Another volatile week for cryptocurrency traders. Bitcoin briefly broke above the previous all-time high only to sell-off hard on flippening fears. Litecoin followed BTC both up and down but remains tucked in a range.
Bitcoin Falls on Flippening Fears
Bitcoin briefly broke the previous all-time high of $2,848 on FXOpen to hit a new high of $2,889 yesterday. On some other BTC/USD exchanges like Coinbase we touched the $3,000 mark only to sell-off strongly shortly after. The reason behind the heavy selling was flippening fears.
The ‘Flippening’ refers to BTC losing it’s top position in the crypto world. Yesterday for a brief time bitcoin closest competitor Ether had 82% of bitcoin’s market cap. This caused some panic among speculators and prices fell to a low of $2,450 before recovering somewhat. We are currently trading a bit closer to the highs than the lows at $2,690 dollars per coin. You can follow the flippening here. At the time this article was written it was at 79 percent.
Ether has seen a surge this year driven by speculation and demand for ICOs. The unresolved scaling problems in Bitcoin continue to weigh on prices as both sides of the debate seem no closer to a solution. Bitcoin fees have averaged around $4-5 per transaction for most of the last week. This compares to an average of 25-30 cents for Ether.
Technically BTC/USD in still in the uptrend that began back in April of this year. To end it, the bears will have to break below the $2,400 level. A new BTC downtrend needs a break of the $1,710 swing low. On the longer-term weekly and monthly charts bitcoin looks bullish as well.
Litecoin Still Range-bound
Litecoin followed big brother first up then down but didn’t break any important levels in the process. We remain range-bound in LTC/USD. A new uptrend needs a breakout above $34.50 level. Not far from here we have an important resistance area at the $36.25 all-time high. A breakout above here could lead to extended gains.
On the lower end, we need a move below the $15 spike low to signal a new downtrend. Further down we have a support area stretching from the $12.55 swing highs to the $13.33 swing lows. A clearing of this area could extend the move toward the $10 round level. While range-bound on the daily charts, on the weekly and monthlies Litecoin hasn’t broken the uptrend yet.
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