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Crypto’s longest-running mystery: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Arkham Intelligence, an on-chain analytics platform, recently dropped new intel on Satoshi. Using that data, someone traced a potential Satoshi-linked address to an old exchange, which was acquired by Kraken.
Which means… Kraken might know the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Even if they did know, I’m pretty sure they’d never snitch.
Just a friendly reminder—blockchain isn’t private. If the daddy of blockchain can be tracked, so can you.
Here’s what we got today:
- Hot new protocol. Intro to an innovative memecoin launchpad on Base.
- Mantle Deep Dive. FBTC is Merging Bitcoin and DeFi.
- Around the web. MegaETH announced NFT collection, Frax launched BAMM, Berachain mainnet is here, and more.
Today’s email is brought to you by Mantle — the blockchain for everyday use.
Here’s your Edge 🗡️!
New Protocol
Flaunch: The Memecoin Launchpad for Base
This cycle’s hottest narrative was memecoins.
A big reason is because of Pump.fun on Solana – it made launching memecoins ridiculously easy that even your grandma could do it.
But not everyone’s a fan of Pump.fun. I’ll let you see for yourself
Pump.fun has been dominating for a while, and finally a worthy challenger has appeared. Flaunch just launched on Base and many people think it’s a major improvement. Let’s investigate.
What is Flaunch? It’s a memecoin launchpad that dropped last week on Base.
Flaunch isn’t just another copy-paste of Pump.fun. They’ve built a custom DEX layer on Uniswap V4 to enable several features.
And it genuinely innovates on the Pump.fun model:
- No protocol fee. 100% of the trading fees go to the devs and coin holders (via buyback). Devs decide the split.
- Automated buybacks. Trading fees are used to buy back tokens automatically, helping pump prices.
- Tokenized memestream. “Dev trading fees” are tokenized as NFTs. Whoever holds them earns the fees. This opens up crazy possibilities.
- Fixed price launch. For the first 30 minutes, everyone gets the same entry price. No sniper shenanigans or cabal advantages (to some extent).
- More features to come. Just yesterday, a new feature was added that lets creators set market cap and circulating supply. This does make the platform more complicated than Pump.fun, however.
These features represent significant improvements over Pump.fun. For example, if $ENRON (a recent hot Solana memecoin) had launched on Flaunch, the creators could have made over $1M from trading fees alone.
But that isn’t enough. The app and chain need to attract memecoin traders. And right now, the Solana culture is much more memecoin-friendly.
We need to look at the data to see if Base is attracting the 100x crowd. Within a week, they have:
- Launched 2,632 tokens.
- Conducted more than ~$86.3M in trading volume.
- Memecoin creators (aka NFT holders) earned ~$179k via fees alone.
The above graph chart tracks daily launches. You can see more data here.
Not bad, but still nowhere near Pump.fun’s numbers, which created >30k tokens yesterday alone.
Also right now, the highest market cap coin on Flaunch is only ~$3M. That’s not enough to attract degens who are chasing 100xes. The platform needs high-quality memes that can raise the bar.
Flaunch has a superior product, but attracting memecoin creators and traders is the real fight. Can Base attract more degens, or will Solana remain king?
For now, I’m keeping an eye on the Flaunch adoption. It’ll be an uphill battle. But worth paying attention.
Sponsored By Mantle
BTCfi is Here—How FBTC Unlocks Yield & Security for Bitcoin
Key Points:
- FBTC surged to +$1.4B in TVL (+783% in four months).
- FBTC is a strong contributor to Bitcoin’s security budget because of the activity it brings via restaking. It was a core part of Babylon’s recent (and very successful) Cap3.
- FBTC now holds 13,493 Bitcoins and offers full transparency on their proof-of-reserve dashboard.
- It is backed by Mantle’s massive $4.3B treasury, ensuring deep liquidity and long-term sustainability.
Nobody questions Bitcoin’s ability to store value: it’s digital gold – the hardest asset in crypto. I think that every portfolio should hold at least some Bitcoin.
Here’s the problem though: Unlike ETH, you can’t put your BTC to work.
- There is no DeFi ecosystem inside Bitcoin.
- There is no way to generate yield.
- You can’t bridge BTC or use it across chains while keeping full custody.
I remember watching a TV show a few years ago, and coming across a quote I now love.
“Here’s how I think of my money — as soldiers — I send them out to war every day. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there’s more of them.”
Because I hold BTC, it always pains me that I have this capital just sitting around doing nothing (and no, I’m not trusting centralized institutions. We saw what happened in the previous cycle).
But there is someone addressing this. Mantle created FBTC, a fully secure, decentralized, and composable BTC asset that opens up BTC to DeFi.
FBTC is a liquid Bitcoin asset that maintains a 1:1 peg with BTC (proof-of-assets). Think of it as a wrapped version of Bitcoin. You can use FBTC across all of DeFi—Ethereum, Mantle, BNB, Arbitrum, etc.
And the BTCfi movement is gaining a lot of traction this year.
