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Dogecoin Ascent Slows, But Why Are Analysts Still Bullish About The Memecoin?

Dogecoin, the original memecoin of the crypto industry, has not seen a monumental rise in price unlike other altcoins of late. According to CoinMarketCap, DOGE has only risen 5.56% in the past week with its biggest gains seen in the monthly time frame. 

At its current market cap of $11.3 billion, the token is surpassed by other altcoins in terms of growth. However, DOGE still remains a dominant force in the world of memecoins as it has been for a long time. 

DOGE Compared To Other Memecoins

Compared to its peers, Dogecoin is still a popular choice for investors in the crypto industry. In terms of market cap, the token dominates SHIB by a wider margin. Even with Shiba Inu disrupting DOGE’s dominance, it still has a long way to go for SHIB to be level with DOGE. 

However, Shiba Inu has been distancing itself from its memecoin past. With Shibarium around the corner, we might see SHIB gain more dominance in space. Since last year, Dogecoin has been silent in the development space with the only spike in activity being the October 2022 upgrade of the token’s wallet. 

But external developments still favor DOGE. According to recent news about Tesla’s financials, the company has not bought or sold Bitcoin for two consecutive quarters. Despite this, the company still only accepts DOGE for crypto payments. This gives DOGE some real life utility as a form of payment.

However, with the electric vehicle industry facing a tougher time right now, we might see DOGE perform poorly compared to other memecoins, or altcoins in that matter, in the foreseeable future. 

Sideways Movement Continues For DOGE

As the time of writing, the price movement of DOGE has stagnated and started to oscillate above and below $0.08. Analysts are bullish about the coin’s short to medium term growth with the target set at $0.118. 

However, Dogecoin bulls should lower their expectations as the previous few weeks shows. DOGE, even with strong correlation with Bitcoin and Ethereum, only grew by 11% which is comparably lower than other altcoins who are in the top 100 list.

Now that Bitcoin and Ethereum have hit their respective price ceilings, Dogecoin will have a harder time to rally in price in the medium to long term. Short term, we might see DOGE bulls break the deadlock and gain ground above $0.093. 

But caution should be exercised as the stagnant nature of the current price movement could also be the start of a strong bearish market movement.

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Polkadot Hints At Price Recovery – Can DOT Go Past 15% Weekly Ceiling?

Polkadot (DOT) is in the green (see image below) and going steady. Could this hint at price recovery? Even though Polkadot’s funding rate plunged for a while, it is showing some improvement at the time of writing.

Here’s a quick look at DOT price movement:

  •  Polkadot price is up by 14.9% in the weekly
  •  DOT low in market cap dominance
  •  DOT shows a spike in development activity

According to Coingecko, DOT price has skyrocketed by 4% in the last 24 hours, and trading at $6.50 as of press time.

Polkadot Eco-Friendliness To Drive Positive Momentum

January was phenomenal for most cryptocurrencies that are enjoying a price rally, but DOT was seen struggling and was unable to reach its pre-FTX levels. 

On a positive note, DOT was the only asset that consumed the least electricity when pitted against other cryptocurrencies. This eco-friendly quality of DOT can drive positive momentum for the coin.

Even though the weighted sentiment on Polkadot remained to be negative last December, its low electricity consumption can drive a change in public sentiment, switching it to positive which is great news for Polkadot.

The low trading volumes suggest that the bears may have the upper hand. This action has the potential to push DOT prices below the $6.154 support level, putting the brakes on the recent uptrend in DOT.

DOT is predicted to spike in terms of development activity which could tick developer interest this year. In addition, DOT is said to potentially tip its pre-FTX levels in the next couple of days or weeks.  

 

In the event that this positive pattern persists, DOT’s pace of rebound is estimated to climb, which would enable bulls to charge beyond the resistance located at $6.845 and $7.235, which is the range that existed before the crypto turmoil broke out around late November.

Social Metrics Up For DOT

The number of people staking DOT has also increased by over 6.2% as seen in the past month which also hints at a positive streak for the asset. More so, social metrics have also increased for DOT.

Social mentions spiked by 7.6% with engagements shooting over 26K. Interestingly, DOT has been increasingly popular as more people are interested in and talking about it.

Additionally, there are upcoming referendums in line with runtime and governance upgrades that could increase the attractiveness of the coin to investors.

Meanwhile, the market sentiment enveloping DOT still has that air of uncertainty considering its shrinking market cap and high volatility.

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Aptos (APT) Price Snowballs 147% As On-Chain Development Shoots Up

The Aptos Mainnet was only launched in full back in October 2022 in the midst of last year’s tumultuous bear market. Since then, the developmbnt team of Aptos has been busy. According to Santiment, development on-chain has been nearly consistent even as it is a far cry from all-time-high levels. 

Because of this, CoinGecko noted a strong bullish push as the native token of Aptos, APT, soared 147% in the weekly time frame. Adding on to the bullishness is the current sentiment surrounding cryptocurrencies. 

According to recent news, the market might continue its bullish run as the derivatives market of Bitcoin sends buy signals to bulls.

What’s Going On In Aptos?

The naming and identity arm of Aptos, Aptos Names, has been on a roll lately as they make their smart contract code open source. According to the thread, this would make the contracts much more secure as individuals can customize their contracts. 

This would also make the code more decentralized, allowing the community to have more input and authority on what can be implemented in the future for Aptos Names. 

PancakeSwap also continued with its multi-chain deployment on Aptos. Since the proposal, the decentralized exchange has deployed over 14 farms on the blockchain with four APT pairs available. 

Investors Should Watch These Levels

The ongoing rally for APT is something the bulls relish on, making APT among the top gainers in almost all time frames, according to CoinGecko data. 

Since January 1st, Aptos found three price levels in case the token faces a strong rejection in the coming days or weeks.

As it currently stands, the rally is being supported at $12.32. If the token faces rejection, investors and traders can rely on this crucial support if the $16.01 support is broken. 

Right now, the token is able to reach these new highs as a result of on-chain developments that give investors confidence.

At the time of writing, January 26th, long buyers outnumber the short sellers by a very small margin. 

This may be a sign that investor confidence in the long-term prospect of the token is still optimistic. For now, investors and traders can cash in some gains to hedge against potential downturns in APT’s market. 

Watching the overall situation in the crypto market is also a must as market movements by major cryptos can have an effect on APT’s price trajectory. 

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TRON As Currency: Kingdom Of The Netherlands To Adopt TRON As Legal Tender

On January 24, Justin Sun, TRON Founder, announced that St. Maarten has expressed his wishes to adopt TRON which is alongside TRON’s goals of massive adoption on a global scale.

  • St. Maarten bares plans of adopting TRON
  • TRX price down by 3.31%
  • Price to peak by Q2 of 2023; could potentially shoot to $0.0973

St. Maarten, also spelled Saint Martin, is a country located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Lesser Antilles, northeastern Caribbean Sea.

Decentralization, The Name Of The Game

TRON (TRX) refers to the decentralized open-source blockchain network that allows users to seamlessly connect with each other while also providing them access to a myriad of entertainment applications including graphics, videos, and games.

Essentially, decentralization remains the focus of the TRON project which facilitates the smooth transfer of money between users without any interference from financial companies or middlemen.

The contrasting factor lies mainly in TRX unique architecture, as it is dispersed into three categories or layers:

  • the Storage Layer which has a distributed block storage
  • the Application Layer which is mobilized by developers for creating dApps that are used for issuing tokens
  • the Core Layer which consists of varied modules and smart contracts

These different layers are interconnected using a protocol that is compatible with multiple programming languages.

More so, the network also has built its community which is fostered towards the goal of speeding up the internet’s decentralizations with the use of blockchain and dApps.

On December 27, the TRX community merged with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) bandwagon, which is geared towards promoting best practices with the use of Ethereum blockchain technology, enabling real-world applications and processes.

TRON’s Social Volume Up, But Development Activity Wanes

With St. Maarten’s announcement declaring the adoption of TRON, its native token responded accordingly with metrics looking positive.

TRX’s social volume spiked which hints at its booming popularity. More so, TRX also exhibited an increased demand in the futures market with its Binance Funding Rate extremely high.

However, the network’s development activity has plunged as seen in the past couple of days which could pose problems for the network. According to CoinMarketCap, TRX price is seen to retreat by 3.31%. The token is trading at $0.06068 as of this writing.

Evidently, investors have so much to rejoice about with TRX looking to spike in the next couple of days as seen in the recent market indicators, with the crypto peaking in the Q2 of 2023 or reaching as much as $0.0973.

With St. Maarten’s collaboration with TRON, the latter taps into the inclusive and expansive global network which can further its economy.

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Avalanche Crumbles 10% – Was The AVAX Rally A Bull Trap? 

Avalanche has been going up the chart ladder since the start of the year, following the broader crypto market rally as major cryptocurrencies break through crucial resistances. But right now, its native token AVAX seems to have found itself a new ceiling. 

According to Coingecko, AVAX is down 10% in the daily time frame, landing it a spot as one of the bigger losers as of today, January 25th. This has led to speculation that Avalanche’s most recent rally that was triggered by partnerships with Amazon Web Services and with Alibaba was just a so-called “buy the rumor, sell the news” event. 

The saying “buy the rumor, sell the news” describes a common trading technique in which investors buy a security on the basis of rumors about an impending news announcement or data, and then sell the asset once the news is out.

This could afford the trader an opportunity to purchase the security before everyone else does so that he or she can sell it at a profit when demand and price rise.

External And Internal Forces Influence AVAX

Although developments on-chain have been particularly bullish, external market forces seem to be the dominant force for the token’s slippage today. At the time of writing, Bitcoin and Ethereum have approached their respective resistances with no breakthroughs made by the two cryptos’ bulls. 

But with recent developments like the ecosystem’s partnership with Canadian e-commerce company Shopify, we might see Avalanche become more mainstream as consumers from Shopify familiarize themselves with the ecosystem. 

However, recent news shows that on-chain metrics have not improved since the announcement of the partnerships. Validator count still hovers around 1,200 ever since. The realm of DeFi also does not show promise for Avalanche.  

According to DefiLlama, the ecosystem’s total value locked declined 3% since yesterday. This can be a sign of a slight loss in investor confidence as investors would have felt misled by the recent market movements. 

At $16.96, What’s In Store For Investors? 

Investors are somewhat bearish because of the recent rejection at $19. According to CoinGlass data, short sellers out-number the long buyers by a significant margin, adding to the overall bearish weight of the situation. 

If the token continues to do worse and closes today below $16.85, we might see the bears retest the $15.74 support range. However, on-chain developments should be able to keep up with the market’s current sentiment. 

With the token’s high correlation with Bitcoin and Ethereum, investors and traders should also monitor the price movements of these coins. As of writing, bears in the BTC market are retesting $22,661 support with ETH retesting $1,520 support at the same time. 

