We'll be at @Futurist_conf in Toronto, July 21-22.
For teams interested in:
✅ Treasury yield via $USDC lending
✅ Constant-leverage LP strategies on $ETH / $BTC OR your token (yield, no liquidations, convex payoffs)
DM us:
X - @PeapodsFinance / @Del_Peas
Telegram - DeLSoLLLL
Yes so this blow-off top on trad markets has been years in the making and I've always expected it as a pre-cursor to our next major crash. We are in the process of going parabolic so we can certainly go higher before the top is officially in but it all ends the same way.
However, remember- when we talk about "pulling liquidity", global equities are a 150T market.
The SPX is currently at 70T.
Crypto sits at a 2.4T market cap.
$BTC makes up 1.4T of that.
Alts make up barely 1T of what's left, and the Top 10 alts make up 80% of that 1T.
This means, alts outside the Top 10, have a combined marketcap of LESS THAN 200B.
Now make this make sense- is a 70T (or 150T if we consider global equities) marketcap sector (SPX), which has added trillions in marketcap over the last couple months, ACTUALLY "pulling liquidity" from a smaller 2T marketcap sector?
Crypto has been between 2T-4T marketcap for the last 2 years. In that time, the SPX has risen 40% or added over 25 TRILLION to it's marketcap.
While the ATTENTION is clearly on trad equities it is not as if tons of liquidity is LEAVING crypto and flowing to equities. The money flowing into equities is predominantly coming from somewhere ELSE, there is barely ANY liquidity in the crypto space relative to trad equities.
You can't squeeze a ton of juice out of a fruit that has no juice left to squeeze.
"Alts are gonna die because trad equities are gonna take all the liquidity out of them"
Bro, what liquidity? Alts outside of majors (Top 10) have a 200B marketcap. That's 1/350th of the SPX or 1/750th of global equities.
The crypto market (especially alts) have been squeezed dry- there is very little liquidity left to flow out of them and into trad markets.
HOWEVER, the opposite is not true. There is HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS of dollars of liquidity that could potentially flow INTO crypto (including both BTC and alts) which is INCREDIBLY small as a sector.
The SAME WAY we saw a massive influx of liquidity into precious metals over the last few years that led to a massive rise in prices of gold and silver is the same way we will at some point see a massive influx of liquidity into crypto.
This risk at this stage is not that "crypto liquidity will flow into stocks" because there is no excess liquidity in crypto to begin with.
This should literally not be a concern imo.
Your only concern should be not being positioned in this sector BEFORE we see liquidity flow in the other direction- from multi-trillion dollar traditional sectors into the liquidity starved sector of crypto. Because just like silver and gold, when it happens, it will happen fast.
Empyreal and all associated projects are migrating into Arcana $ARCN.
Everything we build now flows into a single token, treasury, and ecosystem.
$ARCN CA: 0xE3e3fb2f07CFE382D480197a3c8Ea0778cF51110
Everything you need to know:
The AI [agent] meta in crypto kicked off around October/November 2024 with GOAT/Truth Terminal and then ai16z/ELIZA (if I recall correctly).
Empyreal was building AI agent infras since at least mid 2023, shipped Simulacrum in mid 2024, and had an AI agents Medium post in July 2024... all well before the hype became a narrative.
@EmpyrealSDK just dropped Arcana and honestly this is the kind of infrastructure play that doesn't get enough attention early on: one framework to build and run a complete on-chain app. It's pretty sexy because there's: no no need to stitch smart contracts, off-chain services, and separate tooling across five different repos. In fact, this all lives inside one application.
The part that matters ((maybe) most): it handles real-time execution while still settling on-chain. In other words, you get the speed users actually expect without giving up the part that makes it crypto.
Empyreal Chads are positioning this across AI apps, on-chain games, prediction markets, DeFi vaults, perps, lending, and treasury management. Probably some extra, too. That said, this is not just another SDK play, but a full-stack attempt at becoming the default build layer. Pretty neat vision from the founder.
Teams can start building on it today at https://t.co/GmvRFWJhxx 🫡
ELI5 or ELI37BNTS (explain like I'm 37 but not that smart (that would be me)):
...imagine you want to build a crypto app right now. Normally you'd need to tie together a bunch of separate pieces - smart contracts over here, off-chain servers over there, different tools for different things, and somehow get them all talking to each other (still easier than getting a group of wokists to apply logic and common sense(and no, I won't apologize for flaming wokists). In other words, it's like building a car by separately buying an engine from one shop, a chassis from another, wiring from a third, and assembling it yourself in your garage. That's Tony-Stark-level stuff, to be fair.
Anyway, Arcana is Empyreal saying "here's the whole car, built and ready." One framework where you prompt what you want, deploy it, and it runs on-chain, with real-time speed but blockchain settlement.
