Sector
Neobanks: New Superapps of Crypto
Crypto has long promised to upgrade banking.
The new wave of crypto products is closing the gap. Meet the neobanks leading the charge: Mantle, UR, and Plasma.
In TradFi, Neobanks are digital-only banks that offer banking services entirely online, without any physical branches. Services like opening accounts, payments, money transfers, spending analytics, savings products, and sometimes lending.
Initially, they were fintech companies using traditional finance rails. Revolut, Nubank, and WeBank are some examples. Their market size has grown by ~47% last year, and is projected to grow >$4 trillion by 2034.
Now we have crypto projects that provide the same services onchain.
Crypto neobanks are poised for a takeoff.
Firstly, it's just a better banking product.
- 24/7 markets for Forex and other assets.
- Instant global transfers/settlement with ~0 fees.
- Instead of ~0.4% interest rate, default ~10% yield on deposits.
- Access to new & innovative financial tools with DeFi.
Secondly, the regulatory situation is now acceptable.
The US administration is very pro-crypto. They're giving crypto companies enough leeway to operate freely. The EU also has a comprehensive regulatory regime that companies can follow.
That doesn't mean these projects are perfect.
Crypto Neobanks do have some weaknesses.
- Cashback/rewards reduction. Right now, Crypto Neobanks are spending like crazy to get users. When that ends, projects should be able to sustainably retain users.
- Regulatory risks. Financial services are a regulatory nightmare with entrenched interests. There's a non-zero chance regulators can kill these products.
- Self-custodial. With crypto, you are responsible for securing assets. Unlike TradFi, there's nobody you can call to get your money back.
- Privacy. Some of these neo-banks, like EtherFi, don't have privacy. All your card transactions are public. Nobody wants that.
There are many projects in this category. So we need some criteria to pick potential winners.
Ultimately, distribution is the key. So here's what I'm looking for:
- Normie-friendly UX like instant payments
- Wide acceptance. The card should be usable almost everywhere.
- Partners closely with major L1s, L2s, stablecoin issuers, and so on.
- Strong user retention after incentive-driven user growth has dried up.
Here are some examples of top projects as well.
#1. Plasma
It's a stablecoin-focused chain that has the support of Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer.
Plasma One is their upcoming crypto application + card. It'll provide the Neobank-ish services.
- 4% cashback in XPL
- Free USDT transfers
- 10%+ yield on USDT holdings
#2. EtherFi
It started as an Ethereum restaking protocol. They'd expanded into Neobanks in April 2025.
EtherFi Cash is a similar card + app service. It's powered by Scroll and requires setting up a vault. The long list of associate benefits starts from 3% cashback to airport lounge access.
It has been very successful.
- > 31k active cards
- Did >$68M in spend volume.
- Gave >$3.27M in cashback volume
#3. Mantle UR
It's a Swiss-regulated Neobank that unifies fiat and crypto into a single account. It aims to be the go-to app for an individual's financial life.
The features include multi-currency accounts, 0 off-ramp fees, free transfers, 5% APY on USDe, and more.
We've talked about UR several times in previous newsletters. So you can read that deep dive for more details.
Other such projects include
All the above are large, solid projects. You can usually have more upside by betting on smaller, upcoming projects.
Send is one of my favorite beta plays.
What makes it special? It's a private neobank that runs on Canton Network, a privacy-first blockchain. There are more features like
- Send mobile/web app
- An Earn vault for USDC yield
- Canton Wallet (passkey, no seed phrase),
- Sendtags (human-readable usernames),
- CUSD, a stablecoin designed for private, compliant payments.
In the TDE Pro, we've written a "Token Radar" on Send.
I've also published a Flash report on the Neobank narrative. I cover many more Neobank beta plays in there. If you want to see all of that, join TDE Pro.
Sponsored by Terminal Finance
Terminal Finance: Smart Home for Your Stables
We are in 2nd half of the bull market. It's time to start taking profits.
Most take profit into USDC or USDT. But smart money takes profit into sUSDe. Unlike USDC & USDT, you can earn yield with sUSDe.
What if you want even more rewards?
Enter Terminal Finance. It's a DEX incubated by Ethena that focuses on yield-bearing stablecoins and institutional assets.
Tokenized assets from Securitize will be on it. It'll be home onchain equities. It'll be the only venue for some institutional assets like iUSDe.
They also have special tech like KYC Pools and "redeemable tokens", which'll remove impermanent loss in providing liquidity to yield-bearing tokens.
Right now, they're running a pre-deposit campaign. If you deposit USDe, you can earn
- sUSDe yield (on Pendle tokens only)
- Earn Root points, which will convert to Terminal's token.
- An additional 30× multiplier from Ethena
If you take profit in ETH or BTC, you can deposit WETH or WBTC. They'll give you future Terminal tokens as well.
Terminal Finance is setting up to be the go-to DEX for institutional assets & yield-bearing stables. Now you can get exposure early.
Narrative
Stepping into the Prediction Market Ecosystem
Prediction Markets are trending again.
Why? Polymarket raised $2B from the New York Stock Exchange owner at a whopping ~$9B post-money valuation.
Polymarket and Kalshi are the two giants of the sector. Together they control >95% of the volume.
We've already talked about Polymarket several times in the newsletter. Today, let's look at the rest of the ecosystem.
#1 Limitless does the most volume after the market leaders. Right now, they're focusing on prediction markets for crypto asset prices.
