Travis Kling on Bitcoin as a Safe Haven Asset – CoinDesk

The conversation about whether bitcoin is a safe haven asset continues in the wake of Iranian missile strikes, which saw the price of BTC both surge and retrace in parallel with crude and gold. To help explain whats going on, we feature comments from Ikigai Asset Managements Travis Kling.

Also in todays episode, we look at newly published priorities from the SEC around crypto including investor suitability, trading practices and compliance program effectiveness. We also discuss former Bakkt CEO and now U.S. Senator Kelly Loefflers appointment to the committee that oversees the CFTC. Is it a conflict of interest, something good for the crypto industry or both?

Bitcoin as a safe haven asset as it follows crude and gold after Iran missile strikes

SEC publishes 2020 crypto priorities

Kelly Loefller appointed to committee overseeing CFTC

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Tucker Carlson Patrick McGeehan and Rising Deep Red State Revulsion Against the Neocons – Morgan County USA

Its hard to remember now, but as recently as last week, most people didnt consider Iran an imminent threat. Iranian saboteurs were not committing acts of terror in our cities. Oh, but our leaders tell us they were about to any second and thats why we struck first.

That was Tucker Carlson last night on Fox News talking about President Trumps assassination of the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

Whats so striking is how many people appear to accept this uncritically, Carlson said. Just the other day, youll remember, our intel agencies were considered politically tainted and suspect. Certainly, on this show, they are were and will be for quite some time.

Keep in mind, these are the people who invented excuses to spy on the Trump campaign purely because they didnt like Donald Trumps foreign policy views, and theyre the ones who pretended he was a Russian agent in order to keep him from governing.

Remember that? Russia-gate? Our friends at the intel community did that.

And by the way, these are the same people who lied about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction way back in 2002, and by doing that, got us into an utterly pointless war that dramatically weakened our country. The people pushing conflict with Iran are the same people who did that.

It seems like about 20 minutes ago we were denouncing these very people as the Deep State and pledging never to trust them again without verification. But now, for some reason, we do seem to trust them implicitly and completely.

In fact, we believe whatever they tell us, no matter how outlandish. Iran did 9/11, they are telling us. Oh, okay. I didnt know that. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Sunni Saudi Arabia; none were from Shiite Iran.

But if you say so, Mr. Unnamed CIA Official, Im happy to send my kid to the Middle East a week after Christmas, on the basis of your anonymous and unverified leak to the New York Times. Youve earned my trust through years of lying to me.

That appears to be our position now. And maybe all of this will turn out fine in the end. Were certainly praying for it. We love this country. But in the meantime, pardon the skepticism.

In 2016, Donald Trump ran on a promise of fewer foreign adventures considering the ones wed embarked upon didnt work very well, Carlson said on Friday. He vowed instead to focus on our problems here at home, which are growing. Against the odds he won that election, probably because of that promise, but ever since, Washington, including some around the President, have been committed to ignoring the results of that election and its implications. Washington has wanted war with Iran for decades. Theyve been working toward it. They may have finally gotten it.

Carlson is expressing a rising strain of Republican revulsion against the neocon project of imperial war.

West Virginia House of Delegates Republican and Afghan war veteran Patrick McGeehan (R-Hancock) took to the radio waves this morning to denounce the neocon project of regime change.

John Bolton, even though hes no longer the National Security Advisor, hes definitely cheering and (Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo and all their neoconservative friends in Washington are probably cheering right now and celebrating, McGeehan told WRNRs Eastern Panhandle Talk with Rob and Dave. Its funny how these guys even have jobs anymore. Theyve been wrong about everything. This has just emboldened the hardliners in Iran. And I think its just going to result in an escalation of hostilities.

For some reason these guys have had an obsession with regime change in Tehran for decades and thats really their ultimate goal make no mistake about it. Anyone who spent any time in the intelligence arena over in the Middle East likely knew who this guy was Soleimani. He had much to do with Iranian foreign policy. He was a charismatic leader, not just a military leader but you know in many respects, a political one as well. Hes had a checkered past. He was very much involved with talking and coordinating with American diplomats in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. He actually helped on a number of fronts in Afghanistan he provided Intel and advice.

