ETH ETF is expected to pass. List of ecological projects worth hyping

Author: Riyue Xiaochu, member of Huzi Guanbi Source: X, @riyuexiaochu

The big positive lines of BTC and ETH illuminated the market and brought hope to the currency circle.

Last night, some news from the SEC greatly increased the market's probability of passing the ETF, triggering a surge in ETH.

If ETH's ETF is successfully passed, ETH ecological projects will also benefit, and the increase may exceed ETH. Therefore, we should focus on it.

In the ETH ecosystem, there are several largest sectors and projects

1. Layer2

Main projects: arb, op, strk, metis, manta

As ETH's goal to become a global computer, Layer2 is accused of taking on the prosperity of the ETH ecosystem with high TPS and low GAS. Its importance and value are self-evident. At the same time, layer2 is the sector with the highest market value in the ETH ecosystem.

However, most of the projects are also typical of the institutional coins with low circulation and high FDV that have been criticized recently. As three of the four kings, arb, op, and strk have FDVs exceeding 10 billion US dollars.

• arb has the highest TVL and the largest number of Dapps among all projects. However, arb's pull is relatively weak, and there have been a lot of unlocks recently.

• op's advantage lies in the super chain ecosystem formed by op stack, which has gathered a large number of excellent projects and capital. Historically, op's pull is stronger than arb, which may be the preference of funds.

• strk is the layer2 of zk core, and its ecological suggestions and users are not as good as the first two. However, its circulating market value is lower than arb and op, and it has been falling all the way after listing, and there has not been a decent rebound.

• metis was a hot topic for some time before. It started as a decentralized sorter, and it also had a very large callback after listing on Binance.

• manta is a representative of layer2 created in a modular way. The team is very hard-working, and the ecological project is developing very rapidly. In addition, the circulating market value is only 400 million US dollars, which is the lowest among them.

2. LSD

Main projects: LDO, SSV, PRL

LSD protocol is mainly a node-related staking service that appeared after ETH Shanghai upgraded from POW to POS. LDO is the largest service provider, with the highest TVL in the entire network and a circulating market value of 2 billion.

SSV is the infrastructure setting of distributed nodes, and its recent performance is not bad.

3. Defi

Main projects: Pendle, uni, aave, comp, crv, mkr

Defi should be the most familiar to everyone. As the largest innovation sector in the last bull market, the application of Defi has been popularized to all aspects of daily life on the chain. The core players include uni, aave, comp, crv, mkr, etc., representing dex, lending, stablecoin trading, stablecoin issuance, etc.

Due to the maturity of Defi, this cycle is basically based on previous upgrades, and the degree of innovation is not enough. Relatively speaking, Pendle separates tokens into principal and interest for trading future returns. Pendle was also affected by the double rise of TVL and coin price some time ago

4. Stablecoins based on ETH collateral

Main projects: ENA, LBR

There are many ways to issue stablecoins. One of them is to issue collateral assets, and the largest collateral asset is undoubtedly ETH. After LSD and Restaking, the project party will use the collateralized ETH to obtain liquidity income. Such stablecoins have a natural rate of return. At the same time, the project party will carry out some token incentives, as well as dividends from minting and borrowing, etc., so the annual income is very considerable.

LBR, which was popular in 2023, is one of them. The same is true for Binance's launchpool project Ena this year, and Ena uses hedging derivatives positions to maintain the value of collateral assets.

Ena's TVL is as high as 2.5 billion US dollars, and its current circulating market value is already 1.3 billion US dollars.

5. Restaking

Main projects: REZ, ETHFI

Restaking is the most important one in this round of ETH market for me, for two reasons

1) New sectors, market funds tend to speculate on new sectors 2) Small circulating market value, of which ethfi's circulating market value is 460 million US dollars, and rezon's circulating market value is 150 million US dollars 3) Eigenlayer is the leader, the number of airdrops has been determined, and the time for listing is not far away.