Crypto Today: Bitcoin bulls launch a massive assault; major altcoins on fire

Here's what you need to know on 

Markets:

BTC/USD is currently trading at $9,600 (+3.2% on a day-to-day basis). The coin has been moving within a strong bullish trend and hit a new 2020 high at $9,772 in Wednesday.

The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $205.0 (+5.57% on a day-to-day basis). Ethereum retreated from the intraday high of $207.26; now, it is moving within a short-term bullish trend amid low volatility. 

XRP/USD settled at $0.2794 after a spike to $0.2849 during early Asian hours. The coin is up 8.5% in recent 24 hours.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are Lisk (LSK) $1.36 (+23.5%), Centrality (CENNZ) $0.0874 (+20.7%) and Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) $0.0201 (+16.6%), The day's losers are MaidSafeCoin (MAID) $0.1082 (-8.42%), ICON (ICX) $0.4743 (-6.5%),  and Molecular Future (MOF) $1.12 (-5.92%).

Chart of the day:

ETC/USD, 4-hour chart

Market:

A co-founder of a research company Fundstrat Global Advisors, To Lee, once again confirmed his optimistic views towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry as a whole. The technical picture of the first cryptocurrency implies that it is ready for an impressive pump, he said in the interview with Yahoo Finance.

Whenever bitcoin breaks back into its 200 day, its average six-month gain is 197%.

Lee believes that halving will have a positive impact on Bitcoin's price momentum, while geopolitical uncertainty and economical consequences of coronavirus will add fuel to the fire.

According to Whale Alert service, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex transfered over 102 million USDT to Tether Treasury. Meanwhile Tether confirmed that is had redeemed and destroyed this amount. The burned USDT was issued on Tron's blockchain. Bitcoin jumped by over 5% in a matter of hours and tested area above $9,700.

Industry:

The Russian users of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance now can buy digital assets with Ruble via Visa credit and debit cards. The new feature allows purchasing BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH and BNB in a hassle-free way with a commission as lo as 1%.  The company plans to add MasterCard support and expand the list of available coins, according to the official press-release. In a separate development, the exchange announced the launch of XTZ/USDT Perpetual Contract with up to 50x leverage. Earlier this year, Binance added futures contracts for XRP, LTC and a number of other coins.

The cryptocurrency startup Lightening Labs raised $10 million to develop Bitcoin-based payment network that will allow companies and individuals to use digital coins as easily as traditional money. The team announced on Twitter:

Lightning Labs is scaling! Announcing our $10M Series A to fuel LN development, and the Lightning Loop beta release, a product making it easier send/receive #bitcoin instantly. With 4000 developers and 30+ startups, the next decade of Lightning is on.

Lightning Labs also released a beta version of its first product, Lightning Loop that will help companies and and users to send and recieve coins via Lighting more efficiently.

Quote of the day:

Crytpo is bid. Period.  Hearing more and more inquiry.  Always dangerous but higher prices are making me more bullish.   $eth over 200 for a couple of days will open a bigger move.  $btc has 10k looming.   Once that goes we are off to the races.

Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital