With the recent launch of Celestia (TIA) a modular data availability network used by some of the largest protocols in the space such as Arbitrum and Optimism. The project had one the largest TGE events of this year and has caused a lot of people to pay more attention to projects building on the IBC. However, most people would immediately look at projects such as DYDX which is positioned to launch their derivatives platform as its own cosmos layer 1 distributing all trading fees to validators. There are some hidden gems that are still yet to rally.
Sei
Sei has positioned themselves as the DeFi chain, with near instant finality I believe with its latest investment from Circle ventures will allow for native USDC to be deployed on Sei itself. The important step for the type of DeFi that Sei promotes (high TPS, low finality such as orderbook exchanges) primarily accepts usd as a deposit with USDC being the most proliferate USD asset for these type of exchanges, with GMX's TVL having over 30% of it attributed to USDC deposited as collateral, with many other derivatives exchanges only accepting USDC such as DYDX. I believe that the project has relative beta towards other DeFi/Derivatives ecosystems that already ran heavily such as DYDX or Injective.
Neutron
Neutron is the most secure permission - less smart contract platform for interchain DeFi, allowing builders to build applications that can scale interchain across the 50+ networks that the IBC connects. Backed by some of the largest funds in the space such as Binance Labs and CoinFund, the project also has relative beta to Celestia being the chain that offers settlement for Celestia rollups with the actual team itself being the team behind Lido initially. The projects current valuation sits at around $100M, with an FDV around $500M. I would expect this to run as a rotation from Celestia to Neutron itself, with listings on Binance as well the token is widely tradeable.
Axelar
Axelar is the most well positioned cross chain protocol for the emergence of a Cosmos ecosystem wide bull run. With it being able to support any project that plugs into the IBC itself, it allows for seamless cross chain messaging between almost all EVM chains to anything within the IBC. The team is undergoing a massive token overhaul for the AXL token itself, with a gas burning mechanism that would make the token deflationary. They also plan to streamline integrations to Axelar itself for any layer 2, allowing it to move quickly in a space where the Ethereum ecosystem becomes more and more modular in design. Lastly to add the project is currently below its last funding round which valued the company at $1b. Currently the market cap of Axelar sits at $200m with an FDV of $500m.
Archway
This project is a real hidden gem, with the current FDV only being $70M it is very far below the last funding round of $200M with VCs such as Coinfund leading the round and participation from Blockchain Capital. Archway is an incentivized L1 blockchain that allows developers to capture the value their dapps create, enabling sustainable economic models. In terms of traction the network itself sees similar usage to that of Injective, with organic developer growth and activity as well. The main issue for Archway (ARCH) is the lack of liquidity for purchasing the token itself, as the team hasn't yet incentivized liquidity on DEXs. Currently Archway is only tradeable on Gate, with the project doing less than $100k volume daily.