The Daily Degen - April 15th, 2025

All of today's news/data/alerts...

Apr 15, 2025

Happy Tuesday friends! Lots of stuff going on!

Let’s dive in!

As always… stats/alerts/etc at top and tweets/news/links/videos/etc at bottom… and all tweets are hyperlinked so just click on them to pull them up on Twitter!

Market Update

Crypto (from @CryptoBubbles):

Total Crypto Market Cap: $2.76T

Gold: $3235.70

Oil (WTI): $60.99

US 10Y Treasury: 4.339%

Biggest Price Movers

(From @coingecko top 1000, by 24 hour change)

Spotlight

Take note good degens!

Tomorrow marks the launch of $QI - crypto’s first decentralized energy dollar - from @QuaiNetwork!

If you aren’t already aware, Quai Network is a fascinating new project that is essentially a scalable, EVM-compatible proof-of-work system (that is also GPU-mineable!) based around the idea of tokenizing computing energy, which it does via its dual-token model of $QUAI and $QI - with $QUAI as the main token and $QI as an “energy dollar” or “flatcoin”… and the entire project is generating massive buzz across the cryptoverse!

Learn more in the tweet below and also checked out the embedded interview from just a few days ago that The Calculator Guy @phtevenstrong did with Quai Network’s Dr K @mechanikalk!

And make sure to follow Quai on Twitter for more updates on the launch of $QI tomorrow, and stay tuned as we continue highlighting everything they are doing!

Biggest TVL Movers + Other Interesting Data

Chains are mixed today. Only top 25 chains red on the weekly are Berachain (#7), and Zircuit (#16).

Protocols are also mixed today. Only top 50 protocols down more than 10% on the weekly are Sky (formerly MakerDAO) (#4), and Stargate Finance (#46).

Here’s The Top 12 Fastest-Growing Chains By TVL On The Weekly With At Least $100M TVL (from @DefiLlama):

Here’s The Top 12 Fastest-Growing Protocols By TVL On The Weekly With At Least $100M TVL (from @DefiLlama):

Here’s The Top Entities By 24 Hour Fee Generation (from @DefiLlama):

Bitcoin Fear/Greed Index:

(from @BitcoinFear)

Top Yield Opportunities

(Note! This section is brought to you by our Official Sponsor @upshift_fi! We will include some of their top yield opportunities below as well some of the top ones from sorting on @DefiLlama (all types, $25M+ TVL) - note: the DefiLlama ones are just pulled from the raw data, so make sure to always DYOR!)

-11.50% APY on rsETH strategy - managed by Edge UltraYield - with additional 5x Bonus Points - via Upshift (click here)

-27.00% APY on USDC Sylva concentrated liquidity strategy - managed by Sylva(dot)money - with additional 5x Bonus Points - via Upshift (click here)

-7.33% APY on USDC lending strategy - managed by August Digital - with additional 5x Bonus Points - via Upshift (click here)

-14.20% APY on USDO++ on Usual h/t DefiLlama research

-11.61% APY on GHO on Aave V3 h/t DefiLlama research

-11.88% APY on SUSDE on Echelon Market (Aptos) h/t DefiLlama research

-9.55% APY on USDC on Goldfinch h/t DefiLlama research

Check out the full list of Upshift yield opportunities here or by clicking the banner below!

New Projects

(note: this includes new projects we find through combing Twitter each day and going through newly launched protocols added by @DefiLlama, limited primarily to new projects that have at least some TVL or are followed by at least some of our mutuals… Disclaimer: these are not pre-vetted by us so make sure to DYOR!)

-New project called @TryIntelligence. Twitter bio states “Soon™️”. Followed by 2 of our mutuals. h/t @eli5_defi:

-New project called @0xCurvy. Twitter bio states “Keep your chain footprint private. Achieve anonymity and security with stealth addresses. Backed by @starknetfndn @ethereumfndn @3327_io @mvpworkshop @attic42”. Followed by 3 of our mutuals. h/t @eli5_defi:

Important News And Analysis

-New statements from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yesterday generated a lot of attention, and were regarded as relatively dovish, h/t @zerohedge:

-(Related) increasing focus on Jerome Powell’s impending retirement in just over a year from now, h/t @krugermacro:

-Kraken announces they will add tradfi trading to their platform and the first Solana ETF’s go live in Canada (US ones are expected by October presuming they are approved), h/t @Tyler_Did_It:

-Bitcoin-dominance continues its relentless march higher, h/t @alpha_pls:

-Market maker shenanigans continue to generate lots of debate, h/t @WuBlockchain:

-$KERNEL- the new @KelpDAO airdrop- is now live, h/t @the_smart_ape:

-Much focus on the direction of Ethereum, the Ethereum Foundation, and its incoming co-director @tkstanczak, h/t @Mudit__Gupta:

-(Related) much discussion, criticism, soul-searching, and debate about the current state of Ethereum, example from @ChainLinkGod:

-Continued excitement around Abstract ecosystem, h/t @zacxbt:

-Are high FDV unlock-heavy alts doomed? h/t @crypto_condom and @karl_0x:

-Reminder that we are on the cusp of an absolute renaissance in filmmaking due to the rise of AI video, h/t @levelsio:

-The above-referenced Scott Bessent interview from yesterday:

-New roundtable from @Unchained_pod featuring @JSeyff and @joemccann and more:

-New @JackNiewold interview with @jamie247 from Outlier Ventures, on venture investing in crypto right now and the future of AI, crypto, and the global online economy in general:

-New crypto/macro livestream from @noahseidman (aired yesterday):

-New @zima_red interview with Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley from @AndrewSteinwold:

-New @docXBT livestream of market commentary and analysis (aired yesterday):

-Parting sentiments from @goodalexander:

Conclusion

Happy Tuesday friends and stay alert out there!

And please RT/subscribe/etc if you found this valuable!

***Note On Material: The ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Note’ sections and info on our Official Sponsor are the only parts of The Daily Degen that are sponsored/promotional. Everything else is chosen 100% organically based on what info/stories/etc seem likely to be the most newsworthy/important/valuable to readers.