Walrus PriceWAL

As of June 14, 2025, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing significant developments across regulatory landscapes, investment activities, and market dynamics. Here's a comprehensive overview of the latest events shaping the crypto industry.

Regulatory Developments in the European Union

The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation is facilitating the licensing of major cryptocurrency companies, granting them access to operate across all 27 EU member states. Notably, Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins, is on the verge of receiving a license from Malta. This follows Malta's earlier approvals of OKX and Crypto.com. However, the rapid pace of these approvals has raised concerns among other national regulators and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) regarding the thoroughness of the licensing process and the potential for a "race to the bottom" in regulatory standards. Luxembourg is also expected to license Coinbase, marking its growing presence in the EU market. These developments underscore the ongoing debates within the EU about the balance between fostering innovation and ensuring robust regulatory oversight in the rapidly evolving crypto sector.

Solana ETF Filings in the United States

Several companies aiming to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency have amended their filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These amendments address specific queries from the SEC in an effort to gain regulatory approval. Among the notable ETF applications are the Canary Marinade Solana ETF, 21Shares Core Solana ETF, and Bitwise Solana ETF. Despite these updated submissions, the SEC has not indicated any urgency to expedite the approval process for these crypto-linked ETFs. This cautious approach reflects the regulatory body's ongoing deliberations on integrating cryptocurrency products into mainstream financial markets.

Anthony Pompliano's Bitcoin Investment Initiative

Prominent crypto influencer Anthony Pompliano is set to become the CEO of ProCapBTC, a new entity planning to raise $750 million for large-scale Bitcoin purchases. The funding strategy includes $500 million in equity and $250 million in convertible debt through a merger with Columbus Circle Capital 1, a blank-check company backed by Cohen & Company. This move aligns with a broader resurgence in crypto investments, spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump's favorable stance on digital currencies during his second term. Pompliano's initiative aims to emulate Bitcoin acquisition strategies employed by figures like Michael Saylor and companies such as Metaplanet. The finalization of the deal is still pending, but it signifies a growing institutional interest in Bitcoin as a strategic asset.

State Street's Forecast on Crypto ETFs

State Street, a leading financial services company, forecasts that cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will surpass the combined assets of precious metal ETFs in North America by the end of the year. This projection positions crypto ETFs as the third-largest asset class in the $15 trillion ETF industry, trailing only equities and bonds. The rapid growth in demand for crypto ETFs has been surprising, with significant interest from financial advisers. BlackRock, for instance, has included Bitcoin in its model portfolios through its $58 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. Despite recent market volatility, spot cryptocurrency ETFs, approved in the U.S. last year, have reached $136 billion in assets. State Street anticipates that the SEC will allow a variety of new digital asset ETFs and approve "in-kind" creations and redemptions, potentially democratizing cryptocurrency investing by simplifying ownership.

U.S. Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

In a landmark move, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. This initiative aims to maintain government-owned Bitcoin as a national reserve asset, alongside a stockpile for other cryptocurrencies. The reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin already owned by the federal government, estimated at about 200,000 BTC as of March 2025. This decision reflects the administration's commitment to positioning the U.S. as a leader in the digital financial landscape and underscores the growing recognition of cryptocurrencies as strategic assets.

Pakistan Launches Crypto Council

Pakistan has established the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), a regulatory body aimed at overseeing and promoting blockchain technology and digital assets within the country. As of May 2025, Pakistan reportedly has approximately 40 million cryptocurrency users, with an estimated annual crypto trading volume exceeding $300 billion. The council, launched in March 2025, is led by Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, with Bilal Bin Saqib serving as its CEO. The PCC's formation signifies Pakistan's proactive approach to integrating blockchain technology into its financial landscape and addressing the growing interest in digital assets among its population.

Market Outlook Amid Tariff Concerns

Despite global uncertainty over ongoing import tariff negotiations, there is a 70% probability that cryptocurrency markets will find a local bottom by June, according to analysts at Nansen. The research suggests that once the toughest parts of the negotiations are behind, there will be a clearer opportunity for crypto and risk assets to mark a bottom. This outlook provides a cautiously optimistic perspective for investors navigating the current market volatility.

Conclusion

The cryptocurrency market continues to evolve rapidly, influenced by regulatory developments, institutional investments, and broader economic factors. As nations and financial institutions increasingly recognize the significance of digital assets, the landscape is poised for further growth and integration into the global financial system. Investors and stakeholders should stay informed about these developments to navigate the dynamic crypto market effectively.

