Cryptocurrency Market Catalysts to Watch in April
April will be an important month for cryptocurrency.Original Title: “Catalysts to watch in April”
Author: The DeFi Investor
Translation: 深潮 TechFlow
Today's article includes the following content:
- Major cryptocurrency catalysts in April
- On-chain Alpha for this week
- Latest developments in DeFi
Major cryptocurrency catalysts in April
April will be an important month for cryptocurrencies.
The highly anticipated Bitcoin halving is about to occur.
Not only that, but several well-known projects are set to release their tokens or undergo significant upgrades.
Here are four important cryptocurrency events to watch for next month:
1. Bitcoin Halving
The next Bitcoin halving is expected to occur in about 22 days.
Once effective, it will reduce the number of new Bitcoins in circulation by 50%.
However, it is worth noting that the current inflation rate of Bitcoin is already very low (less than 2% per year).
Therefore, from a fundamental perspective, I don't think the halving is a big deal. But from a psychological perspective, it is a different story.
Many people know that historically, Bitcoin has performed exceptionally well in the months following each halving event. Thus, they are likely to buy crypto assets again soon, hoping history will repeat itself.
In addition, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission is expected to approve the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong in the second quarter.
All these events pave the way for Bitcoin.
2. Stacks Nakamoto Upgrade
Stacks is a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution that enhances smart contracts and dApps.
The Nakamoto upgrade for Stacks has been in development for a long time and seems set to launch on the mainnet next month.
The Nakamoto upgrade will:
- Allow the use of sBTC (a BTC-pegged asset) in DeFi on Stacks
- Reduce the network block time from 10 minutes to a few seconds
- Increase the scalability of Stack L2
- This upgrade could trigger a new wave of Bitcoin L2 projects.
Stacks token $STX can also be seen as a beta version of Bitcoin.
Stacks is the most popular project built on Bitcoin to date.
3. Solana Airdrop Season
Last year, the large-scale airdrop announced by Jito revitalized the Solana ecosystem. In April, several other well-known Solana dApps will launch their tokens:
- Parcl
- Drift Protocol
- Kamino
All of these protocols will conduct airdrops.
This list only includes airdrops that have been officially confirmed, so there may actually be some unannounced ones.
Large-scale airdrops can have a tremendous positive impact on the ecosystem as they inject more liquidity into it. For example, here’s what happened to $SOL after the announcement of $JTO in November 2023:
Considering that SOL's market cap is now over $80 billion, I think it is unrealistic to expect SOL to grow 2-3 times again in the short term.
However, Solana is likely to benefit greatly from these ecosystem airdrops, just like in the past.
4. Eigenlayer Mainnet Launch + Potential Token Launch
The Eigenlayer token may launch in late April or early May.
There are several reasons for this:
- The Eigenlayer mainnet is confirmed to launch in the coming weeks (this could be the best time for Eigenlayer to also launch its token)
- Many early investors have indicated that the token will be released in late April or early May
- Additionally, April may also be the first month for the launch of Eigenlayer's Active Validation Service (AVS). Altlayer is a popular example of an AVS, which is a decentralized protocol for Rollups.
Protocols that choose to "rent" security from Ethereum through Eigenlayer are called AVS (which can include oracles, sidechains, L2s, etc.)
Many of these AVS projects may conduct airdrops for Eigenlayer users, similar to what Altlayer did when it launched its token a few months ago.
According to the Etherfi team, 8 AVS will soon start distributing points or token rewards to holders of EtherFi's eETH liquidity re-staking tokens.
On-chain Alpha
In the past 6 months, $86 billion of institutional funds have flowed into Bitcoin.
As shown in the above chart, institutional inflows into Bitcoin have surged since the launch of the spot Bitcoin ETF.
This makes me wonder what would happen to Ethereum's institutional adoption if a spot Ethereum ETF is also approved later this year.
It is becoming increasingly clear that institutions are beginning to recognize that cryptocurrencies are indispensable.
Latest Developments in DeFi
- CTFC reaffirms that ETH is a commodity, increasing the likelihood of approving a spot Ethereum ETF
- Ethena announces that the $ENA token will launch on April 2. 5% of the $ENA supply will be airdropped to early adopters
- Optimism allocated $3 billion in grants within the Optimism Collective & Superchain
- NEAR Protocol launched Chain Signatures, allowing NEAR accounts to sign transactions for any blockchain. The goal is to improve cross-chain user experience
- Circle launched its cross-chain transfer protocol on Solana. Now, USDC holders can transfer USDC across 8 chains with 1:1 capital efficiency
- Zero1 launched Keymaker, a marketplace related to decentralized AI. Keymaker aims to become the largest decentralized AI ecosystem
- Ankr launched Neura, a blockchain built for AI. Neura will leverage Bitcoin's security through Babylon to protect its network
- Polygon launched dApp Launchpad, a portal for developers to enter the Polygon ecosystem. The goal of dApp Launchpad is to improve the developer experience on Polygon
- Angle Protocol launched USDA, a yield-bearing and RWA-backed dollar stablecoin. USDA will have several anti-peg mechanisms and the same liquidity as USDC
- PancakeSwap announced the launch of MancakeSwap, PancakeSwap's first affiliated DEX on the Mantle network. Mancake will pay 60% of its revenue to PancakeSwap
- Liquity showcased key features of Liquity V2, allowing users to set interest rates, aimed at creating an effective market between borrowers and stablecoin holders
- EtherFi released Points Season 2. The second quarter allocation is 5% of the total ETHFI supply and will end on June 30
- Munchables, a popular protocol on Blast L2, suffered a $63 million hack. Fortunately, the hacker has returned the funds.
