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Bitcoin fractal that predicted 2020 rally flashes again as BTC price reclaims $40K

The MACD indicator hints at a potential bullish crossover as Bitcoin’s price retests $40,000 as support.

A crossover between two Bitcoin (BTC) moving averages that appeared before the 2020 price boom is hinting at making a return in 2021, just as the flagship cryptocurrency eyes a bullish breakout from its current $30,000–$40,000 trading range.

The indicators in focus are the MACD Line and Signal Line. MACD is an acronym for Moving Average Convergence Divergence, and a MACD Line represents the difference between the 12- and 26-period moving averages. Meanwhile, a Signal Line is a nine-period moving average.

Plotting the MACD Line and Signal Line together forms the so-called MACD Indicator, which allows traders to predict future price trends. For example, when the MACD Line (a faster-moving average) closes below the Signal Line (a slower moving average), it typically reflects a bearish trend underway. Conversely, the trend switches to bullish when the MACD Line closes above the Signal Line.

Bitcoin MACD trends since March 2020. Source: TradingView

The difference between the two moving averages makes a Histogram. If the faster-moving average moves away from the slower moving average, it indicates an MACD Divergence. Similarly, when the faster-moving average gets closer to the slower one, the crossover is called an MACD Convergence.

Pitting Bitcoin prices against MACD

In 2020, Bitcoin prices reacted accurately to the MACD crossovers. The chart below illustrates the said correlation.

The Bitcoin price-MACD weekly correlation. Source: TradingView

The recent bearish crossovers between the MACD Line and the Signal Line have led to declines. Similarly, bullish crossovers have led to massive spikes. The Histogram indicator showed the strength of both upside and downside moves based on the difference between MACD and Signal Lines.

Now, Histogram is recovering back to zero with the two lines looking at a potential MACD Convergence. The same fractal appeared last in March 2020. That followed a massive Bitcoin price rally from $3,858 to circa $65,000.

Preston Pysh, the founder of the Pylon Holding Company — an equity investment firm — expected the MACD fractal déjà vu. The analyst tweeted:

Additionally, in a note published in July, Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, wrote that Bitcoin’s “intermediate-term momentum” was improving thanks to the MACD Histogram.

Decisive breakout anticipated

But spot markets have largely ignored long-term upside outlooks for Bitcoin as the asset struggles repeatedly to break above $40,000. Its previous attempts to extend its upside momentum beyond the said level have met extremely high selling pressure.

Meanwhile, on a brighter note, a similarly strong buying sentiment near $30,000 has capped Bitcoin prices from pursuing deeper downtrends. As a result, equally assertive bulls and bears have trapped Bitcoin in the $30,000–$40,000 price range. 

Related: Bitcoin bulls overtake the $40K barrier ahead of Friday’s $625M options expiry

Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange, expects a bullish breakout move in the Bitcoin market should it manage to hold above $40,000 for a week.

“On a conclusive breakout of the $40K level, BTC could challenge the $48K level,” the executive said.

“On the downside, traders will keenly monitor the $36K level. On breakdown below $36K, BTC can quickly move to $28K - $32K range.”

Bitcoin was trading at $40,723 at publishing time.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

Bitcoin price clings to $38K, but Dollar Index bounce could put BTC under pressure

Bitcoin is in wait-and-see mode as the dollar trades near two-month lows on warnings that the Fed could continue its stimulus programs.

A recent run-down in the United States Dollar Index (DXY) stopped midway as investors awaited U.S. job data for a guide on the viewpoint for interest rates. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) moved inversely to the greenback.

The DXY rose to its intraday high of 92.195 on Wednesday, up 0.45% from its Friday low of 91.782. The move upside took the index back above its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the pink tide in the chart below), at 92.001.

The wave was instrumental in protecting the index from aggressive declines in June, serving as support. Meanwhile, a break above the 200-day EMA also prompted traders to test the DXY’s descending trendline resistance. Since then, the DXY has been fluctuating between the two levels.

The dollar's bounce off its 200-day EMA has kept its prevailing bullish setup intact. Source: TradingView

The descending trendline is a part of an inverse head-and-shoulder pattern, as Cointelegraph reported mid-July. As illustrated in the chart above, the setup projects the DXY at or above 97 following a successful upside breakout.

Analysts interpret inverse head and shoulders as bullish patterns. In detail, they appear when the price forms three troughs in a row, with the middle one (head) larger than the other two (shoulders). Meanwhile, the troughs hang by a price ceiling, known as the neckline.

A successful breakout above the neckline tends to shift the profit target at a distance equal to the gap between the neckline and the head’s bottom. With the DXY checking all the boxes so far, it appears to be looking for a breakout move toward 97.

