GM frens, and welcome to another edition of The Castle Chronicle.

While $BTC remains calm other areas of the crypto market are displaying notable activity. This week we’ll dive deeper into relatively stronger outperformers and explore the potential emergence of a new narrative!

Additionally, we’ll examine Arbitrum's governance, with key votes underway for strategic direction and security, as the DAO celebrates its second anniversary.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• 🔍 Market Watch – Price action & Relevant metrics across the sector

• 🗳️ Arbitrum Corner – Arbitrum DAO: Strategic Votes and Second Anniversary Mark Pivotal Week

🔍️ MARKET WATCH

PRICE ACTION

It's been another week of sideways price action with no significant price developments. This is kind of boring for BTC, but it’s giving space for other cryptos to catch a bid potentially.

• Healthy uptrend

• Re-accumulation

My expectation here is longer sideways for the purpose of re-accumulation and an eventual break to the upside to continue the bullish run. But for now, we’re far from that.

Not following what I’m talking about? Check out my quick cheat sheet to understand how I approach a chart.

TOP PERFORMERS

With BTC going sideways, spotting some relatively stronger cryptos is very easy. One of the more interesting ones this week is $BERA, which shows decent strength and is up 32% over the week.

That being said, no matter which altcoin I take a look at, the recent jump seems just some random strength, as most of them seem to be within a bigger sideways price action.

For me to show real interest in trading something, I’d like to see a trending market that is either just breaking out of sideways price action or already trending for a while.

• Accumulation (1st green box)

• Re-accumulation (2nd green box)

• All happening within a bigger sideways price action

$BERA is currently brewing something, but I want to see a bit more before I look to get involved. Should the price break out of this sideways market, I will look to follow the momentum.

CAPITAL FLOW

Bera has been the centre of attention for a while. Capital has been flowing into the ecosystem week by week. Combine that with a decent-looking chart, and we might have an upcoming longer-lasting narrative. The Bera ecosystem is definitely one to pay attention to!

NARRATIVE PERFORMANCE

While I wouldn’t call any of this a strong narrative, it is notable that some money and attention is going into the cross-chain sector, which is up almost 30%. 

ZetaChain is leading the charge, up 85%! 
Wormhole and LayerZero are up 25% and 20%, respectively.

Courtesy of 0x_Vlad - Chief Male Astrologist at Castle Labs

💙 ARBITRUM GOVERNANCE

For this edition of the Arbitrum Corner, we focus on governance by highlighting a series of fundamental developments happening as we speak.

We focus on three very important proposals which involve the election of two fundamental roles concerning security (council) and operations (OAT), as well as one of the most awaited proposals: the Strategic Objective Setting (SOS) which finally allows us to move forward from the Arbitrum Mission Vision Purpose (MVP).

Let’s get right into it!

1. Arbitrum Strategic Objective Setting (SOS) – Defining the DAO’s Interim Goals

The MVP was instrumental in setting a common understanding of Arbitrum’s north star and vision in place.

Now, it’s time to be practical and move on to the strategies to help us reach these goals: the SOS.

This initiative calls all DAO contributors to propose short (1-year) and mid-term (2-year) objectives that would contribute to reaching Arbitrum’s MVP.

A set of objectives, “regarded as the DAO’s highest priorities,” will then be voted on and selected for implementation (and reviewed every 12 months). Entropy will then budget these objectives with capital on a yearly basis.

Too often, the common sentiment has been that the initiatives taken from the DAO lacked a common framework and vision. The MVP and the SOS ensure that those are tied closely and will set in motion a series of strategic initiatives with a cohesive long-term impact on Arbitrum.

In turn, this will contribute to:

• More efficient assessment of the initiative

• Prevention of doubled efforts

• Cohesion and alignment over siloed proposals

If the MVP helps to define the DAO’s long-term vision, then the SOS allows Arbitrum DAO to chart the course to get there.

The SOS proposal passed the vote on a snapshot and is currently in the submission period, according to its timeline:

• First Phase (Ratification of the SOS Framework):

  • Review, Feedback, & Edit Period: January 10th - January 23rd

  • Snapshot Period: January 23rd - January 30th

• Second Phase (Ratification of a Strategic Objectives Matrix):

  • Notice Period: 14 days (note that this period’s initiation might be pushed back slightly such that submitters will have more time to include possible takeaways from ETHDenver into their matrices during the Submission Period)

  • Submission Period: 30 days

  • Feedback Period: 21 days

  • Revision Period: 14 days

  • Voting Period: 7 days

• Review Phase (Potential Amendments to the Strategic Objectives Matrix): Initiated 12 months after the previous voting period has ended or as a result of an ad hoc adjustments proposal as described above.

We cannot stress how important that anyone who actively participates in the DAO gets behind this and shares their voice on what they believe to be the most important SOS we should focus on.

2. OpCo’s Oversight and Transparency Committee (OAT)

The application for OpCo’s OAT has officially closed this week, it’s now time to move on and vote for candidates. We’ve got a fair turnover, with 14 applicants across 3 different domains

The OAT will have the important role of contributing to:

• Operational Support

  • Advice on OpCo’s operational development.

  • Review proposals for the DAO, by the OpCo team, related to the continuation of the OpCo & its operations.

• Strategic Coordination: engagement with key stakeholders, contributors, and proposers.

• Accountability: ensure OpCo fulfills its mandate, prepare and review stakeholder updates, and design relevant KPIs on success.

• Hiring, Termination, & Authorization: recruit essential staff to the entity, salaries, budgets and other finances.

The elected members will remain in charge for 12 months.

While strong focus in voting will be places on assessing candidates for their skills (and taking into account their COI), it will also be important that OpCo’s composition reflects the necessary oversight the DAO has to conduct on the external entity.

Interesting to notice the applications from both Offchain Labs and Arbitrum Foundation, as a testament to their expressed desire to be more involved and closer in DAO matters.

There are only 3 places available, battled between:

• AF/OCL

• Arbitrum dao native contributors

• External DAO operatives

Who’s gonna win? Are you ready for Arbitrum’s Hunger Games?

3. Security Council Elections

The nominee selections for the Arbitrum Security Council will be closing in 2 days!

All candidates who receive over 8.49m votes will advance to the voting phase, starting on April 12th! We’ve had over 22 applicants, with incredible backgrounds.

With 48 hours to go, only 3 candidates have already reached the threshold.

The Security Council is granted the power to intervene in case of security emergencies. They are currently one of the most critical security features Layer 2s can rely on in case of emergency.

For this reason, members of the security council should be selected for their experience with security-related manners, as well as a good understanding of the technical workings of Arbitrum and alignment with the DAO.

In a few days, we’ll see who the DAO has selected, and then voting will start.

What else is happening on Arbitrum beyond governance?

Wyoming launches the testnet for its Stablecoin on Arbitrum

New Entropy dashboard for more clarity on DAO finances

Happy birthday Arbitrum DAO! We are now two years old. Pretty smart kids!

Also, we are gonna be hosting a space on Arbitrum interoperability today at 5 pm UTC, make sure to tune in!

We’re also excited to announce that we have been onboarded as DAO Relations Partner for the Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP):

Courtesy of Francesco - Co-founder at Castle

And that’s it for this week! A more entertaining week compared to recent ones.

We hope you enjoyed reading and see you next time!

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.