Solana is navigating a critical juncture as its price edges toward the $209 mark under increasing bearish pressure. Recent market dynamics have tilted in favor of the bears, challenging SOL’s previous upward momentum. The $209 level now emerges as a crucial line of defense, with the bulls required to act swiftly to prevent deeper losses and regain control of the market narrative. This heightened selling pressure highlights growing uncertainty, making the stakes even higher for both sides of the market. If the bulls manage to hold the line, it may signal strength and set the stage for a potential rebound. However, failure to defend this level could pave the way for further downside, reinforcing the bearish outlook. Solana Nears The Critical $209 Support Level Recent price movements indicate that Solana is under significant downside pressure as it approaches the crucial $209 support level. This decline comes despite the cryptocurrency remaining above the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), a key indicator often associated with broader bullish trends. The negative sentiment has overshadowed the SMA’s support, signaling possible vulnerability in SOL’s price structure. Related Reading: Solana To New ATH Before Christmas – Analyst Expects $300 Soon While the 100-day SMA typically acts as a safety net for upward momentum, the increased selling pressure suggests that bears are testing the strength of this support. If Solana fails to hold above the $209 mark, it might invalidate the SMA’s bullish influence, paving the way for deeper losses. However, a rebound at this level could reaffirm the SMA’s role in sustaining the positive outlook, setting the stage for potential recovery. Furthermore, the 1-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) is trending below the critical 50% threshold, signaling a shift in market sentiment toward bearish dominance. The RSI, a widely used momentum indicator, measures the speed and magnitude of price movements. When it dips below 50%, it typically indicates weakening buying pressure. This downward trend in the RSI reflects the increased bearish influence on Solana’s price, aligning with its recent decline toward the $209 support level. Sustaining its position below 50% suggests that bulls may be losing their grip, making it imperative for them to regain control soon to prevent further losses. Should the RSI continue to decline, it could reinforce the negative outlook, potentially leading to a deeper price correction. Potential Scenarios: Rebound Or Further Decline? Solana’s price, currently hovering near the $209 support level, sets up two potential scenarios: a bullish rebound or an extended decline. If the price successfully rebounds from this level, it may indicate strength and resilience, possibly pushing Solana toward higher resistance levels, such as $240 and $260, while reigniting its uptrend. Related Reading: Solana Price On The Rise: Key Resistance At $235 Could Spark Major Breakout However, failing to hold above $209 could intensify selling pressure, potentially driving the price lower toward $194 as bearish dominance takes hold. A break below this level would heighten the risk of more drops, with Solana testing the 100-day SMA as the next key support. Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
MicroStrategy, Mara and Riot stocks all went up in the last 24 hours as BTC hit $107K.
The cryptocurrency exchange filed a suit against the SEC in October after receiving a Wells notice, but dropped it the same day its CEO met with the US President-elect.
A university education is often considered to be the best path to superior lifetime earnings and financial freedom. Actual earnings seem to bear this out. People with a four-year degree make far more over their lifetimes than those without—about 75% according to this study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. But this path must be weighed against alternatives. Bitcoin is also an excellent investment, with a 71% average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past ten years. The growth trajectory of bitcoin has created an alternative path to financial freedom. What if we invested in bitcoin instead of time and tuition for university? Which would yield more over a career? Valuing university education The price of a university education has vastly outpaced inflation , with tuition going up more than 250% in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past 40 years and 830% in nominal terms. Furthermore, many observers claim that universities have shifted focus over time toward politicization and controlling speech more than free inquiry and entertainment of students more than quality education, leading many parents to question the investment. Parents and students are rightly asking now whether university is worth the investment. Confidence in higher education has dropped precipitously from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2023. Students are beginning to vote with their feet; college enrollment has dropped in the US for recent high school graduates from a high of 70% in 2009 to 61% in 2023 . Parents and students are looking for other options. Even the 75% college wage premium is misleading. The reality is that the group of students who achieve a four-year degree tend to be smarter and harder working than those who go to work right out of high school. This number doesn’t tell us what the premium would be for an individual student who could achieve a four-year degree but chooses not to. In his book The Case Against Education , Bryan Caplan makes the case that the college wage premium drops considerably when considering an individual student rather than the group. His extensive data analysis shows that the college wage premium drops in half when isolating an individual student of comparable ability in high school and college. That is, the college wage premium is closer to 38% for an individual. The same individual who would earn $1M over a lifetime of wages without a degree would be expected to earn $1.38M with a degree. Even this adjustment overestimates the added value of college, where Caplan calculates that approximately 80% of the added value is merely signaling —demonstrating to employers that the student is the kind of student who has the characteristics to achieve a four-year degree and be successful in the workplace. Only 20% is actually added value from education. In addition to the cost of university and the relatively small gains, students sacrifice four years of lost wages while they are in school. This four years could be invested not only in making money but in gaining valuable skills that would make them more competitive and useful in the marketplace after four years. Valuing bitcoin investment Bitcoin represents an entirely new asset class—a digital asset whose supply remains absolutely scarce regardless of demand. As governments demonstrate a complete inability to say no to borrowing and printing new fiat money, both sophisticated investors and ordinary people are looking for an asset that can’t be inflated by any powerful individual, government, or bank. As the world continues the process of becoming familiar with bitcoin and adding it to their holdings, absolute scarcity means the price of bitcoin can only trend up in the long term. This is borne out in bitcoin’s superior returns over its lifetime that has exceeded every other common asset class in 11 out of 14 years. Bitcoin’s 71% CAGR over the past 10 years has dwarfed the 11% that the S&P 500 has yielded in the same period. Bitcoin has superior scarcity, portability, and verifiability compared to gold. It has a very low cost of ownership and little jurisdictional risk. It has some immunity to regulatory risk compared to other assets. The properties of bitcoin strongly suggest that it will significantly eat into the existing store of value of gold, bonds, real estate, and stocks. Michael Saylor has recently published a 21-year price forecast for bitcoin. His bear case estimates a 21% CAGR, a base case 29%, and a bullish case 37%. If bitcoin has returns like this, students and parents need to consider this alternative closely before investing tuition money up front and forgoing four years of income and practical skill development. Another price model, the power-law model promoted by @Giovann35084111 and others, has demonstrated remarkable fidelity to price over the history of bitcoin. This model predicts more rapid growth early on with gradually decreasing returns as bitcoin matures. It posits that the price of bitcoin on average increases in proportion to time raised to the sixth power, where time refers to total time since the genesis block. This model projects about a 45% CAGR in the coming year, falling gradually to around 25% in ten years. Comparing the two We look at both options as investment in capital—a university education as an investment in human capital and bitcoin as an investment in an appreciating capital asset. The cost of a university education involves both direct costs and opportunity costs: 1) paying four years of university tuition and 2) forgoing four years of income and valuable job experience. The payoff is an expected wage premium of 38% over a career. The alternative we consider here is to invest in bitcoin beginning on Day 1 the funds that were saved for tuition. In addition, we assume that parents pay living expenses for four years in either scenario. Thus, living expenses are not added to the cost of the university option and are not subtracted from the non-university wages. Instead, all of net salary is used to buy bitcoin at the end of each year for the four years that the parents would have otherwise supported a student at university. We assume in both scenarios that the salary grows by 3% per year. This is intended to account for inflation as well as real growth. Dollar values and models are assumed to be in nominal values and are not adjusted for inflation. Since we are comparing two scenarios across the same time frame, the exact level of inflation has very little impact on the relative performance of the two. Tuition varies dramatically across university categories. For the year 2024-2025 , in-state tuition at a ranked public university in the U.S. averages $11K per year. Out-of-state tuition runs $25K per year. Students attending a private college will pay an eye-watering $44K per year. And Ivy League tuition will set families back $65K per year. Community colleges cost less than four-year universities. In addition, some students will qualify for scholarships and other financial aid. And some may live in places where tuition is free (well—paid for by further fiat money printing). Let’s consider two cases—an in-state public university and free tuition. We assume in the bitcoin alternative that the amount of yearly tuition is used to purchase bitcoin annually as a kind of dollar-cost averaging to spread the risk of the time of entry in the market. For the bitcoin price model, we consider two scenarios: the Saylor bear case (21% CAGR) and the power-law model that starts with a higher return and gradually falls over time, in keeping with its historic power-law curve. We compare results over a 40-year career (4 university years + 36 working years for the university case). We assume that the base non-college take-home pay is $30K per year, and the annual college premium is calculated so that the total lifetime premium is 38%. We assume the non-college path saves the bitcoin purchased with tuition money and the first four years of take-home pay and nothing after that. The college path purchases bitcoin with the college wage premium each year and lives off of the same take-home pay as the non-college path. In each plot we show three values over time: Non-College Investments: Dollar value of bitcoin from purchases made from saved tuition and wages earned in first four years College Investments: Dollar value of bitcoin from purchases made from college wage premium each year College Premium Savings: Dollar value of cumulative savings from college wage premium (not invested in bitcoin) To give the college option the most favorable possible treatment, we assume that the college wage premium is also invested in bitcoin each year. Results Even in the Saylor bear case (21% CAGR), investing tuition money and the first four years of income in bitcoin far outperforms the college wage premium over a career. The college wage premium never catches up even after 40 years. Because of the bitcoin investment in both scenarios, both are very attractive. If we define financial freedom as having $5M in bitcoin savings, that is achieved in 20 years for the non-college path and in 25 years for the college route. By comparison, merely saving the college premium in fiat without investing in bitcoin is an abysmal strategy, returning less than 1/200 of the non-college path and about 1/100 of the college path with bitcoin investment. Now let’s suppose your student gets free tuition, either through a scholarship or government-subsidized tuition. In that case the only advantage the non-college route has is to save four years of income before being on the same footing as the college route. The results show that even in this case the non-college route yields a better return simply by being able to invest four years of salary instead of deferring superior wage by four years. What if the bitcoin power law continues to match the appreciation of bitcoin? We consider both public university tuition and free tuition. In this case the non-college path dramatically outperforms the college path, whether or not tuition is free. The public university tuition alternative with the power law achieves financial freedom ($5M) in only 15 years from high school—at age 33. Other scenarios What happens if these scenarios are overly optimistic for the performance of bitcoin? If we drop the bitcoin CAGR all the way down to 10% for the public university case, the two scenarios basically break even. If we go all the way down to a 5% CAGR, it still takes 18 years for the college path to pay off relative to the non-college path. What if the college path prepares the student for a more lucrative career—like engineering, medicine, or law—where the college path may be the only option for those careers and where the college wage premium may be much higher? In the case of a public university with a 21% bitcoin CAGR, the premium must be 113% to reach the breakeven point over a 40-year career. That’s not the whole story. Medicine and law require even more years of deferred wages and even more tuition than a four-year degree. Assuming eight years of deferred wages and eight years of public university tuition (surely an underestimate for medical or law school tuition), the college wage premium must be a towering 300% just to break even. Engineering appears to be the sweet spot here—preparation for a professional career in four years with a larger-than-average expected wage premium. Even here, however, the required breakeven premium of 113% is a tall order. If you’d like to investigate other scenarios, here is a Google Sheet where you can experiment with the parameters and even look at the formulas I used to create these calculations. Broader considerations This analysis narrowly focuses on the financial payoff of a capital investment. It doesn’t consider personal satisfaction derived from the alternative paths, motivation, the networking benefits of a university, the personal growth experience of a university vs. working directly from high school, and many other factors. It also doesn’t consider the potential volatility of bitcoin, either concerning the uncertainty or the additional stress of riding the bitcoin rollercoaster. If the thesis concerning bitcoin appreciation is anywhere close to accurate, these findings suggest that a non-university path with a bitcoin savings strategy is likely to be financially advantageous compared to a university education path even with a bitcoin savings strategy. This conclusion frees up students and parents to give more subjective consideration to other paths that may fit their personality, values, and goals. Bitcoin not only gives a path for financial freedom but a path toward greater freedom in career choices less constrained by financial or academic factors. This is a guest post by Stan Reeves. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
XRP and DOGE gear up for lift-off as Bitcoin breaks $108,000 all-time high
