Weekly Price Action in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Alt-Coins
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has hit a new all-time high recently going above $4,500. The popular cryptocurrency reached beyond previous records set earlier this week and beyond most people have predicted in a short-time. Ultimately, the price peaked out at $4,510 just after a previous top reading of $4,387.
Today the currency settled in a trading range near $4,000. The gains happened amid continued bullish sentiment throughout the crypto industry, with multiple people forecasting further gains in the coming weeks. Bitcoin is now starting to become top of mind in the traditional investment space. Now, market leaders in asset management and investment banking have to tell their clients something; and many of these white-shoe firms are releasing positive things about cryptocurrency in general.
Bitcoin Price Chart Shows Bullish Signal as 10 DMA moves above 50 DMA
While we might see a near-term pullback to $3,600, confidence is building that Bitcoin could reach $5,000 by year end. This would give Bitcoin a market cap of around $100B. Data from coinmarketcap.com shows records across cryptocurrencies, with the overall market cap of all digital assets combined now near an unprecedented $144B.
Many pundits have come out to voice their views. Market commentator Dennis Gartman has admitted he appreciates Blockchain technology, but is steering clear of Bitcoin. The issue: he doesn’t understand it. This had caused many great investors to hit the pause button since Bitcoin is inherently difficult to grasp. Gartman said that the fluctuations in Bitcoin is something that bothers him.
Another Gold bull, Peter Schiff, has also said negative comments about Bitcoin in general and thinks the price is in a short-term bubble. He recently acknowledged though, under certain circumstances, bubbles can lead to trading opportunities for investors who aren’t wedded to the long-term viability of the asset.
He said, ”People who get in and get out can make money,” he said. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. He added: “Most people never get out. Most people just don’t sell, because of the psychology, and what happens to most people is they just keep buying more. So, when it crashes, they don’t just give back the paper profits – they give back real money.” Even though Schiff, a long-time gold bull, expressed skepticism about cryptocurrency. But, he’s bullish on the long-term potential of blockchain technology more broadly.
The Ether coin on the Ethereum platform corrected slightly lower against the US Dollar and Bitcoin, but ETH/USD. A major support area at $294-295 protected losses, but remains supported above $294 for more gains. We’re watching close to see if it can break back through the $310 mark, but remains in place as a “hold” while other coins temporarily get more attention. Ether currently trades just around $280 in the middle of the broad range.
Ethereum Chart Shows a Tight Trading Range with Support at $290
Top5 Cryptocurrency Performers Over the Past Week
Binance Coin: +493.61%
Binance Coin rallied this week when co-founder Yi He gave her “The Age of Blockchain Exchange 2.0” presentation at “The 4th Global Blockchain Summit 2017.” In her presentation, Yi He shared the status quo of Binance and talked about significant strategies of Binance.
Monaco: +255.93%
Monaco, the pioneering payments, and cryptocurrency platform rallied on this news of its partnership with Binance, China’s fastest growing digital asset exchange. Binance will list Monaco’s MCO token on Wednesday, August 23, as its first exchange in China.
Bitquence: +161.80%
Bitquence soared after they launched a crowdfund backed by an international group of experts. The project is driven by the idea that people are “irrevocably changing” the way they interact with financial services. The aim is to create a bridge between the “past and future of finance” to include a universal wallet and ‘one-click’ diversification.
OpenAnx: +150.24%
Ethereum-powered decentralized exchange and trading platform OpenANX rallied on renewed excitement after raising $14 million in the first hours of its OAX token sale just weeks ago. OpenANX wants to address two major problems in the cryptocurrency space: the barrier to entry for new cryptocurrency users, and transaction risk.
AdEx: +101.94%
AdEx moved up on the news that it plans to become the First DApp Based on NEO. The company is porting the Adex Core to NEO , which is the first and biggest Chinese blockchain. This proves to be big news as Chinese firms plan to get even more exposure in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
Swiss Bank to Sell Cryptocurrency to Clients
This week it was announced that a private Swiss bank will be expanding a digital asset management service it launched earlier this summer to include new cryptocurrencies. Falcon Private Bank revealed it would let its customers buy and hold bitcoin within their accounts through a partnership with brokerage service Bitcoin Suisse.
Now that the product line is expanding to include Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash; customers will have more diversification in their accounts. The customers of the bank will be able to start buying and holding those cryptocurrencies from August 22, according to today’s announcement.
