The Asia-based medical services company Zuellig Pharma has developed a blockchain platform to improve its vaccine tracking service and prevent accidents that could compromise the public’s health.
eZTracker, Zuellig Pharma’s management system, guarantees the authenticity of vaccines, preventing the smuggling of medical products and the misappropriation of vaccines and supplies during their official distribution.
How eZTracker Can Prevent Vaccine Frauds
Zuellig Pharma’s eZTracker software guarantees transparency across the entire supply chain by recording the movements of each package from manufacture to delivery and administration.
Because it uses blockchain technology, the information is auditable in real-time, offers instant results, and does not require an intermediary. Also, it is censorship-resistant and immune to deliberate tampering with the reported data.
Daniel Laverick, vice-president and head of digital and data solutions at Zuellig Pharma, explained that in addition to knowing a product’s route and verifying its authenticity, users have the ability to reliably obtain a plethora of valuable information.
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“For products registered with eZTracker and depending on the needs of our pharma principals, patients can scan the 2D data matrix on the product packaging to verify key product information like expiry date, temperature, and provenance through its app powered by blockchain,”
Laverick believes Hong Kong could be a key market for positioning eZTracker as a healthcare system monitoring tool. Zuellig Pharma has a customer base of more than 1,000 healthcare facilities in 13 countries in Asia.
Blockchain Goes Beyond Crypto
The use of blockchain technology in the field of logistics and medicine is not new. As the industry matures, developers have launched proofs-of-concept and practical applications that give distributed ledger and blockchain technologies comparative advantages over approaches that rely on human operators or need to work with central servers. Some initiatives have proven to be succesful, and some have struggled a lot to prove their worth, but the use of blockchain technology diversifies among different industries as time marches on.
For example, in the medical field, MediLedger is a startup that is offering a service similar to eZTracker but to a much wider audience, guaranteeing the authenticity and validity of medicines coming from affiliated entities.
Similarly, during the COVID boom, several proposals for COVID passports using blockchain to guarantee information about the spread of the virus were explored, recording people’s movements and travels under supervision.
And there are already applications in food, energy distribution, and even the footwear industry —with the shoes company New Balance using Cardano to prevent counterfeit.
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Interoperability is shaping up to be one of the main themes for the cryptocurrency market in 2022 as projects across the ecosystem unveil integrations that make their networks Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible.
While this has been one of the long-term goals of the ecosystem as a step on the path to an interconnected network of protocols, it has also created a new decentralized finance (DeFi) market for multi-chain bridges and decentralized finance.
Here are three of the top volume cross-chain bridges that the cryptocurrency community uses to transfer assets between blockchain networks.
Multichain
Multichain (MULTI), formerly known as Anyswap, is a cross-chain router protocol that aims to become the go-to router for the emerging Web3 ecosystem.
According to data from Defi Llama, Multichain is the top-ranked cross-chain swap protocol by total value locked, with $8.95 billion currently locked on the platform.
Multichain total value locked. Source: Defi Llama
One of the main reasons for the high TVL on Multichain is the large number of blockchain networks supported by the protocol. Currently, 30 different chainscan be accessed on the network.
Blockchain protocols supported by Multichain. Source: Multichain
According to data provided by Multichain, the protocol has processed a total of $53.15 billion worth of volume since launching, with $19.08 billion of that being transacted in the past 30 days alone. There are currently 485,399 users that have interacted with the Multichain protocol, amounting to nearly 2.256 million transactions.
Multichain network statistics. Source: Multichain
Users who deposit tokens into one of the pools supported by Multichain receive a sare of the transaction fees generated by the pool in question.
The protocol’s native MULTI token is used to vote and participate in the governance of the Multichain ecosystem and has a circulating supply of 18.64 million tokens out of a total 100 million.
Synapse
Synapse (SYN) refers to itself as a “cross-chain layer ∞ protocol” that is designed to offer users interoperability between separate blockchain networks.
According to data from Defi Llama, Synapse recently hit an all-time high in total value locked of $1.16 billion prior to experiencing a wave of outflows that lowered the TVL to 740.43 million.
Total value locked on Synapse. Source: Defi Llama
The Synapse protocol currently supports 12 different chains which have a combined total bridged volume of $5.33 billion according to data from the platform’s dashboard.
