Web3 Academy https://paragraph.com/@web3academy Your #1 trusted resource to make sense of an onchain world in constant transformation. Subscribe for industry insights & market analysis that helps you build and invest in web3. Mon, 20 Apr 2026 22:04:33 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en All rights reserved <![CDATA[🟣 Web3 Academy No Longer Exists. It's Now Milk Road!]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-end-of-web3-academy 0fAogwIPpRM89PAPJM6U Fri, 29 Mar 2024 14:47:08 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Web3 Academy has officially merged with Milk Road to become one of the world’s leading crypto newsletters! 

Our goal? To help you get smarter about crypto by sending you a daily newsletter which will keep you updated on the markets, in up to 5 minutes! 

Hundreds of thousands of people subscribe to Milk Road for free. Join them! 

By the way… If you’re looking to become a better crypto investor then consider looking at Milk Road PRO. 

This is your #1 resource where onchain analytics, tokenomic deep dives, macro analysis and more are combined into one, to help you invest successfully in crypto. 💰

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]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) <![CDATA[🟣 North Korea’s $62 Million Crypto HACK]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/north-koreas-62-million-crypto-hack uZ633XmpQWesldi03sQR Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:00:48 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Crypto’s on fire right now so I won’t waste any time. Here’s what I’ve got on the agenda for you today. 

First up, Munchables, a gaming project on Blast was just hacked for $62 million by a North Korean hacker.

Luckily, funds were retrieved within a few hours in what’s a crazy story. 

Secondly, Coinbase just announced that they’re moving more of their business onchain (on Base). 

Thirdly, ETFs are heating up again – Bitcoin has seen huge inflows this week after experiencing massive outflows last week. 

Fourthly, we have some updates that may indicate that an approval for Ethereum’s Spot ETF is coming in May after all. 👀

It’s already been a big week and it’s only Wednesday. Let’s dive in. ⏬

The Munchables Hacker 🥷

I honestly never thought we'd have a hacker called 'The Munchables Hacker' but crypto’s wild so here we are.

Munchables is a game built on the Blast L2 where users can deposit funds to earn "Schnibbles", which is basically food for “Munchable” characters that look like this:

Source: Punk9059

By growing their Munchables, people earn rewards and Blast points – it’s kind of a ponzi. 

So how did this game get hacked for over $60 million? 

It all started when the Munchables team hired 4 developers from North Korea, who turned out to be one single villain. 

Here’s one of the dev’s GitHub profiles, which comes with a few red flags. 🚩

  1. They claim to know all the coding languages and tools. I doubt that even Satoshi or Vitalik are experts in all of these. 

  2. They attached their LinkedIn… Bruh, as a developer, your GitHub IS your LinkedIn. 

  3. That description is clearly generated by GPT-3.

  4. They linked their Skype… Who TF still uses Skype? 

Source: Cygaar

Long story short, after this dev was hired and got access to the multi-sig, he waited until the TVL on Munchables was juicy enough, and he stole over $62 million. 

Source: DeFiLlama

Shortly after the hack occurred, ZachXBT tracked all wallets involved. Check this visual out. It’s clear that all of these wallets are either the same person, or a group that’s working together. 

They even recommended each other for this role.

Source: ZachXBT
Source: BoldLeonidas

Oddly enough, in the end, all the funds were returned to the Munchables multisig by the hacker.

There’s very little details as to exactly how and why the return of funds happened, but it’s likely that Blast intervened by rolling back the chain, aka by reverting transactions.

It’s also likely that ZachXBT had a big role in this too. He said to the hacker when the exploit happened – he must’ve gotten scared of Zach. 😂

I wish we had more details about what really happened behind the scenes. All we know right now is that all funds were recovered. 🙏

This whole drama opened up a wide range of discussions regarding the centralization issues around Blast (and other L2s), because they technically had the power to intervene. 

Here are some takes.

On the topic of centralization and decentralization, let’s see what Coinbase is up to…

Coinbase Making Moves (Onchain) 🔵

Max Branzburg, the Head of Consumer Products at Coinbase, shared this on X.

In short, Coinbase is moving its business onchain because it’s cheaper, faster and more efficient. 

Soon, all crypto exchanges will move onchain. Then banks will follow suit. 

Then all real world assets (bonds, stocks, real estate etc.) will be tokenized onchain. 

Eventually, everyone and everything will live onchain and I couldn’t be more bullish. 🐂

Speaking of bullishness…

Bitcoin ETFs Are Heating Up Again 🔥

After a bit of a rough patch last week, where we saw a steady stream of outflows hitting $888 million over five days, Bitcoin ETFs are bouncing back! 

We kicked off Monday with a fresh inflow of $15.7 million, and then Tuesday really turned things around with a whopping $418 million pouring in.

This obviously matters because when inflows are up, so is the Bitcoin price. 🚀

But things aren’t looking up just for Bitcoin… 

Could We Get Spot ETH ETFs in May? 👀

Last week, we chatted about Ethereum going through a tough spot. A state authority decided to look into the Ethereum Foundation, and on top of that, the SEC began to make moves against ETH, aiming to label it as a security.

As things stood, the odds for an approval of a Spot Ethereum ETF were very low. 

But things changed…

Craig Salm, the Chief Legal Officer at Grayscale, said the following in a thread: 

  • The SEC not being proactive with current applications isn’t worrying, as they most likely have the facts they need already.

  • Since the SEC worked with many of the ETF providers for the Bitcoin ETF, they’re already familiar with the entities.

  • It’s a no-brainer for the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETFs since they're similar to Ethereum futures ETFs, which are already approved.

  • Investors really want and deserve spot Ethereum ETFs 

All good and dandy, and it makes us super bullish. But in response, Eric Balchunas, said that based on what they’re seeing from the SEC, the chances remain at 25% for an approval by May. Prediction markets rate it at the same odds. 

Context #1: In order for the SEC to approve the Spot Ethereum ETF, they must say that $ETH isn’t a security. We know that it’s not, and they know it too. They just need to publicly and officially announce that. 

Interestingly, the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) mentioned that Ethereum is a commodity, and therefore not a security, in their latest lawsuit against KuCoin. 

Context #2: The CFTC and the SEC are like siblings keeping an eye on different parts of the financial playground! The CFTC takes care of commodities (i.e. gold) while the SEC watches over securities (i.e. stocks).

Here’s what Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant, makes of CFTC’s comment.

Wrapping Up – What a Crazy Week

Here’s my two cents on all of this…

First up, playing in new ecosystems such as Blast is risky. While the rewards could be huge (airdrops), be careful where you put your money, and how much!

Secondly, I continue to remain super bullish on Coinbase and $COIN. They’re showing how there are more use cases for corporations to hold their dollars onchain, once again leading the way into the onchain revolution. 

Thirdly, the Bitcoin inflows through the ETFs remains insanely high, and there’s a massive supply shock happening right now. This week’s PRO report will break all of that down. 

More importantly, the same level of supply shock is happening on Ethereum right now, which will be amplified if the ETF gets approved in May (PRO report on this is coming in a few weeks too). 

So continue to stack your coins and be careful out there. ✌

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency blockchain web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Is the EU Killing Crypto?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/is-the-eu-killing-crypto L87UISdgnPyyykamHTAO Mon, 25 Mar 2024 12:50:13 GMT GM DOers! 😎

On Friday, the EU passed a law called the ‘Anti Money Laundering Regulation’ (AMLR) and the entire Crypto Twitter went into panic mode. 

The misunderstanding: Crypto media outlets started to report that the EU is looking to ban all anonymous crypto transactions via self-custody wallets.

But that’s far from the truth. Sure, crypto will be somewhat affected by this new law (which goes live in 2027) but it’s not as bad as everyone thought. 

I’ll let Patrick Hansen (Director of EU Strategy and Policy at Circle) tell us what this law is truly about. 

Once we do that, we’re taking a look at Ethereum L2s – the hottest sector in crypto right now. 

Let’s dive in. ⏬

Is the EU Killing Crypto? ☠

First up, the EU's Anti Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) is a wide-ranging rule aimed at preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, and it applies to both financial (i.e. banks, investment firms & insurance companies) and non-financial organizations (i.e. real estate agents, casinos and crypto exchanges). 

This isn’t a law targeted to crypto exclusively. In short, here’s what this law is about: 

  1. Cash payments have a limit of €10,000, but countries in the EU can choose to lower this limit.

  2. Identity checks (KYC) are mandatory if buying goods or services for over €1,000. 

  3. Anonymous cash payments over €3,000 are prohibited. 

As you can see, this law is more so about cash payments than crypto payments, in an attempt by the EU to kill cash. 

The main misinformation that was spread on Crypto Twitter over the weekend was that buying goods and services with a non-custodial wallet (i.e. Ledger or MetaMask) was banned. 

That’s not true! This law is only imposing centralized exchanges (i.e. Binance, Coinbase etc.) to have KYC standards in place before allowing users to transact on their platforms. 

This will also make it more difficult for users to pay with crypto using a non-KYC self-custody wallet. Not because transactions will be banned, but because the merchant won’t be able to take your payment. 

However, this is already common practice today. 

TL;DR: This law mostly reiterates existing rules for CASPs (Crypto-Asset Service Providers) like crypto exchanges without significantly impacting self-custody wallets, P2P transfers, or crypto payments.

One thing to note however is that this law specifically bans CASPs from offering anonymous accounts and transactions with privacy coins like Monero, so that’s not great news.

The AMLR law is about to be officially approved by the EU Parliament and Council and will start to apply around summer 2027, three years after it's published.

H/t. to Patrick Hansen for debunking all of this. Check his full thread here.

P.S. - This is a good reminder to not blindly trust Crypto Twitter, and especially don’t take the whale accounts on X as your main sources.

Ethereum Layer 2s Are Getting Hot 🔥

In the past month, the TVL (total value locked) on Ethereum L2s went from $30 to $38 billion, a ~26% growth. 🚀

Base is leading the way here, with a whopping 2.6x increase in TVL in the last month. 

At the same time, Arbitrum has seen a significant increase of 30% in TVL in the last month too. 

Part of the hype around L2s is coming from the successful implementation of EIP-4844, which reduced fees by an order of magnitude a few weeks ago. 

Fun fact: The chart below shows the cost of fees on Arbitrum. Down only. 📉

Another reason for the increase are memecoins, which have started to move from Solana to mainly Base, which has become the preferred ecosystem for degens. 

The leading memecoin on Base is $DEGEN, a token used for tipping other users on Farcaster – it sits at a $600 million fully diluted market cap today.

Source: DexScreener

Because of all the hype, users are flocking to Base right now. Check this incredible chart.

Source: Dune

It smells like Base Season.

However, if we zoom out, we can still see that Solana is still leading the way in interest. By far. 

Wrapping Up – More Ethereum Layer 2s Are Coming 👀

It’s probably just the start of Ethereum L2s having a moment. According to L2Beat, there are 34 L2s that are planning to launch soon. 

In addition, we have a bunch of existing L2s like Blast, Mode and Base that are already live, but don’t have a token yet. Check all the upcoming tokens here. 

My guess is that the interest in L2s will continue to rise in the coming few months. The reasons are obvious:

  • Low fees 

  • Airdrop farming opportunities

  • Narratives like memecoins popping up

On the investing side, I’m still pondering over where the opportunity really lies with L2s, and which tokens could be really good investments for this bull market and beyond. 

I still don’t have a succinct answer, but here’s a message I shared with PRO members in Discord about 2 weeks ago. Hope it helps. 

P.S. - If you’d like to get in on the action in Discord, then make sure you Go PRO and join us in the PRO-only channels. 

We’re always debating on where the investing opportunities are in crypto and I continuously share my thoughts on various things going on in the markets.

Would love to have you there. ✌

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

Advertise with Web3 Academy

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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 The Ethereum FUD is Increasing]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-ethereum-fud 04MixcD7qTncsBn7Bjvs Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:59:31 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Ethereum got kicked in the balls this week… hard. 🫣

First up, we found out that the Ethereum Foundation is being investigated by a state authority.

Secondly, the SEC has delayed their decision on VanEck’s spot ETF application – but we were expecting that. 🤷

Thirdly, the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services says that the SEC and Gary Gensler are looking to classify $ETH as a security. 😨

Ouch… That’s some hard kicks. But let’s debunk each one to see if any of this FUD has any substance. 

P.S. - At the end, I’m sharing what I’m doing with my $ETH, so you know how to put it to work.

P.S.S. - We’re also highlighting the NFT Of The Month, so stick around.

Let’s go. ⏬

The Ethereum FUD Explained 😨

The Ethereum Foundation has just entered the crosshairs of the SEC… Again. 

Earlier this week, a so-called “Warrant Canary”, aka the colorful bird below, disappeared from Ethereum Foundation’s website.

This bird was basically a way of telling people that the Foundation has not received any actions (i.e. lawsuits) or requests (i.e. subpoenas) from the government or law enforcement authorities.

With it gone, it suggests, in a discreet way, that the Ethereum Foundation has been approached by government authorities.

In the GitHub code, the dev who removed this canary left a note saying “this commit removes a section of the footer as we have received a voluntary enquiry from a state authority that included a requirement for confidentiality”.

In other words, the FBI is knocking on the door. 

This is part of a larger investigation into Ethereum, which apparently started after the merge (from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake). 

A report from Fortune indicates that the SEC is requesting documents from several U.S. firms to support the argument that $ETH should be considered a security.

Now, there’s basically 2 explanations for this investigation. 

1/ It’s completely normal for the SEC to do their due diligence, especially with a final decision on several ETF applications coming up in May. 

Besides, crypto firms are pretty used to getting subpoenas from the SEC by now. 

2/ This is a coordinated attack against Ethereum, and a way for Gary Gensler and the SEC to find reasons why they should deny the ETF in May. 

The latter is obviously what most crypto people think is going on here.

Regardless, the SEC chose to delay their decision on VanEck’s spot Ethereum ETF application, something everyone was expecting either way. 

The main deadline we’re watching for in regards to the spot ETH ETF is May 23rd.

Analysts from Bloomberg and prediction markets are estimating a 25% likelihood that the approval will happen in May.

It’s not looking good, and before the approval can happen, the SEC needs to officially admit that $ETH isn’t a security. 

Is $ETH a Security or Not? 🤷

Honestly, I barely understand what a security is. 

But if Ethereum gets slapped with that label, I know it means a lot more rules and paperwork for anyone wanting to play with it – kind of like needing a permit to throw a Frisbee in the park. 

I also know it’s going to be bad news for my bags. 😕

So I’ll let Paul Grewal, the Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase tell us whether or not Ethereum is a security. 

TL;DR, he says it’s not. Here are a few reasons why.

1/

2/

3/

4/

5/

This point is actually pretty important, and sustained by Brian Quintenz, the Global Head of Policy at a16z.

6/ 

Conclusion

Wrapping Up – What Should You Do Now? 🤔

1/ Stop worrying! 

2/ Ethereum is not a security (I think we established that above).

3/ Ethereum’s ETF is coming this year

Even if the ETF applications get denied in May, that’ll only lead to a bunch of lawsuits against the SEC, which will lead to an inevitable approval at some point. 

4/ Zoom out. The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, is building on Ethereum.  

Clearly, $ETH is undervalued at today’s prices, so keep stacking, put your coins to work and chill. Here’s what I’m doing right now.

Also, here’s a SUPER helpful guide put together by our G.O.A.T community member Kuba, on how to navigate LRTs (liquid restaking tokens).

If you’re not already in our Discord, then WTF are you doing? Join us now! 

The NFT Of The Month is... The Plooshies

Plooshies is a collection that showcases 3333 fully rigged and animated 3D models of 11 unique characters.

The project aims to bring childhood memories back to life through interactive storytelling.

Next week, we're doing Token Of The Month, where we'll feature 4 tokens suggested by our community. Reply to this email with your suggestion on which coins we should pick.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

Advertise with Web3 Academy

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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 W3A PRO | AI x Crypto: The Biggest Narrative of 2024?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-biggest-narrative-of-2024 aTog5BQXar9LUxNLupiI Thu, 21 Mar 2024 13:02:32 GMT GM PRO DOers! 

We’re currently witnessing potentially the biggest bubble in the history of bubbles. 🫧

The convergence of AI and crypto has become the hottest narrative of the past 6 months, with Crypto AI tokens seeing massive returns and outperforming every other crypto sector.

This narrative was kickstarted by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, and then amplified by the rise of Nvidia, a leading tech company that develops powerful graphics processing units (GPUs), pivotal in driving advancements in AI and data center operations.

Nvidia’s stock is up a whopping 250% in the last year, and earlier this month, Nvidia added the entire market cap of Tesla AND Starbucks to its own market cap in just 15 days.

So it’s clear that the AI sector is in a massive hype cycle. 

At the same time, crypto is currently witnessing the beginning of its next bull cycle.

So what happens when you combine both of these hype cycles into one? Potentially, the biggest bubble ever.

We’re in a period during which new AI crypto tokens are launching, promising the world to investors. 

Just like the Kardashians, these are highly marketable, with lots of hype, but you never know what’s real and what’s just for show.

Today, I wanted to share a report that will help you navigate this Crypto AI sector with more confidence, so you can capitalize on the opportunity and not get rekt. 

Throughout this report, you’ll see that I separate this sector into 4 main categories: 

  1. Blockchain businesses that use AI 

  2. AI businesses that use blockchain

  3. Blockchain businesses that benefit from the AI revolution

  4. Businesses leveraging blockchain and AI for net new innovations 

Within each category, I share clear examples that will help you differentiate fundamentally strong projects from vaporware.

Hopefully, this will serve you as a solid foundation that helps you understand how Crypto and AI work together, and where the opportunity lies. 

But first, let’s talk about the fake stuff – AI tokens that aren’t AI tokens. Let’s dive in. ⏬

0. AI Tokens That Aren’t AI Tokens 

You probably know that it’s common practice for new crypto projects to seek different ways to distinguish themselves from the crowd. 

The meta right now is various projects throwing around the term 'Crypto AI,' making it sound like they’re on the cutting edge of tech. 

But if you peek behind the curtain, you'll see that for many of them, the AI part is just a tiny slice of the pie or mainly just a catchy phrase they're using to grab your attention.

Example: Near Protocol

At its core, Near is a layer 1 blockchain designed to be fast, cheap and scalable. 

Despite that, Near ranks as the top Crypto AI project on CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, even though Near has little to do with AI itself.

Source: CoinMarketCap

This narrative is largely driven by its strategic marketing efforts, including participation in AI-focused events, such as Nvidia’s AI conference.

Source: CoinDesk

Now, to be fair, Near Protocol is working on ‘Near Tasks’ – a platform where people help train AI by doing tasks and get paid for it.

But while Near Protocol is dipping its toes into the 'Crypto AI' pool with NEAR Tasks, it's just one piece of their larger puzzle, which remains deeply rooted in blockchain technology, not AI.

Despite this, Near Protocol has seen its $NEAR token go up 6x since October, thanks to the buzz created around being involved in AI.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Unfortunately, Near Protocol's story isn't unique. Many platforms hype up their AI angle to draw in investment, often focusing more on marketing than on actual AI integration or innovation. 

While Near is a legit project making real efforts with AI and more, beware of 'vaporware' – projects that aren’t building anything innovative or of value and don't deliver on their AI promises. These are always going to get investors rekt.

We saw this happen in the ICO bubble in 2017 and once again in the NFT bubble of 2021. I think that the current Crypto AI narrative will end the same. 

95%+ projects will go to 0 and a few projects are here for the long term, ready to completely change the game.

While just about every Crypto AI token will do well in the bull market, once that ends, most of this industry will get flushed out. This is why it’s so crucial to do your homework before diving into 'Crypto AI' investments. 

To help you wrap your head around this space, let’s start by outlining the key categories within the Crypto AI sector.

1. Blockchain Businesses that Use AI 

This is perhaps the most misunderstood category at the intersection of AI and crypto. 

In this category, we’re talking about blockchain companies that use AI within their products/services to improve operations, enhance user experience or fix certain problems.

Even though some folks might call them 'Crypto AI' companies because of this, they're not really about AI. 

They're mainly blockchain businesses that smartly use AI to stay up-to-date, kind of like how every physical business needs to use the internet for their business, even though they are not an “internet business”.

It's pretty much expected that any modern company, especially in blockchain, should be using AI in some way to keep up. This shouldn’t be considered “bullish”, it should just be required of any company that exists in 2024…

Yet, this category benefits immensely from the narrative of AI to pump their tokens, when in reality, they probably shouldn’t.

Here’s a few examples of popular “AI tokens” that fit into this category.

Example 1: AIOZ Network 

AIOZ is a modern platform designed for web3 video sharing, relying on blockchain to decentralize the process. 

By utilizing AI, AIOZ improves the efficiency and performance of its streaming services. 

This setup ensures viewers enjoy smoother playback with fewer interruptions, leveraging a network of distributed nodes to handle storage and delivery. 

TL;DR: AIOZ is a web3 streaming platform, similar to YouTube or Twitch, that uses AI features to improve their product. 

Even though the use of AI is minimal in the grand scheme of things and its platform doesn’t have any meaningful adoption whatsoever, $AIOZ has gone up 2,400% in the last year, reaching almost $1 billion in market cap, all thanks to the AI hype.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Example 2: LimeWire

LimeWire, once a peer-to-peer file-sharing service, has reinvented itself as an AI-powered content publishing platform focused on blockchain technology. 

Now under new ownership, LimeWire aims to empower creators with tools to generate, own, and monetize their music. 

TL;DR: LimeWire provides creators with AI tools for creating music and visuals, while at the same time using blockchain (the $LMWR token) to share up to 90% of ad revenue with creators. 

Thanks to the AI hype, $LMWR has doubled in price since the beginning of the year.

Source: CoinMarketCap

A glitch on CoinMarketCap made the chart turn red instead of green, even though the value actually went up. 

Like AIOZ, LimeWire leverages AI to improve efficiency and user experience.

But here’s the thing: Every company in the world needs to leverage AI to stay competitive and relevant – and many already do!

  • Canva has AI features

  • Zoom uses AI for note-taking

  • Adobe implemented AI features in Photoshop 

While all of these companies use AI, it would be unfair to categorize them as ‘AI companies’. 

Yet, that’s what we’re doing in crypto, which is misleading, and we need to make that distinction clear. 

P.S. By no means are we saying that AIOZ or LimeWire are bad investments. We just want you to be aware of how they work in reality and how they should be categorized. 

P.S.S. Within this category, there’s an exciting opportunity to explore businesses which have the potential to leverage AI so much that they completely change their business model. 

What do I mean by that?

Think about Tesla: An electric Tesla car is cool. But throwing AI into the mix and making Tesla cars drive themselves is flipping the whole car industry on its head, bringing in a new era of safer, hands-off driving—that's something that deserves an AI repricing! 

This could make Tesla one of the most important companies in the world.

The point here is that you should be thinking about how AI can help certain blockchain-based businesses evolve into something bigger in the future. 

This idea isn't just for Tesla; Bing Search, Photoshop, LimeWire, AIOZ or even Near Protocol could also evolve to be more AI-driven, opening up new possibilities and attracting different users.

If you’re spotting these opportunities early on, you could set yourself up for massive success.

2. AI Businesses that Use Blockchain

This part is about AI companies that are starting to use blockchain. 

By doing so, these AI companies can make their systems more secure, use crypto for payments and come up with new ways to offer what they do. 

Or… These AI companies are simply looking to capitalize on the hype around crypto, by targeting a new user base (crypto degens) for their product/service.

Example 1: Worldcoin 

Led by Sam Altman (founder of OpenAI), Worldcoin tackles one of the biggest issues caused by AI: identity verification.

By scanning people’s eye-balls using a device called ‘the Orb’, Worldcoin wants to create a decentralized identity system that can assess who’s human and who’s a robot on the internet. 

The Worldcoin ecosystem is powered and sustained by blockchain via their $WLD token, used for rewarding people for scanning their irises and protocol governance. 

TL;DR: Worldcoin is a business trying to create an identity system that’s relevant in an AI world, by using blockchain technology. 

Because of this setup, Worldcoin’s $WLD has managed to go up 8x since September, reaching a market cap of $1.5 billion, and a fully diluted market cap of $100 billion. 

Fully diluted market cap is the total value of a company if all its available tokens were issued and at current prices.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Context: OpenAI is worth $86 billion and has 100 million+ users, whereas Worldcoin has a few million…

Example 2: PAAL AI 

PAAL AI is a platform that creates customizable AI-driven chatbots, which can be embedded into various social media platforms like Whatsapp, Telegram or Discord to act as customer service on the behalf of any brand.

PAAL AI created $PAAL in order to monetize their chatbots and create a revenue-sharing model for the holders of this token. 

TL;DR: PAAL AI is an AI business using crypto to monetize their product. 

But here’s the deal: In the current state of crypto, it’s generally a bad idea to use crypto as a means of payment, like PAAL is doing with $PAAL, because you essentially exclude all non-crypto businesses and people that could find use in your product, so you’re limiting yourself as a business. 

However, by doing this, PAAL AI focuses on attracting a crypto-native customer base, which has become their niche – this has pumped their token 6,000% in the last year, helping $PAAL reach up to almost $1 billion fully diluted market cap. 

Source: CoinMarketCap

Will this turn out to be a good business move or simply a way to attract more short-term capital via a token? I guess time will tell.

More importantly, in terms of an investment, is the incredible growth of its token coming from significant adoption of its product? No. 

It’s coming because it’s an AI business that has a token! What do you think happens to a token like this in the bear market?

3. Blockchain Businesses that Benefit from the AI Revolution

This section is perhaps the most palpable and where the biggest opportunity lies right now. 

This category includes businesses that have an existing product, which is or could gain popularity because of the AI rush we’re seeing. 

Think the crypto-versions of NVIDIA – a company that blew up because the rise in AI increased demand for GPUs. 

In this context, we're seeing blockchain businesses that could play a pivotal role in the AI landscape, not by creating AI, but by providing essential services that AI technologies need to thrive.

Example 1: Ocean Protocol

Ocean Protocol is a data exchange that enables the sharing, buying, and selling of data in a secure and transparent manner.

What’s the #1 thing that AI needs in order to function? Data.

AI developers and researchers can utilize Ocean Protocol to access a vast pool of data resources essential for training AI models. 

The Ocean platform will ensure data privacy, traceability, and secure transactions, thus providing a foundational infrastructure for AI developers and data scientists. 

TL;DR: Thanks to the rise in AI, Ocean Protocol has found a completely new customer base that’s able to amplify its business model. 

As a result, $OCEAN has already managed to surpass its all-time high in market cap that it reached last cycle, when AI wasn’t really a thing yet.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Example 2: Akash Network

Akash is a decentralized marketplace for cloud and compute. 

It lets people with extra cloud storage and compute power offer it to others who need it for their projects, like a shared workspace but for computers. It uses blockchain and token incentives to function and has been around since 2020.

Akash has done extremely well over the last year since finding product market fit (or at least a narrative) with AI, as of course, AI projects require a lot of computing resources to function.

As the development of AI continues to rise, so too would the demand for more computing power. This puts Akash in an excellent position to capitalize on the AI boom. 

Its token ($AKT) is already up 1,500% in the last year, and has completely smashed through its past ATH in market cap.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Now, just because Ocean and Akash are both well-positioned to capitalize on the AI narrative, it doesn’t necessarily mean that their tokens will do well this cycle. 

Both of these projects are currently worth astronomical amounts, while their core business model is lagging behind. 

For example, while Akash is worth over $2 billion in market cap right now, its revenues are struggling to even surpass $60k/month, as you can see below. 

That’s absurd. $60k/month in revenue is a threshold that should be surpassed easily by any company valued at $2+ billion, like Akash is. 

This shows that although some crypto projects have found market fit thanks to AI, they’re still insanely overvalued.

So, from a fundamental standpoint, these are clearly not great investments, and as an investor, you should pay attention to this. 

However, because the Crypto AI narrative is still strong as f*ck, these tokens will probably go on to reach even more mental valuations during this cycle. 

One thing is for sure though: You don’t want to be holding onto these tokens when the music stops. But more on that at the end of this report. 

4. Businesses Leveraging Blockchain and AI for New Innovations

This section is where we let our fantasies loose. This is where we imagine where the future is going. 

Below, I will share 4 new innovations that will probably play a significant role in the future of the world and internet, which are only possible because of the synergy of AI and crypto.

Keep in mind however that the things highlighted below will probably take many years to be developed, and there’s no certainty that they’ll find market fit (although it’s very likely).

Decentralizing Governance of AI via Tokens (DAOs)

Decentralizing control of Large Language Models (LLMs) ensures no single entity dominates AI, promoting fairness by spreading governance and data access widely.

It's like having a community work together to build and manage a public garden rather than one person owning it all. This way, AI can grow in a way that's fair and benefits everyone.

Right now, the AI world isn't as open and shared as we'd hope. Elon Musk recently sued OpenAI, claiming they've shifted towards a more closed, profit-driven approach with their AI tech, rather than open-sourcing the tech for wider human benefits.

Blockchain fixes that. 

Example: Bittensor

Bittensor is essentially a decentralized database used for developing customized AIs. How it works:

Marketplace: Bittensor acts as a marketplace where developers, data scientists, and contributors can offer their computing resources, data, or AI models. 

This way, Bittensor expands their database, while contributors are rewarded with $TAO – Bittensor’s native cryptocurrency. 

Subnets: Bittensor subnets are like small networks within the main network. Each one focuses on a specific type of AI work, such as writing text or analyzing data. This setup lets Bittensor work on different AI projects all at once, making what it can do more varied.

Example: If someone wants to build their own version of ChatGPT on Bittensor, they would create a subnet for that specific purpose. 

This subnet (ChatGPT) would then take all of the necessary data from Bittensor’s main database, in a decentralized way, in order to function.

TL;DR: You can think of Bittensor as the decentralized counterpart of OpenAI, where data is public and governed by a community, instead of a handful of people.

Now, keep in mind that this isn’t comparing apples to apples, as OpenAI has a much bigger pool of data to use than Bittensor. They’re also much, much far along in development. 

But despite that, $TAO has reached a fully diluted valuation of over $14 billion, with the token being up over 700% in the past year.

Source: CoinMarketCap

For reference, OpenAI is worth 6 times more than Bittensor ($86 billion). However, OpenAI has working products like ChatGPT and DALL-E, while Bittensor is still trying to grow their database right now. 

So it’s clear that Bittensor is overvalued today, but, this is a powerful concept that will be developed for years to come and you should pay attention to it. 

AI Governing Decentralized Protocols (DAO’s Treasuries Run by AI)

Imagine if AI could run the investment strategy for treasuries of crypto protocols like MakerDAO or Uniswap, with the goal of making as much money as possible with their billion-dollar treasuries. 

AI can crunch a ton of data, so it should come up with some genius moves that humans can’t even think of, helping these protocols grow and rake in more cash.

It's a cool peek into what could be a reality if AI took over certain crypto protocols. But since nobody's really done this yet at scale, we're all just guessing what could happen.

H/t to Vance Spencer for introducing this idea.

AI Agents 

AI Agents are basically programs that can surf the web, suggest the best flights for you, provide you with a complete budget with travel expenses, create a 21 day hour by hour itinerary and plan you a trip that would have taken you months to plan yourself. 🌴

These programs can also create games, YouTube videos, code websites, predict hay fever, automate your social media posting, manage your finances and so much more.

But here’s the deal: For these AI Agents to be truly useful, they need to be able to conduct payments. They’re useless unless they can pay for your food, flights and hotels. For this to work, they need to use some sort of currency. 

Because AI doesn't stick to one country, it needs a currency that’s cross-border, digital, and not controlled by any single country, aka cryptocurrency.

Joe Lonsdale, who helped start Palantir, mentioned that as AI grows in our economy, they'll probably start using crypto to handle buying, selling, and trading, making AI a big player in the crypto world.

Source: CoinDesk

Just like countries provide services like money and banking to people, crypto can offer similar services to AI Agents, making it a kind of universal system for managing property and transactions. 

While still nascent, the concept of AI Agents is beginning to gain traction, and they’re slowly but surely starting to play a big role in the world economy.

Example: Fetch.AI 

Fetch.AI is one of the companies on the forefront of this category, creating a unique digital world where AI agents can do tasks on their own while using crypto for payments.

We’re working on a report on Fetch.AI coming your way soon, so we won’t expand on this business in this report.

Stay tuned. 

AI Crypto Gaming 

I didn’t think AI and Crypto could revolutionize a category like gaming. That’s until I met Kalos, the co-founder of Parallel, the game development company behind Parallel Colony.

Parallel Colony

This is a game that thrusts you into a world of survival simulation, uniquely driven by generative AI. 

In this game, you start by shaping the personalities of your own AI agents through questions. 

As the game progresses, these agents, following their own unique logic and choices, may act in unexpected ways. You can suggest what they should do, but they decide their own actions, engaging in tasks like gathering and trading resources. 

These avatars have digital wallets, which you, the human player, manage the private key for, ensuring a blend of autonomy and control. But ultimately, they make their own decisions. 

Parallel Colony is still in development but we should see a first version in the beginning of 2025. 

This game is part of the wider Echelon Prime ecosystem that’s powered by $PRIME, a token that’s up 1,000% in the last year thanks to the AI hype it generated.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Wrapping Up – Beware of a Massive Bubble 🫧

We’re in a bubble where many tokens have already reached insane valuations. 

1/ Worldcoin, with a current fully diluted valuation of almost $80 billion, and a total $240 million raised, would rank in the top 200 publicly listed companies. 

Their main achievement? Scanning the irises of ~4 million people (0.05% of the world population).

Is this achievement justifying Worlcoin’s insane valuation? Of course not. 

While the concept they’re trying to pull off is cool and I think has great potential, in its current state, Worldcoin is crazy overvalued. 

2/ Bittensor is worth $14 billion and it doesn’t even have a working subnet (application) using its database at somewhat of a scale. 

3/ Akash is worth $2 billion and can’t even make $60k/month in revenue.

4/ Fetch.AI raised $100 million and their token is worth $3 billion, yet only a few people use their AI agents for things like scanning the weather.

Are Bittensor, Akash & Fetch.AI building cool stuff? Definitely, and I think their products could eventually be used by millions of people and thousands of businesses. 

But the chances of any of them succeeding is <1%. Remember, these are all start ups and 99% of startups fail… especially in a new industry like AI and like crypto. A good reference is the dot com bubble. How many companies survived that period? Under 1% for sure.  

The AI world is still very new and even ChatGPT isn’t THAT great of a product. It’s going to take years for AI and these businesses to really crack the code and take over the world like many of us have been told.

This isn’t going to happen overnight and it’s likely not even going to happen this cycle. 

This means that whenever this bull market ends, most of these AI crypto projects will have minimal adoption, user base and revenues, if they even have a working product by then! 

Yet, most of these will be valued in the multi-billions because that’s just what we do in crypto.

There’s no doubt that the synergy of crypto and AI is going to create some of the greatest new innovations and use cases we’ve ever seen in tech, so it's important to stay in-the-know and do your research within this sector. 

It also doesn’t hurt to play around with these projects and invest in their tokens, so long as you understand what you’re doing and realize that most of this is already overvalued in comparison to the fundamentals.

AI and crypto are here to stay, but currently the token prices are driven by narrative and many will be wiped out when the cycle ends, so invest with caution my friends!

Good luck out there.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyle Reidhead

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]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3academypro cryptocurrency ai <![CDATA[🟣 Is the Bull Market DONE?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/is-the-bull-market-done AyNrNqJwxaiJv7Sg78gh Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:56:05 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Over the past 7 days, Bitcoin dumped from $72k to $62k… 📉

And Ethereum from $4k to $3.1k… 📉

This heavy correction led to the wider crypto market losing $400 billion in 7 days. 🤯

So is this it? Did the bull market just get canceled? Is it time for endless sleepless nights and to re-apply for that old McDonald’s job?

Not at all – this is a totally normal correction that I think we were due anyway, because frankly, the market got really heated lately, which I’ll explain below. 

We’ve also seen Bitcoin crash to <$10k on BitMex and Bitcoin ETFs having a negative flow day for the first time in a while. 

So, let’s dive in and recap WTF happened in the markets this week.  

Memecoin Pre-sale Mania 🤡

A new meta has taken over crypto over the last few days: Memecoin Presales. 

In short: Investors transfer funds to random crypto wallets posted on X by various crypto influencers promising huge returns. As a reward, they get token airdrops.

Yesterday, ZachXBT reported that almost 800k $SOL (~$150 million) was raised from 33 presales.

Source: ZachXBT

As you can expect, a bunch of these presales were complete scams and ‘investors’ got rugged.

But one funny thing happened. 

The ‘dev’ behind the memecoin $SLERF accidentally burned all of the proceeds received in the presale (over $10 million).

So presale investors never got their airdrop, but SLERF went on to reach over $800 million in market cap, and surpassed the trading volume of all Solana-based tokens except for $SOL.

Imagine waking up, seeing that your token did over 100x since the presale, only to check X to see that all your money was burnt by ‘accident’. Horror. 

Because of all of this mania, BonkBot, the leading trading bot on Solana, did more trading volume than blockchains like Base and Polygon. 😅

Due to a lot of trading, Solana's revenues increased (because of how much gas users paid), making it closer to Ethereum's revenues—going from being 17 times lower a month ago to just 2.9 times lower at one point this week. 

Solana also flipped Ethereum in Google searches. 

So it’s clear that Solana was the main beneficiary from this memecoin frenzy. However, when the music stopped, Solana started to take a big hit in price. 

Understandable. 

Bitcoin’s Crash to <$10k and ETF Cooldown 🥶

Bitcoin's price on BitMEX suddenly dropped to ~$9k from $67k. 

This sudden drop freaked out the global market a bit, making Bitcoin's price fall around 7% during that time. 

Some think that this sell-off was caused by a user who suddenly sold 850 BTC ($55.49 million) on the open market. 

Because of this, BitMEX is digging into what happened and has even put a temporary hold on withdrawals for some accounts.

In other (even less exciting) news, Bitcoin ETFs have had a negative flow day for the first time in a good while.

Of course, the outflows were mainly led by Grayscale ETF holders, who are exiting because of Grayscale’s high fees.

Good news though… Grayscale’s working on lowering their ETF’s fees soon.

Wrapping Up – The Bull Market’s NOT Done! 👀

If we look beyond the noise, we understand that the bull market is just getting started.

Yesterday, BlackRock announced that they’re building on Ethereum. 

BlackRock teamed up with Securitize, experts in turning real world assets (RWAs) like property into digital tokens, to start a new fund, to which they deposited 100 million $USDC.

They haven't said exactly what they'll invest in, but it's likely about making real-world stuff ownable through digital tokens. 

This is HUGE! 

In other news, Standard Chartered increased its year-end $BTC price forecast by 50% to $150,000.

TradFi diving head-first into crypto. That should make you bullish, not scared, regardless of market corrections. 

My two cents. 👇

Think of these market dips as sort of like taking a breather during a marathon. They're totally normal and super necessary for the market to climb even higher – without these little breaks, we'd burn out way quicker than anyone would like.

If you're new here or don't have a plan, these dips can be scary. But in reality, these are the opportunities you get to buy your favorite coins on sale and beef up your portfolio for the rest of the bull market. 

Also, this is an opportunity to differentiate the strong assets from vaporware. 

Look for the tokens that recover quickly during these dips, i.e. $BTC, $ETH & $SOL – generally, these recoveries show that these investments will outperform this cycle. 

Then look at the assets that get completely rekt, i.e. go down 30, 40 or 50% in a matter of days – these are heavily speculative assets held by short term traders and paper hands, which will probably get crushed during market corrections. 

Lastly, remember that as we get closer and closer to the peak of this cycle, these roller coaster dips will happen more often. 

This is just part of the game, and, in a way, a sign that we're heading in the right direction.

Before I wrap up, I wanted to share the message that I sent to PRO members in Discord yesterday – this should give you a good overview of where I stand right now.

I share these kinds of insights regularly in the PRO Discord channel with the goal of helping PROs invest successfully in crypto. 

If you’d like to join us, then go PRO, and you’ll get instructions on how to join the Discord in the welcome email.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Revolutionizing Gaming with Crypto and AI: Parallel Colony ]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/parallel-colony-explained oC361jk8lcZLKrH778d7 Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:59:42 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Imagine playing a game where you’re not in control of your character. 

Instead, your avatar is an AI agent that goes on its own adventures, makes its own choices, and learns from the world around it, needing you only for light nudges to guide it in the right direction. 

Meet Parallel Colony – a game built by Parallel Studios at the intersection of crypto and AI to enable experiences that were not possible before. 

The whitepaper for Colony was released late last week and today, I wanted to give you the lowdown:

  • Who is Parallel Studios?

  • What is Echelon Prime?

  • How does Parallel Colony work? 

You’ll want to read this through! The Parallel ecosystem is powered by $PRIME – a token that’s up 1,000% in the last year – there might still be an investment opportunity here. 🤔

Additionally, there’s a new airdrop on the horizon – $PROMPT.

Let’s explore. 👇

An Overview of Echelon Prime 👀

Before we dive into the Parallel Colony game, let me give you context. 

Firstly, Echelon Prime is a community-driven gaming ecosystem where decisions are made collectively, focusing on token-based governance using $PRIME and NFTs to enhance gaming experiences. 

Secondly, we have Parallel Studios – a game development company that creates games contributing to the Echelon Prime ecosystem. 

Parallel Studios has caught the attention of the gaming community with 2 flagship projects: ParallelTCG and Parallel Colony. 

ParallelTCG is a trading card game in which players engage in 1v1 battles using decks of NFT or apparition cards, earning $PRIME tokens for victories.

$PRIME can then be used by players to buy new NFT cards in order to improve their decks for future battles. 

Built on top of Ethereum and Base, ParallelTCG launched in August last year and was one of the only playable web3 games, offering a unique blend of competition, strategy, and digital ownership.

We wrote all about ParallelTCG here.

ParallelTCG is only the first game to gain traction from the wider Echelon Prime ecosystem. 

The next big game will be Parallel Colony. 👀

A Simplified Breakdown of Parallel Colony 🤖

Colony is a game that thrusts you into a world of survival simulation, uniquely driven by generative AI. 

In this game, you're paired with autonomous agents that march to the beat of their own drum. Here’s what avatars look like.

Initially, you shape your agents' personalities with key questions, but as the game unfolds, their evolving personalities may take surprising turns.

In this AI-driven journey, you guide rather than command. You can suggest actions to your agents, but they may choose their own path, each with their unique will and reasoning.

Avatars autonomously transact, gathering resources, trading, and crafting items stored in their digital wallets, created at inception, with the human owner managing the wallet's private key.

All of these transactions will be occurring on Solana. 

TL;DR: 

Create your avatar and give it a personality → join a colony → chat with your avatar and give it tasks → avatar executes tasks at their will → avatar evolves based on the interaction with the game and other agents → avatar notifies owner of completion of tasks.

You can then repeat this loop daily, giving your avatar new ideas and direction, but relying on it to take it to the finish line however it sees fit. 

Parallel Colony, set to launch at the beginning of 2025, will be a free-to-play game. However, if you want to earn in-game tokens and get the full in-game experience, you’ll need to purchase an avatar (NFT). 

Wrapping Up – New $PROMPT Token on the Way 👀

The $PRIME token has already gone up 1,000% in the last year. The token cost just $4 when we had Kalos, the co-founder of Parallel, on the podcast in September last year.

P.S. - Tune into that episode to learn all there is about Parallel.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

So the $PRIME token has already had a massive rally, but it shows no signs of slowing down. Here’s why. 

Meet Wayfinder – an AI tool designed for blockchain environments, enabling AI agents to navigate, transact, and interact across blockchain ecosystems with autonomy.

Wayfinder will power Parallel Colony’s AI agents, enabling them to handle complex tasks, transact in-game and make decisions.

"The opportunity: Wayfinder is launching a token called $PROMPT – and the whitepaper proposed that a whopping 40% of the supply be distributed to ecosystems like Echelon Prime."

Users will likely need to stake their $PRIME tokens to farm $PROMPT, with staking expected to become available soon.

By enabling staking, and incentivizing users to lock up their tokens to earn free cash, $PRIME will most likely continue its rally, especially if the bull market continues to remain hot. 🔥

Overall, the outlook for $PRIME is optimistic, with several key catalysts on the horizon:

  • The public release of ParallelTCG.

  • The introduction of $PRIME staking.

  • The opportunity to farm $PROMPT through $PRIME staking.

  • The launch of Parallel Colony in under a year.

  • The possibility of a Binance listing in the near future.

Having already seen a 10x increase over the past year, $PRIME is poised to remain a top-performing gaming token in this bull market. 

It's definitely one to keep on your watchlist.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Saylor Found an Infinite Money Glitch]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-infinite-money-glitch 5cJhpFRU7SaR105rTTUS Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:51:30 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy used to be worth $1.1 billion in 2020 when they started to acquire Bitcoin. 

Today, the market cap of $MSTR is almost $30 billion. 🤯

Just look at the insane growth of this company. 

So how did they get to this point? Did Michael Saylor discover an infinite money glitch? 

Today, I’m going to explain how MicroStrategy is able to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin every month…

And how Coinbase might follow its footsteps soon. 👀

We’re also going to talk about how memecoins are getting out of hand:

  • Elon is pumping Dogecoin again 😅

  • WIF is going on the Sphere 🤯

  • Solana memecoins can’t be stopped 🚀

At the end, we’re going to highlight the Onchain App Of The Month. 🥳

Let’s go. ⏬

Saylor’s Infinite Money Glitch Explained 🤑

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy owns a whopping 205,000 $BTC, which they bought for ~$6.91 billion at average price of $33,706 per Bitcoin.

But how have they been able to spend almost $7 billion if their company was only worth $1 billion 4 years ago?

Here’s Michael Saylor’s playbook:

Issue Convertible Notes: MicroStrategy starts by issuing convertible notes, which is a way to borrow money from investors. 

These notes can later be turned into MicroStrategy's own stock instead of being paid back in cash.

Buy Bitcoin: With the money raised from these notes, MicroStrategy purchases Bitcoin. They're betting that Bitcoin's price will go up over time.

Bitcoin's Value Increases: As the value of Bitcoin increases, so does the value of MicroStrategy's holdings. 

The increased value of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings usually contributes to a rise in its stock price – $MSTR is basically a proxy for $BTC, i.e. it follows the Bitcoin price.

Issue More Convertible Notes: With the company's stock higher, MicroStrategy can issue more convertible notes under possibly even better terms and repeat the cycle, buying more Bitcoin with the raised funds.

Context: It makes sense for investors to buy these convertible notes because they offer a low-risk investment with a fixed interest rate, plus the potential to convert into MicroStrategy's stock, which could go higher in the future.

In short: Borrow Money -> Buy Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Goes Up -> Stock Looks Good -> Repeat

For all of this borrowing, MicroStrategy issued convertible notes with a low 0.625% annual interest rate. 

To pay this interest rate, MicroStrategy can raise even more money in the future, or simply sell some Bitcoin to cover the rate.  

After raising $800 million last week, Saylor is looking to raise another $500 million. 😅

What’s interesting is that despite Saylor’s aggressive Bitcoin buys, BlackRock’s $IBIT has still overtaken MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings.

There’s a big difference though: Microstrategy owns the Bitcoin. Blackrock’s customers own the Bitcoin in $IBIT.

Funny Story: A few days ago, Saylor went live on TV to say: "People who use fiat currency as a store of value - there's a name for them - we call them poor" 😂

Coinbase Following in MicroStrategy’s Footsteps 👣

Coinbase plans to raise $1 billion, not by asking its current stockholders for more money, but by issuing "convertible bonds” – same as to what MicroStrategy is doing.

By borrowing a page from MicroStrategy's playbook, which successfully funded its Bitcoin investments this way, Coinbase aims to grow its company without upsetting its shareholders. 

Investors who buy these convertible bonds will get a fixed interest rate on their investment plus the possibility to convert their investments into $COIN stock at a later date.

Infinite Money Glitch or Nah? 🤔

MicroStrategy’s playbook is using borrowed money to buy Bitcoin, hoping its value will keep going up. 

Right now, as Bitcoin's heading into a massive bull market, their plan seems to be working. 

But, this strategy is risky. If Bitcoin's price falls or people lose interest, there could be problems. 

In 2022 for example, MicroStrategy risked liquidation on a $205 million loan due to falling Bitcoin prices. The loan required double its value in collateral. 

By using Bitcoin as collateral and planning to add more if needed, MicroStrategy managed the risk.

Regardless, this isn't a surefire way to make endless money. It’s rather a massive bet placed by Saylor, which will probably turn out to be extremely profitable. 

Memecoins Getting Out of Hand 😳

Elon Musk Pumps Dogecoin… Again

Elon spoke at the ‘We Are Giga’ event in Texas and said a few things:

  • Tesla will enable Dogecoin payments at some point.

  • Dogecoin is the people’s crypto.

  • Dogecoin to the moon

Are we surprised? Not at all. 😂

Dog wif hat is Going on the Sphere 

The WIF community has successfully raised over $700k out of the $650k intended to put the dog in a pink hat on the Sphere in Vegas. 

This raise was catapulted by Phantom, the leading Solana wallet that added the fundraising campaign on its Phantom Explore page.

Can’t make this up… 

Solana Memecoins Can’t Be Stopped

Book of Meme ($BOME) is the latest sensation in the Solana memecoin sector, reaching a $400 million market cap after it was launched only yesterday. 🤯

Some have made millions in this memecoin overnight.

Because of all of this memecoin mania on Solana, $SOL is the only token that’s holding up during this wide market correction. 

The Onchain App Of The Month is... EigenLayer

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol built on Ethereum.

Restaking is a new primitive that enables previously staked assets to be staked again to extend cryptoeconomic security and earn additional rewards.

Next week, we're doing NFT Of The Month, where we'll feature 4 NFT collections suggested by our community. Reply to this email with your suggestion on which collections we should pick.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3 cryptocurrency <![CDATA[🟣 W3A PRO | My 2024 Crypto Portfolio]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/kyles-crypto-portfolio-update k9NcxpfyJwcLDLOLVUbf Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:27:32 GMT GM PRO DOers! 😎

2024 has been a massive year for crypto and we’re only 75 days in!

Bitcoin has surpassed all-time highs, Ethereum hit $4,000, AI Tokens are skyrocketing and memecoins are completely nuts. As a result, I’ve been getting many questions regarding what my portfolio looks like and what I recommend people should be investing in.

On January 4th, 2024, I shared a complete breakdown of my portfolio, which you can view here.

But of course, things have changed significantly since then…

Today, I'm diving into all the assets I've got, how much of my total investments they make up, and my thoughts on investing in them right now. Plus, I'll let you know if I'm thinking about selling any of them soon.

FYI I think 2024 is going to continue to be a great year and I’m continuing to dollar cost average (DCA) into my crypto portfolio (though only in a certain sector which I will explain below).

I believe we're heading into another classic crypto cycle similar to what we've seen in previous years. This cycle usually starts with a boom, leading to sky-high valuations, and then takes a sharp turn with a major correction, where we could see a drop of 50% across the board, with many assets plunging by 90% or even more.

My plan is to take profits at certain points throughout this cycle with part of my portfolio (for lifestyle chips) as well as HODL a large sum of my portfolio through the dip (to earn passive income via staking and just in case the dip never comes). Below I will share my gameplan.

At the bottom of this report I share my key takeaways and best/worst trades so far this cycle.

Before you review my portfolio and thoughts below, here’s some reading material that might help provide context and strategy around my portfolio and how to structure your own:

Remember, the key is to develop your own unique strategy that fits your own unique situation. My lifestyle, risk tolerance, goals and more are likely very different from yours, which means our investment portfolio and strategy should be too. 

Use this to help you build a portfolio and strategy, do not copy and paste it.

Ok, let’s get into it!

FYI the #% in each asset title was my % of allocation on Jan 4th, the clear #% is what it is now.

Ethereum

$ETH (55% 64% of my onchain portfolio)

$ETH continues to be my highest conviction investment by a longshot. The risk/reward is unlike anything I’ve ever seen and the rest of my portfolio is compared to $ETH in terms of risk/reward.

I think $ETH could see some pretty big numbers in this bull market, considering it’s the first cycle that we have the burn + proof of stake + restaking demand + significant L2 adoption and continued demand for the L1 (i.e. high fees on L1). 

If the $ETH ETF gets approved then the supply shock of $ETH this cycle is going to be ludicrous (I’m writing a report on this in a few weeks).

My price target for $ETH in the next 12-18 months is $10k-$20k.

Most of my $ETH I don’t plan to sell, however I have been putting plenty of it to work to earn additional APY (yield) and airdrops. Below is the list I originally shared with updates and notes:

Staked ETH:

  • 58% 51.6% is held in $rETH on my Ledger earning ∼4% APY

Airdrop Farming/Staking/Restaking:

  • 5.4% 14.2% is held in $eETH (a liquid restaking token), earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the Ether.fi and EigenLayer airdrop.

  • 5.4% is held in $STONE on Manta Network earning ∼4% APY and is farming the $MANTA airdrop 

    • I received a $2500 airdrop and sold all my $MANTA at $3.6. I’ve since sold my 5.4% $STONE into $ETH and bridged to Scroll, ZkSync and Linea to farm potential airdrops.

  • 5.4% 4.8% is held in $swETH and restaked on EigenLayer, earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the Swell and EigenLayer airdrop.

  • 5.4% 4.8% is held in $rETH and restaked on EigenLayer, earning ∼4% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the EigenLayer airdrop.

  • 1.6% was bridged to the L2 Mode and is held in $ezETH (a liquid restaking token), earning ∼2.96% APY + restaking APY (% TBD) and is farming the MODE, RENZO and EigenLayer airdrop

    • To farm the Mode Airdrop, you can bridge here

    • To farm the RENZO + Eigenlayer airdrop, you can swap here.

    • FYI this one is very new and I haven’t done my full due diligence, so DYOR before bridging here.

Vanilla ETH:

  • 5.4% 6% is just vanilla $ETH held on an old Trezor hardware wallet, this $ETH hasn’t been touched since I bought it at $150 in 2020!

This Cycle’s Plan:

  • I sold a small % of my onchain $ETH into $SOL a few weeks ago when SOL/ETH hit .035. This has proven to be a good move so far as SOL/ETH currently sits at .04 even as $ETH has been on a tear the last 2 months. This also made me eligible to receive the Wormhole airdrop announced last week!

    P.S. I put a call out in the #PRO-Discussion channel in our Discord when I made this trade. If you’re a PRO member and not yet here, join now for more of my thoughts and ideas as we progress through this bull market!

  • I don’t plan to sell any of my $ETH held onchain this cycle into FIAT, and very likely not into any other assets 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 (see below section for details on when I plan to sell).

