The cryptocurrency market saw zigzag moves through Thursday and Friday last week. After rising to a level of $8400, Bitcoin plunged to $7,800 levels when the US SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) rejected the application for a Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), backed by the Winklevoss twins, founders of the Gemini exchange. However, in less than a day, Bitcoin bounced back sharply to end the week at $8,100 levels.
The rejection of the Bitcoin ETF application by the SEC was a big disappointment to the crypto community. However, the situation revealed that crypto has a big supporter at the government level. One of the SEC Commissioners, Hester Peirce, issued an official statement of dissent for rejecting the application. In her detailed message, she argues that the regulator has overstepped its role. Furthermore, she alleges that the hesitation to approve Bitcoin ETF will delay the process of institutionalization of the Bitcoin market.
A research paper published by staff at the Bank of Canada says that Canada and the US economy could benefit from the issue of central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to the paper, CBDC can result in a 0.64% increase in Canada’s consumption and nearly 1.6% for the US, corresponding to their respective economies when only fiat money is used. The paper, written by Mohammad Davoodalhosseini, also argues that implementation is not extremely costly.
Five banks from each of BRICS countries have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to advance distributed ledger technology. The BRICS summit took place in South Africa last week. The leaders of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations discussed economic and political cooperation among the member states. The organization also called blockchain technology the ‘fourth revolution,’ which countries cannot afford to miss.
Billionaire investor Novogratz-backed crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital reported a net loss of $134 million in the first quarter of 2018. The investment bank is yet to report the second-quarter results. Almost $85 million of those losses were ‘unrealized’, mainly due to a sharp decline in the price of cryptocurrencies between January and March. Still, Novogratz believes that the fund will do well in the long-term.
To improve efficiency and competitiveness across all core business processes, CNH Industrial, a global leader in the capital goods sector, has partnered with IBM where the latter will provide blockchain technology-based solutions for supply chain and inventory management. Under the partnership, IBM will implement advance analytical abilities linked with artificial intelligence and machine learning strategies. Following the implementation, CNH is expected to vastly improve its capability to innovate its quality, customer service, sales, finance support processes, and manufacturing.
Ethereum (ETH)
One of the lead Ethereum developers Danny Ryan disclosed that the specification for Casper and Sharding is almost “ready for review and discussion.” However, this is just the first step in a series of processes that will make the Ethereum network scalable. Another 100 lines of code needs to be completed before the developers implement and test the protocol. Once that is completed, audits will be performed. The Shasper protocol will then be deployed on testnet.
Finally, if everything is satisfactory, the protocol will be implemented on the mainnet, allowing the blockchain to scale. The team expects Casper to go live sometime in summer 2019. The Sharding protocol is expected to be deployed on mainnet before the end of 2020. The implementation of Sharding will enable Ethereum to outperform all other blockchain networks in terms of transaction capacity. Read more here.
TRON (TRX)
Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain network has the habit of making controversial talks. Two months before, Sun listed out the advantages TRON has over Ethereum, stirring the ire of Vitalik Buterin, the creator of the Ethereum network. Buterin responded strongly by pointing out that Tron’s white paper is plagiarised. Last week, Sun, who acquired BitTorrent for roughly $140 million, has once again created controversy by saying the Tron is 80 times faster than Ethereum. Tron is slated to release its Tron Virtual Machine by month-end. With that, decentralized apps running on the Ethereum network will be able to seamlessly migrate to the Tron network and enjoy the cost advantages.
Our Forex Trading Plan
Dash. Dash (DASH) has formed a near double bottom pattern as shown in the chart below. Furthermore, the momentum indicator is rising. Therefore, we are expecting an uptrend to begin in the short term.
To gain from the uptrend, we are checking out the possibility of opening a long position near 240, with a stop-loss order below 210. We will consider closing our position when the cryptocurrency reaches a level of 320.
Our Binary Options Trading Plan
Ripple. Ripple (XRP) has found strong support at 0.42 levels. Additionally, the stochastic oscillator is out of the bearish zone. Therefore, a bullish trend reversal is expected.
To gain from the impending uptrend, we are planning to invest in a call option offered by a reputable binary broker. The option may be bought when Ripple trades near $0.42 in the cryptocurrency market. We also prefer the contract to be valid 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.
