FIVE EMERGING DEFI PROJECTS WORTH WATCHING

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Mezzanine applies TradFi-style tranching to single-asset yield vaults, splitting deposits into junior, mezzanine, and senior tranches, with its debut Hastra Optimizer vault audited by Sherlock and ChainSecurity and verified by Certora ahead of launch. INFINIT's APEX MultiStrategy vault returned 7.18% over 82 days (31.94% APR) on $506K USDC by trading long/short across crypto, equities, and commodities on Hyperliquid using regime-detection filters that sit out when no setups clear its scoring threshold. IRIS overlays fixed-rate, fixed-term loans atop Morpho Blue and Aave V3 via solvers who post bonds to cover the fixed-floating spread, removing the need for a standalone liquidity pool. RISEx runs a perps orderbook on-chain inside the RISE L2 EVM with 43 markets and $39M open interest, while Boros expands its funding-rate swap infrastructure to cross-venue spreads between Hyperliquid and Gate, with the short side quoting 25-35% fixed APR at launch.