The Dogecoin price has increased by 1% in the last 24 hours, with its current level of $0.085864 representing a 43% jump in the past month. The meme token owes its recent fortunes to Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, but with the social media firm currently in disarray after its owner gave employees an ultimatum regarding its new work culture, it’s now uncertain whether DOGE can carry its earlier momentum forward.
With the coin still 88% down from its all-time high of $0.731578 (set in May 2021), it has a long way to go before it can regain its former record.
Dogecoin Price Prediction as Elon Musk Gives Twitter Employees an Ultimatum – Can DOGE Rally Now?
DOGE’s indicators provide a mixed picture, with its relative strength index (purple) rising from 40 and suggesting a possible rebound. On the other hand, its 30-day moving average (red) has potentially peaked in its ascent above its 200-day average (blue), signaling a potential downswing.
This confusing picture isn’t helped by dogecoin’s fundamentals, which have recently been heavily linked with Twitter and Elon Musk’s ownership of it. That’s because Twitter 2.0, as Musk likes to call it, has been dogged in the past few days by reports of mass resignations by its staff.
These resignations came in the wake of Musk issuing an ultimatum whereby he demanded employees to commit to a new, more intensive workplace culture. It now seems that many employees don’t like the vision the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder is creating for the social network, with many now leaving it behind.
In fact, some estimates suggest that 75% of the remaining 3,700 Twitter employees (Musk had previously laid off 50% of the social network’s workforce upon taking charge of the firm) have now effectively resigned. Even worse, the company has announced that its office in San Francisco will remain shut until Monday.
This affects dogecoin insofar as its recent gains were based on the presumption that Elon Musk would introduce Twitter payments and/or tipping in the altcoin. Now, it seems like the realization of such plans couldn’t be further away, with Musk currently wrapped up in convincing engineers to remain at the firm.
As such, DOGE’s gains from late October may be dissipated in the coming weeks as Musk’s ownership of Twitter turns increasingly sour. Of course, he could indeed turn things around and eventually introduce some kind of integration with Dogecoin, but at the moment, such a possibility seems increasingly remote.
In fact, earlier reports had suggested that Musk had already put cryptocurrency integration on the back burner, with the Twitter owner urging staff to prioritize the rollout of the new subscription system. As a result, it may be a while before DOGE receives another external boost from Musk.
At the same time, it needs to be said that DOGE’s fundamentals are very weak for such a large (in terms of market cap) cryptocurrency. When looking at GitHub commits in the past 12 months, for example, it ranks way down in 108th place, behind Ocean Protocol.
In other words, if you take away the association with Elon Musk, DOGE doesn’t have much going for it. And with Elon Musk’s name potentially becoming toxic in the wake of his apparent bungling of the Twitter takeover, such an association could end up doing more harm than good.
More Promising Altcoins
While it looks like DOGE currently has more chance of falling than rising in the short-term, there are at least some tokens that do have the potential to post some good gains, even with the ongoing market turbulence (caused mostly by FTX’s collapse).
For the most part, these are new coins currently holding their presales. This means that investors can snap them up early at a steep discount before they list on exchanges, at which point recent history has shown they could rally big.
The following are three of the most promising coins holding a presale right now. Each of these tokens has solid fundamentals, with their respective sales quickly accumulating investors.
Dash 2 Trade (D2T)
Dash 2 Trade is an Ethereum-based trading intelligence platform where investors can access real-time analytics and social trading data, all of which aim to help them reach more informed trading decisions.
Due to launch in the first quarter of 2023, the sale for its native D2T token has already raised more than $6.4 million. It has also announced listings on BitMart and LBANK Exchange for early next year, confirming that investors will indeed have the opportunity to lock in some real returns.
Calvaria (RIA) is a new video game that revolves around the collecting and trading of NFT-based cards, which can also be used to battle with other players and earn rewards. What differentiates it from other titles is that users will be able to play it without having to hold any crypto, something that could make it more accessible to more casual gamers.
Within its ecosystem, RIA will be used for purchasing in-game items and for staking, giving it a strong use case within its ecosystem. The presale for the token has raised just over $1.8 million and is currently in its fourth stage, during which 40 RIA can be had for 1 USDT.
Also running on Ethereum, RobotEra (TARO) is a Sandbox-style Metaverse in which gamers can play as robots and participate in the creation of its virtual world. Its alpha version will go live by Q1 2023, with its ecosystem enabling users to create their own NFT-based land, buildings, and other in-game items.
1 TARO is currently selling for 0.020 USDT (it can be bought using either USDT or ETH), although this price will rise to $0.025 in the second stage of its presale, which is due to begin soon.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
