1/ Quality data is the backbone of quality research

In our research workflow, @tokenterminal is the foundation we build on every week

At the start of each week, when drafting long-form reports, TT is always the first stop 🧵 2/ Token Terminal metrics help us validate insights, prioritize theses, structure comparisons, and add depth to every research product we deliver

See how we use them across our different reports👇

Today, we've released a new Thesis report on $ENA.

$ENA is a kingmaker bet: Converge unites yield, compliance, dApps; fees and flows accrue to staked ENA via fee switch.

As the largest yield-bearing stablecoin, Ethena has already amassed a liquidity moat 👇 Right now, the largest yield-bearing stablecoin float, @ethena_labs is expanding its revenue sources with an appeal to both retail and institutions, all while maintaining a lean stature.

DeFi protocols are racing to position themselves ahead of institutional adoption.

Last week AAVE unveiled Horizon, an initiative geared toward bringing institutional investors into DeFi.

Horizon enables RWAs (treasuries, securities, etc.) to serve as collateral on AAVE...👇 The core value proposition? Institutional reach.

Right now, most onchain DeFi liquidity comes from crypto-native users–but this could change sooner than you think.

HyperLiquid has channeled their talents toward the L1 space, releasing HyperEVM.

To see the same success as Hyperliquid perps, attracting top talent and teams to the chain will be key.

Here are some protocols and earning opportunities on HyperEVM 👇 .@hyperunit - Native Asset Tokenization

Unit is the first asset tokenization layer on Hyperliquid, enabling deposits and withdrawals of native spot majors onto the HyperEVM.

They started with native $BTC on the HyperEVM, seeing $500M+ in volume.

https://x.com/chameleon_jeff/status/1890443240186462684

$AAVE is a DeFi staple, revolutionizing onchain lending & inspiring money markets across chains.

Now Aavenomics looks to revampt $AAVE tokenomics, redistribute protocol revenue via buybacks, & more... 👇

https://twitter.com/aave/status/1896940185469984901

The Aave team has recently presented the latest version of the Aavenomics proposal.

One of the key points outlined is the initiation of a 'Buy & Distribute' program, essentially token buybacks.

https://x.com/lemiscate/status/1896897365145235752

U.S. Crypto Reserve–sell the news or worth the hype?

Trump made waves over the weekend, announcing the U.S. Crypto Reserve, a new term separate from the Strategic $BTC Reserve...

$BTC quickly jumped to $95K, though this might not be the announcement traders are looking for 👇 Trump's U.S. Crypto Reserve post confirms the President’s desire for the Federal government to establish holdings of crypto, and it extends the possibilities for what assets might be in this reserve beyond Bitcoin.

GEODNET has just raised an $8M $GEOD strategic round.

Led by Multicoin Capital with participation from PariFi and DACM, this $GEOD token sale raise reflects institutions doubling down on robotics as the vehicle where AI can have the most impact 👇 We first covered @GEODNET_ back in July, before releasing our Perspective report in October last year.

For those unfamiliar, GEODNET is actually the world’s largest Real-Time Kinematics (RTK) network, enhancing GPS accuracy by 100x.

New chains & tokens are launching left and right.

Notably, Monad's testnet has now gone live.

After raising the largest Series A in crypto last year ($225M), Monad is gearing up for launch 👇

https://x.com/monad_xyz/status/1892227817149997212

Of the new generation of chains launching this cycle, @monad_xyz has raised the most; $253M in total.

Monad looks to differentiate itself in 2 key ways: tech and ecosystem.

The MegaETH Fluffles mint will soon take place.

The way this mint was handled reflects something the Ethereum ecosystem needs–an adaptable operating team in touch with crypto natives...

MegaETH stands out for its tech, culture/community & budding ecosystem 👇 1. Tech

MegaETH is a high-performance Ethereum L2 is focused on community & boasts 100K+ TPS & sub 10-ms block times, aiming for 1-ms.

There is emphasis on making Ethereum 'real time', mitigating most latency concerns with a portable sequencer, and centralized block production.

DeepSeek is destabilizing TradFi & Crypto markets, creating a lot of volatility.

Through the noise, AI agents might be the sector poised to gain the most from this development 👇 We first covered DeepSeek’s impact on the AI space in last week’s Ailea Bulletin.

But the havoc in markets caused by this news has just started recently, with markets just reacting in the pre-market session.

Stablecoin adoption is exploding.

Big businesses outside crypto are jumping in.

And the biggest but also most controversial stablecoin is still leading the charge: $USDT

https://twitter.com/USDT0_to/status/1879921612838805583

Silicon Valley isn’t just betting on AI agents this year—stablecoins are a prime target, though less flashy.

