Cryptocurrency Indices Coming in 2021, Courtesy of S&P Dow Jones Indices
Indexing Will Drive The Crypto Market Higher
Financial giant S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Thursday, December 3 that it will be launching cryptocurrency indices in 2021, using data from Lukka, a New York based cryptocurrency company. The indices will include more than 550 top traded digital coins, according to the two companies and it will be possible for S&P clients to create customized indices and other benchmarking tools on cryptocurrencies.
This move made by S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the most recognizable names in the financial industry, is likely to bring a lot more attention to cryptocurrency and help digital assets transcend fully into the mainstream space.
The head of innovation and strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, Peter Roffman, had this to say: “With digital assets such as cryptocurrencies becoming a rapidly emerging asset class, the time is right for independent, reliable and user-friendly benchmarks”.
Bitcoin is already trading near all-time highs and recently printed a new high for 2020, at $19,741 (data from CoinMarketCap), after PayPal announced cryptocurrency support and major companies like Square and MicroStrategy have shown interest in digital assets by investing substantial amounts. Thus the Digital King already has a bullish bias, and the recent news will probably give it another push, possibly above the critical $20,000 level. And even if in the short term the digital asset will remain mostly indifferent, in the longer term, we will most likely see a reaction.
BTC/USD – Chart Analysis
Currently Bitcoin is trading at 19,030 against the US Dollar and although it managed to print a higher high recently, it seems to struggle to stay above the resistance level at $19,500. The first part of today was bearish thus far, with a high at $19,552 and a low at $18,893 (data from Bitstamp) but this doesn’t mean the bulls cannot reverse direction, especially considering the overall positive sentiment surrounding the crypto market in general.
Recent price action established good support around $16,500 and unless something drastic changes, that level should not be broken for a while. As for the upside, if the pair can stabilize above $19,500, we will most likely see another push towards the historical barrier at $20,000.
The Relative Strength Index and the MACD are both moving south, but this is likely a consequence of the latest pullback, which established $16,500 as support (indicators are slower than price and lag behind it). In the short term the pair may continue to move with bearish bias, but the general direction favours the bulls, especially given the latest news regarding S&P crypto indices.
