Weekly Alpha #51 - Don’t Miss the ETHGAS Airdrop on Ethereum
Latest DeFi Alphas Delivered in a Concise Newsletter.
Welcome back to Weekly Alpha — your curated edge in DeFi, tokenomics, and macro shifts before they go mainstream.
In this edition of The Weekly Alpha:
📚 This Week's Intel
🎧 Podcast Picks
🧑🌾Don’t Miss the ETHGAS Airdrop on Ethereum
🧐 Onchain Analytics
This Week's Intel 📚
The signal from the noise, this week's developments that actually matter for your DeFi positioning.
I've filtered through the endless stream of headlines, hot takes, and crypto Twitter drama to bring you the stories moving the ecosystem forward. These aren't just news updates; they're intelligence briefings on where capital is flowing, which narratives are gaining traction, and what regulatory shifts could reshape your strategy.
Skip the timeline doom-scrolling. This is your weekly intel drop.
Lighter Token Struggles as Farmers Transition to Alternative Exchanges
Just two weeks after its TGE, Lighter’s LIT token is down 27% on the week as traders rotate to competitors. Daily volume has crashed from $7-12 billion to $1.73 billion, dropping Lighter to fifth place behind Aster, Hyperliquid, EdgeX, and GRVT.
The rapid decline shows how quickly mercenary liquidity moves in perp DEXs. Weak post-TGE performance from both LIT and Hyperliquid’s HYPE could dampen enthusiasm for future perp airdrops, as traders realize these tokens often peak at launch before bleeding value.
Read the full The Defiant article
Perfect storm of activity sees record surge in new Ethereum wallets
Ethereum is experiencing a user growth surge with 327,000 new wallets created daily over the past week, peaking at a record 393,000 in a single day. Total non-empty wallets now stand at 172.9 million.
The growth is driven by December’s Fusaka upgrade (which lowered fees and improved L2 data handling), renewed DeFi interest, and rising stablecoin activity. With ETH up 7% and over half its supply now staked, fresh users and capital are flowing back into the ecosystem.
Read the full Cointelegraph article
Other news
Perp DEXs will ‘eat’ expensive TradFi in 2026- read
Yield Suffers $3.7M Loss Due to ‘Unintended’ Stablecoin Swap - read
DePIN and crypto gaming led a surprising end-of-year rebound - read
Euler’s Founding CEO Steps Down as Protocol Refocuses on Institutions - read
CARDS Token Surges as Gacha Volume Hits All-Time High - read
Paradigm leads $7.1 million seed round for attention market Noise ahead of Base mainnet launch - read
DeFi Crypto Mutuum Finance (MUTM) Reports $100K Inflows in 48 Hours Following Halborn Audit Update - read
Podcast Picks 🎧
This week’s audio alpha: handpicked conversations that shaped my thinking and could shift yours too.
I sift through hours of DeFi content so you don't have to. These are the episodes worth your commute, the insights that made me pause and rewind, and the perspectives that are moving markets before they hit mainstream media.
Queue these up and stay ahead of the narrative.
The Rollup: The Neo Finance Bull Thesis with Vance Spencer & Michael Anderson - listen
Forward Guidance: Commodities & Cyclicals Are 2026’s Mega-Cap Tech - listen
Unchained: Who Actually Owns the Aave Brand -- the DAO or Labs? - listen
Bell Curve: Why Crypto Still Struggles to Capture the Value It Creates - listen
0xResearch: Aerodrome’s Big Upgrade | Alexander Cutler - listen
Don’t Miss the ETHGAS Airdrop on Ethereum
If you’ve been active on Ethereum, ETHGAS is launching a points program for power users, and the airdrop could be substantial if you’ve spent gas fees since the Beacon Chain launch.
How to participate
Visit the community section on the ETHGAS website to begin completing quests. For example:
Linking your primary EVM wallet earns 30 beans
Following ETHGAS on X earns 50 beans
(Beans are points that will likely convert to airdrop tokens.)
Next, generate a gas report by clicking “Gas Report” in the navbar. This awards the most points and will be used for the airdrop snapshot. The more gas you’ve spent on Ethereum, the more points you’ll accumulate.
