Yannis

Crypto feels draining lately. Weeks going nowhere, then another leg down. With so much uncertainty, I get why people hesitate to put fresh money in. Even I’ve been looking elsewhere, including Pokémon cards. There’s always something competing for a degen’s attention and capital. I still believe the market will turn. Periods like this can offer some of the best opportunities, even when buying feels uncomfortable. That’s why I’m still holding.

Gm legends 🍂

Ethereum already has $13.4B in active RWAs onchain. As more of those assets become usable collateral, DeFi’s lending market has room to get a lot bigger. Ondo, Securitize, Centrifuge and Superstate already have substantial assets on Ethereum. Getting those assets into lending markets is where this starts to get interesting. Ondo’s SPYon, QQQon and TSLAon can already back stablecoin loans on Euler. SPYon and QQQon are also live on Morpho. You keep the exposure and borrow against it. That gives lending markets more types of collateral and lets holders borrow against portfolios they already want to own. It also creates demand for the liquidity, oracles and risk management needed to make those markets work. @DefiLlama currently tracks about 18% of that active RWA AUM as deployed in DeFi. Utilization is ~7% for Ondo’s Ethereum assets versus ~31% for Centrifuge. Their products and access rules differ, so the percentages need to be read in that context. I’m bullish on tokenization becoming a bigger part of Ethereum’s economy. The assets are already onchain, and more of them can become usable across lending, trading and vaults as integrations expand. For ethereum:0xfaba6f8e4a5e8ab82f62fe7c39859fa577269be3 and the other RWA tokens, I’d still check where the fees end up. AUM growth can be real while token holders capture very little of it.

Aerodrome + Velodrome are now Aero. And yes, even existing base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 holders need to migrate. The merged protocol launches across seven chains, with a new AERO token and sAERO replacing veAERO/veVELO. Weekly voting becomes continuous allocation. sAERO holders direct rewards to pools and earn a share of their exchange revenue as it comes in. There’s a 47-hour cooldown between allocation changes at launch. If you hold tokens or positions in your own wallet: > AERO: manually upgrade 1:1 to the new token. > VELO: converts at roughly 0.044 AERO per token. Upgrade from OP Mainnet; receive the new AERO on Base. > veAERO/veVELO: retrieve your NFT from any Relay or vault, claim rewards and rebases, reset votes, then upgrade to sAERO. Your remaining lock carries over, rounded up to the next full week. > LPs: migrate to eligible Aero pools to keep earning emissions. Old ALM positions won’t move automatically. Use the upgrade portals on aerodrome.finance or velodrome.finance. CEX holders should follow their exchange’s migration notice. No fixed upgrade deadline, but old emissions have stopped and conversion is irreversible. Using Autopilot? Its first allocation is scheduled for 16:00 UTC today. Allocating manually beforehand triggers the cooldown. Seven chains gives Aero more room to grow. I’ll be watching whether fee revenue keeps up with the incentives needed to attract liquidity. Official migration guide in the first reply.

Lighter is doing almost 30% of Hyperliquid’s perp volume, with roughly 10% of its open interest. I still give Hyperliquid the edge today. But Lighter has enough activity and distribution to take seriously. DefiLlama’s numbers on 17 October: • 30d perp volume: $214.6B for Hyperliquid vs $63.9B for Lighter • One-sided open interest: $7.6B vs $748M • 30d protocol fees: $88.2M vs $5.94M Hyperliquid’s lead goes from 3.4x on volume to around 15x on reported fees. Those fee totals cover more than perp trading. Hyperliquid includes spot activity and USDC reserve yield; Lighter includes liquidation fees. They aren’t a clean comparison of trading fee rates. Lighter’s Standard account charges zero maker/taker fees on ordinary orders, with 300ms taker latency. That’s a credible offer for fee-sensitive traders, although spreads, fills and funding still determine the total cost. It also has Robinhood Wallet distribution. The Robinhood Chain deployment contributes about a quarter of Lighter’s 30d perp volume. I’d watch how much of that activity stays when rewards change. Hyperliquid is getting easier for institutions to access through Copper and Ripple Prime. Ripple names Virtu among its RWA swap clients, but those clients face Ripple Prime. The announcement doesn’t tell us how much hedging reaches Hyperliquid. Lighter has options teased and an EVM at devnet stage. Both could bring more activity, but I’m waiting to see usage once they ship. LIT also has team and investor unlocks starting 29 December, at roughly 3.19M tokens per week. For now, Hyperliquid has the stronger business. I’d become more constructive on Lighter if its distribution brings sustained growth in open interest and fee-paying activity. Busy volume alone wouldn’t convince me on ethereum:0x232ce3bd40fcd6f80f3d55a522d03f25df784ee2.