Bitcoin’s (BTC) price continued its downtrend Wednesday ahead of the testimony from United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The spot BTC/USD exchange rate fell to its 17-day low of $31,600 following a 3.46% intraday dip. Meanwhile, CME futures tied to the pair plunged 3.41% to $31,515, extending their week-to-date losses to 9.5%.
Three provinces in China have joined a growing list of jurisdictions in the country that have ordered a halt to crypto mining amid a nationwide crackdown on the industry. Heifi Online, a Chinese state-owned website in Anhui, reported Wednesday that the province will “clean up and shut down” crypto mines to avoid an imminent power shortage. Also on Wednesday, Chinese journalist Colin Wu reported that the provincial departments of China’s State Grid Corp. in Henan and Gansu will shutter local mining industries in those provinces.
Bitcoin mining is currently in a unique state of flux — around half of the hashing power is offline as miners relocate from China, and it remains unknown how quickly they will be able to come back online. At the same time, those miners unaffected by the Chinese rout have seen half their competitors disappear overnight, and profitability has gone up as a result.
The cryptocurrency saw big moves in December and April after the Bollinger bandwidth fell to 0.15, however Bitcoin may soon move out of its seven-week trading range of $30,000 to $40,000, with an indicator tracking the cyclical nature of price volatility suggesting a big move is overdue.
Bitcoin traded lower as investors unpacked Wednesday’s announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it could raise interest rates by late 2023. Assets deemed to be risky like stocks and crypto also appear to be weighed down by lingering concerns that the Fed may wind down its bond-buying program sooner than expected. Some analysts, however, expect bitcoin to remain resilient if inflation continues to rise, which could lead to outperformance versus traditional markets.
A new study by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority has indicated a significant increase in cryptocurrency ownership in the country. On Thursday, the FCA published the results of a consumer survey which found that 2.3 million adults in the U.K. now hold crypto assets, up from 1.9 million last year. Alongside the increasing number of crypto investors, the study also identified a surge in ownership volumes, with median holdings rising to 300 British pounds ($420) from 260 pounds ($370) in 2020. The rising popularity of holding cryptocurrency comes in line with an uptick in the awareness level as 78% of adults said they have heard of crypto, up from 73% last year.
Bitcoin surged past $40,000 for the first time in two weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car maker would accept the cryptocurrency as an alternative payment subject to miners meeting environmental standards. Buyers stepped in on Sunday after Musk tweeted that Tesla will allow bitcoin transactions again “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (50%) clean energy usage by miners with a positive future trend.”
El Salvador is looking to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar. In a video broadcast to Bitcoin 2021, a multiday conference in Miami being billed as the biggest bitcoin event in history, President Nayib Bukele announced El Salvador’s partnership with digital wallet company, Strike, to build the country’s modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. “Next week I will send to congress a bill that will make bitcoin a legal tender,” said Bukele.
Bitcoin (BTC) plunged by more than 5% after touching the $40,000 level. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted the lyrics of “In the End,” a chart-topping song by rock band Linkin Park, attached with the Bitcoin hashtag and a broken heart emoji. However, these shocking waves have engulfed the BTC market recently, did not lowering crypto whales’ spirits to accumulate more Bitcoin, as acknowledged by Santiment. Furthermore, on-chain analyst William Clemente III recently revealed that BTC supply was getting back to long-term holders, which depicted a bullish sign.
On Wednesday, crews were putting the final touches on the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, the world’s largest-ever crypto-currency conference to be held this weekend at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood. “We could not be happier. Happier that organizers of the Bitcoin 2021 Conference have chosen the city of Miami”, said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who held a virtual international crypto conference Wednesday morning.
