Howdy!

One thread to pull from today’s edition is that DeFi protocols are increasingly realizing how important it is to own the end user in crypto. Look at Axiom: It won the end user and now is offering unlimited salary upside and free DoorDash to new hires.

Today, we’ve got the exclusive on Orca’s memecoin launchpad, the Solana DEX market, and Jeff’s screams into the void about PayPal’s new crypto product offering:

Orca releases Wavebreak launchpad for Solana tokens

Orca has released Wavebreak, a “human-first” Solana token launchpad.

The launchpad, which I first caught wind of earlier this month, integrates CAPTCHA with an onchain permission structure to keep bots and snipers from crowding out real humans, Orca CEO Nathan Davis told me. The move comes amid a raft of Solana DEXs releasing token launchpads — or vice versa — to compete in the memecoin-focused Solana DeFi market.

Outside of the onchain CAPTCHA, Wavebreak looks pretty similar to other launchpads on offer, with a few tweaks. One carrot Orca’s offering is daily rewards where users can earn rakebacks from a prize pool based on how much volume they trade.

Orca was launched on Solana by two Tokyo-based builders in 2021, according to the DEX’s docs. The DEX is also live on the SVM-based blockchain Eclipse. 

During the doldrums of 2022 and 2023, Orca was Solana’s dominant DEX. Its market share would then come under siege by Raydium, which catapulted in usage in 2024 partly due to its popularity among memecoin traders and partnership with Pump.fun. 

Today, Solana’s DEX sector is more competitive than ever — and most of the top players, which include PumpSwap, Raydium, SolFi and Meteora, alongside Orca, have some connection to a memecoin launchpad, if they haven’t already developed one in-house.

The issue with existing memecoin launchpads, says Orca, is the proliferation of bots which buy up tokens as quickly as possible in hopes of selling at a profit. Earlier this year, one research outlet found more than 50% of new Pump.fun tokens were being sniped, or purchased in the same block they were created. Such trades were profitable the vast majority of the time.

Whether this behavior is strictly bad is a matter of perspective (blockspace can be for bots, too), but it certainly does disadvantage human users.

“It's not necessarily that other platforms themselves are intentionally malicious; many are also trying to combat this problem,” Davis explained.

There have been prior attempts to thwart snipers and bots from buying up memecoins, from anti-bot taxes to dutch auctions. 

But Davis claims that “[o]ther implementations are exploitable by malicious users. We believe our implementation will be the first to mechanically prevent sniping, bundling, sandwiching and wash trading from being possible.”

Orca plans to host project fundraises on Wavebreak as well. DeFiTuna’s TUNA token will go live on the platform tomorrow, Davis said.

— Jack Kubinec

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State of the DEX market:

Pump.fun’s AMM is currently the most popular Solana DEX, followed by Raydium, per Blockworks Research data. 

As you can see, Orca — colored light purple in this chart — was quite dominant in late 2022 before losing market share over time. It will hope Wavebreak can help reverse that trend.

— Jack Kubinec

In 2014, I was a product developer for an early multi-coin exchange. My main task was building the first reliable way to buy bitcoin using PayPal without getting nuked by chargebacks.

We, the merchant seller, would be protected from reversals and fraud, while Bitcoin users enjoyed the instant convenience of the online world's most trusted payment platform.

Our design worked! Well, at least until PayPal responded by banning me personally from using its platform, forever.

Now in 2025, PayPal has launched “Pay with Crypto,” enabling merchants to accept over 100 coins through its new on-ramp and settlement service.

This includes Solana memecoins like TRUMP and Fartcoin, according to Fortune. The same platform that once banhammered people for touching crypto has now built infrastructure to settle even its most dubious of tokens globally. Oh, the long arc of irony.

I wasn’t able to confirm firsthand, of course, as, 11 years later, I remain banned “due to Bitcoin’s proximity to crime.”

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Nathan Davis, CEO of Orca: