Daily Archives: May 20, 2022

Crypto markets remain volatile and a handful of seasoned traders believe that the bearish trend will continue as long as stock markets are chasing new lows.

Most investors would agree that crypto is now in a bear market and the current price action for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) suggests that capitulation and consolidation are a ways away.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that Ether still struggles to reclaim the $2,000 level as support and this zone has been a notable support and resistance since February 2021.

Ether needs a monthly close above $2,250

Insight into the major support level Ether needs to clear by the monthly close to regain a bullish outlook was touched on by market analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Rekt Capital, who posted the following chart indicating the area near $2,269 is a key level.

Rekt Capital said,

“ETH is climbing closer and closer towards the key ~$2,250 level. The main question is whether that monthly level will flip into new resistance once reached.”

Traders target $1,650

The possibility of a breakdown from the current support level was outlined in the following chart posted by crypto trader and pseudonymous Twitter user Crypto Tony, who is “expecting another drop further into the OB” where they are looking to have some orders filled.

Crypto Tony said,

“This move will be needed to engineer liquidity to propel us into the corrective wave. From there we see how it goes.”

Related: ‘Huge testing milestone’ for Ethereum: Ropsten testnet Merge set for June 8

Ether’s head and shoulders structure is complete

A potentially bearish sign appeared with the completion of a head and shoulders pattern on the weekly chart, a point highlighted in the following chart posted by CryptoCharts.

CryptoCharts said,

“With the recent sideways crypto market, we can clearly spot it out as if it’s a bounce or a breakout on the support highlighted. Here on the short-term timeframe, I will be keeping an eye closely to spot the breakout, or reversal breakout on the current support will lead the price towards the next support formed close to $1,300. Any bounce back will be continuing to rise toward $2,450.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) tight correlation with the legacy markets continues to be a drag, especially as the United States equity markets remain in a firm bear trend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track for its eighth consecutive negative week and the S&P 500 is close to plunging into the bear market territory.

Celsius (CEL) CEO Alex Mashinsky believes that the short sellers on Wall Street are looking for any weakness in crypto companies to “short and destroy.” Mashinsky blamed “the Sharks of Wall Street” for bringing down Terra (LUNA) and trying to destabilize Tether (USDT) and Maker (MKR) and “many other companies,” including Celsius.

Bear markets, though painful in the short term, tend to be good buying opportunities for long-term investors. However, it’s important to remember thatwhen the next bull phase starts, not all coins will return to their former glory.

Every bull market generally has a new set of leaders; hence, traders should try to identify the cryptocurrencies that are leading the market rather than buying the laggards. Nic Carter put it nicely when he said that everything will not make a comeback and “some things die permanently.”

Could Bitcoin and altcoins break below their recent lows or will bulls defend the supports successfully? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin rebounded off the strong support at $28,630 on May 19 but the bulls could not push the price above the downtrend line. This suggests that bears have not yet given up and they continue to sell on rallies.

The bears will try to pull the price below $28,630. If they manage to do that, the BTC/USDT pair could drop to the May 20 intraday low at $26,700. This is an important support for the bulls to defend because if they fail to do that, the pair could resume its downtrend. The next support on the downside is $25,000 and then $21,800.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price rebounds off $28,630 and rises above the downtrend line, it will suggest strong accumulation at lower levels. The buyers will then try to push the price to the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) ($32,332). If bulls clear this hurdle, the pair could rise toward the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $34,823.

ETH/USDT

The bears pulled Ether (ETH) below the immediate support at $1,940 on May 18 and 19 but they could not capitalize on this move. The bulls bought the dip but could not push the price to the overhead resistance at $2,159.

Strong selling at higher levels has pulled the price to the uptrend line on May 20. If the ETH/USDT pair breaks below the uptrend line, the decline could extend to the crucial support at $1,700. The bears will have to sink the pair below this level to suggest the start of the next leg of the downtrend.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current level or $1,700, it will suggest buying on dips. The pair will then make one more attempt to clear the overhead hurdle at $2,159. If they manage to do that, it will suggest that the pair may have bottomed out.

BNB/USDT

BNB has been consolidating near the overhead resistance at $320 for the past few days. A tight consolidation near a stiff resistance indicates that bulls are not dumping their positions as they expect the recovery to continue.

If bulls thrust the price above the overhead resistance zone between $320 and the 20-day EMA ($326), it will suggest that the BNB/USDT pair may have bottomed out. The pair could then start its northward journey toward the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) ($381).

Conversely, if the price turns down from the overhead resistance and breaks below $285, it will suggest that the bulls have given up and may be closing their positions. That could pull the pair to $265 and thereafter to the critical support at $211.

XRP/USDT

Ripple (XRP) bounced off the $0.40 to $0.38 support zone on May 19 but the bulls could not clear the overhead resistance at $0.45. This suggests that while bulls are buying on dips, the bears have maintained their selling pressure near overhead resistance levels.

If the price continues lower and breaks below $0.38, the XRP/USDT pair could drop to $0.33. This is an important level to keep an eye on because a break below it could resume the downtrend. The pair could then drop to $0.24.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price rebounds off the support zone once again, the buyers will try to push the pair to $0.50. A break and close above this level will be the first indication that the pair may be bottoming out. The next stop on the upside could be the 50-day SMA ($0.64).

ADA/USDT

The bulls are attempting to defend the $0.50 support in Cardano (ADA) but the bears are in no mood to let go of their advantage and they continue to sell on every minor rally.

If the price slips and sustains below $0.50, the ADA/USDT pair could retest the critical support at $0.40. This is an important level for the bulls to defend because a break below it could signal the resumption of the downtrend. The pair could then drop to $0.33 and thereafter to $0.28.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current level, the buyers will attempt to push the pair above the 20-day EMA ($0.63). If they manage to do that, it will suggest that the selling pressure could be reducing. The pair could then rise to the breakdown level at $0.74.

SOL/USDT

Solana (SOL) is in a strong downtrend. Attempts by the bulls to start a recovery on May 19 failed as bears continue to sell at higher levels. The bears pulled the price back below the psychological level at $50 on May 20.

If the price continues lower, the SOL/USDT pair could drop to $43. This level may act as a strong support but if bears pull the price below it, the next stop could be $37. If this level also cracks, the decline could extend to $32.

On the contrary, if the price turns up sharply from the current level or the support, it will suggest accumulation by the bulls. The buyers will then attempt to push the pair to the 20-day EMA ($64). A break and close above this level could open the doors for a possible rally to $75.

DOGE/USDT

Dogecoin (DOGE) bounced off the immediate support at $0.08 on May 18 but the recovery continues to face selling at higher levels. This suggests that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on every minor rise.

If the price continues lower and breaks below $0.08, the bears will fancy their chances and try to pull the DOGE/USDT pair below the May 12 intraday low at $0.06. If they manage to do that, the next leg of the downtrend could begin and the pair may drop to $0.04.

This negative view could invalidate in the short term if the price turns up from the current level or the support beneath and rises above the psychological resistance at $10. Such a move could open the doors for a recovery to the 50-day SMA ($0.12).

Related: Ethereum preparing a ‘bear trap’ ahead of the Merge — ETH price to $4K next?

DOT/USDT

Polkadot (DOT) slipped below $10.37 on May 18 but the bulls purchased this dip and tried to push the price back above the level on May 19. However, the bears stood their ground and are attempting to flip $10.37 into resistance.

If the price slips below $9.22, the DOT/USDT pair could retest the support zone between $8 and $7.30. The bears will have to sink and sustain the price below this zone to indicate the resumption of the downtrend. The next support on the downside is $5.

Conversely, if the price rebounds off the support levels, the bulls will attempt to push the price to the 20-day EMA ($12). This level may act as a strong resistance but if bulls overcome this barrier, it will suggest that the sellers may be losing their grip. The pair could then attempt a rally to the 50-day SMA ($16).

AVAX/USDT

Avalanche (AVAX) is in a downtrend. The price action of the past few days has formed a pennant, which usually acts as a continuation pattern.

If the price breaks below the support line of the pennant, the AVAX/USDT pair could retest the critical support at $23.51. A break and close below this level could signal the resumption of the downtrend. The pair could drop to $20 and thereafter to $18.

Alternatively, if the price rises from the current level, the buyers will try to push the pair above the pennant. If they manage to do that, the pair could pick up momentum and rise to the 20-day EMA ($42.35). The bulls will have to clear this barrier to challenge the breakdown level at $51.

SHIB/USDT

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been stuck between $0.000010 and $0.000014 for the past few days, indicating indecision among the bulls and the bears. This indicates that bulls are attempting to form a bottom but the bears are not allowing the rebound to sustain.

If the price rises above $0.000014, it will suggest that bulls have absorbed the supply. That could clear the path for a possible rally to $0.000017 where the bears may again pose a strong challenge. The bulls will have to clear this resistance to indicate a potential trend change.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price slips below $0.000010, the pair could drop to the May 12 intraday low at $0.000009. If this support cracks, the decline could extend to $0.000007 and then to $0.000005.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Market data is provided by HitBTC exchange.

Satoshi Nakamoto left a large pair of shoes to fill after releasing the code for Bitcoin (BTC) to the world, helping to establish the network, then vanishing without so much as a trace. 

Over the years, the crypto ecosystem has seen many developers and protocol creators rise in stature to become crypto messiahs for faithful holders who eventually have their best-laid plans end in catastrophe when the protocol is hacked, rugged or abandoned by whimsical developers.

2022 is hardly halfway complete and the year has already seen a particularly bad stretch of good intentions gone awry, which have collectively helped plunge the market into bear-market territory. Here’s a closer look at each of these instances to help provide insight into how similar outcomes can be avoided in the future.

Some developers are anonymous for a reason

Satoshi may have successfully remained anonymous while launching Bitcoin, but in most instances since then, having anonymous developers has turned out to be a red flag.

Many anonymous developers cite personal safety reasons for taking this route. While this is a valid reason in some cases, sometimes anon developers are hiding from previous misdoings or pre-planning to cover their tracks in the case of future offenses.

A flagrant example of this was Squid Game (SQUID), a Netflix-show-inspired memecoin that rallied 45,000% within a few days after launch, only for traders to realize that they were unable to sell the tokens on any exchange.

Investors eventually discovered that all the developers were anonymous and all social media channels were blocked from comments.

The crypto community has grown to be rather distrustful of anonymous developers and this can be seen in the negative reaction to the revelation that the founder of the Azuki nonfungible token (NFT) project was involved with three other NFT projects that were ultimately abandoned, leaving their holders with little to show except worthless jpegs.

Another instance of an anonymous developer going rogue occurred in 2022 when it was revealed that the anonymous Wonderland (TIME) treasury manager @0xSifu turned out to be an alleged financial criminal, along with QuadrigaCX co-founder Michael Patryn.

1/ Today allegations about our team member @0xSifu will circulate. I want everyone to know that I was aware of this and decided that the past of an individual doesn’t determine their future. I choose to value the time we spent together without knowing his past more than anything.

— Daniele never asks to DM (@danielesesta) January 27, 2022

The revelation of this connection resulted in the collapse of several popular projects including Wonderland and Popsicle Finance, while a significant amount of criticism was directed at Abracadabra.Money creator Daniele Sestagalli.

Prior to the @0xSifu revelation, all three protocols were seeing increased adoption, but , each protocol is a mere shadow of its former success.

