Wrapped AVAX (WAVAX) has seen a surge in wallet accumulation on the Avalanche blockchain, even as its price dropped more than 4% over the past 24 hours, data from TheTie shows.
A total of 3,898 wallets added to their WAVAX holdings today—nearly twice the recent average of 1,600, the data shows. A wrapped token is a token that represents a cryptocurrency from another blockchain or token standard and is worth the same as the original cryptocurrency. The wrapped token can be used on certain non-native blockchains for trading, lending and borrowing on DeFi platforms and later redeemed for the original cryptocurrency.
While a declining price often signals bearish sentiment, the uptick in accumulation could suggest that some traders see long-term potential in WAVAX. However, whether this buying activity translates into price stability or a rebound remains to be seen.
The wallet accumulation comes shortly after major cryptocurrency exchange Bybit added AVAX as a cashback option for its Bybit Card product and after the Avalanche network saw technological advancements late last year with its Avalanche9000 upgrade.
The Avalanche ecosystem has also been seeing growing integrations, including the expansion of BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL onto it.
Wrapped AVAX is a tokenized version of Avalanche’s native AVAX coin, enabling broader compatibility across decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
The growing number of wallets holding WAVAX may indicate users are positioned for future DeFi activity. Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem, which includes major protocols like Aave and Lido, has been seeing a slight decline in total value locked over the last few months. Trading volumes on the network have nevertheless been steadily growing, according to DeFiLlama data.
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CORRECT (Feb. 17, 08:24 UTC): Corrects exchange name to Bybit in fourth paragraph. An earlier version of this story referred to Binance.
