Bitcoin experienced common symptoms of what I would like to call market manipulation: sudden rise of value followed by a steady decrease in price, punctuated with a sudden and sharp decrease in price.
Also Read: Last Week’s Market Wrap Up
If nothing else from this article sticks, just know that this week in Bitcoin that the price fluctuated from the low $220s, rising all the way up to $240, where it then decreased and hit a floor at $216. As of press time, the price is currently hovering at $219.79. However, the chances of price staying here look slim.
Judging by chatter on social media, it seems that the massive selling patterns were sparked when LocalBitcoins, a popular Bitcoin trading site, went offline. According to this Reddit post:
“All withdrawals got stuck in limbo, did not appear in the block chain, and returned an invalid password error on their site. Minutes beforehand a lump $200,000 transfer had been made out of one of LBC wallets.”
The dumping continued shortly after the price rebounded when LBC went back online. This was around the time many people were starting to wake up, and were unaware of the issues LBC experienced the night before, thus bringing about more panic selling.
Volume never spiked either, staying below $25 million for most of the time. Volume is $23.3 million as of press time.
I find the market patterns odd as Bitcoin received some very good PR with Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential candidate, vouching for Bitcoin at a NY fundraiser event. Additionally, Liberland, a new country formed in Europe, announced that it will use Bitcoin and other digital currencies extensively, opting against establishing an official currency.
Altcoin Market Analysis
The majority of the altcoins took a hit as well. DASH managed to break this trend, coming through this week with a 8.12% increase in price. Not taking DASH into consideration, only the top 100 altcoins with less than a $10,000 USD volume received any tangible market increases.
ZiftrCOIN, despite its low volume of $770, managed to increase by nearly 112% in 24 hours. There are a number of possible reasons behind this massive price increase. Maybe it’s their new Ziftrpay program they are rolling out, or their partnership with Clef for cryptographic two-factor authentication.
Like I’ve previously stated, Bitcoin hasn’t been performing very well when you look at its face value. However, I find that such conditions strengthen Bitcoin’s tight-knit community of users; it seems that the lower price goes, the more determined people become to improve Bitcoin.
How do you feel about this week’s market activity? Did you see the bitcoin drop it coming, or were you taken by surprise? Let us know in the comments below!
This author’s views are not necessarily those of Bitcoinist.net
Photo Sources: CMC, Bitcoin Charts
