Category: NEWS

Development never stops in the blockchain sector and projects that continuously evolve are the ones that stay at the forefront and survive over the long-term. 

One project attempting to stay on top of the innovation wave is Waves, a multi-purpose blockchain protocol designed to support a variety of use cases, including decentralized applications and smart contracts.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of WAVES has rallied 120% since forming a double bottom at $8.28 on Feb. 22.

Three reasons for the price growth for WAVES are the recent announcement that the protocol will migrate to Waves 2.0, a partnership with Allbridge that will connect Waves with other popular blockchain networks and the upcoming launch of a $150 million fund aimed at fostering Waves’ growth in the United States. 

Migration to Waves 2.0

The biggest development sparking momentum for WAVES has been the announcement that the protocol has begun the process of migrating to Waves 2.0.

✔️ Protocol updates: the new version of Waves will be based on Practical Proof-of-Stake Sharding (PPOSS) Consensus and support Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Smooth transition is guaranteed! We’re now in transition to Waves 2.0 with a multi nuclei structure

— Waves (1 ➝ 2) (@wavesprotocol) February 10, 2022

Part of this transition includes the implementation of a new version of Waves consensus that will be based on practical proof-of-stake sharding (PPOSS), an upgrade that will help make the network faster, more secure and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible.

Development of the EVM-compatible network is scheduled to start this coming spring and will be connected to the existing network as a way to provide a “smoother transition to Waves 2.0 without depreciating the old network’s value or efficacy.”

Waves 2.0 will also include a new generic governance model, gravity bridges to all EVM-compatible networks and the creation of a blockchain agnostic Level 0 Inter-Metaverse protocol capable of providing a toolbox for creating connected metaverses that are unified by a shared economy and identity.

Partnership with Allbridge

Another development that has helped boost the price of WAVES is a partnership with Allbridge, a protocol focused on facilitating the transfer of assets between all blockchain networks.

This partnership was established as part of the larger goal of Waves 2.0 and establishes universal bridge integration.

The stated goal of the collaboration is “to create a unique bridge between Waves and supported EVM as well as non-EVM chains, such as NEAR Protocol, Solana and Terra.”

According to developers at Waves, the goal is to have Allbridge fully integrated by the end of May.

Related: Allbridge to become the first token bridge for the Stacks token

Waves Labs and a $150 million ecosystem fund

A third reason for the price growth in WAVES has been the addition of new partners to the ecosystem and the establishment of Waves Labs, which is a U.S.-based company.

Waves Labs, now headquartered in Miami, are coming back to support rapid growth across the ecosystem.

$150m fund and an incubation program will soon be started for the US teams, building products on Waves. The US is a key market to drive mass adoption in 2022.

— Waves (1 ➝ 2) (@wavesprotocol) February 10, 2022

Waves also revealed that it will be launching a stand-alone decentralized finance (DeFi) fund at some point in Q1 2022 that will focus on investing in selected Waves-based DeFi products.

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 Market Report” with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss which decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have the most potential in 2022.

But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down.

Next up, the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as they debate which DAO has the most potential. Will it be Bourgi’s pick of MonkeDAO, with its large community, Solana-based ecosystem and more than $10 million staked, earning around 7% to support the DAO development?

Not to be outdone, Yuan comes in with the tasty pick of PizzaDAO, which is one of the most revolutionary DAOs to hit the market. It is a global community of creators and pizza lovers who believe that pizza should be free. The DAO is selling rare digital pizza art in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to raise money to throw a global pizza party! Who wouldn’t want to get into that idea?

Lastly, we have Finneseth with his pick of Merit Circle, which taps into the hottest sectors in blockchain, gaming and the Metaverse. It helps provide a way for gamers to earn money playing the games they love. It also offers scholarships to players by lending them items from the treasury to be used for gameplay as well as delivering educational content with one-on-one coaching sessions to help scholars improve their performance. Currently, it supports 20 different popular games including Axie Infinity. Gaming is an immensely popular sector, but will it be enough to help push Finneseth to the top of our live poll? Once each of our experts has made their case, you, the audience, get to decide the winner by voting in our live poll, so be sure to stick around till after everyone’s presentations to cast your vote.

After the showdown, we’ve got insights from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a platform for crypto traders who want to stay one step ahead of the market. The analysts use Cointelegraph Markets Pro to identify two altcoins that stood out this week: The Sandbox’s SAND and Terra’s LUNA.

Do you have a question about a coin or topic not covered here? Don’t worry. Join the YouTube chat room, and write your questions there. The person with the most interesting comment or question will be given a free month of Cointelegraph Markets Pro, worth $100.

“The Market Report” streams live every Tuesday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC), so be sure to head on over to Cointelegraph’s YouTube page and smash those like and subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

According to an investor presentation published Tuesday, U.S.-based payment solutions provider Shift4 announced its acquisition of The Giving Block in cash and stock for $54 million, plus a potential earnout of up to $246 million. The Giving Block is an online platform that allows over 1,300 nonprofit organizations and charities to accept crypto donations. 

As told by its annual report, the organization processed $69.64 million in crypto donations, an increase of 1,558% from 2020. Out of this amount, approximately $12.3 million came from donations by nonfungible token, or NFT, projects. Ether (ETH) became the most-popular crypto donated for the first time, accounting for nearly half of the total volume. Last month, The Giving Block provided Cointelegraph with a sample list of six charities on the receiving end of crypto donations and how philanthropy has positively impacted such organizations. 

Regarding the acquisition, the team at The Giving Block wrote: 

“Shift4’s status as a leading payments company with over $200 billion in annual payments volume, plus our shared commitment to taking crypto mainstream and leading on nonprofit sector payments innovation, has given us the opportunity to have the impact on the world we began dreaming up.”

Meanwhile, Shift4 commented in a statement:

“Shift4 will invest further in The Giving Block’s successful strategy while also pursuing a $45+ billion embedded cross-sell opportunity by bundling crypto donation capabilities with traditional card acceptance. This represents just a small portion of the $470+ billion nonprofit addressable markets that Shift4 will uniquely be able to pursue as a result of this acquisition.”

The Giving Block also launched its Ukraine Emergency Response Fund last week in response to the ongoing Russian invasion. Proceeds, which can be donated via Bitcoin (BTC), ETH and other altcoins, will go to at least 10 humanitarian relief organizations and international nonprofits.

Our Ukraine Emergency Response Fund is now LIVE

The nonprofits within this fund are saving lives and providing critical support on the ground to those impacted by the #Ukraine crisis.

Donate #cryptocurrency to the fund now: https://t.co/4ZXGMGcrlH

— The Giving Block (@TheGivingBlock) February 26, 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) checked its latest gains at the Wall Street open on Mar. 1 as bulls sought to defend $44,000 highs. 

BTC weekly gains hit 17%

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it declined from its local peak of $44,980 on Bitstamp at the opening bell.

The second day of trading with armed conflict in Europe as its background, March 1 continued a surprisingly cool phase for U.S. equities, with only oil showing the knock-on effects of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Bitcoin, by contrast, held onto the majority of its advances, which had been rekindled in earnest on March 1. Versus the same time a week ago, BTC/USD was up 17% at the time of writing.

Bitcoin since weaponized finance began with Russia.

Compared to the S&P ($ES), Crude, Dollar, and Gold. pic.twitter.com/zXTHaAUByR

— Cantering Clark (@CanteringClark) March 1, 2022

“Forty-four thousand dollars has been tested a million times, wouldn’t wanna be caught shorting that,” popular Twitter account DonAlt summarized as part of a post about low timeframes.

“$40 tho good support if we should get a surprise dip.”

Bitcoin thus improved its image as a potential safe haven in times of strife, reversing initial losses as the Ukraine situation began to unfold late last week.

“Bitcoin is proving itself as a safe haven in times of global uncertainty. It has outperformed every other asset class by orders of magnitude since the Ukraine invasion,” Charles Edwards, founder of crypto fund Capiole declared.

At the time of writing, BTC/USD was declining towards the $43,600 zone previously highlighted by fellow analyst Nebraskan Gooner as a necessary zone to hold for the daily close.

#Bitcoin

Low time frame traders need to be on the lookout for a close below $43,600

That’s the key low time frame level right now. pic.twitter.com/nl3xocLWw8

— Nebraskangooner (@Nebraskangooner) March 1, 2022

Smaller crypto wallets begin sweeping record highs

Activity related to Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) wallets, in particular, continued to grow.

Related: $300M in crypto liquidations accompanies Bitcoin’s surge to $44K

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, smaller ETH addresses holding at least 0.01 ETH and BTC addresses 0.1 BTC both reached all-time highs.

There were 21.9 million 0.01 ETH wallets and 3.35 million 0.1 BTC wallets detected as of March 1.

ETH/USD returned to $3,000 on the day — a two-week high.

Terra (LUNA) emerged as one of the best performing financial assets in February, a month mired by geopolitical conflicts and their negative impacts on the crypto market.

LUNA decouples from the crypto market

LUNA’s price surged by a little over 75% to reach $91.50 at the month’s UTC close. In comparison, the percentage performance of other top tokens, mainly Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), in the same period came out to be around 12.25% and 9%, respectively.

Interestingly, most of LUNA’s gains in February surfaced on the month’s last day. The Terra token jumped 26% on Feb. 28, in part due to similar upside moves elsewhere in the crypto market. For instance, BTC and ETH rose 14.50% and over 11.50%, respectively, on the same day.

While still positive at 0.09, LUNA’s correlation with Bitcoin has come off lately after hitting 0.81 on Feb. 21, data from TradingView shows. A correlation of 1 means that two assets are in lockstep, while 0 shows that their price moves independently.

Terra’s LUNA/BTC pair also showed its growing valuation against the top cryptocurrency.

In detail, the LUNA/BTC pair rose by over 56% to 21,171 satoshis in February, suggesting traders sought hedge in the Terra token as Bitcoin’s correlation with a bearish stock market grew, reaching 0.70 earlier this year.

