W3BStation
Markets
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%
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. US Election and Crypto * "The US Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?" * "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets Are Reading Election Prospects" * "The US Election Is Coming: Crypto Stances and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties" 02. Bitcoin Whitepaper's 16th Anniversary * "Bitwise CIO: The Double Tailwind 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. US Election and Crypto

  • "The US Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?"
  • "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets Are Reading Election Prospects"
  • "The US Election Is Coming: Crypto Stances and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties"

02. Bitcoin Whitepaper's 16th Anniversary

  • "Bitwise CIO: The Double Tailwind 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 Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov: Building the Bridge Between TradFi and DeFi"

06. Industry Commentary

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

07. Project Watch

  • "A Look at 11 New Projects Incubated by Web3's YC Equivalent, Alliance"
  • "Layer1 Blockchain XION: Revolutionizing User Experience Through Chain Abstraction"
  • "A Deep Dive into Fragmetric, Solana's Liquid Restaking Protocol"
  • "2.5M+ Users — Why DeepLink, the Decentralized Cloud Gaming Protocol, 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. US Election and Crypto

The US presidential election officially kicks off on November 5, and markets typically see significant volatility in the days leading up to it. Recommended reads:

  • "The US Election Brings Uncertainty — Will the Crypto Market Enter a Winter?"
    Bitcoin posted strong Q4 returns following halvings in 2012, 2016, and 2020 — gaining 97.7%, 58.17%, and 168.02% respectively. Notably, November 2016 delivered a 5.42% gain, and November 2020 came in at 42.95%, making this month's returns historically worth looking forward to.

The 2024 US presidential election is drawing near, but the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remains extremely tight. How are traditional financial markets and crypto markets reading the election? Recommended reads:

  • "Backing Trump? How Trading Markets Are Reading Election Prospects"
    Open interest in the crypto market is rising sharply — particularly in Bitcoin options and futures — reflecting strong investor anticipation around the upcoming US election and the market moves that may follow. Luuk Strijers, CEO of Deribit, notes that derivatives traders are positioning for a Bitcoin upswing 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 call open interest is double that of puts. Compared to Mark IV, Forward IV has risen significantly, especially around election week, signaling that traders expect higher volatility. The forward implied volatility stands at 72.29%, suggesting prices could swing roughly 3.78% in the days following the presidential election."

With the 2024 US presidential election approaching, the Democratic and Republican parties have shown clear differences in their priorities on crypto policy, regulatory direction, and tolerance for innovation. Recommended reads:

  • "The US Election Is Coming: Crypto Stances and the Dividing Lines Between the Two Parties"
    In short, the meaningful policy differences between the two US parties on crypto assets will deeply shape the industry's future. The Democratic policy stance leans cautious — focused on consumer protection and market stability through stricter regulation. While there has been a gradual drift toward neutrality in recent years, the Democrats' engagement with crypto remains limited, with priorities still centered on broader economic and financial stability.

The Republicans, by contrast, favor reducing regulatory constraints and are committed to supporting crypto innovation, viewing it as a key path to strengthening US competitiveness in global financial markets. Republican candidates like Trump — through vocal support for crypto assets like Bitcoin and pledges to reform the SEC's regulatory model — are actively courting the crypto industry and pushing for its growth in the US.

02. Bitcoin Whitepaper's 16th Anniversary

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 CIO believes the store-of-value market will grow and that Bitcoin will continue gaining market share within it. Recommended reads:

  • "Bitwise CIO: The Double Tailwind 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 reach $200,000?

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

That's not wrong, and 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 to underestimate the likelihood of its success. If you separate those 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 wrapping up, but November remains packed with Web3 events worldwide — spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — covering topics like regulation and policy, blockchain infrastructure, fintech, and the Bitcoin ecosystem. Recommended reads:

  • "Web3 Events Guide for November"
    Without question, the standout event this month is Ethereum DevCon 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand, which has drawn over 260 related side events across the city. See the Foresight News Events page for details. Also in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia Blockchain Week 2024 in Jakarta is another one to watch.

European summits include the Web3 Summit Europe in Belgium and the Madeira Blockchain Conference in Portugal, both focused on MiCA regulations and Web3 enterprise transformation strategies. The AIBC Europe summit will spotlight 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 real-world blockchain use cases across the continent. Additionally, TON Gateway will go deeper into TON infrastructure, and 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 pulse on the global Web3 industry.

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 it actually like to use? This article walks you through how to experience it firsthand. Recommended reads:

  • "A Hands-On Guide to Experiencing Base Agent, Coinbase's AI Agent"
    Based Agent is an AI-powered autonomous agent that interacts with the Base L2 network through 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 straightforward setup on Replit, letting you explore automated blockchain interactions without manual coding — including autonomous execution, token deployment, NFT deployment, asset transfers, balance checks, ETH faucet requests, AI-generated artwork via DALL-E, and more.

On the Base chain, from Virtuals Protocol to Aethernet on Farcaster, AI agents seem to be continuously woven into the circulation layer of the crypto network — even reshaping how interactions themselves work. This article maps out the key agents in the Base ecosystem and reflects on what human-computer interaction might look like in a future networked society built on existing structures. Recommended reads:

  • "Base AI Agents Are Booming — Who Will Challenge Virtuals and Aethernet?"
    Virtuals Protocol, built on the Base chain, aims to create an ownership layer for AI agents in the gaming and entertainment industries, with the protocol itself generating 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 opens a different possibility for the entire economic system: could the AI's own attitude and strategy toward tokens contribute to a growth flywheel?

05. Web3ers Speak

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

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

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

Nazarov also discussed the application of AI technology within the Chainlink 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 feeds, providing reliable data inputs for smart contracts.

Nazarov also shared his thoughts on the future of blockchain technology. He believes blockchain's evolution 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're building more than just technology — we're 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 Commentary

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 tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group. What's the full story? Recommended reads:

  • "Forbes: Did DCG Profit from North Korean Hacker Money Laundering?"
    Based on data from ChainArgos and Elliptic, Forbes calculated that $60 million in transactions suspected of being 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 period, 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 legitimately receive proceeds from money laundering through a tumbler simply by waiting a few weeks, law enforcement is certainly not going to be happy about that."

But the mechanics don't care about intent. Railgun's code automatically links accrued fees to a staking or 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 determines 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 paid to DCG's wallet. Not all of the tumbler's fee income came from the alleged money laundering activity.

We're witnessing a significant shift in AI agent trends on social media: moving from individual personas to "individual + utility," and from single-channel to multi-channel. Recommended reads:

  • "The AI Agent Shift: Two Trends You Can't Ignore"
    The digital revolution of the early 2000s brought the world into the internet era, transforming the web from a niche space into a global community. Today, we're experiencing a similarly transformative moment — 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 — integrating personality with purpose across social media, blockchain, and beyond.

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

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

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

He spent a total of $387,000 to accumulate 35.69 million SPX, now worth $23.57 million — a return of roughly 61x.

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

  • "The 'Fat Wallet' Theory"
    If protocols and apps keep getting commoditized, where does value ultimately consolidate?

The simplest answer: whoever owns the end user wins. While in theory that could be any interface — including apps — the "fat wallet" theory argues that nothing is closer to the user than the wallet.

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

Crypto is like a game: trade tokens, make money (and lose it), and build a following on X. But unlike actual games, losing at crypto can have serious real-world consequences. In this piece, Ignas shares his crypto game playbook — his framework and tips for coming out ahead. Recommended reads:

  • "How Do You Win at This Crypto Game?"
    Once you see the parallels between crypto and gaming (especially MMORPGs), you can't unsee them.

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

If you dislike KOLs influencing you, think of it this way: "Don't hate the player, hate the game."

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

Just like game expansions, the crypto game keeps evolving — with new narratives constantly emerging and fading.

Pranksy, for example, was once a top NFT player but has now completely lost the rhythm of the memecoin meta. The game has changed, but he's still playing ones nobody cares about anymore.

07. Project Watch

Alliance, the accelerator behind successful projects like Pump.fun, Moonshot, and others, has announced its new ALL13 graduating cohort. Recommended reads:

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

Starting from the user experience angle, how does XION simplify Web3 through chain abstraction? Recommended reads:

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

That answer is undeniable, but the process is incredibly cumbersome. When a user wants to trade a token on the Base chain, they first need to buy ETH on a decentralized exchange to cover gas, then withdraw both the token and ETH to a Base address, and then find a DEX to execute the trade. This seemingly simple process is extremely friction-heavy — requiring users to understand what gas is on that particular chain, keep track of seed phrases for multiple wallets, and ensure transfer addresses are correct. That's before even getting into the headaches of cross-chain operations, multi-chain gas, incompatible wallets, and countless DEXes.

