EU-level regulation for cryptocurrencies and ICO market may send Bitcoin and other coins to fresh lows

EU finance ministers call for crypto and ICO regulation on EU level.
Brussels-based Bruegel suggests tighter regulation or even ban.

The Brussels-based think tank Bruegel prepared a document for EU finance ministers with the aim to promote EU-level regulation of digital assets and initial coin offerings, according to Reuters. It is supposed to be discussed by the ministers on Friday during their meeting in Vienna.

EU authorities have been making noises about risks related to highly volatile crypto market, prone to scams and vulnerable to hack attacks. However, they avoided comprehensive regulation due to the small size of the segment, but the growing popularity of digital assets in the European countries might force them to change their mind.

"Now the possible expansion of the crypto exchange business in Europe and considerable interest in ICOs in EU countries, which account for 30 percent of the global market in terms of projects funded, is pushing regulators to take a closer look," Reuters reports.

Malta, for example, strives to create a favorable regulatory environment for blockchain projects in hopes that they will support the economic development. The efforts of the Maltese was rewarded as many companies including Hong Kong-based Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, flocked to Malta.

According to Bruegel, the authorities should focus on regulating or even banning entities that deal with cryptocurrencies and tokens. The think-tank noted the restrictive Chinese approach towards the industry.

Tanya Abrosimova

FXStreet

David

Bitcoin â Bulls Need to Make a Move or Pay a Heavy Price

Bitcoin – Bulls Need to Make a Move or Pay a Heavy Price

Bitcoin holds on to positive territory in the early hours, though will need to break back through to $7,400 levels to avoid a bearish move.

Bitcoin gained 1.23% on Tuesday, reversing Monday’s 0.47% decline, to end the day at $7,357.2.

Recovering from an early morning intraday low $7,246.2. Steering clear of the day’s first major support level at $7,187.47, Bitcoin rallied through late morning and early afternoon to an intraday high $7,415.4.

The rally through to the day high saw Bitcoin break through the day’s first major resistance level at $7,356.47 and back through the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level of $7,376 to hit $7,400 levels for the 2nd time in 3-days, prior to which was back in the 1st week of August.

In spite of the breakout from the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level of $7,376, Bitcoin failed to hold on to $7,400 levels with a late in the day broad based market sell-off seeing Bitcoin’s gains for the day reduced, with Bitcoin pulling back through the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level by the day’s end.

With selling pressure evident at the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level, Bitcoin’s failure to hold above $7,376 by the day’s end reaffirmed the extended bearish trend formed at early May’s swing hi $9,999, with a break out from $7,376 needed to support the formation of a bearish trend reversal.

The gains came with the news wires on the friendlier side at the start of the week, with regulator chatter on hold, allowing the Bitcoin bulls to talk up the prospects of a return to bullish form and a run at $20,000 levels by the year-end.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up just 0.07% to $7,363.9, with moves through the early morning seeing Bitcoin recover from a start of a day morning low $7,357.2 to a morning high $7,398.7 before easing back, the early moves leaving the day’s major support and resistance levels untested, while resistance at $7,400 proved to be too great in the early hours.

For the day ahead, moving back through the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level of $7,376 would support another run at $7,400 levels to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $7,433 into play, with market sentiment to dictate whether Bitcoin can take a run at $7,500 levels, investors continuing to be on the more cautious side in spite of Bitcoin’s recent weekly gains and hold on to $7,300 levels.

Failure to move back through the 38.2% FIB Retracement Level of $7,376 could see Bitcoin hit reverse, with any fall through 7,340 bringing sub-$7,300 levels and the day’s first major support level at $7,263.8 into play before any recovery.

We would expect Bitcoin to steer clear of sub-$7,300 levels should the news wires remain crypto friendly, with Bitcoin’s relatively minor gains through the early part of the week likely to limit profit taking in the middle part of the week, though investors will wary of what’s to come on the regulatory front, which continues to pin Bitcoin back from $8,000 levels and beyond.

Bob Mason

19 minutes ago

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch- Nearby Inflection Points to Watch

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price continues to crawl higher and is moving closer to completing its double bottom.
Once completed, price would need to break past the neckline at $8,400 to confirm a long-term uptrend.
Corrections from the climb could find support at the short-term rising trend line that held since last month.

Bitcoin price is slowly moving up to form a double bottom reversal pattern, and a neckline break could lead to more gains.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is also completing its bullish crossover from the 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This would mean that the rally is more likely to resume than to reverse. Price is also moving above a rising trend line connecting the lows since mid-August and the moving averages could serve as dynamic support close to this area.

However, RSI is pointing down after recently reaching overbought territory, which means that selling pressure might still return. Similarly stochastic is on the move down so bitcoin price could follow suit while bearish pressure is in play.

