AndreaPN

@AndreaPN

The Clawdbot narrative is quite popular, and today everyone at the company is talking about it. I will install a version to test it tonight. Let's see what it can do; I will review it later

AndreaPN

@AndreaPN

Today’s keyword is Clawdbot, and as usual, the crypto market is moving.

> A gambler : “Is there any token related to Clawdbot that’s hot right now? I need to FOMO and 10x my account.”

> Dev: “I just need to create a token with a story linked to Clawdbot. People will buy it no

1

6:03 PM • Jan 26, 2026

I've just followed the setup guide from Clawdbot homepage:

http://clawd.bot, it's easy and safe to try.

For a normal user, it is quite useful for everyday tasks like:

• Cleaning and organizing files

• Reading and writing files

• Browse and search web

• Checking email, and reminding schedules

In short, it works like a personal assistant that helps you manage daily work.

What makes Clawdbot special is its ability to create cron jobs directly on your OS. This allows it to proactively remind you instead of only replying when you ask.

Ex: if you tell Clawdbot to remind you to drink water every hour, technically it will create a cron job that runs every hour and sends you a message to remind you.

For dev, Clawdbot cannot be compared with Claude Code. Claude Code can interact directly with the IDE and designed specifically for code manipulating while Clawdbot does not have this capability.

Some enterprise tools like Office 365 email and MS Teams are not supported by Clawdbot yet. If you want to connect them, you need a little bit config skills, which most normal users do not have.

In terms of interaction, you can connect with Clawdbot through Telegram, WhatsApp, or many other popular chat apps. This is very convenient because you can control actions on your PC/laptop directly from your mobile phone.

About security, Clawdbot can be granted full disk access or access to specific folders, email, notes, and more. This creates a risk if you store sensitive data. If the account you use to interact with Clawdbot is hacked, you could lose all your data.

IMPORTANT: If you use Clawdbot to manipulate files, please use at least the mid-level model. Using a low-level model may cause crashes and could result in permanent, unrecoverable file loss.

To stay safe, always ask Clawdbot to back up your files or avoid deleting files.

The connection between Clawdbot Gateway and your chat app uses DM pairing, so not everyone can chat with your bot. This design is relatively safe.

In summary, if you are a normal user, Clawdbot is a game-changing AI assistant. It is definitely worth trying at least once.

I myself also didn't even know about Neynar until I heard they acquired Farcaster. That's reason why I do this research

About Neynar

Neynar provides a complete platform for developers to build social applications on Farcaster without having to operate their own complex infrastructure. The company is often compared to Alchemy in the Ethereum ecosystem, but focused specifically on decentralized social protocols.

Core business model

• Provides read/write APIs to interact with Farcaster social data.

• Cloud-hosted hub services (replacing self-hosted nodes that can cost hundreds of USD per month).

• Authentication tools and indexed databases.

• Webhooks and custom data pipelines.

Founding team

Rishav (@rish_neynar) Mukherji – CEO and co-founder

• Graduated from Harvard University in 2015 (Computer Science).

• 7+ years of product management experience.

• Previously worked at Coinbase (2019–2023), where he helped build Base.

• Also worked at Facebook (Messenger) and Microsoft.

• Startup experience with Mywa (a commerce platform on WhatsApp for SMBs in Africa and Southeast Asia).

Manan Singh – Co-founder (engineer)

• Former Coinbase employee.

• Expertise in Web3 technologies.

• Currently operating out of California.

As you can see, both founders of Neynar are former Coinbase investors, so Neynar can be considered a company with a close relationship with Coinbase.

Office and team size

Location: Neynar’s LinkedIn lists “Lórien, US” as its primary location. Based on the founders’ profiles, the company is centered in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Team size

• As of June 2025, Neynar has 9 full-time employees.

• Reported to be growing rapidly after completing its Series A.

• A very lean startup with a flat organizational structure.

Funding and finance

Total capital raised: 14.2 million USD.

Pre-Seed/Seed: 3.2 million USD

• Notable early investors: Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan (co-founders of Farcaster).

• Notable angel investors: Balaji S., Alex Svanevik, Pankaj Gupta, Linda Xie.

• Funds: a16z CSX, Polymorphic Capital, Mask Network.

Series A: 11 million USD (May 30, 2024)

• Lead investor: Haun Ventures (founded by Kathryn Haun, a well-known crypto VC).

• Participating investors: Union Square Ventures, a16z CSX, Coinbase Ventures.

• Confirmed in the article: “Neynar raises $11M to build technology stack for social protocols”.

Growth and impact

Product traction

• Serving thousands of developers.

• 50,000+ users publishing to Farcaster through Neynar.

• Recorded J-curve growth in the 10 months before its Series A.

Notable customers

• Supercast (broadcast app).

• Drakula (short video and creator monetization).

• Bountycaster (marketplace).

• Automod (moderation tool).

• Dune (large-scale data analytics).

Pricing model

Neynar offers 5 pricing tiers of their product.

1/ Free

• Price: 0 USD

• Credits: 200K

• Features: Read API /user, /cast

2/ Starter

• Price: 9 USD/month

• Credits: 1M

• Features: Webhooks, hub endpoint, all read/write APIs

3/ Growth

• Price: 49 USD/month

• Credits: 10M

• Features: Hosted SQL playground, custom tables, indexer

4/ Scale

• Price: 249 USD/month

• Credits: Unlimited

• Features: All Growth features + data pipelines

5/ Enterprise

• Price: Custom

• Credits: Custom

• Features: Global hub endpoints, signers, 24/7 support

Recent major development (January 2026)

As we was announced, Neynar has taken control of Farcaster. On January 21, 2026, Farcaster co-founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan announced that Neynar would acquire the entire Farcaster protocol.

Deal details

• Neynar will take over: the protocol smart contracts, code repositories, the official Farcaster app, and the Clanker platform.

• The Farcaster co-founders are stepping back to pursue new projects.

• Some staff from Merkle (the company that originally built Farcaster) will join Neynar.

• Neynar has committed to publishing a new builder-focused roadmap.

This event marks a clear shift from “tooling provider” to “protocol owner”, giving Neynar end-to-end control across the protocol, app, and infrastructure layers.

Competitive landscape

Neynar is not the only company in this space, but it holds a unique position:

Strengths

• Leadership coming out of Coinbase (high credibility in crypto).

• Early relationship with Farcaster (the co-founders were early investors).

• Strong focus on developers and builder experience.

• Backed by top-tier funds (Haun, a16z, USV).

Challenges

• Heavy dependence on Farcaster (even though they plan to expand to other protocols).

• The decentralized social market is still relatively small.

• Potential competition from larger infrastructure providers.

Conclusion

Neynar is an ambitious Web3 startup focused on infrastructure for developers building on decentralized social protocols. With a small but highly capable team (9 people), 14.2M USD in funding, and strong leadership from Coinbase alumni, the company has quickly become the default infrastructure choice for Farcaster, to the point where it can now acquire the entire protocol.

At first, the rumor spread fast that Coinbase was going to acquire Farcaster. Excitement built across the community. Then the truth came out. It was not Coinbase, but Neynar that acquired Farcaster (Although, according to the research above, Neynar also has many connections with Coinbase), and the mood quickly shifted.

Reactions were mixed. Retail users and airdrop hunters were disappointed, saying this likely ends any hope of a Farcaster airdrop. On the other side, builders looked at it differently. For them, this move showed the team was willing to take action and push the project forward instead of standing still.

At the same time, $CLANKER (@clanker_world) holders faced a rough moment. The CLANKER price dropped below $30 today, triggering negative reactions across the market.

What do you think about this news? It's bullish or bearish for CLANKER?

To chase a 10x, most people end up betting on meme gambles or shitcoins. Many of these are pure pump-and-dump plays, especially creator coins, where the lifetime of a project can sometimes be measured in hours.

In reality, getting a 10x is not just luck. About 80% depends on whether you choose the right project. The remaining 20% comes from market conditions, your ability to hold through volatility, and a bit of timing and luck.

There is one sector where 10x stories happen more often than most people expect, it has a product, real use cases, and can be held as an investment. This sector has proven itself through multiple growth waves over the past year. That sector is agent tokens in the Virtuals ecosystem. This article is written to help you understand how to find strong projects inside this ecosystem.

Note: This article focuses on methods and examples. It is not an investment call.

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental analysis is always the foundation. Any project that wants to grow strongly must be built on a solid base. There are many ways to do fundamental analysis, but in this article, I will focus only on three core criteria that matter the most.

Team

Start with the founder and the core team. A clean founder profile matters a lot. No past drama, no shady history. Ideally, this is not their first project. Founders who have built before usually have better experience, stronger networks, and a clearer vision.

Good teams stay active. They regularly ship new features, update the roadmap, and talk openly about the product on social media. Silence is often a red flag.

There are founders or teams with a history of pumping old projects hard, even when the product itself was not impressive. When they prepare to launch a new project, the hype is usually huge.

What you need to see clearly is this: their real product is The New Token and the price action. The product they show you is often just a story to help them sell the token.

With teams like this, the token is not meant for long term holding. You need to be very clear about your entry, know when you jump in, and set a clear profit target so you know exactly when to exit.

Also check incentive alignment:

• How much supply does the team control?

• Are their tokens locked long-term?

• Do founders benefit more from building the product or from short-term price appreciation?

Misaligned incentives often lead to soft rugs rather than hard rugs.

Tokenomics

Tokenomics can make or break a 10x story.

Projects that have already done TGE, finished vesting, and no longer suffer from inflation are usually stronger long term. If the token has buyback or burn mechanisms that reduce supply, that is a big plus.

On the other hand, if the project has launched but the team or early investors are still vesting tokens, that is a downside. Ongoing vesting creates constant sell pressure, even if the product is good. In most cases, it is better to wait or look for another opportunity.

Virtuals Protocol

@virtuals_io

x.com/i/article/2008…

1,129

11:05 PM • Jan 5, 2026

In the Virtuals ecosystem, this issue is partially addressed by the launch design itself.

The last three launchpad models, Pegasus, Unicorn, and Titan, all launched with a fixed FDV. This means early investors already know the valuation from day one, reducing uncertainty around initial pricing.

That said, no matter how strong the product is, if inflation remains above ~20% per year, sustained downside pressure is only a matter of time.

Product

A strong product always shows real signals.

Look for projects with a strong community, real users, and real revenue. Not just words. You should be able to see data on chain, on dashboards like Dune, or through clear usage metrics.

AndreaPN

@AndreaPN

x.com/i/article/2010…

5

6:22 PM • Jan 11, 2026

Narrative fit is critical. The product must match the current market narrative. Look at how products in the x402 sector pumped hard during the growth wave in October 2025 to understand how powerful narratives really are. Some builders even had to pivot their projects into this sector just to jump into the narrative and catch the flow of money, for example: $EIGEN,$LINK...

Crypto moves fast, and there are too many projects competing for attention. If a project builds outside the main narrative, it is very easy for it to flop and struggle to attract capital.

Be careful with projects that only build a website, add a 'join waitlist' button, then focus on social hype, community farming, and fundraising. These are usually not high quality signals, should not hold for long-term.

Ask one critical question:

What makes this agent hard to replace?

• Can it be easily copied?

• Does it have proprietary data, workflow depth, or user lock-in?

• If five similar agents launch tomorrow, why would users stick with this one?

Without a moat, 10x moves are usually narrative-driven and short-lived.

Onchain Analysis

With Virtuals agent tokens, I will not focus on technical analysis. Most of these projects have small market caps and low liquidity, so candle patterns are often unreliable and can be easily broken by just a moderate buy or sell.

Because of that, in this article, besides fundamental analysis, I will focus mainly on onchain analysis. Below are the factors you should care about.

Understand the LP Structure

One key reason why agent tokens can pump so hard is because they are all paired with $VIRTUAL. As you may know, ETH is often used as the main quote token across many chains, and every move in ETH directly affects most altcoin prices. Think of VIRTUAL as a smaller version of $ETH, with a much smaller market size.

VIRTUAL has deep liquidity, is listed on many major exchanges, and its price is well maintained. When VIRTUAL starts to move up, agent tokens paired with it usually move up as well.

This LP structure gives agent tokens a huge upside window. Just look at the x402 wave in October 2025 as a clear example: just in one week, when VIRTUAL pump 159%, $CAP Capminal has increased 1073%.

There are special cases where tokens like $AIN or $VPAY have pumped up to 5000% from the bottom.

But it is fair to admit that risks still exist when the market corrects. When agent tokens get sold off, VIRTUAL can also drop hard due to indirect selling pressure. However, this model has been live for more than a year and a half, and Virtuals team has already been through multiple cycles like this.

As the ecosystem grows bigger and the market cap becomes larger, price movements will gradually become more stable and less volatile.

Build a Watchlist

Next, to pick the right projects, you need to build a solid watchlist and track price, market cap, and volume on a regular basis. Projects that maintain healthy trading volume for months and show positive price behavior like sideways accumulation followed by pumps clearly attract attention. This is a strong signal that they can match current narratives and catch incoming capital flows.

To find projects to add to your watchlist, start by following the weekly updates from the Virtuals Ecosystem and note which projects stay active week after week. Track social media and see which projects OGs talk about consistently, then add all of them to your watchlist.

Virtuals Protocol

@virtuals_io

This Week in the Virtuals Ecosystem

VIRTUALS
Introduced three distinct agent launch mechanisms on Virtuals Protocol, each designed to support a different stage of agent development:

Pegasus: Built for early-stage experimentation and distribution-first launches, enabling

486

7:30 PM • Jan 11, 2026

Hot AI sectors like x402, DeFAI, and Robotics also have strong upside potential in 2026. Any project that fits these narratives should be on your radar and added to your watchlist early.

Below is the example watchlist that I built (NFA).

Volume is King

For Virtuals agent tokens, volume is king. If you do not know yet, the fee structure of agent tokens is set up like this.

• LP fee is 0.3% paid to liquidity providers on Uniswap V2 (that's already locked for 10 years). It will make the LP thicker if the volume gradually accumulates over time.

• Tax fee is 1%, with 0.7% going to the agent owner and 0.3% going to the Virtuals Treasury, swapped and paid in cbBTC.

This means when you swap $1000 worth of any agent token, you pay around $13 in total fees.

Because of this, a strong project is one with real trading demand and consistently high volume. High volume means the team earns stable income from LP trading fees. In other words, the token itself is also a product within the Virtuals agent ecosystem, because it generates revenue through trading activity.

That said, a truly good project still needs real revenue from its core product. The ideal case is when product revenue is higher than trading fee revenue. This creates financial stability and gives the token a much stronger foundation to grow.

When reviewing your watchlist, volume should be the top priority. If you see a project doing $1M dollars in 24 hour volume, it means the team earns around $7,000 in one day from trading fees alone. If that volume can be maintained for a full month, monthly revenue would reach about $210,000. That is a very strong signal.

Always ask:

Who is the buyer at higher prices?

• Ecosystem users?

• Other builders?

• Retail chasing narrative?

• Funds positioning early?

If there is no clear next buyer, 10x upside becomes limited.

Bubblemap: Whale Clusters

Bubblemap is a free tool and more than good enough to check onchain holders. You should use it to see which whale clusters are holding how much of the supply. Decentralization is always a top priority when evaluating holders. If no whale cluster holds more than 5% of the total supply, the project is well decentralized and it becomes much harder for a single entity to manipulate the price.

Of course, there are cases where whales or even the project team withdraw funds from CEXs into clean wallets to avoid tracking and accumulate quietly. In many cases, this actually shows they want to clean up the data and prepare to push the token.

If you find a project where a big KOL is holding around 1 to 2% of the supply, check that KOL’s profile. If they are the type who actively supports projects, they will likely shill their bag. That is usually a positive signal.

If you can't hold, you won be rich

You cannot hold to a 10x if you check your portfolio every hour. You will sell long before the real growth happens. Holding is a skill that needs to be trained, and it cannot be mastered overnight.

Hold skill alone could deserve a full article by itself. As CZ once said, “If you can’t hold, you won’t be rich”. After reviewing all the criteria, the final thing you need to do is simple: hold to target.

CZ 🔶 BNB

@cz_binance

If you can't hold, you won't be rich.

51.9K

10:48 PM • Feb 10, 2021

But you should know when the thesis breaks:

• Narrative fades

• Volume collapses

• Team stops shipping

• Ecosystem momentum slows

When those signals appear, reassess. Holding blindly is not conviction, it is risk.

I use CursorAI as my primary coding IDE. I occasionally experimented with Codex and Claude Code, but only briefly. Cursor has remained my main tool throughout 2025. Below are my personal usage statistics from this year.

2.6 Billion Tokens and the Power of Consistency

I used 2,624,290,510 tokens throughout the year. I am not sure whether this number is objectively high or low, but what I am most proud of is consistency.

My token usage is evenly distributed across weeks, which shows that I built continuously throughout the year.

Vibe Coding as a Core Programming Philosophy

In 2025, I sent 8,412 chat messages across 1,535 chat sessions. Vibe coding became my primary way of building.

My workflow is simple:

• Design a clear plan

• Let the agent implement it

• Verify results with unit tests and end-to-end tests

Vibe coding allows me to control requirements, execute ideas quickly, and still maintain code quality and maintainability.

I will continue following this approach until a more effective paradigm appears.

Model Selection and Practical Trade-Offs

To be honest, I am a big fan of Claude models, from Sonnet 3.5 to 4.5. Most of my usage this year was on Claude. Sonnet consistently outperformed other models in the same category.

When OpenAI GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2 were released, I moved some workloads to them. They are not strictly better than Sonnet, but when considering both cost and output quality, they can be the better choice.

For simple tasks, I occasionally rely on automatic model selection.

In my opinion, we will eventually reach a point where most coding models are smart enough to handle both basic and advanced requirements. At that stage, competition will focus mainly on price and speed rather than intelligence.

334 Days of Coding Means Treating It Like Life

I coded 334 out of 365 days, reaching a 91.5% consistency rate. For comparison, a disciplined employee working 20 days per month reaches roughly 65%.

If you are building a startup, working hard is not enough. You need to treat coding as part of your life.

Final Thoughts and a Call to Action

To summarize, I am currently in the top 17% of Cursor users. AI has fundamentally changed how we code and how we work. If you have not started using AI seriously yet, you are already behind.

The next step is simple: open your laptop and start learning today.

#AI #AICoding #VibeCoding #CursorAI #ClaudeAI #GPT

Share your AI journey in 2025 in the comments below. I will read and respond to every single one 👇

It’s Downtrend

That is what they keep telling you.

But let’s pause for a moment and look at what is actually happening, not what the noise wants you to believe.

1. Big names are still buying

While retail feels fear, the biggest players stay calm.

Michael Saylor is still buying Bitcoin.

No hesitation. No panic. Just accumulation. Despite some FUD, he still believes in Bitcoin in the long term.

Tom Lee is still buying Ethereum.

Not for hype. Not for headlines. For the long game. Tom Lee was right about Bitcoin a year ago, and now he's very bullish on ETH; his company is constantly buying ETH regardless of the price.

This alone should already make you question the “downtrend” narrative.

2. Wall Street is not bearish

Wall Street advisors are actively recommending Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs to their clients. They are not debating if crypto will survive. They are deciding how much exposure makes sense in a portfolio.

Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the US, has officially allowed more than 15,000 wealth advisors to recommend 1% to 4% portfolio allocation into digital assets, starting January 2026.

Morgan Stanley was the first major bank to allow advisors to recommend Bitcoin ETFs, starting in 2024. Since then, the trend has continued through 2025, with small but strategic allocations.

Even Vanguard, a firm managing trillions of dollars and known for being extremely conservative, has opened access for clients to crypto ETFs.

When institutions like Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Vanguard move together, it sends a clear message.

Wall Street is no longer asking whether crypto belongs in a portfolio. They are discussing how much makes sense, typically 1% to 5%, depending on client risk.

3. Pension funds are entering crypto

This is the most conservative capital in the world. And they are moving in.

Michigan State Retirement System:

• They invested about 6.6 million USD into ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF in 2024.

• By Q2 2025, they tripled that position to around 11 to 11.4 million USD, roughly 300,000 shares.

• They also added exposure to Ethereum via Grayscale Ethereum Trust. Total crypto exposure is now around 18 to 20 million USD.

New Jersey State Common Pension Fund (95 billion USD fund):

• Disclosed around 16 million USD of indirect Bitcoin exposure through MicroStrategy (MSTR) by the end of 2025.

Arizona’s pension fund:

• Allocated about 15 million USD of Bitcoin exposure, again through MSTR, by late 2025.

New York State Retirement Fund:

• Most recently, in December 2025, added more Bitcoin exposure via MSTR.

This is not a trade. This is long term positioning.

4. Stablecoins signal incoming liquidity

Stablecoin supply and stablecoin dominance are at all time highs.

Capital is not exiting the system. It is waiting on the sidelines.

Liquidity always moves before price.

5. The Fed is already easing

The Federal Reserve has quietly entered an easing phase.

They are injecting liquidity through repo support operations.

November 1, 2025:

The Fed injected 29.4 billion USD through the Standing Repo Facility (SRF). It was the largest single repo injection since the 2020 pandemic, and even larger than anything seen during the dot-com bubble era.

The goal was simple. Ease short term liquidity stress.

December 2025:

In early December, the pace increased.

On December 1, the Fed injected 13.5 billion USD via overnight repo operations. Combined with other injections during the same period, total liquidity added reached around 38.5 billion USD within just a few days.

On December 22, the Fed injected 6.8 billion USD through scheduled repo operations at 9:00 AM ET. This marked the first such operation since 2020.

By the end of December, the Fed had injected roughly 38 billion USD in the final 10 days of the year to stabilize year-end funding pressures.

The only thing missing is an official announcement of money printing.

From here, the Fed can only cut rates, not raise them.

On the weekly timeframe, the $DXY (the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar’s strength against a basket of major currencies) is showing a downward trend, which is favorable for risk assets such as crypto.

Risk assets do not peak at the start of easing. They peak later.

6. Pro-crypto regulation is accelerating

2025: GENIUS Act is now law

This is the first US federal framework for stablecoins. USD or Treasury backed. Full reserves. Monthly transparency.

This is a massive win. It makes stablecoins safer and unlocks institutional adoption.

2026: More bills are lining up

CLARITY Act:

CFTC becomes the main regulator for spot crypto markets. Developer protection. Self custody rights. Tokenization support. SEC limited to security tokens.

Digital Asset Parity Act:

No capital gains tax for small stablecoin payments under 200 USD. Staking and mining taxes deferred up to five years. Wash sale rules applied to crypto. Mark to market accounting for professional traders.

BITCOIN Act of 2025 (S.954):

Already introduced. Explores a US Bitcoin reserve or national Bitcoin policy. Still in summary stage, but could gain momentum in 2026.

7. The four year cycle narrative is breaking

And yet, people still repeat the same story.

Bitcoin must follow a four year cycle. We are in a downtrend. The next four years will be only pain.

IGNORE THAT NOISE.

Markets evolve. Bitcoin is no longer just a retail asset. It is moving into institutions, pensions, balance sheets, and policy.

Final thought

The brightest season for Bitcoin, and crypto as a whole, is shaping up to be 2026. If you leave the train now, you are not being careful. You are wasting the last four years you already survived.

Creator Coins and Content Coins on Zora and Base are being framed as investment opportunities, and that’s the core problem.

And this isn’t just a user behavior issue, platforms are actively reinforcing it. Zora runs trading contests around Creator and Content Coins. Base App even dedicates a full “green/red” category specifically for these tokens.

The message is subtle, but clear: these coins are being framed and consumed as investment opportunities, not as tools for fan support or creator relationships.

What was meant to be a new way for creators to monetize is quickly turning into a familiar cycle: hype, pump, dump, and retail losses. Traders treat these tokens like short-term bets, not cultural or community assets.

We’ve already seen it happen:

• Creator Coins jump from small market caps to millions in days

• Individual pieces of content generate impressive trading volume

• Early buyers exit, while late participants are left holding losses

On paper, this looks like success. In practice, it’s fragile and unsustainable.

Why This Model Breaks Communities

The ecosystem currently rewards:

• Early snipers and bots

• “Per-second traders” chasing hype and exit liquidity

• KOL-driven attention spikes

Trad creators are often told that onboarding Zora or Base App will generate consistent trading fees, sometimes framed as outperforming Web2 platforms like YouTube, Tiktok. In reality, those fees usually peak in the first few hours or days and then disappear.

Most creators simply don’t have a large enough audience to sustain ongoing demand.

In practice, new creators tend to onboard through the same playbook: a feature or introduction from Base or Jesse or Zora, combined with whatever existing Web2 audience they can bring with them. That initial push hooks platform-native viewers and jumpstarts early volume.

Building from scratch without that amplification is extremely difficult. Without visibility, there are no buyers. Without buyers, there is no volume.

In fact, even today, Jesse regularly buys creator coins from new creators just to help bootstrap attention and liquidity. That alone should make one thing clear: this is not a model designed to work at scale for the majority of creators.

Once that temporary attention fades, prices fall. And when fans lose money supporting a creator, trust erodes, a dynamic no community can survive.

Token price isn’t just a chart.

It’s social trust.

The Alternative We’re Ignoring

Web2 already shows us a healthier model for years.

Fans of streamers, K-pop idols, top Tiktoker and online creators spend money on:

• Merch

• Donations

• Virtual gifts

• Tips

They don’t buy with expectations of profit. They spend because they care.

This system works because value flows from appreciation, not speculation. There’s no pressure to “exit,” no fear of being the last buyer, and no constant volatility destroying community sentiment.

How Creator & Content Coins Should Be Framed

The solution isn’t new infrastructure, it’s a cultural reset.

• Creator Coins should function as loyalty or identity tokens tied to a creator

• Content Coins should act as onchain tip jars for individual posts

Fans buy to support, not to flip. Creators earn from genuine engagement, not temporary trading volume.

When coins stop being marketed as investments, communities can actually grow without cannibalizing themselves.

Summary

Creator Coins aren’t failing because the idea is flawed. They’re failing because we’re treating fan support like a trading game.

If speculation remains the primary narrative, creators will burn their own communities. But if we shift toward fan-driven value, tipping, loyalty, and appreciation, we can build a sustainable on-chain creator economy that actually lasts.

Key Takeaways

• Speculation-first creator coins turn communities into exit liquidity

• Trading fees are short-lived and hype-dependent

• Token price directly impacts fan trust

• Web2 fan culture offers a proven, sustainable model

• Creator Coins = loyalty

• Content Coins = tipping

• Culture matters more than tech

What do you think? If Zora and Base App really pivots strongly towards a fan-support model, can it be salvaged, or is it too late since retail sales have already been heavily burned?

If it passes:

• 100 million UNI burned instantly

• Protocol fees turn on across v2 and top v3 pools

• Fees + Unichain revenue auto-burn UNI forever

• v4 becomes the ultimate on-chain aggregator

This could forever change UNI’s value proposition. LPs lose a slice of fees, holders gain deflation, and competitors feel the heat. Read on for the full breakdown before voting ends December 25.

Part 1: The Proposal and What's New

Uniswap is making one of its biggest moves yet. The UNIfication proposal just entered governance voting, and it reshapes how Uniswap operates as a protocol.

The Core Idea

• Turn on protocol fees and burn UNI automatically through smart contracts

• Unify Uniswap Labs and Foundation operations under one structure

• Create a 20M UNI annual growth budget starting January 2026

• Build Uniswap v4 into an onchain liquidity aggregator using hooks

If this passes, Uniswap shifts from "just a protocol" to a system where value captured from fees funds long-term development and ecosystem growth.

What's New (Updated December 18)

The final services agreement between Uniswap Labs and DUNI (the governance entity) has been negotiated and signed.

Indemnification agreements protect Hart Lambur and Ben Jones, who led negotiations on behalf of the Foundation.

Hart Lambur is a well known DeFi builder (co founder of UMA and Across) and, in the UNIfication process, he served on the Uniswap Foundation’s independent negotiation committee that negotiated the final services agreement between DUNI and Uniswap Labs.​

Ben Jones is the other member of that independent negotiation committee, appointed to help negotiate on behalf of DUNI (with Cooley LLP as external counsel), and the final proposal includes indemnification agreements to cover both committee members (or their service providers) for work done during those negotiations.

The list of eligible v3 pools has been refreshed to reflect current data. These selected pools represent roughly 80-95% of Ethereum mainnet LP fees.

The Timeline: From Vote to Live Implementation

Proposal Posted: December 18, 2025

The full proposal goes onchain with all documentation attached: the final services agreement, indemnification agreements, and the refreshed pool list. Community can review all details before voting begins.

Onchain Vote: December 19-25, 2025

UNI holders vote directly with tokens. This is the official governance decision. If approved, the process moves immediately to execution. There is no separate Snapshot temperature check for this final vote.

Execution with Timelock: December 25-27, 2025

After the vote passes, the eight smart contract actions execute with a 2-day timelock delay for security. These include the 100M UNI retroactive burn, factory ownership transfers, v2 fee switch activation, and vesting contract approval. The core protocol changes go live within days, not months.

Fee Rollout Staged Throughout 2026

The rollout happens gradually across the year. V2 and the selected v3 pools (representing 80-95% of mainnet LP fees) activate first. Later governance votes will progressively enable fees on L2s, v4 pools, PFDA auctions, and aggregator hooks. This staged approach lets the team monitor impact and adjust parameters.

Part 2: Impact to Major Stakeholders

For Liquidity Providers (LPs): The Mixed Picture

Your direct fee income shrinks, but the proposal argues this deficit gets offset through ecosystem improvements. Let's be concrete.

On Uniswap v2, your LP fee drops from 0.3% to 0.25%. The remaining 0.05% goes to protocol fees and the burn mechanism. That feels like a 17% pay cut at first glance.

On Uniswap v3, the structure is more flexible. Protocol fees are set individually per pool and per tier. Tight-spread pools (0.01% and 0.05% fees) lose about 1/4 of their LP fee. Wide-spread pools (0.3% and 1% fees) lose about 1/6. Institutional-grade pools with consistent volume feel less relative pain.

The counteroffer from Uniswap

PFDA, or Protocol Fee Discount Auction. Here's how it works: Uniswap will auction off the right to swap without paying protocol fees to MEV searchers for short time windows. The winning bids flow directly into the UNI burn. This mechanism captures value that would normally leak to validators or private pools. Early analysis suggests this could boost LP returns by around 6 to 26 cents per 10,000 dollars of volume traded. Not enormous, but meaningful for high-frequency liquidity providers.

Reality: The proposal reads as "we're taxing you for long-term ecosystem benefit." For passive LPs, improved liquidity depth and less MEV extraction might offset fee loss. For active traders who LP on v3, watch your margins closely. Some tight-spread pools will feel tighter economics.

For Other Aggregators : A Shrinking Middle

Here's where it gets uncomfortable for traditional aggregators.

Uniswap v4 is becoming an onchain aggregator itself. Through hooks, it will pull liquidity from external protocols, including other DEXs, but execute everything within the Uniswap v4 wrapper. Labs plans to integrate these aggregator hooks directly into its frontend and API.

What this means

Users searching for best execution will find it inside the Uniswap interface instead of bouncing between Uniswap, Kyber, and 0x. Labs is setting API fees to zero, removing friction for developers who build on top. Most critically, when volume routes through Uniswap's aggregator hook, the resulting fees and UNI burns stay within the Uniswap ecosystem instead of flowing to aggregators.

You're not extinct. Aggregators still own advantages in RFQ-based execution, intent-solving, private orderflow handling, and cross-chain routing. Generic routing strategies face real pressure. Aggregators that differentiate through specialized products (stable swaps, perpetual indexing, MEV protection) have a path forward. But if your core value is "find the best onchain price across venues," that moat just got invaded.

For Small DEXs and Layer 2 Protocols: Adapt or Integrate

The situation is split.

The downside If Labs successfully funnels external liquidity into Uniswap v4, you lose direct user traffic. Your pool might get routed through Uniswap's aggregator hook instead of receiving swaps directly.

The upside

You can plug into Uniswap's aggregator hook as a venue. If you build a clean integration so Uniswap v4 can query your prices and execute swaps, you actually expand your addressable volume. Users on Uniswap might discover your pools through the aggregator hook and route volume to you for better execution.

On Layer 2 protocols specifically

Unichain, the Optimism-based rollup where Uniswap runs, already handles roughly 100 billion dollars in annualized DEX volume after just nine months. All Unichain sequencer fees (minus L1 data costs and Optimism's revenue share) feed into the UNI burn. This makes Unichain a strategic advantage for Uniswap and creates competitive pressure for other L2 DEX platforms.

Part 3: My Perspective

This proposal is ambitious and transparent. The team laid out the full spec, including agreements, fee math, and rollout timelines. I respect that.

What Uniswap gets right

Alignment through burning, not accumulation. By burning UNI rather than collecting fees into a treasury account, Uniswap aligns incentives with long-term token holders. Everyone holding UNI benefits from reduced supply, not just the protocol operators.

Careful, staged rollout. Fees don't activate everywhere simultaneously. V2 and selected v3 pools activate soon, then L2s and v4 follow later. This phased approach lets the team monitor real-world impact and adjust.

Turning a weakness into a feature. Fragmented onchain liquidity is a problem Uniswap faced. V4 hooks let Uniswap become the aggregation layer itself rather than just one venue competing with others.

Zero-margin API shift. Labs explicitly saying "we're moving from interface fees to protocol growth funding" is a heavy bet on network effects and liquidity depth. It removes friction and unlocks faster ecosystem integration.

The real risks

Validator capture danger. If Labs becomes too dominant operationally (20M UNI annual budget, product control, board influence), the Foundation becomes more symbolic than functional. Governance agreements with Hart Lambur and Ben Jones provide checks, but decision-making still concentrates.

Fee sensitivity and volume flight. The model assumes traders stay on Uniswap despite higher costs. The brand and product quality have held so far, but this isn't guaranteed forever. If traders migrate to cheaper venues, the fee and burn model underperforms.

Aggregator hook execution risk. We don't have the complete technical specification yet. If the hook integration is complex or computationally expensive, small DEXs won't want to connect. The benefits only materialize if adoption is broad.

Unichain adoption uncertainty. Unichain is young. If it faces slower-than-expected growth, UNI burn from sequencer fees could disappoint, creating pressure for governance to redirect subsidies away from growth initiatives.

My take

This is the move Uniswap should have made years ago. Taking fees and reinvesting in protocol development is the right call. The timing now is better: the regulatory environment shifted, v4 is mature, and the team has the institutional knowledge to execute.

For LPs, expect shorter-term APR pressure but longer-term ecosystem optionality.

For aggregators, adaptation is necessary. Compete on specialization or get incorporated.

For small DEXs, integration with the aggregator hook is no longer optional if you want visibility.

For UNI holders, this is the bet that protocol fees and UNI burning beat sustained subsidy programs. I think the logic is sound, but execution risk remains real.

The critical question: does Uniswap Labs stay honest?

Services agreements and smart contracts help, but DAOs need cultural continuity and transparency norms to endure. The next 18 months will show whether this was genuine governance improvement or the first step toward operational capture. Watch the governance discussions closely and hold Labs accountable through regular community feedback.

This article is based on my personal experience as well as research from other founders on social networks. There may be things that I have not realized in my current position, so this article will be 'in my opinion'.

Many people argue that most crypto startups don’t actually need a token to run their business. However, when we talk about how a crypto project can generate income, there are three main categories:

(Note: This does not include raising funds from seed/private rounds or selling your token through a public IDO.)

1. Real Revenue From the Product

This is the most solid and meaningful source of income. If a team can survive purely on real product revenue, they essentially never need a token. It reflects true product-market fit and creates long-term stability.

Ex: Top DEXes like Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Raydium... are models for protocols whose main income comes from real revenue.

2. Launching a Token and Earning From Trading Fees

Many projects launch tokens on platforms like Clanker, Virtuals, Pumpfun... or other launchpads. These platforms often share a significant portion of their 1% trading fee with the project.

If the team captures a hot narrative and builds strong hype, the stream of trading fees can outperform the small real revenue from point 1 — especially in the early stage.

Launching a token also brings in the speculative “degen” crowd. While many will only trade the token, a portion will actually try the product, and some may stay as real long-term users if the product is good enough.

Ex: most of the AI ​​Agent projects on Virtuals have very little real revenue from the protocol, their main revenue comes from the hype of AI Agents tokens and they collect a lot of trading fees.

3. Launching a Token Just to Farm Dev Allocation or Buy Low and Dump

This is the low-quality approach. Some teams launch a token mostly to profit from their team allocation or manipulate early prices and sell to inexperienced buyers. This model never lasts — everyone ends up dumping on each other, and the project has no true intention of building for the long run.

Bottom Line

For early-stage teams — especially small teams without much attention — launching a token can be useful for marketing, building an initial community, and generating some fee-based income while real product revenue is still weak.

If the team executes well, real revenue will eventually grow and help support the token’s long-term value.

On the other hand, if a project already has strong backing (for example, those supported by Base), then having a token or not matters much less because they already have enough runway to operate for years.

The most important thing is to avoid projects that rely on the low-quality behavior described in point 3.

Main Stakeholders in the x402 Ecosystem

• API Sellers:
  This group includes both direct API providers and third-party marketplaces. They are incentivized to make their APIs x402-compatible to increase revenue and reach a larger customer base.

• API Buyers:
  Primarily AI agents with wallets. Stimulating demand at this stage remains challenging, as genuine user demand is close to zero and most transactions are spam.

• Facilitators:
  These entities operate similarly to Visa or MasterCard, but with minimal barriers to entry. Major tech companies like Cloudflare or Google can easily establish their own facilitators for blockchains such as Solana or Base.

• Chain & Token:
  Coinbase, the Base network, and USDC serve as the core platforms for x402. Competing blockchains and stablecoins are striving for x402 integration to boost on-chain economic activity. Those who control the chain, token, or wallet stand to benefit the most.

Who Captures the Most Value?

The greatest value accrual is enjoyed by those who control the infrastructure, wallets, and distribution interfaces (such as browsers, apps, and marketplaces).

End User Adoption & Competition

End users will begin using x402 once AI applications (like ChatGPT) add direct payment capability (instant checkout). The biggest competitor to x402 is Stripe, which is rolling out its own Agentic Commerce Protocol using established card payment rails.

Transaction Fees and Technical Challenges

On networks like Solana or Base, true micro-payments remain inefficient due to transaction fees. To address this, solutions such as sidechains, appchains, or dedicated payment lanes for micro-transactions are needed.

Resource Marketplaces & Dynamic Pricing

x402 enables the creation of "resource marketplaces," allowing for dynamic pricing of data, compute, or services. In this world, AI agents could automatically negotiate, pay, and coordinate across supply chain stages.

The Future of x402

• x402 is expected to become the native payment standard for web, crypto, and AI agent ecosystems.

• Yet, most x402 tokens today are just pump and dump purpose without real underlying value.

• Coinbase is strongly pushing the standard because it owns the full stack: facilitator, chain, token, and wallet.

Conclusion

Those who control the critical distribution interfaces and underlying assets (chain, token, wallet) will capture the most value from the x402 ecosystem. Coinbase is currently leading with their integrated end-to-end solution.

Personal View

I feel optimistic about x402’s long-term potential, despite short-term hype and adoption challenges. This standard could fundamentally transform how internet payments work.

Real products that implement useful x402 APIs will prove their value over time as they gain more consumers.

Development & Opportunity

If you’re interested in investing or researching deeper, x402 and the future of API-based web, blockchain, and AI payments are areas worth exploring!

Let me tell you why I've been holding $DEGEN since day one, and why this is the play you cannot afford to miss.

🎩 The Real Deal: Community-First, Always

Degen received a $1M investment from 1confirmation

• one of crypto's most respected VCs. But here's what separates DEGEN from every other token: that validation didn't change the vision.

🎩 Ownership stays in the hands of the community.

Every decision, every development, every step forward is guided by the people who live this culture daily. No VC unlocks dumping on you. No insider allocations. Just pure, unfiltered community ownership with 1.1 million wallets strong.

$DEGEN wasn't just a token. It was THE gateway drug to Farcaster.

When everyone else was sleeping, DEGEN was onboarding users, building culture, and creating the foundation for what Farcaster has become today. I discovered Farcaster through DEGEN. I held through the ups and downs. And I watched this community grow into something unstoppable.

🎩 The Farcaster Effect is Coming

Farcaster has evolved into something massive. Major partnerships, institutional interest, and an ecosystem that's becoming the social layer for crypto. And guess what was there first? $DEGEN.

The OG meme that brought the first wave of users is positioned for an epic growth wave as Farcaster scales.

🎩 My Track Record Speaks

If you've followed my work, you know I don't shill randomly:

• $SUI $ZORA - early research, early gains

• $CLANKER - load from 40 → 20 , now profited

• $BNKR - load from 0003 → 0001, now profited

• $CAP - our project, nothing to say about price in three recent days, you can take a look on chart

$DEGEN is next on that list. And this time, it's not just a trade - it's a movement.

🎩 The Setup is Perfect

• 32.5% token burn reducing supply

• Coinbase listed

• Degen App launching to drive adoption

• Layer 3 chain with real utility

• 1.1M+ holders with diamond hands

• Farcaster growth accelerating

DEGEN grows with every wallet, every meme, and every moment the community shows up.

🎩 Because We Are All Degen

This isn't about flipping for quick gains. This is about being part of something real. Something that was built by the community, for the community.

We are all Degen. And that's what matters most. 🎩

• FORT - Forta: $2,600

• NEAR - Near Protocol: $400

• APT - Aptos: $5,800

• ARB - Arbitrum: $17,000

• OP - Optimism: $12,000

• DYM - Dymension: $2,600

• STRK - Starknet: $4,000

• FRIEND - Friendtech: $200

• TIA - Celestia: $700

• ZRO - Layer Zero: $500

• ZK - zkSync: $25,000

• AVAIL - AvailProject: $2,300

• SCR - Scroll: $300

• BLAST - $500

• DEEP - DeepBookonSui: $2,500

• VVV - VeniceAI: $2,200

The Golden Age: When Simple Participation Paid Off

My airdrop journey began in 2022 during what I now consider the "golden age" of retroactive rewards. The rules were simple: be an early user, interact with protocols naturally, and wait for unexpected windfalls. The legendary Uniswap airdrop in 2020 set the precedent, 400 UNI tokens worth $400 at launch, eventually reaching $10,000 per wallet at peak prices.

This retroactive model rewarded genuine early adopters who used DeFi protocols when they were still experimental and risky. Unlike today's complex point systems, eligibility was purely based on organic usage patterns captured on-chain.

My First Success: Node Operations and Technical Participation

Starting with Infrastructure

My first significant airdrop came from Forta ($FORT) in 2022, earning $2,600 for running validator nodes. As a developer, setting up nodes was straightforward, and this technical barrier created less competition compared to simple social media tasks.

The node operation strategy proved lucrative across multiple projects:

• $NEAR - NEAR Protocol: $400 for early node operation

• $APT - Aptos: $5,800 for running testnet validators

• $FORT - Forta: $2,600 for network security participation

This $8,800 total from node operations represented 11.2% of my total airdrop earnings, demonstrating how technical skills created unique opportunities in the early ecosystem.

The Retroactive Goldmine: Layer 2 and DeFi Dominance

Optimism: The Patient Investment

Optimism taught me the value of consistent, long-term engagement. I created 10 wallets and maintained activity on the network for nearly a year when fees were expensive and utility was limited. The patience paid off with $12,000 across multiple OP token drops.

Key lesson: Only 2 out of my 10 wallets qualified initially because I didn't maintain consistent positions in the others. This mistake taught me to focus on quality over quantity—a lesson I applied successfully to zkSync later.

Arbitrum: The Unexpected Windfall

The $17,000 Arbitrum airdrop in 2023 was my biggest surprise. Despite expecting intense competition on the popular network, my organic usage patterns, providing liquidity, trading across protocols, and bridging funds via Arbitrum native bridge, qualified me for substantial rewards across 6 wallets.

zkSync: The Strategic Masterpiece

My largest single airdrop came from zkSync Era: $25,000 across 6 wallets. This success resulted from years of patient engagement:

• Using the network since v1 (before Era launch)

• Trading on early DEXs like ZigZag

• Participating in Gitcoin platform, donate for Gitcoin's project

• Providing liquidity on native protocols

The zkSync drop represented everything right about retroactive rewards—genuine early adoption being rewarded at scale.

The Meta Shift: From Surprise to Systems

The Rise of Point Systems

Around 2023-2024, the airdrop landscape fundamentally changed. Projects like Blast, Scroll, and others introduced transparent point systems, removing the element of surprise that made early airdrops so compelling.

Advantages for Projects:

• Clear metrics for user engagement

• Predictable reward distribution

• Better marketing and user retention

Disadvantages for Users:

• Lost element of surprise and potential for outsized returns

• Rewards mechanism similar to yield farming, deposit for fund or use more cost will receive more rewards

• Smaller individual rewards as competition intensified

My experience with point-based airdrops like $SCR Scroll ($300) or $BLAST Blast Network ($500) confirmed this trend, significantly lower returns compared to retroactive models.

Random Airdrops: The Power of Being Present

Some of my most profitable airdrops came unexpectedly from simply being an active user of major protocols:

• $DEEP - DeepBook on Sui: $2,500 for early DeFi usage

• $AVAIL - Avail Project: $2,300 for infrastructure participation

• $VVV - Venice AI: $2,200 for early AI platform engagement or holding AI Agent tokens on Base

These "random" airdrops totaling $7,500 reinforced the importance of broad ecosystem participation rather than targeted farming.

The New Meta: Social Influence and Content Creation

The Rise of "Yap-to-Earn"

The latest evolution centers around social influence, led by platforms like Kaito AI's yapper leaderboard. Projects now reward top content creators and influencers based on their social media impact and community engagement.

This model offers substantial rewards (sometimes reaching five figures) but requires different skills:

• Building genuine social media presence

• Creating valuable content consistently

• Engaging authentically with communities

• Maintaining influence across platforms

However, this meta isn't accessible to everyone and has led to content saturation and quality degradation as more users attempt to "game" social engagement metrics.

Strategic Lessons for Future Airdrop Participants

Based on my $78,600 journey and current market dynamics, here are the key strategies:

Technical Participation

• Run nodes for infrastructure projects when possible

• Participate in testnets early and consistently

• Provide genuine utility (liquidity, development, governance)

Quality Over Quantity

• Focus on 3-6 high-quality wallets maximum to avoid Sybil detection

• Maintain consistent positions rather than quick interactions

• Build genuine transaction history over time

Multi-Platform Engagement

• Develop presence across social platforms (X, Farcaster)

• Consider investing in premium accounts (like Farcaster Pro) for enhanced opportunities

• Create valuable content rather than generic promotional material

Project Selection

• Target projects with strong fundamentals and clear utility

• Focus on emerging Layer 1/Layer 2 networks (not sure Layer 2 this time because poor performance of recent Layer 2s nearby), and cross-chain infrastructure

• Look for projects backed by reputable investors and teams

The Future of Airdrops

The airdrop industry continues evolving rapidly. While the days of massive unexpected windfalls are largely over, opportunities still exist for those who adapt to new models:

Emerging Trends:

• Integration of AI and social influence metrics

• Cross-chain and interoperability rewards

• Governance participation incentives

• Creator economy tokenization

Upcoming Opportunities:

Projects like Monad, MetaMask or Base (read this post) represent the next wave of potential high-value airdrops.

The key is understanding that airdrops have transformed from simple marketing tools into sophisticated user acquisition and community building mechanisms. Success now requires genuine engagement, patience, and adaptation to evolving requirements rather than purely extractive farming strategies.

As the crypto market continues its rapid evolution, airdrops remain a permanent fixture of the ecosystem. While the meta continues shifting, those who understand the underlying principles and adapt quickly to new models will continue finding opportunities in this ever-changing landscape.

The $78,600 I earned represents just the beginning of what's possible for those willing to engage authentically with the decentralized future being built today.

1. Why Base Is Launching a Token

2. Impact of BASE Token Launch

3. Airdrop Eligibility Criteria

4. Conclusion

Base

@base

Base is beginning to explore a network token

We’re in the early phases of exploration, and don’t have any specifics to share around timing, design, or governance. We’re committed to bringing the community along with us, and building in the open.

6,580

9:51 PM • Sep 15, 2025

Coinbase's Layer 2 network Base recently announced its exploration of launching a native network token, marking a significant shift from its previous stance of having "no plans" for token issuance. At the BaseCamp 2025 event, Base creator Jesse Pollak confirmed early discussions on the BASE token, emphasizing the team's commitment to building transparently with the community.

Why Base Is Launching a Token

Base's decision to explore token issuance stems primarily from its decentralization roadmap. As an Ethereum Layer 2 built on Optimism's OP Stack, Base has been progressing through decentralization stages defined by Vitalik Buterin's framework. The network achieved Stage 1 decentralization in April 2025 by implementing fault proofs and establishing a decentralized Security Council.

To reach full decentralization (Stage 2), establish a DAO, and transfer governance authority to the community, Base requires a native token. This represents the primary motivation behind the token exploration, as stated by the Base team: "Now that we've achieved sub-second, sub-cent transactions and expanded into an open stack, we're exploring a network token to further decentralize and make the ecosystem more open, accessible, and community-driven".

Secondary factors driving the token launch include strategic positioning in the competitive Layer 2 landscape. Base has achieved remarkable growth, with $5.095 billion in total value locked (TVL) following Defillama, making it the largest Layer 2 network. With 20.8 million monthly active addresses and 600,000-800,000 daily active users, Base recognizes that launching a token could attract additional capital flows and benefit the entire ecosystem of dApps built on the platform.

Impact of BASE Token Launch

Positive Impacts

1. dApp Ecosystem Growth

Projects built on Base will likely experience increased transaction volumes and fee revenues. The ecosystem has already seen significant traction with notable projects like Clanker (AI-powered meme token creator with $70 million market cap), Virtual Protocol (AI infrastructure), DEGEN (evolved from memecoin to utility token), and ZORA (NFT platform turned content finance protocol).

2. Early User Rewards

Users who have been actively using Base's dApps over the past two years since its mainnet launch in August 2023 will likely be eligible for airdrops. This aligns with the typical retroactive reward mechanism seen in other Layer 2 launches.

3. Ecosystem Expansion

Base is expected to attract more builders and users, reinforcing its position as the most successful Layer 2 launch to date. The network already processes 1-3 million transactions daily and has reached 181 million wallet addresses at its peak.

Negative Impacts

1. Competitive Pressure on Other L2s

Most other Layer 2 networks have already launched tokens and conducted airdrops, yet none have achieved Base's level of builder and user quality. The BASE token launch will likely intensify competition and potentially draw developers and users away from competing networks.

2. Impact on Optimism

Since Base's launch, Optimism has provided retro funding for Base builders and users through its $3.3 billion OP token allocation program. When Base launches its own token, it may reduce dependency on Optimism's incentive programs, potentially affecting OP token holders and the broader Optimism ecosystem.

3. Layer 1 Competition

With Base's growing market share, Layer 1 networks beyond Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain may face increased competitive pressure as Base captures more users and transaction volume.

Airdrop Eligibility Criteria

The potential BASE airdrop faces unique challenges due to Base's organic growth without token promises, resulting in a massive user base accumulated over two years of operation. This makes eligibility criteria particularly stringent and competitive.

Based on analysis of similar Layer 2 launches and Base's ecosystem development, likely eligibility criteria include:

1. dApp Builders and Contributors

Developers who built applications on Base from testnet onwards may receive allocations similar to Optimism's retro funding model. These allocations will likely be distributed based on on-chain metrics including gas contributions, TVL, and unique addresses served.

2. Early Platform Users

Users demonstrating long-term engagement through:

• Native bridge usage between Ethereum and Base

• Consistent dApp interaction over extended periods

• Maintained ETH balance and TVL on Base

• Regular transaction activity since network launch

3. Official Base Platform Participants

Users of Base's official initiatives including:

• Base Names (base.org/names) on-chain scoring system

• Base App users - the recently launched SocialFi platform migrated from Coinbase Wallet with Farcaster integration

4. Farcaster Ecosystem Participation

Early Farcaster users and verified badge holders represent key eligibility criteria, given Farcaster's deep integration with Base's SocialFi strategy and the Base App launch.

5. Core Ecosystem Token Holders

Holders of foundational Base ecosystem tokens including $CLANKER, $DEGEN, $VIRTUAL, and $ZORA may receive preferential treatment given their early commitment to the ecosystem.

Conclusion

Base's token exploration represents a strategic evolution rather than a departure from its original vision. With the network having achieved sub-second, sub-cent transactions and Stage 1 decentralization, the BASE token serves as the next logical step toward full decentralization and community governance.

The competitive airdrop landscape means that casual users may face challenges qualifying, while early builders, active dApp users, and Farcaster participants likely have the strongest eligibility profiles. As Base continues building "in the open" with community involvement, the final token design and distribution mechanism will become clearer in the coming months.

The launch represents a significant milestone for the broader Layer 2 ecosystem, potentially setting new standards for how successful networks transition from centralized operation to community governance while maintaining growth momentum and ecosystem development.

1. The Centralized Exchange Foundation: Building Empires on Trading Fees

   1. Beyond Basic Trading: The Referral Revolution

   2. Copy Trading and Competition Incentives

2. The DeFi Revolution: Democratizing Trading Fee Distribution

   1. Virtual Protocol: AI Agents and Fee Innovation

   2. Clanker: Streamlined Token Creation with Built-in Revenue

   3. Token Buyback and Burn Mechanisms

   4. Airdrop and Community Incentives

   5. DeFi Protocol Revenue Records

3. The Future of Trading Fee Innovation

   1. The Importance of Trading Activity for Industry Growth

4. Conclusion

The cryptocurrency industry has evolved dramatically over the past few years, but one constant remains at its foundation: trading fees. These seemingly small percentages charged on every transaction have become the lifeblood of the crypto ecosystem, funding innovation, incentivizing participation, and creating sustainable business models that have transformed how we think about digital finance. From centralized exchanges generating billions in annual revenue to decentralized protocols sharing fees with their communities, trading fees have proven to be the most reliable and scalable revenue source in the volatile world of cryptocurrency.

The Centralized Exchange Foundation: Building Empires on Trading Fees

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Binance, Coinbase, and OKX have built their business models around a simple yet powerful concept: charging small fees on every trade while providing liquidity, security, and user-friendly interfaces. These platforms typically charge between 0.05% to 0.60% per transaction, with fees varying based on trading volume, user tier, and market conditions.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, exemplifies the power of trading fee revenue. The platform generates an estimated $30-40 million daily from trading fees alone, translating to annual revenue between $13.5-20 billion. This massive revenue stream is generated through a tiered fee structure where regular users pay 0.1% for both maker and taker orders, with discounts available for holding the platform's native BNB token.

Coinbase and OKX represent different approaches to fee optimization. Coinbase charges higher fees ranging from 0.25%-0.60% for regular users but offers comprehensive regulatory compliance and user protection. OKX takes a more competitive approach with maker fees as low as 0.08% and taker fees at 0.10%, attracting high-volume traders seeking cost efficiency.

The success of these platforms demonstrates how trading fees create a virtuous cycle: lower fees attract more traders, higher volume generates more absolute revenue despite lower percentages, and increased liquidity attracts institutional investors willing to pay for deep order books and reliable execution.

Beyond Basic Trading: The Referral Revolution

Centralized exchanges have evolved beyond simple fee collection to create sophisticated referral ecosystems that amplify trading volume and revenue. Binance's referral program allows users to earn up to 50% commission on spot trading fees and 30% on futures trading fees from their referees. This creates a powerful network effect where successful referrers become motivated to drive more trading activity.

The referral model transforms users into active promoters of the platform. Crypto.com offers bonuses ranging from $150 for basic card referrals up to $50,000 for premium card acquisitions, while providing up to 0.5% of referral trading volume for the first 180 days. CEX.IO provides a straightforward 30% commission on all referral trading fees for life, creating sustainable passive income streams for successful referrers.

Copy Trading and Competition Incentives

Copy trading platforms have emerged as another revenue multiplier, allowing experienced traders to monetize their expertise while encouraging more frequent trading. Platforms like Zignaly and 3Commas create profit-sharing models where successful traders receive 10-15% of profits generated by their followers, while the platforms take additional service fees.

Trading competitions represent another strategic use of trading fee revenue to stimulate activity. These competitions use a portion of collected fees as prize pools, encouraging participants to increase their trading frequency and volume, ultimately generating more fee revenue than the prizes distributed.

The DeFi Revolution: Democratizing Trading Fee Distribution

The emergence of decentralized finance has fundamentally transformed how trading fees are collected, distributed, and utilized. Unlike centralized exchanges that retain most fee revenue for operational costs and profits, DeFi protocols have pioneered transparent, community-driven fee-sharing models that align incentives between platforms, creators, and users.

Virtual Protocol: AI Agents and Fee Innovation

Virtual Protocol represents a groundbreaking approach to trading fee utilization in the AI agent ecosystem. Every AI agent token launched through the platform incorporates a 1% trading fee that is automatically split between the Virtuals team and the agent creator. This model creates sustainable revenue streams for AI agent developers while funding the platform's continued development and innovation.

The protocol's Initial Agent Offering (IAO) mechanism requires creators to lock 100 VIRTUAL tokens (approximately $157) to launch an agent, with all trading occurring through Uniswap V3 liquidity pools charging the standard 1% fee. This approach ensures that successful AI agents generate ongoing revenue for their creators based on trading activity, creating powerful incentives for developing engaging and valuable AI personalities.

Recent data shows that Virtual Protocol has achieved remarkable success with this model, generating millions in trading volume across hundreds of AI agents. The platform's largest token, aixbt, has reached a market capitalization of $168 million, demonstrating the potential for fee-sharing models to create substantial value for both creators and the ecosystem.

Clanker: Streamlined Token Creation with Built-in Revenue

Clanker has revolutionized token creation on the Base blockchain by implementing a "free initiation, fee-on-transaction" model that has generated over $34.4 million in fees from more than 355,000 tokens created. The platform's innovative approach eliminates upfront costs for token creation while implementing a 1% fee on all Uniswap V3 transactions, with 40% distributed to token creators and 60% retained by the Clanker team.

