Cryptocurrencies to Watch: Week of April 3rd

Keep an eye on these coins

The past week was a good one for the cryptocurrency market, all things considered. Bitcoin managed to stay close to $28,000, which bodes well for the support level. Investors hope that this momentum will continue into the new quarter and help propel crypto to the higher prices of a few years ago. Some tokens in particular look like they could gain momentum alongside 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, important news events and noticeable price changes.

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar’s 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 increase is the fact that Pendulum, a traditional financial infrastructure blockchain, said it would create a bridge connecting the Polkadot infrastructure to Stellar’s blockchain.

This bridge – a term for infrastructure that connects two blockchain ecosystems – will allow Polkadot to make use of Stellar’s solutions. Polkadot is a protocol that connects different blockchains and establishes interoperability. XLM is priced at around 10.8 cents. Last week it traded at around 09.3 cents (see chart below).

Hedera (HBAR)

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 promote transparency and deep, verifiable data for financial professionals. The company works in the agricultural industry and offers solutions to other lenders.

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

Frax Share (FXS)

The price of Frax Share (FXS) rose by around 20%, perhaps as a result of Frax Finance’s vote to fully hedge its $1 billion market cap stablecoin, called FRAX. Frax Finance is the community that helps govern the future of the project’s stablecoin and protocol by voting on various decisions. This vote means that the security ratio of the Frax protocol is now 100%.

Ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai upgrade may have also played a role in boosting the price of FXS. The upgrade has led to increased activity and prices for liquid staking solutions, and Frax Finance’s frxETH has outperformed others, according to a crypto research firm. The Shanghai upgrade will allow users to withdraw 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 high minimum requirement of 32 ETH, while still allowing them to unstake at any time. The benefit of Frax’s floating stake option is its utilization of the overall ecosystem to maximize returns and earn interest. FXS is trading around $9.15. Last week it was about $7.73 (see chart below).

Zilliqa (ZIL)

Zilliqa (ZIL)’s price nearly 15%, possibly due to anticipation of 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 network will allow smart contracts written in the Solidity programming language to be deployed on Zilliqa.

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

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano’s ADA token experienced a price increase of around 12%, most likely due to improved development activity on the network. Information from crypto data feed Santiment showed an increase in this metric in the past week. The Cardano team also published an updated roadmap for Hydra, a Layer-2 scalability solution – a 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 appearing. 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 trades at around 40 cents. This time last week it was about 35 cents (see chart below).

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

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