Total bridged volume on each network supported by Synapse. Source: Synapse
A large percentage of the total volume recorded on Synapse has come since the start of 2022 with the protocol seeing an all-time high bridge volume of $157.8 million on Jan. 23.
Synapse bridge volume. Source: Synapse Analytics
The protocol’s native SYN token has several uses within the ecosystem. Token holders can use it to conduct community governance votes via the SynapseDAO, liquidity providers (LPs) receive a percentage yield paid out in SYN for their deposits and it is also used as a subsidy to pay for the gas expended by network validators to secure transactions across the network.
LPs also receive a share of the protocol fees earned by the Synapse platform on each transaction.
Related:Web3 innovations are replacing middlemen with middleware protocols
Celer cBridge
Another popular cross-chain bridge is the Celer cBridge, a multi-chain network that enables instant, low-cost value transfers between 19 different networks.
The cBridge is a subsector of the larger Celer (CELR) ecosystem and utilizes the CELR token for operations on the protocol and as the reward token for liquidity providers.
Along with the CELR rewards paid to LPs, a percentage of the transaction fees generated by people who use the liquidity pools to bridge funds across chains are paid out to LPs and added directly to the pools, allowing the rewards to compound.
According to data from cBridge analytics, the total value of funds locked in the bridge contract (pool-based bridge) and the funds locked in the token vault contract (canonical token bridge) currently stands at $240.92 million.
cBridge usage statistics. Source: cBridge
A total of 89,897 unique addresses have interacted with the protocol since inception and have conducted a total of $2.842 billion in transaction volume.
Similar to the transfer trend seen with Synapse, the transaction volume on cBridge has gotten noticeably higher in 2022 with a record $71.12 million being transacted on Jan. 22.
Daily transaction volume on cBridge. Source: cBridge analytics
Some of the protocols currently supported by cBridge include Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Metis, Harmony, Gnosis, Arbitrum and Optimism.
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The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Popular software programmer and co-founder of BitShares, Steem, and the EOS network, Daniel Larimer, recently announced the rebranding of his earlier endeavors.
Daniel Larimer Shares New Vision
In a press release shared with CryptoPotato, Larimer noted that his new vision, dubbed Fractally, will deliver the original EOS vision of 2017 to the modern crypto market.
He claimed that Fractally will be a unique blend of a decentralized exchange, a social media platform, a high-performance smart contracts network, and decentralized governance processes.
According to Larimer, the new project will be built on the lessons he has learned from his previous ventures, including one of the first and highest performance decentralized exchanges, BitShares, and the first decentralized social media, Steem.
Back in 2013, Larimer invented the concept of a “Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC),” upon which BitShares was built. Currently, the term DAC is now popularly referred to as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
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Using BitShares, anyone can create, distribute, and exchange tokens with a simple user interface with no coding experience. However, according to Larimer, Fractally will bring something even better.
Becoming the DAO of DAOs
Larimer noted that Fractally will produce an EOS-based application that is “just as powerful and even easier to use while also incorporating more recent advancements in automated market makers.” In a recent tweet, he stated that Fractally will become “the DAO of DAOs.”
Steem was one of the top social media platforms at the time because it rewarded users for posting. Fractally will build on the updated model of Steem’s social reward structure to bring incentivized blogging to EOS while reducing the potential for abuse.
Larimer noted that this new project will also integrate the principles of decentralized governance outlined in his book “More Equal Animals – the Subtle Art of True Democracy.” These principles have already been tested in the EOS community.
Earlier in 2021, Larimer and his team tested the process of fractal governance by creating Eden on EOS and hosting three elections that involved hundreds of people. According to the EOS co-founder, the experiment was considered successful by both hosts and participants.
Violet.garden, an EOS-based blogging application, allegedly utilized the uniqueness of Eden users to implement the Universal Basic Income practice on EOS.
Larimer revealed that he has hired the founder of Violet.garden, John Williamson, to help with the launch of a well-governed social media platform on the EOS network.
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A closely followed crypto analyst says that an “ultimate capitulation” could be approaching for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) before any meaningful reversal takes place.
The pseudonymous analyst known as Capo tells his 239,000 Twitter followers that while Bitcoin has shown some resilience in the last week, a final downward movement below $30,000 remains his base case.
