Altcoin News

Polkadot [DOT] Is Now Part Of The Top Five As Its Market Cap Surpasses $10B

January 14, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

The cryptocurrency industry was once again a $1 trillion market. Polkadot’s [DOT] latest jump in terms of the market cap seems to have aided the surge of the global market cap to $1.04 trillion. The retracement Bitcoin and other coins were facing over the week, seemed to be over as all the other coins were seen rising up. Bitcoin [BTC] was aiming to hit $40K with a 9.80% rise over the last 24-hours. At press time, XRP was trading for $38,130 while its market cap stood at $712.51 billion. XRP was the only asset recording a slump while all the other coins were bagging gains.

Polkadot [DOT] was seen trading at $11.94, during press time. Even though the coin entered the crypto-verse during the pandemic, it proved to be one of the most promising assets. Earlier today, the altcoin hit an all-time high of $12.21 as it rose by over 32.66% in the last 24-hours.

Polkadot [DOT] One-Day Price Chart On Binance

The one-day price chart of Polkadot revealed that the asset would most likely continue this upward trajectory. The Bollinger Bands were miles apart which indicated an increase in volatility. The Awesome Oscillator affirmed that a surge in volatility was for the best as it formed a green closing bar and indicated the presence of bulls in the DOT market. The Money Flow Index revealed that DOT was being overbought. The MFI marker was seen recovering from the overbought zone, but a buyer’s sentiment prolonged in the DOT market.

Polkadot’s Market Cap

Polkadot was on a roll. The altcoin surprised several when it made its way into the top ten and remained there for a long time. DOT finally made it to the top five as its market cap pushed past $10 billion. The coin overshadowed coins like Bitcoin Cash [BCH] as well as Litecoin [LTC], which have been in the industry for quite a while now. While XRP had fallen below LTC before, DOT could surpass the troubled asset if it prolonged its journey.

Stellar [XLM] Will Continue Its Hot Streak As Bulls Rush Into Its Market

January 13, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

The crypto-verse has been on a roller coaster ride with the price of the assets exhibiting extreme volatility. Stellar [XLM] has been bagging a lot of gains following its association with the Ukraine government as well as the bull run. The entire market, however, was seen back at the red sea. Bitcoin was down by 4% in the last 24-hours which staggered the king coin’s price down to $35K. The overall market cap of the crypto industry had been trying hard to push past $1 trillion, yet it was stuck at $942.85 billion during the time of writing.

Just last week, Stellar revealed that it was joining hands with the Ukraine government to develop a CBDC. This seems to have aided the asset’s market cap as well as price. The altcoin’s market cap rose to $6.39 billion pushing the coin into the top ten. At press time, XLM was trading for $0.289 and surged by over 100% in the last 14 days.

Stellar [XLM] One-Hour Price Chart On Binance

A symmetrical triangle pattern was formed in the one-hour price chart of XLM. The volume in the XLM market was quite low which further affirmed the pattern that was formed. The upper trend line formed lower highs at $0.31 and $0.29 while the lower trend line was constituted by higher lows at $0.262, $0.260 as well as $0.27 which later converged to form a triangle. The direction of a breakout is usually upwards with this pattern.

The daily moving average indicator prolonged its bullish crossover and was in sync with the pattern formed.

Stellar [XLM] With Indicators

The short term price chart of XLM was exhibiting a buyers’ sentiment as the Relative Strength Index [RSI] was above 50 median. The MACD line was seen changing sides after a brief stay in the bearish realm. The MACD line was sluggishly overtaking the signal line forming a bullish crossover.

Binance US Delists XRP But GateHub Stands By Its Decision

January 13, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Ripple’s tussle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] has left the entire market worried about the future cryptocurrency, XRP which saw a severe price dump following the news. Also, the cryptocurrency exchanges that had previously listed the token and gave investors access to the token for the past several years were equally concerned about the whole affair. While a few exchanges took a more conservative approach and delisted the asset others have gone on to either halt or delist XRP till the matter is resolved.

Ray Of Hope For XRP?

