Decentralized finance projects like Ren pumped in 2021, only to finish the year right back where they started as high fees on Ethereum (ETH) led to decreased activity for many protocols and DeFi took a backseat to more popular sectors like nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Now, it appears as though that downtrend is in the process of reversing course after recent global events highlighted the benefits of DeFi and holding assets outside the traditional financial system. This week REN price climbed 69% from a low of $0.247 on Feb. 24 to a daily high of $0.418 on March 3.
REN/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Three reasons for the potential price reversal in REN are the launch of its first layer-one application Catalog, the launch of VarenX on Polygon and several new partnerships and integrations for REN and the Ren Virtual Machine (RenVM).
Catalog launches
The biggest development to come out of the REN project lately was the release of Catalog, the first application built on the Ren blockchain.
Say goodbye to multi-chain acrobatics with Catalog♂️
Catalog is a “Metaversal” exchange according to Ren and is designed to be a secure cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) with built-in liquidity mechanisms that allow users to swap assets across popular networks at a minimal cost.
The liquidity mechanism for Catalog will tap into native asset pools as well as liquidity across third-party DEXes, meaning that Ren will be able to support a wide array of projects without worrying about liquidity constraints.
Other features of Catalog include zero gas fees and low, flat-rate trading fees, the ability to earn passive income on crypto held in a Catalog account without needing to stake or participate in liquidity pools and future plans to add the ability to link a bank account for easy deposits and withdrawals.
VarenX launches on Polygon
A second development boosting the momentum for REN was the integration of its VarenX DeFi hub on the Polygon network.
Up to this point, VarenX has only operated on the Ethereum network, making it difficult for VarenX to gain traction.
The low fee nature of Polygon has enabled VarenX to offer gasless transactions through its “FreeWei” feature which fronts the gas costs for users, allowing them to conduct cross-chain for free.
A third factor helping to boost the outlook for Ren has been a series of partnerships and integrations that have helped to strengthen its cross-chain ties.
Most recently, Ren partnered with Kava to join the Kava Pioneer program, which will see the RenVM deployed on the Kava Network Ethereum co-chain on March 8.
Other notable developments include a partnership with DappBack, a renBTC integration with Vesta Finance and the listing of REN on the Voyager app and exchange.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for REN on Feb. 25, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for REN climbed into the green zone on Feb. 25 and reached a high of 81 around 56 hours before the price increased 35.8% over the next three 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.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) was the talk of the town in early 2021, but it has since taken a back seat to more appealing sectors like nonfungible tokens (NFTs), memecoins and blockchain gaming.
Now that cross-chain bridges and interoperability have allowed for the easier migration of assets to competing chains, a new class of DeFi protocols is arising to challenge those left from 2021.
Here’s a look at three DeFi projects that have launched on some of the up-and-coming layer-1 blockchain networks, catching the eye of the crypto community.
The goal of VVS Finance is to offer instant swaps with low fees, low slippage and attractive yields for liquidity providers (LPs).
As a reward for providing liquidity, two-thirds of swap fees collected on the exchange are distributed to the LPs of the respective pools and LP tokens can also be locked in the protocol’s Crystal Farms to earn VVS rewards.
VVS holders also have the ability to single stake their tokens in the “Glitter Mines,” where they can currently auto-compound for 65.78%. Future plans include the addition of VVS rewards for those who swap tokens through the exchange.
According to data from DefiLlama, the current TVL for VVS finance is $1.35 billion, accounting for more than half of the $2.37 billion in value locked on the Chronos network.
Total value locked on VVS Finance. Source: DefiLlama
The steady rise in TVL on VVS has come as the protocol has added support for new assets including Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIBA), TrueUSD (TUSD) and Cardano (ADA).
Solidly
Solidly is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Fantom network and it claims to offer “low fees, near-zero slippage on correlated assets and a strong focus on secondary markets for tokenized locks as NFTs.”
In simpler terms, Solidly is designed to function as an interface for swapping stablecoins and other crypto assets.
The DEX is the latest creation by Andre Cronje, DeFi architect and founder of Yearn.finance. It was launched in January 2022 with the goal of offering fair and balanced access to decentralized finance.
The protocol’s focus on stablecoins has thrust it into the Curve Wars debate with its own twist. This comes at the time when Solidly Wars have broken out among the Fantom DeFi community, with the Solidex protocol currently accounting for 33.74% of all Solidly emissions.
Despite launching just a little over a month ago, the total value locked (TVL) on the protocol recently hit a high of $2.19 billion and saw more than $317 million in volume on March 3 as the wider crypto market experienced a sell-off.
Total liquidity and 24-hour trading volume on Solidly. Source: Solidly
SOLID, the native token, holders can stake their tokens on the network for varying lock-up periods ranging from one week to four years. They are also able to receive vested equity nonfungible tokens (veNFT) that represent the staked assets and confer voting rights.
