What’s good fam?

This week’s newsletter is packed with alpha, updates, and insights to keep you ahead of the curve. Whether you're trying to get your hands on the latest tools or tracking market sentiment, we’ve got everything you need to level up.

Here’s a sneak peek: We’re taking a closer look at Token Sentinel, your new go-to tool for finding fresh tokens early and linking them to social sentiment. Plus, we’ve got a feature that dives into ZK Proofs on OP Stack (converting rollups in just one hour?!), the ongoing market bearishness, and pro tips from our market analysts.

Let’s get into it 👇️ 

🐉 TOKEN SENTINEL ALERTS

This week’s feature provides a guide and introduction to our Token Sentinel tool, developed by 0xGhostCasper with Castle.

Its primary purpose is:

• Tracking new tokens

• Linking them to social sentiment

• Measuring their importance in Crypto Twitter (CT) social graph

A couple of weeks ago, we shared how the scraper helped us find Ethervista at a very low market capitalization:

As a recap:

• Our Web3 Social Graph is a scraped database of all things Crypto Twitter (CT)

• Token Sentinel = the Telegram bot that lets you interface with this database

TOKEN SENTINEL 101

Feel like you’re not finding enough winners in this chop market?

Tired of seeing your frens close multiples on shitcoins with you on the sideline?

Look no further.

Token Sentinel accesses an advanced event-based open graph for Web3, helping you find new tokens early even if you are not part of the Cabal.

It works by tracking new tokens deployed on-chain, trying to link them to their socials as fast as it can, and then analyzing social strength based on who follows and tweets about tokens. Each CT account has an assigned social score which measures its importance in the CT social graph.

The Token Sentinel can be added to Telegram just like other bots: https://t.me/TokenSentinelBot

Once inside, you can use the “/” command to set up alerts (/alerts ON) and open the menu (/menu).

Through the menu, users can enable alerts, track specific users, and get access to analytics and insights.

From here, the token alerts management section can also be opened by simply pressing the ‘Alerts’ button.

Let’s take an example alert from a successful call this week, $CATE, which was found at $6M FDV, has run to nearly $20M in a day.

Now, let’s break down the information in the alerts:

• Profitable Shillers: We treat either a follow or a tweet as a token shill and track price action after X profile shills. As a result, we can find those shillers who tend to follow or tweet early before price moves up.

  • The current algorithm treats the shiller as a profitable one if they have shilled at least 8 tokens so far and at least half of them did at least 2x from their shill time (thus accuracy at least 50%). This algorithm might change in the future to allow more fine-tuned alerting with reduced noise.

• Social Score: Ranking based on the CT authority of followers and tweeters.

• X Analysis: When the protocol/token account was created and detected by the graph.

• Previous Alerts: Displays bot alerting history where you can see when the first alert was triggered for that specific token, what was FDV and profitable shillers score at that time

• Top Followers: Top followers detected

  • Ranked by colors (based on Social Score)

    • 💎 - top tier X CT account

    • 🟢 - very well-known X CT account

    • 🟡 - well-known X CT account

    • 🟠 - quite known X CT account

    • 🔴 - less known X CT account

  • X / Y =

    • X - number of profitable shills for this follower

    • Y - number of total shills for this follower

  • Also displays the time when the follower was detected

• Top Tweeters: same as Top Followers but with an additional link to Tweet where the token is mentioned

• Username Changes: Displays previous usernames from the X account used, allowing users to double-check whether this account was previously used for rugs (see below)

Now we’ve covered the basics, go play. See you back here next week for advanced pro-tips on filtering and finding more winners.

📈 HTF PRICE ACTION

Gm frens!

For those of living and breathing the market, it may feel bearish, but the good news is overall, the weekly chart is still bullish. I expect this current downtrend to serve a re-accumulation purpose, BUT that doesn’t warrant any longs just yet. If anything, counter-trend trades on LTF make much more sense.

Key takeaways:

• Overall bullish market structure

• Minor bearishness in major bullishness

• Expectation is bullish

In order to flip bullish, we have first gotta see some sideways price action (accumulation), followed by a bullish impulse that will take us back above all rising EMAs - that might take a while. Until that happens -

Trade responsibly and I’ll see y’all next time!

🗞️ ZK CONVERSIONS FOR ROLLUPS IN 1 HOUR?!

