Category: Crypto Market Analysis

The cryptocurrency space had a wild week, first because of the r/WallStreetBets community entering the market (and pumping Dogecoin’s price by over 1000%) and then because of Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk tweeting about Bitcoin and promoting it. This has, in turn, caused Bitcoin to spike from $31,000 all the way to $38,200 in a matter of one hour. An interesting fact is that Musk’s Twitter bio now has #bitcoin displayed for everyone to see.

The crypto sector ended the day with most of the top cryptocurrencies in the green. Most analysts speculate that the recent wave of buyers came as a result of Dogecoin’s incredible pump, which was caused by the notorious r/WallStreetBets subreddit. Bitcoin is currently trading for $32,964, representing an increase of 5.26% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 1.41% on the day, while Litecoin gained 5.11% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

3X Long Dogecoin Token gained 905.02% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by Dogecoin’s 513.17% and DOGEFI’s 369.90% gain. On the other hand, 3X Short Dogecoin Token lost 99.85%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Panda Yield’s loss of 83.13% and Psychic’s loss of 72.46%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance decreased slightly from when we last reported, currently 62.8%. This represents a 0.1% decrease from our previous report.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has increased greatly since we last reported, with its current value being $979.02 billion. This represents a $54.27billion increase when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• MicroStrategy says it will look into ‘various approaches’ to obtain more bitcoin (The Block)
• Blockfolio launches zero-fee crypto trading on its app (The Block)
• Visa’s Q1 earnings call reveals details about its crypto strategy (The Block)
• Chainlink Must Slice Through Resistance Barrier (Cryptobriefing)
• Stellar Lumens Primed to Recover Lost Ground (Cryptobriefing)
• Robinhood Bans DOGE Trading After WallStreetBets Reddit Community Eyes Dogecoin (Cryptobriefing)
• New Grayscale trust filings spin rumour mill into overdrive for Cardano, Polkadot, Cosmos and more (Cryptoslate)
• Coinbase to Become Publicly Traded, Announces Proposed Direct Listing of Shares (Coindesk)
• Grayscale is buying BTC 54% faster than it is mined so far in 2021 (Cointelegraph)
• Crypto crime dropped 57% in 2020 but DeFi hacks surged: CipherTrace (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin has spent the day attempting to push its price up as the market turned to green. Its price conquered the $32,350 level and pushed higher without hesitation. The move ended as bulls reached exhaustion near the $34,627 level. BTC’s inability to push past its immediate resistance has triggered a pullback, and the cryptocurrency is now most likely to retest the $32,350 level.

The overall change in market direction today came as a result of (as most speculate) Dogecoin’s insane upswing triggered by r/WallStreetBets.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on all time-frames are either neutral with a slight hint of bullishness or bullish with a slight hint of neutrality.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (51.01)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $34,627                             1: $32,350

2: $37,445                             2: $30,072

3: $38,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

After yesterday’s failed break of the top downtrend line, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap pushed past and broke its descending pattern. Its price (at one point) went past the $1,350 level, but as bulls couldn’t confidently hold this level, bears initiated a pullback.

Ethereum’s short-term price direction will be dictated by how the cryptocurrency handles the top downtrend line (which is now a support rather than a resistance line) as well as by Bitcoin’s price direction.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are bullish but also show a hint of bearishness.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (45.66)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,440                               3: $1047.6

Litecoin

Litecoin has confirmed its position above the $128.4 level after pushing its price above it yesterday. LTC is now in consolidation mode and is currently testing the 21-hour EMA. Its recent moves seem slightly unenthusiastic, meaning that its short-term price direction will most likely be determined by other cryptocurrencies’ movements.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s 4-hour and daily overviews are neutral/bearish, while its weekly and monthly overviews are completely bullish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly above its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (55.45)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $120

3: $181.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up almost completely in the red, though most cryptos barely lost any value. Bitcoin is currently trading for $31,200, representing a decrease of 1.13% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 0.95% on the day, while LTC lost 2.06% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Zero Collateral Dai gained 828.50% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by QuadrantProtocol’s 327.68% and 3x Long Dogecoin Token’s 137.80% gain. On the other hand, EveryCoin lost 89.97%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Zugacoin’s loss of 79.94% and TokenPay’s loss of 50.46%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance decreased slightly from when we last reported, currently 62.9%. This represents a 0.2% decrease from our previous report.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased very slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $924.75 billion. This represents a $10.78 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• BIS: Two-thirds of surveyed central banks are studying stablecoin impact on monetary and financial stability (The Block)
• Blockstream buys $25 million worth of bitcoin mining hardware from MicroBT (The Block)
• ECB’s Lagarde says technology questions remain for a potential digital euro (The Block)
• Reddit To Expand Points With Ethereum Foundation (Cryptobriefing)
• Bitcoin, Ethereum at Risk of Painful Correction After Losing Crucial Support (Cryptobriefing)
• Dogecoin Is Now Available on Ethereum for DeFi Users (Cryptobriefing)
• What venture capitalists look for in crypto startups and entrepreneurs (Cryptoslate)
• Bitcoin ETF unlikely until market cap reaches $2 trillion, fund manager says (Cryptoslate)
• Early Bitcoin advocate Chamath Palihapitiya to contest for California governor (Cryptoslate)
• Guggenheim says institutional demand not enough to keep BTC above $30K (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

After another day of its price moving towards the downside, Bitcoin attempted a rally towards the $32,350 mark. After its price establishing strong support at the $30,000 level, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap started surging. There is a strong chance that BTC will pass the $32,350 level if the hourly candle ends up above the 21-hour EMA.

Scott Minerd, the CIO of investment services firm Guggenheim, said that the institutional demand is insufficient to keep BTC above $30,000. Many analysts agree with this short-term assessment, while almost all of them are bullish in the long-term.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s daily overview is mostly neutral (with some hints of bearishness), while its weekly and monthly overviews are tilted towards the buy-side. On the other hand, its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly above its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (56.39)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $32,350                             1: $30,072

2: $34,627                             2: $30,000

3: $37,445                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap spent the day testing the $1,211 level multiple times. After the support level held up on various occasions, ETH bulls entered the market and started pushing its price up. However, it is still uncertain whether this push towards the upside will end as another lower high and a continuation of the downtrend, or a break from the trend.

Ethereum’s immediate downside is guarded by the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, while its first major resistance level is the $1,350 mark, as well as the descending line that connects ETH’s recent lower highs.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frames are tilted towards the buy-side but also show some neutrality. Its 4-hour overview, however, is slightly bearish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price at its top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (57.04)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,440                               3: $1047.6

Litecoin

Litecoin managed to break out from its downtrend after breaking the $128.4 mark. What’s surprising is that such a strong trend was broken by just average volume. LTC found support in the 21-hour EMA, which currently stands right below the price level.

Litecoin has a zone of heavy resistance straight above it (above $130). It is very unlikely that it can “survive” without a major boost in volume, especially in these market conditions.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s daily overview is mostly neutral (with some hints of bearishness), while its weekly and monthly overviews are tilted towards the buy-side. On the other hand, its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price at its top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (58.51)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $120

3: $181.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up either slightly red or slightly green, with only rare exceptions making significant moves to either side. Bitcoin is currently trading for $31,679, representing an increase of 0.51% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 1.61% on the day, while LTC lost 3.33% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Coupon Chain gained 74575.19% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by YVS.Finance’s 683.5% and Chonk’s 198.23% gain. On the other hand, Narwhale.finance lost 72.98%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by 3X Short Matic Token’s loss of 67.68% and MangoChain’s loss of 66.24%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance increased slightly from when we last reported, currently 63.1%. This represents a 0.2% increase from our previous report.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased very slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $935.58 billion. This represents a $0.96 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• Union Square Ventures expects to invest ‘around 30%’ of its new $250m fund in crypto industry (The Block)
• Pantera is moving to launch a new fund aimed at institutional bitcoin investors (The Block)
• KPMG resigns as Singapore blockchain firm’s auditor after hedge fund’s damning report (The Block)
• Bitmain CEO Steps Down From World’s Largest Bitcoin Mining Manufacturer (Cryptobriefing)
• Tether Issuance Hits $25 Billion as USDT on Exchanges, DeFi Reaches New High (Cryptobriefing)
• Ripple Expands in Asia Pacific Despite Legal Uncertainty (Cryptobriefing)
• Bank of England governor is bearish on Bitcoin, but sees growth of CBDCs (Cryptoslate)
• Binance CEO: We’re in the early stages of a multi-year crypto bull cycle (Cryptoslate)
• Former Goldman Sachs exec Raoul Pal: Bitcoin price could hit $50,000 by March (Cryptoslate)
• Bitcoin Falls as Miners Sell, Institutions Watch Yellen (Coindesk)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

After a day of attempting to break out of its slightly descending channel, Bitcoin has returned to the downtrend. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap tried to regain the $32,350 level but failed in doing so. This created a strong sell-wall above its current price of just below $32,000.

