What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Do you know the main reason behind why enterprises are not building in web3 today? 

👉 Control.

One thing that big companies demand today in order to function and profit is control over their operations, money and data.

If they were to build in web3 today, using a public blockchain like Solana or Ethereum, these things would all become transparent.

Enterprises would therefore lose control. They don’t want that. 

Instead, they need privacy, security and, most importantly, compliance. 

Well, Solana Labs might just be able to offer all of these things with their new token standard called ‘Token Extensions’. 

This is a new feature built into the protocol, that allows for the creation of customized tokens. 

Now, companies and enterprises can launch tokens that are tailored to their unique requirements, enhancing functionality, security and utility.

This feature has the potential to attract big businesses like Visa, Shopify and Stripe to Solana.

Let me tell you why. ⏬

Token Extensions Explained

At its core, Solana's token extensions are advanced features that can be added to Solana tokens. 

The extensions are like customizable options or tools that developers can use to tailor the tokens to specific needs or functionalities.

Imagine you're creating a customizable toy car. 

The basic model can roll and turn, but with extra kits (extensions), you can add features like remote control, special lights, or even a mechanism to make it fly short distances. 

In Solana's case, these "kits" are the token extensions, and the toy car is the digital token.

These extensions enable tokens to have more complex behaviors and properties than just being sent and received. 

Here are a few concrete examples of how Token Extension can be used by Visa, Shopify, Stripe, Netflix, Adobe, Bank of America, and EA.

How the Biggest Companies Can Use Solana’s Token Extensions

Confidential Transfers: Keep transaction details and balances private, great for secure payments and for companies paying employees, since this uses zero knowledge technology.

👉 Visa can use this feature for private, automated cross-border payments, streamlining B2B transactions, recurring subscriptions and employee remuneration with enhanced privacy.

Transfer Hooks: Manage how tokens move and who can use them, useful for verifying users and managing royalties.

👉 Shopify can use this feature to automate KYC for merchants and attribute digital products to creators, ensuring authenticity and automating royalty payments in their ecommerce ecosystem.

Transfer Fees: Add fees to transactions, good for ongoing royalties or service charges.

👉 Stripe can use this feature to introduce new revenue through transaction fees and issue secure digital certificates or licenses that cannot be transferred, enhancing security and exclusivity.

Permanent Delegation: Give certain programs lasting control over tokens, helps with subscriptions and legal compliance.

👉 Netflix can use this feature to automate monthly subscription fees, allowing a designated program to handle payments seamlessly, ensuring uninterrupted service access and adherence to automatic billing cycles.

Metadata Pointer: Connect tokens with additional information for checking authenticity and ownership.

👉 Adobe can use this feature to authenticate software licenses and user subscriptions, linking digital tokens to user accounts for verifying ownership and usage rights.

Default Account State: Set rules for how token accounts work to boost security.

👉 Bank of America can use this feature for enhanced security in digital banking transactions, setting strict rules on token accounts to prevent unauthorized access and ensuring compliance with financial regulations.

Non-Transferrable Tokens: Make tokens that can't be passed on, except by the creator, for special kinds of digital items or rights.

👉 Electronic Arts (EA) can use this feature for exclusive in-game items or memberships that cannot be traded, ensuring that special rights or digital assets remain with the original purchaser or are only accessible through official channels.

Wrapping Up — Bullish for Solana 🐂

I'm confident in Solana's approach and success for a few key reasons:

• Their control over the entire system lets them move quickly and in sync.

• Their skilled business team is great at building partnerships with big names like Visa and Shopify, showing they know how to work with top companies.

• Their tech team is really good at making and releasing new features that solve real problems.

Solana is using these strengths to stand out amongst other blockchains. 

Another interesting thing that Solana does extremely well is marketing. 

If you haven’t watched Solana’s presentation video of Token Extensions, I recommend you watch it below. 

It's awesome how they make easy-to-understand, high-quality videos about their blockchain updates. 

This is a smart way to get developers and businesses interested – something that the Ethereum Foundation lacks for example. 

If we want more people to get into blockchain, we need clear explanations and good marketing, and Solana is nailing it.

The next big step for Solana is for a well-known company, like Shopify, to start using Solana's token extensions. 

If Solana can show how much money Shopify saves—since Solana's transactions are cheaper than credit card fees—it would prove Solana's value big time.

If you’d like to dive deeper into Solana, and understand why it’s such an exciting investment, then I recommend you read 3 of our recent onchain reports.

1. Tokenomics Report on Solana – understand how the token accrues value

2. Price Predictions Report – based on previous cycles, how high can $SOL go this time around?

3. Is Solana the Next Big Thing? – a ‘state of Solana’ report, analyzing various onchain metrics.

Thanks for reading and good luck out there. 🫶

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Bitcoin finally got its monthly GOD CANDLE after the ETF approval – but not in the direction everyone was expecting. 📉

Bitcoin dumped… Hard! 

Most Altcoins followed suit and degens were already applying for gigs at McDonald’s.

So WTF is going on? Why is crypto falling? Did someone cancel the bull market? ❌

In today’s newsletter, I wanted to share with you 3 reasons why crypto has been on a downfall lately. 

1. The $GBTC Sell-off 😨

2. The Mt. Gox Meme 🤡

3. The Typical Cycle Pre-Halving 🤷

At the end, I’ll share my thoughts about where we’re at in the market and what you should be doing right now, so make sure you read until the end. 👀

Let’s get into it. ⏬

Reason 1: The $GBTC Sell-off 😨

Since the approval of the Spot BTC ETF, a whopping $3.4 billion in $GBTC shares have been sold since January 11th.

There are a few reasons why this is happening:

1. Arbitrage Traders

$GBTC used to be a Bitcoin fund before it was converted into a Spot ETF. 

During that time, $GBTC was sold at a 'discount to NAV', meaning you could buy $GBTC shares for less than the actual Bitcoin value they represented. 

This setup allowed traders to buy low and sell high, especially after it converted to an ETF, which increased the share’s price.

We actually highlighted this opportunity for our newsletter readers back in September. Check that article out here.

JPMorgan estimates that traders bought about $3 billion worth of $GBTC looking to benefit from a closing of the fund's discount to NAV.

These traders that capitalized on this opportunity are now cashing out. 🤑

2. FTX Selling $GBTC

Recently, FTX sold approximately $1 billion of $GBTC shares.

3. Investors Seeking Lower Fees

Grayscale’s $GBTC ETF fees are roughly 1.5%.

In comparison, Bitwise, BlackRock, Fidelity, ARK and other ETF providers all offer under 0.25% fees. 

Naturally, investors are exiting $GBTC in favor of other, cheaper ETFs. 

We can see this by looking at the inflows, which are much higher than the outflows of Spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Reason 2: The Mt. Gox. Meme 🤡

In 2013, Mt. Gox became the world's leading Bitcoin exchange, handling 70% of all Bitcoin transactions.

In February 2014, Mt. Gox reported the loss of 850,000 Bitcoins due to a hack.

It was a dark day for crypto. 🤕

However, in March 2014, 200,000 Bitcoin were found in an old wallet. Ever since, there’s been ongoing legal battles and plans for compensating the affected users. 

The latest on this matter?

Apparently, Mt. Gox is sending out emails to affected users to confirm their identities, suggesting that a refund of lost funds is coming very soon. 

Now, everyone expects 200k Bitcoin to hit the markets within the next few months. 

Should you be concerned about this? No! 

First of all, this Mt. Gox FUD comes up every other month. Each time, everyone is freaking out, yet nothing ever materializes on this topic. 

Second of all, even if 200,000 $BTC is refunded to users, that doesn’t mean all of it will be sold. 

Just chill. 

So… We just discovered that:

1. The $GBTC sell-off isn’t as significant as we thought

2. The Mt. Gox news is a nothing burger

So what’s really causing this Bitcoin dump? Let’s find out. ⏬

Reason 3: It’s Actually All Normal 🤷

Historically, Bitcoin has always had a pull-back a few months before the halving occurred. 

Also historically, when Bitcoin has reached the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level, and failed to break through it, it dropped 30%. 

$BTC has reached these levels once again recently and got rejected. It is down 20% since that rejection, so there’s some downside left to go potentially. 

So all in all, a pre-halving Bitcoin dump is normal and expected. 

Wrapping Up — What Should You Do? 💰

First up, the FTX sell pressure on the ETFs is now gone.

This should make inflows much easier moving forward. 

Secondly, this pull-back was common in the past and it was expected.

Totally healthy and nothing has changed fundamentally. We’re still looking bullish.

Thirdly, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both at all time highs – this indicates that there’s a good momentum for risk assets. 

Once we get through the forced selling then it's likely we have a big push upwards again.

So friends, at this point in the cycle dips are for buying! 2024 is looking like a very bullish year for all markets. 

If you can get coins for cheap, you shouldn’t pass on that opportunity. 

BUY THE DIP! 

I actually shared this exact message with our PRO members in Discord on Monday.

In that, I also shared my views on $ETH and $SOL. Check it out. 👇

If you’d like to get my strategies and TA in real time, then I’d love to welcome you in our PRO-only Discord channel. 

To join, you need to:

1. Upgrade your membership to PRO

2. Grab your PRO Pass (claiming details will be available after you go PRO)

3. Connect your PRO Pass in our Discord

It’s that easy, and you get to capitalize on the best opportunities that this bull market will have to offer.

Together, we won’t FUCK this up. Let’s get it fam. 🚀

Thanks for reading and good luck out there. 🫶

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

What if I told you that you could farm potentially hundreds of airdrops by holding really valuable tokens, all while doing basically nothing… Would that spark some interest?

Well, let me introduce you to the Cosmos ecosystem. An emerging and exciting space where new projects airdrop tokens to network validators (stakers) in abundance. 

What does it mean for you?

That you can get a piece of multiple future token drops within the Cosmos ecosystem by simply buying and staking tokens like $ATOM, $INJ, $TIA, $OSMO and $KUJI.

As an example, a new project called Dymention distributed 8% of its token supply to those who staked various tokens. 

In today’s piece, I’ll show you exactly how you can buy, bridge and stake these tokens in order to make yourself eligible for future drops.

But before we do that, I need your honest feedback. In recent times, we dove deep down the rabbit hole of airdrops. 

I’m curious to know if you like these guides and if you’re actually using them.

So please reply to this email with your honest thoughts. Thank you! Let’s get into this.

Bridging Tokens to Cosmos 🌉

First up, you need a Keplr wallet, which you can get here. If you need setup guidance, we provided that in a previous Injective Airdrop Guide.

Secondly, you need to send tokens to your Keplr Wallet. There are a few ways you can do that.

(I’ll use $ATOM as an example…)

Option 1: From a CEX 

Simply buy $ATOM on your preferred centralized exchange i.e. Binance, Coinbase, Kraken etc, and withdraw it to your Keplr wallet. 

This is very easy to do, it’s instant and probably the cheapest option. It’ll cost you about 0.3$.

Option 2: Bridge 

If you’re like us and you have all of your funds onchain, then you’ll want to look for a multi-chain swap protocol. 

To personally swap my $ETH to $ATOM, I’ve used both ThorChain and RocketX in two different instances. 

Both work very similar to each other. Here’s a quick runthrough:

1. Head to ThorChain or RocketX

2. Connect your Ethereum wallet in the top right corner

3. Add your Cosmos wallet (find it in Keplr wallet) under ‘recipient address’

4. Choose how much $ETH you want to swap 

5. Click Swap and approve the transaction

This will take a few minutes to complete and will cost you a few bucks, depending on how high or low the gas fees are on Ethereum. 

PRO TIP: I suggest you bridge all of your funds from Ethereum or a CEX to the Cosmos network in $ATOM, all at the same time. 

Then, you can swap this $ATOM to all of the tokens I’m naming below – I’ll tell you how.

This way, you don’t have to bridge each token separately and pay additional gas fees! It’s also the easiest way to do it, which is the entire point of this article – to keep it really, really simple.

The reason I’m keeping it simple is because I know that most of our readers haven’t interacted with the Cosmos ecosystem before so if we were to go in-depth on this, chances are you’ll feel overwhelmed. 

Let’s get into it.

Staking $ATOM

Once you’ve deposited $ATOM to your Keplr Wallet, head to the Keplr Dashboard, and go to ‘Staking’.

Once there, click on ‘Stake’ and choose $ATOM.

The more you stake, the better. However, be mindful about how much of this is part of your total portfolio. You don’t want to expose yourself too much. 

TIP: When you stake $ATOM, make sure you:

1. Choose a validator outside the top 10.

2. Choose a validator that’s not a centralized exchange.

3. Avoid validators that have 0% commission.

It’s common that new airdrops exclude the first 2 categories to preserve decentralization and incentivize people to stake with smaller validators.

Keep in mind that staking will lock up your funds for 21 days. 

After you’ve staked the desired amount of $ATOM, I suggest you bridge your $ATOM from the Cosmos network to the Osmosis network. 

You can easily do this in your Keplr Browser Extension via the IBC Send feature, like you can see in the screenshot below. 

This is an important step in this guide, as it allows you to swap $ATOM to all of the tokens I’ll name below.

Staking $INJ

By using the Osmosis DEX, you can swap $ATOM to $INJ. 

Before staking your $INJ however, you need to bridge your $INJ from the Osmosis network to the Injective network. 

You can also do this inside your Keplr Browser Extension, using the IBC send feature. 

Once you’re done, you can stake $INJ the same way you stake $ATOM in the Keplr Dashboard. 

P.S. - To avoid all of this IBC Send hustle, you can just deposit $INJ directly on the Injective network from a CEX like Binance. 

