The price of Bitcoin (BTC), the top-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surged past $9,300 on July 21 for the first time in over a week. Following a low-volatility range, traders are seemingly turning cautiously bullish in the near-term.

Since late June, Bitcoin has been stuck in a relatively tight range between $9,000 and $9,250. It struggled to see a major price movement causing the volume to slump. After a quick upsurge from $9,150 to over $9,300, traders predict that a volatility spike is imminent.

The price surge coincided with a U.S. stock market rally, driven by a new round of stimulus. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a $1 trillion stimulus deal is in the works.

The performance of top cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours. Source: Coin360.io

Some traders say a break to the upside is likely, but declining volume is concerning

Several technical analysts say that the recent rally of Bitcoin could lead to a bigger rally in the short-term. Bitcoin faces key resistance levels at $9,550 and $9,800, and BTC saw steep rejections from both areas previously.

Crypto trader Philip Swift pinpointed that the two-month range of Bitcoin since May occurred above the 200-day moving average (MA), indicating that the uptrend of Bitcoin could be intact.

The trader said:

Promising little pump this morning. I suspect this will be the week we finally break out of the dreaded range.

The range of Bitcoin since May was above the 200-day moving average. Source: Philip Swift

Arthur Hayes, the CEO of BitMEX, also expressed his excitement towards Bitcoins minor rally. Hayes said BTC awoke from thee slumber, referring to its low volatility in the past week.

Arthur Hayes tweets about Bitcoins first breakout in over a week. Source: Arthur Hayes Twitter

Michael van de Poppe, a full-time trader at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, hinted that Bitcoin is cautiously optimistic. He said:

We've got our breaker and bullish move here, as the market is showing strength. I don't think $BTC will accelerate, as it's just still hopping around.

Binance Futures data shows that the majority of traders on the platform are majority long on Bitcoin and Ether (ETH).

Data from Datamish suggests there are substantially more long contracts than shorts in the entire Bitcoin futures market as well. Longs amount to 22,496 BTC, worth around $209 million. In contrast, shorts stand at a mere 5,555 BTC, worth less than $52 million.

Although the 200-day MA technically suggests an uptrend, historical data shows it could easily break down below it. Previous peaks witnessed in July 2019 and February 2020 both rejected above the 200-day MA.

Data from Santiment also shows that the volume of Bitcoin has declined in recent weeks. When an uptrend coincides with declining volume, it could hint at a fakeout.

Researchers at Santiment wrote:

BTC's overall trading volume continues to slide, and with so much focus on altcoins currently, Bitcoin's trading volume hitting a daily value of $12.25B Saturday marked the lowest single-day value since October 5, 2019 (a 9.5-month low).

The trading volume of Bitcoin continues to decline. Source: Santiment

The market remains mixed as BTC grinds through the new week. Technical indicators and macro fundamental factors, like Bitcoins hash rate and low exchange inflows, suggest an uptrend. But the low volume of BTC throughout the past two months remains a variable.

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Bitcoin Surges to $9.3K for First Time in a Week Is it a Fakeout? - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin was always designed to be a perfect match for the gambling industry, with its ability to conduct cost efficient and fast payments, while also providing an immutable audit trail that regulators love, and data networking opportunities for enterprising developers. CG London was a great exhibition of this, and it brought out non-executive chairman ofClarion Events Michael Caselli, who reflected on gamblings history with Bitcoin.

Our very own Rebecca Liggero Fontana bumped into Caselli at the event and asked what brought him out. Its right down the road, its the ideal location for me, he said. Gaming industrys here, its a huge global hub and I thought I better come down because I know a lot of other guys from the industry wanted to come down, and are coming down. And whats interesting, anything blockchain is exciting, theres got to be an application that were looking for now. A lot of companies are innovating and trying to find their applications for anything blockchain, and Bitcoin SV is just a really great platform with good throughput, good transaction volumes, the ability to do quite a lot of stuff on the application layers that you cant do on some of the coins, and it just makes a lot of sense that the gaming industry is coming down and Im here to support.

Bitcoin SV, having finally unleashed the power of unlimited scaling on the blockchain, was impressing plenty of visitors at the conference, and Liggero Fontana asked what potential Caselli saw in it. Decentralized solutions are good for a number of different things like exchanges, he said. Trust is an issue, so where theres ever a trust issue for any application, then theres a good solution for that. Trust issues may exist in countries which are yet to regulate, which dont have a regulator thats overseeing whats going on, and then players could really self-regulate whats happening by using an immutable blockchain.

But while Bitcoin SV has only recently started unleashing the true potential of blockchain technology, the concept itself has been around a number of years, and Caselli reflected on how the gambling industry has approached it. We were at fever pitch maybe six, seven years ago whenever things started to kick off, when Bitcoin got to its, you know, $100 value and then climbed to a thousand dollars, he said. And that was exciting and everyones looking at, saying Where does this work, where does this work? And I think there was a lot of adaptation at that time to kind of move the systems over on the payment side of things. And then when smart contracts came out, there was a whole bunch of people launching tokens and launching projects so they can go and they could fund themselves, create some applications in gaming.

Caselli still feels that excitement, and with the ability to store both value and data, he sees big things coming. With the ability to create applications, who knows where were going to go in the future.

Weve interviewed Caselli recently about how the pandemic has affected the gambling industry. You can catch that chat, and all of our future videos, by subscribing to our CalvinAyre.com YouTube channel.

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Michael Caselli impressed by innovation of Bitcoin SV platform - CalvinAyre.com

A recent report by blockchain tracking and analytics provider, Whale Alert, revealed that the miner known as Patoshi mined over $10.9 billion or 1,125,150 BTC during Bitcoins infancy in order to protect the network from a 51% attack.

Patoshi has been confirmed to be the anonymous Bitcoin creator known as Satoshi and the early blocks mined by Patoshi also include the first BTC transaction to Hall Finney, a well known developer and early Bitcoin contributor.

Whale Alert was able to come to this conclusion by reviewing previous research conducted by independent researcher and cryptographer Sergio Lerner. Lerner coined the term Patoshi miner back when a cryptographic pattern that revealed most of the early Bitcoin mining was done by one individual with access to modified mining software.

The Patoshi Pattern. Source: Whale Alert

In the chart above, the Patoshi pattern is visualized and it reveals that the straight lines are using the standard Bitcoin mining software and the saw-like lines are attributed to Patoshi.

This same pattern allowed Whale Alert to discover that the Patoshi miner adjusted its speed between blocks in order to keep the average block time at 0.6 blocks per 10 minutes.

Based on the patterns left by the miner on some of the code that is stored in each Bitcoin block, Whale Alert also concluded that this early Bitcoin mining operation was composed of up to 48 computers and one of them was responsible for coordination.

According to Whale Alert, there are two reasons for adjusting the speed, to either keep the block time near the 10 minute mark or to protect the network from a 51% attack.

Satoshi kept his share of the hashrate at a steady 60% as the network grew and a 51% attack was a major threat for Bitcoin at that time, as it has been for newer cryptocurrencies in recent times.

It seems likely that Satoshi was trying to protect the Bitcoin network but as it became less prone to malicious attacks he reduced Patoshis block creation rate to 1 block per 10 minutes.

Blocks mined per 10 minutes per Patoshi chain. Source: Whale Alert

Many analysts believe Satoshi stopped mining at block 54,316 once he deemed the network sufficiently decentralized. However, there have been some irregularities in later blocks that span up until May 2010 or block 112,500, but currently these cannot be confirmed as Patoshi or Satoshi.

The actions of the Patoshi miner appear to be meticulously calculated and geared towards the protection of the network as the global Bitcoin hashrate increased and mining picked up. It seems unlikely that this same entity would want to sell some of the Bitcoin supply and this would have a deteriorating effect for the BTC network. Whale Alert concludes as much by saying:

The timing of the shutdown, the mining behavior, the systematic decrease in mining speed and the lack of spending strongly suggest that Satoshi was only interested in growing and protecting the young network. The bitcoin mined by Patoshi were possibly a mere byproduct of these efforts and it is unlikely that the remainder will ever be spent, although the question remains why Satoshi didnt simply burn them in this case.

According to an early Bitcoin developer, Satoshi feared a 51% attack so much that he even had a GPU ready to defend the network, although it was not used to keep mining somewhat balanced.

Lerner also believes that the Patoshi miners actions were not motivated by financial gain and according to Lerner, Satoshi won't use his coins ever.

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$10.9 Billion Bitcoin Stash Proves Satoshi Is Still the Biggest Whale - Cointelegraph

The UK government wants to get rid of the misleading and inadequate promotions in the countrys cryptocurrency industry.

Today, Her Majestys Treasury put forward a plan to have the UKs financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, gatekeep the crypto companies allowed to advertise their services in the country.

The government laid out the issue in a July 2018 report: Adverts often overstate benefits and rarely warn of volatility risks, the fact consumers can both grow and lose their investment, and the lack of regulation.

Since the reports publication, the UK government recorded an increase in the number of people using cryptocurrencies. In the past year, the government found that the number grew by 2.35%, from 1.5 million people to 2.6 million people; 35% of British HODLers surveyed said they had been swayed by advertisements.

So, to make sure that crypto companies arent deceiving investors, the Treasury proposes that the FCA assume control over a regulatory gateway that crypto companies looking to advertise their products must pass through.

The governments mostly concerned by fungible assets that can be traded on spot exchangessuch as trading Bitcoin or Ethereum on Binance, for example. Crypto companies advertising investments services (think crypto investment houses and spurious auto-trading companies), exchanges, and airdrops would all have to be approved by the FCA.

Digital collectibles, like CryptoKitties, as well as cryptocurrency assets that operate in closed systems, like crypto-based supermarket loyalty points, would be exempt. If a company promotes their products nonetheless, the FCA can force it to withdraw the advertisements.

Before it puts laws into place, Her Majestys Treasury has opened up its proposal to public consultation; interested parties have until October 26 to do so.

Jumping the gun, Decrypt has reached out to some of the companies that would be affected by this regulation. Some welcome the idea, while others think it would stifle the UKs crypto industry.

I think this is good news, Stani Kulechov, CEO and founder of London-based crypto loans company Aave, told Decrypt. If the government intervention weeds out the scammers, its the right way to go, he said.

Mariana Gospodinova, general manager of Crypto.coms Europe business, likwise told Decrypt that the legislation is a good idea. This move is good for the industry, as it will eliminate dubious scammers trying to cash in on cryptocurrency, she said.

And itll be good for business, too: Gospodinova said itll help distinguish companies that are committed to compliance from the fly-by-night schemes that dupe newcomers out of their funds by selling them snake oil masquerading as cryptocurrency.

That is, so long as the FCAs legislation isnt overly onerous and that the FCA applies a light touchshe contrasted this to New Yorks difficult-to-obtain BitLicense.

But not everyones on board. Konstantin Anissimov, the executive director of crypto exchange CEX, told Decrypt that the regulation could be devastating.

The proposed regulation ispointless since within the spot market, there is a very limited amount of misleading one can do as the fees are clear, and the prices of the crypotasset are also clear, he said.

All this will do, then, is make it more difficult to market crypto products, according to CEX exec. Anissimov said this could be devastating for such a fast-paced industry as crypto and will most likely hurt the retail investors who will no longer be able to utilize the best market opportunities.

On the other hand, Anissimov conceded that one benefit of the regulation could be a potential increase in the public's trust in crypto, which could then lead to a greater uptake of crypto among the masses.

But only if the whole process is not overburdened with bureaucracy and delays, he said.

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Bitcoin ads must be regulated by UK government, Treasury proposes - Decrypt

Bitcoin has had a fraught relationship with governments around the world since it was created a little over ten years ago.

The U.S. looked into the possibility of "shutting down" bitcoin back in 2012 and just last month it was reported president Donald Trump told Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to focus on a bitcoin clampdown over negotiating a China trade deal last year.

Now, as bitcoin is gaining broader support on Wall Street and in Washington, the chief executive of major bitcoin and cryptocurrency investor Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert, has said he thinks the risk of a "catastrophic" U.S. bitcoin ban is a thing of the past.

The U.S. has previously tried to "shut down" bitcoin, but those days could be over.

"For the first time ever, we're past the 'ban bitcoin' perceived risk," Silbert said, speaking on bitcoin and crypto-asset manager Grayscale's second quarter investor call earlier this week, adding he's "cautiously optimistic" the crypto regulatory landscape in the U.S. to either improve or remain the same.

