DeFi, metaverse tokens, and meme coins make double-digit gains in marketwide recovery
As buyers did their last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve, Bitcoin hit $50K and the crypto market turned a festive shade of green.
The optimism was boosted by forward-looking headlines. Bitcoin-loving U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis revealed that she will pitch Congress next year on a new crypto regulatory body, and bank messaging system SWIFT announced plans to explore tokenized assets. Even the traditional Christmas argument couldn’t dampen the market’s spirits, with prices continuing to rise as tensions erupted on Twitter between Bitcoiner Jack Dorsey and the Ethereum community.
By Christmas morning, Aave and SushiSwap had gained almost 50%, and the majority of tokens across the decentralized finance (DeFi), meme coins and metaverse segments were enjoying double-digit gains.
This Week’s Highlights
- Aave and Sushiswap lead DeFi revival
- Meme coins race against Metaverse tokens
Aave and Sushiswap lead DeFi revival
At the top of the tree, DeFi tokens were the best festive performers.
Aave rose 50% after taking a step into the institutional DeFi market with Switzerland’s SEBA Bank, and SushiSwap added 45% after the resignation of its CTO and a proposal to merge with Bancor Network.
Elsewhere, Polygon (MATIC) hit all-time highs at almost $3 after partnering with Opera and welcoming Uniswap to the network, and Polkadot popped 30% on the launch of the first five parachains.
Meme coins race against Metaverse tokens
Top meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu both made double-digit gains over the last week, rivaling top metaverse tokens MANA and Enjin Coin.
Dogecoin rose 13% after the Dogecoin Foundation launched its first ever “trailmap”, which details plans for multiple projects including a ‘community staking’ version of Proof of Stake (PoS)” that is being worked on with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. Shiba Inu, on the other hand, leapt 22% after a single whale bought 4 trillion tokens.
Meanwhile, Enjin Coin added 40% and Decentraland’s MANA added 21% as the metaverse continued to hit the headlines.
Week ahead
Heading into the last week of the year, some optimistic crypto investors are expecting the “Santa rally” to continue in anticipation of a bullish 2022.
Others are anticipating fireworks at the end of the year, as major exchanges finally close their doors to China.
Assuming there are no explosive moves, Bitcoin now looks set to close off December with 10% losses, and finish the year with 80% gains. Meanwhile, top altcoin Polygon (MATIC) has made gains of over 14,000% in 2021, followed by Decentraland’s MANA at over 4,000%, and Enjin Coin with 2,000%.