The cryptocurrency market continues to remain bearish as the tug of war between the buyers and sellers is dominated by the latter. Although the market didn’t plunge in the last two days, it failed to rise. Some of the altcoins have made slight advancements based on individual news, whilst enterprises continue to launch new services based on blockchain technology.
In Hong Kong, Ant Financial, the financial subsidiary of Alibaba Group, has successfully trialed a blockchain-based system to send funds from Hong Kong to the Philippines, which is the world’s largest remittance market with transactions of over $33 billion in 2017. The blockchain system uses the AlipayHK wallet to send funds.
On the Philippines side, GCash was the receiver. Standard Chartered bank acts as the settlement bank for the fund transfer. Notably, the blockchain system can be used for near-zero commission fees. This is quite contrasting when compared to the traditional payment services which charge up to HK$18 per transaction. Put together, the Philippines community repatriates HK$4.40 billion annually to family, relatives, and friends every year.
In Europe, eight major European financial institutions have partnered to launch a blockchain project that records the issuance of financial warrants. According to el Economista, a Spanish news outlet that broke the news, the system was created to record the issuance of warrants in less than 48 hours. Traditionally, the registering process takes more than a week. Warrants are derivatives that provide the right to sell a security at a particular price before the expiry date.
The Proof of Concept of the blockchain-based system, referred to as Fast Track Listing, was successfully completed by Spanish securities regulator The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) in partnership with stock market operator BME, and banks such as BBVA, Santander, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Caixa, and Societe Generale.
In the US, well-known venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching a fund totally dedicated to the cryptocurrency market. The fund, which has raised $300 million, will invest in newly launched cryptocurrency projects to advanced blockchain networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Notably, the Menlo Park-based company will be headed by Katie Haun, former US Department of Justice federal prosecutor. She is known for her commendable role in the Silk Road investigation. Furthermore, Ms. Haun is one of the directors of the Coinbase Board. She has also taught digital currency and cybercrime to students studying law in Stanford University.
To combat cybercrime related to cryptocurrencies, Sentinel Protocol, a Singapore-based IT security company, has developed a blockchain-based solution to block the use of stolen cryptocurrencies on wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges. The crowdsourced threat intelligence platform has the ability to collect, share, and analyze hacks and scams, and fake data to protect digital wallets and exchanges from hackers.
Now, read on for more about this week’s trending currencies:
Tether (USDT)
Tether is a stable currency, pegged to the US dollar on a 1:1 ratio. Tether serves two purposes. Firstly, exchanges such as Binance do not accept fiat money deposits. In order to trade in such exchanges, investors generally use Tether to get in and out of a cryptocurrency. Secondly, when there is a market selloff, traders generally convert their crypto holdings to USDT tokens and buy back the cryptos once they feel the market has bottomed out.
The issue is Tether’s management is having a huge stake in the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. Therefore, there is a rumor that Tether misuses the exchange to pump the price of cryptocurrencies by printing Tether, without real backup by fiat money. The rumor was so strong that CFTC served a subpoena in December 2017.
The crypto community has also highlighted repeatedly the strange coincidence between USDT printing and recovery in the price of Bitcoin. On Monday, Tether printed $250 million worth USDT, which can be verified by the Omniexplorer (a block explorer for the Omni protocol) link provided underneath. The market is now speculating a bullish reversal in the days to come. Read more here.
Our Forex Trading Plan
Ethereum. Ethereum (ETH) is our choice of an asset to trade in the cryptocurrency (Forex) market. The native crypto token of the favorite blockchain network of developers is moving along the descending trend line as shown in the historic price chart below. The MACD histogram is in the negative region and the next major support is only at 370 levels. Therefore, we are expecting the cryptocurrency to decline further.
Using the Forex trading account, we may go short in the ETHUSD pair near 440. A stop-loss order will be placed above 480. We will book profit when the cryptocurrency pair decline to 370 levels.
Our Binary Options Trading Plan
Dash. Governments across the world are extremely concerned about anonymous, privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. So, Dash (DASH) is our choice of an asset to trade in the binary market. The cryptocurrency is trading below the 50-day moving average. Additionally, the Williams Percentage Range indicator is also in the bearish zone. Therefore, recovery is not expected in the current scenario.
We are looking at the possibility of investing in a put option to benefit from the downtrend. The option may be bought only if Dash trades near $234 in the cryptocurrency market. Furthermore, the binary broker must provide an option contract that remains active for a period of one week.
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.
