Hello CryptoRank community!

Today, we are excited to introduce a new feature on our website: Token Unlocks & Vesting Schedule. Token unlocks has been one of the most popular topics, and we are thrilled to provide you with a tool that can help you maximize your profits!

In this article we will show you how to use and analyze Token Unlocks & Vesting Schedule on CryptoRank to find valuable insights from project’s tokenomics.

Token Unlocks

The Token Unlocks page is a unique source of alpha. Here, you can find all upcoming token unlock events and basic information about them.

The table displays all unlocks larger than 1% of the current market capitalization. However, you can use the Small Unlocks switch to see all other token unlocks as well.

By tracking upcoming unlocks, you can either cut your losses or find new sources of profit. By analyzing them, you can predict the pressure on the price and stay one step ahead of the market.

It is important to remember that large unlocks (by unlocking amount/market cap) may create selling pressure. However, it depends on who will receive the tokens. You can check this information in the vesting schedule on CryptoRank. Remember to always DYOR (Do Your Own Research)!

For your convenience, we have added conditional formatting: the biggest unlocks are highlighted in blue, while small unlocks are displayed in white. This way, you won’t miss any important information!

You can also use filters to display only relevant coins. We have added two specific filters and kept the regular ones. On this page, you can see the percentage of Next Unlock in the current Market Cap and the percentage of unlocked supply.

By clicking on the star icon, you can add the token to a special watchlist that can only be created on this page. This will help you quickly keep track of upcoming unlocks of your favorite coins.

Vesting Schedule

The vesting schedule provides comprehensive information on tokenomics and upcoming unlocks of a particular coin. The vesting page contains many useful insights, so read this carefully.

In the first part, you can find basic information about the project tokenomics and unlock progress. Next Unlock Event gives you a quick summary on the upcoming unlock. Share important unlocks with your community by pressing the Share button!

Vesting schedule displays the progress of token distribution for different allocations. Depending on the type of round (investors, community, team), the schedule may differ, so this block will let you know who will get the next batch of tokens and estimate how they’re going to use them. Be careful with big unlocks for early investors, they may consider selling tokens as they get them!

You can switch between different views — Timeline, Table or Chart, choosing the most convenient for you.

The last part is the details of all unlock events. Here you can see both past and upcoming events, how many tokens were unlocked and how token supply changed.

You will surely find Vesting Schedule a very useful tool, especially if you are an active early stage investor. This tool will help you not to miss any significant unlocks and maximize the profitability of your investment.

Hurry up and check out the new feature!

👉 https://cryptorank.io/token-unlock

The second quarter of 2023 was a thorough test of cryptocurrency’s strength. The market experienced turbulence as bullish news for Bitcoin, FUD towards two major exchanges, a memecoin rally, and other events. Such uncertainty kept people wondering what will happen next. Read on for the latest market intelligence and an in-depth report on the current state of the cryptocurrency world.

Key Takeaways:

• Market Performance
• New Trend in Crypto — Bitcoin Spot ETF
• Regulators Start Taking Crypto Seriously
• Memecoins and Bitcoin NFTs Sparked On-Chain Activity
• Ethereum Liquid Staking Continues to Grow After Shanghai
• Public and Private Fundraising on the Decline
• New Layer 2 Networks Dominate by the TVL Growth

Market Performance

The second quarter was like a rollercoaster ride for the cryptocurrency market, with a decline in April, followed by a rise in May, and a relatively quiet June. The majority of large cap projects showed negative performance in 2Q 2023, mainly due to SEC and exchanges litigation, which has affected many top-100 coins and tokens.

Bitcoin, along with other digital currencies (BCH, LTC, and others), showed one of the strongest performances this quarter. The main driver was news about ETFs and other institutional listings.

Bitcoin posted significantly higher returns than classic financial instruments, outperforming the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices, gold and silver in H1 2023.

The list of gainers looks modest this quarter. There were no major trends that persisted throughout the months (such as the AI trend in Q1), combined with legal problems of major blockchains (SEC’s attention to Polygon, Solana & Binance).

New Trend in Crypto — Bitcoin Spot ETF

Perhaps the loudest and most significant event for the crypto market was the filing of an application for a Bitcoin ETF by Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager.

The main beneficiary of this news was, of course, BTC, which showed significant growth and renewed its all-time high of 2023. Blackrock triggered a series of events that is still ongoing, with many asset managers renewing or filing their applications for a Bitcoin spot ETF.

In the midst of this, it’s worth mentioning the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which has significantly reduced its undervaluation compared to AUM and rose strongly in value.

An important factor in boosting GBTC’s value was the rumor of a possible purchase of Grayscale assets by a larger corporation, Fidelity Investments.

It’s worth noting that GBTC owns about 626k BTC, which represents approximately 3% of the total supply. It can be assumed that the size of the assets under management for a bitcoin spot ETF in larger funds such as Blackrock or Fidelitywould be even greater. In addition to the popularity and increased availability of BTC, this could foster these funds making large purchases of Bitcoin.

However, the SEC is still opposed to the idea and has rejected all past applications (approving only Futures ETFs). According to recent news, they have returned new applications for revision, some of which have already been resubmitted. In any case, we will not see the unraveling of the Blackrock tie-up until mid-Q3, and no later than mid-March 2024 (a month before halving).

Regulators Start Taking Crypto Seriously

Cryptocurrency regulation has become a hot topic in recent years, with both positive and negative progress being made.

US regulators have recently shown a negative attitude towards crypto. In early June, the SEC shocked the industry by filing lawsuits against Binance, CZ, and against Coinbase on the next day. While lawsuits between exchanges and regulators are not uncommon, the SEC’s targeting of industry giants was unprecedented.The lawsuits are particularly significant because the SEC has identified several cryptocurrencies as securities, which has dealt a significant blow to the market.

Binance faced further problems when several European regulators took action against the exchange, leading to Binance gradually withdrawing from the European market.

However, as some doors close, others open. Many Asian countries are becoming increasingly cryptocurrency-friendly, and that’s where most exchanges are turning their attention.

A number of countries that are developing their Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are approaching closer the final stage of testing. It won’t be long before we see the first real cryptocurrencies from central banks. This is likely one of the reasons for increased regulation in some regions, as governments attempt to eliminate competitors.

Memecoins and Bitcoin NFTs Sparked On-Chain Activity

Two trends from the second quarter that quickly came and went, but certainly made an impact, were memecoins and Bitcoin NFTs.

The memecoin frenzy quickly swept through the crypto market. It started in April, but a lot of new memecoins came out in May. These memecoins had a big effect on the Ethereum network, which caused a strange change in the top 10 gas-spending coins. Instead of ETH, WETH, and USDT, many memecoins were the top 10 gas spenders.

However, May was not only about the Ethereum memecoin craze. Bitcoin Ordinals became very popular as they allowed digital assets (NFTs) to be stored in a decentralized way on the Bitcoin blockchain. This resulted in the creation of many new memecoins on the Bitcoin network. One such memecoin, Pepe, reached a market capitalization of over one billion dollars, entering the top 100 coins.

Ordinals were first introduced in early 2023, and by the end of May, the number of Ordinal inscriptions on the Bitcoinblockchain had exceeded 9 million. The total fees paid for Ordinal inscriptions increased by over 600% in May, reaching over 1,664 Bitcoin.

Ethereum Liquid Staking Continues to Grow After Shanghai

In April of this year, a major Ethereum update called Shanghai (EIP-4895) took place. This update allows Ethereum stackers to withdraw their rewards and staked coins, and had quite an unexpected result.

Contrary to many expectations, the staking ratio of Ethereum continues to rise even after the withdrawals. It seems that people are now more willing to stake their ETH because they can quickly withdraw their coins.

Liquid staking protocols have shown good performance, with both the price and total value locked (TVL) increasing during the first weeks of Q2. The group of LSD protocols now holds the top spot in terms of TVL among other categories.

The on-chain picture is also interesting. After September’s Merge, Ethereum is no longer a constantly inflationary coin. Now, its supply depends on activity on the network. May 2021 saw strong growth in network activity due to the memecoin frenzy, and consequently it became the month with the biggest decline in Ethereum supply in history.

The recent surge in network activity tested the deflationary nature of the coin during periods of high activity. This further demonstrates the long-term advantages of transitioning to PoS.

Trading Activity Slows Down

As the well-known saying goes, “Sell in May and Go Away”. This refers to the traditionally low trading volumes during the summer months. While June did bring some noteworthy events (and trading volumes did increase that month), the second quarter overall saw a decline in trading volume.

Crypto exchanges recorded a decline in trading volume during the second quarter, reaching its lowest value in over two years.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have fared slightly better, showing just a little decline. With Binance and Coinbaseencountering issues, there is a gradual shift of users towards DEXs. This trend was observed after the FTX collapse, and users are now ready to act more decisively.

Meanwhile, the transition is not only seen in spot trading but also in the derivatives market. DEXs are still a small part of the derivatives market, but their growth is already visible. For example, their market share hit a new high in June. DEXs spot market share also hit an ATH a month earlier, but since then the ratio has slightly declined.

Public and Private Fundraising on the Decline

The first half of 2023 has seen a recovery in the token sales market. Compared to the second half of last year, the market has been rising and shining. However, it is still far from reaching the figures seen in 2021.

It is worth noting that most of the successful token sales took place in the first quarter of this year. The performance of the second quarter is slightly worse, and the ROI of many projects has fallen significantly relative to ATH.