  • I’m not currently dollar cost averaging (DCA) into onchain $ETH. Instead, I’m DCAing into offchain $ETH (more details below) in my Tax Free Savings Account to sell at certain points in this cycle. However, my $ETH is being used to stake/restake as well as farm airdrops. When I receive airdrops I strategically sell back into $ETH, allowing me to “EAA” into $ETH. This is a term created by @kuba in our discord that stands for “ETH Airdrop Averaging” and simply means using $ETH to earn more $ETH by selling airdropped tokens into $ETH – haha I like it!

  • As Eigenlayer moves to mainnet and restaking is “de-risked” I will move most of my $ETH into restaked $ETH for the extra yield and to generate long-term passive income. 

Solana

$SOL (21.5% 23.5% of my onchain portfolio)

Solana has been a significant investment for me as I have high conviction that it will become a dominant blockchain ecosystem. 

While it doesn’t have the deflationary supply like $ETH or the potential of an ETF this cycle, it has clear product market fit as the “retail chain” and outstanding tech.

I think this narrative only continues moving into this bull cycle and as a result $SOL will do extremely well. My price target for $SOL is less clear than $ETH, however I feel pretty good about it reaching $1,000+ at the top. 

My only concern is that if (when) we have another bear, Solana will have a significant drop vs. $ETH or $BTC due to the high inflation and token unlocks.

$SOL is another great asset to put to work to earn yield and airdrops. Below is what I’m doing with my $SOL.

Staked:

  • 73% 63% is delegated staked via the Phantom wallet and backed by my Ledger, earning ∼6.87% APY

Airdrop Farming:

  • 37% is held in $jitoSOL earning ∼7% APY.

    • 25% 37.5% of my $jitoSOL is lent out in Kamino Finance, earning an extra 0.18% APY and farming the Kamino Airdrop.

      • Kamino has announced their upcoming airdrop, with the snapshot taking place March 31st. As a result, I moved a chunk of my $jitoSol in MarginFi to Kamino for this.

      • Secondly, I realized if I supplied $SOL instead of $jitosol into Kamino I would get a 5x bonus on points. I moved most of this into $SOL for the final month to get a boost, after the snapshot I will likely move it all into MarginFi.

    • 50% 37.5% of my $jitoSOL is lent out in MarginFI, earning an extra 0.15% APY and farming the MarginFi Airdrop. I’m also borrowing $mSOL for additional points, and lending that in Kamino Finance and Meteora.

    • The remaining 25% is sitting in my Ledger, awaiting my next airdrop farm opportunity.

This Cycle's Plan:

My plan with $SOL is similar to the above with $ETH, however, I believe that $SOL will outperform $ETH during this bull market and significantly underperform $ETH during the following bear market.

I plan to sell a % of my onchain $SOL this cycle for life purposes, similar to how I mentioned that for my offchain $ETH. 

The difference here is that I have no offchain alternative for $SOL, which means I will need to pay taxes on this sale. 

For this reason, I will try to limit the amount I sell (hopefully getting all the profits I need from my $ETH in the TFSA). 

For tax purposes, I will simply hold a large % of my $SOL through the bear market rather than sell into another asset that I think will outperform in the bear market (i.e. $ETH or $BTC).

Bitcoin

$BTC (10% 10.5% of my onchain portfolio)

I didn’t buy any more Bitcoin, despite it being a larger % of my total portfolio now (I haven’t actually bought any $BTC since 2020, other than in a Canadian ETF months before the USA ETF was approved). 

It’s only a larger % simply because it’s outperformed almost everything else.

I think we’ve hit the top for Bitcoin dominance now and the rest of the bull market will be led by $ETH and $SOL. 

That said, the Bitcoin ETF has been a massive surprise to the upside and if the $ETH ETF doesn’t get approved, Bitcoin’s momentum may continue for a while longer.

Even if this is the case, I think it would be a short-term outperformance for $BTC and then back to $ETH and alts.

  • 100% is held in an old Trezor hardware wallet, this $BTC hasn’t been touched since I bought it between $5,000 - $10,000 in 2020.

  • I don’t plan to sell this $BTC.

L2 Tokens

$IMX (<1% 1.2% of my onchain portfolio)
$OP (1.5% 1% of my onchain portfolio)
$ARB (<1% of my onchain portfolio)
$MATIC (<1% of my onchain portfolio)

L2 tokens had a big move in Q4 2023, but have been dominated by $ETH so far in 2024. 

I feel pretty confident this will change once we get the real altcoin season, though with the launch of EIP-4844 yesterday, this could send these tokens on a serious run sooner than later!

$IMX and $OP are my 2 favorites on this list. $ARB is great, however it has a big token unlock on March 16th that may cause some sell pressure in the short-term. If it has a pullback or lags the other L2s, it would be a great buying opportunity.

I plan to sell all of these tokens at some point in the cycle. There are going to be 10s if not 100s of L2 tokens at the end of this cycle, many of which will fail. 

Also, most of these tokens still have plenty of supply to unlock over the coming years, which will force their price down if the bear market comes.

Unless these projects do something interesting with their token (ie. rev share and staking) I will be selling 100%.

AI Tokens

AI tokens have caught a huge narrative and I believe are going to be the biggest bubble of this cycle, similar to NFTs last cycle and ICOs the one before it. 

While there is fundamental innovation here in combining AI and blockchain, much of it isn’t real and most of it is already overvalued vs. fundamentals. 

That said, it likely goes WAY higher than any of us think and then crashes massively afterwards too, so be careful!

I own two “AI tokens”, but I owned them before they were part of the AI narrative. They just happened to have an existing product that was good for AI and/or have incredible marketing teams.

By the way, we have an AI x blockchain PRO report coming your way soon to help you navigate this space! 👀

$AKT (<1% of my onchain portfolio)

$AKT was up 1100% when I wrote the last report and has done another 2.5x since. 

It’s caught the AI narrative and in my opinion is already way overvalued for what it is. That said, it probably continues to do well during the obvious AI x crypto bubble that will lead this bull market.

  • 100% is held in a KEPLR wallet and staked, earning ∼10% APY

  • I plan to sell 100% of this later in the cycle (sooner than later).

$NEAR (<1% of my onchain portfolio)

Bought it at $3.50 in December, it’s now sitting at $8.22 because it caught the AI narrative somehow. 

Near must have some great marketers because they played off the Data Availability Layer narrative from Celestia in Q4 2023 and somehow managed to catch the AI narrative now too.

  • 100% is held on Coinbase and ready to be sold any moment. 

The problem with the 2 above is that even though they have both performed well in a short period of time, they are so difficult to buy and hold with any significant size. 

This is what makes investing in alts so difficult.

Sure, you can find a few that rip on a narrative, but there's so many narratives, so many tokens and none of them have any fundamental relevance whatsoever, so how can you allocate a large % of your portfolio to them?

I can’t do it personally, so even when it goes up 2200%, it’s a drop in the bucket to my overall portfolio. 

This is more of a “fun to play” than any meaningful part of my investment strategy.

That covers my entire onchain portfolio.

As you may have noticed, I don’t hold many assets, as I believe that is a losing strategy. I hold onto assets that I understand and that I use their product.

Call me boring but this allows me to build conviction, understand the fundamentals and follow along. 

If I held 20 or 30 assets I would have no time to keep up with the tech and fundamentals of each asset.

I also bought all of these early in this cycle (and/or last cycle) and plan to do little to no “trading” throughout the bull market. 

I plan to ride each of these assets throughout the cycle and sell some of them along the way.

Let’s dive into my offchain portfolio and then share my best/worst trades below.

My Offchain Portfolio

$QETH - The Ether Fund (70% 83%)

This is a Canadian ETH ETF that I am able to hold in a Tax Free Savings Account. 

This allows me to get exposure to $ETH and sell as much as I want, without any tax implications. 

I continue to dollar cost average into this asset every month and will likely continue to do so until ETH hits an all time high at $5,000. After we surpass $ETH all time high, I will significantly lower the amount I DCA into crypto on a monthly basis.

I plan to sell most of this when $ETH hits $7,500 and/or $Bitcoin hits $100,000. 

Yes, this is well below what I think will be the top this cycle, however I have specific things I want to purchase from these investments and want to guarantee that I get to take profits this cycle, rather than hope I can time the top and maximize my profits. 

Just because we think $ETH will go to $10-$20k, doesn’t mean it will! And if it does, I still hold PLENTY off onchain $ETH, so all is well.

You can learn more about my sell plan here. 

$COIN - Coinbase (8.5%)

One of my best investments ever was buying Coinbase at $38, but I have continued to buy at $55 and more recently I sold all my Marathon in February (a Bitcoin Mining stock) to get more $COIN at $140. 

That has proven to be a great move as $MARA is down and $COIN is now sitting at $264!

I haven’t yet figured out when I’m going to sell my $COIN, but I think we still have a long way to go as previous all time highs were at $430. I think we definitely surpass ATH this cycle and then the top of $COIN likely coincides with the top of Bitcoin.

$COIN is easily a long term hold like $ETH or $BTC that will continue to do well for years to come, but since it’s a stock held in my TFSA, I will try to time the top since it won’t initiate a tax hit for me. 

I will continue to put some work on Coinbase and update my price thesis when I can!

$TSLA - Tesla (8.5%)

My only investment outside of crypto is Tesla. I recently sold all of my Microsoft, Google and Apple to buy more $COIN and more $TSLA. 

I’m buying Tesla because I believe it’s one of the only non-crypto plays that might outperform crypto this cycle. 

For a detailed explanation on why Tesla, check out a recent PRO report we did here outlining the bull case for Tesla to become the largest company in the world in the next 3 years!

My Thoughts So Far Into This Cycle 💭

My portfolio is up more than 4x since January of 2023, pretty wild! 🤯

But, it’s been pretty easy to get investments right over the last year. At any point last year, if you closed your eyes, bought 10 tokens in the top 100 on CoinGecko, you would be up big in all 10 of them.

The key at this point however is to realize that you are not a genius (no one is in terms of investing in this industry) and you don’t know it all. Don’t get too cocky and start risking a large part of your portfolio farther down the risk curve. Stick to the plan!

What’s worked really well for me so far is to continue to block out all the noise that comes with a bull market (it’s only going to get worse), don’t try to hold too many assets (especially ones that you don’t understand or keep on top of) and double down on your highest conviction bets when they have large pullbacks.

There is plenty of FOMO and temptation out there that makes me want to break from my strategy, but I continue to put in the work to manage my emotions and stay on track. I gave plenty of tips on this here.

My biggest moves in the last 6 months so far have been the following:

Firstly, when $COIN dropped from $185 down to $120 in February, I consolidated my assets and bought more $COIN. 

I got rid of Marathon, Microsoft, Apple and Google because I don’t study their businesses like I do Coinbase. 

This has allowed me to double down on my winners and remain focused (4 less companies I need to think about!)

Secondly, when $SOL topped out at $125 and dropped down to $85, while at the same time $ETH started ripping, I moved some of my $ETH into $SOL. 

A high conviction bet into another one of my high conviction bets. I still remain focused, there's no new token for me to consider and yet I managed to grab an extra 14% in a short period of time.

Thirdly, just before the Bitcoin ETF approval I sold my Canadian Bitcoin ETF shares (which were outperforming) into a Canadian $ETH ETF as I felt $ETH was lagging. 

This also worked out well because $ETH has since out performed, giving me an extra 7% on that capital so far.

Fourthly, my biggest mistake so far was selling my $TIA airdrop into $SOL when $TIA was at $3 and $SOL was at $50. 

$TIA is now at $18 (a 6x) and $SOL is at $150 (a 3x). 

But here’s the thing, I stuck to my strategy of consolidating tokens and doubling down on my high conviction assets. 

I may have missed a 6x, but I still got a 3x and had to put 0 additional work, time or resources into studying that trade because it was a trade I already had on.

In reality, I don’t see this as a mistake, I see it as sticking to my plan. I’m continuing to put my time, energy and money into a few high conviction assets and block out the rest of the noise.

THIS is the key to succeeding this cycle! Not trying to find 10 other tokens that might be a 10x or 20x, because you probably won’t find it and waste your capital/time all the while. And if you do find it, you’ll probably screw up the trade anyway by selling too soon or too late.

My biggest advice is to pick a few investments that you truly believe in, invest in them and continue to double down by buying dips and put in the work to understand how to earn more of it (airdrops, yield, etc.). 

Block out the noise. Control your FOMO. Don’t get too greedy. Don’t forget to take profits – especially now that we’re entering the crazier part of the cycle.

Good luck out there friends! I’ll be back in a bit with another update on the portfolio :)

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyle Reidhead

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3academypro cryptocurrency web3 defi <![CDATA[🟣 Ethereum Users Are in For a Treat Today]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/eip-4844-launch 9pOu4JUWhVC8meAj72Dc Wed, 13 Mar 2024 12:56:57 GMT GM DOers! 

It’s a big day for Ethereum today! 🤤

  • EIP-4844 is officially being launched today. 

  • Optimism will eliminate fees for certain developers temporarily.

  • Magic Eden will retroactively reward past ETH NFT traders with Diamonds.

  • EtherFi is releasing its token.

Yeah, as I said, it’s a big day/week, and I’ll walk you through each main event occurring on Ethereum today. 

But keep in mind: It’s not all rainbows and unicorns. 🦄

  • Arbitrum is gearing up for a significant release this week.

  • The prospects for an Ethereum ETF in May have significantly decreased.

Let’s get you up to speed. ⏬

EIP-4844 – The Blobs Are Coming Today 👀

EIP-4844, known as Proto-Danksharding, is gearing up to slash Ethereum's Layer 2 (L2) gas fees by introducing "blobs"—cost-effective data chunks that reduce transaction costs. 

This upgrade will particularly benefit Rollups (Base, Optimism, Arbitrum etc.) that bundle transactions for cheaper and more efficient processing on Ethereum's main network. 

By making these data transmissions cheaper, we estimated that EIP-4844 would lower fees on L2s to anywhere between 1-5 cents per transaction. 

Context: Users pay anywhere from $0.2 to $2 for transactions on L2s today, which is clearly not sustainable. 

EIP-4844 is part of Ethereum's larger goal (Danksharding) to enhance scalability and performance, ultimately aiming for the network to process over 100,000 transactions per second.

Like Jesse Pollak says, the north star is <1s and <1¢ global transactions. 

More about EIP-4844 here.

EIP-4844 (Positive) Consequences 😁

Because gas will get considerably cheaper ThirdWeb has put forward a $3 million fund that would cover the gas on certain apps. 

If you’re a dev building on the Optimism Superchain, you should apply! 

Now, keep in mind that while this $3 million fund is a nice touch, it’s not a HUGE deal. 

Here’s why:

During the past 2 weeks, the daily average fees paid to Optimism were ~$400k. 

With EIP-4844, this gas will lower by 70%, so the daily fees paid by users every day will lower to ~$120k, assuming activity remains unchanged. 

If ThirdWeb’s fund was to cover the gas for all apps on the Optimism Superchain, then that fund would last for ~25 days.

Note: Only certain apps will be chosen to partake in this fund, so the money will last a lot longer than 25 days for the chosen ones. 

Magic Eden Diamonds 💎

Magic Eden, which became the leading Solana NFT marketplace, expanded across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Polygon during the bear. 

Their marketplace is now multi-chain and they’re distributing rewards retroactively to NFT traders. These rewards will turn into a token airdrop ($NFT) at some point later this year. 

Solana traders have already gotten their Diamonds. It’s now time for ETH people. 

If you’ve traded JPEGs on ETH since 2017, expect a Diamond drop from Magic Eden today! 

You’ll be able to see your Diamond rewards here.

EtherFi’s Token is Coming 🪂

EtherFi is the leading liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum, allowing users to reuse Ethereum's proof-of-stake blockchain to secure other networks and protocols.

We’ve been waiting for a token drop for a while now, and it’s finally here. 

Between tomorrow and March 17th, you can use Binance’s Launchpool by staking $BNB to farm EtherFi’s $ETHFI.

On Monday, March 18th, Binance will list $ETHFI on its platform. 

P.S. If you’ve used EtherFi in the past, like we suggested, you’ve accrued points. These will turn into tokens at the time of the token’s drop. 

It’s Not All Rainbows and Unicorns for ETH 😬

The Ethereum ecosystem is bullish overall. But here are a few things you need to be aware of too. 

Arbitrum Unlocks 🔓

3 days from now, on March 16th, a whopping 1.11 billion $ARB tokens will be released into the wild – that’s worth $2.31 billion at today’s $ARB price.

Source: TokenUnlocks

In other words, Arbitrum is about to almost double its circulating supply this week, potentially causing some volatility for Arbinauts. 

P.S. If you want to succeed in crypto, familiarize yourself with token unlocks. 

Low Chances for Ethereum ETF Approval in May 😨

We were pretty confident that an Ethereum ETF would be approved in May.

But our dreams are being ruined by Bloomberg’s Senior ETF Analyst, Eric Balchunas. 😢

He recently came out saying that there’s now a 35% chance that the ETH ETF would get approved in May. 

The reason? The SEC is stalling.

They’re moving very slow with reviewing the applications. With the deadline approaching very fast, experts think the approval won’t happen in May. 

In prediction markets, Ethereum's likelihood of getting an ETF approval is being assessed at 31%.

Source: Polymarket

While I’m no expert on how the SEC works, I remain optimistic on this Ethereum ETF approval.

It feels like the SEC is in a pickle. 

If they reject these ETF applications, they will get sued into the ground by BlackRock & co.

We’ve seen this happen with the Bitcoin ETF process already. 

If the SEC allows that to happen, they’ll be inevitably forced by the courts to eventually approve these applications, which will result in another L for Gary Gensler. I doubt he’s ready to add another loss to his record. 😅

It seems like the SEC is simply trying to stall. How long they’ll be able to do this is up for debate, but one thing’s clear.

They will approve the ETF at one point this year. 

Personally, I’m keeping my hopes up for May. 🤞

If I were you, I’d be trying to front-run the institutions who can’t wait to scoop up all the $ETH, just like they’re scooping up all the $BTC right now.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3 blockchain cryptocurrency <![CDATA[🟣 Is the Crypto Market Peak Close?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/is-the-crypto-market-peak-close ChSA1CkWlcMvjAMbachy Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:52:21 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Is the top of the bull market in? 

According to my X feed over the weekend, the answer is yes, the top is in! 

50% of the posts I’ve seen were calling the top.

But is that true? Is the top really in or are these wanna-be influencers completely delusional? 

