Bitcoin investors are continuing to hold on to their bitcoin as the volume of transactions dropped on Saturday 3 October to the lowest seen since February, according to Luno and Arcane Research which provides a weekly analysis of the market.
The drop in volume means the price of the largest cryptocurrency has not improved much from September where it remained within the $10,000 range. There was anticipation last week that the cryptocurrency was going to hit $11,000. The price of bitcoin rose to $10,919 on October 1 and later dropped to $10,524 as news broke on BitMEX being charged by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Unsurprisingly, uncertainty returned when one of the leading derivates exchanges in the crypto market suddenly experienced trouble with the regulators.
CFTC charged the BitMEX owners with illegally operating a cryptocurrency derivatives platform and anti-money laundering violations.
The U.S. attorney for the District of New York indicted Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, Samuel Reed, and Gregory Dwyer for violating and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act. The DOJ has revealed that Reed was arrested on Thursday morning, while Hayes, Delo, and Dwyer remain at large.
Another report that rocked the boat in the cryptocurrency market is Donald Trump’s positive COVID-19 test last week. The shock the news sent to the global stock market also dragged down the crypto market.
Read Also: Bitter-sweet tale of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector
As at press time, bitcoin was trading at $10,640.
Analysts are not holding up hope of a bullish price move given that most of the time in recent weeks, bitcoin price has not shown any direction, while altcoins have taken a downward slope. The majority of the markets have been in massive corrections and this does not portend a strong signal for the total market.
However, technical analysis of the price may give a different picture, according to analysts at Luno. The point out that September closed at $10,779, which is above the monthly resistance level from 2019.
“Last summer, the monthly resistance was at $10,761, just below the close from September,” the analysts said. “This is starting to look like a textbook example of support or resistance flip, where previous resistance turns into support. As this is on a high time frame, we could easily get wicks much lower than the current price, but this could be a good time to scale into longer-term positions.”