For now, long position holders of AVAX should brace for short to medium term as bears try to claw their way into position. AVAX bulls should also try to consolidate above their support as this would enable the token to have a strong plank to burst through $19 resistance. 

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Solana (SOL) Network On Hyperdrive As TVL And NFT Trade Volume Soars

Solana (SOL) is on hyperdrive as the network quickly gains momentum in terms of liquidity which are seen at more than 300% as of press time. Following a sweeping price decline, Solana has turned the tide with metrics with flying colors.

Here’s a quick glance at SOL performance of late:

  • SOL metrics and trustworthiness score looking positive
  • Solana’s TVL seen to jump higher
  • Solana rolls out Saga Pass Cards

There is sizeable growth seen both in terms of NFT with the rollout of the Saga Pass Cards and market cap.

Solana was seen to nosedive the past couple of weeks, but it’s now back on the top 10 cryptocurrencies list that is stacked at the green lane.

SOL Price Gaining Traction

According to price monitoring by Coingecko, SOL price is currently trading at $24.28, up 3.0% in the last seven days.

Evidently, following the FTX crash, short-term traders and the bulls were fixated on SOL which unlocked roughly 100 million coins from different contacts which could have punched a hole in the market, driving the price of SOL to null or $0.

But, that didn’t happen as SOL holders chose to hold out their coins waiting for better days and not panic and sell their SOL holdings.

True enough, the market gained traction and recovered with most assets moving north, including SOL which made the investors extremely happy with the gains.

With this hypergrowth happening with Solana, the investors decided to accumulate longs which triggered SOL’s open interest to accelerate higher. As a matter of fact, around $460 million worth of orders is currently open at crypto derivative exchanges. Could this be bad news for SOL?

Now, the open interest really isn’t the culprit here as it can’t really pull SOL price down but it’s the increased number of longs that could trigger a squeeze brought about by SOL holders rapidly selling their holdings to counterpunch future risks.

On the brighter side, nothing is set in stone and SOL holders and investors need not panic right now as SOL has not gained much momentum yet to trigger millions in the liquidation of assets.

SOL Currently In No. 2 Spot On Top Chains List

SOL is performing so well that it managed to jump to the second spot on the top chains list in terms of NFT trade volume seen in the past month. SOL’s NFT trade volume is seen to spike and gain momentum in the past couple of weeks.

Solana Mobile has announced that they would be rolling out new cards on rotation. Basically, the first card is exclusive only to holders of the OG Saga Pass, and then a random card will be introduced every week.

Additionally, the Saga Pass Card Collection is set to be verified via MagicEden real soon.

Meanwhile, according to DeFiLlama’s numbers, the total value locked in the network has been on the rise since the start of the year, which is encouraging.

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ApeCoin Buckles As News Of Stolen BAYC NFT Hits The Market 

The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has been the target of an exploit this January 20th. FranklinIsbored, one of the biggest holders of BAYC NFTs, is targeted with an exploit of OpenSea’s stolen ApeCoin policy which allowed the attacker to sell a marked Bored Ape. 

This Bored Ape was marked  as “under review for suspicious activity” which supposedly locks the NFT from being sold. Franklin has been the target of this exploit for the second time this week with the first one being January 20. 

Since then, ApeCoin, the native token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, has fallen 1.3% in value in the past 24 hours. APE is currently trading at $5.80, up 16.6% in the last seven days, data from Coingecko show. 

The Gist Of The Situation

The two exploits happened within three days of each other. According to Franklin’s tweets, the flagged apes can’t be sold since they are subjected for review. These stolen assets shouldn’t have been sold in the open market according to OpenSea’s stolen item policy. 

The exploit works as the attacker uses OpenSea’s “Match Advance Order” system to “Mint” and sell it to Franklin. According to recent news, the total amount of Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFTs being stolen has now reached nearly $20 million. 

OpenSea has not been transparent with the amount of stolen NFTs on the platform. Beetle, a self-described on-chain sleuth, has recently released charts of the platform’s number of stolen NFTs. In total, 1,278 NFTs have fallen in the hands of cyber-thieves within the platform.

The NFT marketplace has not responded since the news hit the market. 

ApeCoin Still Showing Potential

Even with the negative news surrounding BAYC, the token is still poised to see gains in the coming days. At the time of writing, the charts show that ApeCoin bulls are able to break through the $5.867 resistance. 

For the bullish momentum to continue, the token should close today above its current resistance which would give the bulls a chance to move upwards. However, if the resistance holds, a retest of the $5.063 support could occur in the coming days. 

The token also has a strong correlation with Bitcoin which is retesting the $23,000 resistance. If Bitcoin closes above this crucial $23k resistance, ApeCoin will have the boost needed to grab its September 2022 price levels. 

For now, investors and traders should focus on breaking through ApeCoin current resistance as a breakthrough on this level would mean more gains in the medium and long term. 

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THETA Breaches $1 Level Courtesy Of Solid On-Chain Developments

Streaming services have become a big part of the modern society. Theta Network is building that kind of tech for the Web 3 space.

The network’s native token THETA has been going bullish in the past few weeks as a result of on-chain developments and the reversal of the sentiment on cryptocurrencies. 

According to CoinGecko, THETA rose 15% in the bi-weekly timeframe along with other altcoins. The network has been revving up development with the recent alpha release of EdgeStore, Theta Network’s decentralized storage solution.

Boosting The Network

In their January 20 blog post, the development team detailed how this new way of storing data can help the network and Web3 progress. 

