"Weekly Editor's Picks" is a "functional" column of Odaily Planet Daily. Based on the extensive coverage of real-time information each week, the Planet Daily also publishes many high-quality in-depth analysis articles, but they may be hidden among the information flow and trending news, passing you by.
Therefore, our editorial team will select some quality articles worth spending time reading and saving from the content published in the past 7 days every Saturday, providing you with new insights from the perspectives of data analysis, industry judgment, and opinion output, as you navigate the crypto world.
Now, let's read together:
Investment and Entrepreneurship
Learning from Traditional Companies: How Do Crypto Projects Allocate Profits?
Revenue is not the goal but a means to achieve long-term viability. Understanding how to allocate FCF is more critical than knowing when to reinvest it for growth, when to share it with token holders, and the best allocation methods (such as buybacks or dividends). These decisions are likely to determine the success or failure of founders aiming to create lasting value.
Referencing the equity market is helpful for making these decisions effectively. Traditional companies often allocate FCF through dividends and buybacks. Factors such as company maturity, industry, profitability, growth potential, market conditions, and shareholder expectations all influence these decisions.
Recently, buybacks have become more favored than dividends. Buybacks are more flexible, while dividends are sticky. Even direct profit-sharing models must be handled cautiously to avoid being classified as securities, balancing the rewards for token holders with regulatory compliance. Sufficient capital reserves should be in place before initiating buybacks or dividends.
Projects need to provide token holders with ample reasons to hold on and reasons for non-holders to buy. Strong IR practices bring strategic advantages that go beyond transparency. They reduce volatility by decreasing information asymmetry, expand the investor base by making it easier for institutional capital to enter, cultivate long-term holders who understand operational conditions and can withstand market cycle fluctuations, and build community trust that can help projects weather tough times.
The Alienation of the Crypto Circle: When "Selling Coins" Becomes the Only Business
Projects no longer pursue users and products, and VCs no longer study trends and tracks; the entire market is left with one voice shouting, "How to sell coins?" Today, the innovation path in the crypto circle has turned into: "Tell a nice story → Quickly package it → Find connections to list it → Cash out and run."
Market participants are extremely homogeneous, all trying to squeeze the increasingly scarce funds in the crypto circle. Leading resource parties (top projects, major exchanges and their listing departments, resource-strong MMs and agencies) have formed an unbreakable interest community, with the blood of the crypto circle flowing from LPs to VCs, from VCs to top projects, and the other end being infiltrated by retail investors in the secondary market, feeding these parasitic organizations of the interest community, which then grow larger.
Overly Betting on Public Chains: Crypto VCs Are Limiting the Future of the Crypto Industry
Economic incentives still favor investing in new L1s and L2s rather than protocols.
This imbalance can be addressed in three ways:
Protocol valuations must rise: The market needs to reflect the actual value and utility of top protocols.
L1/L2 investments must decrease: If the valuation of chains declines, capital allocation will naturally shift towards protocols.
Protocols become their own chains: This trend began with the recent actions of HyperLiquid and Uniswap.
Reflections from Berachain's Founder: Don't Let Tokens Drag Your Project Down
The article discusses the recent phenomenon of multiple projects issuing tokens within the Berachain ecosystem and warns founders against blindly issuing tokens. Tokens should drive growth when the product achieves market fit; otherwise, it may affect user adoption. In a sluggish market with limited community funds, a drop in token prices can damage product image. Token issuance should avoid competing at the same time, ensure reasonable valuations, and focus on long-term value rather than short-term exits. The author supports Berachain's development but emphasizes that success requires patience and strategy, advising the team to prioritize profitability and user growth.
Policies and Regulations
Latest Interpretation by Web3 Lawyers: Can DAO Organizations Issue Tokens as RWA Subjects?
The UAE and the US have clear laws and regulations regarding DAO organizations. Countries like the Marshall Islands and Malta have also introduced laws related to DAO organizations.
