Top US crypto exchange Coinbase has added sudden support for proof-of-stake blockchain Axelar, sparking a rally for its native token, AXL.

Axelar is a project built using the Cosmos SDK (software development kit), and aims to deliver cross-chain communication between numerous other blockchains.

Its functions include making cross-chain token transfers, calling smart contracts, or sending arbitrary messages from one chain to another.

Developers can use Axelar to build decentralized applications (dApps) that allow users to interact with assets or applications on multiple chains within one platform.

Says Axelar’s whitepaper,

“Axelar enables dApp builders to add cross-chain functionality to their applications, through a suite of APIs. These APIs allow a dApp user to send a message containing arbitrary data cross-chain, from the source chain to the destination chain. Thus, a dApp may call a smart contract on the destination chain, and attach general data information to be used as input for the smart contract call.”

Axelar currently connects to Ethereum (ETH), Cosmos (ATOM), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC) BNB Chain (BNB), Osmosis (OSMO), Fantom (FTM), Moonbeam (GLMR), Juno (JUNO), Injective (INJ), Secret Network (SCRT) and Kujira (KUJI).

Coinbase announced it would be adding support for Axelar early on Monday, and went ahead with listing Tuesday morning.

Following Coinbase’s initial announcement, AXL abruptly bounced from the $0.59 to $0.80, a 35% gain in a matter of hours.

At time of writing, AXL has cooled off, but has held on to most of its gains, currently trading at $0.72 with a market cap of $111 million.

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An altcoin recently launched on crypto exchange Huobi has exploded exponentially since being listed.

FTX Users’ Debt (FUD), based on Tron (TRX) and first listed on Huobi, aims to maintain its value with the backing of the debt of those who lost funds on collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

The token is issued by DebtDAO, an organization that has no direct affiliation with FTX. FUD is meant to represent $1 of debt, and had an initial supply of 20 million tokens.

Tron founder and Huobi advisor Justin Sun described FUD as a “bond token” that is “set to benefit everyone in the crypto world.”

“FUD token provides creditors with a new level of liquidity, allowing them to trade their FTX debt on the open market. This gives them greater control over their assets and opens up new opportunities for investment.

It has been confirmed through a contract provided by DebtDAO that the debt is in the tens of millions of dollars. The early bird issuance phase will sell FTX the debt at a discount. 1 FUD = $1, FUD initial issuance and liquidity is 20 million. The fair price is 0 < 1FUD [less than or equal to] 5USDT.

After FTX restores the database or FTX officially confirms the actual debt of the creditor, DebtDAO will issue secondary public offering based on the actual amount of the debt and issue airdrops to all FUD holders, at which time the fair price will be 0 < 1 FUD [less than or equal to] 1 USDT.”

Data on Huobi shows that on the day of launch, FUD went as low as $0.50, before exploding as high as $200. It’s currently trading at $66.90 at time of writing.

In order to bring FUD back to what DebtDAO considers fair value, Sun announced that 18 million tokens had been burnt, providing data from the Tron blockchain.

Says Huobi,

“The initial total supply of FUD (FTX User’s Debt) was 20 million. And due to the high enthusiasm of user subscriptions, the FUD price was much higher than the recommended price after the opening (recommended price is 0<1 FUD [less than or equal to] 5 USDT). DebtDAO initiated a proposal on February 6, and after discussion with the community, decided to destroy 18 million FUD tokens.

After the destruction, the total issue will become 2 million FUDs and change from the initial 1 FUD=1 USD equivalent claim to 1 FUD=10 USD equivalent claim with an additional early bird airdrop value, and the recommended price of FUD will fluctuate between 0<1 FUD [less than or equal to] 50 USDT after the destruction. Holders of current FUD tokens do not need to do anything, and the value of tokens holding FUD will appreciate ten times.”

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A crypto analyst who bought Bitcoin at the bottom in November is updating his outlook on the path ahead for the leading cryptocurrency.

The pseudonymous analyst, whose alter ego is DonAlt, tells his 459,000 Twitter followers that BTC is at a crossroads.

DonAlt says BTC needs to remain above a well-established line of support and resistance in order to push higher.

If Bitcoin can maintain a price above $22,540, the trader says the path ahead is higher.

But if BTC closes below that line, he believes further downside is in store, with a drop to $21,100 likely.

“BTC – Assuming that greater than $22540 -> up. Less than $22540 -> $21100.”

