Category: Solana

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Crypto News Market Analysis Solana Stellar Trading

Top 3 Coins To Watch Today: XLM, SOL, MINA – September 22 Trading Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.

1. Stellar (XLM)

Stellar XLM is an open network that allows money to be moved and stored. When it was released, one of its goals was boosting financial inclusion by reaching the world’s unbanked but soon afterward, its priorities shifted to helping financial firms connect with one another through blockchain technology. The network’s native token, lumens, serves as a bridge that makes it less expensive to trade assets across borders. All of this aims to challenge existing payment providers, who often charge high fees for a similar service.

XLM Price Analysis

At the time of writing, XLM is ranked the 25th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$0.3904. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

After climbing nearly 280% since the beginning of the year, a 115% range has trapped XLM between A$0.4268 and A$0.3544 during Q3.

A consolidation near A$0.3876, visible on the weekly chart, provided support on the last touch. This level could provide support again on a stop run under the A$0.3688. 

A deeper run-on stop at A$0.3479 might reach the top of a higher-timeframe gap at the same level. However, a push this low reduces the chance of a new monthly high soon. Below, little significant support exists until A$0.3218.

Higher-timeframe levels overlapping with a daily gap beginning at A$0.4169 are likely to provide resistance, perhaps on a sweep of the equal highs near A$0.4485. Breaking this resistance makes the relatively equal highs near A$0.4821 and the recent monthly high at A$0.5318 the next probable targets.

2. Solana (SOL)

Solana SOL is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions. The Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralised app (DApp) creation. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

SOL Price Analysis

At the time of writing, SOL is ranked the 7th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$187.33. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

SOL‘s euphoric mid-August pump turned into a September dump, with little higher-timeframe support for bulls to justify entries.

Currently, the price is distributing at the 52% retracement level. A small consolidation near A$185.66 is visible on the 12-Hour chart, with a clearer consolidation at a higher timeframe. This area does have some confluence with the 69% retracement level and could offer some support in the future. 

The daily gap’s midpoint near A$198.34 has suppressed the price, although a push through this level could fill the daily gap up to A$215.39. A lack of sensitivity at this resistance could suggest a minor retracement before a possible move to new all-time highs.

3. Mina (MINA)

MINA Protocol is a minimal “succinct blockchain” built to curtail computational requirements in order to run DApps more efficiently. Mina has been described as the world’s lightest blockchain since its size is designed to remain constant despite growth in usage. Furthermore, it remains balanced in terms of security and decentralisation. The Mina network has a size of only 22 KB, which is minuscule when compared to Bitcoin’s 300 GB blockchain.

MINA Price Analysis

At the time of writing, MINA is ranked the 81st cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$6.43. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

MINA‘s 285% pump during Q3 ran into resistance near A$8.26 on September 15. Since then, the price has been consolidating between A$6.38 and A$7.12.

Just below the Monthly open, A$5.89 is the first level likely to provide substantial support. If the price breaks down through this level, overlapping levels near A$5.72 might cap a run on the lows near A$5.46 and A$5.08.

The higher-timeframe analysis points to the area near A$6.89 as the next substantial resistance. Significant selling has been occurring here on the daily chart. If this level breaks, the swing highs near A$7.28 and A$7.54 may be the next targets.

Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Solana

Katy Perry Invests in $5 Million Funding Round for Decentralised Spotify Rival Audius

Katy Perry, along with other music superstars including Nas, Jason Derulo, Pusha T, the Chainsmokers and Steve Aoki, is the latest investor in crypto-powered music streaming platform Audius.

Audius is a music streaming app, like Spotify or SoundCloud, built on the blockchain and unique as it is the first truly decentralised music platform. The protocol was originally developed on POA (Proof of Authority) Network, an Ethereum sidechain, and has now moved parts of its service to include the Solana blockchain. Developers can build their own apps on top of Audius, giving them access to an exclusive audio catalogue.

Blockchain-Powered Music for Artists

Audius is giving power back to artists, offering a decentralised network model where users can upload their songs directly to the platform and even earn $AUDIO crypto token rewards for using the network. With six million monthly active users, Audius is an open-source community-owned and operated protocol that aims to give artists full control over how their music is monetised online and also enables them to connect directly with fans.

