Ryan Gentry, business development lead at Lightning Labs, discusses the latest updates on the Lightning Network, the layer 2 solution for Bitcoin. Highlights:
how Lightning Network is bringing Bitcoin to the masses through partnerships with Twitter, Substack, and Paxful
what the significance of El Salvador adopting Bitcoin means for the Lightning Network
how many nodes are running Lightning Network nodes
why the capacity on the Lightning Network has grown rapidly
how Ryan has seen interest in Lightning has changed since the El Salvador announcement earlier this year
what stage of adoption Ryan thinks the Lightning Network is
why Lightning Network total-value-locked should not be compared to Ethereum L2s or other DeFi protocols
how Lightning Network differs from DeFi
what metric Ryan believes is the best way to measure adoption on Lightning Network
how El Salvador has changed the types of transactions being made on Lightning Network
what’s next for Lightning Network and how Lightning micropayments could affect how podcasts (like Unchained!) are distributed
Starting today, Function X (FX) and Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG) are available on Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now trade, send, receive, or store FX and WCFG in most Coinbase-supported regions, with certain exceptions indicated in each asset page here. Trading for these assets is also supported on Coinbase Pro.
Function X (FX) is an Ethereum token that powers Function X, which comprises a core blockchain, cross-chain protocol, and platform for decentralized applications. FX can be used to pay for services such as smart contract creation and data storage, to vote for network upgrades, and for staking on the network.
Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG) is an Ethereum token that’s intended to represent Centrifuge (CFG) on the Ethereum blockchain. WCFG is not CFG, but rather a separate ERC-20 token that’s designed to track CFG’s price. CFG is the native asset of the Polkadot-based Centrifuge Chain and can be used for staking and on-chain governance.
One of the most common requests we hear from customers is to be able to buy and sell more cryptocurrencies on Coinbase. We announced a process for listing assets, designed in part to accelerate the addition of more cryptocurrencies. We are also investing in new tools to help people understand and explore cryptocurrencies. We launched informational asset pages (see FX and WCFG), as well as a new section of the Coinbase website to answer common questions about crypto.
Customers can sign up for a Coinbase account here to buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store e Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now trade, send, receive, or store FX and WCFG today.
Please note: Coinbase Ventures may be an investor in the crypto projects mentioned here, and additionally, Coinbase may hold such tokens on its balance sheet for operational purposes. A list of Coinbase Ventures investments is available at https://ventures.coinbase.com/. Coinbase intends to maintain its investment in these entities for the foreseeable future and maintains internal policies that address the timing of permissible disposition of any related digital assets, if applicable. All assets, regardless of whether Coinbase Ventures holds an investor or Coinbase holds for operational purposes, are subject to the same strict review guidelines and review process.
This website contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of Coinbase, Inc., and its affiliates (“Coinbase”), and Coinbase is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. Coinbase is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any Third-Party Site. Coinbase is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by Coinbase of the site or any association with its operators.
Crypto is a new type of asset. Besides potential day to day or hour to hour volatility, each crypto asset has unique features. Make sure you research and understand individual assets before you transact.
All images provided herein are by Coinbase.
Function X (FX) and Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG) are now available on Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Dubai, U.A.E, Oct 7th, 2021 — Socially conscious and ethical DeFi ecosystem MRHB DeFi is democratizing access to its private sale by allowing its public community members to partake in the pre-public sale rounds. Usually reserved only for the larger and institutional investors, the earlier stage private sale rounds offer early access, with investors able to enjoy privileged pricing.
MRHB’s community has reached 20,000 members in less than four months and to better reward their early supporters, MRHB has eliminated the large minimum participation amount required, in effect, leveling the playing field for smaller investors by offering access at pre-IDO prices. MRHB has officially announced that registration for the Pre-Public Sale Round 1 starts today, 7th October at 1PM UTC.
“In line with our ethos of inclusion, MHRB DeFi is pleased to offer this unique opportunity to our loyal community who has supported us from the beginning,” says MRHB DeFi CEO Naquib Mohammed. “Our inclusive and ethical philosophies promote equitable sharing of opportunities. This applies to our token launch as well as our products, so we stay true to our vision of empowering communities.”
Strategic Investments and Strong Support from Partnerships
Having onboarded institutional investors such as Mozaic of New World Group, Sheesha Finance, Contango Digital Assets and NewTribe Capital, to name a few, the DeFi ecosystem startup has received strategic investments which also comprise partnership support in various areas including advisory, marketing, networking, amongst others.
MRHB is currently developing eight different Shariah-compliant DeFi products, with the first being its Souq NFT, an NFT creation platform and marketplace which supports multi-chain solutions.
[Sneak Peak of Souq NFT]
Closely following the launch of the Souq NFT would be the Sahal Wallet, a multi-asset, non-custodial wallet that makes it easy to invest in halal crypto assets with in-built shariah-screening.
[Sneak Peak of Sahal Wallet]
MRHB DeFi was founded with a vision of bringing societies and communities not familiar with decentralized finance into the cryptoverse, and has a particular focus on delivering halal DeFi services which adhere to the ethical investment and financing principles of Islamic faith. Such business practices include those that avoid interest, usury, exploitation and other acts deemed unethical.
With more than US$3 trillion of liquidity invested in the Islamic finance market, bringing even a tiny portion of this to DeFi will represent a major step forward in the growth of DeFi worldwide whose total value locked is estimated to be around US$150 billion.
About MRHB DeFi
MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralised finance platform built to bring ethics to the DeFi space with an approach that supports the inclusion of faith-based and other excluded communities, in addition to existing crypto-natives. Everyone can then benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi to help build a true peer-to-peer financial and economic value system.
Based on the tenets of blockchain such as trust, transparency, and security, MRHB DeFi has encapsulated universally applicable principles of Shariah into those tenets of blockchain to render a suite of offerings.
The project is backed by a diverse and strong team with backgrounds spanning crypto, technology, shariah, finance and seasoned institutional veterans of industry. The public sale offering will be in December. Register your interest and read more about MRHB DeFi’s Shariah Concept Paper, Lite and White Paper here.
Ethereum extended its rally above $3,600 level against the US Dollar. ETH price is consolidating gains and it might surge again if it clears $3,575.
Ethereum started a fresh increase above the $3,550 resistance level.
The price is now trading above $3,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
There is a short-term bearish trend line forming with resistance near $3,575 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
The pair could continue to rise as long as it is above the $3,420 support zone in the near term.
Ethereum Price Remains In Uptrend
Ethereum extended its increase above the $3,500 resistance zone. ETH was able to climb above the $3,550 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
During the increase, there was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $3,475 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair even cleared the $3,600 zone. A high is formed near $3,628 and it is now correcting gains.
Ether corrected lower below the $3,600 level. It traded below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $3,343 swing low to $3,628 high.
It is now consolidating near the $3,500 zone. An immediate resistance on the upside is near the $3,550 level. The first major resistance is near the $3,575 level. There is also a short-term bearish trend line forming with resistance near $3,575 on the same chart.
Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
The next major resistance is near the $3,600 level, above which the price might accelerate higher. In the stated case, the price may possibly rise towards the $3,700 level. The next key resistance could be $3,800.
Dips Limited in ETH?
If ethereum fails to continue higher above the $3,550 and $3,575 resistance levels, it could start a fresh downside correction. An initial support on the downside is near the $3,500 level.
The first key support is now forming near the $3,480 level. It is close to the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $3,343 swing low to $3,628 high. Any more losses could lead ether price towards the $3,425 support zone and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
Technical Indicators
Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETH/USD is slowly moving in the bearish zone.
Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETH/USD is now above the 50 level.
TLDR: EIP-1559 transactions have allowed Coinbase and Coinbase users to save ETH on gas prices without sacrificing confirmation times. Coinbase has also burned a lot of ETH, permanently reducing the supply of the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
On August 5, 2021, Ethereum’s “London” upgrade launched successfully on mainnet as the last hard fork before the transition to Proof-of-Stake / ETH 2.0. As one of the most anticipated upgrades, London included a significant change in Ethereum’s monetary policy and transaction fee structure — EIP-1559 — that has proven beneficial to both Coinbase and ETH holders at large.
In legacy transactions prior to London, senders would specify a single gas_price they were willing to pay for their transaction, and miners would select transactions based on a first-price auction. With London, the gas prices that senders pay are in part determined by a block-to-block base_fee_per_gas, which rises and falls with usage of the network.
EIP-1559 transactions allow senders to specify two values: max_fee_per_gas and max_priority_fee_per_gas. The former is an upper bound on the total gas price the sender is willing to pay, while the latter is an upper bound on the gas price the sender is willing to pay to the miner of the transaction. The effective_gas_price, i.e. the amount that the sender actually pays, is then computed as:
The block’s base_fee_per_gas is burned, thereby making the native currency more deflationary and returning value to ETH holders.
While there was significant uncertainty surrounding the market effects of EIP-1559, we at Coinbase took a proactive approach to ensure that our infrastructure was prepared to send EIP-1559 transactions on day one of the fork. Based on the work of people such as Zsolt Felföldi and Frederik Bolding, we developed a novel gas pricing algorithm for these transactions. Crucially, it leverages the new eth_feeHistory JSON RPC API that allows us to dynamically compute an appropriate max_priority_fee_per_gas based on market conditions.
We rolled out this change gradually so that we could compare the metrics of legacy and EIP-1559 transactions. Our findings were surprising:
On average, we saved about 9% on effective gas prices (this was computed as the difference in confirmed gas price between legacy transactions and EIP-1559 transactions).
At the same time, we improved our broadcast-to-confirmation time by 11 seconds, or 0.7 blocks (this was computed as the difference in broadcast-to-confirmation time between legacy transactions and EIP-1559 transactions).
Fig 1. Average gas savings from EIP-1559 transactions in gweiFig 2. P50 broadcast-to-confirmation time delta between EIP-1559 and legacy transactions in seconds
As Taylor Monahan posits, we suspect that we are able to simultaneously save on gas price and improve confirmation time because we specify a max_fee_per_gas that is significantly larger than the current base_fee_per_gas. This makes the effective priority_fee_per_gas larger than the equivalent legacy transaction, incentivizing miners to include our EIP-1559 transaction in the next block.
Coinbase executes a large number of transactions on Ethereum to source liquidity and provide withdrawals for our customers, so these savings add up. As of September 27, 2021, Coinbase has burned 13,800 ETH, for an average of about 254 ETH per day. This means we save about 27 ETH per dayon gas prices from EIP-1559 transactions. Seeing this data, we have rolled out EIP-1559 to 95% of transactions, preserving a small holdback for data collection purposes. We intend on eventually rolling it out to 100%.
The London upgrade was a remarkable achievement not just for Ethereum, but for decentralized financial networks as a whole. A diverse group of participants across the world came together to implement a complex shift in one of the core mechanisms that dictates market prices. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the Ethereum community to push forward the cutting edge of DApps & DeFi, and usher in the new era of ETH 2.0.
If you are interested in building the future of finance, check out our open roles here.
The technical benefits of EIP-1559 was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Melbourne, Australia, Oct 5th, 2021 — Community-focused DeFi ecosystem MRHB DeFi is teaming up with Canadian venture capital fund Contango Digital Assets to expand its reach, offering and services beyond the crypto-fluent to excluded communities globally.
Contango has made a strategic investment into MRHB DeFi, and will work alongside the MRHB DeFi team, providing expertise and experience across a wide variety of areas. The partnership will also support collaboration with influencer marketing leaders in the blockchain space, Influx Group.
Faith-based, Excluded Communities, An Untapped Opportunity
The partnershipis aimed at expanding the reach of MRHB DeFi beyond crypto-natives to engage new users and communities who are attracted to a more ethical and faith-based vision.
“This important community has been struggling to participate in DeFi opportunities and MRHB is now opening an important door to these people who wish to participate in the cryptoverse while still remaining faithful to their beliefs. We’re thrilled to be a part of that.” — Contango Managing Director Mike Grantis.
“We are first in building DeFi services that solve issues of faith, ethics, exclusion, and complexity. Our user-friendly platform provides equal opportunities to everyone, not only those who share our concern for holding crypto assets that are halal. With Contango’s support, we will continue our journey of growth and development within Islamic communities and beyond.” — MRHB DeFi CEO Naquib Mohammed.
MRHB DeFi was founded on the principle of bringing societies and communities not familiar with decentralized finance into the space, and has a particular focus on delivering halal DeFi services which adhere to the tenets of Islamic faith, such as business practices that avoid interest, usury, exploitation and other acts deemed unethical.
With more than USD 3 trillion in liquidity available in the Islamic finance market, bringing even a tiny portion of this to DeFi will represent a major step forward in the growth of DeFi worldwide, and will enable people with no experience of the market to share in its opportunities.
MRHB DeFi recently announced partnerships with Sheesha Finance, NewTribe Capital, Acreditus Partners, EMGS Group and Coinsbit India, working towards expanding its reach and visibility to people new to blockchain, as well as long time believers in the cryptocurrency and digital asset industry.
