Mad News: January 2025
Backpack TGE
January marks an important milestone for Backpack, as it brings the final chapter of the pre-TGE Seasons to a close. It’s a moment many traders, holders, and Web3 enjoyers have been waiting for, and in this edition we’ll take a closer look at what this transition means and what comes next
On the broader crypto front, January was relatively calm compared to the volatility we’ve seen in recent months. While global news and geopolitical events continued to dominate headlines, the crypto markets mostly moved sideways, giving builders and communities some breathing room after an intense end of year
Throughout the month, the Mad Lads community never lost momentum. From online discussions to real-world presence, Lads continued to show up, share highlights, and stay deeply connected to every corner of the Solana ecosystem, proving once again that the culture doesn’t slow down, even in quieter markets
Never Gonna Give You Up
It started with Rick. It ends with Rick.
The Mad Lads account delivered yet another perfect Rick Roll by posting an “announcement” claiming that no Backpack airdrop was coming
New Lads, especially those who don’t study Mad News or check madlads-hub.xyz, panicked instantly… only to realize they had been Rick Rolled
Following this, Armani posted an announcement in Discord :
NFTs might be dead, but Mad Lads are just getting started in 2026
What’s the ticker?
On January 8th, the Backpack account posted an image packed with hidden clues and Easter eggs
The Mad Lads community and Backpack traders immediately switched into detective mode, carefully dissecting every detail to uncover hints about what’s coming next
Among the discoveries were several intriguing features and milestones:
Vaults
Backpack cards
Season 4 ending on January 28th
Full operations across the EU, Japan, and the USA
Stock exchange integration
Two additional <REDACTED> products
A Prediction Market
A banking revolution with zero-fee fiat on and off-ramps
Grid Bots 2.0
Some of these, like the Prediction Market, were quickly identified and will be explored in more detail later in this article
Backpack News
New Listing
January was a bit quieter on the listings side for Backpack, but we still saw a few new pairs added (and a few pairs removed), each one arriving with its own quests and rewards (or even rank drop) to keep traders excited
Backpack Wallet now natively supports the Fogo network, further expanding its multichain reach. With seamless access to another ecosystem, “Everything in Your Backpack” has never felt more true
Oh, and by the way, Backpack now supports USDT deposits and withdrawals on BNB Chain directly on the exchange
Prediction Markets by Backpack
Prediction markets have always had a structural problem. Even when traders have strong conviction or an edge, capital often ends up locked for long periods of time. Funds placed into a prediction cannot be reused elsewhere, meaning opportunity cost eats into potential gains. In many cases, being right is not enough to be profitable
The Backpack Solution: Unified Prediction Portfolio
Backpack introduced a Unified Prediction Portfolio, where prediction markets are fully integrated into the same cross-margin, cross-collateral system used across the platform
Instead of locking funds, capital can be shared across:
Spot trading
Spot margin
Borrow and lending
Perpetual futures
Prediction markets
Crypto assets
Fiat balances
All of this lives inside a single sub-account, powered by Backpack’s existing risk engine
Built Natively, Not Wrapped
This is not another wrapper around platforms like Kalshi or Polymarket. Backpack’s prediction market is built natively from the ground up, with every position tokenized, risk-profiled, and managed together
This design unlocks entirely new workflows. Traders can quote on prediction prices, get filled, and instantly hedge exposure using perpetual futures, all within the same margin account. No balance transfers, no capital silos, and no external dependencies
What Comes Next
The initial rollout focus on validating the fundamentals. Backpack’s team is prioritizing stability, ensuring the unified portfolio works flawlessly alongside the risk engine. From there, the beta will gradually expand, new features will be added, and the number of supported markets will scale
More importantly, entirely new mechanisms are already in development. Prediction markets are no longer an isolated product. With Backpack, they become a fully integrated part of a unified financial platform
$0 onramp. $0 offramp.
With this bold headline, Backpack decided to shake up the competition in January. Based on a $10000 on-ramp, swapping to USDC, swapping back to USD, and then off-ramping again, Backpack comes out with $0 in fees, setting a new benchmark for cost-efficient crypto trading
Not satisfied yet? Backpack went even further by introducing Robinhood-style zero trading fees on spot purchases. Simply enable the “Convert Beta” feature in your settings, and instantly convert your USD into any supported token with no trading fees
Zero fees swap and bridge
You can now swap and bridge from Solana with $0 fees directly from your Backpack wallet
Backpack becomes the first wallet to truly let you receive the exact same amount of USDC on the destination chain as you had on Solana
Grid Bot Beta Stats
As you know, the Grid Bot beta has been live for over a month now on both desktop and mobile. Adoption has been strong
As of January 4th, the stats were already impressive:
1581 active bots running
2763 bots created
$16930224 in liquidity being provided
With Grid Bot 2.0 already on the horizon, it’s clear that this feature is only getting started, and the next iteration will be huge
Community event
Join the community and be one of the Lads who will snag a prize
Post an art or meme about Mad Lads x Backpack on X, tag @MadLads and @Backpack, then drop your tweet link in Discord with #LadsxBackpack1
Community vote decides the winners and the contest ends Jan 31st 2026
More informations in Discord in #community-announcements
MAD Tour - Milano
The first official Backpack Italy Meetup is happening on January 31st
What to expect?
Food
Merch
Talks
Trading competitions
A great chance to meet the community IRL and share some Backpack vibes
Friendly reminder, all the events can be found on https://www.madlads-hub.xyz/events-list
PODCAST CORNER 🎙️
This time we don’t have podcast to share
Thanks for taking the time to read this post, we really appreciate it!
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Solid roundup on the Backpack updates. The unified portfolio approach for prediction markets actually addresses the oportunity cost problem that usually kills prediction market adoption. I've seen traders avoid these markets entirely because capital lockup just wasn't worth the edge.