Monero market update: business as usual after hardfork

Monero (XMR) is changing hands at $49.30, down 1% since this time on Sunday. Looking technically, the coin is supported by $49.00 with SMA100 (4-hour) located on approach. Once it is cleared, the sell-off may be extended towards $46.79 (March 4) low. This area is likely to serve as a jumping-off ground.

On the upside, we would need to keep an eye on the key resistance of $50.00. A sustainable move higher will shift the focus onto $51.50 and the recent high of $55.54. 

Monero team implemented a scheduled hard fork to prevent ASIC miners from mining the coin. The form took place at block 1788000. Also, the update contained many improvements supposed to enhance the privacy feature and the overall network security.

This is not the first anti-ASICs fork. Thus similar upgrade took place in April 2018 with the aim to resist Antminer X3 miners manufactured by Bitmain for cryptocurrencies based on CryptoNight algorithm.

After the hard fork, Monero hash rate dropped. According to 2miners, by Monday morning it settled at about  96 Mh/s against 1,32 Gh/s on Saturday. Also, the developers noted that block discovery would be much slower for the next 24-48 hours, though the situation would return to normal.

XMR/USD, 4-hour