Markets Update: Top Crypto Assets Open 2019 With Slow Month of Trading

Market Updates

The leading cryptocurrency markets have seen a slow start to the year, with the top three markets by capitalization shedding between 10% and 37% since early January’s local highs. January has also seen volatility in market cap rankings, with XRP and ETH competing for the second largest crypto asset capitalization, and EOS, USDT, and BCH competing for a position within the top five.

Also Read: Iran in Talks With 8 Countries for Use of Cryptocurrency in Financial Transactions

BCH Maintains Triple Figures Throughout January

After ending 2018 with a roughly 200% bounce from the all-time lows at the $75 area, BCH/USD has produced a slow start to 2019, slipping 36% from the Jan. 3 local monthly high of $175 to currently trade for approximately $110. When measured from the local top of $240 posted on Dec. 21, BCH has lost nearly 54 percent over the course of six weeks.

Markets update: top crypto assets open 2019 with slow month of trading — Bch/usd – bitstamp – 4hr

On Jan. 28, the markets saw significant selling pressure that drove BCH down 15 percent in just 12 hours to test support at $100. Since then, BCH has made slight gains amid consolidation, but appears poised for a retest of all-time lows should the current support area fail to hold.

When measured against BTC, BCH has also shed most of the gains it garnered during the late December bounce, with the current price of 0.032 BTC comprising a 43% drop from the Dec. 21 local high of 0.057 BTC, and a loss of 27% from January’s high of 0.044 BTC, with BCH currently trading for 0.032 BTC.

Despite the bearish price action, this past week’s selling pressure saw BCH/BTC retest the upper side of the descending trendline that appears to have guided price action over the course of the preceding six weeks. However, should the current support area fail to hold, it is likely that BCH will retest the all-time low area of 0.025 BTC.

bitcoin cash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $1.96 billion. BCH market dominance has slipped by nearly half a percent since the start of the month, dropping from 2.20% to nearly 1.73%.

BTC Experiences Low Volatility During January

BTC/USD has traded within a tight range during 2019 so far. BTC began January trading for $3,700, before posting a monthly high of $4,100 on Jan. 8.

Since then, BTC steadily bled down to yesterday’s local low of $3,325, a 19% drop in three weeks. BTC currently has a market capitalization of nearly $60.6 billion, and a dominance of 53.42%, up 1.5% since the start of the year.

XRP Ranks Second by Market Cap for Most of January

Opening January trading for nearly $0.35, XRP/USD spent the first 10 days of 2019 oscillating within an approximately 10% range, before posting a monthly high of over $0.38 on Jan. 10. Since then, ripple has fallen by roughly 25%, with prices currently testing support at December’s lows of roughly $0.28.

Despite also producing a bearish start to 2019, the XRP/BTC charts show bullish price action, with XRP currently testing the support at the long-term key price area of 0.000084 BTC. However, XRP has fallen by nearly 12% since opening the year trading for 0.000095 BTC.

After starting the year as the second-ranked crypto asset by market cap with a dominance of roughly 11.50%, ripple slipped to third on Jan. 3 and Jan. 11. XRP has since regained its rank as the second largest crypto asset by capitalization, with XRP currently posting a market cap of $12.01 billion and a dominance of 10.57%.

ETH Posts Volatile Start to 2019

ETH/USD traded within a wide range during January, opening the year at roughly $135 before gaining over 25% in roughly one week. After posting a monthly high of approximately $170 on Jan. 6, ETH has since lost more than 37% against the dollar, with current prices testing support just below $110.

ETH/BTC started the year trading for roughly 0.035 BTC, before rallying over 17% in a week to post a three-monthly high of approximately 0.041 BTC on Jan. 6. Since then, ETH has fallen 26% when measuring against ₿itcoin core to currently trade for nearly 0.031 BTC.

ETH is currently the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a capitalization of $11.08 billion. ETH dominance has fallen from 11.05% at the start of January to 9.78% as of this writing.

What do you think the overall trend for 2019 will be? Bullish? Bearish? Sideways? Share your prediction in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

Published at Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:45:38 +0000

November 19, 2017

Crypto Trading and Traditional Assets: New Options for Investors

While trading of crypto-assets is booming, some investors are looking for options to trade traditional assets like stocks via cryptocurrencies. Three new operators are among those developing trading platforms to meet this need, with blockchain-based tokens pegged to the underlying assets.

Ankorus

Ankorus is establishing a platform that will permit trading traditional assets, including stocks, bonds, futures, options, gold, silver, commodities, ETFs, FX and bitcoin futures with cryptocurrency.

“Ankorus will establish an online exchange populated by any financial asset currently available worldwide,” reads the Ankorus white paper. “Various auditing measures will be taken to establish transparency, and customers will be able to validate that tokenised assets are fully backed and held by Ankorus.”

To enable cryptocurrency holders to buy real-world financial assets, Ankorus will create and allocate tokens that are exactly value-pegged to the underlying assets in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Ankorus will hold its “fundraising contribution” or “Token Generation Event” (TGE) between November 25 and December 25. The ANK token will be distributed to contributors during the TGE.

“The ANK is a utility token, used for commissions, for datafeeds, professional technical charting software, webinars, financial education materials and also membership for those who wish,” Ankorus CEO John Cruz told bitcoin Magazine. “The ANK token will be allocated during our TGE and later listed on exchanges, beginning with EtherDelta. It is an ERC20 token.”

Another token, the Anchor Token, will be the asset value-pegged token, separately created to tokenize specific securities using a yet-to-be-determined technology.

“Anchor Tokens will come later, after we receive the requisite regulatory approval,” said Cruz. “Anchor Tokens will be created for our customers when they wish to tokenize specific assets. For example, if a customer wishes to purchase and tokenize Apple stock, we create an Apple Anchor Token (known as AAPL.A) or simply credit the customer with them if we created one earlier.”

One of the most interesting asset classes that Ankorus is targeting is that of traditional financial instruments based on cryptocurrencies, such as futures and derivatives. A few weeks ago bitcoin Magazine reported that CME Group, one of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges, will launch a bitcoin futures product before the end of Q4 2017. In a video, Cruz explains why he considers CME bitcoin futures as a breakthrough that could soon push bitcoin’s price up to $50,000, and expresses confidence in Ankorus’s ability to offer CME bitcoin futures trading soon.

It’s worth noting that Ankorus’s offering can be seen as the reverse of CME bitcoin futures: while CME will offer a traditional financial instrument tied to cryptocurrencies to investors that prefer not to hold and trade cryptocurrencies directly, Ankorus wants to make CME bitcoin futures and other traditional financial instruments available to cryptocurrency holders.

One is left to wonder how Ankorus will navigate the compliance minefield, which has blocked similar initiatives before. The Ankorus team insists that they will be totally SEC-compliant and follow all KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and CTF (Counter-Terrorist Financing) regulations. According to the white paper, Ankorus intends to become a fully registered broker-dealer, acquire membership on a large and reputable exchange, follow best practices for insurance and auditing on a regular basis, and establish a compliant trading platform that will bridge the crypto and finance worlds.

“By becoming a broker-dealer entity, we will get SEC blessing,” said Cruz. “Everyone else is trying to tokenize assets by not being a broker-dealer entity; this is where they run into trouble with the SEC.”

“Within the team we have experience of complying with different market regulators’ KYC, AML and CTF requirements for an FX remittance company,” Ankorus COO Haldane Marnoch told bitcoin Magazine. “PEP [Politically Exposed Persons] lists are vetted and we check against a suite of sanctions lists too. Documents supplied by our customers for proof of identity or proof of address expire and need to be renewed on a regular basis. Source of funds also needs to be proven for larger transactions.

“Our team is familiar with all the provisions required for operating across multiple jurisdictions,” continued Marnoch. “We’ll use as our primary reference the standards set by the SEC and the CFTC, but naturally we’ll be implementing processes to comply with each and every market we trade in, for instance the FCA in the U.K.”

“We will become a division of a Futures Commissions Merchant (FCM), expected early March, and will be able to fill orders for CME bitcoin futures at that time,” added Cruz.

LAToken and Jibrel Network

LAToken (LAT), which recently raised $19.6 million in a token sale, wants to broaden the use of cryptocurrencies in the real economy and allow cryptocurrency holders to diversify their portfolio by getting access to tokens linked to the price of real assets.

The LAT platform is already operational: asset tokens can be created, listed for sale and traded on the LAT platform. At this time, tokens linked to the price of stocks (e.g., Apple, Amazon, Tesla), commodities (oil, gold, silver) and real estate are already being traded on the LAT platform. Tokens linked to artwork are soon to follow.

According to the white paper, the LAT platform provides cryptocurrency holders with transparent price discovery and diversification across multiple asset classes, allowing for the creation or listing of third-party asset tokens compliant with LAToken disclosure and legal structure rules.

Jibrel Network wants to provide currencies, equities, commodities and other financial assets and instruments as standard ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Jibrel Network’s draft white paper explains that the platform will support tokens, dubbed Crypto Depository Receipts (CryDRs), which represent ownership of an underlying traditional asset held by Jibrel. On release, Jibrel will support six fiat currencies (USD, CNY, EUR, GBP, RUB, AED) and two money-market instruments.

In the future, Jibrel plans offer CryDRs pegged to a wide range of currencies, commodities, securities and derivatives. The project will hold a token pre-sale between November 27 and January 27.

Both LAToken and Jibrel Network expect to be fully compliant with applicable regulations, including KYC/AML rules, and apply for relevant licenses where needed. Full compliance may prevent the companies from targeting customers in certain jurisdictions. For example, the Jibrel token sale will not be available to U.S., Chinese and Singaporean residents.

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