Ever since last week, the price of Bitcoin has remained well over the $4,000 mark, even touching $4,400 at one time, despite strong skepticism that the incredible rally is not here to stay. And even though price swings were not avoided during this time, Bitcoin still came back and surpassed the new psychological threshold again, with current market signals suggesting things will remain that way.
But while Bitcoin was growing strong, Bitcoin Cash has failed to follow suit, falling down from its $870 peak on Saturday to being close to $680 as of today. Still, opinions from the tech community are that the new cryptocurrency will soon start drawing plenty of mining power from Bitcoin as it allows for more profitability for mining camps. However, so far this prediction is yet to materialize.
Record Trading Volume
In the past week since our last update, the price of Bitcoin has remained, in most part, between $4,050- 4,100, except for Tuesday when it went down by several hundred dollars. The highest point was reached on Friday, when the 1 Bitcoin sold for $4,437.65, while the lowest price point was hit yesterday, when Bitcoin’s price dropped to $3,662.73.
The trading volume has likewise been reaching record highs, staying over $2 billion for most of last week and even going over $3 billion after the price drop. Currently, it sits at $2.4 billion, while the market cap is at $68 billion.
Our technical analysis shows that there is no sell-off in the making since the market is heavily pro-buy, with 11 out of 12 moving averages and 7 out of 12 technical oscillators being in the Buy zone. However, we also find that the gap between the SMA 100 and SMA 200 is narrowing and RSI has headed south, showing us bearish pressure on the market.
As of now, the price seems headed for stability with both short term and long-term signals suggesting this trend. However, you should still keep an eye out for any changes, especially during the weekend.
Coinbase Victims Speak Up
In other interesting news, Fortune posted an article on Tuesday that closely examined several cases where high-profile users of Coinbase , the popular San Francisco exchange, were scammed out of their Bitcoins. The method used was the same one we’ve written about before, where hackers used the victims’ phone numbers to reset their passwords and gain access to their BTC wallets.
Sean Everett, a CEO of AI startup Prom, for example, had made an investment in Bitcoin through Coinbase after selling his Apple and Amazon stocks. But after storing it in a Coinbase wallet, he unexpectedly lost everything within minutes as hackers switched over his phone number to a new device and used SMS authentication to take over his Gmail account and then his Coinbase wallet. He wasn’t even able to respond promptly as it all happened very fast.
Even Fred Wilson, an early investor into Coinbase was a target of such a scam. The attack happened while Wilson was vacationing in Europe and was woken up by a similar string of e-mails showing someone is taking over ant trying to get into his wallet. But luckily, Wilson was able to lock down the theft, although he admits he now feels more paranoid about his Bitcoins than before.
However, it’s interesting to note that Coinbase itself was never a victim of a hacking attack, and is still regarded as one of the most secure exchanges to do business in. Thus, it never hurts to always mind your Bitcoin’s security, no matter what exchange you’re using.