The total crypto market cap added $37.7 billion to its value for the last seven days and now stands at $321.6 billion. The top 10 currencies are all in the green for the same time frame with Bitcoin (BTC) and Binance Coin (BNB) being the biggest gainers with 19 percent and 13.4 percent of price increase respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $10,615 while ether (ETH) stands at $301. Ripple’s XRP is at $0.454.
BTC/USD
Bitcoin closed the previous week with the stunning 19 percent increase as it continued its march towards $10,000.
The most popular cryptocurrency opened trading on Monday, June 17, with its sixth consecutive green candle. It moved up to $9,346 after gaining 4 percent. On the next day, it made a similar move but in the opposite direction, erasing most of the winnings from the previous session, still keeping above $9,000.
As mentioned during our previous reports, the $9,300 -$9,800 zone is of critical importance for bulls to break and hold in order to set the ground for further increase.
The BTC/USD pair climbed to these levels on June 20, stopping at $9,539 and then on June 21 when it stormed pass $10,000 to find its peak at $10,213. The last time we saw the coin this high was in March 2018.
The 7 percent jump was followed by another one on the first day of the weekend when it moved past $11,000 during intraday just to close the day at $10,657.
On Sunday, June 23, bitcoin once again crossed the $11,000 mark without being able to hold it for too long. It closed the week at $10,836 or 19 percent higher than where it was on Monday.
The largest messaging service provider in Japan, Line Corporation is about to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange called BitMax. According to Bloomberg, the company, which has more than 80 million users in Japan and Thailand can receive an approval from the country of the rising sun’s Financial Service Agency (FSA) as early as this month. BitMax will be operated by LVC Corporation, the digital assets arm of LINE and will also offer the company’s own general-purpose coin LINK.
ETH/USD
The Ethereum Project token was 16 percent up for the previous 7-day period, but it was still not able to break above $270 and escape the mid-$200s zone.
On Monday, June 17 the coin moved up to $274 but was once again unable to hold the position. On the very next day, it lost 3.8 percent of its value and moved back down to $264.
Following the general market trend and the overall increase in digital assets, the ETH/USD pair bounced back on Wednesday, June 19 and Thursday, June 20 and successfully moved above $270 to close the sessions at $272.
The breakout came on the last day of the workweek, June 21, when the ether formed a solid green candle and gained 8 percent to reach $296. It was already inevitable to cross the $300 mark and we saw this happening on Saturday, June 22. The coin climbed all the way up to $308 for the first time since August 2018.
Even though it peaked at $318 on Sunday, June 23, it could not hold this level and closed with a small loss to $306.
The ETH was 13.8 percent up for the week.
The global insurance provider MetLife is looking to disrupt the $2.7 trillion life insurance industry with a new Ethereum-based platform. According to a recent article published by Forbes, the US-based company will use its Singapore-based incubator LumenLab to partner with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and NTUC Income (Income) in an initiative called Lifechain. The new blockchain service will help ease the life insurance policy verification process and automatically file for a claim once an event occurs. The goal is to make it easier for the family of the deceased to receive life insurance funds without the need to go through all intermediaries and deal with bureaucracy.
XRP/USD
The Ripple company token is in an uptrend since the beginning of May, still, it was not able to register solid gains like the rest of the Top 10. The coin was struggling to break above $0.45 for a long time now and the recent bull run was not that generous to the XRP.
Monday, June 17, started with a green candle to $0.447, which was followed by an almost identical move in the opposite direction on June 18 when the XRP dropped back down to $0.426. We saw exactly the same during the next two sessions – June 19 and June 20 when the “ripple” first climbed to $0.436 on Wednesday then fell back to $0.428 on Thursday.
On Friday, June 21, the coin gained 3.7 percent and stopped at $0.446, right below the $0.45 resistance. The first day of the weekend came with another solid green session, during which it broke above the mentioned level to stop at $0.474. Bulls were even able to push the price above $0.50 for a short period of time during intraday.
The XRP/USD closed the trading day on Sunday, June 23 with a small loss to $0.467. It was 7.5 percent up for the 7-day period.
Ripple announced a new partnership with money transfer company MoneyGram. According to the official press release from June 17, the San Francisco-based blockchain startup will invest up to $50 million in MoneyGram and will become its strategic partner for cross-border payment and foreign exchange settlement using digital assets. The new deal will also guarantee the use of Ripple’s xRapid product and XRP for global transfers. Ripple will initially invest $30 million and acquire a 10 percent stake in MoneyGram by paying $4.10 per share.
Altcoin of the week
Our Altcoin of the week is NEO. The coin was one of the best performing digital assets in the top 20 for the last 7-day period managing to register 19 percent of gains.
We saw it peaking at $18.35 on Sunday, June 23 as it reached an eight-month high. Trading volumes skyrocketed from $550 million during the weekdays to over $1.350 billion on the weekend of June 22-23.
After a small price correction, which followed the overall market movement at the beginning of the new week, the NEO/USD pair is looking for its next target now at $24 on the Bitfinex daily chart.
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