DeFi Research | Ignas

Arbitrum DAO spent 422M $ARB (crazy $340M USD) on incentives and grants.

Many lacked any oversight.

While three misuses were found, more are likely undetected.

E.g., Furucombo received 59.5K $ARB from the Incentives Program and sent it to Kraken, leaving incentive use unclear.

ARB was meant for user rewards, but Furucombo froze them due to 'wash trading,' with users receiving fewer rewards than expected.

Later Arbitrum DAO voted to BAN Furucombo from the DAO altogether (they later returned 48k ARB).

------

It's not just Arbitrum, but an industry-wide problem.

A more spicy drama involves the ownership of Mantra DAO.

In 2020, RioDeFi created Mantra DAO, hiring two employees to run daily ops.

Things were smooth until financial reports stopped coming in after Jan 2021. The drama ended with a lawsuit in Hong Kong.

RioDeFi claims employees went rogue, treating MANTRA DAO like their own while misappropriating funds.

The employees argued that Mantra DAO can't be "owned" by anyone.

Their take is that "it's a DAO"- the $OM token holders are the real owners, making decisions through smart contracts.

The Hong Kong Court ordered the disclosure of financial reports but didn’t rule on who actually owns the DAO.

-----

Then there's Harmony: The L1 project with $ONE down by 92%

It was once home to the popular DeFi Kingdoms game.

The rise & fall story of Harmony is crazy and I recommend reading DLNews articles on it.

TL;DR: Under the vision of "10,000 DAOs to build on Harmony through a grants program" co-founders gave $5M USD with no oversight.

Multiple DAOs were given 5 to 6 figure sums with just writing a proposal.

Having just 1k followers on X and 100 Discord members was enough.

DLnews reports that "At one point, there was a mandate that the team must onboard 100 DAOs per month”

In fact, onchain data showed that the same 8 to 12 people repeatedly received the funds.

The most controversial grant involved Blu3 DAO that aimed at empowering women and non-binary people in crypto.

Blu3 DAO posted a proposal and was quickly approved for $1M by a co-founder in less than 24 hours.

A source told DLnews that the decision was made over dinner at ETHDenver.

Then Blu3 quickly stopped posting on Forum and stopped official partnership altogether.

-----

As a recent delegate for a few DAOs, I’ve seen how DAO treasuries are targeted with questionable 'services,' like a $185K grant to study why users prefer perpetual CEXs over DEXs.

To address this, Arbitrum DAO is voting on a "The Watchdog" creation that would investigate misuse of funds and potentially take legal action against bad actors.

I voted YES on this proposal.

And if you hold $ARB tokens, consider delegating to me: 0x3DDC7d25c7a1dc381443e491Bbf1Caa8928A05B0

Btw, thanks Doo from StableLabs for helping on this post.

Referral shilling alert: SOON

SOON is a Solana VM L2 on Ethereum, like Eclipse.

SOON will enable Solana Rollup-as-a-Service for SVM L2s launch on any L1, like BNB Chain.

They sell 51% of the tokens via NFT sale:

• Want the lowest FDV? $120M FDV but 12 lock up with 36 month vesting.

• Want unlock at TGE? Highest valuation at $375M

The trick is that you need an invite code.

You can learn more and use my invite code, if you want:

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1876605843837231478

Crypto's Waning Ambition

I'm super bullish on crypto prices but most of the upside is driven thanks to the external, macro factors.

Yet I believe crypto's internal innovation engine is slowing down.

As the industry matures, innovation naturally slows.

But don't worry: prices can still rise even when innovation decelerates.

I explain more in my latest post on X:

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1876317092086997212

Crypto Truths & Lies for the Year 2025:

Instead of predictions, I share non-obvious truths and lies to spot the next big crypto trends before FOMO kicks in.

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/crypto-truths-and-lies-for-the-year

AI agents vs the rest:

Over the 3 month period AI agents (boosted by new launches) are up by 7k%

Memecoins up by 15.19%

Zooming in to a 30-day window to account for the volatility of newly launched AI tokens, we see the same outperformance by AI agents, up by 75%.

Memecoins are down by 25%!

I compare memecoins to AI agents for a few reasons that I explained in this thread:

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1873320249723945132

Was seeing Usual token shilled on my X feed and decided to look into it.

This cycle gives us another try to challenge USDT and USDC with Ethena, and now Usual as a new player.

Wrote a thread on Usual here: https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1870101924839862665

Sonic mainnet live: 190.5M of $S (6% of total supply) allocated for the airdrop.

There are two types of Sonic Points:

• Passive Liquidity Points
• Activity Points

Both are distributed across multiple seasons, with the first season ending in mid-2025.

------

Passive Liquidity points earned by bridging whitelisted assets onto the Sonic mainnet

Multipliers apply based on the asset type:

• S and S LSTs: 3x multiplier
• scUSD, scETH, ONE: 2x multiplier
• USDC, USDT, SolvBTC, SolvBTC.BBN: 1x multiplier

Consider $S/$stS LST pool via @beets_fi

----

Activity Points provide a multiplier on top of Passive Liquidity Points.

How to earn:
• Deploy your assets
• Interact with approved apps
• Participate in ecosystem activities

----

There's a twist to airdrop: Linear Decay Mechanism

The airdrop uses a vesting schedule to encourage long-term engagement:

• 25% of tokens are claimable on Day 1
• The remaining 75% is locked for 270 days as NFT positions

You will be able to trade those NFTs

Not intended for US audience. It will be geo-blocked and via self-declaration (wink, wink)

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1869420837767639225

Perp CEX vs DEX: Arbitrum DAO considers funding a $185K research on why users prefer perp CEX over DEX

How to shift users to perp DEXs?

Save $185K—take a 3-5 min survey!

https://forms.gle/3hQgH5HdWiW5kpqM9

When is the next $SOL pump?

The obvious FUD over $2.4B unlock in March, but I believe deeper market changes are happening.


Just as Solana was coming after Ethereum, $SOL now faces its own competitors.

$SUI is one:

- Up by 400% in 6 months, compared to $SOL's 68%

- TVL up by 10x in a year to $1.7B

I also like Sui's ecosystem: the wallets are great, the dApps are feature-rich, and the UI/UX is comparable to Solana.

Still, SUI is 8 times cheaper by market cap but only 3 times by FDV.

So, perhaps the SUI trade is done?

Next, we have Monad and MegaETH.

Both are yet to launch and are coming after Solana's "performant chain" mindshare.

If both launch at relatively low market caps, I plan to sell some $SOL gains to Monad and MegaETH.

I believe many are thinking like me.

I could add Berachain that is coming after the Solana's degen crowd.

---

I believe Solana is currently in a defensive position, while Ethereum operates in its own league.

Who's actually coming after Ethereum's most decentralized but slow and expensive chain narrative?

Everyone wants to be the fastest!

Plus, ETH has increasing ETF inflows and L2s like MegaETH is making Ethereum L2 scaling roadmap increasingly sexy.

Solana continues to lead the memecoin narrative, but with recent utility token pumps, the risk-reward balance for memecoins is now less appealing.

On top, AI agents are gaining equal, if not more, popularity in Base compared to Solana, with Virtuals leading the pack.

So, what does Solana offer?

Solana arguably provides the best UI/UX in crypto for onboarding new users—Pudgy Penguins choosing Solana is a big win.

Even though MegaETH is fast, it won't immediately resolve Ethereum's UX issues.

Perhaps the most significant catalyst is the SOL ETF.

Yet with the pro-crypto stance of the U.S. government, we might see ETFs for every major token.

So, when's the next SOL pump? lol

Sorry, but in this post, I'm asking, not answering.

DEXs challenging CEXs' dominance is the highlight of this cycle.

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1867526473151635688

Memecoins, AI, and Pudgies dominate the mindshare.

But a lot more is happening in crypto.

Here are 10 key DeFi and crypto updates you might've missed ↓

https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/10-key-defi-and-crypto-updates-you

15 Airdrop farms still worth doing ↓

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1864331022524977465

Everything You Don't Want to Know about XRP Ledger: Wallets, Memecoins and More.

In this post, I share:

• How XRP Ledger works
• What are Trust lines, Reserves, Rippling...
• How to get rekt trading XRP memecoins (& provide LP)

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/everything-you-dont-want-to-know

Fluid: The Next Zero-to-One Innovation in DeFi

I believe Instadapp's Fluid and its token $INST are still overlooked but possess huge potential.

In this post I share my bullish thesis.

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1861059174320181250

Where's all the ETH deposited?

Simple question but difficult to answer.

I tried to find out:

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1860619374047965588

Certainly Bullish State of the Market & What's Next

• How bullish is the market visualized in charts
• Why memecoin are impossible to ignore
• Sector outperforming memes: DeSci
• Ethereum vs Solana

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/certainly-bullish-state-of-the-market

My top advice for the bull run ↓

Be curious and click as many buttons as you can.

The best gains come from new, innovative products (especially those that confuse you the most) but many are just too lazy to try them.

Seriously, $ADA is up 40% today, and many just shout that dumb retail is here.

Maybe there's something more to it?

Instead of rejecting it, get a wallet, buy some tokens, and try to use dApps.

You'll have a huge edge over those who don't.

Maybe it's trash. Or maybe it's amazing.

If you like what you see, check token valuations, community sentiment, and buy just a little be to have skin in the game.

Especially, if Cardano continues to go up, wealth effect will ripple through all ecosystem.

Obviously, I'm not saying to be bullish on Cardano. It can be Stacks, Aptos, Sui, Polkadot etc.

Be open-minded, curious and learn by doing.

Don't simply follow the general sentiment on X.

It's often wrong as we were about the death of Solana just a year ago.

Oh, and the best airdrops often come from genuine curiosity while clicking buttons.

A new emerging trend in DeFi: Friendly forks in exchange for rewards

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1854866501997642075

Unpopular opinion: Memecoins is bullish for utility tokens.

And now is a great time to invest in private-public (ICO) rounds.

----

Memecoins is a protest vote against low-float, high FDV tokens. You probably already know that.

You also know that degens are tired of high FDV launches that offer no upside for new buyers and are then dumped on by VCs.

Fortunately, the market heals itself.

By choosing to buy memecoins instead of VC tokens, the value of these VC tokens only dumped for a while now.

However, the valuations of VC tokens have declined not only for new launches but also in private markets.

On Echo, I've invested in 7 projects with an average valuation of just $32M.

This is much lower compared to recent TGEs, which raised (and launched) at valuations in the 100s of millions or even billions USD in FDV.

So thanks to memecoins, valuations for utility tokens are getting attractive again.

Yet memecoins are still not going anywhere. At least for this cycle.

Here's why:

First, the average funding amount offered on Echo is around $262k (from my 7 deals). Not many can get in.

Secondly, these tokens have a cliff of at least 1 year with 3 to 4 years for full unlocks.

Third, you need KYC and US citizens are not allowed.

Finally, the regulatory environment will take time to change. Might be too late for this cycle.

So, private-public rounds are relatively exclusive and long lock ups mean that we won't know the real ROI until at least Q4 2025.

When unlocks for new tokens hit the market in a year or so (possibly at the top of the cycle) the valuations for everything (memecoins and VC tokens) will be inflated.

You'll see the prices of memecoins going up in real time, enticing FOMO to buy.

Yet ROI for the currently underway ICOs won't become obvious until unlocks start in Q4, 2025.

That's why until then, memecoins are likely to dominate mindshare, especially since recently launched VC tokens will have huge unlocks throughout the bull run.

Obviously, not all ICOs will do great. But also not all memecoins will pump! Far from it.

Maybe 1 or 2 out of 10 will do a 20x or more. From $32M to $640M is quite possible at the peak of a bull run.

So, we'll likely see the success stories of high ROI VC tokens in 2025 that will entice a new wave of fundraising for VC tokens.

But again, the valuations for these VC tokens will be high, reflecting the general crypto market!

When degens invest in new ICOs in Q4 2025 and these tokens launch two or three years later during a bear run, we'll scream that VC tokens are a scam.

And then a circle repeats.

Crypto Predictions & Implications of the Trump Win:

• Consensus finally launches Metamask token

• Linea follows suit

• Lawsuits against Crypto .com, Coinbase, Uniswap, Immutable, and OpenSea are dropped

• As a result, $CRO, $UNI, $IMX short-term pumps. $COIN just continues to go up higher

• OpenSea finally releases its token

• Polymarket does the same

• ICOs are finally allowed for U.S. citizens; airdrops too. Long live ICOs 2.0

• SOL ETF live within 4 years

• Circle IPO

• ETH staking ETF live. Little impact on ETH price lol

• Crypto continues to pump -> funding rates positive -> delta-neutral yield is high -> $ENA pumps. More Ethena competitors emerge.

• Kraken and Base will have tokens but maybe not this bull run

• More TradFi stablecoins launched. Stablecoin payments gain wider acceptance.

Agree?

Cool Crypto Stuff You Might've Missed this Week

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1851648759568175256

Raydium: King Of Solana DeFi

> Raydium's Dominance: Leading DEX on Solana, powering memecoin and DeFi trading with 60.7% market share.

> Sustainable Growth: Strong buybacks and tokenomics position Raydium for ongoing growth in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

Source: https://x.com/0xkyle__/status/1851139901036626210

------------
Subscribe: What's Up Crypto? 🧠

The Crypto Game: How to Play & Win

• Why does making money in crypto feel like a game?
• What role do you play in it?
• Tips on how to choose and win your crypto game

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/the-crypto-game-how-to-play-and-win

More L2s, More Bearish on ETH?

Prevailing sentiment is that another L2 adds to the worsening UX and liquidity fragmentation frictions, so bearish ETH.

But we’ve already crossed the Rubicon on L2 scaling, and there’s no turning back.

It's time to reframe the narrative and see new L2 launches as bullish for Ethereum.

Naive for me to say, right?

But really, Kraken and Uniswap launching their L2s is bullish for Ethereum eco.

You see, Kraken's Ink and Unichain joined the L2 race not as standalone L2s but as members of the OP Superchain.

The first benefit of the Op Superchain alliance is (eventually) frictionless UX across all clan member L2s.

The Superchain is a unified, interoperable network of chains with the ability to bring together teams that would traditionally be seen as competitive.

But there's a financial benefit to the OP Collective.

When a new L2 joins the OP Superchain, it commits to contributing either:

• 15% of its net on-chain profits (total sequencer revenue minus fees paid to L1), or

• 2.5% of its total revenue, whichever amount is higher.

With ~30 L2s in OP Superchain, 15.8K ETH ($40M USD) was contributed to the Optimism Collective.


Currently, Base and OP Mainnet are the two largest contributors.


With Kraken, and Uniswap's Unichain joining, revenue should grow even more.

The money helps to grow Optimism and Ethereum's future:

• Public Goods: Financing Ethereum ecosystem projects, like infrastructure and dev tools.

• Network Growth: Incentives for OP Chains development and Ethereum adoption.

• Innovation: Backing for new tech advancements

$40M is not much money but Optimism Collective at least has a value accrual mechanism.

Ethereum L1 could take a cue from Optimism by encouraging L2s, if not technically, then at least socially, to reinvest value back into ETH.

That's a missing key to be bullish on ETH.

From reading the 4-part series on "Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol" by Vitalik I didn't see any new & clear L2 monetization ideas.

He mentions that Based rollups enhance the L1 by ensuring tighter integration and seamless interoperability, leading to greater efficiency, security, and value capture for the main chain.

However, more major players are joining the OP Stack instead of launching as Based rollups.

Perhaps the L1 could advocate for greater Based rollup adoption.

He also discusses scaling the L1 for specific use cases that should remain on the L1, thus retaining value there.

With more L2s joining the OP Superchain under a revenue-sharing model, rather than launching standalone L2s, there's increased funding for the Ethereum ecosystem.

This also provides greater incentives to tackle UX and liquidity challenges in each L2.

Just want to see that "seamless flow of capital across the Superchain" happen ASAP.

Uniswap launches their own L2 - Unichain.

The Uni L2 launch isn't too surprising as Uniswap aims to be a platform, not just a dApp.

The first step was announcing Uniswap V4 with "hooks."

Think of them as "plugins" or "extensions" that allow for the execution of customized code during key events within a pool:

• on-chain limit orders
• autocompound LP fees
• KYC

The "hooks" are like bringing App Store to the iPhone.

Like Apple no longer needed to develop iPhone apps themselves, devs can build on top of Uniswap.

Now, the L2 further solidifies their dominance and liquidity.

This is bullish for $UNI as Uniswap DAO now has many more options for token utility.

Notice how Unichain's announcement doesn't mention token utility: they are keeping the options for now and discussions in the forum will start. Fee switch is not the only option anymore.

The good news: Uniswap decided to build on OP stack and implement native interoperability to enable single-block, cross-chain message passing among Superchain L2s.

This at least partly minimizes liquidity fragmentation. But liquidity fragmentation will likely worsen in the short term.

Is it bullish for $ETH, though? At least Uniswap is not launching their own L1.

But I believe Ethereum must find ways to accrue value from all these L2s launching on it. It's getting more urgent than ever.

The memecoin FOMO got to me.

I funded new wallets and bought a bunch of random memecoins.

I must admit, it's exciting.

I check my meme portfolio 69 times more often than my main one.

Memes might be silly, and most will go to zero, but if it is really the memecoin cycle, I want to be part of the success story.

Part of this bullish community.

You see, elsewhere in crypto, such bullishness is rare:

Ethereum maxis expect a modest 3x to 4x pump this cycle, with Bitcoin potentially the same.

$SOL might touch $1K, but when it comes to low-float, high FDV tokens, the sentiment looks dim.

------

"Bull Markets Get More Retarded (Crazy) than You Think," I wrote a year ago in my blog.

Last cycle, I got $120k USD $INV airdrop by simply filling a Google docs form.

I also farmed "valueless" governance $YFI token at 10k% APY.

But I also failed to buy BAYC NFT, even though I had my finger ready to "buy" it at 1 ETH. Singe BAYC generated $1M with all eco airdrops.

I thought NFT mania was dumb when it launched. Now, a penguin NFT is my profile picture. My personal "brand."

Ever since then, I've made it a point to keep an open mind about the things that confuse me the most.

Ability to quickly adapt to the new market dynamics is key.

Memecoins is proving to be the "confusing trade" of this cycle.

They have dedicated followers but also a significant group of skeptics. These skeptics can be converted, providing fuel for growth.

----

Memecoins are gaining mindshare and seem to be the only sector in creating new millionaires, unlike the points-for-airdrop meta, which mainly benefits the already rich.

It's a counter-trade for low-float, high FDV tokens.

Honestly, I'm bullish on OG DeFi tokens as well. They too are antithesis for low-float tokens, but DeFi's growing complexity makes it difficult to connect with and less thrilling for the degen crowd.

-----

I also believe memecoins is bullish for crypto long-term as they expose the flaws in the current token printing era.

The rise of memecoins is pushing VC tokens to adapt by lowering valuations and more generously rewarding the community to attract new buyers. The old strategies no longer work.

We are already witnessing this shift, starting with the resurgence of private-public ICO platforms (Echo & Legion). If you dislike memecoins, I suggest you try them out.

So, buying memecoins sends a signal that we want these changes.

-----

At the end of the day, memecoins is just another step in our never-ending story of token (money) printing.

We started with BTC forks (LTC, BTC Gold), moved to Ethereum ICO tokens with just stories to sell, then experimented with "fair launches" and liquidity mining, and recently ended the peak of points-for-airdrop meta.

A new narrative will come and overtake memecoins.

It will hopefully be based on new technical crypto innovations as well as new token printing methods that will steal the mindshare from memecoins.

Regulation could help accelerate this shift.

Memecoins will eventually end up over-inflating in number and go to zero like most NFTs and DeFi tokens in DeFi summer.

But just a few will become the new DOGEs, BAYCs, YFIs of this cycle.

I might even catch one if I'm early and open-minded enough. Or maybe not.

But it's at least exciting!

Crypto lost some of its excitement lately.

The points-for-airdrop craze had many problems, but points incentivized discovering the hottest new dApps as soon as possible.

Now I'm barely touching my wallet or searching for new dApps.

"But sir, excitement will come back when crypto starts to pump again! Just need to wait!" - You say

True, but somehow, I was more hyped to research protocols during the bear run.

Is it just me?

At that time, even with lower crypto prices, there was widespread optimism that the bull cycle would bring radical new innovations.

That isn't the dominating sentiment at the moment.

People are tired of yet another L2, overvalued infrastructure protocols, and low-float, high FDV tokens.

Innovations like restaking in this cycle don't clearly convey their value proposition.

The most exciting developments this cycle didn't last long:

Friend tech destroyed the SocialFi narrative, Runes launch on BTC turned into a sell-the-news event, Crypto x AI has yet to prove its relevance, and points-for-airdrops strategy no longer provides an easy way for protocols to attract users.

Only memecoins are the lifeblood of crypto optimism and bullishness (although many get rekt hopping from one memecoin to another).

In contrast, this bullishness is hard to find in other crypto sectors:

Ethereans are hoping for just a 3x to 4x pump for ETH this cycle, BTC might do the same (why hold $ETH, then?), and SOL could maybe reach $1K?

For low-float, high FDV tokens, the general sentiment is much worse.

----

Still, I'm bullish that a new meta will appear that will pump our degen animal spirts back up.

Ironically, now might be the best time to research and identify new trends for the highest ROI, as the MEV decreases once a trend becomes widely accepted.

Just need to get that motivation back.

To identify the new meta, I look for:

• A bullish community (it's even better if they have outsider critics)
• Innovative token launch methods
• New technical innovations
• A sense of confusion, as new metas often perplex people the most

Let me know if you identify any sectors that share these characteristics, so I can revive my degen researcher spirit once again!

Token Printing: What's Next?

• The evolution of token issuance
• How new token metas can be highly profitable trades
• Seven token minting trends you should follow

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/token-printing-whats-next-from-community

Want to grow and monetize your audience on X?

Sharing tips and insights from my personal journey to 100k followers:🧵

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1838931129266774143

Crypto in South Asia: Key Things to Know

• Why the South Asia crypto market matters
• Unique features of each country
• Factors behind Ton's success in the region

Plus, insight on each market by @ eli5_defi, @ hmalviya9, @ saprolings (handles on X)

Read it here: https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/crypto-in-south-asia-key-things-to

$EIGEN will start trading in just 10 days on Sept 30.

With 12% of EIGEN in circulation, it will launch with a market cap of ~$600M and ~$5B FDV.

This will put EIGEN at 123rd in market cap, below $DYDX and above $NEXO.

Seems low? NFA!

Unfortunately, EIGEN has dropped from $10 to $3 since the first stakedrop.

Token is down probably due to two major reasons:

• General bearish market
• Increasing number of competitors, notably Karak and Symbiotic

-----

Interestingly, Eigenlayer chose to bypass Season 3 and instead opted for "Programmatic Incentives."

AIRDROPS ARE DEAD, LONG LIVE LIQUIDITY MINING

The remaining 67M community tokens will be distributed in the first year.

Weekly distribution: 1.29M EIGEN tokens ($3.8M USD)

• 10% (~128K EIGEN) to operators.

• 90% (~1.1M EIGEN) to stakers.

According to @june023_eth (on X) calculations it will give 1.4% extra APR for ETH/LST, and 16% APR for EIGEN restakers.


----

Inflation really starts to kick in when unlocks for insiders (VCs, team...) begin.

55% of the total supply is allocated to them at 1-year cliff and a 2-year vesting.


-----

Note that enabling tradability news comes from the EtherFi team, not Eigenlayer.

But back in May, Eigenlayer promised transferability by Sept 30, aligning with their decentralization goals.

The Eigenlayer Foundation has just shared updates on these plans.

----

Let me know if I made some mistakes in calculations. Feeling real sick today :(

In search of the bullish Ethereum narrative.

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1836716112286728501

Is BTC a risk-on or risk-off asset?

Blackrock hears this question more than any other.

Their latest research shows Bitcoin is indeed risky but not a "risk-on" asset.

Here's the breakdown: 🧵

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1836356017535488284

The Current State of Crypto: Bullish or Bearish?

In this blog post, I cover:

• Crypto fundraising trends
• ETF outflows
• Sectors that are booming
• Leverage in the market
• A key metric to follow for a bullish reversal

Read it here ↓https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/the-current-state-of-crypto-bearish

Holding $LDO?

