Zoo Monster

I found all the ships from the Straits of Hormuz

I learned today that the @MTA has a $20b yearly operating budget not including their capital budget. How is it still so dysfunctional?!? My proposal is that @NYCMayor @ZohranKMamdani should just hire #China Road and Bridge Corporation and see how quickly they fix the system

1. How is Daylight savings still a thing? 2. Why did they decide to celebrate women #IWD on the only day of the year with 23 hours?

Being in #nyc I’ve never been in a place where everyone cares more about being a “New Yorker” but cares so little about each other

Up for a writing challenge? Join me in the 20th annual Short Story Challenge by @nycmidnight on January 23rd! Learn more at nycmidnight.com/ssc

Axis is excited to announce a raise of $5 million, led by @galaxyhq, in order to bring institutional yield across USD, Bitcoin, and Gold. The digital asset market still lacks reliable, transparent ways to earn yield that work for both institutions and everyday users, in both bull and bear markets. Too many products depend on inflationary token incentives or singular strategies, making returns unsustainable and unpredictable. The solution? We're building a transparent return stream that is, by design, diversified delta-neutral and weather-resistant to market conditions. With a round led by Galaxy Ventures, and participation from @FalconXGlobal, @OKX_Ventures, @CMT_Digital, @Maven11Capital, @GSR_io, @cmsholdings, and @Marczeller of @AaveChan, Axis is taking a different approach. It's time to bring these quantitative institutional strategies onchain for all of you.

Markets blowing up again, like an ex texting at 2AM just to see if we’ll respond. We saw the notification. We’re staying calm.

@danheld Handstands

Shill me your hobby (not Bitcoin/crypto)!

Accidentally became important at work and it’s ruining my life

I am my baddie and my baddie is me 💗💞💓🌷🎀 So proud to be a @berabaddies honorary!

Explosive Good Vibes!! At DeFi WORLD 2025 - @EthereumDenver Pleasure having @routescan_io @beefyfinance @caladanxyz @chainlink @StakeStone_Fdn join us for a refreshing Panel on Web3 Utility and Security.

Once again, good tech is not good product. Good product is not good business.

Today marks the 1-month anniversary of Kaito's TGE. While many in the community first heard about @KaitoAI through the Yapper Leaderboard launched late last year, few know the story that began back in 2022—when they were still called MetaSearch. Caladan @caladanxyz was the first to write a check into Kaito and doubled down during their second round in 2023. After catching up with a few liquid funds recently, I still think Kaito is underappreciated for its long-term potential. As a Day 1 investor, I wanted to share the Kaito I know and the incredible team behind it. I met @Punk9277 in July 2022 when he was still based in Seattle. Fresh off running a nine-figure book at Citadel, Yu started exploring crypto during his non-compete. He quickly spotted inefficiencies in the space, made some sharp trades, and picked up a @cryptopunks—which now lives on as his PFP. Used to leveraging Bloomberg and other data sources for formulating his trade ideas, Yu was frustrated by the lack of reliable data sources in crypto. That pain point sparked the idea for what would eventually become MetaSearch. MetaSearch set out to solve a simple but critical problem: make crypto information searchable, structured, and actionable. Information in this space is scattered (e.g. Twitter, Telegram, Discord), in-platform search function is often sub-optimal, and existing search platform (i.e. Google) is not optimized for crypto. MetaSearch started aggregating and indexing that chaos into something usable. Over time, MetaSearch became one of the icons on the menu tab. In its current form, Kaito delivers real-time data that helps quantify sentiment and mindshare—fueling everything from investment decisions for funds to GTM strategies for projects. Since monetizing in Q3 2023, Kaito has made meaningful progress toward the revenue goals Yu laid out just two years ago in his fundraising deck. (Fun fact: his “TAM and Go-to-Market” slide is still one of the best I’ve seen.) Now, onto Kaito’s token business. After countless coffees and lunch chats with Yu, I’ve gotten a glimpse into the grand vision he and his team are building. Crypto is an attention economy—and Kaito is positioning itself as both the gatekeeper and enabler of that attention. Their first retail product, the Yapper Leaderboard, immediately found product-market fit. I've seen higher quality content and more active crypto discussions on Twitter since it launched. I’ve also heard top KOLs confess to losing sleep over slipping out of the top 10. That’s the magic: the leaderboard creates a flywheel where great content is surfaced and rewarded, which drives even more quality participation. And let’s be honest—who doesn’t love tracking their reach and getting that little dopamine hit from a Yap? The Yapper Leaderboard naturally evolved into other successful products, like Kaito Connect—which lets pre-TGE projects compete for a dedicated Community Leaderboard slot. It’s proven to be an effective launchpad, giving emerging projects visibility among the audiences they want to reach. Over time, Kaito Connect has become a kind of “coming-out party” for pre-TGE teams, helping them rally early support and build momentum. In a world where attention is the most scarce and valuable resource, Kaito has built a loyal following across KOLs, projects, funds, and retail users. Its attention economy lays the foundation for many more "[redacted] launchpads" to come. I see Kaito Connect as just the beginning—helping projects prep for TGE. Down the line, I expect we’ll see an ecosystem of tools that support projects at every stage of their lifecycle. I'm excited to learn more about Kaito's revenue growth, source of staking yield, network inflation/deflation as they publish the stats. But more than that, I’m confident in their ability to monetize effectively—as the ultimate facilitator of attention in crypto. It’s been a privilege to watch Kaito grow from the very beginning. I’m incredibly bullish on its future as a category-defining player in InfoFi and the Crypto x AI space. @Punk9277, thanks for being my friend and my first "smart follower." Can't wait to see what's next! x.com/Punk9277/statu…

@antony_btc spotted in our @caladanxyz gear

Skate Liquidity Roundtable – Segment 1: Market Making Join us as our guests dive deep into Market Making and on-chain liquidity. @gametheorizing from @SeliniCapital George from @TokkaLabs Will from @caladanxyz @siddhanjay from @flowdesk_co March 20, 9-9:30 AM EST/PM SGT

@wengevar @ethena Really thoughtfully designed

As we get closer to the launch of iUSDe and Ethereal, I've been thinking more about what makes Ethena so special. To me, @ethena isn’t just another DeFi project—it’s pioneering a crypto-native financial system where yield, liquidity, and capital efficiency fuel exponential adoption. At the heart of this ecosystem: - USDe – A synthetic dollar backed by a delta-neutral strategy - iUSDe – A high-yield stable product designed for TradFi integration - Ethereal – The premier on-chain venue for basis trading & derivatives 1/ USDe-Margined Trading = On-Chain Yield While Trading All positions on @etherealdex are margined in USDe, giving traders a structural advantage over CEXs by enabling: - sUSDe rewards while holding positions - Seamless integration of yield with derivatives - Yield-bearing collateral in active trading This makes Ethereal the most capital-efficient venue for perps & basis trading. 2/ iUSDe: The Institutional-Grade Yield Product iUSDe is designed for institutional capital, offering one of the highest risk-adjusted dollar returns in crypto: - Tokenized fund interest with sUSDe as the primary asset, wrapped with simple transfer restrictions - Potentially negatively correlated to traditional finance rates → when rates drop, animal spirits and funding rates go higher, and iUSDe generates more yield for institutions - Ideal for asset managers, prime brokers, private credit funds seeking yield alternatives - Unlevered APY of ~5-20% depending on market conditions (vs. low single digit in TradFi alternatives) Institutions seeking yield diversification will increasingly allocate to iUSDe as a high-return, crypto-native yield alternative. 3/ Ethereal: Unlocking Institutional-Grade Trading While Ethena is already one of the largest DeFi ecosystems, Ethereal is set to drive even greater adoption by introducing: • Multi-collateral margining (USDe, ETH & BTC as collateral) • Optimized basis trading strategies tailored for institutions • Deep liquidity & capital efficiency for high-volume traders This positions Ethereal as the primary venue for on-chain basis trading. On a grander scale, Ethena is building an autonomous, self-reinforcing yield economy: 1️⃣ Ethereal drives USDe adoption by introducing yield for traders → Deeper USDe liquidity 2️⃣ iUSDe attracts institutional capital by offering superior yields → Greater liquidity for both USDe & iUSDe The result? A stablecoin challenger to USDT and USDC. As USDe gains traction, it will earn CEX & DEX trading pairs, reinforcing the virtuous cycle of adoption. Once the flywheel spins fast enough, Ethena moves closer to its north star: $25B+ USDe supply. This isn’t just DeFi innovation—it’s the emergence of a new financial paradigm. 🚀 🔥 Bullish.

@wengevar @HyperliquidX Hyperliquid changed the game, but @hyperdrivedefi is adding more levels

HyperEVM is now live 🔥 This is a major step toward @HyperliquidX’s vision of housing all finance by adding general-purpose programmability to its high-performance blockchain. Here's why I'm bullish and how anyone can take advantage of this opp A thread:

FROM MAGA TO CHINA Here are four things MAGA is getting wrong, and why it's handing over the world to China. (1) First, MAGA correctly understands that America’s economic position is in decline but thinks this is due to economic competition itself, rather than lack of competitiveness. (2) Second, MAGA also understands that the US has wasted trillions abroad in foreign wars, but thinks the problem is global leadership itself rather than poor leadership. (3) Third, MAGA knows that their Blue American enemies have allies abroad, but has incorrectly overreacted to this by treating every non-Red-American as an enemy. (4) Fourth, MAGA sees the billions of dollars flowing from the US to foreign recipients, but isn't grasping that the US can only print those dollars in the first place so long as it's the hub of a global empire. When you put these together you can both understand MAGA's actions and understand why they will not lead to the intended result. Basically: MAGA is hyperfocused on cutting off any apparent flow of funds from Red Americans to Blue Americans and non-Americans. And they only have ~500 days in power. So they're trying to quickly shut off imports, close down institutions, and exit all wars. OK. Except the reason the imports exist in the first place is because US products aren't competitive relative to Chinese products (or Fed printing). The reason those institutions exist is because the US set them up to run the world. And the reason those wars are happening is not because of American leadership per se, but because of the absence of good leadership. If you shut all of that down at once — if you abandon global competition and global leadership — you shut down American Empire, and with it the ability to print money. And then everyone in that empire has a very bad time.