Bitcoin just had one of its most interesting weeks in 2019 as the cryptocurrency rose to $8,000 in a matter of a few days, marking incredible gains that surprised everyone. At the same time, the cryptocurrency community was abuzz with the potential reveal of the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, after John McAfee decided to back off on his uncovering of Bitcoin’s mysterious creator. But once again, the reveal didn’t only turn out to be fake, but it ended up being sillier than one could ever imagine.
As reported by Ars Technica, the past seven days were one of the most successful weeks not only for Bitcoin but for the overall crypto sector. Only a week ago, Bitcoin climbed to $6,000, raising hopes that new highs might be reached as long as the bullish sentiment prevailed. But no one could have really predicted that it will take only five days for BTC to gain $2,000 and reach a new 2019 high.
And as is often the case, the rise of Bitcoin triggered a rise in value for other cryptocurrencies, particularly Ethereum, which has held the number two spot for market capitalization for quite some time now. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum also climbed to a new high, reaching a USD price of $229 today.
Huge Trading Volume and Selling Pressure
Since our last update on Wednesday, Bitcoin experienced a rapid climb, rising from a weekly low point of $5,947.74 last Thursday to set a new impressive high of $8,103.51 yesterday morning. Obviously, the price increase was driven by an increase in trading volume, which exploded during the weekend. Whereas a month ago, the 24-h volume moved mostly around $10-15 billion, yesterday it hit a massive $34 billion, signaling a huge interest in Bitcoin trading. Currently, the volume is still strong but slightly subsided at $30.2 billion, while Bitcoin’s market capitalization is at a healthy $142 billion.
Nevertheless, the market seems to be shifting direction, hinting at a possible price correction, which is only natural after a rapid increase like we saw these days. On the hourly charts, we see the market to be pro-buy, with 5 out of 12 technical oscillators and 8 of 12 moving averages sending “buy” signals. The SMA 100 is safely over the SMA 200, showing us there is less resistance on the upward path. However, short-term signals also show a strong bearish trend forming, which tells us that traders have turned to making profits. If the bearish pressure persists, we expect a drop towards $7,500.
Bad Marketing Produces Another Fake Satoshi
About two weeks ago, a new website called GotSatoshi sprouted online, featuring nothing but a timer and a sign-up link for a newsletter. According to the website’s information, once the 14-day timer hit zero, it was supposed to reveal the identity of Satoshi, carefully alluding to Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto without actually claiming so.
Now that the timer has reached zero, GotSatoshi turned out to be another bad internet marketing campaign that could compete with the worst cases of internet trolling the crypo-sector has ever seen. Unsurprisingly, the Satoshi who was revealed was not the real Nakamoto but an AI news anchor who was supposed to launch a new and bizarre cryptocurrency news outlet.
Needless to say, crypto supporters were not amused. The official app of the news outlet, PaiNews, already fell to a 2-star rating, just 14-hours after its launch. The same backlash can also be seen on the official Twitter profile of GotSatoshi, where users are calling for unfollows and asking whether there are any “Darwin awards for marketing?”