In a bull market, trading new coins, will the "Hook" concept become the track that kicks off the bull market?

Original Title: Bull Market Speculating on New Coins, Will the “Hook” Concept Become the Track to Initiate a Bull Market?

Original Author: Cookie

Original Source:

Repost: Mars Finance

Since the end of April, the Uniswap v4 hook concept has undoubtedly been the most talked-about “new” concept in the market.

The reason why “new” is put in quotes here is not because Uniswap v4 hook is a newly launched thing. In fact, Uniswap v4 was already launched on January 30 of last year.

This new feature, hook, is not unimportant nor unused. On the official support level, there is the Uniswap Hook Incubator and the Uniswap Hook Designer Lab, providing funding, training, and incubation. In terms of adoption, projects like Flaunch and Bunni are involved, and the overall TVL and trading volume data of the v4 ecosystem are also quite good.

But it wasn’t until the recent emergence of projects like $upeg, $sato , and Slonks that hooks sparked widespread discussion among retail investors. Based on this phenomenon, I want to start with a “hot take”—

For a long time, Uniswap’s promotion of hooks, at least in terms of retail attention, has been somewhat biased.

And if this bias is corrected, the “Hook” could become the track to start a bull market.

What exactly is a “Hook”?

Let’s explain this in simple, understandable terms, and also arrive at another answer—why has the “Hook” only attracted retail attention now?

In the past, our general understanding of Uniswap was that we could provide LP and trade (Swap) on it. And indeed, before the v4 version (when hooks were introduced), this was the main profit point for Uniswap.

Many games support player community-created “plugins” to change gameplay modes, attracting a broader player base beyond the original modes launched by the developers. For example, in CS, if players don’t install plugins, they can only play the C4 planting/defusing game. But if plugins are installed, players can race to run faster, jump farther, even play soccer or basketball, or disguise as part of the map for others to discover.

A hook is like a game plugin; it can make Uniswap no longer just about LP and trading battles. But for a long time, these plugins didn’t appeal to retail players. They either just ported existing gameplay from other chains or aimed to solve pain points in LP and trading.

It’s like in CS, only adding some plugins that optimize the gaming experience, such as kill statistics. It improves the game but lacks the imagination to attract retail players.

Retail players want new gameplay that the Uniswap official doesn’t do but can be achieved through hooks—original and imaginative. The concept of “Hook” itself has been too abstract for retail players in the past.

So how is this “imagination” reflected in the three popular projects: $upeg, $sato , and Slonks?

Core of “Imagination”

$upeg ’s core imagination is “trading as art creation and creating supply chaos.” Its image creation concept is complete, using on-chain data as input rather than simply copying existing NFT series’ art inspiration, making each integer purchase a new creation. Additionally, the more small, scattered transactions there are, the harder it is to generate images, shifting focus from simple token swaps to “predicting supply forms.”

If $upeg exists on DEX, CEX, and NFT markets—being both tokens and images—how would different liquidity sources and trading methods (spot, contracts, LP, or buying images) affect its supply form?

This is a shift in attention perspective that no NFT project has achieved in recent years.

Looking at $sato, its core imagination isn’t just “using Uniswap v4 hook to create a bonding curve,” but precisely grasping why a bonding curve on ETH mainnet can attract people.

Its key points are:

Decentralization. It’s not another “scam,” just a smart contract with code restrictions.

Huge on-chain volume. It needs a market cap of $100 million to graduate. Doing this on any chain outside ETH mainnet would seem fanciful. But on ETH mainnet, it’s different because of the perception of “old money” and “diamond hands” on this chain. This impression deepens as the curve progresses.

Zero intervention. After the curve is complete and the token is launched, the contract abandons itself. Pool creation and similar activities are left to the community.

Bonding curves aren’t new, but $sato presents one that best fits ETH mainnet’s characteristics, shifting players’ attention from the bonding curve itself to a “faith game.”

As for Slonks, although there are optimistic voices like “integrating AI concepts” and “developers are ETHS co-founders,” I believe its core appeal to retail players is the “meme-worthy game mechanics.”

Slonks’ images are generated by on-chain neural network models re-drawing CryptoPunks. Since AI draws, there will be deviations, and the developer believes these deviations are a form of art. The more it differs from the original, the higher the “slop” (low-quality) value.

This value ranges from 0 to 576 because CryptoPunks are 24x24 pixels, with each pixel deviation representing one slop point. With 10,000 Slonks NFTs, the theoretical maximum total slop value is 576×10,000=5,760,000, which is also the supply cap of $SLOP .

Holders can burn NFTs to receive corresponding $SLOP$ based on the slop value, or merge two Slonks NFTs to get a more different one and exchange for more $SLOP$. They can also burn $SLOP to get back an AI-recreated, slop-unknown NFT.

It’s essentially a “game of who has the better strategy and luck.”

Why do we need Hooks?

So here’s the question. Can projects like $upeg$, $sato , or Slonks be realized without Uniswap v4 hooks? Why go through the trouble of adding a hook layer?

Indeed, even without hooks, these projects could be implemented independently. But Uniswap needs these projects to attract retail players, and leveraging Uniswap’s ecosystem and concepts can help them develop better.

It’s not necessary, but it’s a very fitting mutual support relationship. If initially, $upeg hadn’t used hooks and couldn’t attract Uniswap’s attention, this wave of hook narrative might not have existed.

For retail players, although “Uniswap v4 hook” is an easy-to-understand concept, we shouldn’t blindly rush just because of the “hook.” We need to consider whether a project with the “hook” concept offers fresh, unique gameplay and whether its narrative is complete enough. This determines the likelihood of a “hook” project gaining Uniswap’s attention and support.

When players’ standards are high enough, Uniswap is committed to making itself an application marketplace on Ethereum, and developers’ creativity is abundant, then we can truly say, “Hook” could become the track to initiate a bull market.