Breaking Down the Week: From 'Onchain' to Memecoins and Market Volatility

The Rise of "Onchain"

Jesse Pollak, Coinbase's protocols lead, has been a vocal advocate for the "onchain" movement, emphasizing its growing appeal despite being less searched than terms like "web3" or "crypto." Through initiatives like the "Onchain Summer" event and exclusive NFTs for Base users, Pollak's dedication is evident. His push for the media to adopt "onchain" aims to increase engagement, with Google Trends data supporting it's rising popularity as a pivotal crypto narrative.

Memecoins Steal The Spotlight

Amid an "everything rally," Bitcoin reached new all-time highs, propelling the classic memecoins like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE into the spotlight. Solana-based memecoins, particularly BONK and WIF, have notably driven interest, with BONK boosting demand for the Solana Saga phone and WIF seeing a 600% increase in value over the last 30 days. New memecoin genres, like "misspelled celebrity names," also experienced rapid market cap growth, with Jeo Boden surging 12,000%. Solana's appeal for hosting memecoins stems from its low transaction fees compared to Ethereum's, with Solana's fees rarely over $0.10. Despite this, Solana traders tipped validators heavily to prioritize transactions, hitting a record high on March 6th.

Ethereum's DEX Traders and NFT Market Fluctuations

Ethereum's DEX traders have reached their highest activity level since May, contrasting with a decline in NFT trading to its lowest since July 2021, with only 6,780 addresses trading NFTs on March 6th. However, NFT volumes remained steady, partly due to the increased USD value of assets like ETH. Despite a slight dip in February's NFT marketplace volumes, the sector saw significant sales, including a record $16 million CryptoPunk transaction.

Bitcoin's Volatile Journey

Bitcoin's recent journey has been marked by volatility, with its price hitting a record high of $69,000 before experiencing a sharp decline, and then stabilizing above $69,000, now at $72,000. Spot volumes surged, with a 7-day moving average across centralized exchanges hitting $100 billion last week, the highest since November 2021, indicating a direct correlation between market volatility and trading activity. This volatility has led to a surge in Bitcoin futures open interest, reaching new all-time highs this week, matching its previous peak in April 2021 when Bitcoin was trading over $60,000.

Data & Insights is a weekly newsletter and article series by The Block Research Analyst Rebecca Stevens that highlights recent trends and top charts from The Block’s Data Dashboard. Sign-up to receive Data & Insights in your inbox every Monday for free. Previous articles in the series are available with a subscription to The Block Pro.