Overview
- TVL developments and protocols to watch closely.
- The end of a record for bitcoin.
- Familiar names in the Notable Gainers list.
- FTC’s advice to avoid crypto scams.
- Crucial crypto legislation to be introduced tomorrow.
Weekly TVL Insight.
It’s that day of the week again: an overall market diagnostic courtesy of the total value locked (TVL). This metric can give us a sense of where value is locked up in smart contracts.
TVL across crypto is steadying near the $109b level after the Terra contagion freefall saw close to $100b of TVL evaporate from networks. However, until confidence is restored across protocols, TVL might hover around these levels.
Chains
Source: DefiLlama
Looking across chains, not much has changed since last week. Ethereum (ETH) captured a small percentage of TVL against its competitors, rising to 65.09% of TVL dominance, a jump of 0.74%. Of the top 20 chains, only two are positive for the month. Tron (TRON) up +29% and Mixin (XIN) up 67%. Some notable mentions for the week are #18 Optimism (OP) +25%, #22 Gnosis (GNO) +17% and #29 Cardano (ADA) +15.5%. All three had significant updates in the last month.
Source: Defi Llama
Tron (TRON) continues to rise on the back of its algo-stablecoin USDD and the high yield staking. (Up to 99% APY on Bybit) The stablecoin grew 231% in the previous month with a total of US$666.- A scary-looking number if you ask me.
Whether Tron’s stablecoin will survive where Terra failed remains to be seen, but entering positions in a project with similar attributes holds significant risk.
To lessen the worries concerning past stablecoin collapses, USDD holds an insignificant amount of the overall value in the stablecoins sector. (<1%)
But as some stability is regained, here are some take-aways worth noting:
- Remain cautious of Tron (TRX) protocols and stablecoin yields.
- Keep a close eye on layer-twos (Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism) vs. competing layer-ones (NEAR, Fantom, Solana)
- Why have I never heard of Mixin (MXN)?
- Arrakis ($SPICE), Iron Bank (IB), and Euler are all significantly growing Ethereum protocols.
Market update 🌍
BTC/USD
Hallelujah! Nine straight weeks of downwards price action for bitcoin (BTC) have officially finished. Just barely. Bitcoin closed the week up 1.52% at US$29,923. And then pumped into the low thirties. First, off: DON’T CHASE IT!. Secondly, if you held through the drop, congrats; you’ve earned yourself another stripe. Moreover, you’ve survived a barrage of macro-economic factors taking a toll on bitcoin, market sentiment, and the crypto market as a whole.
Source: Trading View
Showing some strength on its first day of the week, BTC appears to have begun a minor uptrend on the 4HR charts. The climb will likely run into resistance near the 31.5k level (red) today or early tomorrow. Maintaining the upwards trend (green line) will be the crucial factor, even if BTC pulls back during its encounter with resistance.
Source: Trading View
Key Market Events today:
- Fed Bullard Speech 11:00am EST
Friday’s Close:
| US markets close | Gain |
| S&P 500 | +1.84% |
| Nasdaq | +1.67% |
| Dow | -0.01% |
| VIX | +3.78% |
Notable Gainers:
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Theta Network (THETA) | 1.33 | +12 |
| Tezos (XTZ) | 2.07 | +9 |
| Theta Fuel (TFUEL) | 0.06 | +7.5 |
| Arweave (AR) | 13.43 | +7 |
| Fantom (FTM) | 0.37 | +7 |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | 25.83 | +7 |
| Solana (SOL) | 40.76 | +7 |
| Ontology (ONT) | 0.32 | +15 |
| Ethereum Name Ser. (ENS) | 12.14 | +12 |
| 0x (ZRX) | 0.43 | +9 |
| Metal (MTL) | 1.66 | +17 |
| Metis (METIS) | 25.94 | +17 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 13 Extreme Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends 90d | 20 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends 90d | 31 |
Newswatch 📰
$1b in crypto scams since 2021. According to a report released by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday, an estimated 46k people have reported being scammed utilizing crypto, with losses amounting to $1 billion since the start of 2021. Nearly half of all the scams originated from a social media message, ad, or post relating to investment opportunities or romance scams. The FTC report gave the following advice:
“to steer clear of a crypto con:
- Only scammers will guarantee profits or big returns. No cryptocurrency investment is ever guaranteed to make money, let alone big money.
- Nobody legit will require you to buy cryptocurrency. Not to sort out a problem, not to protect your money. That’s a scam.
- Never mix online dating and investment advice. If a new love interest wants to show you how to invest in crypto or asks you to send them crypto, that’s a scam.”
News tidbits:
- Uganda Central Bank welcomes Crypto Firms to participate in the regulatory sandbox.
At the protocol level ⛓
Protocol level tidbits:
- Velodrome (VELO) first 24 hours
- Deep dive into Frax Finance (FRAX)
- The latest in Ethereum 2.0. (technical)
- Bridge ETH directly from CEXs into StarkNet via LayerSwap.
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
NFT Tidbits:
- 200 ETHs worth of BAYC exploited from Discord.
Banter’s take
Phew. A record-breaking Nine straight weeks of downward action finally came to an end. Of course, it doesn’t mean we can’t fall farther, but at least the pain has temporarily dimmed.
Crypto Legislation
Looking forward this week, an important topic that has garnered little attention is Senator Cynthia Lummis’s crypto legalization proposal. The bill looks to “fully integrate digital assets into our financial system.”
The proposal is scheduled to be released tomorrow.
Some people believe the bill concentrates heavily on bitcoin and could be harmful to the rest of the crypto industry. And many don’t believe it stands a chance of being passed. Whatever the case, the legislation could prove extremely important for the future of crypto in the United States.
Until tomorrow Banter Fam!
Gabri
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. Everything on this report is financial opinion. Please consult your financial advisor before participating in crypto.