According to Capo, BTC briefly dipping below $30,000 is likely, but traders should be prepared for something much more extreme. He references the capitulation of March 2020 when most BTC bulls underestimated the bearish collapse.
“This would be the ultimate capitulation candle.
Main scenario remains $28,000 – $30,000, but if there are enough liquidations, we could expect the wick going much lower.
Be careful. I’m ready for everything.”
Source: Capo/Twitter
As bullish sentiment for Bitcoin creeps back into the market, the crypto trader is staying prepared for the worst, mapping out a potential drop below $20,000.
“You wake up and the weekly BTC chart looks like this.
What do you do?”
Source: Capo/Twitter
Capo also points out several factors that can make it difficult for bulls to turn Bitcoin around.
“Because we are in a bearish trend, with the SPX (S&P500) looking very bad, DXY (US dollar index) looking bullish, and bulls thinking that this is the bottom and we are going to $50,000 in two days.”
Looking at Ethereum, Capo says that ETH will be ready for a bounce only once it hits the $1,800 level, which is more than 31% away from current prices at time of writing.
“ETH
Strong rejection from resistance, next target should be $1,800. Expecting a bounce from there.”
Source: Capo/Twitter
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It’s been a challenging few months for crypto investors since Bitcoin fell from its all time high of 69k; on top of that, many coins have followed in BTC’s price action footsteps.
The entire crypto market has shed more than $1 trillion in value since, and many experts believe more is to come and that this will not be the last of the wave; many people scramble to get a grasp onfwhat’s to come and if we will fall into another dreaded crypto winter.
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Cold World For Crypto…
The entire crypto market has lost roughly $1 trillion in value since November, around the time of bitcoin’s all-time high, and other tokens such as ether and solana followed the number one digital currency to trade sharply lower. Ethereum has more than halved in value since reaching its peak in November, while Solana has suffered an even steeper decline, falling 65 percent. Back in 2018, bitcoin went through what many now refer to as ‘crypto winter,’ which saw witness to an 80 percent drop in bitcoin; could this be another case of the current price action
BTC: Bitcoin fighting to break 40k after hitting all time high in November 2021. | BTC:USDtradingview.com
David Marcus, the former head of crypto at Facebook (now Meta), appeared to suggest that he believes a crypto winter has already arrived. In a tweet earlier this week, he said: “It’s during crypto winters that the best entrepreneurs build the better companies. This is the time again to focus on solving real problems vs. pumping tokens.”
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Nadya Ivanova, chief operating officer at the BNP Paribas had an opposing thought on a crypto winter, stating that “over the last year — especially with all the hype in this market — a lot of developers seem to have been distracted by the easy gains from speculation in NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and other digital assets. A cooling off period might actually be an opportunity to start building the fundamentals of the market,” Ivanova told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
Hopes Of A Better Day…
Many coins are suffer the same fate as equities as large suffer, most notably the stock market; many investors are faced with fears of hard federal regulations and interest rate adjustments that might hurt more that help if you came up big this last year. The U.S. central bank is considering making such moves in response to surging inflation, and some analysts say it could result in the end of the era of ultra-cheap money and sky-high valuations — especially in high-growth sectors like tech, which benefit from lower rates since companies often borrow funds to invest in their business.
Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international at crypto exchange Luno, thinks the recent slump in crypto is more of a “correction” than a sustained downturn. He also stated that looking ahead, a key level to watch for bitcoin is $30,000. If it closes below that point in a week or more, “that would definitely indicate high likelihood of a bear market,” he said. A decline of around 80 percent from bitcoin’s recent peak would indicate a price of less than $15,000. Ayyar doesn’t think such a scenario is on the table.
RelatedReading | Tesla Report Shows Bitcoin Holdings Remain Unchanged At $1.2 Billion
After a bloody week, the bitcoin price is slowly recovering, following a 50% drop since recording the ATH level of $69K during November 2021. The following analysis will discuss two possible scenarios going forward, from a technical point of view.
Technica Analysis
By: Shayan
Long-Time Frame: The Daily
Looking at the daily chart, the BTC price has been recovering since it plunged over 50%, plunging below $33K last Monday.
However, Bitcoin is still beneath two critical resistance areas right now. First is the blue bearish trendline pushing the price down each time BTC attempted to break above it, and the second zone is the range marked in red between $39K and $41K.
