Crypto Market Turns Bullish

Dear Crypto Family,

This past week, we observed a sharp shift in sentiment across crypto markets. Since April 23, signals have largely turned bullish, and total market capitalization has climbed from around $3 trillion to approximately $3.5 trillion. The current landscape echoes the momentum we saw last December, albeit with a new narrative driving activity.

Market Overview

We’re seeing renewed strength in several speculative plays. Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is emerging as a theme, highlighted by the rapid rise of Launchcoin, a protocol enabling token launches directly from Twitter interactions. While the 20x price increase is notable, our view is that this represents a short-term trading opportunity rather than a long-term investment. It's currently driven more by virality and social momentum than fundamentals.

Other notable tokens showing strong performance include Moondeng, Vader AI, Saros, and Collaterize. Many of these appear to be benefiting from attention around meme coins or integration with larger ecosystems such as Virtua or Solana. Collateralize, in particular, is an early-stage RWA project focused on enabling real-world asset purchases via mobile and Apple Pay, with a market cap of roughly $21 million. We consider it highly speculative and are monitoring for further developments.

Sector Highlights

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) continue to show divergent trends. Virtual's ecosystem—including tokens like Vader AI—is gaining traction due to its staking and allocation model. Meanwhile, DeFi interest seems to be resurging, with protocols like Aerodrome and Jupiter drawing attention due to their user incentives, product updates, and trading infrastructure.

Hyperliquid also stood out this week. Its decentralized perpetual exchange model has proven resilient, generating meaningful revenue even in less bullish conditions. Their upcoming EVM-compatible L1 and unique community-driven listing mechanism (via reverse auctions and token bonding) illustrate an evolving token economy model that blends gamification with utility.

Infrastructure and Layer 1 Developments

Among L1 ecosystems, Sui is emerging as a notable contender. Recent integrations by Phantom, Axelar, and LI.FI suggests increasing adoption from infrastructure providers, particularly those traditionally focused on EVM chains. The addition of SuiPlay—a gaming-focused hardware device—further positions Sui to capitalize on both retail interest and developer momentum. We view it as a strong candidate to outperform in this cycle.

Other emerging infrastructure narratives include:

• Walrus, a high-valuation project on Sui.
  

• DeepBook, a central limit order book on-chain for Sui DEXs.
  

• Miden, a zero-knowledge edge blockchain project spun out of Polygon Labs, focused on privacy and scalability.

Hidden Gems and New Entrants

We recently analyzed several early-stage projects:

• Dabba Network: A decentralized internet access project leveraging location owners and service providers in underserved markets.
  

• Acurast: A mobile-based decentralized compute network, still early but launching on CoinList. While promising in concept, we remain cautious about adoption and scalability challenges compared to GPU-based compute networks.

Long-Term Considerations

From a value-investing perspective, we’ve been evaluating which tokens may be held over multiple cycles. These include:

• Grass: An AI data aggregation platform reportedly generating over $15M in annual revenue.

• Parcl: A real-world asset platform focused on real estate derivatives.

• Peaq: A decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) we view as the Chainlink of this space.

• Bittensor: A strong AI-native smart contract platform, continuing to show impressive resilience and growth.

• Chainlink, Uniswap, Aave, and Compound: DeFi staples with staying power and evolving governance/tokenomics.

Closing Thoughts

Our general approach to exiting the market remains tied to a combination of indicators: macro signal trends, BTC/ETH peak behavior, and altcoin rotation patterns. As always, we remain agile in our positioning—strong convictions held loosely—and continue monitoring for both fundamental developments and shifts in market sentiment.

—
Token Metrics Research Team
 This newsletter is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice.

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