Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $21,000 for the first time in eight days on July 26 as Wall Street prepared for a decision on United States' anti-inflation policy.

Fed jitters test market resolve

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD ending a period of sideways action on the Wall Street open, hitting lows of $20,788 on Bitstamp.

Against its highs of $24,280 on July 20, the pair was now down over 14% as nerves across risk assets heightened in anticipation of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates due July 27.

The higher the base rate hike by the Fed, the more problematic the outlook for crypto investors as more tightening would mean more conservative conditions prevailing across the economy. 

"BTC has lost the Higher Low, which represented a lower timeframe technical uptrend," he told Twitter followers alongside an illustrative chart.

Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Unstoppable Finance has argued that Solana is more decentralized than people make it out to be. However, there’s another side that believes that the blockchain platform is actually more centralized.

In a blog post, the DeFi firm lays out its arguments, citing the blockchain network’s active validator count, Nakamoto coefficient and support for validator hardware, which is often argued to be expensive, as reasons for the network’s decentralization.

According to the post, Solana’s validator count is much higher than most other chains, excluding Ethereum. Additionally, Unstoppable Finance points out that Solana’s Nakamoto coefficient, a metric that measures the distribution of staked tokens and decentralization, is much higher than protocols like Cosmos and Near Protocol.

Regarding the criticisms that Solana’s validator hardware is expensive, Unstoppable Finance argues that Solana has already created a server rental program that deals with the issue. Despite the arguments in favor of Solana’s decentralization, some community members cannot be convinced that the platform is decentralized.

Twitter user Les_teezy believes that Solana's network outages are not the main problem; instead, the network is “too centralized,” giving only a few the influence to shut down and restart the network. The Twitter user highlighted that without decentralization, the network is just the same as any traditional system.

Solana (SOL) dipped to a two-week low at around $35.50 on July 26, mirroring downside moves elsewhere in the crypto market. Nonetheless, technicals suggests that Solana's price flirts with the prospects of rising 40% in August.

SOL hits key inflection point

Ironically, the bullish setup for Solana emerges out of a classic bearish continuation pattern.

On the daily chart, SOL's price has been consolidating inside what appears to be a "bear flag," a technical pattern that develops during a downtrend and gets resolved after the instrument exits it with further price drops.

The so-called bear flag breakdown has not happened yet. Instead, SOL has been holding the lower trendline as support, raising possibilities of a sharp rebound toward the upper trendline, as illustrated in the chart below.

The rebound setup exposes SOL to a potential rally toward $49.50 in August, up 40% from today's price. The $49-$50 level had served as both support and resistance in May.

Solana (SOL) dipped to a two-week low at around $35.50 on July 26, mirroring downside moves elsewhere in the crypto market. Nonetheless, technicals suggests that Solana's price flirts with the prospects of rising 40% in August.

SOL hits key inflection point

Ironically, the bullish setup for Solana emerges out of a classic bearish continuation pattern.

On the daily chart, SOL's price has been consolidating inside what appears to be a "bear flag," a technical pattern that develops during a downtrend and gets resolved after the instrument exits it with further price drops.

The so-called bear flag breakdown has not happened yet. Instead, SOL has been holding the lower trendline as support, raising possibilities of a sharp rebound toward the upper trendline, as illustrated in the chart below.

The rebound setup exposes SOL to a potential rally toward $49.50 in August, up 40% from today's price. The $49-$50 level had served as both support and resistance in May.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $21,000 on July 26 after it emerged that major United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was under investigation.

$21,000 now "super critical" for BTC bulls

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed a swift reversion to lower levels for BTC/USD as reports emerged of fresh legal problems for Coinbase over securities trading.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg originally reported, was looking into whether the exchange had allowed users to trade unregistered securities.

Part of a wider battle between the U.S. crypto industry and regulators over compliance, the move appeared to frighten the market, coming amid parallel allegations that a former executive conducted insider trading.

With that, Bitcoin was back to defending $21,000 as support on the day, with commentator Mark Cullen stressing that the level must hold for bulls to stay in control.