PREMINT, an NFT registration platform, has notified users via Twitter that an unknown party had stolen US$400,000 in ETH via a malicious wallet connection:
We're continuing to dig into this incident, but a reminder:
❌ You will never, EVER be asked to approve ANY KIND OF transaction on PREMINT.
✍️ When connecting a wallet, you'll be asked to *sign* a message, but there will NEVER be a gas fee or anything resembling a transaction.
— PREMINT | NFT Access List Tool (@PREMINT_NFT) July 18, 2022
Hackers Secure Premint Bag
In this year’s most recent hack, 320 NFTs were stolen from the PREMINT site. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, analysed the situation and found that malicious JavaScript code had been utilised in the hack. This code created a pop-up within the site which prompted users to verify their wallet ownership. Despite many taking to Twitter to issue a warning, the hackers had already duped six PREMINT customers in mere minutes:
The stolen NFTs included Bored Apes, Moonbirds, and Goblintowns. Once they were obtained, the hacker sent the funds to Tornado Cash to wipe the digital trail left by blockchain transactions.
PREMINT has thanked those of its customers who have helped minimise the impact of the hack and are accumulating data on all NFTs stolen.
Other 2022 Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks seem to be increasing in frequency this year, with multiple sizeable thefts across the end of the first quarter. A total of 35 NFTs were stolen in early April, including a Mutant and Bored Ape. The attack was carried out via several hacked verified Twitter accounts with the total stolen value exceeding US$900,000.
A month later, 29 Moonbird tokens were stolen when a malicious link wired a scammer US$1.5 million worth of Moonbird NFTs from a Proof Collective member. At the time, the Collective was working on a full report in collaboration with the FBI.
Reversing recent NFT market trends, CryptoPunk #4464 this week changed hands for a massive 2,500 ETH (approximately US$2.6 million). According to CryptoSlam, this marks the single-largest NFT sale of the past 30 days, in defiance of typical winter market lows:
Despite the malaise of the wider crypto market and commensurate NFT trading volumes, one rare CryptoPunk seems to have achieved the impossible. Punk #4464, an eye mask/durag-wearing, vaping pixelated character, has notched the fourth-ranked CryptoPunks NFT sale of all time, sharing that status with two other Apes. (It should be noted, however, that as ETH has a fluctuating price, the USD value of each sale fluctuates significantly.)
Transaction history of CryptoPunk #4464.
The record CryptoPunk sale for both ETH and USD is #5822, an 8,000 ETH (US$23.7 million) alien that was sold in February.
So Why Is #4464’s Sale Impressive?
Only two months ago, there was consensus that CryptoPunks (and NFTs in general) had lost the public interest. The realisation came as CryptoPunk #273, a male punk with a cap and shades, sold on May 8 for just US$139,836. That figure was 87 percent lower than its initial purchase price of US$1.03 million, in October 2021.
With a total value loss of approximately US$890,000, an ongoing downward trend in the CryptoPunk market seemed inevitable. However, #4464 has defied the odds and is proof to the contrary.
Welcome to this weekly series from the TradeRoom. My name is Dave and I’m 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
I’m BACK! I apologise to readers for my absence of late. Having a newborn is challenging enough and unfortunately we’ve had to make many hospital visits over the past month. But all is well!
Let’s get into it!
On April 11, I shared with you my thoughts around what I was seeing from BTC, and that was a huge bear flag forming (see image below) indicating further downside in the market. We have since dropped a further 40%. I do believe we are still likely to see an additional 20% drop from the current price level before we see a significant reversal. My first target to start scaling in on SPOT is US$20,000.
Image from Apr 11 article
Current BTC Chart
The TOTAL market cap is now down 65% from ATH, and I think in the coming days/weeks we will drop below the US$1 trillion valuation. On May 17 I shared the below chart showing another potential loss of over US$300 billion to US$500 billion, and you will see that the TOTAL has now shown a weekly close below its 200 EMA, which tells me the likelihood of this happening is getting higher.
TOTAL chart shared on May 17
Current TOTAL chart
Recent Performance
There have been two trades in particular that I’ve shared here numerous times that had great shorting potential: DOGE and ADA. These charts started back in December, if you’d like to take a look.
DOGE/USDT
DOGE is almost at my key Take Profit (TP) level of US$0.04, which will yield me a total of 730% profit from this entry using a 10x position.
DOGE chart shared May 2
Current Doge chart
ADA/USDT
An ADA target of US$0.18 is still on the table and at this point I will likely close my Short at around 800% profit using 10x leverage, and look to not only enter LONG positions but also scale into ADA on the SPOT market.
ADA chart shared May 2
Current ADA chart
This Week’s Trades
I will absolutely NOT be entering new trades this week. We are mid-dump in a bearish market and it’s safer to stay out and just wait.
What I’ll be looking for are key levels on the daily and weekly charts for both BTC and ETH where I will enter SPOT positions and open longs. This is where patience is key.
If BTC and ETH both close a weekly candle at or below current levels, things will certainly go from bad to worse. Targets are outlined on the charts below.
Be patient, invest wisely and don’t stress. Crypto is still in its infancy of what it can accomplish!
BTC/USDT
ETH/USDT
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The Crypto Den was created in 2017 to help the rapidly growing crypto community learn and understand the fundamentals of digital currencies and how to trade them.
Since then we have taught thousands of members the basics of technical analysis and trading strategies to further progress and perfect their trading abilities.
In the TradeRoom, you will be included in a supportive environment which encourages personal growth, education and community support.
It’s a place to share your trading ideas and follow other experienced traders’ feeds to help keep your finger on the pulse of such a volatile market!
PayPal has announced it will begin allowing US crypto holders to transfer their digital assets to external wallets. The rollout of the update has just begun and is likely to be available to all US users within the next fortnight.
PayPal now acknowledging Bitcoin transfers to external wallets..
— Randolph@Safemoon 🧲540 💳 (@randolphsfm) June 7, 2022
PayPal for BTC and ETH
PayPal will offer users the option to transfer bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash to external wallets in coming weeks. The long sought-after addition will bring PayPal in line with other successful cryptocurrency services in the industry. The feature has been a hot topic since the company’s October 2021 launch of its crypto buy, sell and hold service:
No one should be buying Bitcoin on PayPal **but** it is nice and significant that the name-brand fintech giant is allowing users to purchase or receive and then withdraw to their own wallets.
At this point you like to see industry steps in the right direction, not backwards 👌
According to Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice president of PayPal’s blockchain, crypto and digital currencies sector, the company believes its “role in the ecosystem is about increasing access”. The move to permit transfers to external wallets has made PayPal the largest blockchain-enabled consumer digital wallet.
Earlier Crypto Business Moves
In March 2021, PayPal upgraded its technology to permit US users to make payments with their cryptocurrency with the same ease as using a debit or credit card. This option became available for millions of global merchants, easily converting ethereum, bitcoin and litecoin to fiat money.
And at the beginning of 2022, a developer found stablecoin development code within the PayPal App. The discovery prompted PayPal to come forward with the admission that it was experimenting with a stablecoin of the same name. A logo image was discovered alongside the code.
Welcome to this weekly series from the TradeRoom. My name is Dave and I’m 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.
We’ve seen a bit of a pullback in price action in the market over the past four days, which isn’t a bad thing. Last week the total crypto market cap reached US$3 trillion for the first time in history and has since pulled back to the US$2.7 trillion mark, which could be seen as a new level of “Support”. It’s currently sitting at US$2.8 trillion.
Total market cap sitting at US$2.8 trillion
In last week’s article I mentioned BTC forming a symmetrical triangle which, as a general rule, has a 70% chance of breaking out to the upside. As you’ll see below, BTC did have a bullish break into a new all-time high (ATH) and has since reversed with some bearish price action to what we call a retest zone. What goes up, must come down … and that’s the same for financial markets. Nothing continues to go up without having some downs along the way.
BTC is retesting a new level of support after retracing in the 61.8% golden pocket. This is actually a bullish signal and could simply indicate a new market structure to launch from! We still expect BTC to reach US$78,000 soon.
BTC breaking out and now retesting support
Last Week’s Performance
MANA/USDT
Last week I mentioned the coin to watch was MANA (Decentraland) as the bullish momentum was just too good to ignore. It’s seen price action increase 57% and currently retracing. It seems to be bouncing from the 50% fib level at the time of writing and could see the 61.8% fib before a continuation up again. In the TradeRoom there’s been a lot of chatter around these Metaverse coins/tokens, and the sentiment is very bullish!
MANA breaking out and retracing
CHR/USDT
An amazing trade taken last week by one of our TradeRoom legends – “TypeGuy” – was on CHR (another Metaverse token). I’ve recreated his chart below. You can see see price action retraced to the trend line, then painted a bullish engulfing candle leading to a breakout. TypeGuy trades this on 10x leverage yielding him over 300% ROI. CHR did 76% on spot in only two days! That’s what I call a killer trade! TypeGuy has become an extremely consistent trader in TradeRoom after completing our trading course and shares a massive amount of his charts every week!
Massive 76% on CHR in only 2 days!
This Week’s Trades
BTC/USD
As mentioned above, BTC has seen a healthy pullback in price action and retraced back to that golden pocket. Forming a higher low (HL) on the 4H chart and breaking out the new market structure is VERY bullish so far. A big bullish engulfing candle was forming at the time of writing this and if this momentum can continue, we will surely see a break well above US$70,000 this week!
