Wolves could be forced to pull a new bitcoin lottery sponsorship deal amid growing concern about their new partner's business background.
The Premier League club announced Crypto Millions Lotto as their official online lottery partner on Wednesday.
The organisation pledges to allow registered users to compete for a 23million jackpot prize and receive referral fees in bitcoin.
Headlines on the lottery's homepage boast of their link-up with Wolves , who are in the Europa League.
But concerns are growing at Molineux after it emerged the CEO Sulim Malook was behind a failed company called Fat Cat Gaming.
It could prompt a review of Malook's operating practises as he doesn't have a UK gambling licence.
Crypto Millions Lotto's parent company is Ofertas365 , based out of Curacao off the coast of Venezuela , which also launched 'AfroMillionsLotto' in Nigeria in 2017.
Its website no longer works with visitors given a chance to buy its domain name.
But Malook claims he has expanded and migrated the business to Crypto Millions Lotto which also draws on the German National Lottery numbers.
Yet scrutiny of Crypto Millions Lotto's terms and conditions state pay-outs for large winnings depend on their insurance partner Lloyds paying up and could be suspended for up to two years, pending negotiations. Molineux officials have since gone back to the outside agency, who recommended Malook's latest company.
A previous business Fat Cat Gaming was launched in 2015 by crowd-funding platform fundedbyme with an investment of 8,500 in return for a 1% stake.
It promised users a free-to-play mobile game, called Lucky 6 but all hyper-links to its sites have been disabled.
Angry bloggers claim they were encouraged to promote the game in India in exchange for shares which were either worth little or tough to cash in.
Fundedbyme were contacted by MirrorSport and claimed not to have been in contact with Malook for many years.
Mirror Sport phoned Mr Malook for comment and he said: I have done a contract with Wolves and signed it on behalf of our company (Ofertas365).
I have paid them. A lot of people are very happy with it and I am happy with it.
We don't have a UK gambling licence but we aren't doing business in the UK.
Wolves earlier announced the deal with Steve Morton, head of commercial at Wolves, stating: Were delighted to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Wolves global reach across various platforms.
Were also excited to develop our relationship, which will also see the Wolves brand reach new audiences in Eastern Europe and South America.
Bruce Fenton is definitely a distinct personality in the Bitcoin space. After working as a stock market broker for about two decades, he chose to walk away from his Wall Street career and take a leap of faith with Bitcoin.
Its been a wild ride, I wouldnt trade it for the world. In my opinion, Bitcoin is the most powerful and important open-source project out there, said Fenton, an enthusiastic superhero fan.
As he spoke, he sat next to a large Batman action figure that points to the duality of his own work. Much like Bruce Wayne, Fenton lives a double life. He works as the director of his own companies, Atlantic Financial and Chainstone Labs, during the day. However, its at night that he puts on his mask to defend sound money, freedom of transactions and privacy.
This ardent advocacy may stem from Fentons origins with the original cryptocurrency. When he first entered the Bitcoin space, the same kind of financial incentives that exist today were not apparent.
I worked with some of the wealthiest organizations in the world, and when I got into Bitcoin I went from a very high income to basically no income, he explained. And it wasnt like now, with lots of startups. Coinbase and BitPay were some of the early ones which appeared several months after I started.
According to Fenton, it was the intellectual brilliance of the early Bitcoin community that first drew him into the space. To him, the journey has been truly exciting and transformational.
I think what attracted me at first was the electric excitement of going to these Bitcoin events, he said. The first couple of events that I attended were life-changing because I found this weird eclectic mix of strange people: hackers, anarchists and real geniuses. I could quickly tell that they knew their stuff and they were excited about it, and that got me excited about it too.
Fentons biggest adjustment has been that of switching from a hierarchical and authority-driven background to a whole new world which eliminates statuses and tries to build a fairer system.
I came from a world where everything was about authority, so I kept trying to find out whos the leader, he recalled. Then I realized that Bitcoin belongs to everybody and that was a big mind shift in my previous job I was dealing with kings, cabinet ministers and billionaires all the time.
