The Wolf Den #104 - My First NFTs
Ballin' Oates NFT
Since you can't see the actual image in the introduction section, I thought I would include the tweet here that shows it. This is just the quick sneak peek!
Bitcoin Thoughts And Analysis
Nothing has changed. At all.
From a supply and demand perspective, we are trading between two areas, shown by the blue channels. We saw clear rejection at supply and now price seems to be consolidating below. We are seeing quite a few long wicks to the downside, indicating that buyers are still in control here. A retest of the light blue zone still looks like a decent entry, with a drop to the blue channel below being ideal, although I don't really see that happening for now.
Regardless, we clearly broke resistance and are trading above it as support.
As you can see, nothing really changed on this chart either. Clear breakout from the triangle and movement up and away.
To simplify even further, here it is on the 4 hour chart. Above is bullish, below would be a break and a search for lower levels.
Price looks ready to confirm (another) hidden bullish divergence on the 4 hour. These have been weak signals, but it does nullify the clear bear div, which is positive. Hidden bull divs are a sign of likely continuation.
I posted this tweet yesterday - you can see that there are/were a lot of ways to draw patterns locally. Click on the tweet above to see 4 of them!
Breaking Down The Whitelist
Owning cryptocurrency is a package deal, you become your own bank, but also take on the responsibility of securing what you own. The advancement of crypto has brought both hard and soft security developments for users to explore and find what best fits their needs. Today we are going to look at what the whitelist feature is and examine how safe it really is.
A whitelist is the opposite of a blacklist, a blacklist is a list of untrusted things, a list you don't want to be on. On the other hand, a whitelist as it pertains to crypto is an opt-in security feature that lists the only addresses that can be trusted, thus a soft feature. This feature can often be found within settings under the address book tab and allows users to list the only acceptable addresses their crypto can be sent to. It is now common for all major wallets and exchanges to have this option, with each one implementing the measure slightly different.
Adding an address to the whitelist is straight forward - it's as simple as clicking the plus button and a copy and paste command. Make sure to always check the first and last 4 characters of the address to make sure it matches and then send a fraction of crypto to ensure the address works. Once you are certain the address added to the whitelist is correct, your crypto is now locked within your own personal network. But with this added feature, how certain can we be that our crypto is truly locked within our own personal network?
First off, whitelisting can be disabled at any point. Therefore it is best to make sure your exchange or wallet emails you when it is disabled. That way if you receive a notification that “whitelisting has been disabled” and it wasn't you, you have time to react. Even better is the fact that disabling whitelisting often requires 48 hours to deactivate, giving you ample time to secure your assets upon a breach. It is also worth noting that whitelisting on one platform does not lock the entire network. If you are a trader or investor using two platforms, whitelisting addresses on exchange A but not on exchange B means that a hacker only has to move your funds from A to B to then have the funds leave your network for good. It is imperative to fully close the network in order to trap your assets.
Another limitation to whitelisting is if your email has been hacked. Counting on an email to notify you that your funds are moving is only as good as the strength of your email account. This is why it is best to have all security offline, but this just isn't feasible for everyone. If you do leave your funds online, never talk about where they are or how much you have. Enable whitelisting because it's better than nothing and make sure to fully close the network with 2-factor authentication at each step.
While whitelisting can be a mild inconvenience, it's a great initial step for securing your funds on exchanges.
The Story Of Malcolm McLean
By Sahil Bloom.
In 1937, a truck driver from North Carolina had an idea. That idea would earn him a fortune and change the global economy forever. Who's up for a story?
Malcolm Purcell McLean was born in 1913 in Maxton, North Carolina. The son of a farmer, McLean learned the value of hard work from a young age. Unable to afford college, he went to work at a gas station. By age 21, he had saved enough money to buy a used truck.
It was from these humble beginnings that Malcolm McLean founded McLean Trucking Co. in 1934. The business focused on transporting empty tobacco barrels, livestock feed, and produce. Originally confined to the Mid-Atlantic, McLean Trucking quickly expanded its reach.
