Apple’s Vision Pro & the Metaverse Collide 👾

Sunday is upon us.

Welcome to another newsletter from us at The Merge.

This Week’s Roundup :

• 👾 Apple’s Vision Pro & the Metaverse Collide

• 🐱 Solana’s Biggest Airdrop in History

• 🪄 Bitcoin’s Selling Pressure is Drying Up

Before we get into it, let’s take a look at the winners and losers of this week across the markets.

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Biggest Winners & Losers This Week

Ronin | RON - EVM blockchain specifically for gaming (↑29%)

Render | RNDR - Distributed GPU rendering network (↑27%)

Flare | FLR - EVM L1 with multichain interoperability (↑26%)

Jupiter | JUP - Recently launched Solana DEX (↓63%)

FTX Token | FTT - Native currency of FTX exchange which filed for bankruptcy and stole users’ funds (↓31%)

Manta Network | MANTA - Modular L2 leveraging solidity-based DApps (↓12%)

What’s happening in Crypto?

Here’s what else is happening in crypto that you should know about:

1/ Apple’s Vision Pro Goggles meet Blockchain Gaming

Apple launched their new flagship Vision Pro Goggles worldwide yesterday, sparking a new era of wearable technology and Virtual/Augmented reality.

With a wide range of applications and use cases, one of which is enhancing gaming - an industry that is set to become multi-trillion dollars in value over the next decade.

Victoria VR is a blockchain-based MMORPG built on Unreal Engine. It was released at the peak of the bull run in late 2021 and has since declined over 90%.

At face value, it seems like a legit project, and the news is net positive for the blockchain gaming world. Whether it has something in place for the roll-out of Vision Pros over the coming year or has just capitalised on its release to pump the token we are yet to see over the coming months.

It’s important to remain vigilant in this space no matter how legit a project may seem and the news that comes out about it.

2/ Jupiter airdrop was the biggest in Solana History

Months in the making, Solana’s top decentralised exchange (DEX) aggregator Jupiter, launched its JUP token airdrop on Wednesday, January 31. Nearly a million Solana wallets are eligible, and the token launch has been the largest in 2024 so far.

10 billion JUP tokens will be produced in total. For several airdrops and other activities, the community will get half of those tokens.

4 airdrop waves will ultimately distribute the 4 billion JUP up for grabs, with the first token claim scheduled for last Wednesday at 1 billion JUP. At some point, another 1 billion JUP will be set up for grants and community contributions; however, the exact start date of such programs is yet unknown.

3/ Bitcoin Selling Pressure is Slowly Drying Up

Around $1.3 billion has shifted from GBTC to new spot bitcoin ETFs, equivalent to a monthly outflow of about $3 billion per month, according to JP Morgan in their most recent report.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) was a key U.S. investment route for Bitcoin exposure, boasting over $20 billion in assets pre-ETF conversion. JPMorgan predicted a $3 billion outflow from GBTC due to profit-taking, potentially impacting Bitcoin's value.

Most GBTC profit-taking, estimated at $4.3 billion, likely concluded, according to JPMorgan. About $1.3 billion has shifted to lower-cost spot Bitcoin ETFs monthly, posing ongoing pressure on GBTC. FTX's bankruptcy estate added to this pressure, selling around $1 billion worth of GBTC post-ETF conversion.

Our Favourite Tools to Navigate Crypto

👻 Phantom Wallet: Multi-Chain Crypto Wallet

Becoming our favourite wallet to use. An easy-to-navigate cross-chain compatible wallet (you can use it for SOL & ETH etc) with a user interface that beats most of the competition out of the ballpark (link)

😺🪐 Jupiter: Solana Decentralised Exchange

We only started using Jupiter a few months back and it’s by far our favourite DEX to use. Clean UX, cheap SOL fees, and DCA functionality are a godsend (link)

🦇 Arkham Insights: Smart Money Insights

An investment tool if you want to understand where ‘Smart Money’ (aka the market makers) are placing their bets then make sure to check it out (link) 

🦙 DefiLlama: Defi Dashboard

Analytics dashboard which shows the Total Value Locked (TVL) across all of the major DeFI protocols (link)

🦎 CoinGecko: Crypto Data and Analysis Platform

Keep up to date with prices, trading volumes, and crucial crypto data (link)

Ones to Watch

This list will continue to grow/change as the month’s progress and the market develops over this coming bull run.

AI: (↑19%) this week

(TAO) Bittensor: 2.6B MC - Decentralised AI Network

(RNDR) Render Network: 1.8B MC - Decentralised GPUs

Gaming: (↑8%) this week

(BEAM) Beam Network: 878M MC - Network & Ecosystem for Developers and Gamers

(SFUND) Seedify Fund: 174M MC - IDO Launchpad for New Tokens

(SHRAP) Shrapnel: 47 MC - FPS Triple AAA Game Backed by Franklin Templeton (1.5B AUM)

Depin | Distributed Computing: (↑4%) this week

(SHDW) Shadow Network: 166M MC - Solana Infrastructure

(NOS) Nosana: $122M MC - Decentralised GPU's

(OPSEC) Opsec Network: 16M MC - Ethereum Privacy & AI Physical Infrastructure

L1’s/Parallel EVM: (↑<1%) this week

(SEI) Sei Network: 1.48B MC - Extremely Fast L1 with V2 & Parallel EVM Launching in Q2

(NEON) Neon EVM: 76M MC - First Live Parallel EVM to go live on Mainnet - Direct Interoperability with No Fragmentation between ETH & SOL

(MONAD)* Coming this year → keep an eye out for it.

*NFA of course - these are just ones we’re keeping an eye on*

Key Indicators to Look at

MVRV

The MVRV Z-Score uses blockchain analysis to identify periods where bitcoin is significantly over or undervalued relative to its ‘fair value’.

It can be a good sign to an investor/trader of when to buy or sell. You can read more in detail about how it can be used here.

Current MVRV Score: 1.36

Fear and Greed

Investors need to be cautious of their own nature as their emotions could cloud their rational decision-making and judgement.

This Index is a collection of sources to track the general sentiment of the crypto market.

Current Fear & Greed Index: 55

Extreme fear can be a sign that investors are too worried. That could be a buying opportunity.

When Investors are getting too greedy, that means the market is due for a correction.

That’s it!

As always, thanks for reading.

Hit reply and let us know what you found most helpful this week—we’d love to hear from you.

Until next Sunday,

The Merge