Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) managed to stay above $27,000 for the past three days but its 9% loss last week spooked some newbie traders. Glassnode data shows that short-term holders, who acquired Bitcoin less than 155 days ago, have been moving coins to the exchanges at a loss since April 16. 

While short-term traders are panicking and focusing on the $25,000 level on the downside, some analysts are turning bullish for the next year. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jamie Douglas Coutts expects Bitcoin to reach $50,000 by April 2024.

Another bullish voice was that of Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick who said that the “crypto winter” may be over. He projected that Bitcoin could skyrocket to $100,000 by end-2024.

What are the important support levels where the latest leg of the correction may attract buyers? Let’s study the charts of Bitcoin and altcoins to find out.

S&P 500 index price analysis

The S&P 500 index (SPX) has pulled back to the 20-day exponential moving average (4,098), indicating that the bears are selling the rallies near 4,200.

Cointelegraph Markets Pro stunned traders on April 8th with a massive 379% gain from a single alert. The AI-powered crypto trading platform detects market-moving events as they happen. One of the indicators pointing to these events is the VORTECS™ score.

On April 7th, the OG Fan Token was getting ready for a remarkable rally. OG Fan Token is a cryptocurrency created for esports clubs to interact easier with their fans. In partnership with the blockchain mobile applications Socios.com, the OG esports club powered by the CHZ token aims to enhance the sporting experience. OG’s rally this week was followed by an interest spike in fan tokens like CITY and BAR.

The token was trading at $2.90 when its VORTECS™ score — a historical “snapshot” comparison between current and past market conditions for individual coins — rose above 75. Over the next 24 hours, OG’s price skyrocketed to $13.90. That’s a remarkable jump of 379%!

Five days later, traders could have captured additional gains as OG took off again. On April 13th, a VORTECS™ score of 80 lit up. Over the next 24 hours, the token saw a rapid rise of 40%.

Anyone with access to Markets Pro had a chance to capture these gains which stand in stark contrast to Ethereum’s performance so far in April. Ethereum had the historic “Shanghai Capella” upgrade allowing token withdrawals to be made from the deposit contract.

Bitcoin (BTC) is on target to finish the week with a sharp fall of around 9%. This suggests that some traders may be booking profits in fear of a resumption of the downtrend. Analysts expect Bitcoin to reach the $26,600 to $25,000 zone where buying interest may pick up.

When an asset emerges from a bear market, it tries to form higher lows on the way up. These levels act as strong supports during subsequent corrections. The current pullback could end up forming a higher floor for Bitcoin, which may act as a launch pad for the next rally.

If long-term investors believe that a bottom has been made, then panicking and selling on every corrective phase is not a good strategy. Rather, every dip could be an opportunity to build a portfolio.

The correction in Bitcoin has pulled several altcoins lower. Only a handful of major cryptocurrencies are holding out and looking strong on the charts. Let’s study the charts of five cryptocurrencies that may outperform on the way up.

Bitcoin price analysis

Buyers are trying to arrest Bitcoin’s correction at the 50-day simple moving average ($26,983) but the shallow bounce suggests that the bears are not willing to give up.

Dogecoin suffered a big blow on April 20, popularly known as “Dogeday” thanks to the failed test launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket and downturn in the broader crypto market. 

The SpaceX rocket, which featured the Dogecoin mascot on its side, disintegrated four minutes after its launch. Still, the company’s employees including Elon Musk cheered the failure as they expressed optimism for another test in coming months.

The move comes within a fortnight of Musk’s recent stunt when he momentarily changed Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin mascot.

The launch had built considerable excitement within the Dogecoin community. DogeDesigner, a graphic designer in the Dogecoin community, tweeted about the rocket launch with eagerness.

However, Dogeday appears to have turned into a sell-the-news event as the DOGE/USD pair lost 11.88% of the day’s high of $0.093 to $0.083.

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major cryptocurrencies have pulled back from their recent local highs, signaling profit booking by traders. Is the current pullback a buying opportunity or has the trend turned lower? This is likely to be the question in every trader’s mind.

Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger said in a recent tweet that Bitcoin had turned down from the upper Bollinger Band and reached the middle bank, near its breakout level. He said it was a “logical place” and advised traders to “pay attention.”

