Unlocking is way more exciting than locking.

You get locked up in jail. You lock down a steady job.

But if you’re a master thief, you unlock that jail cell with a hairpin. That soul-numbing 9-5? You unlock your potential by micro-dosing every day at work.

But this week there are some unlocks that have us seriously excited.

There’s $650 million worth of new tokens unlocking this week, what does this new potential mean for the crypto market?

Espresso Shots

☕️ The EU’s Kill Switch

The EU’s Data Act, which has been approved by European Parliament, includes a controversial piece of legislation that would require smart contracts to contain a “kill switch.”

The kill switches would guarantee that the affected smart contracts could be interrupted, terminated, or paused at a moment’s notice.

Some have argued that this sort of functionality stands in direct opposition to the nature of decentralization.

This legislation is “fundamentally incompatible with what a smart contract is”, Scott McKinney and Laura De Boel, attorneys with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, told Cointelegraph.

But McKinney and De Boel also emphasized that the current definition of a smart contract in the Data Act is too expansive, containing programs that wouldn’t be considered smart contracts, and the actual number of kill switch applicable smart contracts would be much smaller.

“However, it’s important to understand that the EU Data Act’s smart contract requirements will likely only apply to a relatively small subset of smart contracts (or potential smart contracts), i.e., smart contracts for executing of ‘data sharing agreements’ governed by the Data Act.“ The attorneys continued.

The Data Act still needs approval from the European Council before it’s written into law.

However, if the kill switch legislation fails, Europe can always resort to its traditional kill switch: World Wars.

☕️ Animoca Takes the Validator Throne

Animoca, the Web3 investment firm, has become the largest blockchain validator on the TON network.

Animoca’s monolithic validator presence is part of the firm’s ongoing incentive to bring blockchain gaming to TON’s 800 million users.

This effort will include increased funding, research, and analysis based on an announcement that Animoca exclusively shared with Cointelegraph.

We’re excited for the firm, but the name “Animoca” still feels like a missed opportunity for an anime-themed coffee shop.

☕️ Blockchain Gaming on the Rise

Blockchain gaming has seen a 2000% surge in activity in 2023 compared to 2022, based on reporting from Banklesstimes.

In Q3 of 2023, an average of 786,766 daily wallets were playing blockchain games, up 12% from Q2.

“Unlike traditional games, Blockchain games create a mutually beneficial situation for players and developers. These games leverage decentralized ledgers to enable true ownership of in-game assets, offering players unprecedented control and security over their virtual possessions.” Said Alice Leetham of Banklesstimes.

Big news, but if you really want to see an uptick in gaming, just wait for that nothing week between Christmas and New Year's.

Polled Brew

Spilling the Beans

The 7 Tokens To Watch This Week 😳 💰

One of the biggest critiques of fiat currency, particularly the American dollar, can be summed up in a simple meme.

Yes, the money machine goes BRRRRR, the dollar weakens, and the national debt grows ever larger.

And do we avoid financial calamity? Generally, yes. But not always. It was the 2008 financial crisis that urged our pseudonymous founding father(s), Satoshi Nakamoto, to publish the Bitcoin white papers.

Bitcoin was intended to solve some of the greatest flaws in the traditional financial system, and not just the question of decentralization, but fixing the problem of supply.

Bitcoin has a limited supply. It caps out at a total of 21 million BTC. But Bitcoin supply and demand are further sustained through halving events, which cut the reward for Bitcoin mining in half.

And no, not every cryptocurrency has Bitcoin’s carefully crafted throttles. But there are always systems in place to keep things under control.

Ethereum, for instance, is a cryptocurrency with an unlimited supply, but Ethereum issuance is capped at 18 million ETH per year, a number that can fluctuate based on the amount of ETH that is destroyed or lost in a given year.

Maintaining a controlled supply of a given cryptocurrency is crucial to the financial health of the DeFi ecosystem.

But when the conditions are right, tokens that were previously locked and unavailable can be released into the market.

And that’s exactly what’s occurring this week, as 7 tokens, worth approximately $650 million, are being unlocked.

Without further ado, here’s the rundown.

At the time of writing, $18.7 million worth of Axelar (AXL) has already been unlocked.

Tomorrow, $41 million worth of Optimism (OP) will be released.

And then we have a huge Friday, with Hedera (HBAR) unlocking $11.1 million, 1inch (1INCH) unlocking $33.7 million in tokens, Immutable (IMX) with $50.3 million tokens, and dYdX (DYDX) leading the pack by releasing a whopping $482.5 million of DYDX.

Last but not least, we have Sui (SUI) releasing $40.9 million tokens on Sunday, December 3rd.

But what do these releases mean for these tokens?

Well, it’s a mixed bag. The release of locked tokens increases the supply of that token. If the supply outstrips the demand, there’s going to be a price dip.

Additionally, investors that were already holding a token that’s about to be unlocked may short that token, again, causing a price dip.

From an investor’s perspective, this might be the time to buy the dip if you’d been eying any of those seven tokens.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. By unlocking those tokens, the providers are simply putting more of their tokens in circulation, which could garner attention and drive up trading volume.

As we’ve mentioned, a strategic series of gradual token unlocks is part of maintaining the financial health of a token. Those unlocks aren’t just mindless ploys to drive down the price of tokens, but a necessary step in ensuring those tokens’ longevity.

But those aren’t the only unlocks happening this week.

We’ve been gradually unlocking additional belt loops, or entirely switching to pants with elastic waits, as we bravely forge our way through the Thanksgiving leftovers.

Crypto 101

Validator: A participant in a Proof-of-Stake network that is responsible for validating transactions and ensuring the security of the blockchain.

In return for their diligence, validators are rewarded with transaction fees.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: Unfortunately for SONY, the press surrounding the EU’s smart contract “Kill Switch” has entirely ruined search engine optimization for the PlayStation Portal Remote Player which they hoped would be a “Switch Killer.”

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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