Mad News #81 🎒 Brick By Brick: 2024 Year In Review
Issue #81 is focused on everything you've forgotten about Backpack. High notes and hidden nuances that vanish in the 24/7 crypto news cycle.
Welcome to the Mad News! 📰
Issue #81 is focused on everything you've forgotten about Backpack. High notes and hidden nuances that vanish in the 24/7 crypto news cycle.
Product development, founders notes, holder bios, partnership details, IRL activations, fan art and all the sauce that is lost in the depths of social media.
Mad News is more than a blog, it is a resident historian tasked with documenting the journey of Backpack and the Lads.
Let's get into it.
First an origin story recap, then a detailed look at 2024 and the relentless building that has established Backpack as a contender.
Backpack's Origin Story 🎒
When Issue #1 of Mad News was published, Backpack had been building for over a year. The Wallet had challenged the self custody status quo across chains and Mad Lads was the #1 NFT collection on Solana.
As the late great Maya Angelou said "you can't really know where you're going, until you know where you have been."
Take a walk down memory lane and catch up on that missing year quickly.
What we're building with Backpack is not just an eXchange. What we're really building is the next generation crypto native financial institution.
Armani Ferrante
February 2022
Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver begin building what would end up becoming Backpack (xNFTs did not exist yet). The core development team began to form.
xNFTs and Backpack had yet to be revealed to the general public.
May 2022
xNFT social accounts surface and Discord launches for early adopters.
Backpack Wallet is unveiled, although access is invite only.
September 2022
The team raises $20M to power the next stage of Backpack development.
Solana's biggest brands have built xNFT applications that are exclusive to the Wallet.
November 2022
Backpack's center stage keynote speech steals the show at Breakpoint and the buzz is palpable.
Within days of Breakpoint the entire crypto industry was rocked by the collapse of FTX and Backpack found a majority of it's raise locked up and inaccessible (88% of the corporate treasury).
Despite the setbacks and industry fallout, Backpack keeps building. WAO (We Are One) and the Fock it. mentality were born during the oncoming crypto winter.
December 2022
The team sets up headquarters at the Jump Crypto offices in Chicago and feverishly grinds on the Wallet for several months.
Unbeknownst to the public they were also creating what would become the Mad Lads NFT collection (drawn by artist Yann Penno).
Backpack's first viral moment occurs after a photo from the "Saturday, live from Chicago" photo series becomes a de facto meme for AI productivity brands advertising on social media.
February 2023
Mad Lads is unveiled with the now famous Peaky Blinders themed teaser captioned "We're focking Mad, Lads".
Early supporters and active Discord members are rewarded with coveted Madlist mint spots. This helped form the core social layer for the protocol.
April 2023
Mad Lads mint breaks the internet in dramatic fashion and instantly becomes Solana's #1 community. The 4/20 launch was plagued with extortion demands, DDOS attacks, RPC node failures and attempted smart contract exploits.
The minting process was managed with an xNFT in Backpack Wallet and served as a massive testbed for the new technology.
Unknown to the public, initial exchange discussions had been taking place behind the scenes.
May 2023
The growing team shifts headquarters to Tokyo and industry experts such as Can Sun, Oliver Sleafer and Nick Ting begin to come onboard.
Secrecy and speculation swirl around the brand as xNFT development slows to a crawl.
October 2023
After a summer filled with Backpack Wallet improvements and growth, Backpack Exchange is announced at Breakpoint. Many months worth of regulatory work occurred before this moment.
The team also released news of securing the highly sought after VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) operating license, a crucial step for a regulated exchange.
100,000+ registrants sign up for the beta access waitlist.
It's time to put an end to the days of opaque crypto exchanges representing everything our industry stands against.
It shouldn't be normal to use an exchange with a single point of failure, without proof of reserves, or without auditability.
November 2023
Backpack Exchange launches alongside an event celebrating the release of Pyth Network's highly anticipated token, $PYTH.
Mad Lads holders were placed on top, holders who registered an account on Backpack Exchange received the largest allocation.
Wallet development continued and the first mobile version became available on Android.
December 2023
Spot trading goes live and additional markets are listed.
Support is extended to more countries around the world.
Several promotional events are hosted to act as a stress test for the system.