This news comes on the heels of huge gains in Bitcoin and excitement from the traditional banking sector. We expect more announcements similar to this in the coming months. In the not too distant future, the U.S. will also catch-up to other countries, which have looser regulations.
Legendary Bitcoin Trader “masterluc” Predicts $15,000 Bitcoin Later this Year
An online personality that goes by the handle “masterluc” is known as a legend in the Bitcoin community. One of his claims to fame is that he calling the top of the November 2013 Bitcoin bubble and the subsequent bear market.
On December 6, with the price at $1100, he said: “Third day in a row I wake up, see charts and ask myself “Is this the end?” and third day in a row answer is “Yes.” End of first historical bullish trend 2010-2013.” He also predicted a multi-year bear market two days prior, despite the price being an all-time high, writing: Ah, of course thanks Satoshi and community, but I am still here =) Next entering point for me is in 2016-2017 year.”
Bitcoin’s Biggest Software Wallet Blockchain Adds Ethereum
This week startup Blockchain, formerly known as Blockchain.info, made a big announcement about adding Ethereum to their platform. Early this morning, users of the service got an email announcing the news and directions on what to do next. The Bitcoin wallet startup will now allow for users to create Ethereum software wallets. This is the first time the startup has integrated a new cryptocurrency since it launched in 2011. They also announced a partnership with ShapeShift to enable users to transition funds between their bitcoin and ethereum wallets, without first needing to send funds to a centralized service.
CEO Peter Smith said in a statement: “As popularity of Ethereum has grown, so has the desire from our customers to have the option to manage multiple digital assets within their blockchain wallets. We are thrilled to introduce this new functionality to our community and will continue to find ways to make interacting with digital assets even easier.”
Microsoft Releasing Ethereum-based Protocol “Coco”
A growing number of enterprises are have shown interest in blockchain technology instead of cryptocurrency tokens themselves. Microsoft has now unveiled a framework called “Coco” which is short for “Confidential Consortium” — a new open-source foundation for enterprise blockchain networks.
Coco is an Ethereum-based protocol which has been designed to help commercial companies and large-scale enterprises process information on the Ethereum Blockchain with increased privacy.
“Coco presents an alternative approach to Ledger construction, giving enterprises the scalability, distributed governance and enhanced confidentiality they need without sacrificing the inherent security and immutability they expect,” Mark Russinovich, the CTO at Microsoft Azure said in an official statement. Many expect even more news from large tech companies as they navigate the landscape of blockchain technology.
CNBC Coverage Calling for a Floor and Buy if Bitcoin Dips to $3,600
CNBC has advised viewers this past week to buy Bitcoin at $3,600, an indication that it considers the price a likely floor which will appear short-term. The call happened on the “Fast Money” segment, when analyst Brian Kelly predicted Bitcoin price moving in a so-called ABC pattern.
Bitcoin had reached a high of $4,478 according to coinmarketcap.com, before retracing to around $4,000 and correcting upwards to $4,300. Kelly took to the airwaves with thousands of investors watching and said, “I’m still in [Bitcoin],” he continued, “but I would be looking to add positions at $3,600.”
Bitcoin Tops PayPal’s Market Cap
The bitcoin price broke $4,000 for the first time over the weekend, and it continued its record-setting run on Monday. The bitcoin market cap soared past $70 billion, initiating an event the cryptocurrency community has been anticipating for years: bitcoin now has a greater total valuation than payment-processing behemoth PayPal.
Recently several market-watchers made the call that Ethereum would surpass Bitcoin, known as the “Flippening.” Supposedly, this would have been the moment when Ethereum would become the most valuable cryptocurrency. However, Ethereum was unable to achieve that honor before the market correction in July, and Bitcoin increasingly separated itself from the pack, even after Bitcoin Cash forked. Now it seems clear that the real Flippening was Bitcoin surpassing one of the world’s most ubiquitous payment processors: PayPal.
Dash Accepted into Apple App Store and Soars on the News
The price of Dash soared to a high of $259 from the $200’s on the news it was getting accepted into the Apple App Store. Dash is currently the seventh biggest digital currency in the world in terms of the total market-cap, which is valued at nearly $1.4B. After several yeas of work in the making, Apple has officially authorized the digital currency Dash on its App Store, after previously rejecting it. The cryptocurrency gave up some of those early gains, settling in a new trading range around $220-$230. With that said, the future looks extremely bright for Dash.
