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New Milestone Reached: 100 Cryptocurrencies Hit a Market Capitalization of $1 Billion

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Are you a crypto enthusiast? Want to get updated and stay tuned regarding the crypto sector? This article has got you covered. 

Table of Contents 

  • What’s This New Milestone All About?
  • Driving Forces for the Growth of Crypto Ecosystem
  • Concluding Lines 

What’s This New Milestone All About?

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction among investors and traders, the crypto sector has risen to a total valuation of more than $1.2 trillion. In Feb 2021, it was seen that there were more than 55 unicorn status projects that had a market capitalization of over $1 billion at that time. 

Now, according to Cointelegraph, there has been a surge in the number of crypto projects. It reports that a new milestone has been reached as 100 cryptocurrencies reach a $1B market capitalization.

Want to get started with cryptocurrencies? Become a Certified Cryptocurrency Expert now!

Driving Forces for the Growth of Crypto Ecosystem

Now comes the question, what are the significant factors that are responsible for the growth of the crypto ecosystem. Let’s explore all these factors in detail.

Multi-Billion Dollar Companies Investing in Cryptocurrencies 

One of the driving forces that contribute to multi-billion dollar companies such as Tesla, MicroStrategy, and others.

MicroStrategy, which is a prominent business analytics platform, has adopted Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. Unlike other CEOs who generally hide their personal investments, he announced in October 2020 that he holds around 17,732 BTC. In December 2020, the company announced that it had raised $650 million worth of convertible bonds to finance more Bitcoin purchases. 

Also, in February 2021, it was announced that electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and is expected to begin accepting the digital token for its cars and other products. After the announcement, it was seen that the BTC price soared. Square bought $170 million worth of bitcoin with the belief that BTC has the potential to become the native cryptocurrency of the internet. 

DeFi Takes Center Stage 

For the past year, Decentralized Finance, also commonly known as DeFi, has been one of the most contributing factors in the growth and development of the cryptocurrency sector. 

For instance, Uniswap, a decentralized exchange (DEX), has evolved from a basic exchange framework dApp to a sprawling trading network with an average trading volume of $6.72 billion. Similarly, SushiSwap, a competitor to Uniswap, has also attained unicorn status with a current value of over $1.8 billion. Moreover, PancakeSwap (CAKE), a BSC-based DEX that promotes the trading of BEP-20 tokens and implements AMM, is recently gaining attraction, rapidly climbing up the charts, ranking as the fifth-largest DeFi platform by total value locked, with $6.18 billion currently locked in the protocol.

At the time of writing, the total DeFi crypto market cap is $95.83B. 

Stablecoins and their Associated Protocols Received a Boost 

After the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States of America provided the clear run for national banks to run independent nodes for distributed ledger networks, stablecoins gained momentum. 

One protocol with a stablecoin component that is helping in establishing a stable store of wealth in nations undergoing hyperinflation like Venezuela is Reserve, whose Reserve Rights (RSR) token has increased by around 400% this year. Another emerging entrant to the field of stablecoin is TerraUSD (UST), whose market cap skyrocketed from $182 million on January 1 to $1.66 billion on April 2. 

Interest in Non-Fungible Tokens is Surging

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been around for a while, but their value has skyrocketed in the last few months. As interest in NFTs is surging by celebrities and influencers, it is bringing more sales and distribution worldwide. It was announced that Christie’s auction house sold its first NFT-linked digital art for $69 million.

As NFTs are becoming popular, Enjin Coin (ENJ) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries. On March 15, ENJ witnessed an all-time high of $3.08 and raised the project to Unicorn status with a $2.6 billion market capitalization.

Decentraland (MANA), a virtual reality network that allows the acquisition of digital plots of land that can be created and monetized, and Flow (FLOW), a blockchain intended to be the framework for “the next generation of games, applications, and the digital assets that fuel them, are two other prominent NFT-related additions to the Unicorn club.

Concluding Lines 

This has brought us to the end of our discussion. From the above discussion, we can infer that crypto space is going to bring revolutionary changes that none of us ever imagined.
As this space is continuously growing and showing no sign of slowing down, scope for Crypto Experts is booming. 

If you want to gain all the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies and become a Certified Crypto Expert, get started today with Blockchain Council. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council. 

New Milestone Reached: 100 Cryptocurrencies Hit a Market Capitalization of $1 Billion

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Solana(SOL) Price Rallied More Than 50%

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Solana(SOL) Price Rallied More Than 50%

According to the recent announcement, Solana, which is a fast, secure, and censorship-resistant Blockchain, has rallied more than 50%. Such upsurge in Solana is due to new projects conducting airdrops on SOL blockchain and high Ethereum fees that have pushed investors to explore more economical and affordable options.

Solana is a secure and censorship-resistant blockchain that provides open infrastructure. It is a high-performance cryptocurrency blockchain supporting smart contracts and decentralized applications(dApps) to provide decentralized finance solutions. SOL is a cryptocurrency native to the Solana blockchain.

In the past few months, projects that have issued token airdrops have emerged. One such project is Solana that utilizes Blockchain technology.

Although Solana isn’t explicitly making a collective effort to launch these projects, its main decentralized exchange, Serum known as SRM, was responsible for the recent COPE airdrop, which distributed 2,000 tokens to users who participated in the shared DeFi hackathon held by Solana and Serum. 

The airdrops by Uniswap (UNI) and MEME are going to be remarkable as it was noted that users were rewarded with profits from $20,000 to $600,000 for holding the tokens.

According to the announcements, after the airdrop, COPE eventually listed on Serum(SRM) for $0.50 on March 30, and the token’s price rose to a high of $5.43 on April 11. It was noted that after the airdrop, the rewarding holders profited with a $10,860 reward.

The success of the COPE airdrop proposed a series of token launches and airdrops such as HOPE, ROPE, and KOPE, whose launches on the Solana have coincided with a 55% rise in SOL price since the beginning of April.

Airdrop Era Has Begun

Recently on Twitter, the list of new and emerging projects building on Solana was mentioned, including Hedgehog, Solstarter, Hxro. Network, Step Finance, COPE, Synthetify, and others. Solana’s Twitter feed hints that its ecosystem is just getting started, and there is a lot more for all.

As more and more DeFi apps are emerging, all fighting for users’ attention, experts believe that the airdrop trend will continue in the years to come. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

Solana(SOL) Price Rallied More Than 50%

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DeFi’s money markets are finally luring in institutional investors

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Bitcoin’s bull run from last year has caused even some of its biggest skeptics to soften their stance. From economists to hedge fund managers, the world is opening itself up to technology, and at the center of this movement is decentralized finance, or DeFi. While the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has hit $2 trillion, worth as much as Apple, it’s the promise of DeFi — a small corner of the blockchain industry today — that’s grabbing the attention of institutional investors.

As Bitcoin’s (BTC) bullish trend persists, interest-bearing crypto products have become all the rage. Some services offer up to 8% returns on Bitcoin holdings. For investors who are already expecting a rise in value, this can be incredibly useful for maintaining cash flow without selling any assets.

The three main factors solidifying institutional interest in Bitcoin are the current historically low interest rates, the inflation rate and geopolitical instability. With near-zero interest rates expected for the foreseeable future, investors are gearing up to move their funds into alternative locations for securing wealth.

The United States Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target has incited concern in investors fearing devaluation, and with tensions between the U.S. and China on a precarious edge, portfolios denominated in U.S. dollars are becoming riskier by the day.

A market for money

Buying, storing and using cryptocurrencies securely is still quite a complex ordeal — far more involved than setting up a bank account. However, according to Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock — a global investment management fund with nearly $9 trillion in assets under management — Bitcoin could evolve into a global market asset and achieve new highs in the upcoming years.

In the traditional financial system, money markets are parts of the economy that issue short-term funds. They usually deal with loans for periods of a year or less, and offer services like borrowing and lending, buying and selling, with wholesale trading taking place over the counter. Money markets are composed of short-term, highly liquid assets and are part of the broader financial markets system.

Money markets are traditionally very complicated, with expensive overheads and hidden fees pushing most investors to hire a fund manager. However, their existence is paramount to operating a modern financial economy. They incentivize people to lend money in the short term and allocate capital toward productive use. This improves the overall market’s efficiency while helping financial institutions meet their goals. Basically, anyone with extra cash on hand can earn interest on deposits.

Money markets are composed of different kinds of securities, such as short-term treasuries, certificates of deposits, repurchase agreements and mutual funds, among others. These funds generally consist of shares that cost $1.

On the other hand, capital markets are dedicated to the trade of long-term debt and equity instruments, and point to the entire stock and bond market. Using a computer, anyone can purchase or sell assets in mere seconds, but companies issuing the stock do so to raise funds for more long-term operations. These stocks fluctuate, and unlike money market products, they have no expiration date.

Since money market investments are virtually risk-free, they often come with meager interest rates as well. This means that they will not produce huge gains or display substantial growth, compared with riskier assets like stocks and bonds.

DeFi vs. the world?

To hedge against currency risk, institutions have started using Bitcoin, and retail investors are following their lead. More than 60% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply hasn’t moved since 2018, and BTC is predicted to push well above $100,000 in the next 24 months.

If the current trend carries forward, investors will continue to stockpile BTC. However, while much of the supply of the world’s first cryptocurrency remains in storage, the DeFi industry is constantly producing alternative platforms for interest-bearing payments through smart contracts, which increases transparency by allowing investors to view and track on-chain funds.

The average return for DeFi products is also much higher than in traditional money markets, with some platforms even offering double-digit annual percentage yields on deposits. From asset management to auditing smart contracts, the DeFi space is creating decentralized infrastructure for scalable money markets.

According to Stani Kulechov, co-founder of the Aave DeFi protocol, rates are high during bull markets because the funds are used to leverage more capital, with the cost of margin pushing up the yield. “New innovation in DeFi is consuming more stablecoins, which further increases the yield. Unless there is a new capital injection — these rates might stick for a while,” he said.

The Ethereum network currently hosts most of the DeFi applications, and this has barred tokens that aren’t available on the network from participating in decentralized finance. Bitcoin, for example, despite being the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has only recently found its way onto DeFi platforms.

Related: DeFi yield farming, explained

With Kava’s Hard Protocol, investors can yield farm using Bitcoin and other non-ERC-20 tokens like XRP and Binance Coin (BNB). Backed by some prominent names (Ripple, Arrington XRP Capital and Digital Asset Capital Management, among others), the platforms allow users to stake their cryptocurrencies into a pool of assets, which is lent out to borrowers to generate interest.

The team also plans to add support for Ethereum-based tokens in the near future. The network’s upgrade to Kava 5.1, which was postponed to April 8 after failing to reach the required quorum, will also introduce the Hard Protocol V2, bringing powerful incentivization schemes and enhancements to its governance model.

Most loans in DeFi are overcollateralized, meaning the pool always has more money than it lends out. In case the value of the issued token drops, funds in the pool are liquidated to compensate.

According to Anton Bukov, co-founder of decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch, blockchains are the first-ever unbiased executors in human history — very limited, but ultimately fair — and could deliver new services and new flows of interactions in future. “Developers are doing their best to solve potential dishonesty issues of existing flows and invent new flows by replacing intermediaries,” he said.

By creating an automated platform to borrow and lend assets, decentralized finance enables money markets without intermediaries, custodians or the high fees that stem from high infrastructural costs.

Honest work

Of the many trends DeFi has set into motion over the last few years, yield farming has attracted quite a lot of attention. Yield farming is when the network rewards liquidity providers with tokens that can be further invested into other platforms to generate more liquidity tokens.

Simple in concept, yield farmers are some of the most vigilant traders out there, constantly switching up their strategies to maximize their yield and tracking rates across all platforms to ensure they’re getting the sweetest deal. The potential rate of return can become obscenely high, but it’s still unclear whether yield farming is just a fad or a phenomenon in the making. Kulechov added:

“Yield farming is simply a way to distribute governance power to users and stakeholders. What actually matters is whether the product itself would find protocol market/fit. Most successful governance power distributions with yield farming have been with protocols that have found protocol market/fit before such programs.”

Yield farming has an incredibly positive feedback loop, with an increase in participation pushing the value of its governance token up, driving further growth. According to Kava CEO Brian Kerr, while this feedback loop can produce very positive results in bull markets, it can have entirely the opposite effects in falling markets:

“It will be up to the governance groups of the various projects to navigate bear markets effectively, by ratcheting back rewards before a full-on death spiral occurs. Regardless of bull or bear markets, yield farming will be a mainstay in blockchain projects for years to come.”