When staking, you’ll have tens of validators to choose from. I suggest you choose 2 validators:

1. Black Panther

If you stake with Black Panther, you are likely to get their $BLACK Airdrop. You can also farm this airdrop by depositing liquidity into one of their vaults.

2. Talis Protocol

You will also get the $TALIS Airdrop if you stake $INJ with Talis Protocol. Also become eligible by trading NFTs on their app. 

Split your $INJ 50/50 between Black Panther and Talis Protocol. 

Staking $OSMO

$OSMO is the native token of Osmosis, the decentralized exchange for the Cosmos ecosystem, enabling interoperable blockchain transactions. 

It features customizable liquidity pools, staking rewards, and supports both Cosmos and non-IBC assets from Ethereum and Polkadot​​.

By using this DEX, you can swap your $ATOM for $OSMO, the same way you swapped $ATOM for $INJ.

If you want to bridge $OSMO from Ethereum or send it from a CEX, keep in mind that Osmosis is its own Cosmos chain so you’ll need to use your Osmosis wallet address inside Keplr (on the Osmosis network) to deposit $OSMO.

After getting your $OSMO, you can stake it inside the Keplr Wallet. 

Staking $TIA 

Staking Celestia’s $TIA token is probably where most of your airdrops will come from.

A lot of new projects and protocols are using Celestia as a data availability layer and they tend to reward $TIA stakers.

I’m still gutted I sold my airdropped $TIA at $3…

If you don’t have $TIA, you can get it using Osmosis by swapping your $ATOM. 

Once you get $TIA on the Osmosis network, you can use the IBC Send feature to bridge from Osmosis to the Celestia network.

Again, you can skip all of these additional steps by simply withdrawing $TIA from a CEX. 

Once you’re done, you can stake $TIA via the Keplr Dashboard or use other staking platforms.

As mentioned, we’ll keep it simple today, so I’ll recommend you stake $TIA via Keplr. 

However, there’s an opportunity for you to stake it on MilkyWay to get $milkTIA as a liquid staking token.

By doing this, you could be eligible for a future $MILK airdrop that’s been teased by MilkyWay.

Important: I get the feeling that $TIA is turning into a bit of a ponzi scheme where users buy the token to get airdrops. 

This could end up badly for many at some point in the future.

Staking $KUJI

The last token I’ll mention in this article is $KUJI – Kujira’s native token that fuels their DeFi ecosystem aimed at protocols, builders and web3 users.

The easiest way to acquire $KUJI is on the Osmosis DEX. 

You can also use the Kujira Blue Dashboard to swap various tokens to $KUJI. 

In the same Kujira Blue dashboard, you’re also able to stake $KUJI to earn some passive yield while getting yourself eligible for future airdrops.

Wrapping Up 🧵 Closing Thoughts 💭

First up, let me say that by following the steps above, you’re not guaranteed to get airdrops.

It’s just likely that you’re getting a step closer to receiving future allocations. 

Secondly, keep in mind that the more funds you allocate, the bigger the rewards. 

However, I urge you to not overexpose yourself by farming these airdrops. I don’t recommend you buy any of the 5 tokens named in this article.

You need to do your own research and decide for yourself if it’s worth the risk. 

My only tip for you is to not allocate more than 5% of your portfolio to buying these tokens. 

Thirdly, have fun.

The reason I’m excited to present you all of these airdrop farming opportunities isn’t because of the free money you could get.

It’s because you get to interact with a new, emerging ecosystem that you can learn a ton from.

Lastly, I wanted to share 2 helpful tools that you can use to track ongoing and upcoming airdrops. Really helpful!! 

1. Cosmos Airdrops

2. Airdrops.one

Thanks for reading frens and good luck out there. 🫶

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

The Spot Bitcoin ETF has already settled more than $11 billion in its first 4 days.

BlackRock’s ETF, in particular, has done more volume than all 500 ETFs (COMBINED) that were launched over the course of 2023.

The market response for this ETF has been phenomenal so far, and that has certainly attracted a lot of eyeballs from TradFi.

But today’s piece isn’t about the Spot Bitcoin ETF. 

It’s about how the biggest figures in TradFi are bullish on Ethereum and the crypto industry as a whole.

• Larry Fink is shilling $ETH and calling for an ETF approval

• Jamie Dimon describes $ETH as what he says could be a big blockchain

• Franklin Templeton, a $1.5 trillion asset manager, starts bull posting about crypto

Soon, there’ll be many more suits than hoodies in this space. Soon, every TradFi investor will want a piece of crypto. 

Right now, you’re still early! Make sure you don’t fuck this up. 

Let’s get into it. ⏬

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TradFi is Bullish on Ethereum 🐂

First up, we have Larry Fink – the CEO of BlackRock, the largest asset management firm in the world, with almost $10 trillion in AUM.

Larry went on CNBC and said this:

• He sees value in a Spot ETH ETF

• Everyone will have a tokenized identity

• Tokenization of all real-world assets is coming

• Tokenization will eliminate all corruption

He said all of this in the context of a Spot Ethereum ETF. Larry and BlackRock will do everything in their power to get this ETF live ASAP.

Not because they’re fans of crypto necessarily. But because they can make a shit ton of money from ETF fees. 💸

Okay, let’s move further to Jamie Dimon… He also went on CNBC and said that there are 2 types of cryptocurrencies.

One, the type that does nothing – referring to Bitcoin, calling it a pet rock.

Second, the type that has an embedded smart contract in its blockchain which we can use to buy and sell real estate and move data.

With the second type, he essentially described Ethereum (or smart contract platforms in general). 

Now, we cannot take what Jamie Dimon said for granted. I’m certain that he knows absolutely nothing about crypto.

He literally said (in this same interview) that Bitcoin doesn’t have a limited supply and that Satoshi would come back to change the 21 million supply cap and erase all Bitcoin forever.

He’s delusional and looks like he hasn’t spent a second in his life learning about crypto. 

However, I’m seeing a trend. And that’s tokenization. 

Both Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon get the idea of putting real world assets onchain. 

If you’re a PRO member, you’re already aware of this trend from our recent PRO report called “The Inflection Point For Real World Assets Onchain”.

If you haven’t already, I recommend you go back and read it. 

Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is one of the main onchain use cases that has potential to find a killer product market fit. 🎯

Read RWA Report Here

$1.5T Asset Manager Franklin Templeton Starts Bull Posting 🚀

For an hour on Wednesday, a few crypto degens on the Franklin Templeton team took over the X account. 

These posts need absolutely no introduction so I’ll just leave some of them below. They’re absolutely hilarious. 

Reference to the DogWifHat memecoin…

Bull post about Ordinals on Bitcoin…

Bull post on Ethereum…

Bull post on Solana… 

This shows us 2 things.

1. Crypto culture is going to revolutionize finance

2. TradFi will adapt to crypto, not the other way around

If you’re still not bullish, I don’t know what to tell ya, except that an Ethereum ETF is coming 🔜. Let’s talk about that. ⏬

Wrapping Up 🧵 A New Deadline Obsession: Ethereum ETF

Crypto isn’t going mainstream. It already is. 

• We have a Bitcoin ETF

• Larry Fink is shilling Bitcoin and praising Ethereum

• Jamie Dimon sees value in tokenization of assets

• Franklin Templeton is adapting their marketing strategy after crypto trends

On top of everything else, a Spot Ethereum ETF is coming this year (hopefully). 

On the 23rd of May, the SEC needs to make a final decision on VanEck’s ETH ETF application.

Hashdex and ARK also have their respective deadlines at the end of May.

Will we get approval by May? 

JP Morgan says there’s a 50% chance while Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says he expects a 70% chance.

These odds are lower than what Bitcoin got – 90% chance of approval. 

The reason for that is clear: Ethereum hasn’t yet been officially recognized as a non-security. 

To be clear… Ethereum is not a security. The fact that it has a Futures ETF shows that.

However, the SEC hasn’t officially said that yet. Until they do, it’s unlikely that they’ll approve a Spot ETF for ETH. 

So the approval might not occur in May. But regardless, I’m certain that it’s just a matter of time until the approval happens.

I’ll stick to my 2024 prediction that this ETH ETF comes this year. Let’s see. 👀

Thanks for reading frens and good luck out there. 🫶

Go explore the Sandbox x Red Cross collaboration. Earn $SAND and support a good cause!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a premium onchain report published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Launched in 2017 on Ethereum, Maker stands as one of the earliest applications developed on a blockchain.

Fast forward 7 years later (to today) and Maker is:

• 📈 Generating over $30 million per month in revenue

• 💰 Holds more than $5 billion in its treasury 

• 🔒 Has more than $8 billion of TVL on its platform

Despite all of this, $MKR has a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of less than $2 billion. 🤯

If you’re not aware, Maker is developing the $DAI stablecoin, which is the main source of Maker’s revenues. 

In recent events, Maker’s centralized competitor, Cicle ($USDC), has recently filed for an IPO in the USA.

This could mark a significant turning point in validating stablecoins and driving their mainstream adoption, which could be a catalyst for Maker.

Even before Circle’s IPO, Maker was looking like an undervalued asset, mainly because approximately 15% of its token supply was being force sold by specific funds, so the price was being held down. 

Looking ahead, there are some interesting catalysts coming from a soon-to-be updated $MKR tokenomic structure, an ecosystem rebrand and the potential of “The End Game”.

…more on all of this in just a second.

What’s the opportunity for you?

While $MKR is already up 3.5x from its lows in December 2022, it still has 3x to go before reaching its previous all time highs from last cycle. 

This makes $MKR a potential candidate to outperform our base asset, $ETH.

I’ve been watching this for a few months and I wish I wrote a PRO report sooner, (I had no time over the holidays!). But the story of Maker and the chance to see some exciting events happen this year is something I really want to share with you now.

Here’s what Maker has going for it this year and what we’re going to explain in this report:

• Earning $30 million monthly with significant growth potential and a reliable revenue stream in all market conditions

• Their main centralized competitor is about to go public

• Forced selling of $MKR by large funds has recently stopped

• A rebrand in the assets to simplify the MakerDAO ecosystem

• Upcoming "stock split" to reduce $MKR's token price (from $2,000 to less than $1)

• Implementing the End Game strategy to position Maker as the most intricate and decentralized protocol and DAO in the crypto space

Ok, before we get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s get everyone up to speed on just what Maker is and clarify the pieces of its ecosystem.

What is Maker? 🤔

The idea behind Maker was conceived back in March 2015 and brought to reality in 2017. Since then, Maker has been operating as a decentralized protocol running on the Ethereum blockchain.

It operates like a global reserve bank, introducing the concept of DeFi to the wider finance world.

The primary goal of Maker is to provide a USD stablecoin known as $DAI.

The protocol employs a system where users can collateralize assets like $ETH, liquid staked $ETH, $BTC, and other established tokens on Ethereum, to generate $DAI tokens. 

$DAI is designed to maintain a stable peg to the U.S. dollar. This stability is maintained through overcollateralization; users need to lock in more value of assets than the $DAI they generate.

Originally, Maker was created by the Maker Foundation, which held control over the protocol's contract during its launch.

However, on March 25, 2020, the foundation transferred control to MakerDAO, a DAO consisting of $MKR token holders.

MakerDAO's decentralized governance model involves $MKR token holders who make decisions around adjusting interest rates, determining collateral types and managing the overall debt limit.

So to be clear, here are the following pieces of the ecosystem:

Maker - A DeFI protocol on Ethereum
MakerDAO - The governing body of Maker
$MKR - The governance token of MakerDAO
$DAI - The stablecoin

One other important note about Maker is that the Maker team never built a Maker front-end for users to interact with it. 

Instead, Maker focused on building the protocol and allowed other teams to build front-end interfaces which users could interact with. 

Maker should be thought of as a decentralized protocol on Ethereum that apps can be built on top of, rather than an app itself.

The Solid Fundamentals Of Maker 💪

Uh, Oh... 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Web3 Academy PRO & Founding members!

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Today’s the day when the doors open for people to start farming $ISLAND – Nifty Island’s brand new token. 

There are 2 reasons why you should care:

1. Free money, duh 🙄

2. Nifty is doing this airdrop through a new, interesting and creative way, potentially paving the way for future airdrops. 

The hype is immense and most NFT communities will partake, including Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, and Milady.

This will be a fun one, that will certainly generate a lot of buzz… 👀

Luckily for you, starting today, you can participate in the so-called Play-to-Airdrop campaign, to get yourself an allocation of this token. 

In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you exactly how you can qualify to get $ISLAND. 

Let’s get into it. ⏬

What is Nifty Island and Play-to-Airdrop? 🏝

Nifty Island is a social metaverse and game hub where users get their own customizable islands. 

It combines gaming, NFT display and trading, and encourages community building and engagement through various activities.

Here’s a gameplay sneak peek. 👀

I see Nifty Island particularly important for existing NFT projects, because this is a platform where NFTs can be showcased and used in-game.

This is exciting for the world of NFT and web3 gaming, however keep in mind that it's different from big, popular web3 games.

Nifty Island doesn’t abstract away the web3 components (like Immutable) nor do they target the mainstream crowd (like Illuvium).

This is a rather small game for crypto fans, but it's still really important because it’s doing new things, which we can learn from. 

As always, the best way to learn is by doing, so let’s see how you can play this game and qualify for an airdrop in the process. 

Nifty Island introduced a new concept called 'Play-to-Airdrop' – a novel approach to token distribution, designed to be enjoyable rather than a grind. 

Players engage in the game to earn points, leading to an airdrop reward. 

Nifty Island emphasizes the importance of playing for fun, not just for the airdrop, and has implemented mechanisms to discourage repetitive, unengaging gameplay.

Let’s get into the details on how you can qualify for $ISLAND. 👇

Play games, earn $SAND, & support the Red Cross!

