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Change Of Heart: Crypto Scammer Returns $34.7 Million To Victim’s Address

A week ago, a crypto whale fell victim to a scam that resulted in the loss of over $71 million. In the following days, the scammer moved the funds to veil them. But in a shocking turn of events, they returned the funds to the victim.

Address Poisoning Scam Snatches $71 Million

On May 3, whale 0x1E22…8FD5 lost 1,155 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), worth around $71.31 million, after falling victim to an address poisoning scam. This scam, also known as address spoofing, consists of trying to trick users into sending funds to fraudulent lookalike accounts.

The “vanity addresses” are custom-made with specific characters that look like the intended recipient’s address. Scammers send transactions of no value, hoping the similarity between the addresses will fool the user under attack.

If successful, victims copy the fraudulent address from the previous transactions and accidentally send their assets to the scammers instead.

PeckShieldAlert reported that the phisher immediately swapped the stolen WBTC for 23,000 Ether (ETH) before transferring them to a different address. Throughout the following days, the scammer laundered the funds. Sending them to ten different addresses before distributing the tokens through over 100 other addresses.

This development painted a looming picture for the crypto whale. At this point, the funds appeared to be unrecoverable. One user called the massive number of transfers a “crypto musical chairs” game.

Others justified the scammer, claiming he had not stolen the funds, as “he just received them.” This stance disregards the transaction’s nature. The transfer occurs under the belief that funds are safely being transferred to the intended account and not a lookalike.

Moreover, the lookalike address is in the victim’s transaction history, clearly intended to deceive the user into receiving funds not meant for them.

Change Of Heart Or Scared Of The Crypto Community?

In a shocking turn of events, the scammer sent 51 ETH, worth around $153,000, back to the victim on Thursday. Alongside the funds, the phisher sent a message asking to contact the whale, seemingly looking to negotiate.

The reasons behind the sudden change of heart remain a mystery to the community. Many are jokingly theorizing why the scammer returned the funds. One X user playfully suggested that the phisher feared being investigated by crypto sleuth ZachXBT.

Others claimed that “even the scammer doesn’t want ETH,” referencing the criticism the second-largest cryptocurrency has faced after its performance during this cycle.

In the early hours of Friday, PeckShieldAlert revealed that 2,683.7 ETH, worth about $8 million, had already been transferred to the whale from nearly 50 different addresses. A couple of hours later, an update showcased that around 50% of the total funds had been returned, accounting for 11,446.87 ETH, or $34.7 million.

Retrieving all the assets might take time due to the large number of addresses holding the funds. At the time of writing, over $45 million worth of ETH has already been returned, and the transactions continue.

crypto, ETH, ETHUSDT

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Crypto Presidential Rally: TRUMP Soars 36.2% And Flips BODEN

In a year full of global elections, the crypto industry remains expectant and critical of every candidate’s stance on cryptocurrencies. The US presidential elections could pose a turning point for regulations and adoption that could affect the industry worldwide.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump, former US president and Republican candidate, stated his support for the industry and criticized Biden’s administration for its stance on digital assets. MAGA (TRUMP), the Trump-inspired memecoin, saw its price skyrocket  63% in the following hours.

Trump’s Stance On Crypto

The Republican candidate held a gathering on Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Holders of NFTs bearing Trump’s name and likeness attended the Trump Cards NFT Gala.

During this event, the former US president strongly criticized Biden’s administration and its hostility towards the sector. He revealed he is “fine” with crypto and wants to make it a “solid” industry.

Trump claimed he’s the best option for those who are in favor of cryptocurrencies:

(…) I’m fine with it. I want to make sure it’s good and solid and everything else. But I’m good with it. And if you want, if you like crypto in any form, and it comes in a lot of different forms, if you’re in favor of crypto, you better vote for me.

Moreover, the Republican candidate asserted that “crypto is moving out of the US because of the hostility towards it,” something he alleges he doesn’t want to continue and promises to stop.

When asked what he would do to stop the exodus of digital asset businesses, he stated that to embrace them, they would have to let them be in the country. To achieve this, the candidate promised a more welcoming regulatory framework for crypto.

As part of his jab at the current administration, Trump mimicked US President Joe Biden, claiming he would be clueless if asked about cryptocurrencies. He further added, “The Democrats are very much against it.”

TRUMP Flips BODEN As Price Soars

After Trump’s declarations, two memecoins inspired by the politicians saw a price reaction. Jeo Boden (BODEN) soared 23.5% in the following hour, going from $0.34 to $0.42.

Since then, the price has retraced to hover between the $0.35-$0.36 range. BODEN is trading at $0.3492, representing a 15.1% increase in the last 24 hours.

The token’s daily trading volume also saw a significant 35.7% surge, with over $20 million traded in the past day. Despite benefiting from the Republican candidate’s jab at its inspiration, BODEN Still displays red numbers in the longer timeframes, with a 29.9% and 59.8%  weekly and monthly decrease.

As a result, TRUMP’s $252 million market capitalization flipped BODEN’s $239 million. The Trump-inspired token became the 14th largest memecoin by market capitalization, per CoinGecko data.

Moreover, TRUMP seemingly won this round with crypto investors, which rallied 63% after Trump’s statement. The token surged from $4.2 to $7.1 in the following hours before retracing to the $5.3 level.

TRUMP trades at $5.43 at the time of writing, representing a 36.2% increase in the last 24 hours.

crypto, TRUMP, TRUMPUSDT

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Crypto Presidential Rally: TRUMP Soars 36.2% And Flips BODEN

In a year full of global elections, the crypto industry remains expectant and critical of every candidate’s stance on cryptocurrencies. The US presidential elections could pose a turning point for regulations and adoption that could affect the industry worldwide.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump, former US president and Republican candidate, stated his support for the industry and criticized Biden’s administration for its stance on digital assets. MAGA (TRUMP), the Trump-inspired memecoin, saw its price skyrocket  63% in the following hours.

Trump’s Stance On Crypto

The Republican candidate held a gathering on Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Holders of NFTs bearing Trump’s name and likeness attended the Trump Cards NFT Gala.

During this event, the former US president strongly criticized Biden’s administration and its hostility towards the sector. He revealed he is “fine” with crypto and wants to make it a “solid” industry.

Trump claimed he’s the best option for those who are in favor of cryptocurrencies:

(…) I’m fine with it. I want to make sure it’s good and solid and everything else. But I’m good with it. And if you want, if you like crypto in any form, and it comes in a lot of different forms, if you’re in favor of crypto, you better vote for me.

Moreover, the Republican candidate asserted that “crypto is moving out of the US because of the hostility towards it,” something he alleges he doesn’t want to continue and promises to stop.

When asked what he would do to stop the exodus of digital asset businesses, he stated that to embrace them, they would have to let them be in the country. To achieve this, the candidate promised a more welcoming regulatory framework for crypto.

As part of his jab at the current administration, Trump mimicked US President Joe Biden, claiming he would be clueless if asked about cryptocurrencies. He further added, “The Democrats are very much against it.”

TRUMP Flips BODEN As Price Soars

After Trump’s declarations, two memecoins inspired by the politicians saw a price reaction. Jeo Boden (BODEN) soared 23.5% in the following hour, going from $0.34 to $0.42.

Since then, the price has retraced to hover between the $0.35-$0.36 range. BODEN is trading at $0.3492, representing a 15.1% increase in the last 24 hours.

The token’s daily trading volume also saw a significant 35.7% surge, with over $20 million traded in the past day. Despite benefiting from the Republican candidate’s jab at its inspiration, BODEN Still displays red numbers in the longer timeframes, with a 29.9% and 59.8%  weekly and monthly decrease.

