Kyber Network, the developer of the Kyberswap Elastic decentralized crypto exchange, has announced a potential vulnerability in the exchange’s contracts. While no funds have been lost, the developer has advised liquidity providers to remove their funds as a precaution. Kyberswap Classic smart contracts do not contain the vulnerability, according to the Kyber Network team.
KyberSwap Elastic is a decentralized exchange that allows liquidity providers to provide “concentrated liquidity” by deciding a price ceiling and price floor for the tokens they deposit into the pool. If the price moves below the floor or above the ceiling, LPs no longer receive fees. However, they receive higher fees if the price stays within the range they have set.
In response to the potential vulnerability, farming rewards have been temporarily suspended until a new smart contract can be deployed. All rewards earned prior to April 18, 2023, 11pm (GMT+7) have already been dispersed and are unaffected by this pause. The developer has stated that it will update the community soon with an explanation as to when funds can be safely deposited back into the protocol.
This is not the first time Kyberswap has faced security issues. In September, the user interface for Kyberswap was hacked, resulting in an attacker getting away with $265,000 worth of crypto.
It is important for users to stay vigilant and follow the developer’s advice to remove funds as a precautionary measure. The Kyber Network team is working on a solution and will keep the community updated as the situation develops. In the meantime, users can monitor the situation closely and refrain from depositing any funds until the issue has been resolved.
In the broader context of decentralized finance (DeFi), security risks are always present, and it is crucial for developers to take appropriate measures to mitigate these risks. With the growing popularity of DeFi, security will continue to be a key concern for investors and users alike. As the industry evolves, it is important for developers to prioritize security measures and work together with the community to build trust in these platforms.
A top crypto analyst and trader is naming Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK) and three other altcoins as the digital assets to watch this month.
In a new video, pseudonymous trader Altcoin Sherpa says that he expects one more leg down for smart contract platform Solana to around $65 before it can ignite a relief rally to his target at $140.
“I would just like to see this area [$60-$70] get tapped several times and then form some sort of bottom and then probably come up, hit this high volume node again around $140 and then probably come back down.”
Another coin on the trader’s list is decentralized oracle network Chainlink, which he says looks bullish as it trades close to a key support area.
“You can probably just look to buy any dip for LINK. I think that it’s possible that we might see [a] return back lower as well down to $15 or so, somewhat like a double bottom in the lower timeframe charts. To me, this looks pretty strong given it’s at range lows, given its high sell volume, given that we’re seeing dips getting bought pretty quickly.”
Next up is blockchain-based game Axie Infinity (AXS). Altcoin Sherpa predicts a strong rally for Axie Infinity as the coin continues to respect support at $45.
“You can still hit like a 2x or something like that from $45 to $90 or some of these levels up [above $110]. It’s certainly possible that this comes.”
While Altcoin Sherpa is currently bullish on AXS, he does not expect the coin to print a new all-time high anytime soon.
The crypto analyst is also keeping an eye on Kyber Network Crystal (KNC), an Ethereum-based token used to pay fees on the Kyber Network. According to Altcoin Sherpa, KNC looks very strong right even amid the general bearish trend across the crypto markets.
“I would just consider buying any dip personally. Looking for resistance levels, I would look for around $2.40 or so.”
The last coin on the analyst’s radar is Near (NEAR), a developer-focused blockchain designed for scalability and stability. Altcoin Sherpa predicts one more move down for NEAR before rallying to his target at $14.
“It’s possible that we see maybe one last potential shakeout to $8 or so, and I do have bid there. But overall, this coin has held up pretty strong, and to me, this coin looks a little bit better than many other coins right now.”
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Kyber will launch its dynamic market maker (DMM) to Polygon Network later this month.
The team has also announced liquidity mining programs on both Polygon and Ethereum to reward liquidity providers.
Kyber joins many other Ethereum-native DeFi projects that have expanded to Polygon in 2021.
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Kyber is launching its dynamic market maker on Polygon. It’s also planning a $5.5 million liquidity mining program.
Kyber Plots Liquidity Mining Program
Kyber will launch its new dynamic market maker (DMM) liquidity protocol on Polygon, it was announced Wednesday.
The Kyber community voted in favor of the move after considering Polygon’s growing popularity among DeFi users, as evidenced in the Kyber Improvement Proposal for the expansion.
According to Kyber, the DMM is an improvement over an automated market maker design. It allows users to trade ERC-20 tokens in capital-efficient liquidity pools that are less prone to impermanent loss and slippage.
To bootstrap initial liquidity on the Polygon-based DMM, the Kyber team has planned a liquidity program called Rainmaker. Under the program, 2.52 million KNC tokens worth roughly $5 million and an additional $500,000 worth of MATIC tokens will be distributed to liquidity providers (LPs). The program will begin on Jun. 30 and run for two months.
The team has also allocated $25 million worth of rewards for liquidity providers for the existing Ethereum-based DMM.
Shedding light on the Polygon partnership, Loi Luu, co-founder of Kyber Network, said:
“Through this partnership, Polygon’s vibrant ecosystem will gain access to the highly capital efficient and flexible Kyber DMM protocol, and we believe this will empower more liquidity providers, traders, and developers to effectively engage in the world of decentralized finance.”
Polygon, an EVM-compatible “commit chain”, has recently exploded in popularity among DeFi users. Due to the surge in activity, the total value locked on Polygon has shot to almost $12 billion, according to data from DeFi Llama.
Many DeFi protocols that were launched on Ethereum have recently expanded to Polygon’s fast-growing ecosystem. With the latest launch, Kyber joins many other leading Ethereum-native projects like Aave, Curve, Sushiswap, 1inch Network, Ren, and 0x Protocol that have joined the network in 2021.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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Decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity hub Kyber Network (KNC) is set to become the next DeFi protocol to enter the expanding Polygon (MATIC) ecosystem.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Kyber announced the launch of Rainmaker — a liquidity mining program on the platform’s Dynamic Market Maker protocol that will commence on June 30 to mark Kyber’s expansion to Polygon.
According to the announcement, the Rainmaker program will distribute $30 million in rewards to liquidity providers on the Kyber DMM across both Polygon and Ethereum.
Of the total reward pool, 12.6 million KNC tokens (about $25 million) will be distributed to liquidity providers on selected Ethereum-based amplified pools. The remaining 2.52 million KNC ($5 million) will be for LPs on Polygon-based amplified pools.
These rewards be will in the form of KNC and MATIC tokens which can also be staked to provide liquidity on KNC and MATIC pools to compound reward earnings. Rainmaker reward earners that receive KNC can also stake some on the KyberDAO to participate in governance activities thereby earning additional voting rewards.
According to the announcement, the Polygon phase of the Rainmaker liquidity mining program will run for two months while that for Ethereum will take place over three months beginning from June 30 for both.
Apart from the $5 million worth of KNC tokens, Kyber is also contributing $500,000 in MATIC “coins” for the Rainmaker liquidity mining program.
For Kyber, Rainmaker will help to further expand Polygon’s growing liquidity. Indeed, DeFi projects continue to establish a presence on Polygon amid a broader push for multichain strategies and greater overall scalability.
Related: DeFi projects launch on Polygon, usage skyrockets
Polygon usage continues to skyrocket triggering significant integration efforts by DeFi primitives. Back in May, 0x — a liquidity bridge for decentralized exchanges — announced an API tool for Ethereum-based DEX like SushiSwap, mStable and Dfyn to interact with the Polygon ecosystem.
Ren — a cross-chain liquidity protocol — has also created a bridge to allow porting of Ren-based wrapped tokens to the Polygon network.
Decentralized exchange Kyber has launched a Dynamic Market Maker, or DMM, in what it claims is a world first.
