Sup, nerds!

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

• 💅 This is cool: How bananas are inflating memecoins

• 🔎 This seems important: Crypto just got a little more un-killable

• 🤝 Partner: Master cutting-edge concepts, in just 15 mins per day​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: What should you do when the entire web3 industry pushes back?

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

💅 This is cool:

How Bananas Are Driving up Memecoin Prices

In one sentence: The price of ‘stuff’ (like bananas) is going up, making our money worth less — safe assets returning 5-10% per year can’t outpace this devaluation, so investors are buying higher risk assets (like memecoins).

The price of bananas is driving up memecoin prices.

Hear us out…

Inflation on the price of ‘stuff’ (e.g. groceries — including, but not limited to: bananas) continues to be stubborn, which means our money doesn’t go as far anymore.

This loss in monetary value incentivizes investors to go further out on the risk curve, because safe assets that return a tidy 5-10% per year can no longer outpace the silent monetary devaluation we’re experiencing.

So when there’s a hot new stock or cryptocurrency, more people are likely to pile into it, looking for a quick win.

Yesterday, that pattern of behavior played out in GameStop’s stock price.

(Again).

This time, the catalyst was a Reddit post from Keith Gill (@TheRoaringKitty on X/Twitter, and @deepf***ingvalue on Reddit), that showed his MASSIVE new position in $GME.

His trade? $200M worth of options that will allow him to buy $GME stock at $20 per share by June 21.

(I.e. Keith is wagering that GME will be worth more than $20 per share by the end of the month, and these options mean he’ll be able to buy in at a discount).

…cool, what does this have to do with crypto?

Well, this trade has gotten a lot of attention — so much so that it damn near doubled the $GME stock price in the span of an hour.

As traders look for similar opportunities, they pose the following question:

Q: “I missed the $GME pump, where’s the next opportunity?”
A: “There’s a good chance it’s going to be found in a memecoin.”

Is this a guarantee? No.
Is this a symptom of a healthy market? Also no.

But the mania of frothy financial markets often leads to massive price appreciation across high-risk asset classes.

And crypto is one of those asset classes.

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

Crypto Just Got a Little More Un-Killable

In one sentence: The US, the UK, Europe, and Asia Pacific Nations (inc. Hong Kong, and now Australia) have all launched BTC ETFs, helping to cement crypto’s presence in global markets.

There’s an ancient proverb which scholars estimate surfaced circa 1990 AD, that said:

“Nobody gets fired for buying IBM.”

The idea being: IBM had cemented itself as the industry standard — so for those in corporate IT departments, it was the safe bet.

These trends start from the top down:

A small handful of industry big-dogs adopt a technology → their competitors mimic them → it becomes standard.

When it comes to the adoption of financial products, the US is that ‘big-dog.’ If the US adopts something, it gives other countries/regions the green light to follow suit.

It’s weird, but very real.

And we’re now starting to see this manifest itself in the traditional financial world’s adoption of crypto — most recently in Australia’s launch of a BTC ETF.

Which, on paper, isn’t massive. Australia’s GDP is ~$1.6T — compare that to NVIDIA’s $2.8T market cap and it feels insignificant…

But zoom out and you start to see a trend:

The US, the UK, Europe, and Asia Pacific Nations (including Hong Kong, and now Australia) are allowing investors to buy Bitcoin via local stock exchanges, assuring regulatory clarity and incentivizing digital asset investment.

Better yet: once launched, these decisions typically don’t get reversed.

Which means crypto’s place in global financial markets is becoming further cemented, thanks to traditional finance (TradFi) adoption.

We love to see it!

🤝 Partner:

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🔪 Let's dissect this:

What Should You Do When The Entire Web3 Industry Pushes Back?

In one sentence: Last week we wrote about how Matter Labs had filed trademark applications in nine countries to claim the term “zero-knowledge”; however, they have now said that they will be dropping all applications due to significant backlash.

Remember how last week we wrote about that company - Matter Labs - who had decided to file trademark applications in nine countries to claim the term “zero-knowledge” as their exclusive intellectual property.

Well, thanks to a whollle lot of public backlash, including a joint statement signed by leaders at Polyhedra, Polygon and StarkWare which mentioned that ZK “should remain a public good,” we have an update on the case.

Matter Labs has dropped all trademark applications.

(Well, they’ve said they will drop all trademark applications which so far seems like that hasn’t technically happened - but we expect that it will).

Here’s why this is important, and why we think this was the right move:

A company’s reputation is everything, especially in web3.

The amount of bad actors and scams has resulted in a veeery skeptical user base, and even the slightest ‘off-brand’ move will raise immediate alarm bells.

Matter Labs could have gone the other direction and taken a hard-nosed approach, leaving it to the courts to decide.

But instead, they’ve decided to take a longer term view of things and listened to their competitors and the web3 community.

Coming out the other side, not in the best position, but also not in the worst position either (heck, they sure got some publicity!).

All this is to say, while the initial trademark applications seemed to be overstepping the mark, it’s great to see a company listen to the community and respond.

You’ve (kinda) redeemed yourself.

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