Bitcoin update: Touch and go!

The past 48 hours has seen wild swings for crypto-assets, as traders booked profits following a successful pump of Bitcoin and its altcoin peers. The combined market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies reached a high near $144 billion late Saturday before plunging back down toward $127 billion, representing a pump and dump with a 60% spread.

Despite yesterday’s dump, I see the price of BTC slowly rising throughout 2019, as the recent price action has indicated a clear sign there might be a strong accumulation period coming.

Bitcoin

The leading digital currency, BTC, dropped by as much as 9% on Sunday mere hours after testing December highs north of $4,200 over the 50-day EMA.

Trade volumes touched a high near $11 billion on Sunday and have since moderated to around $9.6 billion, a level that is well above the historic average.

From a long-term perspective, it seems Bitcoin is experiencing higher lows, which clearly indicates price strength and that buyers are taking control of higher resistance levels, especially around the 20 and 50-day EMAs. If volume continues to spike we could see a reversal, although I believe the market is quite thin at the time of writing, liquidity wise.

In the short term, BTC has experienced a volume breakout over the past three weeks, as long-term holders continue to migrate capital onto virtual exchanges. This process may have begun as early as last summer, which was a period of unprecedented calm for digital assets. If you remember correctly, it was a period of heavy accumulation and sideways trading.

At current values, Bitcoin has a total market capitalisation close to $70 billion and accounts for about 52% of the entire crypto market, regaining dominance after the early 2018 lows of about 33% dominance.

From a technical point of view, Bitcoin continues to face strong resistance near the December high. A move beyond that barrier is needed if the bulls are to have any chance of negating the long-term downtrend. At nearly 14 months, Bitcoin is in the longest bear market in its 10-year history.

Ripple

As reported by Coin Rivet, XRP has (finally) been added to Coinbase. This news seems to have put investors into rally mode, as the so-called banker’s cryptocurrency is pushing to near $0.35. XRP’s bulls are eyeing a return to this level to keep the momentum alive. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the $0.30 support is a known area of demand, as we can see by the strong resistance at that level. From a long-term perspective, XRP is holding well between the 20 and 50-day EMA, and I would expect a breakout to take it close to the $0.4 level.

However, volumes are still quite thin when compared to late 2018, which means no serious cash has been put back into XRP.

The news that pushed Ripple upwards was regarding Coinbase, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, which confirmed on Monday that it will now accept inbound transfers of XRP to Coinbase Pro.

“Once sufficient supply of XRP is established on the platform, trading on the XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, and XRP/BTC order books will start in phases, beginning with post-only mode and proceeding to full trading should our metrics for a healthy market be met. XRP is not yet available on Coinbase.com or via our mobile apps. We will make a separate announcement when that occurs.”

Initial support for XRP will be available to users in the US (excluding New York), United Kingdom, supported European Union member countries, Canada, and Australia.

Despite being the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world, XRP had struggled to win its way onto Coinbase and other leading US exchanges. Hopefully this new addition will help Ripple’s price continue the move upwards.

Safe trades!