Decentral Block Post

Polygon’s native token (MATIC) experienced a 16.4% rally that coincided with the launch of Polygon 2.0 Goreli testnet on Oct. 4. However, the resistance at $0.60 proved stronger than anticipated, and was followed with a 10.6% decline over the six days leading into Oct. 10.

This decline was exacerbated by negative news regarding the departure of a key co-founder and weak activity in Polygon’s zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup subnet.

MATIC’s price has wiped out previous gains from the early October rally, erasing the bullish momentum driven by the expectations of the protocol’s upgrades.

Rallies tend to follow mainnet and protocol updates

Polygon 2.0 is a network of ZK-based layer-2 chains, unified via a novel cross-chain coordination protocol. Polygon’s 2.0 scaling technology was unveiled in June 2023 as a plan for a scaling ecosystem consisting of four layers: staking, execution, interoperability, and proving. Each of these layers contributes to creating an interconnected ecosystem of chains that facilitate secure, fast, and extremely cost-effective transfers.

Among the benefits of Polygon 2.0 are enhanced security and privacy through ZK proofs, full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and instant cross-chain interactions without requiring additional security or trust assumptions. It's worth noting that the project is continuing to develop its ZK-STARK-based layer-2 solution, Miden.

Blockchain data flagged by Coinbase director Conor Grogan indicates that Alameda Research redeemed over $38 billion for Tether (USDT) tokens in 2021 despite not having the equivalent assets under management.

According to Grogan, the total value of USDT creation was higher than Alameda’s total assets on its books at the height of the wider cryptocurrency market bull run in 2021.

Grogan also suggests that FTX ordered USDT redemptions were likely to have been from Alameda’s tokens, totalling 3.9 billion USDT. The majority of this redemption amount was carried out during the collapse of the Terra Luna algorithmic stablecoin.

In Jan. 2021, former Alameda co-CEO Sam Trabucco weighed in on prevailing reports of significant USDT mints carried out by Tether and gave inside insights into how Alameda profited off arbitrage opportunities relating to the value of USDT to various trading pairs across different exchanges.

Trabucco described how the premium in which USDT trades to $1 was typically volatile given that Bitcoin to USDT trades resulted in a slight deficit in basis points when compared to BTC/US dollar trades.

Bitcoin (BTC) ground higher on Oct. 10 after the start of legacy market trading saw “de-risking” take over.

Bitcoin price preserves weekly support

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price stability returning ahead of the Wall Street open.

Bitcoin bulls had lost their footing as the week began, with BTC/USD heading to $27,300 before reversing to trade near $27,700 at the time of writing.

“Overall there's been a lot of market de-risking into $27.4K - $27.3K,” popular trader Skew wrote in part of X analysis at the time.

“Important area now because losing that level would take prices back to 1W demand. More importantly, around here into tomorrow buyers need to establish price control for a move higher.”