Altcoin Watch

IOTA makes 40%+ move after $100M ecosystem foundation announcement

IOTA price saw a high volume surge that took the altcoin to a near one-year high, but are there reasons to support further upside?

Iota, an open-source distributed ledger focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), saw its native IOTA token rally 43% on Nov.

According to a press release from the project, the foundation will be seeded with $100 million in IOTA tokens, which will be vested over a four-year period.

Historically, ecosystem and developer incentives by blockchain and DeFi protocols tend to attract liquidity to the project and boost market participants’ sentiment.

In August 2021, Avalanche’s AVAX (AVAX) token went on a 1,400% tear after the announcement of the Avalanche Rush decentralized finance (DeFi) incentive program.

A similar outcome was seen with Trader Joe’s JOE token in the months following December 2022 after the DeFi protocol announced plans to establish a presence on Arbitrum.

Currently, the Arbitrum ecosystem is hosting liquidity and developer incentives, and these initiatives align with the recent 62% resurgence in the ARB token’s price.

Was IOTA’s price move another sell-the-news event?

On Nov.

Traders often interpret funding rates and longs-to-shorts ratios as sentiment gauges and indicators of how active investors are positioned.

Read more

Can Bitcoin reach $25K again in March 2023? Watch Market Talks live

Join us as we discuss what March 2023 holds in store for Bitcoin. Will it touch $25,000 again or will it break past and flip it to support?

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Adrian Zduńczyk, or as he is known on Twitter, CryptoBirb. He is the founder and CEO of The Birb Nest, a trading community platform. He is also a chartered market technician, chemical engineer, entrepreneur, mentor and influencer with over 655,000 followers on Twitter.

We start things off with a simple question: What is Zduńczyk’s general approach or set of procedures that he goes through when he begins to connect with the markets in the mornings? How does he begin to decide if he should trade on any given day or stay away altogether? What are some comprehensive metrics that he looks at to gauge the overall market direction and sentiment, especially when studying altcoins? 

There was a lot of excitement at the start of 2023 with Bitcoin (BTC) finally breaking out of its sideways action and making a move toward the upside. Now that things have settled down a bit and the price of Bitcoin is lingering around the $23,000 range, we ask Zduńczyk how he feels about the market and if there are any coins that stand out to him during this time.

The next Bitcoin halving is still about a year and a month away, yet people are already starting to talk about it and formulate strategies for it. We get Zduńczyk’s insights into how he thinks this cycle might be developing.

It’s already March, and it seems that Zduńczyk thinks that it might not be as kind as February was for Bitcoin — we ask him for his reasoning behind this claim. Bitcoin seems to be touching the $25,000 mark and coming back down to hover around $23,000. What needs to happen for Bitcoin to flip $25,000 to support and move past it?

We cover all this and more, so make sure to stay tuned until the end because Cointelegraph Markets & Research will also be taking your questions and comments throughout the show, so be sure to have them ready to go.

Market Talks streams live every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC). Each week, it features interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, head on over to Cointelegraph Markets & Research’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

$24K Bitcoin — Is it time to buy BTC and altcoins? Watch Market Talks live

Join us as we discuss whether it’s time to consider stacking some sats and buying into some attractive altcoins.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Michaël van de Poppe, a full-time day/swing trader in cryptocurrencies based at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange who’s interested in everything related to blockchain in combination with the current financial system. He is also the CEO and founder of Eight Global, a cryptocurrency education and consultancy platform.

We kick things off by getting van de Poppe’s take on the current market and how he’s feeling about things at the moment. 

Generally, everyone’s views on external macro factors that impact crypto prices are mostly United States-centric. Since van de Poppe is based in Amsterdam, we find out what other macro and geopolitical factors he regularly considers when assessing the markets.

After the news about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cracking down on stablecoins and exchanges and also the not-so-hot Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, Bitcoin (BTC) made a move that was opposite to what many market participants were expecting. Van de Poppe shares hi thoughts and reasoning for this. 

We get into the nitty-gritty about van de Poppe’s approach to investing in altcoins and how the two large-cap cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), impact his decisions, if at all. 

The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade is on everyone’s minds, and everyone has their own thesis on what will happen once the upgrade is complete. We ask van de Poppe what his play on Ether is over the next six months and how he plans on trading the upgrade.

One major topic that seems to generate a lot of debate in the crypto space is whether or not the current bullish price action has a limited shelf life or if it’s here to stay and will continue. We get the professional’s take on the matter and also how he thinks 2023 is going to play out for the global markets and U.S. stock markets.

We cover all this and more, so be sure to tune in live by clicking here.

Make sure to stay tuned until the end because Cointelegraph Markets & Research will also be taking your questions and comments throughout the show, so be sure to have them ready to go.

Market Talks streams live every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC). Each week, it features interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph Markets & Research’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

5 altcoins that produced double-digit gains as Bitcoin price rallied in January

Bitcoin’s strong monthly performance translated to outsized gains in APT, GALA, T, MANA and SOL, making them the top performing altcoins in January.

The rally in cryptocurrency markets started in early January with a spike in heavily-shorted altcoins and Ethereum (ETH) liquid staking derivative (LSD) tokens due to the upcoming network upgrade in March. Soon gains started to show across the board as buyers started to play catch up. 

The improving macroeconomic conditions, such as reduced inflation and a stable job sector in the United States, provided additional tailwinds for the positive rally. Bitcoin (BTC) is en route to its most impressive closing for January since 2013. Its price has gained 40% year-to-date from the opening value of $16,530.

Another important catalyst for January’s rally was a short squeeze across the crypto market. After the FTX debacle and the lack of bullish narratives for the niche space, most investors expected growth to slow down in 2023.

There are unresolved issues such as potential Digital Currency Group fallout, geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine and recession risks due to the Fed’s aggressive quantitative tightening policies. Thus, most traders didn’t expect strong price rallies so early inthe year.

As it turns out, negative sentiment and crowded positions in the futures market continued to fuel more upside. There’s a strong chance of a pullback soon after steep gains. It remains to be seen if the pullback levels are attractive enough for buyers to turn it into a medium-to-long-term bullish trend. Let’s take a look at the top performing cryptocurrencies for January.

Top crypto market gainers in January. Source: CoinMarketCap

Aptos (APT)

Launched in October, Aptos is a relatively new blockchain in the space that leverages the technology of Facebook/Meta’s discarded crypto project, Libra. It carries significant face value based on its executive team, composed of former Meta engineers who also built the Move programming language to make the chain scalable and decentralized.

While the project carries much reputation, its fundamentals do not justify the price. The disbelief among investors is part of the reason behind the APT price rally. A market capitalization of $3 billion for a four-month-old project has surprised many onlookers. There’s also suspected market manipulation in the APT/KRW pair on Upbit, giving rise to the Kimchi premium. It is difficult to pinpoint a specific factor driving its demand in South Korea.

APT/USD broke above its previous peak of around $10, recorded around its launch. Technically, the token is in price discovery mode right now. Thus, there are few sell-side resistance levels besides the latest peak of $20 and the psychological level at $25. Unless the positive catalysts in the negative funding rate for perpetual swaps and the Kimchi premium cool off, the rally may still have wings.

But the token’s relative strength index (RSI), a price momentum indicator, has spiked to oversold territory, suggesting the possibility of a pullback. The moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator shows a slight bullish deviation with a less steep rise in the metric compared to the price. Still, the presence of buying volume is reassuring for APT bulls. The support for the token lies at $14.75 and $10.40.

APT/USD daily price chart with RSI and MACD indicator. Source: TradingView

Gala (GALA)

Similar to Aptos, Gala (GALA) also benefited from the excess negative positioning in the futures market. The gain in GALA/USD from $0.02 to $0.07 can be primarily attributed to wipe out of short positions.

GALA price (yellow) and funding rate. Source: Coinglass

The token suffered significant inflation of around 17,123,286 GALA daily, which accounts for around $28.2 million monthly at current prices. This raises concerns that the recent price pump could be short-lived.

On Jan. 25, Gala’s team introduced a new roadmap of the project in which they seek to update the tokenomics to reduce inflation and introduce a new burn mechanism. They are working on an independent Gala chain, where GALA tokens will be used to pay transaction fees.

On top of that, the daily issuance of GALA may also reduce after a vote is passed to change the time-based halving schedule to a supply-based one, bringing the halving closer than July 21.

The upgrade announcements have added to the buying pressure in GALA/USD, evident in a spike in buying volume. The token is trading above its 200-day exponential moving average at $0.052. If buyers build support above this level, the price can run toward the July 2022 breakdown levels near $0.164.

GALA/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Threshold (T)

Threshold was born from the merger of two projects, Keep Network and NuCypher, which have combined their technologies to build a decentralized bridge network. Node operators on the Threshold network stake the platform’s native T token and Ether to validate the transfers between Bitcoin and Ethereum. This technology was borrowed from Keep Network, while NuCypher adds a layer of privacy to the protocol.

In January, the project’s native token nearly tripled in price, benefiting from the v2 launch and Coinbase’s listing announcements. The upgraded version of the Threshold protocol will enable tBTC (threshold Bitcoin) mints on Ethereum, which are backed by Bitcoin and pegged 1:1 to the BTC price.

The beginning of tBTC mints on Ethereum via Threshold Network will likely increase the network’s total locked value (TVL), making Threshold nodes more valuable. Initially, the project will launch a semi-decentralized version, Optimistic Minting, and gradually move to a decentralized system of nodes.

There’s a significant market opportunity for Threshold after the dissolution of RenBTC. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) currently commands a dominant share of 93.6% of the total Bitcoin bridged to Ethereum.

Still, the recent 190% increase is starting to show signs of a buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news type of event, especially factoring in the Coinbase-led rise. The support for buyers lies at $0.027, with the next level of resistance at $0.145.

Decentraland (MANA)

The metaverse-themed projects Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND) witnessed a revival of the VR narrative as Apple is rumored to be launching its VR headset collection this spring. More recently, the Decentraland team released its manifesto for the current year, with a focus on growing its developer and creator community.

While Decentraland is one of the earliest metaverse projects with a massive opportunity to capture the future Web3 market, the present rally is showing overbought characteristics in the short-term.

The RSI indicator shows a reading above its bullish resistance. The MACD indicator shows a divergence with little to no-change in the metric to complement the Jan. 28 surge of 16.5%.

MANA/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Nevertheless, the breakout above 200-day moving average and resistance from the FTX breakdown levels at 0.70 is encouraging for technical buyers. It remains to be seen if the surge was a just stop hunt of short orders or stemming from actual demand. Support for the token lies at the 50-day EMA, current at $0.54, and 2022 lows of $0.27.

Solana (SOL)

Solana (SOL) benefited from excessive negative sentiment around the blockchain’s future. The price rally was a classic case of a short squeeze in the futures market. While the fundamentals pointed toward a death spiral in its price, the market played out differently. By leveraging low liquidity conditions, buyers were able to push the prices higher until few sellers remained.

The market maker and venture capitalist entity, Alameda Research, was the primary source of liquidity for Solana’s DeFi projects. It was also one of the largest backers of its ecosystem projects. The DeFi community will face significant challenges within Solana due to a lack of liquidity.

Solana developers and the foundation have been working hard to make the network stable and more decentralized. While the network remained stable through the FTX debacle, it appears to have lost the market’s trust thanks to frequent downtimes. Moreover, Alameda/FTX owns around 10.7% of the total supply of SOL, which will likely add to the selling pressure for the next few years.

Their NFT space, while placed second in terms of trading volume across blockchains, is starting to see the departure of top performers like DeGods, y00ts, and most recently, F Studio. It remains to be seen if the community can build back up. The task will be challenging without the support of its most prolific backers.

On long timeframes, the $30 level is a crucial resistance and support level for SOL/USD. If buyers consolidate above this level, the positive momentum in the token’s price will likely stretch into Q1 2023. However, given that the rally is mainly driven by a short-side wipeout in the futures market, there’s a higher likelihood for a significant correction, followed by a period of accumulation, until a meaningful run can take form.

Last but not least, the LSD-narrative tokens deserve a mention in the monthly winners list. The native tokens of Ethereum LSD platforms nearly doubled in price across the board thanks to the upcoming Shanghai upgrade.

