Market Overview
GM and welcome to this week's CoinStats Scoop! ✨ As you can see below, broad market sentiment remained relatively flat this week as the total crypto market cap inched up close to 1%. While the broad market, and BTC specifically, may have endured a relatively calm week, the ongoing trend of specific tokens and se
ctors outperforming BTC & ETH continued! Grab some coffee or Vitalik-endorsed tea and let’s dive in! ☕
So, while BTC price remained relatively constant this week, there were several tokens that really grew this week! 🤑 ATOM (+17%) and its associated ecosystem tokens such as EVMOS (+12%) and OSMO (+6%) continued the strong push that they started a few weeks ago. Polygon’s MATIC (+9.5%) joined the ongoing L2 narrative led by Arbitrum’s release of its Nitro upgrade. This has resulted in Arbitrum ecosystem tokens such as GMX (+44%) gaining again this week as excitement about L2s heats up before the Merge.
Speaking of the Merge, liquid ETH staking solution tokens LDO (+24%) and RPL (+10%) were among the tokens that enjoyed a green week! DeFi tokens also had a strong week on the heels of ETH (+6.5%) continuing its push upwards as AAVE (+8%), UNI (+8%), and LINK (+10%) all increased. We’re now just 10 days away from one of crypto’s most significant events, so market participants should be cautious of increased volatility in asset prices before the Merge, as macro headlines continue influencing crypto markets, and the largest holders of various tokens position themselves ahead of the Merge. 🐼
News & Developments
Below are some of the most impactful announcements over the week that indicate crypto’s rising demand across a broad swath of institutions, protocols, corporations, and legacy companies. Announcements, interest, and product developments continue, planting seeds for the next bull run and wider crypto adoption.
Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, launches full-service, in-app support for NFT display and verification shown natively in Facebook and Instagram
Limit Break, the parent company behind the DigiDaigaku NFTs that exploded onto the scene this week, raises $200M as they expand operations to build up their crypto game
Alexis Ohanian, the famed venture capitalist that founded Reddit, is raising $177.6M for liquid token investments via his Seven Seven Six fund
Former Galaxy Digital & Genesis executives partner to raise $500M for their new crypto fund
Animoca Brands continues their funding push as it accelerates expansion into the crypto gaming and NFT space by raising another $100M
Proof Collective, the company that created popular NFT collections Moonbirds & PROOF passes raises $50M
Blockchain gaming platform Xterio raises $40M
Ticketmaster partners with FLOW blockchain to distribute tickets as NFTs for select events as their pilot program sees 5M+ tickets minted over 6 months
Institutional infrastructure provider Fireblocks launches support for Solana ecosystem
OpenSea confirms their commitment to only supporting ETH PoS NFTs after the Merge
SUDO & XMON
Crypto has a unique ability to produce vertical lines on charts that other asset classes can only dream of. Of course, some vertical lines are far from organic, but some are real and the result of fundamental improvements and organic demand. This week we saw a vertical line for the token XMON.
XMON’s jump in price from the weekly low of about 26.7k to as high as 40k was the result of an announcement from the NFT marketplace sudoswap. Sudoswap is an NFT marketplace that sets itself apart from competitors such as OpenSea and LooksRare by being “a concentrated liquidity AMM protocol for NFTs.” It provides a service similar to what Uniswap does for tokens. XMON’s rapid price appreciation was the result of market participants rushing to buy the token as sudoswap revealed the distribution of their governance token. This resulted in 42% of SUDO's supply being airdropped to XMON token holders.
As we wrote in the Market Overview section, there are numerous verticals in the broad crypto ecosystem that are gaining attention and price appreciation outside of the usual BTC and various L1s. NFTs and protocols such as sudoswap that enhance their liquidity and use, are in the nascent stages of their development, about to make a significant impact on the crypto market. These developments are exciting as they enhance the ability of crypto to create demand throughout a growing number of sectors. This in turn provides a relative price floor for ETH and benefits the crypto world overall! Here at CoinStats, we’re excited for the continuous growth of SUDO and the entirety of NFTs as an asset class, with more to come in that regard soon. 🤐
Read of the Week
“Is The Merge Trade Back On?” — Nansen’s The Map and the Territory
“With a week to go before what many have called the most complex and ambitious technical feat in blockchain history, crypto writ large and Ethereum-related assets in particular are shrugging off significant stock market pessimism and creeping upwards – even as the global economy looks increasingly fragile…If a particular asset had a strong narrative and/or rising metrics such as TVL prior to current macro headwinds, it can still catch a healthy pump, carried higher under the wings of ETH.”
Nansen’s display of ETH leaving exchanges as people prepare for the Merge
If that quote seems familiar, it is extremely similar to what we’ve been writing and thinking about the market in recent weeks. Undoubtedly, there are macroeconomic concerns and headlines that impact the crypto market, but there are also numerous tokens and sectors that are shrugging off broad uncertainty and rallying ahead of the Merge on strong fundamental improvements. Of course, things can always change quickly, but following sectors and tokens that are displaying relative strength and have catalysts behind them such as the Cosmos ecosystem, liquid staking tokens, and the Arbitrum ecosystem is a strong bet in uncertain times!
Tweets & Memes
So, uh, Jump Crypto has a lot of ETH and continues accumulating it
On the heels of Arbitrum’s Nitro upgrade, Ethereum L2s continue reducing fees
Dive down the rabbit hole of learning to find and spot alpha with this great thread
Wrapping Up
We're excited to see so many verticals just ahead of the big event. We'd advise paying special attention to players that boost NFT liquidity and provide utility. Don't snooze on the opportunities to invest in projects with a vision, and we'll see you next time around in our weekly overview. 🤠
Nice
Very nice project