Cosmos | Monthly Report — August 2022

This month’s trends, key metrics, and developments within the Cosmos Ecosystem.

This month has been a fascinating month for Cosmos, with Interchain on the horizon for most app chains, alongside a variety of new app chains set to launch during Q4 2022/Q1 2023.

With that, let’s take a look at all of the exciting developments, project launches, and partnerships from the past month!

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Keeping up the news on Cosmos

Important news and updates from August

• Infomal Inc has signaled that Interchain Security is on v0.1 pre-release, and it is set for a public incentivized testnet beginning November 2022, with the feature launch set for Q1 2023.
• Sifchain is bringing Cardano <> Cosmos, powered by Peggy 2.0 which is a bridge that connects Cardano’s EVM-compatible layers to Cosmos and is similar to how EVMOS works to connect ETH <> Cosmos.
• Near Protocol’s NEP has been approved, bringing NEAR <> Cosmos closer to reality by bringing IBC technology to NEAR.

Partnerships & Integrations

• Keplr and Skiff partner up to set up an end-to-end encrypted email, workspace, and filesharing space and allows anyone to log into Skiff with their Keplr wallet.
• Secret Network and Injective Labs partner up to create a wrapped version of $INJ called sINJ, allowing private balances and transfers of $INJ.
• Ren has integrated with Kava to allow the bridging of $BTC and other assets that Ren supports to/from Kava.
• Sei partners up with Axelar Network to bring cross-chain messaging for DeFi between EVM and Cosmos chains, allowing a plethora of new cross-chain DeFi use cases.

Funding & Upgrades

• Injective Labs has raised 40M from Jump and BH Digital to advance Web3 Finance.
• Kava is set for an upgrade to Kava 11 on the 8th of September and introduces liquid staking for KAVA.

New Developments

• stkBNB, the liquid-staked version of BNB created by pSTAKE is live, alongside margin trading and leveraged staking for stkBNB holders.
• Data chain is bringing Harmony <> Cosmos and has successfully completed its IBC bridge on Local Testnet.
• Stride is coming closer to its airdrop date, and has released its article which outlines the tokenomics of $ST, the native token for Stride.

On-Chain Analytics

In this section, we go through some of the on-chain analytics to see what’s been happening in the broader Cosmos ecosystem for the month of August.

Top 10 Chains (By Transaction Count)

Based on transaction count, we see that the new chain to have made it to the top 10 is Sifchain. This is probably due to the new Cardano <> Cosmos bridge, and thus people are trading/making transactions in anticipation of the bridge going live.

Top 10 Chains (By IBC Volume)

When we switch over to the IBC volume based on the past month, we see that both Cresent Network and Kujira have been strong contenders with regards to IBC volume, and both doing more than a multiple of 3x from the previous month in IBC volume.

The reason for the increase in volume? For Kujira, it would be due to the ease of buying/selling the KUJI token alongside the premises of USK and ORCA (their liquidation mechanism) launching soon. For Cresent, it would be due to its AMM order book with ranged liquidity that has recently launched.

Capitalizing on the Trends

With the information we’ve gathered, we’re seeing that (1) Non-Cosmos chains are looking to integrate with Cosmos, (2) Liquid Staked Protocols are on the rise, and (3) DEXes are increasing in IBC volume by the day.

For more information regarding these trends and links, do take a look at the Twitter thread that I’ve posted here. I will not be writing this down in the article so that we can keep the monthly update short and concise!

Cross-chain is the name of the game

After seeing a lot of non-cosmos chains looking to integrate with Cosmos to leverage on IBC, such as NEAR, Cardano, and Harmony, (also potentially Polkadot), I do believe that the best way to capitalize on this trend is to keep updated and be the first to bridge assets to and from the various chains once the cross-chain bridge launches

Liquid Staked solutions are the hot topic

We’re also seeing a few liquid staking solutions popping up, such as stkBNB from pSTAKE, bKAVA from KAVA, qAssets from Quicksilver, and stTokens from Stride Zone.

The best way to play on this trend is to keep some major assets such as ATOM, JUNO, and/or OSMO unstaked so that you can be one of the first few to interact with these protocols once they launch, and then proceed to degen on the various DeFi applications that will launch, once these liquid staking app chains are live.

DEXes are swallowing the IBC volume

Last but not least, we are seeing DEXes such as Kujira and Cresent Network increasing in IBC volume by the month. For these chains, the best play would be to buy its native asset and capitalize on the increased volume, until the hype dies down.

Wrapping it all up

That’s it for the updates on Cosmos this month! Cosmos has been gaining a lot of traction recently and a lot of exciting app chains are still in development right now, all of which are looking to leverage Interchain modules to make cross-chain use cases possible.

Make sure to keep a lookout for our Interchain article coming out this month, which will explain what the various Interchain modules will do for Cosmos, and why we think it will change the course of Cosmos.

Moving forward, we will also be changing our monthly updates on Cosmos to bi-weekly updates as we realized that Cosmos moves so fast and it’d be best to bring you the top news in Cosmos as quickly as possible.

With that, we will see you on the 17th of September.

Until then, stay safe!