Markets Update: Crypto Prices Consolidate After Failing to Surpass Resistance

Cryptocurrency prices have seen some recovery after our last markets update four days ago when a large majority of digital assets lost quite a bit of value. Since then, and more so over the last 48 hours, the entire crypto-economy capitalization ($216B) has gained roughly $20B. The action yesterday was more bullish as most of the top digital assets were up between 6-20 percent but have since lost some of those gains during this weekend’s trading sessions.

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Up Moves, Down Moves, and Eight Months of Corrections

Last week was pretty bad for most of the top digital asset markets, except we mentioned during our last markets update that bitcoin core (BTC) spot market prices took the least of the blows downward. Then a little less than 48 hours ago and mostly yesterday cryptocurrency markets picked up again with BTC touching a high of $6,615 on Bitstamp. But on Friday, August 17 most digital asset markets besides BTC reaped a lot more gains as a good portion of the top markets saw 10-20 percent spikes.

The biggest gainers were ripple (XRP), monero (XMR), and stellar (XLM) as the values of each currency are up between 2-5 percent over the last seven days. Top digital currency trade volumes today are held by BTC, USDT, ETH, EOS, XRP, and BCH. There’s been about $14B USD worth of trade volume swapped among all 1600+ virtual currencies.

Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ) Market Action

Bitcoin cash (BCH) markets are down today 4.3 percent while the past seven days show BCH is also down 2.2 percent. At the time of writing, BCH/USD markets are valued at $560 per coin with an overall market valuation of around $9.68B today. The top five exchanges swapping the most BCH this weekend are Okex, Coinex, Binance, Hitbtc, and Bitfinex.

Market volume is fairly decent, but weaker with $420M USD worth of BCH traded over the last 24 hours. Right now the top currency paired with bitcoin cash on exchanges is tether (USDT) which captures 49.2 percent of all trades. This is followed by BTC (27.5%), USD (10.5%), ZB (3.44%), QC (3.16%), and the KRW (2.15%).

Bitcoin Core ( BTC ) Market Action

Bitcoin core (BTC) prices are up about 1 percent over the last seven days worth of trading sessions but are down 1.9 percent today. At press time the average price for BTC is around $6,430 per coin and BTC’s market capitalization is $110B. The top exchanges today trading the most BTC include Bitflyer, Binance, Coinbene, Bitfinex, and Okex.

As mentioned above, BTC captures the top volume position with around $4B in 24-hour trade volume which is much weaker than the $5.5B traded four days ago. The top pairs trading with BTC involve the following currencies tether (USDT 59.1%), USD (19.6%), JPY (11.5%), EUR (2.9%), KRW (2.3%) and bitcoin cash (BCH 1.7%).

The Verdict: Uncertain Predictions

At the moment, even with prices showing some upswing, and some traders believing cryptocurrencies will enter a bullish trend, most traders still seem pessimistic. It’s difficult to see digital assets rise with dwindling trade volumes. Furthermore, a lot of confidence has been shot over the last eight months of false bull flags and many psychological price levels degrading. Some believe there is a noticeable support zone and prices may still move sideways and test these zones again. Other, more optimistic traders think the path of least resistance is towards the upside and markets are entering a bearish-to-bullish trend. Much of these short-term theories will likely be confirmed within the next 48 hours.

Where do you see the price of BTC, BCH and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse.

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