NST｜Nestedfi's OnlyFans-style social trading economy model, airdrop event has begun
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NST｜Nestedfi's OnlyFans-style social trading economy model, airdrop event has begun
Those who can use the wisdom of others to accomplish their own work are great.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsThose who can use the wisdom of others to accomplish their own work are great.
— Management scholar Piatt
This week's YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/UQVJqKPLlxI
This week's Bilibili video:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1m24y1171Q
The market is still reeling from the aftershocks of recent CEX collapses. As users begin questioning the security and controllability of their trades and assets following the FTX incident, the entire crypto community may once again be facing a crisis of trust.
In contrast to growing skepticism toward CEXs, projects in DeFi, wallets, and security sectors have shown impressive market performance amid an otherwise quiet market environment lately, sparking widespread discussions. While many believe that CEX failures benefit these areas, another sector is also attracting increasing attention: Social trading.
If you're unfamiliar with this concept, consider the following scenario:
Under traditional CEXs, the three existential questions—"What to buy, where to buy it, and how to buy it?"—plague not only seasoned insiders but also newcomers hoping to enter the space. What if industry leaders, researchers, and expert traders could share their investment portfolios socially, allowing beginners to simply copy them with one click? Would this significantly lower the barrier to answering those critical questions?
In traditional finance, fund managers assist laypeople unfamiliar with financial concepts or market dynamics. In the Web3 world, centralized social trading is common, but some projects are now exploring decentralized alternatives. Today, we introduce one such project: Nested.
By combining wallets, DeFi, and NFTs, Nested enables ordinary users to easily create or follow others' crypto investment portfolios while fully retaining control over their assets—and provides experts with a monetization channel for sharing their strategies.
Token: NST
What is Nested?
Social Trading built on DeFi.
Nested offers a straightforward and intuitive service: a one-stop DeFi application for building and managing cryptocurrency investment portfolios.
But unlike typical DeFi platforms, Nested adds a social layer to its user interface: You can mint your created portfolio as an NFT and share it publicly. Other users who see it can choose to "follow" and replicate your portfolio. Additionally, popular portfolios are recommended on the platform, and you may earn royalty income from your shared strategies.
Overall, Nested functions like a decentralized "robo-advisor," enabling users to benefit from pre-built investment strategies crafted by others. However, to understand exactly how these features work, let’s walk through the full product experience step-by-step.
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Login / Registration: Supports common Web2 accounts, no need to understand complex wallet concepts
As a DeFi product focused on investment copying and delegation, its target users are often newcomers with limited crypto knowledge and experience. Therefore, Nested supports familiar Web2 login methods such as Google, Twitter, email, and phone number (left image). More conveniently, when a user registers via any of these options, the system automatically generates a wallet in the background without requiring user intervention (right image).
Of course, users can also connect directly using MetaMask, but the above design is likely more practical for new entrants. Without needing to grasp complex concepts like public/private keys, the system seamlessly links the Web2 account to a newly generated wallet. Subsequent logins using the same account will continue to access this default wallet for transactions.
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Create / Share Investment Portfolio: Simple and intuitive workflow
Once registered, users may wish to independently build their own crypto asset portfolios.
Currently, Nested supports major blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Layer 2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism. Users can search token names directly, and the system performs fuzzy matching automatically.
Creating a portfolio is simple:
1. Select assets: Search for desired tokens; the system lists all selected tokens to form a complete investment portfolio;
2. Allocate proportions: Freely adjust the holding percentage of each token within the portfolio;
3. Set total budget: After setting token types and allocation ratios, select the total amount you'd like to invest in this portfolio. For example, if your wallet already holds other crypto assets, you can use them to fund the purchases specified in the previous step. Upon confirmation, the system will automatically execute proportional buys based on your settings.
4. Add funds: New users often start with empty wallets. To address this, Nested displays a prominent "Add Funds" button on the wallet management page (left image), which redirects users to a payment gateway. Within legal boundaries, users can conveniently purchase crypto using bank accounts or credit cards (right image).
5. Share portfolio: After creating a portfolio, you can share it with others. During our hands-on testing, we found two forms of sharing.
First, simple social sharing—via link or QR code—to notify others: “Hey, check out my portfolio.” Second, clicking “Send Portfolio” allows you to transfer the entire portfolio as a gift. In this case, both the portfolio and invested funds are transferred entirely, meaning you lose all future control over it.
