Schlagwort: blockchain analysis

• Kaspa has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in March.

• The coin jumped sharply after more exchanges listed the coin.

Kaspa price has done well in March, making it one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the industry. It jumped to a high of $0.023, which was about 2,400% above the lowest level in November last year. Its total market cap has jumped to over $397 million.

What is Kaspa?

Kaspa is an upcoming cryptocurrency that aims to become the best alternative to Bitcoin. It is a proof-of-work coin that seeks to become the fastest crypto in the industry. The coin has a block second of about 1 second and a maximum supply of over 28 billion coins.

It is unclear why Kaspa price jumped sharply in March. A likely reason is that the number of cryptocurrency exchanges started listing the coin. For example, on March, Gate.io listed the coin and enabled the KAS/USDT pair.

📈 NEW LISTING ALERT! $KAS just got listed on @Hotbit_news

• KAS/USDThttps://t.co/POtCGBlGpX#KAS #kaspa #USDT pic.twitter.com/PWTkuWpl5w

— Kaspa (@KaspaCurrency) March 27, 2023

Kaspa’s coin was also embraced by other exchanges like DigiFinex and XT.com. On Tuesday, the coin was listed in HotBit, which will expose it to more customers. Data compiled by CoinMarketCap shows that most KAS/USDT pair was traded in MEXC, which has a 54% market share. Other popular providers of the coin are Txbit, Gate.io, and CoinEx, among others.

Kaspa’s rally is also because of the broader strength of the crypto market. Bitcoin jumped to over $28,500 in March while the total market cap of all digital coins jumped to over $1.2 trillion.

Kaspa price prediction

The 4H chart shows that the KAS/USDT price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few days. It has managed to move above the key resistance at $0015, the highest level on March 2. The coin has jumped above all moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved above the overbought level. 

Further, the Stochastic Oscillator has moved above the overbought level. Therefore, there is a possibility that the coin will pull back in the coming days as buyers start to take profits. If this happens, the next key support level to watch will be $0.15, which is about 33% below the current level.

How to buy Kaspa

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• CFTC sues Binance for trading violations 
• BNBUSD bearish bias persists
• $200 is a major support area

The cryptocurrency market is hit with another scandal as news that CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) is suing Binance for trading violations. As it turns out, Binance is accused of having over 300 trading accounts under the control of CZ, and these accounts trade crypto.

The problem is that it is easy to manipulate market prices through a tactic known as wash trading. Binance’s image is affected, and it might impact its coin, too, BNB.

BNB is the cryptocurrency coin that powers the BNB Chain ecosystem. It traded as high as $700 during the 2021 bull market but has given up more than half of its gains since then.

So what do the charts tell us about the next possible direction for the BNB/USD?

BNBUSD chart by TradingView

$200 is a major support area for BNB

After surging during the bull run of 2021, BNB/USD made a double top pattern around the $700 area. From that moment on, the bearish bias persisted, as the market was unable to break the series of lower highs.

Even the 2023 rally in the cryptocurrency market was not strong enough for the market to break above the previous lower high. As such, the bearish bias persists, and all eyes are now on the $200 area where the market found strong support previously.

Only a daily close above $400 would invalidate the bearish bias. Until then, the path of least resistance remains the downside.  

The post BNB/USD price forecast amid CFTC suing Binance for crypto trading violations appeared first on CoinJournal.

• CFTC sued Binance for violating federal laws to attract U.S. clients.
• Mizuho’s Dan Dolev reiterates his $30 price target on Coinbase stock.
• He prefers Bitcoin over Coinbase Global Inc to play the crypto space.

On Monday, Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance for violating federal laws to attract U.S. clients.

What does it mean for the Coinbase stock?

Theoretically, that should be an opportunity for rival Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) to expand its market share.

Still, Dan Dolev – Senior Analyst at Mizuho recommends against investing in the crypto exchange. Explaining why on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime”, he said:

What you’re seeing now is beginning of the real crackdown on crypto. If I owned any of these crypto names, I’d be really worried. I wouldn’t invest in any public exchange, including Coinbase.

Last week, Coinbase also received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating U.S. securities laws. Coinbase stock ended nearly 10% down on Monday.

Dolev prefers Bitcoin over Coinbase stock

Dolev currently has an “underperform” rating on the crypto exchange. His $30 price objective suggests its shares could tank another 50% from here.

There’s no business model. If the government cracks down on altcoins and staking, that’s 35% of Coinbase revenue – on Ethereum, you’re adding another 20%-30%. Then, what are they left with?

Nonetheless, Coinbase Global Inc reported better-than-expected results for its fourth financial quarter in February. It, however, ended Q4 with 8.3 million MTUs (monthly transacting users) versus 8.5 million a year ago.

The Mizuho analyst prefers Bitcoin over Coinbase stock to play the crypto space.

The post Dan Dolev’s view on Coinbase stock after CFTC sued Binance on Monday appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Litecoin has been one of the top-performing large-cap coins.

• The countdown of Litecoin halving has started, with 130 days to go.

Litecoin price has made a strong recovery in the past few days as investors reposition for the upcoming halving event. LTC has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies since June last year, having risen by over 130%. Litecoin was trading at $92.17, which was about 40% below the lowest point this year.

LTC halving countdown

Halving is an important part of proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin, Dash, and Bitcoin Cash in that it reduces block rewards to miners by half. The goal is to reduce the supply even as demand rises. As such, the concept tends to boost the coin’s prices.

Litecoin, which is a well-known proof-of-work cryptocurrency, will go through its halving event this year. Data compiled by Nice Hash shows that the next halving event will happen on August 6 of this year, meaning that it is about 130 days to go.

Litecoin’s halving will happen when the block height rises to 2.52 million, up from the current block height of 2.446 million. This halving event happens after every four years and will see the current block reward falling from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC.

Historically, cryptocurrencies tend to rise ahead of a halving event. For example, Bitcoin jumped sharply before its last halving event which happened in May 2020. It then pulled back shortly after that. 

Litecoin’s hash rate has been in a strong downward trend in the past few days. It currently stands at 710 TH/s, lower than its all-time high of 785 TH/s. Hash rate is important data that shows the health of a proof-of-work cryptocurrency. 

Litecoin price prediction

LTC chart by TradingView

The daily chart shows that the LTC has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few months. It managed to flip the key level at $84.51 into a support. The coin has moved above the 25-day and 50-day exponential moving averages and the two have formed a bullish crossover. 

Litecoin has moved above the ascending trendline shown in green. It has also formed what looks like a bullish pennant pattern. Therefore, the coin will likely have a bullish breakout, with the next reference level to watch being at $105.62.

How to buy Litecoin

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Bitstamp

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The post This catalyst could push Litecoin price higher soon appeared first on CoinJournal.

Key Takeaways

• Coinbase was issued with a Wells notice this week and now awaits formal charges from the SEC
• Regulators continue to move in on US crypto companies, hurting Coinbase’s prospects
• The exchange laid off its second round of employees in January, shut down activities in Japan due to “market conditions”, and saw its share price plummet throughout 2022

Coinbase just can’t catch a break. 

I wrote a deep dive on the struggling crypto exchange last October, when founder and CEO Brian Armstrong sold 2% of its stake. But things have only gotten worse since then. 

It laid off 20% of its workers in January (I analysed what this meant for the company here), six months after it had already cut 18%. It also terminated its Japanese operations in January, citing “market conditions”. 

Despite this, the stock had been rebounding in 2023 as a softer forecast of the future path of interest rates was benefitting the tech sector at large. And then, the SEC waded in to end the party this week. 

1/ Today Coinbase received a Wells notice from the SEC focused on staking and asset listings. A Wells notice typically precedes an enforcement action.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 22, 2023

SEC alleges Coinbase is violating securities law

The SEC issued Coinbase a Wells notice, warning that it was potentially violating US securities law. The share price has fallen 24% in the two days since.  

“Based on discussions with the Staff, the Company believes these potential enforcement actions would relate to aspects of the Company’s spot market, staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet,” Coinbase said in a regulatory filing. “The potential civil action may seek injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties.”

The market now awaits the exact charges becuase a Wells notice, as Armstrong noted in his tweet above, typically precedes legal action. 

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal also waded in, noting that Coinbase was confident in the face of the charges. 

“Although we don’t take this development lightly, we are very confident in the way we run our business – the same business we presented to the SEC in order for us to become a public company in 2021,” he posted. 

Regulatory environment continues to worsen for crypto

Despite Coinbase’s defiance, at least in public, the reality is that this marks just the latest move by US regulators to clamp down on crypto. 

Recent months have seen the dramatic shutdown of the Binance-branded stablecoin BUSD, a top 10 cryptocurrency, a fine for leading exchange Kraken relating to disclosures around its staking problem, and now this Wells notice for Coinbase. 

Then there is the banking turmoil. While not caused by crypto, the shutdown of SVB, Silvergate and Signature means the main crypto banks have evaporated into thin air. That starves the industry of vital fiat on-ramp and is an unquestioned headwind going forward. 

Whether you view any of the above as unfair or not, the bottom line for Coinbase is that the country in which it is headquartered, the United States, is a significantly more hostile environment for the crypto industry than it was a few months ago. That is obviously bad news for investors, and for the business as a whole. 

What happens next?

Going forward, it is hard to know what will happen. It does appear, however, as if regulators are intent to rein crypto in after the series of scandals that shook the market (and caused billions of losses for customers) last year, including LUNA, Celsius and most recently FTX. 

Before this latest move, the Coinbase share price had been reaping the positivity around a bounceback for Bitcoin, which is currently trading at $28,000, nearly double what it was in the aftermath of the FTX collapse in November. 

That follows the wider tech resurgence, as the market is betting that the Federal Reserve is largely done with interest rate hikes and the uber-tight monetary policy of the last year. 

Ultimately, Coinbase’s fate will be tied to those macro conditions, as well as the Bitcoin price, as it always is. But so too will it depend on regulators pulling back from their punitive stance over the last few months, and right now that doesn’t appear likely. 

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