A look at the last week of crackdowns, including a ruling from Vice Premier Liu He. Hong Kong echoes Beijing with stricter controls of their own, limiting retail investors in the administrative region.

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.

China regulations, FACT or FUD?

Normally, this weekly column takes a broad look at all the developments, news, and even gossip from within China. This week, most topics took a backseat to the news that another crackdown had rippled through the industry, threatening to topple markets into a full-blown bear market.

Abandoning the mines

It was all fun and games until a ruling came down from the top. Liu He, who is Vice Premier of China and member of the all-powerful eight-person politburo, led a meeting on preventing and controlling financial risks. Among the decisions was a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading activities, putting a dagger through the heart of anyone hoping to see a more open regulatory environment. There were immediate signs that the ruling would not be taken lightly, with the province of Inner Mongolia setting up a reporting hotline to rat out people disobeying the order.

BTC.TOP, one of the largest mining pools in the world with a reported 2.5% of the global hashrate, immediately complied by announcing it was closing down operations. That didn’t stop BTC.TOP founder Jiang Zhuo from taking to micro-blogging platform Weibo to announce that Bitcoin was a tool China could use to break up the monopoly of the US dollar in international trade.

Western pundits scramble for answers

China’s role in the mining community had been a major source of distrust between East and West, with some Bitcoiners claiming that China’s possible control of the mining community could threaten the ability of the chain to remain fully decentralized. Consequently some celebrated the news of the ban, thinking that the mining community would become more fragmented. However, just because China is banning operations doesn’t mean that Chinese companies will lose their dominant position in the industry. As Primitive Capital partner Dovey Wan pointed out, many miners are simply packing up and moving out of the country. Registering and basing their operations in regions like the US, Kazakhstan, or even Africa wouldn’t actually stop the mined BTC from belonging to Chinese miners, it would just make the centralization of the network harder to actually track.

Exchanges and trading platforms haven’t been greatly affected so far. In 2017, when exchanges were first targeted by regulations, the impact was much higher since many of the leading exchanges were registered in China. Nowadays, platforms are all domiciled in other countries, have offshore servers, and cater to much more diverse user bases. Local authorities will have a lot less interest in interfering with these operations, since the impact to the Chinese society is much less obvious. Huobi temporarily suspended futures trading to Chinese users, but it doesn’t look to be a permanent change to how they operate. Futures platform Bybit revealed they were closing accounts registered with Chinese phone numbers by June 15th, but since most of their users are non-Chinese, the negative impact will be much less than the risk they would be taking on by continuing to serve Chinese users.

Have your cake and eating it too

This seems like a winning situation for China as it can get closer to its carbon neutral goals by reducing the amount of Bitcoin mines. At the same time, it’s also cementing eCNY as the country’s only digital asset. Finally, profits from mining and exchanges will probably still trickle back to the mainland, as offices of exchanges and mining operations are unlikely to follow the hardware out of the country.

Don’t forget about Hong Kong

Hong Kong is pushing forward with its ban on retail cryptocurrency trading by announcing measures that would place a minimum threshold of around $1 million on investment. Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, has defended the requirements stating he believes they protect investors, prohibit market manipulation, and guard against money laundering and terrorist financing. The decision will definitely make cryptocurrency in the special administrative region easier to track and make it harder for citizens in mainland China to circumvent the rules.

It is not the first time Uniswap governance has been dominated by a whale.

The effect of whales on Uniswap governance is a topic of hot debate once again after Harvard’s blockchain group threw a massive amount of voting power behind its own proposal.

The proposal, made on May 27 by the Harvard Law School Blockchain and FinTech Initiative, is for the creation of a fund that would finance existing and new political groups engaged in crypto policy making and lobbying to defend decentralized finance against regulation.

The proposed fund would have a chest of 1-1.5 million UNI, worth approximately $28 million to $42 million at current prices. At the time of writing Harvard Law BFI has pledged 10.46 million UNI tokens, or 99% of the votes, in favor of the proposal. There are just 766,460 votes against it so far.

Industry observer and critic of centralized governance, Chris Blec from DeFi Watch, was one of the first to comment on the heavily weighted voting mechanism.

⚠️ @HarvardLawBFI just cast a 10.45m UNI vote in favor of its own proposal to pay a bunch of lawyers 1.5m UNI out of the treasury.

Their vote accounts for 99.9% of the “yes” votes so far.

Here we go again, y’all. https://t.co/9M9Da6XyVz pic.twitter.com/r3axyG35QW

— Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) May 27, 2021

The “here we go again” quip refers to Uniswap’s first governance vote in October 2020, proposed by trading platform Dharma to reduce the proposal submission threshold. The proposal would have given the majority of the voting power to the top two token holders (Dharma and blockchain simulation platform Gauntlet). The two of them dominated the ballot with their own heavy bags bringing Uniswap’s governance into question, however, the vote was defeated by a tiny margin.

The lobbying fund, if passed, would have four primary goals according to Harvard, consisting of educating policymakers to preempt regulatory, legal, political, and tax threats to DeFi, secondly achieving regulatory clarity for DeFi related activities. The third goal would be to advance laws that support DeFi and decentralized governance, and finally encourage other DeFi protocols’ governance communities to contribute to the effort.

Harvard Law BFI responded stating that it was only natural for them to vote for their own proposal, adding:

“Additionally, we have this voting power from UNI holders who delegated their votes to us (which they are free to retract at any time).”

It stated that there were enough votes to create a snapshot proposal, but it cannot unilaterally get it through a consensus check without a majority of votes.

At the moment the proposal is in “temperature check” mode which means it needs a minimum of 25,000 UNI in support, which it already has. To pass a full proposal after the “consensus check” stage, it needs a quorum of 40 million UNI in favor.

Gamestop may be working on its own NFT marketplace, while Rookie of the Year candidate LaMelo Ball is set to drop 500 Dynamic NFTs.

It appears that “r/wallstreetbets” favorite meme stock company GameStop is in the process of developing its own NFT marketplace.

Oh wow, @GameStop is launching an NFT platform https://t.co/3lkqgJTiwS pic.twitter.com/3BT1Szo9qJ

— Brad Michelson (@BradMichelson) May 25, 2021

While an official announcement hasn’t been made, the gaming giant appears to have launched a website named “nft.gamestop” — and is currently on the lookout for recruits:

“We welcome exceptional engineers (solidity, react, python), designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders. If you want to join our team, send your profile or something you’ve built to: nfteam@gamestop.com.”

Information on the bare bones website is sparse. Apart from the job listing, there is a Nintendo Game-Boy-like gaming console with a GameStop cartridge placed at the top. The console’s screen has green text which reads “power to the players, power to the creators, power to the collectors.” The website budget looks like it was under $20.

Interestingly, there is a link under the console to an Ethereum address. Upon searching the address on Etherscan, it looks like the firm will be utilizing Ethereum’s ERC721 standard, with an overview showing a “GME token” although there are zero in circulation so far.

In the comment section on Etherscan, some “r/wsb” members have already flocked to show support, with several people commenting with “I like the stonk,” — a popular meme within the community.

LaMelo having a tokenized ball

Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball is set to drop a collection of 500 Dynamic NFTs — non-static and updatable NFTs — before the NBA Rookie of the Year announcement in June. The collection will be dropped on lameloball.io.

“As I learn more about blockchain, I realize this is the most powerful and unique way to engage my fans in a way that’s special to them individually,” Ball told ESPN on May 28.

Ball is one of three rookie of the year candidates and is dropping 500 “Dynamic NFTs” that will automatically update to include the award (if he wins it).

Unlike static NFTs which can’t change, Dynamic NFTs can be updated with new data as they rely on “perpetual smart contracts that use oracles to communicate with and react to external data and systems” according to Chainlink Labs.

Utilizing Dynamic NFTs, Ball plans to update or “level up” the NFTs according to events from his NBA career. The 20-year-old also plans to offer lotteries that will allow collectors of the NFTs to “burn” them in exchange for that chance to win game worn-memorabilia.

“LaMelo will become the first athlete to mint his career on the blockchain,” Sher Chaudhary told ESPN, The co-founder of Playground, the Southern California-based NFT design studio working with Ball.

According to ESPN, along with the 500 Dynamic NFTs, the rookie of the year candidate has plans to release a further 9,500 standard NFT’s on the Ethereum Blockchain.

NFTs are Gucci

Christie’s art auction house has announced the launch of a new NFT auction dubbed “Proof of Sovereignty” — which includes a tokenized fashion film from Gucci.

The auction is already underway and due to close on June 3 and is being curated by the co-founder of art and crypto media advisory firm Universe Contemporary, “Lady PheOnix.”

The auction will consist of artworks from 19 different artists and includes fashion giant Gucci’s first-ever NFT — a tokenized fashion film co-directed by Alessandro Michele and by renowned photographer and director Floria Sigismondi.

The film explores the themes of “universal desire for renewal; a yearning to bloom and flourish after the shadow of winter has passed,” and has a starting bid of $20,000.

All of the proceeds from Gucci’s NFT sale will be donated to UNICEF USA, which supports UNICEF’s role in COVAX — “an initiative aimed at ensuring global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.”

Animoca Brands and Hedera

NFT game developer Animoca Brands has entered into a partnership with a public distributed ledger or DLT, network Hedera Hashgraph to develop two DLT-based gaming projects.

Hedera Hashgraph revealed the first project is an NFT based soccer game, that will feature tradable tokenized player NFTs which are backed by Hedera’s native token HBAR.

The NFTs will be redeemable for HBAR after an unrevealed “cooldown period,” with the firm claiming that this will represent the “first time that an NFT will be redeemable for a fixed and guaranteed amount of an underlying crypto asset.”

The second project dubbed “Helix Warp” will be an independent DLT-based online gaming platform focused on taking down cheaters.

“Helix Warp will counteract cheating by creating a server-side simulation environment and leveraging the Hedera Consensus Service to record results. Game developers will be able to plug into Helix Warp and deploy hack-resistant leaderboards in their games.”

“Helix Warp will target HTML5 games, to begin with and utilize the Helix Warp token to underpin the ecosystem,” the blog post added.

Blockchain development platform Reach is aiming to create universally compatible DApps by building a JavaScript-like programming language.

Reach, a blockchain development platform for decentralized applications, has raised $12 million from investors to further its goals of simplifying the DApp creation process, the company announced on Wednesday.

The latest funding round takes the total sum raised by Reach to $48 million as the firm aims to produce a JavaScript-like programming language for use in building blockchain applications. At present, most major blockchains launch with their own unique programming languages, meaning the applications built on each platform are rarely compatible with any other.

Reach launched in 2019 and has thus far achieved compatibility with the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains, with plans to expand the compatibility of its code compiler to adapt to any network.

Reach founder and CEO Chris Swenor said the fundraising effort took the project closer to becoming the main platform for interoperable DApp development.

“This investment accelerates our path to becoming the primary method the world builds decentralized applications that will form the basis of global interaction,” said Swenor. “We are thrilled by the momentum we have seen so far and the unprecedented support by investors and pioneering networks who share our vision for bringing blockchain mainstream.”

Ethereum is already home to the largest percentage of blockchain developers, with twice as many as the foremost cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), according to some reports. Algorand launched in 2019 with the goal of scaling blockchain performance — a goal it has since made progress toward with a reported 1,000 transactions per second and sub-cent fees.

Algorand CEO Steve Kokinos talked up the importance of having simple programming languages that are accessible to all developers — something that must be achieved if Algorand’s visions are to be realized.

“We believe it is critical to empower all developers with simple languages that put safety and correctness at the forefront. This is aligned with our vision for the future of finance where smart contract infrastructure will support billions of dollars of value and exchange around the world,” Kokinos said.

Traders remain cautious following last week’s brutal sell-off, but on-chain data is beginning to signal increasingly bullish activity while the crypto market awaits the next major move.

Price action for Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider cryptocurrency market was relatively subdued on May 27 as nervous traders remain unsure of what comes next following last week’s market plunge that saw leveraged traders wiped out as BTC dipped as low as $30,000 before its price rebounded. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that while Bitcoin’s price has managed to put in higher highs and higher lows over the past week, bulls continue to face stiff resistance at any meaningful attempt to break above $40,000 as bears defend the psychologically important level.

For many traders, the recent correction likely triggered PTSD-like flashbacks of the market crash of 2017 and 2018 and the ensuing two-year crypto winter, and this could be a reason why the market seems indecisive at the moment.

Given that many traders are unsure of what might come next for Bitcoin’s price, it’s wise to consider the various bullish and bearish scenarios that could play out and to also take stock of the opinions of analysts in the sector.

Traders remain cautious after the recent sell-off

According to David Lifchitz, managing partner and chief investment officer at ExoAlpha, it’s important to look closely at the recent market events and review the catalysts that created the current situation.

