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Ethereum Cryptocurrency Breaks Past $3,000 in Record High

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On Monday, May 3, 2021, the cryptocurrency ether surpassed $3,000 for the first time, setting a fresh record high in a spectacular surge that has outperformed the larger bitcoin, as investors bet that ether would be increasingly useful in a decentralized future financial framework.

By lunchtime in Asia, Ether, the ethereum blockchain’s token, had risen 3% to $3,051.99 on the Bitstamp market. It has risen more than 300 percent this year, comfortably outpacing the more successful bitcoin, which has risen 95 percent.

Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value after Bitcoin, and it is a digital currency or token that allows transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to the reports published by Reuters, James Quinn, managing director at Q9 Capital said, “Half of the big rebound is a catch-up to bitcoin’s late-2020 gains.”

It also represents advancements in the ethereum blockchain, as well as an increasing trend toward “DeFi,” or decentralized finance, which applies to transactions not involving conventional banking and for which the ethereum blockchain is a critical forum, conforming to him.

Bitcoin, according to Quinn, was initially leading the rally because it was their normal first port of call when a large number of retail investors entered the market.

The expiration of $4.2 billion in options contracts may be one of the main reasons behind Bitcoin’s rally. After contract expiration, the crypto asset has historically rebounded.

However, Quinn also said that as the rally matured over the last six months, the market saw DeFi, and a lot of DeFi is based on ethereum.

The introduction of ether exchange-traded funds in Canada, as well as increased demand for ether wallets to transact non-fungible tokens like digital art, also moved the price up.

The ether/bitcoin cross rate has increased by more than 100% this year and reached a 2.5-year peak on Sunday, indicating a rotation into the second-largest cryptocurrency as investors diversify their holdings.

“DeFi volumes continue to push ethereum prices higher as investors grow confidence in crypto and see ethereum as a stable second-place commodity,” said Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital.

Bloomberg reported last week that the European Investment Bank wants to issue a crypto bond based on the Ethereum blockchain, while JP Morgan is considering launching a controlled bitcoin fund.

Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable crypto commodity with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, reclaimed $50,000 last week and hovered about $58,000 on Monday, up around 3% but still well below its all-time peak of $64,895.22.

The US dollar’s value remained largely stable.

Ethereum Cryptocurrency Breaks Past $3,000 in Record High

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DeFi adoption on the Binance Smart Chain reaches new highs

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Decentralized finance (DeFi) has taken a well-deserved break from the spotlight over the past couple of months after being one of the hottest sectors at the start of 2021, but recent growth on several top platforms may hint at another DeFi run in the near future. 

While projects that operate on the Ethereum (ETH) network continue to deal with wild fluctuations in gas fees and transaction times, several that operate on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) have seen an uptick in protocol activity and token value over the past week.

XVS/USDT vs. CAKE/USDT vs. LINA/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three projects on the BSC that have seen increases in trading volume, price and activity within their DeFi protocols are Venus (XVS), PancakeSwap (CAKE) and Linear Finance (LINA).

XVS/USDT

The Venus protocol is an algorithmic money market and synthetic stablecoin protocol that provides a lending and borrowing solution for DeFi on the BSC.

Recent bullishness for the project began to increase around April 20 when it was revealed that a proposal was submitted to add Dogecoin (DOGE) to the Venus money market.

Following an initial price surge and pullback, momentum and price activity for the project saw another surge on April 29 following the announcement of the Venus Reward Token (VRT) and Venus nonfungible token (NFT) airdrops.

The announcement of the airdrops combined with the listing of XVS on the Crypto.com exchange helped spark a 70% rally in the price of Venus from a low of $72 on April 29 to a new all-time high at $124 on April 30.

XVS/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

At the time of writing, the total value locked (TVL) in Venus is nearing $10 billion.

CAKE/USDT

PancakeSwap is a BSC-based automated market maker (AMM) similar to Uniswap (UNI) that allows users to exchange tokens and earn a portion of fees through yield farming.

Data from TradingView shows that the price of CAKE rallied 102% over the past week, going from a low of $21.90 on April 23 to a new record high at $44.28 on April 30 as token holders engage with the low fee, high yield protocol.

CAKE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Price action for CAKE has seen a steady rise over the past week following the launch of V2 farms on April 23 and the successful completion of token migration on April 24.

Since the migration and launch of the new liquidity pools, the TVL on PancakeSwap has spiked to $9.873 billion making the protocol the second-ranked DeFi protocol by TVL.

Total value locked on PancakeSwap. Source: Defistation

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for CAKE have been favorable for some time. 

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. CAKE price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for CAKE began to pick up on April 24 and reached a high of 7 around 14 hours before the price increased 62% over the next five days.

