After one of the worst years in the history of the cryptocurrency industry, when the overall market capitalization fell by 65%, the market started to rise in 2023. It has increased its market capitalization to over $255 billion, and for the first time since the beginning of November, it has again increased its market capitalization to over $1 trillion. In the midst of this bullish mood, experts are examining Bitcoin and 4 altcoin projects for February.
Bitcoin still offers a good investment opportunity
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly rallied above $23,000 in January from $16,500 on Jan. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency was trading at $22,882, up 9.78% from last week.
BTC YTD chartAccording to many leading crypto traders, Bitcoin still offers a good investment opportunity. In fact, BTC has risen 30% since crypto-skeptical Peter Schiff advised ‘HOLDers’ to sell on Jan. As you follow on Kriptokoin.com, Schiff claimed that with Bitcoin over $18,000 at the time, this was “an excellent opportunity for HOLDers to sell.” A few industry experts think that with the prospect of an uptrend in the first half, it won’t stay that cheap for long, and as some analysts say, February could be one of the last opportunities to buy it at a ‘good bargain’.
Shanghai Upgrade could be effective for leading altcoin
Ethereum is off to a solid start to 2023 after starting the year at $1,197. The leading altcoin is now trading in the green above $1,600.
ETH YTD chartShanghai Upgrade, the next expected Ethereum Blockchain upgrade, will take place in March 2023. Many expect the price of Ethereum to climb before that, similar to the ‘buy the rumors, sell the news’ event that took place before the Ethereum Merge in September 2022.
Alchemy, a blockchain software development company, detailed Web3 progress in the fourth quarter of 2022 in a report published Jan. The research shows a 300% increase in the number of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum’s mainnet in 2022. Given the increase, additional decentralized applications (dApps) may be available soon. This could indicate that the increase in smart contracts is a factor driving the price of ETH.
Shibarium is an important catalyst for the Shiba Inu (SHIB)
The Shiba Inu (SHIB) is another name that gets off to a solid start to 2023. According to January 20 data, the Shiba Inu is among the most impaired assets based on short- and long-term returns.
SHIB YTD chartAn optimistic crypto market and positive developments in its ecosystem may have helped Shiba Inu’s growth. For example, the SHIB team is laying out key concepts such as the long-awaited layer 2 Blockchain Shibarium making it one of the tokens to watch in February. Currently, the Shiba Inu is trading at $0.00001207, up 0.53% in the last 24 hours and up 16.86% from the previous week.
Altcoin surviving the FTX wreckage: Solana (LEFT)
Solana (SOL) was one of the hardest hit by FTX’s collapse as its market cap dropped by 70%. Network health remained consistent though. Solana DeFi is now going through non-FTX related integrations to further strengthen it to better support and meet growing demand. Moreover, Solana’s NFT scene continues to expand rapidly. Also, innovations like GameFi are coming to fruition. Solana’s price was just under $10 at the beginning of January, up 7% last week to trade above $24 as of January 23.
LEFT weekly chartPolkadot (DOT)
Updates have been made to the Web3 interoperability platform Polkadot (DOT). Polkadot creator Gavin Wood said in a statement on Twitter that Polkadot XCM version 3 was released after 15 months of work. As a result, bridges, cross-chain locking, exchanges, NFTs, conditional statements and context monitoring will be possible. In addition, Polkadot aims to improve interoperability between different Blockchains, smart contracts and NFTs. Additionally, according to a report, Polkadot has had its full-time developers increase at a much higher rate than any other blockchain at a similar stage of its development. The number of full-time developers on Polkadot has grown rapidly since January 2018. The network now owns 16 times more than it did five years ago.
DOT weekly chartCurrently, DOT is changing hands at $6.50 last week, up 13.95%. It also deserves to be on the list of altcoin projects to watch in February with increasing developments in the network.
Meanwhile, according to experts, the fact that these cryptocurrencies have held their value despite tough market conditions characterizes them as one of the most promising digital assets to invest in during January 2023.
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