Jobs data

The latest bounce in the U.S. dollar’s value appeared ahead of key U.S. jobs data.

In detail, the DXY has lost some ground against rival fiat currencies in the past two weeks. That is due to warnings from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

The central banker said last week, after concluding the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, that the Fed might need to keep its stimulus programs in place because of uncertainties in the jobs market.

The tone of the incoming ADP employment survey on Wednesday, therefore, seems critical. First, the docket offers a preview of the private sector’s job growth. It expects to show that the U.S. economy has added about 695,000 jobs in July, around 0.43% higher than June.

If the prediction is accurate, it may prompt the Fed to pursue tapering earlier than anticipated, which could boost the dollar’s value, as noted in the Institute for Supply Management survey earlier this week.

The ADP report will follow up with the non-farm payroll data on Friday.

Bitcoin’s price 

Bitcoin (BTC) closed in the red for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines against a bouncing dollar and ahead of the aforementioned U.S. jobs data.

On Wednesday, the BTC/USD exchange rate reached a seven-day low of $37,509, down 1.11% intraday and 11.96% from its session top of $42,605.

Bitcoin's bullish breakout attempt above the $40K-resistance fails again. Source: TradingView

The pair’s drop appeared as regulators attempted to increase their scrutiny on the crypto sector as a whole. That included U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s request to Congress that lawmakers grant his agency “additional powers” to protect investors from the “Wild West” crypto markets.

“There’s a great deal of hype and spin about how crypto assets work,” Gensler said at the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday.

“In many cases, investors aren’t able to get rigorous, balanced and complete information . . . If we don’t address these issues, I worry a lot of people will be hurt.”

Related: Binance banned in Malaysia, given 14 days notice to shut down operations

The statements followed Congress’ proposal to raise $30 billion annually by taxing the regional cryptocurrency industry.

But the short-term shocks have not deterred analysts from sharing bold upside outlooks for Bitcoin.

On-chain data researcher Willy Woo projected the benchmark crypto at $50,000–$65,000 in the coming sessions, noting that all investor cohorts — big and small — have been accumulating it during the recent drop. Excerpts from his newsletter:

“Strong-handed investors have been buying the accumulation band for 2 months. Presently they are taking the opportunity to buy large quantities below $42k while price action is temporarily held down against a technical resistance band.”

Additionally, Anthony Pompliano of Pomp Investments matched the bullish undertones of Woo’s analysis, noting that Bitcoin’s “sound money principles” against the Fed’s pro-inflation monetary policies have made it a better hedge than gold among tech-savvy investors.

Bitcoin ROI versus traditional assets ROI. Source: Anthony Pompliano

“It is too early to state the narrative to be dead factually, but one of my outlier expectations for the 2020s is that gold’s market cap will materially shrink as investors leave the analog store of value for the digital version,” wrote Pompliano in a note to clients.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

3 reasons why Bitcoin can suddenly explode to a new $50K-$65K range

Analyst Willy Woo highlights three on-chain indicators that track the flow of Bitcoin tokens across wallets, each illustrating why the benchmark cryptocurrency could explode higher.

A combination of multiple indicators tracking Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain would continue the benchmark cryptocurrency's price rally further into 2021, popular on-chain analyst Willy Woo anticipates.

In his recent newsletter, the market researcher wrote that he expects Bitcoin prices to reach the $50,000-$65,000 range in the coming sessions. His comments appeared as BTC/USD reclaimed its three-month high above $42,600 only days after crashing below $30,000, the pair's psychological support level.

"My expectation is similar to BTC at $20k all-time-high in January, where the price is pinned close to the $40k-$42k ceiling over a period of days (2 weeks maximum) wearing down sellers, followed by a faster move to $50k," said Woo.

"The next major consolidation band is $50k-$65k."
Bitcoin is rangebound between $30,000 and $40,000 since May 2021. Source: TradingView.com

BTC supply crunch

Bitcoin price rallied alongside supportive comments from Tesla's Elon Musk, Twitter's Jack Dorsey, and Ark Invest's Cathie Wood in July. The cryptocurrency also rose on rumors that global retail giant Amazon would start accepting it as payments, a claim that the company later refuted.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin's run-up to $42,600 also came right after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted the possibility of interim inflationary shocks during a press conference last Wednesday. In detail, crypto bulls treat Bitcoin as their hedge against rising consumer prices.