Then I need your votes for Lido DAO delegation:

Here's why!

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1831695080727691491

What if governments decide to "ban" crypto?

After Durov's arrest for not stopping crime on Telegram, crypto could be a target in the future.

Sounds far fetched, but politicians already claim that crypto enables crime like terrorist funding & money laundering.

So, what if?

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1828718093733933502

The current crypto bull run is mainly driven by external macro factors.

But exciting launches and catalysts are coming to boost the internal crypto machine.

Here are my top 15 to watch:


1. Monad (Mainnet by end of 2024?): Do we need another alt-L1?

Will it end up as another low-float, high-FDV dumpfest?

Can Monad attract unique value adding, non-fork dApps?

---

2. MegaETH (Mainnet by end of 2024?): Just another L2 or a real game changer bringing hype to the ETH+L2 modular scaling roadmap?

Can it truly hit 100k TPS and 1ms block times, or is it just a playbook from previous bull runs?

---


3. Berachain: A playground for degens and insiders to farm and dump, or a launchpad for creating wealth effect, offering unique, non-forked dApps for early users?

I'm sceptical but willing to be surprised on the upside.

---

4. Eigenlayer's 2nd stakedrop, Q3/Q4 for EIGEN trading, and multiple AVSs launch on mainnet:

It's time to clarify the real value of restaking for the crypto community.

Not many get it yet.

The token launch will reveal if there's still hype around restaking.

---

5. Eigenlayer (Permissionless token support - coming soon): Innovation in tokenomics has stalled because VCs & teams play it safe with old, tested models.

Can restaking bring new utility and excitement to tokenomics, benefiting their communities?

---

6. Symbiotic (mainnet in Q3): Will Symbiotic front-run Eigenlayer with TGE and steal the "restaking" hype crown from Eigenlayer?

Considering recent Paradigm-backed projects like Friend Tech and Blast, it might do well initially but [fill in the blanks].

---

7. Ethereum Pectra Upgrade (Q1 2025): Will EIP-7702's Account Abstraction bring end to annoying token approvals?

Will Pectra have any positive impact on ETH's lagging price?

---

8. Fantom's Rebranding to Sonic (in progress):

A phoenix rising from the ashes with a new name, token $S, and chart, or...?

Successful rebranding can inspire other projects bringing a new narrative, and provide a playbook for short-term trades.

---


9. Maker's rebrand: Transition to NewGovToken and NewStableToken

Maker has grown to a super complex machine that even crypto natives can't keep up with.

Can the rebrand simplify things, making it more approachable, leading to $DAI supply growth?

---


10. Pudgy Penguin's L2 (Abstract), Story (IP chain), and Sony's Soneium: The start of a new crypto narrative?

Can they ACTUALLY build a new creator-consumer monetization model for the AI era?

Success could mean attracting new crypto users beyond the degen crowd.

----

11. Fractal Bitcoin (mainnet soon), and OP_CAT (N/A):

BRC20s, Ordinals, and Runes FOMO and prices is down but both developments are bringing hype back to native Bitcoin. Will it continue?

Plus, Babylon mainnet launched on a high note, showing demand for DeFi on BTC.

---

12. Stacks Nakamoto Upgrade (coming soon):

Will the upgrade for faster blocks attract more users and TVL to the ecosystem? Will Stacks eco airdrops create a wealth effect?

Stacks currently enjoys BTC L2 mindshare dominance, but rivals are quickly catching up.

----


13. Coinbase cbBTC Launch:

Following changes in the wBTC management structure, a window has opened for another ERC20 BTC.

cbBTC will capture most of the TVL from wBTC. Which DeFi BTC wrapper will follow? This could be a promising trade opportunity.

----


14. Uniswap (potential $UNI fee sharing. Date: TBD): Could this bring the #realyield revival?

Will other DeFi protocols follow? Frax already enabled fee switch andAAVE pumped post-fee switch proposal.

UNI fee-switch would be bullish for DeFi.


Btw, I'm backing UNI fee switch sharing proposal.

