Solana challenges Bitcoin

Author

Unhashed by AMBCrypto
December 26, 2023

 

Reading time: 7 minutes

‘Join Drake at Stake’ is an event in partnership with the hip-hop icon that contains some exclusive livestream giveaways. Here players can play Drake's favourite games and sports to truly entrench themselves in Drizzy's playstyle. 

Drake has been a long-time member of the Stake community. A player storming the ranks of the VIP program, Drake fell in love with both the platform and the perks associated with their VIP program. 

Stake.com is one of the largest crypto platforms and sportsbooks that offers users a chance to play with $300 by just investing $100 on the platform. JOIN NOW to choose from more than 3000 games from the best providers in the gaming industry. 

Solana emerges as investors’ most preferred altcoin in the last week

Key points

  • Solana's growth this year wasn't just in terms of its price; the entire Solana ecosystem contributed to significant gains for traders

  • The Total Value Locked in Solana rose significantly, indicating renewed trust in the platform

News - Solana underwent a notable surge during the holiday period. Starting from its 19 December low of $71.78, SOL shot up by about 57% in less than a week. The positive price movement positioned Solana as the top altcoin after Ethereum. SOL's momentum allowed it to exceed both Ripple and BNB Chain in market capitalization, positioning it right behind Ethereum.

Meme coins on Solana - Solana's recent success also boosted traders' profits in its ecosystem, as a Lookonchain report highlighted. Solana became a popular place for meme coins, with some traders turning small investments into huge returns. For example, one trader turned $900 into an impressive $3.47 million within five days through the meme coin ANALOS. Other meme coins like BONK, MYRO, and POPCAT also gained attention.

Furthermore, AMBCrypto noted that the booming meme trading scene increased trust in Solana, as seen in its Total Value Locked metric. Solana's TVL grew from hundreds of millions to $1.48 billion in just a week, leading the top 10 in growth.

Crypto Investment products see surge in inflows, led by Bitcoin dominance

Key points

  • Over the past 13 weeks, crypto exchange-traded products had 12 weeks of inflows

  • Bitcoin funds led the way with inflows of $87.6 million, which accounted for 85% of the total inflows

News - In the week that ended on 22 December, cryptocurrency investment products inflowed $103 million, contrasting with the $16 million outflows from the previous week. Over the last 13 weeks, crypto exchange-traded products saw inflows in 12 of them.

Bitcoin dominated the inflows, collecting $87.6 million, which made up 85% of the total. Ether came next, but with a significant gap, gathering $7.9 million. Yet, Litecoin and Avalanche ETPs went against this trend, showing net outflows of $400,000 and $2.6 million, respectively.

Outliers in the crypto inflow trend - Germany was the leading region with inflows accounting for 40% of the total, followed by Canada at 25%. The U.S. contributed 20%, and Switzerland added nearly 15%.

This positive trend for crypto fund products started around 29 September, after a stretch where eight out of nine weeks had outflows. CoinShares had previously suggested that these inflows might be due to traders' expectations of potential approval for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S., which could further boost demand.

MATIC surges as Polygon's transactions reach 3.4 B; gaming user base up 30%

Key points

  • In 2023, Polygon’s performance was strong as the price showed bullish momentum

  • Polygon PoS reached 3.4 billion total transactions, and gaming users on Polygon increased by over 30% in the last 30 days

News -  At press time, the widely followed Polygon X account tweeted about the blockchain's recent progress. The account highlighted that Polygon PoS had processed 3.4 billion transactions. Moreover, Polygon's gaming user base grew by over 30% in the past month.

Network activity insights - When AMBCrypto examined Artemis’ data,  a surprising decline in Polygon's network activity over the previous week was observed, despite the surge in transactions. Both the daily active addresses and daily transactions on Polygon decreased. Yet, MATIC's involvement in the DeFi sector saw significant growth, evidenced by a notable rise in its TVL.

NFT Ecosystem - Polygon's NFT marketplace remained vibrant. For instance, Polygon X reported that FIFA had completely sold out their new 900 NFT collection on the platform. Analyzing MATIC's NFT activity, it was found that there was a notable increase in its trade counts. CryptoSlam data also showed a 55% rise in MATIC's NFT traders last week. However, Polygon's overall NFT sales saw a decline of over 32%, raising concerns.

