In Uncommonlab Weekly Alpha, we curate and share newly emerging crypto alpha on a weekly basis.

• An article has been released reporting that Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of the Mirae Asset Group, is set to acquire Korbit, one of Korea’s top five cryptocurrency exchanges.

• On the 28th, the Mirae Asset Group announced that it had signed an MOU to acquire most of the stakes held by Korbit’s largest shareholder, NXC (which owns 60.5%), and its second-largest shareholder, SK Planet (which owns 31.5%).

• The total deal size is expected to be between KRW 100 billion and KRW 140 billion. Since Mirae Asset Consulting is not a financial institution, the transaction is not considered a violation of Korea’s separation of industrial and financial capital regulations.

• Through the acquisition of Korbit, Mirae Asset is actively pushing forward the integration of traditional finance and digital assets, which lies at the core of its “Mirae Asset 3.0” strategy.

News of Mirae Asset’s acquisition of Korbit has drawn significant attention. In Korea, financial institutions face regulatory restrictions on directly operating virtual asset businesses. As a result, Mirae Asset has opted for a regulatory workaround by acquiring Korbit through its non-financial affiliate, Mirae Asset Consulting. Whether this structure will ultimately receive approval from financial authorities remains a key question.

If approval is granted, Mirae Asset—already a strong player in traditional finance—is expected to make a full-scale entry into the digital asset business based on the Korbit acquisition. As part of its Mirae Asset 3.0 strategy, the group has already listed and manages a variety of products through its subsidiary Global X, including Bitcoin futures ETFs and covered call ETFs. With the acquisition of Korbit, Mirae Asset would be able to further expand into direct asset custody services and institutional-grade offerings.

Looking at these developments, it appears that over time, more traditional financial institutions like Mirae Asset will enter the crypto market, signaling a broader shift toward a more regulated and institutionalized crypto ecosystem.

• On December 27, an attacker targeted Flow’s execution layer, illicitly minting millions of wFLOW tokens as well as bridged assets such as wBTC and wETH.

• Before validators were able to respond, the attacker bridged all the funds to Ethereum, resulting in total losses of approximately $3.9 million.

• Flow later announced that it had reached a consensus to revert the chain to a pre-attack state. The network was halted, and preparations were made to roll back the chain to block 137,363,395, starting from the testnet.

• In response, deBridge founder Alex Smirnov stated that a rollback at this stage would create systemic issues affecting bridges, custodians, users, and counterparties who had acted honestly during that period. He also noted that deBridge had received no communication from Flow regarding the rollback.

• In a final update, Flow concluded that it would not proceed with a network rollback. Instead, the accounts used by the attackers would be restricted to prevent any further damage.

As a result of the attack, the Flow network suffered losses of $3.9 million. Although Flow initially considered resolving the issue by rolling back the chain to a pre-attack state, it ultimately decided against this approach due to the systemic risks it would pose to bridges, custodians, users, and counterparties. Instead, Flow chose to freeze the attacker-controlled accounts. This incident once again highlights the ongoing debate around decentralization in blockchain ecosystems, as Flow’s consideration of a chain rollback raised questions about the practical limits of decentralization in real-world scenarios.

• OverTake is a SUI-based P2P marketplace designed for trading in-game assets.

• Following its TGE, the TAKE token showed a steady upward trend, building strong confidence among holders—many of whom even participated in staking.

• However, on December 30, the price of the TAKE token suddenly collapsed from around $0.50 to $0.12.

• According to the team’s official statement and data verification, the primary cause of the price drop appears to have been a cascade of derivative liquidations triggered by insufficient liquidity.

A sharp decline in the token price of OverTake—previously well-regarded by the market—has now occurred. The impact felt even more severe because a large portion of TAKE tokens held by users were locked up through staking while the price was falling. Based on the team’s announcement, this does not seem to be the result of a hack or security breach. However, judging purely by price action, the situation appears even worse than a typical exploit, and recovery may be difficult. As a result, the token is likely to remain under downward pressure for some time. In many similar cases, projects fail to reclaim their previous highs and either fade away or are abandoned by their teams. How OverTake ultimately responds and evolves remains to be seen.

