Mad News Rewind 📰 Issues #26-40 (December 2023-February 2024)
Zooming out on the Mad Lads and Backpack story to highlight moments that led a small startup to international recognition.
Welcome back to the third Mad News Rewind, catch up on the past editions here:
Backpack Exchange did not exist when the Mad News launched in June 2023, by January 2024 it was the fastest growing CEX in crypto.
Dive into the events which have placed Backpack and Mad Lads on top of the Solana ecosystem.
December, 2023
Issue 26 | Issue 27 | Issue 28 | Issue 29 | Issue 30
Mad Lads who participated in the Pyth Network event on the Backpack Exchange received a soulbound badge to commemorate the occasion
Just like the coins earned from staking Mad Lads NFTs, the badges are stored in an inventory system and cannot be traded or transferred.
Many of us played MMORPGs like WoW & OSRS growing up
The easiest way to explain this is that your Mad Lads have a soulbound inventory system of xNFTs controlled by the owner of the NFT
If you own the Mad Lad NFT, you also own its inventory of items
KYC’d users of the Backpack Exchange can create subaccounts that allow users to organize assets and privatize the trading experience
Exchange wallet management expanded with the launch of subaccounts.
Collection locking went live for the Mad Lads in early October and now expands to other bluechip Solana projects
Claynosaurz was the first with Tensorians later the same day, Solana Monkey Business came next.
On Solana anytime you want to mutate a piece of data, you have to label it as `writeable`.
Given a transaction signature request, we simply look through all the `writeable` accounts, see if any of them belong to locally locked NFT collections, and if they do. Reject.
It's that simple.
Solana was able to offset 100% of the networks carbon footprint by purchasing 10.9 tons of carbon credits
The first Energy Use Report was released in November, 2021 and at the time there were 1,196 validator nodes using an estimated 11 million kWh per year (the equivalent to the average use of 1000 American households).
Spottie Wifi stands out in the crypto world with his iconic CryptoPunks album and deep overlap into the trad music industry
He came on the Mad Lads radar after sweeping four “Crown” trait NFTs from the collection and changing his long-held PFP to support the Lads.
Read our full length interview in Mad News #28 with a piece called “Catching up with Spottie Wifi”
Advanced trading, depth charts and new withdrawal options go live on the Backpack Exchange 📊
The most notable change is the option to toggle from Simple to Advanced trading.
Depth charts were added to the Advanced trading view a few days later.
Backpack Exchange Rust API client live on GitHub 💾
Devs released a Rust API client which helps streamline interactions with the wallet.
Long time Lads holder Burnz experienced a holiday disaster when he clicked a risky link and was drained of everything in his wallet
$14,000 worth of outgoing transactions later, his Lads were locked and secured!
Christmas day [I] got drained, still thankful to the $PEEP community sending me gifts so I can stay with the community.
Also thankful for Backpack locking feature, because of that I still have my Mad Lads.
Both the Backpack Wallet and Exchange received infusions of fresh features addressing user requests and expanding CEX functions
Users now have substantially more control over wallet autolocking and transaction signing in their wallet extension.
Exchange based withdrawals and deposit options were supplemented with multiple new configurations.
In addition, you can now manually key wallet addresses.
Blockchain transactions are traceable including information on signing parties, the contract, contents of the contract and more
Armani has a method to help privatize your Backpack experience.
Tensor implemented a points multiplier bonus for Backpack Wallet users in their Season 3 trading contest
This helped onboard over a thousand new Backpack users in just a few days which provided an impromptu stress test on the Wallet.
We made some small but important updates to our injected provider after receiving a bunch of feedback:
wallets now automatically switch inside dapps when switching inside the extension
dapps automatically reconnect when previously connected to the wallet
Two more tokens became available for trade on the Backpack Exchange 🪙
BONK/USDC spot trading launched on the Backpack Exchange.
Traders had the opportunity to compete for a prize pool of over 4B BONK tokens (over $45k USD at the time of writing original article).
WIF/USDC spot trading went live on the same day.
