Bitcoin was at it again last night. No sooner had it surpassed the all-time high, the price came tumbling back down. The price of Bitcoin, which had hit its all-time high, $19,816, plummeted to $18,543. Then it recovered to $19,364 before tumbling again and settling at over just over $19,000 at the time of writing.
Today, things got ropey for Bitcoin, just as a few cryptocurrency analysts yesterday predicted that it would. The price of Bitcoin, which had hit its all-time high, $19,816, plummeted to $18,543. Then it recovered to $19,364 before falling to its current price, $18,936.
The big question: why, and what happens now? Decrypt asked the experts.
Charles Bovaird, an analyst at Quantum Economics, told Decrypt that the simplest explanation is that, “after rising to an all-time high, traders took profit...
Who is to blame? Well, that depends on who you’re asking. Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Bank and long time critic said it was all Grayscale Trust’s fault. In a Twitter thread posted yesterday, Schiff said Grayscale had been “pumping” Bitcoin by taking out ads on US TV network CNBC to attract people to the funds’ GBTC shares.
Here is how the Grayscale Trust helps fuel the #Bitcoin bubble. First Grayscale spends lots of money on @CNBC running non-stop ads pumping Bitcoin to investors. CNBC then returns the favor by constantly featuring pro-Bitcoin guests on air, who make pie-in-the-sky price forecasts.
Once it had done that, Grayscale buys more Bitcoin pushing the price up, and sucking in more investors. According to Schiff eventually, this scheme will lead Grayscale to dumping its sizeable Bitcoin stash and crashing the price.
Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital speaking on CNBC said if Bitcoin were easier to buy, the price would be so much higher. While his comments weren’t directly aimed at the market correction, his view seemed to be it was ease of use that was causing headaches.
Charles Bovaird, an analyst at Quantum Economics, told Decrypt that the simplest explanation is that, “after rising to an all-time high, traders took profits, causing Bitcoin to retreat.”
Eric Wall, chief investment officer at crypto investment firm Arcane Assets, said it was because of “overly skittish” traders, worried that Bitcoin has already hit its peak. And so the blame game continues.
What’s interesting is that looking at the 7-day average, Bitcoin is actually up a smidge, by 0.16%. Bitcoin’s volatility has also been creeping up. It’s 30-day estimate sits at 3.84%, taking it to the highest its been in six months.
Bitcoin volatility hits six-month highs.
While Bitcoin's price wavers, the rollercoaster ride hasn't been quite so kind to other cryptocurrencies. In the last week, XRP has lost 8%, Bitcoin Cash 13%, Chainlink 10% and Bitcoin SV an eye-watering 15.9%.
Eth fared slightly better during the fireworks, thanks to the successful roll out of Eth 2.0. The second-largest digital asset by market cap went all the way up to $640, before plummeting back down to $570 within minutes and settling in the $590s.
The first step of Ethereum 2.0—the massive upgrade set to revolutionize the Ethereum network—went live at 12:00 pm UTC today.
The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade promises to make several major improvements to the Ethereum network, including the introduction of a proof-of-stake mechanism, which should solve some of Ethereum’s long standing scalability problems. And today, the first major part of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade—known as Phase 0—has been launched.
Congrats on the launch all!
— vitalik.eth (@Vital...
Overall market conditions in crypto right now can be best surmised as, “choppy”.
Stock markets cool after bumper super Tuesday
Stock markets in Europe are seeing a bit of turbulence as well. Stocks across the continent fell in early trading this morning as traders cashed out on yesterday's rally. Germany’s DAX, France’s CAC 40 and Italy’s FTSE MIB all saw losses.
The same was felt on the UK’s FTSE 100 which was slightly down in early trading. However, the UK is expected to see brighter days ahead as it became the first country to approve the use of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine for general use.
The FTSE 100 enjoyed its strongest rally in 30 years in November, with other indexes enjoying similar feats, and investors are hoping for more of the same as governments try to jumpstart their economies ahead of the Christmas period.
U.S. law enforcement officials using brute force to seize cash from Bitcoin ATMs are overstepping their authority and may be violating the law, Bitcoin Depot CLO Chris Ryan said.
Ryan told Decrypt that funds police may seize rightfully belong to the Atlanta, Georgia-based provider of Bitcoin ATMs, and that they are liable for damages to the machines, even as they try to return large sums to consumers who say they’ve been scammed.
“You’ve got these rogue law enforcement officers thinking that th...
When Robinhood hosts a crypto-focused keynote event in France on Monday, investors may have an opportunity to buy the dip, investment bank Compass Point signaled on Friday.
Although some investors may “sell the news,” the trading platform has several potential catalysts on the horizon, including inclusion in the S&P 500 and a crypto business that continues to flourish, Compass Point analyst Ed Engel wrote in a note.
Robinhood shares turned lower on Friday, recently falling 1.3% to $83.46, accord...
Ask any pro-crypto lawmaker or industry leader, and they’ll tell you stablecoins are about to take over the world.
Earlier this month, the Senate passed a landmark bill to formally legalize stablecoin issuance in the United States—legislation that parties involved have promised will, once signed into law, unleash the promise of instantaneous blockchain payments on all corners of the U.S. economy.
Crypto leaders have forecasted that once the federal government gives the green light, hundreds of...