Liquidity providers are also rewarded with veNFTs and earn between 40% and 100% based on their own ve-token balance. Fees generated from activity on the Solidly exchange are distributed to veNFT token holders.
Juno is a decentralized, public and permissionless network for cross-chain smart contracts that is part of the Cosmos ecosystem. While it is not necessarily a DeFi-specific protocol, Juno has enabled the creation of multiple decentralized applications (DApps) and DeFi protocols like Junoswap with others currently in development.
The protocol was created by a group of developers, validators and delegators within the Cosmos ecosystem to become a kind of sister hub to the Cosmos Hub, which can help “preserve the neutrality of the Hub by offloading smart contract usage/congestion to a designated contract zone.”
Juno is also home to CosmWasm, a program that enables WebAssembly (WASM) virtual machines in the Cosmos SDK. The addition of WASM allows software to be written in many different coding languages, making it so that developers don’t need to learn a new language just to build on Cosmos.
Activity for the JUNO token saw a noticeable uptick near the end of December 2021, climbing from a price of $7.70 on Dec. 20 to a record-high of $45.85 on March 3.
JUNO/USD 1-day chart. Source: CoinGecko
Alongside interest in the cross-chain smart contract capabilities of Juno, investors have also been attracted to the protocol for several high-profile airdrops that have been distributed to JUNO holders and stakers such as the GovDrop for Neta (NETA) and Marble DAO.
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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.
“We added to our longer-term options position, selling the volatility spike post-invasion,” QCP Capital, a crypto trading firm, wrote in a Telegram chat, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The firm has been tactically accumulating a long volatility position, “expecting outsized volatility” going into the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting March 16-17.
It’s been quite the round trip for bitcoin this week, with the bulls encouraged by a dramatic move higher from midday Monday that carried the price from $38,000 to above $45,000 early Wednesday. The divergence from struggling stocks didn’t last long, though, and bitcoin’s hasty retreat has picked up steam this afternoon.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
The equity markets in Europe and the United States are seeing a sea of red as traders continue to sell risky assets due to the geopolitical situation. Bitcoin (BTC) and several major cryptocurrencies are also witnessing profit-booking after the recent rise.
Another reason that could be keeping investors on the edge is the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on March 16. A statement from Fed hair Jerome Powell on March 2 highlighted that the central bank is likely to hike rates this month.
Fitch Ratings chief economist Brian Coulton expects core inflation to remain high in 2022 and the Fed to boost the “Fed fund rate to 3% by the end of 2022.”
ExoAlpha managing partner and chief investment officer David Lifchitz said that Bitcoin may remain soft in the short term because a rate hike by the Fed technically “strengthens” the U.S. dollar and hence, “weakens” Bitcoin. However, he does not expect a drastic impact on Bitcoin.
Several uncertainties could cap the rallies to the upside in the short term. Let’s analyze the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to spot the critical support and resistance levels.
BTC/USDT
Bitcoin turned down from $45,400 on March 2, indicating that bears are defending the overhead resistance at $45,821. The price has dropped to the moving averages, which is an important support to watch out for.
BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
If the price rebounds off the moving averages, it will suggest that bulls are buying on dips. The bulls will then try to push the price above the overhead resistance zone at $45,821 and the resistance line of the ascending channel. If they succeed, the BTC/USDT pair could rally toward the next major resistance at $52,088.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price slips below the moving averages, it will suggest that traders are selling at higher levels. That could open the doors for a possible drop to $37,000 and then to the support line of the channel.
The flattish 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) ($40,899) and the relative strength index (RSI) near the midpoint suggest a few days of range-bound action.
ETH/USDT
Ether (ETH) broke and closed above the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) ($2,838) on Feb. 28, but the bears successfully defended the psychological level at $3,000. This may have led to selling by short-term traders, which has pulled the price below the moving averages.
ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The ETH/USDT pair could now drop to the support line of the symmetrical triangle. This is an important support for the bulls to defend because if this level cracks, the selling could intensify. If the price sustains below the triangle, the downtrend may resume. The pair could then drop to $2,300 where the bulls are expected to provide support.
Alternatively, if the price turns up from the support line, the bulls will try to push the pair above the overhead resistance at $3,000 and challenge the resistance line of the triangle.
BNB/USDT
Although bulls pushed BNB) above the 50-day SMA ($403), they could not sustain the higher levels. This suggests that bears are defending the level with all their might.
BNB/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The sellers are trying to sink and sustain the price below the 20-day EMA ($391). If they do that, the BNB/USDT pair could drop toward the strong support at $350.
Alternatively, if the price rebounds off the current level, the possibility of a break and close above the 50-day SMA increase. That could open the doors for a possible rally to the overhead resistance at $445.
The flattish 20-day EMA and the RSI near the midpoint suggest a range-bound action in the near term.
XRP/USDT
Ripple (XRP) turned down from the downtrend line and dropped to the 50-day SMA ($0.73) indicating that bears have not yet thrown in the towel.