About MRHB DeFi
MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralised finance platform built to embody the true spirit of an “Ethical and Inclusive DeFi” by following faith-based financial and business principles, where all excluded communities can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi.
Based on the tenets of blockchain such as trust, transparency, and security, MRHB DeFi has encapsulated universally applicable principles of Shariah into those tenets of blockchain to render a suite of offerings. It is a complete DeFi ecosystem whose products, protocols and crypto-assets are governed primarily by the ethical, inclusive, sustainable and charitable investment principles associated with the Islamic faith or ‘Islamic Finance’ (‘IF’ as it is commonly known).
The diverse team is comprised of researchers, technocrats, influencers, Islamic fintech experts & business entrepreneurs, who came together to ensure that MRHB DeFi prevails in a manner that will impact society as a whole, essentially bridging the gap between the faith-conscious communities and the blockchain world.
Read more about MRHB DeFi’s Shariah Concept Paper, Lite and White Paper here.
Contango Digital Assets was launched to empower the financial revolution that is presented by blockchain and DeFi technology. It invests in innovative projects from around the world and fosters strategic partnerships with founders who look for more than just capital.
Learn more about Contango by visiting the official website or following the fund on Twitter.
Most of us have heard about Beeple’s Everydays: The first 5000 days selling for a whopping $69.3 Million dollars but most of us don’t realize the significance of that astronomical number. To put it into perspective, compared to traditional art, only 100 paintings have sold at a higher price than Everydays. That is all paintings sold ever! The investors in the art world have been around for centuries and NFT investors are just getting started.
There is no doubt that NFTs are changing the way we think about art, but this paradigm shift is not restricted to GIFs and JPEGs as the popular news might suggest. NFTs mark a turning point for digital transformation, as applications and integrations are spilling to various sectors: from music and gaming to energy and supply chains.
Understanding the true applications of NFTs
In essence, NFTs are a unit of data on a blockchain, where each NFT represents a unique digital item such as art, audio, videos, items in video games, and other forms of creative work.
Transactions in which ownership of something changes hands have usually depended on layers of middlemen to establish trust in the transaction, exchange contracts, and ensure that money changes hands. None of this will be necessary for the future. Transactions recorded on blockchains are reliable because the information cannot be changed. Smart contracts can be used in place of lawyers and escrow accounts to automatically ensure that money and assets change hands and both parties honor their agreements. NFTs convert assets into tokens so that they can move around within this ecosystem.
Any NFT is simply a piece of digital memorabilia, nothing more, nothing less. It can work like any other speculative asset, where investors make a purchase in hopes of the value increasing, so they can make a profit.
NFTs outside the art world
Technically, anything digital can be an NFT. They give musicians the potential to provide enhanced media and special perks to their fans. Kings of Leon and Grimes are some of the leading examples in the music industry. With sports memorabilia, between 50% and 80% of items are thought to be fake. Putting these items into NFTs with a clear transaction history back to the creator could overcome the massive counterfeiting problem that exists in the industry.
The potential of NFTs goes much further. For instance, San Marino, the tiny nation surrounded by Italy, has reportedly come up with an NFT-based vaccine passport. While still not in use, many believe NFTs provide the perfect opportunity to secure important documents and help prevent any identity thefts.
Lepasa NFTs
Content creators of all sorts can be one of the biggest beneficiaries of NFTs. It is now possible to escape the centralized control of platforms like Facebook where the platforms monetize content creator’s work. Lepasa is one such platform centered around creators. Lepasa is a mythological virtual life conceptualized by a team of artists and engineered by blockchain enthusiasts with a vision to establish an ecosystem that allows users to create, experience, and monetize their content and applications.
They provide a social experience with an economy driven by layers of land and unique creatures ownership, with content distribution. Even though NFTs are at the heart of this project, these NFTs are not restricted to just GIFss and JPEGs. They have a value proposition to apps and game developers in that they can fully capitalize and monetize on the economic interactions between their applications and users. The NFT scripting language allows for the NFTs to handle a wide range of capabilities, including applications, games, gambling, dynamic 3D scenes, and much more. These NFTs go beyond the realms of gaming, adding something for advertisers, sith elements of social media and E-commerce.
In many ways, Lepasa is at the center of most use cases of NFTs that have currently been developed.
In stock markets and the crypto sector, traders are always looking for a definite reason to explain an asset’s price action, which means it’s important to stress that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
While it may be easy to connect a regulatory statement or pending legislation to the outcome of an asset’s price, there’s not always hard proof that these were the exact drivers. Some indicators described below may have happened due to pure luck, even if the coincidence continues throughout history.
For example, Bitcoin’s (BTC) pump to $48,200 on Oct. 1 could have been related to the Sept. 30 remarks by the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. When asked to clarify his comments on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Powell affirmed that the FED has no intentions to ban cryptocurrencies.
Another plausible reason for the current rally is Bitcoin’s 7-day average hash rate jumping to 145 exahashes per second (EH/s), its highest level since the abrupt crash in early June when China’s mining crackdown intensified.
Finally, increasing expectations of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might have played an essential part in traders’ recent bullish bets.
What is clear is that multiple factors could have led last week’s pump to $49,000, and today bulls appear to be making an effort to recapture $50,000. So let’s take a look at 3 indicators that flashed a ‘buy’ signal ahead of the recent price move.
UNI caught a bid after traders turned their attention to DeFi
Uniswap (UNI, left) vs. Bitcoin (BTC, right). Source: TradingView
UNI, the decentralized exchange token for Uniswap, pumped a few hours ahead of the Oct. 1 market rally. The altcoin began its price increase right as the UTC monthly close happened, initially by 5% to $24.20 from $23. This move was followed by another 4% pump to $25.20 three hours ahead of Bitcoin’s breakout above $45,000.
Curiously, DEX volumes started to soar after China imposed additional restrictions on Bitcoin in the previous week. A reasonable explanation for the move could be investors beginning to understand that China’s action would not impact the trading volume. By migrating to DEX, the possibility for governments to control or limit cryptocurrency adoption goes down significantly.
Shorts on derivatives exchanges saw an uptick
Some exchanges provide useful information on clients’ net exposure by measuring their positions or consolidating data from spot and derivatives markets. For example, the OKEx Bitcoin traders’ long-to-short ratio dropped from 1.25 (favoring longs) to 0.72 (favoring shorts) by 28% in less than two days.
That might sound counterintuitive at first, showing whales increasing bearish bets, but when market expectations are broken, extreme price moves tend to happen. Had most traders expected a positive price swing, the result would likely have been priced in already.
Regardless of the underlying asset, a futures contract has longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) matched at all times. This means there is no way to anticipate whether those investors are skewed to either side.
However, sudden increases in the open interest, which reflects the aggregate number of contracts still in play, reflects confidence. The higher the notional involved, the bigger the stakes.
Binance Bitcoin futures open interest. Source: Binance
Notice how, during the 4 hours ahead of the 6:00 am UTC bull run, the spike on both the USDT perpetual and the coin-based contract open interest. Interestingly, even with the $400 million additional bets, Bitcoin price was only noticeably impacted after the open interest peaked.
The truth is one might never uncover what exactly triggered the rally, but by monitoring similar patterns in the future, traders may be able to predict price pumps. Of course, there’s no guarantee that all three indicators will repeat themselves, but the cost of monitoring the data is minimal.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The new users of Huobi Global will receive a bonus. Huobi announces “Welcome Bonus — a $170 Sign-up bonus” for its new users.
According to a recent announcement from Huobi Global, the platform now offers a “$170 Sign-up bonus” for its new users. Users who are signing up on Huobi Global will be eligible to participate in the campaign and enjoy the “Welcome Bonus”.
Huobi Global is a leading global virtual asset exchange. It provides users access to more than 390 cryptocurrencies which includes mainstream cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, and ADA.
Adding to its features and updates, Huobi Global has also announced that it is going to offer a unique trading experience for its new users. The platform’s primary focus is its ecosystem which ensures security, sustainability, and safety for its users. By making its customers the top priority, Huobi Global continues to achieve long-term success, which enables it to hold the leading position in the crypto market.
Huobi Global is ranked in 5th position, according to Coinmarketcap. Users can enjoy more than 900 pairs of cryptocurrencies on the platform. The constant updates and advancements in the platform has continues to drive more investors and users to Huobi Global. The position that Huobi Global still holds says it all that the trading platform operates in compliance with all laws and regulations.
170 USD Sign-up Bonus
In order to participate in Huobi Global’s Welcome Bonus, users should comply with the Terms & Conditions of the campaign:
Participants of the “Welcome Bonus” should be only new users.
Users must finish the new user tasks within 15 days and redeem their bonus within 30 days.
Users must redeem the bonuses individually after completing each task.
Each bonus can be redeemed only once.
