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Story Protocol Co-Founder Jason Zhao Steps Back to Pursue New AI Venture

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Jason Zhao, co-founder of intellectual property blockchain project Story Protocol, is stepping away from his full-time role after more than three years of building the platform.

Zhao announced via a social media post that he will remain as a strategic adviser while turning his focus to a new AI initiative, Poseidon, which applies artificial intelligence to frontier industries such as science, biopharma, robotics, and space.

After 3.5 years building Story from scratch, I’m stepping out of my full-time role. I’ll stay closely involved as a strategic advisor.

While incubating Poseidon, I rekindled my original passion from my DeepMind days: applying AI to frontier industries like science and space.… pic.twitter.com/fd8J0c9uSO

— Jason Zhao (@jasonjzhao) August 16, 2025

“Language generation is just the initial wave of a cascade of abundant intelligence across fields… that, if successful, will constitute a new Industrial Revolution,” Zhao said in a post on X.

Zhao launched Story Protocol in 2021 as a way to make intellectual property “programmable,” enabling rights holders to register and monetize content directly on-chain.

The project has since secured more than $130 million in venture funding from backers, including a16z.

Leadership will now pass fully to co-founder SY Lee as CEO, alongside Andrea as chief product officer and Sandeep as chief AI officer.

Zhao said he will remain close to Story through partnerships and investment, calling the project “the most meaningful experience of my life.”

Story Protocol’s token, IP, is trading above $5.80, up 2% on-day.





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Vitalik Buterin Confirms Ethereum Foundation Support for Tornado Cash Cofounder
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Vitalik Buterin Confirms Ethereum Foundation Support for Tornado Cash Cofounder

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Ethereum (ETH) cofounder Vitalik Buterin has confirmed that the Ethereum Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports projects related to the blockchain, is involved in fundraising for Roman Storm. Buterin announced this in a post on his X handle to the cryptocurrency community.

Ethereum Foundation steps in as legal battle approaches

According to Buterin, the Ethereum Foundation is currently “matching donations” toward the legal defense of Storm, the Tornado Cash cofounder. Notably, Storm is currently facing legal issues in the U.S., including charges related to money laundering and sanctions violations.

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For context, Storm’s legal case is controversial in the crypto world. Many in the Ethereum and broader community view it as a threat. They consider the legal case a way to suppress “open-source” development and financial privacy tools.

The U.S. government sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022 for allegedly using different parts of its supply chain to support nefarious activities. According to the allegations, Tornado Cash assisted North Korea in laundering some funds stolen from Axie Infinity.

Understandably, prominent figures in the crypto community are supporting his defense by contributing to cover his legal fees. Buterin, in his recent post, has now confirmed that for every donation made to the cause, the Ethereum Foundation will match it.

This move could go a long way toward ensuring that Storm gets the proper representation when his case goes to court. According to Roman Storm’s notice, willing donors have 19 days left to send their donations for his legal defense fund.

U.S. Treasury sanction reversal adds hope to Storm’s defense

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Interestingly, the U.S. Treasury Department finally lifted the sanctions on Tornado Cash in March 2025. Many in the DeFi community have hailed this as a significant win for the decentralized finance sector in the U.S. Some believe this might even help Storm’s case in court.

Buterin’s current effort through the Ethereum Foundation to match donations made toward Storm’s defense is a way to ensure that the crypto developer gets the best legal team.



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Ripple
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The Satoshi Of XRP Returns: Ripple Co-Founder Suddenly Breaks 14-Year Silence

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Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

The XRP community is in shock following the emergence of Ripple’s co-founder, Arthur Britto, after a 14-year silence. Britto has been inactive on the X platform over these years but is known to have played a major role in Ripple and the XRP Ledger’s (XRPL) development. 

Ripple Co-Founder Makes First-Ever Post On X

Arthur Britto made his first ever post on the X platform on June 23, despite joining the platform in August 2011. His post was simply a blank face emoji, which got the XRP community wondering what it might mean and why exactly the Ripple co-founder has returned now. Britto has cut a mysterious figure, despite co-founding the crypto firm alongside Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen. 

