News

Steaker Monthly Report (2022/07/11–2022/08/10)

Aug 10, 2022

Market Recap:

Even those who don’t live and breathe cryptocurrency have probably noticed the chaos in the sector over the past few months. Luckily, plummeting prices and investor sentiment seem to show signs of bouncing back.

The stats of CoinMarketCap show that, as of press time, both BTC and ETH started creeping up again in the last 30 days, rising 11% and 44% respectively.

Bitcoin Holds $23,000 As A Bear-Market Bounce

Bitcoin was resilient enough to spring back to over $23,000 this July after the impact of the Federal Reserve announcing another three-quarter of a percentage point increase in its benchmark interest rates, the second such increase in just over a month, along with the economy teetering on the verge of a recession for the last two quarters.

It is presumed that the key to this Bitcoin rise was attributed to the target range raised for the Fed funds rate being in line with crypto market expectations, which has nearly hit the ceiling on interest rate hikes from investors’ perspective.

This optimistic outlook has prompted the crypto faithful to flow back in the market along with their funds, lifting Wall Street stocks and crypto prices. Bitcoin has now been trading within a range of $20,000 to $23,000 since mid-June after a brutal crash earlier this year wiped off nearly half of its value.

“Another unusually large interest rate increase is possible in September,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The macro-environment with an increased CPI and a high-interest rate will continue to wobble the financial market in the second half of this year.

In other words, despite Bitcoin’s short-term rise, there’s no sure sign that its price will be restored to its former glory anytime soon based on macroeconomic projections.

Ethereum’s Bullish Movement Comes From The Merge On The Cards

The second largest crypto by market cap – ETH – rose even more strongly, breaking $1,700 for the first time since the June crash, with its gains nearly doubled in the past month.

This market recovery is largely owing to The Merge scheduled for September. Rather than being delayed again and again since the day the Ethereum Merge was announced, the launch date of The Merge with the Beacon Chain seems to truly come around.

All eyes are currently on Ethereum Mainnet and how it will perform as the Beacon Chain proof-of-stake (PoS) system is merged to it, which marks the end of Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) era and the full transition to a much leaner and more efficient blockchain system.

The Merge will not only reduce Ethereum's energy consumption but also make it a lot safer, so, as this announcement came through, ETH supporters’ confidence were restored, driving the price of ETH up.

Prices & Market Cap at A Glance

Last month, BTC prices traded between a new monthly low of $19,113 and a local high of $24,493, while ETH prices traded between a new monthly low of $1,027 and a local high of $1,806.

According to CoinGecko, the top 100 DeFi tokens’ market cap significantly increased from $39.0bn on July 11 to $50.0bn at the time of writing, up 28.27% MoM. The DeFi dominance in the crypto space currently sits at 4.45%, a net increase of 0.41 ppts from the previous month.

According to DeFi Llama, the total value locked (TVL) declined from $76.40bn to the current level of $66.81bn, dropping 12.55% MoM. Citing the data on CoinGecko, the NFT tokens and GameFi tokens market cap increased by 32.23% MoM and 21.77% MoM to $19.80bn and $8.00bn respectively.

Top 100 Coins Price Index:

Top 3 price gainers: ETC (+147.43%), FLOW (+78.23%), MATIC (+58.99%)

Top 3 price losers: LEO (-11.49%), BUSD (-0.13%), TUSD (-0.05%)

Benchmark: BTC (+11.14%)

DeFi Tokens Price Index:

Top 3 price gainers: LDO (+252.38%), ROSE (+98.18%), YFI (+86.41%)

Top 3 price losers: FEI (-0.52%), USDN (-0.21%), BAL (-34.68%)

Benchmark: Top 100 DeFi Tokens’ Market Cap (+28.27%)

NFT Tokens Price Index:

Top 3 price gainers:UFO (+121.42%), ROSE (+98.18%), FLOW (+78.23%)

Top 3 price losers:CEEK (-27.05%), OGN (-17.26%), DEP (-10.54%)

Benchmark: NFT Tokens’ Market Cap (+32.23%)

Metaverse/GameFi Tokens Price Index:

Top 3 price gainers: UFO (+121.42%), WILD (+97.32%), ADS (+93.91%)

Top 3 price losers:CEEK (-27.05%), DEP (-10.54%), HERO (-6.74%)

Benchmark: GameFi Tokens’ Market Cap (+21.77%)