Have you ever made popcorn? Not that rubbish you zap in the microwave the proper stovetop kind. Nothing happens for a while, but after the thin layer of oil at the bottom of the pot starts to sizzle and smoke, and the bright yellow kernals heat up and get excited, you hear a single pop. This is followed a few seconds later by another pop and then another one, and then all of a sudden they start exploding in rapid-fire succession.

That is exactly what the altcoin market is starting to look like.

Asia Times reported on Wednesday that former Prudential CEO George Ball advised investors to position themselves for a major rally in September. Balls choice of metaphor was not popcorn popping but rather a fuse being lit. What is going to light it? Currency devaluation resulting from unprecedented levels of monetary stimulus in response to the Covid-19 crisis, Ball believes.

Old-school investors like Ball, a reformed crypto skeptic, and hedge-fund tycoon Paul Tudor Jones are increasingly turning to crypto now that the credibility of its safe-haven status has been reinforced by major institutional investors like Grayscale and Fidelity joining the party.

Is it really a safe-haven asset? That remains to be seen, but with some conservative Wall Street players who regarded bitcoin with contempt a few years ago now taking the digital gold narrative seriously, it looks like it may have that potential. Money is, after all, a belief system, and there is a growing consensus that bitcoin is the real deal.

Organizations like Grayscale dont invest in an asset without first getting some very smart people to look under the hood to make sure it is in sound condition and has what it takes to perform well under tough conditions.

The institutional FOMO that was expected a few years ago but did not materialize appears to be kicking in.

Predictably, this growing confidence has spilled over into the altcoin market, where bargains can still be had and an astute choice can result in 1,000X gains.

While many coins were down on Friday, there were also some serious gains made. OMG Network, for example, was on an absolute moon mission, rising 91% in 24 hours to $7.72 at the time of writing. The non-custodial, layer-2 scaling solution for transferring value on Ethereum was just $1.95 on August 15. Its all-time high was $25 in January 2018, so it could have plenty of room to grow. Ox, Icon, Qtum and Ampleforth were also top gainers.

With the number of altcoins on CoinMarketCap steadily growing 6,530 at the time of writing it is increasingly difficult for investors to separate the wheat from the chaff. Investing in a basket of the top 20 by market capitalization is a relatively safe bet in a bull market, at least by crypto standards. However, identifying the small-cap coins that can do a 1,000X is much trickier. Those who consistently succeed have usually done extensive research or acted on the advice of someone who has.

One thing crypto veterans generally agree on is that you should never FOMO (fear of missing out) into an asset buy it when it is going up. If you miss out on one, there are many, many other promising projects or at least speculative plays to choose from that may provide dramatic gains for those who have done their homework and have the patience to wait for them to pop.

Read: Is Chainlink the next Ethereum?

Asia Times Financialis now live. Linking accurate news, insightful analysis and local knowledge with the ATF China Bond 50 Index, the world'sfirst benchmark cross sector Chinese Bond Indices.Read ATFnow.

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The altcoins are really starting to pop - Asia Times

The alternative cryptocurrency (altcoin) market has outperformed major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin in recent weeks. However, according to researchers at Santiment, an on-chain market analysis firm, altcoins are over-bloated.

When Bitcoin consolidates or sees a small drop over an extended period of time, altcoins tend to rise.

The main companies that invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum often tend to move together during the up and down trends. Therefore, as Bitcoin and Ethereum start to stabilize, small and medium altcoins start to rise.

Over the past week, altcoins such as Augur, Golem, 0x, and OMG have surged between 40% and 120%. The researchers said:

Several mid-range ETH-based crypto assets have been in the limelight today, including GNT (peak at + 95%), REP (+ 56%), and ELF (+ 30%). Meanwhile, Ethereum (-8%) fell.

Historical patterns show that at unexpected times, small and medium-sized altcoins sometimes show unfounded rallies.

While it remains uncertain whether the altcoin market is seeing a re-flaring bull cycle or a short-term bull run, the researchers said it was time to be cautious and added:

These isolated fireworks were exciting for a small handful of traders, but the real story is that the market capitalization of many altcoins shrank drastically on a red day. Altcoins look too swollen, its better to be careful.

The researchers pointed to various on-chain data points and key factors to suggest that some altcoins seem over-inflated. For example, REP, the native token of Augur, the Ethereum-based prediction platform, increased by 56%. Still, its active addresses remained relatively sluggish, which could roughly indicate the number of users in Augur.

In contrast, both Bitcoin and Ethereum made noticeable improvements in various metrics. Data from blockchain.com shows that the number of unique addresses used in the Bitcoin blockchain has steadily increased in the last 180 days.

Ethereum, whose price has almost doubled in a month since July 20, has seen the number of daily transactions steadily increasing in recent months. Since January, the total daily transactions on the Ethereum Blockchain network have grown from 420,000 to over 1.2 million in August.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw strong spikes supported by clear improvements in key factors and on-chain metrics. There is a possibility that small to medium altcoins will continue to increase and base data will be left behind for a long time. However, in the data on the current chain, it directs the researchers to the cautious side.

