In the past quarter, the crypto market has experienced a test of both ice and fire. The continuous bear market in the early days led many people to be pessimistic about the market in 2023. However, the market has performed beyond expectations. On the one hand, there is a rapid rotation of sectors and hot spots. On the other hand, under the panic of global capital points, Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen a sharp rise, and ARB's heavy airdrop has ignited community sentiment.
The crypto market in April is entering a new hot outbreak period, with Shanghai upgrades, Hong Kong entering the convention and exhibition week, ARB ecology, Shibarium second layer, SocialFi, OP ecology...hot developments continue, and the momentum of sector rotation is still there. Let me sort it out and analyze it below.
Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade
The target date for the Ethereum mainnet upgrade in Shanghai is April 13, which is also the hottest event in the entire crypto market. What kind of Ethereum will we usher in after the Shanghai upgrade is worth paying attention to!
According to the Ethereum Foundation blog, Shapella is a combination of the execution layer name Shanghai and the consensus layer name Capella. Shapella network upgrades include: execution layer upgrade (Shanghai upgrade), consensus layer upgrade (Capella upgrade), and engine API changes.
Among the various improvement protocols implemented by the Shanghai Upgrade, EIP-4895 is undoubtedly the most popular. After the upgrade, the Ethereum ecosystem is expected to greatly enhance its vitality and reduce operating costs. Of course, after the Shanghai Upgrade, the withdrawals operation function of the beacon chain may indeed pose certain risks. For example, if a large number of staked digital assets are withdrawn at the same time, this may lead to an insufficient number of validators on the chain, thereby causing potential risks.
In addition, even if there is a withdrawal queuing mechanism, after Ethereum staking withdrawals are opened, whether there will be huge selling pressure in the secondary market, causing a spreading impact on the ecosystem, is also the focus of everyone's attention.
Hong Kong Concept and Web3 Week
In April, Hong Kong officially ushered in the unprecedentedly lively Crypto Expo Week, and it is expected that more than 100 Web3-themed activities will be held intensively. In addition to a large number of crypto stars and entrepreneurs, the participants include most of Hong Kong politicians and regulatory legislative departments. It is expected that this will, to some extent, promote Hong Kong's influence in the crypto world and bring more confidence to the industry.
As the date for issuing compliance licenses approaches, the dynamics and actions of exchanges, foundations and other institutions in Hong Kong will increase significantly, forming a large-scale pre-heating.
Of course, when Hong Kong is hot, Hong Kong concepts are also hot. It is also a focus of attention for a large number of Hong Kong concept tokens such as CFX, MDT, COCOS, ACH, SAND, etc. to move in the future.
ARB Ecosystem
ARB is the most popular and talked-about project at the moment. Previously, the ARB airdrop was hailed as the major event of the year, and the airdrop activity also set off a new round of community airdrop fever. After becoming popular, ARB was caught up in the controversy of "selling tokens without governance process" a week ago and encountered a lot of condemnation.
ARB is the largest Layer2 chain in the Ethereum network and a popular Layer2 chain that can feed back to Ethereum. There are many popular projects in the ARB ecosystem. In addition to Uniswap and AAVE migrated from Ethereum, there are also GMX, Treasure DAO, Radiant and Camelot.
After the airdrop craze, ARB and its ecosystem are entering a critical development period. The development momentum of Ethereum Layer2 solutions remains strong, and ARB's performance is still worthy of attention.
ZKS Ecosystem
ZKS is a highly anticipated interactive airdrop project after ARB, and the community has high expectations. The zkSync Era mainnet was officially opened to the public on March 24, 2023. As of the latest, zkSync Era TVL has exceeded 100 million US dollars, more than 250,000 addresses have interacted with it, and more than 59,000 ETH have been transferred in.
Previously, the rise of OT has ignited everyone's expectations for the zkSync ecosystem. Next, the first batch of projects in the ZKS ecosystem will gradually arrive, including the derivatives trading platform Derivio, the lending agreement Nexon Finance, the popular DEX SyncSwap, and the Solidly forked DEX Velocore. ZKS and its ecosystem will be the core focus of the next community interactive airdrop.
SocialFi Section
For a long time, decentralized social networking has been a highly watched narrative. During the previous sector rotation, there were many discussions about the SocialFi hotspot.
In the first quarter, the SocialFi ecosystem represented by Lens has been in a period of rising popularity. After the continuous rotation of sectors, SocialFi in April is very likely to be another potential sector to take over. The hot spots of the SocialFi sector include RAC, Lens, Mirror, Phaver, CharityDao, RSS3, Mask Network, etc.
After ARB, SocialFi ecosystem airdrops also attracted much attention. Lens airdrops were even considered the next ARB. Other popular projects such as Phaver, a Share-to-Earn social app for iOS and Android, have clearly stated that they will have airdrops. CharityDao, a popular charity project in the Web3 world, supports users to raise funds through social media. CharityDao has conducted three rounds of early airdrops, and the fourth round of airdrops has attracted community attention. The subsequent treasury launch is a focus of attention.
Shibarium 2nd floor
Shibarium, which the SHIB army has been patiently waiting for, will enter a development period in the future. SHIB chief developer Shytoshi Kusama previously posted that the Layer 2 blockchain solution Shibarium Early Public Beta PUPPYNET has been launched.
Shibarium is a Layer 2 blockchain that allows anyone to build DApps, integrate them into real-life businesses and support projects. The network has low transaction costs, destroys SHIB in the process, and will be adjusted as Beta testing continues in the coming months. Shibarium Layer 2 will greatly improve the SHIB ecosystem.
Conclusion: The crypto ecosystem in April is full of highlights, which may become the most critical turning point of the year. Next, let us wait and see what market trends will be intertwined with the crypto industry's ecological hot spots, technical exploration, hot concepts, key airdrops and community attention!
