Avalanche (AVAX) price is up, but do fundamentals support the rally?
Avalanche (AVAX) witnessed a meteoric start to 2023, gaining 98% in 30 days, and traders are now curious about whether the rally will extend throughout February. AVAX’s year-to-date gains for 2023 have outpaced those of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
Recent reasons for AVAX’s rally can be attributed to an Amazon partnership announcement on Jan. 11. The partnership is meant to easily deploy nodes on the Avalanche blockchain with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ava Labs, which supports the Avalanche ecosystem, hopes the partnership increases blockchain usage for enterprises and governments.
While AVAX price has benefited from the news, some analysts predict that the move could have been a bull trap.
Let’s dig into the fundamentals to see if on-chain network activity supports the recent AVAX rally.
AVAX fees from DeFi are up
After the AWS news, AVAX price was not the only metric seeing a quick rise. On Jan. 14, Avalanche network hit a year-to-date high of $31,218 AVAX fees received. The increase in fees compared to the previous 30 days is 59%, signaling that positive price appreciation helped boost the fees that the network received.
While the Avalanche fee base is increasing, it still lags behind top EVM-compatible blockchains like Ethereum, Binance Chain (BNB), Optimism (OP) and Polygon (MATIC). Over the past 30 days, the fees Avalanche has generated rank 9th out of all blockchains.
Notably, layer-2 competitor Polygon earned close to four times the amount of fees compared to Avalanche. Even with the astounding growth thaAvalanche has experienced in 2023, the network will need to substantially increase fees to overtake more blockchains.
Active addresses and users are down
A sign of blockchain health is the number of active addresses, users and transactions. Despite reaching a year-to-date high on Jan. 18 of 1.84 million transactions, Avalanche’s transaction count is trending down.
A similar downtrend is witnessed when looking at active addresses in the Avalanche ecosystem. Active addresses denote transactions taking playing on unique wallets for a given day. After reaching a year-to-date peak of 54,978 active addresses on Jan. 31, only 34,624 active addresses were registered the following day.
The downtrend in Avalanche activity is creating further separation between other blockchains. According to TokenTerminal, Avalanche’s all-time high (ATH) number of daily active users is 131,000, which is dwarfed by Polygon’s ATH of 737,000. Avalanche is now far from its all-time high of daily users, registering only 44,000.
For blockchains to create sustainable fees, there needs to be daily active users participating on the network.
AAVE dominates Avalanche DApps
The active users on Avalanche seem to have a preference for using Aave (AAVE) on the AVAX blockchain. Over 36% of all Avalanche transactions flow through the Aave protocol. Investors have staked over $353 million on Aave’s Avalanche version, far surpassing the second-most popular protocol by verified total locked value (TVL), the Trader Joe decentralized exchange (DEX).
While Aave and Trader Joe are leading the Avalanche blockchain, when looking at DEX activity on other blockchains, they witness far less trading volume. DEX volume directly correlates to the fees that a protocol receives.
Ethereum DEX activity leads the way with over $1.6 billion in daily volume, whereas Avalance only sees around $104 million.
While Avalanche is currently witnessing immense growth from the AWS announcement, the blockchain is still small compared to competitors. The goal of the AWS partnership was to help increase network activity by reducing barriers to entry. Reaching the goal may increase Avalanche adoption but other ecosystems seem to be out to a large and early lead.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Jerome Powell Speech Today, Bitcoin Price Drops, Sell Off Ahead?
Today the crypto market has been leaning towards bearish sentiment ahead of Jerome Powell’s speech. This bearish pull was also affected on Crypto related stocks. The world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has lost its crucial resistance of $23K and is now trading around $22.5K.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin is selling at $22,900 with a fall of 0.21% over the last 24hrs.
Jerome Powell’s comments have always played a significant role in the financial sector, especially cryptocurrencies. However, as per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the labor market has witnessed a huge growth where January has recorded the lowest unemployment rate.
While the retailers await Powell’s speech, the Coinbase Global ($COIN) stock has plunged by 4.50% which suggests that Crypto market will have a bearish moment ahead. Even MicroStrategy Inc ($MSTR) stock has declined 1%.
