On The Pulse - Edition #005
Welcome to On The Pulse, with Maui.

Hey everyone, welcome back to this week's edition of 'On The Pulse.' Thanks as ever to all who have subscribed and are reading this via email. If you're currently browsing, please consider subscribing! If you find today's newsletter valuable, please recommend it to a friend and feel free to suggest topics or ask questions on my Twitter @jordymaui.

This week

Lesson of the Week: "What are NFTs?"

NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, have exploded onto the scene, transforming how we think about digital ownership and creativity. You’ve probably best heard of them as monkey pictures or ‘Bored Apes’. Let's dive into what makes NFTs a unique and sometimes controversial topic in the tech and art worlds.

• 🖼 Defining NFTs: NFTs are digital assets that represent real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. They are bought, sold, and traded online, typically with cryptocurrency, and are encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptocurrencies. The most popular NFTs are known as ‘Projects’ and are essentially startup companies or communities that have sold 10,000 digitally generated images and created a use case around them, based off money raised when selling the NFTs to the market. For example; BAYC or Pudgy Penguins.

• 💥 Impact and Innovation: From enabling artists to secure their work against plagiarism to allowing collectors to own unique digital items, NFTs are reshaping the creative economy. Ethereum led the charge by providing a platform for NFT creation and trade, showcasing the technology's versatility. Notably from a marketplace named Opensea that gave people the opportunity to buy, sell, and trade NFTs publicly before newcomer Magic Eden trumped their market share.

• 🚀 Potential of NFTs: Beyond digital art, NFTs are paving the way for exciting developments in digital identity, gaming, and beyond. They offer a new avenue for creators and investors alike, with the potential for significant returns or utility for games, sports, and real-life experiences. NFTs are certainly still a large risk-based asset but have unlimited potential for onboarding users to crypto and providing value for many with their token-gated access utilities.

• ⚠️ The Flip Side: However, the NFT space isn't without its risks. Market volatility and the environmental impact of blockchain technology are among the concerns that buyers and creators face. Projects can rug pull - a term for going to zero or the team leaving the project to die, etc. It’s important to note that doing due diligence on purchasing NFTs is always necessary, even if doing it ‘just for the art’.

• 🔎 Discovering NFTs: Finding the next big NFT can be as thrilling as it is speculative. From social media platforms to specialized marketplaces, the hunt for valuable NFTs requires keen insight and a bit of luck, to be honest. There are dedicated Twitter accounts and marketing tools built into marketplaces that give you the latest scoop on new releases.

We can dive more into specific NFT types and technicalities in a future Newsletter and dissect the successes/failures of some NFT Projects

Major Headlines: "The Weekly Roundup"

This week comes with pure euphoria as the markets swoop to new yearly highs, trillion dollar asset companies file more ETFs and gaming projects start to go crazy. All in a weeks work for this industry so let’s dive in!

🌐 Bitcoin hits $50,000: 
With inflows of ETFs not slowing down, Bitcoin has continued to rally impressively above the $50,000 mark! After the CPI came in higher than expected for the US and remained stable for the UK, the markets have seen incredible rallies continue. Not only this, but Bitcoin whales have accumulated over $6 billion worth of BTC in the last few weeks. If inflows continue like this, there is much more to come for BTC.. See Data on ETF inflows.

🚧 Gaming Projects see major rallies: 
A popular saying recently is "Crypto Gaming will lead the next bull run." Right now, it's proving quite accurate, with major gaming projects experiencing significant rallies. The new game/token 'MAVIA' saw over a 200% increase upon release, a game akin to Clash of Clans. BEAM, alongside RONIN and SUPER, continues its impressive run. While we'll delve into these projects more in the future, I highly recommend conducting your own research into more gaming projects Check out Gaming Coins on Coin Gecko here!

💬 Franklin Templeton files for spot ETH ETF: 
Franklin Templeton, an asset manager with $1.5 trillion under management, has officially filed for a spot Ethereum ETF. This significant move adds to the increasing number of spot ETF applications for Ethereum, signaling potential unpriced market impacts and possibly leading to substantial capital inflows soon. See the new break.

🛑 Saylors Fund hits $3.5b in Unrealised Profits: 

Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy has seen its Bitcoin investments grow to over $3.5 billion in value. This showcases a remarkable strategy of conviction and consistency, yielding significant returns as we approach the next bull run. For detailed insights on MicroStrategy's Bitcoin purchases and profits, there's a dedicated website tracking these movements, providing updates on their investment performance: Here.

Maui’s Weekly Analysis of Charts

Dive into the pulse of the crypto market with me for a quick overview. If there are elements you don’t understand here, don’t worry – feel free to ask me questions on Twitter. Interested in a specific chart analysis? Let me know! I’ll also be holding weekly polls based on your suggestions. Anyway, here are this week’s charts:

₿ BTC (Bitcoin):

• Recent Price Action: Over the last 7 Days, $BTC has broken into a rally thats seen previous highs smashed and now a new yearly high, with no slowing down (yet). Up 20% over the week from $46,000 to now $51,000.
  
  With US CPI coming in above expected and UK CPI remaining flat, we’ve seen major continuation in Bitcoins price surge. From last week, our bullish expectations have been overwhelmingly accurate and price is now in discovery with ETF inflows growing daily.
  

• Weekly Forecast: Right now, we’re in up only mode and it’s worth keeping an eye on previous levels of support and resistance at the $52-$53k area or above that, $58,000. Support areas for pull backs or flushes down remain obviously at $48,000 and $45,000 as marked in our charts.
  
  This week, i’m sat watching and loving the pumps across all markets. I’ll be eying up BTC Dominance most of all to see a possible altcoin boom but I can see this run continuing through the week as inflows grow even stronger. When runs like this come in, they often melt faces.

♦ ETH (Ethereum):

Again, over the last week ETH has also seen a break above the range high reaching over $2,700 and is up 15%.

• Weekly Forecast: Continuation and discovering a new high attempting to climb above $3,000 is the next move up with support options for pullbacks outlined in the chart as previous range high $2,700 or back down to the $2,500 level for further support there.

A lot of the same for everything this week, watching ETH/BTC for performance related reasons on ETH running higher alongside overall bullish news on ETH ETFs being submitted, lots to be bullish about and little reason to try and catch shorts or sell early. Full send, lets keep watching this week!

🟪 SOL (Solana):

• Recent Price Action: SOL has certainly been lagging slightly in comparison to the two kings of BTC and ETH, likely overdue but is still up a whopping 21% over the last week.
  

• Weekly Forecast: With SOL heading to the top of the range, $125+ remains our target with the next major resistance being at $140. Of course ETFs are going to help pull BTC and ETH up but it’s expected SOL will follow and rally in its own demand too.
  
  I’ll be actively buying SOL in hopes of targeting $140 for a big move out of this range to previous levels. Bullish on SOL and when things lag, they often burst up soon after.

🔺 AVAX (Avalanche):

• Recent Price Action: Over the last week, AVAX has been dragged up with the rest of the altcoin a solid 21%.
  

• Weekly Forecast: AVAX is currently nearing a resistance point within its range and I’d be looking for a strong breakout to push for a new high above $50.
  
  For me, I’m long and buying AVAX here, I think altcoins have a lot of room to run & AVAX leads the gaming narrative so expect a lot of leg room to previous highs soon. In red coin we trust!
  
  If you have any specific charts you’d like me to take a punt at next week, please do tweet me suggestions, i’ll happily poll ideas too.

📰 The Summary: From Crypto Trends to NFT Buzz

Each week, we will end the newsletter with a really brief TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) assessment of what’s been going on this week across Crypto and NFTs. I hope this section provides additional value for those who read!

Crypto:

• 📉 Market Trends: UP UP & AWAY! Our bias last week was certainly strong and we’ve seen soars across the markets. Up Only.

• 🪂 Fear & Greed Index hits ‘Extreme Greed’: For the first time in a long time, the Crypto F&G Index shows Extreme Greed in the markets.

• 💸 Franklin Templeton files spot ETH ETF: $1.5 trillion fund Franklin Templeton have officially filed for their spot ETH ETFs.

• 🔮 BTC Whales accumulate $6 Billion: Over the last 2 weeks BTC whales have been buying over $6 billion of spot BTC.

• 🔮 Gaming Coins Rally: BEAM, MAVIA & RON are just a few of the hottest gaming coins/projects out right now making new highs.

NFTs:

• 🗼 NFT Paris around the corner: Next week marks the next big Crypto Conference, NFT Paris - which I will be attending.

• 🐧 Pudgy Penguins close to flipping BAYC: Pudgy Penguins ATH hits 22ETH meanwhile BAYC floor falls to 24ETH - yet to flip eachother.

• 💼 ETHER ROCKs are selling like crazy again: A big $400k sale for the classic rock jpeg prior to a sotherbys auction has taken place!

• 💼  OG “Robotos” Project Shuts Down OG project Robotos have mysteriously tweeted that the project is over for good.

• 💼  Doodle breakout of local highs After a recent boost in sentiment, Doodles have finally broken out and seen good volume again.

And with that, we’re wrapped up for another week. If you have any suggestions for lesson of the week, please let me know! If you enjoyed this weeks newsletter, please feel free to support by following me on twitter @jordymaui

Until next time!