Our experts assess the prospects for the Litecoin cryptocurrency and tell us what will drive its price up

In the current cryptocurrency market, Litecoin (LTC) looks attractive to buy. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, the launch in the US of a new exchange for institutional investors, EDX Markets. In terms of funding, the exchange is backed by well-known professional participants such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial. The exchange allows trading in a limited list of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

For example, if you look at Bitcoin Cash (BCH). You can see the reaction in just over a week has increased in value by 3 times.

A similar scenario can be expected from the cryptocurrency Litecoin (LTC). It is close to a yearly high. If we draw an analogy with BCH. After the upward breakout of a significant high, the upward trend began to accelerate.

Second, the continuing risk appetite on global stock platforms. A number of public companies have already fully recouped the decline of last year, and some even updated their historical highs.

Trade plan
Buy LTC after a breakdown of $106;
Risk of 10% of the capital;
Stop loss $96;
Take profit – $150.

Disclaimer:

Crypto-Upvotes does not provide investment advice. This material is for information purposes only. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.

Our experts have analysed the cryptocurrency market and explained how it could change in the short term for BTC

The week from 26 June to 2 July was quiet. BTC/USDt traded between $29,500 and $31,282. The increased volatility was observed at the end of the week on Friday. There were reasons for it. However, the market quickly calmed down, so the consolidation in the limited range causes some optimism. And regarding the continuation of the uptrend through July 22.

In the first half of the week, sellers tried to break the support of $29,900 on the background of the statements of the US Federal Reserve Chairman J. Powell.

He made at the European Central Bank forum about possible increase of interest rates twice this year, but failed. The price bounced back to the $31,282 level. The publication of first quarter GDP data supported the dollar but had no effect on the crypto market.

Bitcoin rose on news that asset manager Fidelity Investments had applied to create a bitcoin spot fund (ETF). It joins other management companies, including BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco and Bitwise, which had earlier applied for a bitcoin ETF this month. In addition, CME Group announced the launch of new futures for the ETH/BTC ratio. And that also had a positive effect on the entire market.

On Friday, the market saw increased volatility. Bitcoin plummeted 5.26% to $29,500 in 15 minutes. For the crypto market, such a dip is commonplace. As the price may well show a drop of 15-20% on negative news.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has told the Nasdaq and Cboe exchanges that recent bids from BlackRock, Fidelity and others for spot bitcoin-ETF funds were not “clear and comprehensive”. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The SEC returned the applications because they lacked sufficient information. Including a so-called joint supervision agreement or details of the mechanism. The fall in the price of BTC has been limited because companies can update the wording and resubmit applications.

Important events and short forecast

The US markets will close early on July 3 and will not be open on July 4 due to the bank holidays, Independence Day. Minutes from the last US FOMC meeting will be published on Wednesday (5 July). And non-farm payroll data will be released on Friday (July 7). These are the key events for the week. Also keep an eye on the news from the SEC and companies that have previously filed for BTC spot ETFs.

Sellers managed to remove protective stops on long positions below $29,800 to $29,900. After falling to $29,500, the price returned to $30,748 and stabilised around $30,400. The ETH/USDt pair jumped to $1,948 after falling to $1,825.

Our experts note that on the whole the technical picture is favorable for the continuation of the upward movement to $34k. The growth phase should last until July 22. Then there will be a downward correction or sideways movement until September. The S&P500 index is recovering well. And there is a reserve for growth in the range of 6%. Buyers still have time to move up before the US Fed meeting.

Our experts analyze the growing interest in the Bitcoin-ETF. And why the approval of applications for exchange-traded funds from BlackRock and Fidelity will not be the main reason for the growth of the cryptocurrency price

Optimism among cryptotraders has increased dramatically. This happened after the world’s largest investment management company BlackRock applied for the launch of the first spot exchange-traded fund (Bitcoin-ETF) in the United States. The mood of investors was reflected in the price of the first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin exchange rate exceeded the $30,000 mark.

The application from BlackRock is different because almost all attempts of the company to launch ETFs for other assets have been successful. That said, other players’ bids to create ETFs. And based on Bitcoin trading as an underlying asset, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected more than 30 times.

On June 29, Fidelity Investments also filed for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Fidelity manages more than $11 trillion in assets for 42 million clients.

A spot Bitcoin-ETF is a product that tracks the actual price of Bitcoin. The idea is for investors to access BTC through a regulated and familiar product. And without actually owning bitcoin at the same time.

Exchange-traded funds based on futures are different from spot funds. They offer investors access to futures contracts and not to any asset. When you buy a spot fund, you’re actually buying Bitcoin on the market. If big players show interest in such a product, it may have an impact on the price of the asset.