Bitcoin’s immediate upside is guarded by the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, as well as the 32,350 level. Its downside, however, is a free-fall until the zone above $30,000.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s daily overview is mostly neutral (with some hints of bearishness), while its weekly and monthly overviews are slightly bullish. On the other hand, its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly under its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (46.41)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $32,350                             1: $30,072

2: $34,627                             2: $30,000

3: $37,445                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap returned to mirroring Bitcoin’s movement after entering its consolidation phase. Ethereum has, after failing to break the $1,350 level, returned to its slightly-downwards movement. The zone just above the $1,300 level mentioned yesterday was also broken, meaning that ETH is now trading between $1,211 to the downside and $1,350 to the upside.

Ethereum’s immediate upside is guarded by the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, as well as the $1,350 level. Its first major support level is sitting at $1,211.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frames are tilted towards the buy-side, but all have neutral oscillators. Its 4-hour overview, however, is completely neutral.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (46.02)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,440                               3: $1047.6

Litecoin

Litecoin has seemingly created a double bottom formation after hitting and staying above the $128.4 level twice. This may be a bullish signal for LTC traders, but the move needs to be accompanied by at least a slight increase in volume.

Despite creating a double bottom, LTC will have a hard time moving past the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, as they seem to be its immediate resistance levels. On the other hand, its $128.4 support level is holding up well for now, making it very uncertain where LTC will go in the short-term.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s daily overview is mostly neutral (with some hints of bearishness), while its weekly and monthly overviews are slightly bullish. On the other hand, its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (41.89)
• Volume is slightly below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $120

3: $181.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up almost completely in the red as most cryptocurrencies pulled back to lower levels. Bitcoin is currently trading for $31,575, representing a decrease of 5.26% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 7.24% on the day, while LTC lost 6.79% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

EveryCoin gained 501.69% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by BBYS’s 280.04% and X Infinity’s 255.24% gain. On the other hand, ARTH lost 61.58%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Typhoon Cash’s loss of 44.07% and Aventus’s loss of 40.31%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance increased slightly from when we last reported, with its value currently being 62.9%. This represents a 0.2% increase from our previous report.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased greatly since we last reported, with its current value being $936.54 billion. This represents a $54.92billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• January sees $237 billion in monthly stablecoin volume thus far, breaking prior record (The Block)
• Cryptocurrencies could serve role as electronic store of value: Bank of Singapore chief economist (The Block)
• Bank of England governor says a ‘lasting’ digital currency has yet to be invented (The Block)
• Janet Yellen confirmed as the Biden administration’s Treasury Secretary (The Block)
• Yearn Could Steal DeFi Spotlight From Aave, Uniswap (Cryptobriefing)
• Russians Donate $120,000 of BTC for Navalny’s Release (Cryptobriefing)
• The dominoes are falling: Another NASDAQ-listed firm just bought Bitcoin (Cryptoslate)
• Harvard, Yale, Brown Endowments Have Been Buying Bitcoin for at Least a Year: Sources (Coindesk)
• 3 reasons Bitcoin abruptly dropped by 7.4% overnight (Cointelegraph)
• Glassnode predicts BTC break-out as investors refuse to realize losses (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s gains in the past two days were taken away when bears took over the market after BTC failed to break the $34,627 mark. The cryptocurrency declined to the $32,350 level but quickly lost hold of it as well. BTC is currently hovering right above the $31,000 mark.

Bitcoin’s 1-hour RSI is getting dangerously close to the oversold territory, while its volume is descending, indicating a possible price stagnation or a direction reversal.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s daily overview is completely neutral, while its weekly and monthly overviews are completely bullish. On the other hand, the 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is close to its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is near the oversold area (31.21)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $32,350                             1: $30,072

2: $34,627                             2: $30,000

3: $37,445                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap spent the day retracing after posting a new all-time high at $1,477.30. ETH tested many levels but ultimately fell below the previous all-time high, and then the $1,420 and $1,350 levels as well. It is currently consolidating just above $1,300.

Ethereum seemingly created a zone of support just above the $1,300 level, which is holding up for 10 hours now. If this support holds long enough for BTC to change its price direction (or at least enter a sideways trading period), we may see ETH bulls reentering the market once again.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are slightly tilted towards the buy-side, with its oscillators taking a more neutral stance.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is below both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price near its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is very close to being oversold (39.73)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,440                               3: $1047.6

Litecoin

Litecoin has lost all of the gains it made yesterday, and then some. The eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap failed to pass the zone just under $150, which triggered a pullback and a dip below the $142.1 support (now resistance) level. On top of that, LTC also fell below the trading range it was in for the previous four days (excluding yesterday’s push).

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s short-term and long-term overviews have opposing stances: while its 4-hour and overviews show a slight tilt towards the sell-side, its weekly and monthly overviews are slightly bullish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly above its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is close to being in the oversold territory (33.05)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $120

3: $181.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up mostly in the green as altcoins pushed up (while Bitcoin remained mostly stable). Several cryptocurrencies reached new all-time highs, including Ethereum and Aave. Bitcoin is currently trading for $33,335, representing an increase of 1/59% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 7.93% on the day, while LTC gained 2.12% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Foglory Coin gained 389.19% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by Unifty’s 187.19% and MileVerse’s 160.11% gain. On the other hand, EveryCoin lost 76.45%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Zloadr’s loss of 62.48% and FUTUREXCRYPTO’s loss of 54.1%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance dropped further from when we last reported, with its value currently being 62.7%. This represents a 2.1% decrease from our previous report.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has increased greatly since we last reported, with its current value being $991.66 14.56 billion. This represents a $77.10 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• Coinbase to offer secondary market for private shares ahead of public stock listing (The Block)
• Registration statement filed for new bitcoin exchange-traded fund from Valkyrie (The Block)
• Bitstamp implements tighter KYC measures for crypto withdrawals in the Netherlands (The Block)
• Tezos Price Recovers Following DAO Announcement (Cryptobriefing)
• wNews: All Eyes on Biden, Bitcoin, and the Future of Index Funds (Cryptobriefing)
• There’s a massive 32,000 Ethereum sell wall at $1,250 stopping bullish price action (Cryptoslate)
• Grayscale adds $120 million worth of Bitcoin to its coffers amid continued institutional interest (Cryptoslate)
• MicroStrategy CEO claims to have “thousands” of executives interested in Bitcoin (Cryptoslate)
• Chainlink’s LINK Cryptocurrency Hits New Record Price High (Coindesk)
• Cryptocurrency makes World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin has spent the weekend with its price slowly descending towards the $30,000 mark until a new surge of buyers changed the price direction. BTC has bounced from the $30,900 level and pushed up past the $33,250 level. Its price is currently consolidating in the $33,400 zone.

Bitcoin’s upside is guarded not only by the $34,627 level but the recent high of $33,865. Traders will have to be careful when taking long positions on BTC and will have to devote most of the time checking the order flow to properly gauge the resistance levels.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s 4-hour and weekly overviews are bullish and show some signs of neutrality or bearishness, while its monthly overview is completely bullish. On the other hand, its daily time-frame is pretty neutral.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is close to its top Bollinger band
• RSI is near the overbought area (64.47)
• Volume is slightly below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $34,627                             1: $32,350

2: $37,445                             2: $30,072

3: $38,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap “decoupled” from Bitcoin and pushed up, surging to its all-time highs and briefly creating a new one at $1,477.3. Ether is currently fighting to stay above $140 and enter the price discovery mode yet again.

Ethereum has quite a lot of support levels right beneath its current price, most notably the $1,440, $1,420, and $1,350 levels. Its upside levels past the all-time high will, however, have to be determined by drawing Fib retracement levels.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the 4-hour, daily, and weekly time-frames are bullish and show some signs of neutrality or bearishness, while its monthly overview is completely bullish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price near its top Bollinger band
• RSI is very close to being overbought (68.27)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,440                               1: $1,420

2: $1,477.3                            2: $1,350

3: $1,500                               3: $1,211

Litecoin

Litecoin’s weekend went without much price fluctuation, with LTC moving between $133 and $143.5. However, LTC bulls managed to push past the $142.1 level and bring its price to $145, where it is now consolidating. Litecoin’s volume also surged during the price increase.

Litecoin traders will have to pay attention to several factors, including LTC technicals, Bitcoin price movement as well as Ethereum price movement.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s overviews on all time-frames are bullish, with its 4-hour, daily, and weekly time-frames having some signs of neutrality, while its monthly overview is completely bullish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly above its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (63.36)
• Volume is slightly above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $120

The crypto sector ended up almost completely in the red as Bitcoin’s drop below $30,000 (at one point) led the market down. Bitcoin is currently trading for $31,730, representing a decrease of 8.41% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 11.29% on the day, while LTC lost 4.76% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

EveryCoin gained 734.83% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by Vox.Finance’s 132.94% and DACC’s 129.86% gain. On the other hand, PegsShares lost 99.20%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Mithril Share’s loss of 75.17% and Chimpion’s loss of 59.53%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance stayed at the same spot as when we last reported, with its value currently being 64.8%.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased greatly since we last reported, with its current value being $914.56 billion. This represents a $10.97 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• Acting chair of SEC named as Gary Gensler awaits confirmation (The Block)
• Sberbank seeks central bank approval for blockchain platform: report (The Block)
• The city of Shenzhen is planning yet another $3 million digital currency test (The Block)
• Kraken Introduces New Tokens for the UK and Australia (Cryptobriefing)
• Kyber 3.0 Will Introduce Dynamic Market Making (Cryptobriefing)
• Unpacking Bitcoin’s Recent “Double-Spend” Event (Cryptobriefing)
• How Phala Network is bringing on-chain privacy to the Polkadot (DOT) ecosystem (Cryptoslate)
• Former Ripple advisor to become US ‘Comptroller of the Currency’ under Joe Biden (Cryptoslate)
• Minority Mining Pools Threaten to Collude Against Contentious Ethereum Update (Coindesk)
• Is Grayscale is about to unveil a LINK Trust? (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin has had a horrible day as bears took over the market. Its price dropped to as low as $28,800, but found support in its 50-day EMA. The downturn, however, means that the largest-cryptocurrency by market cap fell out of its triangle formation, most likely spelling a start of a short-term downtrend or sideways trading phase.

Bitcoin is very unpredictable at the moment, but traders could find an opportunity in looking for drastic volume increases and “catch the wave” of buyers or sellers (while taking into account all the support and resistance levels).

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s weekly and monthly time-frames are bullish but show some signs of neutrality or bearishness. On the other hand, its 4-hour and daily time-frames are completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral after returning from being oversold (48.04)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $32,350                             1: $30,072

2: $34,627                             2: $30,000

3: $37,445                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap followed Bitcoin’s direction, but with slightly less intensity. Ether’s price dropped below the $1,211 and $1,183.85 levels and found support in the $1,047.6 level. However, the bounce that came after the bulls came into the market was insufficient to break the $1,183.85 level, and Ethereum’s price is now trading just below it.

The $1,183.85 level could be considered a pivot point, and ETH’s short-term price direction will greatly depend on whether bulls manage to break this resistance.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals are still mostly tilted towards the buy-side, with its longer time-frames (weekly and monthly) being completely bullish, while its daily time frame’s oscillators are pointing to the sell-side. On the other hand, its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is below its 50-period and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (45.02)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,183.85                          1: $1047.5

2: $1,211                              2: $960.5

3: $1,350                             3: $932.5

Litecoin

Litecoin’s movement in the past 24 hours much resembled Ethereum, with its price dropping below the $142.1 level and finding support slightly below the $128.4 level. While its push up did not reach the now-resistance level of $142.1, Litcoin did find support in the 21-hour EMA.

Litecoin’s volume increase in recent hours is negligible compared to the increase that Bitcoin and Ethereum saw. This may indicate less intensity in the moves to come, regardless of the price direction.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s weekly and monthly time-frames are completely bullish and but show no signs of neutrality or bearishness. On the other hand, its 4-hour and daily time-frames are completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly below its 50-period EMA and slightly above its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly above its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (51.31)
• Volume is slightly above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $120

3: $181.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector was split between slight gainers and slight losers, but overall lost some value as the market cap dropped below $1 trillion. Bitcoin is currently trading for $34,644, representing a decrease of 2.39% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 4.12% on the day, while LTC lost 5.41% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Cocos-BCX gained 107983.76% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by HAPY Coin’s 383.49% and Vox.Finance’s 371.42% gain. On the other hand, PegsShares lost 59.35%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by KIMCHI.finance’s loss of 44.21% and EveryCoin’s loss of 34.88%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down slightly since our last report as altcoins started to outperform, with its value currently being 64.8%. This value represents a 0.1% difference to the downside when compared to the previously reported value.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $955.53 billion. This represents a $69 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• BlackRock filings suggest asset management giant could buy bitcoin futures via certain funds (The Block)
• Lawyer for Bitfinex, Tether says firms are almost finished producing documents sought by NYAG (The Block)
• Market insiders struggle to explain Asia’s typically bearish crypto trading sessions (The Block)
• Silvergate results show Q4 momentum as bank starts year with a $200 million follow-on public offering (The Block)
• Crypto.com Predicts Bitcoin & Ethereum Trends for 2021 (Cryptobriefing)
• Fundstrat Strategist Posts $10,500 Ethereum Target for 2021 (Cryptobriefing)
• Ripple looks to new administration to take U.S. blockchain industry forward (Cryptoslate)
• There are now over 600k unique Ethereum NFTs on the market (Cryptoslate)
• The Relationship Between US Government Debt and Bitcoin, Explained (Coindesk)
• 83% of cryptocurrencies that peaked in 2018 are still down by 90% (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s daily time-frame shows that the cryptocurrency is still contained within the triangle formation, which will be a major determinant in BTC’s future price movement. If we zoom in to the hourly time-frame, we can see that BTC moved down, broke the $34,627, and pushed towards the downside, but got instantly stopped by the triangle formation’s bottom line.

While Bitcoin’s short-term overview seems slightly bearish, many analysts call for a push towards $60,000 before any major pullback. However, judging by the current trading session, BTC has a higher chance of breaking the triangle formation to the downside at the moment.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s weekly and monthly time-frames are completely bullish and show no signs of bearishness. On the other hand, its daily time-frame oscillators point to “sell” while the rest of the overview is still bullish, and its 4-hour time-frame is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (44.21)
• Volume is average (low)

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $37,445                             1: $34,627

2: $40,000                             2: $32,350

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap went into retracement mode after creating a new all-time high of $1,440 two days ago. Ether’s price moved in a straight descending pattern at first but then bounced back up and tried to retest the $1,350 level. As time passed, it was more and more evident that ETH failed to break $1,350 to the upside and that its price is now contained between $1,350 to the upside and $1,211 to the downside.

