In typical fashion, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been on a volatile journey in 2024. After soaring about 60% through the first three months of the year, it has traded in a relatively tight range since. As of Sept. 26, the world's top digital asset sits 11% below its all-time high from March.
The bulls are hoping that Bitcoin can break out and get back to producing monster returns. Should you buy this cryptocurrency while it's trading for less than $70,000?
Focussing on the short term
This year has been full of catalysts for Bitcoin. In January, the highly anticipated spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) were approved. And in total, they have seen $17.8 billion in inflows, making a very successful ETF launch.
And in April, Bitcoin underwent a "halving," which is when the number of new tokens entering the market gets cut in half. This event happens roughly every four years, and in the year or so after, the crypto usually experiences a bull run. It's not clear yet if that will be the case this time.

Another catalyst that can work in Bitcoin's favour is what the Federal Reserve does. Earlier this month, the central bank cut interest rates for the first time in over four years, which investors hope is the start of a more accommodating stance.
You might be wondering what the connection is between lower interest rates and Bitcoin. There isn't a direct relationship. but when rates are lower, it incentivizes investors to take on more risk in order to generate better returns. Cash sitting in savings accounts will earn less after the interest rate drops, so it makes sense to buy riskier assets, such as Bitcoin.
Indeed, when investors view the successful ETF launches, Bitcoin's latest halving, and the prospect of more rates cuts by the central bank, it's difficult not to be bullish about this cryptocurrency.
Thinking about the long term
I believe it's smart to buy Bitcoin while it trades below $70,000. However, don't plan to only hold it for a few months or a year. This is an asset that requires a very long-term mentality from investors. That's because anything can happen in a short period of time, as investor sentiment is constantly shifting, and it will take several years and even decades to know Bitcoin's ultimate outcome.
But this cryptocurrency certainly has value. Its creation more than a decade ago marked the first time that money could be transferred electronically without the need for an intermediary. Citizens in developed countries might not think much of it, but for people living in emerging economies, Bitcoin provides access to the financial system.

$BTC

The memecoin ecosystem is experiencing a significant transformation, and Solana has emerged as a key player in this space. As the memecoin market thrives, Solana’s blockchain is gaining popularity for its fast, cost-effective, and efficient transaction capabilities.
Over 436 memecoin projects have been launched on Solana, amassing a combined market cap of over $6.3 billion. This is significantly higher than competitors like Coinbase’s Base Network, with a $1.2 billion market cap, and Telegram’s The Open Network (TONNE), which only has $99 million in its memecoin market cap.
The ability to distribute these coins effectively is critical for their success, making the integration with decentralised exchanges (DEXs) a vital component. Memecoins on Solana DEXs dominate trading volume, reaching up to 92% of the total volume. This dominance highlights the importance of accessible and widespread distribution channels in the memecoin sector.
To explore this phenomenon further, Alex Andryunin, CEO of Gotbit, highlights the critical role of strategic distribution in influencing the memecoin ecosystem’s current dynamics. Let’s deep dive into the Gotbit path in the memecoin market.
Gotbit: A Leader in the Memecoin Space
Gotbit has solidified its position as a major player in the cryptocurrency space, particularly within the memecoin market. With a portfolio that includes over 500 clients and an internal team of more than 200, Gotbit specialises in market-making, trading, and advisory services.
Gotbit’s role extends beyond mere trading. The firm provides critical infrastructure, supports token generation events (TGE), offers marketing strategies, and assists with listings and networking opportunities. It even boasts 8 separate trading teams that work together to assist each project that gets onboarded.
Gotbit’s influence in the memecoin market is also underscored by its impressive $1.7 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM). This substantial capital base not only highlights their robust operational capacity but also its ability to support and scale numerous projects simultaneously. With such significant financial backing, Gotbit can provide its clients with unparalleled market-making and liquidity support, which is crucial for the success and stability of memecoin ventures.
BONK: A Memecoin Success Story Supported by with Gotbit's Involvement
Gotbit played a crucial role in BONK's journey by providing market-making and advisory services starting in July 2023. The opportunity to grow the success of one of the breakout stars of the Solana meme-space showed Gotbit the vast growth potential in memecoins and, also importantly, the power of working with Solana, which quickly became the de facto home for memecoins due to their speed and low network costs.
“Our work with BONK was perfect timing to show us the power of the memecoin phenomenon,” says Andryunin. “We saw the vast potential of memes on Solana and pivoted our practice to meet the needs of all the new memecoin projects we knew would be launching in the near-term. We are glad to say it is another prediction we made that came to fruition.”
Gotbit Adapting to the Solana Meme-Sphere
Gotbit developed significant infrastructure improvements on the network, including launching its own node to process transactions more quickly and efficiently. By hiring developers from the Solana Foundation, Gotbit is continually refining its algorithms to better support the growing memecoin ecosystem.
“We have the best on-chain infrastructure for the Solana founders and that’s why, since December 2023, most of the famous memes that came out on Solana became Gotbit clients,” says Andryunin.
In addition to its vast client portfolio, Gotbit is also known for its hands-on incubation approach, exemplified by its early support of the Hamster Kombat project. By nurturing Hamster Kombat from day one, Gotbit provided essential advisory, contributing to the project's successful launch and sustained growth.
Beyond trading and market-making, Gotbit actively engages with the broader memecoin community. The company hosts the largest memecoin-focused X (formerly Twitter) spaces, attracting between 100,000 and 400,000 participants each week.
A Look to the Future
The memecoin ecosystem, powered by platforms like Solana and tools provided by firms like Gotbit, shows no signs of slowing down. Other Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) networks such as Coinbase’s Base Network and TRON Network have sought to catch their part of the memecoin revolution, though both networks have much smaller memecoin communities than Solana. Recently, Tron threw its hat in the ring with the launch of Sun.Pump.
As long as retail buyers are interested in something new, different and even sometimes funny, the memecoin boom will continue to grow unabated, no matter how much the serious finance pundits object to their existence.

