Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Miner Selling Pressure Drops. Analyst Predicts Bitcoin Supply Crisis Underway

Fundamental factors carrying Bitcoin through the rally are increasing. From old-time buyers halting traditional sales patterns, to institutions accumulating more Bitcoin, the market is poised to move with more vim.

Other key players in the market are Bitcoin miners, who have recently stopped selling their Bitcoins. Bitcoin miners reportedly desisted Bitcoin sales and began stacking for the past two days. According to data presented by Glassnode, miners have accumulated an estimated 8874 Bitcoin ($516,266,247 at current market rate).

The habit of stacking, instead of selling became noticeable among miners in December of 2020. Miners have since withheld a large portion of their proceeds and forfeited short-term gains. In the long-term, miners converting to “become net purchasers of BTC rather than sellers,” is a possibility that MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor isn’t ruling out.

Bitcoin risk/reward ratio promising for miners and long-term hodlers
The Bitcoin reserve risk/reward ratio is presenting a big opportunity for buyers. This can be credited in part, as a reason why miners and long-term hodlers have resolved to buy. Data from Glassnode reveals that long-term holders are extremely committed to accumulating at current price levels, as Bitcoin’s risk reserve hits 0.008; a very conducive zone for the asset in this bull market.

Bitcoin Cryptocurrency (Image: MaxPixel)
Bitcoin Cryptocurrency (Image: MaxPixel)

“Reserve Risk indicates a strong conviction of long-term holders at these price levels. The current risk/reward ratio to invest and hodl is still attractive compared to previous BTC cycle tops.”– Glassnode.

With buying pressure increasing on a daily basis, analysts are now predicting that a Bitcoin supply crisis might be underway. To start with, Bitcoin exchanges are recording a significant drop in supply. Last month, the leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase saw nearly $1 billion worth of Bitcoin leave its platform.

Analysts have traced the massive transfer to be institutional investors accumulating more Bitcoin. On-chain analyst Willy Woo had observed at the time, that the whale transfers could mean that long-term Bitcoin holders, who are known to only sell very little from their Bitcoin holdings, are opening their pockets and filling it with as much Bitcoin as possible.

Bitcoin’s Supply dip is bullish for Bitcoin in the long term
Coincidentally, the decline in Bitcoin’s supply at exchanges tallies with market patterns in 2017, when supply dropped, and prices spiked shortly after.

As such, the reduction in Bitcoin’s supply during this period could once again result in a massive price jump. With Bitcoin’s market cap hitting $1.11 trillion and supply movement subsiding, Woo is convinced that the chances of a drop below that mark are very unlikely.

“10% of Bitcoin’s money supply last moved at prices above $1T market cap. This is strong validation of BTC as a trillion-dollar asset bucket, a new asset class has arrived.” He wrote.

Read more: ZyCrypto

Bitcoin Market Changed ‘Radically’ & Volatility Decline Attracts Institutions

We are in a “radically” different bitcoin (BTC) market today, an analyst stressed, while JPMorgan strategists find that decreasing volatility is here to help institutional adoption.

Per the latest Market Intel report by Chainalysis’ Chief Economist Philip Gradwell, the data collected in the research suggested that the bitcoin price is resilient above at least USD 50,000, that there is significant observed demand at high price levels, but also that the market has changed radically in recent months.

“Cryptocurrency prices have been volatile but resilient over the last two weeks, with the bitcoin price ranging from a low of just over [USD] 50k to a high of just under [USD] 60k, but ending the fortnight at a similar price level to the start, of above [USD] 58k,” he said.

Chainalysis observed the amount of bitcoin held by ‘whales’, those who held at least BTC 1,000, and how much they had paid for it, but they also analyzed all entities holding bitcoin, and concluded that,

“Analyzing the cost of acquisition since 2016 demonstrates how radically the market has changed in the last few months, to one where there is likely to be a lot of demand from existing buyers to support high price levels. As long as existing buyers do not change their hypothesis on bitcoin, it is likely that the price will be resilient above at least [USD] 50k.”

