opinions

Jun 26 2021

3 reasons why Quant (QNT) price rallied 125% this week

Real-world use cases and delivered value are important when evaluating the long-term prospects of a cryptocurrency project, and this is especially true in down markets when sentiment is low and the possibility of an extended bear market is a reality.

One project that has been gaining momentum over the past month despite the market-wide downturn is Quant (QNT), an interoperability-focused project designed to help enterprises integrate and operate distributed ledger technology (DLT).

*QNT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that following a brief dip to $44 on June 22 as the entire crypto market faced a sell-off, the price of QNT surged more than 125% to establish a new record high at $99.11 on June 25.

Coinbase bump in full effect

The rapid turnaround in the price for QNT following the pullback was due in large part to its listing on Coinbase Pro, which began accepting deposits on June 23.

Inbound transfers for BOND, LPT & QNT are now available in the regions where trading is supported. Traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on Wed 6/24, if liquidity conditions are met. https://t.co/ozmX17nhsz

— Coinbase Pro (@CoinbasePro) June 23, 2021

Price action for QNT began to pick up on June 24 as trading via limit orders opened up on Coinbase Pro, and its addition to the front-side of Coinbase which includes the Andriod and iOS apps on June 25 saw another boost in trading volume and token price.

As a result of the momentum brought by the new listing, the average 24-hour trading volume for QNT soared on June 25.

Protocol upgrades attract attention

Prior to the Coinbase listing and market sell-off, QNT price began to gain traction around June 14 following the release of a mid-year technology update called Overledger 2.0. This is the project’s hallmark “DLT gateway that delivers interoperability across different systems, networks and DLTs,” according to the project’s website.

Excitement for the update had been building since early June as evidenced by the recognition Quant has received from several reputable sources including cloud infrastructure provider Oracle and the professional services network Deloitte, which included the project in its nominations for the Most Disruptive Fintech Award for 2021.

VORTECS™ data turned bullish ahead of Quant’s most recent rally

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for QNT on June 22, prior to the recent price rise.

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. QNT price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for Quant actually reached a high score of 71 on June 22 as the market was selling off and was subsequently followed by a 125% rally in price over the next three days.

The NewsQuake™ service from Cointelegraph Markets Pro also highlighted the Coinbase listing announcement on June 24, which was followed by a 50% increase in the price of QNT over the next two days.

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.

3 reasons why Quant (QNT) price rallied 125% this week

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Jun 25 2021

Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

In times like these, when the entire cryptocurrency market is down and there is nary a sector-wide runup to be found, traders have to dig into data to see how the market dynamics may have changed to pinpoint signs of new growth.

Stablecoins are the newest trend to emerge in the decentralized finance (DeFi) arena due to the resiliency they bring to the sector, especially since protocols that are more reliant on the dollar-pegged assets continue to offer token holders low-risk yield opportunities in turbulent market conditions.

Possible evidence of stablecoins rising influence can be found in the difference between the decline in Ether’s (ETH) price and the total value locked in smart contracts. The price of Ether declined by 20% more from its peak than the decline in the total TVL of the DeFi sector.

*TVL in smart contracts vs. Ether price decline. Source:* *Glassnode*

When one takes into account that most of the crypto market saw price declines on par with what Ether experienced, the fact that the DeFi TVL fell less percentage-wise than the price of Ether points to the stability offered by stablecoins.

Stablecoin marketcap increases tenfold

The total amount of stablecoins available in the market has skyrocketed from under $15 billion to more than $113 billion over the past year, led by Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), bringing an increased level of liquidity to DeFi protocols.

*Top seven stablecoins by market capitalization. Source:* *CoinGecko*

The top stablecoins are included in a large percentage of the liquidity pool (LP) pairs available on DeFi platforms, as well as being included as a standalone token that users can deposit on protocols, such as Aave, to earn a yield. This further makes them an integral part of the burgeoning DeFi ecosystem.

Stablecoins have, in fact, led to the creation of a specialized subset of DeFi protocols, which focus on yield farming stablecoins and provide a safer way for investors to earn a yield while minimizing risk.

Early on in the DeFi craze, protocols attracted new users and deposits by offering high yields that were typically paid out in the native token of the protocol.

With a majority of DeFi tokens now down at least 75% from their all-time highs, according to data from Messari, many of the gains that users thought they made through staking and providing liquidity have evaporated, leaving little to show for the risks taken on these experimental platforms.

The battle for stablecoin liquidity

The rise of successful stablecoin-focused protocols such as Curve Finance, which is a decentralized exchange for stablecoins that uses an automated market maker to manage liquidity, platforms such as Yearn.finance, Convex Finance and Stake DAO battle to offer the best incentives that will attract a larger share of the Curve ecosystem.

Supplying stablecoins to Curve, or as a stablecoin LP like as a USDC/USDT pair, amounts to the blockchain version of a savings account. Many of the top protocols, including the three listed above, offer between 10% and 30% yields on average for stablecoins deposits.

Thanks to smart contracts, users can make deposits to automated, compounding stablecoin liquidy protocols, reducing the stress of the daily market gyrations.

*Total market capitalization of the top 100 DeFi tokens. Source:* *CoinGecko*

The aftermath of the May 19 sell-off is still impacting investors, and in times like these, the yield opportunities provided by supplying stablecoins to DeFi protocols is an attractive way to diversify a crypto portfolio and hedge against market downturns.

Want more information about diversification into the above-mentioned projects?

Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

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Jun 19 2021

3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

Ether (ETH) price outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 173% from March 28 to May 15. The incredible bull caused the token to reach a $4,380 all-time high. However, as cryptocurrency markets initiated a sharp drop on May 12, the trend started to reverse, and since then, Ether has underperformed by 25%.

Some might say it is a technical adjustment after a strong rally. While this partially explains the move, it excludes some critical factors, including the fast advance of smart-contract network competitors and Bitcoin being adopted as an official currency for the first time.

*Ether / Bitcoin price at Binance. Source: TradingView*

Notice how the ETH/BTC ratio rallied again on June 8, reaching 0.77 despite Ether’s price remaining 36% below its all-time high and ranging near $2,800. To understand what could have been driving the ratio, analysts need to analyze Ether and Bitcoin price drivers separately.

Mike Novogratz may have been misinterpreted in his interview

Ether’s bull run potentially got an extra leg due to intense praise from institutional investors. Traders could have picked up a sense of urgency, known as FOMO, and promptly shifted their Bitcoin exposure towards the leading altcoin.

On May 13, New Yorker magazine published an interview with Mike Novogratz, the founder, and CEO of Galaxy Digital. In the conversation, Novogratz said:

“All of a sudden, you have decentralized finance and NFTs both on Ethereum at the same time roughly, with wild accelerating growth.”

Novogratz was then questioned on how much higher Ether could reach, to which he answered:

“You know, it’s dangerous to give predictions on the highs. But could it get to $5,000? Of course it could.”

While an Ethereum holder might have interpreted it as a prediction, others could have understood it as a wild guess, likely depending on general crypto market conditions.

However, roughly a week later, a report from Goldman Sachs revealed the global investment bank believed that Ether had a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” Interestingly, one of the main quotes in the report was directly from Novogratz’s interview with the New Yorker.

At its peak, Binance Chain controlled 40% of DEX volume

While Ethereum has kept its 80% dominance on net value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has reached a 40% market share on DEX exchanges.

*PancakeSwap DEX daily volume vs. top 10. Source: DeBank*

The successful growth of the DeFi industry and non fungible token (NFT) markets caused intense congestion on the Ethereum network, raising median fees to $37 in mid-May. That bottleneck triggered an activity exodus to competing networks, and PancakeSwap was best positioned to capture that flow.

To make things worse, important DeFi projects expanded to Binance Smart Chain, including yield aggregator Harvest Finance and decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch. Investors quickly realized that the trend could continue as the competing smart-contract network provided an easy solution for dApps looking for cheaper alternatives.

No country is adopting the ‘Ethereum standard’

Bitcoin might have had a subpar performance over the past 30 days because it has failed to break the $42,000 resistance multiple times. However, a major milestone was achieved when El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender on June 12.

After the Central American country made the decision law, a handful of other Central and South American countries began discussing the advantages of taking a similar path.

Ethereum is undertaking a redesign that will change the issuing rate and how entities get paid to secure the network by moving away from the Proof of Work model. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is making sure that every upgrade is backward-compatible and maintaining its strict monetary policy.

That is the main reason why Ether will not outperform Bitcoin over the next 12 months, or at least until there’s a better understanding of how Ethereum network dominance of smart contracts will be.

Professional investors avoid uncertainties at all costs, and cryptocurrency markets already present plenty of that. There’s just no reason for institutional investors to ignore the risks while competing networks eat Ethereum’s lunch.

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. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

3 reasons why Ethereum may underperform Bitcoin in the short-term

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Jun 18 2021

Perlin (PERL) price gains 100% as the focus on green energy solutions intensifies

Generating momentum and attracting investor attention can be a challenge during the best of times in the cryptocurrency market and it is an even bigger challenge when the markets are choppy like the entire crypto ecosystem has been the past couple of months.

Despite the recent downturn, Perlin (PERL), which has managed to rally 140% from a low of $0.052 on June 8 to a high of $0.134 on June 18 as its average 24-hour trading volume surged from $3 million to $122 million.

*PERL/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

Three reasons for the increase in price and demand for PERL include the release of the PERL.eco registration ledger, the launch of PerlinX on the Binance Smart Chain and attractive staking options allowing token holders to earn a yield on various cryptocurrencies.

Tokenizing real-world biological assets

PERL’s rally on June 6 and June 14 came in response to the release of PERL.eco, the “Planetary Ecosystem Registration Ledger” which enables the tokenization of real-world bioecological assets.