In the latest development, the XRP ledger wallet and gateway called GateHub will continue listing the token. According to its official blog post, the platform asserted that it would not remove the crypto-asset until the SEC’s complaint against Ripple is adjudicated and a final decision entered that the token is properly classified as a “security,” or until GateHub receives a cease-and-desist notice from the regulators.

The lack of clarity with regards to the treatment of cryptocurrencies under US securities laws has been a major cause of concern for the market players. On that note, GateHub emphasized that the open-sourced XRP Ledger is a “distributed” blockchain technology. Hence even if Ripple Labs happens to shut its shop tomorrow, the ledger and the recording of XRP transactions on it would continue to exist through the consensus process. The announcement further read,

“If Ripple and/or its senior executives defrauded individual investors, they should be subject to appropriate enforcement actions, and be forced to disgorge any ill-gotten gains. But that is a far cry from an action by the SEC classifying XRP as a “security,” with potentially catastrophic consequences for individual investors, who did nothing wrong.”

The SEC had sued Ripple earlier this month on allegations it has been selling the token as unregistered security for more than seven years. Unlike GateHub, not many have been kind to the crypto. Binance US, for instance, has been more strict with its approach. The U.S. affiliate of the world’s top crypto exchange by volume announced the delisting of XRP from the platform on the 13th of January.

Previously, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse had blasted the lawsuit, claiming that it affected “countless innocent XRP retail holders with no connection to the blockchain company. Commenting on the several platforms delisting XRP, Garlinghouse had asserted that the company had “no control” over where the token is listed since “It’s open-source and decentralized”.

PayPal Sees $242 Million In Crypto Trading Volumes As Retail Interest Spikes

January 13, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Paypal’s cryptocurrency transaction trading volume just hit a new all-time high of a whopping $242 million. Interestingly, this coincided with Bitcoin’s short-lived but biggest dip of the year so far all the way to $30.5K in a weekend dump. As noted by many industry experts, the dip was crucial and healthy which strengthened the said level as a crucial support threshold for the crypto-asset’s price in the coming days.

PayPal’s Record-breaking Numbers Imply Retail Adoption?

The payment giant’s surge to the record level essentially signaled the arrival of the retail players in the market who were left out in the bull run that was mainly led by the institutional investors.

The latest plunge thus gave the retail investors yet another chance to stack Bitcoins who rushed PayPal to join the bandwagon. According to the stats, Bitcoin continued to remain the leader, whereas Ethereum followed suit and was the second choice by retail.

A similar sentiment was noted by the popular crypto trader, Alex Saunders who tweeted,

“Retail has arrived. PayPal cleared $242M in crypto sales yesterday. That’s nearly double the previous record.”

The figure was accessed through Paxos’ itBit exchange which PayPal uses to source liquidity. PayPal selected the platform to handle its crypto transactions upon launching digital asset trading services back in October 2020.

Thanks to the ongoing bull run, the crypto business has been booming to levels not seen in a long time. Prior to the current volume, the previous high for the exchange was found to be at $128 million volume on the 6th of January.

PayPal announced the launch of crypto service last year after witnessing the demand for the sector heating up among the traditional finance circles. It is important to note that this development was seen as an important event for the ecosystem which woke Bitcoin, and the cryptocurrency market by extension, from a deep slumber of price inaction.

Several well-known proponent had gone on to remark that the phase potentially bolstered the first stage of the 2020 bull run. The American fintech player’s crypto business had recently noted that it would further plan to let customers leverage cryptocurrencies to pay for items from its network of a massive 26 million retailers.

Binance Coin’s [BNB] Selling Pressure Resumes; Price Faces Stiff Resistance At $40

January 13, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Binance Coin [BNB] has been one of the best performing crypto-assets in the latest bull run. Its YTD gains neared 200% after it climbed its previous price all-time high. However, BNB faced minor retracement, as the cryptocurrency market cap fell roughly $100 billion. The mounting bearish pressure was felt by several altcoins which led BNB to record a weekly loss of 8.71%.

