Stealthy DeFi Opps for 2025

gm Bankless Nation ⚡️

Today’s Daily Brief issue looks a little different!

That’s because it's actually a teaser of our new Citizen-only newsletter launching in January. Welcome to Token Trader. It’s an action-oriented newsletter dedicated to helping crypto investors maximize profits by zeroing in on early opportunities. 

Here's where to take action today:
👉 Learn: Discover under-the-radar DeFi plays
👉 Invest: Re-examine the Avalanche opp
👉 Do: Sample our onchain tasting menu

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As 2024 comes to a close and TradFi logs off for the holidays, crypto degens know that now is the time to lock in and position for success in the new year! Interacting with long-tail applications poses risk, but crypto’s most lucrative opportunities are frequently found on the frontier of risk 🔥

🔗 First Ledger

Website | Twitter
Sector: Memecoins
Ticker: N/A

The price of XRP has been soaring since Trump's election in November, but there haven't been a ton of options for risk-seeking investors aiming to juice exposure to this rapidly appreciating ecosystem besides leverage (which comes with the possibility of liquidation).

First Ledger is a memecoin launchpad on the XRP Ledger. It's one of the few consumer-facing applications on the chain, is accessible via a Telegram wallet, and bills itself as the fastest way to create or trade tokens on the XRPL.

Although the vast majority of First Ledger’s tokens have barely budged in price, its oldest tickers are more than a year old and six different tokens were trading above a market capitalization of $10M at the time of this analysis, including ARMY and PHINX, two newly launched tributary coins celebrating the recent successes of XRP’s diehard holders.

While First Ledger does not currently have a native token for degens to ape, when combined with First Ledger’s active points program, the lack of such an asset indicates that early users may be eligible to receive an airdrop at a future date.

💱 Resolv

Website | Twitter
Sector: Stablecoin
Ticker: N/A

Ethena’s ENA has been one of the best-performing DeFi plays since November, but this fast-growing tokenless competitor just doubled its TVL in one week following weeks of further parabolic growth!

Delta-neutral stablecoins, like Ethena’s USDe, hedge their spot crypto asset exposure with perpetual shorts to synthesize dollar asset exposure. These strategies can produce impressive returns during times of market froth, but their holders may suffer losses during long periods of negative funding rates.

To combat the risk of losses, Resolv overcollateralizes its native USR stablecoin, meaning holders have more than one dollar in assets backing every dollar of stablecoin claims. This excess collateral is represented with Resolv Liquidity Pool (RLP) tokens. RLP acts as first loss capital and receives 30% of protocol profits in addition to normal yield as “risk premium” compensation.

While Resolv does not currently have a native token, its active points program suggests that early users may be eligible for future airdrop rewards.

📊 GammaSwap

Website | Twitter
Sector: Exchange
Ticker: GS

Providing liquidity on traditional AMMs like Uniswap exposes liquidity providers to impermanent loss, which reduces the value of LP positions as underlying asset valuations fluctuate. GammaSwap allows LPs to sell this exposure, enabling them to earn higher yields.

Providing full-range liquidity to an AMM produces a similar profit and loss equation to a straddle, a short volatility options strategy in which traders sell at-the-money put and call options on a stock to profit when its price moves less than anticipated. While LPs are not compensated for selling these options in traditional AMMs, with GammaSwap’s marketplace, liquidity providers can sell volatility to speculators and hedgers, facilitating the generation of additional LP yield while transmuting LP trash into trader treasure!

Alongside explosive demand for crypto leverage since December has come historic demand for GammaSwap’s products; its token price and TVL both increased tenfold and achieved new all-time highs over the past month.

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Catalyst:

In June, we issued a bullish rating on AVAX, expecting that the token would see an uptrend due to the market beginning to price in its unexpected ETF approval narrative. 

Fast forward, Avalanche recently upgraded their network, which reduced C-Chain fees by 96% and resulted in a 99.9% reduction in L1 deployment costs. This upgrade also brought some additional tools for developers such as customizable compliance, geo-restrictions, and seamless interoperability with interchain messaging. Since the beginning of November, the Avalanche ecosystem has seen an increase of bridged TVL by around $1B. This uptrend in bridged TVL is most likely linked to anticipation around the upgrade.

Price Impact:

The Bankless Analyst team reaffirms its bullish rating on AVAX, optimistic that by lowering transaction fees and offering better tooling for developers, the Avalanche 9000 upgrade can attract more users and their capital to the chain.

Last Week's Ratings:

• ✅ GMX: Up 26% since 12/9 bullish rating
• ✅ VADER: Up 34% since 12/10 bullish rating
• ❌ BULLY: Down 39% since 12/11 bullish rating
• ✅ FXS: Down 27% since 12/12 bearish rating
• ✅ ONDO: Down 4% since 12/13 bearish rating

Market Plays:

• 🐧 Claiming $PENGU with Bankless Claimables
• 🐙 Exploring apps on Kraken’s new Ink L2
• 🌴 Claiming the Nifty Island $ISLAND token
• 📆 Competing on Today.fun for $TODAY rewards
• 📱 Checking out the Warpcast Rewards competition
• 🫵 Filling Out the Bankless Token Trader survey 😉

Hot Reads:

• 🧠 10 Key DeFi Updates - Ignas
• 🍪 The Hidden Framework Powering AI Agents - 0xJeff
• 🦋 Morpho or Euler? Comparing Lending Hyperstructures - Anton
• 🤖 AI + Stablecoins - Peter Schroeder

Farming Opps:

• 🟠 BTC: 13% APR with Convex’s cbBTC-WBTC pool on Ethereum
• 🟠 BTC: 8% APY with Pendle’s LBTC (Corn) PT on Base
• 🔵 ETH: 12% APR with Uniswap's stETH-ETH pool on Ethereum
• 🔵 ETH: 9% APY with Beefy's weETH-rETH vault on Ethereum
• 🟢 USD 30% APY with Curve's DAI/USDC/USDT pool on Ethereum
• 🟢 USD: 10% APY with Aave's USDC pool on Base

Airdrop Hunter:

• 🐴 Derive: Deposit into Earn Vaults
• 🪙 Ethena: Stake USDe
• 🌊 Suilend: Lend Assets to Suilend
• 🤖 Kaito.ai: Connect to Kaito.ai

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