The correction could worry short-term crypto traders but for the long-term investors, who believe that a bottom is in, this could prove to be an opportunity to build their portfolio with cryptocurrencies of their choice. It is generally a good strategy to avoid buying on the way down and wait for the price to stop falling before resuming purchases.

What are the levels that may act as strong support? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin fell and closed below the 20-day exponential moving average ($28,869) on April 19. This was the first close below the 20-day EMA since March 13, indicating weakness.

The Polygon network, formerly the Matic network, is an Ethereum-scaling protocol that reduces cost and embeds high security. In a short span, Polygon has gained a high level of traction.

A string of solutions on a single network sets Polygon apart from other Ethereum scaling projects. It empowers developers to zero in on a scaling solution that works best with their applications. Polygon Labs has been consistently working to develop scaling solutions based on plasma sidechains, a blockchain bridge, different types of zero-knowledge proofs and Optimistic Rollups.

Processing bundles of transactions on the Polygon proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain drastically reduces the burden on the Ethereum main chain, making transactions faster. The throughput rate in the Ethereum base layer is roughly 14 transactions per second, while Polygon has the potential to handle exponentially higher transactions per second. 

Anyone wanting to participate in the network by updating transactional data on the system must stake Polygon (MATIC). In the Polygon network, a validator’s job is to ensure the network’s security and add transactions to blocks. Validators stake, allowing users to delegate tokens in exchange for rewards net of any commissions charged by validators. 

Staking of MATIC, explained

Anyone looking to stake MATIC has to delegate tokens to a validator. Stakers can earn rewards against the staked funds. For now, there are no minimum staking requirements though validators can decide the minimum acceptable limit for staking. Validators might charge fees or commissions for these services. Staked MATIC tokens have an unlocking period of 80 checkpoints, approximately three to four days. Stakers wanting to exit just need to send an unbound request.

Criticism has been leveled at a new euro-pegged stablecoin released in France due to a decision to restrict peer-to-peer transactions.

French bank Societe Generale-Forge (SGF) released the Ethereum-based stablecoin called EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) on April 20 which is available to only qualified institutional clients.

According to observers who reviewed its smart contract code, ERC-20 transfers need to first be approved by a centralized registrar — presumably one controlled by the bank — before the transaction is processed.

In an April 20 tweet, pseudonymous smart contract engineer “alephv.eth” explained:

“They coded it so they have to whitelist all users, process all user transfers, and even process your ERC20 approvals before they process your 'transferFrom' lmao.”

The price of Dogecoin (DOGE) has almost doubled after bottoming out at $0.0491 in June 2022, alongside a similar recovery across the cryptocurrency market.

On April 20, DOGE is trading for as high as $0.0942, up around 94% versus the last year's bottom. But, despite its impressive rebound, its price is still 88% below its all-time high of $0.76 set in May 2021.  Thus, the DOGE/USD pair remains far from establishing a decisive bullish reversal on longer timeframes.

Dogecoin price soared over 23,000% in 2021 primarily due to Elon Musk's vocal support. Ironically, DOGE/USD topped after Musk called it a "hustle" during his Saturday Night Live appearance in May 2021.

DOGE price entered a prolonged long bearish cycle, furthered by the prospects of the Fed tightening (leading to actual interest rate cuts in 2022 and 2023). Also, the collapse of multiple leading crypto firms, such as Terra (LUNA), Three Arrow Capital, FTX, etc., exacerbated the DOGE selloff. 

October 2022 saw a 100% price rebound despite the multi-month downtrend. The recovery coincided with Musk's shaky takeover of Twitter amid hopes that DOGE would become the social media platform's official payment token. 

An anonymous Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bot operator has cashed in well over $1 million this week by executing “sandwich attacks” against buyers and sellers of two new meme coins.

The wallet address, linked to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain “jaredfromsubway.eth” made $950,000 from the sandwich attacks on April 18 and profited about $300,000 and $400,000 on April 17 and 19 respectively according to an April 19 tweet from nonfungible token (NFT) data platform Sealaunch.