Social Media and NFT Integration

Audius is the first to offer integration with TikTok, allowing artists to share their songs with TikTok users to stream in their viral videos. Audius also offers NFT features, allowing musicians to showcase their own NFT collectibles to fans. It is a powerful tool that allows artists full control and ownership of their copyrighted musical works. No wonder the musicians themselves are excited to support this new music business model.

“Everyone who uploads to Audius can be an owner; you can’t say that about any other platform,” says rapper/entrepreneur Nas.

You can check out more about Audius here.

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Blockchain Crypto News Solana

SOL Drops 15% After Solana Network Crashes From Cyber Attack

The high-performance blockchain Solana recently suffered a DoS (Denial of Service) as result of resource exhaustion in the network, which also caused the SOL token to tumble 15 percent. 

On September 14 at 12:38 UTC, Solana experienced “intermittent instability” and stopped processing transactions. The Ethereum Layer-2 solution Arbitrum also suffered an outage. This is the second time this month the protocol has gone down – on September 2, Solana suffered a period of intermittent performance degradation that lasted about an hour. 

Engineers at Solana found a “large increase” in transaction load that peaked at 400,000 TPS, flooding the transaction processing queue. Some users reported their funds were stuck as result of the DoS. To solve the issue, 80 percent of validators had to restart and upgrade the network to version 1.6.25, turning the Solana mainnet up again. 

While the SOL token experienced a slight drop, it has recovered since then, trading at US$157.55 at press time. The SOL token has been one of the top performance coins in the market, delivering its holders more than 13,700 percent growth since the beginning of the year.

Solana Gaining Ground Despite Network Problems

Despite this month’s hurdles, Solana has managed to gain ground, especially in the NFT space. Crypto News Australia reported Solana’s first million-dollar NFT deal this week when it traded a Degenerate Ape Academy token for 5980 SOL, worth US$1.11 million at the time.

There are several projects coming to Solana, including Play-to-Earn NFT games which have become a popular trend on social media, especially for users from third world countries who can make a steady income playing crypto games. Solana will soon launch three exciting NFT games to help it gain ground in the blockchain gaming space: Star Atlas, Aurory, and Genopets.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Solana

Solana Continues to Gain Ground, Netting First Million Dollar NFT Sale

The Solana blockchain is stealing a march on its Ethereum rival with its first million-dollar non-fungible token sale.

A Degenerate Ape Academy NFT (below) changed hands on September 11 for 5980 SOL, or about US$1.11 million, in a record sale for Solana.

And that wasn’t all. After shelling out seven figures for Degen Ape #7225, a hideously scarred zombie primate with a halo munching on a brain, Moonrock Capital, a European blockchain advisory and investment firm, announced a few hours later it had purchased a CryptoPunk knock-off NFT, also on the Solana blockchain, for 1388 SOL (US$257,446.24).

Last week, a single Bored Ape NFT sold for a new record US$2.9 million to the creators of The Sandbox, an upcoming Ethereum-based open-world metaverse game.

Ethereum Challenged By Cardano, Tezos and Solana

However, with its lower fees and reduced traffic, Solana is presenting a serious challenge to the Ethereum blockchain, which initially cornered the market on NFTs. But its popularity caused traffic and fees on Ethereum to skyrocket and rivals like Cardano, Tezos and Solana are capitalising, at least for now.

As the NFT space continues to explode, more artists and content creators are moving their works from Ethereum to Solana while it remains the cheaper option.

The price of Solana’s native token has already taken off in response, with its market capitalisation vaulting over XRP and Dogecoin to become the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency. Its total value is now US$54 billion compared with XRP’s $43.5bn and DOGE’s $32bn.

A month ago, a single SOL was worth just $40. After it recently hit an all-time high of more than $200, the token is now changing hands at around $185.

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Crypto News Market Analysis Solana Trading

Top 3 Coins To Watch Today: SOL, ROSE, LUNA – September 13 Trading Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.

1. Solana (SOL)

Solana SOL is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions. While the idea and initial work on the project began in 2017, The Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralised app (DApp) creation. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

SOL Price Analysis

At the time of writing, SOL is ranked the 6th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$239.20. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

SOL formed relatively equal lows near A$89.56 after dropping over 61% during August. These lows could provide the target for another leg down, possibly finding support in the monthly gap of around A$75.21.

If this sweep of the A$224.31 swing lows occurs, more aggressive bulls might begin bidding the weekly level near the swing low around A$215.43. Should the market take a more bullish turn, the level just below near A$206.77 could provide some short-term support.

The steep drop left large areas of inefficient price action, making the daily gap up to A$262.99 likely to be touched or filled. A sustained move through this resistance could visit a significant area on the monthly and weekly chart near A$287.09.

2. Oasis Network (ROSE)

The Oasis Network ROSE is the first privacy-enabled blockchain platform for open finance and a responsible data economy. Combined with its high throughput and secure architecture, the Oasis Network is able to power private, scalable DeFi, revolutionising Open Finance and expanding it beyond traders and early adopters to a mass market. Its unique privacy features can not only redefine DeFi but also create a new type of digital asset called Tokenised Data that can enable users to take control of the data they generate and earn rewards for staking it with applications – creating the first-ever responsible data economy.

ROSE Price Analysis

At the time of writing, ROSE is ranked the 154th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$0.3523. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

ROSE has dropped nearly 77% since late March and found a low in late May, with price action now trending upward through a higher-timeframe range.

The area beginning near A$0.3944 has provided strong resistance and may do so again. However, relatively equal highs near A$0.3712 offer a tempting target for bulls. A run of these highs may reach up into the daily gap near A$0.3814.

Aggressive bulls might add to their positions near A$0.3178. If the price breaks through this level, it may be reaching for the cluster of swing lows near A$0.2954 and A$0.2605. A more substantial move down may run stops below the relatively equal June and July lows, around A$0.2466, into the daily gap at this level.

3. Terra (LUNA)

Terra LUNA is a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power price-stable global payments systems. According to its white paper, Terra combines the price stability and wide adoption of fiat currencies with the censorship-resistance of Bitcoin and offers fast and affordable settlements. Terra’s native token, LUNA, is used to stabilise the price of the protocol’s stablecoins. LUNA holders are also able to submit and vote on governance proposals.

LUNA Price Analysis

At the time of writing, LUNA is ranked the 11th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$53.15. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

LUNA has been trading through a massive range since August, with the price showing mild bullishness during September.

Bulls bought at a price level near A$43.75. The weekly level and daily gap near A$48.33 could prompt buyers to step in again as the price challenges the swing high and resistance around A$56.19. A strong move and acceptance above this level may reach for the swing highs at A$58.14 and $61.34, which marks another area of resistance.

However, rejection from the current area may send the price down to retest support near A$48.63. Relatively equal lows around A$47.00 provide a rich target for a stop run. Sustained bearishness may reach a low near A$45.97 and possibly as low as A$42.85 into higher-timeframe support.

Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.

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Crypto News Gaming NFTs Solana

Solana Ecosystem Growing: 3 Exciting Play-To-Earn NFT Games Launching Soon

Solana (SOL) will host three new NFT games on its blockchain where players can compete and trade with NFTs.

The gaming industry is in the midst of a growth spurt and is evolving along with the technology. With nearly US$24.8 billion generated to date, 2021 is already close to surpassing 2020’s full-year revenue (US$30 billion) and on track to overtake 2019 (US$43.6 billion) as the highest-grossing year ever for commercial gaming.

With the rise of the blockchain gaming industry, people can actually earn for time spent in the digital universe. For individuals looking to play some games while earning crypto and NFTs, this is quite appealing. The expanding Solana (SOL) blockchain is now playing host to three new NFT games.

Star Atlas

Star Atlas is setting its sights on the strategy genre where players explore space, fight for territories and use other dynamics to dominate the “grand strategy game”.

Players can also mine resources in the digital universe which they can sell in both in- and outside marketplaces.

Game assets are divided into four pillars, with ATLAS and POLIS being the monetary tokens. POLIS is the governance token where players have a say in the fate of the metaverse and the rules governing it, and ATLAS is the payment token for monetary exchange.

Planets are divided into parcels that can be owned and traded. These land parcels allow payers to reap a land tax, which is similar to staking the coin. In-game items like ships and their components can also be bought and sold on the secondary NFT marketplace with Solana-supported currencies.

Aurory 

Aurory will be another gaming platform based on the play-to-earn mechanism. The platform wants players from all over the world to discover blockchain use cases in a fun and educational way.

Aurory will use an SPL token as the core of its gaming ecosystem in both solo and multiplayer modes, but also in its marketplace. The 2D animation side scroller has multiple modes that allow players to earn NFTs when defeating creatures in the single-player mode. The NFTs can then be used in multiplayer mode wherein other NFTs can be earned by battling.

