Monat: August 2022

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Avalanche looks set for short-term price appreciation but how far can the price rise?

  • Avalanche remains one of the key smart contract platforms

  • The native token bottomed at $14 but has since doubled in price 

  • AVAX trades at $23 after the latest corrections since touching $30

Avalanche AVAX/USD is battling the $21 support, with bulls seemingly looking to win. Nothing is sure, of course, as we remain largely in a bear crypto market. Nonetheless, bulls should remain optimistic about a potential short-term rally.

Avalanche remains one of the top cryptocurrencies despite crashing lately. The native token can be staked and deployed as a unit for transactions. The blockchain protocol became popular in 2021 at the height of the smart contract boom. AVAX rose above $150, ranking among the leading smart contract platforms.

A crypto crash this year and LUNA-inspired volatility gripped AVAX, forcing it to a bottom of $14. The price has been recovering, doubling in August before the correction. While AVAX was trading at $23 at press time, bullish signs are developing. We project a short-term price surge to $27 resistance.

AVAX remains in the consolidation zone after the latest correction

Source – TradingView

Technical analysis shows that AVAX is slowly recovering from the $21 support. The cryptocurrency has formed multiple inside bars at the support. The inside bars indicate indecision and a potential bear exhaustion after the latest correction. A breakout of the inside bar to the upside will confirm a bullish reversal.

On the momentum indicator, there are further bullish signs for AVAX. Although the MACD indicator remains in the bear zone, the weakness is abating. That suggests that AVAX is strongly rejecting any further drop below $21.

Concluding thoughts

A bull case for AVAX will be confirmed by a breakout of the inside bar pattern. The token could still face resistance at $27.

The post Avalanche looks set for short-term price appreciation but how far can the price rise? appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Is Near Protocol about to recover the $4.2 level and become bullish again?

  • Near Protocol traded at $6 in mid-August, the highest since May

  • The token trades around the $4.2 support amid the latest declines

  • NEAR could turn bullish if it recovers $4.2 successfully

Near Protocol NEAR/USD traded at a monthly high of above $6 in mid-August. The last time the token hit such a high level was in May. However, recent weaknesses forced the token back to $4.0, slightly below or at the support zone of $4.2. As of the time of writing, NEAR was trading at $4.26. Although the price was sluggish, bulls were wrestling the bears. That offers a chance for the token to move higher should the price overcome the slump.

Near Protocol has been deriving momentum from recoveries in Ethereum. In particular, the anticipated Ethereum Merge has been boosting liquidity in Layer-1 protocols. Near Protocol has so far cooled as the Ethereum rally also slowed. However, we know that volatility may creep back as the September 15 date of the expected merge approaches. While we can’t ascertain how much the Merge will boost NEAR, investors would be good watching. A price recovery that keeps $4.2 intact will be a bullish catalyst.

NEAR trades at the support with no directional movement

Source – TradingView

A technical outlook shows NEAR struggling to maintain the $4.2 level. The token is near the oversold level but still has more room to fall. There is currently no directional movement, and we cannot rule out a further slump. 

Nonetheless, if the bulls keep $4.2 intact, the price could jump higher. The token should be keenly watched for the potential outcomes.

Summary

Near Protocol token is wrestling the $4.2 support. Bulls will take over if the price recovers from the support. If the price crashes below $4.2, bears will be in control. The token is one to keep a tab on.

The post Is Near Protocol about to recover the $4.2 level and become bullish again? appeared first on CoinJournal.

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NFTs worth $100 million lost to scams in past year: Elliptic

  • The average NFT theft was valued at around $300,000.
  • A record 4,600 NFTs stolen in July 2022.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100 million were stolen in the past year, London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said in a report published Wednesday.

According to the firm, the figures represent NFT thefts that were publicly reported between July 2021 and July 2022, suggesting it could be higher.

$300k per NFT scam

During this period, scammers netted an average of $300,000 per theft, with July 2022 seeing a record 4,600 NFTs stolen. This suggests that NFT scams continue to increase despite the impact of the crypto winter to the broader market.

Sanctioned Tornado Cash appears to have been use to process the NFT funds stolen from marketplaces, which Elliptic puts at around 52% of all transactions.

In the report, Elliptic also notes that NFT-based platforms have helped launder more than $8 million in illicit funds since 2017. According to the analytics firm, these amounts account for 0.02% of trading activity tracked to known sources.

NFT sales

The report covers that period of the previous bull market when surging crypto markets and the availability of easy money propelled the NFTs sector to new news. With only a few hundred million dollars’ worth of sales seen in 2020, last year’s rally – particularly between July and November – pushed sales volumes in the NFT market well over $40 billion for the year.

The outlook has been somewhat different in 2022, with the bear market contributing to a significant decline in sales. 

But even so, a recent report from blockchain analysis platform Chainalysis shows the number of NFT buyers as of Q2 this year was only bettered by those seen in Q3 2021 and Q1 2022.

The post NFTs worth $100 million lost to scams in past year: Elliptic appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Ethereum developers confirm Merge dates

  • Ethereum’s Merge is expected in September, with the Bellatrix upgrade on 6 September and Paris upgrade between 10-20 September.
  • The Merge is billed as a potential bullish trigger for the broader crypto market.

Ethereum’s long-awaited transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) via the Merge is fast approaching.

On Wednesday, the Ethereum developer team announced that indeed all is set for a September switch, noting the importance of the Merge to the world’s largest smart contracts platform.

“Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake has been a loooong time coming. Thank you to everyone who contributed to researching, specifying, developing, analyzing, testing, breaking, fixing, or explaining everything that got us to The Merge,” the team wrote.

The Merge dates

According to the announcement, Ethereum has successfully handled updates to all public testnets and what remains is for the Merge to activate on the Beacon Chain followed by the Ethereum mainnet.

This will happen in two phases, involving the Bellatrix and Paris upgrades, the first of which is expected to ship on 6 September. The second upgrade, which would bring Ethereum fully to a PoS chain, will happen between 10-20 September.

The Paris upgrade will be triggered by the Terminal Total Difficulty, with the Beacon Chain validator producing the first block.

“The Merge transition is considered complete once the Beacon Chain finalizes this block. Under normal network conditions, this will happen 2 epochs (or ~13 minutes) after the first post-TTD block is produced,” the team explained.

Ethereum developers had previously indicated the Paris upgrade ushering in the PoS era would happen mid-September, an announcement that might have contributed to ETH price’s surge to above $2,000.

The post Ethereum developers confirm Merge dates appeared first on CoinJournal.