Decentral Block Post

The Open Network (TON) has released an on-chain encrypted messaging feature, according to a July 3 announcement from the network’s developer, TON Foundation. The new feature allows for private messages to be sent between TON users. 

TON is a blockchain network forked from code created by the Telegram instant messaging app team. Telegram abandoned the project in July 2020, before a mainnet was ever launched. However, it open-sourced TON’s code before leaving, allowing others to continue building upon the work it had done.

The current network, called “TON,” was built by the TON Foundation. The foundation claims that the network provides greater scalability and transaction throughput than other options in the Web3 ecosystem while also remaining decentralized.

TON has always allowed users to send messages in transactions. But in the past, these messages were completely public. The new feature allows users to encrypt these messages end to end, making them readable only by the intended recipient.

TON core developer Anatoly Makosov claimed the feature was created to allow for the “personalization” of transactions:

The United States equity markets have witnessed a solid year so far. The Nasdaq Composite has soared 31.7%, its best first-half performance since 1983. Similarly, the S&P 500 Index’s (SPX) 15.9% gain is its best first half since 2019. This suggests that risky assets remain in demand.

In the cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin (BTC) has led the recovery from the front, rising 20% in Q2 2023. An encouraging sign is that the rise has not tempted the Bitcoin hodlers to book profits. Glassnode’s Illiquid Supply Change metric is near cycle highs, indicating hodler conviction.

Usually, the leader is the first to emerge from a bear market. If the rally sustains, the sentiment among the traders improves and they start looking at other buying opportunities. After Bitcoin’s rally, the altcoins have started to show signs of life. If the trend continues, several altcoins may rally over the next few weeks.

Will the U.S. equities markets continue their march higher? Could Bitcoin and the major altcoins continue their recovery? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

S&P 500 Index price analysis

The S&P 500 Index bounced off the breakout level of 4,325 on June 26, indicating that the bulls have flipped the level into support.

Bitcoin (BTC) lingered below $31,000 at the July 3 Wall Street open, with bulls still in need of a catalyst.

Bitcoin price: Sink or swim at $30,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD acting in a tight range following the weekly close.

BTC’s price performance remained firmly sideways into the new week, punctuated only by modest attempts at attacking the $31,000 mark.

More optimistic market participants hoped that nearby resistance levels — and not only for Bitcoin — would soon fall.

“The more frequently a resistance line is tested, the weaker it becomes,” trading team Stockmoney Lizards argued.

Despite changes introduced by Twitter management since Elon Musk’s takeover, the issue around fake followers remains a persistent problem. As many as 10% of the followers of accounts belonging to crypto influencers and companies are fake, new data from dappGambl has revealed.

In April 2023, Musk introduced Twitter Blue — an $8 monthly subscription for verification — to increase the platform’s revenue while making it financially inviable for bots and fake accounts to operate. However, months later, dappGambl’s investigation found that up to 10% of followers from the most followed crypto accounts are fake.

When it comes to the official accounts of cryptocurrency tokens and ecosystems, Shiba Inu (SHIB) had the highest number of fake followers at 10.26% or 80,000 accounts, while Avalanche (AVAX) ranked second with 8.14% fake followers, followed by Polygon (MATIC) with 7.58% or 73,000 fake accounts.

dappGambl suspected that the relationship between Twitter accounts and their fake followers is dependent on the popularity of the tokens. By analyzing the social sentiment behind crypto accounts, dappGambl found that:

“Dai (DAI) is the most loved (popular) coin on Twitter whilst XRP (XRP) is the most hated (unpopular).”