Alpha Recap #5: Aave and the neobank thesis, opportunity on Pendle, Kinetiq airdrop and Uniswap overhaul
November 14, 2025
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In this new edition of the Alpha Recap, we review the main insights of the week in the crypto market: major news, yield or airdrop strategies, key information and quick analyses, to go beyond the noise.
The Alpha Recap aims to present the most important crypto market Alphas of the week. Every Friday, we provide a condensed version of the most valuable information from our Alpha Feed.
Reserved for OAK Premium members, the Alpha Feed brings together insights, yield and airdrop strategies, as well as key market information. In other words, what defines the DNA of OAK Research: filtered content that goes beyond market noise.
Today, the market was marked by a drop in Bitcoin below the strategic support of $98,000. We invite you to read our dedicated analysis to fully understand the current challenges.
Aave obtains MiCAR authorization: the neobank pivot thesis confirmed
A few weeks ago, Aave announced the acquisition of Stable Finance, a US fintech developing a mobile app offering simplified yield optimization on stablecoins.
This operation was the subject of a dedicated Alpha, where we explained that Aave seemed to be strategically moving toward the on-chain banking segment, an emerging narrative already embraced by players like Mantle (UR), Plasma (Plasma One), Avici or even Ether.fi.
We were right, as Aave has just announced that Push, a newly created subsidiary, has obtained CASP authorization from the Central Bank of Ireland under the MiCAR regulation.
In practical terms, this will allow Push to offer fiat/stablecoin exchanges within the EEA in full compliance. We naturally expect GHO, Aave’s native stablecoin, to be a cornerstone of this setup.
An arbitrage and airdrop opportunity on Cap YTs on Pendle
Today, we introduced and explained how to take advantage of a new arbitrage opportunity on Pendle that also allows you to farm the Cap airdrop.
In essence, Cap offers cUSD, representing stablecoin deposits, and stcUSD, the staked version giving access to the protocol’s yield strategies. The protocol rewards users through a points campaign: cUSD earns x10 points, YT cUSD earns x20, and YT stcUSD earns x5.
In the dedicated Alpha, we explained precisely how to benefit from this arbitrage opportunity and secure attractive yield.
We will soon release an Early Birds edition dedicated to Cap to explain in depth its architecture and the reasons behind its high yield. Another Alpha will also be published to detail the optimal farming strategies and related risks.
Kinetiq hidden season: a reminder to receive the airdrop
In an Alpha shared 3 weeks ago, we mentioned a potential hidden points season for Kinetiq, as well as an opportunity to accumulate points via farming on Pendle through the YT vkHYPE.
The scenario unfolded as expected, and even better: yesterday, the YT vkHYPE reached 26% implied APY, compared to 6.7% when the Alpha was published, offering an ideal exit point for holders.
Meanwhile, Kinetiq has just announced a hidden season that took place between October 14 and November 12, distributing 1.6 million kPoints to users who stayed active and kept farming Kinetiq.
This is precisely the purpose of our Alpha Feed: to reveal real market opportunities beyond the ambient noise.
Uniswap: The "UNIfication" proposal for a fee switch and complete governance overhaul
This week, an important governance proposal was submitted on the Uniswap forum. This initiative, led by Hayden Adams (founder of Uniswap), Devin Walsh (Uniswap Foundation) and Kenneth Ng, aims to activate the fee switch, a mechanism the community has been expecting for several years.
At OAK Research, we have been following this topic for a long time. In our article published over a year ago, we already explained why the fee switch represented a major shift for DeFi protocols: a lever allowing the economic value of the token to align with that of the protocol, thereby aligning users, investors and the protocol itself.
Uniswap has therefore presented its “Unification Proposal,” a plan to completely overhaul its economic model and governance. At the core of this proposal: activation of the fee switch, a buyback & burn mechanism that redistributes part of the protocol’s revenue to the UNI token.
In parallel, the idea is to merge Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation, transferring management, development and funding of the protocol to a single commercial entity. The DAO, previously responsible for governance and grant distribution, would be replaced by an annual budget of 20 million UNI allocated to Labs to support protocol growth.
This shift would mark the end of the purely community-driven model in favor of a more centralized, legally clear and operationally efficient governance structure.
In our dedicated Alpha, we presented the proposal in detail and shared our perspectives if it were to be adopted.
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