Helium

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman says ‘crypto is here to stay’

Bill Ackman’s conviction on crypto comes as much of the community attempts to regain confidence in the industry following the FTX fallout.

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman says he remains bullish about cryptocurrencies, despite the recent collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the market turmoil that has followed it.

In a Nov. 20 Twitter thread, the CEO and founder of hedge fund management firm Pershing Square Capital Management said he believes that “crypto is here to stay” despite recent challenges, though there’s a need to increase oversight and remove “fraudulent actors” in the space.

Bill Ackman is a billionaire American investor who most recently called for the removal of regulatory barriers and easing of regulations in New York in order to make the city a crypto hub. He is also a direct investor in a number of cryptocurrency projects.

“I think crypto is here to stay and with proper oversight and regulation, it has the potential to greatly benefit society and grow the global economy,” he said.

However, Ackman said that like the invention of the telephone and the internet, the technology improves on the next in terms of its ability to facilitate fraud:

“The problem with crypto is that unethical promoters can create tokens simply to facilitate pump and dump schemes. It may in fact be that the vast majority of crypto coins are used for fraudulent purposes rather than for building legitimate businesses.”

That being said, Ackman said that with proper oversight from industry leaders, these “fraudulent actors” can be eliminated:

“All legitimate participants in the crypto ecosystem should therefore be highly incentivized to expose and eliminate fraudulent actors as they greatly increase the risk of regulatory intervention that will set back the positive potential impact of crypto for generations.”

The investor also said while he was initially a “crypto skeptic” he now sees it as having “the potential to greatly benefit society and grow the global economy,” he said, adding:

“I was initially a crypto skeptic [but] I have come to believe that crypto can enable the formation of useful businesses and technologies that [before now] could not be created.”

“The ability to issue a token to incentivize participants in a venture is a powerful lever in accessing a global workforce to advance a project,” he added.

Ackman added that “sensible regulation and oversight” would be crucial in progressing the technology forward.

Related: Blockchain is as revolutionary as electricity: Big Ideas with Jason Potts

The hedge fund manager’s tweet comes in light of the recent FTX collapse.

According to reports, Ackman initially praised former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for owning up to his mistakes, but later deleted the tweet.

‘No basis’ for Binance’s partial delisting of HNT — Helium COO

Multiple trading pairs of the Helium Foundation’s token will soon be removed from Binance, with the exchange saying it delists assets if it no longer meets “high standards.”

The chief operating officer for the Helium Foundation, Scott Sigel, has claimed there is “no basis” for cryptocurrency exchange Binance to delist several trading pairs of its cryptocurrency, Helium Network Token (HNT).

Sigel’s comments come after an Oct. 6 notice by Binance saying the exchange is removing the cross isolated margin and spot trading pairs for HNT and Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Bitcoin (BTC).

Binance “strongly advised” users to close any positions in its listed pairs as user positions will be forcibly closed, and any pending orders canceled on Oct. 12 with only spot trading for the HNT/BUSD pair remaining.

Jessica Jung, a Binance spokesperson, said in a statement to Forbes that the exchange periodically reviews its listed cryptocurrencies to ensure they continue “to meet a high level of standard.”

If an asset doesn’t meet the standard or “there are changes in the industry,” it will delist it “in order to protect our users,” she explained.

Sigel, in response, stated, “There is no basis for Binance to delist several HNT pairs. There has been no change to the integrity of HNT and it continues to meet all of the standards the exchange sets.”

“There are dozens of other exchanges that continue to support HNT. We hope Binance reverses course and re-lists the other HNT trading pairs soon,” he added.

Helium was founded in 2013 as an Internet of Things (IoT)-focused blockchain and is building a decentralized peer-to-peer wireless telecommunications network. On Sept. 22, it said it would migrate its blockchain to Solana, which it said was for more ecosystem support, among other reasons.

Related: Security and interoperability, the challenges ahead of Web3 mass adoption

Questions as to why Binance is partially delisting HNT have sent traders speculating, with some claiming it was in response to Binance’s mix-up of Helium ecosystem tokens in September when an accounting bug saw the exchange allegedly lose around $19 million worth of crypto.

It’s reported that Binance confused HNT with a much lower-priced token used by Helium to pay hosts of its 5G hotspot network called MOBILE and paid out around 4.8 million HNT, causing a massive sell-off of the token, temporarily dropping its price.

Criticism has also been leveled at Helium for its revenue numbers despite significant funding rounds. In July, data suggesting the project makes only $6,500 per month from its data usage revenue was revealed, despite the company raising hundreds of millions from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, FTX Ventures and Tiger Global.

In August, Helium was caught listing partners on its website, namely e-bike business Lime and software company SalesForce, that denied working with the firm or having an active partnership. Helium removed the mentions of both organizations on its website soon after.

The total crypto market cap continues to crumble as the dollar index hits a 20 year high

The total crypto market capitalization dropped by 6.9% in one week, while derivatives metrics reflect increasing demand for bearish bets.

From a bearish perspective, there’s a fair probability that the crypto market entered a descending channel (or wedge) on Aug. 15 after it failed to break above the $1.2 trillion total market capitalization resistance. Even if the pattern isn’t yet clearly distinguishable, the last couple of weeks have not been positive.

Total crypto market cap, USD billion. Source: TradingView

For example, the $940 billion total market cap seen on Aug. 29 was the lowest in 43 days. The worsening conditions have been accompanied by a steep correction in traditional markets, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has declined by 12% since Aug. 15 and even WTI oil prices plummeted 11% from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.

Investors sought shelter in the dollar and United States Treasuries after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the bank’s commitment to contain inflation by tightening the economy. As a result, investors took profits on riskier assets, causing the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) to reach its highest level in over two decades at 109.6 on Sept 1. The index measures the dollar’s strength against a basket of top foreign currencies.

More importantly, the regulatory newsflow remains largely unfavorable, especially after U.S. federal prosecutors requested internal records from Binance crypto exchange to look deeper into possible money laundering and recruitment of U.S. customers. Since late 2020, authorities have been investigating whether Binance violated the Bank Secrecy Act, according to Reuters.

Crypto investor sentiment re-enters the bearish zone

The risk-off attitude caused by Federal Reserve tightening led investors to expect a broader market correction and is negatively impacting growth stocks, commodities and cryptocurrencies.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me

The data-driven sentiment Fear and Greed Index peaked on Aug. 14 as the indicator hit a neutral 47/100 reading, which did not sound very promising either. On Sept. 1, the metric hit 20/100, the lowest reading in 46, and typically deemed a bearish level.

Below are the winners and losers from the past seven days as the total crypto capitalization declined 6.9% to $970 billion. While Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) presented a 7% to 8% decline, a handful of mid-capitalization altcoins dropped 13% or more in the period.

Weekly winners and losers among the top-80 coins. Source: Nomics

eCash (XEC) jumped 16.5% after lead developer Amaury Séchet announced the Avalanche post-consensus launch on eCash mainnet, expected for Sept. 14. The update aims to bring 1-block finality and increase protection against 51% attacks.

NEXO gained 3.4% after committing an additional $50 million to its buyback program, giving the company more discretionary ability to repurchase its native token on the open market.

Helium (HNT) lost 29.3% after core developers proposed ditching its own blockchain in favor of Solana’s. If passed, Helium-based HNT, IOT and MOBILE tokens and Data Credits (DCs) would also be transferred to the Solana blockchain.

Avalanche (AVAX) dropped 18.2% after CryptoLeaks released an unverified video showing Kyle Roche, the partner at Roche Freedman, saying that he could sue Solana, one of Avalanche’s top rivals, on behalf of Ava Labs.