While, by March 29, BTC 8.4m were last acquired for less than USD 10,000 each, BTC 0.1m were acquired for more than USD 57,626 – these holders had made a USD loss but were still holding. Furthermore, said Gradwell, BTC 5.6m were bought for more than USD 30,000 and continue to be held, as well as BTC 3.1m at more than USD 40,000, and BTC 1.6m at more than USD 50,000.

Bitcoin Electronic Money (Image: MaxPixel)
Bitcoin Electronic Money (Image: MaxPixel)

Additionally, with the rapid price increase since November, from USD 15,000 to the all-time high of above USD 61,000, came the significant acquisition of bitcoin across many groups, resulting in the bitcoin cost curve to shift up significantly for 8m of the BTC 18.7m supply – meaning that the cost basis for many BTC is now “radically higher” than just a few months ago, “demonstrating that a broad swath of market participants are willing to buy and hold at much higher prices than previously.”

Cost curves were relatively low in 2016 and early 2017, as the price of BTC had been relatively low. Despite jumping in the meantime, the cost curves changed relatively slowly and remained close together, according to the analyst. But the two most recent cost curves, for January 4 and March 29, have jumped much higher than any in the past and very rapidly.

Antoni Trenchev, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of major crypto lender Nexo, also claims that “bitcoin is showing resilience like no other asset as it enters the rally-inducing part of its four-year economic cycle.”

“It’s totally uninterested in dollar action, Treasury Yields, tech stocks dropping, gold slipping, you name it. With PayPal allowing 29M merchants to accept crypto and Visa effectively becoming an Ethereum layer 2 by adding USDC as a settlement currency, I have no doubt that this bull run is far from over and that we are on track for further BTC support above [USD] 60K,” he said in an emailed comment.

However, as USD 14bn has been spent to acquire BTC 238,000 at more than USD 57,000, Gradwell warns that this is a relatively weaker price level, and that if more dollars are spent to acquire BTC above this price level, then it will likely become firmer, and vice versa.

Volatility decline = stronger interest
Nigel Green, CEO of financial advisory firm deVere, is quoted by The Independent as saying that after a recent epic BTC rally, this momentum has been slowing down and the “temporary bitcoin price slowdown could trigger a new surge in institutional investment, leading to prices going up permanently.”

And this could be helped by the drop in price volatility.

While high BTC price volatility “acts as a headwind towards further institutional adoption,” it has been on the decline in recent weeks, making BTC more appealing to institutions, strategists at JPMorgan said, as reported by Market Insider.

Read more: cryptonews

On-Chain Analysis: Analysts Predict BTC Won’t Revisit $46.8K Amid Correction Concerns

Bitcoin price registered a minor correction yesterday falling from above $59K to $57K levels which also led to liquidations of millions worth of long positions. The price momentum of BTC in the march has been considerably lower than in previous months and there was no significant volume spike either, prompting many to call Bitcoin top once again.

Willy Woo, a prominent crypto analyst however believes the recent liquidation in the market is nothing out of the blue as the Bitcoin market has not seen any prominent liquidation over the past week. Woo also pointed towards the realized price of Bitcoin with strong support at $47K. The realized price of a currency is the price at which the coin was last moved on the blockchain.

Woo pointed that nearly 15% of the total circulating supply of BTC moved at 47K while only 7% moved at $55K. Also, the month of March is considered historically bearish.

Image by VIN JD from Pixabay
Image by VIN JD from Pixabay

Bitcoin Demand Still Soaring as Speculation Around Price Top Intensifies
Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $61,634 a couple of weeks back and since then it is in a consolidation phase above $55K. As Bitcoin Bull run enters its 6th month, the speculation about it reaching the top has begun. However, that hasn’t come in the way of its exponential growing demand and adoption.

