Welcome to another edition of The Scoop. The Scoop is that feeling you get when you realize that even though you missed the big pumps of $PEPE and other meme coins, the new Bitcoin token standard might give you the chance to do it all over again in a way you never imagined.

The Big Scoop

Ethereum is the backbone of Web3, and so are other smart contract platforms and altcoins. That said… You’re officially on notice now. The Bitcoin blockchain is ushering in a new standard called the BRC-20 standard. It’s exactly like the ERC-20 standard, which is what allows innovators to create their own cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain without having to launch a native Layer 1 chain.

If you’ve been around for a while you may have heard of many other cryptocurrencies being the Ethereum killer, but this new standard means the Ethereum killer could possibly just be Bitcoin…

After all, in the last year, we’ve seen that NFTs can be built on the Bitcoin blockchain through ordinals, and now there is BRC-20, so perhaps there’s less of a need for Ethereum after all.

More on that idea plus a new program launched by Sports Illustrated that uses NFTs in the news…

The Bitcoin Bet: Day 54

We are roughly 1 month away from the betting date…

… what is the bet you as?

In March 2023, a Twitter user named James Medlock offered a bold wager of $1 million, betting that the United States would not enter a state of hyperinflation. Balaji Srinivasan, the former Chief Technology Officer of Coinbase, responded by accepting the bet, proposing a deal with roughly 40:1 odds. Balaji offered to send $1 million USD to James Medlock if he buys 1 Bitcoin (BTC), which was valued at around $26,000 at the time. The bet had a 90-day term, and Balaji suggested the use of a smart contract or a mutually agreed-upon custodian to settle the bet in the event of digital dollar devaluation.

BTC isn’t doing much :( We still have ways to go...

The News

There’s A New Hyphen-20 Chief in Town and It Doesn’t Start with ERC

First Bitcoin ordinals and now this?!?!😲

BRC-20 is an experimental token standard being used on the Bitcoin blockchain. It was first introduced in March 2023 and is based on the Ordinals protocol. As of now, the total market cap of all BRC-20 tokens is around $17.5 million. Pretty cool, right?

You might remember that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) first appeared on the Bitcoin blockchain back in January 2023, thanks to the Ordinals protocol. Ordinals have been used to create and transfer unique digital assets like images, videos, and audio. But, did you know that the same technology can also be used to create fungible tokens that are interchangeable? That's what BRC-20 is all about!

Now, you might be thinking that BRC-20 tokens sound a lot like Ethereum's ERC-20 tokens. While they share some similarities, they're definitely not the same thing. BRC-20 tokens are issued on the Bitcoin blockchain and rely on Bitcoin's proof-of-work security mechanism. Plus, you'll need a Bitcoin wallet, like UniSat Wallet, to mint and trade them. They also have fewer features compared to ERC-20 tokens since Bitcoin's base layer doesn't support smart contracts.

So, what do BRC-20 tokens represent? Most of them can be called "meme-coins." Since the launch of BRC-20 about two months ago, around 3,400 different tokens have been created, with a total market cap of about $17.5 million. The top 3 tokens are "ordi," "Pepe," and "meme," each with its own unique backstory.

That said, BRC-20 tokens still have a long way to go before catching up with the number and market cap of Ethereum's ERC-20 tokens.

As with any experimental project, there are some risks and challenges. For instance, Unisat, a popular wallet for BRC-20 tokens, experienced an exploit on April 23rd, 2023. Despite these hurdles, BRC-20 tokens are opening up a new world of possibilities for fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.

So, there you have it! BRC-20 tokens are a fascinating development in the cryptocurrency world. While still in its early stages, it's certainly something to keep an eye on as it continues to evolve and grow.

Sports Illustrated Launches NFT Ticketing Platform

Sports Illustrated is getting into the NFT game. They recently announced the launch of "Box Office by SI Tickets," a user-friendly event management and primary ticketing solution.

SI Tickets first made its debut in June 2021 as a fan-centric, NFT-based ticketing marketplace. And now, they've created Box Office in partnership with ConsenSys, running on the Polygon layer-two network.

This new platform is the first of its kind, combining NFT ticket solutions for events of all sizes with the visibility of traditional, non-NFT tickets on the SI Tickets marketplace.

Here's the exciting part: event organizers and hosts can now create, manage, and promote ticketed live sporting events, performances, or functions on the trusted Sports Illustrated Tickets platform. Plus, they've introduced "Super Ticket," an NFT ticket solution that offers collectibles, exclusive offers, loyalty benefits, and more to enhance engagement between hosts and attendees.

David Lane, the CEO of SI Tickets, believes that blockchain is the future of ticketing. He's excited about how Box Office is shaking up the primary ticket market. The platform offers to price up to 50% lower than competing platforms and even allows hosts and performers to earn a share of resale revenues. As for the fans, they'll earn credits toward sports, concert, or theatre tickets on SITickets.com with every purchase.

