Recent Research

📊 Reflecting on EthCC – 8/3

• Paris was highlighted by EthCC and the Modular Summit, with other infra-focused side events during the week.
• Common themes throughout were MEV, account abstraction (ERC-4337), intents, zk (both for privacy and scaling), rollups, and shared sequencers.
• In this report, we’re not going to dive specifically into those concepts, but instead touch on projects that take advantage of them.
• Some of these open up new capabilities for applications, like Circle’s CCTP. Others are more of a mix of DeFi and infra, with Aori and UniswapX highlighting a growing trend toward more “intent-centric” applications.
• Lastly, we go over the “Endgame” debate between Vitalik (Ethereum), Anatoly (Solana), and Mustafa (Celestia).

📊 Yuga Labs: From PFPs to Games – Where Does It Go From Here? – 8/1

• At some point, Yuga Labs understood that it could not perpetually release additional NFTs or minor perks in order to maintain user engagement and the FOMO-driven high valuations. Thus, the company adjusted its strategy to focus on content and revenue-generating business models.
• As reflected by a number of recent hires, games and gamified experiences have and will continue to play a pivotal role in Yuga Labs’ short to medium-term vision.
• ApeCoin was introduced to be the fuel that powers the various initiatives within Yuga Labs’ ecosystem, namely the BAYC and Otherside IPs. The ERC-20 token’s two main functions are governance and in-app utility.
• This report will, at a high level, outline each one of Yuga Labs’ gaming-related ecosystems and dive into a granular analysis of the pros and cons of each.

📊 Pro Crypto Insider Talks – July 2023 – 7/29

• In July’s Crypto Insider Talks, Ash Bennington, Raoul Pal, and Kevin Kelly discuss key topics such as the Ripple ruling and its market implications, pending BTC ETFs, the potential of Coinbase’s COIN in a bull market, and the Unibot Telegram bot.

Relevant Reminder

📌 Bull v Bear – Markets, Unibot & Hikes – 7/26

• Join us for a stimulating episode of Bull vs. Bear following Chairman Powell’s FOMC speech. We analyze the market implications of the Fed’s commentary and dive deep into the world of trading bots. Our focus is Unibot, a standout in the bear market due to its novel use case, easy to use UI and exciting approach to revenue sharing.