Welcome to another weekly wrap-up. There was a much welcome bull-run this week in the crypto markets which should help investors recover losses from the recent bear run. This bull run was propelled by US inflation numbers and could be an indicator that the several month-long bear run may be coming to a close

The Usual Suspects: Inflation Woes Propels Bitcoin

Bitcoin and Ethereum both finished the week gaining a modest 3% and 2% respectively, but experienced minor volatility through the week. US inflation hit a 40-year high and cryptocurrencies rose to demonstrate they may still be a hedge against inflation.

Bitcoin started the week at just over $58,800, and saw turbulence throughout the week, peaking at $63,400 before finishing at $60,750, representing a weekly increase of ~3%. While inflation continues to plague the US as a result of their quantitative easing measures, investors are piling into Bitcoin to capture its potential growth as it looks to climb back to its highs from previous years.

Ethereum followed suit but experienced greater volatility and is positioned to finish the week with a minor gain of 2%. Ethereum started the week at just over $4230 but saw two micro bear and bull runs. The coin had twin peaks within a few hours at $4500 and $4400 but dropped to $4350 in a few hours between both peaks showing how trading volumes can rapidly impact the price of Ethereum. It positioned to finish the week just over $4300.

On the whole, our usual suspects made a healthy increase given the price of both coins. This may continue in the coming weeks as inflation will continue to add greater volatility and redirection of investment in the US market.

The Best of the Rest: All Coins Rise with the Tide

It was a green-wash this week as our next tier of popular coins Cardano, XRP (Ripple), Avalanche and Polygon experienced rallies to help recover some of the losses investors experienced during the bear run. Popular NFT coin, Solana, was the only coin to experience a loss. Cardano looks to finish this week with a minor gain of 3%, hovering just over its starting week price at $1.60 (Cardano started the week at around $1.55).

XRP (Ripple) soared over 20% this week rising to $1.15, leaving investors with a strong return for just days. These gains should be well-received as XRP has slowly decline alongside the bear run. Solana continued its fall following last week hack, dropping by 8% this week despite a micro bull run and Avalanche and Polygon both returned strong returns at 19% and 7% for the week respectively.

If you're an avid cryptocurrency investor with a diversified portfolio, you may have had some strong returns this week, which shows portfolio theory extends to asset classes beyond boomer stocks!

The Weekly Loser: Render Runs Red

Render Token (RNDR) dropped by over 20% this week, bucking a coin that saw most of its peers up.

Render is a utility' token, meaning I has a specific use case rather than being a general currency or asset. In this case, Render Tokens serve to connect artists and studios who need GPU compute power with mining partners who are willing to rent their GPUs. The token becomes payment for the services and facilitates this transaction.

While this may not be a token that many investors are familiar with due to its niche, it is one of the more popular coins due to its use case and some investors believe the underlying infrastructure could find other use cases! If you're looking to invest in utility tokens, you'll need to dive deep into the particular use case to determine it fit for your appetite.

Weekly Winner: Welcome to the Gaming Gala!

GALA, the token of the blockchain gaming studio rose by over 28%, and even more if you extended to the weekend.

Gala Games is a blockchain-based platform that provides Ethereum infrastructure for game hosting and development. Gala has a number of games on their platform such as The Walking Dead Empires (a game based on the popular AMC show) and Last Expedition (the first AAA first-person shooter powered by blockchain). Gamers can earn and trade GALA tokens by playing games on the platform which has attracted a strong user base.

This week, Gala released a partnership with hip hop artist Snoop Dogg who will be releasing his new album on the platform. This announcement, in combination with the recent rise in the Metaverse, NFT gaming, and the popularity of play-to-earn' has propelled Gala this week to our weekly winner.

Right now, the token is trading at 46 cents and could still have significant upside. Gala is developing their own blockchain, GalaChain and will be less reliant on Ethereum in the future, which could propel Gala further particularly if you get in while it priced under $1!

This has been a strong week for cryptocurrencies and it may continue for the rest of the month with investors hoping for Bitcoin to climb back to its 2021 highs. To get informed about market movements, make sure to check our Monday Look Ahead at the start of each week.

Sources: BTC Markets, CoinMarketCap

This post was written by Fresh Capital Media.