XRP/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
If the price rebounds off the 50-day SMA, the buyers will again try to push and sustain the XRP/USDT pair above the downtrend line. If they manage to do that, the buying momentum could pick up and the pair may rally toward $0.91.
On the other hand, if the price sustains below the 50-day SMA, the bears will attempt to pull the pair to $0.62. The flattish moving averages and the RSI near the midpoint do not give a clear advantage either to the bulls or the bears.
LUNA/USDT
Terra’s LUNA token has failed to sustain above $94 but the positive sign is that the buyers have not given up much ground. The bulls have repeatedly bought the dip to $86 in the past three days.
LUNA/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
Usually, a tight consolidation near an overhead resistance is a sign of strength, which resolves to the upside during an uptrend. If bulls push and sustain the price above $94, the LUNA/USDT pair could challenge the all-time high at $103.
A break and close above this level will indicate the resumption of the uptrend. The pair could then rally toward $110. The rising 20-day EMA ($72) and the RSI near the overbought zone indicate advantage to buyers.
This positive view will invalidate in the short term if the price turns down and slips below $86. That could pull the price to $80.
SOL/USDT
Solana (SOL) rose above the resistance line of the descending channel on March 2 but the bulls could not overcome the barrier at the 50-day SMA ($103). The failure to do so could have attracted profit-booking by short-term traders. This pulled the price back inside the channel.
SOL/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
If bears pull and sustain the price below the 20-day EMA ($95), the SOL/USDT pair could drop to the strong support at $81. This is an important level to keep an eye on because the bulls have successfully defended it twice in the past few days.
If the price again rebounds off $81, the pair could rise to the 50-day SMA and then stay range-bound between these two levels for a few days.
A break and close above the 50-day SMA will be the first sign that the downtrend may be ending. The pair could then rise to $122. Alternatively, if bears pull and sustain the pair below $81, the decline could extend to $66.
ADA/USDT
During strong downtrends, when strong supports are broken, they usually flip to resistance and that is what happened with Cardano (ADA). The relief rally stalled at the breakdown level at $1, indicating that bears are defending this level.
ADA/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears will now make an effort to pull the price below the immediate support at $0.82 and challenge the Feb. 24 intraday low at $0.74. If this level also cracks, the ADA/USDT pair could extend its downtrend to $0.68.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price rebounds off $0.82, the bulls will again try to clear the hurdle at $1. If they succeed, it will be the first sign that the sellers may be losing their grip. The bulls will have to push and sustain the pair above the channel to indicate a possible trend change.
Avalanche (AVAX) has turned down from the downtrend line of the descending channel for the fourth time. This suggests that traders are selling the rallies to this level.
AVAX/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears are attempting to sustain the price below the moving averages while the bulls are buying the dips and trying to maintain the AVAX/USDT pair above the 20-day EMA ($80). The flattish 20-day EMA and the RSI near the midpoint indicate a balance between supply and demand.
If bulls push the price above the 20-day EMA, the pair could again rise to the downtrend line. The bulls will have to clear this hurdle to signal a possible change in trend. Alternatively, if the price breaks below $71, the pair could drop to $64.
DOT/USDT
Polkadot’s (DOT) failure to break above the 50-day SMA ($19) indicates that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies to stiff resistance levels.
DOT/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears have pulled the price below the 20-day EMA ($18) and will now seek to challenge the strong support zone at $16 to $14. This zone has held successfully on two previous occasions, hence the bulls will again try to defend it with vigor.
If the price rebounds off the zone, the DOT/USDT pair could rise to the moving averages. A break and close above the 50-day SMA will be the first indication that the downtrend could be coming to an end.
Conversely, a break and close below the zone will resume the downtrend. The pair could then drop to psychological support at $10.
DOGE/USDT
Dogecoin’s (DOGE) relief rally stalled at the 20-day EMA ($0.13), indicating that bears are unwilling to let go of their advantage. The bears are trying to pull the price to the strong support at $0.12.
DOGE/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
Repeated retests of a support level tend to weaken it and it suggests that bulls are unable to sustain the higher levels. If the price breaks and sustains below $0.12, the DOGE/USDT pair could plummet to the psychological level at $0.10.
The downsloping moving averages and the RSI in the negative territory indicate the path of least resistance is to the downside. This negative view will invalidate in the short term if bulls push and sustain the pair above the 50-day SMA ($0.14).
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.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s crypto fundraising effort announced that it would be conducting an airdrop to those who had made donations. (An airdrop is an unsolicited distribution of a cryptocurrency token or coin, usually for free, to numerous wallet addresses.) There were few details of what crypto might be dropped, but a reasonable guess would have been some sort of “thank you” token with little explicit monetary value.
“I’ve been drawing ever since I was really young,” Yang said. “I like to constantly take in information, whether it’s the commercials, movies, music, videos, TV shows, anime.” But with Asian parents, there was a part of her life where she had to “forget about” the artsy part of herself.