Sui became the most important token sale of the quarter and perhaps even the year. It raised almost $50 million from public rounds. However, there was no airdrop which disappointed many people. We’ll have to wait and see if other big projects follow Sui’s example.

On the other hand, the situation with private fundraising is quite different. For a month in a row, raises have continued to decline (note that in March, Stripe funding contributed $6.5B), and at the end of Q2, they have reached their lowest levels since Q4 2020.

Amid regulatory challenges, many funds are considering relocating their business to more favorable jurisdictions. It is worth noting that the crypto startup raises in the Asian market (through private funding rounds) showed the highest growth over the last 3 months compared to other countries.

New Layer 2 Networks Dominate by the TVL Growth

Due to a price drop in Q2, most blockchains have experienced a decline in Total Value Locked (TVL). Only a few of them have shown significant upside.

BNB Chain has also experienced some problems due to Binance’s issues with the SEC lawsuit and rejections by European regulators. BNB Chain’s TVL has declined significantly amid this news.

On the other hand, the new Layer 2 Blockchains are performing quite well. Polygon zkEVM’s TVL has risen by as much as 3,617% in the quarter, posting the strongest gains. zkSync Era, which may soon rank in the top 10, has shown a substantial increase of +467%. StarkNet, which is still far from the top, but growing fast, has shown a +252% increase.

Liquid Staking is a growing trend this quarter. As ETH accumulation on beacon chain smart contract continues to increase, LSD protocols are gaining popularity and dominance. Ethereum, Solana, and Klaytn are the clear leaders in terms of LSD share in total TVL, while protocols of other platforms are also gaining popularity.

Liquid staking derivatives offer numerous benefits to delegators and validators, resulting in greater stability and network performance. Currently, ETH staking is demonstrating promising returns in relation to risk and market activity. However, in the future, with the start of a real bull run, decentralized exchanges could take the lead once again.

The Bottom Line

The second quarter of 2023 was a real test for the crypto market. Several important events occurred during this period, which will continue to affect the market throughout the year or even longer.

The Bitcoin ETFs fever will have a powerful effect if the SEC makes a positive decision. It will impact both the influx of new investors into cryptocurrency and the massive purchases of BTC by institutions.

We should also expect further regulatory developments, primarily in the US. More and more TradFi influential figures are supporting the integration of cryptocurrencies into global finance. However, the key decisions remain with the regulators.

Despite lower activity in Q2, the market remains positive and lives up to expectations. We are about a year away from Bitcoin halving, which could give a significant boost to the next bull run. The impact of this bull run will depend on how well the crypto industry is prepared for it in the remaining time.

In May 2023, the market’s bullishness and positivity were doubted, making it the first month of the year to face such concerns. The total market cap experienced a decline of almost 6%. However, despite substantial bearish pressure, the market managed to confidently navigate through the month. Read on to explore the month’s market summary!

Key Takeaways:

• Crypto Market Has Started to Cool Down
• Surprisingly Not Dead: Token Sales Market
• Decentralization Matters
• New Trend on NFT Market

Crypto Market Has Started to Cool Down

May was fairly quiet, with no surges of negativity or positivity. There was also a slight drop in trading volumes, which also indicates a calm sentiment. The popular expression “Sell in May and go away” seems to hint that the summer could become very low-volatile. May 2023 looks particularly still compared to the previous year, when a series of negative events was just beginning.

Overall, the market showed a negative sentiment for the period. The majority of projects showed a decline, and only TRON, XRP, Litecoin, Ethereum and a few others (among top-100) showed some growth.

Bitcoin had its weakest month since the beginning of the year, and it basically was the first month of 2023 with negative returns (unless you count February, when bitcoin was down just 0.01%).

During the beginning of May, memecoins experienced a robust surge, reaching a record-breaking weekly trading volume of US$2.7 billion. However, trading volume has subsequently diminished, indicating a return to more typical trends. Regrettably, many memecoins closed the month with negative price performances.

Surprisingly Not Dead: Token Sales Market

Despite the general market cool-off, the market for token sales continues its recovery. Activity in public sales continues to grow, and some of the major launchpads have resumed activity after a long break.

The total raised amount and the number of sales slightly increased in May compared to April. However, the positive momentum has been maintained since February and the contrast between 2023 and the previous year is very noticeable.

Also this month there were no projects showing huge ROI after TGE, most of them posted moderate performance. The reason for this is that no major trend has emerged this month (except for memecoins, which are not the subject of the launchpads).

DAO Maker stood out when it came to fundraising, surpassing even Coinlist (with two ICOs and larger raises). This launchpad quickly took advantage of the bullrun’s opportunities and started launching projects one after another.

If the current trend persists, we can anticipate a continued revival of the public token sales market. This market presents an excellent opportunity for projects to enter and serves as a profitable source for investors. However, previous months have shown that only hype, such as Artificial Intelligence, can revive launchpads and show truly high returns. Without global growth, the token sales market is still a long way from its 2021 state.

