Blockchain

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Hashkey will now support trading the Avalanche (AVAX) token on its platform. However, traders must meet an interesting requirement before interacting with this cryptocurrency on the exchange.

Traders Must Meet $1 Million Portfolio Requirement: SFC

On Wednesday, September 27, Hashkey announced the listing of the AVAX token on its platform, with trading expected to commence on Thursday, September 28. However, only professional investors or individuals with an investment portfolio worth at least 8 million Hong Kong dollars (equivalent to $1 million), according to Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC).

Attention #Crypto Enthusiasts! $AVAX @avax will be available on HashKey Exchange.
Deposit and withdrawal are live, and AVAX/USD trading pairs begins on September 28.
Professional investors, this one is for you ! #CryptoAlert
Read more: https://t.co/sKNFHDF6oe pic.twitter.com/ZQpzSmAi39

— HashKey Exchange (@HashKeyExchange) September 27, 2023

Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Tether (USDT) are the only cryptocurrencies approved by the SFC for retail trading as of this writing. Meanwhile, other altcoins like AVAX are restricted to professional investors or individuals with a $1 million portfolio.

Since Hong Kong authorized retail crypto trading in August, the Securities & Futures Commission has placed significant restrictions on the operations of exchanges, including Hashkey. For instance, SFC requires users to deposit at least 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (or $1,500) during the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

According to CoinGecko data, Hashkey, the first to receive a retail crypto license in Hong Kong, has a daily trading volume of roughly $4.93 million, which pales compared to its global counterparts. For context, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, boasts a 24-hour trading volume of nearly $4.9 billion.

AVAX Price Continues Decline In September

Although the listing of AVAX on the Hashkey exchange poses a potential opportunity for increased adoption, it is worth noting that the cryptocurrency’s price has been struggling in recent months. And September wasn’t different for AVAX, as the token lost nearly 14% of its value in the past 30 days.

This continuous decline underscores Avalanche’s overall performance in 2023, which reflects the uncertain condition of the general market. The cryptocurrency has been on an estimated 58% plunge since notching a high of $21 in April.

According to data from CoinGecko, the Avalanche token changed hands for $8.91, with a 0.31% dip in the last 24 hours. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency has a daily trading volume of $117,251,082, reflecting an 18.4% rise in the past day. Avalanche ranks as the 24th-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of over $3.1 billion.

MARA Pool, the Bitcoin mining pool operated by the publicly listed Marathon Digital Holdings, had a transaction ordering issue on September 27 after it mined an invalid block at block height 809478. The invalid block was first picked by an X user, “0xB10C”, before Jameson Lopp, the CTO of Casa, a Bitcoin-focused company, later confirmed it.

Lopp scanned his node and noted that MARA Pool had spent an output before it was created, validating a double-spent transaction. 

Marathon Digital Mined An Invalid Block

In Bitcoin, a mining pool or an individual miner can’t approve an “illegal” transaction originating from any network user. By double-spending, the user posting the transaction tries to cheat the system. 

Bitcoin is self-auditing, and every miner and mining pool connected to the network must always confirm that all transactions in the latest block and attached to the longest chain are valid. If a block contains an invalid transaction not supported by other miners, it will be rejected. This was the case with the block verified by MARA Pool; other miners automatically dismissed it and didn’t build on it.

BitMEX Research findings show that the block was disregarded because of a transaction ordering problem. In Bitcoin, miners decide the order of transactions within a block based on the fees attached. 

All these transactions are picked from the mempool, a temporary storage for all unconfirmed transactions. While they can arrange them in any order, this changes once the block is confirmed after its cryptographic puzzle is solved. 

Ensuring transactions are ordered chronologically makes Bitcoin resistant to double-spending, which can destroy a public network’s credibility. Bitcoin prevents this by automatically proving that only a particular transaction was the first to be confirmed on the network, invalidating any other.

Bitcoin Remains Volatile

The event also coincided with heightened Bitcoin volatility. At September 27 highs, the coin had soared to as high as $27,263 and remains capped inside a $1,000 range, looking at price action in the daily chart. 