As a result, TRUMP’s $252 million market capitalization flipped BODEN’s $239 million. The Trump-inspired token became the 14th largest memecoin by market capitalization, per CoinGecko data.

Moreover, TRUMP seemingly won this round with crypto investors, which rallied 63% after Trump’s statement. The token surged from $4.2 to $7.1 in the following hours before retracing to the $5.3 level.

TRUMP trades at $5.43 at the time of writing, representing a 36.2% increase in the last 24 hours.

crypto, TRUMP, TRUMPUSDT

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Crypto Traders Discuss Why Memecoins Have Been 2024’s Most Profitable Narrative

Journalist and host Laura Shin interviewed crypto traders Ansem and Kel, known on X as blkoiz06 and Kelxyz, for her Unchained Podcast.  They discussed why memecoins had become the most profitable crypto trade this cycle and what the future might hold for the sector.

Is There Value In A Memecoin?

To begin with, Shin asked the traders whether there was substance in tokens based on memes, as it has been a big argument against them. To Ansem, people “think too hard” about the value of memecoins as projects. Moreover, he considers there’s no real gain in comparing whether other altcoins deserve or have more value than meme-based tokens.

Ansem further explains that the crypto community is “very internet-centered,” with its members being “internet people” since crypto’s origin.  As a result, the community is knowledgeable about the financial aspect but is also knees-deep in online culture.

The trader believes “there’s value in memes and culture on the internet.” People in the community are “financializing” meme virality and realizing that it’s a possibility with crypto.

Shin jokingly added that if this trend had been popular in 2016, the Drake meme creator would be a “bazillionaire” by now. The host seemingly referenced the still-popular meme that originated from Drake’s Hotline Bling music video.

Agreeing with this argument, Kel asserted that, over the last 20 years, many trillion-dollar businesses have capitalized attention as their “winning trade businesses idea.”

All these trillion-dollar businesses (…) facilitate directing attention and the way they’ve done that successfully has been, oftentimes, via memes. One could even make the argument that memes are the core engine of the entire Internet.

The Risks And Criticisms Of Memecoin Mania

To understand why memecoins have become the narrative of Q1 2024, the traders discussed the risks and arguments against the tokens.

One of the biggest criticisms of memecoins is their high-risk nature. Because they are much smaller and not backed by institutional money, they can “be riskier” and “more easily go to 0.”

Despite this, traders consider that many investors, especially new ones, find memecoins attractive because they have the potential to give 100x to 1000x returns.

Moreover, losing money is not exclusive to memecoins. To illustrate his point, Ansem compared the people who bought Doge’s top to those who bought Bitcoin at $69,000 last cycle before it fell to $15,000.

To the trader, how much a token can drop and investors buying the top is part of the general market dynamics instead of a characteristic of memecoins. However, he clarifies that there is better criticism of the sector.

Ansem considers the shady behavior behind the projects’ teams a crucial issue to address. To him, a framework could prevent creators from controlling a large supply of the tokens and dumping them immediately after launch or rug-pulling investors.

In the replies to the podcast, a user argued that the reason behind the recent frenzy is driven by “the Financial nihilism and the lack of liquidity that the youth has.” Adding that investors are “Buying a mere coin is like a lottery ticket.”

It is worth mentioning that trading memecoins like lottery tickets is not an unseen phenomenon. On-chain research platform Lookonchain recently reported a trader seeing 4,906x gains in one day by precisely doing that.

Per the report, the trader invests 0.1/0.2/0.3 SOL for each memecoin. Yesterday, the investor turned $30 into $147,000 by turning 0.2 SOL into 2 million AGORA.

What’s In Memecoins’ Future?

When asked what is in store for the sector, both traders concurred that memecoins are not going away. To Ansem, the community behavior towards memecoins is like that of NFTs last cycle. With NFTs, investors felt like they were part of a community and were working towards developing it.

The shared experience of relating is another crucial factor in the craze of meme-based tokens, as seen in communities of tokens like Dogwifhat (WIF).

Adding to that idea, Kel asserted that “all memes will become coins” in the next ten years.  Moreover, the trader wouldn’t be surprised if “the creation of a meme was natively financialized” by then, as the trend of financialization of things continues to increase.

Ultimately, he believes the sector is in the early stages of this trend as the community tries to “capture the moment of a meme” and capitalize on it now that crypto has made financialization “trivial from a tech perspective.”

crypto, crypto market cap, memecoins

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AI Tokens ‘Preparing For Round 2’: Industry Shows 8% Growth With RNDR And FET

Excluding Bitcoin, memecoins were the biggest narrative of this cycle. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tokens also performed remarkably during the first quarter of 2024.

The crypto market recovered over the weekend from the May 1st retrace, with AI tokens showing significant gains. As a result, many industry experts think that the sector is poised for a ‘Round 2’ this cycle.

AI Sector Recovers By 8%

Crypto analysts highlighted AI tokens alongside memecoins as the hottest topic of 2024, responsible for most of the massive gains during this cycle.

According to CoinGecko’s report, AI was one of the three sectors that delivered three-digit returns in Q1. Moreover, the largest AI token by market capitalization, Fetch.ai (FET), saw gains of 378.3% during this period.

As a result, some analysts deem the AI sector to be the next main narrative of the cycle. Trader John Walsh, known as CryptoGodJohn, considers “The future of AI coins preparing round 2.”

Walsh added that the AI season is “extremely obvious” and will go “so much higher” based on the developments in the sectors, including Nvidia earnings, Apple AI, and Microsoft’s $100 billion AI fund.

To this, crypto analyst MacroCRG replied that a massive AI growth “will be obvious in hindsight,” considering that the sector’s market capitalization is “just” $27.3 billion.

According to a MacroCRG post, the AI market cap had increased 8% by Monday morning, and its daily trading volume was around $1.9 billion. On Tuesday, the market cap surged to $27.8 billion, a 2.3% increase from 24 hours ago.

In comparison, memecoins $54.4 billion market cap doubles AI’s. However, its market cap decreased by 2.8% in the last day, with the top ten memecoins showing red numbers in the past 24 hours.

Is Artificial Intelligence About To Bloom Or Ruin the World?

Despite the remarkable performance, some figures think the sector has a more pessimistic future. According to memecoin trader Murad, the developments in the industry will “be replacing more & more jobs every year.” As a result, there will be an increase in “Anxieties and desperate attempts to ‘make it.’”

To the trader, the industry will serve as a push for the memecoins sector, as “Growing AI capabilities will be one of the big forces accelerating the Memecoin Bubble.”

Financial giant Warren Buffett shared a more skeptical view on Saturday. The Co-founder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway revealed he is not sold yet by artificial intelligence. To the CEO:

We let a genie out of the bottle when we developed nuclear weapons. AI is somewhat similar — it’s part way out of the bottle.

Despite this, Buffet recognized the potential for AI technology to change the world positively.

On The Brink Of A Millionaire Boom

“The AI industry is on the brink of a multi-trillion-dollar boom,” stated Alex Wacy. The analyst believes the reasons behind this are the vast and diverse potential of applications.

Moreover, the expert highlights that interest in the sector has steadily increased over the last year. A crypto and AI combination could potentially “create a market valued in the trillions.”

According to the post, the market is projected to reach nearly $2 trillion by 2030, which suggests that the crypto industry should not overlook it.

Tokens like RNDR showed a remarkable performance over the past week, with the price soaring by 45%. RNDR regained the $10 support zone this week after struggling to retest it over the last month.

