Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a pivotal week on a firm footing as bulls succeed in wiping out weeks of losses.

After closing the latest weekly candle at $21,800, its highest since mid-August, BTC/USD is back on the radar as a long bet.

The end to an extended period of downside interspersed with sideways price action now appears firmly at an end, with volatility expected to form a major theme in the coming days.

In fact, few weeks in Bitcoin’s history have been as hectic as this one is likely to be.

In addition to the Ethereum Merge on Sept. 15, the United States inflation trend will come under scrutiny on Sept. 13 with the release of August Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The recipe for unpredictability is there.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a pivotal week on a firm footing as bulls succeed in wiping out weeks of losses.

After closing the latest weekly candle at $21,800, its highest since mid-August, BTC/USD is back on the radar as a long bet.

The end to an extended period of downside interspersed with sideways price action now appears firmly at an end, with volatility expected to form a major theme in the coming days.

In fact, few weeks in Bitcoin’s history have been as hectic as this one is likely to be.

In addition to the Ethereum Merge on Sept. 15, the United States inflation trend will come under scrutiny on Sept. 13 with the release of August Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The recipe for unpredictability is there.

As the upcoming Terra Classic (LUNC) burning mechanism gained more hype, some crypto exchanges thought it would be a good idea to express their support. However, the crypto community quickly responded, calling out the exchanges for what some believe to be public relations stunts. 

On Sept. 1, Terra community member Edward Kim submitted a proposal to implement a 1.2% tax burn for every on-chain LUNC transaction in an effort to revive the crypto. The transaction tax will be sent to a dead address, removing part of the circulating supply permanently. Following the proposal, the LUNC token soared by 250%, as the hype surrounding the project showed signs of life.

Because of this, crypto exchanges KuCoin, Gate.io and MEXC Global decided to express their support for the token-burning efforts of the Terra community. However, some were unhappy with the announcements, calling out the exchanges. 

After posting an announcement to express that the exchange is supporting the token burn, KuCoin was called out by the pseudonymous Terra researcher FatMan, asking what they are doing to support it, given that the tax burn is implemented on-chain. The researcher described the announcement as a “nothingburger PR post” and suggested taxing actual trades instead. 

In response to the criticism, Johnny Lyu, the CEO of KuCoin exchange, told Cointelegraph that their trading platform is neutral and people-focused. "We always respect the communities’ choice and are happy to help them in the way we can. The same on the tax proposal,” Lyu added. 

While on-chain insurance has been around since 2017, only a measly 1% of all crypto investments are actually covered by insurance, meaning the industry remains a “sleeping giant,” according to a crypto insurance executive.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dan Thomson, the CMO of decentralized cover protocol InsurAce said there is a massive disparity between the total value locked (TVL) in crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and the percentage of that TVL with insurance coverage:

“DeFi insurance is a sleeping giant. With less than 1% of all crypto covered and less than 3% of DeFi, there’s a huge market opportunity still to be realized.”

Though plenty of investment has poured into smart contract security audits, on-chain insurance serves as a viable solution for digital asset protection — such as when a smart contract is exploited or the frontend of a Web3 protocol is compromised.

The collapse of Terra (LUNA) and the resulting depeg of Terra USD provides a textbook example of how on-chain insurance can protect investors, notes Thompson, adding that InsurAce “paid out $11.7 million to 155 affected UST victims.”

The Algorand Foundation has revealed a $35 million USDC hole in its balance sheet as a result of exposure to embattled cryptocurrency lending firm Hodlnaut, which has paused withdraws since Aug. 8. 

Algorand is an institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure with embedded smart contract functionality. The Algorand Foundation is a not-for-profit community organization focused on developing the Algorand ecosystem.

The announcement was made on the Algorand Foundation website on Sept. 9, with the Foundation stating that it's “pursuing all legal remedies to maximize asset recovery.”

Hodlnaut’s financial situation first fell into deep waters when its $300 million investment into TerraUSD (UST) on the Anchor protocol fell dramatically following the de-pegging of UST and collapse of the LUNA token, resulting in the crypto lending firm pausing withdrawals and halting all trading activity, citing a liquidity crisis.

Weeks later, the firm was placed under interim judicial management, a form of creditor protection program, by the Singapore court.

The United States equities markets rallied sharply last week, ending a three-week losing streak. The S&P 500 rose 3.65% last week while the Nasdaq Composite soared 4.14%. Continuing its close correlation with the U.S. equities markets, Bitcoin (BTC) also made a strong comeback and is trying to end the week with gains of more than 7%.

The sharp rally in the stock markets and cryptocurrency markets are showing signs of a bottoming formation but it may be too early to predict the start of a new bull move. The equities markets may remain on the edge before the release of the U.S. inflation data on Sept. 13 and the Federal Reserve meeting on Sept. 20-21.

Along with taking cues from the equities markets, the cryptocurrency space has its own important events to look forward to. Both the Ethereum’s Merge and Cardano’s (ADA) Vasil hard fork scheduled in the next few days could heighten volatility in several cryptocurrencies.

Although choppy markets increase the risk, they may offer short-term trading opportunities to nimble traders. Let’s study the charts of five cryptocurrencies that look interesting in the near term.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin soared above the 20-day exponential moving average ($20,662) on Sept. 9, which was the first indication that the selling pressure could be reducing. The bears are attempting to stall the recovery at the 50-day simple moving average ($21,946) but a positive sign is that the bulls have not given up much ground.