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[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for May 04 - 08, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. Macro indicators paint a completely non-rosy picture of the state of the global economy. However, things in Europe look much worse than in the United States. The European economy has sagged at a record 3.8% in history over the previous quarter and 14.4% over the previous year, while in the United States these figures are just 1.2% and 4.8%, respectively.
Last week, both the ECB and the Fed held meetings. Following the statements made on their results, it can be concluded that both regulators are concerned about the prospects of the crisis deepening, but the Fed can and is taking faster and more effective steps to support its economy than its European counterpart.
In terms of allocations, the ECB's balance sheet has risen by €645 bn since the beginning of March, while the Fed's balance sheet has risen by $2.3 tn. The European Central Bank has lowered the rate for the target long-term lending program LTRO from -0.5% to -1% and announced the launch of the non-target financing program PELTRO at -0.25% but left the key interest rate unchanged at 0%. In addition, investors had expected the ECB to decide on the purchase of bonds of “fallen angels” - securities whose investment rating threatens to fall to “junk” due to the pandemic. But it didn't happen either.
However, the US Federal Reserve also left the interest rate unchanged, which allowed the dollar to stay within the four-week lateral corridor 1.0750-1.1000. After reaching the height of 1.1018, the pair underwent a slight correction and completed the five-day period at 1.0980;

- GBP/USD. In general, the week dynamics of this pair's quotes echoed that of the EUR/USD, however, its correction after the sharp takeoff on Thursday April 30 was significantly stronger.
The pound's weekend sell-off was primarily due to a deteriorating fundamental backdrop in the UK economy. Due to the shutdown of a large number of enterprises, the manufacturing sector PMI fell to a record low of 32.6, which was significantly lower than the critical value of 50.0.
As a result, having started on Monday from the level of 1.2365, the pound finished on Friday in the area of a strong support/resistance zone of 1.2500, losing 135 points to the dollar over the week;

- USD/JPY. With ultra-high volatility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the inverse correlation of this pair with the S&P500 and Nikkei225 is particularly noticeable in recent weeks.
As expected by the majority of experts (55%), supported by the vast majority of indicators on H4 and D1 (75-100%), the past week began with another bear attack on the support of 107.00, which is a significant level for the yen for many months and even years. It would seem the breakdown took place and the pair even reached the 106.35 horizon. But the bears failed to consolidate their success. U.S. exchanges closed the last trading day of April with a vast decline. Futures for the S&P500 lost about 3.0%, while Japan's Nikkei225 rolled back from an 8-week high. Following the inverse correlation rule, the USD/JPY pair turned north and returned to where it started on Monday - to the zone 107.40-107.50. The bears made another attempt to break the level of 107.00 on Friday May 1, resulting in the pair finishing the trading session slightly below it — at 106.85;

– cryptocurrencies. Halving in the Bitcoin network is getting closer and closer. This event overshadows even what happens in connection with the coronavirus pandemic for crypto-analysts and crypto-traders. The wait is not long, everything should happen on May 12. And, as most experts predicted (65%), the main currency went up in the run-up to the halving, pulling along the entire cryptocurrency market. If the BTC/USD pair was at the level of $7,400 on April 24, it was already close to the height of $9,400 on April 30, showing a gain of 27% over 5 days. The number of bitcoin holders with 0.1 coins in their account reached a record level, exceeding 3 million.
However, apart from the bulls-optimists, of course, there are also bears on the market, pessimists, who believe that the halving is already embedded in the Bitcoin current market price, and therefore there are no reasons for its explosive growth at all. This point of view prevailed by the end of last week, when many traders and miners began to take profits, lowering BTC quotes on April 30 to $8,400.
Then bitcoin rose again and by the evening of Friday May 1 it moved to the $8,700-9,000 zone. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization at the end of the week was $ 247 billion (15% per week), and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index doubled from 20 to 40, finally leaving the red zone of fear and reaching neutral values.
As for such top altcoins as Ethereum (ETH/USD), Ripple (XRP/USD and Litecoin (LTC/USD), they obediently repeated the dynamics of the reference cryptocurrency without ever making any independent movements.

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[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. Despite the economic crisis, falling GDP and rising unemployment, April as a whole was very successful for the main stock indices - investors massively bought back assets that sharply fell in price during the March collapse. As for EUR/USD, the European currency, albeit with difficulty, managed to prevent the onset of the dollar. And although the bears constantly pressed the euro to the lower boundary of the side channel 1.0750-1.1000, the pair ended the month where it was on April 01 — near its upper limit of 1.1000. Now, in order for the European currency to be able to withstand pressure, the ECB needs to seriously intensify its actions. However, EU leaders still cannot agree on the form of grants or loans to implement the upcoming aid program. Such slowness reinforces market expectations regarding a possible drop in European GDP this year by 12%.
Now about the week ahead. At the time of writing this forecast, the vast majority of indicators are colored green. However, about 15% of the oscillators on H4 and D1 already give signals about the pair being overbought, which indicates that it may rebound to the center of the channel 1.0750-1.1000, which is agreed by 65% of analysts. The targets are 1.0900 and 1.0750. If the uptrend continues, the pair will try to break through the resistance of 1.1100 and reach a height of 1.1240.
Among the significant events of the upcoming week that may affect the formation of local trends, you should pay attention to the publication of data on business activity and the labor market in the United States on May 05, 06, and especially on Friday, May 08. The unemployment rate in April is forecast to be 10% lower than in March (14% vs. 4%), and the NFP (the number of new jobs outside the agricultural sector) fall from -701 to -20,000. All this will play against the dollar, although, as often happens, the market can take these negative forecasts into account in advance;

- GBP/USD. There are no specific signals from the indicators regarding the future of this pair, although the greens have a slight advantage over the reds. The greens are supported by graphical analysis on D1, according to which the pair will rise to the height of 1.2865 in the next 1-2 weeks, and then another 100 points higher. The nearest targets are 1.2650 and 1.2725. Supports are at 1.2245, 1.2165 and 1.1965 levels.
The experts' forecast for this pair is also neutral: a third of them vote for its growth, a third – for a fall, and a third – for a sideways trend. But when switching from a weekly to a monthly forecast, most of them (60%) expect the British currency to weaken and the pair to fall.
In addition to the deteriorating state of the UK economy, the pressure on the pound is being put on by uncertainty over Brexit, analysts said. Negotiations on leaving the EU have again reached an impasse, and the main Euro negotiator, Michel Barnier, said that Great Britain was refusing any compromises on very many fundamental issues. Moreover, the British have refused any postponements related to the completion of the process of parting with the European Union, as a result of which the possibility of a tough Brexit has once again loomed on the horizon.
The coming week should pay attention to Thursday 07 May, when the meeting of the Bank of England will take place. The interest rate is likely to remain unchanged at 0.1%. Therefore, the Bank's monetary policy report is of particular interest to investors. And here something unexpected is possible. Given that the recession of the British economy in the II quarter is likely to exceed 8%, the regulator can go on expanding the program of quantitative easing, the volume of which currently stands at ? 645 billion;

- USD/JPY. At the moment, analysts' forecast for this pair is similar to the forecast for GBP/USD — when moving from neutral weekly to monthly, the number of supporters of falling yen and rising dollar rises to 70%. As for the indicators, on D1 they strongly disagree with the experts: 75% of the oscillators and 100% of the trend indicators indicate the continuation of the downtrend that began on March 25 and the pair's consolidation below the key level of 107.00. Support levels are 106.35 and 105.00, and resistance levels are 108.00, 108.50 and 109.40;

– cryptocurrencies. First, traditionally medium and long-term forecasts of gurus and cryptosphere enthusiasts. So, the head of the CoinCorner exchange, Danny Scott, said that the financial crisis against the background of the coronavirus pandemic is forcing more and more investors to turn to bitcoin. "If the situation with the fiat, stock markets and oil does not stabilize, you can expect the coin for $20,000 or even more after the halving. Fiat money that even ordinary citizens receive as part of support can be converted to cryptocurrency. People are beginning to fear that the dollar will lose stability and cease to be an asset with minimal volatility".
Warren Buffett's adviser Preston Pish is also optimistic about bitcoin, who believes that the price of BTC can reach $200-300 thousand. His position is based on fundamental principles, which once again include the halving and the subsequent shortage of the coin supply in the market. At the same time, Pish’s position radically diverges from the position of the famous investor and billionaire Warren Buffet, who is an ardent opponent of cryptocurrencies and especially Bitcoin.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper agrees with Pish as well, he has repeatedly said that the BTC will reach $250,000 by the end of 2022 or early 2023. He has once again confirmed this forecast at Virtual Blockchain Week, saying that one of the catalysts for the growth of the first cryptocurrency will be its use in trading transactions. In his opinion, representatives of this sector of the economy can not but appreciate the advantages of bitcoin and the cheapness of transactions. It is hard to argue with the latter, especially after it became known that the commission for the transfer of BTC on April 22 worth $367 million amounted to only 63 cents.
In general, while maintaining optimism, some experts fear that after the halving, due to a decrease in the reward for a mined block from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, only the most efficient miners with new equipment and access to cheap electricity can remain in the industry. Such consolidation may disrupt the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which will run counter to promises to increase the decentralization of mining. However, a possible increase in the cost of bitcoin and a drop in energy prices caused by the current crisis gives hope that small crypto farms can stay afloat, while maintaining profitability.
And now about forecasts for the coming week, which may surprise, as more than half of analysts (55%) predict not growth, but the fall of the BTC/USD pair to the zone of 7,700-8,000. Another 20% predict its movement along the $9,000 horizon, and only 25% expect that bitcoin quotes will break through the resistance at the $10,000 level.


NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

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[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- On July 22, the fate of 1.1 million bitcoins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, whom Australian businessman Craig Wright claims to be, should be decided in the district court of the Florida Southern District (USA). According to the existing version, he worked on the creation of bitcoin together with the late David Kleiman, whose family now claims half of the 1.1 million BTC (over $ 8 billion at the current exchange rate), which, in their opinion, was grabbed by Craig Wright. However, no evidence has been provided that he really owns these coins. Recall that previously the self-proclaimed creator of bitcoin filed suits for the protection of honor and dignity against a number of well-known representatives of the crypto community who doubted that he was Satoshi, and even openly called Wright a fraud. It later became known that the entrepreneur withdrew the lawsuits against Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Blockstream CEO Adam Back. Moreover, in the case of Back, Wright fully paid his legal costs.

- The author of the bestselling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” entrepreneur and investor Robert Kiyosaki has once again criticized fiat currencies and praised gold, silver, and bitcoin. “Why do people become poor? Kiyosaki asked, and he himself answered. - One of the reasons is the definition of money. Real money is a measure of value, a means of exchange, a means of preserving value. Fake dollars do not save value. Own gold, silver and bitcoin, which preserve value, serve as a measure of value and are able to be exchanged. Keepers of fake dollars are the losers."
Kiyosaki ganged up on the American currency because of the US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing policy, which reduces the purchasing power of money. He also believes that since 1971, the dollar has become a debt obligation that makes the rich even richer and the poor even poorer.

- Microsoft published a patent application WO2020060606 on March 26, which describes mining of cryptocurrencies using the human body. The document says that a sensor can be connected to the user's body, which would read data on its activity and transmit them to the cryptocurrency system. The latter, in turn, verifies the information received and, if it corresponds to pre-established conditions, it rewards the user with digital currency. In response to this, famous Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov said in his television program that Bill Gates wants to implant chips in billions of people with the help of this technology, taking them under full control, and do it under the pretext of vaccination against coronavirus. At the same time, the director noted that there is a "diabolical" number 666 in the application number.

- The developer of infrastructure services for the Blockstream ecosystem of bitcoin announced the launch of an updated version of the software to gain access to the first cryptocurrency network via satellite. As part of this space project, Blockstream seeks to solve the problem of using bitcoin in the absence of an Internet connection. The start-up uses six orbital stations to exchange data with a cryptocurrency network in almost all populated regions of the Earth. With the latest update, a satellite has been added to the system to further cover the Asia-Pacific region.

- Less than a week is left until the third bitcoin halving. If in 2009 miners could receive 50 BTC for each block in the distributed cryptocurrency registry, this figure will be only 6.25 BTC in the near future. In anticipation of this event, the amount of computing power used to extract cryptocurrency has reached a record high of 150 exahash per second (EH/s). And since the beginning of 2020, the hash rate of the bitcoin network has grown by about 50%. Analysts associate the surge in activity of miners not only with the halving itself, but also with the Chinese mining enterprises, which again begin to mine BTC after restrictions due to coronavirus have been lifted.
Bitcoin-related and internet user activity has grown. According to Google Trends, the request "to buy bitcoin” has reached its highest value since April 2018.

- The number of “whales” with a balance of bitcoin wallets of more than 10,000 BTC is growing steadily and has reached 111 at the moment. This is the highest since August 2, 2019 and is 11% higher than in early March. Large investors are frightened by the difficult economic situation in the world, including the unprecedented and uncontrolled emission of new money by world powers. As for bitcoin, its volume is limited to 21 million coins, and the monetary policy is programmed in advance and provides for a 50% reduction in the rate of issue every four years. These factors are the reason why many investors are increasingly beginning to regard bitcoin as a safe haven asset and protect against inflation, like gold.

- “Bitcoin is the best investment for me. I have not advised anyone to buy in the last two years, but now I tell everyone - buy!” - said a well-known trader and analyst Tone Vays. He added that Bitcoin will still have problems in 2020. “I do not think that we will rise in price very seriously. Most likely we are stuck between $6,000 and $10,000. And so it will be until the end of the year,” said Vays.



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[Stan NordFX]

Forex and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for May 11 – 15, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. The Constitutional Court of Germany dealt a blow to the ECB's efforts to save the European economy last week. It decided that the European regulator had exceeded its authority regarding the quantitative easing (QE) program, and therefore its decisions were not binding on Germany. This news immediately weakened the EUR/USD position. If you add to this the lack of compromise among EU governments over fiscal stimulus, the risks of Eurozone fragmentation are growing every day.
However, things are not better on the American continent. Publications of recent data have shown that the situation in the US labor market is even worse than expected. 33.5 million Americans have applied for primary unemployment benefits since late March, non-farm employment in April alone fell by 22.5 million jobs, and unemployment reached 14.7% (4.4% in March). Under such circumstances, some experts do not rule out cutting the Fed's interest rate to negative values.
However, it seems that the market is tired and reluctant to respond to individual figures and events, paying attention only to the resumption of business activity and the removal of restrictive quarantine measures in different countries. Of course, the EUR/USD quotes fluctuate up and down, but the volatility that we observed in late February and March is not even present. The pair has been moving in the 1.0750-1.1000 channel for the fifth week in a row since early April, and, as most (65%) experts predicted, even the expectations of a new round of the US-Chinese trade war could not push it beyond these borders;

- GBP/USD. The forecasts of both experts and indicators for this pair had a neutral gray hue last week. A third of them voted for the growth of the pair, a third - for the fall, and a third - for the side trend. The Bank of England meeting on May 7 did not add clarity, at which it was decided to keep the main parameters of the monetary policy unchanged - the interest rate at 0.1% and the quantitative easing program at ? 645 billion. Calls by two members of the Bank’s management to increase the program by ?100 billion never found support from their other seven colleagues.
In such an implicit situation, the pound has been moving in the channel 1.2200-1.2645 for the sixth week, and the range of fluctuations narrowed to the range 1.2265-1.2500 last week, within which, at the level of 1.2405, the pair ended the trading session;

- USD/JPY. 75% of the oscillators and 100% of the trend indicators on D1 predicted last week the continuation of the downward trend that began on March 25 and the consolidation of the pair below the key level of 107.00. In general, the events developed in this scenario. Recall that on the first day of May, the pair made another attempt to break the support of 107.00, ending the trading session slightly below it — at 106.85. Then the downtrend continued, and on Wednesday May 6, the pair groped for the local bottom at 106.00. This was followed by a reversal, and the pair returned to the values of the beginning of the week, ending the five-day period at the level of 106.70;

– cryptocurrencies. The halving in the Bitcoin network is getting closer and closer. When this forecast is written, it is less than four days away. And when you read it, the halving may already have taken place.
The questions that traders and investors ask us indicate that not all of them understand the meaning of this event. Therefore, it requires clarification.
So, Bitcoin is set up to mine just 21 million coins. Thus, unlike Central banks, which can print an infinite amount of their own currency, the volume of BTC is strictly limited, which determines its value, making this cryptocurrency look like gold.
Halving is the process of reducing the reward for mining a block by half. There have already been two such decreases in the life of Bitcoin – in 2012 and 2016. And if at the first stage miners could get 50 BTC for each block in the distributed registry of crypto coins, this figure will be only 6.25 BTC soon. This should prevent the inflation of the main cryptocurrency and make sure that all 21 million bitcoins are completely mined only by 2140
It is important that halving does not occur on a specific date, but at the moment when the next 210,000 blocks are mined. The upcoming halving will occur at block 630,000 and, according to calculations, this should happen on May 12.
In the run-up to this event, the main cryptocurrency showed a weekly growth of almost 14%, rising at one point even above the landmark mark of $10,000. The total market capitalization of the crypto market has reached $270 billion, of which almost 70% is accounted for by BTC. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose in two weeks from 20 to 55, which according to the creators of the index corresponds to the prevailing greed in the market when opening short position is dangerous.
Unlike the benchmark cryptocurrency, the main altcoins either showed zero gain or are in the red zone. Ethereum (ETH/USD), Ripple (XRP/USD and Litecoin (LTC/USD) on Friday evening, May 8, are almost where they were seven days ago, which means that investors are now so passionate about Bitcoin that they just don't care about the rest of the coins.

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[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. The US administration is actively sharpening its teeth, looking towards the Middle Kingdom. Donald Trump gave the command to monitor Beijing's commitments to increase American exports. At the same time, hints are constantly being heard from the US president that China is the primary source of all the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This allows us to expect that the new anti-Chinese customs rates are not far off.
Europe, on the other measure, is trying to make sense of the decision of the German Constitutional Court, which can cause the problems of the European economy to grow like a snowball. Leading banks such as Societe Generale and Citi are talking about a possible split in the Eurozone if the ECB ignores the decision of the German Constitutional Court and thus challenges the German government. Forecasts show that even in the absence of extraordinary events, the Eurozone GDP decline in 2020 could reach 7.7%.
All this fuels the growth of anti-risk sentiment, as a result of which investors again begin to look at the dollar as a safe haven currency. If the ECB is bound hand and foot in its actions to stimulate the European economy, the EUR/USD pair, according to BofA Merill Lynch forecasts, could fall to 1.0200 by the end of the year.
For the next week, the experts' votes are distributed as follows: 35% believe that the pair will still hold within 1.0750-1.1000, 50% expect the dollar to strengthen and break through the lower border of this corridor, and the remaining 15% turn to the North.
The indicators have a slightly different picture. On H4, 60% of trend indicators and 70% of oscillators are colored green, and on D1, red still prevails, in which 60% of oscillators and 90% of trend indicators are colored.
Support levels are 1.0750 and 1.0650, resistance levels are 1.1000, 1.1065, 1.1100 and 1.1150;

- GBP/USD. The pound is still under pressure. The Brexit-related problems have been multiplied by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Bank of England, UK GDP in the second quarter of 2020 "will be almost 30% lower" than at the end of 2019. Despite this, the regulator did not increase the volume of the aid program for the British economy, although, at the current rate of bond buying, it will exhaust current limits by the end of July. What happens next? It's not clear yet.
40% of analysts supported by graphical analysis on D1 and indicators on both time frames (H4 and D1) expect the pair to continue the sideways trend in channel 1.2265-1.2500. Another 40% of experts are waiting for the breakout of the lower border of the channel and the pair's decline to the zone of 1.1000-1.2165, and only 20% believe that it will go up and reach the height of 1.2640. The next goal of the bulls is 1.2725, after taking which the pair will try to rise to the level of 1.2865-1.3025;

- USD/JPY. The v-shaped movement of the pair last week divided experts in half — 50%, supported by indicators on D1, favored bears, and the other 50%, supported by indicators on H4, preferred bulls. At the same time, the latter believe that the reversal of May 06 is nothing but the beginning of a new mid-term uptrend. And if the level of tension between the US and China does not rise, the pair will be able to rise to 109.00 and then to 112.00.
Nearest support levels are 106.20, 106.00 and 105.00. Resistance levels — 107.00, 107.45 and 108.00;

– cryptocurrencies. It is ungrateful to make any predictions in anticipation of such an important event as halving. We have repeatedly talked about the predictions of numerous crypto gurus waiting for Bitcoin to rise to $50,000, to $100,000, and up to $250,000. But, of course, there are those who hold the opposite view. So, for example, financial and cryptocurrency analyst Joseph Young expects a slight pullback after halving, and then a series of medium-term and long-term growth periods, followed by falling quotes or flat.
Another well-known analyst and trader, Ton Vays, believes that the BTC/USD pair is unlikely to rise seriously in price. “We're likely to be stuck between $6,000 and $10,000. And so it will be until the end of the year, " he said.
As for forecasts until the end of May, their spread is very high - from the lows of March 2020 around $4,000 to the highs of June 2019 at the level of $14,000. So far, 65% of experts have sided with the bulls, and 35% have sided with the bears. We will find out who of them is right in the near future. It won't be long now.


NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

#eurusd #gbpusd #usdjpy #btcusd #ethusd #ltcusd #xrpusd #forex #forex_example #signals #forex #cryptocurrencies #bitcoin #stock_market

https://nordfx.com/

 

[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- The halving took place in the Bitcoin network. This event has divided the reward for mining one block to 6.25 coins. Since the beginning of the year, this event has caused a lot of controversy and speculation about what awaits the main cryptocurrency after it. Despite a lot of positive forecasts, the coin survived the halving at the level below 9 thousand dollars. So far, no significant fluctuations in quotes, nor a loss of hashrate have been noted. The market is frozen in anticipation and may be preparing to jump. But which way?

- The head of the Galaxy Digital crypto-trading bank, billionaire Mike Novogratz believes that the main coin will be traded at $20 thousand by the end of the year. And in 2021, if the trend of cryptocurrency acceptance by regulators continues, the asset has every chance to update its absolute maximum. "Bitcoin has been able to survive the halving that was expected for four years, and now it is ready to take new frontiers. We will see a new 2020 high before autumn. By December, we should expect an update of the historical high. Even though the forecast of 10 thousand dollars before halving did not come true, I do not take back my words, since the coin can go to aggressive growth at any time," Novogratz said.

- In addition to Mike Novogratz, there are still a lot of optimists in the expert community who predict a surge in Bitcoin in the medium term. So, according to Leonard Neo, the head of research at Stack, the BTC climb will begin about 6-9 months after the halving. "Miners will adapt to the new working conditions over the next few weeks," CNBC quoted the expert as saying. – We expect that this [market recovery] may take 6-9 months before equilibrium occurs, after which Bitcoin will move to growth." “Further shocks in the global economy may accelerate its upward trajectory,” Leonard Neo emphasized.

