Blockchain

Aave hits record $288 high as demand for flash loans and staking increases

Published

1 month ago

January 25, 2021

Aave (AAVE) price has been on an absolute tear for weeks and today the DeFi-token rallied to a new all-time high at $288.90.

The decentralized finance protocol is one of the most popular in the market and the recent rally in the DeFi sector is one of the driving forces behind AAVE’s rally.

*AAVE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

At the start of 2021, AAVE price was trading at $83 and the recent rally appears to have bolstered the protocol’s surging total value locked, increasing buy volume on spot and derivatives exchanges and the continued development of Aave’s lending platform and flash loan issuance.

TVL soars to a new high

Data from DeFi Pulse shows that Aave’s TVL rose from $2.03 billion on Jan. 1 and as (BTC) and Ether (ETH) price went parabolic Aave’s TVL also surged.

*Total value locked on AAVE. Source:* *DeFi Pulse*

Currently, Aave’s TVL sits at a new all-time high of $3.75 billion, making the platform the second-largest DeFi platform by TVL behind Maker (MKR).

The steady addition of new tokens to the lending and borrowing protocol increases the likelihood that its TVL will continue to rise and help AAVE retain its standing as one of the top DeFi projects in the cryptocurrency space.

Staking drives demand for AAVE token

AAVE’s trading volume also surged at the beginning of 2021, increasing from $200 million on Jan. 3 to a high of $928 million on Jan. 16.

*AAVE price vs. Reported trading volume. Source:* *TheTIE*

As AAVE price reached a new high, it’s 24-hour trading volume notched a record $1.06 billion. This volume surge is partially driven by investors acquiring more tokens for staking, with 26.8% of the total supply of AAVE currently staked on the platform earning an APY of 6.1%

Flash loans attract investors

Another reason for AAVE’s recent surge is the growth of its flash loans.

Flash loans allow cryptocurrency holders to collatoralize their portfolio to fund other purchases or new crypto purchases. The loans also help investors utilize the value in their tokens without the need to sell see them and create a taxable event.

Since launching flash loans less than 12 months ago, more than $1.7 billion have been issued and it’s expected that this figure will increse as the crypto bull market progresses.

*Total flash loan issuance to date on AAVE. Source:* *Messari*

As can be seen in the chart above, the most dominant token requested for flash loans is the DAI stablecoin, followed by USDC and ETH. Data from Messari shows that Aave issued $25 million in loans in the first half of 2020, $500 million in Q3, and nearly $1 billion in Q4, including $450 million in December.

The expansion of the flash loan concept will likely attract more users to Aave, especially since they can be used for arbitrage opportunities between DEXs, collateral swaps, self-liquidations and a variety of other applications within the DeFi sector.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-hits-record-288-high-as-demand-for-flash-loans-and-staking-increases

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Blockchain

Coinbase Decentralization Claim Draws Fury From its Customers

Published

1 hour ago

February 25, 2021

Republished by Plato

In a blog post on Feb. 25 titled “Coinbase is a decentralized company, with no headquarters”, CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the firm has moved to a ‘remote first environment’.

No HQ = Decentralized?

He added that 52% of their employees have joined the company in a ‘post-office world’ and 95% of them have the option to work from home. Originally based in San Francisco, many company employees have dispersed across the globe since the beginning of 2020.

“It has helped us attract top talent. One of the best parts about being a decentralized company is that we can hire more of the best people.”

This does not make the company decentralized in crypto terms, as the respondents to the tweet pointed out.

Despite being one of the largest fiat to crypto onramps in the world, Coinbase has garnered a reputation for terrible customer service, higher than industry average fees, and questionable reliability when markets are volatile.

As we’ve moved to a remote first environment, we realized that we no longer have a headquarters located in any one city. https://t.co/8SpdJgylx1

— Coinbase (@coinbase) February 24, 2021

Coinbase Customers Lash Out

The barrage of comments came thick and fast and took aim at everything from customer support to the now predictable service outages during large crypto asset price movements.

“Also you have zero customer support (automated copy paste emails do not count), I guess you can call that decentralised too.”

Another Coinbase customer claimed that he had lost almost a thousand dollars in trading fees with just an $8,000 investment.

Someone else questioned the suspension of XRP stating that the company is still very centralized in the United States. Another disgruntled user stated;

“Coinbase [has come] a long way since 2011 in [the] crypto world. Unfortunately, [its] reputation [has become] tarnished due to unacceptable level of customer service and ignoring your most valuable asset – [the] customer.”

The majority of the complaints were regarding unanswered email and customer support inquiries though there were plenty of mentions of the frequent service outages;

“No headquarters. No customer service. No service at all when the market moves… Good for you coinbase.”

One respondent pointed out it was just a ploy to use a popular word at the moment just like the last bull run when companies added blockchain to their names.

At the time of writing, around 12 hours after the blog post was published, there were too many replies to read, and the vast majority of them were negative. It appears that Coinbase, which still has a number of whale investors, has also decentralized itself from its customers.

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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/coinbase-decentralization-claim-draws-fury-from-its-customers/

Blockchain

What Bitcoin price levels will invalidate the short-term bearish scenario?

Published

2 hours ago

February 25, 2021

Republished by Plato

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is continuing to range between $48,000 and $51,000, unable to break out of the $51,600 resistance level.

If Bitcoin struggles to surpass the $51,600 resistance area in the near term, technical analysts say the probability of a correction rises.

*BTC/USDT 4-hour price chart (Binance). Source: TradingView*

$51,600 is the key level to watch

According to Josh Olszewicz, a cryptocurrency trader and technical analyst, the $51,600 level is currently acting as a strong resistance level.

For Bitcoin to retest the all-time high at $58,000 and initiate a potential rally towards $62,000, it needs to cleanly move past $51,600, he explained.

Hence, a rally beyond $51,600 is the clear invalidation point for any short-term bearish scenario for Bitcoin.

The failure to break out in the near term could result in a bearish test of lower support areas, found at around $42,000. He said:

“If 4h breaks down, be prepared for some uber bearish calls to start popping at 36.7k meanwhile, I’ll be bidding the daily Kijun at 42k. Alternatively, if $BTC breaks above 4h Cloud at 51.6k, I like ATH retest at 58k, R3 yearly pivot test at 62k, macro PF diag test at 70k, R4 yearly pivot test at 80K. Seasonality suggests we go neutral/sideways through March and then reach for those higher targets in Q2.”

The $42,000 support area is a key level because it marks the top of the previous rally. On Jan. 8, the price of Bitcoin peaked at $42,085 on Binance, seeing a steep correction afterwards.

Bitcoin dropping to $42,000 to retest the previous top as a support area would not be necessarily bearish beyond the short term, however.

Whale clusters show similar levels of support

Moreover, analysts at Whalemap noted large inflows to whale wallets at $48,500 and $46,500, which they say should provide BTC with some support.

“The current situation looks similar to the one we had at 29K,” they explained. What’s more, the $46,532 level may now be “the new $29,000,” which held as support during the previous correction in January before the rally continued. They added:

The $55,400 is an important level to keep an eye on as well. Getting back above it will be a good sign

*Whale cluster levels. Source: Twitter/@whale_map*

The most compelling argument for a short-term Bitcoin drop

Bitcoin tends to seek liquidity after a prolonged consolidation, which means it can drop down to fill buy orders at lower support areas that can ultimately fuel a new rally.

A pseudonymous trader known as “Salsa Tekila” echoed this sentiment. He said that there is a big support area at $41,000, followed by resistance at $54,000. He wrote:

“My current take on $BTC mid term: 1) Support around $41K. 2) Resistance around $54K. Depending on context, I might trigger swings around those two vicinities. Likely just scalp until then, unless major events come to fruition.”

Bitcoin tested the $44,800 support level in the past 72 hours, but it was not enough to propel BTC above $51,600.

This trend could cause the price of Bitcoin to drop back to the $44,800 level or to a lower support level, at $42,000.

The ideal scenario would be for Bitcoin to hold onto the $44,800 support area if it drops again, stabilize it as a macro support level, and move back up.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-bitcoin-price-levels-will-invalidate-the-short-term-bear-scenario

Blockchain

Nvidia supply shortage won’t stop $50M Q1 crypto miner sales, says CFO

Published

2 hours ago

February 25, 2021

Republished by Plato

Nvidia’s ongoing supply problems won’t stop the company from selling $50 million worth of its new CMP chip range in the first quarter of 2021, the company’s chief financial officer Colette Kress forecasted on Feb. 24.

Nvidia failed to meet demand from its core gaming customer base in 2020, and the trend looks set to continue into 2021. Added demand from a horde of cryptocurrency enthusiasts keen to direct Nvidia’s new RTX 30 series GPU to Ether (ETH) mining initially appeared to pile pressure on the company.

But the firm’s CFO expects the recently announced Cryptocurrency Mining Processor product line to hit $50 million in sales in the first quarter of the year. The CMP range is designed specifically for Ether mining, and its introduction was part of an attempt to allocate more units of its RTX 30 range to gamers.

Despite supply problems, Nvidia hit record revenues of $5 billion in the last quarter of 2020, while its stock price soared to all-time highs. This is a near-exact repeat of the market conditions present in 2018, when increased demand amid supply shortages pushed the stock price to the highest level in its history up to that time.

On Wednesday, United States President Joe Biden signed an executive order to address the shortage of semiconductors and microchips. A critical review will investigate the country’s failing supply lines, which have been shown to rely too much on Chinese manufacturing, highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chip shortage boosted the value of the PHLX Semiconductor Index, which tracks the value of chip-related stocks, with the index gaining 70% in the past 12 months.

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur expects the pump to continue, even though the supply shortage won’t be corrected for some time.

Sur recently told MarketWatch, “We believe semi companies are shipping 10% to 30% BELOW current demand levels and it will take at least 3-4 quarters for supply to catch up with demand and then another 1-2 quarters for inventories at customers/distribution channels to be replenished back to normal levels.”

Sur said the previous quarter was the first in which every chip maker JPMorgan tracked actually exceeded forecasted earnings.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/nvidia-supply-shortage-won-t-stop-50m-q1-crypto-miner-sales-says-cfo