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Bitcoin history repeating? 3 indicators suggest October will reignite the BTC bull market

The flagship cryptocurrency has closed October in profits seven out of nine times since 2013, raising hopes that it would be able to log a fractal bull run in the next 31 days.

Bitcoin (BTC) failed to break the so-called September curse as its price fell by a little over 7% into the month despite a strong rebound rally right ahead of its close. Nonetheless, Bitcoin looks to be making a comeback in October, a month known for painting aggressive bullish reversals.

Bybt data shows that Bitcoin has closed October in profits the majority of the time since 2013 — with a success rate of over 77%. Last year, the cryptocurrency surged by 28% to reach levels above $13,500 after finishing September at around $10,800, following an approximate 7.5% decline.

Bitcoin monthly returns since 2013. Source: Bybt

Similarly, Bitcoin had climbed higher by over 10% by the end of October 2019 despite plunging by around 14% in the previous month. That made September look like a sell-off month for traders, with its record of logging losses seven out of nine times since 2013.

In contrast, October posed itself as a period of dip-buying, suggesting that traders may end up pumping Bitcoin’s price higher by Oct. 31.

The October fractal surfaces despite alarming signals in the form of China’s intensifying crackdown and the United State’s tougher regulatory stance on the crypto sector.

Additionally, the prospects of the Federal Reserve limiting its $120-billion-a-month bond-purchasing program later this year appear to have been limiting Bitcoin’s upside outlook. The loose monetary policy, combined with the U.S. central bank’s near-zero interest rates, was instrumental in pumping Bitcoin’s price rally from below $4,000 in March 2020 to almost $65,000 by April 2021.

But despite the short-term setbacks, a flurry of key indicators revealed that investors still want exposure in the booming cryptocurrency space.

Institutional inflows

Crypto data tracking service CryptoCompare noted in its report that volumes associated with digital asset investment products rose 9.6% in September. Meanwhile, the weekly product inflows rose to $69.7 million, the highest since May 2021.

“Bitcoin-based products saw the highest level of inflows out of any asset, averaging $31.2 million per week,” CryptoCompare wrote, adding that “there could be upside going into the last quarter of 2021.”

Average weekly net inflow by asset for the month of September. Source: CryptoCompare

The 20-week EMA fractal

Technical indicators also pointed to a bullish session ahead for Bitcoin as it formed a base around $40,000 before the September close and reclaimed key resistance levels as interim support. That included the bias-defining 21-week exponential moving average (21-week EMA).

As Cointelegraph covered earlier, a drop below the 21-week EMA increased Bitcoin’s probability to continue falling by 78%. On Sept. 27, the cryptocurrency fell below the green wave (as shown in the chart below) but reclaimed it as support while entering the October session.

BTC/USD weekly price chart featuring 20-week EMA-focused bull runs. Source: TradingView

A move above the 20-week EMA, accompanied by rising volumes, has historically led to explosive Bitcoin bull runs. As a result, if the fractal repeats, the BTC price may head toward a new record high in the sessions ahead.

Bull pennant breakout

Another technical indicator that has been predicting a bullish outcome for Bitcoin is bull pennant.

Related: Analyst nails Bitcoin monthly close 2 months running — His October target is $63K

In detail, BTC’s price has been consolidating inside two converging trendlines following its 500%-plus rally.

Traditional analysts view these lateral moves as a sign of bullish continuation. In doing so, they anticipate that the price will break above the pattern’s upper trendline — and rise by as much as the length of the previous uptrend, called the flagpole.

Bitcoin weekly price chart featuring bull pennant structure. Source: TradingView

As a result, Bitcoin’s path of least resistance appears to be to the upside, with a potential breakout move looking to send its prices toward $100,000 (flagpole’s height is roughly $50,000).

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Bitcoin price eyes $50K as the US Dollar retreats after hitting its one-year high

Rising jobless claims in the U.S. sparked selloffs in the dollar market. On the other hand, Bitcoin held onto its intraday gains.

Bitcoin (BTC) looks to reclaim $45,000 on Oct. 1 as the U.S dollar retreated lower after hitting its one-year high. Bitcoin's tight inverse correlation with the greenback over the past month suggests that a weakening dollar could push BTC price even higher in the coming sessions. 

Bitcoin-dollar correlation on hourly chart. Source: TradingView.com

Dollar drops following labor market shock

In detail, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six foreign currencies, including euro and sterling, hit $94.50 Thursday for the first time since Sept. 28, 2020. But it retreated on news of rising U.S. jobless claims against the forecasts of a decline.

The labor data released Thursday showed that the number of jobless claims rose to 362,000 last week against 351,000 a week earlier and against the economists' projection of 333,000. As a result, the number of reapplications got stuck around 2.8 million for five weeks in a row.

For the markets, this could be the news that the Federal Reserve might delay tapering its $120 billion asset purchasing program from November to a later month, thus keeping interest rates lower and the dollar's renewed strength temporary.

DXY daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com

The index was trading at 94.263 at the time of this writing.

Technical outlook projects Bitcoin higher, dollar lower

Technicals also showed the greenback facing the prospect of a correction ahead. For example, independent market analyst TradingShot spotted the dollar index inside a Megaphone pattern, about to get topped out to pursue a correction in the coming sessions, as shown in the chart below.

US dollar index daily price chart featuring Megaphone technical setup. Source: TradingShot, TradingView.com

"Based on the 1D relative strength index (RSI), it appears that DXY is right at the top of the formation as [it was] on Aug 15, 2018," TradingShot wrote.

"DXY is building up a strong pull-back to the bottom of the Megaphone."

Meanwhile, a recent bout of selling in the Bitcoin market lately had it paint a Falling Wedge pattern. In detail, Falling Wedges appear when the price trends lower inside a channel comprising of two diverging, descending trendlines.

Traditional analysts see the Falling Wedge pattern as a bullish reversal indicator, noting that a break above its upper trendline moves the price higher by as much as the maximum distance between the Wedge's trendlines.

BTC/USD daily price chart featuring falling wedge setup. Source: TradingView.com

The structure's maximum height is roughly $10,000. As a result, the Bitcoin price can at least retest $50,000 should the Wedge breakout play out as intended.

A weaker dollar means stronger Bitcoin

On the other hand, the underwhelming jobs report could boost investors' interim appetite for Bitcoin. 

Related: Bitcoin’s sharp fall from $50K linked to stronger US dollar, gold — Correlation shows

Vasja Zupan, president of Matrix Exchange, told Cointelegraph that the dollar's weakness and devaluation against rising inflation would continue to make investors put their excess cash in crypto markets. He said:

"Bitcoin in its core proposition has an integrated hedge against inflation and therefore persistently higher inflation in the U.S. can only push it upwards. Therefore, in the long term, the dollar's worth will continue to be lesser than Bitcoin.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

DYDX gains 80% in a week — What’s driving the DEX token rally?

Traders raised their bids for the decentralized exchange token, believing it would benefit from China's decision to classify all crypto transactions as "illegal."

Decentralized exchange dYdX's native token DYDX surged by nearly 80% this week as traders assessed its potential against China's recent ban on crypto transactions.

The DYDX price hit a new high of $26.50 on the FTX exchange after trading at around $13 a week ago. The China ban was an apparent boost for the dYdX decentralized exchange (DEX) that offers perpetuals, margin and spot trading, as well as lending and borrowing services to its users.

Holding DYDX gives owners the right to propose and vote on changes to dYdX's layer 2 protocol. DYDX stakers receive rewards by depositing to the DEX's related liquidity staking pools. Users also benefit by receiving a discount on trading fees that are based on the size of their DYDX reserves.

DYDX distributed—or airdropped—DYDX tokens among its users based on their activity on its DEX platform. The lowest tier, which had traded as minimal an amount as $1 on the exchange, received 310 DYDX. Meanwhile, those who traded more than a million-dollar worth of digital assets on dYdX received 9,529 tokens.

As a result, many traders who held onto their free DYDX tokens earned more than $245,000 in profits as the cryptocurrency reached its record high of $26.50 Wednesday. One of the traders—who received DYDX by having more than one account on dYdX—made about $900,000.

While the price per token corrected by more than 10% later, its daily returns were still positive, showing traders' intent to speculate more on DYDX's bullish bias in the sessions ahead.

