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Bitcoin emoji campaign
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SHIB price stagnates as market turns sluggish, but Shibarium shows promise
Key points:
Social media metrics for SHIB indicate declining investor interest and bearish sentiment.
Shibarium, SHIB's Layer 2 solution, is experiencing impressive network activity.
News - Shiba Inu, the second-biggest meme coin by market capitalization, has seen its impressive rally slow down in recent days. Despite a 9.5% gain last week, SHIB's price action has been sluggish, currently trading around $0.00003047.
This lacklustre performance is reflected in SHIB's social media presence. Analysis by AMBCrypto reveals a drop in social volume and weighted sentiment, indicating a decline in investors' interest and a growing bearish sentiment.
Any good news? There's a bright spot in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Shibarium, the much-anticipated Layer 2 solution has shown impressive activity. According to Shibariumsca.io data, Shibarium has already processed over 413 million transactions and is nearing the 4 million block mark. The daily transaction count is over 58,000, with the network boasting over 1.38 million wallets.
Despite Shibarium's strong performance, its impact on SHIB's price might be delayed. AMBCrypto's analysis of various metrics suggested a potential downward pressure on SHIB. A slight uptick in the network-to-value (NVT) ratio indicated potential overvaluation, while an increase in supply on exchanges and a decrease in holdings by top addresses pointed at selling pressure.
Singapore's MAS expands regulation of digital payment token service providers
Key points:
Singapore's central bank is expanding regulations for DPT service providers.
The new rules aim to enhance user protection, fight money laundering, and maintain financial stability.
News - Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), is taking a stricter stance on cryptocurrency by expanding regulations for digital payment token (DPT) service providers.
What’s the aim? Announced on 2 April, these amendments to the Payment Services Act (PS Act) aim to enhance user protection, anti-money laundering (AML) efforts, and overall financial stability.
What’s more? The new regulations will bring a wider range of crypto-related activities under MAS's purview. This includes custodial services for DPTs, facilitating token transfers and exchanges, and even cross-border money transfers conducted by these service providers. Notably, the location of the funds or whether they are received within Singapore becomes irrelevant.
MAS will leverage these amendments to impose stricter requirements on DPT service providers. These will likely include robust AML/CFT (countering the financing of terrorism) measures, user protection protocols, and financial stability safeguards. The implementation will be phased, starting on 4 April 2024.
Furthermore, entities impacted by the expanded scope will be granted a grace period. They will have 30 days to notify MAS and six months to apply for a license if they wish to continue operating under regulatory review. Non-compliant companies face the harsh consequences of a complete shutdown.
Debate erupts over Ethereum Layer 3s as Polygon CEO expresses concerns
Key points:
Polygon CEO criticizes Ethereum L3s, suggesting they siphon value away from the main network.
L3s offer lower costs but may compromise decentralization compared to L2s.
News - The debate surrounding Ethereum layer 3 (L3) solutions has reignited after Polygon CEO Marc Boiron expressed reservations about their impact on the network. In a recent post, Boiron argued that L3s siphon value away from Ethereum by settling transactions on their underlying layer 2 (L2) protocols. He believes this could jeopardize Ethereum's security and ultimately harm the value of its native token, ETH.
Boiron's comments come on the heels of the Degen Chain's explosive growth. This L3 network, built on Arbitrum's Orbit Chains, saw its token, DEGEN, experience a surge in user activity with over $130,000 active addresses and 4 million transactions within a week. This success story has sparked discussions on crypto X regarding the benefits and drawbacks of L3s.
What’s the disadvantage of L3 though? While acknowledging the lower costs offered by L3s, Polygon developer Jarrod Watts argued that they compromise decentralization compared to L2s. He suggested focusing on improving L2 decentralization before adding L3 complexity. However, Watts concedes that L3s can facilitate cheaper onboarding.
Boiron further emphasized the potential security risk to Ethereum. He warned that if L3s settle transactions primarily on a single L2, Ethereum could lose its value proposition and the fees that contribute to network security. This, in turn, could negatively impact the price of ETH.
