Summary
- Bitcoin builds on institutional adoption to trigger an upward trend.
- The slowdown in BTC price action looks may trigger more purchases and drive up prices.
Bitcoin kept its sideways trading once again, going down by 2.4% in 24 hours to trade at $57,527 at the time of this writing. BTC has come within touching distance of the $60,000 mark several times in the past week but has failed to hit the mark and had fallen further by 0.5% for the week.
Despite its struggles, Bitcoin continues to attract significant Institutional interest, which will certainly provide traction for an upswing.
BTC is still attractive to institutions
BTC’s price action has been largely due to institution-driven demand. The asset has firmly established itself as an investment asset and has consequently continued to attract more investors. With its value already established, the recent slowdown in price movement will most likely spur increased purchases, which will drive prices up.
Yesterday, Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s CEO, revealed via his Twitter account that the company bought $13 million worth of BTC. The latest acquisition means that MicroStrategy now holds around 91,580 BTC worth about $51 billion, going by the prevailing market prices.
Elsewhere, Grayscale recently announced plans to convert its BTC trust into an EFT. Additionally, the company revealed that it had earlier submitted its proposal for a BTC EFT in 2016. However, they later called back their proposal due to a hostile business environment that wouldn’t allow for swift and safe implementation of the proposal.
In another significant adoption of BTC, NBA franchise, Sacramento Kings, has announced that they will use BTC as a payment option for their players and staff. The announcement was made by the club’s chairman, governor, and CEO, Vivek Ranadivé. The basketball team has for some time been receiving BTC as a payment option for its products and merchandise by partnering with BitPay.
A BTC and digital currency exchange firm, Gemini, this week revealed that they were working in conjunction with a Brazilian investment bank. Gemini will be the owner and trade implementation partner for the first BTC fund initiated by an investment bank in Brazil.
In another evidence of mainstreaming of Bitcoin, leading currency supply chain management solutions provider, Morphis, has partnered with General Bytes, a BTC/crypto ATM manufacturing firm. The General Bytes equipment will use the Morphis software to trace all the transaction data instead of installing their own.
Things are looking up regardless of the current prices
BTC in South Korea is trading at over $66,600 due to the high demand for the crypto-asset at the country’s largest exchanges, Bithumb and Korbit exchange platforms. This represents a 15% higher price than the Bitcoin price in the international markets. The margin has been labeled as kimchi premium after a dish in Korea. On global exchange markets, for example, Coinbase and Binance, Bitcoin trades at around $58,000.
Working a way out of regulatory concerns
As jitters over regulatory interference with the adoption of BTC continue to rise, some firms have teamed up to propose a win-win situation for all players. They include Square Inc., Fidelity, and Coinbase. These firms aim to undertake research and sensitize the regulators into understanding the economic benefits of digital products and their technologies.
Similarly, a government agency in Spain, The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), has initiated a study to interrogate the opinions of members of the public concerning the effects of digital currencies on the economy and ways of regulating their use and adoption. The agency is collecting opinions of investors, companies, and employees via emails.
BTC/USD technical outlook
BTC/USD will find support at $56,848. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) of the BTC/USD pair is 52, which builds a strong case for a potential bullish charge. The first support will be at $58,842, beyond which it will reach for the second resistance at $59,600.