Crypto Upvotes experts evaluated the effectiveness of airdrop Arbitrum and told how ARB token exchange price may develop in future

After the sensational airdrop project Arbitrum (March 23), 1 billion ARB tokens were released to market. Which were distributed among 625 thousand addresses. The total market capitalization of token stabilized at $1.63 billion.

At the time of publication, the price of ARB is at $1.28. Having analyzed the experience of projects such as Optimism, Aptos and Blur, whose tokens have also entered the market as part of large-scale airdrops. Our experts told us how the rate of ARB token may behave in the future.

The general bullish trend continues

After listing on exchanges, tokens of projects with airdrops tend to exhibit high volatility. Therefore, there can be both sharp price jumps and drawdowns of tens of percent all at once. Overall, ARB is in line with the “most positive trend.” That’s because the token price didn’t collapse after the start of trading on Bybit, Kucoin, MXC, Huobi, Okex. And then on Binance, although it experienced serious fluctuations. On Huobi, the exchange rate was as high as $11 per token on listing day, though the price went down almost immediately.

First of all, such volatility is due to the fact that those who received ARB tokens during the Airdrop. And then decided to lock in profits immediately after listing, which put pressure on exchange rates. On another note, our Crypto Upvotes experts observed that a significant number of sell orders were placed well in excess of the market price, pushing the rate higher.

If you compare listing of ARB on exchanges with other large tokens with airdrop. The similarity can be seen in the high volatility at the start of trading. The major difference is the “general bullish sentiment” of investors regarding ARB. And this is favored by such data as the growth of total blocked value (TVL) of Arbitrum network by a quarter during the last week. According to DefiLlama, Arbitrum’s TVL stands at $2.18 billion, while its closest competitor, Optimism, has $907 million of locked-in capital in its ecosystem.

Predicting the price of Arbitrum after trading starts is difficult

Starting ARB trading was marked by the fact that on some exchanges trading started a little later than announced. And also the fact that the influx of users led to disruptions in the resources for receiving tokens and on exchanges. Listing of Arbitrum on exchanges was immediately accompanied by high trading volumes, which further attracted crypto-traders. This gives big players an opportunity to form positions without much damage to the average purchase price.

Our experts note that it is difficult to predict the further development of ARB price. Because the price levels have not been fully formed yet. In the short term it is necessary to focus on the level of $1, as it will be a psychological support. In case of a positive scenario, we should be attentive at the price level of $1.5. If this level of resistance is exceeded, the price is likely to quickly approach $2.

Why airdrop Arbitrum became successful

The effectiveness of an Airdrop depends directly on marketing work that the project has done before distributing these tokens. First, the project needs to develop their community, to attract new capital. And constantly pointing to the possibility of a profitable airdrop for active participants. Under such conditions, you can talk about success – even if some of the users in the community decide to sell ARB tokens.

The effectiveness of such a model is good for the popularity a project – it’s an excellent marketing move, our experts say. In the case of Arbitrum, the popular topic media “literally bursting with news”. Because people like to get something for free, especially if it will bring good profits in the future.

However, most traders will fix some part of the received tokens, e.g. 20-30%. The rest will go into stacking or long-term storage waiting for price growth if the project really deserves it. According to experience of our experts, even now we can see that large participants of crypto market actively accumulate ARB in their wallets.

Launching your own crypto project and your own token can be a complicated process. But our experts will tell you what steps you need to take to get the results you want.

Determine the purpose of your token: Before creating a token, you need to determine its purpose. Will it be used as a utility token or security token? Will it be used as a means of payment or as a store of value?

Choose a blockchain platform: You will need to choose a blockchain platform to host your token. The most popular platforms are Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana.

Create a whitepaper: Your whitepaper should outline the purpose of your token, its technical specifications, and the use cases for it. It should also include information on the token distribution and any fundraising events.

Choose a token standard: You will need to choose a token standard such as ERC-20, BEP-20, or SPL. These standards dictate the rules for the token’s behavior and functionality.

