Bitcoin went through another tough week as the price of the cryptocurrency struggled to climb back upwards to $9,000. Lead by a stronger selling sentiment and relatively low trading volume, the market drove the price downwards by around $500 shortly after it climbed to $8,500, crushing hopes of a stronger rally.
In other notable news, a UK mosque declared Bitcoin as “halal” (acceptable in the eyes of Alah) and became the first mosque in the United Kingdom to accept donations in cryptocurrencies. As reported by the Telegraph, a few days ago the religious advisers of the East London Masjid Ramadan mosque have informed the local community that Bitcoin is “halal” according to the mosque, but only when transactions are done “in a lawful manner”.
In light of the acceptance, representatives from the mosque declared that the cryptocurrency can now be used by Muslims to make a donation during Ramadan, which is also known as “zakat”. The mosque will also be accepting Ethereum “zakats” starting this month, thanks to the assistance of Combo Innovation – a blockchain startup that deals with Islamic Finance.
Market Lead by Sellers
Not much has changed since our last update, when the price of Bitcoin was close to $8,000, as the trading markets stayed in a predominantly selling mood. The highest price point during the past 7 days was observed close to midnight on Sunday when Bitcoin reached a price of $8,561.86, while the lowest price point was touched today in the early morning hours when Bitcoin hit a value of $7,933.46.
Interestingly enough, the past week was marked by relatively low trading volume, which is likely what gave room for sellers to dominate the market more easily. Namely, during this period, the 24-hour volume mostly circulated around $5 billion, which is exactly where it is today ($5.3 billion). And, naturally, with the price drop Bitcoin’s market capitalization also declined to $135.8 billion.
Given the current market signals, our technical analysis shows that the bearish trend is not over yet. Out of 12 oscillators, 9 are in the red zone sending bearish signals and 10 out of 12 moving averages also confirm that trend. The SMA 100 has also dropped below the SMA 200, showing there is less resistance to the downside. If the selling pressure doesn’t stop, we will be looking at a further price correction.
Bitcoin Community Celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day
This May 22nd, Bitcoin enthusiasts from all around the globe gathered online to mark Bitcoin Pizza Day – a date in Bitcoin’s history that marked the first use of the cryptocurrency to buy something but also (probably unintentionally) one of the worst cases of people making a bad trade. Namely, it was on this day eight years ago that early Bitcoin developer Laszlo Hanyecz decided to trade 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas from Papa John’s, earning the status of a legend.
At the time of the trade, Bitcoin wasn’t worth practically anything, so the trade wasn’t as big of a deal as it is now. But fast forward to today, that amount of coins would have been worth $80 million. The transaction, naturally, made Laszlo an icon and every year the online cryptocurrency community gathers to mark the date as a way to celebrate how far Bitcoin has traversed since then.
According to Bloomberg, if Laszlo had kept those coins, he would have been able to buy about $6.5 million pizzas, which when stacked would climb 300 kilometers in the air, even higher than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa building – once the tallest structure in the world.