This Crypto AI & Robotics newsletter consists of the following:
Snippet Partner: Umia Finance, now live for trading
Chain Rotation: PONS, LONG, STONK, STONKEX + FLAP
Buttensor, TaoCats, ZCAT, NearKat
Innovative mechanisms: TAMPONS + memes funding perpetual positions
Virality Ensues: RSTR’s RuneScape “Robin Hood Hat” treasury
Receipts: shopping receipts for tokenized stock + Wildcard Pick
What I’m watching next
If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me on X or message my business X account ‘Khala Research’
$UMIA is now live on Base through Uniswap V4. Its auction cleared at $0.36, equivalent to $18M fully diluted valuation. Those are auction figures, not today’s trading price. Auction results, launch announcement
Umia is building the tools for projects to issue tokens, raise capital + govern their treasuries. Its own token is the first demonstration, with decision markets helping determine how treasury funds are spent. Fantastic discussion here on MCG Live:
The team reports $125.4K in protocol fees within six days of launch, against a $120K monthly team disbursement demonstrating sustainability from day 1
As more projects attach treasuries and operating businesses to tokens, the rules around who controls the money become increasingly relevant
This is the part of the market Umia is building for; keep an eye out for their first incubated project going live soon… using a well refined curation committee:
This newsletter goes out weekly to 7.4k+ subscribers.
Please don’t hesitate to message me directly for sponsorship or partnership enquiries.
MemeFi Is Getting Weird
Last week we looked at memes paired with tokenized stocks... this week the shopping list includes TAO, ZEC, leveraged positions, RuneScape hats + equity kickbacks on your shopping spend from the shop you purchased the goods from… genius!
Apparently owning the meme wasn’t enough. It now needs more RWAs (including digital in game assets) to be interconnected to them
The meme contains the attention funnel to that asset… the more viral it goes the more ecosystem participants that asset is distributed to from a larger trading fee reward pool. I could see serious marketing budget being distributed by companies to embrace this level of virality, so I think this is only just getting started; there’s is going to be numerous innovative mechanisms that drive value back to end users:
The interesting development is how specific these mechainsms/applications are becoming:
Some tokens distribute another asset to holders
others retain assets in a treasury
Some direct fees into a trading position
while the latest consumer experiment wants to reward a shopping receipt with stock exposure
Each gives the community something concrete to follow: assets acquired, rewards delivered, positions opened or supply burned to drive value to end users
That also gives us something concrete to check:
a distributable treasury balance
an advertised reward
a completed payment or burn mechanism
I’ve been looking at where the money actually goes, because that’s where the stronger ideas start to separate from the names
The Blockchain STONK Rotation:
This innovation kicked off on RobinHood chain through Stonkbrokers, PONS, Long and a few other early innovators
But since then other blockchains have realised that there’s huge upside to this and pairing memes with innovative onchain mechanisms could faciliate both distribution (memetic attention) + product (onchain value accrual mechanisms)
PONS + LONG + STONK + STONKEX + FLAP
Those of you who saw my X post on capital rotations across chains, likening it to the December 2024 AI Agent boom, will likely have front ran this capital rotation from RH to Solana:
The STONKS movement is spreading across launchpads, each with its own approach to pairing memes with other assets and routing trading fees:
PONS kickstarted the cleanest mechanism with heavy burns at a lower market cap meaning a large portion (30%+) of its circulating supply was burned from the early stages… this bypassed the typical VC route + has enabled them to accumulate a war chest to cement themselves as a leader of the STONK memeFi pairing movement.
While many prior protocols like Pump, have taken this approach it’s been executed much later in their maturity journey meaning it would take a lot higher fees to buy/burn the circulating supply + impact the token price
STONKEX provides a useful example of why the fee split matters. Its documentation describes a 1% swap fee, with 0.7% going to the creator and 0.3% to the platform. Of the platform share, 80% funds STONKEX buybacks and burns. Under that stated split, the buyback allocation works out to 0.24% of trading volume. Fee mechanics.
It also lets launches buy tokens from their own pool and distribute them to selected traders through a FOMO leaderboard. The resulting hold or sell history becomes public. Receiving an unsolicited airdrop tells us nothing about whether that wallet endorses the project.
StonkFun has another variation: its ecosystem buyback mechanism directs a portion of eligible pool fees toward leading eligible tokens, weighted by market cap. That is separate from rewards paid to individual holders and from buybacks of STONK itself. Ecosystem mechanism
A decent comparison of the top two is done here:
It’s clear that tokenholder value accrual is key; so number of tokens / % burned is a decent metric, of which PONS is the leader followed by STONK, then STONKEX:
Insights:
FLAP is yet to launch a token, and LONG has a different value accrual mechanism with its leading “AI/NVDA” token which distirbuted NVDA stock to AI token holders.