The Frax DAO was the highest gainer among LSD tokens, benefiting from a strong rise in the staked Ether on its platform. The platform is able to attract liquidity by providing additional yield on staking ETH through leveraging its position on Curve Finance.

The Frax DAO is the largest owner of CVX tokens, which gives them priority control over Curve emissions. Currently, staking frxETH on Curve earns around 9-10% annual yield, which is two times higher than the average LSD yield of around 4%.

Given that Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade is still a month away and there’s room for growth of LSD platforms, the attention toward LSD tokens could likely sustain through February.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

AI altcoins are pumping — Is this the beginning of the next bull market? The Market Report

On this week’s episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss artificial intelligence altcoins, what they are, and whether they could lead us into the next bull market.

This week on The Market Report, the resident experts at Cointelegraph discuss what artificial intelligence (AI) altcoins are, what their potential benefits are, how they work, and whether they can be a catalyst for a 2023 bull market.

We start off this week’s show with the latest news in the markets:

BTC price 3-week highs greet US CPI — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week on a promising footing, with BTC price action near one-month highs — but can it last? The move precedes a conspicuous macroeconomic week for crypto markets, with the December 2022 Consumer Price Index (CPI) print due from the United States. Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, will also deliver a speech on the economy, with inflation on everyone’s radar. Inside the crypto sphere, FTX contagion continues, with Digital Currency Group (DCG) at odds with institutional clients over its handling of solvency problems at subsidiary Genesis Trading. Our resident experts take a look at these factors and more as the second trading week of January gets underway.

Digital Currency Group under investigation by US authorities: Report

Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, or DCG, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a Bloomberg report. 

The authorities are digging into internal transfers between DCG and its subsidiary crypto lending firm, Genesis Global Capital, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have already requested interviews and documents from both companies, while the SEC is running a similar early-stage inquiry.

We discuss what impact this could have on the crypto market. Could this put a damper on the current positive trend in the crypto space, which is finally starting to see some green?

5 sneaky tricks crypto phishing scammers used last year: SlowMist

We take a look at some of the most common phishing techniques crypto scammers used on victims in 2022 to help you be more aware and cautious when dealing in the space and hopefully save you from any possible scams or rug pulls in 2023.

Our experts cover these and other developing stories, so make sure you tune in to stay up-to-date on the latest in the world of crypto.

Next up is a segment called “Quick Crypto Tips,” which aims to give newcomers to the crypto industry quick and easy tips to get the most out of their experience. This week’s tip: Chasing the whale.

Market expert Marcel Pechman then carefully examines the Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down.

Lastly, we’ve got insights from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a platform for crypto traders who want to stay one step ahead of the market. Our analysts use Cointelegraph Markets Pro to identify two altcoins that stood out this week, so make sure to tune in to find out which ones made the cut.

Do you have a question about a coin or topic not covered here? Don’t worry — join the YouTube chat room and write your questions there. The person with the most interesting comment or question will have a chance to win a one-month subscription to Markets pro worth $100.

The Market Report streams live every Tuesday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC), so be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

DeFi’s downturn deepens, but protocols with revenue and fee sharing could thrive

It’s too early to know if DeFi is “dead,” but platforms that share revenue with liquidity providers and token holders could be the ones that survive the bear market.

At the moment, liquidity is hard to come by, but crypto traders and protocols still need inflow and revenue to remain functional.

As the crypto winter drags on, savvy crypto investors have realized that one of the reliable sources of passive income that still exists can be found on protocols that generate revenue and share some of it with their respective communities.

Let’s take a look at some of the protocols that continue to thrive in the current down market.

DeFi might be dead, but platforms with revenue will thrive

Data from Token Terminal shows revenue positive platforms are primarily the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces like LooksRare and OpenSea.

Top dapps based on cumulative protocol revenue in the past 180 days. Source: Token Terminal

Aside from a few select protocols including MetaMask, Decentral Games, Axie Infinity and Ethereum Name Service, the majority of the remaining protocols with the highest revenue are decentralized finance platforms, showing that while DeFi is down, it’s not out of the game.

Fee sharing helps to lure liquidity

DeFi protocols and decentralized applications (DApps) that offer fee sharing to token holders and liquidity providers are also revenue positive.

