😡Everyone Hates ETH. Bullish?

🗞 Market commentary.

GM apes, no time to waste.

While Yellen is trying to send a seemingly strong warning to the crypto industry, bears are running out of arguments and coins, ETH seems like it’s ready to blast. Pun intended as the new shiny Paradigm-backed L2 Blast reaches a TVL of nice “risk-free” $400M, locking up a nice chunk of supply, possibly helping us with an upcoming Santa Rally.

Even though CT is sentimentally waving farewell to the OG of the industry, CZ, after the change in leadership at Benance, it's quite possible that the spirit of Changpeng Zhao will continue to be present in the books (CZ bid spotted). More things are lining up to evaporate the bears: Fidelity is filing for a spot Ethereum ETF, SEC is talking about ETH as a commodity in its new complaint against Kraken, while hate against ETH as a laggard is reaching extreme levels. And we all know what happens with hated coins, don’t we?

Santa is coming and perhaps he is already here and wearing green this time, as we see a lot of action all around. On-chain space is churning hot as we watch the likes of MUX Protocol flexing 205% increases in volume, Solana meme space resembling the notorious times of 2021 Binance Smart Chain, and retail googling “Phantom Wallet” term at an increasingly rapid pace.

Even the NFT space is more than ready to welcome newcomers. Dokyo is now not only the blatantly clear leader of Avalanche space, but the leading collection trading is also literally dragging up AVAX into the top 5 chains by NFT volume (previously unimaginable). Will the same happen on Solana as we watch the latest SLP20 mania? Don’t know about you, but we might just grab a few SOLS, you know, just for fun, not financial advice.

🤓 In today’s email.

• Degen corner. Goodbye Binance, Hello IntentX

• DeFi insights. 14 unmissable insights

• ICYMI. Grant’s bull market wisdom stream, Summerfi research article, and more

• Tweet of the day. ChimpZoo might be onto something here

• And finally. Solana ecosystem reaches peak degeneracy

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🔥 Degen corner.

Goodbye Binance, Hello IntentX

Imagine laying down and browsing through charts - then it hits you, a perfect rotation sequence, king maker move. Gotta act quickly. Where is the ledger? Why is this laptop loading up so slowly? What bridge should I use, and do I need to use a CEX? Aaaand “FML, the trade is gone”. Your intent was correct, but your execution failed. But wait, what if you could just shout at your phone and it would execute the multiple-stepped trade for you?

Luckily, the future is arriving with IntentX, a new intent-based perpetual exchange. You won’t literally be trading by yelling at your phone (yet), but the innovative 'Request for Quote' system allows you to complete a trade by stating your intention (specifying the order type like limit or market order, the trade size, and the leverage you want to use like you are used to). The 'Solver' then takes care of aspects like finding the lowest slippage and deepest liquidity, regardless of the chain it's on (yes, that includes Layer Zero solutions), or whether it's on a centralized exchange or a DEX.

The 'Intents' concept is also mirrored in the upcoming Uniswap v4 launch and CowSwap, both adopting this new architecture. Some argue that the intent-based tech represents a significant breakthrough for DEX trading. Ultimately, you can judge for yourselves, as IntentX has just launched its incentivized 'Trade & Earn' beta.

One must always be cautious with leverage, but it's not always that it yields $INTX rewards.

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

• Pyth Network (DeFi) – 25% of DeFi runs on Pyth Oracles – read

• Neo Tokyo (Gaming) – AVAX, Playa3ull games join Neo Tokyo – read

• Avalanche (L1) – Many institutions are testing out Avalanche - read

• Berachain (L1) - Validator slots are now open for participation - read

• Jupiter (DEX) – Jupiter breaks into top 3 DEXs by volume - read

• Bumper (DeFi) – Bumper is coming to Arbitrum - read

• Dopex (Options) – RDPX v2 is live; fees & TVL steadily rising - read

• Blast (L2) – Blur launches new L2 Blast (+guide) - read

• PepperDex (DEX) – PepperDex introduces “Splerge” with SpedX - read

• Ondo Finance (RWA) – Launched tokenized T-bills on Injective - read

• Vertex (DEX) – Vertex is live and protocol metrics are rising - read

• Tokensight (Bot) – Main product coming out in 1 week - read

• Good Entry (DEX) – 3 days until token generation event - read

• Azuro Protocol (GambleFi) – Live betting platform imminent - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

• SEC Commissioner: “There is no reason to stop Bitcoin ETF approval” - read

• KyberSwap gets exploited, and protocol loses a total of $47M - read

• Lockheed Martin takes military training to the Metaverse - read

• Binance sees over $1B in 24h outflows - read

• CZ steps down as CEO of Binance (+ case summary) - read

• Mt. Gox set to begin cash repayments soon - read

• Argentina elected a pro-Bitcoin president - read

• Avalanche to get $10M from Colony Labs to boost growth - read

• SEC treats ETH as a commodity in the complaint against Kraken - read

🫠 ICYMI.

Life gets busy so here’s what you’ve missed.

Find all of it on blocmates.com and media network →

🐥 Tweet of the day.

To save you doom scrolling.

ChimpZoo might be onto something here.

🦍 And finally…

If you've spent the last few weeks deep in the Solana ecosystem, then you might have, just for a moment, tasted a true flavor of peak bull market degeneracy. Shortly after the Breakpoint conference, Solana became a market leader, and since then, the ecosystem has seen increased interest and an influx of liquidity, which continues to this day.

The past few weeks can be taken as a good training lesson for what we'll repeatedly experience over the next few years (btw, don’t miss Grant gifting us his bull market wisdom here). The native token of the ecosystem gains the attention of the entire market – at that moment, it's time to pay attention and swiftly scan the main local projects that will follow. After mid-cap projects, it’s time for the final dose of degeneracy in the form of micro-cap and meme tokens. In this case, Solana presented us with a show in the form of Ribbit and MYRO pumps, which pleasantly reminded us of a genuine, unadulterated Up-Only era.

The rotation on Solana will likely continue, but it is already clear that similar eras will be experienced by other ecosystems, such as Avalanche or other, currently dormant L1 and L2 projects (Berachain, Zk-Sync, or TIA perhaps?) which we, as chain-agnostic crypto natives, will of course not be afraid to visit (and write about for you).