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Solana Jumps By 23%: Will A Correction Impact The Recent Rise?

Solana has been one of the top performers in the cryptocurrency market, with gains of over 89% in 30 days, 131% in 14 days, and 63% in 7 days. In the face of claims that the SOL network is failing, the token’s price needs a slight upward boost to gain back the support of investors. After dropping to a low of $8.01 in December, its price has increased dramatically in recent weeks and is now trading above the $20.00 level. 

Solana Surge After The Months

When Solana’s native token SOL hit a 52-week low of $8.14 on December 29, the cryptocurrency was on the edge of collapse before the end of 2022. However, the market has since turned around and is currently in its favor.

Related Reading: Solana (SOL) Continues To Shine With 43% Gains In Last Week

The release of the first meme coin, BONK, on the blockchain in late December also contributed to the Solana price increase. The meme coin’s market cap skyrocketed to $200 million as word spread but faded to $55 million at press time. But SOL has not slowed down.

SOL has to close higher than the 200-day simple moving average of $27.59 and exponential moving average of $30.25 to confirm this trend change. However, this close could signal continued positive momentum and set the stage for higher prices.

Although the RSI has moved into the bullish momentum at 73, the MACD is still well above its optimum values. So, it lends credence to the idea that another surge is possible.

The on-balance volume (OBV) has also increased dramatically since the January rally began, reaching a high not seen since July-August 2022. The OBV going up right before a breakout is common, but all other indicators must still hold steady.

According to CoinMarketCap, the market valuation for SOL was $8.62 billion as of 18 January’s press time, when it was trading at $23.25 on a 24-hour volume of $902 million. The price of SOL has risen by more than 200% from its low point on December 18. 

Solana Catching The Positive Trend

To establish this trend change, SOL has to close above the $27.59 and $30.25 200-day Simple and Exponential Moving Averages. However, with such a close, positive momentum appears bullish, which might lead to more price appreciation.

According to Coincodex’s technical analysis, the price of SOL will drop during the next few days, hitting $18.29 on February 1st. It would represent a 20% reduction from current levels.

Solana currently has the fastest-growing developer community, with an expected 2,000 developers by 2022, per a recent report by Electric Capital. This could help to confirm the asset’s bullish trend.

This record ranks SOL as the second most valuable cryptocurrency, after only Ethereum (ETH). Still, it’s too soon to tell if this gain is sustainable or merely a preliminary to other rallies.

However, while Solana’s price growth over the previous two-and-a-half weeks has been outstanding, there is still room for the cryptocurrency to swing either way at this point.

Solana

Featured Image From Changelly, Chart From Tradingview.

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MANA Soared 75% This Week, Entering The Top 100

According to CoinMarketCap’s data, Decentraland’s native token, MANA, has gained 17.59% in the last 24 hours, following the stellar performance of metaverse tokens since the start of the new year. MANA is one of the top 100 cryptocurrencies and has grown by 95% in the last month. In addition, it has been in the green for 14 of the previous 16 days.

What Pushed MANA To The Sky?

At the time of writing, MANA is trading at $0.6887. Since last week, the token’s price has increased by approximately 70%, bringing its market capitalization to $1,2 million. As investor opinion in the crypto markets has improved in response to positive macroeconomic news, smaller market cap cryptocurrencies have outperformed their larger competitors. 

The recent U.S. economic data is also why the increase in MANA price. According to data released last week, US inflation has been trending downward over the past few months. From its all-time high of 9.1% in 2022 down to 6.5% in December of that year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a dramatic decline in the consumer price index (CPI) for the United States.

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) has been hiking interest rates to bring down inflation. This data suggest their efforts are working, and the market is feeling more optimistic as the chances of a monetary policy pivot are increasing, according to their expectations.

According to additional data, MANA is one of the most popular “metaverse” platforms, with roughly 8,000 unique daily users.

Improvements to avatars, profiles, and friend requests have recently been released for Decentraland users. It works toward making the platform more user-friendly. However, it was a time-consuming process before the platform started to recover. These essential factors have led to the price increase and burst in investor interest.

Various tokens used in video games and the metaverse saw dramatic price spikes last week. For example, SAND, The Sandbox’s native, has surged by 33% during the past week, while GALA, the currency of Gala Games, has increased by 31%.

Australian Open Metaverse Tournament Back At Decentraland

According to a tweet below, the Australian Open metaverse has returned to Decentraland.

From January 16-29, 2023, Melbourne Park will host the first round of the 2023 Australian Open, a Grand Slam tennis tournament. This year’s Australian Open will be the 111th in the tournament’s history and the 55th in the Open Era and could contribute to the bullish price action by onboarding new users on MANA. 

AOmetaverse and Vegas City, the metaverse’s entertainment platform and the largest commercial zone in Decentraland, have reserved a Twitter spot for January 17 to announce the activation of the Australian Open 2023 for 14 days.

Featured Image from CoinMarketCap, Chart from Tradingview.com

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Lazarus Group Transfers $64M ETH From Harmony Bridge Hack

During the weekend, the notorious North Korean hacking gang Lazarus Group started transferring stolen money in the Harmony Bridge attack. Notably, the organization transferred over $63.5 million, or approximately 41,000 ETH. 

On January 16, blockchain detective ZachXBT published information about the transfer of a significant amount of Ethereum. The cryptocurrency assets which originated from Tornado Cash were transferred via Railgun. Railgun is a private smart contract platform that uses zero-knowledge proofs to hide financial transactions.

According to the analyst who followed the trail of more than 350 addresses, some 41,000 ETH worth about $63.5 million were sent through Railgun and deposited on three different exchanges.

Funds Frozen By Binance And Huobi

Binance’s CEO, CZ, tweeted that the exchange had previously uncovered suspicious money transfers from the Harmony One hackers when they attempted to launder money through Binance. As a result, the accounts were frozen by the exchange. 

The Group had been keeping its money in Tornado Cash, a service that helps keep people’s identities secret and is used by criminals to launder money in the crypto industry.

The experts followed the funds through more than three hundred addresses. They concluded that Railgun had spread around 41,000 ETH among multiple receivers before the cryptocurrencies were deposited at various exchanges. He did not name the exchanges, but he did say that the Lazarus Group routinely makes rapid withdrawals from such platforms.

Connections Between Lazarus And Harmony’s Attack

Lazarus is now quite skilled at hiding their movements from law enforcement agencies while transferring illegal cryptocurrencies. For example, they were suspected of being behind the attack on Harmony Bridge in June 2022. In-depth information about the attack was published by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics service, at the time it occurred.

Multiple large crypto heists, totaling over $2 billion, have been linked to the Lazarus Group. DeFi and cross-chain bridges became a new target in 2022, and the group was also suspected of being behind the $600 million Ronin Bridge attack.

According to a recent report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, another North Korean hacker group BlueNoroff has expanded its illegal activities by posing as venture capitalists looking to invest in cryptocurrency startups.

Kaspersky’s report shows the global attacks by BlueNoroff against cryptocurrency businesses were uncovered in January 2022 but slowed down until the fall.

Theft of cryptocurrency has become a profitable business for North Korean hackers. According to information about their operations, South Korean spying services estimate that over $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen from the global community since 2017. In 2022, numerous companies, including FTX, were victims of cyberattacks.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $20,800, up 21% in the last week. It is currently trading above its 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), which indicates that the price will remain bullish in the short term.

Featured image from Euronews, Chart from Tradingview.com.

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Bitcoin Weekend Run Breaches $20,000 Mark, Dominates The Altcoins

Even if the cryptocurrency industry crashed in 2022, Bitcoin’s status as the “alpha coin” has remained remarkably stable. With a market capitalization of over $398 billion and a trading volume of $24,180,295, Bitcoin’s dominance in the last 24 hours has increased by 43%.

According to market watchers, the BTC bull market officially began in 2023 and is expected to increase in value. In addition, the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) was issued earlier this week, showing that the U.S. dollar’s value is decreasing relative to other currencies. On the other hand, the CPI data gave the market the confidence it needed to follow inflation’s downward trend.

In the previous week, BTC dominance increased by almost 2%, returning to a multi-month high as the value breached the $20,000 level.

Bitcoin Shows Bullish Momentum

Rekt Capital says that BTC will surprise investors next week by trading above $21,000. This upswing encouraged traders and investors worldwide to re-enter the Bitcoin market and make some quick bucks.

After BTC officially surpassed $17,000 at the beginning of this week, the outlook for the asset has been more bullish than it was at the end of 2022.

On Friday evening, the price of BTC surged beyond $18,000, then $19,000, and finally pumped to $20,000. The next hours saw a rise initiated by the bulls, which ultimately pushed BTC up to near $21,000 on Sunday.

At this price, bitcoin has made up all of its ground since the FTX-Alameda Research meltdown more than two months ago. Even if it has dropped from its local peak, the price is still well above $20,000. The cryptocurrency’s market valuation is close to $400 billion, with many investors hoping for a new bull run to begin any day.

Fundstrat’s head of digital asset strategy Sean Farrell stated to Bloomberg:

Cryptoassets performed well following the soft CPI print, suggesting that crypto’s correlation to macro is not going away anytime soon

As Bitcoin Surges, Altcoins Retreat

On yesterday’s daily charts, most altcoins showed gains, but those figures are now negative. After increasing by more than 35% in a day and nearly 70% in a week, it has turned bullish and is now moving in that direction. However, it is currently sitting below that level due to the daily decline of 4.5%.

The top 10 daily cryptocurrencies that lost value are Dogecoin (DOGE), Polkadot (DOT), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Avalanche (AVAX), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC).

The value of alternative cryptocurrencies like ADA and DOGE have dropped, by 0.34% and 0.08%, respectively, from their respective 24-hour highs. The value of ADA and BNB has decreased marginally over the previous day. Both coins, however, have seen substantial gains during the past week, rising by more than 21% and 11%, respectively.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com

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Whale Moves Huge Amount Of Shiba Inu Tokens As SHIB Unveils To Metaverse

As the dog-themed crypto asset gets ready to launch its new metaverse, a crypto whale is suddenly transferring trillions of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens.

According to a tweet by Whale Alert, a platform for tracking whales said that a huge number of SHIB tokens (3,323,256,285,484) worth almost $30.48 million were moved from one unknown wallet to another. 

Metaverse Launch

The addresses used in the transactions aren’t associated with cryptocurrency markets, so it’s unlikely that the action has anything to do with buying or selling the trending meme coin.

The Shiba Inu team has recently made several announcements, and this massive transfer of SHIB tokens has occurred in the midst of this. First, Shiba Inu’s developers said they want to unveil their new metaverse at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival 2023 in Austin, Texas.

A virtual reality (VR) tour of the WAGMI Temple, one of 11 locations in Shiba Inu’s metaverse showcasing the Dogecoin (DOGE) competition, will be featured in the exhibition.

Expanding The Scope Of Shiba Inu

For the Ethereum-based Shiba Token Decentralized Community Project, millions of devoted SHIB supporters have organized themselves into a movement they call the #ShibArmy. As a result, the cryptocurrency is consistently placed in the top 15 by market cap. According To Shiba Inu Ecosystem’s Blog:

The unique possibilities that will be in HUBs like WAGMI Temple make SHIB: The Metaverse stand out. “HUBs are epicenters of activity within the Metaverse, offering distinctive experiences rooted in each HUB’s theme,” explains Sherri Cuono, Metaverse Advisor to Shiba Token.“ Each offers special attractions that may only be experienced in that hub. The common thread is extensive digital or digital-plus-IRL utility including activities, commerce, customization, expression, events, education, exploring and more. Users will be able to earn passive income, collect in-game resources, generate rewards, and even have their own space to build and manage their projects in SHIB: The Metaverse.”

On the other hand, the Shiba Inu team has just announced some latest upgrades to the Shibarium Network. It will soon deploy a layer-2 scaling protocol and promote Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) as the official virtual asset associated with the blockchain.

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world measured by volume, was prompted to stake an astounding 4 trillion Shiba Inu tokens as a result of this move.

At press time, the trading price of Shiba Inu was $0.00001032 with a 24-hour trading volume of $667.322 Million. Shiba Inu’s price was up by 7.72% in the last 24 hours and up by almost 24% in the last 7 days, with a market cap of $5.655 Billion.

Featured Image from Somagnews, chart from Tradingview.com.

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Cardano Leads Development With Unique Sidechains And Toolkits

This month, the Cardano ecosystem team is getting ready to release a software toolkit that will let developers build their own sidechains.

On January 12, Input Output Global (IOG), a blockchain engineering firm created by Charles Hoskinson and formerly known as Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), made the announcement. The official technical documentation for the sidechain toolkit was also released in the announcement.

As a “proof-of-concept,” IOG developers have already used the toolkit to build an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain public testnet. Once the audit is complete, developers will be able to deploy decentralized applications, create smart contracts, and transfer tokens between testing chains.

In addition to other application-specific capabilities, the toolkit will permit sidechain developers to select their consensus process.

Mainnet Growth

The IOG developers have also revealed that they have used the toolkit to build a proof of concept on a public testnet that is compatible with the EVM sidechain. Moreover, once the audit is complete, developers can launch dApps and smart contracts and transfer tokens between different test chains.

