"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a "functional" column of Odaily Planet Daily. In addition to covering a large amount of real-time information every week, Planet Daily also publishes a lot of high-quality in-depth analysis content, but they may be hidden in the information flow and hot news, and pass you by.
Therefore, every Saturday, our editorial department will select some high-quality articles that are worth spending time reading and collecting from the content published in the past 7 days, and bring new inspiration to you in the crypto world from the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and opinion output.
Now, come and read with us:
Investment and Entrepreneurship
With the huge changes in market structure, which tracks deserve special attention?
The current coin price is OK, but the industry is in a deep bear market. The passage of the Bitcoin ETF marks the emergence of a digital currency market with almost completely independent liquidity outside the originally free-flowing crypto market: the U.S. stock market. This is actually a watershed event in the history of crypto development. The current deviation between the coin price and the industry is a new phenomenon under this new market structure. The real bull market will only come when liquidity becomes loose.
The four tracks with great opportunities are: BTCFi, Meme, stablecoin payments, and Web3 social.
Capturing the investment trends of giants: Which crypto assets is Grayscale betting on?
Grayscale’s bullish stance on the crypto market has been evident in its recent product launches.
Grayscale decentralized AI funds include FIL, NEAR, RNDR, LPT, TAO. Grayscale dynamic income funds include SOL, CBETH, NEAR, etc. Other trust funds include NEAR, STX, MKR, TAO, SUI.
A look at 15 recent crypto projects that have catalysts driving them
Ignas' "topics": Monad (mainnet expected to be launched at the end of 2024), MegaETH (mainnet expected to be launched at the end of 2024), Berachain, Eigenlayer's second staking event, Symbiotic (mainnet expected to be launched in the third quarter), Ethereum Pectra upgrade (expected in the first quarter of 2025), Fantom (rebranding to Sonic), Maker (rebranding, transition to NewGovToken and NewStableToken), Pudgy Penguin's L2 solution (Abstract), Story (IP chain) and Sony's Soneium, Fractal Bitcoin (mainnet is about to be launched) and OP_CAT, Stacks Nakamoto upgrade (coming soon), Coinbase cbBTC launch, Uniswap (potential $UNI fee sharing, date to be determined).
How to get rich in the crypto market: Risk management strategies of top investors
Manage risk through your portfolio.
Assume you are wrong and plan accordingly.
Look for asymmetry and be patient.
Use theory verification and failure.
Employ a multi-factor selling strategy.
Go back to step one and make a plan for when you make a profit.
Ethereum VCs are obsessed with infrastructure and ignore applications, which has become a long-term problem
Stop listening to VCs forcing infrastructure narratives; now is the opportunity for liquidity funds to rise; build products for users, embrace speculation, and pursue income; Solana is the best place to experiment due to its low startup costs.
Also recommended: "Dialogue with the Founder of Delphi Digital: The Growth Path of the Crypto Investment and Research Giant."
Let your assets continue to generate money, review the five high-yield stablecoin strategies
The article introduces the corresponding strategies for USDe, USD 0 (Usual Money), USDz, Deusd, USDM, and Dyad.
Paradigm: Community is the foundation, five rules to create a warm crypto community
Community is the core of your ecosystem’s growth flywheel. For early community building, qualitative experience trumps quantitative metrics. Incentives may be why users join, but culture is why they stay. Promote and optimistically delegate trust within the community. People-centered facilitation creates people-centered communities.
Airdrop Opportunities and Interaction Guide
Binance-supported Meme launch platform Four.meme: Interpretation of protocol features and interactive value
Four's airdrop points are divided into four parts: pre-airdrop, daily check-in, platform usage and social media tasks.
The top addresses on Four.meme have obtained a large number of points through unknown means. According to the current transaction volume of the platform, the subsequent growth and proportion of points will not be too large. Therefore, only when the expected value of the airdrop exceeds 10 million US dollars or the transaction activity of the platform increases significantly, there will be a certain interactive airdrop value.
However, judging from the performance of the leading token binancedog and other tokens listed on Pancake, the Four ecosystem’s wealth creation and Fomo rhythm are generally poor. Apart from the advantage of official support, there is no sign of community and sentiment gaining momentum. The win rate and profit-loss ratio are insufficient for the sole purpose of airdrops. Currently, it is only recommended to use it for trading purposes.
Bitcoin Ecosystem
How do you view the subsequent market impact of the Babylon mainnet launch?
Babylon has implemented a secure, cross-chain-free, and custody-free Native Staking solution for a number of POS chains, such as BTC layer 2, by building a complex UTXO script contract on the Bitcoin mainnet. In theory, the greater the demand for such security services on the POS chain, the greater the potential for Babylon’s staking and interest-earning.
The launch of Babylon will definitely stimulate and catalyze the long-sluggish BTC layer 2 market, mainly in two aspects:
It will allow many projects that originally combined CeFi to "upgrade" their technology, eliminate the criticized centralization problem, and make the slogan of asset interest generation easier to gain market trust.
