Henlo Fungis, welcome to the third edition of Fungible Thoughts. If you missed the first two editions, you can find them here.
This is an Alpha List edition of Fungible Thoughts where we focus on new and shiny DeFi logos, let’s jump in!
Don’t be a doomer, be a shroomer. Markets can’t bleed forever, grab some alpha to refresh your mindset.
Dive into what you’re interested in!
Table of Contents
Spotlight
Alpha List
Disclaimer:
We don’t guarantee the projects we mention in our alpha lists will succeed. There’s always the risk of the projects failing. We strongly advise you to add an additional layer of research on top of the one we’ve provided.
Did you know that we deliver all alfa BEFORE it is posted on Twitter? Guess that’s what people mean when they say alfalfa.
In this week’s spotlight:
The usual suspects; derivatives, dex-es and LSD(Fi)! …and a few others.
Runbot
Sector: Algo trading
Narratives: trading bots/NFT
We’re pretty sure you’re aware of the mania around trading bots utilizing Telegram or Discord (we see you, Unibot maxis). It’s because shitcoin connoisseurs also need their own tools to empower their degeneracy. Runbot could come in handy as it allows for backtesting of previously built trading strategies, and it does so by putting AI to work.
Differences
Runbot utilizes a plethora of indicators you get to select from when creating a strategy before backtesting it or kickstarting the trading bots. The platform comes with an integrated social aspect to it. How? Well, in case you’re actually bad at trading (I know, we’re surprised too), you can always purchase an NFT with predefined strategies built by people who actually know how to trade (not Capo).
Use Case
You got that right; with Runbot, you can build your own trading strategy, backtest it and, if it performs well, list it on Runbot’s built-in NFT marketplace. This builds on top of the already existing, but not so successful, SocialFi narrative. On-chain CEX trading bots?
Some of the template strategies, created by people offer monthly returns of up to 20% (outperforming your ADA bags by at least 100%). As soon as you purchase such an NFT, you can start the automated trading process, sit back and enjoy your Cuba Libre.
However, we strongly advise you to take some time and familiarize yourself with the platform. Runbot supports several markets and exchanges, primarily the ones with the best liquidity. There’s also a referral program you can use in case you decide to subscribe to Runbot.
Free & monthly plans will give you access to different levels of tools, the details of which we are currently unsure about.
Cordyceps
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: insurance/options
Scenario: you’re someone who suffers from strong anxiety and is constantly afraid of negative events in the crypto space.
In case you’ve recognized yourself in the description above, you probably want to know how to make bank on your anxiety. Well, Cordyceps might be the solution.
Part of the Root ecosystem, Cordyceps is a platform providing insurance for pegged assets (such as stablecoins or liquid staking derivatives), and also a place where you can speculate and bet on the de-pegging of the aforementioned assets.
If you’re familiar with Y2K Finance, then Cordyceps will be no novelty to you. But it does come with several improvements.
“Cordyceps gives users the ability to create their own insurance products within certain approved parameters.” - stated the Cordyceps team in one of their Twitter threads.
This opens the gates to a variety of markets and potentially and subsequently, more ways for users to hedge their positions and minimize potential losses.
Knowing Cordyceps is an omnichain platform, the potential it comes with is massive as the markets it can capture are well… limitless. As time has passed and DeFi matured, derivatives have grown in numbers but lacked in popularity with a lack of utilization of the growing asset pool. To fully entail the DeFi insurance landscape, Cordyceps will provide broad market coverage, and not just pegged asset insurance.
Although the platform is still in a very early phase, we’re excited to see it develop alongside the (Root) ecosystem it will be part of. All in all, speculatoooors and hedgooooors will like this one.
LSDPad
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: launchpad/LSDFi
‘‘LSDPad is the industry's first LSD-focused launchpad focusing on early offerings of LSD projects & primitives. Your one-stop access to the entire LSD market starts now.’’
In one of our previous editions of Fungible Thoughts, you had the opportunity to read about Tenet, the LSD-centric blockchain. This time, we won’t touch base with Tenet, but rather with one of its upcoming native sub-products - LSDPad.
As the name suggests, LSDPad is a launchpad for LSD projects. Even though the LSD sector has grown to $20B (source: DefiLlama), we’re confident it has just started. And so is the LSDPad team. Well, it would only make sense to create LSD-centric products on an LSD-centric chain, right?
Maybe they're using Patricks advice to find new LSD projects:
Anyway, supported by the Tenet foundation, LSDPad is obviously in pole position to capture upcoming LSD projects set to launch on Tenet. Speaking of positions, we suggest you try to catch a position in Tenet as praxis has proven early birds to catch the worm.
There’s not much info around LSDPad, but what we can say with confidence is, a generous portion (20%) of the LSDPad’s native token will be distributed to both $TENET stakers, as well as stakers of major LSDs (the usual suspects: Lido, Stader, Ankr etc.). Act accordingly, Tenet (and its native products) has a bright future.
Considering the current hype around Tenet, a native launchpad could be a prime continuation of what we’ve already seen with the competition over on Arbitrum.
Follow their Twitter here to stay updated.
Marginly
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: dex/derivatives
Ok, here’s something unusual. Imagine margin trading on dexes such as Uniswap, Balancer, or Sushiswap, but with up to 20x leverage, and all that while being unexposed to oracle-associated risk? Also, no liquidations but deleveraging instead?
Yes, that’s precisely what Marginly is about. Basically, it allows for spot trading with up to 20x leverage and it does so by utilizing the liquidity of the underlying AMM(s). The plug-and-play mechanisms Marginly is based on allow not only for leveraged spot trading but also liquidity aggregation, delta hedging, options strategies, and passive income streams. One can say it’s like cocaine for AMMs.
Marginly is not live yet, but there is a Galxe campaign we suggest you take advantage of and earn unique badges. Upon further snooping, we also found info there will be an *incentivized testnet*, but for that one, you’ll need to get a specific badge. There will be a trading competition on the incentivized testnet.
Innovation towards the rails of DeFi is always good, provided they can get their tokenomics/marketing correct. Too many a ‘rail’ protocol has fell short because the utility they provide is simply… not sexy enough.
Thanks to the chads over at Pendle for continuing to sponsor Fungible Thoughts! Here’s a recent update:
New pools and LSDs (Swells swETH)
LPs for newly launched Rodeo Finance $RDO
Pools on BNB, then listed on Binance
Volume milestone of $100m
PENDLE WARS
Fully update yourself below:
Did you know you can refer a friend to Fungible Thoughts and earn up to 12 months of free premium access? Start referring below:
Raman Finance
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: LSDFi/stablecoins/synthetic assets
Recently, we witnessed LSD liquidity being funneled into stablecoins and, while some may say “Oh man, there’s too many LSD-backed stablecoins”, some others might say “How about we back a stablecoin with stablecoins backed by LSDs?”.
No, we’re not kidding, Raman team recognized a strong influx of newly created LSD-backed stablecoins and decided to aggregate these stablecoins and siphon them into - their own stablecoin, raUSD.
So, if you’re an eUSD or R maxi, you’ll be able to deposit those and mint raUSD at a conversion rate of 50%, meaning, 2 eUSD or R for 1 raUSD, and then use raUSD wherever it will be supported. (this means a 200% collateralization).
Cool thing is you’ll get to keep the yield your deposited eUSD or R accrues if it wasn’t on the Ramen platform. Besides raUSD, Raman utilizes a native token, too. Of course, RAM is the native governance token that entitles its holders/stakers to a portion of the platform’s revenue.
Note; there’s no audit (yet), and no launch date either so please bare with caution. Most LSD-backed stablecoins incentivize liquidity through emissions and there’s no doubt Raman would not do that through RAM.
We highlight its potential based on the massive discrepancy between the top 10 stablecoins MC. The closest LSD-backed stablecoin is eUSD, still miles behind TVL-wise relative to its competitors. There are shoes to fill.
Do you think there is actually a use-case for a stablecoin backed by a pool of LSD-backed stablecoins?
AKMD Finance
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: derivatives
Coming to zkSync, AKMD (we want to know what this stands for) aims to offer a palette of derivatives stemming out of perps, options and other positions. The DeFi party doesn’t stop here for AKMD users, no. Just like an amusement park, AKMD will include more than just trading terminals so we’ll get to use vaults and NFTs too.
Their native token $AKMD with a governance use-case and revenue-accruing mechanisms is set to be included in the project. Although there will be an IDO of the $AKMD token, 70% of the token’s supply will go toward - liquidity providers.
We’re not sure if this will come packed in a retro-airdrop manner, but again, providing liquidity turns out to be the most lucrative card to play in case one is out hunting airdrops or incentives. We haven’t had the privilege to test the platform, and there’s no launch date being announced (yet), so we’ll keep our eyes peeled. Note, we haven’t found an audit report either.
