Bitcoin sits down some 8% today, at around $44,000 at press time.
That’s wildly lower than highs of $60,000 per coin set only weeks ago. It’s also far above prior peaks at around $20,000.
In fact, Bitcoin seems to have settled into a kind of median figure – for now.
In the context of what’s been happening with Bitcoin the past few weeks, though, many are pointing to ongoing words and actions by Elon Musk as moving crypto markets practically single-handedly, and specifically, his sudden decision to stop accepting Bitcoin for Tesla payments had a real impact. According to Musk’s words on the subject, it’s the energy-hungry nature of the cryptocurrency that gave him pause – but surely he knew about that when he made the decision to let customers pay in BTC in the first place??
Some say it’s “Musk versus the cryptocurrency community” in a “full-on war,” though it’s unclear what kind of practical tools are in the cryptocurrency communities arsenal when Musk can basically move stocks and assets by tweeting about them.
A story by William Suberg at Cointelegraph cites Alex Krueger (introduced only as “an analyst”) as saying Musk’s latest tweet is an unwitting “local bottom signal” and praising the South African entrepreneur’s expertise in technical analysis.
Going back to the future of Bitcoin, analysts are looking at a rather strange metric – the coin’s dominance in terms of market cap, which has reportedly ducked under the 40% mark. In the past, it’s been the coin’s market dominance in terms of market share, along with hash rate and other indicators, that’s driven a lot of the analysis. But in any form, measuring Bitcoin’s market size against competitors does give some type of insight.
However, a decent hash rate and other indicators suggest Bitcoin is still attractive to miners, so that’s good news for BCT fans who want to beat the Muskian blues.
Meanwhile in the current cryptocurrency selloff, altcoins like Dogecoin and Cardano have also slumped. Cardano (ADA) had been trading on its potential as a replacement or rival for Ethereum-based smart contract systems, and people were expecting Musk’s SNL appearance to boost Dogecoin as a largely speculative asset.
Watch the skies for changes in your favorite coin’s value. There’s still quite a bit of volatility in play – and nobody really knows what Musk will tweet next.