BTC breakout and retest
ETH/USD
If BTC follows the bullish path, ETH won’t be far behind. Currently in a falling wedge (bullish continuation pattern) and having had a “triple bottom” in that golden pocket, ETH looks really bullish! We would expect to see US$5,000 ETH this week if this plays out well!
LTC/USD
Another big top 10 to watch is LTC. Litecoin is usually either late to the party or early, but it’s rarely on time! What I mean by this is that sometimes it leads the way in price action, beating other top 10 coins to the punch, or it gets totally left behind to do its own thing and show up late again.
This time LTC has shown up early. Pushing out of the falling wedge we expect to see a slight and short-lived pullback before continuing up. I’m getting a Fibonacci target of US$350.
LTC breakout and target based on “flag pole” and Fibonacci
It’s important to remember that when trading ALT coins, their price action is heavily dependent on BTC. If BTC takes a bullish path, ALTs will likely follow. If BTC turns bearish, then ALTs will likely dump in price even harder!
If you’d like to become a better trader, you’re invited to join our TradeRoom where we share daily charts and market analysis. In our community we strongly encourage and teach correct risk management strategies to keep our members safe in this new volatile crypto market.
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The Crypto Den was created in 2017 to help the rapidly growing crypto community learn and understand the fundamentals of digital currencies and how to trade them.
Since then we have taught thousands of members the basics of technical analysis and trading strategies to further progress and perfect their trading abilities.
In the TradeRoom you will be included in a supportive environment which encourages personal growth, education and community support.
It’s a place to share your trading ideas and follow other experienced traders’ feeds to help keep your finger on the pulse of such a volatile market!
Welcome to this weekly series from the TradeRoom. My name is Dave and I’m 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.
In this article:
Crypto Market Outlook
Last Week’s Performance
This Week’s Trades
Crypto Market Outlook
Despite BTC dropping 14% from its new all time high (ATH) last week the entire Crypto Market Cap (TOTAL) still looks very healthy sitting at US$2.64 Trillion area. Which is only a 4% drop since the new ATH of the market cap.
Total Crypto Market Cap
What we find really encouraging is the current position of the ALT coin market (TOTAL2) which has a total value of US$1.47 Trillion. Reaching new highs yet again this is extremely bullish, not just for ALTS, but show for BTC as well as its showing strong confidence in the overall market. Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D) dropped with BTC recently and ALTS only seen rather minor reactions to this drop.
Total Crypto Market Cap EXCLUDING BTC
Even the total crypto cap excluding both BTC and ETH (TOTAL3) has reached new highs this week topping out at US$963 Billion. Which tells us that a lot of capital is confidently flowing into ALTS across the board and not just to the Crypto #2 Ethereum.
Now lets take a good look at Bitcoin.
BTC pulled back to find daily support at US$57,500 after reaching a new ATH at US$67,000. We thought we would see a much stronger initial push high from BTC after achieving a new high however a pullback like this is NOT unhealthy. In fact quite the opposite.
Possible bullflag for BTC
BTC could simply be painting a daily bullflag! This is a bullish trend continuation pattern which shows a price projection (length of the flag pole) lining up perfectly to a future 618 Fibonacci level. We teach you all about chart patterns and Fibonacci in our Trading Course if you’d like to learn more on this!
If we take a look at BTC on a monthly chart you’ll see its just had its highest monthly close ever! Another very bullish sign.
BTC highest ever monthly close
So what are we looking for in the TradeRoom next? Based on a 4 hour chart it shows BTC breaking out of the bull flag and retesting a level of both horizontal support and the local down trend. This restest forms a higher low (HL) which leads some pattern traders to see an inverse head and shoulders pattern (iH&S) which is a common reversal pattern preceding a recent trend down. The “head” also reached the common Fib retrace level of 61.8%. We are waiting to see a confirmation of this by breaking above US$62,605 (green line/circles). Once this is confirmed I see BTC approaching the new ATH with bullish strength behind it!
Overall market sentiment is high. The general consensus is that we will see the entire market make another move up. Be sure to mitigate any risk by ensuring stop losses are in place!
BTC breaking out and retesting bullflag
Last Week’s Performance
SOL/USDT
In my last article I touched on SOL being one of the key coins to watch. Even with BTC dropping that 14% I’m so impressed with how well SOL has held its own. Making a higher high (HH) on daily chart we still expect to see SOL reach new highs at around US$250
SOL/USDT
ETH/USD
We also looked at ETH for a long position. As you can see in the chart below this trade was ALMOST stopped out when BTC pulled back however it wasn’t hit and we are still in the trade. Again, I’m expecting to see ETH hit close to US$5,000 soon!
