Crypto Market Forecast: 10th February

It was another excellent trading week for digital assets with large gains across the markets. Bitcoin, the largest asset on Brave New Coin’s Market Cap table rose ~7% over the week and now trades above the psychologically significant US$10,000 level. ETH and XRP, the number two and three crypto assets on Brave New Coin’s market cap table, rose ~17% and ~10% respectively. The total crypto market cap rose ~9%, growing by over US$20 billion.

A number of altcoins, such as ETH and LTC, are defying market expectations and enjoying extended price gains to begin 2020. This is despite a number of market indicators beginning to flip bearish, a signal that bullish price momentum may be running out of fuel.

Some analysts continue to suggest that the crypto market remains in a long term bear trend with price pullbacks incoming. Sentiment signals, however, lean bullish. Brave New Coin’s Twitter Sentiment infographic suggests growth in social sentiment activity across Twitter in the last few weeks and the Crypto Fear and Greed Index suggests crypto markets are currently ‘Greedy’.

Fundamental signs also suggest that the current price momentum is set to continue. The total USD value of assets locked into decentralized finance(DeFi) applications crossed the US$1 billion mark for the first time last time week. This number has been surging since the middle of December and has surged ~50% Year-to-Date.

Most of this recent growth in DeFi popularity has been driven by activity on Ethereum lending/financing platforms like Maker, Compound, and Synthetix. Concurrent to the increased use of Ethereum-based DeFi solutions, the price of the ETH token has risen by ~74%.

The sharp rise in ETH locked in DiFi is both a direct injection of new value into the network and a bullish signal of the current utility and interest in DeFi applications. Other factors such as an increase in the use of Ethereum as a medium for US dollar Tether transactions and a reduction in the size of ICO treasuries have also contributed to Ethereum’s bullish momentum.

Also last week, Bitcoin DeFi project Lightning announced a successful US$10 million Series-A raise. The startup seeks to build application-layer solutions to make payments on the Bitcoin network faster and cheaper. The funds also contribute to expanding Lightning’s developer base.

This week in crypto events

14th February- Launch of Voice (EOS)

This Valentine’s day, Voice, the flagship social media platform of the EOS blockchain will launch its beta platform. The Voice launch has been a key driver of fundamental activity on EOS. A large amount of EOS RAM was purchased for the application and the network was forked in order to support the launch. A successful Voice release could be a driver of new bullish momentum heading into Q2 2020. The price of EOS rose 18% in the last week.

14th-16th February- EthDenver 2020

ETHDenver is one of the largest hackathons for Ethereum enthusiasts and developers with 2019’s edition having over 2000+ attendees. The event will include panels on DApp building, UI/UX design and how to contribute to infrastructure projects. Sponsors include Colorado Governor’s Office of IT and Maker, while judges and presenters include Vitalik Buterin, Caitlin Long, and Taylor Monahan.

Market Cap Top 10

It was an excellent week for large-cap assets on Brave New Coin’s market cap table with large gains across the board. XTZ is a new entrant to the top 10% and has risen ~77% year-to-date. The asset price grew ~42% in USD terms last week and the XTZ/USD pair has recently hit all-time highs on major exchanges like Coinbase Pro, Kraken and Bitfinex.

It was an excellent week for Bitcoin bulls with the price of the market benchmark rising consistently throughout the week and then pushing through the key US$9500 and $10,000 price levels. It was also another strong weekly close with higher highs now being continuously hit on the ongoing weekly trend and signs that BTC’s long term macro downtrend may be over.