How to use educationstart here →
- This is mechanics, not triggers. The guides explain how the things the desk trades actually work.
- Start from your question. Each guide answers one practical question; the learning path below suggests an order when you need one.
- Unfamiliar words live in the glossary. Short definitions in plain language: glossary.
Education
The desk's explainers. The mechanics behind the positions, not a course and not a paywall. Nine how-to guides on tracking whales, moving assets across chains, and how the market's newer venues actually work.
by TT - OG team since 2017
The learning path
The sections below are grouped by topic. This is the order to read them in: each step is a question you can answer before moving on, and every one of them ends at a live desk tool rather than at another article.
- Learn to read one wallet. Start with how to track whale wallets: what counts as a whale, how to find an address, and the traps that make beginners follow the wrong one. Then open Whale watch and read a real position.
- Learn what a portfolio is telling you. Reading a whale portfolio like a desk turns a balance list into a position: concentration, what changed, and what an exchange balance is not.
- Pick the tools that fit your job. Four ready stacks: free, beginner, professional and verification, so you stop comparing apps and start using one.
- Understand how the money actually moves. How cross-chain swaps work, then swap versus bridge: the two pages that decide whether you keep bridge risk on your book or settle it away.
- Understand what leverage costs. How perpetual DEXs work explains funding, and funding is the tape that Funding Stress reads every eight hours.
- Trade the other markets too. The TradFi Daily Read runs the same gate and the same checks on perps for stocks, indices, commodities and FX. Candidate. The rule is written down and the sample is still growing.
- Put it together on a live market. Open the Daily Read and check whether you can now say why today's verdict is what it is, and what would change it. That is the whole point of the path.
On-chain & whale tracking
How to track crypto whale wallets (free tools, 2026)
The free toolstack: explorers, DeBank, Arkham, Nansen, Dune. How to find an address, what to watch, and the traps.
DeBank alternatives: 7 wallet trackers compared
Arkham, Nansen, Zerion, Zapper, free explorers and Dune vs DeBank: chains, free tier and labeling.
How to read a whale portfolio like a desk
Position sizing, cost basis, leverage, LP vs directional: telling conviction from noise.
Cross-chain swaps & bridges
How cross-chain swaps work
Bridges, native settlement and RFQ desks, mapped.
Cross-chain swap vs bridge
Same asset moved, or a new asset received.
ETH to SOL: bridging explained
Wrapped vs native, and what you actually want.
How to swap Monero safely
Routes, venue checks, operational hygiene.
BTC to XMR: routes compared
Maya, RFQ desks, P2P and atomic swaps.
Market mechanics
How perpetual DEXs work — and why they matter
On-chain leverage, funding rates, liquidity.
Portfolio management
Reference — look it up
Crypto glossary — every metric defined
Plain, answer-first definitions of the on-chain and market terms the desk uses: MVRV, SOPR, funding rate, TVL, FDV and more.
Live crypto charts the desk watches
DeFi TVL, stablecoin market cap, Fear & Greed and total market cap: live, updated daily, read the way a desk reads them.
Whale watch — biggest holders, live on-chain
The largest identified holders ranked by live Arkham-mapped holdings: funds, treasury companies and individuals, exchanges stripped out.
FAQ
How do you track crypto whale wallets for free?
Start with a block explorer (Etherscan, Solscan) for ground-truth transactions, then layer a free portfolio tracker (DeBank, Arkham, Nansen or Zerion free tier) to read an address’s full holdings across chains, and Dune dashboards for whale leaderboards. Watch accumulation, exchange in/outflows and new position entries; avoid mislabeling exchange omnibus wallets as whales. Full walkthrough in the whale-tracking guide.
What are the best DeBank alternatives?
Arkham for entity attribution, Nansen for labeled Smart Money cohorts, Zerion and Zapper for clean multichain portfolios, free block explorers for ground truth, and Dune for custom analytics. Each does one job best, see the comparison.
Cross-chain swap vs bridge — what’s the difference?
A bridge moves the same asset (or a wrapped IOU) to another chain; a swap exchanges asset A on chain X for asset B on chain Y in one operation. Bridges carry ongoing custodial risk; swaps carry execution risk only during the swap window. Full breakdown.
What do the guides cost?
The list price is $500/yr; access is $0 with a promo code, leave your email and we send it. Every explainer stays open to read.
Related
- All alpha: research and thesis breakdowns, updated most days.
- Infrastructure: the plumbing of the next market, framed as a position.
- Follow the desk on X: new explainers as they ship.