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Bitcoin Crosses Above $4,000: Genuine Rally or Bull Trap?

Bitcoin crosses above $4,000: genuine rally or bull trap?

Bitcoin Crosses Above $4,000: Genuine Rally or Bull Trap?

Just two days after Cboe announced that it was going to delist bitcoin futures, the cryptocurrency’s spot market turned near-term bullish.

The BTC/USD exchange rate surged 3.30-percent in the past 24 hours to establish a session high towards 4069. Simultaneously, the rest of the cryptocurrency market also went green, with Bitcoin Cash leading the bull pack with 17.81% gains, followed by Litecoin, EOS, and Ethereum that rose 8.44-, 5.47-, and 6.25-percent, respectively. On the whole, the cryptocurrency market capitalization added up to $6 billion worth of investments in a day.

Bitcoin crosses above $4,000: genuine rally or bull trap?

All Top Cryptocurrencies Trended in Green This Saturday | Source: CMC

Not the First Time

The bitcoin rally follows an overstretched stable action since February 25. The cryptocurrency’s significant levels remain unchanged as it traded inside a $200-range for almost two weeks. Before that, bitcoin failed when it came to piercing through key resistance areas. At the same time, the cryptocurrency received equally stronger support from bulls on every downside correction. Have a look at this chart to understand further.

Bitcoin crosses above $4,000: genuine rally or bull trap?

BTC/USD Analysis | Source: Bitfinex.com

One can notice that bitcoin is trending inside a symmetrical triangle defined by red trendlines. It is providing traders a clear understanding of the ongoing price action. As close as the bitcoin price gets to the triangle’s apex, the lesser the volume becomes. At the same time, every upside attempt is failed by a stronger red resistance trendline – barring a few instances of false breakouts. From mid-December to now, the BTC/USD market has seen six of such breakout attempts. The market is now in its seventh one.

Low bitcoin Volume

Luke Martin, a hugely followed cryptocurrency trader, and analyst, expects the weekend to bring new volume spikes. He tweeted Friday:

The bitcoin market is somewhat mirroring Martin’s prediction. While there has been a modest volume spike on a daily chart, it is still not enough to kickstart a breakout run. Let’s have a closer look:

Bitcoin crosses above $4,000: genuine rally or bull trap?

BTC/USD Analysis | Source: Bitfinex.com

The orange bar reflects the highest 4H trading volumes in the past two weeks. These are not comparable to the mad spikes the market saw between February 20 and 25 trading hours. Atop that, the BTC/USD market is below the orange bar and, at the same time, its Relative Strength Index, the momentum indicator, is already overbought.

Therefore, there is a considerable possibility of a bearish correction. There is not enough volume to support a breakout action.

Not a Rally, Until

Twitterati Trading Room drew an interesting graph reflecting key resistance areas bitcoin must break to establish a rally. As explained in the chart above, we are also expecting a confirmed bullish breakout once the price breaks above $4,408. However, according to the Trading Room, one should watch out for the moving averages. Excerpts from their statement:

“BTC 50 MA has crossed over 100 MA in Daily Chart for 1st time since Aug. Ideal Conditions for a Move towards 200/350 MA. Need big impulse move to confirm a breakout.”

Until that happens, every upside move would end up becoming a bull trap.

Published at Sat, 16 Mar 2019 11:17:08 +0000

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Litecoin: bitmain trades sides, supports segwit activation

Litecoin: Bitmain Trades Sides, Supports SegWit Activation

Litecoin’s problematic course towards Segregated Witness (SegWit) activation has ended in an unusual display of unity.


Litecoin Roundtable: We ‘Unanimously Agree’ On SegWit Activation

Following a meeting of Chinese cryptocurrency players including exchanges and miners, a consensus was reached on activating SegWit despite some participants having previously been against the idea.

The so-called Litecoin Global Roundtable included Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, exchanges Huobi and Okcoin and formerly anti-SegWit mining pool Bitmain.

Summarized minutes released from the meeting confirm that subject to community support, participants “unanimously agree” to “implement Segregated Witness softfork on Litecoin.”

“When the usage of Litecoin block capacity is over 50%, we will start to prepare for a solution to increase the 1MB block size limit through a hardfork or softfork,” a proviso adds.

Bitmain Gets Behind Litecoin SegWit

The big surprise from Friday’s events was the support of Bitmain, whose CEO Jihan Wu had previously stated his opposition to SegWit on numerous occasions, both for bitcoin and Litecoin.

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Now, it appears, both Wu and Bitmain have U-turned on the idea.

The Roundtable added:

We want to emphasize that this roundtable meeting represents only the consensus of participating members, and cannot make a decision on behalf of the Litecoin community.

U-Turns Abound

Litecoin’s approaching SegWit activation threshold had caused a significant uptick in its price. Having traded at just under $4 per coin for a considerable period, increasing miner support saw it shoot past $10 and stay at these levels.

As interest increased, however, rumors began spreading of manipulation by Bitmain, which was accused by pro-SegWit Shaolinfry of artificially hindering Litecoin’s activation.

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Lee himself appealed to the community to force a user-activated soft fork (UASF) to counter such activities. In a further sign of how the situation has changed, the Roundtable members added that they were now against as UASF with a specific activation schedule, stating:

We do not advocate a flag-day ‘UASF’ that does not go through [sic] any users or community voting process. This type of forced upgrade without community consensus put Litecoin in a risk of split

What do you think about the latest events for Litecoin? Let us know in the comments below!


Images courtesy of AdobeStock

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