First up. A massive thank you to everyone who has subscribed to DeFiance. There are now 226 of you on the list and the numbers keep rising. I’m humbled and delighted that you are here.
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Market Moods
I predicted last week that we are in for a bullish summer based on the recent rally in crypto prices. That has flattened a little since, but we haven’t seen a fallback, so I’m still optimistic.
The overall value of the DeFiance portfolio hasn’t changed much. A couple of points down, but nothing to cry about. And we have a new entrant this week in the form of StableFuel, an ArtemisX project that caught my eye a few days ago. It’s early days, but I’m quietly pleased so far.
Not much else has changed, though I’m becoming slightly concerned about DRIP and that’s something I never thought I’d say.
I still miss My Diamond Team, but my new bright star is SAFUU and it’s soon to be born baby brother SaFuuX.
Details on all these below. But first, here are the numbers.
Portfolio Update
Performance notes*
DRIP
DRIP is my oldest DeFi investment and till now, I’ve always considered it to be the most solid, partly because I have more tied up in it than any of the others, but also because it has always had the great drive and enthusiasm of the community behind it and the promise of the supporting infrastructure that Forex was putting in place.
But now? Well, it feels like the whole leviathan has ground to a halt. The promised developments never seem to materialise, Forex seems to spend endless weeks tinkering, but we don’t actually see any result. On the few occasions that he pops up in the Telegram group he is still too quick to insult his investors if they ask even the most valid questions. Animal Farm has been part-paused for months and we still don’t have a date for the full relaunch. I’m glad I don’t have any DOGS tied up in there, I’d be climbing the walls by now.
And the price. Wow! Down in the $4 range this week. There was a brief recovery in the last day or so, on the back of some new details about the scratch cards. But that’s just documentation, not implementation, so I imagine we’ll see another fall back shortly.
I’m beginning to think that DRIP may never recover. Although new wallets continue to join, the TVL is mostly dropping and, worst of all, the supply is growing. Despite Forex’s much-vaunted claims that DRIP is deflationary, it’s simply not true.
All those factors together make me think that maybe it’s time to start claiming more often, than I compound, something I’ve never done before. At current prices, it would take me 2 months to make ROI. Should I be starting that journey now, I wonder? I’m torn.
What do you think? Are you a DRIP investor? Has your game plan changed recently? Do you see blue skies or thunderclouds ahead? Let me know in the comments.
DRIP Garden
The Garden continues to suffer in lockstep with DRIP. I’ve made a decent profit, over the last 6 months, but it’s not the profit I envisaged when I first got in. I’m now alternating days of claim and compound and I’ll keep doing that till it dies.
Titano, Piston.
Nothing to report this week. The declines continue.
STAKE Protocol
I reported that STAKE picked up a little last week, but the good feelings didn’t stick around long. The price is at its lowest ever today at just a touch over two dollars. Worse, it looks like there’s no new money coming in, so I suspect we’re on a sinking ship
Shame. I kind of liked their approach, with a rebase reward on top of the daily return, but it hasn’t reached the momentum it needs to survive. So, as I keep saying, if this makes a profit, I’ll eat a hat! Not my hat. I don’t have one. Just any hat.
SAFUU - Big Future Promise.
I promised that I would give more details about the planned launch of SaFuuX in this dispatch, but I ended up writing two articles on Medium which cover it in depth. I think it would be rude and lazy of me to simply copy and paste them here. Not to mention they’re too long to fit, so you can link to them here instead, if you’d like to read them.
Baked Beans
BB has been a great earner for me and I was hoping to reach a total return of $2.5k from Baked Beans, but the daily is down to about two dollars now, so I think that’s a wish too far.
BNB Miner
Same for BNB Miner. I came into this much too late, so more fool me, but I’ve started to take my returns now, so I think I might just make my money back, and I’ll be happy with that.
Stablefuel
This is the newest entrant to the DeFiance portfolio. I’ve lumped in a bit more than usual this time. Not because I think it’s stronger than the others but because I wanted to take advantage of the auto-compound feature, which has a $250 threshold.
I like it because:
it pays in BUSD, so you’re not exposed to fluctuations
it’s still in its early days, so there’s a chance to profit
the player count is still rising
On the downside, the TVL has plateaued this week and the value of StableFuel placeholders is declining. Overall though, I do expect to make a modest profit on this.
Failed Investments
No new failures this week, I’m pleased to say, but some of the above might be joining the legion of the dead pretty soon.
Thoughts
Despite the fact that I sign off all these newsletters with my DeFi Rules, I have to confess, that I don’t always follow them. In fact, I’ve conspicuously failed to follow them on more than one occasion recently.
The most egregious example was BNB2X which rugged so fast, it didn’t even make it onto the portfolio list. It just went straight in at the Failed Investments row. Why did I fall for that one? Was it bad luck?
Nope. It was a failure to follow Rule number 2 - DYOR, ask around, check Telegram and Discord.
I didn’t do any of those things. That came home to me glaringly, when I looked at the Telegram chat after they’d run away with all the money. Basically, there was nothing to see, just a lot of hype from the devs and no interaction with investors because they were muted. If I’d bothered to look at that before jumping in, I’d have spotted the rug a mile off. Stoopid me.
So, from here on in, I’m determined to follow my own rules more diligently.
Next Week
I’m investigating a non-DeFi opportunity, centred on FOREX (the market, not the DRIP developer) which I think has excellent long-term potential. Report to follow.
Till then, thanks for reading and I hope your investments are doing well.
* some links are my referral links - but you don’t have to use them
My DeFi Rules
Only invest Monopoly 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 crashing contracts and plummeting prices.
Get to ROI as soon as possible, enjoy the profits thereafter.
Diversify. Don’t just invest in one, spread your risk.
Throw more money at the winners, cash out what you can from the losers.
Enjoy.
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Dispatch No 9 - 27 July 2022
I'm still optimistic about DRIP forex is probably under a load of pressure ATM with all the projects he's involved in, eventually, DRIP will recover could take some time though he could have left with the goodies but has proven to all he's here to stay. I have my fingers crossed.
I'm still very bullish on Drip Network. We are dealing with the eco stall, but it's also the bear. I feel like having a list of innovation mostly ready to go at this time is great timing on their part. LFG!