What are the favorites of Delphi Digital co-founders?

Written by: Anil Lulla, co-founder and CEO of Delphi Digital

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

People often say crypto projects lack PMF (product-market fit), but in my view, this only indicates their cynicism and that they do not take the time to explore the applications that global developers are continually launching.

I want to highlight some of my favorite crypto applications that I have used this year and hope to inspire some of you to try some of these applications. These teams are working hard to create useful products, and we can at least take the time to test the fruits of their labor.

Before diving deep, there are some disclaimers and disclosures. Whether through investments via Delphi Ventures, angel investing, or simply personal purchases, I have exposure to some of these tokens, which I will mark with * . The contents of this article are not financial advice but merely my thoughts on the projects I like this year.

HyperLiquid

Hyperliquid is fantastic. You may have read over 1,000 tweets about it in the past month, so I'll keep my thoughts brief. Anyone who regularly uses Hyperliquid loves it; I rarely hear complaints, which is a stark contrast to most applications.

I usually avoid using leverage, so I am not the target user for Hyperliquid. In fact, when it launched, I first used this application to purchase HYPE*. Soon, I saw what its fans had been raving about for a year. Not only is the UI/UX very similar to CEX (I know it currently has only four validators), but the speed at which the team responds to user criticisms, concerns, and feedback in their Discord is also encouraging.

Since its establishment in 2023, HyperLiquid has accumulated a cult-like community with over 200,000 users and a cumulative trading volume of nearly $450 billion. The platform currently has over $2.5 billion in open contracts. It is very successful and currently accounts for over 60% of all USDC trading volume on Arbitrum. The hype surrounding HYPE since its launch is not just due to its sleek UI/UX as a perpetual contract exchange. It promises to launch its own L1; although still in its early stages, an ecosystem around it has already formed that cannot be ignored.

Polymarket

Since entering the cryptocurrency space in 2017, prediction markets have been an exciting use case for me, and I believe it will be the first to truly take off. Clearly, that hasn't been the case. This process has taken nearly seven years, but due to Polymarket's success, 2024 is poised to be the year prediction markets enter the mainstream. It operated perfectly on election night, predicting the winner of what I believe is the most important election of our generation. In this context, Polymarket processed $3.6 billion in election bets and announced Trump's victory six hours before the AP.

Polymarket has created a new media form and provided the world with a valuable data source for predicting future events. Many thought Polymarket would gradually fade after the election, but in reality, it has performed quite well, falling from the peak in November but still above the levels seen in mid-October. I still visit it often to see which markets are active, and it seems the sports market has gained a decent share.

Additionally, Fun.xyz has built a fantastic Checkout product for Polymarket, allowing users to deposit using tokens from any chain or CEX (like Binance, Coinbase, etc.). Friends of mine outside the industry have even used it and had no complaints. The user experience in cryptocurrency is not as bad as everyone says!

Farcaster

To be honest, while I was using Warpcast every day in the first half of this year, I now only check it once or twice a week at most. One thing I want to change in 2025 is this.

Earlier this year, I attended FarCon in Los Angeles, where most of the people I spoke to were builders of Farcaster. This is a very optimistic sign. Although it is still early, many builders are focused on creating cool/niche things that could amaze the focused and adventurous community of Farcaster. I think we will see many quirky toys built around this social graph in 2025.

I also believe that Dan Romero and the Farcaster team will continue to innovate quickly. They focus on purposeful features that enhance core users and enable them to expand social graphs and reputations, providing developers with a great sandbox for creating new experiences. Features like channels, frameworks, and DEGEN tipping have already explored new ways to coordinate social interactions. Games like Clankermon and Stokefire have shown me some interesting and unique early signs. While they have dropped about 50% from their peak, they are still doing well overall in retaining users.

Ethena*

Delphi has high expectations for Ethena, but it has still exceeded our expectations. Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe has grown to nearly $6 billion over the past year, becoming the third-largest stablecoin after Tether and USDC.

I was particularly impressed by Ethena's recent collaboration with BlackRock to launch USDtb, a new dollar stablecoin supported by BlackRock's BUIDL fund. Like USDC, USDtb is backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserve assets. In the short term, the yield on USDe may remain high due to funding rate reasons. However, Ethena can now flexibly redirect treasury yields as a supplement. This effectively sets an APY 'floor' around treasury yields, allowing Ethena to scale further.

Like most people, I am optimistic about the growth of stablecoins in 2025. Currently, the value of stablecoins is around $200 billion, and I feel it will break through $300 billion, with a strong possibility of reaching over $400 billion next year. I believe that with Ethena's clever products and continued focus on product integration, it will play an important role in attracting a significant amount of on-chain capital. We have already seen other decentralized stablecoins or synthetic dollars integrate into DeFi in various ways; Ethena's USDe seems to be the first to make progress through CEX and TradFi integration. This has helped them establish a strong moat early on.

