It wouldn’t be yet another spectacular Monday morning if Kanye wasn’t ‘serious’ about running for president. Or, if Fortnite wasn’t available on Android. Or, if NASA wasn’t close to detecting alien life. Or, if Peter Crouch didn’t decide to spit bars — live. What keeps you motivated? Drop in and let us know here. 💪🏼
It might seem like the cryptosphere has gone full circle this weekend — as ether dropped below £155 ($200) for the first time since last September — but, despite this nice checklist, there are few signs that indicate capitulation is past us. While developers and builders were busy making ETHBerlin a high-quality event, bears continued strongly, managing to push the total market cap below £155 ($200) billion for the second time.
However, while the August 14th drop lasted less than 24 hours and within the next couple of days all major alts had recovered 5% to 20%, now the cat has barely bounced. Indeed, ETH is up 7% from its £143 ($185) local bottom, and since yesterday the top 100 alts appreciated 3.5% on average, but few believe a reversal is around the block — especially considering that BTC and XRP are still up 35% to 55% over the past 12 months.
As usual, media rejoiced on this weekend’s ‘wipeout’, amplifying Vitalik Buterin’s comment that it would be difficult for the space to grow another 1000x now that blockchain has gone mainstream. Nothing new here; so, what can we anticipate in regard to this bear market? Zooming out, the first positive confirmation will come when bitcoin makes a higher high that breaks the current market structure.
There are some optimistic comparisons with the widely-shared market cycle phases here — claiming we’re at the depression phase, the last one before reversal — but trusting them and trying to catch falling knives is extremely risky. Meanwhile, bitcoin seems to be ‘barting’ again and thus, might see another explosive move today should it break out of this pennant. Look out for a possible bounce but be prepared for a dump.
▪ The US SEC suspended trading of the two Exchange Traded Notes that track the movement of bitcoin and ether. The halt is, for now, temporary and will last 10 days.
▪ There are rumours that Citigroup, a major American investment bank, is “getting legally ‘creative’ to serve its customers with a tradable, physical Bitcoin asset.”
▪ We’re organising a meet-up this Thursday, the 13th of September, at WeWork Finsbury Pavement. We bring the food, drinks and tunes, you bring your questions.
▪ Check all the projects submitted at ETHBerlin’s hackathon here, read a summary of the weekend here, and remember Berlin’s Blockchain Week only ends tomorrow.
▪ Amidst all the FUD, Nic Carter offers an ironic, but insightful guide on “How to critique Bitcoin”. Plus, if you live in America or Canada you can order the great ‘FUDdice’.
▪ Sylvain Ribes and Hasu analysed Tether, the infamous stablecoin, and concluded that it’s impact on Bitcoin’s liquidity is overstated by media up to three times its real influence.
The Bart pattern became popular last April as traders noted the shape of the famous Simpsons character’s head on bitcoin’s chart, after a sharp price spike. It’s caused by a “momentum ignition algorithm” that tries to hunt stop orders to move price quickly.
