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Bitcoin Halving: 3rd Halving Sees BTC Record an all-time High Hash Rate

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On Monday, May 12th, the much-anticipated bitcoin halving event happened, lowering the rate at which fresh BTC coins are created. Monday’s adjustment reduced the rewards given to BTC miners from 12.5 BTC per block mined, to 6.25 BTC. Bitcoin recorded an all-time high hash rate on its third halving day.

According to data by TradeBlocks.com, the historic third-halving event happened at  3:23 p.m. EST on Monday. Following the halving event, BTC is presently trading at $8,720 dominating 67 percent of the entire cryptocurrency market, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

BTC sees record hash rate on Bitcoin halving day

The flagship digital currency recorded an all-time high hash rate on its block halving day. This is the third occasion the block rewards reduction is taking place since Bitcoin was created 11 years ago. The new record hash rate is at about 140 EH/s. Despite being a slight improvement on the previous high recorded back in March, it was not consistent in anticipation of lessening of the hash rate.

The previous all-time high hash rate was recorded early in March at approximately 133-135 EH/s. The popular digital currency, which is currently trading at around $8,700, has surged by about 20% since January. BTC price touched $10,000 last week after recovering from the mid-March market crash which saw its price fall below $4,000. 

The Aftermath of BTC halving

Bitcoin halving events have been the subject of divergent price predictions and discussions due to the positive effect of the previous two halvings on the price of BTC. Some market participants speculate that the latest event won’t have any effect on the price of BTC, while others anticipate a positive outcome due to the reduction in the supply of BTC tokens.

Although its impact on the price of BTC remains to be seen, bitcoin halving has a direct impact on bitcoin miners. Indeed, some market experts anticipate miners to close down the creation of fresh bitcoin tokens as the majority of mining equipment will be out of date.

 As per the vice president of mining firm Poolin,  Alejandro De La Torre, several unsuccessful mining firms had already begun closing down their equipment before the Bitcoin halving event on May 12.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC above $9500 or $7800 next week? Here’s what you need to know

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The last couple of days of April kept the entire Bitcoin community at the edge of their seat. After surging by almost 16 percent on the 29th, Bitcoin went all the way up to $9350 but since then, timely corrections have taken over in the charts. A 24-hour depreciation of 5.45 percent has kept Bitcoin at $8783 at the time of writing. With such high volatility in the industry, the topic that begs the question is, what is next in store for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin 1-day chart

bitcoin

On analyzing the Bitcoin 1-day chart, a few key things can be observed. The long-term ascending channel that Bitcoin had been following since the crash on 12th March was breached on the 30th when BTC crossed $8400. Currently, Bitcoin consolidated right under the resistance at $8879 and according to pattern analysis, a bearish correction should take place over the next week.

Higher selling pressure from the traders might see Bitcoin drop as low at $7572 support, but that would be incredibly bearish during the current rally. A more practical correction period should see the price drop down to $7800 support and facilitate a quick bounce back to $8900 levels. VPVR indicated suggested that trading volume at $7800 has been significant over the past few months, hence the support would possibly hold for the time being.

The long-term support and Point-of-Control remained at $7500, under which Bitcoin is unlikely to go down in the next few weeks. $7500 might possibly be BTC‘s bottom for now.

The Bullish narrative

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Now here is where things get interesting.

In spite of the impending correction period, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Bitcoin’s halving is less than 2 weeks to go. A strong case can be made that the price could undergo another price pump by the start of next week but its current cooldown period. A cooldown period might see Bitcoin drop down to $8450 before it entertains another march above $9000.

With the approaching halving, miners would be putting in as much as hash power as possible to gain higher block rewards before the eventual drop in incentives. Another major bullish trait observed is the 200-Moving Average.

The 200-Moving Average (Orange Line) completed a trend reversal and became a support for the first time since March 12th. Considering Bitcoin manages to consolidate above the MA for the next 48-hours, a solid base would be attained at $8400. Hence, a push forward above $9000 and possibly $9500 might surface before 12th May as Bitcoin braces itself for a crucial 2 weeks.

Conclusion

A practical market scenario would see the price undergo corrections over the next week but the market scenario was anything but normal at the moment. However, nothing is certain at the moment and more clarity will only be attained over the next few days.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC above $9500 or $7800 next week? Here’s what you need to know

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The last few days of April had the entire Bitcoin community at the edge of their seat. Since rising by nearly 16 percent on the 29th, Bitcoin went all the way up to $9350, but since then, timely corrections have been made to the charts. A 24-hour decline of 5.45 per cent held Bitcoin at $8783 at the time of publishing. Despite the industry’s high volatility, the problem that begs the question is, what’s next for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin 1-day chart

BITS1 scaled

A few key things can be observed when analyzing the Bitcoin 1-day chart. The long-term ascending path that Bitcoin had been pursuing since the 12th of March crash broke on the 30th when BTC reached $8400. Currently, Bitcoin consolidated right under resistance at $8879 and, according to the trend analysis, a bearish correction is expected to take place over the next week.

Higher selling pressure from traders could see Bitcoin drop as low as $7572 support, but that would be extremely bearish during the current rally. A more realistic adjustment phase would see the price drop to $7800 support and encourage a fast bounce back to $8900 rates. VPVR suggested that the trading volume of $7800 has been important over the last few months and that the support could have been sustained for the time being.

Long-term support and Point-of-Control stood at $7,500, under which Bitcoin is unlikely to fall over the next few weeks. $7500 could be BTC’s bottom right now.

The Bullish narrative

BITS2 1 scaled

Now here is where things get interesting.

Despite the imminent correction period, it is difficult to disregard the fact that bitcoin’s halving is less than 2 weeks away. A strong case can be made that the price will experience another price pump by the beginning of next week, but its current cooldown time. A cooldown duration could see Bitcoin drop to $8450 before another $9000 march takes place.

With the coming halving, miners will have as much hash power as possible to achieve higher block rewards before the inevitable decline in incentives. The 200-Moving Average is another major bullish feature observed.

The 200-Moving Average (Orange Line) completed a trend reversal and became a support for the first time since March 12. Considering that Bitcoin continues to stabilize above the MA for the next 48-hour span, a stable base will be reached at $8400. As a result, a move forward above $9000 and probably $9500 could emerge before May 12th as Bitcoin prepares itself for a critical 2 weeks.

Conclusion

A realistic market situation would cause price adjustments to be made in the next week, but the market situation was anything but usual at the moment. At the moment, however, nothing is certain and more clarification can only be obtained over the next few days.

Bitcoin May Follow Gold into its Bull Market in Later-Half of 2020: Bloomberg

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2020 has been an important year for cryptocurrency and, more specifically, for bitcoin.

The largest digital asset performed relatively well after the financial meltdown in March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although countless analysis have been drawn and identified to understand Bitcoin’s short-term market behavior, it is important to note that current statistics may play a key role in shaping the market over the next few months.

Bloomberg’s recent report indicated that Bitcoin has started to mature in the overall financial market and the largest digital asset could possibly transition into a risk-on speculative asset, adhering to the characteristics of Gold. The report stated,

“From a volatility perspective, declines in Bitcoin’s reading and the rise for the stock market’s shifts performance favor toward the crypto asset.”

BTC
Source: Bloomberg

The above chart showed that over a 52-week period, Bitcoin shifted its connection to Gold rather than equities. Admittedly, there is a recent spike in the correlation between stocks and Bitcoin, but according to the chart, Bitcoin and Gold are currently incurring an all-time high correlation index of 0.4924, while BTC and S&P 500 had a market index of 0.2428.

The report also suggested that Bitcoin’s recent consolidation is mirroring its sideways movement back from 2018 and appeared to me approach stability before following gold’s bull market over the coming months.

Volatility favoring Bitcoin over Traditional Stocks

In the past, Bitcoin’s volatility has always been used against its credibility in the market. However, the tables had turned in 2020 as the rise in stock-market volatility vs a decreasing volatile Bitcoin could possibly tilt the market investors in Bitcoin’s favor.

The report suggested,

“Despite Bitcoin annualized volatility that’s averaged about 5x that of the S&P 500 in the past year, the crypto is down only about 5% in 2020 vs. almost 22% for the stock index. For the nascent crypto, it’s also an indication of a transition toward gold-like adoption, maturity and performance.”

Additionally, the report stated that the major benefits of Gold and Bitcoin are that they are on ‘back-end of significant shakeouts’. What is meant is that the traditional asset class is undergoing a mean-reversion process which should allow safe-haven asset such as Gold and Bitcoin to prosper due to reduced correlation with stocks.

Counting the chickens before they hatch?

However, in spite of the positive, it is important to take note that the report did not take into consideration, the immediate event that is approaching Bitcoin. BTC will undergo is halving in 17 days and it will have to facilitate drastic changes to Bitcoin’s fundamentals.

Hence, it was better to hold the brakes on Bitcoin’s reduced volatility bandwagon, which could possibly spike during the month of May.

Bitcoin is entering an interesting period as April proliferated a steady start to Q2 2020.

Bitcoin’s Volatility has been its Key Factor Towards Improved Adoption and Awareness

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Volatility has been an important part of Bitcoin and its role is undeniable in Bitcoin price rise over the past few years. The asset has also been criticized for the same trait in traditional markets, as the token was considered highly volatile by the regulators.

However, despite the nit-picking of traditional asset class proponents, the volatility of Bitcoin has also been key to its wider adoption. Bitcoin’s price volatility has allowed the asset to reach the mainstream public. Its speculative nature has led to the creation of market curiosity, and BTC has started to attract the attention of the financial market.

Bitcoin’s 2017 and the market boom

Bitcoin may have been introduced to the world back in 2009 but was propelled to recognition after a massive rally in December 2017. Bitcoin’s valuation jumped all the way to $20,000, and news media around the world covered its growth. During the same period, Coinbase also became the most popular application in the United States as new users began to flock to the industry.

However, it’s important to note that Bitcoin crashed all the way down to $4000 in January 2018. Given the almost 80 percent fall in prices, a significant proportion of users remained in the industry. The same group of people started to gather more knowledge and stuck around in the space.

Kraken also saw a similar spike in sign-up in March 2020 with Bitcoin falling all the way down to $3800 on March 13. Bitcoin was back at $6995 at the press time, and data revealed that active BTC addresses have also improved in the past few months.

Bitcoin prices may go up or down, but Users continued to rise

A recent report for LongHash suggested that, according to Chainalysis, 90 percent of Bitcoin activity is related to exchanges. Exchanges are the prime institutions in the industry that speculated around the valuation, hence it is only obvious the users would flock in the most during times of price swings.

Bit

The above chart clearly illustrates that most searches of the largest digital asset have taken place during moments of higher price movement and these search trends were common all around the world.

The largest asset has been keen development on the technological forefront as well but the majority of people are only concerned with the asset’s valuation.

Hence, Bitcoin’s volatility has been a blessing in disguise for the largest crypto asset and it has been largely responsible for Bitcoin’s growth over the past 4 years.

Michael Novogratz and Bill Barhydt Remain Bullish on Bitcoin as Market Shake-Up Continues

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Bitcoin’s price movement has been a focal point of discussion within the cryptocurrency ecosystem since its inception. As the world prepared for the spread of Coronavirus, cryptocurrency proponents took no time to discuss the future of the world’s largest digital asset.

Michael Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital Investments recently took to Twitter to discuss the predicted movement of Bitcoin and how it would perform in 2020. This was in the midst of a severe market crash that saw mainstream stocks plummet drastically. 

Novogratz admitted Bitcoin will remain volatile in the coming months. In connection with many countries, this was due to the rapid spread of Coronavirus. Recent reports claimed that the number of people infected crossed the 350,000 mark with new countries naming victims on a daily basis.

Over the past couple of weeks, Bitcoin has gone through some of the wildest weeks in its history. The cryptocurrency had fallen by almost 50 percent in the past month and then climbed by 25 percent in the span of 24 hours.

This was the first time since the start of 2019 that Bitcoin has gone through such a volatile shift in prices. Although markets across the world had fallen through multiple supports, cryptocurrency proponents were still bullish about Bitcoin’s upcoming journey.

The analysis showed that Bitcoin’s dip would occur when quantitative easing is implemented into the mix by financial regulators. Bill Barhydt, Abra’s chief executive, expects a further $5-10 trillion to be printed as new money globally. Rapid printing was one way in which the Fed aimed to increase liquidity in the market affected by the Coronavirus spread.

Experts believed that during the time of inflation, Bitcoin’s prices would rocket up. The price increase may open a window where Bitcoin and gold are put in the same bracket. Another reason why supporters like Novogratz and Barhydt were bullish about Bitcoin’s price increase was the upcoming halving. Abra’s latest release said:

“The new supply of Bitcoin created every month is about to be cut in half. This is going to be a big shock to the mining community as well as the investment community and hasn’t been priced into Bitcoin at all in my opinion. Given quantitative easing’s effect of pumping out massive amounts of cash and driving demand for deflationary assets there simply won’t be enough Bitcoin to go around. This could lead to an explosion in Bitcoin’s price.”

One key factor for Bitcoin’s expected growth was its increasing awareness among the masses. People have started looking at digital assets as an alternative to a failing fiat system across the world. The Euro is at risk while the dollar was being threatened by an increasing inflation rate. Bitcoin has the possibility to build a solid foundation in the financial space if it continues its onward march.

Several crypto companies have also started giving users the option to earn in cryptocurrencies, thereby integrating them into transactions. Abra was one of the companies taking this initiative with the sole aim of pushing Bitcoin into a bigger macro-financial ecosystem. The Abra CEO did not fail to mention that before Bitcoin could rise to monumental highs, the possibility of a fall to $3000 was not far-fetched.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading for $6691 with a total market cap of $122.34 billion. A 13 percent increase over the previous day resulted in int he 24-hour market volume to rise to $53.171 billion.

 

Bitcoin Shows Bullish Indicators As Mainstream Markets Crash

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Bitcoin’s performance over the past week has surprised investors as the world braces itself on the spread of Coronavirus. As the mainstream financial markets collapsed, some investors viewed the digital asset market as a reprieve.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency needed the win after a week where members questioned its ‘safe haven’ credentials. Since the start of March, Bitcoin had fallen by more than 40 percent and its market cap had dipped below the $100 billion mark, triggering massive sell-offs. It was at this point that the virtual asset recovered by more than 20 percent in the span of 24-hours.

While Bitcoin maintained steady upkeep, the Dow and the S$P 500 hit their all-time low of 5 percent. The Dow fell to 18,085 while the S&P 500 dipped to 2174. At press time, Bitcoin was trading for $5926 with a total market cap of $108.35 billion. The 24-hour market volume clocked $41.24 billion after a 6,3 percent fall over the previous day.

1 hour: 

btc 1 hr compressor 1

On the hourly spectrum, Bitcoin held the support of $5851 and a resistance of $6861. This came after a week of increasing price spectrum that also created an altcoin surge.

The Parabolic SAR was above the price candles which meant that Bitcoin had bearish phases left to go through.

The Relative Strength Index was near the oversold zone, a sign that the selling pressure was much higher than the buying pressure.

According to the Chaikin Money Flow indicator, Bitcoin’s capital performance remained decent through the price turmoil. Since the graph was above the zero line, the money coming into the Bitcoin market was much higher than the money leaving it.

1 day:

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Bitcoin’s daily performance did not leave much to the imagination as March continued to disappoint investors. The support on the daily chart was $4944, one of the lowest since August 2019.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator maintained level on the zero line as the in/out capital canceled each other out.

The Relative Strength Index was near the oversold zone after crashing below the lower zone.

Markers stayed below the price candles for the second time this month. This could also be connected to the money coming into the Bitcoin ecosystem. The Parabolic SAR on the daily chart was one of the positive outcomes for the cryptocurrency,

Conclusion:

Although the markets were bleak, Bitcoin continued to rally against the tide. The resolve and developments made in the space remained the major reasons why the industry remained buoyed.

 

Bitcoin’s Price Crash Can Be Attributed To Institutional Investors, Claims Report

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Bitcoin’s price movement has been the town’s talk for the past few weeks, especially after its value had dropped by more than 35%. While most of the industry was trying to stay afloat during the Coronavirus pandemic, some new information has come to light about the recent Bitcoin price crash.

According to a report published by Chainalysis, institutional and professional investors were the main reasons for the Bitcoin price crash. This was different from the belief that retail investors were to blame for the market dip. 

Bitcoin price crash by almost 40 percent over the past two weeks and the dip had resulted in an investor rout. For an industry that has been anticipating the arrival of institutional money, the overturn in the capital was an unexpected twist.

Chainalysis found out that the bitcoin transfers between 10 BTC and 1,000 BTC constituted almost 70 percent of all transactions to crypto exchanges.

During the trading time between March 12 and March 13, cryptocurrency exchanges saw an unprecedented rise in trading volume. During a typical trading day in March, exchanges witnessed trades of around 319,000 BTC but that multiplied by 9x on March 13.

Experts claimed that the sell-off was because of the worldwide Coronavirus scare. According to the report:

“These trends suggest that the deeper pocketed professional traders and investors were driving the market, but they were joined, both on the selling and the buying, by a large number of retail holders.”

During the aforementioned date, almost 10 percent of all Bitcoin transfers were over 10,000 BTC. Bitcoin crashed along with its counterparts such as the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. The mainstream stocks and crude oil had sunk to 25 year lows and investors were in deep despair.

Bitcoin price crash came as a surprise to many because it went against the concept of a ‘safe haven’ asset.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading for $5,980.82 with a total market cap of  $109.31billion. A surprising 13.11 percent increase in its price had also lifted the 24-hour market volume to $50.47 billion.

