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Ethereum price targets $2k as fear and greed soars

  • Ethereum price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few days.

  • The fear and greed index has moved to the greed zone.

Ethereum price momentum waned on Wednesday as investors reacted to the improving market conditions. ETH surged to a high of $1,612, the highest level since November 6 last year. It has jumped by more than 47% from the lowest point in December. So, what next for ETH prices?

Fear and greed index rises

Ethereum has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few weeks as the mood in the crypto market improves. This rise has coincided with the sharp increase of other coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and OKB. 

Crypto prices have surged for several reasons. First, it rallied because of the falling inflation in the United States. Data published last week showed that the headline consumer price index (CPI) dropped from 7.1% in November to 6.5% in December.

Core consumer inflation also dropped to 5.7% in December. This means that inflation has dropped in the past six straight months. Further, wage inflation has started moving downwards even as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%.

Therefore, investors believe that the Federal Reserve will start to shift its interest rate policies in the coming months. The Fed hiked rates from between 0 and 0.25% in January 2022 to over 4% in December. Therefore, with inflation falling, there is a likelihood that the Fed will shift its tone.

Second, the fear and greed index has moved from fear to greed recently. The one tracked by CNN has moved to 65 while the crypto fear and greed index has risen to 52. Historically, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies thrive when the index is rising.

Third, Ethereum has seen the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum surge to about $27 billion, Lido’s TVL has surged by 31% in the past 30 days while Convex and Aave have seen their TVLs jump by over 25%.

Ethereum price prediction

ETH/USD chart by TradingView

The daily chart shows that the ETH price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few days. As it rose, it moved above the upper side of the descending channel shown in black. The coin also rose above the key resistance level at $1,354, the highest point on December 15. 

It also jumped above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while th Relative Strength Index (RSI) moved to the overbought level. Therefore, the coin will likely continue soaring as buyers target the key resistance at $2,000.

How to buy Ethereum

eToro

eToro is a global social investment brokerage company which offers over 75 cryptocurrencies to invest in. It offers crypto trading commission-free and users on the platform have the option to manually invest or socially invest. eToro even has a unique CopyTrader system which allows users to automatically copy the trades of popular investors.

Buy ETH with eToro today

OKX

OKX is a top cryptocurrency exchange which offers over 140 cryptocurrencies to invest in. OKX takes customer security very seriously, they store almost all of their clients‘ funds in cold storage, and the exchange is yet to be hacked. On top of this, the exchange offers very low fees and customers can even use their crypto as collateral for loans on the platform.

Buy ETH with OKX today

The post Ethereum price targets $2k as fear and greed soars appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Shiba Inu price prediction ahead of Shibarium launch

  • Shiba Inu price went parabolic on Wednesday as it reached a high of November.

  • The developers wrote about the upcoming Shibarium launch.

Shiba Inu (SHIB/USD) price went parabolic as investors reacted to the latest developments on Shibarium launch. The SHIB token jumped by more than 20% in the past 24 hours. It has soared by over 57% from the lowest level in December 2022. Other top-performing cryptocurrencies are STEEM, LOKA, and HIVE. 

Shibarium launch ahead

Shiba Inu is a leading cryptocurrency that was started as a joke in 2021 during the crypto mania. It was created to be a better alternative to Dogecoin, which was having its best time as its price surged. But the two are different. Dogecoin is a coin that is similar to Bitcoin while Shiba Inu is an Ethereum token.

Shiba Inu price has done well in the past few days as investors wait for the upcoming Shibarium launch. Shibarum is a layer-2 network that will solve some of the existing challenges in the network. Some of these challenges are on speed, scalability, and costs.

Shibarium will join other popular layer-2 networks like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. After launch, it means that other developers will be able to build applications on top of it. In a statement, the developers said that Shibarium will mostly focus on gaming, the metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Analysts believe that the Shibarium launch will be one of the biggest crypto news of the year.

In addition to Shiba Inu, other Shiba Inu tokens will also benefit. They include leash (LEASH) and bone (BONE). According to CoinMarketCap, the two have a combined market cap of more than $5 billion. Shibarium validators will need to lock up bone to run the Heimdall validator software.

The developers also noted that Shibarium will lead to more SHIB being burned since each transaction will lead to several tokens being burned. They added that:

“The development team is currently evaluating potential gas fee rates for the blockchain network. The network’s gas fees are expected to be lower than the current fees on the Ethereum mainnet.”

Shiba Inu price prediction

SHIB/USD chart by TradingView

The daily chart shows that the SHIB price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few days. It moved above the important resistance level at $0.000010, the highest point on December 6. The token has surged above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) moved to the overbought level. Therefore, the SHIB crypto price will likely retreat slightly and then resume the bullish trend. If this happens, it will likely retest the key support level at $0.000010.

How to buy Shiba Inu

eToro

eToro is a global social investment brokerage company which offers over 75 cryptocurrencies to invest in. It offers crypto trading commission-free and users on the platform have the option to manually invest or socially invest. eToro even has a unique CopyTrader system which allows users to automatically copy the trades of popular investors.

Buy SHIB with eToro today

OKX

OKX is a top cryptocurrency exchange which offers over 140 cryptocurrencies to invest in. OKX takes customer security very seriously, they store almost all of their clients‘ funds in cold storage, and the exchange is yet to be hacked. On top of this, the exchange offers very low fees and customers can even use their crypto as collateral for loans on the platform.

Buy SHIB with OKX today

The post Shiba Inu price prediction ahead of Shibarium launch appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Are meme coins back, as Shiba and Doge rocket upwards? Eh…no


Key Takeaways

  • 2023 has started hot in the crypto markets, with meme coins printing significant gains
  • Softer macro climate has fuelled gains
  • Shiba Inu has spiked 50% , with hype also around the launch of a Layer-2 ecosystem
  • Our Analyst warns investors that all may not be what it seems, however

 

It feels a little crazy to be writing this, but here we are anyway. 2023 is off to a flyer in the crypto markets, with optimism abounding that softer inflation data will lead to a loosening of monetary policy sooner than the market previously anticipated.

And one such “asset class” to benefit is that of memes. Doggy coins are printing returns that are straight out of Q1 of 2021, a time when Reddit was going to war with Wall Street over GameStop, Elon Musk was tweeting daily about fluffy dogs and, well, the money printer was firmly switched on.

The king and queen of the space, that is Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, are currently up 22% and 49% respectively this year.

Bonk the latest meme to join the party

Perhaps the curious case of Bonk sums up this bizarre resurgence best. The meme coin, inspired by Shiba Inu, was launched on Christmas Day on Solana. You know,  that same Solana which was firmly in the wars, suffering from its close ties with Sam Bankman-Fried, repeated outages shutting down the network and seeing several of its top projects flee for rival blockchains.

Objectively, launching on Solana – and in the depths of the bear market, no less – was an objectively strange decision. And yet, what is logic in the crypto meme market? The coin was up 2500% within ten days, exploding upwards past a $200 million market cap. It has since fallen back to Earth a little but is still trading at a $50 million market cap.

Why are memes doing so well?

But why are meme coins doing so well? Well, the first answer is that the entire crypto market is. When looking at even the biggest cryptos, they are all printing impressive returns. Memes don’t look so dizzying in comparison.

The surge is due to inflation data coming in below expectations. While figures are still extreme, and well north of the 2% target of the Fed, there are perceptible signs that it has peaked. Investors have taken this as a sign that the death sentence for risk assets, that is high interest rates, may peel off sooner as a result.

Shiba Inu, for its part, is surging off more than just positive macro factors. It has jumped 20% after news that it will be listed on Upbit, the most popular South Korean exchange. This comes amid hype around the upcoming and much-anticipated Shibarium Beta launch.

Shibarium Beta will be a layer-2 network built on top of Ethereum, the same way Polygon and Arbitum work.

Is this sustainable?

Personally, I can’t put too much weight into this (still mysterious) Layer-2 project from Shiba. Memes are exactly that – memes – and these were never a fundamental play. It would take a lot more than blind speculation about Sihbarium to convince me that Shiba will ever be used for anything other than trying to buy it with the hope of selling it on a greater price.

But that is the thing with memes. There has never been an argument here that there is any value. They’ve always been a sort of middle finger to prudent investing, a misbehaving younger sibling to the “responsibility” of actual investing.

However, this is all fun and games in a climate printing more cash than at any point in history. It’s all great when interest rates are zero and cheap capital is ubiquitous. And it’s amazing when a pandemic strikes the world, with millions of people locked down with nothing to spend their stimulus cheques on.

Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in any longer. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the joke is over with memes. They no longer present as a chance to strike retirement gains. They were always a reckless gamble, and that is fine. But now they are no longer this novel source of endless entertainment, they’re just kind of sitting there as the world deals with the worst economy since crypto was launched when Bitcoin went live back in 2009.

Things may be more optimistic than they were a month or two ago. But inflation is still crippling, despite the fact it has slightly fallen. Rates are still high and there are a million variables that could make this volatile economy a lot worse in a very short space of time.

It’s hardly jaw-dropping to say, but be careful with the doggy tokens. When the music stops – and it always does – it’s not a fun place to be.  

The post Are meme coins back, as Shiba and Doge rocket upwards? Eh…no appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Half a billion dollars of short sellers liquidated in biggest crypto rally in 9 months


Key Takeaways

  • The cryptocurrency market cap is back above $1 trillion following the biggest surge in 9 months 
  • Half a billion dollars of short sales were liquidated over the weekend, the most in three months
  • Bitcoin is back above $21,000, Ethereum above $1,500, while altcoins have soared
  • Despite powerful bounce, the market is still down close to 65%, having peaked at nearly $3 trillion in November 2021
  • Bear market drawdown at 77% for Bitcoin, but traders are wary this may only be a short-term relief rally

For a few hours over the weekend, if you looked at a crypto chart, it felt like it was 2020 again.

COVID may be fading into the rear-view mirror, but so had crypto prices. I produced a deep dive into some on-chain data last week which showed how torrid 2022 had been for investors, with 73% less bitcoin millionaires, a drawdown of $2 trillion in the overall crypto market, and a reputation dragged through the mud by various scandals. 

Looking at data this week for coinjournal.net, it is a little more optimistic for crypto investors. 

Half a billion dollars of short sellers liquidated

The weekend brought a little respite, however. Bitcoin surged to its strongest rally in 9 months, taking the market by surprise and breaking upwards above $21,000. 

Looking at data from Coinglass, there were over half a billion dollars of short sellers liquidated this past weekend. The below chart shows the extent of these liquidations, more or less matching the long liquidations back when FTX collapsed in early November. 

Crypto market regains $1 trillion mark

The bounce in digital assets followed softer-than-expected inflation data. This optimism that inflation may have peaked has caused investors to bet that the Federal Reserve may pivot off its high-interest rate policy sooner than previously expected. 

As we know by now, high-interest rates have sucked the liquidity from the market, hurting risk assets across the board. Crypto is very much trading like one of these high-risk assets, and hence prices have collapsed as the Federal Reserve has implemented this tight monetary policy – and hence crypto exchanges have been less than kind to long traders. 

2023 has brought hope that if inflation truly has peaked, a light at the end of the tunnel may be visible. The crypto market has surged to regain a $1 trillion dollar market cap as a result. It is still a far cry from the near-$3 trillion all-time high, but Bitcoin at $21,000 and Ether at $1,500 marks the highest prices for the duo since before the FTX scandal. 

Has the crypto market bottomed?

The glaring question facing investors now is whether this is merely a short-term relief rally, or whether the bottom is in. 

As with most questions in the market, macro holds the key. 

“The last couple of months have undoubtedly brought indicators of a more positive environment with regards to inflation, as well as the boost of the Chinese economy reopening,”  said Max Coupland, Director at CoinJournal. 

“However, I do worry whether investors are jumping the gun by presuming that this means the Fed will now pivot sooner than expected. (Fed chair) Jerome Powell has been adamant that rates will not taper until inflation is firmly under control, and we are still a long way from the 2% target, while uncertainties such as the Russian war in Ukraine still loom as highly unpredictable”. 

Let’s play the (very) hypothetical game of assuming the bottom is in. That would put the bear market at 13 months long, with a 77% drawdown from peak-to-trough for Bitcoin. 

Historically, this would place it as the third biggest drawback in history. However, that would only be in percentage terms. The crypto market today is vastly different to years past, and the size of the capital wipeout is on a different level – or over $2 trillion, to be precise. 

So, while the length and size of the bear market could perhaps imply we are in the latter stages, past data simply cannot be reliably extrapolated when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin only broke through as a mainstream asset in the last few years, and prior time periods featured low liquidity and a niche set of investors. 

Today, we are also facing an unprecedented macro climate – rampant inflation, high interest rates for the first time in Bitcoin’s history, and a bear market in the wider economy for the first time since the 2008 crash – the same year Bitcoin was invented. 

In wrapping up, the past weekend has been a welcome reprieve for crypto investors, and amounts to the most powerful surge in nine months, back before the collapses of LUNA, Celsius, FTX and the transition to high interest rates in the board economy. 

But the road ahead remains tough for the market at large, with inflation still lofty, a war ongoing in Europe and myriad other macro variables oscillating. This week has been good news, but crypto investors won’t be counting their chickens quite yet. 

The next mark on the calendar? The all-important FOMC meeting on February 1st, when the Federal Reserve will decide upon the latest interest policy. 

If you use our data, then we would appreciate a link back to https://coinjournal.net. Crediting our work with a link helps us to keep providing you with data analysis research. 

Research Methodology

Liquidation data via Coinglass. Price data from Yahoo Finance. All other data via CoinJournal

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