Category: NEWS

The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been sitting in the backseat since whipping up a frenzy in the summer of 2020 through the first quarter of 2021. Currently, investors are debating whether the crypto sector is in a bull or bear market, meaning, it’s a good time to check in on the state of DeFi and identify which protocols might be setting new trends.

Here’s a look at the top-ranking DeFi protocols and a review of the strategies used by users of these protocols.

Stablecoins are the foundation of DeFi

Stablecoin-related DeFi protocols are the cornerstone of the DeFi ecosystem and Curve is till the go-to protocol when it comes to staking stalbecoins.

Data from Defi Llama shows four out of the top five protocols in terms of total value locked (TVL) are connected to the creation and management of stablecoins.

It’s important to note that while these protocols have emerged on top when it comes to TVL, the value of their native tokens for the most part are significantly down from their 2021 all-time highs.

The main takeaway is that engaging with the stablecoin aspect of the DeFi market through staking and farming has offered steady yields while also earning the governance tokens for these platforms as an added bonus to help mitigate the drop in token values.

As it stands now, stablecoins play an integral role in the overall healthy functioning of DeFi which continues to expand as newer protocols like Frax Share and Neutrino climb the TVL ranks amidst the increasing number of interconnected blockchain networks.

Lending and borrowing is at the core of DeFi’s value proposition

Lending platforms are another key component of the DeFi ecosystem and one of the key features that investors can interact with even during a bear market. AAVE and Compound are the current leaders with respective TVLs at $12.09 billion and $6.65 billion.

Like other stablecoin protocols, AAVE and Compound saw the value of their native tokens peak in 2021 and both have been in a prolonged downturn for months.

AAVE’s TVL growth outpaced Compound largely due to its cross-chain integration of Polygon and Avalanche, which increased the number of supported assets and allowed users to avoid the high gas fees on the Ethereum network.

Long-term crypto hodlers who are risk averse can benefit from simply lending their tokens for a modest yield.

Related: Altcoin Roundup: JunoSwap, Solidly and VVS Finance give DeFi a much-needed refresh

Liquid staking adds more utility to DeFi

The growing popularity of liquid staking is also adding new utility to decentralized finance. Liquid staking protocols like Lido Finance, which originally launched as an Ethereum staking solution but has since expanded support to Terra (LUNA), Solana (SOL), Kusama (KSM) and Polygon (MATIC).

Data from Defi Llama shows the TVL on Lido reaching a new all-time high of $14.96 billion on March 10 as the addition of new assets continues to attract more value to the protocol.

On Lido, users can stake Ether and Solana and receive stETH or stSOL, which can then be used as collateral on AAVE to borrow stablecoins. Those assets can then be used for trading or yield farming purposes, thus increasing the overall yield earned from the original staked asset.

Other notable liquid staking protocols include the Eth2 staking provider StakeWise, the Cosmos-based pStake protocol and Stader Labs.

Want more information about trading and investing in crypto markets?

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.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been volatile in the past few days but the long-term investors seem to be using the current weakness to buy. 

According to Whale Alert and CryptoQuant, about 30,000 BTC left Coinbase and was deposited in an unknown wallet. It is speculated to be a genuine purchase and not an in-house transaction.

Although investors may be bullish for the long term, the short-term picture remains questionable. Stack Funds said in their recent weekly research report that they “expect sideways trading and possibly a potential dip” in the short term due to the increase in inflation and the lack of clarity regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

While Bitcoin has been volatile, gold-backed crypto assets have made a strong showing in 2022 as investors shunned risky assets and sought the protection of safe havens. This has boosted the market capitalization of gold-baked crypto tokens to more than $1 billion.

Could Bitcoin and altcoins sustain the recovery or will bears reign supreme? Let’s analyze the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin soared above the moving averages on March 9 but quickly retraced the rally on March 10. The bulls are again attempting to push the price back above the moving averages today. This indicates that bulls are buying on dips while bears are selling on rallies.

Both moving averages are flattening out and the relative strength index (RSI) is just below the midpoint, suggesting a balance between supply and demand.

This equilibrium could tilt in favor of the buyers if they push and sustain the price above $42,594. The BTC/USDT pair could then rise to the overhead zone between $45,000 and the resistance line of the ascending channel.

Alternatively, if the price once again turns down from the moving averages, the bears will try to pull the pair below the immediate support at $37,000. If this level gives way, the pair could challenge the support line of the channel. A break and close below this level will increase the possibility of the resumption of the downtrend.

ETH/USDT

Ether’s (ETH) rebound met with stiff resistance at the 50-day simple moving average ($2,751) on March 9, indicating that bears are not willing to let go of their advantage easily. The price turned down from the moving averages on March 10 but a minor positive is that the bulls are attempting to defend the support line of the symmetrical triangle.

If the price rebounds off the support line, the bulls will again try to drive and sustain the price above the 50-day SMA. If they manage to do that, the ETH/USDT pair could rise to the psychological level at $3,000 and then retest the resistance line of the triangle.

This is an important level for the bears to defend because a break and close above it will signal a potential change in trend. This setup has a pattern target at $4,311 on the upside.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price continues lower and breaks below the support line of the triangle, it could indicate the resumption of the downtrend. The pair could then drop to $2,159.

BNB/USDT

Binance Coin (BNB) rose above the 50-day SMA ($389) on March 9 but the bulls could not sustain the higher levels. The bears took advantage of this situation and pulled the price back below the moving averages on March 10.

If the price sustains below the moving averages, the bears will attempt to pull the BNB/USDT pair to the strong support at $350. This is an important level to keep an eye on because a break below it could clear the path for a decline to $320.

Alternatively, if the price rebounds off the current level, the buyers will again try to propel and sustain the pair above the moving averages. If they do that, the pair could start its northward march toward $445.

XRP/USDT

Ripple (XRP) broke and closed above the downtrend line on March 9 but the bulls could not build upon this strength. The bears pulled the price back below the downtrend line on March 10.

The bulls did not allow the price to break below the 50-day SMA ($0.72), which suggests strong demand at lower levels. This tight range trading is unlikely to continue for long.

If the price breaks and sustains above $0.78, the XRP/USDT pair could pick up momentum and rally toward the overhead resistance at $0.91. A break above this level could clear the path for a rally to the psychological level at $1.

This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down and breaks below $0.69. That could turn the tables in favor of the bears.

LUNA/USDT

Terra’s LUNA token rose to a new all-time high on March 9 but the long wick on the day’s candlestick shows profit-booking at higher levels. The bulls again tried to resume the uptrend on March 10 but the bears had other plans.

The failure to sustain the price above $103 may have attracted profit-booking from the short-term traders. That has pulled the LUNA/USDT pair below the critical level at $94.

If the price sustains below $94, the decline could extend to the 20-day EMA ($80). A break and close below this level will suggest that the bullish momentum may have weakened. The pair could then drop to $70.

Conversely, if the price rebounds off the current level or the 20-day EMA, it will indicate that the sentiment remains positive and traders are buying on dips. The bulls will then again try to push the pair to a new all-time high and toward the target objective at $125.

SOL/USDT

Solana (SOL) has been trading inside a descending triangle pattern, which will complete on a break and close below the crucial support at $81. The bulls tried a recovery on March 9 but could not push the price above the 20-day EMA ($89).

If bears sink and sustain the price below $81, the selling could intensify. The SOL/USDT pair could then resume its downtrend and plunge toward the next support at $66.

The downsloping moving averages suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside but the positive divergence on the RSI indicates that the sellers need to be careful of a possible bear trap.

If the price rebounds off the current level, the bulls will again try to push and sustain the pair above the downtrend line. If they manage to do that, the pair could rally to $122.

ADA/USDT

Cardano’s (ADA) attempt to recover on March 9 met with strong resistance at the 20-day EMA ($0.88). This suggests that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on every minor rally.

The downsloping moving averages and the RSI in the negative territory suggest the path of least resistance is to the downside.

The bears will now again attempt to pull the price below the strong support at $0.74 and resume the downtrend. A close below $0.74 could open the doors for a further decline to the next support at $0.68.

The bulls will have to push and sustain the ADA/USDT pair above the psychological level at $1 to suggest that the bears may be losing their grip.

Related: Here’s how traders were alerted to RUNE’s, FUN’s, WAVES’ and KNC’s big rallies last week

AVAX/USDT

Avalanche (AVAX) failed to climb and sustain above the moving averages on March 9. This suggests that bears are defending the moving averages while the bulls are buying on dips to the uptrend line.

Generally, tight ranges result in sharp trending moves. If bears sink and sustain the price below the uptrend line, the AVAX/USDT pair could start its decline toward the important support at $51. It may not be a straight drop because the bulls will try to arrest the fall in the zone between $64 and $61.

Conversely, if bulls push the price above the moving averages, the pair will again attempt to rise above the downtrend line of the descending channel. A break and close above the channel could signal that the downtrend may be ending.

DOT/USDT

After struggling to stay above the 20-day EMA ($17) on March 9 and 10, Polkadot (DOT) has managed to break the resistance today. The bulls are currently attempting to push and sustain the price above the 50-day SMA ($18).

If they succeed, it will suggest that the downtrend could be ending. The DOT/USDT pair could thereafter rally to the overhead resistance at $23. A break and close above this resistance will signal a potential change in trend.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down from the current level, the bears will try to pull the price below the solid support at $16. If they manage to do that, the pair could retest the next major support at $14.

DOGE/USDT

Dogecoin’s (DOGE) relief rally on March 9 fizzled out at the 20-day EMA ($0.12). This suggests that the bears are not ready to give up and they continue to sell near resistance levels.

The DOGE/USDT pair dropped back below $0.12 on March 10, increasing the possibility of a retest of the critical support at $0.10. This zone is likely to attract strong buying from the bulls. The buyers will have to push and sustain the price above the 50-day SMA ($0.13) to indicate that the downtrend could be weakening.

Conversely, if bears sink the price below $0.10, the selling could accelerate and the pair could plummet to the next support at $0.06.

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.

Market data is provided by HitBTC exchange.

Recently, media outlet Rekt.news made striking accusations about Fantom Opera, a layer-1 blockchain, after the foundation’s technical adviser Andre Cronje and senior solutions architect Anton Nell announced they were leaving the crypto space entirely. Almost immediately, concerns from the community arose after Nell tweeted, “There are around ~25 apps and services that we are terminating on 03 April 2022.” In the now-deleted Rekt article, it alleged the following:

“Fantom, Solidly, SpookySwap, Abracadabra, Geist: multiple projects all entwined into a system designed to extract maximum value for a small set of insiders who are now steadily exiting the stage.”

However, on Friday, the Fantom Foundation published a statement regarding alleged “factual inaccuracies,” “debunked claims” and “misinformation” from the Rekt piece. Specifically, the Fantom Foundation stated:

“Andre and Anton did not ‘terminate’ 25 projects. Instead, any involvement (such as user interface) in these projects was to be handed over to the existing teams, many of whom had been developing and running independently.”

Moreover, the foundation explained that neither Cronje nor Nell was a core developer at Fantom and that the entity itself was not involved in creating any of the 25 projects (including, most notably, Yearn.finance) in question. It appears that in part due to the pair’s departure, the total value locked on Fantom has fallen to $8.27 billion from $11.26 billion on Sunday, the date of the announcement. The blockchain has processed over 200 million transactions with more than 2 million active wallets since its inception. 

Haven Protocol (XHV) showed signs of returning to its bullish form as its price doubled in just five days of trading.

What’s pumping Haven Protocol?

XHV’s price surged by up to 107% week-to-date to climb above $3.60 on March 11, its highest level in more than three months. Interestingly, the move upside followed a period of aggressive selloffs that saw XHV’s value dropping from nearly $20 in November 2021 to as low as $1.60 in early February 2022 — an approximately 90% decline.

Traders started returning to the Haven Protocol market against the prospects of two macroeconomic scenarios: U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order that focuses on cryptocurrencies and hardline western sanctions on Russian oligarchs amid an escalating military standoff between Ukraine and Russia.

In the order titled “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets,” President Biden directed federal agencies to submit reports on cryptocurrencies and consider introducing new regulations for the sector.

Meanwhile, western powers decided to cut Russia out of the Swift global banking system while imposing targeted sanctions on some of the country’s wealthiest individuals.

Crypto investors priced in the effects of these two updates, deciding to bid up the prices of privacy-enabled digital assets that promise to secure financial transactions from regulatory watchdogs.

As a result, Monero (XMR), Kyber Network (KNC), Tornado Cash (TORN) and other privacy coins outperformed the crypto market massively this week.

Privacy coins have surged, with #Monero posting +26% gains over the last 24-hours to lead the top-100.

During times of unprecedented censorship in the crypto world, no wonder that the price of privacy coins, like $XMR, is surging. #XMR

— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) March 9, 2022

Haven Protocol, a fork of the Monero blockchain that promotes itself as an “offshore bank,” appears to have rallied on similar sentiment. 

Fractal suggests more gains for XHV

The recent bout of buying in the Haven Protocol market may have also emerged owing to a multi-month technical support level.

Related: FBI director: Russia overestimates its ability to bypass US sanctions using crypto

XHV’s price rebounded after failing to close below its descending channel support on multiple attempts, as shown in the chart below.

Notably, the token’s last 90% drop towards the same price floor in 2021 led to a sharp upside retracement from around $2.50 in June to around $20 in November.

