Category: Crypto News

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Silver Lake CEO: 90% of Criminals Prefer Dollars, Not Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies are now a major topic of the Davos 2021 Agenda, which started yesterday and will last until January 29. Top institutional leaders from the World Economic Forum are set to discuss a series of issues regarding the global economy and the use of digital assets and blockchain technology. During the conversation panel, the CEO of Silver Lake addressed Janet Yellen’s statements on Bitcoin used as “terrorist financing“.

In the first session of the Davos 2021 event, Glenn Hutchins —CEO of the technology investment company Silver Lake— share his thoughts on the topic of cryptocurrencies, referring to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s statements about Bitcoin:

“In the US, 80-90% of $100 dollar bills are used for organised crime and tax evasion and there’s a very good reason for that – they’re untraceable and fungible. Bitcoin, however, leaves a permanent, unalterable record, hence why almost all criminals using it are caught. It is fundamentally wrong to say that Bitcoin is mostly used for crime.”

Stated Hutchins for Finextra at the Davos Summit

Institutions Are “Ignorant” to Blockchain Technology

Hutchins added that traditional financial institutions are overlooking digital assets and blockchain technology without weighing the benefits they can provide for the economy. The CEO stated that this view over Bitcoin and other cryptos is ignorant and it undermines the benefits that the blockchain network can bring to the financial system.

Janet Yellen’s speech regarding cryptocurrencies was multiform, as she considers them as a “particular concern” to the economy — leading to illegal activities such as financing terrorism and tax evasion. But it seems that the Secretary also has a good view of cryptos, calling the benefits they can bring to the economy.

However, under the Biden Administration, the Secretary plans to curtail the use of cryptocurrencies, exploring “new methods” to regulate and, ultimately, eliminating those “crime channels”.

The Outrage Of The Crypto Community

Not surprisingly, this sparked outrage from the crypto-community, pumping fear during trading sessions as well at the end of last week.

According to data from Chainalysis, cryptocurrency use amid terrorist organizations only accounted for 0.34 in the market. Not only U.S. Dollars account for most illicit activities, but at least 16 banks from Australia and Southeast Asia were accused of laundering at least $400,000,000 in a joint scheme with South American drug cartels.

Following Hutchins’s statements, Bitcoin only gained a few pips, but the charts show that we still are in a consolidation zone, while other DeFi tokens are outperforming BTC in the market.

BTC/USD chart
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Crypto News Market Analysis Trading

Elrond Breakout Analysis – EGLD Pumps +34% in a Single Day with Active Uptrend

Elrond EGLD is trading in uptrend here like many other altcoins. The Cryptocurrency EGLD just went up +34% in a single day by breaking a Rising wedge pattern with strong buying volume and surges over +52% in a week.

What is Elrond?

Elrond is a blockchain protocol that seeks to offer extremely fast transaction speeds by using sharding. The project describes itself as a technology ecosystem for the new internet, which includes fintech, decentralized finance, and the Internet of Things. Its smart contracts execution platform is reportedly capable of 15,000 transactions per second, six-second latency, and a $0.001 transaction cost.

Elrond Quick Stats

SYMBOL:EGLD
Global rank:48
Market cap:$1,104,958,674 AUD
Current price:$64 AUD
All time high price:$80 AUD
1 day:+34.38%
7 day:+52.96%
1 year:+127.81%

Elrond Price Analysis

At the time of writing, EGLD is ranked 48th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $64 AUD. This is a +52.96% increase since 19th January 2021 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

After looking at the above 4-hour candle chart, we can clearly see that EGLD was trading inside the Rising wedge pattern on the EGLD/USDT pair. The first resistance was on the $45.05 AUD price levels which EGLD broke with a strong bullish trend buying volume and is now heading towards the next all-time high price. Seeing that many altcoins are waking up bullish this week, EGLD is likely to continue to increase in the uptrend.

“The Rising Wedge is a bearish pattern that begins wide at the bottom and contracts as prices move higher and the trading range narrows. In contrast to symmetrical triangles, which have no definitive slope and no bullish or bearish bias, rising wedges definitely slope up and have a bearish bias.”

Source: TradingView

What do the Technical indicators say?

The EGLD TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate EGLD as a buy, except the Oscillators which indicate EGLD as a neutral.

So Why did EGLD Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +300% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout. Another reason for this sudden pump in price could be the whales secretly buying EGLD for the next Altcoins rally & it could also be contributed to some of the recent news of Smart Chain Integration.

Recent EGLD News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade EGLD?

Elrond has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading EGLD/BTC or EGLD/USDT pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

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Crypto News Market Analysis Trading Verge

Altcoins Trading Analysis – 3 Coins that Might Breakout this Week: AVAX, EGLD, XVG

For today’s trading news, we’re looking at three Altcoins that might breakout this week by showing bullish trends in the charts.

1. Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is an umbrella platform for launching decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, financial assets, trading, and other services.

It aims to be something of a global assets exchange, allowing anyone to launch or trade any form of asset and control it in a decentralized manner using smart contracts and other cutting-edge technologies.

AVAX Price Analysis

At the time of writing, AVAX is ranked 44th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $15.09 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

January saw a nearly +430% rise in AVAX’s price, but the bulls might have more room to run.

Last week, the price ran into resistance at $13.69 AUD before sweeping lows and dropping near the four-hour chart’s 62% retracement level near $11.70 AUD.

This move created potential support beginning near $11.32 AUD, with a lower time frame support possibly forming at $12.28 AUD to give aggressive bulls an entry.

The highs near $15 AUD and $15.69 AUD provide two first probable targets. If the support beginning near $10.89 AUD continues to hold, bulls could use this retracement’s extensions to anticipate take-profit zones near $20.81 AUD and $26.93 AUD. The extensions near $18.85 AUD, $24.97AUD, and $28.58 AUD are also likely to provide intermediate-term targets.

2. Elrond (EGLD)

Elrond is a blockchain protocol that seeks to offer extremely fast transaction speeds by using sharding. The project describes itself as a technology ecosystem for the new internet, which includes fintech, decentralized finance, and the Internet of Things. Its smart contracts execution platform is reportedly capable of 15,000 transactions per second, six-second latency, and a $0.001 transaction cost.

EGLD Price Analysis

At the time of writing, EGLD is ranked 48th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $61.09 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

EGLD has been in a strong bull trend since the beginning of Q4 2020, giving bottom-buyers nearly +660% returns to date.

This Monday, the price broke out from the accumulation range high at $60 AUD after sweeping lows near $45.64 AUD, potentially signaling the start of the next significant move upward.

Bulls could wait for a retracement near probable support beginning at $48.90 AUD, with the daily gap’s midpoint near $39.72 AUD providing a higher risk-reward entry. The relatively equal daily lows near $35 AUD could also attract a stop run, providing an attractive entry area in the broad support region between $36.34 AUD and $31.67 AUD.

The extensions near $68.35 AUD and $74.70 AUD provide probable targets, with the minor extensions near $86.47 AUD, and $98.46 AUD providing intermediate take-profit zones.

3. Verge (XVG)

Verge is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency and blockchain that seeks to offer a fast, efficient, decentralized payments network that improves upon the original Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. It includes additional privacy features including integrating the anonymity network Tor into its wallet, called vergePay, and providing the option of sending transactions to stealth addresses.

XVG Price Analysis

At the time of writing, XVG is ranked 96th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.0154 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

XVG’s +172% January rally has retraced to the move’s 70.5% retracement before spending the second half of the month accumulating above support beginning near $0.01 AUD.

Last week’s dip to retest the 70.5% retracement created potential support near $0.0117 AUD, with the early part of this week testing the weekly level at $0.0122 AUD as support. A quick dip in this region could give bulls an excellent entry targeting the first probable resistance at $0.0165 AUD.

A break of this level might run to the resistance and last swing high at $0.0182 AUD. If the swing high breaks, monthly highs at $0.0202 AUD and $0.0284 AUD provide the next likely targets. Beyond $0.0284 AUD, the price could see a parabolic move to the next monthly high near $0.0437 AUD.

Traders taking regular profits could use the extensions at $0.0271 AUD, $0.0371 AUD, and $0.0407 AUD for probable intermediate resistance zones.

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Crypto News Market Analysis Trading

Sandbox Breakout Analysis – Parabolic Breakout on SAND with +115% Gains in a Single Day

The Sandbox SAND just pumped up to +115% in a single day with a strong breakout on Binance & other Exchanges. Let’s take a quick look at the SAND price analysis and possible reasons for the recent breakout.

What is Sandbox?

The Sandbox claims to be a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain using SAND, the platform’s utility token. It is claimed that players can create digital assets (Non-Fungible Tokens, aka NFTs), upload them to the marketplace, and drag-and-drop them to create game experiences with The Sandbox Game Maker. It is further claimed that The Sandbox has secured over 50 partnerships including Atari, Crypto Kitties, and Shaun the Sheep to build a fun, creative “play-to-earn” Gaming platform, owned and made by players. The Sandbox aims to bring blockchain into mainstream gaming, attracting both crypto and non-crypto game enthusiasts by offering the advantages of true-ownership, digital scarcity, monetization capabilities, and interoperability.

SAND Quick Stats

SYMBOL:SAND
Global rank:252
Market cap:$106,223,142 AUD
Current price:$0.1364 AUD
All time high price:$0.1902 AUD
1 day:+115.84%
7 day:+163.12%
1 year:+184.27%

SAND Price Analysis

At the time of writing, SAND is ranked 252nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.1364 AUD. This is a +163.12% increase since 16th January 2021 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

If we see the above 1-day candle chart, SAND did a strong parabolic breakout from the falling wedge pattern while trading sideways from the last few days around $0.0624 AUD price levels & is now heading towards its previous major resistance which is $0.1578 AUD. After BTC made a slight correction in its price this week and few Altcoins are also following this downtrend but, SAND looks well-positioned to hit the next high price levels with strong buying volume.

“The Falling Wedge is a bullish pattern that begins wide at the top and contracts as prices move lower. This price action forms a cone that slopes down as the reaction highs and reaction lows converge.”

Source: TradingView

What do the technical indicators say?

The Sandbox TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate SAND as a buy, except the Oscillators which indicate SAND as a sell.

So Why did SAND Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +300% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout. Another reason for this sudden pump in price could be the whales secretly buying SAND for the next Altcoins rally & it could also be contributed to some of the recent news of the 2021 Ambassador Program.

Recent SAND News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade SAND?

The Sandbox SAND has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading SAND/USDT, SAND/BTC, or SAND/ETH pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

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Australia Crypto News Kraken

Kraken Targets Australia, UK Market with 26 new Trading Pairs

Kraken Targets Australia, UK Market with 26 new Trading Pairs

One of the largest United States cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, announced on Thursday, the single-largest expansion of its crypto-to-fiat currency trading pairs primarily for crypto users and traders in Australia and the United Kingdom. 

More like a reason, the exchange mentioned that both countries have “substantial upside potential.” Hence, Kraken intends to expand its presence in both markets through the new cryptocurrency trading pairs for the Australian dollar (AUD) and the British pound (GBP). 

The US exchange added a total of 26 direct trading pairs, 13 pairs each for the AUD and GBP. According to the announcement, there has been an increased trading activity on the exchange from Aussie and UK users. So, Kraken is apparently launching more trading pairs to capture more trades from the markets.

In addition to expanding the number of tradable coins available in AUD and GBP, these pairs make it easy for the users to enter and exit the market.

Aussie Market is Becoming Attractive

The supported coins for the Australian dollar include popularly-traded cryptos like Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), DeFi token Aave (AAVE), Cardano (ADA), etc. “The cryptocurrency space isn’t just about Bitcoin, and it isn’t just about the US dollar,” the managing director of Kraken’s Europe operation, Curtis Ting, commented.

Despite the smaller available pairs, Australia became one of the fastest-growing markets in Kraken after the exchange allowed AUD funding last year, likewise the UK.

“By expanding AUD and GBP markets into a far greater number of digital assets, Kraken is doubling down on its commitment to ensuring all clients globally can more seamlessly interact with any number of the cryptocurrencies available on our exchange,” Ting added.

It’s no doubt that the Australian crypto market is growing rapidly. On Wednesday, Crypto News Australia reported that Swyftx, one of the leading Aussie crypto exchanges recorded a massive growth in users over the past year. Also, Binance Australia recorded about 400 percent growth in the number of users since that last quarter of 2020. 

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Australia Crypto News

Australian Micro-investing Platform, Raiz Plans to Allocate Investments to Bitcoin

Australian Micro-investing Platform, Raiz Plans to Allocate Investments to Bitcoin

A micro-investing platform based in Australia, Raiz Invest, has launched its seventh investment portfolio, that will allow the customers to gain exposure to Bitcoin, which skyrocketed in price since December. Basically, the investment platform will allocate a small portion of its clients’ funds on the new portfolio to the cryptocurrency. Raiz mentioned that the customers had highly requested the new offering, despite that investment in digital currencies are deemed to be risky.

Raiz will Allocate 5% of Sapphire Funds to Bitcoin

The new investment portfolio dubbed “Sapphire” has been under development for the past 18 months, according to the company. Investors that choose Sapphire will have five percent of their capital allocated to Bitcoin, while the remaining funds will be distributed to other investible instruments like large-cap stocks, including the Australian corporate debt and money markets. Raiz will allocate the funds to these investment options through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In accordance to George Lucas, the CEO of Raiz, the suggested minimum investment timeframe for the crypto investment is over five years.

“Although this latest portfolio offering from Raiz is very high risk, feedback from many customers has clearly shown that they have an appetite for an investment strategy that has an exposure to cryptocurrencies, and the Sapphire portfolio has been designed with this in mind,” Lucas said. “The investment objective of the Sapphire portfolio is to provide exposure to Bitcoin in a managed, risk-adjusted way.”

More Financial Advisers will Allocate to Bitcoin

Investments in cryptocurrency are becoming attractive to investors, and many financial advisors are looking to start allocating to crypto-assets. This is evident following a recent oversee (United States) survey, which showed that nearly 50 percent of financial advisors allocated to Bitcoin last year – out of almost 1,000 advisors surveyed. Some of the respondents don’t recommend allocating to the cryptocurrency. However, a good number of them said they would do so this year.

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Australia Blockchain Crypto News

HashCash to Help Aussie Enterprise Settle Cross-border Payments on Blockchain

HashCash to Help Aussie Enterprise Settle Cross-border Payments on Blockchain

A blockchain consultant company, HashCash, has reportedly partnered with an Australian enterprise to assist them in settling cross-border transactions in real-time.

The information from Yahoo Finance didn’t specify the Australian company. However, the enterprise will reportedly leverage the HashCash blockchain network as part of the partnership, to process such transactions.

Blockchain, which is the technology behind cryptocurrencies, has been proven useful in settlement of cross-border payments. This can be seen as another important use case for blockchain in play.

Cross-border Payments on Blockchain

Per the report, the ultimate objective for the partnership is to enable the Australian enterprise to transfer funds to other enterprises or individuals globally and also in a seamless manner. Additionally, HashCash did mention that customers from the Australian enterprise will receive its native digital currency – known as HCX – for making transactions to other parties across the border.

This will enable the company to meet its customer’s needs and requirements in real-time.

“HashCash’s HC NET helps empower the enterprise by bringing all of their important operations on a single distribution platform through this partnership. Other than that, our products and services help create a competitive edge over others for customers all around Australia,” said Raj Chowdhury, the CEO of HashCash Consultants.

Australia Gaming Sector Embraces Blockchain

HashCash is one of the leading blockchain development companies with an office in Australia.

Lately, the blockchain company partnered with an undisclosed game development company in Australia to debut a white-label digital currency exchange, as well as a tokenization platform targeted at the gaming sector.

The development was viewed as an innovative step for the gaming sector, as it will allow game developers to monetize their services by creating blockchain-based micropayment channels for streamers, viewers, as well as content producers.

