The Daily Degen - December 23rd, 2025
All of today's news/data/alerts...
Happy Tuesday friends! Two days until Christmas but 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/X!
Market Update
Crypto (from @CryptoBubbles)
Total Crypto Market Cap: $3.05T
QQQ (Nasdaq 100): $621.99
Gold: $4,493.50
Oil (WTI): $58.49
US 10Y Treasury: 4.169%
Crypto Fear & Greed Index (from coinmarketcap(dot)com): 29
Altcoin Season Index (from coinglass(dot)com): 37
Biggest Price Movers
(From @coingecko top 1000, by 24 hour change)
Spotlight
One of the coolest new crypto projects to pop up in 2025 has been @RockSolidHQ - who just launched a couple months ago!
RockSolid is a vault protocol, and their inaugural RocketPool $rETH vault (the first and official rETH vault with Rocket Pool) helps $rETH holders increase their returns via various professionally curated (and resolutely gigabrained) defi strategies!
They just crossed 6,000 $rETH in deposits in it and they continue to generate all sorts of excitement within the world of EVM defi!
Our editor @rektdiomedes is an advisor to RockSolid, and wrote out some long-form thoughts about why he is so bullish on them that you can read here!
In addition, if you want a great introduction to RockSolid, we would recommend:
1) RockSolid co-founder Steve Pack aka @paladin_eth’s appearance on the ETHStaker panel at Devconnect a few weeks ago - embedded and time-stamped below (just click on the video to watch!)
2) Steve and RockSolid co-founder Ben Ward aka @wardy_ben’s dual appearance on the Rocket Fuel podcast (also embedded below!)
Dive into both to learn all about what RockSolid is doing, and deposit into their $rETH vault now by clicking here!
Also make sure to follow RockSolid on Twitter for more updates, follow Ben and Steve as well, and stay tuned as we continue shining a light on everything they are doing going into 2026!
Biggest TVL Movers + Other Interesting Data
Chains are mostly red today. Fastest-growing chains on the weekly with at least $1M TVL are Taraxa, VeChain, Mayachain, Bahamut, and ZetaChain.
Protocols are also mostly red today. Fastest-growing protocols on the weekly with at least $1M TVL are Predict Fun, Taraswap, stCELO, Tea-REX, and Lolik Liquid-Staking.
Here’s The Top 12 Chains By TVL (from @DefiLlama):
Here’s The Top 12 Protocols By TVL (from @DefiLlama):
Here’s The Top 10 Entities By 7 Day Revenue Generation (from @DefiLlama):
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 @railnet_org. Twitter bio states “Open yield layer for programmable asset management”. Followed by 4 of our mutuals. h/t @AresLabs_xyz:
-New project called @OddityMarket. Twitter bio states “Pricing reality before it happens. A dramatically different prediction market aggregator.” Followed by 4 of our mutuals. h/t @AresLabs_xyz:
Top Stablecoin Yields
(note: these are the top Stablecoin Yields, sourced from @DefiLlama (all types, $25M+ TVL only) - note: these lists are just raw data, make sure to always DYOR before interacting with any/all protocols)
Important News And Analysis
-Overall macro picture continues to look bullish going into 2026, especially vis a vis low energy prices and Trump getting interest rates down… though crypto continues to struggle and various factors generate concern on the macro side… h/t @KobeissiLetter:
-Lot of focus on the upcoming Lighter TGE (and airdrop)… with unconfirmed speculation that it will take place on December 29th… h/t example from @DidiTrading below:
-Good breakdown of the math re: the Lighter airdrop/TGE from @CryptoRank_io:
-The Aave governance battle continues… latest article from @Marczeller below:
-And latest from Stani:
-Coinbase to acquire The Clearing Company and Aster buybacks generating attention, h/t @layerggofficial:
-Bitcoin-Dominance started the year low amidst the post-election euphoria and pump… then climbed into spring and summer during the big crash in both stocks and crypto… then fell steadily as we hit crypto ATH’s in early October… and has rebounded a bit and moved sideways since then during this latest mini-bear we’ve been in since 10/10… h/t @DaanCrypto:
-Was privacy the only niche in crypto that really outperformed $BTC this year? h/t @Flowslikeosmo:
-Liquidity for on-chain stock trading looking better and better, h/t @thedefivillain:
-Warning regarding a specific malicious Polymarket bot and also important heads up to be incredibly wary of such things in general and to always remain hypervigilant, from @0x_saurav:
-“Treat the loss as tuition paid to the market.. Character is forged in hell…
Allow yourself to feel the pain but channel the torment into ensuring it never happens again.
These things are difficult because once you find the correct orientation, compounding to infinite wealth becomes inevitable.
Good luck.” - from fantastic article by @thiccyth0t that has gone viral:
-The new All In Podcast that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on that is making headlines:
-New Jordi Visser video on macro + crypto + AI:
-New @DaanCrypto video from yesterday, with TA and general market analysis:
-New Bankless interview with Ben Cowen:
-New crypto news livestream from yesterday from @coinbureau:
-New interview from @DeFi_Dad and @Nomaticcap with @wmougayar:
-New interview with Kamino Finance co-founder @y2kappa:
-New interview with Jill Gunter from @theempirepod:
-Parting wisdom from @redphonecrypto:
Conclusion
Happy Tuesday friends! Stay alert out there and have an absolutely wonderful Christmas! :)
And please RT/subscribe/etc if you found this valuable!
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Note
2025 was a massive for year for @maplefinance, but 2026 looks like it could be even more bullish!
Maple co-founder @syrupsid was just interviewed by @CoinDesk, and offered some fascinating insights into his view of crypto and Maple’s role within it!
“ “In a couple of years, institutions won’t distinguish between DeFi and TradFi at all,” Powell explained to CoinDesk in an interview. “Eventually, all capital markets activity will take place onchain.”
…In Powell’s view… Onchain finance is simply the next technology layer on which global markets will settle, much like the internet changed how people shop.
Powell expects a similar shift in the legacy financial services sector, where crypto becomes the infrastructure for capital markets, with the majority of transactions clearing and settling using public ledgers rather than legacy systems. He also sees more debt capital markets adopting crypto-native structures, including BTC-backed mortgages and other asset-backed securities tied to crypto loans, as well as crypto card issuers whose receivables can be securitized and sold into the capital markets...”
Read the article in full by clicking here or via the tweet below!
And make sure to follow Maple on Twitter for more updates, and stay tuned as we continue bringing attention to everything the team is doing!
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***Note On Material: The ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Note’ sections 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.