When analyzing the activity on each platform you could argue that STONK has some insane runners with large market caps/volume which in turn drives fees + greater burns. So the r/r on STONK is looking appealling
STONKEX is interesting and monitoring the activity on Base is key. Bluechip was just followed by Cobie which sent it hurtling + Unipcs is positioning on Basecat as a leading potential Cat meme. It’s not quite at the levels of STONK/PONS but certainly worth watching
PONS is interesting because it has the leader advantage, a larger supply burn, and more recently if you check its top coins many are innovative AI related protocols:
This tells me they’re progressive in the teams they are incubating; valuations today therefore don’t mean they’ll be comparable in the future. I do believe the next “level up” will come from an AI/agentic layer on top of these Stonk/meme RWA protocols
Cross-Ecosystem Pollination: “Buttensor” + ZCAT + NearKat
Buttensor (BUTT) is a particularly good example of crypto making an asset easier to discover through an absurd name… for those unfamiliar this is a meme on “Bittensor”
The reward model gives eligible holders another token as trading activity funds purchases and distributions (in TAO for BUTT holders):
Another similar mechanism pair is ZEC’s ZCAT, whose site describes a 3% transfer tax used to source ZEC for eligible holders. The reward depends on activity, so the rate at which you accumulate ZEC can change dramatically. ZCAT mechanics:
You can see why this catches on; a trader arrives for the meme + starts accumulating an asset they might otherwise never have bought (Snapshot below of 2.37 $TAO accumulated for holding BUTT):
The community has a second reason to remain interested after the initial joke wears off… But those rewards come out of the trading economy around the meme
NearKat acts in a similar manner to TAO + ZEC memetic attention engines… except with the NEAR token
To note however when looking at these rewards; there is a reporting wrinkle too:
StonkFun’s reward dashboard values historical distributions using current asset prices. A rising dollar total can therefore reflect appreciation of previously distributed tokens. It shouldn’t automatically be described as an equivalent amount of new cash paid out. Dashboard methodology.
This is the accountant in me, that wants to ensure spot distributions are recorded at spot token value in USD terms… those airdrops might be difficult to reconcile for your tax accountant!
TAMPONS + Memes Funding Perpetual Positions
“TAMPONS” takes the treasury experiment into a much more aggressive direction
Its Perps Hood page displays a 3× short position in PONS (RobinHood tokenized STONK/Meme launchpad mentioned prevuously), funded through the token’s treasury structure. The page also accepts USDG contributions as additional collateral. Those contributions buy no tokens and carry no withdrawal right. TAMPONS market.
You can see where this goes: communities expressing bullish or bearish views through a meme whose activity helps fund the position (a more universally relatable way of rallying for / against a particular asset or position):
It also explains why holding TAMPONS isn’t enough to calculate a reliable hedge against a PONS bag. The relationship depends on the short’s size, entry price, margin, funding costs + how any benefit reaches the token. TAMPONS then has its own market price, which can move independently of the treasury
Buying a dollar of TAMPONS does not establish a dollar of short exposure. You would need a clear relationship between token ownership and the underlying position to size that hedge properly
Other Leverage Platforms:
LONG’s LongX experiment approaches leveraged exposure through a wrapper. Its NVDA3x announcement describes an ERC-20 wrapping a 3× NVDA perpetual on Lighter, with swap and mint/redeem routes. The underlying funding, liquidation and execution mechanics still matter. LONG announcement.
A meme paired with a leveraged asset and a meme treasury operating a leveraged position can produce very different outcomes for holders. That distinction will matter more as these products multiply…
RSTR: A RuneScape Treasury
RSTR is using ETH fees to accumulate Robin hood hats in Old School RuneScape; quite an innovative product that appeals to millions within a specific gaming community
Yes, the in-game hats… rallying around the attention funnel connection from being launched on PONS, on Robinhood Chain
The project applies the treasury accumulation idea to an item with an existing player economy. Its site tracks the Robin hood hat using OSRS pricing data. RSTR.
