October 11, 2021
October 11, 2021
It's Bitcoin Season – For Now
Introduction
If you’re looking for excitement in the markets today… you’re likely not going to find much. Both the stock and crypto markets are more or less flat – with a few exceptions like OHM and SHIB which are posting double-digit gains.
Just because prices aren’t as exciting, doesn’t mean that you should not pay close attention to what’s going on in crypto land. There are impactful stories and fundamental developments to be aware of.
Market Watch
With Bitcoin dominance rising, we see most altcoins in (mild) red territory today. We all know what happens once a BTC run ends though: Money continues cycling into altcoins – and a larger BTC market cap means that more money can eventually flow into the altcoin space. But for now, altcoin holders need to be patient, since it’s BTC’s time to shine.
With strong overhead resistance approaching, a pause in BTC’s price action is likely in the cards. Be aware though that this doesn’t mean that altcoins will immediately go to the moon. More often than not, a BTC rejection at resistance leads to short-term pain in the whole crypto market.
Step by Step Closer to Crypto Mainstream Adoption
Oftentimes, we get caught up in daily price action and news events. However, at times it’s important to remember why crypto exists in the first place and what powerful and transformative tools for freedom it provides to millions of people. Standing up against corrupt, centralized systems and providing an inclusive, global alternative has always been the ultimate purpose of crypto.
It might not be apparent to people in the West but there has been great progress made in developing countries around the world when it comes to crypto adoption. From Play-to-Earn Communities in the Philippines to remittances and banking the unbanked in El Salvador, Nigeria, Lebanon (see Tweet below) and the latest focus area: Afghanistan.
It’s exciting to see Reuters report a story on crypto adoption – and not just recycle meritless FUD. While we can’t quote the whole article here, I urge you to read the touching story here.
Several of these women left the country after Kabul was captured by the Taliban on Aug. 15, and some have used their crypto wallets to move their money out, help evacuate their families and to settle in new countries…
The power of crypto is bigger - especially for women and those who don’t have bank accounts, it is very beneficial and so empowering.
IMF Scandal: There Are Cracks Going Through Legacy Institutions
Do you need another example of why crypto aims to move the world away from the centralized powers that be? Well, today the IMF, the institution that so adamantly criticized El Salvador’s Bitcoin move, is in the headlines… and not on a glorious occasion. Observers call it a “fundamental crisis of confidence in the IMF”.
The damage has been done. People are now questioning all the work the IMF does.
Rising to the DeFi “Olymp”: OHM’s Impressive Growth
Once again, crypto has proven that ignored and underestimated projects can perform incredibly well!
If you need a short primer on what Olympus & OHM actually are:
What is the reason for OHM’s success? As Twitter user Pluto puts it:
It works because of incentive alignment for users founders... everyone benefits Also top notch growth marketing and strong DAO team constantly working on innovating/integrating with other protocol to make ohm sticky.
Or in Meltem Demirors’ words:
The question arises:
Two L1s Below the Radar to Have an Eye on
#1 Celo
With L1 season in full swing, paying attention to potential “catch up” plays has proven to be a successful strategy. After Solana season, the attention has lately shifted to Avalanche and Fantom with both ecosystems showcasing insane growth, both in TVL and price metrics. However, there are other L1s, so far outside the attention of many, silently creeping up the TVL leaderboard: Near Protocol and Celo.
Celo’s TVL has surged to just below $900 million, almost a 4x increase in less than four months. To put it into perspective: This puts Celo only a 2x away from reaching Arbitrum’s TVL. With a 5x Celo would be in the range of Polygon, Fantom, and Avalanche.
Do you ask yourself which protocols are currently running on Celo? Well, the first one is an easy guess, of course, Sushiswap – the multi-chain trailblazer. However, its TVL and trading volume on Celo are still quite low. The same goes for most other dApps on Celo (see image below) besides Mento, the “Uniswap of Celo”, which hosts the majority of Celo’s TVL (currently around 74%).
From the 7-day change metric, we can see that Celo’s growth has slowed down this week. Is it a sign of stagnation or just a breather before more growth? With the recently launched $100 million incentive program and the launch of cross-chain interoperability solution Optics, Celo certainly has arguments in its favor.
Now is the time to have a close eye and watch the TVL metrics of the Celo ecosystem. Because at this point, one could still get into Celo projects at comparatively small market caps, in case the momentum picks up again soon...
#2 Near Protocol
A category smaller than Celo but growing at an even faster pace is Near Protocol, (another) superfast EVM-compatible L1. It has bootstrapped its TVL from practically 0 to over $100 million in the last 3 months (since two projects, Cheddar.farm and Skyward, are not listed on Defilama, the TVL is actually $100+ million).
A look at Near Protocol’s fast development pace is inspiring confidence that the protocol is not going anywhere.
Not surprisingly, NEAR’s price has had a phenomenal run, briefly surpassing a market cap of $4.5 billion a few weeks ago.
More importantly than NEAR itself is having an eye on potential high-quality projects launching on Near Protocol in the comings months. Since the L1 protocol is still in its early days, now could be a good time to look out for emerging opportunities.