Crypto Weekly Wrap: Aug 30 - Sept 5
Altcoins surge as unsustainable Ethereum gas fees are giving rise to alternative protocols
Bullish sentiment continued to drive the crypto market this week with many altcoins posting double digit gains, including Ethereum which breached the 4k mark for the first time since May. Other notable gainers were “Ethereum Killers” Polkadot (up over 20% for the week) and Solana (up over 40% for the week). Solana in particular has been on a tear this month, gaining over 350%. To read up on this altcoin and its recent rise, see here.
Solana and Polkadot are just two of several altcoins that are challenging Ethereum’s dominance in the crypto space (particularly in the DeFi sector) as Ethereum’s high transaction fees and network congestion are weaknesses that other protocols such as these are tackling. As an anecdote, we rejected numerous transactions on the Ethereum Network this past week as gas fees were in excess of $250. Such fees are simply not sustainable and will inevitably result in a declining marketshare of the world’s second biggest crypto.
That is why we are bullish on these Ethereum Killers, yet none more than Cardano (ADA). Next week (on September 12), Cardano will launch a major upgrade, which will usher in numerous changes to the blockchain, including the introduction of smart contracts that will host a wide range of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and NFTs (see more here). Going back to our anecdote on the $250-plus Ethereum gas fees - a similar transaction on the Cardano blockchain would cost less than a dollar. After September 12, we expect there will be a major migration of projects from Ethereum to Cardano, while a large percentage of new projects will choose to build on Cardano instead.
Below are some of the other top crypto stories that made headlines over the past week, followed by the coins that we have been eyeing or buying over the week. But first, our disclaimer needs to be noted: the information provided here, as well as on our website (coinpad.io), does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of the content as such. Investing in cryptocurrency is risky; do your own research and invest at your own risk!
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Weekly news wrap
Lets start with Ethereum news, particular its rise in both price and gas fees:
Here is an interesting educational piece on Ethereum gas fees with insight on the times of day in which gas fees are typically the lowest. Here is a chart from the article:
Here are some of the top stories this week on crypto adoption (this is an important trend to track as obviously this drives up demand):
Twitter to allow users to add BTC and ETH addresses to profiles, per leaked screenshots
Crypto and blockchain jobs' share grew 118% in 10 months, new data shows
Franklin Templeton seeks experts for Bitcoin trading and crypto research
Will PayPal's adoption of bitcoin make cryptocurrency more mainstream?
Mainstream Crypto: Reese Witherspoon Buys Ethereum; Paris Hilton Shows Love for Bitcoin
Colombia’s Banco de Bogotá to take next step in crypto-pilot with focus on spending
Finally, here is an interesting article on DeFi courses being offered at The University of California at Berkeley:
Coinpad’s plays
This past week we’ve been continuing to accumulate Cardano infrastructure tokens, namely ADAX (a decentralized exchange protocol), and Cardwallet (a cross-chain custodial wallet and liquidity engine). We believe that such infrastructure tokens have massive potential as the network expands - particularly when smart contracts are introduced after the September 12th upgrade (we covered this in our past two weekly wraps, see here and here). We are also looking closely at two other Cardano projects that will launch shortly, Kick.io and Cardax. As for ADA, we have been holding off further accumulation for two main reasons: 1.) We believe there is much more room for upward movement on the infrastructure tokens and 2.) We believe the coin may continue to correct before its next push upwards.
We also continued to accumulate the crypto dark horse ERG (Ergo), which we view as fundamentally under-valued. Ergo is widely considered to be a revolutionary blockchain protocol, yet still relatively obscure and under the crypto limelight – mainly because it focuses on building rather than marketing. Ergo is set to launch the first cross-chain DEX on top of Ergo and Cardano blockchains, which we believe will play a major role in getting more main-stream attention to the coin.
Finally, we took a new position in an NFT play with Ecomi (OMI), a Singapore-based technology company quickly making its name in the digital collectibles space. The token has soared over 50% in the past week, yet we believe there is much more leg-room to go as it has been signing deals with major entertainment properties like Marvel, Activision, and Capcom. Moreover, tech-driven and crypto friendly Singapore is an ideal place for this project to be based and we believe it will gain wider traction in Southeast Asia, including in neigbouring Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country that is widely embracing crypto and blockchain technology. For more on the coin, see here.
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