As the Market Turned Red, Which Projects Went Green?

The crypto market first started seeing red over the weekend, and on Monday, the losses extended and sent the total crypto market cap down by 1.4% to $1.2 trillion, according to CoinGecko.

During this red, Bitcoin fell under $28k, and Ethereum went back to $1,800. However, BTC is still up 69% YTD in 2023 and Ether 52%, while the S&P 500 stock market index has been up by 9% during this period.

Bitcoin's decline on Monday is in contrast to the asset's lack of movement over the past six weeks. The 4% decline follows uneventful BTC price fluctuations ever since mid-March, when BTC was changing hands at around $28,000. Currently, the market lacks any catalysts which add to BTC bears. 

Even the Average True Range (ATR) for bitcoin has fallen 65% YTD deposit while its price soared 75% over this period.

The crypto market is currently waiting for the upcoming Federal Reserve decision on interest rates on May 3, which further puts the sustainability of the $28k support level in question. High-interest rates make cash attractive while removing incentives for risk market investments like stocks and Bitcoin.

Interestingly, Bitcoin's bull run occurred while the dollar strength index, which measures the USD against a basket of foreign currencies, was around its lowest level in 12 months. Currently, it stands at 102 as investors price in higher odds of further interventions from the US Treasury to contain the banking crisis.

Amidst this ongoing banking crisis, the First Republic Bank (FRB) is the latest US bank to collapse in 2023 after Silicon Valley Bank (SV) and Signature Bank. On May 1, the bank was shut down, and its control was transferred to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which then entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with banking giant JPMorgan Chase to protect depositors. FRB is the latest.

With Bitcoin not looking good, altcoins have also taken a drop. Among the top 200 crypto assets by market cap, Render (RNDR) recorded the biggest loss of 11.5% in the past 24 hours. Now, let's look at the top crypto assets that have managed to see greens despite the market going down.

Polymath (POLY)

The $190 mln market cap POLY token recorded gains of 6.2% while managing $4.48 mln in 24-hour trading volume. At the time of writing, POLY was trading at $0.210.

The coin has been up 19.5% in the last 30 days and 41.20% year-to-date (YTD). Still, POLY remains nearly 87% off of its Feb. 2018 peak of $1.60.

POLY is the native ERC-20 token of the Polymath network that aims to facilitate the creation, issuance, and management of security tokens on the platform. The token is used to pay the gas fees for creating or issuing security tokens and for the network's additional services like legal advice, custodial solutions, assistance in token sales, and providing KYC and AML regulatory services. If holders want, they can also upgrade their POLY at a 1:1 ratio for POLYX, Polymesh's native token.

Polymath was founded in 2017, and it raised $59 million in a private sale. In 2018, Polymath led the development of ERC-1400, which has become the most widely adopted standard for security tokens. A year later, the platform announced the custom-built blockchain initiative Polymesh. 

Polymath seeks to tokenize traditional and new asset classes by creating a compliance-focused standard (ST-20) to issue and manage security tokens. Recently, it joined the Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets as a member. 

CAASA is an organization that defines itself as Canada's largest association representing the alternative investment industry and has about 400 members, including projects in the crypto space.

Click here to learn all about investing in POLY.

SXP (SXP)

SXP is a $329 mln market cap cryptocurrency that recorded gains of 4.7% and has been exchanging at $0.575 as of writing. The crypto asset recorded $85.26 mln in volume in the last 24 hours. The coin is up 6.5% in the past week and about 191% YTD. However, the coin is down a whopping 90% from its $5.79 peak hit in May 2021. 

The token is deflationary, which means SXP tokens will continue to be burned until there is a total supply of 100 million. Currently, there are 563 mln tokens.

SXP powers a layer 1 blockchain called Solar, which was launched in 2022. The network uses delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) that allows holders to elect leaders who decide the future of the blockchain.

Solar was originally called Swipe, a crypto payments company started in 2018 with SXP still its native token. The project raised $12 million in a week-long ICO in August 2019. 

Swipe once provided a proprietary crypto debit card and, in March 2020, acquired a crypto payments company Spend.com. Then in July 2020, Binance acquired Swipe for an undisclosed sum. In late 2021, SXP rebranded to Solar and separated from Swipe.

Click here to learn all about investing in SXP.

Rocket Pool (RPL)

The $906 mln market cap coin went up 2.5% to now exchange hands at $46.52 while seeing $6.49 mln in volume. RPL has been enjoying gains not only in 2023, surging 125% YTD, but also throughout the past year, with 51.6% gains during this period. The coin actually hit a new ATH less than a month ago at $61.90 and has since lost over 24% of its value.

Rocket Pool is a decentralized Ethereum-based staking service, and RPL is the native token of the platform. David Rugendyke is the founder and CTO of Rocket Pool and first began building the project in late 2016. The platform can be used for tokenized staking with rETH as well as to stake ETH and run a node. 

Last month, Rocket Pool deployed its Atlas upgrade introducing architectural changes and making the protocol compatible with Ethereum's Shapella hard fork upgrade. The upgrade gives node operators immediate access to their staking rewards and lowers the barrier of entry to creating an Ethereum validator, or “minipool.” 

Instead of providing 16 ether (ETH), node operators can now supply just 8 ETH plus some RPL to form a minipool, decreasing the amount of capital required to participate in Ethereum's staking process.

With Rocket Pool's total value locked (TVL) surging to $1.46 billion, it has become the third-largest liquid staking entity, trailing only Lido and Coinbase, as per DefiLlama.

Click here to learn all about investing in RPL.

Maker (MKR)

Up 3.3%, this time MKR managed to see some gains, but its YTD performance is still meager at 38% upside. MKR is a $637.57 mln market cap cryptocurrency that is currently trading at $706 while managing $17.65 mln in 24-hour volume. The crypto asset is down 88.75% from the $6.292 peak hit two years ago.

MKR is an Ethereum token which is a utility token, governance token, and recapitalization resource of the Maker ecosystem. 

The ecosystem consists of the Maker Protocol, which allows users to build their own currency, the Dai stablecoin. It was created in 2015 by a developer group headed by Rune Christensen, which was formalized later into the Maker Foundation, a company located in the Cayman Islands. 

Another organization backing Maker is the Dai Foundation which is based in Denmark and is self-governing and independent of the Maker Foundation. Its purpose is to safeguard intangible assets of Maker's protocol, such as code copyrights.

MakerDAO is another component of the Maker ecosystem which is an open-source community project administered by people who own MKR. MakerDAO regulates the Maker Protocol by deciding on critical parameters using MKR holders' voting power. The first whitepaper of MakerDAO was published in December 2017.

The Maker Protocol has another token called Dai, which is a collateral-backed pegged stablecoin. MKR is used to keep Dai in check and the system running.

Click here to learn all about investing in MKR.

Frax Share (FXS)

FXS is half a billion-dollar market cap cryptocurrency that recorded a 3.1% upside and is now trading at $7.73 with almost $10 mln in 24-hour trading volume. Much like other crypto assets on this list, FXS is also down about 82% from the $42.80 ATH that was hit in Jan. 2022. But FXS did manage to record 76% gains in 2023 so far.

Recently, Frax Finance (FXS) partnered with Helio Protocol (HAY) for various massive technical and marketing activities and joint promo campaigns.

FXS is the governance token of the FRAX protocol, which has a two-token system that includes the stablecoin FRAX (FXS). The stablecoin protocol was developed on a fractional algorithm, and according to its whitepaper, portions of its supply are determined automatically, while parts of the supply are guaranteed by collateral. 

FXS is the standard token for the FRAX system, which is used to generate fees, taxation revenue, and excess collateral value. The protocol is designed to have FXS supply deflating as long as FRAX demand rises. 

From the total tokens available, 60% of all FXS are allocated to liquidity rewards, different yield farms, and governance initiatives, with the balance shared among the staff and investors.

The ultimate purpose of the protocol is to create the FRAX Price Index (FPI), the first crypto-native version of the CPI, which FXS holders will manage.

Click here to learn all about investing in FXS.

Space ID (ID)

While ID's price only went up 2.5%, the token actually hit its ATH very recently. Trading at $0.625, ID is down 39% since hitting $1.03 only fifteen days ago. 

It is a $179 mln market cap coin recording $81.3 mln in 24-hour volume. Out of the total supply of 2 billion ID tokens, only 286 mln of them are currently circulating in the market.

FXS is the native token of Space ID, which allows users to exchange, register and manage crypto-based domain names. The token's positive performance actually works in favor of Binance Launchpad as a lucrative platform to get allocations to new projects. The token distribution on Binance Launchpad is made through a lottery system. 

Space ID raised more than $2.85 billion worth of BNB tokens from 99,000 holders over a 48-hour period in exchange for a hundred million ID tokens. This was much higher than the $2.5 million the project sought to raise in exchange for id tokens at a rate of 0.00007412 BNB per ID. 

The largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance announcing support for Space ID a month before the token hit its peak, worked in favor of the token's price as it gave BNB token holders a chance to purchase the ID tokens.

Click here to learn all about investing in ID.

Final Note

Despite the crypto market's downturn, some projects, including Polymath (POLY), SXP (SXP), Rocket Pool (RPL), Maker (MKR), Frax Share (FXS), and Space ID (ID), managed to maintain their green performance. These projects demonstrated resilience in challenging market conditions, indicating their potential for future growth and development.