DappRadar’s CDO predicts that an uptick in dapp usage in 2021 will push the price of ETH and altcoins to new heights
As the world waits to see if BTC will once again break through the $60K barrier, DappRadar CDO Dragos Dunica is far more interested in the price of ETH. As the leading smart contract platform powering the largest ecosystem of dapps, he’s asking how much of that price action is being stimulated by the massive adoption and use of dapps witnessed and reported on this year by DappRadar.
“Everybody is watching BTC with bated breath to see if it bursts through the 60k barrier again. I reckon it will. But for me, it’s ETH’s moves that are far more interesting, especially with all that’s been going on in the dapp space over the past quarter and the amounts of ETH that have been flowing into NFTs and DeFi. Being the leading smart contract platform, Ethereum’s price is being directly impacted by the growing adoption of dapps across the most active categories of DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. These dapps and the native altcoins that power them are in turn positively impacted by ETH’s uptrend, so we’re seeing a circular relationship there that’s increasingly spinning both Ethereum and dapp tokens into the spotlight,” says Dragos.
Features such as staking and providing liquidity have ensured a substantial value remains locked up in the market even when prices are plunging. It’s important to remember that, and even more important to understand that this has been made possible through dapps.
PancakeSwap, SushiSwap, and UniSwap are all dapps that facilitate the new open finance economy. A few years ago, when prices started falling people would just jump out into fiat, or swap to a stablecoin such as DAI and just HODL. Now, they can engage in inflexible staking via DeFi dapps, which hold value as early withdrawal far outweighs any gains. Prices are thus less likely to implode and more likely to explode given the current climate.
The explosion of activity seen in the play-to-earn and GameFi categories is also adding serious weight to that, not to mention that the far less liquid category of NFTs has shot through the roof with the market cap for the top 100 Ethereum collections and NBA Top Shot estimated at $14.19 billion. It’s especially exciting to see how all this value and the uptick in adoption will affect traditional price cycles.
According to Dragos, “as dapp adoption ramps up, alt price cycles are shortening, and the correlation between dapp activity and token price is tightening. Usage is at its all-time high and that’s very good news for Ethereum — I wouldn’t be surprised if it hits $10K before Christmas.”
Traditionally the run-up to Christmas has been a positive time for cryptocurrency prices, but with recent volatility and BTC and ETH both hitting their respective all-time highs earlier this year, many did not anticipate another bull run so soon. The utility of the dapps powered by altcoins and ETH is now clear, whether we hunker down for another crypto winter or refresh like crazy as prices soar. Either way, we’re headed towards an exciting period for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
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