The past week has been very eventful for Bitcoin as the world’s most popular crypto asset was able to show some signs of progress we haven’t seen for quite a while. Indeed, Bitcoin surprised everyone this week when it abruptly shot up close to $4,900, shaking up the image of stability it has been building for the past few months. And judging from the current market signals, the new price might just be here to stay.
Since Bitcoin’s price changed right after April Fools’ day, it led some to believe that the humorous news updates posted on Monday might have been somewhat responsible for the increase. However, according to the Independent, the explanation may be far more logical. As Danny Scott, CEO of the CoinCorner exchange told the newspaper, the real reason may be the upcoming “halvening”, i.e. the scheduled cutting down of mining rewards by 50% which happens every four years. According to the coin’s past behavior, Bitcoin may have finally hit its bottom and started recovering, as it does approximately a year prior to the “halvening” event.
Large Volume and Buyers Dominate Market
Since our update last Wednesday, Bitcoin remained mostly stable until early Tuesday morning when the price quickly shot up. The lowest weekly value was reached on Friday, when Bitcoin fell to $4,039.24, while the highest price point was hit this Wednesday morning, when Bitcoin touched $5,039.50. One interesting observation during this period was that the 24-h trading volume exploded at the time of the price increase, rising from the usual value of $8-10 billion to hit a huge $18 billion. At present, the volume is at an even higher $22 billion while the market cap is at $86.6 billion.
Judging from our technical analysis, the market is very pro-buy, with 10 out of 12 technical oscillators and 10 out of 12 moving averages sending a “buy” signal. The SMA 100 has climbed well over the SMA 200, indicating there’s less resistance to be found on the upward course. With similar signals coming from the short-term charts and the very high trading volumes, we can expect Bitcoin to keep its current levels and head towards a new 2019 high. If the bulls keep pushing, we might just see the coin head towards $5,500.
Crypto Community Continues April Fools’ Tradition
Of course, the highlights of this week were the various fake news articles posted online on April 1st which ranged from clever pranks to claims so outrageous you would be crazy to believe. Like every year, one of the first to pass a joke was Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Vuterin who announced a new stablecoin called WTF (World Trade Francs) that will be used in “sketchy” Pacific island nations and is supported by Vitalik, a moose, and Obama.
Other notable jokes that surfaced online was the adding of a “tulip asset class” to the Bitpanda exchange – a nod to the tulip bubble that Bitcoin is compared to frequently – but also the reemergence of none other than Satoshi Nakamoto himself. According to Crypto Insider, Satoshi logged in to his Bitcoin Talk account again to write the “cryptic” message: “I am not Craig S. Wright! See you in 2140!” and post a very funny meme.
But not all satiric articles made the crypto community chuckle. As CNBC reported, one news update about the SEC finally approving a Bitcoin ETF in an urgent meeting has led many to falsely accuse trading bots that act on news as the reason behind the latest price swing. But as many experts said, this is an “absurd” claim.