Decentralization Matters

So far, 2023 has been a very positive year for DeFi. In many ways, it echoes the transition from centralized institutions to decentralized ones triggered by the collapse of FTX. Despite the market downturn, May is just continuing to move towards the right path.

Most blockchains showed a decline of TVL in May, with only a few networks showed a meaningful growth. It is worth noting that Polygon zkEVM and other new layer 2 blockchains (notably zkSync and Starknet) continue to show TVL growth despite the market downturn.

However, the optimism becomes evident when examining the specific details. First and foremost is the increase in trading volumes on decentralized exchanges. Undoubtedly, a share of this growth is related to the rise of memcoins at the beginning of the month. However, the trend looks much stronger than just an one-time bounce.

Decentralized exchanges strengthen their positions amid the decline of trading volumes on the centralized exchanges. As a result of these changes, the ratio of DEX to CEX volumes on the spot market rose to a new high of almost 22%.

DEX remains one of the key indicators of decentralization. However, despite their high importance, since the EthereumMerge, the Liquid Staking projects have also pulled ahead strongly in terms of TVL and even outpaced the total TVL of DEXs.

Market recovery has led to increased use of DeFi protocols. DeFi (DEX in particular) is one of the key elements of the crypto market after blockchain infrastructure projects, thus its strong position is not surprising. One of the most important things to improve for most decentralized projects is the user experience.

BRC-20 — New Trend on NFT Market

May brought a new trend to the NFT market, which has been in a long decline over the past few months. It is still too early to talk about global growth of NFTs, as we can only see it in terms of trading volumes (as was the case with the Blur airdrop in February and March).

Bitcoin Ordinals became the new NFT market trend at the beginning of the year. But at the time, it was only a tiny fraction compared to the NFT market on Ethereum. However, with the launch of the new BRC-20 standard, NFT on Bitcoin became even more popular.

The BRC-20 token standard is a fungible token standard designed for the Bitcoin blockchain, created using the Ordinals protocol.

The popularity of BRC-20 tokens and their trading volumes boosted Bitcoin’s NFT trading volumes, which even overtook Solana (Ethereum’s main competitor in the past) and all other blockchains at the end of May. However, volumes on Ethereum are still a long way off.

The Bottom Line

To summarize, May could be described as the first test of the 2023 bull run. However, despite these challenges, the crypto market did well this month, learning valuable lessons and becoming even stronger.

Launchpads continue to delight investors with new projects, and projects are starting to raise large sums again, after a lull of more than a year. Token sales are still proving to be a workable scheme for earning money, as well as a booster for start-up projects.

Decentralized exchanges continue to capture its market share, which is still small, but growth is very visible. So, the DeFiecosystem is getting even stronger.

Who would have expected Bitcoin, rather than Polygon or Arbitrum, to be the impetus for NFT trading volumes… The new BRC-20 standard has inspired many traders to get back to business and shown new possible ways to develop and apply NFT.

Despite local difficulties, the market continues to evolve. New users arriving early in the year on the mini-bullpen and from behind the airdrop are investigating new activity and thereby driving the development of blockchain technology and the crypto market.

Keep up to date with our latest news by following us on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoRank_io
Telegram: https://t.me/CryptoRankNews

Download the CryptoRank app now:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cryptorank-tracker-portfolio/id1609951971
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cryptorank&hl=en&gl=US

Hello CryptoRank Community,

We have just added support of Aptos blockchain to our DeFi Portfolio Tracker!

You can now view, track, and manage all of your crypto assets on Aptos using CryptoRank portfolio tracker.

CryptoRank Portfolio Tracker now supports 11 blockchains (Bitcoin, Tron, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Solana, Fantom, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Aptos) and offers a superior tool for managing crypto assets.

Head to the website and track your assets on Aptos now!

👉 https://cryptorank.io/portfolio
Have any questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us in our Telegram group here: https://t.me/CryptoRankEn

Hello CryptoRank community, we have some great news for you today. We have recently released a major update that significantly improves the user experience of CryptoRank.io.

What’s new at CryptoRank:

• The new website design
• Big functional update of layouts and filters
• New feature released, Presets

We have been working on these features for a long time and can’t wait for you to try them out. Read on to find out how you can make the most of them!

The New Design of Your Favourite Platform

In the latest update, we have released a partial redesign of CryptoRank.io. The redesign is not just a visual improvement: it is an important step in improving the analytical experience for users.

Now you can enjoy a completely redesigned front page with new features that are even more convenient. Performance, Gainers, Losers, ATH, IDO/ICO, Categories, Tags and Blockchains pages have also been updated.

Check out the redesigned website now!

