchanges, and onchain activity. She then predicts what’s coming.
The deck is stacked with insights. Here are a few highlights:
In this month’s newsletter: Alana’s Crypto Trends Report for 2025, why M&A might be the fastest path forward for crypto compliance, how to market your token launch, and where to find a sustainable market for onchain options. Plus: new investments, a new partner, and where to connect with our team.
Enjoy!
2025 Crypto Trends Report
Alana compiled a comprehensive Crypto Trends Report for 2025 showing where, exactly, crypto stands in four broad categories: macro, stablecoins, centralized exchanges, and onchain activity. She then predicts what’s coming.
The deck is stacked with insights. Here are a few highlights:
Ideas and perspectives from the team
Jake Chervinsky + Salah Ghazzal
Crypto mergers and acquisitions have traditionally been about bringing on engineering talent, liquidity, or product lines. But regulatory clarity means M&A is no longer just about innovating faster, but about complying sooner, Jake and Salah argue. And founders need to update their playbook.
Daniel Barabander + Elijah Fox
If crypto’s core value proposition is to provide new financial rails, it is perplexing that onchain options have yet to take off. Daniel and Elijah think early onchain options markets lacked the infrastructure to protect liquidity providers from bad overflow and attract good overflow instead. Today’s onchain infrastructure is much better, so LPs no longer get hammered by arbitrageurs. But how to attract good overflow? Start by targeting its source: hedgers and retail.
Nina Suthers
Launching a token has become so easy that anybody can do it. But to do it right, you have to treat it like you would an IPO. That means you need a comms plan that aligns messaging, makes the token easy to understand, and keeps community channels in check. Our CMO, Nina, gives you a full checklist of what to think through so you don’t miss the moments that matter.
Variant Team
Jesse, Alana, Daniel, and Caleb take on the following question: Is trading the new form of entertainment and social status, or do the incentives break when you can dump on your followers?
October/November highlights
Variant welcomed Caleb Shack as its newest investment partner. Caleb was previously with Big Brain Holdings, where he led investments across infrastructure and cryptography.
Variant invested in MetaDao, a launchpad for ownership coins.
Variant co-led the seed round for Takenos, which lets users send/receive money across borders and spend in stablecoins with a virtual USD card.
Thinking in Public
Recent posts from Variant’s policy team
Jesse is resharing a strategy — made possible by recent regulatory shifts — for building a product atop your own protocol:
Alana appeared on 11AM w/ Seed Club to break down some of the most interesting data from her 2025 Crypto Trends Report:
Daniel got up close and personal with Morpho’s CEO and the EF’s head of ecosystem:
Disclaimer: All information contained herein is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any investment and should not be used in the evaluation of the merits of making any investment decision. It should not be relied upon for accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. None of the opinions or positions provided herein are intended to be treated as legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by Variant. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Variant has not independently verified such information. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by Variant, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Variant (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for Variant to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://variant.fund/portfolio. Variant makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This post reflects the current opinions of the authors and is not made on behalf of Variant or its Clients and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Variant, its General Partners, its affiliates, advisors or individuals associated with Variant. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of the information contained herein are hereby expressly disclaimed. The content of this post is provided "as is;" no representations are made that the content is error-free.
Ideas and perspectives from the team
Jake Chervinsky + Salah Ghazzal
Crypto mergers and acquisitions have traditionally been about bringing on engineering talent, liquidity, or product lines. But regulatory clarity means M&A is no longer just about innovating faster, but about complying sooner, Jake and Salah argue. And founders need to update their playbook.
Daniel Barabander + Elijah Fox
If crypto’s core value proposition is to provide new financial rails, it is perplexing that onchain options have yet to take off. Daniel and Elijah think early onchain options markets lacked the infrastructure to protect liquidity providers from bad overflow and attract good overflow instead. Today’s onchain infrastructure is much better, so LPs no longer get hammered by arbitrageurs. But how to attract good overflow? Start by targeting its source: hedgers and retail.
Nina Suthers
Launching a token has become so easy that anybody can do it. But to do it right, you have to treat it like you would an IPO. That means you need a comms plan that aligns messaging, makes the token easy to understand, and keeps community channels in check. Our CMO, Nina, gives you a full checklist of what to think through so you don’t miss the moments that matter.
Variant Team
Jesse, Alana, Daniel, and Caleb take on the following question: Is trading the new form of entertainment and social status, or do the incentives break when you can dump on your followers?
October/November highlights
Variant welcomed Caleb Shack as its newest investment partner. Caleb was previously with Big Brain Holdings, where he led investments across infrastructure and cryptography.
Variant invested in MetaDao, a launchpad for ownership coins.
Variant co-led the seed round for Takenos, which lets users send/receive money across borders and spend in stablecoins with a virtual USD card.
Thinking in Public
Recent posts from Variant’s policy team
Jesse is resharing a strategy — made possible by recent regulatory shifts — for building a product atop your own protocol:
Alana appeared on 11AM w/ Seed Club to break down some of the most interesting data from her 2025 Crypto Trends Report:
Daniel got up close and personal with Morpho’s CEO and the EF’s head of ecosystem:
Disclaimer: All information contained herein is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any investment and should not be used in the evaluation of the merits of making any investment decision. It should not be relied upon for accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. None of the opinions or positions provided herein are intended to be treated as legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by Variant. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Variant has not independently verified such information. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by Variant, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Variant (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for Variant to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://variant.fund/portfolio. Variant makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This post reflects the current opinions of the authors and is not made on behalf of Variant or its Clients and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Variant, its General Partners, its affiliates, advisors or individuals associated with Variant. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated. All liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of the information contained herein are hereby expressly disclaimed. The content of this post is provided "as is;" no representations are made that the content is error-free.
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3 comments
Variant let's go frens
Amazing 😍
Wow this is so amazing