- Bitcoin miners added a symbolic message to the last block before halving. It draws a parallel between the current economic situation and the global financial crisis of 2008. "With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue," the miners quoted the headline of the New York Times on April 9, 2020. Adding this message to the block, the miners also paid tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto. On January 3, 2009, the creator of Bitcoin left a similar message in the zero block, using the headline of the British newspaper The Times: "Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks."

- The creator of Hashcash algorithm and CEO of Blockstream Adam Back decided to interrupt a new wave of speculation that he was hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, stating that any coincidence and facts random. The crypto community has repeatedly suggested that it is Beck who can be the creator of bitcoin. His comments on the course of the trial regarding the fate of 1.1 million bitcoins Satoshi Nakamoto, for which Australian businessman Craig Wright poses, added fuel to the fire. We talked about this process in more detail in the previous issue of Crypto News on 06.05.2020.

- Since the second half of 2016, the number of bitcoin addresses with a balance of less than 1 BTC has increased by about 100%. This is stated in a report by analytics company Glassnode. The largest increase was shown by wallets with a balance of less than 0.01 BTC (less than $100). Over the past four years, the number of such addresses has jumped 235% and exceeded 10 million. The number of addresses containing from 0.01 to 0.1 Bitcoin has increased by more than 200% since July 2016. The number of wallets with a balance of more than 0.1 but less than 1.0 coins has increased by 142%. Researchers have also recorded an increase in the number of large holders of cryptocurrency or the so-called “whales”. In four years, the number of addresses containing more than 1000 bitcoins has grown by more than 13%.

- During the pandemic, the use of cryptocurrency ATMs in the United States grew by 40%. Today, Coinstar serves 3,500 crypto ATMs, and now plans to double their number within a year. At the same time, the company claims that this growth was provided by those who used cryptocurrency ATMs for the first time.

- Paul Tudor Jones, founder of the Tudor Investment hedge fund, whose fortune is estimated at $5.1 billion, said on CNBC that bitcoin is an excellent speculation. As for his own approach to cryptocurrency, Jones called it conservative. “I have just over 1% of assets in BTC, maybe the correct figure is closer to 2%,” he elaborated. And he added: “When I think about Bitcoin, I view it as one tiny part of a portfolio. But it may be the best, most profitable of all." Last week, this legendary trader made a loud statement, calling cryptocurrency “the fastest horse” and inviting customers to include bitcoin futures in their portfolio.

- A report from ESTsecurity experts says that North Korean hackers have begun to attack crypto traders with renewed vigor. The infamous Lazarus organization became active again. The authors of the report emphasize that in addition to traders, cybercriminals attack crypto companies, mainly from the Asian region. Lazarus sends emails to potential victims on behalf of organizations purportedly offering asset exchange and storage services. These emails contain malicious files that are stored under the guise of blockchain-based software development agreements. Using the virus, hackers steal victim data and steal funds in cryptocurrency.

- To date, the leading mass media have already announced the "death" of bitcoin 380 times, but the first cryptocurrency is not only still alive, but also survived the very website that first predicted its decline. The CEO of the British cryptocurrency exchange Danny Scott drew attention to this. We are talking about the website Underground Economist, which predicted bitcoin's death on December 8, 2010, when it cost $0.23. "The only thing that has kept bitcoin alive for so long is its novelty. It will either remain in this status of novelty, or it will die faster than you can blink," the publication wrote at the time.


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[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for May 18 – 22, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. There is this expression — “retrain on the fly.” That's exactly what President Trump did on May 14. Prior to that, he talked a lot and often about the advantages of a weak dollar, which would increase the competitiveness of American products in foreign markets and pushed the Fed towards a softer monetary policy. And now, he suddenly announced in an interview with Fox TV: "Right now it's good to have a strong dollar. Having a strong dollar right now is great!” The head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, also supported his President, saying that the regulator did not and does not consider the possibility of switching to negative interest rates.
The main reason for this 180-degree reversal is that the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has sharply increased interest in the dollar as a safe haven currency and trying to counter it is like swimming against the tide. In addition, the US authorities have turned on the printing press at full capacity, and it is very important for them now to maintain interest in their own currency. They are afraid that someone may simultaneously throw a large number of dollars into the secondary market, and in order to avoid this, they carefully fuel the confidence of investors that this currency will grow.
Despite this, EUR/USD quotes do not change much, as the euro is not the Turkish lira or Brazilian real, but a currency comparable to the dollar in scale and reliability. And if the pair moved in the side channel 1.0750-1.1000 earlier, the range of its oscillations now has decreased to 1.0770-1.0890. The pair is gradually consolidating near the horizon 1.0800, forming a triangle on a two-month chart and putting the final chord of the week at 1.0820;

- GBP/USD. Pound forecasts still coincide with realities. The British currency is under pressure, Brexit-related problems have been repeatedly increased by the coronavirus pandemic, and GDP is falling. The pound is falling too. The GBP/USD pair lost about 285 points during the week, striving to break the lower limit of the seven-week corridor 1.2165-1.2650, and ending the trading session at 1.2120;

- USD/JPY. The USD/JPY pair is consolidating around 107.00 confirming the thesis that the yen is the same safe haven for investors as the euro or the dollar. Moreover, the Japanese currency has a clear advantage over the euro¬: if the European currency was losing its positions to the dollar in the last one and a half to two months, the yen, on the contrary, was winning them back. And the EUR/JPY cross-pair has fallen by more than 500 points since the end of March (from 121.00 to 116.00). As for the last week, the Japanese currency was kept in a rather narrow range of 106.50-107.75 yen per dollar for the entire five-day period, and completed it at 107.20;

– cryptocurrencies. For starters, a bit of stats. According to Glassnode, the number of bitcoin addresses with a balance of less than 1 BTC has increased by about 100% since the second half of 2016. Wallets with a balance of less than 0.01 BTC (less than $100) showed the biggest increase. The number of such addresses has jumped 235% over the past four years and exceeded 10 million. And that's kind of good news. But if we make simple calculations, we will get that thanks to such a numerous but "small fish", the capitalization of the crypto market has grown by only $0.5-1.0 billion. A drop in the ocean! But the number of large holders of cryptocurrency, real "whales" who own more than 1,000 BTC coins, has grown by only 13% in four years, which suggests a lack of interest from large institutional investors.
Just one example. The other day, the founder of the Tudor Investment hedge fund, Paul Tudor Jones, whose fortune is estimated at $5.1 billion, said on CNBC that bitcoin is, of course, a great speculation, but he considers it only as one tiny, just 1-2%, part of his portfolio.
Crypto investors and major global regulators do not please. So, the US court sided with the SEC, preventing the owner of Telegram messenger Pavel Durov from launching the TON cryptocurrency. A similar fate befell the Libra coin initiated by Facebook, even despite the fact that the project was supported by another 26 such powerful companies as eBay, Uber, Booking.com, Vodafone and others. All this suggests that the US authorities do not need competitors to the dollar at all, and they will do everything they can to prevent such from appearing.
The May 11 halving in the Bitcoin network did not add optimism to the market either. Since the beginning of the year, this event has caused a lot of controversy and speculation about what awaits the main cryptocurrency after it. And despite a lot of positive predictions, the coin experienced halving at below $9,000. The main cryptocurrency could not gain a foothold last week above the sign level of $10,000, having stayed at a height of $10,003 for only a couple of minutes.
The halving of the miners' reward has already led, according to CoinMetrics, to a 30% drop in bitcoin hashrate. Crypto exchanges started actively withdrawing funds, quotes fell to $8,100, and the total market capitalization of the crypto market by the middle of the week sank from $270 billion to $234 billion (-13.3%). The situation, however, somewhat stabilized by the end of the week, the capitalization approached $260 billion, and the BTC/USD pair aimed at storming the height of $10,000 once again. The value of the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell by 11 points over the week, from 55 to 44.
The charts of the main altcoins, at first glance, repeat the dynamics of BTC/USD, but their recovery is much slower. Unlike bitcoin, etherium (ETH/USD), riple (XRP/USD) and litecoin (LTC/USD) were able to recoup only half of the losses after the May 10 failure.

continued below...

 

[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. Weakening risk sentiment and selling off exchange-traded funds strengthens the dollar. It is now supported by US President Trump, with his threats to sever any relations with China at all, and the Federal Reserve, which has refused to lower its key rate to negative values. Even the judge of the Constitutional Court of Germany, Peter Huber, helped the American currency, saying that the ECB was not “the master of the universe” to comply with all its decisions.
All this has prompted 65% of analysts supported by 60% of oscillators and 100% of trend indicators on D1 to side with the bears and vote for the decline of the EUR/USD pair. The nearest targets are 1.0750 and 1.0650.
10% of experts and 30% of oscillators, painted in neutral gray, have voted that the pair will continue to consolidate at the 1.0800 horizon. And finally, the remaining 25% of analysts predict the pair will return to the upper boundary of the side corridor 1.0750-1.1000. On D1, they were supported by 10% of oscillators that signal the pair's oversold;

- GBP/USD. According to most experts, the pound is not at all the currency in which it is worth investing even with a fall in risk sentiment. It has long ceased to be a refuge from financial storms. The European Union is currently busy with the process of forming its seven-year budget and its financing problems, the ECB is engaged in a fight with the German Constitutional court, and Brussels is not at all up to the settlement of Brexit-related problems. And the UK, in addition to a divorce from the EU, also has a continuously falling GDP, rising unemployment and a negative balance in foreign trade.
As a result, 65% of experts expect a further weakening of the British currency and its decline to the horizon of 1.2000. In the event of a breakout of this important level, the pair will rush to the lows of March: 1.1640 and 1.1450. Bearish sentiment is also supported by indicators on H4 and D1, demonstrating a rare unity: 85% of oscillators and 100% of trend indicators are colored red.
The opposite point of view is shared by 35% of analysts, 15% of oscillators indicating the pair is oversold, and graphical analysis on both timeframes. In their opinion, the breakdown of the lower boundary of the channel 1.2165-1.2650 is false, and the pair is expected to first return to the central zone of this channel 1.2245-1.2465, and then, possibly, rise to its upper boundary;

- USD/JPY. The yen froze, waiting for the next round of trade and now political war between the US and China to develop. We should not forget that its quotes are also strongly influenced by the level of risk sentiment in the market. There is also a correlation with 10-year US Treasury bonds, and the dependence of the Japanese economy on oil prices. Such an abundance of factors does not yet make it possible to identify the most likely direction of the breakthrough of the consolidation zone in the region of 107.00. At the moment, supporters of the pair's growth have a slight advantage (40%), supported by 65% of the oscillators on H4. 20% of analysts turn their eyes to the South and another 40% – to the East.
The nearest support levels are 106.75, 106.00 and 105.00. The resistance levels are 107.45, 108.00, 108.50 and 109.35;

– cryptocurrencies. So, the bitcoin halving has reduced the reward for mining one block to 6.25 coins. Some miners are already leaving the business or selling assets to cover losses. Even before the halving, a lot of equipment for mining BTC gave minimal profit, and now it has become completely unprofitable. It looks like things are heading towards further monopolisation of mining market, which contradicts the very idea of cryptocurrency decentralization. However, many experts hope that the crisis caused by COVID-19 and the printing of fiat by Central banks will nevertheless push the main cryptocurrency up.
“Bitcoin was able to survive the halving that has been expected for four years, and now it is ready to take new frontiers,” said billionaire Mike Novogratz, head of the Galaxy Digital crypto trading bank. According to him, the main coin will reach a level of $20,000 by December, and then the asset has every chance of updating its absolute maximum.
In addition to Novogratz, there are still enough optimists in the expert community who predict a surge in bitcoin in the medium term. So, according to Leonard Neo, the head of research at Stack, the BTC climb will begin about 6-9 months after the halving. At first, miners will adapt to new working conditions, after which bitcoin will turn to growth. “Further upheavals in the global economy may accelerate its upward trajectory,” CNBC quoted the expert as saying.
In the near future, task No. 1 for BTC/USD is to overcome the height of $10,000. Moreover, Bitcoin should not only take this line, but also confidently gain a foothold above it. Only in this case can we expect further rapid growth of quotes of this pair. 60% of analysts agree that it will be able to rise to the level of $10,500-11,000 in May-June. The remaining 40% expect to see the pair significantly lower: in the $8,000-9,000 zone. And here it should be noted that a number of experts draw apocalyptic paintings altogether, predicting the failure of the main cryptocurrency to levels around $ 6,500.


NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

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[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- Instead of searching for a COVID-19 vaccine, European supercomputers were mining cryptocurrency. After stealing access data from service personnel, hackers installed malware for mining on several heavy-duty computers that were used to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The massive attack affected supercomputers in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and possibly Spain. The first case of infection was discovered on May 11 at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Later similar problems were identified at the German University of Ludwig-Maximilian, the Swiss Center for Scientific Computing and the Leibniz Computer Center in Bavaria. Computers had to be temporarily disabled to remove malicious software that was mining Monero coins.

- The yield of bitcoin this year is far ahead of gold. The precious metal has risen in value by 12% since January. The value of bitcoin has increased by more than 35% over the same period. According to experts from TradingView (a social network for traders), the volatility of the main coin was significantly higher, which affected the risks of buying cryptocurrency. But even so, the cryptocurrency market now looks significantly more stable than the stock market. Even the shares of the world's largest banks have lost significantly in price. For example, JPMorgan quotes fell by 37.2%, as a result of which BTC outperformed the bank in terms of market value growth by 300%. Wells Fargo shows the worst result among the study participants: shares of this bank collapsed by 55.3%.
"Even in the economic crisis, bitcoin has the status of one of the best assets to invest in. When the world begins to gradually come out of the current situation, the cryptocurrency market will retain superiority in certain industries. Other assets will be forced to earn credibility again," says Morgan Creek co-founder Anthony Pompliano.

- Analysts at the TIE (a company offering digital solutions) published a report that shows that Twitter users' interest in bitcoin has jumped to a historical high. The upward momentum has been recorded throughout this year, but a sharp spike has come in the run-up to May's halving. Over the past 30 days, the number of posts dedicated to the main cryptocurrency has skyrocketed to its highest point in 2.5 years. And the number of positive tweets significantly exceeds the number of negative mentions.

- China continues to lead in the ranking of countries in terms of computing power in the Bitcoin network. At the moment, just three mining pools, F2Pool, AntPool and BTC.com, account for 52.9% of Bitcoin hashrate (21.8%, 16% and 15.1%, respectively). Moreover, AntPool and BTC.com pools are part of the structure of the Chinese company Bitmain. So, it turns out that this giant and F2Pool together control the lion's share of the global Bitcoin mining. In this regard, a number of industry representatives have already sounded alarm about the reality of the threat of centralization of this “decentralized” cryptocurrency.

- According to the Anti-Terrorism Project, the ISIS terrorist organization banned in many countries stores more than $ 300 million in cryptocurrencies. "I calculated that from 2017 to 2020, the terrorists received about $300 million, which we were not able to detect, and cryptocurrencies can be used to hide them. This is really an ideal mechanism for hiding money. With proper organization, governments will not be able to locate or confiscate them,” wrote the director of the Anti-Terrorism Project, Hans-Jakob Schindler. The statement also says that in 2019, ISIS used cryptocurrencies to organize a terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. 250 people became victims of the attack then.

- The leading cryptocurrency is still unable to break through the $10,000 mark; however, this may change within 72 hours. This was stated by a well-known trader Tone Vays in a live broadcast on the ForkLog channel. "I believe that Bitcoin can go up very seriously. How high? Somewhere up to $12,000,” Vays said. And he added: "If we get stuck now and start falling to $9,000, I will expect us to fall below $8,000. If we break $10,000, everything will be fine.”

- Well-known cryptocurrency investor Tour Demister believes that Bitcoin can make another parabolic rally. In his opinion, the leading cryptocurrency is about to complete the phase of re-accumulation, followed by a powerful breakthrough in its exchange rate. “Bitcoin is fast approaching its second Golden Cross of 2020 - the intersection of the 50-day above the 200-day moving average (SMA). Last year, the Golden Cross led to an increase of 160%. After a false start in February, will BTC get lucky a second time?” - asked Demister.

- Bitcoin will be able to break above $20,000 within the next 18 months, according to eToro analyst Simon Peters. Moreover, the expert does not exclude the option in which BTC will test the value of $50,000, Bloomberg reports. The eToro analyst said that if the United States and many other states really move to negative rates, investment in Bitcoin will begin to grow rapidly. After that, taking the mark at least of $20,000 will already be inevitable.

- The entrepreneur and author of the bestselling book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Robert Kiyosaki believes that the Fed’s incompetence is killing the US economy, so the price of bitcoin will rise to $75,000 in three years. He said he had increased his investment in gold, silver, and bitcoin due to the intention of the US authorities to pour trillions of dollars into saving pension plans. We are talking about a bill on a new stimulus package for the economy, passed so far only by the U.S. House of Representatives. Forbes journalists noted that the section on assistance to pension plans assumes unlimited allocation of funds. “The economy is dying. The Fed is incompetent. Next is the infusion of trillions into pensions. Hope disappears,” Kiyosaki wrote.

- Cryptocurrency payment operator Cryptobuyer announced that Venezuelan residents will soon be able to pay with cryptocurrencies in 20,000 retail outlets in the country. As early as June, Central Madeirense supermarket chain, Farmatodo pharmacies, Cinemas Unidos and many other stores will start accepting BTC, ETH, DASH, LTC, BNB, USDT, DAI and Cryptobuyer own token - XPT.

- Hackers created a fake account of Google founder Sergey Brin on YouTube and promised to distribute 5000 BTC on his behalf. At a certain point, more than 100,000 people watched the live broadcast – an old speech by Brin was shown in a small window, and a fraudulent scheme was promoted against his background. The organizers traditionally offered to transfer from 0.1 to 25 BTC to their account in order to get twice as much. Note that such schemes were popular on Twitter in 2017-2018. The video and the channel are not available at the moment.

- “The creator of the Harry Potter novel series, Joan Rowling, who previously tried to figure out Bitcoin, said she was just “trolling Bitcoin in the hope of increasing her significant Ethereum assets.” True, this turned out to be a joke as well. This is how the writer responded to the speculation of some cryptocurrency media about her possible joining the bitcoin community.


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https://nordfx.com/

 

[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for May 25 – 29, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. Tensions between the U.S. and China continue, which can not but affect the markets. President Trump said he will respond “very strongly” to Beijing’s legislative initiatives. This applies, in particular, to the desire of the PRC to strengthen control over Hong Kong, which has previously served as the cause of unrest in this country. If China continues to take this path, Donald Trump said on Thursday May 21, he “will deal with this issue very decisively.” In parallel, the US administration continues to point to the Celestial Empire, as the source of the global coronavirus pandemic, and requires appropriate compensation from it.
In addition, the United States announced the withdrawal from the “open skies” treaty, which could be a harbinger of a new arms race and reinforces the expectation of another round of geopolitical tensions.
As for the current economic indicators of the USA and the Eurozone, in spite of certain improvements, it is still very, very early to talk about their confident recovery. So, despite the fact that, according to Markit, the composite index of business activity in the manufacturing sector of the Eurozone in May rose from 13.6 to 30.5, consumer demand continues to fall, and the number of jobs continues to decline at a tremendous speed.
In the US, business activity also went up, but there are also huge problems with unemployment. The number of initial applications for unemployment benefits fell slightly during the month, from 2,687K to 2,438K, and the number of Americans receiving this benefit exceeded 25 million.
This situation of economic uncertainty both in the USA and in Europe does not allow investors to give preference to any of these currencies and has been holding the EUR/USD pair in the side corridor 1.0750-1.1000 for the second month running. So last week, the pair first rose to the upper border of this channel, and then sank into its central zone, completing the five-day period at around 1.0900;

- GBP/USD. A whole block of UK macroeconomic indicators was published last week, which turned out to be quite contradictory. It seems that the situation on the labor market has improved: the unemployment rate was 3.9% instead of the forecast value of 4.4%, and business activity in the service sector did not fail either — the Markit index showed an increase from 13.6 to 30.5, the preliminary index of supply managers (PMI) rose from 32.6 in April to 40.6. On the other hand, the consumer price index (CPI) fell from 1.5% to 0.8%, and this despite the fact that the target level of the Bank of England is 2%.
The inflation rate in April proved to be the slowest since August 2009, and such a decline in inflation could prompt the Bank of England to lower interest rates further. So, The Bank's Governor, Andrew Bailey, said on Thursday that it would be foolish to rule out the possibility of introducing negative interest rates. Only a week ago, he had denied the possibility.
In general, as was already said, the situation last week was quite contradictory, and perhaps that’s why the pound slowed down, and the dynamics of the GBP/USD pair as a whole repeated the dynamics of EUR/USD: having found the local bottom at 1.2070, the pair turned around and went up to the height of 1.2295. This was followed by another reversal and decline, including by Andrew Bailey's statement, to 1.2170;

- USD/JPY. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda issued a statement on Friday May 22 that the government and the country's Central Bank would work together on putting the economy back on the path of growth. The high officials have noted that the number of bankruptcies in Japan has grown rapidly over the past month. In this regard, Kuroda announced a program worth 30 trillion yen, under which companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic will be able to obtain loans without collateral and at a zero interest rate. Such steps by the regulator to ease monetary policy push the pair up, although this movement can not be called strong. Over 2.5 weeks, its quotes increased from 106.00 to 107.60, as a result of which, having drawn the letter V, the pair returned to where it was already in early and in mid April, to the zone 107.30-108.00;

– cryptocurrencies. Let's start with secrets and mysteries. For the first time in a year, unknown people transferred more than 28 BTC ($258 thousand) to an anonymous address from the wallet where the bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex exchange were stored. But this is not a sensation, but a topic for police investigation. The sensation is that Bitcoins, possibly belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto himself, also began to move! The crypto community has always been interested in coins mined at the origin of the network when they were mined by only a few people, including the creator of bitcoin. And now 50 BTC, which had been lying dead weight since 2009, are in motion.
According to some analysts, these and other processes are directly related to the consequences of halving. Against the background of the falling hashrate in the last recalculation, the complexity of bitcoin mining also decreased, but this has not helped to normalize the situation so far. Despite the best efforts of the bulls, the BTC/USD pair never managed to break the key level of $10,000. But, as you know, what does not grow, falls. After not waiting for the long-awaited jerk up after the halving, many traders began to eliminate their long positions and take profits, as a result of which the quotes of the main cryptocurrency fell by about 10%, to the level of $9,000.
As a result of the sell-off, the total capitalization of the crypto market fell from a May 18 high of $273 billion to $246 billion on May 21, but the value of the Crypto Fear & Greed Index is about the same level as a week ago, 42 vs. 44.
It should be noted that, despite the small drawdown of BTC/USD, the profitability of bitcoin this year was far ahead of gold. The precious metal has risen in value by 12% since January, while bitcoin has risen by about 30%. The advantage of the main cryptocurrency over the stock market looks much more impressive. For example, JPMorgan quotes fell by 37.2%, as a result of which BTC bypassed this bank in terms of market value growth by more than 200%.
But the most impressive result was not bitcoin at all, but Ethereum, which has "grown fat" by almost 55% since the beginning of the year. According to a number of experts, ETH has very good prospects as its network becomes increasingly active. This is due, among other things, to the launch of decentralized financial applications (DeFi), which reduce the circulation of coins, creating an effect similar to the BTC halving.
The main altcoin was supported by the author of the Harry Potter series of novels, J.K. Rowling. Previously, she tried to figure out bitcoin, after which she stated that she was only “trolling bitcoin in the hope of increasing her significant ethereum assets.” True, this turned out to be a joke, but additional PR to ETH coins was provided.
At the moment, apologists for the main cryptocurrency do not consider ETH a competitor - the share of bitcoin in the market is 65% compared to 8.4% for ethereum. But it is enough to recall the middle of June 2017, when these coins were close to parity - 38% and 31%, and ask the question: why should the situation not happen again?

continued below...

