Daily Archives: April 20, 2022

Data shows the weekly average Bitcoin trading volume has stabilized around the same lows as July 2021 as market activity remains low.

Bitcoin Trading Volume Has Stayed Low In Recent Weeks

According to the latest weekly report from Arcane Research, the BTC trading volume has sunk down to July lows recently.

The “trading volume” is an indicator that measures the total amount of Bitcoin being transacted on the chain in a day.

When the value of this metric goes up, it means investors are moving a higher number of coins right now. Such a trend suggests the market activity is going up as holders become more interested in trading.

On the other hand, a downtrend in the indicator implies the Bitcoin market is turning more inactive currently. This may show a general lack of interest in the crypto among investors at the moment.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the BTC trading volume over the past year:

The indicator's value seems to have been at low values recently | Source: Arcane Research's The Weekly Update - Week 15, 2022

As you can see in the above graph, the daily Bitcoin spot trading volume has struggled a lot recently, and has declined to 7-day average values of around just $3 billion.

Related Reading | Now Or Never: Bitcoin Builds Base At Decade-Long Parabolic Curve

The metric is now at the same lows as July of last year. Back then, the price had been consolidating sideways for a couple of months following the May crash.

Bitcoin Price Surges Above $42k, Can It Revive The Volume?

Usually, periods of high trading volumes have been when the price of BTC has successfully made some large moves. It’s because to sustain any such move, the market needs a high number of active traders.

Related Reading | Calm Before The Storm: Bitcoin Volatility Reaches Pre-Bull Breakout Levels

But it’s also true that any large price move attracts more investors to the market, thus raising the volume. In cases when it doesn’t happen, the rally generally dies down before too long.

Today, Bitcoin’s price has crossed above the $42k mark again after plunging down below the $39k level just a few days back. The below chart shows the trend.

The value of BTC seems to have shot up over the last couple of days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

It’s possible that this new surge may be able to revive the volume a little. However, it’s also true that there have been a few instances this year already where a rise in the price wasn’t accompanied by a spike in the volume. It now remains to be seen which scenario will play out this time.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Arcane Research

Victoria McLoughlin, who has worked more than 11 years at the Financial Conduct Authority, is temporarily heading the digital assets department of the United Kingdom’s financial watchdog.

According to a Tuesday post on LinkedIn, McLoughlin assumed the position of interim head of the department of the regulator’s digital assets unit in April after serving as supervision manager of crypto assets and digital markets for more than two years. The FCA veteran started working for the financial watchdog in 2009 as an associate, later moving on to oversee supervision of virtual asset service providers.

“It’s an incredibly important time for the sector,” said McLoughlin. “[It] will be a real privilege to lead delivery of our supervisory strategy & our fantastic specialist teams in a new FCA Department as we shape the future of financial services & deliver good outcomes for consumers, markets & firms in coming months.”

As the interim head of the FCA’s digital assets unit, McLoughlin will be responsible for supervising digital asset firms based in the United Kingdom as well as supporting the development of a regulatory framework in line with the government’s “vision for crypto.” This year, the FCA has announced multiple active investigations as part of its efforts to crack down on unregistered crypto firms.

Related: FCA issues termination order for Bitcoin ATMs

In the United Kingdom, firms permitted to “carry out crypto asset activities” must either be registered with the FCA or have been granted temporary operating status following a crackdown on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) compliance. As of April 7, five crypto firms were continuing to operate under temporary registration status following the regulator’s decision to extend its original March 30 deadline for select companies.

Bitcoin slows downs as it makes its way back from the high area of around $30,000. The top crypto by market cap still records profits over the past week (3%) but could re-test support at lower levels.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Bounces Back Past $40,000, But May Struggle To Maintain Position

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $41,300 with sideways movement over the past day. The cryptocurrency continues to trade in a tight range but soon could see an increase in volatility.

Data from Material Indicators (MI) records short-term resistance as BTC’s price is above its current levels. There are over $5 million in asks orders from $41,300 to around $41,400. This could suppress the price from continuing its bullish momentum.

On the other side of the trade, there is major support for BTC’s price at $39,000. At these levels, the cryptocurrency records $9 million in bid orders with much more liquidity at lower levels. This suggests BTC could strongly rebound if it returns to that area.

A pseudonym trader recently pointed out that BTC’s price has seen constant rejection from the 200 Exponential Moving Average (EMA), a level often associated with trend direction for an asset. BTC’s current EMA stands at around $42,000.

In that sense, Bitcoin needs to break above that price point to continue upwards into further resistance. This potentially will be located at around $45,000, and $48,000. The latter stands as a major high timeframe for the cryptocurrency.

The pseudonym analyst is optimistic about BTC’s price capacity to break above its 200 EMA for the 4-hour chart.

$BTC Rejecting from the 4H 200EMA once again. As long as price can’t get above that level at the very least, we’ll be stuck in this down trend.

The 200EMA is still trending down as well though so eventually a break is imminent.

Trade here: pic.twitter.com/NceFuHpJgo

— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) April 20, 2022

As NewsBTC reported, Bitcoin records a decrease in its 90-day implied volatility. This metric stands at its November 2020 low, according to data from Arcane Research. At that time, the decrease in volatility and BTC’s long period of consolidation preceded a major rally into its current all-time high levels.

Why A Weakening U.S. Dollar Could Push Bitcoin Upwards

BTC bulls seem to be displaying more strength. The liquidity sitting lower at $30,000 appears to have moved up which leads to faster BTC price bounces. This contributes to the bullish thesis for the cryptocurrency as it could be preparing for an imminent break of short to mid-term resistance.

On the latter, analyst David Ellis said:

(…) I’ve been staring at the charts for long stretches of time the past week-plus. I haven’t seen dips getting bought up this aggressively since Q4 2020. Again, WAY too early to get too excited, but this is an encouraging sign IMO.

Related Reading | The CEO Of Ripple Says Bitcoin Tribalism Is Holding Back The Crypto Industry

The U.S. dollar has been rallying on the back of an increase in interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Bitcoin is negatively correlated to the currency, as Arcane Research found. This could suggest more upside potential for the digital asset.

As inflation continues to wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary American citizens, all eyes are focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plans to fix the situation. Meanwhile, as the St. Louis Fed president James Bullard wants to aggressively hike the benchmark bank interest rate, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic thinks the central bank needs to use caution.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic: ‘The Fed Needs to Be Cautious as We Move Forward’

The U.S. economy looks bleak after two years of abnormal inefficiencies that have plagued the citizenry’s wealth. Blame has been placed on the erratic spending decisions of public policymakers, the Federal Reserve’s massive monetary expansion over the last two years, the supply chain shock from aggressive Covid-19 lockdown procedures, and the tightest sanctioned economy in decades stemming from the current Ukraine-Russia conflict. All of these factors have led to the fastest rising inflation rate the U.S. has seen in over 40 years.

On Monday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, explained that the Fed could get the benchmark bank interest rate up to 3.5% by the year’s end. Bullard mentioned an aggressive rate hike that could see the rate increase by 75 basis points like Fed chair Alan Greenspan did in 1994.

Despite Bullard’s intentions, a report written by Wall Street Journal authors Jon Hilsenrath and Nick Timiraos published on Monday says that “the Fed has never successfully fixed a problem like this.” Hilsenrath’s and Timiraos’s report further notes that “many factors are out of [the Fed’s] control” and “they are strikingly behind.”

While Bullard wants to raise rates drastically, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic has expressed caution about aggressively hiking the benchmark bank interest rate. Speaking with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Tuesday, Bostic said that he believes staying neutral is also a top priority.

“I think I’m in the same areas as my colleagues philosophically,” Bostic elaborated. “I think it’s really important that we get to neutral and do that in an expeditious way.” However, Bostic’s envisioned neutral benchmark rate is a lot different than Bullard’s 3.5% by Q4 2022. While it could be 2-2.5%, the Atlanta Fed president said he could also see the rate as low as 1.75%.

“I really have us looking at one and three-quarters by the end of the year, but it could be slower depending on how the economy evolves and we do see greater weakening than I’m seeing in my baseline model,” Bostic remarked during the interview. “This is one reason why I’m reluctant to really declare that we want to go a long way beyond our neutral place, because that may be more hikes than are warranted given sort of the economic environment.”

The Atlanta Fed president added:

[The Fed] needs to be cautious as we move forward. We do need to get away from zero, I think zero is lower than we should be right now. But at the same time, we need to just pay attention.

US President Joe Biden Blames High Prices on Covid-19 Pandemic and Russia’s Vladimir Putin

Of course, many are skeptical that the U.S. central bank will be able to fix the economy’s ongoing issues. Many blame the Fed’s monetary and asset expansion and the massive stimulus bills forwarded by former president Donald Trump and the current U.S. president Joe Biden.

However, Biden is blaming the poor economy on Covid-19 and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. “I know that families are still struggling with higher prices. I grew up in a family where if the price of gas went up, we felt it,” Biden said on Twitter on April 20. “Let’s be absolutely clear about why prices are high right now: COVID and Vladimir Putin,” the president added.

Biden’s statements got a lot of flack on Wednesday as fingers were pointed directly at the Fed’s money printing. “Sure it has absolutely nothing with the Federal reserve’s ‘money printer go brrrr for Wall Street,’” one individual said in response to Biden’s tweet. “Not all of us have dementia Joe, some of us are still cognizant and can see you and your administration are full of sh**,” the person added. Another individual replied to Biden and wrote:

Actually POTUS, it was because YOUR Federal reserve printed too much money during Covid. Don’t make Putin a scapegoat for your mismanagement of the economy.

What do you think about Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic saying the Fed should be cautious when it comes to interest rate hikes? What do you think about Biden blaming the U.S. economy’s flaws on Covid-19 and Putin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.