Booking.Com For Crypto, Spend USDC/T With New Solana Card & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Solana-Powered Card: Spend stablecoins across borders with KAST.

• Crypto Travel: Travala, a crypto-powered travel platform, is making waves.

• Going Global: Sling is broadening its footprint by partnering with M-Pesa.

While the iPhone 16's launch and the introduction of Apple Intelligence mark significant technological advancements, it's crucial to remember that the Apple App Store continues to pose challenges for both developers and users.

This ongoing issue underscores one of the primary motivations behind the creation of Solana Mobile — which offers an alternative ecosystem that prioritises developer freedom and user choice. For a more in-depth take, refer to my January newsletter.  

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Curated Agenda

With Breakpoint on the horizon and its agenda now public, it's clear that the event will redefine the crypto conference experience. 

Traditional crypto conferences often fall short with lengthy, disengaging keynotes, an overabundance of sponsor talks, conflicting schedules, and a lack of topic diversity.

Breakpoint, however, stands apart from the typical crypto conference model. Its novel structure and agenda address many of the common pitfalls, offering attendees a more engaging experience.

To help you navigate the reimagined conference format, I've curated and categorised must-attend sessions and talks into eight distinct themes — ensuring you make the most of Breakpoint's diverse programme: 

• Spicy 

• Infrastructure 

• Payments 

• Institutions 

• Solana Newcomers

• Blue Flame

• Self Custody 

• DeFi

Numbers Of The Week

News Bites

Going Global: Sling is broadening its global financial footprint by partnering with major platforms such as M-Pesa, one of Africa's leading fintech services, enabling seamless money transfers across continents.

Whale Movements: During the market downturn, deBridge has been seeing steady 6/7-figure inflows to Solana, with DefiLlama data suggesting Jupiter as a primary attractor for substantial, long-term liquidity.

MEV Protect: I've been writing quite a lot about frontrunning/sandwich attacks on Solana — which have become a real headache. In order to address this, Jupiter has introduced "MEV Protect" to safeguard swap transactions on its platform.

Solana-Powered Card: Spending stablecoins across borders and 100+ countries has just become easier with KAST, the newest Solana-powered card that is compatible with both Apple and Google Pay.

Crypto Travel: Travala, a crypto-powered travel booking platform, has integrated its services with Skyscanner, significantly increasing its visibility and potential for crypto adoption in the travel sector.

Query Speed: PRISM is building AI agents and ML models on Solana. And just recently, the team introduced a new data intelligence platform — PRISM Explorer — designed to enhance query efficiency on the Solana network.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

If you'd like to reach me, respond to this newsletter or reach out to me on 𝕏.

Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}