January in Review
Recapping the bright green start to 2023 🤑
GM, and welcome to the first 2023 edition of the CoinStats Scoop Monthly Review!🥂 We’ll be covering this year’s explosive, green start to markets with a refresher on the topics we’ve covered this month:
“The Rise of Stablecoins 🏋️♂️” — highlighted CoinStats’ amazing growth and the product features we launched in 2022, covered the crypto demand created due to the rapid growth of stablecoins, and analyzed potential trends & sectors to watch in 2023!
“💚 We've Been Given The Green Light 💚” — covered the market’s incredible rally to start the year, highlighted crypto’s long-term impact, and outlined the growing signs pointing toward a great 2023 for crypto.
“🧙♀️ Echo Bubbling Cauldron” — analyzed the frequently cited “Echo Bubble” and why crypto looks so bullish in 2023, discussed a leading crypto venture capitalist’s views on the current markets, and detailed the everything rally part 2.
“💀 Unironic Power of Memes” — highlighted the ongoing market rally after another strong week, thought through the power of memes and where crypto is headed, covered the usual news, and explored some of the world’s biggest companies' demand for crypto!
Market Overview
The above picture perfectly captures the market’s movements throughout January! 🤑 It’s been an incredible month for cryptocurrencies and the crypto ecosystem at large as the entire market rallied throughout the entire month. 💪
January’s strong momentum enabled our beloved tokens to continue their rally into the first week of February. As we entered the new year, BTC was holding its recent FTX-induced lows at 16.5k, while ETH was hovering around 1.2k. Fast forward some 30 days, and BTC has gained an impressive 47%, while ETH moved 37% upward, leaving them at 23.4k and 1.7k as we enter February! 🥳
It’s worth noting again that with BTC and ETH leading the market, various sectors throughout the crypto industry also continue pushing forward. It’s awesome to watch the development and incredible rallies some sectors and tokens have enjoyed throughout the month, indicating the overall crypto market growth and expansion over the past few years! 🤯 Now, let’s take a look at the impressive sector-wide gains highlighted below:
Majors — SOL + 127%, BNB + 30%, LINK +23%, DOGE +26%, XRP +17%
Alternative L1s — APT +380%, FTM +190%, AVAX +96%, NEAR +87%, HBAR +77%, FLOW + 63%, ATOM +50%, ADA +50%,
Metaverse Gaming — MAGIC +228%, GALA +220%, MANA +158%, ILV +125%, AXS +77%, SAND +87%, APE +55%
Scaling — OP +182%, INJ +176%, SYN +131%, IMX +114%, LRC +108%, MINA +108%, MATIC +56%,
Liquid staking derivatives (LSDs) — SD +295%, LDO +94%, RPL +98%,
DeFi — FXS +140%, CRV +113%, CVX +105%, SNX +78%, COMP +68%, AAVE +71%, SUSHI +53%, YFI +40%, MKR +30%, UNI +27%
Infrastructure — RNDR +281%, AR +89%, FIL +80%, HNT +79%,
NFT Tokens — LOOKS +93%, X2Y2 +272%, XMON +45%
Cosmos — DYDX +176% , OSMO +44%, RUNE +36%,
Dog/Meme Coins — DOGE +26%, FLOKI +218%, BONE +65%,
Before deep diving into the recent market growth, it’s worth realizing how large some of those gains are! Gaining hundreds of percent in merely a month is incredible for any asset! 🤯
While everyone enjoys this excellent market rally, it’s essential to understand whether it’s sustainable or a flash in the pan. So, seeking answers, let’s analyze what potentially led to this month’s rally. Of course, we don’t have all the answers, and this is just our best assumption. First, it’s worth noting that assets can’t go up in a straight line forever, so market corrections like this are healthy and minor pullbacks in token prices are expected as we’ve had a rally in crypto prices for 4+ weeks.💪 As we see it, the ongoing month+ rally was due to a large combination of three main factors highlighted below:
Crypto markets are heavily oversold.
As a result of LUNA’s collapse, which in turn led to FTX’s fraudulent failure, vast amounts of crypto were forcibly sold in the market. Numerous large crypto companies have since filed for bankruptcy, something you do after selling your crypto assets.
A massive amount of short liquidations.
As you can see from the Coinglass chart below, the almost $500 million worth of short liquidations on January 13th led to the market climbing higher. 😱
An improved global macroeconomic outlook.
As mentioned several times before, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have been sinking throughout 2022 amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. However, conditions have been slowly improving in many parts of the world, and inflation has been trending lower since November, driving crypto prices higher!