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Australia Coinjar Crypto News

Aussie Exchange, CoinJar Debuts Recurring Buys for Dollar Cost Averaging

Aussie Exchange, CoinJar Debuts Recurring Buys for Dollar Cost Averaging

Investing in cryptocurrencies has become easier and more convenient than it was over the past years. One of the leading Australian exchanges, CoinJar, has launched a “recurring buy” function on its platform, which will allow Australian crypto investors to purchase their favorite digital currencies through the “dollar cost averaging” or DCA approach. This is an ideal investment strategy for buying cryptocurrencies, especially when the market is ranging or trending in a bearish condition.

CoinJar now Supports DCA Strategy

The recurring buy is a DCA investment approach that allows investors to purchase a particular amount of a cryptocurrency more than once within an extended period of time. The dollar-cost averaging strategy is currently supported on CoinJar Bundles Recurring Buys, according to the announcement on Monday. Users can choose to set up recurring buys on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis through the CoinJar iOS or Android app.

The service is currently available for the exchange’s Australian users only. CoinJar noted that the service would be rolled out for the customers in the United Kingdom (UK) soon.

DCA explained

Dollar-cost averaging is a popular strategy used by many players in the cryptocurrency market. Using this strategy, an investor would divide the total amount of money he/she wants to invest in either Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), or other cryptocurrencies. Rather than once, the divided funds will be periodically invested in the chosen cryptocurrency to reduce the impact of the asset volatility on entire purchases made.

Basically, this strategy helps investors to avoid buying cryptocurrencies at the top. However, this investment strategy may not be ideal when the market enters an uptrend. The price of the cryptocurrency will continue to go higher during uptrends; hence, using DCA will only fetch you the cryptos at a higher rate – except you decide to wait until the market calms.

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Crypto News Ethereum

Open Interest in Ether Futures Soars as Price Reached New ATH

Ether new ATH Shoots up DeFi and Ethereum 2.0 Valuation

January 19 will forever be remembered by Ethereum bulls as the day Ether (ETH) surpassed its previous all-time high in 2018. The second-largest cryptocurrency has been on the rise since December last year, raising hopes that the cryptocurrency is going to make a new high soon. This remained a prediction until today, where Ether reached a new high at over US$1,437 across different digital currency exchanges.

The new high brought the crypto’s market capitalization to over US$160 billion. Amid the crypto surge, there’s also a rush in the Ether futures market, as open interest has risen to a new record level as well.

Ether Futures Sets new ATH

There is currently about US$4.61 billion open interest in Ether, according to the market data from ByBt. Over the past 24 hours, the open interest surged by 34 percent. The leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, dominates the ETH futures market with a total valuation of US$1.13 billion open interest. Huobi follows Binance exchange with US$694.55 million open interest in Ethereum.

Other derivative exchanges with a sizable amount of open interest include OKEx (US$691.4 million), Bybit (US$663.78 million), and FTX exchange (US$631.27 million). Bitfinex, BitMEX, Deribit, Kraken, and Gate have a combined valuation of US$794.9 million open interest in Ether futures.

Demand for ETH is Rising

There is a steadily growing demand for the second-largest digital currency, which is probably one of the factors contributing to the price increase. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) activities are gradually peaking up, causing more coins to leave the centralized exchanges (CEXs). Just before ETH’s new ATH, Messari researcher Ryan Watkins reported that the daily transaction volume on Ethereum had increased significantly, to the extent it surpasses Bitcoin transaction volume.

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Crypto News DeFi Tokens

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) tokens are back on the rise

After surging over the summer and crashing in September 2020, decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens are back on the rise. Since December 1st 2020 Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), Synthetix (SNX), MakerDAO (MKR), SushiSwap (SUSHI), and Curve (CRV) have all outperformed ETH and BTC. 

Source: CoinMetrics.io

DeFi development has been progressing rapidly since Q4 2020. Synthetic recently announced the initial steps of an integration with the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM), a new solution to help with scalability and reduce Ethereum transaction fees. Yearn.finance (YFI) is working on V2 of their platform and recently released an updated version of their vaults. And the Uniswap team is hard at work on Uniswap V3, which is rumored to improve slippage and potentially address high transaction fees. Uniswap trading volume has surged in early 2021 (as seen in the below chart) to similar levels as September 2020.