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District 9 director’s shooter, Decentraland red-light district battle: Web3 Gamer

Trouble in Decentraland’s red light district, “no mercy” for Vulcan Forged autoclickers, District 9 director’s immersive blockchain shooter.

Stablecoins must be programmable to counter CBDCs

Decentralization enables programmability — and that allows stablecoins to wield a key advantage over central bank digital currencies.

Draft bill suggests separating legislation on payment stablecoins and digital asset markets

The draft bill no longer included aspects of an earlier version that included legislation of custodial service providers and algorithmic stablecoins, as well as a CBDC study.

Price analysis 4/24: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, MATIC, DOGE, SOL

Bitcoin (BTC) managed to stay above $27,000 for the past three days but its 9% loss last week spooked some newbie traders. Glassnode data shows that short-term holders, who acquired Bitcoin less than 155 days ago, have been moving coins to the exchanges at a loss since April 16. 

While short-term traders are panicking and focusing on the $25,000 level on the downside, some analysts are turning bullish for the next year. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jamie Douglas Coutts expects Bitcoin to reach $50,000 by April 2024.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Another bullish voice was that of Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick who said that the “crypto winter” may be over. He projected that Bitcoin could skyrocket to $100,000 by end-2024.

What are the important support levels where the latest leg of the correction may attract buyers? Let’s study the charts of Bitcoin and altcoins to find out.

S&P 500 index price analysis

The S&P 500 index (SPX) has pulled back to the 20-day exponential moving average (4,098), indicating that the bears are selling the rallies near 4,200.

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Price analysis 4/24: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, MATIC, DOGE, SOL

Bitcoin and select altcoins are at risk of falling below their respective support levels and starting a deeper correction.

German regulators launch inquiry into ChatGPT GDPR compliance

Germany becomes the latest European nation to officially question OpenAI’s compliance with GDPR.

Ordinals Finance has conducted a $1M rug pull: CertiK

The DeFi protocol appears to have erased its social media presence after news of the alleged exit scam broke.

Ordinals Finance has conducted a $1M rug pull: CertiK

The DeFi protocol appears to have erased its social media presence after news of the alleged exit scam broke.

Ether price struggles to maintain support as regulatory challenges and network issues weigh

Ether options volume hints at bearish sentiment as the $1,850 support falters.

Ether price struggles to maintain support as regulatory challenges and network issues weigh

The Ether price has struggled to sustain $1,850 support since April 21, the same level it held before the rally toward $2,100 initiated on April 13. Investors have reason to question whether there are buyers, considering the 13.5% price correction in six days and the $548 million in leveraged futures longs liquidated between April 19 and April 21.

First, the regulatory environment seems to have gotten stricter for centralized exchanges. Dubai-based Bybit, for instance, announced that all users must complete Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification by May 8 for order execution and withdrawals. Until May 8, non-KYC users have a monthly withdrawal limit of 100,000 Tether (USDT).

United States-based crypto exchange Gemini announced on April 21 the upcoming launch of a derivatives platform outside the country. The uncertain regulatory environment forced the company to seek alternative locales, though only clients from selected regions can access the new service. The list excludes the U.S., Canada and most European countries, except Switzerland.

Ethereum network is navigating in troubled waters

Given its lower use in decentralized applications (DApps), the Ethereum network is probably experiencing its own problems. For starters, total deposits on Ethereum’s smart contracts in Ether (ETH) terms plunged to their lowest levels since August 2020. Such an analysis already excludes the effects of native Ethereum staking, which recently started to allow withdrawals.

Ethereum network applications' total deposits in ETH. Source: DefiLlama

According to DefiLlama data, Ethereum DApps reached 15.3 million ETH in total value locked (TVL) on April 24. That compares with 22.0 million ETH six months prior, a 30% decline. As a comparison, TVL on BNB Smart Chain in BNB (BNB) terms declined by 20%, and the Polygon network’s MATIC (MATIC) deposits decreased by 11%.

