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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

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Crypto.com Decides To Let Go 20% Of Its Current Workforce

The crypto industry continues to stagger under a massive wave of layoffs that have been occurring in recent times. Among the recent companies from the sector, Crypto.com has planned on axing 20% of its workforce.

The Singapore-based company, Crypto.com, has confirmed its decision via a blog post. According to Co-Founder and CEO Kris Marszalek, the platform must let go of 20% of its current employees.

Crypto.com has faced significant criticism after attempting to reassure investors that the crypto exchange is in good financial health and has nothing to worry about.

The reason for the layoffs is the current economic headwinds and industry situation. This will be the second major layoff carried out by the company. Crypto.com laid off nearly 260 employees in 2022, accounting for nearly 5% of its workforce.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek stated:

We grew ambitiously at the start of 2022, building on our incredible momentum and aligning with the trajectory of the broader industry. That trajectory changed rapidly with a confluence of negative economic developments.

The exchange platform has not specifically mentioned the positions that were laid off. The decision to fire employees has been attributed to broader market weakness and the FTX crash. The crash caused a misappropriation of customer funds and eventually bankruptcy, which has gone on to affect the industry considerably.

Crypto.com Says That It Continues To Perform Well

Kriz Marszalek had initially mentioned that the exchange platform maintained adequate reserves for every single coin which the platform held. Two months after that statement, the exchange could not withstand the collapse of FTX without adopting measures to cut costs.

Marszalek quoted:

Today we made the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce by approximately 20 per cent. All impacted personnel have already been notified. These reductions were in no way related to performance, and we extend our deepest gratitude for all their contributions to Crypto.com.

He additionally stated:

Several factors played into our decision to reduce headcount. While we continue to perform well, growing to more than 70 million users worldwide and maintaining a strong balance sheet, we’ve had to navigate ongoing economic headwinds and unforeseeable industry events.

Crypto.com Admits To Not Navigating Well After FTX Crash

The Founder of Crypto.com has mentioned that even though Crypto.com was doing well, there has been a change in trajectory with a ‘confluence’ of negative economic developments.

He spoke about the layoffs in July last year as the exchange could not navigate the macroeconomic downturn. It also could not gauge the damage the FTX collapse would have caused to the industry.

The fall of FTX has been terrible for investors’ sentiments. The exchange now wants to focus on making prudent financial decisions to manage the company better, and layoffs are among such necessary measures.

The exchange states that these additional reductions were mandatory to ensure that the company’s position remains profitable in the long term. At the moment, Crypto.com has 2,450 employees, and a 20 percent layoff from that population will mean that close to 490 employees lose their jobs.

Crypto

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Will New Interchain Station Wallet Launch Spike LUNC Price, Any Possibility?

After the collapse of the popular blockchain network Terra, developers have been trying to revive it; many reforms have already taken place to sustain the Terra Classic (LUNC and prevent further collapse). Terra Classic, the original blockchain, was forked to create Terra (LUNA).

Among these reforms is a recent integration with Interchain Station. The news boosted the Terra Classic (LUNC) price. According to Jared, lead developer at Terraform Labs, more integrations and reforms are coming to Terra soon.

The sudden crash of Terra LUNA sent a cascade effect across the crypto industry, leading several firms to bankruptcy. Many investors are yet to recover from the loss incurred from the Terra implosion.

There are still uncleared controversies surrounding the ecosystem’s sudden collapse. Some say Terra LUNA was a rug pull scheme by Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, to launder and steal people’s money. Meanwhile, Do Kwon and his executives are still on the run from South Korean prosecutors.

More Integrations Coming To Terra Classic Network

In a Twitter announcement, Jared revealed that the Terra Network would partner with other blockchains, including SEI, Juno, Osmosis, Mars, Pisco, and many more. He said the integrations aim to protect the network in the right direction and allow seamless cross-chain communication between Terra and other blockchains.

Jared also told the Terra community to expect a rollout of more features while their main focus is to launch the wallet on mobile devices. The current station supports many mainnets including LUNC, LUNA, Osmosis, Juno, Kujira, Carbon, HuaHua, and Cresent.

Terra’s interchain station wallet would simplify the complex process of interacting with multiple blockchain networks. The wallet would allow users to stake, vote, send, receive tokens, and interact with decentralized applications (dApps) across supported chains.

LUNC price soared by 3% on January 10 when Jared first shared news of the interchain wallet feature via his Twitter handle. Jared referred to the development as a breakthrough in chain integrations.

This move comes after several attempts by the Terra Classic community to revive the sinking Terra Classic project. With the new station wallet, DeFi developers can now access oracle data from several chains through the interchain facility.

Why New Governance Implementation Is Important To LUNC Community

The Terra Classic blockchain saw a rough start in 2023 after being impacted by crypto exchange KuCoin’s December 30 move. On December 30, 2022, KuCoin removed (undelegated) 48 billion Terra Classic (LUNC) tokens from circulation. This issue reduced the voting power of KuCoin’s Terra Classic Validator by 0.25%, taking it up to the 44th position.

The exchange later said it would continue pledging LUNC tokens after a 14-day lock period. However, the move caused a drastic reduction in on-chain activity and stirred much anxiety in the LUNC community, causing the price to fall.

After Kucoin’s move, the community responded by approving and implementing new governance proposals to improve the overall operation of the chain. The Terra ecosystem also started burning tokens to stir up on-chain activity.

The new governance proposals got overwhelming votes from the community with the support of major crypto exchanges. As a result, one of the new implementations is governance proposal 11242, which aims to stop the reminting of already destroyed LUNC tokens.