Most tokens performed negatively, but retail demand in China slightly improved

The OKX Tether (USDT) premium is a good gauge of China-based retail crypto trader demand. It measures the difference between China-based peer-to-peer (P2P) trades and the United States dollar.

Excessive buying demand tends to pressure the indicator above fair value at 100%, and during bearish markets, Tether’s market offer is flooded and causes a 4% or higher discount.

Tether (USDT) peer-to-peer vs. USD/CNY. Source: OKX

On Oct. 30, the Tether price in Asia-based peer-to-peer markets reached a 0.4% premium, its highest level since mid-June. Curiously, the move happened while the crypto total market cap dropped 18.5% since Aug. 15. Data shows there hasn’t been panic selling from retail traders, as the index remains relatively neutral.

Traders must also analyze futures markets to exclude externalities specific to the Tether instrument. Perpetual contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded rate usually charged every eight hours. Exchanges use this fee to avoid exchange risk imbalances.

A positive funding rate indicates that longs (buyers) demand more leverage. However, the opposite situation occurs when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, causing the funding rate to turn negative.

Accumulated perpetual futures funding rate on Sept. 1. Source: Coinglass

Perpetual contracts reflected a moderately bearish sentiment as the accumulated funding rate was negative in every instance. The current fees resulted from an unstable situation with higher demand from leverage shorts and those betting on a price decrease. Still, even the 0.70% negative weekly funding rate for Ethereum Classic (ETC) was not enough to discourage short sellers.

Negative regulatory and macroeconomic pin down sentiment

The negative 6.9% weekly performance should be investors’ least worry right now because regulators have been targeting major crypto exchanges. For example, they claim that altcoins should have been registered as securities and that the sector has been used to facilitate money laundering.

Moreover, the weak sentiment metrics and imbalanced leverage data signal investors are worried about the impacts of a global recession. Even though Tether data in Asian markets shows no signs of retail panic selling, there is no evidence of traders having a bullish appetite because the total crypto market cap approached its lowest level in 45 days. Thus, bears have reason to believe that the current descending formation will continue in the upcoming weeks.

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. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Helium devs propose ditching own blockchain for Solana

The transition to Solana would improve network scalability, which in turn would bring “significant economies of scale” to the network, according to Helium core devs.

Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain network Helium could transition to the Solana blockchain following a new HIP 70 governance proposal launched on Tuesday. 

The Helium core developers said the need to “improve operational efficiency and scalability” was required in order to bring “significant economies of scale” to the network.

The Helium network operates by users installing a Helium Hotspot to provide decentralized wireless 5G network coverage for internet users in their area. Helium uses a unique consensus mechanism, proof-of-coverage, to verify network connectivity and distribute HNT tokens to Helium Hotspot providers when coverage is verified.

The proposal comes as Helium developers have emphasized the need to fix a number of technical issues in order to improve the network’s capabilities:

“In the last several months of the network, both have been challenging for network participants with much reduced Proof-of-Coverage activity due to network size and blockchain/validator load, and packet delivery issues.”

The HIP 70 proposal has been put forward to improve these data transfer and network coverage abilities, according to the Helium GitHub page.

If passed, Helium-based HNT, IOT and MOBILE tokens and Data Credits (DCs) would also be transferred to the Solana blockchain.

The network’s HNT is earned by hotspot providers, IOT is earned by node operators that provide the LoRaWAN network, MOBILE is earned when 5G coverage is provided and DCs are used to pay transaction fees.

Since its creation in 2013, the Helium network has operated on its own blockchain. The Hotspot podcast host Arman Dezfuli-Arjomandi stated in several Twitter posts that “Ethereum was too slow” and “other alternatives [at the time] weren’t all that appealing:”

“Helium needed to build its own Blockchain when the protocol first started as there was no blockchain that this could have been built on that existed at the time.”

Despite nearly one million Helium Hotspots deployed worldwide and backed by the likes of Google Ventures, the network hasn’t come without criticisms.