It can bring direct commercial vitality to many BTC second-layer POS chains. On the one hand, BTC interest will accelerate the TVL accumulation speed of some POS chains, allowing the TVL points war to continue. On the other hand, in addition to BTC interest, there will also be various gameplays such as LSD, LRT platform + DeFI combination interest.
But objectively speaking, the security consensus provided by Babylon relies on its Cosmos SDK chain, rather than the script program on the BTC main chain directly controlling and scheduling a series of subsequent complex derivative gameplays. It is naturally limited to the scope of "asset management".
Ethereum and Scaling
Spending transparency is questioned, how does the Ethereum Foundation use its ETH?
The Ethereum Foundation holds $845 million worth of ETH, which is 0.25% of the total ETH supply. According to the latest report from the Ethereum Foundation, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Ethereum Foundation allocated $30 million. In the third quarter of 2023, the Ethereum Foundation allocated $8.9 million.
In general, the Ethereum Foundation’s financial disclosures are delayed and not transparent enough.
Decoding the story behind the Ethereum Foundation's massive sale of ETH
Judging from the transfer records of the Ethereum Foundation in the past year, it is not difficult to find that its operations are basically regular sales. It is not accurate to call it a "top escape master" just by selling at high prices a few times.
The Ethereum Foundation's selling of ETH is understandable, after all, the team's development and operation requires financial support. Moreover, the 273,000 ETH held by the Foundation only account for 0.25% of the total supply. From the perspective of market capitalization, the Foundation's selling behavior has little direct impact on market liquidity, and the negative effects are more reflected in market sentiment, such as causing ETH holders to lose confidence and follow suit.
Data Review: What Changes Have Occurred on Ethereum After the Cancun Upgrade?
Liquidity fragmentation issues due to the continuous development of the Rollup network. Despite the huge success of these L2s, they cost relatively little to publish data on Ethereum due to the EIP-4844 upgrade. With the reduction in costs, L2 now contributes less to the destruction of ETH and also reduces the gas fee on the mainnet. Since the implementation of EIP-4844, the operating profit margin of L2 has increased significantly.
Despite the surge in L2 usage, the direct benefit to ETH as an asset is unclear. Over the past few months, while L2 profits have risen sharply, the ETH burn rate has fallen, resulting in less value flowing into ETH.
Interpreting the Decentralized Path of Rollup: The Dilemma of Shared Sorting and Ethereum-Based
The Rollup-centric roadmap has resulted in a fragmented and isolated blockchain. This fragmentation has resulted in a lack of value transfer between Rollups. To address this issue, shared ordering mechanisms such as Espresso, Astria, and Radius have emerged. But this solution inherently requires new trust assumptions, as such a layer must have its own set of security.
If we want to build a shared ordering layer for Rollup, Ethereum is the most trusted neutral layer we can build or use. Ethereum-based Rollup is inherently fully composable with Ethereum and other Based Rollups.
However, as a Rollup Based solution, it also faces some challenges. The most important challenge is that the block time is the same as Ethereum, which is limited to 12 seconds. The solution is to provide a fast confirmation mechanism, such as a centralized sorter, or to speed up Ethereum's block time. In the testnet, the speed based on pre-confirmation is faster than the current centralized sorter.
Multi-ecology
Will all applications develop towards Appchain?
The main reason dApps turn to building their own sovereign chains is that they think they are being exploited, and most dApps do not make money (part of the value created is taken away):
The main (and often only) source of revenue for a dApp is fees. Users pay fees because they directly benefit from them. Additionally, there are several roles in the transaction supply chain that can profit from it, the main one being the block proposer, even though they are the last to see the transaction. In the case of L2, it is the sequencer. MEV (maximum extractable value) is extracted in large amounts.
There are currently three ways to solve this problem: become an Appchain (high cost + high value); choose an L1/L2 that can return value (low cost + medium value); implement application-specific ordering (medium cost + uncertain value).
Galaxy: Telegram founder arrested, how is TON’s ability to resist risks?
It is unclear to what extent the allegations against Pavel involve TON or Telegram’s integration with TON. While TON appears to have over 350 validators worldwide, it is unclear how many, if any, are operated by Telegram or its affiliates. As a result, it is unclear how resilient TON would be if France or any other major government attempted to attack or shut down TON as part of Durov’s arrest, or for any other reason.
TON’s value relies heavily on its continued integration with Telegram.
CeFi DeFi
Decoding the secondary OTC market: The buyer’s market will continue until 2025 (with an interview with the founder of STIX)
The secondary OTC market is a place where people can buy and sell various assets, including locked tokens, equity or SAFTs (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens), which are difficult to trade on public exchanges. Today, the term "secondary OTC market" mainly refers to the buying and selling of locked tokens.
The main sellers in the secondary OTC market include VCs, project teams, and foundations, who are often motivated by early profits or managing selling pressure. Buyers are generally divided into two categories: "hodlers" who believe in the long-term potential of tokens and are attracted by token discounts, and hedgers who profit from price differences through financial means.
The secondary OTC market is gaining increasing attention as it reflects the pessimism of the market, with tokens often being sold at a significant discount due to limited buyer willingness. Nevertheless, the secondary OTC market still plays a key role in managing liquidity and reducing direct selling pressure on public exchanges, helping to build a more stable and resilient crypto ecosystem.
AC New Article: Why DeFi is the key to the future?
At its core, finance has always been about empowerment and putting idle assets to work. In today’s near-dystopian world, we are all reduced to a credit score.
DeFi doesn’t care, and DeFi doesn’t judge. Everyone is treated equally according to the rules of the system, and these rules are open and transparent for everyone to see. In DeFi, you don’t need to be a qualified investor to participate in this market.
Judging from the price-to-earnings ratio, is today’s DeFi industry overvalued?
Starting from some simple perspectives of traditional value investing, the article briefly analyzes the revenue capacity of the DeFi field, which has the most clear application scenarios in the industry.
Investors also need to answer another ultimate question: Are these businesses really related to the tokens I hold?
Analysis of the Pump Fun phenomenon
The success of Pump Fun can be attributed to: for developers or project parties, low threshold to participate, source of liquidity, and quick listing; for retail investors, Meme cultural recognition and benefit myth.
Future prediction markets: challenges and innovations
The prediction market faces the following challenges: the dilemma of long-tail events, impermanent loss of liquidity providers, insufficient upper limits, market diversity and long-term nature, and regulation.
The innovative breakthroughs of the new wave of products include: specialized liquidity solutions, leverage and combination betting, permissionless market creation, mobile first and real-time prediction, integrated social network, gamification and social dynamics, content creation and event selection, market making and liquidity, information aggregation and analysis, AI as a market participant, and the introduction of ZK technology to ensure privacy.
4 Alpha Research: Grasp the next new narrative of Solana and understand PayFi in one article
The article cites three examples of PayFi: Buy Now Pay Never, Creator Monetization, and Account Receivable, all of which are essentially "mismatches" between payment and the time value of money, and still require an "ideal" reality-constraint basis.
Related projects include Huma, Arf, Credix Finance, and NX Finance.
Web3
Multicoin: 7 Factors to Consider When Evaluating the Blockchain Collectibles Market (BECM)
Blockchain-enabled collectibles marketplaces (BECMs) are built specifically for collectibles traders, providing instant transactions through cash settlement, reducing settlement time from weeks to seconds, using stablecoins, and leveraging NFTs as digital representations of physical assets held by trusted custodians or authenticators.
BECM has the potential to reshape the multi-billion dollar collectibles market by (1) unifying the market and increasing liquidity, (2) eliminating the need for personal physical storage, thereby encouraging more transactions, (3) increasing trust by providing authentication, and (4) financializing the collectibles industry by facilitating lending.
Its three design axes contain seven key characteristics: the financial axis (lack of vertical trading venues, suitable price points, and being seen as a store of value), the real world axis (difficulty in storage, trust issues), and the emotional axis (the source of time and brand, and the existence of a passionate collector base).
Hot Topics of the Week
In the past week, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France, facing multiple charges, and was later released; Telegram issued a statement: the platform complies with EU law, and the team is waiting for the matter to be resolved quickly; multiple French government websites were paralyzed due to DDoS attacks; TON network was restored after being down;
In addition, in terms of policies and macro markets, OpenSea: has received a notice from the U.S. SEC Wells, intending to provide $5 million to support the legal fees of NFT artists and developers; Apple is negotiating to join OpenAI's new round of financing;
In terms of opinions and voices, the Wall Street Journal: Federal Reserve Chairman Powell has sent the strongest signal of interest rate cuts to date; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida: Web3 and blockchain technology are the basis for solving social problems; Vitalik: I hope to see sustainable applications that do not sacrifice principles such as decentralization. Although USDC is not as good as RAI, it is indeed convenient; Farcaster’s integration of Telegram groups is not yet mature, and an end-to-end encrypted communication system must be established first; airdrops are an excellent use case for verifying ZK, blockchain identity, credentials and proof frameworks; his DeFi-related remarks have caused controversy; DeFiance Capital founder: Vitalik’s views on DeFi and liquidity mining represent that ETH prices and market value will continue to fall; Bloomberg: Pantera invested in TON tokens at 60% off the market price in May, with a 1-year lock-up period;
In terms of institutions, large companies and leading projects, the US trustee opposed the FTX restructuring plan, saying that creditors should not bear the cost of data leaks; MakerDAO rebranded and changed its name to Sky, DAI changed its name to USDS, and MKR will be upgraded and split into SKY; Fractal Bitcoin mainnet is scheduled to go online on September 9, with 80% of tokens allocated to the community; Terra: Proposal 4818 will be the last chain upgrade to be implemented, and will be led by the community in the future; Trump's second son announced the official launch of the encryption project WLFI;
In the meme field, TON ecosystem meme coin DOGS was launched... Well, it's another week of ups and downs.
Attached is a portal to the “Weekly Editor’s Picks” series.
Reunion in the second half~
