From EOS to Vaulta: How One Blockchain Project Rebuilt From Scratch—And Why BlackRock’s Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Bet Could Change Everything
Staff Writer • 2025-05-09
After losing control of its name, code, and community channels, the former EOS Network has reemerged as Vaulta. But as Wall Street titans like BlackRock enter the game, is crypto still playing by its original rules? Losing your name, your source code, and even your official communication channels sounds like a death sentence for most tech projects. For EOS, it became the spark that lit a long, grueling comeback. That journey has now reached a pivotal milestone with the official rebrand to Vaulta—a fresh identity, built on the ashes of one of crypto’s most controversial projects. "It wasn’t just a name change," said Yves La Rose, CEO of the EOS Network Foundation, speaking on the Stonks Go Moon Podcast. "We lost access to everything—our code repositories, social accounts, even the EOS name and logo. We had to start over from scratch." The collapse wasn’t technical. It was governance. After Block.one, the company that raised over $4 billion in the largest Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in history, effectively walked away from EOS development, the community was left with little more than promises and broken leadership. In response, token holders and validators formed the EOS Network Foundation in 2021, wresting control back through on-chain governance. The long-term strategy became clear: cut ties with the past and build a future on their own terms. Rebuilding From the Ground Up While the community had kept the EOS network alive, it became clear that the brand was beyond repair. Legal restrictions meant the Foundation didn’t even own the EOS trademark or its digital assets. That pushed the community to rebrand as Vaulta, reflecting a new mission as a "Web3 Banking Operating System" focused on unlocking real financial products for everyday users—not just crypto traders. The rebrand isn’t just cosmetic. Vaulta has spent the past few years building partnerships in wealth management, cross-border payments, asset tokenization, and insurance. One of the most anticipated products in development is a blockchain-powered debit card, allowing users to spend crypto-backed assets while earning yield on staked positions. "Financial services today are gated behind high capital requirements," La Rose explained. "Vaulta’s goal is to bring those products to everyone, not just institutions or the ultra-wealthy." Enter BlackRock Just as Vaulta sharpened its pitch, the broader crypto narrative took an institutional turn. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion under management, was reported to have acquired over 12,000 Bitcoin in recent days, adding more than $1 billion worth of crypto exposure to its balance sheet through its spot Bitcoin ETF. For crypto purists, this signals a troubling trend. After all, Bitcoin was born as a response to the failures of centralized finance. Now, the same players crypto was designed to disrupt are becoming its biggest whales. "BlackRock is the antithesis of crypto’s original ethos," La Rose acknowledged. "But their entry validates that blockchain isn’t going away. We have to accept that institutions are here, but we also have to ensure the infrastructure stays open and decentralized." Evolution, Not Revolution La Rose rejects the idea that crypto’s future requires burning down the financial system. Instead, he sees Vaulta’s role as building better bridges—helping traditional banks tap into blockchain’s efficiency while preserving decentralization for users. "Legacy finance isn’t going to vanish overnight. But integrating blockchain can lower costs, increase transparency, and open access to new types of capital markets," he said. Vaulta is already testing products like blockchain-based remittance services in partnership with Virgo Group, aiming to compete with costly services like Western Union by offering stablecoin-powered international payments at a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, Vaulta’s stake in Blockchain Insurance Inc. aims to lower insurance premiums for crypto businesses, tackling one of the industry's most overlooked pain points: lack of affordable risk coverage. What Comes Next Over the next year, Vaulta plans to roll out products across wealth management, consumer payments, asset tokenization, and insurance—a strategic shift that positions it not just as a blockchain platform, but as a financial services ecosystem. "The stakes have never been higher," La Rose concluded. "If we want to keep crypto’s founding principles alive, we have to build systems that are open to everyone—not just the next BlackRock."
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