Follow us on 𝕏 | Give us a Shoutout | Sponsor Specs

⌐◪-◪ → Yuga Labs just announced Top Trader, a trading simulation game on ApeChain that lets traders compete with 100x+ leverage to win prizes. Garga, Yuga’s CEO, shared his quick thoughts on the game:

• The purpose is to demo ApeChain’s suite of tools

• Fully on-chain game with min. 100x leverage

• Uses Ape Portal to allow buy-in from any chain

• Integrates Yuga ID for better onboarding

• Has gas-free sponsored transactions

Putting Garga’s first point aside (which matters) here’s my take on the game concept itself.

The reality of these games is that people play for the prize. Think about it, why would you trade with fake money when you could trade real tokens with say, just $1 (or less)?

Note: It wasn’t always possible to trade micro-bags, which is why we’ve seen trading simulators (like Webull Forex Sim) gain traction. However, thanks to blockchain and layer-2s, trading tiny bags is easier than ever.

And sure, the game will probably have fun social elements, competitive leaderboards, a dope UI/UX, and maybe even daily quests — a good reason to play — but you could also build all of that on top of real markets.

Anyway — not a hater — I just struggle to wrap my head around this type of game when the real market is right there. Maybe this is a bad take, let me know what you think in Specs.Chat!

Regardless, I’m excited to see Yuga working on something new — and if the goal truly is to jumpstart ApeChain with users/builders then this could do the trick. Also, shoutout to whoever did the branding — it’s sick.

Bonus Content: Beanie vs. Garga argument on X.

⌐◪-◪ → Everybody STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW, Donald Trump just bought a burger with Bitcoin in his 1st ever Bitcoin transaction!

*and the crowd goes wild*

Okay, seriously though — while it is pretty cool to see a former President use crypto for an everyday purchase (a literal burger) the real headline (in my opinion) is this exchange:

When Trump was handing out burgers to the people he said, “They make ‘em good here. This is a CRYPTO BURGER”.

Naturally, a Bitcoin Maxi impulsively retorted, “NO, IT’S A BITCOIN BURGER” — in utter dissatisfaction of the word “crypto”.

Here’s the clip, courtesy of Autism Capital — if you listen closely it almost sounds like Trump is about to say “Bitcoin and Ethereum” but then saves himself and says “Bitcoin and Eh-CRYPTO”.

⌐◪-◪ → Louisiana just became the first state to officially accept crypto payments. Naturally, the first transaction was a hunting license — lol.

The State also predicted that crypto would hit $7.5T by 2028, for reference the current market cap is roughly $2.27T (Forbes) — making this a reasonable prediction in my opinion.

So like, is this what mass adoption looks like?

• Bitcoin and Ether ETFs

• Pension funds buying Bitcoin

• BlackRock shilling Bitcoin

• Trump buys Bitcoin burger

• Louisiana accepts Bitcoin

Frankly, nothing against Louisiana (I love them for this), but they weren’t at the top of my States Who’ll Adopt Bitcoin list. Zooming out, I have some questions:

• What will they do with the Bitcoin they receive?

• What other payments (besides hunting licenses) are possible?

• What states will join the Bitcoin wagon next?

Join Specs.Chat to see what the hivemind has to say, and remember guys…

Never underestimate Louisiana — EVER!

Join Specs Chat!

Designed to make you a better crypto investor, builder, and operator.

💬 Chat with Valko and other experts
📚 Access additional hand-curated resources
😊 Make friends, share memes, have fun