Recommended: Bitcoin struggles at $40K after ‘most confusing’ Jerome Powell press conference

What's noteworthy is that the period of Bitcoin's price recovery from under $30,000 coincided with an increasing liquid supply shock. Specifically, BTC was taken off exchanges, which, as Woo suggested, was due to strong holders locking them away for long-term investment.

Bitcoin liquid supply shock oscillator. Source: Willy Woo

"As of today, the Liquid Supply Shock metric is at a level which is consistent with a $55K price level," the analyst wrote on Aug. 1, pointing at the high deviation between the available supply and the current Bitcoin prices.

"Despite a powerful 44% rally in less than 2 weeks, we are still in a heavily discounted zone for BTC."

Miners return

China's ban on cryptocurrency activities in May played a crucial role in sending the Bitcoin prices lower this summer. The decision paralyzed the regional crypto mining industry that accounted for more than half of the global Bitcoin production.

Glassnode reported in June that miners either closed down their rigs to comply with the new law or shifted their operations outside China, thereby incurring additional costs to keep their production running.

The data analytics platform also noted that miners would likely liquidate a portion of their Bitcoin holdings to cover additional expenses. But, as it turned out, the miners' net BTC accumulation trend reversed in May, showcasing capitulation.

But as Woo noted, miners resumed Bitcoin accumulation in July. He cited the popular Bitcoin Hash Ribbon metric, which tracks the network's expansion and loss of hash rate, noting that it was recovering for the first time since the China ban.

Bitcoin hash ribbon vs. BTCUSD price action. Source: Willy Woo

"Ribbon recovery events spell the end of miners sell-off (which is what they do when they are driven out of business)," wrote Woo.

"Typically a recovery of the ribbon opens the way for a multi-month period of bullish price action. This indicator did a very good job of locating the price bottom."

Whale activity spikes

The past week has seen strong buying from whales, added Woo while pointing at Bitcoin's climb from $29,300 to over $42,600.

Whales typically represent entities that hold more than 1,000 BTC in their Bitcoin addresses. While they don't exclusively impact the market's directional bias, their buying in conjugation with relatively small Bitcoin investors points to a strongly bullish scenario.

Related: Bitcoin accumulation accelerates among ‘whales’ and ‘fish,’ while BTC rallies to $40K

The analyst noted that all investor cohorts—big or small—were buying Bitcoin for nine consecutive days, an even he has not witnessed in the cryptocurrency's lifetime.

Whale-led Bitcoin buying typically follows up with large price spikes. Source: Willy Woo

"The present buying by all cohorts is strongly bullish," said Woo. "When everyone is buying, who is the seller? The sellers are traders. The coins sold by traders reduce the speculative inventory on spot exchanges."

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

Bitcoin chart fractal suggests BTC price will rally to at least $80K by September

Calls for a doubled-up Bitcoin price rise as the cryptocurrency paints ten green candles in a row.

While Bitcoin's (BTC) price has slipped by more than 8.2% after rising to $42,230, the 43.5% rally included 10 consecutive days of gains. But despite BTC currently trading at around $39,700 as of Aug. 2, some analysts anticipate that it can rise by another 100%.

Nunya Bizniz, an independent market analyst, posted the bullish setup on Sunday, noting that each of the cryptocurrency's previous 10-day bull runs has ended up doubling its prices at a later stage.

Therefore, if the history repeats or rhymes, Bitcoin price can go up by more than 100% in the next 30-60 days.

Bitcoin and its bull runs after 10 consecutive green closes. Source: Nunya Bizniz

Bizniz noted that the next Bitcoin peak could form on Sep. 21, 2021, citing the cryptocurrency's performances before and after its previous two halving events. The halving is a pre-programmed phenomenon written into Bitcoin's source code that automatically reduces its new supply rate by half every four years.

After the first halving in 2013, it took Bitcoin prices approximately 326 days to establish a new record high. Meanwhile, following the next halving in 2016, Bitcoin rose to a new peak 526 days later. That shifts the date of Bitcoin's cycle peak to Sep. 21, 2021, coinciding with the 10-day bullish fractal mentioned above and based on its previous halving in May 2020.

Bitcoin could hit six figures in Q4

Meanwhile, Seeking Alpha financial markets contributor, Ariel Santos-Alborna noted that the current Bitcoin cycle is more similar to 2013 than 2016. Back then, the BTC/USD exchange rate topped out at $255 in April, bottomed in July at $66, and then rose to a peak of $1,150 in December.

Similarly, the pair reached almost $65,000 in April, later plunged to around $29,000 in July, and, as Santos-Alborna believed, was heading for a new peak in the next 2021 fiscal quarter.

