⚡The Points Economy
Plus utility comes to UNI, Blast TVL breaks $2B, and more
The Dynamo DeFi newsletter covers trends, on-chain analysis and tools in crypto each week. Be sure to also check out my YouTube for more regular content.
📈Trends and Narratives
Utility Comes to UNI
It’s been a rough 18 months for DeFi governance tokens. ‘OG’ protocols like Uniswap, Aave, Compound, and Synthetix spent 2022 and 2023 with their token prices and user sentiment in the trash can. Many DeFi tokens peaked against ETH all the way back in 2020.
Even when TVL started to rise for Uniswap in late 2023, price did not reflect the $1B+ increase in TVL.
Though Uniswap’s token price action has been lackluster prior to this week, the protocol itself is a behemoth - consistently earning six figures in fees daily, even on the most brutal of bear market days.
What is the utility of a token like UNI? Governance is great, but is that it? UNI holders had to watch other protocols implement fee-sharing with token holders, and wanted a piece of the action.
There were plenty of arguments about why this couldn’t or shouldn’t happen, including the potential for regulatory scrutiny of a large protocol like Uniswap being considered a security by the SEC.
This week, however, the governance lead at Uniswap created a governance proposal with a request for comment to -potentially- finally implement fee sharing, rewarding UNI token holders.
After this post, many DEX’s and a few OG DeFi protocols immediately re-priced higher. There will likely be a narrative around these other money-making protocols sharing fees with their token holders.
A question to mull over moving forward: do tokens without utility have inherent value? Do tokens need ‘utility’? This thread from The Bunny gives some insight into the history of equities and their ‘utility’. It’s a great read.
The Crypto Points Economy
Parcl, a protocol on Solana designed to speculate on real estate markets, announced their airdrop this week. This has been a protocol we’ve been points farming for quite some time - given their backers, amount of funding, and relatively minimal attention, it’s a great candidate for an airdrop.
The PRCL ‘pre-launch’ token is already live to trade on Aevo, and the points are already able to be traded on Whales Market, a DEX that allows you to make OTC trades, trade tokens that haven’t listed yet, and even trade points. The value of both the points and pre-launch token are mostly speculative (case in point: Aevo listed the token as PARCL, the correct ticker should be PRCL according to Parcl).
Crypto has a special talent for monetization and financial incentivization. It unlocks a market for nearly everything. Not only are point systems created, but those point systems become tradeable. It’s exciting to watch the future of financial infrastructure create itself at a breakneck speed.
How to Capitalize
Parcl can still be farmed - here’s a video I made with my latest airdrop strategies including an optimal strategy for Parcl. Use my promo code DYNAMO for a 5% points bonus per day!
Kamino announced their airdrop for early Q2, and after this Parcl announcement I wouldn’t be surprised if Marginfi followed suit in the next few weeks.
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🔢On-Chain Analysis
BSC On-Chain Activity Rebounds
After lagging new chains for most of 2023, activity on BSC has started with rebound the past few weeks, with both TVL and volume rising. Over the past 7 days, BSC once again claimed the number 2 slot by DEX volume.
Blast TVL Passes $2B in Advance of Launch
Blast, the highly anticipated Ethereum Layer 2, has already accumulated over $2B in its farm prior to launch. While some of that money will likely exit when withdrawals are enabled, that’s a lot of capital waiting to enter the Blast ecosystem upon launch.
🛠️Tool Spotlight
Find New Launches with Ape O’Clock
Regardless of what chain you are looking for new projects on, Ape O’Clock is a great resource to find upcoming launches, IDOs, and more.
📅Key Events This Week
Macro Events
📊 G20 meeting - Feb 28th
📊 FOMC member Bostic speaks - Feb 28th
📊 FOMC member Willams - Feb 28th
📊 G20 meetings- Feb 29th
📊 FOMC member Mester speaks- Feb 29th
📊 FOMC member Bostic speaks- Feb 29th
📊 FOMC member Wiliams speaks- March 1st
📊 FOMC member Bostic speaks- March 1st
Token Unlocks
🔓 FITFI (1.2%) - Feb 26th
🔓 AXL (2.7%) - Feb 26th
🔓 NYM (3.63%) - Feb 27th
🔓 YGG (5.57%) - Feb 27th
🔓 AGIX (0.7%) - Feb 28th
🔓 OP (1.2%) - Feb 29th
🔓 PRIME (4.89%) - Feb 29th
🔓 EUL (0.5%) - Feb 29th
🔓 MANTA (0.74%) - Mar 1st
🔓 DYDX (11.09%) - Mar 1st
🔓 ZETA (2.24%) - Mar 1st
🔓 ACA (2.85%) - Mar 1st
Launches
Note that these launches are mostly unvetted by the Dynamo DeFi team and this isn’t an endorsement of any of them.
🚀 Dusk Testnet commence- Feb 26th (Source)
🚀 AI2Earn Beta App Launch- Feb 27th (Source)
🚀 Carbon social platform Launch- Feb 27th (Source)
🚀 Syntropy’s Silverstone data layer launch- Feb 27th (Source)
🚀 Artyfact pre-beta version- Feb 27th (Source)
🚀 Nemesis Downfall launch- Feb 28th (Source)
🚀 Ator hardware wallet launch- Feb 28th (Source)
🚀 Republik official launch- March 1st (Source)
🚀 KRYZA chain testnet starts- March 1st (Source)
🚀 Kadena spirekey launch- March 1st (Source)
That’s all for this week. For more frequent content, follow me on Twitter and YouTube.
Until next time,
Patrick Scott
Dynamo DeFi