This Week In Crypto - Crypto Weekly News from Zypto

It’s another week in the crypto space and much to catch up on.

First, the value of CARV has been on an upward trajectory since its launch, and it has surged by 65%. Next, Vitalik proposed some new changes to Ethereum, which he did for a while. Solana has launched its tap-to-earn game on TikTok, and some promising token unlocks are on the horizon.

Let’s get into it.

CARV price surges by 65% since its launch

On October 10, CARV, a modular identity and data layer (IDL) platform, launched in the crypto ecosystem. Built on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, CARV has gained significant attention since its debut.

The token has been listed on major centralized exchanges (CEXes) like Bybit and KuCoin. This has enhanced CARV’s trading liquidity and led to a 65% price surge.

CARV flies to the moon

CARV increased from $0.3129 to $0.65200, an astronomical 65%. This is a testament to prominent exchanges’ influence in the market.

This underlines CARV’s ability to transform data ownership and management alongside other DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network) projects. Moreover, it could signal broader investor interest in the token.

Victor Yu, the COO of CARV, reiterated this further,

“Our TGE is a pivotal moment for CARV as we continue to empower gamers and AI developers to control their data truly. With the CARV token, we are taking another step towards building a fair and transparent data-driven ecosystem.”

How is CARV distributed?

With 14 token holders and 100% of the supply owned by the top 100 accounts, CARV remains an early-stage project. Yet, there are some signs that the token has high growth potential.

CARV will be launched with a total supply of 1 billion tokens to be released over four years. This is how it is distributed according to its tokenomics:

50% is apportioned to the nodes and community.
10% allocated for three seasons of airdrops.
19.46% goes to the founding team and advisors.
9.25% goes to early investors.
9% to the ecosystem and treasury.
8.30% to private fundraising.
4% to liquidity.

Victor Yu said,

“This is just the beginning – our roadmap includes upcoming airdrops, growing gaming partnerships, and innovative experiences driven by community governance. Of course, none of this is possible without our community, reflected in our tokenomics.”

Beyond that, CARV is winning on all sides and quickly positioning itself as the most extensive modular identity and Data layer (IDL) for gaming, AI, and beyond, integrating more than 900 games and AI companies.

So far, in 2024, CARV has achieved significant milestones. These include securing $10 million in Series A funding, enhancing protocol decentralization through a $35 million verifier node sale, and launching a $50 million accelerator.

Furthermore, CARV has also demonstrated excellent revenue generation in a short while. From January to September, the platform has recorded more than $43 million in revenue. There’s no saying how far it will go from here on.

Vitalik Buterin proposes new changes to Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s founder, has suggested ways the blockchain can improve from its current proof-of-stake model. He shared his thoughts via a blog post.

His first point revolved around maximizing the number of validators of transactions.

Since ‘The Merge,’ there has been an evolution in how Ethereum’s transactions are verified by validators rather than general nodes. However, the pace of validation has reduced recently.

Since surpassing 1 million active validators in April, about 73,000 validators joined, but the number has dropped to less than 3,000 in the past month.

Typically, validators lock up 32 ETH ($84,000), but Buterin feels the threshold can be reduced to 1 ETH ($2,600). This could make the network more decentralized, to say the least.

His next point was on transaction finality.

Right now, it takes 15 minutes to finalize a block. Ethereum’s progress is measured in epochs, which occur every 6.4 minutes. Each epoch is made up of 32 slots, which yield one new block every 12 seconds.

To Buterin, ‘single-slot finality’ would reduce finalization time to 12 seconds (one slot).

Then, he spoke about minimizing the overhead of running a node, i.e., the cost of downloading, verifying, and re-broadcasting all the other validator’s signatures.

Finally, Buterin spoke on some additional research areas, such as 51% attack recovery, increasing the quorum threshold, and quantum resistance.

Solana launches a tap-to-earn game on TikTok

The crypto ecosystem is like a gift that keeps on giving. Tap-to-earn took over the crypto market like wildfire this year, as Telegram-based mini apps attracted more than 300 million players.

Now, Sonic SVM, a Solana project, has joined the bandwagon. The Solana-based project has launched a tap-to-earn game called “SonicX” via the social media behemoth TikTok.

What effect can SonicX have on the Tap-to-earn industry?

Since SonicX launched, it has been a big hit in the industry. Like other solutions, such as NotCoin and Hamster Kombat, it has generated more than 120,000 new users on TikTok.

Sonic SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) aims to partner with content creators and run ads that allow players to click to open the SonicX game directly in TikTok. The idea is to onboard new users using Solana’s scalability and TikTok’s direct-to-access platform.

How?

With more than 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok provides the right eyes and ears for the project to scale further. This could further brew interest in users who are new to blockchain technology.

Then, like mini apps on Telegram, TikTok enables users to open webpages inside its native browser. Gamers can quickly login through their TikTok account, compete in daily challenges, and gain in-game points.

Moreover, the game has a “referral” section where you can invite friends, gain more points, and earn a multiplier. Its inbuilt wallet provides account abstraction features so players can quickly regain their passwords without using private keys or seed phrases.

Chris Zhu, CEO of Sonic SVM, had some words on why TikTok was their choice ahead of Telegram, which is the popular choice for tap-to-earn games. He said,

“Even with just 1% of the entire TikTok population, we have 10 million users.”

He continued,

“Gen Alpha, Gen Z are already trading meme coins and looking at this content. There’s a very shitty experience when it comes to advertising on top of Telegram. That said, we think TikTok will be one of the largest traffic pools if done right.”

Solana is attempting to become the top blockchain for Web3 games through Sonic SVM. Backed by $12 million in funding and powered by HyperGrid, the SVM is an innovative infrastructure that enables developers to build game-specific rollups that group transactions off-chain to execute them more quickly and at a lower cost.

Four tokens to watch out for in the crypto market

The crypto market is anticipating some vital token unlock events as October gets into full swing. These are essential to the ecosystem as they could lead to market instability or opportunities for traders and investors.

Let us consider these four tokens unlocks:

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity’s stipulated unlock date is October 14, when 9.25 million AXS will be unlocked and shared between stakers and team members. So far, 152.23 million AXS tokens are currently in circulation.

Axie Infinity is a popular game due to its immersive gaming experience and potential for earning. Its token unlock (AXS) will be unlocked on a pre-determined schedule.

Starknet (STRK)

Starknet’s unlock date is October 15, and 64 million STRK tokens will be distributed to investors and early contributors.

So far, Starkenet has unlocked 11% of its supply; the next unlocking set is at 0.64%, with 33.8% locked and 54.6% left untracked. It currently has a circulating supply of 1.94 billion STRK tokens.

Arbitrum (ARB)

Arbitrum has an unlock date set for October 16, where it will unlock 92.65 million ARB (approximately $49.92 million) and distribute it among its team, advisors, and investors.

One of the most popular Layer-2 Ethereum-based solutions, Arbitrum, aims to address Ethereum’s scalability issues by reducing congestion and gas fees. Since its mainnet launched in August 2021, it has a circulating supply of 3.6 billion ARB.

ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin’s unlock date is October 17, and 15.6 million APE tokens (approximately $11.39 million) will be unlocked and distributed among the treasury, founders, team, and contributors.

It currently has 774.64 million APE in circulation. APE plans to expand its ecosystem and increase liquidity via this unlocking event. However, historically, large token unlocks negatively affect the price, so investors and traders are encouraged to keep a watchful eye on the situation.

Closing Remark

Although CARV is still an early-stage project, it has shown immense potential. It is shining on all fronts—both commercially and innovatively. For many crypto enthusiasts, what was admirable the most was its price surge of more than 65%.

Vitalik made some salient points in his proposal to further improve Ethereum. Of truth, the high price of validation has made it less decentralized. It should take less time to finalize transactions, and overhead costs should be reduced for efficiency.

Solana, via Sonic SVM, joined the tap-to-earn industry via a brilliant partnership with TikTok. So far, it is yielding great returns, and it is hoped that the game will onboard more users to Web3.

Finally, we had to consider some of the most promising upcoming token unlock events in the industry. These events can either positively or negatively impact the price of tokens, so everyone will most definitely be on standby.

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What are your thoughts on this week’s crypto news? Did any particular development stand out for you? Leave a comment below and let us know your perspective.