MakerDAO, sometimes called the central bank of DeFi, is dangling a possible $1 billion liquidity injection at those who have been putting U.S. treasuries on-chain.

Why it matters: The DAO's commitment to reinvest its sizeable coffers to tokenized T-bills stands to liven up that stodgy corner of crypto.

The big picture: It's effectively a bidding war for one customer, MakerDAO, with its investible reserves backing its dai stablecoin. Winning a slice could provide a substantial boost to any number of those involved in tokenizing so-called real-world assets. (That market is just under $2 billion, according to research firm rwa.xyz.)

• Crypto firms have been gravitating toward tokenized products because they pass on yield and can also be posted as collateral to borrow crypto.
• Leaders in DeFi describe MakerDAO's coming as a milestone moment for the space.

Tokenization appears to be catching on, though there seem to be more folks interested in launching products than there are users.

• Goldman is planning three such projects by the end of the year, per Fortune.

Context: The largest on-chain issuer of tokenized treasuries is BlackRock's BUIDL, which is roughly at $500 million in assets under management — an additional $1 billion would triple its AUM.

Behind the scenes: Last week's unveiling of Maker's "Spark Tokenization Grand Prix" has already drawn crypto-native firms into the mix, including Robert Leshner's Superstate, Lucas Vogelsang's Centrifuge and Nathan Allman's Ondo Finance.

Asset manager WisdomTree is interested. Will Peck, the firm's head of digital assets, tells Axios that it is "considering a submission" that is both additive for that community and "consistent" with its own strategic objectives.

• Securitize chief Carlos Domingo said the firm intends to join, with BlackRock-partnered BUIDL token "supporting."

How it works: A panel including Phoenix Labs and Steakhouse Financial will judge the applications, and holders of Maker's governance token, MKR, will vote after finalists are selected.

• Criteria include pricing, and strategic alignment with Spark, MakerDAO's lending facility launched last year. Spark is a fork of Aave, the top DeFi money market.

The market seems to be betting that the move is accretive to MKR too, with the price of the token jumping on the announcement last week. (See: Charted)

The contest ties in with Endgame, a long-term plan from Maker founder Rune Christensen, future-proofing the project.

• The first part of five phases is expected to begin this summer, with MakerDAO's rebranding and new kinds of stablecoins.

Between the lines: MakerDAO, one of the very first apps built on Ethereum, is getting a mass-market makeover.

What we're watching: Applications open on Aug. 12.

Speaking of MakerDAO, its governance token looks like a standout in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).

• The token's price has been popping off lately amid the DAO's broader plans to remake its image.
• 👆What's more impressive is its long-term performance, per Kaiko.

The big picture: Maker is the only OG asset to have kept up pace with Ethereum's ether (ETH) since the start of 2021, while outperforming Uniswap's and Aave's respective UNI and AAVE tokens too, according to Messari.

• MakerDAO was actually built concurrently with Ethereum itself.

Behind the scenes: MakerDAO's Endgame is a "new catalyst," the research firm's Sunny Shi said in a report published Monday.

• "It seems DAO voters want the protocol to be more aggressive with its treasury, actively looking to expand Maker's rate of return."

💭 Our thought bubble: 👆Them and everyone else in the world, really.

Yesterday was a big day for major names in media making moves with regard to the cryptocurrency business.

Why it matters: Media moves tend to be a bit of a lagging indicator of crypto market cycles.

What we're watching: The founder of political stats news site 538, Nate Silver, has become an advisor to Polymarket, the company that seems to own the prediction market business these days, Axios reported first yesterday.

• Silver told Axios' Sara Fischer that he foresees prediction markets helping business leaders to assess political risks for their businesses.
• "Nate has been an inspiration for me since long before I started Polymarket," the company's founder, Shayne Coplan, tweeted as he shared the news.

Yes, but: In his new book, Silver specifically notes that 538's predictions tended to outperform prediction markets, in no small part because rich people would make outsized, absurd bets and distort the markets.

By the numbers: Polymarket had nearly 30,000 traders in June, easily its best month ever. July looks likely to overtake it.

• Perhaps there's a scale where dumb money won't be able to warp things too badly.

💭 Our thought bubble: There's been a buzz among crypto types lately hoping for some reporters to come together and start finding stories based on prediction markets that open up.

The other side: Then again, Nathaniel Popper was a star reporter at The New York Times, covering all things Bitcoin and the decentralized web.

• He wrote one of the first full-length books I read about the space, "Digital Gold."
• And his work made it in the Netflix doc, "Bitconned."

The latest: Popper is pivoting to AI, joining The Information.

The bottom line: Crypto v. Normies, 1 - 1.

🖼️ Former U.S. president and GOP pick Donald Trump plans to launch another NFT collection. (Businessweek)

🚔 U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who famously said bitcoin "is an ideal choice for criminals" was found guilty of accepting bribes, including gold bars and a luxury car. (CoinDesk)

💸 FTX agreed to a $12.7 billion settlement with the CFTC, pending court approval. (Decrypt)

👸 Bonus: Unchained's Laura Shin interviewed the mother of MOTHER meme coin, Iggy Azalea.