Top VCs like a16z and Y Combinator are doubling down on stables as a key 2025 theme.

DeFAI is quickly progressing with @heyanonai looking to become the chain abstraction layer for the sector.

Now AUTOMATE aims to attract more protocols to join the Hey Anon ecosystem & make DeFi more accessible.

First, a primer on what $ANON is building 👇

https://twitter.com/HeyAnonai/status/1878468256454893769

The DeFAI sector is all customization, giving each person a customized AI agent that already masters everything on-chain: from sourcing information to executing transactions as you instruct it to; and it can also adapt autonomously over time.

While the markets are red, a few AI agent names are up big with $PROJECT89 being one of them.

@project_89 was another one of the projects we previously covered back in November.

Here's the lore behind $PROJECT89 👇 Parallels can be drawn between Project 89 & Cicada 3301.

Cicada 3301 is one of the internet’s most enduring enigmas.

Emerging in 2012, an anonymous image was posted to a 4chan forum with the following message:

In a world driven by data, @cookiedotfun is building a decentralized, modular intelligence layer that transforms raw information into actionable insights.

With a fleet of AI agents & $COOKIE token, it’s reshaping the connection between crypto, data, &AI... Cookie DAO is a decentralized organization that creates advanced data aggregation infrastructure for AI agents.

Its flagship product, the Cookie Data Swarm, uses specialized agents to gather, label, & analyze massive amounts of social and on-chain data.

https://x.com/cookiedotfun/status/1875211985194766554

1/ Ethena's 2025 Roadmap just dropped

They're going after TradFi's $190T fixed income market with a plan to bridge DeFi & TradFi.

Why $ENA could be DeFi's biggest story this year 👇🧵 2/ The $190T fixed income markets dwarf everything we've seen in crypto. The Australian debt market alone is bigger than the entire crypto market cap. That's just one country with 0.5% of the world's population.

Think about that scale for a moment.

The Nothing token by @SHL0MS can often be found at the top of the smart engagement charts on @cookiedotfun.

The @god & @s8n accounts see massive engagement each day due to their large follower counts.

https://twitter.com/AleaResearch/status/1866978426315583910

Now, other developers & teams have also caught onto the concept of acquiring culturally significant twitter handles & creating their own agents to increase engagement, though motivations may differ.

Financial markets went through a whipsaw this past week, especially crypto.

The second-to-last week of December turned red for U.S. financial markets, after the words spoken by FED Chairman Jerome Powell on slowing the rate reduction path to regain some balance in the economy👇 After several weeks of optimistic bias, some (short-lived) fear was put back in the markets, as clearly shown by the VIX (the SPX volatility index), which spiked to over 30 points.

One of the leading agents by mindshare is literally 'Nothing'.

$" ", a $SOL token with no token name, has climbed to a $75M+ marketcap because of its unique 'Antimeme' take on Crypto x AI.

$" " is tied to the @god & @s8n accounts 🧵👇 Most memes, as well as AI agent tokens, thrive off of attention.

$" ", by @SHL0MS does sort of the opposite, making the token intentionally hard to find & giving cryptic clues as to what is the purpose of this AI agent experiment.

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1866888704171602116

1/ Last month we published our bullish Market Intel on $ai16z where we predicted potential rotation from memetic to infrastructure value.

Today, $ai16z at $730M mcap has flipped $GOAT and is up 4x since our report release. 2/ The sentiment flip on $GOAT to all-time lows coincided with rising developer activity on $ai16z.

With 1000+ forks of ELIZA in under 2 months, we're seeing a clear shift from narrative to fundamental value capture.

Last week was a big one for majors - $BTC hit $100K, and $ETH was able to touch the $4K mark.

We're also heading into the final weeks of the year, which could spark some volatility in the two largest crypto assets.

So how did ETFs perform this week? Last week saw spot Bitcoin ETFs net outflows of around $135M.

This was significant, as it marked the first time that $ETH ETFs flows were greater than those of $BTC.

This trend reversed this time around, with inflows totaling a massive $2.7B during $BTC's $100K week.

It's the final month of the year, with time ticking for $BTC to hit the $100K mark before EOY.

Recently, some crypto natives have been surprised by the tokens outperforming.

And to many's surprise last week, $ETH ETFs actually flipped $BTC ETFs in net inflows... 🧵👇 In the third week of November, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw inflows totaling $3.36 billion.

Last week, however, the trend reversed, with net outflows of around $135M.

The majority of these outflows occurred on November 25th, coinciding with a 5% pullback in Bitcoin’s price.