The recent pros and cons of the Crypto market

The crypto market remains merely unchanged since last week as the pros and cons of the industry news reveal a somewhat stable situation of current uncertainty as to the direction the market will move.

First, FCA short for Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, reposted its warning to Investors about crypto-currency related investment scams. This warning was first issued back in June, but the issue seems to persist, with the scammers finding new ways to trick investors into cash deposits. Making it more direct, the fraud is now enacted through the use of celebrities’ or well-known individuals which are portrayed in advertisements to be involved in crypto currencies activities. These advertisements provide links to websites for investments either using crypto-currencies or traditional cash. The fraudsters deceive potential clients by stating they operate within the UK providing also London based addresses. All the information is false as the UK authorities would have been able to locate the scammers in no time and so they actually operate outside the UK.

On other news, Nvidia Corp a NASDAQ listed company saw its shares tumbling by 5 percent in after-hours trading during past Thursday after the chip maker revealed that crypto-currency fueled demand had dropped adding its sales could be lower than Wall Street predicted. It must be emphasized that during the previous quarter, the sales to so-called miners of digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum was equal to $289 million, approximately 1/10 of Nvidia’s revenue. Nvidia previously had estimated that during the fiscal second quarter ending July 29 sales for crypto-currency chips would reach about $100 million. On the contrary, last Thursday it reported actual income of only $18 million.

On another front, Bitmain Technologies Ltd., a leading producer of crypto-currency mining chips, is scheduling a Hong Kong initial public offering with the potential of raising as much as $3 billion, various sources stated. The firm intends to file a listing application with the Hong Kong stock exchange as early as September. Bitmain Tech Ltd., is valued at $15 billion and is expected to control as much as 80 percent of the market for crypto mining. If the IPO progresses as planned, it would represent a major test of investor appetite for digital-currency companies.

The first self-regulatory organization for crypto-currencies is now reality. This organization aims to promote transparency in the crypto world and various crypto-currency exchanges have already signed to it. The organization is under the name of Virtual Commodity Association, with founders the very popular Winklevoss brothers of Gemini Trust Co. The first members include Bittrex Inc bitFlyer USA, Bitstamp, Inc. and Gemini. It was said that they will make a fresh start in a September meeting with clear objectives, rules and guidelines in order to keep all members on the same page. It could be the case that crypto market makers could be impatient with authorities and our now depending on themselves to improve and set standards for the industry. In our humble opinion, this is good news as the choice to rely on oneself, displays confidence and determination for further improvement.

In addition, it seems authorities are still not convinced with the Crypto backed ETFs and are still stalling up on licenses for operations in the field. However Blockchain capital partner Spencer Bogart stated the authorities are now running out of excuses not to provide licenses. Firms are now monitoring markets better and procedures are better implemented with surveillance systems.

Bitcoin against the US Dollar dropped during Tuesday’s early Asian session displaying a bearish appetite. However corrected upwards later and regained strength making up for losses. It is now moving between our $6,470.67 resistance level and the $6,366.09 support level and is approximately trading higher than last week after today’s correction.

If the crypto-currency is undertaken by a bullish sentiment we could see it break the $6,470.67 resistance level and aim higher for the $6,528.20 resistance barrier.

On the other side, should the digital currency drop lower, it could break the $6,366.09 support level aiming lower for the $6,306.16 support hurdle.

Crypto market in pursuit of security and reliability

Fundamental Analysis:

Bitcoin along with other crypto-currencies is going through a very strained period as it seems. As the time progresses more and more issues are looking to bring out the negative side of the digital market instead of embracing it.

The latest negative news, are coming from the Asian continent and more directly the South Korean crypto exchange Coinrail was undergone a cyberattack during the past weekend. In a more simple tone, a digital robbery was confirmed by Coinrail as well as an amount around $30 million worth of lesser-known cryptocurrencies. This negative event, digs deeper in investors’ fears dealing with the digital market reliability and it repels the smooth operation these exchanges boast about, leaving them vulnerable to further harmful publicity. Even though insurance could come into play and should be enacted as this is not the first time cyber-attacks have taken place, the issue still remains unresolved and more work has to be put in the industry to protect investors and companies .

The abovementioned event, hurt Bitcoins price which followed with a steep drop dragging along its path other crypto’s like Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin. The drop acted like a blow to the head for investors which chose to cut their crypto holding, erasing almost $50 billion from the market since Friday.

In the US, Government investigators requested complete trading data from various bitcoin exchanges in order to form a complete investigation regarding crypto price manipulation. Bitcoin futures were made available for trading on CME Group Inc, some 6 months ago and this investigation was put in place in order to check if the prices of those instruments represent a fair and true value. CME Group Inc offered these crypto futures from prices received from four bitcoin exchanges Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken. Some of the pre mentioned exchanges refused to give the data requested, however later followed up and made the data available when limits to the request were set and smaller volume of data was asked for. CME’s regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was not satisfied as no agreement is in place to be able to retrieve this kind of data from price providers, when needed.

On another front, Apple Inc. has legally prohibited users of iPhones and iPads from mining digital currency on their devices. The company publicly noted that cryptocurrencies processing could be performed by cloud-based mining but not applications devices. Apple Inc assists Google’s decision made in April 2018, which very similarly does not allow in-browser mining of cryptos as these activities are contrary to their terms and conditions.

In addition, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon while on a live interview on CNBC along with Warren Buffet, made it clear for bitcoin followers or investors to be aware.

It is our opinion that a solution can be found. However, market participants should be on the lookout as the industry’s inexperience could be exploited further and even bigger amounts than 30 M could be stolen.  Eventually governments and regulations could make the necessary changes to confirm security and reliability to market participants by identifying users or by finding a way to trace digital assets.

 

Technical Analysis:

Bitcoin fell 1.05% to $6,700 but remained just above lows seen over the weekend of 6,633.9.

It is current trading between our noted $6,700 resistance level and the $6,100 support level.

A break above $6,700 resistance level, however, will not only lead to an advancement to $7,120 resistance level but also signal a reversal of the downtrend from the May 5 high of $9,948.98.

If the bears dominate the market Bitcoin could have downward movement break below $6,100 Support level and could aim for the $5,700 Support barrier.

Crypto’s under surveillance

Media reported that the British FCA said on Friday that firms offering services linked to crypto-currencies would likely require it’s authorization. The regulation also includes a number of derivatives. On the same note, Australia also clamps down on regulation of crypto’s, as all digital currency exchange providers with operations in Australia must register with AUSTRAC as part of the country’s anti money-laundering efforts. On other news mining gets more and more energy consuming and crypto-currency consumers seek cheap energy in Norway and Sweden. Overall, as regulators seem to be on the move the outlook for bitcoin remains negative.

Bitcoin entered a sideways movement in the past few days between the 7425 resistance line and the 5710 support line. Technically, please be advised that Bitcoin has broken the downward trend line incepted since the 5th of March and is currently moving in a sideways manner. We see the case for the crypto-currency to continue to move in a sideways manner currently, however we retain the negative outlook as regulators may intensify efforts to set the crypto-market under control. Should the bulls take the reins we could see the crypto-currency breaking the 7425 resistance line while on the other hand should the bears have the upper hand we could see it breaking the 5710 (S1) support line.