BITCOIN PRICE DROPPED BELOW $7,000 LIKELY ON PLUSTOKEN DUMPERS

Bitcoin price broke down below the psychological level of $7,000 late on Monday. The cryptocurrency updated the December low after blockchain researcher Chainalysis said that PlusToken scammers were selling coins to cash out.

BITCOIN DRAGGING DOWN CRYPTO MARKET

At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency fell 3.11% in the last 24 hours, touching the daily low at $6,905. For most of the day, the bitcoin price was trading above $7,100.

Altcoins tumbled as well, even posting much greater declines. Ethereum, which is heavily involved in the PlusToken scandal, dropped over 7% to $133. Litecoin and EOS have also lost over 7%.

In total, the crypto market has lost over $7 billion in the last few hours, from a daily peak of over $195 billion, according to Coinmarketcap data.

Thus, bitcoin price has just updated the lowest level in December. The last time when it was trading that low was on November 25, when the daily bottom was at $6,638. For now, this price acts as the next resistance line. If the oldest crypto breaks below it, we might see bears go crazy.

WHAT CAUSED THE BITCOIN PRICE DROP?

While the bitcoin price decline might be driven by reasons explained by technical analysis, it is likely that markets reacted to a recent report by Chainalysis, which concluded that the perpetrators of China-based Ponzi scheme PlusToken are now dumping their crypto holdings to cash out.

Last week, we reported on the true extent of PlusToken dumping through Singapore-based exchange Huobi, which has processed almost half of the Ponzi-related withdrawals.

For those unfamiliar, PlusToken was probably the greatest Ponzi scheme in the crypto industry’s short history. The $3 billion scam acted as a crypto wallet and investment opportunity that provided high yield monthly returns in exchange for deposits in BTC, ETH, and other coins. The scheme was very popular in Asia.

ANATOL ANTONOVICI | DEC 17, 2019 | 00:07

David

Bitcoin Price Still Has Potential to Dive to $5,500, Yet Macro Uptrend Still Intact

Last week, the one-week Bitcoin chart printed an extremely bullish sign: the golden cross of the 50-week and 100-week simple moving averages, with the former crossing above the latter. (As an aside, a golden cross is when a short-term moving average crosses over a long-term one to imply bulls have control.)

While this is a decidedly bullish sign in the long term, with this signal preceding the 1,000%+ rally seen between 2016 and the end of 2017, a leading analyst has remarked that Bitcoin is still susceptible to one final downturn before an eventual return to the macro uptrend.

One More Dump to $5,500?

CryptoBirb, a strong proponent of the positive effects the aforementioned golden cross will have, recently noted that Bitcoin still has the potential to see one final dump to $5,400-$5,600 — 23% lower than the current price of $7,150. This coincides with the long-term 0.786 Fibonacci Retracement level.

He noted that this would corroborate a trend seen in previous market cycles, which saw BTC see a bullish throwback prior to a resumption of a parabolic uptrend.

Birb’s suggestion that Bitcoin will see one more drop lower has been corroborated by other analysts.

Cold Blooded Shiller, a popular cryptocurrency trader, noted that Bitcoin is in a “markdown from distribution” near the $13,000-$14,000 top, a markdown contained by a descending channel that has existed since the top of the recent bull run.

As it stands, Bitcoin at $7,400 is in the middle of the channel, seemingly in no man’s land, thus not close to a bottom.

“From a volume perspective, there is nothing to me that screams “THIS IS THE BOTTOM.” For both markdowns and markups we typically expect to see “climactic” volume,” Shiller wrote, trying to accentuate that there are no concrete signs the bottom is in for the Bitcoin market.

The scenario he is expecting can be seen below, which shows that the leading cryptocurrency could return into the low-$5,000s, a range that has been identified by other analysts as a potential macro bottom.

See Cold Blooded Shiller's other Tweets

Related Reading: What’s the Best Way to Drive Bitcoin Adoption? Billionaire Says Crypto Giveaways

Macro Bitcoin Uptrend Intact

Despite this, many researchers have claimed that Bitcoin’s macro uptrend remains intact.

Hans Hauge, a senior quantitative researcher at Los Angeles-based crypto fund Ikigai Asset Management, recently gave a confluence of reasons why he remains bullish on the leading cryptocurrency.

