The crypto industry has seen a lot of hype at the beginning of 2023, and the VeChain Foundation is trying to keep up. The sector is attracting attention around non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse, Web3, and, more recently, artificial intelligence.  Related Reading: Binance Integrates Binance-Pegged BUSD On Optimism Network The VeChain Foundation has announced the “Spiritual Rebirth” launch of the 2019 VeChain Summit, introducing The Hive to achieve goals that “create tangible economic value with blockchain technology.” The Foundation claims that it has been “invigorated” by a stream of positive developments and opportunities for the growth of its community. In an official post, the non-profit organization suggests that the VeChainThor blockchain is ready to “take center stage of the upcoming digital-sustainable web3 revolution.” The Web3 Revolution And The Blockchain VeChainThor The Hive aims to “foster collaboration across the web3 community” and to act as an “inclusive beacon” for sustainability, focusing on developments for the blockchain ecosystem.  The new event will take place on March 4, 2022, in Las Vegas, according to the VeChain Foundation. During the event, the Foundation promised to make new announcements of consequence for the blockchain VeChainThor and the launch of a new whitepaper to take their global concept on digital ecosystems to the worldwide market. With the economic difficulties of the past and the recent announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED), VeChain remains optimistic for further regulatory clarity to unfold around the crypto industry. This gives VeChain and its foundation a panoramic view of an exciting new phase for blockchain.  The Foundation anticipates a “productivity plateau” in 2023. It is confident that the blockchain VeChainThor will become a leading platform in the coming years as adoption accelerates exponentially in line with the Layer 1 smart contract platform. VeChain On A Path To Sustainability? Another of the Foundation’s critical elements for 2023 is the continued development of the “digital ecosystem” concept, which the Foundation claims represents an “evolutionary leap” in connectivity, information sharing, and collaboration through the power of the blockchain VeChainThor. Related Reading: Bitcoin Short-Term Holder Profit Taking Reaches Levels Not Seen Since Nov. 2021 According to the Foundation, in this new era, blockchain technology provides benefits in exchange for the “consensual provision of user data that contributes to a greater good, such as sustainability.” VET’s digital ecosystem concept represents a milestone in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), which have a deadline of 2030. VeChain aims to: (…) We look forward to unveiling more about digital ecosystems in our upcoming whitepaper, due by the end Q1. Join us as we kick off this incredible new epoch for sustainability, powered by real-world blockchain applications on the mighty VeChainThor. From this February 2nd the Foundation will be launching The Hive’s landing and registration pages. On March 4 in Las Vegas, the event features VeChain-specific content and applications of web3 technologies from other projects and protocols.  Cover image from Unsplash. Chart from Tradingview.

MATIC made a 180-degree turn at the beginning of the year, following Bitcoin’s lead. The token, used to govern and secure the Polygon Network, had consolidated since mid-July, with some erratic price action recorded in November. Related Reading: Bitcoin Monthly Signals Stack Suggesting Bulls Are Ready To Stampede At the time of writing, Polygon’s token has maintained its momentum since January with a gain of 42.6%, breaking the range formed in 2022. Can MATIC holders continue the streak and aim for further gains? February, A Month Of Love Or Disappointment For MATIC? MATIC’s funding rates remain neutral, with long positions paying short positions on most exchanges, except OKX and CoinEx. According to on-chain analytics firm Jarvis Labs, negative rates and aexceptikely present as a buying on-chainity for investors. In addition to the above, the number of active addresses fluctuates according to MATIC’s price. Whenever the price action dips, the number of addresses follows. However, according to historical data from Jarvis Labs, the number of addresses holding the token has increased since January. Similarly, as investor confidence in Polygon’s native token has grown, price volatility has increased over the past month, pushing the price to new highs since November. Jarvis Labs’ analysis suggests that when the 30-day price volatility increases on MATIC, the price tends to trend to the downside. Both price and volatility metrics are currently up on the 30d timeframe, which could suggest the token will retrace some of its gains. In addition, the MATIC/USDT trading pair Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) based on the volume traded remained neutral. On the other hand, the MATIC/BUSD pairing Matic has seen spot bidding while the perpetual CVD has been decreasing. In short, Jarvis Labs’ analysis suggests that after MATIC’s long period of consolidation and breakout, the sentiment in the token should not be taken lightly. However, there are warning signs of a pullback as well. Investors Trust In Polygon For The Long Ride Recently global investment manager Hamilton Lane Inc. announced that individual investors can now access its equity fund, Equity Opportunities Fund, through a new securitized fund tokenized on Polygon.  Hamilton Lane closed the Fund at nearly $2.1 billion and made a portion of the vehicle available to retail investors through a feeder fund on a secondary basis. It will significantly increase access with a minimum investment of $20,000 from an average of $5 million. The Polygon token is trading at $1.1320, down 0.8% over the past 24 hours. MATIC is currently trying to break the next resistance level at $1.27. Failure to do so may result in a pullback to the next support level at $0.98. Related Reading: Why Ark Invest Believes Bitcoin Could Emerge As Multi-Trillion Dollar Market With the recent decision of the Federal Reserve (FED) to raise interest rates to 25 basis points, MATIC may have the opportunity to follow the market sentiment and take the next resistance to consolidate and reclaim the $1.4 level.

Litecoin (LTC) has seen one of the highest rallies among the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies, jumping over 89% since the market crash following the FTX collapse. While there are a number of factors that could’ve prompted this news, on-chain data suggests that sharks are the likely culprit. Sharks Holding 100-10,000 Coins Went On A Feeding Frenzy According to a Sentiment report, the sharks may be the ones behind the upward rally that Litecoin has embarked on in the last two months. It shows that these shark addresses holding between 100-10,000 LTC on their accounts went on a massive accumulation trend that saw them add a reasonable portion of supply to their holdings. Related Reading: U.S. Institutions Are Driving Bitcoin Prices, Matrixport Research Santiment reveals that in the two-month period, these addresses accumulated 1.15 million LTC. This works out to around a 4.92% increase in their holdings and 0.5% of the total LTC supply. As the image below shows, there was a significant uptick around this point coinciding with the increase in the price of the digital asset. LTC sharks accumulate in two months | Source: Santiment The accumulation trend continued into January 2023 when LTC’s price movement had ramped up. Thus, this shows that while accumulation by sharks may not have been the main driver of the price rally, they may have played a significant role. Further movements point toward these shark addresses having an effect on the price. Like the chart shows, there has been some profit-taking after LTC hit its local peak of $97 and this profit-taking coincided with the price of the cryptocurrency falling back down to the $94 level. Will Litecoin Continue To Rally From Here? Despite the sharks taking profit on their Litecoin buys over the last two months, the bull case for LTC is still not destroyed. The chart shows that even these large investors are still holding on to a good portion of the coins accumulated over the last two months. As long as there is still a large gap between what was accumulated and what is being sold, the price of LTC can be expected to hold up. It is also important to note that 2023 is an important year for Litecoin. A lot of the bullish sentiment around it has originated from the expectations surrounding the Litecoin halving. Litecoin, which works similarly to bitcoin, is about to reduce its block reward once more, reducing the number of coins going into circulation, and triggering FOMO (fear of missing out).   LTC halving happening in 2023 | Source: Coinwarz The halving is expected to take place in early August which puts it about six months away. But already, positive sentiment is already ramping up, contributing to the price increase that the coin has recorded. Related Reading: Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Touches New ATH Following 4.68% Adjustment Perhaps the most important thing is the fact that LTC is currently trading at almost 50% above its 100-day and 200-day moving averages. This suggests that despite the market drawdown, the LTC price is likely to hold at the $90 support.  LTC price retraces to $93.75 | Source: LTCUSD on TradingView.com Follow Best Owie on Twitter for market insights, updates, and the occasional funny tweet… Featured image from The Coin Republic, chart from TradingView.com