Decentral Block Post

Blockchain developer Cardano represents the crypto space with a top spot in a new report on global brand intimacy. Cardano ranks 26 among 600 brands and holds the top spot in the crypto industry, according to a report released by brand relations agency MBLM.

According to the report, brand intimacy refers to the emotional connections brands are able to create with their user base and audience. MBLM utilized artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to understand consumer relationships with some of the world’s leading brands, including Disney, Tesla and Apple.

Across 19 industries analyzed, crypto was among the top 10 perform, with Cardano in the lead, followed by Bitcoin as a brand at #30. Whereas crypto brands such as Uniswap and Solana took #261 and #265, respectively.

In comparison to last year, the surveyors said Cardano is not only a new entry but the highest ranked in crypto and the highest performing financial services brand in the study.

In a statement to Cointelegraph, Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Cardano, said the company was born of a simple belief that everyone is equal and should live in a fair society. Cardano works towards this through decentralization and merit, he added.

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer has dismissed sensational allegations from CryptoLeaks that his company used litigation to “harm” competitors and fool regulators, labeling it as “conspiracy theory nonsense.”

Sirer made the comments in an Aug. 28 Twitter post to his 280,500 followers, referring to an Aug. 26 article from CryptoLeaks alleging the company formed a “secret pact” with U.S. law firm Roche Freedman to use the American legal system “gangster style” to “attack and harm crypto organizations."

On Friday, CryptoLeaks published a series of candid videos from an unknown source purportedly showing U.S. Attorney Kyle Roche of Roche Freedman LLP detailing his partnership and relationship with Emin Gün Sirer and Kevin Sekniqi, the respective CEO and COO of Ava Labs. 

CryptoLeaks claimed that Roche Freedman and Kyle Roche have a deal to provide Ava Labs with legal services in exchange for the AVAX tokens and Ava Labs equity, and would also use “litigation as a tool” to disrupt competitors and misdirect regulators such as the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The publication also said the videos of Roche suggest there was a tight-knit relationship between Roche and Sirer, which began in academia, and that they also moved into a co-working space together in Aug. 2019, around the time that the deal was made for him to provide legal services in exchange for token supply. Roche stated: 

The United States equities markets plunged on Aug. 26 following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech where he reiterated the central bank’s hawkish stance. Continuing its correlation with the equities market, Bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency markets also witnessed a sharp selloff on Aug. 26.

Bitcoin has declined about 14% this month, making it the worst performance for August since 2015 when the price had dropped 18.67%. That may be bad news for investors because September has a dubious record of a 6% average loss since 2013, according to data from CoinGlass.

Although buying in a downtrending market is not a good strategy, traders can keep a close watch on cryptocurrencies that are outperforming the markets because, in case of any turnaround, these are likely to be the first off the block. In a bear market, traders should be patient because they are highly likely to find plenty of opportunities to buy after the market stabilizes.

What are the critical levels to watch on Bitcoin? If it stages a turnaround, what are the cryptocurrencies that may outperform in the short term? Let’s study 5 cryptocurrencies that are looking strong on the charts.

BTC/USDT

A weak rebound off a strong support indicates that bulls are hesitant to aggressively buy at the level. The bulls successfully defended the support line for several days but could not push the price above the 20-day exponential moving average ($21,806). This shows a lack of demand at higher levels.

What people end up searching on Google provides raw insights into the real mindset, often revealing their interest, fear, and range of other emotions about a particular topic. To identify investor sentiment amid a bear market that is yet to find its bottom, Cointelegraph dug deep into the web to find out the most Googled questions about cryptocurrencies. 

The top 10 Google searches related to cryptocurrencies uncover an increase in curiosity among general investors — represented by two ‘Whys,’ three ‘What’s’ and five ‘How’s.’ Let’s go through the most crypto-related Google searches, from highest to lowest.

What is cryptocurrency

Even after thirteen years of disruption to traditional finance, the most popular question that general investors ask Google is, “What is cryptocurrency.” With a global search volume (GV) of 256,000, this Google search overshadows the second most crypto-related Google search by nearly five (4.7) times.

