After an ongoing Bitcoin rally, in which the price reached around $20K, came the correction. However, since the correction, it appears that the price has been gaining support and the volatility in the price is decreasing. The break in the rally is seen also with the dominance of Bitcoin, which has dropped to a low of 33% (33% Bitcoin over the whole crypto coins). However, Bitcoin still continues to be the leader in the crypto market, with the value of the Alts is mostly traded against Bitcoin. Evidence of this can be seen by the strong effect that fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price have on the entire market. Despite the relative tranquility, demand does not seem to have slowed down. In fact, the interest in the crypto market in general and with Bitcoin in particular is increasing every day. It seems that the crypto market has entered “the mainstream” stage and is getting more and more space on the daily press beginning to react accordingly to various news and updates from the media.
In the Altcoins sector, it seems that the Alts have also entered the mainstream media. There is a massive influx of new investors into the market, which is reflected by the rise in the Altcoins Market, which reached the $500 billion threshold this week. The most prominent Alts that have influenced this growth are Ethereum and Ripple, which at this point have a market value of about 40% of the overall crypto market. Many aspects have affected the entrance of new investors into the Alt Market: for example, we found out that the demand for Altcoins with a value less than a single dollar have increased significantly from past January. A possible reason for this could be that new investors believe that there is higher potential for investments such as these. These demands have led to hundreds of percentage gains in many of the Alts and a big increase in the total value of the Crypto market, which has reached a record high of $800 billion.
Another interesting statistic from the Alts Market – Early investors of Altcoins who purchased coins at either low prices or at their initial development stages, have seen phenomenal returns on investment. For example, those who invested in one of the following coins – DASH, Ethereum, Moneo and Ripple – have yielded annual returns of thousands or even tens of thousands of percentages.
We can also observe the growth in the crypto market by the amount of ICOs that are getting huge media coverage. Overall, the market seems to be growing, and after a very positive start, 2018 seems likely to be a very interesting year.
Tip for newbies in the crypto – Before you invest in an altcoin, we recommend checking the following:
What is the technology behind the coin? And does it need a coin or token for the implementation of this technology?
Circulating Supply – The amount of coins on the market from the coin you buy.
Max Supply – The final amount of coins will be out there.
The value of the coin against the Bitcoin (and not just against the dollar). It is important to understand that the majority of trading is conducted against the Bitcoin.
More tips can be read at our new article from recent days.
It seems that Mark Zuckerberg has turned his attention to the criticism of centralized control over the Internet and Facebook in particular, and wrote that studying of blockchain technology and crypto currencies would be a top priority for Facebook in the coming year. This would be in order to examine how to deal with the issue of centralization. The company mentioned considering the possibility of issuing its own crypto coin in a post, and the post has now become very viral; leading to a wave of speculation about Facebook company’s goals, along with Zuckerberg’s optimism. Microsoft is averse to the use of crypto currencies and says it will not allow its customers to purchase products directly using Bitcoin.
More news from this sector, Telegram announced that it intends to issue a company dedicated coin and plans to start an ICO of $500 million.
Coinbase has issued a statement that it does not intend to add any additional crypto currencies to the trading platforms of Coinbase and GDAX in the foreseeable future. This is after a rumor came from various social networks that Ripple’s currency is likely to be traded on GDAX exchange. In addition, the company announced that the addition of new coins would be made only on the company’s blog or other official channels. A petition in the Bitcoin community, calling on the company to prioritize Segwit technology has accumulated over 5,000 signatures.
More news in the sector, Binance exchange has blocked registration of new users in light of the extraordinary loads and huge demand of new crypto investors. This came after a period of 24-hour where the company has gained 250,000 new users (!), this is according to the company’s CEO. Also, Coinmarketcap removed the prices from the Korean market in the calculation of the price of various Altcoins, yet did not give them notice in advance. This led to a significant drop in prices and panic among investors.
In the United States, the US Securities and Exchange Commission issued an additional warning to investors in crypto, which speaks on the risks arising from investing in the crypto market, such as an absence of a regulatory framework and lack of disclosure in ICOs. In addition, after Trump’s recent tax reform – the state senator of Vermont, Alison Clarkson, has proposed a new bill on the taxation of crypto currencies in the country.
Another US-based company, Bitpay, has canceled all debit cards issued by Wave Crest, as it recently received orders from VISA to disable all accounts of customers that live outside the US. Jonas Schnelli, who is a developer of Bitcoin Core, criticized this move by the company. At the same time, the US bank Merrill Lynch prohibited trading or investing in crypto or financial instruments derived from the value of crypto currencies. Among other things, the Bank blocked its customers from investing in the GBTC fund, which invests in Bitcoin.
