Shhh. We’re Hunting Altcoins.

This isn’t crypto-related per se, but a big event in FX markets occurred overnight. 🚨

Traders in FX (foreign currency) markets often call the Japanese Yen (JPY) the Widow Maker because the Bank of Japan can (and will) frequently surprise the market.. 

Last night was no exception. CNBC has a good rundown on why yesterday’s move was important, but here’s what happened on the chart:

A ‘pip’ is how FX traders measure a move. And the average stop loss is between 20-40 pips. 

So bulls and bears got rekt. ⛑️

As the crypto market begins its shift into the volatility hell that the weekends are known for, a good chunk of the altcoin market is positioned for some big moves. 

Let’s take a look at some of them. 

Cardano

For the bulls, analysts see a breakout and close above the trend line (black) at $0.32 as a necessary condition to bring some ‘hope’ to $ADA‘s daily chart. 

Even if that pans out, bulls face some major resistance that 2023 Volume Point of Control at $0.385 – a level that’s stopped Cardano since May 2023.

For the bears, they’re likely looking for a bearish breakout below the lower trend line (red) and a close below the July 13 candlestick (SEC vs. XRP) at $0.286 to bring another flush for ADA. 🚽

Polygon

$MATIC‘s stuck in the horribleness that is the Cloud on its daily chart. Adding further frustration for bulls and bears is near equal positioning for making one side of the market really happy and the other very sad. 

For the bulls, Ichimoku traders and analysts are looking for that much sought-after Ideal Bullish Ichimoku Breakout, which requires MATIC to close at or above $0.774. 

The exact inverse is the case for the bears; they’re likely looking for a close at or below $0.656 because it fulfills the Ideal Bearish Ichimoku Breakout. 

Binance Coin

Oof. $BNB looks ugly. If it looks like a textbook bear flag, that’s because it is. 

The bears have massive and major control over this one – and the key warning sign that more downside pressure is likely is a close below the bear flag at or below $232.60. 

In any crypto environment looking, from a technical and fundamental approach, BNB looks toast.

Ah, 2017. The first major blow-off-top move involving millions of people and the height of crypto’s ICO phase. Hard to believe that was six years ago. 🤯

Quantstamp ($QSP) was one of the ‘bigger’ names six years ago – but no one remembers them much anymore. 

But like an elephant, the SEC never forgets. 🐘

Last week, the SEC pushed out a presser highlighting their accusations and the settlement Quantstamp agreed to:

• The SEC alleged that in October and November 2017, Quantstamp raised over $28 million by selling QSP tokens to approximately 5,000 investors, including those in the United States. 
• According to the SEC, they found that Quantstamp failed to register its offers and sales of QSP, which constituted securities.
• Despite filing a Form D claiming that the unregistered sales of QSP were exempt under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D and under Regulation S, Quantstamp failed to qualify for any exemption to registration. 
• Quantstamp has agreed to settle the charges by disgorging proceeds from the offering and paying a civil penalty. The firm will pay a disgorgement of $1,979,201, prejudgment interest of $494,314, and a civil penalty of $1 million. 

 According to the order, Quantstamp completed its automated smart contract security auditing platform in June 2019 and no longer operates nor lends substantial support to the platform.

Does this mean other entities are in the SEC’s crosshairs? We’ll have to see. 🕵️

Here are the key data points from the Digital Asset Management Review for July 2023:

1. Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) and Trusts Dominate: ETPs and trusts continue to be the preferred product types for institutional investors. ETPs saw a 31.4% increase in Assets Under Management (AUM) to $2.67 billion, capturing 7.91% of the market share. Trust products, on the other hand, dominated with a market share of 74.4%.

2. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) Leads: Despite a 2.88% decrease in AUM to $18.6 billion in July, $GBTC maintained its position as the leading trust product, holding a market share of 74.1%.

3. Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) Grows: $ETHE saw an increase in AUM of 1.44% to $5.65 billion and a market share of 22.5%.

4. MVDA Index Increases: The MVDA index, a market cap-weighted index that tracks the performance of the 100 largest digital assets, experienced an increase of 8.59%.

5. Product Performance: The report includes a detailed breakdown of the performance of various digital asset investment products, including changes in AUM and average daily volume.

6. CCData Index Products: The report highlights the MVIS CCData Digital Assets Indices, which track the financial performance of the largest and most liquid digital assets and serve as the underlying platform for financial products globally.

Remember, these are just the key points. For a more detailed analysis, you can check out the full report here.

Ichimoku is not an indicator (many platforms incorrectly label it an indicator) – it is a full analysis and trading system comprised of five different indicators. 

Goichi Hosada, the creator of the Ichimoku system, created Ichimoku to be an upgraded version of Japanese candlesticks. If you want to get technical (see what I did there?), using Japanese candlesticks without Ichimoku is like using Windows 95 instead of Windows 11. 

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