Money markets are the pillars of our global financial system, but most of its transactions occur between financial institutions like banks and other companies in time deposit markets. However, some of these transactions do find their way to consumers through money market mutual funds and other investment vehicles.

Decentralization is the next frontier for finance, and as prominent investors continue to engage with the DeFi space, a decentralized economy seems all but inevitable. Participating in the burgeoning environment may be a risky bet today, but what decentralized finance platforms learn now will be the foundation of the robust DeFi applications of the future. According to Bukov, the higher interest rates of DeFi platforms are “absolutely sustainable.” He added:

“Higher profits are usually involved with higher risks. So the risk-profit model of all these opportunities is always nearly balanced. Normalizing risks would decrease profits because more participants will join to share the rewards.”

From smart contract malfunctions to the unauthorized withdrawal of community funds, the DeFi space is a place of both miracles and nightmares. DeFi-based yield farming platforms are still in their very early stages, and while the numbers can be all too tempting at times, it’s crucial to do your own research before investing in any platform or asset.

DeFi’s money markets are finally luring in institutional investors

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UNI rises by 50% Surge To Become 8th Largest Ethereum-Based Asset

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The native token of decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) has increased by up to 50% within the past week. This upsurge has pushed UNI into the top ten crypto assets by market capitalization. Speculation bids for the much-expected V3 overhaul are high, and it has helped UNI to maintain the 8th position in the market.

Within 24 hours, UNI has increased its market cap to $17.52 billion from its previous value of $8.8 billion on March 4.

UNI now the second-largest Ethereum-based asset

Based on the current ranking system of Messari, UNI is now the second-largest Ethereum-based asset by market capitalization, only behind Tether.

UNI’s market cap is now bigger than Ripple’s (XRP) market cap ($17.19 billion) as well as Litecoin’s (LTC) market cap ($13.0 billion)

The token entered the top ten on Friday, which makes it the first DeFi DApp native token to do so.

Yesterday, it is price hit an all-time high of $34, but as of the time of writing, UNI was trading at $33 per token. It’s expected to rise further as speculation transactions grow.

The initial token distribution of UNI tokens was airdropped to liquidity providers added to the 400 tokens distributed to every wallet with DEX in September last year.

Hashmasks Sells 16,000 NFTs Related to Artwork for $9 Million

The grand entrance of UNI into the top ten crypto assets is coming after the token recorded an all-time monthly trade volume. In February alone, the record was broken three times, which culminated in a monthly all-time high of $31.9 billion.

But it seems the massive stride in trade volume has come to an end, as trading volume reduced slightly within the past few days. However, even with the drop in volume, UNI still represents 50% of all trades on Ethereum-powered DEXs.

UNI’s surge attributed to several factors

The growth of UNI is also coming at a time when there is increased speculation about the upcoming V3 upgrade. Developer of Yearn Finance Andre Cronje recently stated that there has been increased social media activity by Hayden Adams, Uniswap’s lead developer. According to him, it suggests that the V3 launch is very close.

Cronje created the post after Adams opened a Twitter poll asking followers where they are looking to get the details about the Uniswap V3 launch.

UNI’s impressive rise is a result of several factors, as experts have observed. In particular, the record-breaking figures in trading volume contributed massively to the token’s rise. The surge was also caused by speculation regarding the V3 launch.

UNI rises by 50% Surge To Become 8th Largest Ethereum-Based Asset

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3 Stages when creating a Decentralized Crypto App

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Codezeros

The popularity of cryptocurrency is popular worldwide, with the multiplicity of a varied one being invented every single day. In accordance with Google, there are approximately 6000 of them, and if you intend to set the blockchain up, you must be aware of the ownership soon being handed over to the users..

With blockchain blowing our minds up, it has found its direct application in decentralized applications. The applications are here to match the service information with users in the absence of any middlemen. This can, however, be implemented in any industry. With the projects on the soar, we are witnessing the rising demand for decentralized applications and the need for new blockchain developers.

Why do you need to create a decentralized application?

Decentralized applications render essential perks to an application. The apps had been invigorated, especially for the cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges; however, the scenario is slowly changing with the due course of time.

Now that you have decided to go for DApps Development, it is a must to be aware of the stages to create one. Here is detailed information on stages pertaining to creating a decentralized crypto app.

