🥂 Big Wins in Blockchain

🎣 w3.catch-of-the-week cw25

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Vicktoria Klich & Quinn Wilhelm
June 21, 2024

GMGM and welcome to 🎣w3.catch-of-the-week, your reason to be in a good mood, even if the weekend party hasn't started yet.

First of all there is a very important milestone to celebrate - Ethereum is not a security according to the SEC 🥳.

The SEC told Consensys this Wednesday that they would permanently halt the investigation.

Now that Ethereum “seems to be” a commodity, the door is open for all other coins to refer to this precedent. The prerequisite for being classified as a commodity is to be able to demonstrate sufficient decentralization.

Here's a great thread on the topic that explains in detail what this means for Ethereum:

TL;DR We need to maintain decentralization‼️

😎 We are hosting an Online Conference
📉 What happened to NFTs?
🔥 Two thriving Ecosystems
💡 The Need for Stablecoins
 🪂 What is Mento?

Investment Opportunities in Web3

Find out for free how we evaluate investments in Web3 and which opportunities we (and other key players in the space) find particularly exciting.

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You can expect fun, gifts & a lot of interaction, including Web3 hacks.

What is hot in Web3?

NFTs were the big thing of the 2021 bull market, but in the summer of 2024 nobody seems to talk about them anymore and if they do, they are labeled dead.

Are NFTs really dead? Where is the capital going?

I've gone through the data for you and here's what I've found 👇

  1. The Bitcoin Ordinals Standard has created some hype, but we are a far away from NFT sales volumes in 2021 and 2022.

  2. Even though some NFT projects have been able to raise high revenues through the minting of collections, the results so far have been rather disappointing…

  1. Not all chains are losing volume and users. An example of the growing interest in onchain activities is the Base ecosystem. The data shows that more and more ETH is being bridged to the layer 2 Base and the number of weekly users is steadily increasing.

    Find more based stats here.

  2. The DEX (Decentralized Exchange) Aerodrome has also benefited from the growth of the Base DeFi ecosystem. On some days it has seen more volume than Uniswap.

  1. Another platform that is continuously bringing more users and more money onchain is Polymarket.

You can think of it as a ✨decentralized betting platform✨ that lets you bet on anything, such as whether Taylor Swift is pregnant or not. Here's a quick look at the bets on the homepage.

💸 Polymarket successfully closed its Series B funding round in May this year and has raised a total of over 70$ million in funding.

Why is Polymarket so popular right now and what advantages does it offer over traditional betting sites?

  • Fees: Polymarket does not charge any fees, only gas fees are charged for a deposit/withdrawal.

  • Payment options: Paypal, Robinhood, Coinbase or onchain $ETH, $USDC and $USDT (So far it's limited to $USDC, but the other options have been announced to be coming soon).

  • Access for all: Anyone can bet.

  • Betting options: Anyone can create bets and anyone can bet on them.

  • Transparency: Everything runs onchain, so every transaction can be tracked.

Conclusion 💅

In order to answer the opening question, it is necessary to take a differentiated view: When it comes to technology, NFTs are anything but dead, as there are numerous teams around the globe working on solutions and use cases that make use of digital ownership.

But if we look at the trading aspect, which has been a key driver of the NFT hype in 2021/22, we can see that demand is falling month on month.

Nevertheless, the users have not disappeared and neither has the money, only the active traders, or above all Degens, are currently trying their luck in more liquid markets such as Polymarket or with memecoins on Solana or Base.

Use Case of Stablecoins

The supply of stablecoins is an important indicator of whether new money is entering the market. Cryptocurrency prices rise when new stablecoins are created, no wonder we have been moving sideways for the last 2-3 months.

The current development with a stagnating inflow of stablecoins also confirms that many altcoins are currently weakening. Bitcoin and (soon) Ethereum are in a special situation, as they see inflows via spot ETFs. However, the supply of stablecoins correlates strongly with the price of all other coins.

👩🏽‍💼 Quick guide: What are stablecoins?

Stablecoins are tokens on the blockchain that are pegged and redeemable 1:1 to US dollars held by an issuer.

The issuer usually holds its reserves in cash or investment-grade securities such as US Treasuries. In other words, stablecoins should be fully collateralized.

Stablecoins are useful because they offer instant transfers, self-custody and peer-to-peer payments.

They have three main use cases: act as medium of exchange, as store of value and as trading object.

The daily on-chain volume has already reached new all-time highs this year.

Adoption of Stablecoins

In order to make the adoption of stablecoins and the idea of a decentralized financial system accessible to everyone, the right infrastructure is needed. This is where our portfolio company Mento comes into play.

What is Mento up to?

Mento is a decentralized platform designed to launch and operate stablecoins, combined with a highly efficient virtual Automated Market Making (AMM) trading infrastructure. The Mento Platform supports real-world use cases for savings, microlending, payments, FX trading, hedging, and more, all powered by local currency Stablecoins. Learn more about it.

Mento Governance

Through participating in Mento Governance, users can make their voice heard and help shape the future of the Mento ecosystem. This is made possible by the newly launched $Mento token.

Early supporters who have already used the infrastructure were rewarded with an airdrop of the token.

Eligibility Criteria

Your address must fulfill at least one of the conditions:

  • Staked $10+ CELO over 16 months

  • Held $10+ Mento's stable assets over 16 months

  • Transacted $100+ in Mento's stable assets over 16 months

The airdrop is still live, check here if you are eligible.

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Blockchain Horizons: Exploring Web3 with Evmos, IBC and Celestia!

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Game Jam Hackathon Berlin

​Solana Speedrun is a recurring Game Jam Hackathon on Solana, where developers are competing in a limited time frame to create a game from scratch based on a given theme.

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