Polkadot defeats Bitcoin

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Shiba Inu soars as ShibaSwap DEX integrates with Shibarium L2 blockchain

Key points:

• Shibarium's planned improvements to network speed and cost could benefit ShibaSwap's future growth.

• The migration signifies the Shiba Inu team's efforts to move beyond meme coin status.

News - The Shiba Inu ecosystem has achieved a major milestone with the integration of its decentralized exchange (DEX), ShibaSwap, onto the layer-2 blockchain Shibarium.

How did the market react? The news triggered a positive response in the market. The price of the ecosystem's primary token, SHIB, witnessed a 6.4% increase within the last 24 hours. ShibaSwap's governance token, BONE also experienced a notable rise of 5.76%.

Previously launched in July 2021, ShibaSwap has established itself as a DEX on the Ethereum blockchain. It offers users various functionalities, including staking, liquidity pools, and yield farming. The platform has processed over $17 billion in trades to date, with trading volume more than doubling to $2.55 million in the past 24 hours.

Much awaited hard fork - On 2 May, Shibarium underwent a hard fork promising significantly faster transactions and more stable gas fees. The development of ShibaSwap and Shibarium aligns with the Shiba Inu team's plan to elevate the ecosystem beyond its meme coin origins and establish greater utility for its native tokens.

Jack Dorsey's Block implements Dollar Cost Averaging strategy to maximize profit

Key points:

• Payments firm Block has initiated a dollar cost averaging (DCA) program to increase its Bitcoin holdings.

• The company plans to allocate 10% of its monthly Bitcoin-related gross profit towards purchasing more Bitcoin throughout 2024.

News - Payments company Block (SQ), formerly known as Square, is making a strategic move into the world of Bitcoin. The firm has announced a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) program, allocating 10% of its monthly Bitcoin-related gross profit to acquire additional Bitcoin throughout 2024.

How dollar-cost averaging help?

• Dollar-cost averaging involves regularly investing a fixed amount of money, regardless of the current price of an asset like Bitcoin.

• It helps spread out the risk of investing by buying at different times and prices, instead of investing a large sum all at once.

• Basically, DCA removes the need to predict market highs and lows, as you're buying consistently over time, which can be less stressful and more disciplined.

• By buying both when prices are high and when they are low, DCA can result in a lower average purchase price over time.

Block's commitment to Bitcoin isn't new. The company already holds a significant amount of the cryptocurrency, having purchased Bitcoin in 2020 and 2021. At current market prices, these holdings translate to a value of roughly $4.7 billion.

Polkadot defies market downturn - Will bullish momentum continue in the next week?

Key points:

• Despite broader market volatility, Polkadot surged by over 4.12% in the last seven days.

• Analysis of DOT's metrics reveals improved sentiment and increased social volume.

News - In a recent slump that saw major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum experience price drops, DOT emerged as a surprising outlier. While the broader market witnessed a downturn, DOT defied the trend with a surge of over 5% in the last 24 hours.

Reason behind the surge? This bullish momentum coincided with a rise in Polkadot's network activity. Data from Artemis revealed a significant increase in DOT's daily active addresses since 28 April, accompanied by a corresponding rise in daily transactions. Furthermore, captured value metrics paint an optimistic picture, with both fees and revenue on the rise for the Polkadot blockchain.

To delve deeper into the sustainability of this trend, AMBCrypto examined various metrics - Santiment's data suggested an improvement in DOT's weighted sentiment. Thus, indicating a decline in recent bearish sentiment. A spike in social volume reflected growing interest and popularity within the crypto community.

Conclusion - Data from Hyblock Capital highlighted a crucial resistance level for DOT. Overcoming $6.9 is essential for the token to sustain its rally. A breakout above this level could potentially see DOT reach $7.5 in the next week.

MoonPay integrates with PayPal, streamlining cryptocurrency purchases for US users

Key points:

• This partnership has positioned MoonPay as the first provider to offer PayPal integration for crypto transactions in the US.

• Users can utilize their PayPal balance, direct bank withdrawals, or debit cards to fund crypto purchases.

News - MoonPay, a cryptocurrency payment gateway, has taken a groundbreaking step by integrating with online payment giant PayPal. This historic partnership would empower US users to purchase various cryptocurrencies directly through MoonPay using their existing PayPal accounts.

This marks MoonPay's position as the first on- and off-ramp provider in the US to offer such a service. Customers will now be able to leverage their existing PayPal balance, initiate direct bank withdrawals, or utilize their debit cards to fund their crypto purchases directly on the MoonPay platform.

What was the founder’s aim behind this move?

• MoonPay's co-founder and CEO, Ivan Soto-Wright, highlighted the significance of this partnership in bridging the gap between traditional financial services and cryptocurrencies.

• He also highlighted that this initiative will also help in lowering entry barriers for new crypto users.

• Analysts predict this move could ignite a surge in US users' participation within the crypto market.

More stories from the crypto ecosystem

• How WIF’s price outperformed Bitcoin on this important front

• Cardano trading volume crosses $550M, how will ADA respond?

• Will Ethereum fall below $2500 in May? Taking a closer look

• As MakerDAO grows, will MKR’s price finally cross $3K?

• Polkadot surprises traders with latest hike – Can DOT hit $7.5 next?

Crypto Scams Uncovered

• Without informing any of his 391,000 active traders, Faruk Fatih Ozer stopped operations of Thodex, a Turkey cryptocurrency exchange. It was later discovered that the CEO had scammed his users a whopping $1.37 billion via a marketing campaign.

• A 2023 independent investigation revealed that a Chinese group used a “pig butchering business” to scam unsuspecting cryptocurrency investors. One of the victims lost his life savings worth $2.7 million. About $90 million also flowed into the scam account between January 2021 and November 2022.

• Hackers who identified a loophole on the Nomad bridge carted away $186 million from the platform. Though the perpetrators later returned some of the funds, it was less than 5% of what was looted.

Top 3 coins of the day

Cardano (ADA)

Key points:

• Market structure on ADA’s daily chart remained bearish on 3 May.

• After 18 April, the Open Interest has been somewhat consolidating.

What you should know - ADA has been experiencing a downturn. At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.4469 after a 4.16% daily decline. Its bullish momentum seems to have stalled after 9 April. A critical near-term resistance zone sits between $0.5610 and $0.6113. Maintaining the current price above $0.4298 is crucial. If this level fails to hold, ADA could drop further toward the next support zone at $0.3884. The RSI indicator at 36.98 was nearing oversold territory, at press time. If it reaches below 30, ADA will notice a trend reversal soon.

Solana (SOL)

Key points:

• The sentiment in the SOL market was very fearful, at press time.

• On 27 April, SOL faced rejection at the $159 mark.

What you should know - SOL is struggling to gain traction, it got recently rejected from a key resistance level of around $160. This has confined the price to a range between $156 and $116.3. Technical indicators and declining Open Interest suggest a bearish bias. Trading at $136, at press time, SOL was heading towards the mid-point of the range at $140 for a potential retest. However, considering the bearish sentiment, a rejection at this level can surely be expected. We should also note that SOL's MACD remained flat but was skewed in favor of sellers.

XRP

Key points:

• XRP's social volume saw a slight drop in April compared to the levels in March.

• The coin was trading at $0.1516, at press time, with a 0.6% fall over the last day.

What you should know - XRP has been trading under heavy selling pressure, with the downward trend showing no signs of immediate reversal. Negative market sentiment is fueling this decline, and a key support level of $0.4808 sits precariously close. At press time, RSI hovered near the 45 mark facing south, hence, a further fall in price can't be ruled out. The loss of immediate support level can push the coin to the lesser explored territory of $0.4240. Traders should be cautious and should closely monitor price action and trading volume to identify potential breakout attempts.