Kate Irwin

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Walrus is an upcoming decentralized-storage platform from Sui developer Mysten Labs that will offer programmable file storage for the gaming-focused L1 Sui, as well as devs on Solana, Ethereum, or other chains that also want to use it.&nbsp;



Walrus is designed for large binary files, or “blobs.” Right now, there’s 833.33 TB in total storage available, with about 78,890 GB currently being used across more than 4.5 million blobs, according to <a href="https://walruscan.com/testnet/home">Walruscan</a>.&nbsp;



That means Walrus could store videos, images, PDFs, or other files, as well as apps. Walrus uses Sui smart contracts to make those blobs programmable.



Flatlander is one of the early projects using Walrus. Flatlander is an imaginary world concept with NFTs; their site is being hosted on Sui, and all site resources are being loaded from Walrus.&nbsp;



The Walrus mainnet will launch next week on March 27. The team has also released their tokenomics for the WAL token.&nbsp;



The upcoming data storage chain uses delegated proof of stake, and it consists of storage nodes that will have to compete with each other to offer competitive pricing for file storage.



Walrus has just raised <a href="https://www.walrus.xyz/blog/walrus-foundation-fundraising">$140 million</a> in funding from a round led by Standard Crypto.&nbsp;



Could Walrus be good for blockchain gaming or art? I think so.&nbsp;



One of the primary appeals of crypto is that it’s supposed to be decentralized. That’s a term that gets thrown around a lot, but it’s supposed to mean that the underlying infrastructure that supports a token’s existence — including the chain itself&nbsp;— is owned and operated by many different people around the world. Therefore, a decentralized chain is difficult to censor via shutdowns if there are enough participants owning a small share of the nodes.&nbsp;



As we know, NFTs themselves aren’t technically the art you see but the underlying tokens and data tied to them. The visual data of an NFT is metadata that can be changed by the creator.&nbsp;



That metadata can be stored on centralized platforms like AWS — or IPFS, a decentralized solution. More options aren’t a bad thing, though we don’t know yet how decentralized Walrus will ultimately become.



“Today the majority of decentralized apps rely on traditional web hosting to serve their front ends and client side code, which offers poor integrity and availability. Decentralized stores may be used to serve web and dApps content directly while ensuring its integrity and availability,” the Walrus <a href="https://docs.walrus.site/walrus.pdf">whitepaper</a> reads.&nbsp;



Mysten Labs believes Walrus is faster, more affordable, and more robust than the competition.



“There’s absolutely a world where games on Sui use Walrus for a wide variety of possibilities,” Mysten Labs Head of Communications Lexi Wangler told me.



TBD on whether it’ll make sense to store an entire game’s assets onchain. We’ve already seen a few games that are almost 100% onchain (like Pirate Nation), but it would be cool if a more graphically-complex game could run more game components onchain, too.



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Mysten Labs’ Walrus could reshape decentralized gaming and apps

This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">subscribe</a>.



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SEGA’s Code of Joker game series is coming to the gaming-focused L1 blockchain Sui via a new game.



SEGA licensed the IP to the third-party firm Jokers, Inc., which is developing the upcoming title.



The new game based on the Japanese anime-style arcade IP is called Code of Joker: Evolutions. Players will be able to open card packs and collect cards onchain as Sui NFTs.&nbsp;



“We knew that we wanted to match the physical feeling of opening a new card pack,” Takashi “Gin” Mizouka, cofounder of Jokers Inc., said in a statement.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfSDahsmHop1VxaaTKJCV7JTq46QUzkkQbMaYZYvM8nEWFjAhQUjw_n0nmgoc1vJ4Yl9xCI0gax7Mjj6AALw_oti0knem9Xm57ML9dueCbRxy-AE5TZvCh_CQ4eXK99Rufx4jk4UA?key=ol5HDb6qZlZyLmQIZnbucMXW" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Screenshot from Code of Joker, showing Sonic the Hedgehog as a character. Source: Sonic Team Argentina on YouTube.</figcaption></figure>



While Sonic the Hedgehog, one of SEGA’s most famous characters, appears in footage of Code of Joker gameplay, I think it’s very unlikely the quick blue mammal will pop up in Code of Joker: Evolutions.



Mysten Labs didn’t respond to my question about whether Sonic will be in the new game, but I do remember that roughly two years ago when I was covering blockchain gaming, SEGA co-COO Shuji Utsumi said SEGA won’t license its biggest IPs for third-party blockchain games and won’t develop its own in-house crypto games, either.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf6lahns3RNZ_K_VMMIou-afojHVYwGyqN4jMsR2W8uQFWA8YUX1aLOfdIsfg1-Ikg2-m8IIvbZVsc2xWj0Blp1V90Ql69FSlhivHg2OBV360SppZARB8X5WYQoY_Jk_aYDGPGDew?key=ol5HDb6qZlZyLmQIZnbucMXW" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Screenshot from Code of Joker Pocket, a mobile version that’s no longer being updated </figcaption></figure>



That said, SEGA is obviously still open to licensing some of its other game brands.&nbsp;



Two years ago, it licensed the Sangokushi Taisen brand for a third-party blockchain military card battle game on Oasys, developed by Double Jump Tokyo.



By the way, that game is finally launching on March 25. You can preorder Battle of Three Kingdoms on iOS and Android — and yes, this one is available in English on the US App Store. It’s a bit funny the app store descriptions omit any mention of the game’s crypto elements, though. This game has NFT cards, and its website also mentions staking the game’s SGC token.



To be honest, it was hard to find any details about Code of Joker online in English. It’s a game from 2013, and I wasn’t able to find any recent YouTube videos about it. The most recent one I found was from six years ago. The Code of Joker Pocket mobile game ended service back in 2018, according to a message on its website and a <a href="https://x.com/cojpocket_sega/status/986107820088049665">post</a> on its X account.



Ultimately, the character art looks detailed and appealing for those into anime style, but the IP doesn’t seem to have crossed over to US audiences yet. Regardless, I think existing fans of the game could get a kick out of this installment of the series.



I asked the team whether the game will be released in English (as opposed to only in Japanese), and they weren’t ready to share that yet:&nbsp;



“More details forthcoming,” a PR rep replied. If the game doesn’t release in English, I imagine it’d be tough for it to reach a broader audience.&nbsp;



But maybe that’s not the point — Asia has been proven to be an important market for Web3. In 2023, 50% of global mobile gaming revenue came from the Asia-Pacific region with over 1.5 billion mobile gamers there, according to data from Grandview Research.



Tiger Research has also pointed out that recent regulatory moves in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are positioning those countries for continued blockchain participation. We’ve seen Sony’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sony-astar-ethereum-rollup-soneium">Soneium</a> throw its hat into the ring, who recently announced that <a href="https://thedrop.beehiiv.com/p/another-one-bites-the-dust">four mini-app games</a> will be using Soneium as part of a deal with the messaging app Line.



We don’t know much more about Code of Joker: Evolutions yet, but it’s expected to launch at the end of this summer for iOS, Android and as a web version.



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SEGA’s ‘Code of Joker’ launching as NFT card game on Sui

Donovan Choy

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">subscribe</a>.



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As SOL <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-sets-all-time-high-of-263">reached</a> new all-time highs yesterday, Crypto Twitter’s search for the “next Solana” is on.



There is no shortage of <a href="https://x.com/chainyoda/status/1849835317022327039">mega fast alt-L1s</a> to pick from, but in the spotlight are two contenders: MoveVM-based chains Sui and Aptos. Both chains were born in the previous crypto cycle, and built by teams with backgrounds in Facebook, which developed the Move programming language as part of its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/facebook-led-crypto-project-diem-to-be-sold-off-for-200m-report">Libra</a> (later renamed Diem) project.



In terms of price action, SUI has outperformed APT by a large margin on a YTD basis after overtaking Aptos in market cap in mid-September.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcjcTtlwYopTYE2yOIskjzWcqBxEx7D7aBC_Cjmo7doI9Mx2sGFD_tmiAX-9CXtrLg8F-nrgo3qB8gu7C0WH7B0kXRSina0C8LbETBYgqgpCbzhDchR_OEmm95Xj0vEt9oFpjg56g?key=iZHG-iO_AQDsFz_3x3YWxSrN" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sui/">CoinMarketCap</a></figcaption></figure>



Despite <a href="https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/1859705664362381559">suffering</a> a brief two-hour outage yesterday, SUI’s price has bounced back above its pre-outage price levels, ironically reinforcing the mimetic perception of Sui as the next Solana due to the latter’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-downtime-post-mortem">history of outages</a>.



In terms of TVL, Sui and Aptos are running fairly neck to neck (see below chart), no doubt thanks to ongoing <a href="https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/saving-self-custody">liquidity incentive</a> campaigns. As far as active dapps on the L1s, both are also fairly even — Sui has 44, Aptos has 49 — based on <a href="https://defillama.com/chains">DefiLlama</a>’s numbers.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXenOdwIIajIY7bxP-U5Oe2jAvhqq6dNLszfvbjNUIgadp9x6CHSxu_2dlV0pPzSZioxukKuownLe4b7GM8KFobhzgyum61mUZJs0MPFxad7uSP4nGil8eEYhtqVT0wwk7-XlMkGMQ?key=iZHG-iO_AQDsFz_3x3YWxSrN" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/chains?selectedChains=aptos%2Csui">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



Zooming into onchain activity, Sui’s DEX trading volumes saw a 3x jump since September, overtaking Aptos by a long shot in the last month.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdqJQVqlSwzCgw26lUiBjulWHrTAzbtTU9Z3rZiWH4xCH65HHT4yRZPpL9tycA9teh8gpP8gt96fPn2FehQUim60H6vtfR9vF9CTmEAv912j6yo2Vw1y7hRS3uT4KuthdzDufkxeQ?key=iZHG-iO_AQDsFz_3x3YWxSrN" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/chains?selectedChains=aptos%2Csui">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



In terms of fees, Sui is also far outpacing Aptos, with $1.1 million generated in October alone, vs. $196k for Aptos.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfLuhT9H7k7HvC4fz6DK0LnfWjbr5DtUcpH3n9xaFYNu1GZavbAqJaor7tQb4RpP_7nFu5dDHCWY3B-VMaC7C4v5zkDdBuFBuW9Ln0QeMHw2My3F3UwOf1ccJM4jRrpstaRZ2J_qA?key=iZHG-iO_AQDsFz_3x3YWxSrN" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/chains?selectedChains=aptos%2Csui">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



In the TradFi arena, both chains are pursuing real-world assets. Ondo has deployed its USDY tokenized Treausurys product on both chains, with about $8.3 million on Sui and <a href="https://app.rwa.xyz/networks/aptos">$15.7 million</a> on Aptos.&nbsp;



Aptos also announced last week BlackRock’s <a href="https://aptosfoundation.org/currents/blackrock-buidl-fund-live-on-aptos">deployment</a> of its tokenized RWA BUIDL fund, while Sui <a href="https://blog.sui.io/franklin-templeton-digital-assets-strategic-partnership/">announced</a> today a partnership with the digital assets arm of Franklin Templeton to support ecosystem growth.



Finally, both Sui and Aptos are attempting their own hardware plays. Sui is leaning hard into the gaming sector with its handheld console <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sui-playtron-handheld-web3-gaming-device">SuiPlay0x1</a>, and earlier this month struck up a partnership with the global esports team <a href="https://blog.sui.io/team-liquid-myblue-blue-fan-platform/">Team Liquid</a>, while Aptos has taken the route of a <a href="https://aptosfoundation.org/currents/aptos-foundation-partners-with-jambo-to-empower-emerging-markets-through-web3">budget-priced JamboPhone smartphone</a>.



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Sui, Aptos vie for ‘next Solana’ status

McDonald’s this week announced a brand collaboration with Web3 brand Doodles, dubbed the “GM Spread Joy” campaign.



Starting on Nov. 18, McCafe cups will feature Doodles’ signature rainbow-themed graphics. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">drinking out of the McCafé x Doodles Holiday cups exclusively starting 11.18✨☕️ <a href="https://t.co/nBdc8VroYl">pic.twitter.com/nBdc8VroYl</a>&mdash; McDonald&#39;s (@McDonalds) <a href="https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/1857061165760741780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Purchasers of any McCafe hot drinks in the US can unlock various goodies including an access pass to the pilot episode of Doodle&#8217;s animated TV series <a href="https://youtu.be/FqxZuwnA4sQ">Dullsville and the Doodleverse</a>, <a href="https://x.com/jyp_nft/status/1857070291060392197/photo/3">digital apparel</a> for a Doodles avatar, and physical enamel pins.



Doodle’s digital apparel can be used within Doodles Stoodio, an avatar creation app that was <a href="https://x.com/doodles/status/1818001988581474812">migrated</a> from the Flow blockchain to the Base L2 in July 2024.



McDonald’s has in the past experimented with Web3 tools for branding like limited NFTs for the <a href="https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/40-anniversary-mcrib.html">McRib</a> sandwich’s 40th anniversary.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Team Liquid launches fan engagement platform on Sui</h2>



Leading esports organization Team Liquid launched <a href="https://teamliquid.com/myblue">MyBlue</a> on Thursday, a fan engagement platform on the MoveVM-based L1 Sui.



MyBlue is a reinvention of Liquid+, Team Liquid’s original fan platform that <a href="https://teamliquid.com/news/2021/01/27/team-liquid-launches-liquid-plus">launched</a> in 2021.



With MyBlue, Team Liquid fans will be able to customize the mascot avatar of Team Liquid “Blue” with digital collectible items that are earned from completing fan engagement quests such as watching live esports matches, player streams, or general social media engagement.



Fans will also be able to unlock physical merchandise like exclusive signed jerseys, store discounts, in-game currency, or even a trip to an esports event.



Anthony Palma, Head of Gaming Partnerships at Mysten Labs said of the launch: “Through integrating Sui, Team Liquid fans will have a frictionless journey on MyBlue, acquiring collectibles to showcase their fandom without the need for a deep understanding of the underlying blockchain technology the platform is built on.”



Team Liquid’s partnership with Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui, was first announced in February 2024.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One interesting stat:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>98% of NFT drops in 2024 are dead, while only 0.2% have been profitable for investors, according to the <a href="https://nftevening.com/state-of-2024-nft-drops/">State of 2024 NFT Drops</a> report.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Also of note:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>White Rabbit, a crowdfunded anime film on Ethereum by NFT artist pplpleasr and Maciej Kuciama made its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuQMm0J1SK8">world premiere</a> at Devcon 2024 Bangkok. </li>



<li>Solana-based NFT marketplace platform DRiP launches <a href="https://drip.haus/volumes">VOLUMES</a>, a music-focused initiative for indie artists compilations.</li>
</ul>



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Web3 Watch: McDonald’s strikes up branding collaboration with Doodles

Sui, the MoveVM-based layer-1 blockchain, announced last Thursday that the roleplaying game Samurai Shodown R will be available on its upcoming SuiPlay0X1 handheld gaming device.



Samurai Shodown was a classic 1993 Sega fighting game that was re-released as a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) in 2019.&nbsp;



The new Samurai Shodown R is developed by Lumiwave, a blockchain company focused on bringing intellectual property onchain.



Anthony Palma, head of gaming partnerships and investments at Mysten Labs, said of the launch: “With Sui’s unique infrastructure, LumiWave is able to deliver a truly seamless Web3 experience, where features like evolving NFTs and in-game asset ownership are not just concepts but fully realized.”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-gaming-fresh-growth">Crypto gaming may be on the cusp of fresh growth</a>



Making use of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sui">Sui</a>’s blockchain technology, Samurai Shodown R will come with Web3 features like dynamically evolving NFTs based on player progression and “zkLogins” with familiar Web2 credentials like Facebook and Google.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TapSwap launches new Web3 gaming layer to improve tap-to-earn</h2>



Tap-to-earn games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat are bogged with problems like user retention, unclear reward structures and plummeting token values.



