Are Bitcoin’s positives being drowned out by negative economic noise?
The crypto week in review
With Jason Deane
My Twitter feed has been full of positive macro announcements concerning Bitcoin this week.
There’s been talk of “300 community banks” offering Bitcoin in the first half of 2022, up to 25% of small businesses looking to accept crypto according to a survey by Visa and a whole world of financial news that, while dire for the average person, arguably creates the perfect backdrop for Bitcoin adoption.
This week, for example, saw the UK publish its highest inflation figures for 30 years and, while we all know there is some disagreement about how accurate these official rates are anyway, looking at the underlying numbers reveals a terrifying reality as I tweeted earlier:
As discussed before, here in the UK we’re hardly isolated. Unprecedented inflation numbers are emerging from almost all economies and, while some of those states have experienced inflation like it at some point in their past, we have never seen a situation where it has been so ubiquitous in such a short timeframe.
Right now we’re (almost literally) rewriting the economic rule books as we go.
Meanwhile, from a ‘behind the scenes’ perspective, the Bitcoin mining difficulty hit an all-time high in the early hours today at 26.64T, despite Kazakhstan’s recent actions and it being barely six months since the great China exodus occurred.
For the non-technical, this simply means that the underlying network continues to grow very significantly, demonstrating strong underlying investment in infrastructure, increased belief levels and, of course, providing unprecedented security levels for Bitcoin as a whole.
This is but a small portion of the positive news that continues to trickle, nay, pour out from the industry as a whole and yet Bitcoin itself seems to be continuing to flounder with a total lack of direction. Why?
Well, as I’ve said before, markets often move on sentiment rather than fundamentals and, right now, sentiment is firmly in control, regardless of what the actual numbers say. Finding good news is actually hard among the rumours of Russian bans, general negative narrative from the media and that needle on the ‘Fear and Greed’ index sitting firmly in “extreme fear”.
While markets often overheat when the world and his dog gets excited about something, we humans also tend to overdo it the other way too, just as we’re doing now. Let’s face it, markets would be dull if we didn’t.
So, take some time away from Bitcoin’s price, read about what’s going on around the world, and have a nice cup of tea while the chaos and chatter unfolds.
And above all, have a great weekend!
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The Bitcoin Pioneers community, backed by Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, was created to introduce Bitcoin to a mainstream audience in a meaningful way and now has members right across the UK.
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All feedback on Crypto AM Daily in association with Luno is welcome via email to [email protected] 🙏🏻
Yesterday’s Crypto AM Daily in association with Luno
In the markets
The Bitcoin economy
*Definitions and insights can be found at https://bytetree.com/insights/
Total crypto market cap
The total capitalisation of the entire cryptocurrency market at time of writing is currently $1,834,498,602 down from $1,977,458,558,716 yesterday.
What Bitcoin did yesterday
We closed yesterday, January 20 2022, at a price of $40,680.42, down from $41,744.33 the day before. The daily high yesterday was $43,413.02 and the daily low was $40,672.82.
This time last year, the price of Bitcoin closed the day at $30,825.70. In 2020, it closed at $8,745.89.
Bitcoin market capitalisation
Bitcoin’s market capitalisation at time of writing is $734.91 billion. To put it into context, the market cap of gold is $11.69 trillion and Tesla is $1 trillion.
Bitcoin volume
The total spot trading volume reported by all exchanges over the last 24 hours was $34,409,176,619 up from $22,910,018,166 yesterday. High volumes can indicate that a significant price movement has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.
Volatility
The price volatility of Bitcoin over the last 30 days is 39.47%.
Fear and Greed Index
Market sentiment today is 19, in Extreme Fear.
Bitcoin’s market dominance
Bitcoin’s market dominance today is 40.38. Its lowest ever recorded dominance was 37.09 on January 8 2018.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
The daily RSI is currently 26.08. Values of 70 or above indicate that an asset is becoming overbought and may be primed for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price – an RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.
Convince your Nan: Soundbite of the day
“The best defense against inflation is a #Bitcoin standard.”
MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor
What they said yesterday
That’s twenty zeros…
El Salvador takes another step…
300 red pills taken…
Crypto AM: Editor’s picks
Crypto crazy couple name baby after favourite digital asset
Bitcoin hashrate touches new all time high
Peter McCormack: Transforming Bedford FC into a global Bitcoin brand
Exclusive: FTSE plots development of digital asset index in crypto push
Crypto could give London a unique post-Brexit advantage, says Hammond
Diamond claws: Crypto trading hamster dies after standout investing career
New cryptocurrency named ‘JRR Token’ blocked by lawyers for Lord of the Rings creator Tolkien
El Salvador to build Bitcoin city at base of volcano
Crypto AM: Features
Crypto AM: Founders Series
Crypto AM: Industry Voices
Crypto AM: Contributors
Crypto AM: In Conversation with James Bowater
Crypto AM: Tomorrow’s Money with Gavin S Brown
Crypto AM: Mixing in the Metaverse with Dr Chris Kacher
Crypto AM: Visions of the Future, Past & Present with Alex Lightman
Crypto AM: Tiptoe through the Crypto with Monty Munford
Crypto AM: Taking a Byte out of Digital Assets with Jonny Fry
Crypto on the catwalk
Crypto AM: Events
For those of you who missed the Crypto AM DeFi & Digital Inclusion online summit 2021 – you can now watch the event in two parts via YouTube
Part One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvqNMNZTIDE
Part Two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXhX_-Tr5j0
Cautionary Notes
It’s definitely tempting to get swept up in the excitement, but please heed these words of caution: Do your own research, only invest what you can afford, and make good decisions. The indicators contained in this article will hopefully help in this. Remember though, the content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. City PM, Crypto AM and Luno always advise you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.
All information is correct as of 08:00 BST