This indicates the gap — and a vast scope — in educating the masses about cryptocurrencies. However, despite the evident conflict of interests, crypto entrepreneurs from across the globe put their differences aside and agree that educating the masses about cryptocurrencies can serve as a catalyst for mainstream adoption.

What is crypto

The second most Googled question about cryptocurrencies is, surprisingly, just an iteration of the top question, which reads, “What is crypto.” The question recorded a GV of 54,000, which, when combined with its predecessor, strengthens the case for educating the masses about cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins lost big on Aug. 26 after the United States Federal Reserve delivered hawkish remarks on economic policy.

Across the board, risk assets took a major hit — U.S. equities shed around $1.25 trillion in a single session.

Analyst: Powell retiring "soft landing" rhetoric

As comments by Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, suggested that larger rate hikes were still firmly on the table despite recent data hinting that inflation was already slowing, investors rushed to cut risk.

"Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time. The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy," Powell said at the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium.

The S&P 500 closed down 3.4% on the day, hitting its lowest levels since late July. The Nasdaq Composite Index copied the move and extended losses, shedding 4%.

Just when the Ethereum ecosystem reached its final stages in preparing for the much-anticipated upgrade, The Merge, german cloud provider Hetzner, reiterated its stance against allowing mining operations for both proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) applications.

Hetzner, a private, centralized cloud provider, stepped in on a discussion around running blockchain nodes, highlighting its terms of services that prohibit customers from using the services for crypto activities. However, the Ethereum community perceived the revelation as a threat to the ecosystem as Hetzner’s cloud services host nearly 16% of the Ethereum nodes, as shown below.

In crypto, the reliance on centralized service providers has been historically perceived as a negative trait when it comes to long-term sustenance — and for a good reason. Redditor u/Supermann- questioned the anti-crypto policies laid down by the second biggest Ethereum Mainnet host, Hetzner. Clarifying the doubts and legal implications associated with using its services for crypto activities, Hetzner stated:

“Using our products for any application related to mining, even remotely related, is not permitted. This includes Ethereum.”

The company also stated that the non-allowance extends to running nodes, mining and farming, plotting, storage of blockchain data and trading. While acknowledging the extensive use of its services for powering Ethereum, Hetzner revealed that “we have been internally discussing how we can best address this issue.” As a fair warning to the community, Hetzner added:

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the central bank will continue to use the “tools forcefully” to bring down inflation, which is close to its highest level in 40 years. He cautioned that the restrictive policy may remain for some time and warned that it could “bring some pain to households and businesses.”

The United States equities markets reacted negatively to Powell’s comments with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 600 points. The cryptocurrency markets also witnessed sharp selling with Bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins threatening to break below their immediate support levels.

Along with a not-so-supportive macro environment, Bitcoin’s historical data for September also presents a negative picture. According to CoinGlass data, Bitcoin has witnessed an average decline of 6% in September and barring 2015 and 2016, the month has produced negative returns for investors between 2013 and 2021.

Could Bitcoin and major altcoins remain weak in the near term? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin’s shallow rebound off the support line of the ascending channel indicated that bulls are cautious at higher levels. The downsloping 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) ($22,249) and the relative strength index (RSI) in the negative territory, indicate that bears have the upper hand.

XRP price saw a major spike on Aug. 26, hinting at a possible effect from some big traders.

Large XRP transfers, Ripple Swell Global event

Notably, XRP's price jumped 6% to $0.37, a two-week high, during the early London hours. The token's upside move occurred hours after its network processed three massive transfers worth $51 million involving crypto exchanges Bitso and FTX, as highlighted by Whale Alert.

XRP's gains also came as a part of a broader upside move that started on Aug. 25, a day after Ripple announced its flagship event, "Ripple Swell Global," to be held in London in November 2022. The market has seen similar reactions around the Swell event in the past.

Bearish reversal setup in play

XRP's intraday spike left behind a "Graveyard Doji," a bearish reversal candlestick with open, close and low prices near each other with a long upper wick. This candlestick suggests that the price rally witnessed at the beginning of the session was overwhelmed by bears by the end of it.