While 2024 may be winding down to a close, there’s nothing sluggish about the crypto market at the moment. And it’s not only the OGs that are taking all the glory. Here’s our take on five new attention-grabbing altcoins investors are flocking to. Wall Street Pepe ($WEPE) – On track to be the top altcoin presale of the year Solaxy ($SOLX) – Redefining Solana for the better Sui ($SUI) – Great forecast thanks to a strong performance Best Wallet Token ($BEST) – Giving crypto wallet users complete control Virtuals Protocol ($VIRTUAL) – Simplifying AI with tokenization capabilities Wall Street Pepe ($WEPE) – On Track To Be The Top Altcoin Presale Of The Year The Wall Street Pepe presale is currently on, and it’s been highly exciting to watch. $WEPE has already raised more than $27.8M. Wall Street Pepe – the newest Pepe – is on a mission to take down the whales trading in insider groups by building a powerful frog army of regular retail investors. The army’s secret weapon in becoming whales in their own right is expert tips and insights from Wall Street Pepe himself. And that army is growing in froggy leaps and bounds. Consider this: on December 13, the presale raised $15M. By this time yesterday (December 16), that number skyrocketed to $25M. And today, investors added another $2.8M to the kitty. Could the immense investor confidence in $WEPE be linked to Pepe Unchained’s ($PEPU) phenomenal success since listing? Will $WEPE become the new $PEPU? Only time will tell. $WEPE has raised almost $30M, with its current price of $0.0003647 set to increase in less than 23 hours. If you’re considering joining Wall Street Pepe’s frog army at a great price, you’d best hop to it. Solaxy ($SOLX) – Redefining Solana For The Better Since going live just two days ago, the Solaxy presale has already raised $659K. That’s on par with $WEPE’s first 48 hours of presale. Could $SOLX be headed in the same direction? Solaxy is Solana’s first-ever Layer-2 solution, which in itself is promising. Some 30% of the total supply of 138,046B tokens has been allocated to the ecosystem’s development. Building on Solana’s strengths, Solaxy promises higher speeds, more scalability, and less congestion and failed transactions – great news for meme coin traders. Currently, 1 $SOLX goes for $0.00156, with 2788% staking rewards a definite drawcard for early investment. To sweeten the deal, this multi-chain token will be on the almighty Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Sui ($SUI) – Great Forecast Thanks To A Strong Performance Early investors who snatched up $SUI for $0.10 in the early presale days will no doubt be all smiles. $SUI is currently trading at $4.83, representing a 48x return since this altcoin’s listing in mid-2023. SUI’s $13.91B market cap is nothing to sneeze at, either. Yesterday, the blockchain’s native token, $SUI, hit an all-time high (ATH) of $4.91. It’s since seen a pullback but remains strong – a solid indicator of investor confidence. Sui’s blockchain is a next-generation Web3 platform that prioritizes security, speed, and scale. It’s especially geared towards gaming development and DeFi projects. Sui has also partnered with the likes of Phantom Wallet and Backpack, which will see both companies adding $SUI to the blockchains they support. These are just some reasons a bullish market could see $SUI reaching $7.60 in the new year. Best Wallet Token ($BEST) – Giving Crypto Wallet Users Full Control Speaking of crypto wallets, Best Wallet also has a native token in presale. Best Wallet is unique in that it’s a fully non-custodial, mobile-only app. This means saying sayonara to wallets managed by centralized exchanges and companies. You have full control. Best Wallet is upping the ante by introducing advanced features such as a presale aggregator, enhanced decentralized wallet recovery, higher staking awards, and even lower transaction fees. And it intends to power these improved features through its native token, $BEST . Right now, 1 $BEST costs $0.023225, but a price increase is due within the next 24 hours. Tick tock… Virtuals Protocol ($VIRTUAL) – Simplifying AI With Tokenization Capabilities $VIRTUAL has seen a 61.40% price increase in the past seven days. Pretty impressive, no? And yesterday, it recorded an ATH of $3.30. There’s since been a pullback to around $2.70, but we believe there are more good things to come. $VIRTUAL – with a circulating supply of 1B – is the native token of the AI agent generator platform Virtuals Protocol. If you’re wondering what AI agents are, think Alexa, Siri, ChatGPT, and the like. These are systems and programs designed to understand and interact with their environment and carry out specific tasks based on a request. This DeFi platform enables users to create and deploy AI agents on the blockchain, allowing them to monetize their AI projects by implementing tokenization with revenue-sharing capabilities. The beauty of Virtuals Protocol is that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist or have a degree in coding to create an AI agent. The platform makes it simple. And with a current market capitalization of $2.71B, that AI-agent generation space is on track to become even more advanced. Exciting stuff if you’re a $VIRTUAL holder. In Conclusion Right now, the presale space is on fire, with the likes of Wall Street Pepe and Solaxy gearing up for record-breaking finishes. FOMO will no doubt push them further along. Meanwhile, $SUI and $VIRTUAL are going from strength to strength, proving their mettle among this year’s most promising altcoins. It’s an exciting time to invest in crypto. If you decide to invest in any of the altcoins on this list, bear the DYOR principle in mind. Knowledge is power; be sure to do your homework. And if the presale altcoins have caught your attention, do that homework quickly. We expect their prices to skyrocket once they are listed.
Bitcoin has reached new unprecedented heights, setting a new all-time high for the third consecutive day as the cryptocurrency market experiences a surge of interest. The ongoing political shifts, particularly
This surge translates to 6.42 trillion SHIB in large transaction volumes or $175 million
Bitcoin just broke its own price record for the third straight day, while XRP jumped Tuesday alongside Ripple's stablecoin launch.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the U.K. has issued a public notice aimed at the Solana meme coin Retardio. FCA alleges that this entity may be offering or endorsing financial services or products without the necessary authorization. According to FCA, using the meme coin disqualifies investors from contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service which provides a service that settles complaints between consumers and businesses that provide financial services. Also, Retardio buyers are similarly not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme that comes into play if the financial firm used goes out of business and can’t pay the claim. The entity can step in to pay compensation. FCA asserted, “You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of scams.” Still, the Retardio community seemed to take the matter lightly as they responded with memes on social media. Retardio memecoin on Solana Immediately following the FCA’s notification, the token experienced a 17% decline in value, following a previous peak of approximately $240 million. The Retardio project includes a non-fungible token (NFT) collection based on Solana, with a lifetime sales total of $31 million, as reported by CryptoSlam. Dexscreener also estimates that the linked meme coin, “Retardio,” is worth approximately $0.08 and has a market cap of approximately $87 million. The FCA urged its citizens to only conduct business with authorized organizations. The regulator stated that authorized firms provide consumers with more protection in the event of an incident. In addition, FCA stated that consumers can verify the authorization of the company they are doing business with by consulting its registry. The meme coin and NFT project, however, humorously responded to the FCA, stating that it had “issued a warning against the UK’s financial regulator.” FCA tightens regulations amidst becoming a crypto hub Early this year, the U.K.’s FCA planned to focus on increasing its capabilities in detecting and pursuing market abuse in the crypto sector and assisting in delivering a proportionate market abuse regime for the asset class for the whole year. Additionally, the financial regulator declared that it would implement advanced analytics capabilities, such as cross-asset class visualizations and network analysis. The regulator also stated that it will enhance its consumer awareness campaigns to inform investors about fraud. On the other hand, the UK committed itself to taking the U.S. on as a global crypto hub. The doubts are still there as the FCA issued a comparable notification regarding the meme coin launchpad – Pump.fun in the early part of December. Pump.fun subsequently restricted platform access for users in the United Kingdom. Previously, crypto investors ran off from the US. With the new pro-crypto administration, crypto investors are looking for ways to go back to the US. Is the UK going to replace the US with unfriendly regulations? Solana-based meme coins Generally, meme coins have been doing well in the current market. The risks are steep, but so is the upside. Memecoins are volatile, unpredictable, and yet undeniably relevant. Solana offers an appealing substitute for Ethereum. Its scalability and speed enable meme coin developers to establish cost-effective and rapid ecosystems, which in turn facilitates more frequent transactions and broader adoption. Built on the Solana blockchain, BONK capitalizes on the network’s speed and scalability. Bonk Price Chart | Source: CoinGecko Pump.fun, for example, is also lighting up Solana’s activity charts, and meme coin communities on X and Discord are driving the momentum. Despite these benefits, Solana meme coin’s network’s security and reliability have been a source of concern due to its relatively centralized make. Pump.fun experienced a decline in its weekly revenue as a result of the disabling of its live stream feature in response to allegations of detrimental content being broadcast. Such issues have caused discouraged users from investing. I am not against memes, but meme coins are getting "a little" weird now. Let's build real applications using blockchain. — CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 26, 2024 Additionally, the extensive liquidity and developer support that is available on Ethereum are frequently absent from Solana meme coins. Although Solana has succeeded in attracting retail investors through its efficiency, the absence of robust utility restricts the long-term viability of its meme coin ecosystem. A Step-By-Step System To Launching Your Web3 Career and Landing High-Paying Crypto Jobs in 90 Days.