According to CryptoPotato, despite a recent downfall, many analysts remain optimistic about the future of Ripple's XRP. EGRAG CRYPTO, a Twitter user who regularly presents forecasts, suggested that the asset's price could rally toward $1.40 by April this year. He further predicted that the next stop after that might be an all-time high of $5. Ripple is scheduled to meet the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a grand trial on April 23. The company has better chances to secure a decisive win in the lengthy legal battle, having three partial court victories in its account already. A positive outcome for Ripple could indeed fuel an XRP upswing by strengthening investors' confidence and potentially attracting more buyers.

Dark Defender also chipped in, forecasting that XRP might surpass $0.90 should it break above $0.52 in the short term. Dropping below that resistance level, though, might lead to a decline of almost $0.40. XForceGlobal and CryptoBull were much more bullish. The former argued that XRP has formed a triangle pattern as of late, which indicates that the token's value could rise above $10 by 2026. CryptoBull predicted a 2,500% price explosion toward $13 before the end of 2024. According to Dark Defender's estimations, the token has been on a bullish path for the last 180 days. The analyst thinks there are ten more months (at least) during which XRP's price could skyrocket to as high as $22.50.

According to Decrypt, a pseudonymous AI game developer has created a Diablo III-inspired island in the recently launched NFT game Nifty Island. The creator, known as Dav, is a longtime fan of the Diablo franchise and was drawn to Nifty Island due to its ability to continuously expand creations. Nifty Island is a 3D social game where players can design islands, complete quests, and earn NFT rewards. The platform offers cross-chain integration, including Ethereum, Polygon, and Base. Dav's Diablo III-inspired island took over 20 hours to create and features an island footrace, a Capture the Flag game, and a Spy Hunt feature for users who prefer non-PvP modes. While copyright and intellectual property remain a concern in the gaming and generative AI industry, Dav emphasized that his project is more about recreating the vibe of Diablo III rather than copying Blizzard's intellectual property.

According to CryptoPotato, Shiba Inu (SHIB) may be poised for a short-term upswing, supported by developments in its layer-2 blockchain solution, Shibarium, and a resurgence in the meme coin sector. Despite underperforming in recent days with a 3% price drop over two weeks, key metrics and factors suggest the correction could be nearing its end. CryptoQuant data reveals that SHIB exchange netflow has been positive only once in the past eight days, with a shift from centralized exchanges to self-custody methods considered bullish as it reduces immediate selling pressure.

The asset's burning program could also contribute to a potential rally. The burn rate has spiked on several occasions in recent weeks, with over 9 billion tokens destroyed since the beginning of 2024. This mechanism aims to reduce SHIB's massive circulating supply, making it scarcer and potentially more valuable over time. The Shibarium team recently introduced an update designed to automate the token burning process, reducing manual intervention. Further advancements in the layer-2 scaling solution could also fuel SHIB's possible upswing. Launched in August 2021, Shibarium aims to support the meme coin's ecosystem growth by reducing transaction fees and improving speed.

A potential revival of the meme coin sector could be another factor propelling a SHIB rally. Meme coins sometimes follow each other's trends, and many are currently performing well, particularly those built on Solana, which have experienced a significant upswing in recent weeks.

According to CryptoPotato, Polygon, a layer-2 scaling network, came close to matching Ethereum's user base in 2023, as reported by blockchain analytics firm Flipside. Polygon acquired 15.24 million users that year, approaching Ethereum's 15.4 million, with a difference of around 160,000 wallets. Flipside defines an "acquired" user as someone who engaged in at least two transactions on a specific blockchain, with at least one occurring in 2023. During the first half of 2023, Polygon led the user acquisition race but was later surpassed by Ethereum, which maintained its lead throughout the latter part of the year.

In January, Polygon achieved a remarkable milestone with 2.8 million acquired users, constituting over 40% of the total number for 2023, according to Flipside. Ethereum secured the lead for the entire year, while Bitcoin claimed the third position with 10.65 million acquired users. Solana and Arbitrum completed the top five rankings. The aggregated data from the eight tracked blockchains, including Optimism (OP), Avalanche (AVAX), and Base (BASE), revealed a total of 62 million acquired users. Flipside observed that user acquisition peaked in May but gradually declined afterward. Notably, Flipside suggested a connection between the surge in acquired users starting in March and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The event potentially eroded confidence in centralized entities, prompting a shift towards decentralized custody alternatives.

In its predictions for future trends, Flipside observed a decline in NFT-related activities and a shift towards decentralized finance (DeFi) activities during 2023. Anticipating the upcoming cycle, Flipside suggested that DeFi activities would continue to dominate, surpassing the prominence of NFT trading. Specifically, it highlighted decentralized exchange (DEX) trading and yield farming as ongoing predominant applications while also forecasting the emergence of new DeFi applications like the Ethereum restaking protocol Eigenlayer. According to Flipside, user behavior in 2024 is expected to involve increased interaction with multiple blockchain networks, although most users will likely stick to engaging with a single chain. The prediction further emphasized a growing trend of user interaction with Layer 2 networks in the coming year. Despite being a minority in 2023, users with more than one blockchain predominantly interacted with Layer 2s. Flipside speculated that rising transaction fees during the next crypto market bull run could lead Layer 2 networks to lower their costs for end users competitively, potentially driving increased interest in associated governance tokens.