Following Britto’s first X post, Ripple Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz confirmed that the Ripple co-founder wasn’t hacked or compromised. Well-known XRP Ledger Validator Vet also replied, saying ‘no way,’ expressing his shock at Britto’s remergence. Meanwhile, Pumpius, a prominent XRP community member, gave an overview of who Britto was. 

In an X post, he first declared that the co-founder may be the “most important ghost in crypto history,” putting him ahead of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, who remains a mystery. Pumpius further stated that Britto helped build the XRP Ledger to help create a neutral bridge asset capable of handling global liquidity. 

Arthur Britto is also said to have designed the 100 billion XRP supply cap and co-authored the XRP whitepaper before he then disappeared without any trace on social media. Away from Ripple and the XRP Ledger, Pumpius revealed that Britto now runs PolySign. The company is working on building institutional custody, and Ripple allegedly has ties to PolySign. 

Community Members Raise Price Angle 

XRP community members also related Arthur Britto’s reemergence to the XRP price and what it could mean for the altcoin. Prominent community member Edo Farina said that the co-founder’s post has to be the “moon sign” that XRP holders have been waiting for, indicating that the price might soon surge. 

Crypto influencer John Squire highlighted how the co-founder was the same person who once said that XRP was designed to reach $10,000. He then questioned if this was a coincidence or if something big was brewing. Squire went on to answer the question by highlighting how the XRP Ledger has recorded its highest transactions in four months this week. 

He added that Britto’s appearance also coincides with “record on-chain volume, Ripple IPO rumors, and pre-bullrun conditions.” Based on this, he declared that the Ripple co-founder’s sudden burst into the scene is “not nothing” but most likely a pattern. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $2.19, up over 7% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

XRP trading at $2.1 on the 1D chart | Source: XRPUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.



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Playdead co-founder slammed with lawsuit as bitter row with co-founder escalates
Esports

Playdead co-founder slammed with lawsuit as bitter row with co-founder escalates

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Playdead co-founder Dino Patti is allegedly being sued by his former studio and business partner.

Patti was threatened with a lawsuit earlier this year after he posted a now-deleted LinkedIn post that shared an “unauthorized” picture of co-founder Arnt Jensen and discussed some of Limbo’s development. Patti said Jensen demanded a little over $73,000 in “suitable compensation and reimbursement,” adding that he had “repeatedly” had such letters over the last nine years.

Patti left Playdead in 2016. In 2017, some of the details behind the acrimonious split between Playdead’s management emerged after a Danish newspaper reported on a rift that had developed between him and creative director Arnt Jensen. Then, earlier this year, Patti claimed Limbo’s credits had been patched and changed, deleting his contribution originally described as “director of development” to “executive producer.”

In an interview with Arkaden, Patti claimed the letter said: “We want to repeat and caution that your continued use of Playdead’s assets and any disclosure and exploitation of inside knowledge about Playdead for commercial purposes is infringing and constitutes breach of confidentiality clauses.

“By providing recipients with core insights to the process of developing Limbo, you are falsely giving the impression that you played a significant role, including a creative role, in the development of the game,” it added, as transcribed by VGC.

Patti hopes the lawsuit will include evidence that exonerates him from Jensen’s claims.

“The cool thing is that journalists like [Arkaden] can request access to everything that happens,” he said. “And I won’t hold anything back – I’ll basically be legally required to release all the images and materials showing what’s gone on.”



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Nexus Mods' new owner is a company whose co-founder has already had to reassure folks that NFTs and crypto aren't incoming
Game Updates

Nexus Mods’ new owner is a company whose co-founder has already had to reassure folks that NFTs and crypto aren’t incoming

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Yesterday, modding site Nexus Mods announced a change in ownership that’ll see its founder step back. Not much info was provided in the announcement as to who the new owners were, but it’s now been confirmed to be a company called Chosen.

As we reported yesterday, the ownership change announcement penned by Nexus mods founder Robin ‘Dark0ne’ Scott didn’t go into much detail as to the identity of those being handed the reigns. A Victor and a Marinus were cited as having “come on board to lead this next chapter”, along with links to their Nexus Mods profiles that only offered brief bios.

We reached out to Nexus Mods yesterday in order to try and learn more about the identity of the new owners, and were provided with a statement by community lead Mathew Elliott.

“We didn’t go into too much detail about the new ownership in the initial post, but the community has been quick to put on their investigator hats, digging into the new owners’ identities, backgrounds, beliefs, even their favorite football teams, and speculating on what this might mean for modding,” it said, “A bit of Reddit or Twitter sleuthing will surface most of what they’ve found.” It added that the new owners are “very hands-on and are now embedded directly with the team in our offices.”

The community sleuthing Elliott referenced was this ResetEra thread, which saw users RandomlyRandom67 and chocobalt conclude that the new owners are a company called Chosen, with co-founders Victor Folmann and Marinus Elgaard believed to be the Victor and Marinus referred to in Scott’s post. This has now been confirmed via a stickied comment on Scott’s original post.

In it, Folmann, Elgaard, and Nikolaj Nyholm address Scott’s post not mentioning Chosen by name, writing: “This post wasn’t about Chosen — it was about Robin and the legacy he built over 24 years. We’re the new owners and ultimate decision-makers at Nexus Mods. We’ll share more about ourselves when we’ve earned that right. For now, we’re focused on listening, learning, and making modding even easier, and yes, you’ll see us around in the community being active.”

The trio assert that they don’t plan to start charging for mods or revoking lifetime premium subscriptions, adding in terms of monetisation in general: “We’re not changing the core model. No aggressive monetisation. No paid mods. If anything, we’re aiming for fewer ads, not more.”

Chosen, which was only founded in January 2025, state their aim as being to “partner with founders to help scale what they’ve built—amplifying their impact, supporting their team and culture, and ensuring the business thrives for the long term.” Basically, they look to be in the business of buying into or buying up community-focused platforms (their website cites previous work with the likes of EA FC community databases FUTBIN and RenderZ), and running them, with founders offered the chance to stay on board or take a “quick, straightforward exit” that Chosen claim shouldn’t leave them worrying about their creation going down the pan.

Folmann’s LinkedIn activity came under scrutiny following the aforementioned ResetEra sleuthing, including a ‘Gaming startup monetisation cheat sheet’ that mentions NFTs and crypto, originally posted seven months ago. When a commenter fretted about these features being added to Nexus Mods, Folmann responded “100% agree — not happening”.

Another post from four months ago sees him predict that in 2025 “AI will enable solo devs to create $100M hits and 2-person teams to build AAA games”, and claim “AI-powered modding will revolutionise game development”.

We’ve reached out to Nexus Mods and Chosen for comment.

It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out, but originally announcing the ownership change in a way that left folks needing to do some pretty in-depth detective work to find out exactly who was taking over seems a strange and counterproductive move on Nexus Mods’ part, at least from a PR perspective.



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GameFi Guides

Wall Street Gets Ethereum’s ‘Digital Oil’, Says Etherealize Co-Founder Vivek Raman

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In brief

  • Etherealize co-founder Vivek Raman often describes Ethereum as “digital oil.”
  • The analogy dovetails with Bitcoin’s portrayal as “digital gold,” but falls short in some ways.
  • Tokenization could drive Ethereum’s value as a global neutral asset, he argues.

For well over a century, oil has been viewed as a strategic commodity, playing an essential role in transportation and manufacturing, among other critical industries. For Ethereum’s proponents, drawing comparisons has been useful—but even then, the analogy is far from perfect.

When Vivek Raman introduced Etheralize in January, the former banker and business development firm’s co-founder formalized efforts to onboard Wall Street. Part of that initiative, he recently told Decrypt, has involved “evangelization and education and marketing.”

“I always call it digital oil,” Raman said. “We think that as the crypto ecosystem evolves, people not only will want to—but will have to—hold this asset in reserves.”

