The Storm Issue

The Storm Issue | Week of February 2, 2026

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Welcome Back to PIKUP

Welcome to the ninth edition of PIKUP.

Fear & Greed reads 14. Not a typo. Fourteen. Down from 29 last week. The market didn't just dip — it broke. Bitcoin crashed below $80,000 for the first time since April, touching $74,674 on Sunday. Ethereum lost nearly 10% in 24 hours, sliding to $2,198. Crypto Twitter is calling it "Black Sunday II." $290 billion in market value — gone in a weekend. $2.2 billion in liquidations. The largest single-day wipeout since October 2025.

And while all of that was happening, USP went from $1.064604 to $1.068012.

This is the Storm Issue.

Not because the storm is coming. Because the storm is here — and it doesn't matter.

This week: $6.51M TVL — up, not down. USP at $1.068012. Weekly profit of $15,990 — up 12.5% from last week. 7-day APY bounced to 17.91%. All eight backing strategies positive. Fifth week running.

The market lost $650 billion in a week — $290 billion of it over the weekend alone. Piku made $15,990. That's the difference between directional exposure and delta-neutral architecture.

The machine doesn't care about the storm.

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Piku Protocol Update

Performance & Stats

• Transparency Dashboard: dune.com/piku_dao

Let's talk about what just happened.

7-day APY rebounded from 9.47% to 17.91%. Last week we told you yields aren't linear. This week proves the other side of that: they recover. The protocol's diversified backing doesn't trend in one direction — it fluctuates around a mean. That mean, over 30 days, is 19.03%. Down from 21.27% last issue — expected, as the exceptional early weeks roll off the smoothing window. Still north of 17%. Still compounding. Still automatic.

Weekly profit jumped to $15,990.82 — up from $14,213 last week. A 12.5% increase. In a week where Bitcoin dropped 15%. Read that again.

TVL climbed to $6.51M — up from $6.22M last week. Capital isn't just staying — it's entering. During the worst crypto weekend of 2026. That's not momentum. That's conviction.

Here's why: USP's backing strategies are delta-neutral. They don't bet on Bitcoin going up. They don't bet on Ethereum going down. They generate yield from interest rate differentials, lending spreads, and market-making — none of which require the market to move in any particular direction. When BTC crashes 15%, a leveraged long gets liquidated. A delta-neutral strategy generates Tuesday's yield the same way it generated Monday's.

USP launched at $1.00. It's now $1.068012. That's +6.80% in pure appreciation — no staking, no lockups, no watching charts at 3am wondering if you should sell. Just hold. The protocol does the rest.

Governance

Quiet Week — Execution Continues

No new proposals. The DAO remains in execution mode — Proposal 12 (Yuzu Money) and Proposal 13 (Galxe funding) are both delivering results. The Galxe campaign funded by the DAO just crossed 1,500 participants. The Yuzu strategy returned 10.10% APY this week.

When a DAO votes, funds, and executes — and you can measure the results weekly — that's governance working as intended. Vote, fund, execute, measure, report. Not every week needs a proposal. Some weeks just need follow-through.

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USP Backing Distribution

This is the part most protocols hide. We publish it weekly.

Week 5 Performance (Jan 26–Feb 2)

Total Backing: $6.51M | Weekly Profit: $15,990.82 | DAO Transfer: $1,599.08

The Storm-Proof Breakdown

Last week's profit was $14,213. This week: $15,990. Up 12.5%. While the market was in free fall.

8 strategies. 8 positive returns. Fifth week running.

Here's what stood out:

BMMF roared back: 17.87% APY — up from 14.77% last week. The Turkish central bank's rate environment continues to create FX arbitrage opportunity. This strategy doesn't care if Bitcoin is at $100K or $75K. It cares about the Lira-USD spread. Different universe entirely.

Midas mF-ONE quietly leading: 12.44% APY from a 2.52% allocation. The smallest strategies keep punching above their weight.

Giza Arma Agent steady: 11.99% APY. Third consecutive week above 11%. The AI-powered strategy keeps delivering consistent, machine-driven returns.

Aave allocation grew: From 3.99% to 4.23%. The rebalancing reflects the DAO's ongoing optimization — more capital into battle-tested lending as market conditions shift.

The math that matters: If you held 1,000 USP on January 26, you now have the equivalent of $1,068.01 — up from $1,066.74. That's $1.27 generated while the market was melting down. Not a lot per unit? Multiply it. Compound it. Come back in a year.

Don't trust. Verify: Dune Dashboard | DeFiLlama

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Macro Developments

The world is on fire. Your yield doesn't care.

United States

• Fed Holds Steady: FOMC kept rates at 3.50–3.75% on January 28. No surprise — but two Trump-appointed members dissented, wanting a cut. Powell called the economy "on firm footing" and said current rates aren't "significantly restrictive." Translation: no cuts coming soon.
• Warsh Nominated: Kevin Warsh was nominated as potential Fed chair successor to Powell. Markets are repricing what a Warsh-led Fed looks like. Powell's term ends in May.
• Consumer Confidence Collapsed: Conference Board index crashed to 84.5 — lowest since May 2014. Down sharply from 94.2. Americans are nervous.
• PPI Ran Hot: Producer prices +0.5% MoM in December, well above the 0.2% expected. Service prices surged 0.7%. Inflation isn't dead yet.
• S&P 500 Touched 7,000: Briefly broke through intraday before retreating. Large-cap value outperformed growth for the week.
• Jobs Still Tight: Initial claims at 209,000. Continuing claims at 1.83M — lowest since September 2024. The labor market refuses to crack.

Europe

• Germany Downgraded: Berlin cut its 2026 growth forecast to 1.0% from 1.3%. Europe's largest economy can't find traction.
• Eurozone Mixed: STOXX 600 +0.44%, but DAX -1.45%. The continent is diverging — UK (+0.79%) and Italy (+1.55%) held up, France and Germany didn't.
• UK Mortgage Squeeze: Approvals dropped to 61,013 — smallest in 18 months. Higher rates are biting.
• Tariff Cloud: Trump's 10% tariffs on 8 EU nations over Greenland went into effect February 1. Rising to 25% by June. European markets haven't priced the full impact yet.

Japan

• Election Week: PM Takaichi's snap election is February 8. The food tax cut pledge (8% to 0%) spooked bond markets — fiscal risk repricing in real time.
• JGB Yields Still Elevated: 10-year at 2.23%. Post-ZIRP Japan is expensive.
• Inflation Cooling: Core CPI at +2.0% YoY — below the 2.2% forecast. A slight reprieve, but the BOJ isn't backing down from normalization.
• Nikkei Down: -0.97%. Yen strength dampening export earnings outlook.

China

• Provinces Lowering the Bar: 13 provincial governments reduced their 2026 GDP growth targets — including powerhouses Guangdong and Zhejiang. The signal is clear: Beijing's 5% national target is increasingly aspirational.
• Hang Seng the Bright Spot: +2.38% — the only major index that had a genuinely good week. Stimulus hopes and Alibaba's AI push.
• CSI 300 Flat: +0.08%. Mainland markets are stuck.

Crypto Markets

Here's where Piku holders can exhale.

• Bitcoin: ~$75,500. Crashed from $88K to below $75K. Touched $74,674 on Sunday — lowest since April. Down ~40% from the October ATH of $126K. Fourth straight monthly decline. Longest losing streak since 2018.
• Ethereum: ~$2,198. Lost nearly 10% in 24 hours. Below $2,200 for the first time since the post-merge recovery. Over $960 million in ETH liquidations alone.
• Market Cap: $2.58 trillion. Down $650 billion from $3.23T last week — with $290 billion of that erased in a single weekend.
• Fear & Greed: 14. Extreme fear. Down from 29 last week. The market isn't just scared — it's panicking.
• ETF Flows: Ugly. $818M single-day outflow on January 29 — largest since November. $1.61B net outflow for January. Institutions are pulling back.
• Liquidations: $2.2B+ in 24 hours. $2.5B over the weekend. "Black Sunday II."

The triggers: Trump's EU tariffs over Greenland went live February 1. US-Iran tensions escalated. Warsh's Fed nomination spooked rate-cut hopium. Thin weekend liquidity did the rest. A perfect storm.

The takeaway: Bitcoin lost 15%. Ethereum lost 25% in a week. The total market shed $650 billion. And USP generated $15,990 in profit — more than last week. Because delta-neutral strategies don't care about direction. They care about spreads, rates, and lending demand. Those didn't crash on Sunday.

That's not a guarantee. It's architecture.

Looking Ahead

• February 5: Current Merkl campaigns end — new campaigns incoming
• February 8: Japan snap election — macro volatility potential
• March 17–18: Next FOMC Meeting — will the Fed cut after this carnage?
• Ongoing: Galxe questline live — 1,500+ participants and growing
• Watch: Trump tariff escalation path (10% → 25% by June on EU)

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Galxe Campaign Update: 1,500+ Participants

The Growth Engine, Mid-Storm

Last week we told you the Galxe questline was live. This week we're telling you it's working.

1,500+ participants have entered the PikuDAO questline on app.galxe.com/quest/PikuDAO. In one week. During the worst crypto crash of the year.

Think about that. The market just lost $650 billion in a week, and over 1,500 people chose this week to start learning about Piku. Not because the market is hot. Because what Piku does matters more when the market is cold.

The Questline

Discover Piku — Social discovery quests. Follow, engage, learn. No wallet needed.

Explore the Piku Ecosystem — Visit the app, explore the Dune dashboard, subscribe to PIKUP.

How Well Do You Know Piku? — Quiz on USP, yield mechanics, and protocol fundamentals.

Become a Piku Pioneer — Connect your wallet, complete KYC, mint USP.

Mint/Buy Your First USP — Go on-chain. Start earning.

1 USP = 1 Loyalty Point — The more you hold, the higher you climb.

The Reward Pool

• $10,000 worth of $PIKU
• $1,000 USDC
• Surprise rewards

Why Join Now?

Every DeFi protocol looks good in a bull market. The question is what happens when Bitcoin drops 15% in a week. This week answered that question for Piku: +$15,990 in profit, +12.5% week-over-week, TVL growing, all strategies positive.

If you're reading this newsletter, you already know. Now help others find out.

Start the Galxe questline

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Already a Piku participant? Share the campaign. Every person who completes the questline strengthens the community — and the protocol — you're already part of.

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Community Spotlight: @FilipAirdrop

The Daily Proof

Last week we featured a deep explainer. This week we're featuring something different: a daily log.

@FilipAirdrop has been documenting their yield and airdrop farming — day by day, number by number. No hype. No speculation. Just data.

The Post (Day 15)

"Farming around 200% APY on Piku @piku_dao alongside an additional 20% from their stablecoin and a few more percent on UniSwap fees."

"I make around 35-45$ per day with funding and interest farming with around 10K$, Piku does provide more APY, though it's in tokens, so not instantly usable."

"If you have spare funds I recommend you either put them into Piku or farm open interest on TradeXYZ."

Why We're Highlighting This

Threads explaining how a protocol works are valuable. But someone showing you their actual daily returns? That's proof of concept in real-time.

What makes Filip's approach compelling:

• Transparent: Shares real numbers — $10K deployed, $35-45/day in returns, specific APY breakdowns
• Practical: Breaks down where the yield comes from — Merkl rewards, USP native appreciation, Uniswap LP fees
• Honest: Notes that PIKU rewards are pre-TGE and "not instantly usable" — the kind of nuance that builds trust
• Comparative: Runs multiple strategies across protocols, and still recommends Piku specifically

This is what real adoption looks like. Not a thread that goes viral and gets forgotten. A daily log that builds conviction through repetition. Day 15 of watching the numbers. Day after day. The consistency is the credibility.

PIKUP Content Creator of the Week

Filip, congratulations. You're this week's featured creator. DM us @piku_dao to claim your 10,000 Voting Power reward.

This happens every week. The best thread, video, analysis, or daily log gets featured in PIKUP and rewarded with governance influence. Create content that educates. Get rewarded with a voice in PikuDAO. That's the deal.

Read Filip's full post on X

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Want to be featured in PIKUP? Tag us @piku_dao with your Piku content — threads, analysis, daily logs, whatever you've got. The best one each week earns 10,000 Voting Power.

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Active Campaigns & Rewards

The storm doesn't pause your rewards. Neither do we.

Merkl Rewards (Pre-TGE)

Current opportunities (as of Feb 2):

Uniswap LP TVL nearly doubled — from $179K to $322K. More liquidity providers are entering the pool. The APR compressed from 222% to 124% as a result — that's what healthy growth looks like. More capital, more depth, more stability.

Current campaigns end February 5. As always — when one campaign ends, the next begins. Recurring. Consistent. No gap.

The stack: Hold USP for native yield (17.91% 7-day APY) + Merkl PIKU rewards (61.30% APR) + Galxe loyalty points. Three layers of value from one position.

APRs are dynamic. PIKU rewards are Pre-TGE. Campaigns are recurring — when one ends, the next begins.

Galxe Campaign

Status: LIVE — 1,500+ participants Rewards: $10,000 worth of $PIKU + $1,000 USDC + surprise rewards Link: app.galxe.com/quest/PikuDAO

View All Piku Opportunities on Merkl

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What's Next

• February 5: Current Merkl campaigns end — new campaigns incoming
• February 8: Japan snap election — watch for macro ripples
• March 17–18: Next FOMC Meeting — rate cut speculation intensifies
• Ongoing: Galxe questline live — share it, grow the community
• Coming Soon: New Merkl campaign cycle + Galxe leaderboard updates

No grand promises. No "soon" that never comes. Just the next steps, clearly stated.

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Why Piku? Why Storms Matter.

Let's end where we started.

Fear & Greed at 14. Bitcoin below $80K. $650 billion gone in a week. Ethereum down 25%. Liquidations everywhere. The timeline is doom-scrolling. The mood is panic.

And somewhere, quietly, a protocol generated $15,990 in profit. More than last week. TVL grew. All eight strategies posted positive returns. For the fifth consecutive week.

This is what delta-neutral actually means. Not a buzzword on a pitch deck. Not a theoretical defense mechanism that sounds good until the crash actually comes. An architecture that delivered higher profit during "Black Sunday II" than during the calm week before it.

The strategies that back USP don't bet on Bitcoin's direction. They don't need Ethereum to hold $3,000. They earn yield from interest rate spreads, FX arbitrage, lending demand, and market-making — the plumbing of finance that operates regardless of whether your portfolio is green or red.

That's why TVL is rising while the market is falling. It's not because Piku holders are irrational. It's because they understand what they own. A stablecoin that earned 6.67% in five weeks — not from market appreciation, but from yield being compounded into the backing itself. Automatically. While the holder does nothing.

Storms don't test bull markets. Storms test architecture.

The protocols that survive aren't the ones with the best marketing during the bull run. They're the ones that generate yield on the worst day of the year. The ones that publish their backing breakdown even when the market is scary. The ones that welcome new users with a Galxe questline during a crash, because the product doesn't change based on Bitcoin's price.

1,500 people started the questline this week. During a crash. Let that sink in.

If you haven't started yet — this is the week. Not because the market will recover (maybe it will, maybe it won't). Because a storm is the best time to find out what actually works.

Join the Galxe questline

The machine doesn't care about the weather.

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Stay Connected and Hedge against the machine!!

Website | App | X (Twitter)

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. USP involves risks; please read our documentation and risk disclosures before participating.

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