News updates April 18, 2022

1. Bitcoin Remains at Risk, Why 100 SMA Is The Key:

Bitcoin is still struggling below $41,500 against the US Dollar. BTC remains at a risk of more downsides below the $39,000 support zone.

* Bitcoin is showing bearish signs below the $40,500 and $41,500.

* The price is now trading below $40,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

*There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance near $40,180 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

* The pair could extend decline if there is a clear move below the $39,000 support zone.

 *Bitcoin Price Resumes Decline*

Bitcoin price remained below the key $41,500 resistance zone. BTC seems to be trading in a range above the $39,000 level and below the $41,500 resistance zone.

The last swing low was formed near $39,600 before the price started an upside correction. There was a move above the $40,000 resistance zone. The price climbed above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $41,548 swing high to $39,600 low.

There is also a key bearish trend line forming with resistance near $40,180 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. An immediate resistance on the upside is near the $40,200 level.

 *More Losses in BTC?*

If bitcoin fails to clear the $40,180 resistance zone, it could start another decline. An immediate support on the downside is near the $39,600 level.

The next major support is seen near the $39,180 level. A downside break below the $39,180 support zone could accelerate losses. In the stated case, the price could decline towards the $38,800 level or even $38,500.

2. Liquidations Soar in Crypto Market while Some Traders Hope for ‘Upcoming Bounce’. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC) fell by 3.6% to a price of USD 39,027, while ETH was down by 4.3% to USD 2,916. For the past 7 days, BTC and ETH were down by 7.7% and 9.4%, respectively (as of 10:24 UTC). 

As can often be seen during sharp sell-offs in the crypto market, a large number of leveraged derivatives traders were caught on the wrong side of the bet.

At press time, more than USD 35m of leveraged bitcoin long positions had been liquidated since midnight UTC time on Monday. For the crypto market as a whole, the liquidations reached close to USD 134m during the same time period – a level not seen since the major market sell-off on Monday last week. According to the on-chain analytics provider Glassnode, BTC is in the process of forming a new support level at the USD 39,000 to 40,000 level, after being rejected at the USD 47,000 resistance level in late March.

The report also noted that on-chain activity on the Bitcoin network fell during the week, with active addresses falling by 4.4% and the transaction count dropping by nearly 2.1%.

Meanwhile, bearishness could also be sensed from some popular crypto traders on Twitter, with one such user opining that momentum in the market now “looks terrible.”

3. Crypto expert identifies Bitcoin’s ‘last line of defense’ to prevent BTC falling below $30,000. 

Given that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been subjected to several significant headwinds in recent weeks, crypto trading experts have identified critical support levels that must be maintained to prevent the cryptocurrency’s value from plummeting further.

 
Indeed, according to Ali Martinez, a crypto market specialist, a Fibonacci retracement level at $38,530 has been identified. The expert believes, if broken, it may cause the flagship digital currency to fall even further, perhaps as low as $27,000. 

Similarly, Dutch analyst Michaël van de Poppe has pinpointed a similar level of support which he suggests is ‘crucial’ to stop BTC from falling to $32,000 or perhaps even sub $30,000. It’s worth mentioning that Bitcoin has also fallen by more than 20% since March 28, with over 64,000 BTC withdrawn from crypto exchange wallets worth more than $2.5 billion.

4. Bitcoin․com Exchange Market Insights Report for April 2022. 

In late March, BTC tested $48,000, a key resistance level which had not been reached since September last year. After failing to push through, the marquee crypto saw a reversal to the $40-42,000 level. This had been acting as new support, notably higher than the previous support of $36-38,000 seen in the first quarter of 2022. However, at the time of writing, BTC had dropped below the $40,000 level.

Layer-one protocols led the outperformance over the last 30 days, with NEAR as the best performing large-cap coin. At the time of writing, it was up 64% on the back of a capital raise of $350M led by Tiger Global. Other top performers in the large-cap category included SOL and ADA, up 37.5% and 31.16% respectively over the last 30 days.

Despite a strong 30-day performance, the beginning of April has shown weakness, with the largest sectors experiencing losses across the board. Gaming saw the largest drawback, at -13.3%, followed by Web3 and Defi at -10% and -9% respectively.

April has seen some easing from the headwinds seemingly caused by the conflict in Ukraine, although U.S. monetary policy continues to be the main driver of financial markets. The month started with the release of the core U.S. CPI data from March 2022. At 8.5%, the number was slightly below expectations, which provided some relief to markets.

Nevertheless, 8.5% was the largest month-to-month increase in the core inflation metric since 1980. Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Christopher Waller stated he expects interest rates to rise considerably over the next several months given the current inflation numbers and the general strength of the economy.

Overall one can argue that despite macroeconomic headwinds, BTC continues to find strong historical accumulation across a range of market participants. The realized losses numbers demonstrate that the weakness of some market participants is being absorbed at the current price levels. The resiliency of the market continues to prove strong. Along with an improving macro economic environment, this could provide positive price action in the near future.

5. S&P-500 Companies Accept Bitcoin for Payment in 2022

While traditional media keeps insisting on the fact that cryptocurrencies are hard to spend, plenty of big-name companies started accepting it in 2022 as means of payment. 

Some well-known names include Starbucks, Microsoft, Whole Foods (Amazon, Inc.), AT&T – Telecoms, Overstock, Home Depot, PayPal, Twitch and Etsy.

6. India’s crypto exchanges switch to P2P, bank transfers

Crypto exchanges in India are switching to facilitating user-to-user bank transfers and inward remittances to work around a withdrawal of support from the developer of the country’s ubiquitous UPI payments system, local media report.

7. Oman to Incorporate Real Estate Tokenization in Virtual Assets Regulatory Framework

Real estate tokenization is set to be incorporated into Oman Capital Markets Authority (OCMA)’s virtual asset regulatory framework. According to an advisor with the authority, the tokenizing of real estate will open investment opportunities for local and foreign investors.

8. $1.2 Billion Worth Bitcoin (BTC) Exits Coinbase to Cold Wallets This Weekend. There has been an outflow of more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin from one of the world’s most reputable crypto exchanges. In the face of a falling cryptocurrency market, the $1.2 billion that left Coinbase might imply a big rise in institutional investment and acceptance.