Bitcoin’s proponents often portray the asset as a form of digital gold because of pre-programmed scarcity, with a maximum supply of 21 million. ETH, whether it’s being consumed to send transactions or power smart contracts, fuels Ethereum’s network. The analogy, in that sense, is among the most palatable for today’s crypto newbies.

As Raman and 19 others at Etheralize encourage financial institutions to build products on Ethereum, the ways in which the “digital oil” analogy falls short could illustrate challenges Ethereum’s community will face in cementing the network’s dominance on Wall Street, in capturing the asset’s qualities in a snappy, memorable way.

“I think it is hard to come up with the right metaphor,” Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl told Decrypt. “It will be interesting to see whether investors begin to appreciate the scarcity of ETH, even if they’re not yet kind of using the chain from a transactional standpoint.”

One key difference: If demand for oil increases, then more is often pumped in response, and its supply is elastic. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a maximum issuance of 1.5% a year, meaning that its supply can only grow a certain amount over a period. On top of that, transaction fees on Ethereum are burned, which can offset that growth in supply.

“Rather than having some sort of fixed cap of total supply, there’s a fixed cap of issuance per year,” Etheralize co-founder Danny Ryan, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, told Decrypt. “There’s very much predictability.”

Another major difference between Ethereum and oil is that the latter commodity does not offer yield. Staked Ethereum, which is devoted to the network for the ability to help process transactions, currently has an estimated yield of 3% annually, according to a dashboard published on the crypto analytics platform Dune.



Within the coming years, financial institutions are expected to grow more comfortable with the practice of tokenization, in which real-world assets, such as stocks and bonds, are represented on-chain. Regulatory shifts under U.S. President Donald Trump could be a key driver.

Some firms, such as crypto exchange Kraken, are tapping Ethereum competitors like Solana for such offerings. However, several funds have been tokenized on Ethereum by staid financial firms, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton.

As more assets come on-chain, one aspect of Ethereum’s “digital oil” analogy could become more valid. Much like oil is a neutral asset connecting myriad industries to each other, Ethereum could be seen as a non-sovereign asset for the modern financial system, Raman argued.

“In this ecosystem where the world’s assets are all tokenized by different counterparties, […] the only neutral asset that’s global, that connects all of these, is ETH,” he said. “It becomes more and more important as a global trading pair, as a strategic asset to hold if you want to stay in neutrality between all of these different tokenized assets.”

Edited by James Rubin

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Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic steps down, community calls it a 'Big L'
Crypto Trends

Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic steps down, community calls it a ‘Big L’

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Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon, has stepped down from his role at Polygon but suggests he will stay active in the crypto industry in some capacity.

His resignation drew reactions across Polygon and the wider crypto community, with several seeing it as a significant loss for Polygon, which has been tied to several major developments in recent months.

Bjelic winds down ‘day-to-day involvement’

“After much thought and reflection, I’ve decided to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation and wind down my day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs,” Bjelic said in a May 23 X post.

“I’ll always be cheering from the sidelines and supporting however and whenever I can,” Bjelic added.

Fellow Polygon co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal, commended Bjelic’s contributions over the years, adding that Bjelic has always been “a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today.”

Source: Sandeep Nailwal

Bjelic said that he remains “as passionate as ever” about crypto, and suggested he will stay active in the crypto industry.

“You will likely still see me around,” Bjelic said.

Aave-chan Initiative founder Marc Zella said it was a “Big L for Polygon.” Polygon’s head of marketing Leon Stern said the company is going to miss Bjelic. “Thanks for everything you’ve done for Polygon, and best of luck,” Stern said. Meanwhile, Skale Network CEO Jack O’Holleran said Bjelic should “be very proud” of all he has accomplished at Polygon and is excited to see what he does next.

Source: Maggie Love

Over the past two years, two of Polygon Labs’ early founders, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, also stepped away from the company.

Arjun’s departure coincided with the Polygon spin-off Avail, a Web3 data availability and consensus layer, becoming an independent entity, with Arjun taking the lead.

Bjelic has yet to reveal his next plans.

Related: Crypto market cycle permanently shifted — Polygon founder

Bjelic’s resignation follows several major announcements tied to Polygon this year.

On March 25, Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform DigiShares announced it would bring tokenized real estate trading to Polygon with the launch of RealEstate.Exchange, also known as REX.

Just two months before, on Jan. 16, Jio Platforms, an Indian mobile network operator owned by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, partnered with Polygon Labs to upgrade some of its existing offerings with Web3 and blockchain capabilities.

Magazine: AI cures blindness, ‘good’ propaganda bots, OpenAI doomsday bunker: AI Eye



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Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic steps down from board
GameFi Guides

Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic steps down from board

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Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, has announced his decision to step down from the board of Polygon Foundation.

The Polygon (POL) co-founder revealed the move via a post on X on Friday, May 23, 2025, noting that he will also “wind down” his day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs.

“Polygon was born in 2019, and we’ve come a long way since then,” Bjelic wrote. “From significant breakthroughs in zero-knowledge tech, to onboarding some of the world’s biggest brands, we’ve made meaningful strides toward that grand vision. I’m proud of this, and grateful for the privilege to work with so many talented people.”

Bjelic notes that he first entered the crypto space in 2013, with his foray into the ecosystem seeing “deep down the rabbit hole” by 2017.

He co-founded Polygon, a layer-2 scaling solution on Ethereum (ETH) alongside Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun. The project, among the most searched proof-of-stake blockchain in the U.S. in 2023, rebranded from its initial name Matic Network.

Explaining his decision further, Bjelic said:

“As projects evolve and mature, it is natural for visions to evolve, and sometimes diverge. With this in mind, I can no longer contribute to Polygon to the best of my abilities.”

While he will no longer be actively involved, he said he is confident Polygon will continue to succeed. Bjelic plans to offer his support “from the sidelines”.  

Bjelic’s exit from the Polygon Foundation board sees him join co-founders Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun in stepping down from active roles at the blockchain project. Kanani left Polygon in October 2023.Meanwhile, Arjun left in March 2023 to focus on his modular blockchain project Avail.

Nailwal said via X that words cannot describe what Bjelic means to him personally and to Polygon. 

“More than a co-founder, you’re a brother. From the earliest days — whiteboards full of ideas, endless whitepapers, governance frameworks, strategy calls deep into the night — you have been a force behind so much of what makes Polygon what it is today,” he added.



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Ethereum Cofounder Moves $262 Million to Kraken, What's Happening?
Crypto Trends

Ethereum Cofounder Moves $262 Million to Kraken, What’s Happening?

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Ethereum cofounder Jeffrey Wilcke might be on the verge of selling around $262 million ETH on the open market. According to data insights from Arkham Intelligence, the early Ethereum developer sent 105,732 ETH to Kraken cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Ethereum sell-off scare

According to the Arkham data, the transfer was carried out at block height number 22524638 with a total fee of 0.000063 ETH valued at $0.16. This transaction has sparked a potential sell-off concern as Kraken is generally known as the platform whales use to liquidate their holdings.

It remains unknown whether the wallet associated with this Ethereum cofounder was dormant prior to this time; the transfer has stunned observers with its timing.

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Ethereum’s price is yet to break through the $2,500 mark, as volatility continues to play a part. However, Wilcke timed the transaction to coincide with a 1.56% rebound to $2,490.44. 

Over the past 24 hours, the price of the top altcoin dropped to a low of $2,452 before rebounding. Ethereum whales are generally always active, considering its stable liquidity and broad markets.

Besides Jeffrey Wilcke, high-volume transfers have been linked to Justin Sun and the Ethereum Foundation recently.

Is ETH price under threat?

Related transfers are often signs of distress in the ecosystem. While the ETH price is staging a recovery overall, if more related whale transfers are unchecked, it can trigger another unexpected drawdown.

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Already, Ethereum’s price has yet to return to its highest for the day, pegged at $2,585 atop a 3.26% drop over the past week.

The impact of the Pectra upgrade is also fading fast, as there are reports of a possible bug threat in EIP-7702. Overall, market experts are watching the trends, especially with the possibility that the Jeffrey Wilcke transfer has other unknown purposes, like custody.



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