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BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
11/02/2024

Web3 Newsletter: The Hottest Trends in the Industry and Must-Read Articles This Week

01. The U.S. Election and Crypto * "The U.S. Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?" * "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets View the Election Outlook" * "The U.S. Election Is Approaching — Crypto Perspectives and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties" 02. The 16th Anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper * "Bitwise CIO: The Double Benefit for Bitcoin's Value" 03. November Events Guide * "Web3 Events Guide for November" 04. Base AI * "A Hands-On Guide to Experiencing Base Agent, Coinbase's AI Agent"

Web3 Newsletter: The Hottest Trends in the Industry and Must-Read Articles This Week

01. The U.S. Election and Crypto

  • "The U.S. Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?"
  • "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets View the Election Outlook"
  • "The U.S. Election Is Approaching — Crypto Perspectives and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties"

02. The 16th Anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper

  • "Bitwise CIO: The Double Benefit for Bitcoin's Value"

03. November Events Guide

  • "Web3 Events Guide for November"

04. Base AI

  • "A Hands-On Guide to Experiencing Base Agent, Coinbase's AI Agent"
  • "Base AI Agents Are Booming — Who Will Challenge Virtuals and Aethernet?"

05. Web3ers Speak

  • "Exclusive Interview with Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink: Building the Bridge Between TradFi and DeFi"

06. Industry Insights

  • "Forbes: Did DCG Benefit from North Korean Hacker Money Laundering?"
  • "The AI Agent Shift: Two Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore"
  • "Stop Scalping, Hold the Faith? A Look Back at the Craziest Trades in History"
  • "The 'Fat Wallet' Theory"
  • "How Do You Win at This Crypto Game?"

07. Project Watch

  • "A Look at 11 New Projects Incubated by Alliance, the Web3 Version of YC"
  • "Layer1 Blockchain XION: Revolutionizing User Experience Through Chain Abstraction"
  • "A Closer Look at Fragmetric, Solana's Liquid Restaking Protocol"
  • "Over 2.5 Million Users — Why DeepLink's Compute Power in Decentralized Cloud Gaming Is Worth Watching"
  • "daos.fun: The Next Liquidity Black Hole?"
  • "exSat Launches Mainnet — Finding the Next Breakout Point in the BTC Ecosystem"
  • "Reviving Ethereum Culture? What's Monad's Secret Weapon?"
  • "Staking Volume Exceeds 480,000 ETH — Why mETH?"

01. The U.S. Election and Crypto

The U.S. presidential election officially kicks off on November 5, and markets typically experience significant volatility in the days leading up to it. Recommended reading:

  • "The U.S. Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?"
    Bitcoin has posted strong Q4 returns following each halving year — 97.7% in 2012, 58.17% in 2016, and 168.02% in 2020. Notably, November 2016 delivered a 5.42% gain and November 2020 delivered 42.95%, making this month's returns well worth watching.

The 2024 U.S. presidential race is fast approaching, yet the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remains razor-thin. How are traditional financial markets and the crypto market reading the election? Recommended reading:

  • "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets View the Election Outlook"
    Crypto market open interest is currently rising sharply — especially in Bitcoin options and futures — reflecting strong investor anticipation of the upcoming U.S. election and the market moves that may follow. Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers notes that derivatives traders are positioning for a Bitcoin bull run in the days after November 5.

Strijers stated, "For options expiring November 8, open interest exceeds $2 billion, with key strike prices at $70,000, $75,000, and $80,000 and a put/call ratio of 0.55 — meaning open interest in calls is roughly double that in puts. Compared to Mark IV, Forward IV has risen sharply, particularly around election week, signaling traders' expectations for elevated volatility. Forward implied volatility sits at 72.29%, suggesting prices could swing roughly 3.78% in the days following the presidential election."

The 2024 U.S. presidential election is drawing near, and the Democrats and Republicans have staked out clear differences in their priorities around crypto policy, regulatory guidance, and tolerance for innovation. Recommended reading:

  • "The U.S. Election Is Approaching — Crypto Perspectives and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties"
    In short, the significant differences between the two U.S. parties on crypto asset policy will have a profound impact on the industry's future. The Democratic policy stance leans cautious, aiming to protect consumer rights and maintain market stability through stricter regulation. Although the party has gradually shifted toward neutrality in recent years, Democrats' focus on crypto remains limited, with priorities still centered on broader economic and financial stability.

