Uncommonlab Weekly Alpha summarizes and shares newly emerging crypto alpha information every week.

• Stream Finance had been investing deposited USDC assets using a market-neutral strategy, functioning similarly to an on-chain hedge fund. However, the protocol incurred losses while using nearly 4x leverage through collateralized lending based on xUSD.

• Initially, the size of the losses was not disclosed. But an external fund manager overseeing the Stream fund revealed through an official account that the losses amounted to $93M. Following this disclosure, the price of xUSD briefly dropped to as low as $0.35.

• Funds deposited into Stream are effectively non-withdrawable, and xUSD was never designed to be a true stablecoin—it merely tokenizes Stream’s market-neutral fund. As a result, the chances of recovery are extremely low.

• Users who deposited funds into liquidity pools on Morpho, Euler, and similar platforms simply because they offered high APYs are now unable to withdraw their assets due to xUSD being mispriced as collateral—its oracle price was hard-coded and did not reflect its real market value.

Stream Finance has operated multiple vaults and provided roughly 18% yields based on xUSD. These yields were generated through a looping strategy: borrowing other stablecoins against xUSD as collateral, then minting more xUSD, repeatedly compounding leverage. The situation escalated when it was revealed that an external fund entrusted with managing Stream’s assets had incurred a $93M loss. Compounding the issue, xUSD was used as collateral across various L2 lending markets with a fixed oracle price of $1.27. Since this value did not adjust even as the real value of xUSD declined, positions could not be liquidated properly. Consequently, massive bad debt is now emerging in markets where loans were issued against xUSD—for example USDT0, plUSD, msUSD, and others. Although the incident is still unfolding and not fully resolved, many analysts believe that structural limitations make recovery unlikely and that bankruptcy is a strong possibility. At present, assets related to xUSD or Stream Finance, as well as any connected DeFi pools, carry significant risk and should be approached with caution.

• CZ, the founder of Binance, revealed on his Twitter that he purchased $2 million worth of ASTER, a BNB Chain perpetual DEX token.

• This is highly unusual, as CZ has never publicly posted about buying a specific altcoin other than BTC and BNB before.

• He also stated that he plans to accumulate and hold ASTER long-term just like BNB, which can effectively be interpreted as extremely strong support for ASTER.

• Following this announcement, the price of ASTER surged more than 30%. Despite the purchase being made with CZ’s personal funds, many believe that if he continues to show such public support, ASTER will inevitably catch up to Hyperliquid’s market share.

CZ disclosed on Twitter that he bought $2 million worth of ASTER at $0.90, causing the token’s price to jump over 30% in a short period. Since CZ has never mentioned or publicly confirmed buying any specific token other than BTC and BNB, many people are now considering whether they should buy ASTER as well. In my view, in a market where most altcoins have lost fundamental value, it appears that CZ—the key decision maker at Binance, the No.1 exchange—has chosen ASTER as a contender to compete against Hyperliquid. His open show of support, including publicly confirming his token purchase through social media, suggests that riding this momentum may not be a bad strategy. Given that a platform’s value can grow significantly under CZ’s influence, taking a short position on ASTER seems unwise, even if one chooses not to buy it.

• Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM) protocol that allows anyone to create and join liquidity pools on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains.

• Recently, a smart contract hack on the Balancer V2 Vault resulted in roughly $128 million being stolen by attackers.

• The V2 Vault had passed more than ten external audits, but the vulnerability went undetected and was ultimately exploited — a development that has weakened overall trust in DeFi protocols.

• Projects that forked Balancer were hit as well: Beets Finance suffered the same vulnerability and lost funds, and when Berachain’s BEX — which runs a direct fork of Balancer V2 logic — was found to be at risk, validators deliberately halted the chain and performed a hard fork to patch the vulnerable code.

Although Balancer had undergone over ten audits, a previously undiscovered flaw still allowed a $128M exploit. This is large enough to rank among the biggest hacks in history and has broadly eroded confidence in DeFi. Because many projects copy Balancer’s code, the same vulnerability propagated to forks and increased the total damage. The incident is a reminder that even long-established DeFi protocols with many audits can harbor undiscovered, critical vulnerabilities — on-chain risk must always be considered.

• A popular crypto influencer, CBB, recently advised people with balances under $1M to study Pendle.

• His main point is that Pendle’s YT allows users to exploit information asymmetry to maximize returns.

• Typically, users with larger capital prefer using PT to earn fixed yields. But for those with smaller capital, selecting the right pools can allow them to target 2–3x returns through YT.

• Because YT inherently comes with high slippage and tends toward zero as it approaches maturity, it is difficult for whales and funds to engage effectively. This makes YT a potentially attractive tool for retail users who can plan their strategies properly.

Pendle standardizes yield-bearing assets into SY and then splits them into PT and YT for trading. PT trades at a discount before maturity and pays back principal 1:1 at maturity, making it suitable for fixed-yield strategies. YT, on the other hand, receives all yield and points generated before maturity (including points that convert into airdropped tokens), making it a high-risk, high-return option. CBB argues that by identifying undervalued YT assets, retail users can exploit market inefficiencies to earn high returns. In fact, certain YT positions have increased more than 2–3x over time, so with careful selection, YT can serve as a strong yield-maximization strategy. However, when market sentiment is strong and many users seek places to put excess capital, YT can also become heavily overvalued — so caution is required.

• Perena is building USD*, a hub-and-spoke stablecoin infrastructure on Solana.

• In this hub-and-spoke model, the rapid increase in stablecoin issuers has fragmented liquidity. Perena aggregates major stablecoins like USDC, USDT, and PYUSD into a single Seed Pool, and connects new stablecoins to a Growth Pool, providing a unified liquidity layer.

• The project has raised $3M from VCs including YZi Labs, SevenX, and ABCDE.

• When users mint USD* on Perena, they can mine Perena’s own points and collect badges. The more badges a user earns, the larger their rewards at the end of the season.

Perena is a project building stablecoin infrastructure on the Solana network. Users can mint its native stablecoin USD* using USDC, and in return they receive a 13% APY along with Perena points. Although its funding size is relatively small compared to other stablecoin projects, Perena has been consistently building within the Solana ecosystem, and the combination of APY plus point-based rewards — which may lead to a future token airdrop — makes it a reasonably attractive option for depositing capital.

• XPLA has rebranded by changing its token ticker to CONX, shifting from a game-focused project to a comprehensive platform connecting culture, technology, and finance.

• A governance vote began on November 2, 2025, and lasted for one week. The proposal passed, and the symbol will officially change to CONX.

• Although there is no change in token supply, many believe the rebrand aims not only to refresh the project’s image but also to effectively “reset” a chart that had fallen nearly 96% from its all-time high.

• It's important to note that aside from Gate and Bithumb, XPLA has virtually no major exchange listings, so caution is required.

XPLA originally launched as a gaming token through the FTX Launchpad and was extremely popular in its early days. However, after FTX collapsed, the project was negatively affected, and its tokenomics were structured in a way that released large amounts of supply over time. As a result, XPLA failed to maintain price support and dropped nearly 99%. The project is now changing its ticker from XPLA to CONX and plans to rebrand as a broader platform connecting culture, technology, and finance, rather than focusing solely on gaming. However, since this rebranding does not include technical upgrades or supply changes and is more akin to an image makeover — and because the token is tradable on only Gate and Bithumb — investors should exercise caution.

• Flying Tulip is a full-stack on-chain financial platform designed by Andre Cronje, the creator behind Yearn Finance and Keep3r Network.

• In today’s DeFi market, spot trading, derivatives, lending, stablecoins, and insurance all operate as separate protocols, leading to structural limitations such as inefficient collateral usage, fragmented liquidity, reliance on price oracles, and siloed platforms.

• Flying Tulip aims to solve these issues by connecting all on-chain financial services within a single system, maximizing collateral efficiency and liquidity through a unified collateral base.

• The project has raised $200M at a $1B valuation, and it will conduct a token sale of $15M on IDO platform Impossible — at the same $1B valuation offered to VCs.

• Although Flying Tulip begins with a high valuation, it is gaining strong attention because retail investors can participate under the same terms as VCs, tokens unlock 100% at TGE, and FT tokens come with a permanent on-chain put option that allows users to redeem their principal at any time by burning the tokens.

Flying Tulip, designed by Andre Cronje, is preparing for its token sale. According to the information released so far, retail investors can join under the same conditions as VC investors, there is no additional token issuance, tokens unlock fully at TGE, and users are granted an on-chain right to redeem their principal whenever they wish. Since the structure essentially guarantees principal (excluding hacking risks), many expect strong participation once the sale officially begins. Because the project is led by Andre Cronje, expectations are relatively high, though one point of caution is that the platform is launching first on the Sonic chain — which may lack the infrastructure and robustness of Ethereum mainnet, making careful consideration important before investing.

• Billions Network is a privacy-focused digital identity network that can verify both humans and AI agents without requiring any biometric data, using zero-knowledge (ZK) technology for verification.

