OVERVIEW

Today’s Rally Had The Shelf Life Of Eggnog Forgotten In A Florida Car, Baking Away Under The Sun ☀️

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

Source: Santiment

And here’s a look at crypto’s total and altcoin market cap YTD:

Source: Tradingview

New In Three Sentences
Crypto News 📰

✈️ Travala’s $100M Milestone: Booking a Bitcoin-Powered Future

Travala, having soared past $100 million in annual revenue, plans to back its coffers with Bitcoin and its native AVA token. By tying travel bookings to solid crypto reserves, the company wants to give its loyalty program a boost and keep customers confident in a volatile market. With crypto’s rising legitimacy, Travala’s move is another stamp on Bitcoin’s global tour. Travala blog.

❄️ Avalanche’s $250M Power Play: Fuel for the Avalanche9000 Era

Avalanche just roped in a $250 million infusion led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi, proving their ecosystem’s no fluke. With Avalanche9000 promising to slash costs by a factor of thousands and offer a buffet of retroactive grants, this chain’s future looks turbocharged. Avalanche blog.

🔨 Alchemy Chain: Building a Future Where Fiat & Crypto Live in Harmony

Alchemy Pay’s new L1 blockchain blends off-chain and on-chain worlds into a seamless payment experience. Trusted Proof-of-Authority and ACH/fiat gas fees mean no more headaches at checkout. Also: devs get a Meme Launchpad and Telegram Bot—talk about going full-service. Alchemy Pay blog.

🪂 Magic Eden’s ME Airdrop: One Whale, $2 Million, 1,350 Wallets

Magic Eden’s ME token drop was a feeding frenzy, and one crafty airdrop farmer gobbled up a $2+ million feast through a thousand-plus wallets. Prices briefly hit the moon before gravity and quick flips brought them back down. Amid wild claims, convoluted redemption steps, and server hiccups, the airdrop proved that free money still creates instant chaos. CryptoGlobe.

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TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
AVAX And XRP Levels To Watch 👀 

Avalanche

It’s kind of like deja-vu here with AVAX and where it’s sitting. Back in March 21 Litepaper, we looked at AVAX right near these price levels. 💰️ 

March 21, 2024, AVAXUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.

The conversation focused on hidden bullish divergence that hinted at a comeback, provided AVAX could dodge a drop below the Detrended Price Oscillator’s zero line. The weekly chart (not shown) screamed exhaustion back then, casting doubts on whether any rally had real legs beneath all the hype.

Fast forward nine-ish months, and AVAX is back in the same value area. Which is an area with a ginormous confluence zone of major Fibonacci levels:

• $51.94 – 50% Fib Retracement of the weekly November 22, 2021 high to the low of of the weekly strong bar in the week of August 16, 2021.

• $54.79 – 88.6% Fib Retracement of the October 2023 low to the high of the strong bar on the monthly May 2022 bar.

• $52.87 – 61.8% Fib Extension of the current expansion phase.

AVAXUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.

And just like back in March, the current weekly (not shown) is hinting at some exhaustion. But the daily chart shows something different:

There is hidden bullish divergence, just like March, but unlike March, the hidden bullish divergence in the Detrended Price Oscillator isn’t crossing below the zero line, it’s crossing above it. Similarly, the Composite Index is pointing up, whereas in March it was pointing down.

So, what’s the verdict? It sucks if you’re someone looking to go long or short at this level. With the daily in extremely bullish conditions but the weekly in iffy exhaustion conditions, it’s a crap shoot.

But this time, it’s weighted slightly more towards the bulls here versus what it looked like in March. 🧠 

XRP

XRPUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.

Bull flags are overwhelmingly signs of bullish continuation, and there’s one present on XRP’s chart. Spend some time on the XRP stream, and you’ll see different traders and analysts looking for a close at or above $2.63 to confirm another move higher. 🔼 

The grey boxes on the screen highlight periods where Senkou Span A and Senkou Span B are both pointing up. In the Ichimoku system, that is interpreted as a time when traders can expect to see a lot of conviction in prices moving higher.

If that behavior holds true, then it’s probable that any move higher will have to wait until either the 16th or 17th. 📆 

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Tell Me What You Want What You Really Really Want 🔊 

Quick note here: Let me know what you’d like to see more of in the Litepaper.