Nonetheless, the surge was quickly met with strong rejections. The coin fell sharply from today’s highs, and an inverted hammer forms in the daily chart. Despite the pullback, Bitcoin is roughly up 5% from September lows. Buyers have the upper hand since prices are trending inside the bullish range established in the second and third weeks of the month.

Presently, prices are trending above the primary support at around $26,000. Looking at price trends in the past few weeks, the path of least resistance is southwards despite the recent revival.

Feature image from Canva, chart by TradingView

Even with the Cardano network hitting seeing good metrics over the last month, the ADA price has remained rather stale in its performance. However, this trend might soon change for the digital asset as multiple developments have emerged that could fast-track its recovery.

Cardano Whales Go To Market

It is no secret that Cardano whales have often doubled down on their positions even at times when the digital asset has suffered from the bear trends. This has not changed, especially with the most recent dip in the ADA price, which sent the whales into a buying frenzy instead of dumping their holdings.

Earlier in the week, ADA fell as low as $0.2422, which is the second-lowest that the price has been this month but this did not deter believers in the coin. Instead, Cardano whales increased their activity, suggesting that they were scrambling to buy the digital asset at what is believed to be a low price.

Data from IntoTheBlock showed that these whales moved over $3 billion worth of ADA on Monday alone. While this doesn’t exactly serve as evidence for buying, the time frame in which this happened is what points toward accumulation.

The whales began to move these tokens not long after the price dip. Additionally, since then, the digital asset has been showing strength with the ADA price recovering and eventually beating the resistance at $0.245.

This continued show of strength on the part of the altcoin suggests that the whales had been buying the token rather than selling it. In this case, they expect the ADA price to continue to rise, and choose to add to their positions.

ADA Price Could Be Poised For A Rally

Another interesting development on the Cardano network that could boost the ADA price is the rise in its active users. IntoTheBlock’s data showed a prominent jump in the daily active users that brought it up to over 42,500 addresses. This translates to a more than 60% increase from the prior figures.

Related Reading: Ethereum Open Interest Barrels Past $5.2 Billion, Is It Time To Buy?

Now, the daily active addresses have begun to correct downward with the DeFi tracking website DeFiLlama showing a total of 31,846 active users in the past 24 hours. Nevertheless, this remains significant, surpassing the likes of Avalanche at 29,042 daily active users.

This surge in active addresses suggests rising interest in the Cardano network. Given that ADA is the token that powers the entire ecosystem, a rise in activity means more demand for the token as users need it to carry out transactions.

The ADA price has also been trading in a tight range for some time. So a bounce from there would see the token’s price retest the $0.26 resistance in no time.

Curve has observed gains of more than 20% in the past week, but this rally may not continue for long, as a whale has made a large move to exchanges.

Curve Has Enjoyed A Sharp Rally Over The Past Week

CRV has gone against the grain recently as it has registered some sharp bullish momentum during a period where the largest coins in the sector, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, have struggled.

Following this latest uptrend, the Curve DAO token’s price has risen above the $0.52 mark. Here is a chart that shows how the cryptocurrency has performed over the past month:

In the past week, CRV is up more than 20%, which makes it the best-performing coin among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The outperformance is by quite a distance, too, as many of the assets are in the red for the period. Now, the main question on the minds of the Curve DAO token holders is: can the asset keep up its rally?

In the sharp surge a few days back, the asset had briefly managed to breach the $0.56 level, but the asset had quickly returned to the current level.

Since then, CRV has been moving sideways, suggesting a slowdown in the buying pressure. While the asset has continued to hold at the current levels positive, some investors may be becoming restless, like a certain whale.

CRV Whale Has Made A Sizeable Deposit To Binance Today

According to data from the cryptocurrency transaction tracker service Whale Alert, a large CRV transfer has been spotted on the Ethereum blockchain during the past day.

The transaction in question involved the movement of about 33.3 million CRVs, worth approximately $17.3 million at the time the transfer took place on the network.

Given the large size of the move, it’s likely that a whale entity is behind it. As for what this humongous holder may have wanted to accomplish with the transfer, the full details may reveal some context.

It would seem like the sending address in the case of this transaction was an unknown wallet, meaning that it was unattached to any known centralized platform and was likely the whale’s personal, self-custodial wallet.

The destination of the move was the Binance exchange. As one of the main reasons investors use these platforms is for selling-related purposes, there is a chance that the deposit has been made for dumping.

If this is truly the whale losing patience and taking profits at the current price level, then the Curve DAO token may observe at least a temporary pullback in the coming days.

The cryptocurrency sector, particularly Ripple Labs, has been embroiled in a scenario of concern and uncertainty following a contentious exchange between the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) chair, Gary Gensler, and the House Financial Services Committee in Congress which could affect the XRP price. 

Despite Ripple’s partial legal victory against the SEC, Gensler’s stance remains unchanged, as he emphasized the regulatory body’s determination to pursue an interlocutory appeal in the ongoing case. This has raised further questions and apprehension within the industry.

Congressman Highlights Ripple Case’s Far-From-Over Status

During the hearing, Congressman Stephen F. Lynch expressed his concern about the potential pattern whereby court battles become the norm to determine the classification of individual tokens as securities. 

While Gensler did not respond directly, he mentioned the SEC’s filing for an interlocutory appeal, highlighting the regulator’s intent to continue the legal battle. Lynch acknowledged that the case is far from over.

On August 17, Judge Torres granted the SEC’s request to file an interlocutory appeal, granting the regulatory body an opportunity to present a compelling case to the Second Circuit. 

However, it’s important to note that this permission only allows the SEC to file the motion for an interlocutory appeal, presenting a significant opening for the regulator to challenge the previous ruling and seek a different outcome.

These recent developments, as highlighted by Congressman Lynch, indicate that the ongoing Ripple case may take considerable time to resolve. 

As a result, XRP is likely to remain stagnant, trapped in a consolidation phase, or potentially retracing beyond its current levels. This could potentially push the cryptocurrency to pursue another annual low, extending beyond the $0.4225 mark reached on August 17.

XRP Price Analysis Points To Potential Macro Uptrend

Despite the legal battles and the uncertainty surrounding the current state of the crypto market, some signs might point to a different scenario, where XRP could follow a macro uptrend. 

Technical analysis highlights a pattern resembling the last market cycle, which consists of five phases: rise, crash, retrace, reaccumulation, and eventual breakout.

Drawing parallels to previous cycles, many coins have experienced explosive growth beyond their previous all-time highs after the reaccumulation phase. 

For instance, Bitcoin went through its reaccumulation phase during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, due to the ongoing lawsuit, XRP has entered a more prolonged reaccumulation phase in the form of an Elliott wave triangle, similar to the previous cycle. 

Currently, the market is in phase E, which suggests a potential retracement upwards, followed by another dip to lower levels. Eventually, there is anticipation for a breakout from this massive triangle, leading to a new all-time high likely to occur next year or the year after.

While some argue that the XRP price fate depends on Bitcoin’s performance, it is worth noting that when comparing XRP to BTC, it is also within an accumulation range and exhibits a bullish outlook. From this perspective, XRP is expected to outperform other alternative coins significantly.

However, for the XRP price to sustain an extended uptrend in the near term, it must overcome significant resistance levels that pose potential challenges. In the immediate time frame, XRP faces a resistance at $0.5132, followed by two additional formidable barriers, which are expected to be particularly challenging in the coming weeks.

XRP’s 50-day and 200-day Moving Averages (MAs) are currently positioned at $0.5194 and $0.5318, respectively. These MAs, once considered reliable support levels, have failed to hold, necessitating a significant catalyst for XRP to surpass them. 

This is evident in the chart, depicting the partial victory on July 13, when XRP surged above both MAs. However, since August, XRP has been trading below them.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance, has settled his loan on the Aave Protocol and cut his total debt to $42.7 million.  Egorov’s DeFi debt profile was revealed on August 1 following a Curve Finance hack that extracted $73.5 million worth of assets across various liquidity pools. 

As expected, the exploit caused a significant decline in the price of CRV, with the Curve governance token losing over 24% of its value in a single day, based on data from CoinMarketCap. This fall in CRV’s market price brought much attention to Egorov’s multiple debt positions. 