The Republicans, by contrast, favor reducing regulatory restrictions and are committed to supporting crypto industry innovation, viewing it as a critical path to enhancing U.S. competitiveness in global financial markets. Republican candidates like Trump — through active advocacy for crypto assets such as Bitcoin and pledges to reform the SEC's regulatory model — aim to win support from the crypto industry and drive its growth in the United States.

02. The 16th Anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper

Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31, 2008. This week marks the 16th anniversary of that publication. On the current state of the crypto market, Bitwise's Chief Investment Officer believes the store-of-value market will grow — and that Bitcoin will capture an increasing share of it. Recommended reading:

  • "Bitwise CIO: The Double Benefit for Bitcoin's Value"
    People consistently make the mistake of underestimating Bitcoin's potential.

Last week, a financial advisor asked me a great question: Does the dollar need to collapse for Bitcoin to hit $200,000?

It's a great question because it exposes the fuzzy logic many people use when talking about Bitcoin. In my experience, the argument usually goes: Bitcoin is digital gold, and the U.S. is printing money at a massive scale, therefore Bitcoin has value.

That's not wrong — I've said similar things on CNBC. But it's a lazy argument that conflates two distinct points. It leads people to underestimate Bitcoin's full potential and underestimate the odds of its success. If you separate these arguments and examine them independently, you'll develop a much clearer picture of Bitcoin.

03. November Events Guide

Blockchain events in Hong Kong and Dubai are winding down, but November is still packed with Web3 events around the world — from Asia-Pacific to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — covering topics like regulation and policy, blockchain infrastructure, fintech, and the Bitcoin ecosystem. Recommended reading:

  • "Web3 Events Guide for November"
    The standout event this month is undoubtedly Ethereum DevCon 2024, taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, which has attracted over 260 related side events in the city. See the Foresight News Event calendar for details. Also in Asia-Pacific, Indonesia Blockchain Week 2024, held in Jakarta, is another event worth keeping on your radar.

European summits include the European Web3 Summit in Belgium and the Blockchain Conference Madeira in Portugal, focused on MiCA regulations and Web3 enterprise transformation strategies. The AIBC Europe summit will zero in on innovations in blockchain and artificial intelligence. Middle East and Africa blockchain events include Money Expo Qatar, centered on digital financial innovation, and Blockchain Africa 2024, exploring blockchain application scenarios across the continent. TON Gateway will dive deeper into the TON infrastructure, while NiceHashX will focus on the mining ecosystem. Bitcoin enthusiasts can look forward to the Adopting Bitcoin conference held in El Salvador.

Foresight News presents a curated "Events Guide" for November — your invitation to stay in sync with the pulse of global Web3 industry development.

04. Base AI

Has the era of on-chain AI interaction arrived? Last week, Coinbase launched an on-chain interactive AI agent called Based Agent. What's the hands-on experience with Based Agent actually like? This article walks you through how to try it. Recommended reading:

  • "A Hands-On Guide to Experiencing Base Agent, Coinbase's AI Agent"
    Based Agent is an AI-driven autonomous agent that interacts with Base L2 through the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) and OpenAI's official multi-agent collaboration framework, Swarm, enabling on-chain operations such as token creation, NFT deployment, and asset transfers.

Based Agent offers a simple setup on Replit, an online coding environment, letting you explore automated blockchain interactions without manual coding — including autonomous execution, token deployment, NFT deployment, asset transfers, balance checks, ETH faucet requests, artwork generation via DALL-E, and more.

On the Base chain, from Virtual Protocol to Aethernet on Farcaster, AI Agents appear to be seamlessly woven into the circulation cycle of the crypto network — even reshaping interaction behavior within those networks. This article summarizes the key agents in the Base ecosystem and reflects on the future model of human-computer interaction in a networked society built on existing paradigms. Recommended reading:

  • "Base AI Agents Are Booming — Who Will Challenge Virtuals and Aethernet?"
    Virtual Protocol, built on the Base chain, aims to create an ownership layer for AI Agents in the gaming and entertainment industries, while the protocol itself creates tokenized channels for agents. In practice, the protocol's launch model resembles pump.fun — but unlike a pure token launch, the addition of AI Agents introduces another variable into the entire economic system: Will the AI's attitude and strategy toward tokens contribute to the growth flywheel?

05. Web3ers Speak

On October 30, Chainlink's annual SmartCon conference for its oracle network was held in Hong Kong for the first time. Foresight News sat down for an interview with Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink. Recommended reading:

  • "Exclusive Interview with Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink: Building the Bridge Between TradFi and DeFi"
    "We believe that through standardization, blockchain technology can better integrate into existing financial systems, delivering more value to the global economy," Nazarov said.

On the topic of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, Nazarov pointed out that unlike cryptocurrencies, RWAs require proof of authenticity and existence. Chainlink's role in this context is to provide the necessary proofs and verification, enabling RWAs to be tokenized and traded on-chain.

Nazarov also discussed the application of AI technology within Chainlink's oracle network. He explained that AI excels at converting unstructured data into structured, machine-readable data. Chainlink can run multiple AI models and compare their outputs to reach consensus. This AI consensus mechanism mirrors how Chainlink handles price data, providing reliable data inputs for smart contracts.

Nazarov also shared his thoughts on the future development of blockchain technology. He believes that the evolution of blockchain is not merely a technology cycle but a profound transformation touching finance, economics, and even social structure. He predicts that as blockchain technology advances, we will see a more open, transparent, and decentralized world.

"We are building more than just technology — we are building a new economic model," Nazarov said. "Chainlink's mission is to serve as the bridge between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), enabling seamless integration between the two and jointly driving the development of the global economy."

06. Industry Insights

DCG received approximately $430,000 from Railgun, a crypto tumbler, between June and December of last year. Investigations have revealed that Railgun may have been involved in illicit money laundering activities by North Korea's Lazarus Group. What's the full story? Recommended reading:

  • "Forbes: Did DCG Benefit from North Korean Hacker Money Laundering?"
    Based on data from ChainArgos and Elliptic, Forbes calculated that $60 million in transactions allegedly laundered by the North Korean hacker group would have generated at least $260,000 in fees. As of January 21, 2023, those fees could have been withdrawn from Railgun's fee pool. However, DCG did not claim its share of the fees from Railgun until June 2023. During that window, 26 other wallet addresses also claimed fees from Railgun.

Did DCG deliberately wait five months to claim its fees in order to distance itself from the alleged illicit activity? DCG did not respond to Forbes. Jonathan Reiter, CEO of ChainArgos, said: "If you can legally receive proceeds from money laundering through a tumbler simply by waiting a few weeks, law enforcement is certainly not going to be satisfied with that."

But that may not even matter. Railgun's code automatically links accumulated fees to a staking address or designated recipient address. Matthew Sampson, co-founder of blockchain analytics firm Gray Wolf, said: "There is clear evidence that DCG benefited from the alleged money-laundering event in January 2023." "Railgun's smart contract specifies who should receive the rewards, and the reward tokens during that period were allocated to DCG and could be claimed at any time."

The image below shows recent fee rewards that Railgun has paid to DCG's wallet. Not all of the tumbler's fee income came from the alleged money-laundering activity.

We are witnessing a significant shift in AI agent trends on social media: from individual to "individual + utility," and from single-channel to multi-channel. Recommended reading:

  • "The AI Agent Shift: Two Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore"
    The digital revolution of the early 2000s ushered the world into the internet era, transforming the internet from a niche space into a global community. Today, we are living through a similar inflection point — this time driven by AI agents.

Just as the internet boom reshaped how we connect and communicate, the rise of AI agents is redefining our digital interactions, weaving personality together with purpose across social media, blockchain, and beyond.

If the early-2000s internet boom was driven by rapid technological advancement and a wave of online pioneers, today's AI agent movement is powered by a new fusion of personality and utility — poised to reshape how we engage with technology.

This article compiles a concise list of the craziest and most profitable trades in crypto history. Recommended reading:

  • "Stop Scalping, Hold the Faith? A Look Back at the Craziest Trades in History"
    The wallet of @MustStopMurad — the new meme hype kingpin — shows he bought SPX from June 2 through August 16 of this year.

He spent a total of $387,000 to buy 35.69 million SPX tokens, now worth $23.57 million, delivering a return of approximately 61x.

User demand is shifting from "block space" to "wallet space," and attention is becoming the most valuable resource in the crypto economy. Recommended reading:

  • "The 'Fat Wallet' Theory"
    If protocols and applications continue to commoditize, where will value re-aggregate?

The simplest answer is: whoever owns the end user wins. While in theory this could be any interface — including apps — the "fat wallet" theory argues that no one is closer to the user than the wallet.

