Selling pressure across the board

Bearishness continues in all cryptocurrencies, as everybody seems to call for more slides. Bitcoin (-0.33%) is mostly unchanged, but Ethereum (-1.43%), Ripple (-1.61%), and Litecoin (-2.65%) are showing signs of selling pressure. Among this red sea, EDC Blockchain (+29.7%), Horizen (+9.4%), ALGO (+7,5%), Nano (+2.8%) and Tezos (+1.67%) are the exceptions.

The Ethereun token sector is also tinted with red, with some exceptions.  The best performers are Foam (+54.24%), Jewel (+45.3%), Elitium (+33.5%) and CarTaxi Token (+26.7%).

Fig 1 - 24H Crypto Heat Map

The current market capitalization of the sector dropped to $220.944 billion (-0.7%), and the volume traded in the last 24H also descended to $24.27 billion (-13.9%). The Dominance of the Bitcoin holds at 65.96%.

Fig 2 - 24H Market Capitalization and traded volume

Hot news

Binance has acquired 100% of Indian crypto exchange Wazirx. This acquisition will allow Indians to trade cryptocurrencies with their local currency INR. The purchase comes at the time when the Indian government recently introduced a draft bill outlawing cryptocurrency trading.

The Rand Corporation, the Police Executive Research Forum, and the University of Denver released a report on Illicit Transactions on the Dark Web. The report identified 46 possible solutions, among which include the improvement of training for the investigators. The report points to the anonymity of the dark web as the main challenge for investigators, as users are able to trade using anonymous cryptocurrencies.

According to an article by cryptonews.com, China currently holds 60% of the blockchain patents, which means it has three times more blockchain patents than the US. The Chinese companies and government organizations, according to the article, registered over 7,600 patents related to blockchain technology between 2009 and 2018. South Korea is placed second with about 1.150  patents.

Technical Analysis - Bitcoin

Chart 1 - Bitcoin 4H Chart

Bitcoin continues consolidating near $8,100, but the buying strength is not coming. BTC seems poised to challenge the $8,000 support again, as the consolidation brought the price to the mid-Bollinger band and strongly bounced off of it. The traded volume is increasingly low. The critical levels to observe ($8,000 and $8,200) are the same as were yesterday since the price action in the last 24 hours did not change much.

 

Ripple

Chart 2 - Ripple 4H Chart

Ripple has moved from oversold to touch the mid-Bollinger line and is now stepping down near the -1SD line. The MACD is in the negative side, although moving upwards, which just shows a consolidation period.  XRP's outlook continues to be bearish, as everything still points to a continuation of the downward trend.

The price is now at the $0.249 level, and if pierced, it will seek to test the recent bottom at $0.245. On the other hand, a close above $0.26 would be very good for buyers.

Ethereum

Chart 3 - Ethereum 4H Chart

Ethereum is also consolidating its action on the lower side of the descending channel. The price moves between $172.5 and $177 on diminishing volume. ETH has got out of the oversold region marked by the -3SD line of the Bollinger bands and moves toward's the Bollinger mean. The following hours are critical to see if Ethereum is creating a bottoming floor or is just a pause in the trend. A close above $177 would be good news for bulls, while a drop below $172 .5 would mean more downsides and a possible visit to the lows made at the end of November.

Litecoin

Chart 4 - Litecoin 4H Chart

Litecoin is behaving more bearish than its peers today. The price has broken down the small flag made yesterday with an increasing volume. The price is now at the $54 critical level and moving below its -1SD Bollinger line. LTC is controlled by sellers, so it is poised to visit $53 and below. That said, there are a number of times when the triangle makes a fake breakout to, then turn around and head in the opposite direction. Therefore, if that happens and ETH breaches the $55.8 level, it would change the outlook of the altcoin.

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