Goldman Sachs that once said that Bitcoin is not an asset class, is all set to offer Bitcoin investment vehicles for its clients from the second quarter. Morgan Stanley, another banking giant of the US which started offering Bitcoin Fund to its clients this month is also planning to offer physical Bitcoin ownership for its clients in the coming weeks. The demand for a Bitcoin ETF is also soaring, thus the top cryptocurrency far from its top.

Read more: CoinGape

Bitcoin: What should you know about the new generation of BTC HODLers

Bitcoin had a rather eventful March, with the cryptocurrency seeing its value fall dramatically to just over $51k in a matter of hours, before recovering to trade near its ATH before the end of the month.

While this was expected, especially since most analysts believe that a move to $100k cannot be negated in 2021, the sheer speed at which the bounceback was accomplished illustrated Bitcoin’s robustness as an asset, along with the market’s confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term prospects past its latest ATH.

Interestingly, data from Glassnode highlighted a few key elements that may have played a part in enabling Bitcoin to climb to its latest valuation. According to the data-analytics platform’s findings, long-term holders have now slowed their spending significantly, with hodled coins now maturing.

In addition to this, one can also argue that an uptick in outflows from exchanges demonstrates that accumulation is not slowing down, with the same once again substantiating claims that Bitcoin may even have enough bullish momentum to hit the $80k price range before the end of this month.

Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay
Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay

While price-based targets cannot be ascertained for sure, taking a look at a few metrics that are key to understanding the market may shed light on the dominant sentiment around BTC.

While a lot of BTC was accumulated during the height of the bull run, data would suggest that these coins are now entering a key phase in their cycle. According to Glassnode, coins that are aged or hodled beyond 5-6 months are likely to remain dormant and can be reclassified as a Long term holder (LTH) coin once their lifespan exceeds 155 days. This is currently taking place in the BTC market, something that is leading to the creation of what one could call the ‘next gen’ of hodlers participating in the Bitcoin market.

Additionally, the data also pointed out how coins aged 1m-3m (accumulated in the orange zone) grew by +830k BTC, while coins aged 3m to 6m (accumulated in the blue zone) grew by +394.5k BTC. This also supplemented the argument that long-term holders are fairly reluctant to sell their coins, despite a valuation of close to $60k.

Further, on the question of the many investors who entered the BTC market when the price was well past its long-held ATH of around $20k, there has been a noticeable slowdown in LTH spending, especially after the first price dip of the year during which BTC fell from $42k and hit $29k.

Strong hodler sentiment has always benefited the price, kept it immune to sell-offs at local price tops, and it is key if BTC is to achieve its stellar price projections in the coming months. Given that Bitcoin is now seeing the creation of a new class of hodlers, its price stands to benefit substantially over the next few months.

Read more: AMB CRYPTO

BTC Closes Best Quarter in History, While ETH Price Revisits $2,000

The BTC price surged to local highs of $60,110 on Bitstamp on Friday, marking the first time it has surpassed the psychological $60K level in two weeks.

The climb higher now means that bulls have canceled out the flash crash from earlier this week and ensured that bitcoin closed the historically red month of March in the green.

BTCUSD has also logged the best quarterly close in its short history, raising prospects that the pair would keep soaring higher into the new quarter.

At the time of writing, bitcoin has shed some of its gains to trade at $59,338. However, the flagship cryptocurrency’s slow grind back to all-time highs will likely give traders plenty of reasons to be bullish in the short term.

Filbfilb, the co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, shared a bullish outlook for BTC in his latest market update, noting that bitcoin is now recovering following the BTC options’ expiry.

He predicted after buyers bought the dip last week, the king coin was currently on the verge of a strong breakout.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Top BTC Analyst Warns of “Overheated Retail Action”
Despite bitcoin prices closing Q1 almost 100% higher, one analyst suggests that the latest surge higher has resulted from “overheated retail action.”

According to OKEX researcher Robbie Liu, rising premiums for the quarterly contract BTCUSD0625 rose from about $3K last Friday to current levels of $5,200.

He explained that the premiums are nearing a dangerous range, as was the case when the digital coin pulled back after establishing a new all-time high above $61K.

