Rise and shine, Ambulls, for each new day brings its own set of opportunities and adventures 🤩 

Bathe in the green 💹 energy but don't forget to take profits (and some time for yourself) when necessary.

Crypto can be a wild ride, but it's important to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground 🙃 

Building community wealth with W3OF Portfolio 💰

We recently announced W3OF Portfolio - an intriguing experiment aiming to turn $1000 into a substantial sum through strategic investments and community engagement. The community has spoken, and we have now divided the portfolio between the following four tokens: $OP, $ARB, $PEPE, and $BONK. Check out the poll results:

And here’s how the portfolio is looking as of Friday, March 15th, 2024, let’s see if we are true degens in the long run:

What makes this initiative so exciting?

The most active community member will win up to 40% of the portfolio's future value! The remaining 60% will be managed for long-term growth. Join the discussion in our Discord in #web3-on-fire channel!

Today we’re discussing:

• ⛓️ DENCUN update is live!

• 🗝️ DeFi TVL pumps to over $200 billion

• 💵 BTC ETF continue to see unprecedented success

• 🎪 Memecoins on Vegas Sphere - a sign of an overhyped market?

DENCUN update is live!

Ethereum, one of the most important chains in the crypto world, recently underwent an upgrade that is expected to improve its scalability and reduce transaction fees for its rollups 🛼 

• The Dencun Upgrade, which went live on March 13th, has been met with different reactions from the community.

• Most users are happy about the optimization in speed and the reduction in transaction fees for L2s. However, a few others were expecting more from the upgrade itself 🤔 

The confusion surrounding the upgrade mostly stems from users' expectations that it would directly affect gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet.

You have to start somewhere.

It's important to understand the goals of the upgrade and how it connects to gas prices on Ethereum's mainnet 👇️ 

• The Dencun Upgrade implemented EIP-4844, a proposal that introduces "blob" transactions, which can bundle large amounts of data off-chain, reducing gas fees for Layer 2 transactions.

• The misinterpretation that the upgrade would directly lower mainnet gas fees has led to some disappointment in its effectiveness.

The funniest part is that the goal of the upgrade is to improve L2 efficiency, encouraging more users and dApps to migrate their transactions to L2s, which then in turn would decrease the congestion of the mainnet and technically, we would end up with lower gas fees on ETH 😯 

So, are the concerns justified? Not really, it just may take some time for the changes to become noticeable.

The upgrade has laid the groundwork for Ethereum's scalability and improving its ability to handle growing demand from dApps and services 💎 

With more efficient and affordable transactions, the barrier to entry for participating in the Ethereum ecosystem is lowered, making it accessible to a wider audience.

This is crucial for the growth and success of Ethereum as a platform for decentralized applications.

DeFi TVL pumps to over $200 billion

DeFi TVL has always been an indicator of the health and potential growth in the crypto industry.

And now analysts are seeing something special - the Total Value Locked for DeFi projects has surpassed $200 billion.

The rise in demand for Ethereum and alts have played a crucial role in this achievement, as more retail investors look to the DeFi sector for opportunities 💎 

• Many investors are turning to decentralized exchanges like Lido, EigenLayer, and Aave for their trading needs.

• This has led to a significant increase in TVL for these protocols, ultimately pushing the DeFi industry to reach this milestone.

But the success of DeFi doesn't stop there.

Talks between regulatory bodies and major players like Coinbase and Grayscale suggest that ETH ETFs could soon hit the market, potentially triggering another rally in both the crypto market and the DeFi sector.

This milestone showcases the growing trust and adoption of DeFi protocols, providing an additional layer of utility to crypto. It also has the potential to attract sidelined investors who may have been hesitant before.

All in all, it marks a promising trajectory for the industry and instills confidence in its future growth 🫡 

BTC ETF continue to see unprecedented success

BlackRock's BTC ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust, has been making waves since its launch back in January. After nearly 40 days of trading, it has now surpassed MicroStrategy's BTC holdings 🪙 

• BlackRock released its official spot BTC ETF results on March 8th.

• The numbers were impressive, to say the least. In just one week, iShares Bitcoin Trust added 31,588 BTC to its holdings - the third-best week since its launch.

• When all nine weeks of activity are considered, BlackRock's financial product has seen a total addition of 196,088 BTC to its holdings.

• This puts it above MicroStrategy in terms of BTC holdings, as the latter currently holds 193,000 BTC after its latest purchase of 3,000 BTC on February 26.

MicroStrategy has acquired its BTC at an average price of $31,554, spending a total of $6.09 billion on the purchases. This investment is now worth over $13 billion at BTC's ATH.

Before ETFs were approved, investors saw MSTR as a way to gain indirect exposure to BTC in the stock market 📈 

Now, with the approval and formalization of BTC ETFs, traditional finance has become way more competitive.

Crypto miners 👷 are also raking in profits as a result of the pump, with daily mining revenues reaching an all-time high of $78 million.

• The upcoming halving event, which occurs every four years and reduces the Bitcoin reward for miners, has also contributed to this boom.

In anticipation of reduced rewards, 13 firms have invested over $1 billion to upgrade their mining equipment since February 2023. This investment may lead to an even greater increase in mining revenues, at least for now, until the event itself occurs ⛏️ 

From what it looks like, the inflows aren’t stopping any time soon.

Memecoins on Vegas Sphere - a sign of an overhyped market?

Dogwifhat or WIF, a dog memecoin on Solana has recently hit a record high and raised over $700,000 🤯 to have its logo featured on the Las Vegas Sphere 🐶 

• This crowdfunding effort, called "Sphere Wif Hat," has garnered support from prominent figures in the Solana ecosystem and attracted attention from mainstream media outlets.

However, not everyone within the crypto industry is pleased with this news. Some have expressed concern that featuring a memecoin on the Las Vegas Sphere could be a sign of an overheated market, which can lead to a market crash 🤔 

Is this that big of a concern?

Obviously, having a memecoin featured on a prominent landmark like the Las Vegas Sphere can be seen as a validation of its legitimacy by providing it exposure to a wider audience, potentially attracting more investors and increasing its value.

This can also be viewed as a desperate attempt to gain attention and hype up the memecoin, an asset that has no substantial backing or use case. Especially since most users understand that memecoins run out of popularity quickly, and their value is driven solely by social media trends 💅 

Denouncing fiat.

👉️ It's possible that some people are afraid that crypto would be sending a wrong message by associating with something that is considered a joke or a meme.

Newcomers to the crypto space might not understand the difference between a legitimate project and a memecoin, potentially leading to uninformed investments and losses 🙄 

But if you consider that the goal of crypto was always to disrupt traditional markets and systems, it's not entirely surprising that there would be unconventional methods of gaining attention and recognition.

In the end, it all comes down to personal opinions and risk tolerance.

Other worthy reads

Some wisdom from Cred:

DeFi summer alt watchlist by Jake Pahor:

Some of the big upcoming launches:

MEMES

That's all for now, frens.

We'll meet in a week! And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

Brought to you by Ambire: The Only Web3 Wallet That You’ll Need!