Related: BTC price sees 6% correction in contrast to booming Bitcoin on-chain data

But the analyst warned traders against setting up their upside targets based on previous price rallies. For instance, a run-up from $66 to $1,150 in 2013 does not mean Bitcoin would rise from $29,000 to, say, $256,000 in 2021.

Bitcoin remains rangebound between $29K and $42K since April 2021. Source: TradingView.com

"Both tops occurred in November and December, respectively, which could insinuate that the trigger for bear markets has more to do with taxes," explained Santos-Alborna, adding that $88,000-$150,000 is a "more realistic" upside target for Bitcoin in 2021.

The statements come at a time when regulators and governments have increased their scrutiny of the cryptocurrency industry. That includes a recent push by U.S. lawmakers to impose more taxes on the profits made by cryptocurrency investors. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

Bitcoin accumulation accelerates among ‘whales’ and ‘fish’ with BTC rallying to $40K

"This is just on-chain sentiment, though. The big question is, how does that correlate to the price action in general?"

Both small and rich Bitcoin (BTC) traders accumulated the benchmark cryptocurrency en masse during the period its prices rose from below $30,000 to over $40,000, signaling their confidence in the asset's long-term bullish setup.

The basis of the upside outlook came from Ecoinometrics, a crypto-focused newsletter service. It highlighted in its latest edition a flurry of on-chain data that tracked the flow of Bitcoin into wallets that belonged to the richest of the crypto traders, also known as "whales," and to entities that held the cryptocurrency in smaller quantities—the so-called "fishes."

"After a couple of weeks of data showing that most address buckets are accumulating coins, Bitcoin is finally bouncing back from the $30k level," wrote Nick, the author of Ecoinometrics newsletters as he highlighted a heat map that witnessed Bitcoin flowing into the whales and fishes' wallets.

Bitcoin accumulation trends. Source: Coinmetrics

The color red pointed to a situation in which every group—whales or fishes—accumulate Bitcoin in past 30 days. Conversely, the color blue corresponded to situations wherein only the smaller “fish” accumulate the digital asset in the same timeframe.

Bitcoin's heat map returned a red.

"We can do the same plot for the current cycle, and we observe pretty much the same thing," noted Nick while pointing to the July 2020-July 2021 graph as follows.

Bitcoin accumulation trends in the past 12 months. Source: Coinometrics

Moby Dicks everywhere

Data from other sources matched the Ecoinometrics' analogy.

For instance, crypto-focused data tracking service WhaleMap reported Thursday that the number of unspent transaction outputs currently belonging to Bitcoin whale wallets has spiked, thereby suggesting their intentions to wait for higher prices.

Bitcoin's inflows to whale wallets jump. Source: WhaleMap

"The last whale bubble in our range," tweeted WhaleMap.

"Get above $40,472, and the next resistance is only at around 47k. Whale bubbles for the win."

Fundamental backdrop

The fundamentals backing the whale involvement in the current Bitcoin rally pointed to fears of a persistently rising inflation, despite the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's attempts to sideline the issue in his recent press conference on Wednesday.

Powell admitted that the inflation has surpassed Fed's projections in 2021, but blamed it on the unusual nature of the United States’ economic recovery. He noted that supply bottlenecks have created shortages that has led to "temporary" price increases.

The comments appeared as the Fed continued its expansionary policy of near-zero interest rates and $120 billiona month in bond purchases that, as the Wall Street Journal editorial noted, could have been stopped two months after its launch in March 2020.

The journal cited the National Bureau of Economic Research's report of last week, which noted that the U.S. recession officially ended in April 2020. 

US Inflation has soared more than what the Federal Reserve has anticipated. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics 

"The FED has a real challenge ahead balancing its response to a global pandemic with low rates and seemingly rising inflation," Jeffery Wang, Head of Americas at Amber Group, told Cointelegraph, calling it "an extremely difficult situation" for central banks running their quantitative easing programs hot.

Wang added that the backdrop of cheap money and rising inflation creates a bullish backdrop for flight-to-safety assets like equities, real estate, and Bitcoin. He said:

"From here, I think crypto and BTC will still be considered an asset that, while highly volatile can be a hedge against inflation and should do well in this environment."

Pankaj Balani, the chief executive of the crypto derivatives platform Delta Exchange, meanwhile anticipated Bitcoin to continue its bull run towards $50,000, citing options activity that he said remains heavily skewed to the upside at least until mid-August.

Related: Bitcoin traders express mixed emotions about what’s next for BTC price

"There is call buying activity across maturities – weekly, bi-weekly and monthly," Balani told Cointelegraph in an email statement.

