An Unexpected Catalyst For Crypto?

PayPal And Crypto-Consumer Trading May Be At Hand

PayPal let it be known earlier this year the company was making inroads to cryptocurrency. In a message to the EU, PayPal said it was unilaterally working on tangible steps into that arena. Now, word from Coindesk suggests the global payment platform is going to partner with new exchange PAXOS. PAXOS is a cryptocurrency brokerage that allows clients to link via API.

This means FinTech companies can rely on PAXOS for back-end compliance and regulatory issues while they focus on the their core business. For PayPal it means providing real-time access to the cryptomarkets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, for its hundreds of thousands of users. I know I will be using PayPal crypto-services when and if they become available.

For Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies it means new owners to HODL and/or trade providing more liquidity and support for price action. Longer-term, it means faster adoption of cryptocurrencies, at least faster awareness, and that too is a good thing for prices. With Ethereum’s upgrade to 2.0 coming soon(?) and hopefully by the end of the year (said that before) it looks like there is a powerful combination of forces to drive price action over the coming months.

Ethereum and the Ethereum-complex (the tokens and alt-coins built or based on Ethereum) have been outperforming of late. Litecoin is largely falling by the wayside, there isn’t much reason to own it and it shows in the price action. Bitcoin is at least holding a solid support line but it too is lagging Ethereum. Ethereum itself is meandering near recent highs waiting for the next big move. There is always some risk to the downside but for now, at least, there is more risk to the upside. A move higher, above $250, will confirm the bullish move and may take the ETH/USD pair up to the $290/$310 region.

Bitcoin’s big hurdle will be the $10,000 level. The $10,000 level has been holding price action back for months and may the line-in-the-sand for many traders. That said, a move above $10,000 will be very significant and likely result in a shift of sentiment. As price action moves higher bears will begin to turn bullish and help support the market. In that scenario, the $20,000 comes into play as it has been for some time. There are HODLrs like myself that see not only a retest of $20,000 but a move well above it.