Blockchain and Crypto News

Don’t miss real-time updates

Decentral Block Post

Access real-time blockchain and cryptocurrency news updates from around the globe.

Cardano gets listed on Robinhood but ADA bulls are running out of steam, risking 40% drop

ThCardano (ADA) market has witnessed back-to-back pieces of good news since Aug. 31, from its listing on Robinhood, a U.S.-based retail investment platform, to the release of its first lending and borrowing protocol, Aada Finance.

Additionally, Cardano developer IOHK stated that they are close to clinching "three critical mass indicators" that would lead to the launch of their long-awaited Vasil hard fork in September. Vasil aims to improve Cardano's scalability and transaction throughput through pipelining.

The upgrade could also improve the decentralized application (DApp) and smart contract capabilities by changing the Plutus script, a programming language used for smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain.

But the uplifting updates have failed to attract adequate buyers as ADA's price trend in the last 24 hours reveals.

Bear market rally

On the daily chart, ADA's price rose to an intraday high of $0.462 on Sep. 1, a day after bouncing from its sessional low of $0.424, up nearly 9%.

image
Continue reading

US dollar smashes yet another 20-year high as Bitcoin price sags 2.7%

Bitcoin (BTC) faced familiar pressure on the Sept. 1 Wall Street open as the U.S. dollar hit fresh two-decade highs.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Trader: DXY could hit 115 before 'slowdown'

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it fell to $19,658 on Bitstamp, down 2.7% from the day’s high.

The pair faced stiff resistance trying to flip the important $20,000 mark to solid support, with macro cues further complicating the picture for bulls.

That came in the form of a resurgent U.S. dollar index (DXY) on the day, which beat previous peaks to reach 109.97, its highest since September 2002.

U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-day candle chart. Source: TradingView

Risk assets thus broadly lost ground, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index trading down 1% and 2%, respectively at the time of writing.

image
Continue reading

Bitcoin price dips 14% in August as trader warns of ‘macro drop down’

Bitcoin (BTC) has sealed its worst August performance since 2015 after the monthly candle closed down 13.9%.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Weekly candle "doesn't look good"

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirms that BTC/USD finished the month at $19,990.

A knock to bulls’ efforts to stabilize spot price, the August close was only the second monthly candle finish below the $20,000 mark (depending on the exchange used) since late 2020.

BTC/USD 1-month candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

While preserving June’s close as the macro low on the monthly chart, the performance led traders into firmly bearish territory. Among them was Crypto Tony, who warned that the stage was set for deeper losses going forward.

His outlook, he told Twitter followers on the day, saw him “leaning towards a macro drop down.”

image
Continue reading

Analyst says 40% of users in most Web3 games are bots — Here’s how to avoid being fooled

The decentralized application industry pushed above $40 billion in smart contract deposits in February 2021, and currently the figure stands at $59 billion. To date, “real money” continues to flow into the sector, and on Aug. 29, gaming startup Limit Break raised $200 million. The project gained popularity after the successful launch of its DigiDaigaku free-mint NFT collection.

According to a report by Dove Metrics and Messari, the crypto industry saw $30.3 billion in funds raised in H1 2022. This amount surpassed the $30.2 billion seen in 2021. Excluding the $10.2 billion in funding raised for the centralized finance sector leaves a whopping $20 billion that was invested in DApps, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and Web 3 infrastructure.

One might question how much of that money has effectively been deployed or reinvested in ventures owned by the same investment groups. Of course, there are a handful of clever ways to overextend those announcement numbers without breaking any regulation, but there's undoubtedly a great deal of money flowing toward decentralized applications.

There’s always been a healthy amount of distrust in the actual number of active users on DApps, but so far, no hard evidence of cheating has been presented. So what tools can retail users employ to detect inflated activity? Well, it turns out there are at least three: active users, community engagement and liquidity.

