Crypto research.
Kaavon Research provides structured, educational profiles of crypto networks and assets, plus analytical research articles on landscapes, comparisons, and on-chain metrics that cut across individual assets.
New to Research? Start with a coin profile for a specific asset you already know, or an article below for a broader, cross-cutting topic. Looking for a specific hack or exchange failure? See the incident timeline.
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency and network that operates without a central issuer or intermediary.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Ethereum
Ethereum is a public, programmable blockchain for transactions and applications operated through smart contracts.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Solana
Solana is a public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain designed for transactions and programmable applications.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
XRP
XRP is the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger, a public blockchain designed for fast, low-cost payments and currency exchange.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Litecoin
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency launched in 2011 as one of the earliest forks of Bitcoin's codebase, designed for faster block times and a different mining algorithm.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Cardano
Cardano is a public, proof-of-stake blockchain platform that emphasizes a research-driven, peer-reviewed approach to protocol development.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Polkadot
Polkadot is a public network designed to connect multiple independent, specialized blockchains, called parachains, into one interoperable system.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Chainlink
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that supplies external, real-world data to smart contracts across multiple blockchains.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Polygon
Polygon is a network of blockchains built to scale Ethereum, offering faster and cheaper transactions while connecting back to Ethereum's base layer.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Avalanche
Avalanche is a public, proof-of-stake Layer 1 network designed around a distinctive consensus protocol and a customizable multi-chain subnet architecture.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Cosmos
Cosmos is a network of independent, application-specific blockchains connected through a shared communication protocol, often described as an "internet of blockchains."
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Dogecoin
Dogecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that began in 2013 as a lighthearted project, built on Litecoin's codebase, and has since become one of the longest continuously operating alternative cryptocurrency networks.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Uniswap
Uniswap is a decentralized exchange protocol on Ethereum that popularized the automated-market-maker model for token trading, governed in part by holders of its UNI token.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Aave
Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Ethereum and other networks, allowing users to supply or borrow crypto assets through smart contracts.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Monero
Monero is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that uses cryptographic techniques to obscure transaction details by default.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Tron
Tron is a public blockchain network designed for high transaction throughput, widely used for stablecoin transfers.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Stellar
Stellar is a public blockchain network designed for fast, low-cost cross-border payments and asset issuance.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
VeChain
VeChain is a public blockchain network focused on supply chain tracking and enterprise use cases.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Algorand
Algorand is a public, proof-of-stake blockchain network designed for fast finality and high throughput.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
NEAR Protocol
NEAR Protocol is a public, proof-of-stake, sharded blockchain network designed for scalability and developer usability.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Arbitrum
Arbitrum is a Layer 2 network built on Ethereum using optimistic rollup technology to increase throughput and reduce fees.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Optimism
Optimism is a Layer 2 network built on Ethereum using optimistic rollup technology, with an associated public-goods funding model.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Curve Finance
Curve is a decentralized exchange protocol on Ethereum optimized specifically for efficient trading between similarly-priced assets, such as stablecoins.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Compound
Compound is a decentralized lending protocol on Ethereum that lets users supply or borrow crypto assets through algorithmically-set interest rates.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Maker (Sky)
Maker is a decentralized protocol on Ethereum best known for issuing DAI, one of the earliest and largest crypto-collateralized stablecoins.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Lido Finance
Lido is a liquid staking protocol that lets users stake assets like ETH while receiving a tradeable token representing their staked position.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
PancakeSwap
PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange protocol primarily operating on BNB Chain, using an automated-market-maker design.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
SushiSwap
SushiSwap is a decentralized exchange protocol deployed across multiple blockchain networks, originally forked from Uniswap.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
1inch
1inch is a DEX aggregator that routes trades across multiple decentralized exchanges to seek better overall execution.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
The Graph
The Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying blockchain data, widely used by DeFi and NFT applications.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Filecoin
Filecoin is a decentralized storage network that lets users pay to store data across independent storage providers.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Internet Computer
Internet Computer is a public blockchain network designed to host full web applications and services directly on-chain.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Hedera
Hedera is a public network using a hashgraph consensus mechanism, governed by a council of large organizations.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
EOS
EOS is a public blockchain network using delegated proof of stake, designed for high transaction throughput.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Kusama
Kusama is an experimental, early-stage network built using the same codebase as Polkadot, used for testing new features under real economic conditions.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Render
Render is a decentralized network connecting users who need GPU rendering power with node operators who supply it.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Injective
Injective is a Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for finance-focused applications, including on-chain derivatives trading.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Sui
Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain using an object-centric data model designed for high transaction throughput and parallel execution.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Aptos
Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain built by former Diem project contributors, using the Move programming language and parallel execution.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Celestia
Celestia is a modular blockchain network specializing in data availability, designed to let other chains build on top of it.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Tether USDT
Tether (USDT) is the largest stablecoin by circulating supply, a fiat-collateralized token pegged to the US dollar and issued by Tether Limited.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
USDC
USDC is a fiat-collateralized stablecoin issued by Circle, backed by cash and short-term US Treasuries and known for frequent, detailed reserve disclosures.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
BNB
BNB is the native asset of BNB Chain, used for transaction fees, and is subject to a documented, formulaic token-burn mechanism tied to network activity.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Ethena
Ethena is the protocol behind USDe, a synthetic dollar stabilized through delta-neutral derivatives hedging rather than fiat reserves or over-collateralization, governed by its ENA token.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Ondo
Ondo is a platform for tokenizing US Treasuries and other traditional financial instruments, governed by its ONDO token, and known for products including OUSG and USDY.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Bittensor
Bittensor is a decentralized network that rewards machine-learning model contributions, coordinated through its TAO token and a subnet structure for specialized AI tasks.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Gram (prev. Toncoin)
Gram (formerly Toncoin) is the native asset of The Open Network, rebranded from TON in mid-2026 following a Telegram-initiated community governance vote.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Worldcoin
Worldcoin (WLD) is the native token of World Network, a project using biometric iris-scanning hardware to issue a "proof of personhood" credential distinguishing a verified human from an AI agent or bot.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Jupiter
Jupiter is Solana's leading decentralized exchange aggregator, routing swaps across multiple underlying liquidity sources to find better execution, governed by its JUP token.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Pyth Network
Pyth Network is a first-party oracle network that sources price data directly from exchanges, market makers, and trading firms, rather than aggregating from independent node operators.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Starknet
Starknet is a ZK-rollup Ethereum Layer 2 built on the custom Cairo virtual machine rather than EVM-equivalent bytecode, using STARK proofs instead of SNARKs.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
ZKsync
ZKsync is an EVM-compatible ZK-rollup Ethereum Layer 2, currently transitioning its product focus toward institutional/enterprise use while deprecating its original lite client.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Hyperliquid
Hyperliquid is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain combining an on-chain order-book exchange with an Ethereum-compatible execution environment, governed and secured in part by its HYPE token.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
EigenLayer
EigenLayer is a restaking protocol built on Ethereum that lets already-staked ETH help secure additional applications and services, governed in part by its EIGEN token.
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
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Analytical research on landscapes, comparisons, and on-chain metrics — not single-asset profiles, and not step-by-step guides.
The Layer 2 Scaling Landscape
An overview of how different Layer 2 approaches trade off security, cost, and speed.
Stablecoin Market Landscape
How the major categories of stablecoin design compare across backing, transparency, and risk.
DeFi Total Value Locked: What It Measures and Its Limits
What the widely cited TVL metric actually captures, and where it can mislead — now grounded in a peer-reviewed study quantifying exactly how much DeFi's double-counting problem is worth.
Crypto Market Cycles: A Historical Pattern Overview
A general, educational look at recurring patterns observed across past crypto market cycles.
Proof of Stake vs. Proof of Work: A Network Security Comparison
How the two dominant consensus mechanisms compare on their security assumptions.
The State of Crypto Regulation: A General Overview
A general, educational overview of common regulatory themes — not legal advice for any jurisdiction.
NFT Market Evolution: From Collectibles to Utility
How publicly documented NFT use cases have broadened beyond simple digital collectibles, and what DappRadar's own trading-volume data actually shows about the shift.
Understanding On-Chain Analytics Metrics
A general introduction to common metrics used to analyze blockchain network activity, grounded in how Glassnode's own documentation actually defines them.
The Competitive Landscape of Smart Contract Platforms
How major smart contract platforms compare on their core design trade-offs.
Bitcoin vs. Gold: A Comparative Store-of-Value Analysis
How Bitcoin and gold compare on the properties commonly associated with a store of value -- now with the World Gold Council's own current supply data and peer-reviewed academic findings on the two assets' actual volatility and correlation.
Tokenomics Design Patterns: A Comparative Overview
How common token supply, issuance, and value-accrual designs compare across real projects.
The Evolution of DEX Design: Order Books to AMMs to Aggregators
How decentralized exchange design has evolved across three distinct generations of architecture.
Crypto Custody Models: A Comparative Analysis
How self-custody, exchange custody, and institutional custody compare on control and risk.
Cross-Chain Interoperability Approaches Compared
How bridges, atomic swaps, and native messaging protocols compare on trust assumptions.
The Rise of Liquid Staking: A Market Overview
How liquid staking emerged to solve proof-of-stake's liquidity trade-off, and its systemic considerations.
Real-World Asset Tokenization: An Overview
How tokenization represents off-chain assets on-chain, the trust question it depends on, and why its market-size figures vary by a factor of three depending on definition.
DeFi Lending Market Structure and Risk
How DeFi lending markets are structured, and the specific risks distinct from traditional lending.
Understanding MEV: Market Impact and Mitigation Approaches
How maximal extractable value affects ordinary users, what a large academic measurement study found about its scale and concentration, and documented approaches to reduce it.
The Modular vs. Monolithic Blockchain Debate
Two competing architectural philosophies for blockchain scaling, and their respective trade-offs.
Governance Token Value Accrual Models Compared
How different governance tokens are designed to capture value from the protocols they govern.
A Historical Overview of Major Crypto Exchange Failures
A factual, educational look at documented patterns behind several major historical exchange collapses.
Understanding Restaking: Opportunity and Systemic Risk
How restaking extends staked capital's use, and the documented systemic-risk concerns it raises -- now including EigenLayer's actual slashing activation and its real isolation mechanics.
Comparing Crypto-Native On-Chain Valuation Frameworks
How NVT, MVRV, Realized Capitalization, and SOPR relate to and differ from each other as a combined valuation toolkit.
Traditional Valuation Metrics vs. Crypto-Native Valuation Metrics
A structural comparison of how traditional-finance valuation ratios and crypto-native on-chain metrics each approach the same underlying question.
Why Technical Indicators Lag: Trend-Following vs. Mean-Reversion Tools
A structural look at why trend-following indicators confirm late by design, how mean-reversion oscillators make a different trade-off, and what academic regime-switching research adds to that picture.
Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: A Structural Comparison
How Bitcoin and Ethereum actually differ in supply, consensus, and design purpose -- including a direct look at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance's measured post-Merge energy comparison and 2026's actual net-issuance figures.
Spot Crypto ETFs Explained
How a spot crypto ETF actually works structurally -- what it holds, how its share price stays tied to the underlying asset, a regulatory timeline through the 2025 generic listing standards, and what the subsequent fee war actually reveals about the product's competitive structure.
A Comparative Postmortem: Ronin, Wormhole, and Nomad — Three Ways to Lose a Bridge
Three of the largest bridge hacks on record, each caused by a structurally different failure -- what the differences actually teach about bridge security.
DeFi Lending Liquidation Design Compared: Fixed-Spread vs. Dutch-Auction Models
Why Aave and Compound use fixed-spread liquidation while MakerDAO uses a Dutch auction, and what an empirical study found about both designs' real-world costs.
BFT Consensus Beyond Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake: Tendermint, HotStuff, and Avalanche Compared
A deeper look at the specific Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus engineering beneath the PoW-vs-PoS framing -- leader-based pipelined BFT, classical PBFT-style voting, and leaderless metastable consensus, now with the HotStuff paper's own abstract read directly and verbatim.
Governance Attacks Compared: Beanstalk's Flash Loan vs. Slow Whale-Accumulation Capture
An instantaneous flash-loan governance takeover and a slow, patient accumulation of voting power are both "governance attacks" -- but they require entirely different defenses.
Named-Case Crypto Exchange Failures: FTX, Celsius, Mt. Gox, and QuadrigaCX, With Primary-Source Figures
Kaavon's general overview of exchange failures deliberately names no specific case. This companion piece does -- with figures drawn from each bankruptcy's own trustee reporting and court filings.
The CLARITY Act and the Fight Over Crypto Market Structure in Congress
How the CLARITY Act's September 15, 2026 Senate cloture vote actually failed, the exact vote count and cross-party breakdown, and why prediction markets moved sharply on the result.
Form 1099-DA and the New Era of Crypto Broker Tax Reporting
How the IRS's new digital-asset broker reporting form actually phases in, who it covers, and why non-custodial DeFi was carved back out -- now grounded in a direct read of the IRS's own digital-assets guidance page.
MiCA in Practice: How Europe's Crypto Framework Is Actually Working
What MiCA actually requires of crypto-asset service providers and issuers, and the jurisdiction-shopping concern raised about its rollout.
The Wallet-Drainer and Approval-Phishing Economy: How It Actually Works
The actual mechanics behind approval-phishing theft, and why different trackers report very different totals for how much it costs victims.
Hyperliquid and the Rise of On-Chain Perpetual Futures
How Hyperliquid came to dominate on-chain perpetual-futures trading, and what the reported figures actually show about the broader sector.
