Welcome to the July Crypto Outlook with Contentworks, an agency specialising in content marketing for financial services, crypto and blockchain.

The cryptocurrencies sector was relatively calm in June as the world economy started to reopen after months of lockdown. The price of Bitcoin remained below the important resistance level of $10,000 while Ethereum rose by 12%. Ripple declined by more than 7% even as the company announced new plans to expand its remittance gateways.



Ethereum momentum gains ahead of ETH 2.0...
ETH was among the best-performing digital currencies in June as enthusiasm rose over Ethereum 2.0.

For starters, ETH 2.0 is a new software update to the current public mainnet that is intended to improve Ethereum usage and adoption. The most significant change in the system will be Proof of Stake (PoS), which will be implemented by sharding. By implementing PoS, ETH 2.0 will replace miners and electricity with validators and stake. In this, validators will replace miners as the individuals who maintain the agreed-upon state of the network and receive rewards for randomly selecting the next block of data.

ETH 2.0 will be the next big update in the cryptocurrencies space after halving, which happened in May. Therefore, there is a possibility that the price of ETH will continue to rise as enthusiasts wait for the new changes.

Ripple gets ready to expand payment gateways...
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a sharp decline in global remittances. According to the World Bank, total remittances will fall by more than 20% this year as unemployment rates in the developed world rise. However, digital platforms have seen an increase in transactions.

In a statement in June, Asheesh Birla, an executive at Ripple said that the company was moving to expand its remittance gateways to more countries. While the process will take months to implement, traders believe it will lead to more transactions in the XRP platform. In July, we will continue to focus more on these developments.

Coronavirus second wave...
The past three months have been difficult for the world economy. The pandemic also put cryptocurrencies to their biggest test since they were formed a decade ago. That is because, in the past, most analysts were worried about whether the currencies could survive a recession.

In total, Ethereum has been among the best-performing digital assets, gaining by more than 66% in the past three months. Bitcoin is next, having gained by 38% while XRP has gained by just 5%.

In July, the currencies may be tested again as the number of coronavirus cases jump in the United States and elsewhere. In the past week, the country has reported more than 100,000 new cases and more states have started to implement stay-at-home orders. And the CDC has warned that these numbers are underreported.

Therefore, cryptocurrencies could see more movement as the Federal Reserve moves to implement more stimulus funding. There is also a possibility that Washington will implement more stimulus. The chart below shows how the three biggest digital currencies have performed during the pandemic.



Top crypto events in July...
Events have been among the worst-affected sectors in the cryptocurrency industry. In the past few months, events that used to attract thousands of attendees have been replaced by virtual events. In July, with the number of cases rising, most events will remain online.

Among the key events to watch are the Cardano Shelly Summit, which will happen on July 2 and 3.  Binance will host its third “off the charts” events while Unitize will happen between July 06 and 10. Other key events to watch are the Singapore Blockchain Week, Mining Disrupt, and Asia Blockchain Summit. We will also be media partners at the TradeOn virtual event so be sure to join us there!

At Contentworks Agency, our team of financial professionals closely follows market movements for FX, Crypto and other tradable instruments. We are proud to serve some of the biggest crypto and fintech companies in the world by delivering high-impact articles, videos, PRs and white papers.

Visit Contentworks at www.contentworks.agency 

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Global Crypto Press / Breaking Crypto News
PR Distribution / Industry Services

Welcome to the February 2020 Crypto Outlook with Contentworks, an agency specialising in content marketing for financial services, crypto and blockchain.

2020 is turning out to be another great year for Bitcoin. In January, the price of Bitcoin rose by almost 30%. This was significantly higher than the 3.2% rise in gold price and the -0.16% decline of the S&P500. There are three main reasons for this. 

Firstly, the market is hopeful that the halving event happening later this year will be positive for Bitcoin. This is because Bitcoins will be scarcer and more difficult to mine, potentially increasing their value.

Secondly, the spreading coronavirus disease presents a major risk to the world economy. As such, many investors are using Bitcoin as a safe-haven or as digital gold. Thirdly, technical indicators suggest that the price of Bitcoin bottomed in the fourth quarter of the year. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency that is rallying. Indeed, Litecoin and Ethereum have risen by 66% and 40% respectively. The chart below compares the performance of major cryptocurrencies with that of gold and S&P500.

In February, investors will continue to focus on the spreading coronavirus disease. The disease is estimated to have a negative impact on the world economy because the Chinese supply chain is expected to be affected. As such, it’s possible that many crypto enthusiasts will buy more currencies as a hedge against risk. 

Crypto enthusiasts will continue to count down the days to halving. This is an important event, which will reduce the number of Bitcoins that are awarded to miners. This is an event that takes place after every 210k blocks. The next Bitcoin halving will take place between May and June this year. As of this writing, we are less than 100 days from the event. After this, the next halving will take place in 2024. The price of Bitcoin has historically risen ahead of the halving event.

Ripple will be a key cryptocurrency to watch in February. XRP has risen by 23%. The company behind it made headlines in December, when it raised $200 million from investors. The funding is expected to help Ripple grow its remittances business. Now, there is talk that the company is preparing to go public. Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, told the media that he believed the company had the potential to become a publicly traded company. This will be the first major crypto provider to go public.

The market will also focus on a number of key events including the iFX Expo Asia, which has been temporarily postponed due to the Corona virus. This is usually one of the biggest finance-related events in the world. It is attended by thousands of participants and hundreds of speakers. Some of the key speakers expected will be from companies like Goldman Sachs, Alibaba, Deloitte, and eToro among others.

Another important event will be the Digital Asset Summit (DAS), which will happen in London. This is an event that targets institutional investors. The speakers will be from companies like BitGo, Genesis, Fidelity, and Nexo among others. Other key events to watch will be Blockchain in oil & gas that will be held in Canada and Finnovate that will happen in Berlin Germany.

At Contentworks Agency, our team of financial professionals closely follows market movements for FX, crypto and other tradable instruments. We are proud to serve some of the biggest crypto and fintech companies in the world by delivering high-impact articles, videos, PR and white papers.