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Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Analysis: Long-Term Growth Targets Enmeshed in Short Term Reversals

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO

The capitalization of the global cryptocurrency market is down by almost 0.7% in what appears as a gradual shed-off of the massive gains recorded in the past 24 hours and since the beginning of the week.

As is obvious based on the imminent volatility in the market, every new pump in price is bound to be accompanied by a reversal, most of which are healthy for a refreshed run. The gradual dip the market appears to be experiencing is based on the price action of the two biggest digital currencies, which are, Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH).

Seeing growths is perhaps a source of delight to market enthusiasts as both cryptocurrencies have wedged through the most difficult of months, paring off gains amidst uncontrolled sell-offs. For Ethereum, the reasons are quite clear, the network fees are reducing its usage and pushing users to alternative blockchain networks while Bitcoin’s struggle is best attributed to early HODLers taking off profits from the skyrocketing runs it made about a month ago.

While both coins appear to be charting different paths for themselves, today’s analysis explores the technicals behind both the retracement being seen, as well as the bull case for imminent near-term growth.

Bitcoin Bears Attempting To Stall Growth

Bitcoin’s market bears, essentially those selling their holdings on cryptocurrency exchanges or other marketplaces, are unrelenting in preventing the joyous ride to new highs. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $53,950 according to data from CEX.IO price feeds, a slight gain of 0.17% in the past 24 hours. The coin was down in the early hours of trading.

Bitcoin’s rise above $50,000 began on Monday and the ultimate goal is to beat the $56,000 resistance to surge past the previous all-time high price above $58,000. The market bears are making this bullish ride a daunting one despite key institutional investors reporting bullish news about the cryptocurrency.

For instance, the Bitcoin technology solutions provider NYDIG revealed that it had attracted $200 million in a growth capital round led by Stone Ridge Holdings Group, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros Fund Management, and FS Investments. This move is set to usher in a basis for new institutional money flowing into the digital currency. The bears are obviously preventing the bulls from riding on this bullish news.

The BTC-USD chart is somewhat divided when it comes to the direction of the price of Bitcoin. The coin’s price has sliced through the Parabolic SAR indicator, showing a price reversal from the uptrend that has been active since March 6th, 2021. Should the bears be forceful enough to keep the price below this level in the next couple of hours, Bitcoin’s price may fall back below the $50,000 support.

The twists that exist in the market could also spell a renewed vigor for the market bulls. With the RSI still in the buy zone and with a bullish short-term moving average, the price of BTC may touch the $56,000 in the short-term, and $60,000 in the mid-term.

Ethereum Price Not Reflective of ETH 2.0 Smart Contract Deposit Figure

Ethereum (ETH) is shedding off more losses than Bitcoin with a dip of 1.24% at the time of writing to exchange hands at $1,808.90. The inconvenience of the current Proof-of-Work model as mentioned earlier is giving competing networks an edge, a bearish enough scenario for Ethereum.

However, the dip to the abyss may not be sustained in the longer term as on-chain data from Glassnode shows that the total value locked in Ethereum 2.0 smart contract deposit address has hit an all-time high of $6,467,550,120.47, showing the trust in the network’s prospect in the long-term.

But with a dropping price in Ether, governed by the Proof-of-Work model, one could argue that the confidence amongst Ethereum bulls is for the future and not necessarily for the price performance of the coin now. However, when we consider the fact that both networks are going to be working synergistically until full integration into the PoS model, today’s Ethereum will undoubtedly benefit from whatever hype Ethereum 2.0 receiving.

Consider the ETH-USD chart on TradingView, the bulls are poised to take control of the market from the bears, suggesting the on-chain data as described is effective in stirring positive sentiments amongst the market movers.

Per the Balance of Power indicator which is close to the 1.00 high, ETH’s bullish trend is unquestionable, a confirmation of which may be given by the Moving Average Convergence Divergence whose line is seen at par with the signal line. Should the MACD line disengage from the signal line and chart a path upward, Ethereum will undoubtedly break the $2,000 resistance in the short term, and $2,500 will be on the horizon in the mid-term.

March 10, 2021
Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 10

The cryptocurrency market appears to be turning bullish again with Bitcoin retesting the highs of around $54,000. Nevertheless, this week’s selection focuses on coins that are not among top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. These three cryptocurrencies all have slightly different use cases, but there is one they all do have at least one thing in common. All three projects could drastically benefit from the recently made announcements, airdrops, or upgrade deployments this week, which makes them a potentially lucrative investment. In must be noted, however, that this is not investment advice and that you should do your own research prior to investing in any of these assets.

1. Enjin Coin (ENJ)

Enjin Coin (ENJ) is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency (ERC1155 token) used to directly back the value of next-generation blockchain assets. It is designed for social gaming as it allows virtual goods to be traded on the blockchain using smart contracts and ENJ as a payment method. The project aims to change the fundamental nature of virtual worlds by providing infinite high-speed transactions between players and game providers at zero cost. More than a million people are already using Enjin’s products to manage, create, and trade blockchain assets.

Buy/Sell ENJ

ENJ sets its new ATH price following scaling solution announcement and increased adoption in Japan

The Enjin team recently announced that their project is evolving into a multi-chain ecosystem for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Enjin’s ecosystem will now spread across the Ethereum, as well as JumpNet and Efinity blockchains and support with the support for both fungible and non-fungible tokens. JumpNet is a layer 2 solution, that acts as a high-speed bridge network, facilitating free and instant on-chain transactions of Enjin Coin and ERC-1155 tokens. Efinit, on the other hand is a NFT-specialized decentralized blockchain that will support next-generation token features and assets from any blockchain. Two-way bridges between Ethereum, JumpNet, Efinity, and third-party chains will be established, enabling users to easily mint and transfer tokens onto multiple networks without having to pay astronomical gas fees.

In addition, Enjin has been approved by the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) in January. JVCEA is a reputable self-regulatory organization. which is also recognized by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). Following the JVCEA’s approval ENJ has been listed on Coincheck, one of Japan’s largest exchanges. This marked an important step in project recognition and adoption, as ENJ became one of just 15 select assets available for trading on Coincheck and the first specialized gaming token to be made available for trading to Japanese investors on this exchange. On March 3, 2021, another Japanese exchange – the GMO coin exchange, has added support for Enjin Coin, indicating that the project is really gaining some traction in Japan.

These events have also materialized in a very bullish ENJ price action. ENJ is up by 110% in the past week and 330% in the past month. The specialized gaming token set its ATH price of $1.94 on March 9. ENJ has since seen a slight correction as it dropped back to around $1.70, where it is currently trading. Nevertheless, the general uptrend is still evident.

2. NEM (XEM)

NEM smart asset blockchain platform launched in March 2015. The platform utilizes a pioneering Proof of Importance (POI) consensus algorithm to validate transactions and issue new XEM coins. In addition, NEM is written in Java and allows applications written in any programming language run on its blockchain, which is achieved through APIs. NEM is used by several financial companies in Japan and is the cornerstone of the Mijin private blockchain.

Buy/Sell XEM

Symbol Blockchain to launch on March 15, Snapshot for the Airdrop Scheduled for March 12

The much-anticipated launch of the Symbol business blockchain is finally just around the corner. The mainnet genesis block of the new trusted and secure business environment is scheduled for March 15, exact time TBC. Three days prior to the launch of Symbol the snapshot of XEM blockchain will take place. XEM holders who have opted in for the Symbol (XYM) airdrop will receive 1 XYM for every XEM held at the time of snapshot. The snapshot height will take place at block height of 3,105,500. At the time of writing, a total of 27,666 accounts, holding 3,825,081,007 XEM combined have confirmed their wish to participate in XYM airdrop. More information about the Symbol blockchain and instructions on how to opt in for the XYM airdrop can be found here.