👉https://cryptorank.io/

CryptoRank for The People

With the recent update of layouts and filters, our website became even more convenient. Now you don’t have to adjust to the site’s features, the site itself can adjust to you!

With the new filters and layouts, your search for relevant filters will be made much easier, and presets allow you to save important settings and switch between them quickly. You can customize the default home page and get the important information first in just a few clicks!

The layouts selection menu is now categorised to make it easier for you to navigate the menu full of new features. Now, users can select a relevant period to track the change of the coin’s rank.

In addition to the custom period price change filter, we have added two new custom filters: ATH and ATL. Now you can easily check ATH and ATL for all coins at any moment of time.

You’re probably already looking forward to trying out the new filters and layouts, but we’ve got more big news! With presets you can save filter and display settings and switch between them in just a few clicks!

For registered users, we have added the possibility to create and use presets. Presets allow you to save filter and layout settings for quicker operation and easier project retrieval. For now we have published our two favorite presets for all users. You can read the description of each of them and edit the settings to make them most convenient for you.

For example, if you are interested in the Arbitrum ecosystem and looking at top gainers among tokens with less than that $5M market cap every day, we have a solution for you that will save you a lot of time! With filters and layouts, you can customise the display of the projects you want, and save them in a preset.

CryptoRank’s features allow you to create very flexible data tables to stay up to date with changes in the crypto market.

Check out the updated CryproRank news aggregator by following the link below:
👉 https://cryptorank.io/

Have any questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you!

Let us know what you think in our Telegram Community Chat and Twitter.

Hello CryptoRank Community!

We have exciting news! Our mobile app has just received a major update with several new and important features that will make your experience even better. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring you these new capabilities, and we can’t wait for you to try them out. We have completed a major design and feature update to the Crypto Portfolio Tracker, added a transactions section and support for new networks to the Portfolio Tracker, and now there is a new way to enter your favourite application. Keep reading to find out more about these latest updates and how they will enhance your overall app experience.

Major Design and Features Updates of Crypto Portfolio Tracker

We have improved our Portfolio Tracker to make it faster and easier to use for analysing your assets. We have added a block that allows you to view balances and coins in different wallets of the same portfolio by swiping between them.

Also, you can now view price changes over different periods, as well as quickly sort columns of data according to your assets.

When you click on the right half of the coin line, you can get detailed information on which networks and wallets this asset is in. Just tap on the right arrow, and you will instantly get information about all transactions of the coin on a particular wallet.

Transactions Section Added to Portfolio Tracker

In this section you can easily keep track of all changes in your wallets: outgoing and incoming transactions, coin swaps and moves between your wallets.

When you click on a transaction, you can see its details. For your convenience, we have added wallet and network filtering, as well as the ability to hide malicious spam transactions.

Portfolio Tracker Now Supports Ten Networks

We have just added support for Optimism network to our Portfolio Tracker. In addition, you can now view all your transactions on Arbitrum and Optimism networks within our Portfolio Tracker.

You can now view, track, and manage all of your crypto assets across 10 networks: Bitcoin, Tron, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Solana, Fantom, Optimism, Arbitrum!

New Way to Enter Your Favourite App

Now in the mobile app — you can login or register not only through email, Facebook or Gmail accounts, but also through the popular network in the crypto community, Twitter.

That’s all from us for the moment, but remember to keep an eye out for emails from CryptoRank as we will be sharing more regular updates in the near future. Stay tuned!

Download the CryptoRank app now:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cryptorank-tracker-portfolio/id1609951971
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cryptorank&hl=en&gl=US

All of this is available directly on the CryptoRank app! You can also visit our website for more comprehensive crypto insights.

Have any questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us in our Telegram group here: https://t.me/CryptoRankEn

What a start of the year! 2023 began on a positive note, just like a fresh breath of air after a boring end of the year. The rapid growth of the market quickly brought us to the pre-FTX-crash levels, and now the BTC price is close to June 2022. The tough days of 2022 are now in the past and the market begins to blossom, revealing massive airdrops, new projects, token sales, as well as funds now beginning to increase their investment activity in web3.

Nevertheless, Q1 2023 passed not without problems. Notably, the most problems came from TradFi, rather than from within the cryptocurrency market. The banking crisis not only heavily affected the global banking system, but also revealed Bitcoin’s strengths.

The macro picture is quite controversial. On one hand, the global financial markets are in a fight with inflation, which may lead to a recession. This is a big threat to the markets, including crypto, as it is still mostly an investment instrument. On the other hand, the banking crisis is a threat to financial stability, which may be avoided by printing more money. The Fed has to make a difficult decision, increase the rate to fight inflation or keep it around 6% to be able to increase the money supply.

It is difficult to predict the crypto market’s performance in such conditions. But it is obvious that the problems of the traditional financial system increases adoption of crypto and trust in Bitcoin.

