Photo: Tim Reckmann / Flickr
Bitcoin’s (BTC) network hash rate went over 102 quintillion hashes for the first time ever which is a historic milestone for the cryptocurrency.
As the data show, on September 18, the hash rate reached its record of exactly 102.8 quintillion hashes.
Hash rate explains the amount of computing power that is needed in processing Bitcoin transactions. The higher the number of hashes is, the more miners are competing in order to get the block reward.
Since December 2018, the hash rate has been rising from its recent low of 31 quintillion hashes per second, that represents quite an impressive progress.
Be it as it may, this growth may be an early sign for the future price growth since the hash rate began rising in January and the price followed as well.
However, after yesterday’s expectations that VanEck/SolidX would finally succeed in their attempt to start their Bitcoin exchange-traded-fund, CBOE BZX decided to withdraw their proposal.
This decision came a month before SEC’s final deadline of the approval verdict.
Because of that, the market went in a correction today so even though yesterday we saw all major cryptos rising, today we have witnessed Bitcoin fall of 1.53% to $10.069.
Let’s also not forget that today SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said he doesn’t see the reason why Bitcoin would be traded on any major exchange until it’s “better regulated.”
After this SEC’s step, all eyes are turned to Bakkt’s launch that should happen next week.
Bakkt is viewed as the first company that will be offering physically-settled Bitcoins. Other futures offerings for Bitcoin are those of CME, Wilshire Phoenix, Bitwise Asset Management, CBOE’s VanEck Bitcoin Solid Trust, etc.
It is believed that institutional players are already depositing BTC into Bakkt trading account. Last week a gigantic transaction happened that involved the sending of 94,505 BTC (worth roughly $1 billion) to a Bitcoin wallet and it is speculated that this is a kind of the deposit.
On the other hand, the market for CME Bitcoin futures fell to its lowest level in four months, with volumes about 50% lower than it was the record result back in July. The futures market behavior was viewed as an indicator for weakening Bitcoin (BTC) performance.
Q: Why is #Bitcoin stuck at $10K?
A: Its because people haven’t forgot the CME future launch in December 2017, which made BTC crash 80%.
The fear for #Bakkt launch is still there, and I’m curious to see how fear affects the price as we move closer to the launch date (Sep 23)
— Crypto Welson 📊 (@CryptoWelson) September 13, 2019
Some analysts think that Bitcoin could finally come to an end of its five-month trading pattern called a symmetrical triangle.
In general, it represents a chart that is distinguished by two connected trend lines with the theory that once the lines converge, a break out occurs.
The report from Decrypt says that “while it’s impossible to predict what will happen next, when a break out does occur — for example, a price drop or rise that falls outside the trend lines, it’s likely to be sizable”.
Forbes’ analyst Billy Bambrough says that the entrance of Bakkt into the market could be a real tipping point. Just for a reminder, Bakkt was founded by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, back in 2018 and last year managed to upraised $182.5 million in venture capital funding.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper is also convinced that Bitcoin will rise and said that he believes that Bitcoin will hit $250,000 by 2022, a prediction he first made in 2018.
