GM Digest #110
GM Digest #110
Gm with Valuable Alphas / Insights — Make Sure to DYOR. All of This is Not Financial Advice. Ape at Your Own Peril
Linea DeFi Voyage
• @LineaBuild launches another DeFi Voyage which will be consisting of five waves of quests hosted on @IntractCampaign
• This time around the quests seem to be simpler and the whole process of gaining XP should go much smoother. The tasks for wave one and two consist mainly of swapping and bridging ETH using MetaMask Portfolio, and following the offical X accounts
• Linea is an Ethereum L2 zk rollup powered by @Consensys, and is by far the most funded crypto company raising $727M
Thoughts: By completing this campaign and all associated tasks, you could become eligible for both the $LINEA and $MASK airdrops down the line
Alfred Public Release
• @alfred_trades is a Telegram bot for trading and sniping tokens
• The team made an official announcement that the product has been released to the public, resulting in over 5,000 signups within the first 24 hours
• Current focus is on simplicity of the existing features like sniping and swapping, while soon additional ones will be introduced like limit orders and stop losses
Thoughts: Currently, the market for Telegram bots is becoming oversaturated with new bots popping up daily, offering the same features. This, coupled with the recent security issues faced by both Maestro and Unibot, poses a significant headwind for the bot narrative in the short to medium term. New bot projects launching need to have a strong moat in the form of distribution, security, performance (sniping), and more to compete with the current incumbents
Plena Chat & Pay
• @PlenaFinance is a mobile crypto app that allows users to purchase and trade tokens across multiple chains, and chat with each other
• The app is a non-custodial Smart Contract Wallet (SCW) that provides portfolio management, access to multiple DEFi protocols, bridging, token transfers, and more. It is designed with account abstraction in mind and even offers logging in with Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail
• Their latest update introduces fully-fledged chat functionalities and single-tap transfers of cryptos across different chains
Thoughts: Apps like Plena offer easier on-boarding for new people into crypto, and offer degens a way to quickly ape into tokens from their phone
Mantle and Ondo Launches USDY
• @0xMantle and @OndoFinance partners to launch USDY, a yield-generating token backed by RWAs
• USDY is a tokenized note secured by short-term US treasuries and bank demand deposits. Since USDY is a non-rebasing token, the value of USDY accumulates over time
• Ondo also plans to introduce a rebasing version of USDY, mUSD to maintain peg to $1 with yield earned in new tokens
Thoughts: Great time to market given we only have a few protocols that are introducing T-Bill / Repo-backed stables. There’s no widespread stables in this category yet (even though TProtocol / Matrixdock has introduced KYC’ed STBT & USTP tokens)
Avail Incentivized Testnet
• @AvailProject is a modular blockchain with a data availability layer designed to scale blockchain networks
• Avail announced their incentivized testnet called “Clash of Nodes”
• The team set out challenges for validators and other operators to accumulate points based on those challenges. The team is also calling for validators, light client operators, L2 providers and users and developers to battle test the network
Mercy Corp Defi Loans for Columbia MSMEs
• @MCSocialVenture and Quipu launch a new pilot to test the use of Defi lending protocol to connect micro-entrepreneurs directly to loan providers without any intermediary, with aims of building climate resilience
• Borrowers do not have to post any collateral (crypto or otherwise) to qualify for loans. Instead, a prospective borrowers’ credit score is computed using Quipu’s AI algorithm and a loan is issued if the borrower’s credit score is above a set threshold
Thoughts: Default rate risk and trust assumption placed upon the credit scoring system as well as the micro biz are one of the core risks that investors have to face. Time in the market post-pilot will prove how well the credit scoring model perform in mitigating the risks that arise from investing in micro-SMEs (Feels like I’m mansplaining here but I’m a fan with helping these biz but not a fan yet of the current models)
Misc News
• HashKey exchange in Hong Kong to list Chainlink for professional investors
• @muxprotocol joins @CamelotDEX on the round table
• @LidoFinance vote to bring wstETH to @zksync is live
• @OPLabsPBC announces ‘Canyon’, the first post-Bedrock network upgrade for the Optimism ecosystem built in collaboration with @BuildonBase
• @gamblino_app first game “Flip Master” is out. 2 more games incoming this week
• @stellaxyz_ launches new strats for TraderJoe LP — GMX/ETH & PENDLE/ETH
• @IntentX_ introduces referral program — both Traders & Referers get 15% on top of their Airdrop / Trade & Earn bonus incentives. You need to be whitelisted to be eligible for the referral progrma
• SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier is partnering with Aptos and Atomrigs Lab to develop T Wallet, a Web3 wallet service
• A16z crypto leads $4.2 million seed investment in UK web3 infrastructure firm Pimlico
• The @EvmosOrg team announced that they are planning to discontinue support for Cosmos transactions to focus exclusively on Ethereum based wallets and tools
Personal Note:
• Incoming thread on Top 10 Arbitrum Picks for those who are under-exposed on Arbitrum. For those looking for more insights on Arbitrum. I’ll continue sharing more here as we delve deeper into the mini Arbitrum bull run
*Reminder to Size Your Entry for Degen Plays and Take Your Principal Out (Take Profits) Whenever You Hit Your Target*