In the final hours of last week, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization finally peaked and touched $1 trillion level again. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency markets entered this week with the valuation of $995 billion, just slightly below the psychological mark. Do you think that this increase in total valuation is the first harbinger of the new upward trend? Surely, we all wish to finally escape the bears and enter the bull market.
3. Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot is a blockchain platform that addresses the scaling issues by using parachains, a network of multiple interoperable blockchains that run in parallel with each other. Utilizing parachains allows Polkadot to connect diverse blockchains into a single, decentralized and highly scalable blockchain ecosystem. The network of chains is interconnected by a central chain called the Relay Chain. Polkadot chains operate using a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm and the platform utilizes a native currency DOT. The project was originally designed by Dr. Gavin Wood, one of the co-founders of Ethereum and the inventor the smart contract programming language named Solidity. Along with Cardano, Solana, and several other networks Polkadot is considered one of the potential “Ethereum killers”.
Polkadot featured in Revolut’s Learn-to-Earn Program as part of the newly established partnership between the two companies
Renowned crypto analytics and research company Messari recently published a report on the state of the Polkadot ecosystem, which, in brief, shows that Polkadot managed to withstand the crypto downturn without losing a significant chunk of network activity quarter-over-quarter. During Q2 this blockchain maintained the number of monthly active users at around 145,000 and transferred more than 878 million DOT, which is almost the same as during Q1 2022. According to Messari’s data, 131 million DOT or around 11% of the total supply are currently bonded for the two-year lease period as part of the 20 parachain auction procedures that have taken place in the past.
Another 54% to 56% of total DOT in circulation are staked. To sum up, the Messari’s report indicates that Polkadot is a healthy ecosystem with sustainable tokenomics. Furthermore, Polkadot’s stats could further improve because of the recently announced partnership with popular fintech company Revolut. As part of the partnership Revolut is featuring Polkadot in a dedicated Crypto Learn-to-Earn campaign and giving away $15 paid out in DOT to participants who complete the course. Given the fact that Revolut currently has more than 18 million personal users, the exposure on its platform could provide a significant boost to DOT adoption in the mainstream.
2. Algorand (ALGO)
Algorand is a blockchain platform that can be used for digitalization and tokenization of almost any kind of asset via the creation of so-called Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs). Additionally, the platform supports the on-chain creation of smart contracts and facilitates a secure and immediate settlement of multiparty transactions through Atomic transfers. Furthermore, Algorand has implemented a pure proof-of-stake (PPoS) consensus protocol, meaning that anyone holding ALGO can participate in the consensus process through staking and be rewarded for that.
Algorand TVL increased by over 90% in the past month, making it one of the fastest-growing DeFi ecosystems
According to data provided by DeFi Llama, Algorand currently has a total value locked (TVL) of over $220 million. While that only places Algorand on the 17th spot on the leaderboard of the biggest DeFi ecosystems, it is the relative change in TVL that makes this blockchain stand out as Alogrand grew its TVL by over 90% in the past month. Most of the growth contributing to the almost-doubled TVL took place throughout last week as Alogrand’s TVL is up by more than 60% in last 7 days. The fact that CoinShares launched a physically backed Algorand ETP on Deutsche Boerse last week surely pushed ALGO in the centre of attention and contributed a lion’s share to the TVL growth. The ETP commenced trading on Deutche Boerse’s online platform Xetra on July 14 when ALGO was trading below $0.30 per coin. Over the weekend, the price of ALGO climbed towards $0.35, which is a multi-week high for this coin. Nevertheless, the Algorand ecosystem is also growing its utility and the number of use cases. Among the more recent news is the announced integration with SubQuery, a flexible, fast, and decentralised data indexing solution. The integration will allow developers on Algorand to easily organise and query on-chain data and thereby enhance dApps and protocols running on Alogrand. Do you also think ALGO could climb to $0,40 or even higher?
1. Polygon (MATIC)
Polygon, previously known as Matic Network, is a leading Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution. The Polygon Layer 2 network consists of several simultaneously run proof-of-stake sidechains that regularly push the data to Ethereum to create network checkpoints. Currently there two bridges that allow users to move assets between Ethereum and Polygon, the first one being the Plasma bridge and the second one the PoS Bridge. The Plasma bridge delivers supersonic speeds and throughput and allows for an easy and fast exit to Ethereum mainnet at the same time. Together with several other features and tweaks, Polygon provides a major scalability improvement to the biggest smart contract blockchain. By successfully overcoming Ethereum’s most limiting shortcomings Polygon has become attractive for DeFi projects and is establishing itself as one of the key DeFi networks.
MATIC rallies on the tailwind of a series of good news, including Polygon being accepted to the Disney Accelerator program
Polygon is another blockchain ecosystem that has been seeing noteworthy growth lately. Nevertheless, the ecosystem’s TVL only grew by slightly less than 10% in the past 7 days, while the price of MATIC increased by more than 50% in the same time frame. In fact, MATIC was by far the most successful asset out of the crypto top 20. The reason for this outstanding price performance? Well, actually, there are several. Perhaps the largest and most impactful development was that Polygon was selected to participate in 2022 edition of the Disney’s Accelerator program. This year Disney’s program focused on accelerating companies that are developing “immersive experience” technologies, including augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. While two other Web3 companies were also accepted, it is worth noting, that Polygon is the only blockchain-native company among the six selected companies. The Polygon team shared their excitement about being part of the Disney experience on Twitter:
In addition, Polygon has lately been seeing an influx of former Terra projects.
According to Polygon CEO Ryan Wyatt, more than 48 projects that were previously deployed on Terra Classic have begun the process of onboarding to Polygon. Furthermore, the Polygon team has recently established a partnership with Coca-Cola, which launched released a pride themed NFT collection and a Polygon based NFT marketplace in the beginning of July. As the price of MATIC already confidently surged through the $0.80 level, the next key resistance for MATIC lies at $1.