More charts? Less Charts? More on-chain analytics? Less analytics? More data? Less data? Let me know! 🎇 

E-mail me here: jmorgan@stocktwits.com

News In Three Sentences
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️

⚽ Fan Rating on Chiliz: Rate, Earn, Repeat

Fan Rating lands on the Chiliz Chain, letting football fans flex their player-rating chops for rewards. Think gamified sports fandom meets tokenized engagement, opening doors for collectibles, player votes, and exclusive perks. With AC Milan legend Massimo Oddo backing it, this platform’s turning every fan into an on-chain pundit.
Chiliz blog.

🎮 Immutable Levels Up: More Games in 2024 Than Ever Before

Immutable didn’t just edge forward in web3 gaming; they soared like a caffeinated eagle. Over 250 new titles and four million signups prove the crowd’s ravenous appetite. If you’re sleeping on Immutable, it’s time to wake up and play.
Immutable blog.

🕹️ Ubisoft and Arbitrum: Web3 Shooter ‘Captain Laserhawk’ Takes Aim

Ubisoft’s Captain Laserhawk hits Arbitrum on Dec. 18, blending its iconic game franchises with Ethereum’s Layer-2 muscle. A free NFT mint sweetens the pot, letting players shape gameplay and storylines while reaping community perks. Cryptopolitan.

News In Three Sentences
DeFi, DEX, and Lending Protocol News 🏦

🛡️ A Swift Kick to Hackers: How 1inch Shut the Door on a Security Breach

A sly hacker grabbed a private key to 1inch’s resolver contract, thinking they struck gold. Instead, 1inch booted them out, locked down the vault, and kept user funds snug in their non-custodial wallets. Now there’s a $250k bounty on the culprit’s head—time to snitch or return the loot. 1Inch blog.

🗃️ Dynamic Address Book on Hedera: A Leap Toward True Decentralization

Hedera’s letting node operators take the wheel, swapping council approvals for signed transactions. This shift means smoother updates and less downtime. It’s one giant leap for decentralization and a pat on the back for network freedom. Hedera blog.

💎 Mantle Rewards Station: Score More $EIGEN by Locking MNT

Lock your MNT, ramp up your MNT Power, and dive into a 570,000 $EIGEN reward pool. Pick your reward pool, tweak your allocation, and max those gains. When the dust settles, claim your bounty and brag about your DeFi hustle. Mantle blog.

🪄 Balanced’s Year-End Tour: Chains, Intents, and Cross-Chain Goodies

Balanced is going global, blending Stellar, Solana, ICON, and more into a seamless DeFi smoothie. Intents are coming, new relay upgrades are queued, and cross-chain LP and rewards are about to drop. Soon you’ll be staking, earning, and swapping without even touching an ICON wallet. Icon blog.

🌍 Band Protocol Meets Celo L2: Data for Everyone, Everywhere

Band Protocol’s oracles just landed on Celo’s L2 testnet, piping in real-time price data for BTC, ETH, stablecoins, and more. This colab mixes Celo’s global, low-cost reach with Band’s reliable feeds, fueling developers with accurate info at scale. The result: user-friendly dApps that blend security, inclusivity, and smooth DeFi operations. Band Protocol blog.

ON-CHAIN ANALYSIS
Burnt Bag Briefing 🔥 

Want to know whether the bulls or bears are feeling the most pain today? Well, this is the place to look. 👀

24-Hour Liquidation Heat Map – Source: Coinglass – Click to enlarge.

In the past 24 hours, 89,530 traders were liquidated, with total liquidations reaching $255.57 million.

The largest single liquidation occurred on BitmexX, a BTCUSDT pair valued at $4.97 million.

Longs lost $118.25 million, while shorts were hit for $137.26 million. 🤕 

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

😱 Alabama state auditor calls to establish Bitcoin reserve

🙄 SEC begins seeking comments from public on Bitwise’s new crypto ETP

🤖 ChatGPT goes dark following Apple intelligence integration

🤯 Vancouver Bitcoin proposal has now been approved by city council

🏀 Watch Toyota’s robot set a new world record sinking an 80-foot basketball shot like it’s nothing

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Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, WMT, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, DOGE, ZEC, AVAX, XLM, XTZ, and NEAR. 📋