TapSwap is planning to solve that problem with a new Web3 gaming <a href="https://x.com/tapswapai/status/1854451937145724973">platform</a>, the team announced on Thursday. The so-called “skill-based” <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/gaming">gaming</a> platform will see gamers pay an upfront fee using the TAPS token to compete against one another for rewards.



TapSwap’s new platform aims to connect gamers with game developers, allowing users to earn rewards in the platform’s native TAPS token while letting developers better monetize their games.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-tap-to-earn-gaming-trend">Web3 Watch: Telegram tap-to-earn is the new crypto gaming trend</a>



“The classic pattern is a tap-to-earn token losing most of its value immediately after its first listing on a centralized exchange, distorting the incentive to stay with the project for the long run and contribute to healthy ecosystem development,” said Naz Ventura, the founder of TapSwap. “Such outcomes benefit neither the community nor the projects themselves. To address this, TapSwap has built a gaming platform that adds genuine utility and value to the TAPS token, ensuring players are fairly and transparently rewarded.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One interesting stat:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Zora has <a href="https://dune.com/jhackworth/zora-network">distributed</a> at least 10,321 worth of ETH in protocol rewards to creators, according to a Dune dashboard by J.Hackworth.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Also of note:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Pudgy Penguins is teaming up with Mythical Games to launch “<a href="https://news.mythicalgames.com/introducing-pudgy-party">Pudgy Party</a>” in 2025, an upcoming AAA multiplayer battle royale mobile game.</li>



<li>Devour, a gamified commerce platform, launched DevourPlay. The platform allows users to play popular games while ordering food directly in-game from US restaurants and earning digital asset rewards. Devourplay has integrated crypto payments via Coinbase Commerce and also features a blockchain-based loyalty program.</li>



<li>WineChain, a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-wine-tokenization">blockchain-based wine</a> marketplace, announced on Wednesday a <a href="https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/294797">partnership</a> with fine wine specialist Alto to bring over 1200 fine wines to its collections.</li>
</ul>



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Web3 Watch: Classic fighter Samurai Shodown comes to Sui

Katherine Ross

David Canellis

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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Old dogs, new tricks</h2>



Step aside, boys, there’s a new venture fund in town.&nbsp;



VanEck Ventures was officially announced last week. It’s a $30 million early-stage fund, which is meant to be a “fintech vehicle very much at the center of crypto and AI,” general partner Wyatt Lonergan told me.&nbsp;



“Those two components are very much like horizontal technologies. And I say that because crypto is like the value layer and AI is where you can now take financial services that are typically performed by people, represent them in code and start to automate things,” he said.&nbsp;



Lonergan teased that the fund’s made a couple of investments so far, but VanEck isn’t quite ready to divulge any deets just yet. Sad. What we do know is that they plan to make up to 35 investments, and the checks can range from $500,000 to $1 million.&nbsp;



The goal is to focus on early-stage (pre-seed and seed), but Lonergan’s not looking to completely shut the door on participating in a Series A if the right project comes around.&nbsp;



“We need to be opportunistic. If we see something that we missed because we weren&#8217;t around a year ago, they&#8217;re raising enough ground and it&#8217;s attractive — we&#8217;ll look at it. But we are always price-sensitive. When you have a small fund, you have a concentrated fund structure, the idea is that any one investment could return the fund multiple times. That&#8217;s very important,” he said.



Both Lonergan and his partner Juan Lopez came from Circle Ventures. Lonergan helped launch Circle Ventures back in 2021 before he left for VanEck.&nbsp;



The fund will still have a keen interest in stablecoins, which shouldn’t be a huge surprise given Lonergan’s past and VanEck’s own interest. While the firm itself doesn’t have a stablecoin, it invested in the stablecoin firm Agora, which is helmed by Nick Van Eck, the son of VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck.



But it’s not just personal interests that pique both Lonergan and the 69-year-old investment management firm.



At the “core,” Lonergan said, “are stablecoins and … within that, we kind of believe the underlying blockchains are more or less being commoditized to a point that there&#8217;s enough great technology out there. That&#8217;s best exemplified by [the fact that] you can go onto any crypto wallet or Coinbase today and upload dollars for free, send it across the world.”



Lonergan’s tone came off as bullish, given his belief that stablecoins, in particular, could see regulatory clarity in the next two years. Building upon the regulation that could be coming “very soon,” the thought is that legal stablecoins could draw in fintech firms.



As always, there’s a bit of a catch. Lonergan reasoned that the door opening for fintechs to use stablecoins won’t be a very obvious crypto use case. Basically, it wouldn’t be surprising if the crypto connections weren’t wildly obvious to those adopting stablecoins.



“It won&#8217;t be this crypto thing. If you&#8217;re not investing in this category, [and] it could be a weird tagline, but I think it could be that kind of ChatGPT moment for crypto, because [stablecoins] are the one technology that businesses will consume at scale, right? AI was not apparent until you had chat,” Lonergan said.



If we’re looking at the most popular use cases for crypto at this moment, he may very well be on to something. Polymarket, when mentioned in non-crypto media, isn’t flaunted as “crypto,” though we know it is.



For now, perhaps flying a little under the radar might be the best thing for potential killer apps.



— Katherine Ross



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Data Center</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>BTC and ETH are taking it easy after yesterday’s push, now up 1% and 2% apiece in the past day. (BTC: $65,500; ETH: 2,600.)</li>



<li>HNT has given up most of its gains made in the past two months, having fallen nearly 30% from its six-month peak in September.</li>



<li>Sui leads Base and Solana for weekly DEX volume <a href="https://defillama.com/dexs/chains">growth</a>, up 41.6% to $227.9 million.</li>



<li>Base and Solana have otherwise grown 20% and 14.6% week-on-week, processing $1.1 billion and $1.76 billion, respectively.</li>



<li>Avalanche has gained about $100 million in <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins/chains">stablecoins</a> in the past seven days, rising 4.5% — the most of any chain with $350 million supplies or more.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A stable indicator</h2>



Rising stablecoin supplies are sometimes viewed as bullish indicators for individual coins.



More stablecoins on a network imply increased onchain activity, leading to more value accrual for the native token, and, eventually, converting to higher prices.



But how true is it?



After mapping stablecoin supplies against token performance for most of the top blockchains, I’m not entirely sold.



Ten out of the top 16 blockchains by stablecoin supplies — which includes any network with $250 million or more native <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins/chains">supplies</a> right now — indeed showed a fairly clear correlation between the amount of stablecoins minted onchain and token prices.



In almost every case, though, it was token prices that shot first, often weeks or months in advance, before stablecoin supplies started really taking off.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXczjzB2ruexQa9NRW0ge_fIBDiOeAqnpfjr0kNi7RjNRA1rx9LWT5OWAJQiZcIxFZiIp1dXd_Kv1apAAky8yUGHljzp9uJTsEHXlM5zgBVAw6unNVzYx-NYLlFEiszTEekVVaJj5nIZSYKl2zcLej9jQBcb?key=wCv5NmLSPh_S0kPauR7BbA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Price has led stablecoin growth in most cases</figcaption></figure>



SOL, for instance, began rallying hard at the end of last September, as bitcoin was heating up for an ETF-hype-fueled bull run.&nbsp;



Solana’s stablecoin supplies, as shown by the purple-shaded area in the background above, had been stagnant for six months, at around $1.5 billion, leading up to that rally.&nbsp;



It wasn’t until December that Solana’s stablecoin supplies rose in any meaningful way, during which time SOL had rallied over 300%. NEAR showed an almost identical lag.



Similar patterns can be seen in aptos, toncoin, near, avalanche and, to a lesser degree, ether, although prices and stablecoin supplies decoupled during recent consolidation for the former two.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcft7Dv8LiXmszPZOsQ564OKFRm1dr6n_sWyNyHe4hi4Nl1uhU3sMoVEiqiRjA5e9mhwrl6oDsuZFCHflymG5DFw7L1jbcjBRRg1r8i9L4iGiaZ26eNOoB4rHaNJ3FSwx_vGLYK05pNDxVlNLeY60STdnwN?key=wCv5NmLSPh_S0kPauR7BbA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">SUI has showed tight correlation while APT has lagged behind Aptos’ stablecoin supplies</figcaption></figure>



Stablecoin supplies on Ethereum layer-2s also rose massively well after their own price rallies, but that correlation has also died off for now.&nbsp;



The extent to which L2 activity accrues to their base assets — let alone ETH — is however an <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/bellcurve/eeab0b9a-8521-11ef-b118-8f1e8c202670">ongoing debate</a>, so it’s probably better to focus only on layer-1s.



In any case, there were exceptions: BNB, MATIC, FTM and CELO didn’t really show a clear correlation either way. Token prices stayed flat while stablecoins increased, or prices went up despite stablecoin supplies hardly budging or even shrinking.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXekA0TS3ZGQv-q6yNRObXUT1LdgXjPmgarv4kMrB3b1nlvjRhEbixjhSAcF-F3Gv-1ToGKm9JhTKpVDLo7Udqe3J5Wp5ocBjxFt2t8gwb3DAXAJfdIwaGPH5GQjei26yZCMvh_o0KrYafq4-DV9b7fp0THA?key=wCv5NmLSPh_S0kPauR7BbA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The price of bitcoin jumped in Q4 2023 — bringing stablecoin supplies along with it</figcaption></figure>



And besides, bitcoin itself front-ran the current rally in global stablecoin supplies. But the amount of stablecoins in the crypto ecosystem has gone up during bitcoin’s sideways action, which has now persisted since March.



The real question is then: Are stablecoins front-running the next bitcoin rally? Who knows, but that would certainly align with calls for bulls to take control for the next eight-to-10 months.&nbsp;



— David Canellis



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Works</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>As part of its multibillion-dollar settlement, TD Bank failed to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fincen-td-bank-suspicious-crypto-transactions">disclose</a> ‘suspicious’ transactions related to crypto. </li>



<li>The man who accidentally dumped a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoin (worth $522 million) is now <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/im-suing-council-495m-because-30106009">suing</a> his local city council to let him search for the missing BTC.</li>



<li>Coinbase’s Base has <a href="https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/coinbase-chain-base-beats-arbitrum-as-top-ethereum-layer-2/">stolen</a> Arbitrum’s title of the largest rollup by total value locked. </li>



<li>TD Cowen <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/320969/sen-hagertys-draft-stablecoin-bill-could-shape-legislation-in-2025-td-cowen-says?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss">thinks</a> that the draft stablecoin legislation from Sen. Bill Hagerty could shape the regulatory framework for stablecoins.</li>



<li>Tether’s considering potentially lending billions to commodities traders, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-14/tether-talking-to-commodity-traders-about-lending-its-crypto-billions-usdt">reported</a>.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Riff</h2>



Q: Will crypto ever move on from Tether?



Pockets of the space will probably adopt alternatives.&nbsp;



Yield-bearing stablecoins could become the default asset for some DeFi apps, or even wallets, leading to increased usage.



I’d be on the lookout for these kinds of partnerships moving forward, especially for newer layer-1 networks still building out their LEGO infrastructure.



Failing a doomsday scenario involving police intervention or other such drastic regulatory action against Tether and its executives, it would take a catastrophic failure of the firm’s own doing to unravel at this point.&nbsp;



Realistically, the only thing that has ever mattered to the market is whether Tether can <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/the-historic-significance-of-tether-16b-bank-run">redeem their tokens</a> for real dollars. And despite all the oddities in Tether’s history, there’s been no publicly disclosed instance of failing to process those requests.



Whether crypto is prepared for that possibility, say by ensuring there’s infrastructure in place to support sudden mass exodus from USDT into alternatives, is another story altogether.&nbsp;



From a risk management perspective, it could be wise. More likely, though, is that crypto would be reactive to such a situation than proactive.



— David Canellis



Crypto in general? Probably not. It’s too baked in.&nbsp;



But will we see a bit of a shift in power dynamics due to the regulatory environment? I’m leaning toward yes at this stage.&nbsp;



Look, if Tether isn’t able to operate in the EU and if the US were to ever follow in similar tracks, then that does make USDC the go-to when it comes to major players in those two environments.&nbsp;



But outside of the US and EU, I think Tether will maintain its dominance. It’s solving one of the biggest issues that crypto wanted to take care of: allowing access to something like a dollar digitally (that’s the easiest, most crass way to put it though we could argue that it’s not entirely true).&nbsp;



It’s not really a sexy use case, but it’s a damn good one.&nbsp;



If we were to turn all of this on its head and say that Tether is suddenly MiCA compliant and fully accepted by the US government, then I think the crown is practically soldered on its head, and Tether will reign over the other offerings.&nbsp;



As usual, I’m left with a desire to grab some popcorn and watch this play out.



— Katherine Ross



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Are stablecoins a leading indicator for major rallies?

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Uniswap Labs is launching its own L2 chain, Unichain.



Unichain will be built on Optimism’s interconnected network of rollups, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/optimism-interoperability-layer-superchain">dubbed the Superchain</a>.



Why Unichain? Uniswap Labs claims block times will see an initial speed of one second, after which they will fall to 200-250 millisecond block times — a vast improvement over the 12-second block time on Ethereum mainnet.



As part of the Optimism Superchain, users on the new Unichain will also enjoy native cross-chain interoperability of assets across the Superchain’s network of blockchains.



For L2s outside of Optimism’s Superchain, Uniswap Labs plans to leverage <a href="https://www.erc7683.org/">ERC-7683</a>, a cross-chain intent standard co-developed with <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/unlocked/across-protocol-based-on-intents">Across Protocol</a>, that will effectively enable users’ trading orders to be fulfilled by intermediary relayers/solvers regardless of what chain they’re on.



This potentially obviates the need for Uniswap to “port” its massive pool of liquidity it enjoys on the Ethereum L1 to Unichain, and thereby abstract away the hurdles of moving its existing user base to a different chain.



Hayden Adams, CEO of Uniswap Labs, said of the launch: “Unichain will deliver the speed and cost savings already enabled by L2s, but with better access to liquidity across chains and more decentralization.”



Unichain will also leverage new technical innovations, like a trusted execution environment (TEE) for block building, and a “community validation network.” Both features are developed with Flashbots.



Unichain’s validation network will be open to any node operators staking UNI, but only a “limited number of validators with the highest UNI stake-weight will be considered the active set,” according to the Unichain <a href="https://docs.unichain.org/whitepaper.pdf">white paper</a>. It suggests that the largest UNI token holders, such as the Uniswap Foundation and early investors, will likely be the only initial validators on the network.



Ethereum’s largest DEX moving to an L2 can be taken as a great or terrible piece of news, depending on whether you <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/0xresearch-newsletter-eip-7977">approve of Ethereum’s roadmap</a>.



For Ethereum-aligned users who are onboard with its rollup-centric roadmap, Unichain makes perfect sense. From Uniswap’s perspective, this is a win-win for both the protocol and its users: Uniswap retains its MEV, and users enjoy cheaper gas fees.



From Ethereum’s perspective, that was obviously always part of the plan.



On the flip side, this looks to accelerate the ongoing <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/bellcurve/60051c06-6bd0-11ef-bcc2-e76505f9d524">complaints</a> about Ethereum L2s being “parasitic” to the L1, and the lack of value accrual to ETH (the asset).



Uniswap is the largest gas guzzler on the Ethereum L1 today (see below), which means that ETH spent as gas fees on the L1 is contributing to a non-trivial portion of ETH burn and value accrual to ETH, thanks to <a href="https://consensys.io/blog/what-is-eip-1559-how-will-it-change-ethereum">EIP-1559</a>. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcFBbb0qGww9D7HnE7ZAZrgoRfvLcEpfJwOz0ldW0grQK_jF3bPrCAgNtLP9Cgwgz_IPaGuzPkMtA_jj1F82UIGoRivSoInKGf7sGd8GooP0ITK7wRZLmphBJq3Ki1-dNdPxPa0AH5998weqbiNEGnGVOY?key=CnMrFVTVSBnOOas2r63roA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://etherscan.io/gastracker">Etherscan</a></figcaption></figure>



Additionally, MEV that’s accruing to the Ethereum L1 will now be “leaked” to the Unichain L2 in the form of sequencer revenues —&nbsp;further reducing ETH’s value accrual.



A reversal of fortune for Ethereum largely depends on the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvP39-EOADU">induced demand</a>” its core developers believe would eventually emerge from having a multitude of cheaper L2 execution environments. The idea is that faster blockchain speeds would significantly drive more transactions on L2s, which in turn would increase settlement fees paid to the L1. So far, that hasn’t happened yet.



The UNI token has rallied 11.9% in the last 24 hours, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/uniswap">CoinGecko</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Chart of the Day</h2>



There’s a tsuinami coming:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcNNW7MQjRPX1WgLZfuzADo6ZYhmsVx78fv3zNRUFRroszlu5hRvWhC-WCsA12Iv7Uq7LWBc0yDo9xuVzjHyGaT1a42sVgBkKSV7MHkBTfWo5GzRAukjSweJJIn5OQmI95egRTxc_2YGO1bMxurU7wgrzk?key=CnMrFVTVSBnOOas2r63roA" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/chains">Artemis</a></figcaption></figure>



The MoveVM-based L1 blockchain Sui briefly flipped Solana in daily transactions earlier this week. Sui saw 41.8 million transactions against Solana’s 40.1 million on Monday, though it has since fallen back down. Just as Solana once posed itself as an “ETH killer,” Sui looks to do the same to Solana.



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Uniswap announces Unichain L2

Macauley Peterson

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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Averting disaster</h2>



There are about 1.38 million <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/glossary/#erc-20-token">ERC-20 tokens</a> in existence. But exchanges, naturally, support only a tiny fraction of those tokens for deposits and trading. <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/coinbase">Coinbase</a> caters to around 200.



If you sent one of the unsupported tokens into an exchange deposit address, you would be very disappointed to find it vanish into the aether (not to be confused with ether!).



Enter asset recovery. Coinbase’s in-house tool, launched in December 2023, was recently upgraded to support <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/base">Base</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Asset recovery is now available for Base. Users can now recover unsupported ERC-20 tokens mistakenly sent to their Coinbase account via Base. For more information head to: <a href="https://t.co/vDPQaYiTAF">https://t.co/vDPQaYiTAF</a> <a href="https://t.co/rm7sjPVqiF">https://t.co/rm7sjPVqiF</a>&mdash; Coinbase Assets 🛡️ (@CoinbaseAssets) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinbaseAssets/status/1839738260311990538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



According to a spokesperson, the tool will allow users to recover some 4,000 distinct ERC-20 tokens erroneously sent to Coinbase addresses over the years.



The US dollar value of all that previously marooned crypto was not disclosed, but if you were the unwitting Coinbase client with assets cast asunder, you may be in luck.



Customers can recover eligible assets and send them to a self-custodial wallet, although for recoveries over $100, “a small administrative fee” applies, along with network fees (deducted from the user’s ether balance).



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Sygnum’s Safe Solution</h3>



What if, after you recover some castaway crypto from Coinbase and sent it to your <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a>, you suffer another sad misfortune and misplace a private key to your multisig?



Today, Sygnum Bank switched on a module for Safe’s Recovery hub that could come to the rescue.



Sygnum is the first bank to offer this service, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/safe-social-recovery-eases-private-key-management">in development since last year</a>, which provides an institutional-grade recovery option for users who lose access to their Safe wallets. When designated as a recoverer on Safe’s platform, Sygnum can restore wallet access, thus addressing a thorny problem in the crypto space.



Forgotten keys often result in inaccessible funds, and somewhere north of 900,000 ETH — worth billions of dollars — may have been irrevocably stranded due to lost keys, the bank estimates.



The safe module is an alternative to relying on social recovery methods, such as sharing private key fragments with friends and family, or managing personal backups.



And you don’t have to trust the Swiss bank to designate it as a third-party recoverer. Importantly, Safe’s design allows the owner to cancel any recovery attempt through onchain veto rights in the case a bogus recovery is attempted. The tool is designed to be flexible, allowing users to set multiple recoverers, and also features additional security measures like time delays.



The service is designed to be compliant with regulatory requirements, requiring identity verification (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/kyc">KYC</a>) for both the setup and recovery process.



That may rub some the wrong way, but Martin Burgherr, Sygnum’s chief clients officer, assures that the bank takes “appropriate security measures to maintain the required security of personal data and ensure its confidentiality.”



In the future, one might imagine a more Web3 identity alternative that uses zero-knowledge proofs to allow clients to provide selective disclosure. That’s something the bank is watching, Burgherr told Blockworks.



Key management remains a challenge for many, but Sygnum and Safe are working toward a practical solution that retains the concept of self-sovereignty for both institutional and individual users.



— Macauley Peterson 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It’s pronounced &#8216;swee&#8217;</h2>



I opened up Twitter today and all over the timeline was Sui.



The MoveVM L1 is <a href="https://x.com/EmanAbio/status/1840782691652034660/photo/1">coming up 6th</a> in daily trading volumes, a Sui bridge connecting to EVM-based chains is going <a href="https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/1840829418455126182">live</a> today on mainnet, and the SUI token has <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/">rallied</a> this week into the top 20 tokens by market cap at $5.2 million.



The armchair analyst kind of way to explain this type of sudden burst in growth is to look at how much Sui is giving out in terms of liquidity incentives.



As far as I can tell, that number is not officially reported. But we can make some guess-timates based on Twitter posts:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Navi Protocol, the top lending market on Sui, is getting <a href="https://x.com/navi_protocol/status/1838235899949134315">520,000 SUI</a> ($936k) for two weeks. </li>



<li>Scallop, the second-largest lending market on Sui, is receiving about <a href="https://x.com/Scallop_io/status/1840688487982608846">170,000 SUI</a> ($314k) on a weekly basis.</li>



<li>Suilend, the third-largest lending market, is doling out <a href="https://x.com/suilendprotocol/status/1838375314055139454">426,195 SUI</a> over two weeks.</li>
</ul>



Together, that’s a weekly average of about 643k SUI. If we assume that 15 Sui dapps have the liquidity tap turned on, that bill comes up to something like 77.2 million SUI ($139 million) over the last two months.



That is a lot of money for a very short period of time.&nbsp;



Again, that is just a guess, but with that much money up for grabs, it does explain why Sui’s TVL has seen an up-only direction:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXehFPDwrDPtErteZr3IxzNFXJpKp-BYaUuYTlU4igps7aaAL4jkpq4BIPKOAeA7EAluty36mMxut108Wnm5_qrMzOgBt7fJRb3X3ZSuZ6Lt848tMw9A2Lv5clCLka_LMrSqAiuKWBNuCJ59-TXabI7JiV8N?key=imRRQbvv5W89unYTWykNRQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Sui">DeFiLlama</a></figcaption></figure>



That is not to take anything away from the technological design of Sui, which I&#8217;m sure is impressive.&nbsp;



Like all new L1s on the block, Sui is fast. Its founders have <a href="https://youtu.be/d4T0vLwTbxA">claimed</a> on the 0x Research podcast the chain’s parallelized execution design allows horizontal scalability to be “infinite,” thus rendering Vitalik’s <a href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/05/23/scaling.html">blockchain trilemma</a> “irrelevant.”



