The Litecoin price, Bitcoin price and Ethereum price all surged dramatically on Friday, adding billions of dollars in value to the cryptocurrency‘s market capitalization. Litecoin led the way with a dramatic 30% early in the day, and then bitcoin followed close behind with an 11% gain.
Litecoin price boosted by Mimblewimble news
Litecoin leapt into fourth place among the major cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap. The sudden increase came after the Litecoin Foundation said it had spoken to Beam about cooperating on implementing Mimblewimble on Litecoin. The foundation said implementing Mimblewimble could increase the privacy of using Litecoin for payments “by allowing on-chain conversion of regular LTC into a Mimblewimble variant of LTC and vice versa.”
Crypto enthusiasts are undoubtedly excited about this prospect. The Mimblewimble privacy protocol is focused on scalability. It also aims for the best of both worlds when it comes to payments. The protocol is designed to verify the sender’s and recipient’s private keys without transferring any information, keeping identities private and making transactions almost untraceable.
What is Mimblewimble?
Many crypto enthusiasts are probably already aware of the Mimblewimble protocol because it builds upon the confidentiality already inherent in using bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. Although Mimblewimble has been around for a few years and was actually developed for bitcoin, but developers have only just begun to really explore it.
Beam was the first cryptocurrency to launch with the Mimblewimble protocol, and it just began trading toward the beginning of the year. Beam is generally considered to offer enhanced privacy on top of the privacy already offered by the original bitcoin. The creators of Beam explained that their cryptocurrency allows users to pick and choose which information about them will be available and which parties will have access to it.
The news linking Litecoin with Mimblewimble is of particular interest for bitcoin enthusiasts. The protocols of the two cryptocurrencies are nearly the same, which means whatever work is down for Litecoin could easily be adjusted and applied to bitcoin.
Bitcoin price and Ethereum price surge after Litecoin
Not long after the Litecoin price surge, the bitcoin price and Ethereum price jumped as well. Bitcoin spiked around $3,656, while Ethereum spiked at around $120. Both cryptocurrencies pulled back a bit after their initial spokes, but prices remain significantly higher than they were before the sudden increase.
The bitcoin price was trading around a seven-week low before jumping by more than $200 in a day, The Independent reported. In fact, the cryptocurrency jumped about $100 in only about half an hour. The movements in Bitcoin price and Ethereum price changes are especially significant because the cryptocurrency market has been essentially stagnant with very little movement in recent weeks.
Cryptocurrencies also received a nod from Securities and Exchange Commissioner Robert Jackson, who told the Roll Call that he does expect a crypto exchange-traded fund at some point. That remark is important for the many enthusiasts who have tried and failed to bring a crypto ETF to the market in the U.S.
Technical signals for bitcoin
At this point, the exact catalysts for the sudden upward break in crypto prices. While the positive news surrounding Bitcoin price and Ethereum price could be a contributing factor, Business Insider noted that the sudden price suggests came a while after the news was released. It does seem likely that technicals played at least somewhat of a role in the sudden price moves, although once again it’s unclear just how large of a role they may have played.
Earlier this week, Bitcoinist pegged the resistance level for the bitcoin price at about $3,500, which it did blast through today. The next level of resistance stands closer to $3,700, so there is still some room to go before it will reach that price. If the bitcoin price can breach $3,700, the next psychological level will likely be around $4,000.
For now, MarketWatch reports that the bitcoin price must end the week at or above $3,415 in order to break its two-week losing streak. As of the time of this writing, the cryptocurrency appears to be in a strong position to end the week above that level, but that’s not the only technical signal analysts are watching.
A Think Markets UK analyst told the news outlet that any breakout from between the $3,183 to $4,234 range bitcoin has been stuck in would be significant. He especially mentioned the $3,000 support as being important because any break below that could trip a sell signal, leaving many holders dumping the coins.