GM Anon! Welcome to the M6 Labs report, your weekly data-driven recap of major market events. Packed with actionable insights, our aim is to help you maximize your profits. Whether you're a Bitcoin maximalist, NFT enthusiast, or user of esoteric DeFi protocols, there's valuable information here for you to capitalize on. With the market heating up, let's dive right in without further ado!

Alpha Take

State Of The Market

Industry

• The UK economy had officially fallen into recession, while the United States grapples with higher-than-expected inflation rates. 

• The unseasonally adjusted CPI annual rate for January was reported at 3.1%, exceeding expectations and leading analysts to reconsider the timing of potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. 

• Fed Chair Powell emphasized the importance of a Stablecoin Bill during discussions with House Democrats, indicating a regulatory focus on stablecoins.

• Meanwhile, Japan has taken steps to curb unlawful money transfers by urging banks to screen crypto transfers. 

• In response to illicit activities, the US Treasury has introduced new tools to counter such behavior, signaling increased regulatory scrutiny in the crypto space.

• On the investment front, Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, reportedly invested $200M in Bitcoin and Ethereum last year, highlighting growing institutional interest in crypto. 

• Ripple's plans to acquire digital asset platform Standard Custody and Ledger's integration with Coinbase Pay to provide direct access for users to buy and sell crypto further demonstrate the expanding ecosystem.

• Glenlivet Distillery has innovated by introducing Ethereum NFTs and AI into its whiskey collection, blending traditional luxury with blockchain technology.

• Looking ahead, the spot ETH ETFs have key decision dates in May, with applications from Van Eck, Ark 21Shares, and Hashdex, indicating growing interest in crypto investment products. 

• Manifold Finance's proposed settlement of $300K regarding the eth.link domain dispute with the ENS DAO reflects ongoing legal developments in the space.

• Lastly, Citigroup's successful proof-of-concept for tokenizing private equity funds, in partnership with Ava Labs and other financial institutions, highlights the potential for blockchain-based solutions to transform traditional finance. 

Projects

• Magic Eden is preparing to launch a new Ethereum Marketplace on February 27th, collaborating with Yuga Labs, aiming to enhance accessibility and trading options within the Ethereum ecosystem. Now would be a good time start looking into earning Diamonds! Follow this in-depth guide.

• Aptos has introduced passwordless passkey authentication for transactions, improving security and user experience. 

• Prisma Finance has introduced $ULTRA, a sound money asset backed by Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs), gaining popularity in the EigenLayer ecosystem. Be sure to stake on EigenLayer for their anticipated airdrop, follow this guide.

• Conduit has made mainnet rollup deployments accessible to anyone with its permissionless deployment feature. 

• CoW DAO is addressing issues of loss versus rebalancing in DeFi with an AMM designed to capture MEV. 

• Additionally, developments include the introduction of DN-404, a rival token standard to ERC-20.

• Blast's Big Bang competition attracted 3000 teams. 

• On the gaming front, PlayDapp faced a significant breach, losing $290M worth of tokens, while Analog raised funds at a $120M valuation. 

• Copper integrated custody support for Hashnote’s USYDC stablecoin.

• Aave v3 has launched on Scroll. Speaking of Scroll, have you transferred funds to qualify for their airdrop? Their TVL is still small, indicating ample opportunity!

• Polygon introduced the Type 1 Prover, while StarkWare and Herodotus unveiled the Cairo Verifier for Layer 3 appchains. 

• Solana and Ethereum proposed improvements to transaction fee mechanisms, and LayerZero Labs explained DVNs in LayerZero V2. 

• Nibiru Chain announced a collaboration with Humanode to enhance voting and governance within the Nibiru ecosystem.

• Be sure to checkout Koii is offering an Incentivized Testnet on CoinList, aiming to accelerate the growth of their network. They are offering 200,000,000 tokens to qualifying users for their contributions.

The Stark airdrop encountered significant challenges, leading to its failure despite initial anticipation. 

• Over the course of many months, participants faced numerous issues that overshadowed the potential rewards. 

• The engagement campaign, designed to incentivize user activity, proved ineffective due to high transaction costs and lengthy processing times. 

• Additionally, liquidity provisioning, a critical component for core dapps, did not yield the expected results. Many participants found themselves disqualified for seemingly arbitrary reasons, adding to the frustration.

• Furthermore, anomalies in token distribution raised eyebrows, with some wallets receiving substantial amounts despite minimal activity. 

• Projects like Ekubo exacerbated tensions by nullifying points earned over several months, citing issues with specific strategies. Confusion also surrounded the criteria for early ETH users, leading to further disillusionment.

• Moreover, concerns about the project's focus on developer contributions surfaced as early as December, signaling underlying issues. Despite initial optimism, the stark reality of the situation prompted users to withdraw their funds and seek alternative opportunities within the crypto space.

• In response to the challenges faced, Braavos is taking steps to mitigate the disappointment with a strategic move. They are organizing a free-to-play lottery as a form of damage control, aiming to distribute 1M Stark tokens to participants. 

• This initiative provides an opportunity for community engagement while offering a chance to win tokens. To learn more and participate, check out the details here.

Bitcoin 

BTC has surged passing $52K. With the halving around the corner, billions being acquired by ETF issuers, and 70% of the supply not moving for over a year, a supply shock is imminent for BTC. This momentum is expected to propel it to new highs. Strap in, Anon, rocket is about to take off.

On February 14th, the highest amount of ETF inflows was recorded, surpassing $600 million.

BTC's open interest in USD terms has surged, surpassing $11B for the first time since December 2021.

Ecosystem Opportunities

• Thunderpick is hosting a Counter-Strike 2 competition with a prize pool of $1M in Bitcoin, nearly doubling last year's pot.

• Holding top Ordinals collection on Bitcoin offers rewards, with Rune Guardians being the latest collection to be airdropped to holders. Previous airdrops included RSIC, which had significant value at its peak. Individuals holding collections like NodeMonkes, Bitcoin Puppets, Bitmaps, and Bitcoin Frogs have the potential to receive such rewards.

• Tap Protocol has surpassed BRC20 in 24-hour Bitcoin Ordinals transaction activity, handling 645 transactions compared to BRC-20's 297 transactions. This surge in activity reflects a potential disruption in DeFi on the Bitcoin network. Additionally, Tap Protocol's native token, TRAC, is gaining momentum and is now closely trailing other Ordinals-related tokens in terms of market cap.

L1s, L2s & DeFi

Blue Chip and Majors Overview

Bitcoin 

Bitcoin’s price recently broke through the $50K mark as the larger crypto market holds its breath for future price movements of the world’s largest crypto. Sentiment seems positive, with Bitcoin currently trading around $52K, hitting yet another yearly peak, with its market capitalization hitting the $1T mark again, prompting many to talk about its performance in 2021. Notably, finance expert and investor Peter Schiff has stated that Bitcoin can potentially hit $100K. The crypto has registered an impressive increase of 17% over the past week, with historical accumulation trends showing that breaking past $54K could send BTC rallying to the $60K mark.

Ethereum  

Ethereum is barrelling towards the $3K mark, with the token currently trading around $2800. The crypto has seen an impressive increase of over 15% over the past week. The surge in price comes as staking deposits on the Beacon Chain hit $85B, with 25% of ETH’s circulating supply locked up in smart contracts on the Beacon Chain. Can Ethereum reclaim the coveted $3K level once again after three days?

• Solana (SOL) - Solana has continued its remarkable run of 2024, with momentum soaring so far. Regardless of the recent network shutdown, confidence in SOL has surged through the roof, with SOL registering a yearly high of $118 on the 15th of February. The past two weeks have seen SOL register an increase of 22%, with market watchers suggesting that SOL is undergoing a parabolic recovery and could test the resistance at $130 in the next few days.

• BNB (BNB) - Driven by the broader market recovery and significant bullish patterns, BNB is eying a rally above the $350 mark. BNB has registered an increase of 15.7% over the past two weeks and is currently trading at $347. If BNB sustains its current momentum, we could see the price push towards the $400 mark.

• Avalanche (AVAX) - Avalanche has made a fairly strong recovery after its recent blip in January when it dropped to $28. The fourth quarter of 2023 saw Avalanche post a significant price increase before its late January drop. The token has since registered a considerable increase and is currently trading at $43. With news of the Durango upgrade on the Fuji testnet, we could see AVAX reclaim the $50 price level.

• Bittensor (TAO) - Bittensor has been on a high since finding mention in Vitalik Buterin’s comments. However, Bittensor’s rally is also because of the impressive recovery in the altcoin markets, with Bitcoin’s recovery catalyzing gains among AI tokens and impressive developments in its ecosystem. TAO has registered a highly impressive increase of 41% over the past couple of weeks. Several other developments in the Bittensor ecosystem are also driving TAO’s rally, including significant projects such as AIT, Kizuna, Roko, and TPad.

• Kaspa (KAS) - Kaspa has made a strong recovery following a significant drop after it reached its all-time high in November 2023. By the beginning of February, the token had dropped to $0.098. However, the token has since made considerable gains and is trading at $0.139, registering a 41% increase over the past two weeks and a staggering 2010% increase over the past year. According to an analysis by Changelly, Kaspa is in for a bullish February, which could see the token capitalize on its upside momentum.

• Stacks (STX) - Stacks has emerged as one of the biggest gainers among the top cryptos, registering an impressive 27% increase over the past 24 hours, briefly hitting a 26-month high of $2.8. Several factors have contributed to this surge, such as its ability to bring smart contract functionality to Bitcoin. Another bullish indicator can be found in the Stacks DeFi ecosystem, where TVL in DeFi protocols on Stacks has surged by over 50% over the past couple of weeks.

• Sei (SEI) - After facing numerous rejections, Sei finally shattered the $0.88 resistance, setting a new all-time high of $0.997. Sei has registered a staggering increase of 53% over the past week and is looking to break past $1. 

• ThorChain (RUNE) - After a sluggish start to 2024, RUNE has surged after completing a V-shaped recovery. RUNE has registered an impressive increase of 26% over the past couple of weeks, as it looks to push towards $6, with multiple technical indicators supporting RUNE’s bullish outlook.

• Mina (MINA) - Mina has remained relatively strong in February after a considerable drop at the start of the year, which saw the token drop from around $1.65 to $1.01. After a brief period of volatility, MINA dropped below $1 before posting a strong recovery that has seen it gain an impressive 17% over the past month. Currently, MINA is trading at just under $1.50.

• Beam (BEAM) - Beam is another crypto with a solid showing since the beginning of February. BEAM has surged by a staggering 78% over the past couple of weeks, hitting another all-time high of $0.031 just 12 hours ago. Currently, BEAM is trading at $0.030.

• Dymension (DYM) - Dymension was launched in one of the most highly anticipated airdrops of the year, with users across multiple blockchains receiving DYM tokens. Since the airdrop, DYM has been on an upward trajectory and hit a new all-time high of $8.50 on the 14th of February. As interest in Dymension continues to increase, we could see significant price appreciation of the DYM token.

• Pyth Network (PYTH) - Following the conclusion of its successful airdrop. PYTH has seen considerable movement in its price, with significant increases being the norm. If we look at PYTH’s price chart, we can see that it has seen considerably bullish movement all through February. It’s little surprise then that its latest rally saw PYTH hit a new all-time high of $0.68, registering a 32% increase over the past week.

• Blur (BLUR) - Blur has been in an uptrend since the beginning of February, going from $0.57 on the 7th of February to $0.77 by the 15th. This signifies an increase of over 25% over the past seven days. In fact, Blur was able to sustain its price levels despite the nearly 50M token unlock.

• Illuvium (ILV) - Illuvium has been highly bullish since the beginning of Feb, surging past the $100 mark on the 14th of February. ILV has registered an increase of over 40% in the past two weeks and is currently trading at $101.30.

• Axelar (AXL) - AXL has seen a significant surge in recent months, hitting its all-time high on the 22nd of December, 2023, when its price reached $1.27. The token’s recent rally is looking to test its all-time high again. Whether AXL can set a new all-time high remains to be seen. Axelar’s surge in price and popularity can be attributed to important developments and partnerships such as those with Immutable.

• Pandora (PANDORA) - Pandora has become a sensation since its launch on the 2nd of February. An unofficial ERC-404 standard, the token’s fully diluted valuation surged past $320M, while its total trading volume reached 73,024 ETH just a week after launching. The frenzy around PANDORA saw the token hit its all-time high of $32,493 on the 9th of February. However, PANDORA is down by over 10% since those heady highs and is currently trading at $19,752.

• Heroes of Mavia (MAVIA) - MAVIA, the native asset of the Web3 mobile game Heroes of Mavia, has registered considerable traction since it was airdropped to over 100k players. MAVIA hit its all-time high of $9.25 on the 11th of February but has retreated over the past 24 hours. Currently, MAVIA is trading at $7.34, indicating a 5.5% decrease over the past 24 hours.

• Immutable (IMX) - Immutable has been on a steady upward trajectory and reached its 2023 high of $2.6 in December. IMX has continued its upward trajectory since, breaking past $3 on the 12th of February, and is currently trading at $3.20, an increase of 40% over the past week. One reason behind the surge is the announcement of its immutable zkEVM mainnet.

• BONKLANA (BOK) - Bonklana was deployed on the Solana Network to represent the unity between the Solana and Bonk communities. The BOK token is currently trading at $0.001333.

• Pepe (PEPE) - The PEPE meme token recently saw a significant jump of 31% following the news of its listing on crypto exchange Bitstamp. Despite this massive surge, questions still linger about the long-term potential of the token. PEPE is currently trading at $0.00000125.

• Dogwifhat (WIF) - Digwifhat has quickly become one of the most beloved meme tokens in the market. The token has experienced considerable movement over the past week, gaining an impressive 88% over a 7-day period. Those seeking exposure to meme coins with promising growth prospects don’t need to look further than WIF. WIF was also recently listed on Bitfinex.

• Sui (SUI) - Sui is looking to reclaim $2 and potentially its all-time high price of $2.16. Looking at the SUI price chart, we can see the token has registered an increase of 23% over a 7-day period and is currently trading at the $1.90 mark. A couple of factors are driving the price of SUI upwards. Sui recently announced a partnership with Stardust, a leading Web3 infrastructure and user acquisition service provider. Additionally, Sui has also registered a surge in TVL.

• Wen (WEN) - WEN’s bullish momentum seems to have hit a bit of a bump over the past 24 hours. WEN had dropped significantly after hitting its all-time high of $0.0001808 on the 29th of January. However, the token dropped considerably following its all-time high, dropping to $0.000040. WEN had staged somewhat of a recovery recently, rising to $0.00012. However, the past 24 hours have seen the token register a 20% drop and is currently trading at $0.000095.

• Mog Coin (MOG) - Mog Coin is an Ethereum-based meme token that has seen staggering gains over the past week. The meme token has registered an increase of 305% over a 14-day period, hitting its all-time high of $0.00000020 on the 14th of February.

• SPX6900 (SPX) - SPX6900 is a highly advanced blockchain cryptography token. It reached its all-time high on the 30th of October when it was trading at $0.0264. Since its peak, SPX has registered a significant decline, first dropping to $0.0055 and then subsequently to $0.0014 by the beginning of February. The past week has seen heightened trading activity, leading to SPX registering an increase of 60% over a 7-day period. However, the past 24 hours have seen the token slip back into the red, dropping over 14%.

• Prom (PROM) - The PROM token recently jumped by a staggering 90% in a matter of hours following the revelation by DWF Labs head Andrei Grachev about his personal investment in the project. The news sent the token surging to $14, a level last seen in December 2021. PROM has since retreated and is currently trading at $11.18.

• Render (RNDR) - Render has seen considerable developments that have contributed to the token maintaining an upward trajectory over the past month. RNDR has registered a 26% increase over 30 days and is currently trading at $4.86. Render has emerged as a standout project in the crypto ecosystem, with some predicting the RNDR token could reclaim the $5.50 price level. It was also recently announced by Coinbase that it was listing the RNDR token.

Smart Money Movements

We've seen a strong shift towards AI tokens in smart money activity. Liquidity has been flowing into them with a strong flow.

• Smart Money has interacted heavily with $AIUS recently, which is a decentralised network of machine learning. Miners can set GPUs for it as well. The AI-powered projects that utilize GPU mining and incentivize users this way have been performing well recently.

• $NMT has also been among the smart money accumulations, another AI project powered by cloud computing. Users can rent their GPUs for AI use cases like image generation, machine learning, etc.

• Smart Money still heavily interacts with $PANDORA, still the leading token in the ERC404 narrative.

• $AIT has caught the attention of smart money as well. It's an AI data infrastructure, which is deploying a subnet on TAO.

• Smart Money is also detected in $PIER, a new OTC marketplace on ETH mainnet, which supports deals in an omnichain space. The $WHALES hype and success enticed smart money to get exposure to $PIER because of being in the same category and being new.

Yield Farms

• The Pendle/WETH pool on Camelot has become popular among smart farmers recently.

• Smart farmers have heavily staked stETH on MorpheusAI for farming their fair launch, which is liquidity mining in fact.

• Restaking ETH on Kelp Dao is still popular among smart farmers.

NFTs

• Decentraland announced artist selections for Art Week 2024.

• Sudoswap debuted on Base.

• Claynosaurz announced a free open edition on Magic Eden.

• CryptoPunks initiated the Punk in Residence program.

• At 1:33 AM UTC+8 on February 9th, the gold-skinned rare BAYC 1726, previously owned by the NFT whale Franklin, was sold for 275 ETH.

• Magic Eden is set to debut a new Ethereum Marketplace on February 27th, developed in partnership with Yuga Labs.

• Com2uS, a South Korean company, is venturing into the development of web3 games on the Oasys blockchain.

