After false breakouts on Thursday, the 24th, and on Friday, the 25th, the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has consolidated again. above the all-important $2 trillion psychological mark since Saturday the 26th. Such support had been lost on January 20th. Broad market growth in recent days has contributed to the continued attraction of capital for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that began two weeks ago.
Over the past seven days, both the price performance of industry tokens and the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols have registered significant increases. The combined capitalization of decentralized finance tokens has grown by 13.1% over the past seven days and now stands at $139.7 billion, according to Dice from CoinGecko.
On the other hand, the total value blocked (TVL) in DeFi protocols had a smaller growth, still not negligible, of 8.7%. TVL rose from US$257.9 billion on March 22 to US$280.5 billion as of early Tuesday night, according to information from the TV monitoring platform. Dice DeFi Llama.
After weeks of gradual decline, Ethtereum (ETH) dominance has grown again and now the leading smart contract network accounts for 58% of the total value locked in DeFi protocols, the equivalent of nearly $200 billion. Consolidated in second place, Terra (LUNA) continues to rise and increased its share to 12.4%. In the last seven days, Ethereum and Terra have seen an 8% growth in the total amount blocked on both networks.
With half of Terra’s TVL, BNB Smart Chain (BSC) follows in third place, followed by Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL) and Fantom (FTM). While Solana and BSC recorded the highest growth in terms of capital attraction in the last seven days – 16.2% and 11.2%, respectively –, Avalanche and Fantom showed negative variations of approximately 1%.
The native tokens with the highest weekly appreciation were SOL and ADA, with gains in the range of 20%, followed by LUNA, which rose 14%, reaching a new all-time high of $109.66 on Tuesday afternoon, and Ether, up 12%. FTM and AVAX recorded more modest valuations – 8% and 6%, respectively.
With gains of up to 89%, DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL), Haven Protcol (HVX) and Loopring (LRC) were the top performing DeFi tokens in a highly positive week for the industry.
DeFi Kingdoms (JEWEL)
DeFi Kingdoms fills a unique niche within the gaming industry play-to-earnas it allows users to utilize DeFi instruments such as staking and farming while featuring NFT characters, heroes that can be used in missions to maximize rewards in a GameFi environment.
That is, the game mechanics are built in a metaverse where DeFi resources are effectively combined with the potential of NFTs to create a functional, self-sustaining and fun economic system. It is interesting for users to allocate resources in the game, either by acquiring NFTs, providing liquidity in the “gardens” or depositing their JEWELs, the game’s native token, in exchange for interest in the “bank”.
DeFi Kingdoms’ decentralized exchange allows users to trade any asset compatible with Harmony’s ecosystem – not just assets used in the game like Katana, Axie Infinity’s DEX, for example. With that, DeFi Kingdoms a Curve and SushiSwap in terms of TVL on the Harmony network, where it is hosted. In fact, DFK is the absolute leader in TVL on Harmony and accounts for half of the network’s TVL.
Plus, taking into account all networks, DeFi Kingdoms’ DEX currently ranks 25th in the ranking of decentralized exchanges by total locked amount, according to Dice by DeFi Llama.
JEWEL’s recent 89% rise was prompted by the launch of a DeFi Kingdoms own blockchain, just as Axie Infinity created Ronin. The network goes live this Wednesday, the 30th, and brings to an end a long-announced partnership with Ava Labs to bring DeFi Kingdoms to Avalanche.
As the game’s native token, JEWEL will benefit from the deployment of an exclusive DeFi Kingdoms network, as it will become the engine of the economy not only for the game but for the entire DFK ecosystem.
In addition, the integration with the Avalanche network implies the launch of a new token, CRYSTAL, which will be distributed along with AVAX to the first users who migrate their funds to the new network. Through Avalanche’s metaverse incentive program, $15 million in equivalent proportions of CRYSTAL and AVAX will be distributed to game users.
On launch day, the only pair available to liquidity providers on the DEX of the new network will be JEWEL and xJEWEL (tokens held in staking). This has exerted buying pressure on the token in recent days.
