Extreme caution advised at this stage.
Yesterday's congress meeting discussion did not particularly shed a good light on the cryptocurrency market and on top of that the SEC is now targeting cryptocurrency based hedge funds. On the side lines, the politicians who have interest in cryptocurrencies tried to defend the technology, but it is probably not going to be enough to raise the prices back up again.
Now we have G20 summit on Monday the 19th of March 2018. We already know what Germany, France, Japan, and India have to bring to the table on the cryptocurrency agenda. IMF chief wants to 'fight fire with fire' as per reporters.
The main wordings after the G20 meeting which I expect the news websites and news reporters to use will be anti-money laundering, terrorism funding, investor protection (negative), and avoiding over-regulations and protecting the technology (positive). The main issue is this:
Any company can use block chain. The funding can come from the public in the form of ICOs or the company themselves funding the blockchain by taking care of the running costs and expenses internally. This way they can utilize the technology without soaking their feet in the cryptocurrency market. Of course that company's stocks can go higher just based on the use of this technology... or not.
Now comes the 'new money into cryptocurrency market' subject.
Simple scenario: You are a millionaire and have made your millions or thousands by investing in stocks, bonds, properties, or even by doing your regular job. You want to make more money by investing into something. You see a multinational company whose stock value rose by 1000% or more in one year, and then suddenly that value declines to one third of its peak value in less than three successive months. You then see a big country like China expelling that entire companies branch from their land. In the US, you see the SEC and CFTC issuing their warnings to investors about investing money in that company, and then the world governments associate it (even to the slightest possible degree) with terrorism funding. You see world governments talk about regulating it some way.
This is what people are looking at now. This is the picture of the current cryptomarket. The question you need to ask yourself is, would you invest in that company when it is showing signs of a bear market and the outcomes of those SEC and CFTC investigations, regulations and other matters are not clear?
This is what I see. I see a repeat of 2014. The success of 2017 is not going to be replicated that easily in 2018. I think the whole cryptomarket is going to continue on a downtrend for a few months, possible even till mid 2019. All the scammy ICOs will be gone. New rules and regulations will be put in place and high quality ICOs/projects will come into existence. The top tier coins will lose their value and then regain it slowly. AML and KYC laws will become a standard at every exchange. After all measures are put in place for investor protection, smart money will start to come in, and then the whole cycle will repeat again. However, during the next cycle, we will not see a rise that fast and that high. Volatility will gradually decrease. Top projects that actually deliver what they promised will gain popularity and respect.
This is what I think personally. I may be wrong, but so far I have not seen any signs which can change my view of the situation.
With regards to TA, I don't see the bottom yet. BTC can go down to $5200 or even $3500. There will be several bounces up and down.
I was here in 2013 and 2014. The first signs were the alts losing their value. And then gradually BTC followed. We did not have 1500+ coins at that time. Now you can pick any chart, zoom out to 1 day or 1 week scale, and see the head and shoulders or inverted cup and handle pattern. No major exception.
Every move in this market is an opportunity. Use it wisely.