XRP now trades nearly 4% below its intraday high, testing a support confluence. The confluence comprises the upper trendline of XRP's previous "ascending triangle" (at $0.35) and the 50-4H exponential moving average (50-4H EMA; the red wave in the chart above) near $0.343.

The founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Synthetix, Kain Warwick, has submitted a proposal that would turn off very high yield returns for SNX stakers and cap the total SNX token supply at 300 million. 

The Synthetix protocol allows traders to issue synthetic versions of crypto native assets, traditional financial assets, and commodities on the Ethereum and Optimism networks.

In an Aug. 25 Synthetix Improvement Proposal (SIP) Warwick explained that SNX reward inflation was initially intended to “bootstrap the network”, however, he believes it’s no longer necessary as they can generate sustainable fee yields from atomic swaps.

A big rise in fee revenue has been a result of DeFi protocols 1inch and Curve starting to use the Synthetix platform to conduct atomic swaps, bringing in more traffic to the protocol. In June the protocol surpassed $1 million in daily fees - which was four times the amount Bitcoin was making. 

According to cryptofees, Synthetix is currently taking a seven-day average of $158,857 in fees, which is a little bit below Bitcoin’s seven-day average of $222,651.

As a market crash takes place, assets become oversold and typically there’s an “oversold bounce,” “return to mean,” “mean reversion,” or some price snapback to the bottom of the pre-crash range. 

Afterward, the asset under study either consolidates, continues the downtrend, or returns to the bullish uptrend if the downside catalyst was not significant enough to break the market structure. That’s all kind of basic trading 101.

This week Cosmos (ATOM) price appears to be following this path and the altcoin is showing a bit of strength with a 35% gain since Aug. 22, but why?

Depending on how you look at it, and technical analysis is by all means a subjective process, ATOM price is either in an ascending channel or one could say a rounding bottom pattern is present with price close to breaking above the neckline.

Resistance above $13 (the horizontal black line in the bottom chart) is currently close to being tested and with sufficient volume and “stability” from the wider crypto-market, the price could be en-route to the 200-day moving average at $17.20.

BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain , has bounced 66% from its $183 low in mid-June. The move consolidates its position as the third-ranked cryptocurrency (when stablecoin market caps are removed) and reflects a $50 billion market capitalization. BNB has outperformed the broader altcoin market capitalization after a devastating 73% correction that began in November 2021.

The above chart displays how this smart contract blockchain network suffered during the recent market collapse and how similar movements happened across the altcoin market. Now that BNB price has reached $300, let’s take a look at how the asset is positioned compared to July 2021 when it traded for the same price.

Is BNB’s market cap and valuation justified?

Back in July 2021, the altcoin market capitalization stood 21% higher at $740 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) had already established themselves as the market leaders, but the dispute for the third position was far from settled, at least in terms of the total value.

Despite still being the third largest cryptocurrency, BNB’s market cap was $47 billion, while Cardano (ADA) held a $46 billion valuation. Currently, no altcoin remotely matches its dominance and the gap has widened by more than $30 billion.

Smart contracts form the foundation of all decentralized applications (DApps), including decentralized finance, gaming, marketplaces, social networks and many other use cases. So what other success metrics are there besides the number of active users using addresses as a proxy?

The $74 million plan by two former Uniswap Lab executives for a new Uniswap Foundation has just become reality after their proposal received over 99% of the votes from UNI token holders.

According to the initial proposal, the foundation aims to streamline Uniswap’s Grant Program (UPG) and reduce friction in the protocol’s governance system. 

Former Uniswap Labs executive Devin Walsh, now serving as executive director of UF shared the results in a tweet on Aug. 24, noting that the proposal to create the foundation “passed its final vote!” 

According to the Uniswap website, the foundation saw more than 86 million, or 99% of total votes in favor of the proposal, with only 770 votes against it. The votes in favor come despite the initial proposal seeing mixed community reaction when it was first announced on Aug. 5.