Experience has taught Fenton that attempts to centralize power and influence in Bitcoin are anathema to its very DNA and will end up as failures. Nonetheless, he spoke fondly of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit Bitcoin advocacy group that he led from 2015 to 2016.
The Foundation is an interesting animal because it evolved a lot over time, Fenton said. In the early days, people were trying to make it an official organization thats in charge. We didnt have people like Andreas Antonopoulos to do public speaking and raise awareness, the media was confused and looking for spokespeople, so the Foundation was convenient at the time.
Highlighting just how misunderstood Bitcoin was during the Foundations earlier days, Fenton recalled some humorous moments from his time there.
The Foundation got a lot of crazy letters in the early days: they got a Cease and Desist from the State of California which said stop all bitcoins just because they didnt know better and thought the protocol can be controlled by this centralized entity, he said. People would call the Foundation and say someone hacked me, I want my coins back. But now you no longer make these mistakes because even the media knows that you have no centralized power over the protocol.
But despite his history of advocacy work, Fenton explained that hes not interested in representing Bitcoin in a public debate with regulators or legislators. However, he did take a moment to step into the shoes of a public speaker who advocates for the freedom enabled by Bitcoin, making a short and concise argument for free code and exchange of ideas.
If I were to testify in Congress about Bitcoin, I would define it as an idea which is expressed in code, Fenton explained. People have the right to write down ideas, express them in code, give them away and run them on a computer. Nobody has any authority to mess with this.
But for all of his own strong views, Fenton did point out that he enjoys listening to different perspectives and tries to remain friendly despite great differences in opinions.
In my nature, I try to make more friends than enemies, he said. This extends to the Bitcoin space and I hope is something for which Im known.
That being said, Fenton considers himself a Bitcoin maximalist. Its a label regularly applied to him by altcoiners, though other Bitcoin maximalists often dismiss him as an altcoiner. Nonetheless, Fenton believes that maximalists are the reason why Bitcoin is so successful and keeps on getting more robust at the protocol level and in price.
Maximalists might not be that diplomatic, but theyre also protecting my bitcoins because I know theyll never compromise, he said. I know that Im not going to lose sleep at night worrying about the price or about the code being changed.
The sixth Satoshi Roundtable event, an annual gathering established by Fenton, is set to take place between February 7 and February 10, 2020. According to its website, 175 leading Bitcoin industry members will be attending. However, the events selectivity and focus on privacy are controversial within the community.
One misconception is that its closed, Fenton explained. Its just limited in space, due to the reality of logistics. We only have a couple hundred seats. The main purpose is to not do something like Consensus, which is noisy and busy.
Fenton added that community members who want to participate in the Satoshi Roundtable for the first time can simply reach out and try to get a seat, particularly those whove been there before and havent pitched some kind of scam.
As a way of proving the open and inclusive nature of the gathering, Fenton pointed to one unlikely guest who nonetheless garners a lot of enthusiasm in the Bitcoin space.
We never kicked anybody out to make room for someone else, but we always tried to make room for the people who can add the most to the conversation, he said. William Shatner is coming this year. He doesnt have some huge street cred when it comes to Bitcoin code, but he has an interesting life and hes a celebrity.
In regards to the secretive nature of the gathering and the fact that the outside world doesnt find out much about whats being discussed, Fenton nodded to the fundamental need for privacy.
We try to respect the privacy of participants, which sometimes gets misinterpreted as secrecy, he said.
Between 2015 and 2017, Fenton took various stances regarding the scalability of Bitcoin. But regardless of his preferences and biases, he kept an open mind and an open door for debate.
Further Reading: The Long Road to SegWit
I think I was successful in not being too strong in taking a stance, he said. I was definitely open minded to the point of annoying people. At the time, I was arguing for both sides of the issue. In hindsight, I mostly argued on the corporate NYA/SegWit2X side.
Interestingly, despite spending some time arguing in favor of the block size increase via SegWit2X, Fenton did not sign the New York Agreement (NYA) and merely participated in the discussions.
I didnt support the NYA, but I did argue for it because I was still learning for myself. I think that one of my strengths is to be a debater type of person. So I think that I have a strength in taking peoples opinions and putting them in a way that makes me argue a case for somebody else, he added.
