In the early morning trading hours Bitcoin (BTC) price abruptly dropped by 17.65% which triggered a major downturn throughout the entire market.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Bitcoin decreased from a high of $58,274 on Feb. 21 to a low of $47,622 during the early hours on Monday before buyers returned to lift BTC to its current value of $53,350.
According to ExoAlpha Chief Investment Officer David Lifchitz, recent charts for Bitcoin looked overbought, signaling that a “15% correction could happen” as part of a normal market cycle before BTC attempts to break out to new highs.
Bitcoin went from $10,000 in October 2020 to almost $60,000 in just 4 months, indicating to Lifchitz that a “pause/mild-correction is definitely in the cards.”
Lifchitz said:
$50,000 looks like the first stop for a mild pullback but a second leg down could take it down to $40,000 while the $30,000 zone looks like the ultimate bottom should things turn ugly in the short term.”
Recent money printing by central banks makes it less likely that BTC will drop as low as $30,000, according to Lifchitz, as Bitcoin is increasingly being seen as a hedge against currency devaluation by investors around the world.
Lifchitz also pointed out the recent moves in traditional assets such as the U.S. 10 year treasury yield could “trigger a pullback in Bitcoin as a general deleveraging move across asset classes,” but only “time will tell” how it all plays out.
Rising yields put pressure on equities
Traditional markets were mixed on Feb. 22 as recent increases in Treasury yields led to expectations of higher inflation and put additional pressure on equities.
The Dow was able to overcome early pressure to close the day up 0.09% while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ traded in the red all day and closed down 0.77% and 2.46% respectively.
Commodities proved to be the bright spot in markets on Monday, with the price of crude oil increasing by 4.14% to trade at $61.69. Gold price increased by 1.68% and close the day at $1,807.
Staking announcements and protocol upgrades send select tokens higher
Despite the market-wide downturn for the crypto community, several tokens saw their prices increase on Monday as positive developments helped elevate them above the negative sentiment.
The breakout star over the past 24-hours has been Crypto.com Coin (CRO), whose price exploded by more than 63% to establish a new all-time high of $0.2748 during early trading hours.
Other notable performances include NEM (XEM), which is up 16.05%, and Solana (SOL), which has increased by 20.54%.
Uniswap and SushiSwap have emerged as two of the top decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that are leading the current DeFi bull run higher.
Despite a controversial start for SushiSwap, the last few months have seen it catching up to Uniswap in terms of activity on the platform, total value locked, and the price of its SUSHI governance token.
A recent report from Delphi Digital took a closer look at the two projects and broke down the fundamental differences in the way that each has diverged in their development since SushiSwap’s vampire attack on Uniswap.
SushiSwap originally emerged as a fork of Uniswap v2 with the inclusion of the SUSHI governance token which was distributed to participants of the community.
At the time, Uniswap had yet to launch the UNI token which would subsequently be airdropped to users who had interacted with the protocol either by trading or providing liquidity.
While UNI had likely been planned for release at some point, many saw the surprise airdrop as being a bid to stop a potential vampire attack that would drain the liquidity from Uniswap to SushiSwap.
After a bumpy start which saw SushiSwap co-creator Chef Nomi dump all of his SUSHI tokens on the market for $14 million worth of Ether (ETH), only to later return those funds to the treasury, SushiSwap co-founder ‘0xMaki’ took over as the lead on the project and helped it to correct course and become a viable contender among DeFi platforms.
Total value locked on Sushiswap. Source: Defi Llama
When it comes to comparing the original token distribution, 65% of the original UNI supply was distributed to the community through liquidity mining and a governance-controlled treasury versus 80% of all SUSHI tokens.
In this regard, the SushiSwap platform has emerged as a more community-controlled project that is self-funded with 9% of all SUSHI emitted from the system awarded to the treasury. In contrast, Uniswap has received some VC backing with a total of $12 million being raised from various sources to help fund future development.
SushiSwap is more decentralized than Uniswap
Differences in the path of development began soon after the fork and led to two distinct platforms that offered a different experience. The excitement continues to build for the release of Uniswap v3, although only a handful of insiders know exactly what the new version will entail.
While users and token holders trust the lead developers which have created an incredible interface thus far, many in the cryptocurrency space prefer a project with more transparency and community involvement.
SushiSwap keeps more to the community ethos of cryptocurrency in this way, with a core team of developers that is more transparent about what is coming and where the project is headed in the future.
SushiSwap also has established an effective governance system that allows community members to have a say in important decisions. The governance system for Uniswap is less conducive to community involvement, which could be the result of the rushed release of the UNI token and a desire to create a solid foundation before integrating community governance.
Divergence in value proposition and community involvement
Over the past few months, the Uniswap team has been focused on building out v3. As Delphi Digital pointed out, Uniswap’s first-mover advantage has provided the platform with a bevy of integrations as the platform was sought out by projects across the sector for the liquidity it provided.
SushiSwap on the other hand has been busy establishing connections with other burgeoning DeFi platforms, most notably the yEarn ecosystem which includes yEarn, Cream, Pickle, Cover, and Alpha. This will help increase the use of SushiSwap’s liquidity offerings and help make the platform more resilient to upcoming challenges.
SushiSwap vs. Uniswap pool liquidity. Source: Dune Analytics
More recently, SushiSwap has begun to incentivize liquidity for longer tail assets as it looks to establish itself as a place to get access to projects with long term viability. In contrast, Uniswap has been a way for new projects to get a head start on liquidity and community exposure.
One of the most significant differences between the two platforms relates to cash flow generation.
In March of 2021, the UNI community will have the ability to divert 0.05% of all fees on the platform to the Uniswap treasury which is governed by the UNI token. The fees will accrue in the treasury and UNI token holders will be able to vote on what to do with those funds in the future.
SushiSwap has had the 0.05% fee in place since it was created in September 2020 and the governance council agreed that the money generated is used to purchase SUSHI directly and award it to stakers, providing a source of direct income.
In terms of fees generated, Uniswap clearly comes out on top for the time being. With a larger number of available trading pairs and huge liquidity pools for top coins, the Uniswap platform sees higher volumes and this translates into more cash flow for liquidity pools and UNI token holders.
But with fees going to a treasury rather than directly to token holders, UNI has been more appealing to investors with a longer-term outlook who prefer the approach of “accumulating capital in the treasury during the early years.”
So SushiSwap offers a more community-oriented and governed system that provides direct income to token holders from fees generated on the platform while Uniswap is working on a long term plan to create a one-stop DEX that meets every traders’ needs.
First mover advantage and dominant liquidity pools have allowed Uniswap to compete with the likes of Coinbase in terms of trading volume and long-time cryptocurrency advocates appreciate this accomplishment.
SushiSwap has risen from the ashes to create a community-driven project that those just getting into crypto can appreciate for its ability to generate immediate income.
SUSHI has also seen a recent spike in trading volume on Uniswap, showing that the fight for the title of top DEX is just getting started in these early rounds of the crypto bull cycle.
The DeFi sector is just beginning to gain attention from the traditional financial sector and as the liquidity, total value locked and price of each platform’s governance token reaches new highs for both Uniswap and SushiSwap it will be interesting to watch as the two platforms continue to diverge in development.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Fresh institutional and retail investor inflows into the cryptocurrency market have led to bull market conditions for many top tokens from blue-chips like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to more recently established DeFi projects like AAVE and Synthetix (SNX).
Exchange tokens are another easily overlooked sub-sector of the market but they have been performing exceptionally well in 2021 as increases in trading volumes results in a larger pool of fees to collect when the exchange’s native token is used for settlement. Native exchange tokens are also typically used as the base pair for funding new listings and token buybacks.
Here are three of the top-performing exchange tokens in 2021 that continue to see upside potential as new investors flood into the market.
Similar to the experience of CryptoKitty users in 2017, the decentralized finance community has discovered that the main drawback of increased usage of the Ethereum network is high gas fees and long transaction times.
As a result, centralized exchanges and their associated native tokens have seen renewed interest as new features like staking, yield farming and collateralization allow investors to profit from holding their investments. These new offerings also allow investors to participate in DeFi-like offerings without worrying about impermanent loss and they also receive access to the latest coin listings.
BNB/USDT
Binance Coin (BNB) recently experienced a price breakout to a new high of $349.13 on Feb.19 as the top exchange by volume evolves both its centralized and decentralized exchange capabilities alongside further upgrades to the Binance Smart Chain.