The Walrus Protocol is an innovative decentralized storage network designed to efficiently store large binary objects, such as images, videos, PDFs, and entire applications. Launched on March 27, 2025, the protocol has rapidly gained traction, being utilized by over 120 projects and 11 websites within a short period.

Technology and Features

At the heart of the Walrus Protocol is RedStuff, a two-dimensional erasure coding protocol that achieves high security with a replication factor of only 4.5x. This design enables self-healing recovery, requiring bandwidth proportional to only the lost data, a significant improvement over traditional systems. Additionally, RedStuff supports storage challenges in asynchronous networks, preventing adversaries from exploiting network delays to pass verification without actually storing data.

The protocol's programmability is enhanced through the integration of Sui smart contracts, providing users with secure, private, and decentralized storage solutions. As of the latest data, Walrus boasts a total storage capacity of 333.33 TB, with over 3,367 GB already in use across more than 3.25 million blobs.

Tokenomics

The native token of the Walrus Protocol is $WAL, designed to ensure competitive pricing, efficient resource allocation, and minimal adversarial behavior by nodes. Users pay $WAL tokens upfront to have data stored for a fixed period, with the payments distributed over time to storage nodes and stakers as compensation for their services. The protocol incorporates a deflationary mechanism, including token burning for penalty fees and slashing. With a total supply of 5 billion tokens, 1.25 billion are currently in circulation. $WAL is traded on several centralized exchanges, including Upbit, Gate.io, Bybit, and Kraken.

Team and Development

The Walrus Protocol is developed by a skilled team from Mysten Labs, the original creators of the Sui blockchain. Founded by former Meta researchers, including Evan Cheng (CEO), Sam Blackshear (CTO), and George Danezis (Chief Scientist), Mysten Labs brings extensive experience in blockchain technology and decentralized systems. Their work on the Sui blockchain showcases their proficiency in high-performance distributed systems and the Move programming language, tailored for smart contracts. Since becoming a standalone protocol under the Walrus Foundation, the team has expanded to include Web3 professionals and experts in cryptography, distributed computing, and finance.

Investments and Partnerships

In March 2025, Walrus announced a private token sale, raising $140 million ahead of its mainnet launch. The funding round was led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Electric Capital, Franklin Templeton Investments, Comma3 Ventures, Karatage, Raptor Group, Lvna Capital, Protagonist, and RW3 Ventures.

The protocol has established notable partnerships with projects such as Talus, Linera, data tokenization platform Itheum, 3DOS, and TradePort. Additionally, Walrus has launched its Request for Proposals (RFP) program, aiming to fund projects that address specific product use areas critical to the protocol, including developer tooling, integrations, and new use cases for programmable storage.

Market Performance and Adoption

Walrus has emerged as a significant player in the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) sector, ranking as the fourth-largest project, trailing only Filecoin, Render, and Bittensor. With the DePIN market cap currently at $18 billion and projections estimating it could reach $3.5 trillion by 2028, Walrus is well-positioned to capture a substantial share of this emerging market.

Recent partnerships have further fueled the protocol's growth. For instance, Nami Cloud launched its Mainnet Publisher and S3-compatible API on the Walrus Protocol, facilitating Web2-to-Web3 migration. Additionally, the popular NFT brand Pudgy Penguins has begun hosting its NFT stickers and GIFs on the protocol.

Interest in $WAL has surged, with the token recording the highest trading volume among DePIN tokens in a recent 24-hour period, with over $77 million exchanged, marking a 67% increase. The protocol also led in open interest, with a 22% rise and more than $32 million in capital placed by traders anticipating further upside.

Security and Audits

The Walrus Protocol has undergone a comprehensive security audit by Cyberscope, achieving an overall score of 88%, indicating very low risk. The audit assessed various aspects, including market stability, decentralization, fundamentals, and security, with scores of 97%, 85%, 69%, and 89%, respectively. These results place Walrus in the top 10% percentile among audited projects, reflecting its commitment to security and reliability.

Conclusion

The Walrus Protocol represents a significant advancement in decentralized storage solutions, offering efficient, secure, and programmable storage for large binary objects. With a strong technical foundation, experienced development team, substantial funding, and strategic partnerships, Walrus is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in the evolving landscape of decentralized infrastructure.