On the other hand, the daily RSI has broken out of the multi-month low sloping resistance. The two previous breakouts had led to huge bullish moves over the past year.
In conclusion, the two likely scenarios are :
Breaking above the descending trendline and the red area (around the $40K zone), consolidate above the zone for a while, generate a pullback to the resistance, and begin a price rally into the $50-60K channel.
Getting rejected by both the trendline and the horizontal resistance area, forming a new lower-high to confirm the bearish trend, then a drop to lower price levels and test support zones to develop a new local bottom.
Short-Term Time Frame: The 4-hour
Bitcoin has multiple resistance levels in the lower timeframes (LTF), as indicated in the following chart. The price has created lower highs and lower lows inside a solid bearish descending channel.
The price is now trading below the 100-MA line and the channel’s upper trendline. As a result, if the market is set to bounce back and begin a newly bullish rally, it is required to break out of the trendline and complete a new higher high, as shown by the green path.
The other scenario is that the price touches the trendline, records a new lower high, and then gets rejected on its way to retest lower price levels (the red path).
Onchain Analysis: Stablecoin Inflow
By: Edris
The following chart consists of BTC price and the 7-day moving average of stablecoin inflow.
As you can see, there has been a significant rise in the volume of stablecoins deposited into exchanges over the past few days.
The last time we witnessed such a sharp increase in this metric was in May 2021, following the crash to the $30k range. This suggests that liquidity is ready to buy the dip. However, accumulation phases after huge market crashes usually take a while. So, it may take a few weeks or even months before a price rally happens, just like last year.
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If the shuttering of Diem passed some crypto investors and market watchers without much notice, that should not come as a surprise. This inauspicious and muted end for the project was caused by several factors, but it should be noted that this is the complete opposite of how this idea initially was introduced to the marketplace. One key factor that might refresh the collective memory of the market is the original name of this concept: Libra.
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Yes, the stablecoin project launched and spearheaded by Facebook (now Meta), although purportedly in consultation with multiple other organizations, has officially folded. Remaining assets were sold, according to reports, for approximately $200 million to Silvergate – a major player in the crypto banking and fintech space. Such an end is obviously not what the creators, proponents, or supporters of this project had in mind when Diem debuted in 2019, so what exactly happened?
How did a project that combined the technical prowess of multiple organizations, the social media audience of Meta, and the rising interest in cryptocurrencies fail so spectacularly? Not only did Diem fail, but it failed to launch at all. The saga and struggles of Diem have been documented in many places, so instead of dwelling on those ideas, let’s take a look at some of the lessons that crypto organizations have learned, and should continue to learn, from this attempt.
Mixing business is risky. A leading cause of why Diem failed, and never even got off the ground, is the close association of the initiative with Meta. Although on paper there was an initial Libra Association of approximately 30 organizations, including major credit card companies, it was relatively obvious from the beginning that Meta was leading this idea. It might strike some that Meta is in hot water currently, but that is just a continuation of the political scrutiny the organization has faced for years.
The list of justified complaints and issues that policymakers have with Meta will not strike anyone as surprising. Online bullying, negatively impacting the psyche and mental health of users, privacy and data concerns, fake news, deep fakes, political misinformation, and medical misinformation are just a few of these issues.
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In hindsight it was naïve to imagine that any social media organization – especially one continuously in the political crosshairs – would have any chance at launching a competitor to the U.S. dollar.
Lack of clarity is dangerous. Cryptocurrencies and the various cryptoassets that have sprung to life over the last decade or so have always been a touchy subject for regulators. The United States, perceived (and rightly so) as leader in innovation and welcoming home to new ideas, has been – comparatively – hesitant to adopt and integrate cryptoassets into financial markets. It took until the very end of 2021 for the first ETF to be approved for trading, and even this instrument does not track the actual spot price, but rather futures contracts.
Stablecoins, even now, but even more so when initially introduced, are perceived as a direct challenge to the supremacy of fiat currency for fiscal, monetary, and tax regimes the world over. What Diem found out the hard way, and numerous other stablecoin issuers have since incorporated into proposals, is that underlying characteristics and fundamentals must be disclosed transparently.
These disclosures include, but are not limited to, 1) how the stablecoin will be reserved, 2) what processes are in place to authorize or potentially censor transactions and users, 3) how stablecoins can be redeemed, 4) auditable records disclosed to the market, and 5) the intended use cases for this cryptoasset, including how use cases can be monitored.
Interoperability is critical. A core attribute of any stablecoin that has been developed and that has entered the marketplace is that any stablecoin intended for broader based utilization must have other uses outside of merely serving a payment function. That is not to say that stablecoin payments should be minimized. To the contrary, the fact that those payments have grown by 500% from 2020 to 2021 – as per the President’s Working Group Report – indicates that there is a substantial and growing need for such a function.
Something that Diem failed to ever address or even explain effectively was how its token would be incorporated in both permissioned and permissionless systems. This has been effectively and proactively addressed by more recent entrants into the sector, with stablecoins forming an integral layer in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. DeFi has grown to be among the fastest growing sector of the cryptoasset economy, and the fact that stablecoins play an integral role in these operations solidifies the use case of these instruments.
Diem, on the other hand, was routinely criticized for not having alternative use cases – or even a plan to develop them – outside of the Meta payments.
Clearly there was a lot that was done incorrectly, or with a short-sighted mindset, with the Diem initiative; that much goes without saying. It would be simple to sweep this whole saga under the proverbial rug. and move forward confident that all lessons have been learned. Tempting, but short-sighted. As increasing numbers of organizations, including some of the same payment processors initially aligned with Diem, begin to think of developing stablecoin offerings, the lessons outlined here should loom large. Cryptoassets have come a long way, and developed far beyond initial origins, but stablecoins are still an emerging asset class, and should always learn from lessons previously taught.
A popular crypto strategist and trader says the crypto markets are showing early signs of recovery while predicting surges for Ethereum (ETH) its rival Terra (LUNA).
Pseudonymous crypto analyst Pentoshi tells his 500,000 Twitter followers that the ongoing bounce in the Bitcoin (BTC) dominance chart is a positive development for the digital asset market.
“First sign of health in the market because it helps eliminate the weak projects. I seriously can’t believe people can look at these tweets and not believe in it, which you look at dates, time, interactions and what happened.”
Source: Pentoshi/Twitter
The Bitcoin dominance index measures the total market cap of BTC to the rest of the crypto markets. A surging Bitcoin dominance suggests that BTC is either growing faster than altcoins or other crypto assets are losing value faster than BTC.
According to Pentoshi, altcoins will likely lose value faster than BTC in the coming months indicating a flight from excess speculation toward value investing.
“I know many people don’t believe inBTCdom. And those who don’t have lost a lot. Every single time it hits the ‘sell and walk away line’ alts have nuked 100% of the time. See notes on the chart. The market sheds the worst projects like a snake shedding its skin for new growth.”
At time of writing, Bitcoin’s market cap makes up 42.63% of the total crypto market valuation, up from its 2022 low of 39.15%.
Looking at Ethereum, Pentoshi predicts a rally for the second-largest cryptocurrency before resuming its downtrend.
“ETH.This is also developing positively for the first time in two months. I’d say $2,700 and potentially $2,900 on the table for some relief.”
Source: Pentoshi/Twitter
As for Terra, the crypto analyst says that the decentralized finance (DeFi) payment network is also due for a bounce before the next leg down.
“LUNA.Bidding lower green to sell red. Have no problem buying some fear… In my opinion, risk/reward more favorable for a short-term bounce then more doom.”
Source: Pentoshi/Twitter
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LooksRare made its debut on Jan.10 and the recently launched NFT marketplace has drawn a lot of attention, not only because its daily trade volumes were more than double Opensea’s on the second day of trading, but also because it has become the new playground for wash traders.
Wash trading is a series of trading activities involving the same trader buying and selling the same instrument simultaneously, creating artificially high trading volume and a manipulated market price for the asset in play.
In the United States, wash trading in traditional financial markets has been illegal since 1936 and the most recent highly publicized scandal related to wash trading is the manipulation of LIBOR in 2012.
While wash trading has been highly regulated and closely monitored by exchanges and regulators, it seems to have found its new path in the unregulated crypto space and especially in NFT marketplaces like LooksRare.
A community-owned marketplace is a double-edged sword
LooksRare started with good intentions to share profits within the community. The token incentives and the trading rewards were essentially the secret weapon that attracted high volumes and beat Opensea in light-speed fashion right after its launch, but these same factors have also become the very weapon wash traders are using to flood the marketplace.
LooksRare appears to have foreseen the possibility of wash trading that could be induced by the lucrative trading rewards, but according to LooksRare Docs, they believed the cost of trading from platform fees and royalty fees would be too high to create any incentives for wash trading. Interestingly, reality shows the opposite.
LooksRare vs. OpenSea volume and unique users. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo LooksRare vs. OpenSea volume and transactions. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo
The graphs above show that daily users and daily transactions from LooksRare are only a tiny portion (2% to 3%) of OpenSea, but the volumes are more than triple or even quadruple OpeaSea’s.
Using Jan. 19 as an example, the average trade volume on LooksRare is approximately $380,000 per user whereas on OpenSea it is only $3,000. Similarly, the average trade volume per transaction is around $415,000 on LooksRare, whereas for OpenSea it is only $1,676.
Basically, what the data shows is a very small group of users executing trades worth hundreds of thousands dollars. This surely does not sound like a playground for normal NFT buyers. With a 2% platform fee, royalty fee and the volatile gas fee from the Ethereum network, wash traders seem to still be able to find a sweet spot to balance their cost and profit.
Let’s have a look at how wash traders profit from buying and selling the same NFT.
LooksRare’s trading rewards are distributed over a total of 721 days over four phases. The daily reward is the highest during the first 30 days in Phase A and the total reward is the highest in Phase C (240 days).
The amount of trading rewards a single trader can obtain for any given day is the product of the fixed daily LOOKS trading reward (2,866,500 LOOKS) and the ratio between the individual trader’s trading volume and the total trading volume of the day. Therefore, the more trading volume created by the trader, the more reward they get. This mechanism creates great incentives for large volumes of wash trading.
In addition to the trading rewards, traders can also earn a portion of the platform fees collected based on the amount of LOOKS staked as well as staking rewards and liquidity provider rewards. But compared to the trading rewards gained from wash trading, the other rewards are too insignificant and close to a rounding error, so they will not be considered here.
A closer look at a wash trader with $90 million in daily trade volume
The largest LooksRare single-day trade volume was on January 19, 2022. By plotting the top 10 wallets traded on that day, two wallets stand out with more than $90 million U.S dollars traded on the day from each one as shown in the graph below. The activities from these two wallets also show back and forth buy and sells between them, which is a clear indication of wash trading.
Top 10 Traders on the largest volume day — Jan 19, 2022. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo
Most of the time the wash traders choose NFTs with 0% royalty fee such as Meebits or Terraforms so the only costs from the trade are the 2% platform fee and the gas fee. In this specific example, on Jan. 19, the trader bought and sold Loot multiple times using these two wallets at a price around 6,500 times the floor price.
An example of a wash trading on Loot. Source:LooksRare
Based on the trading reward allocation and assuming the two wallets belong to the same trader, the total trading volume from this trader on Jan. 19 was $186 million; the trading reward earned from the trades is $6.2 million and the fee paid is $3.7 million (using $4.9 as LOOKS market price and 2% platform fee), resulting in a net profit of $2.5 million, which is 1.34% of daily return or equivalently 12,661% of annual return.
Buy amount on Jan 19, 2022 from the whale trader’s two wallets. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo Sell amount on Jan 19, 2022 from the whale trader’s two wallets. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo
Most trading rewards on LooksRare go to the wash traders
Rewards claimed 24 hours prior to time of writing (Jan. 24, 2022). Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo
Looking at the last 24 hours (as of Jan.24), 29% of the LOOKS rewards went to the top 10 traders. Similarly, when looking at the largest trade volume day, Jan. 19, 28% of the rewards went to the top 10 traders.
Rewards claimed on Jan. 19, 2022. Source:Dune Analytics @elenahoo
A large portion of the rewards go to a small number of wash traders. This does not exactly follow LooksRare’s philosophy of “By NFT people, for NFT people.” Sharing the profit within the community seems to have failed so far and the lion’s share of the profit only goes to just a few traders.
As Delphi Digital correctly pointed out, this model is unsustainable in the long-term and the trading volume is likely to drop significantly as wash traders gradually leave when it is no longer profitable.
LooksRare still has a long way to go to compete with OpenSea in terms of number of users and non-zero royalty NFT trade volumes. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes when the trading reward reduces by half in Phase B starting on Feb. 10, 2022.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
