Weekly feature: our experts analyzed the market situation and told how it may change in the short term for Bitcoin

The week from July 31 to August 6 was relatively quiet. The BTC/USDt pair traded in the range of $28,585 – $30,047. Increased volatility in the market was observed on August 1 and 2. On August 1, the price of Bitcoin fell to $28,585. The market was pressurized by fears of regulatory action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the crypto projects Hex, PulseChain and PulseX. The hack of the Curve crypto exchange was also negatively impacted. And as a result of which hackers stole about $50 million. Despite the fall in quotes in the first half of the day, the daily candle closed with growth at $29,705.

On August 2, Bitcoin was recovering to $30,047. There are two reasons that may have provided support for buyers:

The first one is the release of MicroStrategy’s Q2 2023 report. The company made a profit for Q2 and purchased 12,333 BTC. As of July 31, the company owns 152,800 BTC. The total BTC purchase price is $4.53 billion at an average price of $29,672 per 1 BTC.

Second – Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+ due to a growing budget deficit and a buildup of government debt. The downgrade had a limited impact on the markets. And since with such debt it is an expected event. U.S. government debt service has nearly reached $1 trillion a year. At this rate, debt interest payments will soon become a major spending item in the U.S. budget. Hardly anyone will repay the debt. The share of the dollar is declining in international settlements and in central bank reserves. No matter what anyone says, U.S. bonds are becoming toxic.

Analysis of other factors

Friday’s U.S. labor market data points to a continued slowdown in job growth. 187,000 jobs were created in July. And that is below forecasts. And the figures for June were revised downward to 185k. That’s the smallest job gain since December 2020.

Although the unemployment rate has fallen. And wages have risen, the low rate of job growth suggests the labor market is gradually cooling under the influence of the Fed’s tighter monetary policy and a slowing economy. Companies are cutting back on hiring because of rising costs and an uncertain outlook.

Overall, the data points to weakening employee attitudes and cooling labor demand. This could have a dampening effect on inflation and cause the Fed to slow the pace of rate hikes. Nevertheless, the labor market remains relatively resilient despite the slowdown.

Despite a relatively quiet week in terms of economic events, the key indicator will be the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), which will be released on August 10. It will give an indication of the inflation rate and could affect the US Dollar’s performance and the Fed’s monetary policy expectations.

The dollar ended last week on a weak note after a five-day rally. And the question is whether it was a correction of the uptrend or the beginning of its reversal. Overall, the US inflation report will be a key benchmark in the coming week to understand the outlook for the dollar and monetary policy. Bitcoin did not take advantage of the dollar’s weakness, and that’s a bad thing, as its rebound and a decline in U.S. stock indices could bring down the market more.

Buyers’ activity in the crypto market is low due to fears of a new market crash

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is preparing charges against Binance. However, it fears that it may provoke a massive outflow of user funds, as in the case of the bankrupt FTX.

DOJ officials are rumored to be concerned that filing criminal fraud charges against Binance could cause panic. And mass withdrawals by customers, causing them to lose money and destabilize the entire cryptocurrency market.

Therefore, prosecutors are considering alternative options to punish Binance, such as fines, deferred prosecution, or a settlement agreement. This would avoid a harsh reaction from investors and negative consequences for the industry. A decision on what charges will ultimately be brought against Binance has not yet been made and is under review by the US Department of Justice.

Prospects

Our experts note that despite the local recovery, buyers failed to gain a strong foothold above $30 th. The price Bitcoin stabilized around $28,950, where it traded until the end of the week amid the absence of positive triggers. The key support level is the $28,250 mark. If the trend line from the low of $16,333 does not hold. The risks of falling to $25,250 will increase sharply. According to seasonal cycles, the bearish phase should last until September. BitRiver estimates that Bitcoin needs to break through the resistance at $30,500 for the situation to turn bullish.

Our experts talked about the causes of growth in the price of Bitcoin and how it will behave in the near future

Between June 15 and June 22, 2023, the most capitalized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), went up nearly 24%. The coin crossed the local maximum, which was fixed on April 14, 2023 at the level of $30,958.

Bitcoin, followed by the whole market of digital assets, went up on the background of a number of positive news. Our experts believe that the driver could be the renewed race by major corporations for the right to obtain permission. This will make it possible to launch the first Bitcoin-based spot exchange traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. market and the interest of large companies in cryptocurrencies.

On June 15, it became known that BlackRock, a major investment firm, filed an application with the SEC to launch a bitcoin trust. This company’s initiative, if approved, could simplify institutional access to the crypto industry, our experts say.

On June 20, Deutsche Bank, one of Germany’s largest financial conglomerates, announced its intention to provide cryptocurrency services. In parallel, Wall Street giants Citadel, Fidelity and Charles Schwab launched their own decentralized crypto exchange. On June 21, one of the world’s largest investment firms, Invesco, applied to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. All this news had a positive impact on cryptocurrency rates.

Major companies enter cryptoindustry

Interestingly, large companies enter the crypto industry despite the fact that it is under pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It is noteworthy that not only members of the crypto community do not approve of the SEC’s actions. But also representatives of the authorities. For example, Warren Davidson, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, suggested that the current head of the regulator, Gary Gensler, should be fired.

Also after this news was the statement of the head of FRS Jerome Powell about the need to connect the Federal Reserve to regulate the stablecoin market. Which he called “a form of money” rather than securities.

Powell’s hints about the possibility of further rate hikes should also not be forgotten. Since the U.S. inflation target has not yet been reached. And rate changes could put pressure on the stock market, followed by the movements of cryptocurrencies.

To summarize the intermediate results, active market growth was realized amid unprecedented pressure from U.S. regulators on the crypto industry. The interest of large corporations in cryptocurrencies in the current market conditions looks suspicious.

Possible further growth

In order to expect further growth, for example, to the levels of $40 thousand and $45 thousand. It is necessary for the price to fix above the maximums of April in the nearest days.

Our experts expect further growth of BTC price this year. A lot of fundamental factors point to it. But it’s hard to say for sure whether the growth of recent days is the movement that will lead the price to further significant growth.

It is possible that the slight sideways dynamics, observed over the last couple of months, will continue on BTC for a while longer.

Crypto Upvotes experts told about what will affect the price of Bitcoin. And to what levels its price may rise or fall

On June 13, Bitcoin price is fluctuating around the mark of $25.8 thousand. On the weekend of June 10-11, the price of the asset fell to $25.5 thousand. As well as many altcoins from the top 100 cryptocurrencies lost 20-25% in price. At the beginning of the week, rates rose slightly and BTC recovered to around $26k.

After it became known today that the growth of inflation in the US slowed down from 4.9% to 4% year-on-year in May (better than the forecast of 4.1%). Then immediately the rate of Bitcoin rose to $26.35 thousand, but then fell back to $26 thousand.

Recovery from collapse

Bitcoin hit the $26.2K mark, even though it was trading at $25,500 on the weekend. Last week, its price was down 7.5%. This was affected by the fall of BTC/USDT pair on June 5 (down to $25,700 from intraday low of $25,300) and charges of illegal operation, filed against Binance by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The lawsuit against Coinbase for allegedly violating securities trading rules did not add to the positivity either. We see a targeted campaign by the U.S. administration against crypto-exchanges. And recently, similar accusations were made against Bittrex and Kraken exchanges.

That said, the U.S.-based Bittrex began bankruptcy proceedings on May 8 following an April 17 SEC lawsuit. Kraken, meanwhile, continues to operate. But in February it agreed to pay $30 million in fines and refused to provide stacking services.

The tokens that fell the hardest over the weekend were the tokens that the regulator recognized as securities – BNB (BNB), Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL). Bitcoin was also affected. Its high last week was $27,39 thousand, which was followed by a decrease in price.

While investors continue to “speculate” on new crypto industry news. The major cryptocurrency is starting to recover. Our experts believe that already tomorrow we will see a rate of $26.4 thousand, and by the end of the week it will approach $27.2 thousand.

Support and resistance levels of BTC

The first target this week is to get back to the closing level of Friday, June 9, on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group). It was $26.47 th.

Then, up to $27K, there is dense, saturated resistance. It will be very difficult to overcome this level.

