Im reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2015 in Bitcoin. Read about 2014 here.

In 2015, Ross Ulbricht was convicted of all charges in running the Silk Road; the BitLicense was fully implemented; Gizmodo and Wired suggested Craig Steven Wright might be Satoshi Nakamoto, and the block size debate picked up steam. But, thats not all that happened in 2015. Heres the review of Bitcoin in 2015.

Silk Road Trial

In early 2015, through the Silk Road trial, the world learned that, despite media and popular culture perception, Bitcoin is not anonymous.

A jury found on February 4 Ross Ulbricht guilty of all charges. He was Dread Pirate Roberts, the handle behind Silk Road. Sentenced in May to double life imprisonment plus forty years, Ulbricht faced no possibility of parole.

On the ninth day of the trial, the prosecution called key witness Ilhwan Yum, an FBI special agent and cyber security expert, who showed how bitcoin transactions are not anonymous, despite the misconception in media and popular culture of otherwise.

Yum demonstrated that in a 12-month period more than 700,000 bitcoins had been transferred from the Silk Road bitcoin wallet directly to a wallet on Ross Ulbrichts laptop. Agent Yum searched the bitcoin blockchain for transactions involving the bitcoin addresses found in the Silk Road wallet and those on Ross Ulbrichts laptop. He discovered direct transactions between them.

Bitcoin therefore provides the ultimate paper trail for law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and compliance professionals, wrote Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a company that detected and investigated cybercrime involving cryptocurrencies.

The backdrop at Bitcoin Conference 2019

Block Size Debate & July 2015 Flood Attack

The Block Size debate was taken up a notch in 2015. The Bitcoin community debated whether or not to implement a code change to increase the size of the blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. Gavin Andresen, who inherited lead engineer duties for Bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, argued for increasing the block size. He argued that Bitcoin could not handle a large increase in transactions, and proposed BIP101, a bigger blocks proposal, also known as Bitcoin XT.

In July 2015, a Chinese mining pool, F2Pool, mined the biggest Bitcoin transaction that ever hit the blockchain. At 999 kilobytes, it took up an entire block. The now defunct CoinWallet.eu had sent tens of thousands of transactions across the bitcoin blockchain on multiple occasions.

By stress testing the system, we hope to make a clear case for the increased block size by demonstrating the simplicity of a large scale spam attack on the network, stated the company.

BitLicense

The BitLicense was implemented in August. No fewer than 10 bitcoin companies said they would stop all business in New York State due to the new regulations.

The New York Business Journal, in a story written by Forbes editor Michael del Castillo, called this the Great Bitcoin Exodus.

ShapeShift was the first business to leave. Bitcoin and blockchain technology have enabled a new standard of financial privacy and consumer protection Unfortunately, in spite of the technological achievements that now protect consumers, some jurisdictions have legally mandated the continued extraction of sensitive private information, the company wrote on its website.

The note compared New York State with North Korea. Fortune called it quite a statement by a buzzy startup and a big name in the bitcoin community.

NYDFS told Fortune: We always recognized that there is going to be some part of this community that is against even pretty standard financial regulatory oversight measures, such as anti-money laundering controls and other consumer protections. That said, one digital currency company has already received a license from NYDFS and a number of others have stated they intend to seek BitLicenses shortly. Ultimately, we believe that prudent regulation will be important to building greater consumer confidence in digital currency and sparking wider adoption.

NYDFS granted Circle Internet Financial the first BitLicense in September 2015.

Craig Steven Wright

Based on the tip of an anonymous person, Wired and Gizmodo both suggested in December 2015 that Craig Wright might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. Documents provided to Gizmodo suggested that Wright, an Australian businessman, and Dave Kleiman, an American computer forensics expert who in 2013 passed away, together developed Bitcoin.

After the release of the reports, police promptly raided Wrights home and office. The Australian Federal police denied the raids were related to the claims that Wright founded Bitcoin.

The AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin.

80% of Bitcoin Trading Volume Conducted in Chinese Yuan

Goldman Sachs released in March a report contending that 80 percent of the Bitcoin volume is driven by the Chinese yuan. The U.S. dollar ranked as the second most used currency for transactions, followed by the euro.

China registered high trading activity despite the Peoples Bank of China having banned in December 2014 financial institutions from bitcoin trading. "However, in light of a somewhat stabilizing Bitcoin economy in China, a few payment processors have reemerged, such as BTC China's JustPay, wrote Goldman Sachs.

