🌅 Welcome!
Ethereum’s Merge was a resounding success, with the Merge block proposed in Slot #4700013 and finalized in epoch #146876 at 06:46:47 AM UTC. The most frequent graffiti since is “🐠Welcome to the New Beginning”.
FTX is looking to raise capital, Solana’s NFT ecosystem records a spike, and our Research team brings you the latest on ApeDAO.
This is the Delphi Daily. Welcome to the new beginning.
🚨 In Case You Missed It

- The Merge is finally complete.
- Coinbase announces crypto sentiment scorecards for members of congress based on publicly available statements.
- Opera‘s web3 focused browser integrates MetaMask.
- FTX is raising capital as it considers a retail-focused acquisition deal.
📊 Daily NFT Transactions Spike On Solana After y00ts NFT Mint

- Solana experienced a 372% increase in NFT volume on September 6th and 279% increase in NFT transaction count on September 7th.
- The network recorded NFT volume of 344k SOL, the highest daily volume since the previous all-time high set in May. This massive spike occurred just as the ‘y00ts: mint t00bs’ NFT collection was released.
- The y00ts NFT collection’s total volume has reached 340k SOL, which represents 20% of the network’s NFT volume since the collection was launched.
- Over the last 30 days, the y00ts collection ranks first in volume on Magic Eden, followed by other popular collections on Solana – Abracadabra (ABC) and DeGods. ABC also ranks second in transaction count at 42k, just behind GMers at 47k.
- Looking past the recent surge in activity, Solana’s NFT ecosystem appears to be maturing and has started seeing increasing interest since August.
- For more on Solana’s NFT ecosystem, Delphi members can read our NFT Insights report here.
⚡ ApeCoin DAO & The Imminent Launch of $APE Staking
- ApeCoin DAO was established to fairly and inclusively steward the Bored Ape ecosystem’s growth and development. It was launched to much fanfare six months ago with an airdrop of $APE tokens to Bored Ape NFT holders (BAYC, MAYC, Kennel Club).
- Today, it is worth revisiting ApeCoin DAO because of two upcoming events:
- A major token unlock on 16 September
- The imminent launch of $APE staking
- Let’s quickly revisit the tokenomics for $APE. The total supply of $APE is 1 billion.
- 62% to the ecosystem fund, including the initial airdrop (the fund unlocks 7.3m tokens per month)
- 16% to Yuga Labs & charity (12 months initial lock-up — unlock starts 17 March 2023)
- 8% to BAYC founders (12 months initial lock-up — unlock starts 17 March 2023)
- 14% to launch contributors (Various schedules)
- Currently, the circulating supply of $APE is ~314m tokens (31% of supply). Approximately 150m+ is in the DAO treasury, while the remaining 160m is circulating among users today.
- The first major unlock for $APE outside the ecosystem fund will occur on September 17th when 25m $APE tokens will be released to launch contributors. This represents ~8% of circulating supply.
- No information has been released on the “launch contributors” but it is reasonable to deduce that it includes investors such as a16z, Animoca Brands and FTX.
- The million-dollar question is whether these launch contributors will sell their tokens once released. This will lead to significant sell pressure on $APE.
- No one knows, but we can postulate that if they are long-term investors in Yuga Labs, there is a reasonable chance they will hold on to most of the unlocked tokens.
- For more on ApeDAO, Delphi members can read our NFT Insights report here.
🐣 Notable Tweets
Rebuttals to Common Criticisms of Ethereum
Difficulty, Forks and More During the Merge