The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been in the thick of the action over the past week. First, the SEC rejected the Bitcoin ETF application from Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca. Next, the governing body obtained a temporary restraining order against Telegram and its wholly-owned subsidiary Telegram Open Network (TON) for hosting a securities sale which would culminate with the distribution of Gram (GRM) tokens within the U.S. The SEC claims that the ICO was illegal as Telegram did not register the offering.
While both news events are overwhelmingly negative, the crypto markets have held their own and have not collapsed. This shows that the markets have matured and the market participants are not dumping their holdings in panic, which is a positive sign.
The chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), however, provided a sigh of relief to crypto investors after its chairman Heath Tarbert said that his view is that “Ether is a commodity.” He also suggested that all forked entities should be treated the same as the original asset.
BKCM founder and CEO Brian Kelly believes that the move by the CFTC provided regulatory clarity which is likely to attract institutional investors who were sitting on the sidelines. Kelly suggested that these investors are now more confident about adding Ether to their “commodity bucket.”
With Bitcoin holding above its recent lows, some altcoins are also beginning to show strength. Let’s see if we find any bullish setups in the top five performers of the past seven days.
LINK/USD
Chainlink (Link) has been among the top performers for the past three consecutive weeks. This shows that it is backed by momentum. However, after the stellar rise, can it continue its uptrend or will it succumb to profit booking?
The LINK/USD pair recently closed above $2.0531 and this triggered our buy which was suggested in an earlier analysis. Our first target of $2.8498 was achieved last week, which shows that the bulls are not expecting a large fall, hence, are buying at higher levels.
Though the bulls pushed the price above $2.8498 during the week, they have not been to sustain the breakout. This shows profit booking by the short-term traders at the resistance level. However, with the rise in the past two weeks, the 20-week EMA has started to turn up, which shows that the advantage is with the bulls.
If the bulls can propel the price above $3, we expect the up move to reach $4 and above it $4.5826. Conversely, if the bulls fail to scale above $3, the pair might remain range-bound for a few more weeks. Our view will be invalidated on a break below $1.4612.
BNB/USD
Binance Coin (BNB) has made a comeback into this list after a long absence. Let’s look at the events of the past seven days that have ignited trader’s interest in it. Recently, the exchange launched the eighth phase of its lending product which allows owners to earn an annualized percentage yield of as high as 10% for a few cryptocurrencies.
Expanding its services, Binance launched peer-to-peer trading for its Android app users in China. The service will be available for Bitcoin, Ether and Tether (USDT) against the Chinese yuan. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that this service will be expanded to other regions soon. Zhao also confirmed that users are able to use WeChat or Alipay for P2P transactions for payment, but both companies swiftly denied that this was true. Has BNB bottomed out or is it ready for an up move? Let’s study its chart.
The bears could not capitalize on the sharp breakdown below $18.30 over the past two weeks. This resulted in a pullback that can carry the BNB/USD pair to the resistance line of the channel. As the downsloping 20-week EMA is also located at this level, we anticipate the bears to defend this resistance.
If the price turns down from the resistance line of the channel, it can again dip towards $14.2555. A breakdown of this support will resume the downtrend but if the price rebounds off this level, it will indicate a bottom formation.
A breakout and close above the channel will indicate an end of the downtrend. Traders can initiate a long position on a close (UTC time) above the channel and keep a stop loss of $14. The first target will be a move to $33 and above it, a retest of the lifetime highs is possible.
HT/USD
Huobi Token (HT) rallied just above 10% in the past seven days and turned out to be the third best performer. Investors are now wondering whether it bottomed out and is now ready for the next leg of its upside move?
The pullback in the HT/USD pair found support just below the 50% retracement level of the rally from the lows of $0.88 to the highs of $5.3506. This is a positive sign and it shows that bulls are stepping in to buy on dips.
On the upside, the bulls might face some resistance at $3.67 and $4.37. If both levels are crossed, a rally to $5.3506 will be on the cards. Traders can wait for the price to rise and close (UTC time) above the 20-week EMA before buying. A stop loss can be kept at $2.90.
Our bullish view will be invalidated if the pair turns down from one of the overhead resistance levels and plummets below $2.90. If that happens, a dip to $2.5878 is possible.
XRP/USD
Ripple has merged three of its services, xRapid, xVia, and xCurrent, into its RippleNet offering. With this move, “instead of buying xCurrent or xVia, customers will connect to RippleNet — on-premises or through the cloud — and instead of buying xRapid, clients will use On-Demand Liquidity,” said a Ripple spokesperson.
Bank of America (BoA) is also rumored to have hired a “treasury product manager” for Ripple. This shows that the bank is warming up to cryptocurrencies in some form. Similarly, United Kingdom-based financial software firm Finastra has joined RippleNet, which will help its customers with cheaper and faster cross-border payments.
For the past few days, Ripple Labs has been at the receiving end of criticism by some community members. However, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, defended the company and said that its transparency has made it vulnerable to attack. While the fundamentals are encouraging, has the technical picture also turned positive? Let’s study XRP’s chart.
The relief rally in the past two weeks reached the first overhead resistance at the 20-week EMA. A breakout of this level will again hit a roadblock close to the 50-week simple moving average (SMA) and above it at the downtrend line of the descending triangle. If the bulls push the price above the triangle, it will invalidate the bearish pattern, which is a bullish sign.
Aggressive traders can buy on a close (UTC time) above the 20-week EMA and keep a stop loss of $0.215. Risk-averse traders, however, should wait for the price to breakout and close above the triangle to buy.
Both moving averages are flattening out and the RSI is gradually rising to the midpoint. This suggests that the selling pressure has subsided. Our view will be invalidated if the pair turns down from one of the overhead resistance levels and plunges below $0.22.
TRX/USD
This week Tron (TRX) has teamed up with the Stellar Development Foundation to form a new educational alliance that will provide working knowledge about blockchain technology to university students. Let’s see if we can spot a buy setup on the TRX/USDT pair.
The TRX/USDT pair is facing resistance close to $0.018660. This level has acted as a stiff barrier over the past few weeks. If the bulls fail to scale it once again, the pair might again dip towards the critical support of $0.011240. A breakdown of this support will be a negative sign and could point toward a new downtrend.
However, if the bulls can push the price above $0.018660 with strength, the large range of $0.011240-$0.0409111 will come into play. It is possible that the moving averages could act as resistance but we expect them to be crossed. Therefore, traders can buy on a close (UTC time) above $0.01860 with a stop loss of $0.0110. The first target target being $0.030 and above it $0.0409111.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CryptoX. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange.
