Recent institutional and retail investor inflows into the cryptocurrency market have led to bull market circumstances for a lot of high tokens from blue-chips like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to extra lately established DeFi tasks like AAVE and Synthetix (SNX).
Alternate tokens are one other simply ignored sub-sector of the market however they’ve been performing exceptionally properly in 2021 as will increase in buying and selling volumes ends in a bigger pool of charges to gather when the change’s native token is used for settlement. Native change tokens are additionally usually used as the bottom pair for funding new listings and token buybacks.
Listed here are three of the top-performing change tokens in 2021 that proceed to see upside potential as new buyers flood into the market.
Much like the expertise of CryptoKitty customers in 2017, the decentralized finance group has found that the primary downside of elevated utilization of the Ethereum community is excessive fuel charges and lengthy transaction occasions.
Because of this, centralized exchanges and their related native tokens have seen renewed curiosity as new options like staking, yield farming and collateralization enable buyers to revenue from holding their investments. These new choices additionally enable buyers to take part in DeFi-like choices with out worrying about impermanent loss they usually additionally obtain entry to the newest coin listings.
BNB/USDT
Binance Coin (BNB) lately skilled a value breakout to a brand new excessive of $349.13 on Feb.19 as the highest change by quantity evolves each its centralized and decentralized change capabilities alongside additional upgrades to the Binance Sensible Chain.
A number of DeFi-related tasks, together with Venus (VNS) and Linear Finance (LINA) launched on the BSC in latest weeks which makes use of the BNB token to pay transaction charges on the community.
Binance additionally presents a frequently increasing record of “funding merchandise” that enable customers to lend their tokens to the change swimming pools in return for various levels of yield alternatives relying on lock-up intervals and token demand.
Standard cash are rapidly added to the rising record of tokens with choices or futures buying and selling capabilities, providing one thing for each devoted group members in addition to pessimists who would moderately take their likelihood at shorting newly listed belongings.
Buying and selling quantity dominance and the advantages of getting the first-mover benefit level to additional upside potential for the Binance ecosystem and BNB.
Binance’s regular enlargement and its lively undertaking incubator and Binance Sensible Chain are designed to problem Ethereum’s dominance within the sector, thus there stays a powerful risk that BNB might see an extension of latest positive aspects.
FTT/USDT
The normal finance and cryptocurrency markets are slowly starting to merge and creating merchandise for all sorts of merchants. In 2020, derivatives exchanges additionally elevated in reputation and their buying and selling volumes steadily rose to new highs on a weekly foundation.
Following the U.S. authorities crackdown on controversial derivatives change BitMEX, the door was opened for a more moderen, extra group targeted choice to fill the hole.
FTX Token (FTT) is the change token for the FTX cryptocurrency change which received its begin in the summertime of 2019. For a lot of that first yr, FTT traded beneath $2 with a median buying and selling quantity of $2 million because the change labored on establishing itself and attracting new customers.
The change started to see an uptick in exercise in 2020 which coincided with a rise in buying and selling quantity for FTT in addition to its value.
Because the platform expanded, extra performance was added to the token which now consists of payment rebates, staking and a ‘Purchase & Burn’ mechanism that helps lower FTT’s circulating provide to extend token worth.
Since Dec.11 when FTT was buying and selling at $4.12, a surge in shopping for quantity which reached a peak of $270 million on Feb.19 has propelled FTT to a brand new file excessive of $35.01 because the change is quickly turning into the go-to derivatives change for the cryptocurrency group.
KCS/USDT
KuCoin Shares (KCS) has been a late bloomer on this bull market, sustaining a comparatively flat token worth till the start of February when a sudden uptick in buying and selling quantity helped elevate KCS value from $1.19 on Feb.2 to a latest excessive of $3.99 on Feb.19.
VORTECS™ information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro started to detect a bullish outlook for KCS on Feb. 18 when it reached a excessive of 66, lower than 24-hours earlier than the value breakout.
The VORTECS™ rating, unique to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparability of historic and present market circumstances derived from a mixture of information factors together with market sentiment, buying and selling quantity, latest value actions and Twitter exercise.
A scroll by the undertaking’s Twitter feed exhibits that on Feb.Four the largest announcement popping out of the change was the itemizing of the favored blockchain-based video streaming platform Theta, which had beforehand been troublesome to acquire for U.S. residents.
KuCoin additionally presents a rising record of tokens out there for derivatives buying and selling together with numerous methods to earn by staking or offering liquidity, with charges generated by the platform distributed to token holders who maintain their KCS staked on the change.
DeFi hype overshadows change token positive aspects
DeFi could also be dominating the dialog within the cryptocurrency sector proper now, however main points together with fuel charges stay a barrier to widespread adoption.
Whereas the roll out of layer two options could supply some aid to this drawback, considerations about liquidity throughout separate blockchains proceed to pose important boundaries to a clean, low-cost buying and selling expertise.
Many who’re chasing the DeFi hype fail to comprehend that common token listings and decrease buying and selling charges have led to a resurgence in using centralized exchanges.
This interprets into a bigger consumer base that conducts extra transactions, resulting in a rise in buying and selling volumes and wholesome value appreciation for underlying change tokens like BNB, FTT and KCS.
Centralized exchanges nonetheless seize nearly all of buying and selling quantity and this doesn’t seem like altering anytime quickly. Whereas decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and SushiSwap are rising in prominence and starting to eat into the market share of centralized exchanges, they nonetheless comprise solely a small portion of whole buying and selling quantity seen within the cryptocurrency market.
The battle between exchanges is continuous to warmth up and so long as that is the case, the elevated influx to change tokens might result in future upside.
The views and opinions expressed listed here are solely these of the writer and don’t essentially replicate the views of Cointelegraph.com. Each funding and buying and selling transfer entails danger, it’s best to conduct your personal analysis when making a choice.
