GM Digest #103
Gm with Valuable Alphas / Insights — Make Sure to DYOR. All of This is Not Financial Advice. Ape at Your Own Peril
FOMC Meeting Today (Nov 1)
• Market is expecting nothing to happen during the Federal Reserve meeting. Instead, all eyes are on Jerome Powell
• We’ll have to observe signals from Jerome Powell & the rest of the committee on where they’re leaning toward in the near future — another potential rate hike in the future as inflation remains persistent? or potential easing earlier than expected? we shall see
RedStone Expedition
• @redstone_defi is an Oracle system with modular architecture for EVM L1s and L2s
• Their modular design is suited for the increasing number of tokens on-chain, and the rise of derivatives platforms that need lower latency. RedStone's solution was to put data into a data availability layer first, and then bring it on-chain only when the protocol need it
• RedStone just announced their 'Expedition' campaign that will consist of three seasons each lasting 2-3 months. During the expedition users will be able to collect RedStone Gems. Basically RSGs will measure how active you were during the campaign and how much you will be rewarded at the end of it
• There are numerous ways to earn RSGs, but most of them require active participation in the community, providing value, and promoting RedStone in some way. For example, you can earn RSGs by engaging in Discord, participating in Galxe campaigns, joining the ambassador program, creating valuable content, etc.
Thoughts: The docs confirm a token is coming, so this campaign could be your chance to farm for the future airdrop
Morpho x Reserve
• @MorphoLabs is a P2P layer on top of money markets that matches lenders and borrowers for improved rates and higher yield
@reserveprotocol allows permissionless creation of RTokens - currency backed 1:1 by any collection of on-chain assets
• With the Morpho collateral plugin live on Reserve Protocol users are able to mint RTokens backed by assets deposited in Morpho's Aave optimizer
• An RToken backed only by Morpho plugins would yield around 7% APR
Kettle Closed Alpha
• @KettleFinance is a peer-to-peer money market that lets you borrow against RWA assets like collectibles and luxury goods
• In the last month of Kettle closed alpha, the protocol saw $250K+ in loan volume against RWAs such as Rolex watches and even comics
• Kettle public beta is scheduled for Q4 this year, but if you don't want to wait until then, you can request Alpha access on their site
Thoughts: The tokenization and financialization of collectibles have the potential to attract a significant number of new users to blockchain and mobilize previously idle capital. In this sector, I am particularly optimistic about protocols that employ account abstraction, enabling seamless onboarding of non-crypto native users. Courtyard. io would be a perfect example of that
Ava Labs Proposes Astra Upgrade
• @avalabsofficial proposed changes to Avalanche subnets in a phased upgrade called Astra to improve independent operation from the main blockchain. This means that subnet validators will no longer need to initialize and synchronize the C-Chain and X-Chain, and will only be required to sync with the P-Chain to track any validator set changes in their subnet and support Cross-Subnet communication
• The subsequent phase will transition the subnet validation model from one based on staking (with a 2000 AVAX staking requirement) to a rent-based system which uses a “pay-as-you-go” validation fee in AVAX The fee varies and is dependent on the number of validators in a specific subnet.
IBC is Coming to Avalanche
• The @interchain_io confirmed that IBC is coming to Avalanche with @CosmosAVAX developing the IBC light client on Avalanche paving way for interoperability between Avalanche, Cosmos Hub, and 100+ other IBC-enabled chains
• Landslide (@cosmosavax) is set to launch an incentivized testnet today and is the first concrete step for IBC on Avalanche
Introducing Renzo
• @RenzoProtocol introduces Renzo — a Liquid Restaking Token and strategy manager for EigenLayer. It is the interface to the EigenLayer ecosystem securing Actively Validated Services (AVSs) and offering a higher yield than ETH staking
• Renzo aims to simplify the complexities of restaking from the end user so that they no longer have to worry about active selection and management of Operators and Reward Strategies. This will be done via their Strategy Manager
• Renzo also introduced their LRT, ezETH which automatically captures rewards and ensures liquidity irrespective of cooldown periods or separately claiming restaking rewards. This LRT allow users to participate in DeFi while enjoying restaking rewards
• The Renzo protocol is governed by the community which includes selecting which tokens can be accepted as deposits, whitelisting of operator nodes, and optimal asset allocation to AVSs within EigenLayer
Level Finance 2.0
• @Level__Finance unveiled its v2 — Expanding varieties of assets to forex and potentially synthetic stocks, commodities and other asset classes with much higher available leverage on trades, facilitated through cross-margin, allowing traders to deposit BTC, ETH, or stablecoins as collateral
• Level 2.0 will introduce an order book system, pivoting the liquidity model to Market Making as a Service (MMaaS). Users with assets like ETH or USDT can earn yields in a risk-isolated environment
• $10m worth of bluechip assets on Level Treasury will be used to support the MMaaS. Level 2.0 also introduces cross-chain liquidity, tokens traded can be effortlessly settled on their native chains allowing a smoother & consolidated trading experience
• Level 2.0 is set to release the onchain orderbook testnet within this year while synthetic liquidity pool & MMaaS will be released Q1 2024 and full mainnet launch will be in Q2 2024
