DeFi revival turns altcoin market green
Altcoins outperformed Bitcoin last week, with DeFi favorites making high double-digit gains as the largest cryptoasset found stability at $21K.
The DeFi revival came on hopes that the global economy might avoid a recession. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday that economic downturn in the US is “not inevitable”, and more signs emerged that inflation could be peaking. The resulting market confidence was boosted by a flurry of crypto acquisitions, with lower valuations leading both giant banks and crypto-native companies to contemplate scooping up firms at discounted prices.
At the top of the charts, blue chip DeFi protocols Compound and Synthetix made the biggest gains with more than 50%. Uniswap and Polygon followed close behind, and Ethereum added 20% ahead of upcoming technical milestone Gray Glacier.
This Week’s Highlights
– Compound, Synthetix and Polygon lead DeFi revival
– Uniswap pops 35% amid flurry of crypto dealmaking
Compound, Synthetix and Polygon lead DeFi revival
Although DeFi tokens have suffered more than most in the recent market downturn, the decentralized protocols have remained resilient even as their centralized equivalents are threatened by market turbulence.
This strength was reflected in the market last week, with lending platform Compound adding 60% as DeFi protocol Synthetix surged 50% on a significant rise in trading volumes. Close behind, Ethereum scaling solution Polygon added 45%.
Other hot tokens include Solana, which popped 20% on the announcement of a new Web3 smartphone, and metaverse platforms Decentraland and The Sandbox with 20% and 40% gains respectively.
Uniswap pops 35% amid flurry of crypto dealmaking
The discounts provided by the downturn are making crypto companies more attractive to acquirers, who are now taking the opportunity to acquire firms at a lower valuation than was possible six months ago.
Uniswap Labs, the venture capital arm of Uniswap, announced the acquisition of NFT marketplace aggregator Genie last week — helping to win the Uniswap token weekly gains of 35%.
Elsewhere, traditional investment bank Goldman Sachs is reportedly raising $2 billion to buy the assets of crypto lending firm Celsius, and FTX is in talks to acquire a stake in BlockFi.
Week ahead
This week will bring an end to one of the more turbulent six month periods in crypto’s short history, and will also usher in a key technical milestone for the leading smart contract blockchain.
On Wednesday, Ethereum is set to undergo the Gray Glacier network upgrade, which delays the detonation of the ‘difficulty bomb’ that is designed to encourage the transition to proof of stake. Although it was delayed, this could be a reason for optimism as it represents another critical moment in Ethereum’s transformation.
Then on Friday, we will move into the second half of 2022. Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone suggests that this period could see a change of crypto market fortunes, with falling inflation ultimately driving a resurgence in gold, Bitcoin and US Treasury bonds.