ORCA Crypto News: Trading Volumes Soar 5,000% After Upbit Listing, Can It Retest $6?

Trading volumes have exploded by 5,700% in the past 24 hours following the news as the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) seems to have captured investors’ attention.

A total of $405 million worth of ORCA have exchanged hands in a short period, accounting for 184% of the token’s circulating supply. This emphasizes the strong tailwind that the Upbit listing is producing for the DeFi token.

This South Korean exchange is the fifth-largest in spot trading volumes according to CoinMarketCap’s ranks with daily volumes of $1.94 billion. According to Upbit’s official notice, the trading pairs ORCA/KRW, ORCA/BTC, and ORCA/USDT are available to all users starting today.

As a result of today’s uptick, ORCA has overturned its yearly losses and it is now delivering a 7.4% yearly gain.

ORCA’s DEX Trading Volumes Have Surged by 3,100%

Data from DeFi Llama shows that ORCA is the 10th largest DeFi protocol in the Solana network with a total value locked (TVL) of $245.8 million. Its monthly trading volumes have been steadily surging in the past couple of years.

In February 2023, ORCA users traded around $634 million per day. Two years after, trading volumes surged to $20.3 billion, meaning a staggering 3,100% jump in a relatively short period.

Comparatively, ORCA processes half of the trading volume of Raydium, the largest decentralized exchange in the Solana blockchain. Its market cap may now be catching up with Raydium as it stands at $219 million after today’s uptick. This is almost half of what all circulating RAY tokens are worth at the time.

Rally Has Been Partially Sold Off Already – Will ORCA Stay Up?

Moving to the charts, the ORCA/USD chart from Coinbase shows that the price retreated right after it touched the $6 level during the Asian session. This is now the key resistance to watch for the rest of the day as it is also a psychologically relevant threshold.

Today’s drop has managed to fully reverse ORCA’s downtrend. However, market sentiment is still heavily depressed and this increases the risk that short-sellers could take over the price action once the hype is over.

Momentum indicators in the daily chart are heavily stretched as a result of today’s price surge. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) currently stands at 82 (heavily overbought) while the MACD’s histogram spiked to its highest level since December, back when ORCA hit its post-election peak.

Since ORCA is not necessarily moving into uncharted territory, it is not impossible that the price could move higher in the next few days to retest its December high of $8.67 per token. However, the dominant trend is bearish across the entire crypto market so this rally could be rapidly sold off.

The $4.8 level is the most relevant resistance to keep an eye on in the daily chart. Another rejection of a move above this threshold could confirm a bearish short-term outlook and may provide an entry for short-sellers.

If the rally is partially sold off, the returns would be astronomical in the near term. However, these short-term spikes can be accompanied by significant volatility so position sizing is critical to avoid big losses in case the outcome of the trade is unfavorable.

Looking at the hourly chart, the $4.8 level becomes even more relevant as it was rejected a second time already in this lower time frame.

A short position at current levels with a stop-loss set above $4.8 would offer a risk-reward ratio ranging from 1.5 to 2 depending on how low ORCA could go. The hourly RSI is heavily overbought and has touched the 100 level. Confirmation of a bearish short-term outlook would come once the RSI drops below the signal line.