Another week, another round of Crypto Tidbits.
At one point this week, analysts thought Bitcoin was about to be thrust into a full-blown bull market. The cryptocurrency saw a strong rally at the start of the week that took ti as high as $9,800 on major exchanges. But in normal BTC fashion, the rally was shut down as buyers were liquidated, resulting in a plunge to $9,000. The cryptocurrency has since stabilized in the low-$9,000s. This is above the psychological support of $9,000 and
Bitcoin price chart (the past week's price action, since the 19-20th) fromThere seems to be a growing sense of unease around Bitcoin’s price action. The reason: BTC has been unable to hold the high-$9,000s and levels above $10,000.
As reported by NewsBTC, analyst Cole Garner sees at least four crucial reasons why Bitcoin could see a “big” move lower. These reasons are as follows:
- Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode has found that Bitcoin miners have withdrawn large amounts of BTC from their wallets to exchanges. The amount withdrawn is purported the highest value in over a year.
- Institutions are still bearish on cryptocurrencies, with “institutional traders” net short on the CME’s Bitcoin futures.
- The Bitfinex “buy wall” around $8,500-9,000 is rapidly being eroded.
- Bitcoin’s order book delta has purportedly been “skewed massively to the sell side for almost six weeks.”
1/ I am massively bullish on , but I think the next big move is likely down. just reported the largest transfer from miners to exchanges in over a year. — Cole Garner (@ColeGarnersTake)
Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Holds $9k, Ethereum DeFi Gains Traction, Trump Talked BTC in 2018
Bitcoin & Crypto Tidbits
- PayPal Looking Into Crypto Support: Over the past few years, it has been known that PayPal has dabbled in crypto here and there. The company was reported to have an internal digital asset meant for its employees. Yet the company may be entering the crypto space for real, according to a CoinDesk report. Sources told the outlet that the fintech giant is looking to offer an in-app crypto exchange through partners like Coinbase and Bitstamp. While the details were somewhat sparse as the news was rumor-based, PayPal does have 325 million users that could benefit from this. Yet not everyone sees this news as decisively bullish for Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market. Many diehard decentralists have noted how this system will likely be heavily monitored and centralized, thus presenting a risk to Bitcoin’s decentralized nature.
- Grayscale Ethereum Trust Dumps as Institutional Shares Unlock: The publicly-traded shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust dove 50% this week. This was seemingly due to the unlocking of institutionally-held shares. An analyst observed on the day of the crash that a large tranche of ETHE shares was unlocked and presumably sent to public markets. While the trust did dump, the CEO of Digital Currency Group (which operates Grayscale) said that the fund saw a record inflow the day after the dip.
- Chamath Palihapitiya Doesn’t Even Know What DeFi Is: One of Bitcoin’s biggest public bulls in Silicon Valley doesn’t even know what DeFi is. Venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya told Laura Shin from the “Unchained” podcast that he doesn’t even know DeFi is. Tony Sheng of Multicoin Capital suggested that this is a sign this segment of crypto is too small to have gone mainstream:
It’s just too small for him to care right now. That was a big theme from the whole show. He doesn’t have even 1% of attention to allocate to the whole sector. Not like us full time coin boys.
- PlusToken Coins Are Moving Yet Again: The operators of the infamous PlusToken crypto scam, which purportedly managed to steal billions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, EOS, and others, are moving their coins. This is seemingly being done in an attempt to liquidate the coins, which may pressure this nascent market lower. The scammers have moved approximately $450 million worth of their remaining holdings over the past week, most of which is in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS.
Featured Image from Shutterstock Price tags: Charts from Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Tests $9,000, Grayscale Ethereum Trust Dives, PayPal Looking Into Cryptocurrency