Background: On-chain tokens are hot, but can tokens on centralized exchanges rise?
Recently, Bitcoin's market share dropped from 60% to 55%, indicating the start of an altcoin season. There have been continuous hot topics recently, which can be described as a hundred flowers blooming: led by AI Agent, Virtuals Protocol peaked above $300 million in market value; the Solana ecosystem's ai16z also surpassed $1 billion in market value, while the Hyperliquid ecosystem token HYPE saw an increase of over 10 times. In terms of products, the exchange's open interest has repeatedly broken new highs, exceeding $4.3 billion. Even the NFT sector, which was almost forgotten by the market, has seen movement, with Magic Eden and Pudgy Penguins issuing tokens, driving up many ETH/SOL blue-chip NFT projects.
A simple overview of various sectors reveals that they all revolve around on-chain assets. So, have tokens on centralized exchanges really been forgotten by the market?
Actually, this bull market also has an overlooked narrative: Trump's election.
Trump's election means that cryptocurrencies have officially entered the public eye. The improvement of regulations and the loosening of regulations have all contributed to external funds entering the cryptocurrency space, as evidenced by the continuous net inflow of funds into BTC and ETH spot ETFs. World Liberty Financial, a project from the Trump family, has also set an example by aggressively purchasing DeFi-related tokens over the past month, including: ETH, CBBTC, AAVE, LINK, ENA, ONDO.
So, how did the prices of the aforementioned tokens perform after being purchased by World Liberty Financial? What common features do these tokens share? What other conceptual tokens are there? Let's take a look with WOO X Research.
Purchase Record Summary
The above table summarizes the cryptocurrencies purchased by World Liberty Financial as of November 30, spending a total of $44.75 million. As of the time of writing on December 18, all tokens held by World Liberty Financial are currently in a profit position.
Interestingly, traditional institutions have historically shown more interest in Bitcoin than Ethereum, but in their portfolio, it can be seen that World Liberty Financial holds far more ETH than Bitcoin, perhaps indicating that they are more optimistic about the future price trend of Ethereum compared to Bitcoin.
AAVE is the leading lending protocol in the entire market and holds the number one spot in TVL, with a deposit scale close to $40 billion, setting a historical high, and the token price has risen 35% within seven days. Furthermore, the community vote by World Liberty Financial to collaborate with AAVE has passed, and it is currently in the TEMP CHECK phase at AaveDAO. If the proposal passes, it will bring new users and more real returns to AAVE.
LINK is an established oracle project. On November 14, World Liberty Financial also announced that it would adopt Chainlink as the standard for on-chain data and cross-chain connectivity, providing a secure way to bring DeFi into the next phase of mass adoption.
The development of ENA is closely related to this bull market. Since the yield source of USDe is from futures arbitrage, as long as market sentiment becomes more enthusiastic and Ethereum funding rates rise, Ethena can benefit from this. Recently, the TVL has also surpassed $6 billion, setting a new historical high. Recently, they partnered with BlackRock to launch the RWA stablecoin USDtb, with yield sourced from government bonds. This product launch also alleviates market concerns about funding rates turning negative, which could lead the overall protocol into a death spiral.
ONDO is currently the leader in the RWA track. After BlackRock announced the launch of the BUIDL fund, Ondo Finance invested over $95 million, making it the largest holder. In terms of compliance, legitimacy, funding size, and market favorability, ONDO is the best choice in the current RWA space.
In addition to the tokens mentioned above, it is worth mentioning COW. When World Liberty Financial purchased the aforementioned tokens, they only used Cow Protocol for the purchase, thus also being regarded as a Trump concept token.
What coins might be bought next?
After understanding World Liberty Financial's investment trajectory, it is speculated what targets they may focus on next.
First, from their holding layout, it can be seen that it is best if the token itself has a partnership with World Liberty Financial, such as AAVe m3.
LINK, followed by a "clear business model" and "stable real yields." AAVE, LINK, ENA, ONDO, etc., all have clear product positioning, a large ecosystem of users, and actual yield models. This indicates that they are not blindly pursuing "novelty" or "pure conceptual" tokens but are more inclined to invest in protocols that can bring long-term value.
LDO: Since World Liberty Financial's holdings in ETH are significantly higher than in BTC, it shows that they are very optimistic about Ethereum's long-term potential. With the maturation of Ethereum's staking mechanism and the potential introduction of ETF that may bring in Ethereum staking rates, the leading protocol LIDO becomes the current top choice.
It is the largest liquid staking protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem, with a TVL of $37 billion, accounting for 30% of the entire Ethereum staking market.
Pendle: Mainly focuses on the yield splitting market, allowing users to trade future yield rights. As Ethereum staking rates and yields from protocols like USDe rise, demand for yield trading continues to increase, making Pendle highly regarded in this bull market. Recently, Pendle's TVL has exceeded $5 billion and established partnerships with several mainstream DeFi protocols.
UNI: Uniswap is the origin of DeFi Summer and is currently the most commonly used decentralized exchange, leading the sector. Recently, they also launched Unichain, but the market reaction was lukewarm; however, this does not diminish user reliance on Uniswap's products.
Conclusion: Blue-chip projects = presidential crypto projects.
Regarding World Liberty Financial's aggressive token trading, Nansen analyst Nicolai Søndergaard told Bloomberg: "World Liberty Financial's token purchases may be aimed at gaining more trust or drawing attention to these assets to promote the development of their own projects. If these assets perform well, World Liberty Financial may benefit as well."
World Liberty Financial actively invests in blue-chip projects, which not only boosts market confidence in mainstream DeFi protocols but also injects more institutional funds into the crypto market. Such capital flow further stabilizes the market, pushing mainstream projects towards higher market capitalization and developmental potential.