Wondering if zkSyncs TVL is actually growing?
The answer is yes, just slower than we may have expected.
With any new chain the ‘fundamental’ projects are often the easiest winners to pick such as:
Derivative platforms (Like AKMD)
DEXs and Launchpads
Lending markets
Competitors of AKMD include Derivio, Metavault, and a few others.
Crust Finance
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: ve(3,3)/launchpad
Two reasons why Crust is on our list:
1) It’s a ve(3,3) and those can print if executed and played properly
2) we’re super bullish on Mantle, which Crust is launching on
Crust is developed by the Flair Dex team, a ve(3,3) on Avalanche.
Although it didn’t yield the desired results, we’re not surprised since DeFi on Avalanche has been rather static. However, Flair is still up and running, the team behind it is KYCd by Rugdoc, and at least we can be somewhat safe when it comes to Crust knowing these facts.
The platform is currently in its testnet phase, and some dare to say it’s an *incentivized* one. We have high hopes for Mantle’s success and think it will reflect on the ecosystem’s dApps. Once the Mantle team starts throwing out ecosystem funds to incentivize teams building on their chain, early birds could potentially be at the top of the list of projects entitled to a grant or allocation given from the ecosystem fund.
There’s not much more to say apart from, give Crust a chance and play on the testnet hoping you’ll be rewarded for it.
Like the ve(3,3) model?
If so, then you must make sure you’re properly exposed to the upcoming ROOT ecosystem and the handle of the stems they’ve already announced.
Overview of ROOT and it’s stems below:
ETHEREAL SYSTEMS
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: stablecoin protocol
Ethereal, a stablecoin protocol on Radix is inspired by MakerDAO and Liquity (alright, provenly good tech). We’re yet to see how the platform operates, but something else did catch our attention.
Unlike most of the teams launching their native token using different principles such as a fair launch, liquidity bootstrapping event, initial dex offering etc., Ethereal went for an IVO for their $REAL token. An IVO? Yeah, Initial Validator Offering. Here’s how it works:
The DAO sets up a validator
Users delegate the required asset (XRD, in this case) to the DAO validator for 6 months
A variable fee is adjusted to 100% (sending all staking rewards to the DAO treasury)
Snapshots are taken every hour reserving tokens to IVO participants in a pro rata way
1st airdrop to participants is distributed prior to the token launch
2nd airdrop once IVO has concluded
There are a few other things important to mention here:
20% of the airdrop is in $REAL tokens
The remaining 80% in $unREAL.
In order to unlock and claim their $REAL tokens, users will have to lock up TriLP into the protocol for 6 months. $unREAL and $REAL are valued in a 1:1 ratio.
“The TLP tokens in question are LP tokens of a special Balancer-style multipool that the Ethereal protocol will be operating. They are weighted, 60% $REAL, 20% $eUSD, 20% XRD (XRD in the form of Ethereal validator Liquid Staking Unit)”
What about the $REAL tokenomics? Well, apart from the interesting vesting model, the supply would be divided as follows: 20% IVO and 80% DAO Reserve (controlled by token holders).
This is definitely a unique approach toward bootstrapping liquidity and launching a token. Bullish? Maybe, we’ll see.
For more information on the Radix chain, our friends over at Blocmates have dropped a series of very informative articles on Radix and the protocols building on top of it like AlphaDex:
Radpie
Although not a completely new project on the scene, Radpie is (in our eyes) set to see the similar success that Penpie did (the PENDLE wrapper) which did multiple Xs upon launch.
The Magpie team is based and know’s what they’re doing with launches, which should be equally low MC. If you’re a GRAIL staker, you may be in luck!
Although there are no “Radiant Wars” (yet), with its statistics, Radiant is deemed to become very attractive in upcoming DeFi legos. More than $20M in annualized fees should be quite a good reason to kickstart this new type of DeFi wars. Magpie team succesfully recognized the value proposition Pendle carries, and now they’re seeing the same opportunity in Radiant. Will they be right again? Probably. Time will tell.
Rapdies purpose:
You may also consider MGP (Magpies native token) as a good investment if you’re interested in TVL growth, considering they’re throwing out successful launch after successful launch.
*We do not think MGP will experience the explosive price action that $PNP has received.
Parting Wisdom
”If you don’t make the moves, the markets will do it for you.”
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Fungi out -ts
...built by people who actually know how to trade (not Capo).
😂😂🤝🏾