Hi Brent,
New York City’s Blockchain Week did not disappoint. Consensus was packed with insightful panels and discussions, including two from our CEO Steve Ehrlich, a few too many parties, and a steady flow of bullish news. It was the perfect storm.
The market thought so too. With Bitcoin leading the way, crypto assets surged, bringing the total value of the market to $250 billion. BTC touched $8,350, a nine-month high, and all other crypto assets on Voyager reported double-digit growth.
So, what caused the run? Was it Ehrlich’s bullish take on the maturity of this market? Maybe. But, we won’t take all the credit. Keep reading for my breakdown of the market rally and the top moments of the week.
Bitcoin
According to experts, Bitcoin reached strong bull territory this week. At the end of April, the leading asset captured a Gold Cross, which occurs when the 50-day moving average crosses above the longer-term 200-day moving average. It also reached nearly 60 percent dominance this week, edging close to 2017’s high of 66.5 percent.
It was also announced that Starbucks, Whole Foods, Nordstroms, and dozens of other companies will now accept Bitcoin and Ethereum through the Spedn app.
Ethereum
The bullish news continued for ETH. Deloitte announced at Consensus that it would be launching a “very large” project on the Ethereum blockchain, despite rumors that it would be utilizing VeChain instead. A member of the team affirmed its committed to Ethereum, stating that it was a robust network that has been tested, is open source, and transparent.
Alts
The fifth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Litecoin (LTC), hit its highest level since June 2018, jumping to $107.71. As of Thursday evening, Stellar Lumen (XLM) gained 56 percent over the last seven days, the most significant increase of any asset listed on Voyager. Iota (IOT), Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) all saw 40+ percent gains.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin experienced a massive correction, settling in at $7,113. The market pullback came after the relative strength index (RSI) had been reporting extremely overbought conditions and signals of buyer exhaustion set in as BTC failed to hold the $8,300 level.
Despite the Consensus hangover, Bitcoin remains up over 90% year to date and up over 30% since the start of the month.