Decentral Block Post

Unique addresses on the Build and Build (BNB) Chain have now surpassed Ethereum, according to a Dec. 22 statement from the developer.

The developer claims that this makes BNB Chain “the largest layer 1 blockchain in the world.” However, blockchain data shows that the Bitcoin network is still larger than both BNB Chain and Ethereum.

According to Etherscan, Ethereum currently has over 217 million unique addresses. By contrast, BNB Chain has over 233 million unique addresses according to BscScan. This implies that BNB Chain is larger than Ethereum as judged by this metric.

On the other hand, the Bitcoin network has over 1 billion unique addresses, making it larger than both of these networks combined.

The statement was made as part of BNB Chain’s “Year in Review.” The post also highlighted other significant milestones that the BNB network has reached over the past year. The network capped out at 9.8 million transactions per day in May and reached 2.2 million daily active users (DAUs) in October, with DAUs being defined as the number of unique addresses per day that interact with a smart contract.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell at the Dec. 22 Wall Street open as United States equities reversed previous gains.

Bitcoin risks new and unseen "death cross

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping to intraday lows of $16,650 on Bitstamp.

The pair remained a conspicuous stocks copycat as the S&P 500 opened down 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 1.8% at the time of writing.

The weakness appeared to be a reaction to stronger-than-expected U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Q3, data for which was released prior to the open.

Despite notionally a sign of recovery, concerns focused on the Federal Reserve continuing its restrictive economic policy on the assumption that the economy would be able to withstand the measures.

It has been a tumultuous year for the crypto investors who have witnessed the total crypto market capitalization tumble from about $2.2 trillion at the beginning of 2022 to about $850 billion in December. The sharp erosion in valuation was caused due to several high-profile bankruptcies in 2022.

The entire Terra ecosystem imploded with the collapse of its LUNA token and TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin. The failure of Three Arrows Capital followed this black swan event, and the final blow came as FTX underwent a bank run and imploded. These back-to-back events triggered a liquidity and credit crunch and appear to have caused the most damage to the crypto industry.

A prolonged bear market tends to test investors’ patience, but it offers one of the best opportunities to buy fundamentally sound cryptocurrencies at lower levels. Smart investors who can go against the herd and invest during periods of panic tend to benefit the most when the trend eventually turns.

While a bear market is a great time to build a portfolio, traders tend to make the mistake of buying the coins that have fallen the most in the hope that they will recover to their previous glory. Most times that does not happen because every bull market has a new set of leaders. Generally, the ones that are resilient during the fall or recover quickly from the bottom tend to lead on the way up.

Let’s look at five cryptocurrencies that are showing promise for 2023.