With the transition to a scalable, energy light proof-of-stake blockchain (dubbed “the Merge”) at play for Ethereum, many have cast doubts on the popular coin’s future given the magnitude and complexity of the upgrade involved. But among prominent stakeholders, one particular project remains heavily bullish on Ethereum’s future, which is non-other than layer-two scaling solution Polygon. At the annual Ethereum Community Conference in Paris, Cointelegraph’s Events Manager Maria A. spoke to Polygon’s vice president of growth Mihailo Bjelic regarding the topic. Here’s what Mihailo had to say with regards to the Merge: “This is an upgrade on a live network that has millions of users, billions in capital, and tens of thousands of applications. It is never easy, but the Merge has been in t...
Easy come, easy go was the story on July 20 as the day started on a positive note with Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $24,300, only to end the official trading day in the red after less than stellar Q2 earning news showed Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin and Minecraft reversed course by deciding to ban NFTs on its platform. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 A potential source of the afternoon downturn can be traced to Tesla’s Q2 earnings data, which showed that the electric car company sold off 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in order to add $963 million in cash to its balance sheet. So, not only forced selling from 3AC, $LUNA & $UST, but also Voyager, BlockFi and Celsius have been causing the markets to crash. On top of that, Tesla did sell 75% of their #Bitcoin pur...
Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $22,000 and Ether (ETH) traded above $1,500 on July 18, indicating that bulls are gradually returning to the cryptocurrency markets. This pushed the total crypto market capitalization above $1 trillion for the first time since June 13, raising hopes that the worst of the bear market may be behind us. In another positive sign, more than 80% of the total Bitcoin supply denominated in the United States dollar has been dormant for at least three months, according to crypto intelligence firm Glassnode. During previous bear markets, such an occurrence preceded the end of the bear phase. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 However, a report by Grayscale Investments voices a different opinion. It suggests that the current bear market in Bitcoin started...
The United States equities markets recovered from their intra-week lows last week, suggesting demand exists at lower levels. On similar lines, Bitcoin (BTC) also recovered from $18,910 last week, indicating that traders may be getting back into risky assets. However, analysts remain divided in their opinion on the recovery in Bitcoin. While some believe that the relief rally is a bull trap, others expect the up-move to retest the crucial resistance at the 200-week moving average ($22,626). Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 The current bear phase has damaged sentiment as seen from the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which has remained in the “extreme fear” zone since May 6. According to Philip Swift, creator of on-chain analytics platform LookIntoBitcoin, the time spent...
Crypto investors found cause for celebration on July 14 as the market experienced a positive trading session just one day after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) posted a June print of 9.1%, its highest level since 1981. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 The move higher in the market wasn’t entirely unexpected for seasoned traders who have become familiar with a one to two-day bounce in asset prices following the most recent CPI prints. These traders also know there’s nothing to get too excited about as the bounces have typically been followed by more downside once people realize that the high inflation print is a negative development. Nevertheless, the green in the market is a welcome sight after the rough start to 2022. Top 5 coins with the highest 24-hour price...
The bears are attempting to sink Bitcoin (BTC) below $19,000 to further cement their advantage over the crypto market. Analysts watching Bitcoin’s MVRV-Z Score, a metric which measures how high or low Bitcoin’s price is relative to “fair value,” expect an even deeper fall before the bottom is finally reached. However, economist, trader and entrepreneur Alex Krueger pointed out that Bitcoin’s volume hit an all-time high in June. Usually, the highest volume in a downtrend is indicative of capitulation and that “creates major bottoms.” If Bitcoin follows the historical pattern of the 2018 bear market, Krueger expects the bottom to form in July. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Due to the tight correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500, crypto traders will have to keep a cl...
