Recent reports reveal that the Graph, a platform used for indexing and querying blockchain data, is in the final stages of migrating to Arbitrum, a popular Ethereum layer-2 protocol. Following this announcement, GRT, the native token of the indexer, is up 13% in four days, per the candlestick arrangement in the daily chart.
The Graph Migrating To Arbitrum
The decision to migrate to Arbitrum follows a vote after a proposal was floated to move the indexer to the layer-2 platform.
The Graph Improvement Proposal received majority support from the community, necessitating the preparation for the eventual shift to Arbitrum, a layer-2 platform using roll-ups. Like any other off-chain solution, Arbitrum enables high transaction processing, increasing scalability.
With better transaction processing capability, transaction costs are lower, allowing high-demand protocols to launch while enjoying high-security levels since all transactions are rolled up and confirmed on the mainnet.
According to the development team, the goal is to enhance scalability, boost transaction processing speeds, and, most critically, reduce the costs of data indexing.
Tegan Kline, the CEO of one of The Graph’s development teams, Edge & Node, said the community chose Arbitrum due to its speed and affordability:
The Graph users have consistently sought solutions to improve gas efficiencies and other aspects of the network. After carefully evaluating available options, the ecosystem chose Arbitrum as the layer-2 scaling solution to provide speed and affordability to protocol developers and network participants.
Cheaper Querying
Although Ethereum has changed its fee bidding model following the implementation of the EIP-1559, transaction costs are still high, discouraging some users and protocols from using the mainnet.
Moreover, as visible by the high network utilization rate, the high demand for the mainnet means users wishing to transact on layer-1 must pay much more to approve their transactions.
On Arbitrum, The Graph holders will also delegate GRT tokens more cheaply. Delegated tokens are staked with Indexers, who index and query data.
Following this transition, Indexers stand to receive more GRT rewards since transacting on Arbitrum is relatively cheaper. According to L2 Fees, a fee tracker, every transfer on Arbitrum costs $0.08, multiples cheaper than Ethereum, which stands at $1.24.
It is yet to be seen how The Graph will capitalize on “data accessibility,” which Steven Goldfeder, the CEO of Offchain Labs, said Arbitrum offers.
However, what’s clear is that The Graph provides a solution for users wishing to query blockchain data more efficiently. Public blockchains such as Ethereum or Bitcoin are designed to store data securely. However, they can make it challenging to retrieve this data reliably.
While the Arbitrum governance token ARB has been in a consistent downturn since the airdrop in late March, its ecosystem shows healthy growth.
A recent Nansen report shows that Arbitrum’s activity improved after the airdrop, stabilizing “at a level higher” than before the airdrop. The daily active users, gas fees and transaction count have maintained consistently higher levels since April 2023.
The gap between the number of active users on Arbitrum and Optimism widened after the Aribtrum airdrop, closing in on Ethereum.
Daily active users of Arbitrum, Ethereum and Optimism (past 6 months). Source: Nansen
The trading volume on Arbitrum-based decentralized exchanges paints a similar picture, showing an evident rise in volume after the airdrop.
The trading volume of DEXs on Arbitrum. Source: DefiLlama
Moreover, Nansen’s report shows that ARB airdrop recipients only accounted for around 5% of the activity on the blockchain and that Arbitrum has attracted considerably more new users after the airdrop.
Potential catalysts for ARB upside
Moreover, an upcoming update on Ethereum in the second half of 2023, dubbed as Cancun-Deneb (Dencun), will include EIP-4844 (proto-Danksharding), which will reduce the transaction fees on Arbitrum, increasing the blockchain’s value proposition.
Additionally, the Arbitrum Foundation recently revealed accumulated data from its sequencer, a part of the layer-2 fees paid by users for posting the data onto Ethereum.
The foundation has decided to pass on the sequencer’s earnings, totaling 3,352 Ether (ETH), or $5.4 million, to the Arbitrum DAO, and the ETH will be managed by ARB holders.
In total:
The Arbitrum DAO has accumulated ~3,352 ETH in revenue, The Sequencer will be refunded ~5,954 ETH which is the cost for posting all data to the Ethereum network.
