Bitcoin price weekly analysis 15 August: Coin holds steady against big market moves
Bitcoin has wrestled back its majority market share for the first time all year, outpacing ether and Bitcoin Cash.
Key takeaways
- Although its weekly price is down, bitcoin managed to weather the cryptocurrency market storm.
- Trading volumes increased by about 11% week-on-week, amidst a suffering cryptocurrency market.
- The plunging Turkish lira causes a spike in bitcoin interest.
The world's most popular digital currency, bitcoin, has experienced much volatility over the past week.
Starting the week Tuesday 7 August at US$7,112.99, the token sank as low as US$6,226.22 in less than 24 hours.
From there, bitcoin enjoyed a solid resurgence, peaking at US$6,621.00 on Thursday 9 August before again slipping down to a low of US$6,125.43 on Friday 10 August, amidst a number of sharp market fluctuations.
The token jumped up to US$6,451.77 on Saturday before tumbling down again throughout "bloody" Monday.
At the time of writing, the coin was valued at just US$6,133.25.
Trading volumes over 24 hours were driven higher over the last week, up from US$4.68 billion to US$5.22 billion.
Analysts at Bitcoinist suggest that bearish sentiment has advanced hastily over the past few weeks, with short positions at crypto exchange Bitfinex swelling from 17,000 to 34,000 during the price decline from US$7,500 to US$5,900. In addition, long positions sank to 26,000, meaning there are 30% more bears than bulls.
finder's cryptocurrency analyst Andrew Munro reported that bitcoin remained stable against the hellscape that was the altcoin market. Stablecoins were similarly in-demand, straining upwards against their pegs.
This was a continuation of recent trends, with the happiest indicator being bitcoin's relative resilience against the rest of the market. It's now comfortably above 50% market share for the first time all year.
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The Turkish lira has been in sharp decline, falling 50% against the US dollar over the last year. It was hit especially hard over the last few days, with a corresponding spike in bitcoin interest. Sinking prices notwithstanding, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are clearly finding function as an alternative store of value.
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