On September 25th, they raised funds via Kaito. The project had so much demand that it was 100x oversubscribed. If you want to farm their upcoming token, they're running season 2 of their points program.
#2. Myriad Markets is a prediction market on Abstract and Linea chains. Right now, they're running an "Uptober Top Trader Contest" to attract users.
Since it doesn't have a token, some people are farming the airdrop as well.
#3. Truemarkets is a prediction market on Base. It's a rare general-purpose prediction market with a live token ($TRUE) and some liquidity.
Since other major tokens aren't live, $TRUE can theoretically get a lot of bids whenever the prediction markets & Base season narrative heats up.
#4. PMX is built on Solana. More importantly, it creates liquidity using Meteora, a Solana DEX for fungible tokens.
50% of the fees from the trades will go to PMX. So, there's notable value accrual.
There's probably more projects. But it's not worth listing all of them. Most of them don't have any liquidity or volume.
In such a competitive sector, projects that focus on specific sectors can win in that niche.
#5. SX Bet is a betting platform (so a prediction market) focusing on Sports. It claims to be the first prediction market that can multiply your payout by letting you combine multiple bets into one (called "Parlay").
Right now, they've a $50,000 USDC Parlay Launch Tournament as well.
Overtime ($OVER) and Rainmaker ($RAIN) are other projects in the niche.
This sector isn't limited just to the markets alone. There's a whole ecosystem of tools that you can use (& potentially invest).
DeFi x Prediction Markets
Degens will never be satisfied with a simple bet on prediction markets.
Flipr allows users to take leverage in prediction markets. It aims to be the DeFi layer of the prediction market. It hopes to support other DeFi activity like lending as well.
Gondor is a similar project. It isn't available to public yet, but it claims to enable borrowing against Polymarket positions.
DeFi on Prediction Markets is a niche with huge potential.
Social x Prediction Markets
We spend a large chunk of our lives on social media.
PrediBot is an AI-powered bot that allows users to bet on PredictBase by tweeting. The "tweet-to-earn" mechanic has the potential to make the app viral.
Kash is a similar project that allows users to bet by QTing posts on X/Twitter.
Telegram Bots
Ok Bet, Polycule, & Rockey are trading bots on Telegram for prediction markets.
Similar TG Bots were huge money printers during memecoin mania. But Prediction Markets wouldn't have as much potential since users will be more sensitive to slippage.
Tools
ArbBets claims to find arbitrage opportunities between different prediction markets.
Quantrix gives users an AI-powered trading agent for prediction markets. It'll use research and data analytics to help you bet.
The above list of projects should not be seen as an investment recommendation. It's just a collection of interesting projects in the sector.
If you want me to dive deeper into the sector, let me know by replying to this newsletter.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Monad announced they'll launch the airdrop claim portal on Tuesday, October 14th.
MetaMask launched perp trading on its wallet. It's powered using HyperLiquid's builder program.
Jupiter introduced JupUSD using Ethena's stablecoin-as-a-service stack. In the initial period of its upcoming launch, it'll be backed by USDtb.
Sky (formerly MakerDAO) has introduced a new star: Keel. It serves as an onchain capital allocator and liquidity layer for Solana.
Ethena has partnered with UR, a neobank from the Mantle team, to bring USDe to everyday finance across 45+ countries via their neobank.
Plume Network announced it's acquiring Dinero. It'll give them the institutional-grade staking infrastructure for ETH, SOL, and BTC.
Farcaster has added support for the Binance Chain. Users can now access the actions on the BSC via Farcaster.
Meteora released the tokenomics for $MET. They also introduced the Phoenix Rising Plan to turn every MeteoraAG stakeholder liquid.
Flying Tulip, the highly anticipated DeFi superapp from Andre Cronje, has released its official documentation.
Ocean Protocol Foundation has withdrawn from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance. This will create a completely different market for $OCEAN.
Binance Wallet introduced the Meme Rush. It'll help users discover and participate in meme token projects.
Football.fun announced the launch of their token, $FUN will happen via Aerdrome Community Launch.
Virtuals Protocol introduced a new launch model for the agents of Virtuals Protocol. The new Unicorn model is very different from the previous Genesis model.
ZKsync introduced the Atlas upgrade for the ZK Stack. It has massive features like 15K+ TPS sequencer, 1-second ZK finality via Airbender, and $0.0001 proving cost per transfer
📰 Industry News
UR has fully launched to users in more than 45 countries. It provides a unified crypto and fiat account with 0 off-ramp fees.
Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of NYSE, is investing $2B in Polymarket at $9B post-money valuation.
YZi Labs, the fund associated with Binance founder CZ, announced a $1B Builder Fund to double down on the BNB Ecosystem.
Luxembourg Intergenerational Sovereign Wealth Fund Invests 1% of its Holdings in Bitcoin ETFs. They became the first Eurozone country to do so.
Bybit secured the UAE's First Virtual Asset Platform Operator License from the Securities and Commodities Authority.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- Flows in crypto markets.
- Crypto equity performance.
- Stablecoins as exit tech & gateway to $ETH.
- Why there'll be 1000s of stablecoins and why most will fail.
- Arthur Hayes on the death of BTC's 4-year cycles.
😂 Meme
Until next time,
Edgy
Today's email was written by Edgy and Yayya.
DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a financial advisor. This content is for education and information purposes only. Crypto and DeFi are risky and speculative. Please do your research before investing.
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