Related: Helium network team resolves consensus error after 4-hour outage

Last month, entrepreneur Liron Shapira criticized the network for its “complete lack of end-user demand” following the news that the network was only generating $6,500 per month from data usage revenue, despite raising over $350 million.

The Helium network also experienced a four-hour outage, which affected the ability of HNT tokenholders to exchange their tokens and prevented Helium Hotspot miners from receiving rewards.

Community reacts positively

Many members of the Helium community have responded to HIP 70 with positive sentiment, who are of the view that the integration into Solana will benefit developers tremendously.

Ryan Bethencourt, partner of Web3 backer Layer One Ventures, told his 16,000 Twitter followers that the proposal is “huge” for Helium and Solana should the recommendation be approved. 

Another Twitter user called the combination “simply mind blowing.”

The HIP 70 vote is scheduled for Sept. 12, which will be made available for HNT tokenholders on heliumvote.com. Voting will end on Sept. 18.

The news does not appear to have positively impacted the price of HNT which is currently priced at $5.23, down 15.5% over the last 48 hours.

Helium devs propose ditching its own blockchain for Solana

The transition to Solana would improve network scalability, which in turn would bring “significant economies of scale” to the network, according to Helium core devs.

Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain network Helium could transition to the Solana blockchain following a new HIP 70 governance proposal launched on Aug. 30. 

The Helium core developers said the need to “improve operational efficiency and scalability” was required in order to bring “significant economies of scale” to the network.

The Helium network operates by users installing a Helium Hotspot to provide decentralized wireless 5G network coverage for internet users in their area. Helium uses a unique consensus mechanism — proof-of-coverage to verify network connectivity and distribute HNT tokens to Helium Hotspot providers when coverage is verified.

The proposal comes as Helium developers have emphasized the need to fix a number of technical issues in order to improve the network’s capabilities:

In the last several months of the network, both have been challenging for network participants with much reduced Proof-of-Coverage activity due to network size and blockchain/validator load, and packet delivery issues.

The HIP 70 proposal has been put forward to improve these data transfer and network coverage abilities, according to the Helium GitHub page.

If passed, Helium-based HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens and Data Credits (DCs) would also be transferred to the Solana blockchain.

The network’s HNT tokens are earned by hotspot providers, IOT tokens are earned by node operators that provide the LoRaWAN network, MOBILE tokens are earned when 5G coverage is provided, and DCs are used to pay transaction fees.

Since its creation in 2013, the Helium network has operated on its own blockchain. “The Hotspot” podcast host Arman Dezfuli-Arjomandi stated in several Twitter posts that “Ethereum was too slow” and “other alternatives [at the time] weren’t all that appealing”.

“Helium needed to build its own Blockchain when the protocol first started as “there was no blockchain that this could have been built on that existed at the time.”

But despite nearly one million Helium Hotspots deployed worldwide and being backed by the likes of Google Ventures, the network hasn’t come without criticisms.

Related: Helium network team resolves consensus error after 4-hour outage

Last month, entrepreneur Liron Shapira criticized the network for its “complete lack of end-user demand” following the news that the network was only generating $6,500 per month from data usage revenue, despite raising over $350 million.

The Helium network also experienced a four-hour outage, which affected the ability for HNT token holders to exchange their tokens and prevented Helium Hotspot miners from receiving rewards.

Community reacts positively

Many members of the Helium community have responded to HIP 70 with positive sentiment, who are of the view that the integration into Solana will benefit developers tremendously.

Ryan Bethencourt, Partner of Web3 backer Layer One Ventures told his 16,000 Twitter followers that the proposal is “huge” for Helium and Solana should the recommendation be approved. 

Another Twitter user called the combination “simply mind blowing.”

The HIP 70 vote is scheduled for Sept. 12, which will be made available for HNT token holders on heliumvote.com. Voting will end on Sept. 18.

The news does not appear to have positively impacted the price of the HNT token which is currently priced at $5.23, down 15.5% over the last 48 hours.

Critique on Helium’s $6.5K monthly revenue causes a stir

The “complete lack of end-user demand for Helium should not have come as a surprise,” noted Web3 critic Liron Shapira.

A recent critique from author and entrepreneur Liron Shapira on the Helium blockchain project has caused a strong debate over the long-term prospects of the company.

Founded in 2013, Helium is an Internet of Things– (IoT)-focused blockchain that is building a decentralized peer-to-peer wireless telecommunications network via its own machine networking tech.

In a Twitter thread on Tuesday, Shapira, a heavy critic of Web3, questioned the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment into Helium.

He pointed to data suggesting that the project makes just $6,500 per month from its data usage revenue, and stated that the “complete lack of end-user demand for Helium should not have come as a surprise.” He also referenced recent posts from node hotspot operators in the Helium subreddit who were posted about the dwindling rewards from their efforts.

“On average, they spent $400-800 to buy a hotspot. They were expecting $100/month, enough to recoup their costs and enjoy passive income. Then their earnings dropped to only $20/mo,” he said.

In a follow up interview with Tactical Investing on Thursday, Shapira expanded on his comments:

“People see those two numbers, $6,500 a month vs $350 million raised, and they say ‘how does this make any sense?’ It only makes sense in the case of a very very early stage startup.”

As part of Helium’s wireless network structure, node operators receive 35% of data usage revenue as rewards in the HNT token for validation transactions. To be able to run a node, people also need to purchase and install one of Helium Systems’ hotspot devices, along with staking 10,000 HNT worth roughly $89,000 at current prices. Shapira argues that operators “maintain false hope” of obtaining a positive return on their investment.

Related: Web3 innovations are replacing middlemen with middleware protocols

In response to the thread, Helium founder Amir Haleem provided a lengthy one of his own, addressing the criticism:

“So why is there only $6,500 worth of data being paid for? Unlike cellular networks there aren’t millions of existing devices that can switch to Helium. The best applications haven’t been built yet, and it takes months or years to build them.”

Haleem noted that the project’s goal of developing a secure, decentralized and cheap IoT network is not an easy one to undertake and that he also envisioned it taking 5-10 years. He also stated that “realistically there’s only been *usable* coverage for the last 6-9 months,” and applications are starting to get built on the network.

In the Helium subreddit, user PuppypuppyX also responded to Shapira’s critiques and shared similar sentiments. While they accepted that some criticism of Helium’ validity relating to the node operating infrastructure (faulty products and delayed shipping), many people in the community understand the complexity of the goal and how long it will take.

“Creating a network of millions of nodes with different protocols (LoRa, 5g, and more) that spans the globe and is not beholden to a multinational corporation is one of the most ambitious technological projects ever undertaken,” they wrote, adding that:

“IF Helium works (and I’m not saying it will) it can revolutionize the way data is shared.”

Helium network team resolves consensus error after 4-hour outage

The network downtime affected token transfers and miner rewards, but not devices during the 4-hour outage caused by a failure in the Consensus Group.

The Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain Helium shut down for about 4 hours on Monday due to validator outages from a software update, causing delayed transaction finality.

During the outage, devices transferring data over the network were not affected, but miner rewards and token transfers were left pending. The team resolved the issue by skipping the blockchain forward by one block and resuming normal functions.

At 10:20 am EST, the Consensus Group stopped producing blocks at block height 1435692 on the Helium blockchain, according to a status update. Lacking network consensus, token transfers could not be completed, and new blocks were not being produced.

Helium is an IoT network that uses physical radio hotspots to allow users to connect to their devices from anywhere there is radio coverage. On the Helium network, a Consensus Group consists of 43 validator nodes randomly chosen in fixed intervals to provide network consensus.

In the postmortem for the event, Helium engineers cited two reasons validators stopped creating consensus on the network.

First, an issue with a Friday software update for validators contributed to the problem. The v1.12.3 update was designed to provide support for the 5G Mobile subnetwork and its MOBILE token.

