The third week of July would be remembered for the recovery of the prices of alternate coins (altcoins). Despite the performance of the two most popular and largest digital assets by market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), altcoins such as ApeCoin (APE), Axie Infinity (AXS), Decentraland (MANA), Flow (FLOW), Ethereum Classic (ETC), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), and Fantom (FTM) brought double-digit gains to investors. JPEX takes a brief look at the performance of these coins and tokens within a seven-day period.
ApeCoin (APE) Spiked by 39%
Opening Price: $4.76 on Sunday, July 17.
Weekly High: $6.88 on Friday, July 22.
Weekly Low: $4.65 on Sunday, July 17.
Closing Price: $6.66 on Saturday, July 23.
Opening Day Trading Volume: $433.49 million.
Closing Day Trading Volume: $571.18 million.
Opening Day Market Capitalization: $1.49 billion.
Closing Day Market Capitalization: $2.04 billion.
Price Driver: The Apecoin Foundation shared a document using their official Twitter handle about a staking update on July 22. Per excerpts of the paper, the Foundation received multiple bids from many crypto firms but ultimately settled on Horizen Labs as their partner in building and managing a staking system for ApeCoin’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Since staking, exchange listings, and corporate adoption are price triggers, this explains the spike in the token.
Source: APE/USD Chart by TradingView
Axie Infinity (AXS) Soared by 26%
Opening Price: $14.34 on Sunday, July 17.
Weekly High: $18.27 on Saturday, July 23.
Weekly Low: $14.13 on Sunday, July 17.
Closing Price: $18.14 on Saturday, July 23.
Opening Day Trading Volume: $115.72 million.
Closing Day Trading Volume: $422.85 million.
Opening Day Market Capitalization: $1.19 billion.
Closing Day Market Capitalization: $1.49 billion.
Price Driver: During the week, Axie Infinity remained the highest selling NFT by all-time sales with a combined volume of around $4.08 billion, per data from CryptoSlam. Within the last days of the week, AXS broke into the top 10 most purchased cryptocurrencies by Ethereum whales. As one of the biggest and most notable representatives of the gaming finance (GameFi) industry, whales trooped to AXS since the GameFi industry has shown some form of resilience against the bearish market trends, unlike decentralized finance (DeFi).
Source: AXS/USD Chart by TradingView
Decentraland (MANA) Increased by 12%
Opening Price: $0.8674 on Sunday, July 17.
Weekly High: $1.02 on Tuesday, July 19.
Weekly Low: $0.8367 on Monday, July 18.
Closing Price: $0.9778 on Saturday, July 23.
Opening Day Trading Volume: $135.48 million.
Closing Day Trading Volume: $476.66 million.
Opening Day Market Capitalization: $1.55 billion.
Closing Day Market Capitalization: $1.81 billion.
Price Driver: On July 21, CBS announced that the hit comedy Ghosts is making its way into the Metaverse. It used Decentraland, a Web3 gaming platform to launch its immersive experience. This will allow fans to gain new insights into the haunted mansion in a virtual world. From September, the Ghosts experience can be accessed by fans. On July 23, the United Arab Emirates Commercial Bank International announced that it has entered the Metaverse via Decentraland. Adoption by the two mainstream corporations explains why MANA rose to new highs within the week.
Source: MANA/USD Chart by TradingView
FLOW Rose by 15%
Opening Price: $1.60 on Sunday, July 17.
Weekly High: $2.10 on Wednesday, July 20.
Weekly Low: $1.56 on Sunday, July 17.
Closing Price: $1.85 on Saturday, July 23.
Opening Day Trading Volume: $26.69 million.
Closing Day Trading Volume: $34.25 million.
Opening Day Market Capitalization: $1.63 billion.
Closing Day Market Capitalization: $1.92 billion.
Price Driver: On July 21, Flow announced via its official handle on Twitter, that Zigazoo, the world’s largest social network and non-fungible token (NFT) education platform for kids is bringing the next BIG kids brand to its blockchain. As a platform that encourages kids to make videos and employ their imagination, Zigazoo is rated highly among parents. The resultant effect was a spike in the native asset of the Flow ecosystem, FLOW. As of July 2022, Flow remains the fourth-largest blockchain by all-time NFT sales volume with roughly $1.08 billion, per data from CryptoSlam.
Source: FLOW/USD Chart by TradingView
Ethereum Classic (ETC) Shot Up by 48%
Opening Price: $17.24 on Sunday, July 17.
Weekly High: $27.89 on Saturday, July 23.
Weekly Low: $16.89 on Sunday, July 17.
Closing Price: $25.59 on Saturday, July 23.
Opening Day Trading Volume: $1.78 billion.
Closing Day Trading Volume: $1.33 billion.
Opening Day Market Capitalization: $2.61 billion.
Closing Day Market Capitalization: $3.48 billion.
Price Driver: The “Merge” which will take Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network has been slated for some time in the third quarter of the year. Once Ethereum becomes a POS network, miners will be scrapped for stakers. Since Ethereum Classic remains the legacy chain of Ethereum after the hard fork in July 2016, ETH miners are now considering moving to this network to continue receiving mining rewards in the form of ETC. This anticipation has been credited for the substantial rise in the price of the coin within the week.
Source: ETC/USD Chart by TradingView
Fantom (FTM) Grew By 30% and NEAR Was Up By 18%
As a proof-of-stake network, Ethereum’s announcement of the merge in September saw investors flock to the next POS token that could bring them huge gains in the long term. During the week of July 17 to 23, most of them turned to the novel tokens of Fantom, FTM, and Near Protocol, NEAR.
FTM opened on July 17, with a trading price of $0.2628, reached a weekly high of $0.3563, tested a weekly low of $0.2548, and closed the week on July 23 at $0.3422. Overall, this was a 30% increase between FTM’s opening and closing price for the week.
Source: FTM/USD Chart by TradingView
NEAR opened on July 17, with a price of $3.64, soared to a weekly high of $4.75 on July 22, before that, the coin crashed to a weekly low of $3.52 on July 17, and closed the week on July 23 at $4.31. This was an 18% spike within seven days.
Source: NEAR/USD Chart by TradingView