Having anonymous developers removes accountability from the equation and is increasingly becoming a red flag when dealing with multi-million dollar cryptocurrency protocols.

Beware of cult personalities

Finance is no stranger to cult personalities and crypto is not immune to this phenomenon.

Long-time crypto pundits will recall Roger Ver being called “Bitcoin Jesus” and hileading the charge to fork Bitcoin Core and create Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Billionaire Dan Larimer also comes to mind, and investors will recall his helping EOS (EOS) raise $4 billion during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017 to 2018. In each instance, it was a fervent flock of followers that propelled each project forward.

Neither BCH nor EOS managed to reclaim their all-time highs during the 2021 bull market despite all the hype about their future when first launched. This is possibly because a portion of the hype is centered around the personalities behind the projects.

A more recent example includes the collapse of Fantom ecosystem token prices after decentralized finance (DeFi) developer Andre Cronje deactivated his Twitter account and informed the community that he was leaving the crypto space entirely.

Cronje had become so popular that many people would buy a token just because he was involved, and when he left, many of these investors dumped their holdings, which negatively affected the tokens’ prices.

Previously, Fantom’s brand/marketing was Andre Cronje.
Now we don’t have that identity.
It’s not a suggestion to focus on branding/marketing right now, it’s an absolute neccessity.

— Jack The Oiler (@Jacktheoiler) May 7, 2022

While Cronje was doing what he thought was right and had no ill intentions toward the community, his actions appear to have negatively affected the crypto market due to his popularity within the community and the dedication of his followers.

The main takeaway is to be vigilant when a developer is seen as incapable of doing wrong and remember that cult-like followings can have outcomes that ripple beyond their community.

Related: Court documents reveal Do Kwon dissolved Terraform Labs Korea days before LUNA crash

Decentralization requires involving the community

Another red flag to be on the lookout for ar decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and DeFi protocols that operate in a manner that appears to be more centralized than their name would suggest.

It’s common for many protocols to claim that they are decentralized, yet they rely on centralized service providers like Amazon Web Service to ensure that they function properly.

Due to a major AWS outage, dYdX exchange is currently down. We are experiencing greater latency across services and impaired functionality with endpoints not working and the website not loading.

For the most up to date status updates, subscribe to: https://t.co/EvjpZdRyby

— dYdX (@dYdX) December 7, 2021

Another pertinent example is when a project that claims to offer token holders governance rights makes a major protocol decision without consulting the community for feedback and approval.

The move by Terra (LUNA) to add BTC to its treasury as collateral for the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin made headlines and was lauded by many, but the move was never put to a vote within the Terra community to see what token holders thought.

While there is a good chance that the plan would have been approved and the collapse of Terra still would have occurred, the blame might have fallen more on the community and less on Do Kwon, the project’s leader. It’s also worth mentioning that Do Kown had developed quite the cult following and was frequently insulting a variety of people on Twitter.

One of the main tenets of the cryptocurrency sector is adherence to decentralization and failure to do so often leads to a compromised network and dissatisfied investors.

Want more information about trading and investing in crypto markets?

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Fireblocks, a crypto custody service provider, is expanding its services with the launch of an institutional suite of Web3 services. This suite will allow customers to leverage liquidity from different exchanges, and mint NFTs. The service, which has already onboarded several names in the industry, also includes gaming asset management for blockchain games on Ethereum and other smart contracts-enabled blockchains.

Fireblocks Debuts Web3 Services Offering

Fireblocks, a cryptocurrency custody company, is seeking to expand its suite of services to onboard different kinds of customers. The company announced the release of its new Web3 suite, which will offer new capabilities to customers in the decentralized finance, NFT, and blockchain gaming areas. The objective of this product is to provide institutional-grade services to companies that are developing solutions in these fields.

According to reports, the company has already onboarded several companies to the service, including Animoca Brands, Stardust, MoonPay, Xternity Games, Griffin Gaming, Wirex, Celsius, and Utopia Labs. These partners and others will have access to the liquidity offered in decentralized finance exchanges and NTF markets like OpenSea, Rarible, Uniswap, and Dydx directly.

The suite had some time in development, and the company gave an early peek at these services, adding support for decentralized finance apps on top of the now-defunct Terra blockchain, that at the time was the second largest protocol in terms of assets locked. Now, the full suite offers support for these services on 35 different blockchains, including EVM and non EVM projects.

Expanding to New Fields

While the company already has a massive portfolio of customers, which includes 1,200 different institutions — having secured more than $2.5 trillion in digital assets — the release of these services aims to access a field of customers that Fireblocks would be unable to reach otherwise.

Fireblocks’ CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov declared:

The goal is to essentially bring all the security arsenal and capabilities that we’ve built for empowering financial firms to operate with crypto to this new group of players.

The company had previously remarked on the importance of play-to-earn, one of the fields that this suite seeks to serve, for the future of the gaming industry. In a blog post published on May 4, Fireblocks stated:

The next generation of gaming will likely involve NFTs and crypto on some level – the question is when and how, not if.

What do you think about Fireblocks’ new Web3 suite of products? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Investors continue to trade the LUNA token despite its enormous fall, seeing the coin lose 99% of its value from $62 on May 9 down to less than a cent by May 14. However, on May 20, LUNA remains the most trending cryptocurrency searched on CoinMarketCap.

With a market cap of $918 million, LUNA is trading at $0.00013 per coin. The coin has gained 1% in the last 24 hours and 75% last week.  

Related Reading | Bitcoin Selling Pressure Continues As Long-Term Holder SOPR Spikes Up

It’s worth noting that even though the price of this cryptocurrency had fallen dramatically over the past few days and South Korean officials were looking into penalizing its inventor for $78 million in tax avoidance, we see the coin trending higher than ever before.

The South Korean authorities are investigating why the value of Terra’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, UST lost its peg on May 9. The market for this coin quickly melted down within four days. As a result, the stablecoin lost $18 billion. This affected not only the stablecoin UST but also all networks built upon it, such as LUNA, whose price plummetted from $62 per coin down to a fraction of a penny.

Tax Authorities Fined LUNA Founder For Avoiding Taxes

In order to investigate, both South Korean regulatory bodies, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Financial Services Commission called the local cryptocurrency exchanges to submit the transactions data. 

The information requested from the local exchanges includes trade volumes for LUNA and UST as well the number of investors who have suffered losses because their investments declined during this time period.

On the data request, a local exchange operator, Yonhap, said;

It seems that they collected this information in order to minimize damage to investors in the future.

The Korean National Tax Service has found that Terra’s parent firms have avoided paying corporate and income taxes. The company moved LUNA from its software firm, Terraform Labs, to Singapore’s Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) to avoid paying taxes.

Do Kwon was fined $78 million by the tax department for acquiring and selling $3 billion in Bitcoin LFG. In addition, the Terra inventor could face further fines from the tax department.

The NTS requested that Do Kwon and Daniel Shin pay $100 million in taxes in December. However, the two men declined since their company, Terraform Labs, is domiciled in Singapore. The NTS argues that all of Terraform Lab’s operations are controlled from South Korea, but the two men maintain that their business is conducted primarily in Singapore.

Related Reading | Tether Cuts 17% Of Its Commercial Paper Holdings Over Q1 2022

In addition, only a few days before Terra collapsed, Do Kwon attempted to dissolve Terra’s Korean entities. There is speculation among onlookers about how long before the chain crumbled, Do Kwon had been prepared for Terra’s downfall.

The founder of Terra is being sued by 200,000 people in Korea who invested in either LUNA or UST.

                Featured image from Flickr, and chart from Tradingview.com

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin NUPL metric has now declined to lows not seen since the COVID-19 crash back in 2020.