$SOL

The Matthew Effect provides significant advantages to those with an initial level of popularity, wealth and a number of other factors. The Effect is visible in the worlds of science, economics, education and several other fields—crypto is no exception.
Early centralised exchanges (CEXs) have long built their user bases and credibility based on their early mover advantage and initial levels of popularity. As new exchanges enter the arena, competition continues to be stifled by the few benefiting from this effect. Yet, exchanges continue to emerge and some have started to break the status quo.
CoinW, a rapidly growing international exchange, is providing the playbook for how CEXs can gain market share in an increasingly concentrated market while providing a better user experience for traders.
Lower barriers to entry for emerging opportunities
As the biggest exchanges continue to dominate the market share, CoinW is breaking the current meta by making emerging opportunities more accessible for users.
Tools like AI trading assistants and proprietary trading have long been accessible to only high net worth and institutional clients. CoinW is flipping this on its head by making these emerging opportunities accessible to all.
For AI trading tools, CoinW recently unveiled Futures CTA and Futures Grid, two new innovative trading features. Futures CTA, short for Commodity Trading Advisor, provides tailored trading strategies based on leverage volume, price indicators and other key technical indicators. Indicator-driven trading strategies have long been used as effective trading mechanisms for Wall Street and institutional investors. With CoinW, Futures CTA strategies are available for all.
In addition to Futures CTA, Futures Grid is an automated trading tool that provides a simple trading strategy for users. Users only need to set upper and lower price boundaries with a number of grids for division to create an automated futures trading strategy.
These two new features build off a long line of innovation coming from CoinW. Through these new features and PropW, a prop trading platform offering unique experience-based trading modes and additional capital for risk management strategies, CoinW is lowering the barrier to entry for emerging opportunities.
Related: CoinW: Elevating The Trading Game
Lower barriers to access for users
CoinW is fighting back against the Matthew Effect not only through new opportunities but also by lowering the barrier to entry. The global exchange is truly going global through regulatory compliance, regionalized incentive mechanisms and gaining international trust.
Simply put: Exchanges that follow the rules of the law in the regions they operate make their services available in that region. Though a simple premise, the actual act of doing so requires diligence and comity between exchanges and the nations that regulate them.
CoinW has continuously worked with regulators to meet the criteria to make this possible. The crypto platform recently received a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license in Hong Kong, following up on its acquisition of a preliminary licence to operate in Dubai and other crypto hotspots.
Lowering the barriers to access internationally doesn’t stop at just receiving the necessary licences to operate in particular countries; it also requires actively establishing yourself there as a trusted crypto exchange. Doing so requires a deep knowledge of the needs and wants of users in a particular geographical area and also a physical presence in major, local crypto events.
CoinW’s Global Franchisee Programme enables those on the ground to join the exchange in expanding and leading with the top-down mission of CoinW. While franchises are able to know what's best among their community, CoinW provides these local businesses with sponsorships, rewards, and support for shared growth.
With an understanding of the international market, CoinW has long participated in the circuit of international crypto conferences, making their presence known and voice heard. At the centre of this is CoinW’s latest global strategy: The Nexus Programme.me.
Announced during the Coinfest Asia event in Bali, the Nexus Programme aims to supercharge global expansion alongside the team’s strategic partner, Solana Super Team. As part of the programme, CoinW has continued to expand its presence at other major crypto conferences such as Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) and Token2049 in Singapore.
The Matthew Effect has historically provided significant advantages to those early exchanges and created a system where stagnated innovation is supported by new user adoption. Despite this concentration making it difficult for newer exchanges to gain a following, CoinW stands out as a rapidly growing international exchange that is challenging the status quo.
By demonstrating how CEXs can capture market share in a concentrated environment while enhancing the user experience for traders, CoinW is rewriting the narrative for cryptocurrency exchanges and paving the way for a more equitable and competitive marketplace.

The future of crypto is being built on The Open Network (TON), a and Catizen is creating the playbook for engaging gamers through Web 3.

