BTC/USD

Bitcoin was up 8% last week, with a significantly increased trading volume of $7,2b. The most popular cryptocurrency was also stable on Monday, starting the day at the $7,200 range.

Last week chart allowed BTC to demonstrate a possibility of a break out in the short-term if $7400/$7500 level is successfully crossed and defended. Naturally, if Bitcoin was to initiate a major movement on the upside, tokens would also follow, raising the overall market cap. Price, however, was relatively flat on Monday, still trading above $7200.

It is worth noting that the 24h trading volume dropped from 7.6b on Sunday evening to 4.3b on Monday afternoon. BTC/USD went as high as $7330 and as low as $7185 during that period.

BTC consolidated the gains on Tuesday, almost touching $7400 with 24h trading volume of about 5b, up from 4.3b registered the previous day.

The German market organizer Deutsche Bourse reported it was preparing to set up a dedicated blockchain and crypto-assets unit. The German exchange established a 24-person team led by Jens Hachmeister to co-ordinate its blockchain-based activities across the group, adding:

“From Deutsche Börse’s point of view, the DLT/blockchain technology is a key opportunity for the creation of new market structures, adding new products onto our present structures and enhancing our existing offerings,”

Another event, however, miraculously coincided with the BTC bull run and impacted the price of BTC.

$100 million dollars’ worth of Bitcoins (at least 15,593 BTC or about 14% of the whale’s fortune) were moved into the market on Tuesday through three exchanges; BitMEX, Binance and Bitfinex. The funds probably belong to Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), the account of the Silk Road’s admin, a Mt Gox user, or a Silk Road vendor. The funds were transferred to the exchanges throughout 10 days, with 11,100 BTC going to Bitfinex and 4,400 to Binance

Bitcoin initiated a correction on Wednesday, dropping from $7385 to $6871 between 11:40 CET and 13:00 CET before rebounding to 7k at 14 CET. The biggest cryptocurrency is on its way down since that point in time erasing approximately $1000 from its value (14%).

Many factors could be contributing to the sudden cataclysm.

Some suggest its Goldman Sachs moving their plan for a crypto trading desk lower down on the priority list. The Wall Street banking giant will be focusing on other digital-coin services, such as a custody product.

Other say it was Erik Voorhees, the chief executive officer of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift AG (one of the best known platforms offering peer-to-peer trading,) who pulled the trigger in a blog post stating that the platform is launching a membership program, which “requires basic personal information to be collected.” and will “become mandatory soon.”

This is important news as Erik Voorhees and ShapeShift were advocating decentralization and anonymity for a long time, now they are stepping on the backpedal.

BTC now sits at $6400, down almost 13% for the last 24 hours, but still 1% up for the 14-day period.

We are now back to the same old mid-6000s price range corridor. Naturally, next target will be to escape from here, break $6600 and the resistance at $6800, before attempting another attack on 7k. It will be interesting to see if $6800 could still be turned into a support or we have the shorts there already. Down, we are looking to 6k as major, major support line.

ETH/USD

Ethereum was trading in the $296 – $286 range at the start of the week with volumes dropping from 2.8b to 2b the day before. The trading volume bounced back to 2.8b on Tuesday, but price was lacking overall direction, obviously waiting for BTC to make a move to follow.

Unfortunately, this is what we saw on Wednesday morning when ETH/USD entered yet another correction. And this time it dropped like a rock, smashing through the $280 support. The so called “dangerous zone” between $270-$250 was also broken, although it showed some resistance in its mid-section.

The most popular altcoin currently stands at $226 (or 20% down for the last 24h), way below the $250 September 2017 low. It landed straight to zone 210-220$. Alt season without ETH is not possible as it is the best indicator for alt season and rest of the top 10 will only follow. Expecting a small bounce to around $240-50 before continuing downwards.

XRP/USD

The Ripple company currency moved between $0.345 and $0.3347 on Monday with 24h volume dropping from $310 mill to $240 mill. There was no visible price change on Tuesday, very similar to Ethereum, but trading volume doubled to $520 mill vs $260 the day before.

Like most of the top 100 currencies, XRP also experienced heavy losses on Wednesday and early Thursday. Price dropped from $0.3319 to $0.279 and now sits at $0.283, 17% down on weekly basis. Targets remain the same – $0.27 support in case of further correction and $0.30, followed by $0.34 upwards.

Future Blockchain

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