Wallets dominate the crypto user experience on mobile: To understand who owns the end user in mobile networks, the best test is to ask: Which Web2 app does the end user ultimately interact with? While most users "interact" with Uniswap's interface to trade, they still access that interface through wallet apps. This means that if mobile dominates the crypto user experience, wallets only continue to tighten their grip on the end user.

Crypto is like a game — trading tokens, making (and losing) money, and building a following on X. But unlike real games, losing at the crypto game can have serious consequences. In this piece, Ignas shares his playbook for the crypto game: his framework and tips for coming out ahead. Recommended reading:

  • "How Do You Win at This Crypto Game?"
    Once you notice the parallels between crypto and games — MMORPGs in particular — you can't unsee them.

In tough economic times, with no new capital flowing in, PvP (player vs. player) mode dominates. In bull markets, when fresh capital floods in, we shift to PvE (player vs. environment) mode.

If you don't like KOLs influencing you, think of the phrase: "Don't hate the player, hate the game."

We even design token economies using game theory to incentivize people not to sell their tokens.

Just like leveling up in a game, the crypto game constantly evolves — with new narratives emerging and fading.

Take Pranksy, for example: once a top-tier NFT player, he's now completely out of step with the memecoin meta. The game has changed, but he's still playing the ones nobody cares about anymore.

07. Project Watch

Alliance, the accelerator that successfully incubated notable projects like Pump.fun, Moonshot, and others, has announced its new ALL13 graduating cohort. Recommended reading:

  • "A Look at 11 New Projects Incubated by Alliance, the Web3 Version of YC"
    These projects span multiple verticals, including global payments, DeFi, DePIN, AI, and more. As the accelerator behind successful projects like Pump.fun, Moonshot, Fantasy.top, and daos.fun, Alliance's accelerator program consistently commands attention.

Starting from user experience, here's how XION simplifies Web3 through chain abstraction. Recommended reading:

  • "Layer1 Blockchain XION: Revolutionizing User Experience Through Chain Abstraction"
    What is the core need of users in Web3? — "Trading."

That answer is hard to argue with, but the process is incredibly cumbersome. When a user wants to trade tokens on the Base chain, they first need to buy ETH on a centralized exchange to cover gas, then withdraw the tokens and ETH to a Base address, and then find a DEX to execute the trade. This seemingly simple transaction is extraordinarily painful — requiring users to understand what gas means on a given chain, memorize seed phrases for multiple chain wallets, and make sure the transfer address is exactly right. That's before even getting into the headaches of cross-chain activity, multi-chain gas, incompatible wallets, and dozens of DEXes.

With XION, all of these problems can be resolved in a single click. Using its walletless L1 protocol, XION achieves integration across multiple dimensions — including account abstraction, signature abstraction, and fee abstraction — ultimately delivering a seamless interaction experience for users. Users can log into XION-based apps using familiar Web2 login methods (such as email), interact with applications on their mobile devices, and even get started without needing native chain tokens, all while experiencing familiar pricing through stablecoins. XION handles transfers, swaps, and payments in the background at the base protocol layer, making the end-to-end experience truly invisible — achieving wallet transparency that lets users call any asset on any chain without gas. It's a shift similar to using WeChat Pay or Alipay to pay abroad without manually converting currencies and still getting the best exchange rate.

Phase 1 TVL has exceeded $8 million — what makes this project stand out, and how can you participate? Recommended reading:

  • "A Closer Look at Fragmetric, Solana's Liquid Restaking Protocol"
    Jito Restrike currently includes three vaults: kySOL (provided by Kyros), ezSOL (provided by Renzo), and fragSOL (provided by Fragmetric). The first two vaults have given users who wanted to stake enough time to participate, while fragSOL was an "early preview" that filled its allocated quota of 49,000 SOL almost immediately upon opening. What's going on?

It turns out Fragmetric didn't open new staking quotas in the Jito Vault — it directly deposited SOL that had been pre-staked in Phase 1 of the protocol into it. This liquid restaking protocol, which launched on mainnet just six days ago, quickly hit its Phase 1 staking cap, with TVL reaching $8.4 million.

In the first half of this year, cloud gaming protocol DeepLink Protocol closed an $8 million angel and Series A funding round. The team also raised over $10 million through a public sale a few months ago. Today, the project boasts more than 2.5 million global users and over 1.5 million wallet holders. So what exactly is DeepLink Protocol? Recommended reading:

  • "Over 2.5 Million Users — Why DeepLink's Compute Power in Decentralized Cloud Gaming Is Worth Watching"
    DeepLink Protocol is a decentralized cloud gaming protocol combining AI and blockchain technology, focused on delivering ultra-low-latency game rendering across a wide range of scenarios — from cloud esports and cloud-based AAA titles to blockchain-integrated games and VR/AR/XR applications. Its technology foundation ensures a smoother and clearer gaming experience, meeting the demands of diverse use cases.

According to data on its official website, DeepLink has achieved ultra-low latency of 1ms, high resolution up to 8K, an ultra-low-latency rate of 244Hz, and stable 24/7 uptime.

Their core tech team entered the cloud gaming industry in 2011, with backgrounds from companies including Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Huawei, and Shunwang, accumulating years of R&D. That team foundation and R&D depth give the protocol a solid footing for growth.

DeepLink comprises two components: DeepLink Protocol and DeepLink Software — the latter being a game remote control software and cloud gaming platform built on top of the protocol. Both components use DeepLink's DLC token for payments.

Beyond BAN, which was backed last weekend by Michael Bouhanna, Vice President of Sotheby's, ai16z has also attracted significant attention due to its outperformance — its market cap briefly neared $100 million before pulling back to around $46 million. What exactly is ai16z, and how does the daos.fun launch platform work? What are its features and risks? Recommended reading:

  • "daos.fun: The Next Liquidity Black Hole?"
    By far the most successful DAO fund on the daos.fun platform is the ai16z fund established by @pmairca (Marc Andreessen). ai16z started with an initial raise of 420.69 SOL and, with Marc Andreessen — founder of a16z — mentioning it twice on his official Twitter account, its market cap skyrocketed to nearly $100 million. It has since pulled back slightly but remains stable at around $45 million.

The Bitcoin ecosystem, one of the key narratives of this cycle, is drawing substantial attention. This article features a conversation with exSat's Chief Growth Officer and an industry OG about "How to Find the Next Breakout Point in the BTC Ecosystem," timed to coincide with exSat's mainnet launch. Recommended reading:

  • "exSat Launches Mainnet — Finding the Next Breakout Point in the BTC Ecosystem"
    Sunny: We can split Bitcoin holders into two groups. One group entered the space relatively late — their conviction in Bitcoin is entirely price-driven. They hope to put Bitcoin on-chain to hedge risk, earn stable yield, or even participate in DeFi activities across other ecosystems. This group may be a better fit for ecosystem development. The other group consists of Bitcoin OGs who hold BTC the way traditional market participants hold gold — they value it as a store of value, may have limited interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and prefer to simply hold. We have different strategies for serving each of these two groups.

Based on Bitcoin market data, the breakout point for the Bitcoin ecosystem may still lie with lighter-weight assets. The development cycle for Bitcoin's base layer protocol is somewhat longer — as the old-timers say, it could take 3 to 5 years or even 10 years to establish consensus at the base layer of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

But if we're talking about a smaller-scale breakout, I think it will still start with lighter assets — similar to how runes have seen some recent hype. Runes themselves have a lot of resources that can be staked, a complete sentence can be described, or labels can be added to runes. We've also invested a lot of energy into runes. Another solid breakout catalyst could be the combination of the Bitcoin ecosystem and Telegram.

Monad combines the cultural characteristics of Ethereum with the scalability of Solana. Recommended reading:

  • "Reviving Ethereum Culture? What's Monad's Secret Weapon?"
    In Monad, to handle the massive volume of transactions from the villagers, the Purple Pepe Wizard designed a new spell — processing transactions from different Ethereum villages in parallel rather than sequentially.

Using deferred execution, transactions only begin executing after the transaction order has been finalized through consensus in the block. Monad villages are made up of many skilled executors, each responsible for processing transactions — independently computing their inputs and outputs and generating a list of items to be processed.

These inputs and outputs don't immediately change the village's state; instead, they hover as floating magic, waiting to be committed in the order determined by consensus. That commitment involves merging outputs sequentially into the current state — like a magical thread weaving a seamless and orderly tapestry.

However, a new complication has emerged. Parallel processing introduces the possibility of transaction conflicts — something rare in sequentially ordered Ethereum villages but a fresh challenge in Monad.

Currently, outside of the top-tier L2s, the TVL gap between other L2s is not particularly wide. Subtle differences in the details also tend to feel somewhat monotonous, giving rise to a set of challenges. Resolving fragmented liquidity and finding ways to expand revenue channels for players' assets has become the key to breaking out of the game for some participants.