ZKUSD
ZK / United States dollar
crypto Composite

Let's not be too quick to hold our nose when it comes to 'memecoins'.
What are memecoins? They're legitimate use of the chain. People pay to create an asset on chain and pay to use it, WITHOUT needing incentives. Nearly entirely that's for speculation but it's key to note that this use case has driven value to Solana in record amounts whereas the traditional farming use case ("defi") has seen chain after chain collapse into irrelevance (see ICP, EOS, Avalanche, ZK Sync, Scroll, Berachain, and the list goes on and on and on).
All these so-called "serious" Solana investments are dependant on usage staying high. Which means use cases like memecoins that real users want to use, not bot farms or airdrop hunters like every other dead or dying blockchain.
In my mind you want stuff that enables the core infrastructure for asset generation and usage on chain be it memecoins, dePIN connectivity node NFTs (e.g., Helium), web scraping as service (e.g., Grass) or whatever.
For mine that boils down to a couple of key projects at present
\- JTO/jitoSOL: validator clients and the only restaking network being used for something useful (tip router)
\- KMNO: Increasingly the core lend/borrow liquidity layer and defi management hub of Solana
\- JUP: Defi and token tooling. Plus they're having a decent stab at building a social layer on Solana
\- CLOUD/INF: LST hub on Solana. Sanctum are also leading LST innovation on Solana and in defi
\- DRIFT: Building a compossible trading platform. Trying to be the core infra for speculation based projects. Definitely not the best perps DEX, but that's not the play here.

You can participate more deeply on Drift, Sanctum, Jito and Jupiter via their voting mechanisms. Which I think is still really important at this point in the cycle as so much of this is still at the "throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks" stage.
Kamino have a governance structure, but they're yet to actually start that officially. You would think that it's not too far off though.

I like that this builds on existing innovations in the modular space rather than trying to reinvent the entire wheel. I like the integration with Agglayer and the use of a ZK Rollup construct to derive consensus from Ethereum and maintain rapid finality.
When is Katana Network planning to become a stage 1 rollup?
How exactly does the network's architecture facilitate its mission of being a "DeFi Chain"?

Let's not be too quick to hold our nose when it comes to 'memecoins'.
What are memecoins? They're legitimate use of the chain. People pay to create an asset on chain and pay to use it, WITHOUT needing incentives. Nearly entirely that's for speculation but it's key to note that this use case has driven value to Solana in record amounts whereas the traditional farming use case ("defi") has seen chain after chain collapse into irrelevance (see ICP, EOS, Avalanche, ZK Sync, Scroll, Berachain, and the list goes on and on and on).
All these so-called "serious" Solana investments are dependant on usage staying high. Which means use cases like memecoins that real users want to use, not bot farms or airdrop hunters like every other dead or dying blockchain.
In my mind you want stuff that enables the core infrastructure for asset generation and usage on chain be it memecoins, dePIN connectivity node NFTs (e.g., Helium), web scraping as service (e.g., Grass) or whatever.
For mine that boils down to a couple of key projects at present
\- JTO/jitoSOL: validator clients and the only restaking network being used for something useful (tip router)
\- KMNO: Increasingly the core lend/borrow liquidity layer and defi management hub of Solana
\- JUP: Defi and token tooling. Plus they're having a decent stab at building a social layer on Solana
\- CLOUD/INF: LST hub on Solana. Sanctum are also leading LST innovation on Solana and in defi
\- DRIFT: Building a compossible trading platform. Trying to be the core infra for speculation based projects. Definitely not the best perps DEX, but that's not the play here.

You can participate more deeply on Drift, Sanctum, Jito and Jupiter via their voting mechanisms. Which I think is still really important at this point in the cycle as so much of this is still at the "throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks" stage.
Kamino have a governance structure, but they're yet to actually start that officially. You would think that it's not too far off though.

I like that this builds on existing innovations in the modular space rather than trying to reinvent the entire wheel. I like the integration with Agglayer and the use of a ZK Rollup construct to derive consensus from Ethereum and maintain rapid finality.
When is Katana Network planning to become a stage 1 rollup?
How exactly does the network's architecture facilitate its mission of being a "DeFi Chain"?

Take a bet on ZK, atl but use is good. Just need to pop off. (Low market cap)