Cryptocurrency prices remained on edge on Wednesday, Sep. 4, as sentiment in the financial market worsened.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $57,000, Ethereum (ETH) hovered below $2,500, while the crypto fear and greed index moved into the fear zone for the first time in weeks. The same situation unfolded in the stock market, where the Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 indices continued their downtrend.

Still, some cryptocurrencies performed relatively well. Ethervista (VISTA) rose by over 120%, reaching a high of $32.3, giving it a market cap of $27 million.

AAVE (AAVE), the popular lending protocol, rose by 8% to $135.56 while Uniswap (UNI) rose to $6.61, its highest point since Aug. 26.

Ethervista is gaining momentum popular

Ethervista is a recently launched platform that allows users to create meme coins on Ethereum’s network. It is relatively similar to Tron’s SunPump and Solana’s Pump.fun.

Data shows that the network is gaining momentum. According to DeFi Llama, Ethervista has already generated over $1.64 million in fees and accumulated over $5.3 million in assets.

Another report indicates that Ethervista ranked sixth in terms of ETH gas consumed on Wednesday. The platform has handled over 32,500 transfers and has accumulated over 5,700 users.

Historically, hyped tokens tend to do well initially before retreating. Recently, Sun Token soared to $0.0448 during the SunPump hype but has since crashed by almost 40% from its highest point last week.

You might also like: Sun Token pump gains speed but a reversal might be near

Whale buys AAVE

AAVE’s price jumped to an intraday high of $135.56, its highest level since Aug. 25, after a large buyer continued accumulating the token. At its peak, AAVE was up by over 90% from its lowest point in July.

According to Nansen, some whales have continued to accumulate AAVE in recent days. One individual purchased AAVE tokens worth $538k and converted them into aETHAAVE, indicating a long-term hold strategy.

The largest onchain buyer had been accumulating $AAVE during this date range and outside of it to own a total of 4,133 $AAVE (worth $538k)They would then deposit this into Aave to receive aETHAAVE, which implies they have a longer time frame for this trade pic.twitter.com/9pPO5rMjmV

— Nansen 🧭 | TOKEN2049 🇸🇬🏎️ (@nansen_ai) September 4, 2024

AAVE has become a popular token among whales in the past few weeks, likely because of its strong fundamentals. It has over $10.97 billion in assets and has made over $244 million in fees this year. 

You might also like: AAVE up over 30% in past week as whale activity intensifies

Uniswap charged by the CFTC

Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange in the industry, saw a rise after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged it with offering derivatives. The CFTC ordered Uniswap to pay a $175,000 fine and to cease and desist from violating the Commodity Exchange Act.

In a dissenting statement, Commissioner Summer Mersinger argued that the agency was implementing regulations through enforcement. He expressed concern that one of the targeted DeFi protocols might choose to litigate rather than settle, stating:

“Wielding the hammer of enforcement against these DeFi protocols may result in some short-term “wins,” but in the long-term, without more, it will only create problems.”

Uniswap remains the biggest player in the DEX industry by far. According to DeFi Llama it handled over $4.55 billion in assets in the last 7 days.