1/ Record number of $ETH is in the unstaking queue:

671k $ETH = $3.2B USD

What's more, queue wait time reached record of ~12 days.

Why is it happening? A few reasons:
2/ The the past month, the top 3 LSTs accounted for the most unstaked $ETH

- Lido 285k
- EthFi 134k
- Coinbase 113k

Lido queue is at ATH, too.

Larry Fink's annual chairman letter is super bullish on crypto.

"Every stock, every bond, every fund—every asset—can be tokenized. If they are, it will revolutionize investing."

Here are his main arguments for crypto & tokenization: Larry is bullish on tokenization because it makes investing more democratic:

- Access: Enables fractional ownership, breaking down assets like private real estate and equity into affordable pieces.

- Voting: Simplifies shareholder voting through digital tracking of ownership and rights, enabling secure global participation.

- Yield: Reduces barriers like legal and operational friction, opening high-return investments to more than just large investors.

1/  Is crypto "still early"?

It’s still forming its cultural & regulatory identity.

Unlike older tech (banking, social media), crypto isn’t locked into rigid rules yet.

It means we can still shape its future: open like the early internet or controlled like modern social media. If I understood Vitalik's three ring model, each "ring" is a cultural era that shapes how society treats tech

• Old rings (inner layers) are hardened attitudes like banking regulations, copyright laws

• New rings (outer layers) are still forming norms. AI and crypto.

https://twitter.com/295218901/status/1905732841713078708

Ethereum and @Etherealize_io must accelerate their focus on RWAs and tokenization.

Strong competition is targeting Ethereum's market share.

Ethena believes they face less competition in "storage and settlement for stablecoins and tokenized assets," which is Ethereum.

https://twitter.com/leptokurtic_/status/1901673138481672339

@Etherealize_io Ethena is not the only and last one.

Just today Binance announced investing into another RWA L1.

https://x.com/yzilabs/status/1901619591987769440

1/ Aave votes to shut down on Polygon after the Polygon DAO eyed using bridged assets elsewhere.

Here are 9 more recent crypto developments you might've missed:

(Ohhh, I'm threaaddiing!) 2/ Arbitrum votes to deploy Treasury $ETH to generate yield:

Stake 5,000 ETH with Lido for wstETH, deposit it into Aave V3 on Arbitrum for LST/LRT looping.

Then lend 2,500 ETH on Fluid for ETH lending and DEX liquidity

Trump & his team aren't Solana maxis:

Trump launched four crypto initiatives across four different chains:

• Polygon: Trump Digital Trading Cards - $45M market cap
• Bitcoin: Trump Bitcoin Digital Trading Cards - $5M MC
• Ethereum: World Liberty Financial ( $WLFI ) - $90M raised
• Solana: $TRUMP Memecoin - $29B FDV, 80% to insiders

Conclusion: Memecoin on Solana is the top performer for value extraction and fundraising. Notes:

1) 45k NFTs on Polygon generated over $22M in sales revenue and continue to earn licensing fees.

2) Trump Ordinals were available for claim by previous "Mugshot Edition" Polygon NFT buyers

3) $WLFI sales struggled, but the amount raised pumped after the election.

1/ Stablecoins are a $100B+ market, but most of the value is captured by Tether and Circle, with users getting no upside.

This cycle we've got Ethena and now Usual enters the game.

A decentralized, transparent, and community-owned stablecoin protocol:🧵 2/ Usual started USD0 as a fiat-backed stablecoin collateralized by ultra-short US Treasury Bills.

They just partnered with Ethena to accept USDtb collateral for USD0.

It will have a 1:1 swap mechanism between USDtb, USD0, and sUSDe

https://twitter.com/1637885519374721035/status/1869367144695378302

The old token launch meta is gone.

Point-for-airdrops helped to attract TVL to boost valuations.

6 months ago Scroll could’ve traded at 3x/4x the valuation.

But the mask is off. Other protocols that fail to innovate on token launch will face the same.

https://twitter.com/redhairshanks86/status/1848653068554166339

The mismatch between expectations and reality is stark.

We started farming long time ago in a different era where low float was bullish: projects could pump tokens sky high on low circulation.

FDV was the meme.

Now, high expectations lead to disappointment.

Change token launch model!

The Uni L2 launch isn't too surprising as Uniswap aims to be a platform, not just a dApp.

The first step was announcing Uniswap V4 with "hooks."

Think of them as "plugins" or "extensions" that allow for the execution of customized code during key events within a pool like:

• on-chain limit orders
• autocompound LP fees
• KYC

The "hooks" are like bringing App Store to the iPhone.

Like Apple no longer needed to develop iPhone apps themselves, devs can build on top of Uniswap.

Now, the L2 further solidifies their dominance and liquidity.

This is bullish for $UNI as Uniswap DAO now has many more options for token utility.

Notice how Unichain's announcement doesn't mention token utility: they are keeping the options for now and discussions in the forum will start. Fee switch is not the only option anymore.

The good news: Uniswap decided to build on OP stack and implement native interoperability to enable single-block, cross-chain message passing among Superchain L2s.

This at least partly minimizes liquidity fragmentation. But liquidity fragmentation will likely worsen in the short term.

Is it bullish for $ETH, though? At least Uniswap is not launching their own L1.

But I believe Ethereum must find ways to accrue value from all these L2s launching on it. It's getting more urgent than ever. Wouldn't be surprised if Uni v4 first launched on Unichain. Perhaps only on Unichain before moving to other chains.

It would make sense for them.

1/ Is Binance front-running TGE announcements?

Binance announced Scroll's launchpool and pre-market trading for Oct 11th without any official statement from the Scroll team.

Are teams caught off guard? Scroll is not the first protocol seemingly front-run by Binance.

Plus... 2/ Binance also announced some tokenomics details that should be communicated by team.

• Circulating supply at launch: 190M SCR (19%)
• Crazy 5.5% of the total supply goes to Binance whales for just 2 days of farming

I'll be annoyed if Scroll gives less than 15% to community.

1/ $EIGEN trades outside the top 100 tokens.

In contrast, Chainlink's $LINK has a market cap 11x higher, and $TAO is worth 7 times more than $EIGEN.

Adjusted for FDV, both $LINK and $TAO trade at twice the $EIGEN FDV.

Even $TIA trades at 2x the MC of $EIGEN. Why? 2/ It's even more surprising as Eigenlayer has become the third-largest protocol by TVL at $10B, nearly matching AAVE's $11B.

Despite this, AAVE trades at 3.7 times the value of EIGEN.

Although, when you adjust for TVL, AAVE is actually twice as cheap as EIGEN.

1/ Want to grow and monetize your audience on X?

Sharing tips and insights from my personal journey to 100k followers:🧵 2/ I never planned to be an "influencer." It sounds so cheesy and cringey.

There’s a negative sentiment around influencers and the whole influencer economy.

Crypto is full of grifters who harm by shilling and dumping on their followers.

1/ Is BTC a risk-on or risk-off asset?

Blackrock hears this question more than any other.

Their latest research shows Bitcoin is indeed risky but not a "risk-on" asset.

Here's the breakdown: 🧵 2/ BTC is undeniably risky, having been the worst-performing major asset in 7 out of the last 10 years.

Yet it not only recovered each time but also outperformed all major asset classes, achieving a crazy annualized return of over 100% over the past decade.

1/2 Why is USDC's supply decreasing?

USDC's total supply dropped from $55B to $35B.

Yet USDT's supply increased from $84B to $120B.

What's behind this shift?

Major structural changes are happening, and it's weird this isn't discussed more on X. 2/2 Possible explanation was offered by @nic__carter a year ago:

"US policymakers have successfully pushed investors out of onshore, regulated stables into offshore, unregulated stables."

If this is still true, a pro-crypto government in the US would be extremely bullish.

https://twitter.com/420308365/status/1668245037384073217

1/ What if governments decide to "ban" crypto?

After Durov's arrest for not stopping crime on Telegram, crypto could be a target in the future.

Sounds far fetched, but politicians already claim that crypto enables crime like terrorist funding & money laundering.

So, what if? 2/ Governments could try a 51% attack on BTC, as two pools control over 50% of its mining.

Mining pools lets combining computing power, share costs, and boost reward chances.

This results in consistent payouts, lower entry barriers, and shared financial risks.

1/ The current crypto bull run is mainly driven by external macro factors.

But exciting launches and catalysts are coming to boost the internal crypto machine.

Here are my top 15 to watch: 🧵 2/ Monad (Mainnet by end of 2024?): Do we need another alt-L1?

Will it end up as another low-float, high-FDV dumpfest?

Can Monad attract unique value adding, non-fork dApps?

1/ Ethereum is good:

Ten reasons to be bullish on $ETH↓ 2/ Low Inflation:

Despite low gas fees, ETH's annual inflation is below 1%.

In comparison, other major L1 competitors have higher inflation rates, such as SOL at around 4%, along with significant VC unlocks expected in the coming years for most other L1s (SUI, APTOS, etc.)

1/ Easy to be bearish on ETH:

It underperformed SOL and BTC, and bearish sentiment dominates the feed.

But there's a catalyst to get bullish about: Pectra upgrade: 🧵 2/ The Pectra Upgrade is Ethereum’s next major upgrade, expected to roll out in Q1 2025.

It merges the Prague (execution layer) and Electra (consensus layer) updates.

Unlike previous upgrades, Pectra seems to get no FOMO at all.

1/ Random thoughts on the state of crypto: #2

Investing in MOST previous cycle tokens is a waste—they are either boring or hose teams have already "made it" and are just pretending to care about their projects.

Find the exceptions to outperform the market. 2/ Solana is fun for trading, but long term holdings better stored on Ethereum.

L2s are currently worse at both.

1/ You can't hit replay on a big announcement.

Be it a protocol mainnet launch, an airdrop, a tokenomics reveal, or a major upgrade—you've got one chance.

Make it count.

So, here's my trade offer: 👇 2/ The usual crypto playbook involves an official blog post, a tweet with a hope it clicks.

Teams also pay for PR articles on media and appear on podcasts to talk about the launch.

All this is great, but there's a missing piece to make the launch truly resonate...

Polkadot spent $37m USD in outreach during the first half of 2024, targeting new users, developers, and businesses

• $10m on ads/sponsorships
• $4.4m on influencers
• $4m on digital ads

Yet Polkadot still seems invisible on X and elsewhere. In total, Polkadot spent $86m USD in the past 6 months:

The Treasury manages 245m USD (38m DOT) in assets, of which 188m USD (29m DOT) are liquid.

At this burn rate, they'll go bankrupt in less than 2 years.

https://twitter.com/1405113174911766529/status/1806832651422122492