According to TONNEStat, TONNE has more than 10.78 million activated wallets (i.e., wallets with at least one outgoing transaction)—a +1400% increase in just the last year—and a peak of over 5 million monthly active wallets over the past six months.
Through its unique integrations with Telegram, TONNENE projects gain access to Telegram’s over 900 million users, making the TONNENE ecosystem one of the most visible blockchain ecosystems to date. For builders, TONNE’s current and potential audience provides a significant opportunity for mega projects to flourish.
While other blockchains are still in the early stages of adoption, TONNE has an established userbase and a potential 890 million new users that are just a few taps away from getting started. As the ecosystem continues to grow, projects in TONNE have a new challenge to overcome: how do you convert an existing user base into high-quality users?
As the only project in the TONNE ecosystem to disclose their onchain data performance to the public, Catizen provides key insights on how to make this possible.
What is Catizen?
Catizen is a Telegram-based, casual gaming platform featuring a wide range of cat-themed mini games. Developed by PlutoVision Labs and launched on TONNENE in 2024, the game has received significant attention from players and cat lovers alike and has maintained the top position in the TONNENE ecosystem’s The Open League (TOL) competition for the past three seasons.
Catizen’s success on Telegram mirrors the success of similar mini games available on China’s superapp WeChat. where over one billion people play in-app mini games and nearly 250 mini-games generate $1.38 million in quarterly revenue.
Though Telegram’s popularity isn’t at the same level of WeChat just yet, PlutoVision’s ability to achieve and maintain virality in this emerging market has attracted key strategic investments from Web3 gaming leaders like the largest builder on TONNE, The Open Platform (TOP), notable Web3 investors like HashKey Capital, and Binance Labs.
Related: Catizen’s Tim Wong: 'We Are Here to Build a Business Ecosystem'
Catizen’s willingness to share revenue data and commitment to establishing trust with its community provides a clear example on how to engage with gamers and convert them into a high-quality user base.
Since its release in March, the mini-game platform has attracted a total of 25 million in-game players, 1.5 million of whom are on-chain players. In just over three months, Catizen has converted 500k players into paid-in players, 50% of whom have never used a web3 wallet before.
In total, Catizen has already generated $15.8 million in revenue via TONNE, USDT, NOT, and other cryptocurrencies. Through cultivating a high-quality user base, Catizen is able to generate an average revenue per user (APRU) of $30, significantly higher than $0.15 APRU generated by the average crypto project.
Despite the hype surrounding its airdrop, Catizen players appear to be here to play, and the game’s ability to build an active community demonstrates a new model of engagement that merges web2 with web3.
Building a High-Quality User Base
Building a high-quality user base and converting free-to-play players requires more than just incentivizing them through an airdrop. While an airdrop provides an early incentive for users to play the game, long-term growth in the attention economy demands additional tools.
Many mini-games and game ecosystems rely on meme economics and large player rewards to attract users but lack further plans after the Token Generation Event (TGE). To sustain growth beyond the initial hype, Catizen is focusing on long-term attention by continuously expanding the number of games on its platform and improving traditional game revenue models through the lens of Web3.
Catizen has revolutionised the traditional IAA (In-App Advertising) + IAP (In-App Purchases) business model in Web2 by transforming it into an IAB (In-App Blockchain) + IAP model.
Unlike Web2 giants like Google and Tencent, which spent billions to train users to watch ads for boosts or extra game props, Catizen guides users to complete on-chain interactions. This approach educates Web2 users to connect their wallets, gradually transitioning them to Web3 by leveraging familiar gaming mechanics.
In this hyper-casual gaming approach within Web3, users play, recharge in-game props, and engage with the blockchain, enabling them to earn extra money—thereby incentivizing more users to participate. With the successful integration of the IAB+IAP model, Catizen has attracted early adopters and is converting strong purchasing power users into a high-quality user base. With IAB+IAP, the team has attracted early adopters and gained a
By leveraging the existing user base of Telegram and the inherent benefits of the TONNE ecosystem, Catizen is prioritising sustainable growth by creating active users. Stepping into the next phase of their roadmap, the team plans to add more mini apps that leverage the Telegram ecosystem to grow their ecosystem and business model.
Through transparency, fun gameplay, educational initiatives, and novel revenue models, Catizen’s success serves as a blueprint for winning the attention of players and rapidly onboarding the next generation of Web3 gamers.

$CATI

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump won chits from the Bitcoin community for reportedly purchasing smash burgers at a Bitcoin-friendly New York pub. But in a way, the whole episode was about damage control.

Bitcoiners aren't usually the forgiving type, especially towards perceived apostates who ape into other cryptocurrencies. That's why Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump's visit last week to a beloved Bitcoin bar in New York appeared so well timed—to repair any lost credibility after he and his family started promoting a decentralised-finance project that appears rooted in other blockchain ecosystems.
ALSO:
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris's policy is "N/A."Telegram's turnabout.EXCLUSIVE: Huddle01, a video-conferencing blockchain project taking on Zoom, aims to sell as much as $37 million of "media nodes."Top picks from the past week's Protocol Village column:$110 million of blockchain project fundraisings.
This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Network news

Screenshot of the Zaprite invoice used by Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump to buy burgers and Diet Cokes at the bar PubKey in New York (PubKey/X)
LESSER EVILISM It goes without saying that many Bitcoin purists do not like to mingle their business, politics or even company with users of other blockchains or cryptocurrencies. Which is partly why Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump garnered so much scorn from Bitcoiners last week for promoting a very-much-NOT-Bitcoin decentralized-finance project, World Liberty Financial, complete with its own token and a pre-mined allocation to insiders. "Trump launching a sh*tcoin may have been the final straw to lose my vote," tweeted Bitcoin-friendly author Mitchell Askew. Responses on the thread ranged from total agreement to what one might call lesser evilism—the rhetorical contrast of one bad option with an even worse option: "True but it’s that or WW3 with commie Kamala," wrote @FrictionlessBTC.
The DeFi dalliance threatened to undo much of the goodwill Trump built up at the Bitcoin Nashville conference in July when he tossed out a series of red-meat pledges, including commuting the rest of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbrecht's life sentence and creating a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile." Multiple standing ovations ensued.
So it was fortuitous timing for Trump that his campaign scheduled a stop later in the week at the Bitcoin-friendly New York City bar, PubKey. According to the bar's official X account, Trump bought 50 smash burgers and Diet Cokes for people in attendance, at a total cost of $998.77 including tax and tip, and then paid for it all in bitcoin. Fox News posted a video of the entire scene, leading a sharp-eyed reporter from CryptoSlate to quickly point out that Trump's role mainly consisted of standing by at the counter while handlers actually performed the transaction, passing smartphones back and forth between them. Whatever. The bar crowd cheered. "Crypto burgers!" Trump said as he handed them out. A voice from behind the camera corrected him, "Bitcoin burgers!"
As much as it was a second chance for Trump to prove his Bitcoin bona fides, the choreographed transaction served as a sort of benchmark for the blockchain's evolution as a viable payments option for a retail-facing business in the U.S. Will Cole, head of product at the Bitcoin payments app Zaprite (who happens to be Bitcoin-friendly U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis's son-in-law), described what he called the "Trump stack." PubKey, running a node on Bitcoin's Lightning Network on Voltage Cloud, used Zaprite to provide an invoice for the purchase, and Trump paid using a Strike wallet. (Official spokespeople for the Trump campaign didn't respond to CoinDesk's email asking where the bitcoin originated from.)
Asked whether the episode might have helped erase any lingering disgust among Bitcoiners over the World Liberty Financial rollout, PubKey founder Thomas Pacchia didn't exactly dispute the premise of the question: "The other stuff that the family has going on is sort of outside our purview and scope," he said in an interview. "Everybody is on a journey towards understanding the difference between Bitcoin and crypto. I like to meet people where they are."
ELSEWHERE:

Caroline Ellison exits a Manhattan courthouse after being sentenced to two years in prison on Sept. 24, 2024. (Victor Chen/CoinDesk)
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was sentenced to two years in prison by a federal judge on Tuesday. The judge said Ellison, 29, who will also have to forfeit about $11 billion, could serve the sentence at a minimum-security facility near Boston, where her family lives. Ellison was a key witness in the government’s trial against her former boyfriend, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy before being sentenced earlier this year to 25 years in prison.Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris made her first remarks on crypto on Sunday before donors in New York City. (Her specific choice of term was "digital assets.") A person with knowledge of the talks between her campaign and crypto insiders told CoinDesk that the discussions about digital-asset policy remain high-level and aren't likely to produce a detailed stance before the election in early November. Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group whose industry partners include exchanges Coinbase and Gemini as well as Filecoin developer Protocol Labs, issued a rating of "N/A" on Harris's crypto policies for "not enough information."Telegram, the instant-messaging app popular with crypto-industry pros, made significant changes to its terms of service, chief executive officer Pavel Durov said in a post on the app on Monday. The app’s privacy conditions now state that Telegram will now share a user’s IP address and phone number with judicial authorities in cases where criminal conduct is being investigated.Crypto exchange BingX has been hacked for a "minor" amount of assets and the exchange plans to compensate users for any loss, the firm's chief product officer (CPO) said in a message on X. On-chain data suggests nearly $43 million was stolen from the exchange in multiple tranches, with $13.25 million ether, $2.3 million BNB, and $4.4 million USDT, among others, being drained.Former Grammy-nominated artist and entrepreneur Iggy Azalea will release Motherland, a new online casino that uses her MOTHER token, in November. Azalea unveiled the project alongside business partner Joe McCann, founder of crypto investment firm Asymmetric, and manager Reece Pearson at her Motherland Rodeo event at Breakpoint in Singapore last Friday.
Huddle01, Blockchain Video Conferencing Project That Seeks to Outdo Zoom, Targets $37M Node Sale

Huddle01 CTO Susmit Lavania, left, and CEO Ayush Ranjan, on a Huddle video conference call. (Huddle01)
Huddle01, a blockchain project to provide decentralised audio and video conferencing—aiming to provide lower-latency virtual meetings than Zoom and Google Meet—plans to raise as much as $37 million in a sale of network nodes.
The 49,600 "media nodes" being sold offer operators a way to contribute excess internet bandwidth the communication network in exchange for token rewards. According to a paper, some 21% of the project's HUDL tokens will be distributed to media nodes.
“These nodes will power a network that already outperforms the incumbent Web2 competitors on latency where there is a large cluster of nodes and is capable of improving lags across the globe,” Huddle01 CEO Ayush Ranjan said in the release, shared exclusively with CoinDesk.
The project is built using technology borrowed from the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum. A test network will launch two weeks after the sale completes, according to the press release.
Huddle01 becomes the latest in a growing trend of blockchain projects conducting node sales as a way to raise funds while simultaneously decentralising their networks.

FLOKI tokens could see a price jump as the project’s closeness to GraFun boosts fundamentals.

(GraFun)
GraFun, a new memecoin launchpad and trading platform on the BNB Chain, is set to launch on September 27, 2024, at 11 am UTC. It introduces a "fair curve" mechanism aimed at promoting fair launches and long-term investment in memecoins.GraFun has garnered support from significant players in the crypto ecosystem, including Floki, BNB Chain, DeXe Protocol, HOT Protocol, and strategic partnership with DWF Labs.Floki will own 40% of GraFun, expecting to leverage this to enhance its influence in the BNB Chain memecoin market, boosting the project’s fundamentals.
The memecoin issuing and trading frenzy that gripped Solana and Tron blockchains in the past few months could soon see a repeat on the BNB Chain ecosystem, thanks to a protocol that says it is making the process easier and better for users.
GraFun, a memecoin launchpad and trading platform exclusive to the BNB Chain network, will be released on September 27 at 11:00 UTC.
It uses a unique bonding curve mechanism that allows anyone to fairly launch a memecoin for next to nothing. This is similar to Solana’s runaway hit Pump Fun, but GraFun’s developers say they have made certain key improvements.
“It's all about promoting long-term investment and real growth,” GraFun developers explained in an X post. “Unlike the traditional bonding curve, the Fair Curve is community-first. And built to benefit everyone who participates. It gives you the power to be part of a DAO—wwhere decisions are made by you and your fellow token holders.”
The project has bagged support from crypto ecosystem project Floki and other industry heavyweights, including BNB Chain, DeXe Protocol, and HOT Protocol. DWF Labs is also a strategic partner.
“Floki is the biggest memecoin brand on the BNB chain by far, and our role in helping with its recent launch and ensuring its success has shown the kind of sway Floki holds within the BNB ecosystem and in this space as a whole,” Floki developer B told CoinDesk in a message.
“With Floki’s backing, GraFun will send a strong message to the industry that it is the de facto platform for creating fair launch memecoins in the space,” B added.
Floki will receive 40% ownership of GraFun and get 40% of the revenue generated from the launchpad. Floki’s ownership of GraFun will lead to key benefits for FLOKI and its sister project TokenFi (TOKEN), developers told CoinDesk in a release.
What is the bonding curve model?
With the bonding curve model, anyone can deploy a memecoin or a launchpad that supports this model for next to nothing (e.g., anyone can create a memecoin with GraFun for a few dollars or less), with zero developer experience and without having to make any form of commitment (liquidity, expensive token deployment costs, etc.).
The memecoin launchpad then allows the market to determine the value of the memecoin: if there is enough demand to push the memecoin to a certain market cap (e.g., $100,000 market cap), it hits a “bonding curve,” and liquidity is automatically added to a decentralised exchange (DEX) and burnt or locked, making it possible for anyone to buy the memecoin on DEXs.
If a memecoin does not hit the bonding curve, it simply does not get “launched” on a DEX. The memecoin launchpad makes money regardless.
The most popular examples of memecoin launchpads that use this kind of model are Pump on Solana, which pioneered such a model, and Tron’s Sun Pump.
Pump.fun has made over $110 million in fees in the last 6 months alone and is currently projected to generate $136.5 million in annual fees. SunPump has made $5.2 million in fees since launching a little over a month ago and is currently projected to generate $51.8 million in annual fees.
However, the massive amount of tokens launched on Pump and Sun means most tokens fail to reach a bonding curve and end up in losses, leaving a majority of users unhappy in the past months. As CoinDesk previously reported, Pump's quick token creation services mean tens of thousands of tokens have likely been issued since its March launch. However, only a few have reached more than $10 million in market capitalisation.
GraFun’s USP is the “fair curve” model, which developers say minimises rug-pull risks, reduces price manipulation, and ensures fairer token issuances that result in fewer users losing money.

$FLOKI $MEME

The CELO token rallied over 20% on Wednesday as Vitalik Buterin cheered Celo's progress.

Sep 26, 2024, at 12:07 p.m. GMT

Top chain by active stablecoin addresses. (Artemis)
Celo is taking on Tron in terms of daily active addresses interacting with stablecoins.The CELO token rallied over 20% on Wednesday.
Celo, an Ethereum layer 2 and blockchain-based ecosystem dedicated to mobile-first decentralised applications and smart contracts, is challenging Tron's position as the chain with the most daily active addresses using stablecoins.
The seven-day moving average of the daily active addresses using stablecoins on Celo has climbed to nearly 700,000, nearly matching Tron's tally, according to data tracked by Artemis.
The surge follows Tether's decision to deploy its industry-leading dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT, on Celo in March. Since then, USDT worth over $200 million has been issued on the network.
A year ago, Celo and Opera partnered to launch MiniPay, a mobile-first non-custodial stablecoin wallet built on the Celo blockchain that facilitates the instant transfer of funds using a phone number.
"Within less than five months of its launch, MiniPay garnered over 1 million users across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya," a Celo representative told CoinDesk in an email.
On Wednesday, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin cheered Celo's progress on X, galvanising investor interest in the CELO token. As of writing, the cryptocurrency traded at 63 cents, representing a nearly 20% gain on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk data.
"Improving worldwide access to basic payments/finance has always been a key way that Ethereum can be good for the world, and it's great to see @Celo getting traction," Buterin said on X.
Celo still lags behind Tron in terms of the value of stablecoin transferred on-chain this month. Data from Artemis shows that Celo has registered just over $1 billion in the so-called transfer volume, significantly less than Tron's $335.7 billion. Ethereum remains in the pole position with a tally of over $470.4 billion.

Litecoin's LTC was also a top performer, rising 2.7%.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2098.21, up 0.6% (+13.39) since yesterday's close.
Seventeen of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: AVAX (+3.6%) and LTC (+2.7%).

Laggards: NEAR (-1.4%) and HBAR (-1.0%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

$AVAX

TIA has outperformed the CoinDesk 20 Index by a wide margin.

TIA has outperformed the CoinDesk 20 Index this month by a large margin.There has been an increase in TIA hedging demand ahead of an Oct. 30 token unlock, Wintermute said.Bearish short positions, likely representing hedging, have been crowded out, funding rates suggest.

TIA, the token of data-availability blockchain network Celestia, posted its best monthly gain this year, outperforming the broader market by a significant margin and confounding traders who'd positioned for a drop in the price as the result of a $1.13 billion token unlock due next month.
The market-beating 40% surge, the biggest since December 2023, contrasts with a 13% gain in the CoinDesk 20 Index, a measure of the largest, most liquid cryptocurrencies. It takes place against a background of some market participants seeking downside hedges due to concerns the massive token unlock due Oct. 30 will flood the market and depress prices.
Next month's unlock will release 175.74 million TIA. That's 16% of the cryptocurrency's total supply and worth $1.13 billion, or 82% of the market capitalisation, according to data source CryptoRank. Such large unlocks often create bearish pressures in the market.
"There has been an uptick in TIA hedging demand ahead of the Oct. 30 unlock—both via exchange-traded perpetuals, alongside OTC forward agreements with market makers/trading desks," Jake Ostovskis, an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.
Short squeeze
The bias for shorts, likely stemming from the hedging activity, might have led to a "short squeeze," contributing to the TIA rally. A short squeeze happens when the asset price remains resilient, contrary to expectations, forcing bears to close their positions, which are bets that an asset will drop. That, in turn, puts upward pressure on prices.
"Traders tried to sell ahead of the [unlock] event from Julyish. I'd argue the squeeze has already happened," Ostovskis said.
That's evident from the recovery in funding rates tied to TIA perpetuals, which have rebounded to nearly zero, or neutral, having been in negative territory since July. As suggested by Ostovskis, rates below zero are a sign of traders taking bearish bets to protect against the downside price risk posed by the influx of so many tokens.

The recovery to neutral alongside the TIA price rally suggests shorts have been crowded out and might have inadvertently squeezed the price higher.

The $100 million fundraiser
A $100 million fundraiser announced this week likely gave bears another solid reason to exit shorts, adding upward momentum. The fresh round raised the foundation's cash stash to $155 million, although the team did not detail how it plans to use the funds.
Some pseudonymous observers have suggested the fundraising was an OTC deal at a $3.4 billion valuation directly with the foundation, with the token sale priced at $3 and one-third of the same to be unlocked on Oct. 30.
According to Ostovskis, the impending unlock may have been priced in.
"Some commentators have seen their OTC sale sales as controversial; however, the result that a large cliff has been removed and enabling the pre-hedging unlocks has overall been positive, allowing the market to price in this event in advance," Ostovskis noted.

$TIA

Crypto-fan candidate Bernie Moreno has caught up in Ohio polls as the industry's cash outpaces other PACs in one of the key U.S. Senate races that may decide the majority.

Money from the political action committees backed by such crypto firms as Coinbase and Ripple Labs is helping lift the Republican challenger against Sen. Sherrod Brown, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee where crypto bills have languished.Blockchain businessman Bernie Moreno has experienced a rapid rise in polling, some of which now put the Republican candidate atop Brown in the battleground state of Ohio.

The colossal campaign spending from the cryptocurrency industry is showing up in dominant fashion in Ohio's U.S. Senate race, where its political action committees have devoted $40 million to support Republican Bernie Moreno's opposition of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the crypto-sceptical chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
In the largest single outlay of campaign spending from the digital assets sector, the latest Federal Election Commission filings show Fairshake PAC and its affiliates—specifically Defend American Jobs—have far outdistanced the initial $12 million the group announced at the start of its Ohio engagement. The spending, which has been devoted to pro-Moreno advertising, is the most any group has so far committed to this battleground.
Since Fairshake weighed in last month, the sentiment of Ohio voters has shown a major leap for blockchain businessman Moreno. At the start of August, he was at 39.6% support in one industry poll of likely voters obtained by CoinDesk, compared with 48.3% for Brown. The latest polling by ActiVote shows Moreno potentially pulling ahead with 51% to Brown's 49%, though that poll carried an almost 5% margin of error.
A broader average of polling also suggests steady gains for Moreno, with a 2.3 percentage point increase since Fairshake leapt into Ohio, according to the running tally of polls maintained by FiveThirtyEight.com, a political analysis site.
Read More: Crypto Fan Won Ohio Senate Primary That Could Alter the Industry's U.S. Destiny
Some crypto insiders have expressed private discomfort with Fairshake's decision to try to dethrone Brown, who currently has control of a significant segment of the Senate's crypto agenda. If Brown wins and the Senate remains under a Democratic majority, he'll retain that authority, and this open warfare could hurt the industry's legislative drive. The decision had already cost the goodwill of one of Fairshake's significant donors and has resulted in ill will among high-profile Democrats.
Fairshake spokesman Josh Vlasto declined to comment on the Ohio strategy.
The outside spending in that state is going far towards bridging what is otherwise a massive gap in direct contributions to the candidates, meaning the fully disclosed individual contributions that are subject to spending limits and the full range of legal restrictions in U.S. elections laws. Veteran lawmaker Brown has received about $53 million, according to the most recent federal records, versus $16 million for Moreno.

Super PACs like Fairshake are only able to target candidates with so-called independent expenditures—advertising and other services that have no direct affiliation with or approval from the campaigns. In some races, Fairshake has spent millions on negative ads to oppose candidates that don't support crypto policies, but in this one, the ads are positive in bolstering Moreno, an Ohio businessman and crypto enthusiast who founded a blockchain startup that focuses on property titles.
If Brown loses, the chances get much higher that Republicans take the Senate majority, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) potentially becomes the next chairman. Though Scott's crypto views had long been muted, he recently cheered on digital assets innovations at the Nashville Bitcoin 2024 event, and at a symposium in Wyoming hosted by the SALT Conference, he floated a crypto-specific subcommittee if he wins the gavel.
"We have to get rid of the folks who are in the way," Scott said in Nashville.
Fairshake made a splash when it quickly outpaced other industry PACs for the amount of cash it stockpiled for the 2024 elections: $169 million. It's used that war chest on candidates it considers good for the industry and to oppose those who wouldn't be—especially if they've been backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass)
Despite Fairshake's origin—mostly funded by some of the crypto sector's most prominent names, including Coinbase Inc., Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)—the ads don't typically mention digital assets at all.

The industry's favoured candidates have won in about two dozen primary elections, meaning pro-crypto candidates will occupy a greater share of the seats of Congress next year. Since both the Senate and House of Representatives have been considered vulnerable to a reversal of their majorities, every shift in the landscape is potentially significant. Democrats have been holding onto the Senate with the barest possible majority—the tie-breaking vote of the vice president in an otherwise 50-50 split between the parties.

$crypto

BlackRock's latest report shows that bitcoin has a very low correlation to U.S. equities on a trailing six-month basis.

Bitcoin is up 22% since the Yen carry trade unwind on Aug. 5, while gold and the S&P 500 are up around 11%.Over 65% of the circulating bitcoin supply has remained unmoved for over a year.Almost all holders are in profit if they held for three years, while they are all in profit if they held for at least five years—Unchained.

