Cryptoassets of the Month: MATIC, SOL, and More

Every month, our research team will present the cryptoassets of the month that increased or dropped in value by more than 15%. With a data-driven approach, we highlight the most important developments and events causing price movements.

Figure 1 – 30-Day Performance: Cryptoassets of the Month vs. Traditional Asset Classes

Data Source: Messari and Yahoo Finance, from 15-Oct-2022 to 14-Nov-2022 (Close Price)

Polygon (MATIC)

16.10%

Polygon’s native token MATIC rose 16.10% in the past month as the platform made massive strides toward mainstream adoption. On November 2, Meta announced that creators would soon be able to mint, buy, and sell Polygon-based NFTs on Instagram. On the same day, as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Project Guardian, JP Morgan completed its first live blockchain trade against a liquidity pool of tokenized JPY and SGD deposits using a modified version of Aave on Polygon. In December last year, our very own Director of Research pointed out, ”Polygon is really the sleeping giant. Your favorite apps will all be accessible there in the coming year”. Indeed, Polygon’s multifaceted approach to scaling Ethereum has paid off this year.

Aave (AAVE)

-17.95%

Aave (AAVE) traded down 17.95% over the past month. JP Morgan executed its first live DeFi trade using a modified version of the Aave protocol in Polygon. This event represents a significant step toward bringing traditional financial assets into DeFi, fully realizing the opportunities afforded by smart contracts. In another exciting development, Aave companies announced that they would experiment with the first testnet deployment of GHO, a fully collateralized dollar-pegged stablecoin governed by AAVE holders. Finally, a proposal to deploy Aave on zkSync 2.0, a protocol using zero-knowledge proofs to scale Ethereum, passed.

Algorand (ALGO)

18.18%

Algorand’s native token ALGO traded down 18.18% over the past month despite ecosystem traction. On November 10, the Algorand Foundation launched a series of bounties hosted on Immunefi. The bounties, which feature payouts up to $2 million, are focused on enhancing the security of the core protocol and the ecosystem’s DeFi applications. In addition, FIFA recently launched ”FIFA+ Collect” on Algorand’s blockchain. This digital marketplace allows football fans worldwide to buy and sell 2022 World Cup digital collectibles (NFTs), which will take place between November 20 and December 18 in Qatar.

Solana (SOL)

52.75%

Solana’s native token SOL traded down 52.75% over the past month. On November 2, a CoinDesk report showed that Alameda Research had roughly $1.2 billion worth of SOL in its balance sheet, equivalent to 10% of the cryptoasset’s circulating supply. The now-bankrupt trading firm sold off large amounts of SOL in a failed attempt to raise liquidity, triggering a liquidation cascade. Despite these setbacks, Solana’s ecosystem has achieved escape velocity. In addition to Polygon, Meta also integrated support for Solana-based NFTs, allowing Instagram and Facebook users to connect their accounts directly to their Phantom wallet. Then, on November 5, Google Cloud announced that they were running a Solana validator and would add support for the blockchain in BigQuery next year.

FTX Token (FTT)

93.60%

FTX Token (FTT) traded down 93.60% over the past month due to FTX’s insolvency. FTT provided various benefits to users of the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange. On November 2, CoinDesk leaked Alameda’s balance sheet, showing that $5.2 billion of the trading firm’s $14.6 billion of assets (36%) were held in FTT. In light of these revelations, Binance chose to liquidate a portion of FTT on its books, which spooked investors, prompting a bank run on the FTX exchange. On November 8, FTX halted withdrawals, and the price of FTT dropped more than 80% in 24 hours. After failing to raise capital, on November 11, more than 130 entities tied to FTX.com, FTX US, and Alameda Research filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the Alameda petition listing assets and liabilities of at least $10 billion each.

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Research Newsletter

Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com

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