Onchain Five: Aerodrome Emissions, Farcaster has been Missunderstood, Noice Cap Table Feature, Zora + Solana and Tempo Testnet

These are five things that caught my eye this week.

Hi there!

Welcome to the first edition of Onchain Five (a new weekly format). These are five things that caught my eye across the onchain and crypto world this week.

1. Aerodrome ve(3,3) Emission System

Kicking off the first Onchain Five is Aerodrome, a protocol that has quickly become a core part of the Base ecosystem. It’s shipping fast across liquidity and swap infrastructure, but for this piece I went deep into how its ve(3,3) emissions system works and why it matters. Below is a short overview, and the deeper breakdown I shared earlier is worth reading if you want the full context.

Aerodrome: Piloting liquidity, governance and emissions

2. Farcaster’s New Focus Has Been Misunderstood

Dan Romero’s recent comments have sparked a lot of discussion in crypto social, but as someone who’s been actively building in this ecosystem, I think they’ve been widely misunderstood.

Farcaster social is not shutting down. The protocol is moving forward, and the Base App launch is around the corner, running on top of Farcaster. If you’ve been paying attention, the message is pretty clear: the wallet product is getting traction, and Farcaster is doubling down on it.

What this means is a stronger focus on making the wallet better, faster, and more deeply integrated. The social layer isn’t disappearing. It’s going to live alongside it.

This also isn’t really news. It’s been a consistent theme on Farcaster over the past few months.

Some people are pointing to the $180M funding round and framing this shift as a failure. That might make sense if they had already burned through that capital, but that’s not the case. They still have plenty of runway to operate in a very competitive space. They also have a clear advantage with their social graph and one of the strongest launchpads out there, Clanker.

An incomplete statement from dwr has been circulating across crypto social, creating quite a bit of misinformation.

PS: Sign up to Farcaster using my referral link.

3. Noice Launchpad and Their Cap Table Selection Feature

Noice, the microtransactions app that rose to fame in the Farcaster ecosystem and later turned into a launchpad, has started launching tokens. Their system includes liking a tweet to buy tokens, as well as a pre-sale feature.

What caught my attention was their cap table option. Basically, when a pre-sale is oversubscribed, the team can decide who gets in. This means getting into a pre-sale is no longer purely a matter of speed, which I think is a positive change overall.

Traders: What do you bring to the table?

4. Zora Integrates Solana

Zora is an onchain social and creator platform where accounts, posts and media are issued as coins that can be traded onchain, blending social content with market dynamics. They are called “creator coins” and “content coins”.

This week, Zora integrated Solana, which technically expands the creator base, but in reality probably brings in far more traders.

Stripe Launches Tempo Testnet

Stripe is a global payments company that provides payment infrastructure and financial tools for online businesses and merchants.

Stripe keeps pushing deeper into the crypto space. After acquiring Bridge and Privy and announcing a payments-focused L1 called Tempo, many thought it would go live much further down the line. Instead, Stripe surprised most estimates by closing the year with a live testnet, once again showing how quickly they execute.

Tempo is focused on stablecoin payments, and Stripe decided to build its own blockchain rather than run on top of an existing one. They also announced a 1.5% fee on stablecoin payments. Some are complaining about that, but it’s worth remembering this isn’t about sending money between users. It’s about offering payment gateways and stablecoin services to merchants globally, quickly.

Until next time,

- Kaloh

Reminder: nothing in this newsletter is financial advice. Crypto is highly volatile and carries significant risk. Please make decisions carefully and based on your own research.