3 stages to develop a decentralized crypto app:

Stage 1:

Create a product appropriate for the market:

This is, in fact, the first and foremost rule for any startup founder. While creating the first version of a product, it is mandatory to focus on meeting the market requirements while pondering to collect the first users. This is when you require a robust development team applying the agile methodology and equipped with the necessary skills. This is also when you require a constructive and strategized marketing plan and, of course, transparency. Feel free to share your development and documentation plans with a professional Blockchain Dapps Development Company.

The cryptocurrencies are entirely dependent on decentralization along with token distribution between users. However, this is not true at this stage. This is when you need to control the procedures and quickly process decisions on your own. This needs to be followed by evaluating the market hypothesis and further needs feedback from prior users.

Stage 2:

Time to prosper:

The second stage is extremely pivotal to activate members. The founders need a community that is largely capable of sustaining a robust network, and hence needs to activate the users in ways more than one. Some of the ways include granting, encouraging individuals to take part in product development, and more. This marks the onset of shifting responsibility from the owners to the users.

This ends with making an agreement that decisions are performed by consensus and brings the system a step closer to decentralization. The network gets a lot secured for users that pave the way to attract new users. The second step involves the primary need to make a decision.

Steps to expand the network:

This is rather the most popular way to distribute tokens. A blockchain owner needs to evaluate the available tokens in your system. At this stage, considerations such as the number of tokens to be left on your side, the number of tokens to be distributed, the number of tokens to be rewarded, and more need to be assessed.

Stage 3

Decentralized crypto app:

As the third stage of the process, it is time to decentralize crypto apps.

This is when cryptocurrencies come to the realm and paves the way for an alternative approach. The approach is based on blockchain technology offers each user a unique opportunity to become a payment processor on the network. This leads to creating decentralization without attaining any failure point. As a result, it gets all the more efficient, resilient, and democratic, helping you to be a crypto app founder for Ethereum App Development and meet your goal..

With a developed network of users, you can acquire an easier way of distributing tokens in a well-distributed manner. The community then takes complete responsibility for the system. Only a decentralized solution guarantees a fully secured network, making it all the more beneficial and prospective for the users.

Conclusion:

By adhering to the steps mentioned above, you can slowly pave the way towards developing a decentralized crypto app. The apps are a potent choice for a varied case, and no wonder the solutions attract users with the reliability, speed, and loyalty they have in their bag. With the market as expansive as this, you need an app that promises more extensive innovation and convenience. Thus, it is recommended to get in touch with reliable decentralized DApp development services to curate an app as per your business needs and requirements. With the professionals by your side, you need not worry about creating a decentralized crypto app. Hence, explore the services around and make your best pick, entrusting the leading development services.

3 Stages when creating a Decentralized Crypto App

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Uniswap reaches $100B in cumulative volume amid DeFi explosion

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Uniswap’s decentralized exchange reached a major milestone on Monday, as cumulative trade volumes surpassed $100 billion in the wake of the DeFi boom. 

Hayden Adams, Uniswap’s CEO, tweeted Monday that his platform became the first decentralized exchange to process over $100 billion in transactions. Using data from Dune Analytics, Adams shows cumulative volumes of $101.5 billion as of Feb. 15. The chart highlights Uniswap’s dramatic growth since mid-2020 when the first DeFi bull market began.

Uniswap processed over $1.2 billion worth of transactions in the last 24 hours, according to Coingecko, placing it among the largest exchanges for cryptocurrency trading.

Decentralized exchanges, also referred to as DEXs, have seen their volumes grow considerably over the past eight months. They now threaten centralized-exchange dominance due to the rapid uptake of DeFi governance tokens.

The upsurge in trading activity has come at a cost, though. As Ethereum-based DEXs and on-chain transactions continue to grow, so too are the transaction fees. Cointelegraph recently reported that transactions on Uniswap can cost over $100 during peak overload periods.

Uniswap has emerged as a critical piece of the DeFi sector thanks to its first-mover advantage and ability to accommodate new token projects. In late 2020, the exchange airdropped 400 UNI tokens to users that had previously contributed to its liquidity. At the time of the airdrop, the 400 UNI were worth around $3,500. The tokens are now worth a combined $8,400.

More than $57.6 billion has been locked into DeFi protocols, according to the latest industry data.

Uniswap reaches $100B in cumulative volume amid DeFi explosion

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