“If the price does not break out to the upside in a short period of time, then traders attempting to chase the rally high with high leverage will have to close their positions, thus putting downward pressure on the price,” Lui added.

Ethereum Price Returns to ATH
ETH traded to a new weekly high above $2K on Friday after breaking the stubborn resistance near $1,920 and $1,950.

The largest altcoin by market cap is now trading higher than its previous all-time high of $2,040 established on Feb. 20. As of this article’s writing, ETHUSD is up over 5% to change hands for $2,048.

Read more: The Daily Chain

On-Chain Analysis: Dipping Stablecoin Supply Ratio (SSR) Signals a New Bullish Rally For Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin has remarkably bulged above its consolidation range and is on track for new price discovery. Since the first-ever digital currency dropped from its earlier attained all-time high of around $61,683.86, market trends have been remarkably unfavorable, creating a barrier for the coin from crossing above the $60,000 psychological level.

Less Bitcoin Sellers In the Market
There is the likelihood of a twist in the market as on-chain metrics indicate a bullish Stablecoin Supply Ratio (SSR). The SSR is the metric that is used to showcase the selling trends featuring the influence of stablecoins in relation to Bitcoin. It is obtained by dividing the total BTC reserve on exchanges by the total stablecoin reserves.

As data provider CryptoQuant noted, the total stablecoin reserve on trading platforms is high owing to the increasing supply of USDC. At this time, the SSR is low, depicting a reduced intention to sell Bitcoins and take profits amid the on-going bull run.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The occurrence of a low SSR is highly noteworthy in the market and barring any unforeseen change in fundamentals, a bull run is imminent. Prior to the beginning of the ongoing price rise in the market, a low SSR was observed back in November according to technical analysis provider, Seer.

The on-chain metric is significantly impacting the current price of Bitcoin which is trading at $58,158.60, a 3.90% growth in the past 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap. As seen on the BTC-USD 4-hour chart on TradingView, the MACD indicator is well above the signal line reaffirming the ongoing bullish momentum. Additionally, the Awesome Oscillator and the price run of the coin around the upper Bollinger Band are indicative of intense bull action in the market.

While a healthy correction may be introduced as the bears are appearing concentrated at the tip as shown on the chart, it may signal room for the buyers to gather momentum and ultimately push the price above the $60,000 resistance, a move that may usher in a new ATH.

A recent Glassnode data also revealed the number of retail holders with at least 0.1 BTC is rising. Together with the influence of the market whales and institutional investors, an imminent price breakout in the near to long-term is inevitable.

Read more: CoinGape

Visa To Begin Accepting Cryptocurrency To Settle Transactions On Its Payment Network

Visa has today announced that it has successfully processed a USDC payment directly on the ethereum blockchain using crypto stablecoin USDC. The payments giant plans to introduce this new capability to its partners later this year.

Bitcoin is back above $58,000 in the wake of the Visa news.

Visa Leverages Ethereum To Process Cryptocurrency Payments On Its Network
According to a blog post on March 29, Visa has teamed up with card issuer and crypto exchange Crypto.com to make cryptocurrency payments more efficient. In a pilot program conducted earlier this month, Crypto.com sent a USDC transaction to Visa’s ethereum address at institutional blockchain security firm Anchorage. The announcement describes this as “one small step for Visa’s settlement platform, one giant step forward for the integration of digital and traditional fiat currencies”.

The firm’s use of the ethereum blockchain eliminates the need to convert crypto into fiat money before the transaction is completed — basically getting rid of the current complexities for many businesses.

Visa Chief Product Officer Jack Forestell explained:
“Crypto-native fintechs want partners who understand their business and the complexities of digital currency form factors. The announcement today marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency, and it’s really an extension of what we do every day, securely facilitating payments in all different currency all across the world”

Visa notes that its payments system presently handles “billions of dollars” every day. Going forward, the credit card behemoth is set to “support reconciliation and currency conversion for stablecoins such as USDC” and a “settlement report” for crypto wallets.

Bitcoin Ready To Go Mainstream
Notably, Visa’s foray into the cryptocurrency industry does not end there. Visa CEO Al Kelly recently indicated that the firm is planning to add support for bitcoin purchases on its credentials.

The move comes at a time when institutional investors like Mastercard, PayPal, MicroStrategy, Square, bitcoin mining firm Marathon, Tesla, and others have all embraced bitcoin. After investing a staggering $1.5 billion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced just days ago that the electric vehicle manufacturer will be accepting bitcoin payments.

Bitcoin price reacted positively to the announcement. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is trading at $58,271.02, up 3.60% on the day. Suffice to say, Visa’s bold move will likely bring bitcoin a step closer to mainstream adoption.

Here’s why this might be a good time to buy THETA

Though THETA is not listed on Binance U.S or Coinbase, its performance of late has caught many eyeballs. Despite the bullishness of its recent price action, however, THETA’s market capitalization dropped by nearly 4%, with its 24-hour trade volume falling by nearly 45%. Now, while this isn’t exactly good news, what it also indicates is that this is the buy zone for THETA.

The altcoin’s price crossed $1.05 only post-December 22, with the same within 13% of its ATH of $14.99, at press time. Though it took 3 months for the price to close in on $15 from the 80 cents-level, the crypto-asset is currently on an extended price rally. The anticipation is the price will cross $15 and hit another ATH soon.

THETA’s competitors are in the low market capitalization level, based on data from CoinMarketCap, with the project currently leading the NFT market at $12.93 billion with more than $570 million in daily volume. Further, THETA’s new partnerships have pushed the network ahead of its competitors, especially since THETA has more active CPUs than Microsoft and NVidia combined within the last 50 days.

Forex Trading (Image: Sanandros/Wikimedia)
Forex Trading (Image: Sanandros/Wikimedia)

Now, the price action and market capitalization of an asset are not as indicative of the price trend as the partnerships and the activity on the network. With over 30k edge nodes, the dev updates on THETA and the partnerships are similar to the early stages of XRP’s rise (pre-2021) to #3 before USDT, ADA, and DOT rallied ahead.

THETA is not just going to the moon, it may be going to Mars with partnerships like Google, NASA, and SpaceX. The reinvention of data and video streaming through THETA is more significant than the price chart in the long-term. There are anticipations of a 100x, which is unlike most other altcoins in the top-10.

In fact, on-chain and technical analysts are more bullish now than they were a month ago. Just as Grayscale took the lead with institutional funding in BAT, LINK, MANA, FIL, LPT, THETA’s institutional funding came from Sierra Ventures, Heuristic Capital, The VR Fund, and The GFR Fund staking over $100 Million in THETA.

The upcoming mainnet launch in June 2021 is the next event that can be anticipated to have a positive impact on THETA’s price. The trade volume for the THETA/USDT market is currently bullish. The outlook in April is bullish too, especially with the market capitalization growing consistently. This will be an important metric to watch out for going forward since it signals a hike in volatility and liquidity.

Ergo, one can expect THETA to hit another ATH or local top, based on traders’ sentiments on spot exchanges.

Read more: AMBCrypto

One BTC Will Be Worth A Lamborghini By Year-End And A Bugatti In 2022, Kraken CEO Makes Interesting Prediction

Bitcoin has been on an incredible uptrend and bulls have come out in plenty to predict the future price of the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency. But surprise, surprise, Jesse Powell, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken strongly believes dollar-based BTC price forecasts are flawed due to fact that fiat money is prone to substantive inflation. Powell suggests that luxury marques like Lamborghinis and Bugattis are more accurate measures of bitcoin’s price in the future.

Kraken CEO Gives Flashy BTC Targets
During an interview with Bloomberg, Powell was asked where he sees the price of bitcoin by the end of this year to which he noted: “I think I said bitcoin is going to infinity and that’s kind of hard to comprehend because I’m measuring it in terms of dollars.”