The key mechanism enabling portfolio transfers lies in NFTs.
When sending a portfolio, the system mints an NFT representing your specific investment amount and token allocation details. The act of sending involves transferring this NFT from your wallet address to another. In this context, the NFT represents ownership and control rights over the assets—transferring the NFT means transferring full authority.
As shown in the blockchain explorer screenshot above, sending a portfolio indeed triggers an NFT transfer transaction, though users remain unaware of the technical backend. Recipients can view the Nested-created NFT on OpenSea or any NFT-compatible wallet interface.
When recipients log into Nested, they’ll find the transferred portfolio on their dashboard. At this point, they gain full ownership and can freely trade within it.
This feature is particularly useful for mentorship scenarios. Experienced users can directly purchase what they believe are valuable portfolios and send them to newcomers, fulfilling an advisory role while cleanly separating asset management responsibilities—i.e., “I can help you pick and buy, but I won’t mix your money with mine.”
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Copy Portfolios: One-click operation and royalty economics
While direct portfolio gifting suits close relationships, Nested also offers a solution tailored for strangers: copying portfolios.
On Nested’s “Explore” page, users can browse investment portfolios already built by others, view their performance history, and follow or bookmark creators they’re interested in.
Some users even display linked social media accounts like Twitter, allowing followers to assess their influence, track record, and recommendation quality.
You can also one-click copy someone else’s portfolio. The system then replicates their chosen tokens and allocation ratios, enabling you to "follow" their strategy. Your copied version mirrors the original in terms of token selection and weightings—the only difference being that you set your own investment amount. With limited capital, you can even copy multiple portfolios simultaneously.
By default, if the original portfolio owner adjusts allocations or holdings, your copied version automatically updates accordingly. This offers a hands-off, passive investing option. However, users can customize update permissions so their copies remain unchanged even when the original evolves.
Due to space constraints, we won't cover detailed operations like rebalancing, selling, or transferring here—all closely resemble standard wallet interactions. Notably, if others copy your portfolio, you receive a “royalty” payment, similar to how NFT creators earn royalties when their NFTs are resold.
In the royalty section, you can clearly see all historical records of your portfolio being copied. The system automatically calculates your royalty earnings per copy based on predefined rules, which we'll detail later.
This function resembles a creator economy for investing: the more people who adopt your portfolio, the greater your potential earnings. Whether creating, copying, or adjusting portfolios, asset ownership always remains with individual users. Throughout the process, Nested acts solely as a platform with no access to user funds, making advisory and copy-trading truly decentralized.
Nested’s Economic Model
OnlyFans-style model; airdrop already underway.
Nested’s native token is NST, which has not yet launched. However, we can evaluate its functionality and distribution model in advance to assess its potential value.
Functionally, NST can first be staked, granting certain benefits. Stakers can vote on changes to Nested platform parameters and submit proposals to improve the protocol—standard governance rights shared across most DeFi protocols, so we won’t elaborate further.
More importantly, stakers receive a share of the transaction fees generated by the Nested platform—its revenue—as well as additional NST tokens distributed as staking rewards.
Regarding transaction fees, Nested provides further clarification: Fees apply to portfolio operations such as creation, updates, and sales. Actions like creating, updating, or depositing assets—which don’t reduce Nested’s overall TVL—are charged a 0.3% fee on the transaction amount. Operations affecting the pool’s total TVL, such as withdrawals or sales, incur an 0.8% fee.
Regardless of the rate, for any action related to copying portfolios (copying originals, following updates, selling copies), 50% of the total fee goes to the portfolio creator, while the remaining 50% goes to the Nested platform.
Moreover, fee distributions are settled instantly upon execution—staking rewards or creator royalties are paid out immediately. For additional staking incentives outside core business logic, Nested encourages long-term locking through time-based distribution.
The longer you stake NST, the higher your bonus reward. At each payout checkpoint, if you withdraw immediately, a 60% penalty applies. But if you wait one year before claiming, you receive 100% of your earned rewards with no penalty.
Finally, NST stakers enjoy fee discounts when using platform features. Beyond staking, other key uses of NST include access to premium content and priority visibility.
When the platform hosts numerous portfolios, discovering high-quality information becomes increasingly urgent. Nested allows users to pay creators NST as monthly subscriptions to unlock private portfolios—similar to OnlyFans’ subscription model. Users can also tip creators with NST as discretionary gratuities.
