MEME NFT farming platform launches the new and improved v2, Megadeth NFT nets $18K, and Kevin Smith tokenizes the rights to “Killroy Was Here”.
Toddler hodler: 3-year-old Bitcoin educator interviews Michael Saylor
Three-year-old Lily Knight interviewed Michael Saylor on April 13 about his thoughts on Bitcoin and his plans for the future.
South Korea’s largest bank joins Hedera Governing Council
Shinhan Bank plans to use Hedera’s infrastructure to bolster the efficiency of many of its internal processes.
Coinbase’s COIN stock reference price set at just $250, as 1,700 staff get free shares
Coinbase’s reference price of $250, received ahead of the Nasdaq direct listing, values a “thank you” gift to all 1,700 full-time employees at $25,000.
TA: Here’s Why Bitcoin Price is Signaling Upside Continuation To $65K
Bitcoin price started a fresh increase and it cleared the $62,000 resistance against the US Dollar. BTC traded to a new all-time high near $63,862 and it is likely to continue higher.
- Bitcoin extended its rise above the $62,000 and $63,000 resistance levels.
- The price is now trading well above the $62,500 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
- There is a bullish continuation pattern forming with resistance near $63,600 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
- The pair is likely to continue higher above $64,000 and $64,200 in the coming sessions.
Bitcoin Price is Gaining Momentum
Bitcoin started a fresh increase after it broke the main $61,120 resistance zone. It opened the doors for more gains above the $62,000 resistance zone.
The price even cleared the $63,000 level and it traded to a new all-time high at $63,862. It is now trading well above the $62,500 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. An immediate support is now forming near the $62,850 level.
The 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $59,692 low to $63,862 high is near the $62,850 level. There is also a bullish continuation pattern forming with resistance near $63,600 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.
Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
If there is an upside break above the triangle resistance, bitcoin will most likely extend gains above the $63,862 high. In the stated case, the price could surge above the $64,000 level. The next major stop for the bulls could be $65,000 in the coming sessions.
Dips Supports in BTC?
If bitcoin fails to climb above $63,500 and $63,850, there could be a short-term downside correction. An initial support on the downside is near the $62,850 level.
A downside break below the triangle support and $62,850 might call for a drop towards the $61,800 level. It is near the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent wave from the $59,692 low to $63,862 high. The main support is now forming near the $61,120 level (the recent breakout zone), where the bulls are likely to appear.
Technical indicators:
Hourly MACD – The MACD is now gaining momentum in the bullish zone.
Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now well above the 50 level.
Major Support Levels – $62,850, followed by $61,120.
Major Resistance Levels – $63,500, $63,850 and $65,000.
Revealed: Top 4 user complaints about Signal’s new crypto payments beta
Signal has published user feedback from its beta integration with Mobilecoin, which saw users complain about the volatility and transaction fees related to MOB.
Exodus Wallet raises almost $60M in crypto in regulated offering
Exodus’ claimed record share sale is set to be shattered by Coinbase later today.
Bitcoin futures open interest soars to new heights ahead of Coinbase listing
Open interest in Bitcoin futures is soaring but volumes are falling.
The Bearish Bitcoin Chart Bulls Definitely Don’t Want To See
Bitcoin price today set a new all-time high, and tomorrow Coinbase goes public putting an even bigger spotlight on the already buzzing cryptocurrency industry.
Things couldn’t possibly look more bullish for Bitcoin and the rest of the market, but the recent price action could resemble one market wizard’s schematic of what “distribution” should look like. Here’s the chart that anyone bullish on Bitcoin might not want to see.
The Various Phases Of A Crypto Market Cycle
All markets are cyclical, and crypto is no different. The entire asset class sans a few outliers are in a massive bull market where new all-time highs are set weekly.
Price discovery in trending, speculative assets are fast and furious and Bitcoin price has been soaring ever since it retested its bear market bottom.
Related Reading | Crypto CEO “Convinced” Of Bitcoin Cycle Top, Warns Of Sell Side Intensity
Throughout 2019 and 2020, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap was in full accumulation mode – a phase in which investors were loading up on BTC preparing for the bull market ahead.
Those that did were ultimately right and profitable. Bitcoin price rallied from under $4,000 to $63,000 and is still climbing.
What comes next however isn’t as certain after coming so far. Unfortunately, what’s ahead might not be something bulls are yet ready to see.
Recent price action matches the distribution schematic well | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Recent Bitcoin Price Action Resembles Wyckoff Distribution Schematic
One crypto analyst has spotted the fact that the recent price action in Bitcoin resembles a distribution schematic created by late master market technician Richard Demille Wyckoff.
Wyckoff is highly regarded alongside the likes of Gann, Dow, Dow, Elliott, Merrill, Morgan, and Livermore. His theories are regularly used throughout finance even today.
Wyckoff theory believes that the market should be viewed as being controlled by one figured dubbed as “the composite man.” This mysterious whale takes the market through four distinct phases: accumulation, mark up, distribution, and mark down.
Markets are said to cycle in such a manner, and Wyckoff was so keen to how this worked, he developed several schematics for each.
Related Reading | Grand Finale: Bitcoin Price Closes Record High Weekly, Could Conclude Cycle
Layering such a schematic over the recent Bitcoin price action isn’t a great sign for bulls currently. Making matters much worse, the rally has been a full year strong now with very little correction, technicals are highly overheated, and a rare top signal just appeared for the first time since 2017.
If the analyst is right and distribution is why the rally paused at $60,000, what could come next is a mark down phase that erases some of the mark up over the last year – before it all starts over again.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
Record $8B open interest on Ethereum futures shows the pros are ‘here’
Analysts say billion-dollar liquidations are less of a risk even as the open interest on Ethereum futures hit a new high at $8 billion.
Lockheed Martin adopts blockchain for supply chain management in Switzerland
The defense contractor has secured access to SyncFab’s supplier intelligence platform to help manage OEMs in Switzerland.
How An Ex-CIA Director Proved Bitcoin Use in Crime is Declining
Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Director Michael Morell wrote a report titled “An Analysis of Bitcoin’s Use in Illicit Finance”. The ex-government employee had over 33 years working at the Agency.
Published by the Crypto Council for Innovation, Morell’s investigation attempts to disprove a thesis defended by many authorities around the world: Bitcoin is a tool to finance cybercrime and other illicit activities.
Morell considers Bitcoin to have a growing momentum and a spreading use as a store of value. Endorsed by companies like Tesla and MicroStrategy, the cryptocurrency is riding a major wave of adoption.
To achieve his goal, Morell consulted many experts in financial services, payment systems, global intelligence, even former senior government officials. The Ex-CIA director himself used to believe Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are a convenient way of sending money anonymously.
However, the research made him changed his mind. He was able to reach important conclusions: Bitcoin’s use as an illicit finance tool is “significantly overstated” and:
The blockchain ledger on which Bitcoin transac-tions are recorded is an underutilized forensic tool that can be used more widely by law enforcement and the intelligence community to identify and dis-rupt illicit activities.
Bitcoin’s financial use is predominantly legal
The research conducted by the former CIA Director indicates that there is no data that supports two of the most common assertions regulators make when it comes to Bitcoin.
First, that its use for illicit financial transactions is growing. Second, that this is the cryptocurrency’s primary use case. The report says:
(…) the common belief that Bitcoin is both primarily and increasingly used for purposes of illicit finance is “un-informed and not based on data” and that “there are no numbers and no methodologies” supporting it.
Results from the polemic analytics firm Chainalysis indicate that of Bitcoin’s total activity, dating from 2017 to 2020, less than 1% is used for non-legal purposes.
Further data provided by analytics firm CipherTrace claims that of BTC’s overall trading volume only 0.5% can be attributed to illicit activity. In contrast, fiat currencies’ use in non-legal transactions is estimated on the order of 2% to 4%. The report says:
A former CIA analyst added credence to the above estimates due in part to the difference in overall volume, most illicit activity still takes place in the traditional banking system and not via cryptocurrency.
Therefore, Morell concluded that illicit use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is “not higher than it is in the traditional banking system”.
