Prices were soft in the market as traders awaited a statement from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the next rate hike.
Currently, market consensus is for a 0.75 bps rate hike and few analysts are banking on 1%.
Stocks also appear on track to close the day in the red, with the Dow down 0.75%, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq losing 0.79% and 0.64%, respectively. Bitcoin continues to fight a seemingly lost battle at $19,000, while Ether (ETH) dug a little deeper into its post-merger dip, hitting an intraday low of $1,329.
While BTC, Ether and altcoins are not making significant moves against the current bearish trend in terms of market structure and technical analysis, there are some interesting developments taking place.
Lido (LDO) has aligned with Ethereum as consolidation-trading momentum is slowing, but the asset is currently trading as what some say is a bull flag. While ETH bulls and traders may be taking profits on their long Ether positions, the merger was successful, stocks and bulls still benefit from the altcoin, and the fundamentals that made investors fall for Ether remain.
Ideally, if Ether Dapps and active users continue to expand and traders continue to accumulate, in an otherwise bearish market, shouldn’t the product be a capital magnet?
From a market structure perspective, Ripple (XRP) looks interesting, and there has been a lot of social chatter about it on Twitter recently. Following the usual hopium-laced narrative, members of the XRP army have been suggesting that the price could “moon” if XRP wins the SEC case and is not considered a security.
Of course, strong fundamentals and signs of growth should drive investments in new addresses and products coming to market in demand, but in the absence of that, the market structure looks interesting.
Basically, there is a pre-bull market precedent for a long consolidation phase in a circular bottom that is somewhat similar to what we can see from the last 137 days. Volumes are increasing, the price has broken a long-term downtrend line that has historically served as resistance, and it can be concluded that the XRP HTF is undervalued in terms of market structure.
But a word of caution, encouragement and anticipation tend to trigger volume increases. Even if the SEC decides whether XRP is a security or a contrarian, investors’ excitement could still fade and the price could easily trade on the same side forever or until the “next bull market”.
Related: Price Analysis 9/19: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, MATIC, SHIB
ALGO’s market structure also looks interesting. The price has followed the entire bull market rally and is now trading at the same level as it was in 2019 and 2020. An occasional buy-size pop didn’t last long enough to clear the $0.40 level, but a few could spice things up on a daily basis. It closes above this zone and a test of the 200-MA has occurred at $0.48.
If the broader market begins to consolidate and ALGO’s buying volume is sustained, this moving average reversal to support could rise to $0.69, and daily closes above $0.80 would be a significant high indicating confirmation of a trend reversal.
As a disclaimer, these charts simply reflect “interesting” looking properties. At the moment, the market is still very weak and the big caps like BTC and ETH have yet to find the bottom.
After all, it’s the Federal Reserve that’s calling the shots on what happens in risky assets like crypto. So take these screenshots with a grain of salt and proceed with caution.
The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and business activity involves risk, you should do your own research when making a decision.