It was a mixed week for cryptocurrencies as major tokens such as Bitcoin and XRP were able to recover from sharp drops at the start of the week to end the week trading green. Conversely, others such as Ethereumand Cardano did not recover well and ended the week deeply red.
An emerging story in the current bear market is the sustained, increasing rate of Bitcoin dominance. BTC’s value share of total crypto markets stood at ~36% on May 7th, it currently sits at ~51%, having grown significantly in the last three months.
Bitcoin’s popularity in the bear market compared to other crypto is likely tied to factors such as its liquidity — BTC gives numerous options to onramp onto fiats swiftly during sharp price drops, or access alts during trend reversals.
The bitcoin network is also by most measurements the most fundamentally sound public blockchain. With a steadily increasing hashrate & difficulty, a sustained level of BTC being sent across the network and the retention of blockchain’s original and most recognizable consensus/ block size model, it has retained a ‘best house on a tough street’ appeal. Bitcoin’s comparative strength in the bear market has been evidenced by its steady ~2.5% growth in the last 7 days.
In terms of more long term news stories, in the past week the trend of smart money flowing into the distributed ledger space continued. Major blockchain Mining equipment producer Bitmain, announced plans to raise $3 billion through a public IPO. Investors may want to hold back before getting too excited about potential wider market effects of the offering given the large, potentially illiquid, holding of Bitcoin Cash Bitmain has on its books.
Pantera capital also announced plans to raise 175 million USD for a third crypto venture fund, far exceeding the 25 million and 15 million it raised from previous ventures. This indicates underlying confidence in new blockchain ventures, in spite of the recent price struggles by the vast majority of altcoin projects and bearishness surrounding the state of ICO markets.
Upcoming crypto events
Ripple community AMA with CEO Brad Garlinghouse– August 22nd
Ripple (XRP), a perpetually top 5 cryptocurrency by market capitalization will hold an Ask Me Anything this Wednesday. Questions surrounding the XRP token’s consistent controversies; its security-like nature, its inability to secure a listing on major crypto broker Coinbase and the contentious relationships between current and former senior leaders like Jed McCaleb, may be asked.
Bitcoin Proshares ETF decision– August 23rd
SEC Bitcoin ETF decision dates have been earmarked as key events in the short term price movements of digital asset markets. It is believed that a potential approval will lead to skyrocketing BTC price and volume, as ETF’s should provide a stable avenue for Institutional money to enter the crypto space. Markets will closely observe how the SEC decides to deal with the upcoming decision deadline for the Proshares ETF, in the past, rejections, or even delays, have had a negative effect on short term market performance.
World blockchain marvels Hong Kong 2018– August 24th
Some of Asia’s most visible and important crypto luminaries including Bobby Lee, founder of the Bitcoin China exchange and Jack Liao, founder of Bitcoin Gold, will be speaking at this Korean organized event in Hong Kong. Also speaking at the event will be key facilitators of the Korean business and blockchain ecosystem. It is likely that key information surrounding Korean blockchain infrastructure such as regulatory attitudes may be gleaned from the event.
Top 10 tokens: Market Cap
Results were mixed amongst large market cap tokens this week, with assets like XRP, BTC and EOS recouping in price, after a couple of challenging weeks trading in the red. The biggest emerging story alt markets may be the recent struggles of the Ethereum network, with ETH falling by ~6% in the last seven days. It continues to face negative sentiment and questions regarding the quality of projects built on its blockchain. Ethereum based tokens such as BAT and REP are also down by over 5% across the last week.
Bitcoin BLX: 7-day report
Following a sharp dip at the start of last week, with the Bitcoin price falling below $6000, the BTC market recovered strongly and steadily built on gains. Growing by ~2.5% it currently trades at $6491.45 based on the BLX index. The size, first mover advantage and decentralized nature of Blockchain’s original continue to make BTC the crypto market’s favourite long position and at the core of most investor’s digital asset portfolios. In the upcoming week, the Proshares ETF decision is likely to be the driving force behind the decision making of Bitcoin bears and bulls.