Sui does not have to grapple with the multitude of scalability problems that plague older chains like Ethereum. It doesn’t have to deal with the kind of political turmoil stirred when a new up-and-coming researcher like Max Resnick comes in and questions the overarching multiyear-long roadmap and proposes a radical idea of his own (multiple current proposers).&nbsp;



Sui’s fee markets are also segmented and use auctions to <a href="https://docs.sui.io/concepts/tokenomics/gas-pricing">ensure</a> stable network fees globally, even when SUI’s price spikes up or down. This multidimensional fee market contains gas spikes to local fee markets. It’s a similar idea to one <a href="https://www.umbraresearch.xyz/writings/toward-multidimensional-solana-fees">Solana</a> has been talking about to explore solving its many network outages in earlier years <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-dropped-solana-transactions">due to transaction spam</a>.



— Donovan Choy 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Chart of the Day</h2>



USDC transfers on Base:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf16rFN3LLcKGGdTzl0j5tYzzz3Jp3AxyeNSlcJNzgcDmaGutsEfk53TTyeKHsOhp_3YcY2fTgiNP1B427EhlMEvtr9lBrj0-OFN30we1EAqio1yCp5EZjirERsyLqxzWpEa0KXDSY1aYiAWLPvQgR_ida8?key=imRRQbvv5W89unYTWykNRQ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://dune.com/queries/2291768/3755580">Dune</a> (h/t Sebastien Derivaux)</figcaption></figure>



Base’s share of total USDC transfer volumes across major EVM networks is hitting a second consecutive weekly peak over Ethereum mainnet —&nbsp;60.2% share this time. It’s not clear what onchain activity is driving the surge.



My first hunch was memecoins, yet Base’s memecoins do not drive that much trading volume. Its top memecoin, BRETT, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/brett-2">generated</a> $44 million in trading volume over the last 24 hours. For context, total USDC transfer <a href="https://dune.com/queries/2291768/5147382">volumes</a> in the last week of September was $75.8 billion.



Other relevant variables may include the revamp of Coinbase’s Web3 smart wallet, which lets users send USDC (and EURC, cbBTC) for free, or the <a href="https://x.com/base/status/1833222011176554573">conclusion</a> of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/base-kicks-off-onchain-summer">Base’s three-month long “Onchain Summer” </a>campaign which distributed 300+ ETH to builders and generated $5 million revenue for creators.



— Donovan Choy



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Saving self-custody from bone-headed blunders

Jack Kubinec

Howdy!



Happy Labor Day to all our US-based readers. To everyone else, happy Monday.



I will personally be celebrating my own position as a laborer by eating several hotdogs. Wouldn’t have it any other way. That being said:



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Competitors eye a slice of Solana’s pie</h2>



Looking at price, DeFi metrics, and vibes, Solana has arguably lifted its stock the most of any smart contract blockchain this market cycle.&nbsp;



But while Solana may be riding high for the moment, there are several competitors waiting in the wings. In conversations with multiple industry sources, Sui, Sei, Aptos, Monad, and Base all came up as potential Solana competitors — alongside Solana’s longtime foil, Ethereum.&nbsp;&nbsp;



For the moment, Solana is most often compared to Ethereum. The blockchain was regularly touted as the “ETH killer” by fans in its early days, and Solana and Ethereum have come to capture the majority of mindshare among non-Bitcoin chains. I’m not going to wade much more into a debate that has been hashed out several times already (and continues every day on social media). For the moment, Ethereum continues to be the best comparison point for Solana.&nbsp;



There are a host of other up-and-comers, though. Sui and Aptos are two layer-1 blockchains built on Move, a programming language developed by Facebook as part of its ill-fated crypto era. Proponents <a href="https://x.com/PrasoonPratham/status/1829278894530445448">insist</a> that Move is superior to both Rust, the language in which Solana is built, and Solidity, the coding language of Ethereum.&nbsp;



Sui and Aptos both cost a fraction of a cent in average transaction fees and have average transactions per second (TPS) figures between 30 and 50, according to their block explorers. Solana’s non-vote TPS (that is, transactions that don’t involve validators reaching consensus) was averaging 500 and 750 TPS at press time, according to Solana Compass.



Solana’s product ecosystem also currently outshines what’s live on “expected alternatives” like Move-based layer-1s, Flipside Crypto’s charlie marketplace told me.



Sui and Aptos currently hold $611 million and $418 million in DeFi total value locked, compared to nearly $5 billion for Solana, according to DeFiLlama.&nbsp;



“[F]or any of these chains to truly become competitive, they&#8217;ll need a flourishing DeFi ecosystem or killer consumer apps,” Kairos Research co-founder Ian Unsworth said, adding that he still views Ethereum as the best “sparring partner” for Solana.



Telegram-linked TON has also become a buzzy blockchain for apps, buoyed by its connection to the ascendent messaging app and a crop of mini-games promising token airdrops. Two weeks ago, as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-fund-outflows">$37 million flowed out of 21Shares’ European Solana ETP</a>, $35 million also flowed into the firm’s TON-linked ETP. 21Shares told me they thought the two flows amounted to a rotation out of SOL and into TON.&nbsp;



It also just experienced some network downtime, which might just be a requisite to compete with Solana (ducks).&nbsp;



Monad said it hit 10,000 TPS in testing, and it <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/paradigm-leads-monad-parallel-evm-fundraise">announced a $225 million mega-round</a> earlier this year. The chain claims to be increasing throughput by executing EVM transactions in parallel, but it is yet to be released into the wild, so there’s only so much you can say here.



Perhaps Solana’s biggest competitor won’t prove to be a layer-1 blockchain at all.



“What stands out to me is not the L1s competing with Solana but L2s,” charlie marketplace said, adding that they’re intrigued by Eclipse, a new Ethereum rollup trying to run the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) on Ethereum.



Switchboard co-founder Chris Hermida pointed to “exchange L2s” as serious Solana competitors due to their large distribution.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s no surprise that a lot of builders were choosing between Solana and Base given user mindshare / distribution,” Hermida wrote in a text.



— Jack Kubinec



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One Good DM</h2>



A message from Kairos co-founder Ian Unsworth, who insisted on translating his comments into Gen-Z lingo:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="554" height="534" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png" alt="" class="wp-image-91220" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=554 554w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=267 267w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=271 271w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=227 227w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-67.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 554px) 100vw, 554px" /></figure>



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Competitors eye a slice of Solana’s pie

First there was the Solana Saga, now there’s the Sui SuiPlay0X1.&nbsp;



That’s the bet Sui developer Mysten Labs is making, as it <a href="https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/1777990298385219986">announced</a> the pending launch of a handheld gaming device that natively integrates with the Sui blockchain. The product will be <a href="https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/1777990300138393895">built</a> with Playtron’s device-agnostic gaming operating system, Sui said.&nbsp;



A marketing video posted by Sui showed a slick, PlayStation Portable-esque device, but any actual gaming handheld is in the very early stages, and the product isn’t set to hit the market until 2025.&nbsp;



Official details on the release remain relatively sparse, though VentureBeat <a href="https://venturebeat.com/games/suiplay-0x1-is-an-open-steam-deck-like-gaming-handheld-with-multiple-game-stores/">reported</a> some details based on interviews with executives involved in the partnership. The device will aim to integrate Sui wallets for users at the OS level, so game developers could do things like airdrop rewards directly to users.&nbsp;



But the elemental design choice of which chip to use is still to be determined, VentureBeat reported. A spokesperson for Sui did not immediately return a request for more information.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a>’s Saga phone did uninspiring numbers at launch before becoming highly sought-after among crypto natives due to BONK airdrops being offered by protocols developing apps for the phone.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-phones-sold-out">Solana fans suddenly BONKers over the Saga phone</a>



Like Solana, Mysten teamed up with an external developer for its handheld Web3 product. Playtron is a handheld gaming software startup that <a href="https://x.com/PLAYTR0N/status/1774316904251068686">came</a> out of stealth with $10 million in funding roughly two weeks ago. Mysten Labs, along with Polychain, Circle and CMT Digital, were crypto companies that have invested, The Verge reported.