Additionally, a “local network outage” was also to blame. In the project’s Discord channel, Helium moderator Digerati explained that a high concentration of validators randomly chosen as the Consensus Group at the time of the outage was running on the same Amazon Web Service (AWS) network, which experienced technical difficulties.

AWS is a global cloud computing and data storage service that can be used to enhance computer networks like Helium.

A Helium community moderator explains an AWS outage affected validators.

Compounding the problem was the failure of an auto-skip feature that should have chosen a new Consensus Group automatically. The team stated that “a known issue prevented the auto-skip feature from working as expected.” However, it is not clear what the “known issue” is that the team referred to.

Although the network could not choose a different Consensus Group, it was designed with the ability to skip the blockchain a block forward “to mitigate situations such as these,” according to a 10:56 am ET announcement from the team.

Related: Cloudflare outage affects multiple crypto exchanges

By 1:45 pm EST, new block production started with block number 1435693. The team said it worked closely with validator operators to ensure they were synced correctly and released a new software update.

HNT is down 4.1% over the past 24 hours, trading at $8.76, according to CoinGecko. It is down 84% from its November 2021 all-time high.

Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, FTT, XTZ, KCS, HNT

Bitcoin managed to bounce off a critical support and if the higher levels sustain, FTT, XTZ, KCS and HNT could attract buyers.

Bitcoin (BTC) is threatening to drop to its worst weekly close since December of 2020. The crypto markets are in are held firmly in a vice grip, and the selling accelerated following a higher-than-expected inflation report from the United States on June 10. 

It is not only the crypto markets that are facing the brunt, even United States equities markets finished the week ending June 10 with sharp losses. Risky assets may remain volatile in the near term as traders await the outcome of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 14 and June 15.

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodities strategist Mike McGlone warned that if the stock markets continue to drop, then it will signal that most assets may have seen their peak exuberance in the past two years.

Could Bitcoin find support at lower levels and will that attract buying in select altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that are likely to move up if the sentiment improves.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin broke below the trendline on June 10, which negated the developing ascending triangle pattern. The bears maintained their selling pressure and pulled the price below the strong support of $28,630 on June 11.

BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The long tail on the June 12 candlestick shows that bulls are attempting to defend the support at $26,700. If buyers propel the price back above the breakdown level of $28,630, it will suggest that the BTC/Tether (USDT) pair may remain range-bound between $32,659 and $26,700 for some time.

On the other hand, if the price turns down from $28,630, it will suggest that bears have flipped the level into resistance. That could increase the possibility of a break below $26,700. If that happens, the selling could intensify, and the pair may drop to $22,000 and later to $20,000.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The pair rebounded sharply from $26,890, indicating aggressive buying near the crucial level of $26,700. The bulls will attempt to push the price back above the breakdown level of $28,630. If that happens, the next stop could be the 50-simple moving average (SMA). A break and close above this level could clear the path for a possible rally to $32,000.

The downsloping 20-exponential moving average (EMA) and the RSI in the negative zone indicate that bears have the upper hand. If the price turns down from $28,630, the bears will make one more attempt to sink the pair below $26,700 and resume the downtrend.

FTT/USDT

FTX Token (FTT) has been in a downtrend for the past several months, but the RSI has formed a positive divergence, indicating that the bearish momentum may be weakening.

FTT/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The bulls pushed the price above the 20-day EMA of $29 on June 9 but could not sustain the higher levels. The bears pulled the price back below the 20-day EMA, but the bulls did not give up much ground. Sustained buying by the bulls has pushed the price above the resistance on June 12.

The FTT/USDT pair could rally to the 50-day SMA of $32 and if this level is crossed, the up-move may reach $35. This positive view could invalidate if the price turns down and breaks below $25. Such a move will suggest the start of the next leg of the downtrend.

FTT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The 4-hour chart shows the formation of an inverse head and shoulders pattern that will complete on a break and close above the neckline. If that happens, the pair could start a new up-move toward the pattern target of $34.

On the contrary, if the price fails to sustain above the neckline, it will suggest that bears are not willing to let go of their advantage. The sellers will then try to pull the price below $26. If they succeed, the pair could slide to $25.

XTZ/USDT

Tezos (XTZ) rose above the 50-day SMA of $2.14 on June 9, but the bulls could not build upon this strength. This suggests that the bears are active at higher levels.

XTZ/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

Strong selling by the bears pulled the price below the moving averages and the XTZ/USDT pair dropped to the crucial support zone of $1.61 to $1.45. If the price rebounds off this zone, the bulls will again try to push the pair above the 50-day SMA and challenge the overhead resistance at $2.36.

This positive view could invalidate if the price continues lower and slips below the support zone. If that happens, the pair could resume its downtrend and drop toward the psychological level of $1.00.

XTZ/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The 4-hour chart shows the price is stuck inside the range between $2.30 and $1.61. Usually, when the price consolidates in a range, traders buy near the support and sell close to the resistance. That is what happened, as seen from the rebound off $1.61.

The bears may try to sell on rallies to the 20-EMA, but if bulls clear this hurdle, the likelihood of the pair rising to $2.30 increases. To invalidate this view, bears will have to sink and sustain the price below $1.61. If that happens, the pair may drop to $1.45.

Related: Ethereum price enters ‘oversold’ zone for the first time since November 2018

KCS/USDT

KuCoin Token (KCS) rallied sharply from its May 12 intraday low of $9.50 and reached $18 on May 31. This sharp up-move may have tempted short-term traders to book profits, which started the current correction.

KCS/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The buyers will try to defend the zone between the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of $13.75 and the 61.8% retracement level of $12.75. If the price rebounds off this zone, the bulls will attempt to push the KCS/USDT pair above the moving averages.

If they manage to do that, it will suggest that the correction may be over. The pair could then retest the critical resistance at $18.

Alternatively, if the price continues lower and breaks below $12.75, it will suggest that traders may be rushing to the exit. That could increase the possibility of a 100% retracement to $9.50.

KCS/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The bulls attempted to stall the decline near $15 but the bears continued their selling and pulled the price below the support. Although the price is trading below $15, a minor positive is that the bulls have not allowed the bears to extend the decline.

The buyers will attempt to push the price back above $15 and the 20-EMA. If they succeed, it will suggest that lower levels continue to attract strong buying. That could push the price to $16.30 and next to $17.

Conversely, if the price turns down from $15, it will suggest that bears have flipped the level into resistance. That could open the doors for a further decline to the $14 to $13.50 zone.

HNT/USDT

Helium (HNT) has been in a downtrend for the past several months. The buyers attempted a recovery and pushed the price above the 50-day SMA of $10.86 on June 9, but the bears had other plans.

HNT/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

The bears sold aggressively at $12.50 on June 10 and trapped the aggressive bulls. That led to long liquidation, which pulled the price back below the 20-day EMA of $9.69 on June 11. The bulls will attempt to stall the decline at the strong support at $8 and form a higher low.

If they manage to do that, the HNT/USDT pair will again attempt to rise above the moving averages and challenge the resistance at $12.50.

This positive view could invalidate in the near term if the price breaks below $8.00. If that happens, the pair could slide to the May 12 intraday low of $6.54. A break below this level will suggest the resumption of the downtrend.

HNT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The break and close below $11 intensified selling and resulted in a waterfall decline. The moving averages have completed a bearish crossover, and the RSI is in the negative territory, indicating an advantage to bears.

The attempt to start a recovery is facing strong resistance near $9.50. If this level is crossed, the next hurdle may be the 20-EMA. A break above this resistance will be the first sign that the selling pressure may be reducing.

Alternatively, if the price turns down from the overhead resistance and breaks below $8.50, the pair could drop to the strong support at $8.00

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, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.