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by the Red Cross! The Red Cross has entered web3 with a series of quests on the Sandbox. For the first time, you can engage in the charity’s crucial missions in a virtual world of interactive games that earn you rewards, NFTs, and unlock donations to the Red Cross. 

Go Explore Now!

There are 125,000 $SAND tokens ready to be distributed to players and donors alike so Head to The Sandbox game page for entertainment, awareness, and a good cause!

How to Qualify for the $ISLAND Airdrop 🎈

The Play-to-Airdrop has 4 components. 

1. Airdrop Points & Blooms 🪙

In Nifty Island, players can earn a virtual currency called "Blooms" by either playing or hosting games. 

These Blooms serve two main purposes:

Upgrading Your Island: Blooms are used as an off-chain resource for enhancing and personalizing your island within the game.

Minting and Acquiring NFT Rewards: Players can use Blooms to mint or purchase game-ready NFTs from the marketplace.

If you’d like to further increase your Blooms, you can share your referral link to Nifty Island.

This will get you more points for your airdrop! 

TIP: To optimize the accumulation of Blooms, it's recommended to play regularly. 

By earning and then spending these Blooms on NFT rewards in the marketplace, you can further maximize your points.

2. Collector Tiers 🪜

The amount of $ISLAND tokens you earn from your points is influenced by your Collector Tier, which is determined by the NFTs you hold. 

If you hold any overpriced jpegs in your wallet, here’s where they could come in handy. 😂

How it works:

👉 Your tier is set based on the NFTs you own. There are seven different tiers in total.

👉 The impact of an NFT on your Collector Tier depends on its floor price. However, NFTs from partner projects receive a significant boost in their value towards your tier.

👉 Linking all your NFT holdings to a single account is advisable to optimize your Collector Tier and, consequently, your $ISLAND rewards.

👉 While it's possible to do well in lower tiers, the competition is tougher. Higher tiers offer a larger allocation of $ISLAND tokens per player.

This tiered system rewards players based on their investment in the NFT space, while also encouraging participation in the game.

3. Legendary Palms 🌴

Palms are unique assets that can increase your tier during the event. 

You can obtain Palms either by winning quests or purchasing them. This is the only component of this airdrop that you can pay for. 

FYI, Palms will increase your $ISLAND allocation but not your Collector Tier mentioned above. That’s determined by the NFTs you hold in your wallet.

4. Quests 🕵

Nifty Island will debut with a diverse array of quests, accessible to all players, alongside exclusive ones reserved for partner communities. 

These quests offer players the chance to engage in competitive activities to earn special rewards, particularly the Legendary Palms.

TL;DR: 

• Earn Blooms by playing or hosting games.

• Blooms are used in the game. Using them gets you points. 

• Share your referral link to boost your Blooms.

• Earn $ISLAND based on the value of your existing NFTs. 

• Complete in-game quests to get points and Legendary Palms. 

• Purchase Legendary Palms to increase your airdrop allocation. 

One last thing to note is that there are lots of different communities that get special treatment inside the Nifty Island. 

These include Aavegotchi, Sappy Seals, Bears on the Block and many, many other communities. 

If you own any NFTs, you should head to their Twitter – they probably announced the Nifty Island partnership if there is one! 

Start Earning $ISLAND 💰

To get involved with Nifty Island and get yourself some $ISLAND, follow these steps. 

First up, go to Nifty Island’s official website – be careful with links circulating on X today. 

Secondly, go to the Airdrop section on their website. 

Thirdly, Connect your wallet & start playing the game! 

Note: At the time of this writing, the wallet connect feature wasn’t open, so we were unable to explore the quests and intricacies of the game.

However, if anything interesting arises within the next few weeks, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Thanks for reading frens and good luck out there. 🫶

Go explore the Sandbox x Red Cross collaboration. Earn $SAND and support a good cause!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about Nike’s 2024 roadmap and how they are planning to take NFTs mainstream in 2024.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

One of the biggest brands in the world, Nike, has recently shared their web3 plans for 2024. 

Snippet: We could see Nike NFTs in a ton of popular video games this year, reaching hundreds of millions of players. 🤯

Today, I’ll give you a summary of dotSWOOSH’s 2024 roadmap. 

If you’re unaware, dotSWOOSH is Nike’s central hub for their ventures into web3, NFTs and virtual apparel.

dotSWOOSH allows users to engage with digital products and potentially co-create and earn from digital product royalties. 

As a quick recap beforehand, here are some of dotSWOOSH’s achievements in 2023 (2024 is planned to be even bigger):

Airphoria – a Nike-themed map available for a limited time for Fortnite’s 240 million players.

Those who participated on the map for at least 10 minutes were rewarded with digital sneakers.

Additionally, players could link Epic Games and Nike accounts for .SWOOSH achievements.

TINAJ (This Is Not A JPEG) Sneakers 

A pair of shoes exclusive for those who revealed at least 1 OF1 Box before October 16th 2023.

These were sold for $120 and members received a digital twin shortly after.

TINAJ Tee

A $55 t-shirt available to members who had the TINAJ AF1 and TINAJ virtual collectible in their .SWOOSH collection.

Free IRL Posters 

If you showed your dotSWOOSH ID in one of 12 particular stores in the US, you would have received a free OF1 poster. 

As you can see, Nike’s dotSWOOSH has been dabbling a lot with ‘phygital’ goods last year, and they said they learned a lot about ‘virtual products, co-creation, and self-expression’.

Well, it’s now time for dotSWOOSH to double down on this in 2024. Let’s explore how exactly they aim to do this… ⏬

Nike’s dotSWOOSH 2024 Plans 🗺

1. Nike In-game Wearables 👟

Nike’s #1 priority for 2024 seems to be virtual products, of which they’re promising a lot more in 2024. 

They’ve already been successful with the drop of the TINAJ sneakers mentioned above, but also with the drop of 57,800 Our Force 1 digital sneakers, which were revealed in May 2023.

They’re planning more of this, with a focus on utility inside a variety of video games.

Nike In-Game Wearables will be different from their digital collectibles (like OF1 or TINAJ) because you can purchase and wear these collections directly in your favorite video games. 

They have a partnership with EA Sports already, so we can expect games like FC24 (formerly FIFA), Madden and others to integrate NFTs in their game play. 

Get this: There are 700 million players in EA’s player network. While all of these aren’t active gamers, the reach is still immense. 

The role of NFTs in these games is still unclear, but imagine if you could dress LeBron James with your own .SWOOSH NFT sneakers, inside NBA Live. 😳

That would be nuts, and thanks to Nike’s huge reach and influence, they will most likely partner with the biggest video games out there. 

2. Phygital Items 🤖

Purchase a wearable inside a game? Unlock it in real life. 🔐

Following the great success of TINAJ Air Force 1s, Nike wants to double down on providing exclusive physical apparel and footwear in the real world based on purchased in-game wearables.

To unlock these products, you won’t even need to have a wallet – you’ll just link your game accounts to Nike.

To qualify? Buy .SWOOSH’s in-game wearables or digital collectibles.

3. Self-custody 🔑

Right now, if you have a dotSWOOSH ID and collectibles, you neither custody them nor can you sell them on secondary marketplaces.

dotSWOOSH says that they’ll allow members to off-ramp collectibles to their own wallets in 2024.

They also promise the ability to sell your collectibles. But where?

4. Marketplaces 🏪

First up, no, dotSWOOSH won’t build their own marketplace. 

They say this could be a distraction from focusing on the things that really matter for them – product creation and storytelling.

Instead, they will work with marketplaces that guarantee royalties to creators.

Huge! 

They said that they really value artists and creators and they want to make sure they benefit financially for the contribution of their art.

Here’s a thought… 🤔

Yuga Labs is building their own royalty-enforced NFT marketplace in response to OpenSea making royalties optional. 

Is dotSWOOSH waiting for Yuga’s NFT marketplace before introducing the ability to off-ramp?

They could be… And if that’s the case, then this will be huge for both parties. 🚀

The other option is Rarible, as they enforce royalties across their platform too.

Let’s see which NFT marketplace wins a massive partnership with Nike.

Wrapping Up – Nike’s Taking NFTs Mainstream 🌊

Many big brands have stepped back from web3 during the bear market…

• Reddit removed community points

• Meta removed NFTs on Instagram

• X removed support for NFT PFPs 

Meanwhile, Nike is moving ahead full throttle. 

Their 2024 plans with dotSWOOSH are a big deal, especially their partnership with EA.

This could be a game-changer, bringing Nike’s virtual collectibles to gamers all over the world.

It's not just cool—it could kickstart a new wave of interest in NFTs, making them a common part of our digital lives. 

So, keep an eye on Nike. They're not just playing the game; they're changing how we think about digital fashion and gaming.

Should we plan an onchain PRO report on Nike’s web3 endeavor? Should we analyze the strategy and business of dotSWOOSH and Nike’s other web3 studio RTFKT?

Let us know by replying to this email.

P.S. Web3 Academy PRO is still trading at 33% OFF for just 1 more day.

Learn more about PRO here.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

THE SPOT BITCOIN ETF HAS BEEN APPROVED. ✅

As of yesterday, we have 11 Spot Bitcoin ETFs trading LIVE, allowing anyone in the U.S. to buy Bitcoin the same way they’d buy a stock. 

The gates have been opened for institutional money to flood in, and on the first day, the ETFs have collectively settled over $4.5 billion in volume. 

The hype around Bitcoin is huge and crypto just became mainstream. This is a monumental moment in the history of cryptocurrency.

We've been waiting for this moment for 10 years – ever since the Winklevoss twins planted the seed.

What the hell happens now? In today’s newsletter, I will go over what everyone should expect to happen next.

The Timeline of the Bitcoin ETF Approval ✅

The odds of getting this ETF approved by January 10th 2024 was at 90% for a very long time, according to ETF analysts. 

But we didn’t get here without hiccups. 🎢

1 day before the official approval, the SEC X account was hacked because they didn’t use 2FA and someone posted a fake Spot Bitcoin ETF approval announcement. 🤦

When the ETF was officially approved, Gary Gensler came out and said this:

Translation: “Sure, the courts are twisting my arm to go through with this, so dive in if you must. But personally, I find it to be a shitty investment."

Completely inappropriate, especially when you consider that he was 1 of the 3 commissioners that voted yes on the ETF approval.

But hey, Gary made it clear that he hates crypto a long time ago, yet nobody cares! 

What everyone cares about is the fact that these ETFs have officially become the most effective instrument for institutions, pension funds, hedge funds, insurance companies and other big money players to get exposure to the best performing asset in the last 15 years.

Lesson: You can’t stop a permissionless technology so don’t even try. 

4 Reasons Why This ETF Matters 🚀

Firstly, billions of dollars will flow into Bitcoin. 

The Standard Chartered Bank estimates that up to $100 billion could be invested in ETFs this year alone.

Secondly, the ETF will become a backstop for pension funds and retirement accounts.

No financial advisor in this world will hesitate to recommend Bitcoin to its clients.

This is an asset that went up over 150% in 2023. Only a fool would tell its clients ‘don’t buy this crap’.

Thirdly, companies like BlackRock and Grayscale send out lots of financial advisors to encourage people to invest in Bitcoin. 

They do this because they make money from the fees when people buy their Bitcoin ETFs. 

The more people invest in these ETFs, the more money these companies make. 

So, they really want their advisors to get as many people as possible to add Bitcoin to their investments.

Essentially, Bitcoin just received a massive marketing budget and marketing team working for it around the clock, all over the world. 

This is exactly what happened to Gold…

Fourthly, “the Bitcoin ETF is the first ETF in history in which the underlying asset has a limited supply.”

Unlike most assets, where supply increases with rising prices, Bitcoin's supply remains fixed regardless of price changes. 

Think of it like this: for other assets, higher demand and prices lead to more production. 

But with Bitcoin, the supply stays the same even if demand and price soar. 

So, if demand for Bitcoin grows (as explained in my three points above 👆), the price is likely to rise, given the unchanging supply.

TL;DR: We’re taking off in the next 2 years. 🚀

But Bitcoin isn’t the asset that will benefit the most from this ETF. Ethereum will.

Ethereum ETF is Up Next 👀

Did you think that we’d be done talking about ETFs? Think again…

There’s already a new deadline to obsess over. 

In my predictions for 2024, I said that we’ll see a Spot Ethereum ETF this year.

But whether or not this will turn out to be true is irrelevant. All that matters is that starting today, the focus shifts from Bitcoin to Ethereum.

All of the hype that we’ve seen around Bitcoin over the last 6-9 months in anticipation of this ETF will now flock to Ethereum, in anticipation of its own ETF.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Bitcoin’s not going anywhere. A LOT of money will flow into $BTC this year and it’ll be very bullish.

However, I think that $ETH will outperform. This is typical during bull markets, and $ETH has been outperforming $BTC since the beginning. 

At the moment, we’re still at the early stages of the bull market, and during these times, $BTC is typically the stronger investment.

But now that we have the Bitcoin ETF, I see no reasons why money shouldn’t start flowing into $ETH. 

We’ll have to wait and see what happens. But if you’d like to receive my thoughts on the markets as we go, then you should join our PRO-only Discord.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

When should you sell your crypto this cycle? That’s the question!

In today’s report, we’ll tell ya.

What you’ll read below is a premium onchain report published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Deciding when to sell is going to be the hardest part of this cycle.

This is true because you won’t know when the top of the cycle is, but also because your emotions will be flying high at the riskiest times of the cycle.

Unfortunately, humans are terrible at controlling their greed and we get the most euphoric at the time we should be the most concerned (and vice versa). 

I discussed this in detail during my Top 5 Tips For The Crypto Bull Market PRO report.

But selling is tough because there are a lot of questions to be answered… 🤔 

• How do you know when it's the top? 

