Decentral Block Post

While the market has not yet fully recovered from the onslaught caused by the TerraUSD (UST) depeg, another stablecoin project shows signs of distress, causing fears and speculation within the community. 

Stablecoin protocol USDD’s price dipped to $0.97 on major crypto trading platforms on Monday. Because of this, the market started to keep an eye on the project with fears that the project will follow the footsteps of Terra (LUNA), now officially Luna Classic (LUNC). CurveSwaps, a bot that monitors large asset transfers flagged that $1 million USDD was recently swapped to 997,339 Tether (USDT).

On the other hand, blockchain analytics platform Nansen has also detected that one of the funds that capitalized on the UST depeg has started actively transferring larger amounts of USDD and other stablecoins. Nansen_intern tweeted:

Looking at data regarding USDD's collateralization, researcher Resdegen argued that looking at the stablecoin's backing, USDD is only 92% collateralized. Without considering Tron (TRX), the ratio falls down to 73%.

In response to the “extreme market conditions,” the Tron DAO Reserve recently announced that it received 700 million USD Coin (USDC) to defend the USDD peg. With this in play, the team behind the stablecoin explained that the collateralization ratio of USDD is now boosted to 300%.

Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty has slammed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for trying to “bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt” crypto innovation in the U.S. in the name of expanding its own regulatory territory:

“By bringing enforcement actions–or threats of potential enforcement–the SEC intends to bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt crypto innovation in the U.S., all in the name of impermissibly expanding its own jurisdictional limits.”

Alderoty shared his views on Monday amid an ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the regulator, which he says is part of the “SEC’s assault on all crypto in the U.S.” by treating every cryptocurrency as a security:

“Like a hammer wanting everything to be a nail, the SEC is keeping everything murky so it can argue every crypto is a security.”

Ripple Labs has been embroiled in a legal battle with the SEC since December 2020, when the securities regulator filed a lawsuit alleging that Ripple executives had used Ripple (XRP) tokens to raise funds for the company starting in 2013, claiming it was unregistered security at the time.

Crypto traders and investors started out the week with a major shock to the markets. As assets across the blockchain industry went into a collective dive on Monday, users took to Twitter to voice their dismay (or in some cases jubilation) with the current state of crypto.

Inflation, potential interest rate hikes, a looming recession, and yet another DeFi fiasco have all contributed to the current onslaught seen in markets on Monday. As a result, Bitcoin's (BTC) price plunged to levels not seen since late 2020, several crypto exchanges limited users from withdrawing their tokens, an increasing number of Web3-centric companies announced layoffs, and the floor prices of various nonfungible token (NFT) projects tumbled.

Taking a look at a few tweets from seasoned crypto enthusiasts shows the overall sentiment. Holding Bitcoin and alts is the true crypto investors' theme, however, some appear to be experiencing a weakening of their supposed diamond hands. As one user noted:

The crypto space isn’t alone in its plight, with the entire stock market experiencing a major loss in tandem. Increased monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve has caused investors to sell off many types of stocks as the S&P 500 fell 4% to reach a new low for 2022.

Whales and former whales have begun to make their voices heard as the realization that they’ve lost a massive chunk of their wealth becomes evermore apparent.

The United States equities markets extended their decline to start the week on June 13. The S&P 500 hit a new year-to-date low and dipped into bear market territory, falling more than 20% from its all-time high made on Jan. 4. 

The cryptocurrency markets are tracking the equities markets lower and the selling pressure further intensified due to the rumored liquidity crisis of major lending platform Celsius and traders possibly selling positions to meet margin calls. This pulled the total crypto market capitalization below $1 trillion.

The sharp declines have led some analysts to project extremely bearish targets. While anything is possible in the markets and it is difficult to call a bottom, capitulations usually tend to start a bottoming formation. Traders may get their buy list ready and consider accumulating in phases after the price stops falling.

What are the important levels that may arrest the decline in Bitcoin (BTC) and major altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin broke below the immediate support at $28,630 on June 11. This accelerated selling and the bears pulled the price below the critical support at $26,700 on June 12. This indicated the resumption of the downtrend.

Ethereum is plagued with criticisms of its less than optimal scaling capabilities and high gas prices. There have been talks about increasing the scaling capacity of the Ethereum mainnet for a while now. 

However, the Ethereum ecosystem needs a solution for scaling right now, and if Ethereum is not able to give these new applications a platform with enough scaling capabilities, they can seek alternatives like the BNB Chain or Cardano. Optimism rollout was created to solve exactly the scalability problem of Ethereum.

Optimism Rollup network is one of the several solutions trying to address Ethereum’s congestion problem. The Ethereum network is often congested to the almost maximum capacity, and until upgrades to the main blockchain are made, scaling solutions like Optimism allow Ethereum’s transactional abilities to remain usable without shelling out a fortune on gas fees.

