GM, and welcome to the fourth edition of the CoinStats Scoop Monthly Review of 2023! 🥂 Before a dive into April’s exciting developments, here’s a refresher on what we’ve covered throughout the month:
“🍹 Glorious Comeback of NFTs” — covered real-world assets (RWAs) and their potential to drive DeFi to a trillion dollar+ market cap, delved into the recent NFT developments and the future prospects, & provided the market update along with the usual weekly coverage
“😎 This Doge Eat Doge World” — detailed Dogecoin’s big week as Elon Musk briefly replaced the Twitter logo with the DOGE logo, covered OpenSeaPro’s launch & the NFT marketplace wars, discussed the power of crypto ownership & provided the usual market update
“🌟 We're ETHernal” — delved into another green week for the crypto market, updated the usual top news, broke down ETH’s recent Shapella upgrade and its corresponding price action, and discussed the power of memes and how they drive crypto
“🍿 Crypto Chaos: Grab Your Popcorn!” — provided the usual market overview with updates on the noteworthy developments, broke down the current NFT market and its bright future, and explored the virality of memes and tokens gaining mindshare
Market Review
In our March monthly review, we highlighted how the purpose of cryptocurrency was reiterated by several banking collapses. We also noted how it underscored the original reason Bitcoin was created.
In a surprising turn of events, another high-profile banking collapse occurred at the end of April, reigniting the same sentiment. As fears about the health of the entire U.S. banking system reemerge, the long-term future of BTC, ETH, and cryptocurrency at large has once again significantly improved.
While the future of the banking sector and overall markets remains uncertain in the short to mid-term, it's clear that the long-term benefits favor cryptocurrency. 😤 Short-term price fluctuations are expected, but the long-term signal and prospects for crypto adoption have never looked brighter. Cryptocurrencies were designed as a viable alternative to traditional financial systems, and this trend is likely to continue in the long run.
BTC and ETH prices remained relatively flat throughout April, entering and exiting around the same price levels of approximately $28.5k and $1.85k, respectively. The leading cryptocurrencies' prices continued hovering just below the psychological levels of $30k and $2k for BTC and ETH.
It yet remains to be seen if these levels will hold in May. We'll closely monitor the market to provide updates as the situation unfolds. Stay tuned!
Despite BTC & ETH closing April essentially where they started, many tokens performed well. The crypto market has grown so much that catalysts and narratives can positively affect token prices, even when BTC and ETH remain relatively flat. This week, several tokens stood out for their strong performance, aside from the current meme coin frenzy. These tokens include:
RNDR +60%, INJ +53%, PENDLE +19%, RDNT +11%, WOO +19%, HNT +19%, ICP +11%, ARB +7%, SOL +5%, BLUR +5% & RPL +4%
April’s Noteworthy Developments
Ticketmaster launches a new token-gating feature allowing artists to provide NFT holders with fan rewards, such as early ticket access, custom seat selection, and customized travel packages
EigenLayer, the hotly anticipated protocol enabling Ethereum restaking, raises $50 million with a token valuation of $500 million
Orderly Network, the decentralized trading infrastructure protocol based on NEAR blockchain, raises new funding at a valuation of $200 million
Fidelity, the US-based asset management giant, continues expanding crypto operations by building out a token and crypto-specific research team
ConsenSys, the leading ETH development company, announces their zkEVM, renamed Linea, is now live on testnet and available for all users
Bitcoin miners report the highest monthly revenues since May 2022
Researchers at Citi Bank, one of the largest banks in the United States, say tokenized securities market could reach $4 trillion by 2030
Crypto venture capital funds Re7 Capital and Republic Crypto partner to launch RxR Opportunities Fund with $100 million funds to invest in liquid crypto tokens
Ava Labs, the team behind AVAX, introduces Avalanche Evergreen Subnets designed to enable financial and corporate institutions to access and build applications on top of Avalanche
Blockchain infrastructure provider Layer Zero Labs raises $120 million at a valuation of $3 billion
DeFi Hub Nibiru Chain startup raises new funds at a valuation of $100 million
Twitter and EToro partner to launch crypto trading offered directly to Twitter users, EToro to provide Twitter users with crypto assets' real-time prices
Uniswap Labs receives Apple’s approval for its iOS mobile wallet launch
Metalpha, a Hong Kong-based digital asset manager, is raising $100 million to launch a licensed service in Hong Kong to allow investors to access GrayScale’s digital asset trusts comprising BTC, ETH & many other tokens
London Stock Exchange unit plans to start clearing Bitcoin futures and options
Binance completes Binance Chain’s BNB token's 23rd quarterly burn; this time, the exchange burned 2 million tokens worth around $674 million
Bitcoin financial services firm Unchained Capital raises $60 million to build BTC custody solutions and onboard institutions
Injective (INJ), the Cosmos-based L1 chain, partners with global technology conglomerate Tencent to support builders on Injective
The European Parliament votes in favor of a new crypto licensing regime, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)
Square Enix, the massive game developer behind Final Fantasy, partners with Elixir to bring Web3 games to mainstream audiences
Merit Circle (MC) and Avalanche (AVAX) partner to announce a new “sovereign network focused on gaming”
Societe General, a French bank, launches a euro stablecoin on Ethereum 🤯
PEPE & Memecoins Steal Attention
As you probably know, PEPE has fueled absolute insanity in the meme-coin land! The token was launched only 17 days ago, on April 14th, and has since exploded to a market cap of over $500 million. This barely two-week-old token has already attracted more than 76,000 holders, with the number of holders continuing to climb.
It's hard to describe just how crazy these numbers are, given the short period. The total number of times PEPE tokens have been bought, sold, or transferred to other wallets is quickly approaching 500,000. 😮
The "meme-coin season" has quickly overtaken PEPE's mind-bending success, with everyone trying to find "the next PEPE." However, it's worth noting that trying to replicate PEPE's success is an impossible task, and countless copycat tokens are likely to go to zero quickly! While PEPE's success has been incredible, most meme coins ultimately lose value, causing losses for investors. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped the market from embracing the meme-coin season, as several newly launched tokens have already reached market caps of $50 or even $100 million.
Participating in the meme coin frenzy is entertaining, but remember that most new token launches are not investments but purely speculative gambling. Degen responsibly, folks. 🖖
Solana’s Big Fundamental Month
Since FTX's fraudulent collapse, the Solana community, dedicated developers, and SOL holders have been diligently working to rebuild the ecosystem. Despite being erroneously associated with FTX, Solana has been steadily and persistently working to restore its ecosystem. It's worth noting that Solana and FTX are not affiliated in any way, and hundreds of dedicated developers are working to drive the ecosystem forward. 💪
Throughout April, the Solana community's commitment was clearly visible, as numerous announcements significantly increased the future value of the Solana ecosystem. Here are the results:
Helium (HNT), the decentralized wireless protocol, completed its migration to Solana
Boba Guys, a popular US-based drink retailer, is building its on-chain loyalty program on Solana
Google Cloud’s startup accelerator features Solana
State compression, drastically reducing NFTs' minting cost, went live
Saga, Solana's Mobile Android smartphone, is available for delivery
Render (RNDR), the decentralized, distributed GPO network, migrated its token to Solana
The minting of Mad Lads was highly successful and topped NFT volume trading across all collections, including NFT collections on ETH
Solana’s newly launched localized fee market performed perfectly under the high demand for Mad Lads NFT mints
Tweets & Memes
Vitalik made the inaugural transaction for Polygon’s newly launched zkEVM 💪
DeFi continues to gain a larger market share over its centralized counterparts 💪
Resistance is futile, as the future of crypto has never looked brighter 🌞
Wrapping Up
April was another busy month for the crypto ecosystem, with builders and market participants eyeing fundamental improvements to collectively push the crypto space towards more global adoption. 💪
While BTC & ETH prices have remained relatively stable, Solana's improving fundamentals and meme coins like PEPE stole the show!
The outlook for 2023 continues to improve drastically, and crypto's long-term future has never looked brighter! As usual, CoinStats will continue to guide you through the world of crypto and DeFi. We'll see you on Monday for another edition of CoinStats Scoop! 😎