Bitcoin is currently at $22,984, up 0.28% in the last 24 hours.

DonAlt is also updating his views on Litecoin, which he bought near its bottom of about $55 in November.

He says LTC is exhibiting one of his favorite patterns – a slow, strong walk up on the daily chart with almost no pullbacks.

“The most beautiful walk up I’ve seen in a long long time. The longer it walks, the greater the grand finale.”

When asked if he would consider hedging his position or trading LTC at around the $130 mark, DonAlt said he won’t know until it gets there.

However, the trader holds a lofty long-term view on just how high the altcoin could soar.

“Currently have sells around 300 and nothing else. I’ll see once we get there but most likely won’t do anything [at $130].”

LTC is currently at $99.10, up 2% in the last 24 hours.

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Justin Sun says Tron (TRX) will launch a new decentralized payment framework for artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

The Tron founder says in a new Twitter thread that the framework will work for artificial intelligence research company OpenAI and its flagship project, ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that’s gone viral in the past few months.

“The framework covers the smart contract system on the chain, the payment layer protocol, the underlying calling SDK [software development kit], and the AI payment gateway. Using the smart contract system to store user questions and AI results on the decentralized BitTorrent file storage system BTFS.

The payment layer protocol provides support for stable currency settlement on the chain, and the interaction layer provides users with standard settlement and API for AI services. TRX and BTT [BitTorent] will be deeply involved to achieve fully decentralized storage and DAO [decentralized autonomous organization] governance.

This framework will realize a decentralized payment system that is secure, trustworthy, tamper-proof, anti-censorship, and capable of AI, helping people build a new decentralized, intelligent financial ecosystem.”

Sun says Tron smart contracts enable automatic payments and will streamline the payment process for AI developers.

TRX’s price does not appear to be impacted by Sun’s announcement. The 18th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is trading at $0.0634 at time of writing, up around 1.6% in the past seven days.

Last month, tech giant Microsoft announced a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment” in OpenAI to “accelerate AI breakthroughs.”

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A crypto analyst who accurately called the 2022 Bitcoin (BTC) bottom says that Litecoin (LTC) could be on the verge of a parabolic surge.

In a new strategy session, pseudonymous trader DonAlt tells his 47,200 YouTube subscribers that the peer-to-peer payments network token could more than double in price from its current value in a short amount of time.

“This is one of the stronger trends that we’ve had. When you look at the weekly, this thing is just walking up slowly. It basically looks to me like Bitcoin did on the daily timeframe at like $17,000 where it just crept up slowly. Litecoin is doing it on a weekly timeframe. I don’t want to sell that. I just don’t. I want to keep it and slow walk up. It’s getting steeper, which I like, because I think this could turn into this sort of parabolic thing where it gets like a proper pushup. It has the base to do it.

I’d rather round-trip it than sell it before it does what I think it can. If I’m wrong on it, I’m wrong on it. This has potential. Do you remember at $60 when I said this can go to $300 and people were laughing at me?

Now it’s trading at $100 and it slow walked up into that $100 level. I think it could just be like three days, four days and it’s going to be trading, not necessarily from here, but if it consolidates around $100 for a bit, it could be three or four days and it’s going to trade at $200.”

Litecoin is worth $96.58 at time of writing. LTC has significantly outperformed both Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) after the crypto markets bottomed in November 21st. Litecoin is up 62% since, with Bitcoin gaining 45% and Ethereum rising 47% over the same timeframe.

Next, DonAlt says Bitcoin is consolidating at its current price level and may soon break to the upside.

“We’ve had four weeks of upside, and we’ve barely managed to get a red week. [Last] week has been OK still. [Last] week, Bitcoin’s like red-ish, but after massive push up you would expect more. Just looks like strength to me…

What we’re doing right now is basically just, on the weekly at least, consolidation, consolidating at the resistance or right below it, which is so much more confident than any other consolidation that I could think of. Because if we poke our head into $24,000 a couple times more, it just starts looking like it wants to push again and quite aggressively so. I’m not hating how it’s looking right now. I like that it’s a little bit red, that it’s kind of consolidating because that just gives it more potential to the upside.”

Bitcoin is trading for $22,801 at time of writing.

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A new breakdown of the largest altcoin holdings among Ethereum whales reveals a surge in the popularity of Shiba Inu (SHIB).

According to WhaleStats – which analyzes the holdings and activity of whales on various blockchains – the 5,000 largest Ethereum (ETH) whales on record now hold a staggering 50,905,707,716,073 SHIB worth $735,034,573.

This makes SHIB the second-largest altcoin holding among Ethereum whales, right behind the stablecoin Tether (USDT).

The rise of SHIB is also reflected in the growing number of large whale transactions of the memecoin in recent weeks.

One such transfer happened over the weekend, when an anonymous whale moved 3,216,307,240,798 SHIB worth $47.6 million to an unidentified wallet.

? ? 3,216,307,240,798 #SHIB (47,671,033 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallethttps://t.co/skiRABtAZP

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 4, 2023

SHIB’s explosive rise in popularity has been, in part, triggered by extended hype on the project’s plans to launch a layer-2 protocol known as Shibarium.

The protocol will be similar to scaling solutions like Polygon (MATIC) in functionality, allowing people to launch custom tokens on top of Shiba Inu, with gas fees paid for in Bone ShibaSwap (BONE).

The project’s launch date is uncertain, although developers have said they expect to release a beta version in the near future.

SHIB has outperformed its main rival Dogecoin (DOGE) in the last month. SHIB has soared by 67% in the last 30 days, while Dogecoin (DOGE) is up by 23%.

SHIB is priced at $0.00001413 at time of publishing, down 1.8% in the last 24-hours.

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A trader who correctly called Bitcoin’s recent dive below $23,000 says he’s now ready to re-enter the market.

The pseudonymous analyst, known in the industry as Smart Contracter, revealed he switched to stablecoins last week in anticipation of BTC diving to as low as $22,000.

Now that Bitcoin has retraced from a recent high of about $24,200 to the $22,700 range, the trader says the top crypto is low enough to justify once again diving into the market.

His new BTC target is above $25,000.

“Leaning towards the W5 on BTC being underway, now taking out those $25,000 highs.

This might be the final push higher on daily before we get a deeper decline into the next few months. Make the most of it in my opinion.”

The trader uses Elliot wave theory for his analysis, which is based on the notion that the psychology of traders often plays out on charts in predictable waves of highs and lows.

Smart Contracter says he’s also beginning to accumulate Ethereum (ETH).

“Interestingly ETH has pulled back from the highs in only 3 waves, finding support near the 0.618.

So ETH may be gearing up for another leg. Not only that, but ETH/BTC still looks bearish in my opinion, which means maybe BTC has bottomed here too and outperforms. I’m slowly gaining exposure again.”

The trader is also bullish on Dogecoin (DOGE), and says the popular memecoin has been building strength against BTC for weeks.

“Quite a nice base forming on DOGE/BTC here on the 4-hour. This accumulation wont last forever in my opinion.”

Bitcoin is at $22,810 at time of publishing, down 1% in the last 24-hours. Ethereum is at 1,622, down 0.9%, and Dogecoin is at $0.09, down 3% in the last day.

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A widely followed crypto strategist thinks that Shiba Inu (SHIB), Avalance (AVAX), Fantom (FTM) and one more altcoin are likely not yet done rallying.

Pseudonymous analyst Altcoin Sherpa tells his 191,000 Twitter followers that meme coin Shiba Inu is likely headed to $0.000016 after taking out resistance at $0.000013.

“I like SHIB for a lot of reasons; liquidity is always great on it and it’s also volatile. Had a breakout yesterday and maybe $0.000016 is the next area I’m viewing.”

At time of writing, SHIB is trading for $0.00001423, down over 3% on the day.

Next up, Altcoin Sherpa is also looking at smart contract platform Avalanche, which he believes is likely due for bullish continuation as long as it is above $20.

“AVAX: if this flips $20, I think it goes to $30 (BTC dependent of course).”

At time of writing, AVAX is worth $20.26, down over 4% on the day.

Another altcoin on the analyst’s radar is smart contract protocol Fantom. According to Altcoin Sherpa, FTM has entered a new trading range and could soar as high as $0.90.

“Now cleaning in the range of $0.60-$0.90. Expecting $0.90ish if BTC is stable.”

At time of writing, FTM is trading at $0.57, down over 7% on the day.

The last coin on the trader’s list is LOOKS, the utility token of the Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare. According to Altcoin Sherpa, he’s targeting $0.40 for LOOKS.

“I jumped on the LooksRare train late and bought this recently. Maybe it’s a crowded trade, but I think there is still more upside for the NFT infrastructure tokens with Blur coming out. Targeting $0.40ish and wont hold onto this one super long.” 

At time of writing, LOOKS is worth $0.32, down over 6% in the past 24 hours.

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Solana (SOL) creator Anatoly Yakovenko is laying out a prediction for crypto markets for the next 12 to 18 months.

In a new interview on the Bankless podcast, Yakovenko says while there may be challenging macroeconomic conditions ahead, it likely won’t stop an unprecedented wave of innovation from hitting the crypto space.

Yakovenko warns that if the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to draw down inflation it could drive investment away from the less established blockchain projects like Ethereum (ETH) rival Solana.

“I think that’s a big question for probably all of the smart contract platforms except for Ethereum: Are we going to be in a high-interest rate environment for the next five years where all the riskier bets get squeezed down and there’s no traction?

That means that there’s nothing for Solana to do that’s useful to the world that Ethereum doesn’t cover, even if Solana is 100 times faster. Even if we do more transactions than all the Ethereum [layer-2s] combined. They’re not providing enough value to the world in that environment, if they’re not, that means it’s not going to survive. Now that’s like the big if and that I don’t know. That’s a big ‘if’ for crypto. What is crypto doing right now that is so crucial to the world that it can’t live without it?”

However, Yakovenko says he is optimistic about Solana’s future. He says that even if there is an economic downturn, Solana’s market share of non-fungible token (NFT) projects would create enough value to sustain the project.

“This is like if I put on my worst bear hat and everything’s going to sh*t, interest rates are at 10%, is the Web3 NFT business model [going to] survive? I think so. And if that’s true, I think Solana survives.”

Yakovenko predicts innovation in the crypto space will surge at a pace never seen before, helping the sector successfully navigate through choppy economic times.

“I feel like way more bullish now than 2018, 2019. There’s so much funding that’s still happening in crypto. There’s so many smart young people that are not joining the big companies and building awesome products.

My guess is if you looked at all the product launches from the inception of crypto to now to what’s going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months, then the next 12 to 18 months is probably going to be way more than everything else combined up to this point. And if people are launching products, they’re grinding for product market fit, they’re going to get users, it means crypto is going to survive.”

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Bloomberg’s lead commodity strategist says that scaling solutions on Ethereum (ETH) may be threatening the rise of the alternative layer-1s like Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX).

In a new report on crypto assets, Mike McGlone says that Ethereum layer-2s are gaining rapid adoption, and are stopping the flow of new users from Ethereum into alternative layer-1s trying to rival the top smart contract platform.

“Even as activity declined on the Ethereum base chain, 2022 was a pivotal year for the asset, as the adoption of NFTs and Web3 applications on Layer-2 chains drove massive network effects. Layer-2s (L2s) is an umbrella term for blockchain-scaling solutions that attempt to address the constraints that Ethereum currently confronts…

Sharding in late 2023 is intended to alleviate scalability issues. In the meantime, L2s have stepped in to enhance the user experience and stop the flow of users to alternative layer-1 chains such as Solana, Avalanche.”

McGlone notes that activity on layer-2s has now eclipsed activity on the base layer. The analyst says Polygon (MATIC) in particular has outshined the rest of the layer-2 ecosystem, and has the stats to prove it.

“After averaging 250,000 daily active addresses in the prior months, L2s erupted in October 2022 and overtook the base chain. They now consistently maintain more than 400,000 daily active addresses. Daily active addresses on rollup or L2 chains rose 86% in 2022, versus a 33% decline on Ethereum. Polygon Becomes Beacon for Developers.

No L2 has created more network effects for Ethereum than Polygon. Polygon started as a sidechain but pivoted to an aggregator of technologies focusing on zero-knowledge (zk) rollups. A blockchain game-changer, Zk proofs, a method of proving the possession of certain information without revealing any of the data itself, enhance privacy and speed up transactions.”

The commodities strategist also says that some of the corporate partnerships that Polygon has attracted, including from CocaCola, Reddit and Meta, give Polygon an advantage when it comes to adoption and regulatory compliance.

“Putting aside the potential regulatory issues which may arise from a traditional company’s involvement in the issuance of its own token MATIC – see upcoming Ripple/SEC court case – the quality of the corporations it has brought on board bodes well for adoption potential. Companies like CocaCola, Starbucks, Reddit, and Meta have launched their NFTs as an introductory Web3 product or integrated with Polygon’s NFT marketplaces.”

At time of writing, MATIC is trading at $1.22.

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