Layer 1 Leaders 8
Calibrated launch value from the rulebook. This basket carries no order panel today.
Why this basket exists
What the construction is trying to capture, who it is built for, and how it is meant to be sized inside a wider allocation.
Eight general-purpose Layer 1 blockchains, cap-weighted with 25% cap. The smart-contract platform thesis without the small-cap noise. ETH and SOL anchor, with ADA, BNB, AVAX, SUI, APT and NEAR rounding out the basket. Designed for thematic conviction in the smart-contract platform category, BTC-correlated by design. Captures the L1 narrative without single-name risk; diversification benefit is intra-sector.
- Sector family · Moderate risk tier
- Rule-based, divisor-method NAV
No committee note is published for this basket yet, so the catalogue description above stands in until one is written.
8 holdings, drawn to scale
Each tile's area is its weight in the basket, so the picture and the table below it are the same data read two ways.
| Holding | Share | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01ETH | 25% | ||
| 02SOL | 20% | ||
| 03BNB | 16% | ||
| 04ADA | 10% | ||
| 05AVAX | 9% | ||
| 06SUI | 8% | ||
| 07APT | 6% | ||
| 08NEAR | 6% | ||
| Total | 100% |
Why each name earned its seat
Research notes per constituent: the case for the asset, the regime that suits it, and the risk the seat carries.
- ETH25%Core anchor
Ethereum is the only smart-contract platform with the TVL, developer mindshare, and settlement depth to count as core infrastructure.
Outperforms BTC in DeFi cycles and L2 adoption waves. Lags when narratives shift to alt-L1s or when L2 fragmentation eats into mainnet fee capture.
fee-revenue regime risk - SOL20%Growth
Solana is the highest-throughput smart-contract platform in production and the credible challenger to Ethereum at the application layer.
Highest beta of the L1 majors. Outperforms in retail-led risk-on phases. Drawdowns sharper than BTC in flight-to-quality regimes.
historical outagesvalidator concentration - BNB16%Core anchor
BNB captures the cash flow of the largest centralized crypto exchange. Quarterly burn-and-buy gives it the cleanest token-to-revenue link of any major.
Tracks Binance volume more than crypto beta. Faces regulatory tail risk when Binance is under enforcement scrutiny.
regulatory tail riskexchange concentration - ADA10%Core anchor
Cardano sits in the basket for persistent top-ten market-cap status and a research-driven engineering culture that allocators recognise.
Tracks broader crypto beta. Has lagged in 2024 to 2026 as DeFi capital concentrated on ETH and SOL.
TVL trails peersslow shipping cadence - AVAX9%Growth
Avalanche is the highest-quality EVM-compatible alt-L1 by liquidity and institutional integration. The subnet architecture appeals to enterprise pilots.
Performs in enterprise-adoption and alt-L1 rotation phases. Underperforms in flight-to-quality and meme-led cycles.
subnet fragmentation
Show the remaining 3 holdings
- SUI8%Growth
Sui is the Move-language L1 spun out of the Diem project. Parallel-execution architecture targets the throughput ceiling that Solana hits during congestion.
Higher beta than the established L1s. Outperforms during alt-L1 rotation and on technical-narrative catalysts. Drawdowns pronounced in flight-to-quality.
sub-3y historyventure overhang - APT6%Growth
Research note pending for this holding. Its weight and its role in the mandate are published above.
- NEAR6%Growth
Near is the sharded L1 with the most coherent account-abstraction story in the majors. Chain Signatures target the largest UX bottleneck in crypto.
Performs in UX and AI-narrative phases. Lags in flight-to-quality regimes where alt-L1s are sold indiscriminately.
narrative dependence
What the numbers say
Simulated on historical constituent prices. A Sharpe is only published once the measured window clears 90 days, and drawdowns keep their sign.
Every figure above is simulated on historical constituent prices for a basket that has not traded. It describes how the rules would have behaved, not how they will behave. OL1L8 is part of a public preview.
Max expected loss over the horizon · 95% confidence · historical distribution. There is a 5% chance the actual loss is larger.
| Window | Return | Sharpe | vs BTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full window | −17.5% | −0.16 | −0.60 |
| 1 year | −53.1% | −1.01 | −0.22 |
| 6 months | +12.3% | 0.63 | −0.84 |
| 3 months | +3.8% | 0.36 | −0.73 |
| 1 month | +27.0% | Not graded | · |
Returns are simulated over each window. A Sharpe is published only once that window clears 90 days, so the shorter rows read Not graded and carry no comparison with bitcoin. Short windows flatter and punish at random; read the full window first and treat the rest as texture.
What could go wrong
Priced off this basket's own weights rather than off a generic disclaimer, so every figure below can be checked against the table above.
Drawdowns of 30 to 50% are within historical range during cycle bottoms, tracking the broader crypto market. Family-standard caps and rebalancing rules apply.
- Top-name weightLow
ETH is the largest position at 25%. Capped by methodology but still drives index direction.
- Deep historical drawdownHigh
Max drawdown reached −71% in the backtest window. Size accordingly.
- Pre-live statusLow
Watchlist index. NAV is computed but the basket isn't yet open for live allocation.
| Scenario | Loss on net asset value |
|---|---|
| ETH loses half its valueLargest holding, 25.0% of the basket | −12.5%Mechanical |
| The three largest holdings fall 30%ETH, SOL, BNB · 61.0% of the basket together | −18.3%Mechanical |
| The deepest simulated fall repeatsRecorded once in the window, 566 days to recover | −70.7%Recorded |
| A bad month, one in twenty95% historical value at risk over 30 days | −25.7%Measured |
The mechanical rows hold every other holding still, which is the optimistic case. This basket measured 0.84 correlation to bitcoin over its window, so its holdings tend to fall together rather than one at a time. Read the figures as a floor on the damage, never a ceiling.
The research behind the construction
Worth a second look later
OL1L8 is under methodology review, so it carries no buy action today. The weights and the cadence are still being settled, and an order panel over rules that are about to move would put a commitment on the page the research has not earned. Everything above stays visible and updates with the study, so you can follow the work as it lands.