The price of Ethereum (ETH) has stealthily come close to crossing a key level that has been seriously bothering bulls for quite some time.

Although the FED did not give an inch on its monetary tightening, cryptocurrencies managed to spend the week without a hitch. As proof, the price of Ethereum (ETH) has stealthily come close to crossing a key level that has been seriously bothering bulls for quite some time, especially since hesitation currently prevails after the exceptional month of January.

In a market context where bulls and bears are more opposed than ever, there some possible scenarios for ETH, with the challenging task of determining if it will manage to cross a decisive course in order to open a new chapter in its history.

Ethereum in Monthly Units: The $1700 Is Back in Play

Thanks to a January that saw its market capitalization climb by almost 32%, Ethereum is coming back very close to the resistance of $1700. However, the latter is proving to be a headache for the bulls so far. This is because if in appearance, the price of ETH has been stabilizing for a few months.

In the interest of the bulls, the crossing of this resistance would however prevent big troubles during the next months, with the prospect that it completely makes up for the losses of last June and half of last May.

Conversely, a failure below $1700 would not constitute an immediate disaster. If the bears resurface when approaching $1200, though, there could be a resumption of a new wave of correction in the near future.

Ethereum in Weekly Units: the Specter of Another Failure Below $1700

Ethereum narrowly failed to complete the five-week run to the upside, stalling below $1700. as if the bulls inevitably feared yet another failure below this puzzle level. Unfortunately, this potentially negative signal does not come at the right time.

The bulls must hope for a consolidation in the right order, provided that the courses can rely on the support of $1400 near the Tenkan. In such case, the probabilities of crossing $1700 are reinforced for good, with a view to integrating the Kumo and going up towards $2300.

Conversely, a new failure below $1700, along with a breakout of $1400, would bring ETH back to the past. This would give the bears the opportunity to eventually break through $1200 to target last year’s lows, not far from $1000.

In short, Ethereum is once again facing the psychological barrier of $1700. Bulls prefer to signal their absence as they approach a key level. As long as the ETH price remains pegged below the Kumo in weekly units, there will be no reason to consider a possible neutralization of its bear run since its last ATH in November 2021.

By Audy Castaneda

Aptos’ transaction speed advantage could cement itself as the ‘Solana killer’.

With its growing list of partnerships and product launches, Aptos [APT] has made the crypto world sit up and take notice. It recently wrapped up the first leg of its ambitious hackathon world tour in Seoul.

On February 4, Aptos Network tweeted the following:

“Seoul, that’s a wrap! Thank you to the rockstar hackers who made the first stop on the #AptosWorldTour such a success. We’re blown away by the talent, ideas, and potential on Aptos. This is where culture meets building.”

Furthermore, it also expanded its footprints in the web 3 gaming ecosystem. Its partner METAPIXEL announced the upcoming release of ‘Pixelcraft’ on the Aptos network via an official title reveal video.

However, the next question on everyone’s mind would be whether all this hype is enough to dethrone Solana [SOL] against, which APT has consistently positioned itself.

Aptos Has a Clear Advantage in this Domain

Aptos is a Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake Blockchain launched in October 2022 by engineers at Meta (formerly Facebook) after Meta was unable to launch its own Blockchain. The string is developed using a Rust-based programming language called MOVE.

Unlike other Blockchains, Aptos uses a parallel execution mechanism that helps reduce latency and generate faster transaction speeds. Aptos challenges Solana in precisely this department.

According to ZebPay, Solana can process 65,000 transactions per second (TPS), while Aptos could record more than double 150,000 TPS. This performance difference could shift momentum decisively in favor of APT in the long run.

Solana has also experienced several network outages in 2022. In an interview, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko called network outages Solana’s curse.

Aptos NFT and DeFi Spaces Are Promising

APT’s Total Volume Locked (TVL), while considerably smaller than Solana’s, has seen better growth of late. While SOL grew 0.44% in the last seven days, APT increased by almost 4% in the same time period, DeFiLlama data showed.

APT’s TVL stood at $61.38 million, driven mainly by Pancakeswap [CAKE] which had nearly 60% dominance.

Aptos’ growth has also been fueled by its NFT collections. NFT trading volume on the network reached its three-month high of $1.92 million recently. The expansion has been meteoric in the past two weeks.

The growing appeal of Aptos has been reflected in its price action of late, during which it became one of the most profitable cryptocurrencies on the market.

The price has skyrocketed from around $3 at the beginning of the year to $15.57. Meanwhile, its market capitalization has skyrocketed to over $2.6 billion. That being said, the price action of the last 10 days indicated a retracement.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) turned down from the overbought region. Although still above the neutral 50 level, there were early signs of a pullback.

On Balance Volume (OBV) also started a move south, implying that traders were looking to book profits after the bullish surge. The Awesome Oscillator (AO) was also in red.

By Audy Castaneda

FTX is sending “confidential letters” to former donor recipients requesting that donated funds be returned.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried once handed out a lot of money to people who many wondered where it came from. These people included powerful figures in the public service and the regulars, not to mention those who already have the means in the private sector.

He just showered politicians with tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. The recipients simply welcomed him with open arms and fell silent.

Fast forward to 2023: The party’s over. FTX wants all the money back.

FTX Wants the Benjamins Back

FTX is sending “confidential letters” to former donor recipients requesting that donated funds be returned, the bankrupt crypto exchange said in a press release on Sunday.

“FTX Debtors are sending confidential messages to political figures, political action funds, and other recipients of contributions made by or at the direction of FTX Debtors, Samuel Bankman-Fried, or other officers or directors of FTX Debtors,” the press release statement read in part.

Recipients have until February 28, 2023 to “return said funds” to FTX debtors, according to the announcement. The move comes after FTX issued a call for recipients of the funds to return the money voluntarily in December.

Previously, the same creditors estimated that Bankman-Fried donated $93 million to political causes. According to the press release, if the money is not freely returned, debtors “retain the right” to take legal action to force the return, plus interest.

Claiming Political Donations

Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old former FTX chief executive, was the second-biggest donor to Democrats between 2020 and 2022, providing more than $37 million to the party’s election campaigns.

Open Secrets showed that FTX Digital Markets Co-CEO Ryan Salame contributed roughly $20 million to Republican candidates during the same period.

FTX has also attempted to recover the millions of dollars that the cryptocurrency exchange and Bankman-Fried donated to charity, but this may be difficult given that some of the funds have already been spent.

Apparently, FTX has been trying to reclaim the money it donated to Florida students as scholarships, in addition to the contributions it received from politicians.

The federal government claims that Bankman-Fried misused consumer money for campaign contributions, real estate purchases and venture capital investments. He has maintained his innocence despite numerous fraud charges and conspiracy charges.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance violations and money laundering in a New York federal court last month.

If convicted of any of the eight charges for which he has been charged, he faces life in federal prison without the option of supervised release.

Meanwhile, John Ray III, the new CEO of FTX, claimed that the exchange can be restored. Despite the bankruptcy of the company, he has not given up hope of its recovery, and has done everything possible to breathe new life into the failed business.

By Audy Castaneda

An increasing number of EthereumPOW (ETHW) and Woo Network (WOO) holders are adding the Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) to their wallets.

With portfolio diversification being a common practice in the crypto world, it comes as no surprise that more crypto investors are adding the Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) to their portfolios.

Why are an increasing number of EthereumPOW (ETHW) and Woo Network (WOO) holders adding Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) to their wallets, and why should you consider adding Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) tokens to your digital assets?

EthereumPOW (ETHW) Proves Investors Wrong

EthereumPOW (ETHW), as the name suggests, is a Blockchain hard fork of Ethereum (ETH) with Ethereum Edge. Thanks to the Merge, Ethereum (ETH) transitioned to proof-of-stake (PoS), while proof-of-work (PoW) is the underlying principle of the forked version.

When cloning Ethereum (ETH), EthereumPOW (ETHW), stablecoin users, and decentralized application (dApp) developers can choose their preferred network to support.

The EthereumPOW (ETHW) network works with proof-of-work (PoW), the same security mechanism that protects the Ethereum (ETH) Blockchain. The EthereumPOW (ETHW) network is the preferred choice of some builders over PoS, the alternative security mechanism.

EthereumPOW (ETHW) holders are currently looking to add other cryptocurrencies to their portfolios, thanks to the disappointing run of the former costing investors a significant percentage of their investments.

Six months ago, an EthereumPOW (ETHW) token was valued at $141.36 but now it is valued at $3.71 per EthereumPOW (ETHW) token. Therefore, more ETHW holders are acquiring more varied tokens.

WOO Network (WOO) Continues Its Disappointing Freefall

WOO Network (WOO) is another crypto project whose dissatisfied WOO Network (WOO) token holders are boosting their crypto investment with other acquisitions.

Since the WOO Network (WOO) launched in October 2020, WOO Network (WOO) token holders have been disappointed by its poor performance. From an all-time high of $2.48, it fell freely to its current value of $0.1748 per WOO coin. It is unclear if the WOO Network (WOO) token will continue its decline or if things will improve for the foreseeable future.

The Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) Justifies Investor Confidence

While most token holders are considering better alternatives, the Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) token registers more investors as a growing number of WOO Network (WOO) and EthereumPOW (ETHW) holders turn to the token to boost their digital investment.

Fundraising opportunities aside, Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) offers users a Launchpad to start their businesses and bring them to their target audience around the world through the protocol’s ecosystem.

Users of the Orbeon Protocol (ORBN) can also purchase company-backed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) while they wait for the integration of the Web3 metaverse.

The planned addition to the ecosystem includes Orbeon Exchange, Round Table, and Orbeon Investors Club, features that will improve the user experience on the platform.

The ORBN utility token powers the ecosystem and offers users governance rights, transaction and trading discounts, staking bonuses and rewards, as well as other incentives.

By Audy Castaneda