In his transition from arguing for bigger blocks to understanding why Bitcoin shouldnt be changed, Fenton has received a lot of support from other community members who understood that security is a greater priority than cheap transactions. Correspondingly, he went on to thank some of the industry leaders who helped him change his mind.
Adam Back is probably the best example, as he was kind enough to spend a lot of time with me and people like me, he recalled. I remember one time we spoke on the phone for three and a half hours. All the time he tried to explain to me and convince me whats different about open source and why this works. Eric Lombrozo, Nick Szabo and Jameson Lopp really informed my opinion too Thank God I never signed that New York Agreement!
According to Fentons recollection of the early days, many people came into Bitcoin and had misconceptions about free and fast transactions.
It was all about merchants and convincing them to accept Bitcoin, he said. And then Roger Ver gave a speech in which he said, If this continues, then were going to pay 30 cents for a fee, and some people listening were appalled.
Fenton is also convinced that both sides of the debate were acting in good faith and wanted what they genuinely thought was best for Bitcoin. In the end, he concluded that the Bitcoin maximalist understanding is the point of view which he also favors. However, he maintains a diplomatic stance in relation to big blockers.
Now I agree with the Bitcoin maximalists that security is most important and the base layer shouldnt be changed, but I respect the people on the other side too, he said.
Fenton believes that the existence of Bitcoin Cash as a divisive project which onboards big block advocates is a net positive, but he dislikes the way in which the fork tries to call itself Bitcoin. He doesnt regard chain forks as evil creations that should not exist, but natural consequences of the open-source environment that can be educational.
"Forks are great because thats the nature of open source, he said. And I do believe that all of these projects help Bitcoin because we learn what doesnt work and there will always be a minority group that just wants to do something different. The nature of the software license is that anybody can do anything with it, and they can try to run their own code. If its something that becomes successful and has market value over time, then that will be good. Otherwise, its just a learning experience.
In regards to Bitcoin privacy, Fenton believes that its very important. However, hes convinced that many of the technical discussions regarding the right implementation of this privacy should be left to the engineers.
From an overall priority standpoint, I think that privacy should be way up there, he said. Security must always be first, but privacy should be second or third.
Philosophically speaking, Fenton takes his views about privacy from his reading of cypherpunk literature, calling A Cypherpunks Manifesto the origin and ethos of what Bitcoin is.
But even though he appreciates the cypherpunk values, Fenton is against a hard fork that might force additional privacy measures and appears to be open to second layers that fulfill privacy requirements more easily.
"I believe in a base layer that cant be changed and is as close to immutability as can be, and also enables people to build privacy on top of it, he clarified.
Fenton also believes that privacy should exist by default for all users, and it shouldnt just be an optional feature which reduces the anonymity set of everybody involved and doesnt really solve problems. In order to make his case for private data protection, he told a short story about his early days in stock brokerage.
When I became a stock broker in 1992, I could open an account over the phone just by getting a name and an address, he explained. It wasnt until later that they added social security number and ID requirements. The government just slammed its fist down to add extra verification, and now roughly 20 years later, its like the government has some birthright to do complete KYC/AML. The economy worked just well for decades before this, most of the stuff has no economic value and is put in place for extra control.
He also argued that mandatory KYC/AML requirements havent really brought the expected results and crime still exists in spite of them.
Imagine if you didnt have all these arbitrary rules for money transmitting in bitcoin, he said. The industry would be a lot bigger, it would be easier for people to move money around.
All told, Fentons history, opinions and current involvement in Bitcoin make him one of the most captivating figures in the space. As the technology grows, theres little doubt that his own story will follow along with it.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors have been closely watching the market over the last few weeks, with November and December a historically key time for major market moves.
Last November, the bitcoin price halved from around $6,000 per bitcoin to just $3,000, while the year before November kicked off bitcoin's epic bull run to almost $20,000.
The bitcoin price has historically moved sharply towards the end of the year but there's no ... [+] guarantee 2019 will be the same.
Looking further back, November 2013 saw the bitcoin price suddenly climb from around $200 per bitcoin to over $1,000 by the middle of December.
Bitcoin traders have noticed the pattern, though have struggled to explain why the price seems inclined to move suddenly in the final couple of months of the year.