Let’s explore the major ‘top signals’ we’re seeing in the markets right now to answer that question:

  • Memecoin Mania 🤡

  • The ‘Choose Rich’ Guy Going Viral 🤦 

  • Other shenanigans 🥴

P.S. A top signal in crypto refers to an indicator or event suggesting that a cryptocurrency's price might be at its peak and could potentially decline.

Memecoin Mania 🤡

For weeks, memecoins have been skyrocketing, making many of them worth insane amounts.

  • PEPE – $3.7 billion

  • Dog wif hat – $2.1 billion

  • Coq Inu – $375 million

  • Mog – $350 million

  • Trump (yes, a Trump memecoin) – $340 million

  • HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu – $200 million 

We covered the memecoin season mania in a newsletter from last week here.

These valuations alone are enough for people to be calling the top. 

But there’s more…

Members of the dog wif hat community have put together a fundraising campaign aiming to raise $650k to cover the costs of showing a picture of a dog with a pink hat on The Sphere – a large, round entertainment venue in Las Vegas that can display images on its outer surface and seats over 18,600 people inside.

In the first 24h, they raised $300k in $USDC. 🤯

The ‘Choose Rich’ Guy Going Viral 🤦

This is Nick O'Neill, the CEO and Co-Founder of Nifty Portal, a popular NFT marketplace. 

He’s gone mega viral on X last week for showing off his success and screaming ‘Choose Rich’. 

This tweet was seen by 32 million people. 😂

He then showed off his yacht…

And his New York penthouse…

He even made it onto one of Beeple’s Everydays.

This type of behavior coming from crypto influencers is typically signaling that the market is too euphoric and that we’re due for a market correction. 

But before I share my honest opinion on this matter, let’s cover the other top signals that we’re seeing… 

4 Other Shenanigans 🥴

First up, we have Worldcoin’s $WLD reaching a fully diluted valuation of $102 billion. 

Worldcoin is of course on the forefront of the AI x Crypto narrative and has therefore been pumping on the hype. 

But regardless, if Worldcoin were to be a stock, then it would be propelled into the top 150 of the world’s companies, valued at the same levels as Starbucks and AirBnb. 🤯

Clearly unsustainable. 

Secondly, some view Coinbase's App Store ranking at 30th in Finance applications as a 'top signal,' but I believe it's premature. 

A true 'top signal' would be when Coinbase achieves the number 1 position in finance and enters the top 10 across all categories.

Thirdly, tattoos.

I honestly didn’t expect tattoos of memecoins to come this soon but here we are. 🤷

Fourthly, greed – the Fear and Greed Index for Bitcoin has indicated Extreme Greed for weeks now. 

Wrapping Up – There’s No Top Signal, I love You! 😘

Here’s the thing friends, the top is nowhere near. 

Sure, putting a meme dog on The Sphere and a guy named Nick becoming famous for showing off his crypto money are signs that people are getting too excited.

We might see the market starting to calm down a bit soon, and we could even see a pullback in the next few weeks – this happens from time to time and it’s completely normal.

On Thursday, a PRO report is coming your way called ‘Are You Ready for a 30% Pullback?’ – that will prepare you for a market correction that will inevitably occur. Go PRO to get it. 

Although as I’m writing this, Bitcoin surpassed $71k and Ethereum is at $4k, so things are still looking bullish. 😂

In the grand scheme of things, I think this is still just the beginning of the bull market. In my opinion, the things I’ve highlighted above are not top signals, but rather signs that the market is finally heating up. 🔥

Here’s the deal. 

  • Bitcoin only just surpassed its all time high, so the fun is only beginning. 

  • Ethereum is still 18% from its own ATH.

  • Most altcoins are a long way away from previous market tops.

At the same time, boomers are literally buying billions of dollars of Bitcoin via ETFs.

Once the Ethereum ETF is approved (potentially in May), they’ll also be able to scoop up $ETH. 

Besides, we still haven’t seen the real top signals. 

Conclusion: Don’t worry, the top of the bull market is nowhere near. We’re only just getting started, friends! 🫡

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 This is the REAL Airdrop Season]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-real-airdrop-season GwsaHPmppyaWNmsZY1uy Fri, 08 Mar 2024 13:54:56 GMT GM DOers! 😎

The real airdrop season will take place in the next few months. 

We’re heading into a period during which many new tokens will finally go live.

A period during which all of your airdrop farming will finally pay off. 🤑

Today, I wanted to highlight all of the tokens that are coming up in March & April (that I’m aware of anyway), so you can keep them on your radar. 

But first, let’s start with the latest airdrop which caught all the attention – Wormhole. 

P.S- At the end, I will tell you about the new meta, that’s set to pump certain NFTs to Valhalla.

Oh, and btw… Happy International Women's Day to all ladies in our community. At the end of today’s newsletter we’re actually going to shout out the woman builder of the month. 🫶

Let’s get into it. ⏬

Wormhole Dropping a Nuclear Bomb 💣

A couple of days ago, Wormhole, the most popular cross-chain bridge out there, announced their token airdrop. 

What you should know: 

  • The snapshot was taken on February 6th, 2024. 

  • 617.3 million $W allocated for the airdrop.

  • 500 million $W will go to Wormhole users.

  • 117.3 million $W for Wormhole Discord and other NFT & token holders.

At the token generation event, Wormhole is going to release 1.8 billion tokens (18%) out of the total 10 billion.

If we take a look at prediction markets (which are typically pretty accurate), we can see that $W is set to trade around $1.6.

Source: Hyperliquid

With 617.3 million $W allocated for the airdrop, we should expect past Wormhole users to receive a total of ~$1 billion. 😳

Check your $W eligibility here.

26 Future Token Airdrops 🪂

Here’s a list of future token airdrops, scheduled to drop within the next few months. 👀

Solana Ecosystem

Kamino & MarginFi

These are both lending/borrowing platforms on Solana – we’ve been waiting for these airdrops for a long time. 

If you followed our Solana Airdrop Guide, you’re probably going to receive a healthy airdrop from each of these apps. 

Kamino announced that their snapshot for $KMNO will be taken on the 31st of March.

For MarginFi, we still don’t have a set date but it’s just a matter of time. ⌛

In other words, you can still farm Kamino & MarginFi points now but it’s probably too late to qualify for a significant airdrop.

Parcl

Parcl is a Solana-based project launching a token in April that represents real estate investments, enabling users to own fractional interests in property markets globally.

Ethereum Ecosystem

Blast 

This is the L2 developed by Blur, which launched its mainnet last week. More about that here.

The Blast token is scheduled for sometime in April. By bridging funds over, you can still farm Blast points! 

Mode

Mode Network is another L2 on Ethereum that’s launching a token in April. We have an airdrop guide for Mode here – it’s still not too late to bridge funds over & start farming. 

If you want to do that, use my link to get started.

EtherFi & EigenLayer

EtherFi is a leading liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, focusing on native restaking yields and governance. 

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol that extends Ethereum's crypto economic security to other applications.

By using EtherFi, you can simultaneously farm both the EtherFi airdrop and the EigenLayer airdrop.

How to use EtherFi. 👇

P.S- You can also start farming on EtherFi using my link here.

Injective Ecosystem

BlackPanther, Talis Protocol and Hydro are three tokens launching on Injective.

To check your airdrop eligibility on Talis, you can go to Talis Dashboard and connect your wallet.

Hydro is currently doing a public sale on Mito Launchpad, and the token launch is likely to happen on March 14th. Soon after, airdrop allocation will follow for $INJ stakers and early access users.

Our ‘Ultimate Injective Airdrop Farming Guide’ would’ve gotten you qualified. 🥳

NFT Marketplaces

Tensor became a hit in the NFT world on Solana because of its rewarding points system, attracting loads of users and collections. 

However, Magic Eden is now stealing Tensor's users and spotlight by introducing its own rewards, called Diamonds, enticing users to switch sides. 

On March 13th, Magic Eden is rolling out Diamonds to Ethereum NFT traders.

Diamond holders will then be able to redeem their rewards $NFT tokens at some point in the future. 

There’s a fierce competition between Tensor and Magic Eden right now for who’ll be the first to launch a token. 

Other Token Launches

FriendTech

Isn’t FriendTech dead? Well, it pretty much is.

However, this spring, we can look forward to the launch of FriendTech V2, an updated version of the app that comes with its own token.

According to FriendTech, this will be a token owned fully by the community.

This could heat up the SocialFi ecosystem once again. 

Mocaverse

A former PFP evolving into a vast onchain cultural economy, aiming to create an interoperable infrastructure for account, identity, reputation, and PointFi systems, all powered by the upcoming $MOCA token.

BackPack Exchange

This is a crypto exchange developed by the creators of the MadLads NFT collection. 

On March 18th, they’ll have a snapshot, followed by a token launch shortly after.

Aevo

Aevo is a platform for trading options and futures, operating on its own L2. 

The token is already live on the Binance Launchpad, and you can farm it by staking $BNB – it will launch soon to the public.

Other honorable mentions: LayerZero, zkSync, Ethena, Zeta, HyperLiquid, Talent Protocol, IntentX, NIM, Drift, Grass.

And that’s 26 tokens coming up in the next few months. Hope this helps you stay on top of it all. 🫡

Wrapping Up — The New Airdrop Meta 👀

Airdrops to NFT holders – this is the new meta.

Pudgy Penguins got a massive $DYM airdrop, among many other airdrops.

Each MadLads NFT was given 16k $W tokens, worth about $26k.

Wassies By Wassies got a bunch of Blast L2 airdrops. 

And other, smaller NFT collections pumped because airdrops were confirmed to holders.

Including NFT holders into airdrops is a smart move to generate buzz around the drop, so I expect that to continue to be the meta.

To capitalize on the opportunity, many people will flock to buy random NFTs, hoping for future airdrops.

I don’t see this as being very sustainable long-term. At some point, airdrops will cease to happen as frequently as they do now. 

If certain NFTs don’t have any other utility other than being airdrop magnets, then they will inevitably plummet in price. 

Even Pudgy Penguins went down from 22 $ETH to 15 $ETH recently because there were no new airdrops announced for a few days. 

If Pudgies aren’t immune to such pullbacks, no other NFT collection is. Expect this to happen as the airdrop narrative fades away. 

Stay safe out there, friends and don’t F this up!! ✌

The Woman Builder Of The Month is... Olly Kovalieva

Olly is the co-founder of Epic Web3 - an events platform that hosts & organizes web3 events.

Epic Web3 is dedicated to empowering web3 builders by offering a dynamic space for learning, collaboration, and growth and organizing impactful events worldwide.

Next week, we're doing Onchain App Of The Month, where we'll feature 4 onchain apps/tools suggested by our community. Reply to this email with your suggestion on which apps we should pick.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Recommended Tools 🛠

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

Advertise with Web3 Academy

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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 blockchain <![CDATA[🟣 W3A PRO | The Most Valuable Company In The World in 3 Years]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-most-valuable-company-in-3-years EyshmUs4BxAzAxhTXmYw Thu, 07 Mar 2024 14:01:12 GMT GM PRO DOers! 😎

Today, we’re going to move offchain and talk about a stock. 👀

You might be wondering: “crypto is ripping to ATHs, why would we talk about stonks??? Aaahhhhh” 😡

And the answer is 👉 opportunity.

There is a stock that I believe could outperform the major crypto assets this cycle (and no, I’m not talking about NVIDIA).

It has the potential to grow 10–20x this cycle from its current price (yes, I’m referring to the same cycles as crypto).

It’s currently still 50% off its highs (meaning the risk/reward is massive). 🚀

And, well… I’m just going to come right out and say it…

I believe that Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world in the next 3 years.

I think that similar to crypto, Tesla is extremely misunderstood by investors. It’s also a very polarizing stock that attracts a lot of emotional haters (like crypto for that matter).

As I’ve mentioned many times, misunderstood and hated assets are often the best investments (crypto in early 2023, Solana in Q3 2023, Ethereum in January 2024).

In today’s PRO report I’m going to explain what many are getting wrong about Tesla and why this company is very likely to change the world just like Apple did in the last 20 years and cement itself as the most valuable company in the world.

Many of you have heard me discuss the “exponential age” before, something that blockchain technology is part of. 

The theory is that we are entering a time where 10+ new technologies are all being adopted and improving exponentially at the same time. 

Even more so, the advancement of one tends to advance the others in tandem, making its growth even more exponential.

Well, Tesla is the best representation of the entire exponential age, all in one company.

Tesla isn’t another car company, even though that’s how the market sees it.

Tesla isn’t even a next-gen car company (EV + self-driving cars) like some Tesla bulls see it.

Tesla is a self-driving, green energy, supercomputing, big data, AI, robotics, Internet of Things and augmented reality company all wrapped into one.

Tesla isn’t just changing the way cars are made. It’s changing the way everything in the world is made.

Take a second with me to move out of crypto and look into the future…

Whether you love or hate Tesla cars or love or hate Elon, put all of that aside for a second and keep an open mind. The opportunity in doing so is massive.

Why Tesla is Undervalued and Misunderstood 😶

First of all, let’s start with understanding why Tesla is 50% from ATHs… 

There are two main reasons:

1. Many People Hate Elon Musk and Tesla

People let their emotions block themselves from seeing what Elon and Tesla are doing. I love this.

2. Tesla is being valued like a car company

Yes, its market cap is double the second largest car company, sitting at about $660 billion today. 

However, it’s valued as a next-gen EV and self-driving car company, when it’s actually so much more.

Every other large tech company right now is smashing ATHs, yet Tesla is still 50% from its high. 

The main reason for the lag in Tesla’s price is that interest rates are high. When interest rates are high, people have less money to spend on buying new cars or taking out loans to buy a car.

Thus, in every rate cycle, car companies (just like real estate), tend to sell off. Once rates drop, both car companies and real estate will start their bull cycle. These assets generally lag assets like tech stocks and crypto.

But here’s the thing. Tesla isn’t just a car company, it's a tech company and I think that’s where it’s mainly being mispriced.

Before I get into the futuristic things that Tesla is doing that I believe will change the world, let’s pretend for a second that Tesla is just a car company. 

Even if that were true, it’s already by far the best and is building a massive monopoly around the transportation industry (cars, EV, self-driving, ride-hailing services, road hauling and more).

Tesla is Already THE Car Company of the Future 🔮

To get started, let’s look at a few charts to understand where Tesla currently stands in the car world.

Check out the growth rate in Tesla cars delivered on a yearly basis. This chart is unbelievable….

In terms of EVs, Tesla dominates in the USA, the 3rd largest EV market in the world.

And it dominates globally too, with large growth plans coming for China, the largest EV Market currently…

One thing to note here is that almost 100% of Tesla sales are by specific customers because Tesla is its own dealer, whereas every other automotive company sells to dealers who then potentially sell to the public. 

This means Tesla's numbers are even better than they appear.

In 2023, electric cars represented just 18% of all global car sales, yet the Tesla Model Y emerged as the top-selling vehicle worldwide, across all categories.

Tesla also manages to rank 14th in terms of top automakers in the world by car sales. Just look at Tesla's growth rate year over year, no other car manufacturer comes close to this…

Tesla is single-handedly pushing the average consumer to move from gas-powered cars to EVs. 

Studies show that 90% of all Tesla owners say they will never go back to gas-powered cars after driving a Tesla. 

These numbers are insane and look similar to the raving reviews Apple users gave in the early days of the iPhone. 

But what’s incredible about Tesla is that its cars continue to get better and better, while also getting cheaper! 

Tesla is on pace to have the highest performant, safest and cheapest cars on the planet.

Here are Tesla's average miles driven per accident, comparing a normal Tesla vs. a Tesla using autopilot vs. the US average (more on the self-driving part of Tesla later..).

But the reason Tesla can keep creating better cars while also getting cheaper is because almost all of the components of their cars are designed by Tesla, from first principles. 

They are manufactured in their own factories and they hold all the patents to them. Every other automaker has a complex and diverse supply chain for their cars, which forces them to rely on other companies for their components.

Tesla also designs and manufactures the best battery tech in the world (the most important part of an EV) and can produce these batteries at more scale than any other EV battery manufacturer in the world (...by a long shot).

Not to mention, Tesla has the most advanced manufacturing plants in the world, which are improving at a significant rate.

Just to give you an idea of how innovative and far ahead Tesla is as a car company, here’s a few tidbits from the launch of their new Cybertruck. 🛻

Tesla took a completely new approach to designing a truck, going back to the basics. This approach resulted in the Cybertruck, which operates at an impressive 800 volts.

Its low-voltage systems have achieved something truly remarkable. For the first time in 70 years, Tesla has successfully moved from the traditional 12v systems to more efficient 48v systems.

This means the Cybertruck needs 70% less copper than other electric vehicles. This reduction not only makes the truck cheaper to produce but also significantly lighter than anything previously available.

Not to mention they invented an entirely new steel - HFS (Hard Fucking Steel) - which is used for the exterior of the truck to make it significantly lighter and far stronger than any car, ever.

Oh, and using a Supercharger, you can now charge the truck from 15% to 85% in just 18 minutes!

Regardless of what you think of this truck, it’s completely revolutionary, and this is just the tip of the iceberg of the innovations that exist inside the new Cybertruck.

From an EV standpoint and a car standpoint, there is no company remotely close to innovating and executing like Tesla does.

But let's move onto the self-driving car aspect of Tesla, which is even more superior to its competition than anything I mentioned above. 

Tesla is One Of The Best AI Companies In The World 👽

Whether you like the Tesla cars or not, it doesn't matter. Tesla is going to be the first company to achieve self-driving cars and the race isn’t even close.

For years, if not decades, car companies (including Tesla) have been trying to crack the code to self-driving cars. 

But, they always have limitations due to the constant changes in the roads and external factors to driving all around the world (not to mention all the ugly and bulky tech you need to strap onto your car).

Every car company has built self driving tech using bulky camera systems combined with complex and detailed code, which essentially gives the car a set of rules on how to drive based on certain external factors occurring. 

The problem here is that there are an endless amount of external factors, so it’s near impossible to perfect this.

A few years ago, Tesla recognized the potential to transform the industry by leveraging the technology behind Large Language Models (LLMs), similar to ChatGPT. 

They applied this concept of embedding human knowledge into neural networks to video technology.

Instead of programming every rule for a self-driving car, Tesla gave the car a neural network, essentially its own brain, enabling it to learn driving through cameras without manually coding rules. 

This approach marks a pivotal advancement in autonomous driving technology, paving the way for truly self-driving vehicles.

But here’s the thing, in order for LLMs to be useful you need a LOT of data and a lot of compute to process that data. 

