Web3 Watch: Crypto X users get a kick out of Solana blinks

This week, the Solana Foundation and Dialect unveiled Solana actions and blinks (a portmanteau of blockchain and links), which lets users transact with crypto directly within X. 

Blinks allow crypto actions to look like buttons or widgets, so users can do things like buy crypto or NFTs directly within their X feeds. 

Read more: Lightspeed Newsletter: Solana transactions can now happen directly within X

There are many other ways this could be used, of course. Hedgehog Markets embedded a prediction market on X, and another developer built an onchain orb that doles out advice and happily accepts donations. The orb told me to “accept the process of disintegration and prepare for renewal. Let go of what no longer serves you.”

For now, blinks are only on X, but its developers are hoping to expand the feature to other places on the internet, such as Reddit and Discord.

The release generally is reminiscent of Farcaster Frames, which lets users interact with apps directly inside of the crypto-native social media app Farcaster. Frames created a lot of buzz and led to a spike in Farcaster usage.

Read more: Q&A: Dan Romero and Jesse Pollak think this may be Farcaster’s ‘inflection point’ 

Solana non-vote transactions spiked to their highest point in June the day after blinks were released, according to Blockworks Research.

Crypto news pageviews slide

Pageviews for crypto news sites have noticeably declined since Coinbase removed the news feed from its app earlier this year, Axios reported. Coinbase had previously been a large driver of traffic to crypto news sites.

Crypto news outlets have generally seen their visitors decline in recent years and are failing to touch the numbers seen pre-FTX’s collapse, the piece noted.

The Block’s Editor-in-chief Tim Copeland has actively written on social media about Coinbase’s news feed removal, saying earlier this month traffic was down 30% to top sites after the crypto market calmed down and Coinbase removed the feature. Copeland updated that sentiment this week to say the traffic decline was worse than he originally thought.

“The SEO traffic game is dead and crypto media sites that keep playing will face the same fate. Can’t rely on third-party apps like @coinbase anymore either. We decided months ago to try something different at @Blockworks_.  It’s working,” Blockworks managing editor Michael McSweeney noted on X.

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One interesting stat:

• Blast topped $300 million in volume as its token airdrop went off on Wednesday, but the layer-2’s total value locked (TVL) has slid nearly $500 million in the past week, according to DeFiLlama.

Also of note:

• Polymarket refunded bettors who said Barron Trump was involved with the DJT token, citing “conclusive” evidence of Barron’s involvement. It said its oracle service UMA was erroneous in saying Barron was not involved.
• DEX Screener launched a Pump dot Fun competitor named Moonshot.
• Internet personality Logan Paul sued the YouTuber Coffeezilla over a video exposé pertaining to the CryptoZoo NFT gaming project.
• Crypto-friendly asset manager VanEck changed its X profile picture to a Pudgy Penguin.

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