China FUD attracts new users

One of the primary reasons behind their bullish bias was China. The People's Bank of China released a notification on Sept. 24 that banned all kinds of crypto-related transactions. In response, crypto assets fell, including top assets Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

But among the worst-hit cryptocurrencies were Huobi Token (HT) and OKB, natives tokens of China-focused centralized exchanges, Huobi and OKEx, respectively. While the HT price lost 52.64% two days after the PBoC's announcement, the OKB price dropped by as much as 43.87% in the same period.

OKB/USD and HT/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com

The tokens fell as Huobi and OKEx closed their over-the-counter operations in China and stopped accepting Chinese users on their platform.

On the other hand, dYdX volumes boomed to record highs, raising anticipations that China-based traders are moving their activities to exchanges that have no central intermediaries and that do not practice Know-Your-Customer, or KYC, procedures.

dYdX trading volume (in dollars). Source: Token Terminal

As of Monday, dYdX facilitated over $4.3 billion worth of trades, compared to Coinbase’s $3.7 billion. 

DYDX/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com

Technical outlook

DYDX price has the potential for more upside, based on a supportive technical indicator.

Dubbed as Bull Flag, the bullish continuation pattern emerges when an asset consolidates lower inside a descending channel following a strong upside move. In doing so, it attempts to break bullish out of the downside structure.

Related: DeFi farmers boast about gaming dYdX airdrop as prices surge

When it does, the price tends to rise with length equal to the scale of the previous uptrend. So it appears, DYDX ticks all the boxes when it comes to forming a Bull Flag on its 15-minute chart, as shown below. 

DYDX/USD 15-minute price chart. Source: TradingView.com

As a result, DYDX now now eyes a run-up towards or above $27.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Here’s why Bitcoin mining stocks have been outperforming BTC price in 2021

One of the crypto mining stocks delivered more than 1,600% returns year-over-year (YoY) while Bitcoin's gains in the same period came out to be around 290%.

Bitcoin (BTC) might have outperformed traditional financial markets regarding investment returns, but the cryptocurrency still fell behind Bitcoin-related companies.

The price of BTC climbed by about 290% year-over-year, wherein it surged from $10,695 to a little over $42,000. In comparison, shares of Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), one of the largest North American crypto mining companies, rose by 1,641% in the same period.

MARA stock weekly price chart. Source: TradingView.com

Institutions-led pump

More crypto mining firms outran spot BTC prices in terms of YoY returns. For instance, Canada-based Bitfarms (BITF) surged 1,736%, while Hut 8 Mining (HUT) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) rallied by 1,010% and 913% in a year.

The performance of spot Bitcoin versus crypto-focused stocks in a year. Source: Ecoinometrics

Nick, the founder of Ecoinometrics, a crypto-focused newsletter service, called mining stocks an "obvious pick," noting that they gave institutional investors indirect exposure to Bitcoin markets. 

"I bet a lot of institutional investors haven't yet dipped their toes in trading spot BTC, mostly for compliance reasons," the analyst explained in an article published Sept. 27, adding:

"It is a bit like the gold miners when back in the days it was complicated to get your hands on physical gold. So the play for these guys has probably been, stay away from spot but trade the stocks."

The statements surfaced as Morgan Stanley reported in its securities filings that it had more than doubled its exposure in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a traditional investment vehicle for digital asset investors.

In detail, the Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund owned 58,116 shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, as of July 31.

In July, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest also purchased more than 450,000 GBTC shares worth about $1.4 million. In line with mining stock performances, these investments showed an increase in institutional appetite for crypto-focused yet traditional investment products.

Nick added that investors would keep adding their capital into crypto mining stocks as long as they don't see a viable alternative, such as an exchange-traded fund in the U.S.

Scaling and hodling

Demand for mining stocks grows higher as a majority of firms focus on two important prospects: scaling and holding.

For instance, Marathon reported in its non-audited August report that it had received 21,584 top-tier Bitcoin mining ASIC machines from Bitmain in 2021, adding that it is due to get 5,916 more currently in transit. As a result, the company expects to run at least 133,000 Bitcoin mining machines by the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, Marathon noted that it now holds 6,695 BTC, including the 4,812.66 BTC it purchased in Jan 2021. As a result, the fair market value of Marathon’s current bitcoin holdings is now around $333.4 million, giving the firm adequate capital to scale up its productions in the future. 

Similarly, Riot Blockchain's August report showed a 451% increase in its Bitcoin mining capacity on a year-over-year basis, helped by its fleet of 22,050 miners, with a hash rate capacity of 2.2 exahash per second (EH/s). The firm mined 441 BTC in Aug 2021.

Related: Miners have accumulated $600M worth of Bitcoin since Feb

Riot noted that it plans to have 25,650 Bitmain machines in operation by early September. It is currently building a new mining facility in Texas.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Bearish Bitcoin fractal with 78% success rate flashes as BTC drops below $43.5K

The flagship cryptocurrency closed the previous week below its 21-week exponential moving average for the 19th time in history, triggering additional selloff risks.

Last week's drop in Bitcoin (BTC) that saw BTC price falling from $47,358 to $43,178 has sparked fears of an extended selloff.

Independent market analyst Nunya Bizniz highlighted a bearish fractal on Bitcoin's weekly charts concerning its 21-week exponential moving average (EMA).

In detail, the cryptocurrency has closed below the said support zone 18 times to date but retained its previous bullish bias only four times out of all—as shown by the dotted vertical lines in the chart below.

BTC/USD daily price chart featuring its 21-week EMA. Source: Nunya Bizniz, TradingView.com

In the remaining cases, a close below the 21-week EMA led Bitcoin prices extremely lower, barring a fake bearish breakout in August 2015 that soon resulted in a "tremendous bull run," as the analyst noted.

Similarly, Bitcoin's recent break below the wave in May 2021 also crashed prices below $30,000 for the first time since Jan 2021. Nevertheless, the crossover did not result in a full-fledged bearish breakdown; traders bought the dip near $30,000 and led the prices back above $50,000.

But overall, the phenomenon of Bitcoin prices breaking below 21-week EMA caused extended selloff almost 78% of all times.

Bitcoin slips below 21-week EMA, again

Bitcoin closed the week ending on Sept. 26 at $43,178, alerting about its 19th historical decline below the 21-week EMA—which was around $43,502 at the weekly close.

While the fractals envisioned a downside outcome, a close look at the relationship between the 21-week EMA and 50-week simple moving average (SMA)—as shown in the chart below—noted that a potential bearish outlook would need further validation.

That is primarily because of traders' immediate reaction to the two moving averages, especially when the 20-week EMA (the green wave) closes below the 50-week SMA (the blue wave). The so-called Death Cross indicator has previously coincided with further declines in the Bitcoin market. 

Bitcoin price weekly chart featuring 20-50-MA death cross. Source: TradingView.com

For instance, the BTC/USD exchange rate slipped below its 21-week EMA (~$8,041) in the week ending on Jan. 29, 2018, but retained its upside bias until the green wave closed below the blue one. Later, the pair bottomed out near its 200-week SMA (near $3,187).

Similarly, the 20-50 MA death cross in March 2020 came only a week ahead of the infamous Covid-19 selloff, led by the Covid-19 led global market crash. Again, Bitcoin ended up closing near its 200-week SMA (~$5,512), only to bounce back toward new record highs in the sessions later.

Related: JPMorgan CEO says Bitcoin price could rise 10x but still won’t buy it

Therefore, it appears that Bitcoin's potential death cross between its 20-week EMA and 50-week SMA could trigger the next selloff crisis with the ultimate downside target sitting near the 200-week SMA (around $16,000).

At the same time, the Fibonacci retracement levels near $34,712 and $27,580 could keep the Bitcoin prices from getting toward the 200-week SMA. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Bitcoin extends slide below $43K as Binance’s BTC stash grows to May-crash levels

Bitcoin has been leaving Coinbase’s wallets in 2021, while BTC exchange reserves on Binance tell a different story.

Despite Bitcoin (BTC) dropping below the $43,000 mark on Monday, the outflow of BTC from exchanges has continued in a multi-month trend, particularly on Coinbase Pro. 

