The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) this week announced it had surpassed a milestone of one million domain names created, with the news triggering an 86 percent value surge for the ENS token:
The Ethereum Name Service is helping to provide a smooth transition from Web2 to Web3, with its latest milestone clearly demonstrating its impact. A spike in registrations over the past 30 days has also had a knock-on effect on the ENS token:
The demand for three- and four-digit domain names is up and likely related to the NFT communityâs new interests. These shorter domain names can also be used as the ownerâs crypto address, instead of the random and more unwieldy alphanumeric combination.
Likely contributing to the spike is the fact that ENSâs protocol revenue rise has permitted the company to increase the funds available to its DAO. This, plus record registrations for April, contributed to the ENS token’s massive value surge.
Other Registered ETH Domains
Last August, American beer brand Budweiser dived into crypto and purchased the beer.eth domain name for 30 ETH. Adding Budweiserâs purchase of a Rocket Factory NFT for 8 ETH, the total venture was worth the equivalent of US$120,000.
More recently, Puma renamed itself puma.eth on Twitter and purchased several cat-related NFTs. These purchases can only mean there are more future crypto partnerships in the making.
Letâs take a closer look at todayâs altcoins showing breakout signals. Weâll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.
1. Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin LTC is a cryptocurrency designed to provide fast, secure and low-cost payments by leveraging the unique properties of blockchain technology. The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times, and a few other factors. Litecoin has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees, making it suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.
LTC Price Analysis
At the time of writing, LTC is ranked the 22nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$102.67. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
After setting a low last month, LTC kicked off a recovery trend that gained nearly 23% to break the weekly highs.
The following 55% plummet found support near $96.36, sweeping under the 40 EMA into the 61.8% retracement level before bouncing to resistance beginning at $110.53.
This area could continue to provide resistance, possibly causing a retracement to the 9 EMA and 18 EMA near $120.12, where aggressive bulls might begin bidding. The level near $133.98, which has confluence with the 40 EMA, may see more interest from bulls loading up for an attempt on probable resistance beginning near $149.13.
However, if Bitcoin continues its sideways trend, much lower prices could be seen. The old support near $96.18 could provide at least a short-term bounce. If this level fails, the old monthly lows near $89.23 might also give support and see the start of a new bullish cycle after retesting these support levels.
2. Algorand (ALGO)
The Algorand ALGO blockchain is a permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. Unlike Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains, where the root block must be validated by randomly selected validators (using computing power), in the pure proof-of-stake approach all of the validators are known to one another and only have to agree on the next block in order to create a new block. Algorand was invented to speed up transactions and improve efficiency in response to the slow transaction times of Bitcoin and other blockchains.
ALGO Price Analysis
At the time of writing, ALGO is ranked the 30th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.6615. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
After creating a second equal low during last month, ALGO gained nearly 20% into resistance that starts near $0.7522.
Swing traders looking for a continuation to the nearest cluster of relatively equal highs around $0.8412 might look for bids near $0.9036. More significant resistance rests above, near $0.9815. A group of significant swing highs at $1.10 and $1.16 give possible targets if this resistance breaks.
A stop run on the recent low at $0.6533 into possible support beginning near $0.6130 might see stronger bidding. This area also has a confluence with the recent monthly lows.
3. Alpha Finance (ALPHA)
Alpha Finance Lab ALPHA is a cross-chain DeFi platform that looks to bring Alpha to users across a variety of different blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum. The platform aims to produce an ecosystem of DeFi products that address unmet needs in the industry while remaining simple to use and access. ALPHA is the native utility token of the platform. Token holders can earn a share of network fees by staking ALPHA tokens to cover any default loans. Other use cases for the token include liquidity mining and governance voting.
ALPHA Price Analysis
At the time of writing, ALPHA is ranked the 306th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.2847. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
ALPHA‘s 60% rally from its Q1 lows met resistance near $0.5995, before creating a new range for Q2.
After a bearish flip of the 9, 18 and 40 EMAs, the price broke below $0.4310. This area, which has confluence with multiple swing lows and the February monthly open, may provide resistance on any future retest.
The price might find support near $0.3045 to $0.2549 if the overall marketâs conditions turn more bullish. This zone has confluence with the 61.8% to 78.6% retracements and accumulation zone for Q1âs rally.