In 1937, after completing a haul from Fayetteville to Hoboken, McLean was forced to wait for hours in his hot truck while the stevedores worked their way to his load. He realized there had to be a more efficient way to do all of this.
The current method - with individual crates unloaded by stevedores, placed into a sling, and lifted into the ship's hold - was time consuming, expensive, and inefficient. As he continued to build a trucking empire over the next decade, the idea constantly gnawed at him.
By 1955, Malcolm McLean had built McLean Trucking Co. into one of the largest trucking operations in the country, with >1,700 trucks and locations. But the future he envisioned went well beyond trucking, so he set out to build a new reality.
McLean dreamed up a standardized truck trailer that could be easily loaded and stacked onto ships or trains. In his mind, "containerized cargo" was to be the future of shipping and logistics. Efficient logistics would mean improved commerce and a thriving economy.
In 1955, to expand his reach, he sought to acquire Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company - a cargo and passenger operation with docking rights at key port cities. But when railroad executives attempted to block the deal on anti-trust grounds, McLean was forced to make a decision.
Malcolm McLean decided to bet on himself and his big idea. He sold his ownership stake in McLean Trucking for $6 million (~$58 million today) and used it to purchase Pan-Atlantic. He quickly set about to make his vision for the future of logistics into a reality.
Renaming it Sea-Land Industries, in 1956, he purchased two World War II tankers and retrofitted them to carry his newly designed standardized containers. The SS Ideal X set sail on its maiden voyage in April 1956, carrying 58 of McLean's containers from New Jersey to Houston.
With the initial success, McLean kicked off a marketing tour to convince key players to rethink their operations. With 25% lower transportation costs, safer storage, and cheaper insurance, he won over customers. With lower port labor costs, he won over port authorities.
McLean's big idea for "containerization" took the shipping and logistics world by storm. By the late-1960s, Sea-Land Industries had 27,000+ containers, 36 ships, and covered 30 major ports. McLean had built the single largest cargo shipping business in the world.
In 1969, R.J. Reynolds purchased Sea-Land Industries for $530 million (~$3.8 billion today). Malcolm McLean personally made $160 million (~$1.1 billion today) on the sale. His transformation from truck driver to global shipping magnate was officially complete.
The legend of Malcolm McLean's innovation extends well-beyond his personal success. "Containerization" enabled the rapid expansion of global trade. Without it, our global economy would simply not be possible. Malcolm McLean died in 2001 at age 87, but his legacy lives on.
As there is much more to this tale, I highly recommend reading The Box by Marc Levinson, which was a fantastic read.
CFTC Chairman Says Ethereum Is As Important As The Internet
CFTC Chairman, Heath Tarbert, chatted with CoinDesk to discuss regulation around Ethereum and its transition to proof-of-stake. In the interview, Chairman Heath outlined how impressed he was with Ethereum and went on to compare Ethereum to the advent of the internet. He used the analogy of Bitcoin and Ethereum respectively comparing the two to email and the internet. He noted both to be revolutionary technologies, but obviously one far more impressive than the other. I remain bullish on both Ethereum and Bitcoin but believes that Ethereum will likely yield greater returns as it is younger and experiences stronger and more volatile price action.
Fidelity Releases 2nd Bitcoin Report
The largest news this week was Fidelity’s second report from its Bitcoin Investment Thesis series. For better or worse, it gained a lot of fast publicity after numerous sources shared the report, making false claims about its contents. In the “Consideration” section, Fidelity was giving advice as to how a responsible investor would balance and rebalance their portfolio with Bitcoin as an asset. Mistakenly, readers were quick to assume that the report was urging investors to allocate 5% of their portfolio to Bitcoin. Rather it was giving a hypothetical situation in which a possible trader could have a 5% position. Tweets, articles, and blogs surfaced speculating what the price of Bitcoin could reach if every investor allocated 5% of their portfolio to Bitcoin, as they thought Fidelity was recommending. Even Nasdaq irresponsibly jumped into the FUD to then quickly retract its misinterpretation of the Fidelity report. Outside of the useful information from the report, the FUD reveals how overly ambitious the crypto community is for any shred of evidence major firms are ready to invest. There will be no doubt when the institutions are actually pouring money in, but for now, credibility in the space will best come with slow and steady accurate reporting.
