Markets Update: Bitcoin Price Sets Sail for Uncharted Seas

Three days ago, during our last markets update, bitcoin’s price experienced a short-term correction all the way down to the $5,300 territory, on October 25th. Following the dip, the price rebounded the same day back to the $5,700 region and has since then continued sailing towards the $6K mark.

Also Read: Extreme Cold Storage: A Fortress of Solitude for Bitcoins

Bitcoin Markets Dominate by 57% Commanding a $98 Billion Market Cap

Bitcoin markets are doing better on October 26 as the price reached a high of $5,988 during the early morning hours. Currently, bitcoin’s market value is hovering between the $5850-$5,900 range after meeting some resistance above $5,950. At the moment, bitcoin trade volume is strong with $1.9B worth of BTC traded over the past 24-hours. A vast majority of the BTC trade volume still stems from Japan as the yen encompasses roughly 66 percent of bitcoin’s global volume. The USD is capturing 21 percent of the global trade volume at the time of writing, with the rest of the state-issued currencies sharing the leftovers. The top five exchanges pushing massive bitcoin volumes right now are Bitfinex, Bithumb, Bitflyer, GDAX, and Hitbtc. Alongside this, most altcoin markets are in the green, but bitcoin dominance is capturing a 57 percent share out of all the cryptocurrency market caps.

Technical Indicators

Earlier this week bitcoin took a short-term hit and corrected after reaching an all-time high of $6,180 per BTC. At the time the 100 Simple Moving Average (SMA) was still above the long-term 200 trendlines. However right now even in the midst of a price spike, the 100 SMA is well below the 200 SMA which means there will likely be resistance on the upside path. Both the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic still show oversold conditions, but the RSI seems to be headed northbound.

Order books across a few popular exchange show a nice floor in the $5,700 range where buyers are patiently waiting. There are two nice sized sell walls at the $6K mark and $6,200 region, so there will be resistance in these areas if the price continues upwards. It’s likely we will see some consolidation over the next 6-12 hours between the $5,800-$6K range, and we could see a spike above these levels. If a sell-off ensues, the drops could see targets between $5,600-5,700 temporarily.

‘Community’ Sentiment and Overall Digital Asset Markets

Overall sentiment in the world of traders and markets seems optimistic, but there is still a fervent debate among the bitcoin ‘community’ about the pending November fork. The bitcoin gold fork supposedly happened on October 25 with the team’s website suffering from a DDoS attack. The project is still not live, people cannot mine it right now, except for the developers, and there isn’t much infrastructure supporting this fork. It’s safe to assume there won’t be any more buy pressure from this particular fork but people could still be getting in on bitcoin for the upcoming Segwit2x event.

As stated above the top five digital assets with the largest market caps are all doing well right now. Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $298, and markets are up 0.62 percent, while Ripple (XRP) is up 0.64 percent at $0.20 per token. Bitcoin Cash (BCC) is doing well today commanding a 2.97 percent rise as one BCC is $338 at press time. Lastly, Litecoin (LTC) markets are also up 2.49 percent as the price per LTC is $56.

The Verdict

With the approaching possibility of a hard fork in a few weeks, bitcoin markets will likely still see some good swings and volatility. This volatile action will be enjoyable for day traders, and intra-range players as these types of traders make a lot of money (or lose) during price swings. Moreover, seeing bitcoin hit the $6K territory or above is still in the cards for bitcoin markets over the next two weeks. There will be plenty of price movements for spectators to watch and for traders who live and breathe within these market settings.

Bear Scenario: If bulls start getting tired and can’t push past or consolidate within its current region a drop to $5,700 could be in sight. The market could drop further percentages as well, as order books show a decent floor, but it could give way if there’s enough selling pressure. If so there is another substantial wall that will keep things steady between the $5,400-5,500 range.

Bull Scenario: We can still expect some buy pressure from traders stocking up on bitcoin pre-fork. Fibonacci extension levels at 61.8 percent still indicate a high of $6,500 to $7K could easily happen before the November event. At the moment buy pressure is strong, but traders should expect the value to consolidate over the short term. We could very well see another spike over the weekend.

Where do you see the price of bitcoin heading from here? Let us know in the comments below.



Disclaimer: Bitcoin 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, Coinmarketcap.com, and Bitstamp’s trading view.

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