Weekly News Digest for Oct 5–11. Market Update | by Bitcoin.com | Oct, 2024

The cryptocurrency market experienced significant volatility last week, with Bitcoin fluctuating around $60,000 amid heightened liquidation activity and geopolitical tensions. Over 100,000 traders were affected by mass liquidations as Bitcoin briefly fell below $60K. Despite this, JPMorgan analysts remain bullish on Bitcoin for Q4, citing the historical “Uptober” trend. Ethereum saw bearish signals, while NFTs rebounded with a 10% sales increase. AI cryptos outperformed, nearing a $30 billion market cap. Midweek, Bitcoin fell to $60.5K, driven by institutional sell pressure on Coinbase. Analysts predict further gains if rate cuts materialize, but volatility remains a concern.

Nearly half of U.S. voters prioritize pro-crypto policies and would cross party lines for candidates supporting the crypto industry, with 85% wanting presidential candidates to adopt pro-crypto positions. The study by Consensys and Harrisx revealed that the Biden administration is perceived as not doing enough for crypto regulation, and voters prefer politicians who promise to protect against crypto scams. Among U.S. politicians, Donald Trump is viewed as having a better grasp of the crypto industry than Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

Bitcoin’s transfer volumes in 2024 reached record highs, with the busiest days for transactions ever recorded in the cryptocurrency’s history occurring this year, surpassing the previous year’s metrics. By October 6, 2024, Bitcoin had processed 145,225,680 transactions, putting it on track to break the annual record set in 2023 within the next two weeks. Despite these milestones, Bitcoin’s transaction per second rate remains slower compared to traditional financial networks and other blockchain alternatives, indicating challenges in scalability that the network still needs to address.

During his visit to Argentina, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele discussed bitcoin and the proposed “volcano bonds” with Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel and a group of national senators. The talks, which were private, saw Villarruel express keen interest in El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin and the potential financing use for Bitcoin City through volcano bonds. Additionally, the meeting covered cryptocurrency regulation, with Villarruel later revealing discussions on the creation of Argentina’s National Commission of Digital Assets (CNAD).

The Argentine Coin House is set to be closed as part of Javier Milei’s government’s cost-cutting measures. This move was announced by the Deregulation and State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, who also indicated that additional state-dependent institutions might be shut down. The Coin House’s duties, which include the design and printing of the nation’s paper money, will be privatized, potentially leading to the importation of paper currency.

Polymarket, a blockchain-based predictions platform, reached a new trading volume high of $533.51 million in September, driven by the upcoming U.S. election and a surge in active users to 90,037. The platform’s largest market revolves around predicting the winner of the 2024 Presidential Election, with equal odds for candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. September also saw a record number of new accounts created and the highest-ever monthly share of election betting at 84% of Polymarket’s market predictions.

An X account named “Wicked” has suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto may have executed 51% attacks on the Bitcoin network in May 2009, a claim based on the pattern of ExtraNonce data in the coinbase transaction of blocks. Wicked’s theory, which stems from observations that Satoshi controlled over 75% of the network’s hashrate, hypothesizes that these attacks were tests to understand their effects on Bitcoin’s blockchain. Despite the speculative nature of these claims, there is no known correspondence from that period confirming such activities, leaving the crypto community intrigued but without definitive answers.

Bitcoin’s hashrate is nearing its all-time high, reaching 680 exahash per second as block times have been quicker than the standard ten-minute average. An impending network difficulty increase of 3.22% is expected around Oct. 9 due to these faster block times. Despite a previous drop in difficulty, the network showcases its resilience, with hashrate growth indicating its ongoing strength.

Twelve U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs and nine spot ether ETFs experienced significant outflows of $54.13 million and $3.2 million respectively on Thursday, with cumulative net outflows since late July totaling over half a billion dollars. Grayscale’s ETHE and Fidelity’s FETH funds were hit hard with losses, but Blackrock’s ETHA attracted positive inflows, somewhat mitigating overall losses for ether ETFs. Despite these withdrawals, IBIT, Bitwise’s BITB, and Invesco’s BTCO saw positive inflows, and the current holdings for both ether and bitcoin ETFs still represent significant portions of the total market capitalizations of their respective cryptocurrencies.