How can on-chain detectives seize opportunities? 7 major tools to gain insight into the undistributed coin Alpha protocol "treasure map".

Original author: Ignas, Decentralized Finance researcher

Compiled by｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Translator｜CryptoLeo（@LeoAndCrypto）

Editor's Note: DeFi researcher Ignas has published a tutorial article on "How to Find Undistributed Alpha Protocols", which introduces how crypto users can find Alpha using tools and data websites. As a DeFi OG, the tools Ignas provides are quite comprehensive, including not only the familiar ones like Nansen and DefiLlama, but also some niche yet very useful tools. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled the content as follows:

Are you still motivated to look for Alpha projects recently?

I once posted that my motivation to seek new projects has diminished. This may be the most significant change I've experienced since entering the crypto space in 2018. Even during previous bear markets, I didn't feel this fatigued.

I really want to know if I'm the only one feeling this way, maybe I'm just too lazy or bored? Although that's not entirely the case, compared to before, I am more cautious about putting most of my funds into new protocols in my investment portfolio. In the past bull market, capital flowed more freely and making profits was relatively easy. But now it's different; the bear market hasn't arrived yet, but there's less capital. The risk-reward ratio has also changed: although hacker attacks and exploits are now less common, the airdrop rewards for the vast majority of projects have decreased.

Funds are distributed across many protocols, and none of them offer particularly high returns. I feel that there are too many new projects that have only made incremental improvements and have not truly innovated from 0 to 1. This statement applies not only to DeFi protocols but also to L1 and L2. So why would we be motivated to explore Kraken's Ink or Soneium L2? If there are no innovative and value-adding protocols, only airdrops and liquidity mining rewards. It's hard to know which projects are worth your time. Perhaps I'm not the only one who feels this way.

But we cannot stop looking for those few excellent projects that may become the next Aave, Ethena, or Pendle. The question is, how do we know which protocols are worth your time? Where can you find them? Therefore, in this article, I will share some tools, methods, and resources to help you find protocols that already have a certain level of influence, divided into three categories:

• Mind Share
• On-chain adoption
• Smart Account Usage

1、Kaito

Kaito's flagship portal has a monthly fee of $1099 (which drops to $750 when paid for two years), fortunately, Kaito provides a free dashboard that lists popular projects by Mindshare, most of which have not launched tokens. Screenshots of the top 20 projects are often shared, but how many can you recognize from the 21-50 projects?

You can visit the website yaps.kaito.ai to explore projects that catch your attention.

For example, Multipli brings returns through native assets (BTC), stablecoins, and RWAs. I expect it to launch a token with low circulation and high (or slightly higher) FDV, as it is supported by VCs such as Pantera, Sequoia, and The Spartan Group. Multipli currently has a TVL of 70.3 million USD, which is a balancing point; although it is currently in the second quarter, its implied risk will not be too low, and the dilution effect will not be too strong.

Kaito is great, but critics argue that it distorts the market because KOLs are often incentivized to promote specific projects. If you are one of them, you might consider using a second tool that employs a different algorithm to broaden your project search.

2. Dexu AI

"Acquire mind share, emotions, narrative performance, original tweets, CT smart account statistics, etc."

Here is a brief guide on how to use Dexu to find tokenless projects:

Method 1:

• Go to "Dexu AI, Sector analysis, Social";
• Explore different areas of analysis: mind share, sentiment analysis, X intelligent fans, etc;
• Select different time periods and zoom in/out using the slider.

Second Method:

• Go to "Projects - Hot Projects"
• Scroll down to "Project Rankings - Top 5000";
• Lower the percentage of the "Seniority" filter to find newer projects, and increase the participation percentage of the "Network" to filter out projects with lower participation.

Project Example: Time.Fun

Two prominent use cases:

• Pay to send direct messages to cryptocurrency founders and key opinion leaders, with a higher response rate.
• Guess which person will have a higher demand for DM private messages.

I bet the airdrop will be quite valuable, as the Solana team/founders are actively using and promoting Time.Fun, and have the support of investors like Coinbase Ventures and Alliance DAO.

3、0x PPL

0x PPL is one of my favorite crypto tools, but it seems that very few people know or use it. 0x PPL is a social media platform, but unlike ordinary X-style posts, you can see how the people you follow are using their wallets. While Kaito and Dexu focus on followers and mental shares, 0x PPL showcases how they act with their wallets. The wallet search team at 0x PPL does an excellent job of linking wallets to Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). You can see that most transactions are token buy/sell, and you will also see deposits to the protocol.