Soleimani was directly responsible for giving the nod basically to the Iraqi government in 2014, to allow the United States back into Iraq to establish air bases in the country. Iran felt they needed the aid of American airpower to defeat the radical Sunni fundamentalist ISIS out in western Iraq.

The assassination was a wrongheaded move. Id like to know who actually presented the President with this option, because I think the President got bad advice. The top intelligence leaders from the various agencies who actually advise and brief the President, just filter what they want the President to hear.

Pompeo, whos supposed to be the Secretary of State, the countrys chief diplomat, but he acts more like the Secretary of War for whatever reason. I think there was an article yesterday that Pompeo has been wanting to kill Soleimani for months. Any public official who does not go into these foreign policy situations like this with a very healthy dose of skepticism, especially in the post Iraq War era, they are either just a fool or a liar.

Theyre the same people with same institutions who have routinely lied to the American public. For three years they told the American public that the President was basically some sort of Russian asset and spy who was nothing more than the Russian Presidents puppet. And they lied about the Afghanistan war over and over again you can read about that in the Afghanistan papers.

They lied about Assad in Syria gassing his own people. Theres all sorts of information out there now that says that, that never happened it was staged or maybe the rebels did it, if it did go forward. They lied about Benghazi, I mean they lied about the NSA spying on American citizens. That was done by James Clapper under oath by the way.

So now they tell us without a shred of evidence mind you that there were imminent attacks that were about to take place against Americans in the region. And they had to assassinate Soleimani because he was the evil mastermind behind them? And were going to take that at face value?

Pompeo is the guy leading this narrative about these imminent attacks. And this is the same man who stood in front of a college hall full of college students at Texas A&M I believe it was early last year, and told them that as the former director of the CIA he was an excellent liar and cheater. And his honor code that he took during his own college days there at West Point didnt matter. So, yeah, lets believe that guy, you know.

McGeehan was asked but wasnt Soleimani an evil guy?

Lets just say this the evil guy argument is dumb, McGeehan said. Thats the argument a grade schooler would make. Heres why its such a poor argument that reflects the thinking of a child. If thats the standard for the federal government to carry out hits killings and assassinations, then the federal government sure has a whole lot of work to do around the planet killing evildoers. So Im not going to be lectured to by politicians about who deserves to die because anyone that tries to imply that killing people is a simple thing is a fool or a liar. Im just gonna put it out there because hardly anything in life is really that simple.

I believe Soleimani was not a good person. He did have American blood on his hands. He was anti American between 2004 and in the surge. But the individuals within the CIA and other American covert institutions also have blood on their hands through the many proxy wars theyve carried out throughout the Middle East.

So in the end, you know, sometimes we have to sit down with our adversaries. I mean FDR sat down with Stalin for crying out loud. Kennedy sat down with Khrushchev. So to sit here and say well this guy was a bad person he was an evil person. Okay. You can make that argument but mind you this is ten years after the fact. And that was not the argument thats being made, officially from the presidents cabinet and the administration. The argument is there were imminent attacks that this guy was plotting and we need to take him out.

This Iranian obsession is just foolish and dangerous. To make matters worse, Soleimani had been on diplomatic papers. The Iraqi Government invited him in to advise them constantly. So we essentially broke the most basic diplomatic protocols, because we also killed an Iraqi official who was responsible for leading and coordinating the official militia organizations in Iraq. And because Soleimani was on diplomatic protocols its very likely thats the whole reason. They didnt expect to be openly assassinated at the public airport. So these guys werent in the shadows. They were openly managing Iraqi militias trying to make sure that ISIS in the West was indeed ended.

McGeehan has introduced legislation that would prohibit West Virginias governor from sending National Guard troops into action overseas when no federal declaration of war exists.

McGeehan says the best way to reduce high suicide rates among veterans is to not send them into unconstitutional wars in the first place.