 

[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. As already mentioned in the first part of our review, while maintaining the current status quo, the pair has a lot of chances to stay within the side channel 1.0750-1.1000. However, further escalation of geopolitical tensions, reinforced by the repeated outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, is able to return gloomy moods to the markets again. Most likely, there will be no new panic, but interest in protective assets such as the US dollar will begin to grow again. For this reason, most experts (70%) do not rule out a breakthrough of support 1.0750 and a decrease of the pair to the lows of March in the area of 1.0635. The possibility of raising the pair to the zone 1.1100-1.1240 in the medium term is considered only by 30% of analysts.
Among the events that should be noted in the coming week are the release on May 28 of data on orders for durable goods, unemployment and US GDP, as well as, a day later, on May 29, data on the consumer market in the Eurozone;

- GBP/USD. Despite some positive macroeconomic data, the overall situation in the British economy does not look very happy. And this may push the Bank of England to increase the quantitative easing (QE) program by ?100 billion and lower the key interest rate to negative values. All these factors continue to pressure the pound, especially as the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, categorically stated that his organization is not considering the possibility of imposing negative rates on the US dollar.
At the moment 70% of analysts believe that the last week's correction has finished, and the pair is expected to further decline first to the horizon of 1.2075, and then to support 1.2000. In the event of a breakout of this important level, the pair will rush to the lows of March: 1.1640 and 1.1400.
85% of oscillators and 100% of trend indicators on H4 and D1 side with the bears. The remaining 15% of oscillators give signals that the pair is oversold, which 30% of experts agree with. In their opinion, the pair is expected to return first to the central zone of the channel 1.2165-1.2650, and then, possibly, rise to its upper boundary.
The compromise option is offered by graphical analysis on D1, which draws first a rise to 1.2350, and then a decrease by mid-June to 1.1400;

- USD/JPY. A strong decline in activity in the Japanese economy (the second largest economy in Asia and the third in the world after the economies of the USA and China) continues, and therefore inflation in the country will decrease, and production growth will slow down at least until early 2021. The Bank of Japan has been trying for a long time to warm up inflation by launching various incentive programs and keeping key rates in the red zone. However, there are still no major gains in sight, and further steps in this direction will only increase the pressure on the yen. The demand for the yen as for the haven-currency is on the opposite side of the scale, which will rise as the political and economic conflicts between the US and the PRC escalate. But this factor is more likely to affect the cross-rates of the Japanese currency, as the investors also see the dollar as a protective asset, even stronger than the yen.
However, 65% of experts expect the return of the USD/JPY pair to the minimum of May 06 in the 106.00 zone at the moment. Supports are 107.30, 106.80 and 106.20. Further growth of the pair is possible according to 35% of analysts. The targets are 107.85, 108.00, 108.50 and 109.25;

– cryptocurrencies. Traditionally, first about the medium - and long-term forecasts of well-known crypto enthusiasts. So, the Bloomberg Agency cites analyst Simon Peters that within the next 18 months, bitcoin will be able to break above $20,000. According to Peters, if the US and many other states do move to negative rates, the capital investment in bitcoin will start to grow at a rapid pace. After that, taking a mark of at least $20,000 will be inevitable, and the appearance of BTC/USD near the height of $ 50,000 is not ruled out.
A somewhat smoother takeoff is drawn by entrepreneur and author of the bestseller "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" Robert Kiyosaki, according to whom, the intention of the US authorities to pour trillions of dollars into saving the pension plans will kill the economy of this country, which will cause the price of bitcoin to grow to $75,000 in three years.
If Kiyosaki measures the future of BTC by three years, renowned trader Tone Vays capped his forecast to just three days. He said live on ForkLog that “Bitcoin could rise very seriously. How high? Somewhere up to $12,000,” Vays said. And he added: "If we get stuck now and start falling to $9,000, I will expect us to fall below $8,000. Three days have passed, bitcoin is stuck at $9,000, and now, according to Vays's forecast, should we wait for its further collapse?
If we talk about the scenario for the coming week, here the votes of experts were more or less evenly distributed in the range of $8,400-10,000. But if we move on to a longer-term forecast, 80% of analysts are sure that bitcoin will still be able to gain a foothold above the $10,000 horizon by the end of June. However, of course, there are also pessimists who remind, as recently, between two “bad” dates — February 13 and March 13, just a month away, bitcoin collapsed from $10,480 to $3,845, making one think of its ultimate collapse.

NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

#eurusd #gbpusd #usdjpy #btcusd #ethusd #ltcusd #xrpusd #forex #forex_example #signals #forex #cryptocurrencies #bitcoin #stock_market

https://nordfx.com/

 

[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- China can legalize the transfer of cryptocurrency by inheritance. The relevant bill has already been submitted to the Chinese authorities. The document notes that funds that will be transferred by inheritance must necessarily be registered in the form of income from mining, exchange of assets or sale of property with receipt of profit. However, this initiative has many opponents. “The community is not sure that digital assets can be brought out of the shadows by this method. If private owners decide on this, they will have to face many bureaucratic difficulties,” the Bitcoinist publication said.

- The commission for transactions in the Bitcoin network after halving has increased approximately three times. At the end of April, during the so-called lull, it amounted to about 0.6 dollars, on the day of halving - 2 dollars, now it is 6.4 dollars. Experts note that this segment of miners' earnings can partially compensate for the consequences of halving the mining reward. According to forecasts, if the trend continues, the size of the commission may soon reach $9, according to experts of Bitindocharts agency.

- After the block reward was halved, miners started disabling outdated equipment for mining BTC, resulting in a 24% decrease in their power consumption, but it still remains high. According to Digiconomist news agency, the current amount of electricity miners consume is equivalent to that of a country such as Bangladesh. And adding one bitcoin transaction to the blockchain requires as much energy as the average American home consumes for 18 days. The carbon footprint of BTC miners per transaction is equivalent to the carbon emissions of 650 thousand VISA transactions.

- BTC quotes have nearly doubled during the coronavirus pandemic. "The process of a gradual increase in the value of Bitcoin began on March 16 - Decrypt writes. - Then the schools were closed for the first time in the US, and the promotion of home-to-home food delivery and various remote services began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P500 indexes rose 22 percent and 24 percent in the same period. The increase in the value of the main cryptocurrency amounted to approximately 94%. Such indicators look especially optimistic amid the general economic crisis.”

- According to the cryptanalytic resource Coin Metrics, the number of bitcoins that are dormant and do not come into motion for one year or more, for the first time exceeded 50% of their total number. According to some analysts, such interest in BTC from long-term investors shows the fundamental health of bitcoin and is a sign of the approaching bullish rally.

- The days of bitcoin are numbered, said Twitter user MasterChangz, who is trying to hack crypto wallets by picking up private keys. According to him, the code of the main digital coin will be cracked by him within 5 years. “Now I sort through 600 million keys per second, but every two years the selection speed increases by about 10 times due to technological updates in computer technology,” wrote MasterChangz.
“Technically, picking up a private key is possible. However, it will take a lot of time,” says Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashzhr. According to his calculations, it will take about 38593493520073954175290747912192 years to crack a simple old Bitcoin wallet using middle-class video cards.
Danny Dikroeger, developer of the Cash App, also expressed doubt about the success of the plan. He believes that even if MasterChangz can increase the computing power of technology a billion times and pick up keys for 100 years, the chance of coming across a suitable key for hacking the wallet will be 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001%.

- Iran is preparing an expanded strategy to develop mining in the country. According to President Hassan Rouhani, the relevant industry can become a serious source of budget income with rational use of energy and reaching agreements with foreign partners. Rouhani held a meeting with specialists in the cryptocurrency industry this week, during which the prospects of launching mining at state-owned enterprises were discussed. Companies that agree to participate in this project will be able to use energy at serious discounts. “The Central Bank of Iran has already announced its readiness to support us. In the future, the role of digital assets in the Iranian economy will increase significantly, and now we have entered the phase of an active search for partners willing to work for the good of the country,” said President Rouhani.
Recall that in Iran, cryptocurrency mining is officially considered an industrial activity, and more than a thousand licenses for work in this industry have been issued over the past six months.

- Alexis Ohanian, creator of the largest crypto-site Reddit and the husband of famous tennis player Serena Williams, said that the current situation in the digital asset market resembles a full-fledged crypto spring. He said not only Bitcoin's relatively stable value plays an important role, but also its growth after the failure in early March. “From the point of view of high-end software engineers, we see a real crypto spring. The same will soon be said about the cost of coins. So far, the growth trend has been observed with a certain frequency, but an important barrier in the form of bitcoin halving has been overcome. We need to survive its minor consequences and continue to develop the industry”, — said the head of Reddit.


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[Stan NordFX]

World Confederation of Businesses Presents NordFX with Business Excellence Award​

The World Confederation of Businesses (WORLDCOB), bringing together more than 3,500 members from more than 130 countries, has recognized the NordFX broker company as the winner of THE BIZZ Business Excellence Award.

The decision was made by the WORLDCOB Evaluation Committee on the basis of the recommendations of the active members of the Confederation, as well as on the basis of a survey attended by international associations and companies engaged in marketing research. In addition, to obtain independent and objective information about the activities of a company, WORLDCOB experts requested data from leading PR and network media agencies. The data received from more than 100 chambers of commerce was also taken into account.

After that, the Evaluation Committee analyzed all the data collected on a 100-point scale, taking into account a whole range of criteria, such as business leadership, quality of services, level of management, innovation, corporate social responsibility and results achieved. Companies with 90 or more points were recognized as having excelled in business and were nominated for the BIZZ Business Excellence Award.

“It is an honor to write to you on behalf of the WORLDCOB Board of Directors. I extend our most sincere congratulations to your team at NORDFX for being selected as a winner of of our Award. You have received the recognition that you deserve, and I hope that you will become a part of the WORLDCOB family, where you can share your achievements with others", – CEO of the World Confederation of Businesses Jesus Moran congratulated the management and staff of NordFX.


