We report the traditional weekly crypto market analysis based on the contribution by Aayush Jindal (Cryptonews.com). The analysis was made on May 15.
After a steady rise, bitcoin price faced sellers near the $9,980 and $10,000 levels. As a result, there was a sharp downside correction below 9,800. The price even spiked below 9,500, but it found support near 9,200. It is consolidating above 9,500, with key hurdles on the upside at 9,800 and 10,000.
On the upside: to continue higher, the price must settle above the 10,000 resistance.
On the downside: there are chances of another decline towards 9,200 or even 9,000.
Ethereum price settled above the $198 and $200 resistance levels. However, ETH is facing a major resistance near 205, above which the price might grind higher towards 220 in the near term.
On the downside: an initial support is near 198. Any further losses could push the price below 195 and it could revisit the 192 support.
Bitcoin cash price spiked above the $240 resistance, but it is still facing hurdles near 245 and 250. If BCH continues to struggle near the 250 resistance, it could decline towards the 230 support. The next major support is near 220.
Litecoin is trading above the $43.2 resistance and it could continue to rise towards the $45.0 resistance. A successful close above the 45.0 resistance may perhaps start a strong move towards the 50.0 resistance. If the bulls fail, the price might decline back towards the 41.2 support zone.
XRP price is trading above the 0.200 pivot level and testing the 0.202 resistance. On the upside, the 0.205 level is acting as a strong barrier. If there is a close above 0.205, there are high chances of a move towards 0.212 and 0.220. Conversely, the price might revisit the 0.192 support.
In the past three sessions, many smaller altcoins are up more than +5.0%, including OMG, ZIL, MIOTA, NRG, SEELE, UBT, LEND, THETA, MANA, ETN, HBAR, and RCN. Conversely, CRPT, ABBC, BCN, QNT, SNT, BHT, and DGB are down more than -5.0%.
Bitcoin and Ethereum users complain about rising ‘ridiculous’ fees
Sead Fadilpašić (Cryptonews.com) writes that Bitcoin and Ethereum fees are both getting more expensive. A situation which is generating many complaints among users on social networks.
“Bitcoin fees have been rising following the third halving. On May 12, the average transaction fee reached $2.79, the highest in ten months, jumping further to $5.16 on May 14. Bitinfocharts.com shows the 7-day moving average jumping since May 12’s $2.493 to $3.088 two days later.
In the same period, the median transaction fee climbed +55.0% – from 1.797 to 2.781. The 7-day moving average shows an increase of +25.0% to $1.814. On April 1, it stood at $0.366 and was +395.0% higher on May 14.
“This is ridiculous,” commented Redditor ‘miciomacho’. “[Bitcoin] just doesn’t scale. 72 blocks in mempool & a median fee of [$] 3.19 on the second block.” They added that this kind of fee wasn’t intentional by design, but rather a result of an overcrowded mempool, where all the valid transactions wait to be confirmed by the Bitcoin network. “By the way, if the mempool keeps being overcrowded the fees will keep rising because people just want priority over others to be confirmed,” the poster said.
The actual cost of a transaction on the Bitcoin network is about $35, argues ‘harfatum’, saying that most of it is subsidized by block rewards, “but as that diminishes the users will be forced to carry greater amounts of that burden.” Still, some people are willing to pay higher fees. ‘mysteelersrock82’ believes this is a “small price you pay for having a truly decentralized network that is also the most secure network on the planet.”
Meanwhile, “Ethereum transaction fees are ridiculous as well,” says says ‘phillipsjk’. Redditor ‘ma6ic’ also noted the crowded transactions, arguing that “if the upward trajectory continues and fomo [fear of missing out] sets in, both networks are going to chug to a halt.”
Ethereum median fees have also increased in double digits this month. The 7-day moving average is up by +82.0%, to $0.153 on May 14. Since April 1, it jumped by +337.0%.”
Many Ether whales might be leaving for Bitcoin, data show
Omkar Godbole (Coindesk.com) reports that while Ether’s price has risen by nearly +50.0% this year, the number of addresses holding large amounts of the currency, popularly known as whales, has declined significantly.
“The seven-day average of the number of unique addresses holding 10,000 ethers or more fell to 1,050 on Tuesday. That’s the lowest level since January 2019, according to data provided by the blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode.
The whale addresses are down nearly +6.0% from the December high of 1,115. The metric represents externally owned accounts, or the ones controlled by private keys, and excludes contract accounts that have their own code and are controlled by the code.
The decline in the number of Ether whale addresses is in contrast to the recent rise in the number of bitcoin whale addresses. The seven-day moving average of the number of addresses holding 10,000 bitcoins or more rose to 111 at the end of April, the highest since August 2019.
“Some ETH whales could have moved into BTC in anticipation of potential price appreciation in the top cryptocurrency due to effects of the mining reward halving,” said Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets data.
The bullish hype surrounding bitcoin’s third halving, which took place on May 11, was quite strong and the event was extensively discussed by analysts over the past few months. The bullish expectations were reinforced by bitcoin’s quick recovery to $7,000 in just five days following its drop to $3,867 on March 12.
That may have caused some whales to switch to bitcoin from ether ahead of halving. That is further evidenced by the number of large BTC addresses that jumped by +5.0% in March while those of ether were on a downward trend.
The divergence could continue to widen because bitcoin is used mainly as a value storage vehicle, according to Jason Wu, CEO and co-founder of the Minneapolis-based digital lending and borrowing platform DeFiner.org.” The conclusion is quite clear-cut, as whales seem to be more likely to hold large amounts of bitcoin than ether, whose main purpose is to facilitate, then monetize, the work done on Ethereum.