Permissionless Perpetual Markets: How HIP-3 and Similar Models Work
How a permissionless market-listing mechanism like HIP-3 actually works, and the trade-offs it introduces compared to a centrally-curated listing process.
Bitcoin Spot ETF Options: How a Multi-Billion-Dollar Daily Market Emerged
How options on spot Bitcoin ETFs work structurally, and what's reported about the size of this market since its 2024 approval.
The Quantum Computing Threat to Bitcoin: Separating Research From Hype
What quantum computing research actually shows about breaking Bitcoin's cryptography, the real gap between current and required capability, and why timeline estimates vary so widely.
BIP-360 and Bitcoin's Quantum-Resistant Address Migration
What BIP-360 actually proposes, and the separate, more contested BIP-361 proposal to freeze quantum-vulnerable coins that split the Bitcoin community.
Restaking and Cascading Slashing Risk: How One Operator Fault Spreads
Why a single operator fault in a restaking ecosystem doesn't necessarily stay isolated, what EigenLayer's own primary documentation says about the isolation mechanism built to contain it, and why the proposed slashing timeline slipped by more than a year.
DeFi Insurance Adoption: Why Most TVL Still Goes Uninsured
What DeFi insurance actually covers, how claims get paid, and why adoption remains low relative to the value held across DeFi protocols.
Tokenized Money Market Funds and the Institutional On-Ramp to DeFi
How a tokenized money-market fund like BlackRock's BUIDL actually works, and why it's often described as institutional DeFi's on-ramp.
Tokenized Equities: How On-Chain Stock Trading Actually Works
How a tokenized stock product actually works, who's building them, and the real limits on what a token holder actually owns.
DePIN Networks: Measuring Real Usage Beyond Token Incentives
How to tell a DePIN network with genuine paying-customer demand apart from one still primarily running on token emissions, using monthly tracked Solana DePIN revenue and reward data.
Ethereum's Fusaka Upgrade and PeerDAS: What Actually Changed
What the Fusaka upgrade and its PeerDAS feature actually changed on Ethereum, and the blob-capacity increases that followed it.
Crypto Market Maker and Liquidity Provider Risk: What LPs Are Actually Exposed To
The full range of risks a liquidity provider actually takes on, beyond impermanent loss alone.
Base and the Growth of Coinbase-Backed Layer-2 Activity
What's reported about Base's growth and its shift away from Optimism's shared OP Stack toward its own in-house technology -- plus L2Beat's live Stage-1 risk assessment and a real October 2026 downtime incident.
DeFi Yield Aggregators in 2026: How Automated Vault Strategies Actually Work
How a DeFi yield aggregator's automated vault actually decides where to deploy your deposit, and the layered risk that comes with that automation.
Why Global Crypto Search Interest Diverged From Crypto Prices in 2026
What the reported 2026 search-interest data actually shows, and why falling search interest didn't necessarily track falling prices.
The Bitcoin ETF Flow Reversal of Early 2026: What the Data Actually Shows
How US spot Bitcoin ETF flows swung repeatedly through 2026 -- an early-year redemption streak, a spring rebound, a record outflow run, and a partial mid-year recovery -- by the reported flow data.
The DeFi TVL Double-Counting Problem, Revisited With Current Data
How restaking and liquid-staking tokens have made TVL double-counting a bigger, more current problem than when it was first widely discussed.
A 2026 Checkpoint: What's Actually Different in Crypto Regulation Since 2024
A cross-cutting look at how far US and EU crypto regulation actually moved between 2024 and this research, synthesized across several separate legislative and regulatory tracks.
State-Sponsored Crypto Theft: What the 2026 Attribution Data Shows
What's reported about state-linked actors' share of crypto theft through 2025-2026, and why attribution evidence is inherently harder to verify than a loss total.
Crypto ETF Covered-Call and Income Strategies: A Market Overview
How large the covered-call and income-focused crypto ETF segment has reportedly become, and the institutional-flow forecasts tied to the broader category.
The Bitcoin Mining Energy Debate: What the Data Actually Shows
Why estimates of Bitcoin mining's renewable-energy share range from roughly 50% to 74% and total consumption estimates from roughly 74 to 242 TWh depending on the source, what Cambridge's own published methodology actually discloses about its model, and why that methodology alone can explain a large chunk of the disagreement.
Zcash's Shielded-Pool Growth and Its First Spot ETF
What's reported about Zcash's shielded-transaction share rising through 2026, what Grayscale's own SEC filing for the spot ETF actually discloses, and the structural limits of that ETF as a way to access Zcash's privacy technology.
OCC National Trust Bank Charters for Crypto Firms
What an OCC national trust bank charter actually grants a crypto firm, how many have been approved, and the lawsuit now challenging the practice.