- Bitcoin rebounded positively after a rocky weekend following Opec’s decision to cut global oil output.
- The network’s mining difficulty is on course to hit a new milestone while dormant holdings continue their blistering run.
- Bitcoin is treading toward the $30,000 mark as it continues its upward trajectory for the second week.
After a choppy weekend, Bitcoin (BTC) bulls make a solid claim in their attempts to hit $30,000, buoyed by impressive network fundamentals.
Last weekend, BTC halted its steady advance following Opec’s announcement to cut oil production by a staggering 1.65 million barrels daily. The decision set off waves of macroeconomic concerns to adversely affect assets like gold, BTC, and the U.S. Dollar Index as pundits predicted the Feds would hike interest rates in response.
As the week opened, BTC shook off the fears of a rate hike to trade above $28,000, with analysts brimming with confidence for an even bigger climb. Daan Crypto Trades commented that BTC’s movement at the start of the week resulted in the closing of yet another CME futures gap in a classic show of “Monday trading behavior.”
“Bouncing so far, the target would be $29k highs for a sweep at the very least,” said one analyst. “Pretty low volume so far though, expecting a much bigger reaction this week.”
Underneath the asset’s price action, on-chain metrics indicate Bitcoin’s network difficulty is on course to reach new milestones by the end of the week. Mining hash rates have already scraped up to 400 exahashes per second (EH/s), with River research analyst Sam Wouters explaining that new metrics resulted from previously unused mining equipment joining the fray again.
“It is rumored that several large public miners have significant inventories of unused ASICs,” tweeted Wouters. “Now that the price has been rising again and some time has passed, more of this inventory has been able to go online.
The greedy sentiment
According to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, Bitcoin markets are firmly in “greed” mode as fears for major price retracement are slim. Experts have warned that investors are becoming excessively “euphoric” with the indicator pushing toward its 2021 levels.
Onchain metrics indicate that BTC whales are strengthening their long-term play following new records set by dormant BTC supply. At the start of the week, a total of 2,691,418.953 BTC had not left wallets since April 2013, accounting for an impressive 13.91% of BTC in circulation.
