so the virtuals design mechanism is really working like that
you yapp a bit, get a bunch of points, allocate them into a hyped agent launch, commit some virtuals to it, get allocated a certain amount of agent token
traditionally i never invited guests on to the show
we did that for a long time because i never wanted to rent our audience
i didn't want to show up one day and noone turns up because we didn't have a big name joining
i wanted to show that our own individual research and insights could hold their own
it is much harder to grow this way: there is no big account retweeting or pushing you for any reason
but over time i believe this has established our own voices and personalities (even if you don't like the style, you can't knock the hustle)
NOW it's time to throw some coal on the fire
i actually want to host more conversations
the space is so much bigger than it was in 2021: it's actually impossible to keep up with it all and we have seen a number of great leaders emerge in different pockets of the industry
+ so we want to host those conversations
from a position of already establishing an intelligent and excellent audience
MM DIAL INS 2025: extending the show to host some of the most interesting contributors to our industry
- JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon announces clients will be able to buy BTC: compares buying BTC to smoking; he doesn't like it but defends your right to do it
- The Senate advances Genius Act to help progress regulation on stablecoins
Notable PA
- AAVE +21% to $4.2B FDV
- LAUNCHCOIN up again +16% to 240M
- REKT up another 10% to 88M
Notable Sales
- Kaito Genesis NFTs +10% to 2.8 ETH
- 5 CryptoPunks sold between 46 - 55 ETH
- Refik Anadol, Biome Lumina - 4.55 ETH
Web 3 Round Up
- Circle could be sold to Coinbase or Ripple according to sources: Ripple's $4-5B previous bid rejected
- Bybit has become first major crypto exchange to offer direct global trading with USDT: access to 78 top equities
- Binance seeks to dismiss FTX $1.76B clawback lawsuit
More News
- SEC Chair Hester Peirce in latest speech suggests all crypto assets which are 'collectibles and stablecoins' should probably be excluded from 'security' definition
- Indonesia-based fintech firm DigiAsia announces plan to raise $100M to buy BTC and allocate up to 50% of future net profits for continued BTC accumulation
- Virtuals announces Diamond Hand Bonus now can only be achieved by staking agent tokens too, not just passive agent holdings
Social Crypto
- Huma Finance announce multi-season rewards campaign allocating 0.5% of token to Huma Yappers; portion also going to Kaito ecosystem
- Noise the mindshare trading protocol on MegaETH announces that top week 1 Infinex yappers will receive Noise invite codes
- Yu Hu shares future Kaito vision: "from June onwards it will also be the BNB for capital formation"
- BTC runs to $106K before sharp pull back to $102K
- Trump's tax bill progresses which is estimated to add around $4 trillion to deficits over a decade; Moody downgrade US credit rating; Bessent signals debt to increase whilst trying to maximise US GDP; US Treasury yields rise; Japan's 40 year bond yield just hit highest level in 20 years
Notable PA
- ETH down 4% on the day back to $2.4K, SOL down 5% to $161; HYPE down 3% to $26
- Memes are red across the board: FARTCOIN -5% to $1.21; MOODENG - 6% to $0.23
- LAUNCHCOIN down 15% to 210M, holding around 200M quite strongly the last few days
- VIRTUALS shows strength against everything else: up 3% to $1.84
Notable Sales
- CryptoPunk, Zombie - 440 ETH
- Other World, Prophets - 16 ETH
- CryptoPunk, Shades - 54.5 ETH
- Refik Anadol, WOT - 8.99 ETH
Web 3 Round Up
- Japanese investment firm Metaplanet buys another 1004 BTC for around $104M: total holdings up to around $806M
- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shares screenshot of $357M in unrealised profit on BTC buys
- US Senate to vote on stablecoin regulation with the GENIUS Act as soon as today
More News
- ARBUS agent settles around $12M after being launched on Virtuals: more than 50x for virgen points spenders
- Token Works minted 256 NFTs for 1 ETH each raising 256 ETH: a studio to fund creators vesting over time instead of immediate transfer of funds
Social Crypto
- PT-sKAITIO has risen to 44% as market is bidding YT on Pendle: Kaito Founder Yu Hu shares thought that people are waking up to 'earn and drop' season for sKAITO holders
- KAITO shows strength against rest of market +10% to $1.92
- Openledger announces reward month of Yaptopus: ranks 1-25 will share $15k pool; also a specific similar pool for Chinese region
- btc leads a portfolio into aths, i sense the ppl who don’t have btc are the ppl who need to forget their peak portfolio because they’ll never get back if they don’t rebalance into btc routinely
- hype is outperforming every other major and with the alleged next airdrop coming + many protocols having tokens + the insane aprs live on evm atm i can’t think why the majority of “major exposure” - apart from what you want in btc - shouldn’t be here (the why imo is the potential legal risk of cexs going after them)
- wanna reposition stables farming protocols, i feel like live yield on hyperevm or nft lending at attractive ltvs is going to outperform providing liquidity for points at the moment
- private investments are markedly reduced, reduced check sizes, more conviction. proceeds being split between stable farms, btc, and some more hype