BTC/USD 4-hour candle chart, Coinbase. Source: TradingView

Over the past month, the amount of Bitcoin held in Coinbase Pro’s vaults dropped by 28,843.87 BTC. Similarly, other crypto exchanges, including Kraken, OKEx, Bitfinex and Huobi, also experienced a drop in their Bitcoin holdings, with the withdrawn amount totaling 30,236 BTC across the board.

Bitcoin balance on Coinbase Pro. Source: Bybt

On-chain analysts perceive falling Bitcoin reserves as a bullish signal.

That is primarily because most traders move their BTC assets to exchanges only when they prefer to trade them for other assets — be it fiat currencies or altcoins. As a result, the exchange balance serves as a metric to gauge traders’ sentiments for the underlying asset.

As a result, Coinbase Pro’s declining Bitcoin reserves hint at its traders’ intention to hold BTC instead of selling it. But, at the same time, its top rival, Binance, has been playing a spoilsport. 

Binance BTC reserves buck the trend

However, data also shows that the Bitcoin balance in Binance wallets has risen to 29,717 BTC in the last 30 days, which is more than the amount Coinbase Pro withdrew from its vaults.

Bitcoin balance on Binance. Source: Bybt

As the world’s leading crypto exchange by volume, Binance enjoys a certain influence on the market due to its global outreach. The exchange’s rising Bitcoin balances suggest that its users could sell an increasing amount of BTC, the opposite of the trend seen on Coinbase.

The increase in Bitcoin reserves on Binance also reached levels that followed up with the market sell-offs during the second quarter of 2021. Notably, the Bitcoin balance on the exchange spiked from 199,700 BTC on April 20 to 347,590 BTC on June 26.

Bitcoin balance on Binance between April 20 and June 26. Source: Bybt

The same period saw BTC/USD drop from around $65,000 to below $30,000, including the notorious May 19 crash when Bitcoin plunged by more than 30%.

Bitcoin trading at $300 premium on Binance

The massive spike in Bitcoin reserves on Binance also coincided with premium BTC/USD bids on the exchange, with the BTC spot price being almost $400 higher on Binance than on Coinbase.

Bitcoin prices on Binance vs. Coinbase. Source: TradingView

The vast price difference created arbitrage trading opportunities, coinciding with Binance’s Bitcoin reserves adding 1,529 BTC in the previous 24 hours compared to Coinbase that processed withdrawals of 579 BTC.

Related: Does Evergrande’s $300B debt crisis pose systemic risk to the crypto industry?

As a reminder, exchanges still processed more than 30,000 BTC in withdrawals in the past 30 days, signaling that traders overall wanted to hold their crypto rather than sell it for other assets.

But given Binance’s trading volumes (~$24 billion) in the previous 24 hours were six times higher than Coinbase Pro’s (~$4.23 billion) at press time — as per data collected from CoinMarketCap — the probability of an interim Bitcoin price drop appeared high.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Bitcoin ‘heavy breakout’ fractal suggests BTC price can hit $250-$350K in 2021

The analogy appeared in anticipation that Bitcoin could post a 2017-like bull run, in which the price rose by more than 1,900%.

Bitcoin (BTC) has the potential to push its prices to between $250,000 and $350,000 by the end of 2021, a long-standing fractal suggests.

First spotted by pseudonymous analyst Bit Harington, the bullish setup drew its inspirations from Bitcoin's secular bull runs every time after halvings when the miner block reward gets cut in half. Analysts perceive the halving as a bullish event, which reduced the supply of newly mined BTC. 

Harington reminded that Bitcoin's prices surged by more than 600% after the first two halving events in 2012 and 2016 when measured from a so-called resistance/support (R/S) line, as shown in the chart below.

Bitcoin price performance after the first two halving events. Source: BuyBitcoinWorldWide, PlanB, and Bit Harington

The line represented a barrier during the period of price uptrend. Traders tested it for a breakout multiple times before successfully breaching it to log a new record high. When prices started correcting, they eventually bottomed out near the same line.

In 2020-2021, Bitcoin underwent a similar upside trajectory, bouncing from below $4,000 to rising to above $60,000. Again, Harington highlighted the $60,000-level as the same R/S line that kept trades from logging a clear bullish breakout.

The analyst hinted that Bitcoin would break above it to soar towards a new record price level.

Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe reacted to Harington's fractal theory, adding that it would lead the Bitcoin prices to the $250,000-$350,000 range.

He noted, however, that the massive run-up could also prompt a brutal correction that can push Bitcoin prices back toward $65,000, right near the Harington's S/R level of $60,000.

Do fundamentals agree?

Bitcoin skyrocketed after crashing below $4,000 in March 2020 primarily due to the global central banks' loose monetary policies to curb the economic aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The cryptocurrency closed the year at around $30,000, as retail and institutional investors woke up to its safe-haven narrative against a falling U.S. dollar and rising inflation fears.

So far in 2021, the price of Bitcoin topped around $65,000 before correcting lower below $50,000. At its year-to-date (YTD) low, the pair traded for $29,301 on the Coinbase exchange. Its losses were led by a sudden ban on all crypto activities in China (including mining) and Elon Musk's alarming tweets over Bitcoin's booming carbon footprints.

Bitcoin price performance throughout the history. Source: TradingView.com

BTC balance on exchanges drops to fresh lows

The cryptocurrency held prices above $30,000 as its reserves across exchanges dropped significantly.

Blockchain data analytics service CryptoQuant reported that Bitcoin's balances across the crypto trading platforms slipped to around 2.37 million BTC last week, its lowest in more than a year.

Bitcoin reserves across all exchanges. Source: CryptoQuant

A decrease in Bitcoin reserves represents traders' intentions to hold the cryptocurrency instead of trading it for altcoins and fiat currencies.

Bitcoin hashrate has nearly recovered

Bitcoin's recovery from below $30,000 to almost $50,000 also coincided with its V-shaped hashrate recovery.

Related: BTC price falls back to $47K as weekly close neatly tracks Bitcoin futures gap

For the uninitiated, the Bitcoin network's computation power plunged to 84.79 million terahashes per second (TH/s) in early July from 180.66 million TH/s in late May. The drop surfaced as many miners responded to China's crypto crackdown by either shutting down their facilities or moving their operations abroad.

The seven-day average Bitcoin hashrate in recent history. Source: Blockchain.com

But the network recovered more than half of its lost hashrate, hitting 136.92 million TH/s on Sept. 18, indicating that China's direct ban did not have a prolonged effect on Bitcoin's mining sector. 

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Bitcoin jumps toward $49K amid fears 5%-plus inflation is here to stay

The rush to so-called safe-haven cryptocurrency appears despite concerns that the Federal Reserve would taper its $120 billion a month asset purchasing program.

Bitcoin (BTC) inched higher on Sept. 18 as the focus shifted to the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) policy meeting in the wake of lower inflation numbers last Tuesday.

The BTC/USD exchange rate approached $49,000 on the Coinbase exchange, hitting $48,825 before turning lower on interim profit-taking sentiment. Nonetheless, the move uphill raised expectations that the pair would hit $50,000, a psychological resistance target, in the coming sessions.

Inflation fears boost Bitcoin demand

The Bitcoin markets received a boost from fears of persistently higher inflation, despite a softer consumer price index (CPI) report released on Sept. 13.

Data showed that the U.S. CPI rose 5.3% year-over-year in August, compared to 5.4% in the previous month. The market received mixed reactions to these numbers, with some cheering that core inflation came out lower than expectations while others pointing that inflation was still at ridiculously high levels —with 5.3% being one of the highest numbers in more than a decade for CPI.

"I like to look at inflation data in a median sense (so rather than having one crazy category drive it all, we look at the center of the distribution, across 82 categories, equally weighted)," said Jens Nordvig, the founder of data analytics firm Exante Data. He added:

"On [median] metric, [inflation] number was not low."

More bullish cues for Bitcoin appeared as TD Securities analysts noted the Federal Reserve might delay the planned tapering of its $120 billion monthly asset purchase policy after the softer-than-expected inflation report.

Additionally, Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano, Partner at Pomp Investments, warned that a sustained 5% inflation would have Americans watch their savings evaporate.

"The only way to protect yourself in this environment is to make sure you are invested," Pomp said in a note to clients.

