The month of February was filled with investor hope for an earlier-than-expected Fed policy turnaround, but this sentiment faded as hotter-than-expected inflation and employment data came in. . While the beginning of the month was bullish for the crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC) retraced 60% of the move from the February low around $21,500 to a high of $25,250.
However, some narrative-driven rallies still caused significant price increases in some altcoins. The main narratives were Bitcoin NFTs, Liquidity Staking Derivatives (LSD) on Ethereum, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects.
Let’s review the top performing coins of the month.
Stacks (STX)
Stacks drew a lot of attention when the Ordinals hype began earlier in the month. Gamma, a project based on Stacks, enabled the creation of Bitcoin Ordinals. However, the full functionality in trading and public minting of Ordinals on Stacks is still under development.
Meanwhile, Stacks is facing competition from other blockchains like Ethereum, where developers are working to enable Bitcoin NFT trading on Ethereum. Yuga Labs, the leading NFT company, announced a generative collection of 300 pieces in Bitcoin on February 27. The auction (or minting) will likely take place on Ethereum due to the lack of infrastructure in Bitcoin. Therefore, as Stacks delays its development to make ordinals accessible, more liquid strings are leveraging other solutions.
Stacks’ blockchain fundamentals are not borne out by the price increase, suggesting that it could be purely speculative given Stack’s growth potential. In the short term, STX risks pulling back from the top of its trading range in both the STX/USD and STX/BTC pairs. However, if the buyers can conquer the resistance at $1.02, there is a chance that STX will try to reach the all-time highs of $3.40.
Conflux (CFX)
Conflux Network received a significant boost on February 15 when the blockchain team announced a partnership with China’s second largest telecommunications service, China Telecom. The telecom giant will provide blockchain-enabled mobile SIM cards to more than 200 million users. The SIM card will store a public and private key, storing transferable user data in encrypted form.
Over the years, Conflux has built a reputation as a Chinese enterprise blockchain with partners in Oreo China, McDonald’s China, and the Chinese equivalent of Instagram Little Red Book. The blockchain also houses a stablecoin pegged to the RMB approved by the Chinese government, which is very encouraging given the strict influence of the authorities on state policies.
Conflux Network implements proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mechanisms to increase scalability and decentralization. The network processes between 3,000 and 6,000 transactions per second, which is considerably faster than Ethereum’s speed of 15 tps.
While Conflux has established partnerships with leading Chinese brands, activity on the blockchain has yet to justify the 500% increase in CFX price in February. The data shows that the number of new Conflux and NFT addresses minted on the platform has kept pace with previous months with no apparent increase.
This raises concerns about the sustainability of the hype around blockchain. Extensive partnerships in the blockchain space have often failed due to a lack of real-world integrations.
The CFX/USD pair’s vertical rally found resistance at the October 2021 high of $0.34. The psychological levels of $0.20 and $0.10 will act as support in case of a pullback.
SSV Network (SSV)
SSV Network benefited from the buzz around the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, which has fueled the rise of LSD tokens. SSV Network is an infrastructure provider that will likely provide back-end support for LSD platforms to help decentralize the Ethereum network.
The project is working on the idea of Distributed Validation Technology (DVT), first proposed by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in the design of Ethereum 2.0. It improves the security and decentralization of the Ethereum PoS network by allowing smaller participants and validators to use the SSV network and run Ethereum validator nodes.
On January 19, the team announced a $50 million ecosystem fund to support the development of the technology. The fund is backed by leading cryptocurrency venture capitalists including Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey, NGC, Everstake, GSR, and SevenX.
The project gained a lot of attention as an official sponsor of the ETH Denver Hackathon 2023, where the project awarded grants to teams developing DVT technology. SSV Network shows significant potential for adoption of LSD protocols as the amount of Ether staked increases after the Shanghai upgrade.
Still, a significant part of the 160% gains in February could be due to a rotation of the crowded LSD tokens towards other protocols that will benefit after the Shanghai upgrade.
Technically, the SSV token is in a price discovery mode, hitting new all-time highs. Therefore, the token is likely to continue to rise, especially if major LSD platforms like Lido or Rocket Pool announce the integration of the SSV network.
However, the token marked the psychological $50 level on Feb. 27, which could lead to some profit bookings from investors. On the downside, the token is likely to find support near the 2022 highs of $21.
SingularityNET (AGIX)
SingularityNET benefited from the continued enthusiasm for AI-related projects. The protocol marketplace invites users to purchase AI services in its native cryptocurrency, AGIX. The token price has risen nearly 12 times since early 2023, from $0.045 to a high of $0.58.
The latest surge in SingularityNET can be attributed to its partnership with Cardano. The protocol currently resides on Ethereum to host rudimentary AI bots for image processing, language translations, and statistical analysis. The migration to Cardano provided a major boost to the protocol as it began offering ADA staking and facilitating a decentralized bridge between Ethereum and Cardano.
AGIX Token reversed from its all-time high levels at $0.63, which could continue to provide resistance for bulls. As the AI hype subsides, a correction towards the $0.33 and $0.15 support cannot be ruled out. However, if the buyers are successful in pushing the price above the $0.63 resistance level, AGIX can go significantly higher.
Graph Protocol (GRT)
Like SingularityNET, The Graph protocol has also benefited from an increase in AI storytelling. The indexing protocol on Ethereum and IFPS is slowly transitioning to a separate Layer 1 network. It works through coordination between subgraph developers, who create and store an easily accessible blockchain database, and decentralized application developers, who use this database to create products.
According to a recent Messari report, revenue for The Graph increased 66% in Q4 2022 compared to the prior quarter. The number of subgraphs on the network has been steadily increasing, with a 12% QoQ increase in revenue for network participants.
The GRT token has significant upside potential if network growth continues. Technically, the July 2022 breakout levels of $0.33 and the highs of $0.51 in 2022 will be the likely targets for bulls, with support at the psychological $0.1 level and the 2023 yearly open price. of USD 0.056.
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