3. Bao Finance (BAO)

The BAO token acts as the governance token of the fully community-run DeFi yield farming project. Rather than re-inventing the wheel Bao focuses on improvement and adding new features to the existing protocols. The project is a combination of Synthetix and Aave protocol, for Uniswap, SushiSwap, and Balancer markets. While the developer claims that the assets are partially backed by the insurance fund where all Bao fees go, the official website notes: “Bao Finance is in alpha, it is unaudited and was originally developed by a one-person self-taught team. While we are in the process of scaling the team, please understand the risks and use this product accordingly.”

Buy/Sell BAO

BAO to integrate with SushiSwap protocol in Q1 2021

The BAO protocol is considered an altcoin gem with lots of room to grow by many. The anonymous developer posting under the name of @thebaoman is constantly striving to improve the protocol. In light with this high dedication, new, fixed set of xDAI pools has been deployed recently. Users are encouraged to withdraw the assets from the old pool and transfer to the new one, which also features an improved UI. In addition, BAO has recently been featured on SushiSwap’s list of project that will integrate with the DEX and liquidity protocol in Q1 2021. Although the project is still in alpha phase, the FTX exchange has already added support for BAO. Users of the aforementioned exchange can now trade BAO for a USD stablecoin as well as use BAO as a collateral in their margin trading accounts. BAO is currently changing hands at $0.001145 with a 24-hour trading volume of $ 2.89M across 6 exchanges. The project has a $39 million market capitalization, which puts it on the 417th place of biggest cryptocurrencies. However, many DeFi enthusiast believe that the project is set to claim much higher spots on this list, provided that the development of the protocol goes as planned.

March 10, 2021
Handycon: World’s First Handshake Protocol Conference Launched
S.A.R, HONG KONG,, 9th March, 2021, // ChainWire //

HandyCon, the world’s first conference dedicated to the ground-breaking Handshake decentralized domain name protocol, will take place online March 10th through March 11th, 2021 Eastern Standard Time (EST). Presented by the dWeb Foundation, more than 36 speakers will be featured including founders of the Handshake protocol, key platforms like Namebase.io, investors like Vinny Lingham (Multicoin, Civic), and luminaries from the traditional Domain Name industry like Andrew Roesner (Media Options, sold zoom.com, x.com).

Backed by notable firms like a16z, Sequoia, Founder’s Fund, Polychain and Kenetic, Handshake protocol is designed to address issues of centralization and censorship at the root domain level, allowing users to own their own Top Level Domain. This event will showcase the latest use cases of Handshake as well as practical solutions to achieving widespread adoption, from investment to Second Level Domain sales and legacy registry integration and give attendees a solid understanding of the technologies that enable the emergent decentralized web.

Further speakers include: Chjango Unchained (ex-Cosmos), Andrew Lee (Purse.io), Tieshun Roquerre and Anthony Liu (Namebase), Handshake Jesus, Matthew Zipkin, Mike Carson (Impervious), Steven McKie (Amentum), David Vorick (Sia Skynet), Yuriy Dybskiy (Puma Browser), Jehan Chu (Kenetic Capital), Clay Collins (Nomics) and many more.

This conference also marks the debut of the dWeb Foundation, an independent non-profit organization formed by Handshake community members to support the decentralized internet. Unlike most crypto protocols with a centralized founding team, the Handshake community is decentralized with no central leadership. The emergence of the dWeb Foundation speaks to the robustness of the community.

Jehan Chu, Founder, Kenetic and co-Director, dWeb Foundation said:

“Handshake is the original doorway to the Web3 world, and is a critical pillar of our decentralized future. The newly formed dWeb Foundation supporting Handshake development is proud to present HandyCon, the first Handshake conference to bring together the Handshake community on a global scale.”

About Handshake:

Handshake is a decentralized permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing DNS naming zones with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems.

http://handycon.org/

About dWeb Foundation:

dWeb Foundation is a not-for-profit organization domiciled in Singapore dedicated to supporting development, education, grant-making, and integration for the Handshake ecosystem. For more information or to donate or apply for a grant, please visit www.decentralizedinter.net or dwebfoundation/ on Handshake-enabled browsers.

