After having a shaky start at the beginning of the week, Bitcoin is back at the $1,000 range, while the market remains relatively low-key. But while there are less signs of panic coming from Asian markets, there is still an overall selling trend sweeping the global market, as traders are likely looking for a profit on the price recovery, so there’s little hope of your Bitcoins’ value surging at this time.
There are also reports of other Bitcoin markets gaining momentum, one of which is in Venezuela, where only recently the largest exchange SurBitcoin was temporarily closed due to a state-wide crackdown on Bitcoin miners and traders. However, in an interesting turn of events, the closure of SurBitcoin has only lead to an increased interest in P2P (peer-to-peer) trading, according to new reports.
Namely, the Local Bitcoins platform where users can find other people selling and buying Bitcoins, has seen a nearly 50% surge in interest in Venezuela. Prior to the exchange’s closure, SurBitcoin was trading around 330 Bitcoins on average, but after the shutdown nearly two-third of its activity has moved to Local Bitcoins. It seems that Bitcoin users can always find a way to use and trade their cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Near $1,000
In the past 48 hours since our last update, the price of Bitcoin has remained within the $990-1000 range, despite sellers’ pressure on the market. The lowest points were observed on Monday, when the price moved down to $980, while the highest it got was yesterday, when it reached $1010.32.
Volume wise, the market remained fairly quiet and rarely topping $130 million, while the current volume is at $120,405,000. The market cap is likewise lower than usual, or $16.2 billion.
Our market analysis shows that the market is generally pro sell, with 8 out of 12 moving averages and 7 out of 12 oscillators sending a selling signal. The SMA 100 has dropped below the SMA 200 on this time frame, so the likelier path is to the downside.
However, short-term signals also show a buying trend forming, with the RSI likewise hinting sellers are getting tired on the longer frame. From this stance, we are looking at consolidation in the $1,000-1010 range with a breakout likely to occur in the prevailing direction. As always, keep your eyes on the market for any changes.
Mt.Gox’s Bankruptcy Claims to Be Bought by Hedge Fund?
In other news from the BTC world, four hedge funds are making offers to buy bankruptcy claims from the notorious Mt.Gox exchange. If you remember from our previous updates, the Mt.Gox exchange collapsed three years ago after a wave of hack attacks, leaving thousands of users without their Bitcoins.
When the exchange filed for bankruptcy, there were talks of their users being compensated. And in March of 2014, the company’s CEO stated that they found 200,000 Bitcoins in an old wallet, which are likely the only available funds the company has. Thousands of affected users then started filing claims, hoping to receive some portion of this fund in an unspecified time in the future.
But according to a news report citing anonymous sources, there are hedge funds that now offer claimholders to sell their claims and get back a 15% on the yen value of each claim. The hedges are reportedly jumping in on the opportunity because they are hoping Bitcoins will grow further in the future, but who exactly is behind the funds still remains a mystery.