Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to trade near the $31,000 level, making it an important resistance to watch out for in the short term. Some analysts believe the current consolidation could result in an upside breakout in Bitcoin.

The institutional investors also seem to be positive about the prospects of a further rally in Bitcoin. CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill said in a recent report that 98% of all the digital asset inflows of $334 million went into Bitcoin-related products.

Although the short-term price action on Bitcoin and select altcoins looks positive, market participants should stay cautious due to the uncertainty regarding the macroeconomic issues. The crypto markets are likely to be influenced by the United States inflation figures and the Federal Reserve’s monetary action over the next few weeks.

What are the important near-term support levels on Bitcoin and altcoins that need to hold for the recovery to continue? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin broke and closed above the $31,000 level on July 3 but the bulls could not build upon this strength. This suggests that the bears have not yet given up.

Litecoin (LTC) price is down today, mirroring downside moves elsewhere in the crypto market.

On July 5, the LTC price dropped over 3% to $100.50. On the same day, the crypto market's overall capitalization fell 2%, suggesting traders have started securing profits at the local tops of multiple cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin's RSI turns "overbought'

Litecoin rallied by more than 65% to reach a year-to-date (YTD) high of $116 on July 2.

The gains appeared primarily due to euphoria around its halving in August and its listing on EDX Markets, a newly-launched exchange backed by Wall Street giants like Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab.

Since then, however, LTC price has corrected by nearly 14%, including the 3% drop on July 5. One reason is its overbought relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart, which typically prompts the price to drop or consolidate sideways. 

Starknet’s Quantum Leap upgrade has been deployed on testnet, with the Ethereum layer-2 scaling protocol claiming it's capable of processing "hundreds of transactions per second."

If achieved, it would be at least a 50X improvement from its current throughput, thanks to the Version 12 upgrade harmonizing how the sequencer's code interacts with the Cairo programming language.

A Starknet fact sheet states that the "time to inclusion" after the upgrade goes live on mainnet "will be under 15 seconds" meaning DApps will be able to confirm transactions on-chain within seconds.

Co-founder Uri Kolodny was a little more circumspect in an interview with Cointelegraph, stating that the upgrade has hit "triple figures" during testing so far.

If this throughput is mirrored in real-world usage — and high TPS is as much a function of demand from users as technical capability — the upgrade would be a huge leap for Israeli firm StarkWare's decentralized scaling network.

According to a Reddit post, a developer has posted an unusual farewell note, apologizing and blaming his online gambling woes after leaving a project in shambles, turning a $2 million valuation into $20,000 within minutes. 

Several investors in the Encryption AI (0xEncrypt) project have reported that its developer performed a rug pull during a liquidity migration event. As a result, the project’s token called 0xEncrypt went from trading at around $2.05 to an all-time low of $0.02. Token data aggregator CoinGecko recorded the massive price drop around July 2. 

Unlike other rug pulls, the developer decided to leave a letter to the project’s community, apologizing for his actions, and blaming his gambling addiction for the move before disappearing and deleting all the social media platforms of the project.

Various investors shared a screenshot of the developer's message on social media. Within the post, the developer shared his struggles with gambling and highlighted that he lost $300,000 in online casinos. In addition, though the developer was unable to guarantee that he would make amends or relaunch the project, he promised to “make every effort to become a better person.”

Related: How to spot a rug pull in DeFi: 6 tips from Cointelegraph

Crypto exchange Gemini founder and CEO Cameron Winklevoss is again threatening to sue Digital Currency Group and its CEO Barry Silbert over delays in the resolution of Genesis for its Earn customers while slamming the CEOfor allegedly trying to play the victim card.

In the July 3 “Open Letter to Barry Silbert,” Winklevoss alleged the DCG enterprise had engaged in “fraudulent behavior” via a “culture of lies and deceit” — which have come at the expense of Gemini’s 232,000 Earn users.

Among the accusations, Winklevoss’ strongly-worded letter alleges that Silbert intentionally delayed resolution through “abuse” of the mediation process, stating: 

"Mediation has given DCG an indefinite forbearance on the $630 million it owes Genesis — for free."

Most disturbing, according to Winklevoss, has been Silbert’s apparent claim of being the “victim” in the debacle.

The Open Network (TON) has released an on-chain encrypted messaging feature, according to a July 3 announcement from the network’s developer, TON Foundation. The new feature allows for private messages to be sent between TON users. 

TON is a blockchain network forked from code created by the Telegram instant messaging app team. Telegram abandoned the project in July 2020, before a mainnet was ever launched. However, it open-sourced TON’s code before leaving, allowing others to continue building upon the work it had done.

The current network, called “TON,” was built by the TON Foundation. The foundation claims that the network provides greater scalability and transaction throughput than other options in the Web3 ecosystem while also remaining decentralized.

TON has always allowed users to send messages in transactions. But in the past, these messages were completely public. The new feature allows users to encrypt these messages end to end, making them readable only by the intended recipient.

TON core developer Anatoly Makosov claimed the feature was created to allow for the “personalization” of transactions:

The United States equity markets have witnessed a solid year so far. The Nasdaq Composite has soared 31.7%, its best first-half performance since 1983. Similarly, the S&P 500 Index’s (SPX) 15.9% gain is its best first half since 2019. This suggests that risky assets remain in demand.

In the cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin (BTC) has led the recovery from the front, rising 20% in Q2 2023. An encouraging sign is that the rise has not tempted the Bitcoin hodlers to book profits. Glassnode’s Illiquid Supply Change metric is near cycle highs, indicating hodler conviction.

Usually, the leader is the first to emerge from a bear market. If the rally sustains, the sentiment among the traders improves and they start looking at other buying opportunities. After Bitcoin’s rally, the altcoins have started to show signs of life. If the trend continues, several altcoins may rally over the next few weeks.

Will the U.S. equities markets continue their march higher? Could Bitcoin and the major altcoins continue their recovery? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

S&P 500 Index price analysis

The S&P 500 Index bounced off the breakout level of 4,325 on June 26, indicating that the bulls have flipped the level into support.

Despite changes introduced by Twitter management since Elon Musk’s takeover, the issue around fake followers remains a persistent problem. As many as 10% of the followers of accounts belonging to crypto influencers and companies are fake, new data from dappGambl has revealed.

In April 2023, Musk introduced Twitter Blue — an $8 monthly subscription for verification — to increase the platform’s revenue while making it financially inviable for bots and fake accounts to operate. However, months later, dappGambl’s investigation found that up to 10% of followers from the most followed crypto accounts are fake.

When it comes to the official accounts of cryptocurrency tokens and ecosystems, Shiba Inu (SHIB) had the highest number of fake followers at 10.26% or 80,000 accounts, while Avalanche (AVAX) ranked second with 8.14% fake followers, followed by Polygon (MATIC) with 7.58% or 73,000 fake accounts.

dappGambl suspected that the relationship between Twitter accounts and their fake followers is dependent on the popularity of the tokens. By analyzing the social sentiment behind crypto accounts, dappGambl found that:

“Dai (DAI) is the most loved (popular) coin on Twitter whilst XRP (XRP) is the most hated (unpopular).”

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading in a narrow range for the past few days but that doesn’t take away the sheen from its stunning 84% rally in 2023. The strong recovery in Bitcoin’s price has boosted buying in several altcoins, which have risen sharply from their yearly lows.

As the second half of the year begins, the major question on every investor’s mind is, will the rally continue? CoinGlass data shows that July has seen only three negative monthly closes since 2013 and the biggest decline was 9.69% in 2014. This suggests that bulls have a slight edge.

A large part of the latest leg of the rally in Bitcoin and altcoins was fuelled by hopes that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission will approve one or more applications for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Any adverse news on this front could turn the sentiment bearish and result in a sharp sell-off.

However, for now, Bitcoin and select altcoins are showing strength. Let’s analyze the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may continue their up-move over the next few days.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin continues to trade near the stiff overhead resistance at $31,000. This suggests that the bulls are in no hurry to book profits as they anticipate another leg higher.

Bitcoin (BTC) witnessed a volatile trading session on the last day of the quarter. The bulls were trying to maintain Bitcoin’s price above $31,000 but they received a jolt on a Wall Street Journal report which stated that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had returned applications for the Bitcoin spot-price exchange-traded fund (ETF). 

Although there was a knee-jerk reaction to the news, the downside was limited because it turned out that the ETF applications were returned due to a technical issue. The regulators said the asset managers could refile after providing the necessary clarifications.

Bitcoin’s failure to cross above $31,000 seems to be making the short-term speculators jittery. A Glassnode research report released on June 28 shows that short-term holders (STHs), entities holding coins for 155 days or less, have sent more than 35,000 coins to the exchanges.

Any adverse news is likely to witness a negative reaction from SThs. What are the important support and resistance levels that need to be watched on Bitcoin and altcoins in the near term? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin continues its tight consolidation near the overhead resistance at $31,000. This shows that the bears are trying their level best to stall the up-move but the bulls have kept up the pressure.

Cryptocurrency-friendly neobank Revolut is next to delist a batch of digital assets on its platform in the United States amid the ongoing regulatory developments in the country.

Revolut is preparing to completely delist tokens like Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC) and Solana (SOL) from its platform in September, a spokesperson for the firm told Cointelegraph.

On June 29, Revolut notified its U.S. customers about the change, stating that buying ADA, MATIC and SOL is immediately closed for all customers. Revolut users will still be able to hold and sell these tokens until Sept. 18, the representative noted.

“Any remaining tokens will be sold on your behalf using the market price at the time of sale. We’ll deposit the USD proceeds into your Revolut account,” the firm wrote in the announcement to U.S. customers.

Revolut said that the tokens are being delisted due to developments in its U.S. infrastructure.

The Polkadot Decoded 2023 conference just wrapped up and this year more than 100 speakers and 100 blockchain projects were in attendance. 

The beauty of crypto bear markets is they catalyze a realignment of perspectives and objectives.

All the hidden leverage is gone and most of the speculation is gone.

SBF is gone.

Do Kwon is gone.

Base, a new layer 2 application-focused protocol by Coinbase has just one criteria left to fulfil  before being ready for mainnet launch.

On June 29, the team said the Optimism-powered, Ethereum-secured network has been subject to six months of rigorous security audits — both internally and externally — its second-last criteria required for launch.

“With the completion of these audits, we’ve now fulfilled ⅘ of our criteria for mainnet launch,” Base said, adding that they feel confident after not finding any critical code bugs:

“Completing these in-depth security workstreams without discovering critical severity bugs gave the Base team confidence to proceed towards mainnet launch.”

The other three criteria passed included a “Regolith” hard fork in testnet, a successful infrastructure review with OP labs — the team behind Optimism — and Optimism’s “Bedrock” upgrade.

While many investors in the West may look to crypto to speculate the next biggest trend, blockchain technology is actually solving “real-world problems” in Africa such as hyperinflation and "corruption," executives told Cointelegraph.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chris Maurice, founder and CEO of Yellow Card — Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — said crypto in Africa “is growing at the speed of light” because it allows many Africans to escape from the traditional financial system’s failures and transact more freely.

“Crypto solves real-world problems with banking and currencies on the continent, and it isn't the casino that it can feel like sometimes in the West.”

Maurice said the most common use cases in Africa are to make international payments, to send money to friends and family and to “save money against inflation.”

“Crypto in Africa lives closer than any other part of the world to the original mission of the technology,” he added.