Bitcoin Price Top Forecast: Bitcoin settles above $6,200, altcoins lag behind

• Bitcoin is the best performing digital asset out pf top-20 with market dominance 58%.
• Binance security breach leaves market unaffected.
• US regulators want more money to get the industry under control.
• Technical picture implies the correction out of an overbought territory.

BTC/USD smashed quite a number of resistance levels on its quest to new 2019 highs. The first digital asset outperformed the rest of the market, showing the best week-on-week results out of top-20. Bitcoin has gained over 10% in recent seven days while the majority of altcoins have been deep in red nursing losses from 2% to 22%. Ethereum and Ripple are exceptions here as both coins gained some ground on a weekly basis.

This divergence has brought Bitcoin dominance figure to the spotlight. Currently, it stands at 58%, which is the highest level since September 2017. It means that crypto trades sell their altcoins for Bitcoins, highlighting its safe haven feature.

What’s going on in the market

This week brought a lot of interesting news that might have a long-lasting effect on the cryptocurrency industry. Despite some nasty shocks, the market managed to gain positive momentum and hit the highest levels since November 2018. 

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes Binance fell victim to hack attack. The criminals breached the security and stole over 7000 worth of $40.7 million along with user API keys, 2FA codes, and some other data. While the exchange claimed that the funds were stolen from the hot wallet and the amount does not exceed 2% of total assets. Also, Binance CEO Zhao reassured the market that all clients’ funds are safe. The exchange stopped accepting deposits and process withdraw requests until further notice.

The market absorbed the shock easily. After a short-lived draw down within a natural correction, Bitcoin and the majority of altcoins resumed growth and reached new maximums. 

Read more stories on Binance hack:

Binance hackers split the loot to cover up tracks - Coinfirm research

Breaking: Binance lost $40.7 million to massive hack attack

Meanwhile there were some interesting developments on regulatory front. Thus, both the US SEC and CFTC asked Congress to finance their regulatory activities on the cryptocurrency market. Both regulators consider it necessary to double their efforts as the nascent industry requires increased focus. While increased financing does not guarantee that the regulators would soften their approach towards the industry, one may hope to the long-waited clarity on the subject matter. According to the recent survey, performed by Greenwhch Assosiates on behalf of Fidelity, regulatory uncertainty is among the top reasons that stop large investors from diving into crypto.

While the watchdogs are looking int ways to take the industry under control, Congressmen discuss a total ban on cryptocurrencies. The Congress Rep. Sherman called for a bill to ban all cryptocurrencies speaking in front of his colleagues on Thursday. Though the Chinese scenario for the US is unlikely at this stage.

Apart from that, here was a lot of noise about Facebook cryptocurrency project. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange may launch its own stablecoin as soon as 3Q 2019, Bloomberg reported sitting knowledgeable sources.

BTC/USD, 1D chart

BTC/USD has been in a strong recovery mode during the week. After a short-lived consolidation during the weekend, Bitcoin resumed the growth and broke above the critical resistance created by psychological $6,000 and cracked the channel resistance located marginally above that level. 

As the coin managed to keep the ground,   the technical picture improved significantly and opened the way towards weekly SMA200 at $6,335. While the price touched this handle during early European hours, the resistance is still unbroken. Once it is out of the way, the recovery may be extended towards $6,500, not seen since October. Here we virtually move to an uncharted territory, with 23.6% Fibo retracement from a large move from December 2017 high to December 2018 low seen at $7,000.

Meanwhile, both daily and weekly RSI (the Relative Strength Index) points upwards, and thus implies more gains in the mid-term. However, Bitcoin is grossly overbought on all timeframes, which means that the coin is vulnerable to a short-term correction. 

Also, we should not disregard the fact that the price escaped the Bollinger Bands on a daily and weekly charts. This development also implies a short-term correction as the price tends to return to the middle line of the band.

That said, the trend remains bullish as long as the price stays above $5,500. This critical support is created by a confluence of the middle line of 1-day Bollinger Band and the broken channel support. A sustainable move lower will darken the technical picture and bring $5,000 back in focus.

The Forecast Poll of experts improved significantly since the previous week as expectations on all timeframes are bullish. All price estimations are well above $6,000 handle.