The Crypto Pulse: January 3rd

Rollbit's weekly analysis and review of the news in Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs and cryptocurrency markets.

News 📰

NFT Trading Volume Surpassed $13 Billion in 2021

According to The Block Research, the trading volume of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) surpassed $13 billion in 2021 compared to just $33 million in 2020. OpenSea facilitated nearly 88% of the total trade volumes for 2021 and Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden saw growth during Q4 2021, becoming the second largest venue in December.

For a detailed recap of the NFT market and trends in 2021, check out 1confirmation's report below:

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Aave's Newest Market: Real World Assets

On December 28th, Ethereum-based lending protocol Aave added 7 new markets using real world assets in partnership with Centrifuge. Aave users who previously were only able to lend against crypto native assets can now earn yield against stable, uncorrelated real world collateral.

Get exposure to AAVE via our Crypto Portfolio feature.

Shiba Inu Launches Beta Version of DAO to Give Users More Authority Over Crypto Projects

Shiba Inu has launched a beta version of a decentralised autonomous organization (DAO) to give users more authority to decide on crypto projects and pairs on the ShibaSwap platform.

Doggy Dao in a stage-by-stage metric and phased approach. The first phase called “DAO 1″ will focus on providing immediate power to the community to decide which crypto projects and pairs on the ShibaSwap WOOF Pools will be, and how the $BONE rewards will be distributed amongst them.

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Decentraland to get a Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration

Digital Currency Group (DCG) and the international real estate firm Jamestown announced said on December 29th that they’re going to recreate a significant cultural site within the virtual world platform Decentraland — One Times Square.

On December 31st, metaverse enjoyers celebrated the new year in a virtual version of One Times Square, hosting its own digital New Year’s Eve Ball and New Year’s Eve party.

Get exposure to Decentraland's MANA via our Crypto Portfolio feature.

Gnosis DEX CowSwap May Be Readying an Airdrop

CowSwap, a decentralised exchange built on top of the Gnosis V2 Protocol, seems like it might be preparing an airdrop for its token. The project recently updated a GitHub repository showing code for a token drop, including statements such as “emits token generation event” and “cannot be claimed after deadline".

'Critical' Polygon Bug Put $24 Billion in Tokens at Risk Until Recent Hard Fork

Ethereum scaling project Polygon was at risk of losing all of its MATIC tokens until it upgraded its network in early December. Details about the bug were shared on December 29th, where attackers would have been able to arbitrarily mint all of Polygon's MATIC tokens from its MRC20 contract.

The vulnerability was first discovered by white hat hacker Leon Spacewalker and was reported on bug bounty platform Immunefi. The markets weren't heavily affected by the news of the bug, with MATIC trading near $2.50 since December 29th.

Other News

Market Analysis 📈📉

7-day Price Change

Data as of January 3rd, 19:00 UTC

Let's look at the Bitcoin chart.

For the past three weekly candles, Bitcoin has failed to make a move below $45,500 while posting higher highs, suggesting traders should look to bid around $45,000-$46,000 and use the middle band as an initial target, currently at $52,972. If there's a break to new lows below $45,500, then we could see the lower band tested, currently at $39,356.

The daily chart below shows that the price of Bitcoin tried to close above the middle Bollinger band (currently at $48,168) but failed to do so and headed south, reaching lows near $45,650 on December 31st.

Since then the price has moved higher slightly. The lower Bollinger band on the daily chart is currently at $44,757, which should provide support if the bearish momentum remains. We'd like to see a daily close above the middle band for a bullish outlook.

The 4-hour chart below shows that the lower Bollinger band provides support at the $46,000 handle while resistance is seen at the middle band ($47,035) and the upper band ($48,067).

Last week, the price of Ether closed below the middle Bollinger band, suggesting a bearish outlook for the cryptocurrency, unless the price action can move back above this level (currently at $3,887). The lower Bollinger band at $2,979 should provide strong support if the downward trend continues. A weekly close above $3,887 would point to a bullish outlook.

The daily chart for ETH below shows that $3,910 is a key level for bulls to overcome. If there's a daily close above the middle band, then it should provide a bullish outlook for ETH. The lower band currently lies at $3,615, which could provide a good buying opportunity.

LINK is the only cryptocurrency available for leveraged trading on Rollbit that has seen an increase in price over the past 7 days, benefitting from a boost to eh valuations of DeFi-related assets. Larger gains were seen in the past week for Cosmos' ATOM and Algorand's ALGO, up 10.9% and 18.7% respectively.

The weekly chart for LINK below shows that the price bounced from the lower band around $18-$19 a few weeks ago and has continued higher towards the middle band. The price of LINK is currently trading just above $23, with the middle band at $26.35 serving as a suitable target for longs. If we get a weekly close above $26.35, then there'd likely be a long-term drift towards the upper band (currently at $35.21).

The daily chart for LINK below shows that the market is approaching last week's previous high, near $24.50. The price is nearing the upper band and could end up tag up along this band to continue the upward move. The middle band, which should provide support during an uptrend, currently lies at $20.52.

The candlestick pattern that’s forming on the daily chart also suggests a bullish outlook. Notice that on tonight’s close, there’ll be a Three Green Soldiers candlestick pattern, which indicates a bullish trend is starting. We’re also seeing rising volume throughout this three candlestick pattern, which is a good sign for LINK bulls.

Have a great week!


-The Rollbit team