After another week of rather sideways trading, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization sits at $1.93 trillion. During Week 6, the biggest gainers from the top 20 coins were Shiba Inu (SHIB; +33%), Ripple (XRP; +20%) and Crypto.com Coin (CRO; +13.5%). Biggest losers, on the other hand, were Solana (SOL; -17.7%) and Polkadot (DOT; -11%). But we already have eyes on the next week. And if you are also questioning which assets to add to your portfolio to enjoy the greatest gains in Week 7, this is the best place to be.
3. Shiba Inu (SHIB)
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a meme token that was launched in August 2020 by an anonymous founder known as “Ryoshi”. Shiba Inu aspires to be an Ethereum-based alternative to the more popular and longer-running meme coin project Dogecoin (DOGE). At launch, 50% of the Shiba Inu’s total supply was sent to Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum wallet, making SHIB an unique community experiment as well. Ethereum co-founder ended up donating 10% of the supply to a COVID-19 relief effort in India and burned the rest of his SHIB holdings. His donation was worth around $1 billion at that time. While SHIB began as a fun experimental currency it is now transforming into a decentralized ecosystem with many users and use cases.
SHIB jumps by more than 50% after the project announced it is launching its own metaverse
At the beginning of last week, the Shiba Inu team announced that the project has decided to start its own metaverse. They also disclosed that the auctions for the virtual plots of land inside the upcoming metaverse also called “Shiba Lands” will start soon. SHIB surged by more than 50% and reached the highest valuation this year ($0.000035) on the tailwind of the metaverse announcement. Since than SHIB underwent a slight retracement, but with its 33% in 7D, SHIB still managed to claim the title of the best-performing digital asset out of top 100 last week. However, Doge Killer (LEASH) token holders benefited even more from the Shiba Inu’s metaverse entry as the project announced users will need to amass LEASH to qualify for purchasing virtual plot of land. Furthermore, Shiba Inu developers noted that the land sales event will follow a “queue system”, in which participants be placed in the queue based on the amount of LEASH they hold. Because of this LEASH surged by more than 80%. Nevertheless, the team hopes that the queue system will prevent bots snapping cheap Shiba Lands and reselling these plots of land at a significantly higher price. A metaverse gives the Shiba Inu ecosystem a whole new dimension of in which it can grow, which will undoubtedly benefit the whole project. Shiba Inu developers noted:
“The Metaverse is set to be one of the biggest areas within crypto for many to enjoy…using it as another great resource to offer crypto communities incentivization, content, and regular royalties.”
2. Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin (BNB) originally launched in 2017 as an ERC-20 token sold through an initial coin offering (ICO). In April 2019, the Binance Chain was launched, and all the ERC-20 tokens were replaced with the BNB coin, which became the native cryptocurrency of the new blockchain. Binance Chain is still completely centralized, with Binance having complete control of block management. Binance users who utilize BNB to pay for trading, withdrawal and listing fees enjoy discounts. While this used to be pretty much the only use case of BNB, the coin has a far greater utility now as it allows users to pay for gas fees, stake BNB, as well as participate in DeFi, liquidity pools, and DEX trading. BNB is also used to determine eligibility to participate in Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs). In addition, the Binance ecosystem keeps expanding, which means that new products and services are regularly added. In June 2021, for example, Binance launched its own NFT marketplace.
Binance invests in Forbes and establishes several major partnerships
A busy week is behind the Binance team. At the beginning of last week, the crypto conglomerate released the announcement, revealing a new partnership with a renowned South Korean entertainment agency YG Entertainment. While the corporate representatives were very scarce with details, they did reveal that the two companies will collaborate on NFTs, metaverse and other gaming opportunities and that they will focus on building an innovative and eco-friendly NFT ecosystem. On the same day, Forbes, the issuer of the same-named iconic magazine, revealed they have received a strategic investment from Binance. The acquisition of a $200 million stake in Forbes made Binance the second largest investor in this media company and the crypto giant is being quite clear about its agenda, which is increasing awareness about blockchain tech in the mainstream media. Last in the series of investments was the investment in Automata Network, a blockchain privacy firm supporting Avalanche, Polygon, and 11 other crypto projects.
At the time of writing, Binance Coin (BNB) is changing hands at just above $400. Despite Binance making some sound investments and establishing a strategic partnerships, BNB is down by 3.5% in last 7 days. Nevertheless, the effect of these events will likely show in the long run, potentially cementing Binance’s status as the leading crypto trading platform and one of the most important players in the crypto space in general. And what is good for Binance is usually also good for BNB, meaning that the events of last week will certainly bode well for BNB’s future price performance as well.
1. Gala (GALA)
GALA is the utility token of the same-named platform, which allows its users to build various games that utilize the blockchain technology. The project Gala Games launched in 2019 and it promised to deliver interesting games, which users would enjoy playing. In addition to that, Gala delivered true ownership of in-game items through NFT technology. Games available within the Gala ecosystem are divided into controlled games (owned and developed by Gala) and ones owned by the players. Gala ecosystem boasts with over 1.3 million monthly active users, over 26,000 sold NFTs, and over 50 developers and experts working on the project.
Gala allocates $5 billion to expand its NFT offerings
Mid-last week, GALA was one of the best performing digital assets in the past seven-day period. GALA price more than doubled, growing from $0.19 at the beginning of the month to nearly $0.40 on February 9. While the rally was mostly a consequence of a massive NFT investment announcement, new games being launched, and new partnerships also may have contributed towards GALA appreciation. The Blockchain gaming studio Gala Games (GALA) confirmed on Monday February 7, that it has allocated $5 billion for the expansion of its ecosystem. Reportedly, the studio will invest $2 billion into gaming, $1 billion will be allocated for the studio’s music ambitions, another $1 billion will go for movies and the remaining $1 billion will be dedicated for Gala theme park NFTs. Furthermore, it is being rumoured that Gala is currently working with Snoop Dogg on a special “NFT album”, that could be available on Gala sooner than on other platforms, giving Gala Gold community members exclusive access to the newest songs.
While GALA has retraced back below $0.30 levels, the project is clear and ambitious when it comes to their long-term goals. The $5 billion investment into the development of new products is a firm indicator that the studio is more than just a passing fad. In addition, Gala’s gaming venture mostly belongs to the play-to-earn (P2E) gaming sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which has proved to be one of the most resilient to the volatility and price declines in the past couple of months.
