The Crypto Pulse October 26th

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

News 📰

First Bitcoin Futures ETF Trades Nearly $1 Billion in One Day

The first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF launched last week, where investors traded $280 million-worth of shares in just the first 20 minutes. By the time the market closed on Tuesday, nearly $1 billion in shares changed hands.

On October 19th, ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BITO after receiving approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

As highlighted by Bloomberg's ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, BITO was the biggest first day of any ETF in terms of 'natural' volume. The price of Bitcoin briefly surpassed the previous all-time high and reached a fresh high of $67,000 on October 20th following the news, but has since dipped back below $64,000.

Walmart Shoppers Can Now Buy Bitcoin at 200 Kiosks in Its Stores

Walmart has started a pilot program in which shoppers can buy Bitcoin at Coinstar kiosks in some of its U.S. stores. The trial with Coinstar, which facilitates the exchange of coins and notes for crypto, began earlier this month. The pilot includes 200 kiosks in Walmart stores.

Walmart is testing the service weeks after a high-profile hoax in which a fake press release said the retailer would start accepting Litecoin. While that announcement was false, Walmart is assessing if cryptocurrency has a future in its operations.

Crypto Firm Terraform Reveals SEC Subpoena — as It Sues SEC

Terraform Labs, a Singapore-based crypto firm that built the Terra blockchain, disclosed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had subpoenaed its chief executive officer while he attended a conference in New York. It made the revelation in a lawsuit Terraform itself filed against the SEC in response.

Andreessen Horowitz Invests in New Meta4 NFT Fund

A16z is the lead investor in Meta4′s new fund, which will invest in rare digital art and collectibles such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Arianna Simpson, general partner at A16z Crypto, said in a press release, “NFTs are the driving force behind a new generation of internet products and services that are sharing value directly between the millions of developers, artists, collectors, and even gamers that participate – rather than platforms that simply act as a middleman.”

Crowned Bored Ape with Trippy Fur Sells for Record $2.7 Million

Bored Ape #8585 was sold on October 19th for a record-breaking 696.969 ETH ($2.7 million). That's the most a Bored Ape has ever sold for!

In the past 20 days, there have been two other Bored Ape sales above $1 million, another with trippy fur and a robot ape with cyborg eyes. The buyer of Bored Ape #8585 also picked up a few other NFTs, including a Fidenza (one of the Art Blocks Curated NFTs) for 200 ETH ($775,000) and two CryptoPunks.

Other News

• Bitcoin could become world reserve currency, says Senator Rand Paul,
• Valkyrie Funds launched the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF) focused on Bitcoin futures on October 22nd,
• Investing giant Pimco is considering trading cryptocurrencies,
• Mt. Gox creditors set to receive over $9 billion in Bitcoin,
• 'Wolf of Wall Street' Jordan Belfort purchased CryptoPunk #6033 for $423,000,
• Over $2 billion in Ethereum has now been burned by EIP-1559,
• Rollbit's NFT marketplace due to launch this week!

Market Analysis 📈📉

7-day Price Change

• BTC: +0.4%
• ETH: +12.8%
• BNB: +0.3%
• ADA: +2.2%
• SOL: +32.5%
• XRP: +3.2%
• DOGE: +8.6%
• LINK: +30.7%
• LTC: +4.8%
• TRX: +5.2%

Data as of October 26th, 20:00 UTC

Let's look at the Bitcoin chart.

Since rising back above the $60,000 level, the price of Bitcoin tested this psychological level three times over October 22nd-24th and provides a support level in the event of a downturn. The middle Bollinger Band currently lies at $59,628, providing another important level to watch.

The upper Bollinger Band is at $66,878, which may provide resistance going forward and could be a good opportunity to take profits from long positions or enter a short position.

The 4-hour chart below shows Bitcoin tested the middle Bollinger Band around $61,850 and has bounced higher from this level. A 4-hour candle close below the middle band will likely open up a test of the lower band, currently at $59,737.

However, if the middle band at $61,850 holds as support, we can expect the market to go higher, move towards the upper band at $63,962 and attempt a fresh high for this week.

The daily chart for Ethereum is shown below and the price is currently very close to the upper band at $4,351, suggesting a pullback may be imminent. The middle band stands at $3,831 and should see strong buying interest if that level is reached.

The 4-hour chart for Ethereum displayed below shows a similar outlook to the daily chart. The price is approaching the upper band, which is usually coincides with tops in the price action. In the event of a downturn, the middle band provides support at $4,139, with the price bouncing from this level earlier on October 26th.

The current 4-hour candle shows a Bullish Engulfing candlestick pattern is imminent, which could lead to further gains, but the upper band at $4,280 may impede any bullish run.

With Bitcoin and Ethereum near all-time highs, the price of Solana also briefly reached fresh highs and recently overtook XRP to become the 6th largest digital asset by market capitalisation. Using Fibonacci analysis, if the price of SOL breaks the all-time high and remains above $216.47, then we should see the market trend towards the extension levels at $309.

Therefore, if SOL breaks above the high from September ($216.47) and stays above this level, a test of $300 in the medium term is possible and Solana may rise up the ranks even further!

Have a great week!

-The Rollbit team