Category: Uncategorized

14 DEC 2020 • 4 minute read

An unpredictable and chaotic year is coming to an end. With the price of bitcoin closing its fifteenth straight day above $18,000 yesterday, it’s a positive sea of tranquility. Will it stay that way this week? Will we hit $20,000?







Here’s today’s market report. If you’re new to the world of crypto, take a look through our beginner’s guide to crypto trading series to get a better idea of all these indicators, starring in-depth explorations of common strategies, market analysis techniques, and more.



The content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. Luno always advises you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.



All information is correct as of 09.30am GMT

Bitcoin price


We closed yesterday, 13 December, 2020, at a price of $19,142.38 – up from $18,803.66 the day before. The price has now closed over $18,000 for 15 consecutive days.



The daily high yesterday was $19,381.54. The daily low was $18,734.33. This time last year, the price of bitcoin closed the day at $7,269.68 and in 2018 it was $3,313.68.



We’re 4.71% below bitcoin‘s all-time high on CoinMarketCap of $20,089 (17 December 2017).



As of today, buying bitcoin has been profitable for…


99.4% of all days since 2013-04-28.



Bitcoin volume


The volume traded yesterday was $25,450,468,637, up from $21,752,580,802 the day before. High volumes can indicate that a significant price movement has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.



Market capitalisation


Bitcoin’s market capitalisation as of yesterday was $355,479,173,806, up from $349,170,613,899 the day before.



Fear and Greed Index


The sentiment remains in Extreme Greed territory at 95. It’s important to remember that the index doesn’t stay this high very often and a correction could be on the cards.







Bitcoin’s market dominance


Bitcoin’s market dominance stands at 64.41. Its lowest recorded dominance was 37.09 on 8 January, 2018.



Relative Strength Index (RSI)


The daily RSI is currently 58.60. Values of 70 or above indicate that an asset is becoming overbought and may be primed for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price – an RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.



Google trends


The trend in Google searches over the last 90 days. Google shows this chart on a relative basis with a max score of 100 on the day that had the most Google searches for that keyword. Today’s score is 56.





Charts provided by IntoTheBlock.com



In/Out of the money


For any address with a balance of tokens, ITB identifies the average price (cost) at which those tokens were purchased and compares it with the current price. If the current price is higher than average cost, address is ‘In the Money’. If the current price is lower than the average cost, the address is ‘Out of the Money’.

Stellar-Based Euro Stablecoin Issued by One of Oldest European Banks

Bankhaus von der Heydt, one of the oldest banks in Europe, has launched a euro-pegged stablecoin powered by Stellar, according to a Dec. 9 press release.

The new digital asset was rolled out in partnership with Berlin-based blockchain startup Bitbond.

Bridging traditional banking and crypto
Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon claims that the “high-quality” regulated euro stablecoin serves as a testament to the promise of close cooperation between traditional finance and the blockchain industry:

“Adding a high-quality, bank-issued euro asset to Stellar is meaningful for our users and builders on our network, powering a new wave of financial innovation, leveraged immediately by Stellar-based apps including DSTOQ, Vibrant, and Lobstr.”

Munich-based Bankhaus von der Heydt — which was founded back in 1754 — became the first banking institution to directly issue a stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain.

The bank first announces the plan to issue the euro-pegged cryptocurrency in July when it unveiled its tokenization strategy.

According to Philipp Doppelhammer, managing director at Bankhaus von der Heydt, the stablecoin has been already adopted by crypto payments firm SatoshiPay:

In our first use-case, SatoshiPay, a blockchain payments company and one of the earliest members of the Stellar network, will implement our EURB into its service DTransfer.

USD Coin on Stellar
Stellar, the most direct rival to XRP, has made major inroads in the stablecoin industry as of recently.

Back in October, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, announced that it would launch a Stellar-based version of the second-largest dollar-pegged cryptocurrency in early 2021.

After hitting a high of $19,918 on 1 December, Bitcoin has completely stagnated to consolidate between the ranges of $18k and $20k. Yesterday, a low of $17,610 was registered, but a quick bounce back above $18,000 was soon recorded on the charts. With respect to its price, CME’s derivatives market is now going through a period of disarray.


SEARCH
AMBCrypto
AMBCrypto
BITCOINWhat is key to Bitcoin Futures, Options markets’ recovery?Biraajmaan TamulyPublished 1 day agoon December 11, 2020By Biraajmaan Tamuly
Source: Unsplash
SHARETWEET
After hitting a high of $19,918 on 1 December, Bitcoin has completely stagnated to consolidate between the ranges of $18k and $20k. Yesterday, a low of $17,610 was registered, but a quick bounce back above $18,000 was soon recorded on the charts. With respect to its price, CME’s derivatives market is now going through a period of disarray.

CME Open Interest flat since ATH

CME‘s Open Interest for its cash-settled Futures has completely flatlined since the 24th of November. After its OI climbed to nearly $1 billion on the charts, the Open Interest consolidated in the current range, while trading volumes suggested a drop in activity after the contract expiry in November.

Additionally, it was also observed that retail traders have been dropping their short positions as well. The drop in shorts did not suggest a rising bullish trend since these positions were possibly only arbitrage between the spot and the Futures market.

Similarly, the CME Bitcoin Options market seemed to be losing momentum as well. According to data, half of the calls were already in the money for the month. The surprising fact was that despite the returns, traders were unwilling to take more risk on the charts.

To understand the difference, last month, only 30% of the positions were towards the near end of the month, but in December, 74% of the positions were already on the near month

SEARCH
AMBCrypto
AMBCrypto
BITCOINWhat is key to Bitcoin Futures, Options markets’ recovery?Biraajmaan TamulyPublished 1 day agoon December 11, 2020By Biraajmaan Tamuly
Source: Unsplash
SHARETWEET
After hitting a high of $19,918 on 1 December, Bitcoin has completely stagnated to consolidate between the ranges of $18k and $20k. Yesterday, a low of $17,610 was registered, but a quick bounce back above $18,000 was soon recorded on the charts. With respect to its price, CME’s derivatives market is now going through a period of disarray.

CME Open Interest flat since ATH

Source: Ecoinometrics

CME‘s Open Interest for its cash-settled Futures has completely flatlined since the 24th of November. After its OI climbed to nearly $1 billion on the charts, the Open Interest consolidated in the current range, while trading volumes suggested a drop in activity after the contract expiry in November.

Additionally, it was also observed that retail traders have been dropping their short positions as well. The drop in shorts did not suggest a rising bullish trend since these positions were possibly only arbitrage between the spot and the Futures market.

Similarly, the CME Bitcoin Options market seemed to be losing momentum as well. According to data, half of the calls were already in the money for the month. The surprising fact was that despite the returns, traders were unwilling to take more risk on the charts.

To understand the difference, last month, only 30% of the positions were towards the near end of the month, but in December, 74% of the positions were already on the near month.
Source: Ecoinometrics

Is Spot trading currently taking Leverage Trades’ spotlight?
While the bull run lasted, leverage trades were extremely profitable. However, since the last week of November, the rally has somewhat slowed down. With leverage activity on a decline, spot activity with respect to Bitcoin has picked up the market share.

Accumulation by institutions and hodling have been common traits in the market, but now there is also a sentiment of holding Bitcoin for a long time off exchanges. So, now people are keener on holding Bitcoin for a long period since an envelope of trust is around it, regarding the absence of massive decline.

For the revival of the leverage market, Bitcoin will possibly need to break the threshold of $20,000. A new all-time high valuation would place the asset at an unseen trading region, one where traders would try to push the valuation as high as possible.

Any recovery of Futures and Options is reliant on such a situation, or else another massive slump would need to manifest in the next few weeks.

A newly-released WordPress plugin called EthereumAds allows content creators to auction ad space and receive ETH in return.

ETH-Based Ad Placement
EthereumAds works like many other auction-based ad services; it automatically allocates ad space to the highest bidder for two weeks. But, unlike other systems, it handles payments via Ethereum.

WordPress has had a fleeting relationship with cryptocurrency. The site was one of the first online businesses to accept Bitcoin payments in 2012. However, WordPress discontinued the payment option in 2016 due to an increase in Bitcoin fees.

Since then, several more cryptocurrency plugins have been introduced to WordPress, including price tickers, payment buttons, and donation buttons. At least 300 cryptocurrency extensions exist.

The new EthereumAds plugin is compatible with independently hosted websites as well as WordPress blogs.

Ethereum vs. Google Adsense
Currently, Google Adsense is the leading tool for embedding advertisements on WordPress and other sites. However, Adsense has faced criticism around demonetization over the past few years. AdSense payments are handled via traditional banking methods, which can be blocked by Google and other parties.

By contrast, EthereumAds is decentralized thanks to cryptocurrency-based payments. Other crypto-based monetization systems such as Brave and Coil have similar strategies. This approach should prevent transactions from being blocked, and these plugins could make it easier for advertisers and publishers to transact freely.

However, the fact that cryptocurrency is a niche payment method makes it unlikely that these cryptocurrency extensions will overtake their traditional counterparts any time soon.