Comparing registered users to active users

Most proof of stake (PoS) networks charge minimal registration fees and many are free to use. This leads to troves of “fake” active addresses that interact with the DApp and it creates incentives for developers and investors to boost their numbers.

image
Continue reading

Bitcoin holds $20K, but analysts say BTC open interest leaves room for ‘more deleveraging’

Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to struggle at $20,000 and repeat dips under this level have led some analysts to project deeper downside in the short-term. Earlier in the week, independent market analyst Philip Swift tweeted that the Crypto Fear and Greed Index had dropped back to back to “Extreme Fear,” reflecting softening sentiment among investors. 

On Aug 29, analytics firm Delphi Digital highlighted Bitcoin open interest hitting a new record-high and said:

“The Futures Open Interest Leverage Ratio for BTC reached its highest level ever recorded at more than 3% of BTC market cap, following the market-wide collapse on August 26th.”

According to Delphi Digital, “higher values suggest that open interest is large, relative to market size. This implies a higher risk of market squeezes, liquidation cascades or delivering events.”

Bitcoin open interest. Source: Delphi Digital

Exactly what might catalyze such an event remains unknown, but any continuation of the current downtrend in stocks which saw the Dow and S&P 500 wrap up a fourth day of decline to end August at a loss could continue to weigh on Bitcoin price. Data from CNBC shows the Dow closed August down 4.1% and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed the month with 4.2% and 4.6% losses.

Continue reading

Ethereum to $2K? ETH price 'bull flag' hints at September gains versus Bitcoin, dollar

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), looks ready to grow stronger compared to the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin (BTC) in the days leading up to its proof-of-stake transition in September.

ETH price chart bullish setup

The bullish outlook emerges from classic technical indicators on ETH/USD and ETH/BTC charts. For instance, ETH/USD has been forming a "falling wedge" pattern with a profit target sitting around 30% above the current prices. 

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC chart is painting a potential "bull flag" that could increase the price by approximately 10% from current price levels upon resolution.

Here's how these bullish setups could play out.

Ethereum to $2K next?

Falling wedges form when the price trends lower inside a descending, contracting channel.

image
Continue reading

Bitcoin price clings to $20K as analyst says Fed ‘buried’ soft landing

Bitcoin (BTC) fluctuated around the key $20,000 mark into Aug. 31 as the outlook on United States inflation darkened.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD again dipping below the last halving cycle’s top overnight, only to regain lost ground to circle $20,300 on the day.

The rangebound moves accompanied modest recoveries for U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index up 0.15% and 0.6% within the first hour’s trading, respectively.

Concerns over the Federal Reserve’s plans on tackling inflation after last week’s gloomy speech by Chair Jerome Powell nonetheless lingered.

Despite Powell’s earlier rhetoric, Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, told mainstream media that the entire concept of a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy was now shelved.

image
Continue reading

Potential Bitcoin price double-bottom could spark BTC rally to $30K despite ‘extreme fear’

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price may climb by more than 50% in September, a month otherwise considered ominous for the cryptocurrency due to its poor historical returns. 

BTC price double-bottom and then to $30K?

The conflicting upside signal comes from a potential double-bottom pattern on Bitcoin’s longer-timeframe charts against the United States dollar. Double-bottoms are bullish reversal patterns that resemble the letter W due to two lows and a change in direction from downside to upside.

Double-bottom illustrated. Source: ThinkMarkets

Bitcoin’s decline below $20,000 in July, followed by a sharp recovery toward $25,000 and a subsequent return to the $20,000 level in August, partially confirms the double-bottom scenario. The cryptocurrency would complete the pattern after rebounding toward $25,000.

A W-shaped price move in an ideal scenario could be followed by another sharp move higher — a double-bottom breakout.

Meanwhile, a double-bottom’s upside target is found after measuring the distance between the pattern’s peak (neckline) and lowest levels and adding the outcome to the breakout point, as illustrated below. In other words, a potential 50% price rally.