2024: A Year In Review 🗓️
2023 began with a whimper and ended with a bang. The Solana community was entrenched in a harsh crypto winter while the future of crypto was decidedly uncertain.
Backpack was just developing its identity, Mad Lads did not exist and the prospect of launching an Exchange was outside the realm of consideration.
By the beginning of 2024 all three had weathered the storm and prepared for one of the most eventful years that the blockchain has ever known.
Strap in (seriously), Backpack product development moves at a cheetahs pace and there was a constant stream of releases and improvements.
Front facing features make the headlines but the amount of work done under the hood makes lesser devs shudder.
Relentless Shippoors 🛳️🛳️
The Wallet development team size may be small in number but they were mighty in 2024. Milestones detailed below are presented in sequential order starting at the beginning of the year.
Collection Locking expands to include hundreds of Solana NFT projects. A simple toggle in the Backpack Wallet locks your JPEGs and automatically rejects any transaction requests.
User experience improves in Backpack Wallet with Armani's "silly simple features". The first new function maintains scroll state when changing between tabs. The second, navigation persistence, allows you to open your Wallet to the location it was before being closed.
List, Delist and view data about NFTs directly within Backpack Wallet on the Tensor Marketplace. Securely interact with the dApp and avoid any potential malicious approvals.
Stake SOL from the home screen of Backpack Wallet with the Mad Validator staking pool (currently sitting at 590k SOL).
Backpack Wallet hits the Apple iOS store.
Added ability to use custom derivation paths within the Wallet.
Automated Priority Fees integrated into the Wallet. This became a hot topic several times throughout the year as the Solana network experienced major transaction cost hikes during times of high use.
Custom slippage options empower users to choose their own price impact with individual transactions.
Auto Lock hits the Wallet. Another security function that removes access to the wallet after a period of down time.
NFT Spam Blocker integrated in Wallet to protect from the onslaught of inexpensive Solana cNFT airdrops. Users also received the ability to hide tokens from their home screen.
Browser side panel functionality added to Backpack Wallet which transforms the desktop experience.
Streamlined seed phrase imports on the home screen.
Explore menu introduced to Backpack Wallet, browse your favorite dApps in a secure environment.
Birdeye data integration to provide a secured portal to research tokens.
Token balance masking shields Wallet balances from prying eyes.
Improved network switching clearly shows which network you Wallet is set to.
Search function added to the NFT menu allows easy navigation.
Metaplex Core standard integrated which makes NFT minting cheaper, safer and more efficient.
Arbitrum network, an Ethereum L2, added to Wallet.
Transaction details menu changes design to show clear distinction between App Interactions and signed transactions.
RPC switching is streamlined to make it easy to swap between custom RPC endpoints.
Backpack Wallet is first to onboard Dialect's Blinks and Actions.
Base blockchain network support added along with Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base token swaps.
Backpack Wallet becomes the only Solana app to support three cold storage hardware devices (Ledger, Trezor and Keystone). This makes Backpack the only Solana wallet to offer true 2-of-3 (and 3-of-3) multisig protection.
Wormhole's Native Token Transfers significantly expand swapping options. Instead of wrapping tokens, NTT enables direct transfer of native tokens across blockchains.
Eclipse Mainnet (🐮,📷) goes live in Backpack Wallet with more than twenty builders featured in Explore.
$DBR token allocation checker native in Wallet.
Major mobile app overhaul that allows users to seamlessly interact with both Exchange and Wallet.
Backpack is the only crypto wallet that works with SOON (Solana Optimistic Network).
deBridge's novel "claim-to-CEX" protocol is now supported.
Backpack becomes the first (and only) major wallet platform to integrate Helius's AirShip support.
Backpack browser extension sees 100,000 downloads in one month.
LAIKA launches and uses Backpack Wallet as a vessel to add liquidity to the network.
Updated Wormhole SDK makes already lightning fast transactions move even quicker.
Metaplex Aura integration improves performant indexing of asset data.
Brick By Brick: Building Backpack Exchange 🧱
From idea to execution Backpack Exchange launched in less than one year. Since then it has been a nonstop sprint.
Both forward facing and behind the scenes improvements each place Backpack one step closer to the experience users expect.
Referral Links go live. Users earn 30% of trading fees from each KYC’d account that you refer to the platform and rebates are distributed weekly.