In the past 24 hours, the token’s price surged 6.4%, and its daily trading volume increased by 16.8%, with over $455 million being traded.

FET is “a top performing AI coin headed into the Nvidia earnings,” as stated by John Walsh. The trader forecast that the token is “looking for a next leg higher up” after successfully retesting the $2.35 resistance level.

FET broke above this level over the weekend, rising to $2.5 on Monday and remaining above the $2.40 support zone since.

At writing time, the token is trading at $2.42, representing a 2.4% increase in the last 24 hours and a $22.9% surge in the past week.

AI, FET, FETUSDT

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Analysts Foresee Altcoins ‘Explosive Rally’ Incoming, Is The Correction Phase Over?

Over the weekend, the crypto market started recovering from the largest retrace of this bull cycle. The strong correction caused Bitcoin and the altcoins market to drop to levels not seen since February.

While some sectors of the crypto community felt like the bull run was over or needed to “cool-off”, others seemed optimistic about the cycle’s future. Now that the market is back from the correction, analysts foresee that the altcoin season might come soon.

Is The Correction Phase Over?

Over the weekend, crypto analyst and trader MilkybullCrypto shared with his X followers that the Altcoins market capitalization was at “an RSI level that initiates an explosive rally.”

Per his chart, this level is a “reset for a healthy rally,” as seen in 2016 and 2020. During these two cycles, when the altcoins reached this level, a “huge rally” followed.

The analyst shared his latest forecast on Monday after seeing the market strengthen its recovery. To Milkybull, the altcoins market cap finished a “Heatly retest.”

The market displayed a similar correction during the 2020-2021 rally before skyrocketing to all-time high (ATH) levels. The chart seems to display the same performance, which could mean that altcoins are “in preparation for an explosive rally,” if history repeats itself.

altcoins, crypto

Similarly, crypto trader and analyst Captain Fabik considers the “Healthy Correction is done.” In his X post, the analyst identified a bullish falling wedge pattern, which signals a “bullish rally incoming.”

Altcoins “Cool-Off” Or “Euphoria” Incoming?

According to analyst and trader Rekt Capital, the Altcoin market cap, excluding the top 10 cryptocurrencies, has “successfully retested the $250 billion level as a support level” over the last several weeks.

Per the trader, the altcoins are following the proposed path of his “Ultimate Altcoin Market Cap Game Plan For The Coming Months.” On this plan, Rekt Capital forecasted altcoins market cap would surge to the $315 billion level before retracing back to the $250 billion mark. This retrace would be followed by an explosive surge above the $440 billion market capitalization.

Altcoins have stayed above the $250 billion support zone despite the strong corrections, as seen in the chart below. To the analyst, this suggests the market is “now showing initial signs of trying to curl up from here.”

Renowned figures have expressed their “disappointment” in altcoins’ performance this cycle. Altcoin Sherpa considers that “many alts didn’t even run that hard over the last few months,” which could suggest that it’s time for a “cool-off.” At the time, the analyst deemed altcoins’ rally was “done” for the next 1-4 months.

However, others believe the “euphoria phase” for altcoins is coming. According to Crypto Yhodda, “The alts will rise again, and by the end of 2024, they will go crazy.” Moreover, the analyst believes that “Altcoins Cycle III” will give us some crazy pumps.

According to his chart, the altcoins’ cycle I and II displayed a symmetrical triangle pattern before the breakout. The surge was followed by a slowdown before the upward trajectory continued, called “Round 1” by the analyst.

Subsequently, the rally would repeat the pattern on a second round before reaching the cycle’s top. “Cycle III” appears to be in the middle of Round 1, which suggests to the analyst there is a long road ahead before it “hits the euphoria phase.”

Altcoins, crypto

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Memecoins Resurgence? POPCAT And MEW Lead The Way With 20% Surge

As the crypto market settles in on this new phase of the crypto cycle, some memecoins have shown remarkable performance over the last couple of days.

Cat-theme tokens have significantly grown in popularity during this bull run, with some, like Cat in a Dog’s World (MEW), making it to the top 10 memecoins list. Other feline-inspired tokens like Popcat (POPCAT) and Wen (WEN) have had a stellar week after recent partnerships that caused the price to surge by 20% overnight.

Was The Memecoin Surge Fueled By Bitcoin?

The memecoins sector has been dominated by dogs, with tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) being the flagship memecoins for the last few years. During this bull cycle, dog-themed tokens like Bonk (BONK) and dogwifhat (WIF) have been the talk of the town, and some of the tokens with the strongest performance.

Since its launch in January 2023, Bonk has surged around 4291%, while WIF has soared about 1512% since December 2023. Moreover, the sector has shown stellar performances with cryptocurrencies like PEPE and Book of Meme (BOME).

Bitcoin (BTC) has dominated this cycle alongside memecoins, as highlighted by top crypto analysts like Alex Krüger and Altcoin Sherpa. However, their performance has been strongly co-related to BTC’s in most cases.

The rest of the market has gone down with Bitcoin whenever the flagship cryptocurrency faces a strong retrace. Consequentially, when BTC has recovered, most sectors, including memecoins, have regained their levels. It’s worth noting that some tokens like Popcat have continued to perform well, even during the recent rally slowdowns.

On Thursday, Bitcoin successfully tested the $59,000 resistance level after spending most of May’s first days hovering between $57,000-$58,000. In the last hours of the day, the largest cryptocurrency seemingly turned the resistance level into a support zone, pumping the price of several memecoins.

As a result, the memecoin market was 9.46% up on Thursday night. Similarly, cat-themed tokens were up by 22.09% with a market capitalization of $1.581 billion, per CoinMarketCap data.

Cat-Themed Memecoins Take The Lead With Popcat

Despite dominating the memecoins market, canine-inspired tokens have lost some ground against the increasing popularity of feline-inspired ones. While the cats’ tokens had increased over 20% in the previous 24 hours, the dogs’ sector only surged 3.7% in the same timeframe.

Over the last few days, cat-themed memecoins have been among the top gainers in the crypto market. For instance, Popcat has remarkably maintained its upward trajectory during the recent retrace and also joined the top 10 memecoins list.

Popcat, which seems to be building a loyal community, has continuously shown double-digit gain percentages this week. As reported by SolanaFloor, the token momentarily flippled BOME with its $570.3 million market capitalization.

Moreover, as Bitcoin reclaimed the $59,000 level, the cat-themed token saw a 31% price increase in the daily timeframe. This made Popcat the largest gainer among the top ten memecoins.

According to memecoin analyst Murad, Popcat will surge to $5-10 in the short-term as “the Crowned Top Cat.” As the token reached its all-time high (ATH) of $0.618 on Thursday, the trader highlighted several targets, including a long-term $20 scenario.

popcat, memecoins

Murad expects the token “to go to $1 quickly” next time it closes above $0.63. Per the analysts, “It’s Cat Season baby and $POPCAT is in control.”

MEW Remains A Popular Cat

A month ago, MEW joined the dogs’ pack after becoming the eighth largest memecoin by market capitalization. Since then, the lonely cat’s performance has struggled, with a 51.8% and 28.4% price decrease in the monthly and weekly timeframes.

Despite the recent drop in performance, the token has remained one of the hottest topics among altcoins. On Monday, crypto exchange Bidget crowned MEW as the most searched altcoin on the exchange, beating PEPE and SOL on the “#BidgetTrendingSpot.”

