Best Crypto Sectors This Week: DePin, Layer-1s, Memecoins and More

Key Takeaways

• DePIN cryptos rose nearly 25% last week.
• Meanwhile, memecoins continued their recent surge, climbing almost 20% in seven days.
• Layer-1 coins, Layer-2 tokens, and Proof-of-Stake coins also saw increases. 

Cryptocurrency isn’t just about the blockchain and, well, cryptocurrency. It’s also about different kinds of cryptocurrency. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest crypto categories and see how they’ve performed over the last week. 

DePIN – Up 24.4%

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, or DePIN for short, are platforms that allow blockchain technology to interact with physical infrastructure in industries such as storage, communications, and energy.

Becoming one of this year’s crypto buzz sectors, DePIN coins and tokens enjoyed a very good week last week. They rose almost 25% to $23 billion, led by STORJ. This crypto climbed more than 50% thanks to purchasing  the PetaGene platform . 

Memecoins – Up 19.9%

Memecoins are cryptocurrencies that, ultimately, parody crypto and the hype surrounding it.

Spearheaded by Dogecoin (DOGE), they usually serve little to no purpose but have become increasingly popular thanks, in part, to the potential for profit, admittedly one balanced out by the equal, if not greater, potential for loss.

There is an argument that a healthy memecoin sector is a sign of a healthy overall crypto market. With memecoins up nearly 20% to $62.1 billion in the seven days to Friday, Oct. 18, and with the likes of Book of MEME (BOME), TURBO, and Cat In A Dogs World (MEW) enjoying weekly rises of more than 50%, that would suggest crypto is in a good place right now.

Layer-1s (Blockchains) – Up 11.3%

Blockchain, or Layer-1 coins, are the largest crypto category by overall market cap, worth $1.9 trillion. Since $1.3 trillion, or 68% of that, is made up of Bitcoin, it is probably not surprising that what happens to BTC has a big impact on the overall sector.

Earlier this week, net flows into Bitcoin ETFs continued to mount up. This, in turn, raised Bitcoin’s price, and as a result, the market cap of blockchain coins climbed by 11%.

Proof-of-Stake – Up 8.8%

Proof-of-stake blockchains allow people to add blocks to the blockchain and, therefore, mint new coins. This is opposed to Proof-of-Work blockchains, where people solve incredibly difficult mathematical problems to add blocks.

The largest PoS blockchain is Ethereum, which converted from Proof-of-Work a little over two years ago.

The Proof-of-Stake sector climbed 8% to $549.9 billion last week, boosted by an Aptos (APT) token unlock and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin laying out his goals for Ethereum’s Surge.

Layer-2 Scaling Solutions – Up 6%

Layer-2s are platforms that sit on top of blockchains and, in short, help make transactions quicker and cheaper.

After properly breaking through a couple of years ago, Layer-2s have become embedded in the crypto consciousness.

To show how crucial they have become, the term Layer-1 for regular blockchains was barely used a few years ago, but the success of Layer-2s has changed how people talk about crypto.

Anyway, Layer-2s had a pretty good week last week, growing to $19.5 billion, thanks, in part, to Bitcoin Layer-2 Stacks (STX) listing on the Nexo crypto exchange.