🔥 Whales Getting $LIT?

In partnership with

63+ Cheat Sheets | Advertise | SuperAI x Crypto | Free One-Shot Guides

2026 is knocking, fam! We’re wrapping up a volatile 2025 - tough, but full of lessons 🤝. And… no last-minute miracles: crypto’s still chopping while macro calls the shots. But zoom out — 2026 is when Web3 goes mainstream.

⚠️ Keep an eye on the FOMC minutes dropping today. It’s not just what the Fed did, but how they sounded that moves markets. What’s your plan for the final days of 2025?

Here’s what we got for you today:

• 👀 Who actually made money?

• ⭐ Why a few tokens moon?

• ⭐ Lighter just dropped $LIT

• 🔥 Burning hot takes for the road

If 2025 taught us one thing, it’s this: Narratives are fun, but revenue keeps you alive.

While the market chased vaporware and fleeting trends, a specific group of onchain apps printed nearly $800M in real fees. The strongest signal in crypto right now isn’t who shouts the loudest on X, it’s who users are actually paying to use.

In this week’s report, we break down the Top 10 Revenue-Earning Onchain Apps of 2025. Click below to read the full analysis 👇.

9️⃣ BEGINNERS ROAD TO PRO TRADERS

DAY 9: Master the DEX Swap (Without the Heart Attack)

If you have only ever traded on Binance or Coinbase, your first time using a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) can feel like defusing a bomb. 💣

Did I click the right link? Is the slippage too high? Why is the transaction pending forever?

Relax. We are about to turn that anxiety into muscle memory.

In Lesson 9, we break DEX swaps down to the basics. You’ll finally understand what’s really happening when you trade from your wallet, why gas matters, what “slippage” actually means, and how approvals work (without freaking out).

We walk through a real swap step-by-step (safely), so your first swap feels calm, and successful. Because that’s what “using crypto right” looks like.

⚠️ NOT EVERY TOKEN DESERVES YOUR MONEY — READ THIS BEFORE YOU BUY

Right now, $BTC ( ▲ 0.37% ) dominance is sky-high — and you can feel it.

Most alt tokens keep bleeding, sentiment is low, liquidity is thin, and a lot of people are running out of both cash and conviction. But here’s the paradox: this is exactly when real opportunities usually appear.

In past cycles, everything pumped for no reason. A random token doing +50-100% in a day was normal. Today? Very different game. If a token wants to pump now, it needs real value, not just a cute story and a promise.

1. We are officially in a K-shaped market

• The Upper K: A tiny fraction of tokens with real value accrual (think revenue share, buybacks, actual sticky users) will climb.

• The Lower K: The vast majority of "governance tokens" with zero utility will bleed to zero. If your bag doesn't have a mechanism to capture value from its protocol, you are just holding a governance meme.

Tokens that share revenue, buy back supply, or reward holders have a structural advantage. Same for projects that solve real problems investors actually care about. Those will rise, even when the broader market feels dead.

2. You Are Not a VC (Stop Acting Like One) 

A lot of retail investors think buying a low-cap token on a CEX is "investing early." It’s not.

→ When you buy on a CEX, you are often buying at a massive markup compared to the VCs and insiders who got in at seed rounds. They have more info, lower entry prices, and zero emotional attachment. When you are FOMO-ing in, they are often looking for exit liquidity. Understand where you sit in the food chain.

3. The FDV Trap & Token Unlocks 

This is the silent killer. Every single month, billions of dollars in token unlocks hit the market. It is simple supply and demand. If a project isn't generating enough real value to absorb that selling pressure, the price must go down.

→ My rule: Always check the vesting schedule. If a token has massive unlocks coming and no revenue to back it up, it’s a ticking time bomb.

My take on this

This cycle is filtering out noise. Narratives alone won’t save bad tokens anymore. Real value accrual, sustainable revenue, strong user demand are what survives. And honestly? I like it this way. It forces discipline 😀.

But remember, this isn’t financial advice. It’s just a friendly reminder that not every shiny token deserves your portfolio slot. Stay safe, filter the noise, and don't be someone else's exit liquidity.

Earn your PE certificate online. Build an MBA-style network.

The Wharton Online + Wall Street Prep Private Equity Certificate Program gives you the knowledge and tools top professionals use to analyze investment opportunities.

• Learn from senior leaders at top firms like Carlyle, Blackstone, and KKR.

• Get direct access to Wharton faculty in live office hours where concepts become clear, practical, and immediately applicable.

• Study on your schedule with a flexible online format

Plus, join an active network of 5,000+ graduates from all over the world.

Enroll today and save $300 with code SAVE300 + $200 with early enrollment by January 12.

Program begins February 9.

Get the Brochure

💸 LIGHTER JUST DROPPED $LIT: A MASSIVE AIRDROP OR JUST A REFUND FOR FEES?

If you’ve been grinding on decentralized perp exchanges, check your wallets. Lighter, the Ethereum-based perp DEX that has been quietly cooking, just officially launched its native token, $LIT, and the airdrop numbers are looking spicy. 🌶️

💎 The Tokenomics

Lighter isn't playing small. They are allocating 50% of the total supply directly to the ecosystem.

• 25% was dropped immediately to users from the first two point seasons of 2025.

• Team & Investors (Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital) get the other half, but here is the alpha: they are subject to a 1-year cliff and 3-year vesting. No VC dumping on day one.

The team also confirmed that protocol revenue will be transparently used for token buybacks. Essentially, if the exchange makes money, $LIT holders eat.

💰 The Airdrop Reality: Lambo or Lunch Money?

I’ve been scouring the private groups and X, and the numbers are actually crazier than we thought. While many got a nice bonus, the top-tier farmers absolutely printed life-changing money.

Just look at this whale, who just flexed a massive 103,476 $LIT allocation, that bag is valued at roughly $258,000.

How did they do it? The "meta" was grinding high volume on smaller pairs and holding positions longer. Smart farmers hedged on other exchanges to stay delta-neutral.

⚠️ Notice The Risk, Guys

Before you FOMO in or cry because you missed it, let’s be real. Farming Perp DEXs is dangerous work.

→ I’ve heard horror stories of massive slippage on illiquid pairs while farming points. One bad wick and your "free airdrop" becomes an expensive lesson.

For many, this airdrop wasn't pure profit—it was basically a refund for the fees and losses they took while farming. If you just broke even, you survived. If you profited, you won.

My Personal Take

Lighter is doing massive numbers (beating Hyperliquid in Nov volume with $292B), and they are building as a US C-Corp, which is a bold regulatory flex. With the token currently trading around $2.34, the market is deciding its fair value. If the "Buyback" narrative holds up, this could be more than just a farm-and-dump token. But as always, watch the post-airdrop sell pressure.

Did you qualify for $LIT, or are you sitting on the sidelines for this one?

When AI Outperforms the S&P 500 by 28.5%

Did you catch these stocks?

Robinhood is up over 220% year to date.
Seagate is up 198.25% year to date.
Palantir is up 139.17% this year.

AltIndex’s AI model rated every one of these stocks as a “buy” before it took off.

The kicker? They use alternative data like reddit comments, congress trades, and hiring data.

We’ve teamed up with AltIndex to give our readers free access to their app for a limited time.

The next top performer is already taking shape. Will you be looking at the right data?

Get Alt Data Stock Picks

_{Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.}

🔥 BURNING HOT TAKES FOR THE ROAD

New data reveals nearly 70% of Polymarket addresses have realized losses, leaving only ~30% of predictors actually in the green. Read more

Grayscale calls 2026 the "dawn of the institutional era," predicting massive structural inflows for $BTC ( ▲ 0.37% ) and $ETH ( ▲ 1.82% ) . Read more

Neel Somani resigns as Executive Chairman of Eclipse, signaling a major leadership shakeup for the Ethereum L2. Read more

South Korea's stablecoin bill stalled again over issuer disputes, delaying the regulatory framework for $USDT ( ▼ 0.07% ) and local pegs. Read more

🤡 SPICY MEME

💌 SHOUTOUT FROM OUR FIRESTARTER

We read your emails, comments, and poll replies daily

Hit reply and say Hello, we'd love to hear from you!

And if you’ve got a friend deep in crypto (or just getting started), feel free to forward this to them. They can sign up here. Cheers!

⚠ This newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Traders should conduct thorough research, understand the risks, and carefully evaluate their decisions before investing in cryptocurrency.