Bitcoin Bursts Past $10,000 (Again): Will Bulls Keep Up?

After reaching as low as $9,500 on Monday, Bitcoin started to trend higher. As of the time of this article’s writing on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency has reached as high as $10,300 — 8% higher than the local bottom but a few percent below the local top at $10,500.

The strong recovery from the key $9,500 level is bullish, for it confirms the uptrend structure of Bitcoin remains intact. Indeed, a number of analysts have said that the price of BTC’s recovery is a likely precursor to yet another thrust higher, a thrust that will bring this market to new multi-month highs.

Bitcoin’s Outlook Turns Positive Again Amid Recovery

The recent move higher has convinced many that Bitcoin is ready to move even higher.

Gerald Walker, who has a moniker “The Wolf of All Streets,” remarked that Bitcoin remains in an ascending channel and is forming a wave pattern that will take it past $11,000 in the coming days.

The channel and wave he was referring to can be seen in the tweet below, which shows that Bitcoin bouncing off a crucial horizontal and diagonal support around a Fibonacci Retracement is priming the asset for a thrust to $11,000.

Walker added that as long as the $9,060 level stays intact, he expects to see “higher prices.”

Indeed, Bitazu Capital’s Mohit Sorout remarked that despite the retracement seen over the weekend, Bitcoin’s “market structure” remains intact, referencing the existence of a bull trend and the bounce off a key horizontal level.

Not to mention, the long-term uptrend remains decisively intact.

On Monday, analysts observed an extremely positive technical analysis signal: the 50-day simple moving average and the 200-day simple moving average crossed, with the former moving over the latter for the first time in nearly a year. This is called a “golden cross.”

Analysts have said that this validates the uptrend in the price of BTC, for it shows that a strong uptrend is forming.

Not to mention, Bitcoin’s holding above its 200-day moving average has always boded well for the cryptocurrency. An analysis from market research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors found that the average six-month gain for Bitcoin after it retakes its 200-day moving average is 197%, implying a price of over $20,000 by the middle of this year.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Price Fights to Hold $9.5K to Stave Off a Trend Reversal

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

            FEB 20, 2020

On Feb. 20 Bitcoin (BTC) price surprisingly dropped 8.85%, a move which caught many investors off guard as up to that moment the digital asset had recovered well from the President’s Day weekend correction and was trading sideways in the $10,200 range. Citing data from CoinMetrics, ARK Invest crypto analyst Yassine Elmandjra tweeted that the $1,000 price drop was the fifth largest USD correction to occur on the hourly time frame since 2017.

Since the sharp downside move, traders, analysts, and crypto-Twitter have been attempting to pinpoint the source of the flash crash and a handful of theories have arisen. Some have attributed the volatility to the consecutive unplanned Binance exchange outages which halted trading on the platform and prevented many traders from being able to log into their accounts.

Others, like, Cointelegraph contributor and Bitcoin trader filbfilb speculated that a shortage of Tether (USDT) at Binance could possibly have contributed to the current market conditions.

In his Telegram-based trading channel filbfilb explained that the USDT shortage possibly shows that the majority of traders were in long positions, an observation further supported by the decreasing pace of Bitcoin’s momentum and the liquidation of $120 million leveraged longs at BitMex.

BitMEX XBTUSD Liquidations. Source: Skew.com

Regardless of the reason, the drop to $9,346 shook a lot of investors from their Bitcoin and altcoin positions and the current state of the market is negatively impacting investors’ bullish sentiment as they are choosing to wait on the sidelines for a clearer signal that a bottom has been reached.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me

Is the current price action a buy the dip opportunity or is Bitcoin on the verge of a significant trend change? Let’s check the charts to see.

Excited traders overlooked the tweezer top

BTC USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

As shown by the daily chart, Bitcoin formed a tweezer top candlestick pattern at $10,250 after recovering from the previous weekend’s drop to $9,450. This should have been a signal that the likelihood of a pullback could occur but traders were probably feeling bullish after Bitcoin’s quick recovery from $9,450 placed the digital asset back above key support levels.

Despite the shock caused by yesterday’s correction Bitcoin price still found support at the high volume node of the volume profile visible range (VPVR) at $9,300 to $9,438. While this is reassuring, some cautionary notes are low purchasing volume which highlights a lack of buyers interested in stepping into the current dip and the state of the two most frequently referenced oscillators by traders not yet registering oversold conditions.

BTC USDT 6-hour chart. Source: TradingView

On the 6-hour timeframe, the relative strength index (RSI) has yet to manage an oversold bounce and the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) line continues to plummet, pressing on -100 at the time of writing.

Traders will also notice that the MACD histogram bars continue to elongate in negative territory (below 0) and the pattern of lower highs in the 6-hour chart is unbroken.

Bearish scenario

If buyers continue to believe the current price action is not a ‘buy the dip’ opportunity the price could drop below the VPVR high volume node ($9,438) and the 200-day moving average at $8,800 where there is another VPVR high volume node.

The shorter timeframe shows the price slowly making higher lows but the purchasing volume is not significant enough to hold the price above $9,600. Over the short-term, bulls need to defend the $9,500 support (black arrow on chart below) as the daily and weekly timeframe shows it to be a key level. A more significant trend change could push the price lower to $8,800 to $8,400.

Bullish scenario

If we zoom out to assess Bitcoin’s price action since reaching its 2019 top at $13,800 on June 26, 2018, we can see that the 38.2% Fibonacci Retracement level has been a frequent area where the price has bounced after strong corrections.

BTC USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

Since June 26, 2018, the price has bounced here more than 10 times and yesterday’s pullback brought the price to the 38.6% level again. It’s crucial that the price stays above this level because the 38.6% Fibonacci retracement has also functioned as a strong resistance once the price dips below it.

On the flip side, assuming the price breaks out, we can also see that the last three Bitcoin rallies on October 12, 2019, February 12, 2020, and February 18, 2020, have failed to break above the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level. Thus, Bitcoin price needs to secure a few daily closes above $10,250 (50% Fibonacci retracement) before any calls for $11,000 can be seriously considered.

For the short term, Bitcoin price needs to knock out $9,630 and above this price, $9,750 is likely to function as a level of resistance. A more convincing maneuver would be to see Bitcoin price overtake the 20-MA of the Bollinger Band indicator and sustain above $9,850.

Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Horus Hughes.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Eerie Pattern: Bitcoin to Shoot Up to $10,600, Quick

After sustaining a nearly 4% loss over the past two days, Bitcoin started to recover on Friday, rallying as high as $10,380 just minutes ago as of the time of writing this.

While this isn't a strong recovery per se, for the asset remains below its local top of $10,550 (which analysts say is crucial for bulls to break across in the coming days), an eerie pattern suggests Bitcoin is going to rocket higher towards $10,600.

Bitcoin Could Soon Surge Higher

Prominent cryptocurrency trader HornHairs recently noted that Bitcoin's price action has exhibited a clear pattern over the past few days: the pattern sees BTC dump, pump in a parabolic fashion, and crash again as the parabola fails.

Bitcoin is currently in the middle stage, marked by rapidly-increasing prices. The parabola that is forming suggests the price of the cryptocurrency will top around $10,650, around 3.4% higher than the current price of the asset.

Although there is this bull case, a key sell signal just flashed per previous reports from Ethereum World News.

Nik Yaremchuk, an analyst and researcher at cryptocurrency fund Adaptive Capital, recently noted that with Wednesday's close, the one-day and two-day Bitcoin charts are printing simultaneous sell signals: the TD Sequential has printed a green 9s on both time frames.

This is more bearish than bullish because, for those unaware, the time-based TD Sequential prints 9 and 13 candles at reversal points in markets, for it signals that the trend is exhausted.

Close Above $10,500 Could Set Stage for Bigger Mov

While the above pattern suggests Bitcoin may crash after it sees a short-term parabolic spike into the $10,600 to $10,700, a daily or weekly close above $10,500, analysts say, will set the stage for an even larger move higher.

Prominent technical analyst Cred — who sports over 140,000 followers — remarked that since $9,500 has been breached, Bitcoin's nearest resistance is $10,500, the midpoint of the tried-and-true range between $9,500 and $11,500.

Though, Cred remarked that if Bitcoin can confirm a close above $10,600 — just a smidgen above the resistance he identified — prices will continue higher, likely unfettered until the other long-term resistance he identified at $11,500.

$10,500 is also important because this price point was the top of Bitcoin's rally in September 2019, which was caused by China's embracing of blockchain technologies in an unexpected fashion.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

BitGo Expands Custody Offerings To Switzerland, Germany

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 2/11/2020 9:29 AM ET

U.S.-based digital asset financial services firm BitGo extended its operation to Europe by opening up two new regulated custodial entities in Switzerland and Germany – BitGo GmbH in Switzerland and BitGo Deutschland GmbH in Germany.

“We saw a lot of demand in Europe last year and it was clear that clients there needed to be able to work with European based firms that were regulated within specific jurisdictions,” said Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo.

The entities will be regulated by different financial authorities. BitGo GmbH is a member of the Financial Services Standards Association (VQF), supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

BitGo Deutschland GmbH is currently providing custody services in Germany and will apply for regulatory approval when the application window opens in November 2020.

Switzerland and Germany have both become important European centers for digital assets with forward-thinking regulatory frameworks.

BitGo introduced the first regulated custodian purpose-built for digital assets in 2018 when it launched BitGo Trust Co. in the U.S. and has seen strong adoption. BitGo clients can now select the jurisdiction that is the best fit for their business.

BitGo, backed by Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Ventures and Goldman Sachs, is a provider of institutional cryptocurrency financial services, providing clients with a set of security, compliance, and custodial solutions.

BitGo claims to processes more than about 20 percent of all global Bitcoin transactions. It supports over 250 coins and tokens, and its customer base includes the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and spans more than 50 countries.

In February last year, BitGo partnered British insurer Llyod’s of London to provide insurance protection for cryptocurrencies and digital assets such as Bitcoin held in their Business Wallet and Custody offerings. Llyod’s is providing insurance for up to $100 million of custodial assets held by either BitGo, Inc., or BitGo Trust Co.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Prints Massive Buy Signal, Suggesting Price Will Soon Retake $10,000

Bitcoin (BTC) has been on a near relentless rally over the past few weeks, bounding past key price points in the $7,000s, then $8,000s, then most recently in the $9,000s. The cryptocurrency, while already up 50% in the past 45 to 50 days, still has more upside, per some prominent analysts, citing a flurry of technical factors that suggest more upside is imminent.

Bitcoin Prints Key Bullish Signal

Bitcoin’s strong rally over the past few weeks have allowed the cryptocurrency to print a flurry of positive signals on its charts.

Most recently, as pointed out by popular TradingView analyst TradingShot, the Ichimoku Cloud — a multi-faceted indicator that lets analysts determine market trends and key price points — just gave the “strongest BULL SIGNAL possible” on the daily chart for Bitcoin.

They wrote in the TradingView point that the last time the Cloud twisted bullish was in April 2019, which was prior to the over 200% rally that took Bitcoin from the $4,000s to $14,000 in a few months’ time in a parabolic fashion.

They added that with Bitcoin bouncing off the 1,000-day moving average in December 2019, that drop was likely the “bottom of the June correction,” noting that the prices around the moving average are a region where BTC classically bottomed in previous bear markets.

TradingShot’s observation of a bullish Ichimoku cross isn’t the only thing that has traders excited for the prospects of Bitcoin in the coming months.

Cryptocurrency trader Brent or Blockchainblitz recently noted that Bitcoin’s daily chart just registered a key technical signal: the 50-day moving average just today crossed above the 100-day moving average, creating a bull cross formation.

