NFT boom triggers parabolic rallies in Chiliz (CHZ) and Flow

The growing popularity of NFTs and the improving infrastructure supporting the nascent market has resulted in triple-digit rallies from Chiliz, Flow and Basic Attention Token.

Strong hands view a correction in an uptrend as a buying opportunity and data from CryptoQuant shows that Bitcoin (BTC) whales have been buying near $48,000. This activity can be seen in the large Coinbase outflows, most of which went to custody wallets and this suggests that the institutional investors believe the Bitcoin rally has room to run. 

Even Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is ultra bullish on Bitcoin. In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Powell said that Bitcoin could reach $1 million over the next ten years if the digital asset overtakes gold as a store of value.

While Bitcoin price bounces between the $47,000 to $51,000 range, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have been taking off and appear to be competing with the DeFi sector in terms of transaction volumes and token appreciation. NFTs from popular artists are being snatched up in minutes, which shows a strong appetite from the users. Along with the artwork, sports-oriented collectible NFTs are also quickly gaining in popularity.

Let’s analyze the fundamentals of a few NFT projects to determine whether the rally is on the verge of topping out or if there is room for further extension.

CHZ/USD

Blockchain sports venture Chiliz (CHZ) has years of experience in dealing with fan tokens of some of the most popular soccer clubs in Europe. In late 2020 the firm announced a partnership with Binance in and since then Chiliz has listed ACM Fan Token for popular soccer club AC Milan. The listing generated $6 million in revenue in a short time and Chiliz recently announced that it had partnered with 23 sporting and esports organizations to launch more Fan Tokens.

Chiliz has also announced plans to expand its operations in the United States. The firm’s CEO Alexandre Dreyfus told Cointelegraph that an office will be set up in New York and the company plans to work with local leagues and sports franchises.

If Chiliz can onboard some of the popular sports teams from the U.S., it could give a major boost to the company. Dreyfus said that the firm is aiming to double the $30 million it had shared with its partners last year.

If Chiliz’s discussions with Formula One and e-sports teams turn out to be favorable, it may further boost growth.

CHZ has skyrocketed from an intraday low at $0.032468 on Feb. 23 to an intraday high at $0.155004 today, a 377% increase in less than a week. This sharp up-move has pushed the relative strength index (RSI) above 89, indicating the rally is overbought in the short term. This could result in a correction or consolidation in the next few days.

The first support on the downside is the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.108195. If the price rebounds off this support, it will suggest that bulls are buying the minor pullbacks and not waiting for a deeper correction to enter.

If the bulls can then push the price above $0.155004, the CHZ/USD pair could resume its uptrend and rally to $0.230731.

Conversely, if the bears sink the price below $0.108195, the pair could drop to the 50% retracement at $0.093736 and then to the 61.8% retracement at $0.079277. Such a deep fall will suggest that the momentum has weakened.

The pair could then remain range-bound for a few days before starting the next trending move.

FLOW/USD

Since the 1920s sports fans have traded the cards of their favorite players, and ultra-rare cards have a tendency to sell for astronomical amounts. However, in this digital age, physical cards may play second fiddle to sports NFTs. Take, for example, NBA Top Shot, a marketplace built on Dapper Labs’ Flow (FLOW) blockchain, that has registered over $230 million in sales in the last few months.

The NFT craze is showing no signs of slowing down and an NFT drop by veteran digital artist Ben Mauro on VIV3, the first global marketplace on Flow blockchain, generated $2 million as the art pieces sold out in just seven minutes.

Recently OpenSea, the largest marketplace for NFTS, announced that it will integrate Flow blockchain into its platform to create a massive open economy for digital collectibles.

Flow also hosts UFC and Dr. Seuss digital collectibles and the upcoming mainnet launch could attract more developers, artists and investors to the platform. 

FLOW has been in a strong uptrend since end January. The token picked up momentum and surged from an intraday low at $18.379 on Feb. 26 to an intraday high at $41.275 today, a 124% rally in a week.

The sharp up-move of the past few days has pushed the RSI deep into overbought territory, which suggests the market may be overheating in the short term. The long wick on March 3 and today’s candlestick suggests traders are booking profits on rallies.

Any pullback from the current levels could find support near $30. If the price can rebound off this level, it will suggest strength. The FLOW/USD pair could then rally to the psychological resistance at $50.

This bullish view will invalidate if the price turns down and breaks below the 20-day EMA ($22.58). Such a move will suggest that the markets have rejected the latest leg of the rally.

BAT/USD

One of the major drawbacks of using technology is that it robs users of their privacy. Almost every activity on the internet user is being tracked by technology companies that analyze users’ behavior and sell the data for a profit. However, with the rise of blockchain technology, users are becoming more in control of their privacy again and also having more choice over what personal details they want to share.

The Brave web browser has grown in popularity in 2020 as its daily active user base has risen from $3.8 million to 8.6 million last year. Along with this, the number of verified content creators who receive rewards in the form of Basic Attention Token (BAT) for their work has also surged over one million. As the user base increases, it provides more power to the community as advertisers can no longer ignore them.

The search engine is an important part of any web browser and Brave’s acquisition of Tailcat, an open-source search engine, will help the project reduce its reliance on the current search engines that primarily depend on the results from Big Tech companies. Brave CEO and co-founder Brendan Eich told Cointelegraph that the company is likely to launch Brave Search by summer 2021. If successful, the new search engine could open a plethora of opportunities for BAT.

In its “Roadmap 2.0” Brave outlined a plan to integrate a DEX aggregator and NFT support in its new Ethereum-native wallet. To tackle the high fees on the Ethereum network, Brave is exploring layer-one and layer-two scaling solutions. The recent steps taken by the company hugely increase the use case for BAT.

BAT picked up momentum in the past few days and rallied from an intraday low at $0.3945 on Feb. 23 to an intraday high at $0.8412 on March 3, a 113% rally within a short time. However, the token is currently facing profit-booking from traders.

The BAT/USD pair has strong support at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level ($0.6706) and below it at the 50% retracement level ($0.6179). If the pair rises from either support, it will suggest that traders continue to buy the dips. The upsloping moving averages and the RSI above 62 suggest th bulls have the upper hand.

Contrary to this assumption, if the bears sink the price below $0.6179, the pair could drop to the 20-day EMA ($0.56). A bounce off this support could keep the pair range-bound for a few days. If the 20-day EMA support cracks, then a possible fall to the 50-day SMA ($0.43) is on the cards.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.