At the time of writing, the token has shown a remarkable 12% price recovery in the last 24 hours, currently trading at $0.00424.

memeocoins, cat-themed memecoins, Poppet, POPCATUSDT

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Ethereum “Has Been A Major Disappointment”: Trader Weights In On This Crypto Cycle

This crypto cycle achieved some remarkable feats during Q1 2024, including the highest monthly and quarterly close in Bitcoin (BTC) history. However, BTC suffered a retrace that dragged Ethereum (ETH) and the rest of the crypto market down as the year’s second quarter started.

Now that we are one month into Q2, the market faces another correction. The most recent retrace became the deepest of the cycle, with Bitcoin nosediving into the $57,000 support zone and Ethereum falling below $3,000. Despite the market’s stumble, analysts remain optimistic for what’s to come.

What Makes This Cycle Different?

Traders and analysts have urged investors not to panic about the retraces yet. A broader look shows that the market is above levels not seen since the last bull run. As many have discussed, there’s a significant resemblance between this cycle’s performance and previous ones.

However, analysts have also pointed out the singularities of this bull run. Compared to the 2020 cycle, altcoins “didn’t even run that hard over the last few months,” as renowned analyst Altcoin Sherpa highlighted.

After Wednesday’s correction, trader and economist Alex Krüger weighed in on this cycle’s performance. Krüger concurs with some of Sherpa’s points, considering that the market’s “too many” options have made the playfield more convoluted.

Similarly, he also has noticed the desire “to focus on making a quick buck” and investing in “short-term hype rather than on longevity.”

The trader highlighted that the Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have “almost entirely” driven this cycle. Besides BTC, memecoins have been the dominating narrative of the bull run, ranking among the top gainers of Q1 2024.

Moreover, Krüger asserted that most market participants who missed the Bitcoin ETF run “went all in on altcoins to compensate.” As a result:

They deployed late and poorly, going in larger at higher levels, and are now seething and at a loss, as too many altcoins have given up their entire 2024 gains in the last month.

Ethereum “Disappointing” Run

One of the crucial points of Krüger’s analysis is Ethereum’s overall unsatisfactory performance. To the crypto veteran, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization “has been a major disappointment” even though it has performed well for stakers and farmers.

Despite seeing massive gains alongside Bitcoin’s run, Ethereum has not been able to challenge its all-time high (ATH) price set over two years ago. Furthermore, Solana overtook Ethereum after “establishing itself as the chain of choice for retail traders.”

It’s worth noting that the turmoil surrounding Ether and the Ethereum Network has seemingly affected the token’s recent performance. The “king of altcoins” is currently facing severe regulatory scrutiny.

The suspicion of a spot Ether ETF rejection from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alongside the news of the agency’s investigation on the asset’s classification as an “unregistered security,” seems to have created uncertainty around ETH.

Ethereum’s current landscape has reignited deeming conversations against its founders and the asset, possibly fueling the doubtful sentiment surrounding a sector of the crypto community.

Despite the challenging landscape, many analysts consider that investors should not be bearish on Ethereum. After falling 4.5% and 14.39% in the weekly and monthly timeframes, ETH has recovered 3.3% of its price in the past 24 hours.

Ultimately, Krüger’s consideration concludes that “the cycle is not over.” However, he points out that investors “need to move out of the panic area and reignite the majors” before finding a new narrative for this run.

Ethereum, Ether, ETH, crypto

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Is This Cycle’s Bitcoin Bottom In? Analysts Forecast BTC Bounce Back

As May 1st started, Bitcoin (BTC) faced a new correction that made the price stumble under the $60,000 support level. The flagship cryptocurrency has seen several retraces during this bull cycle, with BTC swiftly recovering the crucial support zones each time.

However, in the past 24 hours, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has struggled to regain its momentum. Some analysts believe Bitcoin’s bottom this cycle might be in as this correction officially became its deepest retrace.

Is The Bitcoin Bottom Here?

In the early hours of Tuesday, Bitcoin started to plunge from the $64,000 price range. As the day continued, BTC prolonged its fall to briefly trading around $59,958 – $59,191 before recovering.

This time, the recovery didn’t last long as Bitcoin’s price resumed its downward trajectory to $57,000. In an X thread, crypto trader Milkybull examined some data suggesting the bottom might finally be in.

According to the analyst, BTC is “following the 2017 PA.” This would suggest that “either the bottom is in or close.” Moreover, he urged investors to remember that while good news “usually signals the top,” bad news signals a bull market’s bottom.

In the thread, the trader pointed out that the Bitcoin Bull Market Support Band indicator historically serves strong support during BTC’s bull cycles. As a result, he considers that the flagship cryptocurrency might “wick through the support and bounce back.”

Bitcoin, BTC

According to the analyst, Bitcoin and global liquidity are also strongly correlated, with BTC currently at a level it has previously bounced back from. These bouncebacks initiated “huge rallies across the crypto market” in October 2022 and October 2023.

Lastly, the thread highlighted that Bitcoin “is at a critical decision point for the local bottom.” The trader considers that while some call for a $48,000 bottom, the $51,000 support level might be where BTC bounces back to resume its cycle to this cycle’s top.

Bitcoin’s Deepest Retrace This Cycle

According to crypto analyst and trader Rekt Capital, this correction has officially been the deepest BTC retrace this cycle. Per the post, today’s -23.64% retrace surpasses the -22.91% retrace seen in February 2023.

The analyst also compared this cycle’s “Post-Halving” pullback to 2016’s. Moreover, the trader considers that this bullish cycle might be more similar to the 2016 one than investors think.

Previously, Rekt Capital listed three reasons these two cycles might be similar. Per the trader, the resemblances include the “Pre-Halving Re-Accumulation Range Breakout,” the “Pre-Halving Retrace Beginning,” and the “Similar Initial Reaction after the beginning of the Pre-Halving Retrace.”

After today’s retrace, the analyst added the “Continued downside in the three weeks after the Halving” as a fourth similarity between the 2016 and 2024 cycles. Like eight years ago, Bitcoin faces an “additional downside below the Range Low of its Re-Accumulation Range” in the three-week window after Bitcoin’s “Halving.”

Moreover, the analyst suggests that the current price development comes “as no surprise,” as it mirrors 2016’s “post-Halving Danger Zone.”

As of this writing, the flagship cryptocurrency is trading at $57,794.89. This correction represents a 6.2% drop in the past 24 hours. Similarly, BTC is registering 13.4% and 17.7% price decreases in the weekly and monthly timeframes.

BTC, Bitcoin, BTCUSDT

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Solana Memecoin Hits $320 Trillion Market Cap, But There’s A Catch

The Solana memecoin frenzy has made many investors score a home run or be out of the game this cycle. Traders are looking for new projects that could be the next hit while the market enters a new re-accumulation phase.

Solana Memecoins’ New Strike

Memecoins have been the narrative of this bull cycle. As a result, those who wanted to make big profits mainly invested in newly launched projects. While some have made millions by trading the week’s top gainers, others have lost significant amounts trying to climb the ladder.

Solana-based memecoins have been the most popular, with some, like dogwifhat (WIF) and cat in a dog’s world (MEW), leading the way. However, not all projects have achieved recognition and support for these tokens.

A considerable number of the Solana memecoins launched in the last two months have left investors empty-handed. The latest culprit is the recently launched Bonk Killer (BONKKILLER), which became the hottest topic on Monday for the wrong reasons.

The token surpassed the $100 trillion market capitalization only a few hours after launching. Nonetheless, the reason behind what could have been the most impressive feat in crypto history is no other than a honeypot scam.

solana memecoin, crypto, memecoin

As reported by SolanaFloor, the memecoin is a scam token that attracts investors with high-profit potential but prevents them from selling their holdings. Many realized they couldn’t move their tokens only after the project’s creator activated the “freeze authority.”

