Update [13:00 UTC]: A sudden surge of sell orders have knocked the Bitcoin price back down. After reaching highs of $9,160, the price of Bitcoin fell nearly $500 to touch $8,730. Since then the price of Bitcoin has recovered to $8,920 and is rising back towards the $9,000 mark.

The price of Bitcoin has broken through the $9,000 mark on the day of the Bitcoin halving. While Bitcoin's price was nearing $10,000 just yesterday, it suddenly dropped down to lows of $8,450, struggling to recover.

It is currently in the low $9,000 area at time of writing—around $9,045—but the price is fluctuating wildly.

The Bitcoin halving is an event where the new supply of Bitcoin gets cut in half. Speculators argue that this could either boost the price of Bitcoin or make the network more expensive, and slower to use—potentially making it less usable and less valuable. It is set to occur at 7 pm UTC (3 pm ET) today.

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Even China has been discussing the impact of the halving on the price of Bitcoin. A Chinese state-owned broadcaster published an article on Sunday about Bitcoin’s upcoming halving. It spoke of the “skyrocketing [price] of Bitcoin” ahead of the halving and pointed out that legendary hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, had proclaimed to his investors the benefits of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin's trading volume is fairly high at $48 billion over the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it saw a recent high of $63 billion.

Bitcoin's market dominance has increased to 67.5% from 63.7% on April 27. This is the percent of the entire crypto market cap that Bitcoin holds.

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The recent surge has added $8 billion to the cryptocurrency market cap, which is now at $242 billion, although it's still down from recent highs of $270 billion.

Despite Bitcoin's growth today, most other cryptocurrencies are posing minor losses. In the top ten, Tezos is down six percent and Bitcoin SV has dropped 3.5%. Outside of the top ten, Digibyte is down six percent and Hyperion, 16.3%.

But with seven hours to go until the halving, anything could happen.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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