Dash Chart Shows a Move on the News on August 15th with Positive Trend-line
According to a statement from Dash CEO Ryan Taylor, the decision by Apple to accept the cryptocurrency is a recognition of the growing demand and importance of the currency. He said, “Our users can confidently use Dash Wallets that are maintained, officially supported and known to be safe. Apple has shown a willingness to allow worthy digital currencies into their platform, but that requires an incredible amount of due diligence on their part. We’re pleased that they determined Dash was worth the substantial effort to evaluate, and we’re obviously pleased with the outcome.”
Bitcoin Cash Price Reaches Nearly $600 on Exchange Support and Uncertainty over Another Possible Fork in Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash moved up to a high of $593 on the news that more exchanges may soon offer liquidity for the new fork of Bitcoin as well as the possibility of another Fork coming in the coming months. Several exchanges already support Bitcoin cash including YoBit.Net and ShapeShift, among others. KeepKey also announced plans to support all forks of bitcoin as unique currencies and will allow you to swap between them with ShapeShift. Others like Copay, has no immediate plans to support Bitcoin Cash, but this could change in the not too distant future depending on the price move. The currency traded in a range of $441 to $593, settling near the high end of the range today.
BitcoinCash Chart Shows a Big Move Up This Past Week
Recent ICOs Raise Big Money: 0X and Blockstack
There was big news in the ICO space as Decentralized Exchange Protocol 0x Raised $24 Million in their ICO. The team behind the decentralized exchange protocol aims to provide an exchange layer for Ethereum-based tokens under the ERC20 standard. An early-stage version of the software was released in May, with the idea being that users can exchange tokens directly between one another – similar to how over-the-counter markets function – rather than going through an exchange service. The token sale took place between August 15 and 16 and collected the $24 million worth of ether from a group of 12,000 backers. The project itself drew support from well-known venture capitalist shops including Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital and Pantera Capital, along with Chinese investment firms Jen Advisors and FBG Capital. Each of the firms contributed in exchange for discounted tokens during the sale, a now common practice in the space.
Well-known NYC blockchain-startup Blockstack raiseed $25 Million for Decentralized Internet Fund. This fund is a venture capital fund aimed at jump-starting a new, decentralized version of the internet. The difference in this capital raise is how the money is allocated. Most ICOs are raising funds through retail investors, however, the Blockstack Signature Fund will only distribute money from active venture capitalists. The fund is backed by venture capital firms Lux Capital, OpenOcean, RisingTide Capital, Compound and VersionOne. According to reports, the investments in future ICOs and other projects will be at the description of the Blockstack team.
Blockstack co-founder Muneeb Ali positioned the fund as a way to bring together decentralized app builders and the venture capital community, saying, “What we are doing is opening up this channel between app developers on Blockstack and venture capital, so that developers can actually go and talk to these investors, get feedback from them and then potentially get some money to build out their apps.”
Upcoming ICOs: BitJob and Smart Investment Fund
BitJob, an ICO that is focusing on the job market, launched on August 2nd. According to the ICO documents, the company will deploy blockchain technology in the global student community. They believe that Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt & overcome all boundaries, but we all understand that smart education of consumers is necessary, in order for this to happen. Promoting the education needed to implement decentralization and freedom of choice begins today, through the next generation of the labor market. BitJob is currently in the Pre-sale phase, which just closed, but will be open for funding until mid-October.
Another interesting ICO launched on August 1st, tackling the financial exchange of assets called Smart Investment Fund Token. The Smart Investment Fund is a new high yield dividend fund that will trade blockchain assets using a proprietary method of financial trading called Smart Volume Analysis (Smart VSA) and offers up to 40% per year ROI to investors through dividends and asset value appreciation. It is being offered by the creators of Smart Trader, a volume analysis trading platform with a decade of experience and custom algorithms that support thousands of traders every day. According to the founders, these AI algorithms have now been enhanced and tested against blockchain assets. The fund was structured to minimize risk, with all funds kept in USD, EUR or GBP when not involved in a trade. The ICO will be open until mid-September, depending on how fast allocation fills up based on funding-targets.
We pour hours into researching upcoming ICOs/token sales each week. The last two that we sent to subscribers recently hit exchanges at premiums of 50% and 400% to our entry price. We hold a basket of cryptocurrencies in the GSB portfolio and they have been generating significant profits in 2017. Get our picks and all of our research into both cryptocurrencies and precious metals by subscribing here for just $99.