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[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for June 01-05, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. The European currency has been growing all week, even despite the rather weak statistics on the Euro zone economy. The pair was helped to break through the upper limit of the 1.0750-1.1000 corridor and rise to the height of 1.1145 by the news on the recovery measures in the EU, including the EU's plans to conduct direct emission and seriously expand its budget. The Swiss Bank, which buys EUR in exchange for its national currency, also provided support to the euro.
By the end of the week, the hot activity of the bulls was somewhat cooled by the Donald Trump statement on new US measures against China. Typically, the euro falls each time, as soon as another exacerbation begins between Washington and Beijing, as this is an obvious signal for new economic problems in Europe. But, according to a number of analysts, the quotes of the European currency have already fallen so low that titanic efforts of the bears are needed for its further serious movement to the South. As a result, the pair sank only slightly below the center of the four-day rising channel and finished near the level of 1.1100;

- GBP/USD. Last week, the dollar retreated not only on the onslaught of the euro, but also in pairs with the pound and yen. The British currency strengthened its position even despite the "dovish" statements of a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, Michael Saunders. Such a development of events was expected by 30% of analysts, according to whom the pair should have returned to the central zone of the channel 1.2165-1.2650. The most accurate forecast was given by the graphical analysis on D1, which traced the rise of the pair to the height of 1.2350. It was in this zone that the pound remained most of the trading session, there it set its final chord;

- USD/JPY. Most (65%) experts expected the return of the USD/JPY pair to the May 06 low in the 106.00 zone. And by the beginning of Friday, May 29, it did go down, but it only reached 107.07. Thus, the weekly volatility of the pair was less than 90 points. And this despite the fact that two months ago it easily flew ten times more in five days.
Yes, the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually returning to normal. But along with it, the difference in regulatory conditions between major currencies is gradually disappearing. Just look at the key G3 interest rates. Therefore, the volatility of the Japanese currency against the US is no longer the same as in March.
If we talk about the results of the week, the pair again found itself within the extremely narrow side corridor of 107.30-108.00, putting the final point at 107.80;

– cryptocurrencies. Let's start with the scariest news. - The days of bitcoin are numbered, said Twitter user MasterChangz, who is trying to hack crypto wallets by picking up private keys. According to him, the code of the main digital coin will be cracked by him within 5 years. “Now I sort through 600 million keys per second, but every two years the selection speed increases by about 10 times due to technological updates in computer technology,” wrote MasterChangz.
But it turned out that everything is not so scary, and Bitcoin will still live for some time. “Technically, picking up a private key is possible. However, it will take a lot of time,” says Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashzhr. According to his calculations, it will take about 38593493520073954175290747912192 years to crack a simple old Bitcoin wallet using middle-class video cards.
Danny Dikroeger, developer of the Cash App, also expressed doubt about the success of the plan. He believes that even if MasterChangz can increase the computing power of technology a billion times and pick up keys for 100 years, the chance of coming across a suitable key for hacking the wallet will be 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001%.
And now, having calmed down, we turn to the forecast that the experts gave for the previous week. Their votes were more or less evenly distributed in the $8,400 to $10,000 range. The same thing happened in reality, only in a slightly narrower range. At first, bitcoin quotes went down, reaching the local bottom at $8,600 on May 25. This was followed by a reversal of the trend, and the BTC/USD pair overcame the resistance of $9,600 on Friday 29 May. As some analysts believe, such growth was facilitated by a large whale transaction: according to WhaleAlert, 11,660 BTC (worth more than $111 million) were transferred between two unknown wallets.
On Friday evening, May 29, Bitcoin quotes are in the $9,400 zone. The total capitalization of the crypto market increased in seven days from $246 billion to $265 billion (+7.7%), and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index grew by 6 points - from 42 to 48.
And some more statistics. According to the payment company Revolut, after a fall in trading volumes in March by 52%, the number of customers trading cryptocurrencies increased by 68% in April. By the end of the month, the amount of digital assets purchased by each of them increased by an average of 57%. During these months, 51% of all transactions were in Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ripple (XRP/USD) - 20%, and Ethereum (ETH/USD) - another 14%. Litecoin (LTC/USD) is in fourth place with 8% of all transactions.
The demand for the ripple is somewhat surprising because its price has decreased by almost 60 per cent over the past 12 months while bitcoin, despite all the twists and turns, has remained at zero, ending up, as at the end of May 2019, in the $9,000 zone. And this despite the fact that the XRP emission reached only 30% of the maximum volume of coins, in contrast to 87.5% for BTC. Although, perhaps, active ripple purchases are due to the fact that investors consider this altcoin to be underestimated and expect its rapid explosive growth.

continued below...

 

[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. It is clear that at the end of the past week from 90% to 100% of indicators on H4 and D1 are looking up. And only 10% of the oscillators give signals that the pair is overbought. But almost half of analysts have doubts about the possibility of further growth of the euro. Market risk appetites are dying away, and if the US goes on the offensive in the Chinese direction, the EUR/USD pair may again turn south. It should be noted that the strengthening of the dollar in the week term is expected by only 45% of experts, but when moving to the monthly timeframe their number increases to 70%. The immediate task of the bears is the return of the pair within the channel 1.0750-1.1000, support - 1.1065, 1.1000 and the central line of the channel 1.0900. The resistances are located at levels 1.1145 and 1.1240.
Among the events to pay attention to in the coming week are the publication of data on business activity in the US (ISM) – in the manufacturing sector on June 01 and in the services sector - on June 03, data from the German and EU labor markets on Wednesday June 03, the ECB meeting and press conference on Thursday June 04, and data from the US labor market (including NFP) – traditionally on the first Friday of the month, June 05;

- GBP/USD. If there is a certain fuss in the indicator readings characterizing the lateral movement of the pair, analysts' preferences look more certain. 25% of them support the side trend, another 25% are for further strengthening of the pound, and 50% are for its fall. The latter are supported by graphical analysis on D1. In addition to the problems in the economy, the uncertainty over Brexit continues to weigh on the British currency. So, speaking in the European Parliament, European Commissioner Phil Hogan said that the UK may have decided that the conditions for a deal with the EU are now absent. Although he did not rule out that the situation could become a little clearer after the resumption of negotiations in the coming week.
At the moment, support levels are 1.2245, 1.2165 and 1.2075, resistance levels are 1.2365, 1.2465 and 1.2650;

- USD/JPY. As mentioned above, the market risk appetite has once again greatly subsided. And if US President Trump goes to further aggravate the situation with China, the dollar may start to rise sharply again. But not in relation to the yen. Investor demand for safe havens will either improve the position of the Japanese currency against the US (especially if the yield of protective bonds slips towards new lows) or keep it at the same level, as it happens the last two months.
The results of the analysts' survey and the indicators' readings look similar as well: "either, or, or..." A third looks north, a third south, and a third east. Support/resistance levels are the same: from bottom of current quotes - 107.30, 106.80 and 106.20, from top - 108.00, 108.50 and 109.25;

– cryptocurrencies. At the time of the forecast, bitcoin is consolidating in the area of $9,400. And only 30% of analysts expect that it will be able not only to break through the key level of $ 10,000 in the coming days, but also to gain a foothold above it. The harbinger of this, they believe, is the increased interest in BTC futures contracts, which pushes the value of the coin up. The remaining 70% believe that the BTC/USD pair will continue to move in the range of $8,600-9,600, although they do not rule out breakout attempts in one direction or the other.
As for the predictions of crypto gurus, as usual, everyone is waiting for the start of a new leap to unseen heights. - Alexis Ohanian, creator of the large crypto website Reddit and the husband of famous tennis player Serena Williams, said that the current situation in the digital asset market resembles a full-fledged crypto spring. He said not only Bitcoin's relatively stable value plays an important role, but also its growth after the failure in early March. So far, the growth trend has been observed with a certain frequency, but an important barrier in the form of bitcoin halving has been overcome. We need to survive its minor consequences and continue to develop the industry”, — said the head of Reddit.


NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

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[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- According to JPMorgan strategist Nicolas Panigirtzoglou, the internal, or fundamental value of bitcoin has recently become consistent with the cryptocurrency market price. This is reported by The Block with reference to the expert's report. Panigirtzoglou is convinced that the gap between the rates has narrowed due to halving. According to his observations, the internal value of BTC was below the market price last January or, in other words, the first cryptocurrency was overvalued. The model from JPMorgan considers bitcoin a commodity, it takes into account the marginal costs in its production, the processing power of the equipment and the cost of electricity. "Taking into account the halving that took place on May 11, the internal value of bitcoin actually doubled," Panigirtzoglou stressed, adding that the subsequent 20% decrease in the hashrate also helped to reduce the gap between values.

- The scandalous entrepreneur and creator of the famous antivirus John McAfee called his forecast for the growth of the Bitcoin exchange rate to $1 million by 2020 "delusional". He said that this forecast, given back in 2017, was an absurd joke. “I said that Bitcoin, the most obsolete cryptocurrency technology, will reach $ 1 million. And you do not see any absurd humour in this statement? Wake up!" the entrepreneur wrote on Twitter. McAfee believes that the term “shitcoin” is perfect for the first cryptocurrency, as there are no smart contracts or decentralized applications on the bitcoin network, blocks are mined slowly, and you have to need to wait for a long time for transaction confirmations. “If bitcoin reached $1 million, its capitalization would exceed the GDP of the entire North American continent. What kind of idiot can believe this nonsense?" said McAfee.

- A trader and analyst with the nickname Positive Crypto said that the so-called 900-day Bitcoin accumulation period will soon end. When this happens, the coin will start actively striving for 100 thousand dollars. Last time, it took the main cryptocurrency about 900 days to take the barrier of 20 thousand dollars. According to Positive Crypto, the rally can now have a greater speed, which means that new highs can be seen before the end of the year. “About three years ago, the second cycle began, which will end very soon. Consolidation will be broken soon. I expect the bitcoin race to reach 100 thousand dollars, " the analyst said.

- One of the first bitcoin miners, Laszlo Hanyecz, known for buying pizza for 10,000 BTC in 2010, said he actually spent five times more on this purchase. He admitted in an interview with Cointelegraph that he had produced about 100,000 BTC in total, and about half of them had been spent on buying pizza. He spent the other 50,000 BTC on buying other things, or just handed them out. It turns out that with a bitcoin exchange rate of $10,000, Laszlo Hanyecz could have a fortune of $1 billion. However, Hanyecz does not think that he miscalculated and does not regret the lost profit: "I was not particularly greedy. I didn't think about overpaying or anything like that. With 100,000 BTC, I would be a billionaire now. But I wouldn't have eaten that pizza then," he joked.

- Oil provides 36% of the total electricity in the United States. The fall in its market value will lead to lower electricity prices, especially in Texas, which could significantly increase the income of American miners. This opinion was expressed by a well-known preacher of cryptophilosophy, Andreas Antonopoulos on his YouTube channel. “Some of the largest new mining operators have settled in Texas, and I doubt that this is a coincidence...”, - he noted.

- According to Yasuo Matsuda, senior strategist of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange FXCoin, weakening of the Chinese national currency may play into bitcoin's hands. “China has always tightly regulated the economy,” said the FXCoin strategist, “but the coronavirus pandemic has led to an economic downturn. Especially since economic sanctions are imposed by the US. Now the country's citizens have an incentive to withdraw assets outside the PRC, and buying BTC is likely to become even more popular, which could lead to a marked rise in the BTC.”

- The creator of the videos of Eminem, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, the famous American director Joseph Kahn spoke about his passion for crypto trading. He shared on his Twitter feed how much he managed to earn from the new hobby: “I traded cryptocurrency throughout the last month as a hobby. Making a profit of $2 to $3 at a time. I've already earned $450." Kahn said that he has not invested in cryptocurrency yet, but only invested $7,500 in trading. Based on this, his profit for the month was 6%.

- News of the transfer of 94,504 BTC worth $1 billion has stirred the cryptocurrency community. A controversy immediately unfolded among the crypto enthusiasts on the topic of what could be associated with the movement of such an impressive number of bitcoins. Most often, the event is associated with the imminent launch of bitcoin futures on the Bakkt platform, and these BTC are deposits for e-wallets of the platform. However, some believe that the transaction was made during the configuration and debugging of Bakkt systems.
There are also suggestions that the transfer was made by Craig Wright, who found the lost keys. Recall that last week a high-profile trial on charges of misappropriating coins, which he had mined together with his business partner Dave Kleiman, finally came to the end. The court ordered Craig Wright to return $ 4 billion to the family of the late Kleiman. However, Wright continues to claim that he does not have access to the mined bitcoins.

- According to the Glassnode analytical centre, almost 79% of the bitcoins in circulation remain profitable. Their price now is higher than at the time of the last transaction. Although this indicator can be considered a lagging indicator, such data is useful when you need to determine the overall market sentiment. When 95% or more of all BTC owners make a profit, this usually serves as a reliable indicator of market peak. At the turning point of the cryptocurrency rally in December 2017, this figure almost reached 100%. Conversely, when the figure falls below 50%, the market is thought to have bottomed out. This is exactly what happened during Black Thursday March 12 and the fall of markets in December 2018.
A growing percentage of profitable coins is not the only sign that the bulls will soon have another rally. Glassnode has recently reported that more than 60% of BTC had not moved within a year. Last time, similar market indicators were recorded before the start of another “bull” cycle.

- According to the report of the analytical company CipherTrace, the total amount of stolen crypto assets reached $1.36 billion in the five months of 2020. The volume of "dirty" crypto money on the exchanges decreased.
CipherTrace discovered that Finnish cryptocurrency exchanges are in first place for receiving dirty bitcoins. 12% of BTC entering there are of illegal origin. The second place is occupied by Russian platforms - 5.23% of all the funds received by them were previously used on the darknet or received as a result of attacks by hackers and ransomware. This is followed by the British exchanges, which account for 0.69%. The share of illegally obtained cryptocurrencies on German, Japanese and American exchanges is less than 0.1%.


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[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for June 08-12, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. Beginning May 25, the euro paired with the dollar rose in price for nine consecutive afternoon sessions, which, according to Dow Jones estimates, was the longest period of continuous growth since April 2011.
The ECB's decisions allowed the European currency to soar to its highest level since March 20, reaching the height of 1.1385. Led by Christine Lagarde, the Central Bank has surpassed all market expectations by increasing the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) by €600 billion to €1.350 trillion. This program will last at least until June 2021, and the proceeds received from the acquired bonds will participate in the process of reinvestment until the end of 2022. The ECB also kept the benchmark interest rate on loans at zero and the deposit rate at minus 0.5%. Thus, the ECB proved to be the only major regulator to continue the policy of quantitative easing (QE) last week, as well as one of the few central banks to undertake similar moves in June.
According to Christine Lagarde, the QE emergency program should solve two problems at once: to help the Eurozone economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and act as a pillar to overcome market stress.
The euro zone economic reports published this week also played in favor of the euro, they turned out to be optimistic for the most part, and business activity indicators were revised upwards.
As for the dollar, it began to sink, in part due to the growing appetite for risky assets. And if it was not supported by statistics from the US labor market, the pair would have every chance to paint the tenth daily candle green. However, the unemployment rate fell to 13.3% in May against 14.7% in April, and the number of new jobs outside the agricultural sector (NFP) rose, amounting to +2.509K against a reduction of almost 21 million (-20.678K) a month earlier.
As a result, the EUR/USD pair finally finished the last day of the working week in the red zone, having stopped at the level of 1.1290;

- GBP/USD. The British pound follows the euro for the third week in a row. One difference is that the Friday candle of June 05 also turned green on its chart. Starting at 1.2075 on May 18, the pair first breached the lower boundary of the channel 1.2165-1.2650, turning it from resistance to support, then reached its upper limit, and made another jerk to the north on June 05, taking the height of 1.2730 and thus adding 655 points in three weeks. Another correction then followed, and the pair put the final chord at 1.2665;

- USD/JPY. After a relatively quiet, by the standards of this pair, three weeks, against the background of the escalation of the us-Chinese conflict, it sharply went up in the past five days.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated after China approved national security laws in Hong Kong and Macau last month. The last step was Beijing’s decision to ban the United Airlines and Delta Air Lines from resuming flights to China, in response to which Washington, starting June 16, suspended Chinese flights to the United States.
And, in contrast to the euro and the pound, in relation to which the dollar was losing its position, it gained 180 points against the yen in five days. The maximum range of the pair’s fluctuations was 245 points, and on Friday June 5, it almost reached the symbolic height of 110.00. But it could not take it, and the pair ended the trading session at 109.60;

– cryptocurrencies. First, about crime. The report of the analytical company CipherTrace, according to which the total amount of stolen crypto assets reached $ 1.36 billion for the five months of 2020, turned out to be informative. At the same time, CipherTrace found that the first place in obtaining dirty bitcoins is taken by ... Finland. 12% of bitcoins entering this small, calm, northern European country are of illegal origin. The second place is taken by Russia, 5.23%, followed by English exchanges, whose indicator is 0.69%. The share of illegally obtained cryptocurrencies on German, Japanese and American exchanges is less than 0.1%.
Now about the highlights of the past period. At first, the crypto community was stirred up by the news about the transfer of $94 billion in 94,504 BTC. Immediately, a debate unfolded on the subject of the movement of such an impressive number of bitcoins. Most analysts linked this event to the imminent launch of bitcoin futures on the Bakkt platform. However, some believe that the transaction was made during the configuration and debugging of Bakkt systems.
The most important event of the week was the bitcoin breakthrough of the $10,000 horizon. On the night of Tuesday, June 2, the price of the main cryptocurrency reached $10,400, the highest since mid-February. However, the happiness of the bulls was short-lived: the leap up was not a steady trend, but short-term whale speculation. After 14 hours, at the opening of the American session, bitcoin flew down, falling below $9,500 in a few minutes and touching even the $9,130 mark at a certain point. Just one BitMEX exchange recorded the elimination of positions for $150 million in a matter of minutes. Some observers have noticed that at that moment the so-called Bart Simpson pattern formed on the BTC/USD chart.
Then, the price slowly rose to the zone of $9,500-9,850, where it remained until Friday evening, showing a 7-day increase of 3.35%
The chart of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is very reminiscent of the BTC/USD chart with the same Simpson pattern on June 02, when the capitalization rose to $285 billion and then collapsed by 6%. At the time of writing, the indicator is at around $ 275 billion, which is 3.8% higher than its value seven days ago. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is still in the middle of the neutral zone: if on May 29 its value was 48, it is 53 out of 100 possible on June 05.
Most of the major altcoins in general followed the BTC/USD pair. But if Ripple (XRP/USD) showed a growth similar to bitcoin - 3.24%, Litecoin and Ethereum significantly outperformed the reference cryptocurrency: LTC/USD - +6.6%, ETH/USD - +10.9%.

continued below...

 

[Stan NordFX]

As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the opinions of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:

- EUR/USD. Despite the impressive two-week growth of the euro, the continuation of the uptrend is in question. On the one hand, analysts of a number of leading commercial banks - ABN Amro, JP Morgan, Banque Pictet & Cie and Nordea - believe that the ECB will expand QE in September-December due to the growth of government debt that needs to be absorbed. But on the other, the differences between the European Central Bank and the German Bundesbank have not disappeared. So, although Christine Lagarde announced that the decision to increase QE volumes was taken unanimously by the Governing Council, according to the Financial Times, Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann warned her that if this continues, the ECB could be accused of violating EU law that strictly prohibits cash financing of governments.
In addition, euro growth will be constrained by expectations of a sharp decline in Eurozone GDP. According to the ECB forecast, the eurozone economy this year will shrink by 8.7% (subject to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic - by 12.6%), and next year it will grow by only 5.2%. But the US economy, according to Wall Street experts, in 2020 will only drop by 6.6% and recover by 5% in 2021.
As for the immediate period, 65% of analysts believe that risk appetites will fall, reviving interest in the dollar as a protective asset, and the EUR/USD pair will move south to the 1.1000-1.1100 zone. The next support is 1.0885. Graphical analysis on H4 and 15% of oscillators that give signals about the pair being overbought on H4 and D1 fully agree with this development of events.
According to the remaining 35% of experts, the bulls still have enough strength to raise the pair to the height of 1.1400, and if successful, to target the March high at 1.1500.
Of the upcoming events this week, you should pay attention: on Monday 08 June - on German industrial production data, on Tuesday 09 June - on Eurozone GDP, on Wednesday 10 June - on statistics on the US consumer market and on Thursday, June 11 - on the US unemployment data. In addition, on June 10, a meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve will be held at which a decision on the interest rate will be made. The press conference of the Fed management following the results of this meeting is important;

- GBP/USD. As the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on June 05, another round of European Union talks with the UK did not bring significant progress. It was not possible to agree on either fisheries issues or the issue of open and equal competition in trade. As a result, according to Barnier, the parties remained “far from the goal” in terms of social, environmental and tax aspects, on which partnership and the future sustainable development of both sides depend.
It is also bad that Britons refuse to extend the Brexit transition period, even though the EU is willing to extend it by a year or two to allow more time for negotiations. “But if there is no joint decision on such an extension,” said Michel Barnier, “the United Kingdom will leave the single market and the customs union in seven months - December 31 this year.”
Such intractability of the UK against the background of its economic problems led to the fact that none of the experts this time did not vote for the continuation of the bullish rally. One half of them spoke in favor of a sideways trend, the second - for a stronger dollar and a drop in the pound.
It is clear that 100% of the trend indicators at the time of making the forecast are still colored green, but among the oscillators, 15% on both timeframes indicate overselling of the pair, which is a fairly strong signal to turn the trend down.
Graphic analysis on H4 also points south, and on D1 it draws lateral motion within 1.2570-1.2845. Support is at the levels of 1.2465, 1.2365 and 1.2160, resistance is 1.2725, 1.2845 and 1.2950.
As for the release of macroeconomic statistics, in addition to the above for the dollar, of interest are data on industrial production and GDP of Great Britain, which will be released on Friday June 12;

- USD/JPY. The indicator readings are exactly the same as for the GBP / USD pair: both on H4 and on D1, 100% of trend indicators and 85% of oscillators are on the green side. The remaining 15% went to the red side and signals that the dollar is overbought.
Among analysts, not everything is so clear. Only 30% of them voted for the pair's growth and consolidation above 110.00, and 70%, supported by graphical analysis on H4, are waiting for it to return to the zone 107.00-108.00;

– cryptocurrencies. To support their activities, many miners are forced to sell their crypto assets after the halving. Moreover, they sell more and faster than they mine, which puts serious pressure on bitcoin.
However, according to JPMorgan strategist Nicolas Panigirtzoglou, due to the halving, the internal, or fundamentally justified value of bitcoin has actually doubled and has finally become in line with the market price of cryptocurrency. The model from JPMorgan considers bitcoin a commodity, it takes into account the marginal costs in its production, the processing power of the equipment and the cost of electricity.
A positive impact on the price of BTC could be the fall in oil prices, which entails lower electricity prices. As an example, cryptanalyst Andreas Antonopoulos cites the American oil state of Texas, in which the largest new mining operators have settled. “I doubt it's just a coincidence,” he said on his YouTube channel.
According to Yasuo Matsuda, senior strategist at the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange FXCoin, the weakening of the Chinese national currency can also play into the hands of bitcoin. “China has always tightly regulated the economy,” said the FXCoin strategist, “but the coronavirus pandemic has led to an economic downturn. Especially since economic sanctions are imposed by the US. Now the country's citizens have an incentive to withdraw assets outside the PRC, and buying BTC is likely to become even more popular, which could lead to a marked rise in the BTC.”
Overall, the situation for investors looks quite positive now. - According to the Glassnode analytical center, almost 79% of the bitcoins in circulation remain profitable. Their price now is higher than at the time of the last transaction. In addition, Glassnode recently reported that more than 60% of BTC did not move during the year, and the last time similar indicators were recorded before the start of the next bull cycle.
At the moment 70% of experts believe that the BTC/USD pair will be able to gain a foothold in the $10,000-11,000 zone in June. And only 30% wait for the pair to fall to the $8,000-8,500 mark.


NordFX Analytical Group


Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.

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[Stan NordFX]

CryptoNews

- In China, local authorities found an illegal mining farm, the equipment of which was located... in the cemetery. Initially, the authorities believed that residents of one of the villages were engaged in stealing energy. However, several inspections failed to identify any irregularities, and the investigation was decided to continue. There was a cemetery with several outbuildings in the forest near the village, it was there that the farm was located. The amount of damage from its work amounted to several hundred thousand dollars. Information about who owned the equipment has not yet been made public, but those responsible for the operation of the cemetery claim that they have nothing to do with mining.

- One of the largest Coca-Cola producers in the Asia-Pacific region, Coca-Cola Amatil, in partnership with the Centrapay payment system, begins selling drinks for cryptocurrency. They will be sold them at more than 2000 vending machines in Australia and New Zealand using a QR code via the Sylo Smart Wallet app. Service developers believe that such use of digital assets is an ideal solution in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, as they minimize the need for physical contacts and the use of cash.

- According to the Cointelegraph agency, the mysterious creator of bitcoin may be former drug courier Yasutaka Nakamoto, who previously worked for the Medellin cartel. At least, this is claimed by the head of Escobar Inc, Olaf Gustafsson, who is the right-hand man of Robert Escobar, brother of the head of the cartel Pablo Escobar, who was killed in 1993.
Yasutaka Nakamoto was the lead engineer at Pacific West Airlines, combining his official job with transporting drugs from South America to the United States. After a failed assassination attempt by his former "employer", he disappeared from the public field in 1992, but allegedly subsequently began developing bitcoin.
Interestingly, Yasutaka is supposedly the brother of Dorian Nakamoto, whom back in 2014 Newsweek called the person behind the creation of the first cryptocurrency.

- The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) has announced a contest, the winning company of which will be responsible for transactions with USMS seized cryptocurrency. The terms of the contest state that the company selected by the Marshals Service will be engaged in “counting, auditing, managing clients and forks of blockchains, creating wallets and managing them, generating private keys and storing them, backing up and restoring, distributing tokens and any other actions related to virtual currencies".

- A user of the social site Reddit reported finding his laptop of more than 10 years old, which contained 533 BTC (more than $5.1 million at current prices). He said that he had given the laptop to his brother, and he could not find it after his death. All 533 bitcoins were purchased in 2010 at a price not exceeding $50. Since then, their price has increased more than 100,000 times.

- Co-founder of Blockfyre investment company Simon Dedic believes that the bitcoin rally will resume and bring the main cryptocurrency to $150,000. Moreover, not only bitcoin will grow, but also the leading altcoins. “In 2017, you could buy literally any altcoin, and it was a good investment then,” Dedic says. “It looks like it won't happen again. However, I believe the rally will return, making a "pump" to some solid altcoins: ETH - $9,000; LINK - $200; BNB - $500; VET – $1; XTZ - $200."

- Analyst Timothy Peterson from Cane Island Alternative Advisors predicts exactly half the price of BTC. Having tracked the recovery of bitcoin from the March low of $3,600, he found that the bitcoin chart “perfectly follows” the movements that led it to the high of 2013, when BTC rose to $1,300. Thus, the analyst assumes that we can expect a 700% increase in the main cryptocurrency in the near future to $75,000.

- The author of the popular book Bitcoin and Black America, Isaiah Jackson, spoke about the role of the first cryptocurrency in the protests overwhelming the United States in an interview with Cointelegraph. Recall that mass demonstrations in the United States began after a police officer killed African American George Floyd during his arrest. People took to the streets demanding justice and an end to police brutality.
As the main problems of the economy, Jackson called the lack of work for 40 million US residents and uncontrolled printing of fiat money by the Federal Reserve. He added that African Americans began to realize that their main enemy is the traditional financial system. “What strategy can help our society in the future? I think people have just realized that bitcoin can be a solution,” Jackson stated. “I usually say that the simplest form of peaceful protest is to buy bitcoin on a regular basis, because you take your money out of this system into what I think is a much more reliable payment tool that we can use in the future.”

- According to a study by Fidelity Investments, 36% of the 774 institutional investors surveyed in the US and Europe include bitcoin and other crypto assets in their portfolios. We are talking about pension funds, family trust companies, consulting, and investment companies, as well as digital and traditional hedge funds. Over the year, the number of financial institutions in the United States that added cryptocurrency to the investment portfolio rose from 22% to 27%. In Europe, 45% of respondents invested in crypto assets. The figures show that European companies are more loyal to cryptocurrencies. This may be due to negative interest rates and a coronavirus crisis that has negatively affected traditional assets.
11% of companies surveyed invest in Etherium, and more than a quarter prefer bitcoin.

- Investor and analyst Willy Wu compared the profitability of dollar investments in gold and bitcoin over the past 11 years. His analysis was intended for "gold bugs" who are completely obsessed with this precious metal. “I made a lively graph of what the current value of $1, invested for over more than 10 years, is worth,” Wu writes. - Investment in bitcoin: $12.8 million, that is, it is a luxury yacht, investment in gold: $1.66, that is, a Snickers bar.


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[Stan NordFX]

Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for June 15-19, 2020​

First, a review of last week’s events:

- EUR/USD. If someone thought that the United States won COVID-19, they were mistaken. The number of people infected with coronavirus is growing in 21 states, with new highs recorded in 14 of them. Anti-racist demonstrations in the country are likely to further aggravate the infection situation. Can this be called the second wave of the pandemic? And won't the third one follow it in the fall?
Investors who decided that all the problems of the American economy caused by the coronavirus are behind, miscalculated. Market optimism was sharply reduced by the Fed meeting together with a cautiously optimistic speech of its head Jerome Paull on Wednesday, June 10. The Fed just promised to continue quantitative easing at the same pace as it is now, stretching the possibility of reducing the discount rate to zero until 2022.
As a result, the lack of additional stimulus from the Fed and a new wave of pandemic in Texas, Arizona and California and other states led to a sharp decline in risk sentiment and an avalanche-like drop in stock indices. On Thursday 11 June, the Dow Jones lost 6.9 percent, the S&P500 collapsed 5.9 percent, the Nasdaq lost 4.6 percent.
Fuel to the fire was added by the statement by US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, who said the country could not afford to quarantine again. Commentators immediately remembered that the second wave of "Spanish flu" in the 1920s claimed tens of millions of lives precisely because governments, choosing between economic recovery and people's health, chose the economy.
Falling investor risk-appetite has led to a surge in protective assets, not just the dollar but also the euro, yen and Swiss franc. The weaker currencies of the G10 were affected, most notably the New Zealand, Australian and Canadian dollars.
The fact that the euro almost avoided losses was facilitated by the easing of quarantine, the leveling of the number of newly ill and the resumption of economic activity in the Eurozone.
As a result, starting at 1.1290, the EUR/USD pair ended the week at 1.1260, with a small advantage of 30 points in favor of the dollar;

- GBP/USD. The strengthening of the dollar as a protective asset could not but affect the pound. The pair went down sharply, starting from the evening of June 10. The British National Bureau of Statistics gave an additional impetus to its movement to the south, the data of which show a sharp slowdown in the country's economy. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UK GDP fell by 20.1% in April, and by 24.5% compared to April last year. Industrial production fell by 20.3%, production in the service sector (it accounts for about 80% of the economy) - by 19%. In manufacturing, the drop in April was almost 25%.
Brexit is still a serious risk, negotiations on which have many chances to last until the end of the year. The British government categorically does not want to extend the transition period to 2021, which threatens to part with the EU in a tough scenario with a mass of unresolved issues.
All this allowed the US currency to strengthen by almost 300 points in three incomplete days, and finish at 1.2520 dollars per pound;

- USD/JPY. The overwhelming majority of experts (70%) voted last week for the return of this pair to the zone 107.00-108.00, and this forecast turned out to be 100% correct.
The yen proved its demand as a safe haven currency for almost the entire week. From Monday to mid-Friday, it advanced on the dollar, winning back 305 points almost without a fight. The end of the week, however, turned out to be not so enchanting for the Japanese currency¬: with the restoration of the growth of risk appetites after the close of the Asian session, the pair went up and, as experts had expected, completed the five-day period at 107.35;

– cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency is a currency, though digital. And everything related to money, usually attracts crime. Thus, local authorities in China have recently found an illegal mining farm, the equipment of which was located... in the cemetery. But this is not a sensation. The sensation is that the creator of Bitcoin may be former drug courier Yasutaka Nakamoto, who had worked for the Medellin cartel in the past. At least, this is claimed by the head of Escobar Inc, Olaf Gustafsson, who is the right-hand man of Robert Escobar, brother of the head of the cartel Pablo Escobar, who was killed in 1993.
Yasutaka Nakamoto was the lead engineer at Pacific West Airlines, combining his official job with transporting drugs from South America to the United States. After a failed assassination attempt by his former "employer", he disappeared from the public field in 1992, but allegedly subsequently began developing bitcoin.
Interestingly, Yasutaka is supposedly the brother of Dorian Nakamoto, whom Newsweek called the person behind the creation of the first cryptocurrency back in 2014.
But these are all versions. If we go to the exact figures, it can be noted that Nakamoto's brainchild has shown quite a good result in recent months: compared to March lows, the pair BTC/USD showed an increase of about 140%. However, the main currency does not manage to gain a foothold above the key level of $10,000, another attempt to do it on Wednesday June 10 failed. Having barely touched the coveted line, the BTC/USD pair immediately flew down to $9,000, having lost 10% in just a few hours. Then there was a recovery, and it returned to the central zone of the channel $9,000-10,000.
According to some analysts, consolidation in this area points to a set of a large medium-term position. ?he main cryptocurrency has been ?ecently increasingly correlated with traditional protective assets, suggesting a gradual adoption by big investors.
This can be confirmed in the reports of various research organizations. According to a study by Fidelity Investments, 36% of the 774 institutional investors surveyed in the US and Europe include bitcoin and other crypto assets in their portfolios. We are talking about pension funds, family trust companies, consulting and investment companies, as well as digital and traditional hedge funds. ?he number of financial institutions in the United States that added cryptocurrency to the investment portfolio rose from 22% to 27% ?ver the year. In Europe, 45% of respondents invested in crypto assets.
It is noteworthy that European companies are more loyal to cryptocurrencies, which may be due to negative interest rates and the coronavirus crisis, which negatively affected traditional assets.
More than a quarter of companies surveyed prefer bitcoin, and 11% invest in ethereum, whose growth even outstrips that of BTC (+175% from March lows). By the way, in the past week several mysterious stories were linked to this leading altcoin.
So, the address associated with the MiningPoolHub pool paid a commission of 2310 ETH ($538 thousand) for the transfer of 3221 ETH ($751 thousand). This is the third largest transaction on the Ethereum network with astronomically high commission. Prior to this, an unknown user paid 10.668 ETH ($2.6 million) as a commission for a transaction of 350 ETH ($86 thousand). And a day earlier, the same participant paid the SharkPool mining pool the same 10,668 ETH ($2.6 million) as a transfer fee... 0.55 ETH ($133)!
According to a number of specialists, including Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin, these transactions are an error in the money laundering bot.

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