BTC/USD briefly climbed above $8,700 level amid quiet Asian session. Major cryptocurrencies are creeping higher after the Monday's sell-off, but the momentum is weak.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard denied the rumors that Fed might introduce its own digital currency and expressed confidence that digital assets wouldn't threaten U.S. dollar's position in any way. He refrained from lambasting cryptocurrencies but explained that high volatility prevents them from widespread adoption.
"The exchange rate problem is a big deal, because you don't know how they're going to trade against each other," he told CNBC's Seema Mody from the sidelines of the Consensus conference in New York. "That happens even with big-time currencies like the yen and the dollar."
Bitcoin's technical picture
As shown on 4-hour chart, Bitcoin might have a hard time on the way back above $9,000 as it is riddled with technical obstacles, namely 200-SMA ($8,828) and 100-SMA ($8,897). Once these levels are cleared, $9,000 will come into focus. On the downside the support is created by 38.2% Fibo retracement at $8,425, followed by $8,400 and $8,000.
BTC/USD, the 4-hour chart
(Click to enlarge)
Litecoin has been growing steadily for the last four days, though the upside momentum is not strong enough to take the price above key technical levels.
The Gemini bitcoin exchange announced the support for a privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash with a market valuation of over $1 billion and confirmed that it is planning to receive approvals for trading Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. While there are no details about when these two coins will go live on Gemini, the news proved to be positive for all of them. LTC/USD spiked to $150.00 on Monday before reversing to $140.31 at the time of writing.
Litecoin technical chart
The longer-term technical picture looks bearish as long as LTC/USD stays below $160.00 handle. This resistance is followed by 100- and 200-DMA at $161.40 and $161.80 respectively. A sustainable movement beyond this area will take the price to $178.00 and $180.00 though this won't happen any time soon. On the downside, the nearest support is created by $139.40 (50-DMA) and followed by $130.00.
LTC/USD, the daily chart
(Click to enlarge)
Ripple is sitting in a tight range, limited by $0.7500 and $0.7217, now trading at $0,7370 after. The cryptocurrency has recovered from $0.6370 low reached on May 12. Ripple is the third largest coin with the market capitalization $29B, its trading volume amounted to $595M during recent 24 hours. Related: Will Tesla Survive Its Executive Exodus?
Meanwhile, Ripple company announced a new project Xpring aimed at promoting its XRP Ledger technology by providing support to promising blockchain startups that are building their projects on XRP Ledger.
"Xpring is a new initiative by Ripple that will invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur will use the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the open-sourced, decentralized technology behind XRP, to solve their customers’ problems in a transformative way," the company explains in the official statement.
Ripple's technical picture
Currently, Ripple is changing hands at $0.7370 handle, well supported by the upside short-term trendline visible on the hourly chart (now at $0.7200). Further down, $0.7150 (50-SMA, hourly chart) will also provide support. However, XRP/USD lacks a fresh catalyst to push higher towards the key resistance at $0.75 followed by $0.7544 (20--SMA, hourly chart).
XRP/USD, the hourly chart
(Click to enlarge)
By Tanya Abrosimova via FX Street
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