With all these news, the JEWEL has appreciated by 89% in the last seven days, rising from US$ 5.06 to US$ 9.04, according to Dice from CoinMarketCap. The token’s market capitalization reached $570.1 million on Tuesday, the eve of the launch of the new network.
JEWEL weekly performance. Source: CoinMarketCap
Haven Protocol (HVX)
The Haven Protocol is a hard fork of the Monero (XMR) blockchain that promotes itself as an “offshore bank”. The protocol offers users secure, private and untraceable transactions.
Like Monero, the Haven Protocol also uses fungibility proof as a resource, allowing different asset classes to be equated based on their respective monetary values, not just the face value of the token. Users can create privacy tokens that incorporate different asset classes, including commoditiesfiat currencies such as the dollar and other crypto assets.
Recently, like other privacy coins, the Haven Protocol has been benefiting from the geopolitical instability triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and widespread regulatory threats in the US and especially Europe. Under the justification that cryptocurrencies facilitate maneuvers that allow the Russian government and oligarchs to circumvent the sanctions imposed by the Weststricter rules for the marketing and custody of digital assets may soon be approved.
As a result, cryptocurrency investors have been turning to privacy coins that promise to protect financial transactions from tax entities and intermediaries since the days following the outbreak of the conflict in Eastern Europe. As a result, in addition to HVX, Monero (XMR), Kyber Network (KNC), Tornado Cash (TORN) have appreciated far above the rest of the cryptocurrency market in the past two weeks.
Another factor that has driven the growth of HXV recently has been the announcement of a partnership like THORchain (RUNE), which offers privacy to any tier 1 assets that are available on DEX (decentralized exchange).
THORchain is a decentralized protocol that allows any cryptocurrency user to carry out swaps between different tokens without the need for intermediation of traditional exchanges. As the first privacy coin added to the THORchain ecosystem, XHV includes a feature highly demanded by users. Together, they guarantee users privacy, liquidity, stability and competitive returns.
Also part of the Haven Protocol ecosystem is the first fully private algorithmic stablecoin, xUSD. The economic logic of xUSD is very similar to that of UST, an algorithmic stablecoin from the Earth ecosystem. New units of the stablecoin can be issued from the burning of the HXV.
With all these privacy features, the HXV has seen gains of 63.5% in the last seven days and is currently priced at $6.52. Its market capitalization reached US$171.4 million, according to Dice from CoinMarketCap.
Weekly performance of the HXV. Source: CoinMarketCap
Loopring (LRC)
Loopring (LRC) is an open protocol designed to provide a scalability solution for the Ethereum network. With Loopring, transactions are carried out outside the main Ethereum network. However, security is guaranteed through cryptographic proofs that validate transactions through a smart contract on Ethereum.
That is, the Ethereum blockchain attests to the validity of off-chain transactions carried out on Loopring. Thus, Loopring can do something between 100 and 200 times more transactions per second than Ethereum at a much lower cost. The developers of Loopring claim that the protocol is capable of performing 2025 transactions per second.
On March 23, GameStop confirmed its integration with Loopring (LRC) for the release of its long-awaited marketplace of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Adam Brownman, Head of Growth at Loopring, announced in a Medium post that the beta version of marketplace was ready to go on the air.
According to Browman, GameStop, in partnership with Loopring, aims to provide “fast, cheap and secure” access to digital property for its users. The goal is to empower gamers, creators and collectors to position GameStop at the “vanguard of the new global digital economies.”
He also explained how users can now mint NFTs directly on Loopring for “fractions” of the expensive gas fees incurred by minting on Ethereum. The value has been estimated at approximately $1 or less. Loopring inherits Ethereum’s self-custody security while ensuring that its users have access to “the strongest digital property rights”.
The users of marketplace in beta will have access to these “major speed improvements and lower costs” and will be able to make deposits before the full version of marketplacewhich will be released soon, with no set date yet.
Immediately after the announcement, the LRC price soared and has since held steady at a high level. Thus, in the last seven days, the token has appreciated by 56%, jumping from US$0.81 to US$1.27, according to Dice from CoinMarketCap. At the moment, the total market capitalization of LRC is $1.6 billion and it ranks 67th in the cryptocurrency ranking.
LRC weekly performance. Source: CoinMarketCap
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