Mad Lads, Kamino, Jito and UXD joined Solana Japan to mark the new year and celebrate the growing crypto community in Japan
70+ attendees were treated to hand rolled onigiri, local drinks and the smoothest sake in Japan.
January, 2024
Issue 31 | Issue 32 | Issue 33 | Issue 34 | Issue 35
Backpack and Tensor teams teased community members all week as rumors ran unchecked about what the future holds for the pair of Solana natives
The hype narrative started with a simple 🎒 emoji from Tensor’s co-founder, ilmoi and quickly gained a life of it’s own.
Backpack users have grown accustomed to near-weekly upgrades and new features
Armani continues that trend with two “silly simple features”.
The first new function maintains scroll state when changing between the Tokens/Collectibles/Activity tabs.
“Navigation persistence” is the second new function. This allows you to open your wallet to the location it was when last closed.
The community raised more than $20,000USD to help with recovery efforts after the Noto Peninsula earthquake
Peace Winds Japan is a humanitarian aide organization that specializes in disaster relief and other conflicts.
We have chosen Peace Winds Japan as the recipient of this donation. We will be converting the crypto to yen and sending it to them this week.
CEO of Helius Labs and confirmed manlet Mert Mumtaz became the first ever recipient of a second honorary Mad Lad
We had to honor Mert’s baldness
Read my interview with Mert where we talked about his introduction to Solana, dropping out of college, Helius infrastructure tools, his favorite xNFTs and advice for new developers.
Artist p.HarrisDesigns spread some beginning of the New Year cheer with an airdrop that landed in the wallet of every single Mad Lads holder
p.HarrisDesigns is a photographer and videographer who documents concerts and events for touring musicians.
It was only right to do one for the Lads since they are such a great community and always show support and love.
Backpack able to list, delist and view NFT data on the Tensor marketplace directly inside their Wallet
This integration is another step towards Backpack becoming the most secure touchpoint available to interact with the blockchain.
You can also accept offers on your listed NFTs as well as get granular with attribute floor prices.
Users were also greeted with a new option to stake SOL directly within the Backpack Wallet on the Mad Validator staking platform
Learn how to stake SOL in Backpack Wallet here.
Backpack Exchange expands offerings with MOBILE 🪙
Trading of Helium Mobile’s token, MOBILE, went live with a trading promotion to go along with it.
Backpack sponsors #Chapter2 Leaderboard for Saga referral contest ✍️
Part of the fervor for the #Chapter2 launch involved a referral contest which promises to rewards winners with fantastic prizes.
Backpack (and the Mad Lads by extension) sponsored the “Leaderboard” which tracked referral link usage.
Talking about the importance of community in crypto is cliche at this point yet the fact remains that creative holders are a driving force behind the Mad Lads movement
FUELCELL is a longtime Lad who recently won his first Emmy
AmeT dropped a “NEO LADS” collection to 70k+ DRiP subscribers
graffito.sol auctions off Mad Lads x Backpack inspired 1/1 NFTs
Burger Bob puts on a Fock It. IRL installation
ALLEN filmed a Spanish-language breakdown of the Backpack Wallet and xNFTs.
joetakayama.eth shows us that you can Stake your SOL in the Backpack wallet in less than 20 seconds
Backpack Exchange developers did not sleep for weeks 😴
This was a big week for both the Wallet and Exchange with numerous improvements, polishes and new features (including new token support).
The Drop is the rewards distribution system on the Backpack Exchange.
The Drop is where we'll funnel much of energy for our community, our products, and our marketing efforts.
A place to do stuff on the exchange.
A place to do stuff on chain.
Armani Ferrante
KYC’d users can now generate Referral Links and start racking up points, rewards are yet to be defined.
Create your Referral Link here!
The Leaderboard tracks trading volume on the Exchange and shows the top users volume in USDC.
Account Stats is pretty self explanatory, it is a dashboard that gives you a zoomed out view of your trading status on the Exchange.
Exploring the platform just got easier with dedicated Navigation Bar that lives at the bottom of your screen.
Trading Mode Toggle
Markets
Stats
Volume Leaderboard
External Links
Auto Lock customization is one of the older implementations (was added a few releases ago) but is an extremely improved function none-the-less.