He notes that in the past eight times this technical signal was seen since 2014, a “rip upward followed.”

Indeed, our own analysis of this specific moving average cross found that this last took place when BTC was at $5,800 in early-2019, and preceded a 140% move higher. There are also the other historical instances Brent pointed to in his chart.

This confluence suggests that more upside is likely, though it is important to note short-term pullbacks can be sustained by the market to make sure that Bitcoin is not overextended.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Achieves Major Milestone With Half a Billion Transactions Confirmed

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

            FEB 05, 2020

The Bitcoin network has surpassed 500 million transactions since going live over 11 years ago.

According to blockchain analytics site Statoshi, there have been half a billion transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain as of press time.

Source: Statoshi

Crypto firm Casa CTO Jameson Lopp, co-founder & CTO site Statoshi celebrated the milestone on Twitter, saying:

“Today, as of block 00000000000000000001145bf2e7cb7f04df55feaf3b55d9f6511522bbbf333f at height 616064, Bitcoin surpassed 500 million transactions confirmed on the blockchain.”

From the First Bitcoin Transaction to Today’s Milestone

The first-ever Bitcoin transaction took place on Jan. 12, 2009. Nakamoto and the late Hal Finney were the early contributors to the project. Nakamoto sent Finney 10 BTC as a test, after which the computer scientist began mining blocks himself.

Ten months later, on Oct. 5, 2009, the New Liberty Standard set an initial Bitcoin exchange rate against the dollar. At the time, $1 was worth 2300.03 BTC.

The first-ever transaction of Bitcoin for physical goods took place on May 22, 2010. The famous Bitcoin Pizza saw two pizzas bought for 10,000 BTC by Laszlo Hanyecz. The programmer had offered users on a Bitcointalk forum the BTC in exchange for two pizzas. A teenager named Jeremy Sturdivant, nicknamed Jercos, accepted the Bitcoin and sent Hanyecz two pizzas from Papa John’s. This marks the first commercial transaction for Bitcoin.

Markethive Advertisement

After 11 years, Bitcoin is now hitting another major milestone of passing half a billion transactions. As Twitter user Hodlonaut tweeted:

“Bitcoin isn’t talking about this. Or about how revolutionary and unprecedented its traits of censorship resistance and immutability are. Bitcoin just is. And does. Once block at a time.”

Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Ting Peng.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Twitter Adds Bitcoin Emoji Jack Dorsey Suggests Unicode Does the Same

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

            FEB 2, 2020

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the newly added Bitcoin (BTC) emoji on Feb. 2 and tagged Unicode, the consortium managing the character standard, in an apparent suggestion to do the same.

Dorsey's tweet showed that, now, whenever a Twitter user writes the Bitcoin or BTC hashtag, an image showing its symbol appears next to it.

Dorsey's tweet showing the Bitcoin emoji. Source: Twitter

Dorsey's apparent suggestion that the symbol be included in the Unicode text encoding standard was appreciated by the community, with Lightning Labs co-founder Elizabeth Stark joining the request.

After Twitter added the emoji to its platform, many cryptocurrency personalities test-tweeted it, including Tron (TRX) founder and Bittorrent CEO Justin Sun.

The official accounts of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance used the emoji and suggested that the cryptocurrency community should join in using the hashtag to get it trending on Twitter. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also retweeted the message stating, “Let's do this.”

Jack Dorsey's involvement with crypto

This is not the first foray into crypto by Twitter's co-founder, who is also the CEO and founder of crypto-friendly mobile payments application Square. In early December 2019, he also announced that Twitter has a dedicated team to develop a decentralized standard for social media.

Square, on the other hand, was recently awarded a patent for a technology that purportedly cracks a present barrier in cryptocurrency merchant transactions by providing a real-time system that exchanges crypto for fiat money. In November, the firm also issued a letter to shareholders showing that Bitcoin buyers on the app doubled in Q3 2019, but brought low profits.

Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Adrian Zmudzinski.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe