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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.

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  • Bollinger bandwidth, a measure of volatility calculated by dividing the spread between the Bollinger bands by the 20-day average of the cryptocurrency’s price, has declined to a 2 1/2-month low of 0.15.
  • The cryptocurrency saw big moves in December and April after the bandwidth fell to 0.15.
  • Bollinger bands are volatility bands placed two standard deviations either side of the 20-day average of price.
  • Bitcoin dropped from $60,000 to $48,000 after the Bollinger bandwidth dipped to 0.15 in mid-April.
  • A similar reading in December paved the way for a bullish breakout from the multi-week price consolidation below $20,000.
  • The cryptocurrency saw big moves during the 2017 bull run each time the bandwidth narrowed to 0.15.
  • Moves signaled by Bollinger bandwidth are direction-agnostic, as history shows. It means the anticipated change can be bullish or bearish.
  • The forthcoming Grayscale unlockings and blockchain data pointing to renewed buying by wealthy investors indicate that this time the move is likely to be bullish.
  • The upside is expected to gather steam above the 50-day moving average (MA) resistance, currently at $36,000.
  • We expect buyers to step in above the 50-day MA, Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, said in a weekly research note published Monday. A breakout above the 50-day MA would indicate a test of $44,000-$45,000 resistance.
  • A move below $30,000 could bring deeper losses, she said, indicating that is a less likely outcome.
  • While concerns of an early scaling back of stimulus by the Federal Reserve pose a downside risk, the minutes of the Fed’s June meeting scheduled for release at 18:00 UTC Wednesday are unlikely to be as hawkish as the June policy statement.
  • Between weaker U.S. data and the Fed’s desire to temper hawkish bets, the Fed minutes could sound more cautious and balanced than the FOMC statement and Fed projections, BK Asset Management’s Kathy Lien said, according to FXStreet.
  • According to some analysts, bitcoin digested most of the negative news during the mid-May sell-off from $58,000 to $30,000. As such, the downside, if any, appears limited.
  • Bitcoin is trading near $34,700 at press time, representing a 1.6% gain on the day, CoinDesk 20 data shows.

Also read: Leveraged Funds on CME Trim Bets Against Bitcoin

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Active bitcoin miners may see their profitability double following the 28% downward difficulty adjustment in mining on July 3, according to several mining sites. 

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The North American hash spread – an index invented by digital asset financial services platform BitOoda to measure the difference between bitcoin mining revenue per megawatt-hour and the cost of the needed power – has almost doubled to $449 from $225. 

“Mining economics have improved significantly,” Sam Doctor, chief strategy officer at BitOoda, wrote Monday in a newsletter.

Such projections follow the record downward adjustment in the Bitcoin blockchain’s mining difficulty. The adjustment process, which was coded into the network’s original programming, is designed to stabilize the blockchain by incentivizing miners back to the network whenever there’s a significant drop in the hashrate, which is the amount of computational activity working to secure data and finalize transactions.

China’s recent crackdown on the crypto industry forced many miners to shut down, cutting the total hash power by more than half from record levels earlier this year. The seven-day average hashrate fell to 84.3 exahashes per second on Friday, before the difficulty reset, the lowest since September 2019. But it has since jumped back to about 90.7 exahashes per second, according to Glassnode.

Miners may see similar profitability levels as in April, when bitcoin was trading at nearly double its current level, according to an analysis by Glassnode. While prices are much lower now, fewer miners are splitting the revenue. 

Meanwhile, as some Chinese miners have been selling their mining computers or “rigs” at discounts, prices for the machines have dropped. According to Luxor Mining, newer and next-generation rigs have lost 32% of resale value, while the oldest machines saw price declines of 36%.

Remaining miners will continue to see profitability boosts, until the infrastructure catches up, according to industry experts. 

“It’s become both easier and more profitable to mine bitcoin,” said Nick Spanos, co-founder of Zap Protocol, an infrastructure provider for decentralized apps. “That’s a recipe for enticing more miners back in.”

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Bitcoin’s weekend ascent has run out of steam even though blockchain data and weakness in the U.S. dollar indicate the path of least resistance is to the higher side.

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The top cryptocurrency by market value is trading near $34,200 at press time, representing a 3% drop on the day, CoinDesk 20 data show.

The pullback has reversed a significant chunk of the bounce from $32,700 to $36,000 seen in the past three days. It comes amid a decline in the number of coins held on exchanges, a bullish development.

Balance held on centralized exchanges fell to 2.577 million BTC (+1.27%) on Sunday, hitting the lowest level since May 16, according to data tracked by Glassnode.

The tally has dropped by more than 25,000 BTC in two weeks, meaning fewer bitcoins are now available for sale compared with the second half of June. Investors typically take direct custody of their bitcoins when expecting a price rise or aiming to generate an extra yield by tokenizing the cryptocurrency on Ethereum’s blockchain.

Furthermore, that’s not the only sign wealthy investors are stepping up their bargain hunting. So the odds appear stacked in favor of bulls – especially as the dollar is trading weak in the currency markets despite Friday’s upbeat U.S. employment data.

Bitcoin has mostly moved in the opposite direction to the dollar index (DXY) since the Federal Reserve surprised markets with its early interest-rate hike forecast on June 16. Rate increases make fiat currencies attractive and dilute the appeal of inflation hedges like bitcoin and gold.

The DXY, which tracks the greenback’s value against major currencies, is currently at 92.14, down 0.6% from Friday’s four-month high of 92.74, according to TradingView data.

The greenback may suffer a more profound drop if the minutes of the Fed’s June meeting, scheduled for release later this week, downplay rate-hike prospects.

“Given that the individual forecasts of Federal Reserve officials were not discussed at last month’s FOMC meeting, and Chair Powell played them down, it ought not to be surprising if the minutes were not as hawkish as the [interest rate] dots,” Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, said in a blog post published on Sunday.

Also read: Investors Cashing Out of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Might Bring Market Boost

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Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, -5.81%).

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  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
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Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, -5.1%).

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  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
  • During a Friday public appearance, President Biden said that he’d ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the attack and he would take measures if Russia was behind it.
Read More

Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, -4.47%).

0
  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
  • During a Friday public appearance, President Biden said that he’d ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the attack and he would take measures if Russia was behind it.
Read More

Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, +1.23%).

0
  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
  • During a Friday public appearance, President Biden said that he’d ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the attack and he would take measures if Russia was behind it.
Read More

Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, +1.99%).

0
  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
  • During a Friday public appearance, President Biden said that he’d ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the attack and he would take measures if Russia was behind it.
Read More

Ransomware hacking group REvil brought the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies to their knees on Friday and is now demanding $70 million in bitcoin (BTC, -2.47%).

0
  • Australia’s ABC News reported on Saturday REvil had targeted software supplier Kaseya and used its network-management package to spread the ransomware via the cloud.
  • Over 1 million machines are said to be infected according to various other reports.
  • The Russian-based ransomware group is now demanding the bitcoin in exchange for a decrypter for the infected machines.
  • On Friday we launched an attack on [managed service providers], a post from the dark web site Happy Blog reads. More than a million systems were infected.
  • In May, REvil attacked Colonial Pipeline and managed to get the company to pay a $5 million ransom after its functionality and services were restricted, sparking a gas crisis in the U.S.
  • JBS Holdings, the world’s largest meat company by sales, also paid an $11 million ransom in a May 30 attack against it by the same group.
Read More

Wealthy investors look to be making a comeback into the bitcoin (BTC, -2.43%) market, a blockchain metric that warned of a price drop in early May shows.

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  • The number of coins held by whale entities – clusters of addresses controlled by a single network participant holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC – rose by over 80,000 to 4.216 million BTC on Friday, hitting the highest level since May.
  • The tally remained largely unchanged on Saturday, according to data provided by Glassnode.
  • The number of whale entities has also jumped to a three-week high of 1,922.
  • The renewed accumulation by whale entities is good news for the market, as these wealthy investors played a significant role in powering bitcoin higher from $10,000 to nearly $60,000 during the five months to February 2021.
  • The balance held by whale entities rose in tandem with the price during the bull run, hitting a record high of 4.542 million on Feb. 8.
  • Whales became sellers in the subsequent months, taking the wind out of the bull run, and by early May, their bitcoin stash had dropped by 8% to 4.17 million BTC.
  • Bitcoin mostly remained coiled in the range of $50,000 to $60,000 during that period, barring a brief spike to a record high of $64,801 in mid-April.
  • The price action highlighted the inability of smaller investors to do the heavy lifting and signaled the potential for a notable price correction. Bitcoin fell by 35% in May, hitting lows near $30,000, and dipped further to $29,031 in June, per CoinDesk 20 data.
  • The latest uptick in the whale balance suggests the bottom may have been reached.
  • The cryptocurrency is trading near $35,500 at press time, representing a 2.3% gain on the day.
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