BlackRock released a report last week, titled "bitcoin as a unique diversifier."
The investment giant identified four key points from the report. First, how to analyse bitcoin (BTC) in relation to traditional financial assets due to its fundamental properties, such as not having a quarterly earnings report or a CEO.
Second, bitcoin's high volatility can be perceived as a "risky" asset, which contributes to the discussion of whether it is a "risk-on" or "risk-off" asset. The token could be considered a flight-to-safety option because it is scarce, non-sovereign, and decentralised. Lastly, BlackRock pointed out that the long-term adoption of bitcoin may come from global instability.

Bitcoin's realised volatility trends downward

Bitcoin's realised volatility continues to trend downwards over time, indicating increased stability. In the early years of bitcoin, its realised volatility used to trade over 200%; however, as the asset matured, so did the volatility.

Since 2018, realised volatility has not exceeded 100% and is currently at 50%. As realised volatility decreases and liquidity increases through financial instruments such as the spot and futures markets, this may bring in more sophisticated investors, such as options traders. This seems to be on the horizon with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) approval of physically settled options tied to BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF.

Risk-on or risk-off?

BlackRock also asked the question: Is bitcoin risk-on or risk-off? While short-term trading may suggest that bitcoin behaves like a risk-on asset, the data reveals a different narrative over a longer time horizon.
According to data from bitcoin custody service Unchained, "almost all holders (99%+) are in profit if they held for just three years. All bitcoin holders in this class are in profit if they held for at least 5 years.".

We can see this type of mentality on-chain among investors, where over 65% of the circulating bitcoin supply has remained unmoved for more than one year, according to Glassnode. This trend suggests that many investors tend to hold bitcoin because they believe in its store-of-value narrative and view it as a risk-off asset, even though bitcoin has faced multiple 20% corrections in 2024.

Low historical correlation with U.S equities

BlackRock also showed that bitcoin has a very low correlation to U.S. equities. A graph shows the trailing 6-month S&P 500 correlation with bitcoin; the average correlation is 0.2 since 2015. Sometimes, assets will trade near one-to-one with one another due to external macro factors, most likely in risk-off or liquidity events.
The report notes, "These episodes have been short-term in nature and have failed to produce a clear long-term statistically significant correlation relationship."

Bitcoin outperforms other risk-on assets after major events

Continuing with the theme of having a long-term time preference, BlackRock noted that bitcoin tends to outperform other risk-on assets after 60 days following a major geopolitical event.

The U.S.-Iran escalation in 2020 saw bitcoin return 20% after 60 days, outperforming gold and S&P 500. This was also the case for COVID-19, the 2020 U.S. election challenges, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. regional banking crisis, and most recently, the Yen Carry trade unwind on Aug. 5.
During the recent Yen carry trade unwind on Aug. 5, which was now 53 days ago, major assets experienced declines on the day. However, bitcoin has risen by 22% since then, with gold and the S&P 500 up roughly 11%.

A $10 billion surge in stablecoin minting over the past weeks has flooded the crypto market with liquidity, 10X Research's Markus Thielen noted.

Impressive gains since the U.S. Federal Reserve's mid-September rate cut and subsequent China stimulus plans have pushed bitcoin (BTC) out of its downtrend, according to a new research report.
"FOMO is Back: Are You Holding Enough Bitcoin and Altcoins to Ride the New Wave?" is the title of 10X Research's Markus Thielen's latest analysis. "With bitcoin breaking above $65,000, we anticipate a swift move toward $70,000, followed by new all-time highs in the near term."

Thielen took note of a sharp increase in stablecoin minting following the Fed's July meeting, at which it left rates unchanged but indicated a September easing was likely. Nearly $10 billion in stablecoin minting ensued in the subsequent weeks, said Thielen, flooding the crypto markets with liquidity and sharply surpassing spot ETF flows.
Of particular interest, said Thielen, Circle's USDC accounted for 40% of recent stablecoin inflows, a far higher share versus Tether's USDT than is typical. It's important, he said, as while USDT minting on TRON is typically associated with capital preservation, USDC minting could indicate a rise in DeFi activity.

Noting that 55% of currently mined bitcoins are coming from Chinese mining pools, Thielen said the country's massive monetary and fiscal stimulus measures—announced just after the Fed rate cut—could trigger large capital outflows from China and into cryptos.
"The likelihood of a Q4 rally is exceptionally high, with gains likely front-loaded," Thielen concluded. "A major surge could be on the horizon, sparking even more FOMO across the crypto space."
Bitcoin is currently higher by 2.3% over the past 24 hours and nearly 12% month-over-month to $66,300, its strongest level since late July.

$BTC

Ethereum’s price has been going through a frustrating consolidation period over the past few months following the price’s failure to break above the $4,000 resistance level.

How to read Ethereum (ETH) Charts?
There are various software solutions and trading tools used to gauge the price of Ethereum on a chart, but the most common one is undoubtedly through a chart with Japanese candlesticks. Every candlestick is a visual representation of a time frame - it can be a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Each candle provides specific information, which includes the opening price, the current price, the closing price (the price at which the candle was closed and a new one appeared on the chart), as well as the highest and the lowest point of the price reached during that time frame. In addition to simply looking at the candles, most charting tools also provide additional instruments such as moving average trendlines, Fibonacci retracement levels, Relative Strength Index (RSI), and more.
What affects the price of Ethereum (ETH)?
Cryptocurrencies traded on the open market are much like any other asset traders can access on an exchange. ETH - the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum protocol - is no exception. Its price can be affected by many factors that can be categorized into two. First, there are internal considerations specific to Ethereum. For example, positive developments associated with the protocol can boost the price of ETH, while negative developments can lead to a decline. On the other hand, there are also external factors. For example, many altcoins, including ETH, are affected by Bitcoin price fluctuations. Therefore, if BTC goes into a parabolic bull run, this usually leads to increased investments and inflows into the altcoin sector, positively impacting ETH’s price and vice-versa.
What are Ethereum (ETH) price predictions based on?
ETH price predictions aim to accurately determine the trajectory of the asset for a predetermined future period. They tend to be made by analysts and industry experts who base them on a variety of criteria, including but not limited to past performance. Historical trends are typically the most common foundation for price predictions - by analyzing how ETH performed during certain events in the past, experts are attempting to predict how it might perform in the future, given that the same or similar conditions are met.

$ETH

Bitcoin fell from a multi-week peak of $70,000 to under $60,000 in the span of less than seven days.
The ever-volatile cryptocurrency market was hit once again this week from different sides, but most could actually be connected to the United States.
Here are some of the possible reasons why BTC dumped by ten grand from Monday to Sunday morning.

Weak US Economy
The week started on a high note as bitcoin’s price soared by $3,000 on Monday and touched $70,000 for the first time since early June. This came just a day or so after Donald Trump’s appearance at the 2024 BTC conference in Nashville, where he made some grand promises, like saying he would fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office.
Being pro-bitcoin and crypto now, his words had a positive effect on the entire market, but that was short-lived. Later on Monday, BTC fell by four grand, and it kept dumping at the end of the week. In fact, the cryptocurrency fell to $62,200 on Friday evening after the US released its July jobs report.
It suggested that the world’s largest economy could be in a more worrying state than many believed, as the unemployment rate had soared to 4.3% – the highest since October 2021. Wall Street reacted with immediate price declines but so did crypto.
However, BTC and the altcoins kept plunging during the weekend due to their 24/7 ability to be traded. The largest digital asset fell to a 3-week low of just under $60,000, thus losing over ten grand in less than a week.

Fed’s Next Move
As mentioned above, the listed reasons are entirely related to the US. In this case, we will focus on its central bank and its highly-anticipated next move.
Earlier this week, the Bank of England lowered the interest rates in the country by 0.25 basis points in the first cut since the pandemic. Thus, the UK’s central bank joined other prominent institutions like the ECB and the Bank of Canada in reducing the rates.
However, the US Federal Reserve continues to postpone such a move and the rates are at a multi-decade peak of 5.25% to 5.50%. However, the pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell keeps mounting, as Dem Senator Elizabeth Warren urged him to cancel his vacation plans and cut the rates now instead of waiting for September, when most experts believe the reduction will occur.
Lower interest rates are generally perceived as bullish for risk-on assets like crypto as they make borrowing cheaper. As such, this uncertainty regarding the Fed’s next move could be among the reasons why some investors have decided to leave the crypto market, at least for now.

ETF Outflows
The two aforementioned reasons actually relate strongly to this one. The reports of a weak US economy and the uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s actions have scared off some investors, especially larger ones – those who tend to use ETFs to get exposure to crypto.
As reported on Saturday, the outflows from the spot Bitcoin ETFs skyrocketed to almost $240 million on Friday – the highest in about three months. The withdrawals from the Ethereum ETFs continued to be in the red for a second consecutive week.
The ETF flows have proven in the past that they could have an immediate impact on BTC’s price, especially the outflows. Consequently, they could be a major reason behind the asset’s fall to and below $60,000.

$BTC

The Bitcoin mining hashrate, a leading indicator for bitcoin rallies, has improved, one observer said, explaining the bullish outlook.

Analysts are growing optimistic about bitcoin's (BTC) price prospects after a rebound toward a crucial resistance level that capped gains earlier this week.
Since testing the 50-day simple moving average support near $63,500, the leading cryptocurrency has bounced sharply to breach $67,000, CoinDesk data show, and is closing on a resistance line identified by the trendline connecting March and April highs. The so-called descending trendline proved a tough nut to crack on Monday – as well as when it last came into focus in May – becoming a level to beat for the bulls.
That might happen soon, if the mood among analysts is a guide.
One trigger could be the U.S. core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, scheduled for release at 12:30 UTC (08:30 ET). Another is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's impending speech at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville.
"Incoming PCE data could be the final nail in the coffin for high interest rates and lead to imminent rate cut announcements, while Trump’s speech at the Bitcoin conference could start a stronger rally if rumours of an announcement of a national strategic reserve for BTC come true," Valentin Fournier, an analyst at digital assets analyst at advisory firm BRN, said in an email.
These factors could bring bitcoin to new highs, Fournier added.
The PCE reading is forecast to show a 0.1% rise in June, following virtually no change in May and gains of 0.3% in the preceding three months, according to FactSet. The annualized figure is forecast to print at 2.4% for June, the smallest increase since 2021.
The continued progress toward the Fed's 2% target strengthens the case for interest-rate cuts by the central bank. Renewed liquidity easing against the backdrop of resilient economic growth highlighted by Thursday's US. GDP data could galvanize bids for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
Crypto investors are also anticipating Trump's scheduled speech on Saturday. Speculation has swirled all week that he might announce a bigger role for BTC in the financial system.
Other factors like the mining hashrate, which measures the amount of computing power dedicated to the network, and increasing stablecoin supply also flash bullish signals, according to crypto services provider Matrixport.
"The Bitcoin mining hashrate, a leading indicator for bitcoin rallies, has improved. Instead of inventory slashing, Bitcoin inventories continue to increase. The inventory build-up suggests confidence in future price increases despite some miners shutting down unprofitable machines," Matrixport said in a note to clients Friday.
Matrixport also noted that fiat-to-crypto inflows have picked up, as indicated by the recent increase in the market capitalization of the stablecoin sector.
"Historically, such increases have been bullish, signaling a shift of funds from traditional financial markets into the crypto sector," it said.

$BTC