FxWirePro: Bitcoin Price Discovery Through Blend of BTC/USD Technical and Fundamentals

On the eve of Christmas and New Year, with great deal optimism or positivity, bitcoin and its crypto-peer group prices have continued its bullish streaks that have taken place since mid-December. BTCUSD price has rallied to $4,336 levels or up +6.47%, while ETHUSD has also climbed above $151 levels (i.e. up about 13.14%) and so is LTCUSD, spiked-off $36 levels (or +7.99%).

Well, before we move onto fundamentals, let’s just quickly look through some key indications of technical.

Technically, BTCUSD today, has taken support at $4,069 levels (i.e. 7DMAs) and extended last week’s rallies.

The minor trend of this pair shows little strength upon dragonfly doji formation at $4,329 levels, the prevailing rallies are most likely to drag further upon intensified bullish momentum and bullish DMA & MACD crossovers.

On a broader perspective, last week, the bullish engulfing pattern has occurred at $4,071.70 levels which is yet to get confirmation from technical indicators (on weekly plotting), while the intermediate trend breaches below range & retraces more than 78.6% Fibonacci levels, the current price on this timeframe slides below EMAs, bearish swings coupled with bearish EMA & MACD crossovers signal extreme weakness.

Let’s now glance at the recent developments of fundamentals. The new cryptocurrency start-up established by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), is all set to launch bitcoin futures contracts which would be first physically delivery facilities. 

Well, the announcement has been confirmed in the recent past by ICE, that would offer new tracks especially for institutional clients and retail traders to make an access for cryptocurrency trading. ICE, which also operates the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) released the latest specifics about this development.

The Intercontinental Exchange appears to be on a quest to make Bitcoin investing easier. The company is said to be in advanced discussions with the US CFTC regarding the launch of physically settled Bitcoin futures.

Rumors about a cash-settled bitcoin futures contract are circulating since early autumn. In the last days of November, the ICE announced a prospective date for the launch which is set to the 24thof January. The plan is still subject to regulatory approval.

Bakkt, ICE’s “regulated ecosystem” for institutional investors intending to obtain exposure in cryptocurrency-space, that will offer futures against at least three predominant fiat currencies: the U.S. dollar, British pound sterling and euro, according to a document released October 22nd.

The derivatives instrument would be physically-settled and cleared by ICE, as per the document. 

It further elucidates: “Each futures contract calls for delivery of one bitcoin held in the Bakkt Digital Asset Warehouse, and will trade in U.S. dollar terms. One daily contract will be listed for trading each Exchange Business Day.”

Well, overall on a concluding note, contemplating both technical and fundamental factors, we could foresee upside traction of bitcoin prices in the months to come in 2019.

Currency Strength Index: FxWirePro's hourly BTC spot index is flashing at 49 levels (which is bullish), hourly USD spot index was at 37 (mildly bullish) while articulating at (07:37 GMT). 

For more details on the index, please refer below weblink: http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex