The Daily Degen - January 1st, 2026
All of today's news/data/alerts...
Happy Thursday good degens! And Happy New Year!
2026 has arrived :)
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: $3.064T
QQQ (Nasdaq 100): $614.31
Gold: $4,317.60
Oil (WTI): $57.41
US 10Y Treasury: 4.163%
Crypto Fear & Greed Index (from coinmarketcap(dot)com): 31
Altcoin Season Index (from coinglass(dot)com): 39
Biggest Price Movers
(From @coingecko top 1000, by 24 hour change)
Spotlight
Take note friends!
Maple Finance finished 2025 with blazing strength, closing $695M in new loan originations in the last week of the year alone!
For context, this is a larger amount than their entire loan book was at the start of the year- illustrating their absolutely staggering growth!
As stated in their recent tweet on it:
“Throughout the final week of 2025, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Maple closed $695 million in new loan originations backed by over $900 million in BTC collateral…”
Check out the great QT of this tweet by @GLC_Research below, which well articulates the reasons why Maple is generating so much excitement as of late!
And in addition make sure to check out Maple’s ‘2025 Recap’ video in the tweet below that!
And- as always- make sure to follow Maple on Twitter/X for more updates, and stay tuned as we continue noting all their successes in 2026!
Biggest TVL Movers + Other Interesting Data
Chains are mixed today. Fastest-growing chains on the weekly with at least $50M TVL are Provenance, Flow, and Mantle.
Protocols are also mixed today. Fastest-growing protocols on the weekly with at least $50M TVL are BSC prediction market OPINION, ETH Mainnet collateral management protocol Anvil, and XDC RWA protocol Liqi.
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 Fee 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!)
-Something new called @kumbaya_xyz has been added to @DefiLlama, categorized as a dex on MegaETH. Twitter bio states “Cult formation venue. Adoption papers signed by @megamafia”. Followed by 27 of our mutuals and according to @DefiLlama has $9.8k TVL:
-Something new called @SuperEarnX has been added to @DefiLlama, categorized as a yield protocol on Kaia chain. Twitter bio states “Earn like a Pro. Secure, Smart, Simple.” Followed by 2 of our mutuals and according to @DefiLlama has $3.8M TVL:
Top Stablecoin Yields
(note: these are the top Stablecoin Yields, sourced from @DefiLlama (all types, $1M+ TVL only) - note: these lists are just raw data, make sure to always DYOR before interacting with any/all protocols)
Important News And Analysis
-Crypto consolidating sideways, with total crypto market cap still down 30% from early October high of $4.38T, h/t @DaanCrypto:
-Bitwise has filed for a bunch of new altcoin ETF’s, h/t @ETH_Daily:
-Now that the Lighter airdrop has taken place, @variational_io and @extendedapp look to be two of the most popular tokenless perps dex’s with prospective airdrops, h/t @PointsGoblin (good new account we just found - make sure to give him a follow!):
-@OstiumLabs another good one as well, h/t @DeFiMinty:
-“Ethereum needs to do more to meet its own stated goals… To build the world computer that serves as a central infrastructure piece of a more free and open internet…” - from new thoughts from Vitalik, below:
-@fuseenergy, @metyacom, and @gonka_ai were among the biggest raises in December, h/t @flb_xyz:
-Lots of unlocks coming in January, good list below with thoughts on various tokens as well, also from @flb_xyz:
-Remember to be hypervigilant with security this year friends! Good reminder from @hosseeb below - especially re: having a separate laptop or Chromebook just for crypto and also triple-checking URL’s and addresses:
-“The success bar moves from “can you create?” to “can you make something only YOU could make?” - one of nine interesting predictions regarding AI and the internet from Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, c/o @bearlyai:
-Is crypto entering its “practical” era? h/t @andyyy:
-New @DeFi_Dad and @Nomaticcap interview with Ostium co-founder @kaledora:
-New David Lin interview with macro gigabrain Doomberg:
-New @patscott video on top on-chain trends for 2026 and looking back at 2025:
-New Balaji Srinivasan x Luke Gromen discussion:
-New New Years Eve edition of @0xSteadyLads:
-New Forward Guidance interview with Tony Greer @TgMacro:
-New interview on 2026 predictions from @hosseeb from @therollupco:
-Excellent reminder of why we’re in crypto from @noahseidman:
-Parting wisdom from @redphonecrypto:
Conclusion
Have a great Thursday friends and here’s to an extremely bullish 2026!!! :)
And please RT/subscribe/etc if you found this valuable!
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Note
Once again, @Mantle_Official had an absolutely MASSIVE 2025!
The bullish developments were legion, including:
- Huge defi ecosystem growth
- Huge @mETHProtocol success
- Token outperformance and massive treasury with which to fuel future growth
- Significant RWA + institutional expansion
- MI4 Fund + Anchorage Digital partnership + FunctionBTC
- Huge expansion into the fintech space, via @UR_global + more
- And serious initiatives in a host of other areas that would be far too numerous to mention!
They are poised for even more success going forward, so make sure to check out their 2025 year in review ‘scroll’ in the tweet below to get caught up on everything that is going on!
We will be documenting their news and updates so stay tuned for that and make sure to follow them on Twitter for more info!
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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.