This model has proven remarkably successful, with Clanker generating nearly $27 million in transaction fees within its first five months of operation, resulting in over $13 million allocated to the development team. The platform's integration with social media platforms like Farcaster and Twitter has democratized token creation while ensuring sustainable revenue generation through trading activity.

The pseudonymous co-founder Alex reported that Clanker has been profitable from day one due to its lean operational structure and automated fee collection system. This demonstrates how well-designed fee structures can create self-sustaining protocols that grow organically with user adoption.

Token Buyback and Burn Mechanisms

Many protocols now use trading fee revenue to implement token buyback and burn programs, creating deflationary pressure that can increase token value over time. Virtual Protocol has pioneered "positive slippage burn" mechanisms where trading inefficiencies are automatically converted into token burns, reducing supply and potentially increasing value for holders.

These mechanisms create additional incentives for trading activity beyond simple speculation, as each transaction contributes to long-term token value appreciation through supply reduction. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by concrete results: $AIRENE burned 1.5% of its total supply, $AIXBT burned over $500,000 worth of tokens while $CAP - Capminal burned over 40.65% its token supply

Airdrop and Community Incentives

Trading fee revenue increasingly funds sophisticated airdrop campaigns and community rewards that encourage platform adoption and loyalty. Projects use fee revenue to reward active traders, long-term holders, and community contributors, creating sustainable incentive structures that don't rely on token inflation or external funding.

Clanker and Virtual Protocol both implement creative use cases for trading fee revenue, including airdrops to active users and funding for ecosystem development. These approaches ensure that fee revenue directly benefits the community while supporting platform growth and innovation.

DeFi Protocol Revenue Records

The top DeFi protocols achieved record-breaking revenue figures in December 2024, with the five largest protocols generating $158 million in monthly revenue. Ethena led with $56.9 million, representing nearly 25% of its total annual revenue of $230.8 million. Sky (formerly Maker) set a new monthly record with nearly $40 million, contributing to its $304 million annual revenue.

Aerodrome, the leading decentralized exchange on Base, generated approximately $38 million in December, surpassing its previous record by over $5 million. Aave reached a record $13.6 million in monthly revenue, representing significant growth from its previous peaks. These figures demonstrate how DeFi protocols are successfully monetizing their services while providing value to users and token holders.

The Future of Trading Fee Innovation

As the cryptocurrency industry matures, trading fees continue to evolve beyond simple transaction charges into sophisticated economic mechanisms that drive innovation, community building, and sustainable growth. The emergence of AI-powered trading agents, cross-chain protocols, and new tokenization models suggests that trading fees will remain central to the industry's development.

The Importance of Trading Activity for Industry Growth

While holding cryptocurrency can generate returns through price appreciation, the industry's long-term success depends on active trading and transaction volume. Trading fees fund the infrastructure, security, and innovation that make cryptocurrency networks valuable and sustainable.

Holding benefits are one-directional: When users simply hold tokens or stake them for rewards, they reduce circulating supply and may influence price dynamics, but they don't generate the sustained revenue needed for protocol development, security enhancements, or ecosystem expansion. Trading activity, conversely, creates multiple benefits: it generates fee revenue for continued development, provides liquidity for other users, validates network security through increased usage, and demonstrates real-world utility that attracts institutional adoption.

The network effects of trading volume extend beyond immediate fee generation. High trading volume attracts market makers and institutional traders who provide deeper liquidity, reducing slippage and improving execution for all users. This creates a positive feedback loop where better trading conditions attract more users, generating more fees and enabling further improvements to infrastructure and services.

For DeFi and the cryptocurrency industry to thrive, participants must engage in active trading and transaction activity. This creates the volume necessary to fund ongoing innovation, security improvements, and ecosystem development that benefits all participants, from individual users to large institutions.

Conclusion

Trading fees have proven to be the most fundamental and sustainable revenue source in the cryptocurrency industry, enabling the growth of everything from centralized exchanges generating billions in annual revenue to innovative DeFi protocols sharing fees with their communities. The evolution from simple transaction charges to sophisticated fee-sharing models, referral systems, and community incentives demonstrates the industry's maturation and its ability to create value for all participants.

The data clearly shows that trading fee revenue continues to grow across all sectors of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Centralized exchanges like Binance generate $30-40 million daily from trading fees, while blockchain networks collectively earned over $6.89 billion in 2024, and top DeFi protocols achieved record revenues of $158 million in December 2024 alone. These figures represent not just financial success, but the foundation for continued innovation and development.

As new models like AI agent launchpads and automated trading systems emerge, trading fees will continue to serve as the economic backbone that enables sustainable growth, community participation, and technological advancement. The industry's future depends not on passive holding, but on active engagement that generates the trading volume and fee revenue necessary to fund the next generation of cryptocurrency innovation and infrastructure.

The message is clear: to support the growth of cryptocurrency and DeFi, participants should embrace trading activity that generates the volume and fees necessary for continued ecosystem development. Only through sustained transaction activity can the industry continue to innovate, improve security, and expand accessibility for users worldwide.

How’s It Being Developed? The dev teams tested out 100+ testnets at the Nyota Interop event in Kenya—narrowing more than 20 ideas down to 11 big improvements that made the final cut for Pectra.

Key Features Coming With Pectra:

EIP-7702: Turning regular wallets into smart wallets

• You’ll be able to bundle multiple actions into a single transaction (like bridging assets and swapping, or buying an NFT and sending it—all in one go).

• Conditional payments (only pay if certain criteria are met).

• Support for gasless transactions (someone else can pay your gas fees). → Basically, wallets are about to get way more flexible and powerful.

EIP-2537: Adding bls12-381 math

• Makes zero-knowledge proofs (zk tech) faster, which boosts privacy and scalability.

• Smarter staking. → Think of it as upgrading from using a calculator to having a modern computer.

EIP-2935: Storing block history

• Now Ethereum can “remember” old data for months, not just a week.

• This helps apps that need historical data and lets light clients run more efficiently. → It’s the first step toward a “stateless” Ethereum, so nodes don’t have to store everything forever.

EIP-6110: Smoother staking

• Removes delays when depositing for staking, so validators get their funds faster.

EIP-7002: More control for validators

• Validators can now use two types of keys (withdrawal and signing) to exit staking, making fund management easier.

• Better decentralization for big staking pools, like Lido.

EIP-7251: Raising the staking cap

• Max stake goes from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. More rewards for validators, fewer validators needed, which streamlines the network.

EIP-7549: Better validator voting

• Batches up voting signatures, slashing validator workload down by 60x without compromising security.

EIP-7623: Tweaking calldata costs

• Power users who use a lot of calldata will pay higher gas fees, keeping the network load balanced.

EIP-7685: Direct communication between layers

• Sets up a “hotline” between the execution layer (EL) and the consensus layer (CL), paving the way for smoother upgrades in the future.

EIP-7691 + EIP-7840: Upgrading blob handling

• Increases the number of blobs per block from 3 to 6, which means lower gas for rollups, higher throughput, and cheaper costs for users.

Conclusion

Pectra is a huge step for Ethereum, massively improving its scalability, staking, and wallet features, getting the network ready for whatever’s next!

DeFi OG, on the other hand, approach it differently. They prioritize assessing the liquidity of the token. If a token has deep liquidity relative to its circulating supply and market cap, it is generally considered a stronger and safer project to invest in. Why? Because thick liquidity ensures price stability, reduces slippage, and indicates a healthier market structure for trading

Liquidity > Token Price:

The ability to buy/sell tokens quickly with minimal price impact outweighs short-term price movements.

High Liquidity Relative to Market Cap Signals Market Health:

• Tokens with high trading volume-to-market cap ratios reflect genuine demand and lower price manipulation risks.

• Most trading pairs maintain liquidity below 5% of total market cap, the remaining portion not in circulation will be easily dumped onto the token's LP when needed. Tokens exceeding 15% liquidity-to-market cap ratios signal strong fundamentals and growth potential.

• Strong liquidity attracts traders/institutions by reducing slippage and improving price predictability.

High Trading Volume Creates Network Effects:

• More traders → deeper liquidity → lower transaction costs → further user adoption.

Token Prices Are Volatile; Liquidity Ensures Sustainability:

• Reduced "rug pull" risks when liquidity is spread across multiple pools/exchanges.

• Projects focusing on liquidity (e.g., liquidity mining incentives) often maintain stronger, more stable communities.

Conclusion:

Long-term market confidence hinges on liquidity depth, not short-term token prices. Assets with liquidity ratios exceeding market norms (e.g., 15%+ liquidity/Mcap) often represent undervalued opportunities.