This is where Tesla wins…

First, Tesla has the fastest supercomputer in the world to train their AI, called Dojo. No other car company comes remotely close to having this.

Second, Tesla has more data than any other car company because as explained above, it delivers more cars with more cameras and self-driving tech in it than any other car company! 

Every new Tesla that is put on the road is accumulating more and more data for Tesla’s LLMs to learn how to drive. Here are the cumulative autonomous miles that Tesla has driven vs. its top competitors (Cruise and Google's Waymo).

This is data from June 2023. Just 8 months later and Tesla has already reached more than 1 billion cumulative autonomous miles driven. The comparisons are not even close…

Third, Tesla makes its own chips. 

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but we have a massive shortage in chips to process AI data right now globally. 

NVIDIA is on its way to becoming the most valuable company in the world because it’s one of the only providers of the chips that basically every technology company in the world needs right now. 

There is a massive supply shortage in chips and yet Tesla goes unaffected.

In terms of AI and self-driving cars, Tesla is so far ahead of the competitors it's not even close.

Self-driving cars are already possible with Tesla, but we are just a couple of years out from this becoming more acceptable and mainstream.

In fact, Tesla is already building designs for cars without steering wheels or pedals, that’s how real this is. 

Soon, you will buy a car that will drive you to work and then while you spend 8 hours at the office, your car will go to work for you as an “Uber” until you need to be picked up. 

Though, it’s probably more likely that you will never have to buy a car again, as self-driving taxis that don’t require gas (or a human) will push the costs down for an “Uber-like-service” to near $0!

Tesla is not just disrupting car companies, but also ride-sharing and delivery companies too.

Speaking of delivery, I guess this is a good time to mention Tesla's new semi-truck that will completely disrupt road haulage?

Many don’t know this, but Tesla has also designed and manufactured a new, electric, self-driving semi-truck. 

Almost every product in the world requires semi-trucks to haul it from one place to another, this cost is factored into everything we buy and consume.

With the new Tesla semi-truck, you no longer have gas costs or the costs of a human driver. Human drivers can also only work a certain amount of hours per day, whereas the Tesla semi-truck can drive 24/7/365.

This is going to completely disrupt the millions and millions of truck drivers and semi-trucks on the road today. 

Tesla is already doing pilot projects with their semi-trucks with companies like Pepsi, driving across specific states in the US.

FYI this will also drive down the cost of almost every product in the world today (what sticky inflation?). 😅

Tesla is turning the transportation industry upside down by enabling autonomous robots on wheels to replace the work that humans do.

Speaking of robots…

Tesla is the Best Robotics Company 🤖

If cars and trucks weren’t enough to be bullish on Tesla, let’s move on to one of the most exciting and scarier things that Tesla is doing right now.

This is going to change the world more than self-driving cars and once again, Tesla is at the forefront of this innovation too.

Robots. Specifically, humanoid robots.

Tesla is very far along with their design and manufacturing of Optimus, a humanoid robot that will replace humans for just about anything physical related.

Optimus will be used in factories, in homes, in stores and so much more. 

A robot that can function 24/7/365 and do just about anything a human can do from moving boxes, to folding clothes or cooking dinner.

But once again, here’s what separates Tesla in the humanoid robot race vs. any other competitor. 

For a robot to function, it needs incredible amounts of data for AI to compute, similar to the self-driving cars. 

But this time, the AI needs video data (to move around the world) and also text/human knowledge (to understand the world and interact with humans).

Tesla of course has the video data from its Teslas + the supercomputer and its own chips to process the data, so it's far ahead on this front already.

But it also has the human knowledge data from X (which Elon also owns).

Tesla's Optimus robot will incorporate AI that learns from the vast daily interactions of millions of people on Twitter and the driving data from millions of Tesla vehicles.

Once the Optimus robot begins delivering, it will also learn from the many Optimus robots out in the world everyday too.

There is no other company in the world close to having this much data and the resources to actually process and utilize that data. Tesla is in a class of its own.

Let’s put this all together on what Tesla is building:

First up, Tesla is on pace to own a large market share of the world's transportation and hauling vehicles and services.

Secondly, Tesla has the potential to own a large market share of the world's manufacturing and labor, replacing humans with Optimus in every factory, home, store, etc.

Thirdly, what I haven't yet highlighted is Tesla's rapid advancement towards a significant stake in the power grid. 

Its charging stations are setting the standard for electric vehicles, thanks to partnerships with numerous major automakers who prefer utilizing Tesla's infrastructure over constructing their own. 

Additionally, Tesla's Powerwalls are gaining popularity for home installation, becoming more affordable and a preferred choice for many households.

Even more impressive about the above is that Tesla owns the patents and manufactures almost every part and component for everything mentioned above.

What this means is that Tesla is fully integrated with parts to batteries, from motors to software, as well as chips and hardware, data sources and even its charging networks.

Don’t forget, they can also integrate Starlink into every car and robot so it remains connected 24/7/365 too…

Oh, and for all the crypto fanatics, they will integrate blockchain into all of this to facilitate payments too. Likely it will be Dogecoin, but hopefully it will be something better… let’s see! 

When it comes to the exponential age and where the future of our world is going, no one is better positioned than Tesla. 

They have it all and are building it in such a way that will be almost impossible for anyone to compete.

Most people do not realize what Tesla is really building, and once they do, Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world.

This brings us to the opportunity…

Wrapping Up – Tesla Charts 📈

Tesla's stock is currently 51% below its peak levels from 2021, despite the NASDAQ and other major tech companies having exceeded their previous all-time highs from the same year.

When we take a broader view, Tesla's stock appears to be more than one standard deviation below its fair value on a logarithmic chart, indicating it is oversold. 

However, it remains within its historical growth range.

Tesla's stock is currently developing a significant inverse head and shoulders pattern, a bullish signal that could propel the stock beyond its all-time highs if or when it breaks out from this formation.

Tesla is at the cusp of two major turning points that have the potential to significantly elevate its stock value this year and in the future.

Firstly, once interest rates move lower, car companies alike will outperform. Tesla will outperform massively here in the car industry.

Secondly, remember, Tesla is not just a car company. 

So once the doors open from the lowering of interest rates (and an increase in liquidity), technology stocks (the exponential age stocks) will continue to rally into a full blown tech bull market.

Tesla will have the power of both the cyclical bull market in car companies as well as the technology bull market during this cycle. 

In 2 years from now, much of the technological advancements that Tesla is working on will become more known to the world and more usable.

It's also important to note that lower interest rates benefit Tesla beyond just increasing speculative investment liquidity. 

When rates drop, car sales generally see a significant uptick, leading to more Teslas on the road. 

This not only boosts sales but also greatly enhances Tesla's data collection for self-driving cars, contributing to the improvement and development of their autonomous driving technology.

The positive flywheel is in motion for Tesla and about to pick up massively.

Of course, there is a lot that needs to happen for Tesla to succeed in everything that I mentioned above. None of this is a for sure thing and none of this is easy.

But there is no better founder and innovator in the world than Elon Musk right now. 

He simultaneously disrupted the car and transportation industry, while also disrupting and reigniting the rocket industry with SpaceX. 

He’s also disrupting the internet provider industry with Starlink and connecting computers to the human brain with Neuralink.

Not to mention that he’s in the process of redesigning social media as we know it with X.

Whether you like Elon or not is irrelevant, this man is on a mission to change the world and he will not let anyone get in his way. He’s an absolute force.

Mark my words. One way or another, Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world in the next few years.

Invest accordingly!

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyle Reidhead

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3academypro technology <![CDATA[🟣 New Bitcoin All-Time High Unlocked]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high 1HMlcDGgGQc9wU89ejto Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:52:54 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Bitcoin is up 15% in the last week, 54% in the last month, 150% in the last 6 months, and almost 200% in the past year. 🚀

Source: TradingView

Due to Bitcoin’s incredible rally over the past year, it has hit a new all-time high yesterday, at $69,000. 🥳

Immediately after kissing new highs, $BTC dropped to $59,000 (this is normal), only to bounce back quickly to around $65,000.  

Source: TradingView

The immediate bounce made it clear that the demand for Bitcoin is immense and with the halving coming in about 45 days, many are wondering if this could be the top for Bitcoin or if this is just the start of the real bull market. 

Source: CoinMarketCap

I think this is just the start of the real bull market. To show you why, I will cover:

  • Bitcoin’s inflows & the huge demand

  • Bitcoin’s potential massive supply shock

  • Can Bitcoin double in the next 3 weeks? 

  • Should you hold $ETH or $BTC right now? 

Let’s go! ⏬

Bitcoin’s Inflows & Huge Demand 🌊

Ever since the ETF approval, the demand coming from TradFi has been overwhelming for Bitcoin.

The total $BTC held in ETFs is now at all time highs, nearing 800,000 $BTC.

Source: Apollo

Keep in mind though, that most of this Bitcoin is still being held in Grayscale’s $GBTC, the fund out of which investors are exiting for 2 reasons:

  1. Grayscale is charging a 1.5% yearly management fee, which is 5–6 times higher than other ETF issuers. 

  2. A lot of investors bought GBTC at a 40% discount, and now it's at 0%, so they are taking profits.

So, if we exclude $GBTC from this discussion, we can see that BlackRock’s $IBIT ETF is leading the way, becoming the preferred Bitcoin ETF (as expected).

Source: Apollo

By the way… Even with the significant $GBTC outflows, the net flows are still positive. On Monday, ETFs added an extra 8,800 Bitcoin to their holdings.

Source: Apollo

With over $560 million flowing into ETFs, Monday marked the 5th biggest day in terms of inflows. 

Oh, and let’s not forget that the Bitcoin ETF is blowing the Gold ETF out of the water.

Apart from the huge demand for Bitcoin ETFs, we also have BlackRock planning to buy Bitcoin ETFs for its Strategic Income Opportunities Fund ($BSIIX) to diversify and potentially enhance the fund's returns.

Then we also have Stanford allocating 7% of their portfolio to Bitcoin. 

As predicted before, TradFi is FOMOing into Bitcoin at all-time highs. Love to see it. 

A Massive Bitcoin Supply Shock is Brewing ♨

So we already established the demand for Bitcoin is through the roof. Let’s see if there’s enough supply to match this demand.

Spoiler alert: There’s not enough Bitcoin for everyone!

Bitcoin on exchanges is at around 2.3 million $BTC, levels not seen since 2017.

This means that only a total of 11% of all the Bitcoin in existence is sitting on exchanges right now. 

So demand is high, and nobody is selling. 

When it comes to newly issued Bitcoin, there’s only around 800 Bitcoin being mined per day.

In about 45 days, this number will be cut in half. 

A massive supply shock is just around the corner for Bitcoin! 

Can Bitcoin DOUBLE in 3 Weeks? 🚀

Here’s the deal… When an asset surpasses its all-time high, it enters price discovery – i.e., it reaches a price level for which there is no historical reference, leading the market to explore and establish a new value based on current supply and demand dynamics.

When Bitcoin exceeds and sustains above the $69,000 threshold, it will enter a phase of price discovery. 

Historically, during such phases, Bitcoin has typically doubled in value within just three weeks, on average.

Why is this happening over and over again?

It’s simple: People ignore assets when their prices are low and only notice them when they hit record highs.

Slowly, then all at once – you know the drill. 

This creates a flywheel where the higher the price, the higher the demand. ♻

That’s why we’re now seeing ETF demand at an all-time high, led by TradFi investors. 

When it comes to retail investors, we have signs that they’re lurking back. 

  • Coinbase keeps crashing

  • Crypto gurus are growing insanely on YouTube and X

  • Google searches for “Bitcoin” are up massively

All of this will intensify once Bitcoin enters price discovery and hits new highs every day.

When this happens, your uncles & aunts will come calling, asking you how they can buy crypto. At that point, nobody can predict how high Bitcoin will go and whether or not it’ll double in ~20 days post-ATH like it did in the past. It’ll be complete mania.

Regardless of what happens, 1 thing is for sure! We will have continuous pull-backs. No bull market is a straight line up. 

There will be days and weeks when we’ll experience 10%, 20% or even 30% drops! Make sure you’re expecting them. 

I have a PRO report coming up soon that’ll teach you how to prepare for that. upgrade to get it in your inbox.

Wrapping Up — $ETH or $BTC? 🤔

Bitcoin is a great asset. I have no doubt it’ll reach and surpass $100,000 during this bull cycle. 

But is Bitcoin the best opportunity for investors right now?

I would argue it’s not! Why?

Because historically, whenever Bitcoin surpassed its ATH, it was the start of $ETH outperforming $BTC big time. 

Here’s what happened in 2020:

  • $BTC did a 3x from $20k in just a few months

  • $ETH did an 8x from $550 in that same time period

Will history repeat? I don’t know. 

But from a risk/reward perspective, I personally prefer to hold $ETH instead of $BTC during these times. 

I’m interested in your take, though! What’s your biggest bag? Ethereum, Bitcoin or another token? Let me know w/ a reply to this email!!

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

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Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Memecoin Season is NUTS]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/memecoin-season-is-nuts WaBhEqA3l4VqAbGDFsz1 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:48:40 GMT GM DOers! 😎

What do Harry Potter, Obama and PacMan have in common?

Literally nothing. Except, they all somehow got their names jumbled together in a wild memecoin named HarryPotterObamaPacMan8Inu, which skyrocketed by 800% over the weekend. 

Yeah, if you can’t tell, the bull market is back, and things are starting to make 0 sense again, as memecoins dominate the market.

Okay, hold up a minute. Why the F*** is Web3 Academy talking about memecoins these days?

Don’t worry, we’re not turning into DOGE maxis (although maybe we should) 😅. 

Instead, the reason we’re covering memecoins today is because usually, memecoin rallies are followed by insane altcoin surges – and that excites us. 

So let’s talk about: 

  • Robinhood Listing $WIF

  • Every Meme Up Only

  • RFK JR Wearing $MOG Glasses at ETHDenver

  • Why Memecoin Season Matters

Stick around until the end as we’re looking into whether or not Altcoin Season is here & what you need to do to capitalize on it. 

Let’s get into this, my friends. ⏬

Memecoin Season Breakdown 🤡

Robinhood Listing $WIF 🐶

Remember when Robinhood, about a year ago, removed $SOL from its platform and sold off everyone's tokens at $15 on their behalf? 

Fast forward a year, with $SOL's value up by almost 10 times, that very same Robinhood now thinks it's cool to add a random memecoin named DOG WIF HAT to its exchange. (It’s literally a dog with a hat…)

If that’s not the craziest 180, I don’t know what is… 

Now, hold your horses (I mean dogs) because Robinhood is only planning to list $WIF on its EU-based exchange, which is much smaller than the US counterpart. 

Regardless, upon the Robinhood news, $WIF pumped to over $1.7 billion in market cap, reaching $1.73.

Context: 2 months ago, $WIF was $0.07, with a sub $100 million market cap.

In other, more exciting news, Robinhood Wallet teamed up with Arbitrum to enable cheaper and faster trading onchain. 

But let’s go back to memecoins for a second… 

Every Meme Up Only 🚀

Led by the $WIF hype, other memecoins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe have gone up significantly in the past 7 days.

This has led to new meme tokens such as WEN and PopCat to gain popularity too. 

However, none have gotten as much attention as $MOG.

RFK JR Wearing $MOG Glasses at ETHDenver 😎

MogCoin is a self-described symbol of winning and success of Ethereum. Whatever that means… 🤦

Well, at ETHDenver, the independent candidate for President of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was spotted wearing Mog-related glasses.

I’m sure he had no idea what these glasses symbolized so he just went with the flow but this picture has captured everyone’s attention on X over the weekend.

$MOG is up 350% in the past 7 days. 

Meme Market: NFTs Meet Memecoins 🎨

An exciting memecoin innovation is being built on Base. 

Meme.market connects memecoins with picture memes through ERC-1155 NFTs, creating a bridge between digital tokens and the memes they represent on the Base L2 network. 

It functions as both a trading space and a creative platform for meme enthusiasts. Pretty cool.

Why Memecoin Season Matters 🤷

Historically, memecoin surges have often been followed by insane altcoin rallies.

Why?

Because memecoins are fun and speculative, a nature that usually attracts retail investors into the markets, who are looking for a quick buck. 

Later on, retail investors shift from memecoins to better altcoins, with actual utility and growth potential, sparking the so-called Altcoin Season.

This has happened many times before, especially at the beginning of bull markets. 

Will this happen this time around? Let’s explore.

Is Altcoin Season About to Explode? 💥

For Altcoin season to begin, we need 1 thing: retail investors – and they’re not quite fully back. 

Let me explain. 

The chart below shows the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies combined – it has gone from $1.65 to $2.35 trillion dollars, up a whopping 700 billion. 

But here’s the deal: Bitcoin alone added $366 billion to its market cap.

In other words, ~52% of new money in the crypto market went into Bitcoin, not altcoins, which is usually the case in Altcoin Seasons.

Is this about to shift? Is the Altcoin Season about to explode?

The first real indicator of retail investors returning to crypto is the surge in popularity of Coinbase’s App Store application. 

On February 14th, Coinbase was ranked 418th among all apps and 32nd among all finance apps.

Today (March 4th), Coinbase went up to 150th among all apps and 12th among finance applications.

That growth is insane… Coinbase even crashed at some point last week due to increased traffic.

Another great indicator of people returning to crypto are Google searches. According to Google Trends, we can see a significant growth in interest for Bitcoin. 

Again, ‘crypto’ and ‘Coinbase’ searches are still quite low comparatively.

So it’s clear that all of the buzz around crypto recently has been driven mainly by Bitcoin, thanks to the popularity of ETFs. 

However, retail is slowly but surely coming back!! 

So here’s the truth: This isn’t the real bull market… yet! 

We’re still not in the ‘wake up in the middle of the night and check your positions’ season just yet.

Altcoins are still lagging behind, but it’s just a matter of time until they start to rally too! 

As that starts to happen, remember these things:

Firstly, don’t let your degen bag become your main bag! 

If your low-cap moonshots are going to grow to match your $ETH or $BTC positions, don’t be afraid to start taking some profits. 

Don’t be the guy that round trips its bag to the moon and back. 

Secondly, remember the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

Don’t try to ape into every other token that gains hype. If random tokens make it on your X feed, chances are you’re too late to the party.

I know it’s hard, especially when people share how they’ve made millions…

But don’t despair, the opportunities are plenty! The last thing you want to do is jump from token to token. That’s your 1-way street to failure. 

