Sup, nerds!

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

• 💅 This is cool: Crypto’s smartphone moment

• 🔎 This seems important: Bitcoin yoinks Ethereum's best feature

• 🤝 Partner: A Vitalik Throwback Tee? Sure, why not!​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: The next big narrative in crypto is...

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ask Web(GPT)3!):
Blockchain, meme coins, web3.

💅 This is cool:

Crypto’s Smartphone Moment

In one sentence: The crypto exchange Woo X has tokenized US treasury bills — if demand can be proven for tokenized RWAs, it will likely kickstart a new form of crypto mass adoption.

In the late 2000’s, the Hiptop/Sidekick became the first smartphone not to be targeted at business customers, but instead, younger consumers.

It had a screen that you had to slide up to unlock, completing a 180 degree spin in the process (v cool), and its software later evolved into Android.

The piece of news we’re about to cover is relevant to crypto, the same way the Hiptop was relevant to the mobile industry.

The crypto exchange Woo X has tokenized US treasury bills and made them available to retail customers.

Here’s why this seemingly boring development is bigger than you’d think:

There’s this narrative that says all financial products will soon move onto blockchain rails — it’s been touted by Twitter think-boys for years — and more recently: Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock (the world’s largest asset manager).

But this is one of the first times a legacy financial product (T-bills) have actually been made tradable on the blockchain (aka: tokenized).

And just like the Hiptop proved there was demand for smart devices from broader consumers (beyond just business users), the tokenized T-bill will be a proving ground to show that there is demand within the crypto space for legacy financial products (not just the crypto-native tokens we have now).

If demand can be proven, it’ll show there’s a buck to be made.

And if there’s a buck to be made, large institutions will start racing to tokenize as many legacy financial products as they can.

(Legitimizing the crypto sector and increasing its value in the process).

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

Bitcoin Just Yoinked One of Ethereum’s Best Features

In one sentence: Runes have taken a key feature from Ethereum (token creation), and added it to BTC (leading to miners collecting $80M in fees this past weekend alone).

Damn, what’s up with Bitcoin right now??

Activity has recently exploded on the chain, with miners raking in a cool $80M in transaction fees this past weekend alone.

So what was it? (The halving?)

Nope! It was Runes, which have taken a key feature from Ethereum, and added it to Bitcoin.

Confused? Here’s what we’re on about:

All cryptocurrencies are just software.

Back in the day, if you wanted to start a brand new crypto coin/token — you had to write your own software (or copy/paste someone else’s).

Then Ethereum came along and was like:

“Hey, we’ve created a system that lets you piggy back off our software and network — all you need to do is tell us what you want to call your token, how many tokens you want generated, and we’ll host it (processing transactions for a fee).”

All of a sudden, new tokens were popping up left, right and center (this was known as the ‘ICO boom’) — and every time these tokens were traded, they boosted the value of the Ethereum network.

Runes does that for Bitcoin — allowing users to launch their own tokens on the Bitcoin network.

Which wouldn’t be anything special if it weren’t Bitcoin (most new blockchain projects allow users to add their own tokens to the network — it ain’t a rarity!).

BUT!

Because Bitcoin has the most amount of value sloshing around in it ($1.3T as of this writing), it incentivizes folks to create tokens on the network, in an attempt to syphon some of that value into their newly created token.

…and incentivized they have been!

Our bet is that this $80M in fees is just the start of a new boom for Bitcoin.

🤝 Partner:

A Vitalik Throwback Tee? Sure, Why Not!

Wow, so turns out the way to your hearts is through deeply unserious merch?

In that case, we see your love for the Got That Dog In Me Tee, and raise you a Vitalik Throwback Tee…

🔪 Let's dissect this:

The Next Big Narrative in Crypto Is...

In one sentence: Shiba Inu has just raised $12M with plans to launch TREAT (a new privacy-focused token) and has changed the narrative of meme coins while doing so.

Meme coins - they’re all the rage this cycle.

But this time it’s a little different.

This time, instead of meme coin projects creating ‘unbelievably exciting’ roadmaps (that have no chance of ever being fulfilled), they seem to be more in the camp of ‘telling it how it is.’

(E.g. Dogwifhat explains that their coin is “Literally a dog wif a hat” — that’s it).

Many meme coins from last cycle, which touted a roadmap that they could never deliver, went to zero.

There’s one notable exception though: Shiba Inu.

SHIB may have started as a meme coin, but since then they’ve released BONE (a governance token), LEASH (a fixed-supply ‘loyalty program’ token), and just today it was announced that they had raised $12M with plans to launch TREAT (a new privacy-focused token).

Why does this all matter?

First off, Shiba Inu is the perfect example of how important a community is for any crypto project.

Without community support, the project never gets off the ground - with community support, the project flourishes into what it is today.

Second, there’s rumors that Shiba Inu’s $12M raise is actually part of a much larger raise which will be coming in at least three more tranches over the next few months/years. More money flowing into the space is always good news.

Finally, meme coins are cool and all, but is that really what we want the end product of web3 to be? Shiba Inu is paving the way for a different outcome for meme coins - one where they get to work on cool things…like privacy coins.

Point is — all of this helps to create a new blueprint where memes act as an initial funding mechanism:

Capture value & attention as a meme coin → if successful in doing so, start building real products.

Pretty neat!

Meme Coin Popularity Explained