And I just registered as a Uniswap DAO delegate to promote bringing value to tokens. Pls delegate $UNI to me:

1. Visit tally. xyz
2. Find Uniswap
3. Delegate to ignasdefi.eth / 0x3DDC7d25c7a1dc381443e491Bbf1Caa8928A05B0

____

Any other catalyst or launch I missed and you think will have a big impact on the market?

The Bullish Case for Ethereum.

• Why ETH has struggled recently
• Key bullish arguments for ETH
• Upcoming Pectra upgrade and its impact

Check it out here👇

https://www.ignasdefi.com/p/the-bullish-case-for-ethereum

Top 10 things I want to do with crypto.

(Hoping builders can help make these possible): 👇

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1821117466854162530

A brutal wake-up call for anyone who went bullish on alts after BTC's new ATH in March.

I, too, was too bullish, expecting the usual shift from BTC to ETH, followed by a pump in alts.

Didn't play out. ETH lagged, and most alts had short rallies only to crash hard.

My degen playbook was rather conservative, with a focus on staking L1 tokens as 'productive assets' - you can stake and use them to farm their ecosystem airdrop tokens.

The strategy was to sell airdrops back to L1 tokens which should've driven up L1 coin prices (like USD printing boost major stock prices).

I believed $ETH would outperform due to its status as the most productive asset in crypto, particularly because of high-yield airdrops via restaking.

Indeed, millions of dollars were issued in airdrop tokens like ETHFI and REZ, with EIGEN and other LRT governance tokens set to launch soon.

Despite these high-yield opportunities, ETH failed to generate FOMO.

Everyone was likely already overexposed, having loaded up on ETH and BTC during the bear market.

Still, everyone who actively farmed with ETH are probably doing much better than the ETH spot would indicate.

And more $$ is coming with $EIGEN unlock. No big regrets here.

-------

$SOL eco performed well initially with $JTO and $JUP. Their successes did boost $SOL price as FOMO kicked in.

Then the $W airdrop did okay, but each subsequent airdrop saw a sharp decline in rewards ($TNSR, $PRCL, $DRIFT) with $CLOUD being the most disappointing (relative to expectations).

Right now, Solana is a memecoin playground, but innovative DePin and DeFi protocols are waiting for their moment when memecoin fever dies down.

--------

Bitcoin's ecosystem, boosted by BRC20s and NFTs, initially did well— we got multiple airdrops just by holding 'blue-chip' NFTs. But then Runes launched, and everything nosedived.

I believe Runes will bounce back once the infrastructure, especially DEXes gets improved.

---------

Other L1/L2 ecosystems fared much worse.

• Injective dApps lacked quality, and the airdrops were negligible.

• Starknet's $STRK airdrop flopped, failing to spark a "wealth effect" in the ecosystem. Despite high DeFi Spring rewards, protocol airdrops were a letdown.

• SEI did well with NFTs initially, but DeFi dApps and airdrops felt short.

• SUI's ecosystem has high-quality dApps but they aren't generous with airdrops and SUI's unlocks weigh heavily on price.

• The Cosmos ecosystem is bogged down by infighting, airdrops have dried up, and they must bounce back from recent exploits.

• Arweave's community expected higher allocation of $AO for $AR holding but got just 36%

--------

What's next?

• Stacks postponed the Nakamoto upgrade to late August, and hopefully multiple airdrops and faster block times will create some FOMO.

• Still waiting for $EIGEN trading launch with 2nd airdrop and Swell, Kelp, Puffer token launches.

• Multiple Eigenlayer AVSs are building and gearing for token launches (hopefully with generous airdrops to restakers).

• Symbiotic and Karak are challenging Eigenlayer and might try to front-run EIGEN launch if market conditions improve.

• Fantom migration to Sonic will test if "rebranding" with a new ticker can bring excitement to the "old" token

• Will DeFi OG tokens bounce back when/if memecoin mania fades and degens tire of low-float, high-FDV tokens?

-------

Ultimately, these internal catalysts depend on favorable macro conditions and ETF flows—our casinos just aren't enticing enough to attract a new wave of retail degens.

But in case the market rebounds, the DeFi degen's playbook will need to be reevaluated with the focus on the most innovative ecosystems that continue to build and reward users generously.

Which ecosystems are you betting on?

Random thoughts on the state of crypto: #2

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1819006343279473126