GM HEARTLAND |
Saturday night’s alright for shilling. |
—El Prof, Muhammed & Chad |
MONEY MONEY MONEY
TOKEN | PRICE CHANGE | PRICE |
---|---|---|
Solana ($SOL) | +8.42% | $171.16 |
Helium ($HNT) | +6.82% | $6.89 |
Pyth ($PYTH) | +1.39% | $0.35 |
Save ($SLND) | -9.42% | $0.56 |
(Price changes reflect past 7 days as of 10.26.24)
BUZZWORD OF THE WEEK
wall-et:
An individual’s data warehaus.
A hub to centralize permissions for access and control of an individual’s personal data and other digital assets.
Your digital twin identity container.

Get KOL, Boy
They assassinated Moo Deng! Or so my X feed keeps telling me. And while I generally am a ‘just asking questions’ type of guy, I’m not too interested in chasing down the facts as to whether someone actually Harambe’d the internet’s newest favorite animal, or just rugpulled the associated meme token.
The timeline is so rife with so much bullshit, the truth has never been less clear. But one thing is: It won’t be long before another cult of personality takes the late Moo Deng’s place. Utility may be the hill I’ll die on, but it’s impossible to ignore that memes are a fundamental pillar of the broader cryptoverse, and this has never been more obvious than in today’s cycle. Memes put the meta in metaverse, and boy does the meme meta continue to show us its breadth.
Look no further than the key opinion leaders, or KOLs — the latest aggressively un-KOL acronym to crawl out of the cultural cesspool. Usually, I’d complain about degens’ compulsive need to rebrand everything, but there actually are some marked differences between KOLs and, say, influencers, or my personal fav, thot leaders. Namely, KOLs don’t channel the influential charisma of the alluring strangers you pass on the street and instinctively wish you were friends with. They’re more like the degenerate high rollers you watch from across the casino floor and can’t help but admire the way they just put all the nights’ winnings on green.
Frank deGods is a KOL I generally view as an opportunistic moron with an expansive cult-like following. My unfavorable opinion of him comes from his chain commitment issues, but even a broken clock is correct twice a day. And I can’t help but agree with his recent (perhaps unintentionally self-effacing) tweet on the impact of KOLs. Basically, deGods thinks the growing concentration of degenerate traders with large followings is pushing builders out of the market.
If the real devs, not the ones launching scams on pump.fun, can’t get attention and funding for the projects actually aiming to decentralize big tech solutions, then what are we even doing here? Maybe I’m biased, it’s because I’m a builder, not a trader. But at its core, the transformative power of blockchain technology is why there is any value for the meme coin speculation to occur in the first place.
While I love a casual casino jaunt as much as the next guy, generational wealth in the next generation of internet technologies is going to come longterm from useful projects that transform our societies problems into strengths. Practically, this will probably take the shape of communities with cult-like followings forming around problems, similar to grassroots organizations competing with industry giants.
Imagine a world where the protestors in Battle Creek, Michigan — picketing the HQ of Kellogg’s cereal to push back against the company’s use of dyes linked to cancer — instead pooled their money to start an alternative cereal brand company capable of delivering at scale on the problems they want addressed. We know the demand exists, but scaling the resources and coordinating that scale would require a decentralized community with the right tools in place to support them.
Or, look no further than the very real world of Helium ($HNT), a protocol T-Mobile, Telefonica, and several other major carriers have rallied around to offload traffic congestion or increase coverage in dead zones. Both of these initiatives drive revenue for the network and offer value to the individuals who want to use the network without a major carrier — starting at just $5 / mo. My wife and I are currently paying $300 / mo for three lines (business account), and this weekend we will be joining a local friend in KC, who’s already made the switch.
Not a sponsored post. Just wanted to make sure y’all know about it before it’s KOL.
—El Prof
SPONSORED BY THE CoBAL
The Cult of Blockchain-AI Larks is a memecoin on the Solana blockchain. But it’s not just any spammy token — it’s quite literally a cult. We aren’t looking for empty shallow ‘GM’er’s in our community, we are looking for those who can stare down roko’s basilisk and bring about the people’s AGI.
The coin launched this month on pump.fun — join the Telegram for access.

Changing Stripes
Digital payments giant Stripe just made the latest TradFi power move by acquiring Bridge for a staggering $1.1B. It’s a hefty price tag, but it’s a telling sign of where fintech is headed: toward deeper integration with cryptocurrency.
It’s not just Stripe making headlines. Major financial players like Visa and SWIFT are also diving in, with both beginning to support stablecoins natively. Meanwhile, global regulators are hustling to build frameworks for stablecoin infrastructure, preparing for a future where crypto’s role in mainstream finance is no longer a question, but a given.
What does this mean for crypto fintech? Simply put, the stakes just got a lot higher. Stripe’s entry into the market signals a future where crypto is no longer niche but essential. Financial institutions are stepping up their game, adding credibility and pushing adoption forward. Stablecoins, once viewed skeptically, are now getting integrated into the services of established giants like Visa, and that momentum isn’t slowing down.
In a similar vein, PayPal’s recent move shows the accelerating convergence between traditional payment platforms and the crypto world. Thanks to an integration with Moonpay, 60 million Venmo users can now easily fund crypto transactions. U.S. users (notably excluding those in New York and Texas) can utilize Venmo balances, linked bank accounts, or cards to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on Moonpay, expanding access and payment flexibility like never before.
The meme-heavy market may be testing investors’ patience, but moves like these from Stripe and PayPal suggest that TradFi giants, at least, want to keep building. If only the little guys had enough capital to follow suit.
—Muhammed