Crypto Digest. 11.10

Bitcoin hit a short-term six-month high today. The price of the asset on some trading floors exceeded $57,000, but quickly retreated.

At the same time, the coin now has more chances to maintain the upward dynamics of movement than to roll back. Recall that crypto market experts such as Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz and Bloomberg strategist Mike McGlone have repeatedly predicted that the price of BTC could reach $100,000 by the end of this year.

Among other important events of the past weekend, it is worth paying attention to the cessation of sales of Bitmain mining equipment in the Chinese market, the fall in exchange balances of bitcoin and ether, as well as new data on increased institutional interest in leading digital currencies. We will again touch on the topic of El Salvador, which legalized bitcoin.

A new record is just around the corner?

The price of bitcoin on Monday, October 11, is around $56,542 (+2.42%). Cryptocurrency capitalization increased by almost 20% over the week to $1.055 trillion.

Altcoins are suffering losses after taking off at the end of last week. Capital is now clearly going into bitcoin, which is increasingly seen as a hedging tool. Dogecoin (DOGE) suffered the largest losses from the TOP-10 altcoins. Elon Musk’s favorite coin lost almost 5% in price and fell to $0.232.

Ether (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) fell to $3,565 and $2.21, respectively. The rest of the major cryptocurrencies – Binance Coin (BNB), XRP and Solana (SOL) fell back to $416, $1.16 and $149, respectively. The capitalization of the crypto market has decreased to $2.315 trillion (according to CoinMarketCap).

The rollback of altcoins is corrective in nature. Losses are insignificant, and soon the trend should change for the better. The decline in the exchange balance of bitcoin and ether helps to ease pressure from sellers. According to CryptoQuant, the number of BTC on exchanges is now at a minimum since October 2017, that is, before the famous December run of this cryptocurrency.

A similar situation is observed around the ether. At the end of last week, centralized exchanges left $402 million worth of ETH, according to a report from IntoTheBlock. Over the past 24 hours, investors have withdrawn another 3,245 bitcoins and 11,551 ETH from the trading floors. This is evidenced by the data of the ViewBase platform.

This trend contributes to the formation of a shortage of cryptocurrency supply and a further increase in its value, experts say.

Institutionals share the pie

The increased interest of institutional investors in bitcoin is evidenced by the data on the increase in open interest in BTC futures. Glassnode research says that the amount of futures contracts in October was higher than September values ​​by 45%, or by $5.6 billion. Now this figure reaches $17.6 billion.

A similar situation is observed with other cryptocurrencies. Open interest in Ethereum and Solana futures is also on the rise, according to ByBt, now at $9.15 billion and $1.13 billion, respectively.

The interest of large players is also increasing in such an exotic coin as SHIBA, which showed explosive growth in October after a tweet by Elon Musk. The amount of outstanding contracts focused on this token showed an all-time high ($80.89 million). Even at its peak in May, investor involvement was weaker.

Another blow to Chinese miners

Chinese miners have been under pressure for the past few months. First, they began to be forced out of the country by the authorities, which led to a record drop in computing power in the bitcoin network in June. Now, Bitmain has stopped selling cryptocurrency mining equipment in mainland China.

The giant made this decision in strict accordance with the requirements of the leadership of the Celestial Empire, which banned mining. Since October 11, the supply of Antminer series devices to the Chinese market has been stopped. At the same time, their deliveries to Hong Kong and Taiwan remain the same, the company said in an official statement.

Back in late September, information was received about Bitmain’s intention to stop selling its products in China. The bitcoin hashrate reacted with a fall to the news about such a decision of the company, but the disaster did not happen. Since the June lows, network computing power has increased by more than 140% to date, according to the Glassnode platform. Now the hashrate is about 141 exahash per second (EH/s).

Although experts believe that there is no reason to panic, and in the coming days, the hash rate should recover due to the redistribution of capacities in North America and Europe, where miners from China moved.

El Salvador takes care of animals with bitcoin

Part of the profits received from investments in military-technical cooperation, the authorities of El Salvador will direct the construction of a veterinary hospital. The corresponding statement was made by the President of the country Nayib Bukele.

Recall that in early September of this year, a bill recognizing BTC as legal tender came into force in El Salvador.

Last Sunday, Bukele tweeted that the return on investment in the popular cryptocurrency was about $4 million. Part of this money will go to the construction of a veterinary hospital with four operating rooms, several clinics and a rehabilitation area. The hospital will be equipped with the equipment necessary to carry out 64 types of operations and provide assistance in 128 emergency cases.

The President of El Salvador showed the layout of the hospital on his page in social networks. However, many of his subscribers reacted extremely negatively to the initiative of the head of state. They started posting comments urging Nayiba Bukele to invest this money in improving the quality of medical care for citizens.

Other social media users believe that these funds should be used to modernize the financial infrastructure of El Salvador.

Sources: ViewBase, CoinMarketCap, Glassnode, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, Twitter, ByBt, IntoTheBlock, Blockchain.com