If a DAO organization exists solely on-chain without a corresponding legal entity off-chain, then such a DAO cannot directly serve as the token issuance subject for RWA projects. Legal wrapping (Legal Wrapper) of the DAO must be conducted in the early stages of the project. This is because an on-chain DAO organization as a token issuer faces tax risks and is likely unable to pass financial compliance checks by relevant financial institutions. The so-called "legal wrapping" specifically involves establishing a separate legal entity, such as a limited liability company or foundation, and transferring some functions of the DAO organization to the off-chain legal entity through agreements or specific structural designs, ultimately completing the token issuance.
Stablecoins
The Hottest Trend: How to Achieve Revenue in Stablecoin Startups?
The market leaders in stablecoins are "transaction-oriented," merely scratching the surface of a potentially larger use case, while the undervalued narrative is "investment-oriented" stablecoins, driven by broader crypto-native returns. They have replaced traditional treasuries, becoming the perfect channel for stable crypto yields. Cryptocurrencies can serve as an excellent source of alpha, with a global asset base. However, two main obstacles still hinder the growth of this potential: scalability and risk.
To enhance the scalability of revenue sources supporting stablecoin returns, the most scalable sources must be chosen, and the number of revenue sources must be increased—Delta-neutral strategies serve as a good revenue source, primarily relying on perpetual futures, and the futures market is vast. Additionally, there needs to be more diversification across underlying assets and exchanges.
Risk control solutions isolate risks into a separate tool that absorbs potential losses, essentially selling these risks to the market in the form of high-yield RLP tokens.
By involving third parties in revenue generation (as strategy initiators or risk managers), Resolv is expanding network effects and building a "horizontal moat."
Currently, there are mainly two execution methods in the DeFi space: dictatorial and committee-based. This article also introduces a third type—the self-reinforcing yield mechanism being pioneered by the Cap team. Third-category stablecoins represent a shift away from human subjective decision-making towards an automatically executed system of mutual rewards and penalties. In a sense, they resemble a protocol rather than a traditional hedge fund. Immutable rules set by smart contracts replace the process of capital allocation and recourse handled by human decision-makers.
The core motivation for adopting third-category stablecoins is to enhance security and reduce latency. Users are protected at the smart contract level, allowing them to check the code to verify the recourse mechanism when strategies fail. Furthermore, the response speed to strategy switches in the open market has significantly increased, enabling rapid adjustments to market dynamics. This allows third-category stablecoins to fully leverage market forces and quickly deploy multiple parallel yield strategies.
Web3's New Tale of Two Cities: Stablecoins and Money Market Funds
The regulatory battle over stablecoins is reminiscent of what money market funds (MMFs) experienced half a century ago. MMFs initially provided cash management for businesses but faced criticism for lacking deposit insurance and being prone to runs, affecting bank stability and monetary policy. Nevertheless, MMF assets have now exceeded $7.2 trillion. The 2008 financial crisis led to the collapse of the Reserve Fund, and in 2023, the SEC is still pushing for MMF regulatory reforms. The history of MMFs suggests that stablecoins may face similar regulatory challenges but could ultimately become an essential part of the financial system.
Circle's IPO Aiming for a $5 Billion Valuation: Is There a Concept Stock for Stablecoins?
To understand Circle's IPO plans, one must mention the success of its partner Coinbase. The relationship between Coinbase and Circle goes beyond ordinary cooperation. In 2018, the two companies jointly launched USDC. As Circle's core product, the issuance and management of USDC rely on Coinbase's support, and Coinbase has vigorously promoted USDC through its platform.
Currently, USDT holds the top position with a market cap of about $140 billion, while USDC follows closely with $60 billion. Although there is still a gap in market share, Circle is gradually narrowing the distance with Tether due to its compliance and transparency.
The stablecoin bill is boosting the IPO of stablecoins. Circle's IPO may become a bellwether for the development of the stablecoin industry. As the global regulatory environment gradually clarifies, stablecoins are entering a golden age of compliance and institutionalization.