Several DeFi-related projects, including Venus (VNS) and Linear Finance (LINA) launched on the BSC in recent weeks which utilizes the BNB token to pay transaction fees on the network.
Binance also offers a continually expanding list of “investment products” that allow users to lend their tokens to the exchange pools in return for varying degrees of yield opportunities depending on lock-up periods and token demand.
Popular coins are quickly added to the growing list of tokens with options or futures trading capabilities, offering something for both devoted community members as well as pessimists who would rather take their chance at shorting newly listed assets.
Trading volume dominance and the benefits of having the first-mover advantage point to further upside potential for the Binance ecosystem and BNB.
Binance’s steady expansion and its active project incubator and Binance Smart Chain are designed to challenge Ethereum’s dominance in the sector, thus there remains a strong possibility that BNB could see an extension of recent gains.
FTT/USDT
The traditional finance and cryptocurrency markets are slowly beginning to merge and developing products for all types of traders. In 2020, derivatives exchanges also increased in popularity and their trading volumes steadily rose to new highs on a weekly basis.
Following the U.S. government crackdown on controversial derivatives exchange BitMEX, the door was opened for a newer, more community focused option to fill the gap.
FTX Token (FTT) is the exchange token for the FTX cryptocurrency exchange which got its start in the summer of 2019. For much of that first year, FTT traded below $2 with an average trading volume of $2 million as the exchange worked on establishing itself and attracting new users.
The exchange began to see an uptick in activity in 2020 which coincided with an increase in trading volume for FTT as well as its price.
As the platform expanded, additional functionality was added to the token which now includes fee rebates, staking and a ‘Buy & Burn’ mechanism that helps decrease FTT’s circulating supply to increase token value.
Since Dec.11 when FTT was trading at $4.12, a surge in buying volume which reached a peak of $270 million on Feb.19 has propelled FTT to a new record high of $35.01 as the exchange is rapidly becoming the go-to derivatives exchange for the cryptocurrency community.
KCS/USDT
KuCoin Shares (KCS) has been a late bloomer in this bull market, maintaining a relatively flat token value until the beginning of February when a sudden uptick in trading volume helped elevate KCS price from $1.19 on Feb.2 to a recent high of $3.99 on Feb.19.
VORTECS data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for KCS on Feb. 18 when it reached a high of 66, less than 24-hours before the price breakout.
The VORTECS score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
A scroll through the project’s Twitter feed shows that on Feb.4 the biggest announcement coming out of the exchange was the listing of the popular blockchain-based video streaming platform Theta, which had previously been difficult to obtain for U.S. residents.
KuCoin also offers a growing list of tokens available for derivatives trading along with various ways to earn through staking or providing liquidity, with fees generated by the platform distributed to token holders who keep their KCS staked on the exchange.
DeFi hype overshadows exchange token gains
DeFi may be dominating the conversation in the cryptocurrency sector right now, but major issues including gas fees remain a barrier to widespread adoption.
While the roll out of layer two solutions may offer some relief to this problem, concerns about liquidity across separate blockchains continue to pose significant barriers to a smooth, low-cost trading experience.
Many who are chasing the DeFi hype fail to realize that popular token listings and lower trading fees have led to a resurgence in the use of centralized exchanges.
This translates into a larger user base that conducts more transactions, leading to an increase in trading volumes and healthy price appreciation for underlying exchange tokens like BNB, FTT and KCS.
Centralized exchanges still capture the majority of trading volume and this does not appear to be changing anytime soon. While decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and SushiSwap are growing in prominence and beginning to eat into the market share of centralized exchanges, they still comprise only a small portion of total trading volume seen in the cryptocurrency market.
The battle between exchanges is continuing to heat up and as long as this is the case, the increased inflow to exchange tokens could lead to future upside.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Ren (REN) price underwent a strong 65% breakout on Feb.19 as the interoperability-focused protocol saw continuing accumulation from whale wallets holding more than 1 million REN.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that REN rose from $0.99 on Feb. 18 to establish a new all-time high of $1.84 on Feb. 19. The move to a new high occurred as REN’s trading volume also reached $704 million over the past 24-hours.
Attention for the protocol received a noticeable uptick at the end of January when it was announced that Dogecoin (DOGE) would be integrated with REN, enabling the trading of renDOGE in the growing DeFi ecosystem.