In this recap we cover:

• The state of the crypto market
• Whether the bull market has came or yet to come
• The airdrop season
• DeFi’s recovery
• The Layer 2 rush
• Latest fundraising trends
• Has the NFT market really grown recently?

The Bull Market is Around the Corner

In early 2023 we could see a changing moment, when Bitcoin started to grow after several weeks of low volatility. January was a very successful month for Bitcoin and crypto overall despite the negative events, in particular the Genesis drama. While February was an average month in terms of performance, March brought some new heights for crypto.

Bitcoin was an obvious outperformer among the top-10 in the Q1, but there were also a couple notable top-100 projects. First is Solana, which showed a really bad performance in Q3 due to strong bonds with FTX, but showed 109% gains in Q1. Another one is Lido with +134%, but we will cover it later. The last, but not least is Aptos, which showed an outstanding 230% growth in this quarter. For more info on Q1 gainers, visit https://cryptorank.io/performance.

The notable thing about BTC is how it performed through the weeks of collapsing banks. This was truly the “Bitcoin moment”. At the same time, BTC’s dominance reached one of the highest points in almost a year. The moment that has shaken the traditional financial markets really hasn’t done something significant for crypto, even though USDC de-pegged from $1 and BUSD was banned by the government. Additionally, despite few important suitcases against crypto firms and entities, the market stays strong.

The gainers list is quite diverse and also shows decent numbers this quarter. Due to the market recovery and strong uptrends in particular ecosystems, many projects gained remarkable attention in the quarter, which lead to their price increase.

While the artificial intelligence trend dominated in the narrative, it allowed many mature crypto startups to increase their value. Thus, any project that added “AI” to its name or list of features, gathered new funding or saw an increase in price. DeFi is probably the best performing category of Q1 overall, especially decentralized exchanges. Also it is worth to mention projects based on Layer 2 blockchains (Arbitrum and Optimism), such as Camelot, Radiant Capital, Velodrome, Gains Network, performed better than others.

The Airdrop Season has Begun

February was marked by a major event in the crypto community. This was the first big airdrop in a long time. Blur, one of the biggest NFT marketplaces, airdropped about $300 million worth of tokens.

Blur chose a way of engaging with the community and rewarding loyal NFT traders. This decision definitely was worth it, both for Blur and the users. Blur became the largest NFT marketplace, surpassing OpenSea. Loyal users received not only a huge airdrop, but also Blur had many incentivizing activities during the past months to attract and retain new users.

March was even more impressive in terms of airdrops. In the middle of the month Arbitrumannounced the airdrop plan and launch of the DAO. Arbitrum’s airdrop gathered a lot of attention, for a good reason, it has become the biggest airdrop ever. ARB quickly got into the top-50 and holds a strong position in the chart.

The growth of airdrop activity is a very strong boost to the crypto market. It attracts new users and old ones become more active, the increase in activity increases project fees. Blockchain infrastructure projects are primarily of interest to potential airdrops because they represent the backbone of crypto.

The hunt for airdrops will probably mark a market recovery before a new bull run begins.

DeFi Rises From the Dead

Along with the market growth, DeFi began recovering. So far, DeFi TVL grows much slower than the market, mostly because the altcoins lag behind Bitcoin in their growth. However, the emergence of new trends is already a sign of recovery.

Liquid staking is the new trend in DeFi. Staking is a key element of Proof-of-Stake networks. Also, it is a significant source of income of thousands of validators and delegators. The upcoming Ethereum update, Shapella, will enable staked ETH withdrawals, which will only increase the popularity of liquid staking.

Decentralized liquid staking providers became a very popular instrument for many DeFi users. Their obvious benefit is that the user receives a derivative coin that is pegged to the amount of staked coins. The biggest ones are Lido and Rocket Pool, which showed outstanding performances in the first months of 2023.

Liquid Staking protocols have surpassed Lending and Borrowing protocols in terms of combined TVL, now the second after DEXs. Seventy eight protocols have a total over $16 billion TVL combined. Compare this to DEXs’ 759 protocols and $19 billion TVL.

Speaking of the quantitative indicators of DeFi recovery, the total value locked increased by nearly 40% since the beginning of the year. While Ethereum retains the leading position among blockchains with a significant gap from Tron and others, Arbitrum, Solana and Optimism showed a notable gain in TVL in Q1 2023.

It is worth mentioning protocols with significantly increased TVL in 1Q 2023. These are mostly projects that have launched on new networks and that gained a lot of attention. Also, protocols based on Layer 2, like Camelot, Velodrome, and Gains Network, saw a significant increase in total value locked. One of the top 15, Lightning Network, showed an outstanding performance due to growing adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment.

