Summary:

  • Ripple (XRPUSD on xStation5) surges following the announcement on a new partnership
  • Bitcoin mining consumes more and more energy, the trend will keep its momentum according to Morgan Stanley
  • Cryptocurrencies may curb silver ETF holdings based on the latest data

Over the course of the past hours Ripple decisively stole the show across the most traded digital currencies. On top of that we had relative calmness without any hectic moves. Notice that Bitcoin (BTCUSD) is still trading below a $14k mark while a technical analysis seems to suggest that bulls could struggle to come back to the market in a more spectacular way.

Ripple benefits from a new partnership

Looking at a lower interval of the Ripple’s chart one may spot that it was quite an amazing rally on late Thursday. The move occurred immediately after the report pointing the company signed a partnership with MoneyGram, the second largest money transfer company in the world. Ripple was no the sole winner of the agreement as shares of MoneyGram spiked as much as 12.75%. The decision aims at improving transfer settlement times and costs and it could contribute to yet broader interest of the Ripple-based technology among financial institutions. Let us remind that Western Union saw a similar spike last week spurred by an unverified rumour that it planned to also use the digital currency. In an official statement Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said “the payments problem doesn’t just affect banks, it also affects companies like MoneyGram, which help people get money to the ones they care about”. He also added “by using a digital asset like XRP that settles in three seconds or less, our clients can move money as quickly as information.”

link do file download linkRipple surged after the deal announcement but it failed to maintain those gains. As a result the virtual currency came back to a descending channel. However, bulls appear to be determined enough to take a stab at breaking an upper boundary of the channel anew and if they deal with it room for further increases might be opened. Source: xStation5

Bitcoin mining needs getting more energy the amount is gargantuan

According to the Morgan Stanley’s forecasts Bitcoin could use up more than 125 terawatt hours of electricity this year, a level electric vehicles globally are not expected to reach until 2025. The bank estimates that Bitcoin’s power demand is set to more than triple in 2018 consuming as much energy in a year as the entire nation of Argentina. MS uses a very curious comparison weighing Bitcoin’s power demand against all the Tesla cars on the road (ca. 280k at the end of 2017). They underlined that all those cars used last year less than 1.3 terrawatt hours of electricity which is substantially less than Bitcoin mining demands. This could be a global issue so nobody should be surprised that the Chinese authorities have already taken some steps in order to curb Bitcoin mining in a bid to save electricity.

Cryptocurrencies could play a significant role in the silver market

link do file download linkSilver ETF holdings decreased despite a 5% rise in the silver price. Source: Bloomberg

As per the newest Bloomberg data silver ETFs have sold almost 29 million ounces since mid-July 2017 despite a 5% advance seen in the commodity price. There are assumptions that cryptocurrencies may have shifted investors’ habits who tended to invest in precious metals instead of highly risky virtual coins. At the same time gold ETFs increased their holdings as the gold price was advancing during the same period.

link do file download linkAfter a pullback Ethereum (ETHUSD) could be poised to regain its upward momentum. Notice that the price was able to stay above an upper limit of a channel, hence until it hover above the level bulls appears to be better positioned. If so a try to move toward the past peak at $1370 remains on the cards. Source: xStation5