Decentral Block Post

Avalanche-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Trader Joe claims it may have found a way to mitigate one of DeFi’s biggest weaknesses — impermanent loss. 

In a newly released whitepaper on Aug. 23 called the JOE v2 Liquidity Book, authored by Quant developers and researchers Adam Sturges, “TraderWaWa”, “Hanzo” and software engineer “Louis MeMyself”, the developers outlined the use of Liquidity Book (LB) with an additional variable fee swap feature to "provide traders with zero or low slippage trades."

Trader Joe said the new strategy will mitigate impermanent loss "suffered by so many liquidity providers (LPs) on other DEXs during market turbulence."

Impermanent loss, which has been seen as one of DeFi's greatest weaknesses, happens when the price of token changes after one deposits it in a liquidity pool-based automated market maker as part of yield farming — a type of investment in which one lends tokens to earn rewards (not the same as staking).

It’s also one of the reasons that institutional investors have been treading with caution in the DeFi space, according to digital-asset management firm IDEG’s chief investment officer Markus Theilen.

Bitcoin (BTC) price remains pinned below $22,000 as the lingering impact of the Aug. 19 sell-off at $25,200 continues to be felt across the market. 

According to analysts from on-chain monitoring resource Glassnode, BTC’s tap at the $25,000 level was followed by “distribution” as profit-takers and short-term holders sold as price encountered a trendline resistance following a 23 consecutive day uptrend that saw BTC trading above it’s realized price ($21,700).

The firm also noted that the “total inflows and outflows to all exchanges” metric shows exchange flows at multi-year lows and back to “late-2020 levels,” which reflects a “general lack of speculative interest.”

From a higher-time frame perspective, Bitcoin’s current price action is simply a continuation of its near 3-month long chop in the $18,500 to $22,000 range, but the real damper on sentiment are persistent non-crypto related concerns in the United States and global economy.

On August 25 the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium begins and from this the public will learn more about the Federal Reserve’s perspective on the U.S. economy, its plans for future interest rate hikes, whether or not the inflation target remains at 2% and if the Fed thinks the U.S and global economy are in recession. Anticipation over the symposium has clearly made investors skittish and these frayed nerves are visible in the S&P 500, DJI and crypto markets this week.

On this week’s “The Market Report” show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss some of the main factors that contributed to the collapse of this bear market rally.

To kick things off, we broke down the latest news in the markets this week

Bitcoin (BTC) to lose $21K despite miners’ capitulation exit? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week. Miners are a glimmer of hope in a barren Bitcoin landscape this week ahead of a key Federal Reserve event in Jackson Hole. After dipping below $21,000 over the weekend, the largest cryptocurrency is consolidating around 10% lower than a week ago, and the fear across crypto markets is clearly visible. As August nears the end, what will September bring in terms of inflation, price volatility and other macro triggers?

Data shows Bitcoin and altcoins at risk of a 20% drop to new yearly lows. The total crypto market capitalization dropped to the $1 trillion support, and weak stablecoin demand and a largely absent funding rate reflect traders’ negative sentiment. Will crypto investors' sentiment shift toward more bearish? Are we on our way to retesting yearly lows?

Cryptocurrencies react to Jackson Hole, Fed rate hike plans and a weakening bear market rally. The price action in Bitcoin, altcoins and stocks reflects investors’ anxiety over the Fed’s rate hike plans, a weakening bear market rally and this week’s Jackson Hole economic symposium. Is the fear of future interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve making investors nervous? Is this macro uncertainty keeping the institutional investors away from the crypto markets?

After the rising wedge formation was broken on Aug. 17, the total crypto market capitalization quickly dropped to $1 trillion and the bulls' dream of recouping the $1.2 trillion support, last seen on June 10, became even more distant. 

The worsening conditions are not exclusive to crypto markets. The price of WTI oil ceded 3.6% on Aug. 22, down 28% from the $122 peak seen on June 8. The United StatesTreasuries 5-year yield, which bottomed on Aug. 1 at 2.61%, reverted the trend and is now trading at 3.16%. These are all signs that investors are feeling less confident about the central bank's policies of requesting more money to hold those debt instruments.

Recently, Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin stated that the risk-reward for the S&P 500 is skewed to the downside after a 17% rally since mid-June. According to a client note written by Kostin, inflation surprises to the upside would require the U.S. Federal Reserve to tighten the economy more aggressively, negatively impacting valuations.

Meanwhile, extended lockdowns supposedly aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 in China and property debt problems caused the PBOC led the central bank to reduce its five-year loan prime rate to 4.30% from 4.45% on Aug. 21. Curiously, the movement happened a week after the Chinese central bank lowered the interest rates in a surprise move.

Crypto investor sentiment is at the edge of ‘neutral-to-bearish’

The risk-off attitude brought by surging inflation led investors to expect additional interest rate hikes, which will, in turn, diminish investors' appetite for growth stocks, commodities and cryptocurrencies. As a result, traders will likely seek shelter in the U.S. dollar and inflation-protected bonds during periods of uncertainty.

The European stock markets and the United States equities markets are both deep in the red on Aug. 22 as investors fear that aggressive rate hikes may not be off the table. 

Another thing keeping investors nervous could be the upcoming  Jackson Hole economic symposium, which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 25. Investors are concerned that Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell could further elaborate on the Fed's hawkish stance and plans for future interest rate hikes.

This macro uncertainty has kept the institutional investors away from the crypto markets. CoinShares data showed that crypto investment products recorded weekly volumes of $1 billion, which is 55% lower than the yearly average.

On-chain analytics resource Material Indicators said that Bitcoin (BTC) has not broken below the July lows. This suggests that the bear market rally is not yet over. However, buyers will have to push the price above the 200-week moving average of near $23,000 to gain the upper hand.

Could Bitcoin and most major altcoins make a strong comeback in the next few days and what are the critical levels to watch out for? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

The percentage of USD Circle (USDC) stablecoins held by major wallet addresses dropped to its lowest point in almost two years as the cryptocurrency market downturn continues.

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode has released the latest data on USDC metrics, reflecting a recent sell-off of the second biggest U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin by market capitalization.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, sanctions imposed on cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash by the U.S. Treasury Department had a marked effect on the capitalization of both USDC and its biggest competitor, Tether (USDT).

While USDT markets saw growth of almost $2 billion in the days following the sanctions, USDC’s market cap shrunk after its issuer Circle decided to freeze some 75,000 USDC tokens held by addresses linked to Tornado Cash.

Related: Independent Tether attestation reveals 58% decrease in commercial paper holdings

The average transaction fees on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain fell below $1 for the first time in over two years, further strengthening its use case as a viable mainstream financial system.

High transaction fees over blockchain networks work against the users, especially when making low-value transactions. For example, transaction fees over Ethereum (ETH) blockchain skyrocketed several times during the nonfungible token (NFT) hype, inducing stress on general users.

While the Bitcoin ecosystem has also endured its fair share of high transaction fees in the past, timely upgrades — including the Lightning Network and Taproot — guarantee faster and cheaper transactions over time. As of Aug. 22, the average Bitcoin transaction fees fell down to $0.825, a number last seen on June 13, 2020.

In addition to timely upgrades, the drop in transaction fees can be attributed to multiple factors, including falling market prices and lower mining difficulty. However, the difficulty of mining a new BTC block sees a steady recovery as miners gain access to cheaper hardware while recovering from the prolonged chip shortage.

As seen above, August also marked the end of the three-month-long downfall of network difficulty — recovering back to 28.351 trillion from its freefall. Thanks to consistent community efforts, the Bitcoin network continues to display telltale signs of a healthy financial system.

Cybersecurity analyst Serpent has revealed his picks for the most dastardly crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) scams currently active on Twitter.

The analyst, who has 253,400 followers on Twitter, is the founder of artificial intelligence and community-powered crypto threat mitigation system, Sentinel.

In a 19-part thread posted on Aug. 21, Serpent outlined how scammers target inexperienced crypto users through the use of copycat websites, URLs, accounts, hacked verified accounts, fake projects, fake airdrops, and plenty of malware.

One of the more worrisome strategies comes amid a recent spate of crypto phishing scams and protocol hacks. Serpent explains that the “Crypto Recovery Scam” is used by bad actors to trick those who have recently lost funds to a widespread hack, stating:

“Simply put, they attempt to target people who have already been scammed, and claim they can recover the funds.”

The S&P 500 ended its four-week-long recovery last week after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting hinted that the central bank’s rate hikes will continue until inflation is under control. Members of the Fed said there was no evidence that inflation pressures appear be easing.

Another dampener was the statement by St. Louis Fed president James Bullard who said that he would support a 75 basis point rate hike in September’s Fed policy meeting. This reduced hopes that the era of aggressive rate hikes may be over.

Weakening sentiment pulled the S&P 500 lower by 1.29% for the week. Continuing its close correlation with the S&P 500, Bitcoin (BTC) also witnessed a sharp decline on Aug. 19 and is likely to end the week with steep losses.

Will bulls use the dips to accumulate at lower levels? If they do, let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may attract buyers because of their bullish setups.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin slipped below the 20-day exponential moving average ($22,864) on Aug. 17 and then below the 50-day simple moving average ($22,318) on Aug. 19. The bulls are attempting to arrest the decline at the support line of the ascending channel.

An attack in April 2022, which drained off nearly $80 million from various Rari Fuse pools, required the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Fei Protocol to come up with a solution that minimizes damage to the ecosystem. Fei Labs’ latest proposal, which partly recommends revoking participation from Tribe DAO, received mixed sentiments from the community.

Fei Protocol founder Joey Santoro announced the latest proposal, TIP-121: Proposal for the future of the Tribe DAO, revealing the company’s intent to reimburse Fuze victims. It also details plans for asset redemption and the distribution of protocol-controlled value (PCV) assets that manage the liquidity and yield.

Members of the community questioned the lack of timelines and hard numbers within the proposal.

One of the members, onigiri, stated:

“I think trust has been broken, and I can’t believe such vague proposal probably overlooked by an army of blood-thirsty lawyers will be in the users’s favor.”

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins witnessed a sharp sell-off on Aug. 19, but there does not seem to be a specific trigger for the sudden drop. The sharp fall resulted in liquidations of more than $551 million in the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass.

Barring a V-shaped bottom, other formations generally take time to complete as buyers and sellers try to gain the upper hand. This tends to cause several random volatile moves that may be an opportunity for short-term traders, but long-term investors should avoid getting sucked into the noise.

Glassnode data shows that investors who purchased Bitcoin in 2017 or earlier are just doing that by holding their positions. The percentage of Bitcoin supply dormant for at least five years hit a new all-time high of 24.351% on Aug. 18, suggesting that holders are not willing to sell in panic or for minor gains.

Could Bitcoin and most altcoins challenge their June lows or will the bulls buy the current dip? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin’s major trend is down but the bulls are attempting to form a bottom. The price has been rising inside an ascending channel for the past few days. The failure of the bulls to push the price above the resistance line of the channel may have tempted short-term traders to book profits. That has pulled the price below the moving averages.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell rapidly on Aug. 19 as the culmination of a week’s sideways action ended in disappointment for bulls.

New lows "just a matter of time

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it dropped 6.2% in a single hourly candle.

Reacting, traders hoped that a rebound could allow for consolidation higher than current spot price levels, which were under $22,000 at the time of writing.

“Well, hopefully that was liquidity seeking, otherwise it's over,” a gloomy Crypto Chase told Twitter followers.

Fellow account Il Capo of Crypto, who had long forecast a return to lower levels, was resigned to new lows being “just a matter of time.”

After an impressive 73% rally between July 13 and Aug. 13, Avalanche (AVAX) has faced a 16% rejection from the $30.30 resistance level. Some analysts will try to pin the correction as a "technical adjustment," but the network’s deposits and decentralized applications reflect worsening conditions.

To date, Avalanche remains 83% below its November 2021 all-time high at $148. More data than technical analysis can be analyzed to explain the 16% price drop, so let’s take a look at the network’s use in terms of deposits and users.

The decentralized application (DApp) platform is still a top-15 contender with a $7.2 billion market capitalization. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL), another proof-of-work (PoS) layer-1 platform, holds a $14.2 billion market cap, which is nearly twice as large as Avalanche's.

Avalanche’s TVL dropped 40% in 2 months

Some analysts tend to give too much weight to the total value locked (TVL) metic and although this might hold relevance for the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, it is seldom required for nonfungible token (NFT) minting, digital item marketplaces, crypto games, gambling and social applications.

Using the layer-2 solution Polygon (MATIC) as a proxy, it currently holds a $2.2 billion TVL while MATIC’s market cap stands at $7.2 billion, thus a 3.3x MCap/TVL ratio. Curiously, the same ratio applies to Avalanche, which currently holds a similar $2.2 billion TVL and $7.2 billion capitalization.

David Schwartz, the chief technical officer of Ripple, didn’t take Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s dig on XRP very kindly. In a discussion that started around the recent $30,000 limit imposed by the Ontario crypto exchange on altcoins purchases barring Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Buterin, in a quoted response to a tweet, lauded the Ethereum community’s pushback against regulations that privilege ETH over other legitimate cryptocurrencies. David Hoffman, the founder of decentralized media and education platform Bankless.eth responded to Buterin and said that he wouldn’t have minded if they had restricted XRP.

Buterin joined on the XRP bashing claiming they lost their right to protection when they tried to “throw us under the bus as China-controlled.” The response from Buterin created a storm among XRP followers on Twitter, and the debate was later joined by Ripple CTO David Schwartz himself.

Buterin was referring to Ripple’s defense in their ongoing court battle against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where they claimed XRP shouldn’t be deemed as security since Ethereum and Bitcoin are similar in nature and even called the top two cryptocurrencies as Chinese controlled. Ripple is fighting a security lawsuit from the SEC over the unlicensed sale and issuance of XRP tokens.

Schwartz reiterated Ripple’s earlier claims of ETH and BTC being security and compared miners in the ecosystem akin to shareholders of eBay. He said: