Decentral Block Post

ApeCoin (APE) rallied to start the week as traders considered Yuga Labs' decision to open its Otherside metaverse for selected users. In doing so, the token broke out of a technical pattern that hints at another 45% price rally by September 2022.

Otherside metaverse euphoria

APE's price surged by almost 23.5% week-to-date to reach $6.12 a token on July 19.

The weekly gains came as a part of a rally that started on July 16. Interestingly, Yuga Labs invited 4,300 players of its Otherside gaming metaverse for a demo—and the tour of its Bored Ape avatar online platform—on the day of APE's rally.

That suggests traders purchased APE after taking cues from the Otherside update, given it serves as a governance token at ApeCoin DAO. This "decentralized autonomous organization," or DAO, powers the ecosystem of apps and services deployed by Yuga Labs and third-party brands, including Otherside.

APE price eyes 45% rally

The Otherside euphoria has also prompted APE to exit a technical setup called the "ascending triangle."

ApeCoin (APE) rallied to start the week as traders considered Yuga Labs’ decision to open its Otherside metaverse for selected users. In doing so, the token broke out of a technical pattern that hints at another 45% price rally by September 2022.

Otherside metaverse euphoria

APE’s price surged by almost 23.5% week-to-date to reach $6.12 a token on July 19.

The weekly gains came as a part of a rally that started on July 16. Interestingly, Yuga Labs invited 4,300 players of its Otherside gaming metaverse for a demo — and the tour of its Bored Ape avatar online platform — on the day of APE’s rally.

That suggests traders purchased APE after taking cues from the Otherside update, given it serves as a governance token at ApeCoin DAO. This decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) powers the ecosystem of apps and services deployed by Yuga Labs and third-party brands, including Otherside.

APE price eyes 45% rally

The Otherside euphoria has also prompted APE to exit a technical setup called the ascending triangle.

“When will it end?” is the question that is on the mind of investors who have endured the current crypto winter and witnessed the demise of multiple protocols and investment funds over the past few months.

This week, Bitcoin (BTC) once again finds itself testing resistance at its 200-week moving average and the real challenge is whether it can push higher in the face of multiple headwinds or if the price will trend down back into the range it has been trapped in since early June.

According to the most recent newsletter from on-chain market intelligence firm Glassnode, "duration" is the main difference between the current bear market and previous cycles and many on-chain metrics are now comparable to these historical drawdowns.

One metric that has proven to be a reliable indicator of bear market bottoms is realized price, which is the value of all Bitcoin at the price they were bought divided by the number of BTC in circulation.

As shown on the chart above, with the exception of the flash crash in March 2020, Bitcoin has traded below its realized price for an extended period of time during bear markets.

Bitcoin's (BTC) price is down 56% year-to-date, but the correction was not strong enough to remove the digital asset from the list of top-20 global tradable assets. Bitcoin’s current $400 billion market capitalization stands higher than traditional companies like Exxon Mobil, Walmart and Procter & Gamble, but there’s always the question of whether a direct comparison between a commodity like Bitcoin and equities is valid. 

Analysts and investors favoring stocks constantly remind crypto advocates that Exxon Mobil posted $25.79 billion in earnings over the past 12 months, as a justifying example of its valuation. But on the flip side, earnings don’t necessarily explain how Boeing booked $16.1 billion losses in two years, even as it holds an $87.1 billion market capitalization.

Measuring a commodity market value can be tricky. For example, in the case of silver, only 50% of precious metal is used in industrial applications. There are individuals and companies holding the asset for investment in the form of bars, coins, or jewelry and these are not "productive" revenue-generating assets.

Bitcoin’s value is vastly inferior to gold’s $11.2 trillion market capitalization, but what does “$400 billion” even mean, and how does it compare to broader asset classes such as global equities, real estate and debt markets?

Was the Bitcoin “digital gold” thesis wrong?

The first question one should ask is: Has gold been a good store of value over the past five years? To find answers, traders have to compare its price against other trillion-dollar asset classes like global equities, oil and real estate. The overall goal for any store of value is to maintain the purchasing power, regardless of price fluctuations during the period.