Once the implementation is complete, it will ensure the effective elimination of tokens from LUNC’s circulating supply which will also boost its price. Presently, the amount of Terra Classic tokens in circulation is nearly 6 trillion.

After the reduction in on-chain activity in the past month, the developers published proposal 11242 at the beginning of January. The aim of proposal 11242 is to stop the reminting burnt LUNC tokens and effectively reduce the seigniorage reward policy to zero.

Will New Interchain Station Wallet Launch, Spike LUNC Price

LUNC price is trading at $0.000177 with a minor decline. The token has gained up to 15.50% in the past week.

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Ethereum Hits Monthly High And Turns Deflationary Again

The Ethereum price rally is on an upward trajectory since the last fortnight. Performing a little over Bitcoin’s growth, Ethereum gained 30%. On the morning of 16th January, Ethereum woke up to exciting news as Ethereum is riding high on the $1600 market price. 

This comes after several contributory factors play a role in the price increase. From the accumulation of assets, particularly by Shark Addresses, it crossed above $1400 for the first time since 7th November on 12th January. 

Shark Addresses are also the highest in this period, with Santiment observing 3000 new Shark Addresses, taking the total tally to the highest since February 2021. 

Ethereum Graph

Ethereum Bullish Momentum Before The Shanghai Upgrade

Ethereum is two months away from the Shanghai Upgrade, and the prices have surged to the highest in ten weeks. After this upgrade, Ethereum will implement EIP Proposal 4895, enabling consensus layer withdrawals. 

Following the Shanghai Upgrade, the users can withdraw staked ETH tokens on the Beacon chain for over 2 years. This upgrade is going to streamline the ETH withdrawal and will improve the exit process. 

This upgrade is going to benefit ETH liquid staking platforms. Simply put, liquid staking is locking up funds to generate rewards. However, in this, the users can still access their locked funds. Given the fact that with the upgrade, the users can withdraw their staked amounts, subject to the correct exit process, which will be an attractive factor. 

Lido is one of the platforms allowing liquid staking, and its performance is great. The amount of ETH staked on Lido crosses a cumulative value of $22.5 billion. Crypto experts believe that after the new upgrade, ETH will be staked to leverage better yield opportunities. 

More Ethereum Is Burning Than Produced

Ethereum’s performance in 2022 was not good. However, come 2023, the ETH holders are in a celebratory mood as the coin’s price increases amidst a deflationary trend. As the on-chain fundamentals strengthen ETH issue goes into a deflationary mood as the current supply growth reduces by -0.10%, according to the latest trends by Ultrasound Money.

According to the same source, 732,000 ETH was burned, and 622,000 ETH was issued. The overall trend in the market is still bearish, but seeing the current upward trend in ETH and its price increase, the market is expected to take a bullish turn. Moreover, with the gas price increase, the burn rate will increase further. 

Consequently, the higher deflation rate will lead to a shrinking supply. As compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum has a higher value settlement. This is an interesting trend for the future as ETH holders stand to gain more than BTC holders in the future when the contracts mature. 

Observing the growth in ETH, the loss of momentum in the crypto market facilitated by the FTX crash is coming back. Moreover, across the crypto market, trends are rising with an overall gain of 1.3%, totalling a value of $1.3 trillion. 

 

 

 

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Polkadot: Why Recent On-Chain Feats Could Trigger Strong Investor Sentiment 

Polkadot has been riding the crypto wave since the start of the broader market rally. According to CoinGecko, the biggest gainers in the entire space are altcoins. Polkadot (DOT) is among them.

Although the token has been finding gains in the past two weeks, DOT has been down almost 3% in the past 24 hours. This has been the price action since the token has been rejected on the $6.5 price resistance range.

At the time of writing, DOT is trading at $5.78, up 21% in the last seven days, data by Coingecko show.

With recent developments and metrics, can DOT strengthen investor sentiment? 

What’s Happening On-Chain? 

Polkadot Insider is an account dedicated to developments on the network. According to the account, the Nakamoto coefficient of the ecosystem is higher compared to competitors. This means that the ecosystem is sticking true to the main tenets of DeFi which is decentralization. 

Parachain development is also going through the roof. Kusama Network, one of the main parachains on the platform, has 10 projects in development with over 20 investors. With Dora Project having over 45 investors, Santiment notes a continuous uptick in development activity. 

The network also reached an achievement in the staking department. Nomination pools recently reached 1 million DOT bonded by pool members. Staking on-chain was made easier because of the ecosystem’s nomination pool system which allows users to stake a minimum of 1 DOT. 

With users on the platform having easy access to staking, DOT is expected to continue its momentous climb. 

How Will Polkadot React? 

The rejection at $6.5 is the only thing delaying the token’s climb to recover lost ground after FTX collapsed. If the token continues its current downward momentum, the bears will have an opportunity to test the $5.5 support in the next few days. 

However, if the token can reverse its momentum, a retest and a possible breakthrough on $6.5 price resistance level would enable DOT to regain lost momentum from last year’s FTX crisis.

With the token riding the altcoin rally, DOT’s high correlation with Bitcoin would benefit it if BTC continues to break through crucial resistances.

Improving macro trends and an optimistic financial sector would ensure the strength of the rally is on track. Investors and traders should be cautious of the token’s overbought position which could strengthen its downward pacing.

The current correction that DOT is facing is probably profit-taking behavior by investors and traders. We should expect volatility in the DOT market as the token’s downward trajectory tests its current support at $5.5.

