1. Industry Insights
In terms of macroeconomic regulation, the Fed's interest rate cut has brought macro-level benefits, and major DeFi protocols have benefited from it. The Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, lowering the federal funds rate to between 4.75% and 5%, which brought short-term volatility, but Bitcoin's long-term prospects remain solid. As the global financial system's reliance on monetary expansion deepens, BTC, as a global asset independent of central bank policies, continues to gain more appeal, with spot ETFs accumulating a net inflow of $21.3 billion.
Ethereum mainnet data remains stable, and the Pectra upgrade is expected to improve the network's functionality, security, and efficiency. The average daily active users on the chain are 480,000, with 1.2 million daily transactions. The combined utilization rate of USDC, USDT, and DAI on major lending platforms has soared to 87%, reaching the highest level since late June 2024. With the rise in DeFi yields, interest rate cuts are expected to restart the crypto credit market and promote the vigorous development of on-chain activities.
In terms of public chain ecology, the data of major public chains represented by Sui are outstanding, and more innovations are waiting to be discovered. TVL exceeded 1.4 billion US dollars, and the daily trading volume of DEX reached 180 million US dollars, and the daily trading volume and the number of active addresses both hit new highs. The TVL of liquidity protocols led by NAVI Protocol exceeded 500 million US dollars, and the head DEX Cetus ranked in the top 10 of the entire chain DEX trading volume, with a weekly trading volume exceeding 1 billion US dollars. The trading volume of mainstream assets in the SUI ecosystem has grown steadily, and the trading volume of Memecoin and community assets has also increased significantly. Therefore, we are also optimistic about the parallel blockchain represented by Monad and its ecological project aPriori.
The concept of the meme "super cycle" has brought more attention, brought new variables to the development of AI, and entertainment IP has attracted more attention. The total market value of AI Memecoin has exceeded 2 billion US dollars, and the average transaction volume of Memecoin has increased by more than 5 times compared with last year. The craze of Terminals of Truth and GOAT has brought new use cases for AI-generated content, meme culture, and speculative market behavior, while driving Solana to a peak of more than 4.5 million on-chain transactions and 6.9 million daily active users in a single day, and DEXs strongly related to Meme set new highs in fees.
2. OKX Ventures Q3 Investment Projects Overview
OKX Ventures' investment tracks in Q3 cover Bitcoin ecology, Ethereum and other layer networks, as well as AI, blockchain data platforms and other directions, and participated in the investment of zkLink, Monad, aPriori, Space and Time, Prodia and other projects. The following is the relevant information of the project.
1. zkLink
zkLink is a multi-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure based on zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, which aims to solve the problems of dispersed liquidity and high cross-chain transaction costs in the current blockchain ecosystem. It achieves seamless connection and liquidity aggregation between Ethereum and its Layer 2 network by building an aggregated Layer 3 zkEVM network (zkLink Nova).
As the first aggregated Layer 3 zkEVM network, zkLink Nova solves the liquidity fragmentation problem on Ethereum L2, allowing DApps to be seamlessly deployed on multiple L2s. It provides a customized expansion engine for high-performance ZK applications, supporting a variety of application scenarios, including spot trading, derivatives trading, and NFT trading.
The main issues addressed by this project are:
Cross-chain liquidity aggregation and seamless multi-chain interaction: zkLink connects different L1 and L2 networks through its protocol, simplifying the cross-chain transaction process and allowing users to trade freely on different blockchains without frequently switching networks or wallets.
Rich ecological projects: zkLink has cooperated with multiple projects to form a rich ecological network, attracting a large number of users to participate in its DeFi activities.
Innovative technical solutions: Combining ZK-Rollup and oracle network, zkLink provides an efficient and secure cross-chain interaction mechanism, greatly improving the efficiency of ecological integration.
Improve user experience, promote the development of the decentralized financial ecosystem, and become an important bridge connecting different blockchains.
2. Monad
Monad is a layer 1 blockchain designed to provide extremely high performance and scalability. It supports 10,000 transactions per second, with 1-second block times and single-confirmation finality. Monad is compatible with the existing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to easily migrate and use existing applications and libraries.
Monad's low hardware requirements allow nodes to be run on ordinary consumer-grade hardware, providing a viable path to decentralization. In addition, MonadDB is designed so that most of the state is stored in SSD rather than RAM, reducing node operating costs and improving scalability.
Project Features:
High Performance: Monad provides 10,000 transactions per second, ensuring a smooth user experience.
Low Fees: Nearly zero transaction fees allow applications to scale tremendously.
Fast confirmation: 1 second block time and single confirmation mechanism improve transaction efficiency.
EVM Compatible: 100% EVM compatible, supporting applications in the existing Ethereum ecosystem.
Scalable decentralization: Low hardware requirements enable more users to participate in the network, promoting the decentralization process.
Innovative execution model: Adopt optimistic parallel execution and asynchronous execution to effectively improve transaction processing capabilities.
3. aPriori
aPriori is a MEV infrastructure and liquid staking protocol built for the parallel execution era, natively implemented on the Monad platform. The project aims to optimize the processing efficiency of blockchain transactions through an innovative block space auction mechanism, thereby reducing MEV-induced junk transactions. aPriori enhances the user experience and the overall efficiency of the network by ensuring that block producers are aligned with network goals.
The main issues addressed by this project are:
Block space auction: Due to the limited block space and the monopoly of block producers in transaction sorting, aPriori introduced a block space auction mechanism. This mechanism makes the real economic value of transactions transparent through competitive bidding, thereby improving the efficiency of resource allocation.
Minimize spam transactions: aPriori's auction mechanism reduces spam transactions caused by MEV by changing the dominant strategy of searchers. This design ensures the orderliness and predictability of transaction execution and improves user experience.
Incentive compatibility: In the post-MEV era, aPriori’s auction mechanism ensures incentive compatibility, making transaction fees based on economic value rather than the private assessment of block producers, thereby optimizing the user experience.
Transparency and Fairness: By introducing competitive bidding, aPriori ensures transparency in the transaction processing process and reduces the possibility of unfair behavior (such as front-running).
4. Space and Time
Space and Time is a decentralized data warehouse designed for blockchain applications. Founded in 2022, the project aims to provide a next-generation data platform that meets the needs of decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized finance (DeFi), and other projects that require powerful analytical capabilities. Space and Time combines enterprise-grade SQL and APIs, enabling users to seamlessly integrate and analyze on-chain and off-chain data in a single query.
Support for multi-chain operations allows users to easily access and analyze data across multiple blockchains. By introducing SQL proof technology, Space and Time ensures the security, integrity and transparency of data without compromising performance.
The main features of the project:
Decentralized architecture: Space and Time is the first Web3 native data warehouse, which is fully decentralized and ensures the security and privacy of user data.
Enterprise-level SQL and API: Users can use familiar SQL commands and tools to query and load data, simplifying the data processing process.
Multi-chain support: The platform allows users to seamlessly access and analyze data across multiple blockchains, enhancing flexibility and scalability.
SQL Proof Technology: This technology not only ensures the security of data, but also maintains its integrity and transparency, providing users with confidence.
Real-time data processing: Supports high-volume real-time transaction processing while leveraging column storage and GPU acceleration for analysis of large-scale data sets.
Customizable dashboards: The platform provides dynamic visualization capabilities, allowing users to customize dashboards according to their own brand needs and automatically generate charts and visualization content.
5. Prodia
Prodia is an innovative platform focused on artificial intelligence and distributed cloud computing, aiming to provide image and music generation services through its powerful API. The platform uses advanced machine learning models, especially Stable Diffusion technology, to convert text into high-quality images. In addition, Prodia has built a distributed graphics processing unit (GPU) network to provide efficient cloud computing services at a lower cost and support various application scenarios. Prodia not only provides users with advanced artificial intelligence tools, but also promotes the innovation and development of cloud computing services.
The main features of the project:
AI content generation capabilities: Prodia provides a variety of models and implements efficient conversion of text to images through APIs to meet users' needs for high-quality content generation.
Distributed cloud computing: By leveraging a distributed GPU network, Prodia can provide powerful computing capabilities at a lower cost to meet the needs of projects of different sizes.
Diversified application scenarios: The platform is not only suitable for image generation, but also extends to areas such as music generation, providing creators with more flexibility and choices.
User-friendly API: Prodia’s API is designed to be simple and easy to use, allowing developers to quickly integrate its functions and improve development efficiency.
Web3 Infrastructure: Integrating Web3 technology, Prodia provides decentralized services, enhancing data security and user privacy protection.
3. Conclusion
Judging from these changes in Q3, OKX Ventures is very optimistic about the market outlook. The macro-economic interest rate cuts are a major positive, Ethereum continues to innovate, some on-chain data have reached new highs, and the public chain ecosystem represented by SUI and the cultural innovation brought by Meme all provide continuous growth momentum for the industry. This quarter, we focused on projects with strategic potential, which not only fit the market growth opportunities, but also show unique competitive advantages in their respective fields.
Whether it is Bitcoin re-staking and DeFi applications, cross-chain liquidity integration, or blockchain performance improvement and data processing optimization, these projects are driving technological breakthroughs and the expansion of application scenarios. In addition, we continue to be optimistic about the prospects of AI-generated content and distributed computing, which will provide new momentum for the innovative development of the industry in the future.
Risk Warning and Disclaimer
This article is for reference only. This article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of OKX and the above-mentioned institutions. This article is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold digital assets; (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of such information. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involves high risks and may fluctuate significantly. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professionals for your specific situation. Please be responsible for understanding and complying with local applicable laws and regulations.
