WEEKLY RECAP
June 17, 2023

In a bid for comeback, Ethereum explores uncharted territory

AMB Crypto

Despite recent setbacks, Ethereum [ETH] has the potential to stage a comeback, driven by its flourishing gaming sector. The FOMC announcement negatively impacted Ethereum’s price in recent days, but a resurgence in interest within its network, particularly in gaming, could aid ETH in reclaiming its previous price levels.

Not just a game for Ethereum

Gaming protocols like The Sandbox [SAND], Axie Infinity [AXS], and their project tokens – $SAND, $ENJ, $CHZ, and $AXIE – have experienced substantial growth on the Ethereum network, as reported by Artemis.

This surge in gaming activity has led to an increase in unique active wallets for these dApps, thereby positively impacting transactions and overall network volume, which bodes well for Ethereum.

The spike in gaming activity has resulted in a rise in gas usage on the Ethereum network. Increasing gas usage is beneficial for Ethereum, as it demonstrates heightened network activity and demand for decentralized applications, thus strengthening the network’s utility and value proposition.

Source:Santiment

What is the NFT sector looking like?

Ethereum’s NFT sector has also witnessed increased interest, with a significant growth in the number of NFT trades occurring on the Ethereum network in recent days, as indicated by Santiment’s data.

However, the surge in NFT interest has been primarily driven by newly minted collections, while established blue-chip NFT collections like BAYC, MAYC, and Azuki have experienced a significant decline in volume and sales over the past month.

Source: Dapp Radar

Besides NFT enthusiasts, validators on the Ethereum network have also shown growing numbers. According to Staking Rewards data, the number of validators has increased by 7.09% in the last 30 days.

However, the revenue generated by these validators has experienced a substantial decline of 46.35% during the same period. The future optimism of stakers regarding ETH remains uncertain.

Source: Staking Reward

At press time, ETH was trading at $1669.23. The velocity of ETH transactions has also witnessed a decline, indicating a relative lack of ongoing ETH trades.

Traders’ sentiment towards ETH remained largely pessimistic at the time of writing, with 52.02% of all positions being short. This reflected a prevailing bearish sentiment amongst traders.

Source: Santiment

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