Featured image by Freepik

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Polkadot Shows No Sign Of Slowing, As DOT Gains 33% In Last 7 Days

With Bitcoin surging past $20,000, altcoins like DOT (Polkadot) have been riding the broader crypto rally which started since the beginning of 2023. According to CoinGecko, the token is trading at $5.94, and has risen by more than 12% in the past 24 hours and 33% in the weekly. 

This was caused by market optimism caused by positive Consumer Price Index (CPI) data that was released Thursday. With the main components of the CPI going deflationary, the market may continue the sharp rally that it started the year with. 

DOTs Connected

Polkadot, as an ecosystem, has been on a roll lately. According to Santiment, Polkadot has been seeing a strong development activity in recent days, adding on to the already bullish momentum of the overall crypto market. 

Polkadot also reached over 1 million DOT in nomination pools, making staking on-chain more viable. Crypto.com also released a recent post regarding the current market. Polygon ranked 4th place in TVL with a 5% change in the past seven days. 

This can be associated with the recent developments on-chain and the recent crypto market rally. Accompanying these are the improving macroeconomic trends. With the CPI dropping to 6.5%, DOT can continue its momentous climb in the next few weeks or months if the momentum continues. 

Although some analysts are pessimistic that this rally is for the long term, the overall on-chain performance of the ecosystem will be supporting the token and breaking further resistance. 

Polkadot: Going To The Moon?

With the token’s current momentum, it is possible that DOT will continue to make higher highs. DOT may be in a position to continue its climb. The token’s high correlation with major cryptocurrencies will also pull the token upwards.

With Bitcoin testing the $21,422 resistance, the coin’s upward momentum will be a wave for DOT to ride in the next few weeks or months. This means that the token would benefit with improving macroeconomic trends. 

Short and medium term, DOT can cross the current $6 resistance price range to reassure investors and traders that the rally will continue. 

With improving macros and an overall bullish outlook on crypto, DOT should be able to reach $7 resistance with ease. However, if BTC will enter a correction phase, the token can experience a momentary loss in upward momentum.

Investors and traders who are holding DOT are currently facing great gains in a very short period of time. With this in mind, holders of the token should be monitoring the DOT’s charts as this high of a rally can be faced with a tight correction phase. 

-Featured image by EURACTIV

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Bitcoin Mining Stocks In Solid Gains As Crypto Market Rallies

Following the ongoing rally in the crypto market, the stocks of the top five leading Bitcoin mining companies have surged in value, amassing solid gains. Major crypto stocks are also rising and have recorded massive gains in recent weeks. 

Though investors are still skeptical if this is genuinely the real bull run they have been anticipating, major assets in the crypto industry have been in the green for the past weeks regardless of some negative news spreading in the industry.

Top Five Bitcoin Mining Stocks Rallies

Bitcoin mining companies Riot Blockchain, Hive, Marathon Digital, Hut8, and Bitfarms have so far been in green since the beginning of this week, with each gaining at least 10% in value.

According to data from MarketWatch, Riot Blockchain (RIOT) value has seen gains of up to 43% this week. The shares saw a closing price of $6.13 in after-hours trading on Thursday, following a 14.5% increase on the same day.

Related Reading: Why The Bitcoin Mining Hashrate May Not Be Out Of The Woods Just Yet

Hive Blockchain Technologies was in green yesterday. HIVE value surged nearly 40%, up by 37.6% in the last 24 hours. It closed with a trading price of $3.21, and so far, its weekly gain has amassed to about 76%.

Marathon Digital stock, with the ticker MARA, saw significant gains on Thursday and went up by 30.9%, closing the day at $6.76. The mining firm is up by 65% since the beginning of the week, according to MarketWatch. 

Following its recent announcement of having mined 3,568 BTC throughout 2022 and increasing its reserves by 65% to 9,086 BTC, Hut8 Mining Corp (HUT) stock skyrocketed by 22.2% on Thursday, ending the day with a $1.38 trading price. 

Bitfarms (BITF) was not left out of the ubiquitous rebound, as its share prices have been up by 73% since Monday. BITF gained 44.3% on Thursday to end the day’s trading session at $0.94.

However, despite the bullish trend with these Bitcoin mining stocks, they are still far from their peak value, given the 2022 impact on asset value.

Crypto Stocks Are On The Rise

Not only are mining firms experiencing a bullish cycle at the moment, but prominent bitcoin investor MicroStrategy (MSTR), is also up 30% since Monday morning and eventually ended Thursday’s trading session at a $208 trading price.

Coinbase’s COIN also amassed 8.6% in value yesterday and currently trades at $47.55.

TOTAL cryptocurrency market capitalization price chart

Meanwhile, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization has seen massive gains over the past few days, adding nearly $100 billion to its total capitalization. Crypto pioneer Bitcoin has been printing greens since the beginning of this year, adding to the demand for mining stocks.

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BONK Tumbles 66% – Can The ‘Dogecoin Killer’ Live Up To Its Name?

The previous 24 hours have been impressive for the cryptocurrency market, which is seeing a broad-based rebound on numerous fronts.

Despite this development, as evidenced by a combined crypto market valuation increase of 3.4% to $880 billion as of Thursday, Solana’s newly minted canine-centered memecoin BONK has experienced a huge price decline relative to its competitors.

As of writing, BONK is trading at $0.000000968754, and down a whopping 66% in the last seven days, data by Coingecko show. In the last 24 hours alone, BONK has lost 1.6% of its value.

BONK Succumbs To Bearish Pressure

Despite its initial success, the memecoin BONK has had a difficult go of it in the weeks following its launch. The token, which appeared out of nowhere and quickly rose to rank among the top 200 cryptocurrencies in terms of market value, was hit hard by a significant bearish trend around Thursday afternoon.

