Bitcoin has lost an incredible amount of market share for the final month of 2017. We see it currently only accounting for 37.6% of the entire crypto market. This pales in comparison to the previous dominance it had this time last year at 87% and even the 55.90% last month.
What caused this? How could such a valiant deacon of decentralization fall so far from grace?
Transactions:
Transaction times are incredibly slow at an average of 400 to 600 mins!
https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time?timespan=60days&daysAverageString=7
Transaction fees are too expensive at $30!
Alt coins:
The rush in innovation and crowdfunding has flourished the alt coin market with many that promise compelling technology for the future.
It seems everyday that a new privacy coin arises to promise the dethroning of Bitcoin (verge, Pivx, Sumokoin,colossus ).
Alt coins have also been steadily gaining market share; such as ripple 16%, bitcoin cash 6%, and Ethereum 12%.
https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/#dominance-percentage
Korea:
Korea is looking to ban anonymous crypto trading which was a significant plus for cryptocurrency to begin with.
Korean exchanges are also being constantly hacked which has caused an immense amount of volatility especially in bitcoin.
Technicals:
We still view Bitcoin in a wave 4 formation which is notoriously wrought with the three C’s that no trader/investor wants to hear: correction, chop, and congestion.
Although Wall Street investors and hedge funds are beginning to take advantage of the cheaper entry, they are not nearly buying the volume needed to begin the next bullish impulse wave up yet.
As a result we still look for projected timed depth to this wave 4 around mid january (12th-17th)
The depth we have forecasted at a range of $10,800 to $8,700.
From there we expect a return to the meteoric rise and test our next chaotic resistance at 23,000.
What could be the catalyst for the next bull run? Government legalization of crypto? Lightning network implementation on the largest exchanges? Stay tuned.