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OFAC sanctions OTC traders who converted crypto for North Korea’s Lazarus group

U.S. law enforcement has identified three individuals who handled stolen crypto and fiat for the benefit of North Korea.

Pan-European crypto regulation is almost here: Law Decoded, Apr 17–24

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Act, also known as MiCA, was finally passed by the European Parliament.

Ethereum price lower highs vs. Bitcoin hint at more downside in April

Institutional investors accumulated Ether and sold off Bitcoin last week, suggesting confidence in Ethereum after the Shapella hard fork.

Ethereum price lower highs vs. Bitcoin hint at more downside in April

The price of Ethereum's Ether (ETH) token has retreated from its recovery trend versus Bitcoin (BTC) while making a series of lower highs in April.

ETH price risks more losses vs. Bitcoin

As of April 24, the ETH/BTC pair was down about 5.5% from its local high of 0.0709 BTC six days ago. The same period witnessed Ether declining nearly 15% and Bitcoin dropping 11.25% in U.S. dollar terms.

ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView

For now, ETH holds above its 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the red wave) near 0.0672 BTC. But if the March 2023 fractal is any indication, Ethereum's price could drop sharply below the support wave.

The ETH/BTC pair saw a pullback trend in March after testing the 200-day EMA (the blue wave), breaking below its 50-day EMA in the process.

If the fractal plays out similarly in April, the downside target is 0.0627 BTC by the month's end, about 7% lower than the current levels, and a level that served as major support in March and April.

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Bitcoin price tags new April low as traders weigh odds of $25K next

Bitcoin threatens a breakdown below $27,000, and traders are ready and waiting with their downside BTC price targets.

Bitcoin price tags new April low as traders weigh odds of $25K next

Bitcoin (BTC) headed toward range lows at the April 24 Wall Street open, with investors at odds over when to take profit.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC price targets extend to $25,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD falling below $27,300 on Bitstamp.

The pair had seen an initial positive reaction to the start of trading on Wall Street, this short-lived as a trip to $27,045 marked new monthly lows.

Traders, already keen to see further downside to take waiting bid liquidity, were unperturbed.

“Patiently waiting for the sweep,” popular trader Johnny summarized.

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OpenAI’s CTO says government regulators should be ‘very involved’ in regulating AI

The executive recently sounded off about government regulators, the “pause” letter, and how close the company is to reaching artificial general intelligence.

Ethereum up 20% in April while Markets Pro sees 379% gain in one day

Cointelegraph Markets Pro stunned traders on April 8th with a massive 379% gain from a single alert. The AI-powered crypto trading platform detects market-moving events as they happen. One of the indicators pointing to these events is the VORTECS™ score.

On April 7th, the OG Fan Token was getting ready for a remarkable rally. OG Fan Token is a cryptocurrency created for esports clubs to interact easier with their fans. In partnership with the blockchain mobile applications Socios.com, the OG esports club powered by the CHZ token aims to enhance the sporting experience. OG’s rally this week was followed by an interest spike in fan tokens like CITY and BAR.

The token was trading at $2.90 when its VORTECS™ score — a historical “snapshot” comparison between current and past market conditions for individual coins — rose above 75. Over the next 24 hours, OG’s price skyrocketed to $13.90. That’s a remarkable jump of 379%!

Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

Five days later, traders could have captured additional gains as OG took off again. On April 13th, a VORTECS™ score of 80 lit up. Over the next 24 hours, the token saw a rapid rise of 40%.

Anyone with access to Markets Pro had a chance to capture these gains which stand in stark contrast to Ethereum’s performance so far in April. Ethereum had the historic “Shanghai Capella” upgrade allowing token withdrawals to be made from the deposit contract.

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China to expand CBDC use case for Belt and Road Initiative

China was one of the first nations to start working on its CBDCs. However, despite the completion of its development, the government is yet to officially launch the CBDC.

China to expand CBDC use case for Belt and Road Initiative

China was one of the first nations to start working on its CBDCs. However, despite the completion of its development, the government is yet to officially launch the CBDC.

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