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

Get ahead of the game and say goodbye to ineffective airdrop competition.

Written by: Ignas, DeFi Researcher

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 provided by Ignas are quite comprehensive, including familiar ones like Nansen and DefiLlama, as well as some niche but very useful tools. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled the content as follows:

Are you still motivated to look for Alpha projects recently?

I once wrote that my motivation to search for new projects has diminished. This may be the most noticeable change since I entered the crypto space in 2018. Even during previous bear markets, I didn't feel this fatigued.

I really want to know if I am the only one like this, maybe I am too lazy or too bored? Although it's not entirely the case, compared to before, I am more cautious in allocating most of my funds in my portfolio to new protocols. During the last bull market, capital flowed more freely, and profits were relatively easy to obtain. But now it's different; the bear market hasn't arrived yet, but there is less capital. The risk-return ratio has also changed: although hacking attacks and exploits are now less common, the airdrop rewards for the vast majority of projects have decreased.

Funds are spread across many protocols, and none of them offer particularly high returns. I feel that too many new projects are just making incremental improvements without any real innovation from 0 to 1. This statement applies not only to DeFi protocols but also to L1 and L2. So why would we have the motivation to explore Kraken's Ink or Soneium L2? If there are no innovative and value-adding protocols, we only have airdrop 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 outstanding projects that might 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:

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

1. Kaito

Kaito's flagship portal has a monthly fee of $1099 (which drops to $750 for a two-year term). 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 do 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 generates 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 like Pantera, Sequoia, and The Spartan Group. Multipli currently has a TVL of $70.3 million, which is a balancing point. Although it is currently in the second quarter, its implied risks are not 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 mental 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:

The first method:

• Go to "Dexu AI, Sector analysis, Social";
• Explore different analytical domains: mind share, sentiment analysis, X smart fans, etc.;
• Choose different time periods and zoom in / out using the slider.

The second method:

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

Project Example: Time.Fun

Two prominent use cases:

• Pay to send private 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 value will be quite good, 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 few people know about or use it. 0x PPL is a social media platform, but unlike regular X-style posts, you can see how the people you follow are using their wallets. While Kaito and Dexu focus on followers and mind share, 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 buys/sells, and you can also see deposits to protocols.

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

To add one more point, I can clearly see that the team is working hard every day to optimize this application. Every detail has been carefully polished, and they focus on small details to enhance the user experience.

4, Nansen

Nansen is very suitable for multiple functions, and I have previously shared a guide on how to use Nansen and other tools to achieve hundred-fold returns. However, there are two other features of Nansen that I also enjoy:

Firstly, 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 very 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 functions of DEX and liquidity pools (if you are an active LP, you will appreciate this feature), set the minimum TVL to 5 million USD, and choose a contract duration of 30 days.

The following are the results:

• YielFi's vyUSD stablecoin offers an annual yield of 16% (total TVL is 32 million USD, please invest cautiously, but they offer points);
• Plasma has garnered significant attention, but deposits are now closed;
• The new BOLD stablecoin launched by Liquity is continuously growing (while the overall market remains stagnant, LQTY continues to rise).
• There is also the Steer protocol: automated DeFi and multi-position liquidity management. 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 raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Druid Ventures, Republic Capital, and Big Brain Holdings.

5、DeBank

It seems that DeBank's market share on X has decreased as its flagship product has been integrated into the Rabby wallet, but significant Alpha opportunities can still be found using the DeBank profile tracking feature:

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

Look for accounts and protocols that align with your investment style; it's worth putting in some effort. You can learn how investors utilize their funds, which might be more effective for your time than browsing the latest news on X.

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

6、DefiLlama

Defillama is well-known to everyone, so this part is a brief summary. Previously, when I consulted Patrick Scott, the growth director of DefiLlama, he shared the following two suggestions:

• Go to DefiLlama, Airdrop;
• Switch: Hide fork protocol. (TVL filter can be added)
• Check the protocols one by one to see which ones meet your criteria.

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

7. Follow financing (Coincarp)

During this period, people's aversion to VC has reached a historic high, but well-funded protocol projects are excellent opportunities for profit-taking. I have always believed that tokens with low circulation and high FDV are ideal choices for profit-takers, as project teams have the funds to provide initial liquidity for the token TGE.

• Among the many financing inquiry tools, I like Coincarp, which is free and easy to use.
• I usually filter by "DeFi" and choose "Seed" as the earliest stage protocol.
• You can clearly see the main investors and the amount of funds they have raised.

Recently, the number of seed round financings announced in the DeFi sector has been 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 DeFi).

Its working principle is as follows:

• Log in through the package (no deposit required);
• Turtle tracks your liquidity pools / staking situation on the collaboration platform;
• You will receive additional rewards and TURTLE tokens.

Why it matters:

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

Conclusion

The above are 7 useful tools shared by Ignas. If you want to be an early discoverer and investor in quality projects, besides the tools we commonly use, a few other niche tools might also become your necessities in the future. The crypto field requires not only "Buy The Rumors, Sell The News" for trading, but also for finding projects. If you participate in a project only when it is discussed by most people, you may find it difficult to achieve significant results. Only by being proactive can you discover early Alpha and gain more returns in the future than others.