It has significantly outpaced the market since the beginning of the year, on the heels of a retail buy-up that pitted the dog-themed cryptocurrency against existing meme coin heavyweights Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

There have been claims of wealthy investors purchasing millions, if not billions, of the viral coin BONK during the past few of weeks. Consequently, Thursday’s drop is a shock to investors with high aspirations for the cryptocurrency.

This week, BONK became the latest meme token to attract the attention of traders with a huge 3,300% increase. Following that, the developers of the cryptocurrency burnt their remaining tokens, which represented 5% of the whole BONK cryptocurrency supply.

BONK

Dogecoin Rival Leans On Solana Community’s Support

BONK was introduced on December 25, 2022, and its price has since increased by a four-digit proportion. Additionally, the token dominated social trading platforms. Analysts attributed the new token’s success to the Solana community.

The token’s value has been struggling to bounce back from its 66% loss in the face of continued negative growth rate, which caused it to give up some of the gains it made over the previous weeks.

When we zoom in on BONK’s growth during the past two weeks, we see that it has increased by almost 1,000% throughout this period.

All of these occurrences have created a frenzy about the Solana-based token. They also increase the optimism of token holders that the crypto will gain credibility and cease to be a fad.

Nevertheless, as a result of the recent negative outburst, the fully diluted market capitalization has decreased by 32.61% to $102 million, while the 24-hour trading volume of the altcoin has grown by a staggering 200% to $36 million.

This is direct evidence that a substantial number of SOL whales are selling their BONK assets in order to generate large profits.

-Featured image by Decrypt

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TRON Snags No. 2 Spot In TVL As Revenue Spikes Amid Bear Market Pressure

According to a tweet by TRON (TRX) on January 10, the network has displayed an impressive performance as it is currently ranked second in terms of total value locked (TVL) in the entire crypto space.

TRON’s TVL has reached $9.2 billion by end of 2022, TRON DAO disclosed.

  • TRON chief executive to extend help to FTX and SBF
  • TRX price spikes by 1.52%
  • TRX remains robust in terms of trades

A lot of people are now keeping an eye on TRON, and wondering whether it can hold on to its ranking and recuperate especially following its recent sharp decline.

The network has always championed its quest for further decentralization. In fact, in comparison to other crypto assets, TRX has made significant progress over a short span of time.

TRON

TRX Price In The Green, Up 11% In Last Week

According to CoinMarketCap, TRX’s price has increased by 11% in the last seven days, and trading at $0.05744 as of writing.

Noticeably, many investors are worried about their crypto investments, especially with the crypto crash that happened just recently.

TRON CEO, Justin Sun, disclosed that he would extend some help to both FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried so the crypto exchange can recover.

This recent statement by Sun is quite controversial and has put the network on a bad light. More so, this caused investors to hesitate with the crypto especially as it shows support for the disgraced crypto company.

Meanwhile, TRX is said to lead the crypto space in terms of trustworthiness, being an open network. The year 2022 is said to be the token’s best year so far with its price shooting to as much as 2,950%, an all-time high.

In fact, even in the face of an ongoing bear market, TRON remains to be as robust as ever in terms of trades with investors generously funding the network.

FUD Surrounding TRON Still Felt

Recent price activity in TRON (TRX) has been influenced by Bitcoin (BTC) and the activity of the US stock market. On the 11th of January, speculators wagered on reduced U.S. inflation, which boosted cryptocurrency markets and led to a rally on U.S. stock markets.

At the time of publication, the fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding TRON’s founder Sun and the Huobi exchange can still be felt, which contributed to the negative weighted sentiment regarding TRX.

This demonstrates that the investor had a pessimistic view of the asset going into the transaction. However, this was not enough to stop TRX from surging.

At this point, TRON’s revenue has shown to spike from $509,942 to $637,526 as seen in the previous month. The increase in revenue is said to be triggered by the padding of the number of active wallet addresses on the network which also shows an increase in users by 4.53%.

Overall sentiment for TRON is positive, which could mean that TRX price has the potential to skyrocket in the future.

-Feature image by MEXC Blog

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

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

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

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

SOL Dominates The Market

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

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

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

Messari Outlines Solana’s Growth Factors

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

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

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

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

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Polkadot Records New Achievements In Dev’t Activity, Pushes DOT Price Up

Polkadot (DOT) has ushered in the first week of 2023 on a strong note, rising 8% in the last seven days, data from Coingecko shows, Wednesday. 

The ecosystem itself has been very bullish recently, following the trend of the crypto market. According to Polkadot Insider, who posted an on-chain update of the ecosystem, Polkadot is registering new users on-chain, peaking on January 6th at 2,126 new users. 

The ecosystem also saw gradual increases in revenue. Compared to December’s final week– which includes January 1st, in line with Polkadot Insider’s chart– average revenues on the last week of the month was at $671.8 million, but the average rose this week to $709.3 million. 

Connecting The DOTs

Polkadot released a blog post rounding up the developments on the ecosystem last year and it is impressive nonetheless. Even with the strong grip of the bear market, Polkadot has over 550 projects running on-chain or are being developed on the ecosystem. With over 71 parachains on Polkadot, development will continue even in the midst of the bear market. 

DOT

This can be seen in the development activity on-chain which skyrocketed with the start of the year. Polkadot also scored major partnerships with Japan phone operator NTT Docomo and video game company Square Enix, further strengthening the ecosystem’s Web3 infrastructure. 

But positive revenues, booming dev activity, and major tie-ups could have no big effect on DOT’s price, despite its latest weekly ascent. The token has not broken its sluggish pace which started in May last year. This downtrend, if not altered this year, will eventually lead the token to retest its support at $4.  

Polkadot ‘Sucker Rally’

As of writing, the token is changing hands at $4.8 which is not a far cry from the $5 resistance that halted any bullish run for DOT. According to crypto analyst Market Mobster, the rally that DOT has experienced is just what they call a “sucker rallys.”

Other analysts, however, are bullish that the token would break out of its current macro trend and rise. However, this week’s Consumer Price Index data release would be a dice roll for the broader financial space.

The token may enter a sideways motion as the market waits for the release of the CPI. However, the token’s correlation with BTC might give a needed boost to finally end the macro trend it has followed since last year. 

-Featured image from Cryptoglobe

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ApeCoin Climbs 21% In Last 7 Days As Sentiment Remains Bullish

Investors and traders of ApeCoin (APE) have been seeing some big gains since the start of 2023. With the crypto market experiencing a surge in prices, ApeCoin has been riding the bullish wave upwards showing gains on almost all timeframes. 

ApeCoin is riding the bullish momentum, while Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) remain some of the dominant collections available on the NFT market. 

According to DappRadar, the two collections are first and second in terms of trade volume in the past month. However, with the recent Yuga Labs situation, will APE remain profitable to investors? 

Yuga Labs Lawsuit And How It May Affect ApeCoin

Recent information about the lawsuit filed against Yuga Labs can affect APE’s ability to continue its bullishness.

According to news, a federal judge ruled that Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, the co-founders of Yuga Labs which created BAYC and MAYC, must face deposition in the most recent escalation between the company and Ryder Ripps who launched a counterclaim along with co-defendant Jeremy Cahen. 

The saga started back in June of 2022 when Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against the artist, claiming that Ripps was scamming buyers of BAYC with supposed intentions of harming the company. Ryder has been a vocal critic of the Yuga Labs and BAYC, going as far as calling the community a brainwashed cult.

One of the counterclaims was the alleged Neo-Nazi origins, an accusation that was denied by Yuga in June last year. However, Ripps and Co. will now have a chance to question the two co-founders in detail under the threat of perjury which may or may not fall in favor of Yuga Labs, affecting the company and APE in its astronomical rise. 

Will ApeCoin Continue APE’ing Around? 

As of writing, the token has been rejected on the $5 resistance range and has since started its downwards momentum. This might only be a short correction as APE rode the bullishness as the major cryptocurrencies rallied as well. 

However, as the Yuga Labs’ co-founders are subject to deposition, the sway of investor sentiment on APE might swing to the bears. Investors and traders must keep tabs of the sworn statement against the company co-founders as the results of this will impact the firm and its NFTs and token. 

Short-term, the bears might win as the correction phase is in full swing. Investors and traders will find support at $4.2 which should sustain a further retesting of the resistance at $5. But for now, investors should HODL as we await the results of the proceedings against Yuga Labs. 

-Featured image from The Guardian

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Lido DAO (LDO) Token Outperforms Market With 62% Weekly Gains

The crypto market is still highly unpredictable and volatile in January 2023. The market generally recorded a 0.3% decrease in the last 24 hours. But as most of the assets falter, some tokens record exponential gains. LDO, the governance token of the Lido DAO network, has increased in value in the past week. The token is up by 62.83% in weekly gains and currently trading at $1.99, a 1.31% increase in 24 hours.  

The Lido DAO project is a staking platform where users can stake their ETH tokens. The platform also offers DeFi lending services and requires no minimum deposits. With different financial services and the flexibility of its platform, this upsurge shows increased adoption by users for a variety of purposes. 

Despite the uncertain times in the crypto space Lido DAO (LDO) has continued to perform well since the turn of the year. Some factors are behind this recent resurgence and will influence how long the bullish momentum will last.

LDOUSD_2023

Why Is Lido DAO (LIDO) On The Rise?

Some parameters are responsible for the price surge in Lido DAO. A Twitter user states that the Lido finance native token has soared nearly 60% in the last week. The user attributed this to Ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai fork. This update will enable users to withdraw their staked ETH tokens.

Secondly, BitForex announced the listing of LDO on the exchange. This listing has increased the project’s scope and is partly responsible for the price increase noted in the token. 

However, Twitter user John Cook has expressed pessimism about Lido DAO’s newfound price momentum. In his tweet on January 8, he referred to the seven-day rise of the token as a pump-and-dump. He also alleged that the project was ripping off retail investors and spending more on marketing costs than engineering. 

Despite his protests, the LDO token remains among the top gainers this week. The price surge has seen Lido DAO become the largest Decentralized Finance protocol in the world. The project has a total locked value above $6.9 billion.

Can The Bulls Sustain The Rally?

LDO token is currently in an uptrend on the chart, with the formation of simultaneous green candles. The support levels are $1.6647, $1.7561, and $1.8495. Its resistance levels are $2.03, $2.13, and $2.22. 

LDO is currently trading above its 50-day and 200-day Simple Moving Averages. These two indicators are showing a buy signal at the moment. Therefore, it implies that the token’s short-term and long-term price movement is bullish.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator indicates a buy signal. With the oversold region below 30 and the overbought region above 70, the current RSI value of the token is 82.22. Traders will likely take long positions in the market.

The MACD (Moving Average Convergence/Divergence) is well above its signal line and shows divergence. The signal is also a buy but might be for the short term. LDO is still off its ATH (all-time high) value of $11.00. The token will likely continue on its ascent as more investors buy into the project.

