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5 On-Chain Indicators To Spot Crypto Market Bottoms

10 October 2023 at 05:28

To buy or not to buy? That is the question. The short answer to that is nobody knows. I buy the dip, and the dip dips even more; when I choose to wait for the dip to dip, the market pumps. No lunch is ever free, but today we look into on-chain indicators which may, but not guarantee, help you spot crypto market bottoms.

While timing the bottom is a straightforward and simple concept, most of us WILL not get it right. Instead, experts suggest a lazy but effective approach to making money: dollar cost averaging. But the DCA approach takes time, and timing the bottom seems faster. You probably clicked on this article for that very reason.

1. On-Balance Volume (OBV)

The first indicator which may help you identify a possible market bottom is referencing the price with on-balance volume. OBV measures buying and selling pressure as a cumulative indicator that adds volume on up days and subtracts volume on down days.

This bangs on the fact that the volume will correlate with the price movement. If the price of an asset goes down, so will the volume similarly, and vice versa.

Judging from past cycles, the market bottomed out when the market cap fell below the realized cap, and the OBV indicator reflected values close to zero. Reversals and market recovery began when the market cap touched the delta cap and OBV index dropping below zero.

CryptoQuant

2. MVRV Ratio

We have gone through the MVRV ratio on our technical thursdays segment on IG, head over for a refresher.

MVRV, known as market value to realized value, refers to the asset’s fair value. It is often used to identify market tops and bottoms, reflecting periods of extreme investor unrealized profit/loss.

The BTC MVRV charts have fallen to their lowest levels in three years. Currently, we are hovering around the range at the bottom. Historically, values over β€˜3.7’ indicated the price top and values below β€˜1’ indicated the price bottom.

3. All Exchange Inflow (mean)

Exchange flow is the number of coins deposited into the exchange wallets, and exchange outflow is the number of coins withdrawn from exchange wallets.

A high value indicates investors are sending a greater number of coins in a transaction. It will also likely lead to higher selling pressure which could lead to a future price drop.

Here is a glimpse of how you are able to buy BTC at global bottoms. Historically, when BTC sees over a 30% plummet or more, the all-exchange inflow (MA7) will likely have a sudden spike to the exchange inflow range of close to 2 and/or higher. You take your entry positions after the indicator cools down, historically a signal for market bottoms.

From the chart above, if you were to follow this strategy, you would have ridden the massive wave in price surge twice. 2022 showed quite an anomaly, with the all-exchange inflow spiking and cooling off on four consecutive occasions, it does not seem we have reached the bottom yet, but a great range to accumulate.

#Ethereum price tops and bottoms are defined by coin flow
by @joao_wedson

LinkπŸ‘‡https://t.co/y0b47kBLU8

β€” CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) January 9, 2023

4. Stock to flow

Crypto has its very own stock-to-flow model too.

In the 2018 cycle, Bitcoin’s downtrend finally stopped after breaking out of the previous Stock-to-flow price cycle.

The stock-to-flow model measures the new supply relative to the existing supply. As the name suggests, Stock refers to the total existing supply, while the flow is the new supply of an asset created yearly.Β 

While this measures and compares the relative abundance of scarcity, could it signal us to head out of these choppy waters? Maybe, maybe not.

CryptoQuant

If the aforementionedΒ is going to be true, we have yet to see the worst of the markets; a larger storm is incoming. This very storm will take BTCΒ to $8-11K levels which will not only spells disaster but spiral crypto markets into complete fear.

5. BTC BVOL, Historical Volatility

BVOL is the measure of Bitcoin’s historical volatility. The higher the BVOL score, the more volatile and riskier BTC as an asset is. The market trading sidewaysΒ would likely lead to a lower BVOL score.

A low BVOL score is usually followed by an explosive move in price in either direction. Since 2018, BitcoinΒ has only been reduced to low levels of volatility only four times. Currently, we are in one of those times.Β 

Could we see another leg upwards? Or do we continue to search for the bottom?

Closing thoughts

Honorable mentions, SOPR ratio.

Market bottom detection by SOPR ratio
by @ghoddusifar

CheckπŸ‘‡https://t.co/6ZOIFoUTXy

β€” CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) April 19, 2022

These indicators are not set in stone and are not 100% guaranteed success. Although they give you an idea of where the current market is referencing historical bottoms, timing the bottom is still difficult.

Instead, with the identified β€œbottoming” range we are currently at, it gives you a perfect time to accumulate a dollar cost average and ride any waves when the market is ready.

I think 2023 will be the year of a cool down, and we only see a significant upside in the tail end of it.

Also Read: The Rise And Fall Of Crypto Lending: What Went Wrong

[Editor’s Note: This article does not represent financial advice. Please do your research before investing.]

Featured Image Credit: ChainDebrief

What Is EigenLayer And How It Might Revolutionize Ethereum

3 January 2024 at 04:48

Ethereum has built an empire of greatness, the home to innovative DeFi products, a large canvas for NFTs and where smart contracts are popular. Doing it all in a decentralized manner has its tradeoff, speed and security. While the layer2 scaling solutions are a scaling force to be reckoned with, EligenLayer found an innovative way to revolutionize Ethereum.

What is Eigen?

Eigen enables users to restake their ETH and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network. The Eigen smart contract layer will automatically re-stake your ETH by setting withdrawal permissions and enhancing security by validating new applications built on Ethereum.

Staked ETH is currently yielding around 5-6%

But imagine you could use this staked ETH to secure other projects and earn even more yield on your ETH?

A 🧡 on @eigenlayer by @WestieCapital pic.twitter.com/6BKhMSJoxC

β€” Blockworks Research (@blockworksres) October 18, 2022

Sounds like a perfect win-win for any ecosystem.

To be an Ethereum validator, you are minimally required to commit 32ETH. Still, EigenLayer allows this commitment to secure Ethereum’s proof of stake and other applications services such as Oracles and bridges.

And get this, it does all that AT THE SAME TIME.

But why? As you will not only be securing the Ethereum network, you will do so with other apps, and those apps could get you additional yield on top of ETH’s native APY.

Here is a recap of what the CEO of Eigenlayer Sreeram Kannan spoke about over a discord AMA last year.

1/ We recently spoke with @eigenlayer CEO and Co-Founder @sreeramkannan, during our Discord AMA.

Here’s what you missed 🧡 pic.twitter.com/RERIefyZIv

β€” vVv (@vvvdotnet) October 8, 2022

According to NewOrderDAO’s predictions for 2023, β€œEigen will be the most important innovation for Ethereum. Through re-staking, which leverages an existing trust network to secure other infrastructure and middleware layers, Eigen significantly reduces security costs and systemic risk.”

The chart above shows that the cost of corruption needed to bring down a particular dApp will be much higher as the middleware security will all be contributed to a pooled security.

If the attacker wants to attack a protocol backed with Eigen support, they have to attack the security provider and the network of ETH validators supporting the protocol.

Their attempt to improve Ethereum as a base layer might be a viable option in a way that we have not seen flashbots modify the Ethereum client to support off-chain transactions ordering auctions for MEVs.

The risks

With your dedicated funds allocated to Eigen, you are also giving control of your staked ETH to Eigen. This gives rise to security concerns over the validator.

Irony eh? It ensures security but derives security concerns over validators.

An application could potentially steal your stake if there is a security flaw. When Eigen communicates with the middleware to secure bridges, oracles etc., there is a chance your ETH gets slashed if there’s any misbehaving.

There could also be a delay in slashing. According to Meir Bank, β€œit will be possible for Eigenlayer to delay slashing pending a governance process to confirm or overturn a slash before it is finalized.”

This means the role of validators in performing due diligence is paramount for this success. Otherwise, when large numbers of ETH validators run an application, it could seriously impact Ethereum, leading to a considerable percentage of ETH supply loss.