Lifchitz told Cointelegraph that following an “almost uninterrupted bull run from $10,000 in October 2020 to an all-time high for BTC at $65,000 in mid-April 2021,” the market saw several waves of profit-taking ahead of the “great deleveraging of 2021,” which saw the price of BTC fall by 54% to $30,000, while Ether (ETH) and altcoins were hit even harder.

According to Lifchitz, the correction succeeded in “drastically reducing the amount of leverage that prevailed in the ecosystem,” which can be seen as a healthy development for the overall market, as it will help “to build on a more stable base.”

Lifchitz cautioned that while data shows that some early dip-buyers managed to pick up tokens near the lows, both volumes and futures open interest have remained weak, “showing no urgency to reload.”

The monthly options expiration for Bitcoin and Ether are less than 24 hours away, and Lifchitz believes they are standing in the way of “any meaningful move in the very short term.” He also suggested that it will be “difficult to convince burned investors to get back in the game just now” due to a lack of upside catalyst and the recent reminder that “prices do not always go up.”

This has put the market in a “wait-and-see phase,” according to Lifchitz, with both trend followers and contrarian investors needing “to see some motion, either up or down” before they engage in the market.

Lifchitz said:

“The market definitely needs a catalyst, either upward or downward to move ahead. A too long period without any catalyst could lead to investors fatigue who might decide to cash out and seek other pastures, which would act as gravity on cryptos triggering a downward move. The next few days/weeks will be very telling of what to expect next.”

Bullish indicators abound

While the average crypto trader is currently in a state of stasis and awaiting the next major market move to signal what BTC might do next, on-chain data indicates bullish moves from larger players who took full advantage of the recent dip by buying.

According to Micah Spruill, managing partner and chief investment officer at S2F Capital, most of the selling that was seen at the recent lows “has been from newer entrants to the market” who have “been selling at a loss and seem to be exhausted at this point.”

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Spruill pointed to BTC net transfer volume, which shows that following the bearish downturn between May 17 and 20, “Massive amounts of USDC and USDT have been sent to exchanges (to buy BTC, ETH, etc.) and pull them off to long term storage.”

Further analysis shows that retail wallets holding between 0.1 and 1 BTC, as well as whale wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC, have been accumulating at these levels in preparation for an overall move higher.

Another bullish indicator mentioned by Spruill is entities’ net growth, which “is recovering back to prior levels” and may signal that “the bull market is back in full force” if this trend continues over the next few weeks and the metric resumes its highs.

Overall, Spruill sees a positive move for BTC in the future, although the timing is questionable due to a variety of factors.

Spruill said:

“I think there’s a possibility we could spend an extended period of time (months) between the $30,000 to $42,000 level as the market digests recent events and we endure a mid-cycle re-accumulation period. Alternatively, it’s possible we have a COVID-like recovery whereby we see Bitcoin break outside this range soon and recover much faster than others are expecting.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

DeFi is in the spotlight and Bitcoin fans may be getting jealous in this week’s Finance Redefined.

As a kid who grew up in a podunk-nothing, mid-sized American city, I know what it’s like to read parachute journalism covering topics and stories close to my heart. Some bad news for my fellow DeFi brethren: you’re all about to get a taste of that feeling, too. 

A colloquialism for when reporters tackle material outside their normal scope (picture a correspondent ‘parachuting’ into a war zone, clipping up a short segment, and beaming back to more hospitable climes), parachute journalism often leads to uninformed, sensationalist, and/or propagandistic coverage lacking key nuance — work that consciously or unconsciously confirms the biases of the audience or the reporter themselves. Growing up, I read it over and over again when some new intelligencer blew through town — an ascot-wearing so-and-so covering the G20, the Stanley Cup finals, a campaign stump. They often worked for a publication with “New York” in the title, and were always so pleasantly taken by how a smoggy former steel town could have restaurants that served edible food — somehow our “culinary scene” has been “up-and-coming” for the better part of thirty years.

I could go on, but I’ll save yinz. Point is, if the last week is any indication it’s best to get ready for a whole lot of gasbags phoning in boilerplate takes from the frontlines of DeFi.

Amid predictable memecoin, “look at these kids speculating” narrative fare, in the past week CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal have all featured pieces on decentralized finance intros, profiles, and overviews. Some have been readable, including a “Made It” CNBC profile on DeFi angel investor Cooper Turley — a well-respected advocate whose only blemish is that he stubbornly continues to support ‘social tokens’ as a use case. Others have been puzzling.

