LUNC rejected the retest of a long-term uptrend, thus implying a bearish outlook. Source: TradingView
LUNC, the native cryptocurrency that powers the Terra Luna Classic blockchain, was last changing hands near $0.00017 and was just above its 21-Day Moving Average at $0.0001675. Whilst the cryptocurrency is still trading about 14% higher versus its November lows under $0.00015, it has seen a sharp pullback since nearing $0.00019 earlier this month.
Traders have attributed this downside to technical selling after LUNC hit a key area of resistance and price predictions remain bearish. LUNC had been trending higher since June but broke below this uptrend in mid-November.
In early December, LUNC tried to retest and break back above this uptrend but was rejected – the cryptocurrency has been moving lower ever since. Bears are now targeting a retest of recent lows under $0.00015, and many think a break below here could open the door for a drop back to sub $0.00010 level.
LUNC rejected retest of long-term uptrend, thus implying a bearish outlook. Source: TradingView
Can LUNC Hit $1 Before 2023?
Crypto traders who remember LUNC’s pre-Terra ecosystem and pre-LUNC hyperinflation-induced crash often ask whether LUNC can make it back to its glory days. Can LUNC return to $1, some might ask?
Well, given the current LUNC price of around $0.0000165, LUNC would need to post a nearly 600,000% return to do so. Given the current token supply of 5.9912 trillion, if each token was worth $1, that would imply LUNC reaching a market capitalization of $5.9912 trillion.
Almost every sane person would agree that LUNC reaching a market cap this high is never going to happen, especially within the month. Bitcoin currently only has a market cap in the region of $320 billion. And Bitcoin is the most famous, popular and oldest cryptocurrency in the space, while LUNC is the remnant of a now largely defunct ecosystem that has now largely been abandoned by users and developers.
What if LUNC’s token supply is reduced? Seeing as a massive increase in LUNC’s market cap is unlikely, a massive reduction in the token’s supply seems like the only plausible way to boost LUNC back toward $1. Assuming no change in LUNC’s market cap, which was last just under $1 billion, for each LUNC token to be worth $1, the LUNC token supply would need to be reduced from nearly 6 trillion to around 1 billion. That’s a more than 99.98% reduction in token supply.
Given the Luna Community recently voted for a burn tax on transactions of just 0.2%, such a reduction in supply seems implausible. Note that there is still a push within the Luna Classic community to increase the burn tax to 1.2%, but this also wouldn’t likely ever be sufficient to push LUNC to $1.
But of course, in the world of cryptocurrency, you can never say never, so it remains to be seen how the community addresses the high supply of the coin. As ever, it’s an area worth keeping an eye on.
Altcoins With A Future
LUNC price outlook doesn’t look great, which is why many traders have begun looking elsewhere for better opportunities. Here is a list of pre-sale altcoins with strong fundamentals offering better, short term and long-term gains.
Dash 2 Trade (D2T)
Those interested in investing in a promising crypto trading platform start-up should look no further than Dash 2 Trade. The up-and-coming analytics and social trading platform hopes to take the crypto trading space by storm with its host of unique features.
These include trading signals, social sentiment and on-chain indicators, a pre-sale token scoring system, a token listing alert system and a strategy back-testing tool. Dash 2 Trade’s ecosystem will be powered by the D2T token, which users will need to buy and hold in order to access the platform’s features.
Dash 2 Trade is currently conducting a token pre-sale at highly discounted rates. D2T token sales recently surpassed $8.94 million. The sale has now entered its fourth and final phase and the pre-sale dashboard is going to be released soon, with the development team currently running ahead of schedule.
Amid the growth in popularity in recent years of environmentally and socially friendly investments, investors looking for a green cryptocurrency should consider the IMPT token. IMPT.io has partnered with thousands of the world’s largest retailers to help offset their carbon footprints and allows users to trade carbon credits on the blockchain.
IMPT tokens are currently in their second stage of the presale with IMPT having raised over $14.7 million. That amounts to $300K in token sales in just the last 24 hours. Investors only have another four days to purchase tokens at the current discounted price of $0.023. IMPT token exchange listings begin in seven days.
Major blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity lost significant traction in 2022. As a result, many investors interested in the crypto gaming space are looking for alternative avenues. Calvaria, an up-and-coming play-to-earn battle card crypto game, could be a good alternative. Calvaria seeks to boost crypto adoption by creating a bridge between the real world and crypto, a fun and accessible crypto game.
Investors should consider Calvaria’s RIA token pre-sale. Calvaria has now raised $2.23 million and is in the final stage of its fundraising process. Only 28% of pre-sale tokens remain up for grabs.
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.
