April Edition of the Crypto Altruists Newsletter

👋Hello, Crypto Altruists!

It's a quieter season in web3. Less noise, more building. And sometimes that's exactly when the most interesting shifts happen. EthCC just wrapped in Cannes, and we went through dozens of recaps to get a pulse on where things stand. A few things caught our eye. 👁️

• DeFi is alive, but it looks different now. From what we're reading, RWAs and tokenization seemed to dominate the conversation. Onchain credit, tokenized deposits, vault infrastructure, real yield. The industry appears to be narrowing around use cases that actually generate revenue.
• Institutions aren't a talking point anymore. Multiple recaps described EthCC as feeling more like a fintech conference than a crypto one. TradFi banks that have been quietly building blockchain initiatives for years are apparently showing up with actual products now.

• The VC landscape seems to be splitting in two. Crypto-native VCs are pulling back. Fintech VCs are coming in with totally different playbooks, and from what we're hearing, most of them don't want projects to launch tokens at all. The standalone utility token seems to be losing ground, with more voices pushing for tokens tied to equity or real product value.
• AI came up, but not how you'd expect. The general take seems to be that AI will become the interface layer for crypto. Agents are early but already generating yield. The infrastructure is being built. But for a topic dominating every other industry right now, it was apparently pretty quiet on the ground.
• And the human side of all this. The job market came up in nearly every recap we read. Builders looking for work. DAOs running low on runway. AI compressing roles. One attendee put it simply: "it can be any of us in the near future."

A thought that stuck with us, from a banker at his first EthCC: "They're very strong on tech. But they don't really understand finance. You can't replace a system you don't understand." If crypto and traditional finance are getting closer, that gap is going to matter.

Now, let's dive into this month's updates... 👇

🌱 Featured: Web3 Impact Toolkit Is Live!

Did you know that 92% of nonprofits say technology is critical to their mission, but nearly half feel they don't have the expertise to actually use it? Now imagine adding blockchain to that mix.

We kept hearing the same thing from nonprofit professionals: "we're interested in Web3, but we don't know where to start." So we made the starting point.

The Web3 Impact Toolkit is a free, self-paced learning resource with ten modules covering crypto philanthropy, decentralized governance, humanitarian cash transfers, impact tokens, AI for nonprofits, Web3 safety, and more. 🌍

Each module takes about ten minutes. No jargon. No technical background needed. Just clear, practical guidance you can actually use.

The Web3 Impact Toolkit is a team effort, and we're incredibly grateful to our partners who made it possible:

• GSR Foundation: Our Flagship Partner, helping us expand the Toolkit's reach with new modules, tools, and cohorts for mission-driven teams worldwide.
• Endaoment: Our Impact Partner, whose early backing helped get the Toolkit off the ground and inspired our podcast series, The Web3 Nonprofit.
• Social Equation Hub: Our Nonprofit Education Partner, ensuring the Toolkit is accessible and welcoming to organizations at every stage of their Web3 journey.

We also discussed the toolkit and the gap it's trying to close in a recent live episode with our partners and friends from Alliance for Public Health, if you want the full backstory. 🎤

This is an early version, and we'll keep improving it, adding new modules, updating resources, and building on your feedback. But we didn't want to wait for perfection to make it useful. It's live now, and we'd love for you to explore it. 🙌

💡 April impact spotlight

Ecosystem developments 🚀

• Ethereum Foundation publishes new mandate: The EF sets out a long-term vision focused on self-sovereignty and "CROPS" (Censorship Resistance, Open Source and Free, Privacy, and Security) principles, while positioning itself as a neutral steward aiming to reduce its role over time.
• Xcapit shares results from AidLink Kenya pilot: The UNICEF-backed test in Nairobi showed SMS-based stablecoin transfers reaching all 49 beneficiaries, with 100% of funds successfully off-ramped to M-Pesa.
• Binance launches Web3 Resilience Lab in Ukraine: The initiative, developed with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and local partners, will offer up to $500,000 in grants for projects focused on digital infrastructure and web3 applications.
• The Giving Block releases 2026 crypto philanthropy report: The report shows over $100M in crypto donations in 2025 and growing use of stablecoins and stock giving, pointing to digital assets becoming a major channel for nonprofit fundraising.
• Opera proposes 160M CELO stake to deepen Celo partnership: The move would shift Opera from a grant-funded partner to a long-term stakeholder, aligning incentives around MiniPay, which has reached 14M+ users across 66+ countries.
• KlimaDAO launches Klima 2.0: The update introduces a redesigned protocol for carbon markets with a two-token model, standardized carbon classes, and rules-based execution focused on transparency and coordination.
• Gitcoin proposes overhaul of grants program for 2026: The draft suggests replacing large grant rounds with a yearlong d/acc-focused program built around smaller, targeted campaigns and new funding models.
• Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token goes live on Hedera: The first U.S. state-issued stable token is now live, aiming to support faster and more transparent digital dollar transactions.
• Giveth launches Ethereum Security funding round: TheDAO Security Fund is backing a quadratic funding round with a 500 ETH matching pool (over $1M) to support projects improving Ethereum and L2 security, running April 21 to May 12.
• Gold Standard issues fully digital cookstove carbon credits: ATEC Global issued the first carbon credits using fully digital monitoring and verification, with data tracked via IoT devices and made publicly traceable on Hedera, aiming to improve transparency and speed in carbon markets.
• Foresight launches AI Nodes research hubs: New spaces in San Francisco and Berlin provide compute, funding, and community for teams working on AI for science, security, and decentralized systems.
• European Ethereum Institute officially launches at EthCC: The new advocacy body aims to shape EU regulation in support of open, permissionless blockchain infrastructure and web3 innovation.
• ETHGlobal launches Open Agents hackathon: The async program running April 24 to May 6 offers $50,000+ in prizes for projects exploring AI agents, infrastructure, and onchain execution.
• Tally announces shutdown after five years: The governance platform is closing as the team concludes the market for DAO tooling remains too small, with crypto demand concentrating in payments and speculation rather than onchain coordination.

Crypto Altruists content & updates 💚

• 📝 Crypto Altruists Starter Pack: Stablecoins for Good: A curated overview of six podcast episodes exploring how stablecoins are used across humanitarian aid, remittances, climate funding & models for financing impact.
• 🎙️ Crypto Altruists Episode 242: Impact Onchain—Bridging the Gap for Nonprofits and Changemakers: Partners from GSR Foundation and beyond discuss barriers to nonprofit onboarding in web3, alongside the launch of a Toolkit designed to make crypto tools more accessible and practical.
• 🎙️ Crypto Altruists Episode 243: 3 Million Farmers, 347 Million Trees—Building the Philippines’ First Digital Carbon Office: A deep dive into rebuilding trust in carbon markets through transparent infrastructure, with a focus on onboarding 3M+ farmers and improving access to climate finance.
• 🎙️ Crypto Altruists Episode 244: Earn While You Give—How Impact Staking Is Redefining Crypto Philanthropy: Jaydeep Korde of Launchnodes explains how impact staking lets users direct staking rewards to nonprofits, creating a more sustainable funding model without giving up their principal.
• 🎙️ Crypto Altruists Episode 245: Reimagining Power—Exploring web3’s Potential for Systems Change: SuperBenefit shares how web3 tools like DAOs and participatory funding can shift decision-making closer to communities, alongside a critique of traditional top-down philanthropy.
• 🎙️ Crypto Altruists Episode 246: Ripples of Impact: Grassroots Change Through Solar Savings Circles, with The Solar Foundation: We explore how decentralized solar assets and community savings circles are combining to create a powerful model for grassroots economic empowerment in Tanzania.

Insightful resources 📖

• IMF paper on Tokenized Finance: The report frames tokenization as a foundational change to financial systems, highlighting both its potential for atomic settlement and the risks around governance and stability.
• How Syrians built parallel infrastructure during war: The piece traces grassroots systems for communication, aid, and coordination, from satellite networks to blockchain-based cash assistance, developed in response to surveillance and shutdowns.
• Anthropic’s 80K global AI interviews: A large-scale qualitative study across 159 countries shows people want AI less for productivity and more to improve their lives, while holding simultaneous hopes and fears around work, autonomy, and human connection.
• From Hierarchy to Intelligence: Block explores how companies might move beyond traditional org charts, using AI systems to track operations and coordinate decisions instead of relying on management layers.
• Why blockchain is the future of humanitarian response: UNICEF outlines how blockchain is already being used in areas like vaccine tracking and offline cash transfers, with a shift from small pilots toward more integrated, scalable systems.

🌟 Project highlight: Squid Router

Web3 is more multi-chain than ever. More tokens, more ecosystems, more places where value lives. Great for innovation, but not so great if you're a nonprofit trying to accept a donation on one chain and use it on another, or a DAO moving treasury funds between networks.

That's the problem Squid Router solves. It's a cross-chain swap tool built on Axelar that lets you move tokens across 100+ blockchains in a single transaction. No manual bridging, no wrapped assets, no switching between five different apps. You pick your source token, pick your destination token on any other chain, and Squid handles the routing. The whole thing takes seconds.

Why it matters for the impact space: as more social impact tokens, public goods funding mechanisms, and DAOs operate across multiple chains, the ability to move value seamlessly between them becomes essential infrastructure. We use Squid regularly to swap into tokens like Glo Dollar (USDGLO), the stablecoin that funds public goods and charitable causes.

Squid supports Celo, Optimism, Base, and other chains where many impact-focused projects live, making it easy to reach them from wherever your tokens happen to be. And in a multi-chain world, that quiet reliability matters more than it sounds. 💪

💡 Bring web3 into your nonprofit's mission

Crypto Altruists works with nonprofits, foundations, and impact teams that want to understand if blockchain is useful for their work. We help with things like crypto donations, transparency tools, and practical web3 experiments.

Our consulting and workshops are hands-on, clear, and tailored to your reality. Book a call if you want to explore what makes sense for your work. 🤝

📬 Stay connected

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See you in the next edition! 💚