The EdgeStore solution would be a decentralized way to store Web3 content. This will run on the Theta Edge Nodes which already has the ability to encode and transcode content.

The fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding the cryptocurrency market has not stopped the networks to grow with partnerships.

Trusted Media Brand, a Web3 entertainment firm, is now part of the growing list of Theta’s Enterprise Validator Nodes. 

The list includes tech industry giants like Samsung, Google, and Sony to name a few. This would accelerate the adoption of Web3 for entertainment services. 

$1 Reached – What’s Next For THETA?

As the time of writing, the token has breached the $1.02 resistance to hit its current price of $1.04. This drive towards $1 might have left the bulls exhausted as they pulled off the advance yesterday. Right now, THETA bulls are focused on consolidating gains.

If the bulls are successful in consolidating the coin, we might see an explosive upward pressure in the next couple of days. The token, with its high correlation with Bitcoin, would also be subject to the broader sway of the crypto market.

With BTC going into consolidation mode as well, THETA’s phase right now would be reliant if Bitcoin breaks upwards or downwards. 

Although the token still has a long way to go for it to recover pre-FTX levels, its steady momentum now will surely help investors and traders reach their goals. Analysts are also bullish for the future of the token. 

For now, investors and traders targeting $1.20 should focus on keeping the momentum steady and slow as consolidating gives the token some room for short and medium term gains.

With Bitcoin’s price movement also affecting the THETA market, monitoring how BTC moves in the next couple of weeks should also be a priority. 

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Bitcoin Hits $23,000 As Crypto Market Cap Revisits $1 Trillion Mark

Bitcoin, the king of cryptocurrencies, has been crossing multiple crucial resistances since the start of the year. According to CoinGecko, the coin is now up 14% in the weekly timeframe, and trading at $23,008, making BTC break through the $22,000 and $23,000 resistance levels that have limited the crypto’s ascent. 

This year witnessed a complete U-turn in investor sentiment on cryptocurrencies as both Ethereum and Bitcoin reaped massive gains, along with the other top altcoins. This led to the entire crypto market to experience a resurgence in almost all aspects.

At the time of writing, the current market cap of the entire cryptocurrency market is at $1.05 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. 

Crypto Winter Thawing?

Twitter has been very bullish since the coin broke through its latest line of barrier. Analysts say that the break on the $23k wall will validate the entry of this year’s bull market, with some even targeting $100,000, or more, in the long term. 

This recent price movement led to massive liquidations of short positions on Bitcoin. There are several reasons as to why this BTC broke through $23k. 

Just this few hours ago, the NASDAQ index jumped almost 3% as tech stocks led the market rally. Bitcoin is heavily connected to the traditional financial space. This means if major indices like the NASDAQ continue to go up, Bitcoin will follow suit along with the entire cryptocurrencies. 

With the broader financial space eyeing an economic soft-landing, bullishness on both the crypto and stock market will continue as the situation improves. December’s Consumer Price Data (CPI) contributed to the optimistic mood.

What’s Next For The Alpha Coin?

Bitcoin’s price movement is expected to slow down a bit in the short term, some analysts said, as the next target will be $30k in the coming weeks or months.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin bulls should try and consolidate above its current support at $22,661 which will be retested by the bears in the next few days as $23,328 resisted today’s bullishness.

Investors and traders should also keep an eye on consolidation for now as market momentum might slow down. Bitcoin’s halving – an event that would cut the total supply of the coin in the market – would also place upward pressure as it happens. 

Bulls should also keep tabs of the current situation in the traditional financial space. With the coin’s high correlation with the stock market, Bitcoin’s future will be reliant on the movement of the stock market along with improving macroeconomic trends. 

For now, Bitcoin holders should have enough strength to consolidate and target $24.5k and $25k resistances. 

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What is SingularityNET And Why Is Its AGIX Token Exploding By 116%?

The popularity of artificial intelligence applications has been growing as popular platforms like SingularityNET and ChatGPT become mainstream.

With Microsoft investing $10 billion on ChatGPT, we should expect AI applications to become more mainstream in the next few years. 

AGIX, the native token of the SingularityNET, is capitalizing on this as it tallied huge gains since the start of 2023. According to CoinGecko, the token is up 116% in the past week (at the time of writing, Friday) with the biggest gains made at the bi-weekly time frame at 360%. 

What Is SingularityNET?

SingularityNET is the first decentralized AI market that is built on top of the Cardano blockchain. The project was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel, a cognitive scientist and one of the leading figures in AI research. The project is set to create an AGI or an artificial general intelligence. 

As of writing, the SingularityNET ecosystem comprises 13 protocols that are either being built or are already deployed as a full-fledged component of the ecosystem. 

Getting Smarter By The Day

On-chain developments have been very bullish for the SingularityNET ecosystem. According to the ecosystem’s recent blog post, the journey of SingularityNET in creating an AGI is getting closer by the day. 

The development of the MeTTa, a custom coding language specifically built for SingularityNET’s goals, have been successful so far.

The alpha release of the coding language will be accompanied by the release of the Distributed Atomspace (DAS) knowledge store this 2023.

This technology would enable the AGI to store data for the long-term. These developments in the realm of AI will certainly make the creation of SingularityNET’s AGI easier. 

How Did These Affect AGIX? 

The ecosystem’s native token AGIX is currently one of the most bullish tokens on the market. As of Saturday, AGIX is trading at $0.2139, rising 32% in the last week, and facing rejection at two strong resistances at $0.2362 and $0.2546. 