Sometimes you farm the content

And sometimes the content farms you https://t.co/SnhyCFgC9d

— Andrew T (@Blockanalia) May 20, 2021

It’s odd to hear strangers gossiping about your house. To this end, it was a balm to see Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart handle an interview with CNBC with grace, charm, and enough wit to dance on heads:

Defi will massively transform the crypto industry, or will it? @emilychangtv and @thestalwart ask Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart https://t.co/GYN6SHomsh pic.twitter.com/X1utENtqAr

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) May 25, 2021

The bar has been set — any DeFi aficionado interviewed on live TV owes it to the culture to wink at the home crowd. “Future of France” indeed.

Separating signal from noise in crypto can be notoriously difficult. I’d argue that the sudden influx of mainstream airborne regiments are all noise — look past them, and see what’s brewing in the background.

This week, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school of business published a research report titled “DeFi Beyond the Hype.” Likewise, Goldman Sachs published a piece earlier this month arguing that Ethereum beats Bitcoin as a store-of-value in part because an overwhelming portion of DeFi is built using the Ethereum chain.

“Ether beats bitcoin as a store of value. The Ethereum ecosystem…provides developers a way to create new apps. Most of DeFi apps are being built on Ethereum. The greater number of transactions in ether vs bitcoin reflects this dominance” – Goldman Sachs Global Macro Research pic.twitter.com/vNkQ1HlDYM

— SantΞago R Santos (@santiagoroel) May 22, 2021

Much like how the value propositions Bitcoin proponents parroted over the course of a decade finally worked their way into soundbites and research notes last year, DeFi’s narrative rise now seems inevitable.

Even when it’s well-intentioned, parachute journalism can feel glib and condescending to those truly versed in the topic at hand — but it’s easier to swallow when better and broader awareness is on the horizon.

A condensed history of DeFi on Bitcoin

The Tweet of the week comes from DeFi Pulse’s Scott Lewis, who gave us a condensed history of how Bitcoin maximalists attempt to warp narrative reality about the growing might of DeFi: 

history of bitcoin on defi:

Dec 2018: DeFi is a scam
Mar 2019: it is offensive to say Lightning Network is DeFi .
July 2020: well actually bitcoin is the only DeFi project that matters. yields are a scam.
May 2021: we are love defi. we are building defi. yields coming soonTM.

— Ξ (@scott_lew_is) May 26, 2021

This is an abrupt about-face from the past year or two, a period where Bitcoin-or-nothing types ignored DeFi, passed it off a curiosity, or attempted in some cases to talk it out of existence. As Michael Saylor recently and bizarrely tried to argue in a poignant fit of denialism, if you simply ignore all other chains and assets (and the significant sums of value that they’re driving) with some arbitrary definitions, Bitcoin’s dominance actually stands at 93%! 

When considering network dominance in the crypto industry, I find it clarifying to separate crypto-asset networks like #Bitcoin from crypto-application networks like Ethereum & stablecoins. Bitcoin dominance has advanced from a low of 71.05% on December 20, 2017 to 93.57% today. pic.twitter.com/03cbWVyoLY

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) September 20, 2020

In reality there have long been good teams working towards Bitcoin-based smart contracts and DeFi products. Perhaps the best known is RSK Labs, though much like Ethereum’s very own Optimism they always seem a few months away from being a few months away (shouts, Bruno Caboclo). Early Bitcoin experiments should be credited for paving the way for blockchain-based smart contracts as well: Vitalik cites the Colored Coins project as one of his inspirations for ETH. 

Moving forward, Bitcoiners will be cheering for and closely watching RSK and others as they inch towards production — the kind of obsessive monitoring and “breadcrumb-hunting” usually seen among shitcoin communities. Lord, how delicious.

But no matter how many BTC-based projects reach mainnet, the race has already been run. There are both trusted and trustless BTC yield-bearing products in production as of today. Badger and Ren’s collaboration is proof of how far non-native ecosystems are ahead: two projects could collaborate on a deep integration bridging multiple contracts and products to create a one-click, cross-chain yield-bearing account. Each component step of that is a small feat requiring an organic developer community — the type that takes years to build.

Hodlers, of course, will argue that Bitcoin is the most trusted — the only one institutions will opt for, something something “second move advantage.” Problem is, institutions don’t trust any coins at all, hardcore hodlers don’t trust RSK, and while Ethereum-based DeFi users are increasingly branching out to alternatives like Solana and Polygon, what unique qualities can Bitcoin-based DeFi offer? Realistically, where do the TVL and the developers come from?