• How much should you sell?

• When do you buy back in?

• What if you sell too early and miss most of the gains?

• What if this is the “supercycle” and we don’t have a bear market again?

• How do I manage paying a hefty bill in taxes?

• Maybe I should just hold and never sell… 

During the bull market when your portfolio is going up 100% and down 40% on a monthly basis and Twitter or the media are predicting all sorts of things about where these assets are going next, these questions become even harder to answer.

They become a serious area of stress. 😓

Well today, before all that stress arises, we’re going to develop a plan. A plan that will account for all the questions above and make this cycle a breeze for you.

…not really, it's going to be absolutely wild and tough and there’s nothing you can do about it! But, failing to plan is planning to fail and this cycle… we’re not going to fail!

So let’s take a moment to think through selling and create a plan that will set us up for success.

Some Context For This Cycle ♻

Uh, Oh... 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Web3 Academy PRO & Founding members!

Good news, though! In celebration of the Spot Bitcoin ETF approval, we're offering you a discount.

33% OFF Web3 Academy PRO -- for a very limited time. ⏳

We're entering a period where billions (maybe even trillions) of dollars will flow into Bitcoin in the coming years, likely sparking a mega bull market.

The entire crypto ecosystem is about to explode.

Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, as well as the applications built on top of these networks will WIN BIG.

At the same time, a lot of crappy projects will go to 0. If you're not picking your investments wisely, you could fail... Don't let that be you!

Let us help you navigate this bull market and capitalize on the real opportunities that this crypto bull market will have to offer.

Hundreds of other PRO members are waiting for you on the other side.

Click the button below to learn more about what PRO has to offer & grab your 33% discount ASAP!

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P.S. - By going PRO today, you'll unlock immediate access to this report, where I walk you through my When To Sell Plan for this cycle.

You'll also get access to last week's report in which I shared my full portfolio, with % allocations.

The timing couldn't be better.

See you on the PRO side. ✌

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Why has $ETH underperformed against $BTC for months now and will that still be the case?

Let’s answer that and find out which asset you’re better off holding.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Play games, earn $SAND, & support the Red Cross!

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by the Red Cross! The Red Cross has entered web3 with a series of quests on the Sandbox. For the first time, you can engage in the charity’s crucial missions in a virtual world of interactive games that earn you rewards, NFTs, and unlock donations to the Red Cross. 

Go Explore Now!

There are 125,000 $SAND tokens ready to be distributed to players and donors alike so Head to The Sandbox game page for entertainment, awareness, and a good cause!

During the months when Bitcoin surpassed the market cap of Visa, Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway, Ethereum has been moving sideways like a crab. 🦀

Yesterday, it was so bad that the ETH/BTC ratio hit 0.048 – levels not seen since April 2021. 

As a refresher, when the ETH/BTC chart goes down, it’s showing that BTC has outperformed ETH and vice versa…

Many were starting to dance on Ethereum’s grave, calling for even lower lows and the death of $ETH.

But it didn’t take long for $ETH to prove its haters wrong and bounce back.

So what’s actually going on? Where is the ETH/BTC chart heading? And which asset should you be holding right now?

Let’s find out. ⏬

The ETH/BTC Ratio Explained 🧐

In addition to hitting 3-year lows, ETH/BTC is currently also on the cusp of breaking out of a symmetrical triangle pattern.

Yesterday, this breakout was looking to go downwards 📉, as you can see on the chart below. 

A downward breakout means the price is likely to keep falling, showing that sellers are in control.

Furthermore, ETH/BTC also dipped below a key support level at the price of 0.049. 

Both of these indicators suggested that $ETH would continue to underperform against $BTC. 

But because of today’s 5% surge, $ETH is back in the ‘safe zone’ as ETH/BTC is currently sitting at 0.053. 

However, we’re still not out of the weeds, as we have to wait for this week to close in order to draw any conclusions. 

That said, if ETH/BTC closes the week below 0.049, then we can expect $BTC to continue to outperform $ETH in the short-term. 

Why Is Bitcoin Outperforming Ethereum? 🚀

Firstly, because this is very common during bear markets and early days in the bull market. 

We’re still at early stages of the bull market, where FIAT money is flowing into the biggest crypto asset: Bitcoin. 

This is nothing new. It happens EVERY cycle. 

However, the main reason why Bitcoin’s been outperforming is because of The Spot Bitcoin ETF, which sort of got approved yesterday. 😂

Apparently, the SEC was hacked by someone who put out the announcement of the approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETF. 🤦

Anyway, the ETF has been the main focus for many months now, and investors have been choosing Bitcoin over any other asset in order to capitalize on this very anticipated event.

Bitcoin dominance has therefore been on a continuous rise, now approaching a significant trendline. 👇

If this trendline breaks upwards, then that’ll be very bad news for $ETH.

On the flipside, if the trendline is tested and holds (meaning it's rejected), it indicates that the market will start to shift its preference toward other cryptocurrencies.

We still need to wait for a monthly January close for a confirmation. So what happens remains to be seen…

In the meantime, we’ve determined that the Spot Bitcoin ETF has stolen Ethereum’s thunder, but what other factors are causing this $ETH stagnation? 🤔

Why Is Ethereum Not Pumping Right Now?

Reason 1: Celsius Drama

Remember Celsius? The lending and borrowing platform that filed for bankruptcy following the 2022 market downturn? 

Turns out they've been discreetly selling over $1 billion dollars worth of $ETH over the last months, in efforts to pay back their customers.

Recently, they’ve also unstaked over $1.3 billion worth of $ETH, which they’ll send back to customers as well. 

All of this has amounted to significant selling pressure on $ETH, which has been holding up surprisingly well.

The good news is that this Celsius saga is nearing an end, as most of their assets have now been sold or returned to customers. 

Reason 2: Everyone’s Sleeping on Ethereum 😴

As you now know, the money in crypto typically flows from FIAT → Bitcoin → Ethereum → Mid-cap Altcoins → Low-cap Altcoins.

But everyone that’s currently in crypto knows that. 

So what we’re witnessing right now is people seeking to front-run the money flow, hence starting investing in Low-cap Altcoins.

This is the reason why we’re seeing mini bull markets occurring in sectors further down the risk curve like memecoins, gaming, DePin and so on… 

This is happening because the theory of how money flows in crypto often applies to new investors (retail), who are yet to enter the market. 

So at the moment, we have a situation where:

1. Bitcoin is being driven by institutional money and those looking to front-run the ETF news

2. Altcoins are being pumped by degens looking to go down the risk curve

All while Ethereum is left hanging in the middle… Instead of hype and narrative, they have selling pressure from Celsius. Sad. 😢

Wrapping Up 🧵 What Should You Do?

Here are some facts.

1. A Spot Ethereum ETF is coming

I don’t know when, but it’s coming. Grayscale & BlackRock have already filed for a Spot Ethereum ETF.

My guess is that as soon as the Bitcoin ETF is officially confirmed (probably today), all eyes will turn to the Spot Ethereum ETF.

The hype you’re seeing now around Bitcoin will head straight to Ethereum.

2. Celsius can’t sell forever

Apart from Celsius, there doesn’t appear to be any other significant selling pressure. 

As soon as Celsius is done selling, $ETH should have a heavy chip off its shoulder.

3. Ethereum’s fundamentals look strong as hell

Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844) is coming very soon, which will lower fees on Ethereum L2s by orders of magnitude.

This will attract more activity onchain, which will burn even more $ETH…

Speaking of burning… over 700,000 $ETH has been burned in the last ~70 days. That’s insane. 🤯

So, to conclude, I remain extremely bullish on $ETH, and I strongly believe that it will outperform Bitcoin throughout this cycle.

With that said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bitcoin continues to dominate in the short-term, especially if the ETF is finally being approved today! 

Do with that information what you will.

Go explore the Sandbox x Red Cross collaboration. Earn $SAND and support a good cause!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about Coinbase: one of the most important companies in crypto and how it is about to double its revenue in this coming bull market.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Coinbase could literally DOUBLE their revenue within the next couple of years.

How?

1. By offering a new product: derivatives trading

2. By being a Bitcoin custodian for most Bitcoin ETF providers

3. By capitalizing on the come-back of retail investors into crypto 

Today, we’ll go deeper into each point, but, why should you care? 🤔

By being the most important company in crypto, Coinbase’s success is a proxy of the success of the wider crypto market. 📈

If Coinbase were to increase revenues by 100% in the coming years, that would attract a lot of eye-balls from Wall Street and further legitimize this industry. 

So it’s worth chatting more about this… 

Let’s explore how Coinbase can capitalize on the absolute largest sector in crypto, the derivatives market, to 2x their revenues by 2025. 

Billionaires wanted it, but 61,578 everyday investors got it first… and profited 

When incredibly rare and valuable assets come up for sale, it's typically the wealthiest people that end up taking home an amazing investment. But not always…

One platform is taking on the billionaires at their own game, buying up and fractionalizing some of history’s most prized blue-chip artworks for its investors. 

It's called Masterworks. Their nearly $1 billion collection includes works by greats like Banksy, Picasso, and Basquiat, all of which are collectively owned by everyday investors. When Masterworks sells a painting, investors could get a return. 

Offerings can sell out in minutes, but readers of this Web3Academy newsletter can skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link.

Disclaimer: Investing involves risk and past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures and aggregate advisory performance at masterworks.com/cd.

Overview of the Crypto Derivatives Market 🤑

Crypto derivatives trading is a bit like placing a bet on what the future prices of cryptocurrencies will be, without actually holding the coins yourself. 

Traders can amplify their potential profits by using leverage - this could be 2 times, 10 times, or even 50 times their original investment. 

However, it's a high-stakes game; if their prediction misses the mark and the price moves in the opposite direction, they risk losing their entire investment.

Over the years, the crypto derivatives market has become absolutely massive.

Check this out… 

This is the futures trading volume in crypto between February 2020 and October 2020 – the period just before we entered the 2021 bull market.

It’s showing daily volumes of around $20 billion, with the occasional spikes to $30 and $40 billion.

Now let’s zoom out to incorporate volumes during the 2021 bull market. 

A massive increase. From 10s of billions in daily volumes, various exchanges started to collectively record 100s of billions in futures trading volumes every single day.

The derivatives market has become so big that over 73% of the monthly volume in crypto comes from derivatives trading, not spot trading (where you actually hold your coins).

Over the course of this upcoming bull cycle, the derivatives market is set to grow tremendously and the companies that can offer this service can benefit massively. 

And Coinbase is looking to capitalise that… ⏬

P.S. We don’t condone the use of leverage in crypto, and recommend sticking to spot trading instead. However, from a business perspective, we can’t overlook the fact that the derivatives sector is by far the biggest one in crypto. 

Coinbase’s Piece of the Derivatives Market 🧩

Coinbase is currently in the process of launching their derivatives platform worldwide.

They recently entered into plans to purchase an EU-based company holding a “MiFID II” license, which would take them a step closer to offering derivatives services in the EU. 

Why is this a big deal and how will they make money? 

As showcased in the previous section, the volume in the derivatives sector is huge! Those who offer derivatives trading services charge a fee on all trades that occur on their platforms. 

So how much money could Coinbase make by launching this service?

Honestly, we have no idea, since we don’t know what kind of fees they will charge nor what kind of volumes they will settle.

However, a couple of researchers (Michael and Jay) went on the Bankless podcast a few months ago and made some educated guesses by looking at other players in this industry…

They chose Binance, who are charging a 0.05% fee from the volume settled on their platform.

In the past year, Binance settled anywhere from $8 billion to over $100 billion in trades every single day. 

That means that by charging a 0.05% fee on all trades, Binance made $4 million per day on their worst days and $50 million per day on their best days.

We can use these numbers to estimate how much money Coinbase would make by offering the same service that Binance does. 

During their podcast, Michael and Jay said the following:

1. Let's assume that Coinbase will charge a premium fee of 0.1% instead of Binance’s 0.05% (like they often do for all their products)...

2. Let's assume that Coinbase would reach to settle just 25% of Binance’s market share in the derivatives market…

If these 2 things would happen, then Coinbase would make around $3 billion per year. 🤯

In 2022, their revenues were $3.194 billion. Coinbase could double that by just offering this new product.

Again, remember that this isn't a certainty. We have no idea how much Coinbase will charge and what sort of market share they'll gain, as this product isn't launched yet.

But the potential is huge. And the best part? They’re not just relying on this new product for their revenues.

Here are 2 other revenue streams with big potential for Coinbase in 2024. 👇

Coinbase Will Make Bank in 2024. How?

First up…  By charging platform fees.

Coinbase charges 0.5% to 4.5% – depending on the cryptocurrency, transaction size and payment method – on each swap happening on their platform. 

During bull markets, they’re making a lot of money off of platform fees. 

For example, in 2021 (bull market), 88% of Coinbase's ~$7.4 billion revenue came from platform fees. 

On the flipside, in 2022 (bear market), Coinbase only made about $2.35 billion from platform fees. 

The reasons? 

1. In bear markets, most people stop trading

2. In bull markets. people trade continuously between tokens to chase pumps

3. In bull markets, retail investors FOMO back into crypto

Now, chances are very high that we’ll have a bull market in 2024, and Coinbase is set to make lots of money by charging their platform users.

Secondly… By being custodians for Spot Bitcoin ETF providers.

Coinbase will be the custodian for most Spot Bitcoin ETFs – which are set to be approved on Wednesday. 🤞

They will hold massive amounts of Bitcoin and charge a fee for this service.

While this revenue stream won’t be a big chunk of their overall revenue, it could still be a significant boost, depending on how much Bitcoin they will custody. 

So far, we’ve only covered 3 out of Coinbase’s 7 revenue streams. Get caught up on Coinbase’s whole business model by reading our recent PRO Report.

