Another week of price declines in the crypto markets. Bitcoin is down about 10%, Ethereum about 20% and the bear market trend continues in other cryptocurrencies as well. However, despite the bearish trend, the declines are not as sharp as those at the beginning of the year and the volatility of the market moderated relatively. This moderation can indicate that the traded value is approaching a floor rate.
In the alternative coins arena the trend is still mixed and the coin who caught the interest of traders this week was EOS that is looking towards the network establishment and the enthusiasm around it brought large trading volume. Only in trading against Bitcoin in binance trading platform alone was a 20K BTC movement in a 24-hour cycle.
In terms of trading in such bear markets, there seems to be a preference for long-term investments over the attempt to ride the moods seasoned with rate manipulations and unusual capital shifts, as we saw in MTGOX’s capital. At the time of writing, the market cap is about $325 billion and has lost $65 billion since the previous update, which affects every crypto trader and holder. Therefore, it is wise to have a strategy and HODL at such a time.
Nasdaq Exchange Supports Litecoin, Stellar and Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies. NASDAQ, one of the largest exchanges in the United States has entered the cryptocurrency market. The news comes as other trading platforms like the eToro subsidiary entered the US market following a $100 million funding round to support its global expansion.
EToro supports ten of the major crypto trading pairs including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and many others. It’s expected that the NASDAQ will follow suit to capitalize on the $15 billion dollars traded in crypto markets across the world.
Niall Ferguson Tells Bank of England Bitcoin Is Financial System of the Future. Niall Ferguson, a British economic historian hosted a seminar to the Bank of England about the global financial crisis of 2008 and the role that bitcoin will play to challenge the status quo of fiat currencies, naming it the “financial system of the future.”
Ferguson also remarked that bitcoin’s value surge to $60,000, or even $300,000 per coin. His assessment was based on the wealthiest people in the world holding 1% of their value in the cryptocurrency and the fact that there’s a present maximum of 21 million coins.
Czech Republic’s Energy Giant to Accept Bitcoin Payments, Boosting Bitcoin Adoption. The Czech Republic’s energy giant Prazska Plynarenska announced that it would begin accepting payments in bitcoin from June 2018.
Although the company will reportedly start accepting bitcoin payments, they will not be hodling their coins. It appears that the bitcoin will be converted into the nation’s fiat Koruna currency as soon as payment is made.
Commenting on the use of bitcoin payments, Paul Janecek from the company’s board of directors said the following: “We will open a payment gateway in June, which will automatically convert our payment in cryptocurrency to the normal currency, so we will not speculate on the development, but if anyone wants to pay an alternative way, we want to allow it.”
Weiss Ratings Says People May Purchase Cryptocurrencies to Avoid Financial Crisis. According to Weiss Ratings, residents in the United States could be provoked into entering the cryptocurrency market as regulatory agencies could make it easier for banks to invest in high-risk assets. Mr Weiss claims that these investments could trigger the next financial crisis, as it did back in 2008.
As a remedy, Weiss states that “cryptocurrencies do a much better job as a safe depository” as virtual currencies could hedge against the effects of worldwide global financial crisis.
Is bitcoin being manipulated by traders? The US government has opened a criminal probe. The US Justice Department has begun an investigation into the price manipulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Investigators will see if there’s evidence of spoofing or wash trading that trick traders into entering manipulated trades. The probe will work with other agencies, including the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
MIT Researchers Developing BTC Lightning Network With Smart Contracts. Researchers at MIT, one of the United State’s most prestigious technological institutions, have become the first to create a smart contract based on bitcoin’s Lightning Network. The research was part of MIT’s Digital Currency initiative that began in 2015.
Researchers Alin S. Dragos and Tadge Dryja built a test oracle that relays the price of USD in satoshis to the smart contract. At present, the smart contract is still in its experimental stages and is not yet
Argentinian Bank to Use Bitcoin for Cross-Border Transactions. The BMV bank in Argentina has partnered with Bitex to allow cross-payments to be made with bitcoin. According to a statement issued by BMV, bitcoin will be used to reduce the cost associated with international transfers, as well as the time it takes to settle transactions. It was also chosen as a payment method for its ease of exchange into fiat currencies.
Security Researchers Discover Multiple Epic Vulnerabilities in EOS Blockchain. The Chinese cyber security firm 360 has reported numerous vulnerabilities in the EOS blockchain. It’s claimed that some of these vulnerabilities can be activated remotely on the EOS node, meaning that an attacker could take control of all nodes running on EOS.
The report surfaced on the Weibo social network, and claimed the following:
“On the early morning of the 29th, 360 first reported the vulnerability to EOS officials and helped them repair the security risks. The person in charge of the EOS network said that the EOS network will not be officially launched until these issues are fixed.”
According to the post, the vulnerability would allow an attack to execute a malicious smart contract that could steal private keys, user data, and control all cryptocurrency transactions.
When news of the security risk broke, EOS dropped by 7% in less than one hour.
The downward trend continues and breaks subsidies. In the past 24 hours we have seen a green candle, and it might be an attempt to break the trend and return to $8,000
Meanwhile the demand around $7,000 holds and if they stop the next step is expected to be in the $6,600 area. traded around $7,400 resistance around $8,000.
Against the dollar there is a sharp drop against last week from $700 to $515 where support was found, which traded around $560 a $600 rally.
Against Bitcoin, a quick correction up to 0.07 BTC where support was found. It traded around 0.075 BTC with resistance at 0.03 BTC.
Against the dollar, the trend is declining and the supports are deceiving, breaking one after the other. Current support was around $880. It traded around $993 with resistance at $1,150.
Against Bitcoin, the situation is similar in a downward trend with attempts to find the floor that was found this time around 0.012 BTC and traded around the resistance level at 0.134 BTC. In this range its at 0.15 BTC
Against the dollar support is being built at $10 and trading around $12 with resistance at $15. If it will breakout, we might see it trading again around $20.
Against Bitcoin, it traded around 0.0016 BTC and fragile support is being built around 0.0015 BTC with resistance in this range at 0.0018 BTC.
Against the dollar on a weekly chart it seems that the trend is going down, the floor was at $170 and support is being built at $200. Its traded around $250 with resistance at $320. Who remembers the peak of $800 earlier this year?
Against Bitcoin on a weekly graph, the story is different. It seems we have seen the bottom and now are witnessing a change in trend with a large volume traded around 0.033 BTC. Its supporting this range at 0.03 BTC and resistance is at 0.042 BTC.