Key Highlights:

• Twitter accounts of prominent figures in crypto, tech, and politics hacked. Used to promote a Bitcoin scam.
• The Matic Network can be used to scale Ethereum.
• Chainlink and Synthetix tokens are this week’s top performers.

Trending News: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Synthetix (SNX)

For what Bitcoin has to offer, the world’s most popular digital asset is trending for all the bad reasons. 

On July 15, 2020, a Twitter API service was allegedly compromised. A hacker (or a group of hackers) took control of accounts of leading personalities, exchanges, Wall Street corporations, and politicians to promote a fake Bitcoin giveaway and a crypto partnership.

The only accepted coin was Bitcoin. 

Given the follower count of these personalities (Bill Gates, Former U.S. President Obama, and Elon Musk) and exchanges (Gemini, Coinbase, and Binance), users who didn’t verify the source (and the weirdness of the messaging) fell prey. 

Although sent BTC is unlikely to be spent, it calls into question the naivety of the crypto community (and how quickly they trust their role models and influencers). It also exposed Twitter’s patchy security. 

Considering the sheer number of hacked accounts, the breach (despite highlighting the reliability of Bitcoin as a censorship coin) is arguably the biggest security incident in Twitter’s history.

Admittedly, Ethereum has scalability problems. It may be the home of DeFi and the backbone of several immutable and censorship-resistant dApps, but its inability to scale portends future problems for the smart contracting platform. 

However, the good news is that its developers are actively searching for a high throughput solution to resolve the impasse.

Sharding and ZK Rollups are practical proposals. Other options include Raiden, and even interoperable networks geared to make the crypto experience smooth. 

After two months of stress testing, the Matic Network may after all scale Ethereum. 

Test network results showed that the network can handle a high throughput of 7,200 transactions per second. If connected to the Ethereum ecosystem, the network will be supercharged without giving up decentralization.

A performer this week is Synthetix (SNX). The ERC-20 token is up 10 percent in the last week of trading. 

Synthetix is an Ethereum-based derivatives trading protocol. Its token, SNX, was listed on Binance on July 9, 2020. 

Like SNX, Link—the native token powering Chainlink, is also on a roll. Not only is it gradually dominating the emerging, but lucrative oracles sector, by placing the token at the center of its activities, Link is now in the top 10.

Week-to-date, Link is up 34 percent.

Ethereum Price Analysis

The Ethereum price is largely range-bound. In the last week of trading, the coin is down four percent against the USD. However, it is fairly stable against Bitcoin (BTC).

From the daily chart, ETH prices continue to oscillate within a $30 range. Immediate support is at $230 with caps at $250. Notably, price action is trending inside the two conspicuous bull bars of July 6, and July 8, 2020. From an effort-versus-results perspective, this is bullish.

Still, candlestick arrangement points to bears, despite price action’s volatility tapering in the last week of trading.

A break above $250 will likely spark FOMO and lift-off to $280 may be highly likely. On the other hand, a break below $230 may trigger a dump. In that case, immediate bear targets will be $200.

Technical Chart courtesy of Trading View

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice but the opinions of the author. Do your due diligence.

Dalmas Ngetich

Dalmas is a very active cryptocurrency content creator and highly regarded technical analyst. He’s passionate about blockchain technology and the futuristic potential of cryptocurrencies.