Bitcoin is trading at $63.063 with 4.9% profits in the past day. In the weekly and monthly chart, BTC has 7.5% and 2.9% gains respectively.
Dogecoin (DOGE) hits a new ATH as Bitcoin bulls try to flip $63K to support
Dogecoin rallied to a new all-time high as mainstream interest in cryptocurrency grows and the total crypto market capitalization tops $2.19 trillion.
XRP Above $2? Why DeFi Integration Could Be Game Changer
With the biggest gains in the crypto top 10 by market cap, XRP trades at $1.88 recording a 35.9% rally over the past day. In the weekly and monthly chart, XRP is up 107% and 307% respectively.
Operator Altstreet Bets has shared the chart below to indicate XRP’s price could go to $3 “without resistance”. The trader has set support at $1.10 and $1.72 and believes XRP could target $8.49 in the long term.
Many factors are contributing to XRP’s recent performance. The high interest of investors in South Korea, buying the token for a premium, and new uses case for XRP.
In the legal corner, operator King Solomon has been bullish over the recent developments in the Securities and Exchange Commission versus Ripple Labs, and executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen lawsuit.
Filed for the alleged sale of an unregistered security, things seem to be going in favor of the payment company.
Researcher Leonidas Hadjiloizou has shown the position of international institutions on XRP. The Bank of International Settlements, in a report, said XRP is “definitely not a security”. Hadjiloizou said:
Would Jay Clayton push for a lawsuit against Ripple as he was walking out the door if he believed the SEC would take action anyway after he left? I believe he wouldn’t. This is one of the reasons I believe this lawsuit is unwanted by the SEC and will settle it if it can save face
Although the legal dispute could be far from over, the sentiment over the result is bullish on the crypto market. King Solomon said:
Moreover, the case seems to reveal that former SEC leaders put their personal gain above the well-being of the nation. When the agency repeatedly claims in filings and hearings that “the SEC is not on trial here”, it is almost certain that the opposite is true.
XRP uses cases expand to DeFi
Interoperable solution Wanchain has announced XRP will be integrated into its platform alongside Ethereum, Bitcoin, EOS, and others. Leveraging “Wanchain’s Universal Multichain Bridges”, users will be able to trade cross-chain enable XRP Tokens.
As of now, XRP holders can start earning with Wanchain DeFi protocols like WanSwap, the platform’s native decentralized exchange. Wanchain’s team said in an official post:
XRP holders can now securely use their XRP to farm, mine and provide liquidity rather than simply leaving their tokens, inactive, in wallets and exchanges. XRP tokens can now, finally, engage with DeFi applications and reach their full potential.
Wanchain users will have at their disposal a native wallet and a Wanbridge website where they can send and receive XRP cross-chain.
In order to achieve this, the platform “converts” the token on the XRP Ledger and, in the case of Ethereum, mints an ERC-20 token called wanXRP. All transactions using Wanchain are free.
Coinbase Listing Sends Binance Coin (BNB), Exchange Tokens Soaring
There’s less than 24 hours standing in between now and the time San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is listed publicly for the first time. The shot heard ’round Wall Street has caused exchange tokens in particular to surge.
One of the biggest benefactors has been competitor platform utility token, Binance Coin, along with other similar coins offered by exchanges. Here’s why there’s such interest and demand for the platforms themselves.
The Big Deal Behind The Coinbase Listing And Ongoing Bitcoin Rally
Tomorrow, Coinbase (COIN) begins trading on the stock market in a move that could cause a widespread “revaluation for this whole segment higher,” according to Amplify ETFs founder and CEO Christian Magoon.
It also comes as Bitcoin price pushes to new historic highs, and crypto “altcoin season” is in full bloom. Coinbase couldn’t be doing better right now, and its debut valuation tomorrow is anticipated to be between $150 billion based on pre-market trading on FTX.
Related Reading | Coinbase Bitcoin Outflows Are The Strongest Bullish Signal “Ever”
The popular cryptocurrency exchange now synonymous with Bitcoin itself has seen its Q1 2021 revenues beat all of 2020 combined.
The company’s “Coinbase Pro” platform is where many institutions and corporations have been doing business.