A revenue source for the DAO — a decentralized autonomous organization — can potentially create yields for ARB holders if the community votes to direct the rewards to holders. It remains to be seen how the funds will be managed by the foundation and the DAO.
“Smart money” is holding ARB
Nansen’s data shows that the “smart money” and funds that accumulated ARB after the airdrop still haven’t sold, which is encouraging. The on-chain analytics firm tags Ethereum addresses of high-volume and profitable traders as “smart money.”
Funds (purple) and smart wallets (green) are still holding ARB. Source: Nansen
The funding rate for ARB perpetual swap contracts turned negative like the rest of the crypto market after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought lawsuits against the industry’s largest exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, per CoinGlass data.
Related: Deposits to zkSync surpass $110M as its DeFi ecosystem explodes
Funding rates are paid by perpetual swap traders for shorting or longing an asset depending on its demand. If the demand for short orders is higher, it is deemed more expensive, so traders on the short side pay longs.
Currently, the funding rates are near zero, suggesting that futures traders are neutral on ARB.
Funding rate across the perpetual swap markets. Source: CoinGlass
The ARB/USD pair has observed a downward trend since the token’s launch in March. The compression of the channel shows the possibility of a descending wedge pattern, which has a tendency to break to the upside.
However, if ARB breaks below the support line of the wedge pattern around $0.90, the move to the downside can amplify quickly.
ARB/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView
On the ETH scale, ARB broke below May’s low of 0.00057 ETH after the SEC’s lawsuits. At the time of publication, the token was trading at 0.00056 ETH.
ARB/ETH 4-hour price chart. Source: GeckoTerminal
Technically, ARB shows the possibility of a negative trend reversal. Nevertheless, the upcoming Dencun update on Ethereum and decisions taken by the Arbitrum Foundation in directing revenue from the L2 rollup will ultimately dictate ARB’s price action.
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This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Arbitrum, a popular blockchain platform, has shown promising results after its airdrop in March 2023. According to a report by Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, every activity metric on Arbitrum has gone up compared to pre-airdrop days.
Arbitrum’s Airdrop Bucks Trend
The report notes that since the airdrop, the daily count of transactions and users has remained consistently higher than the chain’s historical averages. On top of that, the value of transactions, transfers, and trades in United States Dollars (USD) has followed a similar pattern.
Despite the initial surge in new wallets after the airdrop, the number of new wallets initiating their first transaction on Arbitrum has slowly declined over the two months.
However, gas spending on Arbitrum has been on the rise, consistently maintaining higher levels than pre-airdrop. Nansen’s report notes that approximately 71% of the total 17,000 Ethereum (ETH) utilized for transaction fees on Arbitrum in the past 6 months was attributed to Layer 1.
Arbitrum’s gas spending over the past 6 months. Source: Nansen
This indicates that Arbitrum maintains a significant share of bridging volume from Ethereum. At the same time, smaller entities such as Starkware, zkSync, PulseChain, and Across have gained a noticeable market share from March to May.
The report also highlights the number of wallets initiating their first-ever transactions on Arbitrum, a proxy for the rate at which new users enter the ecosystem. The number of new users has consistently remained at higher levels after the airdrop, surpassing Optimism and closely approaching Ethereum.
In addition, The report shows that 200,000 distinct wallets have chosen to delegate their voting rights to another 16,000 distinct wallets. The five largest wallets in terms of voting power belong to Treasure, delegate.l2beat.eth, olimpio.eth, PlutusDAO, and Griff Green collectively hold 49.7% of the Arbitrum voting Quorum.
The report also tracks the on-chain activity of airdrop recipients on Arbitrum, noting that the proportion of transactions originating from airdrop recipients has decreased after the airdrop. It accounts for approximately 5% to 6% of transactions on both Arbitrum and Optimism.
Despite this decline, the report shows that the number of daily active users, transaction count, and on-chain value on Arbitrum has stabilized at a level higher than before the airdrop. The upward trends in gas fee spending and the creation of new wallets also indicate a growing use of the platform.
