Here's What Must Happen for $9k Bitcoin Price in the Coming Months

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

        JAN 04, 2020

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

Bitcoin still stuck in sideways range and downtrend

BTC USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The price of Bitcoin is still moving inside this downwards channel since last year’s 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, there’s buying pressure shown from this area, indicating that the price might be bottoming inside this range.

Linear chart showing potential wedge structure

BTC USD 1-day linear chart. Source: TradingView

The linear chart shows similarities with the log scale chart. However, there’s 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 hovering at support

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 doesn’t expect a breakout to the upside.

Is such a sentiment warranted?

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 it’s possible, however, as Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are already breaking their downtrends that have been in place for two years.

The bullish scenario for Bitcoin

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 that’s broken, the price is ready to aim for $9,100-9,500, which would typically shift the sentiment from fear to neutral.

The bearish scenario for Bitcoin

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.

Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Michaël van de Poppe.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

As Global Tension Grows, Analysts Believe Bitcoin Could Be Poised for Move to $8,000

Bitcoin has incurred some serious upwards momentum today, which comes close on the heels of the cryptocurrency’s recent sell off that sent it as low as $6,800. Today’s bullish surge further enhances the narrative regarding BTC’s recent lows within the lower-$6,000 region possibly marking a long-term bottom.

Further adding to this notion is the growing global instability that was sparked by yesterday evening’s US-led airstrike on an Iranian military official, which closely preceded a price surge for assets like Gold, Crude Oil, and even Bitcoin.

Will Global Instability Help Fuel a Bitcoin Rally?

Although the prospect of a war with Iran is grim, it would prove to be beneficial for some asset classes, including precious metals, commodities like crude oil, and possibly Bitcoin and other digital assets.

It still remains unclear as to whether or not BTC is truly a safe haven asset, as its short lifespan and the fact that it has never traded within a global economic recession makes it incredibly unclear as to how it would truly fair during any period of intense global turmoil.

In the near-term, however, analysts do believe that Bitcoin could see some upwards momentum, with CryptoBirb, a popular analyst on Twitter, telling his followers that BTC could soon surge up to $8,000 if it is able to break above $7,500.

“$btc may pull 8000s if 7.5k bull flag breakout is safely reclaimed as support. If you can’t monitor market today often playing any aggressive swing may be recipe for failure imo. Wouldn’t be surprised if US-Iran expanded tensions repeated China tensions May 2019 impact on Bitcoin,” he said while pointing to the chart seen below.

Although it also remains unclear as to what will ultimately result from the tensions between the US and Iran, it is possible that investors will flock to Bitcoin in anticipation of it trading like a safe haven asset.

Bitcoin Jack, another popular crypto analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes it is still too early to go long on BTC, but that if it confirms the pending inverse head and shoulders pattern, it may be poised for significantly further upside.

“Best not ignore these technically correct (so far) potential bullish structures. Not completed, but formation so far follow iHS guidelines. Can’t go long here. 7470-7700 is short hedge but stop should go BE fast. Retracement is aggressive buy option. Break, retest for confirmation,” he explained.

How BTC trend in the coming days will likely either validate or invalidate the notion that Bitcoin’s current momentum is being catalyzed by the growing global tensions.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Cole Petersen.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Ends 2019 On A Better Note Than Last Year

By Joji Xavier | Published: 12/31/2019 9:53 AM ET

Bitcoin may be standing nowhere near its all-time high of nearly $20000 reached two years ago, but as 2019 comes to a close, the most popular cryptocurrency has managed to regain the strength it lost a year ago.

The virtual currency was trading at $7,224 as of this writing – 95 percent increase from $3689 recorded on 2018 December 31.

From its weak position at the beginning of 2019, Bitcoin has been on a strong recovery path in the following months. Despite a struggling crypto market, Bitcoin continued to grow with frequent bullish movements.

The first two quarters proved decisive with more than 300 percent improvement in value.

Bitcoin touched the year's peak of $12575 on July 9. And a bearish outlook emerged in the third quarter of the year, which witnessed some dramatic fluctuations in price levels.

Bitcoin experienced mostly a downward trend during the rest of the year, and in the last quarter it struggled to break above $7500.

After dipping to $6538 on December 17, the price has remained consolidated above $7,000.

In a market where the trading volume and market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies suffered, Bitcoin managed to stand out, less affected.

Tuesday, Bitcoin's market capitalization remains at $131.98 billion, with a 24-hour trade volume of $21 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

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

Economist Brands Bitcoin a “Scam” and “Ponzi Scheme” on Yahoo Finance

For the longest time, critics of Bitcoin have questioned if the cryptocurrency is a Ponzi-like/pyramid scheme.

Wikipedia defines a “Ponzi scheme”: A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.

While this is rather ambiguous, critics say that this applies to Bitcoin, for the cryptocurrency, due to the inflationary pressures of block rewards and such, requires constant capital input for prices to maintain their current levels of growth. The idea the critics that believe Bitcoin is a Ponzi tout is that without fresh capital, this market would collapse, much like a pyramid scheme would if new investors stopped entering the pyramid.

Bitcoin Given “Ponzi” and “Scam” Treatment Again

Once again, Bitcoin has been given the “Ponzi scheme” and “scam” treatment. This time, it was on a Yahoo Finance segment covering the cryptocurrency market.

Tendayi Kapfidze – Lending Tree Chief Economist – recently sat down with the media outlet to talk Bitcoin. While the hosts branded the cryptocurrency an investment, or at least as a speculative investment, Kapfidze said that he thinks it’s a “Ponzi” and a “scam,” claiming that he believes you can only make money in the cryptocurrency space by taking what others put in. Kapfidze continued that he thinks this space has yielded no technological developments or applications with inherent value.

Peter Schiff, a prominent gold proponent and anti-government investor (someone that would like Bitcoin’s seeming premise in another reality), has echoed this sentiment in the past. Per previous reports from this very outlet, the Bitcoin hater quipped that BTC is only “popular as a speculative asset, not as a currency,” before going as far as to say that as Google Trends shows, BTC is “running out of new buyers to keep the Ponzi going.”

Whether or not you believe Bitcoin is a Ponzi or not, it’s been very lucrative as a speculative asset over the years, not to mention that it is functional as a medium of exchange and as a long-term store of value.

Over the past decade, the price of the leading cryptocurrency has surged by a jaw-dropping 9,000,000%, making it the best performing asset of all time, not to mention that it saw these gains within a ten-year time span, which is relatively irrelevant on a macro basis.

Even in the past year alone, Bitcoin has surged by 95%, outpacing the stock market by triple and other top asset classes by dozens of percent. This strong performance comes in spite of the 50% downturn that has taken place since the peak of $14,000 was established in June.

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

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Wins Patent For Transacting Bitcoin Via Email

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 12/23/2019 9:46 AM ET

Brian Armstrong, CEO of US-based crypto exchange Coinbase, has been awarded the patent for a system and method for transacting Bitcoin or BTC via email to an email address owner.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or USPTO officially granted the patent for sending cryptographic currency to an email address to Armstrong on December 17, nearly five years after he applied for it in March 2015.

According to the patented process, a bitcoin exchange allows for users to set prices that they are willing to sell or buy bitcoin and execute such trades. The instant exchange allows for merchants and customers to lock in a local currency price. No miner's fee is paid by a host computer system.

The patent refers to a system for processing a request to perform a Bitcoin transaction using a bitcoin address.

A hot wallet functionality is provided that transfers values of some Bitcoin addresses to a vault for purposes of security. A private key of a Bitcoin address of the vault is split and distributed to keep the vault secure.

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

Can Bitcoin (BTC) Price Rally 3,400% in 36 Months? CNBC Analysts Break Down Prediction

For years now, prominent investors in and out of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency community have been making predictions, predictions about the crypto market’s future — often deemed uncertainty by many skeptics.

One of the most prominent of these predictions has been one from Tim Draper, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, having made early investments in companies from Skype and SpaceX to Tesla. Draper, notably, bought his first Bitcoin over five years ago, buying millions of dollars worth of the leading digital asset in an auction held by the U.S. government.

Draper, for over a year now, has been saying that the price of BTC will easily hit $250,000 — over 3,400% higher than the current price of $7,200 — by the end of 2022 or by early 2023.

Per previous reports from this very outlet, the legendary investor backed this prediction in a recent yahoo finance interview by reasoning that using fiat monies, which he calls “poor” (referring to their quality), are illogical, citing their controllability, lack of transparency, and subjectivity to political and social whims on the day-to-day. And as the American investor argues that most of the brightest developers, engineers, and academics are working on digital assets, Draper opines that there could be a large capital flight from fiat to crypto over time. He elaborates:

“My belief is that over some period of time, the cryptocurrencies will eclipse the fiat currencies. That would be a 1,000 times higher than what we have now.”

But do others agree with his assessment?

CNBC Assesses $250,000 by 2022 Bitcoin Sentiment

CNBC’s “Fast Money” segment, which has long hosted crypto investors and discussion surrounding the industry, recently broke down Draper’s $250,000 calling, in a seeming attempt to determine whether or not what the long-time venture capitalist’s prediction is at all feasible.

Interestingly, the consensus was a tentative yes. More on that now.

Brian Kelly, an investor that focuses on crypto assets and blockchain investments, noted that if you look at BTC’s long-term logarithmic growth channel, the upper bound of that channel, which the asset has been trading in for eight years now, is somewhere in the $200,000 range by 2022-2023. Considering the importance of this channel and the fact that Bitcoin has interacted with it for years implies that technically speaking, the prediction has a fair likelihood of becoming reality.

As for the fundamentals and the historical trends, the CNBC analysts also argued that the case is there for a $250,000 Bitcoin by 2022, looking to the fact that the cryptocurrency is known for its outsized volatility.

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

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe