The Drop #48
Sorare cuts 35% of staff, Ethereum Q3 update, Aave targets neobanking, Circle's record results, and the Czech Central Bank buys Bitcoin.
😖 EXCLUSIVE - Sorare to lay off 35% of its workforce
📊 Briefing - The state of Ethereum in Q3 2025
🏦 Aave wants to become DeFi's neobank
📈 Circle publishes record results
🟠 The Czech central bank buys Bitcoin
😖 EXCLUSIVE - Sorare to lay off 35% of its workforce
Sorare announced to its teams on Thursday the launch of an economic layoff plan affecting at least one-third of its workforce of around a hundred people. The former unicorn, weakened by three years of NFT market contraction and a sustained drop in revenue, justifies this decision by the need to accelerate its return to profitability and refocus its operations in Paris. According to our information, co-founder and CTO Adrien Montfort will step down from his operational role, while the company continues to face declining activity, significant losses, and limited regulatory visibility in France. Sorare is now banking on its migration to the Solana blockchain — a deal that could bring in up to $10 million — to revive flagging momentum, but this restructuring marks a major turning point in the startup's history, which must now prove it can stabilize its model after the golden age of NFTs. Read our exclusive report.
📊 Briefing - The state of Ethereum in Q3 2025
Ethereum regained the upper hand this summer: the network's TVL surged from $60.1 billion to $88.7 billion, fueled by the return of leveraged yield strategies around wstETH and sUSDe, while Aave, Morpho, and Fluid absorbed the demand. Tokenization is progressing without a real takeoff, but institutions — led by UBS — are now standardizing Ethereum as their reference foundation. On the layer 2 front, the landscape is tightening: Base is establishing itself through Coinbase's deep integration, Arbitrum is consolidating its position with unique use cases, and ZKsync is pivoting toward private L2s for enterprises. In DeFi, assets under management now reach levels comparable to certain fintechs, at a time when Revolut is in talks with Morpho and Aave to integrate their services. In the markets, Ethereum posted a spectacular summer (+68%), driven by treasury companies and the surge in ETH ETFs, which grew from $8 billion to nearly $32 billion — a flow largely captured by BlackRock, whose ETHA now dominates the segment. Access our briefing.
🏦 Aave wants to become DeFi's neobank
Aave is launching a consumer-facing app styled as a "savings account," initially available on the App Store. Users will be able to deposit money from a bank account, payment card, or stablecoins, with an advertised yield of up to 6.5% and balance protection up to $1 million provided by a regulated third-party insurer. The lending protocol, which holds over $50 billion in deposits and has 2.5 million users, is thus joining the new wave of DeFi seeking to offer neobank services — following the launch of crypto payment cards or on-chain banking apps by other players (EtherFi, Gnosis Pay, etc.). An ambitious bet in a sector still marked by the fiascos of Celsius and BlockFi, but one that confirms Aave's determination to reach the general public following its recent acquisition of fintech Stable Finance.
📈 Circle publishes record results
Stablecoin issuer Circle published particularly strong quarterly results: revenue up 66% to $739.8 million, adjusted earnings of 36 cents, $214 million in net profit, and USDC circulation more than doubled to reach $73.7 billion. The global rise of stablecoins (accelerated by the Genius Act and new banking partnerships) continues to boost reserve income. Despite these figures, the stock plunged more than 10%, with investors fearing an annual margin lowered to 38%, emerging competition, and the potential impact of a rate cut on reserve yields. JPMorgan, however, raised its target and envisions a $100 stock price (currently $76).
🟠 The Czech central bank buys Bitcoin
The Czech National Bank (CNB) made its first bitcoin acquisition, integrated into a $1 million "test portfolio" that also includes a dollar stablecoin and a tokenized deposit. The goal: to gain hands-on experience with digital asset management (storage, settlement, audit, crisis procedures) without changing its monetary policy. The project, approved in late October, does not constitute the beginning of a BTC reserve: the purchase was made outside official reserves, will not be increased, and is solely aimed at preparing the institution for future developments in payments and tokenization.