If a digital asset’s price decreases by 50%, it will need to rally to 100% to return to its former value. This feat might be tasking for memes and altcoins to accomplish. Investors must realize that altcoins are more volatile than large-cap cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

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Why Are Liquid Staking Cryptocurrencies Seeing Double-Digit Gains?

Over the last week, liquid staking cryptocurrencies have been seeing a significant upside. All of these tokens have successfully moved into the green territory, recording double-digit gains for their holders. Although these digital assets seem to be following the general crypto market uptrend, there is another factor pushing up their prices.

Why Are Liquid Staking Crypto On The Rise?

Liquid staking cryptocurrencies have been receiving more attention ever since the announcement that the Ethereum “Shanghai” upgrade is likely to take place in March 2023. This upgrade is important for the network because it will mean that staked ETH will finally be withdrawable.

Anticipation around this upgrade is already on the rise and liquid staking tokens are enjoying a good portion of this attention. Their popularity comes from the fact that they allow stakers to earn a yield on staked ETH even though they can’t withdraw their ETH. It also makes it possible for stakers to have tokens on hand which they can deploy on other protocols to further participate in the ecosystem.

Liquid staking protocols reward stakers with ETH-pegged tokens such as stETH and ankrETH and make it possible for ETH users to stake without having to become validators themselves. But instead of having to rely on centralized exchanges to do this, as was previously the case, these DeFi protocols are decentralized.

Ethereum price chart from TradingView.com

The higher earning potential of staking with liquid staking protocols has led to more demand for them. With the Shanghai upgrade coming, it is expected that more ETH will be moved to these protocols, leading to more demand for their native cryptocurrencies.

The Largest Liquid Staking Protocols

The largest liquid staking protocol in the space now is currently Lido Finance. It accounts for around 30% of the total 15 million staked ETH, making it an important contender in the space. Its native LDO token has a market cap of $1.6 billion and its price is up 57% in the last 7 days.

Liquid staking crypto

Next in line is Frax Share whose price is up 21% in the last week. The digital asset’s market cap is almost $403 million, rewarding users with frxETH for their staked ETH at an 8% APR. This is the highest APR of any liquid staking protocol. 

Rocket Pool takes third place with a market cap above $260 million and is up 18% in the 7-day period. But in terms of ETH deposited, it is one of the highest, accounting for around 6.5% of the total market share.

Others include Ankr Protocol which is up 26% in 7 days, as well as Stafi, pStake Finance, and StakeWise, all of which are up 32%, 20%, and 10%, respectively, in the same time period. 

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Chiliz Serves Up 16% Weekly Gains, Becomes Most Traded Token Among ETH Whales

Chiliz (CHZ) started off 2023 by putting together a 20% increase in its value during the first five days of the year.

This strengthened the hopes of the holders of the crypto that it might have a strong bullish rally this year as opposed to the consistent downtrend it had experienced over the last two months.

At the moment, this could prove true as data from Coingecko indicates that the asset rose by 16% during the past seven days. At the time of writing, CHZ was trading at $0.1181.

Analysts, however, are giving words of caution that this rally might be short-lived as some developments that involve the altcoin are not necessarily indications of a major surge that would provide an opportunity for profit taking among holders.

ETH whales

Chiliz Whets Appetite Of ETH Whales 

According to the information shared by crypto whales tracker WhaleStats via Twitter, Chiliz was able to surpass Numeraire (NMR) as it became the most traded digital token among the top 500 ETH whales.

To the untrained eyes, this might appear to be a precedent of an upcoming bullish rally that might push the crypto’s trading price to higher levels.

But seasoned analysts would say that this could also be an indication that the ETH whales are now looking to make profit from their holdings through dumping of their CHZ tokens.

If this action is not averted, the altcoin might be subjected to tremendous selling pressure and this could be disastrous as it often leads to price crash.

Moreover, it is important to note that during the time when Chiliz was making its mini rally to recoup its losses over the last few months, the number of tokens held by its top addresses significantly declined – a potential indicator that large investors are now cashing out.

This trend continued even when the number of active addresses for CHZ increased this January – a development that might have been caused by the anticipated rally that the crypto asset is supposed to make this month.

What Awaits Chiliz (CHZ)

Meanwhile, forecasts from online cryptocurrency information provider Coincodex do not contain any exciting news for holders of CHZ.

The crypto-focused platform predicts a slight decrease in value for Chiliz within the next five days with the asset changing hands at $0.1150.

There appears to be a bit of relief for holders as the 30-day forecast for the altcoin appears to favor them. According to Coincodex, a month from now, CHZ will trade at $0.1430.

Although the recent activity involving the asset and ETH whales appear to be positively affecting the crypto asset at the moment, holders and prospective buyers need to exercise caution as it could also cause Chiliz to lose its zing.

-Featured image by New Food Magazine

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Solana Moves On From FTX Calamity, Sparkles 46% In Last 7 Days

Solana (SOL) has been included in the top cryptocurrencies to watch out for this week of finance and crypto-focused site Investopedia.

This no longer comes as a surprise considering that at one point during the last seven days, the digital asset, which was pulled all the way down to $9 towards the end of December, managed to increase its value by 46%.

SOL outperformed industry frontrunners Bitcoin and Ethereum and all other top crypto assets occupying the top 10 spot in terms of market capitalization.

It would appear that the Solana Network is now ready to move on and rebuild after the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange platform where it had significant exposure courtesy of the 3.24 million shares of common stocks and 134.54 million FTT tokens it held.

SOL seems to be on the right track at the early days of 2023 as a quick look at its intraday performance reveals its current surge is not yet done.

Solana

Solana Up More Than 60% Before Minor Correction Phase

According to tracking from Coingecko, at the time of writing, Solana was changing hands at $16.41 and has gone up by almost 12% during the last 24 hours.

Within the previous seven days, SOL has posted an impressive 45.7% increase while on its month-to-date (MTD) performance, the crypto asset is up 21%.

It is important to note, however, that this came after the altcoin entered a minor correction phase that made it fall below the $17 marker.

Just a few hours before the closing of the January 9 trading sessions, Solana peaked at $17.37 but was unable to sustain its run in that particular territory.

Meanwhile, price analysis points such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicate that SOL remains bullish and might soon test the price range of between $16.5 and $18.2.

Analysts, however, are not convinced that the cryptocurrency’s gains are a representation of a long-term trend and could only be a “knee-jerk reaction” to months of bearish cycles.

Meme Coin BONK Helping Solana’s Rally

Aside from the efforts being done by the Solana Foundation to move forward after being hammered by the events involving the Sam Bankman-Fried company FTX, SOL appears to have benefited from the rousing success of BONK.

The Solana-based meme crypto has managed to increase its total market cap by more than 1,000% last week as it turned heads in the digital currency space.

At press time, the digital asset is trading at $0.00000161 and is enjoying a 97.5% increase in value over the last seven days. It now has an overall valuation of $66.81 million.

-Featured image by Hamilton Recruitment

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Why GALA’s 190% Rally May Be Just Getting Started

GALA, the native token of the non-fungible token (NFT) gaming project, has recently seen significant bullish price action. The token moved independently during these periods, with larger cryptocurrencies barely catching up on this massive rally.

As of this writing, GALA’s price trades at $0.04 with a 16% profit in the last 24 hours. Since late December 2022, the token has recorded a 194% rally and stands amongst the best-performing digital assets in the sector. Is the rally sustainable, or will the token retrace on its recent gains?

GALA GALAUSDT

GALA With More Room To Grow

Data from analytics firm Santiment indicates that GALA was able to trend to the upside due to a spike in on-chain activity. An increase in whale activity supported the token’s price action and allowed it to push beyond resistance at $0.048.

The last time GALA saw its current levels was in Q4, 2022. At that time, the cryptocurrency crashed behind a market-wide downtrend. The chart below shows that the spike in activity preceded the rally and suggests further appreciation. Santiment noted:

Amongst the many surging altcoins in 2023, $GALA has been making a tremendous run. The price of the #Ethereum-based asset is up +194% since December 30th, and has exceed $0.048 for the first time since mid-September, backed by big whale transactions.

GALA GALAUSDT Chart 2

Further data provided by Santiment indicate that GALA’s upside move was supported by negative overall market sentiment. As digital assets trended to the upside, sentiment went to a bearish extreme and hinted at a bounce to squeeze short positions. Santiment added:

Altcoins have continued aggressively pumping throughout the weekend. As we have seen time and time again, markets move in the direction of the crowd’s unlikeliest expectation.

NFT Gaming And Metaverse With Strong Long-Term Fundamentals

The mini-altcoin season will continue if investors allocate capital to the NFT gaming and Metaverse sector. Coingecko records appreciation for similar projects, such as Decentraland (40%+), and The Sandbox (34%), in the previous seven days.

In addition, at the Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) 2023, several companies and providers announced their Metaverse-related products. The sector has created much buzz in major markets and is likely to continue seeing interest from investors.

According to the CEO of OVR Technology, Aaron Wisniewski, the Metaverse is here to stay. Crypto and GALA are bound to operate a critical components for this sector. Wisniewski said:

We are entering an era in which extended reality will drive commerce, entertainment, education, social connection, and wellbeing. The quality of these experiences will be measured by how immersive and emotionally engaging they are. Scent imbues them with an unmatched power.

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Top 5 Crypto To Watch As CPI Data Is Released This Week

The crypto market has been very bullish in the past week as the turn of the year sparked positive investor sentiment for the industry, especially to our top 5 crypto to watch this week.

Since January 1st, the total market cap of crypto rose by 8.25% which shows a complete reversal of investor sentiment on the market. 

As market optimism grows for an economic soft landing, crypto is poised for a recovery after a year of complete disaster.

The market was devastated after multiple high-profile collapses, leaving investors as the biggest losers and driving fear, uncertainty, and doubt higher.

The broader financial market is eyeing the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for December.

These Are The Top 5 Crypto To Watch This Week: 

Litecoin (LTC) 

The ol’ reliable token of the crypto world, this altcoin recently recorded its 140 millionth transaction. Litecoin accomplished that with nearly a 100% uptime, which is a rare occurrence in an era of smart contract providers. 

The altcoin is also growing in adoption with LTC gaining traction as a means for payment. With this in mind, LTC would definitely have a strong and significant role once the bear market cycle starts. 

At the current price of $81.92, the token will have a significant part in the next bull market. However, if macroeconomic data trends down or stagnate, LTC will definitely have a tough time climbing back up.

Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

The original rival to Dogecoin (DOGE), this memecoin has grown in popularity and utility and makes it to our top 5 crypto list. The Shiba Inu community is also trying to distance itself from its memecoin origins which is more apparent as one reads the details of the Shibarium upgrade. 

At the current market market price of $0.00000887, SHIB has some wiggle room for growth as Shibarium’s launch nears. But investors and traders should pay attention to macroeconomic trends because of the token’s high correlation with Bitcon and Ethereum. 

Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon’s native token MATIC has been pumping in price since Mastercard announced its partnership with the ecosystem for its Web3 Artist Acceleration Program. Recent migrations of y00ts and DeGods would also contribute to this bullish action. 

