NEXO price drops 40% in three days on rumors of ties to ‘insolvent’ crypto fund

June 15, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Nexo says it currently has no exposure to Three Arrows Capital and has 100% liquidity to meet its debt obligations.

The price of Nexo (NEXO) continued to fall on June 15, as Nexo denied rumors of exposure to Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Dubai-based crypto fund facing insolvency risks.

NEXO price suffers on DeFi contagion fears

NEXO, which serves as a security token at a cryptocurrency lending platform of the same name, fell nearly 25% to $0.61 a unit, its lowest price reading since January 2021.

The massive intraday decline came as a part of a broader downside move this week, which stretched NEXO's losses to 40%.

*NEXO/USDT weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

An ongoing contagion in the crypto lending sector contributed to NEXO's underperformance.

Traders fear that most DeFi/CeFi firms, which offer high yields to clients on their cryptocurrency deposits, will default on their debts due to the wipeout of nearly $1.5 trillion from the crypto market in 2022.

The concerns continue to mount after the collapse of Terra, a $40 billion algorithmic stablecoin project, in May.

A month later, Celsius Network, which offers clients up to 18% yields, paused withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions.” Its clients have pulled almost half of their assets out of the platform since October 2021, thus leaving it about $12 billion as of May 17 to meet debt obligations.

I am definitely rooting for Celsius not to get liquidated. That is customer money. And fuck the funds who are hunting this stop loss. I hope they get rekt. #bitcoin
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) June 14, 2022

Meanwhile, 3AC, a crypto hedge fund, has witnessed liquidations of at least $400 million. In addition, on-chain data reveals that the firm may also have a minimum debt of $183 million against a collateral position of $235 million (derived in Staked Ether).

The address uses USDT/USDC to repay the debt and withdraws ETH, and then converts ETH to USDT/USDC through "sinofate.eth" and repays it, and so on. In almost 24 hours, the address has sold about 50kETH. https://t.co/TUzqXBXBwF
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 15, 2022

The fund could transfer the economic risks to its lenders if it becomes insolvent.

"The lenders will bear the PnL [profit and loss] difference between how much they are owed versus what they get in liquidating their collateral," noted Degentrading, a market commentator known for highlighting the Celsius Network's liquidation issues.

He added:

"That means defaults will cause SIGNIFICANT EQUITY erosion [...] Not all lenders are made equal. Celsius is the worst. It has gone under. Nexo, I don't know. BlockFi is pretty bad as well."

However, Nexo says it currently has no exposure to 3AC despite partnering with the fund over a nonfungible token (NFT) lending product in December 2021. The firm asserts that the partnership with 3AC did not take off.

All Nexo has ever done with Three Arrows Capital is sign a partnership with their NFT fund, but it did not take off and we currently have $0 business and exposure with them.
— Nexo (@Nexo) June 15, 2022

What's next for the NEXO token?

Nexo has 100% liquidity to meet its $4.96 billion worth of debt obligations, according to U.S.-based audit firm Armanino. That raises the firm's potential to avoid a liquidity crisis in the event of a rising withdrawal rate, unlike Celsius.

Nonetheless, NEXO price treads ahead under persistent bearish risks, primarily due to the crypto market's dire state in a high interest rate environment. The NEXO/USD pair now eyes the $0.58-$0.69 range as its interim support due to its historical significance from December 2020-January 2021.

*NEXO/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

A rebound from the $0.58-0.69 range could have NEXO bulls eye $0.883 as their interim upside target. This level was instrumental as support during the early-May price crash; it now coincides with the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement graph drawn from the $0.11-swing low to the $3.71-swing high.

Conversely, a decline below the $0.58-$0.69 range could have NEXO watch December 2020's support level near $0.43, down around 35% from today's price.

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.

NFT Market Suffers in Crypto Meltdown

June 13, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Axie Infinity: AXS price risks deeper losses despite 90% drawdown already

June 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin

Interestingly, an AXS technical setup also predicts a 2,500% price rally despite the token facing major headwinds ahead.

Axie Infinity (AXS) has dropped by roughly 90% after peaking out at $172 in November 2021.

AXS's sharp correction has made it one of the worst performing digital assets among the top-ranking cryptocurrencies. Moreover, it could undergo further declines in the coming months, according to a mix of technical and fundamental catalysts listed below.

Low player count dampens AXS demand

To recap, AXS serves as a settlement token within the Axie Infinity's gaming ecosystem, allowing players to purchase native nonfungible tokens (NFT), a flurry of digital pets called "Axies."