Introducing https://t.co/XHApjvv8Cj, the Planetary Ecosystem Registration Ledger
Tokenization of real-world bioecological assets
Read more: https://t.co/OISGvY9wgK #WorldEnvironmentDay pic.twitter.com/VfKSCmN6nf

— PERL.eco (@PERL_eco) June 5, 2021

According to the project’s blog page, PERL.eco is an “attempt to democratize the biosphere economy through liquidity pools and tokenization of biodiversity and carbon credits to decentralized finance.”

As an added incentive to hold PERL, airdrops of tokenized carbon credits will be distributed to wallets holding PERL which can be used by token holders to “offset their carbon footprint or trade on the liquidity pool when the token is released.”

PERL will also be used as the governance token of the DAO, enabling holders to vote on the distribution and fee model as well as participate in other important decisions that affect the ecosystem.

Binance Smart Chain integration leads to lower fees

A second driver of increased momentum for PERL was the mid-April launch of the protocols DeFi interface platform PerlinX on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), a move that was done in an effort to help lower transaction fees.

Operating on BSC also allowed PerlinX’s liquidity pools to be listed on PancakeSwap and helped to increase the number of farming opportunities available to the PerlinX community.

As a further bonus for PERL liquidity providers, yields earned on PancakeSwap are paid out in the protocol’s native CAKE token which can then be redeposited in the Perlin pool to earn PERL as a form of compound interest.

For PERL holders who wish to remain on the Ethereum (ETH) network, the PerlinX platform offers several options to earn a yield including simple staking as well as liquidity pools between PERL and Wrapped Ether (WETH), Binance USD (BUSD), Balancer (BAL), Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC).

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

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

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for PERL has been in the green for the majority of the past 7 days and registered a score of 67 on June 14, roughly ten hours before the price increased 100% over the next two days.

With the green energy movement and concerns related to the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at the forefront of global discussions, blockchain projects that offer working solutions like Perlin and its PERL.eco platform could possibly receive increased attention.

Perlin (PERL) price gains 100% as the focus on green energy solutions intensifies

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Jun 15 2021

Ethereum price bounce to $2.6K fails to excite neutral-to-bearish pro traders

While speaking at the Virtual Fintech Forum in Hong Kong on May 27, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on obstacles related to the Ethereum 2.0 rollout. Buterin said that there had been several internal team conflicts in the past five years and as a result, he confirmed that Ethereum 2.0 launch is unlikely to occur before late 2022.

In a May 22 report from Goldman Sachs, analysts said that Ether has a “high chance of overtaking Bitcoin as a dominant store of value.” Furthermore, the report noted the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector and the nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystems being built on Ethereum. Coincidentally, on the very next day, Ether’s price bottomed at $1,750.

On June 14, CoinShares released its weekly fund flows report and Ether investment products had the largest outflows, totaling $12.7 million.

However, the upcoming $1.5 billion options expiry on June 25 could be a turning point for Ether, according to Cointelegraph. This figure is 30% larger than the March 26 expiry, which took place as Ether’s price plunged 17% in five days and bottomed near $1,550.

Despite flirting with $2,600 after a 12% rally over the past week, top Ether traders seem unable to change their neutral-to-bearish positioning according to derivatives data.

The 3-month futures premium is neutral-to-bearish

Normally, Tte 3-month futures will usually trade at a premium to regular spot exchanges. In addition to the exchange liquidity risk, the seller is postponing settlement and usually charges more.

The 6% to 17% annualized return on stablecoin lending indicates bullishness whenever the 3-month premium trades above that range. On the other hand, when futures are trading below the stablecoin lending rate, it is a signal of short-term bearish sentiment.

Huobi ETH Sept. futures premium vs. spot market. Source: TradingView

As shown above, the 8% premium — 26% annualized — vanished on May 13, indicating extreme optimism. Since then, it has been ranging near 2.8%, which is equivalent to 10% annualized. Thus, top traders are neutral-to-bearish according to this indicator as it nears the lower level of the expected range.

The options skew shows moderate signs of fear

The 25% delta skew compares similar call (buy) and put (sell) options and will turn positive when the protective put options premium is trading higher. Whenever this metric surpasses 10%, it is considered a “fear” indicator.

The opposite holds when market makers are bullish and this causes the 25% delta skew indicator to enter the negative range

Deribit Ethereum options 25% delta skew. Source: laevitas.ch

From May 20 to June 8, the indicator stood near 10%, indicating a higher protective put premium, which is usually a ‘fear’ indicator. However, over the last week, it has slightly improved to 7%, within the “neutral” range, but still close to bearish sentiment.

There is no evidence of bullish growth in top traders’ confidence as Ether tests the $2,600 resistance. So until those indicators flip to neutral-to-bullish, traders should act with extreme care before concluding that a bull run is in place.

Ethereum price bounce to $2.6K fails to excite neutral-to-bearish pro traders

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