Bitcoin – Bears Fight Back to Push the Market into Reverse

It was a day in the red for the cryptomarket on Monday, with investors taking some froth off the top, following some solid gains from the previous week, a pullback in Litecoin likely to have contributed to the broad based crypto reversal on the day.

There’s been plenty of chatter on Litecoin’s new found support, with the bears talking of an imminent reversal, though even following a 3.01% fall on Monday, support continues to hold Litecoin back from a full retracement to sub-$30 levels struck at the start of the year.

For Bitcoin, Monday’s losses were relatively minor, with Bitcoin falling by 1.33%, partially reversing Sunday’s 6.56% rally, to end the day at $4,113.9.

A late morning intraday low $4,044.9 was the only real test of the day, Bitcoin steering clear of the first major support level at $3,964.6 and more importantly, holding onto the $4,000 handle through the day for the first time since 24^th December.

For the Bitcoin bulls, coming up well short of the day’s first major resistance level at $4,295.1, with an intraday high $4,197, would have been less of an issue, though we can expect the lack of momentum at the start of the week to test investor resolve through the middle of the week.

Across the top 10 cryptos, Stellar’s Lumen bucked the trend on the day along with Tron (TRX) which has been sitting alongside Litecoin as one of the trailblazers at the start of the year, rallying 25.8% with 6 days in the green out of the first 7 days of the year, to pass Bitcoin Cash SV into the number 9 spot by market cap.

While Ethereum has found strong support since its 14^th December swing lo $80.60, rallying by 95% to the end of Monday, the start of the year has been less impressive, Ethereum trailing Tron with a 20.27% gain through the first week of the year.

Tron’s advancement comes as news hits the wires of one of the more popular Ethereum gaming DApps switches from Ethereum to Tron, suggesting that more could follow. The news has had the Tron bulls out in force, leading to price forecasts of as high as $12 by the end of the year.

As we have seen with Litecoin and even Ethereum’s recovery, product differentiation has begun to influence investor appetite in recent weeks, with the anticipated approval of the Token Taxonomy Bill a positive for the ICO market and Ethereum, while adoption begins to also play a bigger hand in direction for the majors going into the New Year.

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At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 0.53% to $4,092.2, with a bearish start to the day seeing Bitcoin fall from a morning high $4,133.7 to a morning low $4,056 before steadying, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on.

The early pullback was seen across most of the top 10, with only Litecoin and Tron bucking the trend through the early morning (Tether excluded).

While the Bitcoin whales will continue to prop up Bitcoin alongside hopes of an inflow of institutional money later on in the quarter, of interest will be how Ethereum and Tron battle it out over the coming weeks, the upside potential of Tron certainly more appetising than that of Ethereum while the ICO market remains in its deep sleep.