My top fungible and non-fungible investments for the second half of 2022
Below you’ll find short explanations on why I’m accumulating these somewhat under-rated projects on Cardano. As always, this is highly opinionated; I won’t hide my bias. Does this topic warrant a medium article? That’s for you to decide. Am I pumping my bags? Absolutely.
All information here is gathered independently and all conclusions presented here are speculative. I am not a financial advisor. Anyway;
Here are my top fungible and non-fungible investments for late 2022:
Non-Fungible #1: Equine NFT (https://www.equine.gg/)
I like projects where success seems to come easy. Equine NFT were one of the first major projects to execute a significant part of their plan in the Cardano NFT space, so early in fact that nobody else (so far) has bothered trying to compete with them.
Equine’s early, purpose-driven start left a great first impression on the space, and their execution since hasn’t left much, if anything, to be desired. The team has been extremely communicative about their work, and works very closely with the NFT community. I can only see Fahadouken’s fame growing as Equine becomes a proper brand. I would also like to add that the previews of the game show a lot of competency about UI/UX design, which is 90% of the experience of playing the game, in this case.
Digital horse racing has had some pull on the Ethereum blockchain, but hasn’t yet become a very noticeable success. However, it seems obvious that such a simple and fun gamified application, with the addition of breeding and gambling and maybe a nice mint julep on the side, has huge potential. I think gaming in general will be big in blockchain during the next bull run, but my biggest bag in blockchain gaming rests on Equine for now, in my opinion the classiest project on Cardano.
Non-Fungible #2: Rats DAO (https://ratsdao.io/)
I know what you’re thinking. Really? A DAO? The rats’ path to success hasn’t been without obstacles. Rats DAO debuted in January this year around a 100–150 ADA floor, arguably starting the whole investment DAO scene on Cardano to begin with, but also receiving plenty of criticism. Most people felt that the value of the 10,000 NFTs was outsized compared to the size of the treasury. This has since turned into a widespread general sentiment that all DAOs are overhyped and underdeveloped. I can’t deny those accusations with regard to Rats DAO at the beginning of the year; however, eight months have passed, and it’s time to re-assess.
The NFTs’ primary purpose are to provide for the distribution of RAT token, which is designed to represent the value of the Rats DAO treasury. Currently, 5% of the token is circulating at a price of .0226 ADA per token, meaning its fully diluted market cap is $1.24 million. Setting aside the team’s cut, and assuming one’s NFTs are staked for the full two year period, each Governance token will continue to reward 832 RAT airdropped + 450/yr, and each Genesis token will earn 4500 RAT + 450/yr.
This totals 1,732 (currently 39.14 ADA) and 5,400 (currently 122.04 ADA), respectively.
The NFTs themselves have a fixed yield which, over time, continue to benefit from the appreciation in the price of blue chips as well as the growth of the community. An investor playing both sides to accumulate cheap NFTs and cheap $RAT could see very handsome returns as the price of the treasury, which includes the berry cardinal, over thirty spacebudz, eighty clays, fifty pixels, plus yummis, mocossis, kongs, and more continues to grow, and the $RAT token and royalties with it.
At the end of the day, what else can I say but that I still feel strongly that Rats DAO will be a formidable and valuable brand on Cardano, and thus that the sentiment and price are both far too low for this project right now.
Non-Fungible #3: Chilled Kongs (https://chilledkongs.com/)
It’s said with all love, but nobody finds success more easily on Cardano than the Chilled Kongs. That they are the Cardano antithesis of the Bored Ape is beyond debate at this point; as pfp’s they have become downright ubiquitous.
It’s my opinion that Chilled Kongs is the premiere community investment on Cardano, with the funds and infrastructure to support it. No other project could do what Kongs has done, creating so much value on the backs of community members alone. They are not a fully established brand yet, so at first glance it may blend in with other projects, but when one dives into the space, the dominance of the Kongress on discord and twitter is obvious.
But wait, I thought this was a list of underrated projects? It is. Even standing as a top project on Cardano, I feel people have seriously underestimated them. People have gone as far as effectively shorting their kong holdings, selling them in anticipation of a post-shroom dump. I think people will be consistently surprised by what Kongs and Magic Kongs can accomplish (personally, I’m betting on a 1:3 ratio in price). Don’t get caught out when Kongs end up challenging Budz for their floor next. There is still some branding work that needs to be done, and there will be moments where the Kongs team needs to perform in order to fully capitalize on their success. However, I see much of the groundwork for an extremely valuable pfp blue chip already done, and I consider the overall risk to be low.