Support lines of BTC at the moment are at the levels of $25.2 ths and $24.4 ths.

This week the market is expecting more volatility on June 14. On that day, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet and the U.S. interest rate decision will be released.

Negative and positive scenarios

SEC lawsuits and the recognition of a number of altcoins as securities may cause crypto investors to choose to withdraw assets from altcoins and move them into Bitcoin. But for now, the overall situation is in the hands of the bears. And Bitcoin is unlikely to rise in the coming week.

It is unlikely that the price of BTC will fall below $24k, but it won’t be able to grow above $28k either. In other words, in the next 7 days the price of the asset will fluctuate in this range.

The negative scenario is that a criminal prosecution of Binance, which was warned about by former SEC lawyer John Reed Stark, could be launched. That would bring Bitcoin down to $20,000 – the level of the regional average cost of mining it.

The positive scenario is that the situation will quiet down for a few months. And there will be no criminal prosecution in the coming weeks. In that case, Bitcoin will be able to strengthen its position and return to the $28,000 mark. And maybe even test $30k. But so far, such a possibility is seen at best in the perspective of three to four weeks.

Lightning Network protocol allows cryptocurrency payments almost instantly and without fees. Our experts tell us how the solution works, who supports it. And why it is not yet popular in the crypto market

When the Bitcoin blockchain was flooded with memcoins in BRC-20 token format in early May. The cryptocurrency faced congestion and prohibitively high fees. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, was forced to shut down the ability to withdraw Bitcoins twice a day. Until an acceptable level of load on the network returns. Representatives of the exchange announced that its development team is working on integrating transfers through a solution called Lightning Network. Which, in their words, “helps well in such situations.”

The Lightning Network (LN) protocol is Bitcoin’s scaling system, acting as one solution to the problem of its limited bandwidth. With its help it is possible to carry out almost instant transfers of coins with minimal commissions.

The protocol concept was first introduced in a technical paper titled Lightning Network for Bitcoin: The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments in 2015. It was authored by developers Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Drija. Since Lightning Network’s inception, the developer community has been working collectively to improve both the protocol itself. And on applications and tools that support LN transactions.

How it works

If we think of Bitcoin as a huge highway. And where countless vehicles (transactions) compete for limited space. The Lightning Network protocol acts as a dedicated lane. And which allows you to bypass a congested main road. This is achieved by creating special payment channels. In which transactions can take place instantly, with minimal fees and without the need to write each of them to the Bitcoin blockchain.

To open such a channel, participants in a coin transfer create a common address and fund it with a certain amount in Bitcoins. They can then transfer funds to each other. And the balance data on their addresses will be updated within the channel. When they close the channel, the final balance will already be written to the Bitcoin blockchain as a separate transaction.

Payment channels can be created using wallets or other Lightning Network enabled software. You can use someone else’s channel as an intermediary for transfers. And in this case, the one who opened it will receive a small commission. Since the transactions take place outside the blockchain. It is impossible to identify a separate identifier for a particular transfer. Or see its data in the blockchain browser.

What prevents this project from distributing

Despite the existing way of solving one of Bitcoin’s major problems. The Lightning Network protocol is still a long way from mass adoption. Both for private users and for businesses. The technical complexities involved in creating and managing the channels act as a significant barrier for ordinary users. LN-enabled cryptocurrencies. These tend to be non-commercial developments that suffer greatly in interface design and user experience (UX).

In addition, the lack of standards for protocols hinders the interoperability of LN-enabled software developed by different teams. This makes it difficult to connect new users. And integrating the protocol into large platforms, whose owners are obviously interested in cheaper and faster coin transfers. Another problem is the limitation of liquidity in channels. Participants are forced to block a certain amount of Bitcoin in the channel. And that in itself limits the amount of funds available for transfer and reduces the usefulness of the protocol as a whole.

The relative newness and limited acceptance of the Lightning Network creates a certain paradox. The fact is that few people trust the protocol without its widespread adoption. And its diffusion, in turn, is constrained by the relatively small number of stakeholders willing to use it.

