An under-the-radar altcoin is surging as Bitcoin and most of the crypto markets move sideways.

The smart contract blockchain platform Waves (WAVES) is trading at $25.27 at time of writing, up more than 37% from where it was priced one week ago.

Zooming out, the 51st-ranked crypto asset by market cap is up more than 117% in the past month, after retracing from a Wednesday high of $30.34.

Waves allows users to create, launch and trade their own crypto tokens. The platform also gives developers access to several ready-to-use tools and products, empowering them to make new tokens as well as build decentralized applications. Waves current total value locked stands around $2 billion.

Last month, the network announced the transition to Waves 2.0, which involves implementing the new version of Waves Consensus based on Practical Proof-of-Stake Sharding.

Explains Waves,

The development of our highly scalable and [Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible] network will start this spring. The new network will be connected to the existing one for a smoother transition to Waves 2.0 without depreciating the old networks value or efficacy.

Waves Labs, the blockchain technology company behind the project, also plans to launch a $150 million fund and an incubation program to support US-based development teams building projects on the network.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Jamo Images/Nikelser Kate

Original post:
Smart Contract Altcoin Surges 117% in Just One Month, Outshining Bitcoin and Crypto Market - The Daily Hodl

As the lawsuit between SEC and Ripple drags on, XRP seems to be benefitting from it.

Since December 2020, when the lawsuit began, people have been assuming that the end of XRP is near. However, of late the notion has been changing as courts continue to rule in favor of the crypto company.

On 12 March, the District Judge allowed Ripple to use a fair notice defense by striking down SECs motion. This gives Ripple the opportunity to argue on the grounds that it was the SEC that failed to inform Ripple about how the sale of XRP could violate the pre-established laws.

Following this, XRP went up the price charts. It seems that Ripple is certainly gaining from the ruling. Apart from winning the favor, its token XRP also won investors support as the altcoin rallied by 9.06% within 24 hours.

But, its important to note that the rally lacks conviction. Since this was a euphoric rise and not an organic rise, on-chain performance did not exhibit any positive change either.

Transaction count on the network barely moved at all, which indicates that regardless of the rise, people did not participate in transactions. The month-long slippage has led to less than 1.4 million transactions being conducted on-chain.

This lack of confidence could also be the result of the high volatility observed in the case of XRP. Being at its 5-month high, the volatility could be keeping investors from making a move out of fear.

However, with the effect of Ripples lawsuit judgment wins and XRPs relatively higher market value of 1.1 to 1.2, one cant rule out the possibility that investors could continue flocking in towards the altcoin.

Furthermore, given the coin has managed to maintain the critical support of $0.71, investors are still betting on the possibility of XRP returning to $1.

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Decoding if XRP will reach the $1 mark after Ripple's recent win - AMBCrypto News

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been sitting in the backseat since whipping up a frenzy in the summer of 2020 through the first quarter of 2021. Currently, investors are debating whether the crypto sector is in a bull or bear market, meaning, its a good time to check in on the state of DeFi and identify which protocols might be setting new trends.

Heres a look at the top-ranking DeFi protocols and a review of the strategies used by users of these protocols.

Stablecoin-related DeFi protocols are the cornerstone of the DeFi ecosystem and Curve is till the go-to protocol when it comes to staking stalbecoins.

Data from Defi Llama shows four out of the top five protocols in terms of total value locked (TVL) are connected to the creation and management of stablecoins.

Its important to note that while these protocols have emerged on top when it comes to TVL, the value of their native tokens for the most part are significantly down from their 2021 all-time highs.

The main takeaway is that engaging with the stablecoin aspect of the DeFi market through staking and farming has offered steady yields while also earning the governance tokens for these platforms as an added bonus to help mitigate the drop in token values.

As it stands now, stablecoins play an integral role in the overall healthy functioning of DeFi which continues to expand as newer protocols like Frax Share and Neutrino climb the TVL ranks amidst the increasing number of interconnected blockchain networks.

Lending platforms are another key component of the DeFi ecosystem and one of the key features that investors can interact with even during a bear market. AAVE and Compound are the current leaders with respective TVLs at $12.09 billion and $6.65 billion.

Like other stablecoin protocols, AAVE and Compound saw the value of their native tokens peak in 2021 and both have been in a prolonged downturn for months.

AAVEs TVL growth outpaced Compound largely due to its cross-chain integration of Polygon and Avalanche, which increased the number of supported assets and allowed users to avoid the high gas fees on the Ethereum network.

Long-term crypto hodlers who are risk averse can benefit from simply lending their tokens for a modest yield.

Related: Altcoin Roundup: JunoSwap, Solidly and VVS Finance give DeFi a much-needed refresh

The growing popularity of liquid staking is also adding new utility to decentralized finance. Liquid staking protocols like Lido Finance, which originally launched as an Ethereum staking solution but has since expanded support to Terra (LUNA), Solana (SOL), Kusama (KSM) and Polygon (MATIC).

Data from Defi Llama shows the TVL on Lido reaching a new all-time high of $14.96 billion on March 10 as the addition of new assets continues to attract more value to the protocol.

On Lido, users can stake Ether and Solana and receive stETH or stSOL, which can then be used as collateral on AAVE to borrow stablecoins. Those assets can then be used for trading or yield farming purposes, thus increasing the overall yield earned from the original staked asset.

Other notable liquid staking protocols include the Eth2 staking provider StakeWise, the Cosmos-based pStake protocol and Stader Labs.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Altcoin Roundup: DeFi token prices are down, but utility is on the rise - Cointelegraph

Tomiwabold Olajide

Altcoin rally led by privacy coins Zcash and Monero as Bitcoin surpasses $42,000

As seen on CoinMarketCap, oldtimer privacy coins Zcash and Monero seem to be leading the altcoin market rally as Bitcoin rose to intraday highs of $42,438 on March 9. Monero (XMR) has added a whopping 20%, which allowed it to reenter the top 40 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Zcash (ZEC), another decentralized cryptocurrency focused on privacy and anonymity, is up nearly 15% at press time.

Launched in 2014, Monero aims to allow transactions to take place privately and with anonymity, while Zcash was founded in 2016.

Speaking on the price gains, on-chain analytics firmSantiment says: "Crypto prices are moving the right direction again over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin has risen modestly to above $39.2k once again, and Ethereum is back above $2,600. Notable gainers are ZEC (+16%), TON (+13%), AR (+10%) and XMR (+9%)."

Terra (LUNA) is also up an impressive 19% in the last 24 hours with a total market cap of $35.4 billion. Terra (LUNA) is presently the largest network in terms of total staked value. Presently, more than $31.4 billion in LUNA have been staked directly on multiple platforms, according to cryptocurrency staking statistics service Staking Rewards, outpacing Solana and Cardano.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin was trading at $42,019, up roughly 9%. Other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, also rose sharply.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies surged after the U.S. Treasury reportedly disclosed details of an impending executive order. The Treasury statement was quickly retracted after it was released, but it was widely regarded as positive for the cryptocurrency sector. Traders are still waiting for the final executive order, but a brief Treasury statement that appeared to be pro-crypto was enough to raise confidence.

The executive order, according to Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, is a "constructive approach to thoughtful crypto regulation."

Excerpt from:
Zcash and Monero Lead Altcoin Rally as Bitcoin Surges Past $42K: Details - U.Today

What is it about the largest altcoin that can make an investor bet on it? Well, the fact thatEthereum2.0 deposit address on 10 March exceeded the total number of ETHlocked which stood at 10 million, at the time of writing. Despite this, the market trend hasnt been in favor of ETHs positive price action.

Ethereum, the prime altcoin has been acting as a resource for different platforms. In 2015, the Ethereum network commenced its journey by offering 72 million ETH to around 10,000 Bitcoin addresses who participated in the ICO- distributed across to more than 144.7 million recorded wallets.

Despite brutal redistribution trading hands, a large majority of ETH remained static over the years. Heres a sign of this- the graph below.

As per the graph, only 6.5% of the supply was active in the last 5-7 years. And, only around 0.3% on average daily. Now, its safe to assume the circulating supply of ETH was much lower than generally expected.

Other positive factors included ETHs percentage of supply in Smart Contracts as well as the introduction of EIP-1559. The latter introduced a fee-burning mechanism from the already existing ETH in the supply.

In addition to this, stablecoins consumed a massive part of ETH. The king altcoin was often used to borrow stablecoins in DeFi. Probably the reason why stablecoins were attracting billions of dollars.

At press time, the total market cap of stablecoins accounted for more than $180 billion.

Ethereum has long been criticized for its high gas fee. Well, its interesting to note that Ethereum transaction fees recently dropped to a 6-month low. As per Etherscan.io data, the average cost of transacting on Ethereum at press time was 40 gwei or $2.24.

At press time, unfortunately, ETH suffered yet another correction of 1.20% in 24 hours. It was trading at the $2,562 mark with speculations of further setbacks.

The rest is here:
Ethereum: Here's a prolonged perspective to be considered before taking positions - AMBCrypto News