The best you can do in these crazy times is to learn to take it all with humor. 

Story One

Market crashing - again

Epictetus once said: "He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at." This is good advice for anyone who's been buying Fartcoin because of the memecoin supercycle. 

February started strong, with another market crash. Bybit reported $2 billion in liquidations but estimates that, more realistically, it's probably $ 8 - 10 billion. Aave, a lending and borrowing protocol, sold off $200 million in crypto assets to secure positions. 

If you ask me, we probably deserved that crash. Once again, crypto proved to be a bad hedge against stock market downturns. A Chinese company releases an open-source LLM that's more efficient than Silicon Valley darlings: tech stock sell-off. Crypto also sells off. 

We should have known from when Trump launched a memecoin that it was a top signal. All the investors who bought Trump's coin are likely never returning to the trenches. But this isn't the only memecoin in decline: Pepe, Doge, and Fartcoin are all trading far below their all-time highs. 

It doesn't help that tariffs are now also affecting crypto prices.

Takeaway: The one good thing about each crash is that it's the perfect stress test for chains and defi protocols.

Story Two

Berachain feeling bearish 

With talks of the bear market's return, the stage was set for one of the longest-awaited mainnet launches: Berachain.

It is another L-1, but they say it's different because it has a Proof-of-Liquidity algorithm. Without boring you to death with technical details, the gist is that the tokens serve a dual purpose: enhancing network security and providing liquidity in DeFi. 

Even before the chain went live, it had attracted $3.1 billion in deposits. Its launch, however, didn't bring much-awaited prosperity. Whoever aped in at that stage successfully halved their investment as the $BERA price went from $13.27 to trade around $5 now. 

Despite seemingly going for the common man with their cutesy branding, their tokenomics are structured to favor early contributors investors. Another problem is that the token supply just keeps increasing, which one Milady holder aptly described as: The tokens will tank indefinitely. 

Others are more bothered by the fact that one of their core devs has started dumping his airdrop.

Takeaway: If core dev is bearish, why wouldn't we be? 

Story Three

Base not so based 

Remember Base? Of course, we all do; the L2 built by Coinbase that was supposed to onboard billions. Despite Jesse - the one guy on social media most associated with Base - going viral recently with a video in which he tried to give strangers money - the L2 seems to have some growing pains. 

While it is seemingly positioned to be the place for onchain AI agents, their biggest showcase, Virtuals Protocol, is down bad in activity and price. (- 95%). What makes matters worse is that people on X claim Base isn't for builders - despite their marketing tagline. 

It didn't help that the only other recent noteworthy Base launch didn't go great either. Venice Ai was supposed to be a privacy solution and was marketed as such, only for Eric Wall to point out that they ain't as private as they claim to be.

It was maybe a self-fulfilling prophecy that the project named after a sinking city would see its token price sink. 

Takeaway: Despite high TVL, most people use Base as nothing more than a place to keep funds. It's not so even to bootstrap a real active ecosystem. 

Fact of the week: Venice also plays a big role in the anime Jojos Bizarre Adventure. Its creator found inspiration in Italian sculptures and actors like Schwarzenegger when designing his characters. And it shows. So, if you need a break from watching charts, I recommend Jojos. It's different, bizarre, colorful, and a little stupid.

Naomi for CoinJar

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