Smaller altcoins continue to swing around wildly. Yesterday Namecoin and Peercoin surged by 12.5% and 17 percent respectively. Today both cryptos have surrendered most of those gains as bitcoin took a dive lower. Big brother fell by $14 dollars this morning, from $395.86 to a low $381.67. We are currently trading at $385 dollars per coin, closer to the daily lows then the highs.

Peercoin Surges by 17 Percent

Peercoin surged by 17 percent yesterday, from $0.414 to a high of $0.483. Today we saw a lot of those gains disappear as BTC dropped and PPC/USD initially fell to a low 43 cents flat. One Peercoin is selling for $0.451 right now, around the middle of the daily range.

In these highly volatile times, the caution we expressed in our previous PPC article is still valid. Until we get a clear move in either direction, the safe bet is to stay on the sidelines. The levels to watch are roughly 50 cents on the upside and 35 cents on the downside. A decisive breakout beyond either of these price extremes may kick-off a new uptrend/downtrend.

Above $0.50 dollars resistance can be found at $0.579 and $0.616. Below 35 cents we have support at $0.333 and $0.321 , followed by a stronger support area from $0.29 to $0.30 dollars per coin.

Namecoin Jumps Then Falls on Bitcoin

Namecoin jumped by 12.5 percent yesterday only to see most of those gains evaporate during the bitcoin sell-off today. We are currently trading at $0.419 dollars.

The potential breakout levels for NMC/USD are similar to Peercoin, 50 cents on the upper end and $0.357 on the downside. A clean breakdown below here could renew the trend lower. We have more support at the double bottom near $0.332 dollars followed by August 2015 low at $0.306. On the upside resistance can be found at $0.54 and $0.666 dollars per coin.

Bitcoin Blocksize Debate

An additional problem for Peercoin and Namecoin is the tug of war currently underway between Bitcoin and the smaller altcoin market. This week we saw Dogecoin surge by over 200 percent before retracing sharply by close to 50 percent today. The current blocksize controversy in the bitcoin community seems to be hurting market confidence, with some players choosing to ”diversify” their BTC holdings into smaller alts. Only time will tell if these moves persist. In the past two years bitcoin has outperformed most altcoins.

While altcoins jump around, bitcoin is continuing the choppy trend lower. Take a look at our Tuesday’s article for some of the BTC levels we’re watching.

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