Venezuela – Due to the political crisis the Venezuelan President is experiencing, he announced that 100 million Petros (the nation’s national crypto-currency) had been issued and that these coins are expected to become tradable in the next coming days.
In India – despite repeated warnings by the government, citizens seem to be rushing to open new accounts in crypto exchanges, and the country’s crypto market is gaining momentum.
South Korea – After toughening regulations in the country, authorities announced that they will step up on supervision of banks to ensure enforcement of those regulations. While it seems that despite tightening regulations and government objections, Korean crypto exchanges have begun to gain revenue in light of growing demand. Most of them offer a comfortable work environment and better conditions than banks, leading to a “surge” of bank employees to the various markets.
In South Korea, the government claims that North Korean hackers are responsible for the theft of crypto coins from South Korean companies.
China’s mining farms – low electricity costs have made China attractive for mining, and indeed China has become a superpower in the field of crypto. However, the mining farms seem to be a massive amount of electricity that is being used in China, which has been raising some eyes of authorities. As a result, China is considering regulation, but at this stage, it appears that the authorities intend to just increase supervision and limit electricity consumption. It appears that the closure of mining farms is not on the agenda. In regards to tightening regulation, Bobby Lee, the CEO, and founder of the Chinese company BTCC, which operates as an exchange and a mining company, is optimistic about the regulation of the Crypto market in China.
In Iran, there is political chaos, accompanied by a wave of protests, and heavy censorship imposed on the country (including the blocking of Telegram App). This has led to widespread adoption of crypto coins. Additionally, a senior official in the largest bank in Iran issued a statement that crypto currencies are the future of the banking sector and that their adoption into the central bank is a vital step. This statement is contrary to the statement given by the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, who in the past called for greater caution in dealing with these currencies.
An optimistic forecast by a senior analyst at RBS, that the crypto market could reach a market value of over $10 trillion within the next 10-15 years. Another article published a “less optimistic” forecast, this one states that the risks posed by anonymity in the financial sector will lead to rigid regulation and will eventually lead to the collapse of Bitcoin.
Another interesting (and surprising) comment this week from a Russian bishop, this man is the face of Orthodox Christianity in the country, has claimed that both Bitcoin and the dollar are bubbles and that in both cases, the money is not backed up to tangible value.
Bitcoin atom, a new project, is designed to enable trading between different properties on different blockchains, thereby reducing dependence on money changers and traditional exchanges. This is done by using On-Chain Atomic Swaps.
An interesting video that examines whether the LN will affect the adoption of Bitcoin by the banks, in this context, a post that discusses Bitcoin and Capitalism.
Finally, a warning – a user reported that he purchased a Ledger Nano wallet on eBay. The Ledger arrived with a kind of “scratch-off” paper card, where the private key was located. When the user used the recovered wallet, the seller apparently stole all the money transferred to the wallet. It’s important to note the original Ledger, the private key is generated by the device and does not appear on any scratch-off papers.
After the correction had slowed down a bit, Bitcoin’s price seemed to stabilize around $14K, followed by the price pumping quickly to $17K. We found resistance in these areas, which resulted in a sharp decline, back to levels of $14K. Where the support lies at the moment.
Against the dollar, Ethereum continues to break new records, with this week’s all-time high at $1300! Support levels are around $1,000.
Against Bitcoin – we can see that the resistance level of 0.066BTC have been reached, and it seems to be on the way to test the next resistance level at 0.083BTC areas.
Against the dollar, the exchange rate remained stable this week, hovering around $2400. Although the price is stable, it appears that the daily trading volume has fallen down (which is not a good sign). But the overall graph looks very healthy.
Against Bitcoin – the price dropped to 0.014BTC, and broke up last week’s support at 0.17BTC. Since the decline, the price is climbing and looking positive, with support levels holding at 0.014BTC.
A veteran Alt is trading only against Bitcoin. The weekly graph shows that there is a “floor” for the coin. Since the beginning of the year (just a few days ago) the price has gone up against Bitcoin by 100%. Although it is an impressive growth, it’s not unusual in comparison to other Altcoins. In addition, as can be seen on the graph, the value is lower than last year, where it’s peak was at 0.00029 BTC or 29K Satoshis.
Support level lies around 0.00006BTC (6K Satoshis) and resistance around 0.0001BTC (the floor of support is marked in yellow, and the resistance in red).
Iconomy project is a very interesting and promising one. Its ICO was over a year ago. Against the dollar – we see an upward trend since the beginning of December, which is similar to the peak in mid-2016 of $6. It is currently traded around $ 4-5, with resistance in the $6 zones.
Against Bitcoin, after a massive drop in the price during the second half of 2016, there is growth in its trading’ volume. Support level is at 0.00025 BTC.
