CRYPTO WINNERS: Zilliqa, Waves and ICHI among top gainers in March and Q1

Zilliqa was the biggest crypto-gainer in March, thanks to a surge this week that saw its token quadruple in value ahead of the launch of its metaverse-as-a-service offering on this weekend.

ZIL tokens surged from US5c on Sunday to over 20c on Thursday, their highest level since May 2021.

The gains appear linked to Zilliqa’s Metapolis platform, scheduled to be officially announced at a VIP event in Miami over the weekend. The platform is built on Unreal Engine, Unity and Nvidia Omniverse. (Backers will be hoping it gains more traction than Social Pay, the social media marketing platform that Zilliqa released a year ago but never really caught on.)

On Friday ZIL tokens were trading for 18.3c, up 323 per cent for the month and 144 per cent for the quarter.

Other top gainers in March

The other triple gainers for March, among top 300 coins, were ICHI (up 269 per cent); Waves (208 per cent); BakerySwap (159 per cent); Aussie institutional lending protocol Maple Finance (up 127 per cent); Terra-based decentralised exchange Astroport (108 per cent) and intra-blockchain swapping protocol THORChain (107 per cent).

ICHI, the No. 216 crypto according to Coingecko, is a platform that allows crypto communities to create “branded dollars” that are redeemable 1-for-1 for USD Coin (USDC).

Eight different crypto projects have created branded dollars using the platform, including 1INCH, DODO and Filecoin.

The dollars are minted using ICHI’s “decentralised monetary authority” and are collaterialised with a project’s own native tokens.

On the flip side, No. 141 crypto Ecomi was the biggest loser among top 300 coins, falling 38 per cent in March.

API3, Anchor Protocol and Anyswap all fell by over 30 per cent. Top 100 coins Osmosis and Fantom were among those cryptos dipping by over 20 per cent, according to Cryptorank.

Waves Q1 winner

With the first three months of the year basically on the books, Waves can be declared the biggest Q1 gainer among top 300 coins, up 284 per cent to US$56.

The Ukrainian-founded crypto has in recent days announced new hires and the formation of Waves Labs, a Miami-based company to promote the ecosystem. A narrative that Waves is popular among Russians, whose currency has been hurt by sanctions, may also be helping boost the platform.

Waves is currently the No. 28 crypto, according to Coinmarketcap, with a total velue of US$6 billion.

SSV Network, a decentralised Ethereum staking network that’s the No. 290 crypto, was the second-biggest gainer in Q1, with a 177 per cent rise.

Maple Finance, Zilliqa, Bitgert and Pirate Chain were the other top 300 coins to at least double in value in the first quarter. (Loyal Stockhead readers may remember Pirate Chain from a year ago).

On the flip side, the once-unstoppable Olympus DAO was the biggest loser among top 300 coins in the first quarter, dropping 88.7 per cent over the first three months of the year. (In fairness, it should be noted that Olympus “rebases,” so tokenholders see their holdings grow over time).

Other big losers in the Q1 were Spell Token (down 82 per cent); Floki Inu (68 per cent), Moonriver (65 per cent); Aragon (down 64 per cent); UFO Gaming (61 per cent); Metahero (61 per cent) and Bloktopia (60 per cent).

Among well-known names in the crypto space, Sushi fell 55 per cent, Immutable X dropped 54 per cent, Kadena fell 50 per cent; Loopring dropped 47 per cent; and Trader Joe, Gala Games and Algorand all dropped 46 per cent.