This is largely due to the fact that the Lightning Network is itself a non-profit project. And its infrastructure development is done by volunteers. The opposite is the case with Ethereum. For example, network scaling projects like Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync. And others have already formed an entire industry and are worth billions of dollars.

Projects and investments

However, investors are supporting projects that integrate Lightning Network into their payment solutions. In August 2022, Lightning Labs raised $80 million in funding to develop the Taro. Which allows transactions with stablecoins using the Lightning Network. Investors in the project include former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Robinhood payment company CEO Vlad Tenyev.

Also in the same period, the investment round was held by Strike. It managed to attract $80 million, which it will use to establish partnerships with major retailers to connect its own wallet. As well as acquiring for retail outlets on the basis of LN. Investors have cumulatively invested about $10 million in Amboss and Mash platforms. And both are also building LN-based payment solutions.

Bitcoin’s scaling is one of the cryptocurrency’s biggest challenges. As fees and network load increase, solutions to optimize transfers will become more and more relevant. The Lightning Network protocol is quite well-known in the community. But there are still a lot of things hindering its diffusion.

Simplifying user interfaces. And promoting interoperability and improving the overall user experience. These are also important steps toward making Lightning Network technology more accessible. Improving liquidity management and security measures. Just as important to instill confidence in users of this protocol.

Our experts tell us how BRC-20 tokens emerged on top of Bitcoin. And why trading in new memcoins led to a record increase in commissions

A new kind of token has appeared in the Bitcoin blockchain, around which there has been a serious speculative frenzy. Most of these tokens are so-called memcoins. Which are named after famous memes and carry no utility or functionality. In spite of this, they have cumulatively risen by tens of thousands of percent in a few weeks. And provoked a record increase in commissions for transfers within the BTC network.

A new mania around memcoins began with the PEPE coin. Anonymous developers launched it in April, and speculators inflated its capitalization to a billion dollars in just three weeks of its existence.

The interest in memcoins created in the Bitcoin blockchain comes from more familiar token-creating networks such as Ethereum or Solana. The excitement swelled to the point that the volume of trading in Bitcoin Frogs collection tokens (the equivalent of Bitcoin token format NFTs) from May 17 to 18 exceeded that of the NFT market’s main “blue chip” – the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection.

New BRC-20 standard

Tokens of the standard named BRC-20 (similar to ERC-20 in Ethereum). They are digital assets that can be created and transferred on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Ordinals protocol. This standard allows data to be written into satoshi and turned into tokens.

The Ordinals protocol has enabled the growth of memcoins placed on the Bitcoin blockchain. But they have no utility whatsoever. Instead, traders are buying them solely for speculative purposes. Tens of thousands of BRC-20 tokens have been issued since the protocol went live in March. And their combined market capitalization has exceeded $1 billion. The ORDI memcoin, which refers to the name of the Ordinal protocol. But probably not related to its developers, is the largest at the time of publication with a capitalization of about $300 million.

Amid high demand, cryptocurrency exchange OKX announced the launch of its own marketplace for trading BRC-20 tokens. And Binance previously announced plans to add support for them on its NFT platform.

The entire current capitalization of new tokens in the Bitcoin network is essentially taken up by memcoins alone. And the Ordinals protocol itself has severely limited functionality compared to Ethereum’s ERC-20 capabilities.

But BRC-20 could be a long-shot story. If the teams that focus on building infrastructure solutions on Bitcoin (wallets, bridges, credit protocols, etc.) now have money flowing in from major venture capital funds. Also, don’t forget that it adds to the attractiveness of Bitcoin itself, says our expert.

High commissions in BTC network

High commissions

The result of the growing demand for memcoins was a surge in Bitcoin transaction fees. And a queue of unconfirmed transactions formed. Transactions related to BRC-20 filled the network. And led to a high load on it, causing the commissions paid to miners to reach the highest level since April 2021. Since the beginning of May, the average fees have risen about 1,500%, to $31 per simple coin transfer.

When Bitcoin’s transaction blocks are full, the transactions with the highest fees are confirmed first. The pending transactions are in a so-called mempool, waiting for confirmation. If under an adequate load on the network, transfers are confirmed in no more than 10 minutes on average. In this abnormal scenario it is possible to wait up to several hours for transfer confirmation. If not to send it with overestimated commission.

Bitcoin’s pool of unconfirmed transactions has skyrocketed from about 10,000 transactions to more than 350,000 transactions. And that triggered an increase in fees globally. But it turned out to be a lucky scenario for miners, whose income increased visibly.

In total, there were more than 4 million BRC-20 transactions in May. And that represents 60% of all Bitcoin transactions. For the first time in many years, a block of BTC transactions exceeded the fixed fee of the miner (6.25 BTC) who mined that block. This was due to the high demand for space in the blockchain, which was triggered by transactions involving the transfer or issuance of BRC-20 tokens.

Such a situation is abnormal according to our experts. Some Bitcoin developers have expressed dissatisfaction with high commissions. And declared about the fight against such tokens. Miners, on the contrary, benefit from the development of this standard. Which brings them more income from commissions. But on the other hand, blockchain congestion will reduce the popularity of Bitcoin. We need to look for a solution that will satisfy investors and miners, says our expert.

Effects and solutions to problems with high commissions

BRC-20 tokens reflect the process of possible future experimentation in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Even if memcoins end up being a passing fad of the cryptocurrency community. They are already having a tangible effect. It may turn out that memcoins will spur developers to further experiment at the base level of Bitcoin. And that will lead to new scenarios for its use. And new sources of demand for space within transaction blocks. This, in turn, could lead to more sustainable commission growth.

The commission market is critical to the existence and security of the Bitcoin network. Because in the future they will have to compensate miners for the diminishing reward per block during subsequent halving cycles.

Rising transaction fees could also force leading cryptoservices to use “second-tier” technology to cut costs. When a sharp rise in fees forced the Binance exchange to temporarily suspend Bitcoin withdrawals. And its head Changpeng Zhao wrote on social media that he was considering adding Lightning Network support to the exchange. This is a fairly well-known, but not yet widespread second-tier payment protocol. Which is built on top of Bitcoin and designed for much faster and cheaper transfers.

Estimates of the implications of the popularity of BRC-20 tokens vary depending on who is making them. Miners, for example, are happy, of course, as their profitability has increased because of the load on the network. But ordinary users are definitely not used to paying a commission and still getting in a huge queue. That is why major market players are thinking about integrating Lighting Network, but it also takes time.

BRC-20 standard cannot compete with ERC-20

Importantly, BRC-20 tokens prevent Bitcoin from competing with Ethereum as a platform for smart contracts, especially at the basic level. A dynamic ecosystem of decentralized applications is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. This includes credit protocols, NFT, games, social networks and other Web3 applications. Developers can create them using the Solidity programming language. Which allows a wide range of functions and program logic to be implemented. Bitcoin’s base code doesn’t come close to having those capabilities.

Some traders have managed to make high profits by trading memcoins. However, average market participants should be cautious. Historically, memcoins exhibit high volatility and low liquidity. And their prices often only show a decline after a collapse from their peak values during hype.

Perhaps in the future Bitcoin blockchain infrastructure projects will open up investment opportunities. But high fees will certainly remain a stumbling block, especially when the crypto market is bullish.

Our experts named the reasons for the large “queue” of transactions in BTC network. And described the ways to solve this problem, as well as its impact on the price of the leading digital asset.

At the beginning of May, the daily number of transactions in Bitcoin network renewed its historical maximum at 685 thousand. This happened amid a surge of activity associated with the issue of bitcoin-NFT or Ordinals.

The ability to issue tokens on the Bitcoin network appeared in late January. And since then more than 4.69 million of them were created. More than 789 BTC ($21.9 million) were spent as commissions.

As of May 8, there are still more than 455,000 transactions waiting to be confirmed in the first cryptocurrency blockchain. Which is a record high. Experts told what the formation of such a queue could lead to.

Reasons and solutions

Queuing is a fairly typical situation for PoW blockchains. And many factors can affect it, but the main reason is always associated with a sharp increase in interest in intra-network transfers.

Our experts say that the problem develops further very quickly. As the queue generates an even bigger queue, similar to the traffic jams that form from traffic jams when people try to avoid them. In blockchains, users start to raise fees. And all new transactions get stuck, while old ones may stay in the mempool (transaction queue, mempool) for weeks until the load is reduced.

There is no direct solution to this situation, says our expert. In general, the “scalability problem” is the main reason to criticize the consensus mechanism Proof-of-Work (PoW), on which Bitcoin works. But our expert noted that there are local ways around this problem. For example, such as “replace-by-fee” or “child-pays-for-parent” mechanisms.

“Replace-by-fee” allows you to directly change the amount of commission in a transaction already sent to the waiting list. But very few wallets support this feature. And to enable it, it should have been provided for in advance: the transaction should have been sent with the parameter enabled. Which allows you to replace the commission already after the transaction has been sent.

The “child-pays-for-parent” function implies sending a new transaction from a wallet. To which the change from the previous transaction with the knowingly overrated commission must come. This is such that it would be profitable for miners to process two transactions at once.

The problem of scalability is partially solved by the use of L2 solutions. For example, there is a Lightning Network superstructure for Bitcoin, which does not load the main blockchain. The widespread implementation of this technology will help prevent queues in the future.

Impact on Bitcoin price

The current significant queue in the BTC network is unlikely to affect the value of the asset in the moment. But it does create a number of questions for what is happening around the Bitcoin blockchain.

If before the BTC network seemed to market participants something fundamental, stable, which is very difficult to change. And, as a consequence, difficult to deteriorate in its parameters. After the emergence of projects like Ordinals, Bitcoin no longer seems to be a cryptocurrency ” constant.

The fact that thousands of enthusiasts in the Bitcoin network can now create NFT using the experimental script BRC-20. This expands the capabilities of the project, but creates no additional value for BTC. Our expert noted that the Bitcoin blockchain has never been known for scaling as it is. And in times of stress and strong movements of the cryptocurrency market, transactions in the network, compared to other blockchains, were very slow at all.

Now, against the backdrop of a growing number of transactions. And at the moment the number of transactions “in the queue” exceeded 400 thousand, the network’s fees have also increased, which adds to the negativity.

Thus, over time, the perception of Bitcoin as the first asset of the market may shift towards other projects. Which will offer reliable, fast and profitable transactions. Thus, the events of today may lead to a decrease in interest and capitalization of BTC in the long run.

However, there is no clear competitor at the moment. Therefore, market participants will continue to use Bitcoin. Current price movements are unlikely to be affected by these processes. But in the long term, such an “evolution” of the Bitcoin network raises questions.

Our experts have analyzed the situation on crypto market. And told how it can change for Bitcoin in the short term

Last week started not the best for Bitcoin. When against the background of weak Chinese statistics and the fall of the S&P500 index, the pair BTC/USDt fell to $27,666. It seemed that the situation would only worsen, but since May 2, the phase of recovery began thanks to the fall of the dollar index. And support from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Bitcoin has risen to $28,879.

However, there are still dangers to the U.S. economy. If Congress does not approve an increase in the national debt ceiling, the government will not be able to borrow additional funds. And it could find itself in a very difficult position. Since 1980, the U.S. government has shut down several times due to the inability to raise the national debt ceiling. Including closures in 1990, 1995-1996, 2013 and 2018-2019. Democrats and Republicans aren’t particularly worried about this.

After the publication of data on the labor market in the United States on May 4, the pair BTC/USDt rose to $29,677. However, investors remain generally quiet as buying activity in the cryptocurrency remained low.

The scenario of continuation of sideways movement on cyclic analysis is still confirmed. The beginning of a new rally on it falls on June 1.

According to BitRiver estimates, buyers have to fight for the level of $31,000. They need to pass it to make the price pattern on the daily timeframe “bullish”. Otherwise, the scales will start tipping to the sellers’ side.

Mining company Bitdeer expects to build a 100 MW power plant in Bhutan for carbon-free cryptocurrency mining. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

The investment arm of the Kingdom of Bhutan and mining company Bitdeer Technologies plan to find investors for a $500 million fund.

