The recent Chainlink (LINK) rally has led to some unconventional results — 100% of its supply is “in the money” or profitable.
This metric simply represents a comparison between the asset’s current price and the price at which it was acquired. If the current price is higher, then it is “in the money”, if it is lower, then it is “out of the money”, and if it is the same, then it is “at the money”.
Percent of Chainlink supply in/out of the money. Source: IntoTheBlock.
Litecoin — 47%, Bitcoin — 90%
According to an intelligence company IntoTheBlock, currently, the entire supply of the LINK token is ‘in the money’. For reference, about 90% of Bitcoin (BTC) supply is currently in the money and only 47% of Litecoin’s (LTC).
The question is, how can 100% of addresses be ‘in the money’ at the same time? This is highly unusual for any asset and is only partly explained by the parabolic rise of the asset. Every trade needs a buyer and a seller, so in theory some addresses should be ‘at the money’.
It’s possible the price was bid up on exchanges without any getting withdrawn to a wallet before the snapshot was taken. Alternatively, the proportion of addresses not ‘in the money’ at this time may be very small and rounded off to zero. Another theory suggested on social media is that previous LINK purchasers (LINK marines) were the ones who pushed the coin to a new ATH, but as these addresses had bought previously, their average purchase price would be lower than the current price, pushing the address into profit. We’ve asked IntoTheBlock for an explanation and will update this story when we hear back.
Chainlink’s bull run is easier to explain. It has announced a number of key partnerships, integrations and milestones. Also, the project just announced a grant program that will be awarding funds to projects that will help usher in the era when smart contracts become “the dominant form of digital agreement”.
Ethereum competitor Near Protocol (NEAR) gains 106% as DeFi heats up
Published
13 hours ago
on
January 16, 2021
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Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins.
In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry.
NEAR/USDT (Binance). Source: TradingView
Compared to its competitors, NEAR is a relatively new project as the mainnet only launched in April 2020. Unlike Ethereum, NEAR’s consensus mechanism works towards fee stabilization and according to its website, the protocol aims to accelerate the development of decentralized applications.
Interestingly, Near’s ICO took place four months after its mainnet launch. A possible reason for this is that the team raised $35 million in private funding rounds held in July 2019 and May 2020. Among its investors are Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Crypto Investments, Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, and Ripple’s incubator Xpring.
Over the past three months, Near Protocols’ network activity has increased significantly and information on the Near Blog shows there are a couple of exciting applications already live.
Near Protocol daily number of transactions. Source: explorer.near.org
One is Berry Club, a yield arming app/game that lets players draw with pixels and earn collectible tokens. Another application called Paras also allows users to interact with a NFT digital art card marketplace.
DeFi integration accelerates
On Nov. 24, 2020, 1inch.exchange-backed project Mooniswap revealed their plan to build Automated Market Making (AAM) features on NEAR.The decentralized exchange’s aggregator is designed to roll liquidity and pricing from all significant DEXs into one platform.
Sergej Kunz, CEO and co-founder of 1inch, stated: “By building on NEAR, we’ll be able to experiment with sharding and be prepared for the arrival of Ethereum 2.0.”
On Jan. 19, Crypto.com also intends to launch a new pool offering $250,000 worth of NEAR tokens at 50% below the market price. Clients will need to stake CRO tokens and also meet the set trading volume requirements on the exchange.
One area of concern is there are open questions regarding how the community treasury is governed. A substantial number of NEAR tokens are being managed by a handful of people who are not required to abide by clear guidelines and rules.
NEAR Twitter user activity vs. price (USD). Source: TheTie
Data from TheTie, an alternative social analytics platform, shows that the recent price spike was accompanied by increased social network activity. Nevertheless, transfers and transactions on the Near Protocol mainnet began only three months ago.
Compared to its competitors NEAR protocol appears to be in an early development stage. Effectively delivering the Mooniswap integration will likely be an important milestone for the project and if successful, NEAR token could possibly see further upside.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Polkadot gains 75% in one week — But can DOT price reach $20 next?
Published
16 hours ago
on
January 16, 2021
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Bitcoin (BTC) has made significant moves already this year but altcoins are catching up. Once Bitcoin’s price starts to stabilize, the market environment becomes better for altcoins to begin their run.
One of the strongest performers in 2021 is Polkadot, as this cryptocurrency has been making new all-time highs day in, day out. Polkadot’s price rallied by 85% in 2021 and 75% in the past seven days, surpassing XRP in market capitalization.
DOT price eyes $20 or higher after this rally
DOT/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The daily chart of Polkadot shows a rounded bottom construction throughout the last quarter of 2020. Since then, a beautiful support/resistance flip took place at the $4.55 level, leading to more upside.
This upward continuation kicked off with a massive rally to $10, after which demand (grey box) held for support and new levels were able to be defined using the Fibonacci extension.
One of those regions was found at $14.25-14.75, and the second one is found at $16-17, as the chart shows.
DOT/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The primary question currently is whether DOT has finished its current run. If that is the case, areas of interest for support/resistance flips are found at the 0.35-0.382 and 0.618-0.65 Fibonacci levels.
These Fibonacci levels are often used to predict where such corrections will potentially reverse course. In Polkadot’s case, these align heavily with previous support or resistance levels, namely the $13 and $10.50 areas. This is where traders should be watching for potential buy-the-dip opportunities.
Once again, Polkadot will most likely only correct when Bitcoin starts to drop significantly. Otherwise, Polkadot and many other altcoins are currently in a good position for more upside.
However, if a correction occurs and Polkadot bottoms out, new levels of interest can be defined on the charts for the next impulse move. In that case, Polkadot might continue its surge towards $23-24 and possibly even $32-35 at a later stage in the year.
DOT/BTC approaching critical resistance zone
DOT/BTC 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The daily chart of Polkadot in the BTC pair shows a massive surge in recent days. However, this surge is approaching a significant resistance zone.
It’s common sense and should go without saying but it’s not advised to enter a trade right as the price moves into the resistance zone.
The 0.00045000-0.00047000 sats area is a critical area to breakthrough as that would trigger another heavy impulse move upwards. If that area breaks and flips for support, continuation is likely toward price discovery for Polkadot.
However, the price will most likely fail to break upward here. In that scenario, a healthy correction is possible through traders should be watching the 0.00035000 sats region, but also the 0.00031500-0.00032250 zone.
The $15 support level is vital
DOT/USD 2-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 2-hour chart shows a heavy uptrend, but some critical levels must hold for this rally to continue.
In that perspective, the previous high at $15 has to sustain support. If that area holds, a renewed rally to $20 or higher is on the tables to occur for Polkadot.
Failing to hold the $15 area for support and a significant correction is on the table. The next areas for support are $12 and $10.75-11.25, which is a correction of 30-40%.
However, Polkadot shows that it has a lot of potential for the upcoming year with one of the biggest surges so far in 2021.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Goldman Sachs Is Planning Grand Entry into Crypto Space with Custody Service
Published
18 hours ago
on
January 16, 2021
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The inside source made assertions that Goldman Sachs is avoiding cryptocurrency brokerage services which are currently being provided by a number of US-based cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase, and Gemini amongst others.
American multinational investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) is reportedly planning an entry into the cryptocurrency ecosystem through the offering of cryptocurrency custody service. According to a report by Coindesk, citing sources familiar with the matter, Goldman Sachs has issued a request for information (RFI) to explore digital asset custody and the bank’s plans will be made “evident soon.”
The cryptocurrency ecosystem is an emerging market that the big players in the financial ecosystem are looking at exploring. While many institutions that Goldman Sachs and other investment banks are managing assets for are reportedly buying up or planning to buy up Bitcoin and altcoins to safeguard their balance sheets, the provision of custody services will position the banks to tag along with these developments.
The move to provide custody services is already backed by the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) who had rolled out a policy permitting US federal banks to carry out crypto custody services. According to the Goldman Sachs source, the request for information was circulated to at least one renowned crypto custody service provider at the tail end of last year.
“Like JPMorgan, we have issued an RFI looking at digital custody. We are broadly exploring digital custody and deciding what the next step is,” said the Goldman source, who asked not to be named.
Goldman Sachs Avoiding Competition in Its Crypto Pursuit
The inside source made assertions that Goldman Sachs is avoiding cryptocurrency brokerage services which are currently being provided by a number of US-based cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase, and Gemini amongst others.
“Anchorage, BitGo, and Coinbase have quite grand plans in crypto prime brokerage and we would not be looking to duplicate those,” the Goldman source confirmed.
The adoption of cryptocurrencies is going mainstream and banks which adapt their model to offer cryptocurrency-related services will be better for it in the long run. The rate of embrace is rapid and even more attractive this year seeing that the value of Bitcoin in terms of the price per coin is trading at its all-time highs, a development that has pushed the market capitalization of the global crypto industry above $1 trillion.
The push by the banks will also start yielding dividends in due course seeing that provincial governments are beginning to take interest in Bitcoin. According to Fox Business News, Francis Suarez, the Mayor of Miami revealed plans to provide a broad city-wide embrace for Bitcoin and the possibility of investing government funds in cryptocurrency. Moves like this show that the market prospect for the proposed crypto custody services by Goldman Sachs is promising.
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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.