The conventional wisdom is that a regulated asset in the world’s largest investment market will attract more investors and capital. Proponents hope that the financial strength of BlackRock and Fidelity will succeed where others have failed.

Dozens of asset managers applied for the launch of such a fund.

The first of them were the Winklevoss twins, who filed their first application back in 2014. And when Bitcoin was trading below $1,000, however, the SEC did not accept such applications. And explaining that the cryptocurrency was traded on unregulated exchanges. The agency says it cannot provide investors with assurances that the market is free from fraud and manipulation.

Following the news of BlackRock’s involvement, companies such as Invesco, WisdomTree, Bitwise, Ark Investment Management and Valkyrie. They resubmitted applications to register their own Bitcoin-ETFs, making some changes to the paperwork.

The only crypto-ETFs approved by the U.S. are based on Bitcoin futures contracts. And which are listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Several futures ETFs have also been able to be launched by smaller players. But that hasn’t led to an influx of institutional interest in cryptocurrency. And buying shares of such funds had no effect on real trading in the crypto market – futures act only as a derivative instrument.

Further perspectives

This situation itself is even more interesting because BlackRock chose to apply for the fund during a period of strained regulatory turmoil. This may suggest that the company is looking positively at the state of the crypto industry in the near medium to long term.

Our experts point out that we are likely to see another round of volatility on the news of the application process. Although the procedure is governed by specific deadlines, but as the periods of the past years show. Then the SEC can make various adjustments and change the deadlines at its discretion. And in doing so, adding, for example, the collection and analysis of public comments. It makes no sense to be tied to specific dates: denial, postponement, and approval can happen at any time.

Bitcoin’s share of illicit cryptocurrency transactions has decreased significantly due to the emergence of many other networks. Scammers and hackers favor the TRON blockchain

$11.5 billion in various cryptocurrencies were lost by their owners in 2022. This happened as a result of hackers and scammers activity. TRM Labs, a smart blockchain solutions company, conducted a study and found. That the collapse in cryptocurrency prices since 2021 had no meaningful impact on the dollar volume of related crimes.

At least $7.8 billion was invested in pyramid schemes in 2022, according to TRM Labs. And $3.7 billion was stolen from hacks. Another $1.5 billion in digital assets was spent on the darknet, a marketplace specializing in the sale of illegal drugs, analysts said.

About $2 billion of the money stolen by hackers was stolen as a result of attacks on firewalls. And which allow the transfer of cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another. Our experts point out that criminals are also increasingly resorting to such schemes to make it harder to track the movement of assets.

Recall that in 2016, two-thirds of stolen cryptocurrencies were in Bitcoin. And in 2022, it accounted for just under 3%. According to the report, Ethereum (68%) and Binance Smart Chain (19%) dominated.

And if in 2016 Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency used to finance terrorism. By 2022, it was almost completely replaced by TRON blockchain assets – their share was 92%, according to the report. This network became popular because of low fees. And that’s why most of the USDT stablecoin’s turnover occurs on TRON.

In May 2023 alone, hackers and fraudulent cryptoprojects stole $71 million in cryptocurrency. Also in early June, the biggest hack of the year occurred. A hacker stole over $100 million from Atomic Wallet cryptocurrency users.

Company Mastercard says its network will get a “level of programmability” similar to famous crypto-assets

Company Mastercard will begin pilot testing the Multi-Token Network (MTN) with tokenized bank deposits. The first trials will take place in the UK with a number of banks and financial institutions.

Selected banks and financial institutions will be given access to the MTN functionality to develop possible use cases for tokenized deposits.

Raj Damodaran, head of cryptocurrency and blockchain at Mastercard, expects That in the future the initiative will also extend to regulated Stablecoins and CBDC digital national currencies.

“Today, the catalyst for the movement of the global economy is regulated money in banks. We are starting to create tokenized bank deposits. The unit of money in the bank account acts as a digital asset in the blockchain, providing the same level of programmability as digital currencies in the crypto-ecosystem,” he explained in a comment for Coindesk.

In October 2022, Mastercard announced plans to become an intermediary for traditional financial institutions to trade cryptocurrencies. A Crypto Secure tool was also announced. And which will help banks to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions going through crypto exchanges.

Our experts note that earlier it became known that after September 25. The company Paysafe Payment Solutions will stop supporting payment services in euros for the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Users of the largest cryptocurrency will have to update bank details. And possibly agree to the new terms and conditions to continue using SEPA services.

Miners had similar trends at the peak of the market in late 2021. And when cryptocurrency prices reached historic highs

Bitcoin miners are sending record high amounts of cryptocurrency to exchanges, according to analytics platform Glassnode. In the last week alone, they sent a record $128 million in cryptocurrency to exchanges. This is more than 4 times the amount of their daily income, the representatives noted.

Our experts note that during the bull period in the crypto market in 2021. And there were also several similar bursts of large transfers of miners’ income to exchanges, as they were fixing profits. Also amid the late 2022 crypto market crash, miners were sending large amounts of their Bitcoin earnings to exchanges.

Typically, when miners send their Bitcoin mining profits to exchanges. They do so in preparation to cash out in cryptocurrency to cover costs and lock in profits. Last week, Bitcoin reached its highest price of the year. And in doing so, reaching the $31185 mark on June 24. However, the sales of miners have not yet reflected on the rate of BTC.

Despite Bitcoin’s price growth of more than 80% this year, miners are still facing difficulties. Since July 2022, the profitability of bitcoin mining has fallen by more than 30%. And since the peak of the bull market in 2021, more than 80%. Rising hash rates and record increases in the complexity of mining, as well as rising electricity prices, suggest that selling mined Bitcoins may be a necessity to cover costs.

Buying shares of four cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds will be available to users through official HSBC trading apps

The largest bank in Hong Kong, HSBC, has allowed customers to buy and sell shares of exchange-traded funds (ETF) for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. And becoming the first bank in Hong Kong to officially approve this service. And this was reported by journalist Colin Wu, citing internal bank documents. According to him, such a move will expand opportunities for local users to work with cryptocurrencies.

Several cryptocurrency ETFs are currently registered in Hong Kong. Such as CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF, CSOP Ethereum Futures ETF and Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF. They are all futures-based funds. And this approach differs from that of the fund of the American investment company BlackRock, which announced the launch of a spot ETF on bitcoin.

Bitcoin Trust and Spot Bitcoin ETFs are products that track the real price of Bitcoin. Their point is to give investors access to BTC through a regulated and familiar product. While not actually owning Bitcoin.

Futures-based exchange-traded funds differ from spot funds in that they offer investors access to futures contracts rather than to an asset.

When you buy units of a spot fund, unlike futures products, there is an actual purchase of Bitcoin in the market. If big players show interest in such a product, it may have an impact on the price of the asset.

At the same time, HSBC launched the Virtual Asset Investor Education Centre. Before trading, users will need to familiarize themselves with basic concepts. And information about the risks involved. The trading service will then be available to them on the HSBC HK Easy Invest app, HSB CHK Mobile Banking and through online banking.

Our experts noted that in 2022, the Hong Kong authorities have set a course to legalize retail transactions in digital currencies. As well as encouraging local licensed crypto-businesses. Also the launch of new assets, linked to the price of cryptocurrencies, on official trading platforms. In March of this year, it was reported that Hong Kong units of mainland Chinese banks. And are considering options to provide services to cryptocurrency companies amid tight restrictions from U.S. regulators.

Our experts talked about the reasons for Bitcoin Cash price growth and its prospects as an asset for big investors

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency reacted with a sharp jump to the news of the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange. For institutional investors, EDX Markets and doubled in less than a week.

The cryptocurrency began to rise in value after news of the launch of EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange for institutional investors, in the United States. Which was backed by major financial firms such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets and Charles Schwab. The new exchange offers trading in four cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The other three assets on EDX were Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC). A week before, BlackRock also applied for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for Bitcoin, which also added to the market’s optimism.

A bit of history

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash emerged in 2017 as a modified copy (fork) of Bitcoin itself with an increased transaction block size. This approach made payments in BCH faster and cheaper compared to the “original” Bitcoin. But it did not solve a number of other technical problems, including the lack of support from interested professional developers. Proponents of Bitcoin Cash promotion, the most famous of which is considered to be Roger Wehr. He positioned it specifically as a currency for everyday payments, as opposed to Bitcoin as a store of value.

Bitcoin Cash has long been a weak asset, losing most of its development team. The coin’s attractiveness for miners was also questionable. And the development of its ecosystem as a crypto project was losing not only to new tokens and more scalable projects. But also Bitcoin itself as a leader in terms of use as a payment instrument.

Bitcoin Cash now

Now there was a change because BCH had a low base effect. This is when one positive factor was enough for the price to take off. And the participants, who played on the decrease, were liquidated. In fact, the price growth occurred precisely due to liquidations, our experts say.

The second important factor was that BCH appeared as an asset on the EDX Markets. The choice of this asset is clear, because it has almost no risk of being recognized as a security. This means they can be traded without the risk of encountering the actions of regulators. Thus, American investors saw this as a signal to buy the asset. And which in the long run could become a legally traded cryptocurrency in the U.S.

Bitcoin is the undisputed leader among institutional investors. But it so happens that BCH, LTC, ETH as old projects of the crypto market also enjoy some popularity among them. The main reason is that these coins have already proved their viability. And secondly, they are highly likely not to be classified as securities. For institutionalists who don’t just manage their own money. But above all other people’s, this is a large and significant factor in making investment decisions, our experts say

Our experts have analyzed the situation on the crypto market and told how it can change in the short term for BTC and the market as a whole

BTC ended the week with the best result since March 2023. The high of the week was recorded at $31,431.

Several factors increased BTC attractiveness to investors:

– BlackRock has applied to launch a spot crypto ETF. The American investment company was founded in 1988. And is one of the largest asset managers in the world with more than $9 trillion in assets at the end of 2021.
– Following BlackRock, four other organizations filed with the SEC: Fidelity, Invesco, Wisdom Tree and Valkyrie.
– The launch of the EDX Market digital asset platform. Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets and Charles Schwab Corp. invested in developing the platform.
– The SEC and Binance.US reached an agreement to avoid an asset freeze.
– The U.S. Supreme Court decided to stay the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

The key event of the week was a two-day speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman J. Powell. Speaking to Congress on Thursday, he reiterated his view that further rate hikes are necessary to curb inflation. The strengthening dollar had no effect on Bitcoin dynamics. Investors were resigned to the prospect of further interest rate hikes.

The U.S. dollar began to recover amid risk aversion. This week its recovery may continue. As investors will become more cautious and avoid risky investments. They will keep an eye on inflation data in the U.S. and Europe. As well as speeches by central bankers at the ECB forum.

Important events of the week and prospects

One of the key reports to be released in the U.S. next week is the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report. And that will be released on Friday (June 30). The core PCE is expected to rise 0.4% in May. And the annual rate will remain at 4.7%. In addition, we will get personal spending and income data. Although the GDP data, which will be released on Thursday. And is an update, market participants can ignore it. Jobless claims will also provide new clues about the state of the labor market.

Buyers have been able to push the cryptocurrency’s price up to the $31,000 level of April 14, 2023. And that’s very good for them, as it has opened the road to the $34k level.

The technical picture on the hourly timeframe indicates a possible correction to $29,650.

Our experts note that the growth phase will last until the third decade of July. However, sentiment on the crypto market changes quickly. Therefore, fixing on long positions is possible, if the news become negative. In this case it may take until August to reach the target area.

Our experts talked about the causes of growth in the price of Bitcoin and how it will behave in the near future

Between June 15 and June 22, 2023, the most capitalized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), went up nearly 24%. The coin crossed the local maximum, which was fixed on April 14, 2023 at the level of $30,958.

Bitcoin, followed by the whole market of digital assets, went up on the background of a number of positive news. Our experts believe that the driver could be the renewed race by major corporations for the right to obtain permission. This will make it possible to launch the first Bitcoin-based spot exchange traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. market and the interest of large companies in cryptocurrencies.

On June 15, it became known that BlackRock, a major investment firm, filed an application with the SEC to launch a bitcoin trust. This company’s initiative, if approved, could simplify institutional access to the crypto industry, our experts say.

On June 20, Deutsche Bank, one of Germany’s largest financial conglomerates, announced its intention to provide cryptocurrency services. In parallel, Wall Street giants Citadel, Fidelity and Charles Schwab launched their own decentralized crypto exchange. On June 21, one of the world’s largest investment firms, Invesco, applied to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. All this news had a positive impact on cryptocurrency rates.

Major companies enter cryptoindustry

Interestingly, large companies enter the crypto industry despite the fact that it is under pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It is noteworthy that not only members of the crypto community do not approve of the SEC’s actions. But also representatives of the authorities. For example, Warren Davidson, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, suggested that the current head of the regulator, Gary Gensler, should be fired.

Also after this news was the statement of the head of FRS Jerome Powell about the need to connect the Federal Reserve to regulate the stablecoin market. Which he called “a form of money” rather than securities.

Powell’s hints about the possibility of further rate hikes should also not be forgotten. Since the U.S. inflation target has not yet been reached. And rate changes could put pressure on the stock market, followed by the movements of cryptocurrencies.

To summarize the intermediate results, active market growth was realized amid unprecedented pressure from U.S. regulators on the crypto industry. The interest of large corporations in cryptocurrencies in the current market conditions looks suspicious.

Possible further growth

In order to expect further growth, for example, to the levels of $40 thousand and $45 thousand. It is necessary for the price to fix above the maximums of April in the nearest days.

Our experts expect further growth of BTC price this year. A lot of fundamental factors point to it. But it’s hard to say for sure whether the growth of recent days is the movement that will lead the price to further significant growth.

It is possible that the slight sideways dynamics, observed over the last couple of months, will continue on BTC for a while longer.