💣 Can Vertex Overtake dYdX as Perp Kings?

A weekly recap of the largest crypto events and narratives, with an extra dose of insight.

Here’s what we have for you:

• VRTX ATH

• Blast still blasting off

• Hyperliquid open interest on the run

• LooksRare goes deflationary

• Thala with a new liquid staking primitive

• The Backpack thesis

GM Raiders. Are you ready for the bull market and to make generational wealth? We sure are. Some people that have made significant wealth over the weekend are $VRTX airdrop farmers. As of Sunday night, the token is trading at $0.48, equating to a $450M FDV. Considering that staking APRs will start displaying on Tuesday and that Vertex volumes have flipped that of dYdX, there is likely still upside for the token.

A quick update on the KyberSwap hack. The protocol is now offering a 10% bounty to the exploiter, which would leave the hacker with roughly $7M in profits that he’d be able to walk away with. In other news, TraderJoe’s $JOE token has hit its total supply, however, the protocol will continue to use its treasury to incentivise certain behaviour.

BLAST, the L2 started by Blur founder, is still blasting off. The L2 now has close to $500M locked in its bridge contract, already overtaking the likes of Base. On Aevo, pre-launch futures imply a $4.6B FDV for the token. If you want in on some of the action, you could probably trade there although liquidity isn’t great.

-RektRadar

Hyperliquid is an orderbook perp DEX on its own Hyperliquid L1. Today, it is live with over 80+ assets and recently launched its points program at the start of the month. As one can see, open interest is on an absolute rampage, increasing from the measly $1M around mid June to the staggering $33M it is today.

Like many other perp DEXs, they’ve fully leaned into memecoin mania by listing tokens such as BONK, but more importantly, they’ve also embraced the pre-launch futures meta, where protocols launch perps for tokens that haven’t launched yet. These have proved to be in-demand products for traders to take a bet before a token is even live.

LooksRare goes deflationary

• Looks like everyone wants to be deflationary these days. See what I did there. A few days ago, $LOOKS became a deflationary token. They recently launched a game, Infiltration, and 25% of all LOOKS used for healing in the game will be burned. In addition, 50% of overall fees will be used to buy back LOOKS.

• Projects realise the power of deflationary mechanics, especially after ETH pioneered the idea of ultra-sound money through its base fee burn. However, deflationary mechanics are only good if they come through genuine protocol activity and profitability.

Thala with a new liquid staking primitive

• Liquid staking has been all the rage over the past year. Anything that can be liquid staked will be liquid staked. And Aptos is no outlier. Thala, a DeFi HyperApp, is launching liquid staking on Aptos.

• On Aptos, only 0.4% of staked APT is liquid staked, which is a pretty pitiful amount when compared to Ethereum. Thala’s two token model, thAPT and sthAPT aim to change that, with the tokens following a similar mechanism to stETH and wstETH.

Liquid Blast ETH

• What did I say about anything that can be liquid staked will be liquid staked? Well, Blast is no exception. unshETH, a liquid staking protocol has launched Liquid Blast ETH.

• Any ETH deposited into Blast’s bridge contract is currently locked until February, so any user who wants some extra liquidity will now be able to do so at a small fee.

The Backpack team

The Backpack team has been shipping like crazy. They’ve recently launched an exchange, where users can stake SOL to access certain token launches. MadLads, their NFT collection, is on an absolute tear, acting as ultra-high beta to the recent $SOL pump.

But here’s a piece that degens may be missing. Solana doesn’t have a launchpad for new token launches. Backpack has an exchange license pending in Japan. And Japan recently announced that it will allow companies to raise funds through an ICO. See where I’m going with this? If the Backpack team has such plans to become the token launchpad of Solana on its own exchange in a legally compliant manner, that’s about as bullish as it gets. And without a token, you can bet that all value currently flows to the MadLads NFT collection.

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