Ether outpaces Solana and Bitcoin in capital inflows and futures dominance, with $4,000 retest in the cards. Key takeaways: Capital rotation favors Ether as “Hot Capital Ratio” hits a yearly low for Solana. ETH futures dominance grows with open interest hitting $58 billion. Read more
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko ignited criticism from the crypto community by likening memecoins to loot boxes in mobile games. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has sparked controversy after referring to memecoins and non-fungible tokens as “digital slop,” despite Solana’s substantial memecoin-driven revenue. “I’ve said this for years. Memecoins and NFTs are digital slop and have no intrinsic value,” Yakovenko said in a X post on Sunday while comparing the crypto tokens to loot boxes in free-to-play mobile games. Yakovenko’s comment came during a debate with Base creator Jesse Pollak over whether memecoins and NFTs have fundamental value, and if so, where that value lies. Read more
Solana’s Firedancer validator client promises huge speed boosts but faces network limits as developer Douglas Colkitt tests its full potential on Fogo. Solana’s next-generation validator client, Firedancer, may not reach full speed on the network it was built for as technical limits push developers to test it elsewhere. One of those developers is Douglas Colkitt, a former high-frequency trader who’s testing a hybrid validator setup called Frankendancer on Fogo, a Solana-compatible chain built to remove the constraints that currently prevent Firedancer from reaching its full potential on Solana. Colkitt, a founding contributor at Fogo, said the new blockchain isn’t trying to replace Solana but does discard some of Solana’s core assumptions, such as globally distributed validator sets, to showcase how far Firedancer can go when speed takes priority over decentralization. Read more
Forget OpenAI stock — Solana apps are tokenizing Pokemon cards. Hong Kong warns stablecoin hopefuls to prep for disappointment. Asia Express The tokenization of physical collectibles is quietly gaining momentum, with Pokmon cards based on the globally popular Japanese gaming and anime franchise emerging as a standout use case. On Solana, a new wave of platforms is turning real-world assets (RWAs) like Pokmon cards into non-fungible tokens (NFTs). One of the leading platforms in this niche is Collector Crypt, which has processed nearly $95 million in total volume in under a year, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard by X user zKayAPE. The platform specializes in tokenizing Pokmon cards into NFTs, each of which is claimed to be redeemable for its physical counterpart. Much of the activity is driven by its digital gacha feature, inspired by Japans capsule-toy vending machines, where users test their luck by trading a fixed amount of money for randomized items. These platforms function like onchain versions of...