Develop a Smart Contract and Deploy: Once you have decided on the token standard, you will need to develop a smart contract that defines the token’s behavior on the blockchain. The smart contract code contains the rules and logic of the token, including the token supply, distribution, and transaction rules.

Deploying a smart contract can be a complex process, and it is important to have a good understanding of the underlying technology and best practices. It is recommended to seek guidance from experts in the field and to thoroughly test your contract before deploying it to the mainnet. Our crypto marketing agency “Crypto Upvotes” can help you with smart contract development. This code will include the logic and rules for your token or application.

Marketing to attract investors: 

• Develop a Clear Value Proposition: Clearly articulate the value of your token and what problem it solves. This should be the foundation of your marketing message. 
• Build a Strong Community: Engage with potential investors and supporters on social media and community platforms. Provide regular updates on the progress of your project and encourage participation.
• Create Engaging Content: Produce high-quality content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, that educates and informs your target audience about your project and the benefits of your token.
• Participate in Crypto Events: Attend and participate in conferences and events in the crypto space to showcase your project and network with potential investors and partners.
• Leverage Paid Advertising: Consider using paid advertising companies such as Banner Ads on crypto platforms and MEDIA worldwide, Influencers Ads, or social media advertising such as Twitter promotion, Instagram promotion, Discord DMs to investors, WhatsApp DMs to investors, Telegram DMs to investors to reach a wider audience and increase awareness of your token.
• Engage with Crypto Media: Order press releases or sponsored articles in cryptocurrency-focused media to talk about your project and token. This can help create ads and increase visibility for your project.

Marketing and promotion for crypto project

Promoting and marketing crypto tokens requires a deep understanding of the target audience and crypto ecosystem. It is important to focus on building a strong community and providing regular updates on the progress of your project. Additionally, it is recommended to seek guidance from experts in the field to ensure that your marketing efforts are aligned with best practices. Our crypto marketing agency “Crypto Upvotes” can help you with this. We have many services to attract investors to your project. We can also draw up an individual marketing plan specifically for your project.

Launch the token: Once you have completed the previous steps, you can launch your token on the blockchain. Select the launchpad on which you will launch your token. You will need to distribute the tokens to investors, create a market for them, and comply with any regulatory requirements. 

Launching your own crypto-token requires technical knowledge and a lot of experience. It is recommended that you consult with experts in the field to ensure that you are following best practices and complying with all legal requirements. Our crypto marketing agency “Crypto Upvotes” will help with any problem. From developing a smart contract to listing a token on crypto exchanges. Contact our experts for the best advice and services.

FBI and Europol disabled infrastructure of the ChipMixer platform. Bitcoins worth €44 million, servers and 7TB of data were confiscated

The FBI, Europol and law enforcement agencies of several European countries stopped the operation of the cryptocurrency mixing service ChipMixer. They also confiscated €44 million worth of Bitcoins, the EU police service said. German and U.S. authorities, supported by intelligence agencies in Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, have disabled platform infrastructure.

Four servers, 7TB of data and 1.9 thousand BTC (€44.2 million) were confiscated during the operation. The platform’s website is also no longer operational, and when you go to it, it is reported that the domain was seized by the FBI by order of a U.S. court.

Cryptomixers are blockchain services that increase the confidentiality of transactions by hiding the connection between the source and the recipient of the tokens.

According to Europol, ChipMixer, a service created in mid-2017 to anonymize BTC flows, offered complete anonymity to its customers. Law enforcement authorities speculate that the cryptomixer was involved in money laundering and allowed users to hide traces of crimes. Such as drug or weapons trafficking, ransomware attacks and fraud. The platform is believed to have laundered 152,000 BTC (about €2.73 billion).

Cryptomixing services are under close scrutiny by intelligence agencies. This is because they are often used by fraudsters, and many hackers send stolen digital assets to them after hacks to cover their tracks.

Our experts note that in August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash, the most famous cryptomixer. Which works on the Ethereum blockchain. For conducting money laundering operations through it by hackers from North Korea.

Also in August, alleged Tornado Cash developer Alexei Pertsev was arrested. He is still in custody awaiting trial. Cryptomixer itself was not shut down and continues to operate.

The decision to stop working with NFT on social networks was made by Meta. This was done in order to focus on other ways to support content creators and their audiences

Meta has decided to stop supporting NFT in its social networks Facebook and Instagram. This was announced by Stefan Kasriel, the head of commercial and financial technologies department of Meta.

NFT support was added to the social network Meta 6 months ago. At the end of August 2022, company announced the introduction of digital tokens in Facebook and Instagram. And since then, users have been able to upload tokens to both social networks. It was necessary to connect a cryptocurrency wallet to an account on either one. Meta used Polygon blockchain to integrate NFT.

According to Kasriel, the decision to stop supporting NFT was made to focus on other technologies. Which would allow content creators to monetize their content and communicate with their audiences.

The company’s priorities are now to create and implement payment tools on its platform, messenger and short video service Reels. According to Kasriel, Meta will also continue to develop its payment service, Meta Pay.

Interest in NFT from other major world companies grows

Our experts point out that at the same time, large global companies continue to register trademarks related to NFT. Auto giant Nissan filed four trademark applications March 7 for the Infiniti, Nismo and Nissan brands, according to Mike Condudis, a licensed attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Nissan’s new trademarks will be related to virtual apparel, automobiles and other NFTs. In addition, the document mentions the creation of a platform for issuing and trading digital tokens. As well as marketing services in the metaverse and the creation of specialized software for working with NFT.

Cryptocurrency platforms providing liquid staking services came in second place in DeFi sector by volume of funds sent to them

Staking platforms came in second in terms of funds in the DeFi sector, overtaking lending services. According to DeFi platform Llama, the volume of total blocked value (TVL). Liquid staking platforms exceeded $14 billion, while TVL in cryptocurrency lending protocols is about $13.7 billion.

Liquid staking, allows users to earn from Ethereum stacking without having to make a mandatory deposit of 32 ETH. Users can send any amount of ETH or other Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrency coins to staking. Users will receive tokenized versions of their assets in return. For example, in form of stETH token in a 1:1 ratio. The latter can be used in parallel to generate additional income in DeFi-protocols. At the same time, you will not lose earnings from staking assets in the liquid staking service.

Decentralized exchanges (DEX) lead in terms of funds on DeFi-platforms. TVL on them is $19.3 billion. However, this category includes 716 services. While the staking services whose data is collected by the analytics platform are 71.

Over the last month, TVL of just one stacking protocol Lido increased by $1 billion to $9.3 billion, while this figure for leading DEX is almost twice as low: Curve has $4.9 billion, Uniswap has $4.1 billion, and Pancakeswap has $2.5 billion.

On February 25, the Lido team noted that it recorded the largest daily inflow of funds amounting to more than 150,000 ETH (about $245 million). According to crypto analyst Lookonchain, these funds were contributed by Tron blockchain founder and Huobi exchange chief Justin Sun.

On February 27, cryptoprotocol specialists from 0xScope noted that Sun continues to contribute funds to stake on Lido. Additionally, he sent another 88,000 ETH (about $144 million) there.

Reasons for growth

Our experts point out that the influx of funds into liquid staking protocols is caused by the fact that the Ethereum network is scheduled to start updating Shanghai in April 2023. Which will allow to withdraw previously blocked funds in ETH from staking. After it was revealed in January that developers had decided to focus on this particular upgrade feature, staking platform token rates soared by dozens percent and continue to rise.

Also, the growth in popularity of DeFi-protocols from this category was promoted by rumors about the possible ban on staking in USA. There has been no official confirmation of this yet. But the major U.S. exchange Kraken in early February closed stakng for U.S. customers at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Payments in USDC stablecoins can be made not only in the Web3 space. But also in real merchant services that accept Mastercard cards for online payment

Mastercard Payment System and its Web3 protocol Immersve will allow users to make cryptocurrency payments in physical and digital worlds. Including decentralized services and metaverse, Cointelegraph reported. Settlements will take place in USD Coin Stablecoins (USDC), which are converted to fiat currency for transactions in a Mastercard system.

Transfers can be made at actual merchant services that accept online payment cards issued by Mastercard. Users will be able to access services using their cryptocurrencies. Online payments will be made after confirming the transaction with private keys.

Payments will be made without third-party mediation. Mastercard and Immersve will use decentralized protocols for payments.

Moreover, DeFi-projects and cryptocurrencies will be able to integrate with API interfaces. As well as Immersve smart contracts for transactions wherever Master card is accepted.

Our experts note that payment systems are increasingly interested in cryptocurrency transactions. Earlier this month, for example, Visa conducted a trial run of stablecoin payments in SWIFT. Rival Master card is currently working to incorporate into its system the ability to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat money and back.

Attack of American regulators on BUSD and what consequences will face Binance from impossibility to issue its own stablecoin. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has informed Paxos Trust that it plans to sue it for violating investor protection laws. According to the regulator, Binance USD (BUSD), the third most capitalized stablecoin, is the third-largest. This digital asset, which Paxos issues, is an unregistered security. It is not yet known whether the SEC notice specifically relates to the issuance of BUSD, its listing on exchanges, or both.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has since ordered Paxos to cease issuing new BUSD tokens altogether. In listing the consequences of stopping the issuance of BUSD, Changpeng Zhao, head of the Binance exchange, admitted. That capitalization of this asset will continue to decline and investors will start to switch to other stablecoins.

Risks to other stablecoins are high

News about banning issue of stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) had a negative impact on the market. But not as much as from the collapsed FTX exchange. The SEC is investigating the Binance exchange. So Paxos is also in target of the regulator and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

The regulator considers BUSD to be an unregistered security. But with that logic, other stablecoins, USDT and USDC, would also be at risk. Most likely, someone wants to get control of Binance. And creating problems not only for the leading exchange, but also for the whole industry. The risks to other Stablecoins are high.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said he will continue to support BUSD for the foreseeable future. The company predicts that customers will switch to other stablecoins. Therefore, the platform will make changes accordingly.

U.S. regulators declare war on stabelcoins

There are no frontiers for U.S. regulators. All it takes is one American citizen using some platform or protocol. For US regulators to consider these protocols as belonging to their jurisdiction. Attack on stablecoin issuers was expected, the SEC has been saying for years that these companies are not transparent enough. And they don’t comply with U.S. banking laws, don’t have the necessary reserves and so on. If SEC attacked a BUSD issuer, it would be wise to get ready for attacks on other stablecoins, especially USDT and USDC. Given USDT’s majority share of stablecoin market. An attack on them is fraught with a serious crisis in cryptocurrency market and subsequent collapse of all coins without exception.

Our experts note that U.S. regulators have openly declared war on at least Binance itself. In a broader sense, this is a continuation of the fight against stablecoins as an element of opposition to the classical financial system on behalf of the Web 3.0 sphere.

This is a global and extremely important event. It should be taken carefully, and you should read the contents of the documents published by the NYDFS regulator about the ban on continuing to issue BUSD. In fact, it means banning BUSD, but it may be followed by a series of lawsuits.

Our experts are sure that Binance was ready for that. And its management will find a legal and reasonable way out of this situation. Further wide usage of BUSD is out of the question. Perhaps, there will be some alternative or solution. The other major exchanges that issue stablecoins should be prepared for an attack and take some action. In fact, war has been declared on all of them.

Dubai bans coins that interfere with transaction tracking, such as Monero and Zcash. Crypto-Upbotes expert review

Dubai (one of the UAE emirates) has banned the issuance and transactions of anonymous cryptocurrencies. The restriction was imposed by a new set of rules on virtual assets and related activities published by the emirate’s regulator, The Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Authorities in various countries have a negative attitude towards anonymous cryptocurrencies and take various measures to restrict their use. Because with the emergence of such coins, the number of fraudulent attacks and financial fraud with cryptocurrencies has increased significantly. Attackers often use these tokens to hide the movement of stolen funds.

A set of rules adopted by the Dubai regulator bans cryptocurrencies that “enhance anonymity,” such as Monero, Dash and Zcash. According to the document, this is a type of virtual asset that prevents transactions from being tracked or records of ownership through public blockchains, and for which the VASP (cryptoservice provider) has no technology or mechanisms to track them or determine ownership of them.

The issuance of anonymity-enhancing cryptocurrencies and all activities related to them are prohibited in the emirate, the new law says.

The new rules also establish mandatory licensing for cryptocurrency companies operating in this region. They detail the procedure for issuing, storing and exchanging cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity standards, and requirements for various activities related to digital assets.

Our experts note that after the introduction of compulsory licensing of cryptocurrency-related activities in Dubai. The regulator has already received hundreds of new license applications. To cope with the flood of applications, VARA plans to quadruple its staff over the next few months.

New trend on the crypto market or how popular AI sphere among investors affects the prices of cryptocurrencies

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot with a billion-dollar investment from Microsoft. In January of this year, it gained 100 million users, becoming the fastest-growing Internet app in history.

In early 2023, digital currencies and artificial intelligence spawned a single breakthrough in the crypto-asset market. And the domestic tokens of AI-related development projects continue to rise in value.

Justin Sun, head of the Huobi exchange and creator of the Tron (TRX) coin, posted on Twitter the idea of a mechanism to create an “AI-centric decentralized payment system” for ChatGPT.

According to his idea, such an environment would create a decentralized payment system. It would thus be secure, reliable, tamper-proof, censor-proof, and able to support AI. This will build a new decentralized, intelligent financial ecosystem.

Last week, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, announced that it would begin charging a $20 monthly subscription to cover computing costs. Until then, the chatbot, launched in late November, had remained free.

Tokens that associate themselves with AI are rising in value

In general, the coins of blockchain projects, which in one way or another involve artificial intelligence. Since the beginning of this year have been the group of the most successful crypto-assets in terms of investment.

Leader in terms of market capitalization in this category, according to CoinGecko, is SingularityNET project coin (AGIX). In the past week alone, this asset rose in value almost 2.5 times, reaching 45 cents. Although it was trading at 7 cents less than a month ago. The developers of the service position it as “the first decentralized artificial intelligence marketplace”. Which is based on Cardano blockchain.

Tokens from the other most capitalized AI projects also continue to rise. This is happening even despite the short-term decline in Bitcoin and the crypto market as a whole. Fetch.ai (FET), a coin platform with machine learning algorithms, gained more than 65% in the past month. And the OCEAN token, used by the Ocean Protocol “data economy” project, has more than doubled since the beginning of January.

Our experts note that projects with relatively low market capitalization are also included in the growth trends. Due to their lower liquidity, large purchases of their tokens inevitably lead to strong price hikes. Thus, the rate of AIRI token belonging to the barely known aiRight platform increased several times in just one day. Its developers declare the use of AI in the creation of NFT. A similar scenario was observed with the IMGNAI token, created to pay for the creation of anime-style images by a neural network project under the unsophisticated name of Image Generation AI.

Success of AI caused the growth of shares not only in crypto companies

Success at ChatGPT has spurred investor interest in AI-based technologies, not just in the crypto market. Last month, the share price of struggling media company Buzzfeed surged. This came after it announced plans to use artificial intelligence to create content. Similarly, shares of little-known public companies soared after they added the word Blockchain to their name. This was at peak cryptocurrency markets in early 2018 and late 2021.

That said, the hype around AI is borne out by the numbers. In January, JPMorgan Bank conducted its annual survey of professional traders about upcoming trends in electronic trading. It surveyed 835 industry representatives from 60 regions around the world.

AI, according to the survey, outperforms all other major categories. For its 53% citation rate, it far outpaces API integration (14%) and blockchain (12%). Only 8% of respondents confirmed that they trade cryptoassets.

Trading volume on NFT marketplaces is approaching its peak. And news surrounding the largest collections keeps investors hype going

The NFT market is recovering from the disappointing end of 2022. According to a new report from the DappRadar platform, there was a sharp increase in both prices and the number of NFT units sold on marketplaces at the beginning of the year.

There were 9.2 million transactions in January, a 37% increase over December. This was the highest marketplace volume in six months. Trading volume in dollars also rose, reaching $946 million, up 38% from December. And it’s the highest since the market peaked at $1 billion last June.

Importantly, DappRadar excludes data from transactions falling under any suspicion of manipulation in its calculations. The most popular method is so-called “wash trading”. When owner from his own wallets makes fake sales of NFT, artificially inflating its price or imitating the appearance of excitement for a little-known project.

Most popular NFT collections

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) collections remain the ” Blue Chip” of NFT market. And the Yuga Labs behind them retains its status as one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. In January, a new collection of NFT company products called Sewer Pass. Which serve as keys to the blockchain game Dookey Dash, accounted for 34.3% of all transactions in January’s marketplace. The passes were issued to owners of images from the BAYC and MAYC collections. And their daily turnover on the secondary market after the launch exceeded $27 million.

Other famous collections also had high-profile infomercials in January. Doodles creators acquired Emmy-nominated animation studio Golden Wolf. And PROOF, the company behind Moonbirds collection, contracted with Hollywood’s United Talent Agency to promote the brand outside of the Web 3.0 sphere in traditional advertising and TV shows. The average image price from Doodles was up 1.82% in January and Moonbirds was up 3.43%, according to NFT Price Floor.

Overall, collections in the top 10 by market capitalization survived the market downturn best. They also had the top 10 sales in January, according to a DappRadar report. They were also the first to recover from last year’s market decline. For example, the Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Collections Index showed a 28.6% increase in prices from December. However, it is still nearly 65% lower than in January 2021.

Main NFT marketplaces

Marketplace sites oriented toward collectors are gradually wresting market share from those whose focus is primarily on traders and speculators. Blur, which seeks to minimize commissions for art creators. They accounted for 20% of the market for the third month in a row. In terms of turnover, the site is second only to OpenSea, with X2Y2 and Magic Eden in third and fourth place, respectively.

PFP-collections (NFT-collections with profile images) remain the most successful in terms of sales on the platforms. This is due to their high liquidity and hype in social networks. OpenSea remains the largest site in terms of trading volume, ($495 million in January). Platform received about $12.3 million of income from commissions from the trades and placement of NFT by their creators.

Our experts note that despite encouraging crypto market results. NFT platform Coinbase, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it is suspending new collections listings. However, company representatives stressed that this does not mean the closure of its platform.

Coinbase’s NFT platform was not one of the top six trading platforms. And its trading volume, according to Dune Analytics, is only $7.3 million for its entire existence, roughly equivalent to 7% of OpenSea’s January results.

Market trends

In January, sales increased at all significant blockchains. For example, NFT sales on the Ethereum blockchain jumped from nearly $558 million in December to more than $772 million in January. And on Solana – respectively, from $69.5 million to $86 million. The largest NFT collection on Solana blockchain, called “DeGods,” showed a 113% increase in trading volumes in January. This was despite the fact that at the end of December its authors announced plans to migrate to Polygon.

NFT sales on Polygon were up 157% from December, reaching 4.5 million units. This was greatly aided by the launch of Donald Trump’s NFT collection, which has seen sales of $12.1 million since its launch.
As well as popularity of NFT passes to the “Mocaverse” meta universes from Animoca Labs and The Sandbox. Polygon token (MATIC) also had a successful start to 2023, rising 72% to $1.23 since Jan. 1.

Lending platforms that allow you to borrow crypto assets against NFT are also showing growth. NFTfi hit record highs in January with $300 million in turnover, 4,399 loans and 907 active borrowers and lenders. According to Dune Analytics, NFTfi and BendDAO together account for about 70% of the NFT lending market.

Despite the skeptical sentiment of the past six months. NFT market is starting to come to life, although its trading volumes as a whole have clearly correlated with the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.