As Bitcoin aims for new highs, what projects are being investigated by leading institutions during the bear-bull transition?

Bitcoin has soared recently, reaching a high of $69,000, which is the same as the high point of the previous bull market. However, judging from the upward momentum of Bitcoin, it is very likely to continue to set new highs. Since the beginning of September last year, BTC has been rising all the way to the present, and many projects have swept away the shadow of the bear market and achieved high gains.

Among these projects, many have been mentioned in research reports from leading institutions in the crypto industry, and most of the reports were issued before the currency rose. In addition, the hottest AI track since the beginning of the year has been highlighted in research reports from institutions represented by Messari, and Messari issued two project reports before Binance announced the launch of Axelar (AXL).

It can be seen that institutional research reports are more authoritative and valuable than those of general KOLs or investors. So in the current round of bear-to-bull market, which tracks and projects have the leading research institutions focused on? And which projects are the institutions optimistic about but have not yet exploded? In this regard, Golden Finance selected the 6 most representative institutions from dozens of industry institutions and sorted out some of their respective research objects and results over the past year.

Sorting out the research projects of leading institutions

Representative research institutions: Messari, LD Capital, First Class Warehouse, ABCDE Capital, MT Capital, and Penta Lab.

Others: Delphi Digital, Nansen, SignalPlus, Binance Research, LK Venture, DappRadar, Galaxy Digital, Metrics Ventures.

1. Messari

Messari is a blockchain database startup headquartered in New York, USA. Messari uses open source tools to build a blockchain database that stores data information including funding, development history, management structure, and supply plans of various blockchain projects.

2024 Research Report Theme:

February: Axelar (AXL)'s data achieved all-round growth in Q4 2023. Polkadot 2023 Q4 report: DOT's circulating market value increased by 111% quarterly.

January: A comprehensive understanding of Manta Network in one article, interpretation of the 2023 DePIN report: new directions for AI integration, and Asian projects will emerge at an accelerated pace.

2023 Research Report Topics:

December: Summary of report on Covalent (CQT) data availability, and detailed explanation of cross-chain infrastructure Axelar.

November: Cosmos Hub Q3 research report - ATOM fell 21.0%, inflation rate 14%, a quick overview of fully homomorphic encryption projects.

October: Solana’s development status in the third quarter of 2023, Messari releases Moonbeam Q3 briefing.

Potential project: Covalent (CQT).

Covalent is a decentralized data infrastructure that enables users to seamlessly access blockchain data that would otherwise be inaccessible. Covalent indexes the entire history of blockchains and transforms this data in a standardized and truly interoperable way. Users can leverage a unified API to query nearly any data on a given blockchain.

The project received a total of US$15.1 million in financing.

Messari pointed out that as the world moves towards a multi-chain future, Covalent will play an important role in the field of on-chain data indexers. It will provide users with a secure, fast and unified method to query data from parallel networks.

2. LD Capital

LD Capital is one of the earliest institutions in Asia that focuses on value investment in the blockchain field. With its industry resource advantages and professional investment research team, LD Capital has discovered and invested in projects such as Qtum, Vechain, and Eos, all of which have achieved returns of more than 100 times.

2024 Research Report Theme:

January: The recent development of Sui, a new public chain that has accumulated strength over time, LD Capital announced the establishment of the Solana Ecosystem Fund, and Mina’s personnel changes can lead to the project’s recovery?

2023 Research Report Topics:

December: Mobile’s DePin track broke through the circle with ten times increase in 7 days, just before the old money entered the market, and a brief analysis of the modular blockchain Celestia.

November: POW+AI dual narrative, computing power leasing platform Clore.AI increased 10 times within the month (mentioned KAS, TAO),

September: Is the recent Crypto Bot craze a temporary boom or a new investment outlet? Livepeer (LPT) market starts again, can it break through the previous high?

August: THORChain anonymity - revealing the secrets of Terra LUNA, changes and impacts of GMX V2, an article to understand the current status of CyberConnect, Linea: With strong endorsement from ConsenSys, can it stand out in the fiercely competitive L2?

July: A brief analysis of Kaspa, a POW public chain based on the GHOSTDAG protocol; Injective, a pioneer of order book protogenesis; Inverse Finance: A way out of a desperate situation?; Analysis of Pendle’s innovation and challenges in staking business

June: ZeroLiquid: A zero-interest lending protocol with no liquidation using LST as collateral.

May: BTC Layer 2 Network Stacks

Secondary market observation projects: Fusionist (ACE), ZRX, 0x Protocol, HIFI, STORJ, Chainlink (LINK), Aave, Bluzelle, TRB.

Solana ecosystem projects invested by LD Capital: Render Network, Star Atlas, OpenOcean, Divvy, and Larix.

3. First Class

TouDengCang is a blockchain investment research institution dedicated to discovering high-quality projects and investment opportunities for users.

2024 Research Report Theme:

February: Pandora based on the ERC404 token standard and Jupiter, an aggregator on Solana.

2023 Research Report Topics:

December: Detailed explanation of the sci-fi mecha-themed online game Fusionist.

October: Comprehensive interpretation of modular blockchain Celestia and MMORPG blockchain game Big Time.

September: Yield Guild Games.

August: UBI economics Worldcoin.

April: Full-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero.

Potential project: Pandora.

Pandora is an NFT fragmentation project launched on February 2 this year. Its core technology is the ERC 404 token standard. Users can purchase the project's eponymous token PANDORA on Uniswap V3 to obtain ERC 404 tokens, which is equivalent to holding its NFT - Pandora Replicants in fragments. In addition, users can also purchase Pandora Replicants directly on OpenSea.