• Lighter, which had been widely regarded as the strongest PerpDEX since Hyperliquid, has successfully completed its token launch.

• Lighter’s token ticker is LIT. On the day of the TGE, it maintained a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $2.6 billion and a market cap of $673 million, showing price stability without a sharp post-launch sell-off.

• However, controversy emerged within the community after a post claimed that a wallet which had provided $5 million in USDC to LLP liquidity—distributed across five wallets roughly nine months ago—received an airdrop equal to 1% of the total circulating LIT supply, effectively gaining assets worth around $26 million.

• In response, Vladn explained that in 2024, Lighter had entered into an LP agreement with a third party to secure early liquidity, and that the airdrop was compensation for this arrangement. He stated that anyone who took on the early risks and opportunity costs at that stage would be entitled to such rewards.

Lighter has now completed its token TGE. Following Hyperliquid’s success, it currently holds one of the highest valuations in the PerpDEX sector, maintaining an FDV of $2.6 billion. While there was community discussion around whether the reward for early LLP contributors—particularly the wallet that received 1% of the circulating supply—was excessive, Vladn addressed the issue via Discord. His explanation appears to have been broadly accepted, and the controversy is unlikely to have a significant impact on the LIT token price.

That said, Lighter has yet to disclose the exact amount and percentage of LIT token buybacks that will be funded by protocol revenues. If the buyback ratio approaches Hyperliquid-levels and trading volume remains strong, there is a meaningful possibility that the LIT token price could appreciate over time.

• Minara AI is an AI service that provides real-time answers via an LLM when users ask questions based on crypto-related data.

• It offers three paid subscription plans: Lite at $19 per month, Starter at $49 per month, and Pro at $199 per month.

• Users can accumulate bonus Sparks through payments, and those who collect a sufficient amount can receive Discord roles and NFT whitelist access.

• Through the Trading Copilot, users can execute trades directly within Minara. Based on workflow-driven strategies, it supports features such as DCA, market tracking, automated trading, and copy trading.

Minara functions as a crypto-focused LLM similar to Surf, gathering real-time data to respond to user queries. While it operates on a paid subscription model, access to Trading Copilot requires users to hold a certain number of Sparks earned through payments. Unlike Surf, Trading Copilot is built around LLM-driven workflows, allowing users to design strategies for DCA, automated trading, and copy trading, and execute them using in-app assets within Minara.

• BC Card has signed an MOU with Coinbase to introduce USDC payments in Korea.

• They will jointly conduct a pilot project to integrate BC Card’s QR payment solution into a Base chain–based wallet, allowing customers holding USDC to make payments at domestic merchants.

• Coinbase already supports USDC across its entire infrastructure stack—including the Base chain, Base App, and Base Pay. Leveraging this setup to enable payments at Korean merchants represents a significant shift compared to past attempts.

• Recently, BC Card has formed a dedicated digital asset task force and is focusing on building a universal payment infrastructure necessary to activate the domestic stablecoin market through strategic partnerships.

BC Card is launching a pilot program in collaboration with Coinbase to bring the USDC stablecoin into domestic payments. The companies have even signed an MOU to review and design the structure for USDC payments in Korea. Compared to the past, it is striking to see traditional financial institutions taking the initiative in considering stablecoin-based payments.

For USDC payments to be practically implemented in Korea, resolving issues around KRW-based settlement, accounting, and regulation will be critical. Given that BC Card is a key player in Korea’s card payment infrastructure rather than a typical private company, there is reason to be optimistic about how these challenges might be addressed.

• Bitmine initially focused on Bitcoin mining but shifted its corporate strategy in 2025 toward an ETH treasury–based model.

• The company set a long-term goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum’s total supply and, in just six months, has accumulated 3.41% of the total supply—making it the largest publicly listed company holder of ETH.

• To fund this strategy, Bitmine has raised capital from major investors including ARK Invest (Cathie Wood), Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Bill Miller III, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital. The ETH it acquires can also be staked to generate yield.

• Bitmine’s total assets amount to $13.2 billion, with the majority consisting of ETH. To reach its target, the company is expected to make an additional $5.6 billion worth of ETH purchases.

