Within the past 24 hours, a lot has occurred in the cryptocurrency market and as usual, Bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency by market cap has stolen the limelight. After surging to a 17-month high on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, Bitcoin is currently facing a selling pressure which has crashed its price today.
Bitcoin Hits $13,796 and Sets Record of 17-Month-High
According to CoinMarketCap’s platform, Bitcoin traded as high as $13,796 on June 26, 2019. The last time we saw Bitcoin around the $13,000 price range is January 20, 2018, which is 17 months ago. While that is totally awesome, it may be more interesting to know that Bitcoin had spiked from $11,778 on Wednesday before hitting its 17-month high.
However, the spike was short-lived given that barely an hour later, Bitcoin devalued to the $12,000 range. Specifically, Bitcoin’s price of $13,796.49 at 21:04 UTC +1:00 dumped to $12,609 at 21:49 UTC +1:00. The fall in price also affected its market cap of $244 billion which declined to $227 billion, and further down to $204 billion.
Bitcoin Dumps by $16 percent in Less Than 24 Hours
But that’s not all! When most traders may have assumed that it was only a minor price correction before it pushes ahead again, the digital asset traded sideways. It dumped further on Thursday, June 27, 2019. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $11,500 which is 16.64 percent decline in price in comparison to its 17-month-high.
Nonetheless, it is worthy to point out that Bitcoin has maintained a standstill at its current price of $11,500 and at this point, there’s a lot of expectation that it can trade higher and take over its all-time high of $20,000 in December 2017. The speculation may have helped in driving up its price and as such, if the spike of yesterday is repeated, then the expectations might come true sooner than we expect.
BitMEX Records $16 Billion Daily Trade
On June 26, 2019, BitMEX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world reported a huge daily trading volume of $16 billion. The high trade is in line with Bitcoin’s surge to the $13,000 price range yesterday, which may have indirectly impacted on the high rate of activities in the Hong-Kong based cryptocurrency exchange.
BitMEX Announces High Trading Volume Across All Products
BitMEX announced in a tweet that the digital currency exchange had recorded $1 billion open interest on XBTUSD, a leveraged trading product which is used to speculate on the BTC/USD exchange rate. On the same day, the virtual currency exchange also had $13 billion traded on XBTUSD and $16 billion on all its products.
Prior to the high trade, the trading volume for all products on BitMEX was around $11 billion and at the time, Arthur Hayes, the exchange’s CEO outrightly said that the cryptocurrency bear market is over. According to the CEO, “XBTUSD perp swap open interest is now in the 3 comma club. Welcome to the 2019 bull fucking market YeeHaw!”
Hayes is also making preparations to defend the new bullish trend set by Bitcoin. He will be facing Nouriel Roubini who believes that cryptocurrencies are still a farce. Other analysts are still unsettled if the recent spike is being fueled by the retail segment of the market or institutional investors trooping into the crypto space.
Bitcoin’s Surge in Price Triggers Huge Trading Volume
On the other hand, the sharp increment in the BitMEX’s trading volume can partly be attributed to an increase in activity in the crypto market due to Bitcoin’s surge in price. The top cryptocurrency by market cap opened at a price of $11,778 on June 26, 2019, and traded as high as $13,796 on the same day.
Like BitMEX, CME Group, a bitcoin futures provider has also recorded all-time volume highs in the months of May and June. The same can be said about other virtual currency exchanges which had recorded lower trading volume at the beginning of the year due to the low-level interest in the crypto market. It is, however, interesting to see things pick up across markets as well as exchanges.
