M3TA Recap: January 23 – January 29, 2023
New (lunar) year, new green week. DeFi tokens led the surge, BTC surpassed $23K, latest news indicating controlled inflation despite negative economic reports of December 2022. Less FUD, more action!
Top performers (7D)
Vela Exchange - DXP: +216.9%
Price as of time of writing: DXP/USDC - 3.0600
The surge of DXP tokens came ahead of the highly-anticipated release of the beta version Vela Exchange (DEX) on Arbitrum. The beta will be open to registered testers with early access on January 31st (today) and will be accessible to the general public from February 7th.
Vela Exchange rebranded from the original Dexpools, which was formerly built on Ethereum, in September 2022. $DXP holders have been encouraged to claim their $VELA on a 1:1 basis ever since. The exchange focuses on DeFi products and services with the best of both CEX and DEX functionalities, helping investors avoid slippage and frontrunning.
Platypus Finance - PTP: +163.5%
Price as of time of writing: PTP/USDT - 0.1600
Platypus Finance is hosting an airdrop event for its users. Hummus Exchange, a decentralized AMM for stable cryptocurrency trading on the Metis blockchain (a Platypus-authorized fork), will reserve 10% of its total HUM supply for vePTP token holders, which is to be delivered bi-weekly over two years.
To receive the airdrop, users must lock their vePTP, which explains the surge in PTP value last week.
CANTO - CANTO: +150.2%
Price as of time of writing: CANTO/USDT - 0.46000
Canto is a Layer-1 blockchain which also has their vision built towards DeFi space. Among the 3 main playgrounds Canto has explored so far is the Canto DEX.
The increased trading on Canto DEX ($167M in 7D volume) is likely due to the proposed launch of Canto's Contract Secured Revenue (CSR), a fee-splitting model for the network. By the new model’s rule, smart contract developers are to receive part of the transaction fees in the form of NFTs. Therefore, developers are incentivized to build more attractive products, leading to higher revenue and usage for the Canto network, ultimately benefiting the CANTO token.
Conflux - CFX: +137.3%
Price as of time of writing: CFX/USDT - 0.0600
Conflux Network is the only government-endorsed permissionless blockchain network in China.
The Conflux native token (CFX) experienced a surge in value following the protocol's integration with the Chinese app, Little Red Book. On January 24th, Little Red Book announced its integration with Conflux, enabling its users to create their own NFTs.
Seedify NFT Space - SNFTS: +112%
Price as of time of writing: SNFTS/BUSD - 0.005730
Seedify is currently operating a $SMFTS staking pool that offers rewards up to 40% APR until January 30th, 2023 (yesterday), contributing to the recent upward trend in the $SNFTS price. After the aforementioned date, $SNFTS will implement a burning mechanism and new staking pools with reduced APR will be made available.
Top losers (7D)
SONM - SNM: -31.5%
Price as of time of writing: SNM/BUSD - 1.0538
StakeWise - SWISE: -20.9%
Price as of time of writing: SWISE/WETH - 0.0000955451
Crypterium - CRPT: -17.2%
Price as of time of writing: CRPT/USDT - 0.1455
Geist Finance - GEIST: -16.7%
Price as of time of writing: GEIST/USDT - 0.008174
AscendEx - ASD: -15.2%
Price as of time of writing: ASD/USDT - 0.05788
The sudden increase in demand for these tokens, accompanied by their similar characteristics, suggests that their price patterns could be the result of a pump-and-dump scheme. The poor performance of the week may be a result of market manipulators dumping the tokens.
News Highlight
Aave Community Approves Deployment of V3 on Ethereum
CoinDesk - January 25, 2023 at 9:49 AM UTC
All AAVE token holders have voted in favor of activating V3 of the leading decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Ethereum, with the vote ending on Jan 25, 2023 (last Wednesday) and the deployment issued on Jan 27 (last Friday).
The most supplied and borrowed asset on Aave V3 as of press time is ETH (7320 ETH supplied, 5000 borrowed).
The new iteration will bring new features such as "eMode" - a new loan collaterization mechanism that helps reduce gas fees and increase network’s speed - but with some limitations. And the initial interest rate models will follow those on V2 Ethereum assets.
Macro
The stock market saw a decline last week with the S&P 500 dropping by 0.7%. This decrease came on the heels of an earlier near 3% loss due to negative economic reports released just before Lunar New Year approaches.
Retail sales decreased by 1.1% in December, which is the largest drop in a year after a disappointing November. This could hinder consumers from spending due to declining real income and a job market that is worsening.
The decline in industrial production continued for the third month with a decrease of 1.3% in manufacturing production following November's 1.1% drop.
However, there is some relief. As the economy is weaker, and as producer prices fell by 0.5% in December, which was more than expected, the annual interest rate was brought down from 7.3% in November to 6.2%.
The fourth quarter of 2022 saw an increase in GDP by 2.9% which was just an inch higher than the expected 2.8%.
The reopening of China's economy after three years of strict COVID-19 controls could potentially boost the global economy, but also may cause inflation to rise. China is the world's second-largest economy and a large consumer of commodities, which could result in increased global prices for fuel, industrial metals, and food in 2023.
Micro
Decrypt - January 27, 2023
The price increase may be due to Polygon's announced partnerships and launches over the last month, as well as anticipation of its zero-knowledge EVM mainnet launch.
CryptoSlate - January 25, 2023 at 7:41 PM UTC
50 active developers on Aptos, and 31,000 daily active users according to TokenTerminal.
Aptos' current price rally aligned with "Xangle Blockchain Foundation Week" in South Korea which played a significant promotion role for the token.
Aptos’ strong focus on the South Korean market is evident with moves like Korean language white paper release, partnership with Npixel for METAPIXEL, and upcoming world tour hackathon in Seoul.
The Block - January 26, 2023 at 11:43 AM UTC
Daily transaction volumes on Optimism, a scaling solution for Ethereum, have declined 70% to 238,000 transactions after a peak of almost 800,000 on Jan 12, 2023 - according to Blockscan.
The drop in activity coincided with the end of the Optimism Quest incentive program, an NFT-minting mechanism that requires users to do simple tasks such as ‘reading about different apps and completing a short quiz and task’.
The surge in on-chain activity during the Quest was reportedly associated with speculations on a second airdrop by the Optimism team - according to The Block Research.
M3TA Insights:
Last week was a great week for the cryptocurrency market. The Federal Reserve published news that the Producer Price Index (PPI) had decreased, indicating inflation was well under control. This resulted in a non-stop increase in the price of Bitcoin, surpassing the $23,000 mark. Other cryptocurrencies followed the steps, creating a lush green market, with many investors hoping for the leading token’s price to reach $25,000.
However, it is reasonable to wait for the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, set to be released on February 2nd (this Thursday), before making any investment decisions to avoid potential losses.
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