Bitmine is positioning Ethereum as a core treasury asset and currently holds 3.41% of Ethereum’s total supply. The company generates revenue by staking its ETH holdings and plans to continue accumulating ETH until it reaches 5% of the total supply. Much like MicroStrategy (MSTR) for Bitcoin, Bitmine (BMNR) is becoming a well-known Ethereum proxy, drawing significant attention—especially given that Peter Thiel reportedly holds a 9% stake in the company.

So far, Bitmine’s aggressive ETH accumulation has been positive for the market. However, questions remain about how the company will manage the periodic ETH selling pressure that could arise in the future if all of its ETH is staked and the staking rewards are sold to fund interest payments.

• Legion has decided to shut down its Curator Track and completely redesign the structure.

• The primary reason is that there was no clear distinction between projects that were directly vetted by Legion and those that merely used Legion’s technology and infrastructure to conduct token sales.

• In particular, projects like VOOI conducted their token sales using the Legion Curator Track through CookieDAO. When these projects delivered very poor TGE results, many in the community began to associate the failures with Legion itself.

• As a result, Legion CEO Fabrizio announced that, for the time being, all projects launched on Legion will be directly vetted and selected by the Legion team.

Until now, curators such as CookieDAO and Nozomi had used Legion’s infrastructure to conduct token sales. However, most projects that went through the Curator Track showed disappointing TGE outcomes, which naturally led to growing criticism of Legion. In response, CEO Fabrizio decided to discontinue the Curator Track altogether.

Since sales conducted via curators were damaging Legion’s reputation, the platform will now directly select and vet projects, working closely with teams to ensure higher quality. Legion also announced that it will introduce an improved token sale framework with three categories: Prime, for projects collaborating with tier-1 exchanges; Standard, where valuation and tokenomics are designed jointly with Legion; and Early, for projects at a very early stage.

• Jupiter has launched JupUSD, a Solana-based stablecoin, through a collaboration with Ethena Labs.

• The reserves backing JupUSD consist of 90% allocated to BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund and the remaining 10% held in USDC. The project has undergone audits by Offside Labs, Guardian Audits, and Pashov Audit Group.

• JupUSD is most actively used within Jupiter Lend, and users can benefit from reduced fees when using it across the broader Jupiter ecosystem.

• Since launch, JupUSD has maintained a stable $1 peg. From Jupiter’s perspective, JupUSD appears to be a strategic move to challenge USDC’s dominance within the Solana ecosystem.

With the launch of both a mobile app and JupUSD in collaboration with Ethena, Jupiter is working to establish a stablecoin that can be widely used across the Solana ecosystem. In particular, JupUSD seems designed to compete directly with USDC, which has long been the default stablecoin on Solana.

Although JupUSD is still in its early stages, expanding incentives through Jupiter Lend could drive increased adoption. If successful, JupUSD could eventually become more widely used than USDC within the Solana ecosystem, which in turn could positively impact the price of the JUP token.

That said, there are several risks to consider. A continuous monthly unlock of approximately 53.47 million JUP tokens creates ongoing supply pressure, making it difficult to support the token price through buybacks alone. Additionally, since JupUSD can currently only be minted by the team, concerns may arise around fairness if premiums develop and the team captures arbitrage profits by selling newly minted supply.

• Cascade is a perpetual markets platform that offers futures trading on cryptocurrencies, U.S. equities, and private assets through a single unified margin account.

• It has raised $15 million in funding from Polychain Capital, Variant Fund, and Coinbase Ventures, and is preparing for a public launch in Q1 2026.

• As the service is being built with a U.S. focus, Cascade is expected to develop infrastructure for U.S. regulatory compliance and integrate traditional financial assets.

• However, caution is warranted. Despite three years of development, Perennial— which shares the same investors, founders, and APIs as Cascade—has yet to meaningfully ship a product or launch a token.

Recently launched in private beta, Cascade has drawn significant attention as a U.S.-compliant perpetual market that enables futures trading across crypto and U.S. equities, backed by a $15 million raise. Access currently requires an invite code, and users can farm Cascade points by depositing funds into Cascade’s Liquidity Strategy.

