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Health, Wealth, and Happiness

February 23, 2024

“Our favorite holding period is forever.”

- Warren Buffett

Howdy, investors!

• The latest craze in crypto is "points farming," earning points toward a future airdrop. Is it worth your time and effort? Find out in today's feature story.

• Token Terminal brings us a great summary of the L2 landscape with some insights into why this is likely a "winner takes most" category.

• Interested in restaking? Today's piece from The Defiant explains how restaking works to help investors earn additional yield.

• Andreessen Horowitz is obviously interested in restaking, based on its $100M investment in EigenLayer. This is a project to watch (charts below).

Read on to explore more!

Is Points Farming Worth Your Time?

by John Hargrave

If you missed last week's column, Are Crypto Airdrops Worth Your Time? here's the TLDR:

• Airdrops are a way of rewarding early users of a crypto project with tokens in the project.

• While there are differences, investors can think of these tokens like getting free “shares” in the “company.”

• Airdrops have both pros and cons: while they build early users, many “airdrop farmers” are just there for the free tokens.

• Airdrop farming could be worthwhile for tech-savvy investors with plenty of free time. (Be careful, though.)

• For conservative investors, you can wait until the token launches, then buy at a discount (as airdrop farmers sell their tokens).

In this new guide, we’ll give you our point of view on the new craze of crypto points, and whether “points farming” is worth your time.

We’ll explain how crypto points work, the difference between points vs. airdrops, and the advantages and disadvantages for investors.

Read the full article here >>

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New Investor Scorecard: Optimism (OP)

Optimism is a Layer-2 project built on Ethereum that uses rollup technology to

ease congestion and improve efficiency.

As Optimism quickly rose to become one of the top scaling solutions for Ethereum, its OP token also benefited, recently hitting an all-time high.

In our Investor Scorecard, we use our industry-leading framework to determine if the Optimism project is worth your time. We filter out the hype and noise behind the token, focusing on the fundamentals.

Premium members can download the Optimism Investor Scorecard here to find out what our analysts say about an investment in the token.

Not yet a Premium member? Sign up now and get access to our complete library of tools and tips to make you a better crypto investor.

Must Read

Today's most important stories for crypto investors.

From Building Blockchains to Building Businesses (Token Terminal)

We all know there are limitations to Ethereum in speed and scalability. This has led to the development of Layer-2 solutions as a means to scale vertically. This excellent analysis agrees with our hot take, that only one or two L2s are likely to survive long-term ... and it's still anyone's race!

What is Restaking? (The Defiant)

Restaking allows Ethereum stakers to earn additional yield using either native Ether or Liquid Staking Tokens like Lido's stETH. (You stake your ETH, get a receipt in stETH, then restake your stETH.) While the liquid restaking sector is taking off with protocols like Ether.fi, Swell, and Restake Finance, be cautious about stacking your staking: each restaking adds more potential risk.

Andreessen Invests $100 Million in Crypto Startup EigenLayer (Bloomberg)

Andreessen Horowitz has invested $100 million in EigenLayer, one of the most successful startups doing crypto restaking. Eigenlayer previously raised $50 million and is exploring various paths to profitability. Keep EigenLayer on your radar as an investment opportunity, but approach restaking with caution.

Ethereum ETFs: Your Guide to the Next Big Crypto Investment

Should you invest in ETH now, or later?

Airdrops vs. IPOs

Are airdrops worth your time?

Bitcoin blows past $51,000

But how does it stack up long-term against the S&P 500?

How to Earn Crypto Staking Rewards on Coinbase

Your step-by-step tutorial.

Should You Invest In PIXEL?

Are play-to-earn blockchain games worth your time?

Chart of the Day

The state of liquid staking

Last week we looked at the dominance of Lido in the liquid staking ecosystem. While that dominance doesn't appear to be fading, there is a new player in town that's growing by leaps and bounds: EigenLayer.

While Lido (green line) still dominates liquid restaking, EigenLayer (magenta line) has quickly jumped above competitors, including Coinbase's wrapped Ether product, and RocketPool, a project that's been around since 2021.

While EigenLayer has some way to go to catch Lido, it has attracted the attention of venture capital, indicating there's something worth investing in here, making it a project we will definitely keep watching. Stay subscribed.

Simple solution: keep hodling.

(Thanks to Trality)

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