Within the final two months, the variety of cryptocurrencies with a $1 billion market cap has doubled for the reason that final time Cointelegraph
Within the final two months, the variety of cryptocurrencies with a $1 billion market cap has doubled for the reason that final time Cointelegraph reported on the milestone. As issues at the moment stand, there are 100 tasks which have reached a $1 billion market capitalization.
Unicorns are usually privately held startup firms valued at greater than $1 billion, however conventional finance is more and more making use of the time period to high-value cryptocurrencies that establishments are solely now gaining publicity to.
The doorway of institutional traders into the cryptocurrency sector over the course of 2021 has been one of many driving forces of development for the ecosystem as an entire as multi-billion greenback firms like Tesla, Sq. and MicroStrategy have transformed a portion of their money reserves into Bitcoin (BTC) and different prime altcoins.
These are the highest 8 #Bitcoin holding public firms.
Which different #cryptocurrency would possibly change into part of firm holdings? $MSTR $TSLA $GLXY $SQ $MARA $HUT $VYGR $RIOT pic.twitter.com/wqRD9qdRmb
— Delta Funding Tracker (@get_delta) March 6, 2021
Decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and oracles have been a number of the hottest development sectors of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, serving to propel a number of tasks to Unicorn stage standing, whereas stablecoin-related protocols have additionally vaulted in worth as they assist present a strong basis for the business to develop from.
On that thread, right here’s an replace on a number of the prime crypto unicorn tasks, in addition to an introduction to a number of the latest arrivals to the billion greenback membership.
Nonfungible tokens steal the highlight
Nonfungible tokens took the world by storm over the previous two months as celebrities, influencers, quick meals eating places and established public sale homes jumped on the bandwagon to participate within the creation, sale and distribution of one-of-a-kind digital belongings.
Enjin Coin (ENJ) has been one of many greatest beneficiaries of the rise of NFTs which helped rocket the worth of ENJ to an all-time excessive of $3.08 on March 15 and firmly elevated the mission to Unicorn standing with a $2.6 billion market cap.
The upcoming launch of JumpNet on April 6, will allow the zero-fee creation and distribution of ERC-1155 tokens within the Enjin ecosystem and neighborhood pleasure over this launch seems to be holding traders bullish on ENJ.
Different notable NFT-related arrivals to the Unicorn membership embrace the digital actuality platform Decentraland (MANA), which permits the acquisition of digital plots of land that may be developed and monetized, and Circulate (FLOW), a developer-friendly blockchain designed to be the muse for “the subsequent era of video games, apps, and the digital belongings that energy them.”
The DeFi ecosystem expands
The impression that decentralized finance has had on the cryptocurrency ecosystem is simple as a lot of the expansion within the sector over the previous two years may be attributed to DEXs like Uniswap and yield-farming platforms like Yearn.finance (YFI).
Excessive transaction prices and community congestion on the Ethereum community triggered an exodus of customers and liquidity to cross-chain appropriate platforms and likewise helped to boost a number of DeFi protocols constructed on the Binance Good Chain (BSC) above the billion-dollar mark.
PancakeSwap (CAKE) has been one of many shining stars of BSC, quickly climbing up the charts through the months of February and March to hit a market cap of $2.55 billion.
Knowledge from Defi Llama exhibits that CAKE is now ranked because the fifth-largest DeFi platform by complete worth locked with $6.18 billion at the moment locked within the protocol.
One protocol that operates on the Binance Chain and the Ethereum community is THORChain (RUNE), whose 700% worth development since January 1 has lifted the mission’s complete market cap to $1.95 billion.
Latest optimism for the mission has been centered across the launch of THORChain Multichain, which dedicated to genesis on April 2 and is anticipated to launch between the 13th and 16th of April.
Cross-chain bridges and interoperability protocols soar
Platforms that provide a decrease price setting to that of Ethereum, together with layer 2 options and separate blockchain networks, have obtained further consideration over the previous two months because of record-breaking fuel prices.
Because the token that powers transactions on the BSC, Binance Coin (BNB) has seen its worth surge sufficient to vault the token into the highest Three by market capitalization, which now fluctuates round $53.55 billion.
Polygon (MATIC) has additionally risen in stature to change into one of many chosen layer 2 protocols for the Ethereum community following its pivot to change into the “Polkadot on Ethereum” and assist stem the tide of tasks and liquidity leaving the community.
With many widespread unicorn-level tasks already operational on the Polygon protocol, together with Aave (AAVE) and SushiSwap (SUSHI), MATIC seems well-positioned to proceed its gallop greater as a rising unicorn star….