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Bitcoin – A Slide in ICOs Hasn’t Helped, But Things May be about to Change

By:
Bob Mason
Published: Dec 30, 2018, 04:58 UTC

Bitcoin continues to struggle at $4,000, with investors likely to be looking to what lies ahead for the broader market come the New Year.

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Bitcoin fell by 3.54% on Saturday, partially reversing Friday’s 8.69% gain, to end the day at $3,894.

Tracking the broader market through the day, Bitcoin held on to $4,000 levels through to the late morning before easing back, a range bound start to the day testing investor sentiment.

A late in the day bounce saw Bitcoin move back through to $4,000 levels and an intraday high $4,099.7, coming up short of $4,100 levels and the day’s first major resistance level at $4,189.03 before hitting reverse.

The end of day pullback saw Bitcoin slide to an intraday low $3,859.3 before steadying, the first major support level at $3,790.33 left untested through the day.

Following Friday’s broad based cryptomarket rally, a range bound morning and a failure to break through to $4,100 levels ultimately weighed, investors taking some froth off the top to pin Bitcoin back late in the day.

With the broader market in the red, the total market cap eased back to $128.21bn, while Bitcoin’s dominance sat at 51.8%, the fall reflective of lighter losses elsewhere.

For the Bitcoin bulls, the late reversal and failure to hold onto $4,000 levels will continue to be an issue, with Bitcoin needing to break free of the current ranges to support a positive start to the year.

A lack of materially negative news provided little support and as the New Year rapidly approaches, focus will likely return to the U.S Department of Justice, the SEC, the pending Bitcoin ETF applications and the planned roll out of unified rules and regulations by the G20.

Of interest will be whether the SEC will hold back on a roll out of rules and regulations for the U.S market, with the SEC’s ongoing crackdown of unregistered ICOs that continue to be considered as unregistered securities.

The classification of cryptocurrencies and whether they should be classified as a security will see further debate going into the New Year, with a Token Taxonomy Act, which attempts to resolve the debate on whether cryptos should be classified as securities, likely to get some airtime in the early months.

Under the Token Taxonomy Act, the bill looks to clarify that securities laws do not apply to companies that use blockchain once a functioning network is in place.

According to the press release, the bill focuses on a 1946 court case that has been used by the SEC to determine what a security is and making it clear that the ‘finished product’ is no longer a security.

Should the bill pass through the floor largely intact, the U.S ICO market would undoubtedly expand at a rapid pace to compete with other ICO friendly jurisdictions and support an ICO market that has struggled of late, the uncertainty over token classification, combined with a particularly volatile cryptomarket, will have resulted in the delays in the launch of new cryptos through the year.

In 2018, there were a total of 1,231 ICOs raising $7,541,688,519, coming in well ahead of 876 ICOs and total funds raised of $6,226,689,449 in 2017.

Looking into the numbers however, the increased regulatory oversight and targeting of ICOs launched contributed to a material decline in ICOs throughout this year, ultimately reversing the upward trend seen through 2017.

In January of this year, total funds raised through ICOs hit $1,522.11m, while in November, total funds raised was just $178.4m.

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At the time of writing, Bitcoin up 0.04% to $3,895.6, with a range bound early part of the day seeing a morning high $3,919 and low $3,838.9 steer clear of the day’s major support and resistance levels.

The Bitcoin bulls have their work cut out for them however, with another broad based cryptomarket rally needed to pull Bitcoin into positive territory for the week, Bitcoin down 4.39% by the end of Saturday.

BTC/USD 30/12/18 Daily Chart

About the Author

Bob Masonauthor

With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.

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