Worldcoin Poaches Solana Team, Wallet-To-Wallet Audio Calls On Solana & More

Welcome back!

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

• On-Chain Calling: SolChat rolls out wallet-to-wallet audio calls.

• On-Chain Ads: Onnyx unveils an on-chain advertising tool. 

• Worldcoin Poaching: Worldcoin contributors acquihire Solana team.

Here are the only 2 tweets you need to bookmark this week ⬇️

Not bullish enough? I got you covered — read on!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

All Eyes On Us

Crypto is back — I know it, you know it, your mom knows it. 

As the price leads the narrative, more and more people from outside our bubble will re-evaluate and enter crypto in the weeks and months to come.

Having said that, the journey from conception to mainstream adoption is often complex and multifaceted. In this context, the crypto onboarding funnel looks a little something like this: 

• ETFs: IBIT, FBTC & Co

• Centralised exchanges (CEXs): Coinbase, Kraken & Co

• Decentralised exchanges (DEXs): Phoenix, Mango & Co

• Decentralised applications (dApps): Moonwalk & Co 

In previous cycles, we lacked crypto ETFs at the top of the funnel — so things are different this time around.

The introduction of the first U.S.-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs was a watershed moment for the world's largest cryptocurrency and our broader industry:

• On February 28, 2024, Bitcoin spot ETFs generated $7.6 billion in trading volume. 

• Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo — two of the most renowned banks globally — have been offering Bitcoin spot ETFs to eligible wealth management clients.

• The popularity of Bitcoin spot ETFs has led experts to compare them with Gold ETFs — one of the most popular asset classes to date. Moreover, analysts believe that Bitcoin spot ETFs could eclipse Gold ETFs in the upcoming years. 

• Fidelity — one of the world's largest financial services firms — is now recommending a 1-3% portfolio allocation to crypto i.e. Bitcoin spot ETFs.

While Bitcoin dominates ETFs, it seems as if Solana memecoins — mainly BONK and WIF — are dominating on both centralised and decentralised exchanges. 

Don't believe me? 

Well, what about these piping hot facts & figures? ⬇️

• BONK Market Cap

BONK now has a larger market cap than the following projects:

• SEI

• Algorand

• MakerDAO

• Arweave

• SUI

• Fantom

• Aave

• Starknet

• BONK Spot & Perps

BONK is also one of the most traded spot and perpetual futures assets on Binance. 

• Solana Dexification

DEXs on Solana have been profiting from a trifecta: airdrops, memecoins, and fast and cheap transactions.

The result?

• The overall trading volume on Solana DEXs has been skyrocketing

• Based on trading volume, 4 Solana DEXs are now in the top 10 — across all chains: Raydium, Orca, Phoenix, and Lifinity

• Jupiter has reached $92 billion in all time trading volume

As a new influx of people makes their way through the crypto funnel — all the way from crypto ETFs to dApps such as Moonwalk — our collective goals should be to convince as many of them as we possibly can that trading/engaging on-chain and holding digital assets in self-custody is the future.

Projects and teams that invest in communication, distribution, user conversion, and user stickiness will be in a good position to shape the face of crypto in the coming years. 

My hope?

That the Solana ecosystem understands and internalises this — so much so that we don’t only create moats, but flywheels that will be difficult to stop going forward.

Charts Of The Week

News Bites

On-Chain Calling: You thought Solana is only good for memecoins — didn't you?! Well, SolChat begs to differ, as the team recently rolled out wallet-to-wallet audio calls. Bet you didn't see that coming 😏

On-Chain Advertising: Onnyx enables teams to launch on-chain campaigns that target specific users, based on their holdings and transaction history — bringing blockchain advertising to a whole new level.

Mango Boost: Initially, GMX popularised liquidity provider tokens such as GLP. A couple of months ago, Jupiter followed suit by introducing JLP. The current APY of the JLP Pool: ~180%. Now, what if you could amplify the APY of your JLP tokens as well? That’s where Mango Boost comes into play. The platform currently offers a JLP APY of ~700% 👀

Worldcoin Poaching: The team behind Ottr, a popular Solana wallet, has been acquihired by Tools for Humanity (TFH), a team of Worldcoin contributors. As a result, Ottr will be sunsetted. Users can export their seed phrases and private keys and transition to other Solana wallets such as Phantom.

Squashing Bugs: Riverguard, a free security platform from Neodyme, is able to automatically detect 0-day exploits in Solana protocols — even in closed-source on-chain contracts. Check out a deep dive of the tool here.

Renaissance Hackathon: Solana's next online hackathon — Renaissance — will be held March 4–April 8 and boasts a $50,000 grand prize, as well as $80,000 in prizes in the gaming track presented by Phantom. 

Ethereum Alignment: Speaking of hackathons, Ethereum developers now have a holistic and comprehensive handbook at their disposal that is able to guide them on every step of their Solana building journey.

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.}