XHV’s price hints at undergoing a similar, extended upside recovery after its latest bounce. In doing so, the Haven Protocol token might retest the resistance trendline of its descending channel setup — around $10.

Conversely, a pullback risk declines below XHV’s previous support lines inside the $1.00–1.50 range.

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.

A self-made millionaire by 16, Jonathan Manzi is no ordinary entrepreneur. Now 31, the past 15 years have seen him start an energy drink business but shutter it once he realized that there wasn‘t enough of the required kava-plant ingredient in the world to feed his ambitions of competing against Gatorade.

Becoming the youngest bar owner in San Francisco at 22, Manzi went on to create a robotic FedEx-like printing office with his company INK and later launch Beyond Protocol, a blockchain that styles itself as the “internet” for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Whether it’s a biometric suit that records the vital signs of Cage The Elephant’s lead singer or an electric vehicle charging system spreading across Slovenia, Manzi the magnificent continues to create opportunities for machines and devices to talk and interact via blockchain as they emerge from the old internet.

Teenage millionaire

Manzi grew up in a small town in Massachusetts “near Salem, where the witch trials happened many years ago.” His first foray into business came about while in high school in 2007 when he started an internet marketing company called Vintage Network based on ad serving technology. He says the challenge and joy of problem-solving “got me working 20 hour days to continue to build it.” Solving problems was not the only reward, as Manzi found himself a millionaire at a mere 16 years of age.

Of such wealth at a young age, Manzi explains that he largely compartmentalized his success, buying only a used BMW in order to go snowboarding in New Hampshire. 

“There was a kind of a sense of ‘I‘m doing something different versus others, but I hope you know I still feel very connected to the others,” he explains of his experience of trying to live a normal teenage life as an internet millionaire. Eventually, he found ‘his people’ — entrepreneurs and hacker-types.

“We had a $5 million in revenue by the time I finished high school”

As he finished secondary education with a multi-million dollar business, Manzi felt that he had pigeonholed himself in “this kind of niche internet marketing world.” Wanting to move beyond its limits, he applied to Stanford believing that it was “where all the innovation was happening.” Predictably enough, he was accepted. 

As Manzi started his management science and engineering and philosophy degree in 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession, he sold his stake in Vintage Network as it faced turbulence due to businesses cutting their marketing spend. He soon also decided to drop out of university because though he enjoyed the academic environment, he felt he “could probably read those books and do it on a different schedule” while continuing on his entrepreneurial journey.

The journey continues

One of the projects he dreamed up was an energy drink created with kava, a fruit indigenous to the South Pacific, which he says lowers the stress hormones in athletes, a claim supported by research Manzi participated in at Stanford’s Human Performance Lab. 

However, Manzi discovered a roadblock after one of his schoolmates traveled to Tonga on a kava buying mission only to find out that the supply chain was limited in such a way that “if we were to have the success of Gatorade, it would be impossible nearly impossible to consistently supply” enough kava to keep stores stocked. To further complicate matters, the plant and its sale are heavily regulated in many countries.

Next, Manzi looked to get involved with a printing kiosk business in Slovenia which aimed to replace print shops. He worked with the company’s founder Denis Benic to bring the firm to Silicon Valley with Manzi taking a CEO role. Still, after spending three months in the capital Ljubljana trying to get the expansion deal through, the board rejected his plan. 

Despite this, he’d convinced Benic, who soon left Slovenia, to live in Manzi’s apartment while building a new business called Ink, “an automated FedEx office,” together. “In the meantime, I bought a bar in San Francisco and I was the youngest bar owner at 22,” Manzi recalls of the few months before Benic arrived.

Manzi knew about and “philosophically celebrated” Bitcoin since 2012, having previously followed the “libertarian” eGold project while he was in high school. Despite this, he did not see it as an attractive investment and instead “backed into” blockchain technology through the cybersecurity needs of HP printers related to his printing business, in which he worked to make enterprise printers less hackable through a system of validating nodes and hardware signatures. Soon, he began to believe that blockchain was the answer to “the number one issue in Internet of Things (IoT) and will be over the next decade,” that is, the question of how exactly interconnected devices will be able to best talk to each other in a reliable way.

“Getting into blockchain was an exercise in finding a solution for HP’s cybersecurity problems and getting immersed in things like provenance and supply chain management.”

The problem, according to Manzi, is that “TCP/IP protocol — the internet — did a fantastic job connecting nodes and servers but it never anticipated a moment like this,” he says, explaining that everything from satellites in the sky to smart pills that track vitals inside someone‘s body needs to be able to identify themselves. “You have the information superhighway, but you don’t identify the cars on it,” Manzi says of the current internet — but with blockchain integration, each unit can become connected.

Beyond Protocol

In 2018, Manzi co-founded Beyond Protocol to serve as a way for devices to better connect and communicate. He explains the Beyond Protocol thesis as a “blockchain providing a structure and a platform for IoT to achieve its full potential,” emphasizing that it is very natural for these two technologies to function together with blockchain effectively providing the environment in which the “things” of the internet can function.

“Devices now, for the first time, can kind of open up and start talking to each other because of the technology that blockchain provides.”

So far, the protocol shows promise as demonstrated through some interesting applications that Manzi has spearheaded. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Vanderbilt University to create a biometric suit that can track a person’s vital signs and, by extension, mental health. The suit, made using 3D printers and containing various sensors that communicate with one another on Beyond Protocol, was tested on stage by lead singer of the band Cage the Elephant Matt Schultz as part of his campaign to raise awareness for mental health. Though it looks like a cross between medieval chainmail and a futuristic spacesuit, Schultz is able to jump on stage without hindrance.

Beyond Protocol x @CageTheElephant

Matthew Ray Shultz, frontman of CTE, which won Best Rock Alum at the 2020 Grammys, dons a 3D printed suit produced in collaboration with @beyondprotocol1 that measures his biometric information, and allows developers to build apps on top of it pic.twitter.com/9OOssJSakq

— Beyond Protocol (@beyondprotocol1) October 3, 2021

“It‘s a good way to illustrate how blockchain can be used with data coming off of devices,” Manzi says. He goes on to explain the cybersecurity value of using blockchain to validate the signatures of individual devices to protect against hacking. 

Further, he adds that blockchain integration allows for the entire dataset to be cross-validated in such a way that knows which devices have accessed which data and, by extension, which has had access to specific pieces of information. This allows for a higher capacity in privacy protection, at least in theory, because such an arrangement can ensure that unauthorized components can not and have not gained access to specific data. This, however, can represent a double-edged sword because it is conceivable that the full tracking data could end up in the wrong hands after it is uploaded onto a computer.

The true purpose of the suit comes from the data which, when collected and combined, can result in the building of customized applications to benefit the wearer. “Developers can come in and say to Matt, ‘here are some different applications that I can build based on your vitals,’” Manzi explains.

“Let‘s say he‘s getting a little agitated. The biometric suit could trigger a vibrating pulse to the wrist area to suggest that he, for example, calms his breathing down,” Manzi explains regarding the suit‘s function. 

Functions like these carry potential benefits in areas including mental health, with Manzi adding that performers face immense stress while on tour and the ability to track stress levels can be beneficial — doubly so for someone like Schultz who has a history of battling depression and is now active in promoting good mental health.

How cool would it be if such a suit could be used in conjunction with a metaverse avatar, such as one created using the “Polish Elon Musk’s” portal to the Metaverse or even one performing in a 3D Animal Concert?

Talking cars

Another recent proof of concept can be found in Manzi’s co-founder Benic’s native Slovenia, where Beyond Protocol has partnered with the European Union Commission to set up an eBike charging station outside Parliament in Ljubljana.

(1/3) Beyond Protocol’s technology has been selected to power European Union green initiative. Alongside partners, Beyond Protocol has deployed an eBike solar powered station in Slovenia, with a systems architecture built from blockchain technology. The station is located in… pic.twitter.com/RLvG32IB8O

— Beyond Protocol (@beyondprotocol1) November 19, 2021

What makes these bikes special is that they are more than mere electrical devices that blindly charge when plugged in but, instead, are “individuals” that can independently communicate with the charger.

“The bike to identify itself with hardware and when it goes up to a charger, say “Hey, this is ___ type of bike therefore I need ___ type of charging — it should happen at ___ charging rate and here are my billing details.”

“This bike charging concept is currently being scaled out to electric vehicle charging stations in Slovenia. We started looking at the electric vehicle infrastructure in Europe and we determined that we can develop these charging stations where the cars can pull up to them and seamlessly pay for electricity,” Manzi explains. Each car is given a unique identity with which the driver can connect their Stripe account as one connects to a wireless speaker. 

When the car connects to an electric charging port, it identifies the charging station’s wallet address via Bluetooth and pays automatically for the electricity it receives. Validation is the key word — the integrated Beyond Protocol blockchain allows the machines to seamlessly recognize each other and transact without fear of imposters. 

This means that stealing your credit card would not be enough for an identity thief to buy gas at the pumps — they’d need to steal your car, too.

Though Manzi initially considered having payments settle in Beyond Protocol’s native token BP, he came to the conclusion that initial adoption would be more seamless when allowing for fiat payments through Stripe, where, for example, a credit card can be used as a source of funding instead of crypto.

Despite the initial lack of utilization, Manzi sees future use cases for the BP token “as like a natural resource for this new economy of devices waking up and starting to communicate with each other in all these new ways that can’t necessarily even be imagined right now.” He says that is likely to include a role interacting between cars and charging stations in practice.

“It allows us to do what we do great, and that‘s provide the car with the identity and the charging station the identity and allow them to transfer value.”

A digital asset’s price rally rarely comes out of the blue. Before the token’s market value explodes, some collateral forces come into motion. The asset can suddenly attract abnormally high online attention, its trading volume can go up dramatically, or some market-moving information can go public that triggers the first two examples. Mastering the art of crypto trading means learning to see those subtle cues early on.

Spiking trading volume is one of the signs that something interesting might be brewing around a crypto asset. Often, trading volume simply follows a price trend, with the coin entering a virtuous circle where its rallying price attracts more traders, boosting the volume accordingly. In other cases, abnormally high volume points to robust liquidity and rising investor interest, which can underpin further waves of appreciation.

One of the ways to get alerted to potentially informative trading volume pumps is the Unusual Trading Volume bar on the dashboard of Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Cointelegraph’s subscription-based data intelligence platform.

Last week, four out of the 10 tokens that showed the greatest increase in week-to-week trading volume flashed weekly volume highs before their prices peaked. Here’s how traders could have profitably put this information to work.

RUNE: Big news boosts both trading volume and price

THORChain’s RUNE had a big week, with a Terra integration and upcoming mainnet launch exerting huge upside pressure on the token’s price. The breakthrough moment came on March 1 when RUNE took off from around $3.70 and breached $5.80 in less than a day. Trading volume spiked alongside the price, with the highest volume of the week coming after the first price peak. Traders who took heed of the volume dynamics were in for a continued rally, as the token’s price remained up, breaching the $6 mark on March 4.

FUN: Two trading volume pumps amid a rolling rally

The price of Funfair’s FUNToken (FUN) steadily went up throughout the entire week, with two trading volume spikes reassuring traders that strong fundamentals fueled the token’s appreciation. The first came on Feb. 28 and preceded a local price peak at $0.0103 registered on March 1. Two days later, an even larger trading volume wave hit, foreshadowing the week’s price high of $0.0105.

WAVES: Volume spikes following price pump, anticipates even bigger one

WAVES added upward of 80% to its value over last week, thanks to the Waves platform’s ongoing transition to version 2.0, a bullish partnership with Allbridge that will ensure cross-chain interoperability, and the news of the launch of Waves Labs, a $150 million fund that will support the project’s growth in the United States market. On March 1, the token’s price soared from around $13 to over $19 in less than a day, triggering a corresponding pump in trading volume. Even as the wave of liquidity subsided, the price action remained robust, with the token’s valuation going further up to its weekly high at $20.86.

KNC: Strong price momentum following trading volume spike

Kyber Network Crystal (KNC), the utility and governance token of Kyber Network, massively rallied on Feb. 28, dragging the token’s trading volume with it. The volume peaked against a price of $2.51, but the feast carried on as the price continued to soar all the way up to $2.91.

In addition to the raw data on trading volume outliers available on the Cointelegraph Markets Pro dashboard, the trading volume metric is one of the core components of the VORTECS™ Score. An algorithmic tool for comparing historical and present market conditions around digital assets, the VORTECS™ Score can be used to identify historically bullish or bearish setups around each digital asset it tracks, alerting traders to the coins with the most favorable outlooks.

Cointelegraph is a publisher of financial information, not an investment adviser. We do not provide personalized or individualized investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile investments and carry significant risk including the risk of permanent and total loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Figures and charts are correct at the time of writing or as otherwise specified. Live-tested strategies are not recommendations. Consult your financial adviser before making financial decisions.

Stacks (STX) pared a considerable portion of the gains it made on March 10 as the euphoria surrounding its $165 million pledge to support Bitcoin (BTC) projects showed signs of fading.

STX’s price dropped by over 30% to reach a level as low as $1.33 on Friday when measured from its week-to-date high of $1.94. The selloff, in part, appeared technical as the $1.94-top fell in the same range that served as solid support between October 2021 and January 2022, only to flip later to become a resistance area.

It also appears that traders spotted selling opportunities due to STX’s long wick candlestick on March 10. Stacks rallied by as much as 73% into the day while forming a disproportionally long bullish wick on the daily chart that hinted at upside exhaustion.

What pushed STX higher?

The rally in the STX market on March 10 coincided with the launch of “Bitcoin Odyssey,” a $165 million fund to develop Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi), and nonfungible token (NFT) projects on the Bitcoin blockchain by harnessing Stacks’ open-source network for Bitcoin-based smart contracts.

Couldn’t be happier to announce that we’ve partnered with @Okcoin and @StacksOrg to launch a $165M ecosystem fund to invest in Web3, Defi, and NFTs on Bitcoin!https://t.co/VUDyEIHn8P via @cointelegraph

— trevor.btc (@TO) March 10, 2022

Notably, STX serves as a utility token inside the Stacks ecosystem to pay for network activity and contract execution. STX owners can also stake their holdings on the Stacks network via “Stacking” to support its blockchain’s consensus mechanism. In return, they earn BTC rewards.

It appears traders flocked to purchase STX en masse, anticipating a rise in its demand after the Bitcoin Odessey’s launch. For instance, cryptocurrency exchange OKcoin, the main backer behind the $160-million-fund, promoted the Stacks token for its bullish outlook, saying it is “not a bad time to get in on” Stacks.

All-time high ahead?

Interestingly, STX’s ongoing price rally appeared at a confluence of two key support levels, with at least one suggesting that the Stacks token is heading to a new all-time high next.

This confluence comprises an upward sloping trendline that has acted as an accumulation point for traders since early 2020 and the 0.5 Fib line (near $1.50) of the Fibonacci retracement graph made from $0.04-swing low to $2.82-swing high. 

STX now looks to close above its two interim exponential moving averages (EMA) — the 20-week (green) and the 50-week (red) EMAs — following its rebound from the dual-support area. A successful breakout may have the Stacks token retest another upward sloping trendline that has served as a resistance level since 2020.

Related: Bitcoin spikes above $40K as Russia sees ‘positive shifts’ in Ukraine war dialogue

Conversely, a pullback from the 20-50 EMA resistances could have STX break below its ascending trendline support toward 0.786 Fib line near $0.63.

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.

Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution Polygon has not produced a new block for over 11 hours, with developers attributing the issue to a technical upgrade on the network.

On March 10 at 4:20 pm UTC, Polygon (MATIC) network developers notified users on the project’s forum that there would likely be downtime starting at about 5:50 pm UTC due to maintenance required on one of the network’s three layers. A recent upgrade is thought to have caused an error in the network’s ability to achieve consensus.

“We suspect there may have been a bug in the upgrade which affected consensus and caused different Heimdall validators to be on different versions of the chain, thereby not reaching 2/3 consensus.”

As expected, the outage began at about 5:54 pm UTC.

The Polygon team issued an update at about 1:30 am UTC explaining that it was still working to fix the error and that a hotfix was deployed to help continue making blocks. That hotfix does not appear to have taken effect as of the time of writing.

The team also assured users that all funds and data on-chain are safe.

Polygon users apparently understood the outage was expected, but by the sixth hour, rumblings began to appear among the community. Most users have pointed out concerns at the extended amount of time for the outage. 

So uhhhhh…..Polygons been down for 6 hours and counting….

— King (@0xgodking) March 11, 2022

Others have noted that their profession or crypto business has been negatively affected by the outage. Twitter user @Miklos211 said:

“I’m literally unable to work thanks to that, could you please send us a time where we can expect the network to be back on?”

The Polygon network consists of three layers that each serves a unique role. Smart contracts run on the Ethereum (ETH) layer and the Bor layer helps produce blocks. The third Heimdall layer is where the problem lies.

Heimdall is a set of proof-of-stake (PoS) nodes that help the network reach consensus. With the Heimdall issue, Polygon cannot reach network consensus.

The last major bug that Polygon fixed put $24 billion worth of funds at risk, but was patched up without issue at the end of 2021.

Related: Polygon’s focus on building L2 infrastructure outweighs MATIC’s 50% drop from ATH

In related news, Polygon recently partnered with the multichain music nonfungible tokens (NFT) marketplace TokenTraxx to support the marketplace in the Polygon ecosystem. TokenTraxx will allow musicians to tokenize their work and sell it as NFTs.

After a devastating 50% correction between Dec. 25 and Jan. 25, Polygon (MATIC) has been struggling to sustain the $1.40 support. While some argue this top-15 coin has merely adjusted after a 16,200% gain in 2021, others point to competing scaling solutions growth.