Bitcoin Floats Between Bulls And Bears
Meanwhile, when looking at Bitcoin’s technical indicators, it suggests that the flagship currency will have a decreased price action as short-term traders enjoy profits. These short-term traders are currently under profit with Spent Output Profit Ratio, hence it is expected that these traders will soon sell their holdings.
However, analysts are expecting a hawkish approach from Jerome Powell as the unemployment rate has decreased. It’s just last week that the Federal Reserve increased the interest rate by 0.25% after the FOMC’s first meeting of 2023.
What are phygital NFTs, and how do they work?
On top of the community experience, phygital NFTs also help build traceability into a product that is being sold to a customer. The history of the product and its providence can add credibility and commercial value to a physical good.
Community experience is just one big use case of phygital NFTs. Considering nonfungible tokens are authentic and tamper-proof, any person buying phygital NFTs can trace the evolution of the goods they buy right from the person who purchased them first. This helps build authenticity and trust, one of the cornerstones of economic transactions.
Thanks to traceability, phygital NFTs can also help with countering counterfeit products in the market, leading to original goods being sold. Finally, phygital nonfungible tokens create more collaboration and are a means for artists to monetize their skills. For instance, artists can monetize their work on Felt Zine by collaborating with a brand, such as Givenchy, to create branded content for the brand’s advertising and marketing campaigns.
This may entail producing fresh photographs, artwork or other visual materials that highlight the Givenchy brand or products. The artist may be compensated for their work in the form of a fee, royalties or a cut of sales proceeds from any products that incorporate their work. The artist may also gain visibility and acknowledgement for their work, which can strengthen their personal brand and attract new business opportunities for them to profit from their art.
This new technology has unearthed a few ways of collaboration across creators, developers, brands and their consumers using Web3 design fundamentals.
Shiba Inu Holders Are Getting Ready For A Heavy Pump! SHIB Price To Explode Above This Level
Shiba Inu, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency that kicked off with an overwhelming bullish trend at the beginning of the new year, is still bringing bullish waves in the price graph as it makes headlines in the meme community. Despite the crypto market’s recent volatility with sudden price dips, SHIB’s price has managed to hold its momentum in a stable region.
SHIB Price Performs Bullish Despite Low Burn Rate
SHIB’s price is turning heads in the crypto world as it made a 20% surge in the last 24 hours, attracting the attention of retail investors in the market. However, while the recent price surge is building bullish hopes ahead of the Shibarium launch, SHIB’s burn rate needs to be promising enough to hold the upward momentum.
Despite a 20% price surge, Shiba Inu’s burn rate has remained unchanged, suggesting a reduced use-case as a payment tool.
Data aggregator, Shibburn noted that merchants who accept SHIB as payment mode and send it to a burning address are used to generate the burning volume, but this volume has recently formed a dip.
The website stated that the reason behind this drop is caused by decreased network activity or a decline in Shiba Inu’s popularity.
However, the weekly burn rate looks promising as 50 million SHIB tokens were removed from circulation, surging the burn rate by 150%.
Moreover, whale investors continue accumulating a massive amount of SHIB tokens as on-chain analytic firm Santiment noted a spike in SHIB transactions worth over $100K, hinting at an upcoming bullish shift.
Shiba Inu Is Testing The Market’s Patience
Despite concerns regarding Shiba Inu’s burn rate, the meme coin continues to print an impressive journey in the price chart. Moreover, technical indicators hint at a bullish trend continuation if bulls break through the next resistance levels without any hurdle.
As of writing, SHIB’s price trades at $0.00001446 and is currently heading toward its immediate resistance level. Crypto trading expert, MMBtrader, expects a long-term gain for Shiba Inu as it forms a solid ascending pattern.
The analyst predicts that SHIB holders may witness a heavy pump if the meme coin breaks above two major resistance levels at $0.000016 and $0.000021, respectively.
However, Shiba Inu may notice a minor downward correction to its 23.6% Fib level as it hovers near a crucial resistance level at $0.000015.
A bearish trend is expected as both Stoch RSI and RSI-14 trade near the overbought region, and a drop to their neutral territory may slump the meme coin to $0.000013.
