Investors are looking for fundamentals to support the price of Bitcoin. The Consensus 2018 event evidently failed to bring the kind of rally which many in the industry were expecting. Yes, it did bring some Lamborghini’s in town, but if you are speaking of super and exotic cars, then NYC most definitely is the wrong place because Monaco’s crypto event was far better (given that the event was during the Festival de Cannes and car enthusiasts brought their classic and super cars to test them on the formula one track ahead of the F1 racing week). Perhaps, next year, when the event takes place again, hopefully, speculators will not count on this event as a bullish factor.
Following today’s surprise move by Donald Trump to impose steel and aluminium tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the EU, traders are bracing themselves for increased market volatility. This could provide the much-anticipated tailwind in the crypto-markets, as Bitcoin could once again become an ideal hedge opportunity.
During the month of May, central bankers and governments have further praised the adoption of the blockchain technology. Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, has talked more positively about the importance of the Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC, a complete U-turn compared to his speech back in February.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, also decided that it is about time to concur with the leading governments on the serious potential of the blockchain technology. This was the first time we have had anything positive from the Chinese President about blockchain. For investors, this is a welcoming initiative (adopted by the President) because it could be only a matter of time before the People’s Bank of China echoes the same stance. However, this does not necessarily mean that the ban on cryptocurrencies is going to vanish, but the leash may start to loosen up.
In terms of jurisdiction, Malta remains an attractive place for exchanges to conduct their business and given that some major exchanges such as Binance and OKEx are already operating in Malta, the Mediterranean island has started to attract exchanges from less crypto-friendly jurisdiction. Friendly jurisdiction only means that exchanges have more support from government and banks. For instance, the biggest exchange in Poland decided that they are no longer happy in Poland and picked up Malta as their new destination. While in Tallinn, Estonia, at the Tokeneconomic conference, I was moderating a panel on this particular topic; choosing a favourite jurisdiction. I suggested Malta has become more popular because the process of setting such business there is much less burdensome and more time efficient.
The fact is that regulators around the globe are working to some extents with new projects by using the sandbox approach. They want to support the technology which would change the world. In fact, projects which are working in this space and can provide more transparency in way which can help regulators have far more chances of adoption. Xriba, a decentralised bookkeeping project, aiming to bring more transparency in the B2B for ICOs. It is easy to see that how projects say that they want to spend money once they have raised the money but there is no governance and this is one of the main reasons that regulators are tightening their grip for ICOs.
Technical Perspective
From a technical analysis perspective, if we look at the monthly chart of the Bitcoin price, it’s good news for the bulls that the previous month’s low is holding. Also, Bitcoin’s highest price ($9795) for the month of May is higher than the previous month (April’s high $9755). In other words, a small bull signal. However, the closing price of Bitcoin at the end of the month is lower than the opening price of the month. This illustrates that the bears are still holding on to their ground. If the lowest price for the month of June is higher than the month of May (May low at $7051), we could say that things are looking good and it should boost the moral amidst traders.
Most importantly, March, April and May, are all advocating the bull case in terms of uptrend. This is because all three months (March, April and May) have respected the February’s low.