Summary:

• Most of the popular cryptocurrencies calm down after a bloodbath on Thursday
• Bitcoin (BTCUSD on xStation5) has not managed to break above a local resistance though
• Ripple (XRP.US) strongly rebounds posting new all-time highs

It’s been almost a week since the heavy selloff in cryptocurrencies. In the meantime, there have been a few ups and down, although it seems that the market steadies ahead of the year-end. Ripple is one exception. The virtual currency resisted the bloodbath yesterday and it has been continuing rally rising almost 100% only this week. 

 Ripple is distinctly outperforming other financial assets rising over 20% today. Source: xStation5

All major digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin plummeted yesterday on reports that South Korea would ban some of the exchanges and even forbid opening anonymous accounts. As far as Bitcoin is concerned, another hard fork was supposed to take place on Thursday as well. The new Segwit2x was launched actually. It aims to help with the scalability issues of Bitcoin. However, the team working on this upgrade has nothing to do with the group responsible for SegWit2x that was canceled in November. Therefore, most of the exchanges are uncomfortable with the development work behind the current Segwit2x hard fork. Without their acceptance, the new upgrade would remain marginalised. 

 Bitcoin has not been able to break above 55-period EMA on H4 interval. The cryptocurrency could be headed now towards a local support located in the vicinity of $13000 handle. Source: xStation5

Ripple has become a flavour of the month. This digital currency has experienced a stunning rally since the beginning of December as some Japan and South Korean banks decided to test it in the international fund transfers. The technology is supposed to reduce costs of transfers up to 30%. Moreover, Ripple has been boosted this week by news that Ripple Asian subsidiary and a group of Japan’s credit card companies are to cooperate. They aim to identify how distributed ledger technology can be deployed in credit card payments. Rising awareness and new applications of the Ripple could make it the key cryptocurrency in 2018. 

 Ripple has broken above $1.2314 handle with huge bullish momentum. We can not rule out a short-term pullback, but the upward trend might persist. Source: xStation5