Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP Weekly Market Update: December 6, 2018

During the last seven days, the total crypto market cap lost another $14 billion of its value. Bitcoin managed to avoid dropping below the $3,800 level but could not reverse the overall bear market trend.

BTC-USD

Bitcoin closed above the previous support at $4,300 (at $4,320) on November 29, 2018, marking its second day of gains. It was not able to keep up the momentum and erased $300, or seven percent, of its value on November 30. The BTC-USD trading pair almost fell below the psychological level of $4,000 before the weekend, stopping at $4,030

A lot of activity from The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and U.S. Government agencies this week, most of which not in favor of the cryptocurrency market.

First, the SEC accused boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled of failing to disclose payments they received for hyping initial coin offerings (ICOs). According to the SEC’s press release from November 29, both men agreed to pay the disgorgement, penalties, and interest from their fine. Mayweather agreed to pay more than $600,000 to settle with the SEC, while Khaled will pay more than $150,000.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton reportedly said he needs to see key upgrades in cryptocurrency markets before approving a Bitcoin ETF. At the Consensus Invest Conference in New York City, Clayton said that “what investors expect is that trading in the commodity that underlies that ETF makes sense and is free from the risk of manipulation. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed before I would be comfortable.”

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested the CEO of cryptocurrency platform ArisBank for defrauding Investors out of $4 Million. As per the announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Texas, the company founder tricked investors into believing the project was the “world’s first decentralized bank.” The crypto bank offered Visa-linked credit and debit cards and FDIC-insured bank accounts, but these features were determined untrue as per the Attorney’s Office.

Bitcoin rose to $4,240 on December 1, before dropping back to $4,170 on December 2 closing the week with a two percent gain for the seven-day period. The resistance point at $4,200 proved to be very important at this point.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California dismissed claims from the SEC against blockchain-based assets exchange Blockvest. In October, the regulator suspended Blockvest ICO claiming that its tokens were, in fact, unregistered securities under U.S. law. In the latest development, however, the court ruled that the SEC had “failed” to adequately demonstrate that the tokens in question were in fact securities, according to the Howey Test.

NASDAQ, which will list its first regulated crypto futures product in early 2019, made an investment in crypto exchange ErisX in collaboration with Fidelity Investments. With the received $27.5 million in funding the company will “provide the most robust, secure and regulated digital asset offering available to both institutional and individual participants,” said ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas.

The new week started with a substantial drop below $4,000 on December 3, to $3,900, which represented 6.5 percent of BTC’s value. The price managed to recover to $3,980 on December 4 but remained south of the critical $4,000 level.

The G20 countries signed a joint declaration during their meeting in Buenos Aires offering to regulate cryptocurrencies and combat its use for money laundering and the financing of terrorism in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standard. Under Section 25, the declaration stated:

“We look forward to continued progress on achieving resilient non-bank financial intermediation. We will step up efforts to ensure that the potential benefits of technology in the financial sector can be realized while risks are mitigated. We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards, and we will consider other responses as needed.”

December 5 found the price of the number one cryptocurrency at $3,770, or five percent down from the previous day.

ETH-USD

Ethereum dropped below the $120 line on November 29 and closed the day at $118 suggesting continued decline might be in sight. The ETH-USD pair lost another $6 of its value to $113 on November 30.

In the meantime, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Basel, Switzerland’s oldest institution of higher learning. The official announcement states that Buterin receives the award:

“In recognition of his contribution to promoting decentralization and equal rights of participation in the digital revolution, as well as for his achievements in relation to cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and institutional design.”

Bulls tried to reverse the trend on December 1 and successfully pushed the price five percent up to $119.6. The failed attempt to break the $120 resistance, however, served as proof that the overall market is still unstable and resulted in another drop to $117 on December 2.

The third biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap was 1.6 percent down for the seven-day period.

The data provider Diar reported that active trading whales had accumulated more in 2018 than any period in the Ethereum’s history despite the ongoing bear market.

They have increased their holdings from 11 million ETH ($1.2 billion) to 20 million ETH ($2.2 billion). The mentioned reasons for the increase could be that the biggest wallets are held by exchanges, which accumulated coins from panic sellers, or ICO investors, until exchanging their tokens for ETH.

The new week opened with yet another drop on December 3, this time to $109. Observers saw no significant moves on December 4 with the ETH-USD pair circulating the $110 level. On December 5, however, Ethereum moved close to the psychological level at $100 and closed the day at $102.5.

XRP-USD

The Ripple company token dropped to $0.3833 on November 29 right above the October low of $0.38. The pressure from sellers was too big to ignore, and the support was breached on November 30 when the XRP-USD pair closed the trading day at $0.3657.

Observers noted a partial price recovery on December 1 with a green candle on the daily chart to $0.3778. XRP closed the week at $0.3716, 2.7 percent down for the seven-day period.

The currency dropped to $0.35 on December 3 and made a slight movement upwards on December 4 to $0.355.

R3, the enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 200 members, launched a universal settler application to facilitate global payments on Corda with XRP as the first settlement mechanism. The new Corda Settler app, which allows payment obligations arising on the Corda blockchain platform “to be made through any of the world’s payment systems, both traditional and blockchain-based.” XRP is the first (and currently only) cryptocurrency that is supported as a settlement mechanism.

The December 5 trading day saw XRP hover below the $0.34 support (at $0.339 to be more precise).