Ignas

Subscribe to my DeFi blog to get ahead of the curve 👉 Co-founder of @PinkBrains_io DeFi Creator Studio

[Pink Brains @PinkBrains_io]

Solana's speed, low fees, deep liquidity and vibrant community make it ideal ground for token launches.

Here’s a breakdown of the mechanics behind 11 Solana token launchpads 🧵🧠

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

$HYPE fud points:

- Coinbase/Robinhood launching futures in the US
- 4.7M HYPE in 7D unstaking queue; one whale with 2.4M unstaking
- Binance is (secretly) building a competitor
- Funds stored in 3/4 multi-sig
- Just 21 active validators - centralization risk
- Sanctioned entities like NK trading on it
- Lack of Lindy effect: Still not battle tested

Anything else?

With all FUD mentioned, can we pump again, pls?

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

Some of these ‘good decisions’ from 2021 are crazy.

Teaches me to just click the sell button!

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

I've made 150 trades in the past 4 years.

Out of those:

- 94 were good trading decisions
- 56 bad

That's just a 62% win ratio.

Decisions involve ETH/BTC/SOL rotations; if I rotate SOL to ETH and ETH underperforms SOL, it's a bad decision, even if ETH pumps in USD terms.

My best decisions were: selling ETH for SOL and later for HYPE, buying BTC.

And, obviously, farming airdrops (but don't show up in decision score).

Worst? Buying and not selling on time these:

$AR
$ATOM
$STX
$USUAL
$S
$FRIEND

Can't win them all.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

Wait, so Katana launching because a proposal to use assets idly sitting on the Polygon bridge failed due to backlash?

Instead, Polygon incubates Katana as an L2 on Polygon (making Katana an L3?).

The proposal to use bridge funds caused Aave to abandon Polygon altogether as it would:

1) deposit assets to a competitor Morpho

2) pose significant risks to bridgoooors

Katana is a compromise or a second-best option.

But it makes sense as Polygon's bridge funds won't be touched. And $POL stakers will get 15% of the KAT airdrop.

Neet.

Interestingly, Katana is an Opinionated DeFi chain and will decide on where the funds will flow to optimize for yield and liquidity.

It's opposite to all other L1s/L2s that seek neutrality.

Three pre selected protocols are:

- Morpho
- Sushi
- Vertex

This dynamic allows KAT/vKAT tokens to be used for bribery: not just for voting on KAT emissions to boost liquidity but also for protocols seeking preferential treatment.

It requires one key thing: liquidity.

As TVL grows, Katana becomes more attractive for new protocols to receive preferential treatment.

Pre-deposits closed with $170M in TVL.

Not bad, especially since it will initially focus on just three protocols, and the GSR market maker will deposit liquidity where needed.

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I see Katana in light of the new emerging trend in DeFi: "Vaultization"

As DeFi gets more complex and number of protocols increase, users are having hard time managing their own assets.

Instead, multiple vault protocols (Upshift, Veda...) are emerging as active managers to do the hard work for you.

It changes the game.

Vault protocols become user-facing platforms with the discretion to decide where to deposit assets.

As a result, DeFi protocols no longer chase users directly but instead partner with vault managers to attract TVL.

Katana goes a one step further by having a new chain with a token to control for emissions.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

The Russian ruble has entered the stablecoin game.

A7A5, the first ruble-pegged stablecoin, moved $9.3B in just 4 months, @FT reports:

- Launched in Kyrgyzstan, outside Western reach
- Backed by ruble deposits in Promsvyazbank (sanctioned)
- Runs on Tron & Ethereum
- Used as a bridge to USDT & cash out abroad, bypassing SWIFT & sanctions

After the US closed Garantex, Russia's CEX, A7A5 and Grinex (a new Kyrgyz exchange) stepped in.

It’s not retail driven.

Most flows are weekday, done during office hour, reportedly trade payments or state linked actors.

The stablecoin are geopolitics now.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

The real endgame: Assets issued natively onchain, not wrapped from TradFi.

RWAs & tokenization are just the first step.

As @samkazemian wrote - "settlement guarantees" only make sense for assets *without* issuers, like BTC or ETH.

But for RWAs, the guarantee depends on the issuer.

Example: $BUIDL on Ethereum is just a subset of BlackRock's liabilities.

