Crypto newsletter: Bitcoin faces record $1 billion options expiry

• Major Cryptocurrencies are still trading in consolidation
• Approximately $1 billion Bitcoin options will expire  today
• Ethereum network is still struggling with congestion

 

The cryptocurrency market continue to trade mixed during this week. Major cryptocurrencies moved in a tight range  waiting for a catalyst for a bigger move which may turn out to be the expiry of the bitcoin options. Meantime, total market capitalization stands at $261 billion. Bitcoin maintains a dominant market position of  64.4%.

Bitcoin’s options market is on its way to a record $1 billion monthly expiry today.

Today option contracts worth over $1 billion are set to expire across major exchanges, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew. Option expiries can cause significant price movements via a process known as “pinning” in which option traders try to move the spot price to avoid sharp losses. The $10,000 may act as a strong resistance heading into expiry. If prices begin to rise, call sellers may take short positions in the spot markets in order to keep the cryptocurrency from scaling the $10,000 mark.
Bitcoin may witness violent price moves within the next few months if traders rollover short positions in June contracts to July and September expiry.

Bitcoin has been trading in range between $9,000 and $10,000 since the beginning of June. Recently bulls managed to break above last week’s highs at $9,600, however $9,800 level turned out to be to strong and the price pulled back towards $9000 level. Breaking below it may trigger a bigger downward move with a potential target of $8400 support level.  Source: xStation5

 

Ethereum is facing congestion problems

 

Recently Ethereum network is dealing with a new types of congestion issues due to increased activities. Some market participants are suspecting that Ethereum miners are spamming the network with micro transactions. According to Trustnodes, daily transaction volume  on Thursday reached one million (the highest since 2018). Trustnodes suspects that miners such as Ethermine and Nanopool are sending these small transactions in order to get rewarded for mining them. Some of the transactions go as low as 0.001 ETH ($0.25) but the income comes from mining them.

Just this year, the network has been overwhelmed by activities in projects like Tether. Also scam projects such as PlusToken and MMM Token also put pressure on the network. In 2017, CryptoKitties saw the Ethereum network clogged. In 2018 iFish, caused network dusturbance.

Ethereum price failed to reach psychological resistance level at $250.00 and on Wednesday broke below the  key ascending trendline.  Should downbeat moods prevail, support at $215.00 may come into play. Source: xStation5

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