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Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

In times like these, when the entire cryptocurrency market is down and there is nary a sector-wide runup to be found, traders have to dig into data to see how the market dynamics may have changed to pinpoint signs of new growth. 

Stablecoins are the newest trend to emerge in the decentralized finance (DeFi) arena due to the resiliency they bring to the sector, especially since protocols that are more reliant on the dollar-pegged assets continue to offer token holders low-risk yield opportunities in turbulent market conditions.

Possible evidence of stablecoins rising influence can be found in the difference between the decline in Ether’s (ETH) price and the total value locked in smart contracts. The price of Ether declined by 20% more from its peak than the decline in the total TVL of the DeFi sector.

TVL in smart contracts vs. Ether price decline. Source: Glassnode

When one takes into account that most of the crypto market saw price declines on par with what Ether experienced, the fact that the DeFi TVL fell less percentage-wise than the price of Ether points to the stability offered by stablecoins.

Stablecoin marketcap increases tenfold

The total amount of stablecoins available in the market has skyrocketed from under $15 billion to more than $113 billion over the past year, led by Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), bringing an increased level of liquidity to DeFi protocols.

Top seven stablecoins by market capitalization. Source: CoinGecko

The top stablecoins are included in a large percentage of the liquidity pool (LP) pairs available on DeFi platforms, as well as being included as a standalone token that users can deposit on protocols, such as Aave, to earn a yield. This further makes them an integral part of the burgeoning DeFi ecosystem.

Stablecoins have, in fact, led to the creation of a specialized subset of DeFi protocols, which focus on yield farming stablecoins and provide a safer way for investors to earn a yield while minimizing risk.

Early on in the DeFi craze, protocols attracted new users and deposits by offering high yields that were typically paid out in the native token of the protocol.

With a majority of DeFi tokens now down at least 75% from their all-time highs, according to data from Messari, many of the gains that users thought they made through staking and providing liquidity have evaporated, leaving little to show for the risks taken on these experimental platforms.

The battle for stablecoin liquidity

The rise of successful stablecoin-focused protocols such as Curve Finance, which is a decentralized exchange for stablecoins that uses an automated market maker to manage liquidity, platforms such as Yearn.finance, Convex Finance and Stake DAO battle to offer the best incentives that will attract a larger share of the Curve ecosystem.

Supplying stablecoins to Curve, or as a stablecoin LP like as a USDC/USDT pair, amounts to the blockchain version of a savings account. Many of the top protocols, including the three listed above, offer between 10% and 30% yields on average for stablecoins deposits.

Related: How stablecoins stay stable, explained

Thanks to smart contracts, users can make deposits to automated, compounding stablecoin liquidy protocols, reducing the stress of the daily market gyrations.

Total market capitalization of the top 100 DeFi tokens. Source: CoinGecko

The aftermath of the May 19 sell-off is still impacting investors, and in times like these, the yield opportunities provided by supplying stablecoins to DeFi protocols is an attractive way to diversify a crypto portfolio and hedge against market downturns.

Want more information about diversification into the above-mentioned projects?

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

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Curve (CRV) sees 150% rebound as DeFi bottoms and ETH gas fees drop

DeFi tokens and protocols took a heavy hit on May 19 as Bitcoin price dropped to $30,000 and while BTC has entered what some analysts describe as a ‘compression’ phase, the total value locked in DeFi and the value many of the sector’s tokens have yet to rebound to the levels seen before the market crash.

Curve DAO token (CRV) stands among the few DeFi tokens that have seen a strong recovery over the past two weeks due to reduced Ethereum gas fees, the launch of Convex Finance and the DeFi sector beginning to find a bottom. 

CRV/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that CRV has increased 55% since June 1, rallying from a low of $1.76 on June 1 to an intraday high at $2.76 on June 3 alongside a 250% increase in 24-hour trading volume.

Convex Finance launch attracts CRV holders

One source of the sudden rise in price and momentum for CRV is Convex Finance (CVX), an optimizer for the Curve Protocol that enables swaps of similar assets like stablecoin to stablecoin transactions.

Since it’s official launch on May 17, the Convex protocol has rapidly gained a substantial user base thanks to yields as high as 52.16% and some analysts have suggested that the protocol is challenging  Yearn.finance for CRV-related deposits.

Data from Defi Llama shows that in the two and a half weeks since the launch of Convex Finance, the total value locked (TVL) on the protocol has surpassed $2.3 billion with stakers on the protocol earning $4.3 million in total revenue.

Total value locked on Convex. Source: Defi Llama

Both Convex Finance and Yearn.finance rely heavily on CRV for the operation of their platforms and the increased activity has resulted in a decline in the circulating supply of CRV. This may have helped to boost CR price as investors clamor to stake tokens for the highest return possible.

Curve Finance and the wider DeFi ecosystem could also be benefitting from the sharp decline in gas fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network, which had previously priced out many retail traders from performing the simple approval and confirmation transactions required to stake and claim earnings from DeFi protocols.

Average Ethereum gas fee. Source: Etherscan

Lower fees have allowed a wider range of users to re-engage with their favorite DeFi protocols, and Curve has been a significant beneficiary of this development.

The VORTECS™ indicator flashed before the breakout 

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for CRV on May 31, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. CRV price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for CRV registered bullish readings throughout the past week with a high of 77 coming late in the day on May 31. This was roughly 15 hours before the price rallied 55% over the next 48 hours days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Curve (CRV) sees 150% rebound as DeFi bottoms and ETH gas fees drop

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Possible Yearn rival Convex Finance passes $1 billion in total value locked

While much of the market reels from a devastating pullback that has dragged DeFi’s closely-watched total value locked (TVL) figure down from all time highs, one protocol is shrugging off the macro weight and surging up the TVL leaderboard. 

