The crypto market has always been eventful, and the last year witnessed many events that we still see their results until today. However, many crypto enthusiasts believe 2023 will witness recovery for many cryptocurrencies and Web3 projects, which may eventually help recover the whole industry.
2023 started on a positive note, and many cryptos picked up a positive trend, but there have been some exciting turn points that are worth looking at. Today, we will review the top crypto movers that grabbed everyone’s attention and how they will influence the crypto market in 2023.
Crypto Market in 2023
Many would agree that 2022 was not the best time for the crypto market, where cryptos collapsed after a solid crypto bull run in 2021. A series of events took place, from the LUNA crash in May to the dramatic collapse of the FTX exchange. The crypto market cap ended 2022 with a massive 183% YTY loss, closing the year with a $800 billion capitalisation.
The LUNA crash was the first falling piece of the domino when crypto investors lost billions after the token price fell from $82 to $0.000001 within one week.
This crash is believed to be the catalyst for the industrial meltdown since many exchanges and brokerages lost their investments in LUNA, and a few announced bankruptcy.
The crypto market started 2023 strong. Bitcoin and many main cryptos were among the biggest crypto gainers, with Bitcoin gaining more than 50% of its value within the first quarter.
Much of Q1's success was also due to distinguished blockchain and web3 development, such as adopting a second layer to the blockchain to improve transaction speed and efficiency. Moreover, the NFT market was relatively active after launching the Blur marketplace, which set the competition with OpenSea.
The following quarter did not witness similar growth, but the market was steady with new introductions like the BRC-20 token protocol, new “meme coins”, and the prominent emergence of artificial intelligence.
With the high market unpredictability, these new developments caused many web3 projects, blockchains, and cryptocurrencies to fluctuate. In the following, we will look at the top gaining crypto today and what tokens have been unsuccessful.
Top Gainers
The crypto market recovery in 2023 saw some tokens and projects performing well throughout the first half of 2023. Let’s look at the top crypto gainers.
Lido DAO
Lido DAO is a decentralised autonomous organisation that provides liquidity in the crypto market using advanced Web 3.0 assets and dApps, and many consider it a tremendous Web3 investment in the long term.
Lido’s native token, LDO, saw a positive trend in 2023, and its price increased more than 100% in the first half. LDO’s price started at approximately $1.02 and reached $2.03 by the end of the first half, including a significant 226% growth within the first quarter.
This innovative platform enables users to access high liquidity using proof of stake by staking cryptos without having to lock up their assets or participate in developing any infrastructure.
The LDO platform supports main currencies like Ethereum, Polygon, and Polkadot, and it is considered among the coin market cap top gainers with a current market cap for LDO of $1.4 billion.
Conflux
A highly advanced decentralised platform that allows developers to launch dApps and other financial or technological applications using an open-source protocol. The ecosystem of Conflux provides an innovative environment for developers to deploy and manage their digital assets seamlessly.
Much of this project’s growth came from the sophisticated structure and verification protocols, besides the smart partnerships with crucial corporations, including Azure from Microsoft.
The project’s native token CFX grew more than 80% by the end of the H1. The token quickly became one of the CMC top gainers as its price increased from $0.022 to $0.2, including a notable surge to $0.4, recording a 1,700% price growth at the beginning of Q2.
Conflux is deemed by many a prospective Web3 project due to its cutting-edge technology, and it is expected to proceed in its successful stride.
Render Token
RenderToken is a unique project designed on the Ethereum blockchain that connects artists to mining machines using a distributed GPU network.
The RNDR rendering network uses a unique token protocol to share graphic processing capabilities supplied by miners for studios who need superb computing power to design animations, render motion graphics, and create special effects.
The idea of this project is that artists can pay to rent these graphic processing machines through node operators.
The platform’s native token RNDR experienced massive growth, making it one of the biggest crypto gainers today. The token’s price went from $0.4 to $2.02 by the end of H1, or more than 400%. However, the price peaked in May to $2.8.
The current market cap for RNDR is just north of $500 million, and this project is expected to continue its remarkable growth given the actual use case it provides to users and the innovative solutions it offers.
Solana
Solana blockchain is a famous platform for web3 developers and programmers to create, launch, and operate multiple decentralised applications and DeFi solutions.
The validating process in the Solana blockchain uses smart contracts and a combination validation method of proof of stake and proof of history, which is highly scalable across multiple financial use cases.
Solana’s native token, SOL, one of the best altcoins, is the central currency of the blockchain and the reward token for validating transactions on the Solana blockchain.
The network implements a solid deflationary mechanism that burns half the collected fees to decrease the supply and rewards the remaining half to the validating nods.
The thriving development of dApps and projects led to the valuation of the Solana network and token. The token price went up from $10 to $19 in the first six months of 2023, recording an impressive 90% price increase, which peaked in Q1 at $26, or 165% over its initial price.
Bitcoin
The first and most popular cryptocurrency and the biggest crypto gainers of all time have gone through a massive recovery in 2023, with $16,500 and surging to $31,000 by the half of 2023.
This growth has much to do with the restored confidence in the crypto market after the 2022 meltdown. Also, slowing the growth of the interest rates in the Federal Reserves and the favourable inflation reports fueled much of the boost in the Bitcoin price.
Also, the collapse of multiple US mid-sized banks led to an overall fear of the general banking system. Many started losing confidence in centralised financial institutions and chose decentralised banking, which also helped the recovery of Bitcoin.
Moreover, there is an ongoing debate about accepting Bitcoin spot ETF, but the Securities and Exchange Commission keeps rejecting those applications since BTC is not yet an SEC-sanctioned security.
However, if the time comes and Bitcoin gets spot ETF approval, the expectations are to drive Bitcoin price sky-high.
Top Losers
Alongside the well-performing cryptos, some crypto tokens were less successful, like the below five crypto losers.
PancakeSwap
The pancakeSwap was once a promising Web 3.0 platform launched in 2020, but it became one of the top losers in 2023. It is a DeFi application that uses the auto market-making (AMM) approach to provide liquidity for DeFi projects.
PancakeSwap operates on the Binance Smart Chain, providing liquidity by hosting multiple staking campaigns and yielding farms opportunities to earn money.
However, later updates on the platform coupled with token overselling caused the CAKE token to decrease steadily. Besides, the newly introduced staking campaigns that required a long lock-up period led to user dissatisfaction.
The new iteration of the platform, named V3, could not improve the price, and multiple stakers wanted out of the staking and farming campaigns.
Although PancakeSwap burnt tokens to pick up the price, CAKE's price went down from $3 in January 2023 to $1.3 in July 2023, despite a slight recovery in February up to $4, but the price eventually started declining.
SandBox
The Sandbox is a virtual gaming platform that allows players to build digital assets and trade them on a decentralised platform. This metaverse was among the first to offer creations and monetisation opportunities in the blockchain, hosting a whole Web3 creator’s economy in one place.
However, the 2022 crypto crash affected most metaverses that rely heavily on investors and funds. Most crypto investors feared the outcomes of the crash on their funding, and some stopped funding such projects.
Additionally, the recent SEC announcement to de-regulate some tokens had investors worried about the future price of these platforms. Eventually, some exchanges started delisting tokens from the platforms, and Sandbox began its free fall.
SAND, the native token of this metaverse, saw a slight recovery in Feb 2023, pushing the price up to $0.89. However, the price plummeted to $0.41 by the end of the 1st half.
TerraLuna Classic
After the massive crash of the Terra Luna in May 2022, a new rebranded token was created, TerraLuna Classic, with the same purpose as the previous one.
The new LUNC is a stablecoin fixed to Fiat money such as USD, South Korean Won, and other currencies to provide a stable payment solution over the blockchain.
However, like its predecessor, the new Luna Classic suffered an intense loss and soon became a loser coin. The collapse happened due to internal disputes between LUNA community members who could not agree on a new pegging policy.
The dispute led to one key member massively selling their holdings of LUNC, triggering a massive sellout for the token and dragging the price from $0.000204 down to $0.000086, or 57%, and it continues declining.
Kadena
Kadena is a decentralised platform that develops blockchains using proof of work and acyclic graph verification protocols. This hybrid blockchain innovation increases the scalability and throughput of crypto transactions.
Additionally, it aids in launching dApps and decentralised projects on any blockchain, thanks to Kadena's wide usability. Kadena develops its own smart contract language and runs its hybrid blockchain, Chainweb.
The project is promising and taps into sustainable development by promising to stay environmentally friendly and process more transactions without increasing the energy input.
However, this project was harshly hit in the 2022 crypto crash and still struggles to recover. KDA, Kadena’s native token, fell from $1.35 in January 2023 to $0.59 in July, and it keeps dropping.
Predictions are for the price to rise by the end of 2023. However, nothing seems to pick up the price again without significant buyers' interest.
ApeCoin
ApeCoin is a utility token built using the ERC-20 protocol in the Ethereum blockchain, and it is the central currency of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
ApeCoin serves as a governance token, giving its holders the right to vote in a decentralised community that surfaced in the NFT marketplace when the Bored Apes NFTs were released.
The token price was affected by the crypto market crash in 2022 and the declining prices of NFTs. In addition to market factors, a community dispute leading one investor to liquidate and sell their BYAC NFTs caused the prices to fall and triggered more NFT sales and falling prices.
APE token started 2023 with a slight price increase from $3.6 to $6.3 in one month. However, a free fall started until the end of H1 as the price reached $2.2, recording a drop of 65%.
Crypto Price Predictions 2023-2024
Many expect the crypto winter to have ended in 2022 and that primarily bullish sentiment will prevail in late 2023 and 2024. This optimism comes from the ongoing positive trend of major cryptocurrencies in the second half of 2023 and the declining trust in central banking systems.
Investors are hopeful that the SEC will approve the increasing demand to accept Bitcoin spot ETFs. This step can see more financial institutions and decentralised exchanges increasing the demand for Bitcoin, which can massively increase the Bitcoin price.
However, it is essential to monitor regulatory updates as the SEC and central governments are cracking down on major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance.
These regulations do not consider Bitcoin a tradable security and warn that actions can be taken against exchanges and platforms that trade unsanctioned securities.
Conclusion
After an eventful 2022, the crypto market saw light at the end of the tunnel with more developments in Web3 projects and DeFi platforms in 2023. There are, of course, some crypto gainers and losers, but some cryptocurrencies have started recovering and are leading the market’s positive trend.
Therefore, if you want to start crypto trading, read through the best cryptos this year or the last 24 hours, and take serious steps to become a crypto investor. Predictions are optimistic about 2024, so why not start now and reap your profits in the near future?
