LAB Notes #3
The calm before true MADNESS… and the last fair-weather flush
Happy September MAD family! August proved to be a rather instructive, broadening, developmental, and deeply illuminating month in the LAB. For better or worse, rate cuts are all but guaranteed in mid-September… all signs still point to this being the start of a true alt-season. The game remains the same, but we are definitely in a new paradigm, and the structure has shifted quite a lot.
While the cosmos slowly progresses through this phase of its liquidity challenges and identity crises, the Mad Scientists and the Osmosis fam continue deepening their cross-chain experimentation and multi-chain bonds… and while I’ve never been more bullish in general, this summer/month has definitely presented some stark reminders of the realities in this space, especially “at home” in the cosmos.
I am going to do my best to avoid too much narrative embellishment, as you all seemed to enjoy the (slightly) more concise format last month. Again… Please let me/us know what y’all want out of this experience. I thrive on feedback and vibes 
The goal remains the same: to bring the most value, perspective, and love to the community as possible. As usual, there is a lot cover, so without further ado… <3
SPACES, ARTS, & UNIVERSITY
Spaces:
Zerk saw through a jam-packed schedule on the spaces circuit this month, and continued to expand and deepen our multi-chain connections. From some of the hottest memes of the cycle, including PoW meme chains, to brand new perps DEXes and bitcoin DeFi hubs, to self-sponsored “hackathons” and vibey recaps… the Mad Scientists continue to maintain the “gold standard” in open-minded multi-chain communication, education, and community building:
August 7, 2025 - Citrea XYZ
August 8, 2025 - Pryzm
August 13, 2025 - MAD Vibe coding
August 14, 2025 - hibachi_xyz
August 19, 2025 - Kendulnu
August 22, 2025 - Unicorn Fart Dust
August 28, 2025 - Vibe Coding Recap
August 31, 2025 - Pepe Blockchain
&
On August 12th - A really lovely candid chat between Zerker and CHEESE on “The Rat Hole”. If you are behind and listen to nothing else, I highly recommend choosing this one… especially for anyone reading this who is less familiar with Zerk, Rekt Gang, and/or our ancestral heritage <3
Arts:
Cudo continues to quietly drop/master new banger arts and to amplify important messages… but/and has become even more mysteriously quiet in the LAB. I believe that the reason for this (at least in part) is now pretty obvious. Without totally spoiling the narrative arc of the next LAB NOTES… what do you think of my hyperliquid-ified Rekt Wolf?:
Uni:
Similarly, Mad Uni keeps chugging along with notable members continuing to make major waves across CT and beyond. We want to offer a big, heartfelt congrats to our new “Masters of Madness”: beefyfe & Zirpu!! Both earned their “Nobel of Madness” this month! We also welcome two new “Full Professors”: yur1yt & oohmydad (: So proud of you guys… thanks for being you, and for doing all that you do <3
The MU Calendar continues to slowly build momentum and inertia, raffles continue to transfer value back to participants, and…
There is a whole lot going on behind the scenes. At this point, I simply want to tease some imminent innovations and proposals coming to the calendar, to the raffles, and to the…
COMMUNITY
Easily the biggest event in the community this month was our homebrewed MAD VIBE CODING COMPETITION <3 (Somehow Zerker managed to run this while simultaneously seeing through another masterclass as part of the organizing team for, and one of the sponsors of, Hyperliquid’s 1st Community Hackathon 
)
︱builders-chat was introduced to our server: a place to connect with like-minded builders, to discuss actionable ideas, and to exchange guidance/troubleshooting/etc… and over the course of the month, 18+ MAD buildoors developed and shared some truly amazing experiments <3
If you haven’t yet, you can review the really nice, brief Submission Summary. At the time of writing/publishing this, the winner, MADBETS, has already been decided by a hybrid DAO/Discord community vote. You can check the game out here! Also, please remember that some of the other creations are live too, even though they didn’t take the prize… support the buildoors! Congrats on the big win tonyler_!!
The Mad Scientists’ Hyperliquid Vault retains it’s title of “top performing Vault on Hyperliquid by an NFT project”, consistently yielding profits for depositoors with a stable projected APR of ~250% to ~750%. I have heard that the Vault Manager has been pretty distracted with all of the chaos around the ecosystem this month… but at no point have we dipped below that juicy 250% performance on deployed capital 
The tradeoors also took a little side-quest to Hibachi for a P&L trading competition between NFT communities… we came in second overall, narrowly missing the gold medal due to the dominance of the existing Hibachi OGs… but/and, we still claimed the NFT “Cook-Off” crown in the “Chef’s Menu” partners category, and were honored with a silver medal on their podium. As promised, they also swept our floor, purchasing MS #726 for their treasury <3
With permissionless VMs/SCs/CosmWasm now live on the HUB for the first time in history, the first ever Mad Scientist made a pilgrimage to check it out and to collect some flowers from our frens on the HUB. Big thanks to the lovely Ark Protocol for the tech (that we all know and love so well) making this possible (:
In the steadfast spirit of collaboration and community, we also hosted a fun game of “digworm” in sequence with Shinoids and Galactic Mining MEGA GAME NIGHT events, with each team awarding various prizes to participants (20 OG Shinoids Freemint Spots, $ORAI, Honorais NFT, 15 MILLION $HONOR, $bOSMO, $LAB).
We continued to see some really big buys this month, with prominent OGs like Zirpu(!!), b3lton(!), and Yusungsang sweeping grails off the floor moments after they land. We’ve also seen a lot more active participation from some community OGs/keystones (Tako, Colbear, Koala, KB, etc.) as airdrop farmoors rotate out of the collection. Of course, this is a non-exhaustive list… Please forgive me if I didn’t mention you… and please poke me about it!
After a pretty hilarious misunderstanding on X, The5thForce has officially joined our ranks, and has been publishing some pretty cool threads (:
PARTNERS & PERKS
I know that this is going to be a pretty tough section this month. I don’t think that this is the proper place for the full “perks talk”. But/and I also feel that I can’t write this section without saying something explicit.
After months to years of varying levels of belief, commitment, anticipation, and work, I know virtually everyone is disappointed in the outcomes delivered by virtually all of the “long-term biggies”. I maxed out my potential in every single one, becoming a prominent figure in each of their communities, and climbing to the top rung of each ladder… Even with “max allocations” from each project, I share in this disappointment.
With that: I am still deeply grateful for all that I have, and for all that I have become <3 and I do still genuinely believe that the future looks bright… Even, to varying degrees, for some/most/all of the “biggies”.
The “airdrop meta” has undoubtedly, foundationally shifted quite a lot this year… with the timeline intermittently locked in to hot debates about various (often *wild*) distribution narratives and the future(s) of crypto… with many ad-hoc “genesis collections” looking like straight rugs immediately after snapshots/airdrop claims… and with only top KOL yappers, top Binance Alpha participants, and top VC siphons seeing meaningful perks… this is definitely a new paradigm.
From a community standpoint, the prevailing narrative is that there hasn’t been a truly great airdrop since hyperliquid… and I can’t say that I disagree…
From a project standpoint, many seem keen to remind everyone that “we can’t all be hyperliquid”, and tend to shift blame to “farmers” for price action… while doing little/nothing, from genesis, to build meaningful foundations for their believeoors/OG community. (Of course, charts that dump before OGs, NFT communities, and “farmers” even receive their allocations tell a different story… and most continued dumping comes from parties who are underwater on their real-world investments (time and capital) after receiving fractions of what they expected.)
Now… Relatively speaking, the meta that I have been preaching from the start has held up: generally speaking, you get out what you put in. Projects are asking more and more from their communities for less and less reward. To maximize perks in the new era, you generally need to maximize your (meaningful) contributions/participation. This meta has only intensified in the binance/yapper era… the only way to make out with a nice drop for virtually any project now is to max out every relevant category: testnet, lp, yap, campaign, etc.
Personally, I find the current state of things to be wildly unhealthy and out of balance. But/and I do think that it is vital to understand what is, as it is. Don’t forget, even the legendary Hyperliquid airdrop required belief, capital, and active participation… with the Lion’s share of the value going to the top performers. This is natural and good, imo. The remedy that we are moving forward with is to spend our time where it is valued… interacting with projects that bring joy and real utility, and boast sound tech/tokenomics/teams… projects that actually provide something tangible that we believe in, and that bring real value to our lives and/or the space.
The term “perks” has become more meaningful than ever here, imo. Perks are really, really nice. But they should not/cannot be the sole focus.
TIME-SENSITIVE & POTENTIALLY URGENT:
Mantra - you have until 18 September to claim your initial 10% Gendrop allocation. Distribution of the remaining 90% will then begin starting 18 September, 2025. Please see the Claim announcement for full infos. Also worth noting, things seem to really be picking back up around the Mantra eco, with >$25m in token buybacks now in motion. Please see the full August Updates for more.
Mitosis - If you completed registration: you have until 1 PM UTC on 11 September, 2025 to claim your “Genesis Airdrop” of $MITO. A huge confluence of other events are also slated to take place in the same basic time range, with the “asset migration” finalizing, along with various Binance/liquidity campaigns, and a rumored renaissance in “MORSE v2”. Incoming (allegedly): “Liquidity supply, product releases, and the live demonstration of programmable liquidity. MORSE V2 is queued, EOL and Matrix frameworks are ready, and the Mitosis Chain is about to host its first wave of real campaigns.”
NEWLY REALIZED:
Sunrise - Mainnet is live, the Golden Egg NFTs have been minted, and holder (+yapper) distributions have been completed. If you were eligible, and claimed, and/or linked your wallets, and/or… You should now see your full allocation in your wallets. Make sure to check out the linked guides and the “lockup tab” on the sunrise app. Also: points program, Buyback-and-Burn.
UNION - Union mainnet is live. A “Pre-claim” process was announced August 29, 2025 and closed less than 4 days later with only a two line “foundation announcement” on X… despite a stringent KYC process that caused innumerable issues for the community (including, but not limited to, 3-day cooldown periods for things like people trying to jump through their hoops too quickly). They chose to announce the process with limited guidelines on discord, and failed to provide an further warnings, announcements, or etc. Claims opened on the 4th of this month. I really don’t have anything nice to say at this point, so let’s move on to…
ONGOING BIGGIES:
TOKI:
- Trendy was live (again) for a quick, groovy segment on the previous Monthly Session, August 7, 2025.
- Project Trinity is in motion - a pilot for stablecoin-based “Delivery versus Payment” settlements of security tokens. Powered by IBC, Cosmos, and TOKI, it will seek to enable fast, atomic swaps in Japan’s ¥193.8B+ security token market.
- The default TOKI Transaction Fee has been reduced from 10 bps → 7 bps… cheaper transfers for users+ Liquidity Providers have opportunities to earn more <3
- IBC has finally arrived on Optimism, thanks to TOKI! Cross-chain transfers between OP Mainnet and Ethereum via IBC are now a reality.
- New collaboration with Keplr Wallet : As part of the campaign, transfers via IBC between Optimism and Ethereum will have ZERO TRANSFER FEES.
- Japan Stablecoin Summit is happening as this edition is published!!
- Monthly Letter, “stablecoin summer”, Aug 14 2025
- We remain super bullish on this project, team, tech, and community… and everything around them. If you are reading this, you are still early. Highly recommend joining their discord, attending their weekly/monthly sessions, and providing liquidity/making some transfers (if you can/need to/want to… participate in the quickest way to grow the project and your points bags). If you have any questions, I would be happy to personally onboard you. Please feel free to reach out if I can be of service!
FRESHLY UPCOMING:
Intento:
- Seems like a really cool/potentially powerful project: “Purpose-built blockchain for trustless orchestration of your intent — executed across any chain. Simple. Scalable. Self-custodial. Unstoppable.”
- Mainnet is live as of August 28, 2025!
- Really great perks thread, as always, from Airdrops_one
- Really great spaces with zerker posted in section 1.
- The airdrop is designed as a practical way to join and get into the Intento Zone (ecosystem). Checker and structural docs are now available.
- Mad Scientists, along with many of our frens, are eligible for all sorts of perks, but/and this one is relatively complex. It is designed for active participants… not passive claimoors. If this sounds like something that you are interested in, please refer to the resources above!!
NFT WLs:
Shinoids - All MS; FCFS free mint!
PengOnes, Chizutech, Big Money, - Raffles
ECOSYSTEM
Local legend Johnny Wyles recently wrote: “Osmosis has entered its sustainable era. OSMO circulation is now deflationary, stakers earn real yield, and the community pool is streamlined for long-term growth.”
For insights within the larger Osmosis eco, I am once again simply going to promote the wonderful Osmosis highlights from August <3 tldr:
- v30 software upgrade (focused on fixes and improvements to the codebase, ensuring Osmosis continues to operate with the most cutting-edge and secure software.)
- Supercharged pool creation is now permissionless!
- Osmosis ranks in the top 10 DEXes by code commits.
- Osmosis now burns more OSMO from taker fees than it emits through staking or incentives!
- Another ~325,000 tokens were burned and permanently removed from the circulating supply in July.
- Over $42 Billion in total Trading Volume.
- 9 months in a row with $100+ Million in Bitcoin trading volume.
- Polli, an intelligent staking management and yield optimization platform, is entering the Osmosis Lab.
- v1 of the Mobile App is now live in beta!
Polaris is also beginning a whole new era, and is openly providing two new wonderful (beta) features: curated, top-tier insights in to the whole crypto landscape… and fully featured mobile access! “Get the latest market-moving news without doom-scrolling on crypto twitter.”… from anywhere you have internet access. I hear that Trendy is curating some of these insights with hemu authoring!
