ENA (ENA)

Over my 10 years in crypto, it has been difficult at times to double-down on the unsexy work that is researching and covering new DeFi on The @Edge_Pod. But during the last crypto bear cycle (2022-2023), that work paid off greatly and led @Nomaticcap and me to cover some of the most successful names today in DeFi. Below are just a handful of teams where we saw enormous opportunity early on, in what they were building, long before it was considered mainstream DeFi. + @ethena at $40M TVL (now $5.5B) + @ether_fi at $20M TVL (now $4.8B) + @0xfluid at pre-launch (now $4B) + @pendle_fi at $100M TVL (now $1.6B) + @Kinetiq_xyz at pre-launch (now $1.13B) + @VelodromeFi in July 2023, before @AerodromeFi Since DeFi Summer, I've been told over and over, DeFi has reached a ceiling, and we ought to chase other narratives, trends, especially daily price talks: - "NFTs, not DeFi" - "Web3 gaming, not DeFi" - "Memecoins, not DeFi" - "Web3 social, not DeFi" - "AI, not DeFi" It's becoming clearer every day, DeFi is the most meaningful long term value-add for this industry. And DeFi is still in its infancy compared to where we're headed. Stablecoins alone are destined to grow to tens of trillions onchain, and that ignores all other promising DeFi primitives that will only complement and amplify stablecoin adoption. Plus we have RWAs coming onchain rapidly, ready to soon eclipse the trading volume of crypto-native assets with stocks and commodities. This is why I just dgaf about covering the day to day PnD of small cap crypto that dominates the airwaves for crypto Youtubers/podcasters. It seems it's what the larger majority of viewers want according to my experience with the algorithms: tell us where the price is going and what to buy next. Now, maybe it's not obvious to you, but you won't get rich watching amateur investors with a ring light discuss why their undisclosed bags are going to moon. In fact, it takes hard, boring work to learn about what's new, what's misunderstood, what's promising, and what's not priced in yet. That's why we often (and @Nomaticcap can swear by this) invite guests to The @Edge_Pod mainly because they are building important (some might even call boring) primitives that we believe will lead to long term growth and upside in DeFi. All this to say, we specifically launched 2 new sub-series on The @Edge_Pod this year. 1⃣ DeFi Frontier is a dedicated series for covering new DeFi protocols, based on our research as onchain investors and power-users looking for new ideas and strategies to stay invested onchain, growing our portfolios. I would like to think during last bear market, we should have branded these episodes above (ie Ethena, etherfi, Pendle, Fluid) under our current DeFi Frontier series. Watch the DeFi Frontier Playlist: https://t.co/P0q1Pn1zI4 2⃣ Revenue Meta spotlights more mature DeFi protocols, with established customers and PMF, that actually generate cashflows and return value to tokenholders. Our goal is to do due diligence on whether or not these tokens backing major DeFi teams will accrue value. Teams like: @ether_fi, @maplefinance, @sparkdotfi, @pendle_fi and next up: @JupiterExchange. Watch the Revenue Meta Playlist: https://t.co/vIvOP3i1FY So if you are seeking to double-down on DeFi like us, if you're here to actually live out the bankless ethos vs watch your favorite KoLs talk about their bags on air, we invite you to join us on The @Edge_Pod and The Edge Newsletter. We're optimizing for growing your knowledge, not just our clicks and views. Also, our content is FREE, thanks to the generous support of The Edge Podcast sponsors, all of which happen to be real DeFi builders: @kpk_io @noon_capital @Main_St_Finance @alturax @apyx_fi @Mantle_Official @katana @GearboxProtocol @puffer_unifi All of this was written by me--no AI. I still believe it's important to own my own words and the meaning behind them.

Crypto protocols generated over $18.6M in fees over the last 24 hours. Top performers: • @ethena: $4.62M • @Pumpfun: $2.94M • @HyperliquidX: $2.57M • @CantonNetwork: $2.20M • @LidoFinance: $1.48M https://t.co/IflhO8Xxj7

As I mentioned earlier, some chart requests will be shared on X, while others will be shared on our Telegram group. The $ENA chart request has now been shared on our Free Telegram group. Make sure you’re active on both so you don’t miss the setups. 👇 https://t.co/EqXBD9JFqf https://t.co/ckwIaJ0gv9

Deploying your money in crypto should actually be worth it. And that’s exactly why the Bitwise market on @jup_lend is worth paying attention to. Just look at the comparison: → Savings account APY: ~0.5% → S&P 500 average annual return: ~10% → Bitwise market APY: 20%+ Of course, nothing is risk-free - especially not in DeFi. But if we can’t trust a institutional grade lending market Then wtf are we still doing here? Bear market or bull market - plenty of ways to make good money in crypto.

on my way back home from my first ethena offsite deeply impressed with everything i’ve seen so far a lot more mature than i’d have assumed from a crypto org - especially the massive internal focus on security was above my expectations everyone is smart, unfazed by the market and motivated very excited to officially start on monday

People don't understand how big this will be. Let me give a real example to illustrate: @ethena on @kamino ► Up over $420M in an isolated market in a day. ► Ethena has $700M USDG that they get ~4.2% on because of Paxos kickbacks from the yield on the paper that underlies USDG ► They then lend on Kamino and Jupiter ► This makes +1.78% on lending. So about 6% net on their USDG BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Ethena is happy to do this because it means easy TVL growth because borrowers only pay 2%. I.E., Institutional lender receives 6% to lend. Borrowers pay 2% to borrow. This has never, AFAIK, been a workable / sustainable model. It's only really possible with this unique set up. To recap: ► Ethena gets massive TVL growth and decent 6% yield on 700M ► USDG gets more retail adoption and solidifies its place as a dominant defi stablecoin ► Retail loopers get a 20% yield with deep liquidity and predictable lending rate Win / Win / Win