🩸Is It All Over Now?

PLUS restaking projects & airdrops you can't miss.

January 12, 2024

🗞 Market commentary.

GM to all hopefully-not-yet-liquidated ETF week enjoyers.

The history was made, ETFs were approved, and all the trillions of boomer dollars can now buy into Bitcoin without the mortal fear of actually stepping on-chain. As the Bitcoin ETF dashboards are already presenting us with numbers showing billions of volume, we now know that this indeed is a different ball game than previous futures ETFs.

Are the Bitcoin maximalists popping bottles from sheer euphoria, you ask? Well, by now, it’s known that the most entertaining outcome is the most likely, which in the case of the crypto industry is true tenfold: the strongest gainers on the ETF approval day were… drumrolls… Ethereum and its memecoins. Crypto is the most efficient market in the world and because of that, we simply jumped head on (along with Larry Fink) to the next big narrative: spot ETH ETF.

Friends, this week felt like a madhouse, but thankfully, we had the SEC guiding us through it. The divine protection of our favourite regulatory A-team experienced just a minor hiccup. Well, actually, it was a complete hacker overtake of Gary Gensler’s and SEC’s Twitter accounts, resulting in a fake ETF announcement and liquidation of short and long positions of retail market participants. 

The fact that the SEC is absolutely useless, and some people simply cannot be saved, was underscored right the next day when some absolute madman market bought Dog WIF Hat coin for 6 million dollars. Too bad the liquidity pool had only 2 million.

You thought you were a degen? There are levels to this game. Which brings us right into…

🤓 In today’s email.

  • Degen corner. Restake Your Stake

  • DeFi insights. 24 unmissable insights

  • ICYMI. Kujira deep dive, another Shitcoin Church, Still Early podcast and more

  • Tweet of the day. Cokedupoptions reveals main Ark Invest research tool

  • And finally. Lot of fun awaits in the Berachain and Ordinals lands

👌 A quick word from today’s sponsors.

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🔥 Degen corner.

Restake Your Stake

If you've found yourself spiralling down the crypto rabbit hole, lured by the attractive green numbers of the last weeks and months, then you’ll surely be interested in the brand new narrative buzzwords: “liquid restaking tokens (LRTs)” and Eigen Layer.

Why? Simply put, Eigen Layer restaking tech allows you to secure other blockchains using the already staked ETH. Imagine kickstarting a blockchain with a measly million bucks – a 51% attack in this case would be quite cheap; hence it’s impossible for such a blockchain to attract enough new capital that seeks security. That exact capital prefers to park it in the well-guarded district: Ethereum. But what if you could instantly grab and import Ethereum's security into your new chain? Yeah, this is quite bullish.

Regarding the projects: the restaking narrative is picking up full steam, so right now, it's necessary to focus exclusively on quality LRT projects and skip short-term grifts.

Renzo is currently coming out of stealth and is getting attention from solid big brains. Why? Thanks to Renzo, it's possible to participate in Eigen Layer restaking anytime and easily, even though the Eigen Layer cap is almost always full and inaccessible. Combined with the quality of Renzo developers, their experience, and audit by the likes of Halborn, this is possibly shaping up to be one of the restaking leaders.

Right now, Renzo is the fastest-growing restaking protocol: speculators now chase the current 3x boosted Renzo ezPoints, as Renzo offers Eigen Layer plus Renzo points concurrently. What mean? One might speculate…

Swell deservedly ranks among the top 10 restaking protocols.

However, it’s important to point out that Swell is also the largest tokenless protocol of this sector. Currently, The Voyage is underway - a 3x Super swETH vault offering increased pearl (point) rates. The Voyage lasts until the end of Q1, and we are definitely stacking more than a few pearls.

Puffer is one of the lesser-known (not for long) restaking protocols. In this case, what's particularly interesting is that the team’s been focusing on anti-slashing tech for over a year, which prevents one of the main risks of restaking. Moreover, Puffer is yet to launch staking, so you can stay on the lookout and hop in the right place really early.

Describing all LRT protocols would take several pages, but other interesting ones include Rio Staking, EtherFi, Kelp DAO, or Restake Finance.

Finally, for homework, we'll ask you to thoroughly explore an excellent thread from Eli5 DeFi.

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

  • Berachain (L1) - Testnet is Live - read

  • Eigen Layer (LRT) - Adds support for frxETH, Mantle and more - read

  • Protecc Labs (NFTfi) - Partners with WOO - read

  • Botanix Labs (BTC EVM) - Testnet Now Open - read

  • Orbiter Finance (Bridge) - Teases Airdrop - read

  • Y2K Finance (DeFi) - Teases Berachain Integration - read

  • Infrared (DeFi) - Introduces itself as the CVX of Berachain - read

  • Backpack (NFT) - Teases Airdrop for Madlads - read

  • Wagmi (DeFi) - Now Live on Metis - read

  • EtherFi (LRT) - Announces TGE in April - read

  • Fareplay (GambleFi) - Announces Casino Points Season - read

  • Dymension (L1) - Announces AVAL Airdrop for Stakers - read

  • Persistence (DeFi) - Staking Update for XPRT - read

  • Starknet (L2) - Confirms STRK as Gas Token - read

  • Redacted Cartel (DeFi) - Chainlink Announces pxETH for CCIP - read

  • Lyra (Options) - Announces Lyra Chain - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

  • Garry Gensler issues warning against crypto on X - read

  • PayPal becomes 3rd top briber on Convex - read

  • FriendTech treasury moves 50% of revenue to Coinbase - read

  • Solana developer retention increases through 2023 - read

  • Cathie Wood aims at a minimum of $600,000 BTC - read

  • CPI comes higher than expected - read

  • Franklin Templeton puts on a laser eyes pfp on X - read

  • Maker DAO aims to ‘revive DeFi summer’ - read

🫠 ICYMI.

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

Find all of it on blocmates.com and media network →

🐥 Tweet of the day.

Cokedupoptions well, this mighty tool might just turn out to be right.

🦍 And finally…

The Berachain testnet is live!

Berachain has been a long-standing topic of conversation, and this year, a large part of Twitter will be literally redacted on this topic. If you own Bera NFTs, check out Berachain.com and request your testnet tokens! Time to get that Bera Honey…

Finally, remember how we kept mentioning the Bitcoin NFT ecosystem last autumn? Well, it seems that the Ordinals scene has now broken through to the next level.NodeMonkes and Bitcoin Puppets have become leaders within the week, and given the current situation, it's worth pondering whether we're now witnessing the birth of NFT collections on Bitcoin that will occupy a spot similar to collections like BAYC, Milady, or even Crypto Punks. Happy speculating! Ape safely and please, pay your taxes.

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