The top ten currencies are all in green for the last seven days with the only exception being TRON (TRX). Bitcoin gained 6.2 percent while ether is 18 percent up. The total crypto market cap moved up from $112 billion to $121 billion for the same time period.
BTC/USD
Bitcoin lost $13 of its value on February 7 and moved down to $3,437, right below the $3,600 to $3,450 price corridor it has been trading in since January 28. On February 8, after two consecutive days of losses, the BTC/USD trading pair registered its biggest gains on the daily chart since January 6, moving up with 7.5 percent to $3,722. Buyers were not able to push the price above the 50 percent Fibonacci retracement level or previous high at $3,760, but it managed to escape the mid-$3,000s zone for the first time in February.
On February 9, the most popular cryptocurrency was trading in the $3,740 to $3,690 range and closed the session at $3,715. It moved a little higher on February 10, to $3,749 (Fibonacci 50 percent), which represented a five percent increase for the seven-day period.
Institutional trading tools provider for digital currencies TradeBlock released a new comparison between Bitcoin futures and spot trading volume. The research shows that bitcoin futures trading volumes on the two biggest contract providers, CME and CBOE, peaked in July and August 2018 and then in December 2018 dropped to its lowest point since its inception one year earlier. At the same time, spot trading activity across five of the largest U.S. cryptocurrency platforms have been steadily decreasing since January 2018 reaching near parity with total futures trading volume on above-mentioned operators in the summer of 2018.
Binance, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, will launch the testnet version of its new decentralized platform Binance DEX on February 20. This was announced by Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of the Malta-based company who also requested users provide feedback from the live public testing. The decentralized exchange will offer more freedom and flexibility to customers especially when it comes to token security and wallet support.
South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb is planning to open a branch in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as reported by local Korean media on February 11. The new platform will be developed in partnership with Nvelop, a local blockchain company.
The American stock exchange giant, NASDAQ, will offer two new crypto-related indexes – the Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and the Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX). Effective February 25, 2019, the exchange, in partnership with blockchain data and research company Brave New Coin, will be sending real-time bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) index level information on its data feed Nasdaq Global Index Data ServiceSM (GIDS).
Bitcoin opened the new week with a drop to $3,680 on February 11 still remaining above $3,600. It was not able, however, to consolidate around the 50 percent Fibonacci level and attack higher price levels at $3,800 and $4,000, which indicated weak bull pressure. The BTC/USD pair was trading above $3,700 during the session on February 12 but closed the day with a small increase of $12 to $3,692.
ETH/USD
Ethereum lost less than a dollar on February 7 and managed to stay above $105, which is the low end of the $114 to $105 trading range it has traded in since January 28.
On February 8, the ETH/USD pair made its biggest one-day jump since January 2, gaining more than $16 dollars of value, or 13 percent, to close the session at $121.
The break above $120 brought back trading positivism and made a lot of miners renew their ETH mining activities and raising the difficulty to its highest point since January 23. At the same time, the quantity of newly mined ether dropped to its lowest rate ever. As per Etherscan, there has been less than 13,200 ETH created on February 11, down from an average of over 20,000 in October-December 2018.
One of the most popular altcoins was trading in the $124 to $119 range on February 9 and finished the day at $121. It gained another five percent on February 10 ending the week at $127, 17 percent up for the seven-day period.
The price increase helped buyers move above the 50 percent Fibonacci level at $123, but not for long as they erased all gains from the previous day on February 11 by dropping back to $122. The ETH/USD pair was trading in the $119 to $127 zone on February 12 and closed the day at $124. On the next day, February 13, buyers tried to push above $126 but instead registered another red candle on the daily chart stopping at $123.
XRP/USD
The Ripple company token closed the session on February 7 at $0.295 after trading in the $0.293 to $0299 zone during the day. The XRP/USD pair gained 7.4 percent of value on February 8 and stormed past the $0.30 resistance line to peak at $0.326. It closed the workweek at $0.317 without making a new high on the daily chart.
XRP dropped further to $0.315 during the weekend of February 9 to 10, and on February 10 it almost broke below the $0.30 support. Buyers held their ground rebounded from $0.303 back to $0.315. One of the most popular cryptocurrencies was 3.2 percent up for the seven-day period.
In BTCManager’s XRP report, readers learned about Binance’s plans to user Ripple’s xRapid product in the near future and the new universities joining Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) program. Now, Finablr, a global payment and foreign exchange platform based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced it would partner with Ripple to offer cross-border remittances in Thailand. The new services will be provided by the company brands UAE Exchange and Unimoni in partnership with local Thai bank Siam Commercial Bank and will be executed on the RippleNet blockchain.
The Ripple token started the new week with a drop of more than 2.8 percent to $0.306 on February 11. The coin was trading in the $0.30 to $0.315 range on February 12 and closed the day session at $0.31 with a green candle. It was not able to hold its ground though and dropped back to $0.308 on February 13.
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