Read Time: ~6 minutes
⚡Snapshot
Are we back? Analysis.
Ethereum Pectra upgrade is live
New one-click yield optimizer
Key events this week
📖 Recommended Reads
⚡An update on the state of Solana
State of the network, onchain update, ecosystem development and more
⚡Cardano wants to be the first blockchain with a privacy stablecoin
Cardano co-founder proposes privacy-preserving stablecoins as a new crypto frontier
⚡Ethereum Pectra upgrade is live
Smart accounts, UX improvements and data storage increases now active
⚡Strategy has some competition
The Bitcoin Magazine merger planning to accumulate BTC with convertible debt
Launchpads with the highest average ROI
⚡Why are these ecosystems heating up?
Our latest Pro Monthly Zoom Call covered the two ecosystems with the most upside right now.
We also discussed AI agents and how the Treasury is viewing digital asset growth.
Get the insights: call recording right here →
🔢Onchain Analysis
Bitcoin Dominance Falls: Alt Season?
Bitcoin dominance (an up-only chart for the last 2.5 years) fell nearly 5% in five days. Today marks the lowest point for BTC.D in over a month.
Last time BTC Dominance fell this quickly was at the end of November. XRP doubled in price and ETH crossed $4k.
A lot has changed since then. After the altcoin run, BTC Dominance went on to go up 20% as ETH (and many other altcoins) went down over 50%.
This latest BTC Dominance drop is a result of ETH going up over 40% in a week and the total crypto market cap (excluding BTC) adding $250b in four days.
What’s changed?
The trade war that escalated on Liberation Day was a major cause for macro uncertainty. For now, that’s cooled off. China and the US are coming to an agreement to lower tariffs. The India <> Pakistan conflict reached a ceasefire.
ETF flows have been overwhelmingly positive for 3 weeks - investors likely saw the potential for an improvement in macro stability, and crypto is usually the fastest horse for a risk-on recovery.
Two helpful heuristics:
When Bitcoin holds steady, the market is more likely to go risk-on. Bitcoin holding $100k is a great sign.
When Ethereum does well, the altcoin market does well. Ethereum has been performing poorly for quite some time - now that’s changed, and the market is feeling a welcome rush of token buyers.
Let’s look onchain.
Weekly DEX volume has had two strong weeks in a row, back to late January & February levels. Large DEXs like Uniswap & Curve Finance saw a +60% weekly increase in DEX volume. Volume on PancakeSwap & Aerodrome doubled.
Many memes (typically good indicators for how risk-on the market is) are up 2-5x in a month, and the Virtuals ecosystem roared back.
The volume on Virtuals agents is starting to increase again. The chart below shows just how crazy the Virtuals sensation was a few months ago.
Fundraising saw a jump in April, an indicator of rising interest in the crypto ecosystem.
$2.37b in funding makes April one of the best months for crypto investments in years (aside from Binance’s $2b funding round in March).
What needs to happen for this rally to continue?
The macro situation needs to remain relatively clear, Bitcoin needs to hold up, and Ethereum needs to break the habit of pumping right before the entire market goes down.
With more projects recognizing the need for real utility within crypto, we’ll likely see new narratives over the coming months. Watch for usage growth on consumerdapps, watch flows between chains to see where money is going, check the fear and greed index to see where sentiment is, and keep an eye on BTC & ETH.
🚜Farm of the Week
YO - Set it & Forget it DeFi
YO is a multi-chain Yield Optimizer (YO) that continuously optimizes allocations to maximize yield behind the scenes. The project is brand new and has deposit caps of $10m per asset, but there are solid yields to be earned on three markets: ETH, BTC & USD.
How it Works
Connect your wallet (you’ll need to be connected to Base chain) and deposit the asset that you’d like to earn yield on. YO displays the sources of the yield, and the allocation breakdown.
Expect yield to fall slightly as deposit caps fill up.
Risks
Risk level: low
Yo uses Exponential.fi’s risk ratings to assess opportunities. Here’s a list of risks involved with YO.
Is the Crypto Trade Over?
⚡Significant DEX Volume Increase for Solana
A notification went off in the Dynamo DeFi Discord: Solana’s DEX volume has increased across 3 crucial time frames.
This indicates a strong uptick & trend in activity.
Get the most important DeFi metrics & timely updates from the DeFi Alerts channel. The alerts come straight to you, so you can focus on execution.
Available only in the Dynamo DeFi Discord. Get immediate access →
🛠️Tool Spotlight
Get Complete ETH L2 Data with L2BEAT
L2BEAT tracks extensive L2 data, including decentralization stage, value secured and UOPS (User Operations Per Second)
Select any available L2 for a detailed breakdown including activity, onchain costs, milestones, risk summary and more.
More helpful DeFi Tools: The Dynamo DeFi Crypto Tools List
📅Key Events This Week
Macro Events
📊 April CPI Inflation data - May 13th
📊 OPEC Monthly Report - May 14th
📊 April PPI Inflation data - May 15th
📊 April Retail Sales data - May 15th
📊 Fed Chair Powell Speaks - May 15th
Token Unlocks: $1.5b Unlocking This Week
🔓Tokenomist: Track token unlocks and make better investment decisions. Use my code DDNM5 for 5% off Pro Plans.
🔓APT (1.82%) - May 12th
🔓LAYER (12.89%) - May 12th
🔓WBT (27.41%) - May 13th
🔓BB (10.47%) - May 13th
🔓SHADOW (20.95%) - May 14th
🔓SEI (1.09%) - May 15th
🔓CYBER (13.38%) - May 15th
🔓VANA (8.62%) - May 15th
🔓CONX (315.03%) - May 15th
🔓STRK (4.09%) - May 15th
🔓ARB (2.01%) - May 16th
🔓PSP (1.08%) - May 16th
🔓APE (1.95%) - May 16th
🔓IMX (1.35%) - May 16th
🔓FTN (4.66%) - May 18th
🔓MELANIA (6.63%) - May 18th
Launches & Updates
Note that these launches are mostly unvetted by the Dynamo DeFi team and this isn’t an endorsement of any of them.
🚀 Ador v2.5.2 launch - May 12th (Source)
🚀 Zilliqa 2.0 testnet & mainnet launch - May 13th (Source)
🚀 VanEck’s Onchain Economy ETF launch - May 14th (Source)
🚀 Metis's next major network upgrade - May 14th (Source)
🚀COPX AI launch - May 15th (Source)
⚡Favorite Resources
If you want to dive deeper, here are some of my favorite resources:
🛠️ The Dynamo DeFi Crypto Tools List: A comprehensive list of 100+ crypto tools to help with portfolio tracking, analytics, airdrops and more.
🚀 RocketX: The 1-stop-shop to get the best rates for on-chain & cross-chain swaps.
🛡️ Ledger: The smartest way to secure your crypto. Buy & sell crypto with full control over your assets.
For more frequent content, follow me on Twitter and YouTube.
Until next time,
Dynamo DeFi