"Fifty thousand (50K) strike for August expiry is highlighted here and has the highest OI. Once again there is not much OI between 45,000 and 50,000 strikes (for the Aug expiry) and we can see sharp moves here."

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

XRP price skyrockets by 17% as double bottom chart pattern takes shape

Ripple’s XRP token is in the middle of a bullish breakout, which could open the door to $1 next.

XRP’s price swung higher on Wednesday as its parent company, Ripple, entered an agreement with SBI Remit to back a remittance corridor from Japan to the Philippines.

Positive news boosts XRP’s price

The Ripple blockchain’s native cryptocurrency, also ranked as the sixth-largest digital asset by market capitalization, reached its one-month high of $0.759 after rallying 17.73% intraday. At a monthly low, it was changing hands for as little as $0.514.

XRP sustains its uptrend amid a market-wide bullish mood. Source: TradingView

The bullish boost came over a partnership between Japan’s largest money transfer provider, SBI Remit, and Philippines-based mobile payments service Coins.ph. With additional assistance from SBI’s digital asset exchange platform, the duo aims to use Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) to offer more affordable remittance options for the Filipino diaspora in Japan.

ODL via Ripple’s xRapid cross-border payment service enables parties to send funds using XRP as a bridge currency. In other words, the sender first converts the local fiat currency to XRP and sends it to the receiver via the Ripple blockchain. In turn, the receiver, upon receiving the XRP tokens, converts them back to their local currency.

Technicals skewed to upside

XRP’s latest jump also activated a classic technical setup known as the double bottom, suggesting that Ripple’s token might undergo an extended bullish momentum in the interim sessions.

That is because double bottoms are bullish reversal chart patterns. They appear when an asset drops, rebounds, drops again to the same or similar level to rebound back. The twice-touched high is called a neckline, which, if broken to the upside, expects to send the prices as high as the distance between the neckline and the double-bottom support.

XRP is forming a double bottom pattern. Source: TradingView

The maximum double bottom pattern height comes to be $0.25. Therefore, breaking above the neckline (near $0.75) could have XRP traders eye $1 as their next upside target.

Providing support to XRP is also an upside momentum in the broad cryptocurrency market. It began after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that his private rocket company, SpaceX, holds Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s leading digital asset by market capitalization.

Related: Bitcoin hits $40K after a 6-week absence, but on-chain activity is 'somewhat bearish'

The disclosure came during “The ₿ Word” conference last week, also attended by Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. Dorsey called Bitcoin a big part of Twitter’s future, noting that it is the de facto currency of the internet.

Bitcoin’s 30-day realized correlation with XRP was 0.75 at the time of writing, indicating the assets’ likelihood of moving in tandem. BTC’s price is up over 7% in the past 24 hours, trading over $40,400 at the time of writing.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

Bitcoin price weekly outlook: BTC bulls await breakout above 50-day EMA

BTC price inched toward 2020's support with traders expecting more gains if a breakout occurs.

A four-day winning streak brought the Bitcoin (BTC) prices closer to testing its 50-day exponential moving average (~$35,115) as resistance.

The wave, which was instrumental in strengthening Bitcoin's bullish bias across 2020 as support, flipped to become a resistance during the May 2021 sell-off. In doing so, it capped the cryptocurrency from extending its upside rebound moves many times.

For instance, Bitcoin's drop from $56,900 to $30,000 in mid-May prompted bulls to buy the dip. As a result, the cryptocurrency shot back above $40,000 but found its bullish momentum exhausting right near the 50-day EMA. The scenario repeated multiple times after May's retracement attempt, as shown in the chart below.

Bitcoin's 50-day EMA as resistance. Source: TradingView.com

Rekt Capital, a well-known cryptocurrency analyst, turned to a 2020 fractal to determine potential outcomes from the ongoing Bitcoin price action.

The trader noted that Bitcoin price tested the 50-day EMA as resistance in October last year when the BTC/USD pair was trading shy of $10,000. But after breaking the wave to the upside, BTC/USD eventually established a record high near $65,000.

Bitcoin 50-day EMA fractals. Source: Rekt Capital, TradingView.com

"This [was] when BTC formed an almost identical fractal of Bitcoin's current price action," the profile noted, hinting that the fractal might repeat as Bitcoin tests the same resistance level after nine months.

This week

Bitcoin closed in to reclaim 50-day EMA after painting a rosy week.

The benchmark cryptocurrency was off to end the seven-day session up by more than 8%. A majority of its gains came after The B-Word conference that features a trio of Wall Street biggies— Tesla's CEO Elon Musk, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey, and Ark Invest's founder Cathie Wood. The executives took turns to speak favorably about Bitcoin technology and shared their thoughts about the future.