Also recommended: "A Comprehensive Overview of the Latest US Stablecoin Draft: 15 Questions and Answers".
Airdrop Opportunities and Interaction Guide
Initia's airdrop strategy rejects PUA, avoids showboating, and returns to a simple user operation mindset, allowing users to feel the long-termism.
In the current industry, a good airdrop is nothing more than: transparency (rules are verifiable), contributions are quantifiable (fair), yields are accumulative (long-termism), value can diffuse (ecosystem binding), and commitments can be fulfilled (integrity).
A deeper reflection lies in how project parties and capital view users—as traffic or as assets. If you do not treat users as assets to operate but merely as traffic, then this opposition, distortion, and even rights protection will not cease.
The crypto industry is still in the cold start phase, and airdrops remain a necessary market tool.
Also recommended: "What Did Initia Do Right in Its Airdrop? CEO Breaks Down the Details, Accurately Incentivizing True Contributors", "How to Raise Over $18.75 Million: A Deep Dive into Berachain's Unique Leader Infrared", "Interaction Tutorial | How to Participate in BigBang and NFT Plans Backed by CZ's Endorsement?", "Decoding Wayfinder's Potential Airdrop: Is It Too Late to Interact? What Are the Participation Methods?", "Airdrop Weekly | Ethena Season 3 Airdrop Opens for Query Next Week; LayerZero CEO Reveals Second Round Airdrop Plan (3.24-3.30)"
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Bitcoin punks and .sats domains inspired the birth of BRC-20. Domo felt immense pressure after BRC-20 exploded in popularity.
When Casey made significant upgrades to the Ordinals protocol, Domo's primary concern was security, stating, "Some of the new upgrades did not improve the protocol and could pose risks to us. Ultimately, due to a lack of communication, the debate among indexers caused some turmoil, but UniSat reached a compromise. I appreciate everyone's cooperation; everyone agreed that any form of fork would not be in the best interest of the community, and we found a solution that met everyone's needs and interests. Later, to avoid similar situations in the future, we created the Layer 1 Foundation, whose best use is to establish some governance rules so that we can handle these decisions more intelligently in the future. UniSat and Best In Slot are the main maintainers of this organization, collaborating with each other. I am very satisfied with this outcome; open-source protocols should be like this. Over time, the founder's ideas may not always be the best; better technology, more experience, and more people dedicated to the protocol joining are what make it healthy."
The current priority is to ensure the survival of BRC-20 assets.
Programmable modules and "Single step transfer" can help BRC-20 better integrate into other ecosystems, so users do not have to "hang themselves on one tree" with BRC20, making the assets being created the objects that need support, rather than the standard itself. Single step transfer can abstract wallets, solving the issue of the number of Bitcoin wallets. It will not only enhance user experience but also make BRC20 easier to access other systems than before. Many current cross-chain bridge designs remain overly complex for users, who are accustomed to sending UTXOs, experiencing something akin to a simple cross-chain bridge lock.
Ethereum and Scalability
Despite the lackluster ETH price, the ecosystem remains highly decentralized, with both old investors and newcomers steadfast in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Ethereum at a Crossroads: To Go or to Hold On?
Multi-Ecosystem and Cross-Chain
Ten Thousand Words Research Report: The Evolution of MEV on Solana and Its Pros and Cons
True competitiveness will shift to the data islands of order flow. For example, Jupiter has already captured over 80% of the DEX market share, making its order flow the most sought-after. It will depend on how it balances providing the best price versus randomly selecting "lucky geese" to extract profits, even at the cost of some brand reputation.
Some more cutting-edge explorations: starting from privacy trading, from fair trading, and protocol-level improvements to PBS.
CeFi & DeFi
The Truth About Liquidity: A Study on the Impact of Exchange Listings in 2024
The choice of exchanges for listings significantly affects listing performance. Top exchanges often have a greater price increase advantage compared to mid-sized exchanges during favorable market conditions. The South Korean market has a unique environment with high trading volume and good liquidity, allowing tokens to quickly attract funds after listing. The token screening process of exchanges directly impacts the market performance of tokens and overall market stability.