The bank added: Bitcoin and other crypto currencies enable the potential for faster transactions with lower transaction fees. The Bitcoin network can charge as little as zero for processing transactions if there is no time constraint for confirmation."

Greek Bank Closures Leads to Uptick in Bitcoin Interest

Bank closures in Greece to prevent a financial collapse led to an uptick of activity on Bitcoin trading platforms. German marketplace Bitcoin.de told CNNMoney that ten times as many Greeks were registering to trade bitcoins than before the crisis, with Bitcoin trading in Greece increasing 79% from their ten-week average on Bitstamp, the worlds third-largest Bitcoin exchange at the time.

The Shanghai-based LakeBTC saw a 40% increase in visitors from Greece, and Polish exchange Bitcurex claimed to receive many emails from Greeks asking questions about Bitcoin.

The CFTC Classifies Bitcoin As Commodity

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) classified in September Bitcoin as a commodity, like gold and oil.

CFTC holds that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are a commodity covered by the commodity exchange act, the regulator said in a statement.

Aitan Goelman, the CFTCs director of enforcement, noted that while there is a lot of excitement surrounding bitcoin...innovation does not excuse those acting in this space from following the same rules applicable to all participants in the commodity derivatives markets.

Coinbase Raises $75 Million and Bitcoin Unicode

Those werent the only stories revolving around Bitcoin in 2015, of course. The New York Stock Exchange was a minority investor in Coinbases 2015 $75 million funding round, for instance

And, in November, the Unicode Committee, which sets the standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing system, adopted the bitcoin currency symbol so that it would eventually be easily typed on computers and devices.

Thats 2015 in Bitcoin. Coming soon: The Year 2016.

Read this article:

The 2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2015 - Forbes

Todays mid-week daily close in Bitcoin price charts carries significantly more weight than usual, as New Years Eve marks the last day of the calendar year, and the crypto assets yearly candle close.

If the leading crypto asset by market cap closes today at current prices around $7,250, the yearly candle will close with the largest wick on record, clearly showing the failed parabolic rally that occurred around mid-year 2019.

Bitcoin price charts can be viewed across multiple timeframes, with the most significant being given to the largest and longest timeframes.

Crypto traders and analysts often pay particularly close attention to daily, weekly, or monthly price charts in order to get a better grasp on the market and the trend underway.

Related Reading | Past Performance Shows Bitcoin Historic High Could Serve As True Bear Market Bottom

And while yearly price charts arent as oft used as the other, longer timeframes, they can be helpful in looking at the bigger overall picture.

One crypto analyst has shared a yearly Bitcoin price chart on Twitter and invited others from the community to do what they do best and speculate on what the yearly candle close means for the crypto asset, and what is expected for the following years close.

The candle itself while green does show a failed rally in the form of a massive wick that stopped at prior yearly resistance. The wick is also the largest ever recorded in Bitcoin price on yearly candles, as even 2017s peak has a $6,000 range from wick peak to candle body close, whereas this years reaches from the current price of $7,250 all the way to $14,000 representing a $6,750 long wick.

Analysts responding to the thread suggest that because this years candle is closing at under 50% of 2017s candle, 2020s yearly close is expected to be red.

For 2020 to close red, Bitcoin price would need to end next year lower than whatever the price closes at when the clock strikes 7PM ET tonight. Another year of sideways or downtrend would likely be too much for many crypto investors who have been holding through two full years of a bear market already.

Others, however, say that the next years candle will close green, filling out the wick of 2019 with continued price action until Bitcoin eventually sets a new high.

Related Reading | Heres What $100 in Bitcoin Would Have Made Next To The Decades Best Investments

While many crypto investors are already thinking about 2020, Bitcoin price still needs to close the daily candle tonight to put 2019 in the history books for good, and set its sights on a new year or trading.

Read more:

Bitcoin Price Yearly Candle Shows Failed Rally, Longest Wick on Record - newsBTC

Im reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2017 in Bitcoin. Read about 2016here.

The price of Bitcoin reached in December 2017 nearly $20,000 per bitcoin. The bitcoin price traded between $930 and $978 on December 29, 2016, and surpassed $1,000 on New Years Day 2017, then $5,000 in October, and $10,000 in November.

On the news front, the year didnt start out so hot for Bitcoin. The Peoples Bank of China met in January with major bitcoin exchanges and advised them to adhere to the relevant laws and regulations.

Bitcoin saw a drop in trading volume due to new trading fees implemented by Chinese exchanges Huobi, OKCoin, and BTCC. OKCoin and Huobi would soon thereafter halt withdrawals for an entire month, in order to undergo an upgrade.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected in March the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded fund, for which the twins had first filed in 2013. Bitcoin immediately sold off, with the price falling 18%, from almost $1,300 to $1,060.

"[T]he Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest,the SEC stated.

Organizer David Bailey concludes Bitcoin Conference 2019.

The agency said a Bitcoin ETF would need "surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading the underlying commodity or derivatives on that commodity. And second, those markets must be regulated."

The twins didnt sweat it. "We remain optimistic and committed to bringing COIN [the proposed ticker] to market, and look forward to continuing to work with the SEC staff, Tyler Winklevoss, chief financial officer of Digital Asset Services, stated. We began this journey almost four years ago, and are determined to see it through. We agree with the SEC that regulation and oversight are important to the health of any marketplace and the safety of all investors."

Just days after the ruling, the Bitcoin price had climbed back to its pre-ETF decision price.Then, between May and September, the Bitcoin price rocketed. Bitcoin set a new all-time high after all-time high before a brief correction.

At the end of May, Bitcoin increased to more than $2,000 for the first time ever, and weeks later it broke through $3,000.But, one day after Bitcoin surpassed $3,000, the price fell $300 in one hour.

The Bitcoin price eclipsed $5,000 the first week of September, but fell below $3,400 on September 14. One day later, the price fell below $3,000.

Amid the price increase, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in September that Bitcoin is a fraud.

Its worse than tulip bulbs, Dimon said at CNBC-Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha. It wont end well. Someone is going to get killed.

He added: Its just not a real thing, eventually it will be closed.

By mid-October, the price of Bitcoin had yet again surpassed $5,000. In November and December, the price went even more parabolic. Bitcoin hit nearly $18,000 on December 15, which was a more than 1,700 percent increase since the start of the year and an 80% increase in December alone.

Between December 16-17, the price of Bitcoin increased 5% in 24 hours to it's all-time high of $19,783.06, a 1,824% increase since Jan. 1.

One of the biggest market corrections Bitcoin has seen to date followed, as the price fell below $11,000. The Bitcoin price swiftly increased yet again to more than $16,000, but, by Dec. 28, had fallen to about $13,500. It ended the year 2017 at just above $14,000.

Thats 2017 in Bitcoin. Coming soon: 2018.

See the rest here:

2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2017 - Forbes

Cover image via http://www.tradingview.com

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here is not investment advice it is provided for informational purposes only. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of U.Today. Every investment and all trading involves risk, so you should always perform your own research prior to making decisions. We do not recommend investing money you cannot afford to lose.

The last day of 2019 Bitcoin (BTC) is ending on a bearish note, as well as most of the other top 10 coins. Tezos(XTZ) is the exception to the rule as its rate has gone up by more than 3% in the last 24 hours.

Apart from the rates of the various cryptocurrencies, the total market capitalization has continued to decline and currently sits at $191.6 billion.

Below is the relevant data for Bitcoin and how it's looking at press time:

Name: Bitcoin

Ticker: BTC

Market Cap:$132,003,957,232

Price:$7,279.83

Volume (24H):$21,750,610,963

Change (24H): -1.24%

BTC/USD: Expected Drop on December 31

There is not much in terms of volatility, which usually happens around the holidays and directly affects the trading volume index. Currently, Bitcoin's level continues to trend downwards, and the overall volume totaling $9.2 billion.

Looking at the 4H chart, the largest cryptocurrency is stuck within a triangle pattern with the possibility of a downwards trend.

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This downward trend is supported by a decline in the trading volume and a failure to fix above the $7,500 level. In this particular case, the zone between $7,000-$7,100 looks like a possible stopping point.

Looking at the daily chart, the picture is even more bearish. The 50-Day and 100-Day Moving Average (MA) lines continue to trend downwards without any signs of a possible reversal pattern. Moreover, the 200-Day MA confirms the presence of sellers. To sum up, there is a high probability of seeing BTC go below $7,000 during the first month of 2020.

At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $7,215.

Read more:

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: Expecting Any Surprises on January 1, 2020? - U.Today

Over the past few days, analysts have begun flipping bullish on Bitcoin (BTC), claiming that the asset is on the verge of bursting higher after the brutal bear market that has destroyed bulls over the past few months.

Despite this shift in sentiment, a prominent analyst has asserted that it is wise to keep a close eye on the cryptocurrency charts, for he is observing that BTC is on the verge of doom due to a confluence of historical technical factors. Doom, he suggests, means Bitcoin will collapse all the way to $1,000, as the maintaining of current levels will indicate that BTC still has long-term upward momentum.