Suppose the price does rally through the probable resistance near Decemberâs open. In that case, the January swing highs and above, near $0.4561, could provide resistance again. A shift back to more bullish market conditions could push the price to the 50% extension of the summerâs swing, near $0.5034.
These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if youâre looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.
Following the lead of major league baseball, basketball and various football codes, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour is on the verge of launching NFT programs in concert with digital platforms Sorare and Autograph.
In a deal yet to be finalised, players stand to earn revenue based on the sales performance of NFTs using their name, image and likeness (NIL).
Autograph was co-founded last year by American football player Tom Brady as a platform for athletes and celebrities to market branded NFT collections, with former golf superstar Tiger Woods – among other sports celebrities – an equity holder and board adviser.
PGA Shoots for Fantasy Sports Par
Until now, Sorare has focused on soccer and acquired NFT video partnerships with major associations in Europe and the US. However, its main product is a digital fantasy sports game based on NFTs.
A deal with the PGA Tour for fantasy trading cards could lead to Sorare expanding into other sports. One of those is tennis, and to that end the company has signed multiple grand slam winner Serena Williams as an adviser.
Golf Perceived as ‘Crypto-Friendly’
With its appeal to a wealthy audience, golf is one of the more crypto-friendly sports. Market research shows that 37 percent of PGA Tour fans own crypto, compared to 32 and 27 percent of NBA and NFL followers, respectively. Another indicator is that golf startup LinksDAO raised US$11 million earlier this year to build a course.
Unlike team sports, the PGA needs only athletesâ individual approval to use their NIL. Golfers will have to âsign upâ for Sorare to mint their trading cards or for Autograph to sell NFTs featuring their highlights packages.
NFT Royalties Tied to Performance
PGA Tour golfers who opt in will earn a lump sum based on their performance at the previous yearâs FedEx Cup, the sport’s season-long points competition. Additionally, they will earn pro-rata royalty payments based on the market performance of their respective NFTs and trading cards. Golfers can still launch their own NFT collections, but they will not be allowed to use Tour-licensed images.
Persistent and well-funded ESG (environment, social and governance) criticism of Bitcoin has led to the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) issuing a stinging letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):
Setting the Record Straight
Over 50 signatories, including Jack Dorsey and Michael Saylor, have endorsed a letter from the BMC responding to an April 20 letter co-signed by 20 House representatives arguing for increased regulation over Bitcoin and proof-of-work consensus mechanisms.
The BMC, established last year, carefully proceeded to respond to several of what it termed “misconceptions”, outlined in the original letter of complaint.
The first was that “bitcoin mining facilities across the country are polluting communities and are having an outsized contribution to greenhouse gas emissions”. BMC responded by pointing out that the authors were confusing data centres and power generation facilities:
Emissions are created at the power generation source upstream from the data centres. Digital asset miners simply purchase electricity from the grid, the same as Microsoft and other data-centre operators. Data centres engaged in the industrial-scale mining of digital assets do not emit CO2 or any other pollutants, like other industrial facilities do; they are merely server farms engaged in computation.
BMC letter
BMC Survey: 58.4% of BTC Mining Sustainable
Regarding the “outsized” contribution reference, BMC noted that its recent survey found 58.4 percent of global bitcoin mining was sustainable, notably higher than the average industrial sustainable energy usage in the US, which is at 21 percent. As reported by Crypto News Australia earlier this year, BTC mining emissions have been found by others to be “inconsequential”.
Another accusation in the letter stated that “a single Bitcoin transaction could power the average US household for a month”. In response, the BMC said the claim was “patently and provably false” as Bitcoin transactions do not carry an “energy payload”:
Broadcasting a transaction requires no more energy than a tweet or a Google search.
BMC letter
It isn’t the transactions that consume energy, it’s the energy consumed by miners competing for issuance and fees, which by design are drastically falling given that 90 percent of BTC supply has already been issued.
After outlining the Lightning Network’s ability to scale BTC payments, BMC concluded that “it therefore makes no sense to associate energy consumption with individual transactions, since Bitcoinâs energy usage is not related to transactions, and Bitcoin can scale arbitrarily without increasing its transaction count or energy usage”.
PoW vs PoS: Unfair Comparison
Finally, the BMC letter went into painstaking detail as to the difference between proof-of-work versus so-called “environmentally friendly” proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms. The latter, it suggests, “should be understood as an industry term for a shareholder-governed financial consortium” and is “wholly taxonomically different, with different objectives and capabilities”. BMC concluded that it was highly misleading to compare the energy use of both:
Across a long enough timescale, facts usually triumph over ignorance. In this case, it seems inevitable despite the best efforts of some who appear to prefer repeating one refuted claim after another.
Letâs take a closer look at todayâs altcoins showing breakout signals. Weâll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.
1. Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot DOT is an open-source sharding multichain protocol that facilitates the cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens, thereby making a wide range of blockchains interoperable with each other. Polkadotâs native DOT token serves three clear purposes: providing network governance and operations, and creating parachains by bonding. The Polkadot protocol connects public and private chains, permissionless networks, oracles and future technologies, allowing these independent blockchains to trustlessly share information and transactions through the Polkadot relay chain.
DOT Price Analysis
At the time of writing, DOT is ranked the 14th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$14.91. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
DOT has retraced nearly 62% during Q1, showing little sign of interest from buyers.
April’s consolidation at possible support from $15.68 to $19.57 broke down with the rest of the market last month, turning this into likely resistance on future retests. This area now has confluence with the 9 and 18 EMAs.
If market conditions turn and this resistance breaks, an area near the midpoint of Januaryâs consolidation range, near $22.70, and the monthly high near $26.88 may see profit-taking from bulls.
The first test of possible support near $14.80 showed some sensitivity. Still, continued bearishness in the market will likely cause a break of this level.
A break of this support might continue to drop to the next possible support near $14.10, running stops under the Q3 2021 swing low. If this level gives support and begins a consolidation forming a bottom, bulls might wait for a wick below to possible support from $13.55 to $12.37.
2. Tron (TRX)
Tron TRX is a blockchain-based operating system that aims to ensure this technology is suitable for daily use. Whereas Bitcoin can handle up to six transactions per second, and Ethereum up to 25, TRON claims that its network has a capacity for 2,000 TPS. This project is best described as a decentralised platform focused on content sharing and entertainment, and to this end, one of its biggest acquisitions was the file-sharing service BitTorrent in 2018. Overall, TRON has divided its goals into six phases. These include delivering simple distributed file sharing, driving content creation through financial rewards.
TRX Price Analysis
At the time of writing, TRX is ranked the 20th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.07217. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
TRX accompanied the rest of the market during the January drop, falling nearly 60% from its mid-December high until it found a low in March.
Price action formed a weekly support level near $0.06054, which has so far held up the price. The most recent swing low inside this range, near $0.05829, might be the target for any future stop runs. After this low, the swing low near $0.05589 and the gap beginning near $0.05326 mark possible higher-timeframe support.
The price is currently battling with significant higher-timeframe resistance levels, with the closest probable resistance resting near $0.07592, just over the previous monthly open. A sweep of the relatively equal highs above this resistance might find sellers near $0.07835, but could reach as high as $0.08637.
3. Crypto Coin (CRO)
Crypto.com coin CRO is the native cryptocurrency token of Crypto.com Chain, a decentralised, open-source blockchain developed by the Crypto.com payment, trading and financial services company. Crypto.com Chain is one of the products in Crypto.comâs lineup of solutions designed to accelerate the global adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of increasing personal control over money, safeguarding user data, and protecting usersâ identities. The CRO blockchain serves primarily as a vehicle that powers the Crypto.com Pay mobile payments app.
CRO Price Analysis
At the time of writing, CRO is ranked the 22nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.2877. Letâs take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
CRO went parabolic during November, reaching nearly 115% percent within a few days as it blasted through its old all-time high.
This fast move left little compelling higher-timeframe support near the current price. A level near $0.2522, which has confluence with the 8 EMA and 127% extension of H2 2021âs swing, could provide support.
Further below, near $0.2291, 2021âs previous monthly high could also provide some support on a retest. The last consolidation before the breakout, near Decemberâs open, might give the most substantial support. However, this would require significant retracement from the current price point.
