MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor revealed the firm had converted his corporate email into a Lightning Address – an indication of the company’s continued optimism about Bitcoin ( BTC).

In a tweet posted on April 17, the former MicroStrategy Chief Executive Officer revealed that people keep sending him 21 sats.

Now that the conversion is complete, people can send BTC using Saylor’s email address as an identifier.

Bitcoin enthusiast Walker stated that the business intelligence company has integrated the Lightning feature in all of its corporate addresses.

As of the time of publication, MicroStrategy had not yet responded to CryptoSlate‘s request for comment.

Wu Blockchain reported ‘the integration uses Lightning Address protocol’, which allows developers replace standard Lightning Payment Requests with Internet identifiers such as email address.

The community welcomes integration

While several members of the crypto community have welcomed the announcement, some have tagged Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong. Coinbase’s CEO hinted recently that the U.S. based crypto exchange will integrate this feature.

Saylor confirmed in 2022 that MicroStrategy worked on Lightning. The BTC maxi at the time described Lightning as a ‘technology investment’ and the internet of money.

In recent years, the adoption of Bitcoin lightning network has increased. According to DeFillama , the total value of assets on the layer2 network is 5,328 BTC or roughly $162,000,000.

MicroStrategy, on the other hand, has spent 4.17 billion dollars to accumulate 140,000 BTCs since March 2021 when it adopted the BTC standard. Recently, the company’s BTC positions turned positive when the digital asset briefly traded over $30,000.

Several traditional financial institution have purchased MicroStrategy stock to gain indirect exposure BTC. The stock of the company is up 114% year-to date, making it one of the top performing crypto stocks for 2023.

U.S. The bill was first introduced by Senators Braun (R–IN) and Grassley(R–IA).

This announcement highlights the importance to ensure that the U.S.’s digital currency policy “protects financial privacy and maintains the dominance of the dollar, while encouraging innovation.” Cruz warned:

CBDCs that do not adhere to these basic principles could allow an entity such as the Federal Reserve to mobilize themselves into a retail banking bank, collect personally identifiable data on users, and track their transactions for years.

Senator from Texas pointed out that CBDCs, unlike decentralized cryptocurrency like bitcoin, ‘centralize Americans financial information, making it vulnerable to attack.

He added that the federal government does not have the authority to unilaterally create a central bank currency.

Entrepreneurs should be empowered, allowing innovation and increasing individual freedom, not suppressing it.

Senator Braun stated that allowing the government to centralize Americans financial information and increase surveillance on Americans’ financial activities is a bad idea.

Senator Grassley commented on the bill he cosponsored.

American citizens should be free to spend their money as they wish without fear of being tracked down by the government.

Senator Cruz is a Bitcoin investor and purchases BTC every week. He expressed optimism about crypto and said that he was bullish over BTC as it is decentralized and inexplicable. He introduced a resolution in January encouraging Capitol gift stores to accept cryptocurrency.

Tom Emmer, a congressman from Florida, also recently introduced his ‘CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act’ to the House of Representatives. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced a ban against the use of federally adopted CBDCs as money in his state this week.

Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chairman, stated earlier this month that the Fed was not yet at the stage to make any decisions about a CBDC. He stated that he had not decided whether this was something the financial system of the country would need or want.

Bitcoin will continue its remarkable rally but could retest its lows, and possibly lose half of its value, according , a self-described cryptocurrency evangelist.

The world’s largest crypto has seen its price rise 48% to $25,000 in eight months, during a wider rebound for cryptos. Ether, which is the second-largest crypto asset, has also seen a resurgence and is currently up 44% in 2023, its highest point since mid-September.

While both tokens have upside, ether looks better from a risk-reward perspective, according to Forrest Przybysz (founder and CEO of Sistine Research), in an interview with Insider.

What’s next in bitcoin and ether?

Przybysz’s charts show that Bitcoin is near a critical technical resistance range between $28,000 and $32,000. Przybysz stated to Insider that the token could rise another 28% if investors continue taking on risk in a larger market rally. However, he said that bitcoin is unlikely to lose its gains.

Przybysz’s charts indicate that bitcoin could fall to as low as 24% below $19,000 support. However, a 50% drop to $12,700 would be possible if it can’t hold this crucial mark. In the worst case scenario, bitcoin could fall to levels it last saw in late 2020.

Przybysz stated that ether is stable and supported in the mid-$1,300s. It could even reach $2,000 or $2,700 by late first or early second quarter. Przybysz’s charts indicate that ether could drop 20%, but the token’s upside potential of 57% is twice that of bitcoin.

Despite strong showings this year, bitcoins and ether still remain 64% below all-time highs. Przybysz said that ether and bitcoin won’t break their price records until late 2024. However, he believes the structure of the bear market has been broken.

Przybysz stated that he believes there could be another uptake in crypto, which would then likely be followed by a return of some of the lows we’ve seen. “And then, once we get closer towards the end of 2023 (maybe it’s 2024), we might start to see some buying behaviour come in.”