As the bear market continues to batter prices and eliminate unprofitable and poorly managed platforms, protocols that offer token holders passive income streams have a higher chance of enduring until the next bull market begins.

Related: DeFi Summer 3.0? Uniswap overtakes Ethereum on fees, DeFi outperforms

Synthetix (SNX) makes a comeback

A good example of how fee sharing can help boost a token and DeFi protocol was recently seen with Synthetix (SNX), which made waves when it partnered with Curve Finance to create Curve pools for several of its Synths assets.

Since the cross-chain collaboration was established, the protocol revenue for Synthetix has seen a tremendous increase that coincided with a rise in the price of SNX from $1.56 to its current price at $2.59.

SNX daily price vs. protocol revenue in the past 180 days. Source: Token Terminal

The increase in revenue did not go unnoticed by crypto Twitter, which was quick to point out the rapid turnaround for the platform.

How it all plays out for Synthetix in the long run, is anyone’s guess. For now, the platform is demonstrating that generating revenue and sharing some of that revenue with token holders is one way to retain market share during a market downturn. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

3 reasons why Polygon (MATIC) is up 100%+ during a bear market

Steady adoption and internal growth back MATIC’s 118% gain, even as most altcoins struggle to hold on to their short-term gains.

Unlike bull markets where traders can basically throw a dart at a list of coins to pick one that will go up, bear markets require much more effort to find projects that could perform well over the long-run.

One project that has continued to show signs of mainstream adoption despite the onset of a crypto winter is Polygon (MATIC), a layer-two scaling solution for the Ethereum (ETH) network that is looking to build a sustainable Web3 infrastructure on the top smart contract platform.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.316 on June 18 during the worst of the crypto market sell-off, MATIC has climbed 118% to $0.70 where the price now sits at a major support and resistance level that first appeared in March 2021.

MATIC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons why the long-term outlook for Polygon remains positive include its continued adoption by mainstream entities, the migration of multiple projects to the Polygon network and an increase in the platforms offering liquid staking services for MATIC.

Major adoption announcements

Adoption by influential mainstream companies is one of the best forms of marketing that a blockchain platform can receive as it exposes them to a large pool of potential users.

In the past few months, Polygon has established partnerships with Coca-Cola, which released a pride series NFT collection on the network and Reddit, which announced that it was launching an NFT marketplace on the Polygon network on July 7.

Most recently, it was announced that Polygon has been selected by Disney to be the only blockchain included in the 2022 Disney Accelerator program, a “business development program designed to accelerate the growth of innovative companies from around the world.”

Protocols launch on Polygon

Further evidence of the rising popularity of Polygon as a go-to scaling solution for Ethereum has been the steady migration and integration of projects with the L2 network.

Aside from the recent NFT projects that have migrated to Polygon, other new additions include the permissionless, credit protocol RociFi, and WOO network’s multi-chain decentralized exchange.

MATIC has also seen a growing number of platforms that offer liquid staking for the token which enables holders to earn staking rewards.

Related: Terra projects band together in migration to Polygon ecosystem

Traders expect resistance at $0.75

As for what comes next for MATIC price, market analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Crypto Tony posted the following chart suggesting that the token could head higher toward resistance at the $0.75 level.

MATIC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Twitter

Crypto Tony said,

“Looking for a flip of the EQ up to the range high. Would love to see us consolidate a bit longer underneath this area.”

This outlook was further reinforced by Trader McGavin, who posted the following chart noting that MATIC is “Filling out the ascending triangle and looks ready to breakout in the coming days.”

MATIC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: Twitter

Trader McGavin said,

“A breakout would open up a move to $0.80 and then $1. Ton of positive catalysts over the last few weeks driving this big move off the lows.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Nervos Network (CKB) price posts double-digit gain after Godwoken layer 2 launch

CKB booked a 35%+ gain after the release of its Godwoken L1 solution and the launch of a new NFT marketplace.

Positive price movement during bear markets are notoriously hard to come by due to the non-stop FUD of media and lackadaisical interest from crypto investors.

One crypto that managed to flash green on June 12 is the Nervos Network (CKB), an open blockchain protocol designed for universally accessible decentralized applications (DApps).