To round out our Osmosis recap, we also highly recommend checking out (and sharing) the most recent MS ecosystem highlight.
LeapFest season 2 is live, and recently gave away 3 MS NFTs to registrants, with some other rewards (total worth ~$12,000+) still to be won/earned!
This is already getting long, so I won’t belabor y’all with a full cosmos recap… but still feel I can’t move on without a quick (hot-linked) list:
- Stargaze 2.0: Shane steps away from Stargaze
- Permissionless cosmwasm on the Hub - (Streamswap already deployed, with Quark, the first memecoin on the Hub already streamed, for example!)
- Skip/Interchain Labs rebrand to Cosmos Labs
- Keplr rebrand
- Eyls departing for Base
- Bitcoin coming to/various “supervaults” on Neutron
- etc.
I keep hearing that Cosmos is dead, but I’m not really convinced that it is true
ALPHA/ALCHEMY
Speaking of Hemu (Head of Product @ Osmosis), we highly recommend checking out his latest blog (after a 6 month hiatus)! Really great stuff, and very much in line with many of our journeys. How many of you thought that you would have to master global market mechanics to “make it” in crypto?
Now… Would you all prefer if I spent more time on these later sections, talking more about zoomed out views, multi-chain meta, and cross-chain alpha? Do you prefer more granular remembrances and reverences for our home chain and detailed project specific recaps/guidance? Do you want it all?
I am planning to write at (relative) length about some major (in our opinion) developments around Mad Scientists and the Rekt Gang in the next edition… for those of you who haven’t checked out the news, holders of Mad Scientists and Tiny Hyper Cats (the first on-chain collection on Hyperliquid) NFTs are now granted official, permanent membership in the gang… which feels like another natural, ancestral homecoming to me. Rekt Gang is the single best community alpha hub I’ve ever encountered. As I’ve said for my entire time here: The only comparable community in all of crypto (that I am aware of) is the Sensei Cabal of Mitosis
Transparently and openly: we have been spending a much greater portion of our time exploring other ecosystems with guidance from some OG rekt legends. I have fallen deeply, MADLY in love with Hyperliquid… a chain/eco/ethos/vision/etc. that has (along with MS and RG, of course. This has never wavered.) pretty much singlehandedly renewed my faith in crypto, and has reignited a passionate belief in me. I onboarded via Polaris. I did not receive any part of the airdrop. I did not get involved in the earliest days. I am not being paid to talk about it. Some days, I still struggle to accept these facts… but/and, I am so deeply grateful for all that I have, and to be there/here with y’all now <3
It’s also apparent to me that stablecoins have become a primary “alpha” vector once again, while remaining a “core primitive” in the space. Outside of the usual haunts + HL, I have been spending most of my time with TOKI… It’s so much more than “just another bridge”. If you are reading this looking for new experiments… I can’t recommend getting involved with RG, Polaris, HL, and/or TOKI enough <3
tl;dr… Zerk Alpha: “product that makes money” (is the) meta: HYPE, PUMP, and rollbit all in the green… why buy promises, when you can buy something useful?
PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
“Up, down, gotta keep pushing always. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” - rekt_zerker, 2025
I’m gonna briefly wax philosophic/poetic for this one:
In flow with the conversation around the leading quote, one of my favorite moments from the recent “Rat Hole” interview with Zerker was when they explored a concept of whether is more important for “people of the same ideals to find a chain”, or “to find those(/your) people on each chain”. The answer, for me, and for everyone involved in that interview, is the latter. Find your tribe. Keep moving. Keep growing. No matter what the “polarity” of a situation… there is always opportunity. Alchemize! Put in the work because you think it’s the right thing to do… play the game because it’s fun… do something with purpose, that you care about and think is right. Eventually the fruits will come <3
After all this time, I find myself resonating evermore deeply with the spirit of the Mad Scientists (and Rekt Gang and team and community and…). I am so excited for this next chapter as we continue to forge the multi-chain education hub; experimenting with open hearts and open minds, and sharing notes/helping others to not get rekt.
Sometimes it really pays to zoom in and focus. Sometimes, you need to zoom out. Realize that there is, pretty much always, great stuff happening somewhere/everywhere… The possibilities and opportunities are endless. It is our responsibility to create the experience we wish to encounter. Share the knowledge, share the wealth… this is not a zero-sum game. Go where the goodness leads. Go where you experience joy and fulfillment and love.
“You create your own reality. You get what you concentrate upon. There are no limitations to the self, except for those you believe in. There are no other main rules.”
I don’t know what I would do in this space without y’all. I hope that you know that I always have, and always will consider you my digital family. Onward, fam <3
*Everything is an Experiment*
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Thanks for all of your amazing work too 