The voting period started on Aug. 17, and was cut off at 2:19 pm GMT +10 deadline on Aug. 24. The votes were conducted on Uniswap’s app, with voters needing to hold the UNI token in order to vote. For the vote to pass, a threshold of 40 million votes was needed to be cast in favor of the UF.

Bitcoin (BTC) and several major cryptocurrencies have been trading sideways as traders avoid taking large bets before the United States Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which begins on Aug. 25. The volatility is likely to soar as investors get some clarity on the Fed's stance in the next few days.

On Aug. 23, a team led by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said that Fed chair Jerome Powell could sound dovish when he speaks on Aug. 26, reiterating that the central bank may move at a slower pace in future meetings. The analysts expect the Fed to raise rates by 50 basis points in the September meeting, which would be less than the 75 bps hike done in June and July.

Although the short-term price action remains uncertain, on-chain data suggests that Bitcoin may be undervalued, meaning it could provide strong returns if history repeats itself. According to Jarvis Labs resident analyst JJ, Bitcoin’s Market Capitalization versus Realized Capitalization indicator reading is at its lowest level since 2015. Bitcoin’s bottom in 2015 and 2019 formed when the indicator reached a low reading, but that has reached extremely low levels in 2022.

What are the critical levels to watch on the upside and the downside? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin has been trading near the support line of the ascending channel since Aug. 19. Although the bulls have defended the support successfully, they have failed to achieve a strong rebound off it. This indicates that demand dries up at higher levels.

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed strictly rangebound on Aug. 24 as buyers and sellers attempted to spark a breakout.

Spot price squeeze on the cards

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hovering near $21,500 at the Wall Street open.

The pair had seen little action in the 24 hours prior, entering a fifth day of sideways movement within an increasingly tight range.

Data from the order book of major exchange Binance uploaded to social media by on-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators hinted that the status quo was frustrating exchange users, including whales.

At the time of writing, bids were inching higher towards spot price, while seller interest was building at $21,600.

The price of Chiliz (CHZ) has surged by approximately 35% week-to-date (WTD) to reach $0.26 per token on Aug. 24. In doing so, the token has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which have been wobbling between gains and losses in the same period.

Here are the key catalysts that could be behind Chiliz's breakaway rally.

CHZ 2.0

On Aug. 22, Chiliz founder Alexandre Dreyfus announced their intentions to stop utilizing the Ethereum blockchain to launch their fungible and nonfungible tokens and replace it with its own native chain, CHZ 2.0.

"We don't have to rely forever only on ERC20 or ERC721 equivalent," said Dreyfus, adding:

"At @chiliz we think we can bring some innovation on top of fungible token formats. As we work with 100+ of the biggest brands in the world, it is easier to deploy and scale."

The United States filled in the wide gap in Bitcoin (BTC) mining that was left open by China by the end of June 2021. Despite looming rumors of high power consumption, officials in Texas, one of the fastest growing crypto mining hubs in the US, now believe that mining operations can, in fact, garner a symbiotic relationship with the energy industry. 

A newsletter from the Texas Comptroller’s office revealed the state’s pro-crypto stance with the intent to host long-term miners and operators. Clarifying the general misconception about Bitcoin’s energy usage, the fiscal note highlighted that unlike “manufacturing facilities or industrial chemical plants, which can be expected to be around for decades,” cryptocurrency mining facilities do not place big electrical demands on the grid.

With greater crypto miners moving into Texas, concerns around power demand remain as the sudden surge threatens to disturb the balance between supply and demand. While other power-hungry industries often continue production amid market fluctuations, one of the concerns raised in the newsletter by Texas-based research associate Joshua Rhodes was:

“The difference is that Bitcoin mines (mining facilities) can come in so fast and may be gone so fast depending on the price of Bitcoin.”

Given the unique positioning of the crypto mining market, Texas officials believe miners can participate in demand response programs — which involve turning off miners’ power during peak demand. This process is widely adopted by energy-intensive industries such as petrochemical plants.