4 tokens instead of bitcoin

Although bitcoin seems risky at the moment, Przybysz stated that there are four smaller cryptos: ether (ETH), polygon( MATIC), quant [QNT], and chainlink (LINK). He said that these altcoins offer upside, despite the harsh crypto winter this year.

Przybysz stated that there will be many lower-cap cryptocurrency – altcoins- that may do all-time highs. These are just one-offs who decide to deviate or decouple. “We have some that are performing well, possibly putting in new highs,” Przybysz said. But they are few and far between.

Here are the four cryptocurrencies the chartmaster and head of research firm is most bullish on right now. They also include the symbol, market capitalization and thesis.

Bitcoin has stormed out from January’s beginning gates with a rise of more than 26%. This is putting the heat on bears, who expected more risks after sharp selloffs for 2022.

This month’s token advance is the largest for the first month of the year since a 31% rally in 2020, before the pandemic. This surge has contributed to a rise in digital assets’ overall value above $1 trillion. That level was reached before the collapse of the FTX exchange in November, CoinGecko data indicates.

The biggest cryptocurrency rose by as much as 2.5% Monday, and was trading at $20.860 as of Tuesday, 12:18 p.m. London time. This is slightly lower than the session, along with tokens such as Ether, Avalanche, and Algorand.

Partly, the crypto climb is a wager on the end of punishing interest rate hikes. This prospect has also helped stocks, bonds, and gold. Investors are still questioning if these assets have moved too fast, considering central banks such as the Federal Reserve promise to raise policy rates until high inflation is eliminated.

Although there is still uncertainty about digital assets, including whether an immediate squeeze is driving up prices or will end, Noelle Acheson stated that FOMO “is likely to play a part in how the market evolves from now.” She used the acronym FOMO for fear of missing out.

Researcher Kaiko stated on Twitter that a rise in average trade size indicates that ‘whales are driving the rally’. Kaiko was referring to large crypto owners. Kaiko stated that trade sizes have increased from $700 to $1,100 for the Bitcoin-US Dollar pair on Binance since Jan. 8.

Kaiko reports that market depth – a measure how one large trade can impact the price Bitcoin – is still at its lowest point since FTX went bankrupt.

The bankruptcy of FTX, as well as the fraud charges brought against Sam Bankman-Fried, continue to put pressure on the crypto industry. The parent company Digital Currency Group and Crypto Broker Genesis are working together to solve their debt problems. This could lead to market turmoil.

Some technical indicators indicate that Bitcoin’s leap is being stretched. The token’s 14 day relative strength index, which measures momentum, has reached 90. This is a significant increase from the 70 level, which was deemed ‘overbought’. It also marks the highest level in the past two years.

The Bitcoin boom this year is one of the indicators that “there’s still quite a bit of froth in market” and that “investors continue ‘act’ in much more bearish ways than they’speak,” Matt Maley (chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.) wrote in a note on Sunday.

Bitcoin and a gauge of top 100 digital assets fell more than 60% in 2022. This was a difficult year that raised questions about their future.

According to Fairlead Strategies’ Katie Stockton, the downturn in Bitcoin which began in late 2021 will not end soon. A’major drop’ could take at least seven more months.

Fairlead’s Katie Stockton explained that bitcoin has experienced a negative shift of price momentum over the short-, medium-, and longer-term time frames. Bitcoin has declined since last week’s failure to test its 50-day moving mean near $17,400. It is now trading at $16,883.

“Short-term momentum has turned negative, which supports an bearish near-term bias.” She said that she expected a retest at the November lows (near $15,600) in the next few weeks.

Stockton believes bitcoin could fall further and slip below its November lows to near $13,900 long-term support. This price drop could lead to a potential downside of 18% compared to current levels.

She stated that despite long-term momentum remaining strongly negative, bitcoin will eventually make a lower low. This increases risk to long term support near $13,900. The 2019 peak is the end of her prediction.

Given the devastation that the crypto market has suffered in 2022, such a drop may not surprise investors. Investors have been exposed to the risks of crypto markets through various implosions, such as Three Arrows Capital and Terra/Luna Stablecoin.

Now, investors have to deal with the fallout from a lack trust in the sector and increased regulation by Congress. However, Stockton doesn’t seem to care, particularly when you consider high interest rate and tightening financial circumstances.

Instead, she concentrates her analysis on the prices and not the fundamentals. The prices suggest that bitcoin won’t see a major low until the middle next year.

Stockton stated that the DeMark Indicators are a good source of information about major lows. They are approximately seven months away from showing a counter-trend signal.

Technical analysts use the DeMark Indicators to measure supply and demand for a security. They have been proven to be able to identify important price inflection points. Many strategists on Wall Street use the DeMark Indicators, including Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.

Stockton will monitor various resistance levels like the 50-day moving mean to determine if bitcoin moves higher despite Fairlead’s bearish outlook.