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Keep an Eye on These Coins

The latest week was good one for the cryptocurrency market, all things considered. Bitcoin managed to stay close to $28,000, which bodes well for support levels. Investors are hopeful this momentum will carry forward into the new quarter and help propel crypto to its higher prices of a few years ago. Some tokens, in particular, look as if they may gain momentum along with Bitcoin.

This week, we examine Stellar (XLM), Hedera (HBAR), Frax Share (FXS), Zilliqa (ZIL), and Cardano (ADA). In selecting these assets, we have considered several factors, including positive technical developments, significant news events, and noticeable price changes.

Stellars XLM coin price is up about 16%, most likely because the Central Bank of Brazil said it would pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) on the blockchain. The agency is testing a digital version of its currency, the Brazilian real.

Another potential reason for this price boost is the fact that Pendulum, a traditional finance infrastructure blockchain, said it would create a bridge connecting Polkadot infrastructure to Stellars blockchain.

This bridgea term for infrastructure that connects two blockchain ecosystemswill allow Polkadot to tap into Stellars solutions. Polkadot is a protocol that connects various blockchains, establishing interoperability. XLM is priced at around 10.8 cents. Last week, it was trading at around 09.3 cents (see chart below).

XLM Price: TradingView

Hedera (HBAR) gained about 18%, possibly because a Mastercard-backed blockchain app migrated to the network. The app is Fresh Supply Co., the largest user of Mastercard Provenance, a blockchain-based traceability solution.

Hedera said Fresh Supply Co.s tokenization of assets and events will foster transparency and deep, verifiable data for financiers. The company works in the agriculture business and offers solutions to other lenders.

Hedera also was recognized by the Biden administration for its role in recognizing human rights in the crypto industry. At the recent Summit for Democracy, Hedera committed to convening a democracy roundtable on how blockchain technologies could support human rights, transparency, and sustainability. HBAR is changing hands at about 7.1 cents, rising from around 6.1 cents last week (see chart below).

HBAR Price: TradingView

Frax Share (FXS)'s price rose by about 20%, perhaps as a result of Frax Finance's vote to fully collateralize its $1 billion market-capitalization stablecoin, called FRAX. Frax Finance is the community that helps steer the future of the project's stablecoin and protocol by voting on various decisions. This vote means that the collateral ratio of the Frax protocol is now 100%.

Ethereums upcoming Shanghai upgrade also may have played a role in boosting the price of FXS. The upgrade has led to increased activity and prices for liquid staking solutions, and Frax Finances frxETH has outpaced others, according to one crypto research firm. The Shanghai upgrade will allow users to withdraw staked ETH, Ethereum's native token, on the network, which is a significant development.

Liquid staking solutions are ways for users to participate in ETH staking without meeting the hefty minimum requirement of 32 ETH, while also allowing them to unstake at any time. The advantage of Fraxs liquid staking option is its leverage of the overall ecosystem to maximize yield and earn interest. FXS is trading around $9.15. Last week, it was approximately $7.73 (see chart below).

FXS Price: TradingView

Zilliqa (ZIL)'s price nearly 15%, possibly because of anticipation for the Zilliqa Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). EVM is a software platform used to build applications on Ethereum and other protocols that have EVM compatibility. The imminent release in late April of EVM compatibility to the Zilliqa mainnet would allow smart contracts written in the Solidity programming language to be deployed natively on Zilliqa.

Smart contracts are programs that operate on blockchain networks, resulting in more diverse applications. ZIL is currently valued at around 3 cents, up from about 2.7 cents last week (see chart below).

ZIL Price: TradingView

Cardanos ADA token experienced a price bump of about 12%, most likely because of improved development activity on the network. Information from crypto data feed Santiment showed a gain in this metric over the past week. The Cardano team also published an updated roadmap for Hydra, a Layer-2 scalability solutiona means for developers to increase transaction speed and lower transaction costs on the network.

Another possible reason could be evidence of the benefits of the Valentine upgrade hard fork emerging. This upgrade, introduced in February, improved security and interoperability on the network, which bodes well for the overall health of the ecosystem. It could have directly led to increased development activity. ADA is trading at around 40 cents. This time last week, it was about 35 cents (see chart below).

ADA Price: TradingView

As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the assets discussed here.

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Excerpt from:

Cryptocurrencies To Watch: Week of April 3 - Investopedia