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Tucker Carlson Patrick McGeehan and Rising Deep Red State Revulsion Against the Neocons - Morgan County USA

Libra Association Exec: World Needs Us Because Bitcoin Is ‘Not a Means of Payment’ – CoinDesk

LAS VEGAS "Bitcoin as an asset class has proven that mathematical scarcity can support an incredibly exciting asset," Dante Disparte, vice chairman of the Libra Association, said Tuesday. "It's not a means of payment. It just isn't."

Disparte spoke at the Digital Money Forum at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, making his argument to gadget fans and technology's early adopters.

"The bottom rung of the ladder of economic mobility is payment access," Disparte said. And so far, he said, crypto just isn't cutting it on payments. Disparte said that's why he became interested in what Facebook was building with Libra.

The Libra Association is a consortium of large companies that aims to eventually launch the Libra stablecoin, a federated cryptocurrency designed by Facebook for the millions of people who don't have access to banking services. Each company involved would run a node, but only those approved by existing members can join. Though it is more decentralized than existing finance, it is not permissionless, like bitcoin or ethereum.

Libra is trying to solve a complex problem. "How do you drive mass adoption?" Disparte said. "How do you remove insidious levels of friction that basically make it cost-prohibitive to give people access to payments?"

"I'm not convinced that a council of self-interested companies can do money better than a decentralized system," Akin Sawyerr, a strategy lead on the Decred project, said on the Tuesday panel. "The only way to really get there is to empower the individuals to have some base-level sovereignty."

By sovereignty, Sawyerr meant a level on which a person has uncensorable control of their money. In bitcoin terms, as long as a person controls their keys, no one can take away their bitcoin. He expressed doubt that a permissioned system run by dozens of large organizations would be very censorship-resistant. Notably, the payments companies initially involved in the Libra Association including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and others departed en masse in October.

But Disparte countered that until permissionless crypto projects deliver a payments system that people in the developing world actually use and that shows it can scale, it's not fair to subject Libra to what he called, "a crypto purity test."

"It's not one or the other. The world is not zero sum," Disparte said.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a media partner of the Digital Money Forum.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Libra Association Exec: World Needs Us Because Bitcoin Is 'Not a Means of Payment' - CoinDesk

Bitcoin (BTC) Bull Market Has Already Started. Trading Legend Peter Brandt Explains Why – U.Today

Trading guru Peter Brandt is apparently among those who believe that a new Bitcoin bull market has already started. In his new tweet, he gives three reasons why this might be the case.

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As reported by U.Today, BTC was trapped in the six-month falling channel after reaching its 2019 high of $13,700. However, the top cryptocurrency managed to print a daily close at $8,160, thus finally breaking out of the bear channel. This "pending penetration"gives more power to the bulls that have been on fire as of recently.

Bitcoin's multi-year support also remains intact, which means that BTC could continue its parabolic uptrend that started in January 2015. Over the past few months, Bitcoin has touched this support on multiple occasions but the bears are yet to break below it.

To top that off, the trading vet also noticed that Bitcoin was inching closer to reach the head-and-shoulders (H&S) bottom on the daily chart. The narrative that BTC was about to break out of an inverse head-and-shoulders (iH&S) pattern was predominant on the Crypto Twitter as of recently.

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The cryptocurrency community looks like a ghost town after Bitcoin's explosive rally in December 2017 went south. According to BitInfoCharts, the number of Bitcoin-related tweets is currently at the 2014 level (let that sink in).

While it might seem like crypto has lost its appeal for the average Joe, this shakeout of "cryptocultists" is actually a good thing, according to Brandt. Earlier, he claimed that the bulls must be fully purged on Twitter for the BTC price to hit $50,000.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Bull Market Has Already Started. Trading Legend Peter Brandt Explains Why - U.Today

Is Bitcoin a Scam? Heres Why Reddit Certainly Thinks So – newsBTC

At first glance, the social discussion website Reddit appears to have joined the ranks crusade against Bitcoin. If you search the entire site for the word scam, one of the top three results is Bitcoin.

Just whats going on? Has the website turned its back on the crypto asset space, or is there something much more innocent behind the seemingly defamatory search results?

