This is all about Bitcoin right now. BTC will trade sideways for a bit, some will panic sell BTC and Alts and whales will accumulate both cheap. I have been trading since the first exchanges and these patterns always repeat, all the older traders and holders should know this by now. The good news is that this is a technical update so we even have dates for what will be happening so this is all fairly easy to predict, as I see it.
- Before this date (July 21) all the weak hands are basically out, those that do not understand the tech or are afraid because of some random twitter personality, and the like.
July 21 — Segwit2x is due to be released and presumably all participants to the New York Agreement will run it.
- This happens and BTC should start an uptrend, look at LTC signaling and even the software releases. I suspect much will be priced in by this time as it is not some surprise.
July 26 — BIP91 should activate. At this point, all blocks are required to signal for Segwit (BIP141) or they will be orphaned off the network.
- Once it activates this should be more bullish for BTC. By this time it might even be somewhat stable as weak hands are out and other people have picked up cheap coins.
August 23 — This is around when we can expect block 481824, which is when Segwit should activate. From this block on, Segwit transactions will be legal on the network. This also sets the activation date for BIP102 on Segwit2x to block 494784 (exactly 144*90 blocks later)
This I think will be the peak (for the moment) of BTC around this time, should break ATH I would venture, then a drop. Again, opinion, but based on price movements for even the chance of this happening I see no reason why it would not happen when it actually does. Look at LTC charts around May 10 to compare.
BTC after the ATH will stop rising at whatever price it reaches, and then Alts take off again and we should have the biggest rally we have ever seen. Sure, anything is possible, but this is my opinion and prediction.
Note: August 1st is meaningless, that date is being shared around and is related to UASF that does not have miners support, don't worry about it, Segwit is already happening and that was the key reason for UASF, although I believe that did help Segwit 2x gain support.
Source for specific dates: https://medium.com/@jimmysong/segwit2x-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-2mb-hard-fork-27749e1544ce