We’re at another week’s half with the price virtually unchanged. During the past 48 hours the price of Bitcoins has remained very close to the $735 mark, with minor oscillations. The market has been stuck in-between minor ups and downs, with the biggest volatility being just above $3, which isn’t that much of a change. However, a push in either direction seems to be on the horizon, and those looking to profit on high volatility should keep themselves ready for when this time comes.
Buyers Pressure Market
In the past 48 hours since our last update, no significant changes were recorded on the market, with both buyers and sellers exerting similar pressure. The lowest the price dropped during this time was $729.48, while its highest point was $736.82. But considering that during the past several hours since early morning there was a positive shift in the direction of the price, it’s safe to say that hopes for another breakout are not that far-fetched.
Volume-wise there haven’t been any significant changes either, with the trading volume barely exceeding $70 million in the past two days. At present, it is at a fairly mild $72,009,000, which never hints at big surprises, while the market cap is at $11.9 billion.
The technical analysis shows that the market is heavily inclined towards buying, with our chart showing that all 12 moving averages are in the buy zone while 6 out of 12 oscillators are also sending a buying signal. The long term trend has been heavily pro-buy, although bear pressure has never really left entirely and the long term SMA 100 is still above the SMA 200, which hints that an upside path is most likely.
The way the market is headed right now, the price seems to be consolidating around $735 and looks as though it’s going for a break out of $740 soon, should buyers continue pushing. However, Stochastic is also in the overbought zone, signaling that buyers might be getting tired. If sellers return, we might see a push downwards instead.
Bitcoin Keeps Being Tied to Ransomware Attacks
But while the trading market has remained fairly quiet, the past couple of days were pretty noisy in the Bitcoin world, with several ransomware attacks reported across the globe. The one that grabbed most attention was the San Francisco transportation hack we reported on Monday, which now has a new light shined on it.
Namely, the hackers that ransomed Muni (SF transportation agency) for 100BTC used a Yandex account under the pseudonym Andy Saolis, which itself was hacked by an anonymous researcher who got in the account by guessing the security question.
The unnamed researcher found that the hackers used an advanced HDD Cryptor type of ransomware which could have caused serious damaged to Muni, but also that previous ransomware attacks were done through the same account. These previous hacks were all targeting private companies, who allegedly paid the hackers quietly instead of publicly revealing attacks, which helped the hackers earn over $140,000 in ransom money.
The Carleton University in Ottawa was yet another target of ransomware attacks, as the CBC reported. Namely, a student has told CBC that the campus computer network has been shut down due to a hack attack, the purpose of which was to gather 2BTC per computer, or 39BTC in total. The university has now paused all research and warned students that any Windows computer may have been compromised, while the staff is trying to discover the full extent of the damage.