Welcome to Web3 pills, the daily crypto newsletter that pairs perfectly with your morning cup of coffee.
Here are your πβs for today:
Huge token airdrop coming for this project?
Big tech employees are migrating to Web3
Trending articles
NFT of the day
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HUGE TOKEN AIRDROP COMING FOR THIS PROJECT?
Did somebody say βArbitrum autumnβ?
Based on all available data, it appears that these next few months may trend that direction. Arbitrum, which is a layer-2 rollup for Ethereum, has seen a huge spike in its network participation over the past month.
For those who arenβt familiar, layer-2 chains are separate chains built on top of layer-1 blockchains. While they still rely on the base layer-1 for consensus and security, they are able to process more transactions.
This is important since blockchains like Ethereum, can only process a limited amount of transactions per second, so these scaling solutions help offload transactions off the base layer.
Thereβs a few things that are driving the adoption of Arbitrum:
Arbitrum Nitro: An upgrade to the Arbitrum One mainnet back in August helped increase throughput and lower fees, which attracted users.
OpenSea integration: OpenSea recently began listing Aribtrum NFTs, which has helped raise discovery of its NFT collections.
Airdrop anticipation: Many Ethereum users are anticipating a massive airdrop, similar to what Optimism (another layer-2) did back in May.
Whatever the reason for the uptick in engagement, the numbers are looking solid for Arbitrum:
$1.04 billion: Total value locked (TVL) on Arbitrum
+550%: Increase in transactions since Nitro network upgrade
62%: Percentage of total Ethereum transactions happening on Arbitrum
1.66 million: Total number of unique wallet addresses on Arbitrum
Note: If youβre interested in qualifying for the Arbitrum airdrop, this twitter thread is filled with speculative suggestions. However, nobody knows the criteria for sure.
BIG TECH EMPLOYEES ARE MIGRATING TO WEB3
In June of last year, I made the decision to step away from my role at LinkedIn to work in Web3 full time. It appears that I am not the only one that has decided to make this jump.
A recent article by Cointelegraph, highlighted the fact that big tech companiesβ losses are Web3 companiesβ gains.
This trend is being driven by 2 primary factors:
Big tech faltering: According to layoffs.fyi, there have been 81,129 people laid off from tech companies since May. This isnβt just limited to startups, but also βblue chipβ companies like Meta, Google, and Netflix.
This trend looks poised to continue, with the Fed continuing to raise interest rates and big tech stock prices getting crushed. Many of them have already implemented hiring freezes, and there are rumors of big layoffs coming at Twitter and Meta among others.

Web3 war chests: On the other side of the equation, are promising Web3 startups that have raised massive war chests of funding to make it through the bear winter. Back in may, a16z announced their new $4.5 billion crypto fund that they have been aggressively deploying.
In addition to having the funds to attract talent, is the reality that many Web3 companies offer a more flexible remote-first work environment, as well as new ways to be paid, such as through stablecoins.
Overall, it feels like we are at a critical inflection point in the digital economy. The reality is that many people have only stayed at big tech for the βfree rideβ. Now that compensation and benefits are being slashed, Web3 projects with asymmetric upside are beginning to look a lot more appealing.
TRENDING ARTICLES
Divisions in Sam Bankman-Friedβs Crypto Empire Blur on His Trading Titan Alamedaβs Balance Sheet: Alameda had $14.6 billion of assets as of June 30, according to a private document CoinDesk reviewed.
Crypto Miner Consolidation Imminent as Some Industry Players Struggle: Acquisitions are set to pick up, digital assets executives told Blockworks, after Argo Blockchain and Core Scientific reveal struggles.
Aave Rolls Up its Sleeves With Only 5% of Goals Met: V3 Deployment on Ethereum, a Stablecoin, and a Debit Card in the Works.
NFT OF THE DAY
Art Gobblers (whose controversial launch we covered yesterday), released their artwork. Letβs just say it looksβ¦interesting.
Believe it or not, the floor price on this collection is up to 20 ETH!
It also remains the top traded collection on Ethereumβ¦ weβll see how long that lasts for.