Bitcoin’s price has suffered another drop since we last wrote about it, losing over $500 in value in just one day over the weekend. Unlike a month ago, the trading volume has now significantly subsided, showing less interest in buying or selling the world’s biggest digital asset. But all is not lost as the trading signals show the market is bullish, which could lead to further gains over the next week, although not ones as large as we have been seeing lately.
In other interesting news from this week, there was another “whale” transfer of Bitcoins from an unidentified user, the Next Web reports. However, even though this exchange of coins amounted to a colossal $468.5 million, surprisingly enough, it didn’t have a drastic effect on Bitcoin’s USD value, most probably because it wasn’t a direct sale through a BTC exchange. The transfer happened this Monday, two days after the coin’s sharp drop, and it didn’t affect the value significantly.
The most interesting thing about this exchange of funds is that the user ended up paying only $374.98 for transferring nearly half a billion dollars in Bitcoin equivalent, without even being asked for IDs or any other paperwork. It just goes to show how remarkably different Bitcoin is from traditional financial assets.
Bitcoin Turns Bullish
During the past seven days, Bitcoin lost over $500 of its USD price as the coin slipped off from a high point of $10,139.18 on early Saturday morning to $9,447.51 in the afternoon of the same day. What’s interesting to observe was that the trading volume remained relatively low during this period, circling mostly around $15 billion. As of now, the volume is at $14.25 billion and rising quickly, which means there might be new price changes coming soon. The current price is at $9,776 while the market cap is at $174.5 billion.
Our technical analysis shows that the market is bullish, with 9 out of 12 technical oscillators and 10 out of 12 moving averages sending “buy” signals. However, the SMA 100 has dropped below the SMA 200, indicating there might be a reversal of trends if bears keep pushing for a new direction. With short-term charts also showing a formation of bearish pressure, it is advisable to keep a watch out for price changes since the trading volume is on a rise. Keep your eyes on the market, particularly during the course of the weekend.
The United States Powerless Over Bitcoin?
Another event that got the crypto-community buzzing this week was the hearing on cryptocurrencies and blockchain at the US. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. As reported by Forbes, during the hearing that was held this Tuesday, US Lawmakers may have just realized that they can’t ban Bitcoin.
In the words of Mike Crapo, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, even if the United States government decided they don’t want cryptocurrencies to “happen” in the US and tried to enforce a ban on them, he felt “confident” that they would not be able to succeed with it. The reason, he explains, is because Bitcoin is not a US product but a “global innovation”.
Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire, was also present at the hearing and voiced a similar opinion. In his address to the Committee, he said that cryptocurrencies are “just a piece of open source software” that “exists on the internet” and can move “frictionless” in any part of the globe at internet speed. The indirect conclusion was that there isn’t much that can be done to stop Bitcoin from a legal point of view.