The crypto markets held steady on Tuesday morning, with the global market cap rising another 1.93% to US$1.02tln.
Bitcoin maintained the US$22,000 support line while Ethereum continued to outpace the market with a 6.66% rise to US$1,527.
The rally comes following news of an official September 19 date for Ethereum’s long-awaited transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), a move which will significantly upscale the US$185bln cryptocurrency.
Nexo — the Bulgarian crypto lender which has signalled interest in acquiring bankrupt lender Vauld — was the day’s biggest riser, having added over 30% to its US$461mln market capitalisation. Cardano, Solana and Polygon all opened in the green, though Avalanche saw a slight 1.09% day-on-day decline.
The decentralised finance (DeFi) market continued to perform well, adding 5.17% in total value across all platforms, exceeding the US$84bln mark. Stand-out protocols included decentralised stablecoin exchange Curve at 8%, decentralised exchange (DEX) 1inch at 3.41%, and THORChain’s RUNE token, which rose by 1.85%.
Not all DeFi platforms were bullish though: SUSHI token suffered a 7.12% decline, while Compound Finance fell by 3.6%.
It was a good open to the day for play-to-earn (P2E) projects, with Decentraland, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity all posting positive results.