Uncategorized

AwardBillcongressionalGoldGoodmanIntroduceMedalofficerSenators

The price of Bitcoin is showing strong momentum as it recovers above $33,000 following a relatively large correction on January 12.

The general market sentiment around Bitcoin remains positive. But, there is one major invalidation point for the bearish scenario for BTC.

Bitcoin must reclaim $36,000

In the foreseeable future, if BTC wants to reach an all-time high, it is critical that BTC stays above $36,000.

Traders have emphasized that they would rather buy much lower or above $36,000, analyzing the current market landscape.

Scott Melker, a cryptocurrency trader, said:

“If price drops again, this is what I will be watching for. Still on track for the moment, but would rather see it flip the EQ of that channel and continue up without the dip.”

However, if the price of Bitcoin rejects the $35,000 to $36,000 resistance range, then another major pullback could occur.

In the short term, there are two key levels for Bitcoin: $33,000 and $36,000. Surpassing $36,000 would likely lead to the retest of its record-high.

Staying above $33,000 would mean that it has solidified as a macro support area, which would likely result in another BTC rally.

There are whale cluster support areas in between $30,000 to $33,000, which makes them strong support levels.

Whale clusters form when whales accumulate Bitcoin and do not move them. This behavior signals that whales are accumulating BTC. Hence, if BTC drops to the price level they bought at, whales are more likely to re-bid and build on their positions, buying more Bitcoin.

It is similar to MicroStrategy’s new $10 million Bitcoin buy order in the past several hours. Whales with a long-term strategy in mind are likely to continue building their position with a two to three-year outlook on the market.

Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, said on January 22:

“MicroStrategy has purchased approximately 314 bitcoins for $10.0 million in cash in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy, at an average price of approximately $31,808 per bitcoin. We now hold approximately 70,784 bitcoins.”

Atop this, Grayscale keeps on purchasing a larger number of Bitcoin on a weekly basis, which remains a major catalyst for Bitcoin in the foreseeable future.

What happens next?

Some traders believe that Bitcoin and Ethereum could hit a new all-time high and then see a major correction afterward.

Nik Yaremchuk, a cryptocurrency trader and on-chain analyst, said that ETH could potentially achieve $1,600 then correct. He wrote:

“Very often, $ETH predicts market moves faster than $BTC chart displays. At the moment it looks like we get $46k and $1.6k, after that I expect a huge drop. I don’t want to make long-term predictions, it looks like this now.”

This could mean that Bitcoin could see a deeper correction at around $46,000, slightly above the current all-time high at $42,000.

Like what you see? Subscribe for daily updates.

XRP token holders are set to receive Spark (FLR) tokens from the Ripple-backed cryptocurrency startup Flare Networks, which has revealed it will airdrop a total of 45.8 billion FLR to XRP investors, after taking a network snapshot back in December.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Flare Networks will not distribute tokens to Ripple-owned accounts but will distribute tokens to Rippleworks, a charitable organization founded by Chris Larsen, a co-founder of Ripple. The tokens will be airdropped at a ratio of 1.0073 FLR per each XRP token investors held at the time of the snapshot.

It’s worth noting  Spark tokens will be used for governance on the Flare network through voting mechanisms, and token holders will be able to earn a return on their holdings by committing Spark tokens as collateral to secure the trustless issuance and redemption of FXRP, a protocol built to “safely enable the trustless issuance, usage and redemption, of XRP on Flare.”

Token holders will also be able to earn a return on their holdings by contributing data to the Flare time series oracle.  The Flare Network itself integrates the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and does not derive safety from a token.

<!–

–>

XRP holders will receive a second airdrop from Flare Finance – built on the Flare blockchain and designed to power swaps, stablecoins, yield farming, insurance, and asset-backed loans – via a snapshot of the Flare Network’s blockchain.

In a series of tweets, spotted by Daily Hodl, Flare finance revealed that one month after the Flare Network is launched, it will take a snapshot of the balances of those who hold FLR and distribute DAOFlare (DFLR) tokens to holders.

In 2021, oil prices will be mainly supported by the forthcoming huge economic stimulus package in the US coupled with the low possibility of a lot of Iranian oil returning to the world market, according to Goldman Sachs.

President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9-trillion COVID relief package might stimulate the American economy. Eventually, the US oil demand will rise by almost 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 and 2022, as highlighted by Reuters.

Goldman Sachs has been quite bullish on oil since the end of 2020, predicting that Brent Crude will average $65 in 2021.

Apart from a growing economy in the United States in 2021, the bank believes that the matter with the Iranian nuclear deal will not get resolved any time soon. The Trump Administration imposed severe sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in 2018, seeking to cut off the oil sales of the Iranian government, after the US withdrew from the infamous Iranian nuclear deal.

President Biden’s Policy

Nonetheless, President Biden has pledged to give Tehran a path back to diplomacy and a gradual return to the nuclear deal. That is, if Iran returns to full compliance with the agreement, set up while Biden was the Vice President To Obama.

Biden’s first talks with the foreign leaders and allies will feature Iran and the current US sanctions as highlighted by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. This means that the lifting of sanctions on Iran is not an instant priority for the United States Administration. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote a note:

“Delays in a full return of Iran production would reinforce our bullish oil outlook since we already forecast a tight 2022 crude market with low OPEC spare capacity.”

The United States Administration’s moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska does not mean that the oil market will tighten quickly in 2021-2022.

Also, the temporary suspension on issuance of drilling permits on federal land and waters and revocation of the Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline does not mean that the oil industry will recover faster than expected this year, according to Goldman Sachs. But, the firm remains bullish on the oil market in the belief that recovery will eventually come.

• Bitcoin has seen some massive momentum throughout the morning that has allowed it to erase a good portion of the losses that came about due to yesterday’s plunge
• This selloff marked capitulation amongst investors, with many clearly fearing that the multi-month uptrend that led BTC to highs of $42,000 was over and that a deep retrace was imminent
• Nonetheless, bulls have since gained full control over the crypto’s price action, and it is now positioned to see significantly further near-term upside
• One analyst is pointing to the recently broken below 200-day moving average as a key resistance that bulls are now trying to surmount
• A firm break above this level could confirm that this bounce marks a full reversal of the recent downtrend

Bitcoin’s volatility as of late has led the market to see some immense turbulence over the past week, which has primarily favored bears.

However, BTC is now reversing its recent losses and may be on the cusp of continuing its parabolic uptrend, which could mean that this latest dip was simply a final shakeout for over-leveraged investors.

One trader is now closely watching Bitcoin’s reaction to its 200-day moving average.

He notes that this level has become resistance and that a flip above it would be technically significant.

Bitcoin Rebounds Following Yesterday’s Selloff

Bitcoin and the entire crypto market saw a few sharp selloffs over the past couple of days, which reached a boiling point yesterday evening when investor capitulation sparked a massive decline that sent it to $28,000.

It has since erased these losses and is in the process of reversing this downtrend. At the time of writing, the crypto is trading up 6% at its current price of $32,600.

So long as bulls maintain this momentum, there’s a strong possibility that the market will continue climbing higher in the days ahead.

BTC Must Flip 200-day Moving Average Back to Support

The 200-day moving average has long been a key level for Bitcoin, often playing the role of support and resistance.

Overnight, this level was broken below for the first time in months, and bulls are now trying to flip it back into support, as one analyst explained:

“The cloud has been supporting the price since 10,000$ and it is being tested as resistance for the first time now. This is where bulls want to see a bounce, the 200ema is not a pretty resistance to have.”

Image Courtesy of Teddy. Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.

Unless Bitcoin faces a torrent of selling pressure that reverses this rebound, there’s a strong possibility that bulls will continue regaining control of the cryptocurrency’s price action.

Featured image from Unsplash.
Charts from TradingView.

A mysterious company popped up in the US state of Delaware. But is Grayscale behind that?

LINKies unite

Someone set up a Chainlink (LINK) product under the guise of a Grayscale Investments offering last month, documents from company directory Bizapedia showed.

Neither did Grayscale or Chainlink make any comment, but given the fast rise of LINK and its increasing use case in the past year, a ‘Grayscale Chainlink Trust’ product may not be such a far-fetched idea either.

The news did, however, help the Chainlink ‘marines,’ get charged up on the news, and rightfully so.

Grayscale Chainlink Trust (LINK)

Filed on December 18th, 2020 as a Delaware Domestic Statutory Trust

Is it real or just an elaborate larp? Only time will tellhttps://t.co/ej4bYWysYz#Chainlink $LINK pic.twitter.com/bLZP5Jnwvw

— ChainLinkGod.eth (@ChainLinkGod) January 21, 2021

Chainlink is the world’s largest oracle service. Oracles are third-party tools that fetch data from outside a blockchain to within it, as blockchains are a means of iron-clad storage and immutability but cannot verify the quality of data going inside them.

This means that bad data can register itself on the blockchain, causing a host of problems and millions of dollars in losses. Chainlink helps avoid this, while additionally also being capable of being an efficient payment system itself.

As per CryptoSlate’s DeFi page, Chainlink has a current market cap of over $8.4 billion and currently trades at $20.6, witnessing a 6% price gain after suffering a broader sell-off in the cryptocurrency market yesterday.

How Chainlink would feature in Grayscale

Grayscale is the world’s largest crypto asset manager and investment platform. It holds over $25.5 billion worth of various cryptocurrencies (mainly Bitcoin) over nine “trusts.” Its products are some of the only regulated crypto-offerings to trade on public markets in the US.

How Grayscale’s products work is like this: the asset manager ties up with a custodian (such as Coinbase) to hold a certain amount of cryptocurrency tied to that “trust” share. Investors can then either subscribe (with a six-month lock-in) or purchase those shares on the open market. 

Investors make money along with the growth of their holdings. As the value of the underlying crypto rises, the price of the trust share rises. And for the legally compliant service, Grayscale charges a sizable premium in the range of 10% to as much as 200%.

A Chainlink trust would work in a similar manner. Grayscale would hold a fixed amount of LINK per share, and accredited investors would be able to purchase it via regulated OTC brokers in the US.

Like what you see? Subscribe for daily updates.

22
Jan
2021

[Featured Content]

Cryptocurrency trading seems to many as a very opportunistic endeavor that could net a ton of profits. After all, in just a few months, the prices for most coins have skyrocketed as the total market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in history. And while all this might be true on the surface, in reality, it’s particularly challenging because the prices are very volatile.

For example, just about a week ago, Bitcoin lost $12,000 of its dollar-value in less than two days and regained most of it in a day. This led to a total of $3 billion worth of liquidated long and short positions.

This is what makes cryptocurrency trading so challenging. However, there are certain solutions that may take away the hurdle by automating the process and allowing you to potentially enjoy passive income. This is what KuCoin – one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, tries to achieve with the launch of its KuCoin Trading Bot.

KuCoin Introduces Trading Bot

KuCoin’s trading bot will be available for free via the latest version of the KuCoin application, and it’s designed to help you make passive income. It currently supports two types of trading strategies – Classic Grid and Dollar-Cost Averaging.

The Classic Grid is aimed at helping users arbitrage in the volatile market that is the cryptocurrency one and makes a stable income. The DCA Bot, on the other hand, is based on the Dollar Cost Averaging strategy. This allows you to create an automatic investment plan, which is a great way to control risks and earn long-term returns.

You will be able to set specific targets using the Profit Target functionality, and once you reach them, the bot will remind you to either continue or to sell your positions.

Speaking on the matter was the CEO of KuCoin Global, Johnny Lyu, who said:

“At Present, most existing investment tools in crypto are not friendly enough to newcomers and not advanced enough to professional traders. KuCoin Trading Bot not only provides the simplest AI parameter settings for newcomers but also provides custom parameters for others. With KuCoin Trading Bot, users can make passive income in a more stable and easy way.”

Further Functionalities and Rewards

To further strengthen its attempts to simplify cryptocurrency trading, KuCoin will be adding more functionalities to the trading bot in the future. The KuCoin App already shows that the Classic Grid and DCA models are live, while there are other functions that are currently in development.

To name a few, these include Extreme Volatility Killer, Dynamic Position Sizing, Margin Grid, and so forth – these are yet to be delivered. With their launch, the trading bot will be a lot more useful and bring additional investment tools for users.

The trading bot currently supports over 40 coins, including BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, and more. And according to the team, KuCoin will continue to add more coins and pairs.

Moreover, after the bot is launched officially, there will be a series of campaigns, and those who participate in the KuCoin Trading Bot’s Grid Competition will be able to share a prize pool of $18,000.

In any case, the reputation of KuCoin is what backs the reliability of the trading bot. After all, KuCoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges. Established back in 2017, it offers P2P fiat trading, Futures Trading, staking, lending, margin trading, spot trading, and so forth.

Giant state-owned Russian bank Sberbank has reportedly sought approval from the nation’s central bank to launch its own cryptocurrency through a blockchain platform.

Separately, a Russian court has removed the leading crypto exchange Binance from a regulator’s blacklist.

Sberbank Looks Into Launching Its Own Crypto?

According to the local coverage, Sberbank of Russia, one of the largest banks in the world’s largest country by landmass, has applied with the central bank to register a blockchain platform.

Should the Central Bank of the Russian Federation approve the application, Sberbank plans to leverage the blockchain platform to create its own cryptocurrency.

Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the board, said that the main goal is to launch the digital asset in the spring of this year.

“Sberbank filed an application with the Bank of Russia to register its blockchain platform in early January since digital financial assets in accordance with the law can be issued on a registered platform.”

Popov further explained that the bank had already tested the technology and “saw that this solution works.”

Russian laws dictate that the registration procedure can take up to 45 days. The country’s central bank could use this timeframe to address any potential issues or challenges it sees with the project.

Binance No Longer Blacklisted In Russia

The Malta-based crypto exchange said last year that a court in the Arkhangelsk region ruled to block its domain from being accessed within the country’s borders. The court argued that the platform had helped distribute information about an unregulated asset, namely Bitcoin.

The company said this blacklisting came after no previous warnings issued by Russian authorities and law enforcement. However, Binance noted that it had requested legal assistance and promised to fight for overruling the decision.

It seems that Binance has succeeded as reports emerged that the Arkhangelsk Regional Court overturned the ruling.

Consequently, users based in Russia will be able to have full access to the exchange’s website as it was removed from the register of prohibited internet resources.

“We hope that with the adoption of transparent laws in the field of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia, such cases will become a thing of the past, and regulatory uncertainty will no longer negatively affect the development of cryptocurrency projects in Russia.” – commented the director of Binance in Russia, Gleb Kostarev.

Bitcoin’s decline continued in the past 24 hours as the asset dumped below $30,000 for the first time since early January. Most altcoins are also covered in red, and the total market cap has plummeted to $900 billion – meaning a decrease of over $100 billion in a day.

Bitcoin’s Drop Took It Below $29K

Just a few days ago, BTC attempted to overcome the $38,000 price tag but to no avail. Ever since that rejection, the cryptocurrency has been gradually decreasing in value.

The situation worsened in the past 24 hours. BTC had recovered some of the losses and traded at about $35,000 before the bears took full control and pushed it further down.

The primary cryptocurrency lost over $7,000 in the following hours to its intraday low of below $29,000 (on Bitstamp).

Although bitcoin bounced off rather quickly and reclaimed the $30,000 price tag, the asset is still more than 10% down on a 24-hour scale.

It’s worth noting that Guggenheim Partner’s CIO, Scott Minerd, said recently that BTC’s declines could continue and drive the asset to as low as $20,000.

Blood On The Altcoin Street

The altcoin market has failed to avert the crash, and most coins have followed BTC on the way down.

Ethereum leads this adverse trend with a 14% drop to $1,130. ETH was riding high until recently and marked a new ATH above $1,430 earlier this week.

Ripple has lost 12% of value and struggles to maintain above $0.26. Bitcoin Cash and Cardano have also declined by double-digit percentages (-14% and -13%, respectively) to $410 and $0.31.

Binance Coin (5%), Chainlink (-7%), Polkadot (-3%), and Litecoin (-6%) are also in the red.

Further losses are evident from lower- and mid-cap altcoins. ICON has lost the most after a 20% drop. Hedera Hashgraph (-17%), Siacoin (-16%), IOST (-16%), Energy Web Token (-15%), The Graph (-15%), Dash (-15%), Bitcoin Gold (-15%), VeChain (-15%), Voyager Token (-14%), and Crypto.com Coin (-14%) follow.

Ultimately, the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrency assets has plummeted below $900 billion. This represents a $180 billion drop in three days.