Playtron’s calling card is an operating system that can support games from different platforms, perhaps opening up the notoriously siloed gaming space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">When one chapter ends, another begins</h2>



Bored &amp; Hungry, the Long Beach, California-based hamburger restaurant, is <a href="https://x.com/longbeachcounty/status/1777043411490746835">closing</a> up shop roughly two years after its 2022 founding. The shop, opened and branded around the Bored Ape NFT said to be owned by founder Andy Nguyen, let some customers <a href="https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=first-crypto-burger-purchase-at-bored-ape-restaurant-illustrates-why-people-dont-widely-do-this#:~:text=Instagram%20video%20of%20%24APE%20transaction">pay</a> using APE tokens.&nbsp;



It’s not the end of the road though, as Bored &amp; Hungry also opened three stores in the Philippines and another in South Korea. The burger chain’s branding has been acquired by Seoul-based Hungry DAO. The company will hold pop-ups this year in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, Nguyen <a href="https://x.com/AndyTheNguyen/status/1777349077954592981">said</a> on X.&nbsp;



In other APAC-based-NFT-themed-restaurant news, a restaurant in Australia <a href="https://www.theurbanlist.com/melbourne/a-list/nouns-deli">rebranded</a> to become Nouns Deli, with branding based on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nouns-fork-two-dao-treasuries-spending">NFT collection and DAO</a>.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One interesting stat:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A Flipside dashboard <a href="https://flipsidecrypto.xyz/marqu/solana-nft-marketplaces-organic-wash-trading-F-UoCh">suggests</a> that over the past 90 days, 50.84% of trading volume on the Magic Eden NFT marketplace has been wash trading.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Also of note:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Crypto: The Game, the online survival game where competitors vie for an 80 ether prize, has <a href="https://x.com/cryptothegame_/status/1778816423990878528">whittled</a> the pool from 800 contestants down to 570.</li>



<li>Shooter game MetalCore <a href="https://x.com/Immutable/status/1777825818221428801">became</a> the first playable title on the Immutable zkEVM network.</li>
</ul>



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Web3 Watch: Sui unveils handheld Web3 gaming device

Challenger blockchains Sui, Sei and Ronin are having a moment.&nbsp;



Their native cryptocurrencies have tripled in price over the past three months, outperforming all other layer-1 assets in the top-100 by market cap.



Market leaders bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>), ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>) and binance coin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bnb">BNB</a>) meanwhile gained about 30% in that time. Solana (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol">SOL</a>) and avalanche (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/avax">AVAX</a>) nearly doubled.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sui">SUI</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sei">SEI</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ron">RON</a> are far smaller cryptocurrencies with less liquid markets (all three combined are not even one-third of AVAX’s market cap), so increased volatility is to be expected.



Still, the data suggests those networks have garnered increased usage over the past few months, at least in the case of Sui and Ronin.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/16788805/embed#?secret=SQj9RZfEkg" data-secret="SQj9RZfEkg" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The market has gravitated towards newbie layer-1s</figcaption></figure>



Sui is a delegated proof-of-stake network built by former Facebook/Meta engineers, pitched as a high-performance blockchain that can execute transactions in parallel in hopes of faster throughput.



Sui’s total value locked (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tvl">TVL</a>) has exploded from $90 million to $560 million in three months.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-price-ratios">Sui, Bittensor, Celestia top small pack with rising bitcoin price ratios</a>



SUI’s rally explains only a small part of that surge — there were 73 million SUI staked in its DeFi protocols at the end of October, now there’s more than 320 million.



Peer-to-peer lending platform Scallop, liquidity protocol Navi and decentralized exchange Cetus make up most of the network’s TVL right now.



All while some more established blockchains — BNB Chain, Avalanche and Polygon PoS — have seen their TVL shrink, even as crypto broadly staged powerful comebacks over the past year.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/16790056/embed#?secret=Y5Uoe2OGnO" data-secret="Y5Uoe2OGnO" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">BNB Chain’s total BNB locked has trended downward since 2021</figcaption></figure>



Ronin, on the other hand, is the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/evm">EVM</a> blockchain for gaming communities, built by Axie Infinite creator Sky Mavis.&nbsp;



It’s perhaps most well-known due to the unfortunate hacking of its token bridge in 2022, when more than $650 million in crypto kept in the bridge&#8217;s smart contract was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sky-mavis-reopening-ronin-bridge-with-enhanced-security">stolen by North Korea-linked attackers</a>.



There were around 21,000 daily active users on Ronin three months ago. Now, that figure is up to 615,000 — led by Web3 decentralized identity service CARV and games Pixel and Apeiron.&nbsp;



The daily active users metric is notoriously squirrely in crypto. It represents the number of unique addresses which make at least one transaction per day, and can be gamed with bots and other sybil tricks.&nbsp;



It’s unclear if active user metrics have been artificially boosted for any of the networks mentioned in this piece, but best to read into them with a grain of salt.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/16792769/embed#?secret=Rr4Buc2YQC" data-secret="Rr4Buc2YQC" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="575" width="700"></iframe>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bitcoin and Ethereum’s daily active addresses has mostly stayed flat over the past five years</figcaption></figure>



Sei, much like the similarly-named Sui, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sei-blockchain-v2-developer-network">is a network pushing parallelized processing</a>. San Francisco-based Sei Labs pitches it as the fastest layer-1 for trading, specifically tailored for decentralized exchanges and the like.



Uptake appears to be slow so far, with only $14.5 million SEI locked in its DeFi platforms right now.



And while that number has more than tripled in the past three months, most of that was due to SEI’s price appreciation — 450% in three months. The actual number of SEI tokens locked has dropped by more than a third since November.&nbsp;



On-chain volume on Sei has also dropped below $1 million per day, according to DeFiLlama, down from a $3.7 million peak in January.



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Sui price triples in 3 months, signals changing of the guard in DeFi

Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_631f1a3df8a2b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Blockchain gaming and metaverse raises dominated funding discourse last week</li>
 <li>Animoca Brands raised $100 million while Mysten Labs netted $300 million</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



As traders <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-flippening-will-ether-flip-bitcoin-in-the-next-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debate</a> whether Ethereum’s Merge represents a “buy the rumor, sell the news” event, metaverse and Web3 gaming projects continue to draw major funding.



Last week, the Hong Kong-headquartered Animoca Brands <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/singapores-temasek-aims-100m-at-metaverse-giant-animoca/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">secured</a> $100 million in a strategic funding round led by Singapore state-owned Temasek the likes of Boyu Capital and GGV Capital. Previous backers Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures (TGV) also participated, among others.



“Animoca Brands has grown significantly as a company in the last year, and our new investors will contribute strategic advice and perspective as we build the world’s leading company furthering digital property rights in the Web3 industry,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands said in a statement.



The blockchain gaming giant — the largest in Asia — appears quick to put that money to use. Word broke last week that Animoca had backed San Fransisco-based ​​Revolving Games in its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/animoca-brands-among-backers-in-13m-raise-for-revolving-games/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">latest $13 million seed raise</a> alongside Pantera Capital, Polygon and Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser.



Revolving Games previously raised $12 million in pre-seed funding from backers including NBA TopShots’ Dapper Labs, Permanens Capital Partners, Kenetic, Saramayacar and DWeb3 Capital earlier this year.&nbsp;



Companies building new blockchains to underpin video games are also garnering interest.



Mysten Labs, another San Franciscan Web3 startup, in a Series B netted <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mysten-labs-300m-fundraise-values-business-at-more-than-2b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$300 million</a> funding from investors to scale its fledgling blockchain, Sui. FTX Ventures led the round, with prominent investors from a16z, Jump Crypto and Apollo joining in.



Although a launch date has not yet been set, Mysten Labs envisions Sui as a low-cost creator-owned network, geared specifically for games.



“We believe that Sui’s novel architecture will meaningfully improve scalability and lower transaction costs, unleashing new web3 applications and experiences for a broader audience,” Arianna Simpson, a general partner at a16z said in a statement.



