22 March 2024

Crypto’s volatility is back. Bitcoin, yet again, reminds us that nothing goes up in a straight line. We saw a big drop to $61,000 and quick rally towards $69,000 but overall, its still within 2% of last week’s close. What do we say to the market when it holds up?

Naturally, only few assets are in the green this week – Avalanche being one of them. Its rise into the top 10 crypto list has been impressive. We try to cover that in detail in today’s Hot Take.

Before we go into that, here is something worthwhile - it’s the T20 season and everyone can win free crypto airdrop daily at Giottus – participate in the Giottus Premier League here. Excited? So are we!

Let’s check out the top 3 stories of the week first.

Top-3 stories of the week:

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2

3

The newsletter is put together by Giottus Crypto Platform. You can read all the previous issues of Cryptogram here.

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WEEKLY MACROS

• Total crypto market cap - $2.51 trillion - DOWN 2.7%

• Bitcoin price - $66,109 - DOWN 2.2%

• The dollar index (DXY) - 104.2 - UP 0.7%

• Bitcoin Dominance - 53.34% -  UP 0.2%

• Crypto Fear and Greed Index - 75 - the market is in greed

THE HOT TAKE

Avalanche is building a strong ecosystem

Avalanche (AVAX) breached its crucial resistance level of $50 earlier this month and has led a strong bull rally in March. AVAX roughly had a +50% pump from $40 to $60, and is currently standing at $55.

Along with AVAX, associate coins in the ecosystem: such as JOE, BENQI and COQ witnessed serious gains this month. In today’s issue, we have attempted to take a closer look at the Avalanche ecosystem and highlight AVAX’s value proposition.

Meme coins mania has caught Avalanche

Since Jan. 2024, meme coin activity on the Avalanche blockchain has gained significant momentum, driven by community interest. Meme Coins are thriving on Avalanche and so far 25 tokens have been whitelisted and added to the Meme token list on Trader Joe, one of the prominent DEX on the ecosystem.

In March 2024, the Avalanche Foundation, through its Culture Catalyst program, announced the acquisition of five community coins: Coq Inu, Gecko, Kimbo, NoChill, and Tech, to support the Avalanche ecosystem. The initiative includes regular updates and criteria adjustments for selecting community coins that demonstrate commitment to Avalanche and fair Web3 practices.

The foundation announced $1 million in liquidity mining incentive program called Meme Coin Rush, that is aimed at boosting the meme coin ecosystem on the Avalanche blockchain.

This program is launched in partnership with Trader Joe and SteakHut, two larger DeFi platform in the Avalanche Ecosystem. This incentive will be extended to Coq, Kimbo, NoChill, Gec, Tech, Husky, Meow, Kong, Meat, and Kingshit. This is likely to start a buying spree, as users will earn points for staking into pools, which increases the scarcity of those tokens and potentially increasing their price.

Binance Futures Announcement

Binance futures platform recently launched (on 20 March) the AVAX USDC-margined perpetual contract with a maximum leverage of up to 75 times. The announcement made on 18 March sparked a rally in Avalanche (AVAX) price by 14%.

The heighted trading activity in the perpetual market is expected to continue, as the platform has 10% promotional trading fee discount until 3 April, 2024.

Technicals look optimistic

AVAX has been consolidating after the recent run-up while maintaining bullish structure. Despite wider bearish market sentiments, the RSI hovers around 58, while the MACD is holding positive histograms indicating room for further rally. A break and weekly close above $62 could open the door for the rally to extend further towards the next major resistance around $70.

Funding rates has declined significantly

In the derivatives market, the funding rate for AVAX contracts has seen a significant 89% decrease. In simpler terms, a lower funding rate implies reduced market volatility and decreased risks associated with the token. The funding rate is the aggregate fees that traders with long positions pay to those holding short positions. During the recent price rally, this rate sharply declined from 0.09% to just 0.01% in past 14 days.

Bulk buys are seeing an uptick

The surge in daily large transactions signals that bullish momentum is building within the Avalanche community. Although transaction volumes have not yet reached the peak seen during the last bull run, the recent uptick suggests that AVAX is on a path towards reclaiming its former glory.

Recent data from crypto market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock reveals that Avalanche recorded $329 million worth large transactions on March 11. This surge in transaction volume is a strong indicator of renewed interest and confidence in the Avalanche ecosystem.

State of DeFi

Avalanche’s Total Value Locked (TVL) began rising in early Q4 2023, peaking at $1.53 billion on the 21st of December and has been consistent in its movements since then. This TVL growth was propelled by prominent protocols such as Benqi, Aave, Struct, and Delta Prime.

Trader Joe, AAVE and Benqi continues to dominate Avalanche’s DeFi scene, attracting more trading volume than all its competitors combined.

Is AVAX the next SOL? We will soon find out. But AVAX is definitely worth considering as a part of your portfolio this bull run.

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If you have any questions or feedback for us, write to us at [email protected]. You can check out the previous issues here.

Disclaimer: Crypto-asset or VDA investments are subject to market risks such as volatility and have no guaranteed returns. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.