While allocating capital to early-stage projects typically carries high risk, it can also offer substantial upside if the project succeeds, which is why some users choose to participate consistently. That said, a key concern is that Cascade shares the same founder as Perennial. Given Perennial’s failure to deliver a fully developed product or token launch, there is a risk that Cascade could face similar challenges.

• OpenSea is the world’s largest NFT marketplace and has raised a total of $425.15 million from leading venture capital firms including Paradigm, a16z, Blockchain Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.

• Currently, the way to earn the SEA token is by trading tokens and NFTs on OpenSea to accumulate XP. By upgrading chest tiers based on XP, users become eligible for rewards at the time of the SEA token TGE.

• There are 13 tiers in total, and OpenSea has stated that rewards will be distributed at TGE based on these tiers, which has driven strong user participation.

• With the TGE expected around Q1 2026, markets have been created on Polymarket to predict OpenSea’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) after the token launch.

• As of now, Polymarket estimates roughly a 90% probability that the post-TGE FDV will exceed $500 million, and about a 54% probability that it will exceed $1 billion. These probabilities continue to fluctuate as traders buy and sell positions.

• Typically, a reasonable TGE-day FDV is considered to be around 5–10x the total amount of capital raised. In OpenSea’s case, however, the investments were made relatively long ago, and NFT marketplace trading volumes are currently muted. As a result, market participants tend to predict a comparatively lower FDV.

OpenSea’s total funding of $425.15 million by 2022 places it among the largest-funded crypto projects. This has led some to expect a high FDV for the SEA token. However, on Polymarket—the leading prediction market—the odds of the FDV exceeding $1 billion remain roughly even.

Personally, OpenSea appears highly likely to secure simultaneous listings on major exchanges at TGE, including Korea’s Upbit and Bithumb, as well as global exchanges like Binance. Even considering the time elapsed since its fundraising, I believe an FDV above $1 billion is still achievable.

• This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any specific asset. Investments in cryptocurrencies and digital assets involve high risk, so please conduct your own due diligence and make decisions carefully.

• All research commentary reflects the views of an Uncommonlab research intern and does not constitute financial or legal advice, nor does it recommend the purchase or sale of any specific asset.

In Uncommonlab Weekly Alpha, we curate and share newly emerging crypto alpha on a weekly basis.

• An article has been released reporting that Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of the Mirae Asset Group, is set to acquire Korbit, one of Korea’s top five cryptocurrency exchanges.

• On the 28th, the Mirae Asset Group announced that it had signed an MOU to acquire most of the stakes held by Korbit’s largest shareholder, NXC (which owns 60.5%), and its second-largest shareholder, SK Planet (which owns 31.5%).

• The total deal size is expected to be between KRW 100 billion and KRW 140 billion. Since Mirae Asset Consulting is not a financial institution, the transaction is not considered a violation of Korea’s separation of industrial and financial capital regulations.

• Through the acquisition of Korbit, Mirae Asset is actively pushing forward the integration of traditional finance and digital assets, which lies at the core of its “Mirae Asset 3.0” strategy.

News of Mirae Asset’s acquisition of Korbit has drawn significant attention. In Korea, financial institutions face regulatory restrictions on directly operating virtual asset businesses. As a result, Mirae Asset has opted for a regulatory workaround by acquiring Korbit through its non-financial affiliate, Mirae Asset Consulting. Whether this structure will ultimately receive approval from financial authorities remains a key question.

If approval is granted, Mirae Asset—already a strong player in traditional finance—is expected to make a full-scale entry into the digital asset business based on the Korbit acquisition. As part of its Mirae Asset 3.0 strategy, the group has already listed and manages a variety of products through its subsidiary Global X, including Bitcoin futures ETFs and covered call ETFs. With the acquisition of Korbit, Mirae Asset would be able to further expand into direct asset custody services and institutional-grade offerings.

Looking at these developments, it appears that over time, more traditional financial institutions like Mirae Asset will enter the crypto market, signaling a broader shift toward a more regulated and institutionalized crypto ecosystem.

• On December 27, an attacker targeted Flow’s execution layer, illicitly minting millions of wFLOW tokens as well as bridged assets such as wBTC and wETH.

• Before validators were able to respond, the attacker bridged all the funds to Ethereum, resulting in total losses of approximately $3.9 million.

• Flow later announced that it had reached a consensus to revert the chain to a pre-attack state. The network was halted, and preparations were made to roll back the chain to block 137,363,395, starting from the testnet.

• In response, deBridge founder Alex Smirnov stated that a rollback at this stage would create systemic issues affecting bridges, custodians, users, and counterparties who had acted honestly during that period. He also noted that deBridge had received no communication from Flow regarding the rollback.

• In a final update, Flow concluded that it would not proceed with a network rollback. Instead, the accounts used by the attackers would be restricted to prevent any further damage.

As a result of the attack, the Flow network suffered losses of $3.9 million. Although Flow initially considered resolving the issue by rolling back the chain to a pre-attack state, it ultimately decided against this approach due to the systemic risks it would pose to bridges, custodians, users, and counterparties. Instead, Flow chose to freeze the attacker-controlled accounts. This incident once again highlights the ongoing debate around decentralization in blockchain ecosystems, as Flow’s consideration of a chain rollback raised questions about the practical limits of decentralization in real-world scenarios.

• OverTake is a SUI-based P2P marketplace designed for trading in-game assets.

• Following its TGE, the TAKE token showed a steady upward trend, building strong confidence among holders—many of whom even participated in staking.

• However, on December 30, the price of the TAKE token suddenly collapsed from around $0.50 to $0.12.

• According to the team’s official statement and data verification, the primary cause of the price drop appears to have been a cascade of derivative liquidations triggered by insufficient liquidity.

A sharp decline in the token price of OverTake—previously well-regarded by the market—has now occurred. The impact felt even more severe because a large portion of TAKE tokens held by users were locked up through staking while the price was falling. Based on the team’s announcement, this does not seem to be the result of a hack or security breach. However, judging purely by price action, the situation appears even worse than a typical exploit, and recovery may be difficult. As a result, the token is likely to remain under downward pressure for some time. In many similar cases, projects fail to reclaim their previous highs and either fade away or are abandoned by their teams. How OverTake ultimately responds and evolves remains to be seen.

• Lighter, which had been widely regarded as the strongest PerpDEX since Hyperliquid, has successfully completed its token launch.

• Lighter’s token ticker is LIT. On the day of the TGE, it maintained a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $2.6 billion and a market cap of $673 million, showing price stability without a sharp post-launch sell-off.

• However, controversy emerged within the community after a post claimed that a wallet which had provided $5 million in USDC to LLP liquidity—distributed across five wallets roughly nine months ago—received an airdrop equal to 1% of the total circulating LIT supply, effectively gaining assets worth around $26 million.

• In response, Vladn explained that in 2024, Lighter had entered into an LP agreement with a third party to secure early liquidity, and that the airdrop was compensation for this arrangement. He stated that anyone who took on the early risks and opportunity costs at that stage would be entitled to such rewards.

Lighter has now completed its token TGE. Following Hyperliquid’s success, it currently holds one of the highest valuations in the PerpDEX sector, maintaining an FDV of $2.6 billion. While there was community discussion around whether the reward for early LLP contributors—particularly the wallet that received 1% of the circulating supply—was excessive, Vladn addressed the issue via Discord. His explanation appears to have been broadly accepted, and the controversy is unlikely to have a significant impact on the LIT token price.

That said, Lighter has yet to disclose the exact amount and percentage of LIT token buybacks that will be funded by protocol revenues. If the buyback ratio approaches Hyperliquid-levels and trading volume remains strong, there is a meaningful possibility that the LIT token price could appreciate over time.

• Minara AI is an AI service that provides real-time answers via an LLM when users ask questions based on crypto-related data.

• It offers three paid subscription plans: Lite at $19 per month, Starter at $49 per month, and Pro at $199 per month.

• Users can accumulate bonus Sparks through payments, and those who collect a sufficient amount can receive Discord roles and NFT whitelist access.

• Through the Trading Copilot, users can execute trades directly within Minara. Based on workflow-driven strategies, it supports features such as DCA, market tracking, automated trading, and copy trading.

