Decentral Block Post

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged 11 individuals for their alleged role in the creation of a "fraudulent crypto pyramid scheme" platform Forsage. 

The charges were laid in a United States District Court in Illinois on August 1, with the SEC alleging that the founders and promoters of the platform used the “fraudulent crypto pyramid and Ponzi scheme” to raise more than $300 million from “millions of retail investors worldwide.”

The SEC complaint states that Forsage was modeled such that investors would be financially rewarded by recruiting new investors to the platform in a "typical Ponzi structure," which spanned multiple countries including the United States and Russia. 

According to the SEC, a Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors. These schemes often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities that generate high returns for little risk. 

In the court document, the SEC stated that:

Polygon (MATIC) had a promising July, gaining an impressive 83% in 30 days. The smart contract platform uses layer-2 scaling and aims to become an essential Web3 infrastructure solution. However, investors question whether the recovery is sustainable, considering lackluster deposits and active addresses data.

According to Cointelegraph, Polygon rallied after being selected for the Walt Disney Company's accelerator program to build augmented reality, nonfungible token (NFT) and artificial intelligence solutions.

Polygon announced on July 20 plans to implement a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM), which bundles multiple transactions before relaying them to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic stated this solution would slash Ethereum fees by 90% and boost throughput to 40–50 transactions per second.

Another reason for Polygon's rally was the growing number of platforms that started to offer liquid staking for MATIC tokens, which enabled holders to earn additional rewards. Examples include Lido Finance, Balancer, Meshswap and Ankr Staking, according to DeFi Pulse.

Despite currently being 69% below its -time high, Polygon remains a top-12 token by capitalization rank. Moreover, the network holds $1.72 billion worth of deposits locked on smart contracts, known in the industry as total value locked, or TVL.

Polygon (MATIC) had a promising July, gaining an impressive 83% in 30 days. The smart contract platform uses layer-2 scaling and aims to become an essential Web3 infrastructure solution. However, investors question whether the recovery is sustainable, considering lackluster deposits and active addresses data.

According to Cointelegraph, Polygon rallied after being selected for the Walt Disney Company's accelerator program to build augmented reality, nonfungible token (NFT) and artificial intelligence solutions.

Polygon announced on July 20 plans to implement a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM), which bundles multiple transactions before relaying them to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic stated this solution would slash Ethereum fees by 90% and boost throughput to 40–50 transactions per second.

Another reason for Polygon's rally was the growing number of platforms that started to offer liquid staking for MATIC tokens, which enabled holders to earn additional rewards. Examples include Lido Finance, Balancer, Meshswap and Ankr Staking, according to DeFi Pulse.

Despite currently being 69% below its -time high, Polygon remains a top-12 token by capitalization rank. Moreover, the network holds $1.72 billion worth of deposits locked on smart contracts, known in the industry as total value locked, or TVL.

Bitcoin (BTC) tested $23,000 as support on the Aug. 1 Wall Street open with key moving averages in focus. 

200-week moving average gets big attention

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as bulls and bears battled for control amid a tight trading range.

Bitcoin had inspired with its highest weekly close since mid-June the day prior, with its monthly candle also producing the biggest gains since before last year's $69,000 all-time highs.

Among analysts and traders, however, it was the market's ability to remain higher for several more candles that was important.

Despite reclaiming important trendlines such as the 200-week moving average (MA) and realized price, Bitcoin would not be out of the woods until it began producing whole weekly candles without retests of those levels.

After strong monthly gains in July, Bitcoin (BTC) and the altcoins have started the new month on a tentative note. Even the United States equities markets have started August on a soft note. 

Is the bottom in?

BofA Securities head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy Savita Subramanian said in a recent note that the stock market usually bottoms after earnings estimates are revised lower but that has not yet happened during the current downturn.

Analysts in the crypto space also remain divided on whether the current rise is a bear market rally or the start of a new bull phase.

However, a minor positive is that the world’s first Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, has added 2,600 Bitcoin to its holdings. Although the total assets under management remain well below the all-time high, the recent addition is a sign that some institutional investors may have started bottom fishing.

Could Bitcoin and altcoins find buyers at lower levels? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Ether (ETH) bulls like a positive spread between its spot and ETH futures prices because the so-called contango reflects optimism about a higher rate in the future. But as of Aug. 1, the Ethereum futures curve slid in the opposite direction.

Ethereum quarterly futures in backwardation

On the daily chart, Ethereum futures quarterly contracts, scheduled to expire in December 2022, have slipped into backwardation, a condition opposite to contango, wherein the futures price becomes lower than the spot price.

The spread between Ethereum's spot and futures price grew to -$8 on Aug. 1. 

One one hand, the current ETH spot price being higher than its year-end outlook appears like a bearish sign. However, the conditions surrounding the current negative spread between the Ether spot and futures price suggests traders may actually be bullish on ETH.

For instance, Bitcoin (BTC) has gained 15% since its futures entered backwardation in late June for the first time in a year.