"There's enough support among policy makers and regulators that bitcoin has a right to exist and you can't shut it down," Silbert said, pointing to the work being done by the likes of Coin Center, a Washington-based non-profit bitcoin and crypto research and advocacy group.

"The industry is doing well and we're much better off than we've ever been from a relationship perspective thanks to the work being done to educate policy makers of the benefits of this asset class. The catastrophic policy risk is behind us."

Grayscale, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, this week reported institutional demand for bitcoin is soaring amid the coronavirus crisis, posting its biggest-ever quarterly inflows of almost $1 billionnearly doubling from just over $500 million in the first quarter.

Silbert's comments come after reports last month that Donald Trump told Steve Mnuchin to "go after bitcoin" in the wake of bitcoin's massive 2017 bull run that saw the price soar from under $1,000 per bitcoin at the beginning of the year to around $20,000 in under 12 months.

"Dont be a trade negotiator," Trump reportedly told Mnuchin in May 2018, ordering him instead to: "Go after bitcoin [for fraud]."

Trump's reported order came as Facebook was gearing up to unveil its bitcoin-inspired cryptocurrency, librasomething that caused Trump to tweet his opposition to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies last year, branding them "unregulated crypto assets" and based on "thin air."

The bitcoin price exploded in 2017 before crashing back in 2018. Bitcoin's rally thrust it and ... [+] similar technologies onto the global stage and made many early adopters overnight millionaires.

Since then, support for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in Washington has been somewhat boosted by growing calls for the U.S. to develop a digital version of the dollar.

The former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Chris Giancarlo, set up the Digital Dollar Project along with multinational consulting firm Accenture earlier this year to lobby for the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency.

Meanwhile, bitcoin was thrust into the global limelight this week after social media giant Twitter was hacked and several high-profile user accounts were used to post a bitcoin giveaway scam.

"There's such a risk associated with centralized databases," Silbert said, arguing the Twitter hack highlights security risks that bitcoin and its underlying decentralized blockchain technology could help improve.

"I think privacy will become a core investing theme for investors who want to benefit from the growth and awareness of decentralization."

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The Risk Of A Catastrophic U.S. Bitcoin Ban Is Now Past - Forbes

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that it stopped around 1,100 customers from sending bitcoin to hackers who gained access to high-profile Twitter accounts last week.

Last Wednesday, over 100 Twitter accounts, some belonging to major companies like Apple and high-profile people like Vice President Joe Biden and Bill Gates, were hacked as part of a massive coordinated bitcoin scam. According to Twitter, the hackers were able to convince some of the companys employees to use internal systems and tools to access the accounts and help the hackers defraud users into sending them bitcoin.

According to Forbes, Coinbase and other cryptocurrency exchanges were able to stop some customers from sending bitcoin to the hackers by blacklisting the hackers wallet address. Specifically, Coinbase says it prevented just over 1,000 customers from sending around $280,000 worth of bitcoin during last Wednesdays attack. Roughly 14 Coinbase users sent around $3,000 worth of bitcoin to the scams bitcoin address before the company moved to blacklist it, the company said.

We noticed the scam and began blocking transactions within a couple of minutes of the initial wave of scam posts, a Coinbase spokesperson told The Verge on Monday.

Twitter accounts belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance and Gemini were also targeted during Wednesdays attack. Coinbases chief information officer told Forbes on Sunday that it learned of the scam shortly after tweets were posted from fellow exchanges accounts.

As of Monday, Twitter is still investigating Wednesdays attack. On Friday, the company put out a blog post confirming that 130 accounts were targeted and the hackers were able to initiative a password reset, log in to the account, and send tweets for 45 of those accounts. Twitter also said that the hackers were able to download account data belonging to eight unverified users.

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Coinbase says it halted more than $280,000 in bitcoin transactions during Twitter hack - The Verge

Volatility Ahead Caution Sign - Blue Sky Background

Since the halving, bitcoins price has traded mostly between $9,000 and $10,000, compared to the red hot DeFi and alt coins that regularly post triple digit returns. In recent weeks, bitcoins range has tightened with many analysts noting a potentially violent price breakout on the horizon. However, there is no consensus on which direction the breakout will assume.

Charles Edwards, Founder of Capriole Investments, suggests bitcoins fundamentals have never looked better. I have a very bullish outlook in the mid to long term. For example, energy value is at all time highs, suggesting BTC is more valuable than ever before. When this is increasing, it is historically very bullish. This longer term indicator may suggest that a breakout leans towards the bulls.

Interestingly, bitcoins tightening volatility is not a new phenomenon, and occurred from late-September to early-November 2018, which ultimately broke out to the downside, falling from $6,500 to $3,400. One quantitative risk indicator value has been dropping quickly coupled with compressing price volatility. The only other time this dynamic unfolded was November 2018, which could suggest that a stark price fall is on the horizon. The caveat is that this signal has only occurred once before, thus suffers from a small sample size.

https://weeklyjab.substack.com/p/weekly-jab-bitcoin-analysis-3

Additionally, the anonymous Founder of Decentrader, Filb, notes derivatives open interest (OI) increasing as we have consolidated through this period by about 45%, is a similar amount seen before the fall in Q3 last year, to around 8k. It appears OI has been net increasing on dumps. This implies that...the market needs a catalyst to clear this OI out.

Tradingview.com, Decentrader.com

Furthermore, Filb adds, alts have continued their downward trajectory over the past few days, which are probably quite important as to what happens next; particularly if they start dumping and the money flowing back into bitcoin isnt doing anything. Something to pay attention to for sure.

Lastly, Bo Collins, CEO of San Juan Mercantile Bank and Trust, notes bitcoin CME futures volume growth from 2019 to 2020 is only approximately +10%, at the time of writing. This number becomes weaker when considering yearly foreign exchange (FX) futures volume growth can regularly eclipse +30%, e.g. 2018. Tepid bitcoin futures growth calls into question the institutional adoption narrative in some respects, and may imply less buying demand than originally suspected.

However, as shown by Glassnode.io, the amount of bitcoin held on centralized exchanges has dropped considerably since March, which seems bullish for bitcoin as spot investors appear to be holding for the long-term rather than short-term trading.

https://glassnode.com/

Furthermore, per Blockchair.com, bitcoin days destroyed supports the aforementioned notion, with 2020 metrics well within the historical average, including far smaller spikes than previous all-time highs, thus bullish.

https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/charts/coindays-destroyed?interval=full

Despite the differing analyses, the only thing that is certain, is that a strong breakout for bitcoin looms. Only time will tell which faction of analysts are proven correct.

Disclosure: The author owns bitcoin and ethereum.

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Bitcoin Interest Wanes As A Violent Breakout Looms - Forbes

A picture taken on January 15, 2020 shows the facade of the Banque de France building in Paris. The ... [+] bank is working with the European Central Bank to re-imagine how new technologies can change the way money works.

The central bank of France is on the verge of conducting a series of sweeping experiments whose lessons could be used to change the way money works. Cryptocurrency wont be included. In a statement from the Banque de France, the nations central bank, which works together with the European Central Bank to determine the monetary policy of the continent, the institution today released the names of eight participants in the experiments and the scope of the work.

Participants are consulting giant Accenture ACN , settlement giant Euroclear, the HSBC bank, French firm, Iznes, etheruem platform LiquidShare, little-known startup, ProsperUS, crypto bank Seba, and Forge, Societe Generales digital capital markets spinoff. The broad parameters of the experiments include everything from testing regulation using digital currency to improve cross-border payments, an analysis of how a central bank digital currency should be made available, and importantly, to explore new methods of exchanging financial instruments (excluding crypto-assets) for central bank money.

The statement from one of the words leading central banks shows how the vaunted institutions are scrambling to learn the best that cryptocurrency, and its underlying blockchain technology have to offer, but only within limits. Neither blockchainthe shared ledger that lets bitcoin existnor the more sanitized word to describe the larger group of technologiesdistributed ledger technology were mentioned by name in the statement. As such, the work also helps define the limits of what any actual adoption of the technology might look like.

The strong mobilization around this call for candidates testifies to the interest of the actors of finance and technology for this approach aiming to explore the potential contributions of a digital money issued by the central bank to improve the functioning of financial markets, in particular interbank regulations, according to a Google GOOGL translation of the statement. A representative of the Banque de France declined to share any additional context.

Over the coming days, the Banque de France will begin conducting experiments with each of the candidates, according to the statement, with some of the projects expected to take as long as multiple months. Candidates were asked to respond to the banks call for applications for CBDC experiments by May 15. The experiments could have far-reaching implications to the decision-making processes for the central bank, which in addition to helping define Europes monetary policy and implement it in France, regulates Frances banks and insurance companies and ensures risk management.

Beyond the confines of France though, lessons learned from the central bank digital currency experiments will be contributed to the international work being led by the Eurosystem, the monetary authority of the European Union. Earlier this month, the bank joined Germanys central bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank, and the European Central Bank in co-hosting a new innovation center in Europe within the framework of the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements.

In May, European Central Bank executive board member, Yves Mersch, confirmed in a speech at industry conference Consensus, that the European Central Bank was one of at least 66 central banks exploring how lessons learned from blockchain could change the very fabric of what we consider money.

For example, Chinas central bank, the Peoples Bank of China, has taken a giant first-mover advantage in the space, starting its CBDC experiments years ago, and currently testing a working implementation. If successful, one side-effect of CBDCs could be borderless transactions, possibly giving people the choice to store Chinese Renminbi in addition to, or instead of dollars, as a global reserve currency,

Based on what we know of the nearly pervasive experiments around the world looking into the nature of CBDCs, some of the other possible changes to the way money works could include giving citizens accounts at central banks, allowing them to occasionally bypass commercial banks and receive direct access to stimulus checks and more. Another possible, but controversial side-effect of central bank digital currencies could enable online payments while maintaining the privacy citizens have historically enjoyed with cash.

Skeptics of the CBDC concept argue that so long as central banks continue to have the authority to print or issue nearly unlimited amounts of the currency the underlying problems of inflation will continue to drive people to more distributed, deflationary alternatives such as bitcoin, which has a set amount. Other skeptics point to the unlikelihood that central banks will ever actually allow citizens the same privacy they have in the real world, online, and could use the technology as a way to track their own citizens spending habits.

Continued here:
Bitcoin And Other Crypto-Assets Excluded From Central Bank Experiments - Forbes

Since he was young, Dr. Craig Wright has been fascinated with coding. In his fireside chat at the Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 virtual event, Dr. Wright talked about his passion for coding, why he has a very strong drive to make the world better, and the future of Bitcoin.

Dr. Wrights fireside chats are among the events that everyone in the digital currency and blockchain industries awaits eagerly. The latest one didnt disappoint, with Bitcoins creator delving into the technical side of Bitcoin while also sharing more about what drives him.

Dr. Wright started coding when he was a kid, creating games to fight boredom. His love for creating has led him to grow his skills over the years, ultimately culminating in the creation of Bitcoin. Discipline has been one of his core values, he told nChain CTO Steve Shadders.

Dr. Wright is also quite passionate about educating people, saying,

If we want to get past this post-modern, deconstructionist, anti-life and nihilistic view of the world, then we have to have people who are involved and educated. I want to live in a world thats better. That means people who are engaged in society, who are active and understand the issues affecting them.

Dr. Wright also delved into the technical aspects of Bitcoin. On whether we should bring back substring opcodes, Satoshi believes that we may be past that as Bitcoin goes into application stage. Such changes would now affect third parties who are building on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Dr. Wright further revealed why he chose to use Forth language in developing Bitcoin.

Forth is very small and efficient. Its a language Ive used a lot in my past. Its very easy to write good code that you can find the errors and validate the results very quickly. [] If you screw up on Forth, it might work. If you screw up on Java, it might work, but every now and again, you get strange results.

The Bitcoin creator has gone through trying times, both from within the Bitcoin world and beyond, but he says he is still proud about many things that his invention has introduced the world to. One of these is the accelerated pace of adoption in recent years. With the number of applications building on top of Bitcoin rising by the day, its only a matter of time before the world is running on Bitcoin, he concluded.

The thing that makes me happy about Bitcoin is that people are finally starting to get it.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020: Craig Wright wants to make the world better with Bitcoin - CoinGeek

The price of Bitcoin(BTC) begins a new week, ranging north of $9,000 as it awaits cues from macro markets.What could be in store for the coming days?

Cointelegraph takes a look at the major factors that could impact BTC's price this week.

Equities led a somewhat uneventful start to the weeks trading, with major stocks' futures slightly down on the day by a maximum of 0.6% at press time.

Bitcoin likewise had a quiet weekend, with volatility remaining negligible and a narrow trading corridor continuing to characterize price performance.

On Monday, BTC/USD hovered at around $9,180, having hit local highs of $9,226 earlier its highest since July 15.

As has become standard in recent weeks, coronavirus sentiment and reactions to associated remedial measures from governments and central banks dictate macro action, and Bitcoin remains susceptible to copycat moves.

With calm reigning prior to the opening bell on Wall Street, room for maneuver appeared limited, given the compression in BTC/USD over the past several weeks.

A cycle of higher lows and lower highs, the current compression cycle showed little sign of breaking this month. As Cointelegraph reported, however, the status quo is ripe for change and that should happen this week, say analysts.

This feels like a little World Cup of sorts. #bitcoin could break out on or about the 22nd, Jason Williams, co-founder of crypto hedge fund Morgan Creek Digital, tweeted on Sunday.

Investors should not treat Bitcoin as a safe haven too literally within the current market, says the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Speaking to Bloomberg on July 20, Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ in cryptocurrency circles, cautioned against considering BTC/USD as having a particular relationship to stocks.

I think people should not take that meaning of 'safe haven assets'too literally there are always multiple factors affecting the price of an asset, he told the network.

If you imagine Bitcoin as the same as a float and theres the Titanic sinking beside it, if theres a rope tying the float to the Titanic, then the float will sink down with the Titanic, even though the float does have floating properties its just not able to sustain that kind of load.

As Cointelegraph reported, quant analysis has suggested that Bitcoin is 95% correlated to the S&P 500.

CZ added, however, that fiat inflation and its impact on investor holdings would ultimately increase Bitcoins safe haven profile over time.

On the topic of safe havens, attention stayed focused on gold over the weekend. Similarly, as a result of coronavirus fallout, the precious metal is now up 19% year to date.

Even in the eyes of mainstream media, appetite exists among investors for an exit from fiat, which has been tarnished by central bank money printing and lower interest rates.

According to Bank of America Securitiescommodities strategist, Michael Widmer, gold may have even more room for growth than its current nine-year highs.

We need a little bit more visibility before gold prices start peaking, he told CNBC.

Data from on-chain monitoring resource Skew, meanwhile, confirms that Bitcoin has firmly beaten golds year-to-date gains:27.7% versus 18.4%.

Bitcoin versus gold 1-year chart. Source: Skew

Binance further reported significant growth in its futures products focused on altcoins, contrasting with a tailing off in activity for Bitcoin.

In July alone, the exchanges altcoin perpetual futures volume grew 150% to $5.1 billion from $2 billion, while daily volume on altcoin futures hit $2 billion.

This, it said in an accompanying blog post, underscores investor attention concentrating on altcoin markets in the wake of uninspiring Bitcoin price action.

The unusual stagnation in Bitcoins price has shifted investors appetite towards altcoins as prices surged to new all-time highs, the blog post stated.

This explosion in Altcoin demand has ushered in an altcoin season, as seen by Bitcoins declining market capitalization dominance.

Bitcoin futures aggregated daily volumes 1-month chart. Source: Skew

Which direction a Bitcoin price breakout could take is open to debate, however. Analysis suggests a pullback of 11%, in line with support as part of the current descending price channel.

At the same time, Bitcoin network fundamentals and miner sentiment remain conspicuously strong. Difficulty is forecast for another 6.3% rise in seven days time, which will constitute its highest level ever. Likewise, the average hash rate remains near its historical all-time highs.

Bitcoin difficulty 2-month average chart. Source: Blockchain

Difficulty refers to the effort required to solve equations on the Bitcoin blockchain, while hash rate is a rough measure of the computing power dedicated to mining.

While both metrics only give an impression of network health, consistent upward growth has previously resulted in a knock-on effect for price action.

Chief among the proponents of the theory that price follows hash rate is Max Keiser, the RT host who continues to be highly bullish on BTC/USD, forecasting a $500,000 price target.

Continued here:
Bitcoin Breakout on July 22? 5 Things to Watch for BTC Price This Week - Cointelegraph