Non-fungible honorable mention: Orex3
Normally, a brand new drop would never make it anywhere near my “top 3 investments” — that’s just my style — but Ore deserves special mention. They are coming into this space as a behemoth among other artists, having already established a clothing store and online brand with over 150,000 followers on instagram. You can see what it’s all about at https://www.ore-ore-ore.com/, but if you want to learn about the NFT drop, you’ll have to join the community on discord or twitter. You might recognize the ⭕✨ in all of their names.
Altogether, Orex3 managed to become one of the most anticipated NFT drops in the community since I’ve been in Cardano. And if you just look at the art, the production quality, and the online presence, it’s clear why.
Orex3 is still the new kid on the block and will need to prove itself, but if there’s any project that can ride the rocket right to the top without so much as stopping for gas, it’s them.
Fungible #1: Liqwid Finance (https://www.liqwid.finance/)
The theme I usually run with for my fungible token plays is people understanding how to work with UTXO from day one, and showing a strong tendency to wanting to work with it. That theme is exemplified by Liqwid: One doesn’t need to know every finer detail about how this protocol works to understand that they’ve done something special with regard to LP token staking and multiple revenue streams — this kind of parallelization is why Cardano DeFi can be great. After getting burned by DEXes, I know a lot of people in the Cardano community will be more cautious before jumping into risky positions on DeFi again; this makes me all the more bullish.
A big part of what makes DEXes so risky is that people who have deposited liquidity have to also speculate on the value of the assets they are depositing. Returns can be offset by a collapse in price of the token, impermanent loss, etc. and higher APYs gravitate toward extremely risky deposits. With standard lending and borrowing, all deposits and withdrawals are paid in the same tokens — LQ, ADA equivalents, LP tokens, and so forth — and the value of that token comes from the usage of the protocol. Furthermore, depositors earn a return regardless of whether their asset is used or not.
Lending is a staple of smart contract blockchains in much the same way DEXes are, but they are based on capitalizing on stable returns for depositors, not volatile ones; the majority of risk is placed on the borrower. That is why Ethereum’s leading lending protocol, AAVE, reached a $6.5 billion market cap in 2020. Even during the massive drawdown this past summer, AAVE and other similar protocols like Compound stayed relatively resilient as far as total value locked.
Normally, the fact of less risk means lower APY; but in the context of ascendant Cardano DeFi, there may be a massive opportunity to become an early provider in a pool of assets that will end up encompassing a huge part of the market.
Fungible #2: Maladex (https://maladex.com/)
Programmable swaps with trading strategies. Synthetics, indexes, derivatives. Zero impermanent loss?? Perhaps the only project innovating more on the UTXO DeFi model than Liqwid is the Maladex team. When the guys at Mala aren’t pioneering plutus financial applications, or engaging in dialogues crucial to DApp development, they’re dropping historical knowledge on twitter with #TradFiTales.
The main selling point here is similar to Equine and Liqwid — brilliant teams that showed up with an immediate plan and dedication to use Cardano and the UTXO model to the fullest. You can judge my excitement from the fact that it’s my only fungible play on this list that I can’t actually buy yet, and yet it lives rent free in my head just as much as the others. I won’t be selling any tokens I earned from the initial staking period right away; this is one where I really want to see where it goes first.
It’s ambitious, but the reward could be great. Imagine if Maladex solves the problem of impermanent loss, igniting Cardano’s DeFi craze, while at the same time becoming the ideal DeFi governance token to invest in. Can you say “rocket ship”?
Fungible #3: Hosky Token (https://hosky.io/)
Hosky is truly an anomaly in the space, which makes it really fun to talk about. It’s also fun to stack. You got your billion yet?
Constantly topping charts in social media engagement, interacting with some of the most influential people in the space, calling out grifters, building a massive community and dropping the largest NFT collection ever to exist on Cardano are just the shitcoin’s achievements summarized so far.
Furthermore, there’s no law saying you can’t create a lucrative global DeFi or web 3 enterprise on the back of a shitcoin that promised nothing for years. And that’s what’s really bullish about Hosky, for me. I can see a founder that understands the potential of their position in the community; but also appreciates how that power stems from absolutely nothing. In that respect, I couldn’t be more bullish on this coin. Even as a pure shitcoin, the market cap has room to grow. I personally believe Hosky will be a major force in the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the future and could reach levels of $0 or higher.
