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AI Tokens Record Lowest Weekly Volume Since January – A Sign Of Waning Interest?

AI (artificial intelligence) tokens were one of the most promising assets in the cryptocurrency market at the beginning of 2023. One of the major drivers of this was the launch of ChatGPT – an AI-based chatbot – in late 2022, which propelled some AI-related cryptocurrencies to substantial gains.

However, the interest in this set of cryptocurrencies appears to be cooling, with data research firm Kaiko revealing a significant decline in trading activity for the AI-related tokens.

Lowest Weekly Trading Volume For AI Tokens

AI-related tokens registered their lowest weekly trading volume since January 2023, according to a recent data report from Kaiko. In this report, the research platform looked at the trading volume of six of the top seven AI tokens, including FET, INJ, ROSE, AGIX, RNDR, and GRT.

AI Tokens

This notable decrease in trading activity suggests a decline in attention from investors since the AI token frenzy peaked in January. And this appears to be reflected in the price performances of many AI-related cryptocurrencies.

The Graph (GRT), the largest AI token in the market, was one of the top gainers at the start of 2023, surging by roughly 122% to reach a yearly high of $0.2323 on February 7. However, the price of the GRT token has since plummeted, with a 51% decline from the 2023 peak.

Can ChatGPT & OpenAI Do It Again?

As mentioned earlier, the surge of interest in AI tokens was partly driven by the launch of ChatGPT. However, there has not been a similar effect on the AI and big-data crypto economy following the launch of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project and WLD token.

On July 24, 2023, Altman, the CEO of OpenAI – the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT – rolled out his crypto product, releasing the World ID development kit and the WLD token. 

The WLD token soared more than 85% to reach an all-time high of $3.3 on the day of launch, according to CoinGecko data. However, the cryptocurrency’s price has declined by over 31% since hitting this peak.

Although there has been enthusiasm around the launch of Worldcoin, the project – especially its technology – has also been met with some skepticism. Notably, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin voiced his concern over the project’s iris-scanning hardware and biometric data collection practices.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin looks set to face some regulatory scrutiny, with the UK’s data regulator Information Commissioner Office (ICO) already making inquiries. France’s privacy regulator CNIL has also questioned the legality of the project’s biometric data collection.

While the Worldcoin project and the WLD token seem to be gaining some traction at the moment, it remains to be seen how they will impact the AI and big-data crypto economy. As of this writing, the WLD token changes hand at $2.27, with a 6.8% price increase in the past day.

AI Tokens

 

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Sui Foundation Dumps MovEX After Contract Violation

Sui Foundation has ended its relationship with the decentralized exchange MovEX following a breach of contract. The foundation alleged that MovEX had released a significant amount of SUI tokens – subject to a contractual lockup – into circulation.

Sui Foundation Terminates Relationship With MovEX For Unlocking 2.5 Million Tokens

On July 26, 2023, the Sui Foundation released a blog post, explaining the network’s token supply and the essence of its token release schedule. The foundation also announced the termination of its relationship with MovEX after breaching its token lockup contract. 

According to the foundation, early contributors to the network received SUI tokens that were subject to a lockup period – only to be released based on a preset schedule. MovEX was one of the recipients of this token allocation, collecting 2.5 million SUI tokens as payment for its contribution to the exchange product DeepBook. 

However, the decentralized exchange (DEX) was found to have violated the token lockup by moving its entire allotment of tokens in three (625,000 SUI) transactions to three separate wallets. 

At the time, these transactions raised questions about the Sui Foundation, with some tweets implying that the foundation “intentionally misrepresented” the token emissions schedule. The foundation denied these claims and has further clarified in its latest post that it didn’t consent to the three transactions by MovEX. 

As a result of these events, the Sui Foundation has cut off ties with the decentralized exchange. It also confirmed that no additional SUI tokens will be distributed to MovEX, nor will the DEX remain a contributor to DeepBook.

“By July 3, upon Sui Foundation’s request, MovEX had moved the entire allotment of 2.5M tokens to a wallet at a qualified custodian who will release them according to the contractual lockup schedule in compliance with the previously released token emissions schedule,” the foundation noted.

According to the analytics dashboard Token Unlocks, a total of 646.25 million SUI tokens have been unlocked so far, with the next unlocking event expected to take place on July 31.

Sui Foundation

MovEX Addresses Community On Situation

On Thursday, July 27, the team behind MovEX released a statement on Twitter, addressing its community on the situation. In the tweet, the project acknowledged that it received the SUI tokens – as claimed by the Sui Foundation.

Related Reading: Short-Lived Hype: Worldcoin (WLD) Signups Dwindle Less Than A Week After Launch

MovEX also stated that it transferred its entire allotment of SUI tokens to “custodian and non-custodian wallets”. While confirming that it has moved the tokens back to a qualified custodian, the DeFi protocol claims to understand the decision of the Sui Foundation.

MovEX is a decentralized exchange native to the Sui network. According to the protocol’s whitepaper, it combines an automated market maker (AMM) and order book to create a hybrid liquidity DEX.

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Render (RNDR) Price Surges 32% In Single Week – Here’s Why

Render (RNDR) has been on an upward trajectory, recording some of the biggest profits in the crypto market this past week. This show of strength by the metaverse cryptocurrency coincides with a busy week dominated by the bulls. 

However, it appears that the RNDR price increase is not a result of general market sentiment. So, what could be driving up the value of Render?

RNDR Gains 32% In One Week – Price Overview

After a period of sideways movement, the price of RNDR has chosen to go upward to become one of the biggest gainers this past week. According to CoinGecko data, this coin has ballooned by more than 32% in the last seven days.

It is worth noting that most of this price increase happened in two days – on the 17th and 18th of May. In an almost vertical rise, RNDR surged in value by more than 20% on Wednesday, May 17. This price rise is understood to be a reaction to the news of Apple launching its VR headset.

RNDR, the utility token of the Render Network, didn’t have a great market performance in 2022, sinking as low as $0.325 at some point in the year. However, the cryptocurrency has been on an excellent recovery, gaining nearly 500% since the turn of 2023.

As of this writing, the RNDR token changes hands at $2.36, with a 2.8% price increase in the past 24 hours. That said, price data reveals that the coin has not made any significant movement since Thursday, consolidating around the $2.50 price level.

Render

How Apple’s VR Headset Will Affect RNDR Price

As earlier mentioned, the price surge experienced by RNDR in the past week was primarily due to the rumors of Apple launching its highly-anticipated VR headset next month. In fact, most metaverse tokens, including MANA, ICP, SAND, etc., enjoyed a bullish run as a result of the news.

The Render Network offers decentralized GPU-based rendering solutions. Meanwhile, RNDR is the utility token used to pay for motion graphics, animation, and VFX rendering on the network. The RNDR token basically powers all products released by the network’s parent company.

And, with the recent release of Render’s OctaneX app on M1 and M2 iPads, there is speculation that the developers of the new VR headset will use the Render network. OctaneX is an app that offers real-time, photo-realistic 3D rendering in M1 and M2 iPads.

Considering this potential development, there is rising demand for the RNDR token – and we are very likely to see a further increase in its price.

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Cardano Surpasses 500 Million ADA In TVL – How About Its Impact On Price?

The total value locked (TVL) on the Cardano blockchain has hit a significant milestone after crossing 500 million ADA. This would come just a month and a few days after TapTools predicted an exponential increase in the network’s TVL.

In this prediction, TapTools, a Cardano portfolio tracker, also reported different factors that could be pivotal to Cardano’s explosive growth in the coming months.

Cardano DeFi Ecosystem Hits 500 Million ADA In TVL

Data from DeFi TVL aggregator DefiLlama reveals that the total value locked on the Cardano network now stands at 505.114 million ADA. This is equivalent to $186.18 million when converted to U.S. dollars.

Cardano

Source: DefiLlama

This new milestone represents a staggering 91.9% increase in total value locked since the turn of the year. Meanwhile, in the last month, Cardano’s TVL has jumped by nearly 8%, indicating a steady adoption of its DeFi ecosystem.

On-chain data shows that Minswap is, by a distance, the leading protocol on the network, with a TVL of $55.56 million. In fact, the decentralized exchange boasts a market share dominance of 29.84%.

Minswap protocol is followed by Indigo, a collateralized debt protocol, with a total value of $28.5 million locked on it. WingRiders, Liqwid, and Djed Stablecoin are three other notable protocols on the Cardano DeFi ecosystem, with TVLs of $17.51 million, $15.42 million, and $13.71 million, respectively.

It is important to note that total value locked is a metric that estimates the amount of cryptocurrency locked in DeFi protocols on a particular blockchain. It is calculated by summing up the value of all the crypto assets locked in various DeFi protocols on a blockchain. TVL can be represented in the native token of a blockchain (as in ADA for Cardano) or in USD.

ADA Price Shows No Significant Action

A skyrocketing total value locked is often an indicator of increased activity in a DeFi ecosystem. However, Cardano’s impressive TVL growth hasn’t particularly impacted the price of ADA, the blockchain’s native token.

As of this writing, one ADA token trades at $0.3655, losing 1% of its value in the last 24 hours. The price of ADA has been moving sideways recently, dipping by only 0.5% in the last seven days.

Cardano

That said, a broader look at the market reveals that ADA has been on a steady decline, losing more than 13% of its value in the past month. The cryptocurrency boasts a daily trading volume of approximately $129.3 million. 

According to data from CoinGecko, ADA ranks as the seventh-largest cryptocurrency, with a total market cap of $12.79 billion.

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KAVA Soars 31% This Week With Anticipation Of Mainnet Upgrade

KAVA, the utility token of decentralized blockchain Kava, has been on a strong bullish trend in the last few days. The cryptocurrency maintained this momentum despite the bearish market sentiment in the past week, garnering an impressive 31% price gain.

To end what was a largely positive week, a proposal to initiate the first phase of Kava Horizon was submitted by the Layer-1 ecosystem.

KAVA Price Overview

Recently, the KAVA token has been on a positive price rally, gaining more than 30% of its value in the last seven days. For long-term investors, this may be seen as some form of recovery, as the coin had not been performing well until a week ago.

To put this into perspective, the token has only increased by 1.6% in the past month. In fact, up until the 8th of May, the price of KAVA was on a steady decline, losing nearly 29% of its value in three weeks.

That said, an upward price movement that started a week ago has seen the token climb up to its previous high of $0.96. As of this writing, KAVA is valued at $0.969, tallying a 4.7% increase in 24 hours. 

KAVA

This latest price increase has been linked to the upcoming upgrade on the mainnet. Scheduled for 17th May, 2023 (15:00 UTC), the “Kava 13” upgrade aims to bring architectural enhancements to the security, scalability, and functionality of the network. Consequently, this will help developers to scale and accelerate their protocols and improve user experience across the ecosystem.

According to CoinGecko data, KAVA has a market capitalization of $495.5 million, which places it as the 90th largest cryptocurrency in the market. It is, however, worth noting that the token’s daily trading volume has dipped by 51.7% to $21.9 million in the last 24 hours.

Kava Submits Proposal To Initiate ‘Horizon’

On May 13, 2023, Kava advanced its plans to implement the first phase of the Kava Horizon. Codenamed “Proposal 141”, the proposal to initiate this change is now live for community voting. This proposal, if approved, will permanently end all emissions (including POS rewards, Rise rewards, grants, and other reward emissions) by December 31, 2023. 

However, before this is implemented, two independent foundations will be created to oversee the steady development and maintenance of the permissionless and decentralized blockchain. These two foundations will receive the bulk of emissions till they eventually cease at the end of the year. 

A future software upgrade – launched subsequent to proposal 141 – will control the flow of all accumulated rewards from the aforementioned foundations. 

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Tether Holds $3.4 Billion In Gold Reserves, Nears ATH Market Cap 1 Year Post Terra Collapse

Tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, was one of the dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies to have been affected by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. Now – a year later, the stablecoin has reclaimed its stable dollar peg and boasts one of the deepest reserves in the cryptocurrency industry.

Prominent Crypto Figure Dubs Tether A ‘Precious Metals Powerhouse’  

Gabor Gurbacs, on Friday, May 12, provided an insight into the significance of precious metals to Tether’s financial setup. Interestingly, Gurbacs, the founder of PointsVille, dubbed Tether’s USDT a “precious metals powerhouse”.

According to Gurbacs’ tweet, Tether Holdings Limited, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has placed substantial importance on gold, forging a solid reputation in the industry. His tweet also reveals that USDT, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has a staggering sum of roughly $3.4 billion in reserves held in gold.

In the same breath, Gurbacs noted that approximately $500 million backs the circulating supply of Tether Gold (XAUT), Tether’s gold-pegged stablecoin. Furthermore, the amount of gold in Tether reserves far outweighs that of Bitcoin (BTC), which stands at about $1.5 billion. 

From Gubarcs’ perspective, the diversity of the USDT reserves – which consists of gold, cash, corporate bonds, BTC, etc. – helps protect the stablecoin against potential market collapses and unexpected negative events. Considering his advisory role within the firm, it may be fair to consider Gubarcs’ analysis of Tether’s financial strategy as an insider viewpoint. 

Terra Collapse – One Year Later

In one of the most catastrophic events in the crypto industry, the Terra ecosystem collapsed in May 2022, with its UST stablecoin losing its dollar peg. The ripple effect saw investors lose faith in most dollar-backed assets, including Tether USD. This caused the panic sale of these dollar-backed assets.

As a result, Tether’s dollar peg broke momentarily, with the token falling as low as 92 cents at times. Furthermore, two months after the Terra collapse, Tether’s market capitalization had dropped by roughly $16 billion to $65 billion, an indication of massive withdrawals by token holders.

While this unfortunate event was an unexpected test of USDT’s resilience and stablecoins, as an entity, many would agree with the fact that Tether passed the test resoundingly. After all, USDT regained its dollar peg only two months after the crash.

Meanwhile, in terms of market capitalization, USDT has made a robust recovery since. In fact, USDT’s market cap currently stands at $82.9 billion, according to data from CoinGecko. This means that the stablecoin is now more than ever closer to its all-time high market cap of $83 billion.

Tether

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OKX Announces New Platform And Partnerships; OKB Shows No Significant Movement

OKX Wallet has announced the launch of its new platform, Cryptopedia, and its partnership with protocols, Radiant and Marinade. This announcement would come following wide discussions about the waning influence of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

OKX Launches Cryptopedia; Partners With Radiant And Marinade 

In a GlobeNewswire press release dated May 13th, 2023, OKX Wallet disclosed the launch of Cryptopedia, a Web3 learn-to-earn and airdrop platform. This new platform aims to help users easily identify and access Web3 projects and dApps. Cryptopedia will also enable users to unlock additional airdrops and gain extra rewards. 

The first Cryptopedia issue, which is focused on the zkSync theme, provides users with the opportunity to receive zkSync airdrops and other related airdrops. Users will also have the chance to collect non-fungible tokens jointly created by OKX Wallet and zkSync.

zkSync is a Layer-2 scaling solution designed to enhance transaction speed and reduce cost on the Ethereum network. As the name suggests, this protocol is based on the zero-knowledge (zk) concept.

In the press release, OKX Wallet also announced its partnership with two protocols, namely Radiant and Marinade. Its collaboration with Radiant, a decentralized lending protocol native to Arbitrum and BNB Chain, will allow users to access Radiant’s lending service via the OKX Wallet plug-in and Discover platform.

With Radiant, users are able to borrow a variety of digital assets across multiple chains against their own assets on one chain.

Marinade, on the other hand, is a non-custodial liquid staking derivatives (LSD) protocol on the Solana network. Similar to Radiant, this partnership will facilitate users’ access to Marinade’s liquidity staking service via the OKX Wallet plug-in and Discover platform.

OKB Shows No Significant Price Action

The OKB coin is the utility token of the OKX ecosystem. From trading fee discounts to passive income, there are a few benefits that holders of this token get to enjoy. And it appears that the growth of the OKX ecosystem has some links to OKB price.

That said, it is somewhat too early to tell what the impact of these partnerships will be on the price of OKB. Moreover, there has been no significant price movement in the OKB market since the announcement was made.

A broader look at price action reveals that the OKB market has been moving sideways in the last few weeks. According to data from CoinGecko, the token’s value dipped by a measly 2.1% in the past seven days. As of this writing, an OKB coin changes hands at $44.82, tallying only a 2.6% price rise in the last 24 hours.

OKX

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Lido (LDO) Surges 16% In Single Day, Maintains Dominance In Liquid Staking Market

Having survived a week dominated by the bears, the price of Lido DAO (LDO) is on the rise today, tallying a 16% increase in the past 24 hours. This price recovery has left many wondering if the bearish trend is over and whether the bulls might be onto something here.

That said, Lido Finance continues to assert its dominance in the liquid staking market, recording a substantial increase in its total value locked (TVL) in ETH LSDs in the past week. 

Lido DAO Token Price Overview

The past week saw the bears take the cryptocurrency market by storm; this has pretty much been the case since the start of May. We watched on as the latest crypto sensation, PEPE, shed a massive chunk of its recently-accrued value in the last seven days. 

The story hasn’t been any much different for the LDO token. In the past week, this cryptocurrency lost 1.2% of its value. It is worth noting that this figure has only just dropped – thanks to the upward price movement of the token in the last 24 hours. 

Nevertheless, a broader look at Lido’s market performance in the past month still shows a steady price decline. This current downturn in price started as far back as April 18, with the token’s value dipping by more than 20% within this period. 

That said, the token appears to be on some sort of recovery. According to CoinGecko data, a Lido DAO token currently trades at $1.88, tallying an impressive 16.1% increase in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, there has been a corresponding 63.8% jump in the token’s daily trading volume.

Lido

Lido Finance Maintains Dominance In ETH Liquid Staking 

Data from DeFiLlama reveals that Lido Finance gained an impressive 4.73% increase in TVL in the past week. In the same time, Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether, the second-largest LSD protocol, lost 0.91% of its TVL. 

A broader look at the metrics shows that Lido’s TVL jumped by more than 11% in the past month. Within the same period, the TVLs of Rocket Pool and Frax Ether rose by a staggering 35.23% and 42.52%, respectively.

Lido

Source: DeFiLlama

Indeed, LSD protocols, such as Rocket Pool and Frax Ether, are beginning to gain tremendous market share in the liquid staking industry. However, Lido Finance continues to dominate the market, holding 74.35% of TVL in ETH liquid staking derivatives (LSDs). This accounts for 6.6 million ETH of the total locked ether.

Overall, the liquid staking market continues to expand – as expected, following the Ethereum “Shapella” upgrade. As of this writing, a total of 8,886,107 ETH is locked in LSDs, with over 450,000 ether tokens added in the last two weeks.

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LUNC Continues Downward Trend Despite Testnet Upgrade

Recently, the Terra Classic ecosystem has been in the spotlight due to its developmental efforts, with the testnet upgrade to version 2.0.0 being the latest advancement. Contrary to general expectations, this recent improvement hasn’t translated into the price of the Terra Luna Classic token (LUNC).

Since the start of February, the price of Terra Luna Classic has been on a downward trend. And it can be said that the project’s recent growth hasn’t done much to halt this decline.

LUNC Price Falls By 15% In Single Week

Over the past seven days, the Terra Luna Classic market has experienced a drastic price decline, losing more than 15% of its value. This bearish period was preceded by a week in which the price of LUNC was relatively stable, moving in a horizontal direction.

However, a broader look at the market shows that Terra Luna Classic has been on a downward trend in the past few months. Since the beginning of February, the token has recorded a price fall of nearly 53%. 

According to data from CoinGecko, LUNC is currently valued at $0.00009549. In the past 24 hours, the value of this cryptocurrency has dropped by about 5%, falling beneath the crucial $0.0001 level in that time. 

LUNC

The last time Terra Luna Classic made it below this price point can be traced back to August 2022 – the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem collapse. With the $0.0001 level failing to hold, the token would hope to find rest at its next support level of $0.00009275, even though the current sentiment is strongly bearish.

L1JTF Proposes Mainnet Upgrade To V2.0.0

In other news, the L1 Joint Task Force team just completed the upgrade of the rebel-2 testnet to v2.0.0, integrating various new features for better functionality and security. Notably, this serves as a preliminary step towards the Terra Classic mainnet upgrade.

The testnet was upgraded to v.2.0.0 with Cosmos SDK v0.45 and will provide a secure and controlled environment for the L1 team to test upgrades on the mainnet. The testnet upgrade, completed on the 4th of May, was announced on Twitter by Till, a part-time developer for the L1 team.

Following the successful testnet upgrade, the L1 team’s project manager submitted a proposal aimed at upgrading the Terra Classic mainnet to v2.0.0. According to the proposal document, the mainnet upgrade implementation is slated for May 17. This enhancement will implement a transition to Cosmos SDK v0.45.13 and Tendermint v34.24.

It is important to mention that these upgrades are in accordance with Terra Classic’s revitalization plan. Having recorded considerable success in Q1 2023, the development team looks set to reach more milestones in Q2 2023.

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New York Attorney General Proposes New Crypto Regulatory Act

New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James has proposed a new state bill to regulate the cryptocurrency industry further, as she believes the space is enduring “rampant fraud and dysfunction”. This new set of crypto regulations would impose independent public audits of crypto exchanges, ensuring that New York residents do not lose their cryptocurrency investments to deceptive business practices.

New York AG Announces ‘Strongest And Most Comprehensive’ CRPTO Act

On Friday, May 5th,  the office of the New York Attorney General released a press statement, disclosing the plans to augment state regulations over cryptocurrency and crypto-related organizations. James proposed the “Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency, and Oversight” (CRPTO) Act as a new piece of crypto legislation.

James described the CRPTO Act as “the strongest and most comprehensive” batch of regulations over the crypto industry in the United States. The AG’s office noted that the proposed bill, if passed, will safeguard investors, consumers, and the broader economy.

In her proposal, the attorney general suggested that the state of New York impose independent public audits of crypto exchanges and prohibit residents from owning brokerages and cryptocurrency-issuing companies to prevent conflicts of interest. Additionally, the bill would mandate crypto organizations to reimburse customers for fraud-related losses.

The CRPTO Act is quite comprehensive, as it also tackles the regulation of the stablecoin ecosystem. The proposed state law specifies that firms should only be allowed to market a digital asset as a stablecoin if it is backed one-to-one by “U.S. currency or high-quality liquid assets as defined in federal regulations”.

The CRPTO proposal will make it to the floor of the New York State Senate and Assembly during the 2023 legislative session. If passed, it would give the attorney general’s office the authority to issue subpoenas for violations of the regulations and impose civil penalties (up to $10,000 for individuals and $100,000 for organizations).

New York Regulators To Continue Crackdown On Crypto

Following the huge collapses that rocked the crypto industry in 2022, various federal agencies, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have turned up the heat on the digital asset industry this year. In response, several crypto organizations have bemoaned the lack of clarity clouding cryptocurrency regulations in the country.

Interestingly, not only the Federal regulatory authorities are currently on high alert. State regulators, like the New York AG’s office, have also intensified regulatory efforts on the crypto industry.

For instance, the New York Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the crypto platform KuCoin in March, alleging the firm provided brokerage services without properly registering. In February, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) ordered Paxos to stop minting stablecoin BUSD, stating that the dollar-pegged asset is an unregistered security.

With the proposed set of crypto regulations by attorney general Letitia James, it doesn’t appear that the New York regulators are slowing down in their clampdown on the crypto industry this year. 

In any case, the cryptocurrency industry continues to show strength, with a market cap of $1.177 trillion.

New York

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Radix (XRD) Gains 14% In The Past Week, Continues Impressive Form

XRD, the native token of the Radix network, looks set to end the month in great form, having recorded an impressive 14.2% price surge in the past week. According to data from CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency is the 46th-largest token, with a current market cap of $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, blue-chip cryptocurrencies BTC and ETH have also gained 5.2% and 1.5%, respectively, in the last seven days.

Radix Up By 167% In 30-Day Price Rally

The past week’s headlines were dominated by the First Republic Bank’s ongoing crisis and the anticipated return of Bitcoin’s price to 30k. As a result, the market performance of most altcoins, including Radix, has largely gone under the radar. 

CoinGecko data reveals that RDX is one of the best-performing tokens in the last seven days. Interestingly, a broader look at the market shows that this bullish run stretches as far back as a month.

In the past 30 days, XRD has rallied a staggering 167% price increase, reaching a 12-month high of $0.15 level during the period. This price upswing came with a boost in market capitalization, enabling Radix to break into the top 50 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

As of this writing, XRD is valued at $0.111545, tallying a 5.1% price jump in the past 24 hours. However, it is worth noting that the coin’s trading volume slipped by 16.40% in the same period, indicating a recent dip in market activity.

Radix

Milestone Radix Upgrade, Babylon, To Launch In July

It appears that the recent price rally of Radix is connected to the impending upgrade slated for July. According to Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport, Radix’s March fundraiser and the highly-anticipated upgrade seem to have heightened interest in the XRD token.

Price action reveals that the XRD gained more than 15% on March 23, the day the fundraiser was announced. A week after, the coin would experience a remarkable price surge in the wake of the Release Candidate network (RCNet) rollout.

That said, the mainnet, codenamed Babylon, is scheduled to launch on 31st July and introduce smart-contract functionality to the decentralized Radix network. Babylon will enable developers to build robust and excellent decentralized applications.

“The Radix Public Network upgrade from Olympia to Babylon will occur on or about July 31st, 2023, paving the way for global Web3 and DeFi to finally exit the ‘tech demo’ stage with a mainstream-capable user and developer experience,” Radix stated in its official announcement.

Furthermore, this upgrade will natively facilitate the liquid staking of XRD tokens through the issuance of Liquid Stake Unit tokens. Ultimately, this means that there won’t be a need for other equivalent staking protocols, such as Lido.

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USTC: Will Proposal To Re-Peg Stablecoin Push LUNC To $1?

In one of the most catastrophic events to ever hit the crypto industry, the prominent algorithmic stablecoin TerraClassicUSD (USTC) – formerly UST – became depegged from the US dollar around a year ago. As a result, the Terra ecosystem crumbled, leading to uncontrolled minting and supply of Terra Classic (LUNC) tokens.

However, in the latest developments, the Terra community is looking to approve a proposal to revive the ecosystem and restore USTC’s value peg with the US dollar.

USTC Re-Peg Proposal

On Saturday, 22nd April, a Terra community member known as RedlineDrifter submitted a proposal that aims to re-peg stable coin TerraClassicUSD to the dollar. This proposal will enforce a re-pegging mechanism that implements divergence fees on USTC trades that slip below or rise above the peg. In this mechanism, the accrued fees will be used to repurchase the asset.

This re-pegging plan proposes the implementation of various mechanisms, including divergence fees, USTC buybacks, and a swap and staking mechanism. What’s more, RedlineDrifter emphasized how these mechanisms will help maintain USTC’s value once it restores parity with the dollar.

The re-pegging proposal looks set for approval, according to the figures from ATOMScan. As of this writing, 49.11% have voted in support of the proposal, while only 6.63% of the total votes are not in favor. That said, it is worth noting that 44.24% chose to sit on the fence. The votes are expected to end later today.

USTC

Source: ATOMScan

One major aspect of the proposal that the community will be hoping also goes through is the approval by centralized exchanges (CEXs). This is due to the fact that the proposal would require CEXs to enforce divergence fees on USTC sell orders below or above $1. 

Once the proposal gets the necessary approval, the L1 team will decide on a reasonable timeframe and will launch the re-pegging mechanism in four phases.

How LUNC Is Faring So Far

While USTC reacted to the recent development with a 10% price jump, LUNC has been somewhat subtle with its response. The cryptocurrency has experienced a 2.43% price increase in the past 24 hours and only a 2.9% rise in the past week.

That said, a broader look at the LUNC’s market performance shows that the coin’s current price is an obvious improvement from the previous week’s slump. Between 15th April and 22nd April, LUNC lost more than 11% of its value, per CoinGecko data.

Since the USTC re-peg proposal was put forward, there have been heavy discussions surrounding the resurgence of LUNC. This is mainly due to the inclusion of a mechanism to reduce the circulating supply of the token. This would involve using 45% of accrued USTC profit from the divergence fees to swap for LUNC.

Hitting $1 is the target for Terra Classic (LUNC), but that would require extensive efforts from all ends, starting with the USTC re-peg mechanism. As of this writing, LUNC trades at $0.00011200, with a $663 million market cap. This means it would take a staggering 892,757% price rally for LUNC to hit the target of $1.

USTC

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Shiba Inu Price Holds Above $0.00001 – Is It Time For A Rally?

Following its disappointing market dip last week, the price of Shiba Inu (SHIB) seems to be in recovery at the moment. In fact, some analysts are backing the meme-inspired token to embark on an impressive bullish run anytime from now.

Over the past 24 hours, Shiba Inu seems to be on a reversal after losing nearly 10% of its value during the week. Today, SHIB is up by 2%, and it appears to be building momentum for a price rally.

Shiba Inu Holds Above Critical Support

Shiba Inu has been on a downward trend in the past few days, despite the buying frenzy by the SHIB whales. It is, however, worth noting that this whale accumulation trend has somewhat slowed down in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, experienced a significant price drop in the previous week, which affected the entire crypto market. It is understood that the latest bearish trend of the blue-chip crypto impacted the value of several altcoins, including SHIB.

The Shiba Inu price decline started on Wednesday, 19th April, with the coin losing more than 5% of its value in one day. The meme token would fall by a further 7.47% in the next few days.

However, SHIB has displayed remarkable strength and stability by not sliding beneath the $0.00001 price level, which was last breached on March 10. Since rising back above this level on the same day, the Shiba Inu market has been in consolidation, with its price ranging between a low of $0.0000101 to a high of $0.0000117.

Time For A Rally?

As of this writing, a SHIB token is valued at $0.00001046, according to data from CoinGecko. This reflects a nearly 3% increase since the coin found support at the critical $0.0000101 level.

Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu’s ability to hold above this significant support level is a strong indicator of bullish momentum. After all, this threshold has proven to be a vital point a couple of times already. A sustained hold above this level would likely lead to a major price upswing.

Additionally, going by past price action, Shiba Inu looks set for another retest of the range high at $0.0000117. If there is prolonged buying pressure, we could see SHIB break this level to the $0.0000126 point. This move would represent a 20.4% increase from the current price.

While this projection looks very much plausible, it may not go as planned if the SHIB price does not gather enough bullish momentum from this current run. 

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BONE Surges 8.3% As OKX Amasses 1.71 Million BONE Tokens In Single Day

While the crypto market appears to be in decline, Bone Shibaswap (BONE), the Shibaswap ecosystem’s governance token, has been on the rise. As of this writing, the price of Bone Shibaswap has ballooned to an impressive 8.3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

However, a broader look at BONE’s market performance indicates an underwhelming run in the past month. The meme token has experienced a 16.8% price drop in the last 30 days.

OKX Becomes 13th Biggest BONE Holder

Without a doubt, the price rise of Bone Shibaswap is reflective of recent market activity. On-chain data from Etherscan.io reveals that OKX, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired a staggering 1,900,736.16586897 BONE tokens (equivalent to $1,788,547.11 ) in the past 24 hours.

This acquisition, executed via multiple transactions, pushed OKX to 13th place on the list of largest BONE holders. OKX is not the only exchange on this list, as Singapore-based firms Crypto.com and MEXC Global are also members of the exclusive club.

The buying spree kicked off after OKX launched a voting event on Friday, April 21st, inviting users to vote for the meme project they would like to see listed on the exchange. The voting event features five of the most popular meme tokens, including AIDOGE, BONE, BONK, OPTI, and PEPE. 

OKX also declared its intention to list the three tokens with the highest number of votes. The voting event will end at exactly 06:00 am UTC on April 24th, 2023. Results are to be announced on the same day at 10:00 am UTC.

If OKX does list BONE on its exchange, it will be the coin’s biggest exchange listing ever. Of course, as has been exhibited in the past 24 hours, this would have an impact on the value of Bone Shibaswap. Other prominent exchanges to have listed the token include Crypto.com, Gate.io, Bitget, Bing, and BTCEX.

Time To Buy The Dip?

Going by the coin’s movement in the past, BONE surged to new heights when listed by a crypto exchange. However, it is worth noting that these price increases were short-lived, as is often the case in the market these days.

For example, after the cryptocurrency was listed on Crypto.com in early March, it rallied a 14.8% increase in a few days. By the end of March, the token price had plummeted by a disappointing 30.9%.

According to CoinCodex price prediction, the current sentiment for Bone Shibaswap is bearish, with the token expected to lose 6.99% of its current value in five days. Meanwhile, the coin is projected to lose an additional 40% over the next month. That said, this information should not be relied upon as investment advice.

BONE is currently priced at $0.945, with a daily trading volume of $4,888,630.

BONE