Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: Solana's second phone just crossed 100k presales

• 🔎 This seems important: BTC broke $50k! Here's where we're headed next...

• 🤝 Partner: We're up 1082 Big Macs right now 🫃🍔​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Why did Ethereum’s Fees jump 270% in 7 days!?

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ​ask Web(GPT)3!​):
Wallet, Bull Market, Bear Market, Gas Fees.

💅 This is cool:

Solana’s Second Phone Just Crossed 100K Presales ($45M in Revenue)

In one sentence: The Solana phone is a net-good for the crypto space — it lets builders target users directly, sending airdrops to their wallets, instead of paying FB to reach them.

Is the second generation Solana phone only selling in such high numbers because buyers expect it to airdrop them free money?

Yes.

Will the cost of the hardware eventually be recouped by said airdrops?

Probably not.

Is it going to be a product most people will want to daily drive?

We highly doubt it.

But we’re all for it — why?

Cause the Solana phone gathers a bunch of crypto nerds in one (digital) space, and gives developers/businesses direct access to them.

(And that’s a way bigger deal than it may first appear!)

Here’s how it affects businesses:

Having a great idea/product is one thing — convincing folks to use it is another.

The Solana phone collects potential customers in one place, validates their interest (they bought a crypto phone, they’re probably going to be interested in your crypto product) — this process usually requires thousands, if not millions of dollars of ad spend across Facebook and Google.

Now (if you’re building on Solana) it’s free.

Here’s how it affects you (a crypto dork):

All that ad budget saved by developers? Guess where it goes — or don't. We'll tell you anyway…

Your wallet.

The way these crypto projects get the attention of Solana Phone users is simple: they take what they previously would have spent on Facebook/Google ads, and airdrop that money to any/all Saga phone wallet addresses.

Want to use/redeem the tokens? All you need to do is sign in to the project’s platform/service with your Saga phone. (BOOM! New users).

It’s not a perfect system, but it’s way better than what we’re used to!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

BTC Broke $50K! Here’s Where We’re Headed Next

In one sentence: BTC blasted through the ‘golden fib’ level ($48,550) all the way up to $50k (breaking the golden fib usually means previous all-time-highs are about to be recaptured).

Bitcoin’s ‘golden fib’ level that we talked about yesterday?

(The $48,550 level).

BTC just blew right past it and cracked $50,000 — making it the first time in Bitcoin’s history that the golden fib level has been broken before the halving.

“Ok, that’s cool…why should I care?” — you, probably.

Think of breaking the .618 fibonacci level (aka the ‘golden fib’) as a starters pistol. Historically, once it goes off — Bitcoin gets to moving, first reclaiming its previous all-time-high, then going in to ‘price discovery.’

(Aka “Holy hell, we’re in uncharted territory now — all bets are off! How high can this thing go??” mode).

Usually, the golden fib is only broken after the halving (which is due at the end of April), but thanks to all of the buying pressure from the Bitcoin ETFs — it has broken early for the first time ever.

Need some more context?

Here’s our bull market check list so far:

1. Bear market bottom (happened late ‘22) ✅

2. Re-accumulation (Jan-Sep ‘23) ✅

3. Pre halving run up in price (started Oct ‘23) ✅

4. Golden fib is touched, but not broken (Jan 07 ‘23) ✅

5. Price crashes 🛑

6. Rebuilds 🛑

7. Golden fib is broken ✅ (Feb 12 ‘23) ← 🗺️ WE ARE HERE

8. Recaptures previous all-time-high

9. Price discovery

10. Market tops

See how we just skipped 5 and 6 (the painful steps)? Pretty neat!

Next on the list is $69k (fingers crossed).

🤝 Partner:

We're Up 1082 Big Macs Right Now 🫃🍔

Remember when we said we wanted to see if we could turn $5k into $10k by investing in crypto projects?

We invested an average of $100 per week, over 12 months - and documented it all.

What tokens/DAOs we were buying, why we were buying them, and the tools/platforms we used to do so.

All written in plain, easy to digest, English (that’s kind of our ‘thing’).

Fair warning: this isn’t some shiny crypto masterclass, featuring pros that have millions of dollars to play with.

It’s a rough and ready learning experience, played out in public - where we've taken the financial risks, so you don’t have to.

If you want to read through all 25 crypto project deep dives, hit the big red button below.

Oh, and now you can get 20% off the full set of reports too 👇

🔪 Let's dissect this:

Why Did Ethereum’s Fees Jump 270% in 7 Days!?

In one sentence: A quick increase in ETH transactions + an increase in Ethereum’s value + a decrease in supply, led to higher prices (and higher fees) in the last 7 days.

Ethereum network fees rose 270% last week.

Which is straight up BONKERS, but we have a theory on why this happened. 

First things first though: 

A refresher — Ethereum uses ‘gas fees’ to compensate folks for verifying transactions on its network. So each time you buy/sell Ethereum, a fee will be associated with the transaction. 

Now, why the heck did they rise 270%?!

Honestly, we aren’t entirely sure, but we have some ideas: 

1. Transfer Volume: Over the past week, the total volume of ETH moving on-chain jumped 159%. Which is nuts. 

   
   But, what needs to be noted here — average transaction fees are not related to the amount of ETH being moved in a single transaction — they’re the same regardless of the transaction’s total value…
   
   Which brings us to point #2: 
   

2. ETH Market Value: ETH’s market value jumped 9% last week which could have boosted the network's total earnings and caused the jump in transaction costs.

   
   (Cause when demand goes up, you can charge more for fees). Which segues nicely into point #3…
   

3. The Burn Rate: With every Ethereum transaction, there is a set amount of ETH burned/destroyed.

   
   Last week – base fees spiked all of a sudden, pushing more ETH to be burned and taken out of circulation.
   
   (This helps helps to keep ETH scarce, and push its value up over time).

And it looks like we witnessed a perfect storm of those three factors: 

A quick increase in ETH transactions + an increase in Ethereum’s value + a decrease in supply = higher prices (and higher fees).

Ah, good ol’ economics.

Gas Fees, Explained.