Market Factors

In the absence of any major updates lately, bitcoin appears to be taking its cues from the improving sentiment in the industry. More and more analysts are renewing their bullish calls, with one group even predicting that it could reach $33,000 in 2019.

Furthermore, Satis ICO Advisory Research projects that bitcoin price could surge to $96,000 over the next five years then to $143,900 in 10 years. The firm is also bullish on Monero, predicting it will reach $18,000 over the next five years.

On the flip side, it is less optimistic about ethereum and litecoin while being bearish on Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS. The report also wasn’t optimistic on utility tokens either, and this “weeding out” sentiment appears to be more favorable to bitcoin.

SARAH JENN | SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 | 4:19 AM

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch – Don’t Miss This Bullish Pullback

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price is trending higher inside an ascending channel on the 4-hour chart and is testing the top.
A pullback to support might be due from here, so as to gather more bullish energy on the climb.
The uptrend is likely to resume since the 100 SMA is completing a crossover above the 200 SMA.

Bitcoin price hit resistance at the top of the channel but might be ready to resume the climb on a test of support.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is crossing above the longer-term 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This suggests that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse or that support is more likely to hold than to break.

However, RSI is pointing down to indicate that sellers are trying to regain control from here while buyers take a break. Similarly stochastic is moving south so bitcoin price might follow suit while bearish pressure is in play.

Price could bounce upon hitting support at the Fib levels or the channel bottom, which lines up with the 61.8% level in particular. This also coincides with a former resistance around $7,000, which might also hold as an area of interest.

A larger pullback could last until the swing low just above the moving averages, which might be the line in the sand for any bullish correction.

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

Bitcoin price does seem to remain support, especially after landing back above the $7,000 major psychological mark that many are watching. Optimism for approval by the SEC in bitcoin ETF applications appears to be keeping bulls present for fear of missing out on a big rally.

Apart from that, many analysts are renewing their bullish calls on this particular cryptocurrency, with Tom Lee even citing that the launch of ethereum futures might wind up positive for bitcoin.

Sarah Jenn – NewsBTC – 1 hour ago

David

Bitcoin At $7000, Undervalued Or Overvalued

Bitcoin At $7000, Undervalued Or Overvalued?

At $7,000, Bitcoin can be both undervalued or overvalued, depending on how the “intrinsic” value of the digital currency is calculated.

After testing the $6000-mark for a while, Bitcoin has staged a big comeback lately. In the last seven days, the digital currency has rallied 6.15%, trading close to the $7,000-mark. Other cryptocurrencies have rallied in sympathy—see table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1

Coin %7d

Bitcoin (BTC) 6.15%

Ethereum (ETH) 1.35

XRP 3.22

*As of 8/31/2018, at 4pm.

Source: Coinmarketcap.com

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks Over The Last Seven Days

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 84

Decline 16

*As of 8/31/2018, at 4pm.

Source: Coinmarketcap.com

The rally in cryptocurrencies have some experts cheering. One of them is Global Blockchain CEO, Shidan Gouran, who sees a 'hard value' at$6000. “What this means for the present is that motion is already happening. Because it costs about $6,000 to mine a Bitcoin, it couldn’t go too much lower than that. If no one sees any value in it, it will naturally only command its ‘hard value’ price of about that much. But as we can see, people clearly do see value in it. For example, the efforts to legalize a Bitcoin ETF are persisting. Further, story after story is hitting the news about big-name institutions taking steps to trade Bitcoin. While the idea of these big-time uses of Bitcoin were nothing more than a fantasy about a year ago, the signs are actually starting to emerge that it’s going to happen. So undoubtedly, this is stimulating demand to some degree.”

Clement Thibault, Senior Analyst at Investing.com, doesn’t share Gouran’s enthusiasm. "$7,000 is a level we've seen before so I don't regard it as a particularly noteworthy milestone,” says Thibault. “Psychologically, there might be something to it for speculators but the price is completely disconnected from any meaningful fundamentals. If the level was the result of an event, development, or adoption, that would be something more substantial — but at this point, we're trying to invent a narrative to explain the price action when there's nothing to explain."

What do econometric models say? My co-author of an academic paper on Bitcoin valuation, Greg Giordano, ran three econometric models — the Haye’smodel, the Wheatley model, and the Market Model (our own)—see table 3.

On the one side, the Hayes’ model and the Market Model estimate the Bitcoin’s intrinsic value to be $8,778.11 and $8,335.54 respectively. This means that at the current price level the digital currency is undervalued.

On the other side, Wheatley’s Model estimates Bitcoin’s value to be $1,080.58. This means that at the current price the digital currency is overvalued.

Table 3

Three Estimates Of Bitcoin’s Intrinsic Price*

Econometric Model Price Estimate

Hayes $8,778.11

Wheatley $1,080.58

Market Model $8,335.54

Panos Mourdoukoutas

Contributor

David