In this report, JPEX looks at the best-performing cryptocurrencies in the past week (29th January to 4th February). Within the week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States of America (USA) seized $100,000 in stolen non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from scammers. Aside from this, three crypto firms in the form of Bittrex, Chainalysis, and Protocol Labs joined other crypto companies in laying off staff due to the lack of profitability in the market. Moreover, news of regulation took another twist in the US as the head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) made it known that the agency is looking to the newly formed Congress for action on the regulations of cryptocurrency. While the market saw many positives and negatives, many traders and investors that played their cards well saw significant gains from Immutable X (IMX), dYdX (DYDX), Fantom (FTM), Optimism (OP), and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
Immutable X spiked more than 30%
As a layer two (2) scaling solution for NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, Immutable X has become one of the most patronized protocols which has resulted positively in its novel token, IMX.
On Tuesday, January 31, Immutable X announced that it will be launching an ALL-IN-ONE PASSPORT SYSTEM. This will help onboard new gamers into the Web3 ecosystem.
According to Immutable X, the All in One Passport System is scheduled to launch in April and will act as a gamer profile, authentication solution for Web3 gamers, and a non-custodial wallet.
After opening the week at $0.6578 on Sunday, January 29, IMX reached a weekly high of $1.01 on Friday, February 3 after it had tested a weekly low of $0.6354 on Monday, January 30.
IMX closed the week on Saturday, February 4 with a trading price of $0.9111. Within the week, trading volume rose from a daily minimum of $21.6 million to a maximum of $101.3 million.
IMX increased by 38% within seven (7) days.
Optimism (OP) rallied over 30%
As a layer two (2) scaling solution which has been tagged as one of the biggest scaling solutions for Ethereum with more than $500 million in total value locked (TVL), Optimism continues to use its scaling solution to improve the functionality of several protocols including Uniswap and Synthetix.
On Wednesday, February 1, the Optimism Foundation proposed an upgrade called BEDROCK. The Optimism Collective: BEDROCK will boost the functionality and performance of the layer two (2) scaling solution. Many factors affect the price of a cryptocurrency and include mainstream adoption of a digital currency, mainstream adoption as a layer 2 scaling solution, staking, exchange listing, and upgrades which improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a protocol.
OP opened on Sunday, January 29 with a trading price of $2.19 and reached a weekly high of $3.21 after testing a weekly low of $2.07 on Monday, January 30.
OP closed the week on Saturday, February 4 with a new trading price of $2.99. With trading volume rising to a weekly high of $578 million after seeing a weekly low of $229 million, OP spiked by 37% within the period.
Fantom (FTM) increased by more than 30%
As a directed acrylic graph (DAG) smart contract platform providing decentralized finance (DeFi) services to developers using its own bespoke consensus algorithm.
The Fantom Foundation announced on Wednesday, February 1, that it has launched the Fantom Hackathon for the first quarter of 2023.
A Hackathon is an event in blockchain technology where a substantial number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
Awards will be given to the most creative, best gaming finance (GameFi), and best trading application creators.
Overall, the creators will be able to share a $50,000 prize pool for their innovative decentralized applications (dApps).
FTM opened the week on Sunday, January 29 with a trading price of $0.4489. FTM rose to a weekly high of $0.6533 on Friday, February 3 after testing a weekly low of $0.4455 on Sunday, January 29.
Fantom closed the week at $0.6151 and saw a significant spike in daily trading volume from $318 million to $628 million.
FTM joined Optimism by rising by 37%.
dYdX ascended over 30%
As a governance token for the layer two protocol of the non-custodial decentralized exchange (DEX), dYdX, DYDX is a token that has rallied in 2023.
On Monday, January 30, dYdX announced on its Twitter channel that it had seen around $1.1 billion in trading volume for its DYDX token in 24 hours.
DYDX opened the week on Sunday, January 29 with a trading price of $2.30, and reached a weekly high of $3.65 on Thursday, February 2 after a spike in daily trading volume from a minimum of $131 million to a maximum of $483 million.
DYDX reached a weekly low of $2.20 on Sunday, January 29 and closed the week on Saturday, February 4 with a price of $3.14.
The primary reason for the price spike has been attributed to a delay in a DYDX token unlock event which was supposed to take place on Friday, February 3.
The token unlock would have increased the number of DYDXs on the market which led to a price fall but the postponement to December 2023 has led to the holding of the cryptocurrency by its holders.
This has resulted in scarcity which has positively reflected in the coin’s price. Within seven (7) days, DYDX ascended by 36%.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) grew more than 20%
SHIB is the last cryptocurrency JPEX observed during the week.
Within the period, SHIB gained 25% after becoming the most traded cryptocurrency among the Top 1000 Ethereum Whales.
With many projects in the pipeline and a spike in daily trading volume from $225 million on Sunday, January 29 to more than $1.7 billion on Saturday, February 4, SHIB continue to brighten the portfolios of millions of its holders.
SHIB opened on Sunday, January 29 at $0.00001181, reached a weekly high of $0.00001562 on Saturday, February 4, tested a weekly low of $0.00001134 on Monday, January 30, and closed the week with a new trading price of $0.00001471 on Saturday, February 4.