Mobile Backpack app starting to catch up to Extension 📱
Solana staking and NFT Locking are now live on iOS and Android.
Version 0.10.24 of the browser extension added Automated Priority Fees to Backpack Wallet 🎒
Users can modify their Compute Unit Price and Compute Unit Limit after placing Backpack in Developer Mode.
Increasing these limits can help ensure your transactions process during times of network congestion.
February, 2024
Issue 36 | Issue 37 | Issue 38 | Issue 39 | Issue 40
Mad Lads and Tensor raffle a pair of 1/1 “glitched” NFTs on Backpack Exchange
This was the second Backpack Exchange event that non-KYC’d could participate in (with the first being the 1/1 Pythia raffle for Mad Lads holders.)
Gold coins earned through Mad Lads loyalty staking played a major role in the raffle, another rewards mechanism rug for holders.
1 Mad Lad = 10 tickets
1 Tensorian = 10 tickets
1 Mad Lad Gold = 1 ticket
⚛️⚡️ x Tensor points = 1 ticket
🎒 x Backpack Exchange volume = 1 ticket
Armani teased Backpack’s first NFT spam blocker ahead of launch and Extension users were the first to be greeted with the tool
The update was intended to ebb the never ending flow of cNFTs that were aimed at holders of blue chip NFT collections like the Mad Lads, Monkes and Tensorians.
Attis drops new Roster-fueled hype supercut ⛽
The Roster content initiative is oft referred to as the “the Redbull of web3” and longtime Mad Lads supporter Attis dropped one of many supercut edits to come.
As part of the team's vision of breaking out of our bubble, they created a roster that features surfers, snowboarders and more 🏂
Lads holders netted several thousands of dollars during airdrop season 🪂
Mad Lads holders received numerous meme token airdrops during the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 including FOCK, NOBLE, WAO ARMANI SEXY LASS and Chonky (just to name a few).
Holders of Mad Lads NFTs netted upwards of $20,000 USD worth of tokens during the airdrop season.
Holders were also first in line for “bluechip” airdrop allocations from Pyth, Dymension and Jupiter.
The Mad Lads team has done something no other NFT community has yet managed to do: make the community influential enough to attract airdrops from independent projects.
Pre Season hype drove the Backpack Exchange to new levels of attention 🟠
The concept for the Pre Season was simple: create trading volume and climb the leaderboard.
The platform logged more than $600M trading volume in less than one day after the launch of Pre Season.
The influx of trading activity placed the Exchange on top of Binance and Coinbase for SOL/USDC volume for the first time.
Backpack Exchange referral program plays pivotal role in growth 📈
Referrals have a duel role on the Exchange, on one hand they grow the user count and on the other they net the referrer a whopping 30% of trading fees for each KYC’d account.
Referral rewards are now claimable once per week through the Exchange dashboard.
Cash or credit? Fiat onramps powered by Banxa opened up on the Backpack Exchange 💳
The integration boasts some of the lowest exchange fees of any CEX and is a solution for users around the world who struggle with fiat onramps.
VIP traders are allowed to directly wire USD funds from their traditional bank to the Exchange (current limit of $100,000 per transaction).
Mad Lads listings hit lowest point in history 🥩
As Backpack products gain popularity the Mad Lads became more and more scarce.
As of February 16th, 2024 there were just 277 Mad Lads listed (just 2.78% of the entire collection).
Degen tattoos 1/1 Pythia Lassie 🩸
Former LOTW sms enshrined the 1/1 Pythia Lassie on his body forever as she joins his cadre of beautiful ladies.
The finished product:
Backpack Exchange posts it’s first billion dollar day
Backpack reported their first $800M trading volume day however that benchmark was smashed just a few days later.
The $1B day brought new eyeballs to the Exchange as this level of performance ranks in the same category as established powerhouse brands like Coinbase, Binance and Kraken.
The Pre Season trading competition onboarded tens of thousands of active traders who are battling it out for a spot on the Leaderboard.
The Backpack Pre Season is such an awesome load test. Our systems have been absolutely hammered three days in a row. To get a concrete sense, checkout the trade feed.
Left is Backpack. Right is Binance.
Backpack Wallet grows the pie with multichain interoperability
Backpack and Mad Lads are well known Solana brands but that did not stop the Wallet from supporting EVM tokens from the very beginning.
Backpack Wallet took another step towards a native multichain experience with Wormhole-powered swapping, staking and NFT management.
This collaboration between Wormhole and Backpack is more than a technical enhancement.
It represents a shared vision for a seamless, secure, and user-friendly digital asset space, positioning Backpack as a leading platform for a comprehensive and delightful crypto UX.
Advanced traders utilize API tools to enhance experience on Backpack Exchange 🖥️
The Backpack Exchange is a CEX, however, it is built on core principles of decentralized blockchain philosophy.
This means allowing and encouraging crafty traders to utilize their technical prowess to add an edge to their trading experience.
API docs and clients for the Backpack Exchange:
Backpack secured a $120M evaluation in Series A fundraising round 🏦
Backpack announced a $17M Series A investment round led by Placeholder.
The Backpack ecosystem of companies, creators of the Backpack wallet, the Mad Lads NFT collection, and Backpack Exchange, today announced the first joint closing of their $17 million strategic Series A round at a $120 million combined valuation.
-Backpack Raises $17 Million Strategic Series A Round Led by Placeholder VC
An interview with Vibhu Norby, founder of DRiP 💧
Vibhu Norby, founder of DRiP, sat down with me to talk origin stories, motivations for building and strategy for the platform’s future.
How many years away are we from seeing the average person using crypto?
Vibhu: If we do our job then we’re not more than three to five years away.
If DRiP doesn’t succeed then it might be ten.
Backpack Exchange engineers started pumping out updates to the trading platform 🖥️
Devs did something and started releasing a series of updates every week that will eventually lead them to achieve a shining reputation as shippors.
Pre Season Stats
View your trading data and Referrals for the Pre Season event in the bottom action bar.
Referrals
View your Referrals trading activity in the Settings dashboard.
Account Fee Tier
View the status of your account’s Fee Tier in the Settings dashboard.
Armani Ferrante drops master class on protecting your privacy with Backpack
Amid industry wide concerns for security at the application level, Armani reminded us that Backpack is a powerful tool that helps anonymize your blockchain activity.
Reminder that if you don't want people tracking your wallets, you can restore your privacy by depositing into Backpack Exchange and immediately withdrawing to a new wallet address.
Wormhole token allocation news broke the internet 🖥️
Mad Lads NFTs which are endowed with the “W” Badge (earned by completing Discord tasks) are on track to net a substantial allocation of Wormhole tokens.
Eligible Mad Lads will receive 16000 $W.
3200 liquid on $W TGE and the remaining amount will vest daily for a year.
This has went on to become the biggest driving price differentiator in a Mad Lads NFT value so far.
Wormhole’s token event was a widespread topic of conversation in the crypto community for the better part of two years.
The platform positioned itself on the borders of all major blockchains as a service to move funds from one chain to another, this has made Wormhole a household name.
The Wormhole airdrop for Mad Lads holders is a genius move, and an innovation that we haven't seen before.
It's a new mechanic to target and reward holders. You can send a badge to holders for buying your assets, participating in your community, or anything else, and reward them.
It drives the biggest Solana NFT project into your ecosystem, and along with that a lot of attention.
Backpack developers messed around and built an L2…kind of 🧱
An L2 (Layer 2) is a network built on top of a blockchain like Solana, Ethereum and Bitcoin.
No fraud proofs though. And definitely centralized (obviously).
If we can figure out how to regularly checkpoint zk proof of reserves back to mainnet (proofs already done, just need to actually integrate it into the system and checkpoint), then holy moly.
Might just be an L2 by accident.
Armani Ferrante
Fresh blood joined Mad Lads “The Roster” 🛩️
Professional wingsuit base jumper, sky diver, big wave surfer and speed rider Jokke Sommer joined the Mad Lads Roster.
Jokke’s Instagram feed looks like an advertisement for beta blockers as his adventures take him to the heights (and depths) of the world.
