Bitcoin is having one of the best years in its short history, if you take away the sporadic negative events that took hits on its price. But with things going well now it seems that patience really paid off for those who decided to keep their cryptocurrency, as the price broke out of the $800 mark and the market shows little signs of slowing down.
All this is happening despite increased global awareness from hack attacks and interference from the U.S. government, who according to recent reports are becoming excessively worried about all virtual currencies. Namely, the prime concern is that enemies of the USA might devise a virtual currency network that is so powerful that it will disable the government to “starve” their finances by using blacklisting tactics they’ve been devising for three decades to prevent them from exchanging any funds across the world via traditional financial means.
Bulls Ride Bitcoin Market; Where Now?
The past week turned out to be quite fruitful for Bitcoin traders and marked by a stability and steady growth, without any notable volatility. Since our last update, the price went on a slow climb upwards, breaking one range after another. The only drawbacks were normally observed on Sunday, when the price hit its lowest point of $783.73 only to reverse and continue to its current high of $803.34.
The big price push above $800 was brought on by a surge in trading volume, which has grown together with BTC value throughout the past 24 hours, from the “normal” $80 million mark of the past week to the current $108,958 million. The market cap, on the other hand is at $13b. The high and steady volume, as always, hints at good news for those hoping the price to hold and keep pushing.
Looking at our market analysis, the overall signal is a strong buy, with 8 out 12 technical oscillators and all 12 moving averages showing buyers have the upper hand. The long term SMA 100 is over the SMA 200 with a wide gap, which signals that an upside path is the most likely. However, with three oscillators being in the overbought zone, we might see a drop of buyer pressure soon.
Currently, the price looks headed for, at least, further consolidation around $800 as long as the market winds don’t change. If they do, we might see a push back to $795. As always, a close watch on trend changes is advised.
Phone Hackers Use Security Loophole to Steal $Millions of BTC
In the latest story of Bitcoin security, the Forbes shines light on yet another Bitcoin hack victim, Jered Kenna, who was tricked out of his long-kept supply of Bitcoins. The Columbian victim was into Bitcoin mining since the first days of the cryptocurrency, and throughout the years he was able to amass $millions worth of Bitcoins.
But as the article reveals, when he made the mistake of going online to move his money from an encrypted hard drive, he was tricked out of it with the help of a phone hack. Namely, the hackers stole his phone number and then used it to reset all his passwords via the simple 2 factor verification method which sent all the accounts reset codes to the re-routed phone number.
The same trick was used to target a number of high profile BTC accounts, including former Bitfury exec Michael Golmomb, an undisclosed Coinbase executive and countless others. In fact, according to the FTC, in January 2016 alone 2,658 of such reports were filed, or 6.3% of all reports that month.