A popular winning trade of last year based on betting on consistently tranquil markets has sharply reversed in 2018 as jitters over rising bond yields have coincided with a jump in volatility in the US stock market. Traders who made vast gains betting that the Cboe Vix index, a popular shorthand measure of expectations for near-term volatility for US stocks, would remain quiescent are now sitting on steep losses this year as volatility has hit its highest level since 2015. With the U.S. stock market suffering its worst three-day slide in years, it is obvious that volatility is back with volatility measures, however, these are sending mixed messages.
Even the US Securities and exchange commission are not clearing their stand on the digital currencies market. However, it will interesting to see what they will bring to the table today when the SEC executives will hold a testimony on digital currencies in Senate today at 10:00 AM EST. Even the market’s focus is majorly going to remain on what will be the resultant decision of SEC pertaining to exchange-traded funds for investments in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. If the Commission steps up in rhetoric over the issue, the price of the leading cryptocurrency may drop to a fresh low of $5,500 and the nearest resistance then would be- $6,500.
On the other hand, China is back with its bans and news et of regulations to completely crusade on the hopes of cryptocurrency market. A news publication affiliated with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in an article on Sunday that it would block access to all domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges and ICO websites, the South China Morning Post reported.
China already banned bitcoin exchanges in late 2017 as a way to stem online trading, but the attempt failed to eliminate cryptocurrency trading completely.
“ICOs and virtual currency trading did not completely withdraw from China following the official ban,” the article said, according to SCMP.
There is then South Korea which did not ban all crypto trading, however, did tighten regulations on anonymous trading and has set the tone for other countries looking to crackdown on the cryptocurrency market. This means the market is set for further volatility and new FUDs overpowering the retail trading of virtual currencies. But as the Bitcoin lovers would say HODL and find what happens next, we await!
Source: Applancer