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Avalanche rebounds 25% in five days as AVAX price tests key level — big rally ahead?

May 5, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Avalanche

Crypto market correlation and Valkyrie's Avalanche fund launch also helped push AVAX to a weekly high.

Avalanche (AVAX) has rebounded strongly five days after testing a key inflection area as its support. Now, the AVAX/USD pair faces the possibility of continuing its upside retracement move further into Q2.

A 30%-plus move ahead?

AVAX's price surged to almost $69.50 on May 5 from nearly $55 on April 30, a 25% jump.

Interestingly, AVAX's rebound move surfaced inside the same support area ($54-60 range) that had preceded a 100% and a 175% price rally in the January 2022-April 2022 and the October 2021-November 2021 session, respectively.

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

Additionally, the lower trendline of the AVAX's prevailing descending channel pattern (possibly a "bull flag") served as support. That raised the Avalanche token's potential to extend its rebound move towards the channel's upper trendline near $90, up almost 35% from today's price.

Valkyrie launches AVAX fund

AVAX's price rally also coincided with similar upside moves elsewhere in the crypto market, in part due to Federal Reserve's announcement on May 4 to hike interest rates by 0.5% against the widely-anticipated 0.75%.

AVAX is up by about 20% when measured from its May 4's lows near $59. Interestingly, its gains turned out to be higher than its top rivaling assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Polkadot (DOT). That could be due to Valkyrie.

The Tennessee-based crypto investment firm announced on May 4 that it is launching an Avalanche Trust (VAVAX) for accredited investors. It set the minimum investment at $25,000 and, according to sources, has already attracted $25 million to its vaults.

We're excited to partner with @avalancheavax to launch the Valkyrie Avalanche Trust today! Gain secure access to $AVAX within the ease of a trust vehicle.
Learn more below pic.twitter.com/UvpnDId0ln
— Valkyrie (@ValkyrieFunds) May 4, 2022

The launch comes after Avalanche saw uptrends in key metrics, including usage and revenue generation.

In detail, the network's average daily transactions nearly doubled in Q1/2022 (+82.8%) compared to the previous quarter, while its total income grew by 72.7% in the same timeframe, reports Messari researcher James Trautman.

*Avalanche network value and cumulative revenue during Q1. Source: Messari*

The analyst further highlighted that Avalanche's revenue growth could put "upward pressures" on AVAX's market value, given its proof-of-stake network burns 100% of fees (derived in AVAX), and thus lowers the total supply in circulation.

"This drives value to all token holders through increased scarcity rather than compounding the balances of validators and delegators," Trautman wrote, adding:

"The question is just how statistically significant the spread between revenue and market value is [...] As fundamental value (as opposed to speculative value) becomes a more substantial part of market value, a strong correlation between revenue and market value should theoretically exist."

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.

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Crypto dealer SFOX gets trust charter approval from Wyoming regulators

March 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Business

“The new charter will enable us to provide secure, reliable and efficient investment, trading, and custodian services for a wide range of digital assets," said SFOX co-founder Akbar Thobhani.

The State of Wyoming has approved California-based crypto broker SFOX for a trust charter, allowing the firm to provide custodial and other crypto-related services to institutional clients.

In a Tuesday announcement, SFOX said the Wyoming trust charter will allow the firm to operate in the state as the SAFE Trust Company, offering services to institutional clients, private clients, and advisers. According to the company, SAFE will “serve in a variety of fiduciary roles” including direct trustee, discretionary trustee, trust advisor, and protector.

“The new charter will enable us to provide secure, reliable and efficient investment, trading, and custodian services for a wide range of digital assets, meeting the needs of investors, particularly small-to-mid-sized firms, which until now have had limited access to these investments,” said SAFE CEO and SFOX co-founder Akbar Thobhani. “Our mission is to provide greater access to a broad range of digital assets in a fashion that is both secure and efficient.”

Excited to be the first crypto firm approved to serve as a Wyoming trust, and be part of the movement towards responsible crypto regulation spearheaded by @CynthiaMLummis and @WYLegislature Read more about our news here: https://t.co/H9j7eI7ERr
— SFOX (@SFox) March 1, 2022

Under the trust charter, SFOX said it would offer services to clients seeking investment opportunities in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and other tokens, custodying the digital assets in accordance with Wyoming’s regulatory framework. SAFE said it planned to get approval from the state’s banking regulator “to operate as an independent, regulated, qualified custodian of digital assets.”

Wyoming has often been at the forefront of a state-focused approach to digital asset regulation since granting crypto exchange Kraken a bank charter in September 2020. Following that decision, the state has gone on to elect its own crypto-friendly U.S. senator, Cynthia Lummis, as well as having its lawmakers introduce legislation recognizing DAOs as distinct limited liability companies and proposing the state treasurer have the authority to issue a stablecoin.

Founded in 2014, SFOX is backed by firms including the Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital, Y Combinator, and Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczy. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that a group of engineers and traders at the firm were planning to expand access to a BTC derivative product through non-deliverable forward contracts.

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Grayscale tops $50 billion: ‘Will soon pass world’s largest commodity ETF’

April 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Grayscale tops billion: ‘Will soon pass world’s largest commodity ETF’

Coin Telegraph

Grayscale continues to grow, passing $50 billion. That's equivalent to the world’s second-largest commodity ETF.

Major U.S. asset manager Grayscale has just surpassed $50 billion in cryptocurrency assets under management for the first time. Grayscale's AUM is creeping ever closer to the $57 billion holdings of the largest commodity ETF.

MILESTONE: We just reached $50 billion AUM. Yet another reason to #GoGrayscale. pic.twitter.com/Jrk7n6TAOI
— Grayscale (@Grayscale) April 14, 2021

The company has plans to convert into an ETF when regulations allow.

If the ETF had been approved already, Grayscale would be the second-largest commodity ETF behind SPDR Gold Shares. GLD is a physically-backed gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) with listings on stock exchanges in the U.S., Mexico, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein tweeted that he believes the Grayscale Bitcoin Fund, or GBTC, is likely to surpass the GLD fund by market cap in a few months.

'We believe gold symbolizes the diminishing potential for sustained commodity-price advances, notably vs #Bitcoin. Assets in @Grayscale's $GBTC, the dominant on-exchange vehicle, are set to pass funds in the leading gold-ETF tracker $GLD in a few months'@mikemcglone11 @JSeyff pic.twitter.com/YQwA6M5WFm
— Michael Sonnenshein (@Sonnenshein) April 14, 2021

Grayscale provides cryptocurrency exposure to institutional investors and holds approximately 660,000 BTC in total representing 3.5% of Bitcoin’s 18.68 million circulating supply. Almost 655,000 of these are held in Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust.

Grayscale doesn’t just deal in Bitcoin, with almost 20% of the company’s AUM spread across a dozen other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum ($7.4b), Litecoin ($405m), Ethereum Classic ($267m), and Bitcoin Cash ($234m). In the last month, five more trusts were created — Decentraland's MANA ($18.6m), Livepeer ($13m), Filecoin ($7.7m), Basic Attention Token ($4.8m) and Chainlink ($4.5m).

The firm is already the largest U.S. digital asset manager by a large margin, with Pantera, the second-largest manager, holding only $4.3 billion, less than one-tenth of the $50 billion held by Grayscale.

Yesterday the asset manager announced a partnership with Time Magazine to produce an educational crypto videos series. The magazine also agreed to receive payment in Bitcoin and hold the digital asset on its balance sheet.

Trust

A 30%-plus move ahead?

Valkyrie launches AVAX fund

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