Monero Price Analysis: XMR/USD Bursts Out of Narrow Range-Block as Fight Against ASIC Domination Continues | Hacked: Hacking Finance
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- Monero (XMR) bulls have been able to break out to the upside from a range-block formation. The price had been confined within this region for 28 sessions.
- The Monero Foundation has scheduled another ASIC-disabling hard fork on 9th March.
XMR/USD: Recent Price Behavior
The XMR price over the past few sessions has continued to grind higher, this coming after it managed to break out to the upside from a range-block formation. XMR/USD was trading within the confinements of the mentioned narrowing range for around 28 days; however, the bulls were able to regather some upside to force a breach. This move has opened the door to allow for further buying pressure.
The Monero Foundation recently announced that it had scheduled another ASIC-destroying hard fork on 9th March. As per the foundation, it will be occurring at block #1788000. Monero will not be introducing any additional features other than a new notification and block size algorithm.
For well over a year now, the foundation has made its strong views against ASIC devices crystal clear. ASICs are known to have been constructed very efficiently when they are mining a specific coin or algorithm. As a result, they can in a fast manner dominate the mining hashrate which leads to an increase in the risk of a 51% attack. According to a recent report, 85% of the Monero network is dominated by ASIC miners.
In April 2018, Monero had already conducted a hard fork, implementing a new algorithm to prevent ASIC domination. Back then the hashrate had dropped dramatically; the ASIC domination was still somewhat evident. After just a few days, the hashrate returned up to around 480 Megahashes per second.
ASIC manufacturers have continued to release newly designed devices, which can mine Monero. Then Monero team will then make changes to its mining algorithm to tackle the new ASICs arriving on the market. The problem, however, is FPGAs or programmable ASICs, are becoming a serious issue given that they can remain active for longer by simply adapting to new changes.
Technical Review – XMR/USD
Given the recent extension out of the narrowing range, there is room for further upside by the market bulls. In terms of targets, eyes are now on a supply area observed just above tracking from $53 up to the $60 mark. The price last faltered here in the early part of January and also at the back-end of December 2018. XMR/USD had not traded above this mentioned zone since November 2018, when the market was firmly in control by the bears.
In terms of support, this is seen just above the range-block formation tracking around $47. A failure of this holding will likely result in the price being forced to trade back within. Further south, eyes will be on the December and 2018 low, $38.70, where the price had bottomed before buyers returned.
Disclaimer: The author owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.
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Ken Chigbo
Ken has over 8 years exposure to the financial markets. During a large part of his career, he worked as an analyst, covering a variety of asset classes; forex, fixed income, commodities, equities and cryptocurrencies. Ken has gone on to become a regular contributor across several large news and analysis outlets.
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