Starting up this new series where I informally discuss stuff I’m looking at. As we’ve gotten quite a few paid subscribers recently, this series will be paywalled alongside the deep dive reports — however, this first issue will be free for all readers.
Solana
Solana has been melting faces with it’s recent run, defying the expectations of many that it would be downhill only due to the FTX overhang. What most did not account for was the incredible demand meeting that seemingly huge supply. Most of the run has been fueled by spot buys, with Coinbase (blue) leading Binance (yellow).
I personally accumulated at $18 and am not looking to take profits yet, since I have no reason to do so.
Solana Alts
The $SOL pump led many Ethereum-based speculators (shitcoiners) onto Solana with quite a number of previously dead coins seeing some action.
My friend Sandra has written a great thread covering all the major ecosystem protocols and tokens. Lots of airdrop alpha in this one, as there are quite a number of protocols with no tokens yet.
(click the image to view on X)
Upcoming airdrops $PYTH (Pyth Network) and $JUP (Jupiter) are set to boost onchain activity and hype in the coming weeks.
Jupiter is the best DEX aggregator on Solana, so if you’re looking to trade on Solana — head over to jup.agg.
Mad Lads NFTs
Mad Lads launched in June this year and has very quickly become THE blue chip NFT collection on Solana. The team launched the Backpack wallet and more recently, the Backpack Exchange.
Thoughts
FTX aside, Solana is pretty much the only alt L1 that will perform really well in the next cycle vs Ethereum. It has all the ingredients to do well — speed, low transaction costs, and great UX — all there for retail users to enjoy.
Catalysts & Strengths
Massively improved network stability — 100% uptime since Feb 2023
Local fee markets enabling cheap transaction costs for different types of transactions (e.g. large nft minting events won’t affect fees for regular swap transactions)
Firedancer client — slated to massively improve network performance such as increasing TPS capacity by more than 10x.
Superior UX vs Ethereum (fast, cheap, no need for bridging between L2s and L1s)
Strong developer community
Lots of defi protocols coming online, airdrops to boost ecosystem liquidity & activity
This one was recent — rumours circulating that a $SOL ETF might be submitted soon. While this is unsubstantiated this could be a possibility in the future.
Risks
High cost of securing and scaling the network, validators are paid via inflationary rewards (I need to look into this in detail, am not sufficiently well-read on this)
FTX overhang remains, with tokens vesting until 2027
Don’t take my word for it, I recommend you get on Solana and try some of the protocols on there and see how you like it. Jupiter is a great place to start.
Polygon
I took a position in MATIC earlier this week, right after the OKX Polygon zkEVM news leaked — we broke this news on the telegram channel as well.
I’m just going to paste what I wrote to a couple friends this morning below:
Looking for $1 and higher if possible, before rotating back to ETH.
Rollbit
Rollbit has been one of my best rotations over the last 2 months. I bought the $0.18 top in August but doubled my buys at $0.10 a month later. The protocol has been printing, doing $500m annualized revenue and burning about 15% of it’s supply a year. Great thread on recent performance below (click the image to view on X):
I also wrote a full report on Rollbit which you can find here:
Am planning to hold this for as long as revenues and burns continue steadily. Will accumulate any dips back to previous support.
Kujira
After the Terra crash, there has been no other Cosmos L1 that has built a complete DeFi ecosystem besides Kujira. Cosmos famously suffers from poor interchain UX. A big part of why Terra succeeded was because users did not need to worry about bridging across different Cosmos chains. This is why I believe Kujira will do well.
I co-founded MantaDAO to help bootstrap liquidity on Kujira & improve swap UX for users. Sharing my posts on X below for your reading (click the images to view on X):
I have a bag of $KUJI and $MNTA. These are long-term holds as I think Kujira will do well in the next bull as a full DeFi hub on Cosmos. It’s not listed on any T1 CEXs yet, so that is something to note!
Ronin
Remember Axie Infinity? Yeah…
I’ve been keeping an eye on Ronin ($RON) for sometime now and have admittedly not managed to accumulate any. With the GameFi narrative returning, I think Ronin is being overlooked by many.
My to-do as mentioned above for $RON remains the same. Low on my priority list, but definitely one to watch.
Disclaimer
The content provided in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author and the newsletter are not responsible for any decisions made based on the information provided herein. The opinions, analyses, and information included are based on the author's perspective and while believed to be accurate, should not be relied upon without conducting your own research and due diligence. The author may or may not be invested in any of the projects or tokens mentioned in the newsletter.
Additionally, the views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and do not reflect the views, policies, or positions of any organizations the author is affiliated with or contributes to. It is always advisable to consult with a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. All investments involve risks, including the potential loss of principal.