Bitcoin has been previously called many things by those with a vested interest in its demise. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, famously described it as a fraud just as the last bull run was kicking into overdrive in September 2017. Meanwhile, billionaire investor Warren Buffet got a little more creative with his insults, deeming the cryptocurrency rat poison squared. Its hardly surprising that these clear representatives of the old system would attack Bitcoin. After all, who ever heard of a turkey voting for Christmas before?

However, it appears that a resource without such clear self interest in maintaining the global financial status quo has joined the ranks of the Bitcoin naysayers the social discussion forum, Reddit.Visit Reddits homepage today and do a quick search for the word scam. You will see that the subreddit r/Bitcoin is listed amongst the top three results.

Hitting view more shows that its not just Bitcoin that has apparently evoked the ire of Reddit. The crypto-focused subreddits r/Cryptocurrency, r/BTC, and r/Buttcoin are also listed as top results.

The phenomena was first pointed out by Reddit user u/Crypthomie. However, any suggestion that the website had decided to join Dimon et al. was quickly laid to rest by r/Bitcoin community members.

Rather than the first viable digital asset being labelled a scam by some Reddit overlord, instead the results simply show subreddits in which the word is frequently used. User u/roman-remus explained:

Its because of reddits search algorithm, that word is used a lot in this subreddit so when you search for it youll get results from the subreddits that use it the most.

There is no shortage of clear scams surrounding Bitcoin and other digital assets, and the legitimate calling out of such fraudulent schemes will have surely contributed to the subreddit being listed under the search term scam. The recent PlusToken incident, to name a particularly high profile example, will have added heavily to the total number of times the word scam has been mentioned on the subreddit.

However, bringing the total up even more seems likely to be the number of so-called Bitcoin maximalists who dismiss all other crypto projects as a scam. The staunchest Bitcoiners, following the ICO bubble of 2017/18, have become known in the cryptocurrency space for their liberal use of the word when describing any other coin or token other than Bitcoin.

It, therefore, appears that the Bitcoin maximalist penchant for calling everything a scam might have somewhat backfired. If someone not already familiar with the nuances of the industry were to search Reddit for the term scam, the site will display the r/Bitcoin subreddit. This is hardly the kind of PR needed for a technology that has already had more than its fair share of dirt thrown at it from genuine naysayers.

Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Branded a Scam, Ethereum Upgrade Completed, Telegrams ICO in Crisis

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Is Bitcoin a Scam? Heres Why Reddit Certainly Thinks So - newsBTC

Why Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Surged Today – Motley Fool

What happened

Shares ofGrayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC)popped 12.3% on Monday, as the price of bitcoin rebounded sharply over the weekend.

Bitcoin's price climbed to more than $8,000 on Monday, up from about $7,300 at the close of the U.S. stock markets on Friday.As it typically the case with cryptocurrencies, pinpointing the exact reason for the move is difficult if not impossible.

One theory is that bitcoin's role as a hedge against geopolitical turmoil is helping to drive its price higher. The upward move coincides with the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Many investors are concerned that rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran could lead to escalating military conflict in the Middle East, destabilizing the region and global oil supplies in the process.

Image source: Getty Images.

Another theory is that bitcoin reached technical support levels near $7,000 and has since rallied off these prices.

Both of these factors, along with many others, are likely contributing to bitcoin's recent gains at least to some extent.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust an imperfect proxy for the price of bitcoin. The trust is currently trading at a nearly 30% premium to the value of the underlying cryptocurrency that it holds.

However, unless a bitcoin exchange-traded fund is approved by regulators, investors who do not wish to deal with the security and other operational challenges that come with holding actual bitcoin will probably continue to use Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as a means to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency. As such -- and despite its sizable premium to the value of its underlying Bitcoin -- the price of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust will probably continue to mimic the price movements of bitcoin in the days and weeks ahead.

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Why Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Surged Today - Motley Fool

Bye-Bye Bear Market? These Hallmark Bitcoin Reversal Signs Appeared – newsBTC

Bitcoin has been on an absolute tear over the past few days, surging by some 20% from the $6,900 low put in last week. While some say it is too early to tell whether or not this jump marks an end to the brutal bear market that brought BTC from $14,000 to $6,400 at its worst, there are a number of technical signals that have been printed that imply bulls are decisively in control.

