MicroStrategy has bought another 467 BTC since June 30. And at the end of July, it owned 152,800 Bitcoins

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy may raise up to $750 million by selling its shares to three companies. And the proceeds may be used, among other things, to buy Bitcoins. And this is what the company said in a statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 1.

“As with previous programs, we may use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. And which include the purchase of bitcoins and the repurchase or repayment of our outstanding debt,” the company clarified.

MicroStrategy bought another $361.4 million worth of Bitcoins in the second quarter of 2023. And what was the largest coin purchase by the company since the cryptocurrency’s price peak in late 2021. Since June 30, the company has purchased an additional 467 coins. This brings the total value of Bitcoins held by the company to about $4.53 billion. As of July 31, the company owned 152,800 BTC.

Our experts note that the company purchased between April 29 and June 27 at an average price of about $28,136 per 1 BTC. Additionally, another 12,333 bitcoins for a total of $347 million.
This purchase brings the total number of Bitcoins held by the company to 152,333 BTC, which is approximately $4.6 billion at the exchange rate at the time of publication. The company paid a total of about $4.52 billion for these bitcoins, with an average purchase price of about $29,668 per 1 BTC, including commissions and other expenses.

Our experts have assessed how realistic the forecast from Standard Chartered looks. And what we can actually expect from the price of the first cryptocurrency

Bitcoin (BTC) may reach $50 thousand this year and $120 thousand by the end of 2024. This was stated in a recent report by analysts at Standard Chartered. The bank back in April published a Bitcoin price forecast for the end of 2024 – $100 thousand, explaining that the crypto winter is coming to an end. One of the bank’s leading currency analysts, Jeff Kendrick, says that now 20 per cent should be added to this forecast.

Standard Chartered is a large British bank with operations around the world. The company’s assets, according to Forbes, amount to $820.7bn. Standard Chartered has a network of 1.2 thousand branches in more than 70 countries.

A conservative enough scenario

We believe this scenario is quite realistic given the approaching halving in April 2024 and the inflow of capital into the crypto market by large investment funds such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments.

Bitcoin will gradually rise to the $50k level. But the really noticeable growth is expected in mid-August. And when the first deadline of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Bitcoin-ETF decision will pass. Growth could then continue into September and October. And when, according to many analysts, the Fed’s rate hike cycle will end. And already next year, on the background of halving, the price of BTC, quite probably, can reach the mark of $100-120 thousand.

The market has been in a state of consolidation for several weeks. And the BTC rate is fluctuating around $30,500. The nearest important events that can affect the market are reports on the consumer price index (CPI). And producer price index (PPI) in the U.S. on 12 and 13 July, respectively, which may affect the Fed’s rate decision.

Our experts note that the meeting itself will be held on 26 July. Both experts and traders are already confident in raising the current rate from 5.25 to 5.50%. And that could potentially cause a slight correction in the Bitcoin rate.

Bitcoin could exceed $125,000 in 1.5 years, analysts suggest, based on past signals

The head of research and strategy at cryptocurrency marketplace Matrixport, Marcus Thielen, predicted. That Bitcoin could surpass $125k by 2025. According to historical data, the reversal to a multi-month rally is off to a good start. And once prices reach a yearly high, thereby confirming the end of the bearish cycle.

The signal was formed at the end of last June, when the exchange rate of BTC exceeded $31k. Earlier impulses were recorded in August 2012, December 2015. And in May 2019 and August 2020, preceding the first cryptocurrency’s active rate hike.

Given the data on the asset’s yields from the most important marks during these periods, Thielen speculated. That over the next 12 months the value of the coin will rise by 123%, to $65,539, and over 1.5 years will increase by 310%, to $125,731.

On the day of July 6, Bitcoin price momentarily reached $31,500, the first time this has happened since the beginning of the year. VTS has risen by more than 3% overnight and by almost 90% since January 1.

Our experts note that the price of some other cryptocurrencies rose after Bitcoin. Solana (SOL) was among the leaders of the day, rising 5.7% to $20.18. Bitcoin Cash also continued to grow markedly.

Our experts talked about the reasons for Bitcoin Cash price growth and its prospects as an asset for big investors

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency reacted with a sharp jump to the news of the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange. For institutional investors, EDX Markets and doubled in less than a week.

The cryptocurrency began to rise in value after news of the launch of EDX Markets, a cryptocurrency exchange for institutional investors, in the United States. Which was backed by major financial firms such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets and Charles Schwab. The new exchange offers trading in four cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The other three assets on EDX were Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC). A week before, BlackRock also applied for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for Bitcoin, which also added to the market’s optimism.

A bit of history

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash emerged in 2017 as a modified copy (fork) of Bitcoin itself with an increased transaction block size. This approach made payments in BCH faster and cheaper compared to the “original” Bitcoin. But it did not solve a number of other technical problems, including the lack of support from interested professional developers. Proponents of Bitcoin Cash promotion, the most famous of which is considered to be Roger Wehr. He positioned it specifically as a currency for everyday payments, as opposed to Bitcoin as a store of value.

Bitcoin Cash has long been a weak asset, losing most of its development team. The coin’s attractiveness for miners was also questionable. And the development of its ecosystem as a crypto project was losing not only to new tokens and more scalable projects. But also Bitcoin itself as a leader in terms of use as a payment instrument.

Bitcoin Cash now

Now there was a change because BCH had a low base effect. This is when one positive factor was enough for the price to take off. And the participants, who played on the decrease, were liquidated. In fact, the price growth occurred precisely due to liquidations, our experts say.

The second important factor was that BCH appeared as an asset on the EDX Markets. The choice of this asset is clear, because it has almost no risk of being recognized as a security. This means they can be traded without the risk of encountering the actions of regulators. Thus, American investors saw this as a signal to buy the asset. And which in the long run could become a legally traded cryptocurrency in the U.S.

Bitcoin is the undisputed leader among institutional investors. But it so happens that BCH, LTC, ETH as old projects of the crypto market also enjoy some popularity among them. The main reason is that these coins have already proved their viability. And secondly, they are highly likely not to be classified as securities. For institutionalists who don’t just manage their own money. But above all other people’s, this is a large and significant factor in making investment decisions, our experts say

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 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.

The number of BTC “hodlers” is increasing as fast as it did in the spring of 2021. When the asset first reached $64,000.

The number of long-term Bitcoin holders earlier this year is growing at its fastest pace since spring 2021. When the BTC exchange rate first rose to $64,000. The growth in the number of “hodlers” may be due to the fact that more and more traders stop operations and decide to just keep the asset.

Since the beginning of this year, Bitcoin’s exchange rate has increased by 71%. The asset was trading at $16.5 thousand on January 31, while on April 10, its price was around $28.3 thousand. The maximum value for this period was $29.1 thousand, which BTC crossed on March 30 for the first time since June 2022.

During the 2021 Bitcoin rally, the number of BTC holders rose from about 34 million to 39 million. The growth rate then slowed. And by early 2023, that number had risen to about 44 million. But then the number of “hodlers” started growing faster again. And by April, it exceeded 46.1 million.

Our experts note that over the past 24 hours, BTC rose in price  by 6%, to $30 thousand. Following the first cryptocurrency, prices for other digital assets are increasing.

Our experts have analyzed the situation on crypto market and told how it can change in the short term and what will happen to Bitcoin price

The final week of March on the crypto market began with a decrease in the pair BTC/USDt. Bitcoin fell by 5.81% to $28,484. The fall was caused by negative news in the crypto industry. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against the head of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, and the heads of three other organizations that run the Binance platform. The regulator claims that the exchange failed to register as a platform that trades cryptocurrency derivatives. And therefore had no right to provide services to U.S. clients. However, it actively worked with U.S. investors, ignoring legal regulations.

In zone $26.5-26.6 thousand buyers regrouped and fought back on the positive news from the banking sector and the rise of American indices. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced that deposits and loans from bankrupt Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) are going to U.S. First-Citizens Bank.

On March 29, bitcoin recouped earlier losses, returning to the $29,184 level. Risk appetite returned for market participants as concerns about the banking sector eased following congressional hearings on the SVB bankruptcy.

Rising movement did not continue. The buyers, having met sellers’ volumes, started to fix profits from long positions. It was a purely technical factor, because this day external background was on the side of buyers. Also the dollar index was declining and S&P 500 futures were rising.

In the evening the buyers’ activity might have been low because of the speeches of the U.S. Federal Reserve representatives, who supported the further tightening of the monetary policy, despite the collapse of the three American banks.

On Friday (March 31), the price corrected to $27,511 and then went back to $28,656. Buyers have so far ignored the U.S. crackdown on Binance, Coinbase and TRON founder Justin Sun. This comes amid a rally in stock indexes and weakness in the U.S. dollar.

The S&P 500 index rose 3.23% to 4,109 points for the week and 6.88% for the quarter. Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2023 rose 72.08% against the dollar to $28,465.

Waiting for a level test of $30,000 for Bitcoin

In this week of April 3-9, the focus of market participants will be on U.S. statistics. These statistics will include: business activity in the manufacturing and services sectors, industrial production data, the labor market report for March. In Europe, it is a shortened week. Europeans will celebrate Good Friday on Friday (April 7) and Easter on Monday (April 10). Liquidity will affect the dollar, and through the currency market, the crypto market.

According to our experts’ estimates, the quarterly timeframe indicates a price recovery to $34,000. At the same time, the monthly – to $43,000 by August (with a very positive external situation). If the market gets stormy because of the actions of U.S. regulators or new bankruptcies, then by mid-September. Here we need to look at what wave structure of upward movement will be formed when the level of $34,000 is reached. Therefore, we are waiting for the test of $30,000 for Bitcoin this week.

Our experts explained how a private miner managed to get a reward for the found block. With hardly noticeable computing power he was able to get 6 BTC

A lucky private miner, with barely a fraction of the processing power in the Bitcoin network. He received a reward of 6.35 BTC for finding a block numbered 772,793.

The chances of adding a block as a single miner are determined by the number of hashes. Which the miner device calculates per second. Relative to the total number of hashes that all the machines on the network compute each second.

Typically, blocks are mined by large pools combining the power of thousands of devices participating in a pool of users. The largest of them are Foundry, AntPool and Exchange of Binance’s own pool.

At the time the block was added to blockchain, the total bitcoin hashrate was just over 269 EH/s. That is, a single miner’s hash rate of 10 TH/s was only 0.000000037% of the total computing power of that network.

Chance of getting such a reward is like a big win in a lottery

Our experts say that this is an extremely atypical case. One miner privately can work for 30 years and not pick up the right hash during this time. At the same time he will consume electricity and produce a resource of equipment. The risks of finding nothing and making a loss are much greater.

It’s like buying a lottery ticket. You can buy one ticket every day and not get a win. Or you can buy one single time and win, but the chances are slim. If you approach mining as a business, it is more pragmatic to get a more modest but guaranteed income every day.

Now hashrate of network is 283 million TH/s against 10,6 TH/s capacity of unknown miner. In theory, with such parameters of the equipment it should mine one block out of almost 27 thousand mined blocks. Considering that about 900 BTC are mined per day, that’s about one block in 81 years.

Solo mining can be used when mining new coins, where the network capacity is quite low. And one person’s equipment takes a noticeable share of the entire processing power of the network. With pools, the probability of receiving remuneration increases many times over. But the user receives only a share of the reward, proportionally calculated from the entire computing power of the pool.

Bitcointalk forum users, discussing the lucky miner. came to the conclusion that his setup consisted of four rudimentary USB miners, each of which produced no more than 3 TH/s and cost about $200.

Our experts congratulate this guy, but remind us that it was a lucky lottery ticket.

Growth in securities of mining companies in January reached the highest monthly level in at least a year. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

The MVIS Global Digital Assets Mining Index, which includes data on the 20 largest miners. Such as Riot Blockchain, Galaxy Digital, Bitfarms and Iris Energy, is up 64 percent since the beginning of January 2023. This month, the indicator posted its biggest increase since its inception in December 2021. In doing so, Bitfarms securities rose more than 140%. And shares of Marathon Digital Holdings were up more than 120%. And Hive Blockchain Technologies more than doubled.

The growth of miners’ shares was caused by the recovery of Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency since the beginning of January rose in price by 26.5% – from $ 16.6 thousand to $ 21 thousand. And on January 16 Bitcoin rate updated its maximum for 4 months, exceeding the mark of $ 21.4 thousand.

Profits of miners also increased against the growth of the crypto market. Despite the fact that the complexity of Bitcoin mining has grown to record levels. And more and more miners are plugging in, increasing hash rates. Luxor Hashprice Index – showing how much income a Bitcoin miner can expect. With a certain amount of hashrate – up 21% this year.

However, our experts note that it is unknown how long the growth of mining companies’ quotes will last. Cryptocurrency mining companies faced financial difficulties in 2022 and were forced to sell the mined cryptocurrency. As well as to return the equipment, reduce costs and personnel.