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Solana Meme Coin Games, AI-Powered NFT Trading & More

Also: Jito & Jump Crypto are out to quench Solana’s spam problem.

Welcome back!

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

  • Meme Coins: What is GUAC & Co and why are they pivotal for Solana?

  • AI-Powered NFT Trading: NeoSwap combats NFT illiquidity with AI.

  • Anti-Spam: Jito & Jump Crypto are tackling Solana’s spam problem.

We need to talk.

Yes, I’ve been trying to avoid it as well — let’s just rip the bandaid off …. meme coins!

Since April, degens haven't been able to do anything else but eat, sleep, and breathe meme coins.

This has led to a continued influx of crypto traders and caused transaction fees on Ethereum to skyrocket.

Maxis have argued that this is bullish for the Ethereum ecosystem, everyone else had a vastly different take 😅

Let’s get going!

Click on any underlined heading / hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Meme Coin Games

Crypto is the Bellagio — a casino that lets anyone gamble, even 9-year-old Timmy down the road.

This might sound bad, but it doesn't have to be.

Let me explain.

A casino is a dedicated place to engage in high-stakes games.

Games are inherently engaging and can motivate people to learn new things more effectively.

That's because games are interactive and immersive, providing learners with a rich experience that can help them internalise new information quickly. Also, games often provide immediate feedback, which can help learners identify areas where they need to improve in real-time.

All these attributes make games the perfect onboarding tool for web3, and more specifically crypto.

This is why Solana stands to benefit the most from the meme coin games which are currently taking place.

The promise of a meme coin is simple: Turn modest investments into life-changing fortunes.

In this context, Doge and Shiba Inu are the go-to tokens. At the beginning of the year, BONK flared up and got everyone excited, but the meme coin games only got underway in mid-April when PEPE launched on Ethereum — minting new millionaires along the way.

The second order effects were predictable: The rise of countless new meme coins, especially on Solana.

We've seen tokens such as GUAC, KING, POOR, and WAWA — none of which make any sense, but people seem to love trading them. GUAC and KING have ~ 8,000 holders each, POOR has ~3,000, and WAWA 900.

Granted, these numbers are not out of this world, but they are magnitudes larger than the DAUs of most DeFi protocols on Solana.

The minority of meme coin traders will make a profit, the overwhelming majority will not.

But what all of them will learn is that trading on Solana is both cheap and fast.

If we as an ecosystem can retain the attention of these memecoin-pilled users and convince them of the more sustainable benefits of crypto in general, and Solana in particular, the meme coin games can be booked as a net positive.

For all new users, here’s your Solana Starter Pack (SSP): 

Prego! 🫡

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

AI-Powered NFT Trading: NeoSwap enables traders to leverage AI to find NFTs they want and swap them for ones they no longer need — all within seconds.

Hardware Wallets: In a podcast episode with Raoul Pal Anatoly discussed the motivation behind Saga — one aspect of which was to integrate hardware wallets into smartphones.

MEV Activity: Currently, Solana has a spam problem — with up to 60% of computing power spent on arbitrages. In the Bell Curve podcast, Lucas from Jito outlines how they are tackling the issue head-on.

Network Resilience: Solana introduced QUIC to combat network spamming. Now, Jump Crypto has introduced a high-performance implementation of QUIC and demonstrated its ability to further enhance Solana's scalability and robustness.

xNFTs Go Mainstream: We've previously talked about xNFTs, applications that allow for rich and immersive token-gated experiences. Now, Blockworks has highlighted xNFTs as well — the article is worth a read!

NFT Showdown: The Solana Foundation is looking to onboard more creators to web3 through NFT Showdown, with the aim of helping them to develop sustainable business models.

Ecosystem Growth: According to SolanaFM, a well-implemented blue ocean strategy and open innovation are the reasons why Solana continues to attract the brightest developers.

Caught In 4K

This week, it’s all about Saga — Solana’s flagship mobile phone.

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!