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:
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:
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:
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
These monthly summaries are extremely helpful! Thank you for your work!
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