Cryptocurrency Market News: Bitcoin unstoppable push to $12,000, China piloting digital currency in cities

Here is what you need to know on Friday, August 14, 2020.

Markets:

BTC/USD again failed in the journey to overcome the resistance at $12,000. The bullish leg made it above the resistance at $11,600 but hit the next hurdle at $11,800. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $11,716. An intraday low at $11,686 marked the end of the bearish leg. However, expected gains above $11,800 continue to delay due to low volatility and trading volume.

ETH/USD appears to be settling above $400 following a massive breakout from the weekly low at $370. On the upside, a new yearly high has been formed at $433.33 but a retreat has seen Ether explore levels under $420. The price is trading at $422 but ETH/USD is in the bullish phase which means that the mission to hit $500 has potential.

Ripple price stepped marginally above $0.30 but immediately retreated to confirm support at $0.2901. The price is trading at $0.2940 amid a building bullish momentum. Support above $0.30 would aid in the push for gains above August highs at $0.3250.

Looking at the top 100 cryptocurrencies, some tokens are posting gains regardless of the retreat witnessed on a wider scale. Tron, for instance, is trading 15% higher after a partnership with Wave. Similarly, Waves has surged over 30% to trade at $3.17. The other cryptoassets trading higher include Algorand, Lisk, Loopring and Quant.

Chart of the day: BTC/USD daily

Market:

The decentralized finance craze continues to rock the cryptocurrency industry but the skyrocketing Ethereum gas fees is not making things easy for the ecosystem. On Thursday alone, the Ethereum network processed over $6.87 million in fees. In his opinion, the CEO and founder of Synthetix (SNX), Kain Warwick, high fees are negatively impacting the growth of DeFi.

In the last three months, we’ve gone from an environment where DeFi was expensive to use and a little bit slow, to now, [where] for a lot of people it’s prohibitively expensive.

Industry:

Now that the Cardano Shelly mainnet is executing as desired, IOHK has started releasing support programs such as the Project Catalyst. According to an announcement from the Input Output Hong Kong, the first phase of the project referred to as Fund 1 has been released. Fund 1 is the “first exploratory stage in our Project Catalyst governance program for #Cardano. Project Catalyst is an exciting experiment in decentralized governance @Cardano #Voltaire 1.” In addition, this first stage would be utilized in supporting about 50 community members to put in their vote on proposals regarding business development as well as dApp development.

Consequently, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the US, Coinbase is looking forward to launching collateralized fiat loans to its customers. The service set to launch in the fall, will give the users an opportunity to borrow up to 30% of their Bitcoin holdings. Credit limits have been capped at $20,000 and will attract an interest of 8%. According to the Head of Product at Coinbase, Max Branzburg:

Customers may use bitcoin-backed loans in different ways depending on their financial needs, including for large expenditures like home or car repairs, financing major occasions like a wedding, or helping to manage higher-interest personal loans or credit card debt.

Regulation:

China’s ministry of commerce has announced the initial launch of the country’s digital currency in selected cities. The cities that have been selected to pilot the digital currency include those in the northern Chinese region of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, eastern region of Yangtze River Delta, “Greater Bay Area” around the Pearl River Delta and some cities in Midwestern China. Another recent report talked about some commercial banks carrying out internal testing for the digital currency.

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