At time of writing, the cryptoasset markets are continuing to look frothy and quite bullish in both short and long term timeframes. In this long term market and price analysis, we will discuss the fortunes of OKEx’s OKB token and other top cryptoassets.
OKB
This plucky exchange token has suffered the same fate as the vast majority of other altcoins during 2019: bulldozed by Bitcoin’s meteoric rise. Trading against BTC, OKB has achieved new lows in its relatively short price history (only a year old).
(source: Charts.cointrader.pro)
This downtrend versus BTC has, however, has not meant losses against fiat pairings (USD). Because of Bitcoin’s exploding price, altcoins – including OKB – can decline in BTC price while rising in fiat valuation. From this angle, OKB is looking pretty good: having broken a key resistance level near $1.70, the exchange token has trending up and not too far from historic highs.
(source: Charts.cointrader.pro)
Ultimately, the first half of 2019 was not the right time to invest large amounts in the smaller altcoins like OKB. Bitcoin, and a few major altcoins like Litecoin (LTC) were where the action was at and indeed, still seem to be.
But now, when the lows are starting to turn, is the best time to be accumulating tokens of quality projects: it is possible that prices for such quality tokens will eventually turn around and grow considerably. And for OKB in particular, which is a very new coin with little price history, it could easily start a period of “price discovery” of new highs if it gets going.
Bitcoin
At time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) simply looks unstoppable. On both price action and technical indicators, the weekly chart (below) will not stop pushing to new local highs. Last week’s RSI (middle pane) close equal with the previous peak, and the Histogram (bottom pane) put in a higher bar from the previous peak.
This positive showing, throwing the late June shooting star candle straight into the bin, may be what has occasioned the current break of the important $12,000 mark. $13,000 was nearly retested last night; and purely based off the technicals, the chance of another leg of the 2019 bull run seems quite possible at this juncture.
Ethereum
Ether (ETH), the leading altcoin in terms of market capitalization and probably stature, is basically a proxy for the general altcoin market in terms of price action: ETH is beaten down on its BTC pairing, but not looking too bad on its USD pairing.
For a clear picture of ETH/BTC, we must actually head to the monthly chart. Although it seemed impossible that the zone around ₿0.026 could ever break, it now looks like a real possibility for a final capitulation here after repeated hammerings of this level.
The good news is that, if it does break, there is approximately a 20% drop until the support where we can expect some buyers to show up at roughly ₿0.022. Indeed, the weekly ETH/BTC indicators are so far looking nasty: broken RSI trend, bearish MACD cross, savage Histogram downtick. But it is important to note that none of these indicators are locked in until next week’s close.
Moving to the weekly ETH/USD, we see that for all its downtrending on the ETH/BTC chart, Ether is holding up well versus USD. This is of course due to Bitcoin’s inflationary effect on the market; and we can see that a solid “hammer” candle at last week’s close did not come on strong volume – but probably, rather, as a result of this inflation effect.
At any rate, the red zone is stiff resistance, and ETH continues to chew through it one way or another. Indicators on this chart are quite the opposite, and from this aspect Ether looks strong.
Calling the ETH/BTC bottom is thus the main consideration with Ether these days. No doubt it is a dangerous game, and some have surely lost fortunes worth in recent weeks playing it.
Litecoin
Litecoin was one of the earliest performer of 2019, getting started on its own bull run even before Bitcoin did. However, it has more lately been overshadowed by Bitcoin’s rise; and like Ether, Litecoin is approaching some depressed prices on the LTC/BTC pairing.
We can see that the silver crypto (silver to Bitcoin’s gold) is now fully in contact with an important resistance zone, at ₿0.0096. It is not impossible, or even very unlikely that this support could be penetrated if Bitcoin really takes off. However, with Litecoin’s halving event less than a month away, perhaps enough bullish sentiment can be fostered to hold the crypto here.
Looking at the daily of the same chart, and specifically at the indicators, we that a bullish divergence remains on the RSI; but that the Histogram is actually starting to curl back down after flattening out. This is not an encouraging portrait, and at least a bit more downside into the red band may be expected.
Of course, who really cares about the BTC pairing. Looking at the weekly LTC/USD chart, we see a picture of health – owing again to the above-described Bitcoin inflation effect.
The red resistance band around $130 is currently the price to beat. We see that the moving averages are pointing definitively upward, and price is respecting the 9 EMA. Already three red candles have been put in, which matched the longest period of red during this particular Litecoin uptrend. It seems fairly likely that Litecoin will break this resistance soon, either because Bitcoin runs again, or because LTC/BTC finally ends its vicious selloff to the downside.
The views and opinions expressed here do not reflect those of CryptoGlobe.com and do not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research.
