October 30, 2025

Welcome to the Meridian Update. Yesterday we talked about Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the second day in a row. Yesterday a Solana ETF started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the second day in a row. Volumes were “huge” and “healthy” for the two ETFs yesterday. Seems people still wanted to buy an off-chain asset on-chain yesterday. Moving along, let’s dive in.

An IPO and an acquisition, coming soon to companies (building on-chain) near you

We wrote about Visa yesterday. Sure enough, Mastercard couldn’t spare a moment to get its Meridian Update mention. And it will only cost $2B to get that mention:

“EXCLUSIVE: MASTERCARD SET TO ACQUIRE CRYPTO STARTUP ZEROHASH FOR NEARLY $2 BILLION: FORTUNE”

The deal doesn’t appear to be finalized, but those in the on-chain world had reason to find it interesting. One report had this to say:

“Analysts say a Zerohash deal may help Mastercard avoid being boxed out as regulated stablecoins scale into payroll, treasury, and remittance markets. Mastercard would gain a turnkey stack for payments and tokenized assets if the deal closes.”

Zerohash is a company many people in the on-chain world have heard about. It builds infrastructure for developers to more quickly build software that allows users to get money on-chain, exchange assets, send money globally on-chain, and more. It remains notable that legacy finance and money movement companies like Mastercard are investing in on-chain experiences.

Perhaps even bigger news is that Consensys, the maker of MetaMask, chose bankers for its planned initial public offering (IPO).

“Metamask parent company Consensys is planning an initial public offering, Axios reported Wednesday.

Axios also reported that Consensys has engaged both JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs – each typically involved in most major IPOs – to help it with its planned public offering.”

As a reminder, blockchain wallets are a way to interface with blockchain networks. Much like an actual wallet, they hold things you can give people (by sending on the relevant blockchain network). Much like an actual wallet, they hold ways you can pay for things (by sending on the relevant blockchain network in the context of a transaction). Much like an actual wallet, they hold money (by holding your tokens). MetaMask is a blockchain wallet many people in the on-chain world have heard of and use.

There have been a couple notable IPOs of companies that build products for the on-chain world this year. Consensys would be another notable IPO.

It remains notable that real companies building products for the on-chain world are getting acquired and going public in 2025. Something to keep an eye on.

The wind down of a well-known on-chain news org

The Meridian Update has linked to an on-chain news site called Blockworks before. At least when it comes to news, we won’t be linking to Blockworks anymore. It won’t be publishing news anymore, from a Blockworks founder:

“There are many strong crypto media publications. Great journalists combined with new tools have raised the bar in reporting, and traditional outlets have also improved. Meanwhile, users are increasingly looking toward data as a primary information source.

So we’ve decided to sharpen our focus on software and data and exit our news business.”

Crypto Twitter was mostly unhappy with this news. It also came at a time when many other aspects of the on-chain world are experiencing notable success, including the rumored IPO and acquisition we just discussed. But maybe that’s exactly the issue for a focused publication like Blockworks: traditional outlets have also improved. Why have they improved? Probably because many other aspects of the on-chain world are experiencing notable success.

We don’t know how else the on-chain landscape will change. But it’s something to keep an eye on.

That’s a wrap

Off-chain liquidity events for companies building on-chain and the Blockworks wind down caught Crypto Twitter’s attention. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Think we missed something today? Send us a note: email@meridianupdate.com.