Purpose
Produce a decision-ready trend briefing that turns scattered crypto market developments into a prioritized set of trends — each scored for partnership relevance and roadmap impact, with a recommended action — so strategy and partnerships teams can move from "what's happening" to "what we should do about it" in a single document.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Prepare a weekly, biweekly, or monthly crypto market trend briefing
- Summarize recent developments in DeFi, exchanges, custody, or specific protocols
- Identify market shifts that could affect partnership or BD targets
- Translate industry news into roadmap or product implications
- Build a recurring intelligence document for a strategy or leadership review
- Assess whether a recent market event (a launch, regulation, exploit, or raise) warrants a strategic response
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Focus segments: Which areas to cover — DeFi, centralized exchanges, custody, L1/L2 protocols, stablecoins, RWAs, etc.
- Time window: The period the briefing covers (e.g., last 7 days, last month)
- Company context: What the user's company does and where it sits in the stack
- Strategic priorities: 2–4 current goals (e.g., expand custody partners, launch on a new chain, grow stablecoin volume)
- Existing partners/competitors: Named entities to watch and flag in coverage
- Source material: Any links, headlines, or notes the user wants synthesized (optional)
- Audience: Who reads the briefing — BD team, product, or executive leadership
If source material isn't provided, work from the user's stated developments and clearly label any general industry context as background rather than fresh news.
Instructions
Step 1: Scan and Cluster by Segment
Organize the period's developments into the requested focus segments. For each segment, identify the 2–4 most consequential developments. Filter aggressively — a briefing is a prioritization tool, not a news roundup. Drop anything that doesn't plausibly touch the user's strategic priorities, named partners/competitors, or market structure.
Use these segment lenses to ensure complete coverage:
- DeFi: protocol launches, TVL shifts, new primitives (lending, perps, restaking), yield trends, exploits
- Exchanges: listings, regional licensing, fee/structure changes, volume migration, new product lines
- Custody: institutional custody moves, qualified-custodian developments, MPC/wallet infrastructure, regulatory custody rulings
- Protocols (L1/L2): upgrades, throughput/fee changes, ecosystem incentives, bridge and interop developments
- Cross-cutting: regulation, stablecoin policy, major raises, M&A, macro flows
Step 2: Profile Each Trend
For every trend that makes the cut, build a standardized entry:
- Trend title: One-line, specific (not "DeFi is growing")
- What happened: 2–3 sentences of factual summary
- Why it matters now: The structural shift or signal behind the headline — not a restatement of the news
- Named players: Entities involved, flagging any of the user's partners or competitors
- Partnership relevance: High / Medium / Low — with one sentence of reasoning tied to the user's priorities
- Roadmap implication: Whether and how this should influence product or BD sequencing
- Recommended action: A concrete next step — investigate, monitor, initiate outreach, deprioritize, or no action
Step 3: Score and Rank
Rank all profiled trends into a priority order using two axes:
- Strategic relevance: How directly it touches the user's stated priorities and watched entities
- Time sensitivity: Whether a window is opening or closing (a partner being courted, a standard being set, a competitor moving first)
Surface the top 3 as "Act This Cycle" — trends warranting a decision or owner this period. Everything else goes into "Monitor."
Step 4: Synthesize the Strategic Read
Write a short synthesis above the trend list that answers: What's the single most important shift this period, and what does it mean for us? Name one specific partnership opportunity and one specific risk surfaced by the period's developments.
Step 5: Define Watch Items
List 3–5 forward-looking items to track into the next briefing — pending decisions, expected launches, regulatory deadlines, or competitor moves that haven't fully resolved.
Output Format
- Structure: Strategic read at the top → priority-ranked trend entries grouped into "Act This Cycle" and "Monitor" → watch items
- Length: 800–1,200 words
- Format: Structured document — short synthesis prose up top, then standardized trend entries as labeled blocks; a summary ranking table is encouraged
- Sections: Strategic Read → Act This Cycle (top 3) → Monitor (remaining trends) → Watch Items
- Tone: Sharp internal analyst — concise, opinionated on what matters, no crypto hype, no price speculation
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Every focus segment requested by the user is covered or explicitly marked as no notable activity
- [ ] Each trend entry includes all 7 profile fields (title, what happened, why it matters, named players, partnership relevance, roadmap implication, recommended action)
- [ ] Partnership relevance is rated High/Medium/Low with reasoning tied to the user's stated priorities — not generic
- [ ] Exactly 3 trends are elevated to "Act This Cycle" and each carries a concrete recommended action
- [ ] The strategic read names one specific opportunity and one specific risk
- [ ] No price predictions or token-shilling language appears anywhere
Notes
- The value is in the "why it matters now" and "recommended action" fields — a briefing that only summarizes news has failed; it must drive a decision
- When a development involves a named competitor moving on a partner the user is courting, treat time sensitivity as high regardless of headline size
- For recurring use, keep the structure identical period to period so readers can scan it the same way each time and track how "Monitor" items graduate into "Act This Cycle"
- If the user provides no fresh source material, be explicit about it and shorten the briefing rather than padding with stale background
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills