​A lovely start of the year we’ve had so far; while we had some turbulences, the markets are heating up once again and are looking forward to Trump’s inauguration which we will discuss today.

​We will also go over the AI sector which continues to make waves on Solana, with AI agents such as AIXBT and Zerebro growing in popularity.

​Finally, we will wrap things up with our ecosystem spotlight of the week; SUI. The growth on SUI’s ecosystem has been nothing short of spectacular, and we will go over what separates it from its competitors.

​Along Trump's campaign and into his presidency, there's been a lot of anticipation in the crypto space for regulatory changes that could foster a more innovation-friendly environment. It is no secret that Trump was gunning hard to earn the “Crypto votes” especially with his now famous line; “Let’s make America the crypto capital of the world”.

​Amongst his many promises, key expectations include the nomination of Paul Atkins as SEC chair, who has been known for his pro-crypto stance, potentially leading to less aggressive regulatory actions and clearer guidelines for cryptocurrencies.

​The hope of redefining crypto regulations is also something Trump supporters are looking forward to, possibly addressing banking access issues for crypto firms, and lowering taxes on crypto gains. But the biggest headline which has crypto bulls foaming at the mouth has to be; The National Bitcoin Reserve.

​Establishing a national Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. would have some serious implications for both the country's economic strategy and the broader crypto market. For the U.S., it would represent a significant shift towards recognizing Bitcoin as a legitimate asset class, potentially providing a hedge against inflation and diversifying national reserves.

​This would no doubt result in an enormous liquidity influx by nations, as well as institutions.

​So that’s it right? We are going to the moon? Well, not quite yet.

​As for all politicians, Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been known to hold on to all his promises. It’s important to remember that after all what matters to him and his delegation, is to be elected, delivering on all his promises isn’t at the top of his list; which was shown in his first term of 2016.

​Some of you might remember that a massive part of Trump’s campaign in 2016 was based around “Building the wall” between the US and Mexican border. This was a huge selling point for him, and in the end was never brought to life.

​So, while all this crypto talk is no doubt bullish for space, it is important to stay vigilant, and temper expectations as many of those promises might not come to life in the immediate future, but until then, we can bullieve.

​Crypto cycles often go through phases, and sometimes, some of them blow up and make people a lot of money, before taking it all back, just like NFTs did to retail in 2022. This year, chatbots have been rebranded to “AI agents”, and have people going crazy.

​AI agents in the crypto space seem to be following a similar path to the hype cycle seen with NFTs, where initial excitement leads to speculative bubbles followed by corrections. Like NFTs, agents are currently experiencing significant buzz, driven by the anticipation of their potential uses within blockchain ecosystems.

​Those use cases include trading tokens, creating AI-generated content, running social media accounts, or automating crypto tasks. Just like Gary Vee told the world that NFTs would change the world, current KOLs are promoting AI agents like they are crypto’s saving grace.

​Like with every new market sector, dilution eventually happens. New AI projects are launched every day, and most of them are carbon copies of existing ones or simply not valuable/ useful/ innovative. Don’t get us wrong, some of those AI tools are actually pretty useful, they just don’t need a token.

​Justifying tokenization is quite hard for products like these, and ultimately price action will reflect that. Successful projects that actually build a use case for their token will see it flourish such as AI16z, which by the way, looks like this;

​Of course, this is not to say some AI tokens won’t actually bring some utility at some point, but a world where a “cracked dev” builds something that AI juggernauts such as OpenAI haven’t already done is hard to imagine. As it currently stands, 99% of AI agents are currently just vaporwave, but this could change if we see new consumer products that drive demand.

​Personally, I’m still waiting on my AI girlfriend.

​Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain designed to offer high scalability, low latency, and support for a wide range of dApps. After being launched in May of 2023 by Mysten Labs, the team has been refining SUI to handle transactions at high speed and scale, making it particularly attractive for gaming, DeFi, and social applications.

​This work over the past 2 years is reflected in SUI’s price action in TVL. With the token now sitting at $5 (With a $15 Billion MCap), and TVL peaking over the $2 Billion mark, ranking it as the 8th largest blockchain by TVL.

​Key protocols like Suilend, NAVI Protocol, and Cetus have significantly contributed to this growth, with Suilend alone amassing almost $600 Million in TVL, making SUI's DeFi options liquid and reliable. The ecosystem's expansion could be attributed to SUI’s very smooth and well-designed UI, making it a very attractive blockchain for new users.

​In our personal experience, SUI has always been very snappy and responsive. SUI wallet’s UI is very well designed, and transactions are reliable and cheap.

​That being said, SUI’s on chain activity has been dropping as attention diverges to other chains. SUI’s daily active users currently hovers around the 700k mark, and TPS has been quite conservative averaging about 90 TPS. Those figures place SUI next to similar competitors such as Base, Near, and SEI.

​Unlike many of its competitors though, SUI has a unique selling point; gaming. The initial hype around SUI was that it would become the go-to chain for all crypto gaming use cases and this has been solidified with SUI introducing their very own gaming console named the SuiPlay0X1.

​It's described as the first handheld gaming device with native Web3 capabilities, and is set to start delivering in 2025. This would be a massive step for SUI, as it would be the first chain to unite software and hardware in a successful package that can be shipped to the masses.

​On top of that, airdrop opportunities on SUI have proven to be lucrative, with airdrops such as $SEND and $BLUE rewarding users heavily. With other large protocols such as Cetus and Haedal yet to release a token, it could be a good opportunity to make them your go-to DeFi avenues to secure potential future airdrops on SUI.

​In summary, SUI has shown remarkable potential with its currently growing DeFi landscape, as well as future gaming ambitions. SUI could end up being the ecosystem that makes crypto gaming go mainstream, and cement its place amongst the top chain in the industry. Time will tell.

​​​[All topics are meant to be educational only. None of it is financial advice, please do your own research.]