By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures
Data valid through October 30, 2024
Introduction
Ethena stands out as a rare phenomenon in the current cycle of DeFi projects, with its token once achieving a circulating market capitalization exceeding 2 billion (corresponding to an FDV surpassing 23 billion.) However, since April of this year, the token’s price has experienced a swift decline, with Ethena’s circulating market cap retreating over 80% from its peak and the token price plummeting as m

By Lydia Wu, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Data valid through October 8, 2024
TL; DR
In a narrow sense, prediction markets typically exclude traditional gambling and sports betting. They focus more on information discovery and assisting public decision-making.Prediction markets cannot always be “accurate.” Failures often occur because people tend to treat the probabilities given by prediction markets as established facts.Cryptocurrencies have introduced freer transaction amounts and a more fricti

By Lawrence Lee, Researcher at Mint Ventures
Introduction
The crypto economy has grown significantly, leading to sophisticated on-chain infrastructure. Despite these advancements, the user experience still needs to be improved. Enhancing user interaction is crucial as it could attract more participants into the blockchain ecosystem. This would likely stimulate further infrastructure development and diversify business models, creating a dynamic where progress in one area spurs growth in another—

By Lydia Wu, Researcher at Mint Ventures

If you found yourself baffled upon your first encounter with the “chain abstraction” concept, you’re not alone. 
It appears significant, with numerous projects, and extensive funding, all claiming to be the standard… yet its practical use still needs to be discovered. Is “chain abstraction” just another buzzword in the pipeline of new Web3 concepts? 
This article will start with the concept, return to the fundamental questions, and aim to make something

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures

Aave has long been on my radar, and just a few days ago, its governance team, ACI, unveiled a draft of Aave’s upgraded tokenomics on the governance forum. This proposal details expected enhancements in key areas, including the token value capture of Aave and improvements to the protocol’s safety modules.
For more insights on Aave, read my recent research Altcoins Keep Falling, Time to Refocus on DeFi, where I thoroughly evaluate its current status,

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures & Lawrence Lee, Researcher at Mint Ventures
Introduction
Despite being one of the most mature sectors in the crypto space, DeFi projects have shown disappointing performance in this bull run. Over the past year, the DeFi sector has seen a modest increase of 41.3%, significantly lagging behind the average market growth of 91% and Ethereum’s 75.8% rise.

Source: artemis
Focusing on the data from 2024 alone, the performance of the DeFi sector is hard

By Lydia Wu, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Please note: As Quilibrium’s mainnet has not yet launched, and public information is limited, the descriptions of its incentive mechanisms, tokenomics, financing, and roadmap are based on public resources and may change in the future. This article is intended for research and educational purposes and should not be taken as investment advice. We welcome any feedback.
Key Insights 
Theses
Quilibrium aims to bridge the gap between the computational capabili

By Alex Xu，Research Partner at Mint Ventures

Introduction
This cycle of the crypto bull market has been the most uninspiring in terms of commercial innovation. Unlike the previous bull market, which saw phenomenal trends like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi, this cycle lacks significant industry hotspots. Consequently, there has been sluggish growth in user base, industry investment, and developer activity.
This trend is also evident in the price of crypto assets. Over the entire cycle, most altcoins, i

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures
Introduction
In our last report, we mentioned that compared to the previous two cycles, the current cryptocurrency bull run is missing the new business models and asset narratives. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the novel narratives in the Web3 space this cycle. This article delves into the hot AI project of the year, IO.NET, and organizes thoughts on the following two questions:
The necessity of AI+Web3 in the commercial landscapeThe necess

By Lawrence Lee, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Introduction
Mint Ventures has always been keeping a keen eye on Web3 gaming. Although the once-popular Play-to-Earn model, brought by the previous bull market, has fallen out of the discussion—highlighted by the dramatic collapse of Axie Infinity and StepN as Ponzi schemes—their peak engagement levels showcased millions of daily active users, marking the crypto space’s first encounter with “Massive Adoption.” Unlike social products, another categor

By Lydia Wu, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Decoupling the classical chain concept
The figures on DefiLlama and CoinMarketCap seem to conclusively show that TON is an “under-the-radar giant among chains” — consistently ranking within the top 20 in terms of market cap, yet its 24-hour trading volume lingers beyond the top 100. Despite reaching a new peak in Total Value Locked (TVL) at $53 million, it failed to enter the top 50 public chains; moreover, its market cap to TVL ratio hit an astonishing

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures

Key Takeaways
Last week, BTC touched a historical high against the USD, signifying our entrance into the official stage of this bull market. Unlike the initial rebound and warm-up from the depths of the bear market, the official bull market phase brings an amplified sentiment and even more pronounced volatility.
Each bull market’s official start is characterized by a set of common features, including:
A shift from $BTC -led gains to altcoins spearhe

👉Due to length constraints, only a part of the report is provided here. Please click the link for the complete content：

https://mintventures.fund/pdf/Gelato-A-Veteran-in-Web3-Developer-Services-Embarks-on-a-RaaS-Journey

Author: Lawrence Lee, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Investment Thesis
Gelato has been deeply involved in the developer services field for many years and has developed a comprehensive suite of tools and services for developers. It is expected to achieve a breakthrough in busine

👉Due to length constraints, only a part of the report is provided here. Please click the link for the complete content：

https://mintventures.fund/pdf/Covalent-Network-The-Hidden-Gem-of-Decentralized-Infrastructure

Author: Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures

Overview of Covalent
Business Positioning
Covalent offers Blockchain Indexer services, providing a comprehensive suite of blockchain data APIs that enable developers to conduct queries across multiple blockchains.
Messari’s 2023 D

In this article, we will explore emerging trends in the Rollup market, its future trajectory, and potential investment opportunities. The discussion focuses on several key topics:
What is Rollup Summer?Case Studies: ZKFair and MantaProjecting the Evolution of Rollup SummerOpportunities in the Secondary Market: Investing in the Rollup Summer Narrative
The insights offered herein represent a snapshot of my analysis, framed by the knowledge available at the time of writing. The analysis is mainly f

By Hank Han, Researcher at Mint Ventures

Introduction
The landscape of Ethereum staking, along with its derivatives, has been a focal point in the crypto community for the last couple of years. Key developments like the Beacon Chain, The Merge, and Shapella, alongside innovations in Liquid Staking Tokens (LST), Derivative Staking Tokens (DST), Restaking, and LST-fi have marked the rapid evolution of Ethereum staking. This surge is largely attributed to fundamental shifts in Ethereum’s staking m

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures
Introduction
Inscriptions, especially epitomized by the BRC-20 series, are currently experiencing a notable surge in market interest. This trend marks a pivotal second wave of valuation growth, following the transformative introduction of the Ordinals protocol earlier this year. My recent endeavors in exploring the burgeoning inscribed asset landscape have involved an in-depth analysis of market trends, data synthesis, and active participation in bot

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures
Preface
Having witnessed the volatility of crypto markets, from the bullish surge of 2020 to the bearish grind of 2023, we’ve come to realize that within the Web3 business world, the bedrock of established business models is found firmly within the domain of DeFi. Central to this ecosystem are decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending protocols, and stablecoins, with derivatives also gaining considerable traction in the space. Notably, these sectors ha

By Lawrence Lee, Researcher at Mint Ventures
At the end of July, the leading figure in decentralized stablecoins, Liquity, announced that its V2 would introduce “Delta Neutral Stablecoins”. Similarly, the newly-funded Ethena Finance aims to hedge its reserve assets through risk mitigation strategies, thereby achieving high capital efficiency in a truly decentralized framework. In this article, we will delve deeply into these stablecoin protocols that attempt to solve the stablecoin trilemma.
The

By Alex Xu, Research Partner at Mint Ventures
Preface
With the completion of the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, a multitude of Liquid staking derivatives (LSD) projects have witnessed exponential growth. The user base and net worth of LSD assets have seen a substantial increase. As the crypto space anticipates the forthcoming Cancun upgrade and the open-source of the OP stack, 2023 is increasingly being heralded as the “Year of Rollups.” Pioneering services anchored to the Rollup infrastructure—incl