In short, Optimism uses advanced data compression techniques to speed up and cut the costs of Ethereum transactions. They do so by a technique known as called Optimistic Rollups, where multiple transactions are “rolled up” into one transaction and settled on another cheaper blockchain. The verified transactions are then fed back to the main Ethereum blockchain. The biggest advantage of Optimistic Rollups is the fact that they do not compute by default, which theoretically leads to scalability gains. Estimates say Optimistic Rollups can offer 10-100x improvements to scalability. On the downside, however, is the existence of a “challenge period,” which is a time window in which anyone can challenge assertion and increase withdrawal time.

Battle of the rollups

Now, a natural question arises: How is this different from widely used zero-knowledge (zk) Rollups? 

On June 14, discussions of Celsius continued to populate media headlines and June 14's news involved the platform's CEL token accruing massive gains after what appears to have been either an exchange glitch or a short-squeeze. CEL price spiked from $0.18  to $1.55 in one abrupt candle before sinking back to $0.60 within the same one-hour candle.

Currently, analysts are on the fence about the reason for the explosive price breakout. Some cite Celsius repaying a portion of its debts as a reason, while others pinpoint a possible error on the FTX exchange as the reason for what appears to be a short squeeze.

Are debt repayments boosting investor confidence?

Celsius has been scrambling to cover a number of its debts and it is possible that some investors view this as a sign that the platform will be able to survive the current mayhem. 

Twitter analyst Hsaka said that on-chain data shows that the $28 million in Dai (DAI) that was recently deposited into a wallet controlled by Celsius and has since been sent to a separate address, which he identified as a debt repayment address.

Analysts believe that the Celsius's strategy is to lower its liquidation price in the MakerDAO vaults  where it holds funds and ultimately avoid insolvency.

Bitcoin (BTC) came within $1,000 of its previous cycle all-time highs on June 14 as liquidations mounted across crypto markets. 

Bitcoin price hits 18-month lows

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $20,816, on Bitstamp, its lowest since the week of December 14, 2020.

A sell-off that began before the weekend intensified after the June 13 Wall Street opening bell, with Bitcoin and altcoins falling in step with United States equities.

The S&P 500 finished the day down 3.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 4.7% ahead of key comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its anti-inflation policy.

The worst of the rout was reserved for crypto, however, and with that, BTC/USD lost 22.4% from the start of the week to the time of writing.

Ether (ETH) price nosedived below $1,100 in the early hours of June 14 to prices not seen since January 2021. The downside move marks a 78% correction since the $4,870 all-time high on Nov. 10, 2021.

More importantly, Ether has underperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 33% between May 10 and June 14, 2022, and the last time a similar event happened was mid-2021.

Even though Bitcoin oscillated in a narrow range two weeks before the 0.082 ETH/BTC peak, this period marked the “DeFi Summer” peak when the Ethereum network’s total value locked (TVL) catapulted to $93 billion from $42 billion two months earlier.

What’s behind Ether’s 2021 underperformance?

Before jumping to conclusions, a broader set of data is needed to understand what led to the 31% correction in the ETH/BTC price in 2021. Looking at the number of active addresses is a good place to start.

Data shows steady growth in active addresses, which increased from 595,620 in mid-March to 857,520 in mid-May. So, not only did the TVL growth take investors by surprise, but so did the number of users.

The price of Nexo (NEXO) continued to fall on June 15 as crypto lending firms continue to be shaken by the falling cryptocurrency market.

Meanwhile, Nexo has denied rumors of exposure to Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Dubai-based crypto fund facing insolvency risks.

NEXO price suffers on DeFi contagion fears 

NEXO, which serves as a security token at a cryptocurrency lending platform of the same name, fell nearly 25% to $0.61 a unit, its lowest price reading since January 2021.

The massive intraday decline came as a part of a broader downside move this week, which stretched NEXO's losses to 40%.

An ongoing contagion in the crypto lending sector contributed to NEXO's underperformance.

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has onboarded restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to find potential solutions to the firm’s financial woes. 

The firm is reportedly looking for other strategic alternatives, such as a financial restructuring, apart from its attempts to solve its current problems. The report also noted that Celsius is trying to find investors who would be able to provide financing options for the crypto lending company.

Citing extreme market conditions, Celsius paused withdrawals from its platform on Monday. Amid the withdrawal freeze, the firm has unstaked around $247 million in wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from liquidity protocol Aave and sent it to the FTX exchange. Apart from its wBTC, the firm has also sent $74.5 million in Ether (ETH) to FTX.

As rumors of Celsius’ insolvency proliferate, crypto exchange Nexo extended its hands to the lending platform. The crypto firm recently told Cointelegraph that the Nexo, along with its partners and affiliates, is able to acquire a part or all of Celsius’ outstanding “collateralized loan receivables.”

