Happy Spring Festivalt

Market Report: 4th Feb. 2019 — Subscribe to our newsletter.

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CRYPTO NOTE

The daily view from our desk

Cold War emergency plans for a Royal family evacuation are currently being dusted off in the event of Brexit turning Britain into a Mad Max style wasteland. To add more misery to the pile, Dickensians diseases are apparently making a return. So whilst this island might be destined for a period of anarchy and sickness, at least we don’t let a groundhog dictate when spring arrives!

HAPPY SPRING FESTIVALT

MAY THIS CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE PIG BRING WEALTH AND PROSPERITY TO ALL ALTS

What a nice weekend. While the Super Bowl has been deemed the worse ever, it seems speculating on alternative cryptoassets is again a viable Sunday activity. Specifically, BitTorrent’s BTT lost 15% between Friday and Saturday, but then it jumped around 80%. Naturally, total market cap remains the same as last Friday — meaning any gains have been achieved at the expense of losses elsewhere.

What’s interesting is that most people agree this utility token is not useful. As Ace says, “Imagine paying to illegally download pirated copies of movies”. But, as crypto winter entrenches in, traders have to make omelettes without eggs. Even if we’re far from a bull run, this move reminded @instinctxbt of that time in 2017 when alts were springing up like mushrooms. Just make sure you don’t FOMO!

WALLOWING IN THE DEEP

WALLOWING IN FUD IS MORE THAN BEARISH CONTROL. IT’S ABOUT CONSIDERING ALL OPTIONS

Meanwhile, we’re positive those bathing in BTT’s profits won’t be able to move the rest of the market — due to the small size of their gains relative to the depth of bitcoin and ether’s books and to the width of alternative projects. But it’s possible those profits are cycled surgically from alt to zalt over the coming days. This could entice bulls to feel it’s time to go long on the original cryptoasset.

However, it’s important to note three things. Firstly, as @CryptoTANL1 points out, “everyone’s looking at that bitcoin falling wedge”, which makes it an easy target for a bull trap. Then, Josh Rager notes the forgotten bear flag that hints at a test of the yearly lows. Lastly, consider Murad Mahmudov’s bearish analysis of the decline in Bitcoin-related tweets — which are at the same level of 2014 — and top that narrative change with the analyst’s gloomy take on BTC’s moving averages.

WHAT YOU CAN’T MISS TODAY

DON’T LEAVE FOR THE WEEKEND WHAT YOU SHOULD READ TODAY

▪ Are you a Bitcoin Dev in London? Check out the technical-focused Bitcoin and Blockchain meet-up this Tuesday and the London Bitcoin Devs meet-up this Wednesday.

▪ Do you want to be a Bitcoin Dev in London? The Advancing Bitcoin Conference 2019 takes place this Thursday and Friday and brings great speakers to the table.

▪ Do you just want to be a Bitcoin maximalist instead? Worry not. The Bitcoin Carnivory Club is coming to London, also this Thursday. Buy your steak here for just £200.

▪ Do you need some hopium following today’s bearish analysis? @100trillionUSD offers you his interesting take, explaining how “bitcoin could be massively undervalued”.

▪ Do you need any more reasons to be careful this week? Jonny Moe analyses the failed breakouts Bitcoin faced over the past three Saturdays. Place your bets!

▪ Do you want a controversial crypto headline to scare the masses? The latest MIT Technology Review is here with “the DIY designer baby project funded with Bitcoin”.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE MONEY STUFF

“Basically the way cryptocurrency works is that you keep all your Bitcoins in an account on the blockchain, and to get them out you need the password (it’s called a “private key”) to that account, and if you forget the password there is no one who can help you recover it (this is called “decentralization”) and so your Bitcoins are just gone forever.”

By Matt Levine