Winter Grinds On
Looks like the crypto-winter is here to stay for a while, at least. BTC and ETH continue to drag along the floor and even my favourite, BNB, has today dropped as low as it was a year ago.
The spin-off for DeFi is that all the little altcoins are similarly depressed and investors have scurried for cover, so there’s little new money coming in to keep those TVLs afloat.
But DeFiance plods on through the drifts, with a pair of tennis rackets strapped to its paws and the hope of a brighter future in its heart.
Hey! What Happened to Last Week’s Newsletter?
By the way, I apologise if you didn’t get the DeFiance newsletter, last week. Don’t worry. You didn’t miss anything.
A debilitating combination of jetlag, apathy and zero new news, rendered me incapable of writing anything of value. So, instead I binge-watched Netflix and ate twice as many calories as I expended. But I’m back now.
New Pig on the Block
Keen followers will notice that the infamous Piggy Bank makes its first appearance in the portfolio, this week. I’ve actually been in this particular sty since the start, but as you may know, it’s been on ice for a while, so there have been no gains made until the recent relaunch. To celebrate its debut, here, PB is this week’s featured contract - see below.
I Made ROI. Kind Of.
The one small shining moment for the DeFiance portfolio came earlier this week, when for the first time, since I’ve been playing with these cute little critters, my overall profits taken matched the amount invested. This was so exciting to me, that I promptly reinvested some of it back into the DRIP Garden, as an experiment, which I’ll report on next week.
That reinvestment and the fact that I’ve added Piggy Bank to the list means that the table below doesn’t reflect that exciting situation. But it did happen. Honest!
Nevertheless, reaching ROI is a key milestone and from now on, unless everything crashes to zero, the rest is profit.
(If Gmail cuts off half this email, please click on the title and view the rest online - Thanks.)
Portfolio Update
Performance notes*
I’m not going to go through each one this week, because there’s not much to say, apart from:
My Diamond Team
Another apology is due here. I’ve been enthusing about MDT since the start and I still have a lot of faith in it, but a kind reader pointed out to me, that I’ve been misleading you. And myself.
I kept raving over the fact that the TVL is continually rising, but I have been looking at entirely the wrong number, from the start. In fact, the TVL is falling steadily, like all the other miners, so stupid me!
But I do still believe that MDT has a decent amount of life left, and although I have started to take a little profit, I’m still continuing to compound most days, because it keeps chucking out that 1.7% average a day.
Titano and SAFUU
Both of these continue to bump along the bottom, like a pair of dead water-skiers. Their token prices are deeply depressed, but the one thing that gives me hope is that the TVLs are bouncing up and down, rather than continuosly falling. Neither investment is worth selling, so I’m holding for now.
Piston Token
I still like MDT’s little brother, but the price has now dropped down to what it was at launch and the funds on deposit are gradually reducing. Piston needs some good news and fresh investors if it’s going to recover.
DRIP Garden
Despite my predictions of the Garden’s death, I am experimenting with putting a little of my other profits back in and compounding more often, to see if I can coax some more life out of it.
Baked Cats
Interesting developments here. The team is launching an auto-compounding, reflection token, called BakePay, alongside the existing contract. Or rather relaunching.
Apparently, they found a flaw in the contract and had to rebuild it, so they’ve pushed the date back to June 10th.
It’s not yet clear exactly how BPAY will support the cooked felines, so I’ll report back next week when the dust has settled.
Featured Contract - Piggy Bank
As a long term investor in DRIP and an enthusiastic supporter (until recently) of its chief dev, Forex Shark, I always jumped into anything he put his name to. I joined DRIP Garden on Day 3, the Animal Farm on Day 2 and the original Piggy Bank on its launch.
Sadly, that launch was a porcine disaster. If you were there, you’ll remember the pain. If you weren’t and you’d like a laugh at my expense, read my Medium article, penned the day after.
The short version is that a resourceful sniper botted the launch and drove the price of Piglets through the roof, leaving us humans with tiny stakes and lousy potential returns.
Forex initially denied the snipe, but eventually caved in and suspended, not only, the PB contract, but also the entire Animal Farm infrastructure. That was at the beginning of March and it took till May 12th for the relaunch. Millions of dollars of investors capital was tied up, earning nothing.
Frustration mounted stirred by a series of misleading messages from Forex and three false restarts.
The team had rebuilt the Piggy Bank and the PigPen, including several, much-trumpeted improvements, but the eventual relaunch was a damp squib. Although our PB deposit value was roughly doubled, those gains were soon eroded as the price of PIGS fell back.
And it’s still falling. Partly due to the general market depression, but mainly, I think because the excessively long suspension and poor communication have damaged the reputation of the DRIP infrastructure as a whole. Too many promises and too few deliveries have driven money away to other, more promising projects.
Is the Bacon Smoked?
That said, it’s not all bad news. PB was always a tempting prospect, offering 3.3% daily returns, albeit on a deliberately inflationary algorithm. Added to that is a clever bonus system that offers generous rewards if you lock your stake for anything up to 3 years.
The fact that PB is fuelled by an LP that pairs PIGS with BUSD helps to maintain stability, but what’s needed right now is some bullishness in the Animal Farm to buoy up the price of the PIGS side of the pair.
Unfortunately, the main driver for the PIGS price, the PigPen is operating without any level of support. We’re still waiting for version 2 of the DOGS contracts to be unpaused and, until then, it’s likely that the price of PIGS will continue to decline.
Despite all that, I’m considering dropping a few more dollars into some longer timelocks, to take advantage of the bonus curve. I’ll keep you posted.
My DeFi Rules
Only invest ‘meh-money’.
DYOR, ask around, check Telegram and Discord, read the WP.
Don’t invest at launch, wait till the dust settles, unless you’re a bot.
Be wary of tottering TVLs and plummeting prices.
Get to ROI as soon as possible, enjoy the profits thereafter.
Throw some more at the winners, cash out what you can from the losers.
Have fun.
Next Week
I’m looking at a couple of new prospects, but haven’t pressed the button on either, yet. You’ll have to wait and see.
Till then, thanks for reading.
Dispatch No 5 - June 7 2022
Yes indeed - will be updating in today's dispatch.
BakedCats rugged, just for those not in the know.