I own Bitcoin and I plan to buy more in the future, so I’m not bashing. But for the present and the foreseeable future, the DeFi narrative is out of their control.

Other major stories this week: 

CT Consulting: Polygon on the rise

DeFi leads rebound, total crypto mcap gains $400 billion

Uniswap v3 eclipses v2 in volume

BSC project gets exploited for $3 million

Stablecoin market raises $3.5 seed round

The 20-day EMA and 50-day SMA are often used by traders to observe the market’s momentum and calculate the best time to enter and exit an asset.

The first step to successful trading is the identification of medium- and short-term trends. Traders who remain on the right side of the trend and use risk management principles usually end up earning profits. An equally important activity in the trading process is calculating the entry.

Many times, traders are afraid to pull the trigger in the optimal moment and end up missing a large part of the rally. As they see the markets move higher from the sidelines, the urge to buy keeps increasing, and many times, they end up buying near the top.

To avoid such mistakes, it is important to devise an easy system for purchasing. Every trader wants to buy low and sell high, but that is easier said than done. Instead, traders should focus on capturing a major portion of the rally by taking the least possible risk. Let’s learn some easy strategies for doing this.

Trading in a range-bound market

Although the price action in a range-bound market is volatile and random, it can still be traded. If the ranges are too tight, it is better to sit on the sidelines instead of trying to trade choppy price action.

On the other hand, if the range is well-defined and large, as in the above example, traders may try to trade it. The easy method is to buy on a rebound off the support and book profits near the resistance of the range. The stops for such trades can be kept just below the support of the range.

The larger the number of touches both on the support and resistance of the range, the better it is to trade because the possibility of whipsaws are less. Usually, every range-bound action is followed by a strong bullish or bearish move. Hence, when the trend changes, traders should alter their trading strategy accordingly.

How to buy in a bull market using moving averages

After a bull trend starts, the asset continues to make higher highs and higher lows. Traders who keep waiting to buy on a significant correction miss the bus. Therefore, when the trader identifies an upsloping 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) and 50-day simple moving average (SMA), it is time to look for an entry opportunity.

Binance Coin (BNB) started its uptrend in February when the moving averages began to slope up and the relative strength index (RSI) sustained in the overbought territory.

After the trend is established, traders should wait for a low-risk opportunity to buy. In an uptrend, the 20-day EMA acts as a strong support. Therefore, traders can wait for the price to dip and rebound off the 20-day EMA before buying. This gives a low-risk buying opportunity, as the stop-loss can be placed just below the 20-day EMA or the swing low.

In the above chart, ellipses are used to mark the points where traders could have purchased. The price dipped to the 20-day EMA on six occasions, which could have been good entry points. However, on one of the trades, the stops could have hit.

On March 25, the price broke below the 20-day EMA and the swing low was made on March 16. This could have hit the stops of short-term traders. However, the bears could not sustain the price below the 20-day EMA because the bulls bought the dips to the 50-day SMA.

The price quickly rose above the 20-day EMA on March 27, indicating resumption of the uptrend. In such cases, traders can either buy on a close above the 20-day EMA or the most recent swing high because it signals that bulls are back in command.

Let’s investigate a few more examples.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) chart above is a good example of how traders who bought the bounce off the 20-day EMA (entries marked using arrows) would have hit their stops just a few days later as the price broke below the 20-day EMA and the swing low where the stops may have been kept.

This shows there is no fool-proof entry opportunity, and traders should be willing to buy again at higher prices if the uptrend resumes.

In all three cases, the price took support close to the 50-day SMA and bounced back above the 20-day EMA. This was a signal to traders that the trend has resumed. This is generally a good entry point as the stop-loss is well defined and the profit potential is high. On all three occasions, the trade turned out to be profitable.

During vertical rallies, the momentum is so strong that the price does not correct to the 20-day EMA. In such cases, if traders keep waiting for the entry near the 20-day EMA, they can miss the entire rally.

Therefore, when trading coins that are witnessing a strong vertical rally, traders can reduce the period of the exponential moving average to 10. By doing that, two entry opportunities open up, which offer a good risk-to-reward ratio for traders.

Moving averages as resistance in a downtrend

After the trend changes direction to a downtrend, the moving averages tend to act as points of resistance.