Bitcoin emoji campaign gains traction: Crypto community rallies for digital recognition
Key points:
A crypto industry coalition is pushing for an official Bitcoin emoji.
The petition seeks 50,000 endorsements to influence the Unicode Consortium.
News - Crypto platform Nexo and more than 35 prominent organizations in the cryptocurrency space have joined forces to push for an official Bitcoin emoji. According to the announcement made on 2 April, the initiative — “Bitcoin Deserves an Emoji” — aims to secure 50,000 endorsements worldwide.
Within a week of the launch, over 10,000 individuals signed the petition, which was addressed to the Unicode Consortium, the governing body responsible for standardizing emojis across platforms. Prominent supporters include industry leaders like Brink, Bitget, Chainalysis, Kraken, Polygon, Brave, and BTC Inc.
How is everyone reacting? Nexo's co-founder, Kosta Kantchev, emphasized Bitcoin's market dominance and widespread adoption as justification for a dedicated emoji. He argued, "With over 1.26 billion Bitcoin addresses and a thriving global community, a Bitcoin emoji is long overdue."
The campaign goes beyond mere symbolism. It signifies the crypto community's united effort to propel Bitcoin adoption further. The initiative draws inspiration from successful past campaigns like Taco Bell's quest for a taco emoji and Tinder's push for an interracial couple icon. Nexo's communication head, Eleonor Genova, calls the campaign "the heartbeat of a global movement."
More stories from the crypto ecosystem
Interesting facts
The decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) sector is getting higher traction in 2024. DePINs are essentially networks of physical infrastructure built and managed in a decentralized way. Some famous DePIN projects are Filecoin, Arweave, Render and Internet Computer.
Bitcoin bulls like Michael Saylor, Former CEO of MicroStrategy, believe that the king coin will hit $100k by the end of 2024.
Even though meme coins are high-risk investments, they register huge demand and high trading volume in every bull run.
Top 3 coins of the day
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Key points:
DOGE whales were on an accumulation spree for the majority of March.
Owing to the large wave of selling from the 26 to 28 March, Dogecoin dropped from $0.225 to $0.201 but quickly recovered.
What you should know - In the second week of March, DOGE saw selling pressure outweighing the bulls. However, demand kicked in and lifted the coin to the $0.22803 level. Well, this was a mark last seen on 29 November 2021. The negative market sentiment didn’t let DOGE turn the $0.22803 level into support. The token gradually started falling on the daily chart. It was trading at $0.1851 during press time with an 11.44% decline over the last day. RSI stood at the 53-mark facing downwards, thus, implying that the coin could face further selling pressure in the near-term.
Ethereum (ETH)
Key points:
ETH started falling on the chart after 12 March, however, its daily active addresses increased significantly.
ETH bulls were forcing a quick recovery at press time. A short uptick can, therefore, be expected in the next few days.
What you should know - The Dencun upgrade didn’t immediately have an impact on the price of ETH. The altcoin registered bullish pressure only two days after the upgrade. But the excitement didn’t last long, sellers were at the fore. Hence, the coin fell to a low of $3056. At press time, selling pressure was in command. If bulls fail to prevent the psychological level of $3000, ETH is bound to slide back to its February month’s support of $2926. Bollinger Bands (BB) indicated that the alt was at an area of potential support, where the price might be undervalued. Technical indicator MACD was also headed for a bearish divergence, at press time.
Litecoin (LTC)
Key points:
LTC was 75.08% down from its ATH, however, it was 151.98% up from its cycle low on 14 June 2022.
The coin has been defying investors’ low expectations and performing well on the daily chart.
What you should know - Out of the top 20 coins, LTC was one besides BCH, that posted positive gains in the past week. It showed a strong bullish bias, on the mid-term to long-term horizon. Further bullish momentum could see the alt test at the $114 level. However, a failure to hold the current support level could see LTC drop to its demand area of $89-$72. While technical indicators were more or less supportive of the bull run, the volume oscillator was not so much in support; after 29 March, the volume has been declining gradually.
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