The month of February was filled with investor hopes that an earlier-than-expected Federal Reserve policy pivot would occur, but that sentiment disappeared when inflation and employment data came in warmer than expected. While the beginning of the month was bullish for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) has retraced 60% of the move from its February low of around $21,500 to its peak of $25,250.
However, some narrative-driven rallies still caused a significant spike in the prices of some altcoins. The main narratives were Bitcoin NFTs, liquidity derivatives (LSDs) in Ethereum projects and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Let’s review the best performing coins of the month.
Stacks (STX)
Stacks gained a lot of attention when the hype about Ordinals started at the beginning of the month. Gamma, a Stacks-based project, has enabled the creation of Bitcoin Ordinals. However, full functionality in the trading and public minting of Ordinals in Stacks is still under development.
Meanwhile, Stacks faces competition from other blockchains like Ethereum, where developers are working to enable Bitcoin NFT trading on Ethereum. Yuga Labs, a leading NFT company, announced a 300-piece generative collection on Bitcoin on Feb. The auction (or minting) will likely be held on Ethereum due to the lack of infrastructure in Bitcoin. So, as Stacks delays its development to make ordinals accessible, more liquid chains are taking advantage of other solutions.
The fundamentals of the Stacks blockchain do not support the price increase, which suggests that it may be purely speculative given Stack’s growth potential. In the short term, the STX risks a pullback from the top of its trading range on the STX/USD and STX/BTC pairs. However, if the bulls manage to break the resistance at $1.02, there is a chance that the STX will try to reach all-time highs of $3.40.
Conflux (CFX)
The Conflux Network received a significant boost on Feb. 15 when the blockchain team announced a partnership with China’s second-largest telecom service, China Telecom. The telecom giant will provide blockchain-enabled mobile SIM cards to over 200 million users. The SIM card will store a public and private key, storing transferable user data in encrypted form.
Over the years, Conflux has gained a reputation as a Chinese enterprise blockchain with partners in Oreo China, McDonald’s China and the Chinese equivalent of Instagram Little Red Book. The blockchain also hosts a stablecoin pegged to RMB in approval with the Chinese government, which is highly encouraging given the authorities’ strict influence over state policies.
The Conflux Network implements proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mechanisms to increase scalability and decentralization. The network processes between 3,000 to 6,000 transactions per second, which is considerably faster than Ethereum’s 15 tps speed.
Although Conflux has established partnerships with leading Chinese brands, activity on the blockchain has yet to justify the 500% increase in CFX price in February. The data shows that the number of new Conflux addresses and NFTs minted on the platform has remained at the same level as in previous months, with no obvious increase.
This raises concerns about the sustainability of the hype around blockchain. Extensive partnerships in the blockchain space often fail due to a lack of integrations with the real world.
The CFX/USD vertical rally found resistance at the October 2021 high of $0.34. The psychological levels of $0.20 and $0.10 will act as support in case of a pullback.
Network SSV (SSV)
The SSV Network has benefited from the craze surrounding the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, which has fueled the rise of LSD tokens. SSV Network is an infrastructure provider that will likely provide backend support for LSD platforms to help decentralize the Ethereum network.
The project is working on the idea of Distributed Validator Technology (DVT), first proposed by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in the Ethereum 2.0 project. It enhances the security and decentralization of the Ethereum PoS network, allowing smaller participants and validators to use the SSV network and run Ethereum validation nodes.
On January 19, the team announced a $50 million ecosystem fund to support the development of the technology. The fund is backed by leading crypto venture capitalists including Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey, NGC, Everstake, GSR and SevenX.
The project gained a lot of attention as an official sponsor of the ETH Denver Hackathon 2023, where the project awarded grants to teams developing DVT technology. The SSV network shows significant potential for adoption by LSD protocols as the amount of Ether staked increases after the Shanghai upgrade.
Still, a significant part of the 160% gains in February could be due to a rotation of crowded LSD tokens towards other protocols that will benefit after the Shanghai upgrade.
Technically, the SSV token is in a price discovery mode, hitting new all-time highs. Therefore, the token is likely to continue rising, especially if major LSD platforms such as Lido or Rocket Pool announce the integration of the SSV network.
However, the token marked the psychological level of $50 on Feb. 27, which could yield some profit on the part of investors. On the downside, the token is likely to find support near its 2022 highs of $21.
SingularityNET (AGIX)
SingularityNET has benefited from continued hype in AI-related projects. The protocol’s marketplace invites users to buy AI services in its native cryptocurrency, AGIX. The token price has jumped nearly 12 times since the start of 2023, from $0.045 to a peak of $0.58.
The latest increase in SingularityNET can be attributed to its partnership with Cardano. The protocol currently resides on Ethereum to host rudimentary AI bots for image processing, language translations and statistical analysis. The migration to Cardano gave the protocol a big boost as it started offering ADA staking service and facilitating a decentralized bridge between Ethereum and Cardano.
The AGIX token has reversed from its all-time highs at $0.63, which may continue to provide resistance for the bulls. As the AI hype subsides, a correction towards the $0.33 and $0.15 support cannot be ruled out. However, if the buyers manage to push the price above the $0.63 resistance level, AGIX can move up significantly.
Graphics Protocol (GRT)
Similar to SingularityNET, The Graph protocol has also benefited from an increase in AI storytelling. The indexing protocol in Ethereum and IFPS is slowly transitioning to an independent Layer 1 network. It works through coordination between subgraph developers, who create and store an easily accessible database of blockchains, and decentralized application developers, who use this database to create products.
According to a recent report by Messari, The Graph revenue increased by 66% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter. The number of subgraphs on the network has consistently increased, with a 12% increase in quarterly revenue for network participants.
The GRT token has significant upside potential if network growth is sustained. Technically, the July 2022 breakout levels of $0.33 and the 2022 highs of $0.51 will be the likely targets for the bulls, with support at the psychological $0.1 level and the annual opening price of $0.056 in 2023.
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