October Recap

token updates, NFTs, news, product developments, and funding across October

as always, thanks for reading and follow me and terv to reach out!

tl;dr: ETH 30d supply negative, Digi’s Super Bowl & airdrops, DOGE & SUSHI return, RBN & FXS new products, SoRare NBA launches, Clone X airdrop, & Reddit NFTs

Tokens & Protocols:

ETH:

• LINK — staking confirmed to go live in December along with SCALE & BUILD programs that will result in LINK acquiring native tokens of other protocols in exchange for data feeds and other Chainlink services

• MakerDAO (MKR) initiates their $500M investment in U.S. Treasuries & investment grade corporate bonds to diversify & strengthen its balance sheet

• RBN — announces Aevo, a next-generation options exchange built on EVM rollup

• SUSHI — appoint new Head Chef, backing from Avi & Goldentree’s $5.3M stake

• FXS — minting of frxETH liquid staking derivative is now live

• GRT — The graph outlines 2023 roadmap including move of protocol to Arbitrum

• zkEVMs — zkSync & Polygon’s zkEVM — zkSync token

• OP — Optimism announces the OP Stack, includes cross-chain messaging format

• FIL — Filecoin launches Saturn, new data delivery network for dapps to use

• GEAR — launches supply side of leveraged yield farming protocol

SOL:

• jitoSOL — Jito team launches SOL’s 1st MEV-powered liquid staking derivative

• Coral, creators of SOL developer framework Anchor, raises $20M in preparation for new wallet product Backpack that introduces xNFTs

• Eclipse, builders of “customizable, modular rollups using the Solana VM on any chain” raises $9M seed; aims to be a global L2 with Celestial data availability to start and Cosmos IBC compatibility

ATOM:

• 2.0 proposal voting live — enables tokenomics changes, ICS, Schedular/Allocator

• INJ — announces “Project X” @ Cosmoverse that includes AMMS, strategy vaults for market making/yield, & native launchpad

• AXL — Axelar, cross chain communication platform, officially launches token

Others:

• CANTO — upgrade 4.0.0 is successfully completed; Synapse integration soon

• Circle, USDC issuer, announces cross-chain transfer protocol for USDC along with coming support for USDC on Cosmos, Polkadot, Optimism, NEAR, & Arbitrum

• Tether (USDT) has eliminated commercial paper from its reserves & says increased direct exposure to U.S. Treasuries by more than $10B

• MC — Merit Circle DAO votes to burn 200M tokens (~$147M) to reduce supply

• Oasys — upcoming gaming blockchain with storied validators, debuts plan for rollout of mainnet and public token listing coming over the next ~month

• BLUR — NFT marketplace & aggregator announces token & outlines airdrop

• DOT — updated roadmap and developments moving forward

• APT — Aptos launches to backlash over abysmal tokenomics & broken chain

• AVAX — Avalanche’s subnet validators can now stake with their native token

Musings:

October’s main fundamental & narrative driven tokens; visualized on Messari

While BTC remained a 20k stablecoin throughout October, activity within the crypto markets returned to moderate levels aided by a strong final week to close the month. ETH reached monthly highs of ~1650 while alts throughout virtually every crypto sector returned 20%+ to close October. As a wrote in last week’s Round Tripping, DOGE has become the

Once again, and until proven otherwise, macro remains in control of flows to the majors, suppressing any potential sustained momentum. Fortunately, there are a few factors positively impacting activity throughout the space. First, the “hot ball of money” appears to have returned to rotation, albeit now it’s barely lukewarm. Regardless, BTC & ETH remaining endlessly rangebound has provided a window for alts to appreciate on both fundamental & narrative driven catalysts.

Alts, NFTs, and memecoins being somewhat alive, for now, has led to ETH’s supply reduction through on-chain activity garnering more traction, a trend that will create massive reflexivity whenever next cycle begins. As you can see on ultrasound.money, ETH’s supply growth was -0.1% throughout October while ETH/BTC gained ~15% the closing week of the month. Looking ahead to next month, I’ll be mostly monitoring the following developments throughout November:

• Macro — FOMC on the 2nd, mid-term elections the 8th, & CPI the 10th

• Ongoing CANTO momentum & Synapse (SYN) integration for easier bridging

• Arbitrum’s potential resumption of Odyssey & token airdrop

• Reddit’s digital collectibles momentum: siloed capital or actual broad catalyst?

