investment

Feb 25 2021

Philippines based Moneybees, an OTC Cryptocurrency Service, Launches New Outlets to Support Local Bitcoin, Ethereum Transactions

Moneybees, which claims to be the very first over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency service in the Philippines, has announced that it’s launching three new outlets this month.

The outlets are being opened to accommodate the growing demand for OTC transactions among Filipino cryptocurrency traders and investors, according to a release shared with Crowdfund Insider.

The update revealed that the large volume of crypto transactions has come at a time when the Bitcoin (BTC) and larger digital asset market continues to set all-time highs.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at around $50,000 at the time of writing, after briefly surging as high as $58,000. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and in terms of adoption, is currently trading at just over $1,600 after briefly crossing the $2,000 mark.

The present crypto market bull run has seen hundreds of billions of dollars in capital entering the market within weeks. The BTC market cap had managed to exceed $1 trillion but has now retraced to around $936 billion (at time of writing). Ethereum market cap presently stands at around $186 billion (and had surpassed $200 billion recently).

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno had noted late last year that the institution had recorded 59 billion worth of digital currency transactions during H1 2020 (in the Philippines).

Moneybees is focused on banking the crypto industry by teaming with money changers such as Tivoli Money Exchange, an institutional money changer service that was founded in 1983.

Moneybees is now able to serve more clients who need to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies via Tivoli’s Trinoma, Glorietta, and Okada branches.

As mentioned in the update:

“This partnership with Tivoli brings a total of 7 outlets for Moneybees where their customers can cash out their trading gains from exchanges that don’t have peso cashouts like Binance, Bittrex, Bitstamp, etc. Users can transact as high as P5,000,000 in one day.”

Paulo Del Puerto, CEO of Moneybees, noted that “the partnership with Tivoli is a great step for us to fulfill our mission of making crypto more accessible in the Philippines by providing a familiar and secure way of buying and selling crypto via OTC.”

Launched in 2017, Moneybees is now an established cryptocurrency over-the-counter service in the Philippines. The company aims to make the exchange between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies a lot more accessible. It offers the technology to local money changer businesses with physical outlets so they are able to carry out digital currency transactions at their shops, without having to deal with the risk of excessive market volatility.

Moneybees reportedly supports nearly all crypto users who are using Binance, Bitmex and other exchange services.

Paulo Del Puerto added:

“With the rising demand for cryptocurrency trading and investment, we aim to facilitate 2 Billion pesos worth of transaction volume in 2021. To serve more customers, we’re also looking at opening more outlets in malls around the Philippines and partner with major market players in the remittance and money exchange industry. We target to open 100 outlets by the end of the year.”

Moneybees is “duly registered” with the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas and with the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) as “a Remittance Agent with Virtual Currency Exchange (VCE) service.”

Moneybees confirmed that it only works with government-licensed or approved remittance centers and money changers in order to facilitate financial transactions. The company plans to further expand its services nationwide by working with even more outlets in major cities in the country.

(Note: to view the list of locations of Moneybees outlets, you can check here.)

Source

Feb 25 2021

Focus on DeFi ‘fairness’ benefits Holochain, Orion Protocol and Dodo

Bitcoin’s (BTC) strong bull run and the immense popularity of the decentralized finance space have attracted several new investors to cryptocurrencies. A report from Crypto.com shows a massive increase in crypto users as the figure rose from 66 million in May 2020 to 106 million by January this year.

*Crypto market data daily view. Source:* *Coin360*

Contrary to the popular notion that new crypto users are mostly speculating on the price, data from Unchained Capital shows that investors who bought in the past three to five years are still holding and are not yet tempted to book profits.

Unlike the 2017 bull market where many low-cap altcoins rallied, the current bull trend has rewarded projects with strong fundamentals. Let’s have a look at three such tokens and also analyze their charts.

HOT/USD

Holochain (HOT) aims to provide the solution for the scalability problems which may be a limiting factor in the crypto sector. Holochain wants to give control of data and privacy back to the people, eliminating large corporations and middlemen.

