What's Driving Token Prices? September 18, 2024

VEGA (-30%) - Vega Protocol, a Layer-1 protocol built to support derivatives trading, passed a governance vote last week to wind down its chain and native VEGA token. The protocol, which launched in 2023, raised $51M, including a seed round led by Pantera Capital and a $43M crowdsale on Coinlist in 2021. The team proposed using its remaining funds to fund the development of the open-source Vega software, which will support the launch of a new project, Nebula. Luckily, VEGA holders can swap their VEGA tokens to the new project’s NEB tokens.
HNT (-16%) - Last week, DePIN project Helium released a v3 proposal outlining three main objectives as a path forward for the project. The first objective proposes creating a “Helium Extension Network” essentially making it easy for anyone to onboard their DePin project to Solana (which Helium is built upon). This would ultimately make Helium the go-to plug-and-play hub for DePin projects. The two other objectives focus on reworking the tokenomics of the HNT token and some of its subdao tokens (IOT and MOBILE). While the changes are just in the proposal stage and still up for community discussion, some feel that the tokenomic changes may be too complicated and that the Helium Extension Network may be an ambitious project, given the data processing needs.
TON/CRV (+6.25%/-4.6%) - Layer-1 protocol The Open Network announced this week it would collaborate with Curve Finance to incubate a stable swap DEX for the TON blockchain. The move might seem a bit odd as Curve has deployed a version of its own stableswap on other L1 and L2 chains; however, as TON is not an EVM-compatible chain, Curve cannot simply deploy its contracts to their chain. Launching a stableswap product should help invigorate TON’s DeFi ecosystem, which has been slower to grow (with about ~$400M in TVL) than other Layer-1 ecosystems.

DISCLAIMER: This commentary is not intended to be investment advice, investment research, or a recommendation. Please consult your investment professional for your own circumstances."

Disclaimer: This commentary is provided as general information only and is in no way intended as investment advice, investment research, legal advice, tax advice, a research report, or a recommendation. Any decision to invest or take any other action with respect to any investments discussed in this commentary may involve risks not discussed, and therefore, such decisions should not be based solely on the information contained in this document. Please consult your own financial/legal/tax professional.

Statements in this communication may include forward-looking information and/or may be based on various assumptions. The forward-looking statements and other views or opinions expressed are those of the author, and are made as of the date of this publication. Actual future results or occurrences may differ significantly from those anticipated and there is no guarantee that any particular outcome will come to pass. The statements made herein are subject to change at any time. Arca disclaims any obligation to update or revise any statements or views expressed herein. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there can be no assurance that any future results will be realized. Some or all of the information provided herein may be or be based on statements of opinion. In addition, certain information provided herein may be based on third-party sources, which is believed to be accurate, but has not been independently verified. Arca and/or certain of its affiliates and/or clients may now, or in the future, hold a financial interest in investments that are the same as or substantially similar to the investments discussed in this commentary. No claims are made as to the profitability of such financial interests, now, in the past or in the future and Arca and/or its clients may sell such financial interests at any time. The information provided herein is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities, or a solicitation to provide investment advisory services.