In the world of rollups, things are evolving fast. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) are the next big step, and SP1 is helping chains integrate this advanced tech with ease. In partnership with OP Labs, they’ve introduced OP Succinct—an upgrade that allows any OP Stack chain to switch to ZKPs in just one hour.

So, what’s the big deal with ZKPs, and why does OP Succinct matter?

Why Zero-Knowledge?

ZKPs are all about speed and security. In optimistic rollups, you typically have a 7-day window to dispute transactions, which slows everything down. ZKPs shrink that window down to minutes. Plus, they add an extra layer of trustless verification—making it harder for bad actors to sneak through.

How Does It Work?

OP Labs designed OP Stack to be modular, meaning teams can swap out components without having to rebuild the whole thing. Thanks to this, integrating SP1’s zkVM into existing rollups is surprisingly simple. By deploying just one smart contract and spinning up a lightweight proposer service, teams can start generating ZK proofs via an API—no major infrastructure overhaul is required.

Here’s what OP Succinct brings to the table:

• Fast Finality: Instead of waiting days, ZKPs allow for transaction finality in a matter of minutes. This is a huge improvement, especially for applications where speed is critical.

• Cost Efficiency: On average, proving costs are between 0.5 and 1 cent per transaction. And better yet, costs are expected to drop 5-10x by the end of the year as optimizations roll out.

• Developer-Friendly: Integrating ZKPs sounds complex, but with OP Succinct, developers can stick to Rust, customize easily, and maintain their existing OP Stack setup without massive changes.

What’s Next?

The team has already run OP Succinct on testnets like OP Sepolia and Base, showing how effective and scalable this tech is. And for users, the additional cost to get all the benefits of ZKPs? Just half a cent per transaction, while all other on-chain costs remain the same as regular OP rollups.

Zero-Knowledge tech is becoming more accessible, bringing faster, more secure rollups to DeFi. Whether you’re a dev or a user, this marks a big step forward in how we build and scale blockchains.

🔍️ MARKET WATCH

WHAT’S TO COME THIS WEEK

DATA BITES

Next week marks one of the most important decisions made in the past four years, as the Fed might begin slashing rates after a long period without any cuts.

On August 1st, traders were expecting a 48 basis points cut however, now they are predicting only a 26 basis points. Meanwhile, the USD/JPY made new lows, possibly due to Harris gaining momentum in the betting markets compared to Trump.

🔑 KEY NEWS

MAJOR HEADLINES

• Mastercard launches euro non-custodial BTC and crypto debit card

• Skyscanner integrates with Travala, enabling hotel bookings with crypto

• VanEck liquidates it ETH futures ETF while WisdomTree withdraws their ETH Trust

• Nick Drakon robbed at gunpoint but Revelo Ventures have a different view

PROJECT UPDATES

• Penpie hacker tornadoed all the stolen funds

• Eigen Foundation announces S2 airdrop details

• Arbitrum launches Stylus

• Friendtech renounces contracts permanently

• Eclipse introduces tETH while SEI teases a liquid staked version of SEI

• Snapshot Labs introduces Snapshot X

• Ether Fi Season 4 rewards tempcheck posted

• Rabby introduces GasAccount

INTERESTING PROJECTS

• Tenor Labs: Orderboook based money market

• Sky X: Starlink For Weather

• Future Primitive: Exploring human relationships between networks, objects, and narratives

• zkSpin: High-performance Decentralized Computing Infrastructure

OUR ECOSYSTEM ALIGNMENT

⚔️ A CALL TO ARMS

Think you have what it takes to enter the Castle and contribute to research and writing in the collective, or maybe you want to invest in and advise projects?

We are always looking for well-connected, talented, or simply hungry contributors who can get involved across a range of activities.

Fill out an application form!

And there you have it, gang! Another week packed with insights and the latest tools to help you navigate this wild ride we call crypto.

Remember, the key to winning in this game is knowledge, timing, and community. Stay sharp, be patient, and don't sleep on the big moves coming next week (👀 Fed rate cuts anyone?).

As always, trade responsibly, and we’ll see you next time for more alpha, projects, and everything in between.

In our newsletter, we may discuss projects or tokens in which we hold positions. While we aim to provide informative content, our views are not financial advice. Please conduct your research and consult professionals before making investment decisions. Crypto markets are volatile, and past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Invest responsibly, and be aware of the risks. Your capital is at risk, and we do not accept liability for any losses.