He first drew attention to a chart from Deutsche Bank, the 17th largest bank in the world. It was estimated that the number of users of Blockchain Wallet (blockchain.com) could surmount over 200 million — around six times higher than where the sum currently is — by 2030.

Hauge also looked to the fact that the CEO of Bakkt has just become a U.S. Senator, meaning that Bitcoin could get its own cheerleader in Washington.

He also noted that BTC is “actually pretty close to where it should be,” in reference to a model that takes the number of “Bitcoin transactions ever confirmed and use that as an input into a log-scale linear regression model.”

Nick Chong

David

Bitcoin [BTC] Makes Recovery Above $8000 â Here’s Why Some Analysts are Bullish

Bitcoin [BTC] Makes Recovery Above $8000 – Here’s Why Some Analysts are Bullish

After a week of bearish moves, Bitcoin [BTC] price made a slight recovery on Friday. The rise attempted to break above the 200-Day Moving average, which acted as a resistance. It recorded a high at $8294.

The price of BTC at 3: 30 hours UTC on 28th September 2019 is $8176. It is trading 2.27% higher on a daily scale. The entire crypto market turned slightly green after a week of aggressive selling.

BTC/USD 4-Hour Chart on Bitstamp (TradingView)

While some traders see this as a momentary correction, others are also seeing a reversal.

The bears are eyeing sub $5k levels for a good entry point. However, it echoes with the situation earlier in Q1 this year. While the price has been bearish, the overall sentiments are bullish.

Moreover, even on the downside, crypto traders will be looking for a buying opportunity. UglyOldGoat, crypto trader and analyst tweeted on a sub $5k prediction

Just as I was bullish at 3,500 bearish at over 11,500 I can only be bullish at 7800 – 8200. Bakkt is bullish and structure changed when we rekt weak specs with future backwardation. The good thing is Bitcoin will be right regardless.

On-chain Vs. Price Movements

The recent uncertainty in price seems to be rising from opposing views of fundamental and technical analyses.

Bitcoin mining hashrate is at an all-time high, the transaction volume and realized price has also increased considerably. Moreover, long-term ‘hodlers‘ have also increased significantly. Leading on-chain analyst Willy Woo tweeted,

Structure is bullish, you can’t turn that around with a whiplash in price. Bull phases and bear phases of market cycles do not turn on a dime, especially on-chain.

However, the break-down below 200-Day Moving average is currently acting as a significant bear indicator. $7000-7500 has been the predicted range of this move. Sawcruhteez, a crypto-trader is turning bullish on technical indicators as well. He tweeted on why he is turning bullish, he said,

That was mainly due to the RSI bull div and the ADX rollover. I mentioned that final confirmation would come from a break of the 4 hour Lucid SAR, which just occurred. Now all systems are a go!

Bitcoin Price Analysis on the 4-Hour (Source: Twitter)

The next couple of weeks will be instrumental in confirming the year-end trend for Bitcoin. The speculations in Bitcoin [BTC] will further increase as halving comes closer well. The scheduled event in May 2020 has been creating a strong influence on market psychology.

Do you think December 2019 will be bullish or bearish? Please share your views with us.

Nivesh Rustgi Bitcoin News 1 min ago

David

Bitcoin’s sharp decline – The cryptocurrency falls below $8,000

Bitcoin's sharp decline – The cryptocurrency falls below $8,000

Bitcoin lost about 20 percent of its value since Friday.

On Thursday, the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index showed a decline of as much as eight percent for the cryptocurrency [File: Mary Turner/Bloomberg]

Bitcoin extended its five-day losing streak on Thursday and dropped below $8,000 for the first time since June as a growing list of concerns weighed on crypto assets.

Bitcoin fell as much as 9% to $7,736 in New York, according to Bloomberg composite pricing, before bouncing off the lows of the day. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index that tracks a basket of cryptocurrencies slumped more than 8% as peer coins, including Ether and XRP, also sold off. That's the lowest level since May for the index.

There is "no good catalyst to drive it higher," said John Spallanzani, portfolio manager at Miller Value Partners. Bitcoin was never able to regain the near-$14,000 highs it reached over the summer, he said, adding that the "market got tired and volume dried up."

Investors cited a variety of reasons for the slump that's seen Bitcoin lose about 20% of its value since Friday. Some pointed to a lackluster reception to the first Bitcoin futures contracts that were offered by the Intercontinental Exchange Inc.'s Bakkt platform. Others pointed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission delaying a decision on a Bitcoin exchange-traded product. Still, others said the expiration of CME futures contracts set to take place this week is causing turbulence.

Here is what market-watchers are saying:

"As the volumes on these contracts have been particularly high this week, this month's close could be particularly volatile," Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at trading platform eToro, wrote in a note in reference to the CME contracts.

"A Bitcoin ETF isn't likely to arrive on U.S. exchanges in 2019," James Seyffart, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, wrote in a note. "The SEC has made clear that it's concerned about Bitcoin price manipulation on exchanges without any regulatory oversight or surveillance."

"The crypto market drop will be a rude awakening for anyone who was starting to speculate that Bitcoin was becoming a 'safe haven' asset. However, compared to historical volatility patterns, a drop like this barely registers. There have always been sharp periods of volatility in crypto, and this kind of activity is only to be expected as the asset continues to grow," said Gavin Smith, chief executive officer at Panxora.

"There are many potential reasons for the recent fall in the price Bitcoin. It could be 'selling the news' on the launch of Bakkt, which has so far seen much lower than expected volumes of trading go through its platform following months of hype. It could also be in response to the rapid decline in Bitcoin's hash rate (amount of computation in the system) though this now seems less likely as the hash rate has somewhat recovered. Many cycle traders were also saying that Bitcoin was due a cycle low in early October, so that seems on point," said George McDonaugh, chief executive officer at KR1.

Falling below the $8,000 level could mean Bitcoin would test its 200-day moving average support, which sits around $7,000. And according to the Trading Envelope Indicator, a technical tool that smooths moving averages to map out higher and lower limits, the coin has fallen below its lower band.

Following a break below $8,000, "a quick move back to $6,000 would not be out of the question," said Spallanzani.

by By Vildana Hajric • Bloomberg

David

Bitcoin And Crypto Market Bearish Continuation – LTC, BNB, BCH, TRX Analysis

The total crypto market cap dived more than $50.0B and tested the $200.0B support.
Bitcoin price is down more than 10% and it is currently consolidating below the $8,500.
Binance coin (BNB) price tumbled below the $18.50 and $16.50 support levels.
Litecoin (LTC) price is now trading well below the key $60.00 support area.
BCH price tested the $200 level and it is currently consolidating near the $220 level.
Tron (TRX) price spiked below the $0.0120 support area and it is currently correcting higher.

The crypto market cap and bitcoin (BTC) are signaling bearish continuation. Ethereum (ETH), litecoin, ripple, BCH, TRX, XLM, BNB and EOS are likely to extend their decline.

Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis

BCH price started a nasty decline after it broke the $300 and $285 support levels against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair even broke the $250 support area and declined more than $75 in the past two days. It even tested the $200 support area and is currently consolidating near the $220 level.

On the upside, an initial resistance is near the $235 level. However, the main resistance for a strong recovery is near the $250 level. On the downside, the key support is near the $200 level.

Binance Coin (BNB), Litecoin (LTC) and Tron (TRX) Price Analysis

Binance coin (BNB) price declined more than 20% after it broke the $20.00 support area. BNB price traded below the key $18.50 and $16.50 support levels. Finally, it spiked below the $15.00 support and is currently consolidating losses near the $16.00 level. On the upside, there are many resistances near $16.20 and $16.50.

Litecoin price fell significantly after it failed to stay above the $70.00 and $65.00 support levels. LTC price declined below the $60.00 support and traded close to the $50.00 support area. A low was formed near $52.20 and the price is currently correcting towards the $58.00 and $60.00 resistance levels.

Tron price is down more than 25% and it recently broke many supports such as $0.0150 and $0.0140. TRX price even spiked below the $0.0120 level and traded towards $0.0112. It is currently correcting above $0.0125, but it is likely to face resistance near $0.0135 and $0.0140.

Looking at the total cryptocurrency market cap 4-hours chart, there was a nasty decline below the key $250.0B support area. The market cap declined around $50.0B and tested the $200.0B support area. It is currently consolidating losses above $210.0B. However, it seems like there is a bearish continuation pattern forming with resistance near $220.0B. If there is a downside break below $208.0B and $205.0B, there are chances of more losses in bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, litecoin, ripple, binance coin, BCH, TRX, XMR, XLM and other altcoins in the near term.

Aayush Jindal

David

Bitcoin Dumps 5% In An Hour As Predicted Slide Begins

Following a week of consolidation in an ever tightening channel Bitcoin finally made its move today. Many had been predicting it would be to the downside and they were correct as the king of crypto slumped 5% in an hour plunging back into the mid-$9,000 zone.

Monster Red Bitcoin Candle

Just an hour or so ago one huge red candle plunged Bitcoin prices through support at $10,100 and back into four figures. The move culminated in a bottoming at a previous support level at $9,600 but things bounced off this price quickly.

BTC price 1 hour chart – Tradingview.com

The move had been predicted by many analysts who suggested there would be a final phase down to below $9k before any meaningful upside rally can continue. Bitcoin traders were quick off the mark to seek new support levels and predict BTC’s next move. Josh Rager added that there was nothing unexpected about this move but things could turn south below $9,400.

“Not really worried unless price breaks and closes below $9400 again. This is the area to keep an eye on”

Industry observer Richard Heart added that the move has kept things within the large descending triangle formation that has developed since the initial run back in July.

At the time of writing BTC had closed the last hourly candle at around $9,800 so the drop has not been as extreme as it initially looked. A further period of consolidation may well happen at this area before buyers can push the asset back into five figures.

The Bakkt launch next week may provide some bullish momentum but at the moment no new money is entering the markets and it is the same players recycling the same funds.

Bitcoin Dominance Drop

Bitcoin dominance is now back below 70 percent according to Tradingview.com however the altcoins are also starting to slide so yesterday’s big pump was clearly just a blip. The likely scenario is that all of these gains will be wiped out again as BTC dips back into four figures.

Ethereum has dropped back to $205 while XRP is back below $0.30 again as the dump follows the pump for altcoins. The sea of red is intensifying at the moment as all crypto assets blindly follow their big brother like the digital lemmings that they are.

Over the past couple of hours $10 billion has been dumped from total crypto market capitalization which has slid back to $262 billion.

Martin Young

David

Bitcoin Teeters on $10K, But Can It Fend Off Another Bear?

Bitcoin’s recent market movements have thrown into contention consensus about its short-term price direction, with traders asking openly if demand is strong enough to fend off another bear market.

Such a question has emerged in the wake of the world’s largest cryptocurrency’s inability to set new highs above those seen in June and July, when optimism about a Facebook cryptocurrency launch pushed the price of bitcoin to $13,880 and $13,200 on June 26 and July 10, respectively.

Since then, bitcoin has largely failed to test these highs again, prompting speculation traders may be willing to push the market into a lower range, one that could be deepened by available futures options.

However, investors and analysts remain bullish based on the assumption that demand will continue its current course, helping to sustain prices around $10,000 until next year’s May halving takes effect. Then, investors will see the amount of new bitcoin introduced to the market daily cut in half, with each new block in the blockchain producing 6.25 BTC, down from 12.5 BTC.

As can be seen by the recent litecoin halving, events that increase the perceived scarcity of cryptocurrencies have proven to catalyze buying interest.

Further, Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, an investment management firm focused on the asset class, argues that with the likes of Bakkt and Fidelity opening their doors to new money amid current global economic tensions, bitcoin looks attractive to large hedge fund managers seeking to offset risk in traditional markets.

Dorman told CoinDesk:

“Most macro hedge funds are contemplating using BTC as a better way to offset the systemic risks that are building globally. There seems to be too much interest and too much money on the sidelines for the market to really go lower in any meaningful way.”

Factoring Miner Demand

Analyzing the cryptocurrency markets remains an evolving science, but new metrics suggest that bitcoin may currently be priced favorably ahead of the halving event.

The Diffiulty Ribbon, created by influential market analyst Willy Woo, for example, was recently released. It helps illustrate how leading analysts believe miner selling pressure affects the price of bitcoin.

(As miners are believed to sell the BTC they receive from winning block rewards – to pay employees, electrical bills and other real-world costs – they are believed to influence market direction.)

The above chart shows bitcoin’s “network difficulty,” a function of how hard the software makes it to discover a new block and thus claim the new cryptocurrency it releases to the market.

When the rate of network difficulty increases slows, analysts believe this is a sign miners are shutting off their hardware (leaving only the strong miners who proportionally need to sell fewer coins to remain operational). It’s believed this leads to reduced sell pressure and more room for price increases.

The ribbon consists of simple moving averages of BTC network difficulty so the rate of change of difficulty can be easily seen. According to Woo, the best times to buy BTC are zones where the ribbon compresses.

He said:

“The timing of the last difficulty ribbon compression is very bullish, especially given we expect another compression at the halving, I don’t think we have time to come into a bear season before then.”

Holding $10K

That said, less sophisticated investors may be using simple price charts to gauge entries.

The last two months have produced a series of lower highs putting a clamp to further growth. This can be observed in the amount of sell pressure bitcoin has seen when approaching upper resistances $10,800-$13,200.

Still, prices have held above $10,000 by the end of each daily closing period for nearly 30 days, suggesting that demand for bitcoin below that mark remains strong. As a result, some analysts believe BTC’s outlook would only change bias from bullish-to-bearish long-term should a firm close below $7,333 (200-day moving average) occur.

Still, the pressure is now mounting on the bulls to produce something significant in the short-term or else risk exposing lower supports at $9,600.

Whether or not short-term price action remains bearish, analysts agree that BTC is still bullishly bid based on its position above the aforementioned 200-daily moving average and current mining activity.

However, Dorman argues simple psychology may be the overriding factor so long as $10,000 remains a strong support and belief in the halving as a price catalyst remains strong.

He concluded:

“In general, across any asset class, when consensus is to buy lower… you rarely get that chance.”

Sebastian Sinclair

Aug 28, 2019 at 04:00 UTC

David

Would bullish divergence keep Bitcoin price above $10000?

Another week comes to pass as Bitcoin price hovers at the ten thousand dollars ($10,000) mark and past twenty-four hours (24hrs) have been no different than the price action across the week. Bitcoin (BTC) price plunged down to the low point of nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight dollars ($9768.06) mark at one point while the highest point was recorded at the ten thousand four hundred dollars ($10400) mark. Whereas the weekly high is recorded at the ten thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine ($10929) dollars on the 20th of August but the price has not been near that point since. Bitcoin is trading at ten thousand one hundred and three dollars ($10103.25) at the time of writing.

Bitcoin price – Bearish divergence Cryptocurrency analyst and trading expert BitFink revealed that a bearish divergence can be seen on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency charts. The idea is simple and so far it has been keeping the BTC price afloat above the ten thousand dollars ($10,000) mark.

BitFink is of the view that short bearish divergences in the BTC price action are what keep the Bitcoin price above the psychological limit of ten thousand dollars ($10,000). However, as evident in the chart above, if the Bitcoin price action falls into a corrective action the price is ready to fall down to the nine-thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine dollars ($9759) mark.

Below that point is the twenty (20) day low standing at the nine thousand four hundred and seventy dollars ($9470) mark. On the other hand, twenty (20) day exponential moving average (EMA) stands at the ten thousand and thirty-three dollars ($10,033) mark. This is the point where the BTC price has been finding support over the weekend. The weekend is still young and the BTC price can sway in any direction. Let’s see where the dust settles as the weekend comes to an end

By Saad B. MurtazaAUG 25, 2019

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Bear Market Isn’t Over? Industry Analysts Duke It Out

Bitcoin Could See Another Drop

With Bitcoin (BTC) recently surmounting $5,000 in a move that came straight out of left field, some are sure that bears are done. Jonathan, a forex and cryptocurrency trader, however, recently explained that it would be unfair to assume that the bear market is over. In fact, in a recent Twitter post, he seemed to hint that proclaiming a bear trend over is irresponsible.

He recently explained that this same cycle of optimists calling for an end to the bear after a short-term, emotion-inducing spike always ended in disaster, looking to Bitcoin’s bear market rallies throughout 2018. Past performance isn’t indicative of future action, but considering the reliability of short-term upticks resulting in an eventual move to fresh lows, Johnathan might have a point. Certain technical indicators, too, could also be hinting that a move lower is inbound.

Nunya Bizniz recently wrote on Twitter that the last time Bitcoin’s one-week Guppy, a technical indicator that weighs moving averages to predict price trends, looked as it is now, BTC rallied into the top of its range, before a final capitulation event, which brought the cryptocurrency lower than the seeming bottom. Thus, if history repeats, BTC will move to as high as $5,600 in the coming weeks, before a rapid sell-off that brings the asset under $3,000 for mere days.

Even if there are unlikely to be fresh lows, many analysts are adamant that a return to all-time highs won’t occur until 2020 at the earliest. Dave The Wave, an analyst who favors the MACD indicator, recently posted the chart below on Twitter. While little was divulged, other than “2019 — a year of accumulation and consolidation,” the chart implies that if history repeats itself, Bitcoin could trade relatively flat over much of 2019, eventually rallying into 2020’s block reward reduction.

Magic Poop Cannon, a technical analyst that has been tacitly endorsed by Tom Lee, recently made a similar comment. Per previous reports from this outlet, the trader believes that Bitcoin will trade between $3,200 and the “low 4,000s” for much of the year.

Maybe “Crypto Winter” Is Over

The aforementioned sure seem to be making the case that the cryptocurrency downturn isn’t over yet, but some analysts have begged to differ. As reported by Ethereum World News earlier today, Tom Lee, revealed that he thinks the worse may be over for BTC.

Fundstrat’s in-house crypto bull remarked that Bitcoin’s sudden spike last Monday was based on “true buying,” making it not an act of manipulation as some postulated. This is likely in reference to a Reuters report, which claimed that a single group or entity managed to purchase $100 million worth of Bitcoin across three exchanges, creating a short-term influx of FOMO that pushed BTC higher.

Furthering the bullish narrative, Lee looks to the 200-day moving average, which has acted as an overarching level of resistance for BTC since early-2018. The Fundstrat co-founder explains that while many proclaimed cryptocurrencies dead as a result of their -85% performance from top to bottom, BTC closing and holding above the aforementioned level confirms that it is “back in a bull trend.”

Technicals, too, could also show that Bitcoin’s downturn has likely bitten the dust. According to analyst Altcoin Pyscho, the Guppy has “flipped green” on the one-day Bitcoin chart on BitMEX.

While there’s a fleeting chance that this shift in the Guppy is a bull trap or “fakeout,” which has purportedly only occurred twice in BTC’s history, Pyscho asserts that the bear trend has likely been reversed. He adds:

“This is where you start longing every bullish swing failure pattern (with stops).”

By Nick Chong April 7, 2019

Bitcoin (BTC) Bear Market Isn't Over? Industry Analysts Duke It Out

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Long Term Price Forecast- February 16

BTC/USD Long-term Trend: Bearish

Resistance levels: $7,200, $7,400, $7,600
Support levels: $3,500, $3,300, $3,100

Last month, January, the BTC/USD pair was trading in the bearish trend zone. With an opening balance of $3,832.60, the BTC price depreciated to the low of $3,503.80. In other words, in January, the crypto lost about 8.57% of its capitalization. In January the bears broke the $3,700 support level as price continued its fall to the $3,400 price level.

The broken support level of $3,700 is now a resistance level for the BTC price. On February 8, the cryptocurrency came out of the bearish trend zone as the bulls broke the 12-day EMA and the 26-day EMA. The crypto’s price reached a high of $3,800 but closed at a price of $3,724.The crypto is facing resistance at the $3,700 and $3,800 price levels. Currently, the BTC price is retracing from the recent high and has fallen to the support of the EMAs. If the price is sustained above the EMAs, the crypto is likely to resume its bullish trend. Meanwhile, the MACD line and the signal line are below the zero line which indicates a sell signal. The crypto’s price is above the 12-day EMA and the 26-day EMA which indicates that price is likely to rise.

By Azeez M – February 16, 2019

David