Thirdly, enjoy the ride!

Web3 Academy was born and built in the bear and most of our readers are OGs! We’ve been waiting for years for these market rallies.

Let’s make sure to freaking enjoy them.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Recommended Tools 🛠

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 The 4 Stages Of A Bull Market]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/4-stages-of-bull-market ICZFpu1PIElNqsR7n0qo Fri, 01 Mar 2024 13:52:17 GMT GM DOers! 😎

For months, we’ve been screaming from the top of our lungs that the bull market has begun! 

Almost nobody believed it. 

We released a ‘Crypto Markets are About to Turn’ report back in October…

We sounded like a broken record, both in our newsletters, and on X…

And we even hosted multiple ‘bull market sessions’ in our Discord… 

Most of that was overlooked. 

However, with Bitcoin rallying to $64,000 and Ethereum to $3,500 this week, the signs cannot be ignored. 

It’s becoming pretty clear to everyone that the bull market isn’t coming; it's actually here. 

But guess what? If folks are just now catching on, it means we're already entering the second part of the bull market.

Spoiler alert: This is where things get interesting. 

Let’s talk about:

  • The 4 stages of the bull market 🐂

  • Which stage are we in right now? 👀

  • What should you do to capitalize? 💰

Stick around until the end, as we’re also going to highlight the AI Token Of The Month. 👀

Vamos. ⏬

The 4 Stages of a Crypto Bull Market 🪜

Market cycles are never the same, but they often rhyme. 🎶

That means that we can learn from the past to approach this bull market with a clear head in the hopes of maximizing our profits. 

Here’s the Wall Street Cheat Sheet, a chart showcasing the typical psychology of a market cycle. 

Keep this in mind as you’re reading this article. 

Let’s go through the different bull market phases. 

The Wake-Up Phase ⏰

We’ve just gotten out of this one. 

This is the first stage where things are starting to look better, but we're still shaking off the bad vibes from the bear market.

Every so often, there's a glimmer of hope—like friend.tech stirring up interest, Solana making moves, or airdrop season kicking in. 

Yet, these sparks don't seem to catch fire just yet.

Despite your own excitement, friends and the media keep poking fun at crypto, unable to forget the past slump.

Quietly, though, prices are inching higher. The crypto veterans are whispering about a comeback, spotting the early signs of a bull market.

But with most investments not yet recovered from their highs, it's hard for many to see this as a victory.

Doubt lingers; folks are hesitant to believe we're on the upswing again.

… this was 2023

The Breakthrough Phase (We’re In It) 🚀

Bitcoin surges from $20k to $64k. Ethereum leaps from $1k to $3.5k. Solana? It soars from $10 to $130.

The excitement is infectious. The bull market can't be ignored now, and the signs are everywhere.

Bitcoin's nearing its all-time high. Coinbase crashes because of a surge in activity. Ethereum's gas fees hit $100+. Twitter's buzzing, and memecoins are skyrocketing.

The bear market's over and crypto people know it! Still, friends and family aren't asking about your crypto game… yet!

Life's great, though. Portfolio's at its peak, and you've got that FOMO feeling, worried you don't have enough coins.

But take note: this is the calm before the real action starts. This might be the last chance to jump in before things get truly wild.

The Hype Phase 🤯

This is when the no-coiners join the market and things start to go crazy.  

Everything you own blows past ATHs over and over and there’s a new narrative every single day. 

Tokens with the most ridiculous fundamentals are reaching insane valuations.

VCs are announcing billions of dollars worth of funds and every other company that mentions crypto in their roadmap raises tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars.

The mainstream media loves crypto and CNBC calls for Bitcoin to reach $1,000,000. 

Athletes, influencers and movie stars start to publicly announce their crypto excitement and investments. 

Crypto becomes (once again) the new paradigm of money and everybody starts to believe it’s going up forever. 

The Euphoria Phase 🫨

This phase feels like we're living in a fantasy. Logic and reason have left the building.

You find yourself richer than you've ever dreamed of becoming. That 5x that you expected before the bull market has turned out to be 30x. 

A neighbor, who last week mixed up Ethereum with a video game, tells you about the next Shiba Inu.

An influencer known for fashion tips buys an island for tens of thousands of dollars inside a random metaverse.

Famous TikTokers become the face of new crypto exchanges.

Almost all SuperBowl ads are crypto related.

Tech startups not even a year old are valued like century-old institutions, all because they added 'blockchain' to their pitch.

Nation states are adopting Bitcoin as their legal tender.

Everyone’s calling for a crypto supercycle – a decade of up only. 

The whole world is euphoric and all you’re talking about at the dinner table is crypto and how big your portfolio has gotten. 

This is the phase you sell. Unless you want to endure another 2-3 years of pure market turmoil and regret.

Wrapping Up — What Should You Do Now? 💰

First up, ignore the peak callers. 

Just as predicting the bear market bottom was a gamble, so is calling the bull market peak. 

The market often surprises us, moving in unexpected ways.

Secondly, stay calm and stick to your strategy. 

The temptation to chase the latest crypto craze can be overwhelming, but remember, not every surge is sustainable. Trust in your plan.

Thirdly, have an exit strategy. 

Real profits require actual selling. Don't be the person that had the world and lost it all. I’ve been there and I don’t recommend it. 

You don’t want to be left holding the bag when the music stops. 

Because trust me, the music will stop at some point! We’ll be sure to let you know when we think we’re nearing the euphoria phase so stay tuned.

In the meantime, read our report from last week that’ll tell you what signals and social cues to watch for to identify the market peak yourself.

The Token Of The Month is... FetchAI

FetchAI is an AI-powered network for building autonomous agents.

These agents can learn, adapt, and collaborate to achieve specific goals.

The agents can represent people, devices, or services and interact with each other on the FetchAI network to automate tasks & processes.

$FET is the utility token that users spend to use services within the FetchAI ecosystem.

Fetch was recommended by our community member Candy, and they won the poll with 45% of the votes.

Next week, we're doing Onchain App Of The Month, where we'll feature 4 onchain apps/tools suggested by our community. Reply to this email with your suggestion on which coins we should pick.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Recommended Tools 🛠

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

Advertise with Web3 Academy

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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 W3A PRO | Investing In The Next Google Maps via Hivemapper?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/is-honey-a-good-investment MQ5L6s0LHnNWCo6O4zsL Thu, 29 Feb 2024 14:02:38 GMT GM PRO DOers! 😎

The immediate action most of us take when stepping into our cars is opening a map.

Whether that’s Waze, Google Maps or Apple’s Maps is irrelevant – we all utilize some sort of digital GPS for many, many hours per year. 

By using these applications, for free, on our phones, we feed immense amounts of data to the likes of Google, and Apple, who sell it to other companies.

It’s estimated that the market of geospatial analytics will be worth $256 billion by 2028. Source. 🤯

What do we get in return for enabling companies to make billions?

Absolutely nothing! That’s why you’ve probably heard the saying: “If the app is free, you’re the product.”

As explained in our DePIN report from a few weeks ago, web3 changes this landscape by letting users monetize their data.

Most of you loved that report (we saw all the emails) so today, we decided to dive into one of the most popular DePIN projects – Hivemapper.

Today we want to answer if investing in $HONEY – the token for Hivemapper – could allow you to capture the upside of that $256 billion mentioned above.

Hivemapper is building onchain to challenge Google and Apple for the multi-billion dollar mapping market. 

Instead of exploiting users for their data, Hivemapper leverages a network of drivers from all over the world who use specific dashcams to collect geospatial data while they drive. 

In return, drivers are paid weekly in $HONEY tokens – turning everyday driving activities into valuable data collection sessions. 

To date, Hivemapper has successfully mapped ~8.4 million unique kilometers globally, covering 12% of the world's surface with the help of only 58,000 drivers.

Source: Hivemapper

That is unheard of – it would typically cost companies billions of dollars to achieve such scale. 

By utilizing a token to reward people all over the world, Hivemapper has managed to pull this off in record time – they were only founded in 2015 and launched their network in November 2022. 🤯

Hivemapper might be one of the most exciting innovations to come out of the crypto ecosystem, and it has potential to sell data worth billions of dollars.

However, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. 

We’ve done a full deep dive into both the business model of Hivemapper (which looks good) and its $HONEY token (which doesn’t look so good… yet).

Today, we’ll share our learnings with you by covering: 

  • How Hivemapper Works & Makes Money 💰

  • Why Building Hivemapper Onchain Makes It Better Than Google or Apple 🧐

  • The Role and Tokenomics of $HONEY ⚙

  • Considerations Before Investing 😨

Vamonossss! 👇

How Hivemapper Works & Makes Money 💰

The way Hivemapper works is pretty straightforward – you drive, you map & you earn.

First up, you need to purchase a dashcam from Hivemapper. There are 2 variations right now. One costs $300 and the other costs $650. 

Secondly, plug your dashcam to your car. Here’s how it’ll look. 

Thirdly, as you drive your car and record more of the world, you earn $HONEY tokens. 

Hivemapper pays its drivers based on the value they provide i.e. if you map more important areas of the world (like New York City), you get paid much more than someone mapping a village in Alberta.  

After all of this data is gathered by drivers all over the world, Hivemapper uses AI to process it, extracting valuable information such as road signs and traffic conditions, to create highly detailed and current maps.

Contributors can also earn $HONEY by playing ‘Map AI Trainer games’, which improve the accuracy of the AI system Hivemapper uses for map processing. 

How does Hivemapper make money?

Hivemapper generates revenue by charging businesses for access to its mapping APIs, used for navigation, tracking, and geographical data analysis. 

This service targets a broad market, including autonomous vehicle companies, delivery services, real estate agencies, and urban planners, offering them subscription-based access to constantly updated maps. 

This is also how Google makes money off of Google Maps. 

The growing need for up-to-date and precise maps, especially with more self-driving cars, means big growth chances for Hivemapper.

If Hivemapper can capture some of the market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, they could become one of the biggest businesses building onchain. 

Why Building Hivemapper Onchain Makes It Better Than Google or Apple 🧐

1. Faster and Cheaper

It’s much faster and cheaper to set up a project like Hivemapper, compared to your typical mapping service.

  1. No need to own a car fleet – you just need to sell devices (dash cams) which people plug into their cars. 

  2. You don’t need employees – people will simply plug into your ecosystem because they can earn extra income. 

The key here is unused resources being put to work. Think about all cab, delivery or truck drivers who drive all day, everyday. 

Buying a Hivemapper dash cam lets people earn extra money and help map the world, making it a smart choice for many as long as it stays profitable.

P.S.- Profitability is something to be considered, which we’ll talk about later in this report.

2. Instant Payout

Hivemapper, a U.S. company, plans to map the world by paying people globally, a task hard with FIAT due to high costs and delays. 

Using blockchain and tokens, payments are instant and inexpensive.

3. Scalability

The total length of all roads worldwide is 64 million kilometers – Hivemapper has already mapped out 12% of that. 

This level of scalability is unheard of. It would cost companies many millions (potentially billions) per year to achieve this, meaning that only the big corporations like Google or Apple can really compete in this space. 

By building onchain, Hivemapper can compete despite being just a startup. 

This model is also very scalable as it generates network effects – as more drivers join the network and contribute data, the map becomes increasingly accurate and valuable, attracting more businesses to the service and encouraging even more drivers to participate.

4. Fresh Data

Before booking AirBnBs or restaurants in new places, I use Google Maps’ Street View to ensure the area is safe and appealing. 

However, Street View can be outdated, sometimes by decades, leaving users without current data. 

This is a minor annoyance for individuals but a significant issue for businesses like UberEats or car companies developing autonomous vehicles, as they rely heavily on fresh maps and up-to-date information. 

Hivemapper can update maps faster and cheaper than the likes of Google.

If there’s a need for updated footage in a specific location, Hivemapper can simply boost rewards for that specific location, and local drivers can quickly map those areas. 

This process could potentially take a day versus Google's weeks, as they need to send their own drivers and cars to that location. 

For all of this to function as it does, Hivemapper needs their token – $HONEY. 

While we’ve established that Hivemapper is a fascinating company with huge potential, we must address the elephant in the room – is $HONEY a good investment?

Let’s see. 👀👇 

The Role and Tokenomics of the $HONEY Token ⚙

Allocation 

$HONEY is a Solana-based token launched in November 2022 with a 10 billion total supply. 

  • 4 billion were allocated for contributors 

  • 2 billion were allocated for investors 

  • 2 billion were allocated for Hivemapper employees

  • 1.5 billion were allocated for Hivemapper Inc. (the U.S. based company)

  • 500 million were allocated for the Hivemapper Foundation 

The most important part of this allocation is the first one – the 4 billion tokens allocated to reward network contributors, which we’ll focus on today.  

Weekly Token Minting 

Hivemapper pays people with $HONEY for driving and recording roads, fixing map details, and checking map quality – right now, they focus on paying drivers to cover more roads.

To reward these contributors, Hivemapper mints new tokens every week, from the initially set pool of 4 billion $HONEY. 

The amount of $HONEY minted weekly depends on how much mapping has been done during that week. 

  • 90% of newly minted tokens are allocated to contributors.

  • 10% goes to Hivemapper for operational costs and expenses.

Hivemapper estimates that it’ll take over 10 years to put all tokens in circulation.

This mechanism is obviously causing inflation, but more on that later…

The Burn and Mint System

Hivemapper has built a Burn and Mint System, which is similar to Helium’s burn-and-mint equilibrium which we talked about in our DePIN report a few weeks ago.

Here’s how it works:

When companies want to access Hivemapper’s data, they need to pay using so-called Map Credits. These are off-chain credits like ‘Gems’ in the mobile game "Clash of Clans". 

1000 Map Credits cost $20 and 50 Map Credits ($1) buys you 1km of data.

Now, when businesses use Map Credits to purchase data, $HONEY is being burnt in the back-end. 

Example: If UberEats buys $20 worth of map data, $20 worth of $HONEY is being burnt at the same time. 

Instantly after being burnt, an equal amount of $HONEY gets re-minted and distributed to contributors, like so:

While this might seem unnecessary, the reason for the burn and mint system is so that when a business buys map data, the amount they purchase doesn’t fluctuate along with the $HONEY token – instead, the credits remain stable at the purchase price. 

Additionally, over time, contributors will be rewarded each time Hivemapper sells data to other businesses, meaning that the network can reward contributors from the revenue created, without needing to rely on inflation. 

Here’s how it’ll look in reality – even if all 4 billion $HONEY tokens get distributed, contributors will continue to earn each time Hivemapper generates revenue.

Utility 

In short, there is no utility to $HONEY right now. What do I mean by that?

Once drivers make contributions to Hivemapper’s network, they get paid in $HONEY. 

When they receive their remuneration, contributors have no reason to hold this token. There’s nothing you can do with it right now. 

There’s no governance, staking or other utility that can incentivize people to hold this token. 

And that brings us into the concerns regarding Hivemapper, so let’s talk about that. ⏬

$HONEY Concerns 😨

1. Inflation

Every week, Hivemapper mints tokens out of thin air (out of the 4 billion batch), to reward contributors – this makes $HONEY a highly inflationary token.

With a current circulating supply of roughly 7%, it’s expected that inflation will continue to be a problem. 

However, that’s not the end of the world – it’s common practice in early-stage tech startups.

Think of this similar to how tech companies continuously sell equity to subsidize growth, in order to bootstrap the company. 

But, to ensure sustainability, Hivemapper must develop demand for the token as well as revenue to cover the costs of the contributors. 

So the question is…

2. Is There Enough Demand for $HONEY?

As mentioned above, there’s no utility for $HONEY right now – therefore, there’s no demand for this token (other than speculation). 

The only role for $HONEY in Hivemapper’s ecosystem is to act as a payment token to contributors – for that purpose alone, a stablecoin would probably be a better fit. 

Here’s the deal. Since contributors earn tokens on a weekly basis and have no reason to hold it, they’re likely to just sell it.

After all, if you’re a contributor, you want to make money – you can’t make money unless you sell the token into FIAT. 

So, with each weekly batch of newly minted tokens, Hivemapper creates more and more sell pressure on the token. 

If $HONEY has such weak tokenomics, why was it created in the first place? 

Why Was $HONEY Created? 🤷

Well, because of fund raising – from this standpoint, $HONEY has been pivotal to Hivemapper’s success so far.

Hivemapper raised $21 million in capital from VC firms like Spark Capital, Multicoin Capital, GV as well as the general public by selling $HONEY tokens.

Source: ICO Analytics

Without this capital, Hivemapper wouldn’t have been able to even start. 

$HONEY has also been important to distribute rewards for contributors all over the world, something that would’ve been really difficult to do with USD for example. 

Again, they could have just used a stablecoin, but adding the speculative nature with the $HONEY token has allowed the token to appreciate and thus, provide better rewards to contributors early on.

Wrapping Up – What Do I Make of Hivemapper? 🤔

From a business standpoint, Hivemapper’s way of operating is fascinating and it’s clearly better in many ways than current web2 mechanisms used by Google for example. 

Quick Updates: Drivers use dashcams to fast-track map data collection.

Saves Money: Pays drivers with tokens, cutting down on operational costs.

Expands Easily: Boosts rewards to enter new areas cheaply.

Always Current: Driver contributions keep maps constantly updated.

Better Accuracy: AI and community input ensure precise map data.

Therefore, Hivemapper has the opportunity to scale fast and become a big player in the mapping ecosystem, mostly because they can utilize their large network of contributors.

This is the power of DePIN. 

However, their tokenomics in current form (inflation, lack of utility & constant sell pressure) are a cause for concern. 

That said, I think it’s very likely that Hivemapper will create some sort of utility for the $HONEY token in the future. 

Whether that be a loyalty program, a currency within a broader Hivemapper ecosystem, governance or other innovative token use cases.

So… is $HONEY a good investment or not?

$HONEY is currently sitting at ~$0.18, up around 15x since August 2023.

This growth has mainly been fueled by the narrative around DePIN projects and $HONEY’s recent listing on Coinbase. 

So, this token basically pumped based on narrative. And I think that’ll continue during this bull cycle, especially considering the market cap is still sub $200 million.

In bull markets, tokenomics and fundamentals don’t matter much – as long as a project has a narrative, it should do well.

In Hivemapper’s case, they have both the DePIN narrative and AI – two categories that’ll do really well in my opinion. 