It also acts as a work token that players can spend to breed new Axies.

New users that enter the Axie Infinity ecosystem need Axies to pit them in a battle against other Axies. When they win, the platform rewards them with another native token, called Smooth Love Potion (SLP) while winning larger tournaments grants them AXS.

*Axie Infinity's working schematic. Source: Decentralised.co*

As a result, old Axie Infinity players rely on new ones to maintain demand for Axies.

Otherwise, they could risk old players selling their SLP and AXS earnings in marketplaces (for example, crypto exchanges), thus adding downside pressure to their rates.

But when the valuations of Axie Infinity's native tokens drop, it also makes the game less appealing to new players, who would still need to pay for Axies to be able to earn lower-valued SLP and AXS units.

The Axie Infinity ecosystem has gone through the stages, as mentioned above, in 2022, with its player count dropping to 8,950 in June from 63,240 in January—an almost 85% decline, according to data provided by Dapp Radar. Interestingly, that coincides with AXS's 80% price drop in the same period.

*Axie Infinity statistics since March 2021. Source: Dapp Radar*

Simultaneously, Axie Infinity's in-platform volume, measured after assessing its Ronin chain data, has dropped from $300 million in September 2021 to a mere $2.12 million in June 2022.

At the same time, the project's top executives have quietly changed their "play-to-earn" mission statement to "play-and-earn," with its new head of product, Philip La, admitting in his August 2021 post that "Axie Infinity first needs to be a game."

Axie’s problem is that it's always been a speculative tool wrapped in rhetoric about fun and community. The developers want it to go back to being just a game, when most players never saw it as a game in the first place. When the earning stops, the playing stops. 12/12
— Joshua Brustein (@joshuabrustein) June 10, 2022

Inflation ramps up

Fresh inflation data has further dampened upside sentiments across the top-ranking cryptocurrencies, which, in one way or another, boosts AXS's bearish outlook.

Notably, the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose by an annual pace of 8.6% in May versus 8.3% in the previous month, heightening investors' fears that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates aggressively in the coming months, which would push riskier assets lower across the board.

*AXS/USD versus BTC/USD versus SPX daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

AXS dropped 7.5% after the report came out on June 10, and fell by another 7% on June 11 to reach its three-week low of $16.79. The prospect of lower cash liquidity, led by the Fed's hawkish policies, could result in more losses for the Axie Infinity token.

AXS price slips below key support

The slew of negative fundamentals has sent AXS's price below a key support level, which may lead to extended downside moves in the coming weeks.

AXS plunged below $18-$19 support range this week, which was instrumental in capping its downside attempts since the beginning of May. Also, testing the range as support had followed up with a circa 800% bull run between July 2021 and November 2021, as shown below.

*AXS/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

Now, the path of least resistance for AXS looks skewed to the downside with the next downside target at around $9 by September 2022, more than 50% lower than today's price. Notably, the $9-level served as resistance during the April-June 2021 session.

Conversely, a bullish cue comes from AXS's potential "descending broadening wedge" (DBW) pattern on the weekly timeframe, confirmed by the token's fluctuation between two diverging, falling trendlines.

Traditional analysts consider DBW as a bullish reversal pattern, which, as a rule of technical analysis, resolves after the price breaks above the structure's upper trendline and rallies by as much as the pattern's maximum height, as shown in the chart below.

*AXS/USD weekly price chart featuring "descending broadening wedge" setup. Source: TradingView*

If the pattern is confirmed, AXS would rebound on the path toward $465 within an unspecific timeframe, nearly a 2,500% increase from today's price.

Blockchain.com Plans to Provide an NFT Domain Name to 83 Million Wallet Users

June 11, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Mastercard to Implement Payments for NFT and Web3 Projects

June 11, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Payments Giant Mastercard Expands Network, Allows Users To Purchase NFTs With Credit Cards

June 10, 2022 The Daily Hodl

This key Ethereum price metric shows ETH traders aren’t as bearish as they appear

June 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Traders keep saying ETH price will collapse below $1,600 soon, but a key trading metric shows most are unwilling to place bearish bets below $1,900.

Ether (ETH) is down 25% in just a month and even the recent upgrade to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus on the Ropsten testnet failed to move the altcoin’s price.

The merge is meant to address energy-use issues and open a path for higher transaction output, but the actual full transition for the Ethereum network is not expected until later in the year. Ethereum developer Parithosh Jayanthi also noted that some bugs on the PoS implementation emerged, but those should be fixed over the coming weeks.