Bitcoin’s 2018 bear market is a good example to understand how moving averages behave in a downtrend. Each of the relief rallies halted near the 20-day EMA, indicating the bears were shorting when the price reached this resistance.

After the downtrend was established, there were two occasions when the price rose above the 50-day SMA. Note that before this happened, the RSI dipped close to the oversold territory, which may have attracted counter-trend traders.

In Ether’s (ETH) bear market during 2018, see how the price remained below the 50-day SMA from June until the end of the year. The relief rallies reversed direction from either the 20-day EMA or the 50-day SMA.

Don’t waste time looking for the “perfect” entry opportunity

Most times, the best entries also fail and the stop loss orders are hit. After experiencing a string of losses, novice traders often become discouraged and do not buy at higher levels, instead waiting to buy at the same level their stops were hit or lower. Because of this, they miss a large part of the uptrend.

In a bull phase, traders should be ready to buy when the trend resumes. Treat each trade as a fresh one, and do not be fixated on the profit or loss realized on the previous ones.

Each coin’s behavior is different; therefore, traders should alter the periods of the moving averages to suit the coin and then devise entry points accordingly.

Talos seeks to accelerate institutional adoption of digital assets. It now has some of the industry’s biggest backers supporting its mission.

Talos, an up-and-coming institutional technology provider for cryptocurrency trading, has secured $40 million in Series A funding from some of the biggest venture capitalists in the digital asset market. 

The raise, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz, also had participation from PayPal Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Galaxy Digital, Elefund, Illuminate Financial and Steadfast Capital Ventures.

Talos said the Series A funding will help bootstrap the expansion of its institutional trading platform. The company provides fund managers and other institutions with liquidity sourcing, direct market access, and clearing and settlement services. Its clients include buy-side institutions and financial service providers such as banks, broker-dealers, over-the-counter desks, custodians and exchanges.

Anton Katz, Talos’ co-founder and CEO, said in a statement that the firm has “gained significant traction over the last two years” in attracting new institutional clients, adding:

“Now, by partnering with some of the most prominent players in the global financial markets, we can realize our goal of providing the fabric for institutional trading of digital assets around the world.”

Arianna Simpson, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said, “We have reached an inflection point where widespread institutional adoption will progress only with robust, expansive and institutional-grade market infrastructure in place.”

PayPal Ventures managing partner Peter Sanborn touted digital assets as playing a “key role” in the global financial system, adding that Talos’ software “provides that critical market structure support and enables institutions to reliably interact with digital currencies.”

Andreessen Horowitz has made a big splash in the digital currency market this year, backing layer-two scaling solutions, NFT marketplaces and privacy-focused blockchain protocols to the tune of $76 million. The venture capital firm has also unveiled plans for a $1 billion crypto fund that will be used to bootstrap various up-and-coming digital asset companies.

Investors are backing the Balancer protocol with greater conviction. Could this be a sign that market hype surrounding DeFi is ramping up again?

The capital raise was led by Blockchain Capital, Fintech Collective, LongHash Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Continue Capital and Kain Warwick, the founder of DeFi protocol Synthetix. The funds will be used to strengthen Balancer’s role as a core infrastructure provider of the DeFi market.

“By allowing for the most flexible and composable liquidity pools in the AMM space, the Balancer Protocol is uniquely positioned as a core infrastructure component for decentralized finance protocols and applications,” said Aleks Larsen, an investor with Blockchain Capital. He added:

“We see this aspect of the technology in Balancer as a strong long-term indicator, as protocols that are widely embedded in higher level systems are able to drive powerful network effects and defensive moats.”

Balancer has a history of attracting funding from leading VC firms. Last November, Alameda Capital and Pantera Capital threw their weight behind the DeFi project. In March of this year, Three Arrows Capital and DeFiance Capital led a $5 million raise for the company.

There has been considerable buzz around Balancer of late after VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro indicated the start of a new bullish phase for the project. Although much of that bullish outlook has subsidized in the wake of last week’s market cycle correction. The value of BAL token is down 17% over the past week.

The Balancer protocol aims to become the leading source of liquidity in the DeFi market. The team has placed a strong emphasis on driving adoption in the Asia Pacific region, which could emerge as a hotbed for decentralized finance products.

Several prominent investors from within the cryptocurrency industry have purchased $24.25 million in Balancer tokens in a coordinated move to springboard adoption of the automated market maker.