Fundraising will begin as early as the end of May. The purpose of the fund is to launch a carbon-free Bitcoin mining center. Which uses hydroelectric power, the two companies said in a joint filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the document, Bitdeer expects to build a 100-megawatt power plant in Bhutan. And its construction will begin in the second quarter and be completed in July-September.

Mining will be the least risky way for Bhutan to take advantage of cryptocurrency opportunities. And for now, the country will only focus on Bitcoin, said Ujjwal Deep Dahal, head of the investment arm of local firm Druk Holding & Investments, in a commentary for Bloomberg. Druk began mining cryptocurrencies as part of an experiment when bitcoin was still worth about $5,000, he said.

The kingdom of Bhutan

The Kingdom of Bhutan is located between China and India. And it has a population of about 800,000 people. The local economy relies heavily on revenues from hydropower. Druk manages public investments in traditional areas. These include stocks, bonds, technology, energy and real estate. It also mines cryptocurrencies and invests in what the company calls a “future-oriented” strategy.

The Bitdeer company is registered in Singapore and is owned by Chinese businessman Jihan Wu. And acts as one of the leading players in the cryptocurrency mining market in terms of aggregate capacity. Wu previously served on the board of directors of Bitmain, a leading manufacturer of mining equipment. And owned the BTC.com mining pool until February 2021.

Bitdeer went public on the NASDAQ exchange through a SPAC deal in April, and its shares trade under the ticker BTDR. The company owns one of the largest cryptocurrency mining centers in Texas. In the United States, rising electricity prices have led to the bankruptcy of several major cryptocurrency players. And on May 2, the presidential administration again raised the issue of imposing a 30% tax on miners.

Crypto Upvotes experts analyzed the situation in the Crypto market. And told how it can change in the short term, as well as what will happen to Bitcoin price

Last week was a hot one. Bitcoin rose in price by 7.63%, but this is no reason to panic. The growth of quotations began in the evening of April 9. Since the new week, purchases of the first cryptocurrency intensified amid the growth of U.S. stock indices. After the end of the holiday in the U.S. and strong Friday employment data. Investors raised the probability of another Federal Reserve rate hike in May by 25 basis points.

Since this pace of rate hikes has been factored in by the markets. Then buyers went on the offensive after a prolonged sideways trend. At first they took the level of $29,380, and on April 12 they tested the psychological level of $30,000. The price went up to $30,550.

The locomotive for the whole market was Ethereum (ETH). On the night of April 12-13, the Shapella update was successfully activated on the main Ethereum network, after which it became possible to withdraw blocked tokens from staking. There was no reaction to the network update. Apparently, investors wanted to see how staking would behave after coins were withdrawn. The effect was delayed. The Shapella update boosted trading volumes and supported the bullish trend of the major altcoins. The ETH/USDt pair was up to $2,128.

On April 12, the U.S. Labor Department released its inflation report. The consumer price index rose 0.1% month-on-month and 5% year-on-year. Although, of course, everyone was expecting inflation to match the 0.2% m/m and 5.2% y/y forecasts. The inflation report couldn’t stop Bitcoin’s rise. That’s because the rise was supported by the Ethereum rally. And then the dollar also fell to 101.16p after rising.

On April 14, the pair BTC/USDt was rising to the level of $31,000. It was not possible to move higher – the dollar turned up and the indices went down. The dollar rose at the end of the week on strong industrial production data, which rose 0.4% in March after rising 0.2% the previous month (the forecast was +0.2%).

Cryptocurrencies have gained a trump card.

By the end of the day U.S. stocks closed the day down. But they recorded weekly gains across the board. Investors appreciated the weak retail sales report. Which undermined the enthusiasm about the start of the quarterly reporting season.

Cryptocurrencies have gained a trump card. Democrats and Republicans continue to play the political game of who will do more damage to the United States. Congressmen are haggling and the Treasury Department is paying higher interest on debt service.

Democrats and Republicans continue to play a political game of who will do more damage to the United States. Congressmen are haggling and the Treasury Department is paying higher interest on debt service.

On April 11, the cost of U.S. default insurance jumped to the highest level in a decade. Default insurance on 5-year U.S. bonds rose to 42.91p.

