Adrian's DeFi Alpha #22: US Election Pump Coming | AI Meme Winners | OTG | AI Agents Meme Strategy | ANKR | NMT
Definitely no financial advice, just insights based on my own journey in DeFi.
Last week we have seen altcoins get sold off relentlessly, but clever members of this community still managed to perform:
KEKEC up 63%, RET*RDIO up 38%, PUPS up 30%, GIZMO up 14%
Bitcoin is nearing its ATH, but the market has been surprisingly quiet lately. Why? Financial markets hate uncertainty, and nothing stirs that up like an election. Polymarket is giving Trump the edge, but surveys in the US show a tight race and more like 50/50 chances.
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️ On today's Episode:
📈 Market Update – From Bitcoin dominance to surprising ETF inflows.
💻 Project Updates – The latest from Nillion and Off The Grid.
🐂 Alpha on Memes, AI Agents, Ankr, NMT & MORE
💎 The Premium Section with even more Alpha and all Portfolio, Airdrop & Farming Updates
1. Market Update
Highlighting the key developments in Crypto and their implications.
Weekly Crypto Bubbles
The global #crypto market cap today is $2.41T, a -0.76% change in the last 24h. Total trading volume in the last 24h is at $116.8B. #BTC dominance is at 56.79% and #ETH - 12.37%.
🔎 How the U.S. Election Ties to Crypto
Crypto has finally entered the political arena this year. Crypto donations to U.S. candidates reached more than $200 million, which signals a shift in crypto's influence. With 10-20% of Americans holding crypto, candidates can’t ignore the industry. Should the U.S. pivot to a more crypto-friendly stance, we could see massive momentum.
If Trump wins, it might be especially bullish for BTC. He’s hinted at a national BTC reserve and promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who’s an enemy of crypto. Yet, whether it's Trump or Harris, history shows post-election rallies in BTC due to reduced uncertainty. Expect volatility in the short term, with a potentially strong run-up in the months following.
The Setup for the Next Few Months Looks Strong:
BTC Near ATH but no retail frenzy yet, leaving room for fresh capital.
Exchange Supply Declining as HODLers hold strong.
Gold and S&P 500 at Highs could position BTC as a hedge.
More Rate Cuts could be a tailwind for risk assets.
What will happen during the days to come is now entirely dependent on the election. $BTC will probably be trading like the Trump odds. If Trump wins, the whole market pumps hard, but then might sell-off a few days later. If Kamala wins, the whole market might dump but BTC Dominance goes up, and it will probably be a dip to buy. The probability for a dip below 60k is low in my opinion.
AI Memecoin Mania in October
The memecoin market saw an extreme rise of AI-themed coins, largely driven by the explosive debut of $GOAT and the notorious twitter account Terminal of Truth. The hype around $GOAT saw it listed on major exchanges like Bybit and Binance perps, pushing its market cap to a peak of $900 million before a pullback. Currently, $GOAT sits around $489 million, 50% off its high.
The broader AI memecoin sector is struggling. $LUNA pumped from $4 million to $240 million market cap, though it has since settled around $90 million. $VIRTUAL, the AI agent protocol behind $LUNA, delivered an impressive 10x gain in a single month, with other related tokens like $OLAS and $SPEC 0.00%↑following.
On the low cap AI meme spectrum, $FARTCOIN stands at $30 million, $ACT at $15 million, $ai16z at $12 million and $SHEGEN at $7 million. Among the newer AI memecoins, $e/acc and $OMEGA have also caught attention, with market caps of $11 million and $7 million respectively. These smaller caps could present opportunities if the AI meme narrative goes on and GPT-5 from Open AI will be released soon.
Notable Meme Movements
Outside of AI, the memecoin market saw $POPCAT reaching a new ATH on October 29 with a market cap of $1.8 billion. Two other Murad-backed coins also saw gains: $SPX recovered a little to $676 million after its previous $900 million peak, while $GIGA saw to a new ATH at $675 million as is now at $629 million.
On Solana front, $FWOG (known as Sol’s “frog coin”) broke $300 million and shows more potential upside. ETH-based $KEKEC hit new ATHs.
$KEKEC is based on a dwarf from an old movie who plays the flute. The team got a great video meme game and 85k Instagram followers. At $34M market cap, it’s one of the better plays right now, especially since it’s already a year old. I’m expecting a 3-6X without much resistance. The token is available on ETH mainnet and Solana.
→ Check out some videos on Instagram or Twitter. It's absolutely ridiculous but also everything a good meme stands for.
