Buzzy ERC404 tokens in Pandora and DeFrogs are down bad, but not out

ERC404, crypto’s latest buzzy class of tokens, has lost some of its sheen in the last three days.

Still, the niche’s recent bearish drop may have just been a flash in the pan.

The wider ERC404 market is down 5%, with many tokens posting massive price drops on the day, CoinGecko data shows.

Though bearish, the performance is a marked improvement from earlier today when the market was down a whopping 30%.

Pandora, the largest of the lot by total circulating value, is down 36% from its peak price of $32,495 achieved on February 9. Today, it’s down 7%, but not after experiencing a fierce 15% drawdown this morning before recovering some.

DeFrogs, number two by the same metric, plummeted 22% earlier today before rallying back with a 10% jump in the last hour. It is still down 6% on the day at time of writing.

ERC404 is an experimental token standard — a set of rules that controls how a token behaves. It is a hybrid of the fungible ERC20 standard that gave rise to tokens like Shiba Inu and the non-fungible ERC721 standard that enables the creation of NFTs like Bored Apes.

As a hybrid, ERC404 developers hope to create a token that has qualities from each. The aim is to improve liquidity for NFTs, which can be notoriously illiquid, by making them behave more like tradable crypto tokens.

ERC404 tokens have already ushered in a new speculative frenzy, with Pandora accumulating $484 million in trading volume since its launch on February 2. More than half of that volume has come in the last three days.

The trading activity has been so frenzied that it has also caused transaction costs on Ethereum to spike during its peak activity period on February 9.

Notably, this flies in the face of claims by the Pandora project founder that ERC404 should reduce gas costs on the blockchain.

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.