Cryptocurrency remains in the jaws of the bear market as Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s first cryptocurrency, has languished under the $17,000 mark the last few days, trading near the 20-day exponential moving average ($16,966) and staying just above the immediate support of the immediate support at $16,787. If it continues to trade in this narrow range throughout the week, its eventual breakout could be even stronger.

One curious fact is that the state of the market doesn’t seem to have pulled investors away from altcoins and into Bitcoin. The original cryptocurrency’s total market share has held fast at around 40%, in contrast to historical market behaviour. While it could be a sign of fair-weather investors pulling out of the crypto market entirely, there are also altcoins that have introduced new strategies to adapt and survive the crypto winter, with staking being one such feature.

Chainlink (LINK), a project that expands the capabilities of oracles and inter-chain communications, just introduced staking for its native token, LINK, on its network. According to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, this move provides incentives for network users to help grow the Chainlink ecosystem, which he claims has enabled more than $6.6 trillion in transaction value in 2022. LINK continues to trade at around $7, about 50% down from its price in the first quarter.

Is ape fever over, or are there still some legs in this monkey business? After some time as the hottest thing in crypto, the hype around the Bored Ape Yacht Club has died down. Nevertheless, the simian brainchild of Yuga Labs has continuously tried to inject fresh ideas into the mix, such as the introduction of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. Recently, the Ape Foundation introduced staking for ApeCoin (APE), and over $30 million worth of APE tokens was deposited into its contract the following day. APE is a relatively new crypto, originally airdropped to BAYC and MAYC back in March. It hit a high of $23 before dropping to the $4-$6 range ever since May.

With its associated rewards for depositing and locking up crypto, staking could be a viable strategy for altcoins looking to sustain healthy ecosystems through the current crypto winter. Without Bitcoin’s first-mover advantage, the pressure is on for other tokens to prove their tech utility and offer incentives to users to participate in their ecosystems.

StormGain Analytics Team

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