Musk, whose comments on cryptocurrencies are notorious for moving markets, revealed that his private rocket company SpaceX holds Bitcoin. He also added that Tesla would resume its Bitcoin payment option once its miners switch to more renewable energy sources to operate its blockchain.  

Dollar, stocks and the Fed

Bitcoin also appeared to have capitalized on risk-on flows led by a choppy U.S. dollar index and a rising Wall Street. 

Bitcoin versus leading Wall Street indexes and the Us dollar index. Source: TradingView.com

Next week appears busy with high-profile data and policy-statement releases.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Conference Board will publish the Consumer Confidence Index for July. In addition, a preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index report from the University of Michigan shows a negative change in consumer sentiment. The report also professes fears of a sharp rise in inflation.

As of late, inflationary pressures have boosted the dollar's appeal among investors. This has sapped Bitcoin's interim bullish outlook despite the cryptocurrency's popular safe-haven narrative. 

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will announce its decision on interest rates and publish its monetary policy statement.

Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said in congressional testimony earlier this month that they are still away from tapering their $120B a month bond-buying program. He commented that a decision on scaling back the Fed's asset purchases would come only upon seeing a substantial improvement in the labor market.

However, the U.S. central bank officials expect to discuss whether they could start tapering by the end of this year. In detail, a hawkish shift in the Fed policy in June was partially responsible for pushing Bitcoin prices lower and the dollar higher. Therefore, Bitcoin bulls would expect to remain cautious about the potential outcome of the FOMC meeting.

Related: Bitcoin bull outlines 7 steps to more fiscal stimulus and higher BTC prices

On the other hand, if the Fed decides to sleep on the tapering talk, given the rising economic uncertainties led by the fast-spreading Delta variant of the Covid-19, it could hamper the dollar's appeal and, in turn, provide a certain degree of upside boost to Bitcoin.

On Thursday, the U.S.  Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its gross domestic product's growth estimate for the second quarter. Economists expect it to improve to 7.9% year-over-year from 6.4%.

Finally, the US economy docket will feature the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), the Fed's preferred metric to measure inflation, on Friday; it is expected to rise 3.7% in July from 3.4% in June.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

Bitcoin price hints at ‘megaphone’ bottom pattern, and a breakout toward $40K

The megaphone-shaped pattern reflects growing disagreement between investors over the next Bitcoin trend bias.

Bitcoin's (BTC) latest rebound from below $30,000 has increased its prospects of extending its retracement move higher, at least according to one classic technical pattern.

Dubbed as Broadening Formation, the megaphone-shaped pattern appears when the price moves inside two diverging trendlines. Investopedia states that a broadening formation represents disagreement over the next potential bias among investors. As a result, the price forms higher interim peaks and lower interim lows.

Bitcoin appears to be trading inside a similar structure, as shown in the chart below. Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency lacks volatility, one of the key features of the broadening formation pattern.

Stabilized Bollinger bands reflect limited price volatility in the Bitcoin market. Source: TradingView.com

Should the pattern play out, the Bitcoin price will undergo a bullish breakout above the structure's upper trendline.

In doing so, it would expect to rise by as much as the maximum height between the broadening formation's upper and lower trendline. The upside setup appears because traders interpret broadening formation as a trend reversal pattern.

But until then, the pattern offers swing trading opportunities to daytraders, i.e., a bounce from the lower trendline tends to present Long opportunities toward the upper trendline, and a pullback from the upper trendline could have traders open short positions toward the lower one.

Again, the Bitcoin price volatility is lower enough to invalidate such intra-range setups.

Falling channel

The most interim resistance level is near the dashed trendline in the Bitcoin chart below.

Bitcoin falling channel setup limits bullish broadening formation's upside outlook. Source: TradingView.com

A close above the dashed trendline expects to have Bitcoin test $35,00 as its next resistance target. On an extended move higher, the potential to hit $40,000 is higher based on the cryptocurrency's recent price patterns.

Conversely, a pullback from the dashed trendline tends to validate a Falling Channel pattern. On the other hand, Bitcoin could retrace its steps lower towards the so-called Broadening Wedge's support trendline (next downside target near $28,500).

Bitcoin price fundamentals

The conflicting Bitcoin setups emerge as bulls continue to defend $30,000 as support while bears enjoy control over the $34,000-$35,000 area. Unfortunately, that has landed BTC price inside a constrained trading range, giving no interim clues about where it wants to head next.

Fundamentals have played a key role in trapping Bitcoin prices. To the upside, inflationary pressures from the traditional finance sector have provided tailwinds to Bitcoin's safe-haven narrative. Meanwhile, the downside is an increasingly global regulatory discontent toward the cryptocurrency sector.

