I am not stressed by the market, are you?

This is what you can expect from todays issue:

• You might be crying, but I have enough nuggets to cheer you up. Markets are down, but they have been down hundreds of times.

• The Bybit hack was apparently a mistake made by... humans?

• We're talking about the hottest Layer 1 today. And it reminds me of my childhood hero.

• 21Shares and DekaBank are making huge moves. I've spent a lot of time with the TradFi industry in the past weeks. People are bullish.

• We are kicking off Berlin Blockchain Week 2025. Here's what you need to know to avoid FOMO.

GMGM,

I saw the Blockworks newsletter this morning, noticed the image, and had to smile.

It's Friday, and I'm currently at the Solana Open Co-Working event at w3.hub (which, by the way, happens here every Friday).

While some people are coming in with teary eyes (because markets are down - we'll get to that shortly), I'm happy that after 69 attempts, I've finally outsmarted the bergh.ai bouncer.

Quinn managed to do the same, by the way.

I'm not entirely sure what this project is about, but a few guys from Munich are working on it, and it's been a topic in the German degen bubble for a while now.

Finally, I am one of you. Now let’s dive into the stuff on everyone’s mind. And for this, I got you cc’d.

Good news and bad news time.

The bad: Markets are down. Hard.

And the biggest crypto hack ever? Human error. Double ouch.

North Korean hackers managed to pull off the biggest hack in history by planting malicious code into the infrastructure of Safe - a crypto wallet provider used by Bybit (and by many others…) You can read the full statement below.

While I've been knee-deep in event planning and prepping our w3.labs launch (stay tuned! It’s about compliant staking and you will love it), the crypto market's been on a wild ride. Twitter's a sea of red numbers.

Quick rundown:

Bitcoin: ~$80,500, down 7% in 24 hours

Ethereum: ~$2,130, down 10%

Altcoins: Looking like they partied too hard at Oktoberfest

Memecoins: Crashing harder than a bad joke at a crypto conference

Speaking of memecoins, the LIBRA debacle has tanked trading volumes. It's a domino effect - most revenue-generating protocols are downstream of memecoin trading. Even Solana's daily revenue plummeted from $57 million to $2.5 million. Ouch.

Fear & Greed Index? A teeth-chattering 10 points. Last time we saw this? Summer 2022's crypto winter.

Why the freefall?

Trump's talking new China tariffs, Bitcoin ETFs are bleeding $2.5 billion this week, and the memecoin mania is deflating.

The silver lining?

When you're busy with real-world crypto events, you don't obsess over price dips. That's a fact.

But here's the good news: We've weathered these storms before. Crypto isn't just surviving; it's evolving. This dip? Maybe just a pitstop before our next moon shot (no financial advide, just the mindset you need to maintain working in this field).

To the panickers: Remember, roller coasters go up eventually. I'm focused on building real crypto value - events, projects, the works.

Want to read another opinion on what's currently going on in the market?

You were asking about the good news, right?

When I hear Sonic, I need to think about the hedgehog. The devs around me are thinking about the Layer 1 blockchain formerly known as Fantom. This is why I am not a dev.

Sonic just launched its mainnet, bringing exciting innovations:

• 1-second transaction finality
• Modular architecture combining Ethereum's security and Cosmos' interoperability
• Full Ethereum compatibility for tools and dApps
• Decentralized sequencer network for enhanced security
• Potential to bridge mainstream users into crypto

More on this (I don’t know who you are Miles, but your tweets are fire)

Three things that make me forget about the charts:

1. Last Wednesday, we held the second Industry Call of the Digital Assets Season. For attendees and key takeaways, check out this:

2. We've launched our podcast with Duncan Moir, president of 21Shares. Top reasons to listen:

   • 21Shares' strategy in the competitive crypto ETP market

   • Trends in institutional crypto adoption

   • Blockchain's impact on asset management efficiency

3. DekaBank enters the crypto market, offering institutional clients trading, custody, and management services for cryptocurrencies, while the approach for retail customers remains undecided (Link to the Bloomberg headline). By the way, the podcast release with Michael Cyrus from Deka is just two weeks old.

All of this was part of the Digital Assets Season, Europe's largest educational campaign on blockchain innovation.

We are currently planning the next seasons, which will focus on Institutional DeFi and Tokenization.
If you'd like to be part of this, feel free to schedule a call with my good friend and co-founder Jonathan (or as he would nicely put it: "Jonathan is on my passport, but everyone calls me Nate").

The biggest event for the Web3 scene in Berlin is coming up: Berlin Blockchain Week 2025 (or as insiders say: ✨ BBW ✨).

This means a looooot of events at w3.hub (and another near location due to high demand).

Don’t know what BBW is?

Think of it as Fashion Week for nerds, turning Berlin into a crypto Mecca.

What we have done last year?

(Just watch this video, trust me)

What’s top of mind right now?

We're already planning exciting events with partners, covering topics like Digital Money, DeSci, Staking, Gaming, Privacy, Fashion, AI, and more. Expect cool surprises and a great community feeling.

Want to host your own event?

Want to attend?

Who's in?

• My favorite tweet of this week.

• MetaMask 🤝 Mastercard!

• Bitcoin is still the best performing asset class over the last two years.

• Since the Celestia hackathon is taking place and the team is usually around w3.hub (& the token was strong compared to the rest of the market), I read this paper on Data Availability. You should, too.

• More good news related to the Sonic Layer 1! Blackbird has introduced Flynet, an innovative on-chain networking protocol built on the Sonic blockchain.

That’s it.

See you next week 💅🏽

And while we're at it:

I'm on LinkedIn.

I'm on X.

Just started with YouTube and thinking about how to continue it.

Always here at w3.hub.

Active in the w3.group. Follow on LinkedIn to keep up with our projects.