Arbitrum Enables Exclusive Access To Snoop Dogg’s Tour With NFT Pass
Variety Magazine has reported that the famous rapper Snoop Dogg is launching an NFT pass on the Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum, allowing fans to join him virtually on his upcoming concert tour. The Snoop Dogg Passport NFT pass is priced at 0.025 ETH or $43.
The Snoop Dogg Passport NFT pass promises exclusive access to updates from the rapper’s life on tour, including behind-the-scenes videos and images uploaded by Snoop and his team.
In addition, fans who buy the NFT pass will also receive free drops of curated works from select NFT artists and access to future Snoop Dogg drops, playlists, and the ability to buy merchandise and tickets to events.
This move by Snoop Dogg highlights the increasing adoption of blockchain technology in the music industry and the potential for NFTs to revolutionize how artists engage with their fans.
Overall, the Snoop Dogg Passport NFT pass is an exciting new development in NFTs and blockchain technology, providing fans with unique and exclusive access to their favorite artists. As more musicians and artists explore the potential of blockchain technology, further innovation and development in this space can be expected.
ARB’s sideways price action on the 1-day chart. Source: ARBUSDT on TradingView.com
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com
Arbitrum (ARB), a prominent governance token in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, recently witnessed a decent surge in price following renewed buying activity from a well-known DeFi whale address.
Large-scale investors often influence market sentiment and can significantly impact the price of a given asset. However, as the rally unfolds, questions arise about the sustainability of this upward momentum and its implications for the future of Arbitrum.
Whale’s Unusual Buying Activity Coincides With ARB’s Rally
Arbitrum’s (ARB) current price of $1.24 on CoinMarketCap highlights its remarkable performance, with a noteworthy 3.4% rally witnessed within the past 24 hours, followed by an impressive seven-day climb of 7%. Interestingly, this surge in value coincided with unusual buying activity associated with renowned trader Andrew Kang’s crypto addresses.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, has been making some interesting movements within the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Kang put $1 million worth of stablecoins into Arbitrum pools and allocated nearly a quarter of the funds to the purchase of RDNT tokens. RDNT is the native token of the DeFi lending platform Radiant Capital.
BTCUSD currently trading at $27,150 on the weekend chart: TradingView.com
After filling his bags with RDNT, Kang subsequently exchanged his newly acquired tokens and existing RDNT reserves for $867,000 worth of ARB.
These transactions were further followed by Kang depositing the proceeds into Radiant Capital, where he borrowed Circle’s USD Coin. These details have been revealed through data obtained from Lookonchain, a reliable data resource.
Seems like Andrew Kang is using leverage to go long $ARB on @RDNTCapital.
Multiple Whales Seize Opportunity As ARB Price Improves
In addition to Kang’s intriguing buying activity, another significant player, known by the address “0xf59b,” has also recognized the potential in ARB’s upward trajectory. This whale made a strategic move by depositing 1.2 million ARB tokens, equivalent to $1.5 million, into the popular cryptocurrency exchange OKX.
Whale”0xf59b” finally waited for the rise of $ARB and deposited 1.2M $ARB ($1.5M) into #OKX 30 minutes ago.
This whale’s decision to pull the tokens out from OKX on May 8 and potentially purchase them at around the $1.2 mark suggests a deliberate strategy of waiting for a price increase before taking advantage of their holdings. By carefully timing their actions, this entity sought to maximize their potential gains as ARB’s value climbed.
These recent large-scale investments signify a growing optimism surrounding Arbitrum’s Layer 2 solution, despite the challenges it has faced in the market recently. The renewed interest from both Kang and the whale behind the address “0xf59b” reflects a belief in the long-term viability and potential profitability of ARB.
Furthermore, these strategic moves by multiple whales indicate a broader sentiment within the crypto market. As the Ethereum network gradually recovers from the recent drop, there is a growing expectation of increased activity on Layer 2 networks. This anticipation sets the stage for a potentially bullish cycle for these networks, including Arbitrum.
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