The current rally of the token is unsustainable and bears might be able to retest its support $0.1404. This support is shaky as any breakthrough on this level might force AGIX to drop at $0.0822 in the medium term. 

But as time progresses, investors and traders should be able to observe how AGIX will react with the releases of crucial components of SingularityNET’s AGI development.

However, Microsoft’s investment on ChatGPT development will further cement artificial intelligence technology in the mainstream, boosting the development of the AGI. 

With this in mind, investors and traders would have to sustain short term volatility and losses for possible medium term gains. 

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Nexo Pays $45M In Penalties And Settles With US Authorities

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has levied a $45 million fine on Nexo Capital Inc. The SEC explains the reason for the fine in a tweet,

Today we charged Nexo Capital Inc. with failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto asset lending product, the Earn Interest Product (EIP). To settle charges, Nexo agreed to pay $22.5 million and cease its unregistered offer and sale of the EIP to U.S. investors.

The $22.5 million fine for selling EIP to US investors. Moreover, the $22 million fine will go through settling the claims by State Regulatory Authorities. The SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, reinforces that crypto organizations must comply with its policies. Failure to do so will allow the SEC to hold the defaulters accountable. 

What Is EIP And Why The Fine?

Starting in June 2020, Nexo is marketing and selling its Earn Interest Product (EIP) in the USA. Nexo operates so that it lends money to its customers, and interest becomes its primary source of income. Nexo uses this interest income to pay interest on its loans further. However, several states in the USA alleged that Nexo’s earn-interest service is not registered as a Security. 

As a result, the states of California, Oklahoma, Vermont, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Maryland took the company to court. They demanded a cease-and-desist order on the company’s EIP service. 

The SEC order says that Nexo used its EIP service to fund interest payments and inject it into its other businesses. Moreover, the SEC holds Nexo at fault because their EIP Security fails to meet the requirements for an exemption from the regulatory authority. 

Even though Nexo agrees to pay the fine and stop the EIP service, they have not confirmed the allegations. In response to the penalty, Nexo also published a settlement tweet confirming that they agree to a no-admit-no-deny settlement. 

Further, Nexo’s Co-Founder Antoni Trenchev says,

We are content with this unified resolution which unequivocally puts an end to all speculations around Nexo’s relations with the United States. We can now focus on what we do best – build seamless financial solutions for our worldwide audience.

SEC Is Getting More Vigilant And Strict

Noting some of the SEC’s previous actions on crypto companies, it can be said that it is tightening the noose. In February 2022, SEC fined BlockFi $100 million for its unregistered securities offerings. The BlockFi fine acted as a warning for several other crypto firms offering similar products. 

A Cornerstone Research finds several proceedings in which the SEC holds crypto companies accountable for their services, solutions, and actions. Over 30 such enforcement proceedings came under the chairmanship of Gary Gensler in 2022. Similar to the Nexo case, the SEC also charged Gemini for its unregistered service in the form of sales of securities.

Bitcoin chart

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Decentraland (MANA) Swells 55% – Are Metaverse Tokens Back?

MANA is the native token of the Decentraland ecosystem which, as the time of writing, has seen growth enough to recoup losses post-FTX collapse. According to CoinGecko, the token is up 55% in the weekly timeframe with the biggest gains made during the monthly time frame at 105%. 

With 2023 showing a renewed interest in crypto, Decentraland has a lot to unpack this month for users, traders, and investors as they released their manifesto detailing plans to improve user experience and making it easier for creators to enter the world of the metaverse with ease.

The Decentraland Manifesto

The Decentraland team recently posted on their blog about how this year would be the “Year of Creators.” According to Decentraland, it will continue its mission it set itself from the start of 2017: to establish a decentralized platform where users can help build and grow.

The blog post said:

“Decentraland, anyone can extend the capabilities of the virtual world’s platform, audit it, contribute to it, and build on top of it—all the code is open source. To that end, in 2023 Decentraland will continue to be developed as a public good in the era of the internet.” 

The manifesto detailed several goals that the ecosystem wants to achieve this year. Namely, the developers aim to achieve a better environment for creators, to make Decentraland more fun, and to make the performance of the ecosystem better. This would drive the platform to become a dominant player in the metaverse space. 

In the 18 months since its birth, Decentraland’s DAO has developed into a basic decision-making system for high-level deliberations concerning the Decentraland ecosystem and the metaverse in general.

In order to address the growing demand for governance and stewardship of progressive decentralization, the DAO’s procedures and processes have continued to expand with the community’s increasing self-governance experience and strength, according to the manifesto.

What Does This Mean For MANA?

As the time of writing, MANA is changing hands at $0.6210 with the token being rejected at $0.7567. This led to the token retesting its current support at $0.6352 which, if broken, could lead the bears to test further support ranges in the next few days or weeks. 

If the token buckles under the rejection, we might see MANA at $0.5397 support which could easily be breached. However, with the detailed roadmap provided by the devs, MANA will have a strong enough investor sentiment that it will retest $0.7567 once the rejection reaches its bottom. 

Investors and traders should brace for short to mid term volatility as the token tries to consolidate above $0.6352. If MANA bulls are successful in entrenching the token above $0.6352, investors and traders will have another chance to target $0.7567 or higher. 

As the development of Decentraland continues, expect MANA to reach new highs this year. 

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HNT Balloons As Token Gets 36% More Helium In Run-Up To Network Migration

Helium’s native token HNT has been bloating in price since the start of the year. According to CoinGecko, the token is up more than 36% in the past week. This means that the token is ready for more gains in the coming days or weeks as Helium merges with the Solana blockchain.