"A year ago, today was the day bitcoin started its drop from $6,000 to $3,000," one prominent bitcoin and crypto trader wrote on Twitter yesterday. "Two years ago, today was the day bitcoin started its parabolic rise from $6,700 to $20,000."
Others cautioned against making bets the market will move again this year, with bitcoin and crypto market analyst, previously of brokerage eToro, Mati Greenspan warning, "both [the 2017 and 2018 bitcoin spike and slump] were irrational and unexplainable moves that were eventually reversed by the market."
The bitcoin and cryptocurrency market has been sliding so far this November, with the bitcoin price down some 6% since the start of the month.
In October, after weeks of stagnation, the bitcoin price suddenly dropped only bounce higher again a couple of days later, leaving many bitcoin and crypto analysts scratching their heads over the exact cause of the extreme market volatility.
The bitcoin price has continued to swing wildly despite hopes the market would have calmed and ... [+] matured.
Meanwhile, technical data suggests bitcoin could be heading into rough waters, with a closely-watched chart shrinking to its narrowest since June.
The tightening of the trading range between bitcoins 50- and 200-day moving averages could trigger a sell signal, it was first reported by Bloomberg, a financial newswirewith one analyst seeing echos of last November's sell-off.
"The best way to describe the market is its retracing last years bear market," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone.
"Its in no hurry to take out the old highstheres a hangover of residual selling from the parabolic rally in 2017. Theres just a lot of people who bought it, got way too overextended, who will be responsive sellers."
There is a lot of chatter going on about the uncertainties of cryptocurrency and how an attempt to tame the raging seas of the crypto market could spell doom for investors. As expected, in the middle of this conversation is Bitcoin (BTC), whose popularity continues to grow in the investment world.
Although Bitcoins volatility is well-documented, this has not stopped investors from adopting cryptocurrencies as a way of effecting a diversified investment strategy. Interestingly, the volatility narrative is somewhat losing its potency as Bitcoin slowly establishes stability.
Hence, I will use this piece to analyze the growing affinity for digital assets and how Bitcoin is fast becoming a viable investment asset class for institutional investors and family offices.
The origin of Bitcoin might have caused many to doubt its efficacy. In a world grounded in a centralized culture, it is understandable that people would initially fight off an anomaly that could uproot the foundations of their belief system. At one point, people did not dare to imagine a world without a stratified institution made up of banks and governments that govern the dissemination of money and information. Now that decentralization is finding its way to even the most traditional industries, it is clear that crypto is here to stay.
Nonetheless, there remains an ounce of doubt surrounding the viability of Bitcoin as an asset class. Some believe that Bitcoin emerged out of nothing. Therefore, it is impossible that the digital asset would retain its value. However, from my recent analysis of the history of money and the various theorems that established the origin of money, it is evident that Bitcoin fulfills the core requirements that other forms of money have passed.
Interestingly, one could argue that the United States dollar, gold and other precious metals have no intrinsic worth market sentiments brought about their valuation.
Institutional investors are aware of the risks that come with allocating a large percentage of their funds to a particular asset or market indices. For one, the downturn of such a market or asset would have a crippling effect on their returns. The same is true for investors that allocate the majority of their portfolio to asset classes that have strong correlations to one another. Hence, adopting a strategy that allows the allocation of funds to different asset classes, with little or no correlation, is the appropriate solution. This is where Bitcoin excels.
VanEckpublished a study that highlighted some of the factors that aided Bitcoins ascendancy as a viable investment product. One of these factors is the digital assets correlation to major market indices. In the study, VanEck noted that Bitcoins apparent disparity from established and emerging markets makes it a suitable portfolio diversification option.
This argument holds after considering the correlation of Bitcoin to other markets from January 2012 to July 2019. While other markets had moderate correlations to one or two traditional asset classes, Bitcoin maintained a very weak correlation to all of the asset classes examined. In other words, Bitcoin could fit nicely into an investment portfolio and boost returns.
