Week 38 was the last full week of Q3 2021, so it is time to take a quick look back on how the cryptocurrency market has performed this quarter. The total market capitalization at the beginning of the quarter was $1.4 trillion and it climbed up to above $1.9 trillion at the end of Week 38, which represents an almost 37% increase. While ETH and BTC led the rally in August, this changed in September, when altcoins, such as Polkadot, Avalanche, Solana, Fantom and Algorand, stepped into the limelight of the community’s attention. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing digital art, collectibles, and in-game items were still very popular, and, for now, it does not look like the interest in these tokens is dying out. In fact, two of the three projects featured in this week’s Top Coins to Watch article are from the NFT sector. Although pushed a little bit more in the background of media attention, DeFi protocols are still evolving and expanding. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi increased from below $70 billion to over $85 billion throughout Q3.
3. Metahero (HERO)
Metahero is a 3D-avatar blockchain based meta universe (metaverse) that aims to capture several markets that are moving to the virtual/online worlds, such as gaming, social events, fashion, and artworks. Even though the project only launched in July 2021, it has already established a partnership with Wolf Studio, a global leader in 3D scanning and modelling technology. Thereby, users can create ultra-realistic digital 3D avatars of themselves or even scan the physical artwork to mint NFTs. The project notes that the use cases of their platform coupled with the 3D scanning technology by Wolf Studio are only limited by one’s imagination. The CEO of Metahero, Robert Gryn, previously led Codewise, one of the fastest growing start-up companies in Europe. The immense interest in NFTs and online metaverses combined with a wide range of possible use cases could mean that Gryn is currently overseeing another highly innovative company with huge potential for fast growth.
Metahero to conduct a historical $10,000,000 Airdrop on September 30 and pursue listings of HERO on centralized exchanges
The Metahero team has recently announced a historical airdrop, in which the team will distribute $10,000,000 worth of HERO. One of the biggest airdrops in the history of airdrops will require two snapshots of HERO balances – one has already been taken and the second one will take place on September 30. Users need to hold at least 5000 HERO and not sell any HERO before September 30 to be eligible for the airdrop. In addition, Metahero completely removed all fees on September 25 as the project moved into a new growth phase and HERO became a regular utility token. Users can now enjoy fee-free trading and free transfers. The team has also opened the doors to all Tier 1 exchanges. The team is now in advanced talks with some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world as it plans to get their token listed on multiple centralized exchanges in Q4 2021. For now, HERO is only being traded on BitMart exchange. The requirements to be eligible for the $10,000,000 airdrop will eliminate some of the HERO sell pressure, and drive the price up from $0.10, where it is currently trading. However, the long-term drive for HERO appreciation can only come from platform adoption and new implementations of the 3D avatar technology that Metahero offers.
2. Illuvium (ILV)
Illuvium is a collectible non-fungible token (NFT) based RPG game. Players will be able to mine, harvest, capture, and fight Illuvials – deity-like creatures that inhabit this open alien world. Each Illuvial will possess unique stats, classes, and affinities and the synergy between the individual Illuvials in your alien army will play the decisive role in determining the winner of in-game battles. Open Beta of the game is scheduled to be released in Q1 2022.
Binance lists Illuvium, a promising 3D NFT-based RPG game that is currently still in development
Some of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Kucoin, recently listed Illuvium (ILV). Binance opened trading for ILV/BTC, ILV/BNB, ILV/BUSD, and ILV/USDT trading pairs while ILV/USDT can be traded on Kucoin. The Illuvium project utilizes ILV token for liquidity and decentralized governance. The ILV listing marks a major milestone for the project and indicated that there is a high interest for NFT-based gaming within the cryptocurrency community. While ILV is tradable and transferrable, once the game launches, there will also be Synthetic ILV token or sILV, which will be used as an in-game currency. Its value will be pegged to the value of ILV, but as opposed to ILV, sILV will be non-transferrable between players. In addition, players will be able to earn in-game rewards in ILV through competitions and tournaments and capture Illuvials and collect resources to trade on an in-game marketplace called Illuvidex. All these mechanisms follow a “play to earn” gaming model, giving players the option to earn cryptocurrency while having fun by playing the game at the same time. ILV is currently trading at $515 and is up more than 1000% in last 3 months even though the working product has yet to be released. The project achieved that by offering lucrative ILV staking opportunities and regularly releasing product teasers that excite the community. Given the extremely high popularity of NFTs and blockchain-based gaming that we are seeing this year, we believe that both Illuvium as well as ILV token have plenty of room to grow.
1. OMG Foundation (OMG)
OMG Foundation, formerly known as OMG Network and before June 2020 as OmiseGO, is an Ethereum-based payment gateway that allows users to move any form of money between countries, businesses, and people as easily as sending email. It also facilitates fast and cheap transfer of ETH and ERC20 tokens. The project was supported by Vitalik Buterin, Toyota and Tether. Recently, OMG Foundation’s core developer Enya, has launched a new Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollups based network called the Boba Network.
Enya and OMG Foundation launch Boba Network, a cutting edge Ethereum Layer 2 Scaling Solution
On September 22, the public mainnet of Boba Network, the all-new Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup scaling solution went live. The latest addition to the available Ethereum scaling solutions aims to deliver a faster, cheaper, more seamless experience for users of Ethereum. By reducing gas fees, improving transaction throughput, and boosting the capabilities of smart contracts, Boba aims to become the go-to network for DeFi and NFT application developers. Along with the mainnet, OMG Foundation and Enya released BOBA, a new governance token for the newly launched platform. The press release notes, that BOBA tokens will be airdropped to existing OMG token holders who have bridged their OMG tokens to Boba Network by a snapshot date sometime in October. Major exchanges will likely support the airdrop, with FTX exchange already announcing the airdrop support. BOBA tokens will serve as governance tokens for the network. Holders will form Boba DAO, a decentralized governance community that will vote on proposals and decide on the future of the platform. In addition, Boba’s developers noted that they have big plans for the network and that mainnet launch is only the beginning. The press release, reads:
“Boba has a vision of expanding and democratizing the Ethereum ecosystem, and its L2 is the first step towards bringing that vision to life. Boba and its large, diverse community will focus on creating a great experience for developers and users by offering a native fast exit bridge, NFT bridging between L2 and L1, and leveraging Ethereum for security.”