Usage: Log in with your X account and link a wallet with transaction history to immediately see the transactions of your followers. If you follow many airdrop promoters, you will have the opportunity to understand the protocols they are actually investing in with their linked wallets, rather than just gaining attention through discussions.

Additionally, I can clearly see that the team is working hard every day to optimize this application. Every detail has been meticulously refined, and they are focused on the small details to enhance the user experience.

4. Nansen

Nansen is very suitable for multiple functions. I have previously shared a guide on how to use Nansen and other tools to achieve hundredfold returns. However, I also really like two other features of Nansen:

First, Nansen has launched a points program. You can earn points by subscribing to Pioneer or Professional, staking on Nansen, and referring friends. The InfoFi narrative is quite popular, and Nansen is already an established player in this field.

In addition, you can understand the flow of funds through the popular contract feature.

I like to remove the DEX and liquidity pool features (if you are an active LP, you will like this feature), set the minimum TVL to 5 million USD, and choose the contract duration to be 30 days.

The following are the results:

• YielFi's vyUSD stablecoin offers a 16% annual yield (total TVL is 32 million USD, please invest cautiously, but they offer points);
• Plasma is highly regarded, but deposits are closed;
• The new BOLD stablecoin launched by Liquity is experiencing continuous growth (while the overall market remains stagnant, LQTY continues to rise).
• There is also the Steer Protocol: Automated, multi-position liquidity management in Decentralized Finance. It has been launched on 27+ chains and 32 DEXs, such as Quickswap, Camelot, and Sushiswap.

Why it is worth paying attention to:

• No need to manage your own centralized liquidity;
• Higher LP returns;
• A large number of market-making strategies;
• Steer secured $1.5 million in seed funding from Druid Ventures, Republic Capital, and Big Brain Holdings.

5、DeBank

It feels like DeBank's market share on X has decreased, as its flagship product has been integrated into the Rabby wallet, but using the DeBank profile tracking feature can still uncover a lot of Alpha opportunities:

• Go to the Debank page;
• Web3 Social Ranking;
• Check the account to see what they are currently investing in.

Finding accounts and protocols that align with your investment style is worth the effort; you can learn how investors utilize their funds, which may be more effective for your time than browsing the latest news on X.

While writing this article and reviewing DeBank, I found LAGOON: a vault strategy provider with a TVL of 70 million USD. ETH can earn 9% annualized, DYOR!

6、Decentralized Finance Llama

Everyone is familiar with Defillama, so this part is a brief summary. Previously, when I consulted with Patrick Scott, the Growth Director of DefiLlama, he shared the following two suggestions:

• Go to DefiLlama, airdrop;
• Switch: Hide fork protocols. (TVL filter can be added)

Check the protocols one by one to see which ones meet your standards.

Another little tip: Identify popular chains like HyperEVM and look for protocols on that chain through TVL.

7. Follow Financing (Coincarp)

During this cycle, people's aversion to VCs has reached a historical high, but well-funded protocol projects are excellent opportunities for yield farming. I have always believed that tokens with low circulation and high FDV are ideal choices for yield farmers, as project teams have the funds to provide initial liquidity for the token's TGE.

Among the many financing query tools, I prefer Coincarp, which is free and easy to use.

I usually filter for "DeFi" and choose "Seed" as the earliest stage protocol.

You can clearly see the main investors and the amount of funds they have raised.

The number of seed round financings announced in the DeFi field recently is surprisingly low. In May, only 4 protocols received funding, and in April, only 5.

Turtle Club: A rewards platform that can provide additional earnings for the cooperative agreements you use (such as cashback in Decentralized Finance).

Its working principle is as follows:

• Log in via package (no deposit required);
• Turtle tracks your liquidity pool/staking status on the collaborative platform;
• You will receive additional rewards and TURTLE tokens.

Why it matters:

• No additional risk - funds always remain in your wallet;
• Additional earnings on top of existing returns;
• Early users receive more rewards.

Conclusion

The above are the 7 useful tools shared by Ignas. If you want to be an early discoverer and investor in high-quality projects, besides the commonly used tools, there are several other niche tools that may become essential for you in the future. In the crypto space, it's not just trading that requires you to "Buy The Rumors, Sell The News"; the same applies to finding projects. If you only participate when a project is being discussed by most people, you may find it hard to achieve significant results. Only by actively doing your own research can you discover early Alpha and gain more returns than others in the future.