Over $145 million in shorts against bitcoin prices were liquidated since early Asian morning hours on Tuesday.

Strength in bitcoin (BTC) pushed the asset over the crucial $30,000 level for the first time since June 2022, causing heavy losses to traders betting on a decline.

Over 87% of all future trades that were liquidated in the past 24 hours were short, or bets against a rise in prices. Losses from these trades amounted to some $145 million in the process. Crypto exchange Huobi saw over $45 million in liquidations on its platform, followed by counterparts Binance and OKX at $35 million each.

The largest single liquidation order happened on Huobi, a bitcoin/tether trade valued at $11 million.

Liquidation refers to when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. It happens when a trader is unable to meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).

Large liquidations can signal the local top or bottom of a steep price move, which may allow traders to position themselves accordingly.

Recent strength in bitcoin can likely be attributed to worsening economic conditions which may lead to the adoption of a decentralized asset among investors, some opine.

“Bitcoin has effectively decoupled from the traditional markets since the start of the year, up over 80% while stocks have slumped,” said Alex Adelman, CEO of bitcoin rewards app Lolli, in an email to CoinDesk. “Bitcoin’s strength compared to the traditional markets shows that investors are increasingly shifting their capital into bitcoin, choosing it instead of traditional investments to build their wealth.”

“The fact that today’s rally did not have a clear catalyst is a bellwether of bitcoin’s newly bullish market conditions and strong investor confidence. Bitcoin’s ongoing strength suggests that bitcoin is emerging from the so-called ‘crypto winter’ into a new phase of strength and renewed interest from retail and institutional investors,” Adelman added.

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A notification from Apple says that Damus ‘includes content that is illegal in China.’

Damus, a Twitter alternative backed by Jack Dorsey that integrates the Bitcoin Lightning Network, has been banned from Apple’s China App Store, according to a tweet by Damus.

According to a notification from Apple received from CAC, the Cyberspace Administration of China deemed the app “includes content that is illegal in China” because its an “Information Services with Attribute of Public Opinions or Capable of Social Mobilization.”

Damus, the app, lives on top of Nostr, a decentralized social network that bills itself as “censorship resistant” Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is backing the development of Nostr with a donation of 14 BTC (worth $245,000 at the time of donation).

Even getting Damus listed in Apple’s global App Store proved difficult for the company, as its decentralized nature means there is no moderation of content. The app was rejected multiple times by Apple, according to tweets by Damus, because Apple requires apps to have a mechanism for users to flag objectionable content and block abusive users.

In China, any online platform listed in an online marketplace, or accessible by users in-country, requires an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license.

As part of the rules, ICP-licensed entities are prohibited from publishing content that “opposes the basic principles determined in the constitution of China, damages the honor and interests of the nation”, and “disseminates rumors, disrupts the social order or undermines the social stability,” amongst other things.

The inclusion of support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network is another reason why authorities don’t look kindly on the project, as crypto is banned within the country.

ICP-licensed entities are also required to maintain real-name information and IP addresses of those posting and producing content, while providing them to authorities upon request.

In addition, China has a ban on foreign investment in any internet news information service.

Will any of this change anything?

Despite China’s great firewall, there are hundreds of thousands of people that reside in the country active on Western social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter thanks to the wide availability of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.

Members of the crypto community-based in China that spoke to CoinDesk say that the impact of this ban won’t make much of an impact because many Chinese use VPNs and have their phone’s App Store set to the U.S. or Hong Kong marketplaces.

Part of Damus’ popularity, according to one person, involves the perception that a sort of airdrop is coming to early users, especially those that sign up a lot of new users via their referral code.

This ban on Damus won’t do much, one said, as after all, technically crypto is banned in China but is as popular as ever.

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A weak macroeconomic environment and systemic risk from within the crypto space have caused nearly twelve successive weeks of losses for the asset.

Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted under $25,000 on Monday morning amid weakness in the macroeconomic environment and systemic risk from within the crypto market, data shows.

The asset has slid for nearly twelve straight weeks, falling from nearly $49,000 in March 2022 to under $25,000. It showed some signs of bottoming out in mid-May, but worrying U.S. inflation data released last week did little to cushion falling sentiment.

The consumer price index (CPI), the most widely tracked benchmark for inflation, rose 8.6% on a year-over-year basis in May, topping expectations that it would decline to 8.2% from April’s 8.3%, as reported.

Such data contributed to a fall in Asian markets on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell nearly 3.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.01%, while India’s Sensex dropped 2.44%. Futures of U.S. technology-heavy index Nasdaq opened 2% lower, while S&P500 fell 1.65%.

According to price-charts, bitcoin had strong support at the $29,000 mark, but the fall below that level now means that the cryptocurrency could drop to its 2017 high of nearly $20,000.

Readings on the Relative Strength Index (RSI) – a tool used by traders to calculate the magnitude of an asset’s price move – dropped under 30, suggesting a reversal could be on the way as short-term buyers react to technical data.

Elsewhere, crypto lender Celsius paused withdrawals citing “extreme market conditions,” fueling crypto twitter concerns that the company may not have enough liquidity to pay out its depositors.

The post Bitcoin Plunges Below $25K, Lowest Level Since December 2020 appeared first on Crypto Insider.

• Bitcoin consolidates right below Fib level that triggered 2013 all-time highs

• Technical data contrasts with sideways price action as analyst warns not to sell BTC at $62,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to track sideways on Nov. 7 amid warnings that now is “not the time” to sell BTC.

Data showed BTC/USD lingering near $62,000 throughout Sunday.

The pair had continued a flat period over the weekend, as market participants waited for signs of volatility up or down.

While impatience was palpable as the week drew to close, words of caution came from those eyeing longer timeframes and historical price patterns.

“What goes on during a sideways period for BTC like now? Buyers & sellers are exchanging coins with each other. Buyers buy a bit. Sellers sell a bit,” Rekt Capital summarized to Twitter followers.

“But if you think about where $BTC will go over the next months: You realise now is not the time to be selling.” 

Others eyed the weekly close for signs of bullishness. For fellow popular Twitter account TechDev, a two-week close over a key Fibonacci level would mean BTC/USD was echoing its progress fro

“Closing a 2-week candle above the 1.618 is what fully sent 2013. Consolidating right below now,” he noted Saturday.

At the same time, the price-performance between 2017 and 2021 remains uncannily similar — firmly placing this year within historical norms, as Cointelegraph reported.

Price highs meet lows in attention

Looking beyond immediate market behavior, the mood remained undeniably bullish — not only on Bitcoin, but Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and altcoins more broadly.

Only consumer interest, as before, lagged behind market momentum. Data from Google Trends for “Bitcoin” highlighted the lack of activity related to price action, according to Cointelegraph.

The post Why the analyst warns not to sell BTC right now? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Bitcoin (BTC) sees a volatile start to a new week and a new month after its first-ever monthly close above $60,000 — what’s next?

After a highly anticipated end to “Uptober,” bulls are looking to November to provide the next phase of what they hope — and sometimes promise — will be a BTC price surge like no other.

The timing varies, and so do the predictions. In store for BTC/USD this month could be a monthly close of nearly $100,000 — but also a dip to near $50,000.

With everything to play for and solid buyer support in the upper $50,000s holding, Cointelegraph takes a look at what could help shape Bitcoin price action in the coming week.

October 2021 becomes best month since 2020

Regardless of what comes next, market participants are in a celebratory mood this week as Bitcoin sees the highest monthly close in its history.

Not only $60,000 but $61,000 has now become the target to beat for November.

Bitcoin is anything but “up only” on short timeframes, however, and Sunday’s close was met with noticeable downside volatility post factum — a trip to $59,500 — before another surprise took it above $62,000 hours later.

Perhaps slightly nervous are fans of PlanB’s “worst-case scenario” price predictions, these calling for at least $63,000 for the end of October.

While still more or less on track, for the series to continue its historical accuracy, $98,000 needs to be on the table by the end of this month.

For PlanB himself, however, the results have been more than satisfactory.

“Yes, Bitcoin might not close above $63K this month,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, meanwhile, added about the situation.

“However, @100trillionUSD his hitrate on the stock-to-flow model is way better than your trading performance, so I wouldn’t really roast him at all. Bitcoin at $61K is just as fine and close enough.”

After a correction from overnight lows, BTC/USD is trading at around $62,000. October, then, was its best month since December 2020, with returns just shy of 40%.

Difficulty lines up eighth straight increase

Those looking for something that truly is in “up only” mode need look no further than Bitcoin network fundamentals.

This week, difficulty will put in its eighth consecutive positive adjustment — something which has not happened since 2018.

Reflective of the increasingly competitive mining arena, the mining difficulty has now all but made up for the losses it necessarily inflicted after China forced miners to down tools in May.

Difficulty will increase to 21.89 trillion this week, just over 3 trillion below all-time highs.

The hash rate — the measure of processing power dedicated to mining — tells a similar story.

Despite being impossible to “measure” in definitive terms, the hash rate is still trending toward new all-time highs, estimates show.

Raw data trends up and down, and different estimates often end up with considerably different readings. The weekly average hash rate, however, now stands at around 159 exahashes per second (EH/s) — closer than ever to the 180 EH/s-record from April.

Hodlers hodl on

September provided a golden “buy the dip” opportunity for Bitcoin buyers, and October was likewise not without its brief retracements.

Did you buy the dip? If you did, you added to the increasingly strong cohort of long-term hodlers whose conviction has only increased in October.

As noted in research from major exchange Kraken last week, the price gains and run to $67,100 all-time highs have failed to tempt hodlers to sell BTC.

“Notably, while long-term holders were unfazed by the retracement last month and used it as an opportunity to continue accumulating, this trend has not changed despite a significant rebound in price to new all-time highs near $67,000,” researchers concluded.

“In other words, the supply shock bought by long-term holders last month has only grown stronger this month.”
It is these entities, rather than short-term speculators, who are driving price performance in Q4 this year, they add.

This chimes with a previous analysis, notably by analyst Willy Woo, showing that the so-called “hodlers of last resort” or “Rick Astley” investors remain committed to their investment. Among the long-term holders, since 2020, are miners themselves.

“Since 2020 miners have been HODLers (and buyers) of BTC, this is a sea change in behaviour,” Woo noted this weekend.

“Miners have not been in sustained accumulation behaviour since the 2009–2014 era.”

Exchange balances lowest since October 2018

On the topic of a supply shock, the picture from exchanges is grim — from the perspective of a Bitcoin bear.

According to fresh data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, exchange BTC reserves are now at their lowest in three years.

At that time, in late 2018, Bitcoin was heading into the pit of its previous bear market, which bottomed out in December at $3,100.

Since then, price action has changed by an order of magnitude, but balances are still dwindling — all pointing to the scale of the potential shock should demand increase heavily from here.

Exchanges now control 2.47 million BTC. While at its peak in April 2020, over 3.1 million BTC stood on their orderbooks.

Balance changes can vary considerably among exchanges. Over the past 24 hours, for example, Coinbase Pro led the decrease, down almost 20,000 BTC, while some other players saw slight increases in their balance.

Markets expect Fed tapering announcement

The coming week could produce some familiar trends on traditional markets — and their traditional knock-on impact on crypto markets.

These could come thanks to fresh comments from the United States Federal Reserve on coronavirus management Tuesday and Wednesday as markets expect further cues on asset-buying tapering.

This comes as inflation ramps up worldwide, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell previously admitted that the accompanying narrative — supply chain crisis — will likely persist “well into next year.”

“I think the Fed has pretty well determined to start the taper pretty quickly. We expect them to announce it next week and then start it soon thereafter, so that’s pretty well carved in stone,” Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab, told Yahoo Finance last week.

“I think the big debate now is how quickly the Fed moves toward actually raising rates. The expectation in the market has really shifted to expecting as many as two rate hikes in 2022 and 2023… that’s a pretty aggressive pace of tightening.”
Such conditions serve to increase Bitcoin’s attractiveness as an inherently deflationary asset class with a mathematically verifiable supply cap.

Institutional inflows into extant Bitcoin investment products, along with the newly launched futures exchange-traded funds (ETF), highlight growing demand.

By WILLIAM SUBERG

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