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Bitcoin (BTC) continues to frustrate traders who have been predicting a breakout on either side but investors should keep a close watch because the longer the time spent inside the range, the stronger is the eventual breakout from it.

The July jobs report released on Aug. 4 was a mixed bag, hence it could not shake out Bitcoin from its range. The report showed an addition of 187,000 jobs, fewer than the 200,000 expected by economists. But the average hourly wages remained strong, showing an increase of 0.4% for the month against expectations of a 0.3% rise.

Although the price remains stuck inside a range, analysts are putting out bullish projections for the second half of the year. A recent report from Matrixport projected a target of $45,000 by the end of this year and $125,000 by the end of 2024.

Bitcoin’s long-term story remains intact but traders should keep a close eye on any possible shocks from the regulators as that could cause a knee-jerk reaction to the downside. What are the important support and resistance levels to watch out for in Bitcoin and altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin’s price is getting squeezed between the 20-day exponential moving average ($29,523) and the horizontal support at $28,861.

Last month, a team of South Korean scientists claimed they engineered a superconducting material, dubbed LK-99, that works under ambient temperature and pressure. In layman's terms, the team allegedly created a material allowing electrical currents to flow without resistance or energy loss. Previously, such types of materials were only thought to have functioned at absolute zero temperatures.

But the new supposed breakthrough, which has since been replicated by at least one other research team, is already causing a stir among the scientific and perhaps crypto community. Within days of its publication, several LK99 memecoins have already been listed on decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI). One such coin, the ERC-20 LK99 token, was listed less than 24 hours ago and has already surpassed $3 million in total trading volume, at the time of publication. 

Memecoins have been wildly popular among crypto enthusiasts for much of this year, with tokens being created based on concepts of Pepe the Frog, Milady's nonfungible tokens collection, and even ERC-20's Bitcoin "competitor" BRC-20. Despite their often meteoric rise and falls in price, many of the tokens' developers have warned that the meme tokens they created have "no intrinsic value." 

However, there's now a consensus among the scientific community that superconductor technology has immense value. For starters, superconductors are necessary for the construction of large-scale quantum computers. Before the yet-unverified invention, it was thought that such devices could only operate under absolute zero conditions for superconductivity. 

Thus, room-temperature superconductivity would greatly help scale or accelerate the development of quantum computing. Previously, blockchain experts, such as QAN Platform CTO Johann Polecsak, stated that quantum computers would eventually be able to inverse the encryption method of current cryptocurrencies in the coming decades — assuming no technological upgrades are made to such a blockchain. 

Optimism (OP) is a Layer 2 scaling solution, which operates as a separate blockchain built on top of Ethereum. Despite having a smaller total value locked (TVL) than its rivals, Optimism may still have the potential to thrive in the increasingly competitive DeFi landscape. 

Being one of the pioneers in the DeF space, Optimism initially gained an initial but had to contend with fierce competition. The project has been trailing behind other scaling solutions in terms of daily transactions for the past six months. However, in late July, the situation changed as Optimism finally overtook its main competitor Arbitrum and is showing signs of increasing demand from users.

The rise of Layer 2 scaling solutions

The increase in Layer 2 activity on Ethereum has been significant, surpassing mainnet activity by more than four times, according to data from L2beat. Various solutions have emerged to address Ethereum's scalability challenges and each Layer 2 project focuses on different aspects such as privacy, specific decentralized applications and NFT marketplaces.

Consequently, the leaderboard of transactions and volumes constantly fluctuates based on demand, and each solution comes with its own advantages and drawbacks.

Optimism operates using rollups, bundling all transactions into a single transaction to be executed on the base layer, inheriting all security features from Ethereum. The philosophy behind Optimism assumes that all transactions are valid unless challenged and proven otherwise, allowing for cost-effective and fast transactions for users.

Unibot (UNIBOT) token was among the top crypto gainers in July as its price rallied by 400% in a month to reach an all-time high of $199.90 on July 28. The project defied the market’s negative trend as both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) dropped by nearly 4%.

However, by August 3, 2023, the token's price retraced 44% from its peak, leading to doubts about whether this surge was merely a fleeting trend. Nevertheless, it is essential to consider the project's fundamentals, which seem to suggest otherwise.

The project is a harbinger of a newfound bullish narrative around decentralized Telegram bots for trading on DEXs. The total market capitalization of the sector surged above $150 million from around $20 million at the start of July, per Coingecko.

While a number of copycats have launched in the market, Unibot has a dominant market share, with 72.3% of the total market for decentralized Telegram bots for trading on DEXs. Since May 2023, Unibot has gained popularity with increased usage and price.

It provides features such as limit orders, MEV protection and snipping. Snipping enables instant purchase of newly listed token pools on Uniswap, which is preferred among high-frequency traders.

Crypto-spouting Twitter bots could be playing a much larger role in artificially inflating the price of altcoins than previously understood, a new study has suggested.

Using a sample of various FTX-listed cryptocurrencies in a study published Aug. 2, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) said it analyzed over 3 million tweets posted between Jan. 1, 2019, to Jan. 27, 2023, surrounding 18 altcoins.

The study found that Twitter bot activity played a crucial role in amplifying the value of these cryptocurrencies, including The Sandbox (SAND), Gala (GALA), Gods Unchained (GODS) and LooksRare (LOOKS), with half of the coins showing signs of price influence as a result of tweet bot activity.

It also found that these inauthentic tweets would increase after FTX posted about the token on social media, which it said raises questions about whether FTX or Alameda Research could have played a role in coordinating the bot activity.

"In fact, for half of the FTX listed coins in the sample, inauthentic tweet volume showed signs of forecasting subsequent price. This suggests that inauthentic networks successfully and deliberately deployed to influence changes in FTX coin prices," it said, adding: 

AAVE, the governance token of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Aave, experienced a 17% decline between July 30 and August 1, reaching the $62 level. 

While the $62 support has demonstrated its resilience, the current price of $64.40 is still 12% below the daily close on July 30. Investors are now questioning whether this movement signifies a more cautious approach to the sector or if other factors are exerting pressure on the AAVE token price.

Part of the recent movement in the AAVE token can be attributed to the risks of cascading liquidations on DeFi protocols, resulting from the Curve Finance pool exploit that commenced on July 30. However, Aave's decentralized liquidity protocol has successfully survived previous identical scenarios and the protocol has a substantial $295.6 million deposited in its Safety Module.

Notably, Michael Egorov, the founder of Curve, currently holds a substantial $76.6 million loan backed by 357.3 million CRV tokens across three DeFi applications, as reported by Delphi Digital. This represents 40.5% of the entire CRV circulating supply and poses risks to the ecosystem, raising concerns about potential liquidation repercussions on major protocols, including Aave.

According to Delphi Digital data, specifically on Aave, Egorov holds 267 million CRV tokens, backing a 54.2 million Tether (USDT) loan. With a 55% liquidation threshold, the current liquidation price for the CRV token stands at $0.37, which appears relatively secure at the moment. However, it's essential to note that Egorov is paying a significant 50% APY for this loan.

Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the United States’ long-term credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Aug. 1 and this move dented the risk on sentiment. The U.S. equities markets witnessed profit-booking on Aug. 2 and the cryptocurrency market’s recovery stalled in its tracks.

However, after the knee-jerk reaction, the markets may settle down. The cryptocurrency markets are likely to keep their focus on the news and events surrounding the Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications. Bloomberg ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart said in a statement that the possibility of an ETF application getting greenlighted has surged from 1% a couple of months ago to 65%.

The recent developments in the crypto sector have rejuvenated the Bitcoin bulls. Software development firm MicroStrategy founded by Michael Saylor is planning to raise up to $750 million via a stock sale, with the aim to use the funds for working capital and to buy more Bitcoin. The firm already holds 152,800 Bitcoin worth about $4.5 billion at current prices.

