Cryptocurrencies To Watch: Week of March 13

Keep an Eye on These Coins

The cryptocurrency market has had a tumultuous few days; Bitcoin and other digital assets took a tumble before recovering late in the week to recoup some of their losses.  

Three U.S. bank shutdowns in recent days, SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Capital Corp., and Signature Bank, have triggered more stress that's also affected the crypto arena, specifically stablecoins. Despite this uncertain period, some crypto assets have managed to beat the average performance trend.

This week, we examine Kava (KAVA), UNUS SED LEO (LEO), Aptos (APT), BNB (BNB), and Pax Gold (PAXG). In selecting these assets, we have considered several factors, including positive technical developments, significant news events, and noticeable changes in price.

Kava (KAVA)

The price of KAVA, the token of Kava, a Web3-focused crypto project, surged about 30%, likely because of newly launched validator incentives. This program gives incentives for becoming a validator—an entity responsible for verifying transactions on a blockchain—on the Akash Network.

The price rise followed news that the creators of Akash pledged 2.5 million AKT, that project's native token, to Kava’s Strategic Vault. KAVA started last week at about 78 cents and is now priced at around $1 (see chart below).

UNUS SED LEO (LEO)

Bitfinex’s UNUS SED LEO token experienced an increase of about 15% amid news that multiple new tokens have been listed on Bitfinex. Last week, LEO was valued at $3.35 and is now hovering at around $3.45 (see chart below).

Aptos (APT)

The Aptos (APT) project's token price advanced by more than 10% after the launch of an NFT bridge on decentralized, universal blockchain message protocol Wormhole that allows users to transfer NFTs between Aptos Network and other supported chains around the same time as the introduction of Primary Names on Aptos. Primary Names are website address extensions that end in .apt.

One more reason could be a report from crypto analytics firm Messari saying that Aptos had the fastest time to finality (TTF). This metric determines how long it takes for a transaction to be considered final on a blockchain. Aptos and Avalanche are TTF winners among live blockchains, according to Messari. APT was valued at $11.14 last week and now stands at around $11.65 (see chart below).

BNB (BNB)

BNB's market cap increased by more than 5% last week, to $47.5 billion from $44.9 billion. The gain came as crypto exchange Binance's CEO. Changpeng Zhao. said his exchange had converted the remainder of its $1 billion Industry Recovery Initiative funds to other assets, including BNB, BTC, and ETH. In late 2022, Binance said it would commit $1 billion to start the initiative to invest in digital asset companies.

BNB was priced at $286 seven days ago and is now valued at around $297.70 (see chart below).

PAX Gold (PAXG)

The market cap of PAX Gold (PAXG) increased by more than 5%, to $526 million from $500.7 million in the latest week. The token is asset-backed, meaning one token represents one fine troy ounce of a London Good Delivery gold bar.

One possible reason for the market cap increase could be that investors are turning to more traditional assets (even though tokenized) at a time when global markets are uncertain. PAXG started last week at $1,851 and is now priced at around $1,938 (see chart below).

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