This action allowed the creator to avoid selling the token, which skyrocketed the market capitalization metric to $328 trillion. According to analytics platform Birdeye, the Solana-based memecoin registers a $318 trillion market cap at the time of writing.

It’s worth noting that the token isn’t backed by the amount reflected in the metric. As one X user pointed out, the token is worthless if you cannot sell it.

Half A Million Stolen By Memecoin Scammer

Unfortunately for investors, the creator didn’t use the freezing authority to boost the token’s market cap. The scammer took advantage of the function and stole nearly half a million dollars in BONKKILLER and SOL tokens.

The creator, who holds around 90.8% of the total supply, removed 30,500 BONKILLER and 1,561 SOL, worth around $420,000. According to Birdeye data, the token is valued at $32.81 as of This writing.

Even after the community’s warning, some investors continued to buy the project. In the last 12 hours, investors have spent nearly $40,000 on the token. As some X users pointed out, the false market cap might be misleading inexperienced investors into buying the memecoin.

Although it’s not the first scam of this type, the increasing rate of new launches turning fraudulent seems alarming. As reported by NewsBTC, $27 million vanished over the last month after 12 projects were abandoned by their creators.

Ultimately, this incident highlights the importance of thoughtfully researching a project’s background and carefully deciding whether the possibility of massive gains outweighs the risks.

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ETH Gate Conversation Intensifies After Ripple CTO And Cardano Founder Debate

Over the weekend, the conversation about the ETH Gate theories started again after the news of the Consensys lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The discussion intensified following the Ripple CTO David Schwartz and Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson’s debate on X.

Is There A Double Standard For Ethereum?

On Thursday, crypto firm Consensys sued the US SEC, accusing the regulator of “unlawful seizure of authority” over Ethereum. Following the news, an online conversation sparked regarding the SEC’s alleged favoring of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

X users commented on crypto exchanges’ “double standard.” Many pointed out platforms like Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Bitstamp delisted XRP after the SEC’s crackdown on Ripple.

Moreover, members of the crypto community also asked for ETH’s delisting. One user stated that if the crypto asset “doesn’t get delisted, we know #ETHGate is real.”

The theories about the SEC attacking Ripple and XRP in favor of Ethereum are part of an ongoing saga that has raised concerns and speculation over the agency’s regulatory inconsistency.

Last year, lawyer and crypto expert Jeremy Hogan weighed in on the publication of Hinman’s emails and drafts from his 2018 speech. Hogan alleged that the former SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance director was likely paid by someone related to the Ethereum Foundation to give a speech giving ETH a “free pass.”

Ripple CTO Questions Hoskinson’s ETH Gate Stand

Charles Hoskinson stated that an apology from the XRP army and Ripple executives was needed before a project collaboration. Hoskinson alleged during a recent X Space meeting that XRP’s community has attacked him daily since 2022.

Following the session, members of the XRP army cursed him out and declared he was wrong. Hoskinson replied, seemingly trying to prove his point, alleging the hate “It’s never-ending and completely devoid of reason.”

Jack, a prominent figure in the XRP community, argued that platforming those who attacked Hoskinson would not help the situation. Cardano’s founder then corrected someone, claiming he “misspoke” and “mischaracterized” the community’s allegations.

Hoskinson clarified he didn’t misspeak, as people believe “members of the Ethereum community bribed the SEC to take out XRP.” According to him, this narrative has reignited several times with “no evidence of it.”

Ripple’s CTO joined the discussion, questioning Hoskinson over his claims of lack of evidence. Schwartz stated: “So, was Hinman not intimately involved? Did he not have a financial interest in Ethereum? Did he recuse himself? Or is that not evidence for some reason?”

To Hoskinson, Schwartz was “inciting a mob by spreading false information.” He also denied invalidating the ETH Gate arguments, claiming his “grand conspiracy statements have always been related to the belief that somebody from Ethereum bribed the SEC to go after XRP.”

The back-and-forth between the two crypto gurus ended with Ripple’s CTO further doubling down on his questions. He asked whether Hoskinson didn’t think any of his statements were evidence that Hinman’s interests influenced and affected the litigation against Ripple, which received no reply.

Ripple, XRP, XRPUSDT

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NEAR Protocol Soars 7.3%, Is It Poised To Go Higher?

As the crypto industry navigates the waves of this bull run, projects like NEAR Protocol (NEAR) are edging forward with new partnerships and developments. NEAR’s remarkable performance has crypto analysts considering that the toke is getting underway for a massive surge.

Is NEAR Protocol A “Market Leader”?

At the beginning of the week, crypto analyst World of Charts recognized a bullish flag pattern formed on NEAR’s monthly chart. According to the analyst, a successful breakout could be followed by a 60-65% bullish wave in the coming days.

On Thursday, NEAR tested the $7.00 resistance level, reaching above the $7.50 mark before retracing as the day ended.

NEAR Protocol, crypto

Affirming his previous forecast, the analyst stated that if the token successfully holds above the breakout level, investors could expect the price to move towards $14-$15. Since then, the token has remained above the $7.00 mark, hovering between $7.3-$7.1.

Another crypto analyst has been following NEAR’s performance this week similarly. According to Bluntz, the token “has been one of the strongest movers from the lows and will probably be one of the first to make fresh highs.”

Moreover, he considers NEAR “one of the better performers” in the top 20 cryptocurrencies. Previously, the trader displayed a chart identifying an ABC zigzag pattern followed by a still-forming impulse wave pattern.

NEAR; crypto analyst

As NEAR broke out of the $7,00 resistance, the analyst reaffirmed his prediction for the token’s movements, considering it “a market leader right now.”

Bluntz added that the token kept “plodding along making fresh highs while everything else has stalled out and continued accumulating.”

Network Expansion And Price Surge

The NEAR Protocol is a Layer-1 “user-friendly and carbon-neutral” blockchain focused on performance, security, and scalability. According to its team, the “blockchain for everyone” was built with “usability in mind.”

NEAR’s total value locked (TVL) of $309 million makes it the 16th largest blockchain by this metric. Notably, the network has doubled its TVL since Q4 2023, when it sat in the 25th spot with $128 million.

The protocol collaborates with other projects constantly to continue “expanding financial horizons.” Projects like NodeKit and TrueZK have recently integrated NEAR’s solution designed for Ethereum rollups, NEAR DA.

Similarly, on Thursday, it announced its partnership with Colombian fintech Lulo X and Peersyst Technology “to redefine the parameters of digital finance.” These collaborations have been seemingly well-received by the NEAR community.

Despite being down by 6.25% in the monthly time frame and 65% below its all-time high (ATH) of $20,44 set in January 2022, the blockchain’s token has shown a remarkable performance during this bull run. In the last three months, NEAR has soared over 146%.

Moreover, the token’s daily trading volume has increased by 6.5% in the past day, with over $800 million traded. Likewise, its market capitalization has risen 5% during the same timeframe, making it the 17th biggest cryptocurrency by this metric.

As of this writing, NEAR is trading at $7.2, representing a 7.3% jump in the last 24 hours and a 26% rise in the past week.

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1,503x Profit: How A Memecoin Trader Made $13 Million With PEPE

A strategic trader has made the most of his money after making over 1,000x profit with PEPE.  Despite the recent frog-themed token slump, the memecoin investor gained millions. Similarly, whales have continued accumulating PEPE while it resumes its upward trajectory.

Memecoin Trader Makes Millions

According to Lookonchain data, a memecoin trader named James Wynn multiplied its PEPE investment by 1,503. Wynn bought the token in its earlier stages, acquiring 2.83 trillion PEPE for $8,524. When the token started gaining momentum, he sold over half his holdings, 1.81 trillion tokens, for $4.57 million.

After the frog-themed memecoin became a market sensation, the trader’s unrealized profits on his remaining bag exponentially increased. Currently, Wynn holds 1.02 trillion PEPE in three wallets worth $8.25 million.

The trader’s total profits from PEPE total $12.8 million. However, if he had held onto his tokens, the gains would have exceeded $20 million.

Per the blockchain research platform, Wynn’s feat doesn’t end with PEPE. He has also made over $800,000 trading other memecoins over the week. He recently bought five tokens, two of which remain profitable: BOBO and ANDY.

At the time of the report, the trader bought over 273.62 billion BOBO for $138.263, making a profit of $430,000. Similarly, he acquired 4.711 billion ANDY for $115.493, gaining over $338,000.

Nonetheless, not all of Wynn’s trades resulted in success. According to the X post, the trader has a 45% success rate, gaining over $13.7 million with nine memecoins and losing around $350,000 on eleven tokens, including some rug pulls.

pepe, memecoins

Whales Go On PEPE Buying Spree

As reported by NewsBTC, recent data showed that PEPE’s price decline over the last month has reduced the number of addresses carrying gains. However, this has not stopped whales from accumulating the token.

This week, a whale accumulated 211.6 billion PEPE from Binance, Gateio, and Uniswap. The address bought the tokens at an average of $0.000007291, spending $1.54 million. The buying spree turned profitable as, some hours later, the token’s price increased by 17%.

According to Spot On Chain, the holdings’ worth surged to $1.72 million, making $173,000 in unrealized profits. Other reports suggest that whales have continued accumulating and taking profits from their PEPE holdings.

However, the token’s market activity decreased by 22.1% in the last 24 hours, with a $1.2 billion daily trading volume. PEPE’s market capitalization has also dropped 1.58%.

Despite this, the token has regained its spot as the third largest memecoin by this metric, as dogwifhat (WIF) lost 13.88% of its market cap on the last day. It’s worth noting that WIF flipped PEPE on March 28 after becoming the newest sensation in the crypto market.

As of this writing, PEPE is changing hands for $0.000007821, representing an 11.4% drop in the monthly timeframe. Nonetheless, the token continues recovering, registering a 52.2% surge in the last seven days.

PEPE, PEPEUSDT, memecoin

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Is Bitcoin Getting Ready For An Explosive Breakout? These Analysts Believe So

The fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price have marked the tempo of the crypto market and the community’s sentiment. While some feel pessimistic about the rally slowdown, some analysts believe the flagship cryptocurrency is just getting ready to reach higher notes.

Next Stop: Bitcoin’s “Parabolic Upside”

Crypto analyst and trader Rekt Capital considers Bitcoin (BTC) is currently awaiting a period of consolidation. In an X post, the trader highlighted that, during the previous “Halvings,” BTC saw “Re-Accumulation Ranges.”

The analyst shared his chart for Bitcoin phases during the “Halving,” which he has previously used to explain BTC was at the “Last Pre-Halving Retrace” before April 19.

At the time, the analyst pointed out that the re-accumulation phase was next. Bitcoin went through one during the previous “Halving,” as seen in the chart.

The re-accumulation consisted of two consolidation periods followed by the “Post-Halving Parabolic Upside,” which saw BTC reach last cycle’s all-time high (ATH) of $69,000.

Bitcoin, BTC

Rekt Capital highlighted that, during this cycle, the flagship cryptocurrency has already experienced five re-accumulation ranges. Similarly to the last cycle, the latest re-accumulation phase seems to have started during the “Pre-Halving Rally” phase. Per the analyst, this will be followed by the “Parabolic Upside” if history repeats itself.

Analyst Mikybull seems to share a similar view to Rekt Capital’s, as he highlights that Bitcoin’s “parabolic rally is loading.” The re-accumulation breakout is set to be “explosive,” and “not many are prepared for this,” he added.

The analyst explained that “the RSI on a macro scale is at the same level as it was in 2017, which was followed by a huge rally to cycle top.” Based on this, he believes the current consolidation comes from institutions preparing “for a huge rally to cycle top.”

Analyst Sets Crucial Level For Bitcoin’s Breakout

A day before Bitcoin’s “Halving,” the cryptocurrency faced a correction that shredded 7% of its price in a few hours. BTC went from hovering between the $64,000-$63,000 price range to trading below the $60,000 support zone.

Since then, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization appears to have steadily recovered from the drop. Over the weekend, Bitcoin regained the $65,000 support level before testing the $66,000 one, which it reclaimed on Monday.

Over the last few days, BTC has hovered between $66,000 and $67,000. However, it has not been able to successfully test the resistance level set at the $67,000 price range.

According to the crypto analyst Bluntz, Bitcoin’s most recent performance suggests that the price will continue to move sideways between the $66,000 and the $67,000 range.

However, he also considers that BTC is “gagging for a breakout soon,” as the chart displays a bullish pennant pattern forming. Per the analyst, “once we clear 67k,” the whole market will fly above the latest ATH.

As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $66,665, a 7.5% increase from a week ago and a 66.22% in the last three months.

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FLOKI And BONK Drop 5% After Revolut Listing Announcement

FLOKI and BONK had remarkable growth over the weekend after recovering from the Bitcoin dip at the end of last week. These tokens have been some of the hottest topics during this bull run, with FLOKI and BONK increasing by over 500% and 87%, respectively.

Recently, both memecoins were listed on the European neo bank and retail platform Revolut, but the news didn’t appear to have a massive impact on the tokens. However, the projects’ most recent announcements have seemingly made them soar in the past hour.

FLOKI And BONK To Take Over Europe

The projects announced their listing on Revolut on Monday. The new listing expands the reach of FLOKI and BONK to a broader audience, as the platform is available to 40 million users in over 150 countries.

Moreover, the listing will allow users to buy the tokens with 25 fiat currencies, including EUR, GBP, and USD, directly from the Revolut app. Per the BONK X post, users in Europe and eligible countries will also have access to a Learn and Earn program starting on April 29.

Crypto trader Altcoin Gordon weighed in on the matter, telling his 458,000 followers that the listing was “pretty BIG.” According to Gordon, it will allow the tokens to compete with Dogecoin (DOGE), Dogwifhat (WIF), PEPE, and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Despite the announcement, the tokens performed modestly after the news. FLOKI’s price increased 2% in the following hour, trading at $0.0001778. Nonetheless, the token dropped 5.3% hours later to trade at $0.0001693.

Meanwhile, Bonk’s price increased by 3.7%, trading at $0.0002069 before facing a 3.4% dip to the $0.0001990 level.

Similarly, both tokens have seen a decrease in daily activity in the past 24 hours. FLOKI’s daily trading volume fell a staggering 31.6%, while BONK’s trading volume dropped over 51%.

New Announcements Boost Prices

On Tuesday morning, FLOKI was trading at $0.0001727, representing a modest 0.4% gain from the token’s price 24 hours prior. On the other hand, BONK traded for $0.00002019, a 2.6% price decrease from the day before.

However, the project’s most recent announcements have positively impacted the tokens’ prices. FLOKI announced that the decentralized platform Alltoscan locked $18 million worth of $ATS for 15 months using the project’s crypto locker protocol, FlokiFi Locker.

The news appears to have been well-received by the community. Seemingly fueled by the positive sentiment, the token rose 5.5% in the last hour. Similarly, FLOKI now surged 11.2% from 24 hours ago.

Meanwhile, BONK announced renowned artist JT Liss as “The Dog’s Director for BONK Art Masters.” JT is set to lead Bonk’s BAM residency program and the Creator Grants program “to help provide more opportunities for artists in the Solana ecosystem.”

Following this news, the token increased by 4.3% in an hour and over 5.6% from its price 24 hours ago. At the time of writing, BONK is trading at $0.00002164.

FLOKI, FLOKIUSDT, crypto, memecoins, BONK

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Ethereum Whale Goes On 127,000 ETH Buying Spree, Was It Justin Sun Again?

Reports show that a new Ethereum (ETH) whale has been on a buying spree recently. This whale bought over $405 million worth of ETH since March 31 and is suspected to be Tron founder Justin Sun. Sun is also linked to another address that made massive ETH moves this year.

A New Whale On The Horizon, Is It Justin Sun?

The blockchain research platform Lookonchain revealed that a whale has gone on an Ethereum buying frenzy over the past few weeks. The newly created account started buying ETH from crypto exchanges on March 31.

According to the post, the mysterious wallet first withdrew $96.8 million stablecoins from the crypto exchange Binance. Then, the whale started buying Ethereum from Binance and Decentralized Exchanges (DEX).

From April 8 to April 20, the address bought 127,388 ETH, worth around $405.19 million, at an average price of $3,172 per token. According to the research platform, the activity from this new address is similar to that of the alleged Justin Sun address.

Although the possibility of a coincidence is not ruled out, the activity between the two addressed seems to suggest otherwise. On March 31, the address Sun was suspected of owning made a significant deposit of 787 million USDT to Binance on Tron, which coincided with the withdrawal made by the mysterious new address.

As reported by NewsBTC, Justin Sun’s alleged wallet also went on a similar buying spree from February 12 to February 24. At the time, the address acquired 168,396 ETH, worth around $580.5 million, for an average price of $2,894.

Lookonchain considers that the similarities hint that these addresses are likely owned by Sun. If so, Justin Sun has bought 295,757 ETH, worth $891 million, in the past two months.

Ethereum Price Recovers Amid Whale Accumulation

X users expressed concern over Sun’s alleged movements. At the time of the first report, some considered the transaction suspicious.

One user affirmed that Sun would be “the reason of the next market crash.” Others believe it was time to question whether Sun would dump his ETH bag. However, the possibility of him accumulating for the approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETF) was brought up.

The latest news of Sun’s alleged buying spree received a more positive response. A user considered it a bullish signal for the second-largest cryptocurrency, as the token could benefit from whale accumulation.

On Friday, Ether’s price dipped to $2,865, a level not seen since late February. Over the weekend, however, ETH began to recover from its recent fall as the whale buying spree occurred.

Since then, the “king of altcoins” regained the $3,100 support level, currently trading at $3,192. The recovery represents a 2% increase from its price 24 hours ago and a 1.5% surge in the weekly timeframe.

Moreover, ETH’s daily trading activity has increased by 8.7%, with a daily trading volume of $11.42 billion. Similarly, the second-largest cryptocurrency has seen a 1.78% rise in market capitalization during the last day.

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Railgun Among Crypto Market Top Gainers: Why Is RAIL 53% Up?

Recently, the crypto market fluctuations have seen most cryptocurrencies exhibit red numbers. While many remain unfazed by the market dynamics, some sectors of the crypto community have turned more pessimistic, and their bags are seemingly going down instead of up.

Despite this, some projects have shown a remarkable performance this week. Among the top gainers today, privacy protocol Railgun has skyrocketed 53% in the last 24 hours after a week of support from crucial figures in the crypto industry.

Vitalik Buterin Shows Support To Privacy Tools

On Monday, news broke that Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin had transferred 100 ETH, worth around $325,000, to Railgun. The project is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) privacy protocol that allows DeFi private transactions.

Although the move raised criticism, most replies supported his use of privacy tools. Some users pointed out that Buterin’s every on-chain move is watched and speculated on.

Ethereum’s founder later addressed the news, expressing support for the project’s use of the Privacy Pools protocol, which “makes it much harder for bad actors to join the pool without compromising users’ privacy.”

Buterin also stated in his post that “privacy is normal,” an idea he has expressed several times before. He has researched the use of Privacy Pools to achieve an equilibrium between blockchain privacy and regulatory compliance.

After the post, Railgun (RAIL) skyrocketed 257%. The token went from trading at $0.56 to changing hands for $1.97 in a few hours. Moreover, the rest of the privacy tokens market saw a pump, with tokens like Monero (XRM) and Oasis Network (ROSE) rising 7% and 12.3%, respectively. As of this writing, privacy tokens are 4.7% up, per CoinGecko data.

Railgun Defends From Crypto Laundering Allegations

On Tuesday, the crypto news platform Wu Blockchain highlighted the alleged links between the privacy protocol and the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. The post affirmed that Lazarus Group “is also a user of the coin mixer Railgun.”

Moreover, the news platform pointed out that, in January 2023, the US FBI claimed over $60 million worth of stolen ETH was laundered through Railgun. Additionally, the post stated that the privacy protocol became the “main alternative” after the Tornado Cash sanctions.

Railgun shut down Wu Blockchain’s claims, deeming them “not true and false reporting.” The post stated the news was “a mistaken, false allegation in the first place.”

However, they clarified that the Lazarus Group is blocked from using the protocol’s system due to the “Private Proofs of Innocence” (Private POI).

The Private POI tool was implemented a year ago and gives “cryptographic assurance that funds entering the RAILGUN smart contract are not from a known list of transactions or actors considered undesirable by respective wallet providers.”

Despite the controversy, the price of RAIL remained above the $1 support level, hovering between $1.00 and $1.30 in the following days. RAIL continued an upward trajectory after its listing on the crypto exchange Poloniex.

At writing time, RAIL is trading at $1.85, an 18.2% surge in the last hour. According to an X user, a whale recently bought 152,034 RAIL tokens, which could have fueled the price jump.

Moreover, following its remarkable week, RAIL has increased 156% in the last seven days, with its daily trading volume rising a stellar 376% from yesterday.

crypto, Railgun, RAIL, RAILUSDT

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Are Altcoins Cooling Off? Analyst Weighs In On This Cycle’s Market

Many investors expressed worries about the crypto market corrections during this cycle. Bitcoin’s price drop has dragged altcoins with them, and, as a result, a more pessimistic sentiment has started to brew among some sectors of the crypto community.

Analysts and traders have reassured investors that the market fluctuations are a normal part of the journey. Some urge the community to look at the bigger picture, as altcoins remain above levels not seen in years.

Renowned crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa weighed in on the matter, exploring some of the reasons and differences that make this bull cycle different from the 2020s.

Time For An Altcoins Cool-Off?

In an X post, Altcoin Sherpa asserted that there’s a high possibility “that altcoins are done for the next 1-4 months.” The analyst considers that, right now, most of the market needs “time to chill out and consolidate after such a big run.”

Despite recently falling below the $1 trillion market capitalization, altcoins have performed remarkably in the last few months. In 2024, cryptocurrencies’ market cap, excluding Bitcoin’s, has increased by 22.79%, according to TradingView data.

Altcoins market cap has also considerably surged in longer timeframes, with a 91.31% and 52.46% jump in the last six months and the past year. This “big run,” as Sherpa called it, sits the cryptocurrency market at levels like those seen in 2022.

However, what worries the crypto analyst is, despite the overall performance, “many alts didn’t even run that hard over the last few months.” He illustrated his point with Chainlink’s native token, LINK.