VanEcks study went further to prove Bitcoins eligibility as an investment option. This investigation entailed the assessment of the asymmetric return of portfolios allocated to varying percentages of equities, bonds and Bitcoin from January 2012 to July 2019. A portfolio with 58.5% of the fund distributed to equities, 38.5% to bonds and 0.5% to Bitcoin generated returns that surpassed that of a portfolio allocated solely to the S&P 500 by over 150% as of July 2019.
From the basic principle of supply and demand, a commodity tends to retain or increase its value when its supply does not match its demand. In other words, maintaining or increasing the demand for an asset while reducing its supply would eventually cause the price of such an asset to skyrocket. This phenomenon has played out throughout the history of Bitcoin. Bitcoins protocol automaticallyhalves its supply roughly every four years. It is also important to note that it is only possible to create new coins, or mine, a maximum of 21 million BTC, and a total of 18 million BTC has already been mined.
What all these facts and figures mean is that there is a possibility that the price of Bitcoin will continue to soar. And this might have spurred enthusiasts to predict ridiculous price possibilities. One popular crypto supporter in particularasserted that the next halving, scheduled for May 2020, could cause one Bitcoin to sell for $1 million.
Though this prediction sounds over the top, price history shows that the price of Bitcoin has always experienced a surge whenever the reward for finding new blocks undergoes a 50% cut. The last time this happened was in 2016, which led to the unprecedented bull run of 2017. Before this, a Bitcoin was selling for $657. Just over a year later, the price climbed to around $20,000 per coin. Without any doubt, the halving slated for the coming year will affect the price of Bitcoin. Although it is still unclear how much of an impact to expect, I bet that a majority of institutional investors will be closely watching the unfolding drama.
Developers are beginning to understand that sustained adoption will never come to fruition until they resolve the issues battling the efficacy of blockchains scalability and security. Hence, the development recorded in this space is nothing short of remarkable. For one, theLightning Network, designed as a sidechain to the Bitcoins blockchain, could improve scalability and reduce the cost and time for transacting. This, and more, are some of the reasons why the prospect of Bitcoins adoption is looking good.
For what its worth, the advantages of allocating a fraction of ones investment portfolio to Bitcoin trump the disadvantages.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Constantin Kogan is a venture partner at BitBull Capital, a board member of ABOTMI and has been a cryptocurrency investor since 2012. He has over 10 years of experience in corporate leadership, technology and finance. He contributes to the digital asset space as well as the sharing and value economies.
Alex Kruger, an economist and trader, took to Twitter to share his thoughts on how anyone can eliminate bitcoin for good. While tech specialists might invest a ton of cash to control 51% of the network, Mr. Kruger says that one does not need to go through that process. The economist claims that any government can kill bitcoin by keeping the price below $1,000.
Mr. Kruger is right on the money. If a government can suppress the price of the dominant cryptocurrency, people will eventually lose interest. That could spell the end of an asset that relies heavily on retail investor interest to keep its head above water. Over time, price suppression will suck the passion out of the most die-hard bitcoin supporters.
In July, a CoinShares research report noted that bitcoins rally from the $3,000 levels to $13,880 this year is different from the 2017 bull run. One defining quality of this years ascent is that the rally was likely driven by institutional money.
The entry of big players is certainly an encouraging development. However, retail investors still dominate bitcoins market share. CryptoFundResearch revealed that there are approximately 804 cryptocurrency funds. These funds account for $18.16 billion of the cryptocurrencys market capitalization.
At press time, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies stand at over $222 billion. Bitcoin represents $146.9 billion of that total. Therefore, even if the portfolio of institutions is comprised of bitcoin, $18.16 billion accounts for only 12.4% of the cryptocurrencys market cap. If you consider that institutions are also buying altcoins such as Ethereum, it is possible that the institutional share is around 6%.
Therefore, retail investors are still keeping bitcoin buoyed. Unfortunately, retail HODLers are vulnerable to price manipulation. If a government eliminates hope from the equation, retailers are very likely to capitulate.
Many crypto enthusiasts are aware that the price of bitcoin is correlated with Google searches for terms related to the asset. Whats astounding, however, is the level of correlation between the two variables. A new study revealed that bitcoin price is correlated by a whopping 80.8% to bitcoin-related searches.
The correlation is a strong indication that retail traders are highly susceptible to price swings. Should a government suppress the price of bitcoin, interest for the cryptocurrency would likely drop. A drop in interest would probably result in lower prices, making it easier for the government to keep the downward spiral going.
The key for the government to successfully kill bitcoin is time. Alex Kruger talked to CCN about the issue and said,
Price would need to be depressed for a long time though. Time [is] more important than price.
Thats true because even if an entity shakes out almost all retail traders, the hardcore bitcoiners and the HODLers will likely dig in. They will probably fight until the bitter end but their numbers would dwindle over time. Eventually, the number of bitcoin HODLers will reach a point that their existence would not matter.
Fortunately, it seems that governments are more interested in regulating bitcoin than destroying it.
Disclaimer: The above should not be considered trading advice from CCN. The writer owns bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.
The need for censorship-resistant currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) has been thrown, yet again, into stark relief as HSBC shutters an account reportedly used to fund Hong Kong protestors.
As the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported on Nov. 18, the British multinational bank recently closed a corporate account that was reportedly being used to transfer crowdsourced funds to support protestors activities.
Five months into the Hong Kong protests now reaching an increasingly violent fever pitch the bank presented its decision as a formal procedure, stating that it found the account was purportedly being used inconsistently with the purpose originally stated in its paperwork.
In accordance with a 30-day notice rule, the account which remains unnamed was informed last month that its functionality would cease this week.
In correspondence with Bloomberg, Vinh Tran, a spokeswoman for the bank in Hong Kong, wrote that:
As part of our responsibility to know our customers and safeguard the financial industry, we regularly review our customers accounts. If we spot activity differing from the stated purpose of the account, or missing information, we will proactively review all activity, which can also result in account closure.
London-headquartered HSBC has upheld its strong presence in the city due to alleged pressure to maintain its standing with residents there, Bloomberg writes.
The company derived over 35% of its adjusted revenue from Hong Kong in the first nine months of 2019 and reportedly stated this October that its business in the city remained robust, notwithstanding the political turbulence.
As reported in October days after redoubled protests by Hong Kong residents in the wake of the 70th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano noted that the non-seizability of Bitcoin becomes ever more attractive in moments of geopolitical crisis: faced with a crackdown on civil liberties via emergency powers, anxious residents reportedly flocked to the citys ATMs.
Intermediary cryptocurrency payments processors have also sparked ire for their apparent susceptibility to political pressures, as the recent controversy over BitPay demonstrated, following claims it blocked donations to the Hong Kong Free Press for several weeks.
Yesterday, the former chief financial officer of PayPal revealed that Bank of America (BoA) had chosen to close his account, without a stated reason.
Bitcoin has once again dropped down to its near-term support level after a brief attempt from BTCs bulls to push to crypto back above its previously established support level at $8,700, which appears to have flipped into a resistance level in the time since it broke below this level.
Analysts are now noting that Bitcoin may soon set fresh multi-day lows before gaining enough buying pressure to surge higher.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down roughly 1% at its current price of $8,540, which marks a retrace from its daily highs of nearly $8,700 that were set yesterday.
Yesterdays brief upwards movement proved to be fleeting in spite of the apparent strength that bulls had been building, and their inability to push the cryptocurrency higher may point to an underlying weakness that could lead the cryptos bears to take firm control of its near-term price action.
This recent price action also confirms that $8,700 is a strong level of resistance for the cryptocurrency, which may continue holding strong in the near-term.
Livercoin, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that the move to this resistance level swept all the upside liquidity, which likely means that further short-term downside is imminent for Bitcoin.
Taking a quick short on $BTC. Price swept all the upside liquidity and left multiple deep swing lows beneath while doing so. I am anticipating a pullback into the weekly open / 15M block which is right below the range high. My targets are the two deep swing lows, he said while pointing to the levels in the lower-$8,000 region seen within the chart below.
Mayne, another popular crypto analyst on Twitter, offered a similar sentiment to Livercoin, explaining that he believes Bitcoin will dip as low as $8,150 in the near-term before it hits a support region that allows it to post further gains.
