Upward momentum stops, horizontal trend persists

by Arthur · August 4, 2022

Despite the downward trend in recent months, some tokens are still higher as others show promising upward momentum. Nonetheless, investor sentiment is still hovering around the “fear” zone despite the total crypto market capitalization exceeding $1.05 trillion.

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Bitcoin struggles to top $23,000

After momentarily skipping past the critical $23,500 resistance, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is once again trending below the $23,000 support level. Over the past seven sessions, BTC has fallen approximately 0.65%.

Meanwhile, after months of dumping holdings to cushion the price decline, Bitcoin miners now have a cumulative 1.86 million BTC – a record two-year high – according to new data published by CryptoQuant. The report also indicates that the “miner capitulation” phase is poised to end soon as BTC’s price action stabilizes.

However, blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, in its latest Week On-Chain report, suggests that ongoing market conditions, such as Bitcoin’s weak transaction volumes and the increased demand for block space, have begun to resemble the 2018-19 bear market. At the same time, data from Bitcoin derivatives shows no potential signs of “fear” among investors, creating an interesting risk-reward setup for BTC.

Binance Chain and Filecoin fend off bears

While Ethereum’s (ETH-USD) recent rally has stalled, with the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization now facing extreme resistance at the $1,700 mark, the value of Binance Chain’s BNB token recorded impressive gains this week. BNB rose by almost 11.80% over the past seven sessions and its 24-hour trading volume has jumped by 80%.

The strong uptrend for BNB comes on the heels of several new announcements from the Binance team. While the recently published report on BNB chain activity for the second quarter of 2022 indicates a significant decrease in DeFi activity on the BNB chain, the GameFi and NFT sectors on the BNB chain recorded exponential growth.

Moreover, a potential BNB ZKRollup solution to increase scalability and speed while reducing costs has also contributed to the upward momentum.

Among the top ten altcoins, Ripple (XRP) and Polkadot (DOT) increased by around 4% and 6% respectively. In the low to mid-cap category, Near Protocol (NEAR) and ApeCoin (MONKEY) recorded nearly 13% gains.

The value of NEAR pumped following reports that the platform is aiming to expand into the NFT market to increase its market capitalization. APE gained ground after Gucci’s decision to add ApeCoin to the list of accepted cryptocurrencies.

That said, this week’s biggest gainer was Filecoin (FILE). Ranked #33 by market cap, the value of FIL surged 46% higher over the past seven sessions. The decentralized storage network’s native token’s gains surpassed prominent tokens such as BTC, ETH, BNB and others. The rise comes on the heels of the Filecoin Foundation’s recently established long-term partnership with the Harvard University Library Innovation Lab (LIL).

Solana Back in Murky Waters Again

Solana’s SOL token is down nearly 86% from its November 2021 high, as investors continue to raise serious questions about the platform’s security. After trying to recover from a series of exploits, hacks and network downtime during 2022 that have already weakened trust in Solana’s blockchain ecosystem, the network is facing renewed attacks.

A new exploit in the past week has now compromised thousands of Solana-based Slope and Phantom wallets, with users continuously reporting the loss of funds. Preliminary reports suggest that hackers have obtained private keys to relatively dormant wallets and are targeting both mobile and web versions of the wallets.

According to OtterSec, more than 8,000 wallets have already been compromised, and the hackers are now sitting on top of more than $8 million worth of SOL, USDC, USDT, BTC and ETH tokens. So far, the cause has not been identified, raising more concerns about the outlook for the network.

Starbucks Leverages Web3, Nomad Bridge Hack and More

Amid the ongoing attacks on blockchain infrastructure, cross-chain bridges are also finding themselves back in the crosshairs of enterprising hackers. In the latest iteration, hackers siphoned off approximately $200 million from the Nomad bridge project – marking the third largest cross-chain bridge hack this year.

Switching gears to adoption news, Oxford City Football Club became the first National League football club to start accepting BTC payments for their matches. In addition, fans will be able to purchase tickets, food and drink on match days with their BTC holdings via the Lightning Network.

Echoing other moves to incorporate blockchain technology into loyalty systems, global coffee franchise Starbucks has unveiled its own plans to launch a customer engagement and retention program leveraging Web3 primitives.

Finally, amid an increase in regulatory enforcement actions, the US SEC has filed a lawsuit against 11 individuals for their role in building a fraudulent crypto-pyramid scheme via the Forsage platform, which engaged in the sale of unregistered securities. According to the lawsuit, the platform aggressively raised more than $300 million from global investors by promoting smart contract investment options across multiple blockchain networks.

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