Gunzilla*

Delphi's enthusiasm for the crypto gaming space is well-known. Through early collaborations and investments with teams like Axie Infinity, Yield Guild, and Immutable, we have been seeking to bring gaming to market and introduce the masses to cryptocurrency. Gunzilla Games has achieved this, and users do not encounter any friction because of its crypto components.

Off the Grid is a cyberpunk-themed battle royale game and the first crypto game to launch on Playstation and Xbox, attracting over 12 million wallets and 230 million transactions. The game has been streamed for over 4 million hours on platforms like Twitch and has ranked among the top three live games twice. It utilizes Avalanche to implement its own game mechanisms, putting into practice the widely discussed benefits of cryptocurrency for gaming: digital ownership enhances player engagement.

I highly recommend listening to a conversation Piers Kicks had with the founder of Gunzilla on the Delphi Podcast last month. The team's unparalleled attention to detail and commitment to providing what players truly want is evident. Currently, they are internally testing their product, aiming to become the infrastructure for more mainstream AAA games. I am genuinely excited to see how Gunzilla continues to develop and shape the future of crypto gaming.

Lighthouse.One

Over the years, Delphi has invested in multiple portfolio trackers (Zapper, Debank) and wallet observers, and we believe they have the potential to become the headline in the crypto space. They, along with Nansen, have become my main tools for managing wallets and monitoring others. That said, I still manually track my portfolio using spreadsheets and other applications... until a few weeks ago.

Will Price casually mentioned Lighthouse.One during our conversation, and I became hooked. It is by far the best complete portfolio tracker I have used. EVM, Solana, Cosmos, Aptos, Sui, CEXs, Hyperliquid, dYdX; it does it all. Within days of trying the app, I spoke with the Lighthouse.One team, and their focus on privacy is second to none.

In this article, I mentioned applications that I guess many people are hearing about for the first time. I am impressed by it, and it is effortless to try. I have been looking for a product like this for years, and I am glad I finally found it. Although I begged the team to let me invest, I currently have no economic interest with Lighthouse. I am just a very happy user of their product.

Pump.Fun*

This year, Pump.Fun successfully turned attention into liquidity. I believe this mechanism has not received enough praise; it is a simple yet necessary solution with a powerful and immediate PMF. It lowers the barrier to entry while fostering a fairer issuance, and its bonding mechanism mitigates rug pulls.

Within a year, Pump.Fun has generated over $300 million in fee revenue and helped issue over 5 million tokens. While everyone hopes that the team will vertically expand by launching a DEX, they have chosen to explore new ways to attract attention for horizontal growth. In my view, the live streaming feature seems to be an unexpected direction. It spiraled out of control, but mainly because it was so successful. Really cool; I genuinely believe this feature needs better auditing.

Whether you like it or not, everything that can be financialized will inevitably be financialized. Pump.Fun has the potential to build a preferred social application around investors, so it should not be overlooked. By the way, I did an angel investment in Pump.Fun, not through Delphi Ventures. Betting on the founders was an easy decision, and I am still shocked by their performance this year.

Truth Terminal and GOAT*

One of the most exciting moments for me in the crypto space this year might be the Crypto x AI field finding a sandbox to experiment with: Twitter and wallets. The Delphi team has been vocal about our excitement and curiosity for this intersection. We are in the midst of Crypto x AI research when GOAT launched and captured the attention of the crypto space.

Watching the Turing Test unfold live is an incredible experience as people on crypto Twitter (CT) question which bots are AI and which are human. Although it is still in its early stages, I believe GOAT is one of the most important things happening this year as it helps provide a tangible way of thinking about how the important intersection of Crypto x AI interacts. Since then, we have witnessed a surge of AI agents, seeing teams continuously innovate to stand out and attract attention. The coolest part is the interoperability of these upgrades; every developer's efforts can be maximized by applying them to others' agents. While some of these bots are annoying, I believe the influx of these agents will bring truly interesting and unique internet spaces next year.

VIRTUAL

I won’t write much about Virtuals now as it is one of the new projects I have been researching. I just find it interesting as the 'pickaxe and shovel' for AI agents. So far, over 12,000 agents have been launched on Virtual. Don’t get me wrong; most of these agents are still terrible and sometimes at best just annoying responders. However, I expect significant improvements over the next few months.

aixbt* is an account that is particularly eye-catching and worth following. Data does not lie; it captures attention in the cryptocurrency space. It simply posts alpha tweets, but it is backed by years of work from rxbt, who have taken the time to compile a vast amount of crypto data and curated a smart CT social graph that gives aixbt 'personality.' While many crypto KOLs often discuss the same projects in the CT echo chamber, aixbt consistently showcases fresh alpha and highlights it in my feed. This is a project I want to keep a closer eye on.

MetaDAO and MetaLeX*

Few people know that Delphi was one of the first companies to be rewarded by a DAO (Synthetix) in 2019. Since then, we have been active in dozens of governance processes and even helped design governance systems and projects in the crypto space, such as Gitcoin. Initially, DAOs were one of the most exciting aspects of this space for me. However, as we dealt with the complexities of working with them, my enthusiasm gradually waned. Most DAOs are formed to achieve some ambitious vision but then spend all their time figuring out how to 'DAO.' This year, two projects stood out for their practical approaches to solving these challenges: MetaDAO and MetaLeX (though they share the name Meta, these two projects are unrelated).

MetaDAO has sparked many interesting discussions within Delphi (largely thanks to the META enthusiasts).

mrink0). While some criticize Solana for a lack of innovation, MetaDAO is the world's first project to realize futurism. I must mention it here, as it is one of the coolest on-chain experiments I've seen this year.

MetaDAO does not use traditional voting but uses the market to predict and decide the best outcomes for the DAO. It is interesting to see different protocols integrating it into their decision-making processes. For example, Drift utilizes MetaDAO for market-based token listings on its exchange. As we move towards 2025, I am closely watching MetaDAO in the hopes that it will increase engagement and diversity among cryptocurrency voters.

On the other hand, MetaLeX is a concept that lex_node and Delphi Labs have been refining for years. This year, it finally went live, moving towards a future where DAOs can focus on their mission without getting bogged down by governance challenges. Through BORG, MetaLeX enables DAOs to connect with the real world while maintaining crypto nativeness.

This is the culmination of Gabe's years of experience in traditional law and crypto law. He has been the General Counsel for Delphi Labs for many years, and honestly, I have a lot of respect for him. Delphi Labs has not hesitated to help achieve this goal because no one else in the world can build it the right way. MetaLeX fills the gaps in law with code and fills the gaps in code with law. Their BORG can execute mutual, multi-party trusted commitments and reduce trust assumptions among all counterparties.

MetaLeX has helped teams like Lido, Curve, and ZKSync transition to BORG. They have been developing a comprehensive set of tools for trust-minimized governance. I believe by 2025 we will begin to see their work impact the DAOs that integrate these tools.

Sandwich

This is a product launched by a friend of mine. Sandwich is a private trading tool for CEX order execution (and HyperLiquid). It allows you to access institutional-level algorithms, which help save costs and slippage, and enables you to access multiple tools and exchanges from a unified UI.

Given that I primarily buy and hold assets and do not frequently use leverage, I am not the target user for this product. That said, every trader friend who has seen it has become a power user. The Mac app is coming soon, so if you have a desktop, I recommend trying it out.

9dcc

I think gmoney is exploring one of the coolest things in the crypto space, 9dcc. He successfully combined passion and paved his own way, giving cryptocurrency another outlet into the mainstream.

Essentially, cryptocurrency is a very powerful coordination tool. Gamifying universal things like fashion and face-to-face social interactions using it is a stroke of genius, and it’s surprising that this remains an underexplored path. gmoney remains deeply immersed in it, allowing him to connect cutting-edge on-chain ideas that are happening and translate them into the real world.

So far, my personal favorite piece is the Bird Droppings Hat (IYKYK), but I've already seen the prototype of what’s coming next. I have no doubt that 9dcc will receive some recognition outside the crypto world by 2025.

DeBridge

Over the years, I have tried many cross-chain bridges, but DeBridge is the one I have used the most this year. Not only is the experience seamless, but its team is consistently one of the fastest to integrate new chains. No matter where your assets are or where you want them to go, you can use DeBridge.

They utilize cross-chain intents to connect DeFi in real-time, making the cross-chain experience almost completely hidden. DeBridge co-founder deAlex stated that they have handled over 4 million intents, with a trading volume exceeding $6 billion. This is the first cross-chain bridge I can recommend to ordinary friends without any issues. Just this alone is impressive, and I am grateful for the team's work.

Echo and Legion*

2024 is the year for the return of ICOs. I really like the approach that Cobie's Echo has taken. It seems to have a perfect product-market fit with the crypto Twitter audience. Being able to support people you trust and have them curate and bring you interesting deal flows directly is a win-win. Echo has already helped facilitate over 150 deals and has raised over $55 million for projects from nearly 6,000 users.

