Bitcoin has traded sideways and is currently trading below $42k (Charts 1 and 2). But other crypto markets have performed better. Our Smart Contract Index has jumped 11.9% thanks to a surge in Cardano (up 31%) and our DeFi Index has jumped 10.6%. The Metaverse Index had earlier underperformed but could only muster a 6.4% gain.
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Bitcoin has traded sideways and is currently trading below $42k (Charts 1 and 2). But other crypto markets have performed better. Our Smart Contract Index has jumped 11.9% thanks to a surge in Cardano (up 31%) and our DeFi Index has jumped 10.6%. The Metaverse Index had earlier underperformed but could only muster a 6.4% gain.
In terms of the breakdown within each index:
- Smart Contract Platform Index. All coins except for Solana (SOL) in this basket are up on the week. Cardano (ADA) is up the most at 31.2% followed by Polkadot (DOT) at 3.6%. Ethereum is up 1.6%.
- DeFi Index. All coins except for Compound (COMP) are up on the week. Aave (AAVE) is up the most at 13.4% whilst Compound (COMP) is down 4.5%.
- Metaverse Index. The constituents in this basket had mixed performance. Axie Infinity (AXA) is currently up the most at 6.8% followed by Enjin Coin (ENJ) at 2.9%. Meanwhile, Gala (GALA) is down the most at 4.5%.
- Bitcoin. This is relatively unchanged only falling 0.1% on the week.
What Are In The Four Indices?
Here are the indices in more detail:
- Bitcoin: the OG of crypto markets deserves its own category and is in many ways the true benchmark for any other crypto market.
- Smart contract platforms: after bitcoin, the big innovation was to have blockchains that were more programmable. These could host smart contracts or decentralised applications and have allowed the emergence of the metaverse and defi. Ethereum (ETH) is the most popular version of a smart contract platform. But we also include rivals: Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX). We also include Polkadot (DOT) which allows interoperability between blockchains and the use of smart contracts via parachains.
- Metaverse: coins associated with the creation of a virtual space/digital world on the internet using a combination of augmented reality, virtual reality, and social networks. One of the largest is this space is Axie Infinity (AXS), which is a play-to-earn gaming platform. Another is Decentraland (MANA), which is a virtual world that allows ownership of land amongst other things. The three other coins we include are Sandbox (SAND), Enjin Coin (CNJ) and Gala (GALA).
- Decentralised Finance (DeFi): financial services built on top of blockchain networks with no central intermediaries. This can be a very broad category, so we narrow this down to platforms that focus on lending and borrowing or to yield farming. The five coins we have selected are Aave (AAVE), Maker (MKR), Compound (COMP), Uniswap (UNI), and PancakeSwap (CAKE).
Dalvir Mandara is a Quantitative Researcher at Macro Hive. Dalvir has a BSc Mathematics and Computer Science and an MSc Mathematical Finance both from the University of Birmingham. His areas of interest are in the applications of machine learning, deep learning and alternative data for predictive modelling of financial markets.
Bilal Hafeez is the CEO and Editor of Macro Hive. He spent over twenty years doing research at big banks – JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Nomura, where he had various “Global Head” roles and did FX, rates and cross-markets research.