The new platform, which was announced on April 5, has been designed to optimize fees and enable extremely high capital efficiency for liquidity providers.
One of the major differences between Kyber’s new platform and regular Automated Market Makers, or AMMs, is the fee generation system. While platforms such as Uniswap charge a fixed trading fee of 0.3%, the new DEX will calculate fees dynamically, increasing during times of high volatility and demand, and decreasing when markets are quiet. This encourages traders to take advantage of cheaper trade opportunities which improve capital efficiency for LPs and the platform.
The system mimics the Uber-style surge pricing that increases prices when there is a lot of demand for rides, such as in bad weather or rush hour, and drops them when there is less demand and traffic levels have returned to normal.
Kyber Network is an on-chain liquidity protocol that has a DEX called KyberSwap, which allows users to swap crypto assets without a central order book or operator. Much of the inspiration for the new DMM has been taken from the current Uniswap interface.
According to the DMM dashboard, liquidity on the platform is currently $20.5 million with a daily volume of $490,000. Kyber’s native token, KNC, has retreated over the past 24 hours dropping 5.7% to $3.13 according to Coingecko.
The new DMM also operates a “programmable pricing curve” which allows liquidity pool creators to customize pricing through an “amplification factor” based on the nature of the relationship between the two tokens.
In essence, tokens that have a lower deviation from their prices such as stablecoins can have a higher amplification factor which allows the liquidity to increase without needing more tokens in the pool. These features have also been included in the Uniswap v3 upgrade which also aims to improve capital efficiency by optimizing the bonding curve.
Pool creators can set their own AMP factor which increases the liquidity depending on the type of tokens in the pool — stable tokens can have a higher factor, whereas more volatile ones will be set lower.
“This means that given the same liquidity pool and trade size, Kyber DMM can provide much better liquidity and slippage compared to AMMs. Slippage can potentially be 100X better than AMMs for more stable pairs!”
The announcement added that the code has been fully reviewed and audited multiple times by both the internal team and external auditors with no critical issues found. It stated that the full audit will be released soon but added that the protocol is still in beta.
One of the oldest decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol Kyber Network has unveiled the highly-anticipated dynamic market-making (DMM) protocol.
Kyber Network Unveils DMM
In a blog post published on April 5, on-chain liquidity protocol Kyber Network finally unveiled the mainnet beta release of the Kyber Dynamic Market Maker (DMM) protocol.
According to the announcement, liquidity providers (LPs) on the platform can now make optimal use of idle tokens by adding them to Kyber DMM pools. At the same time, any taker (dApp, aggregator, or end-user) will have uninterrupted access to this liquidity.
In essence, Kyber DMM is a novel liquidity protocol specifically designed for retail LPs and token teams. It is also the first of many new protocols slated to be launched on the Kyber 3.0 liquidity hub.
To capture the main propositions of the Kyber DMM, it combines permissionless liquidity contribution with “extremely high capital efficiency and flexibility.”
What does Kyber DMM Offer?
The Kyber DMM brings offers with a swathe of novel, robust, and innovative features to LPs to attract them to the established DeFi protocol.
In addition to the aforementioned, the Kyber DMM offers amplified pools with extremely high – if not the highest – capital efficiency compared to other AMMs in the DeFi landscape. Subsequently, high capital efficiency ensures lower trade slippage for LPs.
The new iteration of the protocol offers dynamic fees to optimize returns for liquidity providers and reduce the impact of impermanent loss. In addition, the DMM promises no-third party or centralized oracle risk.
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Another interesting feature offered by the Kyber DMM is the Amplification Factor (AMP). The post reads in part:
“Higher AMP, higher capital efficiency within a specific price range. This means that given the same liquidity pool and trade size, Kyber DMM can provide much better liquidity and slippage compared to AMMs. Slippage can potentially be 100X better than AMMs for more stable pairs.”
Interested users can check out the Kyber DMM beta here.
Clearly, the competition among DEXes is heating up with the rising popularity of the DeFi landscape.
BTCManager recently reported that Uniswap v3 is slated to go live on May 5, 2021, with various improvements including concentrated liquidity, multiple fee tiers, and more.
Bitcoin’s price is getting closer to Mars thanks to Elon Musk while ether moons to a new record. Investors are pulling BTC out of DeFi, likely to diversify their profits.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $44,023 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 14.5% over the previous 24 hours.
BTC well above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving average on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Feb 5.
Source: TradingView
Bitcoin’s price hit a record-high price Monday, soaring to $44,801 at around 13:00 UTC (8 a.m. ET). It’s one month to the day since hitting the previous record of $41,375, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
Bitcoin’s historical price the past month.
Source: CoinDesk 20
One catalyst for the price run-up: Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) plowed $1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency. The company also said it would accept bitcoin for goods and services rendered.
Read More:Tesla Invests $1.5B in Bitcoin, Plans to Accept Crypto Payments
“All bets are off the table now. I was worried that [at] around $35,000-$40,000 we were not seeing a huge amount of institutional flows, and over the weekend the market moved higher in a fairly weak fashion,” noted Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for. Swissquote Bank. “But Tesla would have bought over the last few weeks, a little every day.”
Since the start of 2021, bitcoin spot exchange volumes by eight major exchanges tracked by the CoinDesk 20 have been higher than its six-month average.
This year so far, average trading on these exchanges has been $4.4 billion per day; going back to Aug. 8, 2020, the daily average has been $1.7 billion. As of press time Monday, volume is also higher than that 2021 average, at over $6.7 billion.
Major spot bitcoin volumes by exchange the past six months.(Shuai Hao)
Source: CoinDesk Research
“Bitcoin is at new highs today in ‘frenzied’ buying, clearing minor resistance from January,” said Katie Stockton, a technical analyst at Fairlead Strategies. Stockton also noted bitcoin has lost steam since its Musk-motivated rally, at $44,023 as of press time. “Signs of exhaustion are associated with today’s steep rally from an overbought/oversold perspective,” she said.
However, the trend remains bullish, Stockton added. “Despite the potential for additional short-term volatility, the long-term uptrend appears healthy behind bitcoin from a momentum perspective.“
While some may be skittish about bitcoin’s rise in 30-day volatility over the past three months, other types of traders are certainly enthusiastic about it.
30-day bitcoin volatility over the past three months.(Shuai Hao)
Source: CoinDesk Research
“Tesla buying bitcoin was a mostly predictable move, given the vocal support it has seen from CEO Elon Musk,” said Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director at eToro.
Read More:Ex-OCC Chief Brooks Calls Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy a Bit ‘Scary’ for Rest of World
“If more companies begin making similar announcements, $50,000 could potentially be within reach during the next few months,” Hirsch added.
“We think we’re only just scratching the surface when it comes to corporate and institutional participation in the world of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies,” Joel Kruger, cryptocurrency strategist at LMAX Digital, told CoinDesk. “We suspect that moves from visionaries like Tesla will only serve to reinforce the tremendous value proposition that decentralized assets have to offer.”
Ether at new high as BTC investors pull out of Ethereum protocol
Meanwhile, ether (ETH) is also hitting records and the asset’s correlation with bitcoin has cropped back up to levels not seen since December.
Bitcoin and ether 90-day correlation the past six months.(Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research)
Source: CoinDesk indexes
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was up Monday trading around $1,720 and climbing 8.5% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). The price hit a fresh all-time high Monday, hitting $1,776, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
Read More:Ethereum Futures Are Now Trading on CME
The amount of bitcoin held in Ethereum-based decentralized finance, or DeFi, has dropped almost 3.5% Monday, going from over 50,000 to 48,344 BTC as of press time, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse.
Bitcoin locked in decentralized finance the past three months.
Source: DeFi Pulse
Swissquote’s Thomas notes that Monday may be a day for larger players to start moving some bitcoin around because a fresh bitcoin price high might induce some investors to diversify their profits.
“Larger hedge funds, etc., [that] had got into bitcoin between $15,000-$20,000 would naturally want to take profits around $45,000-$50,000″ for a profit of 2.5-3x. “I’ve always viewed that as a hard challenge,” Thomas told CoinDesk.
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Commodities:
Oil was up 1.9%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $58.03.
Gold was in the green 0.95% and at $1,830 as of press time.
Silver is gaining, up 1.9% and changing hands at $27.32.
Treasurys:
The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday to 1.169 and in the green 0.15%.
The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market
BTC above the 10-hour and 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 31.
Source: TradingView
The price of bitcoin was in its second day of a bull run, with the world’s oldest cryptocurrency going as high as $37,245, according to CoinDesk 20 data. It was changing hands at $37,092 as of press time.
“While BTC did break back below $30,000 very briefly during the period of consolidation over the last few weeks, the fact that it didn’t break down entirely is inherently bullish,” said Chad Steinglass, head of trading at CrossTower Capital.
Bitcoin has closed daily over $30,000 for over a month now. On CoinDesk’s candle charts, which shows a fuller picture of price orders in trading, every time bitcoin ducks under $30,000 it quickly picks back up.
Bitcoin’s historical candle price chart the past month.
Source: CoinDesk 20
Technical analysts often refer to this phenomenon as “support,” an area where traders have orders placed or will start buying in, usually because they feel a particular price point is enticing.
“There seems to be a solid institutional buying and technical bids just below $30,000 that gives some decent support which takes out the aspiring shorts,” noted Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for investment firm Tellurian Capital.
Looking at liquidations, which are automated crypto leverage margin calls on derivatives venue BitMEX, it’s clear there has been a larger proportion of short versus long positions eliminated in the past few weeks.
Bitcoin liquidations on BitMEX the past month.
Source: Skew
Of the $1.1 billion in BTC liquidations the past month, $699 million of that tally, or 63%, have been short-oriented wipeouts.
CrossTower’s Steinglass says large buyers are helping maintain price levels and are now pushing them higher. “After the brief pop from the buzz generated by Elon Musk’s tweet and support, we are starting to see another round of institutional support led largely by MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor,” added Steinglass.
Read More:MicroStrategy Adds to Bitcoin Trove With Another $10M Purchase
However, not everyone is a permabull. Although bitcoin’s price Wednesday has not been seen since Jan. 28, Joel Kruger, currency strategist at LMAX Digital, is cautious. “While we wouldn’t rule out another poke back above $40,000, we think the balance of risk over the coming weeks actually leans more towards an expectation for a choppy consolidation phase than anything else,” Kruger told CoinDesk. “Medium- and longer-term technical studies confirm this outlook as they are still quite elevated following the parabolic run-up into January.”
One interesting development: Futures open interest on CME, a platform that caters to institutional investors, has dropped 29% to $1.7 billion since hitting an all-time high of $2.4 billion in open interest on Jan. 14.
Bitcoin futures open interest on CME the past three months.
Source: Skew
This is a sign there’s likely less interest in bitcoin hedging – and perhaps BTC overall – while investors test other waters such as ether.
“We believe that when it comes to consensus and adoption in the cryptocurrency space, everything runs through bitcoin,” Kruger said. “(But) where traders who perhaps felt like they had missed out on bitcoin, they looked to take advantage of the trend by way of ether.”
Ether price frenzy spills into options market
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Wednesday, trading around $1,637 and climbing 6.6% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). It hit a fresh all-time high at around 19:00 UTC (2 p.m. ET) to $1,651 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
“Catching up on bitcoin’s recent surge, it seems that there is room for ETH to grow and to try new all-time highs in the coming days and weeks,” noted Elie Le Rest, partner at quantitative trading firm ExoAlpha. “With [decentralized finance] being a hot topic supported mainly by Ethereum technology and [with] ETH 2.0 moving forward, a significant ETH price surge throughout 2021 is highly anticipated.”
Read More:Sneaker App Switches From Ethereum to Hedera to Skip Blockchain Fees
The booming price of ether has stirred up options activity on bellwether venue Deribit, noted Greg Magadini, chief executive officer of data aggregator Genesis Volatility. “Traders are paying relatively more for the ‘speculative options’ in anticipation of bigger market moves,” he told CoinDesk.
Deribit’s launch of $10,000-strike ether contracts in January is an example of this; more than 8,000 ETH in calls at that strike price are open as of press time.
Open interest in $10,000 ETH calls since launch Jan. 5.
Source: Genesis Volatility
“These calls were recently released by Deribit and there is already a lot of activity,” Magadini told CoinDesk. “Quintuple-digit ETH prices are starting to enter the market’s psychology.”
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Wednesday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Read More:Guggenheim CIO Says Bitcoin Could Eventually Climb to $600,000
Commodities:
Oil was up 1.3%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $55.78.
Gold was in the red 0.19% and at $1,833 as of press time.
Silver is gaining, up 1% and changing hands at $26.85.
Treasurys:
The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Wednesday to 1.135 and in the green 4.7%.
The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market
Analysts believe Elon Musk’s shout-out to crypto pushed bitcoin’s price upwards at a time when decentralized exchanges are experiencing record amounts of trading volume on the Ethereum network. Excessive fees could damp that, however.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $34,616 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 5.9% over the previous 24 hours.
BTC well above the 10-hour and 50-hour moving averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Jan. 26.
Source: TradingView
Bitcoin’s price jumped massively Friday. In the span of an hour, starting at 9:00 UTC (4 a.m. ET), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency gained 11%, going from $33,377 to $37,113 according to CoinDesk 20 data. Over the next five hours, bitcoin hit a 24-hour high of $38,566 before increased sell orders started to take over the market, with the price per 1 BTC at $34,616 as of press time.
Analysts point to the legendary social media habits of serial entrepreneur Elon Musk as a catalyst for bitcoin’s Friday price pop. “Elon’s ‘bitcoin’ logo added to his Twitter feed kicked us off on the aggressive move higher,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for Swissquote Bank. “His comments triggered huge buy stop losses on Binance and likely the other Asian exchanges as leveraged traders had to close their short positions.”
Read More:Musk-Prompted Bitcoin Price Surge Causes Liquidation of $387M in Shorts
Indeed, total liquidations across the entire crypto market over the past 24 hours was the highest in three months, at over $850 million on the short side, according to aggregator Bybt. Liquidations are the crypto equivalent of a margin call: When a leverage trader’s position moves against price, it is bought or sold automatically to begin to wipe out any potential liability.
Liquidations long (green) and short (red) with BTC price (orange).
Source: Bybt
“The red pullback is absolutely natural given how much we have moved,” Swissquote’s Thomas added. “We’ll likely find a new base – perhaps with $35,000 support – and trade sideways to slightly higher, assuming no more news.”
Historical bitcoin price the past week.
Source: CoinDesk 20
Some good news for brokerages: Crypto spot volumes perked up Friday, to $8.7 billion as of press time, the second-highest level over the past month, according to the eight USD/BTC exchanges the CoinDesk 20 tracks.
Spot volumes on major CoinDesk 20 exchanges.(Shuai Hao/CoinDesk)
Source: CryptoCompare
Prior to the Musk motions, the crypto market had been in the doldrums. “Investors were focused on other big events like earnings and the [Federal Reserve],” noted David Russell, vice president of market intelligence for trading platform TradeStation. “They would have come back to crypto regardless because of the institutional adoption trend, but Musk lit a fire under their feet.”
Funding rates for long leverage are jumping to a level not seen since bitcoin’s record high Jan. 8, when the price hit $41,962, according to CoinDesk 20 data. It’s a sign traders are emboldened by the short liquidations to fuel up some long trades right now.
Bitcoin swaps funding on major venues the past month.
Source: Skew
It will be interesting to see how bitcoin performs over the weekend because crypto never sleeps. Major equities indexes on Friday are awash in red. Could traders jump on cryptocurrency markets to find weekend opportunities?
“This has been a tremendous week for retail trading across multiple asset classes,” noted James Putra, head of product strategy at Tradestation. “Since most other asset classes are closed later today, we are excited to see if the 24/7 crypto markets benefit from the retail trading enthusiasm.”
DEX volumes hit $50 billion in January monthly volume
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Friday trading around $1,348 and climbing 0.81% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Monthly decentralized exchange, or DEX, volumes for major projects in the Ethereum ecosystem have eclipsed $50 billion, according to data aggregator Dune Analytics.
In first place is long-standing bellwether Uniswap, with $23.3 billion for January so far, almost half of the total volume. Uniswap is followed by $10 billion by its smart contract fork rival SushipSwap and then $5.8 billion for stablecoin-focused exchange Curve. “I trade a lot on DEXs. They have deeper liquidity and less slippage than traditional exchanges,” noted Michael Gord, chief executive of trading firm Global Digital Assets.
Decentralized exchange volumes the past two years.
Source: Dune Analytics
However, Peter Chan, head trader at quantitative firm OneBit Quant, cautioned that centralized exchanges (CEX) still rule despite the record volumes on DEXs. “This is remarkable and I am happy for the development of DeFi,” Chan told CoinDesk, referring to decentralized finance. “But it’s still a long way to go compared to volumes on a CEX.”
According to CoinGecko, volume the past 24 hours on centralized exchange Binance was $34 billion as of press time.
Chan noted that DEX fees can also be staggering. “Gas price is still going to be a major problem for DEXs. Especially for small trades, gas fees could take up to 20%-30% of the trade.”
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday, mostly higher. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
In addition, meme-focused cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE), which is not currently part of the CoinDesk 20, has seen a price appreciation of over 120% over the past 24 hours, mostly because of high activity on social media.
Read More:Dogecoin Becomes Most Mentioned Crypto on Twitter Ever as Price Soars
Notable losers:
Commodities:
Oil was up 0.20%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $52.18.
Gold was flat, in the green 0.09% and at $1,843 as of press time.
Treasurys:
The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Friday to 1.077 and in the green 2.8%.
The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market
Bitcoin (BTC) has bounced back above the $32,000 level today, but Guggenheim chief investment officer Scott Minerd believes that the current institutional demand is not sufficient to keep the price above $30,000 for long. Despite this view, Minerd continues to believe that the current downturn does not alter the long-term bullish story of Bitcoin.
Crypto market data daily view. Source:Coin360
While several institutional investors are turning positive on Bitcoin as a store of value, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink does not seem impressed. Fink pointed out the volatility and called Bitcoin “a very small market” that is affected by small-dollar investments. Although Fink said that “some form of a digitized currency is going to play a bigger role in the future,” he was unsure if it would be Bitcoin.
A cryptocurrency that has a strong use case and can keep up with the ever-growing demands of crypto users may have good future prospects. The tokens selected today are strong contenders that fill each of these criteria.
RSR/USD
The Reserve Rights (RSR) protocol aims to reach the unbanked, help people transact, and preserve their wealth against the devaluation of a currency by using a stablecoin. This is a strong use case, especially in countries that suffer from the clutch of hyperinflation.
The team is currently mainly operating in Venezuela and Argentina, where the local fiat currencies have rapidly lost their purchasing power. Initially, the team wants to concentrate on streamlining the process. Various incentive measures for growth are planned for the later part of the year.
In a recent AMA, Reserve co-founder Nevin Freeman said the protocol aims to do a Mainnet launch in 2021, but refrained from putting a timeline to it. The protocol wants to expand their team to speed up the process and they are on the lookout for new engineers. The mainnet’s launch may also open arbitrage opportunities for RSR token holders.
The team is also in discussion with PayPal about allowing users to cash out using the platform. Reserve Rights expects the results of the deliberation in the first quarter of this year.
RSR corrected from an intraday high at $0.04941 on Jan. 18 to a low at $0.03086 on Jan. 27, a fall of 37% in the past ten days. The price has currently rebounded off the breakout level of $0.030, which suggests the previous resistance has flipped to support.
RSR/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
If the bulls can push the price above the 20-day exponential moving average ($0.036), a move to $0.042 and then a retest of $0.04977 is possible. A breakout of this resistance will resume the uptrend with the next target objective at $0.065.
On the other hand, if the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, it will suggest the sentiment has turned bearish and traders are looking to sell on rallies. If the bears can sink the price below the 50-day simple moving average ($0.0297), the pair could drop to $0.025.
Such a move will indicate the bullish momentum has weakened and bears have made a comeback.
ZRX/USD
As the crypto market matures, the popularity of decentralized exchanges is on the rise and 0X (ZRX) is one of the beneficiaries. The community recently voted to upgrade the protocol to version 4, which promises several improvements to its users.
This upgrade is expected to result in gas savings of up to 70% for requests on quote and 10% for limit orders compared to the previous version. The protocol also highlights that the upgrade has made it cheaper for the users to trade on Uniswap and SushiSwap using 0x v4 rather than on their native platforms.
Users seem to be impressed with the new features and the exchange recorded a 24-hour trading volume record of $200 million recently. The latest version is also auto upgradable, allowing future changes to be incorporated easily.
ZRX has risen from an intraday low at $0.4337 on Jan. 22 to an intraday high at $0.6688 today, a 54% rally in seven days. The price is currently forming a rounding bottom pattern, which points to a possible trend reversal.
ZRX/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
The 20-day EMA is sloping up and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the positive territory indicating bulls are in control.
The buyers have pushed the price above the $0.6310 resistance today, signaling the resumption of the uptrend. There is a minor resistance at $0.6784 but if that level is crossed, the ZRX/USD pair could rally to $0.75 and then to $0.85.
This bullish view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current level or the overhead resistance and dips below the 20-day EMA ($0.52). Such a move will suggest that supply exceeds demand. That may result in a fall to the 50-day SMA at $0.044.
KNC/USD
The DeFi space has evolved over the past few months and a surge in transaction volumes followed. To keep up with the latest trends, Kyber Network (KNC) has announced an upgrade to its protocol. The Kyber 3.0 upgrade will transition Kyber from a single protocol to a network of specialized liquidity pools, catering to various DeFi use cases.
A new automated Dynamic Market Maker will allow permissionless liquidity contribution and enable the liquidity pool creators to adjust their pricing curves. The upgrade also attempts to reduce the damage from impermanent loss by automatically adjusting trading fees, which will be increased during periods of high volume and decreased when the volume is low.
The Kyber DAO and KNC will be upgraded to a new token contract that aims to add to the token’s governance power and create multiple streams of token utility. The upgrade is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.
KNC corrected from $1.492 on Jan. 21 to an intraday low at $1.145 on Jan. 27, a 23% correction in seven days. However, the price has rebounded off the 20-day EMA ($1.22) today, indicating demand at lower levels.
KNC/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
The upsloping moving averages and the RSI in the positive territory suggest bulls have the upper hand. If buyers can push the price above the $1.36 to $1.50 resistance zone, the KNC/USD pair will complete a double bottom pattern, which has a target objective of $2.02.
It may not be a straight dash to $2.02 because the bears are likely to defend the $1.80 resistance. If the price rebounds off $1.50, it will suggest the sentiment remains positive and that bulls are buying the dips.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down from $1.36 or $1.50 and breaks below the 20-day EMA, it will indicate selling at higher levels. Such a move could keep the pair range-bound for a few more days.
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.
