After a period of nearly one month, the crypto market ended the week on a positive note. The testimony given by the US SEC Chairman Jay Clayton provided a clear message that the US is only trying to streamline cryptos and ICOs, and will not take any measures that will act as a barrier to the disruptive technology.
In particular, the CFTC commissioner Christopher Giancarlo’s message sparked a wider rally in the crypto market. Giancarlo said, “It’s important to remember that if there were no Bitcoin, there would be no distributed ledger technology […] We owe it to this new generation to respect their enthusiasm for virtual currencies, with a thoughtful and balanced response, and not a dismissive one.”
Will this rally sustain and whether investors will be able to make the same kind of profit made last year? Only time can tell. As long as there are no major incidents of outright fraud through coin offerings, the cryptocurrency market will not see a major crackdown by the US government. Let us see the major developments related to important coins.
Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency leader bounced sharply from a level of $6,000 to about $9,000, following the positive comments made by the SEC chairman Jay Clinton and CFTC commissioner Christopher Giancarlo. Clayton also emphasized that Bitcoin is less volatile than the US stock market itself. Read more here.
The growing popularity of Bitcoin can be understood by the fact that Russian nuclear scientists were arrested for using a super computer to mine Bitcoin. The incident happened in the city of Sarov, where the employees at the National Nuclear center tried to mine Bitcoin with a super computer. Read more here.
Litecoin
Litecoin, which is technically a fork of the Bitcoin network, is gaining prominence due to faster confirmation and low transaction fees. Notably, on February 19 or at block 1,37,1111, whichever is earlier, the first Litecoin hard fork is about to happen. This would lead to the creation of Litecoin Cash (LCC).
Investors who hold Litecoin during the hard fork will receive Lite coin Cash in the ratio of 1:10 (ten Litecoin Cash for every Litecoin held). The Litecoin should be held in an exchange supporting the hard fork or in a desktop-based wallet to receive the airdrop. The news has already propelled Litecoin by about $20 to $150.
Ethereum
There was no important news related to Ethereum in the past few days. However, MyEtherWallet, an open-source interface for generating Ethereum wallets saw a huge drama last week. On Thursday, the Twitter handle of MyEtherWallet was suddenly changed to ‘MyCrypto’ by its co-founder Taylor Monahan. Furthermore, Taylor used the changed Twitter handle to announce the launch of her own company (MyCrypto) that would offer a service similar to MyEtherWallet.
The handle was restored to MyEtherWallet after the other co-founder Kosala Hemachandra took control. Taylor’s action was severely criticized by the stunned users of MyEtherWallet. Kosala had already filed a legal case against Taylor in December 2017 for not providing the company records and other documents. Ether, however, remains undaunted by these developments and continues to march forward, after hitting a low of about $553 on Tuesday. Read more here.
Our Forex Trading Plan
Ripple. Ripple has signed multiple partnerships in the past one month. In fact, the UAE exchange announced a deal with Ripple on Saturday. Therefore, fundamentally, it is quite strong. Technically, the Ripple coin is indicating a major trend reversal as shown in the chart below. The coin has bounced off the major support at 0.70. Further, the moving average of the oscillator has turned positive. Therefore, we are expecting a bullish reversal in the price of Ripple.
To gain from the uptrend, we are planning to open a long position in the Ripple coin near 0.85, with a stop-loss order below 0.70. We will dilute the long position when Ripple hits the next resistance level of 1.35.
Our Binary Options Trading Plan
Litecoin. Litecoin is gaining popularity due to low transaction costs and faster confirmation. Technically, the coin is expected to face resistance only at 190. The stochastic oscillator is also rising above the bearish zone. Therefore, we are expecting the current uptrend to continue.
To benefit from the uptrend, we are looking at the possibility of investing in a call option, which is valid for a period of one week. We may invest in the option only if Litecoin is trading near $140 in the cryptocurrency market.
Disclaimer: Any financial trading analysis offered here is our opinion and is not intended as advice or direction for investors. We cannot guarantee the success of any trades made as a consequence of this article, and we encourage traders to incorporate a strong money management strategy to limit losses when they enter the markets. Please use this article as part of your own research before formulating strategies prior to trading.
