Day: July 15, 2018

Key Highlights

• Ripple price recovered recently, but it is facing a significant resistance near $0.4500 against the US dollar.
• There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance at $0.4400 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair could correct lower, but it is likely to make another attempt to clear the $0.4500 resistance.

Ripple price jumped sharply against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD must clear the $0.4500 resistance to accelerate gains towards the $0.5000 level.

Ripple Price Trend

Recently, there was a sharp downside move below $0.4400 in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair traded below the $0.4200 support level, but it found support near $0.4150. A low was formed at $0.4142 and later the price started an upward move. The price gained traction and traded above the $0.4200 and $0.4400 resistance levels to move into a positive zone.

More importantly, there was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance at $0.4400 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The pair also settled above $0.4400 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. However, the upside move was capped by a crucial resistance near the $0.4500 level. At the moment, the price is correcting lower towards $0.4400. An initial support is near the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $0.4142 low to $0.4490 high. However, the most important support is near $0.4400 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Looking at the chart, the price has moved into a positive zone, but it has to move past $0.4500 to gain further. A push above $0.4500 could open the doors for more upsides towards the $0.5000 level. On the flip side, a break below $0.4400 may perhaps push the price towards the $0.4320 support.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is slightly placed in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is currently above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.4400

Major Resistance Level – $0.4500

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP/USD Struggling Near $0.4500 appeared first on NewsBTC.

A self-regulatory organization in Thailand is planning to create a custom token aimed to speed up corporate bond settlement in the country.

Key Highlights

• ETH price traded higher and tested an important resistance area near $455 against the US Dollar.
• There is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $438 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair may correct lower, but it is likely to find support near $435-438 in the short term.

Ethereum price is moving in a positive zone against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD remains in a bullish zone as long as it is above the $435 level.

Ethereum Price Support

There was a decent upside move from the $429 swing low in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair traded higher and broke the $435 and $440 resistance levels to move into a bullish zone. The upside move was such that the price tested an important resistance area near $455. A high was formed at $454.82 before the price started a downside correction.

It traded below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $429 low to $454 high. However, there are many supports on the downside near the $438 level. An initial support is near $442, which is the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $429 low to $454 high. Below this, the $440 support may provide support along with the 100 hourly simple moving average. More importantly, there is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $438 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Therefore, it seems like there are many supports on the downside near the $438-442 zone.

tec

Looking at the chart, the price may perhaps correct a few more points, but it is likely to find support near $438. On the upside, a break above the $455 resistance is must for more gains. Above this, the price could accelerate towards the $475 level.

Hourly MACD – The MACD has moved back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is moving lower towards the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $438

Major Resistance Level – $454

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: Can ETH/USD Break $455? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Major League Baseball (MLB), which launched in 1903 but has roots all the way back to 1876, making it the longest-running major professional sports league in North America, is entering the crypto space. MLB is launching Crypto Baseball via a partnership with Lucid Sight, and the platform will facilitate the trading of official MLB collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain. MLB Crypto Baseball has the potential to rival or exceed CryptoKitties’ popularity, which has made USD 25 million in revenues since its launch and is the biggest Ethereum blockchain-based game so far.

MLB Crypto Baseball is launching in late Summer 2018 and officially licensed by the MLB. It will be the first decentralized app in history created by a major professional sports league. Specifically MLB Crypto Baseball will offer collectibles based on memorable moments during MLB games, like home runs, division championships, and no-hitters. Kenny Gersh, MLB’s Executive Vice President of Gaming and New Business Ventures, says “Collecting items related to your team, engaging with your team in a new way. For me, say the Red Sox win the division in a couple months, I want to buy something that symbolizes that. These will be event-based things—those moments in sports that happen that you want to remember and cherish, and have a sense that you were there, even if only digitally”.

MLB Crypto Baseball has the potential to get bigger than CryptoKitties, especially when considering MLB pulls in about USD 10 billion of revenue annually and there were 18.9 million TV viewers during the 2017 World Series. In total MLB baseball teams have tens of millions of Facebook fans. Also, collecting MLB baseball cards has been a popular hobby for people of all ages throughout American history.

Through the power of non-fungible tokens, MLB collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain will be 100% owned by the people who purchase them. They will be 100% cryptographically secure, and it will be easy to cash them in for Ethereum or trade them with other users through the marketplace. The success of CryptoKitties provided inspiration for Crypto Baseball, Kenny Gersh says “We were already talking to Lucid Sight around the time that CryptoKitties first came out, and then CryptoKitties sort of validated it a little bit more”.

Like CryptoKitties, MLB Crypto Baseball will require users to buy Ethereum and transfer it to MetaMask before buying collectibles. If MLB Crypto Baseball becomes as popular as baseball cards, it would cause a tremendous increase in Ethereum’s user base.

Apparently, the MLB had previously considered accepting Bitcoin for payments but decided Crypto Baseball was the best way to enter the blockchain space. Kenny Gersh says, “We talked a long time ago about bitcoin and whether we should accept it as payment for MLB.tv and some of our other products, and we opted not to. At the end of the day, we decided that isn’t our business, we’re not in the speculation business. We’re in the business of delivering baseball to the fans. So this game is a more interesting intersection of blockchain technology and what we do.”

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter at @BitcoinNewsCom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com at https://t.me/bconews

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post MLB Launching Crypto Baseball On Ethereum Blockchain appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

NEO Price Key Highlights

• NEO price recently broke out of a symmetrical triangle consolidation pattern on the 1-hour chart.
• Price is pulling back from the breakout and might be due for a retest of the broken triangle resistance.
• If the area of interest holds, NEO could gain more bullish traction and test the next upside targets.

NEO price could gain more traction on its bullish breakout if the pullback to the area of interest spurs a bounce.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, there’s still a strong chance for the selloff to continue at this point.

However, NEO has moved past the 100 SMA dynamic inflection point to show a bit of bullish pressure. Price has yet to break past the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point to indicate stronger bullish momentum.

RSI is on the move down, though, so there’s some selling pressure left. However, the oscillator also seems to be pulling up to indicate a potential return in bullish pressure.

Stochastic is also heading south to signal that sellers have the upper hand, but the oscillator is closing in on the oversold region to signal exhaustion. Turning back up could bring buyers back in and spur a bounce.

NEOUSD Chart from TradingView

Market Factors

Cryptocurrencies pulled back from their earlier rallies on negative commentary and an exchange hack last week. However, the rebound is still in play and there’s a good chance that buyers might keep defending near-term support zones.

For one, the industry developments have carried on despite regulatory checks related to AML and KYC requirements. A handful of altcoins have created their own independent blockchains while more companies continue to strike partnerships with crypto companies to tap into applications.

However, dollar demand and risk sentiment has also influenced NEO price action to some extent as trade-related headlines weighed on appetite for riskier assets.

The post NEO Price Watch: Small Correction from Bullish Breakout appeared first on NewsBTC.

Highly-respected bitcoin developer Pieter Wuille unveiled a draft document outlining the technical makeup of bitcoin’s likely next major upgrade.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price appears to be keeping its head above the near-term area of interest at the channel support.
• If a bounce back to the resistance happens, an inverse head and shoulders pattern could also be completed.
• A break past the channel top could be enough to confirm that a long-term uptrend is underway.

Bitcoin price is staying above the $6,300 area of interest to signal that bulls are putting up a good fight.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is starting to cross above the longer-term 200 SMA to suggest that bearish momentum is over and that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This means that the reversal could gain more traction from here, especially once the crossover is completed.

In that case, support at the ascending channel could keep holding as this lines up with an area of interest or former support and resistance level. Price could find its way back to the channel top at $7,200, which would also be above the neckline of a reversal pattern.

Bitcoin price continues to attempt to complete the inverse head and shoulders formation on this 4-hour time frame, and this is considered a potent reversal signal. The pattern would span $5,800 to $6,800 or $1,000 in height, so the resulting uptrend could be of at least the same size.

However, RSI is already closing in on the overbought zone and is showing intention to head back down. This could mean that sellers are eager to push bitcoin price south again. Similarly stochastic is starting to turn upon reaching overbought territory so bitcoin could follow suit.

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

Market Factors

Bitcoin price was off to a rallying start in July but most of these gains were returned last week on negative commentary and another exchange hack. US authorities also indicted twelve Russian officials for using cryptocurrency in interfering with the 2016 elections.

This time, the focus could remain on related headlines that could determine whether the bullish run could resume or if another set of downbeat updates could force a continuation of the earlier slide.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: Down But Not Out! appeared first on NewsBTC.

With the regulatory landscape surrounding ICOs still uncertain in most jurisdictions, new fundraising models continue to emerge 

Credit card giant American Express may be looking into developing a new proof-of-payment (PoP) system based on blockchain technology.

At press time, the number one cryptocurrency in the world by market cap is up approximately $100 from yesterday, and is now trading for around $6,350. A rise is always welcome news amongst crypto-enthusiasts, though it’s unclear if bitcoin is on a path towards recovery or not.

And yet, bitcoin is presently being viewed through a negative lens, as reports have emerged suggesting Russian spies may have used the currency to potentially interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The spies in question are being accused of using bitcoin to pay registration fees on the site dcleaks.com, which posted emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s server. In addition, the platform used to host dcleaks.com was also supposedly paid for with bitcoin.

U.S. officials claim, “To facilitate the purchase of infrastructure used in their hacking activity – including hacking into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and releasing the stolen documents – the defendants conspired to launch the equivalent of more than $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

12 Russian operatives are now being accused of interfering in the election through what prosecutors are calling a “sophisticated hacking scheme.” Again, bitcoin and cryptocurrency are under fire for being the “currency of choice” in an alleged criminal underworld.

Jonathan Levin – co-founder of Chainalysis – explains, “This is the first clear example in court documents of cryptocurrency being used to purchase capabilities that could be leveraged in attacks on national security. The fact that cryptocurrencies are global and real-time means that you might only find out about these things after the fact. We need to think about the responsibilities that we all have in a world where payments move seamlessly across borders in the blink of an eye.”

Many institutions took an interest in bitcoin last year when the price reached $19,000. These establishments later sought to move the currency away from what The New York Times calls “unsavory associations,” though it appears there’s still room for improvement.

The indictment of the spies reads that while traditional currencies were also used in their activities, they “principally used bitcoin when purchasing servers, registering domains, and otherwise making payments in furtherance of hacking activity.” Also, bitcoin “allowed the conspirators to avoid direct relations with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade greater scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds.”

Several steps were allegedly taking to hide the bitcoin transactions, including purchasing the currency on supposed peer-to-peer exchanges. The spies are also being accused of mining the coins themselves.

Bitcoin Charts by TradingView