Huobi Global claims the right to disqualify users who engage in fraudulent practices or to revoke accounts for any confirmed multi-account registration.
Users from mainland China, Venezuela, Singapore, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, and Sudan are not eligible for this campaign.
If you are a new user of Huobi Global, then you can participate and enjoy the “Welcome Bonus” campaign. Don’t miss the opportunity to receive its $170 Sign-up Bonus!
Airdrops have become the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s equivalent of stimulus checks over the past couple of years and further proof of this can be evidenced from popular protocols like Uniswap and dYdX which rewarded their early adopters with token drops that are now worth $30,000 to $2 million.
The latest protocol to surprise its userbase with a wallet fattening airdrop was Axie Infinity (AXS), a blockchain-based battle game that has risen in prominence over the course of 2021 as users embrace its play-to-earn (P2E) gaming model.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since bounding off a low of $47.92 on Sept. 21, the price of AXS has stormed 145% higher to establish a new record high at $118.00 as its 24-hour trading volume surged from $421 million to $1.95 billion.
AXS/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Three reasons for the recent surge in AXS price over the past two weeks include the introduction of staking features for the AXS token, the release of a community airdrop early adopters and the increasing popularity of play-to-earn gaming protocols.
AXS launches staking
The growth of decentralized finance in 2021 has shone a spotlight on the ability of crypto holders to put their tokens to work and earn a yield through providing liquidity or staking.
In an effort to capture some of this momentum, as well as improve the overall tokenomics of the AXS token, the team at Axie Infinity announced the launch of staking capabilities on Sept. 30. This excited members of the community, and to date, holders have already staked nearly 9.8 million AXS in just two days.
AXS staking dashboard. Source: Axie Infinity
And it’s not just your average crypto user getting in on the staking action, as recent tweets show other gaming platforms in the crypto ecosystem, including Yield Guild Games, have announced that they are now staking their AXS holdings as a way to help increase the value of their respective ecosystems.
We are now staking all of our $AXS ($16.45M) from our treasury. Looking forward to the juicy AXS staking rewards! pic.twitter.com/mTNQiKCXXp
Axie Infinity is currently offering an APR of 240% for stakers with the rewards coming from a dedicated pool of 78.3 million AXS tokens that have been set aside by the team.
AXS airdrops tokens to early adopters
A second reason for the spike in price and activity for AXS was this week’s community airdrop which rewarded users who engaged with the protocol prior to October 26, 2020.
Thank you @AxieInfinity! I received 4905 $AXS. Worth more than nearly everything I had at this time last year.
Being a part of the Axie community is an incredibly rewarding experience. Socially, Intellectually, and Financially.
According to the team, 10,000 wallets were selected based on a snapshot that was taken on Oct. 26 to receive a share of the 800,000 AXS airdrop, depending on the wallet’s level of activity.
The more active users like the pseudonymous Twitter user ‘Arctic’ received larger allocations that are now worth nearly $500,000, while less active accounts received smaller allocations that are nonetheless still significant in terms of dollar value, especially in the more economically disadvantaged parts of the world where many Axie Infinity players reside.
Feels good to be an #AxieInfinity early believer 68 AXS received and ready for breeding. Trust the process https://t.co/FpzHa56Y6E pic.twitter.com/nNlXeBhpPG
Related: NFT trading game Axie Infinity launches AXS staking program
The rising popularity of play-to-earn gaming
Another reason for the recent growth seen in Axie Infinity is the strength of the P2E gaming model which many analysts say will be the breakout sector in 2021.
Axie Infinity was actually the game that kicked off the P2E rally earlier in the year and this momentum translated to an uptick in other P2E protocols like Illuvium (ILV), Chain Guardians (CGG) and MyNeighborAlice (ALICE).
Top 5 gaming protocols by the 90-day change in USD price. Source: Messari
The P2E gaming sector of the crypto ecosystem has been gaining momentum in recent months as users begin to discover the benefits of playing a game that rewards participation, as opposed to the dominant free-to-play model which offers in-game purchases but leaves users with little to show after months of gameplay and investment.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for AXS have been favorable for some time.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. AXS price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for AXS climbed into the dark green zone on Sept. 26 and reached a high of 87 around 35 hours before its price began to increase by 55% over the next three days.
The NewsQuake™ service from Cointelegraph Markets Pro registered two significant news announcements prior to the price rise, including a listing announcement from Bitstamp exchange and the team’s announcement that AXS staking had launched.
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.