Velvet, a trader who called the latest decline to the $6,000s weeks ago when Bitcoin was trading at $8,000, recently noted that BTC is on the verge of doom.

In the tweet seen below, through which Velvet conveyed his analysis, it was depicted that Bitcoin is trading just a smidgen above the 100-week moving average (currently at $7,000), which is a level that the cryptocurrency has always trended above during bull markets. Thats not to mention that the one-week Relative Strength Index and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence are sitting on key historical supports, which acted as barriers to bear markets.

He claims that if these levels are lost on a macro basis and Bitcoin drops to the $5,000s as a number of cryptocurrency traders expect, it will confirm we have lost momentum to the upside, confirming an Elliot Wave analysis C-Wave that will bring the asset to $1,000 with time.

If Bitcoin holds the current levels, he expects the asset to rally to $20,000 170% higher than current levels by March as illustrated in a previous report from this outlet.

Unfortunately for bulls, there is some evidence to suggest that bears could gain the upper hand if they dont already have it that is.

Analyst CryptoThies recently noted that despite the strong nearly 15% recovery from the depths of $6,400, his indicator, dubbed MarketGod, is still printing a sell signal on the December candle.

He notes that MarketGod has called these macro trends 4/4 in the past six years of Bitcoin prices history, making the latest sell signal rather potent, for it implies that there are months more downside ahead.

Thats not to mention that the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) a much-used trend following indicator used to determine directionality in markets on the one-month Bitcoin chart recently crossed bearish, with the blue (MACD) line crossing below the orange (signal) line.

This bearish crossover was last seen in June/July of 2018, preceding and predicting the abovementioned 50% decline seen at the end of last year.

See original here:

Bitcoin Price On Verge of Long-Term Doom; Heres Why - Ethereum World News

As the decade draws to a close, it's time to look at the investments that were the most successful. And, unsurprisingly, cryptocurrencies top the list of the most profitable investments of the decade.

Up first, is Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency, built by an anonymous programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto, it led to the creation of many Bitcoin forksalternative versions running on similar codeand thousands of altcoins, either using the same code or trying out new features. But, if you got in early, you had the chance to make a quick buck.

Since the first bitcoin was available for trading, its price has accelerated 62,500 percent. Outshining many traditional stocks, it even spawned an entire culture built around prices "mooning" and the promise of lovingly labelled "lambos." Due to the extreme rise, many critics have called it a Ponzi Scheme and say that its price pumps are bubbles that keep popping. But despite the criticism, an entire industry has been built around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, leading many countries around the world to start adoption blockchain technology.

Much of the promise of blockchain technology can be seen with Ethereum. It offers features known as smart contracts, which allow for the creation of decentralized apps. These have interesting applications, particularly in the world of finance.

The price of Ethereum has shot up too. Even though the price has dropped heavily since its all-time high in January 2018, the price of Ethereum is still up by 17,900 percent. One ETH is currently worth $132.

However, some traditional stocks have not been far off. Netflix had a strong performance this decade, rising 4,280 percent. It's not too surprising given how ubiquitous it now is. Even new films are now launching on Netflix instead of heading to the cinema. But it's epic rise has led to an increase in the number of competitor video streaming companies. Will it be able to fend off the competition going into 2020?

Along with the rise of Netflix, and watching TV at home in general, another company did particularly well. Domino's Pizza saw an increase in share price of 3,000 percent. Who knew pizza and TV were a winning combination?

In line with the trend of not needing to go outside, Amazon grew considerably in the last decade, rising 1,250 percent. It's worth noting that not only does Amazon ship products to your door but it also offers a TV streaming service. What's next, Amazon pizza?

Those doing yoga, trying to work off the 1,000 calorie pizzas, helped to boost the price of Lululemon shares, a retailer known for creating activewear and clothes for "most other sweaty pursuits." They rose by 1,300 percent.

On a different track, healthcare company Abiomed saw a 2,000 percent rise in the last decade. It creates medical devices, such as artificial hearts.

Shotly behind Amazon is NVIDIA, known for creating computer chips. Interestingly, it pulled in $1.95 billion in revenue from its crypto mining business. But it wasn't without controversy. In September, critics accused it of surreptitiously influencing the development of an upgrade to the Ethereum network. But nothing was ever proved.

Other profitable investments of the decade were payments processors, including Mastercard and VISA, up 1,100 percent and 760 percent respectively. Google shares rose by 350 percent and Apple shares went up by 840 percent.

Read the original:

Bitcoin, Ethereum are most profitable investments of the decade - Decrypt

A misguided euphoria rising from the phase one deal between the US and China could help bitcoin becoming one of the most profitable investments in 2020.

The offbeat asset has been pursuing a flat trajectory ever since Washington and Beijing reached an initial agreement. It spent its entire December in a tight range defined by $7,000 and $7,600, barring a short-term dump-and-pump action that took the price below $6,500.

Price has been fluctuating in an 8% range all December | Source: TradingView.com

The bitcoins price sideways action came against the backdrop of a cheerful equity market. Global stocks hit their historic highs on the news of a positive mini-deal with the US benchmark S&P 500 reaching its highest level since 2013.

The initial agreement between the US and China appeared modest, for Beijingpromised to address two of the major concerns raised by President Donald Trump. First, they increased imports of certain US goods, including energy and agricultural products; and second, they agreed to take a tougher stance on intellectual property rights.

In return, Washington suspended December tariffs on Chinese goods. It decorated the deal further with a partial rollback of the September tariffs.

The huge upside moves in the equity market that followed the phase one deal showed investors faith in a long-term positive outlook. But so it appears, the agreement between the two global superpowers is no less than a soft landing.

Gregory Draco, the chief US economist at Oxford Economics, believes that both the US and Chinas efforts cannot compensate for the damages that have been done to the economy in the past 18 months.

He wrote that removing US tariffs on Chinese goods would boost growth only by small margins anywhere between 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent.The thinktank further noted that Chinas decision to avoid extra stimulus programs will limit its growth rate to about 6 percent.

Financial trend reader Nordea Markets also iterated the same in its latest analysis, noting that the phase one deal could at best minimize downside risks. Excerpts from their investor note:

The most important outcome of the deal is that both sides promised not to raise tariffs further, as was initially planned. This clearly removes one downside risk in the global economy for 2020, although Chinas unwillingness to move forward with structural reforms implies that its challenges with trade relations will continue.

The risks attached with a positively perceived mini-deal was also visible in the recent gains of a so-called benchmark haven.

Gold surprised traders in the past weeks after rising in tandem with equity markets. According toRBC Wealth Management managing director George Gero, the yellow metals surge is a reminder of investors huge appetite for hedging assets.

You had creeping up interest rates, record stock markets and the dollar index trading close to 97. When gold is not responding to the usual headwinds, it is a positive sign for the price, Gero told Kitko News. Its a hedge against a possibility of surprising negative news. By ignoring negativity in technicals, gold has turned somewhat positive.

The phase one deal has not minimized prevalent market risks. That means bitcoin could still gain a small piece as capital starts shifting from overbought equities to hedging assets like Gold.

The money does not have to come from institutional investors. Speculation within the industry alone could drive money into the bitcoin markets. That includes capital coming from neighboring, overhyped alternative cryptocurrencies (or altcoins).

The bitcoins 200 percent price rally during the 2019s second quarter has shown the cryptocurrencys capability as an asset that can behave as a hedge against the trade war. And it is not ending soon, as long as the US and China fight with each other for the top global positioning in the economy, politics, and technology.

Overall, it is one of the best recipes for making bitcoin more bullish. Even halving cannot promise that.

Read the original:

Bitcoin to Benefit More from Trade War in 2020 than Halving - newsBTC

The crypto wallet and digital exchange TronWallet has been in the market for two years already, competing with its rivals to be the best wallet for the community. Now, the team announces that the latest version of their product gets rolled out TronWallet 3 - with Bitcoin operations finally added to its mobile app. Ethereum will be the next coin to come on the platform, they say.

TronWallet has exclusively shared data on its recent upgrade with U.Today.

After the upgrade, TronWallet 3 supports the flagship crypto asset Bitcoin (that is now supported for both PC and mobile versions of the product). The upgrade now allows the 160,000 users from over 180 countries to keep Bitcoin and perform operations with it inside their TronWallet.

The wallets team has been intending to integrate Bitcoin for a long time already, since numerous customers have been continuously requesting the integration of BTC support.

The projects team now intends to expand the circle of its users and lure Bitcoin fans into using TronWallet 3.

Bitcoin will be the first crypto on the wallet listed apart from TRX andTron-powered tokens. This way TronWallet will take a step towards becoming a multi-currency wallet. Other coins will be listed in the near future as well, with their vast community voting for which coin to add next.

