This is a text playback of the Merlin Monday livestream from December 30, 2024. You can watch the original video HERE.

Key Takeaways:

• MERL circulation:

  • 550M MERL tokens in circulation. Around 170-180M MERL tokens remain on CEX.

  • 45M MERL in Party LP Pool.

• BTC.Fun Deploy & Mint Updates:

  • 100+ tokens have been deployed, with 15-18 tokens minted.

  • Upcoming Feature: import previously minted tokens will be added in the next 2-3 days.

• Merlin Chain Updates:

  • Focus on building infra

  • Keep fostering community growth and innovation

• 2024 Overview: Market focus is shifting back to BTCFi and Bitcoin assets, and renewed interest is seen in AI-based projects

Intro

Q: How are you doing sir?

Jeff: I'm feeling quite exhausted, and as it's already December 31 here, New Year's Eve is approaching—pretty exciting! Happy New Year to everyone, and Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate.

So, as expected, something surprising has happened with BTC.Fun. As for today's big news, Bitcoin is struggling, but I think MERL is one of the few tokens that has continued to rise over the past few days. We've seen significant withdrawals from centralized exchanges, which indicates that people are moving their MERL tokens to the chain. Currently, there are about 550 million MERL tokens in circulation, with only around 170–180 million remaining on centralized exchanges. I believe it's important to see fewer tokens on exchanges and more on the chain itself. Party LP Pool has already accumulated 45 million MERL tokens. If we see more tokens being moved onto the chain, it will be great news for everyone.

There have been hundreds of tokens deployed, and I believe around 15-18 tokens have been minted so far. Tomorrow, we’ll be distributing stablecoins (USDT) to those who deployed tokens. I highly encourage anyone with new ideas to deploy. Currently, we do not allow the import of tokens if they've been minted before, but this functionality will be added in the next two to three days.

I’m still browsing through all these tokens, and some of them even have websites or Twitter accounts, meaning their creators are preparing for the future. To be honest, I haven’t made any trades or investments yet because I haven’t found anything that excites me. However, I’m confident that I will come across something in the coming days.

Q: Are there any other updates from Merlin chain that you have that you would like to go over while we have you?

Jeff: I believe the Timon team is joining today, so they can share insights about their roadmap, the campaign they ran earlier with the party, and the current farming campaign involving Bitcoin. I would like them to share all of this information.

Right now, our focus is on building infrastructure for token launches. If you check, you'll notice that the majority of conversations in the crypto space have been centered around AI agents for quite some time. While these have been around for 2 to 3 months, they are still not widely used.

Q: Can you bridge the gas token using Meson from another EVM chain, and is it possible to access this through the Stacks wallet, or is Unisat the only Bitcoin-side wallet that works for this?

Jeff: UniSat, OKX, Xverse. Yeah, three major ones. However, if you withdraw MERL tokens from an exchange, you'll receive free gas, and you can go to MerlinSwap to exchange MERL for more BTC gas. This process is much easier and takes about two minutes. Let me mint that right now.

Some people have created tokens and had some fun with it. Some tokens saw pretty good liquidity, with high activity in the first few hours. However, I’m hearing a lot of feedback from the community now, as they finally realize what this method is about. Before, many didn’t fully understand and just listened to us talk. But now, when they try minting a token, they don’t need to worry about it not getting minted because they will receive a refund.

Once it's minted, they can buy more or sell more. For example, one token was minted in about 15 minutes and has been trading for about two hours, with around 1,500 transactions. You can easily sell and move on to the next token. This is what they wants—it's not about waiting for someone to buy your stuff, which, frankly, can be quite challenging.

Q: With 1,177 holders and showing 250,000 in transactions, do you think the success of this token, which rewards holders with 10% of the minting amount, demonstrates the innovation of a free and fair minting system combined with a fast, pay-as-you-go EVM-style environment?

**Jeff:**I'll continue to provide updates, but what I mean by building infrastructure around tokens is that one thing I've been thinking about is the future. People often ask me what I think society will look like in the next 10 to 20 years, especially with the rise of AI. Many believe that human society will be drastically different, and I agree.

In the past, over thousands of years, if you wanted to succeed or climb the social ladder, you needed resources. You had to acquire more resources as you grew up—go to a great college, get a degree, find a job, earn a salary, build connections, and eventually start your own company with the help of your network, family, and even angel investors. The odds of success were slim, with only a 1% or even much lower chance. But that was the past.

In the future, with AI, I believe everyone has the potential to be their own company or team. You no longer need to spend as much time doing daily tasks to earn money or rent office space. What matters now is your passion and insights. When you're passionate about something—like I am with sports, for example—and have insights into that field, everything else can be managed by AI.

I think this is already happening in crypto. You can build your own projects simply by learning how to use tools or open-source databases. This is what crypto brings to society—it allows individuals to create and innovate. If you ask me what crypto can do for people, I believe this is one of its most significant contributions: enabling everyone to become their own company.

To achieve this, we definitely need to build the right infrastructure and engines so that anyone can easily achieve something great.

The second important aspect is community growth. You need to build a strong consensus around the asset you're launching. However, if you're not an influencer and only have around 2,500 followers on Twitter, it's difficult to launch a successful project. To be honest, if someone like Gobe had 3 million followers, their token would be minted in a second—just like that. But I believe this creates a problem for the ecosystem and the community, as success still hinges on resources rather than passion and insight.

What truly matters is finding ways to improve people's efficiency, allowing them to prioritize their passion and insights when creating products. This way, they can scale their products more effectively.

For example, consider what we did with BRC-420 and Bitmap Metaverse last year. Many people with little to no presence on Twitter, often with just 20-30 followers, created cool avatars that got mined. It wasn’t about having influence—it was about creativity. Meanwhile, even if an influencer created something boring, it wouldn’t get minted. This shows that the focus should be on design, imagination, and innovation, not just influence.

Similarly, in the case of AI, one tool can help you create your own project easily without needing resources, while another tool can help you grow your influence—not because you're an influencer, but because you have insights and passion for what you're creating. We are actively building with this kind of mindset, helping people launch their projects more easily.

Q: Jeff, is there a way to have a verified link from an external site to the account that deploys a coin in order to prevent scams?

Jeff: Currently, anyone can enter whatever they want. We want to establish higher barriers to prevent people from engaging in reckless behavior. However, a verification feature will be added soon. If you have a verified Twitter account, you will receive a check mark, so users can easily identify verified accounts. That being said, people will still be allowed to input random information, so it's important to remain cautious about where you click.

Q: Last words I guess, to the audience about anything that we talked about or Merlin chain, to go into the new year?

Jeff: Looking ahead to the new year, I believe 2024 will be a great year for Bitcoin, although not necessarily for the broader Bitcoin ecosystem. However, I’m confident this will change. As you’ve seen, the market is becoming less dominated by platforms like Binance. I expect that as we continue to deploy and grow with them, we’ll reach a $1 billion valuation in a very short period of time.

The market is now looking back at BTCFi, and this is great news for TMA as well. Attention is returning to BTC assets and BTCFi, with the AI ecosystem also turning its focus to projects like Quantum Cats. This renewed interest indicates that the attention is coming back to the market.

So, when that attention returns, what can you do? If I were a personal trader, I would invest in assets I believe have long-term value, which is why I hold my Dog and other tokens indefinitely. If you’re a builder, think about how you can be innovative. For example, last year, people didn’t consider BRC20 at the start of the year, and by the end of the year, they overlooked BTCFi. Similarly, people were focused on BRC-20 but didn’t pay attention to Bitmap and BRC-20 integration.

I believe those who can think outside the box and bring real value to the community and users will be the ones who succeed when the market—and attention—returns.

To everyone, good luck in 2025! Have fun with us as we continue to build innovative systems and do well. I’m confident we’ll achieve great things next year.