• BLUR & NFT marketplace wars including updates on XMON/SUDO distribution

• ETH ZK-scaling developments of Scroll, zkSync, StarkWare, MATIC, & OP Stack

• DOGE, SHIB, DC & the ongoing revival of memecoins

• zkSync’s ongoing rollout of its zkEVM & tokenomics outline coming next week

• NFTs: y00ts reveal (SOL), KPR & Art Gobblers on ETH fueling increased talk of ETH supply reduction from Art Gobblers mechanisms increasing on-chain activity

• News surrounding upcoming stablecoins from FTX, AAVE, & CRV

• CHZ strength & fan token ecosystem ahead of World Cup starting in ~3 weeks

• APE staking — ongoing vote determines live on the 14th or pushed to Dec. 7th, Otherside news/developments to accelerate into EoY

• ETH pairs — ETH/BTC slowly grinding higher, SOL/ETH hovering @ recent lows

• ATOM 2.0 vote results & implementation details/timelines on outlined upgrades

• LINK staking & details on the collection/distribution tokens paid to the protocol

• potential upcoming airdrops — Layer Zero, StarkWare, zkSync, Arbitrum, Sui

A quick side note — this month was somewhat surprisingly one of the best across various metrics in Page One’s history, so shoutout to everyone who consistently reads, shares, and supports our work — we appreciate you! Cheers to that sign hopefully being a signal of engagement & market participants returning & if you missed anything throughout the month they’re all linked below:

10/1 - 10/8 — Round Tripping, Page One & 10/9 - 10/16 — Round Tripping, Page One

10/17 - 10/23 — Round Tripping, Page One, The Zero-Knowledge Landscape: Part 2

10/24 - 10/31 — Round Tripping, The Reddit NFT Thesis

Funding & News:

the below funding and news developments are not a comprehensively list of every announcement, but a selection of the most impactful announcements in October

• Pantera Capital looking to raise $1.25B for second crypto fund

• NYDIG raises $720M for its Institutional Bitcoin Fund

• Strike, BTC Lightning Network focused payments firm, raises $80M series B

• Fidelity launches Ethereum Index Fund; Bitwise’s Web3 ETF (BWEB) now listed

• Hamilton Lane to tokenize three of its funds through partnership with Securitize

• Oracles x Legacy Data — Two Sigma Securities to contribute data to LINK’s oracle networks; Cboe Global Markets partners w/ SOL-based Pyth for data on-chain

• Copper, London-based crypto custody company, raises $196M series C

• Uniswap Labs, creators of UNI DEX, raise $165M series B, valuation @ $1.66B

• BlockTower’s new $150M venture fund emerges from stealth

• Google — integrates Etherscan data to ETH address queriers, taps Coinbase to accept crypto for cloud services, launches cloud-based blockchain node service

• Celestia, modular blockchain architecture, raises $55M @ $1B valuation

• Edge Capital raises $66.8M for two DeFi funds

• Shardeum, new L1 blockchain in development, raises $18.2M seed through private token sale @ $200M valuation; plans to launch in Q1

• Plaid launches its first crypto product, Wallet Onboard

• Twitter — piloting the ability to embed NFT purchase/sale in tweets, developing a “wallet prototype” that supports deposit & withdrawal

• Visa partners with Blockchain.com to launch debit card with 1% crypto cashback

NFT Review:

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the ongoings in NFT land. These projects are covered in more depth throughout past Page One posts, so find more info on all of these there.

Familiar Faces:

via Parsec

• Azuki introduces PBT and Collector Profiles, auctions Golden Skateboards

• Castaways release Islands alongside new in-game updates

• Clone X reveals Project Animus, a new companion drop coming in November

• Cool Cats receive strategic investment from Animoca Brands

• DigiDaigaku announces Super Bowl ad, airdrops Dark Spirits and Heroes

• Finiliar floor triples over the month as oracle integration draws closer

• Genuine Undead reaches a new all-time high before retracing

• Moonbirds celebrate Golden Nest Day with IRL framed birds

• Reddit Avatars saw a flurry of action, sending Polygon volume over $1M for a day

• Rug Radio Genesis floor price doubles as the collection reignites

• Yuga Labs is the subject of an investigative probe from the SEC

• 10KTF drops Kagami + adds Chimpers, Deadfellaz, and RENGA to the shop

New Entrants:

via Parsec

• Art Gobblers see over 10,000Ξ in volume on mint day

• Flameys from Tribo Games continue the Play-to-Own mobile game metan

• HELIX is building a “meticulously detailed 1:1 scale recreation of NYC”

• Kitaro World’s Ghibli-esque cats peaked above 0.6Ξ in early October

• Lineage Naming Registar, the “first NFT on Ethereum,” was rediscovered

• Nyolings secure a spot in the ever-growing landscape of cute pfps

• SoRare NBA tips off and continues rolling out new weekly competitions

• Street Machine generated hype but disappointed upon reveal

• XCOPY releases commemorative collaborative piece for Non-NFT Summit

Upcoming Projects:

• Ether has begun DMing letters to those receiving mintlist spots

• Memeland continues announcing details about Captainz mint

• Valhalla held a unique pre-sale event - but their mint date remains unannounced

• y00ts reveal *seems* like it could be sometime in November

Market and Protocol News

• ApeCoin staking program delayed until mid/late November

• Aptos NFTs were one of the main draws to the new L1

• Blur launches to the public, details $BLUR airdrop which incentivizes royalties

• insrt finance makes NFTfi alpha accessible with a token

• Magic Eden moves to optional royalties while seeking new solutions

• nftperp prepares to launch their suite of innovative perpetuals

• OpenSea adds support for Avalanche NFTs, bulk listing, analytics beta

• Twitter is working on a wallet prototype and has a new owner

• X2Y2 launches peer-to-peer loans for select collections