Luckily for Ethereum, two of its top competitors recently faced challenges of their own. The Solana (SOL) network faced the fifth outage in 2022 after no new blocks were produced for four hours on June 1. Every decentralized application was halted until the validators were able to address the problem and re-sync the network.

More recently, Binance’s native BNB token dropped 7% on June 7 after news that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had opened an investigation into the initial coin offer (ICO) from 2017. According to Bloomberg, at least one U.S. resident claimed to have taken part in the ICO, which could be crucial for an SEC case.

Regulatory uncertainty could be partially responsible for Ether's sharp correction. On June 6, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released a note warning about the investment risks of nonfungible tokens . The regulatory agency highlighted the sectors' opaque pricing, illiquid markets and frauds.

Options traders are still extremely risk-averse

Traders should look at Ether's derivatives markets data to understand how larger-sized traders are positioned. The 25% delta skew is a telling sign whenever whales and arbitrage desks overcharge for upside or downside protection.

If those traders fear an Ether price crash, the skew indicator will move above 10%. On the other hand, generalized excitement reflects a negative 10% skew. That is precisely why the metric is known as the pro traders' fear and greed metric.

*Ether 30-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch*

The skew indicator has been above 10% since May 22, and it recently peaked at 20% on June 3. Those levels signal extreme fear from options traders, and despite the modest improvement, the current 17% delta skew shows whales and arbitrage desks unwilling to take downside risk.

Long-to-short data is showing a few positives

The top traders' long-to-short net ratio excludes externalities that might have solely impacted the options markets. By analyzing these top clients' positions on the spot, perpetual and quarterly futures contracts, one can better understand whether professional traders are leaning bullish or bearish.

There are occasional methodological discrepancies between different exchanges, so viewers should monitor changes instead of absolute figures.

*Exchanges' top traders Ether long-to-short ratio. Source: Coinglass*

Even though Ether has struggled to sustain $1,800 as a support, professional traders did not change their positions between June 5 and 9, according to the long-to-short indicator.

Binance displayed a modest decrease in its long-to-short ratio, as the indicator moved from 0.99 to the current 0.96 in four days. Thus, those traders slightly net increased their bearish bets.

Huobi data shows a similar pattern and the indicator moved from 1.02 to 0.98 on June 9, which was a small change favoring shorts. At OKX exchange, the metric oscillated drastically within the period but finished nearly unchanged at 1.35.

Mixed derivatives data provides hope for bulls

Overall, there hasn't been a significant change in whales and market makers' leverage positions despite Ether's failure to break the $1,900 resistance on June 6.

From one side, options traders fear that a deeper Ether price correction is likely in the making, but at the same time, futures market players have no conviction to increase bearish bets.

This reading is likely a "glass half full" scenario as the top traders' unwillingness to short below $1,900 can potentially create a support level.

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.

Solana Ventures Launches $100 Million Fund Focused on Web3 Projects in South Korea

June 9, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Report: Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord Attacker May Have Been Involved in Previous NFT Phishing Scams

June 7, 2022 Bitcoin.com

How to buy NFTs on Solana?

June 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

With the introduction of platforms like Solana, buyers may now purchase NFTs for a low transaction charge and with minimal congestion.

The burgeoning popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has led to issues like exorbitant transaction fees and congestion in the prevalent Ethereum-based ecosystem. The fee factor serves as a major deterrent to anyone wanting to execute transactions on the blockchain.

A report published by Reuters revealed that the NFT sales volume was $24.9 billion in 2021, considerably more than the $94.9 million in 2020. The number of wallets trading in NFTs jumped to about 28.6 million, from a modest 545,000 in 2020. Recently, when Bored Ape minted its NFTs, the gas fee surged to $3300, showing a glimpse of how bad the costs were on Ethereum (ETH).

Solana (SOL) has emerged as a prominent challenger to Ethereum, performing amazingly better on two key metrics, speed and transaction cost, thanks to an innovative proof-of-history (PoH) timing mechanism along with a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol structure.

In this article, we will discuss the advantage Solana has over other blockchains and marketplaces as well as how to buy NFTs on Solana.

The Solana advantage

This blockchain clocks block time (0.4 seconds) and block size (20,000 transactions) compared to Ethereum (block time: 13 seconds, block size: 70 transactions) allowing the network an incredibly low gas fee of just $0.00025 per transaction.

The arrival of solutions like Solana enables buyers to purchase NFTs with a negligible transaction fee or few congestion issues. Practically, it means that Solana or SOL NFTs are more easily accessible than those on Ethereum.