If you would like more information about HandyCon please visit HandyCon.org or handycon.promote/ on Handshake-enabled browsers contact

Contacts
- Mike Michelin
- connect@skyinclude.com
March 9, 2021
Charlie Lee Believes NFTs Are Very Similar to ICOs in 2017
Key highlights:
- Charlie Lee is the founder of Litecoin who sold his LTCs at an all-time high.
- Lee believes NFTs in today’s crypto market are highly similar to ICOs in 2017
- The NFTs market volume has increased rapidly in recent months
Charlie Lee`s view on NFTs

Charlie Lee is famous in the cryptocurrency community as the creator of Litecoin. He is a computer scientist who has previously worked for Google and Coinbase.

This talented scientist, who was interested in Bitcoin, started mining in the early years. The inspiration from Bitcoin led him to create a cryptocurrency himself. He first started with the project Fairbix. The project was not successful, and it had serious problems. However, the project turned out to be a stepping stone towards Litecoin, which has had great success throughout the years. Litecoin used Bitcoin as its foundation, but Lee added some tweaks in order to improve usability.

Lee says that the NFT market has many similarities with the ICO market in 2017. Even though NFTs have been displaying astronomical growth in the last few months, Lee doesn’t seem to be too interested. The valuation of the market is now around $3.44 billion. In his Twitter, Charlie compared the NFT market to ICOs in 2017 and Altcoins in 2013. These were two large booms in the cryptocurrency industry which brought huge gains to early investors, but also burned a lot of later entrants when the respective bubbles popped.

NFTs are tokens on a blockchain that can represent either digital or physical objects – possible applications range from representing digital art to real estate, and everything in between. The total value of the NFTs market was under $300 million in 2019. However, the sector has been experiencing huge growth in 2020, and the market’s valuation is around $3.4 billion at the moment.

Many platforms like CryptoPunks and OpenSea have massive sales for NFTs, and the action has attracted attention from mainstream artists and celebrities as well – Grimes, Deadmau5 and Jack Dorsey are just a few examples. The abrupt rise of NFTs is similar to ICOs in 2017, according to Charlie Lee. He sees many similarities like easy creation, easy understanding, and bringing many new people to the sector.
March 9, 2021
Linkflow launches Crypto Prime Brokerage Service
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 9th March, 2021, // ChainWire //

Linkflow (https://www.linkflow.finance/), a Hong Kong-based crypto prime brokerage service, has announced on Tuesday (March 9th 2021), that along with its traditional asset management offerings, it is launching new digital asset-based services. The service is focused on a platform for providing seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem giving clients unprecedented access and management to a wide array of digital assets. Within the ecosystem there are many value-added services such as: valuation services, fund administration and management, asset lending, access to network staking and ecosystem voting. Linkflow intends for its new product to cater to and attract hedge fund managers and other high networth individuals and corporations from traditional finance into crypto investing to make trading and management easier for non-crypto investors by giving them access to a unified API gateway, secure services, and friendly user experience. Thereby bringing the new DeFi space to traditional investors.

While DeFi is projected to reach 1 billion users and $10 trillion dollars of on-chain value in the coming few years, projects and individuals have been limited by high fees, network congestion, poor user interfaces, and scalability issues. To resolve these issues, Linkflow helps users with access to liquidity, leverage, and yield generation through its own services.

“Linkflow sits in the middle of the DeFi and traditional markets and offers a one-stop-shop for spot and derivatives trading aggregation, margin extension, capital introduction, and even optimized bot trading” said Chris Jung, the president of Linkflow.

The core team was formed in 2018 led by blockchain & financial expert Chris Jung, while the Linkflow company itself was newly established in 2021 with an aim to offer collaborated Defi and Prime Brokerage services. It is headquartered in Hong Kong and has presences in both South Korea and Japan.

The team has been working with more than 30 institutional investors globally from both the crypto and traditional finance space which include: several mining pools with a large presence in Asia, crypto lenders and traders, and quantitative hedge funds with investments in traditional finance and exchanges.

Since prime brokers are in many cases the gateways to the market, institutional investors would greatly benefit from having a one-stop-shop solution like Linkflow to engage with the new, emerging digital assets market bringing easy access to major crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols and products, and a simplified onboarding process.

Contacts

Head of PR
- Jimmy Wong
- Linkflow
- contact@linkflow.finance
March 9, 2021
Kevin O’Leary Says He Will Invest 3% of Portfolio into Bitcoin
Key highlights:
- Kevin O’Leary was previously a Bitcoin critic, but has now changed his outlook
- Kevin says he will be allocating 3% of his portfolio to BTC
- O’Leary plans to invest in Bitcoin miners that are environmentally friendly
Famous American investor Kevin O’Leary was previously a critic of Bitcoin, but he has now changed his mind on the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. A lot of people might know O’Leary by his “Mr. Wonderful” nickname and his prominent role in the investment TV show Shark Tank. O’Leary recently disclosed that he plans to allocate 3% of his investment portfolio to Bitcoin.

O’Leary’s net worth is more than $400 million, and is the chairman of O’Shares Investments, a company that manages ETFs (exchange-traded funds). He is the latest in a string of high-profile figures that have entered the crypto space. We see more and more people entering the industry every day, and it can be a good sign for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

A complete change in attitude

In a tweet, O’Leary talked about different definitions and characteristics of Bitcoin in past years. He said that Bitcoin has been seen as different things, such as a property, currency or digital gold. O’Leary explained that he wants to dedicate 3% of his portfolio to the cryptocurrency, and plans to invest in Bitcoin miners that are environmentally friendly.

The mining process for coins like BTC is energy-consuming, and critics argue that it is damaging the environment unnecessarily. O’Leary says he’s planning to invest in cryptocurrency miners that can ensure their operations are environmentally sustainable.

O’Leary called Bitcoin garbage in 2019

O’Leary previously called BTC “garbage” and a currency without utility. His reason for these statements was the high volatility in BTC’s price. But right now, he thinks positively about Bitcoin’s volatility, and he wants to use this factor in his favor like the institutional investors have been doing. O’Leary appears to have totally changed his view towards Bitcoin, and it can be a positive sign for the crypto sector.

O’Leary is the second Shark Tank investor to enter crypto – Mark Cuban has been openly discussing cryptocurrency, and he seems to be especially interested in DeFi (decentralized finance).

Crypto is an ever-flourishing technology, and the presence of high-profile people like O’Leary and others may promise mass adoption shortly.
March 9, 2021
Concordium Completes $15M Private Sale After a Successful MVP Testnet
Zug, Switzerland, 9th March, 2021, // ChainWire //

Privacy-centric blockchain Concordium has finalized its MVP testnet and concluded a private sale of tokens to fund further development. The company secured $15M in additional funding for the Public and permissionless compliance-ready privacy-centric blockchain.

Late February Concordium announced joint venture cooperation between Concordium and Geely Group, a Fortune 500 company and automotive technology firm. The partnership will focus on building blockchain-based services on Concordium’s enterprise-focused chain.

Concordium recently completed Testnet 4, which saw over 2,300 self-sovereign identities issued and over 7,000 accounts created, with more than 1,000 active nodes, 800 bakers, and over 3,600 wallet downloads. The successful testnet led to the release of Concordium smart contracts functionality based on RustLang, with a select group of community members participating in stress-testing the network. Test deployments for smart contracts included gaming, crowdfunding, time-stamping, and voting.

Concordium CEO Lone Fonss Schroder said: “The interest of the community, from RustLang developers, VCs, system integrators, family offices, crypto service providers, and private persons, has been amazing. Concordium has fielded strong demand from DeFi projects looking to build on a blockchain with ID at the protocol level.”

Concordium will bring its blockchain technology for broad use, which also appeals to enterprises with protocol-level ID protected by zero-knowledge proofs and stable transaction costs to support predictable, fast, and secure transactions. Its core scientific team is made up of renowned researchers Dr. Torben Pedersen, creator of the Pedersen commitment, and Prof. Ivan Damgård, father of the Merkel-Damgård Construct.

Concordium, which is on course for a mainnet launch in Q2, aims to solve the long-standing blockchain-for-enterprise problem by addressing it in a novel way with a unique software stack based on peer-reviewed and demonstrated advanced identity and privacy technologies providing speed, security and counterpart transparency.

The Concordium team intends to announce its post-mainnet roadmap in the coming days.

About Concordium

Concordium is a next-generation, broad-focused, decentralized blockchain and the first to introduce built-in ID at the protocol level. Concordium’s core features solve the shortcomings of classic blockchains by allowing identity management at the protocol level and zero-knowledge proofs, which are used to replace anonymity with perfect privacy. The technology supports encrypted payments with software that upholds future regulatory compliance demands for transactions made on the blockchain. Concordium employs a team of dedicated cryptographers and business experts to further its vision. Protocols are science-proofed by peer reviews and developed in cooperation with Concordium Blockchain Research Center Aarhus, Aarhus University, and other global leading universities, such as ETH Zürich, a world-leading computer science university, and the Indian Institute of Science.

Contacts
- Maria Amalia Rojas
- mar@concordium.com
- +45 42 95 83 75
March 9, 2021
The Top 3 Altcoins to Invest in on Bityard in 2021

We haven’t even completed the first quarter of 2021 yet and a number of crypto projects are already making significant headway in upgrading their networks. The upgrades could strengthen the projects’ positions in the market, and are sure to get the community talking about these projects.

Sign Up on Bityard

Both the technical and fundamental analysis of the crypto markets in 2021 are pointing to the fact that we are in a bull run. This is evidenced by the exponential growth in the total market capitalization of the crypto market, the total value locked in DeFi platforms, institutional interest in crypto assets, and other key metrics. Evidently, most altcoins are poised to grow with this bull wave. However, there are also some altcoins with potential to exceed their peers.

The Bityard trading platform currently lists 32 crypto trading pairs, with plans to add more pairs in the near future. In a cryptocurrency bull market, most of these coins are likely to show significant growth. However, this article has identified the top 3 crypto assets that could outperform all the other coins in this bull run. While the list of trading pairs on Bityard is extensive, this article focuses on 3 projects that seem to be in a particularly strong position.

1. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano can be traded on Bityard through the ADA/USDT pair. This pair has been on a steady horizontal movement throughout the month of January, until the beginning of February when it experienced a trend reversal. It has since been on a steep upward trend, only falling 15.07% in the recent dip of the first week of March. The trend reversal can be attributed to the 3^rd February announcement that the Cardano network would be upgraded through the Mary hard fork, which brought custom token support to the Cardano blockchain.

Buy/Sel ADA

As can be seen from the price chart, ADA/USDT has been trading within a narrow uptrend. It managed to briefly pierce through this boundary in the last week of February when it hit a new all-time high of $1.48. The mainnet launch of the Mary upgrade means that the Cardano network would now be able to handle custom tokens, a welcome addition to the crypto space as traders seek Ethereum alternatives. The green area shows that ADA/USDT could be headed to the $1.5 – $2 range within the next few weeks.

2. Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink can be traded on Bityard via the LINK/USDT pair. The price of the LINK/USDT pair has taken a hit in the recent few weeks, going low to test a support area at $22.8645 just at the beginning of March. However, the pair responded positively to the recent announcements about the network upgrades made to Chainlink. From the price chart, LINK now looks like it is headed to pierce through its all-time high price of $37.0755. Traders and investors could definitiely see the recen announcements as bullish, so new all-time highs are not out of the question for LINK.

Buy/Sell LINK

The news driving LINK’s bullish trend is that of a recent scalability upgrade with the launch of Off-Chain Reporting (OCR). OCR is expected to improve scalability, security, efficiency and performance of the Chainlink network. Effectively, this will reduce gas prices by up to 90% and increase the amount of data that can be brought on chain by up to 10 times.

3. Basic Attention Token (BAT)

From the very beginning of the year, the BAT/USDT pair on Bityard has consistently shattered through key resistance areas to set new all-time highs while at the same time creating new areas of support. This is a sign of a very bullish trend.

Buy/Sell BAT

The major up-down price swings that were experienced mid-February were a great opportunity for traders to buy low, sell high, take profits, repeat. The price chart shows how BAT/USDT swung from $0.2 to $0.6 and back to $0.4 in a space of a few weeks.

BAT is the native token that powers the Brave web browser, and Brave recently announced their plan to integrate a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) aggregator and NFT support in the Brave Browser. With the project also working on a decentralized exchange aggregator, BAT could consolidate into a bullish trend while maintaining the up-down price swings that give traders the opportunity to buy low and sell high.

March 6, 2021
Hurdles To Cross To Reclaim Past All Time Highs

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO

There is a general downtrend in the market today, with few of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap breaking free from the correlation with Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin is down by 4.86% to $47,282.4 according to data pulled from CEX.IO price feeds. Ethereum (ETH) is in perfect correlation with the premier digital currency, dropping by 4.99% to $1,480.35 per coin.

XRP on the other hand appears to be trading independently of the market moves of both coins. The coin has surged 3.73%, erasing some of the losses of the past week, and is exchanging hands at $0.46122.

The market dynamics today show that the many events in the space regarding each cryptocurrency are heralding a unique response across the board. Here is an analysis of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, with a forecast of the price expectation on the trio for each quarter of the year.

Battle For Upswing Becoming More Challenging

Bitcoin is still the unchallenged pivot for the entire cryptocurrency market. Its price-performance at any point has a huge weight on the general market dynamics, and this responsibility is being stretched with a dip in the market today.

The battle to regain the market from the bears has become extremely daunting for the bulls, as the coin’s price was dragged down from the high of yesterday pegged at $50,543.28 to the low currently been seen now.

One factor that we can attribute this dip to is the falling shares of the electric automaker, Tesla Inc. The company has lost as much as 28% of its share value since it purchased $1.5 billion worth of digital currency back in February. Many analysts are tying the fall to Bitcoin, and both assets seem correlated in the dips at this time.

While the foundations of Bitcoin remain strong, the coin is under much pressure to return gains to corporate investors who may need to declare earnings for the quarter. The bearish dives may also stem from the actions of the retail traders to take profit before the big firms pull the rug off their feet.

The BTC-USD 4-hour chart on TradingView confirms today’s downtrend. Relative Strength Index is 44.08, showing the bears are in control, and the price is more succumbing to the market sellers as showing by the Bollinger bands. The candlesticks are cresting below the signal line and towards the lower band.

From current indications, Bitcoin may play around the $45,000 to $50,000 price levels for a while, but an imminent break-out is underway. A top of $52,000 should be seen after the next breakout above the $50,000 resistance.

Ethereum Price Analysis: Charting its Own Course

Some of the proponents of Ethereum may argue that the blockchain has more use cases at this time, a bullish case for Ether, the network’s native token. Ethereum has been seen to be undervalued, despite the network serving as the bedrock for the bulk of the decentralized finance applications available today.

Ethereum has few psychological hurdles to cross on its way back to its all-time high above $2,000. In a bid to retest this level, Ethereum may have to chart its own course, independent of Bitcoin. While trading at $1,480 at the time of writing, the coin has the $1,700 level to sustain, which when achieved, will create the bull-case scenario to hit the new price levels.

Ethereum has formed a resistance below the 100-day and the 200-day moving averages respectively. A break through this resistance, though difficult, may spell the beginning of a bullish run above the coin’s ATH price levels to reclaim a price close to $2,500 in the mid-term.

XRP Price Analysis: A Break Free From the SEC is a Room To Fly

XRP is showing good resistance to the dips of Bitcoin and Ethereum, a trend that came after Ripple Executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen filed separate motions for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit to be dismissed.

The SEC had accused the duo of dealing with XRP as an investment security, a position both have vehemently refuted. XRP has borne the brunt of the legal tussle, and a break free from the SEC may give it room to fly.

XRP’s ultimate ambition is to slice through the $1.00 psychological level that has formed a massive resistance for the coin for months. Should the bulls succeed in pushing the price above this level, a top at the all-time high of $3.83 may be achievable in the mid to long term.

March 5, 2021