To achieve that, Holo, a distributed peer-to-peer hosting platform, acts as the link between the web and the Holochain apps. Holochain wants to make this technology available to users who can access the apps in a web browser. If this needs to be done, the technology must have vast scalability, fast speeds, and it should also be financially viable. The team at Holochain believes they are on the path to achieving this goal.

As part of the process, Holochain launched an app called Elemental Chat that runs on HoloPorts. The team is also planning to enable web users to log into Elemental Chat through the HoloPort. This will put the protocol’s scalability claims to the test and help to further fine-tune the project.

The team has also outlined the progress on the upcoming milestones of the Holo suite of products that will be progressively released in the future. If the team delivers on its promises, the protocol may attract investor attention.

HOT surged from $0.0007817 on Feb. 8 to an intraday high at $0.00424 on Feb. 21, a 442% rally within two weeks. This up-move had pushed the relative strength index (RSI) above 92 on Feb. 21, indicating the market was extremely overbought in the short term.

*HOT/USDT daily chart. Source:* *TradingView*

That resulted in profit-booking on Feb. 22 and 23, which pulled the price down to the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.0021028. But the positive sign is that the long tail on the candlesticks on both days showed strong buying at lower levels.

However, traders who are stuck at higher levels are dumping their positions on rallies, as seen from the long wick on the Feb. 24 candlestick.

After the large intraday range of the past few days, the HOT/USD pair has formed an inside day candlestick pattern today, indicating a balance between supply and demand. The pair may now consolidate for a few days.

If the bulls can push the price above $0.00363, a retest of $0.00424 is possible. A breakout of this level could start the next leg of the up-move that may reach $0.0055629.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below $0.0028, the pair may drop to the 20-day exponential moving average ($0.0020).

ORN/USD

As the decentralized finance space grows, many new projects are being announced on a regular basis. It becomes difficult for investors to keep track of all of them. Hence, a liquidity aggregator that connects to several decentralized and centralized exchanges in order to swap pools and provide access from a single platform may be sought after and this is what the Orion protocol (ORN) aims to do.

The protocol plans to offer its investor’s a variety of revenue streams. The Orion Liquidity Boost Plugin offers increased liquidity to its partners and has already onboarded Polkastarter and many other blockchain projects.

Orion’s Launchpad Liquidity has partnered with DAO Marker and DuckDAO, which will enable projects launch incubated projects on the launchpad’s own platform

Orion recently launched the staking calculator, allowing ORN token holders to calculate the staking rewards and attain APY’s of up to 38%.

After launching the first phase of the Orion Terminal’s mainnet on Dec. 15, the team plans to add several features like derivatives, leveraged ETFs, contract trading, NFTs, lending, margin trading and staking of any digital asset by 2021.

As more products are launched, the revenue is likely to increase and that may benefit ORN token holders.

ORN has been in a strong bull run this year. It rallied from $4.3014 on Feb. 8 to an intraday high at $15.20 today, a 253% rally in just over two weeks. As a result, the RSI has surged to above 91 levels, indicating the possibility of a short-term fall or a range-bound trading action.

*ORN/USDT daily chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The bears tried to stall the rally on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23, but the long tail and the positive closes of each day show that the bulls purchased the dips and resumed the rally.

However, today it looks as if traders booked profits and a retest of the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $11.4379 is possible.

If the ORN/USD pair rises from this support level, it will indicate strong demand at lower levels. That could result in a retest of $15.20 and a breakout of this resistance may propel the pair to $20.

On the other hand, a break below $10.2759 could pull the price down to the 20-day EMA ($8.21). Such a deep fall could delay the next leg of the up-move.

DODO/USD

The DeFi space has been attracting investor attention in the past few months. However, the growing popularity has clogged the Ethereum network gas fees have soared to unsustainable levels. Therefore, traders are searching for options that are on competing networks and charge fewer fees. Binance Smart Chain has been one of the major beneficiaries of this trend.

DODO is a decentralized exchange that uses the Proactive Market Maker (PMM) algorithm, which the team claims is better than automated market makers. DODO offers several features such as trading, aggregation, initial DEX offerings, and mining.

DODO introduced Crowdpooling in January, and this feature aims to provide equal opportunity to investors by addressing the biggest issues being faced by new projects. If successful, Crowdpooling will help prevent frontrunning, insufficient liquidity, and the high costs associated with attracting liquidity. The first phase of the DODO V2 Beta crowdfunding pool called ‘ShuttleOne’ was a huge success as it was oversubscribed by 173 times.

DODO token was listed on Binance on Feb. 19 following the DODO V2 Public Beta launch on the Ethereum Mainnet and Binance Smart Chain on Feb. 22. There are also several incentive programs available on BSC.

DODO price rallied from an intraday low at $2.788 to an intraday high at $10 on Feb. 19. The token had strong listing gains but since then, the price has been in a corrective phase.

*DODO/USD 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

The bulls attempted to start a rebound off $3.50 on Feb. 23, but the bears continue to sell on minor rallies, indicating a negative sentiment. However, a minor positive is that the bulls have been defending the $4.50 level for some time.

If the price turns up from the current level and breaks above $5.660, the DODO/USD pair may rise to $7.50. This level is likely to act as a stiff resistance but if crossed, the pair could rally to $8.75 and then retest $10. The next leg of the uptrend may resume above this level.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below $4.50, a drop to $3.50 is possible. The selling could intensify if the $3.50 to $2.788 support cracks.

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.

Focus on DeFi ‘fairness’ benefits Holochain, Orion Protocol and Dodo

Source

Feb 24 2021

Traders remain bullish even as DeFi’s TVL falls to $54.4 billion

Decentralized finance and the numerous platforms offering investment services have been the talk of the cryptocurrency sector for several months, and this has resulted in investors capturing spectacular gains for some of the top DeFi tokens like Uniswap’s UNI and AAVE.

The fast-moving prices and 1,000% annual percentage yield on staked tokens elicited cheers from investors when the market was going up, but the recent selling pressure seen as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped below $45,000 shows that the highest fliers are often the quickest to fall as traders rush to exit their positions and lock in their gains.

*Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source:* *Coin360*

On Feb. 22, Bitcoin’s price entered a sharp corrective phase that saw the top digital asset pull back by more than 20% from its all-time high of $58,274. As this occurred, the majority of altcoins also saw double-digit corrections, and DeFi tokens like PancakeSwap’s CAKE fell as much as 55%.

Total value locked in DeFi shows resilience

The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi platforms also took a hit as Bitcoin and altcoins corrected. Data from DeFi Llama shows the combined TVL of all DeFi platforms fell from $64.89 billion to $54.22 billion on Feb. 24. Cointelegraph also reported that this week’s correction led to the second-largest day of DeFi loan liquidations in history.

*Total value locked in DeFi. Source:* *DeFi Llama*

The decline in TVL is a result of decreasing token values rather than protocol outflows, indicating that tokenholders remain committed to the continued expansion of decentralized finance and that the current yields are still incentivizing investors to remain engaged.

Market analysis indicates that despite the recent $5.8-billion Bitcoin and altcoin liquidation, bulls remain optimistic and see this price pullback as a sign of a healthy market.

The same goes for the DeFi sector, which has been in a strong uptrend since the start of the year. Increasing DEX volume and as a rising TVL show that DeFi is still in the early stages of growth, and while pullbacks are to be expected, the overall trend is positive as institutional and retail investors increasingly gain exposure to this emerging asset class.

Traders remain bullish even as DeFi’s TVL falls to $54.4 billion

Source

Feb 22 2021

Price analysis 2/22: BTC, ETH, BNB, DOT, ADA, XRP, LTC, LINK, BCH, XLM

Every uptrend witnesses periodic bouts of profit-booking as short-term traders tend to unwind positions either on adverse news or at critical technical resistance levels. This occurred with Bitcoin (BTC) today as the price momentarily dropped below $48,000 and traders scrambled to close or top up positions before being liquidated.

Elon Musk’s tweet on Feb. 20 that said Bitcoin prices “seem high” and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning today on Bitcoin being “extremely inefficient” could have dampened short-term sentiment.

Another possible factor that may have exacerbated the fall could have been the unwinding of excessively leveraged long positions. About $1.64 billion worth of Bitcoin futures positions were liquidated during today’s sharp pullback.

However, derivatives data for Bitcoin futures do not show any negative development, as highlighted by Cointelegraph Markets analyst Marcel Pechman.

Let’s analyze the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to spot the critical levels on the upside and the key support levels on the downside.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin broke above the resistance line of the ascending channel on Feb. 19, but could not pick up momentum. This showed that the current uptrend was tiring out. Traders aggressively booked profits today, which pulled the price down to the 20-day exponential moving average ($48,081).

However, the lower levels continue to attract buyers as seen from the long tail on the daily candlestick. If the price sustains above the midpoint of the channel, the bulls will again try to push the pair above the channel.

If they manage to do that, the BTC/USD pair could resume the uptrend. The next target on the upside is $60,974.43 and then $66,000. The upsloping moving averages and the relative strength index (RSI) in the positive territory suggest that bulls are in control.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price sustains below the midpoint of the channel, the bears will again try to break the 20-day EMA support. If they manage to do that, the pair may drop to the 50-day simple moving average ($39,885).

ETH/USD

Ether (ETH) turned down from the resistance line of the ascending channel on Feb. 20, indicating that traders booked profits after the price reached the psychologically important level at $2,000.

The selling continued today and the ETH/USD pair dropped to the support line of the ascending channel. However, the positive sign is that the bulls purchased the dip as seen from the long tail on the day’s candlestick.

If the buyers can push and sustain the price above the 20-day EMA ($1,753), the positive momentum may remain intact.

On the contrary, if the price sustains below the 20-day EMA, the bears will try to sink the pair below the channel and the 50-day SMA ($1,465). If they succeed, the correction could deepen to $1,200 and then to $1,000.

BNB/USD

Binance Coin (BNB) has been witnessing volatile moves in the past few days. After the sharp rally on Feb. 19, traders aggressively booked profits on Feb. 20. The bulls tried to resume the uptrend on Feb. 21, but the higher levels have again attracted profit-booking.

The bulls are currently attempting to defend the zone between the 50% Fibonacci retracement level at $233.3485 and the 61.8% retracement level at $206.1262. If they succeed, the BNB/USD pair may continue the volatile range-bound action for a few more days.

On the contrary, if the bears sink the price below $206.1262, the decline could extend to the 20-day EMA ($168). This is an important support to keep an eye on because a break below it will suggest a trend change and a likely fall to $118.

DOT/USD

Polkadot (DOT) broke above the ascending channel on Feb. 19 and rose to a new all-time high at $42.2848 on Feb. 20. However, the long wick on the day’s candlestick showed profit-booking at higher levels.

After forming an inside day candlestick pattern on Feb. 21, the DOT/USD pair slumped back into the channel today. However, the bulls bought the dips and have pushed the price back above the channel.

The buyers will now try to push the price above $42.2848 and resume the uptrend. On the other hand, the bears will try to sink the pair back into the channel. If they succeed, the pair may drop to the 20-day EMA ($28.89).

ADA/USD

Cardano (ADA) surged above the $0.9817712 overhead resistance on Feb. 20 and reached $1.1980811. However, the long wick on the daily candlestick showed profit-booking at higher levels.

The selling intensified today and that pulled the ADA/USD pair down to the 20-day EMA ($0.834). However, the long tail on today’s candlestick shows aggressive buying at lower levels.

If the price sustains above $1, the bulls will try to resume the up-move. A breakout of $1.1980811 could open the doors for a rally to $1.25 and then $1.50.

Conversely, if the price slips below $0.9817712, the pair may again drop to the 20-day EMA. This is an important support to watch out for because if it cracks, the correction may deepen to $0.6879684.

XRP/USD

XRP continues to trade inside the $0.50 to $0.65 range. The altcoin bucked the trend today and rallied while most other major cryptocurrencies were witnessing sharp selling.

The price had rallied to $0.65155 today but the bulls could not sustain the higher levels. This shows the bears have not yet thrown in the towel.

However, the upsloping 20-day EMA ($0.50) and the RSI in the positive territory suggest the path of least resistance is to the upside. If the bulls can propel and sustain the price above $0.65, the rally may extend to $0.78608.

This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current levels and breaks below the $0.50 support. If that happens, the XRP/USD pair may drop to $0.3855.

LTC/USD

The bulls could not sustain Litecoin (LTC) above the $240 overhead resistance from Feb. 17 to Feb. 21. This failure to resume the uptrend could have attracted profit-booking from short-term traders, which resulted in a sharp fall today.

The LTC/USD pair broke below the 20-day EMA ($198) and the $185.5821 support today, but the long tail on the day’s candlestick shows the bulls purchased this dip. The flattening 20-day EMA and the RSI just above the midpoint, suggest a balance between supply and demand.

If the price sustains above the 20-day EMA, the bulls will again try to resume the uptrend. On the contrary, if the price again slips below the 20-day EMA, the pair may drop to the 50-day SMA ($165). A break below this support could pull the pair down to $120.

LINK/USD

Chainlink (LINK) turned down from the resistance line of the ascending channel on Feb. 20 and formed a Doji candlestick pattern on Feb. 21. The uncertainty of the Doji candlestick was resolved to the downside today.

The LINK/USD pair plunged below the 20-day EMA ($30) and the support line of the channel today. However, the long tail on the candlestick shows aggressive buying by the bulls at lower levels.

If the bulls can sustain the price inside the channel, it will suggest that the uptrend remains intact. On the contrary, if the price again breaks below the channel, it will indicate a possible trend change.

The next critical support on the downside is the 50-day SMA ($23.82) and if this support also cracks, the decline may extend to $20.1111.

BCH/USD

The range-bound action in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) resolved to the downside today when the price dipped below the $670 support. This breakdown showed that the equilibrium had tilted in favor of the bears.

The BCH/USD pair broke below the 20-day EMA ($610) and fell to an intraday low at $533.33 today. However, the bulls aggressively purchased the dip below the $539 support, resulting in a sharp rebound.

If the price sustains above the 20-day EMA, the bulls will again try to push the price back into the $670 to $745.39 range. If they succeed, it will suggest that the current correction could be over.

On the contrary, if the price sustains below the 20-day EMA, the pair may again drop to $539 and then to the 50-day SMA ($510).

XLM/USD

Stellar Lumens (XLM) failed to resume its uptrend in the past few days, which showed a lack of demand at higher levels. This could have attracted profit-booking from short-term traders who may have dumped their positions today.

The XLM/USD pair broke below the 20-day EMA ($0.44) and the $0.409 support today, but the bulls purchased at lower levels. The flattish 20-day EMA and the RSI below 58 suggest the bullish momentum may be weakening.

If the bulls fail to sustain the price above the 20-day EMA, the bears will again try to sink the price below $0.409. If they manage to do that, the pair could slide to the $0.35 support.

On the other hand, if the price sustains above the 20-day EMA, the bulls will again try to resume the uptrend. A break above $0.535 will suggest an advantage to the bulls and may result in a retest of $0.600681.

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.

Market data is provided by HitBTC exchange.

Price analysis 2/22: BTC, ETH, BNB, DOT, ADA, XRP, LTC, LINK, BCH, XLM

Source

Feb 21 2021

Real Estate Investment Platform Fundrise Explains how Long-Term Net Return Is Most Appropriate Way to Measure their Performance for Investors

Fundrise, a real estate investment platform using Reg A+ to provide access to “eREITs and eFunds,” notes that it’s hard to imagine a single person or industry who may have been left untouched by the unprecedented events of 2020 (following the COVD-19 outbreak).

Fundrise is “no different,” the company acknowledged. While it has always been one of their “deepest-held” convictions that they need to make preparations for the unpredictable as though it were “inevitable,” the events of the past year were “beyond anything we could have imagined,” Fundrise admitted.

Because of these events, 2020 proved to be the “truest test to date” of the Fundrise platform, the “durability” of the business model they’ve developed, and the overall quality of our preparation, the company noted.

They also mentioned that at the end of the day, net return (over the long term) is “arguably the most appropriate way to measure our performance for investors, and given that last year saw the worst real estate downturn in over a decade, we are once again encouraged by the resilience of the portfolio.”

The company confirmed that the net Fundrise platform return was around +7.42% for the year, in comparison with about +20.95% for the stock market (as measured by the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) and -4.72% for publicly-traded REITs (as measured by the Vanguard Real Estate ETF).

The Fundrise team added that although they view these results as “further validation” of their direct-to-investor, “technology-enabled,” long-term approach, a single number “feels lacking in its ability to paint a full picture of all that transpired.” They also noted that as they take this time to reflect and evaluate their work, they’re hoping that by providing transparency into their decisions and actions, their investors stay well-informed and “clear-eyed” regarding what to expect from Fundrise moving forward.

The Fundrise 2019 year-end letter to investors (Jan 16, 2020) had noted that “some may call this approach too conservative, but our belief is that the investors who have achieved consistent success spanning multiple decades tend to spend more time protecting against the downside than they do regretting the upside they may have missed.”

Fundrise confirmed that they began the year in “awe” of a stock market that “seemed further and further disconnected from reality and concerned about what we felt was a general bubble forming across many different asset classes.” That’s why they’ve focused their attention on reminding investors of “what they could expect in the event of a sudden market downturn, as well as building out investment strategies” that they think are sustainable through “substantial near-term headwinds as a result of having strong long-term fundamentals.”

The Fundrise market report, published on February 12, 2021, noted:

“Similar to the stock market, the real estate industry was experiencing a K-shaped recovery where some asset classes, such as suburban apartments and industrial logistics facilities, were actually seeing increased demand due to the impact of the virus, as well as improved financing due to lower overall interest rates. Meanwhile, urban apartments, retail centers, office buildings, and hotels were all struggling to survive dramatic decreases in demand.”

The report continued:

“Unlike the stock market, distressed real estate assets were not ‘repricing’ — in other words they were not available for purchase at 30% less than their previous price. In fact, given that such assets would likely be priced lower by the market, most were not being offered for sale at all. Instead, as is logical, they were being held onto by their owners in a state of limbo as lenders and banks offered temporary forbearance.”

The report added that when faced with “fewer overall opportunities,” and in many instances assets that “arguably had yet to price in the impact of the pandemic on their operations, we chose to remain patient.” Fundrise also mentioned that they “generally held onto cash instead of deploying into overpriced assets,” and when they did actually engage in transactions, they mainly focused their acquisition efforts on those “same strategies” that they felt were well-positioned to “succeed over the long-term, regardless of near-term pricing inefficiency.”

While the 7.42% return recorded last year represents the weighted average performance of around 150,000 unique Fundrise investor accounts (as one figure), it “fails to capture the nuance of both what drove those returns, and how those returns were distributed across our increasingly large and diverse investor base,” the company explained.

They clarified:

“Our managed funds, which together make up the Fundrise portfolio, ended the year with approximately $265 million of cash on hand, which represents approximately 20% of the roughly $1.3 billion of collective equity. And while much of that is to be invested over the coming months (we ended the year with more than $350 million of deals under contract and expected to close during the first half of 2021), holding that amount of cash does serve to lower returns in the short run.”

The Fundrise report added:

“Although not representative or indicative of any actual or potential net performance for our investors, if one were to calculate the same income and appreciation earned from our real estate investments last year against a denominator which approximates historical cash levels, it would yield a hypothetical return much closer to our historical average platform performance.”

Fundrise notes that much of this success may be due to them consistently maintaining a “disciplined value” investment approach, led by their “most active strategy” of investing in affordably priced apartment communities in “growing cities throughout the Sunbelt.”

The Fundrise team concluded:

“In this coming decade, we believe that the application of technology will be transformative to real estate, one of the last old-line sectors still largely undisrupted. As a company built on the synthesis of real estate and technology, we believe we are uniquely positioned to help bring about that change, transforming operating costs, leveraging data more effectively, and challenging status quo practices — all for the benefit of our investors.”

Source