The appeal is obvious to anyone who grew up playing RuneScape. The community immediately understands the object, its status + the joke. Buying more of it gives the meme a running storyline that can travel outside the usual crypto audience
The hard part is valuing what holders actually have. Hats sit in game accounts, while the token trades onchain. An inventory claim needs evidence of those holdings, control of the accounts and a clear explanation of how tokenholders benefit…
I don’t personally think this would accrue back to the holders as a claim on the in game assets… particularly if the OSRS accounts get banned for real world trading
However, the attention flywheell drives more virality which then brings more people into the token which then has a flywheel affect of more RH hats accumulated in game
Receipts: Your iPhone Purchase Could Earn AAPL stock
“Receipts” protocol has one of the easiest pitches in this entire issue: photograph your shopping receipt and receive tokenized stock exposure to the company you bought from:
Costco maps to COST, Apple to AAPL + Whole Foods to Amazon. The proposed rewards treasury is funded by a share of $RECEIPT trading fees. The named retailers aren’t funding or partnering with the project (yet) but its funded through trading fees currently; to me this is an ingenious “equity cashback” reward that i could easily see take off with shops aligning interests with their core customers:
Its published rules describe a 3% base reward, capped at $20 per receipt, rising to $100 for wallets holding at least 100,000 RECEIPT. Those are advertised settings that the team can change. Reward rules.
The current status needs clarification: the site promotes live payouts, but its footer says the scanner is in early access and stock delivery is not yet live. It also labels the reward feed as sample data. I’m covering the proposed model without presenting those examples as verified payments. Launch disclosure.
If it works, this is a straightforward way to introduce stock exposure through something people already do. The next proof is successful deliveries + enough recurring revenue to fund shoppers when meme trading slows… or select retailers partner officially and fund this through marketing spend??
The Wildcard: NOFEE
(Competing for the Trade)
NOFEE: A Vault for Your Trading Clan
Why copy a trader’s buys after the price has moved when you could participate in the portfolio they’re actually trading?
NOFEE’s Funds product on Base is designed around that idea:
Investors deposit into a shared fund and receive shares.
A manager trades through approved pools, while investors control their own exits.
The manager cannot redirect someone else’s withdrawal to their own wallet
I could see this fitting into FOMO’s clans: a group pools capital behind its strongest trader, with everyone participating in the same portfolio. Here’s a concept design mockup:
The lead trader manages the positions, and members redeem their shares against the fund’s remaining assets, subject to fees. That redemption value moves with performance
It addresses a familiar copy-trading problem. Followers often arrive late, get different fills and miss exits. A shared fund executes for everyone already invested, so members participate through their shares without having to replicate each transaction. The portfolio still faces slippage and liquidity constraints.
That’s the NOFEE use case I’m interested in: letting a community back its best trader without giving that trader unrestricted withdrawal authority. FOMO would be a potential application; I haven’t confirmed an integration but this could be one of many applications of NOFEE specifically
To note: “Rug-proof” would overstate the protection. Trading losses, abuse of permitted trades and smart-contract failures remain possible. Fees also matter: the current interface lists a 3% withdrawal fee, plus manager fees, with some exits before 30 days costing 12.7% before gas
What I’m Watching
The strongest development this week is the range of things a meme can fund…
TAO distributions…. A collateralized PONS short…. RuneScape inventory and a shopper’s first tokenized stock reward in the form of cash back
The trends that’s becoming increasingly clear is that innoivation has once again returned onchain with the real world asset (RWA) connection enabling tangible value to be distributed through innovative mechanisms, catalyzed through “MemeFi”
I’m watching whether the evidence catches up with the ideas:
The Agentic Layer: I noted above that Pons top projects were AI integral… this will be the next unlock!
RWA enhancement infrastructure: Pre-IPO pricing optimisation, seamless consumer apps leveraging tokenized RWAs etc.
Rewards: assets delivered to holders, measured in token units as well as dollars
Perpetuals: visible collateral, position size, funding + completed buybacks
Treasuries: verifiable holdings + a clear benefit for the tokenholder
Consumer apps: real usage and a reward budget that survives quieter trading
Launchpads and terminals: repeat activity after the initial launch rush; assess whether the launchpad continues to have that “staying power” and becomes the chosen venue for tokens, raking in the insane fees for doing so
The easy mistake is to see an asset behind a meme and assume the token inherits all its value. That value still has to reach the holder through a distribution, redemption, buyback or another enforceable mechanism; which is partly what this week’s partner UMIA finance is intending to solve
I’m interested because these experiments give communities more to do than wait for the next buyer. Now we can start measuring whether those activities create enough value to keep people around… sustainability becoming a focal point is a lot more satisfying
That’s a wrap for this issue of Sammy’s Snippets. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Disclaimer: The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only. I am commenting on the underlying activity of what I am observing in the market to keep my audience updated and informed.
Nothing in this newsletter constitutes financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
I hold positions in many of the assets discussed in this newsletter. Valuations are approximate snapshots and move quickly. Verify all market data independently before acting.
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