It seems like every month there is a new regulatory issue impacting Bitcoin in a negative manner. This month, not surprisingly, has seen multiple events that are being portrayed in a negative light, forcing the price of BTC lower.
Bitcoin Price Analysis
Bitcoin prices across exchanges have fallen more than 25 percent over the past month. Monday at 9 a.m. BTC was as low as $6705. The price of Bitcoin remains as volatile as ever having fallen more than 6 percent during a two-hour period Monday morning. There are many catalysts allegedly causing this continued Bitcoin price correction. The main culprit is likely the “time of the year” being U.S. tax season.
Tax season in the U.S. has been called the culprit for this week’s sell-off. The head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors stated that U.S. households likely owe over $25 billion in capital gains taxes from cryptocurrency holdings. With tax laws finally being implemented allowing BTC and crypto traders to pay their capital gains this week has witnessed a frenzied selling. The U.S. tax deadline is April 17 which has resulted in fairly intense selling pressure over the past few days.
Bitcoin has fallen more than 70 percent since its all-time high of just under $20,000 in mid-December of last year. Since this period of crypto euphoria, the entire crypto market has corrected from a total market cap approaching $900 billion to one just over $250 billion. There have been multiple catalysts that have cemented BTC’s fall over the past few weeks. This has resulted in a bear market. However, it is when market sentiment is highest that the bears take over, and when market sentiment is at its lowest that is when the bulls start running.
Brighter Days on the Horizon?
Positive market catalysts are on the horizon with ETF’s likely to get approval to place large amounts of institutional money into the markets. However, this approval will likely come when governments around the world stop spreading FUD. The Reserve Bank of India announced last week that regulated financial institutions (banks) can no longer legally deal with cryptocurrencies. Crypto was originally created to disrupt centralized banking and government control over currency. It seems the governments and the big banks of the world are starting to be disrupted. This ‘disruption’ can either be adopted and taxed or the alternative approach is an outright ban.
Since the quarter four euphoria BTC and the overall crypto markets have been in a bear trend, having corrected from over $900 billion to just over $250 billion. With market sentiment dwindling it seems like nothing can slow BTC’s fall. However, when the entire crypto community expected the crypto markets to continue their run the bull markets turned bear. This bear trend has led to a four-month correction and a perfect entry point for individuals looking to exploit a market with real world use in the infancy of its adoption. The remaining months in 2018 will likely provide the government regulations that actually jump start the crypto markets by pumping in billions of dollars of institutional money while rooting out the remaining scams.
The remaining months of 2018 will likely provide ETFs the ability to enter the markets which provides investment groups unique avenues to enter in a space marred by volatility. Traders dream of the volatility BTC and the overall crypto markets demonstrate implementing advanced trading techniques which are just beginning to be used on crypto exchanges. With institutional money being on the cusp of entering the space and many regulatory bodies supporting, not banning crypto; it seems this correction is short lived and a major market rebound is just around the corner.
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