Also recommended: "Lazy Financial Management Guide | Focus on Berachain, Raise Resolv Airdrop Expectations (March 31)."
Weekly Hotspot Recap
In the past week, the White House launched a Tariff War; Sun Yuchen accused of being defrauded of $456 million by FDT (Event Details);
Additionally, in terms of policy and macro markets, Arthur Hayes and BitMEX co-founders received Trump's Pardon; the US government is expected to disclose its holdings of Bitcoin and other crypto assets on April 5; the SEC and Gemini applied to pause litigation for 60 days to seek a settlement; influenced by trade and geopolitical turmoil, gold prices hit a historic high; the ChatGPT image generation feature has been opened to free users;
In terms of opinions and statements, the White House emphasized that there is no room for negotiation on tariffs; senior strategists noted that the probability of US stagflation and a bear market in US stocks is rising; Dragonfly managing partner stated that if one is not optimistic about crypto, they should short the market, and we will see the results in three years; Arthur Hayes' new article suggests Bitcoin could still reach $250,000 by the end of the year; Arthur Hayes stated that if BTC can hold above $76,500 until the April 15 tax day, it will be "out of danger"; Arthur Hayes also mentioned that tariff policies are correcting global imbalances, which is beneficial for Bitcoin; 21Shares indicated that institutions may resume buying Bitcoin, as speculative behavior has basically been eliminated; Vitalik's behavior of "learning to meow" in front of a robot has sparked community dissatisfaction; 1confirmation founder strongly supports Ethereum and Vitalik, stating that ETH is severely undervalued; Zhu Su noted that family offices are closely monitoring Michael Saylor's Bitcoin reserve strategy;
In terms of institutions, large companies, and leading projects, Hut 8 Mining and Donald Trump Jr. announced the establishment of a Bitcoin company in the U.S.; Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group will collaborate with two U.S. companies to develop stablecoins; Terraform Labs will launch a creditor claims portal on March 31, with a maximum payout of $500 million; HashKey's AI business released a technical roadmap, with its first product ModAI open for global testing; Binance Wallet introduced the feature to "trade on DEX using CEX funds"; ACT and other meme tokens experienced a flash crash of 50% (event analysis); Four.meme liquidity pool adjustments: shifting to PancakeSwap V2, burning new token LPs; due to MakerDAO adopting an oracle security module, two whales with a net position of up to $84.4 million have not yet been liquidated; Hyperliquid launched an on-chain asset delisting voting mechanism, with the first proposal to delist the MYRO perpetual contract; Babylon is about to launch its Genesis mainnet; Babylon announced its tokenomics: a total supply of 10 billion tokens, with 15% allocated for community incentives, and launched an airdrop query page; PumpBTC launched an airdrop query website, and Binance Wallet is set to launch PumpBTC (PUMP) exclusive TGE; StakeStone has opened its airdrop query website; LayerZero CEO revealed the second round airdrop plan: expected to be completely different from the first round, focusing on real usage; B² Network launched an AI-powered BTC yield mining pool called Mining Squared; Synthetix founder stated that the sUSD peg repair mechanism is in transition, having sold 90% of ETH and increased SNX holdings;
In terms of data, on March 29, the number of Solana network addresses reached nearly 11.12 million, setting a new historical high; Glassnode reported that most investors who bought BTC between 2020 and 2022 are still holding;
In terms of security, the zkLend attacker may be the same person involved in the phishing case impersonating Tornado Cash according to reports; zkLend has been monitoring new wallet addresses on the phishing site in real-time and will continue to track the stolen funds; Google reported that North Korean hackers impersonated remote employees to infiltrate a UK blockchain project; an "insider" leaked information, leading to targeted scams against Coinbase users… Yes, it has been another eventful week.
Attached is the Weekly Editor's Picks series.
See you next time~
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
