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Dear Bankless Nation,

It’s the first Friday of the month so Ben is here with new Token Ratings.

This month we’re covering:

• 🆕 SAND

• 🔄 INDEX, FXS, DYDX

What tokens will outperform the market? Which tokens are facing massive sell pressure from unlocks in a bear market?

The first token is open for everyone, the rest are exclusive for ✨Bankless Premium subscribers✨.

– Bankless Team

🚨 None of the information in this article is financial advice. All of it is for educational purposes only. Please, do your own research. 🚨

Token Ratings | January 2023 📊

Author: Ben Giove, Bankless Analyst

This report initiates analyst coverage on SAND. It also updates coverage on INDEX, FXS, and DYDX.

Below, we’ll discuss the rationale behind each rating by delving into the driving catalysts and their potential impact on the token’s price.

We are also providing a comprehensive overview of many of the tokens we cover via the Bankless Token Bible!

Rating Scale:

Before we dive into the coverage and ratings, let’s take a moment to explain our rating scale.

The ratings reflect how we expect each token will perform over a six-month time horizon relative to the performance of the overall crypto-market based on market capitalization. It is not indicative of our opinion on the long-run potential of each token.

The rating scale is as follows:

✅ Overweight: We expect this token to outperform the broader market over the next six months.

➖ Neutral: We expect this token to perform in-line with the market over the next six months.

❌ Underweight: We expect this token to underperform the market over the next six months.

✅ Overweight

These are tokens that we believe will outperform the broader market over the next six months.

Index Coop (INDEX)

• Type: Upgrade

• Sector: DeFi – Perpetuals DEX

• Current FDV: $16.7M

Index Coop is being upgraded from neutral to overweight.

Catalyst Overview:

Index Coop is being upgraded due to the upcoming Shanghai upgrade.

Ethereum’s Shanghai network upgrade is poised to lead to significant inflows into liquid staking protocols, as it will de-risk staking by enabling the withdrawal of deposits. Index Coop will soon offer two structured products in liquid staking. The first is icETH, which has $13.3M in TVL and is a tokenized version of a recursive-leverage strategy using stETH and Aave. The second is dsETH, a soon-to-be-launched index of different liquid-staking derivatives (LSDs).

Potential Price Impact:

In leading to liquid staking and removing LSD “peg” concerns, the Shanghai upgrade is likely to drive growth in TVL for icETH and (eventually) dsETH, leading to increased revenues for Index Coop. With the DAO already profitable, having earned $477K over the past six months, and having no active liquidity mining programs, INDEX is in strong position to benefit from the “LSD trade.” 

➖ Neutral

These are tokens that we believe will perform in-line with the broader market over the next six-months.

Frax Finance (FXS)…