According to Helium’s tweet back on December 16th, the two blockchains will merge in the 1st quarter of this year. Will HNT continue its bullishness post-merge?

The Merge & External Developments On Helium

The Helium-Solana consolidation event is not just the only thing marked for investors and traders to watch. Nova Labs, formerly known as Helium, and T-Mobile announced a partnership back on September 20 last year.  

According to the press release, the partnership would enable Helium Network users to use the T-Mobile 5G network alongside with Helium’s own native 5G network. This would entitle users to opt-in of the MOBILE rewards system. 

This system rewards users for sharing data about Helium’s dead spots location in the United States which would help them save on cellular data plans. The public beta launch of the rewards system will launch during the 1st quarter this year. 

Helium and Solana’s merge event will also happen at the same timeframe. The upgrade would enable the ecosystem to give more back to hotspot owners as 2 million HNT would be allocated annually for rewards. 

It would also make the network faster and reliable as the proof-of-coverage system of Helium gets buffed. 

What Does This Mean For HNT?

As of writing, the token faced a rejection at $3.4 with the bears trying to reach the $2.8 support line. The first few months of this year could set up HNT for greater heights as the rewards system and the merge of Solana and Helium happens at nearly the same time.

With the token’s price at $2.9, HNT is expected to face challenges in the short to medium term as volatility enters the market. If the token’s current support is broken, investors and traders might have a hard time to revert back to its current price point.

However, with the onset of its merge with Solana and the rewards system public beta launch, we might see less pain in the medium to long term. Investors and traders should also watch the token’s high correlation with Bitcoin as this could influence the price of HNT strongly. 

For now, investors and traders are safe to hold HNT as this rejection could be quickly dealt with with external bullish prospects.

Featured image: Crestline

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Scaramucci: FTX Cannot Be Saved, Sam Betrayed Me

Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital, thinks failed crypto exchange FTX cannot be saved following its bankruptcy filing. 

Ex-FTX Boss’ Betrayal

In an exclusive interview while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the founder and American entrepreneur opined that there is no way the exchange could be saved. 

Still, Scaramucci considers the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, a friend who was given a seat at the table of “high-profile people.” The problem is he feels betrayed that Sam turned out to be “delusional” and allegedly a fraud.

Whether Sam will end up in jail or not, he adds, is up to the jury and the presiding judge.

FTX, at its peak, was among one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, offering what was, at that time, thought to be a solid trading platform for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of users. 

However, as the crypto market cratered and Bitcoin slid toward this week’s trade range of around $20k, cracks began to emerge in FTX.

 

bitcoin daily chart

Eventually, an explosive piece revealing the misdoings of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, and several accounting errors in their finances broke the camel’s back. FTX halted customer withdrawals before news broke out that they were filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the United States. It later emerged that FTX and its trading wing, Alameda Research, had misappropriated billions of customer funds.

Anthony Scaramucci: Skybridge Capital Is Patient

Considering the evidence presented and claims from the restructuring officer in charge of FTX bankruptcy proceedings, Anthony Scaramucci said nothing is to be done.

He divulged that his fund wasn’t spared by the crypto winter and the FTX contagion as market prices slumped, affecting their revenue. Their core fund, Anthony said, was down 30 percent in 2022. In January 2023, there were signs of recovery, and their core funds are up double digits. Scaramucci also confirmed that Skybridge Capital is “completed unleveraged” and owns its inventory. 

Asked whether he lost money last year, he confirmed that his Bitcoin (BTC) is intact and didn’t lose any monies since he didn’t use leverage. Leverage is a trader borrows money to trade. The borrowed funds, together with the deposit, act as a margin allowing for higher profits. Still, there can be losses if a trader’s an incorrect prognosis. Traders can lose all their deposits if they use leverage and trade any other asset, including crypto. 

Anthony revealed that though FTX finds itself in crisis and could dissolve, the exchange was one of the early investors of Skybridge Capital, buying 30% of the fund. As part of the deal, the fund bought 10 percent of FTX’s FTT token only to sell it for a loss of $9.5 million. 

Despite this, Antony said they are patient and waiting for “what the bankruptcy people say” so that they can buy back their shares. The fund, he explains, isn’t going to blame the disgraced founder of FTX for all woes in the crypto market or Skybridge Capital. Overall, he remains confident in crypto’s prospects.

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LUNC Network Upgrade Backed By Major Exchanges – Will The Crypto Balloon In Price? 

Just this January 14th, LUNC just went through its network upgrade that was supported by Binance. The upgrade was due to several developments on-chain.

According to its January 1st blog post, it was because the system of LUNC remints tokens that were burnt for a development fund. 

Along with this, the ecosystem would also have an increase in gas fees for better validators and staking rewards in the platform. This would mean that the ecosystem would continuously burn and make LUNC a deflationary currency. 

What It Means For LUNC

Luna Classic becoming deflationary would have an effect on the token. But this wouldn’t be enough for the token to have a big move in the short and mid-term. Based on the blog post, this burn rate of the ecosystem would increase as remints would be eliminated. 

The proposal also increases the gas fees in the ecosystem, making the usage of the community fund more efficient. Although this may seem bad, Terra Luna Classic’s gas fees are still comparably low compared to Terra 2.0.

The proposal was well received by the community. This could be a catalyst for a consistent move upwards as LUNC rides the altcoin rally. 

LUNC is the native cryptocurrency of the old Terra network. It was launched in 2018 under the name LUNA, but was renamed LUNC following the Terra disaster.