LINA/USDT

Linear Finance (LINA) is a decentralized delta-one asset protocol that enables the creation of synthetic asset tokens to represent traditional assets like commodities, forex, market indices and other thematic sectors which can then be traded on the Linear exchange.

Data from TradingView shows that the price of LINA has climbed 70% over the past week, rising from a low of $0.069 on April 23 to an intraday high of $0.1164 on April 30 with $196 million in 24-hour trading volume.

LINA/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The recent momentum for the project began to build ahead of the April 27 ask-me-anything session with the Moonbeam Network, which calls itself the “easiest on-ramp to Polkadot” thanks to Ethereum-compatible smart contracts on a Polkadot parachain.

Cross-chain interoperability has been one of the major themes of the 2021 bull market, so the prospect of being able to operate LINA on the Polkadot network as well as the BSC and the Ethereum network may have helped to spark a new round of interest in the protocol.

As the pool of retail and institutional investors participating in the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow, DeFi protocols on BSC are well-positioned to see significant gains thanks to low fees and high yield opportunities.

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

DeFi adoption on the Binance Smart Chain reaches new highs

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Waves, Celo, and Injective Protocol (INJ) breakout as DeFi reawakens

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Bitcoin (BTC) extended its relief rally on Tuesday and reclaimed a market capitalization above $1 trillion.

While many traders panicked during Bitcoin’s recent fall below $47,000, fund manager Dan Tapiero said that he spotted a rare TD sequential buy signal during the low. The last time this signal was seen was in March 2020 when Bitcoin price traded near $3,600. Tapiero believes Bitcoin remains on target to reach $100,000 this year.

However, even after the recent rise above $55,000, Bitcoin’s market dominance continues to lag at 49.5%, according to CoinMarketCap data. This shows that crypto investors are focusing on altcoins, with several hitting new all-time highs.

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

The altcoin season is not entirely driven by retail investors. A recent report by crypto investment advisory firm Two Prime Digital Assets highlights that the eightyfold growth in Ether (ETH) options open interest, from $50 million to $4 billion in a year, points toward hedging by institutional money managers to protect their “net long portfolios against outsized volatility events.” Even the Ether futures market has increased by 20, cementing the involvement of institutional investors.

Keeping the focus on altcoins, let’s study the fundamentals and technicals of three tokens that have done well in the past few days.

WAVES/USDT

Many crypto enthusiasts are interested in investing in digital assets, but they do not have the required trading experience. Therefore, they miss several opportunities or end up leaving money on the table. Others work full time and, therefore, cannot devote time to trading. For such investors, a well-devised algorithmic trading product could be suitable, but it comes with its own risk.

Waves launched a new algorithmic trading investment product called “Lambo Investments” on April 15. The protocol’s exchange platform announced it would give away a Lamborghini Huracan to a random investor in the product, which could have lured traders.

Along with decentralized finance (DeFi) and algorithmic trading, Waves has also made a splash in the nonfungible tokens (NFTs) sector. While the overall NFT craze has subsided, select investors continue to focus on them. The first Waves Duck NFT, called “Perfection,” was sold for 1 million Neutrino USD (USDN) — an algorithmic stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar and collateralized by the native Waves token, WAVES — on Sign Art on April 12.

To further boost growth, Waves founder and CEO Sasha Ivanov recently laid out ambitious plans to reach $10 billion in total value locked by October and average 10 million daily transactions by February 2022. Traders are likely to keep a close watch on the developments, which could decide the level of investors’ interest in the project.

WAVES rallied from an intraday low of $11.09 on April 23 to an all-time high of $21.09 on April 27, a 90% gain in five days. However, the long wick on April 27’s candlestick suggests profit-booking at higher levels.

WAVES/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The WAVES/USDT pair could give back some of its gains and drop to the $16–$17 zone. If the bulls can flip this zone into support, it will suggest that sentiment remains positive and traders are accumulating on dips.

The 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) of $14.64 has started to rise, and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the positive zone, indicating the path of least resistance is to the upside.

A strong bounce off the support zone could result in a retest of $21.09. If buyers can drive the price above this resistance, the pair could resume its uptrend and reach $25.

This bullish view will be invalidated if the bears sink the price below the 20-day EMA. Such a move could pull the price down to the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) of $12.65.

INJ/USDT

Injective Protocol recently announced that it secured $10 million in funding from several investors, including Pantera Capital and billionaire Mark Cuban, for its DeFi protocol, which is alleged to have the best of both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Injective’s aim is to build a decentralized competitor to Robinhood.

On the development front, the protocol announced on April 15 that it had achieved “Trezor support for the EIP-712 signature standard,” which will allow Trezor users to access Ethereum-based applications.

Injective has been partnering with several blockchains to improve the experience for its users. Thus far in April, it has announced collaborations with API3, Harmony, Staked, Litentry, Persistence, Big Data Protocol and Klaytn.

Additionally, periodic token drops in Equinox Staking may have been an added attraction to the investors.

Injective’s native token, INJ, rose from $10.91 on April 20 to an all-time high at $21.55 on April 22, recording a 97% increase in three days. The bulls could not sustain even higher levels on April 20, as seen from the long wick on the candlestick.

INJ/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

This encouraged the bears, who tried to trap the bulls and start a correction. However, the buyers purchased the dip to the 50-day SMA ($13.40) on April 23 and defended the 20-day EMA ($15.26) on April 23. This suggests that the sentiment remains positive and the bulls are accumulating on dips.

The buying momentum picked up on April 26, and the bulls cleared the first hurdle at $18.15. If the bulls can sustain the price above $18.15, the INJ/USDT pair could rise to $21.55. A break above this resistance could start the next leg of an up-move that may reach $26.44.

Contrary to this assumption, if the bears pull the price below $18.15, a drop to the 20-day EMA is likely. A break below this support would signal that the momentum has weakened, and the pair may drop to the 50-day SMA.

CELO/USDT

CELO was previously featured on Cointelegraph on Jan. 26 when its price was $3.24. From there, the token rallied to an all-time high of $7.23 on April 21, a 123% rally in just under three months.

Celo announced on April 20 that Deutsche Telekom made a “significant purchase” of CELO tokens through its strategic investment fund, Telekom Innovation Pool. Although the size of the investment was not disclosed, it is likely to be a major sentiment booster for the token.

A new gas-efficient bridging standard dubbed “Optics,” connecting Celo to Ethereum, was announced on April 21. This is the first step toward building an open, connected blockchain ecosystem, which eventually will include Cosmos, Polkadot and others.

The payments platform announced the launch of the stablecoin Celo Euro (cEUR) on the mainnet on April 22. This is the second stablecoin, after Celo Dollar (cUSD) — which was launched on Celo in June 2020. This increases the user base for Celo users who want to send or receive money from relatives and friends.

CELO has been consolidating between $3.50 and $5.76 for the past few days. The bears pushed the price below the support of the range on March 25, but the bulls reclaimed the level on March 26, indicating buying at lower levels.

CELO/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The sharp rally on April 20 and 21 propelled the price above the overhead resistance of the range, but the bulls have not been able to consolidate their advantage. The bears pulled the price back into the range on April 22.

Although the CELO/USDT pair broke below the 20-day EMA ($5.01) on April 23, the bulls purchased the dip to the 50-day SMA ($4.39). The buying momentum picked up again, and the bulls cleared the $5.76 hurdle on April 25 but could not sustain the breakout.

The Doji candlestick pattern on April 26 and the inside day candlestick pattern on April 27 suggest uncertainty among the bulls and the bears. If the bulls sustain the price above $5.76, a retest of $7.23 may be in the cards. A breakout of this resistance could result in a rally to $8.02.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below the 20-day EMA, it will suggest that the pair could remain range-bound for a few more days.

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

Waves, Celo, and Injective Protocol (INJ) breakout as DeFi reawakens

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DEX volumes continue to surge even as Bitcoin and altcoins correct

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Decentralized finance (DeFi) started 2021 by taking the cryptocurrency sector by storm and helping to kick the bull market cycle into high gear as traders capitalized on ways to easily trade cryptocurrencies and earn high yields on their hodl stacks. 

Eventually, high fees on the Ethereum (ETH) network and a few sharp market sell-offs helped contribute to a pullback in token prices and DeFi transactions beginning in late February, but that trend appears to have reversed over the past week as activity on decentralized exchanges is once again on the rise.

DEX user and volume comparison. Source: DappRadar

As seen in the chart above, decentralized exchange (DEX) volume spiked in late February, followed by a downtrend through the first week of April which saw the total volume traded on all DEXs fall as low as $603 million on April 4.

The uptick in users in mid-March was in part due to the explosion in popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and the end of that frenzy is marked by a precipitous drop-off in users seen between March 26 and March 27.

Bitcoin dips ignite DEX activity

One possible explanation for the spike in activity on DEXs in recent weeks can be found comparing the volume charts with the price chart for Bitcoin (BTC), which indicates a possible correlation between a dip in the price of BTC and increased trading activity.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

As the price of Bitcoin saw declined from April 6 through April 8, DEX volume began to increase and reached a peak on April 7, just as BTC price was bottoming out and preparing to climb higher.

After Bitcoin price reached a peak at $64,840 on April 14, it fell into a downtrend that continued through April 24 as the asset remains pinned below $50,000.

DEX volume saw a substantial increase beginning April 18, the same day that Bitcoin experienced a 16% pullback in price from $60,900 to $50,500, and it has remained elevated since, indicating that traders may be rotating out of Bitcoin and into altcoins as the top cryptocurrency works its way through what traders hope will be a brief corrective phase.

Daily DEX volume. Source: Dune Analytics

As seen on the chart above, the daily DEX volume reached its highest level in weeks on April 22 as Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency market underwent a significant downturn that saw the total market capitalization fall by more than $324 million.

With Bitcoin now fighting to regain the $50,000 support level and a majority of the altcoin market now at fire-sale prices following the downturn from recent highs, decentralized exchange activity may hint at an approaching altcoin season that has historically as Bitcoin searches for direction following a pullback from a new all-time high.

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

DEX volumes continue to surge even as Bitcoin and altcoins correct

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Crypto Advertising Networks — Scam or Effective Marketing?

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Codezeros

Nowadays, it is too tough for all crypto advertising networks to grow and propagate out its messages to the public. It is because major social media platforms and search engines have laid a ban on all advertisements that will promote services related to cryptocurrency.

So, all that you got now is to target the audience of ad networks that have their reach to crypto-targeted traffic. There must be suspicion lying around the authenticity and productivity of these crypto advertising networks. Thus, this is what we are going to study here.

Crypto Advertising Networks

Hilltop Ads

Hilltop Ads has implemented a good UI experience that will surely appeal to the advertisers who have to spend money on it, and websites can also make money from it. It can benefit any cryptocurrency development company; with the variegations of advertisements, they push to the viewers. Like they have native ads, pop ups, display banners, direct links, etc.

They claim to have a great targeting option; however, a company or an advertiser has to test by running a campaign manually. However, to its downside, you have to deposit a minimum amount of money to begin working with them. So, here, in this stage, it might demotivate some companies from further proceeding.

Coinzilla

Coinzilla features a very attractive name and has a very minimal and sleek website. It is comparatively newer than other advertising networks. The website is attractive and looks legit, and it is because it has its creative team.

It can deal with CPC and CPM advertisements and does it through classic banners, native ads, sticky banners, floating banners, etc. Just like the one mentioned above, here we also have to pay a minimum deposit fee. If you want the best out of it, you should aim for only those websites or CEOs where the targeted traffic is likely to come.

Also, remember to make your website look professional and attractive to pull in a maximum number of audiences. Coinzilla network will help in your crypto development only when it verifies you through sending a code. The advertisement network will reject a website that is not at least 3 months old.

However, now talking about the downside, if you fail to target your audience correctly, the traffic will be substantially low or negligible, the conversion rate will also be low, and it isn’t worth it because it is expensive. Moreover, there will be no dashboard that will give a detailed analysis of the Click-through rate, and also the cost per click, etc.

CoinTraffic

With its base of origin from Estonia, Cointraffic has become famous for serving publishers and advertisers. Cointraffic publishes banner ads, press release distribution, and native ads, and all of this helps a publisher or advertisers in reaching the audience.

In the blockchain and Crypt Ad market, it has become a premium advertising partner that companies can rely on. Companies that provide top-notch cryptocurrency development services will find it beneficial as CoinTraffic offers a wide variety of advertising options in formatting, and it also provides tools that will further increase the conversion rate.

The ad network has account managers that will look after your campaign’s progress. The minimal deposit that you need to make is 500€. However, it is better to start at 5000€ to get a decent result or traffic. The cost for Press release distribution starts at 1500€.

Ad Dragon

A newly launched ad network of 2019, the Ad Dragon, is completely new in the domain of ad networking. It is completely driven to support online Ad marketing, which makes it completely different from other common Crypto Ad networks. And, indeed in a short period, it has emerged to be the world’s top online marketplace being a DeFi advertising platform.

They have revolutionized the whole online industry and accomplish the goal. They have declared peer-to-peer promotion via an online marketplace. Here effective cryptocurrency development can be achieved as it will deliver great ROI (Return of Interest).

Moreover, publishers and advertisers come close to each other because of the best results they offer. Advertisements from independent media, content creators or even influencers who became a part of the platform as an advertiser gets their advertisements sold by Ad Dragon.

By joining this, publishers will get control over the prices and will also get solutions on various marketing issues they face. As a part of the commission, the platform will only charge 5%, whereas the publisher can keep the rest 95%.

