A familiar low volatility picture is characterizing crypto markets today. Bitcoin fell slightly below $9,200, while altcoins follow suit – though with some outliers.

Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t possibly have imagined it would be easy. Having ostracized the crypto community by banning their ads on his platform, the Facebook CEO went on to announce the intention to create a cryptocurrency of his own in Libra.

• Stellar Lumen has a bullish short-term trading bias, but remains bearish over the medium-term
• The four-hour time frame shows that the XLM / USD pair is trading in a rising price channel
• The daily time frame shows that a large descending price channel has formed

Stellar Lumen is on the rise, after the cryptocurrency posted strong double-digit trading gains over the last twenty-four hours and rose to its highest trading level since late September this year.

Huobi Group has announced the expansion of its footprint in the MENA region, launching its white-label digital asset exchange services at its office in Dubai, UAE. Huobi is the latest firm to leverage the blockchain-friendly attitude of the UAE, where the government has committed to a strategic agenda for adopting the technology.

Two up-and-coming blockchain projects have partnered on blockchain scalability for businesses. The first is Elrond, a blockchain with a focus on fast value transfer. The second is Cere, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that handles customer usage and activity data in addition to basic transactions.

The cryptocurrency markets are continuing a diversification trend whereby most altcoins are seeing moderate increases, with several strong outliers. Bitcoin has grown by $200 dollars in a sudden move, continuing to establish a descending triangle pattern on lower time frames.

There is a new exchange on the block, and it has some heavily pro-Bitcoin, anti-political ad supporters behind it. Jack Dorsey has simultaneously banned political ads from Twitter and invested in CoinList Trade.

Binance Launchpad pioneered the IEO, but it’s not the undisputed leader. Can high ROIs keep it on top?

Binance Launchpad is single-handedly responsible for popularizing Initial Exchange Offerings, or IEOs. This new type of crowdfunding has a lot of promise since it allows crypto startups to offload the challenges that come with token sales to exchanges. During IEOs, exchanges handle regulatory compliance, marketing, distribution, and other matters.

• Ethereum has a bullish short-term trading bias, but remains bearish over the medium-term
• The four-hour time frame shows that a bearish head and shoulders pattern has been invalidated
• The daily time frame shows bulls need to rally price towards the $240.00 level to ignite a large bullish pattern

Ethereum is consolidating above the $180.00 level after the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization pulled back from just below the $200.00 resistance level earlier this week.

While Hearthstone creator Blizzard has allegedly been busy selling its soul at the behest of Chinese market pressures, the blockchain-based Gods Unchained developer Immutable is busy selling out digital card packs instead.