Why the Chiliz Partnership (CHZ) with Multiple NFL Teams and Web 3.0 Expansion Plan Could Be Bullish Catalysts

CHZ’s bullish momentum increases following a new partnership between Socios.com and several NFL teams.

One of the biggest challenges facing cryptocurrency projects is finding the right kind of real-world integration and use case that can trigger new waves of adoption.

Integrating Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies with professional sports has been the expected “next wave” for some time and Chiliz (CHZ), a protocol focused on creating a fan engagement platform for various sports leagues, has made headlines for their new developments this week.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of CHZ has increased 69% from its 2022 low of $0.144 to a daily high of $0.256 on April 13.

The price of CHZ has been gaining momentum and a new partnership between the Socios.com fan engagement platform and thirteen National Football League (NFL) teams, seems to contribute to the bullish sentiment. The project will make its public launch on the Chiliz Chain 2.0 test net.

New NFL Partnerships Could Fuel Growth

The most recent event to trigger a price hike in CHZ was the announcement on April 13 that the network’s sports fan recruitment platform Socios.com had signed multi-year marketing agreements with 13 NFL teams.

This agreement represents an important escalation in the presence of the project in the American sports leagues and in the NFL in particular since until now it had only worked with the New England Patriots.

Success of Football Team Tokens from Europe

Another reason for Chiliz’s push has been the success of fan tokens, created for a handful of European soccer teams.

As football is the most popular sport in Europe, Socios has focused on forming partnerships with some of the most popular teams, leagues and players to help expand their presence and attract new users.

The platform recently signed a commercial partnership with Lionel Messi, making the star striker the platform’s first global ambassador.

On Twitter, @WeAreMessi posted that, “Lionel Messi and Fan Token creators @socios have joined forces, uniting to build a more inclusive, exciting and rewarding future for fans across the world.”

Like Other Mainnet Releases, Chiliz Chain 2.0 Could Be a Bullish Catalyst

On March 31, the “Scoville” public testnet launched a new layer 1 Blockchain network called Chiliz Chain 2.0.

CC2 aims to help sports and entertainment brands introduce Web 3.0 capabilities, including the ability to mint NFTs and fan tokens. It will also create decentralized finance (DeFi) products and play-to-earn games, create events, and run loyalty and merchandising programs.

The new chain has adopted a proof-of-stake authority (PoSA) model, which is estimated to be up to 2,000 times more energy efficient than proof-of-work models and will be compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), but it will offer transaction costs 200 times cheaper than the Ethereum network.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began detecting a bullish outlook for CHZ on April 12, prior to the recent price rally.

According to a chart published by Cointelegraph Markets Pro, CHZ’s VORTECS™ Score climbed into the green zone on April 12, reaching a high of 81 about 16 hours before the announcement of the NFL partnership, sparking a 17.3% rally.

By Audy Castaneda

The Price of the WAVES Token Has Dropped by Almost 70%

The price is in a significant support zone around USD 20, coinciding with the 200-period SMA, an excellent point to start a rally. The 8-month EMA and 18-month SMA have remained crossed to the upside since July 2020 and might serve as dynamic supports.

The price of the WAVES token reached an all-time high of USD 63.88 thanks to a significant bullish rally. After that milestone, a strong correction caused losses of almost 70% in just two weeks.

WAVES is trading at around USD 21.36 and has accumulated a 5.2% loss over the last 24 hours. Its trading volume is above USD 730.04 million, and its market capitalization is about USD 2.14 billion. It occupies 58th place in the cryptocurrency ranking, according to CoinGecko.

The Reason behind the Crash of the WAVES Token

Sash Ivanov, the creator of WAVES, stated that the stablecoin Neutrino (USDN) runs within the Waves network. USDN was a victim of manipulation, which created a lot of panic in the market of the primary token of that blockchain.

In March, USDN unexpectedly decoupled from its anchor currency, the US dollar. Although it recovered almost entirely and traded at USD 0.98 after hitting a low of USD 0.76, the market is still negative for WAVES.

Ivanov stated that manipulation by cryptocurrency trading company Alameda Research caused the problem with the stablecoin. He pointed out that the firm created by Sam Bankman-Fried is seeking ways to manipulate the market and create panic.

The founder of Waves pointed out that someone requested a loan of one million WAVES from him through the Vires Finance protocol. However, he declined it as he suspected it was an operation to sell the tokens and pressure the price. In addition, he said that the user address requesting the loan could have some connection with Bankman-Fried.

In response to the accusations, Bankman-Fried stated those were conspiracy theories.

As a measure, Ivanov reduced the WAVES and USDN lending threshold to avoid further market manipulation.

WAVES, the so-called Russian Ethereum, has shown high use amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian population might be using it to circumvent possible sanctions and to face the economic crisis due to the war.

The Technical Analysis of the Price of the WAVES Token

The daily WAVES/USDT chart shows a significant short-term downward trend as a major correction is underway.

The price crosses the 8-day EMA and 18-day to the downside, and the latter might serve as dynamic supports.

The WAVES price is currently in a significant support zone around USD 20, coinciding with the 200-period SMA. The current point seems to be excellent to start a rally, but that would be irrelevant unless there are increasingly high lows.

The Monthly Analysis of the Price of WAVES

The monthly chart shows a clear long-term bullish trend in the value of WAVES. Therefore, the recent drop may be a correction after a significant rally leading the price to the USD 63.88 all-time high.

That suggests that the recent drop may be a correction after a significant rally leading the price to the USD 63.88 all-time high.

Although the drop has invalidated a big part of the rally, the price of the WAVES token has not yet given any worrying signs.

The price has crossed the 8-month EMA and 18-month SMA to the upside since July 2020, when the bullish run started. Those indicators might serve as dynamic supports during the current drop.

If the bullish bias remains intact in the long term, betting against the WAVES token for a long time seems a bad idea.

By Alexander Salazar

Amazon CEO Expresses Optimism on Future of Cryptocurrencies and NFTs

According to Andy Jassy, ​​the e-commerce giant could integrate NFTs later.

In an interview with CNBC after publishing his first letter to shareholders as Amazon’s new CEO, Andy Jassy said that while he does not own any cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, he is optimistic about the prospects for the sector.

Jessy stated that, “We are probably not close to incorporating crypto as a payment mechanism in our retail business, but I do think that over time you will see crypto getting bigger. I expect NFTs to continue to grow very significantly.”

“You know, I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly,” Jassy said Thursday.

He said he could envision a future where the e-commerce giant sells NFTs. A Blockchain stores ownership of NFTs, which are digital assets, from music to a website domain to digital artwork.

NFTs have exploded in popularity over the past year, and the technology has some overlap with cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Trading in NFTs hit $17.6 billion last year, an increase of 21,000% from 2020, according to data from Nonfungible.com.

Highlights of Jassy’s First Annual Shareholder Letter

Jassy wrote about the enormous growth experiences by Amazon during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in its core retail business, as people cut their trips to the store and relied on the e-commerce giant for both essential and non-essential goods.

“We realized the equivalent of three years’ forecasted growth in about 15 months,” said Jassy, who took over the role of CEO from Bezos in July 2021. Bezos transitioned into the role of executive chairperson of Amazon’s board.

While Amazon achieved record profits during the pandemic, it has faced logistics and cost challenges when attempting to keep up with demand, the letter says. Amazon had to scale up its warehouse network in order to process more orders in a shorter timeframe.

In his view, Amazon was able to surpass critical challenges during the pandemic because “we weren’t starting from a standing start. We had been iterating on and remaking our fulfillment capabilities for nearly two decades. In every business we pursue, we are constantly experimenting and inventing. We are divinely discontented with customer experiences, whether they’re our own or not. We believe these customer experiences can always be better, and we strive to make customers’ lives better and easier every day.”

Andy Jassy’s Optimistic Take on NFTs

Specifically, regarding the sale of NFTs by Amazon, Jassy stated that, “it is possible later on the platform.” Last November, Cointelegraph reported that Amazon was hiring a financial services specialist who “understands the broader ecosystem of cryptocurrencies and digital assets,” with a background in Blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

However, Amazon posted another job advertisement two weeks ago, that also asks for candidates for the same role. Job responsibilities include being “able to define industry-specific messaging and collateral that effectively communicates the AWS [Amazon Web Service] value proposition for AWS digital asset solutions in financial services.” Curiously, the job advertisement does not indicate any degree requirement, but only work experience.

Despite the optimism, Jassy reiterated the company’s stance from last July that Amazon is “probably nowhere near adding crypto as a payment mechanism in our retail business.” Among major e-commerce technology companies, Shopify has been at the forefront of crypto adoption, with the company announcing earlier this month that it would accept Bitcoin (BTC) as payment on the platform through The Lightning Network and Strike. . However, the move has also drawn skepticism from users, with some pointing to the legal ramifications of funds not going through the Know Your Customer process.

By Audy Castaneda

The Association of Cryptocurrency Users of Spain got Created

The Association of Cryptocurrency Users of Spain got created in Granada by the lawyer Carlos Aránguez.

For a long time now, the Granada-born lawyer Carlos Aránguez has made significant efforts to defend the rights of digital assets users. His office was the first in Spain to adopt payment methods in crypto. In addition, he was the lawyer who worked with many victims of the alleged Ponzi Arbistar scheme that took effect in 2020.

The legal worker takes the lead on another project: he has just created the first Association of Cryptocurrency Users in Spain (AUC).

According to the Ideal media account, the lawyer and also teacher, together with Miguel Olmedo, former representative of the Faculty of Law, and the lawyer Gabriel Martínez Asensio, released this association a week ago with three main goals:

These partners primarily desire to encourage academic activities linked to digital assets such as awards, articles in scientific journals, and conferences. Secondly, legally advising users on the rights they have as consumers.

And finally, to send proposals to the legislator, they highlight and also express from the association that they want to claim rights before the authorities and companies in the sector. From a legal and social point of view, they showed their desire to teach what tokens, NFT, DeFi, and virtual assets are.

They added that it seems especially relevant to exercise widespread accusations in proceedings in defense of victims damaged by any illegal behavior linked to digital assets.

First Projects

The association, which does not receive public or private support, got set up in the Florentino García Santos building of the University of Granada, at number 48 Gran Vía. According to the various media outlets, in the first week of activity, they received more than 200 applications for admission, which are being carefully under study.

On the other hand, the association suggested that Bitcoin Day be celebrated on May 22, when Pizza Day arrives.

The Organization to Serve as a Guide

The association requests a guarantee of bank deposits, that digital currency exchanges and depositories get correctly registered, and that the securities commission warns of scams and needs a bit more time to get refined.

Although the association does not intend for crypto to become legal tender like in El Salvador, they desire Bitcoin to get considered a regulated and guaranteed means of payment, just like checks or credit or debit cards.

Likewise, the association firmly believes that entities, such as exchanges, should publicly bring their data in transparency portals, just how united society works to achieve their goals.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Bears Control Bitcoin Price, But Traders Say $40,000 Area Still Good “For Longs”

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$40,000 remains a hurdle for BTC price, but traders continue to agree that the current range is an accumulation zone.

Traders faced another red day on April 14, after weakness in equity markets continued to weigh on crypto prices.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after holding support above $41,000 in the early hours of April 14, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $40,000 in the afternoon and reached a daily low of USD 39,550.

Here is a look at what analysts are saying about the short-term outlook for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Needs to Find Support above $42,000

Market analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Rekt Capital, who posted a chart showing what happened after the rejection of the $47,000 resistance level in September 2021, discussed Bitcoin price action on the monthly chart.

Similar to the current scenario, the move in September also fell to the blue support line at $41,300 “and also respected a green higher low”.

The analyst said that, “as long as BTC gets a monthly close above the blue line, history may repeat itself.”

Cryptocurrency analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Decodejar expressed a similar perspective: “Bitcoin needs to find support above $42,000.”

Beware of Long Positions in the USD 40,000 Zone

Cryptocurrency analyst Michaël van de Poppe sees Bitcoin’s current price action as “pretty standard playing field,” according to a chart he posted on Twitter.

Van de Popper said that, “waiting for the $42,000 barrier to be broken first, that would be a trend break. Otherwise, the $40,000 zone is the area where I would want to check for long positions.”

The Possibility of an Uptrend

Analyst “On-Chain College” explored Bitcoin’s long-term outlook based on the percentage of the supply that remains in profit, publishing a chart noting that the metric had “bounced off the ~62.5% level three times this year”.

The analyst stated that, “currently over 69% of the supply is in profit. Historically when this metric hits the red zone (+95%) BTC is ‘overheated’ and potential selling pressure is high.”

Analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user TAnalyst, when analyzing the Bitcoin choppiness index, mentioned a second observation suggesting a bullish future for BTC.

Analyst claimed that, “For the third time since 2015, we have reached the green zone. The last two times this happened, it followed a huge uptrend. Probably nothing…”

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization currently stands at $1.857 trillion and the dominance ratio of Bitcoin is 40.9%.

By Audy Castaneda

The Shadow Fork Begins to Test How PoS Works on the Ethereum Mainnet

Ethereum developers have studied the process needed to launch a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, noticing high transaction costs and slowness on the mainnet. The new consensus mechanism will allow many developers to return to the Ethereum networks, leading the price of ETH to rise significantly.

On April 9th, the Shadow Fork began doing tests on the Ethereum mainnet, already showing several results. It accumulated a figure of over 2 million transactions, with an average of 14-13 seconds per block.

The term shadow fork refers to a process of copying data from the Ethereum mainnet to a verification network. Then developers can evaluate the features beforehand while distributing their work on the mainnet.

Marius Van Der Wijden, a developer of Ethereum, said that the Shadow Fork would mark a before and after in Ethereum. That historical event will allow knowing the possibilities of the mainnet with a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system.

Many bitcoiners consider that the Proof of Work (PoW) makes protocols more resistant to censorship. However, they complain that the  Proof of Stake only allows a  few validator nodes to keep the history of transactions.

Studying the Process, Launching a PoS Consensus Mechanism, and Evaluating the Results

Over the last few months, Ethereum developers have studied the process needed to launch a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. They noticed that the transaction costs and the slowness on the mainnet had been a problem that they must solve.

After a long time, the tests began on all the existing Ethereum networks on April 10th. That process will allow developers like Parithosh Jayanthi to evaluate their assumptions, the synchronization of users, and its possible growth.

They expect the integration of participants rather than miners will help the network continue to scale. They also predict a reduction in the energy required by the network for working, besides lower transaction costs.

The benefits of integrating the new consensus mechanism will allow many developers to return to the Ethereum networks. They had previously migrated to other blockchains looking for better alternatives. If that happens, the price of Ether (ETH), the token of the mainnet, could rise significantly.

The Ethereum Shadow Fork Is the Starting Point of a New Stage

Van Der Wijden and other Ethereum developers believe that the Shadow Fork will become a milestone for the community. They have discussed using the Kiln Fusion Testnet to experiment with nodes and the community, but the Shadow Fork goes further.

This type of test will not only allow users in the community to test or implement contracts. It can also subject the network to high saturation levels, thus evaluating more details.

Although not all the validators have yet appeared, the figures are above the minimum required for operating.

ETH is trading at around USD 3,026 and has accumulated a 3.2% loss over the last 24 hours. Its daily trading volume is above USD 15.32 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 364.59 billion, according to CoinGecko.

By Alexander Salazar