4. ABCDE Capital

ABCDE is a web3 builder fund co-founded by Huobi co-founder Du Jun and Metropolitan Capital founder BMAN, with a scale of US$400 million.

2024 Research Report Theme:

February: Looking at AI+Crypto from the perspective of the primary market, why did we lead the investment in Bitmap.tech?

January: Why did we invest in B² Network?

2023 Research Report Topics:

December: Why did we invest in BitSmiley?, Why did we invest in Babylon?

October: Why did we invest in Surf Protocol?

September: Why did we invest in BeWater? How does Particle combine with zkWaaS to build an intent-centric modular access layer? Why did we invest in GasZero? Why did we invest in Gravity?

March: Why did we lead the investment in Web3 development platform Particle Network? 、Why did we invest in Polyhedra Network? 、Why did we invest in ZK hardware acceleration project Cysic?

February: Why did we lead the investment in NFT perpetual contract trading platform NFEx?

January: Why did we lead the investment in Elven, an automated Web3 financial reporting platform? ABCDE: Why did we lead the investment in MetaTrust, a Web3 security solution? Why did we invest in DeBox?

Potential projects: bitSmiley , Babylon .

BitSmiley is the MakerDAO+Compound of the Bitcoin ecosystem, providing a comprehensive solution for Bitcoin DeFi by addressing the most significant gaps in the current Bitcoin ecosystem - stablecoins and lending infrastructure. In addition to providing stablecoins in bitRC20 format overcollateralized by BTC, BitSmiley also facilitates peer-to-peer lending based on BRC20. In addition, it has established insurance and CDS derivatives based on the loan framework.

Babylon is a project designing security protocols for the decentralized world. Babylon's mission is to scale Bitcoin to ensure the security of the decentralized world through three innovative shared security protocols: the Bitcoin Staking Protocol, the Bitcoin Timestamp Protocol, and the Bitcoin Data Availability Protocol.

The project raised $18 million in Series A funding.

5. MT Capital

Momentum Capital (MTCapital for short) is an emerging crypto fund focusing on the Web3 field. It is composed of a group of senior investment managers who have been focusing on Web3 since 2016. Headquartered in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, it is committed to investing in potential blockchain and cryptocurrency projects around the world.

2024 Research Report Theme:

February: DA track disassembly, comparative study of Celestia and EigenDA.

January: bitSmiley — Bitcoin native stablecoin protocol pioneer, comparative analysis of Origin and Olympus DAO, Cancun upgrade injects new vitality into the Ethereum ecosystem.

2023 Research Report Topics:

December: Messari Crypto Theses 2024 focuses on Solana and AI+DePIN tracks, the current status and future prospects of the DeSci track, Jito-Reshaping the Solana staking market landscape, the eve of the full outbreak of the Solana ecosystem, and Chainflip, a new competitor in the native cross-chain exchange market.

November: Application chain migration and economic model update drive the growth of DYDX flywheel, and Stacks Nakamoto upgrade is imminent, injecting new impetus into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Potential project: Chainflip .

Chainflip is a cross-chain liquidity network that enables cross-chain transactions between different blockchains. It is similar to Uniswap, but allows users to trade between major blockchains without any wrapped tokens, special wallets, or dedicated software.

The project raised a total of US$16 million.

6. Penta Lab

Penta Lab is a cutting-edge crypto industry research organization and an independent third-party research institute dedicated to providing clients with accurate, empirical, perceptive, technical and artificial intelligence crypto asset research. Independence is the core value of Penta Lab.

2024 Research Report Theme:

March: AINN update - continue to lead the innovative integration of Web3 and AI, and provide infrastructure for the trillion-dollar AI ecosystem.

February: Synthetix - the leader in decentralized derivatives, Vertex Protocol - integrating three major mainstream Defi products and expected to become the leader in perpetual contract DEX, dYdX-V4 version released, the future of DEX leader is promising, exploration of the reasons for GNS's 33% surge, GMX: the leader in derivative decentralized exchanges lacks innovation and has a bleak growth rate, Shrapnel - the first on-chain 3A first-person shooter (FPS) masterpiece, Pendle Finance - the leader in yield tokenization, Ajna Protocol - the next Aave in the DeFi lending track, Gains Network - an innovative high-leverage, low-fee perpetual crypto contract trading platform.

January: Penta Lab’s first in-depth research report: PENDLE surged 40% to a new high.

Potential projects: Shrapnel, Vertex Protocol.

Shrapnel is a AAA FPS game where skill-based competition, creative modeling tools, and true digital ownership are all powered by blockchain technology. As a competitive multiplayer first-person shooter, SHRAPNEL comes bundled with a rich set of player creation tools that combine combat, creation, management, and connection into a community where players own the platform and decide its future.

The project raised a total of US$37.5 million.

Vertex is a decentralized derivatives protocol for trading spot and perpetual contracts on an order book. With an industry-leading trading engine and integrated currency markets, Vertex's cross-margin product suite is designed for professionals and beginners alike.

The project raised $8.5 million in seed round funding.

Summarize

Judging from the project categories and specific tracks reported by the above institutions, they are indeed valuable for learning and investment reference. Although the market is currently in a bull market, there are still many research projects with Alpha properties. Therefore, in general, ordinary investors can obtain information gaps by paying attention to these institutional research reports in a timely manner.

However, it is regrettable that the overall quantity and quality of research reports in the current crypto market are far behind those of similar products in the traditional financial field. In the future, we hope that more professional and responsible research institutions will enter the market to help jointly find valuable projects in the blockchain circle.