Read $COIN Report Now

Wrapping Up – Keep Your Eyes on $COIN & the Derivatives Market 👀

Coinbase is one of my favorite companies and I believe that 2024 will be a big year for $COIN, as I’ve said in Our 2024 Predictions 🔮 newsletter.

The best part is that recently, $COIN has experienced some turbulence so the recent price decrease could signal a good entry into the stock. 

I don’t expect this price to be at these levels for long, especially if we get a Spot Bitcoin ETF approval by Wednesday, something that Coinbase has a lot to benefit from. 

Apart from keeping your eyes on $COIN, I think you should pay attention to the derivatives market in 2024.

Again, I don’t condone using leverage. However, I also can’t ignore that this is the largest sector in crypto. 

So if you’re able to capitalize on the rise of the derivatives market in 2024, you could win big! 

Familiarize yourself with this sector and learn more about GMX, one of the projects at the forefront of this industry, by reading our recent GMX onchain report. 

Read GMX Report

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about one of the most lucrative airdrop ecosystems of 2024 - Injective.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Did you miss the recent Solana airdrops that distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to tens of thousands of people?

It’s okay! 

Airdrop SZN is still in full force and 2024 will be a huge year for free $$. That’s right, you still have time to qualify for a bunch of them, as long as you take action onchain!

In 2 recent newsletters, we highlighted airdrop farming opportunities within the Solana ecosystem and EigenLayer. You can still catch those so make sure you go back & check these newsletters out.

But for today, we’re shifting our focus towards one of the most lucrative ecosystems of 2024.

And that’s Injective – a Cosmos ecosystem-compatible layer-1 blockchain, enabling cross-chain transactions with the Cosmos SDK and IBC Protocol.

Injective is focused on DeFi apps, offering services like derivatives and lending on its network. 

Its native token, $INJ has been on an absolute tear with 2,800% gains in the past year.

I believe that this is just the beginning. We’re in a phase where a lot of attention and hype is shifting towards emerging ecosystems like Injective.

And you should be aware of what’s going on! 

This is a new ecosystem with token-less protocols that are planning to launch their tokens in Q1. The opportunity is pretty big.

Additionally, Injective could be the next big thing and as always, you can benefit the most by playing in the sandbox early on.

As mentioned, Injective is still very new and has also gone up an incredible amount recently. With this in mind, I of course do not recommend going all-in on $INJ. However, putting a piece of your portfolio into $INJ and using the capital to farm airdrops within its ecosystem may end up being very lucrative.

Let me tell you which apps you should check out on Injective, in the hopes of getting a hefty airdrop one day. ⏬

Bridging Assets To Injective 

Let’s start off by creating a Keplr Wallet, the best way to interact with dApps on Injective.

You can install it as a wallet extension here.

PRO TIP #1: While you farm airdrops and while you interact with many dApps, you should create a burner wallet – one that you only use for farming activities and not hold any funds that you plan to HODL long-term. 

This way, you minimize the risks of losing all your assets to a hack. 

Once you’ve set up a wallet, it’s time to bridge some $INJ (the native token of Injective). Currently, the best way to do this is through the official Injective Bridge. 

Connect your Ethereum wallet from which you want to bridge $INJ and put your Keplr wallet address where you want to bridge your assets.  

You can start with as little as 5 $INJ. However, to maximize your chances, I’d advise you to put in at least 11 $INJ.

Now that you’re all set, let’s start farming. 

Farming the Airdrops

To farm airdrops in the Injective ecosystem, there are 3 strategies that we’re going to use to maximize our chances. 

1. Staking $INJ

2. Mainnet Interaction: By interacting with dApps or protocols that are live on the mainnet. 

3. Testnet Interaction: By interacting with protocols that are not live yet, but plan to launch later this year.

The first step & probably the easiest way to farm an airdrop on Injective is by staking your $INJ on validator nodes. 

This is the exact playbook of the Cosmos ecosystem – we’ve seen projects on Cosmos airdropping tokens to $ATOM stakers.

Since Injective is part of the Cosmos ecosystem, chances are high that the new tokens on Injective will allocate good chunks of their drops for $INJ stakers. 

To stake your $INJ, head to the staking dashboard on the Injective Hub.

You can also use the Keplr dashboard, which provides a better interface for staking and governance.

Choose any of the 60 validators from the Keplr dashboard, click on delegate, and enter the amount of funds that you want to stake.

Keep in mind that staking will lock up your funds for 21 days. 

While you can choose any of these active validators, it’s advised to not choose the validators that are run by CEXs (e.g. Binance Staking), because projects doing airdrops blacklist CEX validators to preserve decentralization.

Also, depending on the validator you pick, it will open you up for airdrops from certain validators. 

Two validators that are currently doing airdrops for stakers are Black Panther and Talis Protocol. 

1. Black Panther 

Black Panther is a validator and a liquid staking derivatives platform. 

They're using the $POINT token (worthless) to encourage user participation before introducing their $BLACK token. 

Users will be able to exchange $POINT for $BLACK upon its launch. 

After two $POINT airdrop phases in 2023, another phase is expected in Q1 2024, preceding the $BLACK token launch.

So, I have dedicated some of my $INJ for staking via Black Panther.

To increase my chances of qualifying, I’ve also interacted with the Black Panther platform, and deposited some liquidity into their $INJ vault. 

This will also earn me a nice 229% APY while maximizing my chances for an airdrop. A win-win situation.

2. Talis Protocol 

Talis Protocol runs a validator and is the biggest NFT marketplace on Injective. 

Talis has mentioned that their airdrop will take place in January and that 5% of their supply will be distributed to people who stake $INJ via their validator, trade NFTs on their platform and hold popular NFT collections. 

While the snapshot for Talis hasn’t been taken yet, chances are high that it might happen anytime in the next 2 weeks.

So, I’ve staked some $INJ with Talis too.

To maximize your chances for the Talis airdrop, you should go to the Talis NFT marketplace and buy & trade NFTs. 

This is a more risky move as NFTs are obviously not as liquid as DeFi actions, so you could get stuck owning NFTs that you don’t want.

Keep that in mind as you do this.

Bonus Step: Governance

By staking $INJ, you also get to participate in governance and you can vote on active proposals to shape the future of the ecosystem. 

Not only this will help increase decentralization in governance, voting can also differentiate your wallet from bot wallets and that could really increase your chances of winning an airdrop in the future. 

To participate in governance, head over to the Keplr dashboard (or the Governance dashboard on the Injective Hub if you’re using MetaMask). 

Select active proposals that are currently in the voting period and start voting on all of these active proposals.

Now that we’re done with staking and governance, the next step is to interact with protocols & dApps on Injective.

3. Helix 

Helix is an orderbook-style decentralized exchange on Injective that offers swaps, spot trading, and perpetual trading with no gas fees. 

Although they have not officially confirmed an airdrop, they currently have a reward system that gives out $INJ & $TIA for trading activities, and there’s a possibility that there may be a potential airdrop opportunity in the future considering it is the premier DEX on Injective.

To farm a Helix airdrop, here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Swapped tokens on the dApp

• Did some Spot trading

• Traded perpetual contracts (careful on this one)

• Used their trading bots

Injective is a comparatively newer ecosystem, and currently, these are the three main protocols that are live on the mainnet. 

Now, if you want to go a step further and chase five or six figure airdrops, then interacting with the testnet protocols is probably the way to go.

Here are 4 early-stage protocols that cost $0 to farm right now. 

Testnet Protocols

1. Neptune Finance

Neptune is a peer-to-peer lending protocol. 

Since Neptune is not live on the Injective mainnet, we’ll use testnet tokens to interact with the protocol. 

If you’re not familiar with testnet tokens, these are fake tokens that aren’t worth anything, but they provide a way to interact with a protocol and play around the ecosystem. 

To get some testnet tokens, go to the Injective faucet, put your address in there, and request testnet funds. 

Once you get some testnet tokens in your wallet, you can connect your wallet to Neptune to proceed. 

When you connect your wallet to Neptune, it will automatically add the Injective Testnet to your Keplr Wallet. 

If it doesn’t, you can manually add it by going to Keplr’s Chainlist dashboard and searching for it.  

Then you can play around the Neptune dApp and lend/borrow the testnet assets to its pools.

Neptune has an active leaderboard, and they’ve officially stated that the top active users accruing points will be rewarded. 

2. Mito

Mito is an automated trading protocol on Injective. 

Head over to Mito, connect your wallet (Keplr or MetaMask). You need testnet tokens for interacting with Mito as well. 

So grab some testnet tokens from the faucet if you’re running short.

To maximize your chances, provide liquidity to different vaults and make some swaps.

3. Exotic Markets

Exotic Markets is a DeFi platform that helps you earn a sustainable yield. It started off on Solana and then decided to go multi-chain.

The platform is live on the Injective Testnet for a limited time, with plans to transition to the Mainnet in the coming weeks.

Head to the Exotic dashboard, make sure you’re on Injective Testnet, connect your Keplr wallet, and go to the “Single Products” page. 

Then pick these Upside and Downside vaults and deposit testnet tokens that we got from the Injective faucet.  

4. Aeroscraper

Aeroscraper is a governance-free, interest-free decentralized lending-borrowing platform. 

Head to the Aeroscraper Testnet website, select the Injective chain, and connect your Keplr wallet. 

Open a Trove to borrow AUSD by putting your testnet $INJ as collateral. 

Then, head over to the Stability Pool and deposit the AUSD that you just borrowed to the Stability Pool. 

You have to do these borrowing/lending activities every now and then to show real activity on your Aeroscraper account. 

Additionally, you can go to Zealy and complete these quests to maximize your chances. 

You will be asked to provide your Injective wallet address to keep track of all your activities on the Aeroscraper platform, Discord, and Zealy. 

You need to complete these tasks regularly and keep interacting with the Aeroscraper platform. 

Wrapping Up 

Airdrop farming is an extremely lucrative opportunity, and if you can spot an ecosystem like Injective very early, you can potentially earn thousands of dollars from airdrops. 

It’s all free money. But with free money comes risk. 

When interacting with DeFi applications that are at an early stage, it’s important to assess risks such as liquidations, smart contract exploits, etc.

It’s wise to always create separate burner wallets, and not hold any long-term or large funds in them.

Always follow official links and do not trust any links from any third party such as fake Twitter ads, profiles, and search results. 

My recommendation is to only farm notable projects that are officially backed by Injective and only allocate a small percent of your portfolio for farming. 

Remember, your main goal shouldn’t be ‘free money’. It should be to explore new ecosystems and dApps in order to make sense of where the onchain world is heading. 

That’s how you win in the long-term.

PRO TIP #2: Follow the official Twitter handles of the projects you’re farming on and add them to a list to keep track of the latest news & developments. 

Happy farming frens. ✌

Do you want more Airdrop farming guides like this one? If so, click reply on this email and type MOAR. That will give our analysts the signal to write more for you.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a premium onchain report published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

2024 is going to be a big year for those investing in crypto.

As always, I want to make sure you make the most of it.

That’s why today I’ve decided to share my exact portfolio going into this year. 👀

I’m going to share the assets I hold, where I put those assets to work and the % share across my portfolio.

This doesn’t mean that you should copy my exact portfolio, as we all have very unique financial situations and needs. However, this should give you an idea of what a well researched portfolio looks like.

My expectations for this bull run are to 5-10x my portfolio, which is wild considering I already did a 3x across my portfolio in 2023. This space is truly amazing!

For more information on how I think about setting up my portfolio, check out last month's PRO report called: How To Build Your Portfolio For The Bull Run.

Keep in mind that knowing what I hold is only one part of the story. Understanding when to sell each asset is even more important. 

This is why you should never blindly follow someone else’s portfolio.

While this will be different for all of us, in next week’s PRO report I will be sharing my “When To Sell Plan” to all PRO members. 

Heading into a big 2024, this should give you the foundational information you need to succeed in investing in web3.

Context for today’s report: I have an onchain portfolio as well as an offchain portfolio. My onchain portfolio is about 5x larger than my offchain one. I will share both portfolios below.

What’s not included in here is my cash and cash-like investments (treasuries), real estate, and businesses I own. These are my “hedges” in case the crypto industry collapses for whatever reason.

Ok, let’s get into it!

I will share each asset in order of largest to smallest allocation across my portfolio.

$ETH (55% of Onchain Portfolio)

My highest conviction investment by a longshot. 

I believe that $ETH has the potential to become one of the most important assets in the world one day. The rest of my portfolio is compared to $ETH in terms of risk/reward.

Most of my $ETH I don’t plan to sell, however I put plenty of it to work to earn additional APY (yield) and airdrops. I have recommendations and links for you below to do the same.

Below is my current $ETH setup:

Staked ETH

• 58% is held in $rETH on my Ledger earning ∼4% APY

• 15% is held in $stETH on my Ledger earning ∼4% APY

Airdrop Farming

• 5.4% is held in $STONE on Manta Network earning ∼4% APY and is farming the $MANTA airdrop.
  If you’d like to farm this airdrop, you’ll need an invite code. Here are a few that you can use. (Hurry as there’s 1 link per user).

  • Link 1

  • Link 2

  • Link 3

  • Link 4

  • Link 5

  • Link 6

  • Link 7

  • Link 8

  • Link 9

  • Link 10

  • Link 11

  • Link 12

  • Link 13

• 5.4% is held in $swETH and restaked on EigenLayer, earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the Swell and EigenLayer airdrop.
  
  To use Swell and farm the airdrop, follow this link here.
  To use Eignlayer, follow this link here.
  
  P.S. Be careful of fake links on the internet, especially for apps soon to airdrop a token. I recommend using the links I share in the article to be on the safe side. Also I get referral points, so it helps me out too 🙂

• 5.4% is held in $eETH (a liquid restaking token), earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the Ether.fi and EigenLayer airdrop.
  To use Ether.FI and farm the airdrop, follow this link here. (This one is much cheaper on fees as you only need to swap once)

• 5.4% is held in $rETH and restaked on EigenLayer, earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the EigenLayer airdrop.
  To use Eignlayer, follow this link here.

• 5.4% is just vanilla $ETH held on an old Trezor hardware wallet, this $ETH hasn’t been touched since I bought it for $150 in 2020!

This Cycle’s Plan for $ETH:

I don’t plan to sell any of my $ETH held onchain this cycle. 

I have a decent sized position in an ETH ETF within my Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) that I plan to convert into $USD later in the cycle for life purchases (tune into next week’s ‘When To Sell Plan’ for details).

Uh, Oh... 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Web3 Academy PRO & Founding members!

To unlock access to it & start receiving weekly onchain reports that will help you invest and build in web3, upgrade your subscription.

Go PRO Today

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about how Disney lost the IP rights to Steamboat Willie, how a Mickey NFT collection went from $2 to $1k and whether or not an NFT project could dethrone Disney in the future.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Imagine you start 2024 by purchasing a Mickey Mouse NFT for $2 and then sell it the same day for $1,000. 🤑

That’s what happened on Monday.

It all began with Disney losing its 95-year-old patent for the Steamboat Willie, which, under US copyright law, expired on December 31st, 2023. ⌛

Following the expiration of its copyright, Steamboat Willie entered the public domain, allowing global use for new interpretations of the character. 

Within the first day, there was a notable increase in creative reinterpretations, including announcements of films, horror games, and you guessed it, NFTs and tokens.

Let me tell you more. ⏬

P.S. – Read until the end to find out whether or not an NFT project could dethrone Disney. 👀

Truth Labs Launches Steamboat Willie NFT 

As the clock struck midnight on January the 1st, Alexander Taub, the co-founder of Truth Labs (the company behind Goblin Town), announced the creation of the Steamboat Willie NFT collection. 

• 2,000 supply

• $2 mint cost (0.001 $ETH)

• Max 5 mints/wallet 

• 24h deadline

While most people celebrated the New Year, some chose to mint NFTs and this collection sold out in about 40 minutes. 

12h later, the floor price of these NFTs was up to 0.42 $ETH (~$1,000). 

At the time of this writing, the floor price is down to 0.05 $ETH ($100) and unfortunately, some people got rekt after buying the top. 😢

But the hype around Steamboat Willie didn’t end here. Beeple made an Everyday capturing the big news…

And someone launched a Steamboat Willie PFP collection and is teasing a $MICKEY token airdrop.

At the time of writing, these PFPs cost around 0.22 $ETH ($500) and look kind of sick. 😅

But let’s go beyond the hype and speculative nature and talk about how IP truly works. 

Understanding NFT IP Ownership Rights

Companies losing their copyright protection isn’t news. This happens all the time. 

On January 1st, 2022, Disney also lost the rights to their original versions of Winnie the Pooh, illustrated by E.H. Shepard in the 1926 book. 

When that happened, the Winnie the Pooh IP was used in a horror movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. 

While the movie is horrible, the fact that someone could use a widely popular character to create their own interpretation remains powerful.  

In the web3 world, we’re familiar with another way to put IP into the public domain - a CC0 license, aka "Creative Commons Zero” - a term you’re probably familiar with.

This means that the creator waives all their rights to their work worldwide, allowing anyone to use, modify, and distribute the work without permission or attribution. 

Some notable CC0 NFT collections include: 

Nouns: Daily unique NFTs with a public domain release, featuring a community-driven governance structure.

XCopy: On August 1, 2022, iconic artist Xcopy released his work under a Creative Commons CC0 license.

Mfers: Minimalist stick figure art NFTs by Sartoshi, released under CC0.

Blitmap: Collaborative world-building NFT project with unrestricted creative use of its assets under CC0.

Loot (for Adventurers): NFTs of randomly generated "adventure gear" lists, encouraging community interpretation and collaboration under CC0.

And, of course, Goblin Town, the collection by Truth Labs, launched in 2022, which gained attention for its unconventional approach, including no roadmap or utility, and initially offering free NFTs.

Could an NFT Project Emerge as the New Disney?

The question on many minds in the NFT space is whether a project could rise to become the next Disney. 

Major players like Yuga, Doodles, and Pudgy are actively developing IP-based businesses, aiming - in their own ways - to replicate Disney's legendary success. 

In the race to become the next Disney, Goblin Town has stepped up with its roadmap, echoing Disney's initial strategy and clearly showcasing its ambitions.

Will any of these projects dethrone Disney? Nobody knows. Disney has been around for over 100 years so it’s waaaay too early to even guess. 

However, by leveraging onchain tools like NFTs and fungible tokens, new projects can grow exponentially, like never before. 

Over the past few years, NFTs and meme tokens have proven to be incredible tools for building communities with mass appeal. 

A few examples include Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Pudgy Penguins, etc…

These are all communities that have hundreds of thousands of highly engaged members and die-hard fans, something that huge brands like Disney don’t have. 

It’s clear that building communities onchain via NFTs and tokens is far more efficient than doing it the traditional way. 

NFTs can be used to control exclusive membership and protect IP rights while fungible tokens can be used to represent mass membership and community.

When you think about it this way, there’s no surprise that we’re seeing $WILLIE and $MICKEY tokens being dropped.

I’m not endorsing these tokens btw…

With that said, I think that the brands that are building communities onchain today will have a huge competitive advantage in the future as more and more people migrate onchain. 

Once these communities reach a critical mass, the collective value they create can be harnessed to achieve shared goals, build enduring projects and spread the IP, something that’s only possible onchain. 

The intersection of NFTs, IP rights, and community-building is fascinating and has clear potential. Right now, we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.

So, to conclude, I think that the next Disney may well emerge from this dynamic onchain world that’s rewriting the rules of entertainment, engagement, and ownership in the digital age.

But keep in mind that while that is possible, we’re far, far away from it becoming a reality.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

It’s prediction season and today, we’re making some predictions for the year to come.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Who could’ve predicted that in 2023…

• One of the most important people in crypto – CZ – could go to prison

• A public company – Coinbase – would launch an Ethereum L2

• An NFT collection – Pudgy Penguins – would sell toys on Amazon & Walmart

• A $10 trillion asset manager – BlackRock – would file for Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs

To get caught up on all the news from 2023, skim through our Year in Review newsletter here.

Most people wouldn’t have been able to predict those things at the beginning of 2023.

Just like nobody can predict what’s to come in 2024. However, by applying some rationale and industry insights, we can try! 

We actually predicted some stuff last year in our 2023 predictions article, and we got some cool stuff right. Read about that here. 

This year, we’ll try again, and hopefully we can get a few more things right. Let’s try anyway. ⏬

Kyle Reidhead – Co-founder & Onchain Sleuth ⛓

ETF Approvals and Filings 

I'm expecting BTC and ETH spot ETFs to finally get approved in the USA. 

I also think that in 2024, a Solana spot ETF will be filed but it won't see approval just yet.

Coinbase Market Cap Surge 

I believe Coinbase ($COIN) is set to reach new all-time highs, going beyond a $100 billion market cap.

From current levels, $COIN needs to go up another 127% in 2024. If that happens, it’ll catch Wall Street by surprise and crypto will benefit big time from this. 

Crypto Hits New All Time Highs

I predict that $BTC, $ETH, and $SOL will reach new all-time highs in 2024. 

$BTC > $69,000
$ETH > $4,900
$SOL > $260

For more details, check out my separate predictions for their growth throughout the 2024-2025 bull cycle.

Solana's User Base Explosion 

In terms of daily active users, I see Solana becoming the number one chain, with over 10 million DAU. 

At the moment Solana is behind the BNB chain, with just 567k daily active users. 

I’m predicting a 17x increase from current levels. 

Layer 2 Total Value Locked (TVL) Growth 

I foresee Layer 2's TVL soaring past $100 billion.

That’s a 5.07x increase from the current $19.7 billion TVL. 

No Gas Fee L2s and Applications Are The New Meta

You want cheap gas fees? How about no gas fees! That’s going to become the norm for applications and entire L2s in 2024.

Once EIP 4844 launches in Q1 2024, this will be more feasible on Ethereum. Immutable is already doing this, as well as Polygon ZKEVM when using the Immutable passport (a specific wallet).

This is the end game for crypto and we will start to see it come into fruition in 2024.

Web3 Gaming Popularity + Immutable Supremacy 

My prediction is that three web3 games will hit over 5 million monthly active users, and at least one of them will be on Immutable. 

I also expect Immutable to emerge as the top L2 for users and transactions.

Corporate Ventures into Layer 2 

I anticipate that two publicly traded companies will launch their own Layer 2 solutions, moving beyond Coinbase's initiatives.

X's Crypto Trading Feature 

I'm predicting that X (Twitter) will introduce a wallet or integrate crypto payments within its app.

NFT Market Growth 

I believe that weekly NFT volumes will surpass previous records of $3.2 billion from 2021.

Right now, weekly NFT volumes across all chains are $207 million.

Stablecoin Market Cap Expansion 

The stablecoin market cap will exceed $250 billion, which is almost 2x its current value ($129.9 billion) and 25% more than the previous all-time high in April 2022. 

Rise of KYC Applications 

I expect a significant shift towards KYC (Know Your Customer) apps and KYC liquidity, gaining real traction in the market.

This will confuse the shit out of Crypto Twitter and everyone will lose their minds. 

Jay Hamilton – Co-founder & Elite Podcaster 🎙

Bitcoin Milestones

I expect a spot ETF for Bitcoin to be approved & BTC to break the $100k price barrier.

Ethereum Developments

A spot ETF for Ethereum will also be approved & $ETH will surpass $10k in value, outperforming every mega-cap tech stock.

Additionally, post EIP-4844, Ethereum L2s will become increasingly significant, capturing most of the EVM-compatible Total Value Locked (TVL) and volume.

Solana Predictions

A Solana spot ETF will be filed before the ETH ETF is approved & $SOL will reach and surpass $500.

NFT Minting Volume Surge

DRiP, a platform on Solana, will lead in NFT minting, creating over 1 billion NFTs.

Growth in Wallet Usage

The number of active monthly wallets will double to 40 million, far exceeding the previous all-time high of 19.5 million in May 2023.

I also predict Starbucks Odyssey to open to the public and onboard 5 million wallets – this was my prediction last year too. 😅

Corporate Blockchain Initiatives

Amazon and Microsoft will launch major blockchain infrastructure projects.

US Election Predictions

I foresee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becoming the next POTUS.

But, the US election will see a massive surge in AI-generated content, which will drive the adoption of blockchain as a verified identity solution.

Impact of Political Events on Crypto

Political events and elections worldwide, including the US election, will drive the price of Bitcoin upwards. 🚀

Raul Chisluca – Content Writer & Shitposter on X ✍

ETF Approvals 

I foresee a BTC ETF being approved early 2024, but ETH won’t get an ETF in 2024.

Ethereum Outperforming Bitcoin 

I am confident that $ETH will significantly outperform Bitcoin and the ETH/BTC price will reach the 2018 highs of 0.11.

This means that $ETH will outperform $BTC by 2x.

Bitcoin Halving Impact

The upcoming Bitcoin halving will be a 'sell the news event,' and Bitcoin won’t reach its all-time highs until after the summer of 2024.

In Q4, $BTC will surpass ATHs and enter price discovery, heading towards $100k – but won’t reach it by the end of 2024.

TL;DR: $BTC to $69k–$100k in Q4 2024.

Web3 Gaming Milestone 

At least one game with web3 features will reach 1 million monthly active users.

This game will be one of the 100+ games on Immutable that will go live in 2024.

Coinbase's Growth and Influence 

Just like Kyle, I predict $COIN to reach its ATHs. 

Additionally, Coinbase will continue to play a crucial role in improving the regulatory landscape for crypto in the US. 

Rise of Web3 Wallets

Web3 wallets that cover in-app fees are going to gain more adoption and start competing against neo-banks.

Coinbase Wallet is the one I’m most excited about. 

Onchain Crypto Cards 

I envision a new way for people to spend their crypto directly from non-custodial wallets through onchain crypto cards.

xPortal & Safe are 2 wallets that have this already – I expect both to rise in popularity quite a lot. 

Crypto Conferences Hitting New Highs 

Real-life crypto conference franchises like Token2049, Permissionless, European Blockchain Convention, Bitcoin2024, etc., will see record numbers in terms of attendees.

Token-Incentivized IRL Apps 

Applications like Sweat & StepN that reward users with tokens for doing IRL activities will be re-born and onboard millions of people onchain.

L2s and Polygon's Ascendancy 

The L2 narrative will dominate 2024 but Polygon, especially after its upgrade to 2.0, will lead the pack. 

I predict they will have the most Total Value Locked, Monthly Active Users, and dominate other L2s across key metrics.

Launch of $BASE Token 

This is a moonshot that I’m not too confident about, but I do have a feeling that the $BASE token will be introduced in 2024, with the goal of decentralizing the Base L2 blockchain.

The launch of $BASE will occur sometimes in the middle of the L2 narrative (which will be crazy).

Web3 Academy DOers Rise Up 🚀

As of now, there are 9,700 DOers reading this newsletter. By the end of 2024, I predict we’ll be over 50,000.

This is the only thing that we at Web3 Academy can control out of all of our predictions and we’ll do everything in our power to grow this beautiful community. 🫶

Tyler Galbraith – Content Producer & Shitcoin Magnet 💩

Well, in order to live up to a prestigious name like “Shitcoin Magnet” I’ll have to steer clear of the “BTC ETF gets approved” predictions and really swing for the fences. So here goes nothin…

Winter of Cosmos

Cosmos?

