| | Thorchain, the decentralized liquidity protocol enabling cross-chain swaps, is facing significant challenges that threaten the stability of its ecosystem. As RUNE, the native token of the protocol, continues to underperform against BTC, the protocol's internal mechanics — especially the influence of its lending product on tokenomics — draw growing scrutiny. | | | Virtuals' revenue: | | The premier AI agent launchpad on Base has generated about $25 million in revenue since its launch in September 2024. Note that this is contrary to a more popular $50 million figure stemming from an erroneous Dune query. The Dune query in question had calculated revenue based on the present market price of VIRTUALS rather than the time it was received, a recent Blockworks Research report finds. | Virtuals charges a flat fee for launching agents, plus a 1% fee on all trading volumes from AI agent tokens. When agent tokens hit a $420k market cap, trading fees are then directed from the protocol to the agent creator. | — Donovan Choy (X: @donovanchoy | Farcaster: @donovan) | | RUNE struggles after executive decision | Today, JP Thorbjornsen and the development team decided to pause the THORFi Savers and Lending programs for 12 months. | After consultations with community members, devs and node operators, the team undertook a "timeout" to simplify the base layer, address inflationary pressures and focus on the upcoming app layer. | The restructuring's goal is to make the protocol more secure and easier to understand. THORFi, a complex component of the ecosystem, has been identified as a primary source of volatility, particularly due to un-throttled redemptions that hinder progress on the 2025 roadmap. | Under pressure | Inflation of RUNE's circulating supply has contributed directly to the poor price action. Several mechanisms are behind this inflation, including block rewards to validators. RUNE is minted to reward participants, diluting its value. There is growing consensus these rewards should be reduced, though specifics and timing remain under discussion. | Beyond block rewards, Savers and Lending programs have added pressure. The Savers program, which was designed to create buy pressure for RUNE, has instead created substantial sell pressure when users withdraw. When users enter Savers, they purchase RUNE, but when they exit, they sell it. This cycle becomes problematic when RUNE underperforms relative to bitcoin, triggering further declines in RUNE's value. | Sunset of Savers | In light of these concerns, community members have called for action to address the protocol's weaknesses. The most urgent issue is the sunset of the Savers program, which continues to exert downward pressure on RUNE's price. | The plan includes a 72-hour period for discussion. If no changes occur, a six-month "timeout" will follow. Developers will focus entirely on the app layer, optimizing bandwidth and accelerating development without THORFi-related distractions. | After six months, the app layer will tokenize Lending and Saver positions, offering early liquidity on a peer-to-peer market. By the 12-month mark, a restructuring plan will be presented to provide liquidity for legacy THORFi holders, potentially introducing a System Income Tax that will remain until positions are cleared. | Some have called for more radical action, such as forcing the closure of all outstanding loans. On X, ThorTrades expressed concern: "If BTC trades at $75-85k, Rune will trade under $3 likely. Best to use this bad moment in the market to get rid of something bad (loans)." | RUNE has plummeted more than 25% over the past three days. | Thorchain is at a crossroads. The combination of underperforming RUNE, inflated supply and growing liabilities threatens the protocol's long-term viability. While Thorchain has made strides in decentralization and cross-chain liquidity, internal challenges remain. Immediate action is needed to stabilize the protocol, the team says. | The question now is whether node operators will play ball, and what community backlash will follow. As JP put it, "prepare your pitchforks," and be ready to make the tough calls to save the protocol. | — Macauley Peterson (X: @yeluacaM | Farcaster: @Macauley) | | | Bitcoin and Ethereum's market dominance: | | On the stickiness of pump.fun: | Dan Smith: Pump.fun's tokens are now a collective $10 billion market cap, which is nuts. Of the top eight, seven of them are AI-related, with PNUT as an exception. It's fascinating to see pump as the launchpad of the Solana AI narrative with over $370 million in revenue. There is no second player in that space. | Danny Knettel: Memecoins have been around before pump but a lot were more Ponzinomic where there was a tax on trading volume. The key reason pump has been so successful is that it simplified the rules of the game and standardized the token contracts, taking out the risks associated with buying these tokens from a technical standpoint. | On ETH's dominance: | Marc Arjoon: In December, Ethereum broke a record for the most transfer volumes ever recorded in a single month, over $740 billion of stablecoins transferred. This coming from a chain that everybody is saying nobody uses and is slow and activity is dying. Are these CEXs moving money? It doesn't matter. It doesn't make the news — which shows how mature the Ethereum protocol is at this stage, almost as if it's expected. | Ryan Connor: A lot of these are likely CEXs moving money onchain. I believe 40-60% of stablecoin capital is held by CEXs. It's a qualitatively meaningful data point but the historical path dependency makes this less relevant for me. It's useful from first principles but it doesn't predict REV, so I don't change my investment decision based on stablecoin transfer volumes. | | |  | Felipe Montealegre (IFS) @TheiaResearch |  |
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x.com/i/article/1865… | | | 1:15 PM • Jan 7, 2025 | | | | | | 357 Likes 61 Retweets | 23 Replies |
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|  | Uma Roy @pumatheuma | |
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The first OP Succinct mainnet is LIVE! There's a lot of noise in crypto x AI, but I think verifiable AI agents with TEEs is one of the most interesting experiments to emerge, and @PhalaNetwork is leading the charge. 🤖 Thrilled to be working with them on their ZK rollup. x.com/i/web/status/1… |  Succinct @SuccinctLabs
1/ @PhalaNetwork brings AI agents to everyone with Succinct. |
| | | 7:11 PM • Jan 8, 2025 | | | | | | 134 Likes 15 Retweets | 10 Replies |
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|  | 0xScott @chiefbuidl | |
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𝗛𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗭𝗞 😬 sorry to FUD some bags here Seeing more and more teams lately focused on modular dev infra to be leveraged by other ZK infra teams, essentially offering lego building blocks to help these "customers" build their own custom app-specific ZK circuits,… x.com/i/web/status/1… | | | 9:04 AM • Jan 9, 2025 | | | | | | 38 Likes 12 Retweets | 7 Replies |
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|  | Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 @BillHughesDC | |
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Good news frens. It looks like that, by the end of the month, proof of stake mechanisms underlying certain blockchains (e.g. #Ethereum#Solana) will not be considered collective investment schemes under UK law. This is a good development because the management and promotion of… x.com/i/web/status/1… | |  | | | 4:28 PM • Jan 9, 2025 | | | | | | 18 Likes 2 Retweets | 0 Replies |
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