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- > Solana Greenlights Alpenglow Upgrade on Journey to One Million TPS
- > Trump crypto venture launches native WLFI token
- > Pudgy Penguins declare party time with new Web3 game
- > Stablecoin market hits all-time high…again
Solana Greenlights Alpenglow Upgrade on Journey to One Million TPS
Solana validators have passed a proposal to launch the Alpenglow upgrade, set to bring even greater speeds to a protocol already renowned for its speed.
Solana Improvement Proposal (SIMD) 0236 passed with flying colours, receiving 98% approval from network operators. The blockchain upgrade was developed by Solana’s research arm and development business, Anza.
The most significant change for the blockchain will be a major increase in transaction efficiency, according to Anza’s Lead Economist.
‘The biggest difference users will feel right away will be a reduction in confirmation latency to approximately 150-200ms’. – Max Resnick, Anza Lead Economist.
In simple terms, this means transactions will be approved almost instantly – quite literally, in the blink of an eye (which takes around 250ms on average).
To hammer home the gravity of this upgrade – confirmation times on Solana currently sit at around 13 seconds.
The primary goal of Alpenglow is for Solana to sit alongside the kings of traditional finance, such as Visa, Mastercard and certain banking products.
Firms like Anza are aiming for the stars, with the latest upgrade paving the way toward 1 million transactions per second on Solana.
The news rippled through the markets, with Solana up 6.3% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing – the biggest gainer of any cryptocurrency in the top ten by market cap.
Trump crypto venture launches native WLFI token
Media outlets are reporting that the Trump family has made paper gains of approximately $5 billion USD following the token release.
The United States President, Donald Trump’s, crypto ventures have made headlines since making digital asset regulation a priority of his successful electoral campaign.
Aside from launching a memecoin paying homage to, well, himself, and ushering in several legal frameworks, Trump and family have also been working on a decentralised protocol, World Liberty Financial.
To date, WLFI has largely focused on building crypto reserves, offering a DeFi lending and borrowing platform and launching its own stablecoin, USD1.
But now after a year of activity, the firm has unveiled an ecosystem token, aptly named WLFI. Released on the first of September, the cryptocurrency attracted over $6 billion USD in volume across both spot and derivatives markets.
The project was launched with an initial supply of approximately 25 billion WLFI (a quarter of the max supply), at approximately $0.3 USD per token.
After about two days live on exchanges, WLFI is now trading at approximately $0.22 – a 5% drop since release. However, this figure is much higher than the presale value, where early investors nabbed WLFI tokens for between $0.015-0.05 USD.
For now, WLFI can be used for typical ecosystem functions, such as voting on governance proposals and staking. Future utility is planned as WLFI expands their DeFi services, with the token likely to reduce on-chain fees and provide priority access to new features.
According to news outlets, the token launch earned the Trump family approximately $5 billion USD.
Pudgy Penguins declare party time with new Web3 game
The game, titled Pudgy Party, shot to the top ten downloaded games in the Apple App Store within its first week of release.
Pudgy Penguins, NFT collection turned real-world brand phenomenon, has added yet another string to its bow with the release of Pudgy Party, a mobile Web3 game available on Android and iOS.
Since the project’s beginnings as a digital collectible portraying cute penguins, Pudgy has drawn the blueprints for transitioning virtual characters to the physical realm. The latest gaming endeavour will sit next to fluffy plushies, t-shirts and books as part of the brand’s merchandising strategy.
Speaking to the virality of the NFTs, Pudgy Party raced to the top 10 applications by download on the Apple App store within its first week.
The game shares many similarities with the 2020 sensation Fall Guys, where you run around an obstacle course, avoiding hazards and causing as much chaos as humanly (penguinly?) possible.
The Web3 element takes shape as tradeable skins and other collectibles to deck out your character with. Certain NFT items, which can be acquired, upgraded, purchased and sold in-game thanks to a collab with Polkadot, have become quite valuable in the first week or so of gameplay.
Despite the success of Pudgy Party – in terms of playerbase – the native token (PENGU) has fallen around 1% in the past week of trading.
While the app’s launch hasn’t translated into token gains, it underscores the brand’s growing cultural presence. With toys, books, clothing and now a hit mobile game under its belt, Pudgy Penguins is proving itself as a Web3 project capable of breaking into the mainstream.
Stablecoin market hits all-time high…again
The total market capitalisation for stablecoins has moved past $280 billion USD for the first time, with some analysts suggesting the $1 trillion USD milestone mightn’t be far away.
Another week, another milestone for stablecoins.
Pegged digital assets have been on the rise for several years, with circulating value reaching a bottom in October 2023 and climbing upwards ever since.
The introduction of the GENIUS Act in the United States – laying the foundation for stablecoin regulation within the nation – accelerated adoption substantially. The entrant of major institutional players such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton has also given stablecoin utility a major boost.
And with several governments and banks around the world considering, or already adoptiong, fiat-pegged stablecoins, the continued all-time high circulation figures don’t come as much of a surprise. September 1st saw the market surpass $280 billion USD for the first time – and within 48 hours, total capitalisation has ballooned another $4 billion.
But according to analysts from McKinsey, this may just be the beginning, with one projection suggesting the market cap for stablecoins will eclipse $2 trillion USD by 2028. For context, this figure would be on par with the entire value of the Australian Stock Exchange as it currently stands.
Another key to unlocking stablecoin momentum has come from new projects offering a fresh take on USD-pegged digital assets – for example, Ethena’s USDe native yield-bearing properties. With innovation and competition increasing, DeFi and TradFi participants may be better able to manage risk appetite and leverage existing cash flow.
Despite stark rises in adoption for major offerings such as USDe and Ripple Ledger’s RLUSD, the market is still largely dominated by the big two: Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT.
As of now, USDT commands nearly 60% of the market, with USDC holding roughly 25%.
Ben Knight