Thoughts: The death spiral from hacks / exploits and LVL incentives that finished vesting from both trading incentives & LP incentives ran rampant and $LVL fell from $6 level to $0.3 during the past 6 months. Current market cap is only $3m, TVL at $14m (down from $40m 6 months ago) and daily volume is pretty similar level to Vela ($1m - $5m on average). Level 2.0 orderbook could bring renewed hype back to Level again given unified liquidity, tighter spreads, and potentially attractive MMaaS rewards (this will highly dependent on MM performance, similar to Hyperliquid)
The State of TON Q3
• @ton_blockchain has seen a slow decline in TVL during the past few months BUT the rapid growth of TON liquid staking protocols is helping to sustain the TVL
• @tonstakers & @bemo_finance both have seen huge growth during the past month in TVL with Ton Stakers growing at ~1000% to $20m TVL & Bemo at 41% to $9m TVL
• @ston_fi, a leading DEX on TON has also launched the first farming program ever on TON, offering 15% APY on TON/tsTON farm (tsTON is Tonstakers’ TON liquid staking token)
• The official TON-Ethereum bridge now supports transfers of all ERC-20 standard tokens to and from TON Blockchain and supports Wallet Connect
Thoughts: Imo the experience of using Telegram-powered application with proper UI/UX is still inferior to command-based TG bots that can execute commands extremely fast + very smooth but may not be friendly to normies or newcomers. TON Eco is still a bit early but I’m definitely excited to see more apps getting built on TON. I may not have been trying enough TG-powered Apps, if you know interesting ones, please let me know and I’d be happy to try it out
Introducing Timeless V2
• @Timeless_Fi is a perpetual yield market protocol enabling users to long or hedge their yield exposure seamlessly. This means that users will be able to long and short yield with no expiration date on the positions
• Users who go long on principal yields can purchase PYTs. PYT value increases as the principal yield increases all while earning extra yield from the protocol. On the flipside, users can purchase NYTs if they think that the yield will decrease. The value of the NYT will increase as the principal yield decreases
• V2 also introduces better UI where buying of PYT and NYT can happen directly from the Yield Market page
• Think Pendle but without any expiration on each yield market
NVIDIA x IMGNAI
• @imgn_ai announced that they have been accepted into the @nvidia Inception Program
• This Inception Program provides imgnAI with guidance and expertise, preferred pricing on industry-leading hardware and venture funding
Pegasus Incentivized Testnet
• @Sagaxyz__ — an L1 protocol and developer ecosystem in web3 gaming launched their Incentivized Testnet called Pegasus. This is the first step leading to a 6 part launch sequence for the full-featured Saga Protocol V1 Mainnet
• The Saga Protocol allows developers to automatically spin up parallelized and interoperable dedicated chains, with different features and services such as technology stack, security source and various obligations for those sources.
• The Pegasus testnet features the Saga Chainlet Realm and different components (Security Chain, Platform Chain and Chainlet) required for all other Realms to be onboarded. Together, the security chain and the platform chain will constitute the Saga Mainnet
Introducing Resolv
• @ResolvLabs is building a new kind of stablecoin architecture based on tokenizing a market-neutral portfolio of on-chain assets and derivative positions fully hedging price exposure
• Resolv uses this True Delta-Neutral (TDN) stablecoin approach, the back-tested yields of 7-10% for its USR stablecoin is generated from two sources (i) Staking of Onchain Assets (LSTs) and (ii) Earning Funding Rate on Perpetual Contracts
• Users mint out Resolv tokens through depositing a collateral. The collateral is then used to earn yield, reserves a portion of the deposit as a liquidity buffer and enters into short perpetual futures contract position. Volume of such futures fully hedges the market risk associated with the ETH position. Collateral for the futures is delegated to the trading venue via off-exchange custody
• Tokens backed by Resolv treasury are segregated into two tranches
⇢ USR: it is the stablecoin representing the senior tranche.
⇢ RLP: functioning as the junior tranche, the RLP token offers protection to USR holders.
• RLP functions as an insurance mechanism for stablecoin holders. The yield of RLP tokens increases if there are less liquidity providers in the RLP pool, and vice versa
• The core objective of Resolv revolves around ensuring that RLP tokens consistently provide complete coverage for exposure to trading venues and market risk
Misc News
• @Parcl V3 update postponed due to audit taking longer than expected
• @swellnetworkio announced that every LST or restaked ETH used to vote for $swETH on @EigenLayer contest, will be rewarded with 40 pearls
• @SynapseProtocol modular bridging with Synapse X. Routing transactions through external pools
• @Azuki X SATOSHI NAKAMOTO special Edition Enduro Hoodie for Spirit collectors
• @OATHFoundation’s first OATH chapter @AureliusFi is getting ready for launch on Mantle
• @fraxfinance domains compromised
• @CelestiaOrg’s mainnet is live with its native token, $TIA trading on CEXes and Osmosis
• @enzymefinance now supports borrowing on @Aaveaave V3
• @MetaMask launches new security alerts feature with Blockaid
• @ambient_finance launched on @Scroll_ZKP
• @kadena_io x Ideasoft, bringing permissionless interoperability to the Kadena ecosystem via @Hyperlane_xyz
• @LynexFi integrating oTokenomics
• @solana announces that first version of @jump_firedancer is live on testnet
• @stelolabs announced that they are sunsetting Stelo extension, Stelo Explore and Approvals.xyz
• @Anomix_ZK announces Public Test of their Private Account Application (mvp) on Anomix Network
• Argent to stop zkSync Era development to prioritize Starknet
*Reminder to Size Your Entry for Degen Plays and Take Your Principal Out (Take Profits) Whenever You Hit Your Target*