For creators aiming to earn royalties, Nested adopts a mechanism akin to Curve’s vote-bribery model: Users can spend extra NST to promote their portfolios to more visible positions, increasing exposure—essentially a bidding ranking system.
Overall, NST’s value is strongly tied to Nested’s business growth. The more users engage with the platform, the higher the fee generation, and the stronger the incentive for both supply-side creators and demand-side users to utilize NST.
Regarding tokenomics, NST has a fixed supply of 150 million. The official TGE date hasn’t been announced, but according to the published roadmap, token distribution should occur no later than Q3 2023.
Regarding the highly anticipated airdrop, Nested implements a marathon-style reward model. Approximately 2.62 million NST are allocated for airdrops, but eligibility isn’t determined by single interactions.
Every week starting May 2nd has been treated as a scoring unit. Within each week, Nested takes a snapshot of user activity every hour—168 snapshots per week. Each snapshot is scored based on user behavior, and final airdrop allocation depends on cumulative scores across all weeks prior to TGE. Key scoring factors include:
1. Total value of all investment portfolios.
2. Number and total value of copied portfolio replicas.
3. Cross-chain usage activity.
4. Activity on Nested—creation, management, copying, deposits, edits to allocations, etc.
Notably, each hourly snapshot resets in the next hour. This means theoretically, you must consistently use Nested to maximize rewards. Even intense short-term activity followed by prolonged inactivity will result in low final rewards.
Funding and Team Background
French development team, backed by JumpCrypto.
Nested’s official website does not disclose team member information. However, examining its GitHub repository reveals patterns among primary contributors. Based on location data from personal profiles, most members appear to be based in France and operate anonymously, with relatively low-following Twitter accounts—indicating a deliberately low-profile approach.
From prior development experience, some team members have contributed to other Web3 projects and possess Solidity programming expertise.
On the funding side, according to official disclosures, Nested has received backing from well-known crypto VCs and angel investors, including JumpCrypto and hedge fund titan Alan Howard. However, specific investment amounts and rounds have not been disclosed.
It should be noted that the aforementioned VCs and angel investors were不同程度 affected by losses during the FTX collapse. We cannot determine whether projects funded by impacted parties will face downstream consequences. The operational independence, continuity, and health of such products require ongoing market observation. However, dismissing all projects associated with FTX-linked entities as unpromising would also be overly simplistic.
Nested’s Potential and Risks
Potential:
+ Market demand for social trading post-CEX collapse:
Nested is fundamentally a DeFi platform. By adding copy-trading functionality, it enables users to discover and mimic trading strategies while maintaining full control over their assets—without relying on CEXs. This partially answers current market uncertainties around where, how, and what to buy.
+ Excellent UX with low barriers to entry:
No need to manually create wallets, plus local fiat onboarding options, makes the platform highly beginner-friendly. By abstracting complex DeFi functions—swaps, NFTs, on-chain transfers—into simple clicks, Nested delivers a seamless trading and copy-investing experience even for non-technical users. This product design deserves recognition.
+ Strong social virality:
Nested’s Explore section already hosts numerous user-created portfolios, including those from influential overseas social media figures. These high-profile users naturally serve as investment advisors and actively promote Nested through their channels, accelerating organic product adoption.
Risks:
- Audit status:
Given that the product handles fund deposits, withdrawals, and exchanges, code security is paramount. Officially, the team has stated that audits are currently underway, which is why support for additional tokens and protocols remains limited.
- Convenience comes with risk due to hidden wallet complexity:
After logging in via Web2 accounts, the system automatically creates a wallet, shielding users from private key management. While convenient for beginners, this abstraction carries inherent risks.
Because users aren’t exposed to wallet mechanics, they may lack awareness when handling sensitive actions. For instance, in Nested’s account management page, you can directly view the private key of the wallet linked to your Web2 account right in the browser—an inherently risky setup for inexperienced users. Poor management, account theft, or browser vulnerabilities could jeopardize funds.
- Investor exposure risks:
As mentioned earlier, Nested’s backers were indirectly impacted by the FTX fallout. Whether the project itself can sustain healthy, independent operations remains to be seen.
When participating in markets, you’re often overwhelmed by various signals, making sound decision-making difficult. In such times, observing others’ portfolios and performance might offer fresh insights.
After all, those who can use the wisdom of others to accomplish their own work are truly great.
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