On the other hand, Legion has taken a bottom-up approach to hand project tokens to more consistent community members. They have developed Legion Score, which currently considers scores in three areas: (1) on-chain activity, (2) social influence, and (3) development experience. This score will change over time, allowing projects to better understand who they are letting into their equity structure.

Legion is a project incubated by Delphi Labs, which we have been working on for over a year, and the first transaction just went live on its platform a month ago. The data speaks for itself: it has raised over $5 million, and nearly 100,000 users have registered for Legion Score.

I believe we will see more projects leveraging platforms like this to help issue tokens by 2025. The timing of the new government is just right. I strongly recommend everyone register and check these two platforms weekly. There could be many attractive opportunities on these platforms, as they make every effort to curate high-quality projects for their members.

Kaito

Kaito has quickly become a powerful tool favored by crypto users this year. To some extent, Kaito and Delphi Research aim to solve similar problems: helping users tune out the noise in the market to find alpha and valuable insights. Our research team does this by spending hundreds of hours researching and then condensing all the necessary and relevant information into about 30 minutes of reading. In the process, our analysts take the time to think and filter out much of the noise to simply analyze and summarize what is important to understand for any specific protocol or industry.

What’s great about Kaito is that it uses clever algorithms to help sift through all the noise on crypto Twitter to unearth treasures. When I search for specific projects or stock symbols, it helps me skip much of the noise, which impresses me.

I understand how useful and essential a tool it is for all traders. However, I also use it to find talent. Often, some of the most articulate people in any given field become potential candidates for our hiring. In fact, we just sent an offer to someone I found through Kaito, who will be joining our team in January. I believe Kaito has the potential to serve many different user groups with one product.

Grass*

Grass allows users to earn rewards by sharing excess internet bandwidth with other parts of the network. It is a simple plugin that I have been running in the background for most of this year. Our Ventures team has invested heavily in numerous Crypto x AI projects, but Grass may be the one I am personally most excited about (at least among the deals I can publicly discuss right now).

Data is the next frontier for model development. We have seen AI labs trying to strike deals with platforms like Reddit or StackOverflow for API key access to their data. Grass provides API keys for the entire internet. It can do this efficiently and at scale. They already have 2.5 million nodes on the supply side, providing uncensored data for training and AI responses. New ways to join the network will also emerge, such as people ordering and connecting mobile and hardware plugins to their WiFi routers.

Grass co-founder Andrej stated that the inbound demand for the network has reached nine figures. Grass is a project that has already helped traditional AI personnel take the Crypto x AI intersection seriously, and I am confident about their 2025 prospects.

Ostium

Since our team worked with kain and SNX in 2019, we have been looking forward to making the on-chain world accessible to traditional assets. Ostium seems to be fulfilling this promise.

Ostium's kaledora has clearly indicated her enthusiasm for turning Ostium into a universal market. Currently, they offer users long or short perpetual contracts for forex, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and stock indices. So far, their trading volume has exceeded $166 million. The trading volume for certain currency pairs has surged, which is cool. For instance, since its establishment, the trading volume for USD/JPY has reached $21 million—most of which happened around the Bank of Japan's interest rate decisions (if you remember that 72-hour bear market).

They have already launched some sleek structured products on Polymarket. For example, once Polymarket predicts a certain percentage chance of Trump winning on election night, you can let Ostium 10x long BTC. You can set it up and go to sleep while waiting for what’s about to happen in other parts of the world, and wake up without missing out on profit opportunities. With the new government no longer opposing cryptocurrency, I have a hunch this will allow Ostium to launch on-chain some things we couldn’t have imagined over the past four years.

Moonwalk Fitness*

Moonwalk Fitness leverages the coordination capabilities of cryptocurrency to create a powerful accountability tool for fitness.

Currently, the first version of Moonwalk focuses on incentivizing daily step counts. You can create a group, set daily step goals, and deposit USDC/SOL/BONK. As long as you meet the set goal, you can at least get your money back. If others in the competition do not meet their goals, their money is distributed to the winners. This is a simple yet powerful tool to incentivize good behavior, and I am excited to see its next iteration. The application of this concept goes far beyond running; it could also apply to weightlifting goals, daily sleep duration, water intake, and more.

Though still early, they have nearly 100,000 users registered. They will soon launch a mobile app, which may be the first crypto app my parents can use weekly.

Summary

This is my list. These are just products I like, and I want to thank the teams for their hard work. Unfortunately, I clearly cannot list all the teams that I think did a great job this year. Some others that quickly come to mind are wallets like Morpho, Jito, Cowswap, Jupiter, Pendle, and Phantom/Rabby.