The last full week of January brought about several news stories. Among them, the crypto world learned that creditors of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX include Netflix, Google, and Apple. The decentralized finance (DeFi) community also saw the reappearing of crypto queen Ruja Ignatova, former founder of fake cryptocurrency OneCoin who scammed millions of people with billions of dollars. Ruja Ignatova’s name appeared in a listing of real estate for sale in London, United Kingdom for millions of pounds. Despite the progress made in 2023, many crypto firms continue to lay off staff. Among others, Gemini joined others in further reducing its headcount due to the reduced profitability of the cryptocurrency market.
Cryptocurrencies have been on a rebound in 2023 with BTC and ETH staying above $20,000 and $1,500 in the second half of the month. During the last full week (22nd to 28th), Aptos (APT), Fantom (FTM), Axie Infinity (AXS), Avalanche (AVAX), and Polygon (MATIC) brought double-digit gains for their holders. Details of the soaring of the crypto assets are explained below.
Aptos (APT) increased by more than 50%
Founded in 2021 as a Web3 startup, Aptos is a layer 1 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain that uses the possibilities of smart contracts to create decentralized applications (dApps) to solve real-world problems related to finance.
Due to being a relatively newer cryptocurrency, APT is benefiting from extensive trading volume poured into the coin by traders and investors so that they can reap enormous gains in the future.
APT reached an all-time low of $3.09 on 29th December 2022 and an all-time high during the last full week of January reaching a price of $19.86 on Thursday, 26th January.
APT opened the week on Sunday, 22nd January with a price of $11.75 which was the lowest price for the week, and closed on Saturday, 28th January with a new price of $17.90.
Overall, there was a 52% spike in APTs price after seeing daily trading volume soar above $2 billion in three (3) different days out of the seven (7) days.
Fantom (FTM) ascended by over 30%
FTM, the native asset of the Fantom ecosystem has been increasing in value due to a recent upgrade in its network. On 19th January, it was announced by the Fantom Foundation that its ecosystem vault has gone live. “The Vault is a new fund aimed at empowering builders on Fantom by offering a decentralized avenue for funding projects, ideas, and creations through a community-driven decision process,” according to Fantom Foundation.
The effects of this news travelled through the last full week of the first month of the year. FTM opened on Sunday, 22nd January with a price of $0.3419, reached a weekly high of $0.4976 on Thursday, 26th January, tested a weekly low of $0.3392 and closed the week with a new price of $0.4489 on Saturday, 28th January. There was a significant rise in FTM trading volume from a daily low of $275 million to a daily high of more than $635 million. Overall, there was a 31% rise in FTMs price within the period.
Axie Infinity (AXS) spiked more than 20%
AXS was among the worst-performing metaverse tokens of 2022. Fortunately, it has joined The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), and Enjin Coin (ENJ) in bringing gains to traders and investors in 2023.
With metaverse gaming on the rise and the metaverse forecasted to reach more than $800 billion in value by 2030, AXS opened on Sunday, 22nd January with a price of $8.96, and this was the lowest price it reached within the week. AXS rose to a weekly high of $13.83 on Monday, 23rd January and closed the week with a new trading price of $11.42 on Saturday, 28th January. There was a minimum daily volume of $238 million and a maximum daily volume of $990 million. AXS ascended by 27% in seven days.
Avalanche (AVAX) grew by more than 20%
AVAX is still profiting from Avalanche Labs’ partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the second week of the month. The two companies have joined forces to speed up the adoption of blockchain by governments, institutions, and enterprises.
According to the blog post shared by Avalanche, “AWS supports Avalanche’s infrastructure and dApp ecosystem, including one-click node deployment, through the AWS Marketplace.”
Partnering with a major corporation like Amazon has reflected positively in the price patterns of AVAX. The coin opened on Sunday, 22nd January at $16.89, tested a weekly low of $16.60 on Wednesday, 25th January, reached a weekly high of $21.68 on Saturday, 28th January, and closed the week on the same day with a new price of $20.60.
AVAX’s daily trading volume saw a minimum and maximum of $373 million and $680 million respectively. AVAX increased by 21% in the process.
Polygon soared by more than 10%
As a layer two (2) scaling solution, Polygon has been one of the most patronized platforms due to its scalability. The co-founder of Polygon Sandeep Nailwal announced an upgrade to Polygon’s Network on 16th January. The upgrade will help the network improve its smart contract capabilities.
MATIC opened on Sunday, 22nd January at $0.9901, decreased further to a weekly low of $0.953 on Tuesday, 24th January, increased to a weekly high of $1.19 on Friday, 27th January, and closed the week at $1.14 on Saturday, 28th January.
Overall, daily trading volume moved from the lowest of $400 million to the highest of more than $1 billion. MATIC increased by 15% within seven days.