Lane explains that traditional self-service event management sites haven't been keeping up with the times, but Box Office offers a superior, cost-effective solution. It provides global visibility, no hardware costs, free credits for attendees, and the backing of Sports Illustrated Tickets as a partner.

At launch, SI Tickets will cover a wide range of events, from youth sports competitions to fashion shows and live music bars. They have big plans for the future, too, with partnerships across various industries like sports, health and fitness, concerts, comedy, nightlife, and philanthropy.

ConsenSys NFT's Johnna Powell is thrilled about the growing adoption of web3 technology through innovative use cases like NFT ticketing. The partnership with SI Tickets aims to create an unparalleled fan experience with new levels of engagement. So, hold on to your hats, folks - the NFT world is only getting bigger and better!

News Flash

Chart.

If you didn’t know that $PEPE is a meme coin that went from $0 to a $1.5 billion market cap in three weeks, you must have been living under a lily pad. Here’s a chart that says it all:

Market Analysis:

Bitcoin:

Since our last newsletter, I mentioned that I expected Bitcoin to drop despite seeing bullish signals on the lower time frames. Well, Bitcoin has dropped lower than last week and is currently in the midst of printing a bearish signal on the 12H and 1D timeframes, though we are seeing signs of a small pump this morning until it breaks the green trendline and builds support on it, we won’t be moving above 30k.

The Lunar eclipse didn't cause much movement in the markets, but the Full Moon the following day (Saturday night) was exactly when Bitcoin dropped from 29k to 27k, its lowest price in weeks.

PEPE:

Despite PEPE emerging out of nowhere as a $1.5B market cap memecoin for a short time, the gamblers who bought the top are now down 55%. These memecoins don't create new value and are mostly a zero-sum game between early contributors and the people they draw into the game later on.

When Binance listed PEPE, it marked the top of the hype phase for PEPE, allowing retail money to easily access the coin without having to learn how to trade on DEXs. Binance listing a coin doesn't give legitimacy to the project; they primarily list these tokens just to capture the transaction fees from all of the trading. Other exchanges have done the same, and Binance doesn't want to miss out on the revenue from traders going all in on PEPE on Binance instead of some other exchange.

Normally, when meme-coins pump and people start gambling on all sorts of other projects with no utility or real value, the market learns a hard lesson afterward. Money that is made easily is usually lost even more easily. We could see Bitcoin drop to the 25k range to scare out the retail money who are coming in for a quick dollar.

Total Market Cap of all Cryptos:

The Total Market Cap of all cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and all Altcoins) also looks bearish and ready for another leg down. The surge of money going into PEPE and other memes created no value whatsoever in the total market capitalization of the market; in fact, it is down overall since the project's inception.

There are bearish signals on the 1D and 2D charts for the total market cap, and I could see a sell-off coming between a 5-10% drop in the coming weeks.

I think we will see this retracement and May will be a red or flat month, but we are still in a high time frame bull market, and eventually, we will see Bitcoin back above 30k and making its way to 35.5k. Remember, markets move up slowly and down fast, and we haven’t been down significantly for a while.

Fundraising In Web3.

Some BIG MONEY satoshis moved into Web3 this week. Here are the most notable fundraising announcements.

Education.

If you’ve been into NFTs and Web3 for a while, you’ve probably thought about launching your own project. Maybe you have the skills to launch your own tokens, or maybe you’d be better off launching your own JPEG series. If you fall into the latter group because you’re like a certain writer of The Scoop who doesn’t have dev skills, not to worry.

Here’s a chance to study many different ways and tools you can use to launch NFTs without having to draw 10,000 unique images by yourself or get into complex programming.

Scoop Meme

This week’s Meme section is all about PEPE:

The Final Scoop

Is the future of Web3 built on Bitcoin? Perhaps not yet, but anybody thinking that the next Ethereum killer is another smart contract platform needs to rethink things. Bitcoin will always be the respected grandfather of crypto, and it just might be becoming the respected grandson of Web3.

The annual flagship Bitcoin conference is coming up in a few weeks in Miami, and you can bet that both the BRC-20 standard and Bitcoin ordinals are going to be hot-button topics among maximalists.

Still, it’s not as if Ethereum is going anywhere, and ultimately the more functionality people can build into the Bitcoin blockchain, the better it is for Web3 overall.

What’s your stance on all of this? If you’re bullish on Bitcoin just because of its brand power and built-in scarcity, these new developments should make you want to double down on your thesis.

Share The Scoop

Please Share The Scoop.

Thank you so much for following The Scoop as always. Please do share it with your friends and family as we continue to work our way through this seesaw of a market. We are not ready to call the next Bull Run yet, but no matter what happens next, we appreciate you being ride or die with us.

Thank you so much for spreading the good word.

See you again next week!