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Bitcoin price is back to its support level at just above $4300. From here a breakout could take the price to $4546 in the near term. The recent breakouts have been gradual but strong. Various attempts by the by the bears to sink the digital currency have failed.
However, Bitcoin will face some resistance between $4546 and $4680. If it manages to cross the resistance levels, expect the cryptocurrency to test new highs once again. Although, ther eis a good chance we may not see Bitcoin breaking past $5000 because of the upcoming Segwit2x hardfork.
It is important to note that Segwit2x will need miners’ support more than anything else. Miners will only mine the chain which is more profitable to them. Bitcoin hashrate and difficulty continues to rise. Difficulty is up 131% since the beginning of the year. The most recent adjustment on September 18th was the largest since February 2016.
That said, we have seen the volatility in price to considerably go down since the shutdown of bitcoin exchanges in China but there is no shortage of catalysts that might spark a big move either way.
Geopolitical risks are still at play. To start with, the recent Las Vegas attack is keeping the traders on the edge. There’s also the looming risk of a strike from North Korea, although their recent rhetoric seems to favor a less hostile approach. Other factors that could potentially dictate Bitcoin volatility are; uncertainty stemming from German politics, Catalonia’s independence vote, and Brexit.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Charlie Lee describes how Coinbase and other exchanges will handle Segwit2x hardfork
Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin, took it to reddit to break it down how the next potential hardfork will play out. Especially, he outlined how Coinbase and other exchanges must deal with Segiwt2x.
He said, “Because this 2x hardfork is so contentious, Coinbase cannot handle it the same way they handled the ETC and BCH hardfork. In other words, they can’t just choose one fork and ignore the other fork. Choosing to support only one fork (whichever that is) would cause a lot of confusion for users and open them up to lawsuits. So Coinbase is forced to support both forks at the time of the hardfork and need to let the market decide which is the real Bitcoin.”
The reddit post can be found here. Interestingly, Coinbase has so far refrained from any official announcements about SegWit2x, having been one of the original signees of Barry Silbert’s New York Agreement – the genesis of the fork – in May.
2. Bitpay volumes surge 328%
Bitpay is set to process $1 billion per year in Bitcoin payments as its merchants see a combined 328 percent annual volume growth.
“We’re now on pace to process over $1 bln annually in Bitcoin payment acceptance and payouts, and we’ve already grown our payments dollar volume 328 percent year-over-year from 2016,” the company confirmed.
Why it matters: Bitcoin’s success it directly proportional to the adoption rate. When there were not many users back in 2012, Bitcoin price hovered below $100. Now when Bitcoin is going mainstream with more and more merchants accepting it as payment, we can expect the price to rise with it.
3. Dubai to issue first ever state cryptocurrency
The local government in Dubai has officially launched its own cryptocurrency called emCash. The cryptocurrency would be used for payment of governmental and nongovernmental services.
Dubai is a country that wants to be first in everything. It isn’t surprising that they want to be the first one to launch their own cryptocurrency.
Notably, the token will be considered legal tender “for various government and non-government services, from their daily coffee and children’s school fee to utility charges and money transfers.”