Ether’s current upside is heavily guarded, not only by the $1,350 level but also by the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are bullish, but only its daily time-frame shows no signs of neutrality or bearishness. The rest of the time-frames (4-hour, weekly, and monthly) have their oscillators pointing to a neutral or bearish stance.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (44.30)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,440                              3: $1047.5

Litecoin

Litecoin spent the day trading on very low volume compared to the previous days, with its price contesting the $142.1 level twice. At the moment, LTC traders can face two scenarios, one being LTC falling below $142.1 level and pushing towards $128.4, and the second one being that LTC acts on the double bottom it created and pushes up to regain some of the lost value.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals are pretty split, with its 4-hour and daily indicators showing almost complete bearish sentiment and its weekly and monthly overviews showing complete bullishness.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price between its middle and bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (41.78)
• Volume is below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up mostly in the red as altcoins started retracing after their moves to the upside. Bitcoin is currently trading for $35,776, representing a decrease of 2.1% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 3.28% on the day, while LTC lost 3.44% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Folder Protocol gained 813.46% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by Global Gaming’s 198.29% and Benchmark Protocol’s 159.89% gain. On the other hand, 3XT TOKEN lost 85.20%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Ether Kingdoms Token’s loss of 61.70% and Matrix AI Network’s loss of 52.48%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down since our last report as altcoins started to outperform, with its value currently being 64.9%. This value represents a 0.7% difference to the downside when compared to the previously reported value.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has decreased slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $1.024 trillion. This represents a $10 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• Chainalysis: The share of crypto transactions associated with criminal activity fell dramatically in 2020 (The Block)
• Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen calls illicit use of cryptocurrency a ‘particular concern’ (The Block)
• Privacy-focused Brave becomes first browser to support IPFS (The Block)
• Binance removes $165 million worth of BNB from circulation in largest-ever token burn (The Block)
• Is Chainlink Centralized? A Breakdown of Token Distribution (Cryptobriefing)
• Curve Accuses Saddle Finance of Copying Its Algorithm (Cryptobriefing)
• Survey reveals how crypto users handle security after Ledger leak (Cryptoslate)
• Bullish? Grayscale bought $500 million worth of Bitcoin in a single day (Cryptoslate)
• Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Near $1,440 (Coindesk)
• Bitcoin node count hits new all-time high (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s daily time-frame shows us that the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is still contained within the triangle formation (purple). Any break of the current sideways movement may contest the triangle as well. On the other hand, BTC on the 1-hour time-frame is bouncing between the $34,627 support and the $37,445 resistance level for the past five days.

Bitcoin’s price will soon have to break the sideways trading pattern and contest the triangle formation. If BTC bulls or bears manage to break the triangle formation, we could see a large move in the same direction.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s short-term (4-hour and daily) technicals are slightly tilted towards the sell-side but still show a hint of neutrality or bullishness. Its weekly and monthly technicals are exactly the opposite, as they are slightly bullish but show some bearishness alongside it.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (44.32)
• Volume is average (low)

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $37,445                             1: $34,627

2: $40,000                             2: $32,350

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap took advantage of the “altcoin season” as money moved from Bitcoin and onto other altcoins. Ever since Ether’s price bounced from the $1,211 level on Jan 18, we could see bulls coming to the market in larger numbers. This made the $1,350 level fall, and ETH finally set a new all-time high of $1,440. While the new ATH is just $20 away from its previous one, this is considered a testament to Ethereum’s upside potential.

Ether couldn’t position itself above the $1,420 (previous ATH) and fell below as it started retracing. Its price is now testing the $1,350 level but will most likely stay above it.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on all time-frames are tilted towards the buy-side, but all show a hint of bearishness in the oscillator department.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above its 50-period and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (50.69)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,420                               1: $1,350

2: $1,440                               2: $1,211

3: $1,450                               3: $1,183.85

Litecoin

Litecoin spent the day retracing from the recent $166.2 high after bulls reached exhaustion. LTC was trying to push towards the $180 levels and contest the 2021 highs but failed to do so as bulls spent too much strength in the $160 area, where the cryptocurrency faced heavy resistance.

Litecoin is now having a downward trajectory and has failed to break the 50-hour moving average in an attempt to break it. LTC traders may look for a trade after the cryptocurrency finishes testing the $142.1 level.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the 4-hour and monthly time-frames are completely bullish and show no neutrality or bearishness. On the other hand, its daily and weekly overviews show some form of bearishness.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price sightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (44.85)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector was mostly green, with altcoins attempting to push up and reduce Bitcoin’s market dominance. Bitcoin is currently trading for $36,423, representing an increase of 3.85% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 9.89% on the day, while LTC gained 13.38% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

4THPILLAR TECHNOLOGIES gained 441.52% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by CryptoAds Marketplace’s 221.1% and YAMv2’s 181.43% gain. On the other hand, CY Finance lost 66.83%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Basiscoin Share’s loss of 39.38% and Trading Membership Community’s loss of 37.1%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down since our last report, with its value currently being 65.6%. This value represents a 0.5% difference to the downside when compared to the previously reported value.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has returned above the $1 trillion mark since we last reported, with its current value being $1.034 trillion. This represents a $41.3 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• UK fund manager Ruffer: we are in the “foothills” of institutional adoption of bitcoin (The Block)
• Nvidia could make crypto mining GPUs again if there’s demand, says CFO (The Block)
• Shenzhen’s latest $3m digital yuan test sees nearly 140k transactions (The Block)
• Biden Will Name Gary Gensler as SEC Chairman (Cryptobriefing)
• Legendary Soccer Club AC Milan to Launch Fan Token (Cryptobriefing)
• Thread calling Bitcoin a “giant smoldering Chernobyl” goes viral on Twitter (Cryptoslate)
• Crypto Long & Short: No, Bitcoin Is Not in a Bubble (Coindesk)
• Ethereum price inches closer to a new all-time high as Bitcoin consolidates (Cointelegraph)
• More than 80% of LINK is controlled by 125 wallets (Cointelegraph)
• Uniswap’s founder wants your advice on how to spend $500 million (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin spent the day mostly trading sideways, bound by the $34,627 to the downside and $37,445 to the upside. The price hopped between these levels and created a higher high higher low pattern, which later on broke after BTC couldn’t pass its immediate resistance level.

Bitcoin’s price has created a triangle pattern on the daily chart, and breaking this triangle to the upside or downside will determine the short-term price direction.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on all time-frames show a slight bullish tilt, with its oscillators pointing towards the sell-side.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is at both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (49.56)
• Volume is average (low)

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $37,445                             1: $34,627

2: $40,000                             2: $32,350

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum has spent the day first slowly preparing for a move and then explosively pushing to the upside. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has, after confirming its position above the $1,211 level, shot up towards the $1,350 level, which it was not able to break. With the volume descending after that move, ETH will most likely not be able to break $1,350 unless a new wave of bulls comes into the market.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s 4-hour, daily, and monthly technicals are completely bullish and show no signs of neutrality or bearishness. On the other hand, its weekly overview shows some neutrality.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its top Bollinger band
• RSI has just left the overbought area (67.24)
• Volume has spiked up in the recent hours

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,350                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,450                               3: $1,060.5

Litecoin

Litecoin was one of the largest daily gainers after its price suddenly shot up from $141 all the way up to $160 in just one hourly candle. While it seemed at first like the retracement will eat away the gains LTC made, the cryptocurrency made another push towards the upside and stopped just below the $161.55 resistance level.

Litcoin’s descending volume and price movement, as well as the number of sell orders near the $161.55 level, will most likely be enough to keep LTC below the resistance level for now.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the 4-hour, daily, and weekly time-frame are completely bullish, while its monthly technicals are slightly more neutral.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price close to its top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (66.70)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector spent the weekend in a mostly descending fashion, with BTC continuing its short-term downtrend. Bitcoin is currently trading for $35,258, representing an increase of 0.14% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 0.39% on the day, while LTC lost 0.46% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Astosch gained 285.95% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by ALL BEST ICO’s 273.67% and Yeld Finance’s 264.65% gain. On the other hand, Bestay lost 87%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Zugacoin’s loss of 85.51% and VKF Platform’s loss of 77.77%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down since our last report, with its value currently being 66.1%. This value represents a 2.3% difference to the downside when compared to the previously reported value.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has dropped below the $1 trillion mark since we last reported, with its current value being $993.33 billion. This represents a $43.67 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• January’s decentralized exchange volumes are on track to reach record highs (The Block)
• NYPD details its use of cryptocurrency transaction analysis in policy document (The Block)
• Kraken to halt XRP trading for US users starting Jan 29 (The Block)
• Optimism “Soft” Launches Layer-2 Solution Amid Ethereum Bull Run (Cryptobriefing)
• Cardano Enters New Bullish Cycle Towards All-Time Highs (Cryptobriefing)
• Ethereum Takes Center Stage as ETH Edges to New Highs (Cryptobriefing)
• Why Tether’s Reserves Probably Don’t Contain Bitcoin (Cryptobriefing)
• Analyst on why Bitcoin and crypto may be in the midst of a “mini bear market” (Cryptoslate)
• China’s Blockchain-Based Service Network to Integrate Central Bank Digital Currency (Coindesk)
• Former Canadian prime minister names Bitcoin as possible reserve currency (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin spent the weekend following the downtrend it started on Jan 14, with its price slowly declining from a high of $39,600 to a low of $33,833. During the downtrend, the price has contested and broken the $36,640 level to the downside and looks like it will contest the $33,200 level in the near future. BTC is currently trading at a little above $35,000, representing a weekly loss of 6.09% and a monthly gain of 29.87%.

Bitcoin’s price has responded well to the 21-day moving average and found very strong support there. Staying above this level will be crucial if BTC wants to turn to the upside.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frame are completely bullish and show no neutral or bearish signs. On the other hand, its 4-hour overview is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (43.00)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $36,640                             1: $33,200

2: $40,000                             2: $30,640

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum’s weekend was not spent in a downfall. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap headed towards the $1,300 level but failed to break it, which prompted a weekend of sideways trading. While ETH did break the $1,211 level to the downside, the $1,183.85 level held up. Ether is currently trading in a very narrow range, bound by the aforementioned levels.

ETH’s short-term movement will greatly depend on two factors: Bitcoin’s volatility and Ether itself, breaking its immediate support or resistance levels.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals all time-frames are tilted towards the buy-side, with the 4-hour, daily, and weekly overviews fully pointing towards the buy-side. Its monthly overview, however, has oscillators pointing towards neutrality.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is slightly below its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is between its middle and bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (43.72)
• Volume is slightly below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,211                               1: $1,183.85

2: $1,255                               2: $1,060.5

3: $1,350                               3: $1,047.5

Litecoin

Litecoin mirrored Bitcoin’s movements over the weekend, stepping into a downtrend that started on Jan 14, after Litecoin couldn’t push its price to $160. The price is currently fighting for the $142.1 level, which it has recently broken to the downside.

While Litecoin’s movements seem to mirror Bitcoin’s, its volume remains stable despite Bitcoin’s volume dropping. At the moment, LTC might be a better choice for people that want to be less affected by Bitcoin’s volatility.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frame are completely bullish and show no neutral or bearish signs (though they are slightly less bullish than Bitcoin’s overviews). On the other hand, its 4-hour overview is completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly below its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price close to its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (42.47)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $114.75

3: $181.3                               3: $97.8

The crypto sector was mostly stable in the past 24 hours, as most cryptocurrencies were trying to find their top or retraced slightly. Bitcoin is currently trading for $37,766, representing a decrease of 0.42% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 5.98% on the day, while LTC gained 0.33% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

FastSwap gained 244.13% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by HedgeTrade’s 225.26% and Capital.Finance’s 145.48% gain. On the other hand, Zugacoin lost 87.51%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Roti Bank Coin’s loss of 77.52% and BitiPro Exchange Token’s loss of 74.35%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 68.4%. This value represents a 0.6% difference to the downside when compared to the previously reported value.

Weekly Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has made negligible gains since we last reported, with its current value being $1.037 trillion. This represents a $5 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• FinCEN reopens comment period for proposed crypto wallet rule (The Block)
• Jerome Powell says the Fed’s work on stablecoin risks is a ‘very high priority’ (The Block)
• Deltec, the bank for stablecoin issuer Tether, bought ‘large position’ in Bitcoin for clients (The Block)
• Uniswap Now Has More Than $3 Billion in Liquidity (Cryptobriefing)
• Multi-Trillion Dollar Stimulus Hopes Boost Bitcoin, Stocks (Cryptobriefing)
• Staking Polkadot (DOT) just became easier for institutions (Cryptoslate)
• Bitcoin Bounces as Options Market Sees 20% Chance of $50K at Month’s End (Coindesk)
• Bitcoin Core’s Latest Release Is Out: Here’s What’s in It (Coindesk)
• DOT flip: Polkadot overtakes XRP to become the fourth largest cryptocurrency (Cointelegraph)
• Block.one’s Bitcoin reserves are now worth double the entire EOS market cap (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin has ended its uptrend by hitting a high of $40,112 yesterday, prompting a slight pullback. The pullback was, just like the price increase, happening on low volume and had the same intensity as well. The only differentiating factor was its direction. The move to the downside ended with BTC’s price hitting the 50-hour moving average and pushing up.

Bitcoin has a couple of strong resistance lines to the upside, one being the immediate 21-hour EMA, and then the $40,000 and ultimately $42,000 levels. On the other hand, its support is guarded by the 50-hour EMA and the $36,640 level.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the daily and monthly time-frame are overall bullish but have oscillators pointing to the sell-side. On the other hand, its 4-hour and weekly overviews are completely bullish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is between its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (50.19)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $40,000                             1: $36,640

2: $42,000                             2: $33,200

3: $43,600                             3: $30,640

Ethereum

Ethereum’s push to the upside has, just like with Bitcoin, seemingly ended. However, its pullback hasn’t started at all, as its price kept fluctuating between the recently $1,183.85 support level and the recent high. Trading in such a narrow range is not sustainable, and ETH will break either to the upside or downside very soon.

ETH traders can finally catch a nice trade as the cryptocurrency has (at least a bit) moved in a different manner than Bitcoin. Ether’s upside is guarded by the heavy resistance zone slightly below $1,300 as well as the $1,350 level. Its downside has smaller support levels, some of them being $1,211, $1,183.85, as well as the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the 4-hour and daily time-frames are overall bullish but have oscillators pointing to the sell-side. On the other hand, its weekly and monthly overviews are completely bullish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above its 50-period and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (61.37)
• Volume is slightly below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,255                               1: $1,211

2: $1,350                               2: $1,183.85

3: $1,419                               3: $1,060.5

Litecoin

Litecoin continued trading within its range, bound by $142.1 to the downside and $161.5 to the upside. Its price is now also between the 21-hour and the 50-hour EMAs, which have proven to be strong support and resistance levels, especially when paired with low trading volume.