In 2022, the U.S. paid $853 billion in interest on its government debt. This year, the amount of interest payments on government debt could reach $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion. Yellen warned that the government has enough money until June. The country could face default in July or August. Right now, it doesn’t matter if there is a default or not. Bitcoin and gold could act as protective assets against it. Gold in physical form and Bitcoin in digital form.

The technical picture for Bitcoin is favorable for continued upward movement. Now we can head to the area of $34-35 thousand. For ETH the nearest target is around $2,770.

Our experts told about the prerequisites for Bitcoin price growth. And assessed the prospects for further price movement of the first cryptocurrency

On April 11 Bitcoin rate exceeded $30.3 thousand for the first time since June 1, 2022. Within a day, the first cryptocurrency rose in price by $2 thousand. And its value increased by 7%.

Leading altcoins also rose in price, though not as much as the first cryptocurrency. Ethereum (ETH) price went up by 3.5%, to $1.91, BNB (BNB) – by 4.6%, to $327, Polygon (MATIC) – by 3.2%, to $1.13. Cardano (ADA) gained 4.7% to $0.4 and Ripple (XRP) rose 2.7% to $0.51.

The first goal for Bictoin is to fix it at $30,000

Bitcoin for the first time in 10 months broke through the key level of $30 thousand. The main trigger for the price increase was the investors’ confidence in the near completion of the US Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy phase. In fact, the strengthening of BTC could happen a few days earlier. But most investors were absent in trading because of Good Friday and Easter in Catholic world.

On Monday traders returned to work and reacted to Friday’s set of statistics about employment market in the USA. And quite naturally – with a rise in prices. NFP employment data showed that employers feel confident and leave hiring rates high.

BTC has gained 6.74% since the beginning of April versus a 23% appreciation in March. The important thing now is to get a foothold above $30k. And the next ambitious goal is $35k, but it will take time to reach it.

Bitcoin price prospects

Bitcoin moved to the growth after a long period of consolidation between $27 thousand and $28.5 thousand. BTC accumulated momentum and was able to overcome the resistance level around $28.5 thousand. And then on a wave of “bullish” sentiment took a new top – the long-awaited mark of $30 th.

It is hard to say whether there will be correction, because the market is waiting for the publication of data on consumer price growth in the USA (CPI). Which will be unveiled on April 12. This index always influences the situation on the cryptocurrency market. Here we should understand that it can both push up. And it can also push down and stop the growth of Bitcoin. And the continuation of high inflation can have both effects. That is, if inflation is still quite high and fails to meet expectations for a decline. BTC rate may react with both decrease and growth in the short term.

In the long term high inflation will most likely help Bitcoin to grow. Because BTC is seen by some investors as an instrument to hedge against inflation risks. The collapse of the banking system, which is not expected to fully manifest itself yet, also contributes to the growth of bitcoin. Part of the deposits that have been withdrawn from U.S. bank accounts. It eventually settles on the crypto market, as retail investors in a panic are looking for tools to preserve value. And they’re also afraid of a repeat of the 2008-2009 crisis.

Our experts answering a possible question whether investors will have an opportunity to buy Bitcoin “cheaply” for $15 thousand. Our experts remind that between $15k and $25k Bitcoin was trading for 275 days. That means investors had almost a year to decide to buy this asset. If they didn’t do that, now they’ll have to buy bitcoin at $30k. In short and medium term the price of BTC will hardly go lower than $20k.

Expect inflation data

Bitcoin for quite a long time was in the “sideways position”, accumulating strength for a breakthrough to the level of $30 thousand. This happens today the coin has overcome this mark.

Now the US inflation data is expected to be released in March. A slowdown in price growth will be positive for the stock market. And BTC usually follows it. A decline in inflation gives the odds that the Fed will move to easing monetary policy. And this will also push indices and cryptocurrencies up.

Also amid forecasts of a global recession, more and more investors are moving into crypto as a way to protect funds. This explains the influx of capital into the crypto market. Now everything depends on inflation data. Because its decline will give a chance for Bitcoin to rise to $32,000-34,000. And the increase in prices will be negative – then we can expect a fall to $27-28 thousand. By the end of the week, these trends will manifest themselves in full force.