Coin Market Daily: Aug. 17, 2018: Back in the Saddle

Welcome to Coin Market Daily! Today’s launch is the beginning of daily posts Mon-Fri and once on the weekend summarizing the cryptocurrency market landscape for that day across prices, themes, developments, winner and loser coins for the day and more. Be sure and check back for a daily synopsis of what’s going on in crypto and what’s driving it so you can have an edge.

Market Overview

Cryptocurrency investors are back in the saddle again, and they couldn’t be happier. The top 10 cryptocurrencies are all trading in the green (with the exception of Tether (USDT), which is currently trading flat), and hopes are high headed into the weekend for a change.

With the bitcoin price perched above the $6,500 level, which represented a key technical resistance, BTC bulls are calling the shots, leaving the bears in the dust. Even Ethereum (ETH) is participating after getting shellacked in recent weeks and is currently trading above $300.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks following the — dare we remind traders — the bitcoin ETF setbacks, but investors seem to have put that in the rear-view mirror and it’s full steam ahead for the foreseeable future (especially with a new bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN) having hit the USD market, courtesy of CoinShares.)

There are a couple of catalysts driving today’s market activity, which include mega crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital planning a $175 million fund, bitcoin futures expiration and a possible short-squeeze among those…