Another Bitcoin Indicator Signals Price Bottom May Be Forming

A technical indicator that incorporates both bitcoin’s price and trading volume is signaling the cryptocurrency may have bottomed in December.

The money flow index (MFI), also known as the volume-weighted relative strength index, is used to identify buying and selling pressure and oscillates between zero to 100. A rising MFI indicates an increase in buying pressure, while a falling MFI is considered a sign of increasing selling pressures.

Essentially, the MFI validates or confirms price trends. Many times, however, the indicator diverges from the prevailing market trend.

For instance, BTC dashed hopes of a long-term bullish reversal with a break below $6,000 on Nov. 14 and hit a 15-month low of $3,122 on Dec. 15. The 14-week MFI also nosedived from the high of 43.00 in mid-November, confirming the sell-off in prices.

The indicator, however, bottomed out with a higher low at 22.00, contradicting the lower low in bitcoin’s price. That bullish divergence is widely considered an early warning of a bearish-to-bullish trend reversal. Supporting that argument is the fact BTC snapped its record six-month losing streak with a 10 percent gain in February and the MFI rose from 25 to 44.

Other indicators like the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and the bearish crossover of the 50- and 100-week moving average are also signaling long-term bearish exhaustion. These tools, however, don’t incorporate trading volumes. The MFI, therefore, stands out as a more reliable technical tool.

That said, with a number of indicators pointing to bullish reversal, the probability of BTC picking a strong bid a year ahead of the mining reward halving appears high.

As of writing, BTC is trading at $3,785 according to CoinDesk data.

Weekly chart

As seen above, the MFI diverged in favor of the bulls in mid-December, despite BTC sliding to lows near $3,100. Further, it carved out another higher low at 25 at the end of January and is now rising toward the upper edge of the channel. A breakout on the MFI, if confirmed, would reinforce the bullish divergence witnessed in December.

When it comes to BTC, $4,190 is the level to beat for the bulls, as it is the high of the inverted bullish hammer carved out last week. That candlestick pattern indicates the bulls are beginning to test bears’ resolve to keep prices low – a sign the market is bottoming out.

A convincing move above $4,190, if backed by a rise in the money flow, could yield a rally toward the psychological resistance of $5,000.

The bullish case presented by the MFI would weaken if the February low of $3,328 is breached with high volumes.

 

Omkar Godbole

Mar 4, 2019 at 05:00 UTC

David

A Look at the Top Headlines Across Bitcoin and Blockchain
 

Crypto Bear Market Caused Nearly 1 Million Bitcoin Mining ASICs in China to Hibernate but May Be Back Online Soon

The crypto winter has been strenuous for the entire industry, from investors to miners to exchanges. With such a stressed market, many companies had to shut down, resulting in almost one million mining ASICs being put into hibernation. However, there is a group of miners that want to bring all of those ASICs back.

United States Will Soon Have the First Digital Asset Bank, FreeRange, Thanks to a Wyoming Holding Company

Wyoming’s blockchain infrastructure has been evolving steadily over the last year and has been becoming the go-to place for companies in the United States. Based on recent legislation passed for special purpose banks, the opportunity has arisen for the first digital asset bank, which FreeRange is seeking to be.

COs 2017, Stablecoins 2018 and 2019 the ‘Crypto Intranet’ or Bankcoins or Corporate Coins

Ari David Paul took to Twitter over a series of posts to discuss the potential for a permissioned blockchain, which he also calls the crypto internet. Going after JPM Coin, Facebookcoin, and similar tokens, Paul attacks the lack of censorship resistance and depreciation resistance, among other issues. However, Bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies could be necessary to the progress of these blockchains in the future.

Looking into the Polarity of Facebook Entering the Cryptocurrency Space: Intentions Become Talking Point

Though Facebook has been highly secretive about their alleged plan to enter both blockchain technology and cryptocurrency markets. However, concerns have arisen amongst the community, since Facebook has become involved in some unfortunate scandals that could inhibit their progress.

Ernst & Young’s Examination of Missing Funds from QuadrigaCX Continues Down the Rabbit Hole

The QuadrigaCX court case involves thousands of creditors that are missing close to $150 million in cryptocurrencies. Though statements from the CEO’s widow have consistently suggested that the missing funds were in cold wallets on his computer, a report from Bloomberg shows a much different narrative, claiming that the wallets have been empty for almost a year.

Crypto Analyst: Crypto Winter is Far from Over, Bitcoin Should peak in 2023

The investors of the cryptocurrency industry have been hopeful that the long winter of cryptocurrency would soon end, clinging onto the hope of new products and exchanges for institutional investors. However, one crypto analyst decided to break down some research, demonstrating his theory of exactly when the market will turn around. Unfortunately, that projection lengthens the winter by four more years.

Cryptocurrency Critics (Wrongly) Predict the Death of Bitcoin Where BTC Development Is Flourishing

Even though Bitcoin’s prices are down, their development of the network is flourishing, as well the networks of altcoins and related exchanges. However, opponents of the market are still digging their heels into the idea that BTC is on its way to its untimely end.

 

 

By Krystle M – March 3, 2019

David

Bitcoin – Cup and saucer breakout on the horizon?

• BTC in the process of handle formation of the pattern.

• Bullish once handle consolidation completes, breakout likely soon.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocyrrency by market capitalisation, after running up and breaking past the psychologically important $4,000 mark, gave up those gains and is now in the consolidation phase of the cup and saucer technical pattern, which is bullish for the poster boy.

 

BTC/USD is down two cents of a percent at $3,800 and trading in less than one percent range for the day so far. On the 480-minute chart of this largest coin, it has formed a cup and saucer technical pattern which is a bullish sign, once the consolidation phase is complete.

 

Consolidation phase is the formation of handle, which is final phase of this pattern, after completion of which, the crypto should head upwards and the breakout point would be recent high, $4,187 that is. Target after the breakout would be around $5,100 – exactly around the 200 days SMA and EMA.

 

BTC/USD 480-minute chart:

 

| 33 minutes ago

Manoj B Rawal Manoj B Rawal

FXStreet

David

Bitcoin Use Will Explode In These Countries

In today's video we discuss which countries Bitcoin has the most potential in. These developing nations have little to no banking infrastructure so making the switch to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin makes the most sense. The opportunity for Bitcoin here is far greater than developed nations with established banks.

This episode is brought to you by Caleb and Brown, an award-winning cryptocurrency brokerage firm.

Their brokerage team provides simple and secure access to over 2000 cryptocurrencies for new and seasoned investors and traders like myself. I have used their services for more than a year and would highly recommend their service to buy, sell and for all end-to-end cryptocurrency services.

Date of Recording: Feb 28, 2018

David

Bitcoin update – BTC is ready to finish the first green month in more than half a year

• Bitcoin is still rangebound, though the monthly momentum is positive.

• In the long run, we need to see a move above $5,000 to claim that the bear trend is over.

 

February proved to be the most successful month in the recent six months. The digital asset No.1 has been losing ground since August 2018, which is the most prolonged period of consecutive red months in the history of the asset. However, now BTC is 7% higher than at the beginning of February. While it is still too early to claim the reversal, this development might be interpreted as a positive signal and may eventually translate into a sustainable recovery above $4,000 in the coming weeks.

 

At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $3,780, mostly unchanged on a day-over-day basis. Considering a large number of strong technical indicators clustered between the current price and $3,900 handle, the bulls will have a hard time making their way towards the above-said $4,000 resistance. However, once it is cleared, $5,000 will be back in focus.

 

According to Justin Sun, the founder of the 9th largest cryptocurrency TRON, Bitcoin will hardly be able to surpass this level in 2019. However, should it succeed, the upside momentum will gain traction, signaling that the year-long bear trend may be behind us.

 

On the downside, $3,600-$3,650 is the local support zone that will stop the sell-off for the time being. A push lower might increase the selling pressure with the next Ain at $3,300 and the lowest level of 2018 at $3,127.

 

BTC/USD, 1D chart

 

 

Tanya Abrosimova

FXStreet

David

Bitcoin outdoes Paypal’s transaction volume second year in a row

• Bitcoin managed a $1.3 Trillion annual transactional volume in 2018 while PayPal did $578.65 billion.