Ethereum-based Convex Finance ($CVX) cracked a billion dollars in TVL earlier today, rising as high as $1.14 billion and briefly cracking the top-20 by size, per DeFilama.

Convex team lead “c2tp” told Cointelegraph in an interview that the team has been overwhelmed by the support.

“We are blown away with the amount of support our platform has received. We’re very grateful for everyone who shares our vision. The community getting the word out has been the major contributing factor, as well as a show of support from the Curve team,” they said.

Convex is designed to be an optimizer for the Curve protocol, a platform that enables swaps of similar assets such as between different stablecoins or ETH and Lido’s staked ETH. Its CRV token has a timelock functionality, where users stake CRV for four years in exchange for veCRV, which allows users to “boost” the rewards for staking in Curve pools.

“We want to extrapolate the complex things away, like how much veCrv is needed to boost how much liquidity. But we also want to be open enough to show everyone what’s going on behind the scenes and the benefits we provide,” said c2tp of Convex’s services. “On top of veCrv to liquidity balance, locking a token for four years can be a big step for most people. We hope our system gives confidence in the value of our tokens so that you can join the ecosystem while still remaining liquid.”

The launch has not been without drama, however. Some observers have claimed that because Convex optimizes Curve positions the project is a threat to Yearn.Finance, whose yield vaults rely heavily on Curve.

However, c2tp rejected this notion, saying that Yearn and Convex compliment each other in what’s ultimately a positive-sum DeFi ecosystem:

“We don’t really see it as direct competition. There are different platforms with different goals. There is also a lot to gain when platforms integrate with each as part of the larger defi system. We encourage anyone to use what we have to offer as well as build on top. Defi is not a winner takes all, but something that becomes stronger as all the pieces fit together.”

Likewise, a Yearn representative dismissed the notion of the protocols doing battle with one another, noting that a large portion of Convex’s TVL is delegated by Yearn. 

“We love to see it,” said Weaver, a member of Yearn’s growth team of Convex’s success. “Many in crypto spend their time looking for ways to pit tribes against each other, but zoom out today and you see 19M additional veCRV boosting Yearn vaults, thanks to Convex. You asked if this was a vampire attack on Yearn. I don’t know what the opposite of that is, but this new lego is pumping boosties into Yearn.”

Possible Yearn rival Convex Finance passes $1 billion in total value locked

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WINk (WIN) soars as retail DeFi investors flee high Etheruem gas costs

Decentralized finance has exploded in popularity over the past year and many analysts have pointed to the 2020 ‘summer of DeFi’ as the primary catalyst for the rallies seen in Ether (ETH)  and Bitcoin (BTC). 

In the beginning, investors were able to easily secure 4-digit annual percentage yield (APY) on an almost endless number of attractively priced assets on Uniswap but the increased activity on the Etheruem network eventually led to unsustainable spikes in gas fees and serious network congestion.

These skyrocketing gas fees have priced out the average retail investor from participating in even the simplest protocol interactions like token approval or staking. The current Etheruem proposals do not provide an immediate solution to these issues and this has motivated investors to look for non-Ethereum-based networks that offer yield farming and other DeFi opportunities.

Average Ethereum gas price. Source: Etherscan

With no simple network-wide solution to high ETH fees planned in the near future, it is worthwhile to explore some of the other options available on competing blockchain networks.

One such option is WINk (WIN), a Tron-based (TRX) gambling platform that allows users to play, socialize and stake assets across multiple blockchain ecosystems through the utilization of the native WIN token.

Low-fee, multi-asset staking

Interacting with the WINk protocol requires a Tron wallet with about 8 TRX which is roughly $0.48 at the current price. 

When compared to $40 (or more) in fees per transaction on Ethereum, the ability to make multiple transactions over several days for less than a dollar becomes quite appealing to the average investor.

Similar to many DeFi platforms, WINk’s platform has many staking opportunities for tokens within the ecosystem, including TRONbetDice (DICE) and TRONbetLIVE (LIVE), which allow token stakers to earn a portion of the proceeds from the activity which takes place within those games.

According to the most recent monthly report from the project, the APRs for staking WIN, DICE and LIVE on the protocol for the month of January were 64%, 123% and 137% respectively.

With WIN currently trading at $0.000394 and DICE and LIVE priced less than $0.05, the low entry cost and price of staking and unstaking might be more appealing for the average retail investor when compared to the sky-high valuations of tokens like Yearn.Finance (YFI) and Aave.

Evidence that traders have begun to notice this opportunity can be found in the recent price performance of WIN which has rallied 700% from a low of $0.000058 on Jan. 1 to a high of $0.000477 on March 20 thanks to a record $344 million in trading volume.

WIN/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for WIN on March 18, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. WIN price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score registered a high of 65 multiple times on March 18 and the most recent pop to 65 occurred roughly six hours before WIN rallied 90%.

Increased activity for the cryptocurrency sector due to mainstream exposure from institutional investors and big-name influencers like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban has the ecosystem poised to see a continued influx of new users looking to earn a high return on smaller-sized investments.

Projects like WIN are well-positioned to capture some of this growth as smaller investors look for options outside the Ethereum network.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

WINk (WIN) soars as retail DeFi investors flee high Etheruem gas costs

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

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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