$BTC: Slowly making our way to the grey block Ive been watching for a few weeks. I started longing early because there is no guarantee we hit the level exactly, could get front-run, etc, I like to layer in on swing positions. 2 bids left, $8300 and $8150, he explained.
How Bitcoin reacts to these near-term support regions in the coming hours will offer significant insight into where the crypto is heading next.
Ripple price is trading in a crucial downtrend against the US Dollar, while bitcoin is approaching $8K. XRP price is likely to struggle near the $0.2560 and $0.2600 resistances.
After forming an intermediate top near the $0.2660 level, ripple declined heavily against the US Dollar. XRP/USD broke many key supports near $0.2560 to move further into a bearish zone.
Moreover, there was a close below the $0.2560 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It opened the doors for more losses and the price declined heavily below the $0.2500 level.
The recent decline gained pace below the $0.2450 level and ripple tested the $0.2400 support area (as discussed in yesterdays analysis). A new monthly low was formed near $0.2399 and the price is currently correcting higher.
It is testing the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $0.2659 high to $0.2399 low. On the upside, there are many resistances near the $0.2540 and $0.2560 levels.
Besides, there is a new connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance near $0.2530 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. Above the trend line, ripple price is likely to struggle near the $0.2580 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
More importantly, the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $0.2659 high to $0.2399 low is likely to act as a strong resistance. Finally, yesterdays highlighted bearish trend line is intact with resistance near $0.2620 on the same chart.
On the downside, an immediate support is near the $0.2480 level. If the price starts a fresh decline below $0.2480, it is likely to test the $0.2420 and $0.2400 levels. Any further downsides depend whether bitcoin breaks the $8,000 support and continue lower.
Ripple Price
Looking at the chart, ripple price is clearly gaining bearish momentum below $0.2560. In the short term, there could be an upside correction, but the overall trend remains bearish as long as the price is trading below the $0.2700 level.
Hourly MACD The MACD for XRP/USD is slowly reducing its bearish slope.
Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI for XRP/USD is now well below the 40 level, with a bearish angle.
Major Support Levels $0.2480, $0.2420 and $0.2400.
Major Resistance Levels $0.2560, $0.2580 and $0.2620.
Bitcoin price is once again in free-fall mode after the crypto asset set a record for its third-largest gain in a 24-hour period on the heels of news that China would support blockchain technologies like what Bitcoin is built on.
The bullish move erased any remaining fear left in the market, and revived bullish sentiment. But with sentiment still so positive, the first-ever cryptocurrency may need to experience more downside to bring sentiment to levels of extreme fear before a rebound is possible.
Markets are cyclical, and speculative markets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are driven in large part by greed and fear. Its led to the development of a market sentiment index that assigns a number score rating where the market currently is in terms of emotional and mental state.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Market Cycle: Is This Complacency, Or A New Hope?
During powerful rallies, investors become irrationally exuberant, greedy, and hopeful, further driving up the value of assets like Bitcoin as speculation and hype run wild. These signs usually signal a top is in or close. But on the way down, that greed turns into anger, depression, and fear, and typically signals that a local bottom is close and a rebound is near.
According to that fear and greed index, the market is currently at a 38 out of a possible 100 and has just tipped the scales to favor fear after first being bullish and then spending a period of time at neutral.
The lack of extreme fear in the market could suggest that Bitcoins downtrend isnt over, and more fear is necessary for long term HODLers to be shaken out before the next mark up phase.
Bitcoin price is currently trading at roughly $8,500 after a massive spike from lows around $7,400 pushed the price of Bitcoin as high as $10,500 setting a record for the third-largest single-day gain in the assets short history. However, that powerful rally was rejected and the asset has since retraced most of the gains it saw during the historic spike.
Related Reading | Uncommon Bitcoin Metric Suggests Massive Profit Taking Is Underway
For Bitcoin price to reach levels of extreme fear, a new low may be necessary one lower than where bulls defended $7,400 just last month. Alternatively, a push higher here could tip the scales back in favor of greed on the index.
For the market to truly become bullish, a higher high will need to be set and close a daily candle above $10,500. Such a close would be a signal that Bitcoins short-term downtrend may finally be over and a return to a bull run could be next.
If not, extreme fear will likely result before a bull market can start once again for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
