A quick mistake that I see a lot of people make.
- Find out about a protocol
- You don’t invest in it
- Now the protocol has 3x’ed in price
- You refuse to invest in it bc it feels “expensive” compared to when you 1st found it
- You don’t “re-evaluate” again
- The price keeps mooning and you get salty
So what’s going on? First, you’re “anchored” to the original price when you 1st found it. Things could be different now. The protocol could be more developed and the metrics are more favorable.
You have to re-evaluate it again and give it a second look. When the market’s hot, price is a narrative. Just because it 3x doesn’t mean it can’t 10x further.
One more thing my friend. Keep your ego out of it. If you’re “entering” it at higher price then it feels terrible. Basically you’re admitting you were wrong.
But remember this – the aim is to make money, not to be right. A sign of intelligence is being able to change your mind when you get better or more information.
Here’s what we got today:
- Next hot L2. An introduction to Blast ecosystem.
- Pump.fun 101. Everything you need to know about the latest casino.
- Around the web. Ethena shared its 2024 roadmap, Zapper hinted at a token, KelpDAO’s new campaign, and more.
Today’s email is brought to you by ZKX — a perp platform for degens.
Here’s your Edge 🗡️!
The 80/20 Guide to Blast L2
Blast, the Ethereum Layer 2 Chain, will launch its token on June 26th.
Blast has only been fully live for two months. But within this period, they’ve already stacked up some really impressive numbers.
- $2.64B in TVL
- 605.75k transactions
- 87.43k daily active addresses
- $369.9M in stablecoin market capitalization
They’re now the fourth-largest L2 by TVL. How did they gain traction so fast?
#1. Native-yield for $ETH & stablecoins. The $ETH and $USDC bridged to Blast are automatically put to work to earn yield through ETH staking and US T-bills. The is then distributed (rebased) to token holders on Blast.
Yield-bearing tokens can be used across the Blast ecosystem. They can be used for lending, borrowing, LPing, etc. People like easy 🤷.
#2 The Gamification. Blast launched their points program way before they fully launched their chain. Users could earn points early on by simply bridging $ETH and stables to Blast and holding them in their wallets.
• 50% of the Blast airdrop is allocated to Blast points. So, the key to earning more Blast points is to bridge more assets.
• They also have multipliers. Those increase your points balance and earnings rate. You can obtain them by using any of the dApps highlighted by Blast.
• They have also launched a referral program. To use Blast, you need an invite code. You earn 16% of the points that your invites earn. On top of that, you earn 8% of the points your invite’s invites earn. So yea…it’s kinda ponzi’ish.
• 50% of the Blast Airdrop is allocated to Blast Gold. These are like points, but they are manually distributed to dApps. Winners are announced every two to three weeks.
There are also other gamification elements like Blast Jackpot.
It feels like someone took an ETH Layer 2 and made it more addictive with casino and iPhone game strategies.
The Top dApps on Blast
Having a diverse ecosystem of apps is key to the long-term sustainability of general-purpose chains. Blast has now started to build one. And you can look at all of them here.
Below are five projects that stand out to me:
#1 Fantasy.top. This is a trading card game in which you participate competitively using the cards of X influencers. This is going to be the biggest SocialFi protocol in the next few months.
I already wrote about it last week. If you want to try it out, click here. You need an invite code to get started. You can use “thedefiedge”.
#2 Juice Finance. This is a lending protocol that allows users to acquire up to 3x leverage on their collateral to then use in the best-vetted and most popular dApps across the Blast ecosystem. JUICE is designed to help users accumulate more yield, points, airdrops, and rewards.
It is the largest protocol on Blast by TVL. It has already crossed 428M in TVL. And its growth rate is positive. It has grown 19.1% on the monthly and 7.5% on the weekly.
#3 Cambria. This is a GameFi game on Blast that combines old school pixelated graphics with Crypto.
In the Dual Arena, you can challenge anyone to a 1v1 duel to the death in a public arena. Players can wager any amount of Arena Tokens or ETH on these duels. The winner takes all of the waged amount. You can read more about the mechanics of the duals here.
In Pit Fights, you can bet on a roster of NPC champions that battle to the death in the Arena Pits. You can read more about it here.
They also have Essence Points that’ll lead to the Cambria airdrop. You can earn these points by staking Blast ETH on duals. Click here to try the game.
#4 Thruster Finance. Whenever a chain becomes hot, the leading protocols in that chain will become hot as well.
Thruster is the leading DEX of the Blast ecosystem. They are also native to the Blast ecosystem. Native dapps usually have a premium when their chains become hot.
They have already crossed $378M in TVL.
#5 Pacmoon. Most chains have their own top memecoin. $PAC is an interesting memecoin on Blast. It incentivizes activity on X.
You can earn $PAC by tweeting about Pacmoon. They are looking for high-quality content about Pacmoon. Your tweet will be eligible for rewards once the Pacmoon account likes your tweet. The more views your tweets get, the more $PAC you’ll earn.
Pacmoon is becoming the alpha play for the Blast memecoin category. You can read more about Pacmoon here.
Once Blast launches its token, there’s a good chance that Blast will grow into a really hot chain. You can start exploring it now and prepare for the upcoming opportunities.
Get up to $5000 off the Best Perp Exchange
Picture this: a program that pays in USDC, gives you airdrop eligibility, and also gives an extra $5000 reward.
And that is exactly what the ZKX Referral Program is offering you!
The OG gamified perps exchange, onboarding directly from both Ethereum and Starknet, is launching its most competitive referral program yet, and the winner is you.
Invite your friends to join and contribute to ZKX’s growth and win rewards such as:
- Payouts in USDC
- Eligibility for the ZKX airdrop, round 2
- Additional rewards in the monthly pot
- The chance to join exclusive affiliate tiers (invitation-only)
You can monitor everything in real-time with a dedicated dashboard they’ve built for this purpose.
While you reap those sweet rewards, your friends get a platform with an amazing UI/UX, a broad variety of tokens, a self-custodial account, no gas trading, instant transaction settlement, and much more.
It’s win-win.
The referral program is live starting today! Don’t sleep on it.
Pump.fun: The Hottest Memecoin Casino
Ever wanted to create you own meme coin? Well…what if I said you could do it easily with a few clicks? Pump.fun’s the latest craze in the Crypto world.
What’s Pump.fun?
It is a platform for anyone who wants to easily create and trade tokens. You don’t have to worry about auditing code or creating liquidity.
Pump.fun trades these new tokens along a bonding curve. The token price will increase as new tokens are bought, and fall as they are sold back to the protocol.
And it has already taken off among degens. Here are the numbers:
- 209.5k people have created tokens
- Around 439.9k tokens have been created
- The total purchase volume has crossed $700M (4.6M $SOL)
- The platform has collected $1.23M million in fees on May 14th alone
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What makes the platform special?
Well, firstly, it is easy and cheap to use. It is possible to create a token in seconds for only 0.02 $SOL. The UX for buying and selling is simple as well. The protocol takes 1% from these “swaps” as well.
It is also said to be the fairest market:
- There’s no presale or insider allocation. Even the creator can only buy tokens once their token has been created.
- Devs can’t run away with liquidity. Pump.fun will be holding all the liquidity. Once the market cap reaches $69k, they’ll deploy it to Raydium, a DEX on Solana.
These features make it impossible for devs to rugpull. But that doesn’t mean you can’t lose money. You can still definitely trade yourself all the way to zero.
Trading memecoins is the current trend. Pump.fun provides an easy way for degens to create and trade memecoins. So, the platform will likely stay hot for now.
14.7k tokens were created on May 5th alone. All of them were memecoins. When that many tokens are issued in a single day, the need for “luck” in turning a profit increases drastically.
My investing style isn’t really suited to trading memecoins. So, I’m not actively trading on the platform.
But that doesn’t mean it is 100% gambling or that you shouldn’t trade. Here are some tips:
- It should have a memorable name and ticker.
- Look for thoughtful websites and active X profiles.
- As a rule of thumb, the earlier you are to a project, the better your risk-to-reward ratio. This is due to the way Pump.fun has structured the market.
- The project within Pump.fun with the highest MC gets the title KOTH. Most coins will dump once they reach this level. If you are sidelined on a good project, this dump can be a good entry point.
If you want to learn more about possible trading strategies on Pump.fun, click here.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Ethena shared its 2024 roadmap. They are looking to converge DeFi, CeFi, and TradFi. Its endgame also includes Ethena Network.
MakerDAO introduced SparkDAO, its native token $SPK, and SPK token farming programs. This is part of Maker’s Endgame roadmap.
Lyra Finance introduced one-click spreads. It’ll eliminate individual leg risk and drastically reduce upfront capital requirements.
Lens Protocol introduced Lens Network. It’ll begin as a Validium chain built using ZK Stack. Later, it’ll evolve into a Volition.
Liquity published the whitepaper of its v2. It adds user-set interest rates, LSTs as collateral, protocol-incentivized liquidity, and better capital efficiency.
Fantom is expecting an upgrade soon. Validators began upgrading to the new “Opera” this week. It is supported by Sonic technology.
Aevo has completed the migration of $RBN to $AEVO. The team and backers are voluntarily re-locking ~15% of the supply till the end of 2024.
Morpho Labs introduced the Public Allocator. It’ll provide borrowers with just-in-time liquidity by reallocating liquidity between markets.
Aave is discussing a cross-chain strategy for $GHO. They will be using Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP).
1inch Network introduced 1inch Fusion 2.0. It claims to have up to 35% cheaper order settlements and 75% faster execution.
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
Zapper, a popular portfolio tool for DeFi and NFTs, has hinted at a token.
Zeta Markets is allocating 1% of tokens to top communities on Solana. However, you need to trade and compete to get your final allocation.
Drift Protcol‘s airdrop claims for $DRIFT launch will go live today. 12% of the total supply is allocated for the airdrop.
Mande Network launched the airdrop claim for $DYM stakers. It is a RollApp chain built on the Dymension chain.
KelpDAO introduced the Mega Million Marathon. You can restake with Kelp from May 07 to May 21 & get your share of a million-dollar reward pool.
🚀 New Launches
This is a new section we’re experimenting with.
Puffer Finance mainnet is live. It is an LRT protocol. They also announced a revamped points system.
BounceBit, a BTC Restaking Chain, shipped its mainnet. It’ll be a PoS L1 secured by validators staking both BTC and BounceBit’s native token.
Pear Protocol‘s public beta is live. It’s built on top of perp protocols like GMX, Vertex, and SYMM.
Anton Cheng, former Lyra dev, introduced Monarch Lend UI. It is an open-sourced UI to directly supply to Morpho Blue markets.
Limitless Finance announced its launch on Base mainnet. They are dropping lootboxes to beta testers & loyal users of a few protocols.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- Japanese fund using BTC to hedge against Yen
- Cred on current market status.
- Thoughts on diversification of your portfolio for security purposes.
- Unrealized profits aren’t profits.
- What’s next for Maker?
