Crypto Market News: Bitcoin on the springboard to $10,000

Here is what you need to know on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.

Markets:

The crypto landscape is finally getting ready for spring as the ground turns green. Monday was mostly a gruesome day for investors as digital assets unexpectedly fell below critical levels, especially for the major coins; Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. Recovery has, however, ensued with Bitcoin stepping above $9,500, Ethereum testing the resistance at $235, and Ripple knocking on $0.1950.

The total market capitalization is back to the same levels recorded on June 14 at $268 billion after a minor dip on Monday. In the same period, the trading volume surged from $60 billion to the current $88 billion. The market cap has been growing steadily over the last few months considering that it sunk to approximately $169 billion in March.

BTC/USD is up 1.34% to trade at $9,555 from an opening value of $9,429.73. Volatility in the market has increased and Bitcoin is likely to continue with the journey to $10,000 if the hurdle at $9,600 is broken. For now, the main goal is to establish support above $9,500. This will give the bulls an opportunity to concentrate on rallying to $10,000.

As mentioned, Ethereum corrected from the low at $220 and has tested the resistance at $235. The price is taking a breather above $230 after adjusting lower from the intraday high of $234.39. The price is doddering at $232 the time of writing amid high volatility and a growing bearish grip.

Ripple managed to climb above $0.19 after a retest of the support at $0.1850 on Monday. There has been a minor 0.14% growth on the day with XRP/USD trading at $0.1927 from the opening value of $0.1925. XRP has tested the short term resistance at $0.1940 but hit an intraday high of $0.1940. With the trend turning bullish and the volatility expanding, additional gains will not be a piece of cake, at least for the European session.

Consequently, some of the most improved digital assets on the day include NEO (1.44), Bitcoin Gold (1.8%), and EOS (0.86%). Among the top 100 cryptoassets, the best-performing in the last 24 hours include Cardano (9.30%), Maker (15.85%), DigiByte (12.12%), Zilliqa (20.42%), Siacoin (26.34%), Verge (32.71%), Aave (19.60%), Ren (20.19%) and SwingBorg (15.44%).

Chart of the day: BTC/USD hourly 

Market:"

According to a survey conducted by a Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange, BitMax, crypto holders have a higher preference for Ripple (XRP) compared to Ethereum (ETH). Cryptocurrency investors in Japan prefer to hold Ripple and Bitcoin as opposed to Ethereum. The results of the survey showed that Ripple and Bitcoin are preferred almost in the same measure. Among the traders who responded, 25% hold XRP, 26% hold BTC, and only 9% hold ETH.

While this survey alone is not definitive in nature, Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) released almost similar results in December 2019. Bitcoin still dominates the crypto market share, followed by Ethereum. Ripple was recently displaced from the third position by the leading stablecoin, Tether. In terms of performance, Ethereum has performed relatively better than Ripple in 2020 and the margin is set to increase with the speculation surrounding Ethereum 2.0 launch and the staking.

Industry:

Casa, a crypto custody company has unveiled a new Bitcoin wallet that is tailor-made for beginners in the cryptocurrency industry. The wallet has a dedicated private key management service. The development was made possible after Casa secured funding from Mantis VC, a venture capital fund. The requirements needed to use the wallet are only a first name and an email address. This is to ensure privacy while withholding personal information.

According to a report by CryptoNinjas, Banco Rendimento, an enterprise blockchain solutions provider, is the first to launch RippleNet Cloud. The bank will utilize Ripple’s blockchain technology entirely in the cloud. With RippleNet cloud, banks and other payment platforms can utilize Ripple’s solutions while minimizing on setup costs. The cloud service works in the same way as the usual RippleNet to provide a link between financial institutions for the transfer of payments. According to a statement by Luiz Antonio Sacco, Managing Director – Latin America at Ripple:

We (Ripple) first announced plans to grow the RippleNet ecosystem in Brazil a year ago and with Banco Rendimento migrating to RippleNet Cloud, we’re excited to see our footprint in the region continue to grow. Brazil continues to lead in fintech innovation and is well-positioned to forge a path for the rest of Latin America to follow.

Regulation:

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Heath Tarbert, said that the regulators in the US must begin to approach oversight of blockchain, fintech, and cryptocurrencies based on broader principles and not specified rules. In other words, regulations should not impose red tapes but encourage innovation. In a framework published by the Harvard Business Review, Tarbert wrote that “Principles-based regulation also discourages ‘loophole’ behavior and ‘checklist’ style approaches to compliance with the law.”

Quote of the day:

“Another area where principles-based regulation is generally appropriate is with respect to developments in financial technology (fintech), including blockchain and digital assets. [...] It is my view that the United States must lead the world in this technology, and applying overly prescriptive rules could stunt the development of this important market.” (CFTC chairman, Heath Tarbert).

 

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