• The project has raised a total of $30M from various VCs, including Polychain Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

• Through Kaito, Billions conducted a token sale at a $100M valuation. After signing up for the Billions app and verifying that you are human, you can earn Power points, which are expected to convert into BLNS tokens in the future.

• Users can also earn additional points by staking POL or participating in campaigns run jointly with TRIA. For those already staking POL or using TRIA, participating through Billions is likely the most efficient way to maximize rewards.

Billions Network enables digital identity verification without requiring biometric information. The project has raised $30M so far, and users can accumulate its native Power points through the app. These points will later be used for a token airdrop, and since the token sale through Kaito is already complete, the TGE is likely not far away. Billions also has Billions Genesis and Billions Supermasks NFTs; while their utilities haven’t been fully revealed, many expect them to be tied to token airdrops. However, given the current NFT prices, there is a possibility they may not receive airdrops, and based on Billions’ statements emphasizing rewarding genuine contributors, focusing on using the app itself may be the more reliable strategy.

• BOB is a hybrid L2 that combines the security of Bitcoin with the flexibility of Ethereum.

• The project has raised $21M from VCs such as Coinbase Ventures, CMS Holdings, and RockawayX, and will conduct a community sale for its BOB token through CoinList.

• The public round is offered at a 230M FDV, with 20% unlocking at TGE and the remaining 80% vesting linearly over 12 months.
  The community member round is offered at a 165M FDV, with 0% TGE unlock, meaning the entire allocation vests linearly over 12 months.

• Participants can invest between $50 and $250,000 per person, and 4% of the total BOB token supply is allocated to the community sale.

BOB will run its token sale through CoinList. It features two rounds: a public round at a 230M FDV and a community member round at a 165M FDV. The public round appears to be priced higher than the VC valuation, so participation is not recommended. To illustrate how high this valuation is: even Babylon — one of the most anticipated Bitcoin-related projects — raised $96M and later launched its BABY token, which currently sits at a $67M market cap and a $248M FDV. Many Bitcoin-centric projects have shown weak token performance, so participation in Bitcoin-based token sales is generally not advised.

• This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any specific asset. Cryptocurrency and digital asset investments carry high risks, so please conduct thorough research and make decisions carefully.

• All research comments reflect the views of UncommonLab research interns and do not represent financial or legal advice, nor do they recommend trading any specific asset.

Uncommonlab Weekly Alpha summarizes and shares newly emerging crypto alpha information every week.

• Stream Finance had been investing deposited USDC assets using a market-neutral strategy, functioning similarly to an on-chain hedge fund. However, the protocol incurred losses while using nearly 4x leverage through collateralized lending based on xUSD.

• Initially, the size of the losses was not disclosed. But an external fund manager overseeing the Stream fund revealed through an official account that the losses amounted to $93M. Following this disclosure, the price of xUSD briefly dropped to as low as $0.35.

• Funds deposited into Stream are effectively non-withdrawable, and xUSD was never designed to be a true stablecoin—it merely tokenizes Stream’s market-neutral fund. As a result, the chances of recovery are extremely low.

• Users who deposited funds into liquidity pools on Morpho, Euler, and similar platforms simply because they offered high APYs are now unable to withdraw their assets due to xUSD being mispriced as collateral—its oracle price was hard-coded and did not reflect its real market value.

Stream Finance has operated multiple vaults and provided roughly 18% yields based on xUSD. These yields were generated through a looping strategy: borrowing other stablecoins against xUSD as collateral, then minting more xUSD, repeatedly compounding leverage. The situation escalated when it was revealed that an external fund entrusted with managing Stream’s assets had incurred a $93M loss. Compounding the issue, xUSD was used as collateral across various L2 lending markets with a fixed oracle price of $1.27. Since this value did not adjust even as the real value of xUSD declined, positions could not be liquidated properly. Consequently, massive bad debt is now emerging in markets where loans were issued against xUSD—for example USDT0, plUSD, msUSD, and others. Although the incident is still unfolding and not fully resolved, many analysts believe that structural limitations make recovery unlikely and that bankruptcy is a strong possibility. At present, assets related to xUSD or Stream Finance, as well as any connected DeFi pools, carry significant risk and should be approached with caution.

• CZ, the founder of Binance, revealed on his Twitter that he purchased $2 million worth of ASTER, a BNB Chain perpetual DEX token.

• This is highly unusual, as CZ has never publicly posted about buying a specific altcoin other than BTC and BNB before.

• He also stated that he plans to accumulate and hold ASTER long-term just like BNB, which can effectively be interpreted as extremely strong support for ASTER.

• Following this announcement, the price of ASTER surged more than 30%. Despite the purchase being made with CZ’s personal funds, many believe that if he continues to show such public support, ASTER will inevitably catch up to Hyperliquid’s market share.

CZ disclosed on Twitter that he bought $2 million worth of ASTER at $0.90, causing the token’s price to jump over 30% in a short period. Since CZ has never mentioned or publicly confirmed buying any specific token other than BTC and BNB, many people are now considering whether they should buy ASTER as well. In my view, in a market where most altcoins have lost fundamental value, it appears that CZ—the key decision maker at Binance, the No.1 exchange—has chosen ASTER as a contender to compete against Hyperliquid. His open show of support, including publicly confirming his token purchase through social media, suggests that riding this momentum may not be a bad strategy. Given that a platform’s value can grow significantly under CZ’s influence, taking a short position on ASTER seems unwise, even if one chooses not to buy it.

• Balancer is an automated market maker (AMM) protocol that allows anyone to create and join liquidity pools on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains.

• Recently, a smart contract hack on the Balancer V2 Vault resulted in roughly $128 million being stolen by attackers.

• The V2 Vault had passed more than ten external audits, but the vulnerability went undetected and was ultimately exploited — a development that has weakened overall trust in DeFi protocols.

• Projects that forked Balancer were hit as well: Beets Finance suffered the same vulnerability and lost funds, and when Berachain’s BEX — which runs a direct fork of Balancer V2 logic — was found to be at risk, validators deliberately halted the chain and performed a hard fork to patch the vulnerable code.

Although Balancer had undergone over ten audits, a previously undiscovered flaw still allowed a $128M exploit. This is large enough to rank among the biggest hacks in history and has broadly eroded confidence in DeFi. Because many projects copy Balancer’s code, the same vulnerability propagated to forks and increased the total damage. The incident is a reminder that even long-established DeFi protocols with many audits can harbor undiscovered, critical vulnerabilities — on-chain risk must always be considered.

• A popular crypto influencer, CBB, recently advised people with balances under $1M to study Pendle.

• His main point is that Pendle’s YT allows users to exploit information asymmetry to maximize returns.

• Typically, users with larger capital prefer using PT to earn fixed yields. But for those with smaller capital, selecting the right pools can allow them to target 2–3x returns through YT.

• Because YT inherently comes with high slippage and tends toward zero as it approaches maturity, it is difficult for whales and funds to engage effectively. This makes YT a potentially attractive tool for retail users who can plan their strategies properly.

Pendle standardizes yield-bearing assets into SY and then splits them into PT and YT for trading. PT trades at a discount before maturity and pays back principal 1:1 at maturity, making it suitable for fixed-yield strategies. YT, on the other hand, receives all yield and points generated before maturity (including points that convert into airdropped tokens), making it a high-risk, high-return option. CBB argues that by identifying undervalued YT assets, retail users can exploit market inefficiencies to earn high returns. In fact, certain YT positions have increased more than 2–3x over time, so with careful selection, YT can serve as a strong yield-maximization strategy. However, when market sentiment is strong and many users seek places to put excess capital, YT can also become heavily overvalued — so caution is required.

• Perena is building USD*, a hub-and-spoke stablecoin infrastructure on Solana.

• In this hub-and-spoke model, the rapid increase in stablecoin issuers has fragmented liquidity. Perena aggregates major stablecoins like USDC, USDT, and PYUSD into a single Seed Pool, and connects new stablecoins to a Growth Pool, providing a unified liquidity layer.

• The project has raised $3M from VCs including YZi Labs, SevenX, and ABCDE.

• When users mint USD* on Perena, they can mine Perena’s own points and collect badges. The more badges a user earns, the larger their rewards at the end of the season.

Perena is a project building stablecoin infrastructure on the Solana network. Users can mint its native stablecoin USD* using USDC, and in return they receive a 13% APY along with Perena points. Although its funding size is relatively small compared to other stablecoin projects, Perena has been consistently building within the Solana ecosystem, and the combination of APY plus point-based rewards — which may lead to a future token airdrop — makes it a reasonably attractive option for depositing capital.

• XPLA has rebranded by changing its token ticker to CONX, shifting from a game-focused project to a comprehensive platform connecting culture, technology, and finance.

• A governance vote began on November 2, 2025, and lasted for one week. The proposal passed, and the symbol will officially change to CONX.

• Although there is no change in token supply, many believe the rebrand aims not only to refresh the project’s image but also to effectively “reset” a chart that had fallen nearly 96% from its all-time high.

• It's important to note that aside from Gate and Bithumb, XPLA has virtually no major exchange listings, so caution is required.

XPLA originally launched as a gaming token through the FTX Launchpad and was extremely popular in its early days. However, after FTX collapsed, the project was negatively affected, and its tokenomics were structured in a way that released large amounts of supply over time. As a result, XPLA failed to maintain price support and dropped nearly 99%. The project is now changing its ticker from XPLA to CONX and plans to rebrand as a broader platform connecting culture, technology, and finance, rather than focusing solely on gaming. However, since this rebranding does not include technical upgrades or supply changes and is more akin to an image makeover — and because the token is tradable on only Gate and Bithumb — investors should exercise caution.

• Flying Tulip is a full-stack on-chain financial platform designed by Andre Cronje, the creator behind Yearn Finance and Keep3r Network.

• In today’s DeFi market, spot trading, derivatives, lending, stablecoins, and insurance all operate as separate protocols, leading to structural limitations such as inefficient collateral usage, fragmented liquidity, reliance on price oracles, and siloed platforms.

• Flying Tulip aims to solve these issues by connecting all on-chain financial services within a single system, maximizing collateral efficiency and liquidity through a unified collateral base.

• The project has raised $200M at a $1B valuation, and it will conduct a token sale of $15M on IDO platform Impossible — at the same $1B valuation offered to VCs.

• Although Flying Tulip begins with a high valuation, it is gaining strong attention because retail investors can participate under the same terms as VCs, tokens unlock 100% at TGE, and FT tokens come with a permanent on-chain put option that allows users to redeem their principal at any time by burning the tokens.

Flying Tulip, designed by Andre Cronje, is preparing for its token sale. According to the information released so far, retail investors can join under the same conditions as VC investors, there is no additional token issuance, tokens unlock fully at TGE, and users are granted an on-chain right to redeem their principal whenever they wish. Since the structure essentially guarantees principal (excluding hacking risks), many expect strong participation once the sale officially begins. Because the project is led by Andre Cronje, expectations are relatively high, though one point of caution is that the platform is launching first on the Sonic chain — which may lack the infrastructure and robustness of Ethereum mainnet, making careful consideration important before investing.

• Billions Network is a privacy-focused digital identity network that can verify both humans and AI agents without requiring any biometric data, using zero-knowledge (ZK) technology for verification.

• The project has raised a total of $30M from various VCs, including Polychain Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

• Through Kaito, Billions conducted a token sale at a $100M valuation. After signing up for the Billions app and verifying that you are human, you can earn Power points, which are expected to convert into BLNS tokens in the future.

• Users can also earn additional points by staking POL or participating in campaigns run jointly with TRIA. For those already staking POL or using TRIA, participating through Billions is likely the most efficient way to maximize rewards.

Billions Network enables digital identity verification without requiring biometric information. The project has raised $30M so far, and users can accumulate its native Power points through the app. These points will later be used for a token airdrop, and since the token sale through Kaito is already complete, the TGE is likely not far away. Billions also has Billions Genesis and Billions Supermasks NFTs; while their utilities haven’t been fully revealed, many expect them to be tied to token airdrops. However, given the current NFT prices, there is a possibility they may not receive airdrops, and based on Billions’ statements emphasizing rewarding genuine contributors, focusing on using the app itself may be the more reliable strategy.

• BOB is a hybrid L2 that combines the security of Bitcoin with the flexibility of Ethereum.

• The project has raised $21M from VCs such as Coinbase Ventures, CMS Holdings, and RockawayX, and will conduct a community sale for its BOB token through CoinList.

• The public round is offered at a 230M FDV, with 20% unlocking at TGE and the remaining 80% vesting linearly over 12 months.
  The community member round is offered at a 165M FDV, with 0% TGE unlock, meaning the entire allocation vests linearly over 12 months.

• Participants can invest between $50 and $250,000 per person, and 4% of the total BOB token supply is allocated to the community sale.

BOB will run its token sale through CoinList. It features two rounds: a public round at a 230M FDV and a community member round at a 165M FDV. The public round appears to be priced higher than the VC valuation, so participation is not recommended. To illustrate how high this valuation is: even Babylon — one of the most anticipated Bitcoin-related projects — raised $96M and later launched its BABY token, which currently sits at a $67M market cap and a $248M FDV. Many Bitcoin-centric projects have shown weak token performance, so participation in Bitcoin-based token sales is generally not advised.

• This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any specific asset. Cryptocurrency and digital asset investments carry high risks, so please conduct thorough research and make decisions carefully.

• All research comments reflect the views of UncommonLab research interns and do not represent financial or legal advice, nor do they recommend trading any specific asset.