Summary:

  • Jerome Powell, Fed chair, criticized virtual currencies before Congress

  • Three mining companies became “unicorns”

  • Ripple (RIPPLE on xStation5) pulls back towards 33-period moving average

Thursday brought a reversal on the cryptocurrency market. Over the past 24 hours major virtual currencies declined significantly. Bitcoin seems to be partially resilient to this downward pressures as it did not suffer as severely as other coins. The capitalization of the whole market sits a notch below $290 billions while excluding Bitcoin this figure stands above $160 billion. What’s more, Jerome Powell, a chairman of the US Federal Reserve, spoke unfavorably about cryptocurrencies during the semiannual testimony before Congress. On the other hand, three Chinese cryptocurrency mining companies have gotten “unicorn” titles.

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RIPPLE experienced a large fall. The cryptocurrency has lost roughly 5 percent since yesterday. The decline was halted by the 33-period moving average on a H4 interval (a purple line on the chart). Depending on the incoming news flow RIPPLE may deepen declines. Source: xStation5

Firstly, Jerome Powell, head of Federal Reserve, criticized digital currencies yesterday. He said that cryptocurrencies should not be considered real currencies. Fed chair reminded “relatively unsophisticated investors” about risks connected to virtual currencies during hearings in Congress. Moreover, Powell claimed that cryptocurrencies may serve as a great tool to hide or launder money. Let us recall that Powell shares skeptical view about virtual currencies with its predecessor. Janet Yellen, a former Fed chair, called Bitcoin “a highly speculative asset” in the past. 

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BITCOIN, unlike other major digital currencies, resisted steeper declines. The cryptocurrency has taken a minor step back, and it is trading in the vicinity of 8-period moving average (a yellow line) at $7280. A bounce from the mentioned average may allow BITCOIN to retest the last local high at $7550 in the nearby future. Source: xStation5

Secondly, it is worth highlighting that three cryptocurrency mining companies have joined “unicorns” list recently. Namely, Bitmain, Canaan Creative and Ebang, became  the first fully cryptocurrency-related companies on the Chinese unicorns list. The list of unicorns consists of private companies with valuation exceeding $1 billion. Among unicorns one can name such companies as, for example, Uber, Airbnb, SpaceX or Ant Financial. Having said that, one can see how more and more important companies related to the blockchain and virtual assets are becoming.