Will Ripple’s Win Spark A 10x Surge For XRP? XRP Price May Turn Bullish If Breaks This Consolidation Level
XRP’s price is yet to witness an explosive surge like other dominating altcoins as investors are holding tight to their investment plans with the anticipation of Ripple’s win against the SEC in the lawsuit.
As the XRP investors eagerly await the outcome of the ongoing battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the heated debate over whether XRP will be treated as security continues to put the crypto world under pressure. Market experts believe Ripple’s win may strengthen long-term holders’ bullish goals and push XRP’s price by 10x.
“XRP Is Not A Security” Develops Bullish Hopes!
Controversies regarding whether XRP is a security have become headlines in the XRP community. Moreover, the recent settlement by the SEC against LBRY Inc marks a victory for Ripple Labs as the regulatory body admitted that the LBC token is not a security. Additionally, U.S. Attorney John Deaton relieved investors as he claimed that XRP could not be treated as securities despite selling it as an investment contract.
Moreover, Ripple’s projects on bringing tokenization will significantly benefit XRP’s price as Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) seeks to tokenize a wide range of digital assets, including stablecoins, NFT tokens, and leading assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Additionally, the adoption rate of tokenization is moving fast and is predicted to touch the $1 trillion mark by 2024, which will bring notable achievements for the XRP community. A recent report from Ripple hinted at the domination of XRPL as it continues to witness increased on-chain activity.
Timeline For XRP’s Bullish Journey
All the eyes of the crypto market are now on the judge’s ruling, whose date is yet to be finalized. The motions for summary judgment were already drafted last year, and XRP’s bullish pump now depends on the judge’s conclusion. It is expected that the lawsuit may come to an end by March 2023, after which XRP may witness some price action.
As of writing, XRP price trades at $0.397, with a decline of 1.72% in the last 24 hours. A prominent analyst, Exactus, predicts that XRP price may break its previous year’s consolidation level if it opens a weekly candle above its resistance zone of $0.415-$0.42, sending its price back to all-time high or above $4.
The analyst noted that the RSI-14 level hovers near a stable region and has more room to continue an upward rally for XRP with ease. Furthermore, the tokenization initiative (XRPL) and Ripple’s win will undoubtedly create a bullish scenario for an exponential uptrend in the XRP price chart.
Traders should be cautious as a bearish reversal is expected if XRP heads below the support zone of $0.38-$0.39, which may dump the token to the bottom level of $0.3. However, this momentum is only possible if Ripple loses the lawsuit, which is unlikely to happen.
‘Multichain future is very clear’ — MetaMask to support all tokens via Snaps
MetaMask Snaps aims to facilitate a “multichain future,” allowing the Ethereum-based wallet service to support non-native blockchains and tokens for the Web3 economy.
Details of the latest in-development addition to MetaMask’s growing ecosystem were unpacked at the StarkWare Sessions event in Tel Aviv, Israel, in Feb. 2023. Speaking to Cointelegraph Magazine editor Andrew Fenton, Alex Jupiter, the senior product manager at MetaMask Snaps, revealed details about potential blockchain synergies.
The last 18 months have seen the development of Snaps speed up after the success of MetaMask Swaps, which brought token swap functionality to the service’s native browser extension. As Jupiter explained, interoperability is becoming increasingly important in the blockchain space:
“MetaMask has historically been an Ethereum wallet. We need to start moving beyond that. The multichain future is very clear.”
Snaps aims to create a permissionless ecosystem where developers can extend MetaMask in any way they want. Jupiter says the team is trying to create an environment where developers can use various application programming interfaces (APIs) from different blockchains to bring additional options to a user’s core wallet experience.
Related: The blue fox: DeFi’s rise and the birth of MetaMask Institutional
MetaMask describes Snaps as a system that allows developers to extend the capabilities of the wallet extension. A snap is a program that runs in an isolated environment that can customize a user’s wallet experience.
The possibilities are extensive, with a snap allowing the addition of new APIs to MetaMask, multi-blockchain protocol support and the ability to modify existing MetaMask functionality using external APIs. According to Jupiter, Snaps should be able to integrate with most blockchain protocols:
“Technically it’s possible for us to incorporate all of them. I’m sure there’s going to be an edge case. We have managed to extend Bitcoin, managed to extend to StarkNet. So it should be possible with any of them.”
As Jupiter explains, MetaMask has already created a Bitcoin (BTC) Snap that allows users to interact with its protocol from the wallet extension. This is a more difficult proposition than integrating Ethereum virtual machine-compatible chains like Polygon, but the end result is a highly-interoperable wallet extension across the broad blockchain-based ecosystem:
“It basically means that you don’t need to go anywhere else and MetaMask can almost be the core of your Web3 experience.”
Improving Web3 functionality is another driving factor in the development of Snaps. Despite onboarding millions of users to Web3 through MetaMask’s tools, Jupiter says that simple actions like signing transactions can still be precarious:
“People have problems in terms of knowing if they’re signing a transaction whether it’s safe.”
Jupiter believes Snaps can address this area, allowing third parties to create transaction insights and potentially warn users of signing dubious transactions with unwanted consequences.
MetaMask Snaps is currently available in the developer version of MetaMask Flask. Jupiter says the aim is to have Snaps integrated with the main MetaMask by the end of 2023.
The $150,000 Undercity Airdrop is Now Live – Who is Eligible and How to Participate?
Undercity has launched an airdrop with $150,000 up for grabs to celebrate the much-awaited $UND presale and the rapidly growing community. Anyone interested can enter the giveaway via Gleam by completing the listed tasks that come with multiple entries. You need to hold at least $150 of $UND at the time of the draw to be eligible for the prize. Undercity is a hybrid gaming metaverse that brings alive the world’s first act-to-earn village.
How to enter the Undercity $150,000 giveaway?
The primary goal of Undercity’s $150,000 airdrop is to build awareness around the project, which is opening a first-of-its-kind village dedicated to gamers, role players, and cosplayers in France.
The 10,000 meter-squares village houses a virtual reality room, atmosphere bar, streaming room, and retro-gaming room, to name just a few. Undercity doesn’t plan on being confined by geographical boundaries, however. It takes the experience to global users by reproducing the village in the metaverse.
Undercity’s grand ambition has resonated with the audience, as revealed by its fast-growing online community. The project aims to reach more users in the coming days through a wide range of marketing initiatives, which include giveaways with compelling prizes.
It is now giving one lucky person $150k worth of UNDERCITY ($UND). You too can stand a chance to win the prize by completing the steps below for multiple entries.
- Enter your Crypto Wallet Address – + 1 Entry
- Join @undercity_chat on Telegram – + 1 Entry
- Tweet @Undercity_off on Twitter – + 5 Entries
- Follow @Undercity_off
- Retweet
- @Undercity_off on Twitter
- Visit @Undercity.officiel on Instagram
- Visit the website undercity
- Share with your friends for 10 extra entries
More entries will strengthen your odds of winning. Since the eligibility to the giveaway comes at no cost but a few seconds of your time and $150 worth of UND, it is not to be missed out on.
The world’s first act-to-earn village is underway
Undercity is building a first-of-its-kind decentralized community with real-world footing and entertainment. The craft site will be just two minutes away from the medieval site of The Bridiers, setting the right ambience for the project. Here is a glimpse of what you can expect on the physical side of the hybrid metaverse in Creuse, France.
- Virtual reality room: A state-of-the-art virtual world where you can lose yourself in your favorite gaming universe with friends, family, or colleagues. You can choose how you want to spend your time here from a long catalog of games and experiences.
- Retro-gaming hall: Love old games? This is the place to be – whether out of curiosity, to see them running, or just to play them and test them. You may also want to participate in the local tournaments and competitions hosted by Undercity based on retro games. Interestingly, the game hall has free access.
- Modern gaming hall: Get free access to cutting-edge consoles like PS5, XBOX SERIES X, and SWITCH.
- Streaming room: Four rooms with live-specific PCs, green screens, and stream decks. The perfect place to interact with your Twitch community.
If you thought Undercity village is just for gaming, you’re wrong. It is a hybrid metaverse dedicated to gamers. Here, you will find everything a gamer dreams of, and more.
- Snack bar: Drink pints and cocktails, meet friends, and sleep on the spot.
- Throw of axes: A perfect stress-breaker after a long week, the Throw of Axe features 6 targets, allowing up to 18 people in each one-hour session. It can be extended to up to 35 people in privatization.
- Massage: A well-being massage can relieve you of the body aches after spending hours in front of the screen.
- Cyberpunk spa and sauna: There are few worries that a Nordic bath doesn’t dissolve.
- Fantasy Manga library: Immerse yourself in the heroic fantasy Manga in the Undercity reading spaces.
In addition to these, Undercity will house a range of modern and spacious teepees that are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
A passion project from industry pioneers
Undercity is powered by a team of pioneers in real-life entertainment. According to them, playing online is not enough for most gamers. Although gaming is largely based online, powerful communities are built from social interactions in the real world. Undercity taps into this wisdom to build a hybrid metaverse where physical and virtual realities merge.
In addition to a gaming village, it is building a VR role-play shooter metaverse that features modern multiplayer FPS games, weapons, characters, projectiles, shells, explosions, game modes, and more. The demo of the game is now live on the website.
It is also home to the Underverse, which is a unique “open world” in 3D, where the web3 community can meet to build relationships and have unlimited fun.
$UND presale is live!
The presale of $UND, the native token of the Undercity ecosystem, is now live. It will be held in 5 stages with a gradual price hike. $UND’s wide range of utilities in the metaverse and gaming village make it one of the most lucrative crypto investments of this year.
- Entrance fee to Undercity (only once)
- Payment for atypical accommodation rentals (long and short term)
- Payment for premium games and in-app purchases
- Payment in shops, restaurants, and bars in the Undercity village
- Privatization of the place
- Rental of 24-hour hosting servers, game servers, and gaming setups
- Organize events or host subscriber meetings
- Reward creators, actors, and developers of Undercity
Moreover, you get a 5% discount on the price if you pay for Undercity activities with $UND tokens.
Early presale participants can bag high returns on the $UND public launch if the project unfolds as envisioned by the team. The long-term returns of the presale investment also looks bright, as Undercity has multiple project development milestones scheduled throughout this year.
Jim Cramer’s Bearish Market Prediction Invites Skepticism and Mockery
Numerous analysts have predicted a recession. According to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. and the rest of the world’s economies are most likely to experience a recession by the middle of next year. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the owner of Twitter, has issued a recession warning as well; he believes that if the US Federal Reserve raises interest rates again, the recession would worsen.
Moreover, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that 2023 will be “tougher” than last year as the US, EU, and Chinese economies struggle.
However, despite these ominous predictions, the beginning of 2023 appeared promising. Bitcoin began the year on a high note, rising 28% since the beginning of January. However, as February approaches, the scenario becomes grim yet again.
Jim Cramer’s prediction
Jim Cramer, the host of the financial TV show “Mad Money,” believes the market has entered a bull market and that investors should consider investing. In a recent tweet, Cramer has explained that the market is likely to turn negative and it seems like the Fed will tighten and create a recession no matter what.
Jim Crammer is renowned for consistently being bearish on the markets and has frequently spoken against cryptocurrency. The crypto business may experience another downturn in light of Cramer’s earlier remarks. Over the previous few years, he has made a lot of forecasts, many of which have turned out to be wrong.
In September 2021, he advised investors to sell their BTC holdings. Then, two months later, the asset reached its ATH of about $70,000. In January of last year, he said that because the market correction might be finished, people should join the ecosystem. 2022, on the other hand, was disastrous for the cryptocurrency industry and Bitcoin.
The Inverse Jim Cramer Strategy?
Jim Cramer frequently makes incorrect market predictions. There are several causes for this. His method of conducting market analysis has drawn criticism for relying more on anecdotal evidence than on in-depth economic and data analysis. There isn’t a systematic strategy taken, hence, forecasts may not be supported by data and are less reliable.
As he constantly makes erroneous predictions, the crypto community has made him out to be the laughing stock and interprets what he says as the reverse of what is actually true. Following his latest projection, the community interpreted his prediction as a signal to go long and bullish. Others have urged him to refrain from making any more inaccurate forecasts.
What do you think about Jim Cramer’s recent prediction? Should it be given any importance or should it be taken with a grain of salt like the rest of his predictions? The global crypto market cap is $1.07T and Bitcoin is currently trading at $22,980.38.