Related: SEC Chairman says cryptocurrency falls under security-based swaps rules

In the last two months, the market has witnessed China banning cryptocurrency trading, India raiding regional crypto exchange WazirX, and the U.K. banning Binance's subsidiary from operating regulated businesses. In addition, Japan and Hong Kong also issued warnings and restrictions against Binance.

Earlier this week, the U.S. state authorities closed crypto company BlockFi's accounts, alleging that the startup sold unregistered securities. The sector also received criticism for increasing carbon footprints via mining, which requires heavy computational power to run blockchains.

"As long as global regulation of cryptocurrencies is not eased, or a resolution is met, I believe it is difficult to gain public trust, and for Bitcoin to scale the heights it reached in early 2021," Adam Todd, Founder, and CEO of Digitex, told Cointelegraph.

JG Collins, head of the Stuyvesant Square Consultancy, also wrote in his Seeking Alpha op-ed that "national economics regulators, state environmental regulators, and municipalities troubled by "mining" raising local electrical rates will sweep cryptos away like a tsunami."

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

$60K is now more likely for Bitcoin than $20K, Bloomberg’s senior strategist asserts

The analyst also treats the latest crypto ban in China as bullish for Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar.

Bitcoin (BTC) has better probability of recovering back to $60,000 than to break below its current support level of $30,000 and target $20,000, believes Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

A screenshot from McGlone's latest analysis on the flagship cryptocurrency, first shared by Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, shows him comparing Bitcoin's ongoing price action with the "too-cold" period of the 2018-19 trading session.

In detail, the BTC/USD exchange rate entered a prolonged consolidation period near $4,000 following an 80%-plus crash in 2018, but a sudden run-up in 2019 sent its prices to as high as $14,000 on some exchanges.

McGlone, who's known for his previous bullish calls on Bitcoin, noted that BTC, which has been consolidating near $30,000 since May 2021, could post a similarly surprising rally while aiming to hit a refreshed resistance target near $60,000.

"The more tactical-trading-oriented bears seem to proliferate when Bitcoin sustains at about 30% threshold below its 20-week moving average, allowing the buy-and-hold types time to accumulate," the strategist wrote.

The moving average trio

Bitcoin's bearish and bullish cycles appear to wobble around three key moving average indicators. They are the 20-week exponential moving average (20-week EMA; the green wave), which serves as interim support/resistance, the 50-week simple moving average (50-week SMA; the blue wave), and the 200-week simple moving average (20-week SMA; the orange wave).

Bitcoin bear trends tend to exhaust after its price tests the 200-day simple moving average as resistance. Source: TradingView.com

During bull trends, Bitcoin prices typically stay above the three moving averages. Meanwhile, bear trends see the cryptocurrency prices closing below the 20-week EMA and the 50-week SMA, as shown in the chart above.

The 200-week SMA typically serves as the last line of defense in a bear market. So far, Bitcoin has bottomed out twice near the orange wave, each time sending the prices explosively higher. For instance, a take-off from the 200-week SMA in 2018 drove the Bitcoin prices to almost $14,000.

Similarly, the wave support capped the cryptocurrency's downside attempts during the Covid-19-led crash in March 2020. Later, the price bounced from as low as $3,858 to over $65,000.

Bitcoin is now in its third drop below this trendline since 2018. The cryptocurrency has broken below the 20-week SMA (near $39,000) and is now targeting 50-week SMA (circa $32,200) as support. If the old fractal is repeated, it should continue falling towards the 200-week SMA (around $14,000).

Except McGlone believes there could be an early rebound. As a bullish fundamental, the strategist pointed towards the recent China crypto ban.

Tether takes the cake

Beijing announced a complete ban on cryptocurrency operations in May 2021. The decision stonewalled the mining operations in the country, which were forced to either cease or move their base outside. Bitcoin prices fell sharply in response.

Nevertheless, McGlone highlighted China's rejection of open-source software crypto-assets as a plateau in their economic ascent. In his tweet published Friday, the analyst attached an index showcasing booming volumes and capitalization of the U.S. dollar-backed digital assets, including Tether. 

He then pitted the rising demand for digitized dollars against the Chinese yuan-to-dollar exchange rates, noting that the logarithmic scale of market cap fluctuations between the two fiats was below the baseline zero between 2018 and 2020. That means the yuan was depreciating against the dollar.

