Hasu

Flashbots

2026-08-09 03:41:55

Flashbots Strategy Lead Hasu: Charging Passive Holders Is Good for Ecosystem Investment

Flashbots strategy lead Hasu said in a post that charging passive holders — making them pay to support projects that invest in the ecosystem around a token — is actually a good approach. He cited Lido, Aave and DAT as examples, noting that these projects jointly fund Ethereum client teams, multiple EF-derived projects and the broader DeFi buildout. Hasu argued that Ethereum's problem has never been excessive ETH issuance; the real issue is underinvestment in the ecosystem. Reducing inflation will inevitably inhibit investment, he said. He also acknowledged that the Ethereum research community has historically struggled to predict such second- or third-order effects. The post frames token-holder fees as a funding pipeline: money collected from passive holders flows back into the infrastructure and development work behind the ecosystem. In Hasu's view, this makes fee collection a useful mechanism for sustaining investment, even as its wider consequences remain hard to foresee.

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Flashbots

2026-07-25 23:56:32

Hasu says BitMEX insurance fund structure may have been a key obstacle to a sale

Flashbots strategic lead Hasu said on X that structural issues tied to BitMEX’s insurance fund may have been an important reason the company was ultimately shut down rather than sold. He said he had already raised concerns in 2018, arguing that the fund was not managed through segregated accounts and lacked both a clear size cap and a defined framework for handling excess assets. In his view, that setup could create incentives to liquidate users more aggressively, grow the fund through liquidations, and eventually monetize those assets. Hasu estimated the insurance fund may now stand at about $270 million. He also said BitMEX had been seeking potential buyers since at least February 2025, but failed to secure a deal on terms it was willing to accept. He added that questions over asset ownership and legal exposure tied to the fund may have made an acquisition harder for prospective buyers.

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