Will buyers defend the immediate support levels in Bitcoin and altcoins or could the bears overpower the bulls? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin’s volatility picked up on Aug. 1. The bears pulled the price below the immediate support at $28,861 but the long tail on the candlestick shows aggressive buying at lower levels.

The Litecoin halving event has been completed with block rewards now halved at 6.25 Litecoin (LTC) per block. 

On Aug. 2, the Litecoin blockchain went through its automated halving procedure at block 2,520,000. LTC miners are now getting half the rewards and the clock has been reset for the next halving in roughly four years' time.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee commented on the discrepancies between the different halving countdown timers, suggesting that the NiceHash one was the most accurate. However, all of them agreed on an Aug. 2 date.

Moreover, LTC prices have been down trending since early July when they topped $110 for the first time since April 2022. The silver to Bitcoin’s gold is currently hovering around the $92 level where it was this time a fortnight ago.

Speaking on the adoption of Litecoin as a payment method, BitPay CEO Stephen Pair told Cointelegraph that Litecoin and Bitcoin Lightning payments had their best months in recent history on the global payments platform.

On July 30, Curve Finance, a decentralized exchange on Ethereum, suffered a hack due to a vulnerability in certain pools built using the Vyper programming language.

The price of CRV dropped 20.91% on the day of the hack, falling to a two-month low of $0.58.

On the next day, the decline in CRV continued to drop toward a seven-month low at $0.48 amid fears of liquidation risks of hefty loans worth $100 million taken by Curve Finance founder Micheal Egorov against CRV as collateral.

However, positive development with partial repayment of loans and significant negative bets in the derivatives market suggest that CRV may rally in the short term.

The DeFi community comes to save CRV

On Aug. 1, Egorov sold 39.25 million CRV tokens for stablecoins to a number of notable DeFi investors like Justin Sun, Machi Big Brother and DWF Labs for a total of $15.8 million, according to LookOnChain data.

Crypto Twitter has been abuzz with debate after a new conspiracy theory has suggested FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried may be secretly behind one of the most controversial new memecoins on Base.

The BALD memecoin, which draws its namesake from a humorous reference to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, was launched on July 30 and witnessed an incredible 289,000% gain within the first 24 hours of trading.

After the token’s anonymous developer removed thousands of ETH in liquidity, the price of BALD plummeted more than 85% — sparking allegations of a rug pull, which the developer has denied.

The ordeal led a number of blockchain sleuths to dig into the developer's on-chain past, prompting some to draw a link to SBF as the Ethereum wallet address responsible for deploying the Bald token had received thousands of ETH in funding from wallets associated with FTX and Alameda Research.

One of the conspiracy theorists, anonymous decentralized finance (DeFi) commentator Downsin suggested that the link between the two meant that it was SBF “legit trying to make it all back from prison.”

The S&P 500 Index (SPX) continued its march toward its all-time high with a 3% gain in July. Signs of receding inflationary pressures and expectations of an end to the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle are the factors that boosted risk-on sentiment.

However, this bullish mood did not benefit Bitcoin (BTC) as it largely remained range-bound in July and is on track to end the month with a loss of more than 3%. The biggest question troubling traders is when will Bitcoin’s range break and in which direction.

Typically, the longer the time spent inside the range, the greater the force needed for the breakout. Once the price escapes the range, the next trending move is likely to be strong. The only problem is that it is difficult to predict the direction of the breakout with certainty. Hence, it is better to wait for the price to sustain above or below the range before taking large bets.

With Bitcoin trading inside a range, could the action shift to altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

S&P 500 Index price analysis

The S&P 500 Index has been in an uptrend. The bears tried to pull the price back below the breakout level of 4,513 on July 27 but the bulls held their ground. This suggests that buyers are trying to flip the 4,513 level into support.