Arbitrum and ApeCoin prices will be in the spotlight this week as their networks unlock millions of tokens. 

ApeCoin (APE) token was trading at $0.756, up by 57% from its lowest point in August, while Arbitrum (ARB) was stuck at $0.5345, where it has been at in the past few weeks.

Arbitrum will unlock 93 million tokens

The two coins will be in focus as their dilution continues. Arbitrum will unlock 93.2 million new tokens on Monday, Sep. 16. This unlock will bring the number of coins in circulation to over 3.52 billion. 

Arbitrum will still have more unlocks to go since it has a total supply of 10 billion tokens, with the last unlock expected to happen in April 2027. 

This unlock will happen at a time when Arbitrum’s ecosystem is going through a challenging period. Data by Nansen shows that the number of active addresses has dropped to 455,000, down from the year-to-date high of 1.50 million. 

The number of daily deployments in the blockchain has dropped to 8,600 from the year-to-date high of 32,750. Also, transaction count dropped by over 24% in the last 24 hours to 1.07 billion.

Arbitrum has been passed by Base Blockchain in the decentralized exchange industry. The volume of transactions in its DEX networks dropped by 20% in the last seven days to $2.7 billion while Base handled $2.91 billion.

ApeCoin token unlock ahead

ApeCoin, the cryptocurrency started by Yuga Labs, will unlock 15.38 million tokens on Sep. 17. This event will bring the number of coins in circulation to 620 million.

ApeCoin has a maximum supply of 1 billion coins and 15.3 million are released each month. The final unlock will happen in March 2026.

There’s also the upcoming ApeChain launch. ApeChain will be a layer-2 network and enable developers to build applications across the gaming, decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and decentralized public infrastructure industries. 

Token unlocks are often seen as bearish events in the crypto industry because they dilute existing holders. They also reduce the staking yield received by investors since most of these tokens flow to staking pools. 

ApeCoin and Arbitrum will also react to the upcoming Federal Reserve interest rate decision on Wednesday.

Economists expect the bank to deliver its first interest rate cut since 2020 since U.S. inflation has eased while the unemployment rate remains above 4%. In most cases, cryptocurrencies and other risk assets do well when the Fed has embraced a dovish tone.

Base Blockchain, the layer-2 network launched by Coinbase in 2023, is doing well as the ‘crypto winter’ continues.

Nansen data shows that the network’s number of users is growing and beating many blockchains like Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (POL), and Cronos (CRO).

The number of active addresses jumped to a record high of over 1.964 million, up from the year-to-date low of 196,000. 

Another number reveals that the number of transactions handled by Base Blockchain has jumped to 4.8 million, up from January’s low of less than 300,000. 

Meanwhile, the number of daily deployments in the network rose to an all-time high of near 18,000 earlier this month.

In contrast, as we wrote this week, Avalanche’s number of active addresses and transactions have dropped by over 50% from the highest level this year. 

This growth happened as more developers embraced the network because of its strong speeds and low transaction costs. 

According to DeFi Llama, Base has 348 dApps in the decentralized finance industry and a total value locked of $1.57 billion, making it the sixth-biggest chain. The biggest DeFi dApps in its ecosystem are Aerodrome, Uniswap, Extra Finance, AAVE, and Morpho Blue. 

It is also the sixth-biggest in terms of stablecoins in the ecosystem, with over $1.57 billion. It will likely have more stablecoins when it is included in Tether’s network. 

Most importantly, Base Blockchain has also become the third-biggest chain in the decentralized exchange industry, where its dApps handled a volume of $3 billion in the last seven days. This made it bigger than Arbitrum, which processed $2.77 billion.

Developers and users love Base because of its low gas fees. According to Nansen, while its transactions have jumped, the amount of gas fees fell to $50,425, down from over $2.3 million in March. Base has made just $57 million in fees this year while Ethereum and Tron have made over $1 billion. 

The performance of Base is a good thing for Coinbase, which is losing market share to companies like Crypto.com, Huobi, and Bybit.

Coinbase handled crypto volume worth $66 billion while the others had volume of over $70 billion. 

Web3 payments provider Transak is teaming up with Soneium to bring more mainstream users to the recently launched blockchain network.

According to a press release shared with crypto.news, Transak will assist Soneium in onboarding mainstream users who want to leverage the Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 platform’s web3 infrastructure and services. Transak, a U.S.-based payments provider, has a tech hub in Bengaluru, India, and also operates offices in the United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong.

Sony’s dive into web3

Sony Group, through its Sony Block Solutions Labs, is making a significant entry into the blockchain and web3 space with the launch of an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain. Unveiled on Aug. 23, the Soneium platform is a collaboration between the tech giant and Startale Labs, built using the OP Stack.

The partnership with Transak adds to a list of key crypto and blockchain players that Sony Block Solutions Labs has integrated as launch partners. These include Optimism (OP), Alchemy, USDC (USDC) issuer Circle, The Graph (GRT) and Chainlink (LINK).

Soneium also patnered with the oracle platform Pyth Network (PYTH) as a price feeds provider.

Transak to help onboard users to Soneium

The Soneium blockchain platform will focus on delivering a network where web3 applications, tapping into Sony’s vast influence and various use cases, can reach mainstream users. Top projects likely to find the new layer-2 platform attractive include decentralized applications across gaming, music, and entertainment.

Our team is working closely with Transak, who share the mission to go Mainstream with Soneium. Transak’s dedicated solutions for multiple industries will empower developers to build innovative solutions, and we look forward to supporting the development of groundbreaking projects on Soneium.

Sota Watanabe, director of Sony Block Solutions Labs.

Transak offers on/off ramp payment options

Integration with Transak will allow users worldwide to easily onboard onto the Soneium platform. The web3 payments infrastructure provided by Transak is available to more than 350 apps across 160 countries. Through Transak’s integrations, users will have access to multiple payment options when buying or selling digital assets and non-fungible tokens.

Transak supports on-ramp and off-ramp payment methods, such as bank transfers, credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. NFT checkout also supports many of these payment options.