Bitcoin Net Unrealized Profit And Loss Plunged Down Recently

As explained by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, the NUPL past trend may suggest that current values could be favorable for a rebound in the crypto’s price.

The “net unrealized profit and loss,” or NUPL in brief, is an indicator that’s defined as the difference between the current Bitcoin market cap and its realized cap, divided by the market cap.

The “realized cap” checks what price each coin on the chain was last moved at, and using these prices it calculates the crypto’s capitalization (while the normal market cap takes the sum of all coins’ value at the current price).

What this metric tells us is whether the BTC market participants as a whole are holding a profit or a loss at the moment.

When the value of the ratio is above zero, it means the overall market is in profit currently. On the other hand, values less than zero imply holders are carrying a loss right now.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Selling Pressure Continues As Long-Term Holder SOPR Spikes Up 

Naturally, the metric being exactly equal to zero suggests the investors as a whole are just breaking even currently.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin NUPL metric over the last few years:

It seems like the value of the metric has touched into the green zone recently | Source: CryptoQuant

As you can see in the above graph, the quant has marked the different zones of the Bitcoin NUPL indicator with different colors.

It looks like the ratio has observed some decline recently, and its value has now plunged down into the “green” zone for the first time since the COVID-19 crash.

Related Reading | More Stress For El Salvador As Bitcoin Dips To $29,000

In the history of the crypto, there have been multiple instances where shortly after the indicator has touched into this zone, the price has seen an upwards turn.

However, there is also the example of 2018, where the Bitcoin NUPL kept moving sideways in the green zone for a long while, until finally the value of the coin observed a sharp plummet, taking the market into loss.

It now remains to be seen whether this time the crypto will follow the pattern of a rebound, or if it will show a trend similar to that in 2018.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $30.2k, down 1% in the past week.

Looks like the price of the crypto has been moving sideways around $30k recently | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com

Hacktivist collective Anonymous has allegedly breached the systems of one of the largest financial institutions in Russia, Sberbank. The attackers announced on social media they have published thousands of emails, phone numbers, and addresses.

Anonymous Hackers Reportedly Gain Access to Sberbank Database

Decentralized hacking group Anonymous claims to have hacked Sberbank. A Twitter account associated with the collective, @YourAnonOne, announced the attack earlier this week, noting the institution is the largest bank in the Russian Federation and the region of Eastern Europe.

The #Anonymous collective hacked Sberbank, it is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe.

— Anonymous (@YourAnonOne) May 17, 2022

Moscow-headquartered Sberbank, currently called Sber, is a majority state-owned banking and financial services company with a presence in several European nations, mostly in the post-Soviet space. Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have affected its operations. At the end of February, Sberbank Europe said it was leaving the European market.

A tweet from another account linked to Anonymous detailed that the hackers have acquired and leaked 5,030 emails, addresses, and phone numbers from the compromised database. Sberbank, which reportedly accounts for around a third of all bank assets in Russia, has not yet commented on these claims.

The post redirects to an archive with five Excel files, crypto news outlet Forklog reported on Friday. They contain information about the bank’s free safe deposit boxes as of June 14, 2016, a register of property and partner appraisers, a list of the types of traded futures contracts, and a blank template of a certificate of property status and current obligations.

Shortly after the Russian armed forces crossed the Ukrainian border in late February, Anonymous declared a cyberwar on Russia, vowing to disrupt the country’s internet. It has since targeted the websites of the Kremlin, the State Duma, and the Ministry of Defense, attacked Russian TV channels, and released millions of leaked emails.

In March, the hacktivist collective said it has published 28GB of documents belonging to the Central Bank of Russia, including some of the monetary authority’s “secret agreements.” In early May, the Anonymous-affiliated hacking group Network Battalion 65 (NB65) announced it hit the popular Russian payment processor Qiwi.

Do you think Anonymous will continue to attack Russian targets? Share your expectations in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.