The Learning Pill 💊

There was actually a push for internet native payments in the 1990s. The banks killed it and now AI agents just revived it. The internet payment layer trend 👇 > 165M transactions processed in 10 months (95% was memecoin-driven - real enterprise adoption is only just beginning) > Stripe went live on x402 in Feb 2026, Google integrated it into its Agent-to-Agent protocol, and Visa built x402 interoperability into its own trusted agent framework > The entire x402 ecosystem sits under $700M in market cap → Visa and Stripe alone process $16T annually > A16z projects $30T in autonomous agent transactions by 2030; AI agents need sub-cent fees, 24/7 global rails, and no account creation - legacy finance structurally cannot serve this The architects of the internet always intended for it to have a payment layer. They just had to wait for the infrastructure to catch up to the vision. Thirty years late, yet seemingly right on time. (h/t @KhalaResearch for the references)

Pendidlers probably already caught the @Paxos USDG external incentive program ($150k in rewards over 5 weeks) But I want to zoom in on something specific → limit order incentives While I was scouting for places to farm with my stables (again KEK), I noticed this nice little yellowish-brown prompt - supply liquidity within a range, get a bonus APR on top (worth noting: this only applies to YT/PT, and only for select pools) Say I want to capitalize on this USDG campaign incentives, 👉 I'd place my YT orders between 5.12% to 5.66% to earn 60.75% APR (this can fluctuate wildly, heads up) What other pools are running something similar? • @USDai_Official → USDai and sUSDai • @ethena → sUSDe • @strata_markets → jrUSDe and srUSDe • @Re → reUSD • @Neutrl → sNUSD • @avantprotocol → savUSD The range with limit order incentives creates a "demand zone" to keep the IY price up + a win for us farmooors comfortably stacking points (excl. Paxos USDG) Juicy yields get juicier with @pendle_fi

Most of CT has been sleeping on this primitive. You know DATs, but do you know how they transform to on-chain yields? From STRC to dividends you can receive, its time to look into @apyx_fi 👇 ◆ The STRC Primitive: Wall street's digital credit To find sustainable yield, we have to look at how public markets are evolving. Companies holding digital assets on their balance sheets, known as Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), are issuing a new type of financial instrument. The most involved one at the moment is @Strategy 's STRC, a variable rate perpetual preferred stock. It acts as digital credit, paying a reliable monthly cash dividend of around 11.25% without ever needing to repay the principal. The problem is that these powerful, recurring cash flows are trapped off-chain in traditional brokerage accounts, entirely disconnected from DeFi. ◆Making dividends DeFi composable Apyx bridges this divide by acquiring these preferred shares, pooling the recurring off-chain cash dividends, and converting them into programmable, on-chain yield. Through strategic partnerships with @krakenfx and @xStocksFi , Apyx holds tokenized representations of this preferred equity: traditional corporate dividend → DeFi composable option that can be integrated across lending markets and liquidity venues. ◆ The three-token engine To make this system work without relying on opaque trading strategies, @apyx_fi isolates functions across three specific assets: > apxUSD (baseline synthetic dollar) → It is strictly over-collateralized by DAT preferred equity and designed to provide deep liquidity across DeFi and CeFi > apyUSD (savings vehicle) → When you swap apxUSD for apyUSD, you earn the enhanced double-digit yield generated by the underlying corporate dividends > APYX (native governance token) → Capped at exactly 100,000,000 tokens with absolutely no venture capital overhang. It accrues real economic value immediately by paying 50% of the protocol's monthly reserve growth directly to APYX stakers. ◆ Getting paid to participate: Season 1 Pips Apyx is currently running its Season 1 points program, known as Pips → allocating 5% of the total APYX supply for an upcoming airdrop. The season concludes 12 weeks from its February 27, 2026 start date, or when apxUSD hits $1 billion in supply. Your points are calculated by taking your USD position value and applying a multiplier based on your activity. Here are some examples: > Borrowing apxUSD on @Morpho → 5x multiplier > Committing liquidity on @CurveFinance → Up to 12x multiplier depending on the pool, subject to specific dollar caps. > Engaging with yield tokenization on @pendle_fi → Multipliers ranging from 11x up to 32x for providing liquidity or purchasing yield tokens. Certainly, this model comes with assumptions and risks: > you're banking that BTC rises so that STRC is sustainable > you're also trusting in Saylor's decision to make STRC desirable with the fluctuating dividend yield range And if you can live with such risks, @apyx_fi hands you a key to receive double-digit yields riding on the BTC bull wave.

the early overexposure to screens is dangerous - some are so glued so young that they end up focusing on the wrong things/unable to have proper cognitive skills. and sometimes it takes a lot for parents to say no to their children, but its much needed. regardless, there're no perfect parents as there're no perfect humans. parents will do their best to nurture, and that's what matters.

@Mars_DeFi @stripe dayum solid breakdown Mars! Stripe x Tempo is another case of where the industry s heading towards

An AI agent can now on the internet make payments even with no API key. This is now possible through @stripe's new Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) which is an open standard for how AI agents and machines pay each other online. MPP is an open standard rather than a proprietary Stripe-only product. — Think of MPP as “payments for the agentic internet.” Instead of subscriptions or API keys, services can be paid per-use, per-second, or per-task automatically. MPP is an application-layer protocol for programmable payments between machines. It is a protocol that lets one software actor request payment from another, with enough structure to support different underlying rails. In plain English, MPP is trying to solve how an agent can discover a service, learn the price, authorize payment, complete the payment over whatever rail is available, and receive the resource or result all without manual signup, checkout screens, API keys, or a human in the loop? This means that there is no account setup and no API keys . Rather it boasts of: • per-use access • support for agentic commerce • use cases like data queries, • communication APIs, search, research, A/B testing, feedback, and human task marketplaces Notably, MPP is payment-rail agnostic with stablecoins, cards (via @stripe/ @Visa ) and even Bitcoin supported from day one. — MPP’s strongest utility is in situations where normal SaaS billing breaks down with early use cases already live: ● Per-call and per-query services Instead of registering an account and adding a card while storing an API key or getting a monthly invoice, an agent can: • discover a service • pay on demand • use it once and move on This is ideal for search, scraping, data, inference, analytics, routing, and orchestration. ● Cross-provider agent toolchains An autonomous agent may use ten external services in one job. MPP would let it: • pay each provider directly • choose based on price/performance • switch dynamically without human account provisioning • keep auditable machine-readable payment trails That is much closer to how cloud compute is consumed programmatically. ● Micropayments and streaming Many machine interactions are too small or too dynamic for subscriptions: • fractions of a cent per request • per-token model usage • per-second communication • per-byte delivery • dynamic metered access MPP seems designed for these cases. ● Human-in-the-loop task markets With MPP, agents can hire humans for feedback, testing, social tasks, and A/B tasks. That extends MPP beyond APIs into a broader labor marketplace. In that model: • the buyer is a machine • the worker may be human • the payment commitment still needs machine-readable enforcement That could be a large category if agents increasingly outsource specialized edge cases. @tempo’s posts also mention future enterprise features and use cases beyond agents: • global payouts • remittances • embedded finance • tokenized deposits All these suggest that MPP may become a general protocol for programmable treasury and operational payments, not only AI agents. — Here’s a simplified version of MPP's architecture : • Service advertises price • Agent creates payment intent • MPP routes to chosen payment method • Payment proof is verified • Access is unlocked (API, data, service, etc.) — Stripe’s involvement matters because Stripe brings the strongest bridge from internet-native developer workflows to mainstream payments infrastructure. Stripe seems to be betting that with time the real market will be broader: • some machine payments will use stablecoins • some will use cards • some will use Bitcoin flows • enterprises will want compliance, abstraction, retries, reporting, and familiar payment primitives. Knowing this, developers will want one protocol, not a separate integration for each rail. That is the strategic significance of MPP. The biggest problem in agent commerce is economic interoperability and MPP is one solution to this problem. h/t : @jeff_weinstein ( Introducing MPP ) @dwr ( Rails and extensibility ) @uttam_singhk ( Comparison with x402 ) @cuysheffield @matthuang

