A Christmas Cryptocurrency Weekly Update

Weekly Comment

What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago things didn’t appear that they could really get much worse for the crypto markets as we crawled towards the end of 2018 looking forward to putting it behind us.  Traditional markets dictate that a 20% drop in price would constitute a bear market and so given 80+ percentage drops in Bitcoin and Ethereum, it was hard to get any more bearish.

However, it appears that the “Santa Rally” as some have called it- has been well and truly on with a 22% and 71% increase in price for BTC and ETH respectively in the last week (whilst Santa has clearly stayed away from US equities as the Dow suffered its worst week in more than a decade).

It will be interesting to see now how the remainder of the year pans out.  In traditional asset classes- liquidity tends to thin out around this time of year, particularly as these markets tend to have the largest percentage daily volumes flowing through them in the West.  However, with crypto- the inverse tends to be true with the East dictating the majority of flow so liquidity may well remain more constant whilst we enjoy a festive break over in the West.

Past Week Talking Points

• Facebook are reportedly in the process of creating a cryptocurrency token for those using WhatsApp.  The token will apparently be used for money transfer within the app and intends to mainly cover the remittances market in India.

• Co-founder of Ethereum Joseph Lubin has “called the cryptobottom in 2018”.  He went on to state: “the sky is not falling- from my perspective the future looks bright…if you could see the landscape through my eyes, you’d have to wear shades.”

• ConsenSys- a blockchain software technology company is reported to be cutting its staff numbers, reorganising the business and moving more from an incubator to a more traditional investor model.

• Odilon Almeida- President of Western Union Global Money Transfer has been quoted as saying: “I think cryptocurrencies may become one more option of currency or assets around the globe to be exchanged between people and businesses. If that happens, we would be ready to launch”

BTC Price:  $4,232

Last 7 Days: +22.37%
1month: -1.99%
12months: -70.61%

BTC Commentary

As the Dow suffered its worst week in more than a decade, BTC managed to see some respite with a 22% increase in price over the last week.  We also saw a huge weekly increase in volume as buyers took control after the torrid few weeks of relentless selling.  It is far too early to suggest that the “bottom” has been seen with many analysts weary of a potential “dead cat bounce” however if the market is able to extend its time trading above the $4,000 level then hope build for new beginnings in 2019.

BTC Volume
17th December: $3,717,441,249 (BTC price of $3,287)
24th December: $7,060,674,976 (BTC price of $4,232)
89.93% increase in trading volume in the last 7 days 

ETH Price: $147.68

Last 7 Days: +71%
1month: +19.89%
12months: -79%

ETH Commentary

There were many who were saying that at $86- Ethereum was hugely oversold and the last week suggests that this was taken onboard as the ETH price surged over 71%.  With the co-founder of Ethereum calling the “crypto-bottom” as mentioned above, it would be easy to think that we are firmly heading back towards more positive times, but given that overall Ethereum has lost 91% from the all-time highs of $1,448, we still have some way to go until we get back to the glory days. In fact, Ethereum’s other co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that there is no way that the Blockchain and Crypto space will see “1,000 times growth again”, so a move back to those highs may well take some time.

Last 7 Days Big Market Movers

Absolute            ABS        UP 202%      Price: $0.050
ERC20             ERC20      UP 168%      Price: $0.048
Peculium          PCL          UP 162%      Price: $0.002

Market Cap. Dominance

BTC: 51.0%
XRP: 12.09%
ETH: 10.59%
Other ALT-Coins: 26.32%