• Aptos’s NFT trading volume has declined; development activity is rebounding.
• Martian Wallet and Jujube Finance have partnered up, while METAPIXEL announced the dates for Gran Saga Unlimited community testing.
• The ‚Solana Killer‘ has lost over 30% of its value since February, wiping out nearly $780 million of its market cap.

Aptos’s Market Performance

Aptos started 2023 with a bang, with much of this meteoric rise being powered by its growing list of partnerships and product launches. However, the juggernaut has come to a halt. Since the start of February, the ‚Solana Killer‘ lost over 30% in its value, wiping out nearly $780 million of its market cap.

Decline in DeFi and NFT Activity

One of the primary drivers for APT’s pump in January was growth in DeFi protocols on the network. However, activity has significantly tapered down; according to data from DeFiLlama, Aptos’s total value locked (TVL) declined 15% since the start of February. Additionally, NFT momentum has been waning; trading volume has plunged while there was a substantial decrease in number of NFT transactions as well.

Rebound in Development Activity

Despite these market conditions, development activity showed clear signs of rebound at the time of writing; implying that the network was steadfast towards its technical milestones and could meet deadlines. Investor sentiment also soared as indicated by Aptos’s weighted sentiment metric as well.

Key Updates

On 24 February, Aptos provided key updates on some popular projects: Martian Wallet partnered with Jujube Finance allowing users to access features from latter; METAPIXEL announced dates for Gran Saga Unlimited community test; BloctoApp closed Series A funding round at $80M; Mises001 announced a new partnership with Kanalabs too.

Conclusion

While it is difficult to predict how far Aptos will go given current market conditions, it is undoubtedly trying to make strides through strategic partnerships and product launches which bodes well for future prospects if maintained consistently over time.

• Charles Hoskinson has been criticised for his idea of Contingent Staking on the Cardano blockchain.
• This involves improving contractual agreements within the blockchain and addressing operations within a regulatory environment.
• ADA’s price managed to achieve a new 2023 high at $0.42 during Wednesday’s rally, before experiencing a slight dip in the last 24 hours due to profit-taking.

Controversial Idea of Contingent Staking

Charles Hoskinson is no stranger to criticism when it comes to matters related to the Cardano blockchain. His latest concept, contingent staking, has met with mixed reactions from the community, as some have expressed their lack of understanding about its possible implications. The Cardano CEO reintroduced this concept two days ago and clarified that it would be used as an additional safety mechanism for ISPOs (Initial Smart Pool Offering) in a contractual setting, rather than replacing normal staking or introducing KYC measures into the network.

ADA Achieves New Highs

The bullish performance of ADA so far this week saw its price reach a new 2023 high at $0.42 during Wednesday’s (15 February) rally. Although there was some profit-taking after this week’s rally causing ADA’s price to dip slightly in the last 24 hours, overall investor sentiment remains positive with minimal signs of bearish retracement so far. Furthermore, ADA’s market cap in terms of Bitcoin has also increased over time, indicating growing demand for the altcoin among investors and traders alike.

Cardano Profit Calculator

In order to keep track of potential profits from staking one’s ADA tokens on Cardano’s network, users can make use of the Cardano Profit Calculator which allows them to input their stake amount and receive estimated returns over time based on current network parameters such as network total supply, block reward distributions etc. This calculator serves as a useful tool for investors who are looking to maximize their returns from staking without having to monitor prices continuously or manually calculate potential profits from their transactions and holdings on the platform.

What Could Contingent Staking Mean?

The idea behind contingent staking is that it could provide an extra layer of security when it comes to contractual agreements within a regulatory setting by introducing additional checks or safeguards against risks associated with ISPOs on Cardano’s network. If successfully implemented, this could potentially lead to greater trust amongst participants since there will be more assurance that investments are safe and secure even if certain conditions are not met or expectations are not realized upon execution of smart contracts deployed on Cardano’s platform.

Conclusion

It remains unclear how Charles Hoskinson’s idea for contingent staking will pan out in terms of actual implementation and whether it will prove successful in providing an extra layer of security for ISPOs conducted on Cardano’s network given its still conceptual stage at present time. Nevertheless, with increasing demand for ADA amongst traders and investors alike indicated through its market cap growth against Bitcoin as well as rising highs achieved throughout this week – one can only wonder what other surprises lie ahead for holders/stakers/investors alike when it comes to Cardano’s future development plans!

• Hedera just onboarded Dell as its newest member of the governing council.
• The market reacted positively, but HBAR was still unable to escape its press time range.
• Analyzing the impact, Hedera may benefit from Dell’s technological prowess in the long-term and short-term metrics experienced a large spike.

Hedera Onboards Dell as Governing Council Member

Hedera recently announced that tech giant Dell has joined its governing council, which already includes industry heavyweights such as FIS and Google. Dell’s senior director of technology strategy noted that their involvement reflects the company’s need to be part of ongoing industry growth, and they will be running a Hedera node to facilitate transaction ordering on the blockchain network.

Market Reaction

The market reacted positively to this news, with investors exhibiting excitement through social dominance and sentiment metrics experiencing large spikes in the last 24 hours. Furthermore, HBAR’s on-chain volume saw a sharp uptick in the same amount of time – its largest spike this month so far.

Price Action

As a result of all this activity, HBAR bounced back by roughly 17%, trading at $0.075 at press time. Although it was still unable to break above its January highs despite a solid rally, RSI indicators showed signs of relative weakness.

Benefits for Hedera

Having Dell join their governing council is an overall positive development for Hedera since it provides both long-term and short-term benefits – from potentially gaining access to valuable technological prowess to seeing immediate investor excitement reflected in metrics such as social dominance and sentiment scores increasing significantly within 24 hours.

Conclusion

Overall, while there has been some bullish price action due to Dell’s addition to Hedera’s governing council, HBAR remains below its January highs despite a solid rally. However, given that it has seen higher levels of on-chain volume compared to other weeks this month so far suggests that it may soon break out from its press time range if more investors continue accumulating positions in it over the coming days or weeks ahead.

• Polygon zkEVM registered growth during the last seven days.
• Polygon partnered with Genso to help improve the latter’s offerings.
• Despite these developments, MATIC’s price shocked investors by declining by over 6% in the last 24 hours.

The Polygon network recently released new statistics on the Polygon zkEVM. The figures reveal that the zkEVM has seen positive growth over the past week, with the total number of wallet addresses now reaching 82,484, and the total number of deployed contracts increasing by 17%. In addition, the average block time was found to be 1.1 minutes, and the total number of blocks rose by 12.6%.

To further bolster the network, Polygon has also announced a partnership with Genso. This collaboration will enable Genso to create game worlds that are more detailed and alive than ever before, with landscapes, characters, dynamic weather, and more. Genso was thrilled to start openly collaborating with Polygon and believes it will help them provide an even more immersive experience for the Genso community.

Despite the positive developments, however, MATIC’s price shocked investors by declining by over 6% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, MATIC was trading at $1.09, with a market capitalization of over $9.4 billion. Despite the recent negative price action, MATIC remained one of the top choices for whales, with WhaleStats noting that the asset saw an increase in large transactions from high net worth investors. It remains to be seen whether these developments will be enough to bolster MATIC’s price in the near future.