According to a number of analysts, Bitcoins charts are printing bullish technical signals galore.

BTCKyle posted the below tweet, noting that Bitcoins weekly chart has printed a bullish Parabolic Stop and Reverse candle for the first time since the $14,000 candle in June of last year. Yes, the SAR has not confirmed, though it is a positive sign for bulls should it close positive.

Thats far from the end of it. Josh Olszewicz, analyst at Brave New Coin, recently noted that Coinbase is now trading at a slight premium over Bitfinex. This is purportedly an extremely bullish signal that underscored much of the rally seen in 2019.

And Adaptive Capitals new analyst, CL, recently noted that Bitcoins four-hour chart is showing clear signs of a reversal on a medium-term basis. The trader and chartist specifically looked to the Bollinger Bands indicator, which he claims shows a bullish trend is currently emerging:

When price starts deviating away from the 4hr 200MA, out of the bands, especially after consolidation, and a BB squeeze, a new trend usually emerges. There is not much more to say, I will be buying dips. Send it.

All this has been underscored by the positive fundamental trend the cryptocurrency has seen.

Per previous reports from this very outlet, another bullish factor that is likely to aid Bitcoin is themacroeconomic and geopolitical environment. More specifically, the news that Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad in an airstrike directed by President Donald Trump.

According to a tweet from Mike Novogratz, a former Goldman Sachs partner and current chief executive of Galaxy Digital, the Iran situation is bullish for gold and BTC.

The investor elaborated by writing what he expects to happen on a geopolitical scale in the coming weeks. Slightly paraphrased, he wrote: Iran will begin to expel U.S. troops. Iran will have more influence in Iraq, which is what they want. The Saudis dont want conflict. Due to all this, the Middle East will become less stable, creating more volatility in global markets.

Not to mention, Bitcoins hash rate the measure of computational power processing BTC transactions hit a new all-time high on the 1st day of 2020. The all-time high, 119 exahashes per second, or 119 with 18 zeroes after it.

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Bye-Bye Bear Market? These Hallmark Bitcoin Reversal Signs Appeared - newsBTC

Confusion still prevails regarding Bitcoin as a Virtual Currency – FinanceLong

Bitcoin is currently the most popular cryptocurrency, but the percentage of people using it for making daily transactions is negligible. Even financial institutions shun it and do not offer products that cater to the cryptocurrency market. Thus, Bitcoin, which is worth thousands of dollars, is not traded on the world markets.

Bitcoin price has slumped recently, but they are expected to reach new highs. This is because the number of Bitcoin is fixed, but the number of people transacting in Bitcoin is increasing. As Bitcoin price is determined as demand compared to its supply, with demand increasing, its price is bound to rise.

Several Bitcoin faucets give small amounts of Bitcoin free to users. If users collect these small amounts for a long time, they can increase their Bitcoin holdings. However, this approach is time-consuming and strictly for small investors.

Bitcoin is increasingly used as a hedge for equities that are facing price fluctuations due to the US-China trade war. Any bad news on the trade front sees movement in Bitcoin prices suggesting that investors are backing Bitcoin to help them tide over these uncertain times.

In the initial days, Bitcoin enthusiasts knowingly or unknowingly used terms that would help the common man associate cryptocurrency with fiat currency. Today, these terms are proving to be impediments to the peoples understanding of Bitcoin.

Following are some of the misleading terms associated with Bitcoin:

The classic picture of a shining coin embossed with the Bitcoin symbol with a plastic case in the background was a clever marketing ploy to show users that a Bitcoin was not only a physical coin but was as valuable as gold or silver coins.

With this idea, when users buy Bitcoin, they are shocked as there are no coins, not even digital ones, which they can see. The human brain is wired to see physical coins and notes and in their absence, we feel a definite lack of trust. Whats more, you cannot even touch Bitcoin. Thus, the idea of giving up fiat currency for a currency that we can neither see nor touch creates apprehension in the minds of common people.

