Artemis Weekly Digital Finance Fundamentals 2026.01.23

This week we dive into Ondo launching 200+ tokenized assets onto Solana, Pendle's launch of sPENDLE, and the intersection of Prediction Markets and DATs

Welcome back to Artemis’ Weekly Digital Finance Fundamentals!

Markets repriced risk sharply this week, with Bitcoin falling 7.2% and Ethereum dropping 12.0%, significantly underperforming the S&P 500’s 0.7% gain. Gold surged 8.0% as investors continued their defensive positioning. Gold is one 1% move away from $5000. Many key crypto assets experienced double-digit losses — SOL fell 13.1%, HYPE declined 14.0%, and crypto-adjacent equities like Coinbase dropped 7.5%.

The divergence between crypto’s broad selloff and gold’s rally reinforced crypto’s current role as a high-beta risk asset, not a macro hedge.

In this edition, we’ll cover:

• Ondo Finance: Expanded 200+ tokenized US stocks and ETFs to Solana, enabling 24/7 onchain trading with fractional ownership.

• Pendle: Launched sPENDLE, eliminating multi-year lockups and directing 80% of protocol revenue to token buybacks.

• DATs: Strategy deployed $3.5B across three Bitcoin purchases in three weeks, now holding 709,715 BTC; Polymarket enables pure treasury-growth bets while DAT CEOs increasingly announce share purchases on X.

Weekly Artemis Research Spotlight

We recently published an analysis of stablecoin payments with McKinsey & Company. The key insight is that while raw blockchain data suggests stablecoin volumes are in the tens of trillions, the “real-world” payment volume is approximately $390 billion — just 0.02% of global payment volumes. Rather than diminishing stablecoins’ long-term potential as a payment rail, it establishes a clearer baseline for assessing where the market stands and what will be required for stablecoins to scale.

Read more here:

Ondo Finance Expands to Solana

Ondo Finance expanded its Global Markets platform to Solana this week, launching 200+ tokenized US stocks and ETFs, including IBM, Visa, Nike, Tesla, and NVIDIA.

The move quadruples the number of tokenized stocks available on Solana, taps into Solana’s retail and fintech-adjacent user base, and reinforces Ondo’s role as middleware between TradFi assets and DeFi rails.

Tokenization is shifting from proof-of-concept to scalable distribution, with Ondo positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for this transition. All of this happened this week: Superstate raised $82.5M to enable onchain IPOs, NYSE is building a blockchain platform for 24/7 stock trading, and a $6 billion Treasury ETF is testing tokenized finance infrastructure.

Why This Matters

Tokenization is shifting from proof-of-concept to scalable distribution, with Ondo positioning itself as the rails layer for this transition. The move to Solana specifically matters because it taps into a retail and fintech-adjacent user base that values performance and user experience over Ethereum’s institutional dominance. By going multi-chain, Ondo is de-risking its distribution strategy and proving that RWA tokenization can work across different blockchain ecosystems.

Find our Ondo Deep Dive here:

Pendle’s Tokenomics Overhaul: vePENDLE → sPENDLE

Pendle Finance, the leading yield-trading protocol with over $3 billion in TVL (13th largest protocol by TVL), announced a major upgrade this week: sPENDLE, a liquid staking token that replaces the vePENDLE model.

Key changes:

• Eliminates multi-year lockups in favor of a ~14-day withdrawal period (or immediate withdrawal for a 5% fee)

• Uses up to 80% of protocol revenue for PENDLE buybacks, redistributed to sPENDLE holders

• Shifts to algorithmic emissions, expected to reduce total emissions by ~30%

Why This Matters

The old vePENDLE model suffered from low participation (only ~20% of PENDLE supply locked), concentrated voting that left over 60% of markets unprofitable, and illiquid governance positions that discouraged new participants. The new model prioritizes capital efficiency and revenue alignment: existing vePENDLE holders receive boosted sPENDLE with up to 4x multipliers decaying over two years, with staking going live January 20 and vePENDLE locks pausing on January 29.

It’s worth mentioning the move has drawn criticism, since it undermines the alignment mechanism that allows protocols to operate without central governance.

Michael Egorov (Curve founder): Very bad move by Pendle in the long term, but having it even POSSIBLE to make this move makes it inevitable!

The debate reflects a broader tension in DeFi: ve-tokenomics align long-term participants but create illiquidity, while liquid models prioritize capital efficiency at the potential cost of governance stability.

Nevertheless, Pendle is evolving from governance-locked participation to liquid, yield-aligned ownership, aligning with a broader DeFi trend toward liquidity-aware governance, revenue-backed token demand, and reduced reflexive sell pressure.

From a fundamentals perspective, Pendle generated over $37 million in revenue in 2025 and peaked at $13.1 billion in TVL. The tokenomics overhaul positions the protocol for sustained growth in DeFi yield markets.

Find our Pendle Deep Dive here:

Microstrategy Prediction Markets Offer Novel DAT Exposure

Strategy is off to a blistering start in 2026, deploying $3.5 billion across three consecutive Bitcoin purchases in the first three weeks of the year. On Jan 19, Strategy initiated its largest purchase since November 2024 — 22,305 BTC for $2.13 billion at an average price of $95,284. Total holdings now stand at 709,715 BTC, representing 3.3% of total supply.

To fund this buy, Strategy sold approximately $300M of its perpetual preferred stock (STRC) and $1.8B worth of MSTR common shares on the open market.

Today we want to analyze the interesting dynamics of Microstrategy markets on Polymarket. We found three markets that speculate on their Bitcoin holdings by a specified date:

740K BTC target by end of February ‘26:

Over the last 3 months (Oct 12 - Jan 20), Microstrategy acquired 69,465 Bitcoin, that’s:

• Average of 23,155 BTC every month

• 5,789 BTC every week.

If we assume another 5,789 BTC bought next Monday, Bitcoin holdings at the start of February would be 715,504.

Straight lining current momentum, Strategy would hold ~738,658 BTC by Feb 28 — just 1,341 BTC short of the milestone. However, with STRC trading near par ($100) and management positioning it as the cycle’s "breakout" instrument, more aggressive issuances appear highly probable.

Phong Le (Strategy CEO): "2026 is going to be the coming out party for STRC 0.00%↑

Given Saylor’s proven willingness to raise cash by selling shares, hitting the 740k target by Feb 28 is a tight but feasible 59% ROI play (currently 63 cents on Polymarket).

800K BTC by end of 2026:

Forecasting the average monthly BTC purchases starting from the end of January of ~715K, MSTR would end 2026 with ~970K BTC or $97B of NAV at a price of ~$100K per coin.

This market is currently offering “YES” at 83 cents with a 19% ROI.

The most novel aspect of these markets is the ability to decouple from MSTR equity risk.

• You can long MSTR but buy YES on BTC holdings as a hedge. MSTR market premium may hover around 1x but Saylor may still be able to buy BTC regardless.

• Market neutral plays may be possible by betting on the growth of BTC reserves without betting on BTC price — Saylor just needs to have the money/credit to buy more.

Why this Matters:

Ultimately, prediction markets allow you to extract pure value from MSTR’s treasury growth while bypassing the stock’s volatile equity premium. It’s a high-probability play to secure yields and hedge fundamental risk in a way traditional finance simply can’t match.

DAT Insiders Buys: Signal or Noise?

Despite consistent accumulation by giants like Microstrategy, DAT mNAVs and token prices have struggled. While mostly green YTD, the sector still has faced a significant downturn over the past 6 months.

Amidst the sea of red, management is shifting strategy by announcing personal share purchases directly on X to signal conviction and defend mNAV.

Matt Cole ($ASST): "I bought 500,000 shares yesterday and have now purchased over 1,000,000 shares in the last 30 days. I believe we've built the ideal structure for amplified Bitcoin exposure at Strive... All in.

I want max exposure to Bitcoin and I believe we've built the ideal structure for amplified Bitcoin exposure at Strive with the best team in the game.

All in.

Why it Matters

The dominance of X as the primary hub for crypto investors has birthed a new era of ‘Direct-to-Community’ investor relations. Even five years ago, it was rare to see a CEO bypass traditional press releases to personally announce share purchases on social media.

While legacy giants like Apple or Nvidia let their fundamentals and SEC filings do the talking, management in the nascent DAT space is taking a different approach. So far these announcements have not affected market prices, but management alignment with shareholders is a positive sign that they have skin in the game.

Charts of the Week

• Bridges and Gaming lead the year so far in gains, with 55.7% and 34.5% respectively

• Hyperliquid Lending Deposits hit all time high of $956M

  

• Ethereum hits 1.2M DAUs — the highest level in 3+ years,

• Polygon overtakes Base for x402 transactions for 4 straight days!

Disclaimer: The authors of this content, as well as affiliates of Artemis Analytics, may have financial interests in the protocols or tokens mentioned. This does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. The information provided is for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon for financial, legal, or tax decisions. Readers should assess their own circumstances before making any financial choices. Views expressed may change without notice, and Artemis Analytics is not liable for any losses resulting from the use of this content.