Author: Lyllah Ledesma, CoinDesk; Compiled by: Felix, PANews
2023 Solana (SOL) led the gains this year, followed by Avalanche (AVAX), Stacks (STX) and Helium (HNT). In addition, Bitcoin has also had a strong year, and the market is increasingly optimistic that a Bitcoin spot ETF will be approved early next year.
Solana has risen sharply since mid-October and has risen more than 700% since the beginning of this year. In June this year, in the U.S. SEC’s complaint against Coinbase, although the SEC accused SOL and other tokens of being “unregistered securities,” the market was not affected by the accusation.
Although Solana has close ties to bankrupt exchange FTX and its founder SBF, the SOL market has performed well. SBF is a well-known supporter of Solana and has purchased over $1 billion worth of SOL through his company Alameda Research and FTX.
Most of SOL's gains were realized after the SBF trial. Since the trial ended, the Solana network has seen an increase in monthly active addresses and the launch of multiple memecoins, including BONK, which was recently listed on Coinbase.
Brian Rudick, senior strategist at GSR, said: "After the bankruptcy of FTX, the market had doubts about Solana, but as there is more and more activity on the chain, the market With a new understanding of its innovative technology and several high-profile airdrops, Solana has flourished."
HNT
As Helium enters the field of mobile services, Helium’s native token HNT will be launched in 2023 It also made impressive gains, rising 500% for the year, most of which was achieved in December. In April this year, Helium migrated from its own blockchain to Solana. Helium is a blockchain-based network of IoT devices that uses nodes as hotspots to connect wireless devices to the network.
According to Amberdata Research Director Christopher Martin, 2023 is an important year for Helium as it begins to enter the field of mobile services. Christopher Martin said: “The Helium network appears to have big plans for mobile and IoT, allowing users to earn MOBILE tokens by supporting the network and pay their monthly bills with the tokens, which creates a flywheel effect on the network.”
Christopher Martin also pointed out that "the recent BONK craze has caused Solana Saga mobile phone to be sold out (because Saga mobile phone comes with BONK airdrop), Saga mobile phone also provides 30 days of free Helium Mobile subscription. In short, due to the symbiotic relationship between network benefits brought by user growth, as mobile networks develop, the market is full of expectations for MOBILE and HNT."
AVAX
For Avalanche, cooperation with various institutions has boosted the token price. AVAX is up 300% year to date. In January, Avalanche announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services, and in November it announced a partnership with JPMorgan Chase. (Specifically, JPMorgan Chase’s digital asset platform Onyx has reached a cooperation with the alternative asset management company Apollo. The cooperation between the two will utilize the full-chain interoperability protocolLayerZero, thereby connecting Onyx with the permissioned AvalancheEvergreen subnet, thereby facilitating the subscription and redemption of funds provided by tokenized asset application Wisdom Tree Prime) p>
Chris Newhouse, founder of DeFi consulting firm Infiniti Labs, said that Avalanche’s rise this year was mainly affected by the news. “Avalanche has made tremendous progress in institutional partnerships, with partnerships with Apollo and JP Morgan, and AWS earlier this year, and is establishing itself as a strong player,” Newhouse said in an interview. One of the best blockchains for institutional activities”.
In terms of price action, Bitcoin has also had a strong year, largely due to enthusiasm for a potential Bitcoin spot ETF. The cryptocurrency has gained 164% so far this year. Brian Rudick, senior strategist at GSR, said in an interview that the hype of ETFs is the main catalyst, and the favorable macroeconomic environment is also a major positive factor.
STX
Stacks (STX) is the native token of Stacks Network and has risen by 623 this year %. In March of this year, STX rebounded with the rise of Bitcoin Ordinals and the growing TVL on the protocol.
STX is the first qualified token issuance recognized by the US SEC in 2019. Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer 2 protocol for smart contracts that attempts to transform Bitcoin's functionality from an alternative payment system to a more versatile, programmable platform.
According to DeFiLlama data, Stacks Network’s TVL has risen significantly this year, climbing from $6 million in January to $50 million.
Most recently, STX jumped 27% on December 20 after a series of positive comments from veteran investor Tim Draper.
2024 Forecast
GSR Senior Strategist Brian Rudick expects Bitcoin and Ethereum to The rally continues in the new year, in part due to the potential approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States. In addition, Rudick also pointed out that 2024 may usher in a new wave of blockchain users from China, the European Union, Brazil and other countries, as these countries plan or announce interest in Bitcoin.
Martin said that in addition to ETFs that are of concern at the beginning of the new year, RWA will also become a booming area worth paying attention to. "We have seen some foundations established this year, but we have not yet seen mainstream society to catch up”. Looking ahead, the “Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) Narrative” will continue to be a hot topic, with tokens such as RNDR and HNT outperforming the market recently. DePIN uses crypto tokens to incentivize real-world infrastructure Construction of the facility.
Newhouse added: "Traditional fund managers have also expressed particular interest in HNT, with Bill Ackman backing the token in 2022".< /p>