Finally, the announcement notes that sidechain creators can use the toolkit to choose the consensus mechanism that best suits their app.

The term “mainnet” refers to the parent blockchain, while “sidechain” describes a blockchain that operates independently of the mainnet. While the primary blockchain focuses on safety and decentralization, a sidechain can help the network scale.

In the long run, IOG expects this new development to lead to widespread adoption of the Cardano network, facilitating the launch of multiple Cardano sidechains and partner chains.

Meanwhile, Charles Hoskinson, the creator of ADA, has proposed that Solana joins Cardano as a “partner chain.” Hoskinson shared this during a recent “ask me anything” session.

He claims that there would be synergies between the two blockchains. For example, Solana can take advantage of Cardano’s security and infrastructure, while Cardano can take advantage of Solana’s faster network.

Fans’ Anticipation In Cardano Community

The announcement has been met with positivity from Cardano supporters, with one member of the community anticipating a price increase on par with Ethereum in recent years when several layer-2 sidechains and utility tokens were introduced.

One enthusiastic participant predicted that the release and implementation of the toolkit would lead to a rise in the number of people making use of Cardano’s sidechains in the coming weeks and months.

Meanwhile, the IOG team noted that the toolbox isn’t a remedy but will help with problem areas. For example, the security model, bridge experience, and SPO rewards structure are just a few. The team did say, though, that it was looking forward to community input and participation in these improvements.

According to its roadmap, Cardano will introduce parallel accounting systems to promote sidechains. This release is part of the Basho update that will allow for ADA’s network compatibility. IOG’s development of this toolkit marks their second sidechain solution for it.

IOG already implemented a simpler EVM-compatible sidechain in July to start the sidechain work on Cardano, so this isn’t the first sidechain solution they’ve integrated.

Additionally, in September, Cardano experienced its most crucial hard fork yet, the Vasil upgrade, which has been said to facilitate the cheaper and more efficient deployment of smart contracts and the operation of decentralized applications.

As of press time, ADA is trading at $0.3312, a 22.14% increase from the prior week’s price, with a 24-hour trading volume of $448 million.

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Solana Price Surge Attracts Investors, What’s Driving It?

Solana’s price has achieved an unexpected week-long rally, causing it to significantly outperform almost all other cryptocurrencies. As the price of the centralized smart contract token stabilizes, investors are showing interest in how high it can go.

In the first week of 2023, the price of Solana (SOL) soared in value, going from $9.7 to $17.50. As a result, trade volume in SOL has increased, and Wallet Investor predicts that SOL will hit new highs in 2023.

The current Solana price, as reported by CoinMarketCap, is $15.87. The value has decreased by 0.50% over the past 24 hours. There are currently 370,184,196 SOL in circulation, which gives it a market cap of $5,915,802,434 and a position in the top 12 of CoinMarketCap’s rankings.

SOL Dominates The Market

In the weeks following the FTX crash, the price of SOL had taken numerous beatings, eventually falling to single-digit values for the first time in two years. However, Solana beat the market by coming back from the dead and seeing a price hike again. 

With daily volume near its average of $6 million, the price of SOL has settled at the new rally’s top boundaries. This indication is bullish, as buying and selling have not yet grown in a bearish direction. As a result of these considerations, the next bullish goal is the $20 level, as it touched $17.50, representing a 30% increase from the current price.

The historical correlation between an overbought RSI and buyer exhaustion has led many traditional investors to view an overbought RSI as a probable sell signal. So, to get the RSI back below 69, the price of SOL may go through a correction or a sideways consolidation phase.

Messari Outlines Solana’s Growth Factors

A recent tweet from Vitalik Buterin and the enthusiasm in the protocol’s meme coin Bonk (BONK) are just two of the many variables that have contributed to the rise of SOL, according to crypto analytics service Messari. And when more individuals buy than sell, the value of digital currency increases.

Despite its rising transaction volume, SOL’s declining gas fees were cited by Messari’s senior analyst Tom Dunleavy as one of the two most likely fundamentals fueling the coin’s continuous growth.

According to the update released by Messari, the protocol no longer appears to be facing the outages it had been experiencing.

The price of Solana’s native coin dropped last year due to a couple of factors, including multiple network disruptions and the harsh crypto winter. The downtime was bad enough to get Cardano’s founder, the outspoken Charles Hoskinson, to criticize the protocol publicly.