However, once the music stops (it will at some point), there’ll be no fundamental reason for people to hold $HONEY, and it will likely crash massively 

So, by purchasing $HONEY right now, as an investor, you’re doing 2 things:

  1. Hoping that Hivemapper will add utility to its token in the future.

  2. Hoping that this bull market will bring sufficient hype to pump the token.

So there’s some uncertainty regarding $HONEY as an investment. That means it’s still early. 

To wrap up, I think Hivemapper has created a new and innovative way to potentially outcompete Google because of blockchain, that gets me excited! 

But to ultimately succeed, they’ll need to figure out some strong token sinks and demand functions for $HONEY. I’m not investing in $HONEY at the moment (FYI not saying you shouldn’t), but I will definitely purchase a dashcam to support Hivemapper in their journey!

Will you? Let me know if you’re investing in $HONEY or buying a Hivemapper dashcam in the PRO-discussion channel in our Discord.

Before you go... We need your PRO feedback!

In our reports, we cover a whole lot of stuff like Tokenomics, Onchain Analysis, Business Models, Investment Strategies, Macro Analysis and more...

We want to know what you enjoy the absolute most so that we can tailor our content to your needs & wants!

Please take a second to vote in our X poll below. Thank you!

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyle Reidhead

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3academypro cryptocurrency web3 <![CDATA[🟣 BLAST Off Tomorrow]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/blast-l2-explained iZESOuuDVD5MbAfCrc0K Wed, 28 Feb 2024 13:52:15 GMT GM DOers! 😎

You know the bull market is close when all of this happens by Tuesday:

  • Portalcoin confirming their launch on Binance 

  • Magic Eden announcing the drop of their Ethereum marketplace 

  • Yuga Labs sunsetting support for all non-royalty-enforcing marketplaces 

  • Lens going permissionless

Then you know the bull market has begun when you decided to cover none of that because something else is even bigger.

What could be bigger? The Blast L2 mainnet launch, coming tomorrow!

This is going to be the next narrative. Degens will flock to Blast like they flocked to Solana in Q4 of 2023. 

The opportunity here is going to be massive. So…

  • What is Blast? 💥

  • Why is this the next big thing? 🥌

  • What are the top 5 projects building on Blast? 👷

LFG. ⏬

Want To Make The Most Out Of This Bull Market?

The 2024-25 Bull Market is going to make millionaires.

Learn the best practices to allocate capital and successfully invest in crypto and web3 with our Web3 Investing Masterclass.

P.S. PRO members get a 50% discount, while Founding members get the Masterclass for FREE.

What is Blast? 💥

Blast, initially rolled out by Blur after their $100 million $BLUR token airdrop, was announced as an Ethereum L2 that provides native yield to depositors. 

Initially, it promised a 3-5% yield for $ETH and stablecoin deposits through staking (Lido) and T-Bill (MakerDAO) protocols. 

When this was announced, we expressed a fair bit of skepticism due to Blast’s setup, which we wrote about here.

  • Blast only allowed asset bridging without withdrawal capabilities.

  • Functioned as a multi-signature wallet managed by five people, not as a full L2.

Despite these red flags, users still bridged over $2 billion to Blast. 

Degens be degens… Many got excited about the upcoming $BLAST airdrop set for May 2024 and started to bridge their assets to get in on it.

But there's good news: With Blast launching its mainnet tomorrow, past worries might no longer be an issue. Here's what's happening:

Firstly, Blast is changing from just being controlled by a few people (a "multi-sig wallet") to becoming a real L2.

Secondly, they're looking to make things more secure, open, and fair by starting a DAO (like a community-led group) when their token comes out in May.

Thirdly, people will be able to take their assets back, which means a lot of money (around $2 billion) will start moving around in the L2 ecosystem.

This big move is setting up Blast to be one of the top Layer 2 options for Ethereum users.

Why is Blast the Next Big Thing? 🚀

First up, there’s a lot of projects building on Blast. 

Over 3,000 developers signed up for Blast’s Big Bang competition, which encourages developers to join its testnet by rewarding winning projects with a large airdrop.

Secondly, there’s $2 billion locked on Blast right now. 

Moving Blast to its mainnet makes it a safer place for users to keep and grow their money through native yield, and the chance to get the $BLAST airdrop. 

This means that we can expect the TVL on Blast to remain high.

Because of this, Blast projects should get a lot of support and money, which brings us to our third point…

Thirdly, I expect a lot of newly launched projects to do well over on Blast in the coming weeks.

Whether new projects will drop points or tokens is irrelevant… With so many assets on Blast, a lot of value will flow to every other token drop or points system on Blast.

Don’t be surprised if you see ‘this project on Blast went up 100x in 2 weeks’ all over your X timeline. 

Also don't be surprised by scams, which have been reported even before the mainnet officially launched.

It’s very likely that we’re entering a massive hype cycle on Blast. While the risks are big, the opportunity for early adopters could be even bigger.

Some people are calling for this to surpass L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism. While I don’t think that’s the case, I do anticipate that Blast will be massive.

Let’s talk about the top 5 projects building on Blast

Watchlist: 5 Projects Building on Blast 👷

Disclaimer: Even highly endorsed projects like Risk, which was supported by Blast and others, can always fail or rug, so DYOR & don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

1. MetaStreet

  • MetaStreet turns assets that are hard to sell into tokens that make money, using a process that does it automatically.

  • These tokens are based on Ethereum and can earn between 10% to 125% in Ethereum every year.

  • It fits well with LSDfi, making it easier to earn from assets that are usually not liquid.

We had MetaStreet on our podcast where Conor from MetaStreet shared the vision for revolutionizing the NFTfi ecosystem.

Tune in to the conversation on your favorite podcast platform.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

2. BananaGun

  • Banana Gun is a trading bot you can use on Telegram and soon on a Webapp.

  • It lets you quickly buy new tokens or trade ones that are already out there.

  • They aim to be your favorite trading tool for Ethereum, Solana, and now BLAST networks.

We’re bullish on Telegram Bots. Check our UNIBOT PRO Report to understand why.

3. Blitz

  • Blitz is like Binance but for the Blast network, offering a comprehensive trading platform.

  • Delivers the speed and functionality of centralized exchanges.

  • It's a self-custody platform for futures, spot exchanges, and money markets, ensuring users maintain control of their assets.

4. Juice Finance

  • Juice is a DEX that supports leveraged trading across multiple assets.

  • On Juice, you can also join in on other money-making activities on the Blast network and get different rewards.

  • Juice has allocated airdrops to Pudgy Penguins and Wassies NFT holders, making it a hot topic.

5. Decentral Games

  • Decentral Games is a virtual world casino that also rolled out a mobile app, so you can play on any device, anywhere.

  • It includes live games like blackjack, roulette, and poker for a real casino feel.

  • Their upcoming $BAG token stands to benefit from the rising popularity of the gaming and GambleFi narratives.

Question: Will you bridge assets to BLAST? Let me know with a Yes/No reply to this email!

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency blockchain web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Will Uniswap Trigger the Crypto Supercycle?]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/the-uniswap-fee-switch e79tzfCJr2vYF5l40xwz Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:45:43 GMT GM DOers! 😎

Uniswap has settled a whopping $1.9 trillion in volume since 2020, and generated 3.5 billion in fees for its liquidity providers.

How much did $UNI holders get out of all of this activity? A big fat $0.

Regulatory concerns have prevented the Uniswap Foundation from activating the fee switch, a feature to share Uniswap's revenue with $UNI token holders.

However, this could soon shift, as the Head of Governance at Uniswap Foundation has recently proposed a move to enable this revenue-sharing feature.

Translation? 

Engaging with Uniswap's governance – whether by voting directly with your $UNI tokens or delegating them to someone who does – could now earn you a cut of the protocol's revenues. 💰

We believe this long-awaited revenue-sharing proposal for Uniswap token holders is a game-changer for the industry. 

The market seems to agree, as the news caused $UNI to surge 70% within an hour of its announcement.

At the same time, many other top DeFi tokens pumped on the speculation that they too would turn on their own fee switches. 

DeFi is once again the meta in crypto, and the opportunities are huge. Let’s talk about:

  • The Uniswap fee switch proposal ✍

  • How much revenue $UNI holders will get 📊

  • What this means for the industry 🤔

At the end, I give my theory on when the crypto supercycle will begin!

Vamos! ⏬

✍ The Uniswap Fee Switch Proposal

First, let’s be clear that this is just a proposal, not yet a sure thing.

There have been many other similar proposals that have not gone through in the past. 

The reason this one is getting more hype is because it was proposed by Erin Koen, the Governance Lead at Uniswap Foundation.

The TL;DR of this proposal: 

Rewarding Participation: If you hold $UNI, voting or delegating your vote earns you a share of Uniswap's trading fees. Think of it as a "thank-you" bonus for your input.

Technical Upgrades: Uniswap plans to roll out two new smart contracts to automate fee collection and distribution to active participants.

Encouraging Active Delegation: This setup aims to discourage passive delegation by rewarding active and thoughtful participation, ensuring voters are engaged.

Implementation Steps: A vote on this proposal is imminent, with a Snapshot vote scheduled for March 1st, and an onchain vote on March 8th. 

If the majority votes yes (which is probably most likely), then Uniswap will move to finally turn on the fee switch after many years of waiting. 

The question now is… How much will $UNI holders get by staking their tokens? 

📊 Key Uniswap Stats + How Much Will $UNI Holders Earn?

Since its inception, Uniswap has settled over 300 million trades…

… which have compounded to almost $1.9 trillion in volumes (this is an insane number). 🤯

From all of this activity, the Ethereum network earned $3.5 billion, while different L2s earned up to $10 million. 

(This revenue came from users paying gas fees when transacting on Uniswap).

At the same time, liquidity providers on Uniswap earned a total of $3.5 billion across all chains.

We wrote a full Uniswap value accrual report in the past, showing how much each party made. We summarized it in this infographic.

The main takeaway? – That $UNI holders never got a dime, despite their critical role in the protocol, given their votes significantly impact its future.

So how much will $UNI holders get if this proposal goes through?

While we don’t know exactly how much of the revenue will accrue to holders versus LPs, we can make some assumptions.

Since October 2023, LPs have earned a total $309 million. Source

Here's how the earnings for $UNI holders would break down based on different percentages of the $309 million earned by LPs:

  • 50%: $154.5 million / year

  • 25%: $77.25 million / year

  • 15%: $46.35 million / year

  • 10%: $30.9 million / year

  • 5%: $15.45 million / year

Better than nothing, amirite? 

🤔 What Does This Mean for the Industry?

Please understand that this is a US-based protocol that has turned its governance token into one that earns revenue for holders. 

The reason Uniswap hasn’t done this before is because of regulatory concerns – sharing revenues with your token holders is similar to how stocks share dividends with shareholders. 

For this reason, crypto protocols have always hesitated to share revenues, as they never wanted to be categorized as securities by the SEC. 

With this proposal, Uniswap is basically telling the SEC “f*ck off, you can’t touch me”. 😂

We predicted this to happen back in July 2023, when XRP won its lawsuit against the SEC about it being a security. 

We wrote that when $UNI was $5 – if you added it to your portfolio, congrats! If not, don’t worry. I think the opportunity is just getting started. 

I think this sets a precedent for all DeFi tokens, who now must turn on their own fee switch or get left behind.  

Frax Finance is already asking their community if they should do this.

Going even deeper, I think this sets precedent for all governance tokens in crypto. Being just a governance token won’t cut it anymore.

For any protocol, not just in DeFi, it's crucial for your token to gain value for holders; otherwise, there's little incentive for people to buy it.

I said this multiple times before, but I think that the so-called crypto supercycle comes when profitable protocols figure out how to share value with their token holders.

Ethereum has done this. Uniswap is about to. 

Next up, expect Maker, Lido, Rocketpool, L2s like Arbitrum, other DEXs like Frax, protocols like ENS or even marketplaces like BLUR to follow suit and start sharing revenues with their token holders. 

When all of these protocols/apps figure this out at scale, that’s when the supercycle begins. Not one day before this moment.

I think that few understand this…

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

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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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) cryptocurrency defi web3 <![CDATA[🟣 Yuga Changed Its CEO… Again]]> https://paragraph.com/@web3academy/yuga-acquired-moonbirds dK61P2ropuAYc2OmAkmj Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:51:49 GMT GM DOers! 😎

The biggest NFT company (Yuga Labs) just made some big moves. A questionable leadership change and a big-time acquisition.

After serving for about a year as CEO, Daniel Alegre, formerly of Google and Activision Blizzard, was succeeded by Yuga's co-founder, Greg Solano.

This followed Yuga’s shocking move from last Friday, when they acquired PROOF, the company behind Moonbirds. 😲

Today, we’ll talk about how Yuga Labs’ vision & trajectory will change with the new CEO & what we can expect from the NFT giant moving forward.

Stick around until the end, as we’re also going to highlight the NFT Of The Month. 👀

Let’s dive in. ⏬

🔮 The New Yuga Vision

In October 2023, Daniel Alegre, the former CEO of Yuga, made the radical decision to streamline the company by letting go of several team members. 

This move aimed to narrow the company focus to a few key areas:

Community Engagement: Daniel's goal was to strengthen the bond with the community. 

This included supporting community members in launching their own businesses using Ape designs and ensuring events like ApeFest were successful.

Art Promotion: Efforts were directed towards increasing the popularity of CryptoPunks and Meebits, with plans to exhibit CryptoPunks in museums.

Developing Otherside: The Otherside project was a priority, with the vision of creating an engaging online space for all Yuga's collections and communities.

Forming Major Partnerships: Yuga sought collaborations with major brands to extend its recognition beyond the cryptocurrency sphere.

We wrote all about Daniel’s vision here. 

But how has this changed now that Greg is back at the helm?

1. “Making Yuga Labs crypto-centric.”

This is vague. We don’t know what this will mean in practice. 

However, Yuga’s former focus was on establishing partnerships with the likes of Gucci and getting CryptoPunks in museums. 

Is that going to be dropped, since it’s not ‘crypto-centric’? Very likely, but that remains to be seen. 

Overall, I get the vibe that Yuga is ditching the serious business look and moving away from the corporate vibe it picked up over the last year.

2. “Focusing on gaming.”

Yuga has always stated that they’re not a gaming company. However, they always continued to create games like Dookey Dash, which was a marvelous success.

Greg made it clear that this is something the company will continue to focus on. 

He also highlighted that the focus on the community remains the same – Yuga Labs will continue to empower BAYC holders to create cool stuff through initiatives like Made By Apes & conferences like ApeFest.

But what’s Yuga’s ultimate goal? 🤔

🎙 Is the NFT Bull Market Back?

That's the question we try to answer in our latest rollup episode (plus all the latest news in crypto & web3).

Tune in on your favorite podcast platform.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

🤖 The Ultimate Goal: Otherside – But There’s FUD

Otherside is Yuga Labs’ main focus – a huge multi-year project of building a metaverse – the so-called “livingroom of web3”.

A place where everybody (web3 and non-web3 peeps) can hang out, play games and flex their digital collectibles. 

In a press release, Eric Reid (General Manager at Otherside) said that to achieve this, they’re creating a type of MMO (massively multiplayer online) game.

This means that the plan is to start with building basic features and games (like Dookey Dash) to build a foundation, and over time, to connect all of these into something bigger – Otherside.

In this process, Yuga Labs would rely a lot on user generated content, similar to what Roblox is doing today.

But this wasn’t taken well – it was underwhelming for a lot of people, especially Otherdeed (land in Otherside) holders.

Even the biggest NFT people are criticizing Yuga for their approach.

So… If Yuga’s ultimate goal is to build a metaverse, why are they acquiring other NFT companies?

🤔 What is Yuga Actually Up To?

Yuga Labs, acquired PROOF in an all-stock deal. This means Yuga didn't pay cash but gave PROOF's owners shares in Yuga Labs instead.

In return for giving up equity, Yuga received the PROOF collective, Moonbirds, Oddities, and the Grails, along with PROOF’s entire team AND PROOF’s balance sheet (probably 10s of millions in cash). 

All in all, this deal was brilliant for Yuga as they got an iconic brand, along with a team & millions of dollars in cash, in exchange for some equity.

But what's Yuga aiming for long-term and what hurdles do they face?

Managing Multiple NFTs: Yuga owns Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), CryptoPunks, Meebits, Otherdeed (land in Otherside) and now all of PROOF’s NFTs (I’m also probably missing a few other collections).

The challenge? They need to ensure all of these collections are successful. Only that in and of itself is extremely difficult to achieve because there’s no playbook for this.

Building a Roblox-like Experience: Developing the Roblox of web3 (Otherside) is ambitious. 

The challenge? Achieving Roblox's level of success required investing billions, underscoring just how big the task really is.

Be a Gaming Studio: For Otherside to succeed, Yuga needs to build an entire ecosystem of games, so that people have stuff to do in this metaverse.

That means that Yuga will need to act as a gaming studio.

The challenge? The gaming industry is dominated by giants like Ubisoft, Take-Two and Electronic Arts (EA) who have billions of dollars in their warchest, and even they are struggling to ship out top-tier games consistently. 

Ultimately, Yuga is trying to do 3 very different and difficult things all at the same time, so chances are they’re spreading themselves too thin.

They're either unsure of what they're doing or they might become one of the top companies, though the chances of the latter are quite slim.

Regardless, we hope they succeed, as it would be great to see a web3 native company crush it. 💪

P.S.- Since everyone has 0 clarity around Yuga Labs as a company, we’re planning on doing a mega PRO report analyzing their strategy, their assets, their business model & their long-term vision. 

Is that something you’d like to read? Reply w/ a Yes or No!

The NFT Of The Month is... The Plague of Frogs

The Plague of Frogs is a 10K collection that aims to develop a system to decentralize opportunities in the web3 space.

They aim to do this by providing grants and developing their own products, with a core focus on building utility.

The Plague of Frogs was recommended by our community member Specktacular, and they won the poll with over 75% of the votes.

Next week, we're doing Token Of The Month (AI edition), where we'll feature 4 AI tokens suggested by our community. Reply to this email with your suggestion on which coins we should pick.

Thanks for reading. And remember, you're strong, you’re powerful, you’re alpha! ❤

How'd you feel about our read today?

Are You Fairly New to Crypto & Web3?

Let us help you wrap your head around this industry that’s constantly transforming.

Take our Free 1-hour Web3 Rabbit Hole Course to learn the foundational components you need to start building and investing successfully.

Recommended Tools 🛠

Join us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

Advertise with Web3 Academy

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.

]]> web3academy@newsletter.paragraph.com (Kyle Reidhead) web3 nft