Nifty News: BAYC floor price drops 50%, Lonely Apes doesn’t attract women, and more

May 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

apecoin

The floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club has fallen 50% from the beginning of this month as prices and sales volume of NFTs suffer across the board.

Prices throughout the nonfungible token (NFT) market have suffered amid the broader market downturn, with the floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection dropping more than 50% since the beginning of this month.

BAYC’s floor price dipped to $198,000 on Wednesday, signaling a 52% drawdown in dollar-denominated valuation from May 1, where the cheapest available Bored Ape cost $420,000. The lackluster market conditions also took their toll on the total number of BAYC sales, with sale volume down 117% week-on-week.

Ape #6775 was purchased for 225.0 ETH
https://t.co/4AkVT71PrF
— boredapebot (@boredapebot) May 18, 2022

When looking at the BAYC floor price measured in Ether (ETH), the NFT collection has only fallen a touch over 30%, with the current floor price sitting at 97.39 ETH.

The price of BAYC’s partnered cryptocurrency ApeCoin (APE) also suffered a significant drop in price, with the token down roughly 70% since the launch of Yuga Lab’s metaverse project: Otherside.

Start Your Engines

Autograph, a Web3 company co-founded by Tom Brady, has partnered with IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Team Penske to launch an Indy 500-themed NFT collection.

2022 #Indy500 NFT collection announced, as @Autograph collaborates with @IndyCar, @IMS and @Team_Penske https://t.co/G2OnfvZ1er
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) May 18, 2022

The NFT collection, which was announced today, was designed to honor the 106th Indianapolis 500 — one of the largest car races in the United States — and will take place on Sunday, May 29.

The NFT collection comes in three main parts, offering users a redeemable Indianapolis 500 Race Day commemorative ticket, 33 more exclusive “mystery driver” cards, and a one-of-one commemorative re-creation of the winning car from the 1972 Indy 500 race.

The race day ticket NFTs will be available for free to everyone who purchased a seat at the event, and will offer users access to exclusive content throughout the weekend of the race.

‘V1’ CryptoPunks Given the Green Light

A formerly discarded collection of CryptoPunks, known as the “V1” collection, has returned to OpenSea following the recent move by Yuga Labs to purchase the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks collection from Larva Labs.

The first collection of CryptoPunks made by Larva Labs in 2017 was accidentally built on faulty code, so they were quickly discarded and replaced with the now-iconic “V2” versions.

However, at the end of last year, the CryptoPunks community created a “wrapper” program that salvaged discarded V1 versions and turned them into new NFTs, generating some major pushback.

The official CryptoPunk team was not pleased with the idea of the “wrapped” V1 collection, informing their 224,000 followers that “they are not official CryptoPunks.”

PSA: "V1 Punks" are not official Cryptopunks. We don't like them, and we've got 1,000 of them... so draw your own conclusions. Any proceeds will be used to purchase real Cryptopunks!
— CryptoPunks (@cryptopunksnfts) January 25, 2022

Larva Labs then issued a DMCA takedown notice to OpenSea and had the NFTs removed. However, the purchase by Yuga Labs meant that Larva Labs could no longer maintain their dispute, which led to the claim expiring and the V1 Punks return to OpenSea.

‘Vastly Uneven’ Ratio of Loney Apes

The Lonely Ape Yacht Club, an app designed to allow users to connect their crypto wallets and filter potential matches by the net worth of their NFTs, has failed to launch due to the vastly uneven ratio of men to women who signed up for our waitlist.

Unfortunately due to a vastly uneven ratio of men to women who signed up for our waitlist, we have decided to put the BAYC dating app on hold indefinitely.
Too many bros!

We sincerely appreciate your interest and support.https://t.co/PozZOCph0y
— y4k (@y4kxyz) May 12, 2022

According to the Lonely Ape Yacht Club website, the app was designed to be the first NFT focused dating app, kicking things off with BAYC NFTs.

The website added that the app would allow Lonely Ape members to “get the attention of potential matches by sending them tips in crypto,” as well as showing off metrics like “how long you have diamond handed your NFTs, personal net worth and the value of their overall NFT portfolio”.

The app was also set to include a feature called “Coin Digger”, which would allow non-BAYC owners to: “connect with higher net worth individuals for mutual benefit.”

Other Nifty News:

Social media giant Facebook's parent company, Meta, is rumored to be planning the launch of a payments platform that will offer support for cryptocurrency, hinting at a continued push into the world of blockchain technology.

44 central bankers from developing nations around the world are attending a 3-day conference in El Salvador this week to discuss a diverse range of financial matters including Bitcoin (BTC).

ApeCoin DAO Reportedly in Talks With Avalanche, Flow

May 17, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Etherscan, CoinGecko warn against ongoing MetaMask phishing attacks

May 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

While investigations are underway, the ongoing attack on various crypto platforms may be connected to the compromise of Coinzilla, an advertising and marketing agency.

Popular crypto analytics platforms Etherscan and CoinGecko have parallelly issued an alert against an ongoing phishing attack on their platforms. The firms began investigating the attack after numerous users reported unusual MetaMask pop-ups prompting users to connect their crypto wallets to the website.

Based on the information disclosed by the analytics firms, the latest phishing attack attempts to gain access to users’ funds by requesting to integrate their crypto wallets via MetaMask once they access the official websites.

Security Alert: If you are on the CoinGecko website and you are being prompted by your Metamask to connect to this site, this is a SCAM. Don't connect it. We are investigating the root cause of this issue. pic.twitter.com/7vPfTAjtiU
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) May 13, 2022

Etherscan further revealed that the attackers have managed to display phishing pop-ups via third-party integration and advised investors to refrain from confirming any transactions requested by MetaMask.

We’ve received reports of phishing popups via a 3rd party integration and are currently investigating.

Please be careful not to confirm any transactions that pop up on the website.
— “The Etherscan” (@etherscan) May 13, 2022

Pointing toward the possible cause of the attack, @Noedel19, a member of Crypto Twitter, connected the ongoing phishing attacks to the compromise of Coinzilla, an advertising and marketing agency, stating that “Any website that makes use of Coinzilla Ads are compromised.”

Compromised CoinZilla source code with phishing link. Source: @Noedel19

The screenshots shared below show the automated pop-up from MetaMask asking to connect with the link falsely portraying as Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) offering.

CoinGecko website showing fake MetaMask pop-up. Source: @Noedel19

On May 4, Cointelegraph further warned readers about the rise in Ape-themed airdrop phishing scams, which is further cemented by the latest warnings issued by Etherscan and CoinGecko.

While an official confirmation from Coinzilla is still underway, @Noedel19 suspects that all companies that have ad integration with Coinzilla remain at risk of similar attacks wherein their users get pop-ups for MetaMask integration.

As a primary means of damage control, Etherscan has disabled the compromised third-party integration on its website.

Coinzilla has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

The team behind BAYC recently warned investors about an attack after hackers were found to breach their official Instagram account.

There is no mint going on today. It looks like BAYC Instagram was hacked. Do not mint anything, click links, or link your wallet to anything.
— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) April 25, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported on April 25, hackers were able to gain access to BAYC’s official Instagram account. The hackers then contacted BAYC’s Instagram followers and shared links to fake airdrops.

Users who connected their MetaMask wallets to the scam website were subsequently drained of their Ape NFTs. Unconfirmed reports suggest that approximately 100 NFTs were stolen during the phishing attack.

ApeCoin rebounds after APE price crashes 80% in two weeks: dead cat bounce or bottom?

May 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin

APE risks crashing into unchartered price territory as it follows Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market.

ApeCoin (APE) has undergone a sharp recovery after falling to its lowest level in two months. But its strong correlation with Bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. equities amid macro risks suggests more losses could be in store.

APE rebounds after 80% losses in two weeks

APE rebounded by nearly 45% to $7.30 on May 12. The upside retracement move came after APE dropped circa 81% to $5 on May 11, from its record high near $27.50, established on April 28.

The seesaw price action mirrored similar volatile moves elsewhere in the crypto market, led by the chaos around TerraUSD (UST) — an "algorithmic stablecoin" whose value plunged to 23 cents earlier this week, and the Federal Reserve's hawkish response to rising inflation.

*APE/USD versus USTUSD. Source: TradingView*

Meanwhile, the correlation coefficient between ApeCoin and Bitcoin is now around 0.90, suggesting that it's trading nearly in tandem with BTC, which is testing multi-year lows.

*ApeCoin and Bitcoin daily correlation. Source: TradingView*

Dead cat bounce?

ApeCoin's rebound occurred near what appears to be a strong technical support level.

Notably, APE is holding above $5.82, which coincides with the 0.786 Fib line of the Fibonacci retracement graph sketched from the $0.97-swing low to the $23.65-swing high. Meanwhile, the token's daily relative strength index's reading is just above its 'oversold' threshold level of 30 — a buy signal.

*APE/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

Therefore, a rebound move from the $5.82-support could have APE test $9.63 (the 0.618 Fib line) as its near-term upside target.

Conversely, an extended breakdown below the support would risk crashing the APE/USD pair into unchartered price territory, confirming that its retracement move was a mere dead cat bounce.

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.

Whales Are Quiety Accumulating ApeCoin, Loopring and Five Additional Ethereum-Based Altcoins, According to WhaleStats

May 8, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Over $407,000,000 in Crypto Liquidated in Just 24 Hours As Bitcoin (BTC) Plunges to Four-Month Low

May 7, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Top Trader Is ‘Cautiously Bullish’ on Bitcoin (BTC), Charts ApeCoin (APE), Ethereum-Rival and One Other Altcoin

May 6, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Any dip buyers left? Bulls are largely absent as the total crypto market cap drops to $1.65T

May 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Any dip buyers left? Bulls are largely absent as the total crypto market cap drops to .65T

1inch

Weak retail demand and bearish derivatives data reflect a dismal short-term outlook for the crypto market.

The total crypto market capitalization has been trading within a descending channel for 24 days and the $1.65 trillion support was retested on May 6. The drop to $1.65 trillion was followed by Bitcoin (BTC) reaching $35,550, its lowest price in 70 days.

*Total crypto market cap, USD billion. Source: TradingView*

In terms of performance, the aggregate market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies dropped 6% over the past seven days, but this modest correction in the overall market does not represent some mid-capitalization altcoins, which managed to lose 19% or more in the same time frame.

As expected, altcoins suffered the most

In the last seven days, Bitcoin price dropped 6% and Ether (ETH) declined by 3.5%. Meanwhile, altcoins experienced what can only be described as a bloodbath. Below are the top gainers and losers among the 80 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

*Weekly winners and losers among the top 80 coins. Source: Nomics*

Tron (TRX) rallied 26.9% after TRON DAO rolled out a USDD, a decentralized stablecoin, on May 5. The algorithmic stablecoin is connected to the Ethereum and BNB Chain (BNB) through the BTTC cross-chain protocol.

1inch (1INCH) gained 5.6% after the decentralized exchange governance application became Polygon’s (MATIC) network leader by completing 6 million swaps on the network.

STEPN (GMT), the native token of the popular move-to-earn lifestyle app, declined 35.7%, adjusting after a 70% rally between April 18 and April 28. A similar movement happened to Apecoin (APE) after the token pumped 94% between April 22 and April 28.

The Tether premium flipped negative on May 6

The OKX Tether (USDT) premium gauges China-based retail demand and it measures the difference between the China-based peer-to-peer trades and the United States dollar.

Excessive buying demand puts the indicator above fair value at 100%. On the other hand, Tether’s market offer is flooded during bearish markets, causing a 4% or higher discount.

*Tether (USDT) peer-to-peer vs. USD/CNY. Source: OKX*

The OKX Tether premium peaked at 1.7% on April 30, indicating some excess demand from retail. However, the metric reverted to a 0% premium over the next five days.

More recently, in the early hours of May 6, the OKX Tether premium flipped to -1% negative. Data shows retail sentiment worsened as Bitcoin moved below $37,000.

Futures markets show mixed sentiment

Perpetual contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded rate that is usually charged every eight hours. Exchanges use this fee to avoid exchange risk imbalances.

A positive funding rate indicates that longs (buyers) demand more leverage. However, the opposite situation occurs when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, causing the funding rate to turn negative.

*Accumulated 7-day perpetual futures funding rate. Source: Coinglass*

As shown above, the accumulated seven-day funding rate is slightly positive for Bitcoin and Ether. Data indicates slightly higher demand from longs (buyers), but nothing that would force traders to close their positions. For instance, a positive 0.15% weekly rate equals 0.6% per month, thus unlikely to cause harm.

On the other hand, altcoins’ 7-day perpetual futures funding rate was -0.30%. This rate is equivalent to 1.2% per month and indicates higher demand from shorts (sellers).

Signs of weak retail demand as indicated by OKX Tether data and the negative funding rate on altcoins are a signal that traders are unwilling to buy at the critical $1.65 trillion crypto market capitalization. Buyers seem to be waiting for further dips before stepping in, so further price corrections will likely follow.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

ApeCoin Pumps—Then Dumps—on Musk’s Bored Ape Tease

May 4, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

ApeCoin slides 40% in three days despite Otherside metaverse land sale — here’s why

May 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ape

APE price could see more downside in the coming days as the Otherside hype cools down.

ApeCoin (APE) caught its bulls off-guard with APE price losing nearly 40% in just three days.

No dutch auction

APE's price reached its second-highest level, hitting $27.57 on April 28, up more than 2,650% from its mid-March debut.

Nonetheless, traders started unwinding their positions after Yuga Labs, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection's creator, released the details of the mint of its Otherside Metaverse lands, dubbed "Otherdeed."

Yuga Labs revealed that the NFT mint would cost a flat 305 APE (~$5,250 at today's price), in contrast to expectations that the company would sell the metaverse land parcels in a dutch auction manner. Thus, the disclosure may have reduced the need for people to hoard more ApeCoin tokens, leading to a drop in demand.

APE dropped to as low as $17 three days after the Yuga Labs' announcement.

*APE/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView*

Additionally, the selloff accelerated due to Yuga Labs' decision to limit the minting of Otherdeed NFTs, starting with two NFTs per wallet for the first wave. This may have also played a role in driving down demand for APE tokens.

BREAKING: BAYC has sold over $100,000,000 worth of digital real estate 45 minutes after launching their Otherside Metaverse.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) May 1, 2022

APE a "good buy" after dip?

ApeCoin serves as a primary settlement token for all the Yuga Labs' products and services. Additionally, it is a governance asset within "ApeCoin DAO," a decentralized autonomous organization that gives APE holders the right to vote on the proposals made by community members.

But the biggest takeaway remains APE's close association with Yuga Labs itself, a blue-chip startup whose valuation reached $4 billion almost a year after its debut. So, the hype surrounding its metaverse land sales, all payable via ApeCoin, could absorb the ongoing selling.

OpenSea, the world's leading NFT marketplace, also announced on April 30 that it has started accepting APE for payments on its platform. Meanwhile, Yuga Labs has requested the ApeCoin DAO to hold a vote on whether APE could migrate from Ethereum to its own blockchain.

I just tweeted about this an hour ago. $APE needs its own chain. https://t.co/eagb4FH1Hr
— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) May 1, 2022

Loma, an independent market analyst, signaled APE's potential of bottoming out despite its latest price dip, citing "interest and speculation" surrounding the Otherside mint.

"The bear market dip-buying of choice seems to un-ironically be $APE and related ecosystem," the analyst noted, adding:

"I think it’ll be a good buy once the mint-hype dies down."

ApeCoin technicals agree

APE's latest selloff has led its price to a support confluence defined by its 100-4H exponential moving average (100-4H EMA; the black wave) and the 0.5 Fib line (around 17.29) of the Fibonacci retracement graph drawn from $10.63-swing low to nearly $24-swing high.

*ApeCoin four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView*

APE/USD has been attempting to rebound from the said confluence, but lackluster volumes indicate that it would continue falling deeper, with the 0.618 Fib line near $15.72 serving as the next downside target, down over 10% from today's price.

The level coincides with the 200-4H EMA (the blue wave) and the top of a so-called "demand zone" — the launchpad for APE's previous 100% price rally.

Conversely, a rebound from 100-4H EMA could have APE test the 0.382 Fib line near $18.85. Accompanied by convincingly increasing volumes, the price could test $20 and 24 as the next bullish targets.