Ya bro. Cosmos has tons of new (tokenless) protocols up and running and there will be no one to compete with for securing those airdrop bags. Know why?

First, everyone is on Solana trying to airdrop farm after that $10,000+ JITO drop but now the ecosystem is flooded and rewards will be diluted.

Second, it’s the most confusing blockchain I’ve ever used (sorry, “network of blockchains” 🙄) so people will probably just give up while trying to farm here…

ETH Spring

I think the ETH ETF gets approved swiftly after BTC and we see average Joes/Janes pumping their 401Ks with that sweet ETH by the end of spring. Luckily I’m in Canada and have had my old man filling his TFSA with BTC and ETH ETFs since the Summer.

Shitcoin Summer

Like DeFi summer but better! This means sell all your bitcoin for BONK late spring. Just kidding, don't do this, I’m just trying to live up to my name.

But in all honesty I think we see some repetition of past cycles in Q3/Q4 of this year and see some outrageous pumps to a good chunk of those spicy small cap alts. Make sure to take profits cause last cycle I didn’t and that’s why my predictions go last.

Winter Wonderland

BTC over 100k?? I think so!

$9,000 ETH??? Maybe?? Who knows.

Solana in the #3 spot for total market cap??? Why not?

I’ll be locking in some profits and curling up on my couch with a cozy blanket while I watch the prices continue to move up only and kick myself for selling anything at all. 

What Are Your Predictions for 2024?

Reply to this email with at least 1 prediction and we’ll give you a free 7-day trial to Web3 Academy PRO to start the year off strong! 💪

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

What will the onchain world look like in 10 years? 👀

Will we still need to connect wallets, approve transactions, bridge assets and care about which blockchain we’re using? 

DEFINITELY NOT!

If we do then web3 will be dead. 💀

I am certain that all of these clunky web3 features that we’re dealing with today will be abstracted away from users, offering a frictionless experience.

Why am I so certain? Because we already have onchain applications today that feel like your average web2 apps. 

Sound.xyz is one of those apps. 

Today, I wanted to put them under the microscope and observe the steps they’ve taken over the years to build an app that:

• Hosts 1,300+ artists

• Is used by 850,000 collectors 

• Has settled 1+ million mints

• Has done $4.2 million in total minting volume

This is important for…

• Users to get a clear vision of what the onchain world will look like

• Builders to understand successful blueprints when building their own onchain apps

• Investors to understand which apps and tokens are built to succeed

Let’s jam.

🎶 What is Sound?

Sound.xyz is a music platform that leverages blockchain technology to create a new way for artists and fans to connect through tokenized, limited edition releases of songs.

Here’s, more specifically why you should care:

Limited Edition Drops: Artists can release a limited number of tokens for a particular song. Fans who purchase these tokens become exclusive owners of that edition, similar to owning a limited edition vinyl.

Fan Engagement: Token owners might get special perks, like access to exclusive online events, Q&A sessions with the artist, or behind-the-scenes content.

Community Building: By owning a token, fans become part of a community centered around the artist. This can lead to discussions, fan art creation, and a deeper connection with the artist.

Resale Opportunities: Fans can resell their tokens on the blockchain, potentially at a higher value, especially if the artist becomes more popular.

Supporting Emerging Artists: This model can be particularly beneficial for emerging artists, who can directly monetize and engage a dedicated fan base without the need for traditional music industry infrastructure.

The Sound app has been in development for years, but opened up to everyone in July 2023.

Let’s look at what Sound has done to create an appealing application.

🚀 Build on an L2

Shortly before going live, Sound announced that they’re building on Optimism.

And last week, they announced they’re building on Base too.

Why? Because of the lower gas & faster transactions that an L2 offers. 

In order to support millions of artists, and billions of users in the future, Sound, and every other onchain app need this scalability.

The only place you can find it right now is either L2s (Arbitrum, Base, Polygon) or Solana. Nothing else comes close! 

🤳 Mobile-first

I don’t know about you, but whenever I listen to music, I use my phone. Although I have Spotify on my MacBook, I tend to never use it via laptop. 

Mobile is a way better experience, which is why it’s key for onchain apps to build and optimize their mobile experience. 

This has been a priority for Sound since the beginning. They launched an app before opening to the public. 

Due to Apple's 30% fees on in-app purchases, Sound has restricted song minting to desktop only, with the minted songs accessible on the mobile app. 

Discover more about how Sound and others like Uniswap, Axie Infinity, & StepN are circumventing Apple's restrictions in our newsletter.

Additionally, this week, Sound acquired Soho, a leading mobile app for digital collectors, built by a team from Meta, who’ll join forces with the Sound team to build out the mobile experience further. 

💳 Pay with Card

Do you want everyone to use your onchain app? Allow people to pay with a debit or credit card! 

On Sound, when you mint a song, you pay a small fee (to Sound & the artist) even if this is a free mint. 

When doing this, you get to choose if you want to pay in $ETH or in FIAT using your card. 

If you choose to pay in $ETH, you have 2 options: 

1. Use your existing wallet (Coinbase, MetaMask, etc…)

2. Deposit $ETH to a wallet that Sound creates for you

If you choose to use your own wallet, but don’t have funds on the Optimism blockchain, you can use Sound’s native bridge to send $ETH (mainnet) to $ETH (Optimism).

This is a huge UX boost as you never have to leave the app to bridge your funds.

It’s more expensive to bridge via Sound versus other bridges like Matcha or Hop but most people won’t care since they care more about convenience. 

Besides, if you want to, you can choose to never even use a wallet, and instead just use your email address & credit card. 

🤑 Curator Rewards

If you’re building an onchain app, ask yourself: What features can you offer that aren’t possible in web2?

For Sound, this feature is rewarding curators. 

How do most people find new songs? Via playlists!

Playlists are crucial for music discovery, underscoring the significance of curators putting them together.

On Sound, anyone can be a curator by sharing songs, creating playlists or by embedding songs and playlists into websites, blogs, or newsletters, and earn 5% from every primary mint generated from referral links.

This feature is not present in traditional web2 platforms where curators' contributions go unrewarded.

📣 Marketing Campaigns

Lastly, if you want your app to succeed, you need marketing. D’oh!

Here are a few examples that Sound used to spread awareness.

1. Partnership with Coinbase Wallet in which anyone who collects one of five songs earns $OP – this is a farming opportunity right now.

   

2. Getting big artists like Snoop Dogg to post exclusive tracks on Sound. 

3. The V Buterin song by Optimism Collective, which went viral and gathered 732k mints. 

🔮 Get a Glimpse of the Future of Onchain Apps

“Use the tech” – that’s what I said in our ‘Top 5 Tips for This Bull Market’ PRO report.

You can’t understand what the future of web3 holds unless you’re actively using it now! 

With that in mind, I urge you to head to Sound.xyz, and:

1️⃣ Sign in & create your Sound profile

2️⃣ Make sure you’ve got some $ETH on Optimism to be able to collect a song — if you don’t, you can bridge directly on Sound

3️⃣ Collect a song on Sound 

Once you collect a song, you can share it with others and you’ll get 5% revenue from all future collects coming from your referral link.

These 3 simple steps will take you up to 5 minutes to complete and you’ll get to experience the future of onchain apps. 

Remember, the best way to make sense of this onchain world is to actually use it!

Take care my friends. 🫶

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

What you’ll read below is a premium onchain report published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

What a year 2023 has been for the onchain world.

• 2023 was the year that many began to understand that onchain IS the next online

• 2023 was the year that showed us that onchain was once again NOT “dead”

• 2023 was a big year and 2024 looks to be setting up to be even bigger.

To help us understand where things are heading, it’s always wise to take a step back and look at how we got here.

In today’s PRO report we are doing a 2023 year in review: Onchain edition.

We already did a review of the news and events that shaped our industry in 2023, now we move deeper to real onchain analysis across the crypto and web3 ecosystem.

We’re looking at where the value ($$) accrued in 2023, where the users went as well as where the most activity was. From chains to apps, we’re doing a full onchain review of 2023.

This will set us up to understand past and current trends and help us to make big decisions for this current cycle.

So let’s not waste anymore time and get into it…

Where Did Value Accrue Onchain?

Let’s start with the most obvious and yet the most exciting.

More than $890 billion dollars moved onchain throughout 2023, as seen by the increase in the total crypto market cap.

Uh, Oh... 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Web3 Academy PRO & Founding members!

To unlock access to it & start receiving weekly onchain reports that will help you invest and build in web3, upgrade your subscription.

Go PRO Today

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about the top 29 news of 2023 that shaped the web3 industry to what it is today.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

In the spirit of the holidays, I'm keeping it brief but exciting. 

Today's newsletter is a special one: a quick dive into the top 29 crypto and web3 stories of 2023. 

These highlights are handpicked to give you a snapshot of the year's most significant developments.

Here’s an infographic with the top news from 2023.

Now, if you’ve got some time to spare, let’s take a deeper look into each event. ⏬

January 1st – Solana Dead at $8? 💀

Things didn’t look good for Solana at the start of the year – every metric was at all-time lows!

• $SOL was at $8

• TVL was at $200 million

• Daily onchain volume barely surpassed $50 million

When that happened, we published a report on Solana, suggesting that its best times were still ahead. 

What a comeback it's been for Solana!! 

January 25th – dotSWOOSH Studio Launch 👟

Nike introduced their web3 studio, which allows the community to co-create Nike products.

February 14th – $BLUR Airdrop 🎈

The airdrop was probably the biggest part of a great marketplace war, which started in 2022 with the launch of Sudoswap – a marketplace without royalties. 

The NFT community woke up to the fact that royalties weren’t enforceable onchain…

So Blur launched its marketplace in October 2022, with no royalties and a 0.5% platform fee (cheaper than anyone), and promised an airdrop, which happened on February 14th.

As a reaction, OpenSea dropped their platform fees and made creator royalties optional.

Despite their efforts, OpenSea continued to lose market share because traders were flocking to Blur to farm the Season 2 airdrop.

In August, OpenSea decided to drop royalties entirely. Yuga Labs said they were leaving OpenSea as a result.

On Nov 21st, BLUR Season 2 airdrop was complete, while OpenSea was still lagging behind. 

A big year for NFT marketplaces.

February 23rd – Coinbase Announces Base L2 ⛓

The ‘onchain’ narrative was born with the announcement of Base.

March 16th – Arbitrum Airdrop 🔵

Arbitrum Foundation dropped 1.162 billion $ARB tokens, worth a whopping $1.4 billion today.

It was by far the biggest airdrop this year.

Fun Fact: Over $55 million in $ARB tokens were not claimed – this money went to the Arbitrum DAO treasury.

March 17th – Balaji’s $1M Bet 😲

Balaji made a crazy $1 million bet that Bitcoin would go to $1 million in just 90 days because the dollar would hyper inflate. He lost! 

While we’d love for Bitcoin to be at $1 million right now, we’re grateful that the dollar didn’t hyper inflate – that would’ve been very dark for the economy.

April 12th – Ethereum’s Staking Unlocked 🔗

Ethereum’s Shappella upgrade occurred successfully on April 12th, allowing any stakers to unstake their positions.

While many were expecting a big withdrawal, new stakers actually flocked to stake onchain. 

Learn more in our staking-as-a-service report. 

May 11th – WorldCoin x Optimism 👁

WorldCoin is a project aiming to distribute digital currency to as many people as possible worldwide, using a unique biometric orb to scan users' irises for identity verification.

Learn more about WorldCoin here. 

In May, they announced that they’re building their platform on top of the Optimism mainnet.

Sam Altman, the most important CEO in tech right now, is building on an Ethereum L2. 🤯

May 16th – Ledger Recover FUD 😨

Ledger decided to launch ‘Recover’ – an optional & paid service which would help users regain access to their secret phrase in case they lost it. 

The crypto community raised concerns about the security, wondering how it’s possible for Ledger to find out your secret phrase.

Many started to boycott Ledger, but we clarified the situation here. 

May 19th – Pudgy Toys on Amazon 🐧

The NFT project of the year, Pudgy Penguins, launched their Pudgy Toys on Amazon.

June 5th & 6th – SEC Sues Binance & Coinbase 🧑‍⚖

Binance was sued for commingling funds, while Coinbase was sued for ‘operating as an unregistered broker’.

While people thought these lawsuits were identical, they weren’t.

The Coinbase lawsuit was a nothing burger while the suit against Binance proved to be a big problem.

More here.

June 8th – 55 Cryptocurrencies Deemed Securities

The reason Binance, Coinbase and even Kraken got sued was because ‘they listed securities on their platform’.

Along with the lawsuit, the SEC issued that these 55 currencies were securities.

Just 1 months after this, they said that XRP wasn’t a security (keep reading 👇), which means that most of these aren’t either.

June 16th – BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF 🟠

BlackRock’s Spot Bitcoin ETF filing marked one of the biggest milestones for crypto in 2023, as it totally legitimized this space and sped up the process of getting a Spot ETF approved for Bitcoin. 

July 14th – XRP is Not A Security 🥳

After many years spent in court battling against the SEC, XRP was deemed not a security.

This means that 90% of cryptocurrencies today are also not a security, which marks them as safe! 

August 1st – BASE Onchain Summer 🟡

Coinbase’s L2 – Base – went live in late July and a meme token called $BALD rose to almost $100 million market cap. 

This generated a lot of attention for Base, who, on August 1st, launched possibly one of the greatest marketing campaigns in web3  – Onchain Summer – a 30-day period of daily NFT mints & other fun onchain activities. 

Even Coca Cola got involved. 