While next targets are impossible to predict, extensions from H1 2021âs move suggest that the 40% extension, near $0.3675, could provide some resistance. Above this level, the 48% extension near $0.4348 could also trigger bulls to take profits.
These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if youâre looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.
The beginning of May has seen a nearly seven-hour Solana crash, believed to be the result of a bot attack that targeted the companyâs NFT minting tool âCandy Machineâ and has left users questioning the competence of the blockchain:
Candy Machine Suffers Sugar Hit
A tidal wave of traffic slammed Solanaâs âCandy Machineâ on April 30. The bots responsible caused four million transaction requests, totalling 100 gigabits of data per second and setting a record for the platform, which could not keep up.
Later that night, the validator operators performed a cluster restart of its Mainnet Beta network. However, it wasnât fast enough to stop the criticism that echoed around social media from Solana users and onlookers:
Solanaâs plans to combat these crashes involve a botting penalty that is soon set to deploy to the program. It will only be the beginning of a broader effort but should work to stabilise the network, hopefully preventing similar issues in the future and stopping Solana from, negatively, being the talk of the town:
Not Solana’s First Outage
Solana has quite the track record of network outages. Notably, on January 4 the network was temporarily down due to a DDoS attack, causing huge transaction delays. Shockingly, this was followed by a second crash within the same week, believed to be a knock-on effect of the first attack.
Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) series, has witnessed US$561 million in Otherside NFT sales within a matter of 24 hours. The craze led to the crash of Etherscan, and Ethereum gas fees blew out to thousands of dollars per transaction.
The highly anticipated Otherside metaverse mint on April 30 clogged the Ethereum mainnet, catapulting gas fees to shocking new heights. In less than a day, Yuga Labs generated most of its sales from just the Othersideâs âOtherdeedâ NFT, intended as âthe key to claiming land in Othersideâ, Yugaâs upcoming metaverse game.
A total of 55,000 NFTs were minted at 305 APE each, which translates to about US$5,800 per Otherdeed, given Apecoinâs price at the time of the mint. From this mint alone, Yuga Labs raked in over US$318.7 million.
According to data from CryptoSlam, Otherdeed has already seen over US$242 million in secondary volume traded, and US$190 million of that was on OpenSea. APE pumped 55 percent last month following rumours of a land drop going viral.
High Demand Causes Etherscan Crash
Given the high number of NFTs and higher demand, the Otherdeed mint immediately caused a massive surge in Ethereum gas fees. Traffic on block explorer Etherscan also led to the site crashing. Gas wars, such as experienced in this mint, can occur on proof-of-work chains such as Ethereum when a sudden increase in demand for fast transactions clogs a network, sending fees soaring:
Gas fees on Ethereum saw extreme spikes up to thousands of dollars per transaction. While some were able to get their transactions processed within a few hours for a couple of hundred dollars in gas fees, others reported paying upwards of US$4,000 for a single transaction.
Given the context, the average price of Ethereum gas over the course of the night was more than US$6,000, about 100 to 200 times the normal fee. Data from Etherscan shows that users have paid around 64,000 ETH in gas fees, equalling in excess of US$175 million in 24 hours in relation to Otherside.
Gas Fees Could Have Been Averted
Will Papper, the co-founder of Syndicate DAO, has said that the contract had ânearly zero optimisationsâ and provided a few âtricksâ that could have âsaved many millionsâ:
Yuga Labs has addressed the gas fees issue, noting that the mint was âso large that Etherscan crashedâ, and apologised for âturning off the lights on Ethereum for a whileâ:
Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) has further legitimised Bitcoin as a global macro asset class by making its entrance into the world of bitcoin-backed lending.
BTC-Backed Loans Gaining Momentum
According to a report by Bloomberg, GS has offered its first-ever lending facility backed by bitcoin. While similar products are already available from several international crypto-focused businesses, GS’s move is been seen as a significant step towards major US banks embracing Bitcoin lending products.
Borrowing against bitcoin is becoming increasingly popular among Bitcoiners who are looking for liquidity – whether for household expenditure, to put down a deposit on a home, or to buy more BTC – but who do not wish to sell.
