Ethereum: Crypto Week at a Glance: Ethereum Continues to Struggle as Rising Rates Haunt

After the fed‘s 75bps print, volatility rose and caused both sides of the book to sell off before selling to a weekly low of $1220. Subsequently, the price found some relief with an increase in long open interest. Within a week, the closing price had reversed again, indicating underlying weakness in the market. ETH closed the week at $1,295 and returned -3.01% WoW.

Ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC, ETH/BTC showed strength, jumping more than 4% on Tuesday afternoon.

After the Ethereum merger, there has been a significant increase in calls for user contracts. Historically, such behavior has indicated growth in activity on the Ethereum network that goes beyond simple token transfers. Concerns about network instability may have motivated attendees to set aside their holdings ahead of the event’s success.

After the confirmation of the successful merger, as well as the cancellation of any technical problems, the activity skyrocketed in the following days. Interestingly, the increase in volumes persisted throughout the week, especially in DeFi and NFT sectors.

CHALLENGE: US lawmakers have proposed a bill to ban algorithmic stablecoins, according to an article published by Bloomberg. Specifically, the bill would make it illegal to create “endogenously secure stablecoins” – those that are secured by a token created by the same issuer; for example, Terra’s UST support with LUNA. While we have no information on how this proposed ban would be enforced, we believe it is likely that US regulated exchanges will not list or use these tokens. Innovation: Zilliqa, a layer 1 blockchain, announced a prototype of its web3 game console that will allow individuals to directly play NFT-based games without relying on centralized authorities. This console will be the first Web3-based console and will face competition from industry giants such as sony and Microsoft. It aims to allow individuals to mine native Zilliqa tokens while gaming on console. Additionally, the web3 game console will feature an integrated wallet and proprietary games developed by Zilliqa.

Altcoins: As part of its aggressive blockchain expansion, Tether has launched USDT on Polkadot. The announcement comes weeks after the launch of USDT on the NEAR protocol – further proof of the blockchain stakes. Unlike bridged versions of the stablecoin, each native USDT token on Polkadot issued by Tether will be redeemable for $1. As a result, developers will have access to a stable cryptocurrency protected by centralized authorities. In particular, USDT will be accessible on all Polkadot channels. As a result, we believe the stablecoin is likely to see heavy usage in the Layer-0 network due to the need for a secure token following the unpeg of aUSD from Acala.

Terra Class (LUC): 51% more

Quantity (QNT): 24% increase

Reserve rights (RSR): 23% increase

TerraClassicUSD (USTC): 13% up

Helium (HNT): +12%

Top 5 Losers of the Week (as of 11:00 am IST October 2, 2022)

Celsius (CEL): 12% less

Chiliz (CHZ): 11% decline

Lido DAO (LDO): 10% decrease

Cosmos (ATOM): 8% decline

Hedera (HBAR): 7% decline

Note: The study only includes the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization listed on the data source i.e. Coinmarketcap.

(The author, Sathvik Vishwanath, is co-founder and CEO, Unocoin)