Why Does It Matters?
ETFs (ETH & BTC) have attracted significant capital inflows since launch. In the future, if ETH-related services become legalized, this could drive even more capital into the space as investors look to optimize their ETH holdings.
In addition, many projects in this category are already generating sustainable revenue, which is a strong plus.
Key Projects
Some key DeFi projects I’m watching:
DEXs
Uniswap: The leading DEX on Ethereum, backed by a large community and sustainable revenue.
Hyperliquid: An L1-based DEX with high volume and revenue, among the top DEXs today with a strong trader community.
Aerodrome: The main DEX on Base (the #1 L2 currently), generating sustainable revenue and strongly supported by Base.
PancakeSwap: The flagship DEX on BSC, with a massive community, high volume, and strong support from Binance & CZ.
Axiom (no token yet): A top DEX on Solana with very high volume and revenue, supported by a strong trader community.
Flying Tulip (no token yet): Product not yet launched, but built by Andre Cronje (a DeFi legend) and strongly backed by the Sonic ecosystem (formerly Fantom).
Lending & Borrowing
AAVE: The largest player in this niche, with high revenue, a large user base, deep liquidity, strong security, and multi-chain support.
Morpho: A newer platform that has already attracted strong capital inflows, ranking as the #2 lending and borrowing platform by both lending and borrowing volume.
We expect that if alt season arrives, large investors will still hold their ETH or BTC, supply them into lending & borrowing platforms, and borrow stablecoins to buy other assets or arbitrage trading through DEXs. This is why we strongly believe in these projects.
2/ Liquid Staking & Restaking
Why Does It Matters?
Another critical theme is capital efficiency for ETH holders. Instead of simply holding ETH, investors are turning to liquid staking and restaking protocols to generate additional yield.
Key Projects
Lido: The largest liquid staking platform with over $37B TVL.
Eigenlayer: The leading restaking platform with over $18B TVL. Its new product, Eigencloud, could become the backbone for multiple industries including DeFi and AI.
Etherfi: Built on Eigenlayer, with a strong community, solid revenue, and diverse features.
This niche is positioned to attract large amounts of capital by optimizing returns for ETH holders.
3/ Bridge TradFi to Web3 Space: Stablecoin
Why Does It Matters?
The stablecoin market cap is growing rapidly as more and more projects launch in this niche. In both traditional and crypto markets, stablecoins serve as the backbone, acting as a safe asset that most investors hold and use to purchase the majority of assets in the market.
Currently, the stablecoin market cap has increased by 68.4%, from $170.524B to $287.224B over the past year.
(Source: Defillama)
Key Projects
Ethena: Established USDe with wide adoption across many well-known platforms; currently ranks 3rd by market cap.
Ondo: Launched USDY and is backed by many well-known traditional partners. Ondo also introduced a global market for U.S. stocks, becoming the first platform to do so.
World Liberty Financial: Established USD1, strongly supported by the Trump family.
How To Skin In The Game?
Recently, we analyzed some whale strategies where they withdrew their altcoins from CEXs and deposited them into lending & borrowing platforms to borrow stablecoins.
At this point, several strategies can be applied:
Strategy 1: Deposit the borrowed stablecoins to CEXs and create a leverage loop to maximize returns during a bull market (a common whale strategy).
Strategy 2: Provide liquidity in DEX pools to earn trading fees and incentives (with the added possibility of receiving airdrops if the project hasn’t launched one yet) or engage in arbitrage trading.
Strategy 3: Convert to bear-assets and deposit them into Pendle to receive PT or YT tokens → earn APY from the platform plus Pendle incentives → deposit PT-assets into AAVE to further optimize returns.
Risks & Considerations
While the narratives above are strong, investors should also be mindful of:
Regulatory hurdle:, especially around ETFs, staking, and securities classifications.
Smart contract risks: Hacks and exploits remain a persistent threat in DeFi.
Liquidity fragmentation: Too many protocols chasing the same liquidity can dilute yields and create instability.
Market volatility could make your assets on lending & borrowing will be liquidated.
4/ AttentionFi
What is AttentionFi?
AttentionFi is a new crypto framework that financializes attention, turning it into a measurable and tradable asset. In the era of information overload, attention is a scarce and highly valuable resource - whoever controls attention, controls narratives and capital flows.
The mechanism: AttentionFi uses prediction markets to let users bet directly on attention, sentiment, or narrative “hotness.” Instead of just price betting, you long/short attention indexes built from social data (X, Reddit, YouTube, etc.). Platforms like @TrendleFi enable trading these indexes, @azuroprotocol provides liquidity/infrastructure, and data/AI is supplied by @KaitoAI, @DexCheck_io.
Why should you watch?
This is a brand-new, not-yet-mainstream narrative with big viral potential if embraced by the crypto community.
AttentionFi leverages the AI/data wave, where sentiment and narrative are increasingly quantified - early adopters can hunt for airdrops, try new products, or benefit from ecosystem growth.
Access to unique products and strategies beyond traditional DeFi or memecoins, adding portfolio diversity.
Fast-growing ecosystem, many projects have no token yet - opportunities for early access, whitelist, or testnet rewards.
Key Players
@TrendleFi: Decentralized prediction markets for attention (betting on narrative/hype, not price).
@azuroprotocol: Infrastructure & liquidity layer for AttentionFi markets.
@KaitoAI, @DexCheck_io: Mindshare and sentiment index providers;
@wallchainxyz, @noisexyz: AI-powered attention tracking and long/short trend tools.
How to Get Involved
Follow @TrendleFi for beta invite codes (no token/presale yet, testnet planned for late Sep 2025).
Join @azuroprotocol community, and use @KaitoAI, @DexCheck_io to track attention indexes.
When platforms are live, try trading attention indexes with a wallet - start small to test sentiment bets.
Risks
Susceptible to manipulation (bots, interest groups), narratives can fade quickly.
Legal risks with prediction markets and privacy/data issues.
Early-stage, no token yet: high rug-pull/opportunity risk.