Each time players complete a quest, they gain some tokens that will be usable to play multiplayer games or to buy items in the marketplace.

Genopets

Genopets is an innovative game where users can create a Genopet or “digital familiar”, which is an NFT connected with your fitness data. Genopets is the first Move-to-Earn MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) where players that stay active evolve with their pets.

$KI tokens are generated through data collected by fitness devices and are used in battle, to craft valuable items, and to upgrade your Genopet’s style and performance. Players can earn by trading items and move-sets on the NFT marketplace as well as battling one another in play-for-keeps mini-games.

Solana is currently the seventh-largest crypto by market cap and has seen massive growth and utilisation in the past few months, raising US$450 million to challenge Ethereum for the dapp and DeFi market. In a related event, Australia’s Power Ledger has moved from Ethereum to Solana, favouring its higher throughput and speed.

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Blockchain Crypto News Gas NFTs Solana

Solana Booms as NFT Projects Consider Switching From Ethereum

As the NFT space grows, more artists and content creators could move their works from Ethereum to Solana, the high-performance blockchain, due to the excessively high fees of the ETH network.

Ethereum is the largest NFT minting hub for now, though network congestion, slow transactions, high fees and other hurdles are prompting content creators to migrate to other NFT-supporting blockchains, and Solana seems to be the DeFi protocol picking up the most momentum for NFTs.

Take the example of a group called “Burnt Banksy”, which is building a blockchain platform on Solana called Burnt Finance. It all started when the group bought an original artwork from the otherwise anonymous English street artist known as Banksy for US$95,000 and resold it for US$400,000 on OpenSea, the leading decentralised NFT marketplace.

Innovative Features Make a Bull Case

While there are other platforms such as Polkadot, Binance Smart Chain and Cardano that offer scaling solutions with low gas fees, NFTs are growing faster on Solana than in other protocols.

One of the reasons is that Solana uses innovative features such as the cryptographic clock system called PoH (Proof of History), which manages to support 65,000 TPS (transactions per second) with a $0.0015 average fee per transaction.

Another reason that Solana is gaining momentum on the NFT market is that the level of competition is soaring on ETH-based platforms. It’s difficult to sustain businesses models on these platforms while also keeping pace with gas fees. Content creators with cheaper collections – around US$100 to US$500 raribles or collectibles – may expect Solana to stand out from ETH competition by offering cheaper NFTs thanks to Solana’s lower gas fees.

Other types of NFTs could thrive in Solana. Fractionalisation is a recent trend that’s blowing up now in the DeFi community. The idea is that you can buy a fraction of an NFT and receive exposure to it instead of paying for the complete piece, something that could work with Solana but wouldn’t with ETH’s current gas fees. For instance, if you want to buy a piece of a CryptoPunk for US$20, you would probably pay a similar amount for it in gas fees.

Solana’s NFT Marketplace Also Booming

Solanart is the protocol’s NFT marketplace, which recently registered an expanding transaction volume with over US$5 million in transactions in a single day.

As the NFT industry grows, the crypto community is shifting its eyes to other potential protocols to build on, and Solana seems one of the preferred candidates. The ETH community, on the other hand, is looking to the rollout of ETH 2.0, which is expected to fix the network’s scaling challenges and gas fees.

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Blockchain Cryptocurrencies DeFi Gaming Market Analysis Solana

Solana Gains Steam, Breaking $100 to Become 8th Largest Crypto

Solana’s momentum is strong as it gained almost 50 percent in the past week, hitting new all-time highs daily in a steady upward climb.

Source: Coinmarketcap

From US$30 just a month ago, Solana has now reached a top of US$114 and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. According to CoinGecko, Solana’s trading volume is currently at almost US$5 billion, with a market cap now just short of US$33 billion, coming for Dogecoin’s #7 spot, the meme coin with a current market cap of US$37 billion.

Solana Dubbed the ‘Ethereum Killer’

Solana solves the ‘Blockchain Trilemma’, which basically states that among the three factors of decentralisation, scalability and security, a blockchain network must sacrifice one to properly implement the other two. Solana has managed to find the answer to the issue of scalability without the need for layer-2 solutions.

Solana is a Proof of History (PoH) blockchain with much faster transaction speeds and lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum, currently the most popular smart contracts platform and blockchain of choice for the DeFi and NFT market. The Solana network boasts approximately 1,000 live transactions per second (with testnet numbers as high as 50,000 TPS).

It could soon become the choice for many dApps that will choose to build on the Solana network instead of Ethereum, which has been widely criticised for its network congestion, high gas fees, and lack of scalability. Recently launched Solana-based DEX, Mango Markets brought bullish news for Solana, as did the Degenerate Ape Academy NFT drop, a project based on Solana’s NFT marketplace, Solanart.

Major companies using blockchain technology are also adapting to the Solana network, as per July’s announcement by Australian renewable energy trading platform Power Ledger that it would migrate from Ethereum to Solana.

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Blockchain Solana

First Solana Rugpull Steals US$10 Million

Solana has had its first and biggest rugpull on its ecosystem after Luna Yield, a cross-chain yield aggregator, stole nearly US$10 million from liquidity pools and shortly after proceeded to delete its official website, Telegram, and other media channels.

The Solana Luna Rugpull

On August 19, various Luna Yield users reported being unable to unstake their funds from the pools. SolPAD, a multichain IDO (Initial DEX Offering) platform for Solana, announced in a tweet that the protocol started experiencing “some problems”. SolPAD, which hosted Luna Yield’s IDO on its platform, said it contacted a third party to investigate the incident.

However, everything suggests that the team behind Luna Yield rugpulled and stole nearly US$10 million in funds.

Solana Users Unable to Unstake Funds

It all started when a user tried to unstake funds from Luna but failed due to insufficient balance. Someone had already drained the protocol’s pools even before the smart contract was set up.

One user found the address that was being used to send batches of ETH. The address starts with FBUKfg, which is a Sollet bridge, a Solana wallet with support for SPL tokens. 

Hoakegani, a developer building on Solana, found the address belonging to the protocol’s owner. It appears this address was the one that funded the mint authority of LUNY, Luna Yield’s native token. The owner then used the FBUKfg address to send the funds in batches, and it appears the owner tried to bridge the funds directly to Binance.

Users Complain About Lack of Transparency on Solana

After the event, the SOL token slowed down after its massive uptrend rally in the past two weeks. Various users, including hoakegani, complained about the “lack of transparency” on Solana, and that “some shady businesses” were still occurring.

SOL Price Unaffected

After surging over 100 percent during the past few weeks, the price of SOL seems unaffected as it remains around the US$75 mark.

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Crypto News Solana

Solana Hits New All-Time-High Following $70 Million DEX Crowdfund

SOL, the native and utility token of the Solana network, reclaimed its all-time high on August 16, making it the only cryptocurrency to recover its full value since the May crash. 

Currently trading at US$68 as per data from TradingView (see chart below), SOL is surging fast. The token reached a record price of U$69 on August 16 and US$75 a day later.

What’s Behind the SOL Mayhem?

SOL’s impressive performance comes after several developments for the Solana ecosystem, key among which was a recent US$70 million crowdfund to support its official decentralised exchange, Mango Markets.

Mango Markets is a DAO-governed platform, similar to other Ethereum-based DEXs such as Uniswap. Yet the DEX is powered by Solana instead, as it offers a wide set of innovative features integrated with high-performance technology.

Another boost for the token came shortly after the launch of Degenerate Ape Academy, an NFT project based on Solanart, Solana’s NFT marketplace, which recently registered a record daily volume of over 92,610 SOL, or more than US$5 million.

Q1 2021 Marks Solana’s Peak Performance

Solana is rising fast, having already caught the eye of the crypto community with its impressive market performance. The first four months of 2021 were a peak period for the token as it surged over 4,000 percent thanks to the protocol’s development success and integration of new DeFi projects on the network.

Solana is backed by Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX Trading. Talking about Solana’s growth, Bankman-Fried says he is astonished by its success and looks forward to seeing what projects will be onboarded.

A lot of an ecosystem’s success depends on how much the community builds on it. I’ve been really happy with the growth of Solana so far building out the world’s fastest, most scalable on-chain ecosystem; I’m excited to see some projects come to market!

Sam Bankman-Fried

Though Solana doesn’t have many notable projects on its NFT Marketplace, this could change as it becomes one of the leading blockchains in the industry.

A month ago, Australian renewable energy trading platform Power Ledger dumped Ethereum and switched to Solana for its higher throughput and speed.