Crypto valuations experienced a slight pullback Wednesday, though a small contingency of altcoins continued to see impressive gains, a sign that the latest uptrend still had room to mobilize.

Crypto Market Update

Most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies reported losses overnight, raising the specter of a ‘bull trap’ following the latest recovery attempt. The downside risk has since moderated, with a small handful of altcoins reporting gains.

EOS (EOS) gained 4.4% to $3.80, extending an early-week rally that pushed prices to nearly three-month highs. The Enterprise Operating System is up more than 30% since Sunday.

The Litecoin (LTC) price crossed $51.00 for the first time since mid-November, gaining 4.8% in the process. The cryptocurrency has gained a whopping 80% over the past two weeks, which helped to engineer a market-wide rally. Read more: Litecoin Sparks Huge Crypto Rally as Bitcoin Smashes Through $3,700.

Litecoin is benefitting from adoption progress after SpendApp announced it will begin supporting the cryptocurrency at more than 40 million locations. Combined with the anticipated ‘halving’ event in August, Litecoin continues to attract strong bids.

Meanwhile, the meteoric rise of Binance Coin (BNB) continued on Wednesday. The price surged 11% to $10.94, the highest since last August. Binance Coin is benefiting from positive publicity tied to its underlying exchange, including the launch of a new token sale platform.

Maker (MKR), which is comprised of a stablecoin, collateral loans and a decentralized governance framework, rounded out the big gainers on Wednesday. MKR jumped 10.4% to $652.10, placing it in 16th in terms of market cap.

Want an introduction to MKR? Read: What’s Driving Maker (MKR)? High-Priced Coin Outshines Peers.

The combined cryptocurrency market cap is currently valued at $134.8 billion, up from an earlier low of $132.3 billion.

Does the Rally Have Legs?

While appearing sudden, the crypto rally that began on Sunday was actually weeks and perhaps even months in the making. As Hacked predicted before the rally, the sharp rise in coin circulation and overall trading volume, combined with the relative decline in volatility, pointed to higher prices in the near term.

On Tuesday, bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume topped $10 billion for the first time in ten months. Market-wide volumes spiked above $36 billion, levels not seen since last May. And that’s just what digital exchanges are reporting.

Anyone still doubting whether institutional traders are accessing crypto should pay close attention to private bilateral contracts. This private market has scaled up to between $125 million and $500 million per month in the last half year, according to Bloomberg. Recent activity shows that traders have zeroed in on the $4,200 price target, and some are betting large sums that bitcoin can top this level by the spring.

Bitcoin is currently trading just above $4,000 on Bitfinex. While its share of the overall market has declined over the past 48 hours, it is by far the biggest bellwether for cryptocurrencies. Where bitcoin goes, the market follows.

Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

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Important: Never invest (trade with) money you can't afford to comfortably lose. Always do your own research and due diligence before placing a trade. Read our Terms & Conditions here. Trade recommendations and analysis are written by our analysts which might have different opinions. Read my 6 Golden Steps to Financial Freedom here. Best regards, Jonas Borchgrevink.

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Sam Bourgi

4.7 stars on average, based on 773 rated postsChief Editor to Hacked.com and Contributor to CCN.com, Sam Bourgi has spent the past nine years focused on economics, markets and cryptocurrencies. His work has been featured in and cited by some of the world's leading newscasts, including Barron's, CBOE and Forbes. Avid crypto watchers and those with a libertarian persuasion can follow him on twitter at @hsbourgi

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• Tron (TRX) was forced to give up the recent run higher after closure in the red on Tuesday.
• TRX/USD saw a bearish candlestick formation on the daily chart yesterday, somewhat of a shooting or evening star.

The Tron price after a decent push north over the past few sessions saw a minor slowdown on 19th February. TRX/USD gained around 12% from 15th-19th February, as the price managed to find its feet following a break of key support. An ascending trend line was initially running from the back-end of December 2018 up until a breach on 11th February.

At the daily close on 19th February, the candlestick formed somewhat of a bearish shooting or evening star. Should this play by the textbook, then it signals some further potential downside pressure to come. A confirmation of the price moving back south and possibly reversing the recent run of gains would need to see another bearish closure on the daily.

BitGo to Support Tron

Tron announced that BitGo is adding TRX to the list of cryptocurrencies that it supports later this year. BitGo is a digital asset financial services organization offering wallet and custody support. The company already accommodates the likes of bitcoin and Ethereum, plus over 100 other cryptocurrencies.

The CEO and founder of Tron Justin Sun commented following the announced:

“As TRON and its subsidiary BitTorrent work toward our vision of creating a new internet economy that is fast, secure, and cost-effective, we need to work with the companies that can provide that secure foundation. With BitGo, TRX investors will have the most secure wallet and custody options.”

Elsewhere the chief technology officer at BitGo spoke on the latest update to support Tron:

“As TRON and its subsidiary BitTorrent work toward our vision of creating a new internet economy that is fast, secure, and cost-effective, we need to work with the companies that can provide that secure foundation. With BitGo, TRX investors will have the most secure wallet and custody options.”

Technical Review – TRX/USD

As detailed above, the daily candlestick observed yesterday was a bearish closure, ending the run of gains seen of late. If there is to be additional selling pressure, the bears would need to force another close in the red. Should the momentum to the downside pick up the pace, then eyes will be on the next area of support. Daily comfort is provided at $0.023550 $0.021500, $0.018700 and then $0.01750-$0.01600.

In terms of upside targets, the bulls would be looking to break back above the breached ascending trend line. The resistance is currently tracking around $0.027500, and a push north of this could put TRX/USD in an excellent running to retest $0.030000 territory. A large amount of supply is noted through much of this area. If this is successfully broken down, then a fast move could take place up to $0.040000 region.

Disclaimer: The author owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.            

Important: Never invest (trade with) money you can't afford to comfortably lose. Always do your own research and due diligence before placing a trade. Read our Terms & Conditions here. Trade recommendations and analysis are written by our analysts which might have different opinions. Read my 6 Golden Steps to Financial Freedom here. Best regards, Jonas Borchgrevink.

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Ken Chigbo

4.6 stars on average, based on 125 rated postsKen has over 8 years exposure to the financial markets. During a large part of his career, he worked as an analyst, covering a variety of asset classes; forex, fixed income, commodities, equities and cryptocurrencies. Ken has gone on to become a regular contributor across several large news and analysis outlets.

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Tether (USDT) was utilized to a greater extent than ever before on Tuesday, as traders pumped $9.95 billion worth of trades through the stablecoin.

That’s the highest value of daily trades recorded in Tether’s history. While the global cryptocurrency market cap climbed to $136 billion, USDT trades were just a few hundred thousand off that of Bitcoin. Tether accounted for 27.7% of Tuesday’s $36 billion market wide daily volume.

Tether Volume Nears That of Bitcoin

After processing $4 billion worth of trades on Sunday, USDT volume rose steadily throughout Monday. By the time of the market peak Tether was processing the second most trades in the crypto space, second only to Bitcoin.

Excluding transaction mining, BTC/USDT trades dominated ahead of Ethereum and EOS. There’s an opportunity for arbitrage trading between Coineal and Binance at time of writing, where USDT is valued at $0.999847 and $1.01 respectively.

The algorithms that keep Tether stable did their job well today, as the coin avoided the kind of major fluctuation that often accompanies a market pump. Besides Coineal, aggregate prices remained between $1.00 and $1.01.

Tether’s Stablecoin ‘Price Predictions’

In an example of an article that seems like it was written by algorithm, this post details some Tether price predictions for 2019. According to the author, USDT will hit $1.50 before the end of the year:

“Tether price prediction 2019 is up to 1.50$. It seems very less. For now if you buy Tether for 100$ right now then you will get 100 USDT (Tether). So price prediction 2019 shows you will get profit of 50$ within a year. Its mean your 100$ will turn in to 150$.”

The rationale behind the prediction? Corrective and impulse waves:

“Tether forecast shows that price shows a corrective wave. After every corrective wave there will a impulse wave. Inverters should wait for that impulse wave and after that they will gain 50% profit.”

Tether’s clearly defined function as a dollar-backed stablecoin hasn’t stopped others from taking shots at USDT price predictions.

Has Tether Had a Negative Effect on Bitcoin?

When Tether burst onto the scene in 2014 (as Realcoin), many Bitcoin adherents immediately saw doom on the horizon. Rightly or wrongly, they foresaw the prospect of Tether becoming a more convenient on-ramp to the altcoin market than Bitcoin, and so eliminating one of Bitcoin’s useful functions.

Five years on from the birth of Realcoin and that vision hasn’t really come to pass. Bitcoin remains the on-ramp to the altcoin market, while the rebranded Tether has become the off-ramp. How different would the Bitcoin market cap look today if BTC was still the beneficiary of all of the altcoin profits.

Over $30 billion of today’s volume came from top-ten major alts – all of which have USDT pairs on major exchanges. Combined BTC and USDT trade volume today would be just $2 billion less than Bitcoin’s own all-time high changeover.

Disclaimer: The author owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Important: Never invest (trade with) money you can't afford to comfortably lose. Always do your own research and due diligence before placing a trade. Read our Terms & Conditions here. Trade recommendations and analysis are written by our analysts which might have different opinions. Read my 6 Golden Steps to Financial Freedom here. Best regards, Jonas Borchgrevink.

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Greg Thomson

4.5 stars on average, based on 147 rated postsGreg Thomson is a full-time crypto writer and digital nomad. He eats ICOs for breakfast and bleeds altcoins. Wherever he lays his public key is his home.

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