The Crypto Pulse November 16th

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Rollbit's weekly analysis and review of the news in Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs and cryptocurrency markets.

News 📰

Bitcoin's Long-anticipated Taproot Upgrade is Activated

Bitcoin's long-anticipated Taproot upgrade activated on November 14th at 05:15 UTC (block 709,632).

Taproot comprises 3 Bitcoin Improvement Protocols (Schnorr Signatures, Taproot & Tapscript) and marks the first major upgrade to the Bitcoin network since Segregated Witness (SegWit) in 2017. The latest upgrade improves Bitcoin's smart contract flexibility, transaction efficiency, and payment policy privacy.

Learn more about Taproot in our blog post!

Tether's USDT to Launch on Avalanche Blockchain

Last week, the company behind the largest stablecoin Tether USD (USDT) announced that it would be launching on the Avalanche blockchain.

Tether Operations Limited said that the launch of tether tokens (USDT) on Avalanche would “support the long-term growth and sustainability of the Avalanche network” while boosting stablecoin usage across the DeFi ecosystem.

Gain exposure to Avalanche's native token AVAX using Rollbit's Crypto Portfolio feature!

Sotheby’s to Allow Live Bidding in Ether for Works by Banksy

Sotheby’s, the 277-year-old British auction house, will allow live bidding in ETH cryptocurrency in an upcoming virtual exhibition on November 18 to be held at its virtual headquarters in the Decentraland metaverse.

Real-time bids in ETH will be accepted by Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker will for two works by street artist Banksy’s: “Trolley Hunters” and “Love Is In The Air” (2006). Art fans interested in the auction can tune in from anywhere around the world and follow the live-streamed broadcast by following Sotheby’s social media channels.

President Biden Signs Infrastructure Bill Containing Crypto Broker Reporting Requirement Into Law

American President Joe Biden signed into law the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on November 15th, which contains a controversial cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement.

The tax reporting requirement has concerned the crypto industry as the bill sought to expand the definition of a broker for Internal Revenue Service purposes. The bull would make it compulsory for all brokers to report transactions.

Industry proponents were concerned that the definition would be too broad, capturing entities such as miners and other parties that don’t actually facilitate transactions. Senator Cynthia Lummis, along with others, are attempting to narrow the scope of the law’s crypto broker clause with a separate bill introduced on November 15th.

Google Searches for NFTs Spike to Record Highs

Google searches for NFTs have spiked to record highs, outpacing search interest for other important crypto-related terms, such as Ethereum and DeFi. Search interest around the terms ‘NFT’ and ‘Non Fungible Tokens’ has doubled over the past three months according to data from Google Trends.

Source: Google Trends

Other News

  • Solana's version of MetaMask, known as Phantom, has announced the release of a mobile wallet, enabling its 1 million users to swap NFTs, stake tokens and transact on the Solana network using their mobile devices,
  • American cinema giant AMC announced the adoption of four major cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC) as an online payment method,
  • Ape-In Productions, a new entertainment company and platform that will develop music and animation for metaverse applications, was launched by music producer Timbaland. TheZoo will launch its first hip-hop song alongside a BAYC-themed collectible on November 17th,
  • Stacks-based protocol Alex raised $5.8 million to launch its DeFi platform, which will allow fixed-rate and fixed-term BTC lending and borrowing,
  • The Sandbox alpha launch event which will take place on November 29th. To gain access to the metaverse and 18 experiences of its Alpha season, interested parties can mint an Alpha Pass NFT ticket,
  • This week's staking rewards for Rollbit's NFT marketplace can be claimed on Thursday, November 18th at 19:00 UTC!

Market Analysis 📈📉

7-day Price Change

Data as of November 16th, 21:00 UTC

Let's look at the Bitcoin chart.

The weekly chart for BTC-USD above shows that a top has been formed with a higher high within the Bollinger Bands following a high outside of the Bands in the middle of October.

Typically, this indicates a possible top in the market and the current weekly candle is engulfing the past three weeks of bullish price action. Therefore, a weekly close below $60,800 would confirm a bearish engulfing candlestick pattern and increase the likelihood of testing the middle band just under $50,000 in the medium-term.

The daily chart for Bitcoin below shows that the price touched the lower band around $58,779 on November 16th and has bounced a little from this price at the time of writing. Volumes have also increased, suggesting there's more interest in a downward move.

The next important support is found at $56,425 and then at the $51,000 level. If the price of Bitcoin closes above the lower Bollinger band, then there may be a respite for a reversal. However, if the price closes below the lower band today, then it could point to further weakness.

For Ethereum, the outlook on the weekly chart looks similar to Bitcoin, with a bearish candle engulfing the gains made over the past two weeks. If the weekly close is lower than $4,290, then the likelihood of ETH trending towards the middle band at $3,390 increases.

The bandwidth of the Bollinger Bands on the daily chart for ETH is at the lowest level since August 31st, which tells us that a breakout in volatility is imminent. If today's closing price respects the lower band at $4,202 then we could see a reversal in the days ahead. However, a daily close below $4,202 is likely to see a breakout to the downside and a potential test of the October 28th low at $3,889.

Solana's SOL token has tested the previous all-time high from September 9th around $216 and this is a critical level going forward. If this level doesn't hold, then a drop to the $190-$174 is on the cards. However, if the price of SOL remains above $216, then we should see a reversal and a tendency towards the first Fibonacci extension level at $269.

Have a great week!

-The Rollbit team