The Daily Degen - May 1st, 2025

May 01, 2025

Happy Thursday and Happy May good degens! Start of another big month!

Let’s get after it!

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: $3.14T

Gold: $3,326.00

Oil (WTI): $58.54

US 10Y Treasury: 4.206%

Biggest Price Movers

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

Spotlight

Once again friends, we are very proud to be banging the drum about all the success our Official Sponsor @upshift_fi is having!

-They have surpassed $200M in TVL

-They are consistently providing some of the best yields in all of defi, both for stablecoins as well as other assets such as $ETH and $AVAX, and are regularly among the top yields one can find on @DefiLlama’s ‘yields’ section (and these yields do not even take into account the 5x boost in Upshift points you can currently earn by depositing!)

-Their Hyperbeat Ultra HYPE Vault is one of the best possible ways to get exposure to the HyperEVM ecosystem right now

-They have announced a host of partnerships with some of the most well-respected teams in all of defi

-And they are generating burgeoning chatter on CT as one of the most exciting new projects in all of crypto!

If you want to learn more, check out this great thread from the official Upshift Twitter account, and check out the two interviews below - one with co-founder @aya_kantor and one with co-founder @AElkrief!

Biggest TVL Movers + Other Interesting Data

Chains are quite green today. Fastest-growing chains on the weekly with at least $1M TVL are EDU Chain, VeChain, World Chain, Flare, and Unichain.

Protocols are also quite green today. Fastest-growing protocols on the weekly with at least $1M TVL are uncategorized multichain EVM protocol Tangible, uncategorized Sonic protocol Tholgar Protocol, uncategorized multichain protocol Radiant, Stacks cdp protocol Arkadiko, and Base + OP Mainnet ‘partially algorithmic stablecoin’ protocol Flat Money.

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 Token-Holders’ Revenue (from @DefiLlama):

Bitcoin Fear/Greed Index:

(from @BitcoinFear)

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 @zero_lync. Twitter bio states “Multi chain infra solution provider”. Followed by 1 of our mutuals. h/t @twindoges:

-Something new called @lpagent_io. Twitter bio states “Maximizing Liquidity Profits with AI Automation 🤖 Rt ≠ Endorsement Self identified as Farmer”. Followed by 6 of our mutuals. h/t @twindoges:

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

-A wild April in markets with much exciting news and huge drops in stock prices ended up pretty much flat in the end, h/t @Birdyword:

-Ripple apparently made an offer to acquire Circle (USDC-issuer) but was rejected, h/t morning news from @Tyler_Did_It:

-Much discussion going on about whether the tariff issue will cause inflation, but simultaneously oil continues falling and other factors look quite deflationary, h/t @AndreasSteno:

-HyperEVM, Infinex, MegaETH, Ostium, and Lighter remain in the spotlight, h/t @CryptoStreamHub:

-“I do think it is time for being unconventional, because the current way of doing things is likely to make Ethereum irrelevant over the next 5-10 years” - Dankrad Feist (also h/t @RyanSAdams for the below screenshot):

-Is the formerly popular ve-tokenomics model fading away? h/t @0xGeeGee:

-Interesting new venture called @ethereumR1 highlighted by @lemiscate (doesn’t appear to be a typical project with a token so including here rather than the ‘New Projects’ section):

-Bessent and Trump continue to hint and argue (respectively) that the Fed needs to lower interest rates:

-Continued discussion about what quantum computing will mean for Bitcoin’s future, h/t @nic__carter and @intangiblecoins:

-It is very possible we will have $XRP/$SOL/$DOGE ETF’s by the end of this year, h/t @NateGeraci:

-In other recent defi news, Frax finishes its token rebrand and Ethena partners with TON, h/t @TheDeFinvestor:

-New episode of NFA Live (just aired this morning):

-New interview with Olympus DAO founder @ohmzeus from @DeFi_Dad and @Nomaticcap:

-New roundtable discussion from @theempirepod:

-New interview from The Block with Barry Silbert about $TAO/Bittensor and other topics:

-New macro interview from @menlobear with Brent Johnson @SantiagoAuFund, originator of the famous “Dollar Milkshake” theory:

-New @patfscott Dynamo Defi video going over current defi metrics:

-New macro/crypto interview with Mark Yusko:

-Parting wisdom from @ayyyeandy:

Conclusion

Have a great Thursday friends! Here’s to a big month!

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

Note

Things are absolutely exploding with @maplefinance - with TVL now at $1.3B!

If you want to learn more about Maple, its history, and what is coming next, here are some great resources:

-A new interview Maple co-founder @joe_defi did with @DeFi_Dad and @Nomaticcap

-Another great new interview that he recently did with @constkogan!

-An incredibly well-done new report from @GLC_Research going over Maple’s Q1…

And another fantastic interview below that Maple co-founder @SyrupSid recently did with @CamiRusso from @DefiantNews!

And as always, make sure to follow Maple on Twitter for more updates, and stay tuned as we continue highlighting everything they are doing!

***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.