Momentum for the top layer-one protocols has been on the rise throughout August as the highly anticipated rollout of the London hard fork on the Ethereum (ETH) network has done little to address the network's high transaction fees and delayed confirmations. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the quest to find a more welcoming smart contract environment has been Cosmos (ATOM), a project focused on interoperability that has set out to become the “internet of blockchains” thanks to its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of ATOM rallied 180% from a …

Bitcoin (BTC) held $49,000 on Aug. 28 after the United States Federal Reserve sparked a run-up toward critical resistance. All eyes on $49,300 on the weekly chart Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD cooling at higher levels after cracking the $49,000 mark late Friday. The end of the working week had seen a positive reaction to comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on tapering of asset purchases, as well as remarks on inflation. As Cointelegraph reported, stocks surged to all-time highs, while the U.S. dollar weakened — Bitcoin made use of the opportunity and added $1,500 in …

The Ethereum (ETH) network is currently the dominant layer-one protocol in terms of smart contract deployment and active users, but the race to become the 'world’s computer' is far from settled because competing protocols are gaining traction by offering solutions to high transaction costs and slow confirmation times, the biggest problems facing the network. One project that has been on the rise over the past month is Tezos, a proof-of-stake blockchain network that is designed to evolve over time without the needing to undergo a hard fork. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low …

The rise of decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens has transformed the blockchain ecosystem and generated near unimaginable riches for investors, but none of this would be possible without the strong foundation offered by layer-one blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Smart contracts and layer-two protocols promise to revolutionize the finance and logistics industry, but they require a robust, secure and distributed network to operate on and to ensure their immutability. Currently, most of the top layer-two projects operate on the Ethereum network, and this has resulted in increased transaction costs and delayed confirmation times due to network congestion. The network’s …

Asset managers and companies currently hold over 6% of Bitcoin’s (BTC) circulating supply, according to Buy Bitcoin Worldwide. A breakdown of the data shows that Bitcoin fund issuers and asset managers hold about 4%, public companies account for nearly 1% and private companies own roughly 0.83% of the cryptocurrency’s supply. It's clear that institutional investors have continued to add crypto to their portfolios, and Adam Proctor, managing director for billionaire Simon Nixon’s investment firm — Seek Ventures — said the company plans to increase “allocation to crypto,” as it believes it to be an “important area for the future.” CNBC …

The cryptocurrency market has been on a tear over the last month as Bitcoin price climbed 73% from a low of $29,200 on July 20 to a high of $50,478 on Aug. 26, a move that has warranted caution from Dan McDermitt, cryptocurrency market analyst and co-founder of TheChartGuys. According to McDermitt, Bitcoin’s relentless march over the past month was done “with a lack of weekly consolidation,” which was an impressive progression that frustrated bears as “every week is a higher low.” McDermitt is “expecting an equilibrium pattern on the monthly time frame, which is a pattern of higher lows …

Solana (SOL) prices printed another milestone of nearly $85 high on Aug. 27 as traders assessed a flurry of optimistic fundamentals, including Solana's potential foray into Wall Street. On Aug. 24, digital asset management firm Osprey Funds registered a first-of-its-kind Solana fund with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In doing so, the New York firm hinted at giving institutional exposure to SOL markets as the token's value surged by more than 4,300% in 2021. A day later, real-time data feeder Pyth Network announced that it is going live on Solana's proof-of-stake blockchain. The firm provides "high-fidelity streaming data" …

Cardano (ADA) appears to be heading toward a new record high as its downside move takes the shape of a bull flag. In detail, the ADA/USD exchange rate plunged 16.91% to $2.47, but the pair’s decline came after a strong move higher, wherein it surged over 120% month-to-date to reach an all-time high of $2.97 on Monday. Therefore, the latest declines have given the impression that Cardano is undergoing a brief pause before it resumes its uptrend. Part of the upside analogy stems from the downward sloping channel itself — two parallel trendlines enveloping the price moves. In addition, the …

Bears pressed harder on the market on Aug. 26 after Bitcoin (BTC) continued its pullback to an intra-day low at $46,250 and altcoins nursed near double-digit losses. While most of the market is seeing red, a few altcoins managed to notch notable gains due to exchange listings and new staking opportunities. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were COTI, XYO Network (XYO) and Conflux Network (CFX). COTI rallies after listing on Coinbase The top-performing coin over the past 24 hours was COTI, an enterprise-grade fintech platform focused on decentralized …

Chainlink is the leading oracle provider, and the project has onboarded over 281 crypto projects in 2021. Some of these include heavyweights, like Huobi's ECO Chain, the Hedera Governing Council and Alchemix. Launched in October 2020, Chainlink's verifiable randomness function, or VRF, has also gained notoriety among decentralized applications (DApps). VRF provides an automated source of randomness to ensure that prizes and rewards are issued in a verifiably fair fashion. For example, on Aug. 13, Arbitrum — a layer-two Ethereum scaling solution — launched a beta mainnet service integrated with Chainlink's oracle data feed and intends to add a "Proof …

Web 3.0, interoperability and layer zero are all terms tossed around when describing Polkadot. But what do they mean, and how will they impact the internet and cryptocurrency market? Cointelegraph Research’s new report explores how Polkadot is tackling distributed ledger scalability and centralization of the web simultaneously. For starters, imagine a world where Facebook is replaced by a decentralized social media application built on Polkadot. This is what projects like Subsocial are building in their platforms, which let users determine what data to keep private and what to share. Users can leverage their data by monetizing it on Ocean Market, …

Bitcoin (BTC) gave traders a serious sense of déjà vù on Thursday after a fresh attack on $50,000 ended in a firm rejection. Bitcoin optimism wavers Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD falling to local lows of $46,540 on Bitstamp, having passed $49,300 hours before. The action continues rangebound behavior, which looks to be cementing old resistance at $51,000, bears lacking volume and momentum to flip the area to support. Despite pausing in the mid-$46,000 range, Bitcoin was not enticing many for long positions on the day, with popular trader Crypto Ed eyeing the potential for another …