DEX trading volume also showed an increase by approximately 30% in the first quarter of 2023 after 2 quarters of decline. DEX/CEX ratio also increased, and now sits around November 2022 level. In current market conditions decentralized exchanges have great positions, which allows them to continue their growth. Few factors push their usage up, such as low gas fees (which is temporary) and growing awareness of web3 users. DEX/CEX ratio is still 4% away from the ATH of January 2022. However, the growing popularity of blockchain may push this indicator to the new all-time-highs.

The Layer 2 Rush

In 2022, the adoption of Layer 2 blockchains began. In 2023, the adoption among crypto users may finally happen.

Optimism was the first project that gained attention of the general crypto public with its significant airdrop in 2022. Later the same year, Arbitrum, another optimistic rollup, announced its incentivizing activity, the Arbitrum Odyssey, which even broke the network’s capabilities. The launch of these L2 blockchains was right on time. Users loved it; all the features of Ethereum, but faster, with lower transaction costs and better capacity.

This year, the Layer 2 game changed again with airdrop from Arbitrum. Arbitrum was quickly developing through the H2 2022 and many projects launched on the network, even the biggest ones. Arbitrum was already one of the most popular blockchains among many users, even without clear airdrop plans.

The craze around Arbitrum’s airdrop made a perfect moment for other projects to launch their mainnets and testnets. Right after the ARB airdrop, zkSync announced the launch of the first zkEVM maninet, zkSync Era. This gathered a lot of attention, and drove transaction numbers to the moon. Few days later, Polygon launched its long-anticipated zkEVM as mainnet beta. There are several more L2 projects that are dragging attention not just from the crypto community, but also from major VCs.

Different companies followed Polygon’s expansion strategy and developed their own zero-knowledge technologies, including blockchains. ConsenSys, one of the biggest crypto companies, recently released its zkEVM public testnet “Linea”. The fact that Coinbase launched its L2 network Base is a reminder that it is still the early era of Layer 2, and there will be many more interesting rollups.

Fundraising is Trending Upwards

As it has become more obvious to investors that crypto is moving in the right way (rising and shining), the VCs and token sale launchpads act quickly to leverage this opportunity.

After the FTX collapse, the fundraising dramatically decreased, mainly because Alameda was shut down and there were no more investments with turnover money. In January, the fundraising activity showed a decent growth compared to December, and March was even better.

The overall trend has also switched to infrastructure and service projects with a clear application in current terms.

What happened in the public fundraising field is even more interesting. Token sale activity saw a relief in February 2023, with more and more successful launches. An upward trend has finally begun, and in March the monthly raise exceeded those of May.

While IEOs (in particular Binance Launchpad, Bitget, and Gate.io Startup) brought the highest returns to token sales participants, the number of IDOs significantly surpasses the number of IEOs. The top 10 projects by current ROI reveals that AI projects once again were one of best performers. Notably, Space ID showed one of the best performances, prowing the capabilities of Binance.

Projects on Arbitrum lead by total amount raised in token sales in Q1 2023, mainly due to several really successful token sales on Camelot. However, BNB Chain and Ethereum surpass Arbitrum by the number of projects that held a public sale during the quarter.

NFTs Are Still Struggling Despite Increased Volume

While Bitcoin, altcoins, and DeFi continue to grow, the NFT market remains the same except for an increase in trading volume. The increase in trading volume is mostly caused by Blur’s airdrop, but they are still quite high. Sadly, the significant increase in price (denominated in ETH) hasn’t happened, as many were expecting it with the increased liquidity.

As mentioned above, the total NFT market cap just slightly reacted to the huge increase in trading volume.

The NFT market is not yet ready to continue its growth partially because it was heavily pumped in 2021 and continues to cool-off. However, the NFT adoption goes along with the market recovery, but towards the use of non-fungible tokens by non-crypto brands and corporations.

The Bottom Line

Right now crypto is experiencing one of the best moments in a long time. The market momentum at the start of the year was captured, allowing critical levels to be broken. Further events confirmed the market’s readiness for growth, as even Bitcoin reacted to the negative news just by a small decline, which did not last long. Of course, the volume is still relatively low and low volatility is worth considering, but the change compared to late 2022 is clear; markets are awakening.

In some ways, the market has boosted itself. There has been a chain of events triggered by positive expectations. Blur’s airdrop gave a boost to other projects (ex. Arbitrum) and drophunters, which stimulated increased activity and prices. This, in turn, reinvigorated fundraising, both the growth of private fundraising and the increase in the number of public sales and their success (returns). On top of that came a contradictory macro picture, which developed a very good moment for crypto. Actually, this became one of the most interesting moments in the history of cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, the next Bitcoin halving is approximately 1 year away, but challenges are not behind yet. It is more important than ever to watch for a global macroeconomic picture. Crypto steadily becomes an essential part of the global economy, with more and more entities choosing to work with crypto, even though governments might be against it. Problems on financial markets may affect the crypto market too, mainly damaging the valuations of crypto startups as one of the riskiest types of investments. However, in such times, cryptocurrencies might show their strengths and therefore, take a solid place in the global payment system.

