Bitcoin (BTC) price has recently entered a consolidation phase, fluctuating between $61,000 and $62,000 after a brief dip to $58,000 on June 24. While retail investors have shown renewed interest alongside institutional counterparts, the market faces a mixed bag of signs of high and possible headlines.
Retail Investors Return to Bitcoin
In a recent social media postsCrypto analyst Ali Martinez highlights the resurgence of retail investors, as evidenced by a four-month high in new BTC addresses reaching 432,026, adding to sentiment that investors are betting on a significant BTC price increase in the coming months despite recent price volatility.
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In a separate publish Analyzing BTC’s recent price action, Martinez also suggested that the market’s largest cryptocurrency is currently confined within a parallel channel, with a potential recovery to $63,200 or $63,800 if the lower boundary of $62,500 holds.
In particular, Martinez quote the critical resistance areas of $65,795 and $78,700 as key targets if BTC breaks above them.
However, not all news is positive for the Bitcoin market. In the last 72 hours, BTC miners sold over 2,300 BTC worth approximately $145 million. This selling pressure adds to the ongoing sale of BTC confiscated by the US and German governments.
Mining industry under pressure
The mining industry is facing challenges due to lower network fees and reduced block rewards resulting from the April Halving event.
Kaiko Research grades that average network fees have decreased from $3 to $5, a significant drop from $45 in January. The halving has caused block rewards to be reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, impacting miner revenue.
This reduction in revenues has put pressure on miners, undermining profitability, while fixed expenses such as energy, wages and rents remain constant. Lower network tariffs have further contributed to the reduction in revenues.
Historically, Bitcoin price rallies following halving events have helped miners offset the drop in rewards. However, the price of Bitcoin has remained relatively unchanged since April 19. software update.
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In April, rates briefly rose to nearly $150 due to increased minting of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the BTC blockchain. While this temporarily relieved miners, fees have since returned to average levels.
According to Bloomberg, Marathon Digital, one of the largest Bitcoin miners, sold 390 BTC in May and plans to sell more tokens to manage its finances.
Kaiko Research warns that the risk of forced selling by miners could persist in the coming months. As a result, the industry is expected to witness consolidation as miners seek to “consolidate assets” and “increase efficiency.”
Notable examples include Bitfarms Ltd.’s “hostile takeover attempt” of Riot Blockchain miner and CleanSpark Inc.’s recent deal. transactions with all shares.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is still consolidating within its $61,880 range, down 2% in the 24-hour period, erasing all gains over the past 30 days as losses in this period amount to 9%.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com