With XION, all of these problems can be resolved in a single click. Through its walletless L1 protocol, XION achieves integration across several dimensions — account abstraction, signature abstraction, and fee abstraction — ultimately delivering a seamless interaction experience. Users can log into XION-based apps using familiar Web2 login methods (like email), interact with apps on their mobile devices, and even get started without holding any native chain tokens, all while transacting in familiar pricing through stablecoins. XION addresses these issues at the base protocol layer — handling transfers, conversions, and payments in the background — for a truly invisible end-to-end experience, achieving wallet transparency that lets users call any asset on any chain without gas. It's a shift comparable to using WeChat Pay or Alipay abroad without manually exchanging currency and still getting the best rate.

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

  • "A Deep Dive into Fragmetric, Solana's Liquid Restaking Protocol"
    The Jito Restrike vault currently includes three vaults: kySOL (provided by Kyros), ezSOL (provided by Renzo), and fragSOL (provided by Fragmetric). The first two have been open long enough for users to participate at their leisure, while fragSOL was an "early look" that filled its allocated 49,000 SOL quota almost immediately upon opening. What's going on?

It turns out Fragmetric didn't open new staking quota in the Jito Vault — instead, it directly deposited SOL that had been pre-staked during Phase 1 of the protocol. This liquid restaking protocol, which launched its 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, decentralized cloud gaming protocol DeepLink Protocol closed an $8 million angel and Series A round. They also raised over $10 million through a public sale a few months ago. Today, they boast over 2.5 million global users and more than 1.5 million wallet holders. What exactly is DeepLink Protocol? Recommended reads:

  • "2.5M+ Users — Why DeepLink, the Decentralized Cloud Gaming Protocol, Is Worth Watching"
    DeepLink Protocol is a decentralized cloud gaming protocol that combines AI and blockchain technology, focused on delivering ultra-low latency game rendering across multiple scenarios — from cloud esports and cloud-based AAA titles to blockchain-integrated games and VR/AR/XR applications. Its technology foundation ensures a smoother, clearer gaming experience suited to a wide range of use cases.

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

Their core technology team entered the cloud gaming industry in 2011, with experience from companies including Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Huawei, and Shunwang — accumulating years of R&D. This team pedigree and research foundation provides a strong base for the protocol's development.

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

Beyond BAN — backed last weekend by Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby's VP — ai16z also attracted significant attention due to its outsized performance, with its market cap briefly approaching $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 reads:

  • "daos.fun: The Next Liquidity Black Hole?"
    By far the most successful DAO fund on daos.fun is ai16z, established by @pmairca (Marc Andreessen). ai16z started by raising an initial 420.69 SOL, and with the help of 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 major narratives of this cycle, is drawing considerable attention. This piece features a conversation with exSat's Head of Growth and an industry OG on "How to Find the Next Breakout Point in the BTC Ecosystem," timed to exSat's mainnet launch. Recommended reads:

  • "exSat Launches Mainnet — Finding the Next Breakout Point in the BTC Ecosystem"
    Sunny: We can broadly split Bitcoin holders into two groups. One group entered the space relatively late — their belief in Bitcoin is primarily value-driven, and they're open to moving Bitcoin on-chain for hedging, stable yield, or even participating in DeFi across other ecosystems. This group is probably better aligned with the ecosystem's growth trajectory. The other group consists of Bitcoin OGs who hold Bitcoin much like traditional market participants hold gold — they value it as a store of value, may have little interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and prefer simply holding. We have different strategies for serving these two distinct groups.

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

But if we're talking about a smaller-scale breakout, I think it'll still start with lighter assets — similar to how runes saw some hype recently. Runes themselves have a lot of potential: a full sentence can be inscribed, or labels can be attached. We've also invested significant energy into runes. Another strong breakout candidate could be the intersection of the Bitcoin ecosystem and Telegram.

Monad combines Ethereum's cultural identity with Solana-scale throughput. Recommended reads:

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

Using deferred execution, transactions only begin executing after their ordering has been finalized through block consensus. Monad villages are staffed by multiple skilled executors, each responsible for processing transactions — independently computing inputs and outputs and generating a list of items to be processed.

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

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

Currently, outside of the top L2s, the TVL gap between other L2s isn't that significant. Subtle differences in detail also look somewhat undifferentiated, creating a real problem. Resolving fragmented liquidity and finding ways to expand revenue channels for player assets has become the key to breaking out of the pack for many of them.