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Bitcoin (BTC) has been stuck inside a tight range in August. Glassnode lead on-chain analyst Checkmate highlighted that the spread between the upper and lower Bollinger Bands for Bitcoin has shrunk to 2.9%, its third tightest ever. 

Typically, periods of low volatility are followed by a range expansion. The longer the time spent inside a range, the stronger the eventual breakout from it. The only problem is that it is difficult to time the breakout with certainty. Therefore, traders should be watchful else they may miss out on the opportunity to ride the next trending move.

One reason that could be weighing down on the risky assets is the strength in the U.S. dollar index (DXY), which has risen for four consecutive weeks.

In contrast, the United States equities markets entered a corrective phase in the past few days. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) and the Nasdaq Composite have both pulled back for the past two weeks, indicating profit-booking by short-term traders.

What are the important support and resistance levels to watch for in Bitcoin and altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

Uniswap dev loses job, was it worth it?

A Uniswap developer known as “AzFlin” has been sacked by the founder of Uniswap Labs, Hayden Adams, for allegedly creating a memecoin and rug pulling it a few hours later for 14 wrapped-Ether (wETH), worth $25,800.

It is understood that AzFlin developed and deployed FrensTech token (FRENS) on Coinbase’s new layer 2 blockchain Base on Aug 12 before selling the tokens raised from the liquidity shortly after.

Adams publicly confirmed the sacking of AzFlin, adding that such behaviour is neither supported nor condoned at Uniswap Labs.

The developer has mocked the situation at hand with a series of light-hearted posts along with a new X (formerly Twitter) cover photo.

AzFlin, however, claims that no rug pull was committed.

Bitcoin (BTC) is on track to form two successive Doji candlestick patterns on the weekly charts but a positive sign is that the price is sustaining above the 20-week exponential moving average ($28,072). This suggests that the bulls have not lost their grip.

Popular trader TechDev used the three-week timeframe to show that Bitcoin’s compression above the 20-period moving average was approaching values seen only four times since Bitcoin’s creation. Interestingly, on all three previous occasions, the expansions happened to the upside, suggesting that history favors the bulls.

However, in the near term, the lack of volatility has pulled Bitcoin futures trading volumes to their lowest levels since December 2022. Cointelegraph contributor Marcel Pechman believes this shows that traders may have shifted to other markets or maybe avoiding making moves at the current levels.

While several altcoins are looking to Bitcoin for direction, some have outperformed in the near term. Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that are looking positive over the next few days.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been trading near the 20-day EMA ($29,447) for the past two days, signaling indecision between the bulls and the bears.

Brazilian lawmakers are moving forward with a legislation that would raise taxes on cryptocurrencies held overseas. According to local reports, a congressional committee has approved amendments to a bill that recognizes cryptocurrencies as "financial assets" for tax purposes in foreign investments.

In addition, the draft bill taxes gains from fluctuations in crypto asset prices against Brazil's fiat currency, as well as foreign exchange rate fluctuations. According to congressman Merlong Solano, the revision seeks to promote equal tax treatment since crypto investments abroad currently receive lower tax breaks.

The changes could make local exchanges a less costly option for some investors, in particular those with gains above the top tax bracket. Overseas earnings up to 6,000 Brazilian reais (~$1,200) will be exempt from taxation under the new rules. Earnings between 6,000 and 50,000 (~$10,000) are subject to a 15% tax rate. Above this threshold, taxes will be applied at 22.5%.

According to the legislation, changes will only apply to cryptocurrency exchanges without offices in Brazil.

The new rules have the potential to boost activity on national crypto exchanges and to lure international players to establish local offices. A number of global crypto exchanges operate in the country, including Binance, Coinbase, Bitso, and Crypto.com, as well as local players such as Mercado Bitcoin and Foxbit.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to frustrate investors with its tight range consolidation, giving no clue about the possible direction of the breakout. Typically, the longer the range, the stronger the eventual breakout from it. Therefore, traders should be on their toes to latch on to the breakout when it happens. 

A minor positive in favor of the bulls is that they are holding on to a large part of the gains seen in 2023. That indicates a lack of urgency among the bulls to book profits as they anticipate the uptrend to resume.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted that 15 of the best performing equity exchange-traded funds in 2023 have been crypto-related with exposure to crypto and blockchain.

Do Bitcoin and the select altcoins show any signs of a potential breakout from their respective ranges? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

The bulls pushed Bitcoin above the 50-day simple moving average ($29,960) on Aug. 8 and 9 but could not sustain the higher levels. This suggests that the bears are selling on rallies.

Ether (ETH) price has been locked within a tight trading range spanning from $1,800 to $1,900 since July 21. This remarkable lack of volatility has instilled a sense of uncertainty and skepticism among investors, despite recent positive developments which include the launch of PayPal's Ethereum-based stablecoin, and a surge in requests for Ether-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

PayPal's entrance into the world of cryptocurrencies could signify a major step toward mainstream adoption for Ethereum. However, this move also raises concerns about centralization and the potential loss of control over personal assets.

At the same time, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently witnessed a surge in applications for Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which mirrors a trend of major asset management firms seeking to establish spot Bitcoin ETFs.

ETH’s drop in DApp deposits and active users is concerning

The Ethereum network is having problems because of high gas fees, which are the costs for transactions, including those done with smart contracts. For the past two months, the average transaction fee has been more than $4, which limited the demand for its decentralized apps (DApps).

There has been a noticeable decline in the total value of deposits locked (TVL) in the Ethereum network. This decrease marked the lowest TVL level observed over the past three years, as reported by DefiLlama.

Binance Labs, the venture arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has invested $5 million in Curve (CRV), the namesake token of the decentralized stablecoin trading platform.

“Curve is the largest stableswap and second-largest DEX [decentralized exchange], with approximately $2.4B in total value locked and $215M in daily volume at the time of writing," Binance Labs said in the Aug. 10 announcement. Yi He, Binance’s co-founder and head of Binance Labs, said the firm is pledging its full support to the DEX “given recent events that have impacted the protocol." 

The firm says in exchange for the investment, Curve will deploy to BNB Smart Chain. The protocol currently operates on multiple chains, having been originally based on Ethereum, and serves as one of decentralized finance's (DeFi's) biggest market makers with several hundred pools in use.

On July 30, Curve was drained of $73.5 million from its stable pools due to a reentrancy vulnerability in its underlying programming language, Vyper. On Aug. 4, the hacker behind the exploit wrote via Ethereum: “I’m refunding you not because you can find me, it’s because I don’t want to ruin your project. I’m smarter than all of you, fuck!!”

Soon after the message, 73%, or around $52.3 million, of the stolen assets were returned to Curve by the hacker. Since the full amount was not returned, Curve subsequently issued a $1.85 million bounty for information pertaining to the whereabouts and identity of the hacker. The return of funds, although partial, prevented the liquidation of $100 million in loans on various DeFi protocols originating from Curve founder Michael Egorov, of which CRV was used as the underlying collateral. 

Stablecoin issuer Circle has a $1 billion cash reserve pegged as insurance against a declining market capitalization and fresh competition from the traditional finance and technology industries, said CEO Jeremy Allaire. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, Allaire revealed the war chest and shared his views on the uptick in competition from organizations such as PayPal that are new to the stablecoin space:

“I expect you will see many many, not just internet payments firms, but also all kinds of financial services companies and others begin to get more involved in this. It’s great to have this new competition. I do think it’s going to drive more and more companies into the field.”

Related: PayPal launches PYUSD stablecoin for payment

Circle is best known for its USDC (USDC) stablecoin, a digital token similar in design to regular cryptocurrency but backed entirely by fiat — in this case, the United States dollar.

Non-fungible token project y00ts is again switching blockchain networks, only four months after bridging the majority of its NFTs from Solana to Polygon.

DeLabs, the NFT firm behind y00ts, announced via its X (Twitter) account on Aug. 9 it will soon be migrating to Ethereum in line with its DeGods NFT collection.

The NFT collection had mostly migrated from Solana to Polygon in April. The move was first initially announced in December, with the migration starting officially on March 28. By March 30, Polygon announced 11,633 of a total of 15,000 y00ts NFTs had been bridged.

DeLabs said the move was to unite its y00ts community with its DeGods community. DeGods had also announced it would be bridging off Solana in December and similarly began its migration from Solana to Ethereum at the start of April.

“We still love Polygon. It's just time to unite the DeGods & y00ts communities,” y00ts wrote in a statement.

Aptos (APT), the cryptocurrency powering layer-1 blockchain Aptos Network, is up approximately 11.6% since announcing it will leverage Microsoft’s suite of artificial intelligence tools to advance Web3 adoption among banks and financial enterprises.

This will be achieved by enabling the Aptos Network to tap into Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service to explore innovations in asset tokenization, on-chain payments and central bank digital currencies, Aptos explained in an Aug. 9 statement.

Mo Shaikh, the CEO of Aptos Labs who previously worked at Meta and BlackRock, signaled high hopes for AI-powered blockchain solutions:

"Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technologies are quickly converging for one important reason: they are both generational breakthroughs that profoundly impact the evolution of the internet and shape society.”

One of the new tools, Aptos Assistant — a ChatGPT-powered chatbot — will aim to help users navigate from Web2 to Web3 by offering virtual guidance with the onboarding process.