August 7th – Paypal Launches USD Stablecoin 💲

PayPal announced the launch of their own stablecoin: $PYUSD, an Ethereum-based token.

Later, this stablecoin was integrated into Venmo, a neo-bank used by 83 million Americans. 

August 11th – FriendTech Goes Wild 🫂

FriendTech, a social app where users can hold the keys of their favorite influencers, launched on Base and saw overwhelming success.

This application then went on to generate insane value for an entire ecosystem.

Read our FriendTech onchain report here.

August 29th – Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against SEC 🏆

Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the SEC for being discriminated against in the SEC’s decision of disapproving the Spot Bitcoin ETF.

Grayscale won this lawsuit & the SEC had to review their application again. 

September 5th – Visa on Solana 💳

Visa announced that they were extending their stablecoin settlement capabilities to Solana. In my opinion, this is what started to make people realize that Solana isn’t dead.

Shortly after this, MakerDAO looked to fork Solana, who became the hottest kid on the block.

September 24th – Pudgy Toys in Walmart

Pudgy Penguins launched its toys in Walmart in what probably was the biggest week for NFTs in the past years.

October 11th – Farcaster Goes Public 🌐

The first fully onchain and decentralized social application, Farcaster opened its doors for everyone, putting pressure on competitors like Lens & DeSo to open up themselves.

November 3rd – SBF Found Guilty 🖕

After FTX’s collapse in 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial concluded with a guilty verdict, and he faces decades in prison​​.

November 9th –  BlackRock ETH ETF

BlackRock didn’t just file for a Bitcoin Spot ETF this year, they also applied for one for Ethereum.

Once the BTC ETF is approved, one for ETH will follow shortly.

November 21st – Binance DOJ Settlement

Binance accepts a $4 billion fine in their settlement agreement with the DOJ while CZ pleads guilty to fraud charges and steps down as CEO.

Full story here.

November 28th – Illuvium on Epic Games Store

The most anticipated web3 game (built on Immutable) launched on the Epic Games Store, a platform used by over 230 million gamers.

December 1st – Solana Airdrop SZN Begins

The $PYTH, $JUP & $JTO airdrops injected over $1 billion into the ecosystem, and every other project started to tease airdrops. 

We wrote about top airdrop farming opportunities here.

Also, this led to onchain points becoming the new meta for the rest of the year. 

December 7th – Flipkart Launches L2

Flipkart, the Amazon of India, with 350 million customers, launched an L2 using Polygon’s CDK tool-kit to scale its onchain loyalty program.

December 15th – Ledger & NFT Trader Hacks

The Ledger Connect Kit – aka the ability for users to connect to dApps using their Ledger – was exploited. Users were asked to DO NOTHING – anything they did would make things worse.

A few hours later, NFT Trader got exploited and everyone who used this platform in the past had their NFTs exposed – instead of doing nothing, people were asked to revoke all permissions.

2 of the biggest hacks this year happened within hours – insane. 

December 19th – Inscriptions Going Mad

Inscription NFTs made their way from Bitcoin to EVM chains & congested a bunch of networks.

• 90% of all transactions on Avalanche were inscriptions

• Arbitrum went down for over 1h because of congestion

What are inscriptions? Read all about 'em here.

Wrapping Up 🧵

What a year… 

• $BTC, $ETH & $SOL are up 100s of % YTD

• Billions of dollars have been airdropped

• Solana had the greatest comeback of all time 

• Pudgy is definitely the NFT project of the year

• The SEC got its ass whooped

• Onchain apps have started to go mainstream

• We got rid of all bad actors in crypto

• We’re closer than ever to a Spot Bitcoin ETF

And guess what? It can only get better from here! 

On January the 1st, a newsletter will hit your inbox, containing our top predictions for 2024. We’re more bullish than ever & I suspect you are too.

Here’s to an even better year in crypto. 🍻

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we’re talking about EigenLayer, a data availability protocol that is helping speed up transactions on Ethereum, and how you can farm an EigenLayer airdrop.

What you’ll read below is a newsletter published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Everyone on Crypto Twitter is calling for the death of Ethereum. 

It’s absolutely hilarious – it gives me the same vibes like back in January when everyone called the death of Solana. 😅

When that happened, I shared my thoughts on why Solana was far from dead & likely to come back very soon. You can read all of that here – it’s free content. 

Anyway, amidst all of the noise, potentially one of the biggest things to ever happen on Ethereum is happening right now.

Meet EigenLayer – a highly complicated and technical protocol that has potential to make $ETH the most important asset in the world.

I’ll do my best to explain it in simple terms below…

The reason this is newsworthy right now is that EigenLayer just released Restaked Rollups – enabling Ethereum validators to secure multiple applications, boosting Ethereum's scalability and efficiency.

This is absolutely massive for Ethereum and I think you should care because a massive airdrop could be coming soon too.

One that could be bigger than $ARB ($1.5 billion) and $ENS ($1 billion). 🤯

Keep reading until the end – I’ll also tell you whether or not $ETH is dead. LFG. ⏬

EigenLayer – Here to Accelerate Ethereum 🚀

Ethereum is like a bustling city full of activity, where transactions create congestion, slowing things down and raising costs, similar to a traffic jam. 

To alleviate this, Ethereum uses Layer 2 solutions (like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base), which act as additional lanes to efficiently handle the traffic of transactions. 

These L2s process transactions off the main Ethereum 'highway' and then summarize them back onto it, helping to speed up processing. 

However, Ethereum still faces challenges with achieving desired speed and keeping costs low, as transaction fees remain high across the ecosystem.

The reason? It all comes down to data availability – there’s only so much blockspace on Ethereum that can be used to store data.

As data availability shrinks, costs rise & the network slows down.

Here’s where data availability protocols like EigenLayerDA and Celestia come in… 

These help Ethereum scale by storing transaction data more efficiently, either off-chain or in a specialized layer. 

This reduces Ethereum's load, enabling faster and cheaper transactions, thereby enhancing its capacity to handle more activities.

With the recent launch of Restaked Rollups, EigenLayer aims to scale Ethereum even further, while onboarding various applications to Ethereum.

Let me explain…

In short, the goal of EigenLayer’s Restaked Rollups is to enable $ETH validators to provide Ethereum’s security and decentralization to any application (even those outside of the Ethereum ecosystem). 

To achieve this, EigenLayer launched “Restaked Rollups," developed in collaboration with AltLayer.

These aim to leverage staked $ETH to provide security for various applications and enhance the scalability of Ethereum.  

Here’s how it works.

Firstly, EigenLayer allows validators (people that stake $ETH) to use their holdings to secure EigenLayer Rollups.

Secondly, EigenLayer allows developers to create their own customized Rollups for their specific applications.

What this means:

Anyone can create a Rollup specifically for their application, forming an efficient, secure mini-network that meets the app's unique needs. 

This integration not only keeps the app within the broader Ethereum ecosystem but also ensures lower costs and faster settlement, as the Rollup is secured by Ethereum.

Remember, the lower costs and fast settlements are enabled by EigenLayer’s data availability, hence why anybody in the world can create their mini-network (Rollup) without causing congestion to Ethereum.

ThreeSo: An Example 🤳

Imagine creating "ThreeSo" – a decentralized social media platform.

To handle its many user interactions (like posting and commenting) efficiently and cost-effectively, you decide to use a specific Rollup dedicated to ThreeSo. 

This Rollup processes transactions off the main Ethereum chain, then summarizes and sends them back to Ethereum.

By incorporating EigenLayer's "Restaked Rollups," people who stake $ETH, can now delegate their staked $ETH to support the security of your ThreeSo Rollup. 

This means your platform operates smoothly without overloading the Ethereum network and benefits from Ethereum's security and trust.

The result is a scalable, efficient social media platform that leverages Ethereum's strengths without contributing to congestion, offering a practical and enhanced user experience.

All powered by $ETH.Imagine if $ETH powers the Ethereum network, tens of L2s, hundreds of protocols and millions of apps at the same time.

That would certainly make $ETH the most important asset in the world. 

But let’s see what happens… In the meantime, here’s how you can capitalize on this opportunity. 

P.S- If you’re seeing ‘eth/acc’ all over your X feed, just know it means ‘accelerate Ethereum’ – don’t worry, I was confused at first too. 😂

The Biggest Airdrop Ever? 🎈

I think that an EigenLayer airdrop is coming. Here’s why:

1. A token would make sense to decentralize the protocol

2. EigenLayer has already implemented a points reward system 

3. Celestia, one of EigenLayer’s main competitors, recently launched the $TIA token – which was very successful. 

To qualify for a potential EigenLayer airdrop, you most likely need to re-stake your staked $ETH via EigenLayer – I did this recently. 

By doing this, you’re essentially using your staked $ETH to support new Rollups, as explained above.

Just 48h after announcing ‘Restaked Rollups’, users re-staked a total of $1 billion. 🤯

Could this be the biggest airdrop ever? Even bigger than Aribtrum’s $1.5 billion or ENS’ $1 billion?

Maybe… Celestia is now worth $1.8 billion and over $12 billion in FDV. It’s not impossible for EigenLayer to drop at least $1.5 billion right out of the gate but we’ll see & keep you posted.

Wrapping Up – Is $ETH Dead? 💀

No. $ETH is not dead! Yet, people are calling for Ethereum to drop to $650. 

And for Solana to flip Ethereum.

Neither of these things will happen. 

Solana might flip Ethereum but I can’t see that happening within the next 5 years at least. 

There’s 2 things happening right now.

Firstly, people are losing their patience.

$ETH has been the slowest horse in the race. Almost every other token has outperformed $ETH. 

With everything else pumping, people are looking to make their gains elsewhere. But there’s no chance in the world that $ETH stagnates forever, while everything else goes up.

It’s just a matter of time until $ETH gets its time as well. 

Selling now to chase other pumps would be a big mistake. 

Secondly, people complain that the chain is too slow and expensive.

Fair. However, Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade is coming early 2024.

EIP-4844 aims to introduce "proto-danksharding," a method to significantly lower transaction fees and increase network capacity by temporarily storing some transaction data off the main Ethereum chain. 

This update will lower gas fees on both mainnet and L2s by orders of magnitude, making onchain transactions much more efficient.

To wrap up, there’s no reason to be bearish on $ETH right now, let alone call its death. 

In fact, everyone being against $ETH right now is a bullish signal to me. 

I think it’s just a matter of time until $ETH gets its moment. As it does, it’ll melt faces, just like Solana did in the past 3 months. 🫠

If you’re bullish on $ETH, let me know by replying to this email. 

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.

Today, we're talking about ways to prepare for the crypto bull run, aka one of the greatest wealth creation opportunities of our lifetime.

What you’ll read below is a premium onchain report published by Kyle Reidhead from Web3 Academy, who have joined up with us to write + curate in-depth, quality content directly in your inbox!

As always, if you enjoy this one, let us know by replying to this email! Let’s get into it.

Are you ready for the next big crypto bull run?

Because it’s time. The moon mission is underway!

Have you packed your bags and feel confident in your portfolio for this cycle? Or are you flying by the seat of your pants?

This PRO report is designed to help you pack your bags for one of the greatest wealth creation opportunities of our lifetime.

As I shared in my 5 Tips For The Crypto Bull Run PRO article, this industry went up 33x in terms of market cap during the last cycle.

In this cycle, the low for the industry was put in in January 2023 at around $800 billion.

We’re currently sitting at $1.6 trillion and I see no reason why we don’t top out at over $10 trillion within the coming years.

That’s at least a 7x from here in under 2 years. Now, these are just predictions, no one knows what will really happen with crypto in the next 2 years.

That said, it’s pretty obvious that the crypto industry is in a secular bull market and whether the cycle plays out similar to the last or not, we know that there is plenty of growth potential left.

Some tokens will go up 100x to 1000x in price, some will 5 to 10x and some will go to 0.

Today’s report is going to help you capitalize on this opportunity, by designing your portfolio to limit your risk and guarantee you capture some of the upside, while setting yourself up to hit a few 100x or 1000x’s too (...and maybe a couple investments that'll go to 0 too 😅).

The specifics of how much you invest, what you invest in and all the other details will depend on your unique situation, however, I will do my best to give you a clear framework to pack your bags properly for any unique individual.

Let’s get to work…

Before You Buy Anything

The best place to start is to do a bit of work to understand the type of investor you are as well as your purpose and time frame for investing. You need to consider the following:

• Why are you investing?

• How much are you investing?

• How frequently are you investing?

• How long are you investing for?

• How active do you plan to be investing? (Daily/weekly/monthly trader? Buy and hold? Play the cycle? etc.)   

For most people, investing in crypto is something we do on the side. We have a full-time job where we earn income, have bills to pay and crypto is something we invest in part-time or casually (even if we check the charts hourly 😂 – if this is you too, reply with a ‘GM’).

This is the group that I will cater most of my thoughts to in this report, though I will of course touch on other potential situations throughout as well.

I recommend you take a second now to grab a pen and paper (or a blank Google Doc) and write down the answers to the above questions. 

If you’re writing this down, make sure it’s in an empty journal! You should take proper notes from this report, last week’s report and the upcoming “When To Sell Plan” PRO report coming your way soon. 

I recommend you keep it all in one place as a big ‘bull market plan’.

Ok, let’s look into how to design your portfolio assuming you have a lump sum of money already invested (or ready to allocate) and you may or may not also be dollar cost averaging a percent of your paycheck every month.

Designing Your Portfolio

Uh, Oh... 😧 The rest of this report is exclusive to Web3 Academy PRO & Founding members!

To unlock access to it & start receiving weekly onchain reports that will help you invest and build in web3, upgrade your subscription.

Go PRO Today

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. Conduct your own research and consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions or taking any action based on the content.