Bitcoin
Bitcoinist Weekly News Re-Hash: Black Friday Bull Run, DDoS Menace
Evan Faggart | Nov 30, 2015 | 12:00
What started out as a boring week of market activity quickly turned into a significant bull rally. Going into Thursday, with the week winding down, the bulls took over the Bitcoin markets; bulls reared their horns again on Sunday, pushing the price close to $380. In total, we saw a 16.67% increase in the Bitcoin price this week.
Also read: Digital Currency is Slowly Winning The Popularity Contest
Daily Bitcoin Price Action
- November 23: $321.58
- November 24: $320.51
- November 25: $317.98
- November 26: $333.12
- November 27: $350.98
- November 28: $354.38
- November 29 Open: $354.96
- November 29 Close: $375.20
Total Change: +16.67%
The week started off on November 23 with the Bitcoin price at $321.58, continuing the trend of stability that persisted throughout the previous week. Much like the majority of last week, this Monday saw fairly flat market activity, with the price staying within the $320s for the vast majority of the day. During the nighttime hours, the price briefly dropped to $317, but quickly rebounded and closed the day in the $320s.
Tuesday, November 24 began at $320.51, hardly any change over the start of the previous day. Tuesday proved to be another relatively quiet day, with the Bitcoin price hovering in the $320s most of the time. Just like the previous day, the price slipped slightly during the evening, falling into the high $310s, where it finished out the day.
In the news, we reported on the latest development coming from BitPay, a popular bitcoin payment processing service. The company announced that it enabled support for the TREZOR hardware bitcoin wallet for Copay, BitPay’s multi-signature wallet.
Wednesday began with the Bitcoin price at $317.98. At 6 AM, the price jumped from $318 to $325, after which it embarked upon a modest climb. By the late afternoon, Bitcoin reached $330s territory, a range that persisted for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, we reported on a series of DDoS attacks made against the Kraken bitcoin exchange and other crypto-related domain names. Kraken took to Twitter and said that the attacker had attempted to extort them, demanding money to stop the attack; the exchange said, “Obviously not paying. Please bear with us.” In addition to Kraken, CoinTelegraph, Coindesk, NewsBTC, and CryptoCoinsNews (CCN) experienced DDoS attacks and experienced temporary downtime. CCN claimed that they had been extorted as well, saying that they received a threatening letter demanding 2 BTC to stop the DDos.
Thursday, November 26 kicked off at $333.12 still riding the gains achieved during the 25th. The markets took off during the early morning hours, bringing the Bitcoin price into the $350s, even peaking at $369.70 at 7 AM. After that peak, the rally tapered off; the day closed with the price hovering in the $350s.
A highly likely explanation for this rally is that excitement on the eve of Bitcoin Black Friday sent the price upwards. Bitcoin Black Friday puts a spin on the traditional Black Friday deals, with online merchants offering exclusive discounts to shoppers paying with bitcoin. This event has been popular in the Bitcoin community for a few years, and attracted some big names in retail during the 2014 event. Some popular names participating in this year’s event include Humble Bundle, Satoshi Labs, Ledger, and yours truly, Bitcoinist.net.
Friday started out at $350.98, a significant increase over the start of the previous day. And, with excitement about Bitcoin Black Friday reaching critical mass, the stage was set for a potential explosion in price. However, that did not turn out to be the case, and we saw a modest day of market activity. The Bitcoin price did hit $360 during the early morning hours, but that momentum quickly died and the day closed in the mid $350s.
Saturday the 28th saw a continuance of the $350s holding pattern. Market activity stayed flat, with the price hovering in the low-to-mid $350s range.
Sunday, November 29th, however, proved to be much different from the last two days. The day opened at $354.96, maintaining the pattern established on Friday and Saturday. That pattern did not hold long, though, because the price jumped to $365 at 6 AM, and rose rather aggressively for the rest of the day. Bitcoin reached $370 at 5 PM, and began flirting with $380 during nighttime hours. The day ended at $375.20, showing no signs of slowing down.
What will Happen to Bitcoin in the Coming Week?
This last minute bull run could possibly have a similar explanation to the rally we saw on Thursday. Just as the markets expressed excitement over Bitcoin Black Friday, it may be the case that Sunday’s explosion is simply a resumption of that excitement going into Cyber Monday, the last day of the Bitcoin Black Friday event. The lull in activity on Friday and Saturday could be due to people actually capitalizing on Bitcoin Black Friday deals and spending their coins. Thus, a final Black Friday push could very well be within the realm of possibility when trying to explain Sunday’s big rally.
If these gains really did come from Bitcoin Black Friday excitement, should we expect the price to go back down after Cyber Monday Concludes? I think that is a very real possibility, and would not be surprised if we saw the Bitcoin price return to levels that persisted before the Thursday rally. On the other hand, there may be more to this price increase than happy shoppers; this could be the start of another speculative surge, and the price may continue to rise to $400 and beyond, with Black Friday merely giving the speculators an extra bump.
What do you think will happen to Bitcoin in the coming week? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of BitPay and Bitcoin Black Friday.
