GM and welcome to another CoinStats Scoop! đ« Hereâs an overview of this weekâs newsletter:
The usual broad market update with insights to outperforming tokens & thing to watch
Examining ETHâs strength & its strong reflexivity properties for next cycle
Updating you on the impactful news and developments of the week
Reading & thinking through crypto wallets future and how they can become superapps
Wrapping things up with takeaways of the week & what to watch moving forward
But, before we get to heart of things, one more quick update: CoinStats is now offering zero (0) fee purchases of crypto to help you get through the bear market!!
Market Overview
As you can see from the broad market snapshot, the crypto markets were relatively stagnant this week as the total market inched lower to $887B while BTCâs dominance gained/lost exactly 0% this week. The result of that for the majors of BTC & ETH were extremely modest gains of 1% for BTC and 2% for ETH.
While the majors may have been quiet, per usual, there were fireworks to be had across various crypto sectors once again highlighting how much the ecosystem has developed in recent years. Continuing with the recent tread of market participants embracing DeFi since FTXâs collapse, some DeFi tokens were among the strongest this week. Decentralized trading protocols SNX (+14%), and GMX (+11.5%) led the way this week topped only by FXSâs (+23%) continued strength on the back of adoption for its ETH liquid staking token frxETH. Rounding out the DeFi gains were a few OG protocols as YFI (+5%) and COMP (+4%) enjoyed modest gains! đ€
As mentioned, several different sectors rallied this week and one of them, the metaverse, was back en vogue (at least for the week)! đ€«Â The leader of the pack was everyoneâs introduction to the metaverse hype in crypto Axie Infinity as the AXS token gained a strong 19%. Following in Axieâs footsteps was a the currently developing Illuvium (+21%) which describes itself as, âan upcoming open-world exploration, NFT creature collector and autobattler game built on the Ethereum blockchainâ. One final rallying metaverse token this week was non other than Yuga/BAYC backed APE (+13%) as it followed the metaverse rally along with strength from its long-awaited release of token staking! đ€
A few other notable outperforming tokens this week including the community owned NFT marketplace LOOKS (+29%), Binance/CZ supported non-custodial wallet TWT (+11%), and the indexing protocol The Graph (GRT +10%) as it continued strength after recently announcing partnerships with MATIC & SOL to index and integrate their blockchain data.
Moving forward to next week, itâs anyones best guess as to where the market will go but itâll surely be led by U.S. inflation data for November that is released on Tuesday 12/13. Even if markets selloff on a bad inflation number, itâs important to always remember that conviction, focus, and a long-term view are always paramount! đ
News & Developments
Below are some of the most impactful announcements over the past week as adoption never stops! Numerous announcements, rising interest, and product development continue from some of the worldâs biggest companies that plants the seeds for the next bull run and wider crypto adoption.
One of the worldâs largest and most respected investment banks, Goldman Sachs, plans to spend âtens of millions of dollars on crypto firms whose valuations have been hitâ after FTXâs implosion
Chainlinkâs (LINK) early access staking, version 0.1, is officially live on Ethereum mainnet
Ethereum developers aim for March 2023 for Shanghai upgrade that will allow staked ETH to be withdrawn
Winamp, a Windows operating system media player with ~80M users, launches support for ETH & MATIC music NFTs as it embraces crypto
Cryptoâs most popular hardware wallet maker, Ledger, announces the new Ledger Stax from the creator of the original iPod & Ledgerâs CEO details their future with plans to become a publicly traded company
Starbucks, global coffee brand, officially launches their beta test of MATIC-based NFTs as it rolls out its crypto integrated loyalty rewards program
Binance adds SOL and other SOL-based tokens to their custody solutions
OpenSea partners with other NFT platforms including Zora, Manifold, Foundation, SuperRare, and Nifty to transfer the âOperator Filter Registryâ to a multisig that forms the Creator Ownership Research Institute (CORI)
Tranchess, a liquid staking provider for the Binance (BNB) ecosystem, is expanding to ETH and launching qETH: a ETH liquid staking token
Strike, the most prominent BTC Lightning scaling solution developer, releases their latest update that enables U.S. users to send instant & low-cost payments to the African countries of Nigeria, Kenya, & Ghana through a partnership with African payments platform Bitnob
ETH Strength & Reflexivity
With markets remaining relatively stagnant this week, as we mentioned above, itâs important to realize that sometimes stagnation is a strength. Crypto, and markets broadly, tend to create bottoms and then (eventually) move upwards when bad news stops forcing prices lower. As we all know, thereâs been an abundance of bad news in crypto recently, but one token, ETH, has remained steady despite that news.
ETH certainly hasnât gained the way holders have wanted in recent months, but thereâs been positive developments despite that fact! đȘÂ ETH has held its recent levels of 1.1k-1.3k incredibly strong in recent months despite some of the worst news to ever hit the crypto market. Sure, this is an extremely optimistic view, but itâs worth noting that and investigating why that might be!
As mhonkasalo says above, and something that weâve noted numerous times in the past, ETHâs future is incredibly bright thanks to the fundamental changes it went through with The Merge. As expected, transactions and on-chain activity have been slow in recent months but ETH is still barely increasing its supply.
ETHâs supply change since The Merge
ETHâs supply inflation if The Merge didnât occur
As you can see, ETHâs supply change as a result of The Merge cannot be overstated. The difference in ETH supply results in a reduction of 1,036,405 ETH issued. If those ETH were issued under proof-of-work, the result of that would be another ~$1.3B worth of sell pressure of ETH!! đ€ŻÂ Instead, ETH transition to proof-of-stake and removed the forced miner selling which has resulted in its strength around the 1.2k level. Now, imagine the affect on ETH price when its issuance is deflationary and markets are booming again!! đ€
Read of the Week
âTalking to the Protocolâ â Gaby Goldberg & Sophie Fujiwara
TCG Cryptoâs (very) non-exhaustive list of web3 messaging today
This week, our read comes from two investors of the TCG Crypto fund. TCG Crypto continues to be at the forefront of crypto investing, writing, and thinking so Gabby and Sophieâs words carry a heavy weight. As the subtitle, âan exploration into a new communication layerâ, suggests, the article is an awesome read on the future of communication platforms and wallets in crypto.
âEvery on-chain action is a message in some formâŠevery interaction we have on-chain transfers data in the form of messagesâŠwith a comunication layer built in, wallets become superappsâŠwallets are, arguably, the de facto browser for web3, and they serve as the unlock for consumer experiences across token-gated sites, marketplaces, communitities, dApps, and moreâŠlocalizing all of these interactions in the wallet would make it a superappâŠwith an integrated communication layer, wallets become inboxes, and the inbox becomes the nexus of identity.â
The core focus of the article explores the question of, âwhat more can we get from a crypto wallet?â The answer appears to be wallets as superapps. Gabby and Sophie envision a future where wallets compound and enhance the benefits of individuals, brands, businesses, protocols, and communities that all interact with each other through a crypto wallet.
Reading this once again reinforces the incredible future growth potential that crypto has at its fingertips đ€ŻÂ Its easy to get lost in the day-to-day charts and chaos that occurs within crypto, but TCG once again reminds us to zoom out and focus on the long-term! The evolution of wallets as messaging and social protocols is its earliest stages and is added to the growing list of verticals that are only just beginning to develop throughout the crypto ecosystem! đ€
Tweets & Memes
Arbitrum users & TVL continue their strong growth in recent weeks!
NFT collection DigiDaigaku is boldly offering a free NFT mint during the Super Bowl đš
We donât mean to toot our own horn, but come on!?!? Zero fee crypto buys!!
Wrapping Up
Alright, with that reminder that CoinStats is now offering zero fee purchases of crypto weâll conclude this weekâs edition of the CoinStats Scoop! đŠ
This week we covered the market remaining relatively stagnant while DeFi & metaverse related tokens rally, talked about ETHâs supply change since the merge & its strong reflexivity next cycle, read about the future catalyst & growth of wallets as superapps, and covered the usual news & developments of the week! đȘ
As usual, CoinStats will continue to guide you through the world of crypto and DeFi. Weâll see you next week for another edition of CoinStats Scoop.