Decentraland (MANA) has recorded a strong performance over the past week, growing 73% to $0.7090 at the time of press. This falls just short of MANA’s pre-FTX collapse price of $0.7137.

Since Jan. 08, the total crypto market cap has grown substantially, adding $156 billion to set off a spike in token prices across the board.

Over this time frame, out of the top 100 projects, Aptos has experienced the most significant price growth, up 77%, followed by Decentraland, with Helium ranking third at 54% gains.

Although the limited data set does not confirm an end to this bear cycle, there is little doubt that these tentative shoots of recovery have renewed optimism for the year ahead.

Decentraland looks strong

Having hit a local bottom of $0.2858 on December 2022, Decentraland has been trending higher since.

The uptick resulted in a 34% swing to the upside on Jan. 13 before closing the day marginally lower. Subsequent days have all resulted in significant upside swings, culminating in a peak price just below the pre-FTX collapse level today (Jan. 16).

However, Jan. 16’s daily candle pattern has printed a small candle body with a long top and bottom wick, indicating market indecision at the current price.

Nonetheless, the peak-to-trough move of +156%, along with 14 out of the last 17 daily closes in the green, is evidence of market confidence in the project and the Metaverse concept in general.

Fundamental developments

Decentraland recently tweeted “Game, Set, Match!” on AOMetaverse, which refers to experiencing the Australian Open tennis tournament in the Metaverse.

The Australian Open will run from Jan. 16 – 29 at Melbourne Park, consisting of singles, doubles, and mixed doubles matches, including juniors and wheelchair professionals.

Matches can be viewed in Decentraland via big screens, similar to real-world fan parks but in the Metaverse. Users can also interact via the “New AO Tennis Club” and “Beach Bar” and participate in challenges as part of the AOMetaverse experience.

Similarly, recent weekly GitHub activity placed Decentraland as the sixth most active blockchain, with 337 commits.

This is behind Polkadot/Kusama, Cardano, Status, Filecoin, and Cosmos at 514, 479, 399, 398, and 340, respectively. But ahead of Ethereum, which places tenth at 238 commits.