Markets Weekly is a weekly column analyzing price movements in the global digital currency markets, and the technology’s use case as an asset class. Bitcoin spent most of the seven days ending 8th April fluctuating between $415 and $425 amid modest trading volume. These developments largely mirrored the previous week, with the exception of the fact bitcoin experienced weaker trading volume compared to the last several weeks.
Some market experts sought to explain bitcoin’s relative price stability by asserting that low volatility has sapped the interest of many traders. George Samman, a blockchain advisor and consultant, told CoinDesk that bitcoin’s volatility has fallen to its lowest since 2012, and that as a result, "volume has dried up" and lies far below both its 52-day and 52-week moving average.
"I still believe it’s the calm before the storm," he stated, adding that this is "pretty much a no trade zone."
Zane Tackett, director of community and product development at Bitfinex, struck a similar tone by telling CoinDesk that "there’s a lot of watching and waiting", and that as a result, "things are pretty calm."
He spoke to the major challenges facing bitcoin, stating that people are mostly "wondering how scaling will pan out" and "whether or not the SegWit soft-fork is deployed smoothly and on time".
Others pointed to seasonal factors. For example, many traders have been on holiday because of Easter in the West and the Qing Ming holiday in China, Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, told CoinDesk. Price movements
During the seven-day period through 8th April at 12:00 UTC, the price bitcoin climbed from $415.42 to $421.07, CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) data reveals.
This represents a modest increase of 1.4%. The digital currency did experience some notable fluctuations during the week, surging from $415.73 at 21:00 UTC on 1st April to […]