Since that time the REN ecosystem has continued to expand as more top-tier projects like Filecoin (FIL) have undergone the transformation to become renFIL, which is now being considered for addition to the AAVE ecosystem.
Binance Smart Chain integration strengthens REN’s use case
REN was trading at $0.94 on Feb. 15 before it was announced that RenBridge 2 was live and integrated with the Binance Smart Chain. Since that time, the trading volume has steadily increased as well as the total value locked on the RenVM.
VORTECS data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for REN on Feb. 18, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS score began to increase following the announcement of RenBridge 2 on Feb. 15 and reached a peak of 81 on Feb. 18, shortly before the price of REN began to spike upwards.
The recent integration with BSC has brought renewed attention to REN which was hampered by high transaction costs on the Ethereum network.
With decentralized finance heating up, interoperability between blockchain networks is becoming essential for a well-functioning market and REN is emerging as a key piece in cross-chain interaction.
Binance Coin (BNB), a cryptocurrency issued by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, has hit a major historical milestone, becoming the third-largest coin by market capitalization for the first time in history.
At the time of writing, BNB’s market cap stands at $38 billion, outstripping the biggest stablecoin Tether (USDT) by about $5 billion, according to data from crypto tracking source CoinGecko.
Binance Coin is trading at $257, up 47% over the past 24 hours and skyrocketing 107% over the past seven days at publishing time.
Alongside propelled growth in market capitalization, BNB also saw a major spike in daily trading volumes, which saw the average daily trading volume of Binance Coin hit a new all-time high of $14 billion today, up from around just $9 billion yesterday.
Binance Coin’s entrance to the top three coins by market cap follows a massive rally. As reported by Cointelegraph, BNB recorded a major surge yesterday, outperforming XRP and becoming the sixth largest coin, following Polkadot (DOT) and Cardano (ADA).
BNB’s surge comes amid the success of Binance Smart Chain-based decentralized exchange, PancakeSwap. The decentralized finance platform has seen some parabolic growth in the past weeks, overtaking Uniswap as the largest decentralized exchange by trading volume yesterday. At the time of writing, PancakeSwap’s average daily trading volume stands at $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion of Uniswap, according to CoinGecko.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao noted that BNB has been setting new all-time highs not only in fiat terms, but also in relation to the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). “From a humble 0.00001 BTC per BNB, we have grown 480x against BTC in the last 3 and half years,” Zhao wrote. He said that BNB’s performance against BTC has been the main goal of Binance:
“This has always been our goal, to grow a bit faster than BTC. Not over taking it, but with so much effort we put in, we want to see it grow a bit faster. Otherwise, we should just buy BTC and not work.”
PancakeSwap (CAKE) has emerged as a rising star in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector with the recent surge in price helping the food-themed token become the first billion-dollar project on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and Tradingview shows that the price of CAKE has risen 520% since reaching a low of $1.89 on Feb. 3 to establish a new all-time high of $11.12 on Feb. 17. This propelled its total market cap above $1 billion for the first time.
As DeFi has grown in prominence with a majority of top projects currently operating on the Ethereum network, protocols that are based on other networks such as the BSC are beginning to see an increase in active users seeking respite from high transaction costs and delayed confirmation times.
The recent decision by the BSC community to lower the gas fee from 15 Gwei to 10 Gwei in response to a rise in the price of Binance Coin (BNB) has further incentivized traders who are looking for more stability when it comes to transaction costs.
Total value locked on PancakeSwap. Source: Defistation
According to data from Defistation, the total value locked on the PankcakeSwap protocol has continued to increase from $150 million on Jan. 23 to a new high of $2.477 billion on Feb. 17 as increases in token values as well as the addition of new farming opportunities has led to a rapid rise in the total value locked (TVL).
Trading volume on the platform has also seen a steady rise in recent weeks with data showing that CAKE is now the second-ranked DEX by trading volume behind Uniswap (UNI).
Top decentralized exchanges by trading volume. Source: CoinGecko
Bullish momentum in the cryptocurrency market and the rapid expansion of DeFi point to further increases in network transactions for the blockchains involved. With no end in sight for high transaction costs on Ethereum and a growing number of projects positioning themselves as cheaper alternatives, PancakeSwap likely has even more upside potential as the cryptocurrency sector continues to go mainstream.
