🧘‍♂️ALERT: Mystery Altcoin Trend

Dear Meditators

The markets remain a melting point of emotions. The Fed raised borrowing costs by 25 basis points and signalled six additional rate hikes for the rest of the year. The Ukraine-Russia conflict continues to escalate. At the same time, with new partnerships, announcements and attacks, the DeFi and NFT markets are full of interesting updates. 

Today’s Meditations: 

• ETH and AVAX Technical Analysis
• Elizabeth Warren on Crypto
• Latest on ThorChain
  • Our Mystery Altcoin Trend

⏰ Top Headlines

• Parallel Finance Launches DeFi ‘Super App’ for Polkadot Crypto Ecosystem
• Someone borrowed 5 Bored Apes to claim $1.1 million of APE tokens
• Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTs
• Web 3 Gaming Platform on Terra Blockchain Raises $25M in Token Sale

? Technically Speaking

ETH/USD

Macro Structure: Low volatility and not an ideal situation for traders.

Key Support: $2k and $2.4k.

Key Resistance: $3k and $3.6k.

Looking Forward: If we lose $2.4k likely to see further downside to $2k. To the upside, $3k is the key level to overcome.

AVAX/USD

Macro Structure: Struggling to get over the 100 Day Moving Average.

Key Support: $70 and $60, afterwards the next real support is at $40.

Key Resistance: $87 (breaking this would represent a break of both a key structural level and the 100 Day Moving Average).

Looking Forward: Still not the type of market conditions that make trading attractive.

? The Warren Crypto

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on “Understanding the Role of Digital Assets in Illicit Finance” yesterday. The question of whether Russia has been or will be able to successfully use cryptocurrency to evade the effect of economic sanctions may have helped to usher the topic to the front of the committee’s queue.

• Senator Patrick Toomey’s (R-Pa.), statement set the tone for the meeting, candidly stating: “I am concerned that part of today’s hearing will be spent disparaging cryptocurrency, trying to draw some connection between them and Russian sanctions evasion.”
• Elizabeth Warren spent time trying to establish a narrative that cryptocurrency makes it easier for bad actors to launder money, but was met with refutation at every turn from Jonathan Levin, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Chainalysis, Inc.
• Witnesses at the hearing included Michael Mosier (former acting director at FinCEN), Michael Chobanian (President of Blockchain Association of Ukraine), and Shane Stansbury of Duke University School of Law in addition to Levin.

With sanctions continuously being levied on Russia, the potential of digital assets to be used for laundering and avoiding sanctions has persistently been a talking point for regulators. To dive deeper and view the entire hearing, head here.

? The Crowd Goes Wild for the Cross-Chain DEX

You may have noticed Rune trending on CoinGecko this week or noticed its 50% climb in the past 7 days. If you are wondering what all the fuss is about, here is your guide to what is happening on the cross-chain dex, ThorChain.

• Thorchain.org allows anyone to trade a digital asset on one chain with a digital asset on another chain without using custodians and without wrapped tokens. In the background, every swap is Asset A to Rune, Rune to Asset B.
• It’s the Rune tokenomics that Crypto Twitter is raving about. Every asset deposited on ThorChain must be paired with an equal dollar amount of Rune or Coin X + Rune.
• This model differs from the Uniswap model (Coin X + Coin Y ) in that 10 traded assets could result in 45 potential pools on UNI, but in Rune’s model the number of assets = the number of liquidity pools. Developers expect these less fragmented pools will result in deeper liquidity.
• A security aspect of the tokenomics says that if there is $1 of BTC in ThorChain, and $1 of Rune, node validators must bond $2 of Rune. If a hacker wants to gain control of the network to steal assets from the liquidity pools, they must acquire more Rune to do so, but once word spreads that the protocol is hacked, the value of Rune would plummet.

A lot of the recent hype was generated when synthetics went live on ThorChain. ‘Synths’ allow for faster settlement, cheaper fees, and increased trade volume. Terra integration is up next on the roadmap, and the two protocols will be working together on a new project. It is important to remember that no asset is without risk and RUNE did suffer a hack less than 1 year ago.

1. Watch our How to Get Rich Trading Crypto Course if you struggled with today’s technical section.
2. Read the following Technical Analysis guides for more insight:
   1. Moving Averages 
   2. Fibonacci Retracement  
   3. Volume and Open Interest  

Twitter

• JUST IN: $LUNA Founder Will Buy $10 Billion $BTC – Market Meditations
• Airbnb CEO: Crypto is the most requested feature on Airbnb – Blockworks
• BREAKING: Binance Wins Approval to Offer $BTC Trading in Dubai – Market Meditations
• Senator Warren, with all due respect, when someone is trying to help you learn more about Bitcoin, the most important thing is to first listen with an open mind before passing judgment and criticism. @SenWarren – Natalie Brunell

? Did you enjoy today’s newsletter? This survey is your chance to tell us how we can improve the product for you. Link here.

??‍♂️✍️ Stories in this newsletter were written by D. Beverly, Kyle F., Max P., Nick T., Kimia K., Ellen B. and Koroush AK. Graphics were produced by Ellen B.

Not financial or tax advice. The content in this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. We are not financial advisors. Every investment and trading move involves risk. Do your own research when making a decision. See our important security disclaimers here. 

Disclosure. Some of the links we’ve included are affiliate, they give you rewards and discounts and earn us a commission. Additionally, the Market Meditator writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.