The high-wealth individuals and companies moving crypto off the exchange en masse has been called the most bullish signal “ever.” And the bull market has been spilling into altcoins and then some.
Binance Coin has absolutely exploded amidst Coinbase IPO fever | Source: BNBUSD on TradingView.com
FOMO For Exchange Tokens Bolsters Binance Coin Bull Market ROI
“I think we’re going to see more private companies go public because they see the path, hopefully, that Coinbase takes that recognizes the value in the public marketplace,” Magoon also told CNBC during a segment of ETF Edge.
The potential of other platforms like Coinbase to follow suit has prompted exchange utility tokens such as those from Binance or newcomer trading platform FTX.
Related Reading | Number Of Bitcoin Mentions In Company Earnings Reports Goes Parabolic
Binance Coin itself has been an enormous benefactor of the buzz the Coinbase listing has created. Not only could Binance eventually go public as well, but increased trading volumes and utility from Binance Coin has also caused demand to skyrocket.
The popular token is also at the center of Binance Smart Chain that now could rival Ethereum. All together these factors have resulted in a more than 1300% climb from low to high in 2021 alone.
Exchange tokens are flying even more so than CBSE | Source: Arcane Research
FTT, the token to newcomer platform FTX which has been offering pre-IPO Coinbase contracts, has also been rising and is up more than 700% on the year.
What this all boils down to, is that the cryptocurrency industry is finally being legitimized in the eyes of Wall Street and beyond, which could cause even further repricing of Bitcoin, altcoins, and especially exchange tokens like never before. And it all starts tomorrow with the historic Coinbase listing.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
NFTs by mail? US Postal Service plans to support postage tokens
The government agency reported $73.1 billion in revenue from postage and other services in the 2020 fiscal year.
DeFi mutual fund Sheesha Finance raises $9.4M
Sheesha is attempting to make DeFi projects more accessible to mainstream users.
XRP price soars to new highs after recent legal victories and relisting rumors
XRP price rallied more than 30% as retail traders rotate into “cheaper” altcoins and investor sentiment turns positive after Ripple’s recent legal victories against the SEC.
Bitcoin Funding Flips Bullish, But Are Liquidations Imminent?
Bitcoin’s price has reached a new ATH after a long period of consolidation. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $63.235 with 5.1% profits in the past day and 7.7% in the 7-day chart.
Before the rally, data from Santiment pointed to high levels of bearish sentiment across social media platforms. During the bullish price action, there was an ATH in address activity with 1.36 million when BTC touch $63.4000.
Now, the Fear & Greed Index is near the Extreme Greed levels. On the derivatives market, investors pushed the funding rate across all exchanges towards 0.08%, as shown by Glassnode data. A “tolerable” level, according to Lex Moskovski.
#Bitcoin hit ATH and the funding is tolerable.
Good sign. pic.twitter.com/gfzsDFV42M
— Lex Moskovski (@mskvsk) April 13, 2021
However, this metric can increase over the next hours. Over the weekend, when BTC was gaining momentum and tried to break the $61.000 resistance, the funding rate skyrocketed to 0.16%. Levels not reached since mid-February this year.
Per an Arcane Research report, the spike in this metric preceded a correction in BTC’s price. Since the beginning of 2021, when the funding rates go high, BTC’s price follows as investors “heavily” positioned themselves for the upside.
If this metric stays in the current levels, the rally could be prolonged, but an increase in the funding rates could be a key indicator pointing to short-term bearish price action, a return to support, and further consolidation. Arcane Research’s report claims:
High funding rates and futures premium hint towards a lot of leverage towards the upside. Leverage is an essential ingredient in the recipe for liquidations, and we would not be surprised to see an influx in long liquidations soon.
Presently, the threat for a cascade of liquidations hurting Bitcoin’s price action is yet to materialize, but that seems to be a predominant trend in the past months.
On the bull’s side, Trader “Pentoshi” said it would be “unwise” to take a short position against Bitcoin. Pentoshi believes that a 50-day consolidation period turns into support and ATH points to the market accepting BTC’s price. The trader added:
(…) the market has accepted price above the highs unless it’s a scalp. There’s a clear trend and that trend is up. Easy to get steamrolled.
