Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) enters a new week with a bang after sealing its highest weekly close since mid-June — can the good times continue?

After a volatile weekend, BTC/USD managed to restrict losses into the later portion of the weekend to produce a solid green candle on weekly timeframes.

In what could shape up to be the last “quiet” week of the summer, bulls have time on their hands in the absence of major macro market drivers involving the United States Federal Reserve.

Fundamentals remain strong on Bitcoin, which is due to an increase in its mining difficulty for the second time in a row in the coming days.

On derivatives markets, encouraging signs are also present, with higher price levels accompanied by bullish data over sentiment.

The Acala Network’s aUSD stablecoin depegged by over 99% over the weekend and forced the Acala team to pause a hacker’s wallet, raising concerns about its claim of being decentralized.

On Aug. 14, a hacker took advantage of a bug on the iBTC/aUSD liquidity pool which resulted in 1.2 billion aUSD being minted without collateral. This event crashed the USD-pegged stablecoin to a cent, and in response, the Acala team froze the erroneously minted tokens by placing the network in maintenance mode.

The move also halted other features such as swaps, xcm (cross-chain communications on Polkadot), and the oracle pallet price feeds until “further notice”

While the move to put the network in maintenance mode and freeze funds in the hacker’s wallet may have been meant to protect users and the network from any further harm, proponents of decentralization have cried foul.

Acala is a cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) hub that issues the aUSD stablecoin based on the Polkadot (DOT) blockchain. aUSD is a crypto-backed stablecoin which Acala claims is censorship-resistant. iBTC is a form of wrapped Bitcoin (BTC) which can be used in DeFi protocols.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) broke out of its prevailing "cup-and-handle" pattern on Aug. 14, raising its prospects of securing additional gains in the coming weeks.

Shiba Inu could soar 50%

A cup-and-handle appears when the price falls and rises in a U-shaped trajectory in the first stage, followed by a swift move sideways or downward in the second. Notably, the price trend develops under a common resistance level.

Typically, cup-and-handle patterns resolve after the price breaks above the resistance level; SHIB did the same on Aug. 14 after rising 27% to $0.000016, as shown below.

Per the rule of technical analysis, a cup-and-handle breakout target is determined by measuring the distance between the pattern's lowest point and resistance line and adding it to the breakout point. As a result, SHIB could head toward $0.00002253.

In other words, a 50% price rally by September.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) broke out of its prevailing "cup-and-handle" pattern on Aug. 14, raising its prospects of securing additional gains in the coming weeks.

Shiba Inu could soar 50%

A cup-and-handle appears when the price falls and rises in a U-shaped trajectory in the first stage, followed by a swift move sideways or downward in the second. Notably, the price trend develops under a common resistance level.

Typically, cup-and-handle patterns resolve after the price breaks above the resistance level; SHIB did the same on Aug. 14 after rising 27% to $0.000016, as shown below.

Per the rule of technical analysis, a cup-and-handle breakout target is determined by measuring the distance between the pattern's lowest point and resistance line and adding it to the breakout point. As a result, SHIB could head toward $0.00002253.

In other words, a 50% price rally by September.

The S&P 500 rose for the fourth successive week as investors cheered on signs that inflation may have peaked. Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins also extended their recovery, suggesting that investors are increasing their exposure to risk assets.

A similar trend has played out in the cryptocurrency markets. Altcoins, led by Ether (ETH), have outperformed Bitcoin after clarity on Ethereum’s Merge, according to analysts at Glassnode.

However, trading firm QCP Capital is cautious about the momentum in the altcoin market. They highlighted that the open interest on Ether options had surged to $8 billion, exceeding Bitcoin option OI which was at $5 billion. Glassnode suggested that traders have been booking profits on the spread between their spot long Ether versus the quarterly short Ether futures positions.

Could Bitcoin and the altcoins extend their recovery in the next few days? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may outperform in the near term.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin rose above the overhead resistance of $24,668 on Aug. 13 and Aug. 14 but the bulls could not sustain the higher levels. This indicates that bears are selling on rallies but repeated breach of an overhead resistance tends to weaken it.

The S&P 500 rose for the fourth successive week as investors cheered on signs that inflation may have peaked. Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins also extended their recovery, suggesting that investors are increasing their exposure to risk assets.

A similar trend has played out in the cryptocurrency markets. Altcoins, led by Ether (ETH), have outperformed Bitcoin after clarity on Ethereum’s Merge, according to analysts at Glassnode.

However, trading firm QCP Capital is cautious about the momentum in the altcoin market. They highlighted that the open interest on Ether options had surged to $8 billion, exceeding Bitcoin option OI which was at $5 billion. Glassnode suggested that traders have been booking profits on the spread between their spot long Ether versus the quarterly short Ether futures positions.

Could Bitcoin and the altcoins extend their recovery in the next few days? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may outperform in the near term.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin rose above the overhead resistance of $24,668 on Aug. 13 and Aug. 14 but the bulls could not sustain the higher levels. This indicates that bears are selling on rallies but repeated breach of an overhead resistance tends to weaken it.

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked through $25,000 for the first time in months on Aug. 14, but traders refused to take any chances on a bull run.

Weekend produces brief $25,000 tap for BTC

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a sudden run-up on BTC/USD, which hit $25,050 on Bitstamp in a $350 hourly candle.

The move took the pair to a new personal best since June 13, erasing more of the losses seen that day in what remains a significant BTC price correction.

Analyzing the market setup, however, familiar bearish tones remained. 

For popular Twitter account Il Capo of Crypto, the latest highs appeared to provide the last piece of the puzzle before a new downtrend set in.

Bitcoin (BTC) spiked through $25,000 for the first time in months on Aug. 14, but traders refused to take any chances on a bull run.

Weekend produces brief $25,000 tap for BTC

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a sudden run-up on BTC/USD, which hit $25,050 on Bitstamp in a $350 hourly candle.

The move took the pair to a new personal best since June 13, erasing more of the losses seen that day in what remains a significant BTC price correction.

Analyzing the market setup, however, familiar bearish tones remained. 

For popular Twitter account Il Capo of Crypto, the latest highs appeared to provide the last piece of the puzzle before a new downtrend set in.

Velodrome Finance, a trading and liquidity marketplace, announced the recovery of $350,000 stolen on Aug. 4. However, the occasion turned bittersweet when internal investigations pointed out the involvement of a prominent team member, who goes by the pseudo name Gabagool.

On Aug. 4, one of Velodrome’s high-worth wallets — dedicated for operating funds such as salaries — was drained off $350,000 before it could be transferred to the company’s treasury multisig wallet. A subsequent internal investigation revealed the attacker’s identification, which allowed the company to recover the entire loot. Velodrome’s official statement revealed:

“Much to our disappointment, we learned the attacker was a fellow team member Gabagool.”

While many community members came in support of the prominent coder, Gabagool owned up to the allegations made against him following Velodrome’s investigation. 

Nearly six hours into the revelation, Gabagool released a note revealing various events that led him to attempt theft. Velodrome’s biggest mistake was to give ownership of its wallet’s private key to five individuals, which included Gabagool.