Minara functions as a crypto-focused LLM similar to Surf, gathering real-time data to respond to user queries. While it operates on a paid subscription model, access to Trading Copilot requires users to hold a certain number of Sparks earned through payments. Unlike Surf, Trading Copilot is built around LLM-driven workflows, allowing users to design strategies for DCA, automated trading, and copy trading, and execute them using in-app assets within Minara.

• BC Card has signed an MOU with Coinbase to introduce USDC payments in Korea.

• They will jointly conduct a pilot project to integrate BC Card’s QR payment solution into a Base chain–based wallet, allowing customers holding USDC to make payments at domestic merchants.

• Coinbase already supports USDC across its entire infrastructure stack—including the Base chain, Base App, and Base Pay. Leveraging this setup to enable payments at Korean merchants represents a significant shift compared to past attempts.

• Recently, BC Card has formed a dedicated digital asset task force and is focusing on building a universal payment infrastructure necessary to activate the domestic stablecoin market through strategic partnerships.

BC Card is launching a pilot program in collaboration with Coinbase to bring the USDC stablecoin into domestic payments. The companies have even signed an MOU to review and design the structure for USDC payments in Korea. Compared to the past, it is striking to see traditional financial institutions taking the initiative in considering stablecoin-based payments.

For USDC payments to be practically implemented in Korea, resolving issues around KRW-based settlement, accounting, and regulation will be critical. Given that BC Card is a key player in Korea’s card payment infrastructure rather than a typical private company, there is reason to be optimistic about how these challenges might be addressed.

• Bitmine initially focused on Bitcoin mining but shifted its corporate strategy in 2025 toward an ETH treasury–based model.

• The company set a long-term goal of acquiring 5% of Ethereum’s total supply and, in just six months, has accumulated 3.41% of the total supply—making it the largest publicly listed company holder of ETH.

• To fund this strategy, Bitmine has raised capital from major investors including ARK Invest (Cathie Wood), Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Bill Miller III, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital. The ETH it acquires can also be staked to generate yield.

• Bitmine’s total assets amount to $13.2 billion, with the majority consisting of ETH. To reach its target, the company is expected to make an additional $5.6 billion worth of ETH purchases.

Bitmine is positioning Ethereum as a core treasury asset and currently holds 3.41% of Ethereum’s total supply. The company generates revenue by staking its ETH holdings and plans to continue accumulating ETH until it reaches 5% of the total supply. Much like MicroStrategy (MSTR) for Bitcoin, Bitmine (BMNR) is becoming a well-known Ethereum proxy, drawing significant attention—especially given that Peter Thiel reportedly holds a 9% stake in the company.

So far, Bitmine’s aggressive ETH accumulation has been positive for the market. However, questions remain about how the company will manage the periodic ETH selling pressure that could arise in the future if all of its ETH is staked and the staking rewards are sold to fund interest payments.

• Legion has decided to shut down its Curator Track and completely redesign the structure.

• The primary reason is that there was no clear distinction between projects that were directly vetted by Legion and those that merely used Legion’s technology and infrastructure to conduct token sales.

• In particular, projects like VOOI conducted their token sales using the Legion Curator Track through CookieDAO. When these projects delivered very poor TGE results, many in the community began to associate the failures with Legion itself.

• As a result, Legion CEO Fabrizio announced that, for the time being, all projects launched on Legion will be directly vetted and selected by the Legion team.

Until now, curators such as CookieDAO and Nozomi had used Legion’s infrastructure to conduct token sales. However, most projects that went through the Curator Track showed disappointing TGE outcomes, which naturally led to growing criticism of Legion. In response, CEO Fabrizio decided to discontinue the Curator Track altogether.

Since sales conducted via curators were damaging Legion’s reputation, the platform will now directly select and vet projects, working closely with teams to ensure higher quality. Legion also announced that it will introduce an improved token sale framework with three categories: Prime, for projects collaborating with tier-1 exchanges; Standard, where valuation and tokenomics are designed jointly with Legion; and Early, for projects at a very early stage.

• Jupiter has launched JupUSD, a Solana-based stablecoin, through a collaboration with Ethena Labs.

• The reserves backing JupUSD consist of 90% allocated to BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund and the remaining 10% held in USDC. The project has undergone audits by Offside Labs, Guardian Audits, and Pashov Audit Group.

• JupUSD is most actively used within Jupiter Lend, and users can benefit from reduced fees when using it across the broader Jupiter ecosystem.

• Since launch, JupUSD has maintained a stable $1 peg. From Jupiter’s perspective, JupUSD appears to be a strategic move to challenge USDC’s dominance within the Solana ecosystem.

With the launch of both a mobile app and JupUSD in collaboration with Ethena, Jupiter is working to establish a stablecoin that can be widely used across the Solana ecosystem. In particular, JupUSD seems designed to compete directly with USDC, which has long been the default stablecoin on Solana.

Although JupUSD is still in its early stages, expanding incentives through Jupiter Lend could drive increased adoption. If successful, JupUSD could eventually become more widely used than USDC within the Solana ecosystem, which in turn could positively impact the price of the JUP token.

That said, there are several risks to consider. A continuous monthly unlock of approximately 53.47 million JUP tokens creates ongoing supply pressure, making it difficult to support the token price through buybacks alone. Additionally, since JupUSD can currently only be minted by the team, concerns may arise around fairness if premiums develop and the team captures arbitrage profits by selling newly minted supply.

• Cascade is a perpetual markets platform that offers futures trading on cryptocurrencies, U.S. equities, and private assets through a single unified margin account.

• It has raised $15 million in funding from Polychain Capital, Variant Fund, and Coinbase Ventures, and is preparing for a public launch in Q1 2026.

• As the service is being built with a U.S. focus, Cascade is expected to develop infrastructure for U.S. regulatory compliance and integrate traditional financial assets.

• However, caution is warranted. Despite three years of development, Perennial— which shares the same investors, founders, and APIs as Cascade—has yet to meaningfully ship a product or launch a token.

Recently launched in private beta, Cascade has drawn significant attention as a U.S.-compliant perpetual market that enables futures trading across crypto and U.S. equities, backed by a $15 million raise. Access currently requires an invite code, and users can farm Cascade points by depositing funds into Cascade’s Liquidity Strategy.

While allocating capital to early-stage projects typically carries high risk, it can also offer substantial upside if the project succeeds, which is why some users choose to participate consistently. That said, a key concern is that Cascade shares the same founder as Perennial. Given Perennial’s failure to deliver a fully developed product or token launch, there is a risk that Cascade could face similar challenges.

• OpenSea is the world’s largest NFT marketplace and has raised a total of $425.15 million from leading venture capital firms including Paradigm, a16z, Blockchain Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.

• Currently, the way to earn the SEA token is by trading tokens and NFTs on OpenSea to accumulate XP. By upgrading chest tiers based on XP, users become eligible for rewards at the time of the SEA token TGE.

• There are 13 tiers in total, and OpenSea has stated that rewards will be distributed at TGE based on these tiers, which has driven strong user participation.

• With the TGE expected around Q1 2026, markets have been created on Polymarket to predict OpenSea’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) after the token launch.

• As of now, Polymarket estimates roughly a 90% probability that the post-TGE FDV will exceed $500 million, and about a 54% probability that it will exceed $1 billion. These probabilities continue to fluctuate as traders buy and sell positions.

• Typically, a reasonable TGE-day FDV is considered to be around 5–10x the total amount of capital raised. In OpenSea’s case, however, the investments were made relatively long ago, and NFT marketplace trading volumes are currently muted. As a result, market participants tend to predict a comparatively lower FDV.

OpenSea’s total funding of $425.15 million by 2022 places it among the largest-funded crypto projects. This has led some to expect a high FDV for the SEA token. However, on Polymarket—the leading prediction market—the odds of the FDV exceeding $1 billion remain roughly even.

Personally, OpenSea appears highly likely to secure simultaneous listings on major exchanges at TGE, including Korea’s Upbit and Bithumb, as well as global exchanges like Binance. Even considering the time elapsed since its fundraising, I believe an FDV above $1 billion is still achievable.

• This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any specific asset. Investments in cryptocurrencies and digital assets involve high risk, so please conduct your own due diligence and make decisions carefully.

• All research commentary reflects the views of an Uncommonlab research intern and does not constitute financial or legal advice, nor does it recommend the purchase or sale of any specific asset.