This attractive proposition is rather simple in practice – the investor posts some BTC as collateral, then borrows fiat currency and as the price of bitcoin rises, refinances ad infinitum. Of course, if the price moves in the opposite direction, you would need to post more collateral, reduce the liability or otherwise have a portion of collateral liquidated.
When employed successfully, this strategy allows for HODLers to keep their hard-earned stack without the worry of capital gains tax, which is payable on the sale of digital assets.
Goldman Becoming Bitcoin-Friendly
As recently as 2020, GS was telling its clients to steer clear of BTC. However, on the back of client demand, it has gradually softened its position and can these days be seen as somewhat of a Bitcoin bull.
Despite all these positive signals from a Wall Street mainstay, most Bitcoiners would be justifiably cautious since GS’s embrace of Bitcoin is undoubtedly driven by profits, and not an ideological desire to fundamentally alter the financial system.
DeFi platform Rari Capital has been hacked for more than US$80 million in assets held within its Fuse lending pools.
Rari Capital’s Fuse platform enables DeFi developers to create their own lending markets. Security firm BlockSec identified the exploit as having occurred because of a reentrancy vulnerability in the protocolâs smart contract.
Development team Fei Protocol, which runs a decentralised US dollar-pegged stablecoin called Fei USD, was the biggest loser in the hack. The team manages lending markets on Fuse, where users can deposit funds for an annual yield and also take out loans in FEI stablecoin.
$10 Million Bounty Offered, ‘No Questions Asked’
Fei Protocol has acknowledged the massive exploit and asked the hacker(s) to return the funds to claim a US$10 million bounty:
The Rari Capital exploit is the third significant reentrancy hack in six months. In December, the unfortunately named Grim Finance, a compounding yield optimiser on the Fantom blockchain, was drained of an estimated US$30 million in Fantom (FTM) tokens.
And early last month, DeFi protocol Ola Finance suffered a US$3.6 million hack, also blamed on a reentrancy bug. A fortnight earlier, DeFi lending protocols Agave and Hundred Finance were exploited for approximately US$11 million. DeFi continues to provide far too much fertile ground for hackers.
Welcome to this weekly series from the TradeRoom. My name is Dave and Iâm the founder of The Crypto Den, an Australian-based crypto trading and education community aiming to give you the knowledge to take your trading game to the next level.
Crypto Market Outlook
The TOTAL market cap lost US$100 billion over the weekend and is currently having a small retrace of that loss. I suspect this will be pretty short-lived, which would bring us to a very important last line of defence. If the TOTAL drops below US$1.58 trillion, there’s huge potential for a US$400 billion loss. This will undoubtedly hurt a lot of people, so please investigate stop losses and make sure you’re prepared for the worst-case scenario!
The BTC monthly closed just below that monthly support and has a window of opportunity to keep us in a ranging situation. Failing that, we get another bearish month and it’s anyone’s guess how low we could drop from here. If you zoom right out and take a good look at the monthly chart, you will see there’s really no structure between US$34,000 and US$14,000.
I’m putting forward some very bearish cases here and that does not mean it’s game over. There’s still opportunity for BTC to bounce, but it must happen above US$30,000! If that level breaks, then it will be a long winter in my opinion.
BTC is currently sitting on a weekly 100 EMA and some daily support. My bias is still that we see a bear flag that I wrote about last week play out over the next month or two. If so, ALTS will bleed hard.
Last Weekâs Performance
ADA/USDT
ADA, like many others, is also at its last line of defence. I entered short last week and am now currently sitting at around 120% ROI. I’d like to see this trade reach approximately 800% in 10x.
DOGE/USDT
This entry was partially TA and partially luck! Last week I wrote about my thoughts on DOGE dropping 70%, then Elon decided to buy Twitter (as you do) and DOGE pumped. The luck part was that I didn’t enter right away and instead got in a short on the pump. I’m currently sitting at 170% ROI.
This Weekâs Trades
TORN/USDT
I’ve been watching TORN since last week and have just entered a short trade today. Candlestick analysis is showing a lot of indecision at a crucial level of daily resistance. R:R looks good enough for me to enter.
TRX/USDT
A 2017 fan favourite, TRX, looks like it could be setting up for a short trade. It’s currently sitting at both daily 200 EMA and daily resistance. If we see BTC drop, this could present a prime entry for short trades.
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