"The more invested in markets, regardless of whether it is equities, real estate, crypto, etc., the better off you will be."

Dollar goes up in tandem

As it happened, the BTC/USD exchange rate jumped 4.85% on the day of the inflation data release.

The pair moved up another 2.17% on Wednesday, with its prices closing above $48,000. Its prices started consolidating sideways in the next two sessions, only to move further towards $49,000 on Saturday.

Surprisingly, the US dollar index (DXY) also moved higher like Bitcoin, iterating that macro investors shifted the capital to assets they deemed as their safe-haven following the inflation report. The index, which measures the dollar against a basket of top foreign currencies, surged 0.41% on Friday to 93.246, its highest level in September.

Bitcoin and the US dollar index rise following mixed inflation outlook. Source: TradingView.com

More cues for Bitcoin and the dollar markets should be expected from next week's FOMC meeting.

Related: Bitcoin struggles at $40K after ‘most confusing’ Jerome Powell press conference

The Fed officials agree that they would start unwinding their loose monetary policies by the end of this year. But the nonfarm payroll (NFP) report earlier this month showed that the U.S. labor market had not recovered fully.

That would prompt the Fed to hold its tapering plans, and any further delay could entail both Bitcoin strength and dollar-weakness.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin treasury exceeds cash held by 80% of S&P 500 non-financial companies

The Nasdaq-listed company recently announced it added another 5,050 Bitcoin to its coffers for about $242.9 million.

The value of MicroStrategy’s massive Bitcoin (BTC) holdings has surpassed what most S&P 500 companies hold in their cash treasuries.

The Nasdaq-listed enterprise software firm purchased an additional 5,050 Bitcoin for about $242.9 million, raising the value of its 114,042 BTC holdings to nearly $5.3 billion. That comes out to be higher than what 80% of non-financial S&P 500 companies hold in their cash coffers, as per data compiled by Bloomberg.

Cash spending up among corporations

MicroStrategy made buying Bitcoin its official corporate strategy in 2020, with its celebrated CEO, Michael Saylor, calling the move a defense against the U.S. dollar’s potential devaluation. Companies like Tesla and Square later copied the strategy to replace a portion of cash reserves with Bitcoin.

On the other hand, firms with lower risk appetites continued to increase their cash holdings. For instance, in the second quarter, non-financial companies on the S&P 500 boosted their treasuries by 12% from a year ago due to escalating uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cash holdings by non-financial S&P 500 companies in recent quarters. Source: Bloomberg

Some of those firms — including General Electric, Ford and Boeing — started spending the cash during the ongoing third quarter. For instance, in July, non-financial S&P 500 companies slashed their dollar reserves by $30 billion, or 2%, from a year ago.

At the same time, companies like Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) were still amassing cash but did little to change overall dollar spending. The total cash stockpiles held by United States corporations fell to $1.52 trillion from $1.55 trillion as they acquired new businesses, bought back shares and increased dividends, Bloomberg data reveals.

Overall, the declining cash holding trend shows that publicly traded companies have become more comfortable with spending their money, led by expectations that the COVID-19 pandemic is almost over.

MSTR gives de facto Bitcoin exposure

Shares of MicroStrategy have surged by almost 359% in the past 12 months, in lockstep with Bitcoin, whose value has surged by 314% in the same period.

Since MSTR appreciation has outpaced Bitcoin’s price growth, some analysts believe that owning shares gives investors easier exposure to the benchmark cryptocurrency market through traditional infrastructure.

MicroStrategy vs. Bitcoin vs. Nasdaq. Source: Ecoinometrics

“It’s no secret that MSTR is being valued above the NAV [net asset value] of coins currently owned, and I don’t think investors are buying it for the legacy business upside,” said analyst Kingdom Capital.

“The [clearest] reason I can see is it is one of the few companies with a large market capitalization in the BTC space.”

For instance, the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF, which manages $1.2 billion worth of investments, has gained 6.5% exposure in MSTR after snubbing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the leading Bitcoin investment vehicle in the U.S. that trades over-the-counter, which restricts it from receiving capital from certain funds and exchange-traded funds.

Similarly, the Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF has exposure to MSTR but holds no GBTC.

Related: MicroStrategy stock flips bullish with MSTR a Bitcoin ‘proxy’ for institutional investors

As a result, MicroStrategy stock and Bitcoin prices are expected to trend in sync, unless more crypto stocks become available. Kingdom Capital weighed in:

“There appear to be better vehicles available to investors for BTC equities, and as they become more widely accessible I expect some ETFs will reduce their MSTR exposure.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply

Uniswap (UNI) price jumps by 15% in DeFi, cryptocurrency market rebound

The jump in UNI/USD rates has quickly met with sellers at local top levels.

Uniswap (UNI) was among the best performers among the top-cap cryptocurrency tokens in the previous 24 hours, logging better gains than some top cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB).

On Sept. 15, the UNI/USD exchange rate jumped 13.26% to hit its seven-day high $25.68. Traders continued to bid higher on the pair entering Wednesday, pushing its value higher to $26.07 at one point in time, up more than 15% from the previous session's open of $22.66.

Market-wide recovery behind UNI gains?

A majority of Uniswap's gains in the previous 24 hours seems to have surfaced in the wake of a market-wide recovery.

For instance, the said timeframe witnessed Bitcoin, the benchmark cryptocurrency that enjoys heavy influence on the rest of the crypto tokens, climbed above $47,000 following a 4.85% upside move on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ethereum saw its native asset ETH rallying toward $3,500 in a 4.57% price jump.

Elsewhere in the crypto market, Binance Coin, XRP, Dogecoin, Luna, and Chainlink also rose. In contrast, smart contracts platform Solana's native asset SOL fell 6.47% following a denial-of-service disruption on its network.

At the same time, Cardano (ADA), one of Solana's top rivals, dropped by more than 1%.

The performance of the top 15 cryptocurrencies in the past 24 hours. Source: TradingView.com

At first, the gains among the top tokens, including Uniswap, looked to have been helped by capital rotations out of SOL and ADA markets.

In detail, Solana's market cap surged by more than 400% quarter-to-date following its foray into the booming nonfungible token (NFT) sector, providing traders a decent opportunity to lock interim profits. Additionally, the network outage accelerated the profit-taking scenario.

On the other hand, Cardano attracted speculation because of its Alonzo upgrade that made it a smart contracts platform for the first time since launch. In addition, it's 2,500% year-to-date performance gave traders adequate opportunities to "sell the news" and secure gains.

UNI holders are masters of 9.15M MIR tokens

Uniswap's superior performance in the previous 24 hours also took cues from speculation that holding UNI could grant them access to airdrop tokens.

In a recent note, Brendon Murray, content marketing manager at Boston-based blockchain analysis firm Flipside Crypto, cited Twitter user jr3225's research. The study cited many UNI holders failed to realize that they could claim 9.15 million of the synthetic asset platform Mirror Protocol's MIR tokens via a December 2020 airdrop.

In comparison, LUNA stakers could claim more free MIR tokens than UNI ones—MIR/USD has surged 200% this year.

Total MIR claimed on the y-axis, airdrop-type on the x-axis. Source: @jr3225

The report, published Tuesday, coincided with the UNI price pump.

Uniswap technical outlook 

Uniswap's latest rally had it test a support confluence made up of falling trendline resistance and the 38.2% Fib line (~$26.093) of a Fibonacci retracement graph (drawn from a $42.89-swing high to $15.70-swing low).

UNI/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView.com

Sellers took control near the confluence, prompting UNI/USD to correct by 4.59% to an intraday low of $24.50. Its next support target is—again—a confluence of 23.6% Fib line ($22.12) and the ascending trendline that overall constitutes a Rising Channel.

Related: Institutional investors dominated the DeFi scene in Q2: Chainalysis report

An interim bullish outlook entails UNI/USD breaking above $26.09 and step towards the next Fib levels ($29.30, $32.51, and so on) unless the pair reaches the Rising Channel's upper trendline near $42.89.

Meanwhile, a bearish setup could see UNI/USD break below $22.12 Fib line and the Channel support to target $15.70.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Massive $83,000,000,000 Pile of Gold Discovered in China – Here’s How Much It Will Increase Supply