Cryptocurrencies To Watch: Week of November 21

Keep an Eye on These Coins

Barring a few exceptions, which we detail below, the crypto market continues to drop. Bitcoin briefly fell below the $16,000 mark, leaving investors anxious. The past few days have revealed more of the financial mismanagement at FTX, consequently keeping investors away from centralized exchanges.

This week we examine ApeCoin (APE), Lido DAO (LDO), THORChain (RUNE), Chiliz (CHZ), and Synthetix (SNX). In selecting these assets, we have considered several factors, including, but not limited to, positive technical developments, significant news events, and noticeable changes in price.

ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin (APE) has been one of the biggest gainers in the past seven days, with the APE token increasing by 16% and currently trading at around $2.99. There are no particular developments or the like that have spurred this improvement. The only plausible reason behind the jump in price is the fact that the project announced it did not have any assets on FTX. It revealed that its treasury assets were held in segregated custody accounts via Coinbase Custody.

Lido DAO (LDO)

The Lido DAO (LDO) token experienced a 12% increase in price over the course of the week. The likely reason behind the price bump is the fact that Lido’s staking yield increased by 10% annually. This is an all-time high since Ethereum’s Merge took place.

Lido DAO offers a liquid staking solution for the Ethereum network. Users stake their Ether to secure the network, for which they receive a cut of the transaction fees. The LDO token is a governance token that is also used to reward activities. LDO’s price is hovering at around $1.10.

THORChain (RUNE)

The market cap of THORChain (RUNE) jumped up by over 10% to around $395.2 million. THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to exchange assets across different networks. RUNE is the native token that has governance purposes. The token is currently priced at around $1.13.

The fact that FTX has spurred users to switch to decentralized alternatives is what is likely behind the growth. RUNE is also expected to launch on Trust Wallet in a few days.

Chiliz (CHZ)

The Chiliz (CHZ) token is one of the biggest gainers last week, with its price up by 10%. It’s clear why CHZ is so popular at the moment, as the FIFA World Cup is going on.

The fan-token-based project is lapping up the football mania, which has created tokens for clubs in the past. Furthermore, the project is setting aside a total of 38 million CHZ to give up to $10,000 to those who had CHZ on FTX. The CHZ token is currently priced at around $0.196.

Synthetix (SNX)

The Synthetix (SNX) token increased by 10% over the week, and the reasons are the same as for ThorChain. The FTX incident has spooked investors away from centralized exchanges to decentralized alternatives. SNX is currently trading at around $1.62.

Synthetix is a decentralized derivatives liquidity protocol that supports synthetic assets, including commodities such as precious metals, cryptocurrency indexes, fiat currencies, and other assets. The SNX token is used to create these synthetic assets, as they are used as collateral.

Investing in cryptocurrencies and other initial coin offerings (ICOs) is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or other ICOs. Because each individual’s situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date when this article was written, the author does not own the cryptocurrencies mentioned above.