Tether's appreciation against the US dollar index and Chinese yuan. Source: Bloomberg Intelligence

The scale just went back above zero, signaling an interim growth for yuan against the dollar. But its uptrend still appeared dwarfed before Tether whose market cap rose by more than 40% above baseline. McGlone noted:

China's rejection of open-source software crypto-assets may mark a plateau in the country's economic ascent, we believe while extolling the value of the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin.

Additionally, Petr Kozyakov, co-founder and CEO at the global payment network Mercuryo, noted that while the U.S. government has not launched a central bank-backed digital dollar officially like China, the availability of many other alternatives, including USDT, USDC, and BUSD, could pose challenge to CCP-controlled digital yuan.

"These cryptocurrencies are pegged 1:1 against the U.S. dollar and as shown in the chart McGlone shared, the dollar is leading the digital rise over the Chinese Yuan," Kozyakov said.

"While China's crackdown has had an impact on Bitcoin's price as it hovers above $30K on 23rd June, fundamentals have improved vastly since 2018 due to institutional FOMO [...] Bitcoin should recover to $50K by the turn of the year."

The Chinese economy will keep growing

However, rejecting McGlone's take, Yuriy Mazur of CEX.IO Broker noted that the Chinese economy should continue flourishing with or without cryptocurrencies, noting that it has nothing to do with the demand for digital assets.

Related: US-China trade war and its effect on cryptocurrencies

"The Chinese government is too smart to miss out on something the world deems valuable," Mazur told Cointelegraph.

"So, expect them to take considerable measures to roll out a Yuan-backed cryptocurrency (in the future) that they have complete control over."

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets

16% Ethereum price rebound activates a classic bullish pattern — $2.5K next?

The cryptocurrency market recovered on Thursday after renewed endorsements from Elon Musk at the 'B' Word Conference Wednesday.

Ethereum's native crypto Ether (ETH) rebounded sharply on Thursday after Elon Musk disclosed for the first time that his private rocket firm SpaceX holds Bitcoin (BTC), and Tesla would probably resuming the bitcoin payment option for its electric cars.

The BTC/USD exchange rate was below $30,000 but bounced by more than 5% after the big reveal, touching an intraday high of $32,895. Ether, which tends to move in lockstep with the flagship cryptocurrency, surged likewise.

Ether was holding onto its previous session's gains on Thursday. Source: TradingView.com

It reclaimed $2,000 on Wednesday, rising by as much as 18.20% from its week-to-date low of $1,720.

Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, chief product officer at financial services company Bitpanda, told Cointelegraph in an email statement that Ethereum would continue tailing Bitcoin in the coming sessions.

"As soon as the “big brother” finds its support level," he added, "Ethereum will most likely follow suit."

Classic pattern sets $2.5K target for Ethereum 

The latest bounce in the Ethereum market also originated from a support level that had earlier capped Ether's downside attempts.

Independent market analyst, known by the pseudonym Rekt Capital, flashed a so-called "orange area" on a weekly ETH/USD chart, illustrating three bearish wicks and their ability to shied the pair from falling lower.

"ETH has rallied +16% since rebounding from the orange area," the analyst explained, coupling the price floor with a support trendline that apprehensively constituted a Falling Wedge.

In detail, Falling Wedges are bullish reversal patterns that start wide at the top but start contracting as the prices move lower, forming a sequence of lower highs and lower lows. A bullish confirmation comes when the price breaks above the Wedge's upper trendline with a spike in volumes.

In doing so, bulls place their upside profit target as up as the maximum wedge height.

Ether prices almost check all the boxes when it comes to trading inside a Falling Wedge pattern. Rekt Capital highlighted the same in a chart he published Thursday.

Ether falling wedge setup highlighted by Rekt Capital. Source: TradingView.com

"As long as ETH holds the bottom of the structure as support until the end of the week, [it] will confirm a return to the structure after briefly losing it earlier this week," added Rekt Capital.

The maximum distance between the Wedge's upper and lower trendline is roughly $850. Therefore, according to the classic technical setup, a breakout above the upper trendline could send the prices to at least $2,500.

Related: Decoupling ahead? Bitcoin and Ethereum may finally snap their 36-month correlation

Nonetheless, the prices still risk falling sharply below $2,000 based on a short-term technical setup, as shown in the chart below.

ETH falling wedge setup on its daily chart. Source: TradingView.com

The daily Ethereum chart shows price could fluctuate between $1,850-2,080 before the potential bullish breakout, noted Rekt Capital.

Kirkpatrick and Dalquist's book titled "Technical Analysis" notes that falling wedges have a failure rate of just 8% to 11%. Moreover, the possibility of a bearish breakout has a higher failure rate of 15% to 24%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

China Unearths Massive Gold Veins That Could Reshape Global Markets