Howdy!

We’ve finally made it to Friday of the longest short week ever. Donald Trump — if you’re reading this, please no more tokens this weekend.

Today, we’ve got the SocialFi renaissance, SOL sitting above $260, and a news roundup.

SocialFi makes its return on Solana

Crypto’s new viral app isn’t very new at all.

Solana-based social project Clout saw its downloads take off after launching an iPhone app that lets users buy tokenized versions of social media profiles. This is very similar to the premise behind the viral 2023 app friend.tech, which was itself a rehashing of BitClout, a Crypto Twitter tokenization app that went viral in 2021. Friend.tech’s founding team already stepped away from the platform, while BitClout’s founder was just charged with fraud by the DOJ and the SEC.

Clout hasn’t leaned away from its forefathers. The project posted a meme today riffing on Justin Timberlake’s famous line as Sean Parker in The Social Network: “Drop the ‘Bit.’ Just ‘Clout.’ It’s cleaner.”

“Integrity and healthy tokenomics!” was Clout founder Ben Pasternak’s reply when I asked him what sets his app apart.

At the time of writing, Clout was #34 on the App Store’s finance chart. The app is so congested that I haven’t been able to land a transaction all day. And Clout isn’t the only so-called SocialFi app grabbing Solana users’ attention.

Tribe.run — which is still in invite-only mode — has also seen some momentum for a tokenized X profile app that creates token-gated group chats called tribes. I managed to snag an invite and have been enjoying the app, which features a nostalgic Windows 98-esque design. Tribe comes with an airdrop feature built in where I was able to send some of my token to my group chat members. This feature is enabled by Solana zero-knowledge compression.

When I asked Tribe founder Bill Zheng why he thinks his app can succeed where friend.tech, for instance, failed, he said the former app had a “fundamental flaw” in that creators had no incentive to stay engaged. Tribe employs a subscription model where tribe members must pay a certain amount of SOL to stay in the group chat — giving the tribe creators a reason to stick around.

Outside of Solana, Kaito AI has seen success with its Yaps platform that doles out points for users who are active — or who yap a lot, in internet parlance — on Crypto Twitter. 

SocialFi’s resilience underscores the resilience of Elon Musk’s social media platform. X remains the center of the online crypto world, and until that changes, crypto social apps will keep testing out new ways to monetize Crypto Twitter.

— Jack Kubinec

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This June, Brooklyn becomes the epicenter for developers, builders, and problem-solvers driving the evolution of the onchain ecosystem. Permissionless IV features a 36 hour hackathon, hands-on workshops, and conversations with the leaders shaping decentralized technology.

Whether you’re building protocols, tackling onchain challenges, or collaborating with the brightest minds, this is the space to innovate and connect.

📅 June 24–26 | Brooklyn, NY

It’s a sign of the times that a new SOL all-time high garnered nary a mention in this week’s newsletter.

Amid all the TRUMP and Trump craziness, SOL crossed the $280 mark for the first time over the weekend, and it hasn’t dropped much since. 

Conventional wisdom says to sell the news, but so far in Donald Trump’s second term, it’s been pretty hard to predict what the crypto news might be. It’s an interesting market for traders, that’s for sure.

— Jack Kubinec

ICYMI — Stories you might have missed from Solanaland this week:

• COMMing SOON NFT Mint Round 1 concluded with $22M raised. SOON (Solana Optimistic Network), is a new blockchain focused on high-speed interoperability and ecosystem growth. It is now live with 20+ projects including wallets, DEXs, and bridges.

• Janice McAfee has launched the AIntivirus project, featuring an AI-driven representation of her late husband John McAfee on Twitter that interacts with users. The project aims to offer a privacy-focused product suite, including an eSIM, private email, and VPN service, which users can ostensibly pay for using the project’s new memecoin, AINTI.

• GenesysGo released shdwDrive v1.0.4. The update improves the UI, reduces staking requirements, and adds granular control for operators contributing storage to the network. Shadow Drive is a decentralized storage platform built for Web3 devs on Solana.

• Nova Labs is facing a lawsuit from the SEC, alleging unregistered securities sales through Helium Hotspots and programs like Discovery Mapping. The SEC also claims Nova Labs misled investors about companies like Lime and Salesforce using its network. Helium CEO Amir Haleem has vowed to fight the charges, warning that labeling hotspots as securities could jeopardize the entire DePIN industry. This case comes amid leadership changes at the SEC following Gary Gensler’s departure.

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Bill Zheng, founder of Tribe.run: