One of the familiar themes seen in previous crypto marketplace cycles is the shifting market caps, popularity and ranking of the acme 10 projects that run into meaning gains during bull phases, just to fade into obscurity during the comport markets. For many of these projects, they follow a recognizable boom-to-bosom bicycle and never return to their previous celebrity.

During the 2022–2018 bull market and initial money offer (ICO) boom, which was driven by Ethereum network-based projects, all style of small smart contract-oriented projects rallied thousands of percentage  to unexpected highs.

During this time, projects similar Bitcoin Greenbacks (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) also rotated in and out of the top 10 ranking, but to this mean solar day, investors nonetheless debate virtually which projection actually presents a "useful" use case.

While all of these tokens are yet unicorn-level projects with billion-dollar valuations, these big-cap megaliths take fallen far from their previous glory and now struggle to stay relevant in the current ecosystem.

Let'due south accept a expect at a few of the current projects that threaten to unseat these dinosaur tokens from their perch.

Dollar-pegged stablecoins take the stage every bit the most "transactable" currency

Bitcoin's (BTC) original use case stipulated that information technology would simplify the process of conducting transactions, but the network's "dull" transaction fourth dimension and the price associated with sending funds makes information technology a better store of value than a medium of exchange when the other blockchain networks are considered as options.

Terra (LUNA), a protocol focused on creating a global payment structure through the use of fiat-pegged stablecoins, has emerged every bit a possible solution to the issues faced when trying to utilise the top proof-of-work (PoW) projects as payment currencies.

The main token used for transacting value on Terra aside from LUNA is TerraUSD (UST), a U.Southward. dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin that forms the basis of Terra'due south decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The market cap of UST has steadily been increasing throughout 2022 as activity and the number of users in the ecosystem increased.

UST supply changes. Source: SmartStake

The contempo addition of Ether (ETH) as a collateral choice for minting UST on Ballast protocol has given token holders a way of accessing the value in their Ether without having to sell and create a taxable consequence.

This opens the possibility for other tokens such equally BTC to be utilized as collateral to mint UST that can be used in everyday purchases.

As information technology stands, the borrowing April for UST on Anchor stands at 25.85%, while the distribution April is at 40.67%, pregnant users who borrow UST against their LUNA or Ether actually earn a yield while borrowing against their tokens.

From privacy coins to privacy protocols

Privacy is also a cornerstone characteristic of the cryptocurrency sector and privacy-focused projects like XMR and ZEC offering obfuscation technologies that back up covert or what, for a time, were thought to be untraceable transactions.

Unfortunately, regulatory concerns accept made it more challenging for users to access these tokens, every bit many exchanges accept delisted them for fright of drawing the ire of regulators and the overall demand among crypto users has declined alongside their availability.

Their lack of smart contract capabilities has also limited what these protocols are capable of and, and then far, users practise not appear to be too excited nearly utilizing Wrapped Monero (WXMR) for use in DeFi, as the token loses its privacy capabilities in the process.

These limitations take led to the development of privacy-focused protocols such as the Clandestine Network, which allows users to create and apply decentralized applications (DApps) in a privacy-preserving environment.

Privacy features are not common amidst smart contract capable platforms in the crypto ecosystem, which makes Secret something of an experimental case in the ever-evolving Web 3.0 landscape.

Decentralized applications on the Hole-and-corner Network. Source: Clandestine

Secret is also part of the Cosmos ecosystem which means it can employ the Inter-blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol to seamlessly interact with other protocols in the ecosystem.

The network's native SCRT tin be used as the value transfer medium on the platform likewise every bit to interact with protocols that operate on the network, including Secret DeFi applications and the network's NFT offering, Secret Heroes.

New enterprise solutions aren't amend simply they come without controversy

One of the means cryptocurrency projects sought to differentiate themselves from the "medium of substitution" label was to offer enterprise solutions as a way to help corporations navigate the transition to a blockchain-based infrastructure.

XRP and Stellar (XLM) are two of the veteran protocols that fit this bill, but continual controversy and deadening development has resulted in these early movers now playing grab up with newer networks that too don't take the legal controversy that has followed Ripple for years.

Hedera Hashgraph has emerged as a competitor in this field and data shows that the network is capable of processing more ten,000 transactions per second (TPS), with an average transaction fee of $0.0001 and a time to finality of iii-5 seconds.

These statistics are comparable to both XRP and XLM, which take indicated that their ledgers reach consensus on all outstanding transactions every 3-5 seconds with an boilerplate transaction cost of 0.00001 XRP/XLM.

Hedera is also smart contract capable, meaning users tin create both fungible and nonfungible tokens, and developers can build decentralized applications to accompany the network'southward decentralized file storage services.

For each sector (stablecoins, privacy and enterprise solutions), the master deviation between the old-schoolhouse and adjacent-generation projects has been the introduction of smart contract capabilities and plans to develop within the side-chain and DeFi sectors where the superlative protocols exist. This gives newer projects boosted utility, assuasive them to meet the demand of investors and developers, thus increasing their token values and market caps as a outcome.

With smart contracts, the power to interact with the growing DeFi mural comes built-in, whereas the legacy tokens like LTC, XMR and BCH require special wrapping services which insert middlemen and thus insert additional fees, rigor and risk into the procedure.

Newer protocols accept also embraced the more eco-friendly proof-of-stake consensus model that aligns with the larger global shift toward environmental awareness and sustainability. A plus is that holders can also stake their tokens directly on the network for a yield.

It remains to be seen if the slow march of time will somewhen atomic number 82 to a capital migration from older large cap projects to the newer generation protocols or if these legacy bluish-chips will find a mode to evolve and survive into the futurity.

Want more than data well-nigh trading and investing in crypto markets?

  • Why Ethereum needs better compatibility, explained
  • Cardano launches smart contracts later on successful hard fork
  • Project Dawn initiative and upcoming mainnet upgrade back LUNA's new ATH
  • Altcoin Roundup: Layer-one protocols scrap away at Ethereum's dominance.
  • Hedera Hashgraph rallies 150% in a week equally its ecosystem expands

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