Altcoin Market Dashboard
Fidelity's Blockchain Analysis Framework
🧠 Thesis
Fidelity proposes that blockchains should be analyzed as digital economies, not merely as software or speculative instruments. This shift offers asset allocators a fundamentals-based framework—similar to analyzing traditional GDP—for evaluating crypto networks and their native currencies.
🪙 Currencies
- • Native to a blockchain (e.g., ETH on Ethereum)
- • Used to pay for core activities like gas fees
- • Functions as unit of account, medium of exchange
- • Potentially store of value
🪙 Tokens
- • Built on top of a blockchain
- • May represent utility, governance, or revenue share
- • Often used within dApps
- • Not required to operate the base network
🌐 Ethereum as a Digital Economy
Traditional Nation-State
- • Currency (e.g. USD)
- • Central Bank sets monetary policy
- • GDP measures final goods/services
- • CPI for inflation
Blockchain
- • Cryptocurrency (e.g. ETH)
- • Protocol-level issuance rules
- • Activity = sum of on-chain transactions
- • Gas price fluctuation
📊 GDP-Like Framework for Blockchains
1. Consumption
- • Gas fees (base layer, "sales tax")
- • dApp service fees (application layer)
- • NFT mints and secondary sales
2. Government
- • ETH issuance to validators
- • Grants from the Ethereum Foundation
3. Investment
- • ETH staked (to secure the network)
- • Liquidity in DEX pools
4. Net Exports
- • Value bridging in/out
- • Stablecoin mints
- • DePIN incentives
👥 Demographics = Wallet Activity
Like a real economy tracks population/workforce, digital economies profile:
- • Wallet addresses (individual actors)
- • Roles (e.g., traders, builders, consumers)
- • Growth in active wallets = labor force growth
- • Smart contract creators pay more gas (like entrepreneurs)
🧩 Sectoral Diversification
Ethereum is economically resilient because it's not dependent on a single activity. Gas fees are distributed across:
- • Finance (47%)
- • Trade (25%)
- • Arts & Entertainment (6%)
- • Other (22%)
🧾 ETH as Money
Fidelity argues ETH fulfills monetary functions within its own economy:
Unit of Account
Everything priced in ETH
Medium of Exchange
74% of DEX volume in ETH pairs (2024)
Store of Value
Scarcity enforced via burn mechanisms
⚠️ Important ETH Context
Do not believe that Ethereum is some sort of value buy cause it hasn't gone up as much as Bitcoin. What they don't tell you is that it's already up nearly 1,000,000% in 10 years from its $0.30 ICO. It can still go up more. But you're very late to the trade.
🧠 Key Implication for Investors
Viewing Ethereum as a sovereign digital economy (rather than software) helps:
- • Evaluate ETH like a currency with monetary policy and fiscal activity
- • Build portfolios that factor in growth potential and store-of-value properties
- • Diversify exposures across traditional, commodity, and digital economies
📌 Final Notes
This paper reframes crypto from a speculative lens to an economic fundamentals-based framework. It sets the stage for a more sophisticated approach to digital asset valuation, bridging macro investing principles with decentralized protocols.
The L1/L2 Treasury Playbook
🚨 The Dead Chain Playbook
We have been annoyed (to say the least) to see so many L1/L2's raise huge amounts of capital, launch a chain, have no PMF and see them run this playbook. These companies will never die and will just pivot to being holding companies.
💰 The Standard Playbook
Fundraising Rounds
- • Dead chain: Raise $25M on a $250M post
- • Then $75M on $750M post
- • Over 2 years, $100M raised for 20% equity
Team & Operations
- • 40–50 FTEs at ~$200K avg comp = ~$9M/yr
- • Add ~$4M/yr in ops (legal, SaaS, travel, etc.)
- • Total burn: ~$13M/yr
Treasury Strategy
- • Keep ~$80M in t-bills earning 4% = $3.2M/yr
- • Launch a token, trades at $1B FDV
- • Treasury owns 30% = $300M
Monetization
- • Sell $30M to USDC (total cash raised now $130M)
- • Monetize the balance by selling covered calls
- • $500K–$1M/mo in income
🏢 Final Position
Business has ~$100M cash + ~$250M in native asset and optionality (albeit very low given incentives at play) to get traction and build real ecosystem.
Cash Position
$100M
Liquid cash reserves
Native Assets
$250M
Token treasury value
Monthly Income
$1M
From covered calls
₿ Bitcoin Treasury Scenario
Now imagine their treasury was sitting in Bitcoin the past few years...
Treasury Bills (Current)
- • $80M initial investment
- • 4% annual return
- • 2 years = $6.4M interest
- • Total: $86.4M
Bitcoin Investment (Hypothetical)
- • $80M invested in BTC (July 2023)
- • BTC price: $30,169 → $109,529
- • 263% return over 2 years
- • Total: $290.4M
The Difference
$204M additional value if treasury was in Bitcoin instead of T-bills. That's the difference between a struggling project and a financial powerhouse.
📊 Key Insights
The Reality
- • These companies will never die
- • They pivot to being holding companies
- • Token launches are exit strategies
- • Treasury management ecosystem building
The Problem
- • No real PMF for most L1/L2s
- • Massive capital misallocation
- • Teams focus on financial engineering
- • Innovation takes a backseat
🎯 The Bottom Line
This is what most L1/L2s do who have raised a ton of money and have a token. It's insane. These companies will never die and will just pivot to being holding companies. The question isn't whether they'll survive—it's whether they'll ever build anything meaningful.
Market Overview: Structural Shifts & Institutional Moves
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing unprecedented institutional adoption and structural integration into mainstream finance. Major players like Stripe, Meta, and Robinhood are driving innovation in stablecoins, tokenized assets, and blockchain infrastructure. Meanwhile, the altcoin landscape reveals a cultural shift—one that blends memes, AI, DeFi, and narrative investing into a high-volatility cocktail that's hard to ignore.
Major Market Moves
- • Coinbase acquiring Deribit
- • Stripe's global stablecoin push
- • Meta's blockchain infrastructure
- • Robinhood's crypto expansion
- • Major TradFi M&A activity
Market Dynamics
- • Memecoin cultural integration
- • AI infrastructure development
- • DeFi protocol maturation
- • L1 ecosystem evolution
Key Innovations
- • On-chain stock trading
- • Stablecoin payment rails
- • LSDfi infrastructure
- • Decentralized ML economies
Market Insights
- • Institutional adoption accelerating
- • Cultural narratives driving innovation
- • Infrastructure-first approach
- • Convergence of TradFi and DeFi
This isn't 2021 redux. It's more meta, more modular, and more memetic. We're witnessing the convergence of institutional adoption and cultural innovation—where traditional finance meets the edge of crypto, creating unprecedented opportunities for both builders and traders. The market is being reshaped by major structural moves rather than just price action.