Popular Crypto Trader Calls Industry ‘Immature’; Claims Bitcoin Will Be Fine

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The cryptocurrency market witnessed a tumultuous first half of March as prices crumbled and immediate support broke down. The market crash was so massive that some cryptocurrencies like Link even lost more than 99 percent of its value.

In a series of tweets, Scott Melker, a popular cryptocurrency advisor attacked the space by calling it immature. He believed that the market witnessed such a downfall because of the sheer ignorance of some projects in the space.

Mr. Melker claimed that last week’s crash was just the start as the industry needed to realize a lot more factors. According to him, the real fallout in the digital asset world had not yet started. If his words are to believed then exchanges and products were likely to disappear soon.

One of his tweets read:

“Bitcoin will be fine. Crypto as an industry is somewhat screwed for the foreseeable future in my mind. I’m not talking about the price of coins. People will continue to pump and dump them. Trading is fine. The core premise of crypto is damaged.”

While the analyst claimed that Bitcoin was fine, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was facing its own troubles. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading for 4644 with a total market cap of $84.8 billion. The cryptocurrency market was not the only industry hit as markets like the Dow Jones and Nasdaq also dipped.

Scott Melker reiterated that blockchain technology was the way to go for the future, as evidenced by several countries utilizing the technology. China has been at the forefront of this development with Red Dragon filing more than 80 blockchain patents recently. Blockchain technology has taken such a strong stance in China that it is even being used to solve Coronavirus related issues.

China-based Alipay is using blockchain technology to share epidemic related materials over the mobile applications. This was done to prevent the spread of misinformation and to keep China’s citizens healthy. The platform makes use of the Ant blockchain and is spearheaded by the Health Commission and the Committee of Economic and Information Technology of Zhejiang Province.

 

Bitcoin Has Been Pronounced Dead More Than 350 Times Yet Has Survived-How?

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Bitcoin’s price has always swayed the rest of the cryptocurrency market. Being the largest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world has its pressures, as the naysayers were ready to shoot it down at any moment.

Bitcoin has been declared dead more than 350 times so far. This was mainly due to price crashes that occurred throughout its history as well as massive hacks that rocked the cryptocurrency industry.

The latest bitcoin ‘ death ‘ was declared on March 4 when people said that the cryptocurrency had no intrinsic value. Since then, Bitcoin has taken a massive price hit. Over the past week, Bitcoin has dropped by more than 44 percent to settle the $5000 mark.

The market cap was also shaved off with the figure now being $93.015 billion. Bitcoin was not the only cryptocurrency that took a hit as other altcoins also plunged in terms of price.

Ethereum and XRP, two of the largest altcoins in the market fell by 32.7 percent and 26.24 percent. Although the entire market was bleeding red, critics especially pounced on Bitcoin’s latest crash.

Crypto naysayers recently claimed that the market was sinking because there was no solid foundation for Bitcoin to become a global form of payment. This wasn’t the first time Bitcoin had heard this as a sentiment dated back to a decade ago.

When Bitcoin was first created, a lot of people said that it would last only because of its novelty value. Some publications even said:

“Negative feedback loops like this are basically homeostasis. In nature, positive feedback loops like exist with Bitcoin are lethal; the only thing that’s even kept Bitcoin alive this long is its novelty. Either it will remain a novelty forever or it will transition from novelty status to dead faster than you can blink.”

It may not come as a surprise, but Bitcoin has clearly achieved more than anyone had expected. Cut to 2020, and the number of doors Bitcoin has opened for blockchain technology is numerous.

Adoption has reached such a point that even major countries like China and Japan have considered implementing blockchain technology within their areas. Despite all this, a majority of the financial ecosystem still doubt the capabilities of cryptocurrencies.

According to 99Bitcoins, the maximum times that Bitcoin was declared dead was in 2017, the year Bitcoin recorded its all-time high. The cryptocurrency was called a scam, a Ponzi scheme, and several other colorful names during its $20.00 mark increase. Things had come to such a crescendo that regulators had a hard time keeping up with business.

Bitcoin supporters have always said that the cryptocurrency would never die because the number of use cases will always be significant. As time progressed, the cryptocurrency’s longevity was judged by its utility rather than its price. Applying this logic to Bitcoin, it is clear why serious proponents are not worried about the industry.

Analysts have claimed that a price correction is always necessary to weed out the troublemakers within the virtual asset world. Bitcoin has survived this long because of the belief in technology as well as its applications. It is up to developers and the digital asset ecosystem to ensure that Bitcoin becomes a ‘safe haven’ asset again.