Alpha Recap #1: Ink Airdrop, Hyperliquid's HIP-3, MegaETH ICO, and Yield Arbitrage on Pendle

The Alpha Recap is a new format we’re launching today. Its goal is to highlight the most important crypto market Alphas of the week. Starting today and every Friday going forward we’ll share a digest of the most valuable insights from our Alpha Feed.

Exclusive to OAK Premium members, the Alpha Feed gathers insights, yield and airdrop strategies, and key market intelligence. In other words, the core of OAK Research’s DNA: filtered, high-value content that cuts through market noise.

Ink Layer 2 Airdrop: What You Need to Know

Last week, we provided an overview of Ink, the Layer 2 launched by Kraken to build a new on-chain user base. This initiative fits into the broader wave of rollups launched or supported by centralized exchanges, though its relevance remains uncertain. To put it bluntly: Ink’s launch was a failure.

The blockchain never exceeded $10M in TVL, very few protocols deployed on it, and investors largely ignored it. Ink tried to reverse the trend in June by announcing its upcoming native token, but momentum didn’t follow.

However, we shared a strategy for our readers to position themselves ahead of a potential airdrop, based on several factors such as Circle’s CCTP integration, XAUT0 deployment, and GHO (Aave’s stablecoin) support. In short, how to take advantage of Ink’s low user base and its new strategic pivot.

Since then, as covered in a new Alpha this week, Ink integrated Tydro, a new Aave-based lending app. A major event: following this, Ink’s TVL skyrocketed from $6.4M to over $140M.

Despite this surge, the airdrop (confirmed in a since-deleted Tydro thread we managed to archive) still flies under the radar and looks promising. We’ve outlined several smart ways to position for it.

MegaETH to Launch Its ICO on Sonar

One of the week’s biggest announcements: the much-anticipated Layer 2 MegaETH, promising performance beyond 100,000 transactions per second, will hold an ICO on Sonar.

For context, Sonar is the natural extension of Echo, Cobie’s platform that allows qualified investors to collaborate and collectively invest in early-stage startups and token projects. Sonar defines itself as a dedicated ICO platform, an open alternative to private VC and KOL deals.

Top-tier names like Ethena, Hyperlane, and Monad have already raised through it. Now, it’s MegaETH’s turn to leverage Sonar for its ICO, allowing anyone (with Echo registration and KYC) to join the sale.

In this Alpha, we broke down the registration steps and more importantly, how to maximize your chances in what’s likely to be a highly competitive ICO.

Hyperliquid Deploys HIP-3

This week kicked off with the deployment of HIP-3 on Hyperliquid’s mainnet, a key milestone in its “AWS of liquidity” vision we detailed earlier this summer.

The idea behind HIP-3 is simple: fully decentralize the listing process for new perpetual markets on Hyperliquid.

Until now, the creation of new markets depended on validators responsible for selecting assets and overseeing technical parameters.

With HIP-3, the process becomes automated: new markets are now opened via auctions held every 31 hours, where participants compete to launch their own market.

The chosen operator can then deploy their market after defining key parameters (oracle, margin, collateral asset, funding and liquidation rules, governance, market management, and trading fees) ensuring full decentralization and modularity.

Beyond the technicalities, this Alpha explored the broader implications: turning Hyperliquid from a limited exchange into a fully open infrastructure where countless markets can emerge which is a radical contrast with centralized exchanges, where listings depend on opaque criteria.

For HYPE holders, HIP-3 is also bullish:

• 500,000 HYPE are required to participate in auctions.
• The auction system itself creates new sources of yield.
• Additional revenue will be generated by the expansion of new markets.

Airdrop and Arbitrage Opportunity via vkHYPE on Pendle

In a previous Alpha, we explained how Pendle’s YT (Yield Tokens) were being massively used to farm Kinetiq’s airdrop, until the end of its points program on October 16 disrupted the strategy.

Users could convert 1 kHYPE (Kinetiq’s LST) into about 30 YT-kHYPE on Pendle. The advantage: each YT generated not only yield but also points distributed by Kinetiq.

In short, users could earn 30x more points for the same kHYPE, though at the cost of their principal, since YTs naturally trend toward zero at expiry, effectively “buying points” with leverage.

In that Alpha, we predicted that the end of Kinetiq’s points program would cause a massive YT vkHYPE dump on Pendle and likely pushing YT prices below their implied yield.

Why bring it up today? Because that’s exactly what happened. The price of YT vkHYPE is now below its implied yield, creating an interesting arbitrage opportunity:

• Implied APY: 6.7%
• Underlying APY: 7.2%

This means YT vkHYPE currently trades below its “real” yield. In other words, you’re being paid to hold it.

In today’s Alpha, we explained how to take advantage of this arbitrage while also farming multiple point campaigns. We also revealed a more conservative approach to exploit this opportunity without direct HYPE exposure.

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