Over the past 24-hours, BNB was down by 1.70% which drove its price to $37.83. At the time of writing, the crypto-asset registered a market cap of $5.37 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $572 million.

Despite the sharp correction, will a short-term top materialize?

Binance Coin [BNB] Daily Chart:

Binance Coin [BNB] had failed to build upon the recovery despite buying the dip. The BNB price candles strictly followed an ascending channel pattern oscillating between the two upward sloping trendlines. As predicted, the outcome was a bearish breakout following the completion of the pattern as the crypto-asset took a dip right after establishing a fresh all-time high.

Looking closer at the above chart, it can be noted that the $41.35-$44.02 region served as strong resistance as BNB saw a pullback. This correction back closer to its support level further signaled a good opportunity for the market participants to enter a long position.

The technicals for Binance Coin, however, appeared to be bearish. The MACD, for instance, generated a weak sell signal as it formed a bearish crossover under zero. A move by the MACD into the bearish territory can confirm that BNB was heading to make more losses in the coming days.

The RSI witnessed a steep fall, in tandem with the price, after climbing to the overbought zone and was found to be a little below the 50-median line suggesting a declining sentiment of buying pressure among investors in the coin market. This evidenced that a local top has formed at the recently touched ATH-level.

If this is indeed the case, then BNB’s price could continue to face resistances by $41.35 and $44.02 respectively in the near-term. In absence of bullish momentum, the crypto-asset could break its nearest support of $36.01 to target other downsides at $32.12 and $27.27 respectively.

Tron’s [TRX] Price Risks A Retracement To $0.023

January 13, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Tron [TRX] has been slow to catch the bullish bandwagon as the altcoin recorded a 2.71% weekly gains despite an outstanding performance by the cryptocurrency market over the past several weeks. The recent pullback caused much damage to the coin which further sank the coin.

Starting off with a fresh decline, the 17th largest crypto-asset has been treading in troubled waters. Tron was currently priced at $0.029 after a dip of 1.15% over the last 24-hours. At the time of writing, the coin registered a market cap of $2.1 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.85 billion.

Have Tron bulls ceded to the bears? Let’s look at the charts below.

Tron [TRX] Daily Chart:

Tron [TRX] has been pretty much consolidating within a tight rangebound. Unlike its peer altcoins, TRX has failed to post impressive gains over the last month. The lackluster in the Tron market was further confirmed by the placement of the daily moving averages with respect to the price candles.

The 50 DMA [Blue] moved above the candlestick arrangement today depicting a rather gloomy picture for the coin. The 50 DMA and the 200 DMA [Purple] were moving in parallel to each other with the latter forming a critical support point for the TRX candles. This depicted the continuation of the ongoing trend and a sharp break on either side might not be in the cards, at least for some time.

The Fib retracement indicator highlighted a few crucial positions that TRX’s price could find itself in.

Despite Tron’s dull price action, the OBV indicator demonstrated a bullish development for the coin market as the buying volume remained at relatively higher levels. Furthermore, the RSI was a little below the 50-median line indicating a minor dip in the buying pressure among the investors in the TRX market over the past day.

Meanwhile, the Stochastic RSI sank indicating a substantial bearish pressure.

According to the above charts, Tron technicals were in an indecisive phase even as its price made a couple of attempts to settle above the press time level. If TRX breaks the 100% Fib retracement level of the downside move at $0.0236, the losses could extend to the nearest support levels of $0.016 and $0.012 respectively.

Besides, Tron found significant resistance from $0.0346 and $0.0416.

Litecoin [LTC] To Buck Up After Enduring Huge Loss

January 13, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

All the assets seemed to be recovering from yesterday’s carnage. Bitcoin [BTC], Litecoin [LTC], and even XRP were seen surging after a brief setback. Bitcoin’s fall from $40K all the way down to $30K had got investors trembling in fear. However, several in the industry went on to urge individuals to buy the dip. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was back from its detour as it was priced at $36K. While all the coins were getting back on track, the global crypto market cap seemed to be surging slower than expected.

Litecoin [LTC] Market Analysis

Litecoin was seen making good use of the latest bull run. Yet, the digital silver did not get anywhere close to its all-time high. The asset tried hard to hit $200, but it went up as high as $185.58 and had a big fall. During press time, the altcoin was trading for $144.61 with a 1.70% rise in its price over the last 24-hours. The asset’s position as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency remained intact as its market cap was noted at $9.62 billion.

Litecoin [LTC] One-Hour Price Chart On Binance

The volume in the LTC market was quite low compared to the last two days. The latest crash in the crypto market forced the altcoin below a strong resistance line at $122. The one-hour price chart of the altcoin revealed that the latest setback was nothing but a dainty hurdle as the bulls had been residing in the LTC market. The 100 daily moving average [Red] was well below the 50 daily moving average [Blue] which is considered a bullish crossover.

Litecoin [LTC] Price Chart With Key Indicators

The Bollinger Bands indicator suggested that the LTC market was in for an increase in volatility as the bands were moving wide apart after recently coming closer. The MACD indicator affirmed that this change in volatility could aid the coin’s journey to $200. The MACD line overtook the signal line, yesterday welcoming the bulls and ousting the bears.

Ripple Onboards New Senior Vice Prez Of Engineering From Amazon Amidst SEC Lawsuit

January 12, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

2020 ended on a bitter note for Ripple as well as the XRP community. The SEC lawsuit caused a lot of commotion in the market which led to the altcoin bagging limited gains from the latest crypto rally. The SEC claims that XRP is a security while Ripple stands strong with the narrative that it is not. This tiff between the two XRP to slump all the way down to $0.20. The platform had previously expressed its urge to leave the US citing lack of regulatory clarity as one of its reasons, it seems like it was too slow to do so. Ripple did not limit its functions as the platform was out and about. The crypto platform’s latest recruitment is substantial proof of the same.

Ripple Recruits Amazon Executive

The show must go on. Ripple seems to be complying with this motto despite its clash with the SEC. A recent tweet from the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse revealed that the team had a new Senior Vice President of Engineering who previously served Amazon as the Vice President of Delivery Experience. Garlinghouse’s tweet read,

“Ripple’s all-star engineering team continues to grow – thrilled to welcome Dev as our new SVP of Engineering!”

Devraj Varadhan in an elaborate post on Ripple’s blog pointed out that he worked for Amazon for over 15 years and decided to join Ripple to aid the platform’s vision of enabling the Internet of Value [IoV]. He pointed out that the success of companies comes from the obsession with their customers, the weightage of invention, engineering strength as well as operational rigor. The world figured the importance of digitalization during the pandemic, as several firms step into digitalization, Varadhan seems to be getting into the process with an already established platform.

He further wrote,

“One of the most important lessons that I carry with me from my time at Amazon is the idea of “divine discontent” when it comes to serving customers.”

While XRP did not really make a lot of profit during this bull run, the news of its latest recruit didn’t act as a catalyst either. The altcoin managed to follow the trail of the ongoing trend and surged to $0.30 with a 4.60% surge in the last 24-hours.

Bitcoin Cash Endorsement Has Got Kim Dotcom Questioning The “Toxic” Nature Of The Crypto Community

January 12, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

Bitcoin Cash [BCH] managed to secure a lot of fans after Roger Ver aka Bitcoin Jesus went on to promote the coin. Over the years, several followed suit as Bitcoin Cash entailed a block size larger than that of Bitcoin. The asset is now widely being used for online payments, however, its popularity and value remain dainty when compared to Bitcoin [BTC]. The tiff between Bitcoin maximalists and the evangelists of other coins is not news, the Bitcoin Cash community seems to have added another person to their list.

‘Bitcoin Cash Is Great For Online Payments’, Suggests Kim Dotcom

German entrepreneur, Kim Dotcom sprang to fame after rolling out Megaupload as he bagged in millions of dollars. After trying his hand at crypto and failing, Kim Dotcom seemed to be joining the Bitcoin Cash community. He affirmed the same in his latest tweet.

I’m herewith officially joining the effort to make Bitcoin Cash the leading electronic cash solution in the world.

I will help to accelerate the use of BCH with real world and online vendors and to increase the user base.

I know how to do this. Join me.#Bitcoin #BitcoinCash

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 10, 2021

This tweet triggered several members of the crypto community who began questioning Kim Dotcom’s latest move. The German entrepreneur pointed out that Bitcoin Cash functioned on low fees and was easy to use while being secure. While the Bitcoin Cash community and Roger Ver have time and again dissed Bitcoin for being “slow with high fees and unreliable transactions”, Kim Dotcom seemed to have joined the BCH gang. However, he suggested that he chose BCH over BTC as he considers BCH “great for online payments”, while BTC “is great to store value.”

Furthermore, Kim Dotcom went on to explain that he intends to bring in more people to the community through his “innovations, with my contact network and the incredible power of genius marketing”, he added.

The entrepreneur received backlash for his latest move but suggested that his stance was a result of the demands and necessities of users and vendors from the digital verse. A Twitter user even went on to ask the entrepreneur if Roger Ver had paid him money for this endorsement. To which Kim Dotcom replied,

“He sent me $1000 in BCH via text message to try the Bitcoin.com wallet. I then sent $500 in BCH to a friend via text message because I wanted him to see how easy this is.”

Back in September 2020, Tim Draper was subject to immense resentment for endorsing BCH. However, the venture capitalist affirmed that the endorsement was a result of a hack.

The repercussions of exhibiting support for certain coins seemed to be getting out of hand as Kim Dotcom suggested that healthy competition is good for the crypto-verse and those who have been preaching Bitcoin maximalism aren’t doing the king coin a favor. He added,

How did the cryptoverse get so toxic? It doesn’t matter which crypto leads in the future. What matters is that the idea of crypto finds mass acceptance so that all of humanity can benefit. The crypto community should work together on that common goal. Respect each other. #crypto

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 11, 2021

XRP Undecisive As Bulls Struggle To Hold Fort Above $0.3

January 12, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Despite the ongoing SEC lawsuit against Ripple, XRP showed promising bullish signs over the past several days. Owing to the euphoric run by Bitcoin above the $40K, XRP along with the altcoin market saw a massive price rise. However, following the weekend correction, the crypto-asset reversed its gains and slid below several crucial recently breached support levels.

The crypto-asset was down by 16.07% over the last 24-hours which drove its price to $0.289. At the time of writing, XRP held a market cap of $12.84 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $9.66 billion.

The coin’s price was currently in indecisive and was currently hovering close to an important level, a move above which could give the bulls some hope.

XRP Daily Chart:

Despite a positive start to the day, XRP has failed to gain a strong foothold at the $0.3 mark. The latest slip proved damaging for the crypto-asset as several technicals flipped bearish.

The moving averages, for instance, demonstrated a gloomy picture. The 50 DMA [Pink], hovering above the price candles, continued to resist an upward breakout. Following the latest market downturn, the 200 DMA [Blue] challenged the price for an extended bearish onslaught.

If XRP fails to hold the current position, a plunge to pre-bull level might become inevitable.

The MACD contiued its bullish crossover formed in the first week of January. Despite the divering lines, the MACD was above zero which was a positive indicator that the bulls were defending the current price level of $0.3 even as the bears managed to sink the price lower.

However, the Stochastic RSI formed a bearish crossover, closely mimicking the price action, and suggested a position in the overbought zone. This could essentialy imply that a reversal might be on the cards which could cause a price decline in the short-term.

The RSI has suffered severe resistance by the 50-median line and has failed to make a move above it in more than two weeks now. The indicator showed that the bearish momentum and high sell pressure which overpowered XRP.

While $0.3 is an important level of defense, XRP might face a great deal of difficulty in holding the fort above it. Subsequent level of resistance was found near the 50 DMA at $0.45 while its supports stood untested at $0.21 and $0.18 respectively.

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