Daily Crypto Brief, May 04, 2020 – Bitcoin rejected from $9200 drives the crypto sector down.

Banking on the bulls, long cryptos now!

Cryptocurrencies are dropping on Monday, as the global markets and Asian and European markets decline on concerns over Coronavirus re-opening in the US and White House escalating tensions against China. The heat map of the crypto sector is tainted with red today, the majority of the altcoins easing over five percent. EOS (+8.02%)  Bitcoin Cash (+8.11%) and Bitcoin SV(+7.3%) are the worst performers among the main cryptos.

The following tables show the top ten gainers and losers of the last 24 hours.

Top 10 crypto gainers

 Top 10 Crypto Losers

Top 10 Crypto News Headlines

• Malaysia: Palm Oil Industry Taps Blockchain to Ensure Transparency and Traceability ( Source: btcmanager.com) +
• Bitcoin (BTC) Price Targets $10,000 Prior to Halving: Morgan Creek Digital Co-Founder. (Source: U.Today) +
• Bitcoin Transaction Fees Skyrocket as Indicators Show High Network Activity. (Source: beincrypto.com)  +
• Devs at Blogging Platform Ghost Take Down Crypto-Mining Malware Attack (Source: cointelegraph.com) +
• US Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Riot Blockchain’s Crypto Pivot (source: coindesk.com) +
• Indian Crypto Exchanges Seek Tax Clarity From Central Bank (Source: coindesk.com) –
• Sell the News? Why the Post-Halving Bitcoin Price Drop Isn’t Guaranteed ( Source: cointelegraph.com) N
• US Senate Staffers Float Blockchain Voting if Chamber Goes Remote (Source: coindesk.com) +
• USDT and USDC Market Caps Swell in April As Crypto Traders Flock to Stablecoins –
• BitMEX Restricts Access to Japanese Residents, Citing Changes to Local Law (Source: coindesk.com) –

Score: 7 positive, 1 neutral, 2 negative.

Mainstream News that is affecting the crypto market sentiment

• European stocks skid after a three-day break on worries over U.S.-China tensions (Source: Marketwatch)
• UK coronavirus death toll set to overtake Italy’s with exit strategy still unknown (source: cnbc.com)
• US government report assesses China intentionally concealed severity of coronavirus (Source: cnn.com)
• It’s an insane time for Trump to pick (another) fight with China (source: edition.cnn.com)
• Russia adds record 10,000 coronavirus cases in dramatic turnaround as Putin’s problems stack up (Source: cnn.com)

Score: 5 negative.

Crypto Market Sentiment

News pieces are proxy for investor’s sentiment. The current market sentiment is not driven by the adverse crypto events, but by a broad underlying theme that permeates all current trading activities, which is the SARS-CoV-2 event. Today’s markets seem to move into the red moved mainly by the insistence of the white house to start another episode of tensions against China. Concerns over the spread in Russia and the critical UK death toll figures are driving the European markets, with DAX and CAC 40 dropping over 3 percent, as Italy’s FTSE MIB sheds 2.91 percent and IBEX is falling 2.6 percent. Oddly, the UK’s FTSE 100 (-0.15%) is holding relatively well.

Technical Analysis

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s price action has created an ascending channel. The 4H chart shows a linear regression channel, made by the center linear regression and its edges created at ± 2 standard deviations (Sigma) from the mean line. We see that the price, after bouncing off from near the 9.440 level, it made the first leg down that touched the central regression line. Then it tried to move upwards but ended rejected every time it went above $9000. The last time, on Sunday, it made the second leg down. This time it seems it has found support above $8,550. That said, the technical indicators still show weakness. The MACD is in a bearish phase with no signs of recovery, and the RSI moves downwards, and it is not yet oversold.  The only indication this can be a sideways channel is shown by the Bollinger Bands, which have shrunk and are pointing horizontally.

Overall, we see Bitcoin short-term bearish, but mid-term bullish. This combination of trends would likely make a sideways channel from $8,500 to $9250.

Standard Technical Levels

 Ethereum

Ethereum is also making an ascending channel. The last bullish impulse drove the price beyond the upper +2Sigma edge of the channel before retracing it with strength and almost touch the centerline. After the upward bounce, now the price is making its second leg down. We see on the chart that it has halted and bounced off the support area marked in cyan.  We can see also that the MACD is clearly bearish, and even the RSI shows weakness and is below 40. Finally, the Bollinger bands are turning south, and its -1SD line is well above the current price.  We see also that ETH moves lately below its 50-period SMA (green line).

Considering all these indications, we conclude that ETH is long-term bullish and short-term bearish. We think that under normal market circumstances, the price should respect its support area, although it may visit the bottom of that area ( $190).

Standard Technical Levels

Ripple

We see that after a long period of consolidation below $0.20, Ripple made a strong candle that broke this level out and encouraged the buyers to move its price up to the $0.2357 level. There it found sellers enough to drive the price drastically down and made it touch the central line of its linear regression channel, which acted as support. After some upward bounces, XRP has finally broken the center of the linear regression channel but is currently held by the $0.21 level. We see that both MACD and RSI are bearish, also, but the Bollinger lines still show sideways direction.

Although not as strong as BTC and ETH, Ripple’s trend is bullish.  We can consider the current action as a consolidation period, as it happened in the previous bullish leg in April. This time, we believe XRP could make a ranging channel between $0.21 and $0.229.

Standard Technical Levels

Source: CrytoRocket