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NEAR Struggles As Bulls Aim To Flip $1.45 Resistance Into Support

NEAR, the native crypto of Near Protocol, seems to continue mirroring the trajectory of Bitcoin, one of the main driving forces of the cryptocurrency industry.

The largest crypto asset boasting a total market capitalization of $320.76 billion has so far failed to establish a strong upward momentum that will enable it to exit 2022 with a higher value.

In fact, BTC, which is trading at $16,658, is in danger of ending the year with a meager gain of less than 2%. At the time of writing, the maiden crypto has only managed to go up by 1.2% during the last 30 days and is looking at a weekly decline of 1.5%.

As Bitcoin continues with its struggles, lesser known altcoins such as NEAR will also have a hard time to trigger an upward movement of their prices.

Yearend Bang Denied As NEAR Drops 20%

Much like many of its fellow digital coins, NEAR is now trapped in a position where it will be difficult to end the month of December on a high note.

NEAR Protocol has the strongest positive correlations with Bitcoin, Cardano, and XRP. This suggests that these coins frequently trend in the same direction at the same time.

According to latest data from Coingecko, at press time, NEAR is changing hands at $1.32 and has already lost 20% of its value in the last 14 days.

As for its month-to-date (MTD) performance, the coin is currently one of the worst performers among the top 40 crypto assets, going down by 16.2% over the previous 30 days.

Adding to the woes of the cryptocurrency is the findings of Investors Observer, which gave the altcoin a moderate volatility rank of 39, putting NEAR in the bottom 39% of all cryptocurrencies in the market.

Bulls are also put in a tough spot as they now bear the responsibility of flipping the resistance region of $1.45 into support zone to trigger some sort of a bullish movement.

Near Protocol Project Affected By FUD

It turns out, the crypto is not the only thing affected by the high levels of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that’s been plaguing the crypto market recently.

Octopus Network, a project dedicated for launching and running of appchains (application-specific blockchains) built on the Near Protocol blockchain, has been forced to reduce its workforce by 40%.

Citing the current challenging and bleak landscape of the market, the project has decided to remove 12 out of its 30 core team members in order to continue conducting its business.

Moreover, Octopus’s remaining labor force has agreed to take a 20% salary cut and will also lose their token incentive privileges.

Meanwhile, with only three technical analysis indicators showing positive signs and 24 showing bearish indications, the general mood regarding the NEAR Protocol price projection is pessimistic, according to data from December 28.

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MANA Bloats 3.5% In Last 24 Hours, And Traders Now Smell Profit

MANA, the cryptocurrency used as payment for goods and services in the metaverse project Decentraland, has already lost 33% of its value over the last 30 days.

After going all the way up to $0.7339 on November 5, the asset was on a consistent decline that pulled it down to a monthly low of $0.3611 on November 22.

Below, a summary of how MANA has been performing in the last few days:

  • MANA registered an increase of more than 6% over the last seven days
  • The crypto asset succeeded in recapturing the $0.40 marker
  • A climb above the $0.50 category remains possible for the token

Since then, the digital token has engaged in multiple attempts to trim its losses, starting with recapturing the crucial $0.4 marker. So far, the crypto has been successful in this endeavor.

At the time of this writing, according to tracking from Coingecko, the altcoin has managed to increase its value by 3% during the last 24 hours to trade at $0.4174. 

Over the previous seven days, MANA has tallied an impressive gain of 6.2% and its price action indicates traders are poised to make profit with the asset.

More Bullish Breakout Possible For MANA

When the bulls successfully found a resting zone at $0.2572 after the FTX implosion last month that made the cryptocurrency lose all its gains prior to the unfortunate event, MANA price movement ended up being caught in an ascending triangle pattern.

Source: TradingView

In crypto space, this kind of price trajectory denotes a bullish rally and, in the case of the crypto, some of its technical indicators are suggesting it is not yet done recovering its losses and is headed for another upward breakout.

Its Relative Strength Index (RSI) is steadily rising and has moved out of the oversold territory, indicative of diminishing seller influence and increasing buying opportunities.

Moreover, after being flat for about two weeks, the altcoin’s On-Balance Volume (OBV) moved up, indicating a rise in trading volume brought about by healthy buying momentum.

Finally, MANA has established a bullish MACD which is considered to be a buy signal for an early uptrend.

Given all of these considerations, experts predict that if Bitcoin, being the leader of the pack, is able to recapture and hold the $17K turf, the Decentraland digital token will have $0.4740 and $0.5054 as its next destination.

Investors Should Still Be Wary

Holders, prospective buyers and traders must not be complacent due to the idea that they could make sizable profit from MANA right now as there’s still a chance that the bullish thesis could be negated.

Analysts believe that if the crypto fails to close today’s sessions with a price that is higher than the $0.3572 support zone, it will abandon any chance it has of hitting its next targets.

Moreover, Bitcoin is also integral to MANA’s progress as its failure to sustain the $17K region could doom the 57th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

At the time of this writing, BTC is changing hands at $17,025 and is dangerously close of falling back to the $16,000 region once again.

MANA total market cap at $772 million on the weekend chart | Featured image from CoinCentral, Chart: TradingView.com