Top Narratives & Catalysts to Watch

If you don’t have the time to spend all day researching what’s hot on crypto twitter, what narratives are driving markets, and what catalysts are worth watching, don’t worry, I got you. Below is a quick cheat sheet for all things exciting in crypto today (none of these are recommendations, please do your own research).

The Narratives:

• The ETH Merge

  • Wrote high level thoughts here - this will obviously be the most important catalyst in all of crypto, and with the latest Merge date set at September 13th, we’re now less than 2 weeks away.

• Real Yield

  • One of the most talked about new narratives, especially for DeFi. Basic premise is investors are looking for tokens that actually operate as profitable enterprises, by bringing in more than both what they spend, and token emissions hitting the market. I wrote about my thoughts on the theme here, which includes how you can calculate real yield for yourself.

  • Token Watchlist: BTRFLY, SNX, GMX, MKR, UMAMI, DPX, GNS

• NFTs x DeFi

  • A less talked about narrative, but still out there no doubt. I think about this theme as NFT trading + lending onchain, and who will capture TVL in these markets (and who will take market share from Opensea).

  • You have projects like SudoAMM/XMON, taking meaningful market share in trading volume (albeit in a low volume market).

    • 

      Source: Dune Analytics

  • While NFT volumes have fallen significantly, this theme is about choosing future winners in the space, especially once trading volume + speculation come back (LOOKS is the other major one to watch on the trading side)

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      Source: Dune Analytics

  • On the lending side, there are quite a few new protocols emerging, but the currently most used platforms look like NFTfi, BendDAO, JPEG and Arcade

Coinosseur 🎟 @coinosseur

(4/5) USABLE🟢: @NFTfi @BendDAO @arcade_xyz @PineLoans @JPEGd_69 @dropsnft Loan volume comparison below (for the ones with volume data)👇

• New Layer 1s

  • Sei - this chain is aiming to be the fastest L1 for DeFi, and just raised a $5mm round with Multicoin

  • Canto - recently launched chain on cosmos, with $85mm in TVL.

  • Aptos - chain with mainnet launching soon, this looks to be a “Solana 2.0” with key SOL figures (like the Head of Marketing) moving over to the new project

  • Sui - you can read more background about the project below, but this chain is backed by former FB folks, and was looking to raise at a $2bn valuation back in July

Miles Deutscher @milesdeutscher

Sui is new blockchain developed by @Mysten_Labs, founded by former Meta (FaceBook) engineers. Recent backing from FTX Ventures and a16z has started to raise eyebrows. A quick breakdown of the new L1 Sui (and what you need to know). 👇

• Layer 2s

  • Arbitrum - currently the leading ecosystem in terms of L2 TVL, with ~$2.7bn. The chain just launched its Arbitrum Nitro upgrade, and will be relaunching Arbitrum Odyssey (its onboarding and potential airdrop campaign) likely this month. With the narrative of a *hopefully* upcoming airdrop, Arbitrum tokens could be in a position to do well

    • Token Watchlist: GMX, DPX/rDPX, MAGIC, RDNT, VSTA, JONES

• Memechains - While these get some hate, memechains have the *potential* to onboard a lot of retail users into the ecosystem in the coming years

  • Dogechain - an L1, for DOGE lovers

  • Shibarium - an L2 chain from SHIB, and it sounds like the token BONE will be the gas token of Shibarium. While many of you will roll your eyes at a SHIB chain, the BONE token is up 6x from the lows (and has seen plenty of smart $ flowing in). A good thread on all the mechanics can be found here

  • Berachain - L1 built on Cosmos, backed by the Bongbears NFT team.

• Fan Tokens - this is definitely one worth watching, as these tokens have outperformed the broader market. With the World Cup coming in November, these “Soccer Fan Tokens” are starting to gain a lot of attention, including Binance launching 25x leverage on its Football Fan Token Index.

Neon @neon___glow

Looks like we are back. $LAZIO $SANTOS Fan tokens are increasingly becoming a sector that can't be ignored. Imagine if they launch country tokens into World Cup + have Binance as a distribution channel. Low broader corr to $BTC, $ETH. $CHZ likely to become an L1. @alex_dreyfus

The Catalysts:

Along with sharing some potential themes / narratives around the crypto market, I also wanted to share some high level catalysts that I’m currently watching:

• Fraxlend - this should be dropping soon from the FXS team, and will offer permissionless lending markets

• Curve’s Stablecoin - The full details are yet to be released, but this could be a tailwind for the dominant stableswap platform. One of the CVX developers looks to have bought $1mm worth of CRV, potentially in advance of the catalyst

• Yearn v3 - I covered this in detail here, and this will likely be a big change for the dino DeFi token (this should launch very soon based on my github sleuthing)

• Sudo/XMON Tokenomics - no idea when this launches, but when there is some clarity on how the token distribution works (and assuming it is favorable), XMON could catch a bid

• rDPX v2 & dpxUSD - I’ll be doing a deeper dive on this tomorrow, but the high level overview is Dopex is launching its own stablecoin, the issuance of which should benefit rDPX (and hopefully make it deflationary)

If there are other narratives / catalysts you think I missed, feel free to share them below, and as always drop any comments or questions.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.