1. Industry Insights

In terms of macroeconomic regulation, the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut brings macro-level benefits, benefiting major DeFi protocols. The Federal Reserve significantly cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, bringing the federal funds rate down to between 4.75% and 5%, resulting in short-term volatility, but Bitcoin's long-term outlook remains robust. As the global financial system deepens its reliance on monetary expansion, BTC, as a global asset independent of central bank policies, continues to gain appeal, with a cumulative net inflow of $21.3 billion into spot ETFs.

Ethereum mainnet data remains stable, with expectations for the Pectra upgrade bringing improvements in network functionality, security, and efficiency. The average daily active users on-chain are 480,000, with daily transactions reaching 1.2 million. The comprehensive usage rate of USDC, USDT, and DAI on major lending platforms has surged to 87%, the highest level since late June 2024. With the rise in DeFi yields, the interest rate cut is expected to restart the crypto credit market and drive robust on-chain activity.

In terms of public chain ecosystems, major public chains represented by Sui show impressive data performance, with more innovations waiting to be explored. TVL has surpassed $1.4 billion, with daily DEX trading volume reaching $180 million, and both daily trading volume and active address counts hitting new highs. The liquidity protocol led by NAVI Protocol has a TVL exceeding $500 million, and the leading DEX Cetus ranks in the top 10 for DEX trading volume across all chains, with weekly trading volume exceeding $1 billion. The trading volume of mainstream assets in the SUI ecosystem is steadily increasing, and the trading volume of Memecoins and community assets has also surged significantly. Therefore, we are optimistic about projects like aPriori, represented by parallel blockchains like Monad.

The Meme "Super Cycle" concept brings more attention, introducing new variables for AI development, with entertainment IP attracting more focus. Currently, the total market capitalization of AI Memecoins has exceeded $2 billion, with average trading volume for Memecoins increasing more than fivefold compared to last year. The craze for Terminals of Truth and GOAT has brought new use cases for AI-generated content, meme culture, and speculative market behavior, driving over 4.5 million on-chain transactions in a single day on Solana and a peak of 6.9 million daily active users, with DEXs strongly correlated to Memes setting new fee highs.

2. Overview of OKX Ventures Q3 Investment Projects

OKX Ventures' investment track in Q3 covers the Bitcoin ecosystem, Ethereum and other layer one networks, as well as AI and blockchain data platforms, participating in investments in projects like zkLink, Monad, aPriori, Space and Time, and Prodia. Below are the details of the projects.

1. zkLink

zkLink is a multi-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure based on zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, aimed at solving the issues of liquidity fragmentation and high cross-chain transaction costs in the current blockchain ecosystem. It achieves seamless connectivity and liquidity aggregation between Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks by building an aggregated Layer 3 zkEVM network (zkLink Nova).

As the first aggregated Layer 3 zkEVM network, zkLink Nova addresses the liquidity fragmentation issue on Ethereum L2, allowing DApps to be seamlessly deployed across multiple L2s. It provides a customized scaling engine for high-performance ZK applications, supporting various application scenarios, including spot trading, derivatives trading, and NFT trading.

The main problems the project addresses:

• 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, allowing users to trade freely across different blockchains without frequently switching networks or wallets.
• Rich ecosystem projects: zkLink has partnered with multiple projects to form a rich ecosystem network, attracting a large number of users to participate in its DeFi activities.
• Innovative technical solutions: By combining ZK-Rollup and oracle networks, zkLink provides an efficient and secure cross-chain interaction mechanism, greatly enhancing ecosystem integration efficiency.
• Enhancing user experience and promoting the development of the decentralized finance ecosystem, becoming 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 a block time of 1 second 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 enable ordinary consumer-grade hardware to run nodes, providing a feasible path for decentralization. Additionally, the design of MonadDB allows most state to be stored on SSDs 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 significantly.
• Fast confirmation: 1-second block time and single confirmation mechanism enhance transaction efficiency.
• EVM compatibility: 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: Adopting optimistic parallel execution and asynchronous execution effectively enhances transaction processing capacity.

3. aPriori

aPriori is an MEV infrastructure and liquid staking protocol built for the era of parallel execution, 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 the garbage transaction behavior caused by MEV. aPriori enhances user experience and overall network efficiency by ensuring that block producers align with network goals.

The main problems the project addresses:

• Block space auction: Due to the limited nature of block space and the monopoly of block producers in transaction ordering, aPriori introduces a block space auction mechanism. This mechanism, through competitive bidding, makes the true economic value of transactions transparent, thereby improving resource allocation efficiency.
• Minimizing garbage transactions: aPriori's auction mechanism reduces the occurrence of garbage transactions caused by MEV by changing the dominant strategies of seekers. This design ensures the orderly and predictable execution of transactions, enhancing 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 private assessments by block producers, thereby optimizing user experience.
• Transparency and fairness: By introducing competitive bidding, aPriori ensures the transparency of the transaction processing process, reducing the likelihood of unfair practices (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 to meet the needs of decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized finance (DeFi), and other projects requiring strong analytical capabilities. Space and Time combines enterprise-grade SQL and APIs, allowing users to seamlessly integrate and analyze on-chain and off-chain data in a single query.

Supporting multi-chain operations, it 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, fully decentralized, ensuring the security and privacy of user data.
• Enterprise-grade SQL and APIs: Users can query and load data using familiar SQL commands and tools, simplifying the data processing workflow.
• 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 data security but also maintains its integrity and transparency, providing confidence to users.
• Real-time data processing: Supports high-capacity real-time transaction processing while utilizing column storage and GPU acceleration for large-scale data set analysis.
• Customizable dashboards: The platform offers dynamic visualization capabilities, allowing users to customize dashboards according to their brand needs and automatically generate charts and visual 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 APIs. The platform leverages advanced machine learning models, particularly Stable Diffusion technology, to convert text into high-quality images. Additionally, Prodia has built a distributed graphics processing unit (GPU) network to provide efficient cloud computing services at lower costs, supporting various application scenarios. Prodia not only provides users with advanced AI tools but also promotes innovation and development in cloud computing services.

• The main features of the project:
• AI content generation capabilities: Prodia offers various models for efficient text-to-image conversion through APIs, meeting users' needs for high-quality content generation.
• Distributed cloud computing: Utilizing a distributed GPU network, Prodia can provide powerful computing capabilities at lower costs, adapting to project needs of different scales.
• Diverse application scenarios: The platform is not only suitable for image generation but also extends to music generation and other fields, providing creators with more flexibility and choices.
• User-friendly APIs: Prodia's API is designed to be simple and easy to use, enabling developers to quickly integrate its functionalities and enhance development efficiency.
• Web3 infrastructure: By combining Web3 technology, Prodia provides decentralized services, enhancing data security and user privacy protection.

3. Conclusion

From the changes in Q3, OKX Ventures is very optimistic about the market outlook. The macroeconomic interest rate cut serves as a significant benefit, Ethereum continues to innovate, on-chain data has reached new highs, and the public chain ecosystem represented by SUI, along with the cultural innovation brought by Memes, all provide sustained growth momentum for the industry. This quarter, we focus on projects with strategic potential that not only align with market growth opportunities but also demonstrate unique competitive advantages in their respective fields.

Whether in Bitcoin's re-staking and DeFi applications, cross-chain liquidity integration, or improvements in blockchain performance and data processing optimization, these projects are driving technological breakthroughs and expanding application scenarios. Additionally, we remain optimistic about the prospects of AI-generated content and distributed computing, which will provide new momentum for future industry innovation and development.

OKX Ventures Disclaimer, please read https://www.okx.com/zh-hans/learn/okx-disclaimer.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

This article is for reference only. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the positions of OKX or the aforementioned institutions. This article does not intend to provide (i) investment advice or recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations 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 experience significant volatility. 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 regarding your specific circumstances. You are responsible for understanding and complying with applicable local laws and regulations.

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