Related: Celsius (CEL) price gains 600%+, but analysts cite exchange error and a massive short squeeze

The core principles of cryptocurrency were based on financial independence, decentralization and anonymity. With regulations being the key to mass adoption, however, the privacy aspect of the crypto market seems to be in jeopardy.

In 2022, even though no particular country has come up with a universal regulatory outline that governs the whole crypto market, most countries have introduced some form of legislation to govern a few aspects of the crypto market such as trading and financial services.

While different countries have set different rules and regulations in accordance with their existing financial laws, a common theme has been the strict implementation of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.

A majority of crypto exchanges operating with a license obtained from the government body or government-affiliated bodies have discouraged any form of anonymous transactions. Even in countries where there is no particular law on privacy coins, there is a ban on private transactions over a certain threshold.

The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom have also demanded regulatory action against the use of coin mixing tools, a service used to obscure the origin of a transaction by mixing it with multiple other transactions.

Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted close to the crucial support of $20,000 as traders panicked and dumped their holdings, fearing an aggressive rate hike by the United States Federal Reserve on June 15. Another reason for the sell-off could be fears of possible contagion if lending platform Celsius and crypto venture capital firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) go belly up.

Data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant showed 24-hour exchange inflows of 59,376 Bitcoin on June 14, the highest inflows since November 30, 2018. The Bitcoin miners also joined other investors in sending Bitcoin to the exchanges. The Bitcoin Miners to Exchange flow metric reached a seven-month high of 9,476, indicating that the miners may be anticipating a further fall in the near term.

Prominent investors are divided on whether a bottom has been made in Bitcoin or not. Galaxy Digital Holdings chairman and CEO Mike Novogratz believes that Bitcoin could hold $20,000 and Ether (ETH) may bottom out at $1,000. These levels were also referred to by Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former chief of BitMEX, who cautioned that if the levels crack, it may lead to “massive sell pressure in spot markets.”

What are the important levels to watch out for on Bitcoin and major altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin remains in a firm bear grip. The bulls tried to start a recovery on June 14, as seen from the long wick on the day’s candlestick, but the bears were in no mood to relent. They sold aggressively and pulled the price to $20,111 on June 15.

Solana (SOL) tumbled on June 16 amid a broader retreat across the top cryptocurrencies, led by the Federal Reserve's 0.75% interest rate hike a day before.

Solana price rebound fizzles

Notably, SOL/USD plunged nearly 17% to $30 a token, wiping out almost all the gains from the day before. The SOL price volatility liquidated almost $10 million worth of contracts in the past 24 hours across multiple crypto exchanges, data from Coinglass shows. 

The latest declines come as an extension to SOL's broader correction, where it dropped by more than 90% after peaking out near $267 in November 2021. SOL also fell to its lowest level since July 2021 near $25.

In addition, a higher interest rate environment and the collapse of high-profile crypto projects like Terra have strengthened SOL's downside prospects. 

SOL paints "ascending triangle"

Solana's pullback move on June 16 began after testing a horizontal trendline resistance near $34 that constitutes what appears to be an "ascending triangle" pattern.

Can a fully-functional oracle network ecosystem that anonymously collects and validates geospatial (location-specific) data exist? One blockchain firm seems to have gotten the gist of the idea. Founded in 2012, XY Labs and its namesake protocol XYO, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain, seek to reward participants for the genesis, interpretation, analysis and storage of data to be called upon for specific problems. There are currently over 4 million nodes worldwide on the XYO network. 

In a recent ask-me-anything (AMA) session with Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Arie Trouw, founder of XY Labs, explained that fundamental to the XYO system is a special type of payload called BoundWitnesses. It contains a list of user-input data points that are signed by one or more nodes in the XYO network. They can be modified to include time, date, and location, and be signed by nodes as to reflect the certainty of the embedded data.

"The job of an oracle is to provide an answer with as much certainty as possible. We use blockchain to memorialize these answers and provide transparency into the process of creating the solutions by linking to supporting data using immutable hashes."

To ensure security, BoundWitnesses only shares the hashes of payloads while keeping the payloads themself private. Each node has its own blockchain, and with BoundWitnesses, those blockchains are linked together and, as a whole, provide one reflection of the imperfect data of reality. Since its inception, over 77.4 million BoundWitnesses and 244.7 million payloads have been submitted to the XYO Main Net.

Together with the firm's COIN mobile application, which rewards users for data collection and production and the XYO token as a payment channel, a fully-functional marketplace is born where users can exchange data for incentives. There are approximately 12 billion XYO tokens with no fixed supply. Factors such as token inflation and burn mechanisms will affect its supply-side tokenomics.