David Marcus, the head of Calibra at Facebook, has said that the company aims to launch Libra in 2020 after addressing regulatory concerns. He denied that Libra will in any way be a threat to sovereign monetary policy.
Initially, after the launch, Marcus believes that Libra might face acceptance problems as consumers figure out the best way to use it.
Bakkt Daily and Monthly Bitcoin Futures will launch on Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. EDT. This is likely to increase volatility in Bitcoin, which has been stuck in a tight range for the past few weeks.
Expectations are that Bitcoin-settled contracts and the backing of the New York Stock Exchange will attract institutional players, who have largely stayed away from making big investments in cryptocurrencies. How much of this plays out remains to be seen.
BitMEX CEO and co-founder Arthur Hayes says that 24 hours a day, seven days a week trading in cryptocurrencies will change the way people trade equities, bonds and fiat currencies. He cautioned that traders might “even lose their lunch breaks and weekends as traditional assets absorb some characteristics of digital ones.”
With a major event coming up, how does the chart of the top five performers of the past seven days look? Can they build on the gains or will this rise fizzle out? Let’s find out.
XLM/USD
Stellar (XLM) surged in the early part of the week without any specific fundamental news backing the rally. The move propelled it into the list of top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. However, it has not been able to hold on to the gains and has corrected a large part of the intra-week rally. Its overall gains in the past seven days have dropped to only about 18%. After a volatile week, what does the chart project?
The XLM/USD pair had been consistently making new yearly lows in the past five weeks. However, a sharp rally this week propelled the price back above the previous support-turned-resistance of $0.072545. This up move hit a roadblock at the 20-week EMA and the pair has quickly given back the gains. The failure of the bulls to stall the pullback at $0.072545 is a bearish sign.
If the bears sink the cryptocurrency to a new 52-week low, the downtrend will resume. Nevertheless, if the price bounces off current levels and sustains above $0.072545, we expect another attempt by the bulls to breakout of 20-week EMA. If successful, a rally to $0.145 is possible.
IOTA/USD
Iota (MIOTA) announced Chronicle, a permanode solution that will allow its node owners to secure data on the Tangle and maintain uninterrupted access to it. The Iota Foundation has released a platform, called Industry Marketplace, which aims to accelerate industrial automation and commercial machine interaction.
This project has been completed by a collaboration between many firms and the foundation claims it to be the first autonomous and decentralized virtual marketplace in the world. Can this fundamental news start a new uptrend in the cryptocurrency? Let’s analyze the charts.
The IOTA/USD pair held the critical support zone of $0.244553-$0.207622 for the past five weeks. Failure of the bears to break below this range shows buying at lower levels. This week’s rally is facing resistance at the 20-week EMA, which is flattening out. The RSI has turned up and is just below the midpoint, which shows a balance between buyers and sellers.
If the bulls can scale the price above the moving averages, a rally to $0.385033 is possible. A breakout of this stiff resistance will result in a move to $0.5410. Contrary to our assumption, if the bulls fail to push the price above the moving averages, the bears will again try to break below the support zone.
ETH/USD
Due to the congestion in the Ethereum network, an effort is underway to raise the network’s block size. According to a tweet by mining pool Bitfly, tests are in progress to increase the block gas limit to 10 million gas, which will be a total capacity increase of 25%. This is likely to improve network performance and reduce transaction fees.
Cryptocurrency payment services provider BitPay has added support for Ether (ETH). With these positive developments, can the cryptocurrency lead an altcoin recovery? Let’s study its chart.
The recovery in the ETH/USD pair broke above the 20-week EMA but is facing resistance close to $235.70. A breakout of this resistance will carry the price to $320.84. If bulls succeed in breaking out of $320.84, it will complete a bullish cup and handle pattern, which will signal the start of a new uptrend.
However, if the bulls fail to push the price above $235.70, the pair might remain range-bound for a few weeks. The flattish moving averages and RSI close to 50 levels suggests a balance between buyers and sellers. The cryptocurrency will weaken if bears sink the price below the critical support of $163.755.
TRX/USD
Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun has announced a new plan for Tron’s proof-of-stake mechanism, which is expected to increase engagement in the community and ensure a more robust network economic system. Earlier in the week, Justin Sun piggybacked on a tweet by Electronic Arts to market the games available on the Tron blockchain platform. Though Sun never lets any marketing opportunity go by, will it help the cryptocurrency stage a recovery? Let’s look at the chart.
The bears could not capitalize on the break below $0.016 in the past two weeks, which shows a lack of sellers at lower levels. This week, buying by aggressive bulls has pushed the price back above $0.016 but is facing some resistance close to $0.01774. If the price sustains above $0.01774, a move to the 20-week EMA is likely. A breakout of the moving averages can propel the price to the top of the range at $0.0409111 in the medium-term.
The traders can initiate long positions above $0.019 and keep a stop loss of $0.0135. If the pair struggles to break out of the moving averages, we will trail the stops higher to reduce risk. Our bullish view will be invalidated if the price turns down from current levels and plummets below $0.0139038.
XRP/USD
Ripple has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that claims it violated US securities laws by selling unregistered securities. However, some believe that the motion put forth other arguments for dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims and failed to address whether XRP is an unregistered security or not. This has not affected its price as it still managed to find a place among the top-five performers in the past seven days.
The XRP/USD pair held the support at $0.24508 for the past three weeks, which shows that lower levels are attracting buyers. During the week, the bulls pushed the price above the support turned resistance of $0.27795 but hit a wall close to the 20-week EMA. If the bulls can keep the price above $0.27795, we expect another attempt to breakout of the moving averages. If successful, the pair can rally to $0.50640.
However, if the bulls fail to stall the correction above $0.27795, it will indicate that buying dries up at higher levels. We then expect bears to again attempt to sink the price below the support of $0.24508. A breakdown to new yearly lows will be a huge negative as it is likely to result in panic selling.