BTCfi is Here—and it’s Growing Fast!
- BTCfi solves one of BTC’s biggest BTC: The fact that Idle BTC does not generate yield.
- FBTC works alongside Mantle’s insane $4.3B treasury. You won’t find anything remotely similar with other BTCfi solutions.
- FBTC is fully transparent. They share all their addresses which store BTC. You can check them here.
Wrapped BTC models usually involve trusting a centralized issuer which introduces risk.
FBTC is pushing ahead by integrating restaking solutions that contribute to Bitcoin’s security. This protocol is a core part of Babylon’s recent Cap3.
To keep it simple, FBTC is helping to improve proof-of-stake (PoS) solutions for Bitcoin. Babylon (a protocol to which FBTC is a contributor) works just like EigenLayer, but instead of working with ETH and ERC-20, it enables the economic security of the Bitcoin network to be outsourced.
This is a game-changer for Bitcoin’s sustainability in the long term.
Let’s see how FBTC is doing numbers-wise.
FBTC Metrics
The FBTC TVL across all chains is $1.4B (10x growth when compared to September 2024), reaching a total of over 13,400 Bitcoins.
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The biggest concentration of FBTC is in ETH, followed by BNB.
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USD inflow started to pick up in October 2024 and peaked in early 2025. Now, the inflow speed has slowed a little.
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In short: More BTC is moving into DeFi, and FBTC is leading the charge.
How can you earn using FBTC?
Let’s discuss what you’re actually looking for.
My team searched for some of the best risk-reward pools you can leverage using FBTC.
Note: Remember that we’re talking BTC yield, so don’t expect crazy 1000% APYs.
Here are the pools we’re watching:
A solid yield for a BTC pool. This pool also earns you 4x sparks for the FBTC Sparkle campaign.
#2. Aerodrome 2.14% Pool
A safer but equally interesting BTC pool.
#3. FBTC Sparkle Campaign
The best getaway for BTC yield. There are different ways to gain yield plus points for Ignition future tokens
By the way, you can use your boy’s referral code for an extra 10% Sparks. It’s NspqP4 (or just click on the link).
Final Thoughts
Look, BTCfi is still in its early days and innovation is moving fast. Among all new entrants, FBTC stands out as the most promising. Mantle’s tech, treasury, and reach are unmatched.
That’s why FBTC is one of the safest bets across the entire BTCfi ecosystem.
If you want to start dipping your toes in it, then consider registering for the Sparkle campaign to secure your airdrop spot and start playing around—once you get experience, you can go wide with strategies.
Remember the power that BTCfi could gain. Consider how long Bitcoin will stay relevant for and what consequences a solid DeFi ecosystem will have for the future of BTC.
I’m quite certain that FBTC will be leading the charge. So, start putting your BTC to work.
Join the Sparkle FBTC Campaign Today →
Additional Resources
Disclaimer: This deep dive is commissioned by Mantle. I personally researched and wrote the article myself, and it reflects my honest opinion. This is meant to be an educational piece to bring awareness to Mantle, which I’m a fan of. – Edgy
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Frax Finance introduced Borrow Automated Market Maker (BAMM). It gives users leverage for any token, without oracles or permission.
Sturdy Finance launched SN10. It uses the Bittensor network to turn yield aggregation into a competitive game among miners to optimize results
Ondo Finance released the plans for their Ondo Global Markets. It is a tokenization framework for TradFi assets like stocks and ETFs.
Pendle Finance released the roadmap for 2025. They’re building more distribution for PTs and expanding to new verticals.
Camelot, the native DEX of Arbitrum, has expanded to Superposition, which is a DeFi-native L3 built on the Arbtrum Stack.
MetaMask introduced a new feature: Gas Station. It allows users to pay for the gas with the token you’re swapping, which makes UX better. Right now, it’s only available on Ethereum mainnet.
Bunny v2 went live on Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum. It is built on top of Uni V4 that helps LPs build yield-maximized, dynamic, and automated liquidity pools
Ondo Finance launched Ondo Nexus. It is designed to unlock instant liquidity for third-party issuers of tokenized Treasuries.
Ethereum‘s total supply of $ETH has gone back to the pre-merge levels. It is not a deflationary currency right now.
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
MegaETH announced their soulbound NFT collection: The Fluffle. It’s basically a token sale disguised as a 10k PFP sale.
Berachain will launch their mainnet today. They’ve already released the airdrop checker that you can use to see your allocation.
Kernal DAO has released the claim portal for their Mega Airdrop. If you had restaked asBNB, you can claim your rewards.
Soneium has introduced the Soneium OG Badge. You need to complete 45 transactions by February 27th to get the badge.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- What does Wintermute do?
- VanEck’s report on Sui vs Aptos.
- Demographic data of crypto users.
- The strategy for maximizing returns from airdrop.
- The new go-to-market meta for crypto projects.
- Andre Cronje’s plans for a new massive project.
- Kraken Exchange might know Satoshi’s identity.
