🤩 Next BAYC for 7 ETH?

🗞 Market commentary.

Welcome to December, apes. Enjoying the pumps, are we? 

It seems like it was only yesterday when we had barely anything to talk about. Yet today, after another bullish monthly close, the Santa rally draws near, and the crypto lands are dry no more.

When we think about Santa, we can't help but flash right back to 2021 and Joe. Trader Joe. After a long time, our bear market survivor Joe and his liquidity book AMM are back in the spotlight as the protocol reached full emission (500M JOE in circulation) and since the protocol’s treasury stays robust and Joe’s 30-day revenue is up 350%, the market naturally takes notice.

Not only DeFi heads are enjoying the fun though as even the long-lagging NFT sector of Solana is now back alive, to put it mildly: during this week, the Tensorian collection's market volume has climbed above the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Tensorian avatars increase the multiplier for the upcoming TENSOR airdrop, so it's no wonder, after all. In the case of good old Ethereum, Pudgy Penguins undoubtedly take the lead, gracefully jumping over the previous ATH and basking above the price of 7 ETH.

Is what we're now witnessing the start of an NFT season similar to last winter? Nevertheless, in between all this SOL to ETH and ETH to SOL bridging, memecoin aping, and Portal coin airdrop hunting, there’s a distinct smell of a market that is starting to finally look for some good old fundamentals, which brings us right into Degen Corner.      

🤓 In today’s email.

• Degen corner. Winter LSD(T) Wars

• DeFi insights. 14 unmissable insights

• ICYMI. Grant’s bull market tips podcast, Celestia thesis and more

• Tweet of the day. ColdBloodShill makes an important point, listen up

• And finally. Guys, the fake chain might be real

🔥 Degen corner.

Winter LSD(T) Wars

It’s about time ETH drops the 'most hated coin' label and once again morphs back into its Ultra Sound Money form. Whether that happens now or later is anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, a trained eye sees that as Q4 nears its end, Bitcoin dominance shows signs of fatigue, while the DeFi index is teasing a breakout. That’s why it’s high time to glance over some good old LSD, or if you prefer, LST projects.

Redacted Cartel is cooking with gas lately. The release of the cartel's home-crafted LSD product called pxETH nears as we speak, positioning Redacted as a direct competitor to Lido (except with proper revenue share). Even though pxETH is 'just' a mere prelude leading to a grand Dinero release, the market is definitely taking notice. 

This is reflected not only in recent price action but also in the increasing number of projects eager to implement Redacted’s products, like the soon-to-be-upgraded Hidden Hand Marionette. A glance over the cartel dashboard stats shows us a very positive picture as well, especially considering how dry has the DeFi arena been in the last year.

Next, Lybra Finance seems to have found a solid product-market fit with their over-collateralized yield-bearing stables eUSD and the omnichain version peUSD, as the protocol enjoys around 300M TVL. Lybra Wars are in full motion, and if we get a winter LST season similar to the last one, the current market cap to TVL ratio of 0.075 won’t stay unnoticed.

If you don’t feel like exchanging your precious ETH for tokens, there is always some sweet airdrop hunting to do. Here, a clear priority seems to be Swell. Unlike in the case of Blast, you can withdraw your stETH at any time.

If your pockets are overflowing with stale ETH, you might wanna have some fun using this full LST airdrop list.

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

• Bumper (DeFi) - Announces expansion to Arbitrum - read

• Botanix (Bitcoin VM) - Testnet is now live - read

• UnstoppableFi (DeFi) - Early access to new margin DEX is live - read

• Protectorate (NFTfi) - Preparing for NFT capsule deployment - read

• Chainlink (Oracles) - Launches staking v0.2 - read

• Trader Joe (DEX) - USDV (T-Bill stablecoin) rewards are live - read

• Thena (DEX) - Teases upcoming Redacted Cartel partnership - read

• Vertex (DEX) - 1.5B daily volume reached - read

• Mux Protocol (DEX) - Surpasses 23,000 users - read

• Maker (DeFi) - Protocol’s revenue now higher than 2021 ATH - read

• SEI (L1) - Announcing SEI v2, adding EVM support - read

• Polygon (L2) - 80% of all transactions are now PRC-20 - read

• Maple Finance (RWA) - Announcing partnership with Circle - read

• Hyperliquid (DEX) - Introduces NFT index - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

• Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy buys another 16,130 BTC - read

• KyberSwap attacker demands to become protocol leader - read

• Rari Foundation announces Rari Chain using Arbitrum L3 - read

• DOGE-1 Moon Mission gets needed regulatory green lights - read

• Binance will delist BUSD by the end of 2023 - read

• Franklin Templeton spot BTC ETF delayed by the SEC - read

• Cristiano Ronaldo sued for promoting Binance - read

• BIS presents a CBDC with ‘cash-like anonymity’ - read

• OpenSea revenue drops to only $1.9M monthly - read

• Vitalik sparks a new narrative around D/ACC philosophy - read

• Cathie Wood sells COIN shares, buys Robinhood shares - read

• SEC seeks to prove CZ committed SBF-style fraud - read

• Circle expands its Cross Chain Transfer Protocol to Cosmos - read

🫠 ICYMI.

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

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

🐥 Tweet of the day.

To save you doom scrolling.

ColdBloodShill we won’t, promise.

🦍 And finally…

Crypto is a highly addictive space not only thanks to the endless dopamine drip provided by constant doom-scrolling CT and on-chain gambling (jk please apply risk management). But also because there is always something new to look forward to. Take, for example, the good old fake chain – Berachain.

If you enjoyed the TIA airdrop that might have turned you into a freshly minted modular blockchain bull, you’ll surely enjoy the likes of Berachain. Imagine combining the native yield narrative of Blast L2 with the modular tech hype surrounding Celestia, sprinkling it with the swagger of Redacted Cartel’s Hidden Hand (working part of the Proof of Liquidity consensus), and to top it all off, adding possibly the most awaited NFT-based airdrop story of all time. Oh, and it’s all literally a meme.

On a serious note, Berachain is being worked on by some of the most brilliant brain capital crypto has to offer and we cannot wait to see the DeFi-focused chain in action.

Keep your eyes peeled frens; it’s gonna be fun.