Meanwhile, the NEAR Foundation — the Swiss firm behind upstart layer-1 network NEAR — has just debuted a $100 million venture capital fund in partnership with newly-launched Caerus Ventures.



The fund, which initially closed with $50 million in capital, will focus on seed to Series A investments across Web3 culture and entertainment projects.



Separate from gaming, Seattle-based Web3 startup SpiceAI, which wants to make blockchain data more accessible, received <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-startup-spiceai-cooks-up-13-5m-raise-to-make-data-more-accessible/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$13.5 million</a> from Madrona Venture Group. Australian venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures and many angel investors also took part in the round.&nbsp;



In its current state, SpiceAI platform is a query interface integrated with GitHub and gives developers access to data from various protocols.



Other noteworthy raises last week include:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Web3 UX startup Slide <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220908005232/en/Web3-UX-Startup-Slide-Raises-12.3M-Seed-Round-Co-Led-by-Polychain-Capital-Framework-Ventures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">secures</a> a $12.5 million seed from Framework Ventures.</li><li>Software development and decentralized data storage startup Community Labs raises a $30 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.</li><li>Gameplay Galaxy secures a $12.8 million seed from Blockchain Capital.</li><li>Synquote, a decentralized trading platform for cryptocurrency options, closed a $2.8M seed round.</li><li>Trystack.io received $2.7 million from Madrona to build crypto education trading platform.</li></ul>



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Funding Wrap: Metaverse and Web3 Gaming Still Hits With VCs

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_631a0a1f1033c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Other participants in the funding round were a16z, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton and Coinbase Ventures</li>
 <li>Sui, launched in March, forgoes consensus for most transactions, allowing it to speed up transactions</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Mysten Labs is putting its fresh round of funding toward powering more Web3 applications and speeding up the adoption of its new blockchain, the company revealed Thursday.



The California-based Web3 infrastructure company <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mysten-labs-launches-blockchain-platform-sui/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched decentralized blockchain platform Sui</a> in March. Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng said in a statement Thursday that Web3 infrastructure is currently “in the dial-up era.” 



“It’s slow, expensive, capacity constrained, insecure, and simply hard to build for,” he added.



The Mysten Labs team said it can build a better blockchain. As an example of one novelty to improve scalability, Sui forgoes consensus for most transactions, allowing it to parallelize the execution of them and reduce latency, a technique known as “casual ordering.”



The project was expected to launch an incentivized testnet in August and has <a href="https://medium.com/mysten-labs/validator-registration-open-9464c31ff9f6?source=collection_home---6------2-----------------------" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">solicited prospective validators</a> to participate, but the team has not announced a launch date. A token, SUI, is also planned, which will be used to participate in the proof-of-stake network after mainnet launch, also on an unknown future date.



Cheng had spent the last 16 years at tech companies such as Apple and Facebook, which is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">now known as Meta</a>. He and three other former Facebook employees — Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun and George Danezis — worked on Meta’s Novi Financial team to help develop <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/facebook-led-crypto-project-diem-to-be-sold-off-for-200m-report/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Diem stablecoin</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/coinmonks/overview-of-move-programming-language-a860ffd8f55d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Move</a> programming language.



Sui’s use cases, according to Mysten Labs, include facilitating airdrops to millions of people in a single, low-cost transaction; creator-owned decentralized social media networks; and developing blockchain gaming interactions such as equipment crafting, character leveling and battle records stored on-chain.



FTX Ventures led the Series B round. Other participants included a16z crypto, Jump Crypto, Apollo, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sino Global, Dentsu Ventures, Greenoaks Capital and O’Leary Ventures.



FTX Ventures Partner Amy Wu said in a statement that Sui’s parallelizable agreements and “object-centric architecture” were key technical innovations that make it a next-gen platform for Web3 builders.&nbsp;



Arianna Simpson, a general partner at a16z added: “We believe that Sui’s novel architecture will meaningfully improve scalability and lower transaction costs, unleashing new web3 applications and experiences for a broader audience.”



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Mysten Labs’ $300M Fundraise Values Business at More Than $2B

<div id="highlights-block_6239eac074c4c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Sui says its use of what it calls “casual ordering” differentiates it from other blockchains</li>
 <li>Ethereum’s total value locked dominance for DeFi applications fell from 97% in January 2021 to 55% earlier this month</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The Web3 infrastructure company <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/four-former-facebook-developers-launch-web3-startup/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently founded</a> by four former Facebook employees has launched a decentralized blockchain platform.



Called Sui, the layer-1 platform is designed to facilitate instant settlement and deliver the high throughput, low latency and low cost needed to power applications for billions of users, according to a Tuesday company announcement.&nbsp;



Mysten Labs CEO Even Cheng had spent the last 16 years at tech companies such as Apple and Facebook, which is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">now known as Meta</a>. He and three other former Facebook employees — Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun and George Danezis — worked on Meta’s Novi Financial team to help develop <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/facebook-led-crypto-project-diem-to-be-sold-off-for-200m-report/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Diem stablecoin</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/coinmonks/overview-of-move-programming-language-a860ffd8f55d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Move</a> programming language.



Move, a bytecode language used to implement custom transactions and smart contracts, powers Sui’s programming model.&nbsp;



“Existing technology suffers from restrictive storage methods and inherently unsafe programmability models, which force developers to compromise on functionality and user experience,” Cheng said in a statement. “Sui solves the most notorious problems in blockchain by delivering unrivaled scalability, premium security, and simplified user experience at the lowest cost.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How is Sui different?</h3>



Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) dominance for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications fell from 97% in January 2021 to a record low of 55% earlier this month, according to Defi Llama data. Ethereum’s TVL is currently roughly <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Ethereum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$120 billion</a>.



Created to solve the most common blockchain “pain points,” Sui uses horizontal scalability to maintain low gas fees and high transaction processing capacities beyond legacy payment rails such as Visa and Swift.



One of the layer-1’s main differentiators from other blockchains is its use of what it calls “casual ordering,” according to <a href="https://docs.sui.io/learn/sui-compared" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sui’s website</a>. Unlike other blockchains, Sui forgoes consensus for most transactions, allowing it to parallelize the execution of them and reduce latency.



While Sui is designed to perform well with direct sender transactions, it comes at the cost of added complexity in what it considers to be less common use cases, the informational document adds.&nbsp;



“Sui’s system design breakthrough eliminates a critical bottleneck in existing blockchains: the need to achieve global consensus on a total-ordered list of transactions,” Mysten Labs Chief Product Officer Adeniyi Abiodun told Blockworks in an email. “This computation is wasteful given most transactions are not contending for the same resource against other transactions.”



The architecture, according to the team, will make it “the first and only permissionless blockchain that has horizontal scalability [with] no upper limit on network throughout.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Use cases</h3>



Sui’s use cases, according to Mysten Labs, include facilitating airdrops to millions of people in a single, low-cost transaction; creator-owned decentralized social media networks; and developing blockchain gaming interactions such as equipment crafting, character leveling and battle records stored on-chain.



A spokesperson for <a href="https://www.lucky-kat.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lucky Kat Studios</a>, the creators of a game called Panzerdogs, said that Sui’s ability to mirror NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and handle on-chain assets opens up new options for blockchain gaming.



“Imagine importing all your NFTs into a game, upgrading them into new, usable assets and enhancing the gaming experience and the in-game economy,” the Lucky Kat representative said in a statement. “Not only do the NFTs become a part of the gaming experience, but the game also becomes a part of the NFT.”



<a href="https://sowork.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SoWork</a>, which offers virtual workspaces in the metaverse, uses Sui to mint composable, mutable NFTs to its customers.



“We’ve come a long way with Ethereum, but it really feels like Sui is what gets us as startups, consumers, and creatives to the next level of decentralization, because it goes beyond simple NFT minting,” a SoWork spokesperson said.



Mysten Labs previously said Sui will go to mainnet later this year following its test and beta net phases. The company anticipates developer activity on-chain by April or May.



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