Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP Weekly Market Update: November 1, 2018

This week the community celebrates the tenth anniversary of the creation of Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto first introduced the digital currency on Halloween 2008 with the release of a short paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”Ten years later, the leading cryptocurrency has played a key role in the blockchain “revolution” and now stands on top of an industry valued at $200 billion.

For coverage on the rise and rise of Bitcoin after ten years, start with part one of our “Week of Satoshi” series. BTCmanager recounts the inception of the idea all the way to future outlooks beyond 2018.

BTC-USD

Back to the current price action, the BTC-USD trading pair experienced a sharp decline on October 25 when it lost approximately $90 during day trading and found itself at $6,460.

Bears could not hold their ground, however, and we saw price pushing above $6,500. The cryptocurrency market’s overall negative performance during the last two days of the workweek dwarfed that of the equities market, after Nasdaq had its worst trading session since 2011, dropping nearly 4.5 percent in 24 hours before traders helped the market recover.

On October 26, the Bitcoin bulls initiated an attack towards the $6,600 level without actually breaking it and closing the day and the workweek back down at $6,530. This marked an eight-day streak for the currency in the $6,600 to $6,500 range, and one of its least volatile periods this year.

Cryptocurrency mining firm Bitfury is reportedly considering an initial public offering in Europe in 2019 which will make it the first significant crypto IPO listed on the continent. The company is expected to report revenue of $450 million for the last fiscal year and is a direct competitor to Bitmain, which filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong in September 2018.

Rumors are circulating that Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, could also be planning an IPO. Crypto analyst Ryan NeuNer, who hosts the show “CryptoTrader” on CNBC South Africa, hinted that fact in a recent Tweet and promised to reveal details of Coinbase’s purported IPO soon. A few days later, in an interview for Bloomberg, the company’s President and COO Asiff Hirjion denied the rumor.

On 30 October, Coinbase announced via a blog post that it had raised over $300 million in its latest funding round, valuing the company at over $8 billion. As per the press release the company is planning to accelerate global expansion, offer more cryptoassets, and build features needed for getting more institutions into crypto.

At the same time, Bloomberg revealed Coinbase is projecting revenue for the year of nearly $1.3 billion. Earlier this month, Coinbase raised money at a valuation of $8 billion, a number that places it among the ranks of the world’s most valuable startups. That valuation is more than five times higher than it was early last year.

The most popular cryptocurrency dropped from $6,530 to $6,500 and from this level to $6,490 on October 27 and October 28 respectively. Bitcoin escaped the $6,660 to $6,500 short-term corridor and looked to break below the $6,400 and $6,200 supports. The pair registered a loss of 1.5 percent for the week.

The new week opened with the news that Bitstamp, the largest crypto exchange in the European Union by trading volume, was acquired by the Belgian investment firm NXMH. The South Korean conglomerate NXC owns the company. The purchase price was rumored to be around $400 million.

On October 29, BTC broke the mid-$6,000s range between $6,600 and $6,400, while eyeing the $6,300 line after a sudden drop. Trading volumes spiked from $2.3 billion to $3 billion during that period. The BTC-USD pair lost $140 and closed the day at $6,345.

Regarding government policies and regulations, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is considering a blanket ban on cryptocurrency-based derivatives. The Financial Times reported that the FCA would launch a consultation in the first quarter of 2019 and discuss the topic.

A new report published by the Cryptoassets Taskforce, which includes representatives from the FCA, the U.K. Treasury, and the Bank of England warned that leveraged crypto-based derivatives could be even riskier than spot market trading as they can amplify and “cause losses that go beyond the initial investment,” as well as imposing additional fees.

In the meantime, the government of Ukraine is planning to legalize cryptocurrencies by 2021. According to a press release, the plan is to create clear conditions for cryptocurrency-related businesses in the country and remove “legal uncertainty about activities related to virtual currencies, [including] their legal status, taxation of transactions, and the possibility of signing smart contracts.”

Bitcoin moved even lower on October 30, and was just a step away from breaking the $6,300 line, stopping at $6,302. It closed the trading day at $6,330 and moved higher to $6,370 on Halloween. The leading cryptocurrency closed the month with a loss of 3.6 percent.

The next target? Defend $6,300, and initiate an attack towards the mid-$6,000s ($6,400 to $6,500). The $6,300 and especially $6,250 levels are critical for bulls.

ETH-USD

Ethereum continued its slow decline and closed October 25 at $203 with its fifth consecutive red candle. The ETH-USD trading pair approached the $200 support line, which proved to be an important level for the project in the mid-term.

The most popular altcoin closed the workweek at $205 with its first green candle on the daily chart and stayed in the narrow $205.5 to $204 corridor during the weekend of October 27-28. The ETH-USD pair was one percent down for the seven-day period.

The new week started with a sharp decline as Ethereum smashed through the $200 support and lost four percent of its value stabilizing at $196. The bulls could not re-take their position, and ETH stayed almost flat on October 30 gaining less than a dollar in terms of market price. Since ETH was not able to cross the $200 mark on October 31, observers set this as the first target upwards, followed by the $214 to $215 zone. Downwards, observers see $188 to $190 as the critical support for bulls.

XRP-USD

XRP closed the day at $0.4634 on October 25 and marked its seventh consecutive day in the $0.47 to $0.465 region. Bulls were able to push the Ripple currency above the mentioned zone on October 26, but just for a short period as it closed trading at $0.4665.

On October 26, Ripple released its Q3 financial report. The revenue from XRP token sales doubled in the third quarter compared to the second quarter (Q2) of 2018. The company reportedly sold $163.33 million worth of XRP in the Q3, more than double the $73.53 million it sold in the previous quarter. Cory Johnson, the Chief Market Strategist for Ripple, added that XRP purchases saw growth of nearly 400 percent from Wall Street and other institutions.

The XRP-USD pair suffered a significant loss on October 27 and dropped from $0.4666 to $0.46, which was its biggest one-day drop since October 19. The couple partially recovered on October 28 and closed the day and the week at $0.464.

The new week started with yet another negative session and a loss of approximately four percent. XRP broke the $0.45 support line before stopping at $0.445 on October 29.

On October 30, observers saw the price jump above $0.45 during the day trading session, only to come back down to $0.447 at its close. The attack, however, was unbeaten on October 31, as XRP successfully crossed the above-mentioned critical level and closed the month of October at $0.453.

The third most valuable crypto asset was down 21.7 percent for the 30-day period. The next target for bulls is to defend $0.45 and chase $0.46 and $0.47 respectively. Bears will try to push the price below these levels in the short-term.