Cryptocurrency prices remained on edge this week as the fear and greed index moved to the neutral point of 55. Bitcoin moved below $30,000, signaling that the industry is seeing mild demand. Ethereum, the second-biggest crypto in the world, also remained below $1,900. Still, several altcoins like Chainlink (LINK), Maker (MKR), and Synthetix (SNX).
SNX, LINK, SNX chart by TradingView
Chainlink roars after CCIP
Chainlink was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies this week. The coin jumped to a high of $8.50, the highest level since April this year. It jumped after Chainlink launched the Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). It launched the mainnet on several popular blockchains like Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon.
Developers can use the CCIP protocol to do several things, including cross-chain composability, liquidation, domain name service, NFTs, and gaming. This makes it one of the most important upgrades in the platform’s history.
1/ The Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has officially launched on Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon mainnets.#LinkTheWorld pic.twitter.com/SdLVyaapg3
— Chainlink (@chainlink) July 17, 2023
Most recently, Chainlink announced that it was working with Swift to bring its oracle networks to the traditional finance industry. This is a notable thing because Swift is a major organisation that handles trillions of dollars every day. Therefore, LINK price is rising as more investors assess the utility value of the network.
Synthetix (SNX) price rally continues
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Synthetix’s price continued rallying this week as investors cheered the growth of its ecosystem. One of the top crypto newsin its ecosystem was that the developers unveiled plans to launch a new simple decentralised perpetual futures exchange called Infinex. The exchange is seen as a game changer since it will onboard users using username and password, instead of a crypto wallet address.
The SNX token rose this week after the developers reiterated their plan to launch the exchange in the fourth quarter of this year. They will also launch the Perps V3 upgrade will come out in the same period. SNX price rose to a high of $3.28, the highest level since March 15.
Maker DAO’s MKR rises after reducing fees
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MKR, the native token for Maker DAO, soared to a high of $1,268, the highest level since May 30th last year. In all, the MKR token has soared by more than 153% from the lowest point this year.The token jumped after the network introduced changes to several vaults in the ecosystem as per the Executive Vote.
Precisely, they reduced the WSTETH stability fee to 3.44% while the RETH-A stability fee fell from 3.74% to 3.44%. Still, Maker’s DeFi TVL has been in a downward trend in the past few months. It dropped to 2.83 million ETH, the lowest level since 2021.
Attention Maker Vault users:
— Maker (@MakerDAO) July 17, 2023
Important changes for ETH, WSTETH, RETH, and WBTC vault types are on the way.
As per the latest Executive Vote, stability fees and liquidation ratios will be reduced.
The following changes will be deployed on July 18, 2023 at 19:44 UTC:
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