As decentralized finance (DeFi) space grows, regulators are giving more effort to conducting research and providing a means to better understand the emerging industry. Today, the International Organization of Securities (IOSCO) published a report that aims to give a perspective on DeFi and highlight some areas that may be potential areas of concern to regulators. According to the report, DeFi is continuously growing and many of its mechanisms are very similar to traditional financial markets. Apart from mirroring traditional finance, IOSCO mentions that a lot of financial products, services, arrangements, and activities in the DeFi industry sometimes overlap with more …

Over the past two months, Bitcoin (BTC) has respected an ascending triangle formation, bouncing multiple times from its support and resistance lines. While this might sound like a positive, the price is still down 11% year-to-date. As a comparison, the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) gained 29% in the same period. The broader commodity index benefited from price increases in crude oil, natural gas, corn, wheat and lean hogs. Meanwhile, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization was unable to break the $2 trillion resistance level and currently stands at $1.98 trillion. In addition to 40-year record high inflation in the United States, …

Bitcoin (BTC) showed strength on March 22, posting a 5% gain and testing the $43,000 resistance. The move liquidated over $150 million worth of leverage short positions, those betting on a declining price using futures contracts. Some Twitter analysts attribute the price improvement to the Do Kwon, the co-founder of blockchain protocol Terra. During a recent Twitter Spaces conversation with analyst Udi Wertheimer, Kwon revealed his plans to back the TerraUSD stablecoin with Bitcoin. Terra's co-founder said "the current clip that we have to buy Bitcoin is about $3 billion and will add to that," causing markets to get agitated …

Cryptocurrencies failed to break the 42-day long downtrend after the $1.95 trillion capitalization resistance was rejected on March 20. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) gained a modest 3.7% over the past seven days, altcoins presented a robust rally. Crypto markets' aggregate capitalization showed a 6.2% increase to $1.92 trillion between March 14-21. Such performance was positively impacted by Ether's (ETH) 14% gains, Cardano (ADA) increasing 13%, and Solana (SOL) gaining 10%. While those assets were not the biggest weekly gains among the top-80 coins, Ether may have fueled investors' expectations after Glassnode's on-chain data showed that ETH balances on crypto exchanges …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trapped in a symmetrical triangle for 56 days and the trend change could last until early-May, according to price technicals. Currently, the support level stands at $38,000, while the triangle resistance for daily close stands at $43,600. Bitcoin mining up, retail interest down The week started with a positive achievement for the Bitcoin network as the Lightning Network capacity reached a record-high 3,500 BTC. This solution allows extremely cheap and instant transactions on a secondary layer, known as off-chain processing. After cryptocurrency mining activities were banned in China in 2021, publicly-listed companies in the United States …

Ether (ETH) investors are having a rough time in 2022, with ETH accumulating 25% losses year-to-date as of March 17. Still, the cryptocurrency has bounced multiple times near $2,500 over the past couple of months, signaling a solid support level. On March 15, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko announced that the Kiln testnet — formerly Ethereum 2.0 — successfully passed the Ethereum “Merge.” The process involves taking Ethereum’s Execution Layer from the existing proof-of-work layer and merging it with the Consensus Layer from the Beacon Chain. The end goal is to turn the blockchain into a proof-of-stake network. The United States …

Over the past two months, Bitcoin (BTC) has respected a slightly ascending trend, bouncing multiple times from its support. Even though that might sound positive, Bitcoin's performance year-to-date remains a lackluster negative 14%. On the other hand, the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) gained 2% in the same period. The broader commodity index benefited from price increases in crude oil, natural gas, gold, corn, and lean hogs. Worsening macroeconomic conditions pressured the supply curve, which, in turn, shifted the equilibrium price toward a higher level. Moreover, the United States approved a $1.5 trillion spending bill on March 15 that funds the …

Being bullish on Ether (ETH) over the past four months did not pay off as its price dropped 44% from $4,600. The decentralized finance (DeFi) applications growth that fueled the rally faded away, partially due to network congestion and average transaction fees of $30 and higher. The cool-off period can also be attributed to excessive expectations as the fee burn mechanism implemented in August 2021 with the London hard fork. After drastically reducing the daily net issuance, investors jumped to the conclusion that Ether would become "ultrasound money." The Ethereum network burned more ETH over the last 24 hours than …

After Bitcoin (BTC) faced its third consecutive rejection, investors became more confident in adding altcoin positions. For the leading cryptocurrency, the path to $50,000 appears more challenging than previously expected. According to Euronews Next, on March 14, the European Union rejected a proposed rule that could have banned the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining algorithm used by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Several EU parliamentarians have been pushing to ban PoW mining over energy concerns. In terms of performance, the aggregate market capitalization of all cryptos was relatively flat over the past seven days, registering a modest 0.4% gain to $1.77 trillion. …

The world is becoming increasingly volatile and uncertain. The assertion that “inflation is the silent thief” is becoming less relevant. In 2021, inflation has turned into a rather loud and brazen robber. Now, inflation is at its highest in the last forty years, already exceeding 5% in Europe and reaching 7.5% in the United States. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine affects futures for gold, wheat, oil, palladium and other commodities. High inflation in the U.S. and Europe has already become a real threat to the capital of tens of thousands of private investors around the world. Last week at …

Bitcoin's (BTC) last daily close above $45,000 was 66 days ago, but more importantly, the current $39,300 level was first seen on Jan. 7, 2021. The 13 months of boom and bust cycles culminated with BTC price hitting $69,000 on Nov. 10, 2021. It all started with the VanEck spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund being rejected by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 12, 2020. Even though the decision was largely expected, the regulator was harsh and direct on the rationale backing the denial. Curiously, nearly one year later, on Nov. 10, 2021, cryptocurrency markets rallied to …

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls jumped in to defend the $40,000 level after a devastating retest of the $38,000 support on March 7. The confidence and momentum that was building up earlier in the month was suddenly shattered after BTC failed to break $44,500 for the third time this month on March 2. The Bitcoin price rally on March 9 has partially been attributed to this week’s expected United States inflation data report. Analysts expect another 40-year record high as the consumer price index (CPI) reaches 7.9% yearly gains. Furthermore, a statement from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on President Biden’s …