Popular Ethereum-based Metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox has unveiled a bridge that enables users to transfer their virtual NFT LAND and native SAND tokens over to Layer-2 network Polygon (MATIC). While The Sandbox will live on Ethereum for the most part, the platform has emphasized that conducting SAND and LAND transactions on Polygon will result in lower gas fees, faster transaction speeds and greener interactions on the blockchain. The firm stated via Twitter on June 29 that it is now ready to start deploying LAND on Polygon, and users will be able to receive a 10 mSAND cashback worth roughly ($10.60) on LAND ported over to the Layer 2. We are ready to deploy LAND to @0xPolygon Each LAND bridged grants a 10 mSAND cashback!LAND multipliers on both mSAND staking programs are back!LAND...
Polygon (MATIC) took a break from its prevailing bearish course, posting one of sharpest rebound in the crypto market this week. Notably, MATIC’s price has risen to $0.50 this June 23, four days after hitting $0.317, its lowest level since April 2021. This amounts to roughly a 60% gain, surpassing the performances of even Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in the same timeframe. MATIC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView Nevertheless, MATIC is still down significantly from its December 2021 high of $2.92, coinciding with the overall crypto bear market and a hawkish Fed putting pressure on risk-on assets. MATIC “in a pretty big accumulation” Meanwhile, some of its richest investors have been accumulating MATIC tokens despite the general downtrend, on-chain dat...
Avalanche (AVAX) is down 45% in 30 days and in the same time the cryptocurrencies’ total market capitalization shrank by 29%. Despite the recent downturn, this decentralized application (DApp) platform remains a top contender in the layer1 and layer2 race and it ranks high in terms of smart contract deposits and active addresses. Yet, the lackluster token price is still causing investors to rethink whether the network remains a “serious” competitor. AVAX token/USD at FTX. Source: TradingView The brutal sell-off on risk assets caused AVAX to test the $14.80 support multiple times, while the current market capitalization stands at $4.8 billion. It’s important to also note that the network’s total value locked (TVL) holds an impressive $3.2 billion. As a comparison, Solana (SOL) o...
Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) has announced the hiring of Bhumika Srivastava in a bid to consolidate its strategy and cultural ambitions for the company’s 500-employee global workforce. Serving as the head of human resources and director for employee experience at Airbnb for the past five years, Srivastava arrives with an illustrious portfolio and plethora of experience from her work in Web2, having occupied senior roles at Adobe, Yahoo, Tesco PLC, and Snapdeal. Srivastava’s appointment marks a consistent trend in Polygon’s hiring strategy of prominent figures within the Web2 space, such as the former head of gaming at Youtube, Ryan Wyatt, being hired as CEO of Polygon Studios in January and, more recently, Tyler Sellhorn being brought on to p...
Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider cryptocurrency market are taking a breather after the rally on May 31. Meanwhile, most altcoins remain severely oversold, with most between 70% and 90% below their all-time highs. Total altcoin index capitalization What is clear is that fear is everywhere and blood is in the water. Risk-on markets are suffering worldwide, but it is exactly these kinds of conditions that create opportunities where professional money accumulates and adds to positions. Let’s take a look at three altcoins that could be positioned for a rebound if the broader market enters a new uptrend. ADA could be setting up for an 80% surge Cardano (ADA) has a significantly bullish update coming very soon. The much anticipated Vasil hard fork, which increases performance and adds more Plutu...
The past week in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem was dominated by Terra’s collapse and its aftermath on various ecosystems it was connected. Now BNB chain has come to the rescue of several stranded projects on Terra by offering financial and technical assistance. After its spiral collapse, Terra co-founder Do Kown proposed a revival plan and a hard fork to revive the blockchain. Chainalysis introduced new tools to monitor and track stolen funds across multiple blockchains. Swiss asset manager Julias Baer is eyeing crypto and DeFi potential. Top DeFi tokens saw another week of bleeding, with the majority of these tokens trading in red over the past week. Do Kwon proposes Terra hard fork to save the ecosystem Do Kwon, co-founder of the troubled Terra Luna blockchain, announc...