Conclusion

So, to be very skeptical, declaring an advertisement network completely useful will be unjustified, as each of them comes with its own merits and demerits. So, it is completely up to your testing and scrutiny. However, spending on a general advertisement on Facebook or Google can help you earn better traffic and return on investment as well.

Crypto Advertising Networks — Scam or Effective Marketing?

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New Milestone Reached: 100 Cryptocurrencies Hit a Market Capitalization of $1 Billion

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Are you a crypto enthusiast? Want to get updated and stay tuned regarding the crypto sector? This article has got you covered. 

Table of Contents 

  • What’s This New Milestone All About?
  • Driving Forces for the Growth of Crypto Ecosystem
  • Concluding Lines 

What’s This New Milestone All About?

As cryptocurrencies continue to gain traction among investors and traders, the crypto sector has risen to a total valuation of more than $1.2 trillion. In Feb 2021, it was seen that there were more than 55 unicorn status projects that had a market capitalization of over $1 billion at that time. 

Now, according to Cointelegraph, there has been a surge in the number of crypto projects. It reports that a new milestone has been reached as 100 cryptocurrencies reach a $1B market capitalization.

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Driving Forces for the Growth of Crypto Ecosystem

Now comes the question, what are the significant factors that are responsible for the growth of the crypto ecosystem. Let’s explore all these factors in detail.

Multi-Billion Dollar Companies Investing in Cryptocurrencies 

One of the driving forces that contribute to multi-billion dollar companies such as Tesla, MicroStrategy, and others.

MicroStrategy, which is a prominent business analytics platform, has adopted Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. Unlike other CEOs who generally hide their personal investments, he announced in October 2020 that he holds around 17,732 BTC. In December 2020, the company announced that it had raised $650 million worth of convertible bonds to finance more Bitcoin purchases. 

Also, in February 2021, it was announced that electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and is expected to begin accepting the digital token for its cars and other products. After the announcement, it was seen that the BTC price soared. Square bought $170 million worth of bitcoin with the belief that BTC has the potential to become the native cryptocurrency of the internet. 

DeFi Takes Center Stage 

For the past year, Decentralized Finance, also commonly known as DeFi, has been one of the most contributing factors in the growth and development of the cryptocurrency sector. 

For instance, Uniswap, a decentralized exchange (DEX), has evolved from a basic exchange framework dApp to a sprawling trading network with an average trading volume of $6.72 billion. Similarly, SushiSwap, a competitor to Uniswap, has also attained unicorn status with a current value of over $1.8 billion. Moreover, PancakeSwap (CAKE), a BSC-based DEX that promotes the trading of BEP-20 tokens and implements AMM, is recently gaining attraction, rapidly climbing up the charts, ranking as the fifth-largest DeFi platform by total value locked, with $6.18 billion currently locked in the protocol.

At the time of writing, the total DeFi crypto market cap is $95.83B. 

Stablecoins and their Associated Protocols Received a Boost 

After the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States of America provided the clear run for national banks to run independent nodes for distributed ledger networks, stablecoins gained momentum. 

One protocol with a stablecoin component that is helping in establishing a stable store of wealth in nations undergoing hyperinflation like Venezuela is Reserve, whose Reserve Rights (RSR) token has increased by around 400% this year. Another emerging entrant to the field of stablecoin is TerraUSD (UST), whose market cap skyrocketed from $182 million on January 1 to $1.66 billion on April 2. 

Interest in Non-Fungible Tokens is Surging

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been around for a while, but their value has skyrocketed in the last few months. As interest in NFTs is surging by celebrities and influencers, it is bringing more sales and distribution worldwide. It was announced that Christie’s auction house sold its first NFT-linked digital art for $69 million.

As NFTs are becoming popular, Enjin Coin (ENJ) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries. On March 15, ENJ witnessed an all-time high of $3.08 and raised the project to Unicorn status with a $2.6 billion market capitalization.

Decentraland (MANA), a virtual reality network that allows the acquisition of digital plots of land that can be created and monetized, and Flow (FLOW), a blockchain intended to be the framework for “the next generation of games, applications, and the digital assets that fuel them, are two other prominent NFT-related additions to the Unicorn club.

Concluding Lines 

This has brought us to the end of our discussion. From the above discussion, we can infer that crypto space is going to bring revolutionary changes that none of us ever imagined.
As this space is continuously growing and showing no sign of slowing down, scope for Crypto Experts is booming. 

If you want to gain all the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies and become a Certified Crypto Expert, get started today with Blockchain Council. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council. 

New Milestone Reached: 100 Cryptocurrencies Hit a Market Capitalization of $1 Billion

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