Markets Update: Trading Action Heats Up During the First Week of May

Cryptocurrency markets are seeing some action today as digital asset values have been fluctuating over the past 72 hours. During yesterday’s trading sessions a lot of digital currencies dropped anywhere between 2-6 percent but many are erasing some of those losses today. On April 28, BTC/USD markets touched a high of $9,538 but dipped below the sub-$9,000 regions on May 1. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) markets touched a high of close to $1,500 on the 28th as well but dropped to $1,320. Today, however, BCH has managed to capture most of those gains back as it hovers around $1,430 at the time of publication.

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Markets See Slight Recovery After Yesterday’s Dips

May is here and many digital currency enthusiasts believe the ‘Crypto Spring’ is about to bloom after the long and hard Crypto Winter. Right now a good majority of cryptocurrency assets are in the green during today’s trading sessions as most of them saw some losses yesterday. The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization of all 1,600 coins is around $429 billion USD today. BTC/USD markets are currently averaging around $9,060 per coin and trade volume is lighter this week as it hovers around $6.8Bn over the past 24 hours. The top five exchanges today swapping the most BTC are Binance, Okex, Bitfinex, Upbit, and Huobi. The Japanese yen still dominates BTC trades by 39 percent but is much lower than last week’s percentages. This is followed by the USD (29.7%), tether (USDT 22.3%), the Korean won (7.4%), and the euro (3.9%). The top trade today on the peer-to-peer platform Shapeshift is ethereum (ETH) for bitcoin core (BTC).

BTC/USD Technical Indicators

The daily, weekly and 4-hour BTC/USD charts show some consolidation taking place once again as traders are seeking new positions. At the time of publication, the two Simple Moving Averages (100 & 200 SMA) have a decent gap with the short term 100 SMA above the long-term trendline. This indicates today’s trading action and the path to resistance should be on the upside. MACd is meandering around 23.43 showing it has a lot of room for improvement. Both the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic oscillators are following the same pattern as the RSI hovers around 46.9. These signs indicate that bulls could manage to muster up strength but BTC/USD trade volumes today are quite flat. Order books show that bulls need to push past tough resistance at $9,250 through $9,600 to gain some better ground ahead. On the backside, if bears grab the reins again there’s some good foundational support around $8,800 to $8,500 for the time being.

Bitcoin Cash Markets Jump Over 10%

At the moment Bitcoin Cash markets have seen a considerable spike during today’s trading sessions. Over the past 24 hours, BCH/USD markets are up over 10 percent, while BCH weighted price averages are hovering around $1,430 right now. BCH 24-hour trade volume is decent hovering around $1Bn USD worth of daily trades. The total valuation of the BCH market cap at the moment is over $24Bn and most of the trades today are in BTC. Bitcoin core trades account for 40 percent of today’s BCH trades which is followed by the USD at 19 percent. BCH global trades are also seeing heavy volume from tether (USDT 19%), the Korean won (14.8%), and the euro (1.6%). Both binance coin (BNB), and ethereum (ETH) are also top trades with BCH on May 2.

BCH/USD Technical Indicators

Looking at BCH/USD charts on Bitfinex and Bitstamp shows there are some differences between BTC/USD markets. The 4-hour BCH/USD chart indicates some overbought signals as the two SMAs are completely different for BCH. The short-term 100 SMA is well below the longer term 200 indicating the path to resistance will likely be on the downside. MACd is still riding northbound and RSI levels are around 66 showing market bulls are awfully close to showing exhaustion. On the flipside, resistance isn’t too tough approaching the $1,540 range and if bulls can manage to make it to that price area then they will see one more nice pitstop around $1,640. We can see on the backside that some nice consolidation has taken place as order books show good support around $1,395, but after that, it is a lot thinner. Most markets are down 0.5 to 1 percent today and BCH/USD prices will likely follow along, but the market has been seeing its own strong movements these past few weeks.

The Verdict: Crypto-Market Optimism Still Trumps Skepticism But Uncertainty Still Remains

Overall cryptocurrency market participants seem positive today as more consolidation forms across the digital asset economy. Some notable market movers on May 2nd include EOS which is up 7.6 percent and the Cardano platform’s ADA seeing gains of around 6.6 percent. Further, the cryptocurrency Tron (TRX) has silently moved into the top ten cryptocurrency market caps. Optimism is still on high as traders and enthusiasts believe markets will manage to only get better but there’s still some skepticism after the last four months of downward price trends.

Where do you see the price of BCH and BTC headed from here? Let us know in the comments 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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