Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to daily lows on Aug. 26 as market nerves heightened into new macro triggers.

Pre-Fed blues hit BTC markets

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping to $21,332 on Bitstamp ahead of fresh commentary from Jerome Powell, Chair of the United States Federal Reserve.

Part of the Fed’s Jackson Hole annual symposium, Powell was set to deliver a speech on the day that spectators hoped would provide new cues on economic policy going forward.

With U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation slowing since June, interest remained high over the extent of key interest rate hikes in September.

Summarizing the current economic situation in the U.S., macro analyst David Hunter argued that the Fed would have no choice but to change course before the end of the year.

The founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Synthetix, Kain Warwick, has submitted a proposal that would turn off very high yield returns for SNX stakers and cap the total SNX token supply at 300 million. 

The Synthetix protocol allows traders to issue synthetic versions of crypto native assets, traditional financial assets, and commodities on the Ethereum and Optimism networks.

In an Aug. 25 Synthetix Improvement Proposal (SIP) Warwick explained that SNX reward inflation was initially intended to “bootstrap the network”, however, he believes it’s no longer necessary as they can generate sustainable fee yields from atomic swaps.

A big rise in fee revenue has been a result of DeFi protocols 1inch and Curve starting to use the Synthetix platform to conduct atomic swaps, bringing in more traffic to the protocol. In June the protocol surpassed $1 million in daily fees - which was four times the amount Bitcoin was making. 

According to cryptofees, Synthetix is currently taking a seven-day average of $158,857 in fees, which is a little bit below Bitcoin’s seven-day average of $222,651.

As a market crash takes place, assets become oversold and typically there’s an “oversold bounce,” “return to mean,” “mean reversion,” or some price snapback to the bottom of the pre-crash range. 

Afterward, the asset under study either consolidates, continues the downtrend, or returns to the bullish uptrend if the downside catalyst was not significant enough to break the market structure. That’s all kind of basic trading 101.

This week Cosmos (ATOM) price appears to be following this path and the altcoin is showing a bit of strength with a 35% gain since Aug. 22, but why?

Depending on how you look at it, and technical analysis is by all means a subjective process, ATOM price is either in an ascending channel or one could say a rounding bottom pattern is present with price close to breaking above the neckline.

Resistance above $13 (the horizontal black line in the bottom chart) is currently close to being tested and with sufficient volume and “stability” from the wider crypto-market, the price could be en-route to the 200-day moving average at $17.20.

BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain , has bounced 66% from its $183 low in mid-June. The move consolidates its position as the third-ranked cryptocurrency (when stablecoin market caps are removed) and reflects a $50 billion market capitalization. BNB has outperformed the broader altcoin market capitalization after a devastating 73% correction that began in November 2021.

The above chart displays how this smart contract blockchain network suffered during the recent market collapse and how similar movements happened across the altcoin market. Now that BNB price has reached $300, let’s take a look at how the asset is positioned compared to July 2021 when it traded for the same price.

Is BNB’s market cap and valuation justified?

Back in July 2021, the altcoin market capitalization stood 21% higher at $740 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) had already established themselves as the market leaders, but the dispute for the third position was far from settled, at least in terms of the total value.

Despite still being the third largest cryptocurrency, BNB’s market cap was $47 billion, while Cardano (ADA) held a $46 billion valuation. Currently, no altcoin remotely matches its dominance and the gap has widened by more than $30 billion.

Smart contracts form the foundation of all decentralized applications (DApps), including decentralized finance, gaming, marketplaces, social networks and many other use cases. So what other success metrics are there besides the number of active users using addresses as a proxy?

BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain , has bounced 66% from its $183 low in mid-June. The move consolidates its position as the third-ranked cryptocurrency (when stablecoin market caps are removed) and reflects a $50 billion market capitalization. BNB has outperformed the broader altcoin market capitalization after a devastating 73% correction that began in November 2021.

The above chart displays how this smart contract blockchain network suffered during the recent market collapse and how similar movements happened across the altcoin market. Now that BNB price has reached $300, let’s take a look at how the asset is positioned compared to July 2021 when it traded for the same price.

Is BNB’s market cap and valuation justified?

Back in July 2021, the altcoin market capitalization stood 21% higher at $740 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) had already established themselves as the market leaders, but the dispute for the third position was far from settled, at least in terms of the total value.

Despite still being the third largest cryptocurrency, BNB’s market cap was $47 billion, while Cardano (ADA) held a $46 billion valuation. Currently, no altcoin remotely matches its dominance and the gap has widened by more than $30 billion.

Smart contracts form the foundation of all decentralized applications (DApps), including decentralized finance, gaming, marketplaces, social networks and many other use cases. So what other success metrics are there besides the number of active users using addresses as a proxy?