Across several wallets I’ve connected (including archived ones), I spent $17,595 on gas fees post-Beacon Chain, possibly more.
As a top 5% Ethereum gas spender, I’m hoping for a solid allocation from this airdrop. The process is straightforward, but if privacy concerns you, consider not linking all your wallets to the same account.
Final Thoughts
ETHGAS could be a valuable airdrop for Ethereum power users. If you’ve generated substantial gas fees since the Beacon Chain launch, you could be well-rewarded. This project is directly aligned with Ethereum’s ecosystem.
Onchain Analytics 🧐
Ethereum’s User Base Surge: Active Addresses Hit All-Time Highs
Ethereum has reached a significant milestone with 12.8 million monthly active addresses as of January 2026, marking the highest level of network activity in its history. This represents a dramatic resurgence after years of fluctuation, signaling renewed confidence and utility in the world’s leading smart contract platform.
The Multi-Year Journey
The data reveals a fascinating narrative of Ethereum’s evolution. From early 2022 through mid-2024, monthly active addresses ranged between 5-10 million, showing relatively stable but unremarkable growth. The network experienced periodic dips during crypto winter and bearish sentiment, with activity occasionally falling below 5 million addresses during the deepest troughs of 2022-2023.
However, the inflection point came in late 2024. Starting around Q4 2024, Ethereum saw a consistent upward trend that accelerated dramatically into 2026. The current 12.8M active addresses represents more than a 2x increase from the 5-6M baseline seen during quieter periods, demonstrating genuine user adoption rather than temporary speculation.
What’s Driving the Growth
This surge in active addresses correlates with several key developments: the maturation of Layer 2 ecosystems that make Ethereum more accessible, increased institutional adoption post-ETF approvals, and the continued dominance of Ethereum as the settlement layer for DeFi and NFT activity. Unlike wash trading metrics, active addresses represent real users interacting with the network, making this a fundamental indicator of Ethereum’s health.
The steady climb rather than volatile spikes suggests organic, sustainable growth. Users aren’t just speculating but actually using Ethereum for its intended purposes: DeFi protocols, stablecoin transfers, NFT marketplaces, and emerging onchain applications.
Looking Ahead
With active addresses at all-time highs and maintaining strong momentum, Ethereum appears positioned to continue expanding its user base throughout 2026. This metric validates Ethereum’s position as the dominant smart contract platform and suggests the network effects that made it valuable are only strengthening with time.
Arbitrum’s $8.4B Stablecoin Moat: Why L2 Liquidity Wars Are Already Decided
Arbitrum One dominates Layer 2 stablecoin supply with $8.44 billion as of January 2026, nearly double Base Chain’s $4.65B and 16x larger than OP Mainnet’s $526M. When one L2 holds more stablecoins than its two major competitors combined, that’s a decisive liquidity advantage.
The Year in Review
Over the past 12 months, Arbitrum grew from $5.5B to $8.4B in stablecoin supply, a $3B net inflow that demonstrates its ability to attract and retain serious capital. The gap with competitors actually widened rather than narrowed.
Base showed steady growth from $3.5B to $4.65B, proving Coinbase’s distribution power can bootstrap meaningful liquidity. However, it hasn’t closed the gap despite aggressive user acquisition.
OP Mainnet tells a different story: declining from $1B to just $526M represents a 47% capital flight, raising serious questions about its competitive position.
Why This Matters
Stablecoin supply is the most important L2 metric because it represents actual working capital. Unlike speculative tokens, stablecoins are the fuel for DeFi protocols, trading, and real economic activity.
Arbitrum’s $8.4B treasury creates powerful advantages: deeper DEX liquidity, more lending capital, lower slippage, and stronger incentives for protocols to deploy. This flywheel effect makes the lead increasingly difficult to challenge.
For DeFi users and builders, the data is clear: the deepest liquidity lives on Arbitrum, and that moat is only getting wider.
That’s it for this week.
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None of the information in this newsletter constitutes financial advice. While I personally use most of the protocols that I discuss, it's important to understand that they involve substantial risk. Don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose