In this series, we aim to experiment with novel portfolio compositions and themes to see how they perform against the benchmarks and, ultimately, try to get out-sized returns. We will do this as verifiably on-chain as possible so we can look to build premium content features to showcase unique dashboards, research, and API access for pulling compositions and weights that could be used for programmatic use cases.
There’s always a lot of debate on where to sit on the risk curve within crypto and what ultimately outperforms over time. We’ve had periods where altcoins only bleed vs majors as they absorb all the volume within the market. Inversely, there have been times when majors have been largely stagnant, and all other assets down the risk curve get re-rated higher as the crypto industry grows. A normal approach would be to have risk-adjusted exposure to the different sectors of the crypto markets so you take advantage of the upside in all instances.
However, as a practical experiment, we will use $10,000 to create a 2024 index composition to track, analyse, and see first-hand how money rotates around the crypto space, but most importantly, we will see if handpicked altcoin exposure outperforms the benchmarks with a buy and hold strategy over a year. One of the oldest pieces of advice given in crypto has always been that if you can’t outperform Bitcoin or Ethereum, hold Bitcoin and Ethereum, which is true. Why expose yourself to much higher risk within the industry if you’re not beating the highest volume, market cap, and most widely recognised benchmarks?
To make it more interesting, in parallel, we will create an index of meme-related tokens to see if it can beat the lowest levels of degeneracy ($BTC, $ETH) and the highest level within the markets.
In terms of asset selection and rules for the portfolio:
We are trying to achieve a mix of sectors within crypto without spreading too thin and diluting returns.
Focus on mid- and low-cap tokens instead of only market leaders, for example, Stader over Lido for liquid staking. We'll opt for higher speculation tokens to create more portfolio volatility and interesting results that we can analyse and write about.
There are no random picks. This isn’t meant to be a ‘throw darts at a board’ and compare, but rather, can we outperform the benchmarks with a hand-picked and researched index composition, or does this ‘mid-curve’ approach underperform?
Allocating real funds, this sort of experiment is much more exciting when you have a verifiable wallet to track in real time instead of a purely theoretical approach.
All assets will not be touched till December 2024, hence the timelock, as it is an experiment of comparing allocations with a buy-and-hold strategy. The only exception is if positions must be managed due to liquidity, migrations or other important on-chain events.
Everything must be on-chain, whether via spot assets or on-chain derivatives. This is for verifiability, tracking and allowing to build around the wallet.
Equal weighting, $500 per asset.
1) Blur ($BLUR) - Ethereum, NFTs
2) Conic ($CNC) - Ethereum, DeFi
3) Gearbox ($GEAR) - Ethereum, DeFi
4) Ribbon ($RBN) - Ethereum, DeFi
5) Multibit ($MUBI) - Ethereum, BRC-20
6) Bitstable ($BSSB) - Bitcoin, BRC-20
7) Stader ($SD) - Ethereum, Liquid Staking
8) Bittensor ($WTAO) - Bittensor, AI
9) Render ($RNDR) - Solana, DePIN
10) Echelon Prime ($PRIME) - Ethereum, Gaming
11) Maple Finance ($MPL) - Ethereum, DeFi
12) GMX ($GMX) - Arbitrum, DeFi
13) Trader Joe ($JOE) - Avalanche, DeFi
14) Chainflip ($FLIP) - Ethereum, DeFi
Equal weighting, $500 per asset.
1) Pepe ($PEPE) - Ethereum
2) Dogecoin ($DOGE) - Ethereum
3) Floki ($FLOKI) - Ethereum
4) Memecoin ($MEME) - Ethereum
5) Shiba Inu ($SHIB) - Ethereum
6) Bonk ($BONK) - Solana
7) Coq Inu ($COQ) - Avalanche
8) Omnicat ($OMNI) - Ethereum
Bitcoin ($BTC)
Ethereum ($ETH)
Not much additional colour is needed here; we’ll be tracking the 2024 YTD performance of both these assets for comparison with the Broad Altcoin Timelock Index & Meme Index Benchmark.
We use a mix of spot and on-chain futures via Aevo to hold all the assets required for the Broad Altcoin Timelock Index and the Meme Benchmark Index within a single, trackable wallet.
Whilst portfolio trackers will not pick up the positions on Aevo, they will pick up spot holdings that can be seen and tracked using the following links. In any case, we’ll report on the wallet and its performance in our future content.
Trackers: DeBank, Zerion, Zapper, Etherscan, Arbiscan, Snowtrace
ENS: tortugaonchain.eth
So far, we have introduced our 2024 Timelock experiment and the Portfolios series. As you might have noticed in the tracking wallet, we have already allocated into the tokens, and that’s because the initial portfolio value doesn’t matter but rather just the relative performance of it and its benchmarks in 2024. So, despite avoiding buying 20+ altcoins at midnight on New Year’s Eve, we will retrospectively take a snapshot of the portfolio and benchmark value to use in the future for 2024 performance comparisons.
We’ll start detailing exactly that in January, continuing to track the experiment as it unfolds and adding new, novel portfolios to showcase as the series continues. If that interests you, subscribe and follow our socials so you’re notified.
Tips, disclosures & more: tortugaonchain.com
Trading dashboard: apps.tortugaonchain.com
Twitter: @TortugaOnchain, @andrew_eth, @galleonlabs
Enquiries: gm@galleonlabs.io
The content in this newsletter is not financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational, not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell assets or make financial decisions. Do your own research; crypto markets are volatile.
