Bitcoin Prices Volatile in $600s As Traders Await Halving

By July 8, 2016Bitcoin Business

Bitcoin prices experienced moderate volatility during the week ending 8th July as market participants took action ahead of the upcoming halving of bitcoin rewards, scheduled to happen on or around 9th July.

As the decline in new bitcoins minted daily is programmed into the network, the broader bitcoin community has known about this event for years, and many are eagerly watching or even wagering on the outcome. Perhaps because of this, market momentum coming into the week was high.

After opening at $672.48 on 1st July, bitcoin prices quickly surpassed $700, breaching this level on 2nd July and reaching a weekly high of $704.42 at 12:00 UTC on 3rd July, according to CoinDesk’s USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

This rally represented "a natural market response as eager buyers saw an opportunity to buy bitcoin on the cheap before the halving," explained Peter Zivkovski, director of operations for bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub .

This situation "fueled massively bullish market sentiment," a statement which he backed up using Whaleclub data. According to these figures, total position volume was 92% and 88% long on 1st and 2nd July, respectively.

In spite of this strong sentiment, bitcoin failed to stay above $700 for long, plunging to a low of $648.05 at 16:45 UTC on 3rd July, additional BPI data reveals.

The digital currency was unable to stay at $700 because once it reached this level, "sellers come out of the woodwork" to find buyers, according to investor and entrepreneur Vinny Lingham.

Zivkovski provided similar insight into the digital currency’s decline, stating that its price "failed to make new highs above $700 despite multiple attempts", a development that he said drove prices down and cleared "weakly held and over leveraged longs". Market correction The digital currency managed to recover from this sharp decline, rising to a high of $679.92 at 01:45 […]

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