The DeFi Investor 🔎

Memecoin season is coming to an end.

Pump Fun's weekly trading volume is at the lowest point in the past 9 months.

If you're into memecoins, pivot to utility coins.

How to spot hot narratives early

In this article I cover:

• My strategy using Dexu AI
• What to look for in projects
• This week's DeFi news

Check it out here:
https://www.thedefinvestor.com/p/how-to-spot-new-trends-early

The latest DeFi developments👇

Arbitrum DAO approved an 80M $ARB DeFi Incentive Program

Chainlink partnered with Mastercard to enable cardholders to purchase crypto directly on-chain

Jupiter Exchange released Radar - an aggregator feed that alerts you when you get an airdrop or there’s a change to your DeFi positions

Republic will soon enable investing in companies such as SpaceX on-chain on Solana

AAVE DAO voted to expand to Aptos as part of its first non-EVM deployment

KiiChain, an on-chain FX layer for stablecoins and RWA, launched its Oro Testnet

GTE, an orderbook DEX built for MegaETH L2, raised $15M in funding

Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced that banks are now free to provide banking services to the crypto industry

Celestia Co-founder proposed replacing its PoS consensus mechanism with a new system called Proof of Governance

Fragmetric, a Solana liquid restaking protocol, introduced its FRAG token and announced a 10% token airdrop

Veda, a yield infrastructure protocol, raised $18M in funding

Ethereal, an all-in-one DEX built on Ethena’s own L1, released its testnet

DIA, a trustless oracle network, released its DIA staking mechanism

X is planning to roll out in-app trading and investing

If you enjoyed reading this, a like and a retweet would be much appreciated🫡

Many people don't realize how lucky we are to be part of this industry.

While some crypto degens debate if "$10M is enough to retire", most people in the world live paycheck to paycheck.

I'm forever grateful to crypto for the opportunities it provides.

Just got this stimmy from @moonberg_ai

If you're active on CT, it might be worth checking if you're eligible too:

1. Create an account on Moonberg
2. Connect your X account
3. See if you're eligible for any rewards

What went wrong with Berachain?

It was one of the hottest L1s at the beginning of 2025.

Despite this, its TVL is down 80% from ATH - only 5 months after TGE.

DEX to CEX Spot Trade Volume is back at all-time highs.

It's up over 100% in the past year alone.

DeFi keeps winning.

A massive green flag for a project is a team that is very active on X.

I'd even say this is a key reason why projects like AAVE and Pendle succeded.

No one is better at promoting a product than the team that actually built it.

If I were joining crypto now with almost no money, this would be my strategy:

• Start growing an X account
• Create content about a few projects with Kaito leaderboards
• Start a high-paying side hustle at the same time for some extra income
• farm testnet airdrops and airdrops on Solana & Sui
• Send DMs and interact with X accounts I appreciate to build my network

Many people make this mistake (which I did too when I joined this space):

They have a portfolio worth somewhere between $1k and $10k, and they spend most of their time investing that money, hoping to get rich in this way.

What they should do instead is to focus on increasing their income.

The probability of turning 4 figures into millions via investing alone is close to 0.

But your chances of making it increase exponentially if you get some solid income streams first and save money every month to invest.

Top L2s by mindshare:

1. Arbitrum - 24%
2. Base - 12%
3. Polygon - 10%

Pretty impressive to see Arbitrum having 2x more mindshare than Base.

Tariff wars ended.

The Middle East war is over.

Rate cuts could come as soon as July.

It might finally be time for BTC and altcoins to have a relief rally.

Many of the top DeFi projects were born during brutal market conditions.

Hyperliquid, Uniswap, and Curve Finance are just a few examples.

Pay attention to the teams that keep shipping regardless of market direction.

What we asked for:
• altseason

What we got:
• BTC dominance at 66%
• a new war in the Middle East
• several presidential memecoins
• stocks surging while crypto goes down

🥲

Crypto Watchlist for the week ahead:

$BTC - All eyes on Iran to see if they retaliate

$INJ - Injective Summit starts on June 26. Its team might drop a big announcement during it

$BERA - Berachain will start refocusing on revenue generation in the next weeks

$HOME - DeFi App will release details regarding its S2 airdrop next week

Infinex - Infinex is expected to make a big announcement on June 24 (probably about Infinex Connect)

$SNX - Synthetix Exchange will soon go live on Ethereum Mainnet

$BLAST - $23M worth of BLAST (34% of its circ. supply) will be unlocked on June 26

If you enjoyed reading this, a like and a repost would be appreciated🫡

There are now 100+ Ethereum L2s.

Some are innovating, but most are just copycat L2s. They exist because infra projects get a lot of funding from VCs.

Cypto needs fewer blockchains and more killer dApps.

Circle's $CRCL stock performance is wild.

It did almost a 7x in 15 days after its IPO.

Would be very nice if TradFi investors start buying our altcoins next.

Unpopular opinion: Projects should stop chasing tier-1 CEX listings.

The fees that some exchanges charge are outrageous. In many cases projects pay 5-8% of their token supply just to secure a CEX listing.

One more reason why DeFi has to win.

The latest developments in DeFi👇

Uniswap is considering activating the fee switch this summer

AAVE introduced the AAVE V4 architecture

Mantle introduced UR - an on-chain neobank that enables users to spend and save across crypto and fiat

INFINIT announced their next major launch, enabling complex DeFi strategy execution via one-click, powered by AI agent swarms

Bybit introduced Byreal - their own DEX that is launching on Solana

Eigenlayer introduced EigenCloud - a platform for verifiable apps, services, and AI, built on EigenLayer

JPMorgan, the world’s largest bank, announced the upcoming launch of its JPMD stablecoin on Base L2

Altitude, a protocol that optimizes DeFi loans, went live on the mainnet. cbBTC and wstETH holders can now borrow USDC with a 0% loan APY using it

Arbitrum L2 has activated Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade

Rumpel, the point tokenization protocol, expanded to HyperEVM

U.S. Senate has finally passed the pro-stablecoin GENIUS Act

Kaito AI has implemented some major algorithm upgrades to crack down on engagement farming

Infinex wallet has integrated Avalanche L1

Coinbase is seeking SEC approval to offer tokenized stocks in the U.S.

If you enjoyed reading this, a like and a retweet would be much appreciated🫡

My current airdrop farming playbook

I compiled a list of my favorite stablecoin airdrop opportunities.

Here are the airdrops I'm focusing on👇

GM. My plan for this week:

• Look for airdrops to farm on Solana
• Buy some $KAITO if it dips <$1
• Participate in the Virtuals launch of @useBackroom tomorrow
• Play around with @Infinit_Labs Intelligence Terminal
• Try out Jupiter's new portfolio tracker

Let's get it🤝