• This was the second year in a row that Bitcoin outdid Paypal’s transaction volume.

For the second year in a row, Bitcoin managed to surpass PayPal’s in annual transactional volume. Within the given timeframe, PayPal recorded $578.65 billion worth of payment transactions, while Bitcoin did a staggering $1.3 Trillion. In 2017, Bitcoin had posted $543.52 billion more transactional volume than PayPal.
 

PayPal is expected to record higher transactional volume in the upcoming year after the World Bank estimated the remittance market to grow 3.7% to $715 billion in 2019. Bitcoin is also expected to enjoy a healthy 2019 after coming out of a year-long bear run. With the launch of regulated bitcoin derivate platforms like Bakkt and the SEC hopefully approving the first bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), things look very positive.

 

Rajarshi Mitra Rajarshi Mitra

FXStreet

David

 

Bitcoin Market Analysis: 24th February 2019

Today’s attempt by buyers to break through the price range of USD 4240-USD 4320 ended with big aggression on the part of sellers.

At hourly time frame, it is clearly visible that buyers did not make any effort to break through this price zone. Only as buyers approached this price zone – the volumes immediately decreased:

Now the price has stopped in the price zone of USD 3850- USD 3920. Looking at the length of the day candle, we think that the fall can continue up to USD 3500. In this case, it will be a final confirmation that the price is traded in the triangle from 15 December 2018. Buyers did not expect such an aggressive fall. However, buyers start to close their marginal positions during the growth:

Interestingly, during the fall, sellers close their positions as well, so they do not believe in the global continuation of the fall:

Therefore, at this moment, we do not expect the market to have a strong trend until the price goes beyond the triangle. The lower limit of the triangle is USD 3500, the upper limit is the price zone of USD 4240-USD 4320.

If we analyse the volumes on which the growth occurred then the local chart shows that they are enlarged. Though, if you do not take into account the consolidation volumes which were before growth and compare them with the volumes when the price was falling, then we can conclude that the volumes are significantly smaller:

If we analyze the structure of the waves, one can observe that each directed wave, up or down, consists of three smaller waves. According to the wave analysis, this only confirms the fact that the corrective wave continues to form ahead of the future impulse:

Therefore, with a high probability, sellers will test USD 3500. And if buyers find the strength to keep this price – the chance to continue the growth will remain high.

An interesting situation with an index of fear/greed. Before today’s fall, its value was 69. This is the highest figure for the whole year, starting from February 2018:

 

 

By Peter Posted on 25/02/2019 5 min read

David

 

Crypto Frenzy Overloads Binance, Tom Lee’s 2019 Bitcoin Forecast, and Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin on Ripple and XRP

Binance Overload
 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says a sudden burst in trading volume on Sunday triggered delays on Binance.

According to Zhao, the leading crypto exchange hit an all-time high in system load as the price of Bitcoin dropped below $4,000. The exchange is still working to effectively scale during periods of intense trading.

Fundstrat co-founder and head of research Tom Lee is offering his take on where Bitcoin will land at the end of 2019.

Lee told Crypto Market News he believes the price of BTC will recover and be “much higher” than $3,900 by the end of the year.

“I think that several things are going to support the price this year. The first is what we call macro factors – the fact that global markets are actually rising. Global stock markets are bullish for Bitcoin in the same way that last year’s global stock markets fell and Bitcoin fell. The dollar isn’t soaring like it was last year so that dollar being weaker is a real tailwind for Bitcoin.

The technicals are much more attractive. Bitcoin is bouncing along its 200-week moving average. That’s really been an important support in traditional markets, and I think it’s going to support Bitcoin’s price here.

And finally, I think there’s true improved credibility of Bitcoin. The JP Morgan Coin is really proving the use case of digital currencies. Bakkt is going to launch this year and that’s a really good regulated way for institutions to trade crypto.”

Vitalik Buterin on Ripple and XRP

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is poking fun at Ripple’s stream of partnership announcements on Twitter. Buterin responded to a tongue-in-cheek tweet from the founder of Bitcoin Advisory Pierre Rochard, who pointed out that one Bitcoin has always been worth one Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, an extensive article on Ripple and XRP written by Buterin has surfaced. Buterin wrote the article for Bitcoin Magazine, which he co-founded, back in 2013.

Buterin calls Ripple “decentralized cryptocurrency’s new kid on the block.”

 

Daily Hodl Staff

February 24, 2019

David

Bitcoin – fundamentals stronger than they were during 2014-15 crypto-winter, says Pantera Capital

A year ago, the market cap for the entire cryptocurrency industry was over $800 billion and it has since, fallen by over 80 percent to its current valuation of $135 billion. This period came to be known as the “crypto-winter.”

Pantera Capital, a blockchain investment fund based in San Francisco, released a study that charted the price of Bitcoin in 2013 and compared it to 2017, based on the real-time and projected valuations. The report suggested that top cryptocurrencies, despite a decline in the prices, saw their fundamentals remain resolute.

In 2013, Bitcoin first shot up above the $1,000 mark and then closed the following year just above the $300 mark, with many referring to this period as the first crypto-winter. Dan Morehead, the CEO of Pantera, stated that he had, “more of a worry,” during the first winter as that was Blockchain’s first test. The technology survived and the currency it powered only surged over the following years.

With respect to the current bearish market, he said,

“Today, the underlying fundamentals are much, much stronger than they were in the 2014–15 crypto winter.”

According to Morehead, the stronger fundamentals in the current bear market is due to the rise of institutional interest. The digital assets trading platform Bakkt, backed by NYSE and ICE, is set to launch this year, Fidelity has launched a crypto-custody solution division and more recently, JP Morgan introduced a US dollar-backed cryptocurrency called “JPM Coin.”

He added,

“People have been talking for years about the impending institutional wave of money coming into the markets and I think we now actually have the required conditions for that to happen.”

When asked if retail investors drove the cryptocurrency market and when institutional investors would begin to flock in, Morehead stated that institutions were risk-averse and they preferred a more conservative approach, especially with something as volatile as cryptocurrency.

He added that several custody giants would join the likes of Fidelity and State Street to provide solutions to the cryptocurrency industry, looking at the wider institutional interest. However, the prices need to rise for this to happen. Morehead stated,

“I think that’s been the gating factor: that large institutions want a more institutional custodian like Bakkt or Fidelity. And once those come in, people will start buying and that’ll start the price moving up. But the massive amount of investment probably won’t occur until the prices have already really gotten going.”

Commenting on the ongoing blockchain scaling debate, Morehead stated that it would take a few years for the impact of scaling success to manifest as a success. Morehead compared the lack of scalability of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin [BTC] to streaming Netflix on a mobile device in the 90s, advising these proponents to be patient. He added,

“These protocols will scale. Even if it takes years for it to happen, you shouldn’t discount that eventuality out of the price today.”

Pantera had recently secured over $125 million out of its $175 million venture fund, which is the company’s third cryptocurrency venture fund. Their maiden fund back in 2013, when the first crypto-winter stormed through, was just $13 million, following which the second rose to $25 million.

In light of their whopping $175 million target, Pantera stated in August 2018, that this was a “function of how fast the space is moving, the talent coming in, the opportunities, and the sizing of rounds.”

 

Published

1 min ago on February 24, 2019 By Aakash Athawasya

David

Bitcoin – Do or die for the bulls

• BTC at the cusp of a major resistance, break must.

• U-turn from here would be deadly and chaotic.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, is sitting on the cusp of a breakout on the med-term charts, a break of which is a must if the bulls have to continue being relevant in their journey to the north.

BTC/USD is down three cents of a percent on day at $3,929 and trading in less than one percent range for the day. On the 480-minute chart of this largest crypto, it is sitting exactly at the resistance area of the trend line, formed after last year's sell-off and the bounces thereafter.

Given, nearly overbought RSI and sentiment around the crypto world still at their weakest of the times, chances of a breakout on the upside are very slim. But if it indeed breaks out, then next major resistance comes after nearly 35 percent more rally from here – at $5,500 that is. Whereas if bulls are unable to cross past this one, then a U-turn would take prices all the way towards $3,700 first major support and then $3,300. So indeed a do or die situation for the bulls to prove their relevance.

BTC/USD 480-minute chart:

 

Manoj B Rawal

FXStreet

David