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that CKB put on a 50% gain in July after climbing from a low of $0.0033 on June 30 to a daily high of $0.005 on July 12.

CKB/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the positive gains for the Nervos Network include the launch of the network’s layer-2 (L2) solution Godwoken, the integration of the Celer c-Bridge within the Godwoken protocol and the launch of a new nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace on the Nervos mainnet.

Nervos launches a layer-2 solution

The recent price rally for CKB was ignited on June 29 when the protocol announced that its L2 solution “Godwoken” had officially launched on the Nervos Network mainnet.

According to the announcement, Godwoken is an Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Optimistic rollup that allows projects building across the various sectors of the market to easily create and port their DApps to the Nervos Network.

The addition of EVM compatibility also makes it possible for any project launched on Godwoken to be instantly interoperable with other EVM chains, which can help increase their reach and grow their user-base.

Celer cBridge integrates with Godwoken

Prior to the spike in CKB price, the developers announced that Godwoken had been integrated with the Celer cBridge to enable the bridging of certain assets between Nervos and the Ethereum network.

According to the announcement from Celer, the first assets available to bridge between Godwoken and Ethereum are Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Ether, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and Dai (DAI).

Godwoken’s main selling point is that its use “enables developers to employ Ethereum contracts while keeping transactions scalable, fast and low-cost.”

Related: US trademark and copyright offices to study IP impact of NFTs

Nervos launches a new NFT marketplace

Another development that has brought added attention to the Nervos Network was the launch of the Oblivion nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace on the protocol’s mainnet.

Despite a collapse in the prices of NFTs, nonfungible tokens remain a popular buzzword and there is still a lot interest in increasing the adoption of blockchain and NFT technology by traditional business and finance.

In addition to the launch of its first NFT marketplace, Nervos and its L2 solution Godwoken have also welcomed several new decentralized finance platforms including YokaiSwap, which deployed on Godwoken v1, and a cross-chain protocol called JioSwap.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Lido DAO price moves higher as the Ethereum Merge moves a step closer to completion

LDO price books a 45%+ monthly gain as the Ethereum network moves closer to completing its proof-of-stake upgrade.

The upcoming Ethereum (ETH) Merge is one of the most talked-about developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap undergoes the difficult transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). 

One protocol whose fate is largely tied to the successful completion of the Merge is Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking platform that allows users to tap into the value of their assets for use in decentralized finance and earn yield from staking.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since LDO hit a low of $0.42 on June 30, its price has climbed 107.6% to hit a daily high of $0.874 on July 9, but at the time of writing the altcoin has pulled back to $0.65.

LDO/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the sharp turnaround for LDO include the successful Merge on the Sepolia testnet, the continued increase in Ether deposits on the platform and the slow recovery of staked Ether (stETH) price in comparison to Ether’s spot price.

Sepolia testnet merge

Migrating to proof-of-stake has been a challenging process, but it came one step closer to completion on July 6 with the successful Merge of the PoW and PoS chains on Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet.

Following this development, there is only one more Merge trial to conduct on the Goerli testnet, and if that goes down without any major issues the Ethereum mainnet will be next.

Since Lido specializes in providing liquid staking services for Ethereum, each step closer to the full transition to PoS benefits the liquid staking platform because Ether holders who want a less complicated way to stake their tokens can utilize Lido’s services and not have to worry about token lock-ups.

Ether deposits continue to rise

Proof that interest in staking on Lido has continued to climb can be found in data provided by Dune Analytics, which shows an increasing amount of Ether deposited on the protocol.

Ether staked on Lido. Source: Dune Analytics

As shown on the chart above, as of July 7 there were 4.128 million Ether staked through Lido.

Ether staking statistics. Source: Lido DAO

Related: Ethereum testnet Merge mostly successful — ‘Hiccups will not delay the Merge.’

stETH begins to recover

Another factor helping to boost the value of LDO has been the recovery of stETH price, which lost its peg to Ether over the past few months as distressed funds sold their stETH in an attempt to stave of insolvency.

According to data from Dune Analytics, the price of stETH is now trading at about 97.2% of the price of Ether, up from a low of 93.6%, which occurred on June 18.

ETH:stETH price 1-hour chart. Source: Dune Analytics

While stETH has not fully recovered its price parity with Ether, its move in the right direction combined with less selling pressure from forced liquidations appears to have helped restore some investor faith in the token.

This, in turn, has benefited LDO since the protocol is the largest liquid Ether staking provider and issuer of stETH.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

P2E gaming is in a rut, but Axie Infinity (AXS) could rebound for 3 key reasons

AXS could recapture its former glory if market participants view the launch of land staking, increasing activity on the Ronin bridge and upcoming roadmap targets as bullish catalysts.

Play-to-earn gaming was one of the breakout sectors of the cryptocurrency market in 2021 and the trend was led by Axie Infinity (AXS), a mobile, blockchain-based game where users collect, breed, raise and battle nonfungible tokens (NFTs) called Axies for monetary rewards. 

As the market topped and then entered what has become a deep bear market, AXS price retraced from an all-time high near $170 to its current price at $15.20 following several setbacks, including a $600 million hack of the Ronin sidechain that hosts the game. 

AXS/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Currently, the future of P2E gaming remains in question and advocates are watching closely to see if this former unicorn had turned the ship around. Let’s take a look at some of the developments taking place within Axie Infinity and determine whether any of them are bullish for the short and long term.  

The launch of land staking

The most recent development to arise out of the Axie Infinity ecosystem is land stake parcels as a method for earning AXS tokens.

Based on the stats provided by the Ronin Chain explorer, land staking has been popular among holders and at least 87% of each of the different levels of plots have already been staked.

Axie Infinity land statistics. Source: Axie Infinity

In addition to the success of land staking, several land plots recently sold for over 130 Ether (ETH) each, which suggests that the level of interest in the game is still high.

While land owners have been excited about the new income opportunity, some community members have concerns about what effect the daily rewards of 11,194.62 AXS will have on the price of the token as the supply inflates.

The platform also offers AXS staking with a current yield of 72%, but only 38.47% of the current circulating supply is being staked, which indicates that a majority of the supply is available in the open market and could potentially be sold off.

The Ronin bridge reopens

The recent reopening of the Ronin bridge could also be another positive sign for Axie, especially considering that it had been disabled following a $600 million hack in March of this year.

According to Axie Infinity, the assets on the bridge are “fully backed 1:1,” and the project added 11 new validators, circuit breakers and the two external audits were completed. All user funds that were lost have been reimbursed, making members of the community whole.

The reopening of the Ronin bridge and the launch of land staking has had a noticeable effect on the volume transacted, according to data from DappRadar.

Axie Infinity statistics. Source: DappRadar

These developments have also prompted a slight uptick in the number of daily users and transactions on the network, but these figures remain well below the 2021 highs of 744,000 users and 6.7 million transactions.

Related: Battle-hardened Ronin bridge reopens following $600M hack: Finance Redefined

The community responds positively to the current changes

Community reactions to the recent developments have been mostly positive, with many eager to re-engage with the game now that it has finally moved past a few major bumps.

According to early Axie Infinity investor and Cointelegraph contributor Alyssa Exposito, “land staking has brought about a surge of energy that the community needed after we lost a huge amount in the treasury fund.”

Exposito also mentioned the Axie creator program that enables community members to build out games on the software development kit (SDK) as something that is exciting users of the platform, “Especially with the integration of RON as a means to engage and transact on the network.”

Exposito highlighted the ecosystem’s effort to get community members more involved with governance and building on the protocol as the developments that the community is most excited about.

Exposito said,

“I think once people begin to see and take notice of how the project enables and helps fund other creators to build on top of it, it’ll gain more traction on the possibilities of blockchain gaming.”

The main concerns discussed by members of the Axie community revolve around the circulating supply of AXS, how staking rewards affect the circulating supply and price, and the various token lockups and vesting schedules that could lead to large sales and price dumps in the future.

Generally, the protocol has taken the necessary steps to recover from the Ronin hack and it seems to be keeping up to date with the major milestones outlined on its roadmap. Aside from what the project can do internally, its fate is largely tied to the fate of the P2E sector as a whole.

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