I’m active on ~10 L1s (and a number of L2s) but most of my assets are on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

A small confession: I thought Ethereum had already won the L1 games during the bear market as 1) the number of L2s grew promising to solve Ethereum scalability problems and 2) activity on alt-L1s was dead and there were no Ordinals/Runes on Bitcoin.

How wrong I was! Not only did Solana outperform most L1s, but ETH's price is still lagging behind even BTC.

I agree with Arthur that the current crypto cycle is different from 2021 as there’s a significant spread in returns, with few cryptos outperforming Bitcoin since the October 23 low.

Unlike the indiscriminate pumps of 2021, the market now rewards careful token selection and active investment management. This shift towards fundamentals in a broad sense reduces the likelihood of making quick fortunes by luck, which ultimately strengthen…

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While some tokens may seemingly emerge out of nowhere and generate impressive returns like MUBI, investing in them requires intellectual agility, open-mindedness, and staying glued to CT to get in early.

However, other bets pay off over a longer time frame due to the development of technical innovations. These are the projects where we can position ourselves before the price catches up with the upgrades.

Here is my watchlist of 10 protocols that are about to have major launches. Instead of focusing only WHAT is being launched, I want to highlight WHY I'm excited for these upgrades.

But first check out the RToken yields brought by Reserve protocol.

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Note: For those in a hurry, the key information is highlighted in bold for quick reference.

October 20, 2023 update: Added eETH by Ether.fi

Last month, I shared my bullish perspective on two emerging sectors in the DeFi space: Liquid Restaked Tokens and Bitcoin DeFi.

Both are captivating and are currently under development, but now is the perfect time to focus and position ourselves for LRTs, because the things are starting to get interesting despite crypto prices going down.

Before we do, today I have a unique sponsor protocol, so please do check them out.

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However, in today's blog post, I'll introduce five lesser-known, innovative DEXes that may blow your mind. One of them just launched the token.

This post is a bit longer than usual, so let's delve right in.

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Somewhat to my own surprise, it’s a fork of Uniswap v3, but with a PancakeSwap twist: it added user experience improvements to make it easier to use.

Here's my take at what's new and how it benefits users.

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With the $ARB token, Arbitrum has established a new governance model, enabling decentralized proposals and protocol upgrades.

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It’s the first blockchain aggregator with a next-gen smart contract wallet.

This innovative platform is a significant development in the DeFi space, offering numerous benefits that could change the way we interact with dApps forever.

In this article, I'll explain how Avocado works and why it's such a big deal.

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This is a significant departure from Maker's previous strategy of integrating DAI into existing DeFi protocols.

In this post, I’'ll take a closer look at what this announcement means and how it fits into Maker's new, more aggressive strategy.

Integrating DAI into Leading DeFi Protocols

Maker's previous strategy was to integrate DAI, its stablecoin, into leading DeFi protocols like Aave and Compound. For example, Maker enabled the Dai Savings Rate (DSR) with a 1% APY yield, expecting Aave or Compound to integrate DSR, and USDC holders would move to DAI.

However, that did not happen, leading Maker to explore other options.

Forking Aave v3 with DSR Integration and EtherDAI

Maker has decided to fork Aave v3 with DSR integration and EtherDAI at the center.

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With a market cap of $6.2B, the Shiba Inu team has announced the launch of its own Layer 2 solution, Shibarium.

Shibarium will be the second-largest Layer 2 solution (behind Polygon) and will include a DEX, NFTs, Metaverse, and a stablecoin.

In this blog post, we will explore why you should pay attention to the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

ShibaSwap - Uniswap of Shiba World

ShibaSwap was launched in July 2021, and within a short time, its TVL reached $1.66B.

However, today, it stands at only $30M, generating around $17M in daily volume. ShibaSwapDEX offers users the ability to DIG, BURY, and SWAP tokens to gain WOOF returns through its reward system.

BONE - The Fuel Token for the Ecosystem

$BONE is a governance token for ShibaSwapDEX. Interestingly, $BONE will be used to pay gas and reward validators and delegators in the soon-to-be-launched Shibarium Layer 2.

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The new upgrade is set to change the DeFi ecosystem, particularly when it comes to borrowing.

In this blog post, I’ll explore the changes brought by Compound III and their implications for the DeFi space.

The Focus on Borrowers

The biggest change in Compound III is the focus on borrowers.

Unlike its predecessor, Compound V2, which used a pooled-risk model where users could borrow any asset, Compound III only supports one base asset for borrowing, with other crypto assets supplied as collateral.

Currently, USDC is the base asset, and ETH, COMP, LINK, UNI, and WBTC are supported as collateral. This approach ensures that the protocol is as safe as its weakest asset, reducing the risk of a single bad asset draining all assets from the protocol.

Improved Security, but at a Cost

While this improved security is a significant advantage, it …

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CAUTION: USP suffered an $8.5M flash loan attack on February 17th, 2023. So please treat this article for educational purposes only.

The team is working on a plan to compensate for losses with $2.4M already recovered.

Platypus Finance, an Automated Market Maker (AMM) for pegged assets on Avalanche, has launched its stablecoin, $USP.

Here’s the full whitepaper here.

In this post, I’ll take a closer look at how the $USP stablecoin works and what sets it apart from other stablecoins.

Platypus: AMMs for Pegged Assets

Platypus Finance is an AMM for pegged assets on Avalanche.

Similar to Curve, users on Platypus can swap among various stablecoins with low slippage.

However, its main difference from Curve is the single-sided liquidity provision to an open liquidity pool, which avoids liquidity fragmentation. This approach attracts liquidity and increases capital efficiency, which is key to the success of AMMs.

Token Rewards as a Short-Term Solution

T…

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