Every single week, Hermes gets an upgrade.
Earlier last week it was x_search where Hermes could directly tap into X rich real-time news/insights without having to use X API. 3-4 days ago it was "skill bundling" feature, letting you group multiple individual skills into one reusable command.
In this article, we'll explore a skill bundle that's designed for an onchain analyst job — tracing onchain data, identifying who bought/who dumped, how much they have left, and more.
The Onchain Forensics Pipeline
This is what the report looks like after a run. You get:
- Top sellers
- Top accumulators
- Net flows across 4 time periods
On top of the report, Cookie MCP is run for sentiment data points & cross-check them with onchain movements.
How does the pipeline work
When you think about top onchain forensic tools, you tend to think about Arkham Intelligence or Nansen. Both of which are highly capable and have rich databases identifying which wallet is who.
Nansen is a key part of this pipeline (BlockRun is the fallback). They're now available in x402.
The pipeline (5 skills + 1 MCP bundled together):
- Pool discovery | DexScreener (free API) | $0
- Wallet forensics | Nansen TGM + Nansen Balances via agentcash x402 | $0.03-0.07
- RPC cross-check | Base RPC (drpc.org) | $0
- Token Unlocks | Tokenomist API | $0
- Social sentiment | Cookie MCP (3 queries) | $0
- Synthesis | Cross-reference matrix → unified verdict | —
Does 8 things in one shot:
- DexScreener pool discovery (liquidity, volume, price, 24h change)
- Nansen TGM timeline across 24h/3d/7d/30d (buy/sell pressure, acceleration detection)
- Top sellers with avg exit price
- Top buyers with avg entry price
- Nansen wallet balances (remaining inventory, full portfolio view)
- Wallet age estimation (4 RPC calls per wallet — free binary search)
- RPC cross-check (balanceOf + ETH + nonce + contract detection)
- CEX deposit detection (Coinbase Base Bridge + label keyword scan)
- Tokenomist unlock cross-reference
- Dump classification (investor dump, smart money, bot accumulation, institutional interest)
- Tufte HTML report + structured JSON snapshot
How am I integrating the pipeline with my other workflows
I have set up regular health check on my port now that'll run every 3 days. Every 3 days, Hermes run full onchain forensic pipeline to understand the onchain reality + cross-check Cookie for sentiment + check technical analysis to see if overbought/oversold.
Thoughts on the tools (especially x402)
Originally, I thought x402 is practically useless because there are many free MCP or API tools with generous free tiers around. I was wrong.... x402 pay-per-use is sooooo good. I've run like 15-20 x402 runs already testing different tools and I spent like $1.5 so far.
These runs would have costed me $100+ without x402 because I'd have to manually subscribe each data providers and grab their API.
Wrapping it up
x402 is great but it's going to take time to onboard more premium data merchants especially outside of Web3. After 2 months of using Hermes, the guy has already been set up to augment many of my workflows already:
- Surfacing market insights → X cron jobs, delivering briefs relevant to me at 10AM everyday
- Identifying prediction market opps → capture whale accumulation, sharp signals
- Deep research pipeline → structured research pipeline that can break down any complex topic
- Onchain research pipeline → the one we just went over in this article
- Plus countless more alerts for equities, crypto, macro, geopolitics, and more