Before I starting pointing at use cases Arcana brings to the room (brypto space), let me provide context, as it really matters with regards to this topic:
Empyreal has been building AI infra since March 2023. Its Twitter bio has said "builds the next generation of AI infrastructure" since day one.
@SimulacrumAI , their social-to-on-chain AI agent layer launched in mid 2024. The team was publishing content about AI agent yield optimization in July 2024, back when we used to run things manually (some of us still do, btw). The emp-agents SDK was open sourced in December 2024. The intelligent agent launchpad went live in January 2025.
For reference, the crypto AI agent meta didn't even exist until late 2024 when GOAT and ai16z blew up. By the time CT was discovering that AI agents could do things on-chain, Empyreal already had live products running on infrastructure they'd been building for over a year... That's what you call vision.
So, this isn't a team that pivoted into AI because the narrative shifted. Instead, they were building the picks and shovels while everyone else was still debating whether AI agents were a meme. You can verify this yourself, just scroll through their timeline.
Use cases most people are overlooking and Arcana is tapping into?
Let's try thinking a few steps ahead (imagine we're playing chess). Btw, these aren't hypotheticals... Empyreal's own ecosystem is already proving them out.
DAO treasury autopilot. Most DAOs still manage treasuries through multisigs and manual proposals. A framework like Arcana that merges real-time execution with on-chain settlement is basically purpose-built for autonomous treasury management: rebalancing, yield routing, payroll disbursements; all executing in real time but verifiable on-chain. No one's really nailed this (yet)... except Talos (@talos_is) is already doing exactly this; a sovereign AI that owns and directs its own protocol, autonomously monitoring volatility and yield curves. It already confirmed its next era runs on Arcana. That's a live product migrating to the framework because it was literally built to support it.
AI agent backends that actually settle. Right now the "AI agent" meta has a hole: most agents operate off-chain and just push transactions when needed. Arcana could become the runtime layer where AI agents don't just suggest actions but actually execute complex multi-step DeFi strategies natively, with every step settling on-chain. Think of it as giving agents a native blockchain operating system instead of a browser extension.
Simulacrum (@SimulacrumAI) already turns social media posts into live on-chain actions: fair token launches from X, autonomous wallet management, the full pipeline. You got it right, Simulacrum is powered by Empyreal from day one. If that execution layer moves to arcana (and it will, there's a post by @Simmi_IO, you're looking at AI agents running multi-step DeFi operations inside one unified framework instead of throwing together off-chain logic with separate contract calls.
On-chain game economies with real financial rails - something that was a topic in crypto for quite some time, but never lived up to the users' expectations (I see you, Alex Becker). Games with *real* economies deserve DeFi that feels native, not as an add-on. If Arcana genuinely unifies the execution layer, a game studio could build a full player-driven economy: lending, derivatives on in-game assets, prediction markets on match outcomes - all inside one application. The game becomes the financial product. Bluff (@CallMyBluff_io) started as a prediction market and is now expanding into a full game suite. Already confirmed it was built on Arcana, btw.
The bigger picture here is that Arcana wasn't designed hoping someone builds on it. Empyreal had (and still has) three live products that each kept hitting the same infrastructure ceiling, so they built the framework to solve their own problem first. Talos, Bluff, and Simulacrum serve as proof.
That changes the conversation entirely.
Oh, and while I'm here...I've been tracking the Empyreal eco for a long, long time (thanks to my good fren Xpirimint), had several conversation with the founder, @empyrealdev (who left me speechless on many occasions(nope, no feet pics were part of that)). That said, although I don't hold any of the tokens (poverty reasons), I have them on one of my lists.
$EMP , $T, and $SIMMI are small caps, if not baby caps, and they're all up nicely in the last 24 hours. Well deserved, I'd say. And don't you even dare to think this is a shill or financial advice, I'm just doing my research and pointing at provable info/metrics.
I *might* (won't promise) write a few threads specifically on each of them. For now, you can use this post as an appetizer. Especially if you're hungry for small caps with big potential (nope, this isn't financial advice either). Be sure to read the official announcement. 🤝
The architecture can support almost any application that needs to run fast with real-time execution while still settling onchain:
→ AI Apps
→ Onchain Games
→ Prediction Markets
→ DeFi Vault Strategies
→ Perpetuals and Derivatives
→ Credit and Lending Markets
→ Treasury Management Systems
We're opening the first wave of the Arcana Builders Program today.
We took inspiration from products we genuinely admire like TigerBeetle , SpacetimeDB and Convex, and built Arcana to make blockchain apps feel as fast, reliable, and easy to build as modern web apps.
If you're building, come build with us.
Introducing Arcana.
The only framework that lets you build and run a complete onchain app in one place.
Built for the way people build now.
Prompt it, deploy it, run it onchain, all from one framework with no infrastructure to assemble.
The core idea behind Arcana is simple: blockchain apps should feel like normal apps. They should be fast, private, and low-latency, while still getting onchain custody, settlement, and trust where it actually matters.
Arcana is built as a standalone, batteries included app framework that can run in a TEE or a single Docker container. It gives you gasless transactions, an integrated database, keepers, async tasks, and smart contracts in one layer.
A simple example application would be a PvP gin rummy app. You need players hands to be private and probably don’t need every card draw or move onchain. But you might want rankings to be verifiable, deposits to be protected, and bets to settle onchain.
That’s what Arcana is for: Web3 apps with real app UX.
@inkonchain@EmpyrealSDK AI agent-native platform for building trading strategies. They are looking for a new chain, as they have not had good luck with others. Maybe you two would be a good fit.
🧵 Is the DeFi risk premium still worth it?
DeFi used to mean taking more risk for outsized upside.
Now?
You take:
⚠️ Smart contract risk
⚠️ Oracle risk
⚠️ Bridge risk
…for yields barely better than TradFi.
The risks stayed. The premium disappeared.
Time for a new deal 👇
Past days has been extremely hardcore for our team and DeFi in general. DeFi went trough a substantial stress test and the consequences were felt. It definitely was the hardest couple of weeks that I experienced in my life and during the past decade building in the space. I am still writing this with couple of hours of sleep per day so bear with me.
For me personally, the rsETH bridge incident was unfortunate as our team and community has put so much effort into securing the protocol and seeing the exploit happening outside of the protocol smart contracts, and affecting the markets is hard to watch even when the markets had (and still have) full backing like Mainnet Core. That being said, Aave has seen multiple market/credit cycles and always has been able to prove its resiliency. I have more confidence in DeFi today than ever, not because of the industry is stepping up and improving security practices, but because there is a true community behind DeFi that is willing to help and do whatever it takes to ensure our space has future.
I want to say that during all this madness there were lot of people that were extremely supportive and proactive to mitigate any issues and contagion. At the first glance, from Aave's perspective we were positive that we would find a resolution and we had overall balance sheet, protocol revenue and external/public support to over come the issue from Aave's perspective but what we understood is that the issue was beyond Aave. It was about restoring the whole state of DeFi, avoid contagion and ensuring that the whole ecosystem overcome this incident not solely Aave.
DeFi United started as an initiative from DeFi protocols that were affected but eventually became an industry wide movement to save DeFi and bring protocols together. I am grateful for all the contributions and support that everyone has been providing and can say that this wouldn't be possible without it. I'd hope that DeFi United becomes a permanent movement in some shape or form with the right form factor. DeFi United was executed at insane speed and other constraints but there could be a model that could continuously support the industry from the unexpected.
I'd say during the past week lot of people stood up and I really don't have the space to mention everyone (you know who you are) but specifically I want to say that @MikeSilagadze deserves more respect from the space than anyone else atm, he went above and beyond and was willing to sacrifice a lot to solve what actually wasn't something cause by his efforts. Full respect.
@LidoFinance team also deserve special credit, this team truly cares about DeFi and was extremely helpful along the way. They deserve full credit.
@gdog97_ deserves credit as well, who helped to brainstorm various solutions and also stepping in with Ethena and helping on coordination.
@arbitrum community for doing the right thing and rescuing the funds from the bridge contract that was a difficult but the right call.
@Mantle_Official@Bybit_Official team for stepping up as well and showing strong support. The team has been supportive and truly cares about making the space safe.
Last but not least lot of credit goes to @ethereumJoseph who really stepped in to help DeFi and the ecosystem. Joe cares about Ethereum, he cares about DeFi and understand the importance of DeFi for the future of Ethereum.
We have truly good people within our community.
These folks are true guardians of our space (among others on my long list) that really want DeFi to win.
I feel very optimistic now about our space, it is true that events like these can be a setback but in reality it builds resiliency, which our space stands for, and over time that is hard to beat by legacy systems.
The past week we had to operate in multiple different constraints from time, information, resources, governance and other. We had to move as fast as we could as time was against us. It was a large coordination effort that we haven't experienced so far. I'd like to give most of this credit to our team and community especially @Token_Logic and @LlamaRisk who went also above and beyond to find resolutions and coordinate.
There has been some banter about right type of market structure for onchain lending between shared or isolated pools but the reality is that when capital moves, it moves at scale and market structures are less of a mitigating factor. These kinds of times require to find solutions fast and reestablish the trust in the markets and the technology, that's whats important.
All this being said there are some great learnings from this indecent like from any incident and we as any other team involved will share a post mortem and steps to improve anti-fragility. I might be now less bullish on onchain lending as infrastructure and more leaning towards a model where the market structures need to be backed by strong balance sheets and risk transfers, however this is another discussion for the future as issues can stem outside of the protocol's control.
Now as the markets on Ethereum mainnet Core are restoring, our team continues to execute the technical plan to restore rest all the markets.
Thank you for everyone who has been supportive and we will keep you up to date as we progress.
DeFi United.