We hold banks accountable for safeguarding our holdings. We can pay a visit to banks; meet people handling our hard-earned money. With Bitcoin, there are no such interactions, even there are number of crypto games available that use bitcoin as payment. By using the term coin in Bitcoin, we prompt users to seek the same systems they see with fiat currency, which is just not the case with Bitcoin.

A traditional wallet is used to store fiat currency and can be carried wherever required. A cryptocurrency wallet can also be used wherever required but it does not hold any cryptocurrency. It only holds the users private keys, which will enable him to access his Bitcoin holdings. Again, this also confuses new users because they are used to carry physical cash in wallets. In the case of Bitcoin, its like they have put a lock on their wallets and are carrying the keys in their pockets.

Mining in the context of bitcoin is being used to give an idea of several miners looking to strike gold, while in the actual sense, there are rows of computers competing to solve a problem.

There is a new contest every ten minutes with a reward of 12.5 Bitcoin for miners whose blocks get accepted on the blockchain. This contest will last for 21 years.

Thus, rather than mining, it is more akin to a lottery, especially as mining farms with ASIC miners are employed which utilize huge computational power to break the cryptographic code. Mining refers to the physical search for some precious resource, while lottery refers to putting ones fate in someone elses hands, which is exactly what humans do with computer farms for mining.

We can conclude that Bitcoin is nothing like fiat currency and people need to be educated to accept that it is shapeless, formless, but still just as legitimate as the currency they hold in their wallets.

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Confusion still prevails regarding Bitcoin as a Virtual Currency - FinanceLong

Heres What Must Happen for $9K Bitcoin Price in the Coming Months – Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) made a sudden jump of 8% yesterday and is currently hovering at around $7,300. As the price bounced from $6,900, a higher low is presenting itself on the chart, but does this mean that the bottom is there?

Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360

BTC USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The price of Bitcoin is still moving inside this downwards channel since last years high of $13,900. Remarkably, the price corrected towards the Golden Pocket Fibonacci area (0.618-0.65 level) and is currently showing a potential higher low.

The green area is also a significant area from 2018, as that was the zone the price of Bitcoin bounced on for 6-months.

Given that the price bounced from $6,900 to $7,400, theres buying pressure shown from this area, indicating that the price might be bottoming inside this range.

BTC USD 1-day linear chart. Source: TradingView

The linear chart shows similarities with the log scale chart. However, theres more of a falling wedge construction rather than a channel. Meaning that the price is gathering strength for a breakout through the coming weeks, marking this level as a bottom area.

The chart is also showing a bullish divergence, which marked the temporary low at $6,500. Generally, bullish divergences mark a trend reversal (also seen in the December 20118 low at $3,100).

If price maintains this red box as new support and a higher low is established, then Bitcoin could face a rally towards $9,000 over the coming months.

Total market capitalization 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Similar signs show the total market capitalization chart, which has retraced to April 2019 levels. A test was confirmed by a sharp bounce upwards, followed by a potential higher low construction as we speak. Aside from these signals, a substantial bullish divergence potentially marked the bottom of this retracement.

This retracement is currently hovering around the 0.618-0.65 Fibonacci level as well (similar to Bitcoin). If market capitalization can maintain this higher low and consolidate on this level, a breakout to the upside of this falling wedge looks more likely than further downside momentum.

Crypto fear & greed index. Source: Alternative.me

Usually, when an asset is marking a temporary top, the sentiment is euphoric and greed becomes palpable. The opposite effect is the case around bottoms. People are usually scared and depressed as they are expecting further downwards momentum. The Fear & Greed Index has been showing fear for the last weeks, indicating that the overall market sentiment doesnt expect a breakout to the upside.

The price is still moving south, which means that some fear is warranted in the market. However, as the price is trying to bottom here, it would be interesting to look at potential upside momentum rather than further downwards. The same can be spotted on altcoins, for example, Ethereum (ETH).

ETH USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The ETH chart is showing a similar wedge formation as the Bitcoin and total market capitalization charts, meaning that a breakout to the upside is likely to occur in the next month. Aside from that, the price bounced from a support area here and is potentially making a bottom formation.

ETH BTC 2-day chart. Source: TradingView

On the BTC chart, many altcoins are facing a long term downtrend. Ether, for example, is in the midst of a 2-year old downtrend that it must break out of. Interestingly, the months of January/February have historically seen Ether price significantly increase and/or breakout of downtrends.

During 2016, a similar breakout was shown, after which 2017 repeats the same move. First, a bottom formation includes a bullish divergence. After this, a higher low is marked, followed by a breakout to the upside.

In 2018 and 2019, a significant move to the upside was seen in the ETH/BTC pair as well, though no breakout of the general downtrend occurred. This time its possible, however, as Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are already breaking their downtrends that have been in place for two years.

So what must Bitcoin price do now to generate such a breakout to the upside?

BTC USD bullish scenario. Source: TradingView

As discussed previously in the article, the price needs to maintain the blue area as a higher low and not drop below it. As long as that level is sustained as support, a breakout to the upside is likely to occur. This would cause the 6-month old downtrend to break to the upside, which potentially means the end of the downward momentum.

The targets based on previous support/resistance and Fibonacci levels first include $8,000. If thats broken, the price is ready to aim for $9,100-9,500, which would typically shift the sentiment from fear to neutral.

BTC USD 1-day bearish scenario. Source: TradingView

A bearish scenario can be warranted through the opposite of the bullish scenario and is pretty basic. If the price of Bitcoin is not able to hold the blue area as support, the bullish divergence is not confirmed, and the price is ready to continue downwards.

In that regard, a potential retest of the $6,900 level would grant an excellent short opportunity, and then the next support zones can be found in the $6,200-6,500 area.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Heres What Must Happen for $9K Bitcoin Price in the Coming Months - Cointelegraph

Could Bitcoins 6-Month Downtrend Be Coming to an End? – FXStreet

While it pales in comparison to previous bear markets (prominently including 2018's 85% drop from nearly $20,000 to a low of $3,200), there's no denying that sellers have been in control of bitcoin over the last six months. Since peaking just below $14,000 in late June, bitcoin has put in a consistent series of lower highs and lower lows, culminating (so far) with the mid-December low under $6,500.

Ho-hum, just another run-of-the-mill 50% crash in the world's oldest cryptocurrency.

As any diehard bitcoin "hodler" will tell you though, developers continue to improve the underlying bitcoin protocol regardless of price movements. While the much-anticipated bitcoin ETF has yet to garner regulatory approval in the US, a series of other upgrades have come online in recent years, including the faster, cheaper "lightning network" layer-2 solution, as well as the space-saving Segregated Witness (SegWit) proposal. Looking ahead, developments like more efficient Schnorr signatures and privacy-enhancing Taproot could be future catalysts for improved functionality.

At the end of the day though, what traders are most interested in are the price movements, and from that perspective, there are some clear technical signs that bitcoin's recent downtrend may be coming to an end.

Quietly, BTC/USD has rallied more than 20% in the past three weeks and is probing its highest levels since late November. More to the point, this rally has come in the context of a classic inverted head-and-shoulders pattern. For the uninitiated, this pattern shows a transition from a textbook downtrend (lower highs and lower lows) to an uptrend (higher highs and higher lows) and is often seen at significant bottoms in the market:

Source: TradingView, GAIN Capital. Note that this is a logarithmic chart.

The fact that both the RSI and MACD indicators have been trending higher since late November (despite the marginal "lower low" in price) confirms that the selling pressure is drying up, a necessary precursor to the start of a new uptrend.

That said, bulls are far from "out of the woods" as of writing. Bitcoin is currently testing its 100-day moving average and remains within the bearish channel off its June peak. A confirmed break above this resistance zone in the 7900-8200 area is needed to confirm a shift in the medium-term downtrend.

Bulls can take solace that at least, after six-month period of frustration and despair, there are some proverbial "green shoots" at the start of 2020.

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Could Bitcoins 6-Month Downtrend Be Coming to an End? - FXStreet