The bot's ENS domain is a likely tongue-in-cheek nod to the popular sandwich chain and its disgraced former spokesperson Jared Fogle.

Over a 24-hour period between April 18 to 19, 7% of all Ethereum gas fees were spent by the MEV bot, Sealaunch explained in a separate post.

A large proportion of the profits came from attacks on trading activity relating to two new meme coins, Pepe (PEPE) and Wojak (WOJAK), which has helped propel jaredfromsubway.eth to the become the largest gas guzzler over the last day and week, crypto researcher Matt Willemsen explained:

Bitcoin (BTC) has been witnessing volatile moves in the past three days. The pick-up in volatility shows that the buyers and sellers are vying for supremacy. 

Bitcoin recovered sharply on April 18 but gave back all the gains on April 19. The latest sell-off may have been triggered by the high inflation figures in the United Kingdom and the regulatory uncertainty in the United States. Profit booking was not limited to Bitcoin as most major altcoins also turned lower.

While a deep correction is possible, Glassnode said in its analysis on April 17 that several on-chain indicators are pointing toward the end of the bear market. If that is the case, the dips may be viewed as a buying opportunity by long-term investors.

What are the important support levels that are likely to be guarded by the bulls? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin is witnessing a keen battle between the bulls and the bears at the 20-day exponential moving average ($29,092). The bears are trying to sink the price below the 20-day EMA while the bulls are attempting to start a strong rebound.

The co-founder of the nonfungible token (NFT) project Rebase is facing a lawsuit from his apparent business partner accusing him of going “rogue” by stealing $2 million from a joint crypto wallet and ousting an apparent co-founder out of the firm.

An April 17 filing in a United States District Court in California from Krzysztof Gagacki, who says they’re the co-founder of Rebase, made eight separate complaints against the firm's other co-founder Edmond Truong.

Gagacki is demanding a jury trial for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation and trademark infringement.

While it is unclear exactly when the professional relationship between the two deteriorated, Gagacki alleged Truong breached a partnership contract on Oct. 27. 2022 by misappropriating $2 million into a separate wallet owned and controlled by Truong without his consent.

Gagacki claims to own a 50% share of the funds and says Truong refuses to provide him with the private keys to the digital wallet.

Solana saw two positive developments this week with the launch of the Saga Android-based smartphone powered by Solana blockchain and the retail trading debut of Grayscale’s Solana Trust shares.

The developments along with bullishness in the broader market, boosted the price of SOL by 29.05% from April 11 to a monthly high of $26.03.

While the mobile launch positively boosts the Solana ecosystem, the Saga phone appears overpriced at over $1,000 apiece. Nevertheless, the smartphone received positive reviews in user experience and quality.

Independent cryptocurrency investor, Amy Wu, noted that “Saga-exclusive dApps, games, and rewards as the phone ships globally, which will also make it easier to justify the $1,000 premium price.” It remains to be seen how the Solana Foundation leads the marketing efforts for the phone against existing giants like Samsung and Apple.

The Grayscale fund has only $2.9 million in assets under management (AUM) in the Solana Fund, which is considerably less compared to the 24-hour daily trading volume of SOL, which surpassed $500 million, to have an impact on price.

Gnosis Builders, developer of blockchain network Gnosis Chain, has announced a $5 million project to increase the number and diversity of validators through incentive mechanisms. The new project is called “Gnosis VIP,” according to an April 18 announcement from the company.

As part of the new project, Gnosis is launching a “Geographic Diversity Program” that seeks to increase the number of countries Gnosis Chain validators are located within.

The network currently has over 100,000 validators spread across 60 countries, and the program’s goal is to increase the number of countries to 180 by year’s end, the announcement said.

According to the program’s official webpage, for each of the 90 countries listed, the first ten validators that start operating within them will receive 388 meta Gnosis (worth $1,368.18 at April 12 prices) over the course of six months. Meta Gnosis (mGNO) is the wrapped and staked version of the network’s native coin, Gnosis (GNO). Each mGNO can be redeemed for 1/32 GNO.

The first payment of 38 mGNO ($134) will be disbursed after the first 30 days the node operates. The size of the payment will increase each month, and the last payment at the end of the six months will be for 98 mGNO ($345.57).