DeFi Enclave's Chronicles #3
CAKE Wars, Hidden Hand, dYdX Instant Karma, Metavault, Algebra, Pyth, LandX, Redacted, IntentX, Portfolio Update
In this episode:
Voyager's Observations - personal reflections and insights on DeFi and Beyond
Voyager's Vault - Detailed Report on My Investment Moves
DeFi Survivor's Bookshelf - Handpicked must-read threads and articles
DeFi Projects Radar - detailed survey of projects news and developments
Alpha Whispers - unexplored DeFi territory, proceed at your own risk
Voyager's Observations
I continue to monitor the development of CAKE wars from PancakeSwap, and I believe it's too significant activity to ignore.
Over the week, we've seen several more projects join these wars.
Skilletcook (the same team as Equilibriafi) has announced its "CAKE Palooza" program, which will run for one month from November 11th to December 11th.
Stake DAO has also announced their participation in the wars.
You can read a thread by Chef Mochi about what they are now turning Pancake into.
In short, they plan to further develop what they call Boosted pools through veCAKE aggregators. That is, you stake your CAKE, for example on Cakepie, receive a CAKE reward, which is currently just 3%, (and they need to do something with this), and in addition, Cakepie is maximizing the boost of its farming pools.
Currently, Pancake has only 5 farms available for boosting, and apparently, they plan to expand here.
Personally, I think we should gradually get involved in these wars even if you're not a big fan of CAKE, and there are reasons to dislike it, as it left many people penniless due to its original tokenomics. But now the token is deflationary, and Pancake is still one of the largest DEXes in the entire crypto industry with a strong team of developers.
The demand to join the bribe market Hidden Hand is increasing very rapidly.
This week, Premia & Equilibria were added to the platform, and soon Camelot will also be added, initiating Camelot wars.
The most intense situation will arise if all subDAOs from the Magpie project and Pancakeswap are also added. On one hand, they are competitors for Hidden Hand, but on the other hand, there's the philosophy "If you can't beat them, join them."
We are clearly entering Curve Wars 2.0, but this time with more modern and diverse projects. It will be interesting not only to observe but also to participate, as the early stages offer the most lucrative conditions for participants.
Redacted is currently facing a challenging financial situation.
A vote has been initiated to approve the budget for the next six months. This budget includes operational expenses, salaries, audits, etc.
Ideally, these expenses should be funded by DAO Reserves, but as in the previous six months, the DAO's income is insufficient to cover all expenses, which are increasing due to factors like Dinero, Pirex ETH, and audits.
In the last semester, these expenses were financed by stablecoins from the Treasury, and a portion of the income that should have gone to DAO Reserves was distributed among rlBTRFLY holders.
The proposal for the next six months suggests adopting the same scheme.
This situation is not ideal because, in the future, the Treasury is expected to be the primary income source for rlBTRFLY holders.
There is hope that the launch of Dinero & Pirex ETH and the full-scale launch of Hidden Hand will offset these deficits, allowing future expenses to be funded solely from DAO reserves.
dYdX Instant Carma
I came across a post that embodies the attitude of many projects towards their users and investors.
I have always been curious about what motivates buyers of tokens that have no utility. Speculation? Then we have big problems.
DeFi offers a huge number of investment opportunities, real passive income, but the audience that has gathered in the crypto industry is mostly a bunch of speculators, even though there's a huge amount of free information available, like my blog for instance.
And then just a few days later this happens:
Voyager's Vault
Once a month at the beginning, I make a snapshot of my portfolio with proportions and P/L.
You can check October snapshot here
Today, I will share some of my observations and intentions.
MVD
I'm planning to add the MVD token to my portfolio, which is the token of Metavault DAO.
MVD, is a tradable and exchangeable token that can be converted into gMVD to earn profits and gain governance rights.
MVD stakers receive 50% of the profits generated by the DAO.
These profits come from Metavault products and their partnerships. Metavault collects a portion of the revenue generated through partnerships and projects. This revenue is then distributed directly to MVX holders and indirectly to MVD stakers.
The distribution is made directly to MVX holders because all fees are allocated to stakers. Indirectly to MVD stakers, because Metavault DAO owns a substantial part of MVX and esMVX, as well as a forthcoming stake in Kinetix token.
As a result, MVD stakers receive 50% of the revenue generated from these two shares, with more partnerships coming in the future.
Therefore, the more revenue Metatavult and its partners' products generate, the more Real Yield the MVX and MVD tokens receive. Also, as Metavault holds a treasury and a portion of the MVD and MVX supply (PoL).
To those unfamiliar with Metavault, you can learn more about the project in the "Alpha Whispers" section.
GAL
I'm starting to take an interest in the GAL token from the Galxe platform.
I primarily view Galxe as a marketing platform that earns a lot of money by selling advertising in the form of quests and campaigns on its website.
They were monopolists in this area for a long time, and not much was happening in the project, but recently they have gotten quite a few competitors like TaskOn, Intract, SoQuest.
So Galxe has had to start moving; they've slightly optimized their tokenomics by adding utility to the GAL token and have devised their metric for measuring user reputation on the platform. Usually, after such developments, they start introducing unique quests only for users with high ratings, offering more attractive rewards.
But for now, I'm just watching the developments.
ALGB
I bought more ALGB from the Algebra Finance project, they are updating their staking on November 24th and there will be something else. I plan to have no more than 1.5% in my portfolio, it is still a micro cap with an inflationary tokenomics despite active buybacks and burnings.
For those unfamiliar with this project, I recommend reading my deep dive.
PYTH
Tomorrow is the Pyth airdrop, and it looks like I'm going to receive a ton of tokens. Only today did I become interested in why they were credited to me.
Yes, I am a very active DeFi user, and sometimes I just get a hefty sum for it, previously from Arbitrum, now from Pyth.
Pyth is the main competitor to Chainlink, but it is used by about five times fewer projects than Chainlink. Considering how Chainlink has grown and how in demand its technology is, it might not be a bad idea to keep the token, or a part of it, rather than selling it all at once.
But generally, I don't like holding infrastructure tokens; I prefer DeFi projects that generate income and share it through their tokens.
DeFi Survivor's Bookshelf
My Biggest DeFi Play for this Cycle: Omnichain Lending & Boosted Flywheel Rewards by @zerokn0wledge_
Data Insights: Exploring Crypto Fundraises by @BinanceResearch
DeFi Projects Radar
Alpha Whispers
Metavault
Metavault has impressively evolved from a small perpetual dex on Polygon into a comprehensive DeFi Hub spanning over 10 chains. While other perpetual dexes were unclearly investing their revenues and not addressing the main issue in the sector - liquidity fragmentation, Metavault adapted and completely revamped its business model.
Now, Metavault positions itself as a DeFi hub, a central point where it aggregates several of its own projects along with a few partner projects, earning a percentage of their revenues. The project has diversified and now has multiple steady revenue streams, which benefit the stakers of its token, MVX. Additionally, they have restructured their tokenomics, making MVX deflationary, with a portion of the revenue being used for buyback and token burning.
This entire transition has occurred quietly, without excessive noise or hype, showcasing a strategic and effective approach to adapting in the dynamic DeFi landscape.
LandX
LandX has finally woken up and announced its launch.
It is an RWA platform where you can invest in agriculture through tokens. I've been following this project for a long time but then I just got tired of it, as the project just spent over a year tweeting about how cool they are, etc.
This is too much, sometimes you have to at least show part of the product.
Personally, I believe that if the project successfully launches and delivers everything they have promised for a long time, having such an RWA in an investment portfolio is a must-have for diversification and protection against inflation. I probably won't be let into the private sale, but I might participate in the public one.
IntentX
Those who read the last issue are aware of how I was disappointed in Vertex due to the changes they made to their tokenomics before launch.
But I found a good alternative in IntentX.
The project is highly technologically sophisticated and has a unique system where Liquidity Providers are not needed. Instead, the project broadcasts requests for transactions across various DEXes and CEXes for execution.
What I liked most was the project's tokenomics, which are very well targeted towards long-term investors.
I advise reading my review.
I'd be glad to hear any advice on what to add or change in the comments here or on my X (Twitter).
And remember, don't trust anyone in the crypto industry, including me.
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