A web3 booster for crypto

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Normally it takes 10 minutes to mine one block of Bitcoin. On Monday, it took 85 minutes. About 13,000 transactions were stuck in a queue to be mined. Nobody knows what caused the delay.

The markets recovered. Bitcoin crossed $19,500 while Ethereum was at $1,320 levels. Nasdaq rose in early trade. Back home, Sensex and Nifty ended in the green.

Web3 Has No Winter Chill

The crypto market is sliding. Bitcoin and Ethereum are down ~70% since November. But developers have used this time to build more web3 applications. In fact, Q3 was the busiest period for web3.

What’s driving the change?More businesses have moved to the blockchain. For example, 117,922 smart contracts were deployed in 2022 alone. Just for context, there were 205,827 smart contracts deployed between 2015 and 2021. That makes 2022 the biggest year ever.

Smart contracts are contracts of the physical world that have moved to the blockchain. Insurance, legal, and real estate are some sectors that have used this mechanism.

Source: Alchemy Insights

Decentralised applications or dApps have also grown 12 times since 2018. These include DeFi, gaming, and NFT dApps, among others. This is another indicator that the underlying crypto prices don’t matter.

So what?Despite the crypto winter, developers have faith in the blockchain. Ethereum, among the most popular ones, now sees 1.5 million installs of its software kits. In 2018, it was just 145,799 installs per week. These kits are used to build apps on the blockchain. Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Solana have also seen multi-fold growth in web3 developer activity, meaning more people want to build over them.

What’s the future signal?Crypto is not just for payments. The blockchain used for smart contracts and dApps will ensure that it becomes more mainstream. More apps mean more users, which will translate to more acceptability.

Algorand Is In A Moment

Algorand is flush with cash. The Layer-1 blockchain has attracted fresh capital to be used for DeFi activity. Its total value locked (TVL) crossed $270 million, which is an all-time high.

Why the rush?The blockchain has made tweaks to ensure faster and cheaper transactions. The Messina.one Bridge launch will help cross-chain transfers of tokens between Algorand and Ethereum. USDC is the first token to be enabled for it. Soon, more blockchains and tokens will be added for such transfers.

Social buzzSocial media is also abuzz with higher engagements for Algorand, which means users are curious about the token. This wasn’t just empty chatter. Algorand rose ~14% since Thursday’s crash.

Algorand is also a sponsor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Guess you'll see more of them.

Something Is Up With ETHW

Ethereum’s abandoned twin, Ethereum proof-of-work (ETHW) is finding takers. ETHW crashed as soon as Ethereum went through the Merge and interest evaporated. But things are now changing.

What does this mean?Here’s a slightly tricky concept. It’s called Total Value Locked (TVL). It indicates liquidity put in the token for development, staking, and lending. To simplify, it signifies the health of the token. Higher the TVL, the better the token (in ideal circumstances). Now, the TVL in this newly formed token is increasing. The number of DeFi apps being built on it is on the rise too.

Two indicators? That’s it?Nah, not just these two, the number of addresses on the network is rising too. And if you believe in hype, then ETHW’s callouts on social media are on the up as well. What does this mean? For now, the token is on a slide. It has lost ~33% since the end of September. The enthusiasm of some has transmitted to many.

What Now For The Saviour Of Web3?

Remember Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk’s new BFF? The man who gave up on Twitter to start a web5 company? He had tried to showcase the power of NFTs by selling the first-ever tweet for $2.9 million. The money raised was reportedly donated to a charity in Africa. But things have gone from bad to worse for the buyer of this beautiful tweet.

I fear the worstIf you remember, the man who had bought this tweet had tried to flip it soon after and couldn’t raise $10,000. Well, things look much worse. He can’t sell it for $97 either. Almost like people don’t want to pay for a tweet that’s STILL ON TWITTER.

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Who are we? This newsletter’s ambition is to educate (and to entertain). The world of money is changing everyday and we want to help you decode what’s happening in the world of crypto, public markets in the US and India.