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Altcoins Look Excessively Swollen Compared to Ethereum - Somag News

Technical analysis is an important aspect of investing and even more important to trading. It isnt an exact science, but it can help to increase probabilities by watching for chart patterns on altcoins like Ethereum, Cardano, BAT, Binance Coin, and others.

But not all chart patterns have names or follow geometrical shapes. Some moves are designed to be erratic specifically to confuse and ultimately shake traders out of positions. One crypto analyst who offers the community wealth of trading tips has outlined the exact anatomy of an altcoin shakeout, using the cryptocurrency BAT.

Financial markets are whale and shark-filled waters ready to devour new investors and traders and tear apart their hopes, dreams, and capital.

Investing in cryptocurrencies can be a wild ride. Trading is an entirely different story. Yes, with time, skill, and patience, money can be made, but it is far more difficult than it looks.

Still, some make it look easy, and are in a position to educate others. One such crypto analyst with a wealth of knowledge shared for free on his pinned Twitter threads has recently shared what they call an anatomy of a shakeout in altcoin BAT.

Related Reading | Will An Ascending Trendline Bring a Return of Altcoin Apocalypse?

The asset recently pumped, but not before a fake out move down to, as the analyst says, shake traders out of position. As the trader explains, before the big move is about to happen, low timeframe price action becomes erratic. This is when you may see those dreaded Darth Maul candles or Bart moves. This causes people to start second-guessing their position.

Next, price nukes as the crypto community calls it, causing panic selling and positions to get flushed. Just as stops are hit, and fear starts to take hold in the unprepared, price rockets higher through former support and then through resistance, full send.

This shakeout is exactly what happened on the BATBTC trading pair over the last 48 hours, prompting a full 40% rise in USD value. But why is BAT suddenly spiking?

The great crypto capital rotation also called an altcoin season, is still on. BAT just so happened to be among the last assets to pump. Those that have come last have also pumped the hardest.

Related Reading | Easy Money? Coinbase Crypto Coins Grow Over 50% On Average In August

BAT, OMG, and other older crypto coins recently exploded in value over the last two days, for no real reason other than it was their time to break out.

What little money was coming in, was enough to push price action through resistance and cause a wave of FOMO.

BAT was also among the list of Coinbase crypto tokens that performed the worst out of the over 57% average return, with just 5%. The recent pump in Basic Attention Token has brought the asset much more on par with the rest of the crypto tokens that were part of that previous figure.

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Analyst Explains Anatomy Of An Altcoin Shakeout With BATs Vertical Rally - The Coin Radar

On August 24, INX launched a tokenized initial public offering or IPO which was cleared by the SEC. The company describes its mission as bringing "regulated digital asset opportunities to institutions and retail investors".

The following day, several crypto influencers tweeted what appeared to be promotional statements about the company and its token. Stefan Jespers, known as WhalePanda on Twitter, compared the INX token to Binance's BNB:

Source: Twitter.

A similar sentiment was voiced byJameson Lopp, the CTO of Casa and a self-proclaimed cypherpunk:

Both Jespers and Lopp are considered Bitcoin maximalists a group that some categorize as holding negative attitudes towards altcoins and token offerings. Their statements left many feeling befuddled, with some surmising that the Twitter accounts in question may have been compromised. In the end, there was a more prosaic explanation for this unusual behavior, however. According to a tweet by CobraBitcoin, the long-time custodian of Bitcoin.org's website, the individuals in question had received INX options at $0.01 per token. He alleged that this would allow them to make a 90x profit during the IPO:

Source: Twitter.

Other notable members of the Bitcoin maximalist camp appeared as company advisors as well, including Alena Vranova, the founder of SatoshiLabs and Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream. All parties, with the exception of Mow, are listed on the company's website. Neither Vranova or Mow have tweeted about the exchange or its public offering.

Company advisors often receive various stock options as payment for their support. However, some may find it hypocritical that the same people who have accused others of selling "snake oil" are now promoting a token offering without offering the proper disclosures.

Blockstream's CEO Adam Back recently likened many of the biggest altcoin projects to a Ponzi scheme. He does not appear to mind Mow's position at INX, however.

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Bitcoin 'maximalists' accused of 'shilling' an SEC-cleared token - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin SV is among the altcoins that are outperforming themselves on Saturday. In the last 24 hours, the cryptoasset has surged over 10%, breaking above the key 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level taken between the last drop from $455.74 to a low of $77.49. In addition, the spike made it above key moving averages including the 50-day SMA and the 200-day SMA.

BSV/USD is trading at $239 at the time writing in the wake of a minor retreat from $245. However, the technical picture remains positive, especially with the RSI and the MACD moving higher within the overbought and positive regions respectively.

On a wider scope, gains towards $250 seem to be brewing and the hurdle at $245 seems temporal. If the RSI contains movement within the overbought region, buyers will remain in control a while longer. Similarly, the bullish divergence from the MACD cements the buyers position in the market. For now, seeking support above $240 is top on the bulls priority list as it gives them ample time to push for gains above $250.

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Bitcoin SV Price Analysis: BSV/USD takes the altcoin rally a notch higher, approaching $250 - FXStreet