Fungible Thoughts #4
So... our tokens don't have security anymore? 10 new & innovative protocols.
Henlo Fungis, welcome to the first dedicated edition of our Alpha Lists. For other editions, be sure to look here:
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Table of Contents
Spotlight
Ethena Labs - derivatives/stablecoins [zoom]
Alpha List
Bot wars?
Stick with Unibot, or other competitors worthwhile? [zoom]
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.
*Our spotlight highlights protocols we believe will do well, but 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 4 musketeers: LSDFi, stablecoins, ETH & BTC
Ethena Labs
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: derivatives/stablecoins
This one could become big. Rumor has it Arthur Hayes is on the advisory board (we can’t confirm that’s true, but have included it for the wow effect of our article). Wow.
Alrighty, so what’s Ethena?
TL;DR
It’s a derivatives powerhouse + yield-bearing delta-neutral stablecoin (eUSD) + money markets.
Delta-neutral eUSD, you say? Yeah, this is achieved “through delta-neutral hedging across centralized and decentralized venues”. Something Stephen The Calculator Guy would surely like to dive into and see how it actually works.
Although Ethena hasn’t published the docs yet, the info provided on their landing page allowed us to create an image of Ethena’s potential. Everything is based on the “no banks pls” principle and is emphasizing composability, which is good.
Just like other players in the niche, Ethena too will use (staked) ETH as collateral to create USDe. The difference, however, is the way stability is kept (delta-neutral hedging).
When they say “money markets”, we assume it’s CDPs. ELI5: CDPs or collateralized debt positions represent isolated lending markets. This would mean eUSD could be obtained by collateralizing a variety of liquid staking tokens (and not just Lido’s). Subsequently, leverage properties would be unlocked. No matter what, we degens will always find a new way to get rekt.
All in all, Ethena looks very interesting and we’re keen to dive deeper into it as docs or a whitepaper are unveiled. Currently, the only thing we can do is - wait. And ape shitcoins.
eBTC
Sector: DeFi
Narratives: CDP/LSDFi/The Flippening
It might sound like a name for a horror movie, but “The Flippening” is actually an event in which the market cap of ETH will flip the one of BTC. Some mock the thought of it actually going to happen, while others are confident it will happen sooner or later.
If you’re among the second group and are a bit of an ETH maxi, then then this one’s for you.
Unlike the stablecoin protocols we’ve seen lately pop like mushrooms after rain, this one allows for the collateralization of staked ETH, but to borrow eBTC and not a USD-denominated stablecoin.
Why is this cool? Simply because:
you don’t need to jump between money markets if you want to long ETH and short BTC
you keep long-exposure to ETH through stETH’s yield-bearing props
eBTC will have a built-in loop mechanism so you can ramp up the leverage (deposit stETH→borrow eBTC→sell eBTC for stETH→deposit stETH; rinse and repeat until your risk appetit is at max) with 1 click
BadgerDAO, a DeFi OG team, is behind eBTC
no funding/interest rates, no mint/redeem fees
adds another layer to BTC-associated DeFi, but also to LSDFi based on ETH liquid staking tokens
There’s currently no info on when eBTC will go live, but we’ll definitely keep an eye on it as it’s a refreshing idea. Again, knowing BadgerDAO is behind it, is a green flag.
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DeDeLend
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: options/structured products
DeDeLend (really not sure how this name was the team’s no1 pick; we demand an explanation) is not just an options platform, but actually the first on-chain options aggregator, and that’s not all as DeDeLend unifies trading of:
Regarding options trading, DeDeLend enables the setting up of take-profit or stop-loss orders (applicable only to trades through Hegic and Lyra), and that’s something we haven’t seen yet.
A major issue DeFi options struggle with, and DeDeLend aims to solve is, the fragmentation of liquidity. Unlike huge options and features platforms such as Deribit, decentralized solutions can’t seem to amass the liquidity for big-size trades and that’s where DeDeLend fits. One example the team has presented is “For example, you can create a Strangle by combining a Call option from Hegic with a Put option from Lyra.”.
Another issue DeDeLend is aiming to solve is the user experience. Every DeFi options platform comes with a different UI and different user experience, and DeDeLend unifies those as well. The platform allows for the creation of options strategies in just a few clicks. Handy!
Bonus features:
Market analytics - DeDeLend uses on-chain data from known sources, such as Dune or Flipside
Social trading aspect - create a watchlist, track your favorite traders, and copy their trades
Proof DeDeLand is a Chad platform: there are no extra/hidden fees, and there are not even mentions of a token yet. DeDeLend is here to give a new dimension to options trading in DeFi, and it’s doing it right. We like it a lot.
Parifi
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: derivatives
With centralized exchanges being taken down one by one, it’s obvious decentralized platforms could see their “5 minutes of glory”. Parifi fits that narrative as it aims to onboard the next wave of traders by offering decentralized perps trading using account abstraction.
Account abstraction is when smart contracts can execute transactions by themselves according to custom logic.
Since it’s a perpetual protocol, Parifi will support the trading of crypto, stocks, forex, and commodities, but the cool thing about it is, it won’t require:
a wallet
gas fees
transaction approvals
Of course, just like all the other prominent perps dex-es, Parifi too will come with a revenue-sharing model, distributing real yield to platform users, and one way it will do that is - through auto-compounding LP vaults (both stable and volatile ones).
The project is still in its early phase and there are no mentions of a token. We are looking forward to seeing how Parifi will pull off trading using account abstraction.
Bingo0x
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: GambleFi
Just a few months ago, GambleFi (gambling + DeFi) platforms had their run, and shortly after, those experienced a rather aggressive cooldown phase.
But the narrative seems to be picking up lately, so we witnessed names like Rollbit flipping insane daily volumes. Is a 2nd GambleFi run on the horizon? Maybe.
Bingo0x is, you guessed that right, a bingo platform. Bingo is quite a simple game (based on luck) in which the participants purchase a card/ticket with numbers of their choice and then watch numbers with a letter (i.e A-7) being drawn at random until one player completes a 'Bingo' pattern, such as a line with five numbers in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row on one of their cards and wins the prize.
There’s really not much info about Bingo0x, but we figured out it will launch on Linea, Consensys’s upcoming zk-rollup. Of course, there will be rewards for winners, presumably paid in crypto. Maybe the platform will support other luck-based games in the future. However, this might be a nice way to occasionally have some fun.
Most GambleFi platforms have focused on traditional casino games, so is the market open to simpler games?
One Click Crypto
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: portfolio management/automated DeFi strategies
If you:
like AI
love DeFi
are time-poor
find portfolio management to be annoying
are looking for automated yield strategies
want to have your own robo-advisor
…then One Click Crypto is what you’ve been looking for.
Although 1CC isn’t super-early alpha, we decided to put it on our list as it’s still under the radar (currently in its beta version; need an invitation to participate). And we have to say, it’s pretty impressive.
How does it work? Well, it’s very simple.
First, you’ll be prompted to answer a few questions and, based on your answers and on-chain history, AI will assess how risk-averse you are
AI will generate a portfolio based on your risk profile
From there on, we can either customize the portfolio or start farming
In just one click, the AI created a portfolio utilizing 7 protocols and 10 pools across 5 chains, with an average APY of 28.34%. And with just 1 more click, we can start farming. The speed at which the platform executes is astonishing. After seeing AI create our personalized portfolio, we decided to customize it.
What we did was, we set parameters in such a way that we’d like to be exposed to more pools, and based on a higher risk profile. 5 seconds later, a new portfolio has been generated. Check the image below:
At the time of writing, One Click Crypto supports 12+ major chains and a wide range of DeFi dApps. A few more bullish facts we need to mention include:
The team has been actively working on the platform since 2019
1CC saves gas fees by 10-20x for yield farming
There’s an ambassador program you can apply for
a 1CC token airdrop is scheduled to happen this year
Do yourself a favor and give One Click Crypto a try, it’s definitely worth it.
meanwhile
Sector: DeFi
Narrative: Insurance
You’re looking for life insurance, but are a crypto maxi and therefore limited when it comes to insurance options you have access to?
Meanwhile is here to change that!
Here are a few extremely bullish factors:
meanwhile is the 1st BTC-backed and AI-powered life insurance company
raised $19M at an evaluation of $100M
1st round of seed funding was led by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Lachy Groom, one of the original employees at payments giant Stripe
2nd seed round was led by Gradient Ventures, a Google-backed venture capital fund
The meanwhile life insurance company is licensed and regulated in Bermuda.
“Using A.I. to issue claims and evaluate the health risks of applicants, the firm, which has seven employees, only deals in Bitcoin. Customers pay monthly premiums in crypto, and claims are paid out in crypto. To make money, Meanwhile, like many other life insurance providers, lends out a portion of what’s collected in monthly premiums and charges interest on the loans.”
After a year and a half of work, meanwhile has gone public. If this doesn’t make you bullish on BTC, we’re not sure what will.
Is on-chain life insurance the new meta?
DegenHive
Sector: DeFi/metaverse
Narrative: gamified DeFi powerhouse
There have been quite a few negative events around Sui, but we assume that didn’t really bother the DegenHive team as they’re still keen to launch on the still-fresh chain.
According to DefiLlama, there are 12 dApps on Sui, with a combined TVL of ~$13M of which most ($11.3M) are parked in 2 protocols.
Packed in a neat UI, DegenHive has quite a few aces up its sleeve:
AMM + stable swap + concentrated liquidity
NFTs/NFTFi
governance through NFTs, and not the native token
Knowing the platform’s governance will be conducted via NFTs and not native tokens, we assume there won’t be a native token at all (at least there are no mentions of one). These NFTs, named Hive Cards, will accrue platform fees, paid in SUI tokens. On a side note, it will also be possible to lend out these Hive Cards. We combed the docs and figured out a bribe layer on top of liquidity pools will be introduced as well, so that’s another yield source for Hive Cards holders/stakers.
DegenHive is live on the Sui Testnet and tho the project’s Twitter is rather barren, the website and docs are quite rich.
Bot wars?
The bot narrative is in full swing, whether it be telegram trading bots or more unique takes founders have come up with. Demand is extremely strong, a real niche based on real stats is always exciting!
(Beware, most bots that you see are complete LARP, DYOR)
One bot, however, is clearly king right now, and you don’t have to look far to notice it was UNIBOT with bullish partnerships making missors (including ourselves) scramble to find the next UNIBOT.
Those fees are mightily impressive, can anyone else get a cut?
As we know, first movers when done correctly are often the best bet, but you can never be too sure! We’ve compiled a list of a few other bots (with much smaller market caps) that you can look into and potentially benefit from!
WagieBot - Unibot/Maestro competitor with claims of a faster TG bot
$1m MC
Geniebot - Community moderator replacement, allows projects to create a knowledge base to respond to community questions.
$1.2m MC
Let us ask you!
Did you know that we deliver all alfa BEFORE it is posted on Twitter?
Enjoy the lambo gains
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Fungi out -