Regardless of the market’s healthy pullbacks, we agree with Chris - the overall trend is clear: up! 🤑
January’s Noteworthy Developments
E-commerce giant Amazon plans to launch a digital assets enterprise focused on NFTs and Web3 gaming this spring to allow Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs.
Abu-Dhabi-based Venom Foundation & Iceberg Capital partner to launch billion dollars (!!) fund for investing in Web3 applications, including DApps, DeFi, & gaming.
Trading giant Virtu Financial is committed to the crypto market and continues “to view crypto as a long-term growth opportunity.”
The blockchain deployment platform QuickNode raises $60 million for an $800 million valuation.
Crypto infrastructure company Blockstream raises $125M to expand institutional bitcoin mining services.
Binance’s BNB token completes its 22nd quarterly burn, burning 2.064M tokens worth ~$618 million.
Congo’s National Park weathers the COVID storm and layoffs by installing a hydro-powered BTC mining facility that helps the park keep operating, and fund jobs, conservation, and infrastructure.
MetaMask, the world’s most popular crypto wallet, enables users to connect to Lido (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RPL) to stake their ETH and receive liquid staking tokens directly from the staking provider within the Web3 app.
Indonesia plans to launch a national crypto exchange next year.
Injective (INJ), a Proof-of-Stake L1 blockchain that brings Cosmos and Ethereum interoperability to the premier finance applications, has raised $150 million for a new ecosystem fund to support developers building on the Cosmos network.
Ava Labs, the AVAX token and blockchain developer, partners with Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) to bring blockchain technology to the masses.
Polygon’s MATIC completes an upgrade, addressing transaction fee spikes and chain reorganization issues that previously affected the chain.
Shibarium Network (SHIB) introduces its Shiba Inu Layer 2 scaling network.
Global investment bank Goldman Sachs ranks BTC as 2023’s best-performing asset. 🤯
Demand for Crypto Grows
As mentioned in our last issue - Everyone Wants Crypto Exposure - we’ve been making this clear throughout the CoinStats Scoop history, irrespective of prices going up or down! Of course, we prefer when prices are up, but the trend of companies increasingly wanting crypto exposure continues regardless of what the charts show weekly. 🤑
January was another impressive month for a growing number of the world’s largest corporations expanding to crypto! Amazon and Goldman Sachs, two of the most reputable companies across the globe, are the headliners; however, the complete list of corporations embracing crypto throughout January includes:
Amazon plans to launch a digital assets enterprise focused on NFTs and Web3 gaming this spring to allow Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs; Amazon also partners with AVAX’s Ava Labs to bring “blockchain to the masses.”
Indonesia plans to launch a national crypto exchange.
E-commerce giant Shopify announces support for AVAX NFTs.
The luxury car giant Porsche launches its first NFT collection.
Square Enix, the gaming company giant & creator of Final Fantasy, “remains committed to developing their Web3 strategies” despite a turbulent year.
Abu-Dhabi-based Venom Foundation & Iceberg Capital partner to launch a billion-dollar fund for crypto investing.
Goldman Sachs ranks BTC as 2023’s best-performing asset.
Crypto is the “longest-term play” for BNY Mellon, one of the oldest and most influential U.S. investment banks that confirms its commitment to digital assets.
Mastercard, a dominant global payments provider, partners with Polygon’s MATIC to launch a Web3-focused incubator to help artists connect with fans.
HashKey Capital, a Singapore-based global asset manager specializing in digital assets, raises $500 million for its third crypto fund.
Alchemy Pay, a popular fiat-to-crypto bridge provider, becomes an Official Service Provider of Visa’s Third Party Agent Program, enabling easier on/off ramps for Alchemy’s NFT Checkout service.
Ondo Finance, a new DeFi protocol, announces they’ve tokenized U.S. Treasuries and investment bonds, enabling crypto users to purchase them on-chain.
While we at CoinStats have never doubted the amazingly bright future of crypto, it’s always great to get some reassurance from some of the world’s most reputable and longest-standing companies. 🤯 As mentioned several times before, focusing on crypto’s long-term impact is paramount as numerous companies are still in development and have yet to form their crypto strategies. The future continues to look as bright as ever! 🌞
Tweets & Memes
Stablecoins have seen a slow but sure growth, reflecting an increasing demand for investing in crypto assets.
ETH fundamentals continue improving.
Solana’s NFT ecosystem experiences ongoing explosive growth.
This is a reminder of how fast crypto markets can recover.
The best way to end the month is with an optimistic outlook from our CEO!
Wrapping Up
January has been an amazing month for all of us and our crypto assets! As noted above, the month has provided us with a clear market trend for the weeks and months ahead: Up! 💪
While minor pullbacks in token prices are expected, the outlook for 2023 continues to improve drastically, and the long-term future of crypto 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! 😎