We are thrilled to announce that CryptoRank has partnered with Bitget to launch the Bitget Portfolio Battle. The competition will have a total prize pool of $1,500, which will be distributed among the winners and participants in the equivalent of BGB tokens.

This competition is open to all, and there is no limit to the number of registered participants. During the Portfolio Battle, participants will have a chance to showcase their investment skills and compete against others in the cryptocurrency community.

The Bitget Portfolio Battle is divided into two main phases: the registration phase and the active phase of the Battle

1) Registration phase: 23.03.23 14:00 (UTC) — 30.03.23 14:00 (UTC). During this phase, users need to join the Battle page, click Participate, and connect their CryptoRank profile. Once registration is done, users will receive virtual $1,000 and will be able to start collecting tokens in their portfolio;

2) Active phase: 30.03.23 14:00 (UTC) — 06.04.23 14:00 (UTC). In this phase, every registered user should be ready with the Portfolio by the end of the Registration phase. The Bitget Portfolio Battle will be live till the 6th of April at 14:00 (UTC) when the Battle will be closed and the PnL (profit and loss) ratio of every portfolio will be snapshotted.

The total prize pool of $1,500 in BGB tokens is to be distributed in the following way:

• 1st place will receive 250 USD in BGB tokens;
• 2nd place will receive 150 USD in BGB tokens;
• 3rd place will receive 100 USD in BGB tokens;
• In addition, one hundred users besides the top three places will be randomly chosen to share $1,000 in BGB tokens, $10 in BGB tokens per user.

In order to receive your reward in BGB tokens, you need to create an account on Bitget by using the same e-mail address you used on your CryptoRank profile and complete ID Verification. You will receive BGB tokens on your Spot Wallet.

We wish you good luck!

Join the Battle 👉 https://cryptorank.io/portfolio-battles

Real yield investments have gained popularity in the world of DeFi, offering investors a way to earn revenue from their investments similar to stock dividends.

However, what sets real yield apart in DeFi is that the yields are “real” and not generated through unsustainable token emissions or other manipulative methods.

By investing in multiple protocols at once, investors can diversify their portfolios and reduce their risk exposure. Smart contracts back these investments, offering greater security than traditional investments.

Real yield investments offer an attractive way to generate returns while maintaining control over funds and mitigating market volatility and other risks associated with traditional investments. In summary, real yield is one of the key investment trends in DeFi this year.

The decentralized exchange, which allows users to trade perpetuals or futures without an expiration date directly through smart contracts, is benefiting from a larger trend towards perpetual-focused decentralized platforms triggered by the recent fall of centralized giants like FTX. As a result, we have seen a significant increase in the number of holders and growing popularity among industry leaders.

Here are the most popular perpetual decentralized exchanges on CryptoRank.io over the last month.

GMX Fully DMC $980M

dYdX Fully DMC $2.42B

Gains Network Fully DMC $216M

Vela Exchange Fully DMC $236M

Level Finance Fully DMC $330M

MUX Protocol Fully DMC $31.9M

Mycelium Fully DMC $10.8M

Follow the links for even more insights CryptoRank.io/tags/perpetuals

One of the key factors driving VC interest in derivatives crypto projects is the potential for high returns. Many of these projects have demonstrated significant growth in recent years, and as the market continues to expand, there is the potential for even greater returns on investment.

Another factor is innovation. Many derivatives crypto projects are at the forefront of new developments in blockchain technology and decentralized finance, and are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the financial industry. This is an exciting prospect for VC firms that are looking to invest in cutting-edge technology.

Institutional adoption is also a driving force behind VC interest in derivatives crypto projects. As more institutional investors enter the crypto space, the demand for these types of investments is likely to increase. This represents a significant growth opportunity for VC firms that are able to identify and invest in the most promising projects.

Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see which projects emerge as leaders in this space, and which VC firms choose to invest in them. As the derivatives market continues to grow, it is likely that we will see even more innovation, increased institutional adoption, and higher returns on investment. For investors who are willing to take on the risks associated with this new and rapidly-evolving space, the potential rewards are significant.

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Hello CryptoRank Community!

Today, we’re pleased to announce an exciting update! We have just added support for Optimism network to our Portfolio Tracker. In addition, you can now view all your transactions on Arbitrum and Optimism networks within our Portfolio Tracker.

You can now view, track, and manage all of your crypto assets across 10 networks: Bitcoin, Tron, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Solana, Fantom, Optimism, Arbitrum!

👉 https://cryptorank.io/portfolio

Head to your Portfolio now to manage your assets, and let us know what you think in our Telegram Group!

Stay up-to-date on the latest crypto news here.

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