Litecoin is currently mirroring the direction of Bitcoin’s moves, but with much less intensity. This makes it a very unattractive trading pair at the moment.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on all time-frames are completely bullish and without any signs of neutrality.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
• Price at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (53.10)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up almost completely in the green as Bitcoin recorded double-digit gains and pulled the rest of the market up. Bitcoin is currently trading for $38,222, representing an increase of 11.05% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 9.00% on the day, while LTC gained 6.48% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Simbcoin gained 366.72% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by Penta’s 229.88% and DEX’s 187.13% gain. On the other hand, Daiquilibrium lost 88.91%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Dynamic Supply Tracker’s loss of 80.15% and Dynamic Supply’s loss of 63.83%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved up slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 69%. This value represents a 0.4% difference to the upside when compared to the previously reported value.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s market capitalization has made significant gains since we last reported, with its current value being $1.032 trillion. This represents an $88.3 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• ECB: Digital euro survey participants cite privacy, security as key elements (The Block)
• While bitcoin was cratering over the weekend, many institutions were buying (The Block)
• Gemini acquires Blockrize, launching a credit card with 3% rewards in BTC (The Block)
• Grayscale says it will dissolve XRP Trust, citing market reaction to SEC lawsuit (The Block)
• Dogecoin Gets Three Exchange Listings in One Day (Cryptobriefing)
• Oracle Tokens Chainlink, Band Rebound and Take Flight (Cryptobriefing)
• Ethereum Miners Oppose “ETH Buyback” Proposal (Cryptobriefing)
• Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is a better bet now than tech stocks were in the early days (Cryptoslate)
• Anchorage Becomes First OCC-Approved National Crypto Bank (Coindesk)
• Pantera Capital CEO doubles down on $115K Bitcoin prediction for 2021 (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin had started changing its price direction on Jan 13, when it started to slowly push towards the upside. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap managed to pass the $36,640 level and reach as high as $38,789 before pulling back slightly. This steady price increase was followed by average (or even slightly descending) volume.

The pullback BTC went into after hitting the recent high was quickly stopped by the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, changing the overall stance from an expected downturn to uncertainty.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the 4-hour, daily and monthly time-frame are overall bullish, with oscillators pointing to the sell-side. On the other hand, its weekly overview is completely bullish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is between its middle and top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (62.38)
• Volume is average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $40,000                             1: $36,640

2: $42,000                             2: $33,200

3: $43,600                             3: $30,640

Ethereum

Ethereum’s period of heavy correlation with Bitcoin has continued as its price slowly gained momentum towards the upside. Ether managed to push its price to the $1,183.85 level but couldn’t quite break it. This caused a minor pullback, which ended very quickly.

Ethereum’s 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs play a significant role in determining its price direction and should be considered by the traders at all times. On top of that, any ETH trader should pay attention to BTC’s movements, as those ultimately determine the price direction of most cryptocurrencies.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily and weekly time-frame are currently completely bullish, while its 4-hour and monthly overviews show some signs of neutrality.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (64.19)
• Volume is slightly below average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,183.85                          1: $1,060.5

2: $1,211                               2: $1,047.5

3: $1,226.5                            3: $992

Litecoin

While Litecoin did follow Bitcoin’s price direction, it did so with much less conviction and intensity. Its price managed to pass the $142.1 level to the upside and establish its price above it but failed to move into the upper half of the trading range bound by $142.1 to the downside and $161.5 to the upside.

Litecoin currently has a very nicely-built support zone, while its upside is quite open. If Bitcoin’s price remains the same, traders can expect LTC to try to push towards or even contest the $161.5 level.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the shorter time-frames (4-hour, daily, and weekly) show overall tilt to the buy-side with hints of neutrality. Its monthly time-frame, however, is completely bullish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is slightly above its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly above its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (57.08)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector ended up mostly trading in the red as cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Litcoin, and Bitcoin Cash dropped over 5% on the day. Polkadot was one of the few cryptocurrencies that managed to score double-digit gains and outperform the market by a large margin. However, this is purely due to fundamental reasons (immense support coming from the Binance exchange) rather than technicals.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $34,223, representing a decrease of 3.03% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 4.09% on the day, while LTC lost 3.07% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Metacoin gained 103.61% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by OVR’s 98.72% and Latamcash’s 92.88% gain. On the other hand, Amun Bitcoin 3x Daily Short lost 75.44%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by Zugacoin’s loss of 73.82% and KIMCHI.finance’s loss of 66.82%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down very slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 68.6%. This value represents a 0.1% difference to the downside than the value it had when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s capitalization has decreased since we last reported, with its current value being $948.23 trillion. This represents a $17.92 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• Billionaire investor Howard Marks’ son owns ‘a meaningful amount’ of bitcoin for family (The Block)
• Bitcoin is ‘highly speculative’ and needs to be regulated, says ECB’s Lagarde (The Block)
• Bitcoin is ‘highly speculative’ and needs to be regulated, says ECB’s Lagarde (The Block)
• Crypto exchange OSL operator completes stock top-up to raise $90 million (The Block)
• UK Treasury Classifies XRP as Non-Security Asset (Cryptobriefing)
• Brian Brooks, Pro-Crypto OCC Leader, Will Step Down (Cryptobriefing)
• PayPal’s new crypto unit just traded over $240 million in a single day (Cryptoslate)
• Bitcoin frenzy? Coinbase surpassing $9 billion in daily volume shows big demand (Cryptoslate)
• Multiple Tokens See Rally Amid Looming ‘Alt Season’ (Coindesk)
• GateHub to continue supporting XRP despite Ripple’s legal issues (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin spent the day hovering between the $33,320 support level and the $36,640 resistance level, with its price mostly being in the bottom part of the range. The price even breached the support level and went past it on several occasions, but it always returned back up. While it currently seems stable and on decreasing volume, Bitcoin might experience a stronger pullback and an attempt to retest $30,000 once again.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the daily and monthly time-frame bullish, but contain some neutrality alongside the bullishness. However, its weekly overview is completely bullish, while its 4-hour chart is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is between its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (50.24)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $36,640                             1: $33,200

2: $40,000                             2: $30,640

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

Ethereum has traded almost exactly like Bitcoin in the past 24 hours, both in terms of price direction and intensity. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently in an extremely narrow and unsustainable range, bound by the Fib retracement level of $1,060 to the upside and a 2017 Fib retracement sitting at $1,047.

Ethereum’s 21-hour and 50-hour moving averages play a significant role in determining price direction and should be considered by the traders at all times.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily and monthly time-frame bullish, but contain some neutrality alongside the bullishness. However, its weekly overview is completely bullish, while its 4-hour chart is completely bearish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is between its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (48.60)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,129                               1: $1,060.5

2: $1,211                               2: $1,047.5

3: $1,226.5                             3: $992

Litecoin

Litecoin has been pretty stable in the past 24 hours, with its price trading within a range bound by $128.4 to the downside and $142.1 to the upside. These support/resistance levels, alongside the 21-hour and 50-hour EMAs, will determine Litecoin’s future price intensity, while Bitcoin’s next move will most likely determine its price direction.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the daily and monthly time-frame are completely bullish. However, its weekly overview shows slightly less bullishness, while its 4-hour chart is almost completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is between its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price slightly below its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (51.37)
• Volume is descending

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $142.1                               1: $128.42

2: $161.5                               2: $114.75

3: $181.3                               3: $98

The crypto sector has experienced a rally that brought the market to its feed after yesterday’s dip. One of the best daily performers was Stellar Lumens (XLM), which shot up in the past week on great fundamentals (and once again today), gaining over 30% just a couple of hours, reentering the top10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $35,887, representing an increase of 1.28% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 1.89% on the day, while LTC lost 1.85% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Amun Bitcoin 3x Daily Short gained 1186.87% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by PengolinCoin’s 366.58% and Firdaos’s 330.42% gain. On the other hand, Zugacoin lost 94.92%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by the True Segniorage Dollar’s loss of 85.08% and Zero Collateral Dai’s loss of 62.33%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved up very slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 68.7%. This value represents a 0.1% difference to the upside than the value it had when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector’s capitalization has increased since we last reported, with its current value being $964.21 trillion. This represents a $58.14 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• UK regulator tells unregistered crypto firms to shut down (The Block)
• Kentucky lawmakers propose tax incentives to draw in bitcoin miners (The Block)
• Bitcoin hit ‘bubble territory’ after $20,000, says billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach (The Block)
• XRP Faces Prompt Recovery Despite Legal Uncertainty (Cryptobriefing)
• Ethereum Primed To Rebound Thanks to Whale Buyers (Cryptobriefing)
• Data shows Bitcoin sells are being scooped up by BTC whales (Cryptoslate)
• Eye-Popping Projection for $3T Crypto Market Underpins Bakkt Deal (Coindesk)
• Trader cries foul play as $30K Bitcoin price dip ends in biggest-ever daily recovery (Cointelegraph)
• XLM re-enters top-10 coins by market cap after surging nearly 30% (Cointelegraph)
• Analysts say Bitcoin price drop to $30K was ‘healthy and necessary’ (Cointelegraph)

_______________________________________________________________________

Technical analysis

_______________________________________________________________________

Bitcoin

Bitcoin managed to stop its descending move and push up slightly after pulling back to the $30,000 mark. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has (on decreasing volume) seen a price increase to just below the $36,640 level. Many speculate that, while the drop was considered very healthy overall, the institutions bought even more BTC, which brought its price up without affecting the volume as much.

