Rising institutional demand boosts crypto market
As Bitcoin hovers confidently above $11,200, Ethereum is approaching the $400 milestone.
The two leading cryptocurrencies have both gained almost six percent over the week, pushing the market sentiment indicator towards greed as payments company Square adds 4,709 Bitcoin to its balance sheet and the dollar sinks at the possibility of another round of economic stimulus.
Reinforcing the bullish outlook, on-chain metrics show growing confidence in the Bitcoin network. The hashrate touched 170 exahashes per second on the hourly chart last week, setting a new all-time high, and the number of daily active addresses on the network set another record at almost 30M.
This Week’s Highlights
- Square Adds 4,709 Bitcoin to Treasury
- Cardano Shoots Past Competition
Square Adds 4,709 Bitcoin to Treasury
Corporations are getting a taste for cryptocurrency. Payments company Square has followed MicroStrategy to add $50M worth of Bitcoin to its balance sheet. The investment represents one percent of Square’s treasury, and according to Chief Financial Officer, Amrita Ahuja, was made in the belief that “Bitcoin has the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future.”
This positive news crystallized the bullish market sentiment, with veteran technical analyst Peter Brandt telling his followers that the Bitcoin chart is “poised to flash a big buy signal”, and others speculating whether Twitter, Apple, or PayPal will be the next public company to buy Bitcoin.
Cardano Shoots Past Competition
Cardano has made double-digit gains in the past week, breaking through the $0.10 barrier in the cryptocurrency’s first week of staking on eToro.
The rally comes after founder Charles Hoskinson announced a seven figure contract to develop Yella — a virtual machine that will help Cardano compete with Ethereum by letting developers write dApps in popular programming languages, instead of having to learn a unique language like Solidity on Ethereum.
The Week Ahead
Earlier this month, investment analyst Raoul Pal pointed out that historically, each period of Bitcoin price consolidation has been followed by a big move. This suggests that as Bitcoin’s surge skywards comes after a long period of relatively low volatility, it could be expected to mark the beginning of a new bullish trend.
At the same time, Bitcoin’s recent inverse correlation with the dollar means the strength of this move could be influenced by macroeconomic forces. Stimulus talks this week are likely to dictate the direction of the dollar, along with the commencement of earnings season, and mounting uncertainty in the run-up to the November presidential election.