As to why traders appeared to have considered LUNA as their interim safe haven in the first place, the answer might lie in Terra’s token economics.

29M Terra tokens destroyed

Data fetched by analytics platform Smart Stake showed that Terra protocol burned 29 million LUNA tokens worth $2.57 billion recently. That happened as the supply of TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin backed not by the U.S. dollar but LUNA, increased from around 11.26 million on Feb. 1 to almost 12.92 million on Feb. 28, marking an increase of nearly 14.75%.

Traders consider an increasing UST supply a bullish catalyst for LUNA, mainly because of the so-called UST-LUNA token model. In detail, Terra preserves UST’s peg of USD through an elastic monetary policy. So when the value of UST goes above $1, Terra incentivizes its users to burn LUNA and mint UST.

But when the UST supply contracts, LUNA valuation decreases due to a slowdown in the burning mechanism. All and all, LUNA’s valuation tends to rise alongside UST’s supply.

On Feb. 22, the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) — a nonprofit organization supporting the Terra blockchain ecosystem, announced that it had raised $1 billion in a LUNA token sale round led by Three Arrows Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Ethereum-skeptic Su Zhu and Jump Crypto, a trading group known for assisting Solana’s cross bridge platform Wormhole in replenishing their stolen $300 million.

1/ The long awaited [REDACTED] 3 is here!

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) has closed a $1 billion private token sale to establish a decentralized $UST Forex Reserve denominated in $BTC!

— Terra (UST) Powered by LUNA (@terra_money) February 22, 2022

LFG revealed that it would use the proceeds to build a “UST Forex Reserve,” raising prospects of boosting the stablecoin’s supply by another billion-dollar worth of LUNA-backed tokens.

LUNA’s price has risen by nearly over 90% since the LFG’s announcement. In contrast, the total market capitalization of all the cryptocurrencies combined has rallied by just 13% in the same period, underscoring that crypto traders have been flocking into the Terra market.

What’s ahead for LUNA?

Terra’s technical outlook looks skewed to the upside owing to an ongoing “bull flag” breakout move.

Bull flags are bullish continuation patterns that appear when the price consolidates lower inside a descending channel after a strong move upward. Eventually, it breaks out of the channel range to the upside, with a price target ideally at length equal to the size of the upside move that preceded the bull flag formation.

LUNA appears to have entered the final phase its bull flag setup, as shown in the chart below. It now eyes a run-up toward $120, an all-time high for Terra if achieved.

On the flip side, LUNA’s volumes on the three-day chart appear weak, showing the ongoing upward retracement remains less convincing to traders. Its volume profile also shows little historic activity above $70.

Related: $300M in crypto liquidations accompanies Bitcoin’s surge to $44K

Additionally, LUNA’s daily relative strength indicator (RSI) has been flashing an “overbought” warning, noting that it could go a degree of price correction in the coming sessions.

Nonetheless, in the long term, the Terra token’s path of least resistance remains to the upside, with its year-over-year performance against the dollar coming out to be over 1,200% as of Feb. 28, 2022.  

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) hit $44,000 overnight on Mar. 1 as a rally that began Feb. 28 sparked unexpected results. 

Traders warns of “massive variables” for BTC price

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $44,250 on Bitstamp before consolidating, still above $43,000 at the time of writing.

The move had come in two main bursts, beginning just prior to the Wall Street open.

Against a highly uncertain macro backdrop, analysts had been hard-pressed to forecast what Bitcoin price action would do next, a mood that continued as local highs appeared.

Yesterdays #BTC trade we took with the group.

Didn’t expect it to run that hard tbh. Would have raised TP probably because I think it can do 1 more leg up before some correction. Red box was for the entire move, now 1 more (smaller) leg to go imo.

Nice, quick profit pic.twitter.com/1suDz8pk7p

— Crypto_Ed_NL *not asking to send DM’s* (@Crypto_Ed_NL) March 1, 2022

Looking ahead to the month of March, popular trader and analyst Pentoshi noted that even more triggers were about to be added to the macro mix.

“Want to state, March is a month of massive variables,” he told Twitter followers on the day.

“So I think day to day approach is best. There is a lot going on in the world right now. It’s anyones guess. I’m leaning towards yearly open still, but after that it’s wait and see.”

He nonetheless admitted that he “did not see coming” the extent of Bitcoin’s rapid gains, despite adopting a more bullish posture in February.

Aside from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. Federal Reserve is due to make a decision on key interest rate hikes this month. Data for the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) is due on March 10.

Bears meanwhile took a hit from the latest events, with cross-crypto liquidations totaling $305 million in 24 hours, data from monitoring resource Coinglass showed.

LUNA shines as altcoins rebound

Bitcoin thus outperformed most of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, with 24-hour returns hitting 15%.

Related: War puts BTC price to the test — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week

Ether (ETH) managed to add around $370 to reach local highs of $2,970, still unable to crack major resistance higher up.

The crown was once again taken by Terra (LUNA), however, which added over 20% to nearly double in just seven days.