The total crypto market cap is $37 billion up for the seven-day period and now stands at $250 billion. The top 10 currency are all in green for the same time frame with Binance Coin (BNB) and Stellar (XLM) leading the pack with 38.5 and 39.5 percent of gains respectively. By the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $7,996 while ether (ETH) stands at $252. Ripple’s XRP is at $0.401.
BTC/USD
Bitcoin gained 11.2 percent during the trading session on May 13, and climbed up to $7,809. The most popular cryptocurrency was just a step away from the important price level of $8,000. A break and hold above this support will allow bulls to consolidate and prepare for a run towards $10,000.
On May 14, BTC/USD moved higher to $7,980 and even though it was trading as high as $8,333 during intraday, it was not able to extend gains.
The pair finally broke above the mentioned resistance on May 15 reaching its highest point since July 2018. It closed the session at $8,219.
There were two possible scenarios for the price development. One was to expect a small correction in terms of profit taking and the second was to charge for a run towards $9,000.
The latest happened on May 16, when bitcoin moved south to $7,882. This move was followed by another red candle on the Bitstamp daily chart on May 17, which brought the price back down to $7,358 in a 7 percent losing session.
The May 17 selloff was triggered by a large sell order on the Bistamp exchange. According to the reports BTC lost about 20 percent and dropped from $7,800 to $6,250 on the platform in less than 30 minutes. This also led to a liquidation of $250 million long positions on the BitMEX derivative exchange.
The weekend started with BTC continuing is decline by dropping to $7,257.
On Sunday, May 19, it made an unexpected jump, once again storming above $8,000. The 13 percent price increase helped maintain the bull run alive as the BTC/USD pair closed the week at $8,205 with 15 percent of gains.
ETH/USD
The Ethereum Project token continued its good performance from the recent weeks by climbing to $196 on May 13. It was just a matter of time before bulls pushed the price above the important level of $200.
This happened on May 14 when the ETH/USD pair gained 10 percent stopping at $217. It was the sixth green candle on the daily chart for the last seven sessions.
On May 15, one of the most popular altcoins added $31 to its value and moved even higher, to $247. The $245 level was an important one to break and hold before $300, and buyers were not leaving anything to chance.
The ether climbed to $264 on May 16 after it peaked at $280 during intraday. It was time to lock in some profits, however, and on the last day of the workweek, we saw the coin correcting its price to $244. It formed another red candle, to $233 on Saturday, May 18.
On the last day of the week, the ETH/USD came back to live and increase its value by 12 percent, closing the session and the 7-day period at $261. It was 34.5 percent up for the mentioned time frame.
The blockchain intelligence platform Chainanalysis shared new research claiming that one-third of all Ethereum tokens are held by just 376 people. This means big investors, or “whales”, theoretically have the possibility to heavily influence other market participants and manipulate the price of ether. According to the report, however, most of them are acting as “holders” and are not active traders.
When it comes to bitcoin, 448 people own 20 percent of all minted coins.
XRP/USD
The Ripple company token moved above $0.32 on May 13 and closed the session at $0.323. It was trading as high as $0.334 during the day as bulls were already targeting $0.40.
On May 14, the XRP registered its best day since the beginning of 2019 and broke above $0.40 for the first time since December 24, 2018. The 26 percent jump put the coin in a good position to aim for higher price levels.
On May 15 it moved even higher, to $0.458. Thursday, May 16 and Friday, May 17 were all about profit-taking as investors were looking to cash out some of their gains. Naturally, the XRP/USD retreated to $0.42 and $0.388 respectively.
The weekend of May 18-May 19 started with a third consecutive red candle on the daily chart as the “ripple” dropped down to $0.37 on Saturday.
On the last day of the week, buyers were able to once again push the price up gaining more than 10 percent. The XRP ended the 7-day period at $0.418 or 30 percent higher.
Altcoin of the week
Our Altcoin of the week is NEM (XEM). The coin gained 63.9 percent of value for the 7-day period and stormed into the top 20.
The phenomenal bull run was most probably triggered by two events. First, it was the release of the so-called NEM version 2.0 also known as Catapult on May 12. The new core engine will power private and public networks and will gradually improve the NEM blockchain functionalities.
Then there was the announced partnership with the London-based fintech company Zeux. The company confirmed on May 16 that it will integrate the NEM tokens with its digital payment wallet application allowing users to spend them at all locations where Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are accepted.
On May 16, NEM peaked at $0.00001281 versus bitcoin on the Binance daily chart and at the time of writing stands at $0.00001138.
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