Happy Thursday good degens! There is a ton of stuff going on today!
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: $3.27T
Gold: $2942.90
Oil (WTI): $71.31
US 10Y Treasury: 4.543%
Biggest Price Movers
(From @coingecko top 1000, by 24 hour change)
Spotlight
Take note friends! Arthur Hayes’ @MaelstromFund released a new article outlining the bull case for @vertex_protocol and the VRTX token!
The article goes over all the various aspects of the investment thesis, but a particularly interesting one revolves around Vertex’s unique ability to deploy perps to new chains as a result of its custom @EdgeLayer liquidity architecture:
“Based on primary research surveying new chains, every chain has a strategy or plan to launch a perps trading hub–through incubation or sourcing a team willing to build one. VRTX (currently hovering at around $27M market cap) stands out as an underpriced opportunity to bet on the strategy to connect existing and forthcoming hubs with a shared liquidity layer. Vertex’s interoperable liquidity layer allows new chains to access shared liquidity within 5ms to 15s across multiple chains, reducing the traditional barriers to launching on new networks while maintaining capital efficiency.”
The article is extremely in-depth and is full of interesting alfa both on Vertex and defi in general, so we highly encourage you to read it by clicking here!
And as always make sure follow Vertex on Twitter for more updates!
Biggest TVL Movers + Else
Chains are mixed today. Fastest-growing chains on the weekly with at least $50M TVL are Berachain, BOB, and Sonic.
Protocols are also mixed today. Fastest-growing protocols on the weekly with at least $50M TVL are SoSoValue, SatLayer, BEX, Cygnus, and Dolomite.
Here’s The Top 12 Chains By TVL (from @DefiLlama):
Here’s The Top 12 Protocols By TVL (from @DefiLlama):
Here’s The Top Entities By 24 Hour Fee Generation (from @DefiLlama):
Bitcoin Fear/Greed Index:
(from @BitcoinFear)
New Projects
(note: this includes new projects we find through combing Twitter each day, and we also include every newly launched protocol added by @DefiLlama that has at least some TVL or is followed by at least some of our mutuals - hence disclaimer: these are not pre-vetted by us so make sure to DYOR!)
-New dex on Sui called @Magma_Finance has been added to @DefiLlama. Twitter bio states “The decentralized trading and liquidity hub on @SuiNetwork”. Followed by 1 of our mutuals.
Top Stablecoin Yields
(note: these are the top Stablecoin Yields, sourced from @DefiLlama (all types, $25M+ TVL) - note: these lists are just raw data, make sure to always DYOR before interacting with any/all protocols)
Important News And Analysis
-OpenSea has announced their long-anticipated airdrop, click the quote-tweeted tweet below for more info, h/t @OlimpioCrypto:
-Lots of focus on the launch of @StoryProtocol today, below is a new interview with its founder @jasonjzhao from @blocmatesdotcom if you’d like to get caught up to speed on it:
-Reminder to check if you qualified for the Story airdrop as you might have received an allocation even if you didn’t try their testnet or tweet about it or etc, h/t @info_insightful:
-Polkadot is the latest (and by far the largest) post-TGE project to join @_kaitoai, and will be rewarding its top ‘Yappers’ monthly, h/t Kaito founder @Punk9277:
-Very interesting tweet from Elon stating that DOGE will help long duration bond yields fall, echoing the recent focus on lowering interest rates from Trump and Treasury Secretary Bessent:
-MegaETH - @megaeth_labs - is starting to generate a very large amount of buzz, h/t great article from @sandraaleow:
-Coinbase earnings report coming in today, h/t @ZachLight16, with all the smart accounts we follow expecting them to beat expectations:
-More and more non-crypto ventures are being launched on-chain due to the advantages in doing so versus utilizing legacy systems, h/t @JasonYanowitz:
-Crypto-related kidnapping in Chicago provides extremely important security reminder, h/t @notsofast:
-Important advice from @intern, "if you are trying to make it in crypto the #1 thing you should do is try new products when they come out.":
-New video from @phtevenstrong The Calculator Guy on Berachain yields:
-New crypto/macro livestream from yesterday with @noahseidman:
-Interesting new interview from @JackFarley96, with former SVB CEO Ken Wilcox, titled “What *Really* Happened To Silicon Valley Bank”:
-New video from @therollupco on the Bittensor/$TAO bull thesis, featuring James Ross and @mogmachine:
-“The story is stablecoins” - @dgt10011:
-Parting crypto-adjacent wisdom from @TheRealEstateG6:
Conclusion
Have a great Thursday friends and stay alert out there!
And please RT/subscribe/etc if you found this valuable!
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Note
Excitement continues to build with @maplefinance as the nascent defi renaissance heats up!
As stated in a recent thread by @GL_Capital_:
“…@maplefinance experienced phenomenal growth in 2024:
🔸More than $500M TVL ~ 500% growth YTD
🔸Over $5B in total loan originations
🔸$330 000 Monthly Recurring Revenue ~ 500%
YTD Maple has thrived by refining its product offerings, and the market has responded favorably to its range of institutional credit solutions.
Looking at the yield performance in 2024, both Maple and $SYRUP (Maple’s permissionless protocol) consistently delivered some of the best USDC yields...”
If you want a great introduction to Maple, the lore surrounding the project, and its insanely bullish outlook heading into 2025, we highly encourage you to check out the below interview from last month with co-founder @joe_defi!
In addition, make sure to follow @maplefinance and @syrupfi on Twitter for additional updates, and stay tuned as we continue highlighting everything they are doing!
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***Note On Material: The ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Note’ sections and info on our Official Monthly Sponsor @vertex_protocol 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.