Crypto Market Forecast: The week ahead, 29th October

‘Good things come to those who wait’ is the ongoing mantra for investors in cryptocurrency markets as another week of sideways movements ended with BTC down ~2%, ETH down ~1% and XRP down ~0.01.

Outside of the large caps, a number of select smaller, but still relevant tokens such as REP, MAID and STRAT enjoyed strong trading weeks, up ~10%, ~7% and ~15% respectively. The movements indicate that select hidden gem altcoins, often backed by strong short term fundamentals, are standing out and bucking the trend of ongoing bearish consolidation

REP, for example, was able to surge on the back of record high token staking on the underlying Augur betting platform it is built on. While Stratis, as highlighted by Cryptocurrency Newsfeed (Timestamp: 10/24/2018 12:05:49 pm EDT), was buffered by news that it would be partnering with Microsoft as an Independent Software Vendor.

Underlying these short term fluctuations, crypto’s institutional connections continue to grow deeper. NASDAQ backed BAKKT announced a start date for its BTC(USD) daily futures contracts, December 12th. Coinbase is now a qualified custodian for digital assets as licensed by NYDFS.

In China, a judge in the Shenzen jurisdiction ruled that Bitcoin ‘has characteristics of property’ and ‘economic value to the owner’. Many speculators continue to hope that the decision will be watershed for the reemergence of Chinese crypto buyers given the direct nature of the message.

Upcoming Events in Crypto

30th October-2nd November – Devcon4

The flagship conference for all things Ethereum and smart contract related takes place this week in Prague. New innovations surrounding Ethereum based: infrastructure, storage solutions, scaling (sharding & sidechains) and consensus are likely to be unveiled at the event. Notable speakers include, leading Ethereum dev Vlad Zamfir, Director of design at Coinbase Connie Yang and Truffle founder Tim Coulter. ETH has held above $200 threshold in recent weeks and some speculative price action may occur in Ethereum markets as announcements from the event filter through.

**31st October – 10th anniversary of the Satoshi Whitepaper **

Halloween 2018, marks 10 years since Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin network ‘peer-to-peer electronic cash’ document was first released. Revolutionary at the time, it is still likely the single most important blockchain proposal in the history of the ecosystem and remains an engaging, eye-opening read for the value of a decentralized, permissionless, cryptographic payment network.

**1st November- Lisk Block reward reduction **

Node block rewards on the Delegated Proof-of-Stake Lisk (LSK) fall by a quarter on Wednesday. There are a number of significant implications of the network enforcing this change. Voters earn LSK as block producers (delegates) share part of their forging rewards, as thanks for receiving support. Less return to delegates means less allocation to voters. There is a scarcity argument, that less LSK in circulation means each individual token is worth more, however, global markets should adjust perception towards LSK to correct for any significant price effects.

Top 10 Crypto Summary

It was a middling, red trading week for most large cap alts and BTC. Top 3 tokens BTC, ETH and XRP were all able to find psychological support and temporary homes around the $6400, $200 and $0.45 price levels and this may be a relief to some hodlers.

Standout privacy token XMR had a more challenging week than its top-3 counterparts, however, based on recent analysis, both technicals and fundamentals indicate that the possibility of a future trend reversal is strong backed by recent network updates and awaiting buying volume.

As we approach November 2018, as strange as this may sound, BTC (based on 20-day volatility charts) is more stable than a number of the NASDAQ’s most popular Bluechip stocks including Netflix, Amazon and Nvidia. The Bitcoin price remained within a tight $100 range between $6400-$6500 all week, despite potential needle movers such as the close of the most recent round of quarterly CME futures during the time period.

For BTC backers and maximalists this is an added indicator of Bitcoin’s growing maturity as an investment option, and fuel against detractors who have previously pointed to its volatility as the primary strike against mainstream adoption.