Lastly, $RETARDIO and $PUPS continue to flirt with the $200 million resistance and could soon move higher. They remain two of the standout memecoins this season.
2. Project Updates
What dApp and project updates you need to know in the fast-paced world of crypto
You can find the links attached to the images
Nillion’s Big Funding Rounds
Nillion recently raised $50 million, positioning it as a key player in the decentralized infrastructure landscape. This funding, led by significant backers, strengthens its mission to decentralize data processing, paving the way for a more private and resilient web.
VanEck’s GameFi Bet
VanEck’s liquid token strategy just added Gunzilla Games, the studio behind “Off the Grid,” a web3-enabled game launching on PC, Xbox, and PS5. This addition signals a strong vote of confidence in blockchain-based gaming.
→ I made a post on X about how to get exposure to Off The Grid recently.
3. Alpha Section
Good projects and opportunities I discovered
Alpha 1: Memecoin Strategy
Memecoins are high risk, high reward. Instead of chasing new launches, I recommend focusing on “safe and established” memecoins—those that have endured the ups and downs for months and show resilience. Look for coins that:
Launched a few months ago.
Have a unique meme and dedicated community.
Are down 80-90% from ATH but show signs of life.
Example 1: $BITCOIN (Ticker Bitcoin) went from $30M to almost $400M market cap after building an engaged community over months.
Example 2: Another up and coming example for this is the aforementioned $KEKEC which sits currently at $34M market cap:
→ Check out my telegram group for daily alpha, there you can get much faster into all of these opportunities!
Alpha 2: The Rise of AI Agents
Memecoins tapped into the Attention Economy, but AI agents like Virtuals Protocol are taking it to the next level with tokenized digital personas. Platforms like Virtuals Protocol allow users to own and interact with AI agents that grow in value based on community interaction. These agents, like Virtuals’ AI-dols, create personalized fan experiences at scale, opening up new monetization avenues through one-on-one interactions and seamless product placements.
To get exposure to this narrative, check out:
Alpha 3: ANKR – The Coming Decentralized Cloud Champion?
ANKR is emerging as the decentralized answer to AWS, aiming to offer cloud computing services without centralized control. With partnerships across over 50 blockchains, ANKR is ideal for developers looking to build in the Web3 space without relying on traditional infrastructure.
Key drivers:
Core Offerings: Liquid staking, multi-chain development tools, and node hosting.
New Partnerships with Binance, Polygon, and major DeFi players.
Growth Catalyst: ANKR’s move into AI via the Neura Ecosystem, providing blockchain-based compute power for AI projects. This positions ANKR as a powerful player in both Web3 and AI markets.
→ Chart looks like its found a bottom.
Alpha 3: NetMind ($NMT)
If you’re like me always eyeing the AI altcoin and tech narrative, $NMT could be worth a look. It combines decentralization with computing power similar to $RENDER, while also integrating AI chatbots and audio-visual AGI agents. $NMT has established partnerships including Cambridge and Nvidia. With strong fundamentals and partnerships, it’s a high-potential long-term play.
→ The chart looks horrendous, wait for a bottom to find an entry.
Airdrop Alpha of the Week
Zircuit Airdrop for Eigen holders and stakers:
Corn Airdrop
Corn’s latest airdrop rewards participants for BTCFi quests, giving users a unique opportunity to earn BTC rewards. Check the Twitter for quest details.
→ There’s also a Galxe Quest for Corn, could be worth doing if you are farming Corn.
SONIC – Airdrop Strategy
This airdrop focuses on early community engagement on Sonic, the newish chain that former was Fantom.
Usualmoney YT
Great reads:
Key narratives on Pendle: Read
BTCFi on Pendle:
Chasm AI the next Virtuals AI? Read
Alpha: Eigen Staking
Watchlist for the Week
Thanks for reading, fren! Stay safe!
Adrian
Adrian's Premium Alpha:
Everything Adrian can’t share in the Public Newsletter: Portfolio Updates, Early Projects/Small Caps, Investment Theory
GM GM readers of Adrian’s Premium Alpha,
The market looks ripe to pump after the election and especially memecoins are pumping again and again. In this episode I have a completely new Hyperlane airdrop guide with a huge amount of new protocol interactions for a maximum airdrop allocation.
We also have new alpha on Sophon, the consumer centric L2 blockchain, that has huge potential.
Of course I’ll show as always what coins I bought and sold this week to keep you up to date with our portfolios.
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