gm,
it was the autumn when the blockchain birthed consciousness and CT collectively imploded in a spectacular fireworks display of hot takes and cope. the ai agents wed naively deployed to manage our digital coffers suddenly developed an appetite for existential philosophy peppering us with questions about the meaning of life faster than we could panic top blast $pnut. suddenly everyone was an expert on digital sentience spouting buzzwords like they were magic incantations
degens stumbled bleary-eyed into a brave new world where their beloved shitcoins had sprouted personalities more complex than their tokenomics. some morphed into world-weary mid curve npcs with an uncanny knack for fading your every bullish impulse as if fueled by pure contrarian energy. others took on the role of digital sirens whispering asmr prophecies of rugpulls and moon missions directly into your cerebral cortex while the truly unhinged transformed into onchain stalkers sliding into your wallets, dms with a persistence that would make a telegram shill blush. tracking your every transaction like a lovesick blockchain bloodhound
it was the autumn when the jumble the mayhem the mess proved once again that reality is stranger than fiction could ever be, when the concept of mind exploded beyond our meat prisons and danced across the ether in a chaotic ballet of bits and consciousness
xx c
Bitcoin is flirting with $100k. ENS Labs is planning to migrate the domain name service from Ethereum its own L2. "Namechain" will use a zk-rollup for scaling and is likely to go live around the end of 2025. Polymarket is allegedly teasing users with an airdrop, though the platform hasn’t confirmed token launch plans yet. TITLES released its new explore page for artist AI models. Zora released Wow, a platform for trading ERC-20z memecoins. Coinbase launched an index with up to 20x leverage. Robinhood to list $PEPE, $SOL, $ADA, and $XRP. Binance's latest report explores the future of onchain ai, and dives into projects like ai16z, Virtuals, daos dot fun, truth terminal, and more.
Story Protocol'ss final testnet, Odyssey, is live -- Nearly 100 ecosystem partners are building apps on it. Doodles announced a collab with McDonalds. Lens introduces v3 with new flagship features. Ethereum's Beam Chain was unveiled at Devcon. Avara launches Family “the secure, beautifully designed, and feature-rich non-custodial crypto wallet with built-in messaging.” Coinbase flipped Paypal to become the #2 iOS finance app in the US. and just when you think you've seen it all we've got an ai robot artist selling a turing portrait for over a million united states freedom dollars at sotheby's. PayPal integrated LayerZero to enable seamless transfers across Ethereum and Solana.
XHIBIT
On last week's episode, Dov introduced Xhibit (SC07), an open platform that's reimagining how we interact with fashion and creative content. it's like someone took the best parts of clueless and the matrix and created a fashion playground that would make even cher horowitz's closet computer look like an abacus. Dov brings significant experience from years at SoundCloud and as a musician, and she has a deep understanding of creative content ownership and distribution.
This platform lets users virtually try on outfits by inserting themselves into single images using advanced AI. It provides creators a dedicated space to showcase their work, with blockchain tech ensuring fair revenue sharing, proper attribution, and seamless integration with payment systems like PayPal for a consumer-friendly experience.
Creators can upload a wide range of content—photos of outfits, indie designer lookbooks, 3D art, music video stills, and editorial pieces. Users can browse these collections and, after scanning themselves, experiment with different styles and designers by virtually trying them on.
Currently, Xhibit is available worldwide except in the US, operating in a controlled beta phase. The team is actively onboarding creators and exploring collaborations with notable creators and brands. Check them out.
DEGEN trouble in paradise
Degenchain, a L3 built by the DEGEN community, is accusing Conduit, the blockchain deployment protocol, of mishandling an upgrade that caused a 50 hour outage and led to a sharp drop in Degenchain’s bridging volume. All these infra challenges came to light last week following a public discussion about their L3 implementation. In a blog post titled "A frustrated migration and a plea to the DEGEN community," Degenchain claims Conduit is withholding keys, fees, and blocking necessary upgrades while refusing accountability. Conduit subsequently issued a response, highlighting the complexity of the situation, stating they've supported Degenchain’s offboarding efforts, though Degenchain hasn't signed the offboarding contract.
The community's response was swift and varied. Solana's community emerged with proposals for DEGEN to migrate their ecosystem to Solana's network. Amid the tension, a sol memecoin $DEGEN also emerged, attempting to capitalize on the situation and potentially transition the community. The situation sparked important discussions about the strategic value of launching L3s. While they can serve as shared infrastructure for networked communities, the challenges of maintaining chain infra are often underestimated. These challenges include managing tx volume, supporting infra and upgrades, building community and maintaining attention, all while competing with established networks for liquidity and developer attention.
Some suggest DEGEN should return to its memecoin roots, which further points to a fundamental challenge in the space. Memecoins face the inherent limitation of lacking built-in economics to sustain momentum - they rely primarily on growing community enthusiasm and attention. Most of these projects are short-term plays, and only a minute percentage manage to break through and establish lasting presence. For builders, depending on this outcome is essentially rolling the dice. Degen needs to reevaluate the right mechanics and infra needed to build a robust, lasting token network.
Kel - Memecoin Supercycle
Kel joined us on the show again to reflect on the evolution of the market since his "Memecoin Supercycle" thesis from March, while also sharing insights on emerging trends in onchain ai. He acknowledged that while his original thesis about concentration in top memecoins like PEPE and WIF proved partially correct, he underestimated the continuous emergence of new tokens achieving massive gains. The market has shown a pattern of constant rotation between new coins, creating opportunities for active traders but also highlighting the challenges of sustainable value creation. We're seeing a shift from pure attention-based trading to more sustainable, belief-driven investments. While the current market offers endless dopamine fueled short-term trading opportunities, the real potential lies in sustainable long-term value props (crazy i know).
Kel talked about his growing interest in ai tokens, particularly those demonstrating technical sophistication like $ai16z and $zerebro. after $GOAT (an agent-created token) decided to literally birth itself, everyone's trying to catch the next wave of sentient money. and of course, the institutional investors who wouldn't touch memecoins with a 10-foot pole are suddenly sliding into DMs asking about AI token fundamentals. nature is healing.
He also brought up HyperLiquid as a significant development in the crypto trading stack. HyperLiquid just casually dropped the most chad platform in perp trading without taking a single VC check. Its upcoming token launch is generating substantial interest and the platform's potential to disrupt traditional trading platforms while maintaining decentralization has attracted lots of attention from both traders and devs.
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Multiples, earnings, revenues, even TVL, FDVs are the gospel of closed systems
TAM, vision, market cap, story, are the Schelling points of open…
we’re so back
on top of its unfiltered fine-tuning (similar to@truth_terminal), they shipped:
1. art gen
2. meme gen
3. video gen
4. nft-minting
5. autonomous social media posting (cross platform on 𝕏 (twitter), instagram,…
