Kategorie: Crypto Analysis

For the most part in April, Polygon (MATIC) has continued to face a lot of selling. Although the coin has rallied slightly a few times, it has typically failed to find any serious upward trajectory. Despite this, MATIC has managed to slow its downtrend. Here are some of the facts:

• MATIC appears to be going through a period of consolidation

• The coin could swing towards $1.63 in the days ahead

• A close below $1.15 will invalidate this thesis

Data Source: Tradingview 

MATIC’s rise to $1.63

The slowed downtrend we have seen over the last few days could suggest that MATIC is about to experience a trend reversal. At the moment, the altcoin is going through a consolidation phase, and it is likely the price will remain well above $1.2. 

After this happens, we expect MATIC to rally and surge towards $1.63. This will represent an upswing of around 35%. However, based on the coin’s performance in April, the upward trajectory will not last for long. In fact, once the coin is well above the $1.63 mark, investors will start to take a profit. This will lead to a small sell-off that will push MATIC down towards its current $1.2 price.

Unless there is a huge improvement in overall sentiment in the market, MATIC will likely remain stagnated in the long-term trend despite increased short-term volatility. Besides, a daily close below $1.15 will invalidate the short-term bullish thesis above.

Where will MATIC go next?

MATIC was one of the best-performing coins back in 2021. But the altcoin is failing to live up to expectations this year. While the overall outlook for the altcoin is still positive, MATIC is not going to offer the kind of returns we saw in 2021.

However, there is still enough upside for at least 3x growth before 2022 is out. But sentiment in the broader crypto market will have to improve drastically for this to happen.

The post Polygon (MATIC)’s downtrend is slowing – Can it pull above water? appeared first on Coin Journal.

One of the most common debates currently taking place within the economic sphere is what constitutes the best inflation hedge. You know, because a KitKat Chunky nearly costs more today than a two-bed apartment did this time five years ago.

Old-school investors still argue gold is the best hedge, which traditionally is the ultimate way to protect oneself against a depreciating currency. After all, the shiny metal has been part of almost every human culture throughout history. It’s stood the test of time. Yet its returns since it spiked after the GFC have been lacklustre, to say the least – up only 21% in the last ten years.

The more irreverent investors think there’s a new kid on the block, first name Bit, second name Coin. Is Bitcoin digital gold? Is it a superior store-of-value than the OG king that is gold? The bulls argue that Bitcoin’s (outrageous) outperformance of gold over the last decade highlights its superiority. Then again, amid the highest inflation environment in recent memory, gold is up 3% YTD, while Bitcoin is down 17%. So, what gives?

What About Both?

Well, the good news is that, like a wise politician, we can sit on the fence. Because today a novel exchange-traded product has been launched on the Swiss SIX Stock Exchange which combines Bitcoin and gold. It’s the first combined gold/bitcoin exchange-traded product in the world, and has been developed by crypto ETF provider 21Shares, in partnership with crypto data provider ByteTree Asset Management.  

Even the ticker symbol is an amalgamation of the two assets – BOLD. The issuing firms stated the ETP will provide “protection against inflation, giving optimal risk-adjusted exposure to bitcoin and gold”. What is that breakdown? It’s 81.5% gold and 18.5% Bitcoin, and will “rebalance monthly according to each asset’s inverse historical volatility”.

“BOLD seeks to take away the hassle of personally managing the two assets while imposing a disciplined process when it comes to delivering higher risk-adjusted returns”, 21Shares CEO Hany Rashwan said.

Asset Characteristics

It’s an interesting concept. Of course, investors can simply invest in gold and Bitcoin in their desired proportions, but that’s the case with most ETPs. It gives an automated, easy exposure to both assets, and the risk-weighted adjustment is a neat feature. It may also make it easier for certain institutions to gain Bitcoin exposure, as regulatory barriers to the cryptocurrency remain in place for several entities.

Novice investors can rotate into assets outside the traditional stock/bond sphere, both of which have been getting hammered amid the high-inflation environment. Typically negatively correlated, stocks and bonds have both been suffering recently, which has been the case throughout history when inflation soars past manageable levels.

With a large portion of investors still intimidated by Bitcoin, and hesitant to fully embrace its volatile nature, the BOLD ETP is a nice avenue to gain exposure to Bitcoin in a moderate capacity. With its high risk/return profile combined with gold’s more conservative price action, it’s no surprise 21Shares have chosen to launch the product – which amounts to the 30^th digital asset ETP that the innovate firm has brought to market.  

The post Bitcoin or Gold to hedge inflation? With this new exchange product, you don’t need to choose appeared first on Coin Journal.

Avalanche and Cardano are some of the biggest Ethereum-killers around. Their goal is to create an alternative to Ethereum that is both fast, cost-effective, and highly scalable. As a result, the two have seen their market cap jump to billions of dollars. In this Avalanche vs Cardano comparison, we will explain the better one to invest in.

The case for Avalanche

Avalanche is a leading blockchain that is developed by Ava Labs. The network is known for its blazingly fast speeds that beat Ethereum and other networks. Avalanche can handle as many as 4,500 transactions per second (TPS). 

Avalanche has been used widely by developers to build applications in all industries. For example, its DeFi platform has over 200 applications that have a combined total value locked (TVL) of over $10 billion.

Avalanche has unveiled several projects to grow its ecosystem. For example, it is currently implementing Avalanche Rush, which is a multi-million dollar incentive program. It is also running another fund that aims to provide resources to metaverse creators.

Therefore, Avalanche is a better investment because its network is already stable in terms of the number of apps in the ecosystem. It is also growing rapidly as more developers have embraced the network.

On the daily chart, we see that the AVAX price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few months. It remains slightly below the 25-day and 50-day moving averages while oscillators have continued dropping. 

Therefore, in the near term, there is a likelihood that the Avalanche price will continue dropping. In the long term, the coin will bounce back.

The case for Cardano

In most cases, Avalanche is better than Cardano. For one, Cardano was started in 2015 while Avalanche’s mainnet went live in 2020. Yet, Cardano has a market cap of $27 billion while Avalanche is valued at $18 billion. 

Another notable factor is that Cardano’ ecosystem is significantly smaller than that of Avalanche because the developers launched their smart contracts in 2021. While Avalanche has a TVL of $10 billion, Cardano has just ten DeFi applications and a TVL of more than $203 million.

Therefore, based on these statistics, it is clear to say that Avalanche is a better investment than Cardano. However, it could also mean that Cardano has a longer runway for growth considering that its network is in a growth phase.

On the daily chart, we see that the ADA price gas formed a descending wedge pattern. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the coin will bounce back. Still, in my view, Avalanche is a better buy than Cardano. Here’s how to buy Cardano.

The post Avalanche vs Cardano: Which is a better buy between AVAX and ADA? appeared first on Coin Journal.

• Bahamas lead countries worldwide on Central Bank issued cryptocurrencies, with their Sand Dollar
• CBDCs present many advantages regarding efficiency of payments, speed and reduction of friction
• However, some very real privacy concerns and questions surrounding government power also arise 

Centralised Issuance

The topic of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is one that is only beginning to break into mainstream consciousness.

While many crypto enthusiasts hope more countries will follow El Salvador’s lead and adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, stablecoins seemingly present as a less ambitious case for sovereign adoption, given they are immune to the volatility that plagues Bitcoin. Simply digital iterations of their fiat alternatives, the exchange rate is pegged one-to-one, and their value does not fluctuate.

But while there are small-time examples, such as the city of Lugano in Switzerland, where decentralised stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) can be used as legal tender, there are also a lot of governments working on their own, centralised stablecoins.

Countries

According to PwC, none are more advanced than the Bahamas, where the Central Bank issued a digital version of the Bahamian dollar in October 2020. Colloquially referred to as the Sand Dollar, it carries the exact same utility, legal status and authorisation as it’s conventional fiat alternative.

The advantages are many. Speed, efficiency and security of payments are the main ones, with an overall reduction in friction thanks to the blockchain. The Bahamas also hopes to leverage the publicity of the initiative, helping to place the nation as the crypto hub of the Caribbean.

The trackable nature of the blockchain will also help in restraining money laundering, counterfeit, fraud and all sorts of financial crimes. Additionally, the announcement cited the benefits that could be reaped in the loan market ,with the CBDC able to “provide an excellent record of income and spending, which can be used as supporting data for micro-loan applications”.

Disadvantages

However, not all consequences of CBDCs are positive. There are very real privacy concerns here, with the government theoretically able to track exactly what you spend, when you spend and who you spend it with. Accounts can also be frozen at will – think Tether who have frozen certain USDT in the past following hacks.

This raises all sorts of questions about a potential dystopian scenario, whereby increasingly sci-fi notions, such as social credit scores being leveraged automatically off payment activity, could be implemented by governments. Let’s say the government knew you spent $10 last night to gamble on the football, and this was automatically reflected in your credit score – or worse, your social score. It’s easy to let the mind wander to the power this would give more authoritarian governments.

Is absolute sovereign control over citzens’ finances a good thing? They already control the monetary environment regarding printing, inflation and interest rates, which is the reason so many give for turning to Bitcoin. With CBDCs, they could implement sanctions at will, have full visibility over your net worth, tax liabilities, spending habits and many other facets of your life, given how central money is to transacting in today’s world.

Conclusion

Right now, thankfully, these remain notions confined to Black Mirror plotlines. However, CBDCs do bring the potential for these scenarios closer, and open up the possibility of unfathomable power for a sovereign state. Absolute centralisation within cryptocurrency is a dangerous game, given the trackable nature of the blockchain and the digital wallet infrastructure attached to it.

Bahamas, thus far, are leading the charge. For this case specifically, all systems point towards this being merely a step towards efficiency, and an innovative tool to help build a wider crypto ecosystem for the Caribbean nation.

Still, with other governments – such as China – working on iterations of their own CBDCs, it’s valid to worry about the potential power these CBDCs could grant if leveraged in certain ways. This rings especially true for more authoritarian governments.

The post Bahamas have the world’s most advanced official digital currency, but is that a bad thing? appeared first on Coin Journal.

The gaming industry has seen strong growth in the past few years. The industry is widely dominated by large companies like Microsoft and Take-Two Interactive. These firms generate billions of dollars every year through game purchases, subscriptions, and micro-transaction. Gala Games is a blockchain project that seeks to disrupt the gaming sector. In this article, we will look at the top thing to consider when buying the GALA token.

Gala Games is a decentralized gaming platform

Most games that are currently being played are centralized in nature. This means that the developers make all the decisions and all the money. They are also profit-oriented, meaning that their motivation is to make as much money as possible. As a result, most gamers hate their game providers. For example, EA Sports, the owner of the FIFA franchise is one of the most hated companies in the world.

Therefore Gala Games hopes to change this by creating a platform where developers build their games and let people play them mostly for free. The network is owned by its members who hold the GALA token. There are two main ways of buying the GALA token. First, one can buy it from a centralized exchange like Coinbase and Binance. Alternatively, you can own and run a node. By being a node operator, you will receive daily distributions from the network.

Gala Games users have already developed popular games. Some of the top games in the platform are Spider Tanks, The Walking Dead, Legends Reborn, Town Star, and Mirandus among others. Developers are continually building more games in the ecosystem.

The GALA coin is both used for governance in the Gala ecosystem and for making purchases in the ecosystem. It has a market cap of over $1.2 billion, making it the fourth-biggest gaming coin in the world after Axie Infinity,  Decentraland and Sandbox

Play-to-earn gaming is growing

Another thing you need to know is that the play-to-earn gaming industry is a large one and is growing rapidly. Analysts believe that the industry is actually in its infancy and that more developers and users will embrace the industry. This explains why cryptocurrencies like Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and Sandbox have achieved billions in valuations. 

A recent study estimated that the industry will be worth over $250 billion in 2024. That is a strong figure for an industry that was barely in its infancy a few months.

Gala is a leading player in NFTs

Finally, the Gala has become a leading player in the non-fungible token (NFT) industry. The idea behind this is a bit simple. Using its platform, people can mint their own NFTs and then sell them in their marketplace. Most of the NFTs in the ecosystem are of the existing games like TownStar and the Walking Dead. Transactions in this ecosystem are handled using the Gala token.

In 2022, the Gala Games platform will reduce some of the challenges in the ecosystem by launching its own product which is known as Gala Chain. The chain will become an integral part of the ecosystem by reducing the overall cost that people pay in the network. It will also make it easy for people to build their own games in the ecosystem.

Is Gala a good investment?

The Gala coin has been a bad investment in the past few months. Its price has dropped by over 80% from its all-time high. This has happened even though its overall ecosystem has grown rapidly this year. This performance is in line with other gaming tokens like Decentraland and Sandbox. In my view, I expect that the GALA price will continue rising in the coming years as the ecosystem growth continues.

The post Should I Buy Gala? 3 Things To Consider appeared first on Coin Journal.