Good Morning ☕️ 

Short and sweet from us this week as we're en route to Devcon Bangkok! While we'll keep this roundup concise, you can look forward to an alpha drop from the conference this week. Stay tuned!

In This Week's Roundup:

• Crypto's massive election victory

• GRASS proves airdrops aren't dead

• Nous Research's public launch

• Project updates

Let's dive in...

The State of the Market

Total Crypto Market Cap: up 18% this week to $2.9 trillion
Total AI Sector Market Cap: up 32.3% this week to $33.5 billion

The crypto markets are absolutely cooking this week, with the total crypto market cap shooting up 18% to reach a whopping $2.9 trillion. The big story this week is Bitcoin smashing through to a fresh ATH of $81k, proving the critics wrong yet again. The market's showing serious strength, and the euphoria is palpable across CT.

Even ETH has started moving, liquidating millions in shorts. RIP to bears who sold at the bottom.

Meanwhile, the AI sector is stealing the show with an even more impressive 32.3% surge to $33.5 billion. Now we’re back above $30 billion, we’re wondering if we can finally break above and start to increase the sectors dominance of the overall crypto market cap 👀

Many AI related projects posted multi 100%+ gains, and even the AI majors all posted 20%+ gains for the week, showing just how much interest there is in this sector.

The market's showing incredible strength across both traditional crypto and AI sectors. With institutional interest continuing to flow in and the first ever pro-crypto U.S. government coming into office, the setup for Q4 is looking increasingly bullish.

Highlights of the Week

Crypto Scores Big in 2024 U.S. Elections

No matter which way you lean politically, the 2024 election cycle marked a watershed moment for cryptocurrency policy in American politics, with pro-crypto candidates securing significant victories across party lines.

Key Points:

• Record number of pro-crypto representatives elected to Congress (268 in the House)

• Texas had 30 pro-crypto politicians elected, the most of any state

• Bernie Moreno's victory over anti-crypto Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio represents a direct rebuke to crypto opposition

• StandWithCrypto movement demonstrated significant voter influence, with 1.9M advocates backing crypto-friendly candidates

  • Side note: StandWithCrypto.org has some fantastic data - check it out!

• Both Coinbase and a16z have committed additional funding to Fairshake ($78 million) for 2026 midterms

• Bipartisan support emerged, though Republicans showed stronger backing for crypto legislation (3:1 margin on FIT21 bill)

Why It Matters:

As we’ve seen this election cycle, crypto has evolved from a fringe technology issue to a mainstream policy priority that can influence electoral outcomes. This shift is particularly significant as it transcends traditional partisan divides, suggesting that opposition to crypto innovation - whether from Elizabeth Warren or Gary Gensler - has become politically costly. With increased congressional support and a clear mandate for sensible regulation, the U.S. crypto industry may finally get the regulatory clarity it needs to thrive.

Grass Airdrop Success

Around two weeks ago, Grass launched its token and as usual, most of X was having a whinge about the amount of free money they received. Now two weeks later, the GRASS token is up almost 300% and bullievers aren’t complaining.

Key Points:

• The project focused on creating a distribution design focused on broad ownership with no major concentration among whales

• Over 86% of eligible addresses have claimed their GRASS tokens from a massive 1.6 million recipient pool, so there isn’t much left to dump

• Current price sits at ~$2.90, up over 3.5x from the initial dip to $0.82

• Fully Diluted Valuation of $2.9 billion places it in the top 10 for the AI sector

• Token primarily backed by data licensing business model with Live Context Retrieval feature

Why It Matters: 

Despite hundreds of airdrops launching this year, with the vast majority being down-only since launch, GRASS's successful launch and subsequent price appreciation demonstrates continued market appetite for well-structured token distributions. Additionally, the move away from the typical “governance token” utility that everyone has learned to hate has definitely been a positive influence on token price. GRASS is now a case study that similar projects can follow, hopefully welcoming a new wave of airdrops that distribute tokens fairly and have sound fundamental value.

If you were one of our early supporters, you would’ve seen our mention of Grass and how to get involved on the airdrop. If you did, well done! You can claim your tokens here: https://www.grassfoundation.io/