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TronWallet 3 is also about to introduce a brand new SWAP option that will make exchanging crypto assets simpler for the users. The team is going to start with launching a TRX to BTC swap, adding other coins and tokens later on.

The goal is to improve the process of token exchange for the platforms customers, make it faster and easier.

The platform will also introduce a new feature in TronWallet 3 dubbed Portfolio, which allows keeping wallets for each coin in the portfolio in one place and provide customers with an easy way to manage those coins.

The official Twitter page of TronWallet announced that on December 27 itconducted a token burn of 136 mln TWX coins that it had bought back from the community by that time.

This was made to make the TWX coin more stable and reduce its supply.

See original here:

TronWallet Fires Away Updated Version with Bitcoin Transactions and TRX to BTC Swap Feature - U.Today

As numerous countries around the globe are already celebrating the advent of 2020, it's time to take a retrospective look at the performance of Bitcoin in the previous year.

2019 was the year of highs and lows for the dominant cryptocurrency but it still managed to come out on top with a 95 percent yearly gain, according to data provided by blockchain analytics startup Skew.

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Bitcoin's price action was uneventful for almost half of the year. Skew has estimated that there were 150 days when BTC didn't move by more than one percent in a day. Meanwhile, the average absolute daily move is about 2.4 percent.

The wildest price move was recorded on Oct. 25 when Bitcoin surged by almost 40 before these gains quickly started to evaporate.Meanwhile, thetwo most painful moves for the bulls came on June27 and Sept. 25. BTC is still struggling to break out of the six-monthfalling channel that was created as a result of the former.

Despite the fact that BTC is seemingly becoming less volatile, more than $800 mln was liquidated on BitMEX, the top derivatives exchange, with longs being responsible for the lion's share of this sum.

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With people poppingbottles of champagne across the globe, the big year of the third Bitcoin halving has already arrived. The beliefthat the forthcoming reward halving would trigger another price rally became one of the major crypto narratives as early as in 2019. Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht predicted that BTC could witness a moonshot to $100,000 in 2020.

However, not everyone is enthusiastic. CoinLists Andy Bromberg recently told The American Banker that the halvening had been already "overpriced in." In fact, he expects the Bitcoin price to dip after the much-awaited event.

Maybe its been overpriced in and everyones bought into this thesis and we see a dip post-halving.

As reported by U.Today, Bloomberg analyst Eddie van der Waltclaimed that there wouldn't be enough demand to replicate the success of previous post-halvening cycles.

Continue reading here:

This Bitcoin Halvening Could Be Drastically Different, According to Bloomberg Analyst - U.Today

Bitcoins price has been under the $7,600 range for over a month now. Even with 3 major retests of the resistance at $7,660, Bitcoins price hasnt managed to breach it. With the formation of a double bottom in a medium time frame, this was supposed to change. However, it hasnt so far.

The double bottom is a bullish pattern, provided the price breaks above the neckline with sufficient volume to continue the bullish momentum. Although there is a decreasing volume trend, there hasnt been any breach above the neckline. As Bitcoin fails to reconquer the strong resistance at $7,600, its collapse is also strong support at $7,236. Moreover, the VPVR indicator showed a point of contact at this support [$7,236].

Perhaps, the reason why Bitcoin would fail to fully evolve into a double bottom pattern would be a major overhead resistance. The 2-year daily moving average has not been breached since 26 September. For over 32 days, Bitcoin has constantly tried to breach this resistance and failed.

The daily chart showed another narrative for Bitcoin, a rather bearish narrative for things yet to unfold. As seen in the attached chart, the retest of the 2-year DMA has failed and the price is retreating.

Additionally, an interesting observation here is that the December 2018 bottom and the current price action are acting as support for the price, at press time. However, the worst will happen when BTC breaks this support. Bitcoin is known for triangle patterns and a bearish breakout. Take for example the bear rally in 2018, one where Bitcoin broke down from $6,000 to $3,000 or the $9,000 to $7,500 drop in September 2019.

Since the overall trend for Bitcoin is bearish and the formation of death cross personifies the bearish momentum, the chances that Bitcoin will break to the bottom are higher than usual.

The drop from the daily time frame could take BTC below the $6,400 level, one which is the current lowest local support. However, the drop would be much more brutal and could take BTC below $6,000. Moreover, BTC dominance has also peaked at 70 and has started to collapse. This would also pave the way for altcoins to perform since they havent had an alt-season in a while.

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Bitcoins double bottom close to failing; sub-$6,000 levels on the horizon - AMBCrypto