😎 BlackRock Goes Full DeFi

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GM, we`re going higher, faster.

This train isn`t stopping anytime soon. Spot ETFs are keeping flows strong, with only IBIT adding $418.8M worth of BTC just yesterday. Saylor, in his typical fashion, top blasted another 15,350, all the while mogging news reporters on live TV accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme.

Not only Bitcoin but also Ethereum is finally starting to present its potential, edging the price just below the previous all-time high. The eventual ETH breakout seems inevitable at this point.

Moreover, let's not forget the typical laggard ETH behavior. In 2021, Ethereum outperformed Bitcoin by far, but only BTC finished its parabolic rise. That said, we may see the true ETH run only in 2025.

Continuing the Ethereum topic, it`s highly possible we will see the upcoming run going in tandem with the continuation of DeFi strength. For example, the long-cursed Curve Finance, is currently basking in USTB stablecoin deposits by BlackRock, and even Michael Egorov is buying back his CRV stacks as we speak.

Lastly, let's not forget Solana, who`s been in the corner lately. Even though the SOL/ETH and SOL/BTC charts pulled back quite a bit, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it gain steam again (or at least a proper bounce) while the timeline screams about ETH’s comeback.

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ETH/USDT 1W Coinbase Log Chart

Eth is in a log channel uptrend. A trend-based fib extension gives a 1.618 target at the top of this channel in the diagonal green box - we are looking at 6-7k by Feb / March ‘25 if this plays out.

With the price sitting above the $4k range high and BTC at all-time highs, it’s likely just a matter of time before we start running. Low timeframe, SOLETH is still trending bearish, although it may reverse in the next few weeks.

Right now, Hyperliquid and Base are keeping the torch burning for Eth as the majors ecosystem with momentum. HL, in particular, is likely to just gain momentum for the foreseeable.

Today, the Pudgy Penguins airdrop is also likely to play out as a massive stimmy across the whole of Ethereum. I am not quite ready to fade this Eth rotation, as much as I love the snappy and unified L1 UX of Solana.

Come by the Lucky Luke Discord channel for comments, to roast my picks or to pump your own bags. All banter is welcome any time!

Kaito adds “Pre-TGE Arena”.

Smart-money movements of the day.

Is Zentry the most undervalued gaming pick?

Zentry, or more specifically, the ZENT token, saw a nice steady rise during the past few weeks.

Nevertheless, the current valuation of $196,054,959 might still have a ways to go. Why?

Zentry just partnered with Ronin, the blockchain made for gaming by Axie Infinity team. Not only that, Zentry owns a massive war chest worth ≈$150m, which means they have plenty of dry powder to build long-term and possibly develop one of the largest gaming ecosystems, or what the team calls a “Metagame Layer.”

Gaming is poised to be huge in crypto, and I`m keeping Zentry as one of the leading picks.

The important bits.

• HMX (Perpetual exchange) - HIP-7 tokenomics proposal is live, go vote

• PUPS (Ordinals) - Announces Pyth Network integration

• AAVE (Lending) - New proposal to adjust risk parameters for Aave on Polygon

• Lido (LST) - Partners with Fluid

• Equalizer (DeFi) - Announces to be working on a solution for those who missed the migration

• Vana (AI, data) - Vana mainnet is now live

• Zentry (Gaming) - Nexus Play Portal is now live

• Story Protocol (AI, IP) - Introduces Agent TCP/IP

• Avalanche (L1) - Avalanche9000 is live on mainnet

• Monad (L1) - Introduces Monad Foundation

Even more important bits.

• Germany’s former Finance Minister says “It is time to recognize the opportunities of Bitcoin in Germany”

• Michael Saylor mogs news reporter in response to Ponzi allegations

• UK government releases a warning against Retardio

• Traders willing to pay up to $1200 for Ripple's RLUSD

Life gets busy so here’s what you’ve missed.

SwapX: Building the Liquidity Layer for Sonic

Research

All signs point to Sonic being a battleground for some of the best developers and dApps. We covered some of our top picks in PhilMrlo's newsletter yesterday, too...

This article looks more in-depth at what SwapX is building.

Read More → 

What is Virtuals Protocol? The Shopify of Ai Agents

CryptoTube takes us down the AI Agent rabbit hole with Virtuals Protocol.

How do you trade on Virtuals? How do we Bridge funds to Virtuals? What makes these agents special?

Tune in on YouTube →

• Luna (Hyperliquid AI agent)

• Noon (Intelligent stablecoin)

• Agentstarter (AI agent accelerator)

• Print.world (Theme park on Solana)

• Spray and Pray (Trading)

• Dexodus Finance (Perpetual trading, RWA)

To save you doom scrolling.

If you`re a Retardio holder in the UK, watch out.

This is possibly my last newsletter of 2024, my friends. Thank you all for reading; I hope some of the info helped you along the way, and I can`t wait to absolutely smash the markets with you all in 2025.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Higher.

stay safe homies,

Hix0n 🫡