A better measure, according to the Kraken CEO, is measuring the value of the asset based on premier luxury machines. One bitcoin is currently equivalent to Tesla Model 3. He posits that BTC investors will be able to purchase a Lambo by the end of the year. As for the end of next year, one bitcoin will be worth a Bugatti.

Powell indicated that it’s difficult to measure the value of bitcoin against the U.S. dollar due to its inflationary nature.

“To me and to the crypto community, I think those kinds of assets are easier to measure Bitcoin against because you never know where the dollar is going to be. There could be 10 times as many U.S. dollars out there a year from now, so it’s really hard to measure Bitcoin against the dollar.”

What Of Other Cryptocurrencies?
Responding to a question about the future of other alternatives to bitcoin, Powell mentioned Ethereum and Polkadot as the top cryptos gaining a lot of interest from investors.

For Ethereum, he opines that there’s currently a process to move coins to the new proof-of-stake Ethereum blockchain which involves burning the old blockchain coins, essentially squeezing the ether supply. Powell also noted the non-fungible token (NFT) buzz that is boosting the use of the Ethereum blockchain. He predicts “north of 2,000 dollars a coin” for ETH by the end 2021.

Powell describes Polkadot as the “next Ethereum” owing to its advantage of lower fees.

“There are a lot of other coins that are being launched on top of this network, and I think you’ll see a lot of things that were on Ethereum be ported over to Polkadot for like lower transaction fees.”

Read more: ZyCrypto

Historical Data Reveals BTC Price Could Rally to $80K in April

Bitcoin started the week on a positive note after logging a clear break above the $53,200 resistance. The coin soared higher above the $55K and $56K levels on bullish news of more potential mainstream crypto adoption.

As reported by the Daily Chain earlier today, Visa has approved the use of the USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network. As per the initial Forbes report, the credit card giant has launched a pilot for the programme with payments platform Crypto.com. Visa plans to offer the option to more of its business partners later in 2021.

Following the news, BTCUSD jumped over 3% and formed highs above $58K heading into the European session. The coin is currently facing resistance in the lower-$58,000 zone but could rally higher if it steadies above $57K.

April Could Be Even Bigger For BTC Price, Says Data
Bitcoin has soared over 500% since October of 2020 when the current bull cycle began. The digital asset’s momentum dwindled this month after prices surged past $60K and formed a new lifetime high above this level.

The stalled rally came as no surprise to many BTC analysts, who view March as the bloodiest month historically for crypto markets. Bitcoin has faced a series of rejections at its ATH and traded as low as $50K over the past week.

Bitcoin triumphant (Image: Maxpixel)
Bitcoin triumphant (Image: Maxpixel)

According to historical bitcoin price data, the downtrend could soon end as markets head into April, a month where BTC has been known to break fresh ground in the past.

According to Danny Scott, the CoinCorner crypto exchange CEO, analysis of BTC price data over the last decade shows a 51% average gain for the flagship crypto in April. If the data holds true, then bitcoin would soar to highs of just over $80K by the end of next month.

Speaking via Twitter DM, Scott added that given the historical price trajectory of BTC, prices “may stack up” this coming month:

“As with any month, the potential price prospects of bitcoin can be split into a number of different thought processes. Time of the year can be a factor, and the month of April is always highlighted, as it’s the end of the U.K. and U.S. tax year,” Scott shared with Forbes.

ETH Price Gains Momentum Above $1,800
Ethereum recovered above $1,700 on Monday and even tested $1,800 against the U.S. Dollar. The top altcoin rallied higher after Visa announced support for the native token of the Ethereum blockchain.

The payments giant revealed it would offer its crypto partners the option to settle transactions in USDC over the ETH network. The move makes Visa the first major payment services provider to integrate a stablecoin into its legacy systems.

Following the news, the ETHUSD pair surged by almost 7% to currently reach an intraday high of $1,834.

Read more: The Daily Chain