• Pixelmon is gearing up for its launch on Immutable zkEVM.

• Nifty Island unveiled a dedicated Discord bot.

• Wasabi Protocol added support for ERC-404.

• XAI hold airdrop for Lunar New Year.

• Artyfact pre-beta will be launched on February 27th!

• Playdapp exploited.

Quick Tasks

• Mint a free Bera Red Envelope NFT here

• Start trading NFTs from your Phone with Zaa 

• Mint a Penny Base free NFT

• Biconomy (BICO) launches Blast Inscription Campaign until February 19th. Participants mint free inscriptions on Blast and complete quests on Galxe to earn points.

• bitsCrunch (BCUT) is offering a free NFT mint on February 16th. Users can join the whitelist by completing Gleam tasks. Previously, BCUT raised $3.3M in a CoinList token sale at a $55M valuation. The token will be listed on February 20th. 

• Follow this thread for the confirmed $CAT airdrop!

Aether Games is launching its Initial Distribution Offering for the $AEG token on Polkastarter, heralding a gaming revolution that merges traditional gaming with blockchain technology. 

• The project, positioned in the Web3 Gaming & Transmedia Entertainment sector, boasts unique selling points including decades of Hollywood connections and a flagship product, the Aether Trading Card Game (Cards of Eternity). 

• The $AEG token, along with its presale version $wAEG, will power the entire Aether Trading Ecosystem, facilitating tokenization of in-game assets, multi-stage card awakening, crafting, disenchantment, esports rewards, and more. 

• Read about the IDO here.

• Keep an eye out on the Polkastarter page here. 

Arcade is conducting an airdrop named "Clash of Claims," a PVP event where holders of specific collections can win 3% of the total supply (3 million) of Arcade's token ARCD. 

• The airdrop will distribute 750 ARCD to the first 4,000 wallets holding eligible collections, until the total allocation of 3M ARCD is exhausted. 

• To qualify, users must connect their ETH, SOL, or BTC wallets holding selected collections on the Arcade.xyz platform.

While gaming on Solana is still emerging, it doesn't mean there aren't opportunities to get involved right away.

For a limited time, gamers can now access Aurory's Seekers of Tokane on the Epic Games Store. 

• This Solana-based game, which was previously only available to NFT holders and code recipients, is a role-playing and monster-battling adventure game.

• From February 12 to February 26, gamers have the opportunity to take part in an in-game event named Dracurve's Awakening and earn crypto rewards, which include AURY tokens and unique in-game NFTs. 

• Aurory aims to give away $50K worth of AURY tokens, with a part reserved for Aurorian NFT holders and the rest for non-holders. 

• Additionally, limited edition NFT collectibles and "Draconic Eggs" will also be up for grabs.

• Check out Seekers of Tokane on the Epic Game Store here.

Still time to farm Pixels anon!

Binance Launchpool is set to introduce the PIXEL token, accompanying the launch of the popular crypto game 'Pixels' on the Ronin network. 

• Users will have the opportunity to earn PIXEL rewards by staking BNB or FDUSD stablecoin in liquidity pools during a 10-day Launchpool promotion which started on Feb 9. 

• Binance will offer 350M PIXEL tokens, amounting to 7% of the total supply, with trading expected to commence on February 19. 

• While it's uncertain if PIXEL tokens will be airdropped to players from previous campaigns, about 28,000 wallets are eligible. 

• Pixels, previously on Polygon, migrated to Ronin last fall, driving a surge in daily active users on Ronin to 665,000. 

• Additionally, in preparation for the PIXEL launch, Pixels will retire its existing BERRY token, offering a swap for PIXEL at a rate of 1,000 BERRY for 7.6175 PIXEL.

• Check out this guide for further information, the clock is ticking!

Netmarble's Marblex, a blockchain division, has partnered with Saga, a gaming protocol, to develop and promote crypto games. 

• Saga's layer-1 blockchain network will support Marblex's chain, with both companies collaborating on user acquisition and promotion. 

• Saga's chainlet-based design enables cross-chain building and has existing agreements with other blockchain teams. Marblex, known for games like The King of Fighters Arena and Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds, plans to leverage Saga's network for its upcoming crypto games. 

• Additionally, Saga is currently running a "play-to-airdrop" campaign across numerous games to attract users to its ecosystem and incentivize participation with potential token rewards. 

• To profit, engage with Saga's X page by participating in their regular quests and also follow and engage with the actions published by Marblex. 

• Additionally, consider exploring the ongoing Pegasus incentivized testnet launched by Saga three months ago, which presents another opportunity for potential earnings.

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