Despite the +500 days of accumulation, LINK investors only got 3-4x gains depending on when they go in. Now, the token’s price is “strongly pulling back.” Expectations for altcoins during this cycle seemingly play a significant role in the current sentiment.

As one X user pointed out, LINK was anticipated to be one of the biggest winners of this cycle, Sherpa replied that he “expected more lol.” The user playfully commented, “No dino coins and new and shiny coins are the better bet.”

How Did The Market Change?

The previous comment highlights what appears to be a significant difference between this bull run and the 2020s. Choosing your bag has become more difficult since the market has expanded significantly.

Sherpa considers that “now more than ever, it is super important to choose the altcoins that are going to run hard.” In 2020, the massive altseason made “everything go up consecutively.”

This time, the liquidity is more fragmented, and “only a few sectors are pumping.” The AI and memes sectors have been the hottest topic in 2024, and layer-1 (L1) tokens, like SEI, have also performed well. “Everything else? Not great,” remarked Sherpa.

The massive number of tokens, both newly launched and old ones, are finding it more difficult to “capture mindshare/attention.”

Regarding retail investors, the analyst is not surprised that the default choice is memecoins instead of “trying to learn about some DeFi veRewards type of stuff. Or Oracle or L1s or modular or anything else.”

The analyst suggested investors “move to real value” like ETH and SOL. He also considers that big token launches, with significant money behind them, “have some real value.” These coins, as stated in the post, have the potential to “do very well” once Bitcoin stabilizes.

Sherpa’s market analysis closes with a “pretty bearish” outlook for the following months. The growing difficulty in keeping user attention and “for people to become strong users/community members” for many projects has made the market a different playground.

Ultimately, the analyst pointed out that “portfolio rebalances are necessary” and said he still believes this run is not over.

Altcoins, crypto, TOTAL

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Cat-Themed Memecoin Surges 14.9% After Major Exchange Listing And Whale Frenzy

Memecoins have been the most popular narrative of Q1 2024, with dog-inspired tokens leading the pack. However, one memecoin has been jumping on the roofs and assuring everybody hears it meow.

Cat in a dogs world (MEW) is a new player in the memecoin market, having been out for less than a month. In this short time, the token has left its clowder behind and joined the high ranks of the top ten memecoins by market capitalization.`

From The Roofs To The Ocean

The memecoin started remarkably, with a 267.54% growth during its first week. However, MEW is not immune to the crypto market dynamics, as its rally has slowed down with the corrections of Q2.

During the latest Bitcoin correction, MEW experienced a price drop of over 52%, going from trading at $0.00402 to as low as $0.00189 over the weekend, as seen in the chart below. A whale didn’t miss the chance to profit from the dip and bought 479.6 million MEW on Sunday.

Memecoin, MEW, cat in a dogs world, Bitcoin, BTC

According to Lookonchain data, a whale withdrew 10,438 SOL, worth around $1.54 million, from Binance to buy MEW. The whale bought the cat-themed token at an average price of $0.0032, doubling its investment in 48 hours.

At the time of this writing, the whale’s holdings are worth $3.12 million, and it has made over $1.56 million in profits. Moreover, after the first whale transaction, the token’s price began to recover from the drop, surging over 119% from its lowest point during the weekend as Monday started.

Major Exchange Listing Boosts The Memecoin

MEW continued its upward trajectory after being listed on one of the largest crypto exchanges by volume. On Monday, OKX announced the listing of popular token dogwifhat (WIF) and cat in a dogs world.

After the announcement, the cat-themed memecoin’s price surged 38.22% before retracing to the support zone of $0.00450 as the day closed. Nonetheless, MEW stole WIF’s hat, as the dog-themed sensation registered a 15.2% drop in the last 24 hours.

The popularity of feline-inspired tokens has increased throughout 2024’s Q1. Several cat memecoins launches offered massive gains to investors during the first days of Q2. Despite many of those gains being driven by the Solana memecoin frenzy, it appears that MEW holds stronger than others among the clowder.

As Tuesday started, the token began to soar again, skyrocketing 21.3% in just one hour. MEW’s market activity also rose 17.7% in the past day, with a daily trading volume of $227.6 million.

Similarly, the token has become a hot topic, according to CoinMarketCap data. In an X post, the crypto data platform revealed that MEW was third as the most mentioned token in its CMC community.

Cat in a dogs world is trading at $0.00634 at writing time, jumping 14.9% from yesterday’s price. Despite being 38.3% down from its all-time high (ATH) of $0.00971, MEW registers a 60% surge in the weekly timeframe.

memecoin, MEW, MEWUSDT,

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Analysts Bullish On Bitcoin Despite Peter Schiff’s $20,000 Doom Scenario

Over the weekend, the Bitcoin (BTC) crash had the crypto community on its toes. With the price dropping to $60,000, many investors worried that the flagship cryptocurrency was in trouble ahead of the “Halving” event.

Amid the correction, Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff claimed that his previous predictions regarding spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) were correct and presented the possibility of a doom drop for BTC.

Peter Schiff’s Doomsday Prediction For Bitcoin

Back in March, known Bitcoin opposer Peter Schiff asserted what he thought was the problem with Bitcoin ETFs. According to the economist, the problem with owning these investment products was that liquidity was limited to US market hours, which would mean that investors could not sell if the market crashed overnight.

On Sunday afternoon, Schiff claimed that, as he previously warned, Bitcoin ETF owners would be helpless if the flagship cryptocurrency started selling off that night. BTC traded around $63,460 at the time of his post and recovered in the following hour to trade above the $65,000 support level.

Earlier that day, Schiff had warned of a critical support zone for BTC. To the economist, breaking below $60,000 could “create a formidable triple top.” This trend reversal could lead to an “immediate downside projection” of $20,000.

Following his dooming scenario, Schiff stated that, at that price, MicroStrategy would “have a $2.7 billion unrealized loss on 214K Bitcoin acquired at an average price of $34K.” Additionally, he believes that BTC’s price could increase “before it crashes.”

Analysts Unfazed By BTC’s Correction

Several analysts concurred that the correction was a “minor drop” in the macro picture. According to MacroCRG, Bitcoin’s chart “looks incredible.” The analyst stated: “They threw a full-on war at her and all it managed to do was wick the range low.”

Similarly, trader and analyst Rekt Capital considers that BTC “successfully protected the Range Low of its Re-Accumulation Range as the week of the Bitcoin Halving begins.”

Per the analyst’s chart, Bitcoin is at the “Last Pre-Halving Retrace” during the “Pre-Halving Rally.” If history is to repeat itself, after April 19, BTC will enter the “Re-Accumulation” phase before experiencing the “Post-Halving Parabolic Upside.”

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Moreover, Crypto Jelle urged investors to “not get shaken out” as BTC is “consolidating above the previous cycle highs.” The analyst and investor reaffirmed his prediction of $82,000 after the upcoming “Halving” event.

However, Jelle also set a higher target for this bull cycle. The bullish megaphone pattern on BTC’s chart “still has a pattern of $180,000” despite the recent correction, as stated in the post. The analyst claims he wouldn’t be surprised “if the meme pattern plays out once again.”

The correction caused BTC to register bleeding numbers for several periods. The biggest cryptocurrency exhibits an 8.4% and a 3.1% dip in the weekly and monthly timeframes. Similarly, BTC’s market activity has decreased by 32.1% in the past day, with a trading daily volume of $42.56 billion.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin has recovered 3.5% from its price 24 hours ago, currently trading at $66,275. Since the lowest point of this correction, BTC has surged 10.3%.

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