"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a "functional" column of Odaily Planet Daily. Based on the extensive coverage of real-time information each week, the Planet Daily also publishes many high-quality in-depth analysis articles, but they may be hidden among the information flow and trending news, passing you by.
Therefore, our editorial team will select some quality articles worth spending time reading and saving from the content published in the past seven days every Saturday, providing you with new insights from the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and opinion output, as you navigate the crypto world.
Now, let's read together:
Investment and Entrepreneurship
To become a fully functional currency, an asset must successfully complete four developmental stages: attracting value, scaling development, establishing a stability mechanism, and providing economic utility.
Although cryptocurrencies theoretically advocate for trustless systems, their survival in crises repeatedly relies on the discretionary intervention of implicit trust participants. As the system scales, this coordination problem becomes exponentially more difficult.
In addition to stability, a healthy currency must support capital formation—the lending process that drives economic productivity. This is another fundamental limitation faced by existing cryptocurrencies. A fully functional currency must provide a stable unit of account for cross-time agreements.
The content required for a well-structured currency includes: an adaptive supply mechanism (a healthy currency must be able to expand when demand exceeds supply and contract when supply exceeds demand, creating natural stability pressure); a last resort function (a healthy currency needs built-in mechanisms to provide liquidity, stability, and intervention under market pressure without external coordination).
The "Marketing Aesthetics" of Crypto
The monetization path of celebrity value in Web3 needs to be differentiated, transitioned, and then evolved. A paid subscription community, a blue-ticked X account—this combination of established Web2 elements is what KOLs currently need. However, the value conversion path for top celebrities has never been smooth, akin to a large enterprise with millions of products waiting to be dumped; To B is not cost-effective, and To C lacks a carrier.
A sufficiently good meme should emphasize emotion and narrative rather than empowerment. The value of celebrity tokens lies not in the insights and time of the celebrities but in their stories and the emotions behind them.
Currently, the points system remains the mainstream model in Web3, with "point mining" promoting a culture of speculation, and the Point Market amplifying this phenomenon. The incentives from airdrops have distorted the essence of early users and communities.
The rise of tokens, the prosperity of projects, and the revival of public chains essentially originate from a successful marketing campaign. In the past, we listened to technical narratives; now we must integrate into the secular world.
Q1 2025 South Korea Web3 Market Report: Is South Korea Still a Liquidity Exporter?
In Q1 2025, the South Korean Web3 market is reaching a turning point. This market, once seen as a "liquidity exporter" for global projects, is transforming into a structured self-sustaining industrial ecosystem.
As part of the Financial Services Commission's roadmap, institutional entities are gradually being allowed to conduct cryptocurrency transactions through corporate accounts.
Projects like Avalanche, TON, Ripple, and Solana are actively establishing long-term foundations in South Korea. Their activities have transcended marketing, focusing on developer community building and hosting hackathons.
Why Is the "Web3 Narrative" the Biggest Misstep in Cryptocurrency?
The biggest misconception in the industry is the attempt to inject financial mechanisms into scenarios that do not need or even reject financialization.
The "Meituan War" in the Crypto Circle: The Traffic Game Behind Alpha Points
"Binding users through high-frequency consumption scenarios (takeout) to accumulate a foundation for their instant retail business" is being replicated in the exchange field—such as Binance's Alpha points system, which includes point new offerings, airdrop rankings, and trading rankings—essentially a "subsidy war" in the digital asset realm. It is not about competing for new users but rather a battle for users' attention, trading behavior, and loyalty.
How Did 150 People Create $14 Billion in Profit?
Tether has gained the ability to instantly access US dollars through the world's safest and most liquid assets. At the same time, Tether has a certain resilience to fluctuations in US Treasury bond rates.
Tether's ambitions extend beyond stablecoin operations; it has also invested in AI data centers and brain-computer interface companies, developed the P2P chat application Keet, and launched the asset tokenization platform Hadron, along with a self-custody open-source wallet.
The Tether team is small, with only 150 people, but their loyalty is very high, as Tether primarily hires talent from emerging markets.
Airdrop Opportunities and Interaction Guide
Breaking Through in the Anti-Pullback Cycle: The New Survival Path of Wool Studio
Keen studios have already turned their guns around: some have shifted to trading platforms, precisely targeting liquidity spillovers; some have returned to traditional new offerings, turning the Hong Kong stock market into a new cash machine; and others have quietly started selling water and infrastructure, earning more stable cash flows.
This Week's Featured Interaction Projects: Union and Miden Testnet, Ping Network Mining
Meme
KOL Manipulates Token Presale to Cut $150,000, The "Social Experiment" Behind the Meme Market Crash
The article tells the story of two KOLs in the crypto field—Books and Shillin Villain—who used token presales for a "social experiment." The tokens they launched, such as $COPE and $POGE, had most of their supply controlled by the team, leading to a rapid crash in token prices after issuance. They also launched early access passes (0.5 SOL, 1000 supply) to provide opportunities for users wanting to participate in token issuance early. The two repeatedly manipulated the market by controlling token supply, ultimately causing token prices to plummet and resulting in investor losses.
Bitcoin Ecosystem
BTC "Minor Upgrade" Ignites 100x God Token, OP-20 Token OTC Price Exceeds $400/Unit｜BTC Ecosystem
In the Post-ETF Era, the Narrative of BTCFi Is Just Beginning
Ethereum and Scaling
The Ethereum mainnet Pectra hard fork was officially activated on May 7, marking the public introduction of the "ultimate form" of account abstraction (Account Abstraction) EIP-7702. EIP-7702 introduces a new transaction type that allows ordinary EOAs to set a specific contract address as their logical proxy contract.
EIP-7702 will fully inherit and surpass the ecosystem built over many years by ERC-4337 due to its "cost advantages" and "flexibility."
EIP-7702 also poses hidden risks for ordinary users; even if users do not upgrade, it may lead to transaction failures or security asset loss risks in specific scenarios.
EIP-7702 will bring a brand-new user experience. As the user entity undergoes contractual migration, market applications will evolve accordingly, leading to the long-awaited smooth experiences of gas abstraction, family-tier accounts, and more, guiding billions of people into the Web3 world at low costs.
For exchanges and DApps, applying the features of EIP-7702 will result in over a 50% reduction in costs, fully embracing the era of contract accounts.
CeFi & DeFi
In the short term, the author believes that there are two market opportunities for stock RWA: for listed companies, they can issue on-chain stock tokens by referencing the EXOD case; for tokenized high-dividend US stocks, some yield-generating DeFi protocols will become potential users.
The author conducted a differentiated analysis of the core highlights of several rising stars in the Perp DEX track, comparing targets including Vertex, Drift, GMX V2, Kwenta, Aevo, Ethereal, OstiumLighter, and edgeX.
Also recommended: Lazy Investment Strategy | Falcon Finance Lifts Whitelist Restrictions; Ethena's Third Quarter Airdrop "Harvest" (May 6).
Web3 & AI
The Surge of Virtuals New Offerings: Genesis Points New Rules and Popular Projects
Weekly Hot Topics Recap
In the past week, China agreed to engage with the US on tariff issues, with Vice Premier He Lifeng set to visit Switzerland for talks; Ethereum activated the Pectra upgrade, which includes 11 changes to improve user experience, validator operations, and L2 scaling; ETH surged over 20% in a single day, and BTC returned to $100,000 after three months; Zerebro founder Jeffy Yu passed away amid a reversal, with a live-streamed suicide reportedly being an exit strategy [https://www.odaily.news/post/5203466];
Additionally, in terms of policy and macro markets, Buffett announced his retirement by the end of the year; US Senator Warren requested a delay in the stablecoin bill review, citing potential corruption related to Trump; Democratic senators proposed banning the president from investing in or supporting crypto assets; the US Senate launched an investigation into Trump's cryptocurrency activities; Trump explicitly stated he would not fire Powell: he can wait, and it won't be long before someone else is appointed; Powell stated in a press conference: wait and see, there will be no preemptive rate cuts, and Trump's call for rate cuts will not affect the Federal Reserve; Apple relaxed cryptocurrency-related rules in the US App Store; OpenAI abandoned its profit transformation plan and will continue to be controlled by a nonprofit organization, facing potential funding risks; Florida canceled its strategic Bitcoin reserve bill; Arizona signed HB 2749, establishing its first cryptocurrency reserve; and the People's Bank of China announced interest rate cuts and reserve requirement ratio reductions;
In terms of opinions and statements, Bloomberg reported that TRUMP coins are dominated by foreign buyers, with dinner promotions raising regulatory concerns; CZ: has suggested Kyrgyzstan include BNB and BTC in its national cryptocurrency reserves; CZ: only one account per person can participate in Binance Alpha; CZ: there are employees who were expelled from Binance for insider trading who have since transformed into "certain founders"; CZ proposed reducing BSC Gas fees; CZ confirmed he has applied for a Trump pardon; Dogecoin's official statement reiterated: we are still a meme coin, despite what regulators think; Notcoin co-founder: the Tap-to-Earn model is "basically dead";
Regarding institutions, large companies, and leading projects, Futu launched BTC, ETH, USDT deposit functions; Coinbase announced it will acquire Deribit for $2.9 billion; WLFI initiated a Snapshot proposal, planning to airdrop USD1 stablecoin to WLFI holders; Space and Time mainnet launched;
In terms of data, the S&P 500 index rose for the ninth consecutive day, setting the longest consecutive rise since 2004; possibly influenced by Musk's attention, the meme coin GORK's market cap surpassed $73 million, reaching an all-time high; the meme coin Mikami featuring Yua Mikami has dropped over 80% from its peak since its release;
In terms of security, hackers stole the New York Post's X platform account and committed fraud through private messages; Curve's official X account was hacked…… well, it was another eventful week.
Attached is the portal to the Weekly Editor's Picks series.
See you next time~
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