ETH/USD
MANA/USDT
This trade was by one our our TradeRoom members and former students! Using Fibonacci as a project tool this trade played out better than expected!
MANA/USDT
MANA/USDT
‘Dazzling’ as he’s known in the TradeRoom spotted this ascending triangle pattern (another bullish continuation pattern). After entering MANA did a massive 240% move. Daz entered into a leveraged trade yielding him over 1000% which is amazing! I’m sure everyone reading this from the TradeRoom can agree Daz is a TCD legend and always extremely helpful and supportive within the community! Nice work Daz!
NOTE: Daz has been trained to trade with leverage. Leverage trading should NOT be done by beginners. If you’d like to learn our Trading Fundamentals LIVE course starts in 2 weeks!
This Week’s Trades
BTC/USD
Lets look at BTC first. Can it follow the potential path addressed above and breaks the ATH at US$67,000 we will likely see US$75,000 – US$78,000 as a first target.
BTC/USD
ALGO/USDT
An ALT showing some signs of strength amid the BTC pullback and one of the fan favourites in TradeRoom is ALGO. Showing some daily Higher Lows (HL) with equal highs ALGO is one to watch this next week or so.
ALGO/USDT
AXS/USDT
AXS is one we touched on in our market scan last Thursday as its be painting a daily symmetrical triangle. Again this shows good strength against BTC. AXS has since broken out and already achieved a 34% increase. Currently pulling back to test support and could present opportunity for a new entry.
Thursday TradeRoom Market scan
ALGO/USDT breaking out and retesting
Its important to remember that when trading ALT coins, their price action is heavily dependent on BTC. If BTC takes a bullish path ALTS will likely follow. If BTC turns bearish then ALTS will likely dump in price even harder!
If you would like to become a better trader, you are invited to join our TradeRoom where we share daily charts and market analysis. In our community we strongly encourage and teach correct risk management strategies to keep our members safe in this new volatile crypto market.
The Crypto Den was created in 2017 to help the rapidly growing crypto community learn and understand the fundamentals of digital currencies and how to trade them.
Since then we have taught thousands of members the basics of technical analysis and trading strategies to further progress and perfect their trading abilities.
In the TradeRoom you will be included in a supportive environment which encourages personal growth, education and community support.
It’s a place to share your trading ideas and follow other experienced traders’ feeds to help keep your finger on the pulse of such a volatile market!
Australian Analyst Matt Harcourt of Apollo Capital, the country’s leading crypto-asset investment firm, recently spoke to DMARGE about crypto trends in 2021. While the discussion focused largely on Bitcoin (BTC), it’s Ethereum (ETH) that’s making headlines today after securing a new all-time high (ATH) above its previous record of AUD$1,850 (US$1,420).
Ethereum was one of the best-performing assets of 2020, gaining over 800% in value throughout the year. After starting the year at the extremely low price of AUD$166, ETH has steadily climbed to its new ATH, only suffering a brief dip during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In mid-2020, a thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) market emerged that was largely developed on Ethereum’s ERC20 protocol. Although DeFi had a somewhat bumpy start with several projects collapsing or exit-scamming, it nevertheless helped to boost Ethereum’s price and should continue to do so into 2021. 24-hour volume on the Ethereum network has also seen extreme growth this year, peaking at $140 billion on January 4.
Harcourt believes there is room for more growth going into 2021, citing a ‘broken’ financial system that will help boost interest in cryptocurrencies.
“…there is a ‘broken’ (I use that word loosely) financial system that will inevitably be replaced by the more open, fair and efficient system that is Bitcoin and blockchain technology (Ethereum, Decentralised Finance),” he told Australian news outlet DMARGE.
However, he noted that now may not be the best time to buy as prices are very high. “A good time to enter the market may come in 1, 2 or 3 months as I think Bitcoin will end 2021 at a higher price,” he said. It looks like he might be right, as other market indicators are suggesting a possible retrace from the current overbought level.
The supply of Bitcoin on exchanges is currently at the highest its been in nine months, suggesting traders are getting ready to sell. With Bitcoin already up by a massive 25 percent just in 2021 alone, buying power must surely start dissipating soon. Even the institutional interest that drove Bitcoin to new highs through late 2020 is beginning to wane, and retail investors appear to be diversifying into altcoins.
Over the past 24 hours, smaller-cap cryptocurrencies like AAVE, ATOM, and MIOTA have all enjoyed gains of between 7 to 12 percent. In the same period, Bitcoin has seen barely any change at all, suggesting that this record-breaking month-long rally that saw it double in price may finally be exhausted.