Bitcoin’s price in discovery
Further data from Glassnode signals a correlation between the increase in USDT, USDC, BUSD’s supply, and Bitcoin’s price appreciation. As shown below, the growth in stablecoins’ market cap is an indication of growing demand for BTC.
Over the past two weeks, USDT supply alone has increased by $3.36 Billion, said Glassnode. In the meantime, BTC’s price has been moving sideways, but seems to have enough fuel to sustain the rally and strong support at $60,000, as monitor Whalemap said:
60k is a big macro support now. A lot of Bitcoin was accumulated in that range so selling pressure will not be high there. Easy invalidation if we get into the red zone (just pointing it out for risk management purposes). Price discovery activated.
What Are the Legal Challenges That Crypto Faces and the Way Out?
The popularity of the cryptocurrency space has catapulted to new levels in recent times. Apart from retail investors, institutional interest in the crypto space has grown massively. The next logical step for the progress of the crypto industry is some sort of government validation while remaining totally decentralized. While this seems too good to be true, this has to be the next step in the evolution of blockchain.
For that to happen, the crypto industry must take care of the stigmas revolving around it that make it seem too risky, complex, and unapproachable.
What are the factors that are defaming the cryptocurrency?
Are you piqued with the legal challenges disarming you from making the best out of the cryptocurrency market? According to an excerpt from Chainalysis’ 2021 report, in 2019, criminal/illegal activity represented 2.1% of all cryptocurrency transaction volume (roughly $21.4 billion worth of transfers).
Let’s look at the two main challenges that cryptocurrency faces at the moment as far as legality is concerned.
- Use of Illegal Assets
One of the factors contributing to this stigma is the use of illicit assets for investment. Not that Fiat has never been used for illegality, yet cryptos being relatively new and fresh, it does arouse doubts. The use of illegal money makes up for a bad name for cryptocurrency. However, you can stop using a specific anti-money laundering mechanism that is strongly built keeping in mind earlier case studies and lessons from Centralized markets.
The blockchain industry is an excellent tool at the hands of cryptocurrencies to locate and block illicit funds transactions. AMLbot is one such solution that can automatically detect these illegal activities and lets the user know about them to safeguard and protect.
- Unknown origin of funds
One of the factors that make the cryptocurrency industry so unsafe is that you usually don’t know that the transactions you are making are either from illicit money or genuine green money. However, there are specific platforms such as AMLSafe that can check all your transactions for you.
There are several wallets in the market that can help keep all your transactions safe while improving your security. These wallets can check all the transactions made by you and ensure that none of these transactions involves dirty money.
Transacting with illicit funds is illegal and can be punishable by law, so it is crucial to know that the transactions you are making are legal assets and are detached from anything that is not legal.
These wallets can also provide you a prominent feature where you can directly purchase any cryptocurrency such as BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT, etc. This platform uses the AMLBot technology to keep you and all your virtual assets safe from any illicit activity
Where does AMLBot come into play?
AMLBot stands for an anti-money laundering bot that checks digital cryptocurrency wallets for any illicit funds activity. One of the main concerns while performing crypto transactions is coming in contact with illegal goods and people, which undermine your business’s authenticity and legality.
AMLBot is a proactive, democratic tool that has a well-researched mechanism to outplay money laundering. It is a hassle-free solution that checks digital cryptocurrency wallets for any illicit funds activity. As discussed earlier, crypto transactions can be high-risk when it comes into contact with notorious entities undermining your businesses’ authenticity and legality.
The user does not have to suffer layers of complexity to access the trouble-free tool for it boasts easy onboarding with zero commitments.
It can automatically detect if you have made any transaction with such funds and lets you know immediately. This not just adds to the safety and privacy feature, but also assists in maintaining a clean image among the clients and the users which is extremely important for the veracity of the business.
It is crucial to stay away from any type of illicit activity to avoid regulatory actions charted out against you. As online frauds have increased recently, authorities have become strict about allowing any kind of illegal activity.
Using this tool, you can rest assured that all your transactions are genuine and compliant with the regulations.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay