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Crypto Market Forecast: The week ahead, 20th May

Bitcoin and crypto markets were able to bounce back from a price scare over the weekend to end the week with double digit gains. News of incoming institutional investment vehicles also buoys perspective for medium-to-long term investors.

Another volatile, but ultimately bullish week in the crypto markets saw market benchmark BTC end the week up 12% after finding strong support at price levels below $8000. The second and third largest crypto assets on Brave New Coin’s market cap table, ETH and XRP gained 35% and 30% respectively, over the last seven days in US dollar terms. A number of altcoins appear to have found a bottom trading against BTC and BTC traders are starting to allocate a portion of their profits to the altcoin markets in anticipation of future gains against bitcoin. The total crypto market cap rose ~18% in the last 7 days.

The week’s gains were almost derailed by unusual trading activity on the Bitstamp exchange. This caused a market-wide BTC price drop of over 10% on the 17th of May. A 5,000 BTC sell order executed on the trading platform at $6200 created a sell wall that took 15 minutes to break, cascading price downwards until it was filled.

The Bitstamp price drop has further implications for the wider crypto ecosystem because Bitstamp’s BTC prices are used for indices on major crypto derivatives markets. The BitMEX price fell to US$6,382 and CME’s Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) reached US$6,320, destroying a number of leveraged long positions. Over $200 million worth of BTC was liquidated on Bitmex alone because of the sudden price drop, with traders again caught out by the volatility and potential for market manipulation that exists in the Bitcoin markets.

However, the markets recovered quickly from the steep plunge, with buying pressure resuming once market participants determined that the fall in price was most likely inorganic. This is a sign that market sentiment for crypto continues to lean bullish. The BTC markets have demonstrated an ability and willingness to shake off anxiety and unexpected FUD events, preferring to continue the strong positive price momentum that began in early April. Brave New Coin’s BLX index shows the price of BTC is up almost 100% since the 1st of April, out-performing all other asset classes by a large margin.

Across the wider crypto ecosystem, a number of news stories and announcements in the last week continue to provide evidence for the narrative that a wave of institutional money will enter the crypto markets this year.

The highly anticipated institutional bitcoin exchange and custody provider BAKKT announced that it would begin rolling out testing for its Bitcoin futures product in July. It will work closely with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures US exchange and ICE Clear US to ensure robust Bitcoin trading and custody.

While at Consensus on Monday, SEC commissioner and Bitcoin ETF proponent Hester Pierce, again said the time is right for a Bitcoin ETF. She urged crypto executives to submit suggestions to inform and educate the SEC to help mitigate the key sticking points for an ETF approval such as market manipulation and custody.

This week in crypto events

21st May- Everipedia 2.0 launch on EOS Mainnet

The Everipedia project has gained market visibility as a flagship EOS Dapp with a unique value proposition. It aims to become a blockchain-based Wikipedia equivalent that fairly rewards contributors who add to the platform’s knowledge base. A new version of the Dapp launches this Tuesday, with new features and UI and UX improvements. The price of EOS rose 22% in the last 7 days.

24th May- Bittrex delists 5 altcoins from trading

Bittrex, the well-established crypto asset exchange continues to purge a number of token projects from its platform. This week it removed 5 tokens including marijuana-based tokens Cannabiscoin and Dopecoin. Tokens are generally delisted because of low trading volumes, or due to bad actors within coin projects or security issues. Some market observers view delisting as a positive sign that the market is maturing, and more willing to protect retail traders from weak projects.

Top 10 tokens 2005

It was a strong green trading week for the majority of the large-cap crypto assets with double-digit gains across the board. Ethereum markets were boosted by the news that the current ETH and ERC-20 wallet support for the Samsung Galaxy S10 will be rolled out across cheaper Samsung smartphones next. Outside of the top 10, NEM (XEM) was one of the week’s big winners rising an impressive 66%, following news of a deal with crypto payment provider Zeux and number of network updates.

BLX 2005

Bitcoin continued its ascent, posting a new 2019 high with a BLX price high of $8,334 on the 16th of May, before the subsequent price drop and recovery over the weekend. The gains so far in Q2 2019 rank as the highest since 2014 and the 7th best quarterly gain of all time.

Bitcoin’s hash rate continues to increase, building on the uptrend that began in December 2018. The next difficulty update is expected to be positive and ~3%.


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