The Nonfungible Token (#NFT) landscape has evolved from a small ecosystem of collectors and enthusiasts to an emerging multichain ecosystem at the forefront of culture and technology.
To date, the NFT landscape has been dominated by Ethereum, Flow, and to a lesser extent Wax.
It’s likely that many NFT applications will transition from Ethereum mainnet onto Layer-2 solutions or test out other blockchains for specific applications.
Layer 2: Layer-2s & Sidechains
While the smart contract wars have blockchains fighting for DeFi applications, the battlegrounds between the upcoming Layer-2s will be waged for NFT supremacy.
Layer 3: Verticals / Applications
While non-fungible tokens(#NFTs) are created and transferred at the Layer-1 or Layer-2 level, the application layer is consumer-facing.
Ultimately, platforms will have to rely on unique utility propositions that they can provide to their users.
Layer 4: Secondary Applications
Composability ensures that other developers can build atop existing applications and protocols.
Decentraland and other virtual worlds will undoubtedly have various applications within their ecosystems such as the online casino, Decentral Games.
Layer 5: NFT Financialization
One of the largest layers of the NFT stack is the NFT financialization layer which unironically attempts to make non-fungible assets more fungible.
Similar to DeFi, NFTs require similar primitives like lending, liquidity, and asset management.
Layer 6: Aggregators
Aggregators can come in various forms. Some protocols aggregate supply while others focus on the demand (consumer) side. Within the NFT sector, there are really only two primary aggregators – OpenSea and Rarible.
Layer 7: Front Ends & Interfaces
There are many companies vying for eyeballs & building the de facto front-end for NFTs. With collectibles and crypto art as the first breakout use case, entrepreneurs have opted to build galleries/ interfaces for collectors to display their NFTs.
Unlike the DeFi ecosystem – which lies at the infra level – NFT assets are highly consumer-facing and attention-grabbing. As DeFi continues to build the financial rails of the future, NFTs will cyclically advance further into the cultural zeitgeist. messari.io/article/the-nf…
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While the world is no longer early to Bitcoin, we're still in the early innings of stablecoins with only 20-30 million monthly active users of stablecoins.
Over the course of the next decade, I expect this number to grow significantly as hundreds of millions of users interact with stablecoins – directly or indirectly – in their daily lives.
Some of the stablecoin opportunities we're excited about:
Great recent newsletter from @artemis__xyz about stablecoin activity.
Some takeaways that I thought were interesting 👇
The on and offramp space, once dominated by Moonpay continues to grow more competitive.
Recently, traditional large fintech Revolut has grown as a leading stablecoin onramp provider.
Exchanges are still key liquidity hubs for specific regions and corridors. For instance, stablecoin remittance activity from U.S. based CEX's like Coinbase and Kraken @Bitso has nearly doubled in 2024.
Stablecoin activity will be most impactful in emerging market corridors like LATAM, South East Asia, and Africa.
Thought provoking essay but I still stand in the fat app thesis camp.
While horizontal wallets certainly capture value today I think Applications will be better positioned than wallets in the future.
Applications will capture more value than horizontal wallets because: 1) Wallet fragmentation will happen. All large apps will launch their own wallets. 2) Every app in the future will be its own wallet capturing order flow and attention. 3) Crypto’s inevitable shift to mobile will favor applications over horizontal wallets.
1) All apps want to own the end user.
Wallets are increasingly commoditized and every sufficiently large app launches its own wallet - Uniswap, Coinbase, Magic Eden, Jupiter, etc.
I also disagree with the statement: “If an application increases its take rate, will users leave for a cheaper alternative?” Apps with retail users are sticky just like wallets are sticky.
The top applications all maintain healthy take rates - Uniswap, Magic Eden, Aave, Jupiter, Raydium.
2) Future apps launch with their own wallets.
There’s a reason we see fewer horizontal wallet companies being built today. New apps (whether consumer or defi) launch with their own wallets by default because of access solutions like Privy and Turnkey. It’s never been easier to integrate a wallet into an app. While horizontal wallets today have an advantage, new apps of the future can onboard users to their wallets directly. Apps like Farcsster are a one good example on this trend- people onboard to Warpcast directly.
Telegram bots are another perfect example of this - they’re first and foremost exchanges / trading apps but have wallets by default. They’ve grown because they offer better products (more social and convenient) that horizontal wallets.
Chain abstraction also arguably decreases the stickiness of Fat Wallets because it gets easier to move asset. Abstraction allows apps to vampire attack horizontal wallets to easily move funds to its own app integrated wallet without the user knowing or caring.
The superpower of crypto is creating new assets and markets.
Now, I try to ask the question – how could this business become an exchange? For certain businesses it’s very clear, but for others, it requires some imagination.
Let’s talk about exchanges, and where to find them 👇
One of the most common and successful business models in crypto is the exchange model which is why we've seen so many companies and protocols eventually adopt the exchange business model.
Exchanges are well-positioned to develop in scenarios were:
- New assets emerge onchain
- Apps control distribution and can introduce transactional behavior
- New services emerge that impact valuable onchain state or are somehow connected to transactions
- Crypto games control their own asset issuance and have open economies
- Developer platforms can introduce service marketplaces or auction houses for transactions
There are a few common crypto business models:
- Exchanges and marketplaces
- Transaction sequencing
- Asset managers
Let's dive into some examples 👇
Exchange Model
Subset 1) marketplace models – fee on transactions
- create a new asset and market (e.g. Polymarket, Perps)
- expand access to emerging asset (Coinbase and BTC)
- convenience fee (wallet swaps)
- SaaS enabled marketplaces – Proof marketplaces
Exchange subset 2): Liquidity servicing - build valuable pool of specialized liquidity and charge acces fee to end app (e.g. hooks) or match-maker fee (e.g. swaps)
- DEXs
- Lending
MEV / Transaction sequencing – own and monetize valuable order flow
- App PFOF (e.g. TG Bots)
- Sequencer model - own sequencer and MEV (e.g. L2)
- SaaS enabled tx sequencing and monitoring - RaaS, RPC providers, security providers, oracles etc.
When combined with new products, tokens – or the promise of tokens – have proven effective at alleviating the cold start problem.
But, networks that launch with a token from the jump, must find PMF in a shortened window amidst inorganic activity or otherwise these networks are just spending tokens for limited upside.
My friend and fellow investor, @howdai27 calls this the “hot start problem” where the presence of a token limits the window of time a startup has to find PMF and gain enough organic traction such that the startup can retain users/liquidity as token rewards diminish.
The hot start problem – launching tokens early and dealing with finding PMF amidst inorganic activity – is favorable to the cold start problem in two scenarios:
1) Startups competing in red ocean markets (markets with a high degree of competition and known demand)
Examples: Second mover defi protocols, Blur vs OpenSea, LRTs, etc.
2) Products and networks with passive-supply side participation
Examples: passive jobs to be done – staking (L1s), providing liquidity, or set-it and forget-it hardware (e.g. DePIN). masonnystrom.com/p/tokenized-ma…