Fantom (FTM) ranks fourth among the largest blockchains in decentralised finance (DeFi) by total value locked.

Capriole founder Charles Edwards says Fantom is still massively undervalued and has huge potential. The analyst noted this even as Fantom (FTM) slipped 13% in the past 24 hours in terms of the total value locked (TVL).

“Fantom has had an incredible run lately, but it’s still the cheapest multi-billion-dollar L1 but a huge margin,” the analyst tweeted on Wednesday.

Fantom (FTM) is the fourth largest decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol by total value locked, behind top dogs Ethereum (ETH), Terra (LUNA), and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Fantom (FTM) in DeFi

Looking at the DeFi ecosystem TVL leaderboard, Ethereum holds forte as the largest with over $118.6 billion locked across 415 protocols. Terra (LUNA) has over $12.3 billion across 17 protocols, while BSC is third with over $12.3 billion locked in more than 290 protocols.

According to data from DeFi tracking platform DeFiLlama, the blockchain network has a total of $11.01 billion in TVL, spread across 131 protocols that include MultiChain (MULTI), SpookySwap (BOO), Yearn Finance (YFI), and Curve (CRV).

The value locked in the project has grown 39% this past week.

In fact, the Fantom chain, a layer 1 protocol that boasts of very high scalability and cheap transactions, briefly overtook BSC last weekend before a drawdown in TVL took it back into fourth. 

FTM prices

Fantom tokens continue to attract even more investors looking for higher yields and speed of transactions, keeping the layer 1 blockchain ahead of rivals such as Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), and Polygon (MATIC).

The TVL on the Fantom exceeded $11billion, a record high, surpassing Avalanche and Solana. Various protocols compete for the upcoming ve(3, 3) NFT selected by Andre Cronje, attracting users to lock assets through higher APR. pic.twitter.com/AcfLBY4AoG

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 23, 2022

In the market, FTM price has jumped 2% in the past 24 hours as bulls seek to bounce higher following a broader sell-off in the crypto market. The FTM/USD pair is trading around $2.36, about 20% down over the past week and nearly 33% off its all-time high of $3.46 reached in October last year.

Earlier this month, crypto analysts Michael van de Poppe highlighted Fantom among tokens likely to outperform in 2022.

The post Fantom (FTM) is a massively undervalued ‘multi-billion-dollar L1’ project, says analyst appeared first on Coin Journal.

Despite the fact that the digital currency market has experienced a huge drop in market Cap and lost a substantial amount of pips in their various assets. Yet market investors are on the look for profitable opportunities to invest their money amidst the downhill movement taking place in the market.

With rate hike expectations coming from the Federal Reserve Chairman Jeremy Powell in March, market investors should understand that there is still room for the market to remain bearish.

Because a tighter monetary policy is aimed towards curbing the hyperinflation pressure around the US economy.

However, if you’re still interested in buying digital currency in exchange for profit maximization, below are the list of our top pick crypto asset.

Tether (USDT)

Tether, the most traded stable coin by market Cap, has often proved to be a safe haven digital asset. Due to its stability and similar value with the US dollar, it has the potential of rising in value in spite of negative trading sentiment taking place in the crypto market. And because it has a value that’s equal to the dollar, it’s guaranteed to appreciate if at all the feds should tighten the monetary policy sooner.

Ripple (XRP)

While it may be deduced that Ripple is at a point of gaining positive recovery, after a continuous month of losses and negative price balances. It should be noted that the best way to profit from the crypto asset is to buy it when the value is in the bearish stage. You can gain a lot from the market if you consider buying XRP this period.

Ethereum (ETH)

With concern about Ethereum upgrading to ETH2 as a result of controlling its transaction cost and network congestion issues. It’ll be right to be prepared for the opportunity this new upgrade will produce in the market.

The post Top 3 crypto asset to buy before it gain bullish attraction in the market appeared first on Coin Journal.

The API3 price has surged by more than 42% as the majority of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum nosedive. At the time of writing, the API3 token was trading at $6.87.

API3 rally comes amid the larger crypto market bloodbath that has seen the likes of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, drop to $35K and Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency drop to $25K.

API3 is currently only about $2 shy of its all-time high of $10.31 that it hit in April 2021. And going by the current trend where it has gained more than $2 in less than 24 hours, it could be headed for a new all-time high before the current hype ends.

But why is API3 price rally, especially at such a time when a majority of coins are dropping? Here is a comprehensive reason for the price rally.

What is API3?

API3 is the native token of the API3 blockchain network.

The API3 blockchain network is dedicated to allowing decentralized versions of APIs to be built, managed, and monetized.

The team behind the API3 project believes smart contracts can be used to provide “timely, reliable real-world data” as is the case with the traditional APIs.

Why API3 price is rallying

The current API3 rally is highly attributed to the recent announcement by Binance that it shall list it and the subsequent listing on the crypto exchange earlier today.

In an announcement posted on the Binance website on January 2021 at around 9:38 AM, the crypto exchange had promised to list API3 token on January 22, which is today.

Binance had also tweeted about the same on its Twitter handle setting the API3 community aflame.

#Binance will list @API3DAO #API3 https://t.co/M25whlBkNQ

— Binance (@binance) January 21, 2022

As a matter of fact, the API3 price had started rallying on January 20, in anticipation of the listing and once it was made public by Binance, the price shot to the moon.

Today, the price continued with the Bull Run propelled by Binance actualizing what it had announced yesterday.

Recent #Binance listing: #API3@API3DAO is a data oracle that enables APIs to feed data to blockchain applications directly without third-party middlemen.

Learn more 👇https://t.co/0DbTVpBQYQ

— Binance (@binance) January 22, 2022

Prior to the listing news, API3 was in a pullback that had started in mid-November 2021, and attempts to correct it in December had failed.

Investors are now expecting API3 to continue with the rally to above $10, especially since it has shown resilience by surging up at a time when the general market is down.

The post Here is why API3 token is rallying as the majority of cryptocurrencies fall appeared first on Coin Journal.

Ethereum (ETH) is the biggest blockchain in the world. However, it faces massive scaling challenges that have made it slower and more expensive to use. Because of this, layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum have been created in a bid to enhance efficiency and speed on the Ethereum chain. Although some like Polygon (MATIC) and Loopring (LRC) are quite popular, others are relatively unknown. But why are these solutions important:

• Layer 2 scaling solutions for Ethereum are designed to address some of the inefficiencies associated with the Ethereum chain.

• Over the last few years, these solutions have reported incredible growth in their own right.

• Innovations around scaling for Ethereum are going to become huge as Ethereum expands as the leading blockchain.

Well, if you are thinking of investing in some of these solutions, here are a few relatively unknown projects that you can check out.

Cartesi (CTSI)

Cartesi (CTSI) touts itself as the first Operating System on the blockchain. It is a layer 2 solution designed to help developers take advantage of standard programming languages like Linux inside the blockchain ecosystem. 

Data source: Tradingview.com 

Cartesi (CTSI) offers rich software tools and services to help create innovative and highly scalable smart contracts. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $0.6231 with a market cap of $275 million.

OMG Network (OMG)

OMG Network (OMG) is a layer 2 optimistic roll upscaling solution designed to enhance efficiency and reduce fees for users. The platform enhances smart contract capabilities too and is known to offer users the chance to transfer ETH and ERC20 tokens faster and more efficiently compared to Ethereum. 

OMG Network is one of the most promising layer 2 scaling solutions for the Ethereum chain. At the time of writing, OMG, its native token, was trading at $6.11. The project has a market cap of around $857 million.

The post The best Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions to buy right now appeared first on Coin Journal.

• Solana will curve off Ethereum’s market share to see Visa-like transactions, says BofA strategist Alkesh Shah.

• He cites advantages such as scalability, low fees and ease of use as what makes Solana a top blockchain for micropayments, DeFi, and NFTs.

• Solana (SOL) price surged nearly 10% to $157 before paring gains on Thursday afternoon.

Solana could gradually nip at the market share of leading smart contracts platform Ethereum and become the “Visa of the Digital Asset ecosystem,” according to Bank of America.

Alkesh Shah, a crypto strategist at the investment bank, says that Solana’s advantage over the Ethereum blockchain is down to three things: high scalability, very low transaction fees, and ease of use.

The Bank of America strategist said in a research note quoted by Business Insider that these factors could potentially push Solana to heights that make it ‘Visa of crypto.’

While several outages over the past few months have shown the blockchain is yet to surmount usage challenges, Shah says the current outlook makes for a greater future for the network.

He said in the research note that “[Solana’s] high throughput, low cost, and ease of use” have created a platform optimized for several use cases.

Other than micropayments, the blockchain is already commanding huge usage numbers in terms of consumers and developers for decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming and Web3.

In its predictions for 2022 last December, Arcane Research said Solana and other layer-1 blockchain platforms could outperform Ethereum.

Solana’s “Visa of crypto” comparison

The Solana blockchain is a proof-of-stake network that officially launched in 2020, with SOL as the native token. Since then, the SOL token has seen massive growth to see the blockchain rank among the top 10 by market cap.

Visa is a leading payments firm with a global presence, settling billions of transactions annually. Last year, the payments giant announced it had processed over 164 billion transactions.

In comparison, Solana’s blockchain saw over 50 billion transactions, with growth also seen across the spike in NFTs and Total Value Locked at 5.7 million and $11 billion respectively.

While Visa can handle up to 24,000 transactions per second (TPS), Solana’s can go up to 65,000 TPS. Ethereum, on the other hand, processes 12 TPS on-chain and can scale more with layer 2 options.

Such numbers give Solana the weapons to eat into Ethereum’s market. However, Shah noted that while the platform holds the upper hand in speed and low costs, there are “trade-offs” when it comes to decentralization and security.

Solana’s price surged after the BofA news, with SOL briefly the top gainer among the 10 largest coins by market cap. The SOL/USD pair rallied more than 9% in early deals on Thursday before paring some of the gains made to intraday highs of $157.

As of writing, the cryptocurrency was trading around $151.

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