However, BTC/USD doesn’t seem like it currently has the strength to pass the $36,640 level, which may cause another downturn.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the daily and weekly time-frame are completely bullish. However, its monthly overview shows slightly less bullishness, while its 4-hour chart is completely bearish.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is between its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (54.63)
• Volume is descending to average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $36,640                             1: $33,200

2: $40,000                             2: $30,640

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

Ethereum has once again matched Bitcoin in direction after hitting the $907 support level, and changed its price direction by pushing to the upside. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is back at its peak from yesterday and seems like it cannot pass $1,129 with conviction at the moment.

Ethereum’s 21-hour and 50-hour moving averages play a major role and should be taken into account when looking for support or resistance levels.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily and weekly time-frame are completely bullish. However, its monthly overview shows slightly less bullishness, while its 4-hour chart is completely bearish.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is between its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is between its middle and top Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (53.69)
• Volume is descending to average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,129                               1: $1,060.5

2: $1,211                               2: $1,047.5

3: $1,226.5                             3: $992

Litecoin

Even though Litecoin did follow Bitcoin’s price direction, it did so with less intensity, causing it to ultimately be in the red for the day. Its price is now at a major crossroads, as it is fighting for the $142.1 level. This pivot point will decide whether the price will immediately push towards the upside or downside.

Litecoin has created a strong resistance level near the $150 mark, and traders should pay great attention to it when trading.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the daily and monthly time-frame are completely bullish. However, its weekly overview shows slightly less bullishness, while its 4-hour chart is completely bearish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is between its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price between its middle and bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (50.33)
• Volume is descending to average levels

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector experienced dipped over $100 billion in market cap as Bitcoin, and the rest of the market plummeted. Bitcoin is currently trading for $35,165, representing a decrease of 13.31% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has dropped up to 20.64% on the day, while LTC lost 23.04% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

Foglory Coin gained 589.61% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by NewsToken’s 175.33% and BELIEVER’s 166.3% gain. On the other hand, True Seigniorage Dollar lost 78.35%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by the 3x Long Bitcoin SV Token’s loss of 76.74% and 3x long EOS Token’s loss of 69.18%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down over a percent since our last report, with its value currently being 68.6%. This value represents a 1.2% difference to the upside than the value it had when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector capitalization has decreased slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $906.07 1,03 trillion. This represents a $2 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

_______________________________________________________________________

What happened in the past 24 hours?

_______________________________________________________________________

• DeFi project offers new way to trade the entire $1 trillion crypto market (The Block)
• December trading volumes for Bitcoin futures and options surpassed the previous month’s all time highs (The Block)
• Litecoin Will Get Smart Contracts via Flare Networks (Cryptobriefing)
• Morgan Stanley’s $500 Million Microstrategy Bet a “No-Brainer,” According to Expert (Cryptobriefing)
• EOS Plummets After Block.one CTO Dan Larimer Resigns (Cryptobriefing)
• Polkadot becomes first blockchain platform to rebrand through a bounty program (Cryptoslate)
• Yearn.finance founder hints at collaboration with top DeFi protocol Curve (Cryptoslate)
• Cardano becomes the most decentralized network on the market with majority of ADA supply staked (Cryptoslate)
• Long-Desired Bitcoin ETF Could Actually Hurt Price in Short Term: JPMorgan (Coindesk)
• Crypto user recovers long-lost private keys to access $4M in Bitcoin (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin has had an interesting weekend, with its price plummeting in recent hours. Its price dipped to the lows of $32,330 just a few hours ago as major buy positions got liquidated. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap slowly fell below the 21 and 50 moving averages, confirmed its position below then, and then headed straight to the downside with almost no pushback.

However, bulls picked up the pace and are currently fighting for the $35,000 level. Investors used this as a buying/accumulation opportunity, while most traders got liquidated (both short and long positions due to the sudden volatility).

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frame show a tilt towards the buy-side with no or slight signs of neutrality, while its 4-hour overview shows a slight tilt towards the sell-side.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is near the oversold territory (37.28)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $36,640                             1: $33,200

2: $40,000                             2: $30,640

3: $42,000                             3: $27,960

Ethereum

Ethereum matched Bitcoin in direction, but did so with increased intensity. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap dipped over 20% on the day as its price fell to just above $1,000. This level seems to have held quite nicely, creating space for Ether to recover.

Ethereum is now trading above the $1,060.5 support level and shows no signs of falling again. However, Bitcoin’s movement will greatly affect the future price direction of ETH.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frame show a tilt towards the buy-side with no or slight signs of neutrality, while its 4-hour overview shows a slight tilt towards the sell-side.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (1-hour Chart):

• Price is below both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is near the oversold (31.12)
• Volume is significantly above-average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,129                               1: $1,060.5

2: $1,211                               2: $1,047.5

3: $1,226.5                             3: $992

Litecoin

Litecoin was one of the major gainers today as well, with its price dropping from $172 all the way down to $124. While bulls did pick up the pace and returned its price to the ~$140 zone, Litecoin is still fighting to maintain its position and tackle the $142.1 level.

Litecoin seemingly got hit the hardest out of the three cryptocurrencies, with its price position still being fairly uncertain. This could prove to be a trading opportunity as the cryptocurrency might make a move independent of Bitcoin’s move in the short future (if Bitcoin itself doesn’t move first).

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frame show a tilt towards the buy-side with slight signs of neutrality, while its 4-hour overview shows a strong tilt towards the sell-side.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (1-hour Chart):

• Its price is currently below both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price near its bottom Bollinger band
• RSI is in the oversold territory (29.68)
• Volume is on above-average levels

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $161.5                               1: $142.1

2: $181.3                               2: $128.42

3: $186.3                               3: $114.75

The crypto sector pushed even higher as Bitcoin passed the $40,000 mark and created a new all-time high. Bitcoin is currently trading for $39,094, representing an increase of 5.35% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has decreased by 1% on the day, while XRP gained 23.53% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

COVER Protocol gained 2124.46% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by KIMCHI.finance’s 1159.97% and TAI’s 265.52% gain. On the other hand, Stand Share lost 74.11%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by the Receive Access Ecosystem’s loss of 61.71% and CY Finance’s loss of 56.34%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved up half a percent since our last report, with its value currently being 69.8%. This value represents a 0.5% difference to the upside than the value it had when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector capitalization has decreased slightly since we last reported, with its current value being $1,03 trillion. This represents a $2 billion decrease when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• ETH’s market capitalization hits a new all-time high (The Block)
• Bitcoin shoots past $40,000 for the first time ever (The Block)
• Coinbase hits number 30 in the top 100 free apps on Apple’s mobile store (The Block)
• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse responds to questions surrounding the SEC lawsuit (The Block)
• On-chain volumes for stablecoins reached a new monthly high in December (The Block)
• FinCEN Flooded With 65,000 Comments Opposing Impractical Crypto Bill (Cryptobriefing)
• PayPal, Coinbase, and Winklevoss Twins Invest in Crypto Tax Startup (Cryptobriefing)
• Big gains for Stellar (XLM) as multiple banking settlement rumors proliferate (Cryptoslate)
• ‘Bitcoin Rich List’ Rebounds to Hit All-Time High (Coindesk)
• Google searches for ‘Ethereum’ hit all-time high (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin has continued moving up, with its price surpassing the $38,000 and $39,000 mark without much problem. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap reached as high as $40,402.5 level before crashing down as bulls could not sustain the price. The price instantly dipped to $36,388 but quickly recovered to the $39,000 area, where it is consolidating at the moment.

Bitcoin has positioned itself for another push towards the upside as it quickly found support in the 50-hour moving average, proving that it doesn’t even need to dip to the horizontal support levels to stabilize itself.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart

Bitcoin’s technicals on the 4-hour, daily, and weekly chart show a tilt towards the buy-side with no signs of neutrality or bearishness. On the other hand, its monthly overview shows slight bearishness in the oscillator sector opposing the overall bullishness.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is between its middle and top Bollinger band
• RSI is in the overbought territory (70.36)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $40,402                             1: $38,140

2: $43,000                             2: $36,740

3: $46,500                             3: $35,610

Ethereum

Ethereum followed Bitcoin to the upside, pushing its price above its previous resistance levels and up to as high as $1292. Just like Bitcoin, Ethereum instantly dipped to $1,140 but quickly recovered. However, this is where the high correlation with Bitcoin ends, as Ethereum didn’t recover its recent highs but rather lost quite a bit of its value.

While it has recovered since the price dip, Ethereum is now right below the $1,211 resistance level. The cryptocurrency has a high possibility of passing it even if Bitcoin remains stagnant. Still, any moves that would contest the next resistance level would have to be backed by the largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily time-frame show an overall bullish tilt with no hints of neutrality. On the other hand, the monthly, weekly, and 4-hour time-frames show some signs of neutrality or even bearishness.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):

• Price is above its 50-period and at its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its middle Bollinger band
• RSI has left the overbought area (63.27)
• Volume is significantly above-average

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $1,292                               1: $1,211

2: $1,420                               2: $1,180

3: $1,500                               3: $1,092

Litecoin

Litecoin followed the market as well, pushing its price further up and breaking its previous resistance level of $174.5. However, while LTC did manage to break this level and post a new high of $181.25 for a moment, the price was unsustainable, resulting in a classic price drop, followed by a failed attempt of recovering (the moment when LTC hit the $174.5 level after dropping below it) acting as a confirmation of a price drop, and then a full-on retracement towards the downside.

Litecoin has bounced off of the $152.25 level beautifully and is now attempting to pass the 50-hour and 21-hour moving averages and continue its move up.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals on the 4-hour, daily, and weekly time-frame are bullish but show some neutrality or even bearishness. On the other hand, its monthly overview is completely bullish.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):

• Its price is currently above its 50-period EMA and at its 21-period EMA
• Price at its middle Bollinger band
• RSI is neutral (54.95)
• Volume is on above-average levels

Key levels to the upside:          Key levels to the downside:

1: $174.5                               1: $163.7

2: $181.3                               2: $155.25

3: $195.5                               3: $149.3

Most of the cryptocurrency sector ended up in the green as Bitcoin passed $38,000. Another thing to mention is that the overall industry market cap has reached past $1 trillion for the first time in the history of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is currently trading for $38,400, representing an increase of 10.78% compared to yesterday’s value. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has increased by 7.78% on the day, while XRP skyrocketed, gaining 46.55% of its value.

Daily Crypto Sector Heat Map

X Infinity gained 896.37% in the past 24 hours, making it the most prominent daily crypto gainer by far. It is followed by 7up Finance’s 298.93% and EveryCoin’s 278.57% gain. On the other hand, COVER Protocol lost 99.48%, making it the most prominent daily loser. It is followed by UniMex’s loss of 97.1% and Team Heretics Fan Token’s loss of 91.66%.

Top 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bottom 10 24-hour Performers (Click to enlarge)

Bitcoin’s market dominance has moved down slightly since our last report, with its value currently being 68.6%. This value represents a 0.7% difference to the downside than the value it had when we last reported.

Daily Crypto Market Cap Chart

The cryptocurrency sector capitalization skyrocketed and passed the one trillion mark since we last reported, with its current value being $1,005 trillion. This represents a $33.51 billion increase when compared to our previous report.

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What happened in the past 24 hours?

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• ETH trades above $1,200, reaching market level not seen since January 2018 (The Block)
• Global cryptocurrency market cap hits $1 trillion (The Block)
• South Korean gaming giant Nexon is preparing to acquire crypto exchange Bithumb for about $460 million: Report (The Block)
• Will Litecoin Be Delisted if It Becomes a Privacy Coin? (Cryptobriefing)
• Here’s why stablecoins like USDC going ‘legal’ is bullish for DeFi (Cryptoslate)
• Maker’s MKR Token Surges to 2-Year High on DeFi Growth (Coindesk)
• Bitcoin Tops $37K, Setting Record, Hours After Roaring Past $36K (Coindesk)
• FinCEN’s wallet rule is open for another day of comments because ‘government officials can’t count to 15’ (Cointelegraph)
• YouTube star Mr Beast, with 50M subscribers, becomes a verified Brave browser publisher (Cointelegraph)
• Stanford group becomes 9th largest Uniswap delegate, overtakes UC Berkeley (Cointelegraph)

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Technical analysis

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin continued the upward trajectory and pushed past the previous all-time high with confidence, reaching a new high of $38,510 at one point. While the price did retrace after hitting the 37,800 at one point, but the 50-hour moving average created strong support, and BTC pushed back up to contest the all-time high level once again.

As we have mentioned many times, shorting of any kind and trading against the overall trend is most likely not optimal, and traders might find a good opportunity to long BTC each time it breaks the all-time high, as this is when it gets a large influx of buyers.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart

Bitcoin’s short-term technicals (4-hour and daily) are completely bullish, while its long-term overview is a bit more tilted towards neutrality.

BTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price is near its top Bollinger band
• RSI is in the overbought territory (72.04)
• Volume is above average

Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $37,800                                 1: $35,880

2: $40,000                                 2: $34,800

3: $43,220                                 3: $33,100

Ethereum

Ethereum’s chart looks pretty similar to Bitcoin’s, as they both moved to the upside in the same manner. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap pushed past many support levels and reached $1,225 before descending slightly. Alongside Bitcoin’s move to new all-time highs, this move contributed the most to the overall crypto sector market cap passing the $1 trillion mark.

Ethereum is currently trading within a narrow range, bound by $1,169 to the downside and $1,211 to the upside. If ETH decides to move up, the next most likely resistance level will be the $1,341.5 level. If, however, it breaks this range to the downside, it has many support levels.

ETH/USD 1-hour Chart

Ethereum’s technicals on the daily, weekly, and monthly time-frames are fully tilted towards the buy-side, while its 4-hour technicals are slightly more neutral.

ETH/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical Factors (4-hour Chart):

• Price is above both its 50-period and its 21-period EMA
• Price is at its top Bollinger band
• RSI is in the overbought area (73.41)
• Volume is significantly above-average

Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $1,211                                    1: $1,169

2: $1,341.5                                 2: $1,080

3: $1,425                                    3: $1,050

Litecoin

Litecoin increased in price as well, but while its chart looks similar to Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s, it’s important to notice that it did not break the high it made on Jan 4. In fact, Litecoin almost got to the $174.5 level but quickly pulled back to $165.

Litecoin found strong support in its 50-hour moving average, which held it above $165 and kept it from possibly breaking $163.7 to the downside.

Litecoin’s next move will most likely be highly dependent on Bitcoin’s short-term movement.

LTC/USD 1-hour Chart

Litecoin’s technicals are fully bullish on every single time frame and vary from “buy” to “strong-buy” indicators.

LTC/USD 1-day Technicals

Technical factors (4-hour Chart):

• Its price is currently above both its 50-period EMA and its 21-period EMA
• Price between its middle and top Bollinger band
• RSI is nearing the overbought area (63.82)
• Volume is above-average but descending

Key levels to the upside          Key levels to the downside

1: $163.7                                      1: $155.25

2: $174.5                                      2: $149.3

3: $195.5                                      3: $143.5