Cryptocurrencies To Watch: Week of December 12

Keep an Eye on These Coins

While the cryptocurrency market has been holding at its current levels, there are some concerns brewing in the market. Most notably, the issue of Digital Currency Group’s (DCG) $2 billion debt acknowledged by its founder in late November and the discounted prices of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) have stoked investors’ fears. Still, there remain projects and cryptocurrencies that showcase potential.

This week we examine Axie Infinity (AXS), Stacks (STX), The Graph (GRT), EOS (EOS), and Internet Computer (ICP). In selecting these digital assets, we have considered several factors, including positive technical developments, significant news events, and noticeable changes in price.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

The AXS token of the popular crypto game Axie Infinity experienced the biggest increase in price this week, rising by 16%. The reason for the increase is the launch of the Axie Contributor initiative, selecting 700 individuals to participate in a pilot for the program. This is part of Axie's overall decentralization strategy.

The 700 contributors will have specific roles and play a part in fostering a governance community for Axie. Other decentralization initiatives on the table include an urban planning team and the decentralization of the community treasury. The AXS token is currently trading at around $7.69 (see chart below).

Stacks (STX)

Stacks' STX coin experienced a price jump of more than 40% as the crypto community continues to move toward decentralized platforms in the wake of the FTX collapse. The project on Dec. 6 also announced Stacks Accelerator, an accelerator program that will mentor teams.

Stacks is another project that is working on bringing decentralized applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network. STX is used to pay for transaction fees and deploy smart contracts. The coin is currently priced at around 29 cents (see chart below).

The Graph (GRT)

The GRT token for The Graph increased by about 15% while the project enjoys a surge in demand for its subgraphs—despite the crypto crash's impact. A subgraph extracts data from a blockchain, processes it, and stores it so that it can be easily queried via GraphQL. This demand peaked on Dec. 2 at 110,000 GRT.

The Graph is a blockchain infrastructure network that runs on top of other blockchains and allows users to access this data via the subgraphs. The GRT token is currently valued at around 6.7 cents (see chart below).

EOS (EOS)

The EOS (EOS) coin went up by about 12% as crypto exchange Binance announced deposits and withdrawals of Tether (USDT) on the EOS network. With the popular stablecoin now on the network, users can do much more in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).

EOS also plans other financial initiatives and is generally focused on expanding its DeFi presence. EOS has made it clear that it wants to pave the way into Web3 and, as such, has been launching several related initiatives. EOS was priced at around 98 cents at the time of publishing (see chart below).

Internet Computer (ICP)

The market cap of the Internet Computer (ICP) project increased nearly 10% thanks to an update from the Dfinity project. Dfinity contributed to the ICP project and announced a DAO Service Nervous System (SNS) called SNS-1. It was described as the most fully advanced DAO by Dfinity in a Dec. 1 tweet.

Dfinity also stated that “SNS-1 is only a mainnet test of SNS, a dress rehearsal for future SNSs.” Users also will be able to hold tokens like DOGE or SHIB natively on the Internet Computer Network, Dfinity tweeted on Dec. 9. The ICP token is currently priced at around $4.45 (see chart below).

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.