Crypto Commentary for the Week 5- 9 March 2018

This has been a rough week for the cryptocurrency market, which was roiled by an attempted hack at top bitcoin exchange Binance and regulatory crackdowns in the United States and Japan.  Prices rose strongly in the first half of the week, with coins testing their all-time highs since the January-February crash, but buying power took a turn for the worse in the latter half of the week.

There was a confluence of factors that may have contributed to the wave of selling including: reports have circulated that trading robot apps connected to Binance, a top cryptocurrency exchange were hacked, the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announces a plan to regulate crypto exchanges as securities exchanges, adding a layer of regulation to the industry operating in the US. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) penalized seven cryptocurrency exchanges and requiring two to halt operations for one month. Large amount of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash that the bankruptcy trustee for Mt. Gox sold and will sell, raises fears that a large supply has been and will continue to weigh on prices.

On Friday the price of a single bitcoin fell 3.6% to $8,981.03. For the week, bitcoin was down around 20%. Bitcoin trading volumes have also plummeted to a two-year low.  Futures markets tracked spot prices lower. The Cboe Global Markets March contract  closed down 3.2% at $9,135, while the CME Group Inc. March contract finished at $9,015, down 4.1%.

 

 

Bitcoin cash slid 16.4% to $970.66 for the week.

 

 

Ethereum ended down $129.89 or 15.2% last week to close at $724.61.

 

 

Ripple falling 8.4% to end at $0.82, tumbled the least out of the five cryptos. Earlier in the week, Coinbase killed rumors that it would be adding Ripple to its platform.

 

 

Litecoin fell $27.28 or 12.8 % to close at $186.04.