Long Term, The Key For Gains

Short term, the token is set to break its current upward trend. Volatility is expected to enter the market in the next few days – but then that is not surprising – as the market prices in the burnt tokens.

It is likely, however, that the token would have a respite in the coming days as deflationary forces act upon the token. 

As the time of writing, the token’s price is at $0.00017586, a percent discount from yesterday’s price movement, but LUNC also exhibited sizable gains in the weekly and bi-weekly time frame. The token is also currently facing strong resistance at $0.00018073. 

In the short-mid term, the token would revert back to its support at $0.00015726 in the next couple of days or weeks. If the token experiences a pull back in price, the token should have enough momentum to retest the $0.00018073 resistance level. 

If the token breaches the $0.00018073 resistance level, it could regain and consolidate above it in the coming weeks to retest $0.0001866 with confidence.

Investors and trader should brace themselves for a bumpy few days as the token experiences volatility. 

Long-term, holding LUNC is the best move for investors and traders as the market rides on Bitcoin’s resistance break at $21,000.

Featured image: OpenText Blogs

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How Arbitrum and Optimism Made Millions in 2022

Arbitrum and Optimism raked millions in profit despite the extended bear market that hammered decentralized finance (DeFi) activities and Ethereum (ETH) valuation in 2022.

Arbitrum And Optimism Win Big

Per on-chain data shared on Twitter, Arbitrum, and Optimism, general-purpose Ethereum layer-2 platforms, made 2,906 ETH and 2,086ETH, respectively. In USD terms, it translates to around $4.6 million and $3.3 million for each protocol.

Based on user activity and the number of dApps launched on Ethereum, solid statistics show that developers prefer the first smart contracting over competitors. Since launching, the network has become a hub of activity, spearheading exciting innovations in decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, metaverse, and gaming. 

Trackers in mid-January 2023 state that the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum stands at $26.88 billion, representing more than half of the assets locked across DeFi. The drop in TVL mirrors the fall in ETH prices in 2022.

Ethereum price action 2022

In essence, Ethereum dominates with DeFi activity over the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), trailing at less than a quarter of the TVL of the leading platform, at $4.65 billion.

Despite this dominance, Ethereum’s scaling problem directly impacts Gas fees. As demand picks up, Gas fees fluctuate, leading to as much as $50 on this blockchain to post a simple transaction. Deploying smart contracts cost much more, sometimes upwards of $80, when the network is congested. As an illustration, the average transaction fees on Ethereum stood at $0.63 on January 17. However, on May 1, 2022, this figure stood at over $23.

Ethereum layer-2 protocols are part of the scaling attempts made by developers to relieve the mainnet. By routing transactions off-chain, layer-2 solutions can help scale Ethereum but, most importantly, reduce Gas fees by several magnitudes. 

In Ethereum’s layer-2 realm, Arbitrum and Optimism dominate. According to L2Beat statistics, Arbitrum and Optimism had TVLs of $2.52 billion and $1.45 billion, with a market share of 52% and roughly 30%, respectively. 

Popular Ethereum L2s by TVL

Riding on Network Effects

Although associated fees in Arbitrum, Optimism, and all other layer-2 networks are negligibly low, these protocols can profit based on activity. For every transfer or smart contract execution of Arbitrum and Optimism, there is an associated fee. 

Arbitrum and Optimism charge $0.11 and $0.23 for simple transfers, payable in ETH. If a smart contract is deployed, the fees rise to $0.30 and $0.35. They make more fees as more users deploy smart contracts or initiate transfers. Accumulating these amounts over months translate to a tidy profit for the protocol operator. 

In 2022, Ethereum layer-2 TVL fell roughly 40% from $7.45 billion to $3.3 billion in July 2022. Outflows were lower compared to layer-1 DeFi. As the market recovers, layer-2 operators may likely post higher revenue as users move assets to dApps launched on these scalable and low-fee protocols.

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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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Ethereum Layer-2 Platform, ZKSync, Releases New SDK in Swift

ZKSync, an Ethereum layer-2 platform designed to scale transaction throughput using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs and Rollups, has released a new software development kit (SDK) in Swift.

ZKSync Releases SDK in Swift

In a tweet on January 17, ZKSync said the goal is to make their features more accessible to developers and dApps. With a Swift SDK, ZKSync would support more platforms and use cases, especially for teams building iOS and macOS applications on ZKSync 2.0.

Swift is the programming language behind iOS and Mac devices. However, Swift cloud storage software for iOS and macOS enables users to retrieve data through an API. Cloud storage is scalable and designed to store unstructured data that can limitlessly grow. 

SDKs in Popular Programming Languages

Besides Swift, ZKSync also supports Python, Java, Android, Rust, and Dart programming languages. Dart, the layer-2 platform explains, is the “unofficial” open-sourced SDK in Alpha. However, the layer-2 portal plans to support more SDKs in various programming languages to cater to their expanding developer community, allowing them to build more solutions addressing multiple problems.

SDKs are critical for developers since they allow the building to be simpler, faster, and standardized. For creators to integrate into existing services, they require kits, which often include necessary documentation, code samples, libraries, APIs, and more, providing guidance when developing blockchain solutions. However, within any developer kit, APIs are critical because they act as an interface for dApps to relay information and coordinate. 

Scaling Ethereum Using ZKSync v2

ZKSync layer-2 is building a solution for users to quickly transfer ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens without paying the relatively high fees in the mainnet. 