You can read our entire summary of the report via the link above, and the original report via the link below.
UTrust Announces Reverse Staking
As you likely know, I have been working hard with UTrust to incorporate crypto payments for the newsletter. They just announced some huge news which I thought was worth sharing. From their site:
"HOLD is pioneering accessibility for digital currencies by combining one of the most complete apps on the market with a VISA powered debit card.
Hold’s app allows you to instantly buy, sell and trade digital currencies. Ease of use has been one of their priorities, and all of these activities can be performed effortlessly by directly linking the app to the user’s bank account. You can also use the app to instantly convert digital currencies to EUR, load them to your card, and use it online or in store.
Now, all of these features are coming to Utrust.
The new Hold app, which will be entirely powered by Utrust, will effectively bridge the gap between our payment system and the brand new token features we are implementing now. The new app will be your one-stop shop for all our services.
Reverse staking
With our innovative reverse staking model we will reward you for using digital currencies, not holding them.
You stake 1000 UTK and get a reward in UTK for each trade or payment you do. We will buy it ourselves in the market and add it to your staking pool (more on that below).
This will work whether you are sending money to your contacts or making a purchase with our ever-growing roster of merchants.
Instead of increasing the tokens in the circulating supply or keeping the tokens in circulation, we are decreasing them. This means deflation.
After six months, that pool will be unlocked, and you’ll be free to use those tokens.
Just don’t do it too soon, or your rewards will go up in flames 🔥"
Scott Melker On Nash Podcast
Nash just started their podcast and I had the honors to chat with them. They asked a lot of great questions giving me a chance to dive into how I manage risk and plan my trades. The link to listen to the preview is above, the entire episode should be live today.
The Wolf Of All Streets Podcast Ft. Alex Mashinsky
Alex Mashinsky came to the U.S. as an immigrant in the 1980’s after living in both communist and socialist countries. His diverse background made him passionate about helping people and developing a "better bank" that rewards its customers rather than stealing from them. Fascinated with blockchain and fintech, Alex founded Celsius Network, a platform with unbeatable yields that would finally stand up to the banks, giving people the hard-earned money they deserve.
Alex and I further discuss moving to the U.S. in the ’80s, phone company monopolies, the urge to disrupt, creating Celsius Network, giving 80% of the profits to the community, bank bailouts, daytime robbery, beating the banks, crypto community fees, hedge funds in crypto, the name “Sushi” as a leading indicator, the corrosion of standards and voting with your wallet.
Sponsored By:
This episode is brought to you by Voyager, your new favorite crypto broker. Trade crypto fast and commission-free the easy way. Earn up to 6% interest on top coins with no lockups and no limits. Download the Voyager app and use code “SCOTT25” to get $25 in free Bitcoin when you create your account.
---
Electroneum, has gained widespread adoption providing a mobile-first payment solution to the world's unbanked, attracting more than 4M users worldwide in less than three years. They have since launched a new freelance marketplace, AnyTask.com, which is providing thousands of freelancers the opportunity to sell their services to buyers globally, without the need of a bank account. Learn more at Electroneum.com.
Chart Requests
Yikes. My internet went out twice on this livestream, and I had no idea that this resulted in my screen not sharing for about 12 minutes. Embarrassing! I did get to all of the charts, but there's a big section that you can effectively skip. Either way, hopefully the video helps. I was tempted to delete it because it was such a disaster, but decided to leave it up for you guys to get the analysis, as promised.
I think it is clear that I need a YouTube producer.
Here are the quick write ups. ATOM is not in the video, as it came in later.
ATOM/BTC
Local inverse head and shoulders, could be coming back to retest the neckline. That said, I like it better if it can break the descending black line - clear rejection there so that would be the confirmation that I would watch for.
BAND/BTC
Potential inverse head and shoulders forming, but that is just an idea. Need to see it break the descending white line. Tapped 4 hour demand beautifully (shown here on daily) and still holding the horizontal support at 52787. Really should get going if it can flip 64700 to support. No real trade here for the moment.
BLZ/BTC
Not much to see here. It did "break out" from resistance but has since retraced the move. It could still go back up, but hard to get excited about anything we are seeing here. The key levels are marked, really want to see it above the resistance at 1122.
CAKE/BNB
This is in a nice ascending channel. Looks decent as long as that holds. Clear invalidation if price drops below the channel at this point. Nice bounce out of the demand zone that is drawn, and presently holding the 50 MA on the 4 hour. I don't see a great entry here, I like a bounce from the channel bottom better. But if you are in this, it looks fine for now.
CELR/BTC
There was a clear head and shoulders and a ton of bearish divergence. We finally saw a bull div, oversold, at the bottom, but that has now been replaced by a hidden bear div. I don't see much to be excited about here, or on most coins. I say we look again in a week and see if anything has changed.
IBOV (IBOVESPA INDEX)
Tough read on this one at the moment after the global market collapse. Being held down at the 50 MA but did find nice support near 93513. I personally would like to see the little descending broadening wedge broken. Better yet, a flip of the supply zone up above.
MRPH/BTC
Large time frame I really like this descending channel, as it is perfect. Price was just rejected below the 200 MA and the horizontal resistance shown. Like most alts, I see no reason to trade this for now. Maybe if it breaks that line above and retests as support. The real trade here requires patience - a break of the descending channel.
REN/USD
This looks generally good, but again I see no immediate entry. There was a clear inverse head and shoulders with nice volume on the break. That was the trade. At this point, I want to see price break the descending black line and flip the horizontal line above it to support. Then I would expect resistance at the supply zone drawn above. Ultimately, if price breaks that it heads into price discovery. This looks better than a lot of pairs.
TOMO/BTC
As I said on the stream, the more I looked at it the less I liked it. Pretty clear bear flag, which almost broke down today. Now we wait and see if it truly breaks or if that was a liquidity grab below for a move up. Either way, I see nothing compelling at the moment on this chart.
ZEC/USD
Mixed messages here. The break of the red line was bullish and had nice volume and price action to follow. However, price was rejected below the 50% retracement, which indicates it could be more of a relief bounce than an actual reversal. Add to that the fact that we have a bit of an ascending candle and some downward movement today, and it's hard to know how to feel.
It is technically testing support right now, so if you believe Bitcoin will rise, this could be a good place to take a punt with a tight stop.
My Recommended Platforms And Tools
This is where I trade with leverage and can also trade spot with no fees.\
This is where I spend my days teaching and learning! Our Discord group is a one stop shop for everything you need to learn to trade and control your emotions. Feel free to DM me on Twitter or respond to this email for questions.
This is where I invest, commission-free. They now let you earn interest on your Bitcoin held in Voyager, so you can compound while trading. Not only that, you’ll get $25 in free BTC when you download & fund.
Rewards Code: Scott25
I use RoundlyX to buy small amounts of Bitcoin every single day. They automatically round up my credit card purchases (with 10x multiplier) and invest them in crypto. Absolutely brilliant. Passively invest money you don’t need without a thought. Further, they have integrated with Voyager (see above) to offer commission-free purchases.
Rewards Code: WOLF
This is one of the main places where I hold crypto to gain interest. Celsius also offers dollar or stablecoin loans against your crypto, starting at just 1% annual interest. Celsius is giving WOAS followers $20 to open a new Celsius wallet. All you have to do is enter promo code WOLF, then transfer and keep at least $200 worth of crypto in your wallet for 30 days.
My preferred crypto tax software.
Binance is finally available in Florida!
Concierge Phone Service for Americans that protects your from SIM Swaps and other phone related hacks. I cannot stress enough how amazing this service is.
Follow me on Twitter at @scottmelker. This is where I am constantly updating my trades and sharing ideas.
On-chain and fundamental analysis, research, predictions and indicators, all in one place. Highly recommend.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and should in no way be interpreted as financial advice. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision. I am not a financial advisor.