Continue reading

Bitcoin mining has never been more competitive even as BTC loses 13% in August

Data from on-chain monitoring resource BTC.com confirms that on Aug. 31, Bitcoin’s network difficulty hit new all-time highs.

Bitcoin seals biggest difficulty jum since start of 2022

Despite the recent BTC price drawdowns, Bitcoin’s network fundamentals are telling an optimistic tale as August comes to a close.

Both difficulty and hash rate are climbing, reflecting conviction among miners over long-term profitability of their network participation. It also suggests that the mining sector is absorbing lower profits versus costs in the short term.

Difficulty, which added 9.26% at its Aug. 31 automated readjustment, now stands at its highest ever. Competition among miners is as healthy as ever.

For comparison, the last time that difficulty increased more at once was in January (9.32%), and before that, in August 2021 (13.24%).

image
Continue reading

AVAX price rebounds 15% after Crypto Leaks sell-off but Avalanche could still bury bulls

Avalanche (AVAX) bulls snubbed the sensational claims made by a self-proclaimed whistleblower website that the project's parent firm, Ava Labs, paid lawyers to damage its competitors' reputation.

Avalanche price recovers from serious allegations

AVAX's price established an intraday high of $19.75 on Aug. 30, two days after bottoming out locally at $17.50, amounting to a 15% rise. The token's modest recovery followed selloffs incurred by a sensational CryptoLeaks report.

AVAX's price fell 3.5% on Aug. 26, the day on which CryptoLeaks released an unverified video showing Kyle Roche, the partner at Roche Freedman, saying that he could sue Solana, one of Avalanche's top rivals, on behalf of Ava Labs.

Related: Ava Labs CEO denies CryptoLeaks' claims as 'conspiracy theory nonsense'

The token fell by another 7.5% the next day after the whistleblower website released the full report, including another unverified video featuring Roche.

image
Continue reading

UBS raises US recession odds to 60%, but what does this mean for crypto prices?

On Aug. 30, global investment bank UBS increased its view on the risk of the United States entering a recession within one year to 60%, up from 40% in June. According to economist Pierre Lafourcade, the latest data showed a 94% chance of the economy contracting, but added that it "does not morph into a full-blown recession."

Partially explaining the difference is the "extremely low levels" of non-performing loans, or defaults exceeding 90 days from credit borrowers. According to Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser, the institution "feels very good about" liquidity and credit quality. Furthermore, Reuters states that the financial industry wrote off merely 0.1% of its loans in the 2Q.

The problem is that even in the now-improbable scenario of avoiding a generalized recession, companies will face diminishing earnings as surging inflation limits consumption and Central Banks increase interest rates while winding down their balance sheets. Either way, the pressure on corporate profits is huge and this puts pressure on stock prices.

The valuation dynamics for cryptocurrencies vastly differ from equities, corporate debt, and stock markets. The truth is that there are no set metrics or indicators to guide token prices. Market participants have different perspectives on the protocols and their use cases.

On the other hand, the stock market has battle-tested valuation indicators that have been consistently used for decades, pounded by analysts, pundits and investors. For instance, the Price / Earnings multiple measures how many years would take a company to generate enough profit to cover its current market capitalization.

Continue reading

3 reasons why Ethereum PoW hard fork tokens won’t gain traction

Ether (ETH) is the second largest crypto by market capitalization and the absolute leader in decentralized applications by deposits. Becoming a victim of its own success, the network experienced a fee hike in November 2021 when the average transaction costs surpassed $50. 

That's precisely why the Merge is a critical step to implementing a fully functional scaling solution. The confirmation of a transition to a proof-ofstake (PoS) consensus was the main driver for the rally toward $2,000 on Aug. 15.

Investors were partially excited about the reduced issuing schedule and likely a transition to a deflationary scenario, but there's also the expectation of upcoming forks. As a result, hard-forked coins may be awarded to Ether holders on different blockchains, even though there's no guarantee those will find traction or sufficient liquidity.

From one side, there's the temptation of free money and even bonus non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the forked chain will initiate with the same state of the original Ethereum network, meaning each address will hold the exact same contents in terms of tokens and transaction history.

On the other hand, there's also a sense of disappointment after Ether’s agonizing 29% correction that took place after the $2,000 resistance proved to be more challenging than expected. It’s possible that as investors realized that the practical utility of the forks would be much lower than anticipated, the exuberant expectation of free money dissipated, and reality kicked in.

Continue reading

Bitcoin erases latest gains with BTC price back below $20K as dollar spikes

Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $20,000 after the Aug. 30 Wall Street open as data showed hodlers selling at a loss.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

June lows look increasingly attractive

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView captured the latest dive below the 2017 bull market peak for BTC/USD, with United States equities dropping in step.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.1% and 1.25% in the first hour, respectively, while BTC/USD shed 2.5% during a single hourly candle.

The latest moves came as no surprise to traders already wary of a deeper correction for the largest cryptocurrency. Previously, many had called for a retracement toward the macro lows seen in June.

For popular trader Crypto Ed, both Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) offered good opportunities for an upcoming short trade. In Bitcoin’s case, the target was $18,000 if the area of around $19,800 failed to hold.

image
Continue reading

BTC price top warnings emerge as 10K BTC leaves wallet after 9 years

Bitcoin (BTC) hodlers are asking questions after 10,000 BTC dormant since 2013 suddenly left its wallet.

On-chain data flagged on Aug. 28-29 confirmed a large tranche of Bitcoin had become liquid again after nearly a decade.

“Lawless era” Bitcoin hit the road

Analysts first began to notice curiously high transaction volumes this weekend as 5,000 BTC was included in a block.

Having stayed in the same wallet since 2013, the funds, the owner of which remains unknown, were soon joined by a near identical 5,000 BTC a day later.

In total, 10,000 BTC moved for the first time since 2013, and on-chain sleuths are curious as to the motive of the whale in charge.

Continue reading

Billions are spent marketing crypto to sports fans — Is it worth it?

Crypto advertising has been plastered across every available sporting surface since the bull run of 2021, from stadium naming deals and team’s playing kits to Formula One racing car liveries. But in the current bearish market conditions, it seems hard to calculate a return on the ubiquitous spending of 2021’s crazy big advertising. 

In Australia, where I’m based, there was a sharp uptick in crypto firms spending big on ads and sponsorship deals in the Australian Football League in 2021–2022. While it may make sense for a local crypto exchange, why would a global project spend big dollars on a sport that isn’t even the major football code in every state, given some of the bigger states prefer the National Rugby League?

Take, for example, the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, home of the National Basketball Association’s Lakers and Clippers, the National Hockey League’s Kings and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Sparks. It got a new name on Christmas Day 2021 — Crypto.com Arena — for a reported $700-million dollar deal. 

 

 


Continue reading

VanEck BTC ETF delayed, Bitcoin Depot plans public listing and Huobi gets flagged: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 21-27

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

 

Ethereum Merge in trouble? Developers find bugs ahead of the planned update

Ethereum’s highly anticipated transition to proof-of-stake, popularly known as the Merge, hit a roadblock recently after developer Péter Szilágyi uncovered a bug that could cause data corruption. However, the issue was quickly resolved by Ethereum developers, who deployed a hotfix that required participants to roll back their updates and test whether things were running smoothly. The Ethereum Foundation is looking to pay considerably higher sums to bug hunters leading up to the Merge.

 

It’s a go! Uniswap Foundation becomes reality after 86M votes in favor

The Uniswap Foundation was voted into existence this week by an overwhelming majority of responses in favor of the move. A decentralized exchange, Uniswap was a hot name during the 2021 crypto bull market that was initially catalyzed by decentralized finance protocols. The privilege of voting on the formation of the Uniswap Foundation required holding UNI, the exchange’s asset. The move to create the foundation tallied over 86 million “yes” votes, far surpassing the 40 million votes in favor required for the motion to pass. Among its activities, the foundation aims to work on the Uniswap project’s governance and hire staff.


Continue reading

Bitcoin reaches 'short squeeze' trigger zone as BTC price nears $20.4K

Bitcoin (BTC) regained some lost ground at the Aug. 29 Wall Street open amid talk of an imminent short squeeze.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Shorts lose out in modest squeeze higher for BTC

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing to near $20,400 on Bitstamp as United States equities began trading.

The move signaled welcome relief for hodlers, who had looked on as the pair dove increasingly below $20,000 during the weekend.

Now, with the market “aggressively short positioned,” conditions appeared to favor a further relief bounce to burn those nursing short trades.

“You know what is next,” popular Twitter account Il Capo of Crypto warned, reinforcing his belief that the bounce would be followed by a deeper retracement.

image
Continue reading

These 3 altcoins have completely ignored the bear market in the last 90 days

The cryptocurrency market overall endured a bad summer on back-to-back pieces of bad news, ranging from Terra's (Luna) —now renamed Terra Classic (LUNC) — collapse to the Celsius Network's liquidity crisis. But some tokens have bucked the downtrend and have actually seen their valuations go up over the summer.

Specifically, the last 90 days have seen these so-called alternative cryptocurrencies, or "altcoins," outperforming top coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Here are three among them:

Chiliz (CHZ)

Chiliz's (CHZ) return in the last 90 days comes to be above 80%, the highest among the top-cap cryptocurrencies. Moreover, CHZ is down only 26% year-to-date compared with BTC and ETH losing 57% and 60%, respectively. 

Cryptocurrency performance (last 90 days). Source: blockchaincenter.net

On the daily chart, CHZ's price reached $0.20 per piece on Aug. 29, and was looking to close the month in profit. Conversely, from a technical perspective, the Chiliz token stares at a potential 55% correction to $0.09 in September, based on the setup shown below.

CHZ/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingView

Originally, the CHZ price rally started amid a rebound witnessed across the crypto market. But ts upside move picked momentum on a flurry of optimistic updates, including a partnership with crypto exchange Huobi Global and a nearly 25% acquisition of FC Barcelona's Barça Studios.

image
Continue reading

Looks bare: OpenSea turns into NFT ghost-town after volume plunges 99% in 90 days

OpenSea, the world's largest nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, has witnessed a substantial drop in daily volumes as fears about a potential market bubble grow.

OpenSea volume plummets to yearly lows

Notably, the marketplace processed nearly $5 million worth of NFT transactions on Aug. 28 — approximately 99% lower than its record high of $405.75 million on May 1, according to DappRadar.

OpenSea users, volume, and transactions statistics. Source: DappRadar

The massive declines in daily volumes coincided with equally drastic drops in OpenSea users and their transactions, suggesting that the value and interest in the blockchain-based collectibles have diminished in the recent months.

That is further visible in the falling floor prices — the minimum amount one is ready to pay for an NFT — of leading digital collectible projects.

For instance, the floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club has dropped by 53% to 72.5 ETH on Aug. 28 versus a high of 153.7 ETH on May 1. 


Continue reading

US dollar hits new 20-year high — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin (BTC) heads into the first week of September on a rocky road downhill after United States markets’ Jackson Hole rout.

After the U.S. Federal Reserve reinforced hawkish comments on the inflation outlook, risk assets sold off across the board, and crypto is still reeling from the aftermath.

A fairly nonvolatile weekend did little to improve the mood, and BTC price action has returned to focus on areas below $20,000.

In so doing, multiple weeks of upside have effectively disappeared, and in turn, traders and analysts expect a retest of the macro lows seen in June this year.

While all is now quiet regarding the Fed until the September rate hike decision, there is still plenty of room for upset as geopolitical uncertainty and inflation persist, the latter still increasing in Europe.

image
Continue reading
Image