This week turned to be another exciting period for Bitcoin, as the price saw a sudden jump on Tuesday afternoon, increasing for more than $30 in the course of less than six hours. The price boost has once again been linked to the actions of US President Donald Trump, and judging from the current stance of the market, the uptick is not over.
Other noteworthy events tied to Bitcoin this week was an update to the news report about the ransomware attack on the Seehotel Jaegerwirt in Austria, which was held ransom for €1,500 worth of BTC. In the past two days, there was news circulating that a group of hackers locked guests in their hotel rooms via the affected system, until the ransom was paid.
But according to the Verge, the information was misleading as the only “victim” of the attack was the computer system, which was entirely disabled so that no keycards could be coded. As the managing director reported, there were no guests locked in their rooms, because their computer system would have never been allowed to have complete control over the locks by the Austrian authorities.
Bitcoin on a Roll
Like we discussed in our last update, during the past two days the price of Bitcoin was on a slow and steady rise until yesterday afternoon, when it suddenly jumped from $917.16 to $929.40 and then over $950, just shortly after. And since then, it has been only going upwards.
The price push coincided with a volume boost, which went from being close to $70 million to the current $180,551,000. This is good news for those hoping to see their Bitcoins keep rising, as high volume means higher chances of price corrections. The current market cap is also up, at $15.9 billion.
The technical analysis shows a clear picture of the current market direction, with all 12 moving averages and 7 out of 12 oscillators sending a buying signal. The SMA100 is safely above the SMA200 on short term and 1-hour term charts, also hinting at a continuation of the upwards path. However, RSI is showing a seller pressure forming.
With the current state of the market, the price seems headed for a break out of the $970 range, with some resistance normally to be expected from sellers looking to profit while they can. If the situation doesn’t change, we might see a push to its previous highs. On the other hand, if sellers pick up, we will see the price reverse.
Trump’s Policies to Thank for Bitcoin Uptick, Again
Once again, the Bitcoin world has all eyes on US President Donald Trump, whose attitudes and policy changes seem to affect the cryptocurrency directly. Namely, Bitcoin’s uptick is seen as a direct response to the weakening of the US dollar that began on Monday but intensified yesterday, which most experts agree was to blame on two things.
The first was the immigration ban that Trump so publicly marketed, which caused a wave of global uncertainty that was directly reflected on both the value of the dollar and of Bitcoin. Due to the aggressive and unpredictable tactics of the new US Government, some countries and investors have turned to other, less risky assets, like the Japanese Yen.
And another reason was that that Trump’s trading adviser, Peter Navaro, went on to publicly accuse Germany of currency exploitation while talking to the Financial Times. His words only furthered the deterioration of the dollar and brought its worst week in 2017, which yet again reflected on the Bitcoin price.