Crypto Market Forecast: Week of July 19th 2021

Over the course of the last week, Bitcoin and digital asset markets dragged downwards and traded sideways. The Bitcoin price ends the week down ~6% and trading near the US$31,500 price level, while the 2nd and 4th largest assets on the Brave New Coin market cap table, Ethereum (ETH) and Binance coin (BNB), fell by ~11% and ~5% respectively.

Worldwide Google search interest for the terms ‘Bitcoin price’ and ‘Bitcoin’ have hit their lowest point of 2021 in the last week. Search interest for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related terms tends to pick up when the BTC price has high volatility – with traders looking for effective ways to maximize profits or read market movements. For example, Bitcoin search interest this year peaked between May 16th-22nd, a period when the price dropped 22% from ~US$48,162 to trading near ~US$37,538.

Bitcoin has been range trading between 30,000 to 40,000 since May, with the range getting tighter in recent weeks. Since the beginning of July, the BTC price has been rubber banding between US$31,500 and US$35,000. This unexciting, predictable price action appears to have driven retail interest temporarily away from crypto markets.

The last week has also been a test of Bitcoin’s digital gold narrative. Inflation in the USA surged in June to reach its fastest pace in nearly 13 years. The US Labour Department reported Tuesday that the spike has been driven by a sharp rise in the price of used vehicles, food and energy. On Wednesday, US Fed chairman Jerome Powell announced that the central bank would continue its aggressive monetary easing policy despite the growing concerns around inflation.

While traditional Inflation hedge assets like gold have performed strongly since the beginning of July—and jumped following Powell’s comments—Bitcoin has struggled for price momentum during this period. John Authers, senior editor for markets at Bloomberg, penned an article in April that ‘Bitcoin Is Displacing Gold as an Inflation Hedge’. Today, this confidence that BTC would replace gold as an inflation hedge is not present amongst investors.

Trading set-ups for the week

Pro trader Josh Olszewicz explores trading options and signals for BTC and ETH – and lays out the trading setups he’s watching for the upcoming week. Start your week off right with Josh’s thoughts on trading strategies on a weekly basis.

Bitcoin, ALTs and Ethereum – Trading setup for the week of the 19th of July 2021

Crypto news for the week ahead

July 20-22- Ethereum Community Conference 4

On Tuesday and Thursday this week Paris will host the 4th annual Ethereum Community Conference (ECC). EthCC is the largest annual European Ethereum event focused on technology and community. EthCC speakers include Tim Beiko from the Ethereum Foundation, Stani Kulechov of Aave, and Kain Warwick of Synthetix. Q3 will be big for Ethereum with the London hard fork set to occur in early August, the looming release of Ethereum 2.0, and new layer 2 solutions deployed.

July 21- Ethereum Classic Magneto Hard Fork

This Wednesday, the Magneto network upgrade will be deployed on the Ethereum Classic (ETC) mainnet. The upgrade will be inclusive of all the upgrades within Ethereum’s Berlin upgrade. The Berlin upgrade on the larger Ethereum network was launched in April 2021 and contained a series of Improvement Proposals optimizing gas and transactions. The price of ETC has dropped ~16% in the last week.

Top 10 Crypto Summary

Most large-cap altcoins dropped sharply alongside Bitcoin (BTC) last week. Binance coin (BNB) absorbed the bearish market better than most. Today, Binance announced that it had completed its 16th quarterly coin burn. The exchange burnt 1,296,728 BNB worth ~$393,673,653, tightening supply and theoretically making the remaining circulating tokens worth more.

Bitcoin Price Chart

Bitcoin started the last week poorly but found a clear floor as the price touched the lower bounds of its recent short-term range, US$31,500. As search interest for Bitcoin has dropped, global exchange volume has dropped alongside it. Glassnode noted on Twitter just how much exchange transaction fees have dropped off since the middle of June.