Banxa powered fiat onramps open up on Exchange. Backpack has some of the lowest onramp fees of any centralized exchanges. VIP traders can wire USD funds directly from trad bank accounts.
Armani famously said “Mobile will take us from 300M to 1B” just a week before the Backpack Exchange posted its first $1B trading volume day (and two months before going mobile).
Blockchain Australia welcomes Backpack Exchange with open arms and makes them an official member of the nonprofit organization.
Instant internal transfers between Main account and Subaccounts.
Custom chart indicators settings and drawings are autosaved for each market, settings stick when revisiting.
Manual entry of referral codes to avoid disconnection during new user KYC.
Mobile app is updated to include Exchange for the first time.
The team receives its first diss track 😎
Hide Portfolio privacy toggle added to Exchange portfolios.
Preseason trading events award early and consistent users. See a list of token rewards below.
Mad Lads VIP program opens on Exchange which gives substantial discounts on trading fees.
EVM support launches ahead of listing $ETH, $SHFLand $NYAN.
CSV trading history exports available for download.
Experimental and Memecoin category added to spot trading markets.
Proof of Reserves audit by Hacken passes with top remarks.
Backpack Exchange integrates Wintermute's newly released OutcomeMarket protocol, a new version of prediction markets.
Regional Backpack communities pop up in Vietnam, China and Africa.
cbBTC comes to Solana and is tradable on Backpack Exchange upon launch.
AI memecoin fever hits the Exchange with several new listings including $GOAT and $ACT.
New name, new game 🎭
@Backpack emerged from the turmoil of 2023 like a butterfly and shed the xNFT from their username. This signified a shift in priorities as the Exchange took center stage.
Backpack secures $120M evaluation in Series A fundraising round 🏦
Backpack closed a $17M raise in February which helped fuel the development cycle.
The round was led by Placeholder VC, with participation from a select group of other strategic investors including Hashed, Robot Ventures, Amber Group, Wintermute Ventures, Selini Capital and Delphi Digital.
Trusted crypto data aggregators recognize Backpack Exchange as an official player ✅
Binance owned CoinMarketCap integrated monitoring of Backpack to it’s crypto price tracking platform.
CoinGecko places the Exchange in its Top Crypto Exchanges Ranked by Trust Score.
Collecting donations for Noto Peninsula Earthquake fund ⛰️
Mother Earth rang in the New Year with a series of violent earthquakes that rattled through the Noto Peninsula leaving a path of devastation in their wake.
The Backpack Earthquake Aid fund was quickly created and more than $20,000 USD was raised to help with the recovery efforts.
In no other industry can you donate this much money, this quickly, with the least amount of friction from people all around the world. Crypto is a beautiful thing.
Armani Ferrante
The Japanese people are still reeling from the impact of the earthquake and it is estimated that damages will reach $17B+ USD.
Backpack Exchange aggressively expands token listings 🪙
The first several months of 2024 saw the Backpack Exchange list numerous Solana and Ethereum projects with strong token markets.
Since then the platform has added support for over 50 different stablecoins, memes and industry staples.
Special events came alongside many new listings which rewarded users for their trading activity.
4.2b $BONK
$5000 $MOBILE
2m $PRCL
3m $SHFL
2.5m $NYAN
2.5m $HLG
300k $ZKJ
250k $ZEX
1000 M 0.00%↑ AX (to all users who traded on Backpack Exchange every day from July 4th-30th)
Boosted Backpack Rewards 📈
A diverse range of blockchain builders have rewarded Backpack Wallet users for trading on their platform. This has manifested in several ways including points programs and token
25% on Tensor
10% on Zeta Markets
5% on marginfi
10% on NX Finance
50% on Potatocat
10% on Blackwing (with an additional 200% booster 🤯 for Mad Lads holders)
10% on BlockMesh
10% on edgeX
200% on Stabble
10% on Lavarage
5% on The Backwoods (plus a 100 $CRYSTAL allocation)
Points bonus on every transaction with AllDomains
30% F Point booster on Fragmetric
5% on EnsoFi
Here's to 2025 🍾
Development pace of Backpack products stand toe to toe with the largest teams in the industry. 2024 was a master class in agile engineering with strong leaders pushing the envelope.
Will 2025 follow suit?
Subscribe to the Mad News and keep your ear on the ground to find out!
Written by @TSBDIGITAL 🔡