Weekly Market Performance Report (9th July — 15th July 2018)
Written by Abhy Singla
Cryptocurrency Market Performance
Previous week’s overview (2nd July ’18–8th July ’18)
This week’s cryptocurrency market has been positive and held off further selling pressure. Total market capitalization is holding just below $280 billion at the time of writing (8th July).
After finding its footing last week at the $5,700 level, Bitcoin’s price has since started to exhibit some momentum. Bitcoin is hovering around the $6,800 mark at the time of writing. While it is experiencing almost no movement either up or down, it has still managed to keep this week’s gains — as it is up around 4 percent since Monday (2nd July). The week started with BTC showing a gain of 4% on the previous day’s price (1st July). At the time of writing, all the major cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin Cash, are trading in the green.
Current week’s overview (2nd July ’18–8th July ’18)
Last week’s gains in the cryptocurrency space proved to be short-lived, much to the displeasure of digital currency enthusiasts around the world. Indeed, the total market cap of the cryptocurrency industry fell by about 6% this week, dropping to $249 billion. This places the size of the digital currency market relatively equal to the position it was in early in April of this year.
Several of the top digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, have all posted losses this week. Hovering just above $6,250, Bitcoin seems precipitously close to the $6,000 threshold that it has toyed with multiple times already this year. As of this writing, the top 10 digital currencies by market cap have all declined over the past week. BTC along with major cryptocurrencies saw a downtrend and all the cryptos fell in the range of 7%-10% this week (9th July — 15th July).
Possible reasons for market movement
The lack of volume of Bitcoin still remains as the issue for the crypto market and other digital assets like Ether, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash. This is because, in a downtrend, both major and minor digital assets tend to rely on the price trend of Bitcoin.
Last week, the volume of Bitcoin slightly recovered to around $5 billion, after dipping below the $3.5 billion mark. This week, the volume of Bitcoin dropped back down to $3.9 billion. The 24-hour volume of BTC is 2.8 billion at the time of writing (15th July).
Even though the RSI, MACD, and descending trend lines of Bitcoin demonstrate a bullish movement for BTC in the upcoming days, the lack of volume of BTC might prevent the market from initiating a proper corrective rally in the short-term.
Developments over the week in Cryptomarket
- This week, Ripple revealed that it has hired Kahina Van Dyke to be Senior Vice-President in Business and Corporate Development. Van Dyke joins the digital currency developer after high-level positions at Facebook, Citibank, and others, according to Coin Central.
- The Trump administration launched a new task force by executive order this week. The Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, drawn from the Department of Justice, will focus on cyber and cryptocurrency fraud alongside other problems.
Bitcoin (BTC) Trend
Since 9th July’18, the price of Bitcoin was slightly down than its previous day’s price (8th July’18). However, the price took plunges by 6% on 10th July and traded in the range of $6,200-$6,300 mark for the rest of the week. But, throughout the five days (11th July — 15th July), Bitcoin has also struggled to initiate a major movement on both the upside and the downside, primarily due to the low daily volume of BTC.
Bitcoin is trading around the $6,200 mark at the moment with a steep bearish trend. Bitcoin’s price dropped to a figure of $6,150 during this week (9th July — 15th July), however, the currency has managed to do some damage control since then, the trend is still a bit bearish.
According to many speculators, the only feasible way for Bitcoin to commence a rebound is to reach the $6,600. Once BTC reaches the major resistance level, the traders can expect a reversal in the current bearish trend.
Bitcoin reached an intra-week high of $6,741.5 on July 9th. Bitcoin price has decreased over the week and is trading marginally below $6,250 at the time of writing (15th July’18). BTC price fell from $6,741.75 at the beginning of the week (9th July’18 ) and reached $6,264.83 by 15th July, a fall of 7% over the week.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Ripple (XRP) Trend
The price of Ripple (XRP) has decreased over the week and is now trading in the range of $0.43- $0.47. The market cap now stands at $17,184 million. The total week’s performance settled at -8%.
Failure to move back through $0.44 levels to take a run at $0.45 levels could see Ripple’s XRP pullback to test $0.43 support levels.
XRP experienced an epic drop earlier this year (from USD 3.80 in January to USD 0.44 at the time of writing). But it remains the third cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization and one of the most popular trading coins in the world. Ripple’s platforms (xRapid and xCurrent) are already being used by some of the world’s most important banks and financial institutions. They are finding that costs go down while reliability and speed increase in dramatic ways. Institutions save money, and their clients are happier.
Bearish and bullish periods come and go, but a product that has a real competitive advantage by solving a significant problem better than the current options, will always do great.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Ethereum (ETH) Trend
ETH plunged this week and traded at around the $430 — $470 mark this week. Like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) has shown a clear bearish signal after breaking below last week’s low of $443 to trade at $434.
Going by its current trajectory, Ethereum (ETH) is likely to hit $312 in the coming week. This is the key support level on Ethereum’s long-term charts. If some positive news comes up, Ethereum (ETH) could reverse and test its near-term high of $485.
The total week’s performance settled at -9%. The price was $476.68 on 9th July and gradually decreased to $435.13 towards the end of the week (15th July).
Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Trend
Bitcoin Cash was hit hard on Monday (9th July), down over by 4.5% than what it was on 8th July. The price moved below $700 mark on 10th July. The Bitcoin Cash price found support around $660 and recovered against the US Dollar. BCH/USD could accelerate gains above the $730 level in the near term.
It was a tough early week for BCH, with the price falling significantly. The total week’s performance settled at -4%. The price fell from $733.38 on 9th July to an intra-week low of 688.33 on 10th July, a fall of almost 6%. However, the digital coin gathered itself up and surged to $700.98 at the time of writing. The total market capitalization of Bitcoin Cash is close to $12,083 million at the time of writing.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) that is also dubbed as Bitcoin’s best fork so far is busy working on its platform innovation. On completion, this on-going project could help BCH survive Bitcoin’s current relentless fall.
Bitcoin Cash undoubtedly has untapped potential to rise above the rest of the altcoins and change the course of crypto history by becoming the first forked digital asset that’s more profitable than its core project.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Top Ten Cryptocurrencies (8th July — 15th July)
Source: CoinMarketCap
The market cap of cryptocurrencies is a product of the volume of the currency and its price. The top 10 cryptocurrencies comprise almost 82% of the total market cap of cryptomarket at the time of writing. Over the week, the market cap of top 10 cryptos decreased from $225,774 million on 8th July to $204,006 million on 15th July, a decrease of almost 10%.
*Tether (USDT) has once again benefitted from the misfortune of others, at least as far as market cap rankings go. While TEther hasn’t exactly grown in value over the last few days, it has been pushed up the rankings by default following IOTA’s daily loss of close to 5%. Earlier it pushed TRON out of top 10 list and has now replaced IOTA to claim the 9th position by market cap.
Conclusion
The struggle of Bitcoin in this bearish market continues throughout this week. Since its major downfall in January (from $20,000 to $8,000), BTC is yet to find a way to engineer a major trend reversal.
If Bitcoin continues in this trajectory, it could be a signal that bears are regaining control of the market. In such a scenario, Bitcoin could drop even further and test $4800, at the 55-day moving average. However, this is long-term and will be subject to a number of factors including an entry of institutional money into Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has seen a major downfall and is trading in the range of around the $6,200 mark at the time of writing. Two weeks ago, Bitcoin ended the week in the green, but low volume of BTC did not help it to continue the trend and it saw a fall of almost 7% over this week (9th July — 15th July).
Bitcoin is exhibiting an oversold condition with alarmingly low relative strength index (RSI). As long as the RSI remains low, the struggle of BTC to rebound by attempting a corrective rally is likely to continue. According to many speculators, the only feasible way for Bitcoin to commence a rebound is to reach the $6,600 as soon as possible.
Also, Coinbase’s popularity is dwindling down as the bear market continuously imposes its will on the crypto industry. Coinbase has been ranked as number one in Playstore during December 2017 but has now fallen to 40th place.
The crypto exchange’s popularity is closely tied to Bitcoin. And with Bitcoin now falling from its December 2017 $19,000 value to $6,225 as of this writing, there’s no denying that Bitcoin has a lot of influence on the market and exchanges
In the short-term, the value of cryptocurrencies may continue to fall down further, due to the strong downtrend of the market and the lack of volume on major digital assets. But, the bear cycle is crucial for upcoming rallies, that will require robust infrastructure on the public blockchain.
The unregulated nature of the market is one of the reasons too for the current trend as investors are skeptical about the safety of their funds.
Although the cryptocurrency market remained unregulated for years, countries have started to address the illegal activities and schemes that defraud individual investors. The steps some governments have taken to streamline the crypto market will increase the confidence of institutional investors.
Nevertheless, cryptocurrency is here to stay. While most of the current coins might disappear in the years to come, a few of these startups hold the potential to disrupt the entire financial system. Some analysts are very bullish on this market and say it is still in the nascent stage with very few investors. Once the cryptocurrency market goes mainstream, the market cap will grow and so will the prices of coins.
However, given the volatility of the cryptocurrency market, the price movement of cryptocurrencies can change drastically based on market conditions. As such, it is important to actively observe the market to find any irregularity and change in trading conditions.
Disclaimer:
This publication is provided by Invsta in good faith for general information purposes only. Information has been prepared from sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of publication, but this is not guaranteed. Information, analysis or views contained herein reflect a judgement at the date of publication and are subject to change without notice. This is not intended to constitute advice to any person. This does not constitute advice of a legal, accounting, tax or other nature to any persons. You should consult your tax adviser in order to understand the impact of investment decisions on your tax position. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made regarding future performance. Cryptocurrencies are a highly volatile, high risk investment in which the value can change significantly. Before making any investment you should consider your own risk tolerance level and personal financial situation.
Originally published at blog.invsta.com on July 16, 2018.
