Cryptocurrency News Update: ETH aims at $300, BTC gets ready for a weekend rally

Here's what you need to know on Firday

Markets:

BTC/USD hit the intraday high at $9,619 during early Asian hours and retreated to $9,553 by press time. The first digital coin has barely changed since the start of the day and on a day-to-day basis, moving within a short-term bullish trend amid low volatility.

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is changing hands at $273.50. The price touched the intraday high of $275.64 during early Asian hours but failed to hold the ground. ETH/USD has gained over 2% in the recent 24 hours and stayed unchanged since the start of the day. The coin is moving within a short-term bullish trend amid shrinking volatility.

XRP/USD is changing hands at $0.2055. The price hit the intraday high of $0.2087 on Friday. The coin has gained 2% in the recent 24 hours and lost 1.3% since the beginning of the day. Now it is moving within the short-term bearish trend amid shrinking volatility.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, Flexacoin (FXC) $0.0045 (+25.7%), DigiByte (DGB) $0.0254 (+11.9%),Maker (MKR) $534.36 (+9.0%) are the most successful. The day's losers are Band Protocol (BAND) $4.27 (-11.5%), Aave (LEND) $0.2805 (-8.2%), Digitex Futures (DGTX) $0.0974 (-8.1%)

Chart of the day:
ETH/USD, 1-hour chart

Market

A popular cryptocurrency analyst Michael van de Poppe also known as "Crypto Michael" says that Ethereum price may shoot to $470 once the psychological resistance of $300.00 is taken out. In a recently shared video, he explained ETH price pattern since the collapse on Black Thursday in March and shared his views on the future developments. Thus, he says that ETH should stay above $240.00 to be able to resume the recovery pattern.

At this point we are bullish and we have a very nice organic structure but we still haven’t seen any acceleration. I believe we are going to see it later on, he added.

Tether (USDT) market capitalization settled above $10 billion, according to the information provided on the official Tether website. Also, the issuer of the largest and the most popular stablecoin poured an additional 120 million coins to the market. All of them are backed by US dollars. The largest cryptocurrency data providers, including CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko confirmed that the threshold of $10 billion is passed. 

Industry

The CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, welcomed the news that nationally chartered banks are allowed to provide custody services for the digital assets. He said that cryptocurrencies should co-exist with fiat and explained that the US banks should keep up with technological innovations to satisfy the needs of their customers. He wrote on Twitter:

BOOM! Today’s ruling is a huge step forward. The @USOCC is absolutely leading the way to foster innovation, protect consumers and provide a level playing field for all. The future has never been fiat versus crypto – these can and should coexist in harmony! 

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced support for Maker (MKR) and stablecoin Dai (DAI). Both coins are issued by the blockchain platfrom MakerDAO. The trading is available in the following trading pairs MKR/BNB, MKR/BTC, MKR/BUSD, MKR/USDT, DAI/BNB, DAI/BTC, DAI/BUSD and DAI/USDT. The news pushed MKR to as high as $591,89. At the time of writing, the coin is trading at $534,89, having gained over 9% in the recent 24 hours.

Australian debit card network Eftpos announced a partnership with Hedera Hashgraph within its digital payments strategy. Eftpos will use Hedera Hashgraph to trial a micropayment system. 

By working with Hedera, we are leveraging next-generation payments infrastructure technology that can support Australian dollar-based micropayments and open up entirely new ways of conducting business online, Eftpos entrepreneur in residence Robert Allen said