Ethereum gas fees often fluctuate depending on on-chain activities. As ETH prices rally, DeFi and NFT activities often expand, leading to high gas fees. With Gas rising on a public, transparent layer, users have to pay more to transfer or execute smart contracts.

Ethereum price chart from TradingView.com

The layer-2 platform is positioning itself as a better alternative for teams and users, preferring scalability, privacy, and security. Following the launch of the ZKSync 2.0 mainnet, there is a scaling and privacy engine using ZK proofs. Earlier, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, relayed his confidence in ZK Rollups that dApps on ZKSync leverages. In the co-founder’s assessment, ZK Rollups “will win out in all use cases.”

ZKSync 2.0 Is Live on Mainnet

Users deploying on the ZKSync 2.0 mainnet, which launched in Q4 2022, enjoy low fees and faster transaction settlement. Developers are free to experiment and add more features.

For instance, ZKSync supports account abstraction for users to pay fees in other tokens apart from ETH and build smart contracts in Vyper or Solidity. The layer-2 solution also supports Atomic Swaps. It is a feature that ZKSync creators say can benefit cryptocurrency exchanges.

NewsBTC reported earlier that Optimism, a general-purpose Ethereum layer-2, and ZKSync competitor, was more Gas efficient despite revenue and assets under its management dropping.

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XRP Bulls Aim For $1 As Crypto Advances With 12% Weekly Pump

XRP is currently at $0.3899 which is the result of recent positive external developments. According to CoinGecko, the native token of Ripple moved upwards by 12% in the weekly and the bi-weekly time frame. 

Positive news brewed up in the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) vs. Ripple lawsuit that started back in December 2020. Just last month, Ripple was handed a small win as the SEC was ordered by a judge to hand over the Hinman documents which details the speech of the previous SEC director saying that Ethereum was not a security. 

With Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse cautiously optimistic of the current climate about crypto, can XRP bulls reach their $1 target?

Sending Ripples Across The Market

XRP has been maintaining its spot in the hearts of many investors. Binance data shows that the token remains as the top 5 most traded on the platform just behind BNB and just above BUSD. 

Whales are also joining in the party. According to whale tracker WhaleStats, the token also became the top 100 of the most traded. This uptick in whale and market activity is certainly a sign that XRP is recovering from its previous market lows. 

With the lawsuit coming to an end, XRP has the luxury to target higher prices for the future.

$1 Target: Hittable Or Delusional? 

As of writing, the token has been stuck in its current support at $0.3845 which shows a struggle between the bears and bulls. With the bears retesting the support, XRP might be in some short term pain as bulls try their best to reach the $1 mark. 

The token’s price would also be determined if the company wins the lawsuit. If Ripple wins, XRP would react positively and would do the opposite if it loses the lawsuit. But with Ripple having a good chance winning, the positive market sentiment would make the token shoot up in price. 

However, the current support range has been constantly tested by bears since January 15th. Even with its high correlation with Bitcoin – which recently broke through a crucial resistance level – it may not perform as well as the other altcoins in the market. 

Compared to the top gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, XRP’s gains are significantly lower in the same timeframe. Investors and traders should keep an eye on the lawsuit as this would have a significant effect on XRP’s price. 

Short-term, XRP presents a good short opportunity as the price could break the current support at any moment. 

Featured image by The Market Periodical

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Bitcoin 25% Climb Signals Recovery In Crypto Market – Will BTC Soar Higher This Week?

After a strong week for bitcoin (BTC) and many other leading cryptocurrencies, traders are now on the lookout for indicators of what could spark the next bull run.

After being battered by losses for the majority of 2022, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are on the rise in 2023, leading to predictions that the so-called crypto winter has thawed.

Bitcoin has begun the new year on a bright note. On Saturday, Bitcoin surpassed $21,000 for the first time in 60 days. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $21,090, up 25% in the last seven days, data by Coingecko show.

Bitcoin Could Still Climb Higher

If this week’s US economic data shows that the Federal Reserve may be nearing the end of its interest rate hikes, the prices of major cryptocurrencies could soar.

Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote on Friday:

“Wall Street is very confident that the end of the central bank’s tightening cycle is upon us and that is providing some underlying support for crypto.” 

The most recent Bitcoin rise is still a far cry from the alpha coin’s November 2021 record high of $68,990. However, this has provided market participants with enthusiasm.

The whole cryptocurrency market lost over $1.4 trillion in value last year because of liquidity troubles, bankruptcies, and the collapse of crypto exchange powerhouse, FTX.

It didn’t take long for the so-called “contagion” to make its presence felt in all corners of the crypto market after the wave of insolvencies.

Bitcoin dropped to a two-year low of $15,480 as the FTX epidemic engulfed the cryptocurrency market.

Whale Accumulation Boosts BTC Price

This spike in Bitcoin’s value is likely fueled by a number of causes. There is a rising expectation among market participants that the Federal Reserve would follow a more benign monetary policy by halting interest rate hikes or decreasing rates in the near future, possibly as early as the end of this year.

Last year, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates seven times, sending risky assets such as equities and tech stocks to slide.

In addition, data released by cryptocurrency company Kaiko indicates rising purchasing optimism among major bitcoin purchasers, commonly known as “whales,” which analysts say helps to support current high levels of demand.

Cryptocurrency whales, or crypto whales, are persons or organizations that possess enormous amounts of a particular cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, although bitcoin has gained a nice boost at the beginning of 2023, in conjunction with risk assets as mentioned above, market observers say the leading coin is unlikely to retest its all-time high of $69,000, but it may have reached a bottom.

Featured Image from BW Businessworld