Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Hedget (HGET) soar as altcoins lift off

New partnerships and protocol upgrades back the strong rallies seen in Horizen, Hedget and Zcash over the past few months.

Three of Cathie Wood’s ARK exchange-traded funds bought nearly $246 million worth of Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) shares on its listing day. Another fund, Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) also purchased COIN stock. These purchases show that ETFs are eager to buy into the crypto growth story.

However, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink has a different point of view. Fink said that institutional investors were fascinated by crypto but that did not translate into demand from institutions worldwide.

One of the reasons for the fascination not turning into demand could be the sharp rally in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A new survey of professional investors by Bank of America shows that 74% of the respondents believe Bitcoin (BTC) is in a bubble.

Such criticisms are not new to cryptocurrencies. Traders who ignore the noise and purchase fundamentally strong coins generally tend to make huge returns in the long term.

Let’s retouch on three tokens which Cointelegraph analyzed earlier this year to see if they have continued their upward trajectory.

ZEN/USDT

Horizen (ZEN) was featured on Cointelegraph on Jan. 12 when the price of the token was at $28. The token sustained its momentum and has hit an intraday high at $108.77 today, a gain of 288% in just three months. Let’s look at some of the important developments that have taken place with Horizen in the past few weeks.

Recently Horizen said that development on the Zendoo mainnet release, which is due in the third quarter, is on track. The team claims Zendoo will offer improved scalability and flexibility suitable for commercial applications.

Decentralized finance has also opened a plethora of opportunities to investors. Horizen’s partnership with liquid staking platform StakeHound allows ZEN investors to participate and benefit from the Ethereum-based DeFi ecosystem.

Additionally, a string of partnerships with APIS, IOTA, DIA and Copper were announced in the past few weeks to expand the Horizen sidechain ecosystem. These developments seem to have attracted users as the company said its community had grown 13.2% in Q1 2021.

ZEN rallied from $52.54 on April 4 to an intraday high at $108.77 on April 15, a 107% rally in 12 days. Although the bears offered a stiff resistance at $86, the bulls have cleared the hurdle with force today. The first target objective on the upside is $119.45 and then $162.

The sharp rally of the past few days has pushed the relative strength index (RSI) above 83, indicating the ZEN/USDT pair is overbought in the near term. This could result in a minor correction or consolidation within the next few days.

If the bulls can flip the $86 level into support during the next correction, it will suggest that sentiment remains positive and traders are accumulating on dips. The bulls will then make another attempt to resume the uptrend.

This positive view will invalidate if the bears sink the price below $86. In such a case, the pair could drop to the 20-day exponential moving average ($71). A break below this support will signal the start of a deeper correction.

HGET/USDT

Hedget (HGET) was at $3.20 when it was highlighted by Cointelegraph on Jan. 14. Since then, the token rallied to an intraday high at $11.25 on March 31, a 251% return in about two and a half months.

The protocol has been forging partnerships to increase its user base. Hedget announced a tie-up with Fire Protocol on March 8 to issue HGET tokens on the HECO chain and integrate Hedget options within the Fire Protocol ecosystem. This will open the possibility for Hedget to provide options-based insurance mechanisms for the lending protocols on the HECO chain.

On March 9, Hedget announced a partnership with Clover Finance to build and test a two-way bridge between Binance Smart Chain and the Polkadot blockchain. Hedget said it will deploy its platform on the Clover Ecosystem, which will make it the first options trading platform in the Polkadot ecosystem.

On March 17, Hedget partnered with APYSwap to offer Vault token holders an opportunity to use options to reduce their impermanent loss.

These partnerships by Hedget show that the protocol is widening its user base, which is a long-term fundamental positive.

HGET has been in a corrective phase for the past few days. The token slipped from an all-time high at $10.95 on March 31 to $8.51 on April 11, a 22.28% correction in 12 days. In an uptrend, corrections to strong support levels offer a low-risk buying opportunity to traders.

The HGET/USDT pair has twice taken support on the 50-day simple moving average ($8.17) in the past few weeks. This suggests that the bulls are buying the dips to the 50-day SMA aggressively.

The pair has been trading just below the 20-day EMA ($8.93) for the past few days. However, the bears have not been able to capitalize on this weakness and challenge the 50-day SMA. This suggests that selling dries up at lower levels.

Both moving averages have flattened out and the RSI is just below the midpoint, indicating a balance between supply and demand.

This equilibrium is unlikely to remain for long. If the bulls can drive the price above the 20-day EMA with force, the pair could retest the all-time high. A breakout of this resistance could start the next leg of the uptrend that could reach $12.39 and then $15.

This bullish view will invalidate if the bears sink and sustain the price below the 50-day SMA. Such a move could pull the price down to $7 and then to $5.18.

ZEC/USDT

Zcash (ZEC) was one of the tokens that was covered by Cointelegraph on Jan. 14 when it was trading at $109.93. Since then, the token has continued its northward march and hit an intraday high at $252.89 today, a 130% return in about three months.

Electric Coin Co., the company behind Zcash, announced the next set of upgrades dubbed Harlo Arc, set to release on Oct. 1 of this year, in conjunction with the activation of Network Upgrade 5 (NU5) and unified addresses.

Halo Arc will include updates to Zcashd, the ECC Reference Wallet apps and the ECC wallet SDKs. NU5 will move Zcash from zk-SNARKs to the Halo proving system and unified addresses will improve usability, increase the ease of interoperability and support shielding Zcash by default.

ZEC price has been in a strong uptrend. It has risen from $162.52 on April 7 to an intraday high at $252.89 today, a rise of 55% in nine days. The sharp rally of the past few days has pushed the RSI into the overbought zone, indicating the possibility of a minor correction or consolidation.

The first major support on the downside is the 20-day EMA ($194). The bulls are defending this support in the current leg of the rally as seen from the strong bounce on April 8.

If the ZEC/USDT pair again rebounds off the 20-day EMA, the bulls will try to resume the uptrend. If they succeed, the pair could start its journey toward $350.

Contrary to this assumption, if the bears sink the price below the 20-day EMA and the $190 support, it will suggest the start of a deeper correction to the 50-day SMA ($155) and then $120.

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.