If Ethereum goes down, BlackRock decides what happens next, because the real record sits offchain, in TradFi.

But when assets are **natively issued on-chain**, the game changes:

- Issuers like BlackRock are now exposed to network risk.
- They’re incentivized to hold & stake ETH, SOL, etc.
- They need the chain to stay online and censorship-resistant.

Republic’s tokenization is just the first example of this future.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

Yet another casual 10k airdrop for yapping.

Never heard of it but great project if it's actually gonna be liquid $10k.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

What's the upside for L2 tokens?

Fee sharing?

Even if they turned on fee sharing, it's not much:

Arbitrum made $19.5m in fees in a year. Optimism $18.3m.

zkSync just $1.3m and Starknet $600k.

This Price(FDV)-to-Fees ratio puts Arbitrum at 137.8x, and Optimism at 205.7x

Starknet - 4204x

In context, TSLA trades at 187x P/E ratio so Arbitrum might even look cheap.

But Tesla is an exception. S&P500 trades at ~ 29x the earnings.

This makes L2 tokens overvalued by a lot. Unless we expect their adoption and fees to pick up massively.

Maybe governance?

Hoarding tokens gives voting power to direct incentives.

But projects like @lobbyfinance make bribing cheap. Recently one user paid 5 ETH (~$10k) on Lobby to buy 19.3M ARB (~$6.5m) voting power.

I believe that most projects issue tokens for two main reasons:

- To raise capital
- To bootstrap adoption

L2s are bootstrapping adoption, like the Arbitrum DRIP proposal, which allocates 80M $ARB.

The goal is to attract sticky liquidity, outlive, and outcompete other L2s.

If we apply the Pareto principle, 80% of the liquidity will eventually concentrate in 20% of the L2s.

So, perhaps we need to wait until the L2 winners become clear and then invest in them.

This implies waiting for most L2s to naturally phase out.

Yet as more L2s launch with new tokens, the timeline for clear winners to emerge is extended.

(Except for Base... Which doesn't have a token (just a stock)).

$INK is about to launch a token with liquidity mining to inflict even more pain on the remaining L2s.

A cursed sector to invest.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

Layzero voted twice to activate the fee switch with 95%+ voting in favor but...

It failed because the quorum was not reached.

The DAO votes on the fee switch every six months.

Next vote in 6 months.

Where are all the $ZRO holders? Just 13% of the quorum was reached.

Voting apathy is an argument against DAOs and sticking to web2-like managed companies with strict hierarchy.

Tbh, most DAOs would struggle to reach quorums if not for delegations where holders can give voting power to someone else.

But Layerzero doesn't even have a forum for people can discuss proposals less a delegate program.

Seems the DAO isn't a priority for them.

[Pink Brains @PinkBrains_io]

Kaito is not going to replace KOL agencies, it turns good agencies into better ones.

In a recent campaign, we worked with 19 KOLs and reached over 440,000 impressions, while a Kaito Earn campaign was also live.

Kaito adds 2 key advantages:

1/ More incentives
KOLs are more motivated when there’s an extra reward layer. Many go beyond the paid package to stay on the leaderboard, which ends up benefiting the project.

2/ More transparent performance
Kaito and other ranking tools make it easier to see who’s creating real value. Good KOLs and agencies stand out, while low-effort shillers and copycats get filtered out.

Competent KOLs often land on the project’s yapperboard at a high rank after a campaign, making it easier to evaluate the campaign result - something we used to track manually.

There’s also a ripple effect: smaller yappers often take cues from top KOLs, then dive deeper into the topic. That helps the narrative spread more naturally.

That said, not all projects using Kaito distribute rewards fairly. KOLs working with trusted agencies always have more protection.

In our case, we're working with projects that are proven and trustworthy, which helps safeguard both the creator’s work and reputation.

To sum up, CT KOL marketing isn’t broken, it just needs better-designed campaigns.

Start with strong KOLs through agencies. Use Kaito to distribute attention.

[Ignas | DeFi @DefiIgnas]

How to Find Tokenless Protocols Worth Your Time

In this blog I'll share:

- 7 tools I use to find hot projects
- 7 dApps to check out
- 5 crypto bloggers to follow

Read it here:

https://t.co/4ELEJIhPcN