Ethereum (ETH/USD) Tests Triangle, Bitcoin (BTC/USD) Backs Down

Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ethereum (ETH/USD), Dogecoin Talking Points

  • It was a relatively quiet weekend in the crypto space with both Bitcoin and Ethereum exhibiting some element of calm.
  • It appears that Elon Musk’s focus is shifting to other alt-coins, and Doge has continued to fall even despite being added to the Coinbase platform recently.

It was an abnormally quiet weekend in crypto even with a certain Twitter account remaining fairly active around the matter. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum remain on their back foot after the May reversal and with threats of additional regulation out of China, rallies in Bitcoin have remained capped as Ethereum appears to be getting slightly greater run against its larger-cap brethren.

As discussed previously, there could be some motive for additional drive into Ethereum, especially for those that believe in a prosperous future around cryptocurrencies. Ethereum has pretty considerable flexibility, highlighted in part by the infrastructure provided for NFT (non-fungible tokens). Also of interest and addressing the claims made by Elon Musk in May that contributed to the crypto sell-off, Ethereum 2.0 is presented as a faster and more energy-efficient manner of exchange.

From the charts, there could be a bullish take on the current Ethereum chart while Bitcoin appears to be a bit weaker. Below, I’m looking at the two hour chart of Ethereum and notice the recent build of an ascending triangle formation. This is noted by horizontal resistance coupled with higher-low support, showing how each resistance inflection appears to be carrying a diminishing impact. Such formations may lead into bullish breakout potential.

To learn more about the ascending triangle formation, check out DailyFX Education

Ethereum (ETH/USD) Two Hour Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley; Ethereum on Tradingview

The longer-term chart below looks at the bigger picture – with the key takeaway here being the 50% retracement of the Jan 11 – May 12 major move. This is relevant as we’ll look at a comparable move in Bitcoin below to help highlight that divergence between the two major crypto markets.

Ethereum (ETH/USD) Daily Price Chart

Ethereum Daily Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley; Ethereum on Tradingview

Bitcoin on Back Foot

Bitcoin was the original and, by many accounts, remains the focal point for the crypto space. Like Ethereum above, Bitcoin has grasped on to a series of higher lows over the past couple weeks. But, the major difference is what’s been happening at resistance or tests of highs. While Ethereum is seeing prices bounce back towards that horizontal resistance, Bitcoin hasn’t and, instead, has been showing lower-highs.

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) Two-Hour Price Chart

Bitcoin BTCUSD Two Hour Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley; Bitcoin on Tradingview

Bitcoin Longer-Term

Taking a step back to the Daily for a more apples-to-apples comparison with the above Daily chart on Ethereum, and we can see a pretty large deviation in the bigger picture. While Ethereum is holding above the 50% retracement of that major move, Bitcoin is currently finding resistance at the 76.4% retracement of a similarly-plotted major move.

This gives a much more bearish appearance than what’s showing in Ethereum, as of this writing.

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) Daily Price Chart

Bitcoin Daily price chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley; Bitcoin on Tradingview

Dogecoin Holds its Own, but Fails to Explode on Coinbase Inclusion

Until recently, Dogecoin was inaccessible from one of the larger crypto venues in the United States. That has changed, however, as Coinbase has started to list Dogecoin as a tradeable token on their platform.

Interestingly, this hasn’t entailed a massive explosion in the coin’s price and, instead, bears have taken control to push back-below the .3600 level.

What is interesting around Doge is what else was going on: The coin jumped as Elon Musk started tweeting about it earlier this year, culminating with his Saturday Night Live appearance. But recently, he’s appeared to shift his focus to other alt-coins, highlighting another potential shift after previously moving over to Doge from Bitcoin.

— Written by James Stanley, Senior Strategist for DailyFX.com

Contact and follow James on Twitter: @JStanleyFX