In the second half of 2021, the price of Solana NFTs began picking up. A Degenerate Ape NFT sold for around $1.1 million in September 2021, becoming the first million-dollar NFT sale on the Solana network. In October 2021, a Solana Monkey was sold for $2 million.

Solana NFT marketplaces

If you are wondering where you can buy Solana NFTs, marketplaces are the answer. All functions related to NFTs such as minting, buying, selling and trading occur on specific marketplaces. This is quite like the usual cryptocurrencies, which are managed through exchanges and crypto wallets. OpenSea is the most popular NFT marketplace on Ethereum.

SolSea, Solanart and DigitalEyes are three prominent marketplaces that support Solana NFTs. SolSea enables creators to choose and embed their licenses while minting NFTs. On Solanart, you can find, collect and trade NFTs. DigitalEyes is a popular platform featuring collections like the Solana Monkey Business and Frakt.

How to buy Solana NFTs

Busy thinking about how to buy and sell Solana NFTs? Purchasing NFTs on Solana involves a few steps, as explained below:

Get a Solana wallet

The first step you need to take is to get a Solana-based wallet. Two better known wallets are SolFlare and Phantom. Advanced users may use Sollet, an open source wallet. Each of these NFT marketplaces have collections, fees and terms to work that you need to take into account. So, you need to do adequate research at your end before committing your funds.

Create a new wallet on your chosen solution and connect it with the Solana marketplace you have selected. The website of the market place will guide you through the process.

An important thing to remember, don't try to do anything on Solana via Metamask, a popular wallet on Ethereum, or else your SOL will disappear forever as MetaMask doesn’t recognize SOL tokens. Phantom is the Metamask of Solana Network.

Get SOL coins

You have to use SOL cryptocurrency on Solana NFT platforms, just like you use ETH on Ethereum-based marketplaces. SOL coins are for sale on various exchanges. The typical process involves connecting your fiat account with the exchange, moving funds and purchasing the required SOL amount. You need to withdraw this SOL to your wallet address.

To be on the safe side, withdraw just what you need for buying the NFT. For instance, in case an NFT is available for 15 SOL, you may withdraw exactly that amount along with the transaction fee needed. Alternatively, you can change your stablecoins to SOL on an exchange and move the currency to your wallet address.

Develop a strategy

When it comes to NFT investment, there is no singular strategy. In line with your goals, you have to come up with your own. Collectibles are in demand as are artworks, achievements and other assets associated with renowned personalities as they help fans to feel connected with them. For someone interested in games, there are plenty of NFTs of sports stars or games memorabilia to make them feel elated and earn income as well.

While buyers are putting in their funds for earning a profit, you may also prefer to ensure that your investments align with your interests. Someone who is fond of playing games will surely want an NFT right from a popular game, probably a reward NFT. And if you like spending time on metaverses, you may want to get one from the one you simply love hopping to.

Finding what is trending on the Solana marketplaces will help you zero in on the pieces that are likely to get maximum traction. If you aren’t very used to the NFT world, this will help you to get a feel of the NFt world.

Buy your NFTs

Whatever platform you choose, you might like to check out the latest or trending NFTs. Go through as many collections as you can before arriving at a decision. If you want to keep the costs low, include this criterion in the filter when searching for top Solana NFTs.

Just click on the NFT and go through the information available about the piece. Become apprised of the information like the owner of the NFT, the price and the offer you will make once the wallet connection is set.

Solanart, the most stable of the NFT marketplaces on the network, takes around 20 seconds from start to finish and less than half a dollar transaction fee. The price history of all collections is available on the marketplace. Solana NFT marketplaces may still be nowhere near OpenSea, which has been around since 2017, but they are soon catching up.

Update wallet

On most wallets, you will find a Buy button that you need to click. The wallet will then usually seek approval of the purchase. It will show you the amount you are going to spend as well as the transaction fee you will incur. Once you approve and make the purchase, you can see it residing in the relevant section. On the Phantom wallet, for instance, it gets transferred to the Collection section.

The process is quite straightforward and you shouldn't have any problem in completing the transaction after transferring SOL into your wallet. A reason for the growing popularity of Solana platforms is that they are simple to use.

The days ahead

The NFT revolution has just begun and there are still miles to go. As the ecosystem progresses, more marketplaces will emerge. We can say for sure that these marketplaces will be better than the current lot. User interfaces will be more intuitive and a wider range of features will be available, adding up to user experience.

As the Solana community progresses with time, the number of NFT buyers will grow as well, giving a fillip to the growth potential of your NFT values. Just make sure you buy each SOL NFT only after giving it proper thought and you should do fine.

NFT