Either way, MATIC remains 50.8% below its all-time high at an $11 billion market capitalization. Currently, the market cap of Terra (LUNA) stands at $37 billion, Solana (SOL) is above $26 billion and Avalanche (AVAX) is at a $19 billion market value.

A positive note is that Polygon raised $450 million on Feb. 7, and the funding round was backed by some of blockchain’s most considerable venture funds, including Sequoia Capital.

Polygon offers scaling and infrastructure support to Ethereum Virtual Machine-based (EVM) decentralized applications (DApps). Besides, it is not plagued by the high transaction fees and network congestion that impact the Ethereum network.

However, as proof-of-stake layer-1 networks emerged and offered low-cost smart contract capabilities, it vastly increased the competition for Ethereum network decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible token minting, marketplaces, crypto games, gambling and social applications.

In comparison, Terra’s total value locked increased by 340% between July and December 2021, reaching $12.6 billion. Similarly, Avalanche’s smart contracts deposits increased from $185 million to $11.11 billion in the same period.

The use of Polygon’s scaling solution is declining

Polygon’s primary DApp metric started to display weakness in August 2021 after the network‘s TVL dropped below 4 billion MATIC.

The chart above shows how Polygon‘s DApp deposits peaked at 7.4 billion MATIC in July 2021, then drastically declined over the next couple of months. In dollar terms, the current $3.5 billion TVL is the lowest number since May 2021. These figures represent less than 5% of the aggregate TVL (excluding Ethereum), according to DefiLlama data.

Another positive is that on March 9, Ankr, a multi-chain toolkit for blockchain infrastructure, enabled a token bridge between Ethereum and Polygon. The first release will allow the aMATICb liquid staking token to be sent and stored. This enables users to earn additional layers of rewards on DeFi platforms.

To confirm whether the TVL drop in Polygon is troublesome, one should analyze DApp usage metrics. Some DApps, such as games and collectibles, do not require large deposits, so the TVL metric is irrelevant in those cases.

As shown by DappRadar, on March 10 the number of Polygon network addresses interacting with decentralized applications grew by 5% versus the previous month. Even though Polygon’s TVL has been hit the hardest compared to similar smart contract platforms, there is solid network use in the gaming sector, as measured by Crazy Defense Heroes’ 199,260 active addresses in the last 30 days.

On Nov. 16, Polygon launched its zk-STARK-powered Miden Virtual Machine, a zero-knowledge Scalable Transparent ARgument of Knowledge. Polygon has also committed over $1 billion for developing complex DeFi applications that need sensitive information redacted on digitized assets, reducing their size for fast verification by blockchain participants.

The above data suggest that Polygon is holding its ground versus competing chains, and those holders might not worry too much about MATIC’s 50% price correction. Polygon’s ecosystem continues to flourish, and the fact that it offers much demanded layer-2 scaling solutions for multiple industries can be viewed as a bullish factor.

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.

According to a recent report curated by NonFungible, players of the monster-battle nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, game Axie Infinity transacted nearly $3.5 billion worth of NFTs in 2021. This accounts for almost two-thirds of all NFTs transacted in the entire blockchain gaming industry in 2021. In second and third place were sports highlights marketplace NBA Top Shot with $827 million and community gaming platform Loot with $242 million, respectively.

Created by Vietnamese video game developer Sky Mavis in 2018, the game contains creatures called “Axies” that players collect and use to complete daily quests, duel other players, etc. Every Axie is an NFT minted on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Completing tasks with Axies rewards players with Smooth Love Potions (SLPs), which can be sold for cash on cryptocurrency exchanges, thereby generating a stream of income for players. On the whole, Axie Infinity accounted for 19% of the estimated $17 billion in total NFT transactions last year.

Last November, Axie Infinity surged significantly in popularity, especially among gamers in developing countries, where one can potentially earn more playing Axie Infinity than working minimum wage jobs. However, players have complained to its developers that their earnings have fallen in light of SLP falling in price by 67.5% in the past year.

Although, the price decline can be partly attributed to the rising token inflation due to more and more players joining and playing the game. At the time of publication, there are nearly 2.7 million monthly Axie players, compared to just north of 1 million last March. But from July 2021 to now, the circulating supply of SLP increased from 541.7 million to 5.13 billion. 

Overall, blockchain gaming enthusiasts bought and sold $5.18 billion worth of NFTs last year, spread across 20,986,532 sales. In addition, there were a total of 112 blockchain games and 1.88 million active wallets. Based on analysis by NonFungible, these statistics accounted for 2.18% of the world’s total gaming market in 2021.