With MATIC trading at $0.865, any good development macro-wise would mean big gains for the token’s investors and traders. 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC)

Of course, Bitcoin will always be in the top 5 crypto roster. As Bitcoin stands at $17,252, the king crypto leads the charge for recovery against the bear market. BTC holders are especially bullish on the 4-year cycle that the top cryptocurrency followed during past bear markets. 

Although the token lost its status as an alternative to gold, the coin breaking the $17k resistance is a significantly bullish signal for investors and traders to watch for.

With Bitcoin being correlated with almost the entire crypto market, any movements by BTC would mean gains or losses for the entire market. 

Solana (SOL)

SOL has been hit hard by the bear market of 2022. With the token down 88% year-to-date, the ecosystem might seem dead to some people. However, with the release of Bonk, SOL has been going up in the past week and rounds up the top 5 crypto list for today. 

Bonk is the new memecoin that created buzz around it as it pumped by 1,600% in the past week. This led to a spike in network activity, thus pushing the price of Solana upwards as well. But with Bonk’s big pump, a correction might also hurt SOL. 

As of writing, SOL’s price of $16.43 would definitely experience pain if macro trends stagnate or remain bearish. 

-Featured image: Built In

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IMX Spikes 10% In Last 24 Hours – Will It Start The Week Strong?

IMX (ImmutableX) has been on a roll lately, being one of the few altcoins to have significant gains in the past month or so.

According to tracking by CoinGecko, IMX was up 10% in the daily timeframe with its biggest gain at the weekly timescale at nearly 19%. 

IMX: What Drove Prices Up? 

Although the past year saw the token drop by 87%, it also saw some significant developments for the L2 ecosystem. For their push to become the leading competitor in the NFT space, Gamestop partnered with ImmutableX for their NFT marketplace. 

This placed ImmutableX on the spotlight as it was just a startup company back then. Both companies also created a $100 million fund for NFT developers to boost their projects if granted. 

The partnership created buzz around the time as this sort of legitimized NFTs in the eyes of gamers and collectible enthusiasts as NFTs sought an audience with this crowd of consumers.

But with NFT interest dwindling, the technology will continually be a hard-sell to consumers as it is still in its infancy. 

The real growth, however, is in the GameFi space. According to ImmutableX, the ecosystem edged Polygon in terms of exclusive on-chain GameFi development with ImmutableX catching up on cross-chain development. 

These developments are also courtesy of Immutable’s previous wins. Most notable of these is the $200 million that they raised during its Series C funding with gaming industry companies and venture funds. 

IMX Riding Bullish Momentum

ImmutableX’s native token IMX seems to be riding the bullish wave that’s taken over major cryptos Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of writing, the two are up 1.5% and 2.5%, respectively. 

This is a good wave for IMX to ride on. However, this manifests a very real risk of a huge correction if macroeconomic indicators show a worsening economic situation.

But with the White House announcing that the economy is heading for a soft landing, investor sentiment should reverse back to positive on both stocks and riskier assets like cryptocurrencies. 

For IMX to continue its bullishness, the token needs to break its sideways movement that formed because of FTX’s collapse. The primary resistance level at $0.4726 should be broken as this was the main resistance that kept the price downwards. 

With major cryptos going bullish, IMX riding the wave to break through this resistance can help it turn $0.4726 to support. Investors and traders, however, should keep watch as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be released this week. 

If the CPI stagnates and remains high, the U.S. Federal Reserve might be on another interest rate hike later this year. 

-Featured Image from TechFi

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Dogecoin (DOGE) Is Now 4th Most Popular Cryptocurrency On BitPay

Dogecoin, a dog-themed meme crypto that appears to enjoy strong ties with tech billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk, appears to be struggling to gain enough ground for a major upward swing.

After peaking at $0.0749 on January 5, DOGE fell victim to a price retracement that pulled it all the way down to $0.0705 the following day.

Since then, the altcoin launched a mini rally to recoup some of its losses, enabling it to notch a 2.4% increase in value over the last seven days.

According to tracking from Coingecko, at the time of writing, Dogecoin is changing hands at $0.0719 and despite its early struggles this year, it is able to strongly keep its place as the 8th largest cryptocurrency courtesy of its market cap which currently stands at $9.90 billion.

Dogecoin Still Among The More Popular Crypto Assets

Although still far from rewarding its faithful holders with significant profit through a massive price hike, DOGE continues to establish itself as among the well-known digital currencies.

Just recently, BitPay, one of the world’s leading crypto payments processors, revealed that the meme token is the fourth most popular transactional currency in its platform.

According to data shared by the company, in December 2022, Dogecoin accounted for 10% of all transactions it processed, almost doubling the 6% tally it had in June.

The memecoin placed behind Bitcoin (1st, 41.81%), Litecoin (2nd, 25.51%) and Ethereum (3rd, 11.53%).

This development could be interpreted as an indication that more and more people are using the digital asset as a means of exchange.

Along this line, leading Indian cryptocurrency trading app CoinSwitch with more or less 20 million users mentioned in its report that DOGE was included in the list of the most popular virtual currencies owned by its customers.

The Undeniable Musk Effect

As time goes by, it is slowly becoming apparent that Dogecoin might live and fade with the self-proclaimed “Dogefather” Elon Musk as his social media comments of the memecoin triggers instant price movements.

For example, when the Tesla CEO completed his controversial purchase of social media giant Twitter back in October 2022, DOGE’s price registered a significant uptick, from $0.0720 in October 27 to $0.1572 on November 1.

Months before his acquisition of the company, Musk floated the idea of having Dogecoin accepted as a payment for Twitter’s Blue services. 

-Featured image: Cryptoglobe