On a positive note, MATIC's value surged by about 9% in the past week, trading at $0.8626 with a market cap that surpassed $8.2 billion.

Bitcoin creditors of Mt. Gox begin receiving fiat repayments via bank transfers

Key points

  • Creditors of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox received fiat repayments for their trapped Bitcoin

  • The trustee overseeing Mt. Gox's estate sent emails about the commencement of repayments on 21 November

News - Creditors of the once-prominent Bitcoin platform, Mt. Gox, saw progress after years - their personal Bitcoin holdings have been trapped on the exchange since February 2014. However, recent reports from Reddit indicated that these users received the long-awaited repayments in Japanese Yen via PayPal. 

While the details remained unverified, some users on the platform confirmed the receipt of funds after initially mistaking them for scams. Notably, a Japanese user highlighted on 21 December that he successfully received his Mt. Gox claims via a bank transfer denominated in Yen.

Fiat reimbursements - These repayments were structured in multiple phases: base, early lump-sum, and intermediate payments. The development followed an email from Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi in November, signaling the commencement of cash repayments in 2023, continuing into the next year. Earlier in September, Kobayashi had extended the repayment deadline to 31 October 2024. He also hinted at potential early payouts by the end of that year for creditors who had provided requisite details.

Did you know?

  • It's challenging to enforce a complete ban on cryptocurrency. While numerous nations have debated the idea of outlawing digital currencies, the inherent nature of cryptocurrency makes it resistant to such prohibitions.

  • A notable incident from 2013 involves James Howells from Wales, U.K., who mistakenly discarded a hard drive containing 7,500 Bitcoin. Recognizing the skyrocketing value of Bitcoin in subsequent years, he embarked on a quest to locate the discarded drive.

  • Over the past nine years, Bitcoin witnessed a staggering growth, surging by more than 500,000%. Enthusiasts of Bitcoin anticipate its continued ascent shortly, challenging traditional economic trends.

Top 3 coins of the day

Bitcoin (BTC)

  • The king coin’s price has jumped over 160% this year, which is second best to over 350% generated during 2020.

  • According to a private surveyor, it is expected that approximately $60.6 billion could flow into Bitcoin from the combined stock and bond ETFs.

What you should know - The ending week of December witnessed Bitcoin falling into bearish territory. At the time of writing, it stood at $42,600 with a fall of 1.34% over the last 24 hours. The near-term support was found at the $40,000 mark while the short-term resistance stood firm near the $44,000 area. On 26 December, the buying pressure was seen to be waning. The leading technical indicator, RSI too was on a downtrend; its reading stood near 50-mark, at press time. Thus, highlighting that the BTC downside might as well continue for the next day.

Polkadot (DOT)

  • Polkadot saw a surge in its network activity on 21 December. Consequently, a major boost to its blockchain revenues was registered.

  • The Futures market reflected confidence in DOT as open Interest noted an uptick after 20 December.

What you should know - DOT had been following a rangebound movement since September 2022, but a noticeable bullish breakout was observed on 5 December when the coin reached a level last seen in June 2022. The short-term movement looked skewed towards the buyers’ side. However, on a macro-frame, the coin still seemed to be treading within a tight range. At press time, DOT was trading at $9.09 with a 32.29% hike in the last seven days. The MACD line was placed well above the signal line, indicating that further bullish movement can’t be ruled out.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

  • From October, over 30,000 Shiba Inu non-zero addresses became wallets with a balance.

  • More market participants have been adopting SHIB and making their first transactions involving the token.

What you should know - SHIB’s price movement was observed to be on the positive side over the last week. The Bollinger Bands (BB) revealed that the volatility in the Shiba Inu market was less when compared to August and September. In the last 24 hours of press time, the token’s price decreased by 1.18%. Even so, its 7-D change was in the positive territory. If sellers put more pressure, the meme coin would easily touch its short-term support level in a few days. Interestingly, on 26 December, the Fear and Greed Index of the token stood at the neutral mark.

How was today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.