According to a report by blockchain research firm Delphi Digital, it was revealed that the Curve Finance founder owed around $100 million across several DeFi protocols. Interestingly, these loans were collateralized by 427.5 million CRV tokens, representing 47% of the entire CRV circulating supply. 

Therefore, the dwindling price of CRV presented a threat of liquidation, which could have been dangerous to the entire DeFi ecosystem. 

Michael Egorov Closes Debt Profile On Aave Protocol

According to a report on Wednesday by the on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, Micheal Egorov has now cleared his debt on the Aave protocol. 

The report stated that the Curve Founder deposited 68 million CRV, worth $35.5 million, on DeFi lending protocol Silo before proceeding to borrow $10.77 million worth of the stablecoin crvUSD.

After that, Egorov swapped the crvUSD tokens for USDT and finalized the repayment of his debt on the Aave Protocol. 

Michael Egorov deposited 68M $CRV ($35.5M) to #Silo and borrowed 10.77M $crvUSD in the past 2 days.

Then swapped $crvUSD for $USDT and repaid the all debt on #Aave.

He currently has 253.67M $CRV($132.52M) in collateral and $42.7M in debt on 4 platforms.https://t.co/stkFvDrlnv pic.twitter.com/oBQ4yiT9Xs

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 27, 2023

Egorov’s Current Debt Profile 

Based on more data from Lookonchain, Michael Egorov’s total debt now stands at $42.7 million spread across 4 lending protocols: Fraxlend, Silo, Inverse Finance, and Cream Finance.

In detail, the Curve Finance founder has his largest debt on Silo, where he owes 17.14 million crvUSD backed by 105.8 million CRV, worth $55.3 million. On Fraxlend, Egorov owes 13.08 million FRAX, collateralized by 68.7 million CRV, valued at $35.94 million. 

While on Inverse Finance, Michael Egorov has an outstanding debt of 10 million DOLA, backed by 66.18 million CRV, worth $34.5 million. The Curve Finance founder’s lowest debt can be found on Cream Finance, which comprises 2.02 million USDT and 506,000 USDC, secured by 13 million CRV, valued at $6.8 million. 

Altogether, Egorov’s $42.7 million debt is backed by 253.67 million CRV, worth $132.53 million, representing 28.87% of the total CRV circulating supply. 

CRV trades at $0.516 when writing, with a 2.99% gain on the last day. Meanwhile, the token’s daily trading volume is down by 0.73%, valued at $33.85 million. CRV ranks as the 70th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap value of $452.87 million.

Tellor (TRB), a decentralized oracle protocol and Chainlink alternative, has been a top performer in the past few months. Looking at price action, TRB is up 640% in 2023, surging 269% in the past month alone and reversing losses of 2022. A spike in trading volume is behind this resurgence, suggesting bull engagement.

TRB Prices Rallying, Reverses 2022 Losses

With TRB galloping past $44 and 2022 highs, the token has outpaced some of the top coins in the sphere, including XRP and Bitcoin (BTC). For context, Bitcoin is struggling to break above $30,000. On the other hand, XRP has reversed all gains registered following a court ruling declaring XRP as a commodity. TRB is more than 6X from 2023 lows and surging in a crypto winter. 

A look at onchain data shows that though there are hints of retailers taking profits at spot rates, the number of TRB on exchanges has been dropping in the past week. This contraction indicates that retailers and whales could accumulate, adding more TRB. 

An analysis of the top TRB whales with over $1 million of tokens reveals interesting patterns. For instance, a fresh whale, “0x656”, holds 111.89K TRB ($6.06 million), a figure accumulated in the past three weeks. Buying at an average of $28.1, the whale has an unrealized profit of over $2.92 million at spot rates. Another new whale, “0x8f8”, accumulated 65.7K TRB ($3.6 million) in the past five days at an entry price of $34.5. With TRB edging higher, the associated address has an unrealized profit of $1.33 million. 

Moreover, on-chain data shows that these whales mostly received their TRB from Binance and OKX. While prices have been rallying, on-chain trackers reveal that none of the above whales had moved their coins to exchanges. This points to confidence and expectations of more price gains going forward. 

Tellor Rallying Because of Chainlink?

TRB’s rally coincided with SWIFT’s announcement that it had completed its trials leveraging Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) in late August. Then, a SWIFT representative said the goal was to drive interoperability and ensure tokenization reaches its full potential. Days after this news, TRB broke above June highs, cementing its place above $13.

Presently, parallel data suggests that the surge in TRB appears to be driven by fear of missing out, mostly from short-term traders and speculators. IntoTheBlock data on September 27 shows that short-term wallet holders have increased their TRB holdings, with over 72% of TRB holders in the money.

Chainlink (LINK), the decentralized oracle network, has been making waves in the cryptocurrency space recently. Renowned crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa, known for his insightful market predictions on the social media platform X, has voiced strong support for Chainlink, highlighting its promising fundamentals. 

With a current price of $7.45 on CoinGecko, LINK has been steadily gaining traction, posting a 0.2% gain in the past 24 hours and a 9.1% increase over the last seven days.

Sherpa’s Vote Of Confidence On Chainlink

Altcoin Sherpa’s LINK endorsement carries significant weight in the crypto community. He believes that Chainlink is poised for exceptional performance in the next bull cycle, emphasizing its resilience during the crypto market’s ups and downs. 

In his own words:

“LINK: Still one of the few coins that I would consider just buying a bag of and letting it sit for the next six months [plus]. I think this is going to be a very strong one for the next cycle. Core infrastructure for a ton of projects with few competitors.”

LINK’s Steady Price Growth

Chainlink’s recent price surge has caught the attention of investors and analysts alike. Over the past two weeks, LINK’s price has climbed from a low of $6.53 to a peak of $7.30. This impressive rally has left many wondering about the driving factors behind it.

One significant factor contributing to LINK’s recent upswing is the dynamics of its availability on exchanges. Santiment, a prominent on-chain analytics company, has noted that historically, whenever a substantial amount of LINK is transferred to exchanges, it triggers positive price movements. This suggests that investors are actively seeking to acquire and hold LINK, anticipating future gains.

There are a total of 81 fresh wallets created on Sept 15 started withdrawing $LINK from #Binance on Sept 18.

And these wallets have withdrawn a total of 4.7M $LINK ($31.58M) from #Binance so far.

Details: https://t.co/hSdkoncNgZhttps://t.co/AzUM8VleQQ pic.twitter.com/4IxdSHtv6C

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 22, 2023

Growing Chainlink Ecosystem

Another noteworthy development is the surge in the creation of new Chainlink addresses. A recent tweet from Lookonchain revealed that the number of newly established Chainlink addresses has reached 81. This indicates a growing interest in the Chainlink ecosystem, with more participants joining the network. Such expansion often bodes well for the long-term viability and adoption of a cryptocurrency.

Chainlink’s strong fundamentals and the support it has garnered from prominent analysts like Altcoin Sherpa make it a cryptocurrency to watch closely. With its recent price rally, increasing interest from investors, and pivotal role as core infrastructure for various projects, Chainlink seems well-positioned to thrive in the next crypto bull cycle. LINK’s performance will undoubtedly be a topic of keen interest among investors and enthusiasts alike.

(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).

Featured image from iStock

Chainlink has remained bullish despite the bearish pressure in the broader crypto market. The crypto closed bullish at $7.4 yesterday, September 26, with over 7% increase. 

LINK remains bullish, with an 11% seven-day price increase and over 2% gain in the last 24 hours. But while the token’s price continues to increase, data shows the trading volume has declined 17% in the last 24 hours. What could be the reason behind this contradiction?

Chainlink Price Continues To Surge

In an X post on September 24, Chainlink network announced it had recorded multiple integrations across six blockchains. These include Arbitrum, Ethereum, Optimism, Avalanche, Polygon, and BNB Chain.

Also, yesterday, September 26, gaming platform BetSwirl announced that it integrated Chainlink’s CCIP across Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Arbitrum. According to the post, this CCIP integration will help “BetSwirl enable seamless, secure, and reliable cross-chain token transfers”

Related Reading: XRP Price Analysis: 4-Month Chart Dynamics Decoded By Crypto Analyst

This increased adoption across multiple chains expanded Chainlink’s user base, a plausible factor behind LINK’s resilience amid the prevailing bearish market.

Although LINK briefly slipped off the $7.5 level to $7.3 yesterday, it has since recovered momentum. Given the ongoing movement, the crypto asset could break the $7.8 resistance and record higher highs soon.

Meanwhile, Chainlink (LINK) is number 3 among the top weekly gainers after CRV and PEPE. It has also secured a position on the top daily gainers’ chart.

Although the price strides are bullish, the trading volume, down 17%, raises concern about whether LINK can sustain the rally. It indicates reduced trading activity, a possible sign that buyers have reached saturation and paused to weigh their next move. 

This setup bodes badly for LINK as it could signal the entrance of sellers, which will exert downward pressure on the token’s price.

Price Surge Drops Chainlink (LINK) Supply On Crypto Exchanges

According to Santiment’s report on September 24, Chainlink remains one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in September. It outlined that, unlike most assets, LINK’s price often records an initial boost when holders move their tokens from exchanges.

Santiment noted that the asset’s price increased 23% in two weeks as the exchange supply flowed back to cold wallets. Also, the analytics platform reported that LINK exchange supply increased by 17.2%, reaching a 2023 high on September 14.

However, on September 24, 10 days later, the token’s exchange supply dropped to 16.4%. This observation is a plausible reason behind Chainlink’s declining trading volume. 

Meanwhile, as of the time of writing, LINK trades at $7.64, with a 2.88% price increase in the last 24 hours. The token trades above the simple moving averages of $6.494 and $6.719 and two key support levels. 

LINK is approaching the overbought area, forming a bullish candlestick as buyers vie to conquer the $7.823 resistance.

The Bitcoin price has been trading sideways for a while now but this will not always be the case. While there is a chance that the price could end up swinging downward and crashing, a crypto analyst has predicted that a surge in the cryptocurrency’s price is on the horizon.

Bitcoin Price Breakout Is Coming

A crypto analyst who has grown to prominence on the TradingView site has put forward a bullish prediction for the Bitcoin price. The analyst who goes by the pseudonym Tolberti mapped out a yellow trend line which he believes points toward the next bull rally for the coin.

The trend line sits just above the $26,000 level which means that the cryptocurrency is currently close to it. The analyst explains that the BTC price remains bullish despite recent performance, especially as the month of October draws close.

Using the Fibonacci retracement which sat at 0.618, Tolberti points out the next significant resistance for Bitcoin. From here, he puts it at $29,167, which after beating, the analyst expects the Bitcoin price to surge above $30,000. A surge of this magnitude would mean that the Bitcoin price rises at least 15% from its current level.

However, it is not all easy sailing from here as the bears will not give up the fight easily. Speaking about the yellow trend line, the analyst said it is “a gateway to the ultra-huge bull market. Once it breaks, I expect a massive uptrend.” But he cautioned traders to “be aware of a possible retest first. Your stop-loss needs to be safe!”

How High Can BTC Price Go?

Tolberti’s bullish profile for the Bitcoin price also runs through to the long term. Just like a lot of other analysts, Tolberti expects the cryptocurrency to trade in the six digits in the next bull market. For his long-term prediction, he puts Bitcoin at a price of $125,000. According to a previous analyst, he believes that the Bitcoin price will reach this level sometime in the second quarter of 2025.

Interestingly, Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency the analyst is bullish on. Altcoins were not left out of the post with the likes of Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and XRP making an appearance as other bullish tokens.

Given this forecast, Tolberti believes that the current price of Bitcoin is a good price for investors to buy. “26k is still a good price for Bitcoin to buy in the long term because I expect 120k in 2025,” the post read.

Bitcoin is currently showing strength because it continues to hold above $26,000 after the SEC delayed the 21Shares Spot Bitcoin ETF decision. It is currently trending at $26,275, although it’s down 3% in the last week.