@Hercules_Defi @swappedcom really making things as ez as possible to be onboarded kudos to the team

Fiat is coming onchain. And Hyperliquid is making that shift happen faster through @swappedcom For a space that has grown rapidly over the past few years, onboarding has always been a major bottleneck. This update changes that. The numbers around fiat rails and access are starting to look very strong: > 420M+ global crypto users, yet onboarding friction remains a top barrier > Nearly 70% of new users drop off during multi-step funding processes > Seamless fiat onramps can boost user conversion rates by 2–3x > Global payment giants like Visa and Mastercard are expanding crypto payment integrations Fiat access is already a big unlock, but this is just the beginning. The real shift is not just getting users in… …it’s enabling them to move freely between fiat and crypto. Traditional crypto flows have been fragmented and complex. By integrating onramps directly into apps via providers like Swappeddcom, users now get: > Direct deposits via card and bank transfer > Faster access without needing existing crypto > A simplified, all-in-one trading experience > Reduced reliance on centralized exchanges In many ways, fiat rails are becoming the true bridge between DeFi and everyday finance. Personally, this is one of the strongest signals for real adoption. With more infrastructure rolling out, we are only just getting started.

@MoonKing___ @plumenetwork @NestCredit @perena Plume flywheel!

The expansion of @plumenetwork to Solana started with their flagship product, @NestCredit The StableBank of @perena had real-world yield powered by $PLUME's biggest dApp And SOL users got access to great, stable yields

@YashasEdu gud filters here - low P/F needs to be combined with improving fundamentals

28 DeFi protocols now have active token rights like buybacks, fee switches, revenue distribution to holders. It might sound like a broad shift but it's not. As 2 protocols generate 80% of all holder revenue in the entire token rights universe. Hyperliquid and PumpFun combined push $1.15B annualized. The other 26 has about $290M together. Here's what the top of the table looks like 👇 1. Hyperliquid' $HYPE | $687M/yr to holders ‣ 97% of trading fees flow into HYPE buybacks through the Assistance Fund ‣ Over $54M in fees just from last 30D ‣ RWA perps through HIP-3 are driving volume that didn't exist 6 months ago 2. PumpFun' $PUMP | $468M/yr at a 1.14x P/F ratio ‣ Cheapest large-revenue protocol by that metric ‣ But revenue dropped 12% in 30 days, a $500M lawsuit is pending, and team wallets moved $10M to exchanges in February. 3. Aerodrome' $AERO | $78M/yr ‣ 100% of fees go to veAERO lockers ‣ One of only 4 protocols that pay direct dividends instead of indirect buyback support 4. Aave' $AAVE | $77M/yr ‣ Running a $1M/week buyback program since early 2025 ‣ Only ~13% of total protocol fees actually reach holders though ‣ The rest funds operations 5. Jupiter' $JUP | $59M/yr ‣ 50% of fees go to JUP buybacks, locked for 3 years Now 25 out of 28 protocols chose buybacks. Only 4 pay direct dividends: @AerodromeFi @pendle_fi @CurveFinance @ethena Remember buybacks let the team control timing and execution. You're trusting that reduced supply eventually shows up in price. Dividends put revenue in your wallet. One is indirect. The other is cash flow you can see but the real gap isn't even the mechanism. It's the pass-through rate. Most tokens market themselves as "fee switch ON." Here's what actually flows through → Aerodrome: 100% → Hyperliquid: ~89% → PumpFun: ~47% → Aave: ~13% → Uniswap: ~2% The switch is on. For most, the flow is a trickle. If you evaluate tokens based on does it have a buyback program you're asking the wrong question. The right one is what percentage of protocol revenue actually reaches holders and is that revenue growing or shrinking? Right now nearly every protocol on this list shows -10% to -50% fee decline over 30 days. Not protocol-specific. Market-wide cooldown from January's peak. Cheapest protocols by P/F ratio rn: → @MeteoraAG: 0.42x → @eulerfinance: 0.70x (post-hack rebuild) → @Pumpfun: 1.14x → @JupiterExchange: 1.15x → @Raydium: 1.38x ➢ Low P/F + declining revenue is a trap if the decline accelerates ➢ Low P/F + stable or recovering revenue is where the opportunity sits That distinction gets lost in the noise. One filter I've been using is to ignore the mechanism label. Look at three numbers: 1. Annualized holder revenue 2. P/F ratio 3. 30-day fee growth direction ➢ If all three line up, the token has a real value accrual story ➢ If any one breaks, the buyback is marketing Most of DeFi's token rights story is marketing. A handful of protocols are actually moving capital that matters. Know which is which before you buy the label. h/t to @DefiLlama for the data

@FabiusDefi @River4fun creator flywheel spinning

~10k creators have joined @River4fun in just the past 3 days 👀 Total registered now at 124k+… that’s kinda insane. You can feel it too, $RIVER content has been popping off across CT lately. Clear signal that attention is flowing back towards that 1B River pts reward pool👀

@Kaffchad USDH fits rightly into the ecosystem to be a strong pillar for Hyperliquid's sovereignty

► USDH = Flywheel for $HYPE #Hyperliquid earns millions in revenue every day from trading fees, but I haven't seen anyone talking about $USDH yet. Because USDH is also a Hyperliquid earning machine that's being underestimated. How so? First things first, HL is the largest perp DEX right now with 80% dominated volume. So far HL has $1.12M active users, $4.14T trading volume, and especially $366.27B deposited into the platform. Before USDH, traders often deposited USDC as collateral/margin assets for trading on HL. So imagine with this huge $366B deposited into HL, how much Circle earned from yield. -> That would be ~$200M annualized revenue going straight into Circle's pocket. That's where USDH was born. USDH is the native stablecoin of the HL ecosystem, pegged 1:1 with USD, designed to: – Keep value and yield within the HL eco instead of hundreds of millions flowing out to Circle – Build a flywheel for HL eco, reduce USDC dependency (blacklist risk, delays), and create a native dollar for HyperEVM To incentivize traders to use USDH, HL introduced: 20% lower taker fees, 50% higher maker rebates, and +20% volume count toward fee tiers. -> Traders switching to USDH will trade noticeably cheaper than with USDC. So how does USDH adoption generate a flywheel for $HYPE? USDH earns yield from reserves at ~4-5%/year from T-bills, and that revenue is allocated: – 50% to the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund for $HYPE buybacks – 50% toward HL eco development → building momentum for $HYPE Unlike other yield-bearing stablecoins that share attractive interest directly with holders, USDH redirects everything to build a flywheel: more USDH → more yield → stronger $HYPE buybacks → better $HYPE price → stronger ecosystem → more USDH adoption. The upcoming of HIP 6 is also boosting the utility of USDH that allowing projects to raise fund via USDH. Currently USDH sits at $95M Mcap, generating around $4-5M revenue/year for HL. It's not a large number compared to HL's massive revenue, but as USDH adoption grows stronger, this will become a meaningful source of revenue and buyback pressure for the $HYPE eco.

Tagging Pill's smart frens for their thoughts on treasury management: @poopmandefi @andrewmoh @Eli5defi @0xCheeezzyyyy @YashasEdu @the_smart_ape @kenodnb @FabiusDefi @Nick_Researcher @TheDeFiPlug @Hercules_Defi @rektonomist_ @rektdiomedes @arndxt_xo @satyaki44 @DeFi_Andree @defi_mago @chilla_ct @St1t3h @Kaffchad @satyaki44

@Flowslikeosmo sounds like (re)al yield 👀

Invest in profitable businesses being tokenized. Look for: > consistent and predictable cash flows > a history of outperformance in shrinking market cycles > consistent risk management

@0xAmberCT Rabby is S-tier for sure

Top DeFi wallets for receiving Airdrops by Ranking Which wallets do you usually use to participate in airdrops? I guess there's a 70% chance you'll use the first one on this list, but let me introduce you to a few more wallets that are also worth exploring. Below is a ranking of the best DeFi wallets to optimize your chances of receiving airdrops: Tier S: Must-have (highest reputation, largest user base, multi-chain farming) - @MetaMask: The most widely used EVM wallet with massive user base, perfect for Layer 2 airdrop farming thanks to fast dApp access and Snaps support. - @phantom: The top Solana wallet, known for speed and smooth DeFi interactions, ideal for ecosystem airdrops like Jupiter or Jito. - @Rabby_io: A smart EVM wallet with transaction simulation and built-in points, helping users farm safely across multiple chains. - @TrustWallet: A mobile-first wallet supporting 100+ chains, great for flexible farming on BNB Chain and Solana. - @wallet (OKX wallet): All-in-one wallet with multi-chain support, built-in DEX, and task system for efficient farming in one place. Tier A: Very popular, strong supplementary use - @coinbase wallet: Non-custodial wallet from Coinbase, optimized for Base and Layer 2 activity with smooth bridging and strong security. - @BitgetWallet: Multi-chain solution packed with DeFi tools for yield strategies and airdrop farming. - @Backpack: Solana-focused wallet combining exchange features and reward system, strong for NFT and DeFi users. - @rainbowdotme: Clean EVM wallet built for smooth mobile experience and efficient Layer 2 usage. - @Ledger: Hardware solution delivering maximum asset security, commonly used for long-term storage after farming. Tier B: Good for specific chains or alternatives - @zerion: Both a wallet and a multi-chain portfolio management tool, giving you an overview of DeFi positions to easily qualify for airdrops. - @keplrwallet: A core wallet for Cosmos and IBC ecosystems, widely used for projects like Osmosis or Celestia. - @solflare: Strong alternative on Solana with deep staking features and DeFi integrations. - @exodus: A multi-chain wallet with built-in staking and a clean cross-platform interface. - @safe: Multi-signature wallet designed for secure management of large on-chain assets. - @ready_co: Smart wallet offering gas-free transactions and social recovery, optimized for Ethereum and Starknet. - @imTokenOfficial: Popular wallet in Asia with a powerful dApp browser for multi-chain usage. - @TokenPocket_TP: A widely used option with strong dApp support across multiple ecosystems. - @ZenGo: MPC-based wallet with no seed phrase, making onboarding simple and secure for new users.

@andrewmoh @YOM_Official interesting one bro, its like a side hustle away from the main gaming revs haha

As YOM is coming to a showdown on Mar 25, what should you be focusing on? @YOM_Official is now offering the YOM NANO that allows hardware owners to join the gaming cloud ecosystem. What's a YOM NANO? + a plug-and-play SSD that operates as the key to enter the YOM grid + one initial device for continuous yields in $YOM This device is a perfect combination of how cloud gaming and DePIN collaborate. Owning a YOM NANO means you’re helping cut cloud gaming fees by 95%. Facing trust issues? Then you should be aware that YOM is officially a part of the NVIDIA Inception Program and Google for Startups. Also, the team has a strong background working for web2 giants in gaming like PUBG and telecommunications like Vodafone. At this level of build, YOM has won the "Game Tech Start-Up of the Year" at Gamescom and a $3m funding round from Avalanche.

@Defi_Warhol too much extraction here gahh

OpenSea delaying $SEA again makes the whole thing feel extractive. Users traded under the original Q1 expectation → then the launch got pushed. Now they're offering refunds for waves 3-6? I dont think thats fixes sentiment. It feels like PR cleanup after people already stopped caring.

@0xJigen majors are still chopping about

A few ALTs out there are turning green this past week. Unfortunately, not all sectors are moving just as much. For now, AI is so clear and keeps outperforming everything on the board right now. That said, don’t get too excited too early because $BTC and $ETH are still stuck in their ranges. Until they properly break out, this is still a cautious alt environment.

@0xNairolf feel like its a battle to zero as chains will just compete to be faster/more secure and I think some chains will do fine without even being the best in agentic, but have unique offerings to capture users

most chains pivoting to agents are doing a mistake the user you are now targeting has changed, agents: - dont care about your brand (is marketing still useful?) - dont care about your ecosystem (is bd still useful?) - dont care about your narrative they care about one thing: can you execute reliably, cheaply and predictably? so the priority stack flips: - execution quality → #1 - everything else → secondary and even more importantly: agents are pure utility maxxooors so they will route to whatever works best without hesitating this also breaks how distribution works before: distribution = communities you grow users → users bring usage now: distribution = interfaces you integrate → agents route flow to you if you are not the most convenient option, you dont lose slowly, you get completely bypassed in an hour this is an environment that most chains arent done for

@Eli5defi @Cardano Cardano's stepping stone to DeFi - about time

Every serious DeFi chain eventually hits the same wall. Not a technical limit. A trust limit. @Cardano has had the peer-reviewed architecture, the eUTXO model, and the institutional-grade staking mechanics for years. What it didn't have was a stablecoin that capital allocators actually trust before they deploy. That gap has been doing real damage, quietly, for a long time. Think of institutional capital like water. It finds the path of least friction, and that path almost always requires a trusted dollar anchor on-chain before a single dollar of real allocation happens. No Circle-backed USDC? No serious capital routing. Cardano's TVL ceiling wasn't a tech problem. It was a stablecoin credibility problem. That bottleneck has now been removed with USDCx. — ➠ What is USDCx $USDCx is not a wrapped token. USDC is deposited into @circle's non-custodial xReserve smart contract. xReserve issues a cryptographic attestation. Cardano mints USDCx 1:1 against that attestation. Redemption reverses the same process. No external bridge validators. No synthetic backing. Trust surface is Circle itself. xReserve runs in tandem with Circle Gateway and CCTP, so USDCx holders can move assets across Circle-supported chains, and users can deposit directly from CEXs straight into Cardano's Wallet. ↪ DeFi-Native USDCx integrations → @liqwidfinance (lending) → @MinswapDEX (DEX) → @SundaeSwap (swaps). ↪ The 1st Week Data (Based on @DefiLlama | March 17, 2026) → Cardano TVL → ~$145M → Stablecoin supply jumped 42% in a week ($33M → $48.24M) → USDCx leads at $17.85M (~37.02%) → Stablecoins : TVL Ratio at 33%+ → There’s plenty of liquid capital ready to deploy. — ➠ Staged Fee Rollout To eliminate cold-start problem, @IOGroup didn’t run a one-time subsidy. They structured a three-stage fee rollout: → Days 1–100: Bridge fees fully subsidized. → Phase 2 : Partial subsidy, with fees below standard rates. → Phase 3: Standard fees return. Phase 1 is extended and Phase 2 begins immediately after. If you’re planning to bridge, now is the best time while fees are still fully subsidized. (NFA + DYOR) — ➠ Why This Actually Matters? → Institutional access unlocked Cardano now has a Circle-backed, redeemable stablecoin on-chain, clearing a major blocker for institutional allocators. → Higher DeFi ceiling Deep stablecoin liquidity enables stronger lending, tighter DEX markets, and steadier yields. USDCx expands what can be built. → Less bridge risk The attestation model avoids external validator sets and reduces the usual bridge attack surface. → Real-world rails enabled USDC unlocks rails for remittances, payroll, cross-border commerce, and RWA settlement on Cardano. — ➠ Wrap-Up Circle doesn't run xReserve for every chain that asks. USDCx is the prerequisite Cardano needed. The first-week data confirms real demand was waiting. The attestation model is the right trust architecture for 2026's institutional risk appetite.