Use cases

Some use cases arise with the full development of Eigenlayer; here is a quick summary before diving into some of them.

I'm far too smooth-brained to have any idea about whether or not @eigenlayer will work. But it's definitely one of the most interesting and potentially groundbreaking concepts to emerge in crypto as of late.

Here are some takes by people much smarter than me...

πŸ¦™ 🏫 ⬇

β€” Alpaca College (@AlpacaCollege) October 29, 2022

Bridges

The best use cases for Eigenlayer are protocols with a low chance of being slashed. For instance, protocols that go live often might not be a good fit as there is always a high chance that a server could crash and eventually lead to stakes being slashed.

On the other hand, Bridges might be a better fit. Bridges such as Hyperlane have a low chance of being slashed because of their flexibility and no liveness requirements for nodes. This gives Eigenlayer a conducive environment for it to thrive.

Other protocols include Succinct, Axelar network along with squid.

Layer2 rollups

While we see the emergence of multiple layer2s storming into the scene, Eigenlayer will run rollup sequencers, enabling sequencers for L2s like Optimism and Arbitrum to be decentralized and secure.

β€œDecentralized sequencers will either be able to create transaction priority auctions like Flashbots or use fair/randomized order.”

Oracles

This might be another good fit because they are secured by the token’s value, like $LINK. By securing an oracle network with more collateral, oracles can gain 10x in security, reducing the likelihood of a profitable Oracle attack on DeFi.

RPC Nodes

A Remote Procedure Call (RPC node) isΒ a computer server that allows users to read data on the blockchain and send transactions to different networks.

Eigenlayer will enable genuinely decentralized RPC nodes. Existing solutions like the POKT network and either centralized providers like Infura could make a possible move to Eigenlayer. Decentralized RPC is critical to avoid censorship on the client level.

Appchains

The rise of the appchain thesis at the end of 2022 created a lot of discussion among web2 leaders. On the Eigenlayer, various deployment protocols can bootstrap their security for new appchains, with value accrual returning to ETH as the base security as collateral.

Another well-known protocol coming to Cosmos.

In Terra's days of glory, Prism had over $500M TVL.@dYdX and @mars_protocol will also launch their own Cosmos chain soon.

Appchain Thesis is getting more popularπŸͺ https://t.co/zmHbOsDZcE

β€” The DeFi Investor πŸ”Ž (@TheDeFinvestor) December 2, 2022

Closing thoughts

In the recent interview with Eigenlayer’s CEO on a bankless podcast, Sreeram talked about how Eigen runs on internal governance devnet and the onboarding of first protocols.

This project might have its token, eventually. But will that change anything? I see Eigenlayer as a new way to see Ethereum, not just for security and securing the network, but we must think beyond it.

What if Binance could run BSC but secure it from staked ETH?

What if we could run Chainlink oracles but secure it from staked ETH?

Huge alpha there. Event driven state updates (like collateral refilling, liquidation, atomic arbs with value flow to arb-ed protocols) can be built on @eigenlayer. https://t.co/bSolcnK6hS

β€” EigenLayer (@eigenlayer) October 20, 2022

What if we could mint a stablecoin on DeFi, but use $ETH staked in our solo validator as collateral?

The possibilities are endless, and while they all come with their respective arguments and trade-offs, it may be a barter I’d take.

Trust and security in crypto are the hardest to obtain yet most accessible to lose; having this installation of Eigen may prove to be one of the better trust layers out there. Eigen is the first in the business